Sorry For the Radio Silence

I'm sorry for the silence on the blog front, folks. Turns out that my son is having some health issues including.



I've got to take care of that sweet little face first. I am blogging a bit over at Helen's food blog if you want to read some of my writing. I hope to post more before her Australia/Japan trip is over, but my son is, apparently, really anti-blogging.

Felting!

I have finally, finally finished a long-promised pair of slippers for bda, and learned to felt in the process! One of my knitters, upon hearing that I had pay machines in the building, advised that this was a project I probably wanted to do at my parents' house. So, I brought my supplies with me, and got to knitting once I put the turkey in the oven. And not a moment too soon...



Good thing bda's feet aren't a size or two bigger! But I finished them, stitched them up, then had him try them on for size.



I thought about just stopping there, so he would have room to grow into them, but the felting bug got the better of me.

I'm glad I took Amy's advice and felted at the house. It ended up taking nearly 30 minutes in the hot water for the slippers to get their felt on, and I reset the washer's agitation cycle twice.

Post-felting, I stuck a pair of shoes in there to block them, then had people try them on for size.



They weren't quite the right size for Patrick, but they were a pretty close fit for bda.



Overall, the felting process was pretty easy, and went pretty smoothly. I ended up turning the slippers inside out, because I thought the shape was a little smoother, and the felt a little less fuzzy. I see some errors in the shape caused by errors in the execution (I started the decreases on one side too soon, so there's a bulge at the top of one of them.) But bda seems pleased enough with his new foot covers, so we'll call this a successfully completed project!

Autumnal Anklets

So, I've been wanting to post about these damned anklets for about a month or more now! I've been holding off to allow me time to go outside to photograph them against the beautiful backdrop of autumn leaves. Dudes, if I held off photographing them any longer, you were not going to see them until 2010 or later. So, tonight, I snapped snapped snapped some photos and came back to my computer and promptly uploaded them.

I knit these suckers using size zero needles. It was my first time knitting non-baby socks on such tiny needles and I found it to be slow going, but I ended up loving the look of the tiny knit stitches so much, I might be a size zero needle convert. The evenness of my stitches. The perfection of my stitches! It was amazing. If only I liked this colorway or yarn more. I ended up not loving Schaefer Anne yarn, sadly. I find it slightly scratchy while knitting and slightly fuzzy once knit up. You can see the halo of the yarn a little better in this picture.



I'm quite happy that my remaining untouched sock yarns are all semi-solids as I've been unhappy with my variegated yarns recently. I will say this for Schaefer Anne yarn -- it goes through a washer and dryer beautifully. While sick, I decided to toss them into my wash to see what happened. They bled hideously and I now have a slightly pink (previously light blue) tee, but they held their shape perfectly and are now soft enough for wearing around the home comfortably. They are also one of the few sock yarns I've worked with that make gorgeously thin socks that fit perfectly into my shoes.



As for the fact that they are anklets, as are most of the socks on my site? I have a horrible confession to make for a sock knitter. I hate socks. I only wear anklets at all (machine made or hand knit) and I mostly only wear them into bed. The anklet size allows me to kick them off once I get warm and sleepy enough. If you're wondering why I hate socks, it's all about constriction. I hate clothes that make me feel constricted. I also dislike tight clothing, shoes with backs, and turtlenecks. Dear God above, I really hate turtlenecks.

Saying all this, I'm still tempted to work some Cookie A socks next with my semi-solid yarn. That is, I'm tempted to do so if I ever get my scarf done. Chances of that? Slim to none.

Love you all and I hope to post soon. I am actually crafting once again!

Finished Object, FINALLY

So, I know it's the usual cool thing to apologize for not writing, but... dudes. For the combined months of September and October, Nathan and I experienced about fifteen colds between us. We were like germ factories, constantly cuddling new colds onto each other. Paul managed to luckily avoid most of the bad, but the last cold I got was the worst. Remember when I was all, "I'll post when I get better"? Yeah, after that I got better for one week, during which I did things like clean our house and get laundry back into normal shape. Then, Nathan got another cold, and I got a killer cold/cough. It was hideous. Yesterday was the first day in roughly two or three weeks in which I don't sound like I just got home from a really smoke filled bar.

But, anyways. I told you I had two finished objects to tell you about, and, guess what?! I didn't take pictures of my anklets yet. That's okay -- they're boring anyway.

Isaac's Blanket (ravel it!)
Pattern: Sweet and Simple in Leisure Arts #3219
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton (?)



I did get pictures sent to me from my friends Tom and Paula! See, they used to live in Philly and it was awesome and we saw them all the time. Paul and I miss them horribly still, but they have moved on to bigger and better states, apparently. I hope to go visit them soon. Well, approximately early summer of 2007, Paula announced to us that she was pregnant. We, of course, got very excited, and I promised to make a blanket for the wee little one (code name Pom Pom at the time).

Since I did not sew at that time, and my crochet is crap, I decided to knit a blanket I've done once before. I ordered up some beautiful yarn, Rowan something or other, and it was machine washable, and peach. Why peach? I'm really not sure. I think I should have picked green, in retrospect, but, since I can't go back in time, let's appreciate its peachly majesty. I got the yarn, started on the blanket, and promptly got pregnant myself.

Unfortunately, my pregnancy was both mostly hidden and nauseating. You know how some women 'glow'? Yeah, not me. I was more of 'tired sick mess'. This left me little time to knit since I was still trying to keep our house perfectly clean and plan our babymoon!

This was a very simple simple pattern. The most complicated part of it was probably the fringe. I enjoyed knitting on it once I felt better, and while it looks pretty and lacy, it can be done (by a non-beginner) knitter in front of the television. It's also very fast, though I believe I did finish it post-baby delivery. I will state, the first time I knit this (half a year into casually knitting) the constant changing number of stitches threw me off so badly that I ended up with a gigantic knotted hole in the blanket, the memory of which embarrasses me to this day!



Here's the little baby (my Godson!) that got the blanket.



Yeah, he's cute enough to deserve a better blanket! Maybe I'll quilt you one, someday, kid!

Also, hope to talk to you all soon.

Setting my craft corner in order

When Jenn and I were hanging with Jared Flood, I told him (and everyone else there) that I knit in the winter, not in the summer. And it's not a lie! I even knit and finished something just last week! But I had to finish it in a hurry, so no pic. Sorry. But, if you looked at the state of my ravelry stash, you would be forgiven for calling me a liar.

