Gifts for Geeks

Some online friends and I have been working in an exchange for about a month now. We’ve grown together in our geekiness and have formed new bonds outside of the groups we already thrive together in. It’s been a blast, and it’s coming to an end. In just over a week, the packages we’ve been trading will finally be opened and all of our geekiness will be revealed.

We are all very excited about the unveiling and have tried, in most cases, to keep our identities secret from one another so that our giftee does not know who their gifters are. We haven’t given many hints to one another to reveal ourselves, but simply ask questions to the group as a whole, in hopes that the person we are creating/buying for will answer and we can find the perfect gift for them.

It is my first exchange. I’m so excited about bits and pieces of it that I’ve shared with other members I know are not my gifter, nor my giftee some of the things that have gone on behind the scenes. It’s been hard not to share with all of you too. I cannot though because if I do and someone sees, who shouldn’t yet, then I’ve spoiled the surprise.

I’ve two things that I’ve really excited about that I made during this exchange. One was for my giftee, and another was for someone else’s. I can’t give a sneak peek like the birthday gift, because it would give away too much on one of them, but for the other. I can offer you this image of my daughter holding one of the gifts and let you ponder along with the rest of us, what it could be.

A sneak, sort of, of one of the geeky gifts in the exchange.

Opening day is March 29th, unless everyone receives packages early enough that we can all open at least one (like Christmas Eve).

Gloves and Goofy Minion

For the giveaway gifts I had on my business type Facebook page, I made a small set of finger-less gloves and this Goofy Minion. The pictures make him look Goofy but I didn’t think he looked so silly in person. 
I’ve shared the pattern for the gloves in previous posts, but the minion was a new one for me. I had to adjust everything on it to make it work and took a lot longer than expected to finish. I won’t share the pattern here because of these reasons. I will be making more like him though because my son and younger daughter just adored him.

Getting Busy!!

Get your mind out of the gutter, I didn’t mean that kind of ‘getting busy’. (Though my husband would like for it to be.)

I did more work for the ever crazy Thing 1 and she shared the results on Facebook. I now have about four caricature orders to work on and I’m still working to get crochet pillows done and out. I started the pikachu pillow today and I’m still wrapping up the ottoman cover. I had to go with another pattern idea on the cover because my copying the throw the customer had given me left me with a constantly curling edge. I was going nuts so I had to dig for something similar. I promise to share pictures of those later, but here’s what’s gotten my business the most hits it’s had in ages:

The caricature with reference photos thanks to PhotoGrid.

And if you can believe it, she’s not done there. She has plenty more images in mind she’d like me to work on. We’re almost doing a comic together, so I’m going to have to put my own personal comic on hold until I can get through these orders. ❤ I never thought I'd get to say that.

Much love to ewe! Oh and hey, stop by my Facebook page! I’ve made it over 100 Likes and plan a give away!

HoHoDooDa/Illustration Friday combo

I believe that children and animals can see the spirits we cannot.

I realize I’ve been missing in action here and I apologize. My brother-in-law unexpectedly popped in a few days ago and has been staying with us. Between the kids, my b-i-l, my husband’s overtime at work, and these socks, I’ve been preoccupied. I have one sock done and am about 1/3 through the second. I believe if I do toe up again in this size that I may widen the toe area. My personal preference is to have a wide area rather than a pointy area around the toes. I hate shoes that have pointed toes too. Might be because my feet are wide, might be because I haven’t seen anyone with actual pointed toes. Either way, I have to make the socks match so I’m going fairly pointed.

I wanted to do a HoHoDooDa and couldn’t think of anything to draw so I headed over to Illustration Friday and found the current subject there is ‘Spirit’. What comes to mind when I think of spirit is spirits, plural, as in ghosts, or fairies. I think of animal spirits and human spirits, and fae traveling through portals that may feel, sound, smell, or look like spirits. I believe that children and animals can see spirits better than we can and with the HoHoDooDa being a Wintry topic, I found this reference on Pinterest. I was captured immediately. Didn’t even bother to follow the link or anything. I just dug out my pad and mechanical pencil and went to town. Wasn’t until afterward that I clicked to follow through and found that the image was taken by a photographer. For these sorts of instances I think you should ask permission but as I’m not selling the image, but merely doodling it for fun, I think it may be okay. But as an artist myself, I must give credit where it is due so please check out the photography talents of Karen Khan. She’s also on Facebook if you want to follow her.

Thanks for stopping by. Much love to ewe where ever you are.

HoHoDooDa and a sock

I grew up in Texas in a town so small it was often joked by the locals that if you blinked while driving down the interstate, you’d have missed it. It rarely ever snowed there. Ever. One year I recall getting roller skates for Christmas. I zoomed out the door and had to grab the post just outside the front door to keep from falling on my tail. I didn’t know how to skate yet but the thrill of being able to go faster than walking felt a lot like flying. As a kid anyway. Nowadays, I imagine if I were to strap a pair of skates or roller blades to these fat feet, I’d creak and jiggle before falling on my bottom. So here’s my hippopotamus trying not to land on her bottomus.

The house is actually modeled after my childhood home.

A brief update on where I am with the socks. The circular needle I ordered hasn’t made it in yet, but I’ve been doing what I can with the set of 4 and the needle that pulled out of the cheap circulars I bought earlier. I’m at the leg part of this one already. I hope with the circular, this will be much easier to do. And faster too because this feels like it’s taking ages to do. Much love to ewe where ever you are!

The first sock still in progress

Ice Cream Sundae Hat — Free Pattern

This cute little hat showed up in my email this morning from AllFreeKnitting. I love the color combo here, and have already started following her blog. She has more adorable knits, recipes, and other goodies that I’ll have to dive into sometime soon.

