The YoYo Knits

Shmappy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:46:00.004-05:00

A quick post to wish you all the best for 2010. 2009 rocked my face pretty hard - I go into this year with an additional person in my family and down one no longer properly functional organ (ditched the gallbladder on Wednesday.)

Also, Wynnie would like you to know that she is SHOCKED at what you did last night:

...and this morning she wants to have a talk about how disappointed she is.

Gwynevere Is Here!

2009-12-14T10:46:00.003-05:00

And she's beautiful! We had a lovely (big!) baby girl on November 25, the day before Thanksgiving! She came along at 4:39 p.m., at 8 pounds 15 ounces and 19 3/4 inches (though I dispute that, since she was 21 inches just four days later.) She's in perfect health and nursing like a champ, and sleeping beautifully. I think she'd be inclined to sleep through most of the night if I didn't wake her up to feed her. As a happy aside, Wynnie shares a birthday with Kristi's brand new baby girl too! Fun fact, we also had our showers on the same date. Nothing in common. ;-)

With an incredibly supportive husband and fantastic labor nurse, I made it through all that with no drugs, as I'd hoped, and while I'm sure I made plenty of racket, I managed it with an alarmingly minimal amount of cursing, considering my typical blue streak. (Matter of fact, I only remember one F-bomb, and it was when I was decrying the air conditioning situation - who leaves a delivery room A/C set at EIGHTY???) I went into labor around 4:00 a.m. after about two hours of sleep, labored at home as long as I could, headed to the hospital shortly after noon (and would have sworn I'd been there for much longer than four and a half hours) and delivered her in pretty darn good time. I'd had a doctor's appointment the day before at which he wanted to discuss the c-section necessity if I went a whole lot longer, as I was a week past due when she arrived, and I told him I didn't see the need to discuss it, since I'd be having her the next day. He was as skeptical of my prediction as I was of his c-section and possibility-of-shoulder-dysplasia nonsense (we knew by this point that she was pretty big). So when he walked in to deliver her I hollered, in the midst of full blown delivery labor, "I TOLD YOU IT WOULD BE TODAY! HA!!" I appreciate his restraint in not telling me I was in a fine position to be smug, ahem.

It's been a very busy 19 days or so! Travis had two weeks off from work, which was such a blessing, and when he returned I didn't crash and burn like I was afraid of - she's been really great for me, blessed little girl. So things are progressing well for her and Travis, and mostly well for me, though I may be needing surgery down the road - I had a massive gallstone attack on Saturday. That was way worse than any labor pain, I thought I was dying and was begging for someone to either give me drugs or run me over in the parking lot. So the rumor is that I'll need to have my gallbladder removed, but I'm going to try to control that with diet for as long as I possibly can. (Travis is going to be annoyed when he gets home today and I haven't called the surgeon.)

But enough exposition - pictures!!

Here we are, our first family portrait, taken shortly after her arrival.

Can't resist this one - this is the first picture I took, with my phone, in the delivery room. Travis was completely in awe that he had a daughter - I was too exhausted to be emotional right away (that came later when I spoke to her for the first time.)

This was her first day home. Damn she's cute.

Travis blowing raspberries at the baby. Daddies are supposed to be the silly fun ones.

Naptime on the nursery floor. (The dogs and cats are doing really well with the new addition to the family. They're curious at best, but cautious. We're so grateful for their restraint.)

And that's our girl. :-)

Last Call!

2009-11-09T20:35:00.010-05:00

Due for baby in just a week or two (that's due, of course, not some guarantee, as I keep reminding myself) and I've made some big headway around here - for example, I finally bought a new battery for the laptop, as I've been needing to do for a YEAR, so I can actually use this computer and let's pretend that means I'll blog more often...

I think I'll just cover the knit-related stuff for now - and then the next post you see from me you know will mean that she-or-he is here!

Yarn: Socks That Rock Mediumweight in "Fred Flintstone"
Pattern: Telemark Sweater by Erika Flory
US 4 needles
Size M (12 month)
Started: August 28
Finished: September 1
Mods: Seed stitch instead of garter, kfb instead of m1 (I'm crazy like that) and I think that's about it. Gauge was off (6 instead of 5 sts/in) so I went up a size, think I still ended up with something for a 12-month old, which is also fine.

Giant stack o' baby legwarmers - these will be good for Florida "winter" weather. All are superwash, most are just Dream in Color leftovers from the Tulip cardi, which brings us to....

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy (kit from The Sweet Sheep)
Pattern: Tulip Cardigan by Lindsay Pekny
US 5 and US 7 needles
Size 0-6 mo.
Started: April 24
Finished: April 29 (my Loopy Spring Fling project)
Mods: Had to finagle some things due to a shortage of yarn in some places, so there are some skimpy stripes and contrasting i-cord trim. Don't study the comparison between the cuffs of the left and right sleeves.

Yarn: Handmaiden SeaThree (silk and seasilk, very practical for baby knitwear)
Pattern: Avery by Kristi Geraci
US 7 needles
Size 3-6 mo.
Started: May 3
Finished: July 19 (I hit a lull in the knitting mojo)
Mods: None, other than I knit the mirror image of this one AGAIN. I started out fine, did something stupid, ripped back, and accidentally reversed the front and back when I started it up again. Duh.

I also knit this, but not for me:

Yarn: Valley Yarns Superwash
Pattern: Baby Sophisticate by Linden Heflin
US 8 needles
Size 6-9 mo.
Started: September 10
Finished: September 27
Mods: none other than making it a bit longer than written. This was a gift for Baby G. Actually, there was one other sweater that started out as a potential gift for Baby G but I botched it pretty good..

Yarn: Cascade Yarns Eco Alpaca
Pattern: Cabled Baby Raglan by Rebecca L. Daniels
US 4 needle
Started: July 19
Finished: September 10
Mods: Can we call a botching a mod? I dropped a stitch on the sleeve during the movie District 9. Later I picked it up and carried it up about 20 or so rows, creating a lovely pucker on the back of the sleeve. So it's got a little something, uh, special. (Oh well, it's a handwash-only baby sweater, it probably wasn't going to be in heavy rotation around here anyway!)

Then there's this, which I will probably finish eventually. Ugh, seaming...

Yarn: Mirasol Yarn Sampa (organic cotton)
Pattern: Trellis by Britta Stolfus Rueschhoff
US 7 needle
Started: August 9, 2009
Finished: uhhh....TBD

And of course, I'm working on birthing socks. Nearly finished - just working on the foot of the last one now. This is a three-ply handspun superwash merino I'm so happy with, knit into nearly-knee socks. Naturally, if I did something like this for my wedding, I had to have something equally special for baby's birth day. Halfway through these it occurred to me that baby would need special birth day socks too:

Yarn: Greenwood Cotton-Lycra sock yarn
Pattern: my own (I may write it up)
US 1 and US 2 needles
Started: October 25
Finished: October 28
Mods: I wrote it myself. And yet, actually, I did mod something - picked up on some screwed up decreases halfway up the hat and swapped those around.

One last thing I managed to pull off before the baby arrives (and later than I should have):

Orders of fingering-weight cashmere/nylon/superwash merino went out to both The Sweet Sheep and The Loopy Ewe. No telling what the future holds for The YoYo once MiniYo comes along, so if you're thinking you might wanna try some, now's a good time...

So I think that's about everything! More soon - hopefully!

One Other Little Thing...

2009-08-21T15:49:00.005-04:00

OMG I'm back and it's only been like two days!

Nah, I'm just trying to enable you again. Remember back when I used to do that? I'm doing some reluctant but necessary destashy. You know, one of those things where I'm having to make room in the office/craft room for all of Mr. YoYo's crap because his office is now a nursery, and having to make room in the budget for all of Baby Yo's crap because, well, that will be my life now forevermore. I'll eventually be digging up all sorts of things, spinning fiber and whatnots, but for now I'm trying to part with some of my sock yarns. Loving homes needed for Duets, Cherry Tree Hill, Socks that Rock, Dream in Color, Mama E, Yarn Pirate, Sunshine Yarns, Sknitches, Zen String, etc etc etc....Want some? Good prices! Make offer! Going...fast?

OMG OMG OMG

2009-08-19T20:35:00.006-04:00

Um. Hi. Yeah, I keep doing that thing where I appear, apologize, post, and disappear. It sucks. I've gotten some awesomely sweet emails in the past month or so (OH MY GOD I DIDN'T RESPOND TO YOU GUYS. I'm also pregstupid. I haven't been doing anything at all lately that I'm supposed to. See also: blogging, etsy shop. I can't tell you how special your sweet emails made me feel, and hopefully I'll remember to tell you personally and oh my God that made me sound like such a douche. I'm not a douche, I'm just stupid. I promise.) Anyway, thank you for all your fantastic comments and congrats on my pregnancy (remember that, like three months ago? Yikes.)

So I'm six and a half months along now (also yikes) and things are still going swimmingly. For those who said "But you look kinda skinny...?" to the photo I posted last time to indicate my pregnancy - yeah, I was like six weeks pregnant when I took that, and had just lost about 10 pounds to boot. (Good thing, too.) Right now I look more like this:

Yay crummy iPhone photos! I'm surprised at how...pregnant I look here. I mean, duh, I'm pregnant, but this definitely makes me look quite a lot more expansive than I see myself in the mirror most of the time. Deluded, maybe, but I swear I'm bigger at night, it's the strangest thing. And pardon my closet, it needs some work but we've been busy with the nursery. Oh, and I just came from the gym here. Hot. (I'm being very careful, just elliptical machine and gentle yoga stuff, but I'm trying to get exercise and stay healthy for the baby. Studies show childhood obesity may be determined in the womb, so build good habits now and all that crap.)

But there's more! I'm SO not sure I'm supposed to post this....but hopefully someone from Lark will let me know if I'm breaking a code.

MY FREAKING BOOK OVER HERE!!!

Okay, in the interest of full disclosure, it's not MY book per se. But remember how I called Cookie's book "my book" because I'd knit the sock on the cover? This book is at least closer to being "my book" than Cookie's was, in that Cookie's book was not my book in any way or shape. (PS: That did not stop me from noting to a yarn shop owner in North Carolina who had Cookie's book on display near the register that I TOTALLY KNIT THOSE SOCKS RIGHT THERE ON THE COVER. I have to be the coolest person alive. I hope to God no one ever gives me even an inch of fame, or I'll just become this huge walking bag of feminine hygiene.)

See, this is totally more like being actually my book, in that I'm published in it with my very own pattern and stuff. This was a pattern I did for Roxanne of faboo Zen Yarn Garden (and which she VERY graciously allowed me to submit to this book, which was gracious indeed since it's her right to decide what happens with the pattern, so when you knit these and all the other socks in this book, please use Zen Yarn Garden yarn, especially since it's awesome anyway and I totally would not lie to you - if it wasn't awesome I'd just say something nice about Roxanne's hair or something and be done with it, but her yarn really IS great stuff.)

In case you want to sort of be able to see the sock at all. I've seen the socks, so I'm more excited about my name in print. Oh, and by the way, I have these socks back in my possession now and will never be able to wear them because this hot chick in her stupid robe has totally ruined it and there's something decidedly less sexy about how I wear them - which right about now is on the swollen ankles of a pantsless pregnant woman watching old Golden Girls episodes on the WE network and eating Edy's Butterfinger ice cream straight out of the pint. (I wish that wasn't true - the only part I'm lying about is swollen ankles, really I haven't had that problem yet. But with my body temperature averaging about 457 degrees higher than normal, about the most dressed-up I can muster at home is a long-enough t-shirt. Long t-shirts are great. If you walk around PRETENDING you're wearing shorts under there, people will totally think you are. And yes, I did blather on about childhood obesity and all that earlier, so I'm not eating a LOT of ice cream, but I will admit it's made the odd appearance here and there on Golden Girls night.)

What? Book? Why, you're not here to picture me wandering around in my yard without pants on while trying to remember why I came outside in the first place - oh right, checking the mail. Wait, it's Sunday. Well now I have to find something to do because I'm standing in the yard pretending to have shorts on and I wouldn't want it to appear as if that was my sole purpose in coming out here and I can't check the mail because then I'll look like one of those lazy morons who forgot what day of the week it is, and when you see those people you always think they must have no jobs and just live off of some sort of trust fund and I really don't want the neighbors to think I'm some pantsless pregnant trust-fund kid. Oh, good, a fallen branch. I'll pick that up and then it'll look like I was being proactive.

See what pregnancy is doing to me? Let's change the subject back, shall we?

And LOOK! I get a BLURB! Isn't that what that's called? Words I wrote (supposedly - this was all done quite a long time ago, but that does SOUND like me) appear on the back of the book, and - I get such a kick out of this - my name has the words "sock designer" in front of it as if it were some sort of actual job I have or something. I'm completely terrified someone is going to mistake me for an actual sock designer now. Seriously, this book is loaded with Real Actual Designer types who have GORGEOUS stuff in here. Of course I've only fast-forward paged through it to find my name in print, because I'm cool like that, but the socks I saw on the way are AMAZING. I can't wait to sit down with the book for real and actually study them - there have to be at LEAST 10 I saw that were must-knits, which is a ton for me since in any given book that I have to have, there might be two patterns in there that I would consider things I could actually sit down and knit some day. (And sock knitting could be interesting challenge for me indeed, since I haven't picked up a sock in probably four or five months. Unless you count baby legwarmers. Let's not get into the baby legwarmers right now. It's a disease I have, probably on par with Cara's Monkey sickness.)

And I can tell they're real-live going to publish it for sure, because look! Pre-order the book on Amazon!

So what's new with you? Hopefully I'll post again before the baby's born...I'm averaging one every three months now, right, so that puts the next one just before the due date. (November 19th - also my mom's birthday!) I promise to at the VERY least come back and tell you when Yo-Yo and Mr. Yo-Yo welcome Little Yo.

(I'm also hoping to do some sort of book giveaway when this gets published, which I THINK is supposed to be some time in October...?)

Triumphant Return (For Today, Anyway....)

2009-05-12T22:11:00.005-04:00

I suppose I should format this post in the Standard Acceptable Prose Of Long-Absent Blogger, which is to say that I should start out with generic shock at how long I've been silent ("Has it really been [insert number of days] since my last post??"), proceed to vague reasons and apologies for said absence as if your every morning hangs on my updates ("Test knitting....busy-ness....secret projects....etc.....sorry sorry sorry....") and then finish up by regaling you with every boring and excruciatingly minute detail of the last however-many-weeks-or-months that I've been absent ("So THEN my boss said....and I told her....and she told me....and I said to her....")

Okay, now that all that is out of the way....hi! Yeah, I know. But like I said, secret projects, plus a very busy few months that have plenty to boast in worthy news - a long-in-coming shop update and sale, rehearsals and opening for the local community theatre show Li'l Abner, which turned out to be more challenging for me than I'd originally anticipated, more detail on that toward the end of the post, a trip or two, and a planned development - but not enough energy to post it all. I have some knits I need to photograph and share, which I will no doubt get to eventually.....well, let's not say "no doubt" but you can hang with the firm deadline of "eventually".

There was the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling, where I took practically zero pictures but had quite the time, especially visiting Loopy (with Aimee and Teenuh!) and seeing my yarn on their shelves. (On that front - it was quiet with Loopy for a while, but I have another batch in the works for the summer with both Loopy and The Sweet Sheep. A new yarn base too. Woot!)

Travis and I got out of the hotel one day to visit the Arch.

It's the silver thing you can see a chunk of behind me. Nice shot, eh? I kind of blew off a class for that, but I'd proven myself so mind-numbingly stupid and worthless in the first class that I doubt the instructor missed the joy of my blank stare. Here's (a crappy iPhone photo of) said instructor indicating her approval of my decision:

Speaking of whom.... There was also the matter of this little book that came out that is totally mine by virtue of the fact that my name is in it somewhere and I knit a sock for it. I'm speaking of course of Cookie's sock book (gee, have ya heard about it?) Sock Innovation. Here's the contest part - didn't I mention the contest part? - I'm giving away a copy of this book. You already have it, sure, but do you have a SIGNED copy? No? You can have one of mine, then! The entry is a toughie - leave a comment on this post before Friday, May 15 at midnight (Eastern). Anyone anywhere can enter. Since a bunch of "MINE! GIMME!" comments can get tedious, I'll give you a topic to discuss if you prefer, at your discretion. Here's a starting point:

We are with child, and I'm now about fourteen weeks along. Discuss. ;-)

Thoughts on Watchmen

2009-03-08T21:10:00.002-04:00

Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.................

....that is all. Thanks for tuning in to this week's edition of Fangirl Obsessive: The Notorious Nitpicker Goes To The Cinema.

Three Things

2009-03-02T23:44:00.004-05:00

Today we'll focus on some of my better news of late:

1) It's hubby Travis' birthday! Well, March 3rd - which is what day it will be by the time feeds update, probably....I'm close enough!

2) I finished another something:

Pardon my distraction - the president is speaking.

This is the Herringbone Cowl by Lauren Osborne, knit in Zen String in the "Gwendolyn" colorway, size US 4 needles. Took for freaking ever to knit because due to the stitch pattern, I was getting about 16 ROWS TO THE INCH. Blurgh. Still, I love the way it turned out.

Ew, flash photos. But stitch definition is good too, so we suffer...

3) We auditioned for a show, and it looks like we'll both be in the cast, possibly playing multiple roles. I don't particularly care too terribly much what I'm cast as because a) it's a fun silly show likely to be full of people I enjoy being around, who are talented and entertaining, and I love the director oodles and lots, and b) it's not totally guaranteed but it looks like OH MY GOD FREAKING GEORGE PEREZ IS GOING TO BE IN THE SHOW TOO. YES. THAT GEORGE PEREZ. I'm in geek heaven. (After being around him a couple of times I can add that he is, incidentally, also on the short list of nicest guys on the whole planet.)

George Perez!!!!

FO - Way More Interesting Than Blah-gging The Oscars

2009-02-23T18:47:00.003-05:00

Okay, I have a blog post about the Oscars that I abandoned about twelve minutes into the broadcast, after spending much of the preshow basically writing, "I like that. I like that too. That's nice." Well, that and lots of bitching about Seacrest. But yeah, the show overall, while I enjoyed it and liked the new style generally speaking, was pretty dull from a blogging standpoint. Mostly good fashion, no surprises in the winners (other than foreign film: whaaaaaat?) and overall just not a lot to snark or get really excited about. My post will probably languish in draft hell for all eternity.

But I did finish this yesterday:

A garment! And my first vest! I am SO not a vest girl, but I had these three balls of one DK yarn and two balls of another color of said DK yarn, and I was thinking colorwork vest. Two-color, non-intarsia colorwork. There turn out to not be a whole heap of options in that category that thrilled me, but I found this during my Ravelry search and thought it was just really pretty. Simple, flattering, wearable, work-appropriate...good things. I sweated my yardage the whole time I knit and I just BARELY had enough yarn - I think I have about five grams left over of each color. Squeak!!

It turned out really well, I think. A little tiny bit on the big side, but long enough - a miracle in my world - and not too small around the bust - another miracle - and big enough to allow for a shirt underneath without constricting my movement. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the fit. It's loose enough to allow for weight gain later, too. Not that I'm anticipating it. (I'm on a group weight loss thing right now and so far I'm doing pretty well - down eight pounds, hurray! Yay for being healthy - my habits were getting pretty shameful there for a while.)

Pattern Deets:
Cables & Spice Pattern by Diane Carlson
Size: 37" bust
Needles: US 5 & US 3
Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy 013 (red, 3 balls) and 06 (pink, 2 balls)
Start: January 28, 2009
Finish: February 22, 2009

Pardon my wrinkliness - I wore this all day at work prior to taking photos. Bad knit blogger. The good news is that it holds up well. The pattern is also really well written and simple to execute, with not a lot of finishing, either, which is a very good thing in my book. No seaming at all - just grafts at the shoulders. Me likey. I'm also looking forward to giving this a wash - yes, I'm a slacker and wore it to work without even blocking or washing it - Hempathy blooms so beautifully when it's washed. This will probably only get better.

