Adventures in T-shirt Transform & Felted Soap

I've had t-shirts on the mind. I can't shake it, so there's only one thing to be done...

T-shirt Transform!

Now, if only I were cool enough to wear it.

In other crafty news, I also made these here felted soaps.

I tried to make that one look like a present . . . :/

For those of you interested in making your own felted soap, which will be undoubtedly more fab than mine, here's a pictorial, pieced together from pics from my knitting group's summer picnic, unbeknownst to them (until they see this post). 

Shhhh! No talking. Artists at work.

 

Ta-da! Easy and fab, right?

Not to be left out, here's our test kitchen where Deb and I figured out how to make felted soaps after we promised everyone we'd show them how at the picnic. 

Check out my misshapen bunny! Deb made the flower one. :)

I'm sick today. Here's a plesiosaur.*

 

Sometimes, seaming can be worth it.

*This plesiosaur was brought to you by iPhone's auto-correct feature.

Warm 'n Fuzzy - Yarn Love

I got off work a little early today, so I moseyed over to our new Triangle-area yarn shop: 

Warm 'n Fuzzy

and bought some yarn!

 

That there is some Quince Chickadee in Peacock and String Theory Merino DK in a gorgeous copper colorway called Canyon. 

It's okay to be jealous.

It was nice to see some different yarns, yarns I haven't knit with before. I don't know if it works this way with everybody, but when I first became a Knitter, it was about the things I wanted to make. Now, having been a Knitter for nearly a decade, it's all about the yarn. I still have a queue of patterns I'd like to make one day (and it's a very large queue), but my yarns-I-absolutely-must-knit-with list is the big dog. And she's bitey if I don't feed her.

Anyway - new yarn shop! Absolutely lovely. It's very cozy, and I love all the little nooks, like secret yarn hide-aways. And, like I said, lots of different yarns to try! 

Here's a truncated tour, courtesy of my yarn...

Now I just have to figure out what to make...decisions, decisions.

I love pumpkin hats!

Every year my knitting group makes pumpkin hats for October babies at Duke Hospital, and I never get tired of making them.

How stinkin' cute are these hats?! I'm not really a "baby person," but I want to knit every baby in the world a pumpkin hat.

I knit two hats this week, using up all the orange yarn in my stash -- yay, stash busting! -- and then I bought some more -- stash-busting fail. But this is okay because it's technically not going into my stash because I will just knit more pumpkins.

Here's the pattern I use:

Newborn Pumpkin Hats

Needle Size: 8 US
Yarn Weight: Worsted (orange for the main part of the hat and green for the “stem”)

CO 64 with orange yarn and join to work in the round.
Knit 2 x 2 rib (k2, p2) for 2.5 inches.
Knit around (stockinette stitch) for 2.5 inches.

(Hat will be 5 inches total from cast on before beginning decreases.)

Decrease for crown:
R1: {k6, k2tog}; repeat around
R2: {k5, k2tog}; repeat around
R3: {k4, k2tog}; repeat around
(switch to green yarn)
R4: {k3, k2tog}; repeat around
R5: {k2, k2tog}; repeat around
R6: {k1, k2tog}; repeat around
R7: {k2tog}; repeat around

Stem (8 stitches):
Knit 4 rounds and bind off.

Tiny Bunny of Doom!

 Be afraid. Be very afraid.

 Tiny Bunny of Doom says,
"Abe's got nothin' on me. I will DESTROY you!"

Oh Noes! His reign of terror is already starting!

P.S. Hi, y'all! It's been a while.

P.P.S. If you would like to help the Tiny Bunny of Doom build his army for world domination, you can find the pattern here. I used the tiny bit of Madeline Tosh DK leftover from the Honey Cowl (which is bound off after months of sitting on that last row. But I still need to weave in the ends. :/)

WIP Wednesday - Ascots

Update on previous WIPs:

1. Honey Cowl: just need to bind off and that baby is done.
2. Karin Fingerless Mitts: about halfway on the second glove.

Current status: Craft Fair Mode

I'm in mega-crafting overdrive making things for a couple of craft fairs coming up to benefit rabbit rescue. I have a list of things to make, but my obsession this week is these crocheted ascots/scarflettes.

The yellow was my first attempt, and I decided that it was too long and the opening too wide. I remedied this on the second attempt (red), and it's much better.

I'm trying to use up some yarn in my stash, and didn't have enough of either of these colors for an entire ascot, so I striped them.

While pretty, the downside of that is now I have a massive amount of ends to weave in (which is not quite as annoying in crochet as it is in knitting, so I'm not overly bothered).

I think on the next striped version I'll crochet one row per color and carry the yarn up the side. I don't imagine it'll be terribly visible given the ruffle around the edge.

I'm having way too much fun making these. They're almost as addictive as pom-pom scarves. Almost.

WIP Wednesday - Honey Cowl

Proof I've actually made a decision recently:

That's no small thing. Decisions are my nemesis. (I'm lumping "decisions" together as a singular threat to my day-to-day life, so I'm justifying the number agreement there, despite the verb, in a weak attempt to appease the grammar gods. And I don't know what the plural of "nemesis" is. Nemesi? And can you really have more than one nemesis? I don't think so, Johnny Snow.)

I decided on the Honey Cowl, because it seemed to be the easiest to cast on at the moment I was deciding. And, I got the chance to pet Melanie's honey cowl that weekend, so that was incentive. I'm already halfway through the second ball, so it'll be time for another decision before too long...sigh...