ZantiMissKnit

Lace on a Train (June/July 2011)

2011-11-12T11:05:00.003-05:00

Mmmmmmmmalabrigo lace.

After frogging my ill-fated Featherweight Cardigan (yeah, I frogged it after being fairly close to done with it. I wasn't digging the two colors and I had messed up something somewhere while knitting it that I don't even remember now but let's not talk about that, okay?), I had three wound balls of Malabrigo lace weight, two in the Forest (I think) colorway and one in the Lettuce (I'm certain) colorway.

I wanted to try to get some lace knitting mojo going (especially after frogging my Swallowtail Shawl), and remembered that an old issue of Interweave Knits had included a little booklet on scarf knitting. This booklet had three scarf patterns by Ann Budd, called A Scarf of Your Very Own. I chose the leaf pattern scarf to work on, thinking it would be a nice, lightweight project for the hot summer months.

It ended up being such an easy knit that I knit most of it either on my train commute, or in a car on the way to and from nature walks (don't worry, I was not the driver).

I also realized that the only photo I have of it on Flickr is the close-up above, taken while stuck in traffic on the home from of Rhinebeck. I have a couple of other photos on my project page, but those appear to have been taken with my cell phone and emailed to myself, unless...

Ah, I see. I have all of the photos I send directly to Flickr from my phone tagged with "Phone", so I was just able to find a crappy phone shot of it while it was a WIP:

It's good that I did that, because otherwise I wouldn't know that I had photos like this one:

Someone was doing a promotion in Boston, and had these big daisy windmills installed outside the building I work in (which is in the background).

I also discovered I had taken a photo of Lizzie Borden's pets' gravestone:

as well as the Deathwish Piano Movers truck:

Isn't it fun strolling through my flickr photostream with me? I should do a blogpost simply by going through random pages and picking the first photo that jumps out at me. Of course, if one of said photos turns out to be a snake, I could get someone bitching and moaning about how it needs a trigger warning or some such shit. Ah, well, fuck 'em. SCREW YOU GUYS I DO WHAT A WANT!

I think I may have had too much tea already today.

Thelonius Monster Socks (May/July 2011)

2011-11-12T10:36:00.004-05:00

Since I've been such crap about taking photos of Sheep and Wool Fests I attended this year and the items purchased therein, I figured I would show a finished project from yarn actually purchased at a Sheep and Wool Fest this year:

The Thelonius Monster Socks.

Yes, I finished these one weekend morning in the summer and modeled them while the cats were eating. Yes, those are bloomers I'm wearing; Mike bought me a pair a few years ago for me to wear as summer PJs. I have a sleeveless cotton shirt that I wear with them (that I have a hard time believing was sold as a shirt, since it is lightweight, white, and quite diaphanous, but that's Ann Taylor Loft for you. I'm still confused by shirts that you need to buy more shirts to wear under them - very clever marketing - and even more confused by the concept of layers and summer clothes).

In my blog break, I didn't lose the art of the tangent, did I? HEY GUYS DID YA MISS ME AND MAH RAMBLING WAYS????

I didn't even mention Gibson's quizzical look at my feet while Luciano goes on eating.

I got even better pictures of these on the way home from Rhinebeck this year:

I left little footmarks in the dust on the inside of Mike's windshield and, as of yesterday, it's still there. Should I be telling you that? Our car, it is filthy.

Oh, fuck, in my rambling and time-traveling ways I forgot to mention the yarn! THE YARN! It's Jennifer's Flock Sock from Holiday Yarns, in the colorway "Fiji". I purchased it at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival in May of this year, and, as you can see, I cast on with it fairly quickly. I really love this yarn, and had used it before for my Bacon and Lattice (Hold the Tomato) Socks.

The pattern is Thelonius Sock by Cookie A. I'm torn between thinking her patterns are absolutely brilliant and fun to knit, and thinking they are overly complicated and crazy-making. It really depends upon the day and how frustrated I am becoming with flipping pages back and forth and going to Chart A, B, C or D. No disrespect intended, of course, but I usually need to knit something completely mindless after I finish one of her patterns. I feel the same way about Tsock Tsarina - her patterns are AMAZING and clever, but holy shit! They take up so many brain cells to knit. Both are great for winter knitting (or sick day knitting) when I can sit at home in my PJs and put something mindless on TV like a Beverly Hills, 90210 rerun or a zombie movie I've seen a million times already. They aren't good for knitting on a car, train, or while watching subtitled movies (although the plain stockinette foot part of a current WIP of mine, Oktoberfest, is fine for such knitting).

I'm going to leave this post with a sense of pride that I have made it through half of my 2011 FOs and don't have much further to go! I just have a few that I never even photographed (and one that I don't even remember what the pattern or yarn was - yeah, I gotta go check that out).

Go with the Flow/Jewel Socks (April/May 2011)

2011-11-12T10:30:00.004-05:00

I needed a project.

We were about to embark on a busy weekend -- going to New Jersey and back in ONE DAY and setting up at the Boston ComicCon for two days -- and I needed something to cast on NOW that is complicated enough to be interesting, yet simple enough that I can knit in the car/train/while sitting at a table at ComicCon.

This is the yarn I chose.

It's Fleece Artist Merino 2/6. I know I got it as part of a secret pal/swap, and, like a bad person, I have forgotten who gave it to me and when. I've always loved the colors.

Now all I needed was a pattern.

I have many sock books and patterns. MANY. One problem with the many that I have, though, is that they are super awesome for subtle shaded colors and solid colors, but not for highly variegated colors.

To the rescue - The Go with the Flow socks from Favorite Socks. Even though they are featured in the book in a solid color (and look gorgeous in solid colors), I really like how the pattern broke up the colors and gave me jewels for my feet:

I thought the yarn, in the skein, looked vivid and crazy, but when I knit it up, the colors went together so well. I certainly wouldn't call it subtle, but it's much less crazy than I thought it would be.

Falling Waters Lace Scarf (March/April 2011)

2011-11-12T10:20:00.004-05:00

A new yarn shop opened near me in March! JP Knit and Stitch is a knitting and sewing shop, offering not just products but classes, work spaces, and sewing machines for in-shop use.

I stopped in there a couple of weeks after it opened and purchased some -- what else? -- cashmere.

It's fingering weight cashmere by Bashful Yarns. I figured it was the perfect match for Falling Water, a pattern I had printed in 2006 and thought then it was SO FAR AHEAD of my skills set. It was, then. Now, not so much.

This was such a beautiful -- and fast! -- knit. It took me under a month to knit this. It's not a huge scarf -- I forget what my finished measurements are, and if I were to try to measure it now I would need to block it again. It's perfect for Spring. I should try to track now more of that colorway and make matching mitts for it; if I remember correctly, the yarn wasn't terribly expensive ($28 for 400 yards of cashmere).

I recommend both the yarn and the pattern.

Preppy Handbook Socks (February/March 2011)

2011-11-12T10:07:00.003-05:00

This yarn was a stash rediscovery.

I don't remember when I purchased it, but I know it was from Mind's Eye Yarns in Cambridge. The colorway is "Bleeding Hearts" and I loved the pink and green 80s preppiness of it.

I had gotten the Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders for Christmas and decided to make some socks from that. I chose the Eyelet & Feather socks.

Thus, the Preppy Handbook Socks were born:

These were a fun knit, and the yarn was a near-perfect antidote to a crappy winter. Every stitch brought me a stitch closer to Spring, or at least that's what I pretend now that I told myself. It was probably more likely I was stuck inside, grumbling about the weather while watching zombie movies, knitting these socks in yarn that I loved, drinking tea. I think I may have had a couple of sick days while I was making these; I was so sick that the doctors tested me for mono. The tests came back negative. Ah, the things we remember when we look back at our old knits!

Duck Weed Hat (January 2011)

2011-11-12T10:04:00.003-05:00

I wanted to make Mike a hat.

I wanted to make Mike a hat, but didn't want to make the same old same old ribbed, worsted weight hat that I have made so many of.

I also wanted to use up some stash that I have had for a long time.

I had this Interlacements Toasty Toes, that I had purchased around December 2006, lingering in my stash.

I had originally purchased it to make socks for Mike. After looking at it in my stash, I thought it might make a nice winter hat. I went looking around on Ravelry for a hat knit with sport-weight yarn and found this Cross Stitch Cable Beanie pattern.

I decided to call it the "Duck Weed Hat", because the way the different colors peek out of the green reminded me of the duck weed we saw in the Everglades a few years ago. I, of course, could not get a proper photo of the duck weed as I was seeing it, so you have to just believe me. In the sun, it sparkles with blue, red, yellow and green lights. I'm sure it's just water catching the sun, but it looks truly like little lights in the water.

The hat's a little fuzzy, already, but it's well loved.

Sarena Cashmere Cowl (February 2011)

2011-11-12T09:46:00.003-05:00

One Sunday, at my knitting group, Alice had some stash to give away -- stuff she decided wasn't quite her colors or that she would never use. She thought, specifically, that three skeins of Mountain Colors Cashmere was in particular, "Andrea colors".

Three skeins.
Cashmere.
For me.

Exactly one week later I cast on for the Sarena Cashmere Cowl in the Luxury Yarn One-Skein Wonders book. Less than two weeks later I had a lovely new cowl:

That's not my neck. My neck is not that freakishly long; I had just put a styrofoam head on top of my dress form -- again with the sewing! I even have a dress form! -- so I could get a good photo of this.

I like the little vaggy-looking drop stitches.

Pom poms! Yes, I wear something with pom poms!

This have proven to be a very practical item, as I have been wearing it quite a bit lately. The yarn is so, so soft (again, CASHMERE!) and it's so perfect for when the weather starts to turn cool. It's a great pattern for if you ever need to whip up a gift in a hurry and you happen to have some super-soft yarn laying around.

Beatles Baby! (January 2011)

2011-11-12T09:31:00.003-05:00

My dear, dear friends Lisa and Lou had a darling baby girl in March. The baby shower was in January. I used some Beatles fabric that I had purchased some time ago to make a bib and booties from the One-Yard Wonders book:

Because both parents, especially Lisa, are Beatles fans, this gift was quite appropriate for the baby.

The instructions in this book are very good, but these were somewhat fiddly to make, being so small. I started sewing long before I started knitting, but knitting has definitely taken over as my craft of choice. I still have a huge fabric stash that is over 10 years old, that I really need to get back to, especially with this book around.

I did get a picture sent to my phone one day of darling baby Ida wearing her bib. I was so happy to see it in use! The booties were, initially, way too big (which is hilarious, considering how tiny they looked to me), but by now they should either fit or be too small.

KnitPicks!

2011-11-11T09:17:00.003-05:00

Since they are running a contest in which you can WIN your ENTIRE WISHLIST, just by sharing it, I'm sharing it here!

Rhinebeck 2011!!! Best Rhinebeck ever?

2011-11-01T08:40:00.002-04:00

We hit up this year's Rhinebeck as part of a whirlwind October (we traveled three weekends in a row - the other two being to Los Angeles, CA and Parsippany, NJ, which I hope to address in another blog post). It was promising to be a fun time, with about 12-15 folks from the Ravelry Rubberneckers group coming, and most of those staying in the same hotel in Poughkeepsie. We stayed in a different hotel, down the road from theirs, but close enough to hang out.

The first night (Friday) we had dinner at the fabulous Table Talk Diner in Poughkeepsie:

(That's GrannyG/Genny, Minkeswim/Andrea, MaCanary (Bluecanary/Barbara's mom), Weebil/Aileen and Jay, GrannyG's daughter, who may or may not have a Ravelry account.

I must have been feeling incredibly hungry, because I ordered the Thanksgiving sandwich (turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing!) with sweet potato fries, and a beer (Sam Adams):

I ate most of it, but not all, and I felt like I do after Thanksgiving.

The next morning, bright and early, we hit up the Everready Diner in Hyde Park for breakfast and, after a couple of odd turns, found our way to the Mulberry Street gate of the Dutchess County Fairgrounds.

Mike was really excited to be there and finally get another Diet Coke:

There was yarn. Lots of yarn. Amazing yarn.

There was also yarn with hidden messages in it:

And gorgeous finished objects!!! Absolutely beautiful!!!

I aspire to someday knit this much lace.

This is a really cute lacy bolero.

Yup, I should have purchased that pattern. Derp.

This was made out of quiviut! 8 balls of quiviut at $85/ball (show special price):

I should have taken a picture of the whole thing. It was some sort of shawl/shrug with a 24-stitch cable on it, and was absolutely gorgeous but oh-so-expensive. I would feel so elegant and luxurious in it though. AW SHAWN TAY!

Some displays were a little less elegant and luxurious:

Um, yeah. I'm sure this booth got many people taking a photo of THAT.

Of course there were animals! Llamas:

Alpacas:

Sulcata tortoises/alligators/lemurs:

A goat that completely macked on my husband, who was feeding it:

Ridiculous goat!!!

When we got back to our car, we had a surprise waiting for us - Andrea, Pearl and Lisa had left us some gummies:

Mike went for it:

We went back to our hotel, where I ogled my new stash additions:

I do need to photograph everything individually, so I can show it off.

There were more additions made that night/the next day. I may have purchased more this year than I have since my first Rhinebeck in 2006.

We hung out in one of the hotel rooms that night and had beer and pizza:

Both of these are New York breweries. I preferred the Hurricane Kitty to the Bear Naked Ale. I'm not sure if I can get either locally, but I'd buy more of Keegan's beers if I found them. They apparently have a milk stout that is quite tasty (though I'm not much of a stout fan).

The next morning was time for another great breakfast at the Everready before day 2 of the Festival!

And our Rubberneckers meetup at 12:30:

I'm really bad about taking photos of people rather than of animals, yarn, and other stuff. It may be because I'm awkward about having my photo taken, and assume everyone else does.

I did get a photo of Fennel/Jamie getting a photo of me:

I love my friends. We had so much fun.

Getting out of there was a real drag. For one, we were SO TIRED when we arrived at the Fairgrounds that we forgot to turn the car engine off. Yup. Our car sat there, running, for about 5 hours. Thankfully the battery didn't die, and we had no problems getting home except for awful traffic jams.

This is how tired we were:

I passed the time by taking photos of some of my recently finished FOs that I haven't blogged about yet.

This is my Lace on a Train scarf:

So called because I knit most of it on the train. It's from an insert booklet that came with Interweave Knits around 2006 or 2007, i.e., long before I ever considered knitting lace. The yarn is Malabrigo lace in the "Lettuce" colorway.

These are my Thelonius Sock Monsters from Cookie A's Knit. Sock. Love book:

The yarn is sock yarn from Holiday Yarns, in the colorway "Fiji". I purchased that yarn at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool back in May (I think).

I'm debating trying to wrap up my year of projects since my last post in March. I may have a couple without photos, though. I think it's high time I start getting my words and photos onto this screen again.

Until later!

I'm a Rebel

2011-03-20T14:59:00.003-04:00

Today I went out on a not-so-secret mission with the South End Knitters. Our mission was to put tags on the rings at the Southwest Corridor park in the South End of Boston.

The tags came out beautiful! This one is mine:

I like the way those flowers came out. The first pattern I tried was for a Narcissus, and something went tragically wrong there and the color yarn I chose may be part of it:

Doesn't that look more like the sort of flower one would find in, say, a lady garden?

Here are the other tags:

Overlooking all of these tags is a guardian gargoyle:

This wasn't my first brush with the nefarious underworld of knit tagging. Two years ago, Mike and I helped put up the tag outside the Animal Rescue League. I was fairly new to the group at the time, and hadn't contributed to the tag itself, but was thrilled to help put it up. We also gave the ARL a big donation on behalf of the group.

I've thought about doing some tagging on my own, but haven't found any spots that need it (besides the hook on our front door). Oh, and don't despair - the tags do get taken down after a while (the rings get taken down seasonally) and get washed and put away. Sometimes pieces of the tags "disappear", and I hope whoever took them gives them a happy home.

Happy Mardi Gras!

2011-03-08T08:51:00.002-05:00

I finished my Mardi Gras socks with more than a week to spare:

I've even worn them a few times, and guess what? They don't stay up. I suppose I need to thread some thin elastic through the tops (the question is, how do I attach said elastic? I don't think I can very well tie a knot in it, so I guess I'd have to sew it on.)

I'm wearing them today, along with some Mardi Gras beads that I caught at one of the parades in 1994 or 1995. No, I didn't show for them. ;) That doesn't happen as much as the media wants you to believe, although you will see many boobies along Bourbon Street. I never saw them Uptown, and don't really think that would fly.

Anyway, back to the socks -- I will forever love Dorchester Farms (sorry, I can't find a link for them!) for offering sock yarns in Mardi Gras colors - purple represents justice; green, faith; and gold, power.

I'll leave you with a little song:

Angry Scotsman

2011-03-05T18:32:00.002-05:00

My friends Kate and Snag converted a room in their basement to a bar, which they call The Angry Scotsman. It's a helluva great place to hang out, watch some movies, and drink.

During the fall, we were there with our friends Lisa and Lou, and I was wearing an old pair of fingerless gloves that I had made years ago with my first handspun. Lou thought they were the coolest thing EVER, and I made a mental note.

Lou's birthday was at the beginning of February. Guess what he got?

The pattern is called Manhandlers (blog link) and the Ravelry link is here. The yarn is the now-discontinued Filature Di Crosa 127 Print, which I've had in my stash for a few years. The pattern was super-simple, and the yarn awesome to work with. I'd probably buy more if it weren't, you know, discontinued.

When I gave them to Lou he got really excited and said, "BEST FINGERLESS MITTS EVER!!!!" If you knew Lou, you would laugh, because it is so what he would say.

This Beer's For Kara

2011-03-04T09:22:00.003-05:00

Should I even post this? I haven't sent it to her yet.

My niece, Kara, really liked Mike's Frilly Pink Beer Cozy so much that she asked me to make one for her, in red (her favorite color). I finished this a while ago (January 12, to be exact), and it's been sitting at home, waiting to be mailed to Virginia for her beer-cozying pleasure.

I used Berroco Weekend, which is a decent acrylic/cotton blend. The frill is a little fidgeting to start out with, but once you get that knit it's really, really easy.

Sunday Swing Socks

2011-03-03T09:21:00.004-05:00

I finished these in the beginning of January, having started them right before Christmas:

The pattern is the Sunday Swing Socks from the Summer 2009 issue of Knitty. I noticed that I average about a year behind on Knitty patterns; I think that's because it's near impossible to get on there due to traffic when a new issue is out, and then I simply forget to check it after a while. About a month later, I think to check it out, and glance at the patterns, say, "Oooh, that's nice", and get back to what I am knitting.

These were fun to knit. I've had the yarn, Opal Krokodil (a/k/a Crocodile) in my stash FOREVA (FOREVA meaning since about 2006) and decided it's high time I use it. I looked around on Ravelry for projects made with it, and didn't really like what I saw as far as the pooling goes. I'm glad the colorway I have is black and gray/white, as looks a little bit better. I still think the pattern is rather obscured by the yarn, but overall I like the socks. They are warm and the yarn appears to be quite strong (I've heard that Opal wears like iron).

So, it's been about 2 months since I finished these socks and it was still only 12 degrees when I left for work this morning. I was forced to keep sexy alive by bundling up:

I feel pretty.

FOs, 2010 Edition - for my Tootsies!

2011-01-30T07:49:00.004-05:00

I'm finally getting around to posting some of my 2010 FOs. At least I'm squeaking them in at the end of January. It's like thank-you cards - you are allowed a month to get around to it, right?

First up are my Purple Fairy Socks:

The pattern is Absinthe from Knitty (Spring 2009) and the yarn is Jill Draper Makes Stuff Splendor Sock Yarn (Merino/Nylon/Cashmere).