Okay, now I'm just being silly.

Oscars - A PSA For Those As Compulsive As Myself

2009-02-19T12:21:00.002-05:00

So every year I get really obsessed with the Oscars for no discernible reason (they are not in any way indicative of the BEST work of the year, just the most publicized...and yet I plan my whole late winter around this event) and I drive myself crazy into the ground trying to see as many nominated works as I can. (It's especially difficult to pull off when I restrict myself to the first showing on weekends, traditionally the cheapest available ticket and the only budget-friendly way to stick to my plan.)

I've seen a number of powerful and impressive films in this pursuit, and then like NONE of them got nominated for best picture. Lucky for me, that sacred institution AMC Theatres is doing something that theatres nationwide should have been doing annually for 30 years - they're showing all five best picture nominees back to back in a single day. Blessedly, the tickets are cheaper than they would be to see each individually - $30 for all five - and include bottomless popcorn, a saving grace for those of us with husbands of infinite metabolism. (I for one will tote a bag of radishes and cucumbers, thank you.)

I'm saying hallelujah that the one film we did see, Benjamin Button, is the one showing smack in the middle of the day. There's a lakefront park and walking trail about 100 yards from the theatre, so we can get outside into the real world, have lunch, go for a walk, hit a Starbucks....I think it'll be a nice day. It's especially great for those of us in a strange area where, inexplicably, Paul Blart showed in every multiplex but no one really felt like putting Milk on a screen. (Um, thanks? Welcome to the South, baby.)

If you want to see if an AMC in your area is mounting the effort, check here.

And I'm thinking I may "live-blog" the whole event. (The Oscars, not the five movies. God, would that be torture for you or what?) By "live-blog" I mean, I'll write one ungodly long post and then publish when the thing is over, rather than assault your bloglines with 1400 posts all night. Things I always like to snark on: who won, who deserved it, who gave a catty sideways look when she lost (lookin' at you, Jolie), who looked great (expectation: Hathaway) and who looked jacked as hell (expectation: Cameron Diaz, as always, will appear to have run there straight from the gym...in Encino; and God willing, Meryl Streep will show up in stirrup pants again like she did to the SAG Awards, not expecting to be shown on camera in full view and only dressing for her gracious-and-lovely-from-the-bust-up loser shot.)

VK Free to Loving Home

2009-02-10T18:21:00.002-05:00

Is anyone in need of the Winter '08/'09 Vogue Knitting? (It's the one currently on newsstands.) I subscribed and figured my first issue would be Spring, so I bought the Winter issue last week and lo, another arrived in my mailbox today - now I has two. First commenter takes it.

Baby Surprise ... Garment

2009-01-30T19:25:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm well on my way to earning that new cowl. (Still not here, and the postal workers didn't abscond with it after all, so kpixie has sweetly offered to send another my way. Kind customer service is alive! IT'S ALIIIIVE!!!)

I've been sick almost this entire week, in a bizarre twist that left me home ill from work for four days (!!), save an ill-conceived three-and-a-half hour attempt to return to work yesterday. I felt fine Monday, a little achey but I assumed that had to do with the new diet-and-exercise I've finally picked back up (down four pounds, y'all!) and then right before bed I coughed, just the once, and it had that very alarming chest rattle sound and felt ever so briefly like I'd been donkey-punched in the sternum. "Uh-oh." Sure enough, I woke up on Tuesday half-dead and have clung to that state of being ever since. The doctor said it's a virus (read: suck it up and ride it out, no drugs we can prescribe for that one) and most of what I've been capable of for those four days is napping and occasionally dragging it into the kitchen to make tea, then wheeze my way back to the couch. It was evident that I should not have gone back to work when I got there and was met with a chorus of "Whoa, what happened to you?"s and "Man, you look awful!"s. Aww, thanks, guys.

But, sickness is good for knitting - when I'm not sleeping, I'm sitting on the couch watching DVDs of TV (Bones and Big Bang Theory, primarily, since you're curious) and knitting at quarter-speed. I finally managed to pull off this baby surprise jacket I've been plugging at most of the month. Why did this seem to take so LONG when it's for such a tiny person?

Ah, that's why. Because it's a Toddler Surprise Three-Quarter Sleeve Trench Coat. I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if this is just how it turns out.... The magic of the design is cool, but it seems like the body of this jacket won't fit little Kelly until he's two, and the sleeves are already too short for him at six weeks. Then again, I know less about baby construction than I do about garment construction, so maybe it'll be fine.

Project Details:
Pattern: Baby Surprise Jacket by Elizabeth Zimmermann (can you believe it's my first?)
Yarn: Araucania Pomaire Multy (it's spelled that way on the label, I swear)
Needles: US 5 (3.75mm)
Buttons: some sort of polymer coated shell from JoAnn's
Start: January 2, 2009
Finish: January 29, 2009

I'm glad I made this, and I can't believe it took me so long to finally get around to one. I probably won't make it again. It's nothing against the design (again, clever as hell) but it's just so....garter. I'm one of those weirdos who just can't fall in love with back-and-forth garter stitch. I like stockinette in the round ... which is just garter stitch, really ... but flat garter doesn't thrill me. I think this is way cute and great for a baby, but I think I'm just so in love with seed stitch for babies, so Avery edges it out as my favorite baby knit so far. (In a sock yarn, that one only took me two weeks. Huh.)

I am really glad that I went with the blue buttons on this, rather than the green I almost picked up. They pop, huh?

In classic style, however, I cast on for another project before my cowl pattern gets here....so one step forward, two steps back. That's even worse that the saying goes. And this pattern is for an item I was pretty sure I'd never ever knit, especially not for myself. Oh the times, they are a-changin'!

Blargh.

2009-01-26T18:47:00.005-05:00

I think I angered a postal employee. I've not received a scrap of mail in my P.O. box in four days. That's forever in the land of coupons, catalogs, magazines, junk mail, and never-ending bills. (I owes me some money.) The last two packages I've received that were too big for my li'l mailbox went into parcel lockers, with no corresponding key or notice placed in my box, and I finally had to go beg for them after I got an e-mail from a friend wondering if I'd not received her gift or if I was just ungrateful.

And two weeks ago I ordered this pattern (click the link, click the link, it's gorgeous!) with a dire NEED TO KNIT IT RIGHT NOW and have been waiting.....and waiting.....and waiting. I have a feeling it may be sent in one of those hard-to-bend envelopes that's braced with cardboard or something (waiting for a response from the vendor on how they ship to confirm my hypothesis) in which case it, too, is likely sitting abandoned in a parcel locker, keyless. I'm getting annoyed.

I need that pattern to start that project too, because all I have on the needles currently is this baby surprise jacket for a friend's new baby:

And this Socks That Rock sock for Travis*:

And this Wollmeise knee sock:

And this Zen String Herringbone Cowl:

And this handspun sock - well, not THIS sock 'cuz I already finished this sock, but the mate looks almost exactly like this one right now (from Kristi's awesome handspun that I somehow earned, but don't ask me how):

And this Silver Belle that's still waiting to be picked back up:

So I ASK you, what in HELL am I supposed to knit until my pattern gets here??? COME ON ANGRY POSTAL WORKERS, I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOUR PETTY NONSENSE!

(Two things: one, I finally ripped about three projects that I had solidly determined I was not likely to ever again pick up. And second, every project that doesn't have a "for ____" after its description is for me. Yeah, I'm a selfish, selfish knitta. I'm fine with that.)

*To be fair, this I actually can't work on - I'm knitting these socks for Travis as a surprise gift for whenever, so I really only work on it when I go see movies alone, all the ones that I feel a need to see and he doesn't. There are usually a lot of those in the Countdown to Awards Season months leading up to the Oscars - I catch as many matinees as I can on weekends. Travis does his best to sit through the actual ceremonies with as little bitching as possible so that I don't have to sit there talking to myself about why so-and-so deserves this award and how such-and-such wasn't whosit's first choice for the role and why NO STARLET WILL FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PUT SOME DAMNED LIPSTICK ON, A LOUSY ECONOMY IS NO EXCUSE FOR CREEPY FLESH-COLORED LIPS, but he would probably divorce me if I dragged him to every one of my compulsive-need-to-watch depressing Award Whore movies.

Shop News

2009-01-19T08:41:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note that there's going to be a shop update today (Monday) at 10:00 a.m. Eastern with lots of fun stuff - four different yarn bases, nineteen different colorways (some repeatable, some one-of-a-kind), and two batches of my Wait Wait Don't Tell Me yarns.

CashSport in "Nightwatch"

Just for my mailing list and blog peeps, too, I have a little buy-more-save-more sale code - type in the code New Year in Messages to Seller when checking out of the Etsy shop and you'll get 10% off of one skein, 15% off of two, and 20% off of three or more. (Wait for revised invoice, or I'll send a refund if you pay upon checkout.)

CashSport in "Braaaiins..."

Check out the shop!

Destashy Thing

2009-01-09T16:46:00.001-05:00

If you're interested:

Sock yarns up for grabs - prices should be on all the Flickr descriptions, e-mail to alysonknitsATgmailDAHTcom if you're interested. (There are two Sundara yarns listed - those are swapped already, but to get rid of them I'd have to make a new mosaic and ehhhhhhhhh.)

Flickr photoset of destash

Ravelry page for destash

Just Over And Left Of The Gun

2009-01-08T15:47:00.005-05:00

If you can complete something just under the gun, then I completed this the opposite of that. I started Silken Scabbard for my NaKniSweMo project in November. I decided shortly thereafter that I'd rather gift the sweater, so I wasn't able to work on it as much as planned, due to the giftee's presence during my long roadtrip and vacation at the end of November. I had planned to finish it by the end of 2008, and only had about 15 rounds of a sleeve left to completion on New Year's Eve, and then I kind of basically set my hand on fire making dinner and that sort of precluded getting any knitting done that night, what with all the screaming pain and aching. (Fine now, knitting well, thanks.) So NOW, FINALLY:

Pattern: Silken Scabbard by Jennifer Hansen
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK
Size: 35" (M-I-L size)
Needles: US 5 Addi Naturas and Jenkins Woodworking circulars
Start: November 2, 2008
Finish: January 2, 2009

This is obviously not knit in my size - I like a good flattering fit, but I'm not one for sweaters that make me look like Boobsy McBirthinghips, so this would SO not be my style. It was a gift for my smaller and totally lovely mother-in-law for Christmas, and it looks completely stellar on her.

I am more than certain my intention was not for my ass to be quite so prominent in this photo. It was really hard to get good photos out of this shoot. Travis is one of those photographers who takes the picture about one quarter of a second after you wish he'd taken it. There are heaps of outtakes. (Warning: that last one involves a specific finger. Be aware.)

Mods: A few, though nothing revolutionary. There were some pattern bits that didn't really make sense to me ("why do it that way when I could just do this other thing?") so I made those kinds of changes, and the sorts of changes that make sleeves shorter and narrower, stuff like that.

Wheee, it's done!!

Final Thoughts: My only regret is that it's not for me :-) As far as the pattern - it's simple, but it's not for beginners. Does that make sense? It'd be easier to knit if you know what you're doing so you can maybe change some things up and save yourself some steps. Also, I REALLY wish that cramming it onto two pages hadn't been such a priority - it was like working on a pattern from Vogue Knitting. ("Hey Bill. I'm looking at this month's layout. Do you think we can get this colorwork cabled cardigan covered in one column? Including charts? Great, thanks.") But: I do LOVE this sweater and its pattern. It's clever and simple but interesting and the yarn I picked (from stash!) worked wonderfully with it. If I were starting all over, I'd knit this one again for sure.

I Used To Be About Knitting

2008-12-31T13:35:00.005-05:00

Things knitters frequently have in common, besides knitting:
Crocheting, spinning and/or weaving (duh)
Sewing
Cats
Dogs
Or both
Cooking and/or eating

We are, by and large, crafty pet-loving foodies. Would you say that's relatively accurate? I think a love of animals is innate in one who loves fiber, and love of food is innate in one whose natural proclivities tend toward the handmade. Makes absolute sense.

Since I haven't knit anything I can show off but I really want to post again before the new year, and I figure an off-topic post would be somehow preferable to disappearing from the blog for weeks on end YET AGAIN...and also so I can say happy new year and thanks to the folks who have hung around and read this blog despite my waning presence...I wanted to post another recipe, this one pretty simple and just good winter (spring summer fall) comfort food. I whacked together this soup last night and have eaten it three times since then, and it's only just after lunch. You do the math.

(Also, if this food stuff interests you at all, I stumbled onto a wicked food blog, Alinea At Home, which is based around this woman who's cooking every recipe from the somewhat-imposing Alinea cookbook at home. I got this cookbook for Christmas and am anxiously awaiting a surprise trip to Chicago to hit Alinea - it's coming any day now, I'm sure, someone's just waiting for the right moment to send me plane tickets and my reservation confirmation for the Four Seasons - so this blog is a wonderful read for me. She's also FRIGGING HILARIOUS and I'm going to find out where she lives, show up on her front door, give her a big hug, and then plop myself down at her kitchen table and wait to be served. Oh, she did the French Laundry cookbook too.

Without further ado, something much less impressive than Alinea or French Laundry but tasty nonetheless:

Smoky Creamy Tomato Soup

2 big honkin' cans of whole tomatoes (32 oz?), undrained*
1/2 - 1 tbsp smoked paprika, depending on your love of smoke/spice**
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried thyme
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sherry or sweet vermouth, or a few tablespoons of olive oil***
1/4 - 1/2 cup heavy cream (depending on how creamy you like your soup - and cream is optional)
sea salt****
fresh ground pepper

I am incapable of not adding too much unnecessary narrative to my recipes, so here's stuff on all those asterisks:

* My favorite canned tomatoes to use are the Muir Glen Fire Roasted Organic Tomatoes. That fire roasted thing adds a whole other dimension of flavor, they're amazing.

** Smoked paprika = not regular paprika. Regular paprika does little other than add color, and remind me of that Ramona Quimby book I read when I was little, in which paprika was heavily in play when the girls made dinner for their parents and disaster ensued and ever since I've been wary of paprika. I digress....smoked paprika is my New Most Favorite Thing and can be found at specialty stores for an ungodly amount of money, and then subsequently on every shelf you pass in every grocery store every time you go, once you've paid said ungodly amount of money. Lesson from me: check the spanish/mexican food section in your grocery store, the stuff's like two bucks. Also can sometimes be found, incredibly, sandwiched between some washcloths at a Home Goods. Seriously, the cheap smoked paprika is now just mocking me. Smoked paprika comes in varying levels of hotness - I like the hot, Travis would prefer the mild. Meh. Don't like smoky flavors? Screw it, leave out the paprika, it's still a good quick and easy soup.

*** It's for cooking the garlic. I, for one, enjoy cooking with booze. I also like cooking, with booze. So I used the vermouth for cooking, with some vermouth reserved for the cook (wink wink). If you're not a fan of cooking with alcohol, you can use a bit of olive oil to cook your garlic.

**** For added smokiness, I used smoked sea salt. Travis probably wishes I hadn't, but he doesn't care so much for smoky stuff. Use regular salt if you want. I won't give you a hard time. I probably won't even eat your soup. Unless you want me to. I'll send you my address just in case.

Okay, food:

Puree the tomatoes (with the juice from the can) in a blender until smooth and rich in texture. (Learn from me: You may need to do this one can of tomatoes at a time. Shut up, I was really tired, okay?) Pour puree into a large-ish saucepan and heat over medium-high, adding the seasonings (paprika, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper).

While this is cooking, peel three garlic cloves and either mince finely or shmoosh with a garlic press. Heat the olive oil in a small saute pan, or warm a dry pan over medium heat. Add the garlic to the olive oil, or add the garlic to the dry pan and immediately add the sherry or vermouth. Allow to cook, moving the pan constantly so the garlic doesn't burn, for about a minute in the oil or until the sherry/vermouth has reduced by about half. (Lesson from me: don't lean over the pan and inhale all the alcohol. Wooziness ensues.) Add the garlic mixture to the tomato mixture.

Let the soup simmer for a while over medium to medium-low heat, for about ten minutes. Return the soup to a blender and puree again. (Same lesson from me, when will I figure this out: maybe do this in two batches too. What do you expect, I was now tired AND woozy.) Alternatively, if you have a handheld immersion blender, jam that in the pot and hit it.

Now, while the soup is pureeing, I like to add the heavy cream to the empty pot and let it warm a bit. I've found that sometimes when I add the cold cream to warm soup, the soup gets grainy on me. But it's fine to just add the cream. Or don't add it at all, if you're not a creamy soup person. This soup would be good without it, too. Combine the soup and cream, stirring to blend. (Or get going with that immersion blender again. You gotta wash it now anyway, might as well use it twice.)

Serve with crusty bread and some cheddar and apples (and bacon! everything goes with bacon!), and again like that tomorrow, when it'll be even better. Nom nom nom!

Have a very safe and blissfully happy new year, my friends!!

Upon Request: A Winter Meal

2008-12-29T13:50:00.002-05:00

Here's the info on that dinner of flank steak with truffled maytag blue cheese sauce I mentioned in an earlier post. It's worth noting that I didn't use recipes and didn't measure anything I did, so these results may vary slightly; however, there wasn't anything especially fancy about what I did, so it's pretty easy and straightforward. I tried to lay everything out in order so you'll have everything done at about the same time (my Achilles heel is roasted veggies - I never account for how long they take and everything is done well before my vegetables can be plated.)

Roasted Winter Vegetables
Set oven to 375. Combine in baking dish: one small butternut squash, peeled and cubed; two medium-to-large parsnips, peeled and chopped; one large sweet potato, peeled and cubed; about one pound of carrots (either peeled and chopped regular carrots or baby carrots - I use baby carrots). Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper - roast in the oven until they begin to brown and crisp a bit on the outsides (about 30 minutes, depending on size - larger dice takes longer.)

Port Balsamic Reduction
Combine 1/4 c. of port with 3/4 c. of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan. Simmer rapidly until sauce has reduced to about 1/4 - 1/3 of a cup and nicely coats the back of a spoon. Do not bring to a rapid boil or let the reduction get too hot, or it will scorch.

This reduction can be made at any time and stored in the fridge in a squeeze bottle - bring to room temperature for use. It's tangy-sweet and great for drizzling on meats or hearty soups. Keep your face away from the saucepan, though - a snort of this stuff while it's simmering will clear out your sinuses but good! Heat it on the back burner. :-)

Flank Steak
One pound flank or skirt steak (if necessary, pound to 1/2" - 3/4" thickness). Season with olive oil, salt, and pepper and cook evenly over medium high heat on a flat or grill pan to desired doneness, turning only once.

Truffled Maytag Blue Cheese Sauce
Combine 1/3 c. Maytag (or other high quality blue cheese) with 1/2 c. heavy cream. Blend or process until smooth. (You want a rich consistency, not too fluid but not too thick - the sauce should pour easily but stay in place without running much. Add more blue cheese if necessary.) Warm over the stove - you don't want to cook so much as just heat it for service. Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper and drizzle with a small amount (about 1/2 tbsp) of white truffle oil.

(White truffle oil can be found at specialty food stores and some supermarkets. It's pricy, but here's a secret - check the specialty food aisles at places like Marshall's, Home Goods, and TJ Maxx. You'd be amazed the gourmet options you can get on the cheap - I get white truffle oil, which can run up to $20, for about $5.99. If this isn't something you're interested in having on hand, don't fret: the oil isn't a necessity - the sauce will be tasty without it. And finally, make sure to only use truffle oil as a finishing touch - it's not meant to be cooked with.)

