Fetal Knitter

Worst.Blogger.Evar

2007-06-25T07:12:00.000-07:00

Boy, I totally suck at keeping this updated. I keep waiting until I have more pictures to post, but I realized that at the current rate, I wouldn't post for the next month or so, which is unacceptable.

Things are going well. I have a job starting in the next couple of days in Benefits Administration for a manufacturing company that makes cutting blades for chainsaws. I'll have to check and see if Worker's Comp is included in the job description because that is liable to keep me busy all by itself :) This is a temp to permanent position, but the company was really enthusiastic about me coming on board and really really really wants it to work out, so they may buy out my contract earlier than the 6 months allotted if they decide I am a good fit. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is a good company to work for. If it works out, and they provide good benefits, I'll switch J and I over to their policy - J's insurance is very expensive, and not all that great. In the meantime, I am technically employed with a temp agency, which means I submit time cards and get paid on a weekly basis, which is pretty cool. Oh, and this position pays more than what I was making in OC, which is even better :)

The weather has been nice and cool up here, in the 60s and 70s. It gets up to the 80s for a couple of days, then goes back to cool and rainy. We have learned that it pays to go out when it is rainy, because EVERYONE comes out of their houses on sunny days! I know, we're not normal.

Actually, we do have pictures from this weekend, they just need to be uploaded from the camera. I can tell you we went to OMSI on Saturday for the Body Worlds 3 show, and toured the submarine used in Hunt for Red October! We then tried to go to the International Rose Test Gardens without success (because of the aforementioned sunshine and the obscene number of people out and about). We did manage to find an excellent sushi place in Lake Oswego which will be our new go-to place for good fish. On Sunday (a rainy day), we made it over to see the roses and to the Japanese Garden across the street. It got quite damp, which reminds me that I need to keep an umbrella in the car at all times :) We were done by 2pm, so we looked at some of the million dollar homes in the West Hills for a bit, then decided to go wine tasting. So we headed over to Helvetia, in Hillsboro. We finally found some good Pinot Noir! We were able to fire up the big wine fridge for the new case of wine we purchased. We ended the day at Sandoval's Mexican Restaurant (about a block or so from our house), and I had some really good chicken mole. It was a very good weekend that seemed long for once.

We'll get those pictures updated so you can see the gardens, and some other things we snapped along the way :)

In terms of knitting, I once again cast aside what I was working on to start my Rockin' Sock Club sock for June. The yarn is gorgeous and the pattern is really easy. I'm still working on my mom's jacket. I had hoped to get it finished by her birthday (July 1st), but I don't think that will happen. I'll keep trying :) At the very least, I want to get it to her by the beginning of August, so she can wear it on vacation.

I spy a Harlot....a Yarn Harlot

2007-06-10T08:11:00.000-07:00

I happened across the webpage of Powell's last week and what did I see? The Yarn Harlot was coming to do a reading there on Friday! I just had to go, to see what the fuss was all about.

So I made a trip all by myself into downtown. I got to the area of the bookstore at around 5, and wandered the area on foot. Lots of cool stores to check out, and of course I had to do some shopping at Powell's as well :) I had to move my car (I'd parked in one of the 90 minute spaces), and managed to score a parking place beneath Powell's by some stroke of luck. Then I went to dinner at P.F. Chang's, mainly because it was close, and I could sit outside and people-watch. By the time I was ready to head back over to Powell's, it was 6:45 and I thought, "Excellent - plenty of time to find a seat!"

I was so, so wrong. I found a seat on the floor. I don't know how early people got there, but I will have to plan accordingly for next time.

I did meet this really nice woman and we chatted pretty much the whole time. Unfortunately, I didn't have the presence of mind to ask her name - duh! So, if you are reading this blog entry, drop me a line!

I didn't have a decent camera with me, so I took a couple of pics with my cell phone (sorry for the crappy quality):

There had to have been at least 450 people there. I tried explaining this phenomenon to my husband and his friend, but as non-knitters they just didn't get it. Kinda went along with Steph's presentation for the evening :) It was all definitely worth the trip.

Some pictures

2007-06-01T08:48:00.000-07:00

This is where we live. Quite cute, in a rowhouse kind of way. Our neighbors are friendly, and there aren't a lot of screaming children around. Yay!

And this is the view outside our back door. And yes, that is a house out in the green belt right behind our place. It's all good.

Here's a similar view. Did I mention this was taken at 9 o'clock at night? The days are super long right now - sunrise is at 5:30, but it is light long before then. This is still freaking me out a little.

My favorite room of the house right now. It was even bigger than what I was expecting. And there's even a pantry!

I think I forgot to tell you that we went wine tasting out at Willamette Valley Winery over the holiday weekend. Poor J was totally exhausted - he didn't figure this out until he was nodding off behind the wheel on the way there. We still had a great time - you really can't go wrong with juicy lamb burgers and wine. Yum. I was less than impressed with their wines. They were good, but what they called Syrah was really more like Zinfandel. I'm so used to the inky, punch-you-in-the-face CA syrahs that I was a little disappointed. But you can't beat that view. Lordy, it was beautiful out there.

In other news, I'm almost done with the first Grasshopper sock. I decided to do the knee-high version. After some mild mental retardation, I think I have the pattern down pretty well, and the second sock should go much faster.

Lastly, we'll end with a picture of a fat, happy, stoned kitty:

2007-05-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we were pondering what to do this weekend. Then J gets a call from our friend James, who happens to be in town for a wedding! Yay, somebody we know! :) I hadn't met him in person yet, so I was excited. We ended up meeting him, his friend Jim and friends of Jim in SE Portland at this Vietnamese restaurant off of Hawthorne. Mmmmmm - good good food, and lots of it. Prior to meeting at the restaurant, J and I took the opportunity to stroll around and check out that little area. I'm in love - that is definitely one of the areas I want to consider when we start looking for places to buy. It was mostly older Victorians and bungalows. Hawthorne itself is very funky but cool, with a lot of hippies, goths and punks. And what store do I manage to find right off the bat? This one. Reminded me of Ipso Facto in Fullerton, but with much more reasonable prices. And parking around there wasn't too heinous, even for a Friday night. Plus, we saw a hearse drive down the street, so I took that as a good sign.

After filling our bellies, we toddled over to Dots, a little neighborhood cafe/bar a few blocks away. I didn't have any of the food (even though the jalapeno fries looked pretty spectacular), but we had a couple of drinks and hung out for a little while. In our travels, we came across the Baghdad Theatre, which is the only one locally playing Grindhouse, so J and I will have to go very soon so he can finally see it. It's in the McMenamin's chain, so it will only be $3 and we can order beer and food.

After the bar, we drove James into downtown to meet up with the rest of his friends who came for the wedding. We ended up at Saucebox, which is this upscale restaurant/bar with a DJ. Again, we didn't order food, although what everybody else ordered looked pretty good. By that time, J was getting really tired, and we wanted to give James a chance to hang with his friends, so we bid him adieu. All in all, we had a great time hanging out and talking with James, meeting all of these interesting new people, and finally checking out areas of Portland that we hadn't seen yet and taking some of the mystery out of getting around this town.

And I love that all of this is only 9 miles away from our house. It's like having all the best parts of Orange, Fullerton and L.A. right in our backyard.

I'm still unpacking. The books are almost done, except for my smaller bookshelf. We are using our coffee table as our entertainment center, since the old entertainment center bit the dust in the move (our fault, not the movers). We'll still be able to use the shelves that came with the center, but I think they are going downstairs in the office. But we are very nearly finished. Most of the boxes I've come across just need to go to the garage. Once things get straightened up a little more, we'll take some pictures.

And we've been shopping. Our toaster oven was on its last legs, so I tossed it before the move. We got this one to take its place. This is the weirdest toaster oven I have ever seen, but it works great! We also ordered new phones and a microwave, which have yet to arrive. And today we are buying a bed (most likely just mattress, box spring and frame) for the guest bedroom. Gotta take advantage of those Memorial Day sales.

On the job hunt front, I've had a couple of phone interviews so far, but nothing yet. Maybe next week I'll get more calls, after the holiday weekend.

I also managed to unpack my needles yesterday, so I am totally cheating on my Dr. Who scarf and knitting on my Grasshopper socks for the sock club. I am loving the Silkie yarn! I'm going to make the knee high version, but I'm going to see if I can squeeze them out of one skein, since I have small feet. Wish me luck!

Back online!

2007-05-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to start, but I'll give it a shot :)

Our drive up was fairly uneventful. We didn't hit much in the way of traffic, and I think we only had to stop for gas/snacks about 4 or 5 times. This drive was a major milestone for me - I've never driven for more than a 2 hour stretch. You can imagine the Grapevine was a bit of a challenge for me, but I managed to pull through. The first day (Saturday), we made it to Redding by 6pm. At that point, we decided to go for broke and push ahead to Roseburg, OR before settling in for the night. I'm still not too sure whether that was a good idea or not. We made it there safely, but that meant driving through the Shasta mountains and through the major hills on the border of Oregon. This is challenging enough during the day, but we were driving in pitch blackness by the time we crossed the border and beyond. We rolled into Roseburg at about 11pm, and I was never happier to see a hotel bed! J was fortunate, in that Lenore has that Caddy suspension and steering. The steering on the Benz is so stiff, I was fighting it through the winds in the Grapevine and the whole trip up, so I felt like I had Popeye arms. But I was awfully proud of myself for getting through the drive like I did. Then it was only a quick 3 1/2 hour drive the next day to the Beaverton area, so we had time to relax and drive by the property management office and our home for a look-see before the next day. Oh, and to hit a McMenamins for lunch as well :)

Tangent - am I just a big nerd for liking McMenamins so much? I was so utterly charmed by this little chain on our first trip, but I wonder if I am making a big deal, when they may just be the local answer to TGI Fridays? All I know is that they serve good food and great beer.

The cats acquitted themselves pretty well on this trip and managed not to kill each other. They didn't even pee outside of their litter box in the crate! I love my girls :) We smuggled them into the hotel in Roseburg because we were unsure of their pet policy, and kept them in their crate. We did let them out in our hotel in Lake Oswego, and they seemed to enjoy the opportunity to roam, cuddle, and hide behind the bed. We kept them in their crate during the move, and finally let them out in the afternoon on Monday after we had things sufficiently situated. They seem very happy to be with us, but I think they also miss J&M, because they've been yowling a bit :(

Tangent #2 - I highly recommend the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Lake Oswego (which is also about 10 minutes away from our house). It was really nice, Embassy Suites quality, and they had a surprisingly lenient pet policy ($25 flat fee per night). It was only $108 per night with our AAA discount, and I think the rates might be even lower than that in the winter.

Monday was fortunately not as crazy as we feared it would be. We got to the property management company early, and they were able to get us in before our appointment time, so we got out of there at about 10:10. We zoomed over to the new place, and the movers had just pulled up to the house. We took a quick run through the house to determine where stuff would go, and started directing traffic. Whilst this was going on, we met two of our neighbors and talked to them for a little bit. They seemed to be about our same age, and they both have young-ish children. They both seemed okay with the hearse too, although they didn't understand too much WHY we have one, but that's to be expected :) At about 1pm, Comcast showed up to do their thing, and they left at about the same time as the movers, around 2-2:30. The rest of the day was spent rearranging some of the furniture, setting up computers in the office, getting the cats situated, and having a much deserved bottle of wine to celebrate the end of the move. Last night we slept in our own bed, and I was close to unconscious until about 5 this morning. Best night's sleep for the past few weeks!

Some observations about the house - we have lots of room, but the master and guest bedrooms upstairs are tiny, which sucks. I think we can still fit both of our dressers in the room, but we'll need to be creative. The guest room will be able to handle a bed, and that's about it. Yet both rooms have walk in closets! The mind boggles. I love that the W/D are upstairs, so I don't have to haul laundry around. The layout of the house is interesting - you walk into the garage and through the door, and the office area is on the right. There is a sink in the office, which apparently counts as a half bath, and there is piping in the closet for a shower (which gives new meaning to the term "water closet", har). You walk up half a flight of stairs, and that takes you to the landing at the front door. Up another flight, and you are on the second level, which consists of the living room, dining area, kitchen and breakfast nook. This floor is enormous, and I love having a big kitchen and living room. No bathrooms on this level, though - they are all on the third level with the bedrooms. We will take a lot of pictures, and I will point out some of the other oddities at that point.

The people up here are interesting. Totally laid back, friendly, and can't drive worth a shit. There's no real road rage, but there's a lot of eye-rolling when somebody gets cut off. There doesn't appear to be a lot of speeding, at least on the surface streets. It is gorgeous and green, even in the crappy parts of town. Where we live? Totally not a crappy part of town. In fact, it is more like Newport Coast. And apparently we live about 3 miles away from their version of South Coast Plaza. And yet, no real Nazi Germany aspect to it (yet, knock on wood). And at least in this area, most people are not from around here, either - our neighbors are from Boston and New York, respectively. And there are tons of Californians as well. But we're still getting our registrations changed and new license plates as soon as we can manage it.

Oh, and the rain. Rain rain rain. I love it :)

If you made it through this rambling entry, congratulations! Believe it or not, I've left a few ranty things out that I will let J cover, because I want to leave him SOMETHING to write about ;) We miss and love everybody in CA, and we'll update often with all the weird and wonderful things we encounter here.

The final stretch

2007-05-17T06:50:00.000-07:00

If any of you thought that, because I am unemployed, that I would get some form of a break this week, you would be wrong. I've been doing the last of the packing during the day, then some more at night after J gets home. Yesterday I taped and labeled most of the boxes, which is a chore in itself. Today I packed up the rest of my closet, but didn't tape up the box because I may still need some of those clothes for when I pack for the trip. I'm going through the office and garage today to see if there is anything else that needs to be packed up/taped. These two areas are primarily J's domain, so I am still a little unclear what he plans to do with some of it, but I will do my best.

We're scheduled to close today. We also have Eddie and some guy coming by to take away the spa and one of the big potted plants that apparently is dead. Can you tell I don't have a green thumb? ;) And I love how these people are making us do stupid stuff like getting rid of the ponds and this plant. They could have just done a bulky item pickup with the trash people. Whatever - I'm getting over it.

I can't quite believe that we're only going to be in this house two more nights. It's weirding me out a little bit. I've been concentrating so much on making sure we have a place to live and getting everything set up that I really haven't thought much about the fact that, "Oh crap! We're leaving!" I know I've said this many times before, but it still hasn't hit me yet, even with all the boxes packed up. Probably because we haven't even seen the new place in person, so it doesn't seem real to me yet. And I've been dreaming of OR for so long that THAT doesn't seem real to me either.

In other news, we had a good time at J&M's on Saturday for his mom's surprise b-day party. As usual, J and I were totally oblivious to the drama going on right before our eyes, so we probably had a better time than most everybody else. But I think that N. was surprised, and she was mostly just happy to see her sister who flew out for the occasion. It was also the last time that we would see A&L before we leave, and I admit to getting a little teary on the way home :)

Sunday was Mother's Day brunch with both families, and we had a good time. We'll see J's folks the day we move, and I have some glasses to drop off with my parents at some point, probably tomorrow when J is home, so we'll see them once more before we leave.

Oh, and on the job hunting front, I have a phone interview this afternoon with a company in Camas, WA. It would be an hour commute, but the job is exactly like my previous position, except without the stock admin stuff (yay!). So, fingers crossed for me. It would be great to have something waiting for me when I get up there.

Is That It?

2007-05-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day here at work, and it appears that I'm going out with a whimper. My boss is out sick today, and everybody else is leaving at noon, so I will too. I even printed out my own exit paperwork to complete - heh. Comes with having an HR job, I guess :)

I did get a lovely breakfast potluck yesterday - scrambled eggs, devilled eggs, sausage, waffles, fruit, the yummy potatoes from the Jazz cafeteria (I will miss my breakfast quesadillas). Not to mention donuts, cake, and enough baked goods filled with poppy seeds that I started to wonder if they wanted me to fail any impending pre-hire drug tests. It was small, quiet, and I got to say goodbye to all the people I work with on a regular basis.

The packing continues and continues and continues. We have one more dish pack to fill, and then it's just smaller boxes of things to pack up. We're most concerned about the garage, but I think we can get a lot done in there this weekend.

We had the final walk-through yesterday afternoon, so I'm sure I'll hear today how that went. The new people have made such strange requests on stuff they want us to get rid of. Thank goodness our realtor is there to fight these battles for us :)

We also had a very nice going away party last Sunday. Wwe had so much fun, and it was really nice to see everybody together. I still can't quite believe that we won't be seeing our friends when we get up there. It will be a shock when it all finally hits me. I'm still in "roll with the punches" mode until all of our arrangements are complete and realized.

I'm sorry for not writing in here very often as of late. This will change once we get up north, since the computer will suddenly become even more important as my mode of communication to the outside world. I know a lot of you understand this well.

Not a lot of knitting to report, as you can imagine. Still slogging on the scarf when I am not packing and making arrangements. I did finally reach the halfway point, and I will be turning right around and doing the stripes in reverse order, so they mirror each other. I think it appeals to J's retentive tendencies :) I just wish now that I had done the original pattern in the first place. No time for regrets now, and I'm sure as hell not starting over!

Well, poo

2007-05-05T07:23:00.000-07:00

The sweater didn't fit :( I should have listened to that small voice inside that said, "Maybe you should go up to the next size...". I will wait until we get up to Oregon, order about 10 more skeins, and start over. There is no graceful way to alter the result as is, but that is okay. Not like I'll have a whole lot to do once we get up there (aside from the job hunt, that is).

Everything is pretty much set up for us up there, we just need to finish our packing down here. This Friday is my last day at work, then we move at the end of the next week. We sign paperwork and take possession of the house on the 21st. I'm excited and stressed out all at the same time.

Still working on the Dr. Who scarf. That's about all that my poor pea brain can handle right now.

Off to Mom

2007-04-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

I sure hope she likes this!

I also became a member of the Slogalong, because of this:

I am only at about the halfway point. But this is helping to keep me sane right now.

Things are moving right along (har har). We supposedly had the inspection on Friday, but we haven't heard anything back yet as to what needs to be done. I imagine they will have some questions about the lights - we have an X10 system in our house, which just means that we have our lights hooked up in such a way that we use keypads and remote controls to turn them on and off. We are taking the X10 with us, so they will just have normal lighting when they take over.

We also bought some dish packs and glass packs, and packed up all of our glassware (except for some essentials) yesterday. It felt good to get so much done. 84 wine glasses! The mind boggles.

Just trying to keep my mind occupied

2007-04-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

The inspection is today. I don't think they'll find anything major, but we've been unpleasantly surprised before. I just hope whatever is on the report can be fixed in 2 1/2 weeks.

