I had this feeling it had been months since I'd updated my knitting projects here, but looking back I see it has been just over a month since the last substantive update. Why did I think it had been so long? Quite frankly, because I've finished so many things!

Recently Finished Knitting

There's plenty more detail on all of these projects in my Ravelry Notebook, if you're curious! And if you're not a member of Ravelry (and you care at all about kntitting, crochet, etc.), why the heck not?!

Cotton Heart

Right now I'm waiting for some paint to dry, and it's actually a little exciting. I've painted some giant iceblock sticks - from the craft shop - to serve as hangers for a mobile I'm making. With little knitted cotton hearts in two shades of pink, this is another gift for my newest family member, Emily Jasmine. Just some sewing, stuffing and asssembly, and it'll be ready to send off to Perth.

Next on the agenda are a cardigan for Dad, a couple of cardigans for me, and a bag for a swap. I hope to make some progress on those before August 8! Not because that's my birthday (it is), but because with the kick off for the Olympics, I'm beginning an event in the Ravelympics, a KAL (that's a knit-a-long for the uninitiated) wherein I shall attempt to complete a challenging project in 17 days. I'm pretty sure the longline sweater dress I've chosen to knit in mohair will be a challenge, and so will require a lot of focus...

For now though, I'm off to swatch for my Dad's cardigan. It's a horrible day (there are weather warnings and alerts all over the place) and so inside knitting is the place to be. And should the power go out, I can always knit by candlelight.

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So very proud of myself, I knitted TWO (2) beanies last night!!!  I'm pretty tired today because I stayed up late to finish it.  I was just going to "start" a 2nd beanie, but then Good Will Hunting came on, and I'm a HUGE Matt Damon fan, so I was watching and before I knew it the 2nd one was done and it was nearly 1am!  Of course I was also waiting on laundry too.  I found that if I am patient and wait to do my laundry after 7pm, our electricity bill is lower!  so from now on, it's like doing laundry back in the days of the dorms, lol, while everyone else is sleeping!

So I've been Stumbling today, specifically the Knitting/Crochet Hobbies part.  There are sooo many really creative people out there.  I know I have a small amount of talent, and a lot of ideas I have yet to put in place...but WOW do I feel like a slacker!

I'm really looking forward to having 2 of my new friends teaching me how to Crochet.  There are some really amazingly awesome patterns and stitches you can do with Crochet that you can't do with knitting.  Of course the time when I feel my creativity coming back to me, is about the time when I will have less time than ever to actually work on it.  Why does it always fall that way?  When I have nothing to do all the time, I can't come up with a new idea to save my life, but as soon as I barely have 5hrs to sleep, I have a million ideas!

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I'm wasting time until I visit a new yarn shop.  Wah, if they do not have my aluminum needles I am going to lose it.

** NEEDLE RANT **

I do not understand people and their wooden or bamboo or plastic needles.  Just don't understand. 

I LUUUUUUUUURVE aluminum needles.  I heart the shit out of them.  They are slick, delicious, indestructible (well, you can always bend them back if you sit on them, which I never do :P), cute, clickety-clackety (say what you will, it is a satisfying sound), ***FAST***, ***CHEAP***, classic, etc.

Yes, I understand that for a beginner the stickiness of the wood or bamboo appeals.  But come on, are you not annoyed by it after a while?

I was knitting a fuzzy alpaca/wool scarf a while ago and my gauge would constantly change depending on how I chose to deal with the damned yarn sticking to the wooden needles I was *FORCED* to buy because

*OF COURSE*

the snobby yarn stores only sell the finest $50 organic teak and rosewood needles hand-stained by special-needs llamas deep in the Amazonian rain forest or whatever CRAP.

Don't get me wrong, I do have some expensive tastes.  Addi Turbos, I bow to you.  But I hate snobby bamboo and wooden needles.

Give me aluminum or give me death.

Anyways...

Ooh, gotta go.  The store's opening soon :D

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I decided that since we had a long day yesterday that I would take today to go by myself to Amsterdam. Erik agreed and off I went. I went to the train station in Haarlem, bought myself a ticket and set off. I thought it was a good sign that my yarn expedition began with a sighting of Dutch sheep, even though I wouldn't be buying any yarn made from them. Also, as you can see, I kind of have a thing about wind turbines. They fascinate me for some reason. Some of these ones were really close to the train track too.

