In Recovery Mode

Officially Obsessed!

With knitting giant socks. They knit up so fast!
Finally settled on this pattern and I am in love!

note sick sleeping pug in the background :(

Sad Sick Pug

Poor guy has kennel cough, and is feeling very very sorry for himself.
Somebody should feel sorry for his owners who were awake all...night...long...

Big Huge Cozy Socks

So I first stumbled across this picture here, and traced the original back to here just to make sure I am giving credit where credit is due. 

Anyways, every since I saw it I was obsessed!  I little googling let me directly to the ravelry page, a visit to Michaels got me some perfect wool at 60% off, and just like that all my other knitting projects have to wait.  Now to try and adjust the gauge for socks...

Tag Party Kits

So I was puzzling over how to present everyone with their purchased materials at the upcoming tag party when I was instantly inspired by this pin on Pinterest, and knew what to do.

This is what my prototype ended up looking like (and yes I am studying hard in the background):

I didn't want the strings to fall out once people untied them, so I had the idea to punch two tiny holes in the back, that didn't go through to the front of the bag, and wove the string through, which will hopefully keep it attached.  As always, more details to follow when more of the party goodies are complete.

Planning Party #2

So now that party #1 is finished, planning party #2 begins.
Here is a quick snapshot of what it looks like to try and make 16 Christmas tag Party Packages:
I will give a party package anatomy breakdown later :)

Pugs Like Fridays Too

Especially when they have had a hard week, and are too tired to get out of bed in the morning!

Getting Your Ribbons In A Row

So I don't actually have a picture of what all my ribbon collection looked like before I did anything about it, but I am sure it looked the same as everyone else's.  A mess.  Shoved in a box, with all the loose ends taped down to avoid a bigger mess.  So I was sitting around with my mom one day, after a craft run to Michaels and Jo-Anns, and we were looking at her recently purchased photo boxes and ribbon.  And we started thinking about how to store the ribbon in one of the boxes.  So I asked my dad if it would be possible to drill holes in the box, but then realised I could just punch holes.  And so we punched one, and added an eyelet, and it looked so good that we added a bunch more holes, and a bunch more eyelets, measuring to make sure they lined up evenly across the box.

My dad was watching us, and chimed in that we needed some sort of divider running down the middle of the box, measured the box, left the room, and came back with a piece of dowel that fit perfectly down the middle of the box.

And So Voila!  Our Ribbon Storage Box was born!

 

Birthday Cowl

I wanted to make something really really special for my BFF for her birthday, and had never made her something knitted before. When I saw this post a while back, I knew right away that it would be perfect for her.  We were planning on going to Portland for the labour day weekend, and so I decided that I would pick up some yarn for her on our trip, hence the name of the project on Ravelry.  Well that was an epic fail.  I did buy yarn, in fact I bought twice the quantity that I needed to make one for myself as well, but after starting three times, and ripping them all out I decided the wool I had decided on wasn't right for the project at all.  I had wanted to make her something really luxurius, but was running out of time and ended up at my local Michaels to pick out wool.  It ended up working out alright because the wool I chose is machine washable, and so a little more practical for her anyways.  It is still nice and smooshy and comfy and warm, and turn out just as I had pictured.

Post Party Recovery

Maurice and I recovered from all the party planning mayhem by cuddling in bed, consuming lots of coffee, and watching three movies.  I highly recommend spending a Sunday this way.
We did venture out of the house in the afternoon to take advantage of the amazing sunny day, visiting the Queen's Park dog park, one of Maurice's favorite places to go.

Here is another glimpse of one of the party projects that I worked on.  May have more party info coming later, but for now am pretty tired of all things party...Until I begin to finalize the details for the Christmas tag party that is happening in early November.



Okay I lied...Pugs + Knitting

This is actually false advertising...Normally if he gets anywhere near any knitting he will rip the crap out of it as fast as he can.

Little Partay Favors

I posted a little preview pic last week to show off the favors I was working on for my parent's anniversary party, and here is a follow up about how I made them.

I went out and bought a few bags of Hershey mini bars, which I think are being discontinued, btw.  I chose them because I thought they would be perfect for coving up with scrapbook paper in the colors that we chose for the party.
I also went to a dollar store nearby, and bought a bag of mini ziploc bags (3"x5" I believe).

I then took them to the paper cutter, and chopped off all the ziploc parts at the top, leaving open bags.  Btw, don't ever buy these bags at the dollar store if you actually need to use the ziploc part...soo crappy, i couldn't even get them open if I tried, without wrecking the bags.

 I measured the bag width (3") and then determined how tall I wanted my toppers to be (1.5") and created a 3"x3" square in MS Word.  I added text, and flipped the 'Thank You' upside down.  I printed 8 per page on some cardstock, and then folded in half, leaving me with a 3"x1.5" topper.  I used my heart-shaped punch to add the heart to one side.  I had to improvise a little bit here, because I had wanted the hearts to be facing upwards and not sideways, but didn't plan for that very well because it wasn't possible with the punch I have.  Anyways...the sideways hearts ended up looking really cute.

 Next I put three bars in each little chopped up ziploc bag, making sure they were all lined up properly.  I also lined up the bars by type so that each bag had 3 different types of bar (I am OCD like that).

 Next up, I cut little strips of colored paper to show up behind the heart shape I punched out.  (Forgot to take pics of that, but they were just little rectangles...).  I then stapled everything together in the following order:
1.  Open topper, 2. bag with chocolates inside, 3.  Rectangular colored cardstock.
It is a bit finicky to hold everyting perfectly still while trying to staple, so after fidgeting with one or two I got smart and held the bag to the cardstock with a bit of double-sided tape.

I then put a few pieces of double sided tape down before closing the topper.  This ensured that it stayed closed properly.  Once they were in place I just pressed the topper down to tape shut.

 And here is the final product!  They are pretty cute, and pretty sturdy too.  Too bad people will be ripping them open and eating them in a few days.

Napping Pug

I promise, some more interesting, non-pug posts are coming soon!
Family get-togethers and party prep are running my life right now.

About To Bite My Face

Neglected Knitting

My poor, lonely Charade has been in progress since MAY of 2011, according to Ravelry!  The good news is that I have finished quite a few other knitting and non-knitting related projects since then, but this poor guy keeps getting put on the backburner.  I have been adding a few stitches here and there lately, and hopefully will have the second sock finished by Christmas...maybe...

Party Planning Mayhem

So for some unknown reason I thought it would be a good idea to sign up for three online courses between July and Febraury, and then to decide to throw two parties in between. 
Temporary insanity...I think so.  Keep in mind that I decided all of this while floating around on an air mattress in a swimming pool.
It doesn't seem like such a good idea now...things are a bit crazy.

Anyways, I just thought I would give a sneak peak of one of my little party-related DIY projects.  More details to come later...

'Pug' in a Blanket

First Post

So I guess I should throw it out there that this blog will not have any knitting pugs, or pugs wearing knits, or anything else connecting those two things.
Its just very difficult to find an address on Blogger that is available, and all the semi-creative ideas I have managed to come up with over the past few months have all been taken.  I figured I had better grab PugKnits while it was still available, or I would end up being stuck with LauraNic1234, or some generic address like that.

I am not sure if I will even have enough material to make a blog interesting enough to read, or even enough time to maintain a blog, but we will see.  I keep on doing things, and making things, and thinking to myself "this would make a great blog post" so here I am.
We will see what transpires...