But knitting or not, I do photograph all year round. So, in my blogtator's honor, I photographed all the hanks of yarn waiting to be knit, and stashed them (ravelry). And saved an extra delightful pic for y'all to open my post.

If you were bored and looking at dead stashes recently, you might also get the impression that I last knit when nubbins ruled the earth. I discovered in this cleanup that you must declare items in your stash all used up! They won't go away on their own by your careful calculations of yarn used to equal 100%! So, now my stash page looks a whole lot more like my yarn basket.



Time to get knitting!

Two Finished Objects... SOON!

I'm sorry for the delay in posting, my small, but incredibly loyal, audience! I am sick with something or other. I generally feel like I've been run over by a very large truck and my remains have been thrown in icy water. The only part of me left whole is my throat which is all screwed up and pained.

Paul's been picking up a lot of the slack around the house with cleaning, and my mom (who can drive me crazy) is a saint when I'm not feeling well. If I told her I needed her here tomorrow morning at seven in the morning, she'd be waiting on my doorstep at six. I will probably go visit her tomorrow.

Unfortunately, between Nathan's odd allergic reaction to a virus (which made him break out into a very very spotty rash all over his whole body) and my need to sleep about 12 hours a day, I've not had time to post and process photos, including photos of my finished objects.

Normally when I'm not posting it's because I have nothing to say. Today? It's because I just want to watch some Glee and get some sleep.

Talk to you later. Also, if any of you have any advice on how to handle a baby that's starting to get opinionated and talk-backy (amazing, considering he can't talk), please let me know. Today, when I told Nathan not to touch the cat stratch toy, he looked at me deliberately, and ran his hands up and down it really fast. I managed not to laugh, but I was at a loss for what to do.

Met Jared Flood And All I Got Was Yarn!

This post goes to out to making Sophy envious! As I had not seen Helen in about a week and a half, I contacted her to make plans to eat and knit and pet kittens. She suggested that we attend Jared Flood's meet and greet at Loop, and, after a quick discussion of feasibility with Paul and Nathan, it was decided.

We were very late getting there, which was all my fault due to a combination of Nathan and traffic, but it turns out that this was for the best. By the time we got there, no one was around! There were about five other knitters there besides Helen and me. We spent several minutes browsing the store and talking about visiting Spool before Helen tried to egg me into meeting Jared on the basis that I was the 'better' knitter. This is a complete lie as Helen has probably knit more than me by now and she's actually knit some of Jared's designs. I hesitated on sitting near Jared and lingered over at the sock yarn area and tried to push her to sit first, but Helen kept going on about buying yarn for another knitting venture.

After a while, the owner of Loop noticed our odd behavior and tried to push us both into sitting at the table. I ended up grabbing some Madelinetosh Tosh Sock to avoid sitting.


I mean, it's super pretty and I love me some semisolid sock yarns (colorway Clover), but at least fifty percent of that sock yarn purchase was bashfulness at meeting people.

See, here's the thing you need to know about me. I hate meeting people. I'm not sociable in person and I have few social skills. I tend to alienate people I've just met by being standoffish or super opinionated or shallow. I make jokes that are offensively cold. A lot of people dislike me upon first meeting me, and I've had this verified by people who have later become my friends!

Knowing all this about myself has made meeting people even worse. I just hate being in group situations with people I don't know. I am always sure that the second I sit down, there's something about my face or voice that makes people dislike me.

I did not want to sit anywhere near Jared Flood or the other knitters or the owner. However, after a few more minutes, I realized I couldn't avoid sitting at the edge of the table, so I did. I talked with a nice guy named Alex about where we both lived. I forgot to tell him that I really liked his t-shirt. Helen joined me shortly after, but I needed to buy my sock yarn then. When I got back, she was in the middle of the table discussing her food blog with everyone. (Helen's a serious Philadelphia food blogger. She's got mad Twitter followers and she meets with all kinds of other food bloggers.) I finally sat down at the table again and started talking with people. No one seemed to hate me, and everyone was interesting, and we stayed until closing. This meant no Spool for me, but I hope to go back down on another Friday.

I did forget to tell Jared Flood (who is kind of a cutie and I'd probably die of embarrassment if he saw that, but he will never see that I said that because no one besides ten people read this blog) that I want to knit Girasole. That would be such an awesome blanket to pull over oneself in the middle of winter, as one lounged in front of a roaring fire with a bagful of hot chestnuts. Don't you love how I create these picturesque scenes in my head?

After all this was done, Helen and I got some Indian pizza (DELISH!) Then, we went to pet the kittens and knit and watch Glee. Are you watching Glee? If not, what is wrong with you? Do you not like fun and music and dancing and joy? Helen also presented me with a belated birthday present. I took it outside and cuddled it today.


Is that Malabrigo you see before you? Yes, it is three skeins of Merino Worsted in Sapphire Green and it's for Shalom. I do dislike the name of the colorway because sapphires are most commonly blue. Here you can see a real sapphire and the yarn. Are they the same color?


I had a fun Friday night, got some great yarn, and tried to blog about my latest pair of knit anklets. Unfortunately, every series of photos I've taken has come out blurry, so that'll have to wait. But, please note that I'm back down to one WIP! So exciting a life!

I Love Getting Stuff

I'm a fairly greedy person, in case you are not aware. I love to receive gifts and I love to win prizes. This is why this will be one of my favorite recent posts! It's about things I've both received and won!

Quite recently, I began to follow the blog Knitter in the Kitchen, mostly for her beautiful photography. She's not a frequent blogger, but then... neither am I. I must forgive this fault, or I am simply the pot to her kettle. Really, if you go to her site, you'll see that her photography more than makes up for her infrequent posts. However, I tend to follow craft blogs for their photography. A bit after I subscribed to her feed, she ran a nice post about her craft room that included a giveaway at the very end!

I have recently stopped trying to win giveaways because they are often swamped with comments and I don't want to win something unless I really want it. I couldn't ignore this, however. First was the fact that her sewing area is the most gorgeously coordinated sewing area I've ever seen. I'd weep with joy to sew in her room every day. (Seriously, check her ironing board out. My own ironing board is a mini version with a stained white cloth cover.) Second was the fact that she decorated the room in orange, brown, and white with a lot of linen. I love a color combined with brown and white. If you know me in real life, you'll know that Nathan's room is primarily done in green, brown, and white, and my own bedroom is Tiffany blue, brown, and white. Lastly, she was giving away two Amy Butler patterns and she hadn't advertised the post as a giveaway, meaning it looked like I had a shot in hell of winning. So, I took a chance. AND WON!

