One little Shadow Alien

Thin strips of alternating green and black? Yes, but it's so much more! Hidden carefully in Area 51... I mean in rows of knits and purls is a shadow knit Alien. Totally groovy, no? When glimpsed at an angle, you can see how this bad boy suddenly becomes less subtle. The technique is called illusion knitting or shadow knitting. The pattern is available in Stitch N' Bitch by Debbie Stoller.

Gainful Employment

Totally not knit related, but definitely newsworthy to me. I was just offered a position at Blizzard and have accepted it. These cool kids are the ones that have come up with the massively multi-player online role-playing game called "World of Warcraft" or for short "WoW". Favored by people with only one 'X' chromosome, this leads to an interesting phenomenon in the gentler sex. Ladies tend to notice that the man in their life spends far more time online doing heroic things rather than hanging out with them. Thus giving birth to the concept of a "WoW Widow". In fact, this lovely motivational (or demotivational) picture should give you an idea of how bad it might get.

Braid Panels

I like braid cables; according to the snooty these are actually plait cables. Anyway this is going to be a disgustingly warm blanket. After I make the fraternal twin of this panel (instead of one braid going up and one going down it will be reversed); I will have used nearly eight 12 ounce skeins of yarn. This means that it's going to be SIX FREAKIN' POUNDS of yarn! Oh, and I'm not done yet.

Well, this is what I've been doing with my spare time.

Kinky Knit!

Thoughtful gift = handmade item. Sexy present = edible undies. Combine thoughtful with sexy to create the superlative gift. The gift to end all gifts... red laces licorice panties crafted with care (and chopsticks) by a naughty knitter. If only I were cool enough to come up with this. Alas not, but that is fortunate for the rest of the world; because had I come up with the idea I would hold this little gem of a pattern hostage only to be released to the highest bidder. In what can only be described as an Nobel Peace Prize winning move, the pattern is available free. This nifty little number is called 302 Calories. This isn't granny's knittin'... or at least not any kind she told YOU about!

Perfect for Transvestites!

What can I say? I was seduced by the idea of cheap novelty yarn. Did I heed the warning on the front? Noooo... It was there, right on the front; it was even the name of the yarn: "Boa". But I can go broke saving money and any inexpensive yarn can find a home in my stash, no matter how ugly it is. After discovering that I couldn't distinguish the front from the back or knits from purls, I just did a garter stitch (knitting every row). Thus creating something that perhaps Dr. Frankenfurter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show might wear if he ever found himself stuck in the furthest reaches of Transexual.

Even more blanket!

Luscious, is it not? This is is a modification of a pattern from Debbie Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns. The pattern is called "Triple Braided Diamonds" and I just multiplied everything in there by two so that it would kind of measure up with gargantuan nature of this blanket. I think this one is going to be the center panel.

Perfect for those freezing So. Cal winters!

A few months ago I bought a ton of denim colored yarn on sale. In fact I got 96 ounces of this yarn for the low price of $32.00 (plus tax of course). With such an abundant supply; I had little choice. I needed to make a blanket. I found a pattern I liked from Lion Brand's website and got started. Here's what it's supposed to look like....

Cute, right? Well, it calls for a really thick yarn... No problem; I get the same gauge when I hold two strands of my denim yarn together. Then I decided that I wanted to make it long enough to cover my queen sized bed. By repeating the pattern so that it's more than twice as long as originally intended, I got a panel that looks like a very long version of the panel below.  Right now I have two of these long little babies waiting to go. I need to post a picture of the other panel I did for this blanket, but this is enough for now.

Lace and Cable Beanie

I made this lace and cable beanie a while ago and for the life of me I can't seem to find the pattern online anymore. For some unfathomable reason I made it using Lavender yarn. Know of anyone that would love and appreciate this lovely one of a kind lace and cable beanie? Currently it is residing in a basket of finished projects.

Iced Venti Coffee Cozy

So folks, what do you think? Since I work at a Starbucks and spend quite a bit of time knitting; when I'm not putting little cardboard sleeves on cups of coffee that is, it was a natural to link the two. Wonder how much cardboard people would save if they just used little knit sleeves each day. Hey does anybody think I could sell one or two of these things? Maybe if I charged a buck or so for them?

Sheesh, how many occular points do you need?

Coolest knitting pattern ever. I can honestly say that when I first saw this R2-D2 knit hat I had a hard time deciding who would be the first to get one. Slightly intimidated by the project, it turned out pretty damn fantastic. Though it ended up larger than I had imagined, Ray seems to do pretty well with it. In case you want to see what this is supposed to look like, check it out here at Carissa's Knit site. I think she might be my doppleganger... she's an OCD knitter who works as a barista at Starbucks.