Fried Sage Leaves
Melt 2 tbsp of butter in a saute pan - add fresh whole sage leaves (washed and thoroughly dried) and cook over medium high heat, keeping the pan in motion, until crisp. (This only takes maybe a few minutes - keep an eye on it, they can burn somewhat easily.)

For service:
Slice the steak on the bias and transfer to a warmed plate. Ladle the Maytag sauce over the steak, then drizzle with a small amount of the port-balsamic reduction and garnish with fried sage leaves. Serve the roasted vegetables as a side. This should serve three to four.

Leftovers
If you still have about half of the vegetables left over, you can make a great soup - combine the remaining vegetables in a blender with one of those cardboard containers of vegetable or chicken broth (or homemade broth, if you're that type) and puree. Heat in a saucepan with a few pinches of dried sage stirred in. Serve with some balsamic-port reduction drizzled on top and a slice of warm crusty bread.

What Hath Padma Wrought

2008-12-27T00:04:00.000-05:00

I carefully and diligently avoided Top Chef for three or four seasons. But Marcie and Steve had to mention it at dinner once (you guys suck) and then of course I had to watch it, because I want to be Marcie and Steve when I grow up (not one or the other of them, but both, at the same time.) And turns out I was avoiding it for good reason. See, if I wasn't a whatever-it-is-I-am, I'd want to be a chef. Or a political aide. Or a dolphin. But right now, totally chef. (Maybe a political aide's chef. Or a chef's dolphin... But in all seriousness, my absolute dream died-and-gone-to-heaven job would probably be White House chef.)

So yeah, basically I looove to cook. I didn't need Top Chef so I could copy it or anything, but it does inspire me to get back in the kitchen and try stuff. I'm allowing myself to experiment more with flavors, not work with recipes but try to create my own dishes using what I know about food, which means I'm making it a priority to learn more about technique and flavor combinations and pairings and knife skills and allll of that. My Christmas list this year was loaded with culinary technique bibles like The Professional Chef and Larousse Gastronomique, and I somehow ended up with three salt mills in my stocking. (I have a thing for different salts. Having only one mill would make me crazy.) The area that I most need work in, unsurprisingly, is meat. Funny how almost 20 years as a vegetarian will dull one's skills. I'm having such fun, though, and it would seem Travis is not opposed to these new experiments of mine, even if it does mean the grocery budget has inflated a bit.

Some of my more successful recent dishes?

Pan-grilled flank steak with truffled Maytag blue cheese sauce, a port-balsamic reduction, fried sage leaves, and roasted winter vegetables. (Swap the steak with scallops for me, and puree the leftover vegetables with some spices for an awesome soup.)

Sauteed organic chicken breasts with oyster mushrooms in a white wine beurre blanc, roasted carrots, and cauliflower puree (a new favorite side dish).

And Christmas Eve's dinner: roasted cornish hens with rosemary citrus butter, cauliflower puree (yes, again), roasted carrots and brussels sprouts, fresh baked artisan bread (thank you, Adelle!) and cranberry-corn relish spiked with thai chili and shallots. Oh, and of course, because what's Christmas without the decadence, chocolate mousse with minted creme fraiche.

When I feel like taking up a new hobby, I don't screw around.

News of the Stuff:

2008-12-26T20:04:00.000-05:00

I have some little goodies I've acquired lately...fun:

My Artist's Collection arrived from Sundara. I'm pretty thrilled with all the colorways, and it's neat to add a little more to my Sundara stash. I've barely made any contributions to the stash lately - which is a happy side effect of dyeing. Well, happy in that it's saving us money at a time we reeeeally need to be saving money. But yeah, when it seems like you're drowning in yarn all the time, it sort of becomes a lower priority to amass more.

Speaking of dyeing:

It's related to dyeing, really. See, I've been doing these NPR Series yarns, to raise a little coin for NPR programming donations, and I found that the surprise colorway one, for the program Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, seems to do really well. (We knitters love a good surprise in our mailbox, and that show rocks.) So anyway, long story short (you're welcome) it turns out that there are a couple of knitters who work at Wait Wait (!!! - we're everywhere!), and eventually it got back to them that their show had a corresponding yarn. I'd sold out at the time they contacted me, so when I did another run I sent a few skeins off to them and they reciprocated with this amazing box full of Wait Wait swag, just in time for Christmas! I got two mugs (one of which I literally came *thisclose* to purchasing on the same day this box hit my front porch), a t-shirt, and two Wait Wait magnets. Since I freaking LOVE. THIS. SHOW, it totally made my night. NPR is awesome.

FOs and WIPs

2008-12-24T23:51:00.003-05:00

Reposted to fix all the stupid broken links and photos. Rawr.

First up, how's this little guy for an FO?

My good good friend Amber had a baby last Tuesday (wow, he's a week old already?!) and we went to visit when he was just a few hours old. I look kinda psycho here, huh? Yeah, beaming with pride - this isn't even my baby. Everyone's very well and healthy and exhausted, which is all as it should be.

As for knitting stuffs:

Done Ones:

The Ilene Bag, knit for my mom for Christmas. She’s been spending more time checking books out of the library, so I made her this as a book bag. Great pattern – I’m planning to make many more of these.

Baby Boleros (from One Skein by Leigh Radford) for twin girls recently born to a coworker, knit from Blue Sky Organic Cotton. Quick knits, tons of finishing (I suck at seaming.) Cute.

A tea cosy for the M-I-L's new teapot (also a Christmas gift.) I have no idea where on earth I got this pattern, which is horrible of me because it was free and the designer, at the very least, deserves credit. I'll dig it up, I swear. It's modified somewhat, but the idea was still hers....

And I'm failing to give her credit not once, but TWICE. Same pattern, different yarn (this is my handspun, from a Traveling Rhinos batt) for my mom, who requested a tea cosy from my dad but I doubt he'll remember that one. Makes a cute hat too:

Un-done Ones:

Silken Scabbard, as yet still sleeveless. Well, pictured sleeveless. It now possesses one sleeve. I’m getting there.

I’ve started Silver Belle, by Debbie Bliss. It doesn’t look like a lot of progress yet, but that’s 428 stitches. Four hundred. Twenty eight. Stitches. If it doesn’t suck the life out of me, it’s going to be beautiful.

Happy holidays to all! I'll be back after Christmas, really I will!

Let's Just Dive Right In

2008-12-23T19:27:00.013-05:00

Dudes. I'm sorry. No excuses for my missing month - how many "I haven't blogged lately 'cuz..." posts have you read just this week alone? So yeah, let me just try to dig out. I don't even know where to start. I have my news, other people's news, news that affects me and news that doesn't affect me but I pretend it does, knitting FOs....oh, and this just in: I'm going to the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling in April! That oughta be fun. Should I pretend to be a blogger? Okay, so let's do news and updates and fun stuff:

Uno: Let me do this one first, because it's freakin' awesome. In news of the other-people's-stuff-related-to-me: Kristi designed this wicked incredible pattern with my yarn inspired by my yarn. (How's that for an ego boost?) Have you seen the YoYo Mittens? I'm having a brain fart on figuring out how to ~~steal~~ show a photo....but please to go look at them, because they are frickin' amazing. You can get the pattern from Ravelry. I'm itching to knit mine!

Dos: What next? In news of The YoYo: How about The Sweet Sheep carrying my yarn now?! Yep, Michelle's got a batch in stock right
now - yay!

Tres: In news of the barely-adjacent-to-me-but-I'm-totally-making-it-about-me: Cookie's new book is being released on April 1, which I've mentioned before. I knit a sample pair of socks for the book, which I also mentioned before, and we already know that I've somehow deluded myself into thinking these are MY socks. That's an important detail, because the latest news is that MY SOCKS ARE ON THE MOTHERF***ING COVER, WHAT UP. See that? Yeah, I'm kind of excited about that. No one will know that I knit those specific socks if I don't scream it from the rooftops, so that's exactly what I plan to do. I may even do a signing at the local Borders. "Hi! Do you want me to sign your book?" "Oh, did you write this??" "No. Here, let me sign it." "Get the hell offa my book, psycho! You're ruining my book! Help! Somebody call the manager! SECURITY!!!"

Quatre: In news of the where-are-my-photographic-priorities: We went to North Carolina for Thanksgiving to see my parents, and we took Travis' mom and sister with us. It was a blast, and the only photos I took were of the felted snowpeople we made on Family Craft Night (which was so much fun I can't even stand it, and I'm being dead serious here, it really was the most fun I've had in a long time.) Here's our group, and there was a whole back story on all these characters and we really should write a picture book about the drama surrounding these snowpeople:

Cinq: In news of the somewhat-related-to-that-trip: An unexpectedly long return drive of 14 hours (it should take nine) in a Toyota Prius with four people, two dogs, and a LOT of stuff resulted in the immediate decision that the following step was necessary:

Behold, a comfortable family vehicle. (Yes, an SUV. I sold my soul. It still gets better gas mileage than Travis' truck, which has been retired to inactive duty in the side yard, to be retrieved when necessary for hauling stuff.) Yes, folks, we bought a Volvo. Are we suburbanites or what? (Allow me to add the statement that goes along with all married women pushing thirty who procure a Volvo: I'm not pregnant.)

Sixth: In news of the I-still-kinda-knit: Finished objects and works in progress, I has them. This is a knitting blog. So let me talk about those later and not in this post. (Seriously.) I'll schedule another post for tomorrow - this is getting out of hand already and I have this final, vital addition to this post:

Embarrassing: In news of the I-just-don't-give-a-damn-anymore: A new Britney Spears album dropped and, since I'm pushing thirty and becoming more comfortable with ~~what a loser~~ who I am, I bought it proudly and have been wearing it out, loudly, with the windows and moonroof open. Blessedly, the new car has a six-disc changer in-dash. So I can get all my Britney albums in there. (How in hell did I end up with ALL THE BRITNEY ALBUMS?) I'm not sure when I became that person, but hell with it - I love crappy pop music and I'm FINE WITH THAT. I don't pretend it's good music, mind you. I would never do such a thing....but I love it. I don't care if you just lost all respect for me. Okay, I care a little. But it's a risk I'm willing to take for gems like "I Got That Boom Boom".

Buh Buh Buh Buh

2008-11-19T23:35:00.003-05:00

Feeling totally braindead, probably inhaling too much acid dye....let's get that out of the way: shop update this Thursday (tomorrow) at 9:00 p.m.....

In knitting news: I'm still working Silken Scabbard - tried it on and it's probably entirely too small, so it'll probably be a gift. (I'm not taking volunteers for receipt, sorry - I have a plan that will hopefully make someone's YEAR.)

Since that sweater now apparently won't be for me and I am The World's Most Selfish Knitter, I immediately went in search for a sweater for me. I started and abandoned the Fireside Sweater. I strongly and wholeheartedly recommend knitting it RIGHT NOW if you are an extra-small or small, but maybe consider reworking the charts a bit if you're any larger - in a medium, it didn't look quite as way-cute as the pictured extra-small, and I didn't feel up to modifying the charts to suit my tastes. To be sure, this is in no way a slight against the designer - she designed an adorable sweater and it's a baffling undertaking as a FIRST DESIGN (holy crap!) and it was written for additional sizes in a totally sensical way, it just created too much reverse stockinette and not enough cable for my taste and while it would be pretty easy for me to make a couple of adjustments, as is part of the charm of knitting, I'm feeling thick-headed and dull and not up to doing anything but blindly following a pattern. (I do not at all enjoy people who gripe about designers on their blogs, so to be clear - NOT A GRIPE about the pattern or the designer. The pattern is clear and the sweater is beautiful. My preferences are just obnoxious, that's all.)

So instead I'm going to attempt Silver Belle. I thought about casting it on....that cast-on....it's a LOT OF STITCHES. I may finish it in time for next year's cold snap. I've swatched, and then the guilt of not working on Scabbard got to me and I picked that back up. I'd show a progress picture of that, but really it's still just a big lump of grey knitting. Maybe when I finish the body - which should be soon - I'll get a shot of it.

ETA: Aw, hell. Well it seemed like a real great idea, but as Amanda points out in the comments, it ain't true. Thank you, Amanda! That's what I get for sharing a forward without checking its validity....and you wouldn't think something about soldiers would be a hoax. Shame.... And now for something completely different: It's about time to start your holiday cards. This suggestion went around at work - probably at your work too - and I wanted to share, even though it's tantamount to blogging a forwarded e-mail. It's worth it. When you write up your holiday cards this year, please consider setting one aside for a recovering soldier. I'm sure we'd all agree that they're always in our thoughts no matter what side of the war fence you land on, and they deserve heaps of respect and warm thoughts.

Send your holiday wishes to:

A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington , D.C. 20307-5001

Happy knitting!

NaBeWeDoHaNoMo

2008-11-11T14:24:00.004-05:00

What happened to me, man? Last year - or was it the year before? - I declared November NaWePoNoMo, because it had an extra payday. This year, October had an extra payday, and yet NaWeSoSOPo. So I've joined NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month) since procuring new clothing is impossible lately BeWeDoHaNoMo (Because We Don't Have No Money). I'm looking forward to January, NaBarOSaMaBu - Nation and Barack Obama, Save My Butt.

So yes, in order to boost the offerings of my wardrobe without boosting the economy (sorry, economy, you on your own!) I've done a bit of stash diving and cast on for Silken Scabbard, a pattern I picked up during Stitch Diva's $5 sale last week.

I'm probably about 35% of the way through with it - I've made some progress since this photo (taken on Sunday during a trip to St. Augustine with the husband and the dogs) and have since made it down to the waist decrease area. Not bad for a sweater cast on November 3rd and knit from DK weight yarn (specifically, RYC Cashsoft DK, and on US 5 needles). I saw one of these on Ravelry that was finished in twelve days....man I wish I had more knitting time sometimes. I'd like to have this done in time for our trip to North Carolina for Thanksgiving - at the very least, I'm hoping to finish it during said trip. (Travis and I and the dogs and his sister and his mom are all going up to visit my parents for the long weekend. I'm very much looking forward to it - well, everything but the four-people-two-dogs-four-suitcases-in-a-Prius-for-ten-hours part of it. That could be a Griswoldian adventure....)

So there that is. Lookit me. Knitting. (I have some, um, thoughts on this pattern. I'll share when I'm done. I wouldn't discourage knitting it - it's going to be a nifty sweater - but I have........thoughts.)

I forgot to post anything about it here, by the way, but I'm having a shop sale that is active through today - 20% off everything in the shop, prices already marked down. Yay discounts!

At 11:01 P.M. Eastern Time...

2008-11-04T23:03:00.003-05:00

I set down my knitting, eyes full of tears, and breathed for the first time today.

Tomorrow I lament the passage of a tremendous blow to the rights of gay couples and domestic partners statewide, but just for tonight, I sleep soundly in hope for the future. We WILL get there, and we just took such a step, such a big step.

Vote Or Lose Your Right To Bitch Later

2008-11-04T09:19:00.002-05:00

What an exciting day! I hope everyone plans on getting out to vote after they're done reading 1700 blog posts about voting. There's no doubt in my mind that there will be beyond record turnout. And while I won't say who I voted for (like you couldn't freakin' guess) I will say that I am excited and energized. I'm also just glad to not feel like I didn't really have the best choices - 2004, anyone? - but rather that the two candidates running are capable of stringing together coherent sentences, feeding themselves, and dressing without assistance. I may agree with one candidate a bit - okay, A LOT - more than the other, but I don't feel that either one is functionally retarded, and that's a big step in the right direction, comparatively speaking. (Note I'm referring only to the candidates for PRESIDENT. We won't get into that other one.....)

Bring it!!!!

Promotion That's Not (Entirely) Self-Serving!

2008-11-03T13:13:00.002-05:00

All I friggin' do is self-promote around here. Are you sick of it yet? I have a little something different this time...not knitting, though, of course.

If I had any knitting worth showing, I would....I've been working on a cowl-neck sleeveless sweater that, so far, I pretty much hate. And it's almost done. It's too short (why do I insist on knitting everything too short??) but, since it's silk, I'm not worrying about it because I know after I wear it once, it'll stretch down to my knees. However, the "sleeveless" thing is not exciting me since it's stockinette and the armholes roll up about an inch - eww - so it's sort of got this really attractive red-silk-wifebeater look to it. Nice. Totally work-appropriate, no? So I have decided to add cap sleeves - which I'm trying to settle on whether I want to do by knitting sleeves separately and (gulp) seaming them on, or picking up at the armholes and knitting down. I'm pondering that second option and using short-rows to get that cute cap sleeve look. Might work. Might be a disaster. There's a reason I design small items, not sweaters or other things that have to accomodate limbs.

So anyway, I'm here to promote someone else's thing - although I am marginally involved in a tiny way, which allows me to throw a little self-congratulatory nod into this while still pretending it's about someone else. (Yay!)

You can now PRE-ORDER COOKIE A.'S NEW BOOK call Sock Innovation on Amazon. You know you're crazysauce for her designs. If you want a preview glimpse, it's on her website here.

So how in God's name could I have anything to do with this? Well, I got to be part of the group of super-awesome test knitters for the book! Yay, something I knit will be in print! On that preview I linked, you can see the sock I knit. (I will not go so far as to call it "my sock" although I totally do when I look at the pictures...I point at it and go, "That's my sock!" When I did that at home, Travis got all proud of me and I had to back up and explain that it was not really MY sock, but the one I'd test knit a while ago - his pride didn't seem to glow any less brightly though, 'cuz he's sweet and supportive like that. If I'd admitted that actually I'd only held the ball of yarn while someone else knit the socks, he would have been like, "Good job, baby! I bet NO ONE ELSE could ever hold yarn like you did!")

I pulled out a little visual aid from the preview (and I really hope it's okay that I did that...we have permission to share the preview, hopefully I'm not taking unacceptable liberties here.) There's something about it that tickles me:

Do you see the name of the sock? All the socks in the book are named after people in Cookie's life, and it gave me a kick that when she decided on a name for the socks I knit, it was Kristi! Hee.

Go pre-order your copy! I believe it releases in April, which is practically just around the corner already! (Don't scoff at me, think back five months to June. That wasn't all that long ago, was it?)

Introducing: Lucky Bamboo

2008-10-31T11:27:00.003-04:00

Happy Halloween!

I have a new pattern to introduce to the world. This was a design for Yarn4Socks.com's October Sock Club, in conjunction with Sunshine Yarns. I'm now introducing it for sale. (The original plan to introduce it on November 1st has sort of been bumped up a bit, based on a myriad of technical reasons that mostly amount to me only being able to access the web through iPhone or at work during lunch, and doing all of this by iPhone would have been a total nightmare.)

So! Lucky Bamboo:

...is a top-down construction crew-length sock that utilizes an easy-to-memorize lace pattern - which extends onto the flap heel for a bit of sass. It calls for a fingering weight sock yarn - I suggest Sunshine Yarns, of course, because it's fabulous stuff, but you could certainly use any other sock yarn you had in stash or had been dying to purchase. (Wink!)

The pattern does contain a simple chart for the lace pattern, and the pattern is easy enough for a newbie sock knitter to follow. I'm doing this one as a Ravelry PDF download for $5.00. If you don't have a Ravelry account (why don't you have a Ravelry account?! it's awesome!) or you really don't care for downloads and need a printed copy mailed to you instead, hey, drop me a line by e-mail or comment. I'd hate for you to pass it by....we can work it out! If you want to check out the Rav download, click da button:

ETA: Kristi, who be smarter than me, sez: Click da button, non-Rav-accounters, it'll still let you buy and download! Whee!

Have a wonderful weekend!

I'm Gonna Show You My Wood

2008-10-23T10:12:00.005-04:00

Shhhh....don't be frightened.

In honor of falling down and buying another beautiful spindle today (yeah, thanks Cristi, ya big enabley jerk .... I can't blame myself in this, that would be admitting weakness - it's her fault!) I thought I'd talk about spindling, something I haven't alluded to much in.....um, ever.