I now have my very first Amy Butler pattern and it's sitting on my pattern shelf silently intimidating me.



See? There it is, going, "I need interfacing to work, Kitten." I have tried to shush it with the fact that I want to do eighteen hundred other projects first, and I don't have any fabric worthy of it, but it makes chicken sounds at me.

Thank you, Knitter in the Kitchen. I hope I make something gorgeous.

Next up? My birthday presents from Paul's parents. I say parents, but let's get real on who picked out these gifts. Thanks, mom!



What you see there are Socks from the Toe Up by Wendy Johnson, a cute circular knitting needle holding case from Della Q, a tiny ladybug tape measure from Lantern Moon, and a gift certificate to Knitting to Know Ewe.

My mother-in-law was super cute when she gave it to me and told me that she was now obsessed with Lantern Moon. A long time lover of their rosewood and ebony needles, I understood where she was coming from. She told me we would have to go together to spend the gift certificate, and I am happy to do so. I love going yarn shopping with people, and I imagine it'll be fun shopping with her for yarn. I would say that we would likely have nothing in common yarn-wise, but I have looked askance at Helen's purple yarn purchases, and Christy has called some of my yarn loves "unicorn puke colored", I believe. Just because you have a lot in common with someone doesn't mean that you'll have similar yarn colorway tastes!

Someone help! My tape measure is attacking me!



I love getting cute tape measures!

How are all my readers doing? I see you all blogging about your crazy knitting, so I assume well. I'm still chugging along myself, and I expect I'll have some anklets to model for you all soon, as well as the start of Shalom. Helen, when do we get together?

Darlings, I've Missed Sewing. And You.

Let's not speak of the week we were separated, let's talk about our future together. Wait, let's talk about the last week. After all, it affected my blogging. First, Paul had off all week, so we took one of those fancy Staycations! A year and a half ago we did the Babymoon. I love these trendy new terms so much that I must do them. We celebrated my birthday with dinner, a gift, and a cold. (Nathan provided the illness, screaming, general lack of sleep, and bad temper. I provided the cuddles. Paul provided the gift and dinner.) I then spent several nights playing on my new Xbox 360. It's even dragged me off the internet prior to midnight. It was a miracle and it has helped ween me, slightly, off the need to hang on my computer to all hours. Says the girl blogging at one in the morning.

Either way, after several days of devouring Fable II, I came up for air yesterday and decided to start crafting again. I finally cracked down on that make-up bag I've been wanting to make, and I started to actually sew. You can see my awesome sewing area here.



Do you see that fancy zipper? That's nearly as far as I got before I realized I needed Elastic Thread. Damn you, Heather Ross! I've never worked with this stuff before and now I'm all nervous about it. In fact, I think most of the reason I haven't been working on this make-up bag before is that I'm terrified I'm going to screw it up. It looks so complicated. The zipper part of this bag took me roughly an hour. I had to figure out how to use my zipper foot, figure out where to sew on the zipper, figure out how to pin three layers of fabric evenly.

The pattern called for me to pink some of my fabric at one point, so I pulled out my mom-mom's awesome pinking shears. She was born in 1901, I believe, and as you can see, she paid a high price for these shears!



Today, I went to Jo-ann Fabrics to grab the thread I needed, but also to pick up some fabric for a button down shirt for Nathan. It's some awesome train fabric, which I got two yards of. I should have enough to make him both a shirt and some PJ pants.



I will now end this horribly written post. I'm clearly too tired to blog.

Trying To Update Blog URL

I'm having some troubles, folks, and I beg you to bear with me. Both Helen and I posted recently, and neither of those updates appeared in my feed reader (Google), so I decided to go back to my old URL of a blogspot.com domain. I suspect that I need to be able to update both my CNAME records and my A records, and, unfortunately, I can't do so currently.

I Said Blogs Without Photos Suck

And yet... My blog is photo-less. Sure, it has a sexy new URL, but it takes more than URLs to run a blog. It takes photos, good writing, and a regular posting schedule. Since I'm never going to have a regular posting schedule and the chances of good writing drop, I need photos. (Please note, this is not a comment on Helen's writing. Her writing is good and gets posted at shops and linked to and adored.)

So, I thought I'd do an update on where my knitting projects are at. But with pictures! I'm still working on my Schaeffer Anne anklets, and I've decided against knitting Nathan a pair in this yarn.



The mohair pretty visibly stands out as you can see from a close up of the first sock.



I'm fairly sure you get put in the Time Out For Bad Mothers corner if you give your child a rash due to something you knit him, and with my luck, he'd be allergic to mohair.

Due to August's heat I stopped knitting on my Slytherin scarf for a while, but the weather is cool once again, and it's time to start knitting this sucker up. I've pretty much given up the dream of having this scarf done this winter, but we'll see. It is pretty long already.



Do I really need all the repeats? (Yes, I do. I ordered extra yarn because I ran short for Paul's Gryffindor scarf.)

Lastly, I bought a new tape measure for my sock knitting bag.



Coincidentally, my plain white tape measure, which I lost months ago, came out of hiding the day after I received my new tape measure. Maybe my new tape measure is the kitten, and my old tape measure the ninja.

So, did I bring the sexy back?

Ravelry is powered by 10 calculators and a puppy on a treadmill.

One of the many things I do in real life is blog and tweet about email. So, I keep an eye on a bunch of feeds to supply me with materials. Then, in yesterday's review, I came across a post about the backend of Ravelry.

Reading this post, the very first thing I wanted to do was go buy something from their store. I would call Ravelry one of the most useful websites I've ever encountered. It's got SO MUCH. And it's basically running out of a paper box. Ok, not that bad, but they are running a LOT of stuff on a very little hardware (and Amazon S3), and they're bootstrapping the whole company from their ads and tee shirt sales and donations.

So, if you love Ravelry, and you've been thinking one of those tee shirts is pretty cute, but maybe a little pricey, remember, you're supporting a good cause!

P.S. Cooking is a craft! I'm doing crafting! I'm just blogging about it somewhere else. Also, who wants french fry grease on their sweaters? Yuck.

P.P.S. Are y'all noting the awesome new URL of this blog? Jenn rocks!

GLOAT GLOAT GLOAT!

Guess who just won ninjakitten.net? If I can ever get the nameservers to update (propagate, BASTARDS), I expect that this blog's URL will change, and I'll feel up to working on my book review blog. If not, well, at least you can reach me at my new domain email addresses.