These took me a little less than a month to knit. The pattern is awesome. The yarn is heavenly (and I still have a bunch left - not enough for another pair of socks, unless I combine it with something else). I purchased the yarn at Rhinebeck because I had had a dream right before we left that I was knitting socks with purple yarn. I cast on for these about a week later.

They've become my go-to comfort socks, because they are so soft. They are haloing a little bit, now that I've had them for a few months, and the halo is bright blue!

Next up are my felted mocassins:

These are from the Town & Country Slipper Kit from Knit Picks. I had to link to the Ravelry page because it seems to be sold out. The mocassins are in the "Country" set, which also has mary janes and cowboy boots. The "Town" set has high top sneakers, shoes with spats, and penny loafers. I purchased both sets last summer, when they first went on clearance sale at Knit Picks.

I wear these every day at home. They work better with hand knit socks, because they are a little wide, and I had to stretch them lengthwise when I blocked them, but I believe I only ran them through the wash twice to get them felted. I'm hoping to make all of the options (since the kits come with enough yarn for that), maybe to use as "guest" slippers in our house.

I just counted on my FOs 2010 set on flickr, and it looks like I made 15 things in 2010 (including one sewing project -- that counts!). There are at least three projects that I don't have photos of. Damn. For someone whose year was mostly taken up by a move, I sure did get a lot done!

Laissez les bons temps rouler (WIP it out Wednesday!)

2011-01-26T19:46:00.005-05:00

Dude, I can't believe I'm managing to post twice in one month! But I am!

I'm calling these Laissez les bons temps rouler because the yarn is Mardi Gras colors. I hope to finish them before the season is over - Fat Tuesday is not until March 8, so I think I have a good chance.

The yarn is Dorchester Farms Handpainted Sock Yarn. Dorchester Farms is local to me and sets up at many of the Sheep and Wool Festivals in New England. I'm not sure at which one I purchased this, but I do know it was in 2010.

The sock is going to be plain, toe up (obviously!), because I want the yarn to speak for itself. I have two skeins of it, each about 190-200 yards (label says 200; Ravelry database says 192), so I'll dedicate one skein per foot.

Nothing else to share here except for gratuitous cat shots:

A WIP and some FOs for the Head

2011-01-22T10:02:00.005-05:00

Well, I had some good intentions, right? Now it's been three weeks since my last blog post, and although I HAVE things to post, I haven't gotten off my ass and done so.

I guess I'll WIP it out before I flash some FOs:

Okay, so this is a crappy cell phone photo but it's better than nothing, right? The pattern is called Cross Stitch Cable Beanie and it' a free Ravelry download. I'm almost done with it, so I'll take some good detailed photos of it when I am.

It's for Mike. The yarn is Interlacement Toasty Toes and it's been in my stash since December of 2006. It's about time I use it, right?

I also have some FOs to show. These ones go back to October of 2010, so you can see how lazy I have been.

I have a stack of hats:

I also do not have a good detailed photo of this hat:

It's the Horseshoe Cap from the Summer 2010 Spin-Off. I appear to be the only person on Rav who made it, or, at least when I uploaded it the pattern wasn't in Rav's database yet. The yarn is from a local vendor, Hamden Hills Alpacas, who sets up at the Farmer's Market outside of my building. She also sets up at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool, and at Rhinebeck.

I also made another Foliage hat, this time in chunky yarn (Valley Yarns Northampton Bulky, from WEBS). It's fun for a girl

or a boy!

I also have something else that garnered me quite a bit of attention in late October: BOOB HATS.

Can you tell which one is meant to be the Lotus Boob hat? (Note: if you have never seen the Lotus Boob, you may want to think twice about doing a search for it. The first time I saw it, I had no clue what it was. My first impression was a boob with road rash, and I think I screamed and closed the window. My second impression -- yes, I looked again -- was a boob with beebees shot in it, which is as bad as a boob with road rash. It's neither. It's a photoshop job of a boob with a lotus pod - complete with seeds -- cropped over it. Even after knowing what it is, I don't need to see it again.

The funniest part about these hats is that I made them specifically for Rhinebeck. Mike and I presented them at the Rubberneckers meetup, and minkeswim's baby took the bait when presented with the Lotus Boob, as you can see on my Ravelry projects page. (I made that page public-access, so you don't need a Rav account to see it. I should do that with all of my projects, unless they are SOOPER SEKRIT).

Oh, and I made those with some Red Heart Super Saver that I got at a yard sale a few years ago, and I could only get black Pony Beads in packs of 1,000. I may give both to charity, because the RHSS killed my hands. That's never happened before; I think it's because it's older yarn and thus not as soft as the acrylics of today (I very charitably say).

I decided to cut this short RIGHT HERE, because I realized that I have two more FOs for 2010, and three FOs for 2011 - wait, four!!! FOUR FOs! Can you tell it's been a harsh winter so far? I need to get my bearings, and not write a teal deer post, so I'll do a different post for my 2010 FOs for the feet, and then my 2011 FOs.

Four? Really? And here I was, being an underachiever and only joining the 1 for 2011 group rather than the 11 for 2011 group on Ravelry. . .

Gibson!

2010-12-31T13:11:00.005-05:00

It appears my last post was of Rhinebeck, and even that was a few weeks late. Have I been that busy? Has home ownership melted my brain? Did I have a good holiday season?

Well, yes, I have, and after this weekend, I can go back to being a normal human being who watches what she eats and exercises.

First up, the weekend after Thanksgiving, we added a new member to our family. Meet Gibson:

He's about 1.5 years old, medium-to-long hair, brown/black neutered male with double paws in the front:

He's a damn sweetheart:

He was sick when we got him (upper respiratory infection, which is really common on shelter animals and really easy to take care of), so we didn't have a proper indication of how active he is. The boy is crazy! One of his favorite things to do (besides chase Luciano all over the house) is to run from one end of the crinkle tunnel to the other. He and Luciano are getting along okay, although Luciano will go and hide in the box spring when he's had enough. Ellie still has moments when she'll attack him for no reason. She tolerates him enough for them both to sleep on the bed with us.

It's been a long time (since 1994, to be exact) since I've had three cats, and the litterbox patrol is crazy! We have two boxes set up, and I wonder if we should add a third.

I do need to get more pics uploaded. My camera started acting up during the summer, and I haven't gotten off my ass to replace it yet. I was thinking of getting a Canon Rebel, but still wonder if those are over my head. I don't know if I want to take the time to learn how to take good photos. The point and shoot cameras are good for lazy people, but I don't like the lack of control I have. This camera still works, but it will sometimes turn itself on and off repeatedly, which in turn drains the battery and also makes me miss some shots. Pisses me right off.

I have many FOs to post as well, but I don't think this is the best post for that. I'll probably do a separate post for those, but I wanted to give Gibson a blog welcome, even if it is a month late.

Ye Olde Rhinebeck

2010-11-05T13:23:00.004-04:00

So, I went to Rhinebeck again this year. Is that a big surprise?

The weather was absolutely gorgeous!

The foliage, as usual, magnificent:

I was feeling pretty excited:

Of course, there was yarn:

My camera (the second digital I've own) is on the fritz right now. It does this weird thing where it turns itself on and off repeatedly, and the only way I can get it to stop is to take out the battery. To tell the truth, I've never been 100% happy with this camera, but got it because I didn't think I was ready for an SLR.

Don't get me wrong - this camera has taken some INCREDIBLE photos, as evidenced above. The best photos it has taken have been in the best possible situations - bright, natural sunlight and, usually, without zoom (although our sister blog will show that some photos with zoom are great). It is not so great at indoor shots with flash, particularly yarn pr0n and project photos, which is why I took so much of my stash and projects onto the porch at our old house. I need to figure out where the best place will be in our new house, and fully acknowledge that the neighbors will ALL think I am crazy. I should just bite the bullet and bring it all to the Arboretum, so all of the Rosi/JP area knows I am nuts (or will want to knit with me).

Holy shit, I just totally digressed there, didn't I?

Hey, guess what? I was able to take some good photos of needlefelted artwork:

Oh, I love the duck!

Dragon already looks pretty bent.

I thought the needle-felted budgies were adorable! I think pet birds in general are very cute, but don't think I would have the patience to own one. They are a little too noisy.

I really want one of these heads:

Obviously, Mike did too:

(As an aside, I wish I had taken a card from that vendor, since she had the MOST LUSCIOUS CASHMERE YARN EVER!!!!! There was a red-and-white mitten that I put on, and thought that I never ever ever wanted to take it off. It felt so good that it gave me dirty thoughts.

There were, of course, llamas:

Not to mention Rubberneckers:

Okay, WTF? Why didn't I get a group photo of the Ravelry Rubberneckers meetup? Am I an idjit or what?

There was baby-melting acrylic:

There was also a Bewb Hat:

There is also an EPIC .gif of the Lotus Bewb Hat, but you have to be on Rav to see that one.

A few of us met for dinner, and there was lots of fun and not nearly as much drunken revelry as would be expected:

We did get some real-time Rubbernecking in, as a woman was on her cell phone most of the time we were there, yelling at someone (presumably her daughter's date, but I'm not sure) and putting on quite a show.

Mike and I took in breakfast the next morning at the Eveready Diner -- better than any hotel breakfast!

When we went to take out money, I discovered that the bank lobby had no ATM (although it had a card-swipe to get in):

This is why I don't play poker.

As usual, we were goofy as shit:

Which is why we're married.

Whooooooooose Beer is This?

2010-10-05T18:30:00.004-04:00

I went through a short spurt of knitting beer cozies this summer, as you can see by my last couple of posts. I wasn't done with Mike's frilly pink beer cozy (which, I see, has gone over well), and had yet another stroke of genius:

Yup, that's an Owl. I decided to knit an Owl Beer Cozy. I wasn't satisfied with just one, either -- I had to knit another so I could write up the pattern:

I'm not sure how much of it I can claim as "mine". The owl cable chart has been around for a while, and the one I used is from Penguin Purl's Who? Hat. She's the first person I know of who has converted it to the round (and she did tell me it's okay to post this pattern, as long as I give her credit).

Owl Cozy

Yarn: I used Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria for both cozies (it takes probably under 50 yards)
Needles: US Size 3 (3.25mm) Clover Bamboo DPNs

Using a preliminary cast-on, cast on 33 stitches. Divide evenly among three DPNs.

Knit 20 rounds.
Knit the Owl Cable Pattern from the Who? Pattern.
K2, P2 ribbing for the next 5 rounds.
Bind off.

Unzip the preliminary cast-on and pick up all 33 stitches.
Round 1: K2, K2tog (all around)
Round 2: K2tog, K1
Round 3: K1, K2tog
Round 4: K1
Round 5: K2tog
Round 6: K2tog

Bind off, put it on a nice cold bottle of beer, open said bottle of beer, and enjoy!!!!

Disclaimer: The notes I typed this from are about 2 months old. If you notice any errors in this, please let me know and I will fix it! Thanks!

Mike's Frilly Pink Beer Cozy

2010-07-14T13:51:00.003-04:00

I thought this deserved its own post:

Pattern: This Beer's For Her by Kate Korotky (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Ummm . . . Lion Brand Cotton-Ease, I think. Yes, it's the same yarn I used for his hat, which I made for his birthday.
Needles: Size 3 Bamboo DPNs.

I don't think I modified this pattern at all (except for the yarn used -- I think the pattern calls for 100% cotton, but I used a cotton/acrylic blend, which is a little more stretchy).

After I had finished my beer cozy, I asked Mike if he wanted one. He said yes. I said, "Do you want one like mine, or do you want a frilly one?" He gave me a "DUH!" look and said, "A frilly one, of course!".

So, I offer up photos of my 6'3" husband with a pink hat, bowling shirt with "Sandra" embroidered on it, drinking non-alcoholic beer from a pink frilly beer cozy, with his pinky extended, because he's fancy like that. Enjoy!

As promised

2010-07-14T13:26:00.002-04:00

I want to show off some home photos.

First off, I believe I mentioned that my legs looked like overripe bananas after the move, and I wasn't kidding:

OOOOOUCH!!!!! I don't remember these happening, but it probably came from carrying boxes and/or large pieces of furniture down the stairs from the old house, hoisting them into the truck, and carrying them upstairs to our new place. The bruises weren't limited to my legs:

Seriously, this is how rumors get started, right? I remember someone telling me how she got a black eye, purely by accident, and had a few women come up to her to say that they hoped she got "the bastard who did that" put away. Thankfully, I didn't get the same treatment (my legs from the knee up are generally covered anyway). It's sad that many people come to the conclusion that bruises on a woman = ZOMGABUSE!!!! When I was a kid I got a black eye getting hit in the face with a tennis ball. Shit happens.

What a digression that was, huh? I hope this doesn't cause a whole bunch of wangsty comments. *shrugs* I moderate my comments, anyway, so I don't even have to publish that ones that are wangsty. ZOMGCENSORSHIP!

We've got our Blickenstaffs up:

as well as a few others:

The tree painting is by Larry Woromay, whose name spelling doesn't look right to me. Mike purchased the painting from his widow a few years ago. The Frankenstein photo is a print taken during the shooting of Frankenstein -- that Boris Karloff, in makeup, enjoying a cup of tea.

We've still got boxes to unpack (it's all CDs, which we need shelves for), but we got our LPs set up and my loverly green cabinets all sorted out:

I love that we found curtains to go with the cabinets! Target, baby, Target.

I decided to make a slip cover for our futon/couch:

I purchased that fabric on eBay several (maybe 12?) years ago, along with several other huge pieces of mid-century modern fabric. I never was able to find a good use for them, because that large of a print doesn't always translate well to garments.

The cats had quite a time exploring:

(Psst. . . that groovy pillow there is a case I made with some of that aforementioned fabric score.)

We haven't had stairs at our old place, so the concept of going up and down stairs is fairly new to the cats. Hopefully Ellie will shed some weight.

New sights and sounds are SCARY! We have train tracks close to us, and when the windows are open, those trains can be LOUD.

Don't worry, there has been time for relaxing as well:

Funniest photo ever:

I caught Luciano at the end of a yawn. This should make a great LOLCat.

Closeup:

I think that's it for now. I've been posting so many cat photos that I forgot what I was talking about.

Hey there!

2010-07-12T13:15:00.003-04:00

Long time no post. In fact, it's been about a month.

Well, we're in our new place, as of June 19, and what a fun trip it's been! I may have to gather my thoughts to put the whole big fun-time of the move into another post, but here's a good recap:

- Due to a scheduling fiasco with U-Haul, we ended up picking up the truck at 6 a.m. instead of my requested 11 a.m. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the temperature hit 90 degrees that day. We were done by about 1 p.m.

- We did most of the move ourselves. I found out that I am much, much stronger than I give myself credit for. Our friend Jason, bless him and we are forever indebted to him, helped out us on the new house end.

- My legs looked like a week-old banana from all of the boxes and furniture hitting them. I have a photo of them, but haven't uploaded it yet.

- We did not have Comcast (internet, phone and cable) installed until June 29, even though our first appointment with them was the 20th. The fourth time was the charm. It took many phone calls, and we finally got it done, but despite everything they said and despite being in the same city, we had to have a new phone number. (So, if you are reading this and you have recently tried to call us and couldn't, let me know via comment or email at zelia_and_george at yahoo dot com or zantimissknit at gmail dot com. Yes I have more than one email account -- in fact, I have four or five, including my work one.)

- The washer shit the bed the first time we tried to use it. It wouldn't go into a spin cycle, and thus, would not drain, so we had to get a new one. I bailed out the old one by hand. That was fun. We'll probably get a new dryer soon, because even though the one we have does work, it squeaks. It sounds like a giant hamster on a giant wheel.

Okay, so we have had a few little issues with the move and the new place. How about the good? The good is, we do love it. The cats love it (despite some of the first day freakouts and all of the stranger danger from all of the various Comcast technicians and appliance delivery folks coming in). The cats really really really love air conditioning (and I didn't realize how much I did until ours shit the bed last week while the temperatures were in the high 90s and the repair cost $2600. But I'm going to the positive points of the house, so I digress). We were on vacation last week (but it was a "staycation"), and did a few nature walks and did lots of work around the house. Lots and lots of work, but it's still not done. I have been taking photos, but they aren't on Flickr yet, so I will wait and post them another time.

I also set out to finish up the socks I've been working on during my vacation time, and I did:

Pattern: Express Lane by Diane Mulholland (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Purple Fleece Hand Painted Wool/Nylon Sock Yarn. Purple Fleece is a yarn shop in Maine. I got the yarn at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival at the end of April, and cast on at the beginning of May.
Needle size: US0. I used circular needles, and from the photos, it looks like I used KnitPicks.

This would have been a much faster knit had I not been in the middle of a move. The pattern is super-easy, but never boring. The socks are knit from the toe up. I, of course, have not worn them yet besides for this photo shoot, because it's been over 90 degrees for pretty much all of July so far.

I needed a quick and dirty project afterward, so I made myself a beer cozy:

And I, of course, had to test drive it:

Pattern: Bier Hugguz by f.l. ward
Yarn: Sugar n Creme 100% cotton in a burgundy color
Needles: US6 DPNs (I think).

I knit this in maybe a day. The pattern, as written, does not have a bottom on it so I decreased until I had one. I guess that means that mine is upside down. I don't like having beer bottles sweating all over the place, so I needed the bottom to it to work as a coaster. Sure, I could use a coaster (and I do, often), but I tend to bring my beer all over the house with me, and I don't have coasters everywhere.

I've since made one for Mike, using a different pattern, and I'll post that one when I get the photos up. You'll giggle.

It's put me on a beer-cozy kick. I think there will be more in my future. Of course, I have all kinds of ideas bouncing around in my head, and they're bouncing around NOW that I'm back at work and have less time to execute them.

The only other project I have now, on the needles, is my Swallowtail Shawl. I kept saying I would work on it during vacation, but I didn't. If I have time tonight, I'll work on it. I am going to the gym tonight -- for the first time in over a month, I think -- so I may not have time. I also have many many photos to upload so I can give you another house tour.

Step into my parlour. . .

2010-06-12T19:44:00.003-04:00

et cetera, et cetera.

Well, I've got a few pictures of the new house. Would you like a tour? Come on in.

]

First floor (actually 2nd floor of the building; the first floor is another condo, owned by our plumber) has a huge L shaped living room/dining room combination. The walls were painted peach, which we didn't object to, but they were in desperate need of a touch-up. For one, someone had previously touched up the walls in some spots with a different color. The peach that we ended up getting was a shade or two lighter, and didn't have primer, so we needed a couple of coats to get it to take.

This is the dining room. The first time I saw the light fixture, I thought it was absolutely hideous. By the time we had been in here a few times (for the inspection, and for the final walk-through), I liked it more and more. One problem: Mike and I have both hit our heads on it. Luckily, it should be above the table, so that shouldn't be much of a problem any more.

The kitchen is pink, tan and brown! Odd combo, yes. The pink was already there, but we did a touch up, after de-greasing the walls and countertops a bit (ewwww). I have issues with the idea of touching other people's footstuffs, which made my brief waiting career a bit of a challenge.

From the kitchen, there's a little window that looks into the dining room. We'll get to play "diner" with that, and yell out things like, "Chickpea curry's up!" "Salad's up!" Maybe we need a little bell there.

Okay, the first floor bathroom is my pet project and I am having a shit load of fun with it. It all started with Mike finding the trash bin with the black cat on it. He said, "It's dark purple, and will look good in the light purple bathroom." Somewhere from that it was decided to make that the "cat themed bath room". I found the rug that goes with the trash bin. I have also found a black cat toilet paper roll holder (which I haven't photographed yet) and a black cat towel ring (which is still on its way).

