A Knitting Year in Review

So I’ve never thought to do this before, but I became curious tonight as to how many knitting projects I’ve actually finished this year, and I have to admit this might be my most productive year ever. Granted, most of my knitting was geared towards fandom and almost none of these things were actually asked for. In that regard, I am productive for personal projects, but extremely behind on promised/gifts.. (Kristiana, I’m so sorry I didn’t make S’s stocking in time even with a year’s notice!!!! I AM THE WORST)

My memory is pretty poor that I had to scour my ravelry, my photo a day app, and this blog to try and track down everything that I made in 2013, so here is a quick and dirty rundown of my Top 5 Finished projects that I am most proud of :

#5 : Cooper’s Blanket

My first blanket. EVER. And it was super easy!!! I couldn’t ask for an easier pattern for my first attempt, and thank goodness for baby sized because this blanket practically put me to sleep once it got big enough to cover my lap while knitting. For that reason alone I think it took me an extra month of knitting to finish.

#4 : the Tardis

I made this as a birthday present for Mimi, and it looks like I never made a blog entry for it. I don’t remember how long it took me, but probably close to 2 weeks to finish?? I impressed myself more than I should have with the idea of altering the patter so that I would have the least amount of finishing possible in the end. I’m so happy with the finished product even though the pillow came out a little wonky in the end.

#3 : Cooper’s Link Costume

I’ve never made a sweater before, or really had to make armholes in the traditional sense. I also have never tried knitting buttonhole panels or  flat circle before. For these reasons, I am EXTREMELY proud of how well this outfit came out, especially considering it was a last minute project that meant knitting about 5-6 hrs each night after work for an entire week straight. Probably the most productive knitting spurt I’ve ever done, besides the time that Bethany hosted a holiday craft sale and I knitted through almost an entire series marathon of Gossip Girl to try and create inventory.

#2 : Rider’s Purple Tentacle finger puppet

Guys. I finally created something completely on my own, no pattern followed, only visually guided to knit this. It was hard to part with, I will need to try making this again someday, and just.. yeah. Super proud of this one.

#1 : Mister Bearcy, the Hat, and everything that follows (Alex KnightBee, Emma Woodmouse, FitzBearcy)

I was a bit neurotic while making this hat that I made it twice in 2 nights before going to the first Communicon. It was my first time knitting a band to attach a hat to, and my first time having to block a hat afterwards. I probably could have just stuck with the one hat, but I’m glad I got the extra practice in, especially since Ashley ended up using it in her last costume theater episode 🙂 As for the bear.. what a year it’s been for that little guy! I’m a little sad that Bernie no longer uses him as his profile picture, but that definitely hasn’t stopped Mister Bearcy from meeting new people and traveling the world! He has been hosted by 17 lovely fans around the world, is currently with his 18th host, and will be traveling with another 17-20 hosts (we do have one drop out currently so back up hosts, maybe in the next month or so you should check your email..) to complete his worldly travels. Seriously so jealous of this bear. I also cannot wait to see what he will return with since it seems that some of our hosts have been generous enough to send him on with souvenirs! Hopefully I will get an updated post about his past/current travels up since I know there have been some questions as to his whereabouts.

 

Honorable Mention goes to:

the Bearcy Bowtie bracelet that I made per request from Alex (my 3rd attempt at creating my own pattern)

the Firefly cosplay hat I made for Bearcy (also without a pattern.. maybe I should admit that sometimes I can manage to make something without someone else telling me how..)

and the many, many, many entrelac cowls I’ve been making non-stop lately because I can’t resist beautiful yarns, and I would love to someday stock my etsy store with actual goods to purchase 🙂

So as a final recap, here is everything that I (can remember/took a picture of/blogged about) knitted in 2013 :

4 mister bearcy dolls

2 cabled hats

1 finger puppet

1 baby blanket

1 tardis

1 link costume

1 shawl (technically I made this twice, I had to frog it after I finished it the first time because it was entirely too small)

6 entrelac cowls

1 emma woodmouse

1 alex knightbee

various cosplay items for bearcy (house scarves/bowties, hp glasses, jayne cobb hat, fitz wig)

1 bowtie bracelet

and finally finishing the endpaper mitts that I took a 3-4 year break on.

I can’t resist giveaways

I can’t resist giveaways

so here is my blog post to use as an entry for Lauren’s Latest newest giveaway of $5k in kitchenaid appliances! Wish me luck, I will bake you something with my winnings 🙂

Finger puppet?