I wouldn't normally post this short an entry, but I won! Also, I finished a sock. Wowsers. That is what knitting is like? I forgot!

People, I'm Dying

I know, I know, I know I said I'd have some pics and posts that were relevant to crafting, but that was prior to my imminent death by cold. I'm exhausted, stuffed up, and grumpy, so I thought I'd tell you all that before you decided my blog sucks due to lack of updates. Which it does.

Three important notes before I head out for today.

1. I am bidding on a vanity domain for my various blogs. Obviously the words ninja and kitten are involved, so wish me luck.

2. Nathan has actually walked in his quest for more food to shove in his mouth.

3. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back on the menu at Starbucks. I spend half my year waiting for this day.

Still Cameraless

I actually have items I want to show to you now, and my camera is still gone. I told Helen earlier this week that I had no more new photos of Nathan to post because I have no camera and I finally caught up with my backlog. This is ridiculous. I literally feel no need to craft, too, because without a camera, my mind subconsciously feels there is no point.

Anyway, very very hopefully I'll have photos to post on Monday of my new cute tape measure and my sewing. My cousin Talena (at whose house my camera is currently visiting) offered to get together on Sunday. Let's just pray that Nathan doesn't flip out and ninja us with his snots like he did yesterday. Babies with molars coming in are not happy campers.

In other news, I am listening to a few new podcasts, but I haven't yet mentioned that I enjoy The Knitmore Girls. I'm not going to say it is my favorite podcast of all time, but it's great enough that it isn't leaving my listing of recommended podcasts any time soon. It features a mother and daughter discussing their knitting, spinning, mistakes, and news. Some things that irk me include that the daughter, Jasmin, can be a bit judgmental and kind of snobby. Now, for those of you who know me, you can all think to yourself... *ring*, *ring* "Hello?" "Hi, this is the pot, kettle. You're black."

They also tend to advertise in their podcast a lot as well as ask for donations to go to things like Sock Summit. But then again, that might just be me being envious, so I tend to let it go. What's good about it? They are both insanely fast knitters. They give good reviews of yarns. Their discussion of buying fleeces is intriguing. They have a great relationship! They used to have Tika from Gives Good Knit guest host. (Seriously, I love her podcast.) Jasmin is a very smooth speaker, which isn't true for many podcasters. They have very good sound quality in later episodes which matters more than you might think to me. Give it a try if you like two people podcasts. For the record, I can say that I listened to the full backlog of episodes which I usually don't, because I found them all interesting.

For all those who are keeping track, I now listen to Manic Purl, Never Not Knitting, Stash and Burn, Gives Good Knit, Knitmore Girls, Knit Picks, Sew Forth Now, and Sticks and String. I've ordered them their by my preference.

Update: Because even my positive reviews tend to sound mean, I'd like to re-iterate that I really like the Knitmore Girls podcast and that the faults I cite in Jasmin are faults that I acknowledge in my own self. It is a good podcast that I enjoy.

Depression, It Has Me

I crafted tonight. Or, more accurately, I am crafting tonight. It's sending me into a depression spiral that I can't seem to get out of.

The thing is that I have one major problem with sewing (and many other minor problems). That is, I can never seem to place my patterns properly on grain lines. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me, but it's super depressing and annoying and hateful. It's okay now that I'm making make up bags and slippers and other stuff that doesn't really hang on the body, but what's going to happen when I make a dress or jacket and I can't true the fabric and cut on grain? It's going to look hideous and I'm going to die of shame. Does anyone out there have advice for getting your fabric to true and cutting on grain. If your advice is pull on the fabric on the bias or slip a thread from the weave or weft free and use that as your guide, please explain more fully. Pulling on the fabric has not trued my fabric in the past, and I can't damn well seem to pull a thread free.

Hopefully later this week I will have some finished sewing projects to post (and a camera to use to photograph them), but until then, it's Linky Tuesday. Like how I just pretended that I always post links on Tuesdays?

Here's some of my favorite crafty finished objects! Let's start with my newest obsession, quilts. I love, love, love this beautiful quilt from CharlotteCarotte. First off, it looks simple and modern. Second, it looks soft. Third, it looks gorgeous. It makes me want to quit with the idea of fashion sewing.

Then, there are the cookies. I love cookies and I always want to be able to make beautifully decorated cookies, but if I could make ice cream cone cookies or starry window cookies, all I'd do is make cookies and charge ridiculous prices for them at craft sales.

You all know I love to cross stitch, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to do the 'good' designs because they intersperse colors very thoroughly to get a more natural looking finished product. And the really good ones that require beads require even more time and energy. That's why this finished mermaid cross stitch is a phenom. If I had made this, I'd frame it and put it up in the middle of the most seen wall in our house and I'd tell everyone that came into our house that I had made it.

Nathan is obsessed with trains, and I'm obsessed with clothes for Nathan. That means I love this adorable Kai shirt made of a very train-y fabric. I'm thinking of how it would look fantastic over some thermal shirts this winter as part of his every day wardrobe. Slip that on over some jeans and he'd look stylish without looking like a tiny little man. Helen has often pointed out that most boys are dressed like little men, and that's true, but the pointed use of cute prints can help alleviate that fact.

When I was younger, my mom would try to teach me to craft and fail. This is due to two things. One, I'm a horrible person learner. I've had fantastic people try to teach me, including my own husband (a patient tutor that many of my friends have told me is extremely patient with those willing to learn), and I can't learn from them. I dislike people telling me what to do. I hate when they keep going on about something I understand already. I dislike telling teachers I don't understand, so I let them stop teaching me when I don't understand the subject matter. I get angry with myself for disappointing people who are attempting to teach me. Two, my mom is a horrible teacher, apt to blame her 'student' for failing to learn or likely to not care about teaching. "You picked out horrible yarn to learn from, and that's why I can't teach you to knit." "I never installed zippers or buttonholes. Your grandmother did it for me. I mostly just made elastic pants." If you can't guess, these two things are probably related. That's why I'm always amazed to see these blogging mothers featuring their child's amazing creations, such as this Wall-E stuffie, or this awesomely chic knitted sweater.

I hope that one day, Paul can teach our children well or at least filter my instructions well. I can already tell that I'm more a teacher like my mom.

I'm Melting!

Before I get to my rambling, anyone have any good recommendations for where I can buy some Malabrigo online? I'd like lots of color choices, and good photos of the yarn.

Woah, I bet you guys didn't even miss me, did you? If you did, I'm sorry and I have legitimate excuses for not doing anything in August.