A few other pieces have added to the fun:

A vintage (probably 1940s or early 50s, judging by the style of the art, although it's in such good shape it may be more recent than that) tin tissue box with a black cat! That was an eBay find.

The icing on the cake -- a cat light switch plate! This isn't vintage; I have discovered that one can find a switch plate with practically anything on it. If you can't find it, but can find the image you want, a good printer and some Mod Podge should do the trick.

Time to go upstairs, right?

There is a landing between the two floors that is like another small room in itself. Friends of ours who live in an identical townhouse across the parking lot use theirs as a reading nook, with a big comfy chair that's, well, it's like a bean bag but much classier, and a book case. It gets great light through that window.

Mike repainted all of this without me, so I don't have the right to comment on how much of a pain in the ass it was to paint the really high parts. Thankfully, we had an extender for the rollers, and the plumber let Mike borrow his ladder.

This is the 2nd floor bathroom. I repainted it all, and I later had to scrub the heck out of the tub because we were using it as our clean up spot for all the rooms we painted. Standing on a step ladder and cleaning above those lights sure sucked. Those things get really hot.

We call this "the contraption". It was there, but was badly in need of being cleaned and repainted. It had rings from shaving cream cans all over it, so we're trying to figure out what to do to avoid that. We'd love to find some sort of lacquer to put over the paint so it can be wiped clean, but for now the shaving cream can can go into a beer cozie.

Notice the walls are peach all the way upstairs too? It ends in the hallway up here. By the way, this is the linen *cough yarn cough* closet. I've already put cedar planks in each shelf. It's even bigger than the yarn hutch!

Our bedroom is pink and has a huge walk-in closet. I feel really happy when I'm in this room, which is good, because I'll be sleeping in it soon.

The second bedroom, which is our library. Mike and his friend Eric put down that laminate floor last weekend. This room is now filled with all of our books, DVDs and videos, all on the shelves Mike had put together for our current apartment.

Again, you can get switch plates with ANYTHING on them, such as this zombie pin up.

Outside the library window, there's a robin's nest. I'm not sure if the babies have hatched yet, but it should be soon.

Are you ready for the third floor? It's a bit scary. We haven't done a thing to it, except for spackle some holes up and vacuum.

The stairs up to the third floor show the start of the yellow. It's not a terrible yellow, though.

Okay, photos don't do the fug justice here. This is what Mike was calling "the angry room". It's less angry now, because we got a better light bulb for it, and also because we have a plan. We're going to work with the yellow. We're going to add a red stripe, and some teal, and give it a Mexico theme. Last night we purchased a light switch plate with a loteria card for El Corazon on it, and we got a loteria tissue box cover. We'll add some Day of the Dead items (we may get a shower curtain, if a local store gets it and we like it), and do something with the floor tiles (which are gross linoleum and just. . .gross. Gross and old).

There's also that door above the tub that leads up to the attic crawlspace. You need a ladder to get up there. Those things are creepy. I've seen enough horror movies to thing so.

This room is the fug that we don't think we can work with. For real. Those red walls? They were painted over dust, or were painted while dust was flying off the ceiling fan. I'm not lying. Those walls are full of little bumps that catch dust, and when I tried to use a Swiffer on the walls, those little bumpy bastards shredded my Swiffer! We're going to sand the shit out of those walls, prime them, and repaint in a minty green. In fact, the color I like the best is about the same color as the "Disagree" avatars on Ravelry, which amuses me.

If you look into the closet, you'll see the room used to be blue. I have no clue why it was repainted red. Oh, and you can also see some of the cable wires. There was illegal cable and phone jacks in EVERY room. It was crazy.

Thank you for coming on today's tour! It was great showing you around! You may go back out the way you came in!

Until next time. . .

xoxo. . . ZantiMissKnit

BACON!!!! and news!

2010-05-24T13:29:00.003-04:00

Have you noticed the big bacon craze lately? Bacon is everywhere!

Some of us even have bacon on our feet:

I actually finished these at the end of April, and uploaded them to Flickr about three weeks ago. I just haven't had much time to blog lately.

The reason I haven't had much time to blog lately is that we bought a home!!!!

See, we have some dear friends who live in this gorgeous townhouse in a nice little complex about a mile from where we live now. Once, last summer, when we were leaving one of their parties, I said to ZMrK, "The amount of space they have is exactly what we need." We then talked about how much we love the layout of their place, and that, on the chance one ever came up at a price we could afford, we may want to look into it.

Last December, a townhouse in their complex showed up while I was browsing Trulia at a price we could potentially think about. We discussed it. I got the name of a realtor. A couple of days later, the price on the townhouse dropped by about $15K. We made an offer.

After months and months of waiting (since this was being offered on a Short Sale, which are anything but), we finally closed on May 14. The price we got it at was another $12K less than the price it was when we made our offer. The Bank lowered the price -- we're not sure why.

Now, we do have to put some work into it. We've started by repainting. Since last Thursday, we've been spackling, sanding, cleaning and painting, and we're going to keep painting probably up to next weekend. We are also going to clean the carpets and, most likely, replace them. We're at least going to replace the carpets on the stairs and the second floor, because they are champagne colored and are gross.

We're doing fun stuff, too, like working out decor around the different rooms. The downstairs half bathroom (there are 2.5 bathrooms in this place!) is lavender, and we happened to find this trash can at a yard sale for $1. That little lavender half bathroom is going to have a cat theme. I've already ordered a switch plate for it, and I plan on getting the rug that matches the trash can (unless the measurements don't work out).

The third floor bathroom, which we don't plan on using much (except we may keep the litter box in there) is painted a really ugly piss yellow and the light bulbs in there have a yellow glow. Ugh. I have nothing against yellow, mind you -- I love the right shade of yellow. The more I look at this yellow, the less I like it. ZMrK has called it the "angry room" because he thinks it feels angry. The third floor will be the last floor we do anything on, but I've been thinking today about what color to repaint that room. Maybe we can do a softer yellow (and change those bulbs), or we can go completely different.

I joked with ZMrK today that we can paint big pink stripes on the walls to make it match this light switch plate. I'm actually thinking of a pin up theme for it, although I just told him that I should put it out of my mind and focus on what we need to do now.

These are the rooms we're keeping the colors in:

The living/dining room area (which is HUGE) is peach. The color we got (which we thought had match, and I discovered that our matching skills aren't so go) is much, much lighter than the one that was there, but I prefer it. The entry way and the stair way/landing/hall way upstairs is close to the same color, but no cigar. We're not sure if we'll do the same color, or something different. I was wondering if a very light tan would be okay.

The kitchen is pink. It's a very small, not-eat-in kitchen, so it won't be overwhelmingly screaming pink.

One bedroom (the one we'll be sleeping in) is a light raspberry color.

Second bedroom (which will be our library) is light blue, with teal trim and closet.

Second floor bathroom is the same teal as the trim/closet in the library. We'll be using our current rubber ducky shower curtain in there for now.

Third bedroom, which is on the third floor with the Angry Bathroom, is dark red. I also don't think anyone has lived in that room for months or even years. It had a thick layer of dust everywhere, including the ceiling fan and the walls. The paint job in there was total shit as well - pieces of dust must have been painted over because it's a bit pebbly. Like the Angry Bathroom, this room (which I'll call Red Room, like the spoof on The Shining's "Red Rum") is on our "low priority" list, but it's going to be a craft room/music studio eventually.

Speaking of crafts -- where will the yarn go? In the linen closet, of course! (Seriously, how many linens do two people need anyway?). I already bought some cedar lining to go in the shelves to keep it smelling fresh.

When I can, I will post updates on our home improvement, and I'll take some photos soon!

Well, This Took Longer Than Expected

2010-04-28T13:10:00.002-04:00

It took much longer than expected, but I finally put the finishing touches on my Aurora Shawl Collar Cardigan!

I started this the day after I purchased the yarn, so that would be February 7, 2010.

It languished for a while ("for a while" = "about 3-4 weeks") because I wasn't sure if the circular needle I had would be long enough to handle all of the stitches on the collar (it was, but it was a bit tricky for a while).

Then I was lazy about blocking it, because that would require moving some stuff around in the back room to make space to block it.

Then I only had the button loop and the button to put on it, but I was pretty lazy about doing that, too.

(Speaking of. . . that button loop looks a little bit stressed. I think my epic boobage is putting that to the test, or the loop itself is trying to tell me "Fuck You, Fattie!")

Now that's it's done, I can jump up and down like a monkey:

(Yes, I was doing a monkey imitation there. I don't think I can ever stand for photos without doing something goofy.)

And I can hold a fat cat:

Mike pointed out that it's the first photo of me holding Ellie. I hadn't realized that. I suppose I usually only hold her briefly, because as soon as I pick her up she says, "MRRRRAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOO!", which, I don't think is her saying, "Don't pick me up!" usually because she's quite a chatty cat, but it does often make me put her down. Plus, she's, um, kinda chubby. You may have noticed that.

So, back to the knitting. I was hoping to have this sweater finished within a month, and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids!!! Oh, wait. I'm not pretending to be a ghost. The only reason I didn't finish within a month is because of the excuses I listed above. But I'm not complaining. It's still cool enough to warrant wearing such a sweater; it was, in fact, 33 degrees when I woke up this morning and our heat was on. That's something to complain about. And I would complain if it wasn't expected to creep up into the high 70s by this weekend.

I'm still working on the Bacon and Lattice socks - I have about 1.5 pattern repeats and the toes, and then I'm done! Done, baby!!!

I switched my progress of the Swallowtail Shawl to "hibernating" on Ravelry, because I don't anticipate getting to work on it any time soon. I'm anticipating being a bit preoccupied for the next month or so (I'll disclose the reason for that as soon as is practical, but I can't yet).

We went to the Connecticut Sheep and Wool Festival last weekend, and I did take photos - they just aren't on Flickr yet. I also purchased a few things, but haven't taken those photos yet (which I should do, because I got just a small amount of yarn, but it's beautiful yarn). I'm hoping we can get to the NH Sheep and Wool as well as the MA Sheep and Wool, but I can't make a solid date of it yet.

Oh! I also want a close up of the button on my sweater! It's quite pretty -- it was in my collection of old, dusty (and, in the case of one jar, stomach-turningly stinky, but a soak in pine cleaner helped out with that) vintage buttons. It was painted black, and lots of the paint was chipped off and just didn't look good. I used some nail polish remover to clean it up, revealing a lovely faux-tortoise shell button underneath! I'll upload that photo soon as well (gotta take it first).

The Flashing of the Stash

2010-04-03T09:40:00.003-04:00

I know I'm late doing this -- two days late to be precise. I had taken these photos last Sunday, but hadn't had time to edit and upload them.

I got bored with dragging all of my stash out of the hutch, spreading it out on the coach, and taking photos. They look the same year after year because - hey, I'm a slow knitter and have had stuff in my stash since I started knitting in 2004.

Between that boredom and the hubbub that started over my Dickenson Pullover, I decided to do something a little different for FYS2010. That incident actually empowered me, and gave me more confidence in my body. Yes, it is the body of a 41-year-old woman, and it's not the Hollywood/fashion perfect body, but it's my body and I love it, my husband loves it, the cats love it, and anyone who doesn't love it can just look away.

Here I am, flashing my stash:

I have a collection of mint-condition (in many cases, new deadstock) vintage nighties from the 50s and 60s. I thought this to be a good time to show one off:

I also get to show off Mike's fantabulous legs too:

And, finally, a flash of the pussy:

Have a great weekend! We're off on a hike today to firm up these legs a bit more!

I got something for ya

2010-03-06T16:34:00.003-05:00

No drama this time, honest!

I have some WIPs!

First off, my Aurora Shawl Cardigan is coming along nicely. My progress on it has seemingly slowed down, since it's too bulky to take along with me to knitting groups. I really hoped to be done by this weekend, since tomorrow will mark a month since cast-on. Alas, my dreams of finishing a sweater in a month are now shattered.

It's getting close, though:

I can't wait to start the collar, which will add an inch or so to each side of the front and keep the damn thing from curling! The collar is all in garter stitch, and hopefully will go by quickly. I don't have a button for it, though -- I guess I should think about that soon, eh?

Since I lost the portability of the cardigan, I needed a project to take on the go. One of my Christmas gifts had been some Holiday Yarns sock yarn in the Bacon colorway. I had initially cast on for the Wasabi Pea socks from the current Interweave Knits, and had gotten just past the cuff (which is a folded cuff, something I had only done before on a hat). Once I started the pattern (which, admittedly, I hadn't read beforehand), I realized that it was full of something I would rather gouge my eyes out than do - p3tog. Slick Addis needles, slick sock yarn, and purl 3 together. Um, no. Just no.

So, I went looking through some of my sock pattern books for something else. As I was searching, the name of one stitch pattern caught my eye. I am now working on some . . .

Bacon and Lattice (Hold the Tomato) Socks

The worst thing about knitting with this yarn? It makes me hungry for bacon! I'm not even one of those crazy bacon fanatics who does things like buy bacon flavored lollipops (yes, they exist - maple bacon flavored! Personally, I find the lollipop part grosser than the maple bacon part, because the thought of my teeth touching a soggy lollipop stick makes me shudder. I have my hangups.) Bacon on a cheeseburger, in a turkey club, or with eggs, though - oh yes! I don't even know the first thing about cooking bacon at home. It's a restaurant food to me, like fish and deep fried stuff - things I couldn't be arsed to cook at home.

As I was here typing, a mail truck came by and dropped something off. A big box from KnitPicks!!! While they were on sale, I couldn't resist ordering both the Town and the Country slipper kits. At the price it's at now, the yarn alone comes out to a little over a dollar a skein. I haven't used much of KnitPicks' yarn, so I figured I'd give their felting yarn a shot. I know a few people who'd probably love some cool felted slippers like these (who WOULDN'T want cowboy boots or Chuck Taylor felted slippers? Really!) I threw a few circular needles on my order to get the free shipping. The best part? I ordered these Thursday morning. Today's Saturday. Wow!

Luciano let me hold him for a little bit today (I think he was hoping to be fed), and Mike was able to get a good one:

He looks put upon because he IS. He's not a big fan of being held, or forced love in general. When HE wants it, it's a different story.

He got to enjoy some open window time, since it was in the 50s and sunny today:

Ellie let me know what she thinks of it all:

Did I mention it was in the 50s today? Even though it's going to be written up on another blog, I can share a few photos that I took on our first hike of 2010, at Allendale Woods:

Blue skies, but it obviously wasn't warm enough:

Either Mike or I will blog at the other place about this walk. I'm hoping to not be as lazy about blogging this year as I got to be last year. I feel as though I shouldn't blog without photos, as if my words aren't enough. I also spend more time typing my one-line snarky comments on Ravelry. I should put some of that snark into my blog, shouldn't I?

A WIP, a FO, and something extra

2010-02-28T13:43:00.003-05:00

Early this month, ZMrK and I went to a meetup for the New England LSGers at WEBS. WEBS itself was a bit of a whirlwind, which is a good thing, considering that I did put myself on a yarn diet this year. I went in, got what I wanted (I was allowed to break said yarn diet considering this trek was right before my birthday, or at least that is how I justified it), paid, and went off to lunch at the Northampton Brewery. It took a while to get there because I stupidly didn't do any sort of mapping to the Brewery, and the folks we followed (who had used MapQuest) weren't familiar with the area, so we were a bit late getting there. It turns out that we knew exactly where it was - duh - if only we had been told that it's near the parking garage! Once there, it was the typical LSG fun:

(You should have seen this by the time we were ALL done with it!)

I'm wearing my Sinful Dickinson Pullover (more on THAT later!)

I'm telling you about this trip to set up that fact that I got the yarn and pattern for the Aurora Shawl Collar Cardigan there (designed by WEBS' own Kristen Hipsky). Something about this pattern called out to me -- it may have to do with it being the middle of winter, and the pattern being for a warm, soft, sweater done with a warm, soft yarn.

Anyway, the damnedest thing has happened. Every time I take a progress shot of it, I'm too lazy to do a blog post. So I'll give both progress shots here:

I took this photo on February 17, in the morning. I had called in sick that day, with an awful head cold (my nose was so stuffed up that taking a drink was a struggle. I've since recovered from it, but passed it along to ZMrK, who has been sick all week and is now recovering, although still coughing).

I was completely finished with the body by the end of that day (knitting while watching zombie movies = WIN), and had a good start on the sleeve by the weekend:

Now, I am completely done with the left sleeve, and have about 25 rounds on the right sleeve done, but I'm too lazy right now to take a photo and upload it.

You may have noticed that it is in the same color as the pattern image, and the sample knit in WEBS. Some may call me unoriginal for that (I have, believe it or not, seen threads on Ravelry where people have deemed those that use the suggested yarn in the color the designer knit in "unoriginal". Seriously. But, any of us who have spent time on Ravelry know that there are some dipshits on there who feel the need to judge what others are doing. Oh, more on that later.). I originally went there to get the yarn in the "gold heather" colorway of Northampton Bulky, but I found the color to be more of a golden tan than the mustardy gold that I prefer. Since the light green heather is a perfect color on me, I decided to go with that (although I have to say, the ocean heather is also gorgeous in person!).

So that's where I stand with that. The pattern is easy -- super, super easy -- but at this point it's not transportable so I only work on it at home. I also need to keep it hidden in the back room, because a small black cat who shall remain nameless really likes that yarn and likes the DPNs even more -- so much that one day he chewed on one and pulled it off the stitches (which I was luckily able to get back onto the needles without trauma).

I did a bit of sewing last weekend. I have some low-nap zebra upholstery type fabric that I got at a yard sale a few years back, as well as some purse handles that I had purchased for an ill-fated project. Put them together and I've got this:

TA DA!! It hasn't left the house yet, of course, because I usually carry one of those big ol' purses that I seem to keep my life in. I plan to use it some night I'm out for fun. I didn't line it -- I fully intended to, but then the fabric I was using for lining was being a $$^&*@$# (seriously, a word that I won't even say!), so I decided not to line it. The zebra fabric doesn't shred at all, so I'm safe with it.

Okay, now I'm at the "something extra" part. I was the center of a bit of controversy on Ravelry this week. Yes, me. Now, I know that I blogged well over a year ago when I finished my Dickinson Pullover. There was no controversy there. Well, at the beginning of this year, ZMrK and I had a fun photoshoot involving me wearing said pullover with nothing else. I was too chicken to post the photos to Flickr at the time, but uploaded them straight to Ravelry just so I can have a cheeky little thread on Rubberneckers not Rubbernecking about them. They're cute photos, and were within the Ravelry Terms of Service, and the only one that may have been a little questionable was put down at the bottom (ahem!) of my project page. I forgot about them, and didn't see a thing wrong about it.

Earlier this week, there was a thread in LSG asking which if your projects were favorited the most. I posted that project, as well as my Weird hat, both of which had been favorited 13 times. I went on with my day, la la la. That night, I go to see what's what on Ravelry, and I have a comment on that project. It reads "You are gross!". I thank the person for commenting, and point it out to a couple of people I'm friends with, thinking it's funny. I get a few positive comments from my friends to negate the person who thinks I'm gross. I later get another comment (which has since been deleted by the author) that reads "Congratulation. [sic] You got the attention you wanted." I'm like, Um, okay. . . maybe the earlier commenter clutched her pearls and sent it to her friend, much like I sent the earlier comment to my friends.

Then, a couple of people give me the "heads up" that my pullover has become a topic of discussion in another group, where the photos are called "obscene" "very inappropriate" and of "private parts". For reals? By the time I saw the thread, other people had found it and had come to my defense. I was willing to just let it roll off my back until I saw a post that read, "Actually the cellulose on those thighs is what I didn’t want to look at". OH NO SHE DI'NT! Putting aside the hilarity of the thought of me growing plant fibers on my thighs (does that make then spinnable?), I had to go and defend myself. Here's my response to the thread (Rav Users names have been redacted so as to not cause further drama):

Hello! Since I’m the person being talked about here, I figured I would chime in.

