Crappers

Well, I had myself all set up to do a real update post with pictures and all. I painstakingly photographed all my Christmas gifts and other various items of interest in addition to snapping pics of a whole drawer full if old stash for Ravelry. I joined a stash-burning group for 2008 and the first step is to log all of your stash. Anyhow, I did all this and was all ready to go.....and then I realized that I have no clue in hell where the cord to my camera is. Considering that I had absolutely WRECKED both my office and bedroom during a frantic last minute search for Christmas yarn that was MIA, it may take me awhile to find it. It was not pretty. As it became more and more apparent that the yarn was nowhere to be found while I was mere moments away from having to wrap the thing, my search quickly moved from shifting things here and there to pulling out/dumping entire drawers, haphazardly yanking out/dumping storage units.....it just wasn't good. The yarn turned out to still be in the shipping box on my little table downstairs, btw. Absolute destruction for nothing. On the bright side of things, this will at least give me reason to get a jump on my New Years cleaning and organization effort.
Alright, so another post w/out pictures. I suck. This I know......at least with this.
Oh, and guess who guest starred at the Celtic Knot this afternoon? Moi. I'll be doing an encore performance tomorrow morning and afternoon, so if anyone wants to stop by and say hello, that's where I'll be.

Meryy Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm having a good day relaxing and plan on knitting myself a new pair of socks. I'm thinking something chevron-esque out of my now giant stash of Storm Moon Knits Twilight Sock. Either that, or some Charades. I had the urge last night after the super fun "please kill me now!!!" family gathering, but I thought back on all the nights I've acted on my last minute knitting urges and been sad afterwards. I just don't do well starting things when I'm exhausted. Anyhow, I'll be back later with some photos (gasp) and a mini-run down of our Chistmasy events.

I'm trying here.....

Okay, so Yes. I haven't posted since Thanksgiving. Evil, evil me. For those of you who don't know, things have gotten just a tad crazy here and my knitting time has....well, it's pretty much vanished. The little time I have has been (supposedly) spent on gifts for the fast approaching holiday.....though I may have knocked out a hat or something for myself in there, too. Anyhow, nothing to show b/c it's all secret, but I am here, I am knitting some, and I will post some pics of what I can show when it's ready to be shown.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Non-knitting in Vegas

I started for Vegas with all the supplies to make my double knit diamond scarf and swatch/start my nephews Christmas sweater. I had bought some of the new needles from the shop for the former, and I brought it all in my purse on the plane out there. I got a wee bit done on the scarf but it was a bit uncomfortable knitting on the plane, at least while fumbling around with my not-so-great double knitting skills. Once at the hotel, I eagerly went for my project to knit in comfort only to find that one of my new needles ha evidently not made it off the plane. So that was sucky thing number one. Sucky thing number two was that when I started to swatch for the sweater, my fabric was all holey and gross. I had assumed when packing that I would be doing it on size 9's s the ball band suggests a size 10.5. Being the loose knitter that I am, I figured the 9 would be great. Being me, I figured entirely wrong. On to massive suckfest item numero trois. I had the swift idea to look up the "local" knitting shop in the phone book and hopped a cab out there Tuesday morning. $55 later, the cab driver pull up to the address and says,"Oh, you just wanted to get your nails done??".....because the knitting store was now a great big ol' nail salon. I had him wait for me while I wandered around the shopping center and eventually found someone who could give me a vague description of where the store had moved. The cabbie took me there, then informed me that there was no way in hell that I was going to ever get a cab back to the strip because we were in the middle of bum-fuck. He was kind enough wait for me at no additional charge. So I went into the store and was icily greeted by about 9 women sitting around a table knitting. I swear, I've never been given such a noticeable once over before in my life. I stood there until they went back to their knitting and then proceeded to head back where I saw yarn. Before I reached my destination, a woman jumped up fro her chair at the table and very rudely demanded of me," Can I help you!?!?!". I asked her where needles were, to which she huffed and said "Over here!". There selection sucked ass, but I was able to make out with a pair of plastic 6's and 8's. I started back to the front, then remembered that I also needed a tape measure. Here is out dialog:
Me: Excuse me, but where are your notions?
Mean,Evil Lady: WHAT!!
Me: Your notions.
MEL: What do you mean!?
Me: I need a tape measure. Where are your knitting notions?
MEL: Oh, you mean accessories????
Me: Yeah, I guess so.
MEL: Back where the needles were! I don't know how much we have back there though.
Me: Thanks....(and in my head, I hope you get gonorrhea that envelops your entire body)

I then went to check out, where the other woman completely ignored me while she stood there printing out color cards. Finally she said to me, " I am going to help you, really". Eventually she did and I was able to get back into my cab and bitch about the bitches to my cabbie.

So after my $35 cab ride back, I was able to play with my new shitty needles. Yay. I think in the end I only knit maybe 10 rows after that. I think the whole ordeal just disgruntled me. So now I'm back and madly working on stuff for the holidays. Oh, the joy. On the bright side, I came home to a confirmation email welcoming me to the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club. Kick. Ass. Also, the new Raven Series is out! I got me some Laci and two skeins of lightweight. I can't really recall he colors offhand, but I'm sure they'll be fabulous.

One little FO

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

Hmmmm...for some reason, when I took this, I didn't think that it was such a vomitous picture. However, now that I'm not looking at it in the middle of the night, I'm thinking that I'm a jackass for posting such things on the internet. Oh well. Jackass it is.

Pattern: Basic Seed Stitch-I think I cast on something like 27sts
Yarn: Something Brown and something brownish gold
Needles: US 13

Sorry I can't be more specific, but this was another stash buster. I'm fairly sure that the ladder yarn is either something from FFF or Whimsey from Plymouth. It's something I had picked up back in store #3 to make a brown butterfly shawl that never happened. I don't know what I got the brown base yarn for, but I'm sure it couldn't have been anything too important. The fringe on this is killer. Too bad I didn't think to photograph it. I maxed it out bigtime.
So I'm leaving for Vegas in the morning and an still about 70% unprepared. I'm going to attempt to clean up my office for my nephew, but you know me....no guarantees. I also have to be on call to possibly pick him up from Towson tonight so he can get the key and van.
I think I've decided what I'm going to knit in Vegas. I'm bringing along some yarn and a HUGE boys shirt to swatch for a Christmas gift, and I picked up some Fantasy today at work to make a double knit diamond scarf designed by Karoline. I would link to her blog, but I don't have the addy at the time being. I swear though....I went to Target after work to pick up this shirt to use as a measuring tool. I was told to do about a boys 14, and that shirt was just friggin' monsterous. Literally, I could even have worn back when I was slimmer, yet still a boob filled adult woman. I decided to go a size down, but still, this thing is going to be far more time consuming than I had thought. Oh well. I should have learned from past experiences (like my nephews 3 years scarf/hat set) that I shouldn't open my mouth about knitted gifts until they're done.
Alrighty, I'm off to clean up and pack. Be back in a week, hopefully not madly in debt.

