Advent Calendar, Day 1

Today's Christmas activity: Put up decorations!

We have a miniature tree, which is nice because we can keep it in the hall closet when it's out-of-season. Our apartment has two bedrooms, but we have so much other stuff we would have real trouble storing a larger tree. I have had the mini tree since I was a kid. It was originally from the American Girl catalog, along with a set of ornaments.

Now a close-up of what's under the tree:

I'll take a TARDIS under the tree this year, please! Amy stands guard over the police box while the Doctor sits in the driver's seat of my Mini-Mates DeLorean, which was signed by Christopher Lloyd at Wizard World in 2011.

Care Bears, Tom Servo, and Davros. And Reptile. Poor Reptile--someone tried to kill him with a forklift.

The Doctor attempts to work the nutcrackers with his sonic screwdriver. He must have forgotten that it doesn't do wood. Speaking of, Jason and I watched this version of The Nutcracker while we were decorating, to help us get in the Christmas spirit.

Our tree topper is a finger puppet! We also have a few other decorations. Without a chimney, we had to hang our stockings next to the closet with care:

I made the stockings a few years ago. They were my first attempt at intarsia colorwork, and I think they came out pretty well. I embroidered the names and details afterward, but the snowman and tree are knit right into the stocking.

My favorite decoration is something I found last year at a toy show for all of five dollars.

The snowman is held together with Velcro, and it came with a bunch of different accessories. The extras are sitting in the red tin on the right, to encourage people to play around with different ideas. I want to have a different snowman every day until Christmas.

TARDIS Hat (Vworp Vworp!)

Keep your ears warm wherever you go in space and time with this timey-wimey hat!

I made this hat using yarn in my stash. The blue was Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted weight, and the white and black were acrylic. I found the pattern here as a Ravelry download (you'll need to be a Ravelry member, but the membership and the pattern are both free!). Here's a photo from the designer:

I made a few modifications to the design: the windows on my hat are larger, and the text is smaller. That meant I could repeat the letters three times around my hat, as opposed to twice in the original. It's easier to read that way. I also did a pompom instead of an I-cord for the top, because I have a pompom maker and they're fun to make. ^_^

I love the square top on the hat, which makes it look even more like a box. It's done by placing stitch markers at the corners, and then decreasing on each side of the marker on almost every round. Here's a close-up of the top:

Jason and I have a Friday night tradition of eating pizza and watching Doctor Who. Last night we pulled up The Daleks, their first-ever appearance from all the way back in 1963. I didn't start watching Doctor Who until 2010, and my first Doctor was David Tennant, but I love going back and watching the classic series. Of the classic Doctors, my favorite is probably John Pertwee (yes, even more than Tom Baker!) but I honestly like all of them. It's interesting to watch William Hartnell, especially because he came before so many of the show's iconic elements were established. 

And we are one week away from the 50th anniversary!! I have been watching and re-watching the trailers, as well as "The Night of the Doctor" mini prequel with Paul McGann. I really, really hope the special is as good as I think it will be. Still, we've got Matt Smith and David Tennant, so there's almost no way that can go wrong.

Movie Review, Pac-Man Crochet, and Doctor Who Excitement

Today's post comes to you in three parts. Part one: Ender's Game review.

Jason and I went to see Ender's Game on Sunday. We had both read the book in the past, though Jason admitted he only remembered the basic plot. I remembered more of the details.

For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin is a teenage boy who is part of a military program to fight a war against the Formics, ant-like aliens who invaded Earth half a century ago. The Formics nearly wiped out the human race before a sound defeat that sent them back to their home planet. Ender is sent to the elite outer space Battle School to become a great military leader.

As a book-to-film translation, it works very well. The biggest change they made was to condense the story time-wise. Ender is older when he leaves for Battle School, and the entire course of events takes place over no more than a year or two. In the book, Ender is seven or eight when they ship him into space and the book takes place over four or five years. There are many reasons for making Ender older, and overall I think it makes the movie better.

