Diagonal Washcloth Makeup Remover Pads

So I've recently become obsessed with knitting those diagonal garter stitch washcloths, because they're really the best washcloths ever, and it only takes me a few hours to knit one. I knit one yesterday:

And I really am just so in love with the way the colors turned out. Then I decided that I wanted to make matching makeup remover pads (Because how freakin' cute would that be?!), but there are only patterns for rectangular or square ones (that I could find, anyway), and I wanted them to be diagonal like the washcloth, but without the eyelets. So I just made up a pattern! If it can even be called a pattern. I'm sure anybody could figure it out without one, BUT here it is just in case:

CO 3 (I used size 8 (5 mm) needles and Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn, because that's what I used for my washcloth, but you can use whatever needle/yarn combination you prefer.)

Row 1: K2, CO 1, K1
Row 2: Knit
Row 3: K2, CO 1, K2
Row 4: Knit
Row 5: K1, KFB, Knit until 2 stitches remain, KFB, K1 (7 stitches)
Row 6: Knit
Rows 7-12: Repeat rows 5 and 6 until you have 13 stitches
Row 13: K1, K2Tog, Knit until 3 stitches remain, K2Tog, K1 (11 stitches)
Row 14: Knit
Rows 15-20: Repeat rows 13 and 14 until you have 5 stitches
Row 21: K1, S1 K-wise, K2Tog, PSSO, K1

BO and weave in ends, and voilà! you have a diagonal garter stitch makeup remover pad! Make several more, and you'll have a set! :D

Oh, and here's a picture to give you an idea of the size:

A Series of Unfortunate Events, that Is Turning Out Surprisingly Well

GUYS!!!!!! My LAST. SEMESTER. EVA!!!!!! starts tomorrow morning!!!!!!

I was supposed to graduate in May, but I failed my Perception class. In my defense, about half the class failed. It was hard. I've been trying to look at it as a good thing though, because I now get to take Theories of Personality, a class that I've always wanted to take, but previously didn't have time for. I'm also taking a Human Services class on Family Violence, which is gonna be cool, and a Public History class, which I'm eh about, but the more hours I take, the more financial aid I get, and I am b.r.o.k.e. And on that note...

Bank of America is auctioning off my dad's house on September 6, so my dad, my two sisters, and I are about to be homeless, which royally sucks. It's been a long time coming, but looking back on everything, I really don't see how I could have done anything differently. An unfortunate series of job losses, car accidents, and other such lovely events hit my family at an already bad time, and this is just the end result. As much as it sucks though, I really do believe that this needed to happen. The reasons are many, but far too personal for me to feel comfortable blogging about. Luckily, as of right now, we all have places to stay until we can get things straightened out.

I'm staying with a friend who lives, like, five minutes away from campus, which pretty much eliminates all the issues I've been having with getting to school, finding a job, etc. I can walk to all sorts of places if I have to, and there's a bus system. I only wish that getting around without a car could be so easy in Jasper. Anyway, I'm moving in on Saturday, and things are really looking up for me. Oh, and I get to keep Salem, which I am so far beyond excited about! That's something that I just was not expecting, and I was really upset about it too. I have some truly incredible friends. <3 I hope that I'll always be able to be there for them like they've been here for me.

Fall 2011

Okay, so I'm apparently not all that great at this whole planning thing, but I'm really, really, really going to try this time!!!

September

• Veyla fingerless mittens (for the Gryffindor Fingerless Glove Along September Challenge)
• At least one Grandmother's Favorite washcloth
• A few Wave blanket squares (for the Gryffindor Scrapghan-A-Long)
• A dyeing project
• Finish The Brightest Witch of Her Age for Detention

October

• At least one more Grandmother's Favorite washcloth
• A few more Wave blanket squares
• Summer Flies shawl
• Finish Dad's Vampy Sweater for Detention

November

• Commuter Fingerless Mittens (for the Gryffindor Fingerless Glove Along November Challenge)
• At least one more Grandmother's Favorite washcloth
• A few more Wave blanket squares
• Finish My Vampire Muse for Detention

Advanced Studies

• Four pairs of Bella's Mittens for my Arithmancy OWL (A Vampire Slumber Party, An Obsessed, Vampire Stalker, The World's Only Clumsy Vampire, and Just Like a Real Vampire)
• Gryffindor Hogwarts Scarf for the Order of the Phoenix

Quidditch

• TBD

I'm going to stick as close to this plan as possible!!! Third year, HERE I COME!!!

