Some people are stressing about holiday knitting.  Tomorrow morning, I'll start mailing off Christmas gifts.  The fact that the particular item I'm mailing was for Christmas 2006 is mostly irrelevant.  Mostly.  Here's a sneak preview:

Most of the things I'm working on these days are gifts, so I don't want to show the full item.  But I suppose sneak previews can't hurt, right?

I think the future owner of the above pink fringe will probably realize what it is as soon as she sees it...but that's ok. =)  She actually picked out (and paid for!  whoop!) the yarn on a trip a while back, and should be receiving the FO in the mail very soon!

Hopefully this one will be a bit more of a surprise:

It's December in one hour!  Eek!

I made a thumb!

Yay!!! =)

That's all for now (boo school for stealing my time!), but you can check out my snazzy new progress bars (in the right-hand sidebar), courtesy of the wonderful Casey, the brains behind Ravelry. =)

Here's the low-down on the yarny goodness from the other day:

Pattern: Not-Quite-Straight Scarf from Nicole over at All Buttoned Up.  Great pattern, super easy to learn, interesting enough to not get boring.

Yarn: Lion Brand's Lion Wool.  A good, plain, 100% wool.  One of the few natural fiber yarns available at Hobby Lobby, so it's affordable and accessible.  Nice.

Needles: I don't even remember...I think US 9s.  Bamboo, so likely Clover.

This pattern needs to be blocked to look nice.  I took a lot of pictures during the blocking process, and hopefully one day I can get a post together about blocking:

Notes: I originally made this to send in for OFA's Red Scarf Project, but due to these silly things called midterms, I didn't get it finished in time.  I finished a few days after the deadline, so I emailed OFA to ask if I could send it in late.  I still haven't heard back (that was about a month ago), so I have four options:
1) Save it for next year's Red Scarf Project.
2) Donate it to another charity, preferably local to Baton Rouge or Houston.
3) Give it to a friend or family member.
4) Keep it for myself:

At this point, I think I'm going to go with option 2.  If you have any local charity suggestions, let me know! =)

I know I've been ignoring you, but I promise I still love you.  I have grand plans for some great posts: blocking, choosing yarns, getting started as a knitter, etc.  But right now, these are stealing all my spare time:

And that's just one class!

In the meantime, here's some yarny goodness:

(Ravelers: Project Page Here)

You're always on my mind, blog.  Always on my mind...

It's fall, and that means foliage, right?  Well, down here on the Gulf
Coast, the leaves are green year round, or they turn brown without
first turning orange, red, yellow, etc.  Occasionally there are
exceptions, but not often.  So I made my own:

Pattern: Foliage by Emilee Mooney.  I made Version 1, for the chunky yarn.

Yarn: Malabrigo Chunky in Purple Mystery.  This yarn is dreamy.  Dreamy dreamy.  It's hand painted, so even though it's technically all the same color, there are slight variations throughout the skein.  (That's usually called semi-solid, fyi.)  It's also 100% superfine merino and thus ridiculously soft and warm.  I bought this at Aldura in Angel Fire this summer, during their 50% off sale.  Yep, that's right, 50% off all yarn.  All.  I'm not lying:

See?  Told ya!  Anyways, back to the hat:

Needles: Clover Bamboo the whole way.  US 10.5 dpns for the top (it's worked top-down, which was new to me), US 10.5 circ for the body of the hat, US 9 circ for the ribbing, and US 11 circ for the bind-off at the bottom, to make sure it was loose enough.

Notes: I'm sorry you can't see the stitch detail, because it's pretty neat.  The dark color hides it too well.  I'll probably make this hat again, and I'll use a lighter color, for sure.  Ravelers, you can check out the project page for more random details.

Now, you might have missed some important things in that last picture, so let me point them out to you:

1) Roy Oswalt Bulldozer Bobblehead.  You know you're jealous.
2) Shot glass collection.  It's really quite impressive.  (Don't worry, there are plenty others to actually use...)
3) Yarn as decoration.  My mom thought of that.  Isn't she brilliant?

Y'all have a lovely weekend! =)

I have two FOs and it's been cloudy for five days!  (Knitting + Flash = Bad news bears)  There was finally some sun today and I was stuck on campus all day doing silly things like going to class and colloquia...gosh...

But I do have one photo for you.  Apparently, knitblogs are supposed to have cats (no one informed me of this rule), which by default means knit bloggers should have cats.  You won't find that happening any time soon, because I am a staunch dog person, but I did catch this cutie across the way:

I think he was hoping for some sun too!  He (she?) was looking the other way when I went outside, but as soon as my shutter started snapping, it was all eyes on me.  "Hey!  You with that funny black thing!  What are you doing?"

Homework - Too loud.

Watch TV - Too loud.

Read - Too loud.

Knit! - Nothing stops this!

Update your Ravelry - Check.

(You have to be a member to see that page, that's why I included the screenshot, because most of y'all aren't.  If you are a knitter, and you are not already on the waiting list, GO SIGN UP NOW.)

Try on your so-close-to-finished hat - Yep!

Neat little trick: The hat is knit top down, and I'm using a 16" circular needle, so it's not long enough to try the hat on while it's on the needle.  Here's the trick: Thread waste yarn (from this scarf...it's finished...I'm just waiting for a sunny day to properly photograph it...) through the stitches, slide needle out, try hat on! 