Cripes....what am I gonna talk about now???

So A&E pulled Dog the Bounty Hunter off air. I don't really know what to do now. I have yet to listen to this taped conversation where he drops the "n" word, but I hear it's pretty fierce. I don't know if can take it.

Nothing new on the knitting front. I'm still plugging away on my SSSP, which is turning out nicely. I need to figure out what all I'm going to take to Vegas with me. I know what I should take, but size matters when travelling and I'm thinking some socks may be on the menu. Surprise, surprise. Oh! And I sent in my info today for the 2008 Rockin' Sock Club, but I have yet to get a confirmation email so I'm beginning to sweat bullets. Hopefully it'll come tomorrow. Also, I guess I'm going to miss the premiere of the Raven series. Bah! I suppose I'll be able to hold off until I get back from my trip.

Losing Mojo

I haven't been knitting much lately. Mainly, probably, to the fact that I have my online game back and I've been engulfed in my own super dork-fest. Also, I've run into another one of those stages where nothing I do seems to turn out right. I have all this sock yarn, and I mean A.L.O.T. of sock yarn, so I feel this need to knit socks. the past two pairs I've made though have really let me down. I did a Coriolis sock from the new book by Cat Bordhi and really was pumped about it. I finished the first sock and the bind off was awful. I ripped it out and tried another, supposedly more elastic bind off. No go. I tried again. Better, but no cigar. Now sock number one is sitting matchless in a basket while the second sock is stalled on the needles. I had actually forgotten why it was that I didn't feel like working on them, but someone gave me a tip today on Ravelry that reminded me. Then there was another pair of Regia socks that I was so excited about and I was working on teeny-tiny needles to get a super cushy fabric. Turns out the needles were just a bit too teeny-tiny and they hardly go over my foot. Bah.
And then there's the issue of gift knitting. I'm just never satisfied with it. Everything is the wrong shade of purple, or the wrong color all together.....or too wide/narrow. I must have ripped out one scarf 8 times before coming up with something I deemed acceptable. But I still think the shade is a bit off. Anyhow, I gotta get my groove back. I'm heading to Vegas in two weeks and that will be the perfect opportunity to knock some of the half done socks off my list. Good for transport and all :)
Alright, I'm out. Just didn't want to leave the blog stagnant for too long.

Kick. Ass.

~*~*~*~*~ WARNING: BOOTY CLUB SPOILERS!!!!!~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I got a killer surprise in my email the other day. A shipping notification for the Yarn Pirate Booty Club package! I thought this might be in error because I didn't think I was supposed to be getting anything until the start of the new year. I checked with Georgia though and it turns out that my subscription started much earlier than I had thought. Woohoo!!
So this is what I got today-

Rock.On.

It's named Killer Bees. I think it's awsome-us maximus. As you can see, I also got my little booty club extras: 2 hot pink size 2 circs, a YP sticker and button. Woot! I am a happy, happy girl.

In other news, my super secret super-project arrived in the mail yesterday. Sorry I can't go into detail, but some of you already know what it is. I was a bit peeved after I took the time to wind everything last night, hunt for needles and cast on only to find that the pattern had great big errors in it. I had to do math (gag) and fix it. Still, I should have realized when I saw the blaring error in the pattern that the CO number would be off, too. Anyhow, all is well now. My time w/my SSSP had to be cut short last night because I had to go to hell....I mean the dentists office, today. I swear, I could have teeth hand carved out of pearl by God himself and I'd still feel like a guilty, filthy, non-teeth cleaning nasty person while having my teeth picked at by the dentist. I was asked like 20 times if I floss. And asked with a concerned frown what kind of toothbrush I use. Then they said my teeth look great. I was also told that when the dentist looks at my open mouth, she feels like she's looking at a ten year old. Just what every lady likes to hear. This is on account of my apparently large tonsils. Maybe that's the new rage with ten year olds. Who knows. I suppose this is better than two visits ago when I was told that I appear to be anatomically normal so they couldn't guess as to why their giant shots only inflict pain, not numbness. Hmm.

Okay, that's it for now. Super secrecy calls.

To add to my last post.....

I wanted to add to my previous comments on Brooks Farm. Seeing as how I was a touch p.o.'d, shall we say, at Stitches, I was very happy to find an order confirmation and shipping notice in my email this morning. Those are some quick ladies, especially coming right out of Stitches and headed straight into Rhinebeck. Anyhow, I'm very happy with the service I got from them so I just wanted to post that I'm not some crazy hater.

Stitches Sunday and liars

So no that Stitches is over with, I have time to reflect on all that transpired. For the most part everything was wonderful. Sunday was not so happy time for me as I was experiencing a mixture of PMS, Ravens induced parking issues, tiredness, and the now standard horrible abdominal pain. While I was planning on not doing any shopping Sunday, I underwent such stress getting there that retail therapy was called for. While I very much enjoy the items I purchased, I had to deal with some not so favorable people. I will catalog my experiences here, in chronological order.

1) My first stop through the door was at the Children in Common table. First off, I want to say that I was really on the fence about putting this on the web. I think the project is great and I don't want anyone to think that I'm downing it. However, what I'm going to bitch about here really has nothing to do with the cause and it's a pet peeve of mine. Should anyone from the group see this, maybe it'll give them some insight. Anyhow, I went to buy these cute stacking doll stitch markers that SheeperThanTherapy pointed out to me on Friday. I quickly picked them out and asked if they took Visa. The woman looked at me sternly and said, " Well, we can take Visa.", then stood there making no movement towards taking my card. I just looked at her with an "Okay. Take my money now please" look. Then she goes, "If I take your visa, then more money will go to credit card company and less money will go to the children we're trying to save!". Then more standing there looking at each other. Finally, after I see she's not going to go for the card, I tell her that I don't carry cash, so oh well for her. I ended up paying with check. The thing is this. If you don't want to take a card, put up a sign that says you don't accept credit cards. Otherwise suck it up and lose the ten cents of whatever trivial amount the card company is going to deduct and move on with your day. I was doing my part by buying from them at all.

2) I went to the Celtic Knot/Eleanor Francis Designs/ Storm Moon Knits and bout more of Lindsay's yarn because I have issues. I also got two sets of her stitch markers.

3)I did a little bit of early Christmas shopping at a booth for some alpaca farm in Minnesota. They had yarn, but I opted for these semi creepy alpaca figures made of, what else? Alpaca. the brown one of for one of my nephews and the white/blackish one of pour moi.

