Ice Ice, Baby

ice
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I bought some more yarn. Big surprise.

My current obsession is with Nerd Wars. The Head Nerds have declared that there will be a KAL for all warriors of the Titania Sweater in the next round. Everyone who finishes will get full points plus bonus for this project. I want to get full points for my team and I want to knit along with everyone.

The Tatiana Sweater is a pretty, lacy pullover sweater in a number of sizes. However, the design looks best on slender bodies with cup sizes in the very beginning of the alphabet. Neither of those qualities applies to yours truly. Some people in my situation are modifying the pattern. Having seen pictures of larger women in this sweater, there's no way I'm going to do it. It makes me think of that saying, "Just because they make Spandex clothing in your size doesn't mean you should wear it". No offense meant to those who do. I just don't do negative ease.

I still want to do the sweater, but do not want to invest a lot of money in something I'll be giving away. I Googled bargain yarns which got me to Yarn Paradise. Yarn Paradise appears to be where all the novelty yarn comes from. It also has some exceptionally inexpensive prices. The bag of worsted weight cotton/lycra yarn in the picture was $5.99. Not $5.99 a ball, $5.99 for the whole bag. Shipping was more than that. Even if you factor that into the price, the whole project is going to be around $16. I ordered the yarn over the weekend and it got here on Tuesday. From Istanbul.

My only regret is that I didn't pick a different color. This looked more green on my monitor. I conveniently ignored the more accurate description of the color.

Nerd Wars: Tournament 1 Round 1

The challenges for this round are:

• Team Spirit: Valentine's Day. I made a hat for Amelia Pond.
  
• Intellectual: Prime Numbers. I made Wilf's Hat, modifying the pattern to use the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, and 43.
  
• Scientific: Nebulas. I'm working on a pair of Helix Nebula Socks, inspired by the Saturn Nebula. (No bonus points, couldn't link this to Doctor Who).
  
• Technical: A Bonding Experience. I knit a pair of Medusa Cascade socks with sock yarn and blending filament.
  
• Giving Geeks: Cold Hands, Warm Heart: I donated four pair of mittens I made last month to charity. (No bonus points, couldn't link this to Doctor Who).
  
• Nerd Culture: Nerdwarscon. The challenge was to make something that you might use at a convention. I did a badge holder. Whovians will get the link to Doctor Who and probably why I chose the person I did for the name part.
  

I've got the yarn I need for my dissertation, the project that will go through all three months of the first round. I have a good idea of what I want to do for this. All I need now is to do a bit of research on mitten and fingerless mitt sizes.

It's not yarn (yet)

happyvd
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

When I resolved to not add to my yarn stash, I probably should've expanded that to include my fiber stash. This is a grab bag I got from Silver Sun Alpacas. Yes, I read the words "grab bag" and lost my mind. Again.

It was worth it, though. The colors are gorgeous. I especially like the aqua color in the middle bundle. It's soft and full of shiny stuff, so I'm a happy girl.

Finished Object Friday

FOFriday 021011
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

• Tea Cosy Swap: the recipient is a Doctor Who fan, so I knit this from a Who-related sock club yarn. She's in the sock club too, so she may recognize it. I was so low on appropriate green yarn for the leaves that I Russian-joined strands of it cut from the yarn. The tea cosy I'm getting in exchange is so cute that her toddler pulled it out of the shipping box and cried when it was taken from her. I'll probably go crazy over it. I'm relieved to hear that the child will be getting one of her own.
  
• Nerd Wars: The Bow Tie Cloche is a Valentine's Day gift for Amelia Pond. The bow tie is meant to remind her of her friend the Raggedy Doctor. This earned me 13 points for my team.
  
• Wee Tiny Sock Club: This is so much fun. The socks are tiny but they involve interesting techniques. This one is a Wee Tiny Steeked sock. I actually made a steek to create the button bands. I was doing this in the middle of the night and missed the instructions for wee tiny buttonholes, so the buttons are sewed into place. D'oh!
  

I am a winner

Lately I've been feeling like the whole world is looking at me with their fingers up in the L for loser shape. I don't mean to whine. It's just that I keep getting ideas and trying them out and then they fail. That's why it was nice to actually win something.

A week or two ago, I posted about a farmer in Vermont who lost nearly everything in a barn fire. Shepherd Susie at Juniper Moon Farm put together a fund raiser that brought in bunches of wonderful prizes. It also raised over $11,000 when the goal was 10,0000. How cool is that? It's even cooler when you win one of the prizes. It's a very pretty hat from Kate at positive purls. I can almost guarantee it won't fit me (smallish hat, biggish head) so I'm adding it to the door prizes.

Busy!

I can barely can't keep up with everything. At the moment:

• I want to check out the blogs of all of the lovely people who've commented on my OWOH post. I've only managed about 10% of them.
  
• I'm replacing the tea cosy in the previous post. If the intended recipient appears here, no worries. I think the replacement will be much more to your liking. Unfortunately for my other projects, this is going to the top of the queue.
  
• Nerd Wars: I'm almost done with a hat, I need to research colors and order yarn for my dissertation project, knit a pair of mittens, find someplace that wants mitten donations, and come up with up to four more projects for the remaining categories this month.
  

You can stop laughing at me any time now.

Tea for Ten

t4t
Originally uploaded by Paula knits

I decided to finish the tea cosy rather than start a new one. It's not what I pictured, but I've been looking at it for so long I can't decide if it's too odd. The striped background is meant as a salute to the tenth Doctor Who's pinstriped suit. The roses are meant to bring to mind the person I though was his favorite companion, Rose. I tried to design the body so it would fit teapots of varying sizes.

If my partner doesn't like it, I hope she'll at least appreciate the effort. Now I've got to come up with some goodies to send along that might take the edge off in case she doesn't.

Sigh.