Life in the Round

Elvis Costello Charts

2010-01-30T16:51:00.001-06:00

Many, many years ago a friend of mine showed me what she was doing with two sticks and some yarn. She was making a scarf. I thought, well, I can go out and buy a scarf; why would I want to take the time to learn this "granny" craft you call knitting? Then, one day at Barnes & Noble, I saw a book called Stitch & Bitch. It was a knitting book for "my generation". I flipped through the patterns, my jaw dropped and page-flipping stopped when I saw the Skully Sweater. Wait, I can make something as cool as this with two sticks and yarn?! Ok. I'm sold. I quickly bought this book, some sticks, and some yarn. That night I taught myself to knit from that book and was quickly making my first scarf (two colors even!). That was early in 2005.

That same summer, some good friends of mine were getting married. They are both music enthusiasts (we all had worked together at the record store I manage), and I knew I wanted to knit them something wonderful. Being so new to the craft, I had no idea that the projects I wanted to make were waaaaaayyyyy beyond my skill level. After all, the only project I had made so far was a garter stitch scarf and several 4x4 inch swatches practicing stockinette stitch. Such is the bliss of ignorance!

I (with the help of, my then boyfriend, Ray) charted out the design for two intarsia pillows. His favorite band, D.R.I.; and her favorite artist, Elvis Costello. It was a very ambitious task, but I persisted. I made his pillow first (twice, since the first time I had to rip the entire front back) and was able to work out the "kinks" of the process. Her pillow turned out nicer looking, but they're both equally loved.

This was a very long-winded way of saying that I have gotten a lot of requests for the charts on the Elvis Costello pillow. So many, in fact, that I have put it up for sale on Ravelry. It's not very expensive, only $1.99, and you get a chart for the front (his face) and two for the back (his name). Right now it’s only available on Ravelry, since I don’t know how to put the “buy now” button on my blog. If I get that figured out then you won’t have to have a Rav account to purchase it. However, if you’re a knitter and you’re interested in things, like Elvis Costello, and you DON’T have a Ravelry account; then get your butt over there and sign up! It’s free and you’ll meet so many other cool knitters like yourself that your head might explode! We could all use that every now and then.

The Reveal

2009-06-10T18:17:00.001-05:00

So I’ve been sitting on a secret. One that I couldn’t reveal until today. It’s been pretty hard not to talk about, but I didn’t think I could say anything until I had a link to give. (This is kind of a lie, I’ve already gushed to my close friends about it, but they are good at keeping secrets.)

Today, I am amongst the elite. Cookie A., Norah Gaughn, Annie Modesitt, Veronik Avery, Kate Gilbert, etc. are all gathered in the same location as me. If you don’t know any of these names, then this next bit of news might not be a big deal to you, but I’m wetting myself.

The news: I have been published in KNITTY!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course my pattern doesn’t rival the genius of the aforementioned designers, but I’m just glad to be swimming in the pool with them. My pattern is in the Summer ‘09 issue as a part of the Head-start on the Holidays edition. So not only am I in Knitty, but I’m part of a brand new feature for the magazine!

I shall not take all the glory however. My beautiful friend, Maura, took all the gorgeous photographs of my project. Pictures weigh heavily in the decision to include a pattern, so I’m very grateful to have such a talented photographer to call upon.

I’m so proud of us! Go check it out and make some of the awesome patterns (mine too if you want) that are featured. If you don’t knit, check it out anyway and marvel at the amazingness of all these wonderful designers!

Holy Flowers & Showers! It’s the May Phat Fiber Box!

2009-05-22T22:31:00.001-05:00

This time around they had all fiber boxes! I totally scored one. It’s chock full of fibery goodness and beautiful colors. As seen above, the theme this month was Flowers & Showers. So let’s take a look at what I got:

Vendor: The Yarn Side

Fiber: Baby Alpaca/Merino

Color: Lilac Skies

Weight: 0.1 oz

Thoughts: Super soft, great color (although I’m not sure where the lilac part comes in), and really cute packaging!

Vendor: Girl on the Rocks

Thoughts: These stitch markers are really cute, and functional!

Vendor: Fiber Gift Tags

Thoughts: These are very well designed, and the icons she uses are adorable. I’ve had plenty of times when I could have used these, and I’m really glad she’s got different tags for different crafts.

Vendor: Banana Migraine Designs

Thoughts: Very cute marker, a little different than what I usually see. That’s not a bad thing!

Vendor: Fickle Knitter Design

Thoughts: A really pretty stitch marker and the card it’s on is soooo sparkly! Very eye-catching!

Vendor: Greenwood Fiberworks (beware this link, while this bookmark is cute, there is some simply amazing fiber and yarn at her site. No lie.)

Thoughts: An adorable bookmarker with a hand painted yarn tassle. It also came with a coupon for $5 off a $25 purchase!

Vendor: Unknown

Thoughts: Jessie of Phat Fiber had a local artisan make these needle rolls for her. They’re very well made and the fabric is super soft! Thanks Jessie!

Vendor: Goodness Gracious

Thoughts: A very useful little bag with a sheep batik. The paint soaked through to the back, which kinda sucks, but I’m sure I’ll find a use for it anyway.

Vendor: Calizona Designs

Fiber: Merino

Color: Spring Rainbow

Weight: 0.1 oz

Thoughts: Great rainbow color, nice soft fiber, and it came with delicious smelling lip balm! Great logo too, I love pin-up girls!

Vendor: Beesy Bee (cute name and card!)

Fiber: Wensleydale Wool/Local Mohair/Suri Alpaca/Angelina Fiber

Color: No name given, but it goes from light pink to dark purple with bits of purple and green angelina

Weight: 0.33 oz

Thoughts: I love the color of this. The picture is lying, the color is much more vibrant! It’s also very sparkly, which the picture doesn’t really show. I can’t wait to spin this!

Vendor: Giffordables

Fiber: Silk Noil and Corriedale

Color: Stepping Stones

Weight: 0.5 oz!

Thoughts: I’ve seen these generous batts in others boxes before and always wanted one. Finally! I’m glad I got this color too, it’s not one I would have thought I’d like, but in person it’s really quite lovely. I think the colors will blend nicely once it’s spun as well. The link above will take you to her etsy listing where you can buy one of each .5 oz sample she sent in, 2 oz total for $5.50! Not a bad deal and there’s different fibers for each sample.

Vendor: Vines

Fiber: Wool/Bamboo/Dash of nylon icicle

Color: Fool in the Rain

Weight: 0.2 oz

Thoughts: SOFT! Great color too, this is one of my favorite samples!

Vendor: Bohemian Knitter Chic

Fiber: Romney Locks

Color: No name given, but one is electric green and the other is purple and blue

Weight: 0.3 oz

Thoughts: I’ve never spun locks before, they kind of scare me a little. I may seek a little help with spinning this (either from you tube or a friend). I love the colors though, very vibrant!

Vendor: Silver Sun Alpacas

Fiber: 100% Alpaca

Color: Both are un-dyed, cream and dark brown (with traces of lighter brown)

Weight: Brown= 0.1 oz; Cream= 0.2 oz

Thoughts: These natural colors are gorgeous, and the fibers are soooo soft! They came in a really cute sachet too, which I will use for lavender after I spin these up.

Vendor: Maude & Me

Fiber: New Zealand Merino

Color: Wellington’s Wednesdays

Weight: 0.6 oz!

Thoughts: I LOVE blue. And New Zealand. And this fiber. ‘Nuff said. (p.s. Although this shop is in New Zealand, she has FREE SHIPPING! Let’s help a Kiwi out!)

Vendor: 7 Yaks Design

Fiber: 100% $%&*ing CASHMERE!!!

Color: No name given, it’s Hot Pink though!

Weight: 0.2 oz

Thoughts: I’ve never had (let alone, spun) pure cashmere before. I’m floored at the generous amount as well. It came in an adorable, stickered bax too (box + bag= bax!). I’m excited and scared by this sample. I’ll have to pm the owner and ask her how I would go about preparing to spin this so I don’t ruin it.

Vendor: H.A.Y. (Hampton Artistic Yarns)

Fiber: BFL Wool

Color: Salvia

Weight: 0.3 oz

Thoughts: First, I love the logo! Second, the orange in this roving is Blaze Orange, my camera didn’t get it bright enough. I’ve never seen a salvia plant in bloom, but this sample reminds me of a pumpkin. Maybe I’ll bake it! ;)

Vendor: WC Mercantile

Fiber: Superwash BFL

Color: Flowers and Showers

Weight: 0.3 oz

Thoughts: This batt had some hidden colors that were under the label. Gorgeous blues and hidden greens and blacks! Very dark, I love it!

Vendor: All Twisted Up

Fiber: Wool & Mohair

Color: Neon Twist

Weight: 0.3 oz

Thoughts: More black! Yay! This is a great little braid and these colors would look amazing plied back on themselves. Will probably have to order some of this.

Vendor: Infinity Yarn and Fiber

Fiber: Merino/Mohair

Color: New Growth

Weight: 0.333 oz (very precise)

Thoughts: The colors in this really remind me of spring. Buttery yellow, golden orange, and the green of a budding tree. Well captured Infinity!

Vendor: Desert Garden Farms

Fiber: Homegrown Lincoln Lamb/Kid Mohair (animals Fancy and Ozzie are featured on the label. I’m pretty sure this is their fiber) I also spy some angelina

Color: Tiptoe through the Tulips (LOVE IT!)

Weight: 0.4 oz

Thoughts: This Tumbleweed Batt (what a fun name!) is the perfect blend of pinkish-orange and greens. I can tell this is going to be a quick spin and I’ll have to get some more to satisfy my fibery urge.

Vendor: Mary Jane’s Attic

Fiber: Corriedale

Color: No name given, but as you can see, there’s purple, blue, yellow and green. ;)

Weight: 0.3 oz (all colors together)

Thoughts: They want me to make felt beads out of this, I’m not sure if I want to. I don’t really have much use for felt beads, unless they become cat toys. I’ll probably blend these with another sample. The colors are very even and bright and the business card is cute too.

So, 17 fiber samples, plus stitch markers, bags, coupons, and a pattern (I forgot to take a picture of it, it’s for a knitted wristband). Not too bad, Phatties! After I get settled into the new place, I hope to acquire some more fiber from several vendors. Off to bookmark!

Commencement, Pride, and Relocation

2009-05-17T21:29:00.001-05:00

Oh Blog. So much has happened since we last spoke. Much of it was not visually documented, but will be remembered for at least the next month or until someone reminds me of it. The ironic thing is that if I spoke to you more frequently, you would remember it for me for all time. Alas.

I do have some picture to ~~feed you~~ share with you though. It’s been busy around here and doesn’t seem to be getting any calmer over the next couple weeks.

First, my darling, sweetie-pie Ray graduated from college (with high honors!) on Friday with an Associates Degree in IT-Computer Network Specialist!

See, look how happy he is! He’s worked so hard these last two years (and technically still has 3 generals to finish, but will be taken care of soon), and I’m so proud of him!

My parents and our friends Matt, Janet, and Jen joined us for a very long, boring ceremony (except when Ray walked on stage and we all screamed like banshees) *he said he never heard us up there :(* They are truly great friends.

Ray didn’t really feel like going out after a long, people-filled day. So instead he and his friend (and fellow graduate) Cary did this:

Who knew Mormons drank and played Guitar Hero?

Sam partied too, in his own way.

This machine runs on Kitty Power!

Ahhhhh, anyway. It was a good night and I think we’re all glad it’s over.

Moving on, I finally finished my Pride shawl from way back when. It was my first all lace project and it was really fun. I think it turned out pretty nice. Here it is before blocking:

I really like the cabled edge, and of course all the holes. I even didn’t mind the cleverly disguised bobbles, called nupps.

Most of all, I love how the color changes. It’s the gradiance line from The Unique Sheep. From gold and orange/red, to pink and purple. Beautiful!

I’ll probably be blocking this later this week when I have a day off, that way I can make sure it doesn’t become a cat bed.

Not that I’ve been overly talkative on here as of late, but that trend won’t be changing anytime soon. We’re moving in a couple weeks and we have an amazing amount of “stuff”. And it all needs packing. I’ll be sure to post pictures of our new place (a slightly larger apartment, with the added bonus of a private basement! One that DOESN’T have black mold growing in it!). We’re pretty excited to be moving into a quieter area and away from all the college nonsense.

So the next time you hear from me, I might not have much hair left, but I should be relocated!

Samples Spun and Lessons Learned

2009-04-09T15:21:00.001-05:00

I’m a little behind with the fiber posting. Since I last posted, my birthday has come and gone. It was a good day/weekend spent with friends, music, food, and alcohol. Lots of fun. So much, that I didn’t take any pictures so you’ll just have to believe me that I had a good time. For my birthday, Ray got me a new drop spindle. THAT I got a picture of.

It’s from Zebisis Designs and I LOVE it! It’s got a carved black hardwood shaft and a green Brazilian Agate whorl. She even put a notch on it for me. My spindle came with a sample of fiber (as well as a larger one thrown in for my birthday!)

The blue is 65% mulberry silk/35% silk noil and the green is a blend of Bamboo, Corriedale, SW Merino, Cashmere, and Firestar. It’s so pretty it deserves a close-up.

Free fiber aside, you should really check out Zebisis. The owner, and sole proprietor, Mayisha is so nice and her spindles and fiber are gorgeous! I keep going back to her shop to see what’s new, but I’ve had to stop recently because I can’t afford to buy anything. It’s so hard not to.

As I posted early in March, I received a Phat Fiber box. With my new spindle I’ve been playing with some of the fiber samples. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

This is the Extreme Spinning BonBon, and my first attempt at plying. I had a little trouble spinning this one. I think my drafting was uneven and so some spots are thicker and less spun than others. This made plying difficult because it kept breaking at those weak points. Lesson learned and tucked under the belt. Another thing I learned from this first skein, is that I LOVE plying! Ohmygod! It’s sooooo much fun and watching the colors twist together and contrast each other is so rewarding. I find myself wanting to ply my commercial yarn just to see what it does together. Anyway. Next.

This attempt went much better. This is the Fox Hop sample (Corriedale Cross, Shetland Fleece, SW Merino, Alpaca, Bamboo, Sea Cell, and Angelina) plied with the Teresa Levite sample (Shetland Wool/Tussah Silk). I was able to spin this a little thinner and didn’t have any problems with breakage when plying (which I still love). I need to get a WPI tool, but my best guess is that this is a bulky weight and is about 11 yds. Not bad for a sample.

Yesterday, I spun this little beauty up.

This is the East Kentucky Fibers sample. There were five mini samples in different colorways and one large natural sample. I spun the five colored samples into one single and plied it with the natural. I added the Moonlight and Laughter sample from the January box to this because I thought the colors would fit in and I didn’t have a whole lot of it. I think this threw off the ratio of color to natural. I ended up with a yard or two extra of color and so I took the end and plied it with itself. That’s why you see some sections that are not twisted with white. I’m not sure how strong that will be, and I may end up cutting it off, but it looks really nice in a skein. This ended up as a worsted weight (see, I’m spinning thinner) and is about 10 yds. I absolutely love it, but have no idea what I’m going to do with it. Guess I’ll have to check Simple Knits to see if there is anything I like.

