| Mead |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|10:29 pm] |
Before I broke my wrist I started a batch of mead. Honey wine. Liquid gold.
After I got my cast off I started knitting for the physical therapy.
I started knitting bottle cozies for when I eventually bottled the mead.
It was while knitting one of those cozies that I noticed that one of the yarn combinations I was using would be so much cooler as a thong. Thats about the time my life changed and I started using my powers for evil.
But enough about that
( Today I bottled the mead. 20 bottles of 13% ABV honey wine. Big pictures )
I can't wait to start handing this stuff out. |
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| Knitted bear |
[Sep. 14th, 2009|11:53 pm] |
He is big, floppy, fuzzy, cuddly and squishy.
( FO Bear ) |
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| Knitting projects |
[Sep. 9th, 2009|10:33 pm] |
Finished a bunch of projects since my last update. This update will include some lingerie but none of it will be modeled at this time.
( Image heavy FOs )
Next week I will post another big, soft, fuzzy, floppy and cuddly teddy bear. But left it at work today. |
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| FO Big blue bear |
[Jul. 8th, 2009|08:10 pm] |
I finally finished the big blue bear. Boa and baby jacquard come together to finish a 21 inch tall squishy teddy bear.
( Its alive! Alive! )
Up next is a red one made with bright red fun fur for my moms living room. |
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| Goth teddy bear |
[Jun. 21st, 2009|01:03 am] |
I finished the teddy bear.
The pattern is the Debbie Bliss bear pattern from her Simply Baby book.
( Pics )
The first pic is the finished product. The second is the parts.
It is clear from making the thing that it was far more difficult than I ever thought it could be. It starts with poorly written that make you wonder if the bear pictured was reverse engendered by someone who didn't even bother to knit their own instructions. It ends with instructions for assembly of the parts that assume that you have done this 15 times already. Judging from pics of other bears made from the same pattern I assume that others have run into the same problem. Not one bear looks like the original picture.
I am going to make another one. This time it will be more mom friendly colors. It has also given me the urge to knit more animals. Maybe even make a better bear pattern. I did make some adjustments to this pattern. Thus the red soles, inner ears, snout and claws. |
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| wine cozy |
[Jun. 10th, 2009|12:20 am] |
 | Made this in what will be a series of cozies for some mead I am making. The bottle is a 375 ml bottle and the idea was to make something that a) looked like spider web b) was a color of orange that would look really nice when the bottle is filled with saffron colored (and flavored) honey wine. One day I will have to start keeping bees, raising my own sheep and making my own bottles so that I can make gifts that are truly homemade. :)
It is made with two different yarns knitted together for color effect.
I don't talk about work very often but I am thankful that I have a job where I can talk tech all day while solving problems and keeping my hands busy doing something "productive". No if only the guys would stop looking at me like I am nuts and/or gay for being the only guy knitter they know.
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| knitting |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|12:08 am] |
 | In the picture on the left is a partial bottle of mead that a friend made. When he made it there was some honey sweetness in it 6 months later when he handed it to me. Four months since then it has finished fermenting in the bottle (woops on his part) and has some lighter fluid traits now. Good stuff if your are drinking one shot at a time.
Second up we have a wine bottle cozy and some ginger wine. Not as lacy as I wanted it but happy with the results. I have a mead I am making and I am going to make some much brighter cozies for those bottles. This cozy will also work on 750 ml bottles of beer so I can see some use for this as a holder of Unibroue, Allagash and Avery bottles in the very near future.
The ginger wine is everything you always wanted in a ginger ale but is not carbonated, is 13% ABV and reminds me a lot of a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster but with ginger instead of lemon. Good stuff in moderation.
The last bottle is the only crappy Carmenere wine I have ever had. So its slowly turning into vinegar where it will serve some useful function in its all too long life. |
I made some Guinness today. Made some whipped cream for berries and corn bread desert. Tasty day.
Did a force killing of the yeast in the mead I am making. Now to remove all the yeast, spike it with some saffron and bottle it. Shouldn't take more than a month or two :)
wine cozy, basic pattern idea from book "one skein wonders". a few alterations, using two yarns knit together. cascade yarns baby alpaca chunky for body and rowan kidsilk aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk) for some fuzzy quality to it. less than one skein of each. |
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| cell phone and mp3 case |
[May. 29th, 2009|11:09 pm] |
 | Knitted cell phone case big enough for a smart phone and a large iPod. This thing is soft. I mean like fur rabbit or seal fur soft. Jet black and soft. Like the cute side of goth squee soft and jet black. Hang it from your belt or from your purse strap. Anyone want it? Let me know. One of a kind.