I do think they could have either made the movie longer (it clocks in at just under two hours) or even broken it into two parts. The subplot between Ender's brother and sister, Peter and Valentine, is cut out entirely even though it is a significant part of the book. The other big omission, and my biggest disappointment with the film, was the most of the zero-G battles were cut out. We get to see a few scenes, and they look fantastic. I definitely would have wanted to see more, especially since they take up a good portion of the book as well.

Overall, I would give Ender's Game 4/5 stars.

Part two: My latest crochet project!

I found both of the patterns on Ravelry. The ghosts were originally a Halloween decoration in white. In addition to the color change, I eliminated the original bead eyes and the finishing mouth stitches. I attached the googly eyes with my trusty hot glue gun. Pac-Man was originally all in yellow, but I thought he would look better with a black mouth. This was a quick, easy project. The ghosts take about half an hour, and Pac-Man was probably an hour start to finish. You can find the (free!) ghost pattern here. If you're on Ravelry, you can find the (free!) Pac-Man pattern here.

Part three: OMG THE DOCTOR WHO 50TH ANNIVERSARY IS A WEEK AWAY!!!1!

The Day of the Doctor is coming, people. Next Saturday. And I am so. Flippin. Excited.

Can you tell?

Jason and I have plans to see it with the Chicago Nerd Social Club. They're having a meet-up for lunch and viewing. This is great, because we don't have cable. We don't even have an antenna--our big-screen TV is used exclusively for DVDs, video games, and Netflix. Of course, it makes no sense to get a cable subscription just for one show.

So since we're going to be out and about, in the lovely Chicago winter, I decided that I needed to knit myself a TARDIS hat. I started on it last night and I will post pics when it's all done!

Hat-a-week: Hat #6

This hat is warm and fuzzy, perfect for walking in newly fallen snow. I woke up this morning and saw we had gotten a couple inches overnight. I'm one of those rare adults who still gets excited over snow, so it was a great way to start my weekend. Especially since Chicago has been awfully light on snow the whole winter so far.

I had a busy week this week, so this hat is a quickie. The pattern is from a knitting Page-A-Day calendar I had several years ago designed by Pine Tree Yarns (the link will take you to the Ravelry page for the design but the actual pattern is no longer available). I used the bulky weight instructions, along with Knit One, Crochet Too Fleece yarn. The bottom was done in garter stitch with a solid yarn and the rest was done with a variegated yarn (which appears to be a discontinued color). This was a yarn I'd had sitting around for a while and I had been waiting for a chance to use it. I love polar fleece, and the resulting hat definitely feels like the fabric.

Warm, fuzzy, and slightly oversized. I have enough yarn left for another project. I may make some mittens to go with the hat (although I do think wool is the best mitten fiber).

The first month of hats have all been ski caps. The next batch is going to be hats with earflaps!

Hat #5 (Hat-a-week): Pac-Hat!

I have decided, with January coming to an end, it will be much easier throughout the year to count the number of hats I've made instead of the number of days in 2013...

My fifth hat is inspired by an icon of 1980s arcade games, the one and only Pac-Man!

It looks like a big chunk is missing from the middle, but that's only because the mouth is black yarn and I took this picture on a dark purple background.

Here is the design from the front:

And from the other side:

Waka waka waka waka waka!

There is no chart for this one, but if you are interested, I started out with 6 stitches of black yarn and then added 3 black stitches on each side of the mouth, every 2 rows, until the mouth is 42 stitches across. The top of the mouth is worked the same way in reverse.

I may make a ghost hat at some point in the future...right now I don't think I have the right colors of yarn.

Also, for anyone interested, I am now on Pinterest! I haven't posted any of my hat designs yet, though. Right now I'm still learning the site. There is so much to navigate.

Hat-a-week, day 21

Ahh, a long weekend. The perfect chance to knock out another hat! The idea for this design came from a friend of my hubby's. Here is an in-progress shot:

Look familiar? If you recognize it, you must be a fan of pro wrestling. For the record, I am not, but Jason and his friends are. Big-time. 

