More Knitting (April YarnBox & KnitCrates!)

Got my April Yarnbox and decided to begin the McCarren Park Cap pattern that came with the lovely lavender yarn!


Fyberspates Vivacious DK in Lavender Haze! Gorgeous! My first purple yarn! ^__^

& This is the pattern in question:

Very pretty! I love the texture of the brim and the tab and the buttons!! Just love everything about it! At first I was worried it wouldn't look good in purple (I am quite partial to the mustardy yellow color the pattern author knitted it up in!) but after knitting some rows, it looks quite nice in purple too! :D

At first I was struggling with my gauge but now I think I am just gonna stick with the Size 4 US needles. :)




Also working on my first ever shawl and about halfway done! It's supposed to be a kerchief pattern but I decided to modify and continue knitting to make it into a shawl. :)


The pattern is called Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief and it's free on Ravelry! :)

Believe it or not I have two other projects in-work too. @__@;;

My April KnitCrate contained this gorgeous yarn:


(2 skeins actually but I was a derp and wound the other and forgot to put the cake in this photo! LOL!)

It came with the Jasminda Shawl pattern. It also came with a wraps per inch tool which is useful for identifying yarn which you have no clue what weight/type of yarn it is... and also some little cookies which unfortunately I didn't really like but oh well! I really just wanted the yarn and the pattern. The tool will be so useful though!


Jasminda Shawl Pattern (very difficult at first, see my Ravelry project entry for it for details on how to overcome the first few setup rows! @__@;;.)

Right now I am torn about my Knitcrate vs. Yarnbox subscriptions... Part of me likes YarnBox better for some odd reason probably because I just want yarn and I don't care about extras (although the tool I got in my April KnitCrate was fantastic!) and also YarnBox seems more professional for some reason. I like the fact that I can access my account and adjust color preferences and subscription type whenever I want. Whereas for KnitCrate, I can't do that without calling them or requesting a new billing link. Kinda weird. They do have store accounts but it's separate from their subscriptions....so odd to me! But I understand it's a small family business so yeah... not the end of the world. I think I will wait to see what my May KnitCrate and Yarnbox items are before judging! :)

Yarnbox (Mini) Review

I don't really write reviews anymore maybe in part due to my extremely busy work schedule, but I was determined to share my thoughts on a subscription box called YarnBox which is effectively a yarn-of-the-month club, if you will.

Basically you pay up front for X installments and they send you a new box every month. I started with the bi-monthly plan (1 box of yarn every 2 months) which in and of itself, is not cheap at all! But if you are used to spending a lot of money on yarn and whatnot, this is actually not a bad deal.

My first box contained this amazingly gorgeous green Siidegarte Siide-Flauschig yarn from Siidegarte in Switzerland:


(The colorway is Aichblatt which means Oak Leaf in Swiss-German, according to the owner of the company, whom I asked over Instagram.)

It also came with a couple of free patterns:


These get automatically saved as PDFs to your YarnBox Library. I downloaded mine to my PC and printed out one of them to begin my project. :)



I began knitting the "Sproinger" hat pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sproinger

It's a really fun looking hat and definitely very slouchy/spring-y/squishy looking. (Gotta love the way people describe yarn and patterns, lol!)


So far so good! I really adore the way this yarn feels and smells, and plus green is my favorite color (well, right next to pink, that is!) The other possible colorway was blue, which is really nice as well, but I am WAY happy with my green, wouldn't trade it!

You can see past companies YarnBox has featured in their monthly boxes by visiting this page:
https://yarnbox.com/yarnbox-store-locator/

Before I had subscribed to them, I bought some yak yarn from Bijou Basin Ranch which was one of their previous suppliers. I was VERY impressed with the quality of their 100% yak yarn. I don't think the 100% yak was in a Yarnbox, but rather, one of their blends. Man... I love knitting with obscure animal fibers/luxury fibers/whatever you call it. I'm one of those weirdos who's all like "damn, if you can brush it and spin the hair into yarn somehow, I want to buy it and knit with it!" Haha. Maybe I should find a luxury fiber of the month club...I've seen a few on Etsy but they were hella expensive...which makes sense! But the one I really wanted to subscribe to costs an arm and a leg in part due to shipping from Australia. Bummer.

Anyway, I digress!

I was so happy with my first Yarnbox I decided to upgrade my membership to getting 1 box every month, billed every 3 months ($111.)