One, I'm still down one tape measure. I wonder if Nathan just ate it. At this point, that idea seems plausible.

Two, it is hot out. (I'd make a joke, but every joke I could make sounds incredibly joke-y as if I'm mocking jokes about heat, so let's just say we're in the middle of a heat wave in Philly.) No scarf knitting in heat waves, since the scarf is now about four feet long and made of heavy yarn.

Three, my camera is at my cousin's house. And as I always say to Helen, "If you can't take pictures of it, you can't blog it. And if you can't blog it, it's like it never happened." So, why knit if it never really happened?

Four, the library is my doom. I'm getting book after book after book from it and stuffing 'em into my brain.

Five, Nathan is on the verge of both walking and talking, meaning I'm spending a great deal of time bribing him with food and toys and wondering how I'm going to cope when he walks and talks. He already has a good handle on making his will known with his single non-mom, non-dad word, "GOOOOO! GOOOOOO! GO! GO! GO!" and Indian war-cries. (There is nothing on Earth more hilarious than having your son get incredibly upset and go into an Indian war-cry.)

Six, I'm too lazy to take out pieces to sew stuff.

Seven, I'm really focused on the success of Helen's food blog. She's gotten links from a number of awesome food blogs in Philadelphia and from a store she reviewed! I publish Paul's recipes there occasionally, so check it out. I'll be posting a Tarte Tatin recipe soon, I hope. If you live in or near Philly, you might even consider subscribing since Helen does restaurant highlights and reviews.

Eight, I'm dreading the return of television season since I always fall behind on watching my shows in October and I never catch up until July.

Nine, I spend about an hour or two a night washing dishes, surfaces, cleaning up toys, doing wash, cleaning the bathroom, scrubbing floors, etc.

Ten, I still love computers. I need to love them less. I also need to stop fantasizing about owning The Sims 3. And buying a PSP, PS3, and XBox 360. (If I ever bought those three machines within the same year, you might as well give this blog, my Twitter feed, and my Flickr account their last rites.)

Anyway, I still love you all. When it gets cooler and I feel more ambitious and I stop obsessing over my library, I plan to come back to you. I need to knit Shalom after all.

Crafting is hard. Let's go shopping!

(Note: I'm blogging this because Jenn is not online right now, and we don't really call each other. Like, ever. Whenever I do call her, and it's not because we have plans that day, I start the call with, "nothing is wrong," so she doesn't think I'm bleeding to death or that Pobox has exploded.)

Jenn has been trying to talk me into taking up sewing. You know, because between knitting and beading and cooking and blogging and photography, I probably don't have enough hobbies these days. I told her, "If I have a cute girl baby, who I can get away with just swaddling in a cute fabric sack and calling it a dress, I will take up sewing, but I don't see it happening before that." But you know it is. Someone proposes an idea, and you dismiss it, and then you start thinking about it....

I'm not ready to take up sewing. But I may be ready to take up that gateway drug, fabric buying.


(Thanks, spool blog, for the pic)

My bed is from IKEA (ok, my apartment contents are from IKEA -- ooh, and not to digress or anything, but the new catalog came today!!!) I got one that's padded all the way around, because, let's face it, I'm a klutz, and I bruise more easily than a ripe peach. It has this delightful green fabric cover, which I love, but it's 7 years old, and my bedroom gets a ton of sun, and, well.... it's faded. It's getting to be a pea soup green instead of a grassy spring green.

I've seen all those home makeover shows, and I know that all I need to refresh this piece of furniture is some cloth, an iron and a staple gun. That is easy! I know how to staple!

(Another digression - a friend recently unearthed some high school pics of me refreshing my bedroom furniture with paint. Thanks, Sassy. You were such an inspiration to me in my youth.)

So, Jenn, when do you want to hit some fabric stores?

Summer Downtime

Don't you love how every knitting blog in the whole universe is suddenly either shutting down, talking about gardening or sewing, or simply discussing vacation plans?

I've not been knitting much myself. I keep going on the sock, but I appear to have lost my tape measure to one of Nathan's daily playtimes, so I need to order another one (or two or three). It is way too hot to knit on a long wool scarf that weighs a lot. Truth be told, Nathan has been so active and whining recently, that by the time night rolls around, I just want to read a book or my blogs and then go to bed. I do read a lot now. That library reserve feature has revolutionized my life once again.

I haven't been sewing or cross-stitching either and I miss both. I might close up shop on the computer early tonight to cross-stitch. It's a quiet activity that allows me to focus on the television, so I can watch things like the third season of Gilmore Girls in peace.

What's up with you, internet? Have you been shutting down for the summer too? Going to the shore? Or are you knitting away like some of my friends?

Hello, Cupcake!

As many of you might know, I'm obsessed with Heather Ross, her fabric, and her book, Weekend Sewing: More Than 40 Projects and Ideas for Inspired Stitching. I think her fabric is delightful and whimsical while still being usable.

When I fell in love with her book, I decided to do the simplest clothing pattern first, and we all know what that means. Pajama pants. Quick, cute, yet also useful around the house.



Pattern: Pajama Pants for Everyone from Weekend Sewing
Fabric: Printed Quilting Cotton from Jo-Ann

I really wanted to love these pajama pants, and they were mostly good, except for the following flaws:

1. The butt was tight, but the rest of the pants were normal. I'm not particularly booty blessed, so I'm not sure if this was because my hips are much larger than previously believed or if the pattern allowed for no butt at all. I will try to make myself a medium some time in the future to see if this resolves issues. After all, I need a flannel winter pair.



2. The yardage called for was incorrect, even after I checked the errata. I bought three yards of the fabric even though two yards were called for. I'm very glad I did.

3. There was no "neaten the seams" instructions or hints in the book. I neatened a few seams on my own just to make the final product feel more finished.

4. I had the brilliant idea to put in a little tag in it to differentiate the back from the front. Only I stupidly put the tag in the front by accident.



The fabric I used was an adorable little woven cotton from Jo-Ann.



One suspects that this is the type of fabric that cheers a person up even when life is handing them sad no-cupcake days.

I'm definitely going to have to try the Yoga pants from Sew Everything Workshop as well, sometime in the future, but I do like these PJs. I want to make Nathan a slightly match-y pair. I love family matchiness!



It's so much fun doing a photo shoot on your front lawn in your PJs.

Knit Reset!

