February Goals

1. Write down all spending. I'm doing well so far to write it all down, not so much on actually not spending much.

2. Love my hair! Now that I work in a hair salon and know I'll be dyeing my hair frequently, I need to start taking better care of it.

3. Read, read, read. With March quickly approaching, I want to keep up with my fall / winter reading list to have it finished on time. I already have my spring / summer reading list picked out!

4. Clean every day. It seems that as soon as I clean everything up, it's messy again. Hopefully cleaning every day will stop this shenanigans!

5. Master fair isle knitting! Okay, so maybe mastering it won't happen in a month, but I want to at least knit one thing using the fair isle technique. It's high time I stopped shying away from all the wonderful color work patterns I find.

Saturday's Simple: Film Love

I was perusing my inbox recently, and found a message from Lomography introducing their new film LomoChrome Purple 400. They'll have 35mm and 120 film available, and I can't wait to get my hands on some. Check out the amazing way the film develops in regular C-41 processing.

All photos property of lomography.com

Hoot List

Knitting // I would love to rock this knit pencil skirt from I Heart Norwegian Wood.

Art // This ink drawing took some major talent from Zyzanna.

Etsy // This vintage book from Book Fair would look fabulous on my bookshelf.

Style // I want these adorable leggings from Carousel Ink so badly.

Owl // Check out these amazing woodland critters temporary tattoos from DB Illustrations.

Knitting Frenzy

Completed

1. A new drink cozy for the shop.

2. Part 1 of the knit-a-long is finished. The big reveal is coming soon!

Working On

1. January cowl

2. Dog sweater

3. Infinity necklace

Starting Soon

1. Temperature journal.

2. Wonder Woman fingerless gloves and golden lasso necklace.

3. A new cowl for the shop.

What's in my bag?

Yesterday I went out walking to run all my errands so I could get some great analog time in. I packed up my bag with all the necessities, hung my camera round my neck and went on my way.

1. One of my 'working on' projects: a never ending i-cord necklace / scarf.
2. My sheep wallet full of the basic errand-running necessities.
3. An extra roll of film for the lubitel.
4. January's planner: in case I'm struck with inspiration at some point (though I did forget a pen so I'm not sure how much the planner would have helped)
5. A good audiobook playing in my ear to keep me company while I walked around.

And there's Buffy!

Recipe: Banana Monkey Bread

Banana Monkey Bread for Two

1-3 bananas (depending on how much you love bananas - I used 2, but kind of wish I'd used 3)

1 pack of biscuits (10-pack)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup butter

1 tsp cinnamon

Mix cinnamon and sugar.

Cut biscuits into quarters and slice bananas. Coat biscuit pieces and bananas with cinnamon sugar.

Grease small oven-safe serving dishes. Arrange biscuits and bananas in dishes.

Combine melted butter and brown sugar. Pour over biscuits.

Bake monkey bread in oven preheated to 350 for 20-25 minutes.

Pattern: Camera Strap

There's Buffy!

Camera Strap

{Materials}

2 skeins of worsted weight acrylic - I chose a light blue and a variegated dark blue yarn

US 5 straight needles

yarn needle

{Gauge}

4 sts x 7 rows = 1" in moss stitch

{Dictionary}

CO - cast on

St st - stockinette stitch - knit right side rows, purl wrong side rows

K - knit

M1 - make 1 stitch

mss st - moss stitch - K1, P1 across every row

SSK - slip, slip, knit - slip next 2 stitches knitwise separately, knit stitches together through back of loop

K2tog - knit next 2 stitches together

BO - bind off

sts - stitches

{Directions}

CO 3 sts

Starting with right side row, St st 8 rows

Next row: K1, M1, K to last st, M1, K1

St st 3 rows

Next row: K1, M1, K to last st, M1, K1

St st 3 rows

Next row: K1, M1, K to last st, M1, K1

St st 6 rows

Mss st until piece measures 30" from beginning of moss stitch

St st 6 rows

Next row: SSK, K to last 2 sts, K2tog

St st 3 rows

Next row: SSK, K to last 2 sts, K2tog

St st 3 rows

Next row: SSK K to last 2 sts, K2tog

St st 8 rows

BO

Attach camera strap to camera using the tails and a yarn needle and weave in ends.

Saturday's Simple: Sketchbook Love

I love packages from online friends.

I received this sketchbook a few years ago. It's filled with beautiful sketches by the very talented Candace Breakell. These are some of my favorites.

Hoot List: The Geek in Me.

Knitting // This wonderful knitted frog dissection is stunning.

Etsy // The colors of this solar system print are just perfect.

Art // The Adipose have got to be the cutest Dr. Who villains to date.

Style // I want to tote my new camera around in the field bag.

Food // Mmmmmm... spice of the month club.

Owl // I want to send out notes of love with these precious Harry Potter origami cards.

Weekend Plans

1. Celebrate geekdom. This weekend I'm setting aside 11 hours to watch Dr. Who in the order of River Song's timeline. I'm so excited, even though I'll have to redo this when the new season releases on Netflix.

