The Longest Yarn

Adios

2008-08-29T11:59:00.002-05:00

I'm packing up and moving on to a new frontier. Please update your links/readers/whatever to wagon full of stars

Washing Up

2008-08-21T14:01:00.002-05:00

With our new, wonderful, awesome apartment we lost our washer and dryer. I don't mind doing the laundromat. It's nice to get everything done at once. What wasn't nice was the ratty ziploc we kept our quarters in. So, since I have a lot of free time of late, I made a little bag.

It only took an afternoon and it's the first time I've ever lined anything. It would have been faster but the lining took a couple of tries. It's 3x4 inches, perfect for holding 10 dollars of quarters.

I should change this to The Longest Sewing/Upholstery/Embroidery blog, but I actually have been knitting. Slowly. In 100 degree heat.

What's Old is New Again

2008-08-11T18:31:00.003-05:00

p.s. This is my 200th post. Yay!

Loose Change

2008-07-01T20:12:00.003-05:00

Baby Quilt for Beckett
Loosely based on the Stacked Coins pattern from Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts
(I love this version)

I have less striped rows, wider solid rows and I added little star quilted things at the bottom of each column. I originally, accidentally, bought tiny single fold binding and it took me a while to get the right kind. Between that and starting a new job, it took longer to finish than it needed to.

All of the fabric is from Hobby Lobby or Hancocks and it's 100% cotton, as is the thread. The batting is 50/50 and I think the binding is the same.

I love this quilt. I had a great time making it and I hope my new little second cousin loves it too.

I'm in Love

2008-06-29T18:49:00.004-05:00

I got a new camera today! A Panasonic DMC-FS5. It is rocking my world.

I had a Panasonic that I loved about a year ago, but we got a Sony Cybershot as a gift and mine was a few years old so I passed it on to my little sister. I've missed it ever since.

A few of my favorite things:

Leica Lens
Awesome macro setting
White balance!

Even in our yucky no natural light apartment, I was able to get these nice shots under a lamp with compact fluorescent bulb. AND I had to do little to no Photoshopping to get thee colors true. *does a little happy dance*

I am no Brooklyn Tweed, but I am so much happier about the way my yarn pr0n is turning out. (No one calls it yarn pron anymore, do they? I think that's probably a good thing. Genitals and yarn shouldn't mix, no matter how soft the yarn is.)

Also, now I have a bit of motivation to finish up a project or two, just so I can photograph it.

One in the Oven

2008-06-02T21:08:00.003-05:00

It's been almost exactly a year since I started my green stripe-y quilt of goodness, so it's time to make another. (hopefully this won't take me months to finish, since I have a due date.)

This one is going to be crib sized and contain no log cabins but there will be plenty of stripes. I don't know why I love stripes so much, but I do. So much that I've worn a striped sweater with striped socks and scarf, all in different colors. It looked better than it sounds, I swear.

Anyway, I'm hoping that I will get this done and be shipped off to my cousin before she has her little boy.

Does anyone else feel slightly selfish for giving handmade gifts to people? I love my cousin and all, but I also am really loving an excuse to make another quilt.

This Counts as Yarn, Right?

2008-06-01T17:30:00.005-05:00

*it's sprinkled with flour, not drugs*

S and I spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon making fresh pasta. He got a pasta machine and recipe book for his birthday (he's an excellent chef). Once you go fresh, you can't go back.

I thought Mario Batali was a little fanatical when he said in Heat that it's not about the sauce, it's about the pasta. But when you make it by hand, it's about the pasta. P.S. Read Heat. Read it. It's excellent and will give you an unquenchable desire for good noodles and good wine. (Our favorite under 10 is Menage a Trois. Despite the silly name, it is yummy.)

*I'm going to rename this blog "The Longest Noodle"*

But in all seriousness, this may be the most yarn-y thing around these parts for a while. The heat index was 102 and our air conditioner has been running non-stop trying to keep our 700 sq ft apartment at 80 degrees.

I need to finish my second purple sock before I forget the stitch pattern I made up and didn't write down and I want to re-knit the Lelah straps so I can wear it without worrying about my bra straps. But I can't imagine that it will happen anytime soon.

I do have some more heat-friendly craftiness up my sleeve and I have a week off, so who knows what will be next.

Oh, and if you're looking for a good recipe to try out, I highly recommend Orange Peel Tofu . I made mine with fried tofu and I think that chicken would be good with it too, if you are so inclined.

A Backwards Glance

2008-05-30T18:50:00.004-05:00

S and I celebrated our 1 year wedding anniversary on the 26th. We got married on Memorial Day weekend so we would always have a long weekend. (it also made traveling for out of town family members easier)

We went to a resort outside of Cancun. It was very beautiful and relaxing. In fact, we relaxed so much, we didn't even take pictures. It was a weekend focused on pina coldas for breakfast and sunbathing (or sunburning, in my case) on one of the most beautiful beaches I have seen.

A lot has happened to us in the past year...we joked that ONLY possibly buying a house next year would be a vacation from wedding planning, moving to a new city and changing jobs (or careers in my case).
But I wouldn't change any of it because it has only strengthened our relationship and made us happier people.

So, here's to moving on to year two and whatever surprises it may bring!

(Like the surprise of me knitting again, perhaps?)

Little Purple Sock

2008-05-15T08:37:00.003-05:00

I knit this little guy out of some Knit Picks yarn I hand dyed (hand painted? I'm not sure the difference). The little white specks of failure knid of bum me out, but overall, I love the color and the lack of pooling.

Originally, I wanted to knit the My So Called Scarf pattern into socks, but it would have none of it. It's a shame, because I loved that pattern with semi-solid yarns.

I did a little experimenting (ok a lot, and some swearing) to approximate the woven effect of the scarf and I think it came out pretty nicely. This yarn and I have had a long and torrid history so I am happy it's all coming together in the end.

This sock will have to be lonely for an indefinate amount of time because I believe I have possibly torn my rotator cuff (again) and moving it hurts. Also, I've been thinking about quilting a lot. I have space now that there is a dining room table in our bedroom.

Goth Tomato

2008-04-25T16:30:00.000-05:00

*stuffed with angst*

In search of a little instant gratification, I made this little heirloom tomato pincushion out of some stolen scraps of fabric. (I won't go into the details)

I found the pattern in an old Martha Stewart and it was super easy. The hardest part was getting the leaves (sepals?) just right and doing a big enough French knot to make the stem. It's all velvety and a nice take on the traditional tomato.

Who started the voodoo tomato anyway? Wikipedia is silent on this one.

Not So Much

2008-04-24T10:05:00.003-05:00

*too little, too late*

My attempt a Bauble didn't go over so well. I've been dedicated to working from my craft stash all year and I thought it was high time to bust out the bead box.

Indulging my love of red and blue + using stash craft supplies + beads + knitting = awesome. Right?

I swear I followed the directions and beaded the right length of cord. I used the suggested needle size, but maybe I should have gone up a bit. But after spending two night meticulously picking out red and blue seed beads out of the multi-colored jamboree that is my bead box, I just didn't want to invest anymore time. Also, I was running out of red and blue beads.

But all's well that ends well. I wasn't in love the the knitted look anyway, and now it works well as a long beaded necklace.

Ready to be Dipped in Lemon Butter

2008-04-21T08:54:00.005-05:00

Pattern: Artichoke Socks by Meagan Humphrey.
Cherry Tree Hill Super Sock in a kelly green
Size 1 needles
Mods: short row heels and toes, Contrasting Kitchner!

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern. I got a little cocky with the second sock and had to rip back a few times because I was following the pattern correctly, but it really is easy to do.

The kelly green and leaves added a nice spring-y ness (wow, that is so not a word) to the project. It was appropriate in February to knit wool socks with a spring bent, but finishing them in mid-April pretty much guarantees the will be shoved in a drawer somewhere until it gets cold again.
As much as I love the socks, I don't love the cold. Maybe I'll just turn the AC down and walk around the house wearing them.

I made these top down with short row heels and toes. I hate toe seams and picking up gusset stitches. Picking up double wraps can be a pain too, but I'm always a little fascinated about the whole short row process works.

And, to add a little random detail, I Kitchner stitched the toe to the bottom of the sock in neon green left over from the Green Grass Socks. Not that I really need to tell any knitter this, but those leftover yarn balls do find use!

*the end*

Spring Knitty!

2008-03-29T19:19:00.004-05:00

Hooray, new free Knitty patterns! I don't need a single new pattern to put in my queue , but I can't help adding these two to the list.

Yosemite

I love any sweater-ish thing that works in warm weather. I was happy to see that CotLin is the recommended sub, as it gives me an excuse to try it.

Posey

The unique construction of this looks like a fun challenge and a good opportunity to play with color.

There are already at least a dozen projects for each of these patterns up on Ravelry. It always amazes me how quickly people start knitting these new patterns. I'm very tempted to move one of the up to the top of my "to knit" list!

Unexpected Treasure

2008-03-25T16:14:00.003-05:00

While doing some spring cleaning earlier this month, I came across a box of fabric scraps from my grandmother. Most of them seemed to small to work with and I was just going to toss it. Lucky me, I combed through everything first and found all of these squares, cut and ready to be a quilt. Some of them have already been sewn into blocks by hand.

While I admire hand stitched quilts, I don't have the ambition to do something like that. There are not quite enough squares to make a twin size (my favorite size to make) so I'm keeping my eye out for some complimentary fabric to finish it out.

Monster Turned Kitty Based on Bear

2008-03-20T19:00:00.006-05:00

Monster Kitty!
Pattern: Loveable Toys from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
Yarn: Random Fun Fur and Sock weight merino held triple stranded
Needles: Size 8 Knit Picks Options

*Yeah, I'm a greenish blue cat. Wanna make something of it?*

This was originally supposed to be a monster, using a slightly modified version of the bear pattern from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Along the way, it just decided it wanted to be a blue green kitten with a little bit of attitude on its face.

I found the pattern rather frustrating. Nowhere in the notions section does it mention you need 2 circular needles for the body. I found knitting in the round that way pretty awkward at first. In general, I found the pattern vague, but now that I've done it once, it will be easier (and faster) if I decide to do it again.

*Like a real cat, I'm going to ignore you now*

This was a great little stash-buster and the perfect way to use some fun fur in a way that is not a fashion faux pas.

I've never made a knitted toy before, and this was really fun and quick.
One day, I'd like to make Mr. Dangly . Make use all of my sweet Blue Sky Alpaca? It would be fun to have the most luxurious knitted monkey ever.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-03-18T15:41:00.005-05:00

Saturday marked the 2nd anniversary of my 25th birthday, and I had a wonderful time celebrating it.
The Universe has always thoughtfully planned nice things around it, such as the end of winter, Spring Break and this year, South by Southwest.

The downside of this is that my birthday is always during Lent, so I had more than a few birthday parties where half the guests couldn't eat the cake or ice cream. Also, since it is Spring Break, many friends were out of town.

