FINALLY another knitting post

I finally took pictures of a hat I knit for my etsy shop (last year...) and listed it tonight.

Still no sales, but I'm working on it. I'm being featured in the Loud and Wacky Street Team blog sometime soon. SO excited.

Other than that, we've successfully hung the garlands and trimmed one of our two trees already. I got my hair cut as you can tell, and I love it. My Christmas Present WIP list is winding up thank goodness. Poppy's never ending Gryffindor scarf is almost complete, and then I have to finish Grandma's lapghan. Still have to get the yarn for my aunt's wrap she asked me for, and then there's one coworker whose headband I still have to knit. Most of the presents are wrapped. I'm going to finish a pair of earrings for my sister once she goes to work, and then find a penguin bag to stash upstairs til I get her penguin cross-stitch done.

And the little Christmas dress is getting shipped tomorrow! I'm so excited. Here are some pictures; since her mother doesn't read this it will still be a surprise.

I hate Being Sick

My cross-stitch Christmas ornaments probably won't get listed on my etsy this week, and I'm not happy about it. I came down with a sore throat yesterday, was nearly delusional with a fever last night, and I'm just mostly tired and achy today. My latest creation is an adorable knit gingerbread man ornament, and I'm trying to get his wife done. I am seriously debating which would sell better, the pattern or the ornaments themselves. I may not be able to part with the finished products...

What are going up, ironically, are some seashell necklaces. $5 each. I think they're a nice reminder of the summer. So at least I'll have something new this week.

Twin Star Gifts is Live!

Hooray! As of November first I am officially live with my new store, Twin Star Gifts. Not much else to blog about. Rob is working on getting work up here and I'm trying to get the promotion I was promised a year ago. Or find work elsewhere. Check out my Etsy Mini on the right hand side of the screen!

Fiancee Visit!

Well Oktoberfest was canceled due to an outbreak of the flu, but Rob came anyway. One of my friends had a birthday pub-crawl planned for Saturday so we dressed up as per the invite and had fun. I was a pirate, he was a frazzled computer technician (shirt reads: "Leet Squad"). I also got him back to Primanti Brothers for lunch and we went around downtown Pittsburgh. I wish he was coming for Christmas so that I could show him all the Christmas decorations and things to do downtown. I feel like I missed out on all that last year :( It never even crossed my mind. Maybe another time.

My sister suggested he apply to her grocery store and relit the fire under his ass to move up here. He helped out with a bunch of yard work my parents needed done that none of us can do easily, and earned their gratitude. He didn't want to go home at ALL. So I'm looking for a second or third job still so I can put away enough money for him to actually get here. He said he'd look too, up here and down in VA. The only other thing is we'd need a place for him to stay at least temporarily. I think between the two of us we can make it work.

Twin Star Gifts is coming along nicely. A little preview of what I'll be offering:

It's a baby dragon ;)

Still planning to go live November 1st! Wish me luck!

I shall call her... Smurfette

I saw my roomie today, and she helped me make a dress dummy out of duct tape using the tutorial I found on Etsy Lab's blog. It was awkward at first but lots of fun. I don't reccommend asking someone you're not 100% comfortable with to help you. It gets very personal.I make duct tape look sexy!

Her name is Smurfette. Getting her home was hilarious. My roomie's fiancee had her strapped into the backseat! She's quite heavy, and I think I need to modify the stuffing a bit because she keeps developing a third boob. But overall, I think it's a great project. And the stuffing is a wonderful use for those excess plastic bags we all have lying around.

I really should blog more

Well the job hunt is going well, though right now my only prospect is another retailer in the mall. What's nice is that the manager was a customer of mine who basically told me to apply for the position. Hopefully that works out to my advantage.

I've been doing lots of sewing and knitting in my time off. I finally sewed up a cute top I bought the supplies for last summer (see left). I used up some of the scrubs fabric I bought last year by making a jumper for a friend's daughter. I've also been finishing UFOs of the cross-stitch variety in preparation for my new etsy store, Twin Star Gifts. It's a reference to my zodiac sign. My plan is to go live November 1st so I can catch the Christmas shoppers. I've been working on Christmas ornaments for just that purpose.

I'm helping two old friends plan an Oktoberfest party for the 25th, and Rob says he's going to try and come up for it. Pops said he'd help, and his sister's going to stay with them in case they need help. I'm so excited to see him again. I just hope it works out.

