its...FINISHED

     I finished the Ellis baby dress on Thursday but have been sooooo busy since then that I haven't had time to post. The dress is beautiful and now I'm onto the rest of my Christmas gifts. I'm so relieved this dress is done, it seemed like the never ending project. But 3 balls of yarn and LOTS of time later this is the result.

My lovely Build-A-Bear rabbit is modeling the dress. Its really cool and I am very happy with it. I think Shane and his daughter will be too. My mom however, has probably had it with my procrastination. I was supposed to have this dress done FOREVER ago. Uuhg...I've just been so busy!

     I started my Christmas shopping today! After I got out of work I ran around like a crazy person buying little things, checking prices, comparing quality and crossing people off my list. I feel pretty good about today. I stuck to my budget and got some good deals. I can't disclose what exactly I bought yet for fear of prying eyes (yeah you J.B.) but trust me...its good stuff.

     My BFF is visiting from NYC and she went shopping with me. We found a giant lion face hat thing. Nikki took the liberty of modeling. For some reason Bon-Ton felt this was a Christmas item that belonged in the "home decor" section. Other than being a hat.....I think I'm missing the "Christmassy" attributes of this thing. Its cute tho.
     I have SOOOO much to do. School has been out (for Thanksgiving Break) for a week and I have  done nothing but work! My house is a flipping disaster area, I haven't done a smidgen of decorating and my poor boyfriend hasn't had a home cooked dinner since (since Thanksgiving actually...but were talking about me making dinner here!) god knows when. I am pretty certain my cats are feeling neglected as well.

This is Simba's neglected face.

So, with what little time I do have left tonight, I'm going to start cleaning this pig sty of a house.

-Merry Christmas!

P.S. OOOOH! We had snow today! I woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground!

Learn To Crochet....or at least try.

     I'm so glad it's Friday...not only is it Friday but its the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break! And! It's my 2 year anniversary with J.B. I want to see the new Harry Potter movie. Woohoo!

Anyways, since I ran out of yarn for my Ellis dress I made a trip to the store yesterday (only to find, YET AGAIN, they did not have the same kind of yarn I had been using) and picked up some needles. Here is the loot. 1 set of 16" size 7 (4.5mm) needles and 1 set of 24" size 7 needles. Both by Clover. I like clover, they meld reasonable price and quality well. They aren't my favorite needles I've ever held, but they are good for the prices.

And since I worked some ungodly hours yesterday evening, I had a friend of mine (Kendra) come visit me. She is a life long crocheter and I can't work with a hook to save my life. So we decided to trade crafts. I taught her how to knit (she did quite well if I do say so) and she TRIED to teach me how to crochet. Let me tell you that knitting is MUCH, MUCH easier.  After several attempts at random things I finally came up with this....

As far as I know...the pattern she had me doing was single crochet (SC) 5 loops, then skip 2 loops then SC 5 more loops then in the 6th loop sc 3 times (in the same loop!) and well...repeat. I think it looks like a crown. Now that I have some grasp on the craft, I might just try to expand upon it. Over the break (in between working like a mad women and studying for finals of course) I might even attempt to crochet a real thing. Something with a name, and maybe (if i'm feeling very adventurous) a use! Like a doiley or a dishcloth! Kendra was able to complete a knitted dish cloth yesterday (even if there were a couple shakey rows lol) and she was very proud! I was impressed with her. She was working on the most adorable crocheted baby blanket ever and I could kick myself, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

     So tonight (hopefully after Harry Potter!) I will be making another trip to another craft store in search of more yarn. I vow to have this Ellis dress completed by Sunday. I also need to get a good start on my christmas gift projects and finish that toe up sock (I have one already done).

Simba and Snookie hugging! I <3 my sweet little babies!

P...For Problem

The Ellis dress was coming along nicely EXCEPT for the problem. Can you spot the problem? I CAN! It's that sad, sorry little excuse for a ball of yarn over there on the left. Thats all I have left. This means a 3rd trip to the store. Wow...this is the never ending dress.

Christmas Giveaway

Kelly at Vintage Lifestyle is doing a christmas giveaway!

Shes got some lovely little gifts to give and I'm super excited about my entry! Her website is great and very creative...check it out!

Cookies, Socks and Skirts.

     Last night I made the trip home and visited my mom for the evening. I havn't seen the family in what feels like forever so it was a nice change of pace. We baked cookies (lots of cookies) and I was able to bring a few home to JB. The pecan tarts are my favorite followed closely by my mother's famous Winter White Fudge. Soooo delicious. We also made M&M's choclate chip cookies, sugar cookies (complete with "stained glass" sugar windows), chocolate no-bakes and peppermint bark. I know its barely halfway through November but we got into the Christmas baking spirit early. Its about time to start decorating too! Soo excited.

Its a little late, but I forgot to post this picture earlier. Since were on the baking topic, my younger cousins (2 and 4 years old) and I decorated cupcakes for halloween!

I've got a whole list of projects lined up to decorate my house with. Speaking of projects, even though I had a busy weekend I did get a little bit of knitting done.

I've got a good start on my Toe-Up socks. I'll post the pattern when I'm done (still working out a few kinks). The tangled mess of yarn in the picture can be fully attributed to Snookie and Simba. They some how always know which yarn I'm using and tearing it apart.

I also obtained the yarn for 1 of my top secret projects. Its gorgeous, but last night my babies managed to throw it all over the house too. Brats. No worries though, I rescued it before too much damage had been done.

Some serious progress has been made on this baby dress. After the whole frogging saga I was beginning to doubt I woul ever get this thing made.