*These are my favorite trees, but I don't really know what they are called*

But anyway, I had a great time celebrating this year. We started out with lost of good music, threw in some excellent Mexican food and Patron Mexican martinis and added a dash of Guitar Hero for good measure.

I managed to see three great shows during the music part of SXSW. I saw Spoon on Thursday, had a blast on 6th street people watching while trying to get into Tilly and the Wall (to no avail) and saw the two best shows of the weekend, Shearwater and Man Man.

If you don't want to bother clicking any of the links, at least take a second to check out Shearwater. The lead singer has an amazingly powerful voice live. They are indie rock / experimental southern rock-ish, with a rather haunting tone and use cellos and dulcimers and whatnot to round out the usual rock instruments. "Red Sea Black Sea" is my favorite song.

Or, maybe you prefer music that is reminiscent of drunk pirates that have settled for the land-locked life of 1930's carnival folk? Then I suggest you go straight to the Man Man.

And, no birthday is complete without cake, so, hooray! A yarn cake, in my favorite colors.

The Magazines Made Me Do It #2

2008-03-11T08:48:00.004-05:00

I saw this nifty necklace storage solution in domino or blueprint or one of those other martha-stewart-in-training magazines, but I can't remember which one. But it is a pretty ingenious thing. I got a 10"x13" shadow box, took out the glass, glued some cute scrapbooking paper to the back, drilled the holes and screwed in the knobs.

It should have taken about 30 minutes or less to put together, but I lost one of the knobs and spent about 20 minutes looking for it. I cleaned up all of the supplies, scoured the apartment, checked under the table, all to no avail. As I was scanning the floor in sheer frustration, I noticed something shiny in the cuff of my pants. Yup. The knob had been with me the whole time.

I got the shadow box at Michael's for about 11 dollars (40% off, whoo!), the paper is from Hobby Lobby (2 sheets = 1 dollar) and the knobs are from Ikea (6 in a pack for 2.99). So this was a good and relatively cheap project. I bet there are similar things for sale in the South Congress boutiques for twice that. If there aren't, I should be selling these things!

The original one I saw was a little more funky. They used all kinds of different dresser knobs and had brighter paper. But you know what? Cute individual dresser knobs are like, 3 bucks a piece. Ikea, you rule.

Okey-dokey Artichoke-y

2008-03-10T09:46:00.000-05:00

*Artichoke Socks by Megan Humphrey*

I looooove this pattern. I love artichokes too. I'm using the Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn from my Secret Pal. I can't believe that swap was a year ago! I still haven't used all of the goodies I got. (Regia Bamboo color, you are on my short list)

The yarn and the pattern are working so well together. I was really worried that it would be too stripe-y. I'm happy that the sock looks so nice on our red couch. It's been ages since I've made a sock, even though I think they are just about the best thing in the world to knit.

PS - malabrigo has got some sock yarn in the works. *swoon* Until I can get my hands on it, I'm thinking about getting it on my feet by knitting these.

Uh-oh Spaghetti-o

2008-03-09T12:55:00.001-05:00

*sometimes, I knit too hard*

Kite Fest!

2008-03-04T09:39:00.003-06:00

Sunday was the 80th annual Zilker Park Kite Fest. It was a perfect day to fly a kite...super windy, cool, and not too sunny so you can stare at the sky for as long as you need to.
I couldn't get over the sheer number and variety of kites. There was probably close to 500 kites flying around the park. They came in all shapes and sizes...pirate ships, aliens, rockets, butterflies, dragons, sharks...my pictures can't do it justice.

Events like these are one of the reasons why I am so happy that we moved here. We packed up the dogs and spent a few hours wandering around looking at all of the kites, booths, doggies and babies that came out to enjoy the festival. And despite the gray weather, only a few sprinkles hit the ground and there were no Benjamin Franklin-style accidents.

Nest Tote

2008-02-24T15:28:00.003-06:00

Pattern: Elisa's Nest Tote
Size: to be worn on the shoulder

Yarn: Berroco Cotton Twist, Purple

Needles: 10.5 straights for the lace, size 8 DPNs for I-cord, 5mm crochet hook for seaming
Satisfaction: High

This was a quick easy knit and an excellent stash-buster. I originally bought the yarn to make a tank top, but had less than half of what I needed. It has been languishing in the yarn drawer ever since and it worked perfectly for this tote. The ply of rayon gives it a little sheen, but splits out like crazy. If it didn't add a little bit of class to this reusable grocery bag, I'd have about lost my mind.

The pattern is great - it works up very quickly. I was a little daunted by all of the I-cord and the crochet hook seaming technique, but all of that went really smoothly. The worst part (and this has nothing to do with the actual pattern) is that I couldn't for the life of me remember which row of the lace repeat I was on. Usually, I can look back a row and "read" the stitches to find where I am, but that just didn't work here. Thankfully, I don't think it's obvious.

All in all, this is a good one. I might even make a couple of more. In manly colors though, since S does the grocery shopping and would probably resent carrying a purple lace bag to the checkout.

Yes We Can

2008-02-19T09:02:00.004-06:00

If your Tuesday needs some beautiful photography from the campaign trail, spend a few moments on The Stumping Grounds. It is a collection of striking images from photojournalists that have followed all of the candidates through the primaries. I like that the Americans that support their candidate are chronicled as well.

Many of the images feel iconic. I can easily imagine them shrunken down and printed at terrible resolution in my unborn children's future textbooks.

Early voting began in Texas today. 43,000 people registered to win one of the 100 tickets available to the Obama/Clinton debate on Thursday. It's an exciting time to be a voter - I'm crossing my fingers that I win one of those "Golden Tickets".

All is Full of Love

2008-02-15T10:05:00.002-06:00

*sock yarn love*

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a good one, either spending it with loved ones or cursing the romantic fates and stabbing voodoo dolls. It was S and my three-year dating anniversary. We celebrated at an awesome new Italian restaurant he found on the East side. I also discovered that I love small fried patties of goat cheese.

Anyway! Check out the new sock yarn! I got it through a swap with blog-less Lisa from Ravelry.

I gave her my last skein of Salishan (a really nice wool cotton blend that Knit Picks discontinued) and received the Tofutsies in exchange. I love the sweet tart colors, perfect for some spring socks.
I think Pomatomus will be a great pattern for this yarn, as I've already seen it knitted up (in the same colorway!) on Ravelry. It will be a while until I get to it though, since I have a couple of Easter-y projects lined up, as well as another pair of socks. I'm also holding off on it since it has the daunting "piquant" difficulty rating.

Have a great weekend!

I Am Not a Great Executioner

2008-02-13T16:04:00.003-06:00

In pursuit of stash-busting, I decided to knit and felt a nice little holder for my double point needles. (I'm a hurtin' to make some socks soon.) So I knit away, felted away, and ended up with an object far larger than I anticipated.

So I went back to the drawing board, then knitted, and felted and ended up with an object that was ,uch closer to what I had in mind.

Then I broke out the sewing machine.

I tried a couple of different was of making the pockets and none of them quite worked as expected. (Are we sensing a theme here?) So I went with what seemed the most functional.

I'm really embarrassed about how this came out. It really doesn't resemble what I had in my head at all, which was a classy striped and felted DPN holder that I'd be proud to stash my needles in. I would take an artful photo of it and insinuate how easy all of it is for me, and there would be much rejoicing in Blogland.

I am not that person and probably never will be, but this project is seriously sub-par. I wasn't even going to post about it, but I'm sure we all could use a good laugh.

*keeping it real*

*ugly is the new, um...ugly*

Fear-ful Knitting

2008-02-06T17:06:00.000-06:00

Not too long ago, Sandi Wiseheart (don't you just love her last name?) of Knitting Daily sent around a newsletter about being afraid of knitting. Like, afraid of failure, or wasting your time, or learning a new technique.

My biggest fear about knitting is running out of yarn. It's a well-founded fear because it almost always happens. Right now, I've vowed to work through at least three-quarters of my stash before buying new yarn, but my biggest obstacle is not having enough of something for a project I would actually want to do.

*minimalist cardi? Not enough yarn*

The two largest amounts of yarn I have right now are 8 skeins of Blue Sky Alpaca Sport Weight and 8 balls of Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy.

*so pretty, so not enough*

The alpaca was bought to make a pleated skirt. I was delusional to think that would be a good, wearable item to make.

The Hempathy was supposed to be a sub yarn for Raspy, but, again, I don't really have enough.

Too much yarn for a smaller project, to little for something large.

About the only thing I have an appropriate amount of is sock yarn, because it comes that way. Even still, I tend to knit the legs of my socks too short, "just in case" I don't have enough to finish the other one.

Any suggestions? Ravelry has helped a bit, but I'm still kind of stuck on yardage. What is your knitting fear?

All the Lazy Days are Gone

2008-02-05T12:17:00.000-06:00

After a month of sleeping in and watching bad daytime TV, I re-enter the working world tomorrow. I'm really excited about this new opportunity. The only thing I'm worried about is turning into a frump at the early age of 25.5. Or at any age, for that matter.

I need clothes that are comfortable, professional and affordable. But I also need clothes that aren't boring.

I've fallen into a jeans/t-shirt/sneakers rut (the Austin uniform of choice) and it's time to get out of that. For the past couple of years, I have been dressing how I people want me to dress, rather than how I want to dress, a sure sign that I could easily slip into frump-dom.

I've found this great fashion blog, The Sartorialist, to inspire me. I love how he captures not only great clothes, but the personality of the person who made that wardrobe decision that day. These are real people (well, mostly) wearing clothes that work of their lives.

My goal is to be able to find that mix of personal style and practicality. I think it's time to haul the red pants, sexy shoes and other gems out of the back of the closet.

BTW, There Was no Christmas Miracle

2008-02-01T13:35:00.001-06:00

I tried so hard to make my sister an entrelac hat for Christmas. I bought two different yarns, tried different patterns and methods, all to no avail.

*Please excuse the blown out photos*

On the top you will see attempt number one, the over-sized jester hat. She mentioned aways back that she wanted pumpkin orange and this was the best I could find. My second attempt, below, was the yarn I originally wanted to make the hat out of, but JoAnn's was out of it for weeks. On Christmas Eve Eve I was delusionally trying to make the hat, but then decided to make Quant from this winter's Knitty.

The best I got was a stingray.

So dear older younger sister, now you know the saga of your gift. Maybe I'll finally give you one on your birthday, in July. Or you may just be getting a larger stingray.

I'm So Excited, and I Just Can't Hide It!

2008-01-30T17:41:00.001-06:00

Two posts in one day. I'm a maniac. But! I finally finished Tubey! For real this time. There were two sleeve redos. One because the first time, they were ginormus and two, when I fixed them they were about four inches too short.

* I will edit with better pictures once they are taken*

Pattern: Tubey
Size: made up by doing a lot of measuring. XS maybe?
Yarn: Lion Brand Cashmere Blend in navy and Charcoals
Needles: Size 8 bamboo Circs and DPNs
Ravelry
Satisfaction: High
Modifications: waist shaping, sleeves

The only reason this took me so long is that I put it down to do other projects. The yarn is nice, but probably could use a good shave with one of those sweater thingies because I've manhandled it. The subtle raglan effect worked out nicely and I'm pleased with the new sleeves. Inspired by Kate at Zeitgeist, I did some deep ribbing. I think the neck line is flattering. We've had some 70 degree days so I don't know how much I'll get to wear this, but it's 57 right now, so hah Texas weather.