Things are moving right along. We did secure a lovely rental townhouse in the Beaverton area for a very reasonable price. We've found movers. We're starting the process of switching all of our email addresses to our gmail accounts. We have a party planned at the local English Pub to send us off in style and to tell our friends goodbye.

I manage to find moments when I think, "Oh my god, what the hell are we doing, leaving everything we've ever known and everyone we love?" I have to remind myself that other people (including our parents) did just that, at about the same age. I'm sure it was scary for them too, at first.

In project news, my mom's cardigan dried beautifully, and I will take it up to her on Sunday to try on. I'm crossing my fingers that she likes it.

In Search Of....

2007-04-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

A rental. That's what the name of the game is around here. We currently have an application in for a place in Beaverton, so all 2 of you that read this please keep your fingers crossed. I won't bother describing the place until we receive confirmation that we actually got it, so you'll just have to wait :) I swear, about 50% of my stress will go away when we get this rental business settled. Once we have an address, we can start setting up utilities, movers, etc.

We also have a couple of moving companies coming out in the next couple of days to give us estimates. These are larger, well-known companies, because I have heard far too many horror stories about these shady movers that hold your stuff hostage for more money, and I just don't want to go through that madness. Well, who does want to go through that, actually?

We also started packing this past weekend. We did the bookcase in the bedroom, a good portion of the office, the spare bedroom, the linen closet, and the cassette tapes and VHS tapes (yes, we still have these horribly outdated things because we are old school like that). Oh, and I packed up the Dicken's Village stuff, too.

I am also having to think about what I want as a job, as I'm updating my resume. It seems that a lot of the positions are for "HR Generalists", which includes the things I am doing now, and also "employee relations" duties. This means that I would be the person that an employee would contact if they are having issues with their manager or their department, or they are just having issues in general. Do I want to deal with other people's issues? I already do that to a certain extent with benefits administration, but I still manage to keep behind the scenes for the most part. I may need to compromise, but at the same time I don't want to end up hating my job.

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that we did sign the escrow paperwork on Thursday, so that's why everything is all full speed ahead around here :) I also gave notice at work, and my last day is May 11th, which will give me about a week before the move to tie up any loose ends.

And there's been crocheting. I finished Mom's sweater. Did I bother to take a picture? Of course not! It is blocked out in the spare bedroom, and it seems to be taking forever to dry. I'll probably turn the fan on it tonight to speed up the process a bit.

Could it be?

2007-04-18T08:08:00.000-07:00

It looks like we've finally sold the house. We signed the paperwork last night accepting an offer, and now we just need to sign the escrow stuff, which should be in the next couple of days. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we'll have enough for a good down payment on a new place when we are ready to buy.

Now comes the nightmare of arranging movers, packing, cleaning, and oh yeah, finding a place to rent. All in less than 30 days (!!!). But that kind of stress I can handle :) It's not all The Glass Is Half-Empty around here, I promise.

This time, I won't be mentioning anything to my work until the big paperwork is signed. I've been living in limbo at the job since the last time we thought we would be in escrow - no merit increases, no stock option grants, no goals. My boss appreciates what I do, but he didn't expect me to still be here, so he didn't budget for me.

There's crocheting going on around here, too. I have one more 3/4 sleeve to go, and I will be done with my mom's cardigan. I think. I am praying fervently that it will fit her. If not, I think I'll be able to expand the border bands down the front out a couple more inches on each side, and that should take care of things. But I will have her try it on first. I think she'll really like it, and I think I will make one for myself :) It's very pretty. You'll have to take my word for it now, but I'll take pictures of it soon.

Short N Sweet in progress

2007-03-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Here is where I am so far. I love how this is turning out! This is 5 balls worth of the Shine Worsted, I think. I haven't really been keeping track - I thought it was 6 balls worth, but I found an extra ball of yarn in my knitting bag last night, so I still have a little more to work with before my new supply of yarn arrives.

I'm over it

2007-03-27T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm over all this house-selling bullshit. I want my life back. I want to be able to sleep in until 1, or sit around in my PJ's and do nothing all day if I don't want to. I want to get on with it, already.

Now that the poopiness is out of the way...

I've unceremoniously dumped my current projects to focus once again on mom's cardigan. I decided to model it on the Short 'N' Sweet bolero from Stitch N Bitch - The Happy Hooker. I'll just make it longer, so it hits at about the hip, and extend the sleeves down to just past the elbows (per Mom's request). The KnitPicks Shine Worsted works really well for this pattern. I just need a buttload of the yarn for my alterations! I've gone through 6 balls, and I just ordered 15 more. Thank gods the stuff is cheap :) If I have any leftover, I'm sure I will find something to do with it. Progress pictures soon - I am on the body of the sweater, just past the armholes. I probably have about 4 pattern repeats or less to go before I reach my destination. I am blowing through this thing so quick, I may have it done in another week or two. This all depends on how soon the extra yarn shows up at my door.

Thank goodness for knitting and crocheting. It is helping to keep my mind off of things that just depress me.

2007-03-23T13:34:00.000-07:00

Presenting my STR sock from the first kit of the Rockin' Sock Club!

Inside out:

And some detail of the foot so you can see the extent of the pooling:

Crazy, crazy pooling with this stuff. I was going to make these for a friend, but now I'm not sure that she'll like these with the colors like this. I will run this sock by her and see what she says.

Aw crap - I just noticed my picture sizing is totally jacked up. I'll fix it when I get home tonight.

But, I have to say this is the easiest pattern. Contrary to some other experiences, I had no problems with construction, and the fit is awesome - no tightness in the legs or ankles. I started with size 1 on the toes, and it seemed like they were too big, so I ended up with size 0 for the toes, foot and heel, and moved up to size 2 for the leg. Perfect.

I just found out from my husband that he buried a St. Joseph's statue in the yard at the end of November. This is about the same time that any interest in our house dried up. So poor St. Joe is getting dug up tonight :) My agent did indicate today that there is a very serious party that is trying to get together financing so they can make an offer. I've heard that before, so I'm not getting the ol' hopes up.

What I've been up to

2007-03-09T10:55:00.000-08:00

...besides being sick. Ugh.

A finished pair of Jaywalkers! Here are the details:

Jaywalker, a pattern by Grumperina
1 ball of Regia Surf in the Bonbon colorway, with quite a bit left over (god bless tiny feet).
Size 2 US needles

I loved the pattern. I have some other yarn that should stripe really nicely, so this pattern will be perfect for that!

Approximately a 1/4 of a scarf. This is gonna take a while.

It kinda freaks me out that the colors are so accurate in these pics. Weird.

I finished my socks...

2007-03-02T11:30:00.000-08:00

But I totally finished them WRONG. I decreased to a total of 14 stitches instead of 28 before I kitchenered the toes. Whoops. At least this is something that is easily remedied, so I will take pics after fixing the toes.

I am now working on the incredibly boring scarf. The color changes are holding my interest, at least. I do feel guilty that it will be spring by the time this scarf is done, but I can't help it if the sock yarn is calling me!

Speaking of which, the first box of the Rockin' Sock Club should arrive any day. I suspect they are filling the orders as they were placed, which means I will be dead last. Oh well - I am totally looking forward to my first experience with STR! I'm trying to stay away from other sites that have posted pics of their shipments already, so I don't spoil the surprise for myself. I'm also withholding judgement of the colors until I see the yarn myself. I'm not a big fan of blue. I owe a friend of mine a pair of socks, so they can always be for her if I don't like the colors :)

Still haven't sold the house, and it looks like we will need to lower the price, which sucks ass. We'll live. I'm hoping we (or our friends) win the Mega Millions tonight, so I don't have to worry about the house any more. Good luck with that!

Whoops

2007-02-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

I'm turning into a crappy blogger. Honestly, I haven't done much knitting recently - I've been reading more books (true crime, specifically), which cuts heavily into my knitting time. I did just turn the heel on my second sock last night, so I'm over halfway done now. I haven't touched the scarf at all, but I think I will work on it this weekend, because it is so mindless.

I did get a few new fibery books:

Domiknitrix is great, and I especially adore the charts. I was disappointed because it seems that a lot of their patterns only go up to a 40" bust, which is about 5" shy of what I need. Maybe I can adjust the patterns a little bigger?

Naughty Needles is simply awesome. So many patterns that I want to make! Especially that bikini on the cover. I WILL make it work for me! Problem is, the yarn has been discontinued, and is only available online. I should probably snatch some up soon before it disappears forever.

Stitch N Bitch - The Happy Hooker is a great, great book. I really want to learn how to properly crochet again, and it looks like I will be able to with the instructions and illustrations in this book. The patterns are also super cute. Plus, there is a shrug that, if I can manage to expand it into a long sleeved boxy cardigan, would work perfectly for Mom :)

Whoopsie

2007-02-07T09:03:00.000-08:00

I kinda went AWOL there for a minute. Things haven't been super busy, and yes, I have been knitting. I'm splitting my time between the Dr. Who scarf and another pair of socks.

My ugly socks turned out spectacular - I'm so happy with the fit, and they are so soft and comfy. I started another pair, this time in the Jaywalker pattern and using size 2 needles. These socks are going to be the most technically perfect socks I've ever made. The pattern itself is so precise, and the yarn really shows off the stitches well. I've finished one and started on the second, and they fit like a glove. I'm using Regia Surf, in the Bonbon colorway. I love this yarn - each color has a subtle white thread woven in. I started getting this almost nostalgic feeling when I looked at my knitting, but I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me - the colors remind me of Fruit Stripe gum! I'll take a pic of the sock soon and post it when I have a chance, probably later this week.

Last weekend, I got free tickets, through work, to Disneyland and CA Adventure. So we got our friends J&M to go with us, and we were planning to hit the Vineyard Room in CA Adventure for dinner. I had to go to a presentation at the Disneyland Hotel to score the tickets, so the others hung out at the Uva Bar in Downtown Disney to wait for me. I joined up with them later, and we ended up staying there for another three hours! It's like a little oasis from the screaming children and idiot adults. Plus they serve some fantastic munchies. Our plans ended up changing, partially because of the expense - our friends hadn't re-upped for annual passes, so they would have had to pay $65 each, just to get into the parks! Crazy. We also decided, based on the menu, to go to the Napa Rose in the Grand Californian Hotel for dinner instead, so that meant J&M didn't have to buy tickets to the park at all if they didn't want to. So, we made our reservations for dinner, and J and I went into the park and hit the Haunted Mansion, so we could at least get one ride in :)

Then we went to dinner. Oh. my. god. Everything was so good. I couldn't tell you everything we had (we had a prix fixe with wine pairing), but here is a sample menu for Valentine's Day this year that will give you an idea. Wonderful, wonderful place. I would love to be able to go back.

ETA: I totally forgot to mention - I had put myself on the waiting list for the Rockin' Sock Club 2007, and I was able to get in. They charged my credit card and everything! I can't wait to get my first shipment!!

Boo hoo

2007-01-26T14:22:00.000-08:00

I am depressed. Not clinically, but feeling really low all the same. Why haven't we sold our house yet? There's nothing wrong with it - it's move-in ready, as far as I can tell (aside from all of our crap that we need to move out), we have a jacuzzi, and a washer/dryer and new grill that are staying. Why does no one want to buy it? I really and truly thought that we would be gone by Christmas, and yet here we sit. Is it too late to bury a St. Joseph statue in the yard?

I have to keep reminding myself that there are many others in my position in our part of the country that have had their places on the market for 5 months or more. I'm sick of strangers coming into our house and looking through the cabinets when we aren't at home. Just this last weekend someone went through our medicine cabinet and took some old Vicodin pills that I had accidentally left in there. I am so over this whole process. We haven't had one offer in the past two months at least.

I need to snap out of it. Wallowing in my misery isn't going to help our place sell any quicker.

On the sock front, I've gotten through the heel and am now decreasing through the gussets. The way I'm going, I'll probably finish this up tomorrow morning. Yay, a new pair of socks! Then I think I need to concentrate on that scarf for J. He shoots daggers at me every time I pull the ugly socks out to work on them. I do find that the Denise needles cling a little too much to the yarn, so work on the scarf has been very tedious. I'll go through my needles and see if I have size 6 Addi's - those would be slick enough for the Merino Style.

Tomorrow is our open house, so we are escaping to Del Mar to do some minor shopping and dinner with my family - my Dad and sister's birthdays are next week. I'm looking forward to seeing them and getting out of the house! Sunday we will probably go out to breakfast at The Olde Ship in Santa Ana. They have really good black pudding - mmmmmm. I think I will also employ some "cooking therapy" on Sunday, so I don't just sit around and brood.

I have to say, knitting has been such a blessing during this time that we've been trying to sell our place. Nothing like several projects to take your mind off of things! I think J is a little envious, because he doesn't have any projects to work on right now, and he likes to feel productive. I keep trying to teach him to knit, but he's not taking the bait (yet). Maybe I can con him into making me something to organize my circulars? He IS king of the sewing machine at our house.

Cue the calliope music

2007-01-25T08:40:00.000-08:00

Now THESE are clown socks:

Now I know that I should take my knitting pics in the kitchen, because the colors here are very accurate. Maybe TOO accurate. Do you see why I couldn't take my eyes off of this yarn?

No, I am not done with the other one yet, I'm not quite that fast. I'm about a third of the way down the leg.

And I'm not going to bother with a picture of the scarf, because it is tres boring right now.

I fucking knew it

2007-01-23T15:18:00.000-08:00

Guess what my husband found last night underneath the coffee table?

That's right, my other Denise kit. I'd looked behind all the books on my shelves, and emptied out the entire shelf underneath the coffee table. Except for my striped box where I keep all my correspondence. Sigh. I suppose I should be happy that it was located, and that I will never have to buy a needle between the sizes of 5 and 15 ever again. I am such a dumbass.

I was going to post pictures of my new Fetching gloves, my finished sock and the beginnings of the Dr. Who scarf, but my phone takes such assy pictures that I will need to wait until I get home and take pics with the real camera. So, no distractions from my dumbfuckery today.

Speaking of my finished sock, I shocked myself - I finished that sucker in 3 DAYS. I know that's a record for me. I guess that's what happens when you knit socks with size 3 needles. I started the other one, and I hope to finish it by the weekend. This is going to be the ugliest pair of socks ever. Just wait 'til I post a picture of it. Your eyes will bleed.

I've been stalking some other knitting blogs, because I always like to have new stuff to read online. I also like checking out other people's projects. And, let's face it - I'm nosy and enjoy reading about other people's lives. What I normally do is start at the beginning of the archives and read all the way through to the present. It's insane, but that way I feel like I'm "in the loop", and understand the references and private jokes that I come across later. I've talked about this before, but I'm still rediscovering old blogs and remembering all over again why I stopped reading them. Two in particular are entertaining in sections, but at the same time are overwhelmingly negative and snobby. I'm not always happy-go-lucky, but it takes a lot less energy for me to be content than it does to be pissed off about everything all the time. People like that have always been an energy suck for me. Therefore, it is exhausting to read these blogs. And I don't want blog reading to make me tired.

That said, I've discovered others that fell by the wayside when I stopped updating this thing, and stopped reading blogs for a while, and I still enjoy what these people have to say. Like this one. My type of humor, smart, a little angsty and funny.

Swatch? I do not know what this means.

2007-01-19T10:44:00.000-08:00

Looking at the pictures of the sweaters I posted yesterday, I realized how fortunate I am that they turned out looking as decent as they do. You see, I don't swatch. I always want to dive head-first into a project, and damn the consequences. I convince myself that I am being "adventurous", rather than "just making more work for myself". What I find myself doing is knitting along on a sleeve, then measuring after several rows to see if I'm matching gauge with the pattern.

When I redo my Rogue, I'm going to be a good girl and knit a proper swatch to make sure I am getting gauge, since I was SO successful at making estimations on the fly last time (not). I'm also tempted to start Mariah over again - I am about 2/3 done with one sleeve, and I am not at all sure if I am getting gauge. I'll rip out my measuring tape before I commence any ripping.

On another note, here is my office, in the wilds of the Executive Floor of my building:

So open! To everything! I hate it. Thank goodness this floor doesn't get much traffic.

And a crappy pic of one Fetching glove:

I may give these away. They are actually too big for my Liliputian hands. I am making another pair for myself in a pretty cranberry color, and I eliminated one of the cable repeats, casting on 40 stitches instead of 45. So far, they are working out pretty well.

Night Owl

2007-01-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Notes on the Lace Leaf Pullover:

- I used a full TWO balls less than what the pattern calls for in my size. I bought 7 balls, and only used 5. And you can see how big it is.

- I would also change the sleeve cap. There are seven live stitches at the top that are grafted to seven stitches on the sleeve. I would increase the number of stitches at the top of the sleeve and at the cap, because those stitches are stretched to the limit to accomodate my shoulders (you can also see this in the pic in Loop-d-Loop, so it's not just me)

- I blocked the hell out of it from paranoia, and I really didn't need to. Next time I wash it, I will lightly block. It grows after wear, anyway.

- I love, love, love this sweater. And it really is worth it to use the yarn called for in the pattern. I got the yarn at Yarn Market.

I also adore this sweater - it is so comfy and wearable. I can't think of anything I would do to change this sweater. This would be really yummy in Cashmerino Chunky, IMHO. Although it would pill like mad.

And Calorimetry turned out nice, but as you can see I don't have enough hair to really carry this off yet. I think it looks quite fetching with my jammies, don't you?

I bound off my mom's poncho last night and there were two problems: (1) It's not long enough and (2) It's ugly. The Shine Worsted just isn't doing it for me with this design. I will have to think on this some more. Maybe I will have to dive into the murky waters of crochet after all for this one. God, I hope not. In the meantime it is sulking in my sewing basket until I can figure this out.

The title refers to the fact that I'm staying up later these days. I used to be such a night owl in college, staying up until all hours then bouncing out of bed the next morning. The past few years have seen me hitting the sheets at 9pm each night, and suffering through the weekends because I had trained myself to not stay up late. By 11:30 on New Year's, I thought I was going to die because I was so tired (granted, I had made about a 140 tamales that afternoon, so maybe I should cut myself some slack, yes?). That's just pathetic. So, the past few nights I've stayed up until 11. And guess what? I've been sleeping better, and I've had no trouble rolling out of bed at 6 the next morning. Plus I'm able to get a lot more done and I'm more fully rested before bedtime. I'm definitely making a habit of this :)

So flighty

2007-01-17T15:14:00.000-08:00

I'm posting here more than on my LiveJournal. The reason is that I have been so consumed by my knitting recently, and I'm fairly certain that my friends over there don't want to hear about it, at least not without visual aids. And sorry, still no visual aids here. I'll try to get some pictures tonight of the things I've been working on. Maybe I'll flash my stash, too. My camera just takes such crappy pictures, especially at night, so I'll have to fiddle with the settings until I find something that works for me.

