knit one, purl one, double crochet.

Currently I have the following fiber arts projects started:

one shawl, aforementioned in this blog, for which I have begun the far shoulder and have one cake of yarn left. We shall see.

pads, knitted and crocheted from kitchen cotton, flat and in the round. These are in an attempt to use up the bags of the stuff that I bought at Michaels last summer, when I was just learning to knit and thought I'd make a thousand facecloths for holiday gifts to practice on. Lately, I've been teaching myself to use dpns and my friend has been teaching me how to do matched decreases, and how to add crocheted trim to knitted items. So far I have learned that I am still a lumpy purl-er and that stockinette curls even with crochet wings added. I did manage to make something that the kid at the playground suggested looked like a trout. Great.

A hat for my step-father. This pattern looks like it will be perfect for his head, and within my abilities to make. But it called for Cashmerino Aran weight. I didn't want to pay that much for a muffler, and wanted the lady at the yarn store to help me find an alternative, but then the kid started to rip things off the walls and she wasn't as helpful anymore. So, I'm back to internet searching.

I just finished crocheting the blocks I was making for kitchen decorations. I was thinking of felting them for trivets, but then I remembered that I was using Superwash. so. not so much with the felting...

Projects I am contemplating:

felted placemats because I think more surfaces in my home should be coated in cat fur.

a sweater, sweet jesus. why? or hell, let's just make it really complicated!

socks for the love of pete.

mittens to go with the hat for step father, and an alpaca mitten/ scarf set for mother.

a bathmat to use up the rest of this god forsaken pale variegated cotton, which unfortunately can't even be dyed, right?

a super fancy blanket with super fancy yarn. Oh Babette, why are you so attractive?


In other news, I have no plans for the Pride Parade which is this weekend, other than to trot around with the kid in tow. I made cute shirts for the Dyke March a coupla years ago - the kid's said Mommy, what does queer mean? and mine said Hi kid! I'm queer! My friend, who has a girlfriend this year for Pride, and who I am ridiculously jealous of at the moment, is thinking of making a shirt that says Does this shirt make me look gay? which I think is incredibly clever. I'm still jealous of her girlfriend, though.

Speaking of knitting and such, I have done not one stitch of my lit review assignment for research. It was the only thing on my agenda for the day, and I have spent the whole day working on essays, and surfing, and catching up on email and blog-reading and posting, and daydreaming about going to a honest-to-goodness arts and music festival with tent camping and everything!