Queued: Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket

I don’t have a FO for this Friday, so instead I’ll share with you a Queued. 

My new knitting group has been driving a lot of my Queue additions lately. NYU has a wonderful knit/crochet group that is making an incredible number of charity projects. Just look at this baby blanket hall from last year-

(image source)

They provide all the yarn, and we donate whatever we make. My Queue has been exploding with hats, scarves, blankets and anything that fits into their year-long charity goals. We’ve been doing baby blankets since I joined and I am lagging behind the super fast crocheters that make up most of the group. Today’s Queued is what I hope will be an interesting but quick knit that can help me catch up (even though there is no quota or competition among any of them I feel behind.)

Treasured Heirloom Baby Blanket 

(image source - membership free but log-in required)

This is a diagonal knit square blanket with alternating garter stitch and lace panels. This is a free pattern from Lion Brand while it is written to stop each panel at a certain stitch count, I think I am going to make adjustments and do the panels based on row count. That way I can use any weight yarn  and I’ll just switch from increasing to decreasing when I hit 5.6’ across (Wolfram/Alpha helped me figure that out.) I love this plan because it also means no swatching! I have two other charity blankets on the needles to work through first, but my goal is to get this one into the mix too.

Have you knit any charity blankets? What are your favorite patterns.

My Teeny-Tiny Minions

This past month I have started playing Dungeons & Dragons with a Meetup group in Manhattan.  I've never played before, but the group has been great and very helpful teaching me the rules. There are basically two ways to play. You can be an adventurer and try to take take on the bad guys or you can be the dungeon master and lead the adventure and control the bad guys. Most of the time I am an adventurer, but the way our group works every takes a turn being a dungeon master.

I still don't have a great grasp of the rules, so when my turn to lead the group came up, I decided to play to my strengths. To set up the game board I knit all the bad guys using Anna's new book Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi. My adventurers had to face panthers, gnomes and eladrin, so I had to improvise, but I was able to get the point across.





I confess they probably were not as intimidating as teeny-tiny knits, but now the whole group knows what they are in for when they play with me. Now I need to go work out a teeny-tiny wolf.

Wintercrest Wizard

I got so excited about this that I forgot to blog.





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False Starts

I finished flock, and need a new project. I cast on a quick little toy for Hubby and got this far before I realized my yarn just wasn't going to work.



I started again with new yarn and got this far before I realized I was using the wrong needles.



 I took it as a sign and cast on for a pair of socks instead.



This is how far I got before I realized that I messed up my ribbing and it needs to be started over again. I knit, but I did not accomplish this weekend.

Follow Friday: Geek Dad & Geek Mom

Since it has been so long since I've offered up a Follow Friday and these two fit so well together, I'll give you a two for one deal.

I am not a parent, but I am a geek with a special interest in children's media. These two blogs are a perfect fit for me because they are intended for geeks who are immersed in children's media.

From Geek Dad

I discovered Geek Dad just after grad school and I've been an avid reader ever since. It is a great resource for updates and reviews of gadgets, games, comics, movies, books and Phineas and Ferb!

From Drop Box

I confess, I was leery of Geek Mom when it started. It is a spin off from Geek Dad and my initial thoughts were that separate is inherently not equal.  Women were posting on Geek Dad for as long as I had been reading, so I didn't really find Geek Mom necessary. Geek Mom seems to have some extra parenting tips, education related discussion, and healthy food ideas, but overall it is just more great information. There is a little bit of cross posting with Geek Dad, but they do a great job of organizing theme topics without having overlap redundancy.

Tangle

This is how I'm spending my evening:






How about you?


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Migrated

My flock is finally finished. Weaving in all of the ends was a daunting task

While I tackled those, Hubby sewed them onto the branches and arranged the birds. It took both of us the better part of an afternoon, but it was a lovely result.




Here is a baby's eye view!




I love it! Hubby was having trouble letting it go. He had it hanging in our living room right up until I packed it up to ship out. Eventually they migrated south (a bit late but all in one piece) to our friends and their new baby. I hope he enjoys those adorable tummy stripes as much as I do.

Bagged

After knitting dice bags for Hubby and a couple friends, I finally have a reason to make a dice bag for myself. This weekend I went to my first DnD game. Of course, I couldn't go unaccessorized! I couldn't  decide what I wanted so Hubby started one for me with the self-striping yarn that was left over from Syndey's leg warmers. Because of my impatience, I had to take over and I finished it.



I love my sparkly dice! 


Inspired by Hubby's stripes and Being Elmo, I knew exactly what I wanted for my polyhedrals.