4) I then headed one booth over to Brooks Farm. Here, again, I must insert a disclaimer. I have bought from Brooks Farm before and not had any issues whatsoever. I asked around and no one else reported anything but nice service. I must have just caught this lady in the midst of Sunday "Hurry up and Finish" syndrome. Here's the background. Brooks Farm has had a sample knit up out of a shade of Duet that I've been lusting after through like 3 fiber festivals. I asked the woman if they had anymore of it and she said no. I asked if I could order it off the website. She then gave a great big huff and told me that all the fiber show colors are special and that once she's done with the show, she moves on to dying different things. I wandered around a bit more and found the color in Riata. I came back to her and happily said, "Found it!". She looked at me stone faced and said, "Well, I guess that color is similar." I bought it and moved on, thinking that she was a bit of a crab. The thing with this one is that her story was essentially bullshit, and if it was true, then she shouldn't have the colorway on display. Issue #1 is that I know the colorways aren't all specific to one particular show. Some of them, maybe, but not all. #2 is that is the color I've been wanting was a show specific colorway, it had to have been from a show years ago because I've personally seen it a few times. If it's that old and unavailable, don't use it as a model! And #3, I went onto the Brooks Farm website and found the supposedly unavailable color right there in plain sight, proving that it is not a one-show invention and yes, it is available on the website. Now it's mine so HAH, Lady!

5) I bought more yarn from Lindsay. Damn.

6) I got some cool needles that have beads strung through the top of them and a row counter bracelet. I've been meaning to try one of those.

7) After I thought I was through for the day, Carole came over with some BMFA Laci in Backstabber that was to die for. So I had to haul ass back over there and buy some. I also picked up a skein of lightweight Pond Scum while I was there. My justification for that is that it has some darker green splotches on it like real pond scum does. It sounded more reasonable at the time.

That's it! I'll have work backwards from here since I still haven't shown the goods of the previous days. Oh, and I also should add that I insanely decided to knit the alpaca nephew an alpaca sweater to go with the figure. If no one sees me again before the holidays, you'll know what's up.

Stitches East and some dissapointment

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

Stitches East has been a fun experience, and I've picked up a good number of very nice items. My main purchases have been at the BMFA booth (big surprise there) and from Storm Moon Knits. The above photo is of a small portion of my haul from the latter. I must say, it's fabulous. I also got two things from Karida at Neighborhood Fiber Co., some Tess Silk Boucle and sock yarn that I was coveting, a few skeins of some odd, super inexpensive yarn to make a throw or something, and then two things from a really nice German weaver guy who has a booth across from the Celtic Knot. I also came home on Thursday night to find not one, but two packages from Wollmeise. Now all I have to do is find time to knit all of this stuff up.
Speaking of time, I was quite put off today to learn that one of my super secret projects that was shipped on the 6th may not get here for three weeks. That's going to throw a major wrench in my plans because 1) it's a project of some involvement , 2) it's on the larger side, and 3) it has a completion deadline which I previously had been sure to meet. While I had been looking forward to this endeavor, now it's just sort of sucking. Only thing I can do now is wait it out and see what happens.
So today was my day off from Stitches. Not that much has been required of me while I've been there. Still, I needed a day to just sit. Thursday night I developed some sort of abdominal issue that has yet to be resolved or identified. At first I thought I just had bad heartburn because I stuffed my face on Thursday night after not eating all day getting ready for/going to Stitches. The whole not eating anything is super bad for me because since I have no gall bladder, bile just sort of builds up in my belly. If there's nothing in there for it to play with, it just eats away at me instead. This supposed "heartburn" thing kept getting worse and worse though until I was doubled over in pain for a number of hours, even after taking both Tums and Pepto Bismal. It eventually started to subside around 3am so I tried to go to bed. That didn't work out so well, but I did get to sleep after awhile and I felt better when I woke up. I was a little late going up to Stitches on Friday because I wanted to see how my body reacted to food. Everything was going well until I ate a cheese bread thing and the pain started to come back, but only briefly.Anyway, long story short...I've had bouts of this pain now for three days and have eliminated various possible causes such as an ulcer and appendicitis. I guess horrible heartburn is still on the table, though I find it hard to believe that it would strike this bad in such a short period of time. It also doesn't seem to be diet related as I've tried eating or not eating foods from various categories. I guess this, too, is another thing I'll just have to wait out.
Okay, that's all for now. I'll update again after Stitches is over and hopefully by then I will have had the chance to take pictures of everything. Hope everyone is having an adventurous and yarn filled Stitches weekend!

Special thanks

I just wanted to give a great big thank you to a certain someone for RUINING ME!!! Thank you oh.so.much. Unfortunately, I don't have the blue tooth bit to send photos from my phone to my computer otherwise I would share the bone chilling picture she sent me from the convention center. Let's just say that I'm considering calmly packing up my stuff and going to cam out with the Baltimore homeless so I can be first in line for the BMFA booth.

ETA: If you want to see the spoken of cell phone picture, look here. If you know me, it won't be too hard to guess which picture I'm referring to. And, now that the Stitches preview is over, the picture in question may as well have been taken in my house. Except I'm not as well organized.

Recent Happenings

I don't have much to say knit-wise but for those of you who have been asking, I'm starting to upload all my Italy pictures onto my flickr account. It's going to take some time because I have hundreds of them, but I think I have one hundred or so up now. Not a bad record for me.....after only 4 months.

Knit news: I have a pile of blanket sitting next to me that I'm about to frog and redo. I've found that anytime have to keep track of the right side of garter stitch, things go awry. I was going to leave it, but I know it's going to mess with my head if I have picked up stitches showing on both sides. Adios, blanket! You'll be reincarnated soon.....like as soon as I rip you out and roll you back into a nice, neat little ball. Also, while I really, really want to love my Rainbow socks, they're beginning to severely piss me off. It's like no matter what I do my stitch count is off. I have to frog the heel on that one and continue on. Grrrr.

In life news (also tagged: News that makes me look like a GIANT dork): The online RPG I used to obsessively (OBSESSIVELY) play in my late teens/early twenties is back online and I have completely flattened my ass sitting here for hours on end playing it.. I'm hoping the rekindled obsession will subside and I can go back to my normal life of only obsessing about yarn, patterns, bags, shoes, wrestling, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Ravelry and OCC. A girl has only so many minutes in a day you know. Also, Stitches is mere moments away an that will surely light a fire under me. I will buy Storm Moon Knits out of stock, and I will raid the BMFA booth like a looting pirate (except my credit card will be my sword), and I will probably become fast friends with a number of other yarn manufacturers. Hooray!

