As I’ve mentioned before, I’m deep into holiday knitting and stitching, which means I don’t have a lot of pictures to share.  However, I did forget to share the socks and ferret that I sent off to a lady in Texas.

The socks are Cookie A.’s Kai-Mei from her fabulous book Sock Innovation. They were knit with Crystal Palace Maizy, a corn fibre yarn. If you are interested, you can see my project notes here.

Kai-Mei Socks by Cookie A.

The lovely stitch pattern wraps around the top of the foot, and looks so pretty. I am absolutely going to make a pair of these for  myself someday soon. In fact, I think I have them in my sock of the month club I have planned for next year.

Kai-Mei Stitch Close-Up

And here is the cute little ferret I crocheted. If is from PlanetJune’s Fuzzy Ferret pattern, done in Bernat Satin, my go-to amigurumi yarn.

(Un)Fuzzy Ferret by PlanetJune

I’m hoping to finish up a project or two that I can share some time in the next few days. I have some ornaments I’m stitching up for my mom to give as gifts, another ornament for an exchange, and then there is my ornament of the month club ornament that I need to get cracking on. Thankfully, my holiday knitting is very nearly done, with the exception of two small projects, one medium project, and one large project. Ack. I guess there still is a lot to do.

Headin’ to Texas is a post from Reflections in the Pond

It is already the end of August, although with the way the weather has been here in Southern Ontario you’d think it was the end of September.  Since it is the end of the month, I should be reviewing my goals and setting new goals for September.  But, honestly, I’m dead tired tonight so I’m going to put it off for a day or two.  (Baby Man has a cold and is waking up in the middle of the night.  And that means I’m also up in the middle of the night.  It is getting a bit much.)

I have managed to get a few things done.  First is The Sweetheart Tree’s Dizzy Busy Bees.  The charm is one I bought from Artbeads.com, and is a little big for the design.  But, overall I’m happy with it.  I’ll be doing a cube finish with this, when I get a chance.

I’ve also put the finishing touches on the crocheted ninja I shared the other day.

And Cthulhu is finished!  I finally managed to figure out how to do the tentacles.  The problem was I thought the working yarn needed to come through the hole where the tentacle was going, but it didn’t.  It was just one of those Duh! moments, and once I got my head around that it was just a matter of working in a small space with yarn that is a bit splity.

The eyes are handmade by me using Sculpty III polymer clay.  They were easier to make than I expected, but they do look a little wonky.  I think, though, they make Cthulhu look extra cute, and I am no longer afraid of the Old Ones.  (If you are wondering who or what the heck Cthulhu is, here is a Wikipedia article.)

And, lastly, I have finished the back and two fronts of my Central Park Hoodie.  Yay!  I’ve seamed the shoulders and the sides and was able to try it on.  I think it is going to look great.  I haven’t started on the sleeves yet because I want to knit them in the round rather than flat, but I don’t have the right size dpns.  So, they will have to wait a little while until I can get out and buy some.

Here’s a close-up of one of the side seams.  I’m so glad I took that finishing class earlier in the summer.  Note that the colour is way off in both of these pictures.  For some reason I just can’t seem to capture it correctly.  If you’d like to see the actual colour, you can do so here. It is colour Aubergine.

That’s it for today!  I’m off to bed with a good book and hopes that everyone will sleep through the night.  Tomorrow I’ll tackle my goals for September.  I understand that there is a Châtelaine in the September issue of The Gift of Stitching.  That just might cause me to rethink the priority of some other projects.

Cthulhu and a Ninja, Now with Eyes! is a post from Reflections in the Pond

A day late again!   Not surprising, is it?  I did promise that I would share with you the list of projects that I worked on last week so you can see just how scattered I really am.  So, I worked on:

1. Central Park Hoodie (no picture to share today, but I’m about 2/3 the way up the back)
2. Dizzy Busy Bees from The Sweetheart Tree (see below)
3. Hydrate (see below)
4. Tesla
5. Naughty or Nice Stocking (done the drum now!)
6. Swirlygig (no picture because I’m going to enter it into this challenge)
7. Cabled Corn Socks

I’ve added one new project to that bunch already this week, and I feel justified in doing so since Hydrate is done.  It is a crocheted water bottle holder for my mom, made using Bernat Sox in the colourway Crazy Hot.

