Son of a Dish Rag Tag

My partner in the MYB Round 11 Swap, Kimberly, tweeted about something called Dish Rag Tag a few weeks ago. I had no idea what it was, but decided to investigate. It's a swap/race organized by Emily of Yarn Miracle. There are twenty teams that set out to knit dish rags and pass them along relay race style. It sounded like a lot of fun, so of course I signed up! This is the third year Emily has organized the race. Teams were assigned on Wednesday and I am on Team #2. I have my yarn and box already. I also have an idea of what I'm going to make for the extra treat to send to the person I tag. This will be my first non-Craftster swap other than the traveling scarf swap I organized with my girls from college. Which reminds me, I need to post pictures and share about that...

First Pair of Fingerless Mitts

First Pair of Fingerless Mitts
Originally uploaded by imafundork

I participated in the Craftster Magic Yarn Ball Round 10 Swap back in March. My partner sent me this yarn and a pattern for crochet fingerless mittens. Apparently, she overlooked the fact that I said I had tried to learn to crochet, but never could grasp it. So anyway, the yarn has been sitting here for months waiting to be turned into something fun. Since my partner had intended for the yarn to become fingerless mitts, I felt it was only right to knit them. I had never used DPNs before, but found a pattern that seemed really simple so I gave it a shot. I think they turned out well. The yarn really isn't to my taste so they will probably be a gift for someone.
Despite MYB 10 being rather disapointing, I decided to give it another chance. This time around I'm the organizer so I got to choose my partner for Round 11! About a week and a half left until send outs and I'll post pics of what I send and receive then.

Stalking her prey.

Going in for the kill.
Originally uploaded by imafundork

I bought "Wendy Knits" by Wendy D. Johnson this morning at Border's. In the book, Wendy has a pattern for a very simple catnip mouse. I decided to make it this afternoon with some random acrylic yarn I had in my stash. Mischa wasn't too sure what to think about the mouse, but Brody was all over it!

More pics here.

Tree Love

I joined the Tree Swap over on Craftster and was lucky enough to be paired with lafemmefatale who lives only two hours away. We decided to swap our tree goodness in person. I drove up to meet her and spend the afternoon.
Jessa made me this awesome cork/tree wall art! Isn't it fabulous?!
There are more pictures of what we made over in the gallery.

We had a yummy vegetarian lunch at The Moon Under Water and then explored St. Pete while geocaching.
The first cache we found was at a Banyan tree-my favorite type of tree!



How cute is she?!

The final cache we found was high up in a tree! Jessa gave me a boost and despite my fears I climbed the tree and got it down!



It was a great afternoon and I'm really glad we decided to meet in person. I definitely gained a new friend after this swap!

Colorful Dots

Gift cards and envelopes
Originally uploaded by imafundork

To continue with my destashing, I made notecards and matching envelopes yesterday afternoon. It didn't use up a lot of stash, but they are so fun, I'm sure I'll be making more soon. The problem is I have tons of note cards so I'll have to give them away as gifts.

This set is for Kelley's birthday. Hopefully, Kelley will enjoy writing notes in them as much as I enjoyed making them!

I learned how to cable knit!

Since learning how to knit five years ago, I've wanted to learn how to do cables. I always thought it was going to be difficult so I've stuck with basic stitches. Over the New Year's holiday, I was talking to Tara about it because she was working on a cabled scarf. She told me it really wasn't that hard once you got the hang of it and knew how to hold your cable needle. After I got home, I purchased some cable needles and set out to find a beginner pattern. I found a pattern for dishcloths here.

I made one in Bernat Organic Cotton in Muslin. I made a few mistakes, but overall I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. It turned out to be much smaller than I anticipated. Instead of a dishcloth, it seems more like a baby washcloth to me. I was so excited with cables that I modified the pattern and made another washcloth in Bernat Organic Cotton in Cactus.

Destash

My new year's resolution is to destash in 2009. I have way more stuff than any one person needs. This includes clothing, movies, music, books and CRAFT supplies. So, I've been selling things on ebay, donating to thrift stores and crafting like mad. ;) My other resolution was to make at least one new project a week; so 52 for the year. I believe I'm up to 11 projects done and there's still another week left in January! There are a few craft-alongs over at Craftster that are helping me along with my goals. There's a Destash-along, Color Craftalong, 50 Projects in a Year, and Holiday Handmade Crusade. The ladies at Craftster are so encouraging. It's nice to know that there are people out there working towards your same goals. I've posted some pics over there already and will try to get some up over here soon.


Wow...two posts in one night...I wonder how long it'll be until I post again... ;)