Dear readers, I hardly deserve to craft blog. You see, I have fallen off the knitting horse after spending months working on the same scarf. Tonight, Jenn went through my "stash" (if you can call an assortment of remnants that) and I did an inventory of my projects. I own and have assigned yarn for:

• Helleborus in pink
  
• Eskimo slippers for bda in grey/blue-grey
  
• Endpaper mitts in purple and black
  

I have been working on the scarf FOREVER, and it is so slow and boring and so many months until I will want to wear a scarf again. So, Jenn told me to take a break, and knit the slippers. I had done a swatch months ago, so I had to rewind my yarn. See above re: my craft blog deservability... Jenn just gave me this look, and said, "Do you want me to wind that for you?" Yes! Perhaps I can absorb your ways through osmosis alone.

We then spent an hour looking at sweater patterns and yarn colors for said sweaters. And then I noticed that she was knitting, and I was not. And this is why she has many completed projects, and I only have a blog post about projects I haven't even started. :(

Just So You Are All Aware

I resent every single one of you who didn't tell me that knitting socks on size 0 DPNs would take effing forever.

I've been working a tiny bit on my gorgeous Schaeffer Anne anklets, and I'm only half way done the first heel! I'm not a fast knitter, by any means, but this is unusually bad, even for me.

Anyway, internet -- shame on you for not warning me.

Highlights Of A Disorganized Internet

I was on Facebook today, and a random grade school individual who I never chatted with had friended me. I was feeling generous and I friended her back. It was odd because on reading some of her wall, I realized I'd probably like her now. I'd probably be friends with her. We have a ton in common, including reading habits and the same sense of humor. Yet, we'll probably never be anything other than Facebook friends. The internet is weird. I think I would have been happier not knowing this.

It's been a while since I posted random links to my blog to see what sticks, so let's get to it.

I'm on Ravelry, Twitter, and Facebook. Let's be social networking pals, okay? If you don't think I follow your blog, let me know, so I can!

I follow a lot of sewing blogs, and I've seen a series of people doing jeans this summer. None of them have impressed me as much as the ones Quixotic Pixel has done. If I thought I could make these jeans, I would start sewing now.

So, I have a terrible confession to make. I don't like the sweaters people make from EZ books. I just don't. I don't like her baby clothes either. It is horrible because this probably makes me a bad knitter. I mostly try to get over it, skipping EZ related podcasts/blog updates/stuff, however, I had to read this blog post about a children sized February Lady Sweater. It's so adorable on this little girl that I'm thinking about adding the FLS to my queue!

Knitted fabric scares the pants off of me. I have yet to work with it, and I'm terrified to. When scanning through Vogue's patterns one day, I noticed a very cute drawn picture of a dress made from knitted fabric and it was one of their Very Easy, Very Vogue patterns (Vogue 8571), so I added it to my wishlist of patterns. I started to believe that it was too cute in the drawing and made up it'd look horrible. Turns out? I was totally wrong. It's super cute in this blog post and I want to make it in deep red or brown or grey. What say you, internet?

Anyway, it's time for me to head out now. I need to go put on my cute new cupcake pjs and knit a row of my scarf and go to bed. Oh, what cute new cupcake pjs, you ask? Well, that's another blog post!

BTW, if any of you use a social site for keeping track of books, let me know which you prefer, okay? Thanks!

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

During our last murder mystery, Helen kindly lent me a dress to fit in with the 1930s vibe of the night. She told me it had probably belonged to her grandmother and that it didn't really fit anyone in her house because it was for short people. (She might not have said it like that, but I know what I heard. She might as well have called me shrimp.) It was a nice dress, and a tiny bit tight, but nothing worrisome. If anything, it wasn't tight so much as well-fitted. However, during the course of the night, I felt a few stitches rip and I was horribly embarrassed about my fat tummy.

Later on, while removing it, I saw that the frayed thread looked pretty old and I realized that while my habit of chugging frappucinos had not helped the dress to stay in order, it hadn't hurt as much as I thought. The dress broke away from the zipper mainly because that thread was so old that it had become fragile. I told Helen what had happened and promised her I would fix the dress. I mean, I have a sewing machine, no? I could just whip that sucker up.

Things happened, however, and I forgot about the dress until this evening when I examined the zipper and its lost threads in more detail. Folks, this wasn't some machine made dress. It was hand-sewn. That easy fix is going to require some invisible stitching to attach the outer dress to the zipper. The inner lining will be a much easier straight stitch, but I'm not going to bring down the awesomeness of this dress by machine sewing it.

I pinned the whole thing together for my ease of sewing, and I've got plans for tomorrow night. I had been going to make myself a cute pair of pajama pants, but I foresee some hand-sewing now. I would do it tonight, but it is late, and I will need to practice whipstitching invisibly prior to working on this dress.

I can't believe I thought I was just going to machine stitch this vintage dress. I'm an idiot.

Here's a picture of the dress in murdering action:



Totally cute, no? I mean, not as great as Helen's or Paula's outfits, but it is something!

New Ninja On the Block

You might have noticed, but a new blogger posted on 'my' craft blog here. It's no longer really my craft blog, however. It's our craft blog. I finally guilted Helen into blogging with me. I feel no shame about doing it, either.

I have been complaining for years now that I want a co-blogger for Ninja Kitten Knits, and as I began branching out into other crafts, I started to reconsider my blog concept, as well.

Tonight, at dinner, while discussing blogging with our friends, Helen started to lay down the guilt on Paul for not posting to her food blog. We got into our discussion and I pointed out that no one posted to my crafting blog, and she told me she'd join, so I promptly invited her, and she already has one post. I then joined her food blog, even though I'm the worst person to have on a food blog ever, and posted. (Seriously, if anyone else would like to invite me to blogs that are inappropriate for my hobbies, skills, or abilities, I am also horrible at sports, applying make-up, singing, and being laid back. Just invite me! I can discuss my failures in each of these topics at length.)

After some IM discussion with Helen, I decided to change my site name since "Ninja Kitten Knits" was inaccurate in all ways. We are now "Ninjas, Kittens, Crafts". Our topics still include knitting (primarily), but we will also branch out into other topics such as beading, sewing, card-making, kittens, and our ninja adventures.

To go back to knitting, however, Helen is thinking of working on her first sweater, and, if she does, I think I might also and force a first sweater knitalong with her. I've already talked about how I'm a much better competitive knitter than not. Ingenue by Wendy Bernard in Custom Knits has been calling my name for a while too! However, Helen has wanted to knit a cardigan. Anyone know how easy the Featherweight Cardigan is to knit?

In the meantime, a big hello to our newest Ninja Kitten, Helen!

My First Earrings (and Post)!