As far as I can tell, my photos do not violate the Ravelry Terms of Use any more than the projects of thongs and pasties that [redacted] linked to do. Just to cover my own butt (heh, heh), I did use the drop-down menu when uploading said photos that tags them as “Mature Content”. I’m not sure how the Mature Content filter works, but I would suggest that people do utilize that feature.

That being said, I think that calling the photos “obscene” is a little over the line. I personally do not find the human body in its natural state obscene at all, and further, I’m not naked in the photos. A Victoria’s Secret ad shown on television during prime time shows more.

As far as the “cellulose” (sic) on my thighs goes that [redacted] so kindly pointed out, well, I do what I can with diet and exercise, but the reality is that all women get it at some point. I’d rather that than have to live with a mean-spirited soul festering inside me that has nothing better to do than snark at someone else’s physical shape.

The moderator of that thread chose to lock and archive the thread, since there were some pretty inappropriate things said there. I'm really glad that I was able to defend myself before she did, though. I was fucking shaking like a leaf as I wrote it! I'm not terribly good at confrontation, even when it's not in person, but I was so glad to have friends to back me up on this. Very glad.

What I find VERY curious is that the thread, as well as the comments, started within an hour of me posting a link to the project in an LSG thread (all by people who are not members of LSG). There is talk that people read LSG just looking for things to be offended by (LSG means "Lazy, Stupid, and Godless", and the group was started after a thread called "Is swearing allowed on Ravelry?" went kablooey, so that those of us with potty-mouths can hang out together and not offend others). I do believe that the whole controversy started because someone was looking for things to get offended by in LSG. It's too much of a coincidence otherwise.

I did have a conversation with TPTB of Ravelry (which I initiated) about whether my photos violated the Terms of Service or not. One of the photos did show a bit of my buttcheek, and was considered "borderline", but TPTB never deemed it inappropriate but recommended that I might want to take it down. I thought about it, because if it causes drama once it may cause drama again, but decided to reach a compromise that should please everybody except for those who are offended by a bit of cellulite (and those people can bite me):

For those who aren't on Ravelry, who may want to see the rest of the photos, here they are in all their obscene inappropriateness:

So. . . what's the verdict? Am I a filthy slattern? Should I be ashamed and hide my cottage cheese? I "get" that the one that showed my buttcheek was a little more risque than the others, but I don't think that's the only one that people objected to! From what people were saying, you'd think I was flashing some beaver or nipple in the pics.

Good things came out of it: I got a good story to tell, I discovered that I have many people on Ravelry willing to come to my defense, and I made a few new friends, as some of those people who defended me were folks I hadn't had contact with before. It also gave me some good ideas for Flash Your Stash day (Muahahaahahaha!) that may offend a few pearl-clutchers yet not violate any rules.

So, let me know -- AM I a filthy slattern or just a girl who is not ashamed of her body? Don't make me write this big ol' post for nothing (I know I haven't been the best blogger lately, so I want to get the lurkers to come out and comment).

Sam I Am

2010-02-01T20:28:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I finished Mike's socks

I hope he never puts them in a box

I liked this yarn, the color of yam

Yes, I liked it, Sam I Am.

........

So, in the event that makes no sense, the pattern for the socks in question is Sam from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book. I started them on October 25, 2009 and finished them yesterday morning, January 31, 2010.

They are awesome, if I do say so myself.

Want to know what else is awesome?

Catching your cat cuddling and having the sense to run and get your phone to snap a photo:

Sorry for the drive-by post (like the last one). I'm about to eat dinner and do a bit of knitting while watching The Equalizer.

Oh, and the slang glasses are from Urban Outfitters. We have six - Douchebag, Fucker, Slut, Bitch, Pimp and Ho.

I haven't gone away!

2010-01-28T18:44:00.002-05:00

I'm just wicked busy, mostly with work, but there is a bit of a social life thrown in there.

There's no knitting content today, since I have nothing new to show, so I'll just leave you with some funny pictures:

Knotty Knotty!

2010-01-11T19:04:00.003-05:00

I am a knotty knitter and did not knit a gauge swatch for my Knotty But Nice hat.

The first hat was, shall we say, a wee bit large.

Hey, I had nowhere to go, nothing to do, so I just cast on again, and about 24 hours later, I had a new, improved, Knotty but Nice hat!!!!

I figured out what I could do to make it smaller. I did the initial p2k2 in needles two sizes smaller, and I eliminated the 7 rows of ribbing after the chart. I also eliminated a couple of the rows while decreasing for the crown. I sure beat the hell out of that yarn + needles combination!!!

I was so overjoyed that I didn't want to take it off. I acted as though it was MY hat, in addition to being MY triumph.

Forgetting that I had, indeed, promised this hat to another.

Often, in our moments of supreme exhilaration and triumph, it becomes necessary to neglect the wretched and needy.

But I was nice, in the end, and took off the hat. I know it's his, and I know I can make one for myself if I really want to.

I even put it on top of his dresser for him.

Let's not talk about my absense

2010-01-08T10:46:00.003-05:00

I know, I haven't posted in close to two months. I'm not sure what happened other than holidays and work-craziness, so I'm just going to leave it at that.

This is a long overdue post.

I'm at home today. I took yesterday and today off as vacation days to coincide with the last two days of Mike's company shutdown (2 weeks after Xmas! Booyah!), and now I'm sick. I had a doctor appointment (annual exam) on Monday and had a clean bill of health, then on Tuesday started coming down sick. Now I feel as though I've been hit with a shit bat. It's not so bad that I want to stay in bed, but bad enough to keep me from doing a whole lot. I either picked up something in the waiting room or, considering that Mike started feeling ill a little before I did, we both picked up something at one of the two parties we went to last weekend. Aah, the perils of having an active social life.

I just took my temperature, and it was 98.9. This morning was 99.3, so at least it's going down. My normal, healthy temp is around 98.2 (yup, I'm a below-average freak).

Let's move to the knitting.

In November, I took part in the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon. I mentioned that I had taken home a blanket to-go, meaning 35 squares to attach on my own time. I finished putting those together a while ago:

In typical Zanti fashion, I haven't delivered it to the Pine Street Inn yet. I've been in contact with the director, and I can drop it off any time, and there's no rush. It has inspired me further to think about making an afghan for us at home.

I also finished one of Mike's Sam socks, and made my way into the second one:

The pattern is loads of fun. I do have to pay attention to my knitting so I don't miss a cable, but it certainly never gets boring. Of course, I can't be loyal to one project, so I cast on for a Knotty But Nice hat for Mike. I quickly learned that knitting this hat is a whole lot like eating M&Ms -- I can't stop! I'm knitting it in some old alpaca/wool yarn in a brick red color. It was from a big box of yarn that I purchased in 2005 from someone whose aunt had died. The brand name is Musarde, and I have six skeins of 93 yards/skein. I have no clue how old it is, but I do like it. I may knit up a swatch to see how it felts as well, since it would make some warm-assed slippers.

I did make a quick hat to stuff in Mike's stocking:

It's the same pattern as the Noro hat I made last year (err, scroll down that post a bit to see it -- it looks as though I've made it a pattern to not post much during the holidays).

It's cold here, and seems to snow every weekend. Typical. I think it snowed for a day and a half last weekend, but we haven't gotten hammered like other parts of the country have. As much as I don't want to be lazy and stay in all weekend, all winter, it does seem like it's going to happen.

Hey, I did go out for a while yesterday -- we took Ellie to her vet appointment. She gained over 2 lbs. in the past year. Poor dear is fat. And lazy.

The doc gave us a goal to get her down to 12 lbs. in the next two years. Hey, my doc gave me a goal to lose 20 lbs, but she didn't give me a time limit. Maybe Ellie and I can diet together? I have already decided to lay off the sweets, and I haven't had any since those EPIC cherry/chocolate scones we had at a brunch party on January 2nd. I think that was my last day of decadence. Almost a week with no sweets is a pretty decent track record for me; I should hop on the scale, and I would, if we had one.

I also realize that I should be laying off the beer -- not that I really do drink a lot of it, but I've been known to have one or two over the weekend, while spinning or knitting (or watching TV). But HOW can I not have a beer, when I found the perfect pint glasses?

Y'all KNOW you want these pint glasses! I got them at Urban Outfitters, and I really need to go back there, since there are a few birthdays coming up that may require these. We had to make room in the cabinet for these, but they were worth it (especially at the price - 2 for $10!!!!!). They also have "Pimp" and "Ho", which I hadn't realized until later were connected to each other (I thought at the time that the "Ho" one was a Christmas themed glass, and passed it by. I had noticed the "Pimp" one, and as I was going home after purchasing them, I said, "oooooooooh, yeah, Pimp and Ho! DUH!")

I got a photo of Luciano yawning, which made us laugh so hard Mike got stomach pains:

The non-zoom version is funny, too. Mike said he looks like an ineffectual rattlesnake:

It probably couldn't hurt him to lose a few pounds as well.

Just to prove that my photos aren't all about making fun of my cats, here's a lovely one I took of Ellie:

Well, it's hard to find a non-silly photo of Luciano, isn't it?

Oooh, you can see my gold boots in that photo. I'm such a show-off!

I hadn't worn those in a few years, but I've worn them twice recently. I love those boots!

I think it's time for me to go to a warmer part of the house and make some more tea, maybe get back to knitting and watching some more 90210. I'm almost done with season 3, and soon it's buh-bye Brenda!

I'm Weird.

2009-11-24T20:32:00.002-05:00

It's never been a secret. I'm Weird, and so is Mike.

Three hours after I last posted to this blog, I had finished the hat. It took me a couple of days, lazy ass that I am, to take some photos of it. It took me over a WEEK to post that I had finished the ferkin' thing.

MySpace-type self-portrait:

It's a little big, but fits well enough. It was a fun adventure in intarsia. I made the chart using KnitPro, a free web application that can turn images into charts.

The hat was to celebrate Mike's forthcoming book, The Weird World of Eerie Publications. It's with the publisher now! The logo is one of the logos used in the comics.

I used Dale of Norway Hauk yarn, and size 3 needles. The yarn feels still when you first knit with it, but once it's washed it softens up nicely. Plus, it's machine washable -- but I told Mike to always hand wash it! I'm afraid of some of the ends that I had to weave it coming loose from the agitation of the washing machine.

I'm glad to have tried this; I'm not always one to take risks (not that there's much to risk -- just time and yarn). It was an idea that came into my head the day before a trip to WEBS, where I purchased the yarn. It took less than two months for me to start the project -- possibly a record for me, since I usually have several ideas bouncing around in my head that never see the light of day (what was that zombie book I was going to write again?).

I'll say it loud: I'm Weird, and I'm Proud.

Knit-A-Thon!

2009-11-15T15:07:00.002-05:00

Last weekend was the finale of the Pine Street Inn Knit-A-Thon! I made a total of 12 squares, and was feeling very proud of myself for doing so, and then I saw women coming in with garbage bags full of squares and knew that I will need to do better next year.

Personally, I raised $380.00. As a whole, the Knit-a-Thon raised $35,000 for the Pine Street Inn!

It was fun!!! I helped put together a blanket with some of the other South End Knitters and we even had time to pose for a photo:

I had to leave at around 2:30-ish (I got there at 11 a.m.) so that Mike and I could spend some time in the great outdoors while it was a nice day (we went to nearby Allandale Woods, and found a salamander, but haven't updated our other blog yet.)

I brought home a "blanket to go", so I could put together a blanket at home and deliver it to the Pine Street Inn when it's finished. My first step was to lay the blankets out on the futon so I could assign each square a place. It seems like I had plenty of help with this:

Mike also helped with the arranging and color-coordinating, but he stayed off the squares while he did that. Why do cats like to sit on whatever it is you are doing?

Luciano also tried to claim the bags the squares came in as his own:

I was having none of that, and the squares are back in the bag, in their assigned order (with numbers pinned to each one, just in case). I've been working on that periodically, along with the other projects I've mentioned in recent posts.

I'm sick today, and have been most of this weekend. During the week, I was blowing my nose a ton every other day, and sneezing but otherwise felt fine. I had a crappy night's sleep on Wednesday, and felt really tired on Thursday and Friday (but still, not entirely sick, although I did have a sore throat for a while on Friday). Here it is, Sunday, and my #1 symptom is still being tired. Sure, I have blown my nose quite a bit today, but I don't feel too bad other than being really tired. I don't have a fever, or any other H1N1 symptoms like chest discomfort, so I don't think it's that. I think it's just a cold with a nice added bonus of malaise.

I've been working on Mike's orange socks today, and have two whole pattern repeats of the leg done. One more to go, and I can start the heel flap! The more I knit it, the easier it gets.

I still haven't woven in the ends on the other side of the Weird hat. I guess the 90 minutes it took me to weave in the other side has turned me off to it. What sucks it that doing that and turning up the hem is ALL I have to do on this, and then I'm DONE!! I feel like a bit of a turd for not doing that tiny bit that's left. Hopefully I can finish that today while sitting on my ass and watching more movies.

I haven't spun since the last time I posted about spinning, nor have I blown the dust off the Swallowtail Shawl yet. I have had one request for a hat for Xmas, but otherwise I am hoping to only work on finishing the projects I have on my needles for the rest of 2009. I'll cast on something new on January 1, 2010, but nothing new unless I finish everything I have on the needles before then! Can I do that?

Now I just need to figure out what to put in the DVD player when I return to sitting on my ass and knitting. I already watched "Prison a Go Go" (which I recommend, since it's hilarious!) and all of the extras. I finished my current disc of "Beverly Hills, 90210" from Netflix yesterday. Now I need another great, trashy, funny film to watch - zombies optional.

It's all about yarn. And cats.

2009-11-06T10:20:00.003-05:00

Yup, that's what it's all about. Yarn -- making yarn, making things with yarn, hoarding yarn until your yarn hutch pops open by itself. That's what it's all about, whatever that it is.

First up, making yarn:

Feel like making yarn! bah-dum-dum, bah-dum-dum, feel like making yarn! bah-dum-dum, bah-dum-dum. . .

I started back up on spinning the 8 oz of blue fiber I got in last year's Halloweenie swap on the knittyboard. It's a blend of domestic wool, and really gorgeous. I know the Mister covets the colorway (called "Moody Blues").

Speaking of my honey, his Sam socks are coming along:

I love the color. It's more carrot that hunter cap.

check out this mess of spaghetti:

That's the backside of the secret project I alluded to in my last post. Since taking that photo, I've woven in the ends on one side of it and actually finished the knitting part. Now I have to weave in the rest of the ends and hem it.

Here's the front:

It's a little puckery -- changing colors and keeping things looking nice is hard! The Weird logo is one of the logos used in the comic books that Mike's upcoming book is about. I'm really surprised at how fast I knit this -- I started right before Rhinebeck. Usually a new-to-me technique takes a while. I used the KnitPro application at MicroRevolt to make the chart (I LOVE that application!).

Since I have no more knitting photos for you, I thought I'd post some sleeping cats photos.

Here's Luciano looking much like Marmaduke as he sleeps inside the scratching post:

He loves that thing -- I don't know what he'll do when he no longer fits in it. You can pick it up and turn it sideways, looking in at him, and he purrs. That thing has great acoustics.

He also likes to lay on his back with his feet in the air:

Sometimes he does the classic curled up kitty pose:

Meanwhile, Ellie's most favorite place in the world is on the new sheepskin we bought for her at Rhinebeck:

She's definitely claimed it as her own, and makes bread on it every chance she gets. I did sit on it on the couch one chilly day, and it does help generate heat.

It's been a long time since she fit in the cat scratcher. This photo was taken a month after we adopted her:

She was definitely MUCH younger than the 1.3 years the MSPCA said she was. I wonder how old she was when she had her kittens?

I have a bit of a busy weekend coming up. On Sunday, I'm getting together with several other knitters to put together the blanket squares for the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon I talked about in my last post! This should be exciting!

I don't know when I'll have time to make more progress on my current projects. Maybe tonight, after the gym.

Belated FOs Post

2009-10-30T13:14:00.003-04:00

Folks, I've been remiss in posting some of my FOs. I actually took these photos and uploaded them the same day I made my last post; however, two blog posts in the same day bugs the tiny bit of me that is anal-retentive, and I also didn't want to put my FOs in with my Rhinebeck post because they wouldn't fit in there. Again, a tiny bit of me that is anal-retentive (if you saw my housekeeping you would surely see that that bit is not only tiny, it's microscopic. I would say that I'm anal-expulsive, but that's just gross).

Getting that out of the way, here are my fabulous (and still in the to-be-handwashed-pile-since-that-very-day) Socks That Go To Eleven:

This yarn was FUN! It's superwash wool from an Etsy seller called Sharing, who sells really lovely yarns and project bags. This colorway is called "Neon Lights". I used the Chevron pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks, and size 1 needles.

Here's a little something I came up with on my own (well, sorta):

I used a houndstooth stitch pattern from an old stitch dictionary book put out by Spinnerin. I was too lazy (yes, I was too lazy, and will be the first to admit it!) to figure out how to convert the stitch pattern to knitting in the round, so the houndstooth part is knitted flat, but the ribbed parts are knitted in the round -- I cast on provisionally so I could pick up the stitches for the cuffs. I had to sew up the seam, of course. I may try to improve on this idea by converting the pattern to the round, and maybe make them fit a little more snugly, especially around the fingers.

It was a stash buster project -- I had a tiny bit of that cornflower blue yarn leftover from some blanket squares I made, and the red was leftover from one of the pairs of alligator mittens I made 3 or 4 years ago. At the time I started these mitts, I didn't know if the yarn was Cascade 220 or Lion Brand Wool-Ease, but I think now that it is Cascade 220, meaning I can't put these in the washer. Crap. The cornflower blue is washable, probably some kind of acrylic.

Speaking of stash busters and blanket squares:

These are some of the squares I knit up for the Pine Street Inn Knit-a-Thon on November 8. I've knit 12 in all, all of them machine-washable. The Pine Street Inn is a local homeless shelter/assistance program, and the blanket squares are knit to raise funds to help the Inn place homeless people into permanent housing. Several knitters will meet up on November 8 to sew the squares together to make blankets as "housewarming presents" for every person going into his or her new, permanent home. I'm not completely whoring for donations here, but if you want to, my pledge page is here.

Luciano says, "Oh no you di'nt!"

I have a few other projects on the needles. My Swallowtail Shawl hasn't changed much since you last saw it. Shit, that was right after Ken died. I was reluctant to work on it with Luciano around, and it is in a safe place but has a thin layer of cat hair on the top. I really need to work on that soon.

My Lacy Waves Sweater is under the couch. Remember back in June when I had a fit over it and threw it across the room? I started to work on it again, and decided that I just don't love it enough to finish it. Attempting to frog it, with all of the bound-off stitches along the neckline and sleeves, caused it to get off my lap and fly across the room again, so for now, it lives in the box that the yarn came in.

I started a pair of socks for Mike with some of the yarn I purchased at Rhinebeck. That link will just take you to my Ravelry page for them, and the only photo is a photo of the orange yarn I got at Rhinebeck. It's the "Sam" pattern from Cookie A's book "Sock Innovation". It's a slow-going pattern, but it's really interesting with the moving cable and all.

I've been working on a secret project for Mike. It's not a secret from him, but it's a secret from everybody else because it's using intarsia and I've been askeered to say I was doing it in case I mess it up and frog it. Hopefully it's at the point now that I can talk about it. I often have grand plans for things that I want to make, but I don't want to be one of those people who always talks about all these GREAT things she is going to do and how COOL it will be, only to have it never happen. I'm sure y'all know exactly the sort of person I'm talking about. I don't want to be one of those, although I think I in generally come clean when I've fucked up. I hope I do. After all, it's only yarn, it's only projects, and I'm only human.