My only real complaint is that it pulls a little under the arms. I'm guessing it's a problem that's combination of construction, too tight seaming, and slightly small top section.

This was a great first sweater. I'm proud of my modifications, even if the waist shaping is a little wonky. I think only I will notice though. This is really the first time I've tried major mods and they have worked. I'm now a level 3 knitter!

I Try to Take Each Day One at a Time, but Today Had Rats in it.

2008-01-30T11:24:00.000-06:00

*Do not read this if you are disturbed buy rats, the capture of them, or poor managers*

Ok, so not today, but Saturday. My last Saturday started at 4 am with the dogs going crazy at the kitchen sink counter. There was not only a good - sized hole next to our pipe, there was also a good sized hole in our plastic dog food container lid.

*Artist sketch of the perpetrator*

So, a horrified me jumps in the car and runs to Walmart. My sleep deprived brain decided that glue traps would be the best way to solve this problem. If you've never dealt with a situation like this, glue traps are the opposite of the best solution.

I have no problem killing anything that invades my home. Would-be robbers, rapists, cockroaches and rodents take note. But, I'm against torture all around and these glue traps seem like more like torture than a quick way to dispatch the intruders.

Anyway, we set both glue traps under the sink and tried to go back to sleep. We caught a rat almost immediately. On the glue trap box, it advertises that it has Eguenol, and natural anesthetic. At 5 in the morning, in a Walmart, it made it seem like the rat would be peacefully euthanasized. In reality, you have a live rat, stuck to glue and the box gives you no advice on how to dispose of it.

I played the "you're a boy, you have to do this" card, which I normally only use when it comes to taking out the trash. So S got some long barbecue tongs and a trash bag. I hid in the bedroom with the dogs. He picked up the rat with the tongs and it screamed. Which made the dogs go crazy and me scream as well. He got it in the trash bag and threw the whole disastrous mess into the dumpster.

Now exhausted and disgusted, we tried to go back to sleep. But then we catch ANOTHER rat. Facing the prospect of dealing with the gruesome screaming, tong and trash bag routine, we decide to let stay stuck in the cabinet, go to sleep for a bit and then go to the office to see if they could patch the hole, call an exterminator, and remove the rat. Besides, S threw away the tongs with the first rat.

After a bit of fitful sleep we head to the management off prepared for battle. (Back story: We have had a horrible time getting anything fixed. it took them 3 weeks to get us a mail key. When our fridge went out, they told us to buy a cooler and some ice.) We walk in with our rat-chewed tupperware as proof. Some other people are there talking to the manager and the other office girl asks how can she help us? We announce that we have a rat problem and we need someone to come take care of it.

The manager immediately starts in on us, telling us if we had a house we would have to deal with this anyway, he accused us of being dirty, and accused us of waiting until a Saturday to report it, since it was inconvenient and "impossible" for them to get a maintenance or pest control person to work on the weekend. (All while about 10 workers are busy painting the buildings various hideous colors of squash)

Then he threatened to evict us. Apparently, we "disrupted business" by telling them we had rats with other people in the office and WE didn't handle the situation correctly.

Finally, after a lot of back and forth, we give up on the condition that they will come patch the hole on Monday and send pest control on Tuesday, since that is their regularly scheduled day. The manager made it clear that while we thought having rats in our apartment was a huge problem, it was neither an emergency or a priority to them and we just need to deal with it.

When we returned home to deal with the rat still under our sink, the dogs had managed to get into the cabinet and take care of it for us. Gag.

Today is Wednesday, and the pest control guy just left. I've had to call daily to make this happen at all.

So now we have ramped up our plan to get a house sooner than later and get out of this slum. We don't quite have a down payment together, so I'm thinking of renting a rat suit, standing on the median of the street that runs in front of the complex, and holding a sign that says "Trying to get out of this rat-infested slum. Anything helps, God Bless".

I'll show you "disrupted business".

Minimalist Cast-On

2008-01-18T11:02:00.000-06:00

While the Tubey was blocking, a couple of days before I was aware of the sleeve snafu, I cast on for the Minimalist Cardigan from the '07 IK Fall issue. I'm using the Blue Sky Sport Weight Alpaca I bought last March to make a pleated skirt. The skirt is cute, but really? A wool skirt in Texas? Really?

The yarn is a little hairy to show off the stitches well, but my gauge is dead on and I think yardage-wise, I have enough. It's so soft, I know (if I can actually knit it correctly) that it will be something I'll actually wear.

The ability to type in a pattern's name, see a ton of examples, and read everyone's experience knitting it is the biggest reason I use Ravelry. The cardigan seems to be well liked by all, seaming being the only complaint. And really, does any one seek out seaming?

Not So, FO

2008-01-16T10:24:00.001-06:00

*This used to have two sleeves*

I finished the Tubey, yay! I frogged most of it, yay! This is my first sweater, and I made a lot of modifications to it. Some worked, others didn't. The body tube fists perfectly. I drastically reduced the number of stitches after reading a lot of complaints on Ravelry about how it stretched out and sagged.

Then I got lazy on the sleeves. I didn't have the pattern handy when I got around to them, so I kind of winged it. And I ended up with winged sleeves. The sleeves are supposed to be belled, but after I blocked it, they grew quite a bit in length and width.

Now, I would be more than happy to wear my sweater, even out in public, looking all the world like grandma hand-knit, but S is making me fix them. Well, ok, not MAKING me, but he has a way of pointing things out. So I frogged back and started decreasing again.

*Bunchy under-arms leave room for saggy triceps*
*Also, the waist isn't that roll-y, I just didn't bother to pull the body down*

So, good thing I've been home miserably sick with allergies with nothing to keep me company but a giant mountain of Kleenex.

Rest in peace sleeves.

Gifts That Keep on Giving

2008-01-16T09:47:00.000-06:00

I received some wonderful Christmas gifts this year, and I wanted to share the knitting related ones. Fist off, my mother-in-law gave me a set of the KnitPicks Options needles. I have wanted an interchangeable needles set since I knew they existed, but never indulged myself.

Then, my little sister made me a matching set of fingerless gloves and a scarf. She told me that since I always am knitting for other people, she wanted to give me something knitted. I am truly touched. To make them, she learned how to knit with dpns, do a buttonhole thumb, and ribbing.

I apologize

2008-01-13T17:22:00.000-06:00

I've been a bad blogger recently. I have quality content to post about...excellent Christmas gifts, a new FO, a new project in the works. But the best I can offer tonight is a picture of one of my pets. I hope this will do for now.

*she's so happy her eyes are glowing*

*all the cool kids are doing it*

*from tip to tail*

Izzi was in no way harmed during this punk rock process.
Her "Top Hair" is naturally black, and her "Under Hair" is naturally gold, making for an excellent mohawk/body color ratio. The hair cut was done at our local PetSmart, for no additional charge.

Open-Source Sewing

2008-01-08T10:15:00.000-06:00

I may be the last to know about this, but has anyone seen Burda Style yet? It's "open-source" sewing, meaning there are a lot of great patterns and how-tos for free! I know most of you are knitters, and crochet and sewing are blasphemy, but for you hybrid crafty folks, this is worth a look.

Hold Me Closer, Tiny Sweater

2007-12-22T09:23:00.000-06:00

*Artificial trees reduce the need for ornament hooks*

Inspired by Jared's post, I knit a tiny sweater. I really like the idea of doing a tiny sweater a year, but it is hard to restrain myself from knitting about a thousand, stringing them on a clothesline and wrapping the tree in them. It just took one evening and I used the yarn S made my ipod cover from last Christmas.

I'm still short an Entrelac hat for a Christmas gift, but I have 4 hours in the car today, plus like 3 lazy-is days before I have to give it, so hopefully some sort of Christmas Knitting Miracle will happen. I started it with yarn I didn't like and about 2x as large as it should be (why do I always do that?).

Well, anyway. Merry Christmas!

Stockings Were Hung on the Bookcase with Care

2007-12-10T20:21:00.000-06:00

Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas gift-giving. I love getting all the little "impulse buy" kinds of presents. New lip gloss, a nice pen, candy, small toys, maybe even a pair of knitting needles in a size you don't have...perfect appetizers for the bigger gifts to come. When we were little, my parents would allow us to open our stockings in exchange of an extra hour of sleep before present opening time.

Making these, as I mentioned earlier, was a lot of fun. Everything but the embroidery pattern I made up myself and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I forgot to photography the backs, but they are made of quilted blue plaid flannel.

S's is stocking is made out of off-white polyester velvet and mine is white cotton velvet. Why? Because I cut the off-white velvet front with the toe pointing the wrong way for mine and I had no more of that fabric. I hated working with the cotton velvet. It seemed to crumble around the edges. Mine also mysteriously ended up a tad smaller, but not so small as to ruin the amount of stocking stuffers.

I'm holding on to these patterns and my notes for a future Christmas with a future baby. (Don't get excited, Mom, I'm happy to wait a few years!)

Fin

2007-12-02T12:54:00.001-06:00

Green Grass Socks
(pattern by me)
Cherry Tree Hill Yarn
size 2 dpns
I'm so glad these are finally done. I started them in July. July! I think they are possibly the slowest and ugliest thing I have ever knitted. The yarn/pattern combo just doesn't work together. I knew this from the first sock, but I pressed on. It will be nice to have them to wear around the house or to bed on particularly cold days, but it's 80 degrees today, so I'll have to wait on that.

I'm glad these are off my needles so I can concentrate on finishing our stockings!

Been Caught Cheating (on Knitting)

2007-11-27T08:48:00.000-06:00

I'm making stockings for S and my's first Christmas together (is that the grammatically correct way to say that?). I finished the embroidery on his elf on the plane after visiting his family for Thanksgiving. Now, all I have left is his name, cutting out the backing fabric, constructing it and then making mine.
As per usual, life is hectic and I'll be lucky to get them both done by Christmas Eve.

The pattern is by Hilary Lang. She just released her latest round of seasonal embroidery patterns and they're darn cute. Peppermint themed! Anyway, you can find the elf stitchettes (there's also a girl) in the freebies area on her site.

I saw this pattern last Christmas and immediately fell in love with it. I got all giddy thinking about how S and I would be married the next time Christmas came around, and I could do things like make stockings and traditions and heirlooms and such. Now, it's a year later, and I'm still giddy. :)

Support the Writer's Guild!

2007-11-13T09:04:00.000-06:00

Ok, So I Didn't Quit

2007-11-07T13:04:00.000-06:00

My So Called Scaf

Malabrigo worsted in Intenso, 1 skien
Size 10 Needles
57 inches long

I LOVE this scarf. Deliciously soft, fun stitch pattern...if only my camera could accurately convey the awesome redness that comes from the subtle variations of raspberry, bubblegum, maroon and orange. I have a whole other skein left...what to do? I am thinking a matching hat, but I'm not much of a hat person.