Amongst all this spinning I am still knitting, I just haven’t been posting about it much. I’m STILL working on Ray’s scarf, and have been plucking away at the Pride shawl. Although, we just got in a fight the other day (the shawl and I, not Ray and I) and some angry words were spoken. It’s not really the shawl’s fault, it’s the instructions and mine. It’s the instructions fault for being wrong, and mine for not looking up the errata (of which I knew there was) before picking this project back up. So when I finally did look at the errata and realized 11 rows later that I had started the color change one repeat too early, I may have said some awful things to the shawl that I will have to take back (along with those 11 rows). No, I didn’t put a lifeline in before the color change. I hadn’t needed one up to this point (and technically wouldn’t have, had I checked for pattern changes). I tried to run a lifeline through the stitches below the row I need to rip back to, but this only resulted in more angry words and frustration. So, I tink. I would have pictures of this wonderful, sweet, beautiful, and not-at-all-the-bane-of-my-existence shawl, but aside from the aforementioned attributes it is hard to photograph so you can actually see what it looks like. When laying there, it just kind of looks like a lumpy pile of tangled stitches. You have to stretch it and block it to really get the idea, and I just don’t have the gumption to do that until it’s done. Ok, I’m off to humble myself to an organized pile of string…I mean, the most beautiful project my needles have ever produced.

How Well Do You Know Me?

2009-03-23T21:16:00.001-05:00

Would I wear this?

If you answered “HAH!”, then you are right. This certainly is not a pattern that I would ever pick out for myself (but perhaps for those I don’t like), but then again, I didn’t. No, this pattern happens to be part of the final shipment of the 7 Deadly Spins Club. This, my friends, is Lust.

From the insert*:

…designed a knit and crochet embellished combination scarf (I beg to differ on this being a scarf) to satisfy your “lust” for both techniques, and even added in some special pearl bead touches (pearl beads, on my neck? you shouldn’t have, really, you SHOULDN’T have. my brain is way too far in the gutter to have pearls on my neck. I’d never stop blushing, and if you know me, you know that’s true.) The yarn being used- Unique Sheep Verve in American Beauty Rose (great color and yardage) and Luxe in Lusty Pink and Leaf Green complete the design for a gorgeous finished scarf (again, ?)

It kind of goes on like that, explaining why this project fulfills my craft “lust”. While I’m sure this project would be fun to make, and I do like making little crocheted flowers, I just wouldn’t be able to look at the end product with a straight face. In this patterns (meager) defense, the pearl beads are optional.

Aside from the pattern clearly not aimed at me, the yarn is very lovely. The color of the red isn’t really accurate in the picture. It’s a much more rose-colored red, with shots of reddish-purple. And there’s 400 yds of it! The pink and green are also very pretty and I’m sure I’ll find something cute to make with this yarn. Thrown in with the project supplies was a bag of hershey’s kisses and some lip balm.

I was a little disappointed that they decided to re-use two yarn bases in this shipment, Verve (Gluttony) and Luxe (Pride). I would have really liked to have seen a new base featured (like Singularity in Silk, Silk Twist, or Sashimi. Any of these would have fit Lust in my eyes). However, they did pick the yarns from my two favorite projects, so I know I like them.

So, would I join again? No. While I enjoyed not knowing what/how the sin would be each month, I have realized that my mind/tastes are far more sinister than those in charge of this club. There were definitely plenty of people that were/are pleased with all of their shipments, but I am one of the few that feels let down.

I will definitely be buying Unique Sheep yarn (the yarn was never a disappointment), and when I do so I’ll be purchasing it through Woolgirl (the shop I signed up for the club through). She carries all different lines of yarn and has a really good selection. However, I am going to be very weary of signing up for any themed clubs from now on, unless I’ve seen how they tend to interpret them. This was my first club, and I learned a lot about how to select them and I did have fun talking with others on the boards.

So this is me, and now you know. (take it away Jason….)

*I left the designers name out because I’m not attacking her personally, I’ve seen her other patterns and really like a lot of them. Just not this one.

March Phat-ness

2009-03-20T18:27:00.001-05:00

You got it, Bitches! I got another Phat Fiber box! This month the box sold out in 45 seconds during the first round! 45 FREAKING SECONDS!!! I even woke up early with a hangover from the night before and a bit sleep deprived, and I still got one. I was quick on the draw I tell you. My etsy-foo is not to be messed with. So, yeah, enough of my bragging. On to the box!

Mine was decorated with all these cute stamps. Jessie said her kids helped out and I think they gave my box a little extra love. I could feel it, and I think it rocks!

In the envelope/recipe (for Colcannon, Irish mashed potatoes, the theme was Celtic this month), there were coupons and stitch markers. The coupons are for Northern Bay Handspun, Wooliebullie, Natchwoolie, SLV Folk Arts and Fiber Festival (put on by Laura Murphy of Wildethyme), Danido Crafty, My Fair Bag Lady (no coupon, just a very vague business card), The Cupcake Factory, and Extreme Spinning. The coupons were very generous this time around and it’s going to be difficult not to use all of them.

Also in the box, a stone pendant from Ambrosia and Bliss,

a very pretty stitch marker tied with the most adorable little bow, from The Twice Sheared Sheep,

and a photo card of a very delicious looking raspberry from Marlyn’s Corner Store. And that was just in the envelope, people! Onward!

Note: The dollar did not come in the box, if anyone did get dollars in their box though, I call shenanigans. Mine came from my pocket and it’s just there for scale.

First, some adorable samples of Rambouillet and Merino top from East Kentucky Fibers. From what I gather from the card, the cream (undyed) is Merino top and the dyed samples are Rambouillet in her various dyelots. They’re very soft and the colors are nice and rich.

From The Fox Hop, about .5oz of Corriedale cross, Shetland Fleece, Superwash Merino, Alpaca, Bamboo, Sea Cell, and Angelina. She labels it as a Foxyie Batt, but I’m gonna call it “The Kitchen Sink”, cause it’s got everything but that. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but the angelina in this batt absolutely glitters! I keep turning it so the light catches it all over and it just sparkles. Sigh.

Ohhhhh. Fiberphile Alchemy. I love her colors and this one is no exception. She sent in 5.2g of Merino Bamboo (80/20) Sock yarn in the Emerald Isle colorway. It’s so squishy and soft! Quote from her card: Fiberphile Alchemy is dyed in random overlapping layers of two to four harmonious colors. This technique creates beautiful blending effects and results in a rich, mulit-dimensional colorscape for your finished project. How could you not want some of that?!

Moonlight and Laughter sent in an 18 yd skein of Merino/Nylon (75/25) Superwash Sock yarn in the colorway “Kil Kelly”. It is very squishy and looks like it will have great stitch definition. The colorway reminds me of my Mom, they’re very much her colors, so therefore I love it! (she also had a coupon for 20% off your first purchase, so I might have to get a skein of this for mother’s day)

Punk Jordane sent in a really uniquely packaged mini skein of Superwash Wool. The buttery yellow/soft yarn is wrapped around a bamboo stalk! Cool! She also sent a sample of her scented bath salts. The scent is Full Bloom and she uses real sea salt and cosmetic grade fragrance oils. It smells really good and it seems like a little would go a long way.

I LOVE the colors on this yarn! The way it’s spun reminds me of the sample from Fuzzy Bunny yarns in January, but it’s not. It’s from Simply Twisted Yarns, and it’s got me simply twisted! There is no fiber content included, but it weighs 23.6g and is about Sport weight. I can’t wait to see how these colors blend!

This lovely ball of fluff is from Tersa Levite Studio. It’s .25oz of Hand Dyed & Blended Shetland Wool/Tussah Silk (60/40). The color is actually brighter than this picture shows. It’s almost neon green, love it!

This is about the time in the photo session where Sam started to take interest. So most of the following photos will feature him, or some part of him.

See, there’s a paw. And some handspun from Dragonmaille (great name!) It’s 13yds of Alpaca/wool blend in the Celtic Isle colorway. It has shades of green and brown that are hard to pick up in this picture. Believe me, it’s very pretty. It’s also spun really well, it’s very even and soft. I hope one day I can spin this nicely.

Three different colors of Suri Alpaca Locks from Moonwood Farm. The colors are (top to bottom) Irish Moss, Celtic Gold, and Light Fawn. From the card: These samples are washed but will need to be combed before use to remove vegetable matter. I don’t really have anything to comb them with (except for my comb, but I don’t think that’s the kind they’re talking about), and I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to do with them. But they are pretty, and soft and one day I may find out how to spin with them.

Sam’s helping. This is quite a generous skein from Abstract Fibers. 25.5g of Mighty Sock (Superwash Merino/Tencel; 50/50) in a Husband-worthy colorway, Steel Bridge. It’s shiny and soft, and Sam-approved. That’s good enough for me!

It’s called Cordelia! (no, not after the Buffy cohort/Angel sidekick, but I’m going to pretend it is) That would be all I need to know, but I’m sure some of you aren’t as easily convinced (or huge dorks like me, but I certainly know some of you are!). This is a 15yd skein of Extravagance Sock Yarn from Knit It Up (remember them, I got some smelly and some soft from them). It’s Superwash Merino/Silk/Nylon/Silver Fibers (63/20/15/2). It’s got bling, yo! You can’t tell in this picture, it’s very subtle, but it does sparkle. Also, the color is actually a little darker than this picture shows.

From Aurora Fiber Arts, this is 2oz of Fireweed Worsted Merino Wool in the Eire colorway. The colors are lovely and I’m always on the lookout for a nice worsted wool. I will be keeping and eye on her site for sure!

This deliciousness is from Extreme Spinning. There are so many good things about this fiber that I think I better let her explain it. From the card:

Since I love knitting things that CAN be washed, especially for kids and socks, but hate the idea of always having to work with superwash chemicals, I searched all over for the right wool. Finally, I found it! From a small, family farm in the mid-west (what-up!) comes this Certified Organic wool. These beautiful sheep are raised on open pastures and lots of love! Happy Sheep make Happy Fibers!

The roving in your hands comes from Suffolk/Hampshire crosses which are “down” breeds, not wool breeds. Instead of crimp, down wool has curl, keeping the yarn bouncy even if spun worsted. For an extremely squishy yarn, spin it woolen! (I don’t know what that means) The more you wash it, the softer it becomes. Spin, Knit & Wash!

I have also used no harsh chemical dyes to create this machine washable wool. The colors you see were created by the new Greener Shades Dyes, an organically certified line of dyes created without use of heavy metals. And I use an organic soap to wash my fibers. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

I don’t think I need to say anything more. Except that those two pictures are the same batt (approx. .25oz), top and bottom.

Yay! Another KIP bag! Ruddawg makes awesome bags. This one is a little smaller than the other one I have, but it’ll fit in my “fancy” purse much nicer. She’s always getting in new fabric so check her site often!

Sam would NOT leave this skein alone! I don’t blame him either (he gets his great taste from his Mommy), it’s Hedgehog Fibers!!! My very first 100% silk roving in a delicious colorway (that’s actually the same colors as my cat, no wonder he likes it), Traffic Jam. I don’t know how many oz it is, but however much, it will never be enough. I (and Sam) heart Hedgehog fibers!

Hiding out at the bottom of the box, was the Boho Knitter! Well, not actually her, but one of her patterns. The Bocca Baciata hair comb pattern, which now that my hair is short, wouldn’t really work. But I know someone who would look adorable in this, I’m thinking black and red (what do you think Jen?).

So that is my box. I think the vendors were very generous this month, most of the sample sizes were very large. I thought the ratio of different types of samples was pretty good (although I would have preferred more fiber, but I think that’s because I’m just getting hooked). No Knickolas for me, which I was a little sad about. I wanted to take pictures of him with Franklin Habit, who will be speaking at our library’s Knit-In next week. Oh well, I might be chauffeuring him around for a bit and Knick is the one missing out. :)

Please click on the links and show these Phatties your love. These are all independent businesses and they can really use our help. All of the products I have received have been high quality. The prices at most of these shops are very reasonable as well, they understand that in an economic crisis they are not exactly top priority for the budget (but that depends on how faithful you are to your budget!). They go out of their way to make sure that your shopping experience is a good one, and some of them even throw in little extras! Ok. This concludes my advertising broadcast. Pictures of handspun to come when I get my birthday spindle from Ray!

A Gift From A Friend

2009-03-09T22:05:00.001-05:00

My friend, Maura, went to visit our friend, Heather, in Mankato, MN this last weekend. We had planned on going together, but work has kept me from being able to go out of town this month. So, Maura took her first trip (since living in WI) out of town by herself to visit a friend. It sounds like she had a really fun time, and I can't wait until we can go together and get into some crazy shenanigans.

At one of the several yarn shops they went to, Maura saw some fiber that she knew I would love. So, being the awesome and wonderful friend that she is, she bought it for me. Squee!

It's gorgeous, soft, shiny, and SOFT! Leave it to Maura. She knew that I was kind of jonesing for some fiber so she brought me a fix! I love her. Check this out:

See? GORGEOUS!

But, you know, she gave this to me on Saturday night. And I had Sunday off. Do you see where this is going? Well, if not, I'll help you out.

This was spun on my Louet drop spindle. It's a worsted to bulky weight yarn and is approx. 38 yds. I'm thinking I might be getting a new spindle for my birthday, one that is lighter. So then I'll be able to spin thinner weights, and therefore make my fiber go a little further. I also need to work on not over spinning as well. I tend to get parts of the yarn that coil up on themselves. This yarn is still really soft though and I think it will make a very nice neck warmer. Or something. I could really use a cute crochet mesh hat to go with my new haircut and the soon-to-be-warming weather. Hmmmm..... so many possibilities. Want to see another one? Okay, okay, here you go.

Hey Big Haircut!

2009-03-06T23:12:00.001-06:00

Yay! I got my hairs cut today! My (awesome) friend, Leah, does hair and nails down at the Orange Pearl Salon (call and make an appointment with her and tell her I sent you, she'll give you a great head massage!) in La Crosse. She gives great cut. Much better cut than I do pictures, but here are a few more anyway.

Sam approves (as much as his grumpy nature will allow anyway). I also went to see The Watchmen today. I won't say too much, since I know a few people that read this haven't seen it yet. I'll just say.......hmmmh (that's a pensive hmmmh, not a pompous hmmmh) and ouch. Take that how you may.

Lavender and Plum

2009-02-28T15:26:00.001-06:00

My shipment from Knit It Up (I didn't realize they had a longer name, the etsy site is just called Knit) came today! My spoils:

2.5 oz of BFL fiber in the Plum colorway, and one pound(!) of Provencal Lavender buds. That bag that you see? There are TWO of them. I know what I'm going to do with some of this, but lordy, I shall never want of lavender again.

So now I have more fiber to practice with on my spindle, and the picture is a pretty accurate depiction of the color so it's going to be some gorgeous yarn!

Speaking of more fiber: do you remember that Phat Fiber box I got in January? The one that led me to Knit It Up (and so many other wonderful shops)? Well, if you head over to the blog, there is a giveaway for 4oz. of some great superwash merino, a scarf pattern, and a cute pattern holder/reader! All from Samantha In Stitches Yarn. Check it out!

