CONTEST!

No not here! Nothing to see here, go here instead. There's some great fantastic prizes to be won, of course I'm biased since there's something of mine in there, as well as other great creative works, but what are you still doing here reading, go away! Enter Katy's contest she really needs the book recommendations!

Shameless plug

Last week, Mr B. finished making a stop motion animation video for his band, Bellow. I'm so proud of him, I wanted to share it with you. Of course I'm aware this is a knitting/crafting blog, so I don't expect you to share my enthusiasm, but would be thrilled if you do.

5 Random Things Sunday

1. QUILT
I went over to Veronique's a couple of weekends ago, she had kindly volunteered to show me some quilting skills. V is an amazing teacher and she gave me the inspiration and confidence needed to start making the quilt I wanted to make for the growing bean. And I think it's going really well...

I actually have the backing and batting together now, it's just the fun of quilting it all, maybe this afternoon.

2. PIN CUSHION
I used the practice square (wasn't quite happy with one of the fabrics in the first one) to make a little pin cushion, something very necessary with those funny little quilting pins.



3. RAV GOODIES
A few weeks ago the Spiders had some visitors, Jess and Casey (AKA Mama and Papa Rav), came along with Maya and the very amusing Steve, it was fun spending a few hours with them, although I was sad not to join them for drinks, Jess and Casey made up for it with these adorable gifts.



How cute is that Bob pin? I believe that the pins, stickers and other good stuff will (most likely) be available in a soon-to-be Ravelry store.

4. GREEN SWIFFER
I'm happy to find different ways to do my bit for the environment. So when I saw this ingenious swiffer cover pattern in Sassy's Rav queue yesterday, I immediately grabbed some dish cotton and knit one up last night while watching junk telly.



It's got to beat those crappy throw-away swiffer cloths, and it's reusable! I can't wait to try it out - well, actually I lie about that part, but I hope it works nearly as well as being on my hands and knees with a sponge.

5. CROCHET
I'm a little into crochet now too. I started a blanket this week. It's the Sunset blanket (ravelry), and I think it's going to be adorable in chocolate brown and rosy pink.

(more) News and Knitting

The next step with beany baby was to find out whether the predominant color in my knitting (and other stuff) would be:

Pink*

OR


Blue*

Now the rather grumpy technician was quite adamant that we will be focusing on....

Nah, I'll wait until the end of the post before I tell ya (of course it's just a simple matter of scrolling to the bottom to find out).

So in practically one evening I used up the handspun I'd made a little while back, with it I made Ysolda's Urchin [rav link for details].


I haven't worn the hat outside among the "real" people yet, I don't feel I have the guts, and am not sure about me in a beret, but I'm happy with the pattern itself, the simplicity of the short-rows and the loveliness of garter stitch.


Mr B got his wish last week, a Munkee all his own for the bean. As I wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to finish this monkey, I offered to make a shirt. Mr B. requested orange, his fave color, which also happens to be a Mets color.



While my embroidery skills are a little scant, at least you get the idea, and just in time for the opener too. Details about this Munkee are here [more rav].



Oh yeah, and about the sex:



The tech was very sure we are going to have a GIRL!! Exciting stuff.

* Buttons coming to an etsy shop near you soon.

Land of the toys

Lately I've been on a bit of a toy-making kick recently. Possibly this has something to do with impending motherhood. Mostly I think it's because they're cute, relatively quick to make and perfect for the baby-gifting I needed to do the last couple of weekends. That's not to say there isn't other knitting going on in these parts - it's just not knitting that I can share with you at this time.

Anyway, on to the knitting I can share with you. First up is Elijah [rav link]. This adorable little guy was too much to resist after seeing him on Oiyi's Crafts blog. I actually had to go out right away to find some yarn to knit him with - and I found some no-name acrylic (yeah, there's not a great selection of yarn in Astoria).

I was able to gift him directly to Mum and monkeybaby last weekend at the babywarming - Elijah was greeted with a resounding 'awwwwwww' around the room.

Next up is the toy that Mr B has named Munkee (rav link here). This time I was inspired by Pam's adorable little monkey with attitude. This cute little guy was perfect for me to make up when I didn't really have an awful lot of time but had enough inspiration to teach myself a couple of crochet moves to get him made.



Mr B has been that taken by him that the only way he would let me give Munkee to the child he was intended for was if I promised to make him one for himself the baby. So I'm in the process of making Munkee #2.

I have also started using the handspun I made a little while back to make a selfish knit. I'm just a little concerned that I'm going to run out of yarn, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

An adventure?

Yeah, yeah, I'm neglectful of the blog, but you'll be thanking me if you knew how little there was to share with you. You see, not so much knitting has been happening chez schrodinger, and what little there's been must remain under wraps until they've been gifted. However, I should have shared the wonderful sock that I was lucky enough to receive from the lovely Marie.