2. Organize more yarn. I'm going to tackle one more basket of yarn this weekend. I'll maybe have two more baskets after this one. But it looks like some of it is quite a tangled mess.

3. Make candy. I've tried it once, but to no avail. It's time to sit down and tackle this project.

4. Set up February journal. It's time to plan out my blog posts schedule for February. I can't believe I've almost finished one whole month!

5. Do some much needed painting. I have some old mushroom tiles that need a good coating of varnish to protect them and a poor looking table top that needs a fresh coat of paint to spice it up.

Knitting Frenzy

Completed

1. Camera strap
2. Bookmark

3. Bookmark

Working On

1. Part 1 of mystery knit-a-long

2. Dog sweater

3. Felix the Cat slippers

Starting Soon

1. Temperature journal

2. Drink cozy

3. January cowl

Life Lately

Watching // A lot of British TV shows. Lately, I just can't help myself. It started with Dr. Who, then on to Torchwood, now it's Being Human. Admittedly, I'm not as interested in Being Human as the others, but it fills the void for British TV. Does anyone have any other recommendations for brilliant British TV shows?

Listening to // The Thrilling Adventure Hour! If you haven't heard America's favorite new-time podcast in the style of old-time radio, you need to go look it up right now and give it a listen. It's so fantastic, that Martin and I have agreed to go see it live if we're ever in Hollywood.

Excited about // Being done with training and getting to work. After a full week of training (sitting in a back room watching videos for hours on end), I finally get to be behind the counter of the front desk!

Baking // A tasty treat for you. I made a great batch of special monkey bread the other day. It came out so utterly delicious and perfect that I have to share with all of you! And I'm working on making candy as well - this of course will be the second go around at it.

The Collector: The Journals

Over the years I have collected quite a large number of journals / activity books. I'm not sure why I'm so drawn to all sorts of journals, but every time I enter a book shop (or peruse Amazon) my first stop is always the journals.

Some have been left untouched - like my museum journal to record the various museums I planned to visit when I lived in Dallas, but a move back home got in the way. Now I'm in a tiny, tiny town with only one measly town history museum. I suppose I should go have a look at this museum sometime if for no other reason than to start weighing the pages of my museum journal down with some ink!

Pattern: Cabled Cowl

Cabled Cowl

{Materials}

1 skein biggo yarn from knitpicks

US13 circular needles

yarn needle

cable needle

{Dictionary}

CO - cast on

K - knit

P - purl

C6F - slip next 3 sts on cable needle and hold to front of work, knit 3 sts, then knit 3 sts off the cable needle

C6B - slip next 3 sts on cable needle and hold to back of work, knit 3 sts, then knit 3 sts off the cable needle

sts - stitches

BO - bind off

{Directions}

CO 50 sts

Rounds 1 and 3: (K2, P2) to last 2 sts, K2

Rounds 2 and 4: (P2, K2) to last 2 sts, P2

Round 5: Knit around

Round 6: (K4, C6F) around

Rounds 7 - 8: Knit around

Round 9: (K2, C6B, K2) around
Round 10: Knit around

Rounds 11 and 13: (P2, K2) to last 2 sts, P2

Rounds 12 and 14: (K2, P2) to last 2 sts, K2

BO. Knot and weave in ends.

Organizing Life: The Yarn Stash

One basket down, quite a bit more to go.

Hoot List: Rhapsody in Blue

via :: Lady Danio

Knitting // These needle buddies are just the cutest. I could really use about... 50 or so of these.

via :: bathtub gin online

Etsy // I'm always a fan of great packaging, and this one is absolutely stunning.

via :: cakeasaurus

Art // Isn't this wood block print just lovely?

via :: shari rose shop

Style // This lacy pre-tied head scarf is just gorgeous.

via :: food52

Food // Mmmm... blueberry ice cream.

via :: candy stripe cloud

Owl // This precious owl shelf would look great on my wall!

Shop Updates

owl wristees

mossy ear warmer

cabled cowl

soda can cozy

Knitting Frenzy: all the blues

Completed Projects

1. Mossy headband

2. Cabled Cowl

3. Foxy Hat

4. Owl Wristees

Working On

1. The Camera strap is turning out so pretty. I can't wait to attach it to my camera!

2. Part 1 of the mystery knit-a-long is officially under way.

3. The collar of the dog sweater is just too adorable so far. And the premium acrylic yarn is so soft and comfy.

4. The Felix the Cat slippers don't look like they've come very far, but they really have. I've frogged and restarted so many times now, but I do believe this will be the final go around.

Starting Soon

1. My year in temperatures journal. The original concept by Kristen Cooper was for a temperatures scarf, but I didn't have enough colors of yarn in my stash for that so I decided on a cross stitch version. Next obstacle? I don't have any cross stitch fabric. So after some brainstorming, I came up with cross stitching the entire year of temperatures into a little moleskin sketch journal.

2. 12 cowls in 2013 is one of the great stash-busting projects I'm taking on this year, and January's cowl will soon be casted on.

3. Another dots drink cozy with this pretty self-striping yarn for the shop.