As for me, I'm off to spin up some of this fiber and plan out a way to contain this lavender in my stash.

P.S. If this post has led you to buy something from Knit It Up's etsy store, please put my etsy name (ZombieEatsSam) in the comments section. She has a pretty kick-ass referral program. Thanks!

I've Got a New Drug

2009-02-23T17:38:00.001-06:00

I finally broke down and tried my hand at spinning. I had avoided trying it out because I knew that I would probably really like it (a lot), and therefore it would be cutting into my yarn budget. However, Maura had given me the drop spindle I gave her for Christmas a while back (she has a wheel now) and I had some roving lying around that I had won in early January (a giveaway on the Phat Fiber blog), from Desired Haven Farms. It's the "waste not want not 2." She took all the thrums from her spinning and carded them with some wool and angora, then dyed the whole thing sky blue. The staple (or fiber length) is very short, and so it made it a little bit harder to work with. I think it turned out ok though, especially for being my first try.

It's a thick & thin, sort of by accident, but also because there were slubs of other fibers in it. Some of the twists are a little tight, but I think after a little more practice I can even it out.

Speaking of practice, I will soon have some more roving to practice on. Yes, it has begun already. I found 2.5 oz of BFL for $7 on Knit's etsy shop. It's the plum colorway. I think this will be a little easier to work with and will help me work on consistency. I also picked up 1lb of lavender buds to use in sachets for my stash (I've been meaning to do this for a while). Maura and I went to the fabric store today and I found some really cute fabric in the quilts section. The next project is to sew them into pouches to use with the lavender coming my way.

One last picture of my "special creation" :

Love and Left-overs

2009-02-15T14:48:00.001-06:00

A lovely bouquet of flowers from my Lovely. I didn't take a picture of the half-eaten (by me) box of chocolates he also gave me. I don't really want photographic evidence of that deed.

Even though we both worked yesterday, it was a very good day. He made dinner of Cajun Roast, fried potatoes, and steamed asparagus. I provided dessert from Fayzes in the form of a seven layer bar and an apple pie square.

It was delicious and there are plenty of left-overs for us to dine well again tonight.

Speaking of "left-overs" (would you believe I didn't even plan that segue?), I've been working on a project to use those samples I got in the January Phat Fiber box.

These are mostly Phat Fiber samples, but there are also scraps and left-overs from other projects. These are all the sock-weight samples, which were the majority. I have piles of samples (plus my own) in worsted and bulky weight. I think I may do knitted squares of those, or try for a scrap yarn scarf or something.

If you're interested in obtaining a Phat Fiber box (which you should be, you have no idea!), the theme for February is Romance & Chocolate. Here is a link to the video on the Phat blog for all the goodies that will be in the February box (which goes on sale on Monday Feb. 16th, email her- Jessie at phatfiber at yahoo dot com- for the times!). There are lots of really cool items (patterns and magazines), lots of gorgeous fiber and yarn, and there will even be chocolate! As well as a few special extras that weren't in last months box. All this for only $33, shipping included!

I'm passing this on in the hopes that someone I know will get one and I can oogle over theirs. I can't get one this month, but am very hopeful for the March box.

p.s. the squares up there are done using this pattern. it's fast and super easy!

Life in the Phat Lane

2009-01-23T17:32:00.002-06:00

So (waaayyy) back in December I caught wind of this yarn and fiber sampler box that this wonderful woman, Jessie, was going to be putting together. She'd be getting sample skeins and batts, stitch markers and balms, needles and bags, and all the wonderful things that go along with this great lifestyle. Each month indie crafters would send her their samples in the theme (I LOVE themes!) for that month.

January's theme was "Wintery Mix", and on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 8:22pm (during knitting group, what better time?!) the limited amount of boxes went on sale at Phat Fibers etsy site. Your humble blogger (that would be me), was able to procure a box (there were two available, a fiber and yarn box, and a yarn only box. I went for the latter.) and now I present to you, my spoils:

A box FULL of wonderful samples of yarn! It's a sight to behold. Let's let them out of the box so you can get a closer look at some of them.

From L to R: BunkyBoBo's Superwash Merino Sock in Hera (10g); Melissa's Kre8tions, no info on color or fiber content but it looks handspun and ranges from yellow to red, about worsted weight (4.5g); The Fuzzy Bunny 100% Wool, light sport weight (10g/25yd); Whorled Peace, 3 mini skeins of handpainted sock yarn (total weight 2.8g); Chocolate Princess 100% Wool in Early Winter, dk weight (9g); Wildethyme handspun Wool/Mohair/Tussah Silk, bulky thick 'n thin, and a beautiful purple beaded stitch marker (8.5g); Hedgehog Fibres 65% Merino/20% Bamboo/15% Silk sock yarn in Water Edge, super, super awesome soft (4.3g)

From L to R (and top to bottom): Moonlight and Laughter 100% wool in Leaves of Grass, bulky weight (2.4g), 75% Merino/25% Nylon sock yarn in The Golden Road (1.7g), BFL roving in Deep Lake (3.6g), and an adorable orange glass stitch marker; Crazy4Dyeing Jolly Sock, 100% Superwash Merino in Glacier (13.4g); Yarn Candy by Melissa dark and light blue smooth, metal/enamal stitch markers (and a 20% off discount code which is why they're upside down); Tracy Rios handspun Mohair/Wool/Cotton yarn (11.5g); Turtle Cove Farm Turtle Feet (75% Superwash Merino/25% Nylon) sock yarn in Ice Flower (10g/46yd); SummerStar Creations stitch markers, two red glass beads and one awesome business card! ;); Handspun and Dyed Too handspun Falkland wool (10.5g); Faerie Dust & Angel Fluff 100% Baby Merino Wool, lace weight. This is the SOFTEST bit of yarn I have ever touched. I WILL be buying more of this! Ahem...(2.7g); In Stitches stitch marker and offer for a free gift with purchase, nice and lightweight.

From L to R (and top to bottom): Artemisia Ink 100% Merino Wool (handspun by Ashley Flagg) in Ocean Seaweed, bulky weight (34g/23yd); Island Sweet Fibre Arts handspun Merino/Corn fibre/Ramie/Novelty in Glitter Storm, bulky thick 'n thin (7g); Designs by Tami sent a cute "matchbook" style notepad in a pretty, retro flower pattern; The Lote Tree (this is the wonderful Jessie, mentioned above, that put together this whole thing) Peppermint Lippschitt (great name!) lip balm. I'm wearing it right now and my lips are smooth and tingly! Dragon Lady Designs sent three adorable stitch markers, the strawberry is my favorite! Infinity handspun Superwash Merino/Alpaca, bulky weight (16g); Knit Get a Grip handbalm in Home scent, as far as I can tell it's a balm to make your hands a little tacky so you can grip the yarn and needles better. That's what I get from the instructions anyway, at any rate it smell delicious! DyedByDanido (the tag for this was missing, but I found out who it was from the forums on ravelry. eta: the colorway is Katchemak and it's 100% wool. Thanks for the comment DaniDo!) sock yarn and a link to an exclusive pattern for the yarn (2.2g)! All of these lovelies are laying on the Ruddawg KIP bag that I got. It's big enough to hold a small project such as socks (or the scarf for Ray that I'm working on, more about that later). It's very well made, and while not in a fabric that I would have chosen, it will get plenty of use.

There were also coupon codes for Moonwood Farm, P2tog, and Andey Originals. Hooray for discounts!

All this wonderfulness (either I use this word a lot, or it is actually a word because the spell check isn't underlining it...hmm....) only cost $33.00! That was including shipping (which was mighty fast). I won't be buying the February box (ONLY because I went over my yarn budget this month and need to stop for a while) so if anyone wants to check it out, go to the Phat Fiber blog and email Jessie and she'll send you a notice as to when it goes on sale. However, in March you can bet your sweet, furry yarn biscuits that I'm going to be clambering for one of those boxes. So please don't get in my way, I would like us to remain friends. ;)

Anyway, onto other project news. The $1.50 cardigan that I've been working on for a few months now is nearing completion. These are the two fronts blocking:

I've already blocked the sleeves, and the back is waiting for its' turn on the "blocking board" (which is actually one of those put-together play mats from the toy section at Wal-Mart. Only $20 and it works great!). After that, it's time to sew and then add some ribbing around the neck and fronts, add a few buttons and voila! Cardigan! This process is taking a bit longer than it needs to because I'm also working on this scarf for Ray (any time I put it down, he oh-so-discreetly puts it on my place on the couch. he's very subtle.)

It's the Exchequered scarf from Knitty. Double knit, worked on sz. 3 needles in Reynolds Revue (Gray: 1336 and Chartreuse: 1474). It's a little slow going because of the double knit, but it's going to be so soft and warm that it'll be worth the time for him to be toasty (and look cool).

And now, because it's been a while since you've been accosted with his cuteness......

IT'S SAM!!!!

Hang Over On New Year's Day? How Cliche.

2009-01-01T15:21:00.001-06:00

And yet here we are, in our pajamas at 3pm with the lights off, the TV off and the funk of the bar still around us. Poor Ray is much worse off than I (when he does drink, which isn't very often, he tends to go to far), and is keeping the couch warm with a bucket at the ready. Despite of the dour feelings we have right now, we both had a really good time being with friends last night and are particularly grateful to a few that helped us at the end of the evening (Matt, Janet, Heidi, and Ben; you all get medals). Our cameras battery has been dying rather quickly lately, so I don't have any pictures of our debauchery. However, I do remember a camera and seeing some really awful photos of myself, so the proof is out there somewhere.

I was prodded by someone (*coughJanetcough*) to post pictures of my Christmas present from Ray. Since our camera is a bitch, and I'm too f'ing lazy to try taking good photos of it anyway, I'll post this link to a video of my present. I got both the ball winder and the swift, but unfortunately not the art yarns.

I'm off to down some more water, maybe make some soup, and lay in bed and watch Buffy and Angel.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY, YOU MAKE EVERYDAY WORTH CELEBRATING! (although, perhaps not as much as last night.)

A Day of Pie, Pizza, and Pictures

2008-11-27T16:03:00.002-06:00

Yes, faithful followers, I have been neglecting you. I just don't take the necessary time to keep you updated on what is going on. Probably because most of the people that read this blog see me on a regular basis, and we communicate in person. However, there may be one or two people that read this that I don't see regularly, and to you; sorry I've been away.

Anywho, it's Thanksgiving Day! And guess what? I don't have to do A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G! To celebrate our not having to drive anywhere or cook anything, Ray and I had pumpkin pie (store bought, of course) for breakfast. I think every Thanksgiving should start with pumpkin pie. I'm seriously going to make this tradition around our house, why wait all day for deliciousness? For dinner, we're having One Sun Bakery Organic Spinach & Garlic pizza from the co-op. It's our favorite! I might actually break my oath of not doing anything and make this pumpkin bread, but it wouldn't take very long and looks delicious. Worth oath-breakage.

I also took time to take pictures of some of the projects I'm working on, since I haven't done that for a while. I'm almost 3/5 of the way through the Dollar and a Half cardigan from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. I'm using Rowan Soft Lux, in Ciel, that I got super cheap on elann.com.

This is the left front. The back and right front look like this:

A side view of course. Also, I haven't blocked any of the pieces yet, so they look slightly "bubbly".

I really love this yarn though. It's got a slight halo to it, and the metallic fiber that is spun with it makes the fabric sparkle. Glee!

I finally started on the Pride project from the 7DSC last night. It's my first real lace project and already I think I'm doing it wrong. Maybe some one can tell me by looking at it, but the spots where my YO are don't seem to be "twisting" like they do in the picture of the project (and in the one's other people have done).

If you look at the row of YO by my right index finger, you can see they form more of a sideways "V" rather than a single line, like this one does:

Actually, after looking at this picture compared to mine, none of my YO look right. Is this one of those "blocking" things? I know that lace isn't really completed until it's blocked (and the second one OBVIOUSLY is). Just looking at the stitches though, mine don't seem to be "formed" right. I know I'm doing the actual YO correctly, and on the next row I'm working them through the front. Am I supposed to work them through the back? The instructions don't say either way.

This technique dilemma aside, I really like doing lace.

Ok, onto the spoiler mentioned above. GREED! That's the theme of the 5th shipment of the 7DSC.

We've got 367 yds of 50/50 Superwash Merino/Tencel in the Precious Metals colorway (Gold & Silver). A $100 bill magnetic bookmarker, gold, silver, and copper colored bangles, gold and silver chocolate coins (which I greedily ate before I could shoot them. I wasn't too greedy though, I shared them with others), clear beads to string onto the yarn as well as a silver button for the pattern, a stitch marker of $100 bills, and a length of cream colored raw silk (used as the background here) for the lining.

The pattern is for a clutch purse, to hold all of my monies. Of which I have very little of at this time of year, and in general. I could stuff it with toilet paper though and no one would know the difference, just like in middle school......erm, I mean. What's that over there? ~runs away~ :)

So, that is the latest shipment, and I am pleased. Very pretty yarn, very good use of the theme, and it came with chocolate. Thumbs up!

p.s. I have designed a project for Knitty which they are going to be using in an upcoming issue (not the next one), but I don't know which one yet. So I can't say what it is, but when I find out which issue it'll be I'll let you all know. Squee!

More People need to see this...

2008-10-16T17:52:00.001-05:00

....so feel free to cross-post, link-to, copy and paste, or whatever to help pass this along. I copied this from Parade. It's pretty safe to say that I don't know anyone in the top five percent, so if you fall into one of the "lower" groups it should be clear who you should vote for. Just sayin'.

How Much Would You Pay in Taxes?

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain both say they’ll cut federal taxes if elected. Here’s what their proposals would mean for you.

	Obama	McCain
If you make...	you'd save...	you'd save...
less than $19,000	$567	$21
$19,000-$37,600	$892	$118
$37,600-$66,400	$1118	$325
$66,400-$111,600	$1264	$994
$111,600-$161,000	$2135	$2584
$161,000-$227,000	$2796	$4437
If you're in the top 5% of earners...	you'd pay an extra...	you'd save...
$227,000-$603,400	$121	$8159
$603,400-$2.87 million	$93,709	$48,862
more than $2.87 million	$542,882	$290,708

*Source: Tax Policy Center. Numbers have been rounded. For complete details, go to TaxPolicyCenter.org.

If your annual salary is less than $112,000, you’d pay less in taxes under Obama’s plan; if your salary is higher, McCain would cut your taxes more. “While the aggregate tax cut is bigger for McCain, a larger number of voters get more money under Obama,” says Alan Viard, a tax-policy expert at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “Obama is choosing to emphasize tax cuts for the middle class, whereas McCain’s strategy is to keep rates lower at the top as a way to facilitate long-run growth.” For example, a person with an income of $1 million could see his taxes increase under Obama by as much as $94,000, whereas under McCain’s plan he could save about $48,000.

