2012/365 - Day 360

sorting and re-finding

I wanted to DO something today...the studio is a mess and I am having trouble being able to do much physically with this stupid bum knee.  I am not going to run on and complain about it, I'm just sayin'.  BUT I had two bins in the living room that I could sort from my chair and I wanted to go through them and separate and bag up the various yarns I have so I can work on Tookies and sewing stuff.

Getting down to the bottom of the bin.

YAY -- two bins sorted into one!

 AND I found all of the stuff I was looking for -- the socks Suzanne gave me, some bits of fabric I had misplaced AND the packet of not-so-sharp large-eye tapestry needles I knew I had!


AND...

ha -- these guys were in the very bottom of bin number two -- these are some of the first things I made with the magic knit gloves!

I think I will re-work them and embellish them some more.  Cool!

2012/365 - Day 189

I kinda sorta remember how to knit

A friend has a project that I am doing my bit for.  It entails knitting and I found that I kinda sorta remember how to do some very basic knitting.  Cool.

  

This mess is what happens when you think you know what you are doing and decide to try to do something just a bit different while you are at it.

Yeah...that trick never works...LOL

And besides, I had waaaaay too many stitches on the needles.

 This is more like it.  Not too bad for someone who hasn't tried to knit anything since she was about twelve.  Not that I was a great knitter or anything...but I could switch something around and make a different-looking row...but not anymore.

It really doesn't matter for this project, anyway.

Nothing fancy is necessary.

And while I was at Joann Fabrics I wanted to get one of those little gadgets that I had when I was a kid -- it had nails at the top and a wooden base and you did something or some kind of easy steps and got a tube that came out of the bottom of the wooden base.

Well --  I found this instead!  VERY fun, VERY cool and VERY fast and easy.  And it has a handle that you just crank.  No more moving the yarn/thread over the nails and tugging.  It comes with a weight that you have to keep on the end of the rope...it has to stay taut.

I can make a LOT of these -- but I need some lighter yarns.   Oh -- this gadget is called "Embellish-Knit!".

365 Day 304

the yarn arrived today


A couple of days ago I purchased two skeins of Moda Dea Wild yarn (on eBay) in a color I haven't used before -- russet.

It turned out to be pretty cool. It has a lot of variation in it and looks quite different in each of the last 32 (of 90) Tookies I am working on for Art-o-mat. I use this soft soft super soft yarn on the bottom edge of the Tookies finger puppets...where your finger goes in. It feels so nice.

Now these last 32 just need their "hair" and I can start the packaging part of the process.

365 Day 288

progress on the 20 Tookies continues -- AND -- something amazing (to me)


Today all 20 of the Tookies for Paint Creek got their "holding" seams...along both fingers on the top, on both sides, and along the bottom edge.

I took a break and then I was going to start the various colorful embellishments (sides, tops and bottoms) but it turned out I didn't have very much of the yarn I use for the sides. Drat. I had to get dressed again and go back out.



But, I took samples of the yarn I was hoping to replenish (in case I had to try to describe it to someone)...I can never remember if it comes from Michael's or JoAnn Fabrics. It turns out I must've gotten it at JoAnn's because Michael's didn't have anything like it. Well, they had something kind of sort of similar but it was a different thickness of the yarn. Can you tell that I am not someone who does a lot of knitting or crocheting?



The Tookies in their little holding bin, waiting patiently for me to go out and get more yarn.









YAY -- JoAnn's had the yarn I was looking for AND they had two colors I was unfamiliar with!


But -- much to my amazement -- for my purposes, these two colors are the same!











This yarn has some sort of puffy "covering" that I cut and pull off. (I swear there must be a use for the stuff that I don't need.)


The brown-covered yarn is really lovely underneath -- shades of sage + moss green and slate + light blue.

I already knew about the red/purple/pink jewel tones one with the red covering.








I just cannot get over that these two yarns look SO different but are actually the same underneath the puffy covering!


I was familiar with the pink-covered yarn and I thought I'd hit the jackpot with a second "new" color combo. Wah--waaaaaahhhh. I will take back one of each of these two color combos and get two more of the brown ones tomorrow. ONE more trip back there -- that is enough!



I am pretty much out of the mood to work on Tookies any more tonight now. Maybe I will change my mind later on...it'd be cool if I did. It'd give me a head start on tomorrow since I have to go back to JoAnn's again. It's funny...JoAnn's is someplace I go (on my own) maybe two times a year...but tomorrow will make three days in a row. Geez.