On another note, I started listening to a new podcast yesterday. Two fellow Gryffindors, naturallyknitty and StarKnits, started it not too long ago, and they're so much fun! They're sisters, and their podcast is appropriately called The Weasley Sisters. It's a knitting/spinning/Gryffindor podcast, so if you're interested in any of those things, you should definitely check it out! You can subscribe for free on iTunes!

My Rest-of-July Knitting Plan

I'm trying to get in the habit of blogging more often. Of course, it's been difficult to type anything lately, especially a long-winded blog post, because Salem thinks my boobs are the perfect place for a nap. I mean, really, have you ever tried typing with a kitten napping on your boobs?? It doesn't help that he thinks the perfect time for a nap is when I'm on my laptop and therefore paying less attention to him than he likes.

So, I've noticed that I tend to spend a lot more time planning to knit than actually knitting. Another way of saying this: I spend way too much time on Ravelry. My current effort to remedy this is a knitting plan for the rest of this month, along with weekly knitting goals. So, without further ado:

My Rest-of-July Knitting Plan

• By the end of this week (Sunday, the 10th):
• Knit 3 more balls on Dad's Vampy Sweater.
• Knit Hermione's Deathly Hallows hat.
• Knit 2 more panels on My Vampire Muse.
• By the end of next week (Sunday, the 17th):
• Finish knitting Dad's Vampy Sweater.
• Knit 3 more panels on My Vampire Muse.
• Finish knitting first Wave blanket square to block and measure.
• By Sunday, the 24th:
• Weave in ends, block, etc. Dad's Vampy Sweater.
• Finish knitting My Vampire Muse.
• Finish blanket squares.
• By Sunday, the 31st:
• Block, seam, etc. My Vampire Muse.
• Knit Summer Flies.

It's a lot for me, but I'm going to try really hard to get it all done!

Kitty!

I got a kitty yesterday! His name is Salem, and this is him:

He likes to play with my yarn and needles while I'm knitting. :/ But I loves him anyway!

Twi-Hard Knits

Okay, so I'm a total Twi-hard. And I really love finding knitting patterns based off things that are worn by my favorite characters in my favorite movies. In fact, the whole reason I started knitting was because I really, really, really wanted a pair of Bella's mittens, the ones she wears in both Twilight and New Moon.

Of course, I still haven't knit the mittens yet, because I wanted to make sure I'd gotten in lots of knitting practice first. But I'm planning on knitting myself four pairs this fall, in four different colors (gray, red, blue, and purple), as well as a pair for my sister (in brown). I guess I could've just bought a pair from the original maker, Ruth Cross, but $74.26 is just more than I can spend on a pair of mittens, even though it's totally worth it, since they're hand-knit. This way though, I can afford several pairs, and I can also get my hands on other knits from the Twilight (and other) movies! Now, before I get back to my original point, here's another picture of the mittens (from the Ruth Cross website):

Aren't they lovely?

Anyway, I didn't originally plan for this blog entry to be about all the great things you can knit from Twilight, but I guess that's where it's headed, because what I originally wanted to share is that I started knitting Bella's scarf from the baseball scene. Great pictures of this scarf seem to be very hard to find, so here's one from its Ravelry pattern page:

Now, I love this scarf and am beyond excited to be making it! It's made by seaming together a bunch of knit panels, and the seaming is apparently a bitch, but it's supposed to be totally worth it in the end. I've only finished one of the panels, but I'm actually really glad this scarf is made the way it is, because I usually find knitting scarves to be very boring (which is sad, really, because scarves are one of my very favorite accessories!).

And that was what I wanted to share!

My Yarn Stash Is Expanding...

I'm getting better, like way better, at knitting. Of course, I blame the HPKCHC for this (and they happily accept the blame :P), but I've recently decided that there's nothing I can't knit. And my yarn stash reflects this... Because it just keeps getting bigger, and I just can't seem to stop myself buying more. So, to make myself feel better, I decided to run some statistics (because I am a statistics nerd):

As of right now, I have 122 different types of yarn stashed (I am also completely anal about keeping my stash updated on Ravelry.).

• Of those 122, 52 were given to me, either in swaps, as gifts, or because I won them, so I didn't even pay for about 43% of the yarn in my stash (well, if we're not taking individual skeins into account, which I'm not). See, I already feel better!
• 38 of them I bought for a specific project, so there's another 31% that I no longer feel bad about!
• Now, the other 26%... Yeah, I feel kind of bad about that. Not that it isn't perfectly useable yarn! I just haven't figured out what to use it for yet.

Okay, so I'd really like to keep the I-have-absolutely-no-idea-what-I'm-going-to-do-with-this-yarn-but-I-just-had-to-buy-it-because-it's-so-pretty-or-it-was-so-cheap percentage at like... 10-ish%? Of course, yarn like that is really great to have lying around, for those last-minute gifts, or for when you're pattern browsing and find the perfect pattern that you just have to cast on right NOW! But right now, I have about 2.5-ish times too much of that yarn.