— Rebecca Davis O'Brien

Sugar Twist Hat

2008-09-21T17:31:00.004-05:00

Free pattern time again!! It's going to start getting chilly again soon (although today is no indicator of that. I was the crazy lady walking down the street in a winter coat, hat, and scarf. It's 82 degrees today!), and you'll need something to keep the heat in your noggin. I know I do, plus I wanted to have a hat to match the Cable Twist scarf I made and had just enough Malabrigo left over to do so. I've always thought that Malabrigo looked like cotton candy spun into yarn (and although that would create a huge sticky mess, it would literally be the most delicious yarn ever!), so I name thee:

Sugar Twist Hat

Yarn: Malabrigo Gruesa (100% Wool; 3.5 oz; 65 yds): #100 Rosa Viejo, 2 skeins (I only used a small portion of the second skein, so if you make a smaller version you could get away with 1 skein)

Needles: 1 set US 10 (6.0mm) dpns & one 16 in. circular needle

Other Stuff: Cable needle, stitch markers, tapestry needle

Gauge: 10 sts & 18 rows = 4 in. in reverse stockinette st (that's where the right side of the work is the purl side, just in case ;)

Size: this fits my 21 in. head nice and snug; any adjustments to the stitch count will alter the look of the cable, but if you do need to add or subtract stitches, I would do that evenly throughout the purl sections.

* I edited the pattern a little to make the hat longer. If you have short/thin hair, go with the fewer rows. If you have long/thick hair, definitely add the extra rows. *

Directions

CO 60 sts.

Place marker(pm) and join yarn (and yes, be careful not to twist), then K2, p2 across all sts. Repeat for 4 rows total.

Row 1: P10, pm, K10, pm; repeat to end of row

Row 2: P10, slip marker (sm), K10, sm; repeat to end of row

Repeat Row 2 eight/ten more times.

Cable Row: *P10, slip 5 st to cable needle(cn), hold in front of work, K5 sts, K5 sts from cn; repeat from * to end of row.

Repeat Row 2 for ten rows.

Decrease Rows:

Row 1: P8, P2tog, sm, K8, SSK, sm; repeat to end of row.

Row 2: P9, sm, K9, sm; repeat to end of row.

Row 3: P7, P2tog, sm, K7, SSK, sm; repeat to end of row.

Row 4: P8, sm, K8, sm; repeat to end of row.

Row 5: P2tog, P to 2 st before m, P2tog, sm K2tog, K to 2 st before m, SSK, sm; repeat to end of row.

Row 6: Purl the purls, knit the knits ;)

Row 7: Repeat Row 5

Row 8: Repeat Row 6

Row 9: P2tog twice, K2tog, SSK; repeat to end of row.

Row 10: Repeat Row 6

Row 11: P2tog, K2tog; repeat to end of row.

Break yarn and weave in ends. Wear with love!

For your viewing pleasure I'll give you another shot from my very brief photo session (any longer and I would have fainted from heat exhaustion!). I assure you, this is the one in which I look the LEAST pissed off:

I was looking right into the sun, it was very hot, and there was a squirrel on the power lines that was none too happy about me shooting near his garden and was telling me all about it. I blame the sun mostly. Next time we shall wait another hour when the sun's not so high.

Seven Deadly S(p)ins Shipment #4

2008-09-15T22:24:00.001-05:00

Today, I am full of Pride! Pride in myself for the patience I've shown with this club and with waiting for this shipment ;). Pride in this club for coming through with a great shipment and copious amounts of yarn, as well as a great pattern. And pride in my photoshop skills for getting the colors as close as I could to the originals (at least with the very meager amount of experience that I have).

Yes, the theme of this shipment is Pride, and here it is:

The extras were few but, as I'm not in this for the extras, that was quite alright with me. I thought they were clever and useful (a mirror compact/hairbrush, a translucent vinyl bag for toting around your project, a handful of assorted candy; can't go wrong with candy, a 15% off coupon for WoolGirl, and these adorable stitch markers from Mama Llama in colors which I will explain in sec.).

The pattern is a lace wrap called Syncopated Lace by Merike Saarniit. In the booklet she explains that she is Estonian and extremely proud of her heritage, and learned to knit while growing up as part of her heritage. The lace pattern is an adaptation of two different Estonian Lace stitches and has a cabled border from the mind of the designer herself. The stitch markers included with the kit are in the colors Blue, Black, and White; the colors of the Estonian flag. The pattern is gorgeous and will be my first TRUE lace project. I'm very excited to start!

The yarn is The Unique Sheep Luxe (75% Superwash Merino/25% Tussah Silk, 200 yds/skein) in the Pride colorway. This is another gradient color scheme, starting with oranges and reds, and ending with deep pinks and purples. It looks like it's going to be great to work with, and I may have to use the coupon to get enough to make Jeannie!

The next contest for this club is a photo contest, in which we're supposed to take a picture that symbolizes one of the Deadly Sins. I've got a few (okay, way too many, and most require a wardrobe I don't even come close to owning!) ideas and think this will be a fun contest. Maybe I'll even win this time! ;)

Sheepy, Wooly, Festy

2008-09-07T15:35:00.001-05:00

What a blast! Maura, Heather, Betty, and I went to the Jefferson Sheep & Wool Festival yesterday. It was a great day, the drive up was full of conversation, music, and napping (Heather was tuckered out from the night before, which happened to end a few hours before we left ;). I knew it was going to be a good day when I looked at the clouds and they were so fluffy and clumpy, they looked like huge batts of un-dyed roving in the sky.

There were just as many vendors as there were last year, even some new ones, and sooooo much yarn and fiber that it was hard not to buy something at each booth. We all did very good though and stuck (for the most part...) to our budgets. I fell in love with a shop out of Geneva, IL called Wool and Company. Not only did they carry the Mirasol Hacho I recently acquired, but also Shi Bui, Dream in Color, & Colinette Jitterbug. It was a really, really hard decision to make; but I had to have a plan. I've been eyeing up the chevron scarf for over a year now, and decided I was going to buy enough of one of these yarns to make it. After a very rigorous debate over color and yardage (and much help from my co-horts) I decided to go with this:

Try as I might, I just can't get a photograph that shows off the vibrant, rich, impossibly edible colors that appear in this yarn. Sorry, but this picture does not do it justice. So this is the Colinette Jitterbug in Lagoon (left), and Salty Dog (right), as well as the Ravelry button we each got from Dianne at Creatively Dyed Yarns. So begins my chevron scarf, I may even have enough to make a hat to match!

As well as yarny goodness, there were also throngs of adorable animals, I leave you with just a few:

Just a Quick Word

2008-08-04T00:18:00.001-05:00

I'm about to shove off to bed, but before I do I want to pass the word to those that may not have caught wind of this yet. There is a new online knitting magazine up and running. The patterns are not free :( but they are gorgeous enough for me to not care. The articles are pretty informative, especially the one by Cat Bordhi and an amazing new way to knit a sock (I swear that woman could find a way to knit a bicycle into a sock!). The layout is really cool too, you just click on the sidebar to "turn" the page. Probably the most beautiful feature though (besides the lovely patterns) is the photography (ATTENTION: MAURA!!!!), they divide the sections of patterns up into themes, and.....you just have to see for yourself. They're so much fun!

Anyway, this is my obsession: Wisteria. I've been searching online for a yarn that will work that won't make the sweater be $60. I think I can do Knit Picks Swish for about $40, but I don't know what the yarn feels like. Has anyone used it? Is it soft and "sweaterable"? There are also a few other patterns that I want to make, but this one will be first (if I make any, that is).

So there, go forth and drool!

7 Deadly Sins Shipment #3

2008-07-22T17:22:00.001-05:00

Just in case I didn't start this post low enough for anyone to not be spoiled if they stumble upon this, I'll give you a picture of my animal fitting this month's them quite well:

So yes, this shipments' theme was Sloth. I was quite worried about this shipment given my disappointment in the last one, but I have to say I'm not really disappointed this time. I'm not as ecstatic as I could be, but at least this shipment had some yarn in it, and the pattern (although I would probably pass it by if searching for something to make) looks like it took a really long time (not to mention a lot of math) to design. It's not something I would normally like, but I think it could grow on me. It also looks like it's going to be a heck of a lot more challenging than the last shipment.

The yarn is Unique Sheep Footprints. 50g of Studmuffin (brown) and 70g of Siesta Fiesta (multicolor), as well as 8g of black angora yarn for the inside of the earflaps. The extras included were a row counter (for those to lazy to keep track), a club button, a note pad with a crazy colorful sloth on it, and some loose tea from Felicitea (green tea, chamomile, peppermint, and catnip), as well as a tea bag to put it in (the glass of Mango Lemonade did not come with the shipment, I was just to lazy to move it. Just keeping with the theme!)

So while it's not what I expected, I'm happy about the challenge that the project will provide. However, it's going to wait a little bit because I've started something else.

This is the Short 'N Sweet (ravelry link) from the Stitch 'N Bitch Happy Hooker book. I'm making this with the same yarn that I made Blissful with, which didn't turn out as such for me, but will work great for Maura (once I finish putting the fasteners on it). Also unlike Blissful, this one seems like it's going to fit me. So far. While working on this project, I've been neglecting this one:

This is the sock for Ray that I've been picking up between projects. I'm not sure what is keeping me away from it, I think I may be a little burnt out on socks, but I really want to finish it them for him. Yes, this is only the first one. At this rate he MAY have them for Christmas. We'll see.

Technical Difficulties

2008-07-21T21:24:00.003-05:00

On Sunday I wrote a post on Live Writer about the last shipment of 7DS, full of pictures and everything. Something is wrong with the internet connection in our area and it's not letting me upload it at all. A technician is coming by on Thurs. to take a look at it. Hopefully they can do something about this, because it's affecting all three of our computers and also Ray's Xbox. Our connection is also really slow at times, one page took almost three minutes to load! Ugh! Ray thinks that maybe they're bandwidth shaping, but he did a download test on someone elses router in our building and they were going slow as well. I may just breakdown and take my computer somewhere with free wireless to upload the post. Sorry to keep you in suspense. ;)

Story Time

2008-07-19T22:17:00.001-05:00

I wrote a short story for a contest for the yarn club I'm in (7DS, button on the side there). The story had to be no more than 300 words (which mine is exactly) and had to end with the sentence "...and s/he saw the sloth wrap and dangle the scarf from its neck." Sloth being the theme of this next shipment. I found it challenging to keep the story under 300 words (I tend to ramble and over explain things), but did manage to do it. My inspiration for the story (and it's macabre theme) came from my friend Jason who often writes anecdotal stories about cute insects and animals and their true nature. So anyway, without further ado.......

Penelope, the praying mantis, and Midge, the sloth, were at their usual game. Penelope would run up to the very top of the tree and pick all the best fruits and nuts and place them on Midge’s belly, this way Midge could just hang around in her favorite spot all day. In return, Penelope got free run of all the insects and bugs in the tree. This made both of them very happy and plump.

One day, as Penelope was crawling around on Midge searching for parasites to eat she got some of Midge’s hair stuck on her legs. As she wound her legs around to try and free herself she noticed that certain movements made the hair fibers “lock” together. Being the curious and creative mantis that she was, she decided to collect some of Midges hair and repeat this motion to see what would happen. She quickly realized that doing this created a long piece of fabric.

Penelope decided to make a present for her friend Midge. She would make a strip of fabric out of Midge’s hair that she could wrap around herself. Penelope would call this strip of fabric a scarf. Midge would love it because Penelope worked so hard on it. And she did work on it. A lot. She soon became obsessed with making this scarf and was no longer bringing food for Midge.

This didn’t make Midge very happy. She was too lazy to get up for food and Penelope was right there, well-fed on insects. Midge reached out and picked up Penelope to put her in her mouth, scarf still in hand. She cried out, but to no avail. She made one last attempt to escape from Midge’s mouth and she saw the sloth wrap and dangle the scarf from her neck.

p.s. I got the shipment today. I shall take pictures of it and post my thoughts tomorrow.

A Productive Weekend

2008-07-15T00:39:00.001-05:00

First off, I'd like to thank everyone that commented on my last post. It meant a lot to Ray and I to know that so many people were thinking of us and of Zombie too. The house just isn't the same without her and I think even Sam (reluctant as they were to like each other) misses having her around. Oh, she was such a sweetheart.

Well like a lot of grieving people, I tried to keep myself busy, so as to keep my mind off things. Aside from going for several bike rides, breakfasts, dinners, and movies this weekend; I also worked on some knitting projects.

This is an inner tube from Ray's bike tire that went flat this weekend. I had seen inner tubes made into straps for bags before, but just never had one lying around. I attached it to the Spork Felted Courier Bag that I knit ~~ages~~ a while ago and never got around to finishing. Well, technically it's still not done. I need to put the buckles on the flaps still, but it's a little closer. And now I have a motive for finishing it too, this bag is going to be sold at the market. I have a gajillion bags and I don't really need another one. Plus the money will help to pay for Zombie's final medical bills. Not the most cheery of causes, but necessary none the less.

In the there's-no-way-this-going-to-be-anyone-else's category of knitting news:

Ewww, what the hell is that?!! And why would you want to keep it?! Well, "that" is just over 100 yds of Malabrigo super bulky thick & thin (color: Rosa viejo) knitted into a scarf that kind of looks like a really pretty tape worm. That is until you do this:

Ahhhhhh. Much better. This is the Alpine Cable Scarf from Andrea Tung's Hats, Mittens, & Scarves Deck. It knits up really quick (which is good for the crazy person that decides she just has to knit a Malabrigo scarf in the middle of summer), and looks great once it is blocked. I'm not sure how well it will keep it's shape once I'm wearing it for a while, but I won't have to worry about that for at least 3 more months (fingers crossed).

I've also started working on the second half of my Seven Deadly Ribs Wrist Warmers, and after trying to follow my own pattern realized that I am an idiot. I totally had to fix the whole pattern, and it's still not quite how I want it. However, I can live with it because it's pretty much my first real design pattern. Plus I'm too lazy to go through and figure out how to make that crazy cable cross in the other direction (I have a feeling it would require starting the 1x1 rib with a purl instead of a knit. Don't ask me why, apparently working on that pattern immediately turns off my brain and I can't even figure out the simplest repeat.) I'll have pictures of those up when they're done and Maura has had a chance to photograph them properly.

Well, it's now late and my bed is calling. Off to cuddle a kitty.

R.I.P.

2008-07-08T22:00:00.001-05:00

Zombie (aka Zombers, Princess, & Zombelina) 1994-2008

She was tiny, bright-eyed, and could cuddle longer than any cat I know. She loved her purple velvet pillow, and sitting in laps. She purred like a motor boat stuck on high. And she was oh so tiny.

She passed away peacefully at the vets office in the arms of the two people who cared for her most.

We'll miss you Zombie, you'll always have a special spot on our laps.

Then along came you

2008-06-09T00:34:00.001-05:00

Hello again! It's been a little while since the last post. I know, you guys hear that a lot from me. The truth is, I enjoy blogging I just don't enjoy the process. Typing in a tiny window, inserting and resizing pictures (after waiting several minutes for them to download) and trying to drag them around in said tiny window. I guess that is probably the most annoying part. The pictures. I love having them in my blog, but it's really annoying/time-consuming to insert them with the format that blogger uses.