So once again I decided to knit something as a gift for someone that I was really excited to meet. For some background, I am a HUGE fan of the old computer games from Lucas Arts : Monkey Island , Sam and Max hit the road , and my favorite Day of the Tentacle and I also grew up in the heyday of TGIF so when I first discovered that Rider Strong was 1) on twitter and 2) has a podcast (Literary Disco) I started following him. Full disclosure, I’ve only listened to two episodes so far; one about The Fault in Our Stars and other YA novels, and one episode about graphic novels which lead Rider to talk about Monkey Island. So when they started talking about doing a live recording of their podcast in August I couldn’t resist going. As the time grew near I suddenly thought it would be a good idea to knit Rider a purple tentacle, and because I like to procrastinate I didn’t start working on it until the night before. In my head I thought I would just find a pattern for a traffic cone and just make some slight alterations. Sorry for all the photos, but as Bethany knows I LOVE in progress/behind the scenes photos 🙂

So I used a basic cone pattern, started improvising the length an width, then finally decided at the end that my little tentacle would end up as a finger puppet since I couldn’t figure out the best way to knit a circular bottom to enclose the stuffing. Which really worked out best anyways for when I needed to add the finishing details of his circles and eyebrow.

I think I might need to make more of these so if anyone is interested I will try to write out a pattern!

Can I just say I LOVE when other people get a kick out of my knitting? I was waiting with Sandy so she could get a picture with Rider after the podcast and these girls were in front of us and they asked about the finger puppet and then she took a picture. So I took a picture of her taking the picture haha

So this is a thing now..

So once again, I couldn’t help myself. But this time I blame B for being so pro active about creating a new knitted stuffed animal to play around in mister bearcy’s world by creating a new character : emma woodmouse after it was announced in the LBD kickstarter that Bernie and company would be doing another adaptation. So after it was announced at vidcon that Emma would be the next series, B informed me about her character which immediately made me start searching ravelry for a pattern (which can be found here if anyone else wants to knit this) and I was lucky enough to have M’s yarn stash at my disposal. So this basically took about 6 hrs? Probably less but there were some distractions and a location change. But either way, I’m so happy with the results! Here are some in progress photos along with a finished photo with myself and mister bearcy.

I love my friends 🙂 thank you for indulging me and joining me on this twitter personality journey! I can’t wait to see what happens next

I may have a problem

And his name is Mister Bearcy. Right now he’s out in the world, traveling and having his own adventures, but I realized this weekend as I was having multiple excursions each day that I kept reaching for a photo buddy who is no longer with me.

Ever since Friday night after I got out of work, I’ve been going non stop for the entire weekend. First there was dinner at slater’s 50/50 (my first time eating there), then it was a quick geocaching event that lead us to our final destination of trampoline jumping!!! All of which made me realize how badly I need to start exercising again. I. Was. TIRED!!!!!!

Jump to Saturday and I picked up some breakfast for Ryan and Caro as an excuse to visit and see Cooper (who is over 2 weeks old now folks!), then it was off to Pasadena for the Make Music Fest. Sandy and I went to see Hunter Hunted (formerly Lady Danville) and to eat some fun food. Our mission was accomplished with an extra treat of ice cream from the Cool Haus truck. I got an ice cream sandwich made from one peanut butter and cap’n crunch cookie, one snickerdoodle cookie, and one scoop of bananas fosters ice cream. It was DELICIOUS! We watched one more band perform before heading out to LA, Yacht. Thanks to Denise I just finished watching their episode of “A day in the life” on Hulu. Now I know they are not only a band but a life philosophy LOL. So after all of the sun, heat and free music, we made our way to LA so I could pick up the birthday gift I ordered for my brother, and we had extra time so we checked out a new gallery exhibit from Gallery 1988. Then it was off to Largo for our night at Thrilling Adventure. The guest stars weren’t that exciting (ie no Nathan Fillion, Rider Strong, or JGL) but the new Sparks episodes were great! It was really nice meeting Rebecca Mader though for her first time guesting with the show. She gives me hope that more cast members from Lost will appear at the Largo sometime soon. I missed Paget for Beyond Belief though. I’m already looking forward to their August show.