It's actually shaping up rather nicely. I've got several modifications in mind for the top and am getting excited about this project after all. I had to pick up an extra ball of this yarn since I was sure I would run out (I don't know how much I lost to all the frogging) and almost had a panic attack when it was no where to be found at the LYS. I checked T.J. Max and they had a similar yarn in the same the color. I'm sure once it's knitted up it no one will be the wiser!

On a totally different note...I recieved a big research grant from my school! I will be presenting at the undergraduate research conference in April! This is a pretty big thing for me and I'm super excited. I think this deserves a little celebration!

From The Queue Friday

Since it is Friday and I do HAVE to get something accomplished on this baby dress I am just giving up and going with this pattern I've had in my queue for months.

Ellis dress/ Ellin mekko
By: Jaana 

It will hopefully turn out to be a quick knit since, after 6 attempts, I really cannot put much more time into this tiny project! I've got a decent start on this (seeing as though I only started it about 2 hours ago).  With any luck I'll get to about the half way point tomorrow and be well on my way to finishing it by Monday!

Of course my camera is dead and my phone is refusing to send pictures at the moment, so the likelihood of this Friday post actually being posted on Friday is looking slim.

Sorry for the crummy pic. It shows almost nothing, but is actually showing up rather nicely. I couldn't even tell you what kind of yarn I'm using. I bought it so long ago that it has slipped my mind. Its nothing fancy though. I picked it up at T.J. Max for pretty cheap. I'll probably have to but another ball to finish this. I'll post something nicer in the morning when I've got more "natural lighting".

Happy Friday

Baby Dress Take....5,000

      This baby dress has been a nightmare. A LITERAL night mare. First I couldn't find a pattern I liked, then I found a pattern, started it, hated, frogged. Found another pattern, started, hated, frogged. Then I decided to just wing it, was going along nicely, broke my ONLY pair of size 7 circs, while I was at the store buying new ones, my cats unraveled nearly the entire project. So attempt number 4 picked ANOTHER pattern, didn't really care for it but kept knitting anyways only to finish the entire dress and find that it was TOO small for the now 6 month old baby. Again...frogged. JUST began attempt number 5 with a pattern I thought I would like got like 3 inches in and found that i had twisted the stitches around the needles. -_-' uuugh. Frogged. This one I actually didn't feel too bad about because as I was knitting I really didn't like the way the yarn (SAME YARN THROUGH THIS WHOLE THING TOO!) was showing the pattern.

So this is where I am right now.....

(My cats, during their unravelling party, ripped the yarn in half...thus the 2 balls.)

So for my 6th attempt I think I'm going to do a custom pattern. Just as soon as I can get over the tragic loss of all that time put into this dress I'll write a brand spanking new pattern. 6th time is the charm! (Hopefully)

Featured Yarn

    I've decided to feature some yarn this week. After digging around in my stash I found this great baby alpaca! I bought in NYC during my last visit and I totally remember why I fell in love with the stuff.
Its a bulky gray chunky baby alpaca yarn...I think I have a total of  216 yards of it (2 skeins) and it's beautiful! Its some of the softest yarn I've ever laid my hands on and I'm really excited to use it.

Cascade Yarns

Baby Alpaca Chunky

100% Baby Alpaca

108 yards/skein

Gray - Dye Lot 9963

Made in Peru

I planned on making socks for my BF out of this great stuff but then reconsidered after realizing this is a handwash only yarn. Its pretty delicate and I know he won't take the time to hand wash them. That means he'll either wear them once and never see them again, or I'll get stuck washing them. Yuck. So I'm thinking a cowl is the way to go. He fishes all the time (especially in the winter) and a "neck warmer" as he called it will be put to good use.

The color is perfect for a "manly" knit and you won't have to wash it as often (I won't have to wash it as often).

I love Cascade Yarns. They are one of my favorite companies. They offer a huge selection of fibers and at reasonable prices and there colors always seem to be "just what I was looking for". Over the summer I started the Girl Friday cardigan with a Cascade Yarns product in an Aqua blue, and loved every minuet. By the way I'm still working on that cardigan. I really only have to sew the pieces together and finish the button band, but I havn't found the right buttons for it yet, so I've procrastinated on it's completion. You can check out the pictures of it on my ravelry page (hfoolwm). And while your at it you could probably shame me for putting it off for so long. Maybe the guilt will inspire me to finish it.

Anyways...this is the pattern I would LIKE to do the cowl in. I frankly love it.

Its the Burberry Inspired Cowl Neck Scarf by Julianne Smith

 The designer did a great job, however, I have a feeling that the cable-like movement of the scarf will be too feminine for my fisherman. So I should probably stick with some more simple.

November at KnitSpiffy

      All the october gifts and goodies have been made and handed out (sorry no pictures...camera is having a fit) now Halloween is over and I'm onto more serious projects. November is a big month for LivvyLove and KnitSpiffy. Lots of stuff going on and I'm super excited. The 19th is my anniversary (2 years!), its supposed to snow soon (which means its time to knit useful things) and last but not least, November is the time to start working on those christmast projects. Of course we cant forget Thanksgiving! I'll be featuring a few of my favorite recipes to honor the chef in us all.

     Now I can't quite disclose my chirstmas gift list just yet...(gotta keep things a little secret at least!) But I do have some wonderful gifts for you guys! Patterns! Patterns! Patterns! Like I said...November will be full of big things! I've got some great patterns I've been working on and will be posting them all month long!
I have a super cool toe up sock pattern that I just completed and a nice and easy top down sock pattern too. I've been very into socks lately. Those are just a couple so keep an eye out for all the patterny goodness this month! Also this month (busy, busy, busy!) KnitSpiffy will be featuring some seriously cool yarns! We'll even do a giveaway! That starts the 17th so be sure to watch for the directions.

Happy November everybody!