Enter: Windows Live Writer! It makes the whole process much easier and faster, well as far as I know anyway. I haven't published this post yet, but aside from any problems with that then it will be awesome! When I post, I'm posting on a template that looks just like my blog page (no more text not lining up with pictures because of sizing conflicts) and inserting pictures is as simple as selecting the file from my pictures folder. There's also more options for customizing my posts as well, but I'll explore those later. For now, I'm just glad to have fallen "in like" with my blogging experience again.

On to stuff! The picture above is the basket that I made in a class with some friends of mine at Baskets of Yarn. It was a lot of fun, and a little easier than I thought it would be. It also took longer than I thought it would, but next time I will come prepared with some snacks or something.

In the basket is some gorgeous hand-dyed merino, Mirasol Hacho, that I picked up at Bella Lana when Ray and I went to Minneapolis in April. I have no idea what it will be yet, although a few different ideas have floated by. Any thoughts? I have three skeins at 137 yds working up at 22 st in 4 in. on sz. 6 needles. I've looked at Ravelry and most of the projects on there have been socks, baby clothes, or sweaters that I don't have nearly enough yarn for. I could probably make a scarf or a few hats, but I wanted something a little more creative than that. I may just need to wait until the Fall Knitty comes out, their warmer patterns are usually pretty good.

I have a few projects I'm working on that I would have pictures of, but we had really crappy weather this weekend, so the lighting wasn't that good. Maybe next time!

Seven Deadly Ribs Wrist Warmers (Free Pattern!)

2008-05-23T21:57:00.010-05:00

The Seven Deadly Ribs Wrist Warmer

I designed these wrist warmers with yarn that
I received from the Seven Deadly S(p)ins yarn
club. The cable contains seven twisted rib stitches, each one standing for each sin. The palm is basic stockinette stitch and there is some shaping above the wrist to really hug your hand. I used the picot bind off from the Fetching Fingerless gloves on Knitty, and it seems to give the right amount of "edginess" to the pattern.

Edited on 7/13/08: I must have been on crack when I wrote this, because I made a lot of mistakes. Actually I just made the same one over and over, but it definitely affects the pattern. I'll highlight the changes for anyone that has already printed this off. Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. :)

Yarn: The Unique Sheep Pima Petite (100% Peruvian Cotton; 2 oz/150 yds) 1 skein, Peace

Needles: US 3 straight, or size needed to get gauge

Stitch markers
Cable Needle
Tapestry Needle

Gauge: 20sts and 32 rows = 4 in.

tbl- through back loop
ktfbl- knit through front and back loop
13-st rib RC- slip 6 st to cable needle, hold in back, [K1 tbl, P1] 3 times, K1 tbl, cont in rib from cn as foll: [p1, k1 tbl] 3 times.

Left Glove

CO 36 st. (leave a long tail for sewing up the side)
K1, P1 for 6 rows
Row 1: K3, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K20
Row 2: P17, K3, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3
rep rows 1 and 2; 3 times.

Cable Rows:
K3, 13-st rib RC, K20
P17, K3, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3

Row 1: K3, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K20
Row 2: P17, K3, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3
rep rows 1 and 2; 3 times.

Increase Rows:
Row 1: K1, ktfbl, K1, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K2, ktfbl, K15,
ktfbl, K1
Row 2: P18, K4, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K4
Row 3: K1, ktfbl, K2, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K3, ktfbl, K16,
ktfbl, K1
Row 4: P19, K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5
Row 5: K5, [13-st rib RC], K24
Row 6: P19, K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5
Row 7: K5, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K24
Row 8: P19, K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5
rep rows 7 and 8; 4 times.
rep rows 5 and 6 once.
rep rows 7 and 8; 5 times.

Picot Bind Off:
BO 5 sts, [slip st on right needle back to left needle; CO 1 st using Cable Cast On, BO 6 sts] until all sts have been bound off.

Cut yarn with enough length to sew down to your thumb.

Fold piece in half, right sides together. Starting at the top, graft the sides together stopping after about an inch (or desired length). Weave in end. Using tail yarn, sew up from the bottom for about 2 in. (or desired length). Weave in end.

Right Glove

~~For the right glove, you can change the cable to be opposite from the other glove by holding the cable needle to the front instead of the back.~~
Since this is an odd numbered cable, this doesn't work like I thought it would. I'm fine with my cables going in the same direction, how about you?

CO 36 st. (leave a long tail for sewing up the side)
K1, P1 for 6 rows
Row 1: K20, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1tbl, K3
Row2: K3, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3, P17
rep rows 1 and 2; 3 times

Cable Rows:
K20, 13-st rib RC, K3
K3, [P1tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3, P17

Row 1: K20, [K1tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K3
Row 2: K3, [P1tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K3, P17
rep rows 1 and 2; 3 times

Increase Rows:
Row 1: K1, ktfbl, K15, ktfbl, K2, [K1tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K1, ktfbl, K1
Row 2: K4, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K4, P18
Row 3: K1, ktfbl, K16, ktfbl, K3, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K2, ktfbl, K1
Row 4: K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5, P19
Row 5: K24, [13-st rib RC], K5
Row 6: K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5, P19
Row 7: K24, [K1 tbl, P1] 6 times, K1 tbl, K5
Row 8: K5, [P1 tbl, K1] 6 times, P1 tbl, K5, P19
rep rows 7 and 8; 4 times.
rep rows 5 and 6 once.
rep rows 7 and 8; 5 times.

Use Picot Bind Off to finish. Follow instructions from left glove to sew seam.

Block item and enjoy!!

This pattern hasn't been test knitted yet. Please let me know if anything is wrong or if the instructions are unclear.

Handling Wrath

2008-05-21T20:39:00.003-05:00

A while ago I got the second shipment in the 7DS club. This time it was Wrath. A damn fine sin, it certainly has it's place. Especially in a yarn club themed around it and it's six other counterparts, right? Well, I thought so too, except the people in charge apparently didn't agree. I think they might have thought that Wrath was a little too "negative" (HELLO! It's a sin! It's supposed to be negative!), and decided that Wrath's opposite, Peace, would make a better yarn package.

Okay? Peace. What makes me feel at peace? Well, yarn. Lots of yarn, lots of soft, silky, fluffy, pretty, finger-petting good yarn. Hmmm, what else? Chocolate, coffee, sweaters, chocolate, wine, and yarn. Okay. A kit with lots of soft, fluffy yarn with a pattern for a small shrug or capelet, a little chocolate, a sample of coffee (wine might not pack well). Yeah, I guess that could work.

So, what is THEIR idea of Peace? Well, it's certainly not as much about yarn as mine is. It's more about baths (which I do find peaceful, just not in my tiny tub) and decaf tea. They did get the chocolate right though. That was a damn tasty chocolate sheep. All three bites of him. Anyway, so of course to relax with all this bath stuff sent to me by my yarn club; they supplied me with 150 yds of delicious pima cotton in a very pretty pale blue (not as much yardage as I would find peaceful, but they claim it will be made up for in later shipments) to knit a wash cloth (with a sheep on it of course) and a soap sack. Well, I'm just not the washcloth type, and if I use a bar soap, then I've taken to felting them.

What this means it that I had to come up with a use for this yarn and I wanted turn the theme back to where it was supposed to go, Wrath.

Behold! The Seven Deadly Ribs Wrist Warmers and Choke(r) on some Wrath! (clicky make biggy)

I made up the pattern for the wrist warmers, but the choker is from pieKnits site (she has some other really cute stuff too!)

I'll post the pattern for the wrist warmers in a separate post (I'm going to link this pattern to my ravelry and the 7DS forum, and while I spoke up about being unhappy about the shipment, I don't want to throw it in their faces in the form of a link to an alternative idea) with a few more pictures. I also haven't finished the second one yet and need to make sure that there are no major changes that need to be made to the pattern for the second one.

In other news, a while ago I signed up to be a test knitter for a vintage stitch pattern book that Lime & Violet (or someone affiliated with them) are putting together and just got an email today saying that I'm in! I'm pretty excited, it doesn't pay money but I get to keep any yarn left over. I'm definitely cool with that!

And speaking of getting paid....today I got a raise at work (a pretty substantial one too) and couldn't be more happy. I can now afford to pay all of my bills (on time even!), set some money aside in savings, and maybe even have a little left over to play with! My boss (and my job) kick ass!

Ok, I'm gonna go start another headband for the market this week. G'night!

Guess I kinda forgot.

2008-04-25T20:51:00.005-05:00

Sorry about that. So the secret thing I was working on was a made-from-scratch red velvet cake for my friend Heather who is now living in Mankato, MN. We (read: The Thursday Night Knitting Group) were throwing her a surprise going away party and she reads my blog so I couldn't say anything about it. We held this party under the guise of an "assembly" party for the scarf squares that we have made for each other. Anyway here are some pictures (click on them to make them bigger) of all that fun:

This is Heather with her cake and wearing her Kick-Ass Bitch Scarf, aka K.A.B.S. (so dubbed by me, just now. we came up with several different names for the project, but none of them seemed to stick. I think it's because they didn't have enough swear words in them ;) She is also posing with several spent bottles of wine, which we all helped to drink. And it was delicious.

This is Maura with her scarf (my square is the one in the upper left side!) and Jason in the background looking suspicious about something. He must be talking to Karen! (just kidding Karen!)

Janet, hiding among the greenery, modeling her scarf (mine is the blueish-green one).

Here's Betty, looking sooo cute! Just like her scarf!

Betty is helping Karen model her scarf (which matched her outfit beautifully!).

And this is me with my scarf. It is very toasty and the weather was even nice(?) enough to give me several days to warrant wearing it. Joy!

And what's a good party without boys?!

Here, Jason is showing us the proper use of a knitted pillow in progress. That's what I've been doing wrong!

Matt is totally jamming out with his crochet self.

Andrew (Betty's husband) watched us all be crazy and didn't judge us. He gets a huge medal for that alone!

Max provided cuteness and tech support, he's quite efficient with the hunt 'n peck.

It was a very fun night and we're sad to see Heather go, but we know we'll see her again soon.

Ok, off to look up crochet patterns!

Just a little bit

2008-04-15T16:26:00.002-05:00

I did something awesome today. I can't share what it is yet, it's not done, but pictures have been taken and you shall all know soon. He, he, heeee.

1 sin down, 6 more to go.

2008-04-05T13:54:00.005-05:00

They are done! And they match perfectly, well as perfectly as I want them to anyway. Too perfect and they wouldn't have any character. So, I love them and I'm going to have to come up with an outfit to show them off. Or at least find some shoes that'll do them justice.

The colors and striping on the toes remind me of easter eggs, which make me think of chocolate bunnies. Mmmmm, chocolate.

I had enough of all the colors in the end, I have only a few yards of #1 and #4, but quite a bit of #2 and #3. I need to come up with a small (less than 100 yards) project for them, but haven't thought of anything yet.

Now I'm working on Betty's square for her scarf, the final square! Then we're going to get together at Betty's house one night and have a wine, food, and scarf-assembling party! It'll be so much fun.

After I'm done with Betty's square I'm going to start designing items to sell at the farmer's market this summer. Ethan got a spot for Maura and I to sell (her) handspun yarn, and (our) knitted items. I think she's going to focus on scarves and hats (?) from her handspun and I'm going to try and come up with some household items as well as some accessories. I'm pretty excited, Ray even offered to learn how to felt so he could help me out. I know how he is, and I'm really glad he offered to help, it means he supports what I'm doing. I also don't think he'll really "get into" felting items and will probably help out with a few and bow out. That's okay though, in this case it really is the thought that counts. I love him!

And, just because I forgot to do it last time I had a photo shoot, here is a picture of Sam. Always watching, always grumpy, ALWAYS cute! (I love him too!)

Let them eat cake. (no really, they can have mine)

2008-03-30T23:35:00.005-05:00

Ah, birthdays. Another year gone by and another begun. I wish that I had something deep and philosophical to say. I'll probably come up with something later as I'm trying to fall asleep, and it will probably be someone else's. As for my original thoughts, they usually lean towards food. As pictured below.

What we have here is a very typical looking cake. A yellow coconut cake with boiled coconut frosting, sprinkled with (yes) coconut. (I have quite a bit of coconut left over from holiday baking and I need to use it.) Yes, it looks like a normal cake, it even smells like one. However, this is my first attempt at a "from scratch" cake and I'm a little disappointed in myself.

I should have known that something was wrong when the batter was the consistency of cookie dough, and the frosting was the consistency of wet batter. I followed those instructions (Jen was there to witness and she is willing to testify) and didn't miss any ingredients. However, I think I have yet to learn what some of the baking terms actually mean (i.e. the result they should produce). When I had to (quite literally) spread the "batter" around to fit the 13x9 pan, Jen and I decided that we would just tell everyone we were making coconut BARS.

Well, that's pretty much how it turned out. The cake didn't rise at all and weighs about 5 lbs. (not an actual measurement, but I'm willing to wager a slice of it) Ray had quite a time trying to cut through the density of it. It's moist, but it's a very thick, heavy moist. More like a cookie. It's very coconut-y though. The frosting is also a bit rich for my taste, and has to be refrigerated or it melts off the "cake".

I'm seeing this as a challenge and am determined to make an acceptable birthday cake (I know several people who have one coming up. Don't worry, I won't force you to eat any "failures"). This cake is edible and is actually very good if you don't expect it to be cake. You just can't eat very much because it hits you like a brick.

At least the pizza was good. And I have a cinnamon roll left over from breakfast that I think I'll enjoy tomorrow. I've had enough baked goods for this evening.

(p.s. Ray got me a very pretty flower. I'm not usually one for them, but I think this is the most perfect looking rose anyone has ever given me. I love it.)

(p.p.s. The recipe came from allrecipes.com, I've used it for cookies before. Usually pretty good)

Now with 30% less cat squeezage!

2008-03-29T18:35:00.006-05:00

This bowl of fun was a clearance purchase from Midnightsky Fibers. I got the whole lot (not including the bowl) for $30! The very colorful stuff in front is more of an "art yarn" (or what looks to be scraps tied together), but they aren't very big and the other skeins COMPLETELY make up for what lack of usability (they may prove themselves useful after a closer inspection) the art yarns may have. Anyway, I couldn't pass it up, not at that price.

In other (knitting) news, I've started the second Gluttony sock and am a little disappointed at the pooling in the top area (but not enough to rip back!), but such is the uniqueness of hand-made socks. The second color didn't pool and I just started merging the third (and am about to start the heel), so we'll see how the rest of it goes.

I had the day off today and went out for breakfast this morning with Maura. She met me at my house and we walked downtown. It was really nice, and the food was scrumptious! Afterward, we headed over to Jule's and had coffee and knitted/talked until she had to go to work. I have to say that if we hadn't gone out I probably would have slept until 11 and just had cereal in my p.j.'s (which is actually my usual day off ritual, and is quite nice also), but it was good to get up early (for a day off) and have the whole day ahead of me. Even if I did use it to do laundry and take pictures of yarn. Sam was thrilled that I hung out upstairs in the bedroom (it gets the best light during the day), and rewarded me with all sorts of cute poses that made me want to hug him until his innards came out. I didn't though.

