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Finally some Yarn content… although it’s not knitting, yarn is yarn right?  I knit or crochet in spurts really… I just got the urge to assemble the already made ends weaved in yoyos tonight and no time like the present to attack.  I forgot my original plan of doing it 10×18… and just sorta went with 15 yoyos per row…  well, I’ll see how that turns out, and if I need more yoyos, I can always make more.  that’s the good part yoyos.

But lets be honest here… it doesn’t look like a blanket for a baby girl does it?  I didn’t want to make it too pink…well if it turns out not fitting for a baby girl, i’m sure I have plenty of other recipients that will want this blanket.  It’s a cutie!  Who wouldn’t want it?!

I might run of the the grey yarn that i’ve used to assemble this… if that’s the deal, then I guess i am attaching the rest in a different color… and calling it a creative decision!!

I also like the back of the blanket too!

I took Penny out yesterday, just in case there were places worthy of taking pictures of.  Which there were.

But when I got home, I realised that one of Penny’s new eyechip was missing.  Shaking her noggin around a bit, and not hearing the rattling sounds of a lose eyechip…I realise that I may have lose one of her new eyechips.  Bummer really.

It’s not a big deal cuz I can just buy another set, since it wasn’t foiled or anything special, but it’s just sad now cuz Penny’s a pirate.   In the mean time… I don’t have different eyechips to replace the missing ones… so the original stock ones might just have to go back on.  (it’s just plain weird when your girls do not have eyechips, such a vacant ghostly look.)

Tonight Penny got a new set of eyechips cuz I was bored. I replaced her original pink stock forward eyechip.

I think i’m going to switch up her original eyechips a little… I like the pink stock color, I think i’ll switch the pink with the green… exciting times ahead.

I managed only to do about 4 or 5 rows on the charade socks while watching the olympics… granted I haven’t been watching the games really… It’s a lot harder to catch the live games since it’s during work hours, and i work during those hours.

I finally did sit down to watch Taiwan V. Cuba in baseball today.  Cuba won, 1 to 0… bummer really, we put up a good fight… only in the 7th inning, a non-preventable Home Run made the difference… otherwise, Good Job Taiwan.  You did the best you could.  I’m still proud.

I’m not sure I’m going to be doing more knitting during the Olympics… knitting comes and goes for me… right now, it’s goes.

However, I did get a few magazine while I was in Taiwan, Helen brought over knitscene that I had asked Vicky to get me, and I found a Creative Knitting Sept 2008 in taichung, so I am good to go.

I was going to adopt out Cecelia, but I decided that it would be worth a try to change her up a bit… so I went out to HK and purchased some eyechips to play with.  It’s been fun trying to change the eyes… although it’s fun to pull out her eyes, it’s a little trying to put her eyes back in.

I got a little changing eyes happy, and thought I’d change up Peony as well, well just her stock eyes those colors i’m not so into, since they are stock.  So… tada!

I still have one set of eyes to add to cecelia, I took out 2 sets of her eyes, one front facing and one side facing.

It’s been a lot of trail and error with this, since i only am able to rely on the internet to teach me… after some research, i’ve finally figured out how to work with the foils and how to shake out the eyes, in case, they fall into her head next time. (so I’m not toooo worried.)

on the knitting front… directions are there for a reason, and you should follow them.  That is the lesson that I learned.  I thought I’d take a short cut and not print out the directions, I mean I had it in my computer the whole time, i can just refer to it.  Right? Wrong.

as it turns out, I work much better having all the directions near me and not having to scroll the computer looking for it.  The directions says, work body until X inches… I took that to meant, work until X inches from cast on edge… thus resulting in a much smaller offset wraplan… so what’s a girl to do, but to frog.

I have no fears about frogging now really.. unless it’ s lace, then i fear it. but regular stockinette with no YOs whatsoever, I have no fear.  So after having frogged about 2 hours of work… I resumed knitting the boring body stockinette until X inches… and then i will restart the mistake rib again.

I will be able to start working on the sleeves soon!!  yay off-set wraplan!!

180 yoyos in all… with 2 ends to weave in… that is at least 360 ends… I guess i should have taken a break and weaved ends in, but i was more concentrating on making all 180… I wanted to make it mostly pink, with a few other neutral colors thrown in. I think the colors i picked should be ok.  they are babish colors, but not too boring.
I have decided to connect all the yoyos with a blue cashmere blend yarn from bernat… but i don’t know how that looks yet…also i don’t know how i’m going to attach it. should i randomly attach the colors or if i should place them deliberately… all these decisions.  I’m more careful cuz it’s a present…

yep you guessed it mor yoyos today.  I spent about 3-4 hours making them this evening… including weaving some ends and making new ones.

I thought i’d tackle the baby blanket first… I was going to make it more solid in colors, but afer sorta laying it out, it looks better with different colors mixed in… I guess I’ll see once all the ends are weaved in… I was thinking that I wanted to connect them with the blue… I think one more evening making the yoyos and weaving in the ends then I can start connecting them…

It looks to be a one week project if I keep at it.. great cuz I haven’t had an FO for awhile.  What an accomplishement, one week lapghan.  Nice.