Want to make your own? size nine us needles, plymouth yarn sinsation, less than one (38yrd) skein, 3.5 stitches per inch. knitted 20 stitches on the round, cast off all but last 4 stitches once you achieve desired hight, continue to Stockinette sitch those 4 stitches another 10 rows, then flip the work and Stockinette another 6 rows. row 17 k2, k2. row 18 k1fb, k1fb, row 19 k4, row 20 p4. add button to body, seam the bottom |
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| knitted scarves |
[May. 28th, 2009|02:09 am] |
As mentioned before I am knitting for physical therapy after getting the cast off my wrist. I do something stupid about every 15 to 60 minutes that reminds me that my wrist still hasn't healed completely. But at least the pain doesn't hurt nearly as much as it did two weeks ago.
Finished the first one last week. Found cashmere on sale for almost half off. So I have a 6 foot long light weight very soft cashmere scarf sitting around doing nothing. $60 is the retail price just for the yarn. Add in 12 hours of labor and these things become very expensive. I should find a home for it because I will never use it. Its all stretched out for blocking in this pick but when not trapped down by 200 paper clips it curls up in a manor that would make young ladies look like young ladies.
This one I finished today. This has a small amount of gold colored metallic thread in it so in addition to deep colors there is some sparkle too. I knew about 5 rows into making this one who it would be going to. Also made a matching cell phone case for it.
All this knitting does make me regret not doing everything I could 15 years ago to go to the art school with the awesome textiles department. A few months ago I met someone who had actually graduated from School of the Art Institute of Chicago. I mentioned that I had wanted to go there because a) the school rocks b) has the best lending art library in the world c) had a textiles program d) its in Chicago which is the coolest city I have never been to
She said that the textiles classes may have proven too distracting for me because I would have been the only guy in the class. She may have had a point. :) |
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| knitting |
[May. 11th, 2009|11:09 pm] |
 
| As a general rule I try to not destroy anything that can't be replaced. Today I knitted a rat looking type thing so I could stuff it full of cat nip and cotton balls.
This was a one day throw away project made with cheap wool. Yesterday I finished a scarf with $36 of sale priced cashmere in it. That was my first real project. My roommate is mocking me because when your first "real" project has a retail price of $60 in cashmere in it the next step is to silks and other harder drugs. Once I get it blocked I will post a pic of it.
EDIT: i just noticed that the hunter is so large that it makes that 8 inch rat look like its only 4 inches.
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| Free! |
[Apr. 30th, 2009|07:40 pm] |
Today I headed off to the doctors office to find out if my cast was coming off for good or if was doomed to spend more time in a new one.
I needed to eat. So I stopped in the first place I found that wasn't a chain eatery. I found some bar advertising a lunch special and pulled on up. I got inside and found the lunch menu right after finding polls and ladies. That was unexpected.
The baked ziti was more warmed than baked and the girl saw my helmet and told me that her "daddy" used to ride before he got hit while drinking and driving. Her brother and uncle also stopped riding for the same reason. Real charming girl. In that redneck in a teddy kind of way.
The only beers they had were Bud, Bud Light and Miller. I opted for a $2.50 Shirley Temple instead of drinking any of those.
The cast was removed. I for the second time in four weeks got to spend 15 minutes washing off enough dead skin to make Ed Gein a nice handbag. They took their pictures of my bones with their fancy sciency machine and told me that while my wrist is still healing, I could see the visible crack in the image, that I was free to go. So they put me in a brace that I am supposed to ween myself from over the next few weeks. No physical therapy needed.
It hurts when I attempt to hyper extend it but it does feel much better than 4 weeks ago. On the way home I stopped by a craft store and got some yarn and knitting needles. I am going to practice knitting some cat toys for the cats. I have a friend who will be birthing a bundle of WTF in August and I promised to make her some black booties and caps for the kid as part of my recovery. Maybe I will learn enough to make little knit caps with skulls on them. Every little kid should have at least one.
Now I can finish the duck tape prom dress. |
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