Yarn Swap: Doctor Who (received)

My delightful (Pond-themed!!!!!) swap package arrived last week from knitika. I love it when packages come on Wednesdays, since Wednesdays (at least right now) are the WORST day of classes in my whole week and I’m always exhausted and sometimes angry at everything when I get home and the packages give me such a lift. This was no exception. I was hoping the whole way home that I’d have a box waiting at my door, and then I did!

The contents came wrapped in such beautiful paper that I didn’t want to open them (okay…that’s a lie, I totally still wanted to open them). Each has a quote to go with it, and it turned out that they were all perfectly themed. I SO envy the creativity in wrapping this!



First…

(I got to this part and said…OMG I KNOW WHAT THIS IS!!!!! because I LOVE the packaging this stuff ships in almost as much as I love the product)

Digital Nails in the Pandorica colourway. I had to resist just putting it on my nails immediately.



Next…

It’s a tablet cover out of the amazing Exploding TARDIS fabric that I love SO MUCH.

And...

My tablet totally fits! I cannot wait to take it to class with me tomorrow. I was SO about to break down and just order a tablet cover because the reality of me having time to make one was quickly becoming an illusion.

Then…

I have heard such great things about this book and I cannot wait to read it. I’m slating it for first thing in August once school wraps for the summer!

And…

I admit that I had NO IDEA what this might be. It was a little bit the best surprise that ever happened! I thought it might be cookies. It was WAY BETTER than cookies.


It’s an Exploding TARDIS poster. Which will go so very nicely with the Van Gogh prints I bought for my temp apartment. I’m going to head out and get it a frame this weekend and I already have the exact perfect spot!

Also…

Nerd Girl Yarns in the “Sunflowers” colourway on the sport weight base. I just…I love this yarn. I love it so much. I need to find the exact right thing for it to grow up to be.

AND!…



HAND KNIT THINGS MADE FROM BROOKLYN TWEED SHELTER. Which is totally as amazing feeling as I hoped it would be (and they smell great!). The colours are so pretty and I love them and I’m a little sad it’s July because I wanted to put these mittens on and not take them off. I tried to take a photo of me with the mittens, but it turns out it’s really hard to take a picture of mittens while you’re wearing mittens because you refuse to remove the mittens. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

Finally…

Tea from knitika’s local tea shop (which I’m delighted she managed to turn into still being Pond-related!). I just finished 2 teas and am in dire need of a coffee intervention, so this will be just the incentive I need to switch back to tea!

Here’s the whole delightful, delicious, delectable, perfect, Pond-y package!

I adore everything and I feel so incredibly spoiled. Knitika did such a great job!!!!!!

WIP Wednesday: Stochastic Knitting and a Sewing Project

This week's WIPs are a bit different than some week's WIPs in that they're not my typical crafting project.

First, a colourwork hat. Which isn't at all out of the ordinary for me, but the "pattern" is definitely not my typical thing.

A bit about what this is. To start, the pattern is more or less based on the Turn A Square Hat by Jared Flood, which is sort of my go-to standard hat pattern at this point. It's a great unisex hat with an easy construction (except the Channel Island cast on, which I find beyond tedious and almost never do), it's basic and easily modified, and it's free. All wins in my book. The yarn is stuff I pulled out of my stash that I've been "saving" for "making random hats"...which is my way of justifying not getting rid of the yarn. Good thing that's finally paying off. The grey colour is most of a ball of Lion Brand Wool Ease leftover from a Fourth Doctor scarf. The red is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes left over from a sweater I made my mom a few years ago. None of that is odd.

What's odd is the "pattern", which I keep putting in quotes for a reason. The Knerdgirl Knits podcast (you hear about them alot around here!) is doing a cool event this year that's a year-long bad-ass women craft along. Four times (two months each) this year, they're doing a set of challenges to celebrate women in STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math) fields (of which I am one). This round is the Women in Tech/Education KAL, and one of the challenges is to knit something with a stochastic pattern generator that Kris (Geknitics on Ravelry) found. The very complicated explanation that I don't understand behind it can be found here, but suffice to say that this uses all sorts of computer math formulas and generates random patterns of colourwork depending on a variety of things you input. It basically generates them on the fly and you then knit the block of stitches, hit next, knit the next block of stitches, hit next, etc. I should warn you that I hear the site only works in Firefox (which I happen to use), so visit at your own risk or whatever. It's pretty fun to not know exactly what's coming next or what this is going to look like when it's done, actually. That's not normally at all how I roll, but the way the pattern generator works it's making it very easy.

It's going slowly because it's colourwork and I have to sit at my laptop so I can generate the next steps, but it's a worsted weight hat, so it shouldn't take too much longer. Any rate, I need a project to take to geek knitting night at the LYS tomorrow, so I want it to be at a place where I'm knitting straight red and doing crown decreases by then, otherwise I'll have to bring the laptop with me, which I don't want to do.

Second...a sewing project. I'm making the top left dress from this Butterick pattern for my first day of grad school classes.  It doesn't look like much yet, but I'm hoping if I can squeeze out some time this Saturday before I go on a work trip and then maybe the weekend after I get back, I can make real progress on it. It's allegedly an easy project, and I don't think it should be too much more work. I just had to stop because I need to think about lining fabric and buy a zipper.

Anyway, just for funsies, here it is in progress!

 The long piece is the skirt. The contrast pieces go on the midriff. And the bodice pieces are the things you can sort of see on top. Here's hoping I'll have something more tangible to show you soon!