My long-time staples were Limenviolet, Sticks and String, Stash & Burn, Cast-On, and Pixie Purls (pre-baby girl). Lately, I’ve found a few new ones: Knitty Nora, Faery Knitting, and Diva Knitting (http://divaknitting.com/podcast).

Anyone have any other favorites?

Every time he does something like this, I’m reminded how much I love this boy.

I’ll take pictures later, since it’s already dark out and I don’t have good lighting in my apartment. However, I can still list my haul:

-Peaches & Creme in Licorice
-Peaches & Creme in Earthtone
-Peaches & Creme in Camel
-completely GORGEOUS Araucania Ranco in color 101, different shades of purple
-Plymouth Yarn Outback Wool  in color 912, earth tones of tan, gray, and red (although I might be mistaken, since I don’t have the best lighting in my apartment)
-Lindt Excellence Extra Creamy chocolate bar
-pens, sticky markers (which I use all the time)
-Energizer e(squared) lithium batteries for my digital camera! (I never have them when I need them!) And they’re even supposed to last 7x longer in digital cameras!
-mmmm, warm apple pie tea lights. they smell so good!
-Cherry Splash Blistex Lip Infusion. I adore their regular one, I always have one on me, I can’t wait to try the cherry one.
-a pattern/kit for Deanna’s Vintage Styles Beaded Amulet Mini-Bag (I can’t wait to start it!)
-two US2 #0000 knitting needles so I can start the pattern immediately (the kit doesn’t include them, and I only have down to size 000 needles!)

Everyone gives me Peaches & Creme in swaps. I need to go find patterns for it! The only thing I really knit out of Peaches & Creme are washcloths. If anyone has any ideas for me, please let me know!

I think I might have to start the beaded bag immediately, even though I have finals coming up and papers I need to write. Tee hee!

Thanks again, secret pal, Anita!

HPIM0857

Originally uploaded by darkpaintedknits
Hopefully this post works; I’ve never used flickr to blog before!

Giant had a sale on 2-pack Duracell AA batteries for $1, so I bought two packs. Hopefully they’ll last for a while in my camera.

Now to the knitting!

Endpaper Mitts

I cast-on for this project on November 18. I knit the medium size for myself, but instead of using the needle sizes called for in the pattern (US 0 and 2), I used US 2 and 4. The yarn used was Knit Picks Palette in Red and Black. I only used about half of each skein. I finished the first mitt on November 20, and the second on November 24.

I learned two new skills while knitting this pattern: the tubular cast-on and the kitchener bind-off. The pattern calls for the Italian tubular cast-on, but I couldn’t figure it out after many repeated attempts, but I did figure out the regular version.

I knit for an hour and a half on the second mitt whilst waiting in line with my mother (she forced me) for the Circuit City Black Friday sale. We stood in line from 3:30am until 5am when the store opened. We were numbers 168 and 169 out of the 400 they let in the store at a time. Apparently, last year a woman was trampled and had to go to the E.R. because they didn’t limit the number of people who were inside at one time. Also, this year they created a maze of sorts with boxes blocking aisles, and taped arrows showing you where to go. However, we just moved the boxes to get where we wanted to go.

We braved the crowds and no sleep because we needed to get my brother a PC for school. He’s coming to UMD, where I go to school, next semester, and thus needed a desktop computer. We got him a pretty awesome computer for only $499. He’s happy.

So I finished a scarf for my mother for the holidays. It’s called the Lucky 13 scarf, and the pattern can be found here.

Also, I’m working on a few projects. The Halloween Mystery Shawl named Dracula’s Bride (I’m this!close to being finished Clue 1 of 5) made out of Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool-Silk in Charcoal and a double seed stitch scarf that I’m making up as I go in Lisa Souza Sock! in Little Devil. I need to weave in the ends and block My So Called Scarf, and then it will finally be wearable. I just finished a matching headband/ear warmer today with my leftovers.

