Malevolent freeform bag

For Miss Jen Jen Jam, who is becoming a very competent crocheter who I now feel I need to oneup when making ridiculous creations.

I still have pictures to post from Christmas. But I can't do that now, cos I'm too busy melting plastic bags:

Christamocalypse crafting part deux - Eddie Izzard inspired...

Hey, guess what? I'm covered in bees...

COVERED IN BEES!

(ahem)

More to come later, though I'll wait a bit so not to kill people on the LJ syndicated feed. Cos they moan at me.

Free chart here.

Christamocalypse crafting part un

Vintage brass rubbings...


Vintage Whitby postcards...

Cherie Amour wip

cheriamourwip, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Someone on Ravelry just made enquiries about the progress of this, so here's a picture.

Doesn't look like cheapy acrylic, does it?

Yarn: James C. Brett Marble Chunky
Pattern: Cherie Amour

SotS hint 2

Still loving it :)

I suspect the guesses on the Yahoogroup of a starry or celestial theme might be more likely, but I have refined my personal guesses to those of ELECTRO-BEES, or butterflies with lasers.

Secret of the Stole hint 1

Look! I made lace! I'm so surprised.

At this early stage my prediction is that the theme of the stole will be Egypt. Or creepy crawly insects.

Pattern: Secret of the Stole - hint 1
Yarn: Colourmart 100% silk
Beads: A random assortment painstakingly sorted out from a load of other seed beads in the interest of Frugality and Reuse.

p.s. my carpet is grubby. Please disregard.

Catch up

I need to catch up before I post my SotS progress! So here's some FOage...


Cursed sweater complete. Cursed boyfriend still present, who would have thought? You will note that he is also wearing my Fetching. Hmph.

Pattern: Curse Your Boyfriend from the fabulous Anticraft. Love love love.
Yarn: Some antiquated green stuff from eBay.



Look! Little hats for Innocent's Big Knit. I sent off 63 teeny tiny hats this morning, courtesy of the Sheffield Knitpickers. Woo!

Also, I've spent some time in the last few weeks messing up the Anemoi
pattern. All my fault, nothing to do with the cunning pattern. I've given up on these for a bit, and am concentrating on lace! Lace lace lace lace.

Oh - and because I apparantly do not have enough things to do - I set up a Ravelry group for the celebration of all things squamous, Cthulhoid and tentacular. Because, for some reason, one didn't exist.

Secret of the Stole Swatch

So this misshapen piece of fabric is my swatch for the Secret of the Stole knitalong. My knitting is not normally this wonky, I was trying out a couple of different needle sizes, also my blocking leaves a bit to be desired.

I'm using ColourmartUK 100% silk in Anthracite, and I'm rather excited. This will be the first proper lace I've knit since Sarah's wedding garter drove me mad around this time last year... :P

Parsley Boobs!

So my friend Matt has this bizarre obsession with a strange flash cartoon called Parsley Boobs, and it was his birthday. What else could I do but render Carl Honduras and Minky Steve through the wonderful medium of crochet?

Tiny little baby socks!

Oh dear, I have lots to post about but everything needs photographing. So for now here is a tiny pair of socks I made for baby Isabella Grace who arrived last week.



Yay!

I can't find which pattern I used. Oops. Yarn is leftover Lisa Souza.

Couple of pairs of socks done...

Monkey socks from Lisa Souza Sock! in Petroglyph.


Falling Leaves socks from Lisa Souza Sock! in Emerald City.

And another 900 yards for the Lime & Violet sock marathon....

Shopping bags for lesbians

So, despite many fabulous suggestions on my LJ for presents for my friend from school Sara's wedding last weekend, I eventually panicked and made them a sensible gift of some reusable shopping bags. My personal favourite idea was the hers and hers knitted rock cosies (Sara and Mrs Sara are geologists) but it was raining and I didn't feel like going outside to hunt for rocks.




A big silly black and white cat is staying with us this week. In this photo I learned that my usual trick of taking pictures of stuff on my living room rug doesn't work when a feline is about.



(A few wedding pictures can be found on my Facebook account)

Cthulhuesque hat

Jacquie from Knitpickers hinted that she might like a "Cthulhuesque hat, with tentacles".





With four different kinds of tentacle! I was going to add lots of eyes but figured that "hat with eyes" might be a whole other brief.