Alaska Knit Nat

During my bedtime Pinterest bingeing (I like to call it “pingeing”) I came across a lovely knitted hat from muitaihania.blogspot.dk/

I don’t know Finnish, but I’m pretty sure the blogger didn’t post a pattern for it. *Correction: after 30 seconds of browsing the site, I did find the pattern. Oh well!

So here’s my version. It’s called the Ice Cream Sundae Hat and it’s lovely. I made it up as I went along and the pattern is simple enough that I don’t think I need to provide a chart as long as you follow the instructions.

Materials:

3 colors of bulky yarn such as Lamb’s Pride Bulky, (Color A, Color B, and Color C)

Size 9 circular needles

Size 9 double-pointed needles

darning needle

pom-pom maker or giant fork

Abbreviations:

K = knit

P = purl

k2tog = Knit two stitches together

Special notes: You’ll be knitting a…

View original post 475 more words

Break

This afternoon I headed out into this miserable weather and sent out a package for charity, one full of gifts and the order of baby and toddler hats. I’m excited to find out the recipients reactions. I hope all of the above are well received. The roads are scary though so unless I have to, I’m not heading out there again until the weather gets better. Freezing rain on impact. I turned the car around and dropped the kids off at the house with their dad. I was afraid that if I couldn’t see and got into an accident they’d be hurt. Yeah, it’s that bad out there. Please be careful, where ever in the world you are.

The mishap with the needles in the wee hours this morning was upsetting. I’ve decided not to frustrate myself any further trying to use 4 needles to make these socks but to instead just wait for the better quality needles to come in.

In the meantime, I pulled out the Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton yarn and started on a little me project. I realized that my husband and I have been thinking of others so much that we haven’t thought of any real gifts for ourselves. I got model heads but they are work related, and he’s getting tools for work. I found a surprise gift earlier in the year I’m going to make for him and I thought I’d make some dish cloths for myself. This cotton is amazing to work with. So soft compared to the acrylic I’m used to using. The needles I’m using are a bit slick for this pattern but after the first three rows it got easier to keep the stitches in place. The pattern I’m using here is from Homespun Living called Waffle Knit Dishcloth. It’s an easy pattern that works up quickly while watching tv. Now that the kids are in bed, I might actually get it completed so I can get back to work on other projects.

Busy with yarn

Sorry all. No sketch tonight. I’ve been working on orders. I’m just updating on what’s been going on. I suggested a few days ago that I’d share when the HG top was done and it, mostly is. You can at least see what it’s supposed to be now. I finished the top up a couple of days ago but have been working on some last minute orders.

Still needs a back but it’s looking alright.

The orders I’m working on are for some men’s socks and some baby hats. For the baby hats, I made the following.

Some baby hats I worked on 12/3

Trying something a bit different with the flower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the socks, I had to order some new needles to work with. I tried out the gauge on the size 1 needles and was still off, so I’m working on bamboo needles size 0. I feel like I’m going to break them! They are thin as toothpicks! Also tried out a new-to-me cast on because the pattern is toe up. With the way the circular is attached to the bamboo, I had to try this out about four times to get the stitches to slide to start. Kudos though to Judy Becker for her incredible technique. I better get back to it. Much love to ewe all!

Whew! Glad that’s over!

All tuckered out from this nasty little bug.

After the past few days of whining, tiredness, whining, body aches, whining, headaches, and vomiting, we are back to the usual grumpiness and whining. Hmm. So, my sweet little angel was so wore out yesterday, he slept most of it off. He woke again around 4 AM with a fever but had a pretty good day today. I’m really glad that he did because tomorrow is his second birthday. I ordered what I thought would be this great cake for the family gathering that was supposed to feed 20 people, but it came back large enough for our family of 5. Well, we (being my husband) left it on the kitchen table and my little monkey feeling all better, climbed up on the table and started to dig in. I caught him and moved it to the stove top. He scooted a chair over to the stove and started to get into it again but I caught him before he got to it this time. (I wish I had my camera ready for that one. Hehe!) So, I had to tell Daddy to move it someplace else. Here’s a picture of the cake in all it’s glory before the monkey got to it.

HUGE cake to feed 20! 
 
 

I made a couple of barnyard friends for Joe’s birthday tomorrow. I wanted the toys to be a farm theme this year since he’s showing more interest in the farm play and animals. I’ve already bought him a cow with a blanket and his sister got a pig with a blanket. Both sets needed stitching up when I bought them so the kids are already playing and sleeping with them. Dad’s out getting more items for Christmas and birthday that are not farm themed, so we’ll see how tomorrow will go. I’m starting to think that my fuzzy critters here just lost value. 😦

Footless barn animals for Joe.

The critters are from patterns made by Sarah Horrocks. Mine are legless because we assume they will become puffy throwing objects in no time, so why would they need feet?

Kitchen mates

In this little corner of America a group has started locally, mostly of beginner hookers and a few knitters. We are working toward becoming a part of the Crochet Guild of America and started a Facebook group. I shared the hot pad pattern I posted here a couple of days ago and got a reply of a good free pattern to match. It’s a knit pattern whereas the hot pads are crochet, but luckily enough for me, a few years ago I started working on knitting too. It’s a super easy pattern, consisting of only 3 kinds of stitches: knit, yarn over, and knit 2 together. I used a size 5 straight needles and the finished pattern came to about 6″.  Here’s the link to Grandma’s Favorite Dish Cloth if you want to try it as well. Much love to ewe!

A quick and easy knit dish cloth.