The "nWo" design was created by stranding the white and black yarn together, a technique that is also referred to as Fair Isle. I'll explain more about that in another post. The two little rings you see in the picture above are stitch markers, which I used to make sure the design was in the right spot.

Here is the finished hat!

I added the white rectangle after the hat was finished, using the embroidery backstitch with white yarn. It came out a little crooked, but it actually kinda works that way. Here's a chart for any other knitters interested in making a wrestling hat:

Quick note on the design: even though the design itself is worked using Fair Isle, you'll still need to work it back and forth in rows. Fair Isle in the round only works if the design goes all the way around the circumference. I realized this about one round before I was going to start knitting the design. I was able to find a way to cheat and work it in the round using a technique from Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n Bitch Superstar Knitting. The SnB books are some of my favorite knitting guides. I love the way Debbie Stoller explains things.

I already have my next hat in mind, featuring one of my favorite retro video game characters: Pac-Man! Stay tuned.

Hat-a-week, day 19

My third hat is complete! Mario's actual hat is more of a baseball cap, but my brother requested a ski cap with the Mario "M," so that's what I made. I rather like it.

I sewed up the back and worked in the loose ends last night. I went with a fairly tight gauge--about 5 stitches per inch--so it would be extra-thick and warm.

What is gauge?
I'm glad you asked! The gauge of any knit or crocheted item can be measured by counted the number of stitches in one inch across. Seriously, you can calculate the gauge on that sweater you bought at the Gap. You probably have no need to, unless you want to make one just like it, but you could.

The type of gauge needed for a project depends on two things: thickness of the yarn and how loose or tight you want the finished item to be. This hat is made from worsted-weight yarn, which is the most versatile yarn weight. You can really use almost any needle size, depending on the look and feel you want for your project. For something you want to be very tight, like mittens, the needles will be very thin (size 2 or 3) and the resulting mitten will be sturdy enough to keep your hands warm in the coldest weather. Hats and sweaters are worked on medium-sized needles (size 6-8) for an item that is sturdy but still has enough stretch to fit over your head. Items like afghans can be worked on needles that are even larger (size 10-11), although those patterns will probably incorporate something like slipped stitches to keep the gauge from getting too loose.

For this hat, I used size 6 needles. This meant that I needed more stitches in each row, so the hat took a little longer to make. It also means that the logo in the middle is smaller than it would have been with a looser gauge. Incidentally, if you want to figure out how big a design will be, it is a simple matter of dividing the number of stitches in your design by the number of stitches per inch.

For example, my Mario design is 14 stitches across at the widest point. 14/5=almost 3 inches. Most hats are worked on slightly larger needles for the yarn I used (size 7 or 8) for a gauge of about 4 stitches per inch. 14/4=3.5 inches.

As your reward for slogging through all the knitter's lingo and math talk, here is a Styrofoam head wearing the Mario hat!

Yes, I just happened to have a Styrofoam head in my apartment. It belongs to my hubby, who got it with his Emperor Palpatine mask. Incidentally, those white streaks you see on the hat came from the baby powder that he puts on the mask to keep it from cracking. Whoops. Good thing my hat is washable.

Hat-a-week, day 15

I have not had much time for knitting, and even less time for blogging, so here is a quick update on my latest project. I spent Saturday afternoon sorting through my stash; after only two hats I realized I could make a hat every week for a decade and still have too much yarn. So I went through my various sources of yarn and filled a bag of remnants and yarn I know I'll never use (lightweight yarn for baby sweaters, anyone?) to donate. I found an unholy snarl of yarn at the bottom of the chest that I ended up just tossing, along with a couple half-started projects full of dropped stitches because I pulled out the needles to use on another project. The chest of yarn now looks like this:

Some of the yarns I sorted into bags, like wool for felting and red, orange, and yellow yarn that I want set aside for a hat I have in mind...stay tuned!