And the results of my personal Socktober fest?

Three and a half inches of a cuff. And why do I give myself the Gold Star Performance award for this? Well, one, the award is a prop I made for a film that has taken up a lot of time recently and also because, well, why not? I forgot for a while that knitting was supposed to be fun. So I quit for a while and then I remembered why I got into this in the first place. To try something new, relax, be creative...not keep up with anyone or be impressive.

Also, having more than one project at a time is bad for my knitting mojo. One down, two to go!

I'm Not Dead (yet)

2007-10-16T09:04:00.000-05:00

I haven't knit a stitch in days. I carry around my knitting bag, but if I get a chance to knit, I'm too brain dead to get anything going. My inspirational Flickr montage hasn't done a thing for me.

I have two part time jobs, a commitment to a friend's short film and am still trying to maintain a semblance of a social life.

Sometimes I think I will quit knitting all together.

Happy Socktober Fest!

2007-10-01T11:53:00.000-05:00

1. Flicker falls down, 2. She's a Brick House, 3. Saffron Hedera, 4. Mermaid Socks, 5. The Boyfriend Sock #2 DONE!, 6. Bayerische socks, finished (4), 7. Rose Quartz Snicket Socks, 8. Hourglass Eyelet Socks, 9. Pomatomus Progress, 10. Spring Fling Inside Out Socks 4, 11. Norwegian Stockings!, 12. Retro Rib socks and Camper shoes, 13. friday harbor socks 2, 14. Modern Day Witch of the West, 15. one done, one to go, 16. Green Toes

Here's a little inspiration to kick off a month of sock love. My goal is to finish the second green grass sock and a pair of Artichoke socks using the dark green Cherry Tree Hill I have in my stash. Mmm, artichokes.

One day, maybe next Socktober fest, I will make these Ode to Eames socks. Maybe in a year I will have worked up the courage to do colorwork in the round!

The Magazines Made Me Do It

2007-09-28T16:32:00.000-05:00

*Blogs: the only thing that would ever inspire someone to show photos of their bathroom*

There's a good couple of hours in the afternoon where work is slow, so I treated myself to this month's domino and Lucky. I am embarrassed to admit that I am very easily influenced by magazines. If you call it "inspiration", it's a good thing. It's quite another when you lose sight of the fact that every picture in the magazine is styled, lit, and photoshopped and that the cool/glamorous people they highlight are probably not so cool and glamorous if you got to know them.

Anyway, as I have mentioned before, I kind of hate our apartment. And every page of domino is filled with gorgeous homes, reminding me that although we've done the best we could with what we've got, it's still not enough. And the tiny, cluttered bathroom counter is driving me crazy.

*cubes: what every wedding registry needs*

Enter the black cubes. We got them as a present and they used to be in the entryway of our awesome old duplex. Now, after months of being in storage, I was "inspired" to hang them over the toilet to hold some of the hygienic clutter. I'm hoping this comes off in a classy, modern "elevating normal objects to art" way. If not, at least they are being elevated.

Also - another reason I am showing pictures of my bathroom instead of my knitting is because I have screwed up my right arm. I have a strained rotator cuff and, guess what, carpal tunnel in my right wrist. Woohoo!

Red Scarf of Delicious Goodness

2007-09-25T09:13:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to cast on for this until I finished either the second green grass sock or Tubey, whichever came first. But I couldn't resist. The wonderful Malabrigo, the easy to do but complicated looking stitch pattern, the fabulous kettle dyed colors...there was no escaping. Besides, it's just a simple scarf, a project for those brain dead nights.

The pattern is My So Called Scarf and I predict it will be the chevron scarf of this season! (mostly because Jane is knitting it as well, and she is my Martha Stewart, except she does everything herself. No legion of illegal immigrants pruing her bushes and baking her cakes)

Tubey Progress

2007-09-22T17:31:00.000-05:00

I have almost finished the body on this sucker. I bound off about an inch too soon so I'm picking it off and hopefully taking care of it today. I've also added a bit of waist shaping and short rows since everyone has commented on how much this pattern stretches with wear.
The downside of that is thst I for some reason, unknown even to myself at this point, decided to seam together the shrug part and the tube part before I was done with either. So this has made the waist shaped areas line up with one on my back and one on my front. so that needs to be picked off too. This is a really simple and quick pattern, I've just made it as complicated as possible, blah.

And the Winner Is...

2007-09-22T08:30:00.000-05:00

*crazy-eyes Angel strikes again*

Congratulations Grace! Send me your address (alexislxs at yahoo.com)
Her guess of 85 inches was the closest. The actual length? 92.5". I still have a little yarn left over, too.

Thanks for playing!

An FO and a Contest!

2007-09-17T13:39:00.000-05:00

*I apologize for the peek of my midriff*

Skinny Scarf!
K1P1 Rib over 13 sts
Yarn: Hand-dyed KnitPicks Merino
Needles: Size 8

The scarf has been done for a few days, but I wanted to come up with a contest to go along with the unveiling. It's not a particularly exciting FO, but contests for a chance to win free yarn always are. SO!

Leave a Comment and Guess How Long the Skinny Scarf is!

Only 5.63 people read this here blog, so odds are in your favor. And what are odds in your favor for?

2 skeins Atacama 100% Alpaca hand dyed worsted weight yarn in lovely shades of plum and raspberry. Guesses can be made until Friday at midnight. Please don't guess in metric, I have no clue about centimeters. In the event of a tie, the tied names will be pulled out of a hat.

Happy guessing!

Welcome to the Stash

2007-09-10T14:45:00.000-05:00

Ashley recently had an discussion about the usage of the term "Yarn Porn" on her blog. The comments both for and against are very interesting. I don't feel strongly either way. If a picture of animal or plant fiber excites you sexually, that's your deal. If appropriating a bad word such as "porn" or "bitch" or "queer" or whatever makes you feel more empowered, go for it.

All I know is I enjoy beautiful things, and this yarn delights most of my senses. The color is "Intenso" which is the best name for it ever. It is so soft I like to open my stash drawer to touch it while I'm completing mundane computer tasks. It smells a bit like vinegar. I didn't lick it. I'm not that weird.

*can't wait to make you into a scarf*

What's New for Fall (by Sping Means Nothing)

2007-09-04T18:13:00.000-05:00

How was your Labor Day weekend? Mine was great. S and I flew to Boston for a friend's wedding and had a blast. Both of our flights were super early (hello four a.m.!) and I knew there would be a lot of celebrating going on (hello cocktail flu!) so I didn't know what project to take.
Tubey is at a point that requires trying on every inch or so, and I need to start the second green grass sock, but I'm not loving the pattern and I couldn't take anything that would require use of my brain.

Enter the skinny scarf:

Made from the guts of the Ronald sock, it is 13 stitches wide and K1, P1 ribbed. I got about 30 inches done from cast-on Friday night to landing in Beantown on Saturday. Now that I'm home, though, I'm torn as to what to devote my time to. I'm a one project on the needles kind of knitter. Finish the scarf? Stick to Tubey so it will actually be done before next summer? Re-start the socks?

Oh, the mystery.

Bonus photos!*30 inches of self-striping goodness*

*Angel is scary in the morning*

World's Biggest Gauge Swatch

2007-08-24T11:38:00.000-05:00

*and I'm right on target*

The Lion Brand Cashmere Blend is turning out to be a perfect sub for Tubey. I've been wanting to make this sweater for a while, bought the yarn 30% off at a going out of business sale early this year, and am finally casting on.
And I'm thanking the knitting gods once again for Ravelry.

The sizing for this pattern is weird. Had I not looked through all of the Raveler's Tubeys, I might not have thought too much about it (which is why nothing I make ever fits the first time). If I had gone solely based on my crossed back measurement, I would be knitting a size large, even though my bust size would put me at an XL (which, I assure you, I'm more like an extra negative in the bust area). The pattern does warn you that this is a very stretchy sweater, but all of the measurements seem kinda wonky.

So, I'm keeping the basic idea and look but knitting everything separately so I can try on as I go and hopefully not have to frog too much.

Ravelry, you may no make me a faster or more technically gifted knitter, but at least you're making me a little smarter.

Skein-ky

2007-08-21T14:19:00.000-05:00

Ok. Would you pronounce the title of this post as "skanky" or skeenkey"? This has been bothering me since I started talking about knitting with people other than my self and my disinterested family. I've been listening to knitting podcasts lately, and both Cast On and Socks in the City would dub this post skanky.

Dictionary.com is no help either. It lists both pronunciations, though "skeen" comes first.

I am in the "skeen" camp. There is nothing about the letters "ei" together that can possibly make my mouth say "a". Maybe it's because I'm Texan?

For this post, I'm giving myself a Cast On "Talking about Knitting" Badge. I'm also MacGuyver level 1. I really wish I had submitted and been rejected by a knitting magazine so I could have one of those too. Alas.

Anyway, how do you say "skein"?

I hope the doctor was right...

2007-08-18T18:44:00.000-05:00

...and my cousin really is going to have a girl in the next couple of weeks.

Child's Cotton hat from Last Minute Knitted Gifts
newborn size
Classic Elite Premiere
size 8 dpns

Saartje's bootees
newborn size
Classic Elite Premiere
Size 2 needles

I have never knitted any baby stuff before. It's fun, so I'm glad there are some babies that can put it to use. It also also opened my eyes to a new way to use some lovely yarns I have limited amounts of. The Classic Elite Premiere was another gift from my secret pal. It is the softest, loveliest cotton I've ever used. The skein is 108 yards and I made all of this with a good handful left over, probably enough to make another bootee or two. Also, in real life the flower buttons match the purple ribbon exactly. I'm really curious to try some EZ baby goods next, but before I tackle that, I'm ready for some grown up knitting. Maybe my first real sweater, perhaps?

PS -the straps are modified because I put them on backwards while watching "Hot Fuzz" and was too lazy to fix them.

Not Happening

2007-08-14T11:38:00.002-05:00

I'm in the process of making baby gifts for some new little earthlings expected to join us in September, but none of them will be receiving a Child's Placket Neck Pullover.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the pattern, but I haven't made it past the first step. I think the yarn might be to blame. It's Berroco's Cotton twist and it's kind of like rope. Add that to the fact that I have the whole thing stretched over 24" circulars, and it becomes a huge pain. I do have a wee little hat and booties in the works, so the babies won't be completly without hand knitted goodness.

Because really, I think we'd all be a little kinder and gentler if we were greeted into this world with hand knits.

Le Hobo

2007-08-06T14:36:00.001-05:00

Pattern: Hobo Bag by Jill Brown (June 29th in the Stitch n' Bitch Desktop Calendar)
Yarn: Lion Brand Landscapes in Country Summer (or something like that)
Size 11 needles

I have been plagued with indecision over this bag. To felt or not, how deep should I really make it, how long should the straps be, should I gift it, as originally intended (Melissa, would you like this?)