Now that I've got my socks on the right sized needles and not pooling, I've lost all interest. I've become a flibbertegibbet (sp? hell, I don't know) with my projects. Instead, I was lured by the evil temptress Calorimetry and her promise of a quick knit. It was relatively quick - I managed to bust her out last night in about 3 hours. I changed the pattern up a little - I cast on 100 stitches, and made her more narrow, so it would be a more petite headband. Plus I was using the last of my Silk Garden from my Clapotis, and didn't quite have enough for the full size version. I don't know if it is my lack of hair (I'm kinda rockin' the white girl afro-puff right now), but it still turned out plenty big enough. I'll wear it more when my hair gets past shoulder length.

Next, I've started Knit and Tonic Wendy's Dream Swatch Wrap thingie, since I had one skein of the exact yarn that the pattern calls for - Alchemy Bamboo. I'll alternate between that and the sock for small fiddly stuff.

What I really need to work on is the poncho. I dropped it like a bad habit whilst dealing with the sock, and I should finish it because it is so damned close to being done anyway.

We've been getting a lot more activity with the house. Agents have brought people by every day this week so far, which is a lot more than in 2006, so I'm hoping for some bites soon. I've also had a flip in perspective in the past few days, since we've now had our house on the market for 5 months, with no serious offers so far. One of my work friends started talking about how her friend's house didn't sell for 8 months. Prior to now, I wouldn't have wanted to hear about it - don't harsh my mellow, man. Now, it makes me feel better that we aren't the only ones suffering in this stupid market. It feels like we're never going to get out of CA.

Stash from Hell

2007-01-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to go through my stash last night. My stash resides in our not-quite-guest room, the room we use to store all of our old craft projects, bolts and large rolls of fabric from the Fabric District, SCA garb, and whatever doesn't fit in the rest of the house. For the most part, it is actually very well organized, and easy to find what you are looking for.

My stash was the exception. It was cloistered in two woven lined hampers, but I had been careless. Remainders from old projects were intermingling (and sometimes FELTING) together. Just a disorganized mess. Plus, I am a little paranoid now about bugs eating everything. So, I got upstairs with my plastic ziplock bags and got to work.

After all was said and done, I was pleased. I managed to untangle some hellish knots. I found TWO sock yarns that I forgot I had. I discovered that my leftovers could make some decent small projects. And that my stash isn't TOO bad (yet). I bagged up my old acrylics and cotton yarns that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. I still don't know what to do with that stuff. But at least I know where to find everything now.

On a different note, I discovered yesterday that I can drink regular coffee. Yay! Probably only one cup a day, but that is fine by me.

Oh, and by the way - going down 4 stitches on the socks seems to have eliminated the pooling problem. Yay!

Groundhog Day...with yarn

2007-01-15T10:30:00.000-08:00

Nope, still no pictures. I suck.

I'm down to the last ball of yarn for my mom's poncho. I think she will really like it. I will be interested to see how the whole thing washes up - I will toss it into a lingerie bag, of course, since it is essentially a big net :) There are some minor irregularities with the yarn, and I am crossing my fingers that they will be a little less apparent when the whole thing is washed. The russian join totally saved my ass with this project, and I will be using it with pretty much all of my future un-feltable projects.

Speaking of washing stuff, I threw my black sweater into the wash (the yarn IS machine washable). However, I failed to remember that the washing machine that we use tends to RIP UP undershirts and other unmentionables if they are just loose and not in a lingerie bag. So, my poor sweater had two holes, and all the woven-in ends somehow migrated to the right side of the sweater! Ack! Luckily, I was able to repair all damage to the sweater, and all seems well.

I started another project, since I always have to have at least two things on the needles at once. I only have 3 pairs of knitted socks, and I need more! So, I started a pair of plain stockinette socks, knitted toe up using the figure 8 method a la Wendy. I have knit the first few inches of these socks four times, and I'm thinking the fifth time will be the charm. The first go-around, I twisted the stitches on the end of the toe, so it looked like a little braid. Plus, I used size 3 needles (which is what my Cherry Tree Hill Supersock calls for), and the socks were enormous, and too loosely knit. So, I looked at Wendy's Toe Up Sock pattern, and she suggests a size zero needle. Fine. I started over, got the stitches right for the toe, and began the increases. I soon realized that this made a really DENSE fabric, which was a bitch to knit. So, I frogged back to the beginning again. Did I jump up to size 1 needles? No, that would have been smart. I went to size 2's instead, and ended up with baggy ankles again. Sigh....RIIIIIP. Last night, I started these over with size 1's. Now we're talking! The fabric is just the right tension and texture, the fit appears to be right on track. But, what's that? The yarn is suddenly pooling like a mofo. Arrrgh! I am going to try reducing to 56 stitches, to see if the yarn will stripe a little instead. Pooling doesn't normally bother me, but damn - I am knitting with the Fall Foliage colorway, and let me tell you, these are going to be freakin' clown socks as it is , and the pooling made it look like I was having fun with the fingerpaints all over these poor socks. I have never reknit a pair of socks this many times. Wish me luck on this latest experiment.

Incidentally, I am still in love with this yarn. When I started the socks, I brought them to work and set the yarn out just slightly under my desk, so I could gaze upon the colors all day long. I've been slightly unhinged with the love I have for this colorway.

No news on the house yet. Poop.

I'm also trying an experiment of another ilk. I'm trying to drink regular coffee. I love coffee beyond all reason. However, a couple of years ago it got so I could not drink the regular stuff - it made me sick to my stomach. Not long after that, I had surgery to remove my gall bladder and clear out some gall stones. I am convinced that my problems with coffee are linked to this, but I'm not sure. It has taken me the past couple of years for my digestion to equalize. Now that this has happened, I wanted to test the waters again. So far, so good - I'm working on half a cup of coffee, and my stomach feels okay and I'm not too jittery. Wish me luck on this, too - decaf just ain't the same.

Rest in Peace

2007-01-11T09:18:00.000-08:00

I took out the socks that have been marinating in my sewing basket for the past year, to see if anything could be done with them. I successfully cleaned off all the dried grass (that's right - I stuck them in my sewing basket, and promptly forgot about them), and ripped back to where I recognized the pattern and could continue. I then thought I should wind up the yarn into a nice ball so it would be easier to work with (duh). In doing this, I discovered many, many little ends in the snarl of Koigu. Did bugs get into my basket? Was it eaten during that long night out in the elements? Who knows. But I had to toss that skein, which was painful for me. Poor Koigu :( I shall have to check my LYS, to see if they have any others in the same dyelot. I still have the second skein, which I haven't touched, so I will have another pair of Koigu socks yet!

I got the last purchases from my Xmas money - a Lantern Moon sewing tote in dark purple and black, and a set of the pink Denise needles. I am very happy with both, and I promise to take VERY good care of this set of needles. I will probably find the others when we are packing to move.

Still slogging away on the poncho. I'm about halfway through the 3rd ball of yarn. I just don't enjoy working with cotton, although this stuff is very nice.

I've also been working on a crocheted cloche, but I realized something - I hate the texture, it's so rough! Silk and wool blend yarn should not feel rough. I found a pattern online for a knitted cloche by Marnie MacLean, so I think I will purchase it and make it. The yarn requirements are very similar, and I will be happier with this yarn in stockinette stitch.

Other than that, things have been very slow around the homestead. We'll have two open houses this weekend, so I'm hoping for some nibbles. I'm so sick of the waiting. We also need to get our fences repaired from the recent high winds, so we are talking with our insurance company and working with them to get a claim check. We also have to work with our neighbors, which I am not looking forward to. Oh well, the high price of home ownership.

Tonight, my husband will be at a whisky tasting thingie, so I will cook myself up a batch of tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Ahhh, my idea of heaven.

Knit whore

2007-01-09T13:20:00.000-08:00

I have too many irons in the fire, and yet things keep catching my eye. Like Henry VIII from Starmore. Fair Isle - WTF? No, I haven't purchased the kit (yet), but I will someday, probably after the move. Nothing like diving in feet first, right?

I'm working on my mom's poncho now. The Shine Worsted is working up very nicely. I hope my mom likes it - she's notoriously picky. I'm through the first two balls of yarn and I have 2-3 to go.

After the poncho, I will start on J's scarf. Maybe he'll actually get to use it! Yeah, right. Not 'til we move to Oregon, anyway. I'm very tempted to make the long version, just for fun.

I also have these other projects that are in various stages of completion:

Mariah - most of the way through one sleeve.

Socks - can't remember the name, but they are from Socks On The Road. Patterned cuff and plain legs, with little bitty cables running up the sides. One sock 2/3 of the way done. These are the socks that stuck to my clothes on a camping trip, on my way to the bathroom. Sat out overnight in the grass and the dew. Haven't touched them since, but I really should. I only have three pair of knitted socks, and I want more.

Rogue - technically done, but I am going to unravel and start over. I want to knit a size that will actually fit me. What a concept!

I also have yarn for several more pairs of socks and an Irish Diamond Shawl. And now this fair isle mini-obsession as of late. It used to scare me, just looking at those sweaters. Now I want some of them, and badly. I also just want to learn how.

Back to the grind

2007-01-03T14:40:00.000-08:00

What a glorious vacation from work. I could have used another week to fritter the time away, but that just goes to show what a lazy ass I am. I was even too lazy to take pictures and blog.

I did manage to complete one large project around the house - cleaning out the pantry. I shudder to think back on all the expired food and crap that I would never eat that I threw out. Filled the black trash can outside all the way up. Let me emphasize, this was EXPIRED food, so I couldn't donate it or anything like that. I even reorganized the pantry, so I can actually find stuff. I came across so many things that I forgot I had that it scared me! Now it is a manageable size, and I won't have to throw out so much when we are ready to move.

Cleaning out the pantry got me thinking about food and what kind of stuff I eat all the time. I hate the idea of diets, but I wonder if there aren't substitutions that I could make in my regular recipes? More whole grains instead of white flour? Honey instead of refined sugar? I think I will need to do some more research. We have been eating more salads recently, which is good. And I would love to kick the diet soda habit. I'm fairly certain that it's really not good for me to drink as much as I do. I just need to find more reasonable substitutes, like tea.

Oh, and New Year's was a blast. This year, I tried the grand experiment of making tamales. The recipe I used said that I would net about 4-6 dozen tamales. 14 dozen later... no, I am so not kidding. We ran out of the pork filling halfway and had to use cheese. But they turned out great, and the Hispanic people at the party thought the gringa acquitted herself quite well. Now we have a freezer full of tamales. Not that I'm complaining or anything. J and I ended up spending the night at J&M's, and they put us in the guest room with our kitties :) I think we had at least two cats on the bed the entire night. It was sooo nice to be able to spend time with our cats, and to be reassured that they still knew who we were. The next day, I baked up a Prosciutto and Goat Cheese Strata for breakfast, and we had leftovers from the night before for lunch/dinner. We sat around in our PJ's and played video games for the rest of the day. Ahhh, so relaxing! All in all, it was a kickass way to usher in the new year.

As far as the knitting goes, I was ridiculously prolific during my holiday break between Christmas and New Year's. This is what I finished:

A pair of Fetching gloves
The lace leaf pullover
The basketweave v-neck
Two Odessa hats
Brioche scarf (my own design, using the Brioche stitch*)

Yes, I know there are no pictures. I will take pictures and post in the next few days. One comment about the lace leaf sweater - I had TWO leftover balls of yarn after all was said and done. So, I knit M (who is going to Wisconsin in about a week) a big, cushy scarf so she won't freeze. And I still have about 3/4 of a ball left over! Now, I knit very tightly, but this is freakin' insane. The sweater is plenty big enough for me, so I don't know what happened.

I also cast on and started my mom's Harlot Poncho, and I'm working on a crochet project as well - the Simply Cloche hat from Hip to Crochet. I'm not quite halfway and I just started it last night, so I will probably have it done by the end of the week. I'm making it out of Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool DK in Graphite. Pretty, pretty yarn, and soooo soft to work with.

And yes, I shopped some more. I bit the bullet and bought another set of the Denise Interchangeables, in the pink this time. And a Lantern Moon tote. Somebody stop me.

*What is the brioche stitch? Let me share:

Cast on stitches in multiples of 3
Set-up row - YO, Sl 1, K 1
All other rows - YO, Sl 1, K2tog
Go until you get to the desired length. I recommend using a really flexible cast on and off for this stitch pattern.

Overload! Randomness!

2006-12-21T09:49:00.000-08:00

My brain is teeming with projects that I want to be working on. I'm still slogging through the first sleeve of the sweater - I think I have about 20 rows to go, then I start on the second sleeve. I'm going to the LYS today to pick up a couple of needles and some yarn for a couple of chemo caps that I'm making for a friend. I previously made her the cabled newsboy from Stitch N Bitch Nation (it was so cute I almost kept it for myself), and Odessa. She liked Odessa so much that she's requested two more in black and cream. I'm more than happy to oblige! I also need an extra circular needle so I can start on Mom's poncho. I'm so pissed - I lost my Denise needle case at some point, and I tore apart my house trying to find them with no success. I should probably just invest in another set.

Here are the other projects I've been thinking about:

Fetching - such an appropriate name :) I love gloves, and this would be a great quick knit. I can imagine having many, many colors of these.

I already went on about the lace leaf pullover, so I won't bore you with that again. I'm getting the yarn today via UPS, so we'll see how it goes.

Eternal Embrace - I really like the pattern, because of the ease. I made a turtleneck shrug for myself, and I felt like a claustrophobic overstuffed sausage in it. And I love the site.

At least a couple of these projects will be super-quick for me to complete, so I will probably work on these during my time off.

I've been surfing the knitting blogs, finding some old ones and new ones. There were several that I had stopped reading, and I couldn't remember why. I came across one in particular (I won't mention the name here), in which there was a post about the Anticraft site, and it all came rushing back to me why I had stopped reading some of these sites. Some people were so critical of the Anticraft site when it first came out, because of the gothy content. I had no idea so many people were so hateful about "goth"! People who claimed to be so open-minded were really goddamned judgmental and MEAN when it came to that website. So, I stopped reading theirs, because I couldn't stand the hypocrisy. I'm finding that I didn't miss much of anything after I had taken these blogs off of my Bloglines listing.

Ok, rant over.

So, what am I doing for the holidays? Not much of anything, thank goodness. I am off from work from noon today through the 2nd, so I intend to get a lot of knitting done during that time. The holidays are weird for me this year - I haven't been in the spirit at all. I'm not religious anymore, so there's been no church activities for the past several years, but I still liked to decorate and celebrate the pagan side of the season. J has always hated Xmas and the consumerism, and has been trying to woo me over to the "dark side", in having me not celebrating Xmas in any way. He may think he got his way this year, but I can guarantee that this is not a permanent condition. In fact, I feel it coming on, little by little. I may just put some stuff out when I get home today!

We will see the hub's parents on Xmas Eve, and mine on Xmas day. We're getting together with friends on New Year's Eve to make tamales and drink champagne - yum! I can't wait!

Vacation on Sleeve Island

2006-12-18T15:20:00.000-08:00

No sleeve pics, since I haven't made enough progress to warrant documentation of the 2 inch blob protruding from the armhole region.

My weekend was deliciously lazy. As we pondered what to do to get ourselves out of the house on Saturday, we found out that we would not have an open house that afternoon after all, owing to the windy and blustery weather. Our butts were planted firmly on the couch in the living room the entire weekend, and as a result I got an amazing amount of knitting done on the sweater. I completed the front, grafted the shoulders together, and picked up and knit stiches for the first sleeve. Then we shall see if the beast actually fits. I have yet to engineer a sweater that fits me properly, so I shan't get my hopes up too much.

Last week, I won a $50 AMEX gift card in a holiday raffle, so of course I had to buy yarn and books with the winnings. Because I am still obsessed with this pattern and getting it right, I bought enough Needful Yarns Van Dyck for the Lace Leaf Pullover. This is the exact yarn that the pattern calls for, so it damn well better work this time! I also cruised by Amazon and picked up Big Girl Knits, the Yarn Harlot's new tome, and a "best of" CD by The Pixies. Not too shabby!

I am counting the hours until I get off work on Thursday. I am excited to have all of that time off!

It's a back!

2006-12-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

So far, so good. I'm already up to the 4th row of blocks on the front, so I may finish that part of the sweater today. I'll probably have this all complete in the next couple of days.

I had the strangest dream a couple of nights ago. A robber broke in, held us at gunpoint, and demanded all of our yarn. I wish I could have made it a lucid dream and said, "Take the acrylic!"

Not much going on here. We didn't have an open house yesterday after all, because of all the nasty windy weather. So, I knit all day in front of the TV, then we got dressed and went out for Thai food, then resumed our places on the couch and had some chocolates with late harvest zin. Yummy. Today looks to be more of the same. I think I will go warm up my coffee and snuggle back under the afghan.

Bringing it up to speed

2006-12-16T07:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some projects that I have been working on the past several months:

I'm very happy with how it turned out! I'm going to make one for my mom, in Shine Worsted (she's not fond of wool, and gets overheated easily).

Pattern: The Very Harlot Poncho
Yarn: Classic Elite Inca Alpaca (100% alpaca, 109 yards), 5 balls (can't remember the color names), including fringe

A plethora of scarves:

Okay, so it's just two. The one on the right was felted, and ended up with this wonderful velvety texture. It's finally starting to get cold enough to wear these.

From left:

Lace Leaf Scarf
Pattern: Scarf Style
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (55% Merino, 33% Microfiber, 12% Cashmere, 98 yards), 4 balls
Color: Celery

Vintage Velvet Scarf
Pattern: Scarf Style
Yarn: Muench Touch Me (72% Viscose, 28% Wool, 61 yards), 5 balls
Color: Bold Red

This pic cracks me up. It looks like I'm about to blast a cap in yo ass.

I love this sweater. However, I overestimated my size - I think I gave myself about 10 inches of ease. This is because I was paranoid about the sweater being too tight, so I not only knit the largest size, but I went up to a #9 needle. Silly girl. This sweater was so fun to knit, I will likely make another, but in a more appropriate size. I totally dig the knotwork on the sleeves and the hood. Please ignore how dirty the mirror is :)

Pattern: Rogue
Yarn: Rowan Magpie (100% Merino Wool, 215 yards), 9 balls in some dark blue color
And lastly, a new project - another scarf:

Straight on, it looks like stripes. But at an angle, aliens! I have 5 more alien heads to go.