Crafting is something better done in pairs, groups or gaggles, and so, too, is craft blogging! Paula brought Jenn and I a bead bonanza from Washington state, so we sat down one night to break into beading and watch He's Just Not That Into You. (Note: this was too ambitious. We only made it halfway through the movie.)

Beading is overwhelming. Despite copious resources, Jenn and I each made a pair of earrings, then had to stop.


Earrings in repose


An earring in action

Looks simple. Do not be deceived. I am working up my strength and ingenuity to bead again.

P.S. Does this make me an honorary ninja kitten?

Actual Knitting Pictures Included Below

My, my. How are you all doing? Just last night I chatted with you. Will this daily posting become a habit? My guess is no.

I was taking photos of a very simple dessert I made today when I decided to throw in a few yarn photos. The only one I cared for was this shot of my sock knitting in the lovely yarn bag that Vahnee gave me.



Isn't that yarn absolutely gorgeous? It's Schaeffer Anne in some unknown color way. Admit it, it's gorgeous! I'm so pleased that this variegated yarn does not yet look disgusting.

A Library Break

As many of you know, I love books and I love to read. Since I'm trying to save a bit of money, my book spending has gone down in recent years vastly. Prior to marriage, I probably dropped hundreds of dollars on books each month. My library was full to packed, and I had multiple bookshelves which were double stacked with books. I had books piled on books in front of other books.

When I moved in with Paul, he kindly got my to realize this was stupidity. There was no need for this great amount of books, most of which went unloved. I had a library card and I could buy books that I really wanted. We only have one bookshelf and most of it is packed with my books, again stacked on each other in front of other books stacked on each other. I have some books in the attic as well, and many other books are still at my mom's house, but now, every time I decide to keep a new book, I must decide to get rid of another. I've virtually rid myself of manga, silly romances, and less than awesome fantasy novels.

When I started to use the library, I found they had a new option that I had never known of -- reserving and holding books at the library using the internet. It's like Amazon, but for free, and you have pick up and return the books. I used it liberally those first years, but then, I got delayed on sending some books back, and then I got pregnant, and then I had Nathan, and then I owed roughly one hundred and fifty dollars to the library.

Taking action, I decided to call them. They told me if I returned all the books I had out for years, I would be down to owing fifty dollars. I "promptly" returned all my overdue books. I then let that fifty dollar fine sit and sit, and it hurt. I wanted to get books out of the library, but I couldn't, and I was visiting the damnable library all the time for Nathan's story times.

This week, I broke down and decided to pay them some of my fine with cash I had been carrying for three weeks and not using. After paying, I asked the librarian helping me if I could get books out or if the fine was too much. They said, "Go ahead and get some books!"

That's all you needed to tell me. I came home and promptly reserved five books, a few related to crafting and a few fiction. Let me tell you, modern crafting books are apparently a hot commodity in the library world. I am five out of five people waiting to borrow Sew What! Skirts.

I got my first reserved book today, and I am thrilled with it. It's reminiscent of Battle Royale, but without the slight strangeness that Battle Royale brings by being a product of Japan. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a young adult story of a girl battling for her life in an arena where there can be only one victor in a fight to the death between twenty four teenagers. I ripped through the book in less than two hours, so it's a very quick read, but it is one I can suggest for people who like young adult stories or who like fantasy stories about people being forced to battle for their lives in a game. For those of you who care, I mostly liked the main character, a girl who volunteers for the game to prevent her younger sister from being taken to play in it. She's deadly and focused and while romance between herself and another of the players is a theme of the story, she has the sense to realize that romance is stupid until it can benefit her, and even then the romance is another of her tools in the game.

Anyway, check out the book. If you're curious, this whole post is a byproduct of not having any significant crafting to share with you. I am now nearly halfway done with my scarf. I flipped out this week and started to knit like the wind on it. I followed through with my knit at least three rounds a day promise to myself and it has made a difference. I can't show you any sewing because for the last week or so, my sewing area has had no light. Our switch broke and poor injured Paul has just repaired it today.

Pictures of my crafting soon. I promise. Until then, go browse some food sites or something and make some delicious asparagus dishes.

Competitive Knitting

Mrs. Knitpicky (or Wit on Ravelry) wrote a nice comment to tell me that I was doing well and that knitting isn't a competitive sport. This is true, but it is also false.

I forget that nowadays I actually have several readers/subscribers I know solely through online means or whom I might not even know at all. People, I'm competitive. I'm ridiculously competitive. When I meet people I don't know well, I have a story to point out how competitive I am.

When I was young, and still freshly dating Paul, we sat down for a game of chess. Paul had taught me how to play just a month or so before, and I was interested in the game, though he beat me in four moves the first game. (If I might make a note to those of you who ever decide to teach another person how to play chess -- do not do this. Point it out if you think they are opening in a way that leads to this capture of the king. If you actually beat them in four moves it will demoralize them greatly.) Well, we played several games and I lost them all, as you can imagine. Paul is just as intelligent as I am, after all, and he has a much much better strategic mind. Let's just say that if we were in a war, and you had a choice of who could be your general and tactician, me or him? I'd advise you to choose Paul. So, one night, we sat down for a game, and Paul beat me pretty badly. I tried not to, but... I cried. I cried hard. I sobbed like a girl. See, I equate chess to intelligence, and to consistently fail at chess meant I was stupid, as far as I was concerned.

People, we didn't play chess for roughly eight more years. We just played a game in the last year. He still beat me, but not so badly. I kind of wonder if he let me do somewhat better just to keep from depressing me.

So, as you can see, telling me that chess is not a competitive sport is good advice, but I've already ignored it. I'm already competitive. Do you want to know how I could be a faster knitter of Harry Potter scarves? Someone I know in real life such as Helen or Marlon could tell me they've taken up knitting Harry Potter scarves and they were into section six or whatnot. I will tell you right now that my little fingers would fly to keep ahead of them. This is not an attractive personality trait, but it's one that I'm sharing nonetheless. This is my blog, you should know how I am.

Other horrible traits I have include being horribly shy, judgmental, and slightly mean. Other people have called me self-centered, selfish, capricious, flighty, and evil.

I promise I have good qualities too. Keep reading my blog -- you might learn about them at some time.

I'll give you one right now, I persevere! I restarted my Schaffer Anne socks today. I am also kind to kittens.

