Back...with knitting, elvis & other stuff

The other day I was knitting away and started thinking about before the knitting mania set in and how I loved to cross stitch, sew & embroider. This got me motivated to dig out a small little kit that I bought years ago from the dollar bin at Michaels. While I can't say that I will pull out all my embroidery floss/patterns/kits and bury myself in the world of cross stitch...it's fun at the moment and a nice break from the miles of garter on my Happy Street. Happy Street is almost done! I've got the last few rows of the gray, bind-off & weaving in ends - hurrah~ Mine is knit with Dancing Dog Dye Works Twist Sock --- Michelle offered Happy Street Kits with dark gray, light gray and your choice of color - I picked Beach Glass and I am SO happy with the combo. and lastly there's a little Elvis, because there should always be a little Elvis, right? To celebrate the 45th anniversary of the 68' Comeback, there is a fan mosaic making up this iconic image pretty cool huh? I of course had to send in my photo so I will now be a teeny tiny part of this awesome collaboration!

Trickery & Treats

I’m the master of fright , and a demon of light
And I’ll scare you right out of your pants
To a guy in Kentucky I’m Mister Unlucky
And I’m known throughout England and France

Meet Jack... as in "You don't know Jack" - he's a modified Tony the Toy Box Monster from the Big Book of Knitted Monsters by Rebecca Danger.

This angry looking fella was knit for fellow Raveler Jessica aka SameOldKnit to help with all her Halloween trick-or-treaters.

I wanted to create a Tim Burton-esque monster and looked to Nightmare Before Christmas for inspiration. To me he's adorable, but from the comments I got on Flickr & Raverly.. popular opinion is that he looks scary & mean?!

I dunno... cute scary and cute mean, if there is such a thing.

Halloween came and went. The kids hit the neighborhood hard and had full pillowcases of candy to show for their efforts!

And imagine my delight when I spotted Elvis passing out candy. He's lucky there was a line of trick-or-treaters behind me or I would have asked to take another photo sitting on his lap! ;P
Check out this awesomeness!!!

He even gave me the lip snarl BOOYAH!

You've got red on you ...... and I ♥ Simon Pegg

Fellow knitter & Raveler JGM 'tweeted' my photo of my Shaun & Ed monsters to Simon Pegg and Simon Pegg 're-tweeted' them! I am such a fangirl, that when Jason pm'd me this news on Ravelry, I geeked out big time. I am not on twitter, so I'm not entirely sure how it all works, but I do know that Simon Pegg saw my little monsters and that makes me so incredibly happy!
Here's the 'tweet' heeee heeeeee!!!!

It was the perfect combo really....

My love of Danger Crafts patterns & Shaun of the Dead collide!

Shaun monster & zombie Ed were knit for my zombie love'n buddy Michelle aka Hapi2Run on Ravelry for the 'Things that go bump in the night' monster swap in the Danger Crafts Group I mod .. also on Rav. Shaun was made from Gort the Gym Bag Monster & Ed from Baldwin the Bathroom Monster - both patterns can be found in Rebecca Danger's The Big Book of Knitted Monsters.
You can see more photos of Shaun on my Rav projects page HERE and Ed can be found HERE.

I knit up some creepy cute zombified candies for her daughters too.. adorable and gross all rolled into one sweet treat.
pattern is Creepy Halloween Candy by Dawn Finney

and kinda keeping with the Halloween-zombie-monster theme, here are my 'Flying Monkey' socks dyed up by the incredibly talented Michelle aka woolylove of Dancing Dog Dye Works.

fly...fly... FLY!!!

so perfectly wicked!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN~

Mama hates Mondays....

I had so much fun knitting this monster up! Malcolm the Monday Monster is a new pattern from Rebecca Danger in the latest issue of Knit Simple magazine, Fall 2011 issue.