Today.. Today makes me tired just thinking about it!! Today I tried to cram so much in, and for the most part I was successful! So it started off with a trip to the long beach Patchworks where I ate and bought a lot more than I was planning. The pitfalls of loving unique and hand crafted items, and for having my credit card on me. But now I have new yarn, new wristlet, and a new dessert place I want to frequent for more creme brûlée. Then it was off to Anaheim to pick up Mimi so we could go watch Danny and his band play a quick show in Costa Mesa before heading out to Balboa Island for the Arrested Development Banana Stand!!! If I had the right app to draw a bear into my photo with the banana stand… from Newport Beach I drove to Whittier for a BBQ with old Disney friends, then it was back to Cerritos to have dinner with family. And here I am now, hopefully sleeping soon before another full week of work.

Today

My role in life is forever changed. Today I became an aunt!! And my parents are grandparents!!!!!!! And my brother has a baby 🙂 and before you ask, no I haven’t held the baby yet. I’ll let cooper’s parents do more of that first 🙂

I can’t wait for this kid to go home, I wanna be there for so many firsts! I definitely claim first trip to Disneyland (aunt sandy!!!!) in the future. Tonight I’ll get to hang out with Leader, but for now I’m waiting for the new parents to be settled into their overnight room. Cooper is finally here, this is so exciting 🙂

Forgotten memories

Tonight I brought a box with me to my parent’s house so I could attempt to take more of my stuff out of my old room. My dad has been nagging me to get my junk out, and I’ve been very very slow about it. Tonight I focused on the closet and was reminded of the period in my life when I used lunch box tins as my purse. Apparently their newest function in life was to store the most random assortment of memories possible. Some were truly filled with junk, others held old ticket stubs and lots of pins/name tags from my years at Disneyland. I spent a lot more time opening and sorting through the memories than anything else productive, and in the end I only succeeded in moving the box out of my room and into the living room 🙂 sorry dad!! I promise I will come back for it!! The only thing I brought home with me tonight was the Harry potter book collection. Priorities people, priorities!!

Anyways, I thought it would be fun to share some of the random things I kept over the years, and then promptly forgot!

So this lip pencil harkens back to when I was a bridesmaid in Nicole’s wedding. This is how little I wear makeup!

Look how old this matchbook is!! Fed co still existed! Sometimes I wish my parents still owned the pizza restaurant.

And He’s Off to Travel the World!!

Sniff.. It seems like just yesterday I was inspired to knit mister bearcy, and today he starts his journey through the LBD fandom. I’m thrilled to see him off and can’t believe the reception he’s received from everyone 🙂 see you sometime in 2014 little bear!!! Be safe! And take LOTS of pictures!!

Down to the last day!!

So today is our last day for anyone wishing to host mister bearcy on his travels around the world and it’s exciting to see some last minute applications trickle in 🙂 We’ve also been getting a great return response from the first batch of accepted hosts and it makes me even more anxious to get him out into the world so we can see his pictures!

Last night was my brother’s birthday (and also last birthday without a baby!!!) so caro and I brainstormed what kind of cake to get him. She realized that he wouldn’t really want a cake full of sugar, and I had already offered to get potato balls from porto’s after work since I’m only a block away, so it was decided that he would get a curry donut/potato ball cake 🙂 The girls working at porto’s got a kick out of the cake idea when I started asking for birthday candle options. I couldn’t resist getting batman.

Thursdays are the best

I love my friends. We gather every Thursday night for dinner and to just hang out, sometimes craft or watch tv, always catching up and enjoying each other’s company. I look forward to Thursday’s every week for our weekly get together, and this week was no different. We got to spend time with a slightly larger group for happy hour at the local sushi joint and then spent the next 3 hrs or so at B’s house. I had time to work on my knitting and we eventually got down to the business of starting to plan out mister bearcy’s travel plans. We’ve had such a great response so far, and with a little under a week left for hosting submissions we believe he will be traveling around the world for almost a year straight! I really hope this works out well, I can’t wait to see the pictures of his travels. And once again, I find myself incredibly jealous of where he will be visiting. I’m hoping that there will be a chance for some of the fans to connect with other local fans so they can all meet and share this unique experience in person. It really amazing how much the Internet has changed the way we are able to connect and interact with fans.

I hope everyone has a great weekend coming up! After work today I’m headed out to LA for the opening of the Bad Robot art gallery. Then Sunday I’ll be headed out to the taste of HB 🙂