L&V Sock Marathon #7

L&V Sock Marathon #7, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

Another pair nailed.

This was Colinette Jitterbug yarn, and the stitch pattern from Magknits' Tropicana sock pattern.

While I love the effect the Tropicana pattern made, I did get a little fed up with it at the end as there were a lot of increases and decreases which seemed to make my hands hurt a lot.

I used up all but about two feet of this yarn, and the sock cuffs are still very short. I think i've been spoiled by Lisa Souza's super generous skeins - I know I have big feet, but it would have been nice to be able to make the cuff longer.

L&V swap goodness!

Look what arrived at my door today!



A whole box of goodies from the lovely Attachic, with sheeps, and chocolate and FABULOUS STRIPY ORANGE YARN OF DOOM. Ahem. Thank you so much!

Socktastic!

I've been finishing off socks!

Klein dice bag

Matt's Klein dice bag.

It's a three dimensional representation of a four dimensional object, apparently. All I know is it makes the physics geeks squeeee.

x-posted to my livejournal

Colinette Jitterbug and Brittany DPNs

So last week I received my birthday Colinette order, two skeins of Jitterbug sock yarn in Sahara and Florentina. I had intended to keep the Sahara and send the Florentina to my L&V swap partner as I know Colinette is sometimes tricky to get hold of in the US. But, man, this stuff is nice. Even Tim squeeed a little bit when he saw it. The colours are incredibly deep and vibrant.

I also ordered a Brittany crochet hook (cos I seem to have lost my 5mm hook in the move) and some 5" DPNs. I've never been too sold on either non-metal needles or The Pointy Sticks of Doom but I can see why people like them for socks :) I cast on a plain sock out of Opal Rainforest - the caterpillar one. It looks extremely ugly, but in a cool way :)

I bought the needles and stuff from Purlescence who seem very nice and shipped the stuff in very funky triangular packaging.

Mum's knitted boobs!

CIMG1166, originally uploaded by Miss Shine.

My goodness, my mother has been busy. Puts my single knitted boob to shame.

Questionnaire for the Lime and Violet Pr0n Exchange!

Hopefully not too overdue for my swap pal :)

1. What kind of fibers do you prefer?

Wool, all the way. As for more exotic fibres, I'm not allergical to anything, as far as I know. I have yet to try any angora (but would love to!)

2. What kind of weight do you prefer (sock, worsted, bulky)?

Sock or worsted.

3. Do you spin?

Why yes, I am a newbie spinner.

4. Do you crochet?

Why yes, I am bicraftual.

5. Are there any books, patterns, magazines would you like to own that you don't?

I wouldn't mind that Spin to Knit book. I live in hope that I will find a spinning book that doesn't go completely over my head after the first few pages. I think I have a mental block about anything involving whorl and treadle ratios. Otherwise, I'm a bit of a sucker for any kind of crochet book / magazine. Generally, anything with plus size patterns in would be great.

6. Are you participating in any themed a-longs like the Project Spectrum?

Nope. Only the sock marathon.

7. Do you have a wishlist on Amazon.com or Half.com? (provide a link)

Amazon wishlist here...

8. Any Etsy stores that you would love to get something from?

Not specifically, but everything I've received from Etsy has been totally lush!

9. What other crafty things are you involved in (quilting, drawing, painting)?

Button making. Hair extensions. Animal photography.

10. What is your favorite sort of scent?

I really like spicy scents.

11. Do you have a sweet tooth and what kind of sweets do you like best?

Dark chocolate, truffles, sour and fizzy sweets!

12. What kind of music do you like?

Folk, country, rock (in that order!) I'll listen to anything! :)

13. What do you like to knit? And for whom?

I mostly knit socks. For me. They're small enough for my short attention span! I tend to crochet anything bigger than socks :D

14. What sort of things do you like to collect?

Mice. Hamsters. Rats. Bunnies. Yarn. Nuns! (no, not a hoarder!)

15. Do you want needles? And what kind do you prefer?

More 2.5mm needles are always appreciated. I'm just starting to expand my collection of non-metal needles, so bamboo or hardwood long circs or dpns would be very welcome...

I hope this gives you something to work with. Seriously, I'm not fussy. I like lots of stuff! I especially like bright colours and lots of contrast in varigated yarns. Big stripes make me happy. Orange and black are my absolute favourite colours at the moment.