My monster, which I've decided is pretty much me.. in monster form, can't quite function without that first cuppa joe. "Instant human, just add coffee" well, this is what I look like before I've had any caffeine ... ye-ow! Notice that artsy fartsy hand painted mug? That's a Jakey original and I adore it to bits. He made that for me at the rip ol'age of 6 and if you look closely you can make out M O M at the bottom of the mug ... awwwwwwwwwww ♥

Mama hate's Monday's monster was knit with the rest of my Dancing Dog Dye Works club yarn - Tropical Twist in Twist Sock. I divided the yarn in half and matched up the stripe sequence so I could knit w/the yarn held double for a DK weight. I used all but about 4 yards - talk about cutting it close! The safety eyes are from Etsy seller 6060 - this monster used 9mm.

If you hate Monday's as much as I do, knit one of these little monsters and you're sure to start your week off with a smile!

Ravel me~

school is out, summer is here and socks have been knit

The first day of summer has arrived.   We survived the last year of elementary school and after 2 and a half months off, the Middle School experience will begin... (gulp!)  The 5th grade promotion was damp! not rainy but a steady misting that left all the seats wet and most of us huddling under trees or umbrellas.  He's growing up & moving on..... I can still remember his first day of school - Where does the time go?!

When did this little guy

Grow into this?! I blinked and 6 years flew by :(



He made it and we are very proud of him --- although, I'll be honest..not looking forward to those hormonal, moody teenage years ahead!

On to knitting!

Summer of socks???

Maybe not to wear... but definitely to knit! Socks are the perfect summer knitting project - small, portable & fun!

I signed up for Dancing Dog Dyeworks sock club and received my first installment of fantabulous summery sock yarn in Tropical Twist - a self-striping colorway!



and look at the goodies - sour watermelon sucker, Soak Wash sampler & a pretty sock/lace stitch marker from AG mode

I'm a sucker for self-striping and cast-on immediately. Plain vanilla cuff down w/afterthought heels and matchy-matchy stripes of course. ;P

Ravel me!





Love those big thick stripes and tropical, summery colors! Another fantastic colorway from the fab Michelle (woolylove on Ravelry) the fiber artist behind Dancing Dog Dye Works~

Happy first day of summer~

Old & Rusty

Let's see if I can still remember how to do this....Making no promises of how often I will post, I am always enthusiastic when I return to blog, so remaining ever optimistic.

This entry will be short & sweet.  A while back, I was asked to test knit a pattern that has been recently published in Petite Purls 2011 Summer edition by Angela Tong aka Oiyi on Ravelry.

The pattern is Mao - the Chinese word for Cat and is worked seamlessly in the round, top down.

Here is my take on Angela's design - meet El Gato~

so how do say 'Meow' in Spanish?  ;P

Follow this link if you'd like to visit my projects page on Ravelry for detail on this project~

I'd like to thank the academy....

the Bobcademy over on Ravelry and all the peeps that nominated & voted for me!  I won for 'Most Original Ravelry Name' How cool is that?  and look at my super awesome Bob trophy/badge - I love it!!!  Thanks guys!

Alright, so I've been knitting & crocheting & knitting some more.  I've been juggling projects, but I managed to get everything done on time, so I feel especially pleased with myself!

When I posted last I was working on Zach-Attack's blanket and cardi and hat.  I seamed & blocked the day before the shower!  It was so well received and look how fantastic it looks in baby Zach's nursery.  Grandma Penny was so sweet to send me a photo.  

All ready & waiting for that little guy to arrive.




There was more gift knitting - Cabled footies for my sil Anna.  These practically knit themselves - seriously, super quick.  The pattern is from One Skein and knit in worsted weight, they flew off my needles - fyi, that's my poor kid modeling the socks - My sil has teeny feet & my kid has bear paws, so it all worked out in the end!

Lastly, I was contacted by Audrey Knight of AudKnits to knit a sample of her stunning Smock Top Sweater for Knit Picks IDP.  This version is knit in KP Merino Style and it was lovely to work with.  Audrey's design is so classic and isn't that color dreamy? 

 That's it for now - I've just finished up another Mr. Foster Sock Monkey, but I'm beat and I want to watch the latest episode of LOST ☺