The only thing was able to be decisive about was the button. I love the button. It's the perfect maroon for the yarn. And, well, I love the yarn. I bought a skein or two on sale for a needle case, then a few more, thinking I could make a shrug (in variegated bulky yarn. Not beautiful). So I was really happy on June 29th when this patten showed up on my calendar.

I really like how this turned out, but really needs a lining to be functional...I've never lined a bag before and my sewing space is almost non-existent. Any suggestions?

Hair is a Fiber, Too

2007-08-03T17:19:00.000-05:00

I had finally found a hairdresser I liked for both color and cuts, so I made an appointment for when I went back home last weekend. Since I'll only make it up there once every so often I thought it would be a good idea to get the same haircut, just shorter so it would last longer. Gulp.

You know it's bad when other girls flatly say, "you cut your hair". A statement of fact, not appreciation. S and boys in general seem to like it, but we all know looking good is about impressing other girls. :)

Woman vs. hair has always been an epic struggle throughout time.

In junior high the most popular girl in school had long, really shinny dark hair that looked good straight or curly. The boys adored her and the girls wanted to be her. We went on a science camping trip together the summer after 8th grade and my sole goal was to see what shampoo she used so I could get some in time for freshman year.

We ended up never being tent mates or having similar shower times so I'll never know. Last I heard, she ended up not going to college and was literally serving fries the last time I saw her, so her shampoo must have been discontinued.

I once complimented a woman in a yoga class on her haircut and mentioned that I used to think that the secret to popularity and all that was good in life was directly porportional to how cool your hair was. She looked at me and said "Well, it's great that yoga teaches us to see inner beauty" or something like that. I replied that it still didn't hurt to have good hair and even though I saw her a few times after that, she didn't talk to me again. It must have been because my hair was a long, unruly mess.

And the Green Grass Grows All Around

2007-08-03T08:37:00.001-05:00

*I have actually been knitting*

It was my goal to get a pair of socks knit on set this past weekend, but as you can see, it didn't happen. The majority of this thing was knit at home listening to Radio Lab. There were a lot of exciting things happening while we were shooting "Merrily, Merrily" .

Anyway, the yarn is one of the Cherry Tree Hill skeins sent to me by my lovely SP10 pal, Diane. I have to admit, I was a little intimidated by its brightness when I saw it in the hank, but once it was wound and certainly once the knitting started happening, I really started to enjoy this colorway. What felt like ravetastic glow worm colors have now broken up into speckles of early spring greens - I know these socks will cheer me up in January when everything is dead.

I had no idea.

2007-07-26T09:26:00.000-05:00

"Vanna's hair dresser taught her to crochet on the set of Wheel of Fortune. She enjoys the craft as a way of productively using her downtime during filming to create hand-made gifts for friends and family. She connected with Lion Brand Yarn Company 13 years ago, when that company's president, David Blumenthal, saw her on the Tonight Show, where she mentioned that she was a crocheter. He contacted her and she has been a spokesperson for the company ever since, hosting their annual fashion show at the Craft and Hobby Association each year."

The things you learn at Hancock's.

EDITED: My links somehow got all bizzaro so I took them out. Thanks for pointing it out, Diane!

It's Not Stalking if it Was Coincidence

2007-07-23T22:44:00.000-05:00

So, I was at TJ Maxx today, looking to spend my first waitress paycheck on some new shirts, when I spotted a girl across the rack wearing a Calorimetry knitted out of Noro. I thought, wow a knitter in the wild! But, possibly, it could have been a gift and also, I was afraid to look like a huge nerd and say, "excuse me, I see you're wearing a very popular pattern from Knitty, knitted with a very popular yarn. I just moved here, and I'm a knitter too."

Has anyone else seen a stranger wearing an obviously handknitted item? (Faux fur scarves don't count) Did you say anything? Has anyone ever asked you about something you were wearing that that you knitted?

Sneak Peak

2007-07-18T11:45:00.000-05:00

If you are a certain sister of mine with an upcoming birthday, here is a sneak of part of your present. Hint: it's not the bike. (I'm sorry if that disappoints you)

How Many Times Can I Post About One Project?

2007-07-17T08:08:00.000-05:00

I fixed the straps on Lelah! It's actually a pretty wearable object now.
The new and improved one is on the left if you can't already tell.

Strap modifications:
*always slip the first st, k the second, k the second to last and purl the last*
PU 17 sts and k in stockinette for 3 rows
Next, *slip, k2tog, k to last 3, k2tog, purl
knit 1 row*
repeat above two rows until 9 stitches remain
knit until you have 1.5 inches from the last decrease
k the 2 middle sts together
work one row
k the two middle stitches together
you should now have 7 sts on the needle, work until desired length
BO and mattress stitch to the back of the top.

A New Quilt is a Good Reason to Make the Bed

2007-07-16T17:03:00.000-05:00

...too bad it seems to be impossible to photograph all of it. Our new apartment is about the size of said quilt, so the most logical way to photograph it would be on the bed or hanging from the balcony. The bed pictures didn't turn out and to shoot it from the ground to our balcony, well, we have already named our downstairs neighbor "Mr. Naked" so I really don't want to give him the thrill of thinking I might me shooting into his always open windows, god forbid.

So, without further ado...my first quilt, yay! The other half looks just like this, but with the log cabin squares on the opposite side. I designed it so that the cream/log cabin thirds would hang down on the sides of the bed and the striped columns would cover the main portion.

I am pretty pleased with it. My binding could be a little better and eventually I would like to go back and add more quilting to the cream/log cabin sections.

Oooh La La, SP10 strikes again!

2007-07-02T15:51:00.000-05:00

In keeping with the fiber as food chicas, I photographed all of my gifts in the fridge. Ok, so that is terribly lazy and not the same as this beautiful photo, or any of the others, but with 100 million straight days of rain, there is no good natural light and that's just how I roll.

Anyway! my very generous and kind secret pal is Diane. I finally learned why it always felt like Christmas when I got my packages from her. She's from the North Pole, just like Santa!!

In this reveal package, she sent me enough yarn to make not one, not two, but three pairs of socks. The Regia bamboo color is so soft and I love the colors. And I am SO excited about the two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill. I've heard great things about this yarn and haven't let myself indulge in it yet. I don't know where to start! I want to put all the packing aside and knit all of these into socks as fast as possible.

The little green thing in the foreground is a button bracelet. It is adorable, even though it's hard to photograph. It is from the Alaska Rag Company. They salvage the buttons from the clothes they turn into rag rugs and reuse them to make jewelry.

I also got a sock blocker key chain, the current issue of Knit 1 ("the green issue" perfect!) and a Loopy postcard. You're supposed to photograph him somewhere cool and send the pic back to the loopy ewe.

Thank you so much, Diane! I love everything and feel truly spoiled!

Exciting stuff

2007-06-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

*I didn't take this photo*

Well, I don't have a finished quilt to show, but I'm working really hard to complete it this week...because next week we are packing up all of our earthly possessions and moving to Austin!

I have wanted to move back to the hill country since I left three years ago. We. are. so. excited.

One of the best things about central Texas is the food. I haven't had a decent breakfast taco in YEARS. If you're not familiar with the joy that is the breakfast taco, here is acclaimed Austin director, Robert Rodriguez, to explain the process:

One of the best things about reading too many blogs is that they are overwhelmingly inspiring. The Ravelry folks are quitting their real jobs to work full time on the site and scores of people are designing patterns and writing books.
With S's blessing and support, I am quiting my job at The Man, Inc. and am going to be able to pursue my passion full time as well. I don't feel comfortable revealing more than that, but, well, I can't help but to share my joy and excitement. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! : )

And no, while I really enjoy my crafting, that's not what I will be doing. But, speaking of, if anyone has a local knitting store, Sn'B group or book club recommendation, I would love to hear it. In all of the happiness and excitement over our big move, there still lurks a little anxiety over going to a new city where I don't know many people.

Everone loves a log (cabin)

2007-06-21T07:39:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot more sewing than knitting going on in my craft corner these days. The above is my first not-from-a pattern log cabin block. I think the fabrics and colors work well for the stripes in my quilt (ooo, yeah, I'm one more rainy weekend away from having a quilt!) but in the log cabin, they look mushy.
Maybe it would have looked better if I had paid attention to the fabric more when I was making it, but I was having too much fun being free form.

I'm so excited to finish this project but at the same time, I'm really enjoying it and don't want it to end. As soon as there is something coherent to show for the quilt top, I'll post it. Bring on the rainy weekend!

Lelah!

2007-06-17T18:07:00.001-05:00

*Not really done*

Here she is, in all of her glory. This pattern is really cute and makes a flattering garment. I haven't seen anyone look bad in it yet. So, because of the cuteness, I'm going to re-knit the straps. Again. You can't really see in the picture, but blocking didn't fix the curling and actually stretched one out to the point where that side of the top sags and shows my bra. Not hot.

Lelah. Our love-hate relationship continues.

The Opposite of Xenophobia

2007-06-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

*xenophobia [(zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-foh-bee-uh)] *
An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.

I couldn't find the antonym for this word, but whatever it is, I'm it. I love things foreign and different. I'm so happy that we had the opportunity to go to Rome and Barcelona on our honeymoon.

(Notice how I'm distracting you with creepy bear mannequins since I didn't get any Lelah photos. We've all seen dozens of them anyway, right? Mine looks just like those, more or less)

I've only just begun sorting the the 500+ photos we took that week. All of the blog reading that I do had made me very sensitive to interesting, if not excellent, photography. So far, most of the photos are pretty so - so, but I blame my failing camera, sangria, and the fact that Barcelona is so exploding with life and color and movement that no flat, still picture could really capture it.

*I mean, look at that mall bathroom wall paper. How cool is that?*

MOASIC TIME!

Yarn Plates - and more!

2007-06-14T10:10:00.000-05:00

I enjoy a good coffee break read of Design*Sponge. She has recently discovered the joys of etsy and often links to good sellers on there. But besides that, I have totally stolen her post for my own use today. These plates are from pcp+poketo at rare device and are soothing to look at. I like to doodle swirls and ribbons. Though, at first glance, I thought the designs were hair. I didn't realize it was supposed to be yarn until I read her commentary. The idea of eating hair ooogs me out!

In other news, I brought some hempathy along to work today to start swatching for the Indigo Ripples Skirt. And if I'm getting ready to start a new project, that means...Lelah is done! Done, done done! I read someone's blog post (sorry, I forget) who jokingly decided that the project was soul eating. I think I'm inclined to agree. So! She is blocking on the ironing board and hopefully I will get a pic or two tonight.

Happy day before Friday!

Mr. and Mrs.

2007-06-06T10:19:00.000-05:00

I'm back from a fantastic wedding and honeymoon. Everything went beautifully. All major disasters (an almost forgotten ring, a bartender who was a little too happy to ID the guests, bad hairdos) were narrowly avoided.
We had a wonderful time on our honeymoon in Rome and Barcelona. Can you say "patas bravas"?