So, on another note, I've officially decided that Caron Simply Soft is my go-to cheapy yarn of choice. I have a lot of it, but it's just so soft, and there are so many colors, and it's soft, and it has really excellent drape, and there aren't any dye lots, so running out and having to buy more is okay, and did I mention that it's soft?

Another thing I really need to work on is not buying yarn for projects that I know I won't get to for a while. :/ I do that a lot... But it's like, I decide that I really wanna make something, and then I pick out the yarn, and I have to buy it as soon as possible! Which is just silly, because most likely, the yarn isn't going to go anywhere.

My HPKCHC Plan for the Spring 2011 Term

It's the 1st!! Classes were posted super early, right at midnight PST (or PrincessOnica time, as it's known in the House Cup group), and excitement was so high, you could taste it! So, as of today, here is my plan for the term:

May

• Stirrup Socks for History of Magic
• House Hat for Ancient Runes (which I'm teaching this term! Squee!!!!)
• Helix Gloves for Charms
• Washcloth for... a class. I'm not sure which one yet.

June

• Godric's Hollow Hat
• Yummy Beret

July

• Sitio Stockings
• Romantic Fingerless Gloves

Advanced Studies

• Love Bites-for Him for my Muggle Studies OWL

Quidditch

• Quaffles: TBD
• Hallows:
• Elder Wand: Bella Swan's Baseball Scarf (if approved)
• Resurrection Stone: TBD
• Invisibility Cloak: Gryffindor Scarf

On a non-HPKCHC note, I restarted my fitness program today! So far, so good!

An Overview of What I've Been Up To

Wow, it's been a long time since I've blogged (Well, on my personal blog, this blog, anyway--I wrote for the HPKCHC Blog from January to March.)

What is the HPKCHC, you ask? Well, the HPKCHC is the Harry Potter Knitting & Crochet House Cup. If you're a Harry Potter fan, and you're on Ravelry, you should check it out! January through March was my first "year" at Hogwarts, and I was one of two First Year Bloggers. Anyway, if you'd like to read about my experiences being a First Year Gryffindor, here are linkies to the blog posts I wrote:

• January 14
• February 4
• February 11
• February 18
• March 10
• March 18

Now, the last time I wrote for you guys, I was still working on my first project. Boy, have I been a busy bee since then! I've completed quite a few projects, although none of them have been especially big. Rather than bore you with a list of all the things I've learned to do, I'm going to post pictures of some of the things I've made:

I've also been experimenting with Kool-Aid dyeing:

As you can see, most of the stuff I've done so far has been fairly simple, but I plan on changing that this "year" (I'm a Second Year Gryffindor now in the HPKCHC.). Yep, I plan on making a couple sweaters and a few really long scarves in the next three months. :) I'm even going to try my hand at designing (a scarf, nothing major)! Ravelry linkies to some of the stuff I've got planned as of right now:

• Love Bites-for Him (a sweater for my dad)
• 2 Werewolf Hats
• Stirrup Socks, Yoga or Pedicure Socks, and a few other pairs of yoga/dancer's socks
• Several more hats, such as a House Hat (from the book Charmed Knits), Yummy Beret, and Godric's Hollow Hat
• A Hogwarts Scarf (Gryffindor, of course!), Bella Swan's Baseball Scarf, Rosalie Has Been Bitten, and Seattle
• Several pairs of Bella's Mittens
• $5 in Paris (a sweater for me!)

Ooooooh, I'd also like to share my knitting library! Seeing as my very first blog post, back in November, was about my lack of any and all knitting books.

• Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter
• DomiKNITrix: Whip Your Knitting into Shape
• Knit Christmas Stockings!: 19 Patterns for Stockings and Ornaments
• Knitting for Dummies (2nd Edition)
• Respect the Spindle: Spin Infinite Yarns with One Amazing Tool (which is a spinning book, not a knitting book, but still)
• Romantic Hand Knits: 26 Flirtatious Designs that Flatter Your Figure
• Sensual Knits: Luxurious Yarns, Sexy Designs
• Stitch'n Bitch Superstar Knitting: Go Beyond the Basics
• Vampire Knits: Projects to Keep You Knitting from Twilight to Dawn

Well, I could keep adding to this blog post, but it's getting really late (3 AM where I am), and I'm getting sleepy, so I'm going to end it for now. I'll write again soon though! I won't stay away for four months this time, I promise. ;)

~Niccy