FOF: Not. Instead......

I'm sure that many of you may think that I gave up on the whole mitered square blanket thing, yes? No mention, no picture for months. It's true. Christmas knitting killed it for quite some time. I've only worked on it a little this month, maybe 15 or 20 squares, but here it is:

I still haven't even decided how wide to make it. I'm thinking maybe 2 or 3 more squares. I want it to be pretty sizable....big enough to cover my bed when I want it to. I work on it really sporadically just because its such a huge project, I've come to terms with the complete undefinability of its completion date. So when it strikes me, I do it. It's my current perma-wip. Wow...that sounds sort of kinky, doesn't it?

And that's it for today. I had 4 hours of sleep of Wednesday night and 5 last night. This may be okay for SOMEONE out there. But it is SO not okay for me. I can't even come up with a cleverish analogy for how I feel...its that bad. And I'm telling you this after my Friday Triple Venti. My desk has never looked so comfy. (Actually it has...I've fallen asleep at work several times. Dicey. Especially when I wake up to someone opening up the door and they get my "Where the fuck am I???" face.)

Edited to add: Duh! I do sort of have a finished object! My kmks partner, Annash, finally got her package way over in Finland, so you can click here to see the bag I made out of a felted sweater. And I have another great package from my wonderful SP9 to post, but clearly I'm not coherent enough to do it justice today! Sleeply lame ass signing off.

Freezing cold FOF and UFO

Holy mother is it cold out there today. If ONLY I could have stayed wrapped in my nice warm bed. Starbucks opened FORTY FIVE MINUTES late. This was NOT good news for the morning, especially since the first thing I thought when I woke up was "This is a venti-day."

I started a Microbiology class last night. The teacher was good, but intense. It's a little tough for me to be coherent past 8, so to still be trying to LEARN at 9:30? Eeeck! We'll see how that one goes.

I don't think I mentioned it yet, but due to the frightening and growing piles of unfinished objects in my apartment, I joined Kat's UFO Challenge!

This month, I went easy. Instead of finishing, I completely unfinished and returned the yarn to its state of "full of potential" instead of tied up in a nowhere project. A while ago, I made this bag for SP8.

I loved this bag A LOT and I didn't really want to send it away. But I did, convincing myself that I could dye some more recycled sweaters and make myself one. But the beginnings just weren't making me happy, so this:

Is now this:
Ready for a new adventure.

I also have the February recycled FO for today. (Early! Can you believe it? It will never, ever happen again. Knitting is definitely therapy.) And before you think "Wow, those are big calves, YES I have huge calves. Those nifty knee high boots rarely fit me. Boo-hoo.)

Can you believe I found that yarn sitting in a dumpy old thrift store sweater? It's beautiful and screamed knee socks to me. It's a little high on the acrylic (I think 70% Acrylic and 30% wool) so I'm guessing my feet now REEK! But they're too pretty for me to care. And on a day like today? They are doing excellent work at keeping the bottom parts of me warm.

The yarn was a bit thicker than sock weight, so I use size 4 needles and made up the pattern as I went. (The pattern is coming...I wanted to post it today, but I don't have my notes and I don't want to screw up the numbers!) In case you can't see, there's a cable running from the toe to the top. There is also another cable running from the heel to the top. I knit them toe-up because I wasn't really sure how much yarn I had. It was a women's sweater and I lost a bit to a cut v neck. Turns out, I had plenty. Maybe even enough for another pair of socks for my sister (who was quite jealous of this sweater find)! I'll try to get that pattern up on Monday. Have a lovely weekend! And stay warm!

Finished Object Friday (Recycling!) AND KMKS!

This is a post in which my cat attempts to act like Chaos and Mayhem. I can only guess that he must be jealous of their bloggy notoriety because usually, he is completely disinterested in me and everything I do. But when I received my package from by KMKS pal, Jodie, he was all over it. Here are the contents as I pulled them out of the box:

Look at that great bag!! Me likey the greens! And pumpkin knows there is something interesting inside.

"This part of the package is definitely for the cat in the house."

Look at that! Beautiful wool, hand dyed by Jodie herself! It's absolutely beautiful and I can't wait to cast on the mittens. The pattern she sent are some great, long cabled fingerless mitts. I think the yarn is absolutely perfect for the pattern! (I'll post a link to the pattern...I left it at home in my early morning grog.)

Jodie also sent some lovely smelling goodies:

And:

Cool huh? This is really a great little extra and I swear, I PROMISE, that I will attempt to not kill this lovely lavender plant within 2 weeks of starting it. Because the thrill of having lavender scenting my kitchen....oh so good! (But I must be honest...though I have kept a child alive for 8 years but, plants? I even killed a Christmas cactus if you can believe it.)

Thank you so much Jodie for the beautiful package!! And thanks to Scout and

(Dude. Blogger ate the rest of my post...What else did I say? Oh yeah....FOF)

Bev for organizing this great swap.

