Moving on...

Mittens done, have cast on for the death socks after doing like eighteen gauge swatches. ;) Go, sock assassin, go!

Must ... resist ... handspun!

Have been on a fiber binge lately (sigh ... bad fiber freak, bad! ;)), but I Will Not Allow myself to sign up at the last second for this handspun sock yarn swap, no matter how tempting it sounds. No money + no time = no new handspinning swap!

I am attempting to prevent myself from signing up for anything new till I have everything current finished, which I think I mentioned previously -- not that the swap/project situation is actually anywhere near out of control, but NaNoWriMo opens soon (technically tonight at midnight ... ack!), and then there are the holidays and all those unwritten, unofficial obligations. And the fact that I actually want to try making things to sell this winter. ;) And I must start on Brian's Duel sweater! So ... yeah. No new swap signups for me yet unless I will absolutely hate myself if I don't join. ;D

Received swaps: Halloween jewelry and mittens!

First, my package from the hand-made Halloween jewelry swap I hosted on Swap-bot (the first photo has annoying flash in it, but I'm too lazy to go back and fight with my dying batteries to get a better photo ;)):





The pictures on the pendant were taken from paintings that my swap partner did herself -- isn't that cool? So I can tell people the artist sent me the necklace. ;D And it got here just in time for me to wear it for Halloween, so cheers to that!

And here's my uber-cool mitten swap package from Norway!



Which contains some really neat Norwegian-style gloves from ... a Florida girl living in Norway, who thus understands the tribulations of a Florida girl still in Florida. ;D I love the extra goodies that came with the mittens -- Norwegian chocolate, a postcard, and extra yarn (a kind I haven't used before, too! :D) to make a matching something if I like. Yay! This is one of my favorite swap packages that's come in lately. :D

If I sound kind of meandery and unfocused, it's because on Saturday I arbitrarily fell ill after working a local Haunted Trail. Whoops! That's why my own mittens didn't get finished this weekend and zipped off to their recipient today. Muttermutter. And I still have a pair of Socks of Doom to finish, too. (Are you watching out there, Current Target? ;) Now you know you're still safe for a little while yet ... but once I finish these mittens, you're toast! ;D)

Wine puzzle piece

La, no real comments this morning. Still plugging away at my swap mittens -- one is done except for the thumb and weaving-in of tails, and the other is knit about halfway up the cuff, which is the bit that takes longest, really, and then I'll start the next pair of Socks of Doom. I hear someone is going to be knitting for me soon and I expect I'll be taken out sometime in the next couple of weeks, but we'll see. ;D Must costume for Haunted Trail tonight (last-second Short Round costume, hurray), must ... ... ... there must be other things I really have to do. Whew. Anyway. Must do.

...and okay, I lied. I had some commentary in me after all. ;D Puzzle piece!

Ooo, writing and knitting at once!

There's a cool competition going on at Purlescence and I totally Must Enter. But first I have to, you know, finish more of my current projects. Yaaaa ... run away, run away!

Puzzle Piece: Purple

Slowly rolling out the puzzle pieces for the puzzle swap ... I suck and am terribly slow on them, but at least I'm getting 'em done! Here's the one for the "Purple" theme:

And the second Tabloid Trash ATC...

...because I just realized I'm supposed to be sending two of them. Doh. ;) I like this one better; I think my brain switched over more into functional ATC creation mode on this one.

Tabloid Trash art - You Suck!

That's what I'm calling my ATC for the Tabloid Trash swap on Swapbot. I felt kinda Halloweeny since I picked up one of the "alien dog-headed mutants with malaria take over Siberia and build three-story shopping mall" type tabloids -- I didn't see any really entertaining-looking "Cindy Crawford is pregnant with Tom Hanks's baby and wants to raise it as a Scientologist!" type stuff, although that was what I was looking for. And I get kinda wacky when I'm doing Halloween stuff, unless I get Victorian, so wacky it is:



Yay. Onward, ever onward with eating through the current Project List of Doom!

Halloween jewelry! And possible new swap policy

Also for a swap, a pair of earrings and a choker:







But ack! Swaps. I'm considering a new policy: I am completely forbidden to sign up for any new swaps until I have fulfilled all of my current obligations. I know it's reasonably possible for a human being to fulfill multiple obligations at once, but it might make me do it faster if I knew I couldn't join any new swaps before I finish all the stuff for the ones I'm doing now. ;)

Irish hiking wristwarmers, updates

Made for my partner in the recent Swapbot Wish Swap, a pair of Irish hiking wristwarmers:



Knit in KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, which isn't as skritchy as I'd feared, woohoo. ;D I'm trying to decide if I like these enough to make myself a pair that I'd actually wear.

Updates on other projects: In Sock Wars news, I haven't been killed, but on the other hand the pair of socks that was supposed to be coming to me from my first target/victim seems to have been eaten by the mail. New yarn is on its way soon. (I seem to be getting a lot of sock yarn in the mail recently; the other stuff is from the Socks for Soldiers donation basket and is thus going to charity efforts. So none of the sock yarn I'm getting in the mail is for me. ;)) Also, some Halloween jewelry pics should be coming soon. Spoooky.

January calendar art finished at last!

It seems like I'm eternally a few days behind, but you know, I remember a time when I wasn't, so I know it's possible. ;) And a couple of days late on a project with a lengthy turnaround isn't a killing offense, so I don't feel too bad ... Anyway, this is the January calendar art for the Eccentric Pastiche calendar project:



I hope it's up to par. It looks like a lot of things I do -- aren't I generic, with my deep blue backgrounds and metallic silver swirlies? ;) Oh, well. As long as people like it, and I like it...

Now I must go and get orange clay so that I can fulfill other obligations. Today seems to be the Day of the Universe Laughing and Spurning Me, but I defy it with the two grams of energy I have left. ;)

Lacy altar cloth/stole and a handwoven thingie

Finished these the other day for a Samhain fiber craft swap on Swap-bot:



The top one is supposed to be an altar cloth, but it looks quite cute as a mini scarf/stole thing, and the bottom thing was going to be a hand-towel, but who knows what it will actually be used as? ;)

My Sock Wars socks are away!

As of yesterday, I haven't been killed by sock yet, and I even managed to send my socks. Woo! Le Socks de Doom:



WIth some handspun I sent along as a present to my target. :D

Today I'm attempting to skein the mountain of yarn I have for Brian's Duel sweater (a.k.a. the "I challenge the boyfriend curse to a duel" sweater). Yarrrrr. Winding yarn into center pull balls and then skeining them on the swift is faster than skeining them by hand, but still annoying, especially when the yarn disintegrates into a big fat tangle. We'll see how far I get on that...

Also on the table for today is an altar cloth for a swap. Whew. Although I was hoping to have it significantly done before leaving to go to Brian's, knowing me? I probably won't work on it at all before I get there. ;) Oh, well.