I also started work on my brother's birthday gift. He requested a ski cap with the Mario logo. I decided the easiest way to knit it onto a hat was to start with a picture of the logo and transfer it to knitter's graph paper (which is different from regular square graph paper, since knit stitches are wider than they are tall). Here's the  logo pattern:

The main yarn I'm using is KnitPicks Swish Worsted, which is a superwash merino wool. I had a couple balls left over from a sweater I made my mom a couple Christmases ago. The white is the Hobby Lobby brand acrylic, which is also nice and soft. I worked the white circle using the intarsia method, which can only be done by going back and forth, so this is another hat I'll need to sew up the back when I'm done. For those interested, the M in the middle was done with Fair Isle. It could also be done in duplicate stitch after the hat is finished.

And here are some progress shots of the hat! 

Close-up of the logo:

I have until early next month to finish it up, so this hat will definitely be done on time!

Hat-a-Week, day 5

I am currently working on hat number two!

The yarn: Loops & Threads Impeccable (worsted weight, acrylic) in a sort of bottle green color.

The pattern: I am making it up as I go along! This is called an afghan crochet hook:

It looks like a combination between a regular crochet hook and a knitting needle, and the technique you use is sort of a combination of knitting and crochet. Regular crochet works by making several loops on your hook and working them until only one loop is left. This makes one stitch. With afghan crochet, you pick up a loop from every stitch in the previous row, and then work one stitch at a time (similar to knitting, except instead of transferring it to another needle, you pick up the same stitch on the next row). 

Here's an in-progress shot of the hat:

See how it's curling up at the end? Apparently that's a common problem with the afghan stitch. I didn't want the bottom of my hat to curl up after the hat was finished, so I added a few rows of regular crochet at the bottom, which lies flat.

See the difference? Also, you can tell from this shot that the stitches start to curl as soon as they come off the hook. Without the border the hat would probably curl up halfway to my forehead. Unfortunately, the half-double stitches are a lot wider than the afghan stitches, so this is probably going to be more like a bucket hat when it's all done. We shall see!

Here is a close-up of the afghan stitch. I like it because it kind of looks like a combination of crochet and weaving.

Hat-A-Week, Day 2

My first hat of the New Year is complete! It was nice to have a couple days off so I could work on it. I probably won't start on my next hat for a couple days. I need to decide on a pattern. Yes, even though I am calling this project "Hat-a-week," some hats are going to take less than a week. Some will probably take longer. It's all pretty flexible.

And now...the hat!

I am still experimenting with different photography and lighting techniques, using my ultra-sophisticated iPod Touch camera. Here I am wearing the hat. I stood right next to a lamp so the details would show:

Ta-da! I'm really pleased with how it came out. This is one of my favorite hat patterns; I have used it several times before. However, if I was making it for someone with a larger head, I would probably make it a little longer so that it covers the ears. On my tiny head it works fine.

Hat-A-Week: Day 1

I got a head start on my New Year's resolution yesterday and began my first hat for the 2013 Hat-A-Week challenge!

The yarn: I lost the label for this skein, so I don't know the brand. I do know it's black, worsted weight, and most likely acrylic. Unlike some knitters, I have nothing against acrylic yarn. I probably wouldn't use it for a sweater, but it works great for crafts and larger projects like afghans. I also like it for hats and scarves.

The pattern: Basic Cable from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, designed by Christine Quirion. My hat is slightly different from the picture below. This version, by Ravelry user starshaped, was worked up using a self-striping yarn, which I also love, but I wanted something in solid black to wear with my black Sunday coat.

via Flickr

The progress: The other change I made to the pattern was to work it back and forth, instead of in the round. For non-knitters, this means that when I am done knitting, the hat will be a long, mostly flat piece (except for the top) that I will sew down the back to create the finished hat. Knitting "in the round" means what you would think: the stitches connect to each other in a circle, forming a tube that you decrease at the top to create the top of the hat. Here is how the hat looks so far:

I'm glad the cables showed up in the photo.

