Shoes pre-dropped for your convenience.

Normally, every year things start to go terribly wrong around my birthday. I either spend the week in a general state of crisis getting things straightened out, or just waiting for whatever's going to go pear-shaped.  Things are still going wrong this year, but at least they had the decency to go wrong a bit early, so we're already to the getting things straightened out part and I can enjoy my birthday.

Things are moved, curtains have been made (sheer nylon fabric has claimed the bottom rung on my 'favorite fabrics to work with' list), I got my order from Sweet Libertine, Team Fortress 2 is now free to play on the PC, the Meet the Medic video is finally out, Maker Faire is this weekend (and I have the weekend off so I can go!), I've talked everyone into my favorite Vietnamese restaurant for my birthday dinner, and I'm nearly out from under this huge mess of a commissioned project.

Also, please, someone remind me to never do a commissioned piece without a picture again - I apparently suck at mind-reading.

Greetings from under the avalanche...

Well, it's that time of year again - crafting frantically as I watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on a constant loop.  I actually got a pretty good start this year, so everything's at least started, it's just a matter of prioritization to get everything finished in the right order. Highlights of this year's workload include:

• Hooded Scarf (that didn't start off as hooded, but then she was pointing out a hooded one she liked, so oh well...)
• Dog Sweater
• Convertible Mittens
• Socks
• Cowl
• More Socks
• Hats (oh yes, so many hats)
• Flavored liqueurs
• Assorted bath goodies

And, of course, it's the holidays and I work retail...

You probably won't be hearing from me again until around New Year's...

Of Things to Come

Been a little overwhelmed lately, but here's a few sneak peeks of projects and patterns I hope to be posting soon:

Keep your eyes peeled!

The Wild Goose Chase Ends!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I present the two most difficult things to find in my town: Russian Standard vodka, and Lion Brand Wool-Ease color #179.

 

I'm not joking.  Finding each of these items required trips to at least three different stores over the course of the last two weeks, and in each case, I got the last one the store had.  Watching Iron Man 2 was particularly difficult, because I couldn't help but notice what brand of vodka Whiplash was drinking...it's a distinctive bottle.  All I can assume is that a strangely large number of people in my area are sitting around drinking vodka and knitting Dr. Who scarves.  I wish I knew who they were, they sound like they'd be fun to hang out with.

Regardless, the expedition has finally ended in success, and I can take my Fourth Doctor scarf off hold! And have a screwdriver, since for once I actually have good vodka and orange juice in the house at the same time.

Would you look at that f-ing snow?

I could've sworn I saw the snowplow go by a few hours ago...

Fortunately, with my Lent resolution to only work on finishing projects that I've already started (don't ask how many things I started on Pancake Tuesday...), a little enforced crafting time was not a bad thing.  I've already knocked a nice grey/black/white striped scarf off my Ravelry list (and into my Etsy shop, in all likelyhood), and I've really been going to town on my 'Ravelympics' (Ravelry Olympics) project.

I'm kind of keeping the Ravelympics project under wraps for a bit, because it was based in a comic idea and I don't want to spoil the comic - I plan on unveiling it when that particular strip goes live. I'm really enjoying it, though.  I'm more of a knitter than a crocheter, so it's a nice change of pace and a little bit of a challenge to myself, which was the point of the Ravelympics.  It's also nice to have a deadline to keep myself on target, or I think I would have already set it aside once I started to embroider the little accessory bits.

I've also got a few half-finished plushies I need to get finished up as well - besides wanting to put some up on Etsy, I also really want to submit something to Stuffed.  There's a couple of pincushions that just need to be stuffed and sewn shut, too. And two rooms I've started painting. And one room I'm in the middle of plastering the walls. And then there's the fabric that I just pinned to the moulding around the window for a bit until I had time to sew it into proper curtains...

Meanwhile, I've already got a list of five project ideas to start in on come Easter...better get back to clearing out some of this crafting backlog!

Minor setbacks ahoy!

Though I've been trying to get ahead on some of my projects, it seems like there's a few that have actually gone backwards the last few days.

The sample gloves I'm knitting hit a bit of a snag when I went to do my decreases after the three inches of ribbing on size 3 (3.25 mm, for the metric) needles, and discovered that I already had the right number of stitches on the needles. Or rather, the very, very wrong number.  I'd somehow skipped ahead in the pattern and cast on the number of stitches I was supposed to have *after* my decreases.  So, that all got ripped out and will be started over if I have time tomorrow. I'm just glad I didn't do the same thing on the other glove.

The other setback has been the sock pattern I'm working on.  Everything was going great, and the sample sock fit me just nicely. Then I did the math, took a few measurements to double-check my estimates for sizing, and realized that there's a reason I can wear those awesome pointy stiletto boots...and, possibly, why I seem to fall over a lot. My feet were at least an inch and a half smaller around than anyone else's, but I'd been using my foot measurement as the large end of the womens' sizing.  Math has been adjusted, knitting has been frogged, yarn has been rewound, and the sock-knitting shall begin anew.