Making Up For It / Famouser

So, to make up for my previous procrastination, I kicked into high gear since the last post.
First, the cloud of merino has been spun, dyed and half of it knit into a hat! I really like dying yarn with Kool-Aid. Really. It's so easy and CHEAP. I'm all about the cheap. If you'd like to try it, but haven't, there's a great tutorial on Knitty. So half of it is this sweet pale aqua color, from apple and ice blue lemonade flavors and the other half is the very awesome bright orange with poppy, pink, red tones made by spooning mandarin and black cherry randomly over the skein. I've always been in love with the bright Orange You Glad shade that Brown Sheep has, but this puts it to shame.
Also recieved my pound of Corriedale roving, but it's just sitting there waiting to be spun. My thought was to crack down and spin and dye enough to make a half-sleeve cardigan, but it had to be put on the back-burner for now. Why, you ask? Because my dad's birthday (and mine!) was Sunday, the 14th. On Tuesday, I decided I wanted to knit him another tie, this time out of pure silk. I really like Debbie Bliss Pure Silk, but the only colors I could find locally were black (too dark to show), pink and purple. Damn. Hey, I could spin that and knit it before Sunday... And I did! Blocked and everything, but it still needs to be backed and finished. He's a patient kinda guy though. So I picked up 1.5 ounces of this beautiful locally dyed teal silk roving, and, oh hey! That purpley merino-silk roving looks pretty too, I may as well get that...
Oh, hey! Guess what! One of the ladies at my favorite local yarn shop e-mailed me a couple days ago to let me know that Socktopus was mentioned in Country Living magazine! I'm really not into magazines and probably would never have known, but of course I had to go out and buy a copy. It's just a two or three sentance blurb about DIY with free patterns found on knitty.com, but to see it in print in a magazine was so COOL! The people around me probably thought I was crazy, grinning like an idiot at some magazine.
I picked up the Spring issue of Interweave Knits, too. I don't think I've ever knit anything out of the couple dozen knitting magazines I own, but they're so darn pretty to look at. Someday, you'll see.
Oh, by the way, that hat is the rough draft of what will be the Lacy Leaf Beret, a new pattern I'm working on. It looks like a lot of work on paper, but when you see how it knits, it's pretty easy to get the swing of the pattern. Very fast, too. I knit, took apart, knit, took apart, knit, took apart, knit, took apart and knit it in two days. I'd like to change the shape of the leaf, but that's for the next draft. As it is, I dig the orange! And I hate to bust any bubbles, but I think I'm going to sell this one. But $2 sounds reasonable to me for a hat pattern. Any input?

Whatcha been up to?

Oh yes! Who rocks the procrastination? Me!
I've been thinking about blogging, but really, there hasn't been much that interesting to write about lately. I got some fun new stuff this week though, so I figured I'd share!
First thing to note is the GORGEOUS new bright striping rainbow yarn! A dear recently renewed friend was in town for the weekend and I managed to get a few hours to hang out with her. She is amazing! We pretty much lost contact (this makes me sound old) about 15 years ago. In that time, we've both gone through hellish teens and early twenties and have come out very similar! She knits! She makes soap! She pickles and cans and gardens! All this in her spare time because she's a 4th year medical student as well! I'm not edumacated like her, but crafty as hell. I'm absolutely psyched that our lives have met up again. We went on a field trip to a yarn store, surprise, surprise! She bought me this yarn, she said for driving her around. Really, that's not a good reason! I only had to cross one major street to get to her and would have driven hours to get to see her anyway. So I'll be calling this an early birthday present (my birthday is next Saturday! Party!) instead. I was thinking I would finally get down to making a real pair of socks on teeny tiny needles, but (lucky me) this stuff is pure merino and I would hate to have them wear out too fast. I know, I could use nylon reinforcing, but I'm lazy. Plus, how cute is this yarn going to be for arm warmers?!
The yarn shop we visited also happens to be the only one in town that carries fiber for spinning, so now I'll direct you to that fluffy cloud of merino the rainbow yarn is resting on. Lovely. Since I took that picture, I've spun about half of it. It was only my third try at spinning, but I feel like I'm making progress! My goal is a Kool-Aid dyed two ply that I can use for a hat. Fingers crossed. I also have a full pound of Corriedale roving coming to me via eBay. Woo!
Last but certainly not least of my new goodies is the sewing basket. I've been eyeballing the thing for months and finally decided 40% off was worth actually buying it. I've been sewing lately and I've accumulated enough stuff to warrant buying a new sewing basket, as my old one was about six inches in diameter. I think I'll have an entire summer wardrobe of sun dresses this year. Last summer in Alaska was a total bust. I think we had less than two weeks total that the temperature went above 70. Really, it has to be better this year! I'm reaching the point in the year that the cold is getting to be too much. I'm ready for sun and skin and margaritas on the deck! Who's with me?!