Funky, isn’t it?  The project I started to replace it is the ninja from the Creepy Cute Crochet book.  He is very nearly done, as you can see.  I just need to find some felt, and get a smaller crochet hook to make his shuriken. (The pattern calls for DMC Light Effects floss, which I happen to have.  Having multiple hobbies is very useful!)  I also am going to try my hands at making eyes using polymer clay.

The ninja is from the same book as the Cthulhu that is giving me trouble.   I used a one size bigger hook to make the ninja, and I think his shape is much nicer.  I think I will start the Cthulhu again, and hope that I will be able to conquer his tentacles this time.

Besides cross stitching Baby Man’s stocking, I’ve also put a little bit of time into Dizzy Busy Bees by The Sweetheart Tree.  You might remember a while back that I said I was terrified of bees.  This is part of my attempt to get over that fear.  They are everywhere, and if I have to take Baby Man outside to play, I better stop being so afraid.

This is actually a used chart, so I had to hunt down my own bee charm.  I managed to get one from Artbeads.com for next to nothing.  Hopefully it will be the right size.

And another piece of news, Melissa over at The Daily Mel is having a draw to celebrate 8th year anniversary/1000th post.  Pop on over and read about it on this post.  To whet your appetite, here is what she is giving away:

Eyeless Ninja Needs Water is a post from Reflections in the Pond

It has been a crazy and difficult couple of days.  Yesterday was Baby Man’s 18 month check-up and it went well.  He is still tall and skinny for his age, but I love him anyway.   Unfortunately, he also got two shots, which made him just a bit grumpy.  But after a long nap his mood seemed to perk up–until he woke up at 4am this morning and would not go back to sleep.  So, as you can imagine, Baby Man and I had a bit of a difficult day today.

Thankfully though, quanta watched Baby Man for a little while so I could have a nap.  Not long enough, unfortunately.  Baby Man only collapsed for a 30 minute nap today. I don’t know how he made it through the day.  I hung on only through force of will and the desire to get some work done on these super cool African Violets from Planet June.  No pictures yet, as I just have seven leaves and a soil mound.  Hopefully I’ll have it done by the end of next week.  It would be sooner, but I need some white and yellow yarn and goodness knows when I will get out to get it.

Here’s Baby Man playing Baby Smash on his daddy’s computer.

(I’m rambling, a sign I need some sleep badly.)

I finished up my toe-up pink socks a few days ago.  They turned out nice and fit very well.  The stripe pattern does not match because the Mary Maxim Bamboo Soft Stripes yarn has a very long repeat and I just didn’t want to waste that much yarn.  I’m hoping I can get three pairs of socks from the two balls I have of this colour.  Thankfully, I like short socks so I shouldn’t have any problems.

The pattern is Toe-Up Socks with a Difference (pdf link) from Wendy Knits.  It is really easy, since it is essentially just stockinette stitch.  The difference referred to in the pattern name is the gusset increases which are placed on the bottom of the foot.  You can seem them in this post, where I had just finished them and was about to turn the heel.

I’m not sure which socks I will start next.  I really do want to do these Lily of the Valley Socks, but I might need to work on something less complicated. And I do have that entrelac scarf I started at my knitting class last night. I suppose today isn’t a good day to make any decisions.

My crocheted Cthulhu isn’t going well.  He is currently living, in pieces, in my TUSAL jar.  I think I’ve figured out how to do the tentacles, but I’m having trouble actually doing them.  So, I got mad and he got put away.  Here he is before he was banished.

Scary, eh?  C’thulhu fhtagn, indeed.

That’s it for today.  I’m off to sleep, hopefully for the whole night.

Sleep, Banished Cthulhu and Socks (of course!) is a post from Reflections in the Pond