When I decided to try spinning, I started where most of us do - with a spindle. I sucked at it, my arm hurt, and I didn't make the greatest yarn. Or, to phrase it another way, I made sucky yarn. So rather than give up like a normal person would do, I went and blew a wad of cash on a (now sadly neglected but still passionately adored) Lendrum wheel. I can spin like a champ on a wheel! So, after determining that I was not the world's crappiest spinner, what did I do? Stick to what I knew and did well, forsaking all spindles? Hell no. I started snatching up spindles and forming a small but enviable collection of pretty woods that hardly ever get any attention. I think the only time I really start focusing on spindles again is whenever I'm around Kristi, or visiting wool festivals. (I can't be certain which of those is the real influence, since I'm only really around Kristi at festivals, and I'm only really around festivals with Kristi. Hmmm.)

I have been hitting the spindles a bit more lately and have zeroed in on a project in mind. I'm going to spindle ~~three~~ four (right...new spindle) different two-ply fingering weight yarns from natural (undyed) fibers and knit one of those wonderful simple garter stitch lengthwise scarf/wrap things. I'm not one for stripey crazy shawls or for letting the majesty of handspun work for itself (mainly because I never let the majesty of handspun do anything but sit on a shelf) but I think spindle-spun yarns are allowed to stand alone. And if the stripes run the full length of the wrap every few rows, it's not so ... you know? Chunk-of-color/chunk-of-color/chunk-of-color. Nothing wrong with chunks of color, but when it's only grey/brown/tan to begin with, it lends itself to those thinner stripes. I'm not even close to the knitting yet, though:

I picked up this Bosworth mini at Estes Park Wool in June. And gee, look how much progress I've made on the camel-down fiber I've been spinning on it! (Admittedly, this is the toughest fiber to spin of all the ones I'm working on. That's my excuse.) Gorgeous little spindle, light and twee.

This was my other Estes Park Wool spindle - this is a Kundert, and isn't it a beauty? I'm working up some creamy delicious cormo wool on this one, and making more significant progress than on the camel down. What's that, you want a better look at that wonderful woodwork? Mmmkay:

I'm amazed at this sort of thing. How....what....I wanna....

Finally (for now), my new Ledbetter, procured at Taos Wool. I didn't do much shopping at Taos Wool, and this is pretty much my one big score. You know what I did do a lot of in Taos? Taking pictures. Sure wish I still had those pictures. But it would cost me less money to fly out to Taos and spend a week re-taking those photos than to recover the ones I did take from my poor crashed hard drive. (Got a new one though, and my laptop is back up and running and I'm trying hard to not look back! I'm not looking back in absolute silence, of course, since all my music is gone now, and I'm not looking back without retouching, because Photoshop is also gone. Ah well. I'm sure one of these days I'll find a way to reverse-engineer my music back into iTunes from my iPods/iPhone, and I can use the Canon software instead of Photoshop for now. I'll survive. It is nice to have my hard drive all cleaned up and tidy....yeah, that's the ticket.) Right, back to my wood:

The inset wood is olive wood, which is the main reason I had to have this - my dad lived in Israel for a few years, and growing up there was olive wood evidence of his stay all over the house - little sculptures, wooden vases, wooden bangles my mom and I argued over whose turn it was to wear...this spindle is special. (And I know it was probably a real challenge - olive wood is difficult to work with because it grows differently, in circular spirals and knots.)

The fiber pictured is a yummy grey alpaca also from Taos Wool. But there's not any actually on the spindle - I know. But behold:

An ounce of fingering weight two-ply handspindled alpaca! Hurray! It doesn't suck! I used a little "cheating" technique Kristi shared with me for the plying that made life SO much easier**.

When my new spindle arrives, I have the option of either another alpaca, a little softer tan color than the camel, or a wool/angora blend I also picked up at Taos, which is nearly white but seems like it's almost a pinkish white - it's lovely, and soft as a cloud. I want each fiber to be different, so I'm not sure about the alpaca since I'm already using that grey alpaca - but so many people in the world are allergic to angora, and I don't want my wrap to make someone sitting next to me at the movies all sneezy. I have plenty of time, though - fingering weight yarn doesn't spindle itself, and with everything else that's going on lately, that wrap might well be my retirement gift to myself!

**Basically what you do is wind the single off onto a ball winder, then take the ball you've made, match up both ends (from the inside and outside of the ball) and wind them together into another ball. There's your two-ply - you still have to spin it onto the spindle to get enough twist into it and all that, but it's so much easier than working with two balls of singles!

Yarny - Updates and Destashes

2008-10-19T14:53:00.003-04:00

First: there was a shop update this week and I totally forgot to mention it. Check that out, if you like.

Second: Fairly respectable-sized destash on my Flickr and Ravelry. Good stuff - TVYarn, Sknitches, Numma Numma, Socks That Rock, Duets, Dream in Color, a few other things, and - dare I mention this? - one skein of Wollmeise. I hate to set paramaters but people being all crazy about the stuff and whatnot, I'll say that I'd really really like the Wollmeise to go to someone who hasn't tried it yet. Here's the Flickr set and here's the Rav set. (They contain the same stuff, it's just up to your preference.)

Send a RavMail or e-mail to alysonknitsATgmailDOTcom. (I prefer one of the two - commenting on a photo on Flickr or on a yarn in Rav is harder to track. Please don't send a message to both e-mail and Ravelry, as I confuse very easily and good LORD I hadn't realized how many different methods of communication there could be on this destash!)

Happy hunting!

All In Good Fun

2008-10-15T22:07:00.004-04:00

We're having a grand old time watching the debates and sharing some laughs. A few favorite moments:

Candidate: blah blah US has the 2nd highest corporate taxes etc. etc. Ireland has an 11% corporate tax!
Me: Oh, yeah, and what better example of centuries of shining opportunity, wealth and glory than Ireland?! Prosperity! Potatoes and whisky for everyone!!

Candidate, later: blah blah cadillac insurance policy covering things like cosmetic surgery, transplants...
Me: Ah, those costly, foolish and unnecessary organ transplants!
Husband: Hey, you got heart failure? Head to Ireland! They got money to burn, let 'em throw a potato in there!

We have a policy solution - invade Ireland!!

I don't know who "won", but the the real star of the evening? Plumber Joe! Watch out for Joe's ego - ugh, that guy's going to be a NIGHTMARE at work tomorrow.

Oh, That Blows. Oh, Cool. Oh, That Blows.

2008-10-09T21:38:00.004-04:00

Bricked.

Yeah, that cold chill you just felt was my laptop tanking. The bad news - yes my hard drive crashed and yes the warranty is up. No telling whether the data will be recoverable. (The iTunes, the photos, the PhotoShop Pro I don't have the discs for because the ex got those...)

The good news? The saintly guy at Apple talked to The Powers and wrangled me a free hard drive. Which is spectacular. Hopefully all will recover from the old drive, but at least I'm not out any money. I like to think it's my sexy voice that won him over, not the fact that I'm a total Mac geek who has gone through multiple laptops, iPods, and iPhones. (Which, incidentally, is the only gadget keeping me sane.) Go Team MacDork!!

I took amazing photos in New Mexico, and if they are recovered, I'll be beyond happy to share them with you. I should be back in business by Saturday. Please send healing thoughts to the old hard drive if you have a minute.... ;-)

And I'm Off!

2008-10-02T12:31:00.002-04:00

In a few short hours, I'm hopping a plane to Boulder (well, Denver, then hopping a bus to Boulder, if we're quibbling), where I'll meet up with Kristi for Friday's six hour roadtrip to Taos (note to all of you - say a prayer for Kristi tomorrow and thank some deity that you're not her, because I can get a leeeettle wacky when confined to a small space for many hours. There are frequently showtunes involved.)

The parallel obligatory shop news: Obviously, the shop won't be shipping until I get back (Wednesday). Trust me, you wouldn't want Travis packing up your order - it'd have peanut butter and jelly stains on it. (My husband does not do well fending for himself in the kitchen. It's not that he can't cook - he just doesn't want to.)

Taos Woolgoers: Find me, I have stuff to give away. I'll be wearing a white t-shirt with my shop logo on it. No, seriously. A homemade self-promotion t-shirt. Hot. Want to hear the best part? Unless she balks (and that would be okay too because who would blame her?) Kristi will be wearing one too. So yeah, say a prayer for her on Saturday as well. Poor kid. She's going to regret (n)ever talking to me on the phone.

There's going to be a lot of food and sunsets. I love Taos. I LOVE it.

I've knit! I have so far accomplished two pair of socks and one hat, and I've started a pair of Noro Silk Garden sock yarn socks. I'm doing them largely out of curiosity - everyone loves the yarn even though it, by all accounts, pretty much sucks, by usual standards. (Among other complaints, I've heard scratchy, twisty, tangly, and knotty.) So far I'm okay with the stuff - you do have to knit it right on top of the ball though - pull out more than a foot of yarn and you're on the one-way express to Tanglewood.

I also have two new patterns which are, for now, exclusive only to certain club members. I'll just wait until they're released to the public to post photos and that whole thing here, though. (If you're really dying of curiousity, they're in my Ravelry designer profile.)

And the latest batch of yarn should be arriving at Loopy headquarters any day now. It's my cashmere blend sportweight, and (this sounds obnoxious but here goes because obnoxious is okay as long as you acknowledge it first) I'm REALLY happy with the dyework this time around. I wasn't entirely sure I was happy with the first run I did - some of the colors were too close to solid (rather than shaded solid) for my liking, as I was adjusting to dyeing more skeins at a time than I was used to. I'm getting much more adept at that, and it's definitely smoothing out, as I get the results I'm actually going for. That's a nice thing as an artist, to kind of know what you're doing....

Back to the knitting....there's all this "I have FOs!" rambling I keep doing, with no pictures. I'll show you one of them - I love it! I finished my Habitat hat:

Things I love:
The pattern is amazing
The yarn is amazing
The softness is delicious

Things I'm not so sure about:
The fit. My gauge was iffy, and I made the small, but it's still crazy long - like, it bunches up at the base of my neck, and also resembles a chemo cap. Which, when combined with my freshly shorn hair (not pictured, and oh yeah by the way I cut all my hair off) REALLY resembles a chemo cap when worn. Not that I'm all "Ew, I don't want to look like that!" - if you've experienced this you know - like, you kind of get that eye from people when you wear a hat with your hair tucked up in it, that "Oh no, it must be so awful to....or wait, maybe she's just got her hair tucked up? Am I looking at her like I feel sorry for her? I've been staring for like 30 seconds now - oh crap, look away!" I see that thought process sometimes when I wear long knit hats with my short hair. All this is to basically make the point that when I block this hat (which I'm sure I'll do someday) I'm going to full it just a tiny bit to get it to shrink up and in.

The Pattern:
Jared's Habitat

The Yarn:
My own handspun cormo/angora blend. (To those with allergies: do not touch my head!! Actually, to pretty much anybody: do not touch my head. It's a little weird to go around touching peoples' heads. And it makes you look strange to passersby.) I picked up this fiber at last year's SAFF and it's absolute heaven, smooshy and squishy and soft.

Definitely my favorite hat.

Have a good however-long-it-is-before-I-post-again!!

workworkworkwork

2008-09-29T15:49:00.003-04:00

Dudes, I'll post something for real one of these days. I knit this cute hat, and I have a new pattern or two, and so on and so on and I have computer blindness and spend virtually (comparatively) no time online when I'm not at work. Makes me wonder, if a blogger falls in the woods, does she find time to post pictures of it?

Linky Linky!

2008-09-15T12:10:00.003-04:00

I have so far blown off posts about our trip to Colorado (and that was in JUNE) and Key West (again, June) and my best friend's wedding and Vegas. But I am diligent about posting my shop updates and my thoughts on political babblings, am I not? Oh well - I promise one of these days I'll post a photo-essay on some of this stuff. And to think I have Taos coming up in a few weeks - I need to stop going out of town!!

Oh, speaking of which - I'm going to Taos in a few weeks! It's been about three years since I've been, and I've never gone at Wool time, so that'll be a nice addition to our usual routines. If anyone's going to Taos Wool, drop me an e-mail or a comment, I like meeting people! I'm flying in to Denver to meet up with Kristi first, and then we'll drive south to Taos. My mom and some of her girlfriends are going too and we're renting a couple of casitas for the week. We're also planning a dinner at Joseph's Table, which is just an amazing place to have a special meal, if you're ever in Taos. (Other planned stops, for anyone who's curious what's available: The Old Blinking Light for burgers, Ogilvies on the Plaza for Tecates and margaritas, Michael's Kitchen for breakfast and cinnamon buns, Overland Sheepskin for that nice leather smell...)

Then I'm going to Rhinebeck (that's about 98% certain right now) and what's even more fun - my mom's decided as of today that she's going to Rhinebeck too!! So I'll probably drag her to as many Ravelry and blogger meet-up things as I can to show her off. I'm so excited!

I should have a finished Habitat by this evening, so I'll have that to show shortly. And hey look, one whole FO! (Yeah, it's just a hat, but so what? It's a FINISHED hat! It's also the first thing I've knit out of my own handspun, which makes it extra-nifty...I kinda figured I'd never knit anything out of it, just let it all sit on a shelf and diligently collect dust.) I also just wrapped up another big ol' batch o' yarn and will be shipping that off in a week or two. I'm hoping to get some good-sized samples (like, half-skeins or something) dyed up and skeined to take with me to Taos and Rhinebeck. (So if you see me, ask me for some yarn - if I have any to give out, I'd love to give it to you!)

For my SAFF friends - sadly, SAFF is off the table this year...I had to choose between Rhinebeck and SAFF and, incredibly enough, Rhinebeck is somehow more cost-effective and requires less time away from work...weird...

HoffPosh For Prez!!

2008-09-12T11:53:00.004-04:00

Without firing up a whole huge political debate that's blog-inappropriate, I gotta say it:

I have heard a lot of deluded things in my day - frequently coming out of the big hole in my own face - and while geographical proximity to a foreign country equalling foreign policy experience IS pretty rich (don't you know W. is looking at Texas and Mexico on a map and muttering, "damn, now why didn't I think of that?") this one beats even that. With regard to being ready to take over the presidency:

"I have the confidence in that readiness and knowing that you can't blink..."

Unabashed self-confidence and an inability to blink, really? Fine, then I hereby nominate David Hasselhoff and Victoria Beckham to office! I'm not making fun of the politician or making a statement, please don't tell me what a saint the person is or anything...just, I had to take that opening because, I mean, that's a hell of an interesting qualification. Hence my nomination. I even have the bumper stickers all planned out:

Hoff: Deluded Enough To Lead.

Posh: Botoxed Enough To Take Over.

Time Picks At All Wounds

2008-09-11T21:48:00.001-04:00

I'm not one to post remember-the-Alamo type things, but after seven years, things are still pretty scabby, aren't they? This hasn't even healed to a scar yet - it's only stopped gushing blood.

The strangest phenomenon to me is the desire to avoid the date. Not avoid thinking about what it means or avoid it altogether by, like, sleeping through it (though I did attempt this morning, entirely by accident, and ended up with one of those brush-my-teeth-while-in-the-shower, do-my-makeup-at-red-lights kind of mornings). Rather, I try to avoid the actual date. When scheduling things, I flinch a little when it falls on September 11. When writing out a check or dating a report, I feel inclined to back-date or forward-date things. All activities should took place before or after, not on....like somehow even seven years later, it feels wildly inappropriate to just be carrying on with our lives and business on September 11.

But that's kind of all we can do - carry on. Make it work. Holler at your boy. All that Tim Gunn kind of stuff. (And crack reeeally half-hearted lame jokes in an attempt to look like we're recovering.)

Hey, Lookit Me!

2008-09-09T11:23:00.003-04:00

I'm on Lime & Violet's Daily Chum! It's obnoxious to post about that, isn't it? It totally is. That's okay, I just get so tickled when somebody likes me - please indulge me. I'm giddy - like last week when someone mentioned me and Sundara (cue the choir of angels) in the same sentence, though I managed to not post about that (well, until now. Oops.)

It's funny, it's not vanity, it's kind of the total opposite - there's some sort of weird sense of other-personness to it. Like if I was the big geek in high school wearing headgear and a ponytail and glasses (because if Hollywood is to be believed, in high school a ponytail and glasses = hopeless loser. Oh, and overalls. Gotta have the overalls) and the hot football captain started flirting with me. I'm going to giggle and flirt back, but really it's just like, "Did he have corneal surgery? He thinks I'm somebody else, doesn't he?" (Which, coincidentally and despite all my grand feelings of self-worth and confidence, was sort of exactly how I felt when Travis first kissed me.)

Anyway, I thought it was nifty. You can go about your business now. ;-)

FO, Funny Medical Stories, Shop Updated, and Whatever Else Comes To Mind

2008-09-08T10:46:00.005-04:00

I finally got my NPR Series yarns done, and I'm working on a new batch for The Loopy Ewe. There will be additional skeins added to the shop over the next couple of weeks as I play with different ideas and techniques. Take a look at the NPR skeins if you so desire.

I'm making fast progress on all this stuff now, since I've been off work since Friday for a minor dental procedure - I'm having an implant placed to replace a baby tooth (yes, I really still had a baby tooth at 29 years old) and without knowing how having a hole drilled into my jawbone would affect me, I made sure to schedule it over the weekend and take today off as well. It's not too painful, so I can get a lot of work done.

The extraction was a treat, though. That was a few weeks ago, just before Vegas (cut to me trying to scream, around the hand in my mouth, "But I'm going to Vegas! Vegas! I can't be toothless in Vegas!") Fortunately it's a tooth near the back so I don't too strongly resemble a hillbilly who opens green bean cans with her teeth. I've seen the doctor a couple of times about this tooth, and I guess he was tired of me putting it off. (When you do theatre and seem to go out of town for fun picture-taking-type things regularly, it's easy to come up with reasons to not be toothless.) So he put his foot down, declared the tooth a danger to the bone above, skipped the numbing goo, and crammed a bigass needle into the roof of my mouth before I could complain or, more likely, bolt from the chair. It hurt like a bitch, and then he said the magic words: "If you're good, I won't charge you for the consult and extraction." Since that amounted to about a $200 savings, I shut right up. He waited a minute, asked to take a look, and popped the tooth right out. WE LOOK WITH OUR EYES!!! (This story makes him sound like a jerk - but I'd trust him with my life. He's been my oral surgeon for many years and did my jaw surgery three years ago. He reminds me of my granddaddy, and he's stern but fair and really kinda fun. Besides, a 27 year-old baby tooth comes out with remarkable ease - the novocaine probably wasn't ever necessary.)

I was going to let him throw that tooth away, then I had a revelation - do you have any idea what the payout is on a 27 year-old baby tooth? The tooth fairy owes me for principal plus almost three decades of interest! (I've consulted the tooth fairy and she declared that she handed over all fairy duties at the altar last year, so I'm waiting for that other fairy to come through. I got some ice cream and a couple of subs....I think that might be about it.) ;-)

I'm taking a break while the pots heat up - think I'll sit in my Ikea chair and work on my Habitat beanie hat thing. Now that I'm not working on any patterns, I'm casting on for stuff like a fool and just hoping to finish something. Kind of like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks, but with yarn and a little more effort (and maybe a lot more mess - there are project bags all over the living room.)

Oh! An FO! I finished a non-pattern-writing knit, yahooooo!:

A Baby Bolero from Leigh Radford's One Skein, knit in Blue Sky Alpacas Organic Cotton. I have another skein of Organic Cotton coming in sage green for a second bolero - I did a stash-swap with a Raveler for it, since two gender-surprise babies are on their way to a coworker. (Twins!) It only took about four days from start to finish, and I think the seaming on this thing took longer than the actual knitting - I SUCK at seaming. I know a lot of people say it, but I truly am awful at it. I seamed and unseamed the shoulder no fewer than ten times before I was kind of sort of happy with it. Let's hope the second one goes a little more smoothly!