How Life Is

If I had known the firefighters were going to be at the coffee shop this morning, I would have put on a little makeup...

I went to a party last Saturday night...

I didn't get laid, I got in a fight. Uh-huh, it ain't no big thing.
So, I've had that song stuck in my head all day. Good thing I like it!
I hope everyone had a lovely Valentine's day. Not that I'm real big on the consumerism aspect, but I can get behind a day intended to remind your sweetie you appreciate them.
My sweetie appreciates me by linking up arms when we're skankin' to our favorite local ska band, this is the only time he dances, other than once at our wedding. It was a truly fun night! The stickers were their Valentine promotion. The other great thing about our favorite ska band? They've been around a while, so not all the members are original, but this means that my cousin is the newest member...can you guess which one he is?
That suave cat in the Skarf, perhaps? Shameless self-promotion on my part, I suppose, but I'm putting a band sticker on my car, so we'll call it even, okay?
I gave the unfinished skarf to the hubby for christmas, and the double-knitting just killed me. Seems that my knitting technique makes it take about 4 times as long to use this style and I will probably never do it again. But, since he was so psyched about the show, I busted my butt and finished it up so he could wear it. Skarf inaction:Skarf in ACTION!And, I wore my skankin' socks. Nice and cushy! Really, seriously, a fun fun night. We got there early to make sure we had a table and have some tasty food and tried some of the many beers they have on tap. Mmmm...
This is what makes my world go 'round. Good friends, family, music, beer and knitting! In no particular order.
Once again, I hope everyone had at least a little of the fun that I got to have this weekend.
I'll leave you with a very special Valentine message from the little guy. It just brings out the romantic in me!

Floofy Cupcakes - Free Pattern!

Here they are! Forgive me for not decorating them, perhaps after I work on something else for a while. And if you're on the west coast or in Alaska with me, it's still Friday!
The sizes run pretty true to mini-, regular-, and costco-sized muffins/cupcakes. The pictures of them in the muffin pans didn't turn out so well though.
This is another de-stash/leftovers pattern, half the fun is matching up yarns. I don't have nice feelings toward novelty yarn. No offense intended to those who like it, I just find it very rarely lends class to a project...if you get my drift. I don't even know why I had any. I don't remember buying it, some didn't have ball bands, so I'm not even sure what they are. I like Sirdar Snowflake, I guess it's a novelty yarn, but not so garrish. I used the white and pale pink to make a kitty ear hat for my best friend's baby girl when she was teeny tiny. But I digress...
So, let's get down to pattern!

What you'll need:

Smooth light worsted-ish yarn. Not sure of exact yardage, but it's not much
Light novelty yarn, again, not much
Set of size 5 (3.75mm) double pointed needles (I knit tightly, if you knit looser, maybe size 4)
Stitch marker
Yarn needle
Fiberfil or other stuffing
Buttons, beads, sequins or anything you like for decorating

Some of the yarns used for wrappers include: Rowan Calmer, Filatura Zara, Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, Lion Microspun, Caron Simply Soft
Icing: Sirdar Snowflake, Patons Cha-Cha, Bernat (not Berocco) Bling-Bling, Muench Touch Me