Pattern: Alien Illusion Scarf from Stitch N Bitch
Yarn: I ball of Lamb's Pride Worsted (85% wool, 15% mohair) in Limeade, and 1 ball Patons Classic Wool in Coal

Another note on Rogue - I've been thinking about doing something a bit drastic with this sweater, since I am swimming in it. Felting. It would shrink the sweater to an appropriate size, and I think the knotwork would look cool. Besides, I noticed the other day that the knots by the hem are already starting to felt a bit. I'm scared to do it because I don't want to ruin this nice sweater I made. Or, maybe I could just unravel the whole thing and start over. Then I would have some Magpie left over to make something else. Maybe a hat for the husband?

I'm also working on something else that I cannot find pictures for online - the basketweave v-neck sweater from Loop-d-Loop. Is it possible that nobody out there has attempted this sweater? I didn't find one blog of anybody who has even frogged the thing in frustration. The knitting of this so far has been downright brainless - no shaping, just decreases for the arms and the neck. The bigger check pattern is on the body, and a smaller check on the sleeves. I am working on the back, and am about an inch from the arm decreases. I'm hoping for a boxy, sweatshirt-like sweater so I can lounge about comfortably. I'll post a pic when I have something that has more of a shape. Oh, and I am using Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky in a charcoal color.

I almost forgot - I have yet another project waiting in the wings. This scarf. Does this not crack you up? I got enough yarn for the 13 1/2 foot model, but my husband talked me into making the shorter one for him, and maybe a second one for myself.

This weekend should be pretty uneventful. We have an open house today, and nothing planned for tomorrow. I am counting the days until next Friday, when our holiday shutdown begins. Paid company holiday for 12 days? I'll take that. Yet another reason why it's good that we are still here - I can take advantage of the last of he decent perks that the company offers.

A whole year since I last posted here

2006-12-15T08:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm going to give this another go. Darn it, I still like the idea of having my own little place where I can show off my knitting progress. Plus, I noticed that what few readers I had quickly dropped off when I started posting exclusively in my other blog. I don't blame you - I'm not exactly prolific in my other blog, and LiveJournal isn't too visitor-friendly in terms of posting comments.

I've done a few updates on this page, namely including some new links to what I read now. I know there are a couple of webring links that are likely out of date - I will remove those as time goes on.

So, what have I been up to in the past 11 or so months since I last posted? Quite a bit, actually. We went on a wonderful trip up to Victoria, BC last winter - seriously, the best vacation my husband and I have ever taken. Canadians are so nice and friendly. We would so live up there, if the opportunity came along. The rest of the year wasn't too active - lots of knitting, hanging out with friends, roasting in our house during the Summer That Wouldn't Die (as I like to think of it).

July and August, we started thinking that we wanted to move out of state. We've both lived in CA all our lives, and it's time for a change. Besides, we hate it here - the people are rude and snobby, the drivers should all be shot, and most of our neighbors suck and don't invite us to neighborhood parties. Plus, do you know how expensive it is to own a place in SoCal? So, we pulled out a map and asked ourselves, "Where do we want to live?" We had requirements - milder winters (some snow, but not too much), temperate summers, more nature, no desert, affordable housing, liberal leanings. After some research, we came up with Portland, Oregon. Now, I've never been up to the Pacific Northwest, but I always loved it in theory. J has been up to Seattle, but not to Oregon. So, we took a trip up there for a week to check things out. Wow - I absolutely loved it up there! So, it was decided. We put our house on the market in mid-August, and it is still up on the market. The housing market has slowed waaaaay down, and this isn't exactly the best time of the year to sell :) I never said we were smart!

So, as soon as we sell, we'll move up north. We're probably going to end up renting a house for about a year, then look for a place to buy. One obstacle was taken out of the way - J will be able to keep his job and work from home up there. And keep his current salary. I will be the only one that needs to find gainful employment. Since I'm in HR, I don't think this will be a problem.

I also happen to think that things happen a certain way for a reason. It may not be discernible at the time, but eventually things are made clear. In light of the news stories recently about the crazy flooding, wind and rains, the people getting lost in the snow, perhaps winter would not have been the best time to move after all. I'm thinking spring will be just about perfect.

I'm still depressed about not being up there already, though.

Next post - picture heavy! I'll update with the projects I have worked on so far this year, and what I am working on right now.

New Home

2006-01-13T08:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it's my old home - my other blog. I've been writing in that blog for the past couple of years, and have even met some RL friends through that blog.

When I started knitting early last year, I didn't have too many friends that were interested, and wanted some validation and support. So, I started this here knitting blog, to meet more people and get more project ideas.

However, both blogs have suffered because I don't post in either one as much as I could. I don't talk about knitting in my other blog, and I don't mention much in the way of personal stuff in this one (although I've tried to change that). I got in the horrible habit of just cross-posting stuff here from the old blog, and adding on some knitting content. That just isn't right.

So, I am going to start posting in my other blog exclusively. I will be adding knitting content to my posts over there, so please feel free to visit! I'm still hemming and hawing about adding that blog to the knitting webrings, since I won't be talking about knitting all the time over there. When this one is eventually removed from those rings, I will understand.

Anywho, please bookmark the new-old site: http://www.livejournal.com/users/siobhan_genie

Holiday knitting

2005-12-23T09:04:00.000-08:00

At last, some pictures of things I am working on.

The bears:

The one on the left is for our friend's baby, made out of Cashmerino Superchunky in Rose. I had to double the yarn to get the right gauge. The flash on the camera made the stuffing look more apparent than it actually is in real life. The white bear is for my sister, and knit with Blue Sky Bulky Alpaca. She loves bears, especially polar bears. And what self-respecting polar bear would go outside without their scarf?

So, I had some yarn leftovers. I still can't figure out how I ended up with 2 skeins of the alpaca left. It will be a question for the ages. So, I whipped up a couple more items:

I've talked about the scarf before and its tendency to shed. But isn't it purty? And the fingerless gloves have already paid for themselves. I always have cold hands, so I carry them with me everywhere. And they are SO soft.

And, the project I am working on now:

I am on the 7th repeat of the first half, and I love this pattern. I also love the way the leaves pop up (heh, I almost typed "poop"). I keep showing my husband this phenomenon, but he is less than impressed.

Today, I wrap gifts, clean up the house a bit, go to the tattoo/piercing shop to get retainers for my body piercings (so I don't get felt up by airport security), and possibly go to a holiday party tonight.

I'll be in Victoria, BC from the 27th through the 31st, so you probably won't see any posts for at least a week (but really, is that so unusual?) So, I hope y'all have a smashing holiday, and that you get everything you wished for :) See you next year!

Thoughts on Yule and Knitting Content

2005-12-14T09:57:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up and still going to church, Christmas was my favorite time of year. I loved the presents. I loved working at the Christmas Tree Lot at my church. I loved taking pictures with Santa. I loved singing carols in choir and going to the Christmas Eve service. I loved playing handbells for the same service. And I loved hunting for and decorating the Christmas tree for the living room. Church was such a huge part of my life until college that most of my memories surround church.

Ever since my spiritual path veered away from Christianity, the holidays have been difficult. I can still celebrate parts of Christmas that are really more "Yuletide" oriented - the food, the decorations. But there is a part of me that misses all the other stuff that went along with the Advent season at church. Strangely enough, these other things weren't overtly "Christian". I would feel like a hypocrite singing carols, however. I believe that Jesus was a real person and had a good message, but Son of God? I don't believe that anymore. And I believe that a lot of people have twisted his words to inspire hate and war, and I can't be a part of an organization that promotes that. Jesus was a cool dude, but Paul was full of shit.

So what am I babbling about? I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how I feel about this time of year. I'd like to start a new tradition of having a holiday gathering, with lots of food, cookies, wassail, and spending time with our friends. That, to me, would be the best gift. I never understood the idea of posting your list, and then getting everything you ask for. Although my mom was good at being creative, and still has the knack of finding the perfect gift (J has experienced this firsthand every Christmas). I just don't like the materialism, and the stress of trying to find that perfect gift that the recipient may not even want (this has happened to me more than once).

I am still trying to figure out what this holiday means to me. It has changed so much over the years. And this is the first year that I've had time to sit and think on it. This is what I've come up with so far:
- celebrating the cooler weather and the change of the seasons. Or at least pretending if you live in CA like me.
- spending time with family and friends
- reflecting on the past year for inspiration and lessons learned, and looking to the year ahead. Face it, the only reflecting happening on New Year's is your face in the toilet bowl. Or maybe that's just me.

Ooookaaay. On to some knitting content!

Being the knitting slut that I am, I have once again started new projects, casting the old ones to the side like so much garbage. I do have a couple of FO's (which is where using your imagination is going to come into play, since I have no pictures yet). I finished the Bobbi Bear for my sister. I used the Blue Sky Bulky Alpaca in Polar, and some black Cashmerino Aran for the eyes and nose. Since this bear is for a 40 year old, I am not worried about it getting dirty. However, my gauge must have been a little off. The pattern calls for 6 skeins of yarn, and I only used 4! So, I broke out my size 35 turkey basters, cast on 8 stitches, and knitted myself a big garter stitch scarf with fringe. I'd estimate it at 55-60 inches in length. The Blue Sky Alpaca is so poofy that it made a pretty solid fabric. It sheds like crazy, but I love this scarf.

We had a work party on Saturday, to put together walls for our SCA encampment. One of the couples brought their baby, were watching me knit the bear, and expressed great interest in said bear. So, of course I had to get a few skeins of Cashmerino Superchunky to make a machine washable version of the bear. In rose, because this baby is crazy about pink. Note to anybody wanting to knit the Bobbi Bear in this yarn - you will need to double the yarn. The pattern calls for more of a polar weight yarn, so just something to keep in mind. It is turning out splendidly, but I ran out of yarn after doing the ears, and I just have the arms left, so I will need to grab a couple more skeins to finish. I think they (and the baby) will really enjoy it.

And, um, I'm also working on the Backyard Leaves scarf in Cashmerino Aran. I have fallen under the spell of this yarn. I had to pry a skein of the Superchunky out of my husband's hands. He normally doesn't care much about yarn in general, but he sure loved how soft it was. And the shine! Gorgeous stuff.

I also feel the need to bare my soul and list those projects that I have cast aside. Read 'em and weep:

- Irish Diamond Shawl - is reclining gracefully in my knitting bag. There are no problems with it, I just need to get the gumption to pick it up again.

- Socks for my friend, Mary - need to be frogged. I tried them on, and I could barely get them around my ankle. Seeing that Mary has larger ankles than I, I will need to increase the needle size. Luckily, this pattern is easy, so I forsee no problems in re-knitting these socks.

- Turtleneck Shrug - Yawn. So boring. And itchy in the Kid Classic! Maybe I should make it in the Cashmerino, and my obsession would be complete.

- Scoop du Jour - will be frogged. I can't imagine what I will use this yarn for (Wool Ease). I'm spoiled, it seems so rough to my fingers now. I don't think I would ever wear it.

- Vintage Scarf - will be frogged. I messed up the cabling at some point, and I wouldn't be able to find my place in the pattern again, anyway. I am fascinated with the yarn, (Touch Me) though when I start it again I won't knit with the bamboo needles. Major stickage occurred.

- Mariah - how can I forget dear Mariah? I tried to be a smarty-pants, and knit a second sleeve up to the same point as the first, so I could do both at the same time. Unfortunately, I picked up my size 6 needles instead of the 7s, so the gauge is off by quite a lot. I need to frog the second sleeve portion and start it over.

My stash has grown ~~to biblical proportions~~ by leaps and bounds, so I really need to figure out what projects to do with the yarn I already have.

Thanks Secret Pal!

2005-12-04T13:24:00.000-08:00

It took me a week, but I finally took pics of the box that I got from my Secret Pal!

As you can see, I got all sorts of goodies. And there's another box on the way! Yay! And yes, I did thank my Pal by email this week.

This secret pal stuff has been fun, but sometimes life makes it hard to keep up. Because of my jury service, I got really behind on sending stuff out. I hope that my last box I'm sending out will make up for all of that. Because of the unpredictability of things around here lately, I'll sit the next SP out.

I also have a couple of pictures that I owe to this blog. First up, here's the first sleeve on my Mariah:

I'm very proud of that knotwork!

And here is the first sock of the pair for my friend:

I really like the colors, and I hope she does too.

Lastly, here is a pic of my Bobbi Bear in progress:

I've done the body, the butt, and am working on the first leg.

I've gotta go, but I will update with more pics around the house this week. I leave you with our fall colors from the grapevines in the backyard.

Craftiness

2005-11-30T15:32:00.000-08:00

My mind is racing with all the decorating possibilities of our home. So I've consulted a few sites, like Gothic Martha Stewart, for some design ideas.

Now, before you get your panties in a bunch, I am not going to paint bats on the ceiling or drape lace over the lampshades (unless *cough* J requests that sort of thing). But I've come up with a couple of good ideas:

- Decoupaging our lampshades with rose petals. I think that will be a pretty way to display our garden's wares in a more permanent way. I could also press some lavendar or something for the kitchen lamp, mix it up a little. I'm tired of our plain white shades!

- Using our little white bookshelf-thingies in the garage as a side table next to the large bookcase in the living room. I could paint it black, drape a pretty scarf over it, and put one of our directional desklamps in that corner so I can see my knitting/reading/whateverprojectI'mworkingon at night, without disturbing J in his corner of the room.

I'm also thinking about colors to paint the walls. We know that we want to do some sort of sage/burgundy thing downstairs. J wants deep red for his office. I think I want a greyish violet for the craft room. I'm undecided on the bedroom or the bathroom. And I kinda like the kitchen the way it is. Maybe I'll just drape some fabric over the window over the sink and call it a day.

Ennui

2005-11-29T13:50:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful weekend visiting George. Only one of us in the group got sick (no, not J or I), and there was much wine tasting, laughter, and poker playing. I just wish we could have stayed longer! The vineyards are so beautiful this time of year. And yes, we brought home enough bottles to fill those spaces that have been nagging us recently. We also joined another wine club for Koehler Winery. Gotta have a little variety, right?

Thanksgiving was nice and quiet, and the food was good as usual. Because of our trip, I wasn't able to fix my own turkey last weekend, so I'm doing it this weekend. This is the last Saturday that I have free until the end of the year. The 10th is the 3DC work party, the 17th is the Victorian Dinner, and the 24th...you know. I'm looking forward to the turkey pot pies and the turkey stock that will result from my labors on Saturday.

I need to start with the holiday shopping. I got some decent suggestions from my dad for his Xmas list. My mom will be a little more difficult, but I will come up with something. I already have something I'm making for my sister. When asked, J's parents gave a resounding "I dunno" to the question of what they wanted, so we will be flying by the seat of our pants once again. And don't even get me started on his sister... Yeah, I'd said that we were going to have a talk with the families about not exchanging gifts this year, but it was too late by the time we made that decision. So we'll suck it up this year and have that discussion with them at the appropriate time (on, oh, Christmas Eve or something ).

In preparation for the work party on the 10th, J and I are going into a cleaning frenzy. More accurately, one hour of frenzy each evening before collapsing on the couch to watch our DVR-ed shows. We need to clean up the guest room and the office, bag up our clothes for the Salvation Army to pick up on the 8th, and generally spit-shine everything so it doesn't look like we're complete pigs. Since there will be two people (at least) spending the night, I suspect we will have to move the litter boxes into our bathroom and make the "hall" bathtub presentable upstairs. Man, I hate cleaning. At least we have a decent vacuum now.

We are also trying to decorate and make it look like somebody actually lives in our house. We've already been here for almost two years, and have done nothing to the decor. For starters, I bought some curtains and valances from Target. They are cotton velvet, and the valances have beads. We put them up last night, and they look fancy. I love it! Maybe one of these days we will get around to re-upholstering our dining room chairs. And painting. At least we have pictures on the walls. And we need to find a good place to display the Dickens Village collection. Hi, I'm 80 years old! If I had a front porch, I'd be out there shaking my walking stick at all those damned kids. If I wasn't knitting something.

Speaking of knitting, I am in an ennui. Good thing I only have one project to finish before the holidays - Bobbi Bear for my sister. Which means I should probably get started on it again, eh?

But I digress. I must retaliate for the Paul McCartney Xmas music from the other office with some Manheim Steamroller. Back to work...

Introducing...The Great Pumpkin!

2005-11-23T12:44:00.000-08:00

(Morrigan is all "Village of the Damned" in that first pic)

Okay, so the pictures aren't nearly as bad as I feared they would be. Now don't get me wrong - I think Stephanie is a brilliant designer and I love how this sweater came together. But I don't think bulky yarn is right for my body type :( Which is a bummer, but the sooner I come to terms with it, the better.

Oh and didja notice I'm doing the Rachael?

Now I am back working on the Mariah sweater. I think that I will start the other sleeve, get to the same point that I am on the first sleeve (row 31), then work on them together so I can really crank them out. I really love doing the cabling, and I am at the point in the pattern where I only need to glance at the chart from time to time to make sure I am on the right row for the increases. The design is really intuitive.

I hope everybody has a Happy Thanksgiving, and eats lots of good food this weekend!

Nice weekend

2005-11-21T10:01:00.000-08:00

I had a very nice weekend. Friday we did nothing for once, which was great. Saturday, our friends Meg and Craig came to visit from Fallbrook. We went out for sushi at Wasabi and drank way too much beer and sake. Yum! It's been far too long since we've had sushi, and I forget how good and inexpensive that place is. And it was really nice to spend some quality time with Meg and Craig. With 5 kids, they don't get a lot of quality adult time, so this was good for them.

Sunday, we got up early and went to breakfast at Johnny Reb's with John and Mary. We sat out on the patio and probably pissed off a number of people with our obnoxiousness. It is trouble when we get together - our "inside voices" tend to find their way outside. Tact just goes flying out the window. I had a lovely meal of chicken fried steak, scrambled eggs, biscuit, and cheese grits. They had to roll me back out to the car. But we did manage to make it back home in one piece. We then started the laundry, and I went grocery shopping. By that time, our friends Randy and Ginger had arrived. Randy and J went to work patterning some slops for J's Border Reiver outfit, while Ginger read and I knitted on my cardigan. We then went to dinner at Cosmo's, where I had some of their yummy Gnocchi. I love how I was able to hit all my favorite restaurants this weekend :)

And yes, I did finish the cardigan. Lemme tell ya, bulky yarn and big boobs do not mix :( It turned out great, but it makes me look HUGE. For the sake of this blog, I will post pictures so you can witness me looking like the Great Pumpkin. I had to make one change - Lion Brand Thick and Quick doesn't block worth a damn, so the button bands were rolling like crazy. I put the buttons on, and it didn't help. So, I grafted the button band with the button holes to the other side of the cardigan, so I would wear it like a pullover, but it has a faux button band going down the front. It turned out very nice. Maybe if I have a friend that has no boobs, I can gift it to her. But this is the last time I am making a sweater out of big yarn. I have learned my lesson.