Shop Stuff

2008-09-02T22:31:00.003-04:00

Fair warning, nothing in this post but a small announcement or something about the shop and a pretty picture at the end:

There has been some interest expressed in a YoYo shop newsletter of sorts - I'm going to set up an email list, for notifications when shop updates happen (it's been slow in the updating lately, but I always have something up my sleeves.) If you'd be interested in receiving these notifications - they won't be constant, they'll only be when there's going to be an update or a sale (yes, a sale!) and I won't share your info obviously, etc., etc. - then please let me know either by comment (include your email address on that email address line) or shoot me an email at alysonknitsATgmailDOTcom.

(It seems likely that those who are on the list would get not only early warning of updates and sales, but the occasional fun stuff like sale codes or a contest or something....)

I Have An FO! ...If Buying Something Makes It An FO

2008-08-28T19:05:00.009-04:00

Vegas was AMAZING! Your comments on that post were such a blast to read, and I wish you could have heard Travis reading the news aloud in the car on the way to the airport - I've never heard him speak so fast!

I'll talk about it in a post soon - we had a great time, incredible food, and enjoyed being out of the rain for a bit. Fay didn't do any damage to our place or have much effect on our area as far as floods or power outages, but man was I tired of the colour grey. I have hundreds of photos to narrow down to a post's worth, so for now I wanted to share something I procured recently at Orlando's Happiest Place on Earth. I'm referring, of course, to the Neiman Marcus Last Call outlet center. Have you ever felt the joy of getting something couture for 93% off? It feels a lot like what I imagine stealing would be like - dirty and kind of exhilarating - but without the guilt because at least you paid SOMEthing.

But this. This. THIS. This sounds as ridiculous as it really was, but when I saw it, everything around it went hazy and it glowed and I heard music....it was kind of like when Wayne first saw Cassandra on stage in Wayne's World. (Except I heard The Carpenters' "Close to You" rather than "Dreamweaver".) If I were to ever knit something like this, I'd lay down the needles and burn the stash, because my work as a knitter would be over.

It's stunning, isn't it?

The retail price on this was horrifying. I would not, could not (Sam I Am) ever pay that sort of money for a sweater, even being as in love with it as I am. Wanna know what the original tag said? One thousand five hundred and ninety five dollars. A sixteen hundred dollar sweater. NEVER. But it was marked down so ridiculously - I mean, obscenely ridiculously - that when I did the math, the yarn alone to knit a comparable sweater would have been almost twice as much more. And I still would have had to knit it!

The deets: It's a TSE hooded sweater coat in Oatmeal. And seeing that little TSE tag gave me joy because I know what TSE is about - TSE is about cashmere. Only the purest cashmere. Yep, 100% cashmere sweater coat.

I plan to wear it all the time. Or leave it wrapped in tissue paper in the bottom drawer with a lavender sachet like it is right now. Maybe put it on a mannequin and encase it in glass and put it in the living room. (Yep, I love it that much. Look at me - I'm wearing it in August.)

If you see me in this at Taos Wool and you ask me if I knit it, hell yes I did. Forgot the pattern. Couldn't tell ya. What's that over there? *zoom*

This is a crapload of pictures of a storebought sweater, I know. I'm just in love.

See? That's my in-love face. (I know, poor Travis. My in-love face should be cuter than this.)

I'll close with a bit of knitting news - I do still knit, when I'm not shopping for things I can pass off as knit. Miss Valerie of Yarn 4 Socks has given me permission to show a little sneaky peek of the pattern I'm working on for the October Sock Club (clicky linky to spendy). As a reminder, the yarn for that month will be Sunshine Yarns, which means it's guaranteed fabulous. (One of my favourites.) The shot I'm showing here is the heel. I just can't get excited about a plain old heel sometimes - pretty sure Cookie did that to me.

Dear Husband:

2008-08-21T17:00:00.000-04:00

You know how I told you that I was making you take the next four days off so that we could get some stuff done around the house? Yard work, roof work, bathroom work, drywall work, all that? And you know how I've been going all over the place this summer, doing fun stuff and trips for Jessi's wedding and going on work trips to San Antonio all the time and planning my trip to New Mexico with just the girls in October? And you know how we didn't have any money to really celebrate our anniversary and we were really busy with my new-found yarn orders and all the wedding stuff and so on, and you kinda got the shaft on the trips and fun stuff this summer?

Now honestly, did you think I was going to reward you at the end of a summer like that with four days of hard work? Moreover, did you think I MYSELF would EVER take four days off work to.....work?? Come now.

Right now, you're on your way to VEGAS, BABY!!! That's right, LAS VEGAS!

AND!! Not only are you being surprised with Vegas, but you're being surprised with going to Vegas INSTEAD OF INSULATING THE ATTIC IN AUGUST. Who loves ya, baby? (Okay, and maybe it was a little mean of me to f*** with you like that, but I think you'll forgive me.)

Your bag is packed - it's in the trunk. (Yes, I remembered the camcorder.)

You'll be staying in high class accommodations (but that part's a surprise and you'll see when you get there.)

Tomorrow morning bright and early, we'll be heading off to the Grand Canyon in our Mustang convertible I've procured for a day trip.

And you were right, we ARE going to Cirque du Soleil - in Vegas! We'll be seeing the show O on Saturday night - but the rest of the trip is yours. We'll be doing whatever YOU want - this is your trip. We've been under a lot of pressure this summer, and it's been tough, but you've hung in there with me and supported me whenever I asked and I love you so much for it, so this one is all you! I know we're going to have the BEST long weekend we've ever had. We'll be home very early Monday morning - take that day for you, rest and recover, 'cuz you're back to work on Tuesday to boast and brag about your awesome wife.

(PS: That sudden weird feeling that maybe we were going to see Cirque du Soleil? You didn't really think YOU put that idea in your head, did you? Yes, all your brain is belong to me - I put thoughts there on time-release, and they sprout right when I want them to. I'm THAT GOOD.)

I'm Live!

2008-08-11T20:24:00.001-04:00

Lookit! Here it is!

Any Minute Now....

2008-08-11T18:12:00.005-04:00

Whee! (ETA: Er, whoops - kind of misleading. I haven't sold everything yet - I've been added to the vendor list but my stuff hasn't been uploaded for sale just yet.)

This interview thing has been going around the Bloglands, and it intrigued me, so I hit Travis up in the car on a very grown-up excursion yesterday (bedroom furniture! curtains! pillow shams!) and here are the results:

Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
Travis: I enjoy seeing you create something from nothing.

Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
Travis: Oh my GOD. It is in every facet of our lives.

Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as being good?
Travis: Everything.
Me: Nothing more specific?
Travis: My sweater, my socks, your socks - the Bellocqs, to be more specific. (Ed. note: Yes, he used the actual pattern name.)

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Travis: No more expensive than anybody else. That doesn't include the knitting fanatics, though.

Me: Do you have any hobbies?
Travis: Yes.

Me: What are your hobbies?
Travis: Making you happy.
Me: Awwww.....yeah.

Me: If we compared money spent on hobbies, who would win?
Travis: You.
Me: Yeah, we both spend a lot of money on me. But I win.

Me: Has my knitting in public ever embarrassed you?
Travis: No.

Me: Do you know my favorite kind of yarn?
Travis: ....Sweet Georgia? Is that right?
Me: Hey, I do like that one. I don't know that I have a favorite, but I do love her stuff. Nicely done!

Me: Can you name another blog?
Travis: Ummm....come back to me on that one.
Me: Here's a hint: All the husbands name the same one.
Travis: Oh! Yarn Harlot. And Yarn.....Yarn Pirate....Megaknits....wait, is that her Ravelry name or blog?
Me: Blog too, yep.
Travis: I win. Wait, Wendyknits. Oh, and Aimee - what is hers?
Me: Fairieknits.
Travis: I KNEW THAT!

Me: Do you mind that I want to check out yarn stores everywhere we go?
Travis: Makes me crazy.

Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Travis: Yes.
Me: What is it?
Travis: That's your gauge for knitting the project. Lets you know how many stitches per inch for whatever that you need. (Ed. note: I think it's worth mentioning that he sounded disgusted by the question - the tone of voice had a distinct "well, DUH" quality to it.)

Me: Do you read my blog?
Travis: No.
Me: *gasp*
Travis: Well, you usually tell me all that stuff in person!

Me: Have you ever left a comment?
Travis: Yes.
Me: Without reading it?
Travis: Is the question "Have I ever read it" or "Do I read it?" 'Cuz I have read it, but I don't keep up with it.
Me: Damn literal-minded mechanically-inclined types.

Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit?
Travis: Hell no, we'd both still be lazy - if it weren't knitting, it'd be some other hobby!

Me: Is there anything you would like to add in closing?
Travis: I love you.

And The Winner Is...

2008-08-04T19:27:00.003-04:00

Michelle! Some of you were a little low, some pretty close, and some of you guessed so high I'd think you want me dead! No one got it dead on, but Michelle got the closest at 152 - off by 15. I sent 167 skeins off to Sheri for my first (I hope not last!) order - and kudos to Josiane for her guess that I kept one for myself...indeed it SHOULD have been 168 skeins, but one must have snuck by quality control at the mill, and there were some unpretty sections of it that didn't pass inspection by me, so I did indeed have to set one aside, and that's the one I'm test knitting now. (I should probably try the stuff, right?)

(Funky Salad colorway)

I'm off to San Antonio again tomorrow for the rest of the week. Any orders will ship out when I get back....I'd ask Travis to pack and ship while I'm gone, but I'm afraid he might send a free kitten with every order. (Yes, we still have the kittens. No, that was not the original plan. Central Floridians, if you know anyone on the lookout for kittens, PLEASE send them our way.)

FINALLY! NEWS!!!

2008-08-01T15:10:00.004-04:00

I've been cryptically going on and on about how crazy it's been around here, and now I can finally open my big fat mouth! Ladies and Gentlemen, with great pleasure, I present to you, a view of the future:

YES INDEED! The YoYo is proud to announce that her offerings will soon be on proud display for your ~~viewing~~ purchasing pleasure at The Loopy Ewe! The yarns are on their way to stay with Loopy and will be arriving any day now - I'm so incredibly excited! You know I'll let you know the second they go live!

Here's my question for you: How many skeins did I send her? Post your guess in the comments - whoever gets closest (or hits it dead on) wins a skein of my newest nummy sportweight superwash merino/cashmere/nylon blend yarn! (Which you can view, along with some other new fun things, in the shop.) You'll have until Monday at 6:00 p.m. (Eastern) to post your guess - I'm going out of town Tuesday, so hopefully I can get your prize in the mail before I go. Take a guess and watch your email on Monday night!

You Have No Idea

2008-07-28T18:58:00.003-04:00

Dudes.

Does anyone even still subscribe to this poor neglected feed? How many blogs do you read daily that said, "Wow, have I really gone (x days/weeks) without posting?" I know, me too - I'm so freaking gone-astray over here. I know. I know. I've been such a hot mess, though, totally frazzled and distracted. Like, I'm trying to get work done and my head is doing something like this:

"...this is deficient, where's the notice? I forgot to look up that roasted beet recipe, crap. Let me do tha...what should I make for dinner tonight? Thai food...but then I have to do tofu and chicken. I wish I remembered what chicken tastes like. Chicken is a funny word if you think about it. How do feathers happen? What time is it? Oh, I left that window open. I should check my email. Wait, I can't do that here. Can I...where am I? At work, right. I wish I had an iPhone, then I...this is deficient, where's the notice? Did I already write that down? I need to print up tags tonight before I forget. Who's the guest judge this week, Mia Michaels? I wish she did more choreography this season. I could dance if I wanted to. Heh, I could leave my friends behind. God, I haven't talked to (insert name of absolutely anyone I know here) in forEVER. Whose phone is that, would someone please answer the damned thing? Oh - 'Hello?'..."

We got a new bed, a Sleep Number, to help with my failure to sleep or function without back pain. It's coming along...strange little adjustment, though, the number system. We keep futzing with it, so my body is totally revolting against the process.

I'm dieting, to help with my failure to sleep, function without back pain, or wear any of the clothing I own. (Letting yourself go after marriage: I'm doin' it right.) So far I've lost about seven pounds and can breathe in most of my pants again. Bonus.

I'm going to be designing another pattern soon - well, more than one, but one's been announced and I'm cool to talk about it - and it's probably going to be awesome. Well, the yarn is going to be awesome. Hopefully my design will live up to it - the October Yarn4Socks kit will feature my sock pattern design and yarn by Dani of Sunshine Yarns. (I KNOW, I love her stuff too!!!) Reserve your kit here!

Knitting? What? I can't hear you la la la .....

And then there's this one other little thing. It's killing me. If you want one reason for my utter failure to blog, this is it - and I STILL can't talk about it. I've been a very busy girl, with a very big project in the works, and I'm worried about my ability to keep my trap shut, so I've gone missing instead of trying to avoid talking about it - which as you can see, I am incapable of doing. Soon, my lovelies, soon. (Please don't leave guesses in the comments. I wouldn't tell you if you were right anyway.) (No, not a baby.)

I Has A Logo!

2008-07-15T13:36:00.006-04:00

I was lamenting to my mom that I haven't had a logo made up for the shop yet (because I'm a bum and searching out graphic-type folks turned out to be a whole lot of trouble in my world. Yes, writing an email. It's too difficult and time-consuming for me.) She's not a graphic artist in the computer sense, but she's a wonderful artist, and a clever one at that, so I described in broad strokes kinda sorta what I wanted (a complex idea that I wanted made very simply) and she played with some ideas and came up with a simple and perfect line drawing. I tossed some colour on it (a graphic artist I am not, but it keeps it in the family) and here we go:

Too cute, huh?? Notice how the second "Y" that's also a happy girl has curled-up toes? When I was a baby (and throughout life straight into adulthood)I'd curl my toes up real tight when I was happy. Frequently when eating. (My sources of joy have failed to shift in the slightest.) So she added it to the logo, a touch that I absolutely LOVE.

In less adorable YoYo news, I registered my business legally so all my stuff is legit. Woot. (Registering a business with state, county, and city is wreaking havoc on the environment - I get a TON of solicitation mail now. Being a business kind of sucks in that way.)

Lookit me - a real live business with a logo and credit card offers and everything!

I'll be updating the shop periodically again - I've been experimenting with some new yarn bases, so there'll be all sorts of fun things to explore here before long. Times they are a-changin'......... (ETA: UPDATED 7/15/2008 WITH SOME NEW YARNS!)

I Could Jump Over Watermelon Seeds Near The Monkey Bars

2008-07-14T23:39:00.003-04:00

What? That title makes no sense!

Now you're getting a sense for about how discombobulated I am right now. I'm back from San Antonio after being back from South Florida after being back from Key West after being back from Boulder.

What?

Judging by emails I've received with such subjects as "Are you dead?" and "What the hell happened to you?", I'm guessing at least someone has noticed my waning presence - I've not even updated Flickr in ages. (That's what happens when there are 472 photos on your camera.)

Things are NUTS.O. Being back from the trip(s) really doesn't settle anything down much for me. That's about all I can say - give me a couple of weeks, I'll have more details on that..... (Oh - I should note that nothing bad is going on. I can't give many details on the craziness, but it's not bad.)

My best friend's wedding went off GREAT. I finally have photos up from the bachelorette party in Key West, including all our parasailing photos, and I have a ton of photos from the days leading up to the wedding. I do not, notably, have one single photo at all from the wedding day itself. I'm awesome like that. But there's a collection of photos here of everything else.

(I'd be the glowing white one in the floppy hat. Bet you can't pick the Welsh girl out of the lineup!!)

This. Was. AWESOME.

Waaaaaay up there are Jessi & Lia - Patrick and I went next. It was crazy incredible and not the least bit scary, which surprised me - I was figuring I'd be completely terrified to the point of catatonic, but Patrick and I were jabbering away (about how peaceful it was up there, ironically) and I never even noticed how damned high we were until I reviewed the photos later.

The whole entire experience has been a blast, and I've been the best most supportive maid of honor I know how to be. Observe:

I could also be relied on to make sure we got plenty of fried food and booze.

And I did of course knit a little something for her:

The Eloping garter from the Summer issue of Knitty, knit in Handmaiden Sea Silk laceweight. A quick beautiful knit finished with silk ribbons. I'm pretty sure we skipped it in the frantic wedding prep - we were running late - but I wanted her to have it as a keepsake.

Also, if you've never read the books Lamb, The Handmaid's Tale or Into Thin Air, I recommend all three wholeheartedly - a nice range of humor, drama, and memoir for you. I've suddenly fallen back into mad love with reading and devoured those three in a week. (Well, about a third of Lamb and the entirety of the other two in a week.)

Off to bed I go. If I can find it. I'm still a little dazed and confused....

Like I Died, But With More Breathing

2008-07-01T20:52:00.003-04:00

Wow, a weekly blog post. I'm pretty impressive - do I motivate you? I'm sorry, I am just an epicfail blogger. I've never recapped Estes Wool - which was way fun and Kristi is crazyawesome, even if you've never talked to her on the phone......and I've not talked about the wicked Key West bachelorette party weekend week before last, which was a ton of fun and I went parasailing and ohmygod that is pretty much the coolest thing EVER......and my best friend's wedding is this Friday (omgwhee!!!)......and then I'm off to San Antonio for an entire week for work crap without Travis (omgnotwhee), so things are pretty buzzy around here.

And my mojo has gone wildly astray - no knitting, no spinning, no designing (or sample knitting, which is kind of a huge problem with deadlines,) no blogging, and NO dyeing. Or rather, there has been dyeing. But there have also been trips to the dumpster. Painful, expensive trips to the dumpster. It is not a good scene for me right now, in the artistic sense.

But dammit, I made you all a promise long ago. And that promise was:

Sheep balls.

You. Are. WELCOME.

Welcome To The Destination, My Dear Unknown Friend

2008-06-24T11:21:00.002-04:00

"All destinations are final! That's what it means: Destiny, final. If you haven't gotten where you're going, you aren't there yet." --George Carlin--

Other than my mother, I have one category of people I idolized when I was growing up: comedians. I sneaked peeks at shows like the Half Hour Comedy Hour and Sunday Comics when I was a kid. The HBO comedy specials I could grab late at night after my parents went to bed. The Stand-Up Spotlight I'd watch in my grandparents bedroom while the adults talked about adult things in the living room. I had many heroes - some I was allowed to watch from a young age, and some I glimpsed in those stolen HBO moments. A young Rosie O'Donnell, Steve Martin, Paula Poundstone, Richard Jeni, Gallagher, Rita Rudner, anyone who'd ever set foot on SNL, countless forgotten others....and one I loved dearly and later whose specials I would spend hours watching and bonding over with my mom: George Carlin. I had so many of his routines memorized - I still recite the airline announcements bit in my head every time I'm on a plane. He is - was - one of the most brilliant and forward-thinking voices of many generations, and I was lucky enough to get to see him at the University of Florida about eight years ago. (Thank you, Jessi!!)

Plus, you know, there's this:

George

Dad
One of the fun things about my stepdad is that he resembles two of my favorite twinkly-eyed mischievious men. One's George Carlin. (The other, Michael Caine.)

Me = Awesome

2008-06-17T14:24:00.003-04:00

Wow, what a snotty post title. But it's okay as long as I acknowledge the snottiness.

So here's a little tiny snippet of crazy-awesome news that I can share with you - I am giving you absolutely all the details I'm allowed to give, and nothing more or less, so here goes:

I'm going to be a published designer in a REAL LIVE BOOK. A design of mine has been submitted and selected for a book of sock patterns to be published by Lark Books! Look for me to become a big(ger) obnoxious(er) snob now that I'm such a big huge fat deal.

