Help me win some Yarn!

Shortly after I made those triangle cats, I found out Instructables was having a Critter Contest sponsored by Lion Brand Yarn, so I submitted my Critters. The prize is yarn! So if you feel like going over to instructables and voting for my critter, it would be much appreciated! Voting starts today, and goes until Thursday, the 29th.

New on Etsy: Treasury East

Etsy unveiled a new feature last week, now in Beta, called Treasury East. It's much like the standard treasuries available, but these don't require the wait time, and don't expire. You can read Etsy's announcement here. Also, they've announced that next Tuesday will be Treasury East day, which means that for the day all the front page galleries will be picked from Treasury East rather than the normal treasury. Anyway, it looks like there are alread well over 200 pages of treasuries to explore, and I'm sure that number will grow! Pictured above is my first Treasury East, only a bit of it, you can see the rest of the items here! And I think I plan on abusing this feature as much as possible as I get ideas!

Hello Spring! at the Chicago Botanic Garden

My Grandma is in town this week, and we are showing her around a bit, so yesterday we took her up to the Chicago Botanic Garden. Things are just getting started up there, it's definitely spring! Of course, it was still pretty chilly. I started out our visit with my sweatshirt hood up, and great big sunglasses on. For some reason I don't think this deterred my dad from taking some pics of me, as unidentifiable as I was, so you might see some pics of that silliness show up on his flickr in the next day or two (though hopefully not!) The chill also means my lips are very chapped today, but I was so busy taking way too many photos to notice it was happening.

My parents have a membership at the garden, and I know they are excited to start going from now until fall to see how the plantings change over the seasons. I went with them a few times over the last year or so, though not nearly as often as they visit. You can check out my photos from this visit and previous ones over on my flickr set dedicated to the gardens. I suppose I have a tendancy to photography the architecture there a little more than most people; I was a little more interested in the greenhouse than usual on this trip. But I also like to snap pictures of the birds, even if a Grackle, Robin and Chickadee aren't all that uncommon. Lastly, I really liked this flower, though I have no idea what it is called! Leave me a comment if you know, I should have looked for a marker. But there was a lot to see!

Knitting Slang term of the Day: Startitis

I guess while I was studying for my last test I must have had knitting in the back of my mind, because the last week or so I've had what knitters call "startitis" pretty bad. I started about 4 projects. You already saw the easter bunnies. The rest range in project scale and therefore the amount of time these projects should take me varies. Of course with so many projects going on at once that means that they will each take longer, depending on where my focus falls...

Exhibit A:

Diminishing Rib Cardigan from Interweave Knits, Spring 2009 in Rowan Calmer that I've had in the stash for too long, which I stocked very early on for a sweater I decided was too problematic. On Ravelry

Exhibit B:

Sam Socks from Cookie A.'s sock innovation. Crystal Palace Panda Cotton yarn was in the discount bin of the local yarn shop recently, and I want to start making some of the socks from this book I got for Christmas last year. On Ravelry

Exhibit C:

And lastly, inspired by the bunny nuggets, I wanted to do my take on a cute little stuffed toy made of scraps. I guess I'm calling him Triangle Cat, which I believe to be a sort of calico due to my yarn choice. I've decided I really prefer the Blue Sky Cotton for these, but in a pinch the Lily cotton works too. It's perhaps the best use I've found for the Blue Sky yarn so far, it makes for a super soft and cuddly animal. There may be more of these in the future...meanwhile, I just took some quick snapshots, and I'm going to have to try to grab some nicer pictures soon.

Sharing

Using that new feature on ravelry, here are a few of the project I have shared so that non-ravelers can check them out too:

Little Green Sweater

http://ravel.me/Emmakat/lbs

Organic Man Pullover (Chuck's Sweater)

http://ravel.me/Emmakat/omp

Chromosome Scarf

http://ravel.me/Emmakat/cs

Soybean Socks

http://ravel.me/Emmakat/ss

As far as I can tell you really can only do them one at a time, suitable for posting to facebook or linking from your blog, etc. Handy feature! Of course there are at least photos of everything I've knit over in my flickr set dedicated to the subject. Or you can check out my works in progress if you are very curious. Not quite as neatly organized as it gets on ravelry, but still perhaps interesting to peruse.

Happy Easter!

Well, if I had spotted this pattern a day later I wouldn't have finished these guys in time for Easter. Each one took me about an evening, and then once all the parts were done, there was a lot of finishing work. I just happened to be browsing the ravelry vegan groups shared projects at the right time, and as soon as I saw these I had to make them for Easter. I get a little obsessive about using up entire balls of yarn, so when I find a good project that helps me get rid of scraps, I'm pretty happy about it, plus this project was perfectly seasonal. There's still a touch more of the Blue Sky Alpaca's Organic Cotton remaining from Chuck's Sweater, but I used up all the scraps remaining from the spiral hat and matching mitts (which I won't be needing much longer since it's finally spring here, uh, hopefully.)

Ravelry seems to have started a sharing feature, which allows me to provide a link to my project notes which even non-ravelers can check out, so here is the link for the bunny nuggets project, including yarn info, etc.: http://ravel.me/Emmakat/bn Not sure all that info is particularly interesting to anyone who isn't a knitter and/or isn't already on ravelry, but on the other hand, I have linked to ravelry from the blog before knowing only other members can check out those links, so in the future my links should all be accessible to anyone who stops by. Raverly rules.

Speaking of which they were featured on the Sunday Morning show recently, which is worth check out here.