I had written down directions to de Asftap, a yarn store that I had heard was fairly Rowan-centric, and then from de Afstap to de Kinderboekwinkel, a children's bookstore to buy books for a friend as well as for Stefan and Niels. I was afraid that I'd need to whip out the map I brought regularly but it was surprisingly straightforward to get there. I felt like less of a tourist than most of the people I saw! Although I did stop to take some rather touristy pictures.

On my way there I saw a sign that said, "homomonument." I felt a bit like Beavis and Butthead thinking, "heh, they said homo." Then, of course, I found it and it's a lovely peaceful monument to the gays and lesbians killed during World War II.  Shame on me for being so childish! The tip of the triangle in the water, which is the point of a larger triangle made of three - I only got pictures of two of them - points at the Anne Frank house.

I had gotten it into my head that de Afstap was this huge Rowan mecca. It did have a lot of Rowan but it wasn't all that big. What I ended up buying will be no surprise to anyone who knows my knitting habits. (Hey, it was about 30% off of the full US price!)

I was walking toward the bookstore when I passed an adorable little shop called The Egg Mercantile. The stuff in their window enticed me, so I went in. They had a lot of lovely stuff, including some melamine dishes on sale that I'm now wishing I had gotten. I did get a gift which they wrapped up in typical Dutch fashion. I love how the Dutch stores wrap gifts. I was surprised to find that the had a small selection of yarn in the back, Manos. Too bad I can't knit with it because that stuff is beautiful. They also have a very cute sheep mobile that I almost bought until I saw that it came from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. It seemed silly to pay European prices for something made in the US. It was cute, though!

My last shopping stop was de Kinderboekwinkel where I got several books that a friend of mine asked me to find for her son as well as a few lovely books for Stefan and Niels. I was feeling guilty about spending to much on all those books but then Erik's other offered to pay for them as a gift for the boys. Yay for Oma! I don't have a picture of the pile of books, just of the store.

de kinderboekwinkel

The last stop was to get lunch, a spinach, cheese, bacon and tomato pancake from a cafe on Rozengracht. Yum! It was nice to walk around alone and have some downtime. Yarn and new books are always fun too!

Here I am enjoying my time to myself. Please excuse the messy hair.

me

Oh, and since this post was pretty light on the knitting content, here is a picture of my most recent work in progress: another pair of Woven Ridges socks, this time for my nephew Sven. I decided to use the same pattern he saw me knitting when he was so fascinated by my sock knitting. This time I'm knitting them two at a time so I can hopefully finish them up by Saturday when we are going to see him again, I think for the last time this trip? Wish me luck!

woven ridge socks for sven

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These are so fun to make! The size of the pom-pom will depend on the size of the donut-shaped pieces. The inner hole should be half the size of the original circle.

I had some problems cutting the yarn between the paper pieces on Step 4, so I started cutting perpendicular to the donuts (horizontally along the edge).

At one point, I also cut off the excess yarn in Step 5, but I was able to insert another piece of yarn in the same fashion as I had previously done with a needle. For needle, I would recommend using a tapestry needle.

Step 4:

Step 5:

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Like the unveiling of a spanking new fortune 500 company product, I give you the newest in independent crafting technology, the new and improved collection of Mars Sock Monkeys for the Spring of 2008!

Seattle/London raised Mars Sock Monkeys pictured from L to R: Stella, Frankie, Sheena and Lulu.

Stella and Lulu come with newly designed sweaters, modeled after the ever so popular polo shirt. For these, I chose a short puffy sleeve and non-ribbed finishing to add a feminine touch. They also have a small heart on the left side as opposed to something large taking up the front of the sweater, also to add a delicate touch.

Another new addition to the sock monkey fashion wear are knitted hats, which I learned to make especially for the occasion! I had already been making crocheted hats for people so I thought why not make them for the monkeys as well! The only problem I ran across this was that the crochet pattern didn’t work so well on a small scale because it looked too bulky, that is why I learned to knit them instead. The hat made for Stella has a crocheted flower attached to the side and the other made for Frankie sports the cutest yellow puffy pom-pom I’ve ever made!