(I kid - I'll go big obnoxious snob when I get my own book all to myself. For now I'm just kind of high on life, no nose in the air. Yet.)

I'm really excited, and I look forward to everyone seeing the book when it hits shelves (which is not any time soon, I'll tell you that.)

Next post - big ol' recap of our trip to Boulder and the Estes Park Wool Festival! I have a zillion pictures, and two words for you: sheep balls.

Yeah, it's exactly that. You know you're looking forward to it.

ETA: PS, I was on Lime & Violet Podcast ZOMG WHAT??! Okay, going to have to dash home and listen to that!

Colorado = Not Hot

2008-06-13T07:54:00.003-04:00

All I really wanted out of Colorado was to not be hot. And it's not. So this is pretty much the best vacation ever. Right before taking off for this I was checking out my leave spreadsheet and it appears I have taken all of two days off since the beginning of the year. That is, uh, kind of not a lot for me. At all. No wonder I was getting a bit itchy and easily distracted at work. (Can be a problem for a training coordinator. "What you need to do is save these to your folder so that you can open them in Adobe and OOH LOOK AT THE SHINY.......I'm sorry, where were we?")

We have been conducting ourselves with the kind of grace and dignity that is the hallmark of any good houseguest. Immediately upon arriving, Travis locked everyone out of the bathroom and a locksmith had to be called in. (Because the keys to the bathroom were where? In the bathroom, of course!)

Travis is not a locksmith. No success here, but a valiant effort was made to thoroughly confuse Truman.

Success.

I wish I had a picture of the other slip-up, because if I could have captured that brief shining moment on film, it would have been freakin sweet. That was mine, and what I'm about to say will shock and awe those of you who have been privy to my goings-on for some time here - I SAID SOMETHING STUPID. I know. I know. It's bewildering. By stupid, I don't mean like, asking-"What time is it?"-while-standing-in-front-of-a-huge-clock stupid....more like "Iraq has been seeking large quantities of uranium from Africa" stupid. The facial reaction, a little bit kind of horrifying at the time, would have been pretty awesome to share, now.

Also, I'm working on a new sock (handspun)....

....and Travis has been working on a new hat.

And there were cupcakes. Yeah. What.

Tomorrow, Estes Park Wool Festival! W00t!

That Flickr MeMe Thing

2008-06-08T09:43:00.001-04:00

I have some time to kill while Travis hits up the laundromat to wash his uniforms. So this was fun....

1. What is your first name?: Alyson

2. What is your favorite food?: (today?) Drunken noodles with tofu

3. What high school did you go to?: Martin County High School (I swear this was on the first screen of results.)

4. What is your favorite color? Orange (this was a TOUGH one to choose a photo on!)

5. Who is your celebrity crush? Angelina Jolie (hey, it is what it is. and she's at her most beautiful when children are present.)

6. Favorite drink?: iced caramel macchiato (but only because "sweet tea" didn't give me any images of anything remotely related to sweet tea)

7. Dream vacation?: Thailand (even more so now that I've been rooting through pictures.)

8. Favorite dessert: (today?) Creme brulee

9. What do you want to be when you grow up? Pregnant (as soon as I grow up....)

10. What do you love most in life?: Husband

11. One word to describe you: Talented (I let Travis pick the word - not that I don't think I am, but it wouldn't be the first thing that came to mind. And compared with this cat, I got nothin'.)

12: Your flickr name: Terrible YoYo

Note: Of course none of these photos are my own - please see credit for each photo by clicking on my mosaic's flickr page.

WooHoo!!

2008-06-07T22:17:00.002-04:00

Travis got the electric skeiner up and running (my husband is a genius!!) so you know what that means....

Big ol' happy yarn updatin' time!

If I Have To Suffer, YOU Have To Suffer

2008-06-04T21:36:00.003-04:00

One of the kittens has the farts. And not cute little bebbeh kitteh farts. Wretched, foul, plant-wilting farts. They weigh 27 and 21 ounces. There cannot be that much concentrated noxious gas in such a small creature. My eyes are watering and it's quite possible all those little nasal-membrane-protecting hairs have withered and fallen away. It's THAT BAD. Imagine the kind of gas you might expect from, like, the Predator. Or Godzilla.

My sweet baby kitties release Godzilla farts.

And that was this evening's announcement. You're welcome.

Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

2008-06-04T10:09:00.003-04:00

First of all, thank you thank you THANK YOU for all the wonderfully sweet comments, emails, and Ravmails wishing me a happy birthday and us a happy anniversary. It's been a great week - I need to take a picture of some of my awesome birthday gifts. I did get a shot of my gift from Travis:

While HE PLAYED WITH IT. (S'okay, I'd had like a two-hour turn on it already.) And sorry for the mild nudity - in Florida, boys don't wear shirts after April. So yep, he got me the Wii Fit, and it is AWESOME. You totally need one. (And don't tell me you can't have one because you don't have a Wii. I told you to get a Wii after Christmas, didn't I.)

I had a sewing lesson the evening of my birthday, but his mom and sister were at the house when I got home with a little family surprise party. I wasn't expecting much fanfare since I already had plans that night, so it was an extremely pleasant surprise. Plus, there was cake. Cake is never a bad thing.

And we spent plenty of time on the Fit, finally making it to bed around midnight. It's such good healthy fun, and smart too - look at it celebrating my birthday!

Party hat!!! Party hat!!!!! (He started throwing confetti after this.)

And look at him telling Travis to celebrate my birthday!

Then he told Travis to make sure it was a special one. How cute is my little Fit, soliciting gifts and showers of affection on my behalf??

We celebrated our anniversary on Sunday by going back to the place where we had brunch last year on the morning after the wedding. The same guy was at the piano:

He is REMARKABLE. He plays all sorts of things - my favourite that he played last year, which he played right before we left on Sunday, is "Black Hole Sun". That's right, the guy plays Soundgarden arranged for classical piano. 'Cuz he rules.

But then, so does the food:

All those tables down that hall? They all have food on them. Not boring food. But food craziness. Caviar, 20 cheeses, huge crab claws, brandied cherries, lobster, buffalo tenderloin, jumbo asparagus, spring rolls, sushi...you name it, it's back there somewhere. Click for more food pictures. It's totally worth it.

It was a very nice day.

And in eight days (eight days!!) we leave for Colorado! Hurray! We're heading to Boulder for a nice long weekend - and it just happens to be over the weekend of Estes Park Wool Festival. Gee, how did that happen? We'll be staying with an Anonymous Knitter, which I am TOTALLY excited about. And there may be a TRAPEZE EXPERIENCE! AWESOME!! The whole thing is just going to rock - and then three days after we return from that trip, I'm off to Key West for my best friend's bachelorette party weekend. (One night, one party? HA! That's not how we do!)

And if you're in the Boulder/Denver area, and/or are planning to attend Estes Wool, let me know! I like meeting people, it's fun and cool and special. ;-)

Oh, right, and a shop update thingie, in case you like those sorts of things - I finally got a shipment of fingering weight yarn (that didn't go to Kentucky first!) and dyed that up on Saturday. So I'll have a shop update probably this Saturday afternoon. Li'l bitty preview pictures of wet stuff:

Wow....Is It That Time Already?

2008-06-02T08:00:00.001-04:00

One year ago, the happiest day of my life....

....until the next day....

And that one until the next...

...and then the next...

Here's to a lifetime of next days. I love you, boo.

Is Birthday!!

2008-05-28T09:39:00.002-04:00

Is Twenty-Nine:

Is Thinky:

Is Cute:

Is Scared of Bad Dreams:

Is Sleepy:

Is Kinda Pervy:

Is Last Day of Sale!

Sale PSA for Sewing People (Plus A Bit Of News That Affects No One, Not Even Me, Really)

2008-05-25T13:37:00.002-04:00

First up, if you're a sewing type, want to let you know that JoAnn's Fabric chain has a sale going over the Memorial Day Weekend - Simplicity patterns are 5 for $5. Since they're usually in the $14 - $17 range each, a buck a piece is a pretty damned good deal. (Vogue patterns are $3.99 each also, even the fancy designer ones that are usually $25 - $30. So yeah, now's a good time to stock up on Issey Miyake and Badgley Mischka patterns. Hellooo!)

I picked up a tidbit today courtesy of some Myspace wanderings - my ex is married now. And all I can say about that is: Hurray!! Jason and I were engaged for about a year, and we split up, for the best, close to four years ago. I haven't spoken to or run into him in quite a long time, but I really couldn't think of a negative thing to say about the guy - he may feel differently about me, who knows - but he was genuinely a good and kind person with a lot of great qualities and talents. To know that his story since me is a happy one, full of love, that thrills me. Not that I think his whole world would have ended after me, obviously, but I'm glad there doesn't appear to have been a lot of disaster between then and now - the girl he married is the first girl he dated after we split...and I, of course, married Travis, who was the first person I dated! Isn't it awesome to know that the "rebound" girl and guy worked out for each of us! I really do love a happy ending. Congratulations, Jason, truly.

Er....Hi!

2008-05-23T08:52:00.000-04:00

First, thanks everyone for all the kind words, comments, emails - I appreciate the support, sympathy, and kindness. I'm feeling a little less worn down now, and I got a good amount of sleep last weekend, which helped a bit...

So let's talk sewing stuff. I wanted to make a pretty summery skirt to wear to my best friend's shower, so I stayed up late on Friday night working myself to a frenzy (because that's really what I needed just then, to stay up until 1:00 a.m. sewing...) When it was all over, it was .... well, pretty terrible. I wore jeans to the shower, 'kay? Then, because I couldn't bear that I'd ruined such a large amount of pretty Amy Butler fabric, I cut it down, removed the zipper and the most offensive portion of the skirt (an extended contrasting waistband that SO did not work out the way Butterick or God had intended) and hacked away at it until I had this:

It didn't turn out half-bad, for a slapdash hack job. The finishing leaves something to be desired, and I had to cheat a lot - my hem is pretty atrocious, because I couldn't fold it under or it would be just *thismuch* too short. The length here is exactly right. Another half inch and I would have hated it.

Part of getting the length right involved making this a little more low-slung than most of my skirts are. Borderline obscene, really.

I wore it to work on Wednesday, though, and got several compliments on it. (I also got to share a lot of information with a lot of people on the street at lunchtime - it was, uh, kind of a windy day. As my skirt blew up over my freaking head and I showed my panties to the entire world, I thought, "NOOOO!!! These seams look AWFUL! Everyone can see them!!" Fun little TMI sidenote to that story - discovered that night as I got ready for bed that I'd been wearing my underpants inside out. God I hate it when that happens. Wonder if anyone noticed. Hey, wasn't that an extra-special glimpse into my life?)

Okay, so anyway. About that shower:

It was a blast. I got to make Jessi wear a plastic foam bra molded into parrots. There aren't many occasions where I get to whip out a parrot bra, at least in my life, and I was thrilled to have the opportunity. (It was a lot of fun anyway, parrots notwithstanding.) We celebrated our birthdays too, by spoiling each other rotten to the best of our abilities. (She won. She always does. I got some crazy awesome stuff. In a related note, the book Organic Kitchen rocks.)

I made a purse too, the Amy Butler Frenchy bag - a pattern I selected mainly based on the fact that I rabidly wanted to sew a purse and, well, it was the only Amy Butler pattern the shop had. I'm choosy like that.

I love the fabric - the lining is a camel-coloured woven like the brown used for the top of the bag. I would love to tell you what the fabric is, but I have no earthly idea. I'll have to check it out at the sewing shop on Saturday.

I also made a bigass tote bag for my best friend for her honeymoon:

Along with a handy carrying pouch for it:

And a little lined zippy pouch to go with, for carrying wallet/ID/passport, all that stuff one might need on a honeymoon:

So yep, that's what I've been up to. Lotta sewing. (Kitten photos, I know, I know - I'll get around to it, I swear!)

Guess what? Travis is on Ravelry now. :-D

Hey, so my birthday is on Wednesday the 28th - I only point it out because it seemed like a good time for a sale. I want people to buy stuff from my shop so I have money to buy myself presents. Generous of me, ain't it? Heh. So anyway, everything in the shop is 15% off between now and Wednesday. (Prices haven't been changed - revised invoices are easier.)

Coming Clean

2008-05-15T18:33:00.003-04:00

We need to have a talk.

Clearly, I've not been as bloggy as usual these past few months - semi-monthly posts with not very exciting content abound. Truth is, I'm kind of tired. Not of blogging, per se, but there's a lot going on and it's hard for me to put on the whole happy bloggy show. For some period of time now, I've been putting up an inordinately cheery front for the benefit of those around me while increasingly defending myself against questions as to what I did or didn't do, or was perceived to have done or not done. I'm exhausted, wearing down, and retreating more and more - for the past several weeks I've done little else than drive to the bus stop, get to work, get back on the bus, drive back home, and then hide there until the next time the bus is scheduled to leave. I've allowed myself to be dragged from the house precious little. Plus, the trouble with being an empath is that when someone close is upset or losing sleep, so am I - which of course then leads me to struggle with being available to others. And the other trouble with being an empath is that the "but this is nothing - think how bad it is for, say, the people of Dujiangyan in China - you're really lucky!" argument only serves to upset things further by promoting an emotional response on that mess.

All this is not to elicit responses of sympathy or offers of support - I know they're out there and I appreciate them all - nor is it to point a finger...no one's responsible for my current state, much of which is self-inflicted by my own nature. The purpose of this is to offer some form of explanation to anyone who wonders why I don't post, why I don't comment, why I don't call, why I don't respond to a comment or an email or two or six. I've been making lots of excuses because I hate to admit that maybe I'm just a little worn down for interaction at this point. Failure to be a friend is really never excusable, but as much as is possible, I'll hope you'll forgive me my absence or my distance.

And if I'm not blogging, it's for fairly good reason - the only thing worse than having to listen to someone bitch endlessly is having to listen to them fake a sunny disposition to try to cover up how much they'd like to bitch endlessly.

Rectangles, Unsupervised:

2008-05-13T11:27:00.003-04:00

So since it seems like all my knitting projects will be under wraps for a while, I'll make sure to do some sewing projects I can show off. I know you may not read this for the sewing, but I gotta give up something for viewing!

I've been working on my rectangles. My pillowcase remains alone, and I've moved on to other kinds of rectangles. Some I'll share later, to keep things spread out, but for now, let's see.

We have rectangles with zippers:

And with lining rectangles, too! I used this tutorial to sew this little pouch, using a Japanese fabric obtained from this shop, and a simple cotton lining fabric from a local shop. Once I had it down, whipping one of these up took about 30 minutes, if that, so I made up a few.

The project I'm most proud of from this weekend, though, is my pleated rectangle:

With a tiny trimmed rectangle for pocket! And another tiny rectangle for towel loop! (Which is purely for show, because if I DID have the forethought necessary to thread a towel through that loop before I started my cooking, before the day was out I would inevitably light it on fire while hanging over the oven.)

This one came complete with long skinny rectangles at the back:

I'm way excited about this apron - I love the fabrics (Heather Bailey Freshcut with matching solid cotton trim, from a local shop) and the pattern, from Amy Butler's In Stitches. (Yeah, are her patterns crazy-specific or what??)

*****************************
I have a shop recommendation - Elm Studios Online makes the cutest little dishes, plates, and keepsakes. But wait, there's more!

This is what my unfortunate-but-lovely plate looked like when it got to me. This is not for lack of trying on Elm's part - the plate was wrapped in tissue, then bubble wrap, then nestled in shredded paper. It was simply the box - stamped fragile, mind you - that could not withstand the severe drop kicking the postal service gave it (seriously, do you SEE that box?? How much do they hate small boxes, to treat them like this?) I emailed the seller just to let her know, and within minutes she had sent me a message apologizing profusely and offering to ship a replacement immediately. Sweet! Her prices are unbeatable, her items are adorable, and her customer service is AWESOME! Big fat recommend!

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And now, a Kitten Update:

Corrie says hi again, this time with her eyes open!

(I know it looks like I'm squeezing her to death, but I'm only keeping a loose hold on her - she's really just that tiny!)

And Rambouillet is thrilled she had babies. They make good pillows.

Reno's all, "Ooof!! Mama! Whatchou doin'??? Gitoff!!"

Weekend Update

2008-05-09T09:41:00.003-04:00

I feel like I left everyone hanging. It's been almost a week! Let me start by wishing a Happy Mother's Day to those of you who have ever been a mother or had a mother. And for those of you who have not, I'll say, "What the hell...?"

Kitten Status: Excellent. They're fat and adorable, and Corrie's eyes are opening (she is also damn loud - I think she's part Celine Dion). I was almost certainly correct in estimating Reno at "male" - there appear to be sprouting little indicators to confirm that...

Best Friend's Wedding Status: Imminent. The shower is May 17, and I'm very excited about that. The bachelorette party - a long weekend in Key West, woot! - is also imminent, and I'm even more excited about that! TEQUILA!!!

Sewing Status: Progressing. I started an apron in Tuesday night's class. I'm probably too excited on that note, so let's move on before I start espousing my incredible gift for pinning paper to fabric and making stitches in a (mostly) straight line. (I'm also a mean seam presser-outer, but really, I don't want to brag.)

Aging Status: Unabated. I'm approaching my 29th birthday - I can't believe it's that far into the year already - and birthdays normally have little effect on me, but 29.... That's the age my mom was when she had me, man. After 29 comes 30, which I'm not dreading or anything, but the 30s are when I have to stop being a big old selfish baby and start thinking about growing up and doing that whole family thing. (Don't I make it sound like that would be the worst thing ever? Of course I'm anxious to expand our family - but I'm maybe not looking forward to giving up all that couch time.)

Knitting Status: Secret. I'm afraid I won't have much to offer here for the next couple of months. I've received some intriguing emails and contacts, and so I'm going to be working on some things. (Yep, vague. Sorry, that's the best I can do.)

Wool Festival Status: Approaching overkill. We've booked our trip to Colorado in June for Estes Park - I'm very excited about that because I'll get to pal around with Kristi for several days, yay! - and I've made the arrangements for lodging for Taos Wool in October. Add to that the ever-present North Carolina SAFF at the end of October, plus a possible detour to Rhinebeck if the money holds up (I'm hopeful but not entirely optimistic, we'll see), and it's going to be a wooly few months!

Good News Status: Middling at best. Unfortunately, there have been two very tragic turns of events in lives of two friends. One I wouldn't really want to talk about, but the other - a good friend from high school, and my best friend's bridesmaid, is a horse trainer in Kentucky (yes, again with Kentucky - I'm not kidding) and was thrown on Wednesday. She broke her back - fractured a vertabrae, and while she's expected to recover, surgery is up in the air right now. (My husband said, "Oh God, she's not paralyzed is she?" and I responded, "No, she's..." And suddenly it hit me. Oh God, she could have been paralyzed. But she wasn't. Thank you Jeebus for that blessing.) So for the next few months, we'll be trying to talk Bekah into a nice desk job post-recovery. (She loves her job. I'm so glad she loves her job. But dammit, I'd rather she be unhappy at work and still walking around, like the rest of us are.) Please send thoughts and prayers and energy for a speedy recovery (and a "surgery won't be necessary" diagnosis) in the direction of Kentucky.

Oh, and by the way: Kentucky? F**k you. I've had about enough of your crap.

Say Hi, Corrie!

2008-05-03T13:50:00.007-04:00

*wave*
Corriedale, by the way, in the unlikely event that she turns out to be a he, will then be called "Dale". Reno's name works either way.

I got a few good pictures of the kids while Rams was eating. She's happy to let me play with them, but when she hears a "mew" she does run over to make sure I'm not doing anything wrong. She's a good parenting coach!

So all the "fun" I had dyeing fibers last week translated to a shop update today, with merino, superwash, and optim. Here are some favourites:

Visit the shop for more.