As much as I enjoyed the wedding and our trip, it's a huge relief to get back to "normal" life.
Here's a some photos...the only crafty thing I did for the whole event was the invitations and I've already posted that. My sister hand-beaded my veil on both sides. I don't have a good photo of it, but trust me, it was stunning.

If Ronald McDonald Knitted...

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

...he would knit socks like this.

I have no one to blame but myself. I dyed this yarn. I practiced Entrelac with it. And now I've made clown socks. Worsted weight clown socks.

"Happy birthday little clown. Here are some handmade socks."

"I hate you clown grandma!"

In my defense, I thought the stripes were going to be much wider, like 4-5 rows instead of 1-2. I'm not really sure if that would have helped. Mmm, ketchup and mustard!

But they knit up so quickly, and so soft.

and with a couple of giant holes.

But we were driving to Memphis, and pulling out a few rows and fixing it seemed like too much to do in the car.
What we have here, I think is failure on multiple levels. But I'm going to make the other one. It's my back up honeymoon project, if I get sick of re-knitting 12 inches of chevron lace.

See ya'll in a few weeks!

SP10 Awesomeness

2007-05-21T07:37:00.000-05:00

Last week was one of the most stressful weeks to date. There was a ton of wedding stuff to be taken care of, things like the DJ losing all of our information, or the check to the florist getting returned in the mail. But, my secret pal is awesome and intuitively knew a little package or two would give me a moment to put the wedding stress aside and fondle yarn.
I can't wait to make this into some socks. I had just cast on for some when this arrived, but more on those later. For this yarn, maybe Hedera? I think the different shades of green would work nicely.

This is the other thing she sent a couple of days later:
Not only are they cute and full of grrl power, they GLOW IN THE DARK. How cool is that?

I'm going to try to squeeze in one more post before the wedding, but if no one hears from me for the next 2 - 3 weeks, no worries! and if I disappear forever, it's because S and I decided to never come home from Italy and Spain. (j/k)

Loves Me Like a Rock

2007-05-16T07:54:00.000-05:00

This post is all about music. If you hate music, specifically what is known as "rock and roll", avert your eyes. Your regularly scheduled knit programming will return, one day. (EDITED TO ADD: I got my Ravelry invitation! WooHoo! Thanks frecklegirl! As a testament to how busy I am, I haven't had a chance to login, but I know when I do, it's going to be awesome.)

S and I went to see Modest Mouse play last Thursday. It was a pretty terrific show. We had great front and center seats. I don't have any pics to show because I always forget no one seems to enforce the "no flash photography" thing, but I do have a t-shirt "that proves you were there, that you heard of them first." (And the first to leave a comment correctly identifying the song that line is from wins a prize!) Also, it turns out our wedding DJ was there too.

ManMan was the opening act. I love it when the opening band doesn't suck and is actually quite good. If you like Modest Mouse, well, these guys sound a little more drunk and carnival-esque and put on a fun show.

And now, for a video:

I stole this video from Mike Doughty. He is one of my favorite singer/songwriters ever. I enjoy his unique view of the world.

And, to wrap this all up, The White Stripes have a new single on All Songs Considered.

My ears are so, so, happy.

Pretty Please?

2007-05-09T09:19:00.000-05:00

May I have an invite to Ravelry? Pretty please? I signed up to be a beta tester, but I'm still waiting on what I'm sure must be a very long list. It just looks so cool and organized, two things of which I am not.

P.s. With the help of S, the almost-husband, Lelah is going to be frogged and re-done. The idea of cutting and sewing her makes me kind of queasy. I orginally cast on 220 stitches (teh stupid) on size 7's. The correct amount? 166 on 7's. 54 stitches less should make it mighty faster!

A Quilting Weekend

2007-05-06T14:38:00.000-05:00

I spent a lovely gray Saturday making the pillow from my Quilt it kit. It was a lot easier and faster than I expected. Maybe I'm not a sewing reject after all.

When I was in college one of my roommates talked me into taking a costume construction class with her. (She was a theater major.) It sounded like and easy elective credit. The professor was a white haired drama queen named Shelia, who was full of all kinds of pronouncements. Her favorite one was "wonky". No matter what you did wrong, it would dismissively deemed wonky and you had to start all over again. Her assistant, and antidote, was a tiny middle eastern woman named Homa, who was as short as Shelia was tall, and as nice as Shelia was mean. She helped all of the students and if it wasn't for her, we all would have failed.

So anyway, for our final we had to make a vest and model it on the last day of class. Mine was a crazy reversible thing made out of hot pink fleece and decorative zigzag stitching on one side and navy blue terry cloth and an assortment of patches and ribbons on the other. Homa did a great job on it.

We get to the fashion show, and I'm rather proud because no one else did a reversible vest. I'm strutting around on one of the tables (it was part of the grade) and evil Shelia pointed a mean finger at me and announces to the class, "Oh yeah, that's the one with all of the crap on it".

At least I graduated from wonky.

I'm really pleased with my pillow, which is wonky in all the right places. It's really the first thing I've sewn since then, if you don't count the stuffies that I made everyone for Christmas a couple of years ago with limited success.

I'm really grateful for a quick and easy FO. As you can see from the picture above, yarn is not being so kind to me.

Happy-making

2007-05-04T07:15:00.000-05:00

I didn't notice the two packages tucked behind one of the porch railings when I came home because I walked in through the back, but when S and I took the dogs for a walk, there they were.

So when we got back, I got to watch Grey's Anatomy and open packages. Good times! The first one was our cake topper (which is just a silver letter W). The second was a total surprise.

My Secret Pal has struck again! I'm so excited about this. I've never gotten a kit before and it has supplies to make the pillow on the cover. It will be a great warm-up project before I start on The Big Quilt. Thank you so much SP10!

I am really bad at math. (See Lelah, Pink and Olive, etc.) Every time I calculate how many strips or blocks I need for my quilt I get a different number. Also, I can't cut or sew in a straight line. What an adventure! I still have high expectations. DoggedKnits is a huge inspiration right now. Everything she does is adorable.

Ok, off to work, I'm ready to get this quilting weekend started!

Gauge Rage

2007-04-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

The good news...

The body of Lelah is done!

The bad news...

It's huge!

Turns out I knit 10 extra inches wide. I was so cranky when I finally bound off and the thing bloomed into giganticness. I swear, I checked the gauge 5 times. I must be terrible at stitch counting, math, and rational thought. There were people on the craftster KAL that made this in like, a week. I might have been able to, too, had I not made it 10 extra inches.

So, any salvaging suggestions? I think I'm just going to sew it up the side where it should end and cut off the extra. Has anyone tried this? Is there a prettier (but reasonably quick) solution?

Little Bits of Everything

2007-04-27T22:41:00.000-05:00

*aww, isn't it cute?*

Here is my stash, being flashed once again for the SP10 contest. My, look how it's grown! It's now resting in its new basket in our office/guest room/ craft corner/ doggie day care. I moved in with S last weekend, which is why the guest bed is in craft chaos. I swear the mess has improved, but I think S might disagree.

I went to a "yarn tasting" at The Shabby Sheep last night. We each got little to go containers of 5 different yarns and a sample of Soak wash. The yarns are (starting with the blue and going clockwise): "Emotion" by Lang, Shabby Sheep Handspun by Madeline Tosh. Pure Silk by Debbie Bliss, Summer Set by Classic Elite, and Euroflax by Louet.

The surprise hit of the evening was the "Emotion". It's scented. Scented, people! I scoffed at its silly (but delicious) aromatherapy lavender smell and its weird shiny streak in an otherwise cotton tape-y yarn. But it knits up really nicely and it the first cotton I've tried that's easy on the hands. So easy, in fact, it made my knitting fingers softer. It was so enjoyable to work with, I want to make a simple scented tank out of it. Scented clothes seem like a smart way to survive a Texas summer. The combination of lavender and sweat would make everyone smell like a yoga class.

My second favorite was the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. How can you not love Debbie Bliss, or silk? It was a little slippery and my size two's were not an ideal needle size, but I liked it.

The Shabby Sheep handspun was made just for the store. It's a thick / thin deal with scraps of vintage fabric, ric rac, and a bit of mylar. It's totally cute and interesting to use. If your style of decor is shabby chic, a pillow made out of it would be perfect. My style is more is more "modern French country meets mentally ill dumpster diver".

After all of these delights, the Classic Elite was underwhelming. And I didn't get a chance to play with the Euroflax, which feels kind of like waxed dental floss, but I'm intrigued by it, and want to wash a swatch.

As much as I enjoy shopping at this store, and as fun as geeking out and trying new yarns was, I'm not sure if I would do something like this again. I was a little intimidated walking into a roomful of strangers, even if they are as nice as can be.

and now, the best for last....

Lelah, about 3 -4 inches from needing straps and being d-o-n-e.

Color Theory Morphs to Quilts

2007-04-27T05:00:00.000-05:00

This is an awesome tutorial on using photos to create color palettes

I tried it out with a picture I used to inspire the wedding flowers and here is the resulting palette.

I love the smokey, romantic colors that came out of it. It would be interesting (to me, at least) to do this again with a photos of the actual flowers.

One day, when I have more free time (haha) I want to learn fair isle and I think this would be a great way to start picking colors.

Knitpicks advertises a kaleidoscope in their catalog as a way to get an idea of how already purchased yarn colors might work together. It's a clever idea that I have yet to try out.

Putting all of the colors in the grid also inspired me to make mini quilts in Photoshop. It alleviated my burning desire to try (again) to make a quilt somewhat. Here are a couple of the results:

Maybe I'm the last to know, but have you seen Denyse Schmidt's quilts and fabric? Swoon! They are so modern and bright and beautiful and classic. The more blogs I read, the more I realize how much the quilting bug has gone around and I'm dreaming of a long, free Saturday where I can play with some fabric.

Also, just so you know, I write posts and save them as drafts all the time. I have a bunch more timely things to post, like a Lelah update (for you, dear SP!), the goods from the yarn tasting, and my updated stash (for you, SP hostess!), but teh interweb was down this morning so hopefully I'll get to it this weekend.

Such a To-Do to Dye Today

2007-04-25T21:59:00.000-05:00

*neat*

I had a rash of completion-itis (Lelah's last 5 inches of stockinette are going slowly) so last night so I tried my hand at kettle dying. This is some Knitpicks sock yarn in bare, dyed with Wilton's in the crock pot.

*the real colors are actually a bit darker*

I was thinking of gifting this to my SP, but there are some undyed spots. One day, I'd like to make the Anastasia socks from Pepperknit . One day, because with the wedding, work, and the long list of "want to" projects, I feel like there are never enough hours in the day to do what I want. I'm not sure what it will take to make me realize that both my plate AND my dance card are full.

Know what's not going to help? Going to a "yarn tasting" tomorrow, where you get to try different yarns, drink wine, and eat cheese. I'm sure I'll be inspired for 1,000 more beautiful creations. If only each creation came with time...

Whatever Gets You Through the Day...

2007-04-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

Guess what?!? I'm half an inch from finishing the lace section of Lelah. After that it's the home stretch - about five inches of stockinette in the round, woot!