Stella comes with a polo style, puffy short sleeve light pink and grey sweater with small heart design and same color beanie with flower. For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com.

These are the best sock monkeys I’ve done so far and I must say that my knitting skills have improved quite a bit since I made my very first monkeys last year. The construction hasn’t changed all that much (it is a sock made monkey after all), except that I’ve switched from sewing with a cotton thread to a more elastic invisible thread and I’ve replaced the plastic eye backings to metal since the plastic ones were tearing from the pressure of the front eye piece. Anyway those are all minor details, but I guess you could say that it has improved the quality of the product. You could almost even say that these monkeys are indestructible

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Frankie comes with a long sleeve brown and yellow sweater with duckie design and same color beanie with pom-pom. For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!

I’m going to keep the amount of time it took to make these five monkeys including “jumpers” a secret because it’s still a process being worked out. The most I can say is that I was right on schedule and I got photos and marketing done within my specified amount of time. No wonder I’m beat! Next up is more painting and digital drawing. Yay!

Shenna comes with a striped sleeve hooded black and purple sweater with a skull and crossbones design. Party hat included! For sale, at Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!

If you would like to adopt one or ALL of my cuddly monkeys, Stella, Frankie, Sheena and Lulu are for sale at Maribel Made DaWanda and Maribel Made Etsy.

Lulu comes with a polo style, puffy short sleeve hot pink and brown hooded sweater with small heart design. For sale at, Maribel.etsy.com. SOLD!

For more info on my exclusive line of sock monkeys see, Sock monkeys + knitted sweaters = Mars Sock Monkeys.

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I've left this place hanging for quite a while. Not planning on changing that, I just wanted to redirect any soul out there that might come across this to my new and improved blog at MaribelMade.com. The new blog focuses on less talk and more on actual production of my arts and crafts. That's right, I get down to the knitty gritty of toy construction (see the Mars Sock Monkeys and Jebby the Whale), knitting, drawing, painting, digital art and crafts with a tons of pickies. Go, hurry! Check it out!!

I also sell my toys and related Mars Sock Monkey products at:
Maribel Made on Etsy
Maribel Made on DaWanda
Maribel Made on Zazzle

Other places you'll find Maribel Made:
MySpace
Facebook
Flickr
Indiepublic
DaWanda Shopping Directory
DIY City
Stylehive
DeviantArt

Birthday Party Mars Sock Monkeys flyer

Birthday Party Mars Sock Monkeys flyer

Birthday Party Mars Sock Monkeys flyer

Birthday Party Mars Sock Monkeys flyer

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Alright, YAY, look what I did tonight!  A whole 3 inches of a beanie!  At least I actually did it!  I'm proud of myself for actually getting that far!

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To the right...those are some of the beanies I have done for my "100 beanies for the homeless" project.  lol, that's just 5 of them...I can't wait to take the pic of all 100!!!!

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This is what I have been working on while I wasn't knitting!

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the left side is the whole thing, and the right is a close up!  I haven't done embroidery in a really long time, so it's been fun!

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Lu&aug@counter

Finally!  A couple of photos of our remodeled kitchen. It is finally finished!  Our friend Aaron did the work and he did a fantastic job but it took a long time.  He started in March and finally finished about 2 weeks ago.

 Here is Luan and August sitting at the bar attached to the island.  The sliding glass door in the background (with the annoying flash reflection, sorry) is where the two windows used to be.  If you look at other photos it is where our kitchen table was.  You can see the cook top. 

Lu&aug.newkitchen

In the second photo you can see the back splash and wonderful farmhouse style sink (from IKEA) and in the far corner, the top oven.  I did double wall ovens and I love them!  I'll post more photos soon of the wall on the other side. 

We are really happy with how it all turned out.  I love being in my kitchen now.  It's light and warm and beautiful.

And now for the reason I haven't been posting anything. . .Some photos of my new store - Yarn.  Yes, I opened a Yarn store!  I'm very excited and happy about it.  About 6 years ago I wrote up my business plan, took some business classes, put together a notebook of suppliers, ideas, resources, etc. and then realized the timing was just not right.  I set it aside but have always felt that if it was meant to be that things would fall into place. 