The New Brood

2008-05-02T18:57:00.003-04:00

Here's the new family! The kittens spend most of their time nursing, of course, so it's hard to get pictures of them. The tortie, especially, is quite the little hider, so it's tough to capture her. The black kitty is pretty photogenic though:

See, isn't he cute?! Eyes aren't open yet, as is the norm, but the little guys are already pretty good at makin' noise!

Here's Rams and the elder kitten on his birthday, last night:

I don't actually KNOW that it's a boy, obviously, but it's just what I figure. Also, we did pick out names. Rambouillet's kittens are Reno (the black/white) and Corrie (the tortie). Well, those are their nicknames.

Reno, for Merino. Corrie, for Corriedale. When referring to both kittens together? We just say Cormo.

:-D

My own cleverness amuses me infinitely. (And I managed to name three cats after FOUR sheep!)

"Four?! Wait, what? I'm DONE with the kittens, right?? Oh....I get what you mean. Whew."

Update on Rambouillet & Co.

2008-05-02T10:40:00.003-04:00

We have two kittens! FIFTEEN HOURS LATER.

I'm on NO SLEEP. We were calling two different vets, plus my friend - the vets voted that I leave her the hell alone - I might have been stressing her out by poking her every few minutes - and said we should take her to the emergency room if there wasn't anything by 11:00. My friend voted that if Rams was breathing fast and shallow but didn't seem in distress or anything, that she was just in labor, to just wait and let her do her thing and take her to the vet in the morning if there wasn't anything. Since her suggestion sounded cheaper and more reasonable (if Rams is still purring and rubbing on our faces, she can't be all that miserable and stressed out,) we waited until this morning, but still no kitten.

Travis took her to the vet - it is definitely my turn to miss work next time - and they did an x-ray to check positioning and everything, said it looked normal and the kitten was moving, but Rams wasn't pushing. I think most likely it's just that she's just so young and she really wasn't sure what to do. They gave her a shot of something to speed things along....nothing happened....they said they'd give another shot and wait, and if nothing happened, they may have to do a C-section (on a cat, ohmychristexpensive). Fortunately, as Travis was wrapping up to go to work - they told him no point in waiting, and he really can't afford to miss much time right now - the tech came running out and said the second one just came along. FIFTEEN HOURS between kittens. AND! I WASN'T THERE!! What a little brat she is. But I'm proud of her - poor thing is probably completely exhausted, I can't wait to see her and give her some major snuggles. All kinds of great news: no c-section, and the vet didn't even charge for the x-rays, they only charged for the emergency visit (no appointment, obviously) and the shots, so we got out of there for well under a hundred bucks, God bless 'em. Yay, second kitten with no surgery, healthy mama, and a reasonable bill! Best elevenmonthiversary gift EVER! (Today we've been married eleven months, by the way.)

And I'm guessing the father is the fluffy black-and-white wandering around - I was rooting for either him or the orange cat, and rooting hard against the aptly-named wanderer we call Fuggo. The new baby is a tortoiseshell like her momma. I can't wait to get home and get pictures - more updates soon!

Yay, happy healthy Friday to all! May your weekend too be filled with mewing and tiny kittens. :-D

What A Good Girl

2008-05-01T22:38:00.003-04:00

ETA: 7:00 a.m., 13 hours since birth of Kitten #1 and no sign of another kitten, plus she's still breathing a little fast and shallow, so she's off to the vet. Updates when we know more.

Waited until the new camera arrived AND had the first one moments before I got home! So I didn't really miss anything.

Well, okay. I'm missing a second kitten. I am currently FREAKING. OUT. She had the first one at about 6:00 p.m., and it's now 10:30 and still no "second kitten". According to the vet's x-ray, there should be two. We're monitoring her for a while, and we'll take her to the vet if deemed necessary. (We have spoken multiple times with the emergency vet, our regular vet, and my friend the total cat expert, so don't worry that we're stumbling through this advice-less....if you get my drift....)

She seems pretty chill about the whole thing. And damn if that ain't one adorable little kitten.

There may be little in the way of sleep....

Gee, Wouldn't Have Seen THAT Coming

2008-04-30T12:02:00.002-04:00

And I turned on the little crapped-out Nikon camera last night, expecting the usual 20-minute grapple with the lens cover (error! error!) and the damned thing turns RIGHT ON. Sunuvabitch. Why do all electronic things taunt me so? Now that I've spent money we didn't have on a new camera, this one's going to be just fine. Pfft.

Oh well. Better camera, can't hurt anyone. Two functioning cameras, also useful. Technology mocking me at every turn, unsurprising.

So, the big news: I had my first sewing class last night!!! I finally sucked it up and admitted that while teaching myself to knit went just fine, there's not much complicated machinery involved in that process, and when there are motor-driven fast-moving sharp pointy things involved, maybe best to allow a professional in on the process. We learned some basics, and actually MADE a real THING in class:

A pillowcase! A pillowcase!! I sewed an entire pillowcase! (I am so. stupid. excited. I was bouncing around with this when I brought it home - you'd think I sewed a knockoff Christian Dior wedding gown. It's a freaking rectangle. But dammit, it's MY rectangle!)

I'm going to make more pillowcases. Pillowcases for every room in the house! Pillowcases for everyone! Heal the planet with pillowcases! I can cure world hunger, one sewn rectangle at a time!

I might be overemphasizing the critical importance of the pillowcase on the world stage. But. I'm excited.

We got to pick the fabric we wanted out of ANYTHING IN THE STORE. That is AGONY. (And yet, who is surprised by my selection of orange and brown? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, who woulda figured. I know it's a quite, um, noisy print. But orange! Brown! Orangebrown!!) Next week we get to choose between an apron and a tote bag as our project. I'm leaning toward apron, with tote bag as homework. (We get both patterns.) But more importantly, oh my, what fabric will I use for my apron?? I'll need to get there really early to start the selection process....

I still knit:

My Wollmeise knee socks - I've finished the calf decreases now, so it's just a regular old sock from this point on. This is my going-to-the-movies sock, the one I don't have to see to work on. I knit most of this during Horton Hears a Who! and Baby Mama. There's no deadline on these. But here they are. Just for the record.

I'm also still working on my Silky Cowl Tank by Zoe Valette from Sensual Knits in Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple. I have about nine or ten inches of the body done - I'm knitting even tighter than gauge, so it's slow going (and also not guaranteed to fit, but that's not really my ultimate goal, obviously, or I'd put it on waste yarn and check it):

I'm sorry I didn't take better pictures of everything I'm working on - I got all excited about the camera working and figured I should drag everything out and photograph it while I could.

By now you've no doubt seen the Knitty surprises. How awesome is Kristi's Froot Loop sock?? I want to knit it nowish.....

I'm Growing Suspicious Of The Bluegrass State

2008-04-29T11:03:00.002-04:00

My camera has shipped out - hurray! And this is the information I get when I track it:

Label/Receipt Number: **** **** **** **** **** 85
Status: Shipment Accepted

Your shipment was accepted/picked up at 7:03 PM on April 28, 2008 in LEXINGTON, KY 40511.

Et tu, Kentucky?!

We meet again, for the first time, for the last time....

Let Me Bore The Crap Out Of You

2008-04-28T11:48:00.003-04:00

Let me make you sigh
Let me do some lame tricks
Some old and some older tricks
Nothing too worthwhile....

(Points to anyone who picks up on the lyrics and their source. I'm expecting success from at least one reader.)

Things to talk about aren't much fun without pictures. My little Nikon camera finally took the big crap. It's been frustrating me more and more with its petulant little "Lens Cover Error!" message ("but the lens cover is open! take the picture dammit!") and then I smacked it a little too hard on the desk trying to shake the lens cover into place and whoops! busted the battery holder-inner-tabbie-thing (technical term) and so the poor thing is finally just tired. It was not the best camera I've ever owned anyway - I'm sure fixing it won't take much, so we'll probably send it out for repair so we'll still have a pocket point-and-shoot, but I've finally thrown my hands up and allowed myself to purchase the Canon digital SLR I wanted. (Well, not the one I wanted - I'm not made of money - but the lower-end one that really only costs a little more than replacing with yet another point and shoot that we can drop into a waterfall or slam on a desk...) I'm considering it a business expense, since it's largely necessary to get better photos of my wares for the shop.

Whenever the new camera meanders its way here from Amazon (no doubt by way of Kentucky) or I can coax my Nikon into getting a few shots for me, I'll have some fiber to go up in the shop. I wish with all sincerity that I'd gotten Travis to get video of me wrestling with this fiber - I'm sure it was hysterically funny. It was like bathing an old English sheepdog - by the time I was done just with the soaking and draining, I was covered in fuzz, sopping wet, and cursing up a storm. It does get easier, but DAMN if that wasn't something I was unprepared for. I spent the better part of the morning and afternoon muttering variations of "somebody better buy this crap or I'm gonna pile it all up on the lawn and light it on fire because OH MY GOD WHERE IS THE END OF THIS EMMEFFING ROVING????" I did calm down eventually and have resolved to not set anything ablaze.

We went for a nice long bike ride yesterday and then took to the el-cheapo ghetto theatre for the matinee of Baby Mama. I was prepared to find myself a drooling mess by the end, all the dumber for having seen it (but hopeful that geek-hot Tina Fey would smart things up just enough to save me from having my frontal lobe dribble slowly out of my left ear) and honestly, we both enjoyed the hell out of it. There's a pleasantly surprising also-starring actor who I wasn't expecting at ALL, and it was nice to see an entertaining movie in the theatre for once. It helped Travis recover from his rather painful face plant from that morning - hence the movie outing, it was a special treat to make him feel better. (I told him he should wear a helmet. I told him he shouldn't try to ride up the side of the bridge embankment so close to the edge. But what the hell do I know, I'm just the wife. I just provide fudgesicles and movies when things go badly.)

No kittens yet. I'm hoping she can hold them in until the Canon gets here - I did avoid the super saver shipping, lesson learned, so hopefully she'll be able to hang...

Happy Monday, all!

On The Twelfth Day of Sweater

2008-04-20T11:37:00.007-04:00

I finished the sweater and got to wear it twice during the brief "cold front" here this week! Yay! Then I finally got around to taking some decent photos of it, once it got back up to over 80 degrees. (Clever, aren't I?)

I'm happy with it overall - I could have used some patience and made it just about a half inch to an inch longer, but I'm still quite pleased.

I think I like the way it looks from the back even better!

This was a very quick knit - with a bulky (the label says worsted, but forget that) yarn and size US10 needles, it wasn't really tough to finish this in less than two weeks. Probably could have done it even faster if I hadn't been dyeing yarn and cooking in between. Oh, and working. I do that sometimes.

Well, now I'm just being silly.

Pattern: Cozy V-Neck Pullover by Stefanie Japel (from the book Fitted Knits)
Yarn: Mirasol Sulka
Needles: US10
Size: XS (36.5")
Start: April 2
Finish: April 14
Mods: Made the neckline a bit deeper, didn't change needle sizes for ribbing, started the ribbing sooner on the body than pattern stated, adding bust darts, knit sleeves cuff up and grafted to caps....nothing really major, mostly just accommodating for my body type and how I prefer to knit.

Since I'm on a garment kick, I've already started my next one, the Silken Cowl Tank by Zoe Valette from Sensual Knits in Tilli Tomas Pure & Simple silk:

(I've made modifications to work it in the round to the armholes, then I'll split and work the rest flat on each side.

And Travis, however briefly, managed to rig up a working electric skeinwinder:

Adjustments may be needed, but there's definite progress. My little ~~evil~~ genius.

Also, we got a good shot of Rambouillet's most adorable feature, with Travis assisting to keep her a little more still than she wanted to be - she kept trying to jump up and snuggle or rub my chin, so I couldn't get a picture of her face. I swear he's not strangling her:

She has black whiskers on one side and white whiskers on the other! Argggghcute!

Finally, I updated the shop with some new sportweight yarns - here's a few thumbnails of some favourites, click for big or visit the shop:

Happy knitting!

Healthy/Happy!

2008-04-14T14:52:00.004-04:00

Rambouillet had a vet visit on Saturday. Nervous, trembling, mewing in terror, we arrived. I'm referring there to me, not to Rambouillet. She was perfectly calm, purred and snuggled the vet and her tech the whole time. She couldn't even be bothered to stop purring while having her blood drawn, and they actually had to try to get her to stop purring so they could check her heart - the vet couldn't hear it over all the rattling! I was a complete wreck, however - things have been less than stellar at Travis' job lately, so we really couldn't afford for her to have so much as a scraped paw that needed antiseptic - we still haven't even finished payment on Bitty's pre-Christmas surgery, so Saturday's office visit and routine check was challenging enough. Fortunately, all checked out, and she's healthy and very well. She's not even a year old - not yet out of kittendom herself, and already pregnant, poor girl! - and Travis was just a hair off in his estimation of due date: she'll be birthing in a week or two!

They did an x-ray, too, in order to see how far along she was and if they could determine how many to expect in the litter, and it looks like we're expecting twins! (Thank God I don't have to find homes for a litter of nine.) I had names for up to five kittens, so narrowing it down is going to be tough. We'll see what they think when they're born.

We also noticed something absolutely precious about Rams last night - her whiskers are black on one side of her face, and white on the other. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

By tonight I should have a completed pullover sweater, so I'll hope for FO photos tomorrow - the brief cold front should last until roughly Wednesday, so I think I'll wear it tomorrow. Nothing like a heavy worsted weight merino/alpaca/silk sweater over a blouse on a frigid 60 degree day. *snort* But I have to get at least one good wear out of it before next fall! (I could have made it with short sleeves, I suppose, but as heavy as the yarn is, it might look sort of strange. Plus, I've not yet knit a long-sleeved sweater for me, and I'm really short on sweaters that I can wear when it IS cool outside - most of the warmer outerwear I have isn't particularly feminine - boxy ski sweaters and things like that - so my wardrobe has a bit of a hole in it on chilly days.)

I did get something done on Saturday, after tripping just about every breaker in the house until we found the right combination of pots and kettles and burners to extension cords. Here's a little teaser:

All told, I have a total of 20 skeins of sportweight (most not shown). Everything should be dry by, ohhh say, three weeks from Tuesday (I love the Florida humidity) by which time I should have some fingering weight yarn to dye up as well. Whee! Travis is currently ~~attempting to electrocute himself~~ designing and building me an electric reskeiner with strange-looking electric devices he scrapped together from God knows where - wherever men go to procure these contraptions. We'll see how that goes - I may be married to my niddy noddy for a while.

Casting About: I really need someone with mad graphic design skillz - I am in need of a logo, a banner, and an ad or two. Nothing super fancy - I do have some thoughts on logos, and some are more complicated than others. If you have these sorts of abilities and would be interested in bartering for yarn/fiber/money or any combination of the three, please let me know - I'm sort of at a loss in the fancy designin' department.

Bring Me The Head of Chip The Delivery Guy!

2008-04-11T09:01:00.004-04:00

Old business first - the contest closed Tuesday night and I picked two winners at random. I've contacted the winners and heard back from them, so congratulations to Paula M. and Megan! I want to thank everyone so much for all the wonderful uplifting tales and inspirations you shared with me. It really did bring me up and remind me how nice people truly are. :-D

So. Louet. Right? Yeah - since this isn't some big ol' secret, my current fiber and yarn supplier is Louet. (That's the Koigu yarn base, yum. My yardage will be more generous though.) Anyway, I've been anxiously awaiting my order - it's partially backordered, but the sportweights and fibers were shipped out and due to arrive on Wednesday. I work from home on Wednesdays, so I spent the whole day tracking the package like I was SWAT and then I saw a blip on the FedEx radar: Delivery failure, invalid address.

Eh?

Okay, let's just clear up here that I may be delusional about a great many things in life, but the valid existence of my residence? I'm pretty clear on that. I called FedEx. I called Louet. Louet called FedEx. I provided explicit directions (turn right off the major cross-state highway, take a left, it's the first rather imposing home on the left. Not rocket science, pretty tough to miss.) I waited. Next day, I track again. Not on a truck. I call. "Huh. Uh, we'll put it on the afternoon truck." I track again mid-afternoon. Kentucky.

Wait, what? Kentucky? How fast does that afternoon truck move?? Does the truck have wings and turbine engines? 'Cuz that's a PLANE. And I don't recall my directions including "take a right at Kentucky"!!!

I call. I get, "Huh. Kentucky. That's weird." Yes. Yes, it is. Not only is it weird, but if you determine my residence does not exist and you decide to start an exhaustive door-to-door search, Kentucky would be an unusual choice of starting points, as one of the few places in this country to which I've never been. So. Kentucky. Okay. Can you please bring it back? "Yes. You'll have it tomorrow." Gee, will I need to pick it up or will you deliver? "Call in the morning and we'll let you know." I was kidding, are you serious? "Um. Um..." Okay, fine. I'll call you. I call Louet. Louet calls FedEx. I get home.

Wouldn't you know it. Behold, my stuff. But ... if a package is in Kentucky AND on my front door step....wait.

I am on the porch.

The package is on my porch.

The package is in Kentucky.

Thus, by the transitive properties of the package, my porch is in Kentucky.

AWESOME!

We'll be sitting on the porch this weekend, dyeing yarn, sipping mint juleps, and listening to bluegrass music.

But wait, it gets better. Get a load of this box.

Snort. Scribbled notes back and forth, and finally, a big color printed Google Map. (I really wish there was a star and the note, "Moron, it's right HERE.") I'm sure the driver is really a very smart guy - it simply appears he was expecting a business, not a residence, and is obviously keenly unaware of the ability to operate a very tiny business from a home. (It's not like this is a crate of international goods, guy. It's a 15 pound box of fluff n' string.)

I have enough to get me started this weekend, though, so that should be fun. And while I wait for things to soak / heat up / strike / set (it's a lot of waiting, this process), I have the rest of this to do:

Lookit! A body! I still have the collar to do, plus a sleeve and about a third of another sleeve. Then there's all the end weaving - knitting a sweater of yarn in 55-yard put-ups means a LOT of end weaving. I got half a sleeve out of one skein. Ugh. (But it's so PRETTY.) So far, I think I'm content with the fit. I could have been patient and added just one more inch to the body, but with the alpaca and silk element, I think it'll probably stretch a bit anyway.

There's supposed to be a cold snap this weekend - I really hope I can finish this tomorrow, because I probably won't have a chance to wear it again until about October. (This was indeed a well-planned project on my part. But pretty!)

And in conclusion, ohmygod Flickr is awesome:

Heheheh. Heheheheheheh. Heh.

The Latest Edition on the Latest Addition!

2008-04-08T19:56:00.002-04:00

Well, here she is:

This is the latest potential addition to our family - our pregnant little kitty. Travis figures she's about three weeks along, so we have about another month or five weeks before the kittens make their way into our world. I do have to get her to the vet before I can introduce her to the home, so for now she's settled in to the guest bathroom downstairs. She has everything she needs in there, except for constant companionship, so I try to go spend plenty of time with her.

I tried to not name her right away, but that lasted all of about two minutes. We're calling her Rambouillet. Well, I'M calling her Rambouillet - Travis is calling her Rambo, Ratatouille, Baba Booey, and "What's her name again?"

The other development continues:

I have a few inches left on the body, and I'm mixing up the rest of the directions - the pattern indicates that the sleeves should be knit from the caps down, flat, and seamed, then the collar knit. I'm going to do the collar first so I have less stuff to lug around while I work the collar, and I'm going to work the sleeves cuff-up and graft them to the caps so I don't have to drag the sweater around while I knit those too. This yarn is definitely going to be pilly, so the less agitating of the fabric I do by circling it around and around in my lap, the better.

Final alert - the contest closes tonight! (More accurately, it closes whenever I wake up and check my email tomorrow, which will be around 7:30 eastern time.) Email for an entry!