I plan to try KnitCrate too. In fact, I just received notification that they shipped my first KnitCrate! Excitement! I will have to post a review to compare/contrast YarnBox and KnitCrate later. I told myself I'd try both and stick with just one that I like better but now I am scared I will love both so much that I won't want to stop getting both in the mail. AHHH. Now I have like 5 subscriptions...Netflix, Warcraft, Ipsy, YarnBox, and KnitCrate. >__<;; bye bye, hard-earned monies. :P

Going to Portland on Monday... + Knitting Updates

Sorry again for neglecting this blog. I had a post for March but it somehow got deleted. >_<; wtf. I am going on a business trip to Portland on Monday and I will be gone for exactly 8 days... returning on the 14th. I hope to take some good photos while there and maybe explore the city a little after my conference is over. A friend of mine from college is driving down from Seattle just to see me. Yay! :) I have never been there before, so it should be fun to explore a new city. It's been a few years since I was out to the West Coast. I was in Arizona last year...I don't recall if I posted any photos or not. I have been so bad about that, I know! Sorry! >__<; I know I posted photos of my trip to Philly a while back. But yeah. Long flight on Monday so I plan to bring lots of ...you guessed it.. knitting! (I love how this blog started out as a fashion and makeup blog and has slowly shifted to knitting. LOL.) So yeah. KNITTING: I got a cute hedgehog knitting gauge!

Also finished a simple hat for my BF's dad. Baby Alpaca Grande by Plymouth Yarn. Love how soft it is. Might even be softer than Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky... hmm.

I messed up a few times though...the pattern said to use straight needles but that if you wanted it seamless, you could use circulars. Obviously I went with the circulars because they're so easy to use and I didn't feel like doing a three needle bind off to make a seam or w/e it's called.

Also decided I would try to start a new pattern. It's called Ojo de Dios by Vanessa Ewing. It's only available from Interweave Magazine (Winter 2013 edition, I think.)


See here for more info:


http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/ojo-de-dios-shawl

Not really sure if I know what I am doing though... I thought I did, but after knitting a triangle and a half, it dawned on me that I had somehow accidentally put the garter stitch on the right side instead of the wrong side. Derp. I kind of like the way it looks but now I am struggling to pick up stitches and match it. Uggh. >__<;; I am sure I will figure this out eventually but it's going to take me a little while. Only 2nd time using DPNs. The first time I used DPNs I attempted to knit fingerless mitts...it didn't go so well. I ended up getting 1/4 of the way done with one mitt and totally messed up on the thumb gusset... alas. :(
Still trying to figure out those pesky triangles. >__< I managed to find some big enough buttons I liked at the local knit shop while I was purchasing my Gina yarn for the Ojo de Dios shawl and I attached one to finish my mug cozy!
OK so it still needs blocked.... but yeah. You get the idea. xD

I still haven't blocked anything before. I guess I am still a knitting n00b. I'm gonna take my friend's advice though and get those puzzle piece interlocking mats from Harbor Freight and some non-rust T-pins and go that route for blocking... and my other friend gave me instructions on how to block! I am so glad to have friends who like to knit. I'd be totally lost otherwise (or spending lots more time on the intarwebz, lol.)

In other news... I am STILL playing Rune Factory 4. I got Rune Factory 3 for 3DS as well but it's not as fun, haha. I think it's a mixture of the fact that I was spoiled with such cool new features in 4 that 3 is just...meh. I still can't figure out how to auto-sort like in 4 (maybe you can't!) and plus I just dislike the characters in 3. IDK why. They just seem so...flat. But then again I felt that way about a lot of characters in 4 until I invested a lot of play time into it. Oh well. Maybe I will do a separate post with my musings....hmm.

Lovely Glass Art!

My friend Elle and I went to Third Degree Glass Factory last night and we saw some amazing glass!

   

This is us from last night, Elle on left, and me on right. :) Click the Read More to see photos and stufff! :D

So cool! :D I wanted to buy ALL of the glass. Like so bad. But I ended up only getting one small vase for $40! It was expensive. ;___; but probably still a good deal considering how long it takes to make some of this stuff. I used to blow glass too, and it is definitely a labor of love for some people. Can be tedious when you are first learning. You mess up a lot, get frustrated, and start over! Paper weights are fairly easy to make depending on what kind. I made this paperweight at Third Degree during one of their classes last year, and I love it. It's so gorgeous, and I am glad I took this photo in natural light so you can see how beautiful it is. I am so bad at photography, and this was taken with an iPhone so yeah...not too bad for an iPhone. I need to start using my Canon Rebel more!


Reminds me of Materia from Final Fantasy.... or maybe the Life Stream. ;) *NERDALERT*

Dolly Kei Hair Accessories!

I was inspired by Hitomi's line called "Dolly"...so I decided to try my hand at making my own dolly kei hair accessories!



It's my first time making these, so con crit is appreciated.

Also I am still debating of a way to attach these to the head--headbands? Hair clips? Barrettes? Pins? Please, give me your input! :) I have some barrettes but they're HUGE. Also the hair clips that snap back and forth seem too small/flimsy for such a large flower. I am considering glueing on a felt patch that contains some kind of alligator clasp along with a pin to make these into brooches! What do you think?

I will use the smaller hair clips with smaller roses to make tinier ones. :)

Click the jump to see pics!




Headband:


Close-up:



Hair clip/brooch:


Another hairclip/brooch, slightly larger one:


This hairclip/brooch has a cute patch of feathers on it! :)


Underside, without the felt added on yet:


What do you girls think?? :)