My very first charity project

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

I decided semi last minute that I'd like to knit some stuff up to donate at the Columbia Annul Knit-a-Thon tomorrow. Taking into account the "AHHhhh!! i have no time!" factor, I opted to make some preemie caps. They're small, supposedly quick to make, and are all around a good cause. The thing is this. I know little to nothing about babies, little to nothing about making things for babies, and little to nothing about charities. I will admit, I knit about half of one cap and before thoughts of grand suckiness started running through my head. To spice things up a little bit I raided my stash and pulled out a bunch of stuff I wanted to be rid of. Lion Brand "Cashmere" (all of 5%), Patons Melody in a God awful color that hate to admit was actually purchased a few years go to make something for myself (gag), and some assorted acrylic blends that I have for whatever reason. My goal was to knit through all of this yarn. Needless to say, I failed miserably. It didn't help that the Rainbow Socks from Magknits happened to be published in the midst of my mania. I finally broke down and even crocheted a few in the hopes of eating up extraordinary amounts of yarn in a quick fashion. This did not work as I don't really crochet. Still, I managed to whip out about 4 or 5 of them. Altogether I ended up making about 15, though I swear I made at least one more red one that's somehow vanished. I also had 5 or 6 kindly donated to me to add to my collection by shop-frequenter and crochet instructor Eudora. So that's that. I now have it for a charity.....not counting the few times I've knit for someone I deem to be a charity-case. Perhaps I'll even do it again next year. I bet I can work through all the extra yarn by then.

I need to maintain composer

Tonight I successfully picked up some of the raffle prizes for the Columbia Annual Knit-a-Thon. (See here for more details on that.) These were very kindly donated by Neighborhood Fiber Co. Seeing as how some people have not been exposed to this yarns fabulosity, here is a teaser.

Studio Sock in the Capital Hill colorway

and

Studio Sock in Brightwood

Ahhhhh.....lovely, lovely, lovely. Now they just have to stay out of my reach until they can be handed off on Saturday. Luckily, I just bought a few skeins for myself so I should be satiated....for now. Thanks a ton to Karida for her genius and to Erika for being so kind as to get it to me.

Short Attention Span

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

As I perusing the forums on Ravelry Monday I happened across a post saying that the new Magknits was up. A lot of the time, I'm not too thrilled with Magknits. I'm a touch picky about patterns and of the 5 or so they offer I usually only will even concider 1 or 2....if any at all. Anyway, I popped over there and saw what I consider t be my current socks of destiny. I love them. I didn't wait a heartbeat before immediately going back to Ravelry and adding them to my queue. In a more normal persons life, they might have cast on for them or something like that, but not me. Later that night I began. I decided to use some STR lightweight because 1) It always stripes for me and 2) I could get away with using larger needles to accommodate my massive feet. As you can see, they're not exactly striping in the short row pattern. I still think they look cool and I like the way they showcase the color of the yarn. Next time I'll try them with some of the Trekking I have laying around so I can really see some self-striping action. Oh! And I also got to use my new, ultra-cool Knitpicks Harmony circulars. They're purty.....and sharp as hell! Watch out for that.

The joys of Ebay

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country," --Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC.

You gotta love good ol' Marion Barry. I'm so proud of my birthplace.

So this weekend I went shopping. I was trying to get out of the house and blow some of the illness off me, so I went here and there. I had to go out to Columbia to pick something up and then went to Pier 1 to look for cushions. While I was at the shopping center, I decided to go to Joann's to see if they had any size 1 circ's, since mine suck ass. They had no size 1's but I came across a very peculiar colorway of their house brand yarn, Sensations Licorice. I had purchased some blue Licorice a few years ago and still have yet to do anything with it. It's a very nice yarn but more on the pricey side for craft store yarn, and I just didn't have enough of it to anything I wanted to do. I tried for about 2 years to buy more of it but couldn't fins it anywhere. This year I found tons of it but never bought anymore of the blue since I've decided to make a hat with it. Anyhow, so I found this killer color. I bought all that they had in stock because I want to make a sweater with it, but I still am like 8 balls short. I checked online and they're out of stock as well. Boo. In my searching, I realized at some point that I hadn't seen any Patons Mosaic advertised. I was making a sweater out of it like 2 years ago and never bought the remainder of the needed yarn. I checked the Patons website and sure enough,the yarn is discontinued. I searched everywhere on the internet to try and find some leftovers. Found none. Finally, I saw a listing for some on Ebay in the colorway I needed. Long story short, I ended up getting all the yarn need to finish the sweater (11 balls) for like $17. Sweet.

Start the Insanity!!

I suppose the word "start" isn't particularly applicable when speaking of myself. A better word would be "increase" or, in this case, the proper term might be "Heighten insanity to an alarming level.....CODE RED". I shall break it down in list form:

1) I am STILL SICK!!! WTF!! I have now been sick for a week and 4 days.

2) I have absolutely destroyed both my office and bedroom, frantically searching for this....

DumDumDum...

3) I have begun studying for the GRE's, which I have to take in a little over a month.

4) I am still having minor issues over my sister's families recent acquisitions, shall we say.

5) There is a large meeting to be held at my home on Thursday morning. I have been trying to clean the house for about 3 days and have achieved nothing. I told my mother two days ago that I can go no further in m endeavours until she cleans up her mess, and she agreed. Guess who still has not cleaned up her mess??

For these reasons, among others, I have been sleeping less and less. I have not been making the best decisions in my sleep deprived haze as can be seen in this photograph.

Hello 6am McDonald's run.

I would like to say that I really don't have such massive cankles. Those would be my Opal Jaywalkers and my fancy Italian moon-walking shoes. I am aware that they don't particularly compliment each other. We decided to switch things up this morning and have breakfast before we went to sleep. You know.....we like to break out of the mold every now an again.

In knitting news, i finally attempted to photograph my finished Lady Eleanor, but pretty much failed miserably.

Pattern: Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style

Yarn: Noro Silk Garden #251, 11 skeins

Needles: US 9

Mods: I made it WAY longer than the pattern called for.

I also received this kick-ass yarn from Yarn Ahoy.

She does some of the most vibrant work I've seen. There's also quite an impressive yardage on these suckers. I believe the colorways are Nouveau Blue, Sour Berries and Chocolate, and Ablaze.

Always the optimist, I will take the havoc wreaked in my office as an opportunity to organize my old stash. Most of my newer stuff and sock yarn is in new shelving units, but the bulk of my stash is shoved (and I mean shoved, squished, pounded) into my plastic units in the office closet. Well...it was until I went on my mad rampage of destruction. Now it's just all twisted and tangled across the room. I'm off to clean!

Just when I thought I was safe......