Storefront

In the middle of May my friend Marcy called me to tell me she was moving her store - Shipwreck - into a new and larger space and would I like to carry yarn inside her store.  We decided that it would work best for me to have my own separate business but share the space.  It is a great space in a really good location in Old Town, Eureka. 

It was a lot of work in a short period of time to get it together but I started putting stuff in the store in June and then had my Grand Opening at the beginning of July. 

I'm really happy about the whole thing.  I'm enjoying every aspect of the business, so far.

The second photo is of my first window display!  So exciting!  I knit both of the sweaters in the window.

Yarn1stwindow

The last photo is a better one of the purple sweater.  I'm going to list it on Etsy once I take it out of the window unless it sells in the store.  I love how it turned out.

Thank you to my friends and family for being patient and supportive.  I really haven't had time to do anything extra but I know those of you who live far away have been wanting to see some photos.  I'll post more soon.

Sweater-plum

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I'm stuck at work and bored to death! 

I have a sudden urge to knit.  I haven't knitted in the last 2 weeks.
Monday night I feel asleep on my bed sitting with my Aunt's knitting books.
Tuesday night (last night) I feel asleep on my bed after going through combining my Aunt's needle collection with mine.

Tonight...I will knit!

I'm ready for my Mr. Awesome to come home. 
I don't want to wait another 13days...I want it now!

I want my kitty to start sleeping on my bed again.
Since I moved she hasn't, I miss that.
Monday night she curled up with my roommate the way she used to with me...it made me kind of sad.
My kitty is upset with me because I got a new bed frame, and now she can not hide under my bed.
Gizmo has been more friendly with me than usual, that's a good thing.

I kind of went on a spending spree lately.
My new bed frame, I ordered $60 worth of yarn today, I ordered a new suit (on clearance for 1/3 of the normal price), I ordered (and already received) a new cat tower.
I need to not STOP spending money for a while.

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Hello lovelies!  Sometimes I use Flickr as a blog instead of posting here on my craft blog.  That is because there are more of my crafty friends on Flickr than there are on Vox and they can easily post comments there.  So, before I forget...

Here are some fingerless mitts I've been knitting for my mom.  She says that the hospital, in which she receives her chemotherapy treatments, is as cold as an ice box.  So, I wanted to make her some nice hand warmers out of the lovely cashmere and silk light-fingering-weight yarn that Amy of www.MadelineTosh.com hand-dyed for me.  It has been a lovely experience!  The yarn, plus KnitPicks size 0 circular needles and a sock pattern that I adapted to sprout a nice, graduated thumb gusset has yeilded an exceedingly smooth knitting week.  The sock pattern, "Spring Forward" by Linda Welch, is found here on Knitty.  My Ravelry page has some preliminary notes for this project here.   Once I have tested my notes on the second mitt, I'll post instructions (free gratis, of course) for adding the thumb gusset, thus turning them into 'Hand Springs' fingerless mitts.

Hand Springs Fingerless Mitts

Click on thumbnails to view larger photos.

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I want to make six of these. In the next six weeks! (it's a hat...)

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schenley plaza

knit graffiti. so fun! i don't know why there hasn't already been a book about this (or maybe there has and it slipped past my radar - not hard to do). regardless, some really awesome, clever ladies in vancouver are working on a book called yarn bombing: the art of knit graffiti.so great. 

also great: i'm going to be in it! which is nothing short of miraculous because i sent in a design that looked like a five year old might have done it. i can't draw to save my life. somehow this was overlooked and i get to be a part of something that i think is seriously neat.

i don't know what other people's feelings are on this. i think knit graffiti is nice because it's all the rush of a tag but i think without so much risk. that's a good thing because no one likes getting arrested. also if someone doesn't like what you did (although they probably should), they can just take it down. it's kind of win-win in my opinion. also sometimes graffiti pieces are the best way to get rid of scrap yarn that's left over from bigger projects. 

blah blah blah. all i'm saying is hi, i get to be in this super fun book. check out their website, i think this is a cool project. i can't believe there are humans out there who can overlook my seriously challenged drawing skills. this will be coming out in fall of 2009 i think. i should be getting yarn in the mail soon to get started on my piece. i'm not telling you what it is though. it's not like what's in the picture above, that's something i did a long time ago. this project will be a surprise. you can see it in a year i guess!  

i don't know why life is so fun, it just is.

