Stitching Saturday: knit knit knit

I am woefully behind in my posting this week - I think I've been knitting and crafting so much that I can't do all that, photograph, upload, and blog at the same time. Erg - sorry!

Anyway, up above are nine colors of Love This Yarn that I'm using to make a baby quilt - maybe - this quilt?

Yeah, you know it, I totally fell in love with this baby - I mean - look at those sweet eyes! The pattern suggests nine Lion Brand colors, but I subbed Love This Yarn instead.

You know? It's REALLY HARD to find nine colors that look good together. I just assumed I'd march in there and buy the first 9 pastel shades I came across, but it wasn't that easy. I'm still not 100% sure all nine colors I chose will make it into 1 quilt.

Here I am with my cell phone camera, trying to piece together a decent color combo at lunch:


The pattern neatly blocks out where each color will go, but I wanted to play with placement anyway.

I made another monster, but since I haven't uploaded the most recent pics, you'll just have to see her half-finished:


I knitted up the little arms (also in pink) and found myself giggling at how, um, unintentionally phallic they are. You'll see when I show you the finished product. ;)

I used Love This Yarn for this monster as well - I have to say I prefer the texture it has on garter stitch than stockinette:


It's just a cheap acrylic, but it's really plush and soft when worked in garter stitch.

And lastly, here's a wonky patchwork blanket I started last year and am continuing with my mom:


She's already knitted up a huge pile of blocks to practice her knitting - so I'll add those soon and update you. I like that it's imperfect, and that it's something we're making together. I can be such a crazy perfectionist that I sometimes feel paralyzed by my own excessive standards for myself. I am very, very hard on myself - so I like to give myself a break and say "This one can be wonky, as long as you finish it, and it makes you happy." How about you guys? Any recovering perfectionists out there? :)

Hope you had a good weekend, and are enjoying the end of summer and the first hints of fall...

Stitching Saturday: Winner(s)!

Okay, I must admit that I loved all of your names, but 2 in particular had my heart: "Higgins" because my little guy is shaped exactly like Higgins and "Biscuit" because well, how can you not love a blue monster named "Biscuit." In a vain attempt to choose one, I did a thorough scan of Lime Riot's blog and Dani's Flickr stream for some background, and I saw that Mrs. Lime Riot is an awesome knitter and crafter who has already stitched quite a few monsters, (so I don't think she needs another copy of the book) but I did want to reward her genius!

So I decided to award 3 prizes!
- Addi needles for LimeRiot
- The Big Book of Knitted Monsters and Addi needles for Dani

Dani is also a fabulous knitter, and I pretty much fell in love with her blog when I read the following:
"If you aren't smart enough to listen and look for cars while you skateboard down the middle of the street, well then, perhaps you ought to be pancaked on the road and removed from the gene pool, whippersnapper!!"

I, too, am a grump who knits and freely uses the word whippersnapper! This prize was clearly meant for you. I think we are grumpmates. ;)

Ladies, please contact me by email at unafloresita AT gmail DOT com with your addresses and preferred Addi needle size. :)

Thanks, everybody for entering! My post was linked from another blog, which brought me a lot of new visitors - thank you so much for dropping by. :) Hope you all enjoyed this and are ready for even more knitting. :)

I knitted a monster giveaway

                        

Yes, your eyes do not fool you, I finally finished knitting my monster! Aside from the small scarves I've knitted, I've never undertaken anything this big before, and I'm quite pleased with him. He was constructed through numerous 100+ temperature days and many TV series, including MacGyver, Magnum PI, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, so I can only assume he has taken on the characteristics of my favorite lead actors and is a take-charge, crafty, good-looking monster with a quick wit. Yeah, maybe all this knitting has made me a little loopy. So what. :)

I learned quite a few different things on this project, including Magic Loop, knit front and back increases, and 3 needle bind off. Also, I got to play with those cool "Safety Eyes" I'd never even seen before:


They sell them at my local Hobby Lobby, which probably means they'd sell them anywhere. I guess they call them "safety" eyes because they have a plastic part that snaps into place on the other side of the fabric, presumably so they don't end up in the mouth of an infant. Still, if you pay 99 cents for 4, I wouldn't trust them not to fall off. Anyway, this monster won't be anywhere near a child, he'll be my trusty cohort. :)

I pulled out my huge bag of polyfill and spent a whole afternoon stuffing mr. monster:


I had so much fun learning how to make this guy, that I thought I'd do a giveaway here! I guess I've done all my giveaways on Feeling Stitchy in the past, but I thought it would be nice to do a giveaway just for you guys - peeps who've been my blog friends (and lurker blog friends) for years. :) This book was a gift from my friend, so I'll pass along the knitting goodwill by giving away a brand new copy to one of you.

And since I loved this book AND my Addi Turbo needles, I'm doing a giveaway of both:
+

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post by midnight this Friday - please help me out and give my new monster a name:

Also, can you tell me if my monster is a he or a she (or an "it"?) :) Next Saturday I'll announce the winner - I'll either select my favorite name, or make it random, if all the suggestions are equally awesome, and I'm stumped. :) Oh, and please include your email address so I can notify you if you're the winner.

So what do you say? Want a cool knitting book and the best knitting needles around? Leave a comment here! :)