I'll take some more pictures later of my other two projects - the sock and the Mariah sleeve. I'm into the foot of the sock and about 5 inches into the sleeve. Both look pretty spectacular. I should have those pics up this week, but don't hold me to it.

So, I have all of this heathered green Wool Ease yarn. I've tried making two sweaters out of it, but get bored to death with each pattern I try. I think I'll try a third pattern - Klaralund. I love the shape of the sweater, it only has 4 pieces, and the stitch patterns change enough that it should keep my interest. Plus, this sweater wouldn't make me look like the Goodyear Blimp. I don't like the feel of this yarn very much, but I don't want to just toss it. And I think the drape would be just right for this pattern.

So, to totally change the subject. J brought this up yesterday - after two years, we haven't really settled in to our house. The craft room and office still have boxes and aren't organized. Same with the garage. So, since we are having a big work party on December 10th where people will be spending the night, we need to clean up some of this stuff. We are also going to decorate a little more. Target has these velvet curtains and valances on sale for $24.99 and $14.99, respectively. These would not only look kickass in our living/dining area, but would help to keep the heat out in the summer. Plus we will need to decide if we are painting and which rooms get painted. We are so used to moving every two years, it's weird to think we will be here longer than that.

The rest of this week should be pretty nice. I only work three days this week. Thursday is Thanksgiving at my Mom's house, with both sides of the family. Friday, J is having some sort of work party at our house, so I'm hoping to get some more knitting in. And Saturday and Sunday we are visiting George in Santa Maria. I'm looking forward to that little vacation!

Insert Title Here

2005-11-19T06:36:00.000-08:00

I think we had originally planned this to be a lazy weekend, but things never quite worked out that way. Now we have plans for tonight and the whole day tomorrow. I shouldn't bitch too much - I like spending time with my friends. I just like having time to myself, too.

I finished the scarf about two weeks ago. Just got around to taking pictures of it Thursday night. Here 'tis:

I love the length and the colors. I'm not sure when I'll wear it, though. Probably when we go to Victoria BC in December. Surely the weather will be cold enough up there! We don't get real weather here in SoCal.

I haven't written here in a while because, frankly, I'd been too lazy to take pictures. I should just write, and not worry about it. I'm absent too long, and people stop checking here for updates. And I do love my comments when I get them :)

So, things have slowed down around here since October, which is a blessing. J and I will celebrate Thanksgiving next week with our parents, then go up to Santa Maria on Saturday to visit our friend George and go wine tasting. Specifically, to Andrew Murray. They are having a big open house and BBQ to celebrate their harvest. Yum, yum, yum. I can't wait!

I have been knitting all this time. I, uh, dropped everything I had been working on when the kit for Glampyre's Bulky Cabled Cardigan came in, in Pumpkin. ADD knitter, anyone? I am such a slut when it comes to my knitting projects. I love the pattern, and so far it seems like it will fit. I've finished the body, one sleeve and half of the other sleeve. I just have the button bands and seaming of the sleeves to go, and I will be done. One problem - the kit provides 6 skeins of yarn, which is supposed to cover up to the XL size. I made the Large, because I wanted a close-fitting cardi. But I still had to go last night and get more yarn. My second sleeve was going to eat up the last ball. I don't think my gauge is out of whack, but who knows. I just hope that it looks okay on me - I don't want to end up a giant orange Michelin-woman in this thing. If it works out, I wouldn't mind making another one. It's a very clever and (hopefully) flattering design. I'll just know to get 7 balls of yarn next time :)

And I will pick up my other two projects that I had cast aside - my Mariah and my socks. The Mariah sleeve is coming along beautifully. It's so hard to work on at night, being a charcoal yarn. I really need a light in the corner where I sit in the living room.

So, I'll try to write here on a more regular basis. Just so you know there's more in my life than just knitting.

Baaaaaa...

2005-11-16T09:10:00.000-08:00

Because if everybody else jumps off a cliff, apparently so will I...

If I have any readers left, add yourself. I wanna see your bright, shiny faces on my map!

Everybody else is doing it...

2005-11-04T08:30:00.000-08:00

The meme everybody's been talking about!

What is your all time favorite yarn to knit with?

Well, "all-time" is relative, seeing as I just started knitting a little less than a year ago. I'd have to say Koigu, with Noro Silk Garden coming a close second. Both produce such a soft fabric.

Your favorite needles?

Depends on the project. For socks, I love the Addi Turbo 40" (I use the Magic Loop method). For heavier projects I love my Denise interchangeables. And I love my bamboo 14" straight needles for projects when there is little chance of me putting somebody's eye out.

What is the worst thing you've ever knit?

Unfortunately, I think it's the green sweater. I like the pattern and the sweater itself, but it turned out so heavy and HOT in the Wool-Ease Thick and Quick. I may do it again, but with the yarn the pattern calls for. I doubt that I will ever have the opportunity to wear it. We'll see, though - the weather hasn't really gotten cold yet.

Your most favorite knit pattern? (Maybe you don't like wearing it...but it was the most fun to knit.)

I can't pick just one. In terms of socks, I really enjoyed the Friday Harbor pattern (once I figured it out), and the Feather and Fan Socks from Socks Socks Socks has been really easy to memorize, and looks so pretty. I also really enjoyed the My So Called Scarf pattern. The stitch pattern itself makes a very interesting and beautiful fabric, especially with variegated yarns like Manos. And I'm really getting a kick out of the Mariah pattern. The knotwork is a lot of fun to knit!

Most valuable knitting technique?

Hmmm - I'd have to say the magic loop for socks. It's so easy and not as cumbersome as dpn's for me.

Best book or magazine?

Knitting on the Road is one of the best sock books out there.

No magazines have really stood out as my favorite. I really like Knitty - they have some of the best and most creative stuff out there.

Your favorite knitblogs?

There are so many - I have about 80 that I hit regularly. My personal favorites are Laurie, Stephanie, Jodi, JenLa, two Wendys, Stitchy, Margene, and Rachael.

Your favorite knitwear designer?

For socks, Nancy Bush. For other clothing, Teva Durham.

The knit item you wear the most? (How about a picture of it!)

All my socks, of course! And I wore my Clapotis a lot at War. It hasn't been cold enough yet to wear much else.

My court case ended last Friday. If you are interested, here are a couple of articles about the case. At least I can say it wasn't boring! I'm glad that it's over. It was really stressful being out of the office for so long, like I was split in two.

I finished my scarf, and will have pictures up this weekend. Currently, I am working on one of the sleeves for Mariah, and I'm to the foot of the first Feather and Fan sock for my friend, Mary. I tweaked the pattern a bit - I left out the garter stitch border between the leg and foot, did an eye of partridge heel, and used Grumperina's method of picking up stitches for the gusset, which turned out so nice looking, and no gaps! Pictures will be coming of these as well.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention - I got a most excellent package yesterday! I won a prize from the Give A Little drawing. 9 skeins of Rowan Magpie in dark blue! It is just gorgeous. I'm not normally much of a blue person, but this yarn has flecks of burgundy and sage green. This will be perfect for Rogue. I can't wait to get started on it now!

Back to work...

Fallen off the edge of the world

2005-10-18T08:16:00.000-07:00

So sorry I haven't posted in forever. The past few weeks have been crayzee. I survived War (SCA-style), and you can read about my exploits here.

I've also been on a jury. Whee! Yes, I got picked as an alternate for the damned jury. So, between that and work and War, I've been a busy bee. I am hoping that the trial will be over with at the end of this week, but who knows. We should find out more today about the court's schedule. I'll admit, it has been a very interesting case - murder is never boring. I'll share the gory details once the case is over.

In knitting news, I am still picking at the shawl, but it is nowhere near finished. So, I picked this up again:

It pretty much looks the same, but MUCH longer. I have exhausted one skein and started on the second. This will be the longest scarf I've ever owned, and it will be lovely. At the rate I'm going, I will have it finished this weekend. I hope it stays cold outside so I can actually wear it!

Oh, and Secret Pal? I have made good use of that Knit Pixie gift certificate. I purchased enough of the charcoal Bartlett Fisherman yarn to make Mariah, and some size 17 dpns for my Bobbi Bear. Thank you for enabling me! Not that I need help, but I do appreciate any and all assistance that I receive ;)

One upcoming project that I am looking forward to is making some of these. I will make some for my dear friend Karen, who currently only has one boobie. I'm awfully tempted to give hers a pierced nipple - fun!

Sooner than I expected

2005-09-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of my Friday Harbor Sock:

I am SO happy with how this sock turned out. I was able to start the toe decreases right after I finished the last lace repeat, which is easy for me to remember for the future. The toe looks very strange in the second pic, but as you can see in the first, the sock fits perfectly :)

I had an adventurous dinner this evening. I made some mac and cheese, but using bechamel sauce and fontina cheese with nutmeg. Yum! That wasn't the adventurous part, though. That came when I cooked up the first batch of pasta. There were bugs INSIDE the pasta itself. Yuck! So I had to cook up a whole new batch, which took freakin' forever. It was so worth it, though.

Anywho, hopefully I will have a complete pair of socks for the weekend.

Jury Duty and War

2005-09-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

I am cross-posting the next paragraph from my other journal (I'm lazy like that):

So, I had Jury Duty on September 21st. The good news is that I got out at about 11-ish, and had a very nice half day off from work. The bad news is that I have to go back on October 3rd for the actual jury selection. For a murder trial. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand, the true crime geek in me is kind of excited and thinks it will be an interesting experience. On the other hand, I would be deciding somebody's future. Of course, I may not even get picked, so I don't have to worry quite yet. I do know that it isn't a capital case, and the jury wouldn't be sequestered, so that's good news at least. But it is expected to last the whole month of October. On the good news side, I would still get to go do my SCA War thingie the 7-10th, since I would still have those days off from the courthouse. Oy, I just hate not knowing.

Worse yet, knitting needles and crochet hooks are not allowed at the courthouse! *pouts*

I am cleaning up stuff at work and getting all caught up this week so I can be gone without the world coming to an end.

On to knitting content. I was seduced by a pattern, and cast my shawl aside temporarily. I am working on the Friday Harbor socks from Knitting on the Road. In Mountain Colors Weavers Wool. In the same damned color as Margene's socks. Look at the July 13th entry. I just fell in love with the colors for no apparent reason. My fascination with pink and other pastels this year disturbs me a little, but I'm just gonna go with it. People, I finished the first sock in 3 DAYS. This may not seem like that big of a deal to some of you, but I have amazed myself. Crazy! I am through the cuff and past the first repeat on the other sock already. I just love the pattern - I haven't been bored once since starting these socks! I will have pictures up this weekend of the finished pair.

I have to admit, the shawl is a tad bit excruciating for me. Thanks to the increases it takes me that much longer to get through each row, and I don't know how much longer I can take it. I have no patience! I am definitely not a process knitter (although I am enjoying the Friday Harbor pattern a lot, and can see myself making more socks in this pattern). I think I am bored with the shawl pattern too - it is very simple and repetitive. If I can get through the last 4 repeats, it might get a bit more exciting for me. But I doubt seriously at this point if I can finish this before War.

Speaking of which, J and I need to start getting our shit together for War this weekend. As usual, I have procrastinated on getting my garb repaired and ready, so I will be at the sewing machine for a portion of Saturday and Sunday. We need to wash our garb that we will be taking with us, make a trip to Costco to stock up on soda, water and Red Bull ('cause there MIGHT be drinking. MAYBE.), and start making a staging area in the garage/house of all the crap we need to pack for the trip (canvas tent, air mattress, candles, lanterns, etc.). I'm looking forward to the trip, but I hate the organizing/packing part.

Oh my god, she actually took some freakin' pictures!

2005-09-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's true, it's true! I'm not messin' with ya this time.

So, here is the progress on my Irish Diamond Shawl thus far:

This picture highlights a single panel. No the diamonds aren't THAT fucked up - they just need some serious blocking to show all the detail. I have to say, this is a very well written pattern. The first motif has been very easy to memorize, and I haven't had to refer back to the chart since the first diamond row. I'm up to 10 diamonds in each section, and this part of the pattern ends with 15 diamonds in each section. Then it's off to the eyelet dividing section and the second pattern, which I believe has 2 repeats. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I'll be able to finish this in the next 3 weeks. But I'm not giving up yet :)

I also started on the Turtleneck Shrug from Scarf Style, but that is on hiatus until I finish this shawl. I'll provide pictures later, when I make some actual progress on it. I'm knitting it in Kid Classic, in a very tomato-ey red color.

And I finished my fall socks. Here they are!

You will just have to take my word for it that both socks are done :) I've already washed them once, and the Cherry Tree Hill does really well! I even threw them in the dryer, and they turned out fine. I will probably lay any future socks flat to dry, though. They retained their color very well, and they are SO soft.

I also have a new member of the family:

Heh - you probably thought it was another cat, didn't you?

I dearly love my iPod! It is a 40 gig refurbished model, and I already have exactly 2,900 songs on it. My husband already has an iPod and the iTunes library set up with all of our CD's ripped to it, so it wasn't too difficult to update my iPod with the songs. The way our computer is set up, J and I can separately log in to the computer, so it is like we are on a network and each have our own systems that can access the "shared drive". We each have our own Preferences set up, so I can select/deselect songs in iTunes to my hearts desire, without affecting the main listing of music. In a fit of insomnia on Friday night, I was up until 3:30am going through the list and selecting the songs I wanted, and deselecting the ones I didn't. J has about 7,600 songs, so I opted out of over half of them. All of the rap except for Beastie Boys, most of the metal, Rush, Prince, and assorted others went buh-bye from my list.

Now, I know many people name their electronic devices. I'm not normally one of them, but any suggestions are welcome :)

And the case? From "Fashion Fights Breast Cancer". All net proceeds go towards breast cancer research. A good cause, and a gorgeous case to boot!

On a totally different topic, the husband and I are going on an actual real vacation. We are travelling up to Victoria, BC the week between Christmas and New Years. I'm so excited! I have never been outside of the US, so this should be interesting. We went to the post office yesterday to apply for Passports, so I hope we get those soon so we don't have to worry about them. We are staying at Brentwood Bay Lodge and Spa, which is a fancy-schmancy hotel with beautiful rooms, a full spa, 5 star restaurant, a brew pub and a wine bar! We may never leave! We do intend to hit the wine country on Vancouver Island, and to go to Butchart Gardens, which is only 2 km from the hotel.

Anybody out there been to BC or surrounding environs? Any advice for stuff to do that time of year?

Anyway, I should get back to the knitting. I have to call in for Jury Duty this week. I really hope I don't have to go in - they will confiscate AND DESTROY knitting needles brought to the court house. Heathens!

Long Time, No Post

2005-09-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

So sorry for the lack of material lately. There has been lots of BBQ-ing at Chez O'Donnell recently, so I have been recovering this week from all of the excitement. I am very glad that we only have plans on Saturday. I plan to do some major resting.

No pics, either. I know, pathetic. I haven't felt the need to photograph much. Perhaps that will change this weekend.

I finished my Cherry Tree Hill socks, and I am wearing them today. They are so comfy! However, I am getting major fuzz on the backs of my heels. Is this normal for this yarn? Just curious...I still love these socks, and I am overjoyed that they are machine washable!

I'm also still working on the Irish Diamond Shawl. I made a couple of stupid mistakes early on, but now I am moving right along with the pattern. I'm on the 7 diamond row - I will eventually build up to 15 diamonds in each section, so I have a ways to go. I have neglected it this week, because it's been so warm at night. The yarn is shetland, so it is a bit rough, but I have a feeling it will wash up nice and warm.

So, how about the new Knitty? Definitely an improvement on the last one. I instantly fell in love with Josephine. I am turning into what my friend Terri would call an "ADD knitter". I should make a button :) I love projects that I am able to turn out in a short amount of time. Socks are easy and quick, and sweaters with big yarn would fit the bill, too. Hence the appeal of Josephine. In fact, I will be using the Cashmerino Superchunky for this pattern, since I can't seem to find the yarn called for anywhere on the Internets. Any suggestions on color? I am torn between the very light pink, or burnt orange. Or maybe the purple? I don't want black - I have enough of that already. I think I'll be leaving the belt out of the pattern, too. They make me look thick around the middle, which I don't need any help with! I won't be starting on it until after mid-October anyway, so I have some time to figure it out.

We had our first successful Knit Night this last Sunday. Me, Terri, and Jan sat around and got to know each other. We had a really good time! I hope more people find us and get involved. One of the salespeople at Borders was VERY excited that we were knitting and planning on meeting there. I have never received a reception quite like that before! I'm used to being laughed at or looked at funny when I knit in public. Not that I really care - fuck 'em if they don't like it.

In non-yarn news, I am thinking about getting myself an iPod. I am really tired of the radio, and my CD changer in the car sucks. It would be nice to be able to carry my entire music library with me wherever I go. J already has an older 40 Gb iPod, so he would probably get the 60 Gb model, and I would inherit the old one. We'll see - I'm still pondering :)

I'm also doing some preparation for the upcoming War (that would be SCA, not Iraq). I was going to sew up a couple of chemises, but realized that I am really lazy and not at all good at the sewing machine, so I broke down and bought two full chemises to go under my Italian and Irish dresses, and a simple chemise to go under my gowns. Unfortunately, it looks like I will need to put in some time at the sewing machine after all. The simple chemise is HUGE - I will need to take it in by 2-3 inches on each side, all along both underarms and all the way down the sides. The other two were clearly made for somebody who stands 5'10", so I will need to take these up about 3 inches as well. Not a big deal, but still kind of a pain.

I think I'm all caught up now :) I'll make a sincere effort to get some pictures out there this weekend.

Give a Little

2005-09-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Better yet, give a lot! See that button off to the right? Click and see how you can help those in the Gulf Coast. Thanks to Margene and Susan for organizing this.

My Secret Pal has revealed herself as Lisa! Thank you for all the cool stuff! I am so looking forward to the next Secret Pal, it's been such a fun experience. I love getting presents from complete strangers in the mail, I've discovered. As long as it's not anthrax or severed ears. Just thought I'd make that clear.