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My So-Called Scarf 2

The name of this pattern is actually My So Called Scarf, which I have never really gotten. I tried to connect it back to that old tv show My So Called Life, but it has nothing to do with the scarf pattern name. There is a story behind the pattern that I think is supposed to be the origin of the name, but it still didn't make a lot of sense to me. Regardless, this is another project marked off of my Christmas knitting list. I made this scarf with Manos Del Uruguay in colorway #118.

My So-Called Scarf 1

Manos is a very popular yarn for this scarf because the varying thick and thin texture of the yarn and the varigated colorways really show off the stitch pattern. Purple is not really my color, but I do really like this colorway. I like the contrast between the so dark that it's almost black dark purple and the light tan. This is knitted on size 11 needles and once you get the hang of the stitch pattern you can pretty much knit on auto pilot, so it really flies off the needles. I also limited myself to two skeins of yarn for this scarf, so it is a much more reasonable length than my last two scarves. I have two skeins of the yarn left that were going to be a hat, but neither of the hat patterns that I was going to make panned out the way I thought they would, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that yarn now.  

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KPSpring Scarf

I just finished this lovely "Spring Scarf" from a pattern that I got from www.knitpicks.com. This was the first time that I have ever knit lace, and I have to say that it was nice getting to do something different as I went along instead of doing the same thing over and over. I learned 2 things while knitting this scarf: 1. Knitting a complicated pattern and watching tv at the same time is a bad idea, and 2. ALWAYS check for pattern errata before starting a project. I could have saved myself the frustration of frogging this scarf a dozen times and trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. :)

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I'm not a fan of hot weather, especially not the humid variety of hot we get here in the Mid-Atlantic states.  I usually don't do much crafting in the summer, but I guess I'm subconsciously (or maybe consciously) trying to will summer to be over by crafting my little heart out.

Little R's Quilt

Because I don't have enough demands on my time, I thought, why not try my hand at making quilts?  I bought a quilt kit from Jo-Ann Fabrics with an eye to making Little Mr. E a crib quilt, which I managed to finish in an afternoon.  (I'd love to link to the kit I bought, but I can't seem to find it online... suffice it to say they do have them in the stores, they're not terribly expensive, and IMO they're a good option for those of us who are new to quilting and find fabric selection and complicated patterns daunting.  Yes, I've made a suit among other very complex garments in the past.  Yes, I still find new things daunting sometimes.)  As soon as the older kids (and Mr. G) saw the quilt, I was inundated with demands requests for quilts of their own.  This one here is Little R's quilt, done with the same pattern as the kit but different fabrics.  I used a variety of ladybug prints (he's my nature lover, that one) as well as red minkee dot for the border (hate hate hate... so annoying to sew, though so nice in the finished product) and one solid lime green since the Jo-Ann I went to to select the fabric only had four ladybug prints and the pattern requires six fabrics in total.  I also used batting in the middle of this one, which I didn't for Little Mr. E's.  I'm unsure of whether I love the batting or not, but Little R seems happy with it.

Muscari KPPPM

Next in line is Muscari from Knitty's Summer 2008 (what do you call it, a volume? edition?)... well, from the summer 2008 Knitty.  I've had this KPPPM lying around since Mr. G, the older two boys, and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in 2006, just waiting for the perfect sock pattern to come along.  I think I've found it.  Further bulletins as events warrant.

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I finished my dream swatch headwrap last Wednesday. I had to block it to try to get it to curl less and we went away for a bit but, of course, that doesn't work very well and it still curls a bit. I don't think you can tell when it is on, though.

We spent a couple of days in the woods with Erik's brother and had a long drive to get there and back, so I got almost a whole sock knit. It's Wovn Ridges from Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters.

almost finished woven ridge

My nephew was fascinated by the process of sock knitting so I measured his feet and am going to knit him a pair. I have a ball of Panda Cotton to use but I haven't picked a pattern yet.

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