I am using a circular needle, which is normally used for knitting in the round. Unfortunately, the cable (the part between the pointed ends) is too long for me to be able to work this hat in the round. I discovered, early on in my knitting adventures, that the length of the cable is just as important as the needle size. The cable needs to be slightly smaller than the circumference of the round project, or the stitches get too stretched out to join in a circle. For a hat, this usually means a 16" cable. This cable is 24 inches, which would be great if I were making a hat for Big Bird. However, circular needles can also be used for knitting back and forth.

Knitting Project: Dalek Plushie

As I mentioned previously, the bad part about doing a craft blog is that when I am making a gift for someone, the gifts cannot be featured here until after they have been given. Otherwise, the recipient could find their gift featured on the blog, and that would ruin the surprise.

Anyway, I found this great pattern for a Dalek plushie a while back. I decided that I had to make one for Jason for his birthday, which was last weekend. Here it is!



I used plain black for the main color and a great silver yarn with metallic strands for the details. The black was worsted weight, and the only metallic yarn they had was sport weight, so I just used two strands of the silver together. For some of the details, where it was supposed to be doubled, I ended up using four strands held together! I stuck a pipe cleaner in the plunger arm, and another in the eyestalk. For the eye, I actually left an extra bit of pipe cleaner and sewed it in place inside the Dalek. This enables the eye to move up and down. I could have done that for the arm as well, but I had already sewn the arm in place when I decided to try it on the eyestalk. I used a Dalek photo to make sure I had the colors right. The one change I made from the original pattern was to make the end of the eyestalk black, instead of making it all one color. I had originally wanted to make the other bump blue, but ultimately decided too many color changes on such a small piece would be a bad idea.

Here it is from another angle.


I am really pleased with the way it came out. This little guy is not a Dalek. He is a D'awwwwlek.

Resolution: Jan 10-12

January 10: I made dinner on Monday night...my first time cooking without a recipe! Nothing too complicated, just chicken and pasta. When I am making something in the kitchen, it is usually baking, which you really need a recipe for. The combination of sugar and flour and leavener needs to be just right, or the texture is all wrong. But pasta is easy to do without a recipe (boil water, add pasta, cook until done, add seasonings and/or sauce) and I knew how to cook chicken from making Chicken Helper. Heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil, season the chicken, cook it for about 6 minutes on each side...I had to cook it a little longer because the chicken breasts were pretty thick. But it was good. Jason and Johnny agreed; we ate all the chicken up.

January 11: Jason and I were both off of work, which has not happened on a weekday in a very long time. We spent the whole day together. Our original plan was to go out somewhere, but it was snowing pretty hard all day, so we went out for brunch and then came home and had a snow fight. I say "snow fight" because it was too powdery for snowballs, so we ended up just throwing handfuls of snow at each other. It was hilarious. I'd never done that before.

In the afternoon, I learned how to jump-start a car. Fortunately, I was in the car providing the jump. My dad's car broke down in the parking lot a few blocks from our house, so Jason and I drove over to help him out. It took a few tries, but we got it working.

Jason and I watched Ninja in the Claw of the CIA. I had never seen a ninja movie before, and after that one I am not sure I would ever want to again. It was incomprehensible, plot-wise, not to mention that it was hard to go longer than a minute without someone attacking someone else. The main ninja (named John Liu, played by...John Liu) had a girlfriend. She was killed by a harpoon to the chest. In the very next scene, he has a completely different girlfriend who was never mentioned before. We kind of gave up on trying to follow the plot after that. Jason says that one was about on par with the other ninja movies he has.

January 12: I have been working on knitting myself a pair of "convertible" mittens--the kind that have a mitten top that you can flip off, with fingerless gloves underneath. Here is a pair in plain grey:


I need to take some pictures of mine. I have wanted for years to make mittens that match my favorite hat (which was handmade from fleece many years ago by a friend) so last week I went to the yarn shop and found yarn in the exact colors in the hat. I have been working on them off and on since I got the yarn, but yesterday I got to the fingers. I know I said I would not count knitting projects as something new, but this is my first pair of gloves. It is also my first time adding color work to a pattern for plain gloves, and I am working the mitten top without a pattern. I have a pattern for gloves, so I just changed the finger measurements so they end at about the first knuckle. I read some other convertible mitten patterns to get an idea for the general principle of how to create the top. I have been trying them on frequently to make sure they fit, so I am confident they will come out the way I want.