In the "only human" department, I certain haven't spun in quite a while. Oopsie. I started spinning some gorgeous blue stuff months ago, but I don't think I have a photo. I know I have spun since we got Luciano, because I was surprised at how well-behave he was with my wheel. Since then, he has run around with blue fiber hanging from his mouth -- he pulled the end off my spinning. All fibery things need to be locked up from him, as well as all needles and plastic bags (since both he and Ellie will chew on them). Cats. . . what a concept.

Hopefully soon I'll have some good WIP (and maybe FO) photos for you!

Rhinebeck 2009!

2009-10-19T10:19:00.004-04:00

What better way to make a 2 month blog absence comback than a post about Rhinebeck?!?

We left mid-morning Friday and made it to Kingston (where our hotel was) around 3:30. We unfortunately were given a smoking room with the explanation that it was what I had booked. The smell hit us like a ton of bricks once we walked in, but it got a little better after we were there for a while. Unfortunately, most of what we had in that room now smells like cigarettes.

This is what my boobs and I have to say about a smoking room:

I think we may try a different hotel next year, and not just because of the smoking room. We're way overdue for something different. Tradition, smadition.

We got some awesome, but kinda expensive, Mexican food at a place in Kingston called Rosita's. The food was seriously good but a little more than we're used to paying for Mexican, but they did give us A LOT. In fact, half of my dinner will be my lunch today -- our hotel room did have a fridge, and the car stayed cold enough to keep it on the way home.

When we were leaving for breakfast on Saturday morning, about seven turkeys were looking for food along the side of the driveway at the Rodeway:

We were told that it was opening day for turkey hunting season, so I think it was a good thing that they started ducking out of sight when we stopped the car to take photos.

On to the fair!

As usual, there was beautiful fiber everywhere we looked:

As well as displays of projects:

Including some "wearable art":

Her only request for the photo was that I crop out her shoes. She was wearing plain black clogs; I suppose she wished they were painted to match.

There was lots of knitting going on:

And beautiful tools of the trade too:

I barely spun this past year, so I didn't buy a spindle from Golding's. Maybe next year if I'm a good girl and spin more. I love the Tsunami spindles (upper right hand corner), and they do have smaller, lighter weight ones that are fairly reasonably priced (about $44). My other spindles are a $4 job I bought when I decided I wanted to try, and the one I bought from Spinsanity on Etsy for under $20, which is absolutely gorgeous and has the same alpaca project on it from when I first got it about 2 years ago.

Golding's also had this thing of beauty:

HOW BADLY DO YOU WANT THAT? I really wish I had a house large enough to have that on display always. I'm not sure if I want to know the price, if it was indeed for sale.

There were also animals galore:

There were so many super-sweet llamas, but they liked ZMrK more than they liked me, I guess. I didn't get any kisses.

One of the alpacas gave him a kiss as well, and he said they have bad breath.

I only took a few photos at the little zoo. The poor sulcata tortoises were out, and it was freezing! The same with the poor gator. Only a few of the animals gave me good photos:

I really like geese, but they're mean as shit. A couple of them that were much bigger than these once trapped me in the corner when I worked at an animal shelter. I also got bitten by a swan once.

Mike loves feeding goats because they are so obnoxious about it:

It looked like a mosh pit of goat noggins.

A couple of calm ones napped in the back of the pen:

Then there were the bunnies. No shit. They were really cute:

Bunny, meet Dollipede:

Working at said animal shelter provided me with a great many reasons NOT to get a pet bunny: (a), they poop a lot, (b) their pee is very acidic and burned through the fiberglass cages, (c) my eyes and nostrils used to itch like mad when I had to clean their cages, not to mention the little round poops that would roll all over the place, and (d) one of our local shelters is often overrun with homeless bunnies.

But Mike really loved them, as you can see. They are so damned cute. But no, we didn't come home with a bunny.

There were also really cool carved pumpkins:

And the meetups! Woo hoo, the meetups! I went to the Rav meetup "on the hill", and met up with other members of the Lazy, Stupid and Godless group:

I also managed to look like I had a missing front tooth:

That wasn't the only silliness on my part that weekend:

Red Heart Penis For The Win!!!!

Mike got into the silliness as well:

Not as obvious a penis replacement as my Red Heart.

Not silly or perverted; I just like the great big red-eyed tree frog representative for one of the dye companies.

I also finally met my favorite fellow Rubbernecker, Terri:

She blogs even less than I do.

We had to hit the road shortly after meeting up with and kissing her. Getting home was pretty clear until we hit the Mass Pike, which is the majority of our trip:

Yup, snow. FUCKING SNOW. IN MID-OCTOBER.

It sucked this much:

As it turns out, it only added about an hour and some minutes to our return trip, but that was an hour we could have spent drinking beer.

Now the big question is, "What did I get?". I certainly got less than I did last year, which was less than I got the year before:

I don't think I can leave Rhinebeck without buying one of the Tsock Tsarina's kits:

When I saw the drawing for Golden West, I knew it would be spectacular. What stupid me didn't do is take a photo of the display of the finished object. Well, she's got one on her blog. It is so fucking cool. I hope my skillsnesses are up to knitting this one.

I also got Candy Cane self-striping yarn from Holiday Yarns:

As much as I was tempted, I did not get the Bacon colorway. I think I'd be so hungry every time I looked at my feet (although it would make a really cool scarf, wouldn't it? BACON SCARF!!!!!!)

Also, this:

770 yards, multi-tonal orange, superwash merino sock yarn for $20. Enough to make socks for both Mike AND me! This was from Fessler Spinning and Weaving, not one of the "big name" yarn sellers but really nice folks from Pennsylvania.

I think that Ellen's Half Pint Farm is the best kept yarn secret there is:

475 yards merino/bamboo/nylon in a gorgeous pinky blue colorway (should I call it SkyBluePink?). I used her merino/bamboo blend last year to make the Fawkes socks, if you recall.

This is 400 yards of merino/nylon and the photo doesn't do it justice. Plus it's the softest shit I bought all weekend.

Again, photos don't do this justice. It's 400 yards of worsted-weight merino in a cool light green color that I got from Oasis Farm Fiber Mill. They're in Maine, and I had never heard of them prior to yesterday. I'd love to use these to knit up my friend Amy's patterns for an embossed leaf beret and matching cowl.

Y'all know I have the best husband in the world, right? And that sometimes I let him buy stuff for me? Yup, he got me this:

Something about it just spoke to me. I love Burgis Brook Alpacas, and the project sitting on the spindle I linked to earlier is alpaca from them. I think that goes back to 2007, but I'm embarrassed to look.

We got a sheepskin rug for the cats:

Once we realized Ellie would be making bread like crazy on one of these, we knew we had to get one. We did, for $38, and it's pretty darn nice.

I also purchased Hiya Hiya DPNs in US Size 00 and 000, for tiny little projects, and some Addi Turbos in US Size 3, 20" for a current WIP that I don't have photos of, and more cheese than we have had in our fridge for a long long time.

We finally got some deep fried artichokes! At 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, there isn't a long line for them. We didn't get the artichokes french (maybe next year), but the deep fried artichokes were worth the wait! I also finally made it inside the booth for The Fold, which is always super crowded (also less crowded on Sunday morning, once they decided to open, which was probably around 10 a.m.), but I wasn't blown away by it at all, nor was I blown away by the colorways of Socks That Rock that were left. I think I am an Ellen's Half Pint Farm/Holiday Yarns loyalist.

Overall, it was a great time. I went with lower than usual expectations; I don't know why, but I felt like I was setting myself up for some sort of disappointment as far as socializing goes. Maybe it was my own social anxiety getting in my way. As it stands now, I think it was the most fun we have ever had at Rhinebeck. I'm already looking forward to next year!

These Socks Go to Eleven

2009-08-17T20:24:00.002-04:00

That's exactly what I am calling this project on my Ravelry project page.

This is the gorgeous sock yarn I purchased from this etsy vendor last month. I wasn't sure what I wanted to knit with it -- I did look for a pattern called "Angels" because I wanted to call them "Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin" with a rock and roll nod to the Runaways, but alas. I also thought about knitting Monkey, but, to be honest, I don't really like the way really wildly colored yarn looks in that pattern. So I knit up a swatch and let that be the deciding factor.

Hmmm. . . it will knit up in very thin stripes. Aha! A Chevron pattern would be perfect!

So, even though I did knit up some socks in a Chevron pattern before (and they sure were wild), I decided to knit them again, but better.

And the name? It's a reference to Spinal Tap, of course!

I'll leave you with some other pretties -- some vintage knitting, crochet and tatting magazines that I got at a yard sale the other day for a quarter each!

Here are a few that I picked up at Brimfield Antique Fair last month:

Don't envy me too hard.

Full of Fail turned into Full of Win!

2009-08-11T20:13:00.002-04:00

I feel so full of fail right now. Not only have a barely blogged this summer (summer? don't you mean YEAR???), but I finished my socks two weeks ago and haven't posted them yet.

I hope to now turn that fail into a WIN!

Gratuitous Ellie shot:

Hopefully I can gain some readers back by posting cute kittie pictures.

It's never not funny when Luciano does this. He looks like a cat skin rug. Or a leaf gecko. I can never decide which one.

He does Pilates too:

And delivers the smackdown to his poor big sister:

The funniest part of that picture? Ellie's face!!! She looks like she's thinking, "Holy shit -- here it comes!" I've seen her give him an unprecedented wallop a couple of times, though.

Last Saturday's brunch was also full of win:

I'd weigh a million pounds if I did that every week. We only go to this diner on the way to one of our hiking spots. For the record, it's the "50s Diner Special", which is 2 eggs any style, choice of 2 meats, home fries, choice of a short stack of pancakes or French toast, and a bottomless cup of coffee for under $9. I've never finished it.

Another win is putting grapes in your cheeks and lips and taking funny photos:

It's really hard to do without cracking up, and thus looking like the Cowardly Lion:

A cute baby, laughing and trying to grab at your camera -- that, too, is full of win:

Okay, so I was going to post about some crazy internet drama (relating to the Yarn Harlot, Ravelry banned members, Sock Summit, stalking, moebius panties, etc.) that is full of fail, but decided to turn my post into one that is full of happy things. So there, drama llamas! :-p

Swap Spoils and Other Pretties

2009-07-25T19:44:00.002-04:00

I participated in a swap on the Rubberneckers forum on Ravelry. My swap spoiler, a blogless (afaik) Stanzi, was able to give me my presents in person because she was visiting her sister in Boston for a week!

Here we are at the Dogwood Cafe:

Stanzi looks awesome -- she looks like her! Me, well, I'm a little pasty and puffy looking, making me wonder if I ever look like that? Do I need to lay off the beer and ice cream? I think it's all in my smile -- sometimes a wide smile pushes my cheeks out and makes my eyes disappear. Yes, I've analyzed.

Here's some of the pretties Stanzi gave me:

Mmmmm. . . Sumdrama -- I mean, Sundara Yarns! The Rubberneckers refer to it as "Sumdrama" because of the drama that arises when some people get this yarn that other people think they're entitled to. It's exclusive, you know. This stuff IS gorgeous, and a color that could be in danger if ZMrK decided to pick up the needles.

Lovingly handmade project bag! I love that it's shaped like a ballerina slipper case (well, sort of) and it has a handle to slip over your wrist. I have no idea how to make this style project bag, but I like it.

Two Rubberneckers themed badges, and a cute sheepy zipper pull. Dollipede is something the mods threaten us with when we're bad (if you think that's freaky, don't ask about the Lotus Bewb). And WANK because so much of the drama the Rubberneckers watch is just WANK WANK WANK about [pick a subject: the disagree button, copyright, exclusive yarn, acrylic vs. wool, breastfeeding, politics, and Whatever Wank Hasn't Even Been Thought Of Yet.] If it exists, there will be wank about it.

Some amazingly soft fiber from Hudson Valley Fiber Farm. This stuff rocks. I'm tempted to keep it natural when I spin it, to have some beautiful off-white handspun fiber. I'll probably get dye-happy with it though.

Not pictured: homemade Buckeyes (they were eaten more of less that night), incredible Belgian Waffles from a shop in her hometown (they're awesome warmed and topped with ice cream), BEER from Cleveland! (Burning River!), some Columbus and Ohio related magnets and postcards, and something else that I can't recall right now because it was about two weeks ago. Amazing I remember the Buckeyes and waffles.

I put together a lovely package for my spoilee, Jennatonnix. I included some handmade stitch markers, which I was smart enough to photograph before shipping off:

I also sent her the purple blue and pink sock yarn, second from the left:

Okay. I have to tell you about this etsy seller, Sharing. Yes, that's her Etsy shop name. I ordered three skeins of sock yarn -- the two on the left, and the one on the far right. The second from the right skein, in the autumn colors? She sent that free. As a thank you. I'm not kidding. Oh, and the content? MERINO/CASHMERE.

The Neon Lights in the front came caked (which is good, because I plan on knitting up that stuff SOON). I tried to find a sock pattern called Angel, because I'd like to call them Neon Angels on the Road to Ruin (after the Runaways song of the same name). But, nope! So I may make monkeys.

Speaking of monkeys. . .

Well, he's not a monkey, but he does like yarn a little too much:

We came home from a hike on Friday night to that. Thankfully it only took about 15 minutes to rewind, and thankfully it doesn't appear he ate any, even though he did chew through a couple of spots.

Yarn needs to be locked up now.

Inspired by Stanzi's project bag, I made myself a project bag (to go with my many projects) with some fabric I had a small amount of:

In case you can't see that too well, yes, those are pink kittens:

I used the tutorial at this blog (which I've had bookmarked forever) and added the handle myself. My handle could use some improvement, which I'll work with on bags I make later (because I will).

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

He's Lucky He's Cute.

2009-07-03T10:23:00.002-04:00

The other day, after putting on my makeup, I walked into the other room to see this:

Thankfully, the yarn isn't any sort of super-special yarn. It's some sort of acrylic/fake-mohair/blend that I purchased on eBay years ago when I was buying tons of yarn on eBay. I should make something with it, someday, but I'm not 100% certain how many yards I have. I'd say, not enough for a full scarf, but too much for just a hat. Maybe I'll make a neckwarmer and see what's left.

The night before Luciano did this, he got at my wheel and pulled off the unspun fiber hanging off it, running around with blue wool sticking out of his mouth. He did that again this morning. So, the wheel has to be kept in a room with the door shut (which it is anyway, from the days when Ellie used to chew on the band).

Otherwise, he's still a good kitten. Sure, he does try to climb up on us to get certain foods (peanut butter is a favorite of his -- who would have thought that?). The abundance of cat toys in the house really helps us out there, plus Ellie is the ultimate kitten toy.

It's all worth it for shots like this:

Although I think I prefer his "gangstah" pose:

On to knitting -- I do still knit, you know. I finished one of my floral lace anklets:

The Regia Silk is awesome. Have I mentioned that before? It's so soft and luxurious feeling. I want to wear them all the time, yet I'm afraid of wearing them out quickly. That's the rub with socks, I guess. I wore out many pairs this past winter, and can't knit fast enough to make more.

I haven't worked on the Lacy Waves Top since I posted my frustration on the lace insert. I should go ahead and finish it, then see what it looks like post-blocking, but I'm afraid it may fall victim to being the wrong yarn for this project. Le sigh.

I also haven't worked on the Swallowtail Shawl for a while, mostly because of the attention span involved and because of working on lace with a kitten around may be too distracting. I can't work lace at a knitting group -- I just can't talk or listen while doing it without screwing up.

Much of it may be put on the wayside for the South End Knitters' latest group project -- the Annual Knit-a-Thon to benefit the Pine Street Inn! You can learn about the Pine Street Inn's mission here. My page is still a work-in-progress, and I have yet to cast on for my first square, but I set up a page here. I've never done any charity knitting (mostly because I'm not the Fastest Knitter in the West, or the East, or the Northeast even), so I'm a bit nervous about getting anything done. At least I have until November to do it, and it would make a great commuting knitting project. I've been collecting as many afghan square patterns as I can, and one of my friends has a pretty one on her blog. She makes gorgeous patterns as well; I see a different sweater or tanktop on her every time I see her.

I'll leave you now with Ellie's centerfold shot:

WWKIP!

2009-06-14T20:07:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, was WWKIP (World Wide Knit in Public Day), and, for the first time, I took part in some group activities.

ZMrK and I got up really early to arrive in the South End by 9 a.m. See, I recently started meeting on Thursday nights with a group called the South End Knitters. They have been responsible for a few pieces of knitted graffiti around the South End. They were underway with a special tag to hang outside of the Animal Rescue League of Boston. I didn't contribute to the tag, but I was happy to help (and offer Mike's -- hey, let's get rid of this ZMrK stuff, he blogs as Mike and that's his name! -- height to the cause).

(That's Tara, not me! Although my hair has been that color before, you weren't fooled, were you?)

There I am! Concentrating!

Looking a little worried here -- I was working along for a while, sewing away, and then it was pointed out that the sides weren't properly lined up and it was going on crooked. I noticed that it was more of less happening since I took over the sewing. Oops! How embarrassing! It was a really fixable error, though, so it wasn't the end of the world.

I love these black cats (of course!!!). It's a free chart on Ravelry, and I'm hoping to use it for just about everything.

Beth and Amy help me get things straightened out.

Group shot with the finished product!

We also gave them a group donation of over $250. The ARL has an anonymous donor who will match any donation over $250, so that's great news since they are a privately funded organization.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Copley Square to participate in WWKIP Day. I saw a few familar faces there, and sat and knit for a while:

Around noon, I was getting hungry and antsy, so Mike and I went to get lunch and ice cream, and got home around 3 p.m. It was a good day.

Now, for an abrupt change of topic, here are some kitty pictures.

Yup, they're getting along.

I don't know what it is about the ribbon on the end of our backscratcher, but it has made almost every cat we have had go insane:

After all that hard playing (all of the above pictures were taken within the same 60 minutes), both cats had a nap attack:

Funny how that works!

Sick Day

2009-06-10T10:41:00.004-04:00

Well, I'm home sick today, but am getting better. We went hiking over the weekend, and something in the woods had a strong, herby smell that made me start sneezing quite a bit after a little while. I was sneezing on Monday, and snuffling, but thought it was just allergies. On Tuesday, I left work around noon because I was also feeling weak and achy. I came home and relaxed, watched a couple of movies (Lust for a Vampire and Witchfinder General, if you must know) and fell asleep. ZMrK was able to capture the moment:

Yes, that is both cats sleeping with me! They're getting along well. They don't cuddle, but they do rassle a whole lot.

They both slept in with me this morning as well, until Luciano decided it was playtime. Everything is a toy to him, you know.

Then he passes out.

Ellie joins in the playing as well:

I'd love to say she has lost weight, but she hasn't, yet. It's difficult to feed her the restricted diet food she is supposed to have, and feed him the high-fat, high-protein kitten food he is supposed to have, and not have them eat each other's food. I try to remember to pick the food up when I leave for work in the morning, so she doesn't graze all day, but that doesn't always happen. She is running around and moving a bit more lately, which is good. I wish we had some stairs. That would probably help her a bit.

I have been knitting, though not as much lately. Or maybe it's just that I'm knitting more slowly.

I'm still working on the Lacy Waves Top. I finished the front and back. I had a little breakdown a couple of weeks ago when I screwed up the front, which resulted in it being thrown across the room and then frogged part of the way, but I recovered from it. I'm working on the insert panel, and started it for the third time yesterday.

Um, hello? Either it's a good argument for using the recommended yarn, it will all work out through the magic of blocking, or I am one crappy knitter, because I think it looks like a mess of tangles. I really hope I can work this one out.

