Confession...

I have a small confession to make. Tonight I FINALLY got around to learning how to do the magic loop. I was always intimidated by 2-circs and magic loop. It just seemed so complicated and fiddly with all those loops and cables (and yet somehow I never flinched at DPNs). Honestly, magic loop isn't bad at all! I don't mind it and may start doing it more frequently. I don't get the DPN stabbing me in the palm pain or ladders. That sounds like a win-win to me.

Also, I did finally finish those mittens. There may or may not be pictures to come. I'm not entirely sure if the intended recipient of them reads this blog or not.

I've started a new pair of mittens (the new magic loop project). They're the Bella's Mittens (ravelry link). Not that I have any interested in Twilight but I like the look of them and they're for a niece and most teenage girls are into that sort of thing so hopefully they'll be appreciated. I'm working on these since I had to order yarn for my other present ideas and it'll be a few more days before that gets in. Maybe I'll actually work on these at a reasonable rate and get 'em finished for Christmas.

The dishes mittens are done, bitch.

I wish I had some buttons to use as eyes, but unfortunately I didn't have 4 teeny tiny matching buttons. Beads have to do. Now I am redoing Kevin's Marram hat. it's coming along nicely and maybe I'll have it finished by tomorrow (a day too late for this super blizzard we just got last night).

Guilt free knitting

I took my last exam yesterday (I got an A in the class. Yay!) so now I can knit, guilt free, without worrying about homework or assignments or test until January 11th. w00t!

Of course there's still that work thing that gets in the way, but I'll just make due with knitting in the evenings and on weekends like 24/7.

Both mittens are finished. I just need to block them now. I should have plenty of time to do that this weekend seein' as how we're about to get dumped on (they're calling for a foot of snow! In Roanoke! WTF?).

And because my weekend plans consist of baking a buttload of cookies, I'm going to share a recipe for my favorite sugar cookies. I've made this recipe since I was in high school and I've missed it since moving out from home. I had Mom fax me the recipe so I plan on baking up a boatload of these badboys this weekend.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe EVAR

Thoroughly cream one cup sugar with,
1/2 cup butter,
1/2 cup vegetable oil,
beat and add one egg,
add 2 cups flour,
1/2 teaspoon baking soda,
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar,
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix well, chill overnight (or for several hours). Roll dough in small balls and roll in sugar. Flatten on cookie sheet (if desired). Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.

They are melt in your mouth delicious. And if you top them off with a bit of powered sugar after they come out? YUMMO.

Validation

So this past weekend we had some friends over for a 'beer tasting' party (Kev needed help deciding which beer to enter into the next homebrew competition coming up this weekend). After several (I do mean several) beers our friend Mike just started positively gushing over my knitting. Complimenting my socks, stuffing his fingers into my mittens (that sounds vaguely naughty) and generally just showing off my stuff to everyone. It was nice to hear someone appreciate my knits (now I really do need to get around to making him a hat...after Christmas, first thing!). Kev shrugs and says things are nice, but Mike just went gaga over little details. He was just amazed at how fine the knitting was on my socks, exclaiming 'they're just like store bought!'. Ha! Since I don't have many knitter friends it's not often people compliment the details.

So yeah, it was nice to have a bit of (albeit, drunken) validation.

Progress:

Mitten 2 is 2/3 of the way done. I've been busy with homework and shopping and decorating and stuff so I haven't gotten to sit down and finish it off. Maybe by tomorrow if I get my exams taken care of tonight.  I've just got about 3-4 inches to go and that won't take long.

Manda's Scarf is slowly coming along. I got about 4-5 inches knitted on it this weekend. This will just require a day or two of hardcore nonstop knitting. After the mitten is done, that is what I will do.

Oh and I started a little tiny cthulhu from Creepy Cute Crochet for my friend Joe. Hey, it's what he asked for for Christmas! Still deciding on if I'm going to deal with the polymer clay eyes, or just stitch little black eyes on? IDK. This is my first amigurumi. It's nice to finally get to stuff something after buying a big bag of polyfill like 2 years ago.:)

One mitten down.

I finished mitten one. Did I mention these things go like, super fast? I started it last night after work, and finished it today after work. I could probably knit two on a weekend day if I didn't have much else going on.

Here are pictures of mitten one. As a side note, I really miss day time. Taking pictures without natural lighting blows.



And just to show you how big of a failure the original mitten is, I put them side by side.



The only thing I'm not completely happy about is the bumpy top. I don't think I like it pointy. I'd rather have a round mitten, but whatever. Blocking should smooth it out a bit.