Aaand... the "more fun" scarf!

Dear Shayne,

Here is the "more fun" scarf, although it does not look like much of a scarf in these photos. Here I have one link completed. It's a fuzzy O:


I looked around for something to show the size comparison and Kaesea was handy, so I used his neck:


And then I realized that it's already a scarf! For cats! But it's actually for my mom, so I'm going to add more links and make it human sized.

These links are super fun to knit and I love this yarn! Yay for more fun!

love,
kelly

The "less fun" scarf

Dear Shayne,

I feel bad for this scarf because, of the two scarves I am knitting right now, it is truly the less fun one. I think the finished product is very fun looking, but the knitting of it? Yeah... not so much fun. Here's a photo:



In the lower left corner, you seen the photo from the pattern -- isn't it fun? I think so! But it's just, erm... a boring knit on small needles. So it's slooow. Also, it's going to look way better once it's blocked, so it's hard to even get jazzed about what I've got so far... sigh.

Oh, yeah... and when my grandma saw it, she said, "Erm... why are you knitting that?" So I might be alone in thinking that this scarf is fun. Whee.

Next up: the more fun scarf! Those loops are a blast to knit!

love,
kelly

Renegade Shopping

Dear Kelly,

I had SO much fun shopping at Renegade. I went to buy a hot dog and ended up browsing all 200 vendors. In no particular order, I got (really sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures):

















Super cute mirror from My Favorite Mirror













Hooray! banner from Nice

















Little polar bear from Craftpaca










Teeny tiny russian doll and heart necklace from Custom Made















Squirrel pillow from Manatea Party



















Yeti shadow puppet from Owly Shadow Puppets









Whale blanket from Wonderland Q













Free hanky from Etsy...it says "This is not a dispoable tissue." Another great deal I got was a one-year subscription to ReadyMade for only $5!

And this last item is not from Renegade, but from a very important stop on our way home from Chicago:












I love Bob's Big Boy!

Love,
Shayne

Fuzzy colorful yarn!

Dear Shayne,

Look what I got:


Fuzzy colorful yarn! I know that you are Wool Averse, so it's not your bag, but it's pretty fun for me. It's Suri Dream from KnitPicks and it's very soft and fuzzy.

I originally bought it because I want to make this shawl, but I didn't want to spend $13/skein for 9 skeins of the specified yarn. Suri Dream is $5/skein. Whee! The colors are not an exact match, but I have confidence in my color-choosing skills -- I think I can make a good lookin' shawl out of these yarns.

Meanwhile, this also solves another knitting dilemma for me. Awhile back, I made this crazy scarf:


(That photo makes it look not-so-crazy, but it's actually about 12 feet long, so it's pretty nuts -- there's way more scarf behind than in front here.)

This scarf is similar to the one shown on the cover of the book Loop-d-Loop. I used a kit to make it -- the kit came with shorter lengths of all of those yarns, so I didn't have to get a full skein of each one. It's this crazy-soft nylon yarn called Berroco Plush. It's so soft, it's disturbing (in fact, we call crazy-soft items like this "disturbingly soft"). After I made it, my mom wanted one. Of course.

Unfortunately, Plush is about $10/skein, so buying all of those skeins just for that scarf would get mighty spendy (mine has 15 links in it -- my mom is quite a bit shorter than I am, so hers would have fewer links, but still... it's a lot!) However, I think this Suri Dream will work quite nicely and there should be plenty for both my shawl and my mom's scarf. So yay!

Hrm... now I guess I ought to quit styling the yarn and get knitting?

love,
kelly

Journal ring: Round 2

Dear Shayne,

Remember that journal ring I did awhile back? Yeah... then I did Round 2. If you want to know more about it, check the post on craftster. People have started getting their books back, so I'll post what I did here.

Here's the first one to make its way home...

Here's the left page:


And here's the right:


I barely remember doing these pages, as it's been several months since I completed them. I had to laugh when I looked at them again. The theme of these journals is "letters and numbers." I've never been too much of a numbers gal, so I stuck with letters. And how!

For these pages, I was obviously very committed to the letters I was using... A is for April, Arc de Triomphe (weird choices). B is butterfly, baseball, buttons. The cat for C is kind of cracking me up -- he looks funny sitting there! C is also for Canada, coin, and coupon. D is for... dressform(?) dragonfly, dance, and daisy.

I also used dictionary pages in the background corresponding with each of the letters. I'm an anal retentive weirdo! Yay!

Oh, well... I did have fun going through my junk finding stuff to go with these letters, so I guess that's what matters... right?
Right?

love,
kelly

Happy Birthday, Verdelle!

Dear Shayne,

I made some buttons for my friend's grandma's 86th birthday:


Looking at them, I am realizing they are the same colors and use one of the same fonts as the buttons I made for her wedding. Hrm... not too imaginative. Oh, well. I guess I really like Copperplate Gothic.

love,
kelly

PS -- When you flip these buttons, they say "98" -- she can use them again in 12 years!

The Yars of Fall

Dear Shayne,

I should probably spend more time actually knitting my yarn, rather than arranging it into pleasing displays, but... well, one can't knit all the time, can one?

Therefore, I present to you... the Yars of Fall:


These are not just random Fall colors, my friend. Oh, no. They're the colors of my beloved Cleveland Browns (yes, football). They've played one miserable game so far this year, but perhaps my festive yars are just the thing they need to bring them around!

Speaking of the Browns... now that the season has begun, I should revisit last year's knucks and finally do the "Go Browns" embroidery on them! (Yes, I did finish knitting both of them, although I never posted the second one... it looks like the first one, really.)

love,
kelly

PS -- For anyone new to the blog, who may be saying, "Umm... yars?" Yars = Yarn + Jars. You can see other iterations here, here, here, and here.)

Crafty Books

Dear Kelly,

Last week my mom and I went to Daedalus Books Warehouse. I scored in the craft section! I got Bazaare Bizarre: Not Your Granny's Crafts! by Greg Der Ananian and Deluxe Origami by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc. Check out the Tuttle Publishing pages of origami books and kits - there's all sorts of cool stuff I've never seen in stores.

Today, I picked up Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco, on your recommendation.

Perhaps I'll post a little review of each when I've read them.

Love,
Shayne