I'm doing much better with the Floral Lace Anklets from the same book:

Granted, those were started and frogged, due to the fact that I was following the wrong chart for a while, but now it's coming along nicely. I am using the recommended yarn (Regia Silk) and I really love working with it. I may use the Regia Silk I have in red to make the Long Long Lacy Gloves from the same book (hm, Lace Style is getting some mileage from me).

I've been trying to get some spinning done lately:

This is from 4 oz of Colonial from CJ Kopec Creations. I received it in a secret pal swap package on the Knittyboard from my fabulous partner Maiziemama, a couple of summers ago. I have a few blends from CJ Kopec, and they're all gorgeous.

I love the colors on this. I'm tempted to not ply it, but don't trust my spinning enough for my singles to work out. I have no clue what the yardage would be, but with plying, it should be around a fingering weight. There wouldn't be enough for socks, so it would need to be a nice little pretty like a neckerchief or a pair of pretty mitts.

This is what it looked like, pre-spinning:

Here's another spinning project I've been working on:

It's roughly 145 yards, pure merino (allegedly) with about 3/4 of a bobbin left to spin. I'll probably Andean ply the rest. The end result is nice and soft, and I think it will be nice knitted up (I'm thinking about the neckwarmer in the latest issue of SpinOff). I haven't been thrilled to spin in though. Merino is still a little too soft and slippery for my inexperienced spinning mitts, and the preparation on this fiber sucked.

From the outside of the bag, it looked blended, but inside the bag there were clumps of each color just sitting in there. I used the handcarders I bought at the last Rhinebeck to blend some of it, and did one bobbin blended by me, and one bobbin of the pre-blended. For this final bobbin I said "fuck it" and just spun what was left.

I definitely prefer to spin coarser fibers. That Colonial I showed above was a dream to spin. Falklands, BFL, Corriedale -- that is all great stuff to spin. Merino is very soft and slippery, and give me superwash or something with tencel and you may as well put the razor to my wrist. My only success with alpaca has been on a spindle, spun super fine, so I won't curse it yet. I'm sure I'll get better, with experience. Sometimes I see people who have only been spinning a short time and are producing lovely yarns, and I want to wave my fist in the air at them. Of course, they spin more often than I do, and everyone has a different learning curve.

I have a few new purchases too.

I had a $100 gift certificate to Newbury Yarns, thanks to the attorneys I support, so I used it to purchase some Manos Silk Blend and still have some $$ left over! No, I'm not taking it out of the ziploc bag until I'm ready to use or pat it. It was tough to get the 6 skiens of a brick color and 1 skien of black in there. There was an adorable fitted t-shirt in the spring Interweave Knits made from this yarn, and I want to make it with some slight mods to the flowers on the top (I don't want flowers, I want cat heads). This should do the trick.

This blurry photo is of 200 yards of sportweight cashmere I purchased at the NH Sheep and Wool for about $13. I figured I'd give it a try at that price.

I figured I would finally purchase some sock yarn from Dorchester Farms! The guy is at every sheep and wool fest I've ever been to, and his stuff comes highly recommended. It's also inexpensive and he had Mardi Gras colored sock yarn. I couldn't go wrong!

I realized that I never did a blog post for the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Fest. Oh, hai, blogger fail. Well, it was a gorgeous day, there was sheep, there was wool, there was a cute widdle 10 day old goat, and I stuck my photos in the "Sheep and Wool Fests 2009" set on Flickr. I don't think there's much more to say.

There is a saying.

2009-05-26T10:04:00.002-04:00

That saying is, "You find true love when you are not looking for it."

That saying is quite true. That is what happened with ZMrK and I.

It happened to both of us last weekend. We were not looking for another cat, and we absolutely were not looking for a kitten. Then we met this little booger who was for adoption at our vet's office.

(Gratuitous "cats n rack" shot there.)

Luciano is about 3 months old, and is as devilish as he is cute.

We realize that he looks like a mini Ken, and I realize he looks like a mini George (another former cat of mine) as well. Most black domestic shorthairs have this look.

He hasn't quite grown into his legs, which are like that of a Great Dane puppy.

He sure knows how to stretch though:

Ellie is slowly warming to his charms, but for now looks perpetually annoyed.

They have at least both been sleeping on the bed with us the past two nights. Luciano seems to be a pillow cat -- he likes to sleep next to our heads. That works for now, while he weighs about 3-5 pounds, but within a few months he is probably going to more than double his weight. It will be very interesting to see how that happens, huh?

He had a buddy at the vet's office in Atari, the office cat. Atari is a big love, and he and Luciano had some wrestling matches:

There are also some kittens a month younger than Luciano for adoption, but he was a little too much for them to play with.

The good news is that Ellie does like to play rough; she and Ken did it constantly, with her usually being the instigator. I think she'll be happy (and maybe lose a little bit of excess weight) once she realizes that Luciano is game for it. I can't wait to see the forced grooming!

So, welcome Luciano to our family!!!

Sheep! Wool! Yarn! Sun!

2009-05-06T21:20:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the CT Sheep and Wool, and boy, was it a glorious day! It was that rare April weekend where it's in the EIGHTIES and sunny. It was just lovely.

There were, of course, freaked out sheep:

Annoyed llamas:

Bunnies that were oblivious to their own cuteness:

and, something that doesn't seem to be at every sheep and wool festival, ox cart rides:

ZMrK highly approves of these oxen.

I bought 8 oz. of spinning fiber for about $20:

I think it was from Hampden Hill Alpacas, but I'm too lazy to go check the label.

I also got some sock yarn:

I know the colorway is "Hunt for Red October", but have forgotten the vendor's name. I could walk ten steps to the yarn hutch and check it out, but the hutch is a little. . . less. . . orderly than it was two months ago when I organized it, if you know what I mean and I think you do.

I also bought four bars of soap from Sleepy Moon Soaps, who don't seem to have a working website at the moment, which is a shame. I got four bars of her soap last year and fell in LOVE with them. The bars are $6/each or four for $20, and they are HUMONGOUS. The scents are to die for as well. Last year's soaps lasted me 8-9 months, seriously! Apparently they are sold at some Whole Foods stores in New England, which is nice, as I may try to pick some more up for gifts.

We were with my friend Jean and her sister Susan, and we dropped Susan off at her house and met her dogs. ZMrK hit it off with Maggie:

Bailey is a little more shy, but just as beautiful.

We went on a nice long walk on a nature trail with Jean. I decided that, instead of recapping those on my blog, ZMrK and I would do a joint effort blog so I created one here. That way, I can keep my knitting and personal rants here, and post the pretty nature pictures there. Of course, we haven't done anything with that yet. :)

To cap off my weekend, I started our vegetable and herb garden:

Or should I say, tomato and basil garden, because that's all we have. We went with Roma tomatoes this year, and decided to get Thai basil along with sweet basil. I also have some Hungarian hot peppers sprouting indoors, but they won't be ready to go outside for a while. We made some kickass hot sauce with last year's Hungarian hots! I hope to get more this year.

I always was thrilled to be able to show off my knitting in the sunlight:

This is coming along; I knit a few more inches on it since I took that picture. I also finished the pair of 2x2 ribbed socks that I've been working on since March. I haven't taken a picture, yet, but I'm wearing them right now.

Ellie's been doing really well as an only cat. She gets excited when she sees another cat outside, and she's almost always looking out a window:

I do think her personality has "blossomed" toward us. Ken was her life and love before, now, it's us. She's getting her own routine going, and we're beginning to figure out which meow means what, depending on the situation. Have I ever mentioned that she's very vocal? She has hello meows, she has feed me meows, put me down meows, play with me meows, etc. She also has 5 a.m. meows, which aren't always appreciated. She's been cuddling on my chest when I read in bed at night, which is adorable. Don't get me wrong -- she had a personality before, and was quite lovable. She's just showcasing it more, or we're paying more attention. Either way, we're happy.

Next up should be the NH Sheep and Wool Festival. Let's hope for good weather!

This is weird

2009-04-17T09:07:00.002-04:00

I found a new blog this week; one following the recent Ravelry drama. It seems to focus entirely on one group of individuals, however, and not Rav-wide drama. As far as I know, it was NOT started by someone from the Rubberneckers group.

WIP it!

2009-03-24T18:47:00.004-04:00

I bet nobody in the history of knit blogging has used the title "WIP it!" while showing pics of their works-in-progress. Nope, nobody. Not even the Yarn Harlot.

Feel free to kick me for that one.

I've been working on a few projects lately. Let's check them out, oldest first:

Boring Socks.

I call them Boring Socks because that's what they are. Knit 2, purl 2 ribbing for the cuff, heel flap, heel shaping, gusset shaping, the k2p2 for the top of the foot and knit the bottom until you do the toe shaping. I started them when I needed a project to work on on the train or at a knitting group.

~~Sweater~~Lacy Waves Top from Lace Style:

Um, do I remember the name of this? No, I don't. Okay, I just went and checked my Ravelry projects page and its the Lacy Waves Top by Norah Gaughan.

I took the above photo on March 21, and the next day I went to my lovely Sunday knitting group and got a bit more progress done on it:

It's grown!!

It's about as exciting a knit at this point as the Boring Socks are, but I can knit it while watching TV, which is more than I can say for that Swallowtail Shawl.

Speaking of the Swallowtail Shawl. . . I ended up frogging it. Again. I couldn't tink back one stinking row, so I frogged, and ended up having to sacrifice a couple of yards because it tangled so much. I started it again, and have a ridiculously early lifeline in. That'll teach me!

I also practiced some crochet:

I know it's not great but it's a start. I think I want to move on to some granny squares. I'd love to make a blanket with some of the scraps of yarn I have laying around.

Has Ellie lost weight?

I don't think she has, yet, but we are trying to get her to reduce a little bit. Speaking of that, I need to reduce a bit as well. The pants I wore today are a wee bit snug around my bottom. I'm now on my 2nd day of making sure I get some exercise -- yesterday was a 40 min. workout at the gym, following by a 20 min. walk home. Today was a 30 min. walk through the hilly part of town home. I've been trying to get my eating habits back to normal and not eat so many damn sweets. I haven't made a goal yet, because I don't know how much I weigh.

The next question is, should I publish my weight on my blog and continue to publish my progress? Will that give me some accountability, or just set me up for failure? I'll tell you my size, right now, is a 10 or a 12, depending on the store. My size, when I started this blog is 2005, was a 4. My size in late 2003, when I started weight watchers, was too big for a 14 in the "regular" stores and too small for a 14/16 in the "big girl" stores.

Where do I want to be? Not a 4 again. I was so neurotic about my food intake that I must have been lots of fun to be around. I certainly don't want to be bigger. I'd guess around a size 8 or so would suit me.

Now, I'm hungry.

Moving on

2009-03-18T18:43:00.004-04:00

Thank you to everyone who has commented on my blog, on other places online, and in real life. I know it doesn't feel like I'm making much of a difference when I say, "I'm sorry" to someone who is grieving, but, having been on the receiving end, it does help to know that people care enough to say they are sorry.

I want to move on, to happier blog stuff. Like Ellie in the window:

Or in the closet:

How about my parents' new kitteh, Peaches:

Peaches playing with the stuff mouse I gave her (that I made, of course):

(I caught her while shaking her head in this picture, which made her lip look funny and puffy. No, she doesn't have cheek puffs like the Simpsons' cat does.)

I really like her "cattitude" look here. Reminds me a bit of Solvie:

Peaches is cute, and so tiny compared to our chubba bubba! I've seen her eat, however, and it won't last.

How about some knitting?

I started the Swallowtail Shawl in February. I'm about 35 rows in, but ended up with two more stitches on the needles than I should have, so I must have thrown in an extra YO or two. I need to tink back, but I hate tinking, so I've put that one on ignore for now. It's only one row, 101 stitches to tink back, but I'm a lazy bint and haven't done it.

I've been working on boring socks too:

I tried to knit the Swallowtail at my SnB, and it was making me crazy, so I decided to cast on for simple, 2x2 rib knit socks that I can take to my SnB and knit on the bus/train. These are them. The yarn is some random wool yarn I purchased on eBay in 2005 that was hand-dyed (probably with Kool-Aid).

I also cast on for the Lacy Waves Top from Lace Style, but I have no photos of that. I'll do that at some point; that's pretty mindless knitting so far as well (which is great for watching movies), as the back has some ribbing, then stockinette stitch for 14 inches. Snooze. The yarn is really pretty aqua blue Gedifra Cotton Merino.

We're finally getting some signs of Spring here. I've seen some robins, and a few crocus blooming, daffodils pushing out of the ground, and today I had nice itchy eyes every time I came in from outside. I really shouldn't complain, because OMFG I'M FINALLY SEEING SOME SUNLIGHT!!! and I CAN GO OUTSIDE WITHOUT WORRYING ABOUT SLIPPING AND FALLING ON ICE!!!!! I think I've made it pretty clear how I feel about the warm months (love 'em!) and the cold months (want to kick them in the taint).

Isn't it nice to read a blog that doesn't mention any Rav Drama? ;)

Ken

2009-03-14T10:10:00.002-04:00

I've been having a hard time getting up the courage to write this post. It feels as though if I don't blog about it, I can make it not true, although I know in my heart that it is true.

Ken is gone.

He went into heart failure last weekend, and had an overnight at the emergency vet hospital where they removed fluid from around his lungs. He never was 100% (or even 50%) once coming home, so he went back and it turns out his kidneys were going too.

I don't know how old he was. Between 5 and 8, I'd say. We've only had him for 18 months or so, but he was the most important thing in our lives.

He had so much love in him, for us, for Ellie, and for life. We'll miss him.

Stash Reorganization?!?

2009-02-24T20:14:00.002-05:00

It's not Flash Your Stash day -- yet -- but I really felt the need to take all of my stash out of the hutch and do a nice reorg on it.

Here's the before:

And here's the after:

What do you think? Does it look good? Organized?

What is troubling is that I was finding stuff and saying, "HUH? I had THIS? When did I buy THIS?" and would look at the receipt in the bag and find that I had purchased it within the past year. *sigh*

I went to WEBS on Saturday for an LSG 1 Year Anniversary meetup and spent about $100 there. I also got a good "group grope" photo (well, ZMrK took that one):

Check it out! I've got, like, three different people going for my boobs! Awesome!

Oh, and I have more old photos of me to post. I'm sure you'll enjoy those. I'm glad that y'all enjoyed the other ones. I'd love to post them regularly, as I kinda self-centered that way. :)

No Way Around It, Kids!

2009-02-12T15:51:00.002-05:00

It's my birfday!!!

Today is the day -- I am FORTY YEARS OLD. FORTY. Can you believe that? If you had told me, when I was 18, that I'd be doing a blog post at age forty I would have said, "1. What the fuck is a blog post? and 2. I ain't gonna be alive at forty!" But, here I am, alive and somewhat well (I think I'm coming down with something, but I'll be okay).

To celebrate 40 years of ZantiMissKnit, I thought I would do a nice little photo recap of my life. Of course, I can't find one of my photo albums of my family pictures, so I can't show you what I looked like as an infant. I dug up the earliest photo I have of me:

No clue how old I was, except that I was under 4. I was blonde, too! With brown eyes! That's not terribly common, you know. Most of us go dark as we get older (like I did).

That's my cousin SueAnn and I, one Easter. It was between, say 1980 and 1982, I would say. I have a hard time telling ages, and you can't tell by looking at my boobs, because I've been wearing a bra since 3rd grade and was a 36C by 7th grade.

The back of this photo said it was developed in January 1983, and it looks like it was taken around Xmas, probably 1982. I had a really ugly and awkward stage, and even though I offered this photo as proof, ZMrK still doesn't buy it.

This was taken the day of my 15th birthday party, in 1984. Can you believe I thought I was fat? Can you believe I did that to my hair? The other girl was my bff at the time, Elisa, whom I long ago lost touch with.

Here I am, in 1986, 16/17 years old, rockin' that John Hughes character look. That, of course, has to follow with:

Not my actual senior picture, but one of the ones that didn't quite make it. This was my Facebook profile pic for a while. It cracks up my nieces.

You know what comes next, right?

FUCKIN' A, PROM!!!!! My date and I recently reconnected on Facebook, so I had to post the pic for his wife and kids to see. Here's another of us; I think it was his 18th birthday, the year before:

Y'all have seen me make that same face, several times, haven't you?

Here's my so-called life as a so-called suburban punk kid (in my late teens):

and a pensive moment of me at age 20, in my jammies:

It wasn't long before debauchery set in:

Then I moved to New Orleans, and really had some fun:

(You know when you do something bad on Rubberneckers or LSG, and the mods come in and get all bold text and sexy with you? I always imagine then in this post, with a spiked heel and riding crop on someone, smoking a cigarette through a telescopic cigarette holder. See, I've always had a love for lots of props. I was going to join drama club in high school, but decided to get an after school job instead. I still have a love for the dramatic, especially when it comes to photos, and I'm glad that I usually have friends willing to go along with it.)

I was blonde again, for a couple of years:

This was taken on the Pacific Coast Highway, somewhere between LA and SF.

This was in Orlando, seeing the Woggles. Yes, it was hot as all get out.

Wow, I've got a few years missing here. . . like, 2002 up through this past November:

Fuck you! I'm dyeing my hair!

But I figured you have been seeing photos of me since 2005 or so, so you know what I look like.

But I will leave you with a photo taken 2 months ago, of Ken and me in front of the portrait ZMrK commissioned 2 years ago.

Happy Birthday to me!

Stitch Markers!

2009-02-08T15:51:00.002-05:00

I decided to make some stitch markers yesterday. I have shitloads of beads, here and at my parents’ house, and just needed the split rings and head pins (which I purchased at the good ol' A.C. Moore). Here are the results:

These are beads I bought several years ago. I had put seed beads on the one on the left (zebra striped), but managed to break them with my pliers. I have five more of the beads on the right, so I could do a matched set. I did have five more of the zebra striped ones, but I had made a bracelet out of those, and I'm not sure if I still have it.

I had two little plastic cubes I had purchased pretty cheaply years ago; one was shades of green and the other black and silver. Each cube has 20-30 beads of different sizes in it.

Both of these stars came from broken earrings. This gives me something new to look for at yard sales this year; bags of junk jewelry!

I went through a big polymer clay bead binge about 15 years ago, and still have at least one coffee can full at my parents’ house. It may be high time to do something with these.

I also still have tons of polymer clay. I should make some more beads, these ones knitting-themed. Plus, ZMrK has never seen beads be made via the roll-up method, and I think he'd be fascinated by it.

I think these are my favorites. I love the little black hearts; too bad I only had two black heart beads.

I do have one problem with these – the end of the head pin is still a little ragged, and I’m afraid I could snag my yarn on it. ZMrK says I should be able to file it down with a metal file. Has anyone ever done that?

I don’t know if I’ll ever get to the point of selling these, but I may give some as gifts (if I can get them to not snag the yarn!). There are a few RAK opportunities going around out there, and I'm sure I could find them happy homes.

There's no big knitting news here. I made another pair of fuzzy feet but am still weaving in ends on them. The yarn I used is yarn from ZMrK's ex-co-worker, and I hadn't realized that each "ball" was made up of several long bits of the yarn, so I have to keep starting with a fresh bit. Snooze. I'm going to hold off on felting them until I can knit up a few toy catnip mice, too.

I have started the Swallowtail Shawl -- twice! I'm about 18 rows or so into it, so far, and have a long way to go. It doesn't seem like a very difficult pattern, and hopefully I'll have a pretty picture of my progress for next week. I'm using some laceweight cashmere by Just Our Yarn that I purchased at the Mass. Sheep and Wool Festival in 2007, in a violet/black/lilac colorway. I'm already wondering where the hell I'm going to block it!

Mittens!

