I must have a sick sense of humor

*Warning: if you don't have a sick sense of humor...read no further!

While browsing through wists.com this morning, I somehow came across a link to this gallery. The monkey on the right is the tamest of them all - but, indeed, the funniest!

All the "sculptures" are knitted and really sick! I find it amazing that people A) think of these things B) take the time to plan out how to knit the stupid thing, and C) actually complete them and photograph them for the web.

And, this is yet another reason that I enjoy mindlessly surfing the web. You find little gems like this!

WIP: My Brea bag

Remember how I said a couple posts ago that I wanted to make the Brea bag? Well, after finishing the very large Bed of Roses shawl project, I needed to make something quicker.

So here's my Brea being blocked. Well, actually, it's only part of it. I didn't get enough yarn to make the gusset that goes between the two halves, so I'll need to make a trip to the local yarn shop to get another ball. Thankfully it'll look OK with a different dye lot as it'll be just for the gusset and not too noticeable if it fades differently.

So I've completed the front and back pieces. These are the most complicated so I'd estimate I only have a couple hours tops left on it. The gusset is done in moss stitch with a little decreasing and increasing. And then, of course, I still have to sew all the parts together...the part I hate the most about finishing a project! But this one is small...so it shouldn't take long.

The Brea pattern is well written and easy to follow. I'd definitely make it again! I'm actually thinking it would make a nice gift or two at Christmas.

With the weather here in Boston being so dreary today...my pictures of the Brea are a little drabber then usual. The color in the pictures looks grey, but it's actually a quite nice light icey blue. Here are a few more of the pinned out knitting:

Finished Bed of Roses

I actually finished the shawl last Sunday. I know, I know....I was just too lazy to take the time to get a good picture until this morning. In my defense, however, it's hard to get a good picture when I have to leave early in the morning for work when it's still kinda dark. That will get much better tomorrow after the clocks get turned ahead. Being a morning person I love it when the clocks get turned ahead. I get bright sunshine in the best part of the day when no one else is awake!

Anywho...back to the shawl! Since the shawl is so big, almost 60 inches wide, it's hard to get a good shot of the entire thing at once. So I opted for the safer "me-wearing-it" shot. What I didn't show you is how difficult a shawl is to wear...I mean, really wear.

I wore it to work this week and the morning I wore it I took a long time trying to figure out how to wear it and not look totally stupid. This is my first shawl (and, mind you, I will be making more) so I finally figured out why they make those stupid shawl pins. Here I was thinking they were shwag that was just not necessary. Wrong! Now I'm scouring the interwebs looking for stupid shawl pins. - Side note: as I was looking for pins I came across this posting over on the Knit and Tonic blog. This is funny and right on target!

I found some nice pins while googling. Some are way more expensive then I want to pay for something that is just going to keep my shawl on...but that's a whole other "I'm cheap" discussion. Here's a list of some good options:

• GeekGirlGlass.com - Scroll all the way down for the stick pins. The women who makes all of this beautiful stuff is actually a good friend of mine. We used to be coworkers out in Colorado. Great lady, nice work at reasonable prices!
• lesliewind.com - I like these designs...but I'd have to go for the more expensive silver ones just 'cause I don't like the gold color of the bronze ones. Gold with my skin coloration don't mix.
• Various shops in Etsy have some good ones. This will take some more searching.
• YarnMarket.com- these are OK and more in my price range

This list could go on and on and on. I hate googling for things sometimes. It could take an entire afternoon!

So I'll get on with it and just tell you more about the shawl. Here's the stats:

Needles: size 7 dpn's and 40 inch circulars
Yarn: Sirdar Country Style DK Yarn, I think I used 6 or 7 balls
Pattern: "Bed of Roses Shawl" free from Elann.com. You have to be logged in to see the free patterns but it's well worth the sign up!
Notes: Beautiful finished and an easy knit. For my first shawl it was super easy to follow the pattern. I didn't make any changes to the pattern while knitting.

And, with that...a couple more pics for your viewing pleasure:

This last one is a bit off in color, but it shows more of the finished product.

Spool knitting hits Craftzine

I was surfing the web this morning before work and came across a Craftzine post for spool knitting. Not having tried that particular segment of the loom knitting world...the link to this article actually made me want to try it. There is a later post about the same topic here.

I love all these blogs devoted solely to crafts. I learn a lot just by surfing around. I subscribed to the CraftyPod blog, too....so I wont miss a thing!