SHORT and SWEET, the LONG of it...

This photo makes my teeth hurt -it's so dang SWEET!

My new do. SHORT and sassy!

It won't be this straight again. At least not until someone else blow dries it that way. It will be wavy, but with cute little bangs.

Like my LONG cozy gloves made from Classic Elite's Bazic Wool?

I cannot get enough of these. Because of my gimpy hands and arms, I need to keep my upper extremities warm and toasty. Naturally I need many pairs to match each and every look that I sport on a day to day. Pattern: mine, adapted from Leigh Radford's Lace-Up fingerless gloves. The Bazic Wool is a superwash, 100% wool. It is dreamy to work with. I will definitely use it again.

Name That Hedgehog!

Kate makes these a-DOR-able hedgehogs (a fiber trends pattern). She even taught the class at Article Pract. On Sunday, one of my sadder days, she surprised me with this little cutie, a cheer up hedgehog. He doesn't have eyes or stuffing yet, but I love him. He even matches my living room. Here's the deal... I need a male name that begins with "H". He has to be a boy because I am replacing a boy in my life right now. i.e. Harold the Hedgehog, or Hank the Hedgehog... But not either one of those names. Something unique.

Yep.... Boring I know, more lace-up fingerless gloves. I taught that class at the shop this month. People just love those things. These goth-y ones are for my dear friend Irene. You know, the one that made me wear that red silk corset for her wedding! ; )hehe.

More hats... YAY! I do love hats. And I do love felting. So it makes perfect sense that I would love felting hats.
The grey/blue/red fedora style is a "just because' hat. Just because I liked the colors together a lot. The upper blue band is too thick. I was watching project runway while knitting and wasn't paying attention. I am thinking I might sew random buttons, or cut slits and thread a ribbon through to break it up a little. Or maybe nothing at all. I did discover that not only is a terra cotta pot the perfect size and shape for this style hat, BUT the terra cotta sucks moisture out of the hat, speeding up drying time. WOW, I know!
Kate models the pre-felt hat, while Niko models his own jaunty cap

Before FeltThe Elmer Fudd hat is a sample for my second job. Yes my second job is at another yarn shop. Jealous? I have been wanting to make one of these for so long now! The yarn is Rowan /Harris tweed aran... Ok, in my old age I am loosing things... When I find the label I will give you the exact yarn name & color number. After FeltThe pattern is for 3 adult and 3 children sizes. There are only three sets/sizes of numbers. You use worsted weight for the kids sizes, and bulky for the adult. I made the smallest size with doubled aran weight and it is insanely thick and heavy, and a little too big as well. Fortunately it is a shop sample and no one has to wear the two ton thing. I will make one for myself using single strand and making the medium or large size. The pattern is # AC-16, from Fiber Trends, called "Felt Winter Caps" by Bev Galeskas.

My Hats off to You...

Thanks a ton to all of you who have left comments and sent very supportive email. I truly appreciate all of you, and value your kind and supportive communication. Things have been ridiculously rough this past week. The boy still has quite a lot of his belongings in the house, and it is really tough to go to sleep every night with his clothes in my closet, but him not in my bed. (he is still working out how to get half of a house into one small apartment)
I think I am going to drop one of my classes. I am SOOO overwhelmed and horribly distracted, and I really want to keep my 4.0 gpa. There are just not enough hours in the day to work two jobs, go to school, do mountains of homework, and mourn the death of a monumental relationship. UGH.


Kate models my soon to be felted wonder! Isn't she glamorous? As you can see I have been super into felting hats. Now you all know that I have felted tons of purses, half a ton of slippers, and one or two cell phone cozies. BUT the orange hat that is on Kate's hand is the very first hat that I've felted. The pattern is "Belle" from pick up sticks. The yellow and grey hat a few shots down is representative of the pattern as it's written and shaped, a cloche style. Very cute. The orange hat is still same pattern but shaped more like a bucket style. I actually wear it flipped up on one side, kinda fedora-ish.