I was sick as a dog on Sunday and especially Monday. I'm half surprised I even made it through the day alive. I wandered into work in the morning after camping out in my bathroom for about half an hour trying to gather the strength to walk downstairs and get my medicine. I was running so late that I didn't have time to call anyone and I had absolutely no voice so any call I did try to make would sound like a dying frog. I finally decided that my best option would be to drive to work and put a note on the door if I really couldn't hack it. By the time I got there, I decided that I just needed to sit so I slumped my way back into the office and just pretended that I was dead. Since I was there anyway and not going anywhere, I flipped the sign to 'Open'. Luckily for me, it wasn't such a bad day customer-wise. Around 2 I started getting pissed off call from my family because I wasn't in bed, so again I thought about putting a sign on the door and heading home. However, it became clear to me that the chances of my passing out behind the wheel were great so I just stayed there. I eventually was able to muster the strength to go to Safeway, where I spent an inordinate amount of time perusing the medication section before buying a crap-ton of drugs. I then proceeded to sit in the Safeway parking lot and down just about everything I could get my hands on. This elevated me to a level at which I felt comfortable driving home, but I stayed open until or normal closing time anyway. Then I slept a great deal. I thought I was getting better, but then yesterday I took another turn for the worse. Then today I felt fine except for a fair amount of congestion. As soon as I left work though, I got sick as hell again. Not nearly as bad as I was, but bad enough that I'm coughing myself into quick blackouts and the sinus pressure in my head is making it feel as though it's about to pop off my neck in a scene of epic nastiness.
In other fun news, my sister (formerly referred to as "the good one") informed us that they bought not one, but three fucking s-words. Those of you who know me well understand what I am alluding to. Two of them start with "ball" and the third starts with "corn". As though this was not terrorizing enough to me, they plan on breeding. This is particularly damaging to me because my sisters house was my safe house for when those who could never be called "the good one" visit. Now I shall never enter my sisters house again. As I was telling Carole earlier today in my rage, I can't even trust going over there and just not going into certain rooms. Her children are the sort who would drop feared things on my neck while I was sleeping just because i would be "funny" to watch me react in a freakish panic that may or may not involve me jumping out of windows. So, to my sister- Thanks a lot Sherry! Have fun getting someone to house sit when you all go on vacation!
No knitting content. I just haven't been feeling inspired due to my death-flu. That, and I now have such an illogical amount of yarn that I feel dizzy when I try to decide what to do. Due to this flustering effect, I decided I should go on a yarn diet. In true Lindsay fashion, I then decided that I had to buy some samples of Berroco Foilage to try out for a blanket that I've been wanting to make, then fell in love with a color of Silk Garden that's discontinued to make Klaralund with. I've since been scurrying about trying to get together 11 of them. Additionally,BMFA just put up their fall colors today and even after choosing carefully, I still want like 12 or 13 or them. NOW. But I didn't order any because I have a butt-load of yarn that I'm not doing anything with now. I don't have any group pictures that would be good for posting, but you can take a look at my flickr page (link is up on the left) to see some of the goodies I've gotten in recently.
That's all for now. Just wanted to let everyone know I'm still alive, albeit barely. Hopefully this bug will hit the bricks soon and I'll be able to get back into the swing of things.
Oh! And if I don't get to see some photo's of the Yarn Harlot yarn soon.....well, nothing really bad will happen but I must see that over which I've heard so much raving.

Bellatrix

Finally, I present you with my completed Bellatrix socks.

Pattern: Bellatrix from Socktopia.net

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in Hard Rock

Needles: US 2.5 circs

These socks took me a loooong time to finish. This was due entirely to the fact that I decided to try knitting them on one short circular needle, which I hate, hate, hate. I just couldn't get into it. It hurt my hands, the heel flap was a pain in the ass to do, and the stitches were looking all spread out. I was not happy. I stopped knitting the first sock when I was about 8 rows from the toe and just couldn't pick it back up. After a month or so I finally switched the stitches over to two circs and finished it up. I was a bit nervous about knitting the second one because I figured the stitches would be much tighter than on the little guy. It turned out okay though.

In other news- I am S.I.C.K. I thought my throat felt a little funny on Friday night. Saturday I woke up at about 3pm and my entire throat was numb and very swollen. Within a few hours I had the full on super-congestion, big head feeling, weak muscled nastiness upon me. I was half delirious throughout the night because of illness and heavy medication, but I got out of bed pretty early due to my nose continually running. I made an effort to make myself look at least normal and went to work. I was the only one there today and I had a class to teach. My students sat there with me for awhile and then collectively were like," Uhhhhh.....how bout if we don't do this today". So they went home and I sat the alone in misery. Now I am going to sit here at home in misery, but WWE Unforgiven comes on PPV tonight so all will be well. The Undertaker is coming back from an injury and nothing can stand between me and the Undertaker.

Work Horrors

Again, no actual knitting content. I have a nice little FO to show and still haven't taken pictures of Lady E., but I'm sick as a dog and really don't feel like expending the energy to plug my camera in and hit 'download'. So! Reading my comments from my previous post this morning brought back a rush of memories. It also made me think about how while the crazy people we have to deal with at the shop are indeed CRAZY, I have yet to be disgusted, personally injured, or bitched at for the time it takes to eat a multi-course meal. This most recent incident was , I think, the first time someones has actually yelled at me in my whole yarn shop working experience. In contrast, here are some of the highlights of my time with Silver Diner. And this is just with the restaurant customers, not with the people in corporate. That's another story (and in case anyone connected is reading this, almost all of you are wonderful but one certain person who happens to own the company is a bit on the spoiled brat side).

1) I once was seating a family and took them to the back room. As I was walking into the section, a man with another family started shaking his head back and forth at me, trying to keep me from bringing these people back there. I gave him a quizzical look while continuing to walk and he made eyes to the adjacent table across the aisle. I looked over and found that the father of that table had puked ALL OVER THE PLACE, and he and his family remained sitting there munching on their food like nothing had happened. YUM.

2) In a similar vein, I once ran food back to table in the same back room. I noticed that they had brought a great big lego box for their daughter to play with and thought that was nice. Later I went back in that area and happened to glance at the bucket again. FULL OF VOMIT!!. That led to a multiple hour ordeal where the family had decided to pretty much camp out there for the day, ordering desserts and having other people join them, etc. All the while, the sick little girl would just sporadically puke into the bucket. We couldn't seat anyone back there and the manager was new and didn't know if he could legally kick them out since they were paying customers. Nasty day, and that manager wasn't with the company too long.

3) Once an electrical wire broke in the food window and shot hot, hot sparks all over a friend of mine.

4) I had to spend the night in the emergency rooms with one of our illegal cooks after he chopped part of his finger off in the kitchen. I had all sorts of fabulous responsibilities!!

5) I can't even count the number of times parents just sat their ignoring their bastard kids as they literally ground food into the tables, seats, and windows....then just walked away after the meal leaving it for the workers to clean up.

6) The man who shit on the floor not once, but THREE TIMES. All on different occasions.

7) The dude who chased one of our waitresses down the aisle, knocked her over and physically attacked her right there in the aisle. She ended up getting paid off by the guys prominent father. The guy was mentally ill and was on a weekend pass.

8) New Years Eve drunks at 4am. Need I say more?

I'm sure there's much, much more but I just wanted to give a little taste of the wonders of my old job. I'd say my current job woes pale in comparison. Oh, and crazy lady didn't come back in on Friday.