Okey-dokie. Here's the FO for the day:

What are those pieces of crap you are asking? Dishclothes. Made from a sweater that I ripped apart over Christmas. They aren't AS ugly as they look in the picture, but they are haphazard. Total utility crocheting...nothing fancy. I made them from a striped sweater and didn't even bother to trim the ends where the company had tied together the stripes. I love them though. They are the perfect size and they don't get smelling like other dishclothes, for some weird reason.

I actually have a pretty big obsession with recycling old sweaters. I had to tone it down for a while because the ripped up sweaters were totally overtaking my stash. But over Christmas? I binged. I bought 10 sweaters for $2 each at my sister's thrift store. I mean, come ON? How could I not? We all know how much yarn is in a sweater, right?? Two were for felting purposes only and you shall soon see some of it when my KMKS buddy gets her package. The others....are now overtaking my stash again! So I made a half-assed resolution to knit SOMETHING from a recycled sweater each month. At least ONE per month. Those dishclothes were January. February is almost done and WAY more beautiful.

Finished Object Friday: Still leaching off Christmas

Finally a picture of ONE of the bag's ala Chris that I made:

Isn't it cute? It was so quick and easy....I'll definitely be making more of these! I made another, but I forgot to get a picture before I gifted it. Bad, I know. The other was for my friend L's little boy (heehee...I gave a purse to a boy!) but it was more boyish colors and I modified the handle to look a little more boyish (as his dad is Mr. Masculine and I'm sure already couldn't handle the purse part). I left 4 stitches live and did a garter stitch for about 5", then I-cord for about 5" and then another 5" of garter stitch. Can you visualize it ok? I filled the bag with match-box cars.

Despite my general lethargy, I did take down Christmas this past weekend, but someone in the household was very resistant to my doing so:

He refused to move from this box, so its the one last remnant of Christmas and will probably be out until he bursts through it and it falls to pieces.

No news on Mr. Eyes. He's annoyingly persistent and I end up giving the same speech everytime I happen to pass him in the hallway. It's fun. Really fun. I plan on barracading myself in the apartment all weekend and turn some Sex and the City up really loud. Send provisions....in the form of Chinese Food if possible.

Finished Object Friday: The sweater

I have a couple more things to post, now that it is past Christmas, but I still don't have pictures of them all. But I do have this (though the picture itself sort of sucks):

This was for my sister from Vogue Knitting, Issue number something. It was supposed to have a ruffle on the sleeves as well, but I have seen my sister take the scissors to almost every sleeve ruffle she's ever owned, so I didn't bother because I would've been PRETTY pissed to have her cut off my knitting. And I was right to do so. As I explained this to the group just after she opened it, my brother-in-law remarked, "Oh yeah, she was just cutting apart a brand new shirt LAST night!" She loved it and wore it nearly the whole time I was at her house. It's a really quick knit if your hands can handle the size 15 needles. I had to do it in shifts because they were killing me, but I'm sure this is little more than a day's knitting if done with more ambition that I did it.

I'm having a really hard time getting going today. Sleeeeeepy. For no good damn reason. Tomorrow will be the first moment in my apartment alone since about 2 weeks ago, so I'm excited to sleep take down the Christmas tree, sit on my ass and watch movies work on my thesis, and knit make some tasty morsels for next week's lunches.

Finished Object Friday: Hohoho

Oye. You'd think this would be it, eh? The final one. Well, its not. I actually finished 3 other items, but they need one more felting before they are presentable. I STILL have to sew together my sister's sweater and whip up another lace frame. Have I mentioned that piecing together sweaters is about my least favorite knitting related activity EVER. Seriously, I've had the pieces completely knitted for over a month and still they wait! This also needs some sewing (Little A still loves the ribbon on her blankies, so I have to do that this morning...haha...at work!) but since the knitting is done, I think it counts for finished. Please excuse the fact the the colors harken to the Great Barbie/Care Bear Blender Massacre of 1986.

This is based on that blue swirl blanket that is pictured in MDK and they send you to a site for the pattern? You know the one? Yeah, I saw it and tried it and haven't looked at the picture since. If it's not a complete rip-off (i.e....if I did it wrong!) I'll post the pattern that I made up to achieve the swirly happiness. Better find that book!

Next, I tried the hat pattern that Kat posted in response to my pleading for hat help. It came out REALLY good. I was nervous about felting crochet, but it worked out very nicely. Though you can't tell...it just looks like a very nervous animal curled up on terror on my bed:

I shall attempt to get a better picture. I promise. I really like it though and will probably make myself one in a girlier color.

As mentioned, I also finished my dad's fuzzy feet, two of Chris' bag and a gift that I can't post a picture of. (Wait was that a bad sentence? A dangling something? I never got that one....)

In good mail news, Lisa very generously sent me some more yarny bits for no other reason than her general wonderful-ness! (Ok, I stopped even trying for real words and good sentences.)

And some coffee that smells so good I almost started chewing the beans. Has anyone ever tried to make their own chocolate covered espresso beans? It seems easy and cheap....anyone...anyone?

And that's that. Christmas is a knockin' so this chicky's gotta get rockin'.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have beautiful, peaceful holidays filled with love and laughter!