No pictures quite yet - maybe I'll feel like taking some later this weekend. I'm working on the Irish Diamond Shawl. I'm only about 4 repeats into the first pattern, but it does seem to be coming together nicely. I hope I can finish it by October! I'm also working on my second sock in Cherry Tree Hill Indian Summer. This yarn is soooo nice to work with. I frogged my Traveller's Sock - it was coming out a bit too big, and I just wasn't feeling it. I'll try it again in the future.

We made a big purchase. We bought a grill! Oh, it's so purty! J bought it on Thursday night, and had it all put together, hooked up and working by 9:30. We're having a BBQ at the house on Monday, so I'm glad we have it! Not that we didn't have our difficulties purchasing the thing. Don't go to Lowe's in RSM for any big purchases. They sold us the grill, only to realize that they'd really only had one left, and promised it to another couple. So they sold it right out from under us! They called the store in San Clemente to put another on hold for us, refunded the money for the grill, and refunded about half of what we spent on accessories on a gift card. After spending 2 goddamned hours in the store! Shitty customer service! Luckily, when J went to San Clemente the next night, he had better luck. The manager was really helpful and was shocked at what an idiot the other manager was. J was seriously out of there in 20 minutes! Lesson learned - we'll go to our Home Depot for this stuff from now on.

I need to go clean the kitchen. Look out for some pics later this weekend :)

South OC Knitters

2005-08-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

Attention all knitters who live in South Orange County! (Yes, I realize that only 2 people read this blog. Humor me, ok?)

Our knitting group wants YOU! Any new people that reside in South OC (Rancho Santa Margarita-ish area) or who dare to drive all the way down here are welcome to join our group! We meet every other week at the following location:

Borders
22372 El Paseo
Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 MAP

I have put a link on the right side to our Yahoo group.

Don't be shy, people - we are not scary! There are four of us so far, so this group could get MUCH bigger.

Another half-assed post

2005-08-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

No pictures this time, either. I know, I'm a bad blogger. I'm just too tired to care this morning. Mondays suck.

Anywho, an expected influx of cash this weekend enabled me to engage in some S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement Experience). I made my first trip to Velona's in Anaheim Hills. I made my poor husband stop on the way back from helping our friend to move. Wisely, he remained in the car with the air conditioning. Wow, this store has everything! It is packed to the rafters with every yarn you could ever want. Except for Koigu, maybe, but then again I may just not have come across it. The salespeople are extraordinarily helpful, and if you ask for a particular yarn, they can tell you exactly where it is. So, I got some Kid Classic in this color, some Kidsilk Haze in this color, Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Indian Summer and Northern Lights, and a book for my secret pal. I got lots of other stuff this weekend for my secret pal, too, but I don't want to give anything away, in case she knows about this blog. I feel bad for not sending anything in the past month, so I am hoping this big box o' stuff will more than satisfy her :) In online S.E.X. news, I ordered my yarn for the Irish Diamond Shawl, and some more sock yarn - Cherry Tree Hill in Fall Foliage and Gypsy Rose, and Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters in Canyon and Crazy Woman. See, still expanding my color horizons :)

I'm still working on my sock, and the pattern is now coming along swimmingly. Yay! I have about one more repeat to go before I move on to the plain section. Of course, I had to cast on for another sock in the Indian Summer. I'm just doing a simple sock, making it up as I go using design elements that I like. I started it on Saturday, and I'm already down to the heel. I'm not normally someone that likes brown, but the purples, golds and oranges offset it enough in this colorway to really speak to me. I figure I'll work on this sock at work, and the more complicated one at home. Then when I get the yarn for the shawl, I'm dropping everything to work on it, so I can attempt to finish it by war. We'll see how that goes!

Ugh - I just discovered that somebody is spamming my comments. I'll delete those comments ASAP. What a frickin' pain...

A Dip in the Frog Pond

2005-08-17T16:31:00.000-07:00

Yep, I unravelled that sock I was working on. The pattern just isn't the right gauge with the Koigu. So, I'm doing Traveller Socks instead. I am quickly finding out that I am retarded with the way that I interpret stitching directions. The directions for a left leaning stitch are as such: knit tbl of the second stitch, knit the first stitch, slip both stitches off the needle. So, I knit tbl on the second stitch by sticking my needle between the two stitches and then knitting tbl. People, that is the wrong way to do it. Of course, you probably already know this. I finally figured out how to do the stitch the right way, but only after having finished one full repeat of the pattern. So, now I need to decide if I want to rip the sock up to the first 3 rows and start over. Sigh... I probably will. I'm getting really darned good at ripping stuff! I'm the Frog Princess! My husband just giggles at my frustration and retardation. I think he is starting to believe that this is more than just a phase, especially with all of the projects I have finished. I am lusting after the Socks Socks Socks book, and some more sock yarn. You can never have too much, right?

Last weekend was mildly busy. On Saturday we went to Del Mar Racetrack to watch the horsies and to see Cake perform on the infield. Good times were had by all, despite the fact that the lead singer was being kind of a whiny baby. At least the music was decent. He really likes his little noisemaker-thingie, though, the one you hear in the song "Never There". The one that sounds like a snake rattle? He played that during EVERY song. I think he was just being difficult.

On Sunday, we took J's sister out for her birthday. Nobody burst into flames, so it was a good night. You never know with her. She did keep repeating everything she said about 5 times, which got really annoying. Total Rainman, and not in the way that she is actually autistic.

This weekend we are helping a friend to move, J is finishing his tattoo, and we're having friends over on Sunday. And since we are getting our money this week, I am looking forward to a shopping spree of sorts, consisting of some new clothes that fit, and underwear that does the same. We already ordered our Dyson. Oh Dyson, how I love you. I look forward to ridding my home of all cat hair and yarn fuzzies. The stairs look particularly scary right now. Our current vacuum just moves everything around.

Ok, I'm about to head home and deal with the sock. Ribbit, ribbit...

Interesting Article and Randomness

2005-08-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

It seems like forever since I've posted anything here, even though I know it was only last weekend. It's been a LONG week.

This is a cool article about blogging in general, and mentions knitting blogs in particular. Who knew this would be so huge?

We signed our lives away this week on a refinance, so we could pay off our vehicles and a couple other accounts. This will save us about $500 a month, and put some extra cash in our pockets. For yarn, maybe? (Yes J, I know. Shut up.)

Now that we won't be so poor, I am thinking about the holidays. I've said before that I don't like the idea of Christmas being so commercial, and feeling obligated to give presents to people. At the same time, I love being able to give people gifts that I've put thought and time into. We were going to tell our families not to do the big Christmas thing for us, because we wouldn't be buying gifts for anybody. I'd still like to make stuff for people, though. I'll have to think on this and see how I can get this to work in my favor.

This can also be tricky for my family - what could I make for them that they would appreciate? We don't live in a terribly cold climate, so scarves and mittens are out. My sister loves teddy bears, so that would be easy. Maybe an afghan for Mom. And felted clogs for Dad. Oh, er, I guess that wasn't too hard after all :) Sometimes I just need to talk things out to come up with good ideas.

I've already gotten a request for socks from one of my friends. They are so easy to make. I can crank out a pair in 2-3 weeks, which is a lot quicker than what I was expecting! Currently I am working on the Friday Harbor socks from Knitting on the Road. The pattern is a little trippy, but after frogging once I got into the groove and they are sailing along. I am doing these on DPNs, and they are working out pretty well (pictures coming soon). I am using the leftover 2 balls of Koigu from the baby blanket that I made. I thought the lighter color would show off the pattern better. Once our money comes in, I'll hunt for sock yarn for my friend and for my Mom. She deserves a nice pair. Maybe I'll do those instead of the afghan!

Another project I am pondering is the Irish Diamond Shawl from Folk Shawls. I'll make it, but I don't know when I'll wear it outside of the few SCA events that we go to. I'll need to get the yarn for it soon, or else I won't be able to finish it by the beginning of October for Great Western War.

Yes, I Have No Self Control

2005-08-03T19:04:00.000-07:00

Oy, it has taken me so long to post this week. I have no excuse - I was just too lazy to download the pictures I had taken.

Secret Pal, I love you!

I got a pretty card, a vanilla rose bath fizzy, lavendar portable soap flake thingies, a cow measuring tape (moo!), some super-cute black cat bandages (with a free cat head that you can put on your pencil - squee!), and 4 balls of yummy Queensland Kathmandu in a dark purple (I think, I can't even tell looking at it), with flecks of burgundy and green. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I, on the other hand, am a crappy Secret Pal. I will remedy that in another week or two.

So, of course, I had to cast on for something with that yarn immediately:

The other one is on the needles. This is a cool pattern from Nathania. I did the banded version, not the individual fingers. My fingers are so stubby, you'd only see the tips out of the top. This is my first real project with cables, and I am very happy with how they are turning out. The color above is wildly inaccurate - it's kind of a black/purple in real life.

Then, my MIL gave me some unexpected money as an early birthday gift! So, I went to Yarn Lady, and got this stuff:

Mmmmm - Touch Me. No, really, that's the name of the yarn. Don't you just wanna, I don't know, TOUCH IT? I know I do - this stuff is the softest on earth. So, obviously I had to cast on for something with this RIGHT AWAY.

This will become the Velvet Scarf from Scarf Style. Yummy! And my camera actually captured the color pretty accurately on this stuff.

Oh, and I finished my socks. Wanna see?

Now I want it to cool off so I can actually wear them! Koigu is just so soft and nice against my bare feet. But not in 100 degree weather.

Oops, gotta go. My husband is taking me out to dinner for my birthday. Yay!

Frickin' Hot

2005-07-24T13:57:00.000-07:00

And that's all I have to say about that. Hate you, weather.

I have many pictures today. Let's get started, shall we?

First, we have two more washcloths that I finished:

I'm really happy with how the flower turned out. I got cocky on the last two, and fucked up the middle. The middle of the last one turned out perfect. I think the bright ones are going to my friend, Terri. Her walls are lime green and orange, so I think her decor can handle it :) The first picture matches my decor very well - it's wine country-esque.

I also cranked out a couple of squares for a blanket to honor Kerstin's brother. I don't know her, and she doesn't know me, but I feel horrible that she is going through this. So this is to show that a stranger out there cares, and it will go towards a good cause. Check out this page if you also want to contribute a square. Here they are:

The second one is finished now, but my camera ran out of batteries before I could take a picture. It has a "J" in the center.

Aaaaand, I am on the final stretch of my first sock! I'm so proud...

I'm working on the ribbing, and will probably cast on for the second sock this afternoon.

Last night, we went to the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts to see the Pageant of the Masters. J and I have never been, and it was so cool. Some of our favorite contemporary works were featured, and it was neat to see how everything was recreated. It was a really neat way to celebrate our anniversary.

Oops, forgot to mention that - it was on the 13th, but we waited until this weekend to celebrate. 14 years together and 9 years married. Has it really been that long???

Things are quiet around the house today. I turned on the A/C, so I am a happy camper. I hope you all have a cool, quiet place to knit today.

Random Crap

2005-07-22T08:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, still no pictures. I'll put some up this weekend.

This week has been very weird and very hot. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

I was out sick on Wednesday with some fleeting stomach thingie. Luckily, I felt much better by the afternoon, so I was able to go to Colleen's knitting group that night. Oh man, that was so much fun. What a nice group of people! These are all people that Colleen works with. This time, everyone met at Cara's house. She only lives a few blocks away, which makes me happy. There was wine, laughter, and instruction - two of the girls in the group are just learning to knit. In other weirdness, I went to high school with Cara's husband. He showed up towards the end of the night, so we got a chance to catch up. Apparently, he went to my elementary school, too! I don't remember him, but he is 3 years ahead of me, so that doesn't really surprise me. He's just as nice now as he was then.

Cara is coming to Craft Night on Sunday. I will need to tell Dana about Craft Night, since she wants to learn to knit, too.

Thursday, we had a fire drill at work. I work in a 10 story building. I am in the HR department, which resides on the 9th floor. After traipsing down 9 flights of stairs yesterday, my legs are ready to fall off. If there is an actual emergency today, I am screwed. To add insult to injury, I am one of the "Floor Wardens" for the area, which meant that I had to don my bright orange hardhat, vest, bullhorn, flashlight, and employee listing. We are obviously expected to have 5 arms to carry all this crap with us down 9 flights of stairs.

But wait, there's more. It was about 1,000 degrees outside at 10am, and we had one person get heatstroke. Good times! Did I mention I also oversee the Worker's Comp program at my company? Luckily, the paramedics checked him out, and gave him a clean bill of health, so we just sent him home to recover. Next time, we need to have water, instead of donuts in the parking lot on a hot day. Somebody dropped a donut in the parking lot after the drill. When I left work, there was a huge swarm of bees on my way to the car! The excitement just never ends.

Here's a link to my other blog, where I discussed the latest doings in my department.

In more knitting news, I have put aside my Scoop Du Jour again, because it's too damned hot to knit with Wool Ease. So, I picked up my fetal sock to work on. I've made a huge amount of progress on it - I'm using Wendy's Toe-Up pattern, and am now past the heel and sailing along on the leg portion. I did a pretty good job on the heel, but it kinda looks like ass. It fits my foot just right, but it's a little more hole-y than it should be. I will have to explore different heel patterns, to see what I like best in the future. But I'm finally getting why people are so addicted to socks. It's like knitting a sweater in the round - you are creating something three-dimensional on your needles, without any seaming. It's yarn as sculpture! I have lots more sock yarn and a couple extra skeins of Koigu, so these won't be the last socks I knit. I'm also finding that I like the Magic Loop method of knitting socks. I was getting a tiny bit of laddering with my DPN's, plus it was kinda awkward. I am super quick with the Magic Loop. I won't have Second Sock Syndrome with this pair - I am eager to fix the mistakes I made with the first sock.

Sorry if this post was a bit rambling and stream of consciousness. But it's Friday, and I'm too tired to care.

The Sound of Silence

2005-07-18T12:23:00.000-07:00

Ahhh - blessed silence in my office today. The two other people at my end of the hall are out of the office, so things are very peaceful here. One of them has grandchildren, and loves to call them on speakerphone and coo to them all day. In fact, I end up hearing most of her conversations and comments because she is so frickin' loud. I can tune most things out, but it gets irritating after a while. I am glad that I don't have to put up with it today.

This week didn't start out so well. Because of some financial mismanagement on my part, we are a little short until Friday, so there won't be much fun or spending of money at our house for the next few days. But at least the mortgage and other important bills got paid, and this is what counts.

Anyway, enough with that, you want to hear about knitting!

I whipped out another washcloth, and decided to take a break from those for a little bit. Too much of a good thing, and all that. I started up again with my Scoop du Jour, and am making excellent progress. I finished the back and left front, and will cast on for the right front tonight. I was worried about size, until I blocked out the first two pieces last night. I think they will be plenty big enough. This stuff just rolls like crazy!

I'm also pondering some future projects. Because of monetary constraints, I have been thinking about the type of yarn to use for my projects. I did some calculations, and it looks like it will be Wool Ease for me for a while. Maybe use that for the bigger projects (sweaters, etc), and save the expensive yarn for smaller projects. I have a copy of Fisherman Sweaters by Alice Starmore, and have been contemplating Aran sweaters for a while. I'd love to knit something for my husband. I had him look through the book yesterday, and got some ideas for a sweater. He really liked Inishmore and Inishmaan, with the "mock turtleneck" type collar. And I am partial to Kinsale for me. Now to just ponder the colors :)

I will update later with some more pics of the Scoop du Jour, and my finished washcloth.

The washcloths are so bright, I gotta wear shades

2005-07-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah.

Here are the two washcloths that I finished:

Hoowee! See what I mean, with the eyeballs bleeding? And yes, the camera did capture the colors accurately this time. I'm in LOVE with these colors, though. What is wrong with me??? And I'm still knitting more out of different colors, because they are cotton and I have discovered that I love knitting with cotton. It's like crack.

Now I will distract you with some roses from the garden:

And our kitties rolling around in bliss in a patch of sun:

Oh, and the story behind the roses and the grapes. Here is a picture of our side yard. See all that green stuff on the left? Those are the grape vines and the roses. You will notice that there is a bare 2 inches of space between the fence and the low wall. The previous owner, in his infinite wisdom, decided to plant roses and grapes there. By some miracle of nature, they not only took to that small space, but flourished! We have about 2 varieties of grapes, and 3 different rose bushes over there. They are going crazy right now, it's so pretty.

Enjoy the warm weather, wherever you are!

Monday Monday

2005-07-11T15:40:00.000-07:00

Oh weekend, how I miss thee!

I had a splendid, relaxing weekend. Did nothing except what was absolutely necessary. Which, of course, meant that I did lots of knitting.

In fact, I have two more FO's. But, since I am blogging from work, you will just have to wait for those pictures.

I have put aside my wool-ish knitting, since the weather has gotten so hot. I have gotten on a kick of knitting "useful" items. I picked up a pattern linked on Mariko's (Super Eggplant) blog for a dishcloth and scrubbie. They are a great and quick way to use up that extra acrylic taking up valuable space in your stash. And OMFG, do they work. That scrubbie scrubs like a motherf'er! I will never go back to using those cheap scrubbers from the supermarket. I've made sets in dark purple and sage green so far, and will probably make another set in burgundy. Yeah, I've got the whole wine country color theme happening at my house. J thinks I am a geek. Can we all say, "Duh!"

I'm also on a washcloth kick. I'd been itching to knit up the flower washcloth from Weekend Knits, 'cause it's just so darn cute. Unfortunately, the yarn shops in my area do not believe in stocking Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille, and I didn't feel like paying $7 a ball over the internet. So, I took a cue from Missy (Knit Wit), and stocked up on some Lion Cotton and Sugar 'N Cream. Gotta love that $1.99 per ball! I managed to whip out two washcloths in a day and a half. What a fun pattern! It's especially fun in the Playtime and Summer Splash colorways - my eyes are still bleeding.

Which brings me to another subject. I seem to be having a love affair with color. Prior to knitting, I only liked dark, muted shades, and reserved the wilder colors for my hair. Now, I am knitting in neon bright colors and carrying a bright green purse. Are ya gonna revoke my Goth membership now? Or am I just "retro"? Feh, I'm too old for these labels.

On the home front, I got lots of gardening stuff done. I pruned back the grapevines, deadheaded the rose bushes, and created a lovely bouquet. Our roses and grapes are the most low maintenance plants that we own. They were already well established when we moved in. But they WILL take over our yard if we let them. Especially with the rains this year, they've been very well fed. I'll go into more detail in a future post on how we manage to have rose bushes and grapevines planted in our HARDSCAPED backyard. It's kinda weird.