Yarn shop fear

No pictures or anything of yarny interest today. Just fear of going to work tomorrow. For the most part, I either like or don't mind our customers. In saying "for the most part", I refer to just about everyone who comes in except for a small, small handful of people. Considering that 1) I'm not too much of a people person and 2) Customer service really isn't my forte, I think I handle the job well....probably because I'm high on yarn fumes the whole time I'm the shop. I also sometimes like to play the sociopathic game of trying to see just how nice the person at hand can think I am. Eh. It helps me pass the time. That, and sometimes I like to see how much water I can consume from the cooler.....but that's generally only on really slow days.
Anyhow, back to the work fear. As any of you who have faced a similar situation can attest to, it is a truly horrible feeling to sit around all day waiting to see if some terrible person comes in to visit. I had a bad experience on Wednesday. Big time bad, and the woman was C.R.A.Z.Y. I was in the back room getting my cell phone out of my purse. I came back into the front, planning on going to my car to plug the phone in. This older woman was standing in the middle of the room and scared the shit out of me. She looked at me, the exclaimed, "HelOooooo! Is anyone here?". Then gave an exasperated sigh and plopped herself down in one of the chairs. What happened next was a strange conversation (predominantly me listening to her). She was an odd bird and I wondered if she might be a drunk. I decided that she was just quirky and perhaps a sufferer of Parkinson's. The long ad short of it as that she had been knitting some baby booties about 40 years ago and lost the pattern. She wanted to know if she could bring the project in and have me tell her what she was doing. I told her that if it was a fairly simple pattern that it could probably be worked out. She asked me when the next day I was working would be and I told her Friday, but that we were open everyday and anyone there would have just as good of a shot at figuring it out. So then she leaves. A minute later she comes back in and asks me where the photo shop is. I told her that it must be in the section of the shopping center by Safeway,because there's not one in our section of the shopping center. This seemed to enrage her. She walked back out but kept the door open while he started yelling at me that YES, there IS a photo shop in this section and blah, blah, blah. I apologized to her and said that I'm not 100% familiar with the area because I'm not local, but that I was sure there was not a photo shop in our strip. That sent off a rant that included telling me that she doesn't care where I'm from ad that I've got to figure out what's what and get my act together. She also was referring to me as "girlie". So she finally let of the door and stood there for a minute making exaggerated hand motions at the shop. I was literally stunned. I took a few minutes to regain the sanity that she sucked out of me, then went to my car. When I was coming back in I saw her with her face pressed up to the window of the nail salon before she stepped back and started making the same " You're a no good idiot" gestures that she was making at our door. All I have to say is that I hope my perceived total ineptitude was so great as to sour her taste for our shop all together. I have a churning feeling in my gut that tells me she'll show up again, though. I just hope it's not going to be tomorrow.

Today's Activities

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

I finally finished knitting Lady Eleanor last night. I shouldn't use the word finally, really, because it implies that it took a super long time. I started knitting this eleven days ago I think. I had a goal of knitting one ball a day but I fell behind around day 7. I ended up using a full 10 balls of Silk Garden to finish the body and decided to save the 11th for the crochet trim and fringe. I did a little figuring last night and realized that I was going to need about 40 yard of yarn for the fringe. hopefully it'll dry up fairly quickly and I can get her finished up tomorrow. I was a little unsure about how to block the body because I need to add about 4 inches in width and was getting some conflicting advice. I ended up deciding to wet block it after giving it a soak in some Eucalan to try and remove the stink of dog. I picked up the Eucalan at Fiberworks this morning. Renee went through her new stock with me while I was there and she's got some really nice stuff. A cashmere/silk blend from one of those companies associated with Tahki, and a few wool/silk blends from various companies. I'll have to plan a project to use at least one of them. Anyhow, it's time to break out the pins ad get this thing laid out.

Far be it for me to criticize

But COME ON!! I yanked this picture off the Knitty Gritty website, btw. I couldn't find a picture of anyone actually wearing this hat, but if you take a close look at the styrofoam head you ca get an idea of it's fit. Hmmmm. Innovative.

Had to add this....

Somebody really needs to just chop off my hands and get my greedy little debit card away from me. Well, I suppose just the debit card removal would be sufficient without the hand chopping.....but then again, I may remember the number. Why has no one alerted me to Lisa Souza yarn before? Is everyone evil?? Just in case you have not been made aware, stick your credit/debit cards in the freezer and go check it out. Emerald City and whatever that Mars color is are absolutely t.o. d.i.e. f.o.r. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Stalled

I guess I've been knitting a lot lately, but I really have nothing to show for it. I'm juggling a few different projects and none of them are really going anywhere. In fact, I may even be moving backwards because as I was organizing things the other day, I decided that I want to frog my chevron scarf from Scarf Style because it's too thin. I felt as though I was making huge progress on Lady Eleanor, too, but now I'm kind of at a stage where I knit and knit but it doesn't really look any different. I'm experiencing those evil little thoughts in the back of my head about that project seeing as how I bought yardage to accommodate the pattern but I'm thinking I may have bought way too much and I no longer have the receipt. I'm getting mixed messages over how much people have actually been using to complete the thing, but it seems to fall within the range of 9 to 11 balls of Silk Garden. I have 11 and am on the 7th ball right now....already about to hit the end of the pattern tiers. I'm going to make mine longer since I'm knitting at a slightly smaller gauge and I know the length may be compromised a bit when I stretch the hell out of the width for bocking. I just hope I don't end up with a huge surplus. Anyhow, next time I'll break out the camera and show what I have so far.
Oh, and here's the link for the Hot Lava pattern.

My "special" order

As was leaving for work the other day, I came across an interesting package thrown onto my front porch. Inside was this:

Direct from the poppy fields of Nicaragua!!

Just kidding. After some fluffing it really looks like this.

purty.

I have a strong feeling that this shall morph into a Hot Lava shrug......or whatever that thing is called. Clearly I'll have to dig through my old patterns a little before starting. Oh......and I guess I should finish at least some f the 50 million other projects I have going.

In related news, I finally broke down last night after setting up and organizing my new yarn shelf and cast on for Lady Eleanor. I'm in love with it already, even though I was only able to knit three tiers of it while I psychotically sat up until 7 am watching The Devil Wears Prada, for like the 100t time in the past week because HBO seems to have decreased its movie pool to about films. I had never seen the beginning of the movie though, and by the time I hit where I had picked up before the shawl had gotten the better of me and I was hooked. Additionally, I have to say that my secret project of amazing skill and proportions is coming along very well. Some of you already know of this project of insanity. The rest of you will just have to wait a bit. I'm sure it will (not) blow your mind.

Oh!Oh!Oh!!!! And everyone MUST go out and buy this stuff NOW!!

You would have thought that I had found the Holy Grail when I took this bad boy out of the bag. I actually pulled it out, had some kind of mini convulsion and had to shove it back into the envelop so I could try to absorb the glory I had just seen. It's STR lightweight in the new Loch Ness colorway. A must have for all!! I love this colorway as I have loved few before. It even eclipses my obsession for Manos Stellar.

Oh rats. I hear the war cry of CSI:Miami coming on so that means it's time for me to go mock-vomit at David Caruso. My yarn and I will have a splendid time together. And if any of you see me getting a little crazy....like carrying my new love around and talking to it in public, feel free to take action.