If I keep this up, I might be able to make a lapghan for everyone for xmas.  Would that be totally crazy… How many yoyos would i need to make?!

 :wide eyes:

[more yoyos]

Made more yoyos last night… went thru some scraps and decided to just go with it, and hook until there was no tomorrow… these were the ones I managed to weave the ends in.  So I counted them up, and it was about 60 of them, including the ones I made from the 1st night.

I was just going to leave it, when I thought, hey why not try connecting them.  Just for fun.  I pointed my browser at the right page and started learning.  a couple of hours later…

[2 rows of connected yoyos…the start of the blanket]

It’s 25 yoyos per row, and thus far I have 2 rows. It’s quite large, and i’m sure it will continue to grow as yarn has a tendency to do… but honestly i love it. I think I’m going to use up some of my balls of 100%wool so that it’s not as plastic feel with all the wool-ease. [i’m particular like that… plus i already have a blanket made out of wool-ease]

[close up of the yoyos plus connectors.]

It may not look like much, but I’m proud. I learned a new technique for connecting… add that to my crochet skills.

at the end of the night… I decided that since doing this goes by so quickly that maybe i’ll make a small lapghan for a baby girl near me. whether it be Celine’s baby girl, or my cousin’s baby girl… or whomever. I’m going to just make it, and i’m pretty sure it will just let me know which baby girl the lapghan will want to go to.

this lapghan isn’t made from scraps… well sorta… it’s made from stash. the varigated pinks is scrap, but good yarn, it’s the misti alpaca that i love… i couldn’t bare to throw it out, but I didn’t know what to do with it… so yoyos it is… it’s just perfect for it I feel. the blue is cashmere blend, and the petal(pinkish purple color) is knitpicks ambrosia which is alpaca and cashmere… all v. soft.

yoyos everywhere you turn.

last night while trying to fall asleep, i came across the yoyo scrap blanket again… and being more confident in my skills… I tackled it again.  PLUS making yoyos is fun… so quickly at finishing things… and it’s fun to try to find scraps to use up… you know I have scraps up the waahzoo.

I want to make a whole scrap blanket out of it.  as inspired by this blanket.  I have a small start… I’m weaving in the ends as I go, and when i get to the end of the left over yarn… this way the yoyos are neat…

can i stress how much i love to make little pieces of things that don’t actually form up anything yet?

 I declared my events for the UFOlympics 2008, again… deciding on the charade socks, and the triangle motif bag… I figure one knit and one crochet.

I started making plarn (plastic yarn)… learned from this random tutorial that was in my reader.  It’s not that hard to make… but it is a pain to work with… so I might not want to actually use it…thus far it’s just sitting there in that ball…  I must say the quality of the bags here in China isn’t as good as it is in the US or elsewhere… it’s real thin… like paper thin and rips easily… cut costs and what not i suppose… So maybe I’ll just throw out this idea, instead of continuing with it.

i started these the other day after revisiting some knit.1 patterns.

it was the pattern that i was drawn to when deciding to purchase the magazine.  But I think I’m going to frog it and remake it in the Lady February sweater.

[note:  i just noticed my oxford gray is 2 different dyelots… oh what should I do??  It’s pretty obvious too, one is way darker…]

Oh Webs is having a sale on Noro Kureyon… sorta makes me want to buy 20 skeins of it and make the lizard ridge blanket… with the sale, plus shipping it’s only like $120 for the yarn… as opposed to $180…tempting! (but i should really not be looking at yarn at all, it just makes me want to buy… and i certainly don’t need more yarn…even if it is on sale.)

Last night I started the off-set wraplan for my newest niece.  I’m making it in the 6-9 Mns size because a. it’s nearly not cold enough right now for a sweater, but will be in like 4 months, which will be just perfect.  I thought about making it in the 3-6 mns category, but since i’ve never seen the baby I’m just erring on the side of bigger is better.   (ok, so i don’t actually have a second point).

Upon actual knitting, (i am to the part where i divided for the sleeves and is knitting the body… the whole thing is really tiny still… will this ever fit the baby?  this little baby can’t be THAT tiny? or can they?

I guess i’m used to toddlers and kids now… so that actual tiny babies are seeminly really tiny.

I am using the Duet socks yarn I got from Pickupsticks.ca in a Neapolitan color (pink, brown & white).

I saw that people on Ravelry had used the same yarn to make the same item, so i wasn’t afraid.  I was actually happy because i finally have other uses for the massive sock yarn collection that i have.  I’m naturally drawn to the handpainted and colorful yarns. (that last line was to explain why i have such a large collection of sock yarn, even though i’m not an avid sock knitter.)

I wasn’t able to locate my needle gauge, so i’m just guessing that the needle is a US 4… i suppose it doesn’t really matter what size it is, since the gauge is most important.  I didn’t get gauge either, nor did I swatch… i threw caution to the wind, and knit forth.  It’s for a baby…it’s bound to fit at one time or another.