Thanks for all the very nice comments on Beau, everybody! You do realize that Thunk is going to be nearly impossible to live with now, right? If he leaves me to run off to New York and start his modeling career it will be All Your Fault. I’m just saying.

In other news, I’ve still got a few smaller projects to finish up before I take off for Christmas...and exactly one week in which to finish them. So here’s what I’ve got going:

Korknisse, the advanced guard

hello. we are a boy band.

There are actually more of them now…I took the picture last Sunday. I still need to add little eyes and things…maybe some spangles. The goal is to have the whole army ready by Saturday.

Branching Out

This will be Mum’s Christmas scarf. I started it on Sunday and I’m currently about a third of the way done. The yarn is Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool. Nice stuff. Good pattern. I am pleased.

Heirloom bag:

Sorry, no picture of this one. But I'm finished with all the knitting and just have to figure out how to line the danged thing. And here you thought it was a permanent fixture on the WIP list. How wrong you were...

And in the finished category we have...
Etched Glasses for Rosser

Nearly impossible to photograph, but you get the idea. These are for the other BIL. In case you can’t tell what the pictures are supposed to be, they are: the Greek flag, the four suits, his initials, the Parthenon, a skull and crossed hockey sticks, and a cricket.

They were a lot of fun to make…who doesn’t like playing around with acid and an exacto knife? The hardest part was deciding what to put on them. Instructions for making your very own can be found here.

That's it for now! Back to work with me...

Posted by Elli at 1:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (17)

Wednesday we drove down to visit Elli and Thunk for a very festive T-day weekend. In a burst of domesticity, Elli and I undertook a rather ambitious Thanksgiving feast. It turned out to be delicious, with only a few small mini-disasters (the fancy canned organic cranberry jelly Elli had purchased had a spot of mold on the top, the turkey decided to finish cooking approximately two hours before anyone was hungry, and the dishwasher exploded as it was draining and leaked gallons of rinse-cycle water all over the kitchen floor). Ah, the stuff memories are made of…

you know we're feeling extra domestic when we break out the aprons

A few weeks ago Nate and I found out we’re having a boy. This means that Elli will be an aunty. As such, she must fulfill her social obligation to spoil her little nephew, which means that she will spend many hours knitting small adorable booties and sweaters (gigantor hint) and buying cute baby clothing. Below you see the first outfit I have received for the baby so far, a prezzie from Elli. It’s perfect as I love duckies.

Since this summer, I’ve spent many hours lazing around and generally using pregnancy as an excuse for excessive unproductivity. However, I have found a little time betwixt my full-time teaching job, graduate class and watching Grey’s Anatomy to make a few items for the baby:

From Butterick pattern 5439.

I’ve also been stenciling onesies for the baby (using freezer paper method as per angry chicken’s instructions.) I have to admit I went a little crazy with this. They’re just so much fun. Elli got one in this weekend as well (hers is the adorable squirrel in the front).

(bomb onsie idea shamelessly copied from here)

About the author: Even though she doesn't really act like it, Rae is my older sister. She enjoys sewing, physics, and dragging her sisters along on wilderness camping trips with lots of poison ivy. She is married to Nate, who is a fine specimen of man. Their baby will probably enjoy archery, canoeing, and competitive caber tossing.

Posted by Elli at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

You know how sometimes you see something and you think…I could do that! Well, I saw something (click on the "shop" link for more).

It’s no secret that I love my vintage knitting needles, and normally I would never do anything to harm them. However, I have a few odd mateless one sitting around cluttering up the joint and I may have sacrificed a few of the wonkiest for the sake of science, er, fashion.

At first I tried using boiling water to soften the plastic, but I eventually gave that up in favor of steam which we all know is hot, hot, hot*. So I put on my biggest oven mitts and was very cautious. They aren’t perfect, but I think they turned out pretty well. I kinda want to make some more.

*Please do not say I didn’t warn you. If you have a hankering to try this at home, please be very, very careful.

Posted by Elli at 7:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

I'm branching out! The knitting has been languishing because other crafty things keep stealing my interest.

Thunk and I were at the fabric store last week when this terrifically tacky red glitter vinyl caught his eye. I was a little skeptical at first, but I’ve been wanting to redo the computer chair and it was only $3.50. Who could pass that up? Chair makeover ho! Unfortunately, the pics did not accurately capture the Extreme Glitteryness which is this chair, but you can use your imagination.

Materials: 1.5 yards of fabulous glittery vinyl, one old Steelcase chair in need of help, staple gun, pliers, spray adhesive, screwdriver, razor knife thingy.

Time required: one rainy evening.

Procedure: Unscrew seat and back from frame and remove old vinyl (the most time-consuming part of the whole process was using pliers to remove all the old staples). Using old vinyl as a template, cut new pieces a few inches larger. Staple and glue vinyl back on (I reused the old foam which was still in good shape and stapled things where they had been stapled and glued things where they had been glued). Screw seat and backrest back onto frame. Easy peasy!

the chair out to pasture.

Final Verdict: Love it! In the right light it looks just like Dorothy's ruby slippers (except, you know, chair-shaped). It's been dubbed the Very Fast Chair because, well, it looks very fast.

Posted by Elli at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)