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i wish i had ravelympics news for you all but i don't. my progress has faltered greatly because of popknits AND we're finally moving! yes, we signed a lease yesterday on a new home for casa gleek. it's almost $800/month cheaper and i'm going to have my own craft room/office! popknits world headquarters! we're really excited, of course, but here's the catch. we're due to move in two weeks. i haven't packed a thing yet! AND i'm due to launch popknits the same week. can we say ulcer? my hands are shaking just thinking about it.

so, knitting for the olympics is not happening. i AM knitting here and there and mostly on my frock camisole which leaves little for me to think about. wish me luck!

eating with her fork!

here's an image of the peanut because i've got nothing else to show you right now. enjoy!

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during the internet outage i got a lot done though! here's sophie the cat.

up to no good

she was actually supposed to be sophie the bunny but i was feeling "cat" while looking at her so i changed it up. i added some quick toe-like ears to the top of her head and an i-cord tail to her bum. she's ready to chase the mice away in sharon's new apartment.

here she is getting into the plants. why do all cats like to chew on spider plants? i had roommates who had cats and they always destroyed each and every plant that we had. ugh.

anyway, all the deets are on ravelry. cheers!

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anyway, sorry for the long silence! i've been all-popknits-all-the-time with a little knitting and TV. i've been updating regularly on flickr and twitter though if you're wondering what i'm up to in between posts!

all done!

so here they are! (on ravelry) to recap, one sock was made for me by nancy for the spiders one-sock swap we had back in february. she did an excellent job with picking this pattern for me. it's my first toe-up sock and i loved it and the construction of it. it had a tubular BO which i had never done, and just enough lace to keep things interesting.

everything was going great until the end. i tried the tubular BO that techknitter recommends, and through no fault of techknitter's, it sucked. my grafting is crap and way too tight which is why i never use it. i suppose i should practice and make it better but who has time for that?

so i picked out the tubular BO and tried a new one that also didn't work. i ended up using this BO that grumperina explains on her blog. it took me more than 4 hours to bind off!!! cripes!

anyway, they are done and that's all that matters. on to new knits!

i hope to come back with something new to show you next week. we'll see.

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so yeah, i've wanted an iphone since there were rumors of its development.. and finally i have one!

it's here!

can you see the excitement? i'm taking it slow and savoring every moment! but i already sat down today and sewed up two cozies for it (the first one didn't work out so well.)

this is the winner (the loser is here.) one seam to lessen bulkiness. tight but not too tight. the lining is flannel to protect the screen (i have a screen covering protector on its way.)

the lining

can you believe that i actually have two different skull and cross bones prints in my stash? how fortuitous of me! here's the quick stats in case you want to make one.

two pieces of fabric, 6" tall by 6.75" wide. the lining should be cut with pinking shears to 5" tall (it will not be seamed on the bottom. seam up both the outer fabric and the lining on the shorter side the rectangles using a 0.5" seam allowance. pink off the excess fabric on the seams and press them open with the seam in the back. sew across the bottom of the outer lining with a 0.5" seam. put the lining inside the outer fabric, right sides together, and seam up the top opening at 0.5" seam allowance. press open that seam and turn right side out. tuck the lining in and press again. done.

works great.

and here's some other crafty news. i started the frock camisole! (ravelry) i'm using the artfibers zodiac (now called zoe) that i bought in san francisco last year. so far i'm chugging along. i didn't do a gauge swatch but i think that it's going to work out ok based on what i've already knit.

and i also have a knitted toy in progress (ravelry). this one is for sharon's newly birthed bean.

it's coming along SLOWLY. all those limbs are becoming tiresome. i'm thinking about making it a cat instead of a bunny. smaller ears and a tail! will be cute, me thinks.

and remember this?

this is going to be my summer olympics project (ravelry). gods help me, i'm going to finish it, i swear.

comment on: finally my own iphone!

complete

so here's the basic details. it took about 10 skeins of ming (50g balls) and i have some leftover that i can make cowls out of for christmas presents. i adjusted the pattern for my gauge, added some short rows for the bust area, and used snaps instead of buttonholes.

snaps

for the collar, i used this technique that rebecca talked about on her blog to make the back of the collar a little higher than the front. i also made it longer because it was WAY too short as written.

all in all, it's a fine knit. i'm not 100% happy with it. i don't think that the neckline is very flattering on me and i wish it were double-breasted like the pattern (but that's my own fault because i didn't measure myself ahead of time.) i will still wear it though because the yarn is beautiful and it DOES fit regardless of my knitting flaws. i learned a lot of great lessons on top-down shaping (again) and i think that i'm finally ready to design something for myself. we'll see!

finally, here it is on ravelry.

on to the next thing! i did cast-on for the frock camisole but have yet to take pictures. i got a little sidelined this week... i got lasik eye surgery on monday! put me out of commission for 24 hours but i can now see 20/20 on my own. i'm so happy. more details on flickr.

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now i've been sidelined to bloglines again so i give a look at my current stories and see a story on wired about teams of people that are going around beijing and fixing bad english. funny story all about fixing the rampant beijing chinglish. i see a link to the wikipedia entry on chinglish and click through. you really must see this. it's hilarious!

but what's even better? the final photo on the wikipedia page.

please steek gently

a warning to all knitters apparently.

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