I can feel myself becoming a little more adventurous; before I made this resolution I probably would have stuck to something familiar. Time to make dinner? Open up a box of Chicken Helper. Need a mitten pattern? Search for someone else's. Now I am branching out to try things on my own.

Convention Wrap-Up: Chicago TARDIS 2010

I spent my Sunday afternoon at the Chicago TARDIS. For those not in the know, it is a fan convention for Doctor Who, which is the longest-running sci-fi show ever. If you have never heard of it (which I actually had not until earlier this year) that is because it is from Britain. New episodes run on BBC America, and reruns play on PBS (WTTW in Chicago; Sunday nights at 10). Do yourself a favor and check it out! If you need info on Doctor Who, check out the TV Tropes page (WARNING: TV Tropes is highly addictive. Proceed with caution) or read the AV Club primer.

I was hoping to get some good costume pictures, but there actually were not very many people in costume. This was probably because we came at the tail end; I expect there were some good costumes on Saturday. Jason and I wore our matching Doctor Who shirts, featuring David Tennant and most of the Tennant-era villains. Our first stop was the dealer room, where we found some great stuff. I got a Cyberman figure for my brother (who claims to not be a Who fan, but I think he's coming around), a Dalek pen for Jason, and a keychain for myself that plays some sound bytes from the show (two catchphrases each for the Daleks and Cybermen, one from K-9, and the TARDIS sound). Jason got me a Matt Smith figure; Tennant will always be my favorite Doctor, but Matt Smith is very good. I like him almost as much as Ten.

We skipped over the panel discussions and went to the screening room, where they were running episodes on a giant screen. I had planned to watch all of season 5 before we went to the con. I almost succeeded; all I had left was the two-part season finale. Jason and I got to the screening room just as they started Part 2, so we decided to sit in.

SPOILER ALERT: A discussion of the ending of "The Big Bang" follows.

At first, I just thought the scene where the Doctor was describing the TARDIS to Amelia was kind of cute. It was nothing I hadn't heard before: the paradox of it being both old and new; how he stole (or "borrowed") it; how it was "the bluest blue you'd ever seen." Then, when Amy puts the pieces together at the wedding, I was kicking myself for not figuring it out myself. The TARDIS fits all four conditions for the old wedding good-luck charms: Something old, something new, something borrowed, AND something blue. Brilliant! And thus, she saves him from being trapped on the other side of the cracks in reality. Then she and Rory fly off in the TARDIS for their honeymoon. Okay, I want like season 6. Right now. Especially because Neil Gaiman wrote one of the episodes!

Steven Moffat has officially stolen the title of "Evil Genius" from Joss Whedon in my mind. Evil because he scares the shit out of the audience, and genius because it somehow works out in the end. And he is a brilliant writer. I suppose there is room for more than one Evil Genius television writer, but I think "Magnificent Bastard" fits Joss Whedon better anyway.

After "The Big Bang" finished, we went back to the dealer room and met up with our friend Liz. Liz is awesome. She was there because she works for the prop-building company that had provided a life-size model of the TARDIS. Like I said, awesome. I got one picture of that, but it came out blurry.

There is one picture really I wish I had gotten. There was a girl waiting in line for an autograph with her mom, and she had a knitted Dalek plushie! I also saw someone with a knitted K-9; I think it might have been a purse. As soon as I finish some of my other knitting projects, I shall have to raid Ravelry for that Dalek pattern. The world needs a Dalek plushie. Also on my list of stuff to knit from Doctor Who: a 10-foot Tom Baker scarf. Anyway, I had a great time. This is the third con I went to this year, and Jason and I already have plans for another. Coming in March: C2E2!