Isn't is marvelous? It's the poseidon [pdf] sock (pattern by the talented Elinor). The yarn is Marie's new 3-ply, softspun plus, however, I need Marie to rescue me with the name of the colorway. Look at that heel, impressive!



I want to thank each and every one of you for your sweet comments about my most exciting WIP, I really appreciate it. And I think that your well wishes have gone a long way since I'm feeling considerably better. A little tired maybe, and more than a little fuzzy-brained (quite peculiar and more than a little embarrassing at times), but better, and I like it that way.

More catching up/stuff

There's a few things that I really need to catch up on.


First of all, both earthchick and aquaknits (and some spiders if you count the collective awards given out) gave me for the "you make my day award". And I was so happy to read that, I love both their blogs and have been reading them both for such a long time, they certainly both make my day (aqua, it's great to see you post again!). I have thought long and hard about which blogs I would nominate, and just. could. not. narrow it down to 10 blogs - how is that possible? So I'm taking the cowards way out and saying that I love all the blogs I read, each and every one of you - I love to see what's going on with little sneaky looks into people's lives. Thank you all of you for making my day!!

Second order of business is that, it occurred to me that this month brings about my 3rd anniversary of the blog!! This is actually more of an honorable mention than anything else, because I don't have it in me to do anything big and celebratory right now. But I did want to say a big thank you to each and every one of you who pops by to say hi, I appreciate each and every comment I get and love reading them, even if I've been a slacker at responding to them recently.


Third, this sock (which has been a royal pain the in my arse) is finally finished. And today it will be going to one of my spider buddies in our little valentine's single sock swap. It's actually a really great idea, where we each get a person to knit for (through this cute site called 'elfster') and knit them just one sock. You then give them this single sock, the pattern and enough yarn to make it's partner, while someone else will give you the sock they knit for you, etc. etc. It gave me a chance to knit a sock that I'm VERY sure I would not want to knit 2 of because of the concentration required.


The pattern is cablenet from knitty. Yarn is Regia silk is this beautiful burgandy/red - perfect for a valentines swap methinks, and all other deets will show up soon enough on ravelry. Not right now though, I have to get to a party at Marie's place.

Hope you're still here because this is where things get really interesting in todays post.

I have to admit to all of you that I've been holding out on you with one particular WIP. It's actually been in progress for about 3 months now.


Yup, the Schrodingers' Baby Bean!

I've gotta say that this particular project has taken more out of me than any other. I have never felt more like crap in my life - you know I'm not well when I don't even want to think about knitting. Good news is that I'm starting to feel much better now, and believe that I will actually be able to do more of the sewing and knitting I want to do. My big plan is to make a quilt for the bambino. Something that I've always wanted to do. However, it is more because I love the look of quilts, so I'm not sure I'm going to like the actual process.... Any advice from quilters out there will be gratefully received.

Now I really have to go, because this is what happens when you try to rush the cooling process of a banana, nut loaf, sigh! I'm off to buy a cake.

Mememeemeee

Not much so show you, just one finished sock. Knit using 'knitpicks' Felici, it will be one ball for each sock. Toe-up, using figure 8 cast-on, I just knit until I ran out of yarn - doing some increases as I reached the calf.

There are other WIPs going on, but they must remain secret for just a little bit longer. Since I don't have much to share, here's a meme. I was tagged by Jacqueline. This was tough, so tough it took me nearly 2 weeks to complete - yikes!

Here are the rules:

Link to the person that tagged you

Post the rules on your blog.

Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.

Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs. I don't want to tag, it took me 2 weeks to think of 6 things, can't imagine how long it would take to thing of 6 people - if you want to do this meme - go ahead! Enjoy!

Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website. see above.

1. I tend to get fixated on certain lunches, and will have them at least 2 times a week for weeks on end. During the summer it was organic mixed greens salad, with avocado, mandarin orange, hearts of palm, turkey and walnuts. This week I had the "Italiano" Panini 2 times this week. I get completely thrown when they don't have exactly what I want and will sometimes just skip lunch altogether.

2. I hate going to the hairdresser, I hate having to stare at myself in the mirror for so long, I never really know how to place my hands (even though they are under a cape), I'm crap at small talk and many other things that just make me uncomfortable. I get really worked up when I get there and never fully relax, you'd think I was going to the dentist. I go as rarely as possible. I feel the same way about spa's and nail salons. But at the same time, I want to be someone that can go for a massage once in a while, I guess I need to find a non-spa massage place.