Wrapper:
With worsted yarn, CO 30(42, 60) sts. Divide evenly over 3 DPNs and join for working in the round.
Work K1, P1 rib for 1.25(1.75, 2.25) inches
Purl one round
Sizes small and large: Knit next two rounds
Size medium: Knit one round, next round: [K19, K2tog] twice (40 sts)

Begin decreasing:

Large:
next round: [K10, K2tog] around (55 sts)
next round: [K4, K2tog, K5] around (50 sts)
next round: [K8, K2tog] around (45 sts)
next round: [K3, K2tog, K4] around (40 sts)

Continue decreasing size large, begin decreasing size medium:
next round: [K6, K2tog] around (35 sts)
next round: [K2, K2tog, K3] around (30 sts)

Continue decreasing large and medium, begin decreasing small:
next round: [K4, K2tog] around (25 sts)
next round: [K1, K2tog, K2] around (20 sts)
next round: [K2, K2tog] around (15 sts)
next round: [K2tog, K1] around (10 sts)

Cut yarn, leaving a 10 inch tail. Using yarn needle, thread tail through remaining 10 sts, pull tight and tie off.

Icing/Top:
With novelty yarn, CO 40(56, 80) sts, divide evenly over 3 needles and join for working in the round
Knit one round
next round: [K2, K2tog] around (30, 42, 60 sts)
next round: with each stitch in this round, pick up one loop from cast on edge of wrapper and knit the two together (see picture, the ribbing can make it difficult to see all the loops)

next 3(4, 5) rounds: Purl all sts

Begin decreasing size large:
next round: [P8, P2tog] around (54 sts)
next round: Purl all sts
next round: [P7, P2tog] around (48 sts)
next round: Purl
next round: [P6, P2tog] around (42 sts)
next round: Purl

Continue decreasing large, begin decreasing medium:
next round: [P5, P2tog] around (36 sts)
next round: Purl
next round: [P4, P2tog] around (30 sts)
next round: Purl

Stuff and shape cupcake before the hole gets too small, or it'll look like a mushroom!

Continue decreasing medium and large, begin decreasing small:
next round: [P3, P2tog] around (24 sts)
next round: Purl
next round: [P2, P2tog] around (18 sts)
next round: Purl
next round: [P1, P2tog] around (12 sts)
next round: P2tog around (6 sts)

Cut yarn, leaving a 10 inch tail. Using yarn needle, thread tail through remaining 6 sts and tie off.
Use yarn needle to sew in any loose yarn ends.
Sew on beads, buttons, sequins or whatever you like for decorations. VOILA!
Please let me know if you catch anything wrong that I missed when I was writing it!

Hey, guess what!

I'm really tired and I finished a dozen knitted cupcakes!
Since I was making them in three sizes for the pattern, I thought it would be fun to make 4 in each size and have a dozen. So now I'm totally burnt out and probably won't make any more. Not really though, knitting one at a time makes them more fun.
Just letting anyone who is paying attention that I PROMISE I will post the pattern in the next day or two, hopefully tomorrow.
Sleep well, everyone! I'm about to.

Crafty!

Yeah, I was supposed to do this yesterday, but I'm pretty sure no one is following me that closely. I was distracted with all the fun things to make and was baking apple cinnamon buns at 11:30 or so and decided to hold off on the post. They turned out to be a very tasty dough-splosion.
Why, yes! My kitchen is a mess, thanks for noticing!
I've also put aside most of my knitting for a while, as I'm borrowing my mom's sewing machine and making dresses for the little girls in my life.
There's a long story about a little girl who played with my little boy and was wearing an adorable little dress. I searched around and found this pattern, which, it turns out is super fast and easy and the suckers multiply. I'm planning on knitting some cupcakes to go with these dresses when I send them off to the girls. But I haven't gotten to those yet. I have, however, managed to finish some socks that I started months ago. I love the color, especially in the middle of winter. Cascade Fixation, size 7 needles because I knit so damn tight, short row heel because the flap heel bothers me for some reason. Details for those who care.
Cupcake pattern coming soon, I swear.