Almost 1/2 way done...

with a pair of Dragon Scale Gauntlets that I am making for a friend. (We won't talk about how long it's taken me to get to this point...let's just say it's been awhile.) Anyways...these are being made out of dk alpaca yarn on size 4 dpn's. The knitting is going much better now that I am using longer double pointed needles. I was originally using needles that were a few inches shorter and there was much cursing going on as I kept dropping stitches off the ends. I'm amazed I made it as far as I did before I changed the needle length. It's practically knitting itself now. :)

Happy Lions

The massive "lexan replacement with glass" project is finally done! Thank goodness. The cats were starting to get a little cranky at being locked in holding. It was only supposed to take 2 weeks and, of course, took 4. And the cats had to be locked in holding during that whole time. They weren't the only ones getting cranky about it...

Here is Jonathan enjoying the outside:


And Celesto inspecting *everything*. After all, there were people she didn't know in her territory. How dare they?!

Goofy Tori

Getting Organized....

Well, sort of. :) I spent several hours yesterday organizing all of my knitting patterns. I borrowed an idea a friend of mine had and it works great!


I went out and bought one of the Rubbermaid filing boxes and some hanging file folders.









I then went through all of my patterns and organized them into categories. Then I filed them in their appropriate folder.








After that, I used Excel and created a Table of Contents. It has two columns - one with the pattern title and one with the category it was filed under. I did this because some of the patterns are for two items (i.e. a hat and scarf pattern). This way, I can look at the Table of Contents and find the pattern I want. I currently have it alphabetized by category but will likely print off one that is alphabetized by pattern name as well. That way I can either look through type or by pattern name.


I think I am going to have to do this with sewing patterns as well. And possibly an quilting patterns I get. I really like how these filing boxes are movable and they are easy to store, which is a big plus!

Swapping Books

A friend of mine introduced me to a book swapping site. For each book you mail (and is received) you get a credit which you can use to order a book. The site is PaperBackSwap (PSB). I received 2 credits for posting 10 books and I've already had people order two of them. I mailed them this morning. Once they are received by their new owners I will receive 2 more credits. Also, the shipper pays the postage. This means that while I have to pay to mail the books to their new owners, I do not have to pay to have any books mailed to me. And since you ship media mail it's not that expensive to mail the books. These two that I just mailed cost me $4.60. I'm now off to order some books (to replace the ones I just sent out!)

Oh, and if anyone wants to find me on the site, my username is sibtigre2 (orginal, huh? :)) They also have a CD swap site and a DVD swap site. I haven't decided if I will join either of those yet but they are tempting. :)

More knitting stuff....

So...I've got quite a few irons in the fire in terms of knitting projects... lol

I currently have a Baby Kimono and a Baby Burp Cloth (both from Mason-Dixon Knitting) on the needles and a pair of Dragon Scale Gauntlets. I hadn't planned on knitting any other projects until I finished the Gauntlets but a friend of a friend end up having her baby quite a bit earlier than expected (so far baby is doing fine but she weighs less than 3 1/2 pounds and is only 16 inches long) and a couple of us decided to whip up some baby things for the new little one. So, I've already done one Baby Kimono (that is way to big for her right now but she will grow into it) and started another one that I have sized down to fit a preemie. I'll get pictures of them all when I'm done. :)

I also have a request for a hat and a scarf in green for a coworker's son and there is a felted purse that I want to make. And...I found some nice acrylic yarn for .75 cents a skein at Walmart the other day (Thanks Beth for telling me about that!!!) so I bought 6 skeins and will make a baby blanket out of it. It's a very nice, deep shade of purple. Thank goodness I cleaned up my stash and got rid of a bunch of yarn, huh?

Some knitting stuff....

So, I've finished a few projects recently. :) I knitted a purse using a slightly modified Diamond in the Rough pattern. I chose to make it with a flap instead of having it open at the top. Now I just need to either find handles I like or knit and felt an i-cord for it. I also chose to knit up a cell phone case. All it needs to be finished is a belt loop and a closure (I'll probably use velcro).


I also cleaned up my stash just a bit. It really needed it. And I found some yarn that I had forgotten I had. So...it now (almost) all fits in the drawers. There is a little bit in a rubbermaid tote but not too much.

Here are some pictures of what I did:

This is what it looks like now. Sorry I don't have a before picture. You will just have to trust me that there was yarn *everywhere*!





I even cleaned up and organized my needles and things...








I'm also getting rid of quite a bit of it. I have a friend in Galveston who is allergic to wool and only uses cotton or acrylic. Since I, for the most part, don't like knitting with acrylic yarn I am giving her a bunch of what I have. I will keep a few skeins of it around in case anyone wants to learn how to knit but I'm getting rid of the rest of it. And I know my friend will appreciate it. I will take it down to her on Thursday when we meet up for dinner


On another, but related, note...there is a group of us at the zoo who have started getting together to knit/crochet - either during lunch or right after work. The zoo has been kind enough to let us use one of the conference rooms. So far there are 8-10 of us who come. The group includes staff from different animal departments as well as commissary and some volunteers. There are others from other departments that want to join but the timing hasn't been right yet. This is lots of fun and is open to anyone who knits/crochets or who wants to learn. I'm really enjoying it and I'm pretty certain everyone else is too. :)