It's Always Tea Time!

Last weekend, Mum and I went to see Alice (in Wonderland) the ballet.  It was extraordinary.  They did minimalist sets and focused instead on the dancing and the lighting.  It was gorgeous.  In honor of that event and the amazing way the dancers interpreted the story, I decided I should share some of the things I've made recently that are Alice inspired. 

I made these a few weeks ago while working on many projects that are gifts.  This would be why I haven't made many entries lately.  I have been busy with work and class, but the project I have worked on in the crafting arena haven't been gifted yet.  Soon...

But back to Alice things.  I had found a photo of a tattoo and knew I wanted to put it on the side of a mug.  Lo and behold, I found a wonderful purple mug for it.  :)  I also found a tea bag/ spoon rest and decided I needed that as well.

I'd also come across a little individual tea pot, which I'd been looking for after having a pre-graduation tea party for my BFF's sister last year.  I can't tell you how thrilled I was to find it.  But I waffled on what to draw on the lovely chartreuse canvas of porcelain.  But the other day I was browsing Etsy and came across this set of headphones with an Alice design painted on them (see treasury below).  I drew inspiration from them and painted it today.  Tomorrow I'll fire it.  :D 

And who knows, after the firing is done, perhaps I shall have a spot of tea.  I did recently order some loose leaf tea from ThinkGeek.com and they look highly entertaining.  Timmy's Tea Sampler and Monkey Picked Tea, I am looking forward to the tea time adventure!

I've been continuing my reading list for the year, and I am actually currently in the midst of an Alice inspired adventure.  Hatter by Daniel Coleman (he also wrote one called Jabberwocky).  I'm really enjoying it.  The Mat Hatter and the Cheshire Cat are two of my favorite characters in the stories.  I just love that madness.  XD

As always I find myself on Etsy when the crafting bug hits or something sparks my interest.  That being the case, I made an Alice inspired treasury:

Pay it Forward '11 Reflection

In January of last year, Facebook had a Pay It Forward Project meme going around.I'm a bit late in getting this done, but better late than never. I wanted to write up something on the five Pay it Forward projects that I finished in the last year.

The idea was simple:

Pay it forward 2011: I promise to send something handmade to the first 5 people who leave a comment. They must in turn post this and send something they made to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that....it must be handmade by you and it must be delivered sometime in 2011.In the midst of completing and gifting the projects I started to think about it all.

And I wanted to collect the links for all the projects into one place.
MP1: 11's Sonic Screwdriver (completed: June 15, 2011 ; gifted: June 18, 2011)
MP2: Anti-Possession Mitts (complete: July14, 2011 ; gifted: August 1, 2011 )
MP3: Gates of Greyhaven (completed: June 26, 2011 ; gifted: July 23, 2011 )
MP4: Grape Wurm (completed December 25, 2011: ; gifted: January 2-5, 2012 )
MP5: Blueschief (completed: July 1, 2011 ; gifted: August 21, 2011)

All posts related to Pay it Forward '11.

It was fun picking patterns and yarn to go with the patterns that I felt reflected the recipient. I put thought into the pattern choice. I also put thought into the yarn choice be it color or fiber.

Overall, the project helped me get a lot of knitting done. It also helped me delve deeper into the fiber world. I ended up visiting a proper knitting store for the first time. That was a fun experience. It made me wish that there was a knitting store closer to home. Also, it would be nice if there were little cozy cafes near by that I could sit in to knit, read, or write from time to time. The main stream never has the same feel that the little independent stores did when I was at college. Though I didn't get around to visiting them too often.

Speaking of reading, I was inspired by a fellow tumblrite, Airiz, in her post about the gathering of her top books of the year. (Her blog is fantastic btw.) It was something that made me realize that I had stopped keeping track of the books I'd read, what I felt about them, how long it had taken me to read, and other such things. I miss making my list and seeing what I read and how it coincides with my life. I read a lot in high school and through college, but the habit fell by the wayside before I graduated. This year, I would like to start it up again and keep track of everything. Hopefully I'll be able to post about some of the books here and encourage reading.