Yet another FO

This one has been a long time coming. I don't recall if I had previously mentioned that I had started my Pomotomus socks. This was way back, like in April or May. I had been on a roll with the sock production and the new found obsession with STR, bu once I started the Pomotomus pattern it all kind of halted. There was something I wasn't getting about the pattern and I didn't like reading all the charts.....and the sock ended up tossed under a pile in my bedroom with about two inches of cuff completed. At some point of cleaning, the sock was found, placed in a bag, and moved into my office with the rest of my yarn. The other week I was looking for something else and I came across it. On a whim, I picked it up to see how much I still hated knitting it. Surprise, surprise......I didn't hate knitting it at all! I don't know what was wrong with my brain the first time I was fooling with the pattern, but it's not hard or confusing at all. There was one row of the pattern that my stitch count kept getting messed up on and I still have no idea why. It was easily remedied by adding in another stitch.

Here's a more accurate shot of the color.

Pattern: Pomotomus by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR lightweight, Mustang Sally coloway

Needles: size 2 circs

Modifications: left out some of the toe shaping due to reasons discussed below.

I became super nervous about running out of yarn when I was about halfway down the foot of sock#1. I ended up having just enough, though if I had knit the whole foot correctly I surely would have run out about one pattern repeat short of finishing the second sock.

I guess my absentmindedness saved my ass on this one. On the chart for the top of the foot, there's a point where you have to start adding stitches onto the end of the pattern repeat. I got wrapped up in watching TV and just kept knitting the regular pattern on the third (and final) foot section. It was easy enough to replicate on the second sock and didn't interfere with the fit, so all was good.

Redemption

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been loving my DVR and was very excited by my new found ability to watch Knitty Gritty. That post received a comment that basically said that Knitty Gritty didn't have too much to offer as far as new stuff for the more advanced knitter. Unfortunately, I've found this to be very, very true. I think I've watched all the episodes I've recorded, but really saw nothing thrilling and, truth be old, I usually haven't even really been "watching" as mush as having it on as background noise while I knit something completely unrelated. This week things seemed to take a turn for the better though! There was one episode with Lily Chin that covered a lot of different techniques like bobbles and something else that I can't recall, although it interested me at the time. Then came today's show. Today's show actually made me pause my TV and come downstairs to order yarn. I wasn't able to get a good picture of these so you can just follow the links. This has to be one of the cutest baby things I've ever seen in my life. This hat and these booties. I love, love, love them. I immediately ordered some Berroco Suede and Plush from Yarnmarket. I'm changing up the color scheme a little since they're for a little girl, so I'm doing the main color in Annie Oakley and using a darker rose for the soles of the feet. Then I'm using the cream colored Plush for the fleece part. I'm totally in love with these and am so happy that my nephew knocked up his girlfriend, thereby providing me with the opportunity to knit such things. Thankfully, they live many hours away so I can knit the cute things, mail them, and not have to risk touching a baby. I can't wait until the yarn comes in.

Stash Busting!!!

I did it! I actually broke down and knit something with stash material! Actually, I had to buy another ball of yarn for this, but I consulted some people on this and the consensus is that it can still be considered a stash busting project. Here it is:

And to get a better view of he colors:

Pattern: Artyarns Cashmere Diagonal Scarf by Iris Schreier

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted (black)

Paton's SWS in Natural Plum

Needles: size 8

Modifications: I tried following the directions exactly but the numbers for the foundation section just weren't adding up for me. I ended up skipping the slip stitches and just knitting. I tried to duplicate this on the end section but it got all nasty looking. Something just ended up not right with my stitch count. I tried to fix the little bit of fug that showed up in the last section while I was binding off and it worked, for the most part.

The other big (and perhaps even bigger) news for the day is that my fancy new sock blockers arrived! Even though I don't have too much of a purpose for them, this excited me to no end. Here they are sporting another FO, even though this particular FO is slightly older.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: STR Mediumweight in the Alina colorway

Needles: size 2 circs

Mods: I omitted all the stitches and just knit the whole thing. This made it go a lot faster because I wasn't having to keep track of numbers, but it also left me with much less give. They still fit though and I think these massive blockers will stretch them into shape.

I also got this nifty stitch marker as a bonus.

The First Hat for Fall

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

So my feeling of knitting dread actually inspired me to finish something up. Amazing.
Pattern: Lady (Hat Trifecta) by Amy King of Spunky Eclectic
Yarn: Berroco Softwist, colorway presently unknown due to my band
trashing habits
Needles: size 8 16" circ's
Modifications: I did 2 extra repeats of the cable pattern before the decreases.

If I knit anoter one of these, which I just may, I'd add another few repeats of the pattern to make it a touch taller and I'd also thrw another cable into the circumference. My head is evidently quite a huge thing that regular patterns do not accomodate easily. All in all, I'd give this hat a thumbs up. I've been oddly drawn to this color lately and I'm excited to see how it will look with my fall hair colors. Oh,and the Softwist.....hmmmm. Lovely colors, but it can be a bitch to work with. I've dealt with much worse, but this stuff really does like to split and unwind.

Drowning

I'm having some sort of knitter's crisis that I've only had once or twice before. I feel like I'm absolutely drowning in my projects! I always have had a million ad one things on the needles, except for when I was working on my first and maybe second project. I used to be a responsible knitter. I used to go to MS&W and not buy anything because I didn't have a specific project in mind. Also, in the past, I think I used to get over infatuated with a yarn and want to dive right in, only to discover that I was knitting a giant piece of crap that I didn't want or like. Then it would be discarded into the abyss of "WIP's", which really was just a hiding place so I could pretend it didn't exist. Nowadays, I'm knitting things I actually want. I'm making an effort to get things finished. I'm trying to reel in the stash and get things organized! It's too much for me! Then all these pretty new yarns appeared. Even though I'm not knitting anything with them right now, I have plans. And damn that Ravelry queue! Half of me loves it, but in the state I'm in right now I feel like those projects....all those many, many lovely projects, are just sitting there reaching out with zombie-like arms saying "Kniiiiiitttt Meeeee, kniiiitttt meeeeee". It's putting a strain on my brain! And then I started all these different things. Some of the big, some of them supposedly small and quick to knit. Or so I thought. Scarves and hats and socks....yes, they're quicker. Still, when you have a gillion of them going at one time it doesn't work out so speedily.
Well, I'm done with pitiful rant. I have the day free so I'm going to try and finish up something, at least, while I'm playing with my DVR and straightening up.

Experiment

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Originally uploaded by knitglit

I'm just fiddling around on Flickr trying to see how this automatic blog posting thing works. Nothing much to say or show.....but here as a test picture is an old FO from the beginning of the year that I don't think I ever posted.

Pattern: Ruffles Scarf from Scarf Style
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden is an unknown colorway

Uh....I don't really remember anything else about it. Sorry.