Yarn: A Non-Snob's Guide (Part 1)

As I type this, the first snow of the winter is falling in Chicago. This means that, without a doubt, knitting season has begun. (Avid yarn crafters will point out that knitting season never really ends, but those who don't like to knit or crochet when it's 95 will agree that it's time to start up again.)

I was talking with a fellow knitter over the weekend and the conversation turned to elitism. We agreed that the presence of "yarn snobs" can make a knitting group less welcoming. Yes, knitters can be elitist. I have noticed that many of my knitting books were written by yarn snobs. It is not hard to tell from reading the "Guide To Fiber" section, or something similarly titled. What follows is a non-snob's guide to different yarn fibers.

Acrylic
Basic info: Acrylic yarn is synthetic, as opposed to coming from an animal or plant. It has a (somewhat unfounded) reputation for being cheap and uncomfortable for that reason, but technology has advanced enough that today's acrylic yarn can actually be quite nice. Lion Brand has two that I really like: Wool-Ease is 80% acrylic and 20% wool; Vanna's Choice is nice and soft and comes in a wide variety of colors.
Pros: Acrylic yarn is inexpensive and very easy to come by; most of the yarn at craft and fabric stores is either acrylic or an acrylic blend. It is also machine-washable.
Cons: The really cheap stuff can be scratchy. Before you buy a skein, pick it up and feel it. Try and get your fingers inside. If the yarn feels uncomfortable in the skein, it will not be fun to work with, and the finished product will not feel much better. Walking around with a big skein of acrylic yarn is also the easiest way to draw the wrath of yarn snobs.
I use it for: Afghans; craft projects like stuffed animals; Christmas stockings.

Wool
Basic info: Wool is the most common of the animal-based fibers (and Captain Obvious would like to remind you that it comes from sheep). There are two basic flavors of wool yarn. The original will shrink when washed in the washing machine, which is exactly what you want for a felting project but not so good for a sweater that you have been working on for two months. Superwash wool has been treated to prevent shrinking; if you have a felting project this is the kind you do NOT want.
Pros: After acrylic, wool is the easiest fiber to find. It is soft and warm and will keep you dry even when it gets wet. It is wonderful to work with. Price-wise, it is less expensive than the other animal fibers.
Cons: Just be careful when you buy it and when you wash it. If it says "Superwash" on the label, it can be washed in the washer (though you might want to do it with your delicates). If it does not, wash it by hand and let it air-dry unless you want it to shrink. Super-soft wools, like merino, tend to "pill" (those little tiny balls of yarn that appear after it has been worn for a while).
I use it for: Mittens and hats. Wool is the only thing I will use for mittens, because of its near-miraculous waterproofing abilities. Seriously, if you have kids who like to play in the snow, they need wool mittens. I only wish I had known that growing up. Superwash wool is also excellent for winter socks and sweaters.

Cotton
Basic info: Cotton is the most common of the plant-based fibers. It can be hard to dye, so it usually comes in lighter colors than wool or acrylic.
Pros: Cotton is also easy to come by. It is pretty soft, especially if you think wool is itchy. It will not pill or shed like acrylic or any of the animal fibers. It is usually machine-washable, although the colors will fade after a while. It is the least expensive of the plant fibers. If you are worried about how "green" your yarn is, organic cotton is easy to come by.
Cons: Cotton gets heavy when wet. It can also be difficult to work with, because it does not have any stretch. If you make a mistake and need to rip out a few rows, the yarn will be more kinked than wool or acrylic would be. It is not very warm.
I use it for: Dishcloths and dish towels (one application where wool would be disastrous; you'd end up with fiber all over your dishes). It is also good for lightweight tops or a knitted swimsuit (no, I'm not kidding. There are patterns for it).

This post is becoming much longer than I thought it would be, so I shall finish there for today. Stay tuned for more; next time we will get into more exotic (and expensive) fibers. For the non-crafters, stay tuned for a post coming soon about the Chicago TARDIS convention.