Look familiar? You get 100 cool points from me if you immediately thought of this guy:

From Sesame Street

I did much better with my jogless stripe on this bag than my birds. I think that the stripes on the birds were just a bit too thin for the jogless technique that I was trying to use. It worked much better on the wider blue and red stripes here. These little bags are a great way to practice new techniques. I love them. I'll have to come up with an excuse to make some more. Now I just need to resist the urge to buy some primary colored dice that match my bag. Maybe I need one that looks like Bert. Vertical stripes would be a good thing to learn.

Lucky

Despite the lack of knitting, it has been a pretty great summer. It has been full of friends, games and lazy days in the park. I've discovered this summer that I am the luckiest girl. I have two bits of fun evidence to share.

First, Hubby took me to see An American Tale at Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I even had an amazing Fievel doll. The movie was as wonderful as I remember (which is lucky on its own) but the really fantastic part was the credits. There was a surprise fireworks show!

 Second, a couple weekends ago we went to see Being Elmo at IFC. We were in a intimate screening room and I loved the film. Again during the credits I got a big surprise. Several of the people who worked on creating the film were available for Q&A. Not only did I get to meet the director but Kevin Clash was a special guest. Here I am with Kevin and Tau



NYC loves me!

Colour

I haven't been writing very much this summer. The sad thing is that I haven't been doing much knitting either. I do have a very cute and colorful video to share.


TIJI "COLOUR" HD from AKAMA on Vimeo.

Don't you just want to hug a panda now? I love him for his snoozer-head ways.

FO: Stripe Study

I finished my Stripe Study a bit ago, but I haven't gotten a picture until this weekend. Something about this heat wave made it difficult to remember to grab my wool wrap. I would have finished it earlier, but I made the ridiculous decision to spend as much time binding off as I did knitting. I don't know when or why, but I decided that the sewn bind off is my favorite. I am here to assure you that a garter stitch shawl that binds off on the two long sides does not require a sewn bind off. It is a good technique, but I spent a full day sitting in the park pulling that long bind off end through each stitch...TWICE! It was a lovely day, but I am officially saving that bind off for lace (and maybe toe up socks.)

I decided to go as long as I could with each color to use up all of my yarn, and when I finished I was worried that it was a little small. The longest point reached just past my mid-back. It seemed to work just fine, but it wasn't at all what I was expecting based on the photos from the pattern. I was especially disappointed because I knit 2 extra stripes before I ran out of the darker yarn. Since I took it across the country and the park I gave it a bath right away. When I laid it out to dry it grew a lot more than I expected for just garter stitch. I am very happy with the final size.

I'm not certain how I feel about the asymmetry yet though. It looks fantastic, but I haven't had occasion to use my new wrap. The tallest point falls over my left shoulder instead of down the center of my back. I'm interested to find out how well it stays in place and protects my back from the giant window at work.

WIP: Growing Flock

My flock hasn't gotten much attention lately but my time table has been pushed way up. Fortunately these birds are quick little knits. I only have two more before I start the branches and leaves. I've found the best way to get work done on these is to carry all of my supplies for the project around in one bag. It really is more than I need for any bit of knitting, but these work up so quickly that it is only a bit of knitting before I am changing colors or sewing up a new piece. I feel like I'm carrying around an ridiculous amount, but I am not getting stuck with nothing to do after 10 minutes of knitting. No hangups means progress continues. Now on to the next one, with a green tail, and maybe yellow stripes.

Music Painting

Here is a beautifully executed idea with a eco-friendly message. Enjoy!


Via LikeCool

Follow Friday: Further Dispatches

From Further Dispatches

Since Lost ended Jorge Garcia has been sharing tidbits and updates from Further Dispatches. He introduced me to Plants vs. Zombies, P.J. Clark's and now he's started to talk about party games. He doesn't post frequently, but I always enjoy them.

Queued: Boyfriend Sock

From Slipped Stitch

Hubby is not a big fan of socks. He loves his pair of hand-knit socks, but they don't make up for his general dislike of socks. You'd think this would be great. If he doesn't want socks that means more socks for me right? Well, it turns out if you don't want to knit full sweaters and your man doesn't want socks, you have drastically reduced the types of things you can make him that he needs multiples of. He's got a hat and a scarf and says he doesn't need another. He has a couple pair of gloves that he doesn't wear. (Which is for the best because the velcro in his jacket is awful to them.)  Since his outer gear is set, I keep turning back to socks as something to knit for him. These Boyfriend Socks by Alice Bell would be a great pair. The cables look like they would be just enough for keeping my attention and combating the effects of whatever 'manly' color my yarn will inevitably be, and they look great on the finished sock. If Hubby is not in love with them, I'm sure Dad or Grandpa would appreciate another pair.