3. I told you about how amused I am when I hear many Americans pronounce "duties" or "Duty". I never mentioned the other one, which is when people have 2 do's run in a sentence, e.g. "It's important when you do do it that way". Dodo's make me giggle like a nine year old in the same way doodies do. And they seem to be much more common in important meetings at work.

4. At times I can appear really efficient and great at getting things done. Honestly though, I have to finish a task, or take care of a message etc, right away, if I don't, I'm going to forget and I'll be the jerk that never calls people back or finishes projects. So what may seem anal retentive to some, is simply self preservation for me.

5. Speaking of forgetting, I'm rely heavily on lists. While this is pretty common for many people, I will always email the lists/reminders to myself, so I will see them on my phone when I need to. I will also do this with hopstop directions and knitting patterns. I think I'd be at a loss without email capacity on my phone.

6. Going to work without watching NY1 would be an incredibly difficult thing for me to do. I like to touch base with the weather outside, and some of the random stuff going on in the city. It's an added bonus when I get to see Pat Kiernan do "In the Papers".

Socks, shells, spinning.

Well, a week has gone by and I have some more stuff to show you. First up is some pretty yarn that I should have showed you last week, but I selfishly kept it to myself.

I won this on Tiennie's blog, I wasn't trying to win - honest. But it turns out that I was the 5,000 commenter on her blog, can you believe that? 5,000 comments!? Then again, if you've seen her blog, you will probably easily understand, Tiennie takes amazing photos of her beautiful projects. I, for one, am happy to have found her.

I have a couple of FOs for you, I finally finished sock #2 from the beautiful single sock sent to me by Nova. I really loved knitting with the Shibui, and it's a really great color (Pagoda). I did have some pooling issues in the second sock, but the color differences are subtle enough not to bother me. Ravelry Details here.


The other FO is very important to show you. After I publicly shamed myself on my inability to actually finish Sheldon, and probably traumatized at least a few of you. The first thing I did was pick him up and finish him that night...

Here he is. Details here (ravelry)


And the spinning? Yes, I figured out the plying and am trying not to feel too stoopid about not changing the drive band - the one consolation is that my real issue was that the wheel had come loose from the back. After tightening the bolt at the back all was well. I couldn't get a great shot of the yarn for some reason, hopefully this will give you an idea.

An FO. And a call for spinning advice.

I finished hubby's henry while were were away, which makes it a 2007 FO - maybe. But then I didn't wash and block it (i.e. truly finish it) until we returned home, which would make it a 2008 FO, right? Oh well, either way, it's an FO and he loves it.

I managed to time the finishing perfectly for the warm spell we've had. It looks as though winter will recommence next week, so Mr B will get a chance to wear it without sweating bullets.


On the whole, the scarf is a winner for me, I love how it looks more woven than hand knit, and the fact that the recipient loves it is the most important factor - oh! and it's soooo soft. It was knit with ColourMart Cashmere 2/7NM DK weight, full details here (ravelry link). However, it wouldn't be fair of me if I didn't share the negatives. This scarf was NOT FUN to knit, in fact I do believe that it may have played a part in the disappearance of my knitting mojo.


It also doesn't have the finish I wanted. I tried the tubular bind-off, I must have done it too tight, because when I went to tug the scarf, the bind-off snapped in several places. I won't tell you how much fun it was to unravel that bind off and pick up the 450+ stitches again. There was no way I was going to risk trying it again, so I used EZ's sewn bind off. I think that the edge is so-so. Biggest disappointment for me is the ends, which are kind of... well, for want of a better word... frilly. Mr. B says it's fine, but I'm not the least bit pleased about them, and considering the special yarn and pattern, I guess I expected perfection, or something close. But no amount of tweaking, tugging, squishing or pulling during blocking could fix the 'frill'.


So, with the knitting mojo MIA, I decided to do a little more spinning. I finished 3 bobbins of some roving I bought at Rhinebeck from Little Barn. I couldn't wait to start plying, so I added the jumbo flyer and tried to get started, but this is where I need help from any fellow Lendrum owners, the wheel keeps jamming, I just can't spin it at all. I've tried all sorts of tensions but I just can't wrap my head around what I'm doing wrong. Could it be that I have to use the second belt provided? It seems to be the same diameter as the one already on there, but I could be wrong. Even if I had to change it, I can't quite figure it out, I'm supposed to take the wheel off? Or is there something else entirely different that I'm not doing? Any help/suggestions would be gratefully appreciated. It's figured out, thanks to some advice from Kristi and in the process of looking, I found that the wheel had come loose. So I changed the drive band and tightened the bolt, and have now finished plying my first 3-ply on the Lendrum :)


Since things have halted, I'm thinking that today might actually be the day I finally finish Sheldon, who has been in this sorry state of unfinished for a couple of months, poor thing.