I need to cast on a hat for my boy. Two years ago, I made him a scarf out of Lion Brand Microspun that said the word “scarf” in binary. For this holiday season, I’m going to make him a matching hat that says “hat” in binary. Hopefully he’ll actually wear it. He’s not prone to wearing too many hats.

More updates soon once I actually, truly get AA batteries for my camera!

I currently have three projects actively on the needles:  a My So Called Scarf in Manos del Uruguay (colorway Autumn), a double seed stitch scarf in Lisa Souza Sock! (colorway Little Devil), and my Halloween Mystery shawl (named Dracula’s Bride) in Jagerspun Zephyr (colorway Charcoal).

Pictures will be forthcoming as soon as I get new batteries for my camera.

I’ve been really trying on this Mystery Shawl thing, but I can’t seem to get past row 15. There are already two clues out, and I believe a third one will be posted this Saturday, but I’m stuck on Clue 1, having to rip twice now. I’m back to the cast-on row and I haven’t been able to look at it since Tuesday. Later today, I think I might have to pick it up again. Blarg.

I spent like two hours updating my Ravelry today. I took photos of everything in my stash (except for these two balls of Sugar ‘n Cream that I must have forgotten about, and am not about to get my camera back out to take a picture) and listed everything. Now my entire stash is online on my Ravelry! Woot. Also, I put up the project I’ve been working on lately, a crochet granny square afghan. I’ve only made one square so far, except it’s not a square; it’s got six sides, so it’s a hexagon. I’m making it out of dark red (Autumn Red) and Black Caron Simply Soft. I ♥ Simply Soft since it doesn’t have dyelots, and I can always get more of any color that I need.

I need to start something new. I drove home after Saturday’s football game (which we won, yay! 31-14) and went shopping with mom on Sunday. We went to Borders and I picked up a book for school (Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey), three fun books (a mystery novel, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, and Neil Gaiman’s Stardust), and Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas. I think I’m going to start something simple like the Checkered Scarf. I’ll use Lion Brand Cotton Ease in Stone and Charcoal.

Whilst waiting for a Verizon technician to come to my apartment to fix the aforementioned problems, I’ve been knitting. I’ve completed a Large size Snood from the Domiknitrix book, meant for my best friend Montana for her Yule/Christmas/Winter Holiday present. She has a large head, and the hat is swimming on me, so it should fit her just fine. I’m also about two or so inches in on a second Snood, but this time in the regular size. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll be gifting this to Montana’s younger sister Cheyenne, of if I’ll keep it for myself. I suppose I’ll know once I try it on and see if it fits.

I’ve almost completed a Valentine Candy Pillow from the Domiknitrix book as well. All I have to do is stuff the pillow and put the writing on it. I think I’ll have it read “Bite Me.” This will also be going to Montana. Instead of embroidering on the letters, like the pattern states, I think I’ll just be lazy and cut the letters out of red felt and then sew them onto the pillows before I stuff them. But that would mean I need to go to JoAnn’s to buy red felt and the stuff to stuff the pillow with. And that would mean that I need to wait until I have money, until my refund check comes from the University. Supposedly, I’ll be getting my dispersement check from my incidental loan tomorrow (Monday) and I should be getting my refund check no later than Thursday. I just hope they come soon so I can buy my books.

I’ll be taking photos of everything I’ve listed above when I finally get home from work tomorrow. Hopefully the pest control people will be done (they’re spraying for bugs in the kitchen and bathroom, and checking for rodents, both of which I have not seen any traces of in my apartment) so I can hole myself up in my room and take as many pictures as I please.  I also should start taking photos of my stash so I can fully update my ravelry page, but that’ll have to wait until I have internet.

Argh, the life of a college student moving into her first apartment! At least classes start on Wednesday; I’ll have something to take my mind off of stupid apartments and stupid contracts with stupid telephone/cable/internet companies.