And I almost forgot...

I almost forgot the cutest pictures of all! Rufio in his Halloween costume!

I love Halloween!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays ever because it's so silly. I love the decorations - ghosts and pumpkins and monsters...so we've been getting into the holiday spirit lately. I found this excellent little guy to hold our Halloween treats, and some cute little ghostie candles.

















And then, inspired by a fabulous pattern by Marie-Jolie at Permission to Unwind, I made myself a pumpkin patch!

I love this pattern!!! It felt a little empty at the top, however, so I made a tiny leaf to go on my pumpkins. Here's how I did it:

1. CO 2.
2. Inc in each stitch (4)
3. Divide stitches evenly on 2 needles (from here, the leaf will be knit in the round on two needles).
4. K 1 round
5. Inc in each stitch (4/needle)
6. K1, inc1, inc1, k1 (6)
7. K2, inc1, inc1, K2 (8)
8. K3, inc1, inc1, K3 (10)
9. K4, inc1, inc1, K4 (12)
10. Knit 2 rounds.
11. Ssk, ssk, K1, inc1, inc1, K1, K2tog, K2tog
12. Ssk, ssk, inc1, inc1, K2tog, K2tog
13. Ssk, ssk, k2tog, k2tog
14. Ssk, k2tog
15. Knit 1 round
16. K2tog
Knit remaining two stitches together and draw the end through to finish. Voila!

And a tiny mouse, pattern here :)

More tiny projects...

I'm in full craft mode for the church fair, so I've been making lots of little projects. I found this cute pattern for hearts at Ravelry (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/little-hearts) and I think I'll make them into Christmas ornaments.

Each one takes only a few minutes to knit, and it's a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn. However, looking at those pictures makes me realize that cushion is really dirty. Eew.

I also knitted this cute little guy (pattern here: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stuffies). I can't decide if he's really ugly, really cute, or so ugly it's cute. You decide.

Finally, today is my grandmother's birthday, and I wanted to make a little gift bag for her present. I got the idea here. However, my first attempt came out way too small, so I tried again, slightly larger. Here are my two attempts, plus the gift for Nana. She loves that color blue (her whole kitchen is that shade) so I picked up that ornament while I was in the Netherlands this summer.

I was pleased with the result - it gives a nice homemade touch to the present.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Ok, not really. But I made a Christmas stocking anyway. A woman my grandmother knows was collecting handmade Christmas stockings in red, white, and blue to send to soldiers in Iraq, and since that seemed like a good cause, I made one too.

Here it is.

Being Sick Stinks.

I've been sick in bed for the past two days, and pretty much going out of my mind with boredom. I haven't gotten much done in the way of knitting, but I thought I'd post this old project anyway. Mrs. Pollard gave me this pattern for a cute mouse mat for Rufio (for more info, look here). The idea is that if he sits on it instead of on my furniture, it will keep the cat hair contained... although Rufio only seems to like to sleep on hard surfaces, so that hasn't really been a problem. But in any case, it's cute.

I've been busy lately.

By which I mean I've been finishing a lot of half-done projects! Like these cute sea animals. I wanted to make more turtles so I'd have sets of animals that go together...

I'm debating about frogging the sock part of the baby booties in the last post. I'm just not satisfied with them...but of course I can't change the fact they seem to be made for a baby with two left feet. However, maybe if I just repositioned the buttons, you wouldn't notice unless you looked really hard. I'm going to have to be making lots more baby gifts soon - lots of people at work are having babies this year! Last year I made a panda bear (which turned out HUGE) and a turtle (another design - here), and before that a monkey and a bear. So I'd like to try something a bit different...I'll have to give it some thought.

I've also been doing a bit of sewing lately. I made this market bag from a tutorial here from some leftover bits of fabric scavenged (like most of my fabric, and my yarn for that matter) from my Grandmother's closet. She's a bit of a pack rat, and a lifelong crafter, so she lets me steal her leftovers. I think this fabric was probably used to make pajamas at some point. It's very soft. Why would someone want a market bag made of pastel flannels? That I don't know. I was thinking it might make a cute overnight bag for a kid's sleepover. Too bad I don't have kids. Like most of the things I make and can't use, it'll get donated to the annual fair at my church, and hopefully someone will find a use for it.

The church fair is also the destination for this next bit, a really cute little handbag made from a tutorial at MarthaStewart.com. Carole Ann gave one as a birthday gift to a friend earlier this year and I've wanted to try it ever since, so she pointed me in the direction of the pattern and I gave it a try. Again, note the interesting fabrics... I wanted to try a sample on some leftovers before I tried it on anything new (I'm fairly new to machine sewing and I often make mistakes...). It took me a few tries to get the last step done, but eventually I figured it out. It was actually a pretty quick project, so I made another one out of some cute green fabric I picked up earlier this week. That one I'm going to keep for myself :)

Rufio, apparently, liked the bunnies.

I've got a few more small projects in the works... (The fact that it's football season doesn't hurt because Keith is often gone or distracted for long stretches of time). Of course, I've also picked up some light reading: 汉语可以这样教。It's required reading for my courses next summer, and I'm thinking maybe if I get it done ahead of time...slowly...next summer won't seem so overwhelming.

And a sweater :)

And now, for something completely different: a child's sweater. I got the pattern here from The Complete Fabrication. I loved knitting this. It's seamless, so when you finish the actual knitting, you just have to fix on the cute little flowers and it's DONE. It knit up fast and looks ADORABLE. I liked it so much that I have almost finished another one (a habit of mine: I find a pattern I like, and knit it repeatedly).

Rufio wanted to get in on my blogging action too. Here he is, being all adorable: