well… it’s not ready for valentine’s day…

but it will be for february 15th. which is a better day anyway because every store has chocolate for 1/2 off

please ignore the awful photo setup

i really like it so far. i changed the chart a bit from the first toronto hat– i did my research and added in a few buildings that are under construction (cityplace mostly). i have tomorrow off (ok i have the next week off but i have a lot to catch up on) and hopefully it’ll be done before noon. i’m also typing up a pattern for this one (cityscape optional for non-torontonians) and i think it might be my first for-sale pattern, since it’s a lot more complicated and formally written than the ones i’ve released for free before.

i may have been late with my valentines non-present (we weren’t doing ‘gifts’ this year 🙂 ) but the DH sure wasn’t. he made me a set of loldogs which are some of the cutest things i’ve ever seen. click for enlargements, although most are inside jokes– but still cute photos of puppies! how sweet is this?!

and for my own organizational nutsiness, here is what needs to get done in the next ten days (during my one week of glorious classlessness)

-toronto hat

-and the pattern

-min cardi (yeah right)

-stage design model and drawings for drawing class

-melt things for experimental production class (see below) and eventually actually make something other than a blob.

-sew a set of feety pajamas for experimental production class (as if my felt gargoyle didn’t already make my classmates confused enough)

-visit the textile museum

-put together our new endtable

-CLEAN and do laundry!!

-cook a bunch of meals for the freezer for those lazy nights to come in the 2nd half of the semester

-go drop off keys to our old apartment uptown and pick up the toaster oven i scoped out on craigslist (in order to aid in my melting of things– out on the balcony)

-unpack

-sleep?

meh. so much for free time. and in case you wanted to know what objects in the dollarama melt best, here are my experiments from today:

squishy frogs. not so good, unless you’re trying to make a polychromic squishy puddle. this happened in about 3 minutes at 350 degrees. it kind of looks like a fish. which is cool. but not what i’m going for:

dinosaurs. these don’t melt so easy. this is after about an hour at 350. they stick together but they don’t mesh … it seems very flimsy, even though i haven’t “accidentally” broken it yet:

army men. sweet. the ones i tried last week didn’t work so good, but this brand was a lot better (the ones before were from active surplus and were more like green board game pieces than army men). i cooked them a tad too long but they’re the perfect consistency and strength:

happy VD ya’ll. although the day is retarded and everyone seems to be able admit that, it continues to reign supreme over our emotions on this extremely useless day.

progress on the min cardi

aghhh this cardigan has moved from novel to a drag on my knitting spectrum… i knew if i let it sit on the needles too long i’d never want to finish. but i had the night with all my other yarn packed snugly away for our big move saturday and so i finished the front panels.  i pinned it roughly just now and i absolutely love it. gave a little more spirit to this project.

without further ado

the quality is awful because, of course, the camera is packed (and dead, for that matter) but you get the idea. the colour is a really deep teal. i’m in love. more updates… when i get up the motivation to start the sleeves

new (preliminary) hat

new commission! my friend emailed me the other day asking if i could make him this hat

how could i resist?? i have no idea how he found this but it’s not the kind of thing you can get a pattern for– i think it retails for around $150 and is only sold in very particular places so i had to do this all myself (hhmph). i decided to start by making a mock-up, because i knew i’d screw it up a few times and i hate frogging. hate hate hate. ugh. so here’s what i came up with. it’s all in one piece, top down. i still have to make the mustache but i dont think i need to mock it up. that i can frog. over and over. great.

i think i turned out ok for a first try. it was my first top down hat and i think that part will get better next time– the increases make the top look a little lumpy (not on the head, just when it’s flat)… the stockinette rolls the beard in but i knew that would happen. i’m thinking about doing the whole thing in seed stitch like the original hat. or maybe just the beard (brown) part in seed st to separate the two parts. oh by the way its mary maxim best value yarn and caron simply soft. size 8 needles.

 anyways that’s that.  feedback always appreciated if you have any ideas for me!

WIP: minimalist cardi

my new goal is to finish one piece per week. last week it was a hat, the week before a scarf. this week i’ve decided on a slightly larger project, so i only planned to finish the back– and i almost did. next week will be the front, and the week after the sleeves, blocking, and seaming.

the sweater is the minimalist cardigan from fall 07 interweave knits. yarn is red heart soft touch in teal.

so far its turning out really well. the notion of seaming is a little frightening. it’s always the last step where i end up royally ruining the project so i try and knit in one piece but i didn’t want to knit this seamlessly because i needed it to be portable. but i guess i’ll see.