And, last but not least, THANK YOU SECRET PAL! I love my gifts! I will definitely be starting a shawl out of the Folk Shawls book, but I'm not sure which one. There are so many nice ones. And I will enjoy the CD that you made me. Contrary to what was implied in my questionnaire, I am willing to listen to most kinds of music, except most country I cannot stand. I only enjoy Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash.

Back to work. Pictures soon....

2 FO's!

2005-07-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

I've been a busy girl! I finished my braided neckpiece:

Please forgive the attractive pajamas. You're lucky I cut my head off. Bedhead is SO not pretty.

Details:
Pattern - Braided Neckpiece from Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham
Yarn - Polar by Rowan, in Blackforest, about 2 balls

This was a very easy and quick pattern. I completed it during my lunch hours at work this past week.

I also finished my Clapotis:

Morrigan obviously thinks it's very yummy :) I do, too!

And another pic, with flash:

I love the color I used - Noro Silk Garden in #205. I may actually get some wear out of it. And it washed up VERY soft. I blocked it very lightly, so it still curls a little around the edges.

So yesterday, I started another project - the Scoop du Jour from Bonne Marie. I have almost completed the 6 inches of ribbing at the bottom of the back:

I am using Wool Ease in Heathered Green. I had previously tried making another sweater with it, but messed up my stockinette - I twisted every other row because of how I was throwing my purl stitches. So, I unravelled what I had completed on the old sweater to start on this one. So, far, it is knitting up very nicely. Here is a closeup so you can see the color:

It refuses to be photographed. Up close, you can see individual flecks of yellow and blue. It's pretty cool.

This has been a strange weekend. Lots of activity mixed in with outright laziness. I'm glad that we had people over yesterday - this forced me to clean up the kitchen. I am a poor excuse for a hausfrau.

Oh, this is a great opportunity for me to pimp out my father-in-law, Howard O'Donnell. He is an artist. His medium is watercolor, and his subject matter is Maritime art. Check out the link - I know I am biased, but his work is really outstanding. He got a spot this year at the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts/Pageant of the Masters. We are so proud of him! We attended the Artist's Preview on Saturday night, and it was very fun and so exciting for him. His work will be on display all summer. If you find yourself in the SoCal area, be sure to check it out! The festival has lots of great artists, using all mediums.

Have a safe and happy 4th of July, everybody!

I Got Nuthin

2005-06-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

In terms of a title, anyway. I DO have pictures, however!

Behold, the Lace Leaf Pullover!

Forgive the fuzziness of the picture, and the sweater, too. I am in desperate need of a sweater stone.

Stats: Lace Leaf Pullover, from Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham
I used Wool Ease Thick and Quick in Grass, about 6 balls worth for the largest size and size 13 needles Changes to the pattern - I only did 4 pattern repeats on the sleeves, and as you can see they are just the right length. Your row gauge may vary. I also left live stitches on the upper half instead of binding off when I grafted the two parts together. I got a much more seamless result this way. Of course, my experience with kitchener stitch was limited, so you may have a different experience than I.

Here are a couple more pics of the sweater, when it was too long. Muy frumpy on me:

Note to self: chunky yarn makes me look, uh, boobilicious.

While I'm at it, here are a couple other works in progress. I am making some headway on Clappy:

I'm in the last repeat, and ready to move on to the decreases! I hope to finish this weekend, but you know how that goes. I am more and more in love with this colorway. If I ever break down and make Klaralund, I will probably use these colors. They are so gorgeous.

I've managed to add some length to my herringbone scarf as well:

And I am about 2/3 done with the Braided Neckpiece. This poor thing is in need of some serious blocking!

And now, for the end of this picture-heavy post.

These are my cats:

These are my cats high on catnip:

Any questions?

Will Jean actually have pictures this time???

2005-06-27T11:54:00.000-07:00

The answer is no.

Time was NOT on my side this weekend, so I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the finished sweater. But it's done, and I'm finally happy with it!

I went through a Goldilocks process with this sweater. First it was too short, so I added several ~~hundred~~ rows. Then it was too long. So I undid the grafting on the bottom and took out almost a full ball worth of yarn. Now I am very happy with the fit! It was even better after I washed it - the stiff collar softened up considerably, so now I have a very comfy, soft sweater that I won't be able to wear for the next 6 months. Sigh...

I had a very busy weekend. Friday night, we went to Irish Mist up in Sunset Beach to watch Paddy Doyle's Boots. They do some great versions of Irish traditional songs. I love that stuff. Several of our friends decided to join us, and a fun time was had by all!

Saturday we went to our friends' new place in Fallbrook, and got to see all their new furniture. Their house is big and so incredibly beautiful. They need it, for 5 kids! They were doing the major portion of their move that afternoon. Everything was going great until the moving company decided to screw them over. The money wasn't the issue, but they were charged $200 more than the flat rate promised. And the owner was a dick, called M names over the phone, and made her cry. It was horrible. The moving guys had done a great job, and felt awful about what happened. It was a giant letdown for that day. So we went to Cask and Cleaver for a steak dinner and recovered over a bottle of wine :) So the day ended on a high note after all, and it was so nice to see them.

Sunday we went to visit our friend K up in Yorba Linda. She just had her mastectomy this past week, and I was shocked to see how active and well she was doing! Her coven did a ritual while she was in the hospital, and I can only say that it must have done something, because her rapid recovery is truly amazing. We intended to watch a movie, but ended up talking the afternoon away. It was an awesome visit.

Craft Night was also last night, and it was fun as always. I brought my swift and yarn winder so Terri could wind up all the new pretty yarn she bought recently from Knit Picks. It was nice to just sit at the end of the day and become one with the yarn.

Well, lunch time means knitting time, so off I go.

FO'ed up

2005-06-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Damn, it's really effin cold in my office today!

I was so close to finishing the sweater last night! Alas, I screwed up when I grafted the two pieces together and pulled the stitches waaaay too tight. I ended up with this VERY attractive ridge around the bottom third of the sweater - not the look I was going for. So I took out the grafting, and tried about 10 stitches very loosely, and I was still getting the ridge. The problem is that the pattern instructs you to graft the live stitches from the bottom section to the bound off edge of the top section. I can't get this to work for me without getting the ridge. So, I unbound the upper edge and put the stitches on holders, so I can graft the two pieces together the way it should be done. I should have the whole shebang done tonight! I tried it on, and it looks great!

One thing I noticed - I increased the pattern by a few inches to make the sweater more of a tunic. Both pictures in the book are a little misleading in terms of how the sweater is supposed to look. The first model is a size 0000, so the size small sweater looks huge on her. And in the second picture, the model is sitting down, so you can't tell anything about the fit towards the bottom. Since I am a size 14-16ish curvy person, the sweater is looking a bit different on me :) But it still works, and I can proudly wear it out of the house!

Once it is done, there will be pictures. I know how boring a knitting blog can be without pictures!

Me Me Me

2005-06-20T14:56:00.000-07:00

1. I grew up very close to Disneyland. The fireworks would rattle our windows each night at 9:30.
2. Consequently, I would go at least 2-3 times a year, so it wasn't as "special" to me.
3. I was "raised" as a Methodist.
4. My sister and I would be dropped off at church each week. My parents only went on holidays, or during choir performances.
5. I was in the handbell choir, and the church choir.
6. I sang alto.
7. At one point, I was set to be a Methodist minister.
8. I was a religion major in college.
9. For many reasons, one of which being that I suck as a public speaker, I decided not to pursue the ministry.
10. I eventually left the Methodist church in particular, and Christianity in general.
11. Being a religion major opened my eyes to many different belief systems.
12. And I got sick of being told I was going to hell for being pro-choice, and supporting the right for gays to be in the ministry.
13. I had been heavily involved in the youth and camping programs all my life.
14. I eventually left it all behind, because I felt like a hypocrite.
15. I still miss the fellowship aspects of it terribly.
16. I would now consider myself a pagan.
17. My husband and I met at church camp in the 4th grade.
18. We didn't start dating until his senior year in high school. I had already graduated.
19. Many people would think that we married young (21). But by that time we had already been dating for about 5 years.
20. We have no children, by choice. We are much too selfish to procreate.
21. When I first registered to vote, I didn't know what I believed, so I registered Republican.
22. I'm now registered as Independent.
23. I hate driving. Driver's Ed was particularly traumatic for me.
24. I would have panic attacks behind the wheel, it scared me so much.
25. For that reason, I didn't get my license until I was 18.
26. My boyfriend (now husband) lived about 30 miles away, so this is what inspired me to drive.
27. I scored a 72 on the DMV written test.
28. I was very unpopular in junior high/high school.
29. I would often hang out by myself.
30. I was very good at any kind of arts and crafts.
31. I probably would have majored in art in college, but my parents discouraged it.
32. I did take a couple of art classes in college, but didn't really apply myself.
33. In fact, I did so poorly in college in general that I couldn't qualify for the Master's program.
34. I did meet Gwen Stefani in my painting class.
35. Since we both lived in Anaheim, we would carpool to class to work on our projects on the weekends.
36. This was during the recording of "Tragic Kingdom", so we got to listen to the demos in class.
37. She was a seriously cool and nice chick.
38. Not surprisingly, we lost touch after the band blew up.
39. College was a very positive experience for me.
40. I was still lazy as all hell about my school work.
41. I didn't really fit into any one category in high school. I was a little mod, a little goth, with a pinch of ska.
42. My mom bought my clothes, so let's just say my wardrobe didn't reflect what was in my little black heart.
43. In college, I was able to express myself. That's when I bought my first pair of Docs.
44. I still have my Docs, and couldn't imagine parting with them.
45. I should really wear them more.
46. I passed out when I got my bellybutton pierced.
47. It didn't take, so I tried a second time.
48. It didn't take the second time either, so I gave up.
49. I used to work for Piercing Pagoda in a booth in the middle of the mall.
50. I hated piercing babies' ears, because it always made the moms cry.
51. While I worked there, I acquired eight piercings in my ears (6 on one side, 2 on the other).
52. I now only have 2 on each side.
53. I have never broken any bones.
54. I bruised my arm bone once, playing handball with a flat ball. I never said I was bright.
55. However, my teachers seemed to think I was, and put me in the advanced classes.
56. Alas, they didn't know how little I cared for school work and how lazy I was (am).
57. In fact, if I could just work part time and knit the rest of the time, I would be much happier.
58. My favorite holiday is Halloween.
59. I love scary movies. The gorier, the better.
60. Psychological horror does it for me, too.
61. I love reading Stephen King, Clive Barker, and Poppy Brite.
62. Now that I have some disposable income, I am heartbroken that I'm simply too old/fat to wear the really neat looking goth stuff.
63. I still love going through Ipso Facto in Fullerton and drooling over all the gowns.
64. I used to go clubbing at a fetish club up in L.A.
65. This was only about a year ago.
66. It got too expensive, so we stopped going.
67. No, I'm not a part of the S&M scene.
68. But it's fun to watch.
69. I have 3 cats.
70. I didn't have any feelings towards cats growing up. I never had any pets.
71. I was scared of dogs.
72. Ok, I'm still a little scared of dogs.
73. Just the big ones, not the little ones.
74. After I got married, one of the first pets I had was a rat.
75. We named him Lazarus.
76. He turned out to be a she.
77. I cried when that damned rat died. (S)he was so sweet and cute.
78. We got two rats next. Two boys.
79. One turned out to be a girl, and they had 12 babies.
80. We gave two away, and the rest all decided to eat each other. So, no more rats.
81. All of our cats came from the animal shelter. I couldn't imagine buying from a pet store.
82. They are my babies. Babies that can feed themselves, poop in a box, and are very independent.
83. They are indoor cats, because of the coyotes in the area.
84. They are also all declawed.
85. We've had two named for goddesses of death and destruction: Kali and Morrigan.
86. I like sweet stuff, but I'm not really fond of chocolate.
87. Peeps are awesome. I buy tons of them during the holidays.
88. I love giving gifts and receiving them.
89. I used to love getting mail, until I started getting bills.
90. I had 8 credit cards in college, and no self control.
91. This resulted in me going into credit counseling.
92. I finally paid everything off about 6 years ago.
93. We only have one actual credit card now, and pay for everything else with our debit card.
94. We bought our first condo in 1998, and rode the SoCal market.
95. We now own a pretty decent sized house in Orange County.
96. There are times when I wish we were renting again, so we wouldn't have to worry about mortgage, property taxes, paying for repairs, etc.
97. Don't get me wrong, I love our house. Especially the kitchen and the open space.
98. My yarn loves the extra bedroom that is quickly turning into my project room.
99. I used to "play" in the SCA. We haven't gone to events in about 6 months.
100. I have lived all my life in CA, and only been to a few states to visit: Kentucky, Georgia, Maryland, Illinois and Ohio.

Too short

2005-06-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

The sweater is too short. The sleeves are longer than the body, and I was really looking for a tunic type fit, so I will extend the length. And my experiment in reversing the pattern failed. The lace leaves at the bottom of the sweater looked "implied", and almost like a mistake. I must have ripped everything out and redone it about 5 times, and still couldn't get it to look right. So, I'll do one of two things - go by the example of the pattern and knit that portion from the bottom up and graft the two sections together, or just forgo the lace pattern altogether and knit plain the rest of the way down. Decisions, decisions...

The good news is that the sweater looks great otherwise, and the sleeves turned out just right! And J approves. He'd be the first to tell me if something looked half-assed. So, a couple more days, and it should finally be done :)

Not much other news. The party on Friday was a blast, and we saw lots of people that we hadn't talked to in a long time. On Saturday, we hung out with our friends Tom and Terri, and watched Revenge of the Sith. J ended up liking it, but I don't think he was totally blown away. Now we'll see if we can get him to go see Batman Begins...

And Sunday we took J's dad out to brunch, and had a really excellent time. We will have to hit that restaurant again - their brunch was fantastic! My dad went to Hollywood Park with my mom and sister to watch the horsies. I'm sure they had a great time - yesterday was such a beautiful day.

Ok, back to work. Hopefully we will have an FO by the end of the week!

Lace Leaf progress

2005-06-17T13:12:00.000-07:00

I am about 2/3 of the way through the body of the sweater. Two more rounds, then I start on the lace patterns at the bottom and the ribbing. This sweater has come together so fast! All that will be left is to attach the sleeves and weave in the ends, and it will be finished. I will post some more pics of the sweater this weekend, possibly as an FO. This is my very first sweater, so I am excited!

On my lunch breaks, I 've been working on my Kiri shawl (pics also forthcoming for this one). This has given me good experience working from a chart. Being a very visual person, I love charts. I did have to refer to the written instructions, to suss out the pattern repeats for the second chart. Now that I have it figured out, I'm sailing along. I'm finding that I really have to pay attention when I knit lace. It's not like most patterns, where I can space out and watch TV.

I also had a very good idea yesterday. I've been thinking on my plans to make a poncho, and I determined that I would probably never wear it. So, I've been wracking my brain for ideas of what to use my Inca Alpaca for. Then, a burst of inspiration - I will make the Braided Neckpiece from Loop-D-Loop. I need to check my book at home, to see what the yardage is for the pattern. I think I have enough, but I may need a couple more skeins. And I think it calls for bulky yarn, so I figured that I would just hold two yarns together.

I was just looking at that poor model in the picture I linked to - she looks like she needs a nap!

As usual, I'm getting ahead of myself. There are so many projects I want to knit! Knit Picks will probably get some business from me in the not too distant future - Mariah and Rogue are both screaming my name.

Tonight should be fun. My husband and his friends are holding a single malt scotch tasting at a friend's house. Although I am not much of a scotch drinker (owing to a night of puking after a past tasting), this should still be a fun party. I'm bringing some knitting with me, and my friend Colleen is as well. Knowing our group, we probably won't get too many strange looks - these are SCA people, after all :)

Lace Leaf Do-Over

2005-06-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yep, I did it. I went and bought myself some Wool Ease Thick and Quick in Grass, and started over. This time I was SMART, and did a gauge swatch. Lo and behold, I got gauge on size 13 needles, and went to work. Here is the first sleeve:

Aah, much better. One thing I noticed with the pattern is that the sleeves end up waaaaay too long if I do as many pattern repeats as what is called for in the largest size. The main body of the sleeve should only be 19" before the shoulder shaping, and mine was going towards 25". So, I ripped back to 19", which comes out to 4 pattern repeats instead of 7. So I should be in good shape if I just do the 4 repeats on the other sleeve. I may have this done by next weekend - we'll see how things go. I will post more pics as I make progress!

And I do realize that I could have gotten the yarn online for cheaper. I had a bad day on Friday, dammit, and purchasing that yarn totally made my day. Not that I'm defensive or anything.

Oh, and I've made some more progress on Clappy:

I got a postcard from my secret pal yesterday - thank you! My husband picked up the mail and said, "Uh, you got an interesting postcard here..." Once I explained the secret pal thing, he was okay with it :)

J got his bike back. They spent 2 hours looking for a problem, and couldn't find one, so I am hoping that J was just being paranoid. We'll keep an eye on it and see what it does next.

And I got a surprise in the mail yesterday! I used to work for a clothing store as a manager many years ago, and had gotten notice of a class action lawsuit that was being settled. Apparently, I was part of the "class". So, I sent my info in, not really expecting anything. Yesterday, I get a check for $230! A small portion were the actual wages that were due back to me for lost overtime, and the rest were penalties. This will help out a lot with our latest financial stuff. This makes me VERY happy!

Realization

2005-06-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

I'm going to frog the Lace Leaf Pullover. I know, all that work for nothing. But I feel remarkably light and free after making that decision. I was knitting on it last night, and realized that the yarn for the body was, in all likelihood, really worsted weight and not bulky weight like what I need for the pattern. Ugh! I could see right through the damned thing, and it felt half-assed to just ignore it and continue. What I will do is make a trip to Joann's, get some skeins of the G-D Wool Ease Bulky, and start over. I will need to determine yardage, etc. But at least I will have a kickass sweater in the same gauge all over. And it won't be too warm, since I don't exactly live in the tundra.

So, no pics of what I have. Believe me, I am saving you from all sorts of cheesiness.

And who else feels inspired to buy a black leather funky skirt to go with that sweater, like the chick in the photo?

The Clap is still rockin right along. I'm really pleased with how it is turning out. I'm not sure if I will end up wearing it, though. Maybe I'll be more inspired when it is done.

Life on the home front is pretty quiet. J's bike is acting up, so he has to take it in (AGAIN). He has had no end of grief from the electrical system of his bike, so the battery won't hold a charge. Luckily, he got the extended warranty, so no money out of our pocket. But this, on top of Molly's health issues and J's root canal and new crown this past month, it's all too much. Enough with the drama, already! Drama can be very expensive!