So this year, I'd like to complete a few knitting projects that have been languishing on my needles. I would like to put a dent in my stash of yearn before buying anymore *crosses fingers* I have enough projects and yarn pairings to get my through for a bit. And I'd like to read. Be it from a physical book, on either of my Kindles, or an audiobook while knitting away. I want to get back to doing more things that will relax me and help to keep the stress levels low.

Of course, I hopefully will put a major dent in my MBA course load as well. But like I said, taking the time to read for pleasure is something I haven't been really consistent on in the last few years. I'd also like to try and read things outside of my usual fantasy novels. I want to read more classics, maybe some non-fiction, or other authors that had previously caught my eye but I'd never gotten around to picking up their books.

Let this be a year of knitting comforting projects and reading.

Hassan Chop!

Watch out for the Knitja! Or at least that's what I call my version of Kate Boyette's Ninja pattern. This took way longer to knit than I thought. Mostly because I sometimes have the attention span of a goldfish.

There was also a delay in finishing due to the disappearance of my felt for the features. Needless to say, I ventured to the craft store for more and ended up buying a bunch of other crafting items. There will be more crafts besides knitting in the near future. :D

I had fun with this, and would likely make it again. I didn't stuff this one a whole lot, but made it a little flat plushie that is still squeezably soft. It might be entertaining to make a really plump ninja in the future. In black. *nods*

The sewing is a pain. I definitely don't appear to be a seamstress. *shakes head* I'm rather passable at this point, but hopefully down the line I can work on that and get better. At least this time the shapes and placement were easy. In the past the assembly of plushie objects hasn't gone well. This time went considerably better.

I hope my co-worker who asked for it is pleased. We decided on the pink for extra fun (and cause the purple was being knit into mystery project 4).

Also, THIS IS THE FIRST COMPLETED JOB OF THE YEAR!!!!

Mystery Project 4...COMPLETE!

I have finally completed my last mystery project to gift. I actually finished knitting it up while watching Dr. Who: A Christmas Carol Christmas Special. I was knitting away while the parentals snoozed on Christmas Day. :)

It was a nice pattern in its simplicity but still challenging enough to maintain my interest. The brim was a practice in the skill of folding the pieces and knitting them together. I've done three such "hems" and two without provisionally casting on the first edge (such as this one). I do prefer doing without the special cast on. It makes for an ultra warm brim.

The yarn was surprisingly easy to knit with. I wanted something bright and soft. Especially as it is intended as a running hat for my BFF. She complained a while back about being cold when running. I asked if she wore a hat, to which she replied that no she didn't have one. So this was my solution. It's also bright so she can be seen.

I liked the pattern itself for the quality of the purl-knit pattern repeats that made it scrunched and warm. I think it will hold heat well so she stays warm even when wearing tight running gear. :)

I know the pattern, wurm by katushika, is meant to emulate a worm and be a play on words; which makes me giggle and think of the blue and white worm from the David Bowie 80s movie Labyrinth. But in this obnoxious purple it really reminds me of a cupcake.

Owlies

Back in August, when I was attending my cousins wedding, I met several of my other cousins' children for the first time. Most notable was when I was standing in the kitchen talking and one of my cousins' wives came in carrying their little girl. When they got close she leaned forward, as if wanting me to hold her. However, her aim was my shirt. I was wearing Threadless' Doctor-Hoo shirt. She pointed at the owls as if counting (I think she's two...maybe?). Her mother said that she simply loved owls. It was really adorable. So because it was amusing and cute, when I came across an Owl pattern to knit in Kate Boyette's KnitWit book, I knew there was something a little extra going to their house this Christmas. I knit the owl up and stitched on the face so things couldn't be pulled off and swallowed. I think it turned our pretty good if I do say so myself. :)

Owls are so interesting. We had a Great Horned Owl that lived in the woods in the backyard when I was growing up. I haven't heard him in ages though. :( Mum collected them for ages and I still think they are neat (we have dozens of them around). Now with Harry Potter's popularity and the use of owls in the series, was it any wonder they are still really neat. I also love the train, so when I saw this pattern pop up today on the Ravelry side bar adverts, I had to click. Titled the Hogwarts Express but is in fact a shawl with owls?! Awesome! Don't know that I really talked about it too much in the post-letter receiving Pottermore post, but I "bought" an owl. Just seemed more fun to the experience over a toad or cat. I don't think I ever really determined a name for him, but still like Priestly. :D

When I was rooting around the internet for Halloween things and came across the Gleeful Things crafting website, I discovered a little Etsy shop, Mini Tidbits, that makes great owl pillows. There are tons of them all over Etsy, but i really liked the look of that shops, especially that Halloween on featured on Gleeful Things in October.