Tomorrow is my birthday and I think I have a lunch date with Jen and Brenna (I shall have to call tonight to confirm). Also, I think I might make myself a birthday cake from scratch, although I'm not sure what kind yet and I think I should probably go out and get some eggs. There probably aren't too many decadent cakes that don't have eggs. Ray has to work tomorrow, but we are going to have my favorite pizza (One Sun Bakery Spinach & Garlic, from the Co-op) and perhaps a movie or something.

The real party is going to be next Saturday when Jason, Janet, and I are having a birthday bowling bash! All of our birthdays fall within a week of each other (Apr. 1, 11, & Mar. 30, respectively) and we thought we'd just combine partys. Although the definite location and time is yet to be established, I believe All Star Lanes was suggested and the evening was preferred. More on that when it's been confirmed.

Right. Time to find cake recipes and knit some more.

50% Gluttony, 50% Life

2008-03-22T13:39:00.004-05:00

The first sock is DONE!!!!! I love it! This pattern is really cool and the yarn is great to work with. There were a few mistakes in the pattern, but they are pretty easily recognizable if you're paying attention to the pattern. My new favorite sock "innovation" is arch shaping, I LOVE it! You're basically putting a heel stitch on the bottom of your sock to make it pull in where your arch is, yet is still stretchy.

This is the fancy toe shaping. Done much like the decrease on a hat. Me likey. :)

This is the whole sock in all it's color-shifting glory.

The amazing arch shaping.

The second sock is being put on hold while I work on Heather's square for our TNKG scarf. I found a pattern that works really well with the yarn I'm using, Dalegarn Svale (cotton/viscose/silk). So that will be my project for this week.

On a non-knitting note, my nephew, Riordan, is home from the hospital. He still has to go back for physical therapy and to have his blood pressure monitored (there was some kidney damage), but at least he won't have to be cooped up in a hospital room and can be with his family. His siblings were VERY happy to see him.

Also, Ray and I bought tickets to go see Kids in the Hall perform at the Orpheum Theatre in Minneapolis, MN in April. We are super-duper stoked about that!

Ok, I'm off to start on Heather's square and gear myself up for "The Show" by watching some seasons of KITH.

Oh Sweet Gluttony!

2008-03-10T20:28:00.003-05:00

YAY! I got my first shipment from the 7 Deadly S(p)ins Club! It's got four 25g skeins in gradually escalating colors. You end up knitting a little from each skein to create a rainbow effect. It's really cool. Keeping in the theme of Gluttony, there was also a bag full of Jelly Belly beans (which had broken open in shipping, but it was a bag-in-a-bag deal, so no waste), a set of sock stitch holders (can never have too many of those), a Woolgirl (the store I signed up through) pen, and a little something else that I'm not going to divulge because I think it may be someone's birthday present. ;)

The sock pattern was designed by Kelly Eells and is really cool. It looks kind of like a broken rib of sorts. With the color changes it's really neat.

I still have my square to finish for Thursday, but I don't think I'll be able to resist casting this on. I guess having more projects going than I can work on at once would also be keeping in the theme!

P.S. the jelly belly's were gone before this post was finished! :)

...A Little Happier

2008-03-04T21:48:00.002-06:00

I'm finally back. And there's good news, Riordan is doing much better. When we arrived at the hospital on Saturday morning, the doctors still were not sure what was infecting his body. He had a bunch of fluid around his lungs but they couldn't drain it at all because his blood platelet count was too low. On Saturday afternoon they were able to put in a chest tube and ended up draining a litre of fluid from around his left lung. It was full of bacteria and that bacteria told the doctors what they should be fighting (up to that point they had just been giving him something to treat "everything").

They discovered that the virus attacking his system was Group A Strep (more specifically Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome), and it's very uncommon for it to react this way. The doctor said that he's only seen a case like this 6 times in his career and that it is usually fatal. Needless to say we were all relieved to find out what was going on and that they were going to be able to treat it directly.

On Sunday they drained the fluid from around his right lung (there wasn't nearly as much) and started administering penicilin to fight the infection. Today, I found out from my brother, they took out his breathing tube. He's still under heavy medication and minor sedation, but if he does well without the respirator then he may be out of ICU by the weekend. Last I heard they were thinking they may have to put him on a dialysis machine, but I haven't heard anymore on that.

I can't say enough good things about the staff at Comer Children's Hospital. All the nurses were so nice and attentive, they answered all of our questions and when they didn't know the answer they found someone who did immediately. Anyone who's been in a situation where every minute something changes, knows how important that kind of response can be.

Aside from the atrocious drive home on Sunday (which my mother handled expertly, even after she had been driving all day) through patches of dense fog and heavy rain (in which the windsheild wipers would stop sporadically in mid-swipe), not getting home (or taking a shower) until Monday afternoon (night, for the shower), and doing a butt-load of laundry the second I got back, I'm actually starting to feel better. I had a slight breakdown at the laundromat. I think the stress of everything finally caught up to me and hit me when I wasn't expecting it. Thankfully Jen came to my rescue and helped me not make too much of a jackass of myself. (Thanks again, Jen, you don't even know how much that meant to me.)

I tried to knit a hat for my nephew, but between going in and out of hospital rooms and back and forth from the Ronald McDonald house (which is amazingly nice!) and the hospital I wasn't able to finish it. I think it might be too big anyway, so I'm going to start it over and mail it to them.

A little love, in every stitch.

Not so happy....

2008-02-29T22:43:00.003-06:00

Right now, I'm in Illinois. Libertyville (just north of Chicago) to be exact. This morning I received a phone call from my older brother in Valparaiso, IN. Apparently, his kids have been pretty sick the past couple days and on Wed. night he took the oldest one, Riordan(12), to the emergency room and found out that he had pneumonia infecting his lungs. They gave him some antibiotics and he seemed to be doing better. On Thurs. night he began hallucinating and his skin suddenly turned blotchy red. They called an ambulance and before it even left he was unconscious.

When they got to the hospital they air-vac'd him to a hospital in Chicago and put him in ICU. The infection that was in his lungs spread to his blood and caused the vessels to become porous. Blood was leaking into the surrounding tissue in his body. He is stabilized now, his blood pressure is becoming normal, his potassium levels are up, and his color is coming back, but he is still in an induced coma to allow his body to rest and heal.

Just tonight we found out that Riordan's twin brother, Royce, is at the hospital in Valpo. I haven't heard how serious his condition is, he may be experiencing pneumonia symptoms and they want to keep an eye on him. My brother is with Royce and his other three kids, Abigail, Liam, and Nevin and they are keeping a very close eye on them as they have been experiencing symptoms as well. His wife, Christie, and their youngest daughter, Ania (that's probably spelled wrong, bad auntie tina) are staying in Chicago at the Ronald McDonald house near the hospital. The hospital is keeping a very close eye on Ania to make sure that she doesn't start to have any symptoms.

I got a ride down with my Mom, Dad, and my sister but we didn't get near Chicago in time to visit Riordan, so we are staying the night with our friends in Libertyville and are driving into the city in the morning. My mom and I are going to stay with Christie tomorrow night to help take care of the baby and provide some emotional support. If I have the means to keep you updated through here I will, otherwise I'll try and post something when I get back on Sunday. Sigh.

This, That, and the Other Thing

2008-02-24T15:39:00.006-06:00

"This" is one of the Diamante socks I started before Christmas. I put it down just after finishing the toe and had done about two pattern repeats, Christmas knitting took over and lasted through the middle of January. "This" is being put on hold until "That" and "the Other Thing" are done.

"That" is the beginnings of my square for the TNKG scarf. It's from my Modular Knits book which I've been dying to try some thing out of. This seemed like a good opportunity to try one of the simple patterns, that would still be interesting enough for a gift square. The yarn is GGH (Garn Grosshandel Hamburg) Maxima, 100% Merino Wool, in Dove Gray (#7). And yes, I realize the severe monochromaticism of this picture, and I kind of like it (although I'm going to attempt to add alternating strips of mauve patterned rows in the square. Perhaps I put off doing this a little too long, or maybe took on a larger task than I should have seeing as this has to be done by Thursday night. Oh well, if the Yarn Harlot can have project denial than the rest of us are entitled as well.)

"the Other Thing" is my square for the Tuesday Knitter's charity afghan mentioned in this post. I am almost done with it, but I think it may end up a little too long. I'm hoping some of the length will get taken up when the width is stretched in blocking.

So these are the things I've been working on over the last couple weeks (months).

I know some of you read the Daily Chum, and may already know about this, but they featured a charity called The House That Yarn Built. It's working in conjunction with the Make It Right Foundation to help build homes for Katrina victims. Yes, in these great United States we (and by "we" I mean our government) can go to war within hours and destroy countries within months, but it takes years and years to START helping our own citizens rebuild their lives after a natural disaster. Ahem, anyway. Christy, the woman who started THTYB, explains her reasons for doing this here, and is even giving away prizes in a drawing of donators, which she lists here, and here. I don't normally throw money at just any charity, I'd rather make/do something to directly help, but something about this charity spoke to me and I felt compelled to give. Oh wait, it was Brad Pitt greeting me on the home page and then "personally" thanking me for my donation. That's what it was. (well, it didn't hurt at least ;) Do what you will (or won't) with this. I know money is tight for everyone right now, I just thought I'd pass the good word along.

Simple DK Stripe Hat

2008-02-13T19:25:00.006-06:00

Oh. My. Stars. It's a FREE pattern! Yay! I made this hat for a friend of mine to match his snowboard pants. I made it out of acrylic yarn for several reasons. One: I didn't want him to have to worry about washing instructions, I've learned my lesson on this. Two: He's going to be wearing it in the snow, so it's bound to get wet at some point (even if he never washes it, ew!) and needed to be able to stand up to that. Three: For an acrylic yarn this is actually pretty soft! The double knit helps provide thickness without it being bulky, and still has quite a bit of stretch.

Simple DK Stripe Hat

Size: 20"(will stretch to fit 22")

Yarn:
MC: Cascade Cherub Aran (55% Nylon 45% Acrylic; 100g 240 yd) 1 ball in #24 (bright yellow)
CC: Reynolds Utopia (100% Courtelle Acrylic; 100g 225 yd) 1 ball in #353 (charcoal gray)

Needles:
US 8 (5mm) dpn
US 8 (5mm) 16" circular, or size needed to obtain gauge

Stitch markers
Yarn needle

Gauge:
4st. per in./6 rows per in. with two strands of MC held together in St st. on US 8

The double knit was kind of an after thought on this hat since the MC yarn is a little lighter weight than the CC yarn. I only used one strand of yarn for the ribbing (it curves in just a little at the bottom), but you could use two strands held together for a thicker rib.

CO 80 st. in CC on circular needles
pm and join
Work in K2, P2 rib for 6 rounds
Join in MC with 2 strands held together and knit for 9 rounds
Join in CC with 2 strands held together and knit for 3 rounds (break yarn)
Carry up MC and continue in St st. until piece measures 5.5 in.

pm every 16 st (use a different color stitch marker for the first one placed, this will be your new beginning stitch indicator)
Begin decrease round:
Row 1: *K to 2 st. before marker, K2tog, sm, ssk, repeat from * to 2 stitches before first marker placed.
Row 2: K around to 2 st. before first marker
Row 3: *K2tog, sm, ssk, K to 2 st. before marker, repeat from * to 2 stitches before first marker

Rep. rows 2 & 3; 7 times
Break yarn and draw through live stitches, pull tight and weave in all ends.

This is my first "translated" (from my crazy brain) knitting pattern so I hope it reads clearly. It hasn't been tested by anyone, but if you come across any errors while making it please let me know.

I hope you like my model, the hat was a little too big for Ray's head and R2D2 was more than willing to provide his dome.

Thanks R2!

I think I may have a problem.

2008-02-10T12:04:00.000-06:00

So I've dreamed about a lot of things, but this was a first. I'm walking along a shoreline with a group of people (we just escaped some castle in the clouds where a monster kept trying to kill us. Those pesky monsters are always trying to do that), and we are walking in the VERY cold water that is lapping up on the shore that seems to be made up of fish tank gravel and our cat's "crystal" cat litter. So with every step I have frozen feet and little pieces of the "shore" jab into me. For some reason (that I'm sure only dream-logic can explain) the ocean in the cove we're walking around has a tarp over it. Kind of like the kind you put on your backyard pool to keep leaves and bugs from falling in it. Anyway, as I'm looking at my frozen feet walking across these jagged pieces of litter I notice a string float out from under the edge of the tarp. It's a beautiful, variegated burnt orange and forest green string in what looks to be a sockweight merino. I am intrigued and distracted by the fuzzy so I lift the edge of the tarp and follow the string to its' skein. As I lift the tarp I notice more floating strings of color attached to skeins. What do I do? I do what any self-respecting, fiber-obsessed yarn whore would do, I start grabbing these skeins of yarn and putting them in my sweater (conveniently oversized and not being affected by the fact that I'm wading in water). The people in my group see me doing this, so like good little sheep, they do it to. I remember the guy next to me (I don't recall who he was in the dream, but I knew for a FACT that he had absolutely NO interest in yarn) had a duffel bag (which, in the dream, was my old Nike duffel bag I used for laundry) and I asked him if I could use it to hold my yarn. He said no. Jerk. Anyway, so we're all gathering yarn from the sea and pulling this tarp back to reveal more treasures which seem to be warm, dry, and fluffy despite their origin. As I'm gathering I hear some people talking about why this yarn is in the ocean in the first place. Duh! Thou dost not ask about miracles from the Yarn Goddesses, thou only grabs with much fervor and glee. So it turns out that this yarn was on a freighter ship from Noro Yarns (even though I know I saw local and domestic handpaints in there) it crashed into the cove (no one was hurt), and instead of creating an oil spill it created a yarn spill. The company factors these "incidents" into their budget and therefore anything that was lost needn't be returned. Oh happy day! I remember retrieving a couple cones of cashmere worsted weight and almost crying. I remember showing them off to everyone that would appear, since this ocean somehow ended in a hotel banquet hall. And they would oooh and ahhh and I would pet the cones. Me and my messenger bag (ask and you shall receive) full of yarn were the happiest in the world. Then Sam head-butted me and tore me away from this utopia and now all I have are the memories of it.

I don't interpret dreams usually, but I wonder what this one is saying?

In Conclusion...

2008-01-29T23:36:00.000-06:00

So, yes, we did talk. After much anguish and discussion, we were able to work things out. It will take a while for some of the wounds to heal, but given time they should mend. Thank you guys for your support, it's good to know that you'll stand by me even when I'm at my lowest.

This is a short post, I know, it's more just to let you know that I'm okay. I shall start posting about knitting again in a day or two, there are some things I need to catch the blog-world up on, as far as that goes.

Don't forget, Stitch n' Bitch is tomorrow night at Lindy's at 6pm. See you there!

How to be a horrible wife

2008-01-27T20:41:00.000-06:00

1. Bring debt into a relationship started with debt.

2. Continue to spend money on things that are not going towards paying off that debt.

3. Decide to spend money (a considerable amount) on a permanent piece of art that your spouse thinks is "ugly" and "too big" but that you couldn't be happier about.