Plugging away

2005-06-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

I'm still going to town on the Clapotis. It's turning out pretty nice! I've done about 5 repeats on the center section, so I have about 8 to go before I get to the decreases. I am not exactly the fastest knitter in the world, so who knows when I will actually finish it. But it's turning out awfully pretty.

Yes, Secret Pal, I will post pictures this weekend of my progress on the Lace Leaf Pullover thus far. I put it away to work on the Clap, but I may pick it up again this weekend to see if I can get close to finishing it. Just need to do the lower half of the body, then test drive with the one sleeve I have completed. I'm hoping the sleeve will be fine, so I can finish the other one and attach them. Not that I could wear the sweater right now anyway! I am noticing that I may need to wear a tank top underneath - I question the salesperson who told me the yarn was Lamb's Pride BULKY. I don't quite believe her. Maybe it will full a little after I wash it.

And now, a detour.

I have become convinced that I don't belong in the corporate world. I'm just not that competitive, or a go-getter type of person. Which is interesting, because most of my friends and my husband need to feel productive at all times. I don't feel any such need. I am perfectly content to hang around all day and do nothing, with no guilt associated with my lack of action. I don't feel that I have to live in the lap of luxury. I just want enough so I don't have to worry about bills, and I can supplement my hobby comfortably. If there were a yarn shop that would hire me full time at $25 per hour, that would be a dream come true. But alas, I remember working retail, and as MANAGEMENT was only making $7 an hour, so I totally recognize that this is all a pipe dream. Therefore I will keep plugging away at my job, despite the moody coworkers and the knowledge that I am not agressive, and nothing is going to change that.

Enough wallowing in self-pity. Back to the grind...

Maybe I was on crack that day...

2005-06-06T09:17:00.000-07:00

One of my earlier posts contained a rant about a yarn shop and the knitting group residing within. I reread the post, and decided maybe I was being overly sensitive. I did cruise by the shop yesterday, mainly to get a couple of pattern books and an Addi Turbo in size 2 to try my hand at the Magic Loop thingie for socks. There was nobody there, except for the person running the register. If I had my knitting with me and time to kill, I would have taken a seat right there with her - she was really nice and seemed kinda lonely. Truth be told, I was a little afraid to go back to that shop at first. I was so intimidated the last time I went. But that may just be my natural shyness and defensiveness at work. I think I will go back on Sundays and knit, because it is a really nice store, and so quiet. And I think I should give those other people another chance.

As for patterns, I picked up Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Book One (they ran out of book two :( ), the Bobbi Bear pattern (which I will make for my sister - she collects teddy bears), my Addi Turbo, and a large half circle toggle-ish button for my Lace Leaf Pullover (whenever I finally get around to finishing it).

(sheesh, what is the deal with the parentheses today?)

I am also being lured by the siren song of Kiri, and the LYS happens to be fully stocked with many colors in the Kid Silk Haze. You'd think I didn't have all these other projects waiting for me to finish! I will try to exercise restraint for the time being, and finish some of the other projects I have started.

Baby Blanket

2005-06-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

At last, she is fini:

The pattern is from Stitch N Bitch, using the Koigu PPPM in a colorway number I don't remember - lots of pastel blues and sea greens. As it turns out, the nursery will have an undersea theme, so this will fit in just fine. Oh, but I was bored to tears knitting this thing. Probably had something to do with the fact that I changed my mind on the color, the yarn, and the twisted stockinette. Otherwise, this would have been a pretty quick and easy knit. So I am glad to have the damned thing off my needles!

And do you notice the odd shape? This is where a swatch would have come in handy. At about the halfway point, I think I accidentally switched my Denise's from size 9 to size 8, and the stitches look tighter and better. Not being a perfectionist, I am not going to worry about it - the baby is not going to notice :)

Not much more to report. I'm concentrating on Clapotis now, because the pattern is interesting and I need that!

FO's on the horizon?

2005-06-02T09:41:00.000-07:00

Don't hold your breath. I have about 40 rows left on the baby blanket - I'm so close I can taste it. The problem is that I get bored after doing 4 rows of the thing. Maybe once I get to the seed stitch portion I'll begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I've also been getting some work in on the Clapotis. What is the correct pronunciation of that word, anyway? I read somewhere it was supposed to be "clap-oh-TEE", which would make it sound prettier and less like VD. I'm finally to the drop stitch section, so this should start to get fun. Whee!

I LOVE that tomorrow is Friday already! We'll be visiting a couple of friends who are in the process of moving down to Fallbrook. It will be interesting to see what a 3,000 square foot house looks like in real life. They need it, with 5 kids and all. 1,500 square feet just wasn't gonna cut it.

I've noticed in my posts the decided lack of profanity. If you knew me in real life, you would think this was very odd, indeed. Maybe it's because I write most of my posts at work, where I have to censor myself. Having an HR rep that could make a sailor blush would not go over well at my company.

I also have an LJ, but I am finding that I am updating here more. I may just start putting my personal stuff over here, along with the knitting.

Oh, and I am wrestling with myself over going to Yarn Lady on Saturday morning. It is their semi-annual Bag Sale, where the discontinued yarns are 50% off. I don't think I can keep myself away. Who needs things like soap, or cat food?

Response to La - yep, that landslide stuff is freaky weird. I wonder why it took so long since the last big rains?? That's the cool thing about living in RSM - we have no yards or hills, so there is nothing to slide off of! One thing I did learn from the whole rain experience was that I like it (without the mudslides). While all my friends were cutting themselves and writing bad poetry, I was enjoying my knitting, my cup of tea, and cuddling with the hubby and kitties. Yes, I am 32 going on 80, what of it?

Finally, some pics to display

2005-05-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are the current projects I am working on. Please forgive the blurry photos - I have very unsteady hands!

This is the baby blanket that will never end. However, it is Koigu, so I will try and be forgiving. I am about 2/3 of the way through, and should be done with it in the next couple of weeks. The shower is tonight, so it will be a little late, but the baby should still get some good use out of it.

I am also deep into the Lace Leaf Pullover, and loving the color and the pattern - it's so easy and quick! However, I think these are The Sleeves That Ate Orange County. They seem too long to me. So, I think I will start the body before I finish the second sleeve, and see how everything comes together. The pattern instructs you to knit the top of the body and bottom of the body separately, then kitchener the two pieces together. I'm going to see if I can just reverse the pattern on the bottom and knit all the way down. Wish me luck, people!

I am just getting a start on Clapotis. I haven't even made it to the drop stitches yet, but I love the Silk Garden, especially this colorway. I may have to buy more of it for a sweater! I am having to pick a lot of flora and fauna out of the current skein, but it is still beautiful. This color is swaying me towards pink.

And I also have a toe-up sock in the works, using Wendy's pattern. Since I have about a million other WIP's right now, I haven't been able to get as much done as I would like. But it sure is purty!

And I realized that I have yet to introduce you to my kitties:

Molly

Morrigan

Fionna

You will see more of them, especially Molly. She's a little camera ho.

Case in point - this pic is of the only other remaining yarn in my stash. It's some yummy Classic Elite Inca Alpaca in a dark red. This is destined for a poncho, eventually.

Of course, Molly had to get into the picture:

So I blinded her with the flash, which she didn't appreciate.

SP5 Questionnaire

2005-05-27T10:41:00.000-07:00

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you? Yep, I am turning into a yarn snob. But I am ok with acrylic blends :) Anything to increase the stash!

2. Do you spin? Crochet? I don't spin, and I only crochet if I have to.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.) Not that I know of!

4. How long have you been knitting? Only about 5 months, but I have been a quick learner!

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes! You can find it under my email (slfrtsbabeATcoxDOTnet)

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) Lavendar, any Vanilla combination, Jasmine, Musk

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Not a huge fan of chocolate, but I love caramels.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Making some of my own clothes.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I tend towards alternative or "modern rock", i.e. The Cure, Depeche Mode, Yaz. Newer bands along the lines of Interpol.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand? I love fall and winter colors. I look like hell in yellows and browns. And I'm not really fond of pastels, except for roses and grassy greens.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? I'm married and have three cats.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know) Hee...um, just to be content and not to have too many financial worries.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? I'm just starting, so I'm still exploring that. So far, I like silk blends, merino wool, and alpaca blends.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? 100% acrylic. Very hard on my hands.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? The designs out of the Teva Durham book. I have a love affair with bulky yarns now! I am also pondering lace knitting, i.e. shawls.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? Don't know yet. I really liked making my felted purses.

17. What are you knitting right now? A baby blanket from Koigu KPPPM, Clapotis from Noro Silk Garden, sock from more Koigu, and the Lace Leaf Pullover from Lamb's Pride Bulky in Limeade.

18. What do you think about ponchos? I like ponchos, and will be knitting myself one in the near future.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? I like both.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Bamboo, definitely.

21. Are you a sock knitter? Just starting on socks, but I love the idea of handknit socks.

22. How did you learn to knit? I learned from Stitch N Bitch, and my friend Terri.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? 5 months.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? I love cats, and I adore Stewie from Family Guy. I also like Edward Gorey illustrations.

25. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

26. Is there anything that you collect? Anything with witches, or cool cat stuff.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, does Bust count?

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on? See my Amazon wish list :)

I'm a slacker

2005-05-23T10:00:00.000-07:00

I'm such a slacker. I had every intention of taking some photos of what I have on the needles to put on the blog. But between vacuuming the house and the heat this weekend, I felt like sitting on the couch and not moving for long stretches of time. We borrowed our friends' Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner. OMFG - that vacuum works great! I will have to save my pennies so I can buy one of my very own. Our carpet hasn't looked this good since we moved into this house a year ago.

I purchased the new book by Teva Durham, Loop-D-Loop. I was hard-pressed to find something that I DIDN'T like out of this book. I was so taken with the Lace Leaf Pullover that I cast on and finished a sleeve in two days. Technically, only about three hours worth of work. This in spite of the fact that I am still slogging through the baby blanket and have three other projects in suspended animation. The pattern was just so darned easy and quick to work up, especially with the bulky yarn. It's all about the instant gratification. I think I will work on this project on my lunch hours at work. At the rate I'm going, I'll have it finished by the weekend. Craziness!

I'll have pictures up sometime this week. Yes, an idle threat at this point, but I'll make the effort.

On second thought...

2005-05-13T08:40:00.000-07:00

About that Clapotis? I just came across this blog entry from Cari at Dogs Steal Yarn. Be still my heart... and that would look divine in the colorway I purchased.

I've been knitting wrong

2005-05-12T12:08:00.000-07:00

Forgive the lack of pics, I am blogging from work...

You read that right - I've been knitting wrong. Now, before you say that knitting is an art form, and there is no "right" or "wrong" per se, hear me out. My knit stitch is fine. Apparently, it's my purl stitch that I have been doing bass ackwards. I'm a thrower (as opposed to a picker), so when I do my purl stitches, I always throw the yarn clockwise. On my most recent projects where I have been doing lots of stockinette, I've noticed that my stitches looked a bit twisted. Could not for the life of me figure out why. Then I pulled out my Knitter's Handbook (something every knitter should keep in their bag), and discovered that I should be throwing counterclockwise instead. Quelle horror! So, now it's like I'm having to re-learn how to purl all over again. Argh - what a pain. But my stockinette is looking rather stunning now!

I have been a good girl, and have forsaken all other objects save the baby blanket that really should be done by the end of this month. But I made a drastic change - I decided to change the yarn that I was using. I determined that, although Wool-Ease is easy to take care of, that it really wouldn't be all that nice against a baby's skin. So, I ordered 8 skeins of Koigu in a beautiful bluish colorway (pics later, I promise), and am almost a quarter of the way through the blanket. My husband even approves - he always looked askance at the other blanket I had been working on. So I am feeling really good about the change.

A couple of weeks ago, Terri and I took Colleen on her first yarn store expedition. We went to Yarn Lady, which is a huge store and has all sorts of yummy yarns to look at. Overwhelmed doesn't begin to describe Colleen's reaction to the place :) But a great time was had by all. I also purchased some yarn for other projects that I had in mind. I got 6 skeins of the Classic Elite 100% Inca Alpaca for the Very Harlot Poncho. I got some sock yarn. And I got 6 balls of Noro Silk Garden for....something. I was thinking about making a Clapotis, but I'm not a wrap kinda gal. I could always do another Harlot poncho. Or maybe a cardigan? I just can't decide. I'll have to think on that one a bit more.

After I'm done with the blanket, I need to get going again on my hooded sweatshirt thingie. I've finished the back, and just started on one of the front sides. The bummer about that is that I will have to continue knitting in that twisted stockinette style, just so it will be consistent. Hmmm - not looking forward to it.

Finished Objects and Works in Progress

2005-04-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are some pictures of what I have been working on so far.

This is my first project, the Wavy Gravy scarf from Stitch N Bitch. The only change I made was that I knitted this with only one strand of yarn. This was so I could master tension, and increases and decreases. I remember frogging this at least 4 times before I got it right.

It's a little bit short, so I may increase the length at some point.

Next is a picture in progress of the Kitty Hat from Stitch N Bitch. I made two of them, one for our friend's daughter Casey and one for my friend Terri. Casey's was made from Patons Classic Wool, and Terri's from acrylic. Here is a pic, minus the ears and pompoms.

This is a picture of my first felted project, the Sophie bag. I think mine turned out really well - I was very pleased with it. I used 2 strands of Cascade 220, so I would get a sturdier fabric.

And now, on to the works in progress.

This is a baby blanket from Stitch N Bitch I am working on for a friend of mine. It is made from Wool Ease in their Autumn colorway. The colors are actually not as bright in real life - my fault for photographing on a red tablecloth.

As you can see, I haven't gotten very far on this one. I find that endless stockinette stitch bores me silly. I think this is only a week's worth of work, so I've made some decent progress. I do really need to get this one done in the next month - the baby is due in June.

And here is a project I am pretty proud of. This is the My So-Called Scarf pattern, and the stitch pattern is very interesting - it makes kind of a herringbone pattern. Very slow going, but is holding my interest. I'm using Manos del Uruguay, in the Flame colorway. I love the Manos - it's so easy to work with.

Unfortunately, the camera has run out of batteries, so I cannot take pics of the other two projects on my plate right now. I am working on the Lo Tech Sweat, and another Sophie bag in stripes, and I've messed with the pattern a little bit to get a different result. I'll get pics of these up soon.

Looking at this list, it is pretty sad how many things I have in progress. Except for two of these WIP's, there is no deadline for completion, so I'm not gonna sweat it.

Today, a couple of us hit the yarn store. I am thinking about investing in a ball winder and a swift today, but I may talk myself out of it. We'll see....

I'm already ranting

2005-04-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

My second day with a blog, and I'm already ranting about something.

I am frustrated with a LYS in my area (which shall remain nameless because I believe they do blog). Last week, I went to said LYS for their knit group. For one, I was being pretty brave. I am not an outgoing person, so the idea of going to a shop full of complete strangers was daunting. I was hoping maybe there would be 2-3 different groups of people, so I could blend in more easily. It was not to be. When I showed up, it was a small group of women that had been knitting together for a few months. They seemed nice enough, so I introduced myself and sat down to start knitting.

I had brought the back of the sweater that I was just starting on. A couple of the ladies were trying to figure out what kind of yarn I was using. "Rowan Summer Tweed?" When I told them that it was Wool Ease, they nearly dropped their needles, and I was met with a wall of silence. I was honestly shocked at the intensity of their reaction. Through the next two hours I was asked why I was using straight needles instead of circulars, and told how using two circs for socks was SO MUCH BETTER than using dpn's.

This hits on a few pet peeves of mine:

- I hate feeling ashamed of the type of yarn I am using
- I like doing things how I like doing things, and don't like to be told that what I am doing is somehow wrong

Now, I'm not trying to come off as being overly stubborn. And I do realize that I have just begun on my journey as a knitter. But I really do like knitting with my straight needles whenever I have a chance. And I have used dpn's and have no problems with them whatsoever. I do intend to give the Magic Loop the ol' college try, just to see what it's like to use. I love trying new things. It just makes me mad when people tell me that THEIR way is the RIGHT way. It automatically makes me shut down emotionally, and tune out whatever else that person has to say. Ok, maybe that part is kinda stubborn....

Needless to say, I no longer feel comfortable going to that LYS, so they will not get any more of my business. Which is a shame - they are so close to my house. But there is another a few miles away that has a much better selection, so I am not totally TSOL.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest...

I just went to my parent's house this past weekend to go through mom's knitting stash and needles. She no longer knits - probably hasn't picked up the needles since the mid to late 70's. She didn't have much yarn left to speak of, but I think it is safe to say I will never have to buy a pair of needles again. I now have everything from US 1 to US 35. I have no bloody idea what I will use those 35's for, but I'm sure something will come up. It always does. I also inherited her copy of the Reader's Digest Guide to Needlework, which has got to be one of the best instructional books ever. I read this thing from cover to cover when I was a kid, so I am thrilled to have it again.

When I have time in front of my computer at home, I will post pictures this weekend. I promise.

Very First Post

2005-04-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hello, and welcome to my knitting blog! I just lost my first post, so I will recreate it the best I can...

This blog will serve two purposes: (1) As my knitting journal, and a way to meet other knitters out there; (2) To spare my LJ friends my ramblings on knitting. And there has been much rambling as of late. So, it was time to set aside a special space for my newest obsession.

First, a little about me. I am 31, and live in Southern CA with my husband and 3 cats. No kids, and we're not planning on having any, ever. We are far too selfish and have many expensive hobbies. I like horror movies, books, gourmet food, good wine, and spending time with good friends. And now I can add knitting to that list.

I started crochet when I was but a wee lass. I learned from my mom, so I worked on the same types of projects that she did at that time - doilies, and lots of them. So I learned patience from an early age. I dabbled in knitting briefly, but it didn't take. Later on in my teenage years, I got into counted cross stitch, but I have no finished objects to show for it. I would inevitably make some mistake in my counting, and the project would end up in a closet to rot for all of eternity.

Four months ago, my friend Terri got me back into crochet. This time I tried my hand at making a hat, a scarf and an afghan. None of these projects were ever finished, and I now have a ton and a half of acrylic yarn taunting me from the closet (some in colors that I will never use again). Terri then got into knitting, digging out her copy of Stitch N Bitch that she'd been sitting on for the past year. She lent me the book, and folks, it was all over. I now have many small finished objects to my name, and am working on my first sweater.

I plan to post at least once a week, depending on how much I am working on at any point. I currently have 4 WIP's in the queue, so I suspect I will be posting quite a bit, at least initially.

Expect pictures in upcoming posts of my FO's and WIP's. Until then, happy knitting all!