(The red yarn is the waste yarn.)  Once you're sure it's going to be the right length, thread the needle back through the stitches, and keep knitting!  Only five rows of ribbing at the bottom, then it's finished!  I'm hoping to get it done tomorrow morning before I have to go to school.  We'll see!

Sleep - Hopefully.  I'm about to try.

Dear upstairs neighbors,
Please celebrate your birthday on the weekend.  Everyone will be happier.
Love, Me.

My Ravelry invite came today!!!  Woohoo!!!

I think it will probably take me a year to get everything on there...or I'll have to stop knitting, just so I can update all my info about knitting...le sigh...

In celebration, here's some yarn pr0n, the first two skeins I added to my Stash section:

I have five skeins of Malabrigo and I love it, even though I've never actually knitted anything with it yet.  But it's so soft, and comes in such wonderful colors!  The pink skein I bought because it was pretty; the yellow (gold!) has some matching purple that will hopefully become an LSU scarf/hat set shortly! =)

PS - If you're on Ravelry, my name is ashpags (surprise!) and I'd love to be your friend. =)

No yarn pr0n yet, but I do have an FO for you!  It's one of the ones you got a sneak preview of a few posts ago, and has finally made it to its new home.  I present, Tripp's hat:

My guy friends have big heads, so their hats all look silly on me.  Sue me.  This was a special request...knitters, you know how it goes..."Oh, you knit?  [insert generic grandma comment]  Can you make me a hat?"  Usually I roll my eyes, but Tripp's a good guy who had my back this summer, so the least I could do was make him a hat.  (It was maybe also a "please forgive me for the embarrassing comment I made the first night I met you" hat.  I can neither confirm nor deny that rumor, but you can sign up for my VIP Newsletter (it's only $1200 per year) if you really want to know...)

Pattern: Generic hat pattern (similar to this one), with about an inch of 2x2 ribbing at the bottom

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride in...um...frick!  (That video is the best I can find...how is there not a video of her saying frick over and over?)  I can't find the ball bands.  They are lost somewhere in the yarn disaster living in my office.  I would guess that the colors are Blue Boy and Creme, but regardless, they are MTSU colors, which was the whole point, since that's where Tripp goes to school.  They were also really hard to find.  I looked all over Taos and didn't find anything and finally found these at the yarn store in Cimarron.  But wait, you say, isn't the yarn store in Cimarron closed?  Yes, it is, but Valerie still has most of her inventory, she's just not in a position to operate the store right now.  I saw her sitting out front one afternoon, and stopped by to say hi and see how she was doing.  Being one of her biggest customers in the summer, we're pretty good buds, so she let me into the store for a bit, where I stocked up.  When I stumbled across these two skeins, I about died.  It was awesome.  (FYI, I fully believe that there are few wools better than Lamb's Pride.  I adore it.)

Needles: Addi Naturas, size US 8.  The same ones from K's sweater, in fact.  I still love them.  I finished off the top with Clover size 8 dpns. 

Notes: *I like making hats because they go quickly.  *I did the stripes without a jogless jog, and I sort of regret it.  I don't really know how to do it (yet!), but I plan to learn before my next in-the-round striped project.  *I did the standard swirl decreases as described in the pattern linked to above.  This is my usual hat decrease method, and I've generally been happy with it, but lately I've noticed that on hats with a large circumference, it tends to lead to bunchiness at the top when being worn.  I think this might have to do with the fact that my head doesn't fill it out all the way?  Maybe?  Any insight?

The best part of this hat?  It has the distinction of being the first knitted item I've gifted to anyone for which I have received one of these:

That's right.  A hand-written thank you note.  A true Southern Gentleman, that Tripp. =)

Not only are they clever and funny, but they are also generous!  I went to see the Harlot a few weeks ago with two new knitting friends, Martha and Nancy.  Not only are they knitters, but they are spinners (and weavers and dyers) too.  (Although, sadly, they are blogless...)  We were talking about how we should have made a Louisiana washcloth for Stephanie (she collects them from each state) and somehow we got on the topic of how it would be cool to make it out of Gulf Coast wool.  To which I replied "What?!?  There is Gulf Coast wool?  Where do you get that?"  Because, you know, I need more yarn... Anyways, Nancy replied that you get it from sheep that are raised in this area, duh.  She buys fleeces from local sheep ranches, and then spins them into yarn.  Sweet.  I added that to my mental list of reasons I should learn how to spin, and moved on.

The other day, a fried in my classes (who knows her son from high school) brought me this:

134 yards of her very own Gulf Coast handspun!  Want a closer look?

It's awesome!

She even included some Kool-Aid that I can dye it with if I want, in black cherry flavor.  Do you know what color that makes?

Maroon!  Perfect!

Thanks Nancy!!!

In other news, midterms start this week so blogging will be even more sporadic than it has been lately.    Although, in anticipation of my upcoming Ravelry invite (Only 5,400 people in front of me!  There were about 18,000 when I added my name to the list!), I may use my study breaks to start photographing my stash, in which case you might get some yarn pr0n.  Get excited. =)