Cables and mugs

I saw the white mug on someone's website earlier this week. I thought it was cool and thought I'd try and track it down some day. Today I got a swap from LeiLani and this mug was in it. (There was also a whole bunch of other wonderful things, but that's another post.) It was one of a series that Starbucks created last year.

The brown mug is Mug Jumper 2.0. Tomorrow I'll see if it insulates on top of being decorative.

Progress Report

Kitchmas Tree: I need another ball of silver fun fur. That's a sentence I never thought I'd type. I found someone on Ravelry who has some of what I need in their swap queue, so I'm hopeful. Did I mention they don't make it any more? I'm still going to try Walmart in case there's a ball stuck in a clearance bin or something.

Mug Jumper: the one in yesterday's post has been unraveled and the yarn used as part of the Kitchmas Tree. I went stash diving and found some yarn that I think will work better. It's closer to coffee-colored than the off white I used originally. I suspect that will be a better choice in the long run.

Teeny tiny snowmen: I haven't made any more yet. I think a whole bunch of them might look really cute on the Kitchmas Tree.

Try try again

mugjumper
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I used some recycled yarn for the mug jumper. I'm going to do it again, and use something a little thinner. It's a cute pattern, just not the way it looks here!

The snowman came out pretty well. I'm going to make him a whole bunch of friends.

Before I do that, I'm going to make a Kitchmas Tree. I found some silver fake fur in my scary stash bin. Hopefully it'll look like one of those aluminum trees from the 60s. Stay tuned.

Project promiscuity

dropsxmas
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I got through the left front of the vest I was working on, when I got distracted by this sock pattern from Drops Design. The original is done in red and white. The pattern would've shown up better that way, but I just had to use some groovy Koigu I got in a swap.

I'm not working on the second sock just yet. I was distracted by:

• Teeny tiny Mochimochi snowmen
• A cute mug jumper (sweater)
• A fun fur Kitshmas tree

I think the tree will be last, but I can't decided between the snowmen and the jumper. I think the snowmen win, because I can make them from the white Knit Picks yarn I used for the sock and won't have to go find anything.

Keep Calm

keepcalm
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I removed something that was hanging on the wall that had grown to annoy me. When I saw this poster, I knew it was just the right thing to fill in the space.

You can get one too, in a variety of colors. Go visit Laylock.

Knitting Olympic Events

I think I've found the perfect event for the Ravelympics: WIP-Dancing. Participants complete works in progress that have been started one month or more prior to the start of the Games. This gives me a whole month of starting projects and then switching to another one as often as I like. I've already got three projects, unless you count the two sweaters that I didn't think of until a minute ago. I don't count them because I want to restart one sweater with different yarn and I'm not sure where I stashed the other one.

The Iron Knitter portion of Sock Wars should overlap part of Ravelympics. I expect I'll also be part of the Sock Hockey event.

All of this points to me finding employment about the middle of January, and completely derailing these plans. I can but hope.

Buy or Dye?

I have some yarn that I brought back from Ireland several years ago. I found a vest pattern that I want to make using the yarn. There is only enough yarn to make the vest front. It is a dark green tweed. I bought some solid green yarn that I thought would match the Irish yarn. I was wrong.

I'm debating over what to do. I had trouble coming up with the right color to match the yarn I already had. I had checked about a half-dozen shops in the area before buying what I did. Buying online isn't an option because I can't count on my monitor showing yarn colors accurately enough for a good match.

I'm thinking about overdyeing the yarn to come up with something more compatible. It would require a number of experiments to come up with the correct color. Still, this seems like the better option. I already have the yarn and dyes.