I've had vast plans to make something super for pretty much every challenge, but I've never had the time.  Unfortunately, same with this one.  I had an amazing idea, but I've come to terms with my realization that I'm not going to have time to do it in between the baby blankets I'm making for a friend's expected TWINS!  I still want to enter though, so I figure why not enter something I'd been planning to make for a long time anyway?

It's nothing really special, but it's WAY useful.  A water bottle holder!  

http://pics.livejournal.com/karmic_fishie/pic/00009hqw/s640x480

Staying hydrated is really important, especially during the summer, but I'm a busy girl, and with one more thing to lug around all over the place, my water bottle gets dropped a LOT.  After almost losing it down the side of a mountain a few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and just MADE it like I'd been planning to for the past several years.  And now I don't drop my water AND the holder keeps the sun from warming it up too fast!

 

Good luck to everybody else.  I know I won't win, but I don't care.  

[NEW FO PICTURES!!!]

I'm in the middle of moving, so I can't really provide completely finished FO pictures of this, but I've been antsy to post and show off so I'm doing it anyway.

The pattern is the Sahara Sweater from Stitch Diva
http://www.stitchdiva.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=SDS-031

This is my first sweater, and it was pretty easy, and I learned a LOT while doing it.  I finally figured out the M1R and M1L increases (I still hate them), perfected my technique joining two skeins of yarn together, and learned how to do short rows,  lace knitting, the mattress stitch, and provisional cast-ons.  There are definitely some spots where I made mistakes, but I'm pretty pleased with my results.

Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic in Khaki Green and Karabella Glimmer in Green/Gold




Finishing the front seaming (I had it on because I wanted to get the depth right)




Don't mind my loose ends

It took me about two months to do it, which was longer than I'd hoped but I wasn't working on it a whole lot.  I pretty much knit the whole thing at work while things were slow and while carpooling to and from work.  I did the last bits of it sitting in the dark corners of a dance club, and when I'd finished up with the loose ends, I put it on in the bar and started on my next project.

NEW FO PICTURES!!!

Finally found my camera charger, so here is the finished thing!  I'm still going to do a bit of blocking, but I can't until we're all finished unpacking and I have my craft room set up again.


The back. You can see the scoopy-hem of the bottom pretty well in this picture.


The sleeve caps are worked in short rows.  I'd never really done these before.  The right sleeve was fine.  But the left sleeve...


Friends don't let friends do short rows drunk.


Detail of the diamond-lace pattern


All done!

 

I bought a camera for my road trip to Florida, and I've been LOVING it ever since.  Best part: it goes underwater!  It takes great non-underwater pictures too.  I just spent the past few days uploading pictures, and I figured I'd share my favorites!


"A Study in Jonwa with Butterfly"


"Shy Fishies" -- underwater!


"Buttefly"


"Lilly"


"Floating" -- underwater!


"Underwater"


"Chris" -- at night... underwater!

I've always wanted to get into photography, but thought I was doomed after looking at the pictures I was taking.  Then, after I got my new camera, I realized I just needed a better camera!

Thanks for looking, y'all   

So back when I worked in the Costume Shop at my university, I used to make some awesome things.  Granted, they were all either from commercial patterns or from patterns designed by my boss, but still.  This is my favorite by far.  Too bad it was only on stage for about 10 minutes.  I had fun making it though!

I love the fishies.  Imagine my joy when a yard and a half of the most amazing fish fabric ever showed up at the thrift store I used to work at.

It didn't last on the sales floor for very long.




Don't mind the octopus in the sink.

Made this last January JUST in time for a friends birthday at the Seattle Aquarium.  Then I wore it on my recent road trip.


Fish skit IN ACTION! in the Arizona Desert.

I patterned this skirt off of the bottom of a dress I really liked.  It was pretty simple and I made it in a few hours.

Hey all!  I've been crafting for most of my life, and recently got into knitting back in college.  When I was first learning, for Xmas 2002, my boyfriend's mom gave me a $25 gift certificate for the LYS.  Not knowing ANYTHING about yarn or knitting besides how to cast on and make a rectangle, I picked two skeins of some nice fancy yarn.  $12 each.  Four years later, I'm stuck.  What do I do with this tiny amount of this AWESOME yarn?

Then my friend pops up with Glampyre's One Skein Wonder
http://glampyreknits.tripod.com/glampyrephotos/id97.html

I ran out of yarn before I could do the trim, so I ended up combining some regular grey acrylic with some furry black nylon.  I'm pretty pleased with this, my second knitted article of clothing:







My FIRST knitted article of clothing was these here pair of socks:





I used the foot pattern from http://www.wiseneedle.com/knitpatfire.asp, but did a normal K1P1 rib for the rest.

I haven't picked up a knitting needle since my road trip to Florida from Seattle, and I just moved so I'm antsy to get my craft room set up and start knitting some more!