2009-01-27T20:37:00.002-05:00

I finished my Noro mittens this past weekend. ZMrK was kind enough to model them for me:

I think that is one of the coolest FO shots, ever.

I had a dream on Sunday night that I changed my Facebook status to read that "I probably shouldn't sit on my butt all weekend. I'm turning into a human jello shot." I need to get on a good exercise schedule again, and keep it up over the weekends. I weighed myself at the gym tonight: 160 lbs. That's A LOT for a 5'3" gal, big boobs or no big boobs. The good news is that my gym workout tonight was the 2nd bit of cardio so far this week (the first was a 30-min walk from the train station to my dentist's office yesterday -- I got off the train a few stops early). I also did 30 minutes of Pilates/Bellydance yesterday.

I know that I feel much better when I exercise. I'm not just talking mentally, but physically I have less ailments. It's just sometimes easier to sit on my butt, drink tea, and knit while watching a DVD on a cold winter day.

I don't have any solid weight goals, or a time line. I just want to be healthy, and not gain anymore weight.

Have you noticed that I haven't even mentioned last year's New Year's resolutions and goals, and whether I met them? *whistles* I haven't even looked at the post!

Knittin' Mittens

2009-01-24T20:36:00.003-05:00

I had one skein of Noro Kureyon -- what to do with it?

I also have several skeins (or balls, really, they were frogged from a WIP) of a mystery yarn -- some sort of Lamb's Pride type single spun yarn that is somewhere between a worsted and bulky weight, and does not felt that I decided to use in conjunction with it, since the color of this yarn matches the purple in the Kureyon.

I'm making mittens!

Big fat cuff, super warm mittens for a winter that is only half over. I think every winter I end up making so many winter accessories. Some day I'll need to designate an entire dresser to these accessories.

But for now, I dance!

It's mah butt, lookit mah butt, here's mah butt!

I also gave ZMrK a nice skeptical look, which translated well to the "cartoon" special effect on my Kodak software:

Someone I went to high school with told me I looked like a cartoon character, on multiple occasions. I guess this is what she means?

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on my last post. I'm staying away from all the political groups now; the ugliness that was around post-election day has only dissipated a little bit. Why does everyone have to have such an "us against them" mentality? I don't hate people who voted for the guy who ran against the guy I voted for. I don't even hate the guy who ran against the guy I voted for. Screw politics. Let's dance!

Spinning!

2009-01-21T19:49:00.002-05:00

I forgot to show off the yarn I spun:

It's the corriedale/merino/silk that I purchased at the Connecticut Sheep and Wool last spring, spun rather fine and plied with some gold embroidery thread from A.C. Moore. It was an experiment, and so far, it's been a successful one. It remains to be seen how it knits up.

I'm thinking of trying to do some sort of nice cowl with this. There's about 280-300 yards (I think), and like it said, it's rather fine. Not quite lace weight, of course, but maybe around fingering weight. It's hard to tell with the fluffiness of it; I usually associate fingering weight with tightly plied sock yarn. I may have to just play around with it and some needles, just to see what it wants to be.

I need to go to a more serious topic now: racism. I've been pretty active on a certain site lately, and I have seen stuff that I disagree(1) with. I have, however, never seen anything that prompted me to report a post. I know I could be bringing the wrath of the racists on me by posting about this, but I am going to go ahead and do it anyways without naming any names.

This is what the post said: >>On a funny note: I saw a new thread du jour in the "patterns" forum, called "Inaugural Scarves". Yeah. Right. Over here we have another
name for those: Nooses.<<

Seriously. I was HORRIFIED. The post was reported (and not just by me), and the post was later edited. I didn't bother to send the poster a PM, nor did I attempt to post in the same thread questioning her choice of words. I just reported it to TPTB.

So, tell me, did I overreact?

There's no excuse

2009-01-19T12:27:00.002-05:00

No, really there is no excuse for the three week or so (no, I'm not counting) absence from blogging. I may have bored the shit out of you if I had blogged though, 'cuz there's nothing going on.

I did finish the Here There Be Pirates hat though:

I've worn it, quite a bit in the past few weeks.

I lost a bit of my mojo lately. I have been attempting to make Frankensocks since the first of the year, but the pattern is just not working out for me. I moved to crochet to try the Chronium Star Baby Blanket, but I don't think my crochet skills are there yet.

So I made some amigurumi food instead:

Thinking that I warmed myself up on crochet, I attempted the star blanket again, but no go. Then I tried the square hole crocheted hat from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders with some Noro Kureyon that I purchased on eBay about 4 years ago. Mind you, this is the third time I've attempted this pattern. I had to stop the first time because I found out there was errata, but the errata had been taken down from the publisher's website while they've revamped. I did attempt, with the errata, to crochet this but it just looked like a big fugly head doily, so I decided that this pattern isn't a good match for me.

Instead I knit a different pattern from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders:

The hat came out great, and it fits both of us. I made it yesterday while sitting on the couch watching Beverly Hills 90210 on DVD.

This was my first time knitting with Noro Kureyon. My thoughts while knitting with it ranged from "wow, this stuff is cool" to "*I* could spin yarn like this". The thick/thin can be really apparent when there are spots in the knitting that are "gappy" due to it being thinner. The bulges from it being thicker don't bother me though. I have one more ball of this colorway, so I'm making some mittens, using some label-less deep purple Lamb's Pride-like stuff* for the cuffs.

*It's like Lamb's Pride in the sense that it is a single and feels like it has mohair in it, but I don't think it's Lamb's Pride because it is a bit thicker and doesn't seem to felt (I tried).

In other news, it's snowed about 5 times since I last posted. Twice this weekend alone! We also had a week of weather that was between 1 and 15 degrees (I hope that is over). I'm ready to kick winter in the taint and move on.

Also, Ellie had her annual appointment and has been put on a diet. I wonder why:

She's on Hills R/D, which we can only buy at the vet's office, and is really expensive. It's okay for Ken to eat it as well.

Speaking of Ken, he's doing pretty well. He bit the shit out of ZMrK's hand this morning, and tried to eat some of my yarn. He also enjoys lunging on Ellie and biting her, and had an obsession with the walls of my closet one day:

I wonder if we have mice.

I discovered that that fucking orange cat that I call Curtis has been pissing on our front porch. I don't know whose cat he is; I think he belongs to the people next door. He's out all the time, and the lady behind me feeds him. He's not neutered, so he travels all over the neighborhood, pissing off all the other cats. He likes our yard because we feed the birds. I've seen no evidence of him killing any of the birds, yet, but it could happen one day. We've had up to two dozen birds in our yard at one time. ZMrK came home to find a hawk in one of the trees, so the large number of birds is attracting predators.

I just hope that the landlord doesn't think the cat pee smell is from us, you know? They've been showing the upstairs apartment (which has been vacant since Sept. 1; know anyone looking for a 3-BR?), and I don't know if people are picking up on the cat pee smell. I can just assume that others don't have the awesomely fine-tuned nose that I do. Fucking orange cat.

I won't promise that I'll post more often, but I'll try.

Springing Forward towards 2009

2008-12-29T10:01:00.003-05:00

Seriously, that was the best title I could come up with. I'm sorry.

What I'm not sorry about is finishing my Spring Forward socks:

Mmmmmm. They were a little big, because I had swatched and machine washed the swatch and knew exactly what would happen. I washed them once, and they shrank a bit and now fit ever-so-perfectly!

I love the snaking rib down them. It reminds me of the game "Chutes and Ladders" (which is sometimes called "Snakes and Ladders", but the version I had was "Chutes").

This freed me up to work on another project:

That's the "Here There Be Pirates" hat from Hello Yarn, made with some Dale Baby Ull. The colors are brighter than the photo suggests, but I was too lazy to work at a better photo. At first I was really slogging through this pattern, as each round takes between 5-10 minutes, AND it requires following a chart. I'm definitely becoming a more intuitive knitter, and/or I've memorized the chart, because it has become much easier.

I would love to be done with this by midnight on New Year's Eve, making it my 13th FO of 2008, but I know better than to push myself. It's my first attempt at colorwork, and does require a bit of attention, and each round takes between 5-10 minutes, so it may be done over the next weekend instead. I'm about halfway done with it, though, and it is quite a fun knit.

I also set aside some time for spinning:

This is the turquoise and gold Coopworth/Merino/Silk that I purchased at the CT Sheep and Wool, and I finally finished plying it! I had to ~~go out~~ have ZMrK drive me to A.C. Moore and purchase more gold metallic thread to ply with it. I had hit my sweet spot and I didn't want to stop until it was done! The remaining bit of plying took about 2.5 hours -- I watched "Demons" (1985 super gory Italian flick) and "Macabre" (1980 kinda sleazy Italian flick) while finishing it up.

Here is the single I worked on to warm myself up for plying:

The photo color is crap, but it's pink, black and white merino. ZMrK had purchased this (7.5 oz) for me at the NH Sheep and Wool Festival a couple of years ago (2007, probably). It looked lovely, but inside there were several clumps of the fiber in the different colors that weren't blended. I have blended those clumps with my new hand carders, and I'll spin up a bobbin of that. I'll have to show that off too.

I really need to take photos of my Christmas gifts. I got THREE skeins of Malabrigo sock yarn! Damn, I could probably post that somewhere on Ravelry and have people get all pissy with me for "hogging" it all. Hey, they were gifts from my pets, and who am I to refuse them? Man, they are so gorgeous. I got another skein of sock yarn that is purple, yellow, and orange, but I don't know who the vendor is. ZMrK also gave me "Knitting Lingerie Style" and "Romantic Handknits". I think I'll be very busy in the upcoming months.

I think my first project for 2009 will be Knitty's Frankensocks, done in Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn. I could change my mind in the next four days, though.

Merry Christmas!!!!!

2008-12-25T10:31:00.002-05:00

Hope you and yours are well and happy today!!!!

I got spoiled, per usual, by ZMrK and our pets -- enough yarn for 5 pairs of socks, some gorgeous knitting books, jewelry, comix, DVDs, chocolate -- but most important, love.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Congratulations are in order!!!

2008-12-22T11:25:00.001-05:00

To the wildly entertaining blogger Bezzie, who not only has welcomed a new little one this past weekend, she managed to keep that bun in the oven a secret from most of us in blogland!

SNOW!!!

2008-12-21T15:59:00.002-05:00

It's been snowing here since Friday afternoon. It may have stopped for a few minutes.

This is what our house looked like yesterday morning:

That big piece of shit snow drift on the roof is still there. When it comes down, it's gonna take out our bird feeder.

Our desktop is in the hospital, getting a virus cleaned up while hopefully our photos and other work (like the latest draft of ZMrK's book) can be salvaged. So, I'm using the laptop, which I'm not used to AT ALL. Such a tiny little keyboard!

We've been inside all day. We had to go out yesterday to get my hair cut, and then ZMrK went to the post office/to get lunch/to get beer. Then he had to go out again to bring the hard drive in to be checked out by the Geek Squad. But today, we're indoors. Thankfully the landlord takes care of snow removal, and a couple of teenagers came by to shovel the walk and stairs. Yes, I offered them hot cocoa/coffee but they declined.

I should get more photos while the shit it still there. It's stuck to the trees and there has been barely any movement out there. I think it'll be there a while though.

This is what I have to say:

Two!

2008-12-07T18:45:00.003-05:00

I have two finished objects to show off today! Both have been languishing for a few months, so it felt great to finish both this week.

First, are ZMrK's socks:

This yarn is from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, and I purchased it at least 2 years ago. I knit these socks on #3 needles, but went down to #2 for the cuffs, since ZMrK is thin. We're both quite happy with how it came out.

Second, my Dickenson Pullover!

It's a little "roomy", but oh-so very comfy and warm. The sleeves come halfway down my hands (which I rather like in a sweater, since my hands are often cold). It's so roomy, I had to do jumping jacks in it:

I've already cast on two more projects; I just don't have photos yet because that's boring. One is the "We Call Them Pirates" hat by Hello Yarn, and that will probably look a mess until I get more of it done. The other is the "Spring Forward" socks from the summer 2008 Knitty, which are coming along beautifully already.

Today we went to the Bazaar Bizarre in Boston. They moved to another location (their third since I've been going), but it was no less crowded than it has been before. There seemed to be a consistent line down the block -- it was there when we got there, it was there when we left. I did buy some cool stuff, including a skein of sock yarn from Woolarina. I'm so bloody tired, though -- we were only there for a couple of hours, but we were on our feet the whole time. I'm just about read for bed. Of course, that may be the cold medicine talking (yup, I'm a tad bit sick).

We also got our first snowfall today. It's just a little dusting, and it's not really sticking to the street. If this is all we get this year, I'll be happy. I'm sure we'll get more though.

Ken is doing pretty well. He "broke in" my new sweater last night when I was in the shower -- I came out to find a spot of it was pulled up, with teethmarks. He did have a bad drooling episode today, brought on by the crushed pill in his food. It must have tasted bitter. He wouldn't go back to that food dish; he was going after Ellie's food instead. Smart cat. Ellie has been going nuts entertaining herself with various "toys" -- today she found a drinking straw on the floor and was going beserk with it.

I was going through my flickr set of FOs for this year, and only came up with 10 there. I think there are at least two more that I either didn't photograph yet, or didn't put in that set. I'm thinking I'm up to 12-15 FOs. I don't know what the most I've done in one year is, but this year is probably it. Even with my period of losing my mojo, I still managed to be a fairly productive crafter.

Well, now that I'm practically nodding off at the computer, I think I had better get going.

Need a witty title about updates.

2008-12-02T18:43:00.002-05:00

Ken had his ultrasound with a heart specialist today. He does have restrictive cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart), and a clot outside one of his valves. The news isn't the best we could have hoped for (that would have been, "oops, our bad, your cat has no health problems!"), but I'm hoping we'll be able to treat it with medication. He needs to go back for a blood test in a week, and another ultrasound in 3 months.

Now, about that sweater I've been knitting. . .

This isn't going to get it done, is it?

Ellie was all over me when I was trying to knit the other day, the little bugger.

Oooh, but I wuvs my widdle bebeh kitteh.

I was trying to pick up and knit approximately 172 stitches for the neckline, and I had strategically placed markers everywhere. It's one of those "it makes sense to only me" moments.

This is what the sweater looked like before it grew its Ellie appendage:

Damn, that's a lot of cables.

I did finish knitting the collar last night -- in fact, I'm done with ALL knitting on this thing, and just have to seam it. I "tried" it on last night, and went to check it out in the full-length mirror (in the bathroom). I stopped by the bedroom to pat Ken on the head, and when I went to go into the bathroom, I discovered I had a "shadow" following me. Ken was going after the long tails hanging down! He followed me all over the apartment like that, and then Ellie discovered he had discovered something fun. I wish I had the camera fired up for that one.

So, if I have seaming to do, what the heck am I doing sitting at the computer?

Hopefully I'll have a new sweater to show you in a day or two!

Ken is well

2008-11-26T08:42:00.003-05:00

None of you have probably read ZMrK's comment on my previous post regarding Ken, mostly because I forgot to confirm it until now.

Ken is well. The doctor does NOT think he has cancer. It's possible that he has cardiomyopathy, which is a heart condition. We need to schedule for him to get an ultrasound from a heart specialist to confirm that. Right now he does have some fluid in his lungs, so he is on a couple of medications that should help him out there.

Apparently he put up quite a fit when they were trying to get x-rays, and they had to sedate him. He was really out of it Monday night, but would not sit still and was staggering around the house. Once in a while he would roll onto his back with his tongue sticking out. If we weren't so worried we would have laughed. He also growled and hissed at us, and growled, hissed, yowled and jumped at Ellie. She's a little nervous around him now.

Last night (Tuesday), he was back to close to normal. He purred quite a bit, and may have even given the blanket a half-hearted violation when we weren't in the room. We really thought giving him his pills would be a problem, but one of ZMrK's co-workers told us about Pill Pockets, tasty little morsels that you can shove a pill into. We probably could get the same result if we cooked up some hamburger, I'm sure, but these come in a convenient bag and he seems to like them.

Thank you for all of your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. If you don't mind, I'd like you to keep them coming. I'd love to have a healthy Ken for a long time.

Yard Work

2008-11-23T15:39:00.002-05:00

For all those folks in other climates who romanticize crisp autumn days in New England, I give you this:

2+ hours labor raking and bagging leaves
1 torn leaf bag
1 pissed-off husband due to the torn leaf bag
4 overflowing bags of leaves, plus 1 3/4 bag overflowing with leaves
1/2 mouse (the top half) found in the back yard while racking said leaves (damn cats)
2 sore shoulders
1 sore butt

and, finally,

approximately 5 or 6 more bags' worth of leaves in the back yard that we do NOT have bags for.

At least it (1) got me out of the house for a while and (2) probably burned some calories. But I am sure as shit going to feel this one tomorrow.

Too much to ask for?

2008-11-22T13:46:00.003-05:00

Is it too much for ask for healthy cats?

Ken has had some intestinal problems lately -- loose poop and occasional barfing. He also had an episode last weekend when he came in to the living room, drooling and a little discombobulated. He recovered pretty quickly, and his appetite has been good, but we thought he should go see the doctor anyway.

The doctor wants us to bring him in for x-rays/ultrasound on Monday. He suspects intestinal lymphoma. I believe that is what I lost my cat George (who resembled Ken in more than just appearances sometimes) to in 2000.

Please, Diety of Choice, please let Ken be okay. Please let him get through this. I'm not certain I can go through the emotional turmoil again.

Keep us in your thoughts, please, that he will come through this with a clean bill of health.

Marathon Knitting

2008-11-15T20:02:00.002-05:00

I'm usually not one to do "marathon knitting". I try hard to not give myself deadlines, and try to not knit nonstop for hours. Today was different though.

See, I had decided that I wanted my Dickenson Pullover done by Thanksgiving. That's all well and good, but not when some nights I only knit one or two rows, and most nights less than ten. That will not do at all.

Today I knit the entire sleeve cap, and bound it off. I feel a little stiff now, in my back and my hands especially. My body doesn't want me to cast on for the other sleeve right now, but considering how long it took me to knit the first one, I should get cracking. Finishing the second sleeve isn't the end, and I'm not at a week and a half until Thanksgiving.

I kinda hate when I give myself what sounds like a reasonable deadline and then don't make it. I started this sweater around September 2. Sure, my sweater knitting time does average around 2.5 months, and this is a cabled sweater and thus a first for me, but I don't think that deadline was unreasonable. Either the second sleeve will fly, my fingers will fall off, or I'll finish right before I fall asleep after my Thanksgiving dinner.

I caught Ken in the act of violating my pajama pants the other night:

He tends to move around in a circle when he does this, twisting the object of his lust in the process. When he was finished, my pants looked like a spotted loaf of Challah bread:

I like how he sits there looking sheepish while the evidence lays behind him (and Ellie looks disgusted with the whole thing):

Speaking of Miss Ellie, she's been looking really photogenic lately:

This photo really tugged on my heartstrings because she reminds me of Solvie in it:

Ken, of course, knows he is handsome:

I really should not spend every Saturday indoors, all day. Granted, I didn't do that last weekend, but I did that often last winter. I did that today, in fact, but at least I got dressed. It was really shitty and rainy out today, and I think we even had some hail. It sure sounded like it. It's not a habit I should get into, you know: sitting on the couch all Saturday, drinking tea and eating banana bread, especially when one considers how tight the corduroys I wore today feel. Maybe once this sweater is done, I won't have any more deadlines and can take my time knitting something.

