Weekend Before Finals

The last week of classes are over and the only 'finals' I have are presentations for my research topics.  That basically means that this next week I will be doing a lot of crocheting and researching various ceramics artists.  This next week will also be my last week of work at the BCM.  Sad day.  I rather like being a secretary, but it is time to move to the next stage in my life.  Hopefully I can get a job at Hobby Lobby (or maybe some related store near to where we are moving).  I would love to work at a local yarn store, but I know I am not experienced enough with knitting and do not have connections...yet.  But Hobby Lobby would be good, because I love their brand of yarn and convince people to get it all the time.  Plus I've helped many people find what they need in Hobby Lobby stores, almost as much as the people who officially work there. *wink*  And I wouldn't have to worry about working on Sundays, because Hobby Lobby is closed for religious reasons!  I would get to go to church every week!  Perfect!

Anyway, I finished the April CAL hat and have finished another doily in my "Doily Challenge".  Below are the pictures.

Doily #5.  I know I said I wasn't going to photograph it until blocking, but I was able to stretch it into shape by hand.

Doily #6

I have two more of the doilies finished and I'm about halfway done with #9, but I don't have pictures taken of those yet.  Maybe when I finish 9 and 10 I will post pictures of the newest ones.  I did get my Indiana Memory scarf pattern tested, so soon I should have that available for you guys on here.  I know I don't have a lot of readers on here, but I'm hoping that will change when I get a couple of patterns posted.  I now have one follower!  Exciting day.  Here's to more followers in the future:

Cheers!

CAL

This past 24 hours have been crazy.  I officially hate my Children's Literature professor, but I'm done with all of the work for her class now so I don't really have to deal with her ignorance anymore.  Hooray! More time for yarn! I joined a new group on Ravelry this afternoon called "Hat of the Month" where we do crochet-alongs (or knit-alongs for those needle people).  They abbreviate it CAL, which just reminds me of "Silence In The Library" which is sad because we just finished watching through Doctor Who with the roommate.  (We have watched through it several times, but we had introduced him to it and he and the husband watched all of the episodes together...I sometimes tagged along.)  In any case, I started my first CAL on this pattern. I like it so far, and just happened to have the yarn listed in the pattern in my stash from Phil's scarf.  Score!  Oh, by the way, I made a belt yesterday.  My pants were falling down, so I made up a belt while sitting in the fibers studio.  It needs some tweaking before it will be considered a good pattern, but it served its purpose yesterday.  :)
Here's a picture:

Impromptu Belt

Those last two pictures are dreadful...but my camera doesn't like indoor night photographs. 

So, that's about it.  The Pippin is leaving with the mother-in-law this weekend.  We need her to get used to her new roommate, Whiskers, and it will help not to have her under our feet when we pack everything up for the move back to middle TN.  I'm really going to miss her during the last week of classes and finals, but I'll use that sadness to propel myself into new crochet projects.  Right now she is trying to help the husband play LOTRO.  She likes pressing the buttons for him.  

I swear if she had thumbs she would be a computer guru.  :P

Until next time,

Andromeda

Ravelry

So I finally joined Ravelry...and I'm hooked!  I've been exploring the site for the past few days and making new friends.  There is so much useful information on there for people who want to learn new techniques, which is perfect for me!  My name on there is Arbocal because Andromeda was already taken....but I've technically been using Arbocal longer, mainly on video games/short stories.

I posted a pattern for testing on there, so hopefully once it is tested I will be posting it on here for free.  You remember the "Indiana Memory" scarf, right?  Oh, I just checked...I had not posted that one on here yet.  Here's a picture:

Indiana Memory scarf (pattern soon to come)

So...I finished the fifth doily from the "Doily Challenge" I started.  I will not be posting pictures of that one until I learn how to block though, because the center is trying to be crooked and looks silly.  I did start using the correct size thread though, so it turned out the size it was supposed to.  *wink*

Well, I'm off to crochet and/or do some homework.  Only two weeks left!!!

The Promised Pictures

  So...we didn't finish watching "Rose Red" last night because it was dark outside and I was starting to get creeped out. We finished up the night with a few rowdy episodes of "Cheers!"  But, as promised, I have taken some pictures of the projects mentioned in yesterday's post. Plus a few extra that I remembered when I dropped into the yarn room.

The woven pieces mentioned in yesterday's post.

The fuzzy blanket of awesomeness!

Close up of the fuzzy blanket.  See how soft it it?

The yarn used in the fuzzy blanket (except the blanket has white instead of yellow)

  If you weave at all, you should definitely check out the Bernat Pipsqueak yarn.  The colors are mostly pastel and baby-like, but the white can be used for non-baby projects.  I'm going to be grabbing some more of it next time I see it on sale at JoAnn's to make a larger blanket!

The zig-zag twill scarf

Close up of the zig-zag twill scarf

Loomie! With no warp...again. :(

A piece of Yo-Yo Crochet (I call it a coaster)

  That last one was me learning how to do a process called Yo-Yo Crochet.  It was supposed to be the start of a blanket, but I couldn't figure out how to do the next row...so it's now a coaster!  Eventually I will take the time to look for a tutorial on YouTube, but that will probably have to wait until after school ends to play with it some more.

 So, that was a fair amount of pictures.  I'm just testing your internet speed for you. *wink*

Muahahaha!

I finally figured out how to get my gadgets to show up in the correct spot!  *evil giggle*  Now you'll never get rid of me.  :)  I wonder if it's Google's way of making me download Chrome.  On similar news, I saw a progress bar on a knitting blog and decided I needed one.  Luckily there is a nice tutorial on how to make progress bars in blogger here.  So now I have a nifty little progress bar over there --->
As you can see over on the progress bar, I'm almost done with my first knitted scarf.  Hooray!  Here's a picture of the basic design:

I made it up myself. Not bad for my first knitting design, right?  Basic idea is you alternate 5 rows of knit with 1 row of purl.  Easy enough for even me to remember.  I'm pretty sure those are the numbers, I never actually counted the knit rows. I just knitted until I could see the 2 'rows' and then purled. It's starting to curl a little bit, so I'll definitely have to learn how to block soon.

Also, I finished my first scarf on Loomie but was stupid and let the warps fall back through to the backside of the loom...Basically I have to start over from the beginning and rewarp it.  Blah.  The scarf is a zig-zag twill pattern but you'll have to wait for a picture of it because it's in the other room and we are watching "Rose Red".  And I learned how to double weave on one of the table looms in the fibers studio. I wove a white fluffy blanket and it is amazing to touch.  I promise I'll post pictures of it soon too.  Unfortunately you can't touch it through a computer monitor, but if you know me you can come by and feel how soft it is.

So other than other random projects I've got started, I've been working on finishing up this last semester at school.  It will be so nice to be able to finally have time to really work on my projects and not just homework for class.  We'll see how long that lasts.  :)

Well, I'm going to finish up that knitting and finish watching the movie.
Until next time,
~Andromeda