Tentacles Ahoy!

I did not always have this fascination with the octopus. It is a recently re-discovered interest that has been cultivated by my re-invigoration with knitting. When I was first looking at patterns and geeky things I came across this little guy. It took me a while, but I found the pattern and vow to knit him one day!

I blame my random trip to the zoo, for the inital intrigue. I was attending a conference downtown when the lecture room was declared too full and any further participants would make it a fire hazard. So to not waste the trip, I walked over to the zoo...in February. It was early morning and I discovered that the zookeepers were feeding many of the animals. So wanting to go ahead and see as much as I could, especially when it was inside, I wandered over to the invertebrate house. Here I discovered an octopus named Rachel. I learned some amazing things, such as, they change colors and they can fit through any space as long as their beaks can. That is most fascinating.

Needless to say, this fascination expanded when I discovered steampunk. I can only deduce that the octopus is part of the genre due to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Jules Verne. However, even with the confusion, that doesn't make them any less awesome.

So as I mentioned before, I've been knitting up this pair of mittens. I finished them after getting a bit side tracked due to other projects, the holidays creeping up, and general busyness with classes starting up and work.

I love how the colors turned out. I wasn't sure if they were going to work, and they actually photograph better for the contrast, but I really love how they look. It's almost like the octopi are mid change and blending with the seaish color of the background. ;D The yarn feels amazing, and they are toasty warm.

This was the first pair of full mittens I've completed. I've started two pairs in the past, but frogged due to size and not liking the color combination. I'm so pleased with these. Even if I occasionally felt like this guy while knitting them.

Something else I started with this set and the recent knittings I've been working on. I was looking through projects for a fellow Raveler and saw they listed what they'd audiobooked or watched while knitting, so I've decided to document it myself. I don't really remember much for the first one mitten of this pair other than it was Thanksgiving and there was a brief MythBusters marathon while I was finishing it up. The second one was knit in the car with music and Neil Gaiman's Stardust on. I still have a good chunk of the book to listen through. Love it (even if I've read it three times)!

Finally, in honor of the octopus and its eight tentacle glory, I found some fun and amusing little odds and ends on Etsy.

From a mountain of chunky yarn, Bellissima accessories...

A while ago, when I was renewing my interest in knitting, I stumbled upon a fun knitting book. That book is Vampire Knits by Genevieve Miller. Most of the contained patterns have something to do with Twilight which I could care less about. But a few of them are awesome in spite of that book series.

However, the pattern I was knitting up before, is a direct inspiration from Twilight. I was gifted yarn for my birthday, tons of it in fact, in a really neat blue. So when I decided I wanted to knit up the Bellissima Mittens, I pulled out that yarn.

I really love the length of them. They are floppy and big going over the cuffs of my coat well. If I was to knit them again, I would use a solid color so that the cables were really visible. With this yarn they are a bit hidden and I really do like the large link cable that goes up the back of the mittens.

Since I had lots of yarn left, I went looking for a hat pattern. I figured there had to be one out there. And low and behold, I found one. It took me a few hours to knit Bella's Hat which was pulled together from various Ravelery patterns of the mittens from the movie.

Yes, I got a little foam head to put things on. Partly for modeling hats, since I am horrific at taking pictures of myself; partly for my blue Coraline wig.

But whatever the reason, I like being able to photograph my hats at any angle. This doesn't really show the big link cable to well, but it looks neat paired with the mittens.

I actually wore them together on an excursion where it was quite chilly. While wandering about, I decided I would need a scarf too. And since I have a good chunk of the yarn left I would like to make it cabled and long.

Perhaps I'll get to the scarf one day, but for now the mittens and hat will have to do.