The frank-molly-bobby hat.... WAIT, what in the heck is she talking about... Soooooo, these are all malabrigo, which is hands down my all time fave wool. Frank ochre is my absolute fave color, i have around 8 skeins, just always on hand, ready to go. The Molly (pink) is so sweet, and I had a skein that I made a kitty hat for someone with. Now as the Molly lay snuggled along Frank, awaiting her hat destiny, I thought, DAMN, those two make a gorgeous couple. While making the Molly hat, I threw in some spruce blue lamb's pride. THEN I thought OH WOW, all three together, what a threesome they would make! But then I remembered another member of the malabrigo family... Bobby Blue, a color that we had in the shop long ago, it would be months, many months before we had him again. So I sat and waited.... and waited... and waited. The yarn comes from Uruguay and is dyed when you place your order... and I waited. This whole idea was developed over Xmas 05. I didn't even know what I wanted to make with the trio, I just knew that they had to be together.

It was about six months later before we got another shipment in from Malabrigo. But there was Bobby! I brought him home and placed him alongside his soul mates. I was totally correct! They made a harmonious set! But now the question came.... what do I do with them. Another month or so rolled by.... Then I discovered the "Belle" pattern. I decided to make a couple of tester models first( Mr orange, and Ms. yellow). Things developed, I started playing with pattern tweaks/mods, shaping etc. And this gorgeous little hat came to life. People stop me and try to buy it off of my head all the time, actually any of the three hats. I am working on developing my own unique pattern, very similar to the style of frank-molly-bobby. Once I get my own pattern down, I think that I will try and set up and etsy shop to sell em. Maybe even try to get them into some boutique shops around town. Am I crazy?

This was the first time I have felted malabrigo. I always felt guilty felting such a dreamy soft yarn. It felts up GORGEOUS, and retains it dreamy softness. I mean seriously! It is so ridiculously soft, just as soft as is in it's unfelted, natural state. Oh Malabrigo, how I love you! xoxox Note: the orange and yellow hats are made from Wool of the Andes, less soft. Much less soft.

The class: Design Process (for interior design)
The assignment: Water as a concept; choose one element of water & demonstrate that element without showing ANY images of water.
Can anyone guess which element I chose? There is one very specific word that I am looking for. No one but the instructor got it, most of my classmates had never even heard of the word.... though keep in mind that most of my classmates are fresh outta high school.

I SWEAR that I am now back from the dead....

I have had good reason to disappear from the blogging planet. Actually I have been out of touch from all planets. A couple of days into my summer vacation the boy and I split up. The past two months we have been living together while he finished up his summer session of school, and while I started my summer session of school. Rough doesn't even skim the surface of explanations for how it has been. Before anyone asks, or draws any conclusions, or starts to boy bash I want to clear a few things up.
There was no cheating, beating, or meanness (aside from a shattered heart or two). Merely a case of him being adult enough to recognize that things have been a bit "off" for a while now, and that it was high time for us to each take the time to take care of ourselves independently. I have a bad habit of becoming way too dependent on my partner, and he tends to "give" too much, enabling me to just "take". It was a dangerous combination. And both of us being in school... Yeah, not possible.
I have had an amazing support group of friends! I have been up and down as to how I was going to afford to stay in school, eat, live, feed my cats... I am still trying to figure out the school tuition part. But I think I have figured out my housing situation.
School is kicking my butt this quarter. On top of the extra life distraction (having my heart ripped into a zillion pieces) this is by far the heaviest course load so far. My head nearly explodes when I think of how much homework I have in a given week. Also- I have had to take a second job so that I can continue to eat.
Yup- things have been SHITTY!
Enough of my whining! I hope that things have been better for all of my knitting blogging friends out there. I have missed you all terribly!
I will post photos of knitting & school work soon.
xoxox