But I don't have any pics, so to distract everyone, here's a list of my favorite distractions at work:

Pandora Radio Free, online radio...you tell it a band you like and it creates a whole radio station around it for you. It's a great way to discover new music and drown your co-workers' discussion of the minuate of the previous night's "American Idol".

Online Books Free, online books. It's kind of hard to browse, and seems to have mostly older fiction, reference books, and things you've never heard of. I just finished reading the "Scarlet Pimpernel". It's just pages and pages of plain text, so it really looks like something important and work-like.

Tea - Sweet, sweet tea. I couldn't start my day without Stash organic green tea or Republic of Tea Matte Latte. I gave up coffee for Lent and transferred my addiction. But it doesn't hurt my stomach like coffee, so it's all good.

Knitting blogs - Of course. I'm a huge lurker. I love seeing everyone's awesome projects and rampant creativity. The downside of it is that I get all kinds of ideas that I want to make, and it seems like everyone is just churning out beautiful awesome knits and quilts and breads with one hand while raising babies/ running companies/ otherwise saving the world with the other. I get a little overwhelmed by it, honestly. But I love it.

I also make lists on yellow post its and stick them in my purse, making myself look truly crazy. They are pretty obscure. I actually made a list for this post - "pandora, online books, tea, lists, xanax" (a shopping list for Satan's mom?) and the ones currently surrounding me say "Barcelona", " Je suis belle et ca ne demande acun effort" (BTW, I don't speak French), and one that says "Spa Atelier, Jonas, Massage Envy". Yes, there is a little crazy on my face.

Anything I'm missing? Any other suggestions?

Coming Up Roses

2007-04-15T22:15:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and that your Monday is as good as can be expected!

I Blame the Weather

2007-04-11T21:21:00.000-05:00

In addition to the lovely Secret Pal Gifts, I had a little S-E-X this weekend at the Hancock's by my parent's house.

Sadly, it's going out of business, leaving zero craft or hobby stores in a 20 mile radius. Happily, their yarn was 40% off. I got more Landscapes, which I'm currently making a shrug out of. (It may end up in the "You knit what?" category, but I do enjoy this yarn)

And I also got......

Cashmere! Delicious, delicious cashmere.

Well, ok, yes it is a blend. But still. I feel kinda like I felt when I got my first diamonds (props to S for those!) I never thought I'd get to work with such luxury. I'm pretty sure it's going to one day become a Tubey, with the shrug part in gray and the body in blue.

Stash, consider yourself enhanced.

The Goods, For Real

2007-04-10T23:02:00.000-05:00

First off, some beautiful handmade needles with swirly metallic teal ends. Click on the picture to to experience the full glory of the swirly-ness. They are awesome!

This Classic Elite mercanized cotton makes the stuff I'm knitting Lelah out of feel like old shoelaces. I definitely see making more lacy tanks in the near future! Perhaps one of the ones from the Spring Interweave.

And, Boomerang in "Caribbean". Boomerang is the best name for this stuff. I've heard other knitters use the term "sproingy" before, but never truly understood the term until this came along. It's the trampoline of yarn. And the colors! Blue and green! Always winners in my book. :)

And as I mentioned before, there was delicious chocolate (which was, um, unavailable for the photoshoot) and a cute card and pattern

Thank you!

Thank you, Secret Pal!

2007-04-09T19:49:00.000-05:00

I got the first installment of goodies from my SP on Saturday. It was awesome! There was candy, a cute card, neat handmade knitting needles, this pattern, and of course, some glorious yarn.

But know what there isn't? Pictures.

I went to upload them tonight, and every last one of them was blurry. Really blurry. So unfortunately those will have to wait until later this week when I have a moment with natural light to re-shoot them. But when I do, you'll understand why I feel spoiled already!

And so this isn't a totally picture-less post...

*yellow rose, yellow house*

The rose bush that came with our house is in full, crazy bloom, despite the snow (?!?) we had over this weekend. It's had buds on it for weeks, and I was dying to know what color the flowers were. Surprise! They match the house.

Reasons for a Good Mood

2007-04-06T17:33:00.000-05:00

*This picture is kind of terrible, sorry*

Bright and shiny pedicure for 30% off at the new salon by work
Unexpectedly getting out of work early
Finding "Vintage Knits" at Half Price Books AND having a birthday gift card to use to buy it.
Getting the last pair in my size of the shoes I want for the wedding.
The last ball of Landscapes on sale at Michael's for two bucks. It's probably not enough to do anything with, but it's pretty, like an Easter egg. (I never do anything with those either)
Hempathy, for the Raspy in Denim People or the Indigo Ripples Skirt in this spring's IK.
Lelah is blooming, now that I have the pattern memorized

Wedding Stuff

2007-04-05T11:30:00.000-05:00

The invites went into the mail yesterday! We made them by hand, and are the only wedding craft I ended up doing. I'm really pleased with the results...

The paper is nice and green with a metallic, almost Indian looking pattern. We got our names to print in the same shade of green on the first try. The envelopes were sealed with silver wax and a Fluer-d-lis seal (almost the same shape as the pattern on the paper). I'm really happy with how they came out!

C-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a

2007-04-04T21:09:00.000-05:00

*This is how I felt after being awake 24 hours*

I went to go visit my sister in California last weekend and boy, do I have stories. The Dallas skies decided to have a thunderstorm as I was on the way to the airport, which pushed the first leg of my journey back an hour... and then another and another until there would be no way to catch my connecting flight in San Fransisco.
I got put on standby for a flight out the next morning and tried to prepare mentally to sleep in the airport. I called Melissa to tell her, and she decided to drive 4 HOURS to San Francisco to pick me up. (Which I am SO glad she did)

I meet her in San Francisco, have a bit of a scare when it looks like I can't get my bags, but then that turned out ok and we went to Denny's to sustain ourselves for the 4 hour drive back home.

*I don't have pictures of the 2 am crazies at the Berkley Denny's so this cactus will have to do*

By the time we made it to her house, it was 6 am Texas time and I was spent. The next morning she woke up and made awesome lemon poppy seed muffins with almond icing, apologizing for not having a belated birthday cake for me. The muffins were awesome! We spent the rest of the day, which was Cesar Chavez day, shopping for groceries and dresses to wear to the rehearsal dinner.

When we came home, things were in full swing at the "Mangrove", what we call the block of town homes she lives in.

*nothing celebrates the rights of workers like a good game of beer pong*

We made Indian food, and some couscous pancakes from a recipe in the vegetarian cookbook Melissa got me for my birthday. We didn't realize we needed to use "quick cook" couscous so they came out, crunchy? gritty? I don't know. We feed them to the neighbors, and they didn't seem to mind. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out, chatting, and watching the various inhabitants of the Mangrove set things on fire. (We did this both nights)

*neat*

The next day was filled with a trip to the local farmer's market, where I got a jar of olives (yum!) and homemade apricot jam, more clothes shopping, and some homemade pizza. And of course, more fire and beer pong.

*Now is a good time for a picture of the cat*

Little Dude, the cat, is one of my sister's roommates. How do people take pics of their cats? He was very camera shy.

Then it was time to go back home. Upon arriving at the airport, I learned that since I hadn't taken my standby flight, United had canceled THE REST OF MY TRIP! I immediately lost all pretense of calm and burst into ugly, red-faced tears. I think if my flight out hadn't been so draining, I would have handled the situation better, but I had reached my airline crap quota for the next year or so. Through the grace of God, I managed to get a seat on a later flight and make it to Dallas by midnight, instead of the Monday at 2 in the afternoon flight that was the airlines original proposed "solution".

As a karmic payback for my good luck, I spent the longer of the two flights stuck in a seat between an evangelical Christian from Plano and an Agnostic Jew from San Francisco who decided to talk politics, religion and ABORTION, the entire flight. Nothing like a tense discussion of religion with strangers to make you feel like you're in a circle of hell.

I did get some knitting done in all of the crazy, but I haven't had a chance to photograph it in decent light.

This is truly the longest post I've ever written.

It's Not the Size that Matters, but How You Use It.

2007-04-02T23:05:00.000-05:00

*belatedly flashing my stash*

My stash is small, and could use some S-E-X...from upper left to right...white handspun silk for knitting a garter that never happened, two hanks of DYO sock yarn that I have plenty of ideas for but no time, green grassy novelty yarn and blue fuzzy novelty yarn that I got for my birthday last year, and still have no idea what to do with, leftover Paton's Classic and some leftover boucule stuff I used to make a neck warmer for my sister out of. The Blue Sky Alpaca sportweight is missing, since it's at S's house and my order for the other half still hasn't come in and I may have to return it and re-buy it online.

*Rupert guards the stash basket*

All of the above fit in here.... and all of my leftovers and some dusty WIP's are in the basket on top and the bag on the right, the one with needles haphazardly escaping from it.

*I am not OCD and yes, that is a jar of olives*

I had a crazy, but great weekend this past, and have stories and pics to share that have nothing to do with knitting. But some of the pictures are of a cat and others of fire, so that should appease the blog gods.
Tomorrow night is the great wedding invitation put-together, so hopefully S will still want to marry me afterwards and hopefully I will have some time this week to post the aforementioned stories, pics of the new WIP, and the yarn I got to beef up my skinny stash!

A Quick and Boring Post

2007-03-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

* I have an awesome Secret Pal. She (I assume it's a she) has been so kind already, taking time to read through my blog and leave thoughtful comments. Yay Secret Pal!

* I'm still waiting on the rest of my skeins of the Blue Sky Alpaca stuff so I can start the pleated skirt. I'm off to California for the weekend and I NEED to have a project to get me through the flight and layover

*I was naughty and order more yarn online. I'll reveal it when I get it.

*I also bought "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" because Borders was giving a 25% off Educators discount. Apparently, substitute teaching three months ago qualifies me as an educator.

Hopefully some time this week and can have a second to put together a real post, with pictures!

On the Entrelac Bus

2007-03-17T18:42:00.000-05:00

I've been having a pretty dull time at work so I used some spare brain cells to try out entrelac on my lunch break. I know Eunny Jang has a tutorial in this season's Interweave, but I also found a great, free tutorial with pictures here. The yarn is some self-striping hand dye I made before Christmas that has been sitting bright and lonely in my stash.

I like how the colors worked out.

But now I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't have enough to make a scarf and a co-worker told me it looked like a pot holder (which didn't sound like a compliment). So it might be back to socks for this stuff!

Knitcore!

2007-03-17T16:20:00.000-05:00

I love this tattoo!

The Shabby Sheep

2007-03-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

While KIPing at lunch last week, and very nice woman came up and told me she knit too and we chatted for a few moments about knitting. We were in a cafe near the store the Yarn Bully owns, and she mentioned that she had had similar experiences. She said her favorite place to go was The Shabby Sheep.

So S and I went on Saturday to check it out. I completely understand why it is her favorite place as it is now mine too. The staff are amazingly friendly. Not pushy at all they are happy to order anything for you, get anything off the top shelf, or take a moment to gush over the Eunny Jang enterlac knee socks with you.