Yay for DVR

We finally upgraded from dial up modems and crappy bow cable that didn't even receive half the channels anymore to Fios. It took the guy over 9 hours to get everything up and running.....well, almost everything. My compute up in my office that's been out of action for over a year now still won't work. It doesn't have a wireless card in it, but I feel like that shouldn't matter since it's hooked up to the box. My knowledge of computers is rather infinticimal though. I have to call Verizon tomorrow to see what's up.
So! With my new Fios I got to watch Knitty Gritty for the first time ever! I had to take my grandpa to the doctors today so I recorded it and watched it when I got home. This is perfectly suited to my life of insanity. I'm quite the happy camper. Unfortunately, the episode was about how to cast on and do a knit stitch so it wasn't exactly groundbreaking material for me. I'm glad I got to see it though, and I have the thing set to record every episod

Close call

I just got back from Chicago last night and had to be at a birthday party for my mom and one of my nephews at 7:30. This party was also to be my unveiling/presentation of my Lil' Devil Pants. This would have been all fine and well except for the fact that, well, I didn't have them done. By the time we got to the hotel on our first night of driving, I just didn't feel like knitting and instead entertained myself by marvelling at how strange Criss Angel is. He's one weird dude. That's about all I can say about that. Then, when I finally got settled at our hotel in Chicago I came to the awful realization that I had much more to do on the pants than I had thought. I did end up getting it all knit, but then I didn't have the tools for finishing. This was remedied by my trip The Fold (drool), but that's a tale for another day. Let me just say that I spent far, far less than I thought I would. Shocking, I know. So now, with tools in hand, I had to sew the damn thing up. I found this so confounding that I decided to put it off until I got home, thinking that I'd have plenty of time to make a few little stitches before party time. Oh how stupid I can be sometimes. I got home absolutely exhausted, still had to go gift shopping for my nephew, and still didn't know how to sew for crap. After much bitching and whining, I prevailed.

My favorite detail.

I had to use my imagination to get the drawstring through, but it came out pretty well. Also,I amazed myself with the evenness of my seaming.

My mom suggested to me that I not seam the leg cuffs. I don't particularly care for it undone, but I was already like an hour late for the party so I said f-it.

Perhaps the untrained eye won't even notice that this obviously was supposed to be sewn up.

So, onto the specs.

Pattern: Lil' Devil Pants from Stitch n'Bitch Nation

Yarn: Patons Grace in Cherry Red, 4 skeins

Needles: Size 2 Circulars and size 3 DPN's

Started: late July '07

Finished: August 4 '07

I predominantly followed the pattern exactly. I think I must have an early and error ridden edition of the book because I had to leave a row off of the buttonhole shaping. Also, as stated, I didn't sew the leg cuffs. Everyone seemed to love them, so mission accomplished. Hooray for FO's an meeting deadlines!

Gift Knitting

****WARNING: IF YOU ARE PART OF MY FAMILY IN OHIO, GO LOOK AT SOMETHING ELSE ON THE INTERNET NOW, AND DON'T COME BACK HERE UNTIL AFTER YOUR VISIT HERE!!!!********

Sorry about that. I'm not clever enough to manipulate those little pop up links to help conceal photos of gift items. So I'm gift knitting. I don't exactly know what possessed me to do such a thing, but I started it and now I have to finish. Blah.

I guess it could be worse......a lot worse, if any of you remember the fiasco with that piece of crap blanket my niece was having me make for her. No offense, Nikki, if you should happen to read this. On the bright side, I came up with a fabulous plan to rework the blanket and make it wonderful. I hope. Anyhow, on to the project at hand. I decided to make the Lil' Devil Pants from Stitch n' Bitch Nation to gift to my nephew's daughter Grace. Nothing says loving like dressing an infant like Satan! I think the pattern is really cute, but I want to hunt down whoever decided to write a baby pattern for such small, small needles and teeny tiny yarn. I wouldn't mind so much except that it goes against my notion of baby knits being extraordinarily quick and I'm on a deadline. There were other factors involved, too, which somewhat hindered my knitting.

When this photo was taken, I don't know that I realized yet that the width of the leg was going to keep getting wider and wider, as opposed to thinning out as I had planned. That wasn't a fun moment of clarity, let me tell you. Harry Potter got finished, and soon enough I was able to devote a little more time to the pants of evil. Here's where I'm at now.

One leg down and the bitchy, lengthy, time consuming part to go on the other. I'm having to divey up my time a little now, because I've become completely enamoured with another project. I'm going to hold off on mentioning it for the moment because I'm not 100% certain that I can actually pull it off. Some of you may already know what it is. If I can do it, it will be a truly spectacular feat, at least for me. I'm also waiting on my Knitpicks order to come in with the fixings for my ginormous spider wen shawl. Someone needs to shoot me.

Okay, I'm off to plot and plan.

Have I gone mad?

I really don't have time to be doing this right now as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is laying, 3 chapters from completion, at my side. I came in from my porch to get some lunch and while I was eating, I opened up my copy of Victorian Lace Today. I must have been eating some funky pizza because I immediately placed an order for yarn to make the huge, gigantic, terribly time consuming full hexagon spider web shawl. It's gorgeous, yes, bu it may very well be the end of me. Ravelry proved useful once again in yarn choice, as I did not see spending mucho dinero on practically 2000 yards of kidsilk haze as a viable option. Instead, I shall sport what I call the "unemployment" version, crafted out of Kniticks Alpaca Cloud in a shade called Autumn Heather.
Okay, I'm off to read.

A funny thing happened on the way to the airport.....

The night before I flew out, I had many, many errands to run. No big surprise there. The day had already started off in a flurry, as I had to be at work at 10am and I had gotten essentially no sleep the previous night. I had put on this new shirt that had a deep v-neck and grabbed a camisole to put on once I got into the shop. I remember thinking at the time that if there were any customers there when I pulled up, they were likely to think that we were a "yarn shop" much like Madame Flora in College Park is a "palm reader", if you catch my drift. All that worked out fine and I got into work without being confused for someone with a for sale sign attached. I did my bit there, then ran to just about every store one could think of where I could pick up last minute items for my trip. I finally got home and happened to catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

well hello there

I have no clue how long I was wandering around like this, but I'm sure it was long enough to suitably make a giant ass out of myself. Note to self : make sure camisoles fit, even if they're worn underneath clothing.

In other, more yarn related news, I was alerted to the fact that a box had arrived for me during my second week away. Yes, a nice, big ol' box. I've moved up in the world. Meet my new friends.

These are, from top left to bottom right, Spacedust, Amber, Jailhouse Rock, Backstabber, Mesa, Minestone, Calico, Beryl, Januaryone, Brick, and Spinel. The Backstabber, Beryl, and Brick are STR Silkie. All the others are STR lightweight.

One of thees days I'll post a picture of something I've actually knitted with all this stuff. I do have FO's, but they're still hiding in my suitcase.