Photo by Fofurasfelinas

Why I Am The Worst Knitter Ever

So, as you all know, I've been knitting this stupid mindless Slytherin scarf since last October. I'm on the seventh out of fifteen large blocks of color and I have just been trying to crank through this. I try to get a round a night, at least, since the beginning of June, and some nights much more. However, I just read a thread of Ravelry which had the following type of conversation:

Original Poster: How long will this take me to knit?
Reply 1: I knit it in two weeks!
Reply 2: I knit it in a month and a half, but back then I was a new knitter!
Reply 3: It took me a month, but I was always busy back then.
Reply 4: Two weeks!

WTF, people? What am I doing wrong? Seriously? It's a 90 stitch round, and you have to do 27 rounds of it per color block, and then you're switching yarns like crazy for the next few sections, and weaving them all in, and then you're back to another huge color block. How are you doing this in two weeks? My gosh, do I really need to learn the Continental method of knitting?

I feel like such a failure at knitting. I mean, not only am I the slowest knitter on Earth, but my Schaeffer Anne socks? I had to rip them completely out and re-start due to the fact that I knit a size too small socks on size zero needles. I knit out one inch of fabric.

On the other hand, I beaded and made myself a cute little pair of earrings! Pics to come in my next post, hopefully. Helen made better earrings, and I hope she'll post them to her blog, so I can link to her post.

Old Cross Stitch

Remember when I told you I'd saved up a whole bunch of my cross-stitches to post when I had nothing else to post! Here's one of those times. I mean, I'm doing stuff. I'm actually on the sixth stripe sequence of my scarf, and I've gotten a ton done on my most recent cross-stitch, and I've started a pair of socks, but I'm not doing anything interesting, is the problem.

Well, anyway, here's a photo of work I've done in the past.



This is the "Summer" girl for a collection of Precious Moments and my second or third favorite from the collection. I would say it was definitely my second favorite, but for one thing. I've cross-stitched this sucker twice. That's right, this probably took me about two or more years to complete, because I completed it once, and then twice. The first one, I put into my purse to go look into framing options. Well, I took that purse to the movie theatre where I left it in the bathroom and someone stole that purse. I wasn't even bitter about losing my cards and some spare cash. I was hatefully bitter at the person who took my cross-stitch. Seriously. If you ever come across this blog post, thief, which I know you won't, but if you do, I hate you.

I managed to work out most of my negative energy while I cross-stitched it the second time, but why couldn't that person return my purse sans cards and cash to the movie theatre? Sigh. Oh well.

How have you all been? I'm still busy but things are getting better!

Silence On The Craft Front

I haven't been doing much recently. What with trying to get our washer/dryer fixed, a vacation booked, cards/presents for Paul's bday and Father's Day, and dealing with Nathan's first birthday, I've been mostly just vegging. I mean, I watched the beginning of True Blood and I didn't even break out any knitting during that time. Normally I love to knit while watching television, but, instead, Paul and I just cuddled. That was nice.

However, after a good restful weekend, which included delicious naps and the best quiche I've ever eaten, I decided it was time to get back on the crafting horse. Since we were driving to Paul's parents for dinner today, I took along my Schaefer Anne sock yarn and started a vanilla sock on size 0 needles. If I like the look of the variegation a lot when I come to the straight stockinette part, I might rip the whole thing out and cast on another pair of socks, only using a pattern. Or, since they give so much damned yardage and I have 'small' feet, I might just get a vanilla anklet pair and a patterned pair.

Since I don't have much to report right now, I thought I'd tell you all that a new free online knitting magazine just started! It's specifically targeted to patterns for children which makes me so happy since I have one now. Petite Purls is starting with a summer issue and it actually includes a pattern for boys. Better yet the pattern calls for two skeins of a yarn I've been dying to use. There is an adorable little stuffed lobster pattern too, but I've got my heart set on sewing my first homemade stuffed animal, and then knitting Sheldon. Of course, I'll never do any of this because I'll still be knitting the stupid Slytherin scarf when I'm 90.

Miss you all! I plan to write more soon, but let me just get past Father's Day, okay?

Foxy Foxy Boxers

Pattern: Foxy Boxers from the Sew Everything Workshop
Fabric: Woven cotton from Jo-ann Fabrics

There are weeks when I don't feel like doing anything with my crafting. I just do stuff for half an hour here or there to make myself feel like I did something. Then there are weeks I'm driven by a certain project. This week was one of those weeks. Check out these boxers.



Last weekend, I took two days to trace and cut out the pattern. On Monday night, I cut out and marked the fabric itself, which I'm still horrible at. I think the number one thing I should be improving with my sewing currently is the cutting and marking of fabric.

On Tuesday night, I whipped most of it together, leaving the legs unhemmed as I had run out of thread in the correct shade.

On Wednesday, before running to Helen's, I finished the leg hems, ironed it, and photographed it.

I am both disappointed by and excited by my results. On one hand, these boxers are so ridiculously huge that they almost fit Paul, who is an XL in men's sizing. I cut the medium. I should have guessed that things were going south when I came to the directions for the elastic waistband and it told me to cut 36" inches. I ended up cutting the elastic three inches less than the size small suggestion and I could have cut smaller than that too. I could have made myself an extra-small of these boxers easily, if the pattern had come in that size. It did not.

On the other hand, I did some gorgeous stitching and had no problems with this pattern which is for "Advanced Beginners". Look at my leg hem!



My zig-zagged edge stitching was even, perfect, gorgeous. My fly top was professional looking.



This was definitely my best sewing product yet, and... it doesn't fit. How disappointing.

For those of you who might want to try and make this yourself because you keep hearing me gab and gab about this book, I would suggest that you really consider the sizing carefully. I'm fairly sure the size large would have fit Paul who normally wears an XL. Secondly, I read another blog post about how the elastic was hard to insert because of the fly overlap. Yeah... They were not effing kidding, folks. I spent most of my sewing night trying to insert that bloody elastic. I finally cut a hole in my fabric to pull the elastic out because I knew I was going to stitch the x'ed out square over the fly anyway. Be warned. I suspect if I ever made boxers again, I'd just go buy a simple Simplicity pattern or something.

I do think it is time for my to (1) review Sew Everything Workshop since I have sewn three different patterns from it, and (2) make something from one of the patterns I've bought rather than continuing my book sewing trend. Next step is a Sew Easy Simplicity pattern. I don't know when I'll get to it since I'm kind of in love with cross-stitch again, but I'll get around to it.

Oh, if you want a men's Medium pair of boxers in an outrageously awesome Chinoiserie cotton, let me know. I've got a pair that is very very gently used laying around. They're pretty good for lounging too.