I splurged and bought all of the supplies for the Blue Sky skirt. I've never made anything using the yarn the pattern recommends because I'm usually too cheap, but the alpaca is so wonderful to touch. If I'm going to ever wear a wooly skirt in Texas, it seems best that it's made out of the softest thing evah.

Popcorn Trees

2007-03-14T00:16:00.000-05:00

I love these things.

FO ! Spring socks !

2007-03-12T22:16:00.000-05:00

*just in time for the time change*

Spring Socks
Colinette Cadenza sock yarn
Size 2 needles
Pattern: my own version of Knitty's Universal Toe-up Sock pattern

Firsts: First pair of socks made with sock weight yarn, smallest needles I've ever used, first toe-up sock.

Likes: I liked working with the small yarn and needles more than expected. I like the lace pattern, even though it doesn't really work with the variegated colors.
These babies are warm, too. I wish I had been able to get them done back when we had sub-freezing temperatures. I like that the are seamless. I have a really big thing with seams in my socks. Short rows aren't nearly as scary as I once thought.

Dislikes: They are a little too big and I don't know how to do a stretchy bind off so they are hard to put on. It also bothers me that one is speckled with color and the other is only splashed. I know that is the risk you run with hand painted yarn, but still.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm sure they're see some wear next winter.

Garden - Week 3

2007-03-11T22:28:00.000-05:00

*shade garden, week 3*

It doesn't look that much different than week one, though I swear things are growing. It's hard to see in the picture, but I think the caladiums are poking up a couple of shoots. The hostas and inpatients are not much changed and the lily-of the-valley has yet to be heard from.

I had to add the mulch last week because the temperatures dropped unexpectedly. I hope everything is ok. I mulched it at night during a lunar eclipse. I don't know if that really means anything, but when I was a child, I was fascinated with The Old Farmer's Almanac. I'm not really sure why, but I suppose it was because it was full of interesting tidbits, like why or why not to mulch our shade garden during a lunar eclipse or that jazz enthusiasts have 30% more sex than normal people. (Oh, the things that stay with us!)

The almanac was such an authority on so many things. I often wondered how it could be so certain. All of those orderly planting schedules and tide charts. Life was, and is, a tumultuous place, and farming is hardly a sure thing, but the almanac was all knowing and always reassuring.

Well, whatdya know...

2007-03-10T12:26:00.000-06:00

Spring Knitty is up, and I apparently have been knitting one of the patterns for sometime now. My Spring Socks are the exact same as the Quill Lace socks. Ok, maybe not *exactly* the same, since I ribbed the top of the one I've completed, but essentially the same. And here I was, thinking I was all original. I must be well tuned into the collective unconscious. The knitting one, at least.

Also, what's up with taking pictures of hand knitted socks standing on dirty asphalt? There's something about it that gives me that nails-on- a-chalkboard feeling up the back of my neck. I wouldn't do that in cheap store bought socks, let alone ones I've spent hours slaving away over.

Spring Socks

2007-02-25T11:35:00.000-06:00

It is never a good idea to knit with sinus headache. I have manged to gain and lose all kinds of stitches on the ankle part. I'm not going to show the disaster yet because I'm hoping I can fix it before this sock becomes an FO.

That being said, I am loving the simple razor shell lace pattern of my spring socks, and I love working toe-up. Like a mythological god, these socks spring forth from the needles fully formed. I'm using the universal toe - up sock pattern from Knitty. It took me three tries to get the short row toe right, not because I can't handle the short rows, but because I don't trust my math.

The Yarn Bully yarn is pretty nice, but some how almost all of the color has ended up on the sole. So it goes with hand painted yarns, I suppose. I just don't really like how the few spots of color on the top of the foot look like I spilled jam or something on it.

Also, and this is silly, but on the Collinette website, they describe this colorway as being pink and gray. But in real life, at least the yarn i have, it's most definitely purple and green. For some reason, this really bothers me. I like it being purple and green, that's why I bought it.
It reminds me of the discussions we used to have in my philosophy classes about the color green, how we can all agree that something is green, but there is no way to prove that we are all experiencing the same qualia, the same kind of green, the same feeling of green. And then we'd talk about colorblindness and my head would hurt with all of it and I'd be glad that I was only minoring in philosophy and wish that the guy who sat next to me wouldn't drink tea that smalled like rabbit food.

S knew someone once that was intentionally teaching his child the wrong names for different colors. Red was blue, green was pink, and so on. It might make for an interesting philosophical experiment, but it sounds like abuse to me.

Putting Down Roots

2007-02-25T11:14:00.000-06:00

*literally and metaphorically*

I've spent the last two weekends gardening at the new house. We have a long, waist-high wall that has dirt in the top of it, so I planted 60 pansies, in various shades of purple and white, along its length.

I spent yesterday morning planting caladiums, lily of the valley, hosta, impatients, and some speckly orchid things next to our kitchen door. I'm determined to have the most colorful shade garden possible. It doesn't look like much now, since most of the things I planted are bulbs or roots, bur I'm excited to see them grow. I did discover that there were about five bulbs already growing, hidden under a layer of dirt.

It is so nice to have a place to plant in, a place I know I will be longer than a year. S and I would really like to leave Dallas, but we've decided to wait two years to save money and work on our careers before moving. And I never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad. The past two years of my life have been a roller coaster of big changes...I've moved three times, had a multitude of jobs, and all sorts of other crazy life things. It feels so good to wake up on a Saturday morning and put in perennials, knowing I'll be able to enjoy them next spring.

Thank you, Dead Presidents

2007-02-19T23:09:00.000-06:00

Hancock had a 50% off sale this weekend in honor of President's day. And nothing celebrates the contributions of America's presidents like half off craft supplies. George Washington seemed like a DIY kinda guy.

I was excited about the rotary cutter until I tried it out. It barely cut through one layer of fabric, even with much coaxing. So, maybe I need to get a new blade. the mat and ruler though, they work just fine.

And the fabric is for a quilt I've been thinking about since I learned how to sew. See, I've always wanted to make a quilt and have tried a few times. The grandmother that taught me to sew made quilts, so it seemed like that making a quit was the ultimate goal of sewing. I'm a terrible sewer. But, I can almost manage a straight line and I figure that if I get enough cute fabrics cut in decent sized strips with my new yet craptastic rotatory cutter, I can sew them up in no time on my sewing machine and figure out the rest of this quilting business once I get there.

Mema, the grandmother who set me out on my crafty path by teaching me to make bean bags and doll clothes, is dying of cancer. It's a very sad, heart - wrenching situation that the whole family is trying to deal with. I feel that she will probably have passed away before I have finished this quilt, but then, her doctor predicted she wouldn't live through her last surgery, and that was two years ago. About half of the fabric pictured above she gave to me when I bought my sewing machine because she is no longer able to use it.

I like that some of the fabric is from her, some is from my past, (the pink and green leaf things, on the cream background? I used that to make my first skirt. The blue and green hibiscus? a bathing suit wrap.) and some of it, of course, is courtesy of our dead presidents.

The Centurian Club

2007-02-16T07:23:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited to have reached my 100th post on The Longest Yarn. I've been waiting for days, disregarding more trivial posts, to come up with the perfect 100th post.

That's a lot of pressure. So I give you a grainy, less-than-perfect graphic I whipped up post-shower/ pre-coffee and a list.

Knitting Things I have Learned:
(some of them, I learned the hard way)

There is more to knitting than garter stitch but sometimes garter stitch is the best.
Once I learned how to purl, I figured nothing else could be too hard.
Given the choice, I will almost always pick the green yarn.
I never cease to enjoy felting things, even though I don't particularly like felted items.
I'm still afraid to buy really nice yarn, in case I might "mess it up".

FOs I'm Most Proud of:
(pride is one of the big seven, but for these things, it's worth it)

Mom's Tote bag Because it was my fist large project, I made it up as I went along, i got it done almost n time, and she really seemed to like it.

The worsted weight Anthro Caplet The bulky weight version opened my eyes to the magic of raglan construction. The worsted weight one taught me "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again" is a good motto to have. And, it's the first wearable garment I've made!
Pedicure Socks I had to teach myself to use DPNs, which was a major challenge. But I managed it, the socks came out wearable, and I'm working on my 3rd pair of full socks since.

Personal Things:
(It's been a crazy year)

S and I got engaged!
I worked on a major film, and lost my job.
I moved back home.
My grandmother passed away.
S and I rented our first house together.
I found a new job, in a new field.

Things to Come:
(The best is yet to come)

The wedding! (a mere 3 months away)
Lace socks
Secret Pal 10
Mosaic bag
A knitted skirt
A real sweater, maybe?

And a Huge Thank You!

To everyone who reads this, for the handful of comments, for the hits that show up on my site meter, for all of the inspiration I get from reading about other people's projects and lives.

I wonder what the next hundred posts will bring? Some bamboo yarn, maybe?

Secret Pal 10 Questionarrie

2007-02-06T18:48:00.000-06:00

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I tend to pick up a lot of Berocco, like the Soft Twist and Ultra Alpaca. I would love to try some Noro, bamboo, or hemp, but Knit Picks never disappoints! I don't like 100% acrylic yarn, novelty yarn, or ribbon yarn.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have a needle roll that I made to hold my straights, but nothing for my circulars.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I learned to knit from my sister a few years ago, and have been "seriously" knitting for a year. I would consider myself an intermediate knitter.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
it's all in the "cravings" section of this blog.

5. What's your favorite scent? sandalwood or amber

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Not much of a sweet tooth but I love me some good dark chocolate. Toffee is good too...and chocolate covered toffee? Even better!

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I'm about to start my first container garden. I sew a little and have always wanted to make a quilt. I'm generally crafty with decor, painting, jewelry, etc. I don't spin and I honestly have no desire to learn.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) I like indie rock, alt. country, anything unusual that sounds good.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
Ah, favorite colors, so many! But you can't go wrong with a deep teal, just about any shade of green, or strong, warm colors. i don't particularly care for pastels, yellow in general, or peach. Not terribly fond of variegated yarns, either, though I have been pleasantly surprised before.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I am getting married this May and we have two schnauzer-mutt dogs, Izzi and Angel. i also have a beta.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I love scarves, look silly in hats, have no need for mittens and would never wear a poncho

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
At the moment, socks. I also like felting things and really want to make more wearable garments.

13. What are you knitting right now?
a pair of toe-up socks

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Absolutely!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Bamboo all the way! Circulars for everything or dpns for socks.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a winder, but no swift.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
I don't have any at the moment!

18. What is your favorite holiday?
Honestly not much a fan of holidays, but i like the 4th of July for the fireworks and Halloween for the dressing up.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Dunnies and Smorkin' Labbits from kidrobot.com
Yarn, of course
Signed books from my favorite authors

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
See the "Cravings" section.
No knitting magazine subscriptions, but I'm partial to Interweave.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Fair Isle, and I'd like to be more confident adjusting patterns to my liking

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Yup, and my foot is 9 inches around and 10 inches long

23. When is your birthday?
March 15th