Twin Scarves

I started working on Christmas presents early this year (who doesn't?), especially since I have five scarves on my list. I just got back from visiting my fiancee, and I've become rather attached to his little brother and sister. They turn ten I think this month (see my profile picture). I found out their favorite colors from the future DH. For SIL I shortened a lace scarf that I had lying in my stash (which had been supposed to be a panel for an afghan that never got finished). For BIL I used a mostly-full ball of WoolEase Thick & Quick. It's really a simple pattern, but I couldn't find any pre-teen scarf

patterns that I liked.

Ricky's Scarf

Size 13 needles

WoolEase Thick n Quick, 1 skein Lemongrass

Finished measurements: 6 inches wide by 45 inches long (or desired length)

CO 14 stitches.

Row 1: Slip first stitch as if to knit, K1 *P2, K2* across

Row 2: Slip 1, purl across

Continue in this manner until A) scarf is as long as you want or B) you only have enough yarn to bind off. BO in pattern.

Taming the Stash

Stash. We all have one. It lurks in your house, full of oddments and extra skeins you didn't bother to return to the store. It is a very personal, but universal, knitter problem. Yet we still buy yarn. I have been on a yarn diet for over a year but it hasn't worked very well. Inevitably I pick a pattern I don't have enough yarn for, or I think I have enough yarn and find out half way through that in fact I don't (after emptying out my stash baskets searching for what I SWEAR is there), so just in case I go to the store and buy two more, just so I don't run out again.

Perhaps the best deterrent to buying more yarn is just to see exactly what you already have. After being gifted with a friend's late grandmother's yarn stash (the winner doesn't get to take it with them, do they?), and my old college roommate stuffing half of hers into my bag last night ("You'll do it more justice than I will, I have no time cuz I'm a music student"), I decided I needed to sort my stash. Yes that's right. Sort the damn thing.


I spread the yarn out on my bed, sorted into the colors, the neutrals, black, white, and those varegated yarns you love but don't fit into any color category. First was my original stash:

The neutrals and variegated got cut off at the bottom but you get the point. Then I added the late grandmother stash, after I weeded out what she had cut for latchhook. I got a wonderful surprise. Four full skeins of virgin wool, some of them the labels yellowed and falling apart. Those were later placed in their own special bag so that they would not be lost. Now I can actually try felting! Should I make a purse, or something useful like coasters? Hrmm.

There now you can see everything. But wait, there's more. My roomie is to blame for this now.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, is my yarn stash. It covers my bed. So what do you do with your stash now that you see it in all it's gory detail? You organize it. You can do yours however you please, but I am a simple girl with little furniture and only a bedroom in which to store all my things. One day I hope to have an entire room devoted to my plethera of hobbies, but not yet. So I used plastic grocery bags for each pile, after pulling out the yarn I'm using for my Rainbow Afghan of Awesome (or Doom. Depends on my mood), and stuffing them back into my baskets. It looks something like this:

It didn't take me that long, and it didn't hurt at all! And now I finally know what the hell I have to work with. Let me know how your Taming goes!

[The only yarn not counted in the stash is the yarn I'm using to make KnitPicks' Abundance Afghan; a wedding gift for a friend. I only bought the 7 balls the pattern called for.]

Cat Scarf

Well it's been a while but I have a free pattern for the blog! A scarf for your cat =^-^=

Xander, my friend's cat, was confused by his first modeling shoot. He quickly turned diva, however, and cut the shoot short for his fish treats.

Cat Scarf

Size 6 needles
Worsted weight yarn, two colors


Body of scarf:

With MC, CO 8 sts
Work garter stitch until you have 4 ridges
Change to CC, work garter stitch until you have 4 ridges

Work stripe sequence until you have 9 stripes. BO stitches and sew ends together.


Tail 1:
CO 8 stitches in MC. Work stripe sequence until you have four stripes. BO.

Tail 2:
CO 8 stitches in MC. Work stripe sequence until you have five stripes. BO

Tassels (optional):
Cut 8 four-inch pieces of MC and 6 of CC. Each piece is one tassel. I used a yarn needle to hook them on, but you can use a crochet hook if you like. I put a CC tassel in the middle, then did the two end MC tassels, and eyed the rest.


Line tail 1 up with tail 2, so that the top of tail 1 matches the last stripe of the same color, right sides facing. Center tails over the join in the main body of the scarf. Sew tail 1 to tail 2 AND scarf at the same time. Sew top of tail 2 to edge of scarf.


Put scarf on cat, and take lots of funny pictures.