Before I publish, I want to thank everyone for the comments and compliments on my hair. Nobody at work has noticed yet -- can you believe that? The color I use (and this is for Bezzie) is Loreal Couleur Experte in 6.4 "Ginger Twist". It has all over color and "harmonizing highlights" that you can apply afterwards. I tried to make a really dramatic highlight in the front but it didn't come out so dramatic. Damn subtle highlights. Oh, and Bezzie -- my natural haircolor isn't as dark you think it is. It's rather a medium brown. The dark hair I was sportin' for a couple of years was also hair dye. I was using a deposit-only color that was supposed to be close to my own color, but came out really dark. The last time I used it, it was damn near black.

See, this:

Not natural. And really, not too attractive at that point. Ugh. Way too dark for my complexion.

I can't even find a picture of me in between hair colors. Shit, I know I was trying to grow out my natural color about a year ago, so you could totally see my roots and my greys, but damned if I can find the photo. My photostream on Flickr contains almost 4,000 photos, and I have tried to keep them organized. In a few spots, I've failed.

Okay, I've got to flounce off to dinner and a viewing of "Mother of Tears". Ta ta!

On the edge of a Flounce

2008-11-12T08:59:00.003-05:00

What a sad little blog I have. I give my readers an open mike -- the opportunity to say ANYTHING at all -- and I get three comments. *sigh*.

So, what do I do now? Do I just flounce and close the blog altogether? Do I go completely batshit crazy with the blog and post the most random shit ever, to the point where anyone who stumbles upon it might think the blog has been taken over by a spambot? Or do I just start posting more often, with stuff that is of interest to potential readers, hoping to gain some readers back?

I think I'll take door number three for now.

I'll introduce to you some Knitting Content:

This is the progress on my Dickinson [Dickenson? Dickinsen?] Pullover. I think I spell it differently every time I type it. Oh, well, if anyone still uses Google and not Ravelry to look at projects made from popular patterns, with all the spelling variations I've used, it should turn up. I have both the front and back done, and am about 5 inches from being done with one sleeve. My goal is to have this done by Thanksgiving. I still have a ways to go (another whole sleeve, seaming, collar, and blocking). It's for me -- I'm a selfish knitter -- but I have a feeling my mom is going to want one too.

Here's the part of the photo that should be of interest to ZMrK:

It's mah butt. He noticed it after he took the photo. This is in case y'all didn't believe me when I said I have a shelf butt.

I also plied some of my handspun this past weekend:

It's only about 70 yards, and I have another bobbin and 1/8 of a bobbin to go. I had spun the singles back at the end of June. I plied it with some gold thread from the craft store, and I will get a better photo over the weekend, when I have time to photograph stuff when there is light outside.

Okay, plying. Plying is a pain in my shelf. See, I spun the singles clockwise, so I have to ply them counterclockwise. Getting the wheel to turn counterclockwise while making sure both plies are being fed in nicely can make me cry. It takes FOR-FREAKING-EVER. Plus, I just can't get it going cold. I have to spin some singles counterclockwise to get a rhythm going, and then I have almost NO BOBBINS to use. Well, I still have a spinning disaster on a bobbin, shoved into a drawer. I suppose I had better get that crap off. It's the worst stuff I ever spun, and I lost the end somewhere in there. Twice. I started the process of just cutting a new end, and unwinding it, and then lost the end again. It's some superwash stuff that I dyed myself, and I don't really like how it spun up. It's so bad I contemplated tossing it, but decided maybe I can use the bits and pieces for some arty yarn later. I just need that damn bobbin to be clean.

The above photo is part of my project 365. I need to take a photo every day for 365 days. It's supposed to be a self-portrait, with at least part of your body in it. I decided that I really need some good lighting, and to get a little creative with it (hence, the handspun on my head -- oooh, I'm so artsy!).

A couple of my other self-portraits:

I call this one, "Fuck you! I'm dyeing my hair."

Here's the end result of that dyeing session:

Yup, the bitch is back! I'm a redhead again. Last night I added highlights, but they're fairly subtle. I'll have to take some photos in the sunlight this weekend. I really would love a blonde streak in front, but I think I'll wait until it's a bit longer to do that. I've been feeling like having more glamorous hair lately.

Okay, so y'all convinced me not to flounce. Or did I convince myself? I'll try to post more often, and if I find something that I can part with, maybe I'll run a contest. Contests are a good way to get readers, right? Bribery, you know. Then I can tell another really inappropriate story and have all my readers flounce again.

Secret Pal Loot and 300!!! W00t!!!

2008-11-08T14:16:00.002-05:00

Hey, wow, this is my 300th post! I have no clue how to celebrate that. My bloggerversary is coming up next month (3 years. . . shoot, 100/posts a year doesn't seem like too much, especially if you consider how, er, "talkative" I am in certain forums).

I'm going to celebrate my 300th post with an "open mike". Readers, the comments are your forum now. You don't have to leave a comment that is at all relevant to anything I've written, past, present, or future. It can be completely pointless and arbitrary.

This will either be a really fun experiment, or a really sad wake-up call that I need to have a more interesting blog if I want people to read it.

I took part in a Halloween swap on the Knittyboard recently. My wonderful secret pal, Blu Roux (sadly, blogless), sent me an awesome box of loot:

I made the photo nice and large so y'all can see it clearly. The only things missing are the dark chocolate M&Ms (they didn't make it too far) and the hanging jack o'lantern paper lantern, which was, at the time of this photo, on duty on our front porch for Halloween! The peachy/pink/orange yarn is Noro Cash Iroha (I think that would make a nice little lacy hat) and the red/purple/blue yarn is Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 (indulging me with another sock yarn I've never tried!). There was lots of candy in this package -- notice I say, "was". Okay, so not much is gone. I still have half a Ritter Sport, a full bag of Werther's, and the Mallow Creep Frankenstein. I didn't want to eat it all at once, plus we had some Halloween leftovers that we needed to eat.

And that's not all.

A few days later, I received another box in the mail from Ms. Blu Roux:

I couldn't get the color recorded accurately in any photos that I took, so you'll have to take my word for it. It's way more intense that the first photo, and is less monochrome than in the second photo. I think it will spin up to a gorgeous heathered blue. It's 8 oz. (EIGHT!!! OUNCES!!!) of Potluck Roving in the Moody Blue colorway from Paradise Fibers. It's pretty amazing, but I need to be careful where I leave it. I left it on the bed for a while, and came into the bedroom in time to see Ken standing over it, in the same position he is in when he violates the blanket, and he looked rather guilty and moved away quickly. Then I found a wet spot on the fiber -- don't worry, it's from his mouth. He must have picked it up. Still, not good. Kitties aren't supposed to hump the fiber! It's safely back in its bag and box, hopefully away from little black paws.

I think, with the recent round of swaps/SPs, and my purchase at Rhinebeck (which I haven't even posted yet because the photos came out crappy), I'm a little overstashed. Yeah, I know, I've said it before. You know I must be stashed out if I had the opportunity to pre-order Malabrigo Sock from WEBS and didn't. I think I need to catch up on my knitting, and slow down on my buying. Plus, there's really no more room in the stash hutch.

You know I'll come to my senses, though.

Voting!

2008-11-04T08:51:00.003-05:00

Yup, I voted this morning!

I was nervous about going. I had heard the speculation about voter turnout, 2+ hour waits, etc. I was hoping to leave my house fairly early, but didn't get out until about 7:20 (which, truthfully, is about 15 minutes earlier than I usually leave and is really the time I SHOULD leave).

The polling station is about a 5-8 minute walk from my house, at the police station. The community center, across the street, had HUGE lines and I almost went over there, thinking the turnout was so great they decided to move it. I then saw the "Vote Here!" signs on the door of the police station.

I went in, checked in, and didn't even have to wait for a booth. Oh, and we didn't have curtained booth, just the four corners with divisions. Not really private, I guess.

The ballots always give me pop-quiz-anxiety flashbacks. What if I fill in the wrong oval? Can I get a new ballot? What if I forget to fill something in? Damn, how do I know what my score is? Well, I guess that depends on who and what issues win, right?

Then there is checking out and submitting your ballot. I always get confused, as if it is the first time I've voted (I admit, I didn't vote the first time I was eligible [in 1988], and my first time was in 1992. I scored well that election.). My anxiety comes with putting my ballot into the slot -- what if it is a paper shredder? What if this is all some big practical joke? What if I do SOMETHING WRONG?!?!?!

At any rate, I got to work on time. It was suspiciously easy.

I'm not going to tell you how I voted, because I was brought up not to discuss religion or politics outside of the family ("because you'll always offend someone with your views"). I will say that I do feel a high level of anxiety regarding this election. No matter who wins, there are going to be many unhappy people, and some of those unhappy people are total nutters and could do something. Yes, I am talking about things like riots and assassination attempts. Let's hope for peace, k?

Rhinebeck Posting: Better Late than Never!

2008-11-01T13:34:00.002-04:00

So, I'm finally posting about Rhinebeck. I don't have many memories from it sharp in my mind, so I'll just let the photos speak.

Fiber on display:

This is probably my favorite fiber display photo. I think this vendor knew just what he or she was doing by putting these colors here:

(I always look at the marled yarn and never buy it! Why not? Next year, I'll make it a point to.)

I love how this one looks like a flower:

Enough of the fiber -- there were cute animals!

I love this llama -- her name's Madame Bianca and she was for sale!

She gives kisses too:

Speaking of kisses, some brazen hussy sheep tried to steal my husband:

There were other, less slutty animals:

I only kept this picture because the little kid wiping out in the background cracks me up:

These babydoll sheep were even cuter than they are in photos:

There were cute non-fibery (or, if it floats your boat, I suppose you could spin their fur) animals too:

Then there were the cold-blooded critters who must have been frickin' FREEZING! I know I was!

At least the guy with the gators and snakes was indoors.

I like the skeptical kid on the far right in the gray sweatshirt. He had that face the whole time.

I know the haunted tunnel is cheesy, and I think we're the only adults who go through it, but I like it because I always get some good photos out of it:

Finally, there were the people:

I was late for the Ravelry meetup on the hill, so I didn't get into the photo. Notice the devil signs in the back -- those are some LSG-ers.

Speaking of LSG:

The Twatweasel is the official LSG mascot!

Jesh let me take her picture:

It must have been an attempt at a self-portrait, because that is clearly my schnozz in the lower left hand corner. Clearly.

We were pretty late for the Ravelry party, too, due to traffic and going out to dinner beforehand. We were there for about 90 minutes of raffle, complete with people shushing us if we talked. I wish we had been there earlier, but, truthfully, I'm not comfortable mingling at big parties. I'm much better in smaller groups, or one-on-one. I'm not the sort of person to go up to someone and introduce myself, although I wish I could be.

I'll leave you with a idyllic "Autumn-in-the-Northeast" photo. You can see all 150+ photos from Rhinebeck here:

I'm curious.

2008-10-21T12:45:00.002-04:00

How do you think the raw materials for this yarn are "gathered"?

Do you think it contains proteins that are rumored to be good for your skin?

I wasn't curious enough to buy any, but I wish I had.

I am SO tired.

2008-10-19T19:01:00.002-04:00

No, seriously.

We got home from Rhinebeck less than an hour ago. Most of our stuff is put away, the cats are settled and forgive us, the new stash has been photographed and is comically squished into the stash hutch, and we're both having a beer and settling in.

It was an insane weekend. I was so exhausted today from moment one -- if you saw me and I seemed a little off, please don't take it personally. The excitement of the weekend hit me all at once this morning. Oh, yeah, and it was FUCKING COLD all weekend and stupid me forgot to bring a hat, scarf or gloves. ZMrK and I both ended up purchasing gloves, which were awesome, but my hands are still a little bit chapped.

No pics yet. I have 200 photos to upload from the weekend. Really. It may be a few days before I get a chance to. I'm going to take a bath and we're going to eat a dinner of steamed asparagus, peppers and mushrooms with hot sauce on rice, because we need to eat something super healthy right now.

Oh, yeah, it was a great weekend.

WIPs and Swap Loot

2008-10-11T17:46:00.003-04:00

I've got a couple of WIPs for you!

First off, the progress on my Dickinson Pullover:

This is the back. This is what is left from the 800+ yard "egg" of yarn:

I didn't want to start the front with what is left, and have to weave in more ends when that runs out, so I started the front with a new skein of yarn. It's slower going. I need to start working more on that, since I'm hoping to be done by Thanksgiving. It seemed like a reasonable goal when I announced it to ZMrK a week ago, but now that another week has passed and I've done two whole rows since then, I'm beginning to wonder. I should be able to get some work done on it this week.

I also finished a sock for ZMrK, which is a "subway knitting" project.

The yarn is from Spirit Trail Fiberworks, and I purchased it at my first Sheep and Wool Festival ever, the NH Sheep and Wool in 2006. The yarn is amazing. It's superwash merino, so it's very soft, and should be warm on my honey's feet. I did these toe-up, because I wasn't sure how long I should have made the cuff without running out of yarn. It turns out that I didn't have much to worry about. I should have plenty of yarn left over for when I have to mend these. Admit it, it happens to you, too. Socks get holes in them.

I took part in a swap on the Rubberneckers forum on Ravelry. Have you seen that forum? If not, I'll explain: have you ever come across a thread on Ravelry that just turns into ugly drama, really fast? And you read it, bottom jaw on the keyboard, and you feel kinda dirty afterwards but kinda want to read another ugly drama thread? The Rubberneckers board brings the drama to you! The threads about the drama threads always end up 3-5x longer than the drama threads themselves, because they get threadjacked by things like sharks, boobs, bats, kids, etc. Sometimes threads just get filled with pictures of LOLCats. This one today in particular made me gaffaw:

more animals

Alright then. So, here is the loot I got in a swap I did with a Ravelry Rubbernecker named Cajunbatchick:

Noro Silk Garden Sock Yarn, which I have been wanting to try. Enchanted Knoll Farm fiber, which is gorgeous. Local (La.) food and coffee. A hand-knit "tragically cherry" crawfish that the cats had best keep their claws out of. The stuff is all awesome. I've had some of the gum (pomengranate flavored! It's quite tart at first but then tastes really good), but was too full to sample any of the food yet. I may have a cup of tea in a little while though.

I am also taking part in a Halloween-themed Secret Pal swap on the Knittyboard. I'm hoping some of the stuff I ordered for my pal comes quickly, because she is out of the U.S. and I'll need to ship this week. Oddly enough, I believe my upstream pal (the person spoiling me) is in the same country as she. I love doing swaps and secret pals, but I always get performance anxiety and worry that my downstream won't like the stuff I give. I wonder if anyone else feels that way? It's usually not someone you know in real life, so you're not sure of her tastes, or what she already has, but you do your best to ask questions and get a clue. Then hope you give a good gift. It's fun when they get their stuff and love it, though.

This morning, I stepped on Ellie's tail and she screamed! Then she hid under the couch. I felt so bad. We went out for a few hours, and when we came home both kitties were looking for food. I gave them a treat and I think I'm forgiven. I have to be careful of that, though. I usually don't wear shoes in the house so it doesn't happen too often -- this was the first time, in fact. ZMrK stepped on Ken's tail, once, but he didn't scream so loudly. Of course, the cats are still underfoot.

Maybe this time, when I say I'll blog more often, I will. I have bloggable moments, and write posts in my head, but they never get up on the blog before I forget them. Pshaw. I need to carry a notebook with me.

Oh yeah, forgot an FO the other day!

2008-09-19T13:23:00.002-04:00

I forgot I had finished these socks a couple of weeks ago:

Also, I'm really surprised by people's shock at the length of my Branching Out scarf. The pattern reads:

FINISHED MEASUREMENTS

Silky Wool Version (green scarf): 7 inches wide, 59 inches long (after blocking)
Douceur et Soie Version (pink scarf): 7 inches wide, 78 inches long (after blocking)

Of course, the 72 inches I got was before blocking; who knows how long it is now (I haven't measured!). I did have to move stuff around in the back room in order to stretch it out!

I wore the scarf today, all wrapped around my neck all lovelry and chic. Of course, nobody at work has noticed. Pfft! Of course, people notice my hair color change two months after I've changed it, you know?

It might be better if nobody notices. Yesterday a co-worker asked me what my "plans" for hats were this year. Um, plans? What are these. . . plans? It turns out she was at some County Fair and her daughter tried on some alpaca hats but they were too small for her. I've remained noncommittal. Same co-worker told me last year that I should sell my stuff, and p'shawed me when I mentioned that I could't, due to copyright. Don't get me wrong; I like her. I just don't want to turn my hobby into a New Way to Stress Me Out. I already have a 37.5-hour work week, and I really don't need to added headaches that would come with the extra income.

I promise you guys this, though: I won't go and start a thread on Ravelry about the subject. ;)

Well, hello there!

2008-09-16T19:12:00.002-04:00

It sure has been a while, hasn't it? I suppose I haven't had much to blog about lately, although there has probably been one or two blog-worthy things going on.

I'd say Finished Objects are the most blog-worthy of all, right?

That's the artsy "what the hell IS that?" shot. Here's a more clear blocking photo:

All six feet of Branching Out!

This scarf has taken me, literally, a year to knit! Gimme a break; it was my first lace. The first quarter or so of it was pretty excruciating, but the time I spent on it while traveling last month really helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I still have a little ball of yarn left that could be anywhere from 50 to 100 yards; I guess I can keep it around for some trim or something.

Don'tcha just love the pre-blocking, ugly wet ball of mess photos? There's a kiosk at the Prudential Mall that sells little lacy shawls that are a pretty simple knit, and they don't appear to be blocked. They look like little fuzzy piles of mohair sitting in the baskets. I've wondered if any even sell.

Speaking of ugly stuff:

My nice cotton/angora hoodie gets blue-green fuzz everywhere, every time I wear the damn thing. This is my purse strap. You should have seen the day I wore it with a denim skirt and black tights. Mmmmm...blue-green fuzzy legs.

I keep thinking that eventually it will run out of stuff to shed, and then it will stop shedding, but when will that be? When it's threadbare? When I first washed and blocked it, I put it in the dryer very briefly to try to "de-fuzz" it a little. I'm lucky all the dryer vents didn't get blocked, sparking a fire. The dryer screen got pretty frickin' full. I do love this sweater, though; it's so soft and cuddly. I wish it would keep the fuzz to itself though.

Enough with the ugly. . . here's some more pretty.

This picture was taken 3 days ago, and I've knit another 4 inches or so on this. It's the Dickinson Pullover from the Fall 2007 issue of Interweave Knits. I realize that I'm a year behind everyone else, but 2007 was the Year of the Sock with me. 2008 is the Year of the Sweater. And the Year of the Sock. And the Year of Lace. But I digress. My MIL's friend gave me 4 gigantic skeins of yarn when I was in NC last month:

Yes, I sent a thank-you card. :)

Three of these are the same yarn: Robin Aran 400, off white. There's about 800 meters in each skein. I haven't even converted that to yards, but I converted it in my brain to A SHITLOAD OF YARN. The first thing I said was "Fisherman's Sweater!" I couldn't find an authentic pattern I liked, but I fell in love with this pattern. It's got a cable chart that made my eyes cross at the first glance. Guess what? IT'S WICKED EASY. This pattern is practically intuitive, or maybe it's me that's intuitive. Either way, I love it and hope it doesn't look like ass on me when it's done. If it does, I'll just give it to my mom.

One of the skeins is not like the other; it's a darker off-white and is 60% wool, whereas the Robin Aran 400 is 25% wool/75% baby-melting acrylic (sorry, been spending too much time in the Ravelry Rubberneckers group lately). I'm not sure what to do with this other skein, but I figure that one out when I finish this sweater. Hopefully I'll finish it before sweater weather gets here, which is my way of saying, "Hey, I hope it stays warm for a while longer!". I'm kind of a slow knitter.

I'm going to close this post with a "look how my baby has grown" comment.

Remember sweet petite Ellie, when we brought her home in January?

Look at her now:

I dare say, she's downright corpulent. She's almost as big as Ken.