4. Don't be clear about the fact that you really want to get this piece of art and then the night before you are scheduled to have it done, get in a big fight about it. Make sure that you end this fight with both of you thinking that you are getting what you want. (you=art, spouse=no art) This can be best achieved by not continuing to talk about the subject and pretending that everything is okay.

5. Go in for your scheduled appointment which lasts 6 LONG hours without showing your spouse the final approved art until it's about to be started. You can do this easily with your camera phone since he is working and can't be there to offer ideas/object.

6. Go home afterward and immediately feel the tension created by you walking in the room. You can verify the tension created by offering to show your artwork to your spouse and see the loathing on their face as they grunt at it.

7. Hide upstairs in the bedroom, crying, because your spouse thinks that you don't care about his opinions at all. When that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the reason that you weren't very forthcoming about the artwork was because you care so much about his opinion that if he were to say something negative about it, you'd talk yourself out of getting it. Even though YOU really liked it. You merely wanted to get something you like and enjoy it because YOU liked it. Unfortunately, it also happens to be permanent. So from now on, you'll look at this beautiful art and under it's beauty will lie this horrible guilt and frustration.

8. Avoid talking about all this, because you know it will end badly and avoiding confrontation is what got both of you into this position in the first place. Instead just sit at opposite ends of the couch, fighting back tears and hoping that it will all be okay. Which, of course, you know it won't be until you talk about it.

Denial is an evil and dangerous thing, it's also really easy to fall into. And I'm in pretty deep.

Let's Talk About C.E.X., Baby!

2008-01-11T20:22:00.000-06:00

That would be Craftular Enhancement eXcursion, and that's what my day off yesterday consisted of. The adorable fabric you see pictured here is for a baby blanket I'm making for one of Ray's co-workers. Oh, and it was 50% off! So I got more than enough and I may make some burp cloths or something as well. The pattern (for said blanket) is via my friend Maura. The lucky recipient of this blanket is also going to receive an adorable knitted bear bonnet and most likely some booties as well. The yarn for that will be coming next week and I'll be posting progress pictures on those.

I also used the gift card I got from Ray's sister for christmas to buy some decoupage supplies and a plain box to decorate. I purchased this page-a-day pin-up calendar and I'm going to use the pictures from it decorate this box. It should be fun.
While we were out I also exchanged the Domiknitrix book I got from Jesse for the Knitting Nature book by Norah Gaughan. I thought a lot about it before I decided to exchange it, but the Dom book is more of a "starter" or "how-to" book and I already know "how-to". There are some great patterns in it, but I don't know how many of them I would actually make. I've been drooling over Knitting Nature ever since I saw it back in Sept.(?) I want to make almost every pattern (out of 35!) in it.
While I'm on the subject of books and using gift cards, I also received my order from Barnes & Noble yesterday. My brother gave me a $30 gift card and I decided to make the most of it by shopping their christmas clearance. I'm so glad I did! For $30 (plus $3 of my own money, but
free shipping!) I got How to Seduce a Ghost by Hope McIntyre, Khai of Khem by Brian Lumley, Wolfblade: Book One of the Wolfblade Trilogy by Jennifer Fallon, Dedication by Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus, The Paths of Darkness Collection by R.A. Salvatore, and The Antichrist: A Criticism of Christianity by Friedrich Nietzsche. Wow, dats a lots a books! Some of the authors I've read other things by, others I have heard of but have never sampled, and others were judged by their cover. But all (but one) were less than $4 each, so it's totally worth the gamble. I have no idea when I'm going to be able to read all of these, I've already got a pile on my shelf waiting to be read, but that is why I love owning books. I can read them or put them aside whenever or as often as I want.

On a knitting related note, I have one of my Dad's socks done and am almost halfway through the second. For those not aware, this was one of the secret holiday projects I had going on and am obviously a little late with completion. It's ok, he doesn't mind. The pattern I used is the uncomfortably-titled Boyfriend Socks and is knit up in Knit Picks Risata in Navy on size 1 dpns. I ended up having to use 3 balls instead of the two I had initially ordered because I didn't pay attention to the yardage in the pattern. Go figure. Never fear, however, more is on the way! Hopefully these will be done next week.

So there you have it. I still need to get some plain brown flannel for the other side of the blanket, Hancock doesn't carry brown flannel. That seems weird to me. I'd like to work on that on Monday though, so that means shopping again this weekend.
That could be dangerous. ;)

People Know Me

2007-12-26T21:30:00.001-06:00

They also know what I like, and that is more things to knit and knit with. The holidays were good to me this year. The book and calendar are from my secret santa at work (thanks Jesse!). The Lime & Violet Sasquatch Sock Yarn in Nuggies is from my friend Maura (Thanks!) and the Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Eat Your Veggies (acquired through kpixie) is from my Mom, along with all the needles and that really cute sock blocker keychain (it came with a pattern to make socks that fit it!)

Speaking of my Mom, these are the socks I made for her, as modeled by me. She loved them and the fact that they are machine washable! My Dad's, however, did not get done. I'm actually going to have to order another skein of yarn to finish them (I did not pay attention to yardage. Bad Tina.) My dad got to see them in progress though and he really liked how they looked, so that is good.

Not all of my gifts were knitterly. From Ray I got the Philip Pullman "His Dark Materials" Trilogy (The Golden Compass is the first book in the trilogy) in a nice box set, and this really awesome wireless mouse for my laptop. He also fixed the CD drive on my laptop so that I can put music on it and he reinstalled/upgraded my OS to Tiger and basically made my computer run like new! He's so amazing.

My brother, Doug, got me a $30 gift card to Barnes & Noble which may go to knitting books, but I'm not quite sure yet because there are some "actual" books that I've had my eye on. We shall see.

Overall, it was a nice holiday. We went to my parents house on Christmas Eve, and were at Ray's sister's house for Christmas Day. She made us a really good dinner and sent us home with leftover's and wine.

Today, it was back to work and while we were quite busy at times I'm sure it was not even a fraction of the madness that was out in the "mall area". I'm so glad I don't work out there anymore. Tomorrow night is our work party at Chiante, a new Italian restaurant. It'll be fun to relax and eat with my co-workers and friends. And now I'm off to play with my new yarn and my new mouse. I should probably continue working on my Dad's sock too.

Happy holidays everyone, and to those of you who could not have a happy holiday this year I hope that, in the future, the happiness you experience more than makes up for the sadness you're experiencing now. My heart is with you.

Falling in Love and a Little Introspection

2007-12-05T23:03:00.000-06:00

Ok, let's just ignore the fact that I have neglected my blog for the last 3 weeks. I know. I've actually written about three or four different posts in my head while at work or working on my holiday knitting. I need to figure out a way to post to my blog directly from my brain, without having to type. Can we get some people working on this please? (actually there probably already are)

Anyway, onto the reason I've set aside time to use my fingers for something other than knitting: The New Knitty!!!!!!!! Wow. I'm much more impressed with this issue than the last one. There is quite an extensive list of projects that I would like to make and it's going to take some real willpower not to start casting on while I'm in the middle of making gifts (1 down, 2 2/3 to go). Let me share with you my favorites. I have the perfect yarn (I think) and beads to make Ice Queen, I've always wanted to try entrelac so Quant is definitely on the list. Halcyon is gorgeous and involves ribbon (I'm a sucker for lace knit and ribbon), Stardust is just girly enough to be acceptable, Fair Isle Rapids would look great in a chocolate brown and lime or light blue, and Azure and Slippery are just the socks I'm looking for. And then there's Jeanie. Oh Jeanie. I haven't felt this way about a knitting pattern since......well, I don't think I've ever felt this way about a pattern. Love at first sight. This is the pattern that is going to take ALL of my willpower not to start. Look at it and TRY not to fall in love. If you're in the same boat as me and need to finish knitting holiday gifts, don't say I didn't warn you.

One of the cool things about this issue of knitty is that there are several designs from high school students. They are good designs too, Slippery is one. It's so great to see young people so excited and devoted to this craft. I wish that I had not been so concerned with avoiding anything I deemed "girly" when I was a teenager. My mom tried to teach me to sew, but I refused because "I'm not going to be a housewife, why do I need to know this?" Well, because I could have made all those "alternative" clothes that I wanted but couldn't afford or buy because the only clothing store in town was Wal-Mart. Instead, I learned how to piss off my parents, smoke cigarettes, get into trouble, and generally have a bad attitude. Skills, I have learned, that didn't really help me get anywhere. I'm not speaking with regret, however, because I know that due to several of these "skills" I came to move to La Crosse, and met the people I've met. I'm not that same person anymore (although I know my attitude is not always exactly sunny) and have learned a lot from being that person. I sometimes have to wonder though what kind of person I would be now if I was this person then. (got that?) All of this from an online knitting magazine. Hmm.

No pictures this time. It's late, and I need to sleep, not wait for photos to load. Besides, knitty's pictures are much better than any of mine anyway.

Why can't we all just get along?

2007-11-16T20:30:00.000-06:00

So last night at knitting group I heard some really great news. The Wisconsin Library system (I'm sure this is true for other state's library systems too) has a digital download center where you can "check out" audio books for free (and in some cases are able to burn them to a cd!). I was soooo super excited about this feature, now I can catch up on my reading WHILE I knit!!! For FREE!! I went there right away and put several books on hold (since the ones I was interested in were already checked out) and was browsing around looking for more when I decided to look and see how this magical system works. Well, it's a good(?) thing I did. After reading up on the software you have to download (free) to work with this program it became quite obvious to me that this system only works with PC's (I have a Mac) and Windows Media Player and would not be be compatable with my iPod. GREAT!!!! @!%$#&*^^ing GREAT!!!

This is the only thing that the info page had to say on the incompatibility issue: "OverDrive, along with hundreds of online digital media providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based DRM-protected materials on the iPod and Mac."

Yeah, so am I. However, with the track record between the two I don't foresee this happening any time soon.

To relate this to knitting somehow (because everything can be related to knitting) this reminds me of the long-standing feud of knitters and crocheters. Like Apple and Microsoft, there are many similarities between the two crafts. Both use a needle(s), of some sort, to manipulate yarn into something beautiful and/or useful. They may go about it different ways, but the effects are the same. Unlike Apple and Microsoft, knitters and crocheters can work together and co-exist to become items like this (my favorite being the brown cardigan). See what great things can come from working together? There will always be that undetermined weirdness between those of us that ONLY knit or ONLY crochet (I happen to do both and love the differentness and sameness of both skills), but deep down we know that we're in the same felted boat that is full of the the things we love, yarn and cool patterns.

This refusal to work together, while helping the corporation's bottom line, ultimately hurts the consumer. People are forced to choose, all of column A or all of column B. This doesn't just include computers, the dvd market is seeing a debate between Blu-Ray and HD dvd's. Neither one (read: corporation) wants to work with the other and as a result we are stuck with two formats that each have certain studios backing them. So consumers are forced to choose to buy a Blu-Ray or HD dvd player (and a big F-off to those that can afford to buy both. I can't afford to buy either). "But Tina" you say, "you don't need to buy either of these things. Just use a regular dvd player." Well, I do. And I shall continue to until my financial situation becomes something which can afford such a luxury. However, whether I have/can afford one is beside the point. The point is that these companies are so greedy, and so stubborn that they are absolutely not willing to "combine forces" and make a product that benefits both consumers and corporations. Agh.

Sorry for the rant. I'm sure I'll regret this post tomorrow (I'm not sure some of my arguments make sense), but I was just really excited about downloading audio books.

I'm going to go work off some of this frustration at the bar while listening to a Talking Heads cover band, Houses in Motion.

Let's Just Call It Practice

2007-11-14T21:09:00.001-06:00

Ok, so I don't remember specifically announcing this on my blog, but I wasn't going to knit anything for me until after the holidays. Well, so much for that. After one and a quarter pattern repeats on my afghan square with the scratchy, wool/acrylic blend (it's for charity, hence machine washable) I decided I couldn't take it anymore, I had to work with a natural fiber. And color. So I broke down and started a pair of socks. Diamante to be exact, in this (the colorway I used, Royalty, is not shown) yarn that I bought last year in my first (and what appears to be only, shame on me) etsy purchase. I am working on them until my shipment of yarn for holiday gifts arrives. Then I shall be casting on with great fervor and knitting at every possible moment. I know , I know, I waited until the last moment to order the yarn and I deserve not having the time and sanity to complete these presents in under 40(!) days.

I'm sure you'll hear from me at random points in the process where I'll either be breaking down in tears, insanely optimistic, or triumphantly declaring victory. Probably, more than likely, all three.

The thought of getting back to these socks will, hopefully, keep me motivated. And if that doesn't than the thought of making this with this (both ordered with the holiday yarn. Hey, it's the time for giving, and I think that includes to yourself as well.) will surely make me want to finish.

It'll be really hard not to post pictures of all my loot when I get it, but since I'm not sure if one of the recipients reads this, I don't want to take a chance. I'll post pictures after the holidays.

Alright, off to do a few rounds on the sock before it retires!

Sugar High

2007-11-03T13:21:00.000-05:00

Halloween can really knock the wind out of you. All that candy kind of put me in a sugar coma, albeit a functioning coma. I did things, I remember doing and saying things, but it was fueled by that most flavorful of elixirs, chocolate.

In this sugary haze, I completed my Coronet hat, fixed and finished Ray's binary hat, played a little Guitar Hero 3, watched people play a lot of Guitar Hero 3, closed my account at my ex-bank, and celebrated with Mr. D's donuts (I started crashing and had to get one more fix).

My celebration ended this morning when I ate my half of the apple fritter I bought for Ray and I. If you ever want to know what a $5 donut is like first of all, it tastes delicious. Second, it is about 1 foot across. Yes, you heard me correctly. This fritter was the size of a nice dinner plate! It only took me most of the morning to eat my half of it. I would have taken a picture of it, but I'm not really feeling up to loading pictures onto this thing today.

Therefore, this post will have a few links but, sadly, nothing pretty to look at. I think I'm coming down from my "fritter high". I just had a really ridiculous argument with Ray about talking on my speaker phone (apparently my speaker phone sucks and he can't hear me when I'm on it, I may need to invest in one of those blue tooth jobbys), and I'm feeling tired and irritable. And apathetic. Oh my god, I'm reverting to my 16 year-old self! Ok, no more donuts or sugary snacks for the rest of the day, and maybe the weekend. We'll see. Coffee doesn't count though, I think I may have to go make some more.

I think I'll spend this afternoon listening to the new Lime N' Violet podcast and working on my afghan square (mine is the second one up on the right) for my Tuesday night knitting group.

I'll have Nun of that!

2007-10-28T12:34:00.000-05:00

Warning! This post is picure heavy, it may take a while to load.

Last night was a bit of Halloween celebrating. Jason and Heidi had a party at their house (which has some of the coolest decorations ever!) and there was delicious food and drink abound.

Because my creativeness can only go so far, my costume was yet another pun. This year was, "A Nun of Your Business" (you can't really see it in the picture, but there is advertising space available on my habit. Get it?). A bit obscure, but it was last minute.

Our host, Cobra Commander, made us grilled hamburgers and hot dogs that were delicious.

and, I finally know someone that won publishers clearing house.

