I Made Myself A Handy Bag (With A Sideways Print On The Liner, But We Will Ignore That)

Oh, I'm just walking around, carrying lunch in my awesome bag.

In this picture you can see my practical AND awesome liner!  Which I, of course, sewed in sideways.  After 15 minutes of swearing and attempting to pick my stitches back out of the vise-grip of the laminated cotton, I gave up and decided that the sideways fabric was on purpose.  Everyone loves little sideways deers on the inside of their lunch bags!  I’m going to start a trend!

Hey! Look at the inside!

And that folks, is it.  One little market bag, made all by myself, for myself.  Have a Happy Weekend!  (And watch the World Cup)

I Venture Into Adult Sizes!

Well, I finally had some time to sit down and create some new hats that fit full size humans instead of their mini-sized children and babies.  These hats took some experimentation on my part, but here they are!  Don’t judge me for my sub-par modeling, I can’t help that I look awkward whenever I try to look serious.  Serious face = not me.

I leave you with this picture of Porky… she INSISTED that I feature her in at least one of my “model” shots.  She’s such a diva.

You can view additional pictures (and maybe even purchase something if you feel so inclined) here: http://sugarandcaffeine.etsy.com.

Yeah that’s right. I posted three blog posts in one week.

Last time I posted pictures of a month’s worth of projects, there were a few projects that I couldn’t show here due to the fact that they were Christmas presents for one of the few people who read this blog.  Well.  Christmas passed, presents were given, and now I can brag.  So here we go:

Oh man. I am SUCH a beautiful scarf. And I am being worn by Leigh. She's my favorite. AND my new owner!

This scarf took me a LONG time.  I followed this pattern, for those who care, and also had one HELL of a time figuring out how to make the stitches look like they do.  Its counter-intuitive, but I am convinced that you can teach yourself how to do anything using instructions/books/etc., so eventually, once I stopped second guessing the pattern, it all made sense.  BUT NOT before Blake had to put me to bed and ban me from knitting for the rest of the night for about 3 days in a row.  I throw fits like a 5 year old.

Oh yeah.  I guess I should tell you who is featured in the above picture.  That is my sister-in-law, Leigh.  Leigh also has a blog, and can seriously “don’t look at the camera!  don’t smile too big!  look natural!” model my creations way better than I can (which you will soon see).  She also knows how to ask for what she wants.  This scarf never would have happened had I not received an email several months ago containing only a picture of this scarf and the words “I want.”

Here is a close picture of the pattern.  For all the cursing it invoked, it deserves a closer look:

ADMIRE ME!!!

(Oh yeah, and please notice the snow.  That’s right SNOW!!!  MY FAVORITE!!)

Now this hat is a present for my other sister-in-law, Brittany:

I look like a dork.

Brittany ALSO knows how to ask for what she wants, and it only took me one year to get around to making it for her.  I followed this pattern, for those who care – but altered slightly to account for the GIGANTIC YARN I used.  I was kinda iffy on it at first, and there was a comment made by someone named Austin Knight regarding some of the details THAT MADE ME WANT TO STAB HIM WITH  A SPOON, but overall – I think its cool (important lesson – don’t insult the knitting once it is completed.  It’s not worth it)

Finally, the next hat was made for my brother:

Hi! I'm a hat!

Now, I realize that this hat is being worn by me, a non-boy.  You see, my brother has the most sensitive skin ever known to man, therefore most “animal fibers” are off-limits for him unless he wants a sweet breakout on his forehead (this includes wool, alpaca, dog, or whatever else they make yarn out of.  Please click on that last link.  You won’t regret it.)  HOWEVER, believing I am a genius (no lie, it just took me 5 tries to spell genius correctly), I ordered some yarn that said, “soft!” in its description, which I interpreted to mean, “David can wear it without becoming a zit-forehead.”  Well, this was not true.  I simply rubbed the yarn on his arm and he broke out, so I was FORCED to keep the hat.  Now, I realize that this picture is not the best at displaying its inherent awesomeness, but OF COURSE, I lost the stupid thing within 2 days of being in Chicago (where it was DESPERATELY needed.  I ended up stealing Blake’s.  I am very selfless), so this is the only pictures that exists.

And that folks, is it.  FOR NOW.  Also, someone should congratulate me on three posts in one week.

My ElmoHat

Several people (meaning my mom and my dad and maybe my Grandpa) have been asking me, “Kristi!  When are you going to have another blog post!?  We LIVE for your blog posts!  You need to write another one!”  Or something to that effect.   Well, everyone, I finally have time to write one.

You might be wondering, “What in the world has Kristi been doing for the past month besides NOT posting blog entries?”  And this, everyone, is the answer:

This hat is my new worst enemy. That's right. I make enemies with hats.

I knitted approximately 20 of this specific hat.  As you may remember I opened up my long delayed etsy store a couple months ago.  At that time, I remember commenting to Blake, “My day will be MADE if I sell even ONE HAT to someone who isn’t related to me or who I don’t know!”  Well.  I accomplished this goal.  Then I accomplished it a bunch more times, and then…my fingers began bleeding from over-knitting.  Ya’ll, it was extremely exhilarating, but also exhausting (yay for E vocabulary words!)  The hat shown above was BY FAR my top seller.  It also took me 3 times more time to make.  Blake and I nicknamed it my ElmoHat, after its inexplicable popularity.  It got so bad that I was staying up until 2 in the morning knitting, and then waking up at 6 in the morning before work, to get more knitting in.

The good thing about knitting is that you can also watch television.  The bad thing is that after a certain point, you run out of tv to watch.  Therefore, I am dubiously proud to announce that I have watched practically ever episode of Law and Order in syndication.  I now actually have a favorite Law and Order spin off (Criminal Intent!)

So, when you wonder what I was doing, you can just imagine me.  Probably in some state of unwash (that’s right, no showers for me!), covered in dogs and blankets and yarn.  Watching law and order and frantically knitting striped stocking caps and complaining that my knitting blisters were bleeding again.