After much food and a deadly green drink concoction we went downtown, where we saw these creatures:

Venger, looking quite dashing even when drinking beer through a straw,

and in case Cobra Commander or Venger got out of hand, there were plenty of super heroes to save the day

Then I saw Prince,

A dead ninja,

A demon,

And this guy,

Of course with all this debauchery Maura and I had to take time out to pray. We almost look convincing!

Maura's boyfriend, Ethan, (who this is not, this is Choi) dressed very similar to this, and with all the picture taking that went on I'm surprised that I didn't get a good picture of him. He looked very convincing as an Amish man.

A good time was had by all, and there were a lot of clever costumes out and about. Nun as clever as mine of course! Ha! There I go again, it's not my most endearing habit but I was never very conventional. Oh, boy. Ok. I'm done now, for real. All I have to say is that this was, hands down, the best Halloween ever. Bar nun.

Pass the Butter Please.

2007-10-24T22:07:00.000-05:00

So first things first, I've switched banks. Thank you guys for your suggestions and support, hopefully I'll never have to deal with this again. The End.

I finished Ray's hat and it would fit him perfectly if he were a cone head, thankfully he is not. So I must go back AGAIN and redo the decreases. I think I can handle that though, I don't have to go back that far and it's totally worth it because it's a kick-ass hat (I had to go back and hyphenate that word). So to distract me from having to redo my "perfect" work, I've decided to make something for me. Again. It is the Coronet hat from knitty and I'm making it with my delicious Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the Bobby Blue colorway. Mmmmmmmmm. Malabrigooooo. (sigh) Anyway....

I'm going to try and order some yarn for christmas presents this week, we'll have to see how much money I have. Once I've started those my knitting posts will become fewer. I don't want the recipients to discover their gifts early!

Well, that's all I've got. Stitch 'n Bitch was really fun tonight. There was definitely some bitching, a lot of stitching, quite a bit of dancing in chairs, and much laughing til tears ran. A very good night. So good, in fact, I think I'll do it tomorrow too. Good night!

My day (of going)off.

2007-10-22T16:04:00.000-05:00

After a great weekend (despite having to work through it) I had today off. It started out with some warm snuggling and not wanting to get out of bed. But alas, the morning bladder was full and demanded that I (no matter how warm and cozy) should get up immediately. Stupid bladder. Ray reluctantly went off to work and left me to my days activities (which initially included going down the street to Java Joint and having coffee, a Mr. D's donut, blogging, and knitting). I wanted to check my account first to make sure that my check that I deposited on friday went through because I had some bills I also sent out on friday. This is where the day takes a turn for the pissed off.

Please, someone tell me, why when I deposit money from an employer I've been receiving bi-weekly paychecks from for six years (and have NEVER bounced) into an account that I've had for almost ten years (ok, I've bounced that a few times. not the point though) does it take FOUR DAYS for it to finally end up in my account?! Granted, one of those days is a Sunday, and therefore not a business day, but it's not like business stops happening on that day. So when I went to check my balance on line this morning it showed a negative of over $160 for a bill that was pending, but my deposit wasn't pending. Furious, I called customer service to find out if this was an error. He informed me that the closing "business day" is at 4 pm (don't most people work until 5 pm, and go to the bank after work?) and they have a new check depositing policy that requires them to wait two business days before funds are available. This means when I go to the bank every other Friday after work a little after 5 pm to deposit my check, it's not actually getting "run through" until Saturday. THEN, it will sit in their little banky deposit waiting room with all the other "suspect" checks while the bank does background checks (no pun intended. seriously, I am not laughing about any of this) for two days and my bills that need to get paid overdraw my account and the bank can make $31 dollars per check off of me. The customer service guy (who I yelled and swore at while fighting back tears) even told me "well the bank will cover the cost of any checks coming in and you'll only pay $31 for them." I think this is about the point I blacked out. I'm not sure what I said, and I'm really glad that no one (except the cats) was home to hear me.

Oh look, it's the end of the business day. I'll be right back, I want to see if my pending bill went through.

Ok, so it hasn't gone through yet, but they also haven't posted my daily balance yet either which means it still could.

So as not to make this story torture anyone any longer I'll end it by saying that tomorrow, when my deposit finally hits my account, I am going to withdraw any money that I don't need to cover outstanding purchases and I am taking it to a different bank. One that deposits my money in my account at the time I am depositing it. What a novel concept!

And now on to knitting.....!!

So remember the crocheted top I was blocking in this post? Well it's done and now it's too big for me. But, I'm okay with it, because it is going to go to the lovely Maura and she will wear it with the love and pride it deserves. She also took some pictures of me in it first so I'll always have it to remember. She took a bunch of other pictures of me as well for a school project where I was literally buried in yarn! Well, up to my waist anyway, but I think that's the happiest I've been since my wedding day. I can't wait to see the pictures, she's said I can post them here when they're done.

Ray's hat is moving along, although I think I might rip back the decreases. I reversed the ones in the pattern to make a smoother decrease but it ends up with these little holes (which you probably can't see in these pictures but they're there, trust me). So that's my project for tonight. That and Heroes. Oh, Heroes, you'll ease all my anger and pissed-offedness and probably end the episode with another nail-biting cliff hanger. I can always count on you for that.

p.s. Ray got off work early and took me to lunch at Baker's Square. It made me feel a lot better. He even bought us a whole strawberry rhubarb pie to take home! (the fruit ones are only $5.99 right now, go get 'em!) I love him.

A Tale of Two Hats

2007-10-17T18:58:00.000-05:00

The last couple days have been spent on projects. I started and ripped out and started and ripped out and started again on Ray's hat between Sunday and Tuesday. The first time I kept screwing up the pattern because I had cast on two less stitches than the pattern called for (I'm knitting it in the round and the pattern is flat, -2 st.= no seam), however, I forgot to not do those two stitches in the pattern repeat. Therefore I ended up with a spiral pattern that was spiraling out of control! I also decided that I thought the hat was too narrow with the two stitches left out so when I cast on again I did so with the correct amount of stitches and left the pattern as-was.

As I knit along, something just didn't seem right (no pun intended!). First, let me say that this hat is knit from the top down. While that may be fine when knitting flat (as the pattern calls for), in the round it makes for a difficult start, and what I like to call "The Inverted Bellybutton" or "Nipple Effect" on top of the hat. Being in denial I kept knitting, thinking that with every increase the "nipple" would get smaller and smaller. This hat was shaping up more like a cone that a dome and I was getting pretty frustrated. Then I looked at the spiral pattern and how it twisted around the fabric and I noticed that one of the spirals didn't look quite right. Count, count, count, count, count. Oh crap, those two stitches WERE supposed to be left out and one section of my spiral was a little larger than the others. AGGHHH! At this point Ray decided to tell me that he didn't really like the spiral pattern/fair isle combination and wanted a "crown" that would be more plain. Good, now I don't have to look at this pattern anymore. I do love Marnie MacLean's patterns, but this one wasn't working for me.

So I decided to use a different pattern of hers, the Carlsbad hat. This is knit from the bottom up! It's still knit flat (she must like to seam) but the adjustments on this hat are a lot easier. I am having to make quite a few adjustments though since my gauge is completely different from hers (I think she's using a DK weight and I'm using worsted) but the measurements are right. I'm basically using her pattern as a guide and I hope that it doesn't come back to bite me in the ass when I go to decrease. ~fingers crossed~

Tonight I am blocking/have blocked the Blissful halter top that I made from the Happy Hooker crochet book. It is my first/only crochet project so far and I have been putting off blocking it because I didn't think that I would have anywhere to do it. I opted for the floor in our spare room/closet room and put some laundry baskets over the top of it to keep the cats off. I'm hoping that it's dry tomorrow so I can wear it to my "photo shoot" with Maura. She is doing a series of photos for a class she's in of people and their passions. Since knitting and yarn are a hobby/lifestyle that I've been more passionate about than anything I can think of, she is going to take some pictures of me with my "stash" and a few of the items I've made. If she'll let me, I'll post them here when they're done.

Tomorrow I have the day off and if my top is dry I'll be sewing the ribbon and hook-n-eye closures on it, knitting more of Ray's hat, and playing "super model" with Maura. Oh, and TKG of course. Depending on the weather there may be a secret craft project that I work on, but we'll have to see about that.

Whew, just under a week.

2007-10-14T11:53:00.000-05:00

I haven't kept up with this blogging thing as well as I thought I would. Writing takes time, picture loading takes time, and there are only so many hours in a day (8 of which I'm usually at work). Anyway, enough excuses. Here I am and I've got some things to talk about.

Thursday:
I had the day off and overslept. It felt great. I did manage to get some things done though. I finally finished a pillow made out of a band T-Shirt (Fifteen, if you've heard of them. 90's punk awesomeness) that didn't fit me. I started making it about three years ago ~hangs head in shame~for my friend Amanda's birthday. I think the reason I stopped with all three sides sewn was because I was afraid to sew on the zipper, something I'd never done before. Well, I made myself finish it because she was scheduled to have a C-Section that day and I wanted to bring it to her at the hospital. She laughed as hard as she dared when she saw the pillow and I fell apart with the cuteness of her little girl, Moxie Ann. Matt (the daddy) was on the phone when I got there, but when he got done seeing him hold his little girl so gentle was one of the sweetest things ever. I'm really flattered too, because this hat (being modeled so obligingly by Sam) that I made for Moxie is going to be the one they bring her home in. I got the pattern for it here.

I'm so happy for them and wish them all the happiness, health, and sleepful evenings that can be bestowed upon them.

Friday:
We had a dinner date with Janet and Matt (friends from my Thursday Knitting Group, aka TKG) at Manny's. It was their anniversary (Manny's, not Matt and Janet's) and so they had a mariachi band going around to all the tables playing requests. We didn't know any Mexican/Spanish songs so we let them play whatever they wanted. The harmonies were beautiful, the bass was deep, the harp player was phenomenal (with long, thick fingernails), and the guitar player's fingers flew like hummingbird's wings. Oh and the food was really good too. I had crab enchiladas and they were delicious. Matt and Ray totally geeked out about computers and networks while Janet and I downed margaritas. We came back to our place and hung out (probably a little too late) and watched a movie. It was a really fun evening and I look forward to doing it again, although maybe with a curfew next time. :)

KNITTING:
I finished the Clapotis I had been working on.

I even blocked it and everything. It's the first knitting project I've blocked and I guess I understand the importance of it, but it takes forever and I'm not that patient once the item is done. I want to wear/give it right away, none of this "air drying" nonsense. At least not when it's taking up my bed (which is the only space in the house that I can block anything without the cats laying on it). Anywho, I have a few other things I may block that will break me into the habit.

I also wanted to post a picture of my Heartstrings Eyelet Top that I finished last month, but didn't have a blog to post it onto, just my Ravelry.

I made this with elann.com Lara cotton yarn that I bought with a gift certificate my mom gave me. The pattern was only $5 and is really easy to follow. It's worked from the bottom up in the round and you knit the sleeves first, leave them on stitch holders, and join them in at the armpit so there is very minimal seaming. Me likey. Because of the delicate eyelet pattern, this pattern works well with cotton yarns, but you could probably use a silk or bamboo yarn and get just as nice pattern definition.

Speaking of, here is a close-up of the pattern:

Ok, so it's not that close-up, but you get the idea. This was a progress shot from about a month ago. Yeah, I'm pretty fast.

Today I'm going to try and start another hat for Ray. This one will combine two separate patterns, the charts from Binary will wrap around the hat in a "0" "1" sequence to spell "hat" and the pattern used will be Nautilus men's hat pattern worked in the round. We'll see how that goes. I'm gonna have to do some funky math because my guage doesn't match up with the patterns. But that's another blog for another day.

Oh, hey, it's Monday

2007-10-08T22:27:00.000-05:00

So I had a very relaxing weekend at home on my couch. Just me, my computer, and my knitting. And episode 2 (season 2) of Dexter, which was really good. I'm really glad that I can be reading the second book on which the series was based and it's not following the same story line. It's like two different shows....but one's a book.

Ray and I played a few board games last night and after he decimated me in Sorry (I only got out of start twice, only to be "sorried" back in each time. He won the game and all my pieces were still in start) we played again and this time the game was more exciting. Particularly the part where I won. Then we tried to play Scrabble, but I always take forever to come up with words (lets see how well you do with L, X, H, G, I, R, Q, N, O. We were playing 9-piece to make the game go quicker). So we decided to take a walk instead. For about an hour.

It was fun, we walked past a consignment shop that keeps a little kitten in a cage in it's window. It was really kind of sad. It's not exactly torture, it's a HUGE cage, but I couldn't lock up a store at the end of the night with a cute little orange kitty mewing to be loved from behind bars. After we ran out of plans to break into the store and steal the kitty we continued on toward the river. Giant monstrosities are being built next to other ones in the form of clinical looking office buildings. Fountains are sprouting up everywhere (the idea of small water features right next to larger water features is somewhat puzzling), and measures are being taken to ensure the safety of our precious, youthful binge drinkers. Apparently we can solve our cities college drinking problem with chains and amusement-park-ride-line-style gating. Whoda thunkit?

Tonight was pretty relaxing as well. The highlight was definitely Ch. 3 of Heroes. This show just keeps sucking me in (although I must admit that this season has yet to make me squeal as much as the first, but I'm patient, and I know it will happen), and the story just keeps getting more rich. If you're not watching this show, well, shame on you.

Well, that was that. And now I want to get back to knitting before I have to go to bed. Good night all. If I wake up tomorrow and can regenerate my skin or fly through the air, I promise this will be a much more interesting blog.

I'm just sayin.....

Welcome!

2007-10-07T00:18:00.000-05:00

So this is the life of blogging. Hmm. Well, I hope that I can keep up with it. To begin with, I am ZombieCat and I reside on the "coastal" (technically it's on the river, but "bankal" doesn't sound as glamorous) city of La Crosse, WI. Sharing my life with me are my husband, Ray (or Tech Support, as he sometimes is) and our two cats Zombie (you got me, my user name came from my cat), and Sam.

Here, Zombie is helping me get through the harrowing, and nail-biting ending of the last Harry Potter book.

And this is pretty much what Sam does all day:

I have a job that I don't hate, but it is still a job and takes time away from my main passion which is knitting. I'll be posting some of my projects and progress here, but if you are on Ravelry you can get a much better idea of what I have done (my user name is the same).

Basically I decided to start blogging in hope of using it to keep in touch with family and give them a way to know what is going on with me without having to remember that they also own telephones (this is something that runs in our family and I am just as guilty of it). I've also been inspired by alot of the knitting blogs that I've read and sometimes just need an outlet for my ideas. Whether anyone reads this or not is something that I'm not sure I want to think about at this point, but if you do, thank you and I hope that you laugh when appropriate and come back to visit me often!

Since I am new to this "blogging" thing, I'm sure there will be things that go wrong, or features that I don't use that could make things easier for both me and you readers. Bear with me and if there is something that I'm obviously not catching on to, please feel free to send me a friendly heads up.

So that's it. This is my first post and I think it went pretty well. Only time will tell if I can keep this up and not bore everyone (including myself) to death. Stay tuned.