Trappings

2008-04-07T14:10:00.003-04:00

I am cranking right along on my v-neck sweater from Fitted Knits!

This picture was taken Saturday, and I'm about six or seven inches of ribbing down the body from this point now. I determined based on my knitting and body styles that minor modifications to the pattern would be necessary: I'm knitting the smallest size and have added bust darts to compensate for the girls (I always have to knit larger sizes so I don't end up with ridiculous sweater kittens, but then the rest of the top will fit me more loosely than I like - so this time I'm using my head and knitting a small size that will fit overall, while adding consideration for my bust size.) I also started the ribbing much sooner than called for, so it begins directly beneath the bust line, rather than at the natural waist. I think it'll do my figure more favours that way.

The yarn, Mirasol Sulka, is gorgeous, soft...and hairy. So hairy that if I were to wear this over a white collared shirt, you wouldn't be able to tell a difference when I took the sweater off because it leaves behind so much fluff. Fortunately, it's very receptive to a lint roller, so I'm not too concerned. (I do think it may pill like a mother though. Time will tell.) I love the heathered look of it - a beautiful dark mahogany colour with strands of multi throughout, mostly red and yellow shades, which I assume is in the silk content.

I was hoping I could even have this sweater started and finished within a week, but I didn't take the bus to work today so I think I lost too much knitting time there to make up. Still, I bet I can have it done by the weekend, latest - a sweater in ten or eleven days would be nothing to sneeze at.

(Yay I'm awesome! I CAN knit a sweater! I CAN!!!)

New Hot Blog Alert: A very good friend of mine has started a new blog-with-a-focus, and I'm pretty excited about it. If you're a vegetarian, broke, lazy, or any of the three, you may want to add it to your blog subscriptions - she's going to be covering topics and recipes of interest to those of us who are short on cash and spare time or the inclination to spend it in the kitchen. The blog is called A Lazy Vegetarian on a Budget - hey, that's me! I'm one of those! - and I'm already planning to try out the first recipe she's posted.

Awesome shop alert: I ordered a TON of supplies for the dye studio last week - my purchase order was three full pages - from Earth Guild in Asheville, North Carolina. I've shopped there in person many times when visiting my parents, but now I'm just stunned at their service - in a good way. I placed the order by phone on Tuesday around lunchtime. They had it packed up by early afternoon - again, three pages of order - and it was on the porch when I got home Thursday. TWO DAYS. (And some of my dyes were backordered, so they'll send those along with free shipping when they are available.) Plus they offer both volume AND cost-based discounts, so I got one discount for ordering so much stuff and another additional discount for the amount I spent. And the shipping was cheap. I'm officially a devotee. They carry all kinds of stuff - not just supplies for dyers, but all kinds of yarns and fibers and books and goodies - big fat recommend.

Okay, I'm putting this off. It's confession time: We seem to have acquired another cat. Uhhh...whoops. I found this pretty little girl sitting in our tree, mewing for help. I climbed the ladder (it was the treehouse tree) and she hopped right into my arms. I fed her and gave her some water, and she was just the sweetest, most loving thing. She hasn't budged from our porch and laundry room for two days. I'd already decided it was our responsibility to take care of her for the time being (she won't be allowed into the main house with everyone else for a while, at least - I need to take her to the vet first.) Then Travis walked in, took one look at her and groaned.

"You do realize she's pregnant, right?"

Oh. Wow. You know, I thought she seemed to have a really tiny head in proportion with her body.

Anybody want a kitten? :-D

You still have until tomorrow night to email for an entry to the contest. More entries = more winners. Give it a shot! (Contest prizes not likely to include kittens.)

Nah, Enough Already

2008-04-04T11:19:00.002-04:00

I'd typed and saved a third installment post for this space, but I've decided I'm done devoting my energy to negative people. So instead I..............have nothing to say. Sorry, that was really all I had to talk about, I guess! Heh.

Ooh, no, I did start a new sweater, and thanks to the miracle of heavy worsted weight yarn and US 10 (6.0 mm) needles, it's progressing at a pretty impressive rate. I'll have to get a photograph of it - it'd normally take me a week to get this far on a garment, and I just cast on for this thing Wednesday night.

A few more contest details occurred to me. Sometimes I wish I could get all my crap together at once. So let me see if I can get everything boiled down here so you don't have to wander all over this place to get all the details:

To enter: send an email to this address - details are an option, I'm fine if you just impart niceness on your honour.
Deadline: April 8th, Tuesday, at midnight (eastern)
Prize: will suit you, as I shall make it so because I want you to be happy.
Number of winners: depends on number of entries. I can't pick only one winner out of sixty entries!
Method of winner determination: at total random, a pull out of a hat.

And how lovely is the timing - Sheri just revved up her Random Act of Kindness contest, too! I am totally fine with our RAOKs overlapping, feel free to copy and paste your entry for her to me. ;-)

In closing: Behold! The Fluffies - Together in a Rare Moment of Peace and Serenity!

I Know, I Know....

2008-04-03T12:07:00.004-04:00

Neat! Thanks for all the support and awesome contest entries so far! I forgot to give a deadline - let's go with April 8th, Tuesday night, at midnight. (Also, with regard to prizes - your prize will be selected based on your own wants/needs/desires/loves.)

Now, continuing on my two- (or more-) part installment on this - feel free to not read it if you're not interested, I know sometimes a blog topical miniseries can get to be a little too much - I got a few comments that made me feel a little negative-nelly. I don't think that was the comments' intention, but I re-read my post and felt like I was focusing too much on a few negative voices, made it seem like it was all I ever saw.....I should point out that I still think Ravelry is nothing short of awemazingsome, and nothing will stop me from visiting it no fewer than 87 times daily. It's only the fact that I spend entirely too much time floating around on the forums and stumbling into these rather touchy areas.

And to be very clear, there are at least 100 super nice and encouraging people for every one crappy downer person, and then another 1000 quiet people who know to not say anything if they can't say something nice. It only takes one jerky post to kind of bring me down - really, it's kind of like going to a party where there's 20 awesome folks and one REALLY obnoxious person. It's not that you're TRYING to focus on the negative, but isn't it hard to walk away from the party and not say, "Hey, what was with the jerk who argued with everyone all night long?"

Last year I attended a seminar on negative language and the power of avoiding it - for example, saying "Look up," rather than saying "Don't look down," because negative language has such an immediate and visceral impact, and people can't help but respond to it. It's so simple, but the power of turning negative words into positive words can be huge; like saying "I could use some energy!" rather than "I'm so tired." Even the smallest negative will only serve to bring you down further, where the positive can change your whole attitude. (Duly self-noted that I talk a good game, but I could use a refresher course...)

I guess my biggest problem is with people who don't think or care that even on the Internet, it's still a real person on the other end of that computer. And I can't stand the "Why do you have such a problem with honesty? Why should I only speak up to compliment and kiss ass?" argument. No, no. You're honest when someone solicits your specific opinion. There's no need to jump in with snark just because it popped into your head. And on the second point, that's simple: you compliment someone because it's nice. You avoid putting someone down because it's mean.

There were some wicked good points made in comments or emails that I think are worth mentioning, so I'm generalizing some of them for reflection:

1. Really? Mean people? I haven't noticed.
Good!!!! I hope you never do - it does tend to be concentrated more in some of the longer threads on the "main" boards. If you don't spend much time lurking around in known trouble zones (see also: copyright threads) then you're not likely to stumble across much nastiness.

2. The smaller group boards don't seem to have that problem as much.
I agree. I don't know what it is - even more similar interests, a feeling that these people are more like kin and are treated as such? But yeah, the more focused groups tend to seem more aware of their manners.

3. But Ravelry's so great!
It is, it is, IT IS!!!! There are 483,926 reasons to love Ravelry, and more reasons come up every day. Jess and Casey work SO HARD. Occasional mean spiritedness is one tiny part of Ravelry that, granted, can be overlooked. And I shouldn't single out - I mean, it's not just Ravelry - any place where you throw 15,000 different people with free will into a room, real or virtual, there's gonna be some conflict. I've certainly seen worse. (I used to be a moderator for the chat room of the official website of two popular metal/rock bands. Now THAT was a hostile room. Ravelry is a field of freakin' daisies compared to that scene.)

4. You know, I actually find it's easier to be nicer than usual on the internet, not meaner. People don't get as weirded out on the 'net as they do in real life.
Now THIS stopped me in my tracks. What a great point! I frequently will think in my head, "That girl is so pretty" as she walks down the street, but I'm not usually very likely to run up and tell her, because, uh, yeah, it's awesome to be paid a compliment, but she also may be like, "Wait. Is that person crazy? How long did she have to chase me down the sidewalk to tell me that? Is she sweating? Uhhh...find a way out of this situation." On the web, it's easy to just drop a comment that says, "Oh, you look GORGEOUS in that sweater!" without wondering if you're going to look like a stalker. Net-induced niceness - I like that!

5. People don't realize they're being jerks, and when you point it out, they're not likely to agree and/or care.
That's true. To give a parallel example, someone with an atypically unattractive puppy would never agree if you said their mutt was troll-like, would they? (Ugly puppies?! Never!!) So if you say, "Wow, you're being a jerk," that person may be ashamed, but more likely they'll disagree for some reason. They're being honest, it's their right, they don't see it that way - so basically all my words are doing no good, is what I'm saying, other than to serve to placate myself via jaw-flapping. Isn't that useful? I'm really contributing something to the world here. ;-)

I AM happy. I DO look for the good in the world. I DEFINITELY see more friendly, kind people everywhere I go than those who are not. I hate prescribing to the "one bad apple spoils the bunch" theory, but it's hard to ignore that one grating voice of dissent.

And there are bigger problems in the world than rudeness on a message board, certainly. But then again, really, when you boil it down - if everyone in the world was just more considerate of the feelings, opinions, and right to joy of others, we kind of wouldn't have any problems whatsoever, would we? I know that's Pollyanna - but hey, it's still kinda true. (Without dissension, though, there could be a spike in boredom and certainly a decline in creative new ideas - there's something to be said for a stimulating and constructive disagreement, and beneficial suggestions are almost always borne out of those situations - but constructive and respectful are always the best ways to go when framing a discussion.)

Maybe tomorrow I'll continue to ~~beat this to death~~ make use of finally having something I feel compelled to write about by posting the silly example of a sample conversation I came up with last night when Travis and I were discussing this issue. (As a male knitter and general renaissance man who works as an auto mechanic, where it appears he is expected to be a hairless ape, he is well acquainted with the mind-boggling ability of others to be complete verbal-diarrhea jackasses.)

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write in my diary about all the people I can't stand. ;-)

(On an unrelated note: Nope, we're not pregnant/trying - the baby sweater is a gift for Travis' good friends, who just had a baby last month. Sorry for the false alarm - I should have noted the recipient.)

What's Eating Me.

2008-04-02T16:36:00.006-04:00

You know, we are, as a whole, a very nice people. A very kind people. A very generous, loving, giving people. I love being a knitter, because I love the group of which it makes me a proud part. I'm a fan of all of you, and I get so much wonderfully positive feedback from knitters, both out there in the real world and here on the webses.

But seriously, what is going on with the sourpuss misery that's starting to take a vested minority interest in Ravelry?? Every time I open up even the most innocent-looking thread, there's at least a handful of miserable bitches on there ruining the fun for the rest of us. Bitching about a photograph, a pattern, a person, a project, a copyright issue, a snack, someone's goals and ideals, whatever - ANYTHING they can find to bitch about. Well, hey, remember us? We're real people. If you tell us our photographs suck, we SEE THAT. If you say a designer is a talentless hack, she SEES THAT. I know that meanness and negativity have been discussed in one way or another at great and ~~boring~~ exhaustive length by just about everyone other than me, but it's especially on Ravelry - which is totally my happy place, DAMMIT - that I'm getting tired of all the mean spirited natures. There's still a lot more happy than unhappy there, of course - but every forum has someone pissing in everyone else's Cheerios, and I. Don't. Like. It. That's why I think I tend to stick to my happy little Piddleloop forum - most everyone is pretty chipper there, no one tells anyone else that they suck.

I know the easy solution is "stay off the message boards," but then again I think my solution is even easier: Don't be an asshole. Like, you may want to be an asshole. Stop. Type out what you're wanting to say. Read and think, "Does this make me look like an asshole?" If it does, hey, don't click "Post". That's not hard, is it? Not being an asshole? I'm not saying you can't go home and tell your friends/husband/cat/refrigerator exactly how you feel about that pattern/person/issue, but do you have to demonstrate to many thousands of people what an asshole you are? Seriously, THOUSANDS of people are going to read your festering turd of a miserable post, and all but maybe four other people (they're assholes too) are going to think you're kind of a jerk.

And besides, there are boards that are specifically DESIGNED for everyone to go and debate (and scream and disagree and argue at times,) and they're really a lot of fun in their own way, so go get into fights there and stay out of the harmless "This pattern is pretty" threads.

(Uh, I'm certain I'm not referring to any of you. And this isn't any direct slight on me that leads to this. Just making general observations. I'm not linking to anyone specifically or giving examples because that would be something an asshole would do. See how easy it is to not do that?)

Not what you were expecting from me today, huh? I know, I'm usually pretty cream puff. I'm sorry.

So I'm having a contest, dammit. Because it's (kind of) my blogiversary - yeah, I blew right by that, two years on March 17th - and you just had to listen to me gripe, and you should be rewarded. But you have to do something for me. I know, I'm usually pretty easy about the contests, but this time I want you to do a little something. Post something happy somewhere. On your blog, on a forum, wherever. Compliment someone - find something nice to say about something they did/said/designed/showed off. Do that, and then let me know about it - just email me that you were nice to someone today. Or if you consider that too much like tooting your own horn, just send an email that says nothing. I'll know what you mean. I don't expect you to prove it - like I said, I already know that you're all nice people, I don't need an affidavit. I just want to know that people are out there, being cool.

Please do send an email, though - comments are kinda tougher for me to track.

Prizes? Yes, there will be some of those. Probably decent ones, if my history is any indication. I have some books, yarn, handspun, fiber - all sorts of things lying around, so I'll pick a winner or two and we'll see what you get. ;-)

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled daffy YoYo post!

I do have an FO! I'm really excited about this one - I loved the pattern, and I loved how it turned out.

The Avery Baby Sweater is fini!

Would you believe this is the first time I've ever knit anything with a button?? And I love seed stitch. Mmm. Seed stitch.

Project Details:

Pattern: Avery Baby Sweater by Kristi Geraci
Yarn: Socks that Rock mediumweight in Bella Coola (from the 2007 club)
Needle: US4 (16", 20", and DPN)
Size: Dunno, maybe 3-6 month? Bigger? What's a baby look like?
Start: March 13, 2008
Finish: March 28, 2008
Mods: None really, other than to make it work for sportweight yarn rather than worsted. Oh, and knitting the chart backward so I got a mirror-image version of the sweater. Let's call that a mod - sounds nicer than "big ol' screw-up".

In other news: Well, yeah, I'm gonna be dyeing more yarn. Yeah. I know. (Yikes.) I'm pretty excited - how fun is it going to be to get those first huge boxes of yarn and fiber and fluffy things to play with? Whee!

Okay, enter the contest!

Yet Another Pattern, And Some Potential News

2008-03-26T15:39:00.005-04:00

Another of my creations for fabulous Roxanne and her fabulous yarns - this one is also available from Zen Yarn Garden's online shop or Etsy store.

Called "Ribs & Seeds" - for the popular epicurean directive, "jalapenos, ribs & seeds removed" - this is probably one of my most thought-out patterns. I charted the whole thing from scratch, without really using any particular inspiration other than what I pictured in my head. (More frequently, I'm inspired by a stitch pattern or something I see, rather than something I make up from nothing.) I had a lot of fun making this one, and it feels most like "my own" creation.

Funny to put this picture after all that bombast about my creation - okay, the front is pretty unadorned because I was also trying for a slightly more unisex look to the design, so all the cabling fanciness is centered up the back. The colourway isn't particularly manly, but that's a good thing, since the finished socks won't be for a man. (And I love this yarn base, as I have all of Roxanne's yarns - this is the Bamboolicious blend, which I believe is the first bamboo blend sock yarn I've knit with - there's no shortage in stash, but ... well, it's stash.)

My twee Avery baby sweater is coming along nicely:

I can say that now. Yesterday I had a bit of a fit, as in all my infinite wisdom, I misplaced the arms. Since I can't come up with any babies I know of off the top of my head who have arms jutting out of the middle of their chest and back, I had to rip and redo that part. But I'm loving the pattern, and the yarn, and the combination of pattern and yarn.

Also, I spun this:

I called it "Kalamata", from a Yarn Wench fiber in "Olive Grove". Her colourway name was pretty perfect, so I didn't go very far left of center in picking my name. This is a superwash merino, spun up to sport weight for a swap. It was also the last of my Yarn Wench, so I'm looking forward to an update.

Finally, the potential news. I may be shifting my views slightly on something I said I wasn't terribly interesting in doing - because said thing has gone relatively well those few times I've tried it, and I think it may be worth pursuing. Any guesses? I'll give you some hints. It involves turning this place (on the left):

Into a place where I can be quite productive to the benefit of this place, with the help of these people. Care to take a guess? And any thoughts on that? Would anyone who's indulged in some of my product care to weigh in also? I probably shouldn't trip into this as lightly as I do everything else...

Bwahaha...Bwahahahaha...

2008-03-20T19:13:00.004-04:00

When I'm desperate for material, I turn to my old standby, the old Who's-Googled-Me-For-What-fu. Today I have probably the best one ever. First, I'll share the runner-up: "my plump bottom". Fair enough. I do indeed possess one of those. The winner....I don't know, I think I'll save that for the end of the post. Allow for some suspense.

El Capitan will be taking a new position with a related Government Agency. I sort of fear change, at least when it comes to a shift in Capitans. And it wasn't so bad - I've certainly worked for crazier people. Also, he laughs like Dr. Hibbert, which I always found sort of entertaining.

Oooh, I have an exciting custom project coming up, one I can actually talk about - nice change - and you're gonna love it. I'm making raccoon boots. (It's okay, take a moment to let that sink in.) A friend of mine has a sister who took in a badly injured raccoon - poor little guy fell out of a tree, if my unimpressive memory serves - and due to his injuries, his little raccoony feet get really cold. They've tried a variety of tiny sock-like options, but nothing works, so I'm designing some custom booties to keep the little guy a little happier, hopefully. I love this idea - I think it's going to be a lot of fun. They have oddly-shaped and structured little feet and limbs, so there's some interesting angles and shaping to play with.

I'm knitting stuff!

The Avery Baby Sweater, by Kristi Geraci, which is a really great pattern. (Queue or buy on Ravelry.) I'm tinkering ever so slightly with the pattern, just to add a few stitches and rows (can that even be called tinkering, really?) because I'm knitting it in a sportweight yarn rather than the worsted called for. I just couldn't pass up using this Socks That Rock - it's a perfect boy-sweater yarn. (Of course, with my views on babies and colour, I wouldn't have a problem with knitting it in hot pink for a boy, but I try not to foist my weird psychology-of-infants-and-child-rearing opinions off on others, so out of respect for the parents, I'm conforming.)

Also:

A knee sock in Wollmeise, Red Hot Chili colourway, no pattern 'cuz I'm making it up. This will probably take eons because it's my simple dull knitting, which I only work on when I'm on the phone or in a movie theatre or something like that, where little to no attention is required. (Oh, and both project bags pictured are from Piddleloop. Don't you love my monkey/crab bag? And can you tell my colour compulsion extends to needing my bags to match my projects?)

The shop update went moderately well, and I'm toying gently with the idea of starting to dye yarn regularly, but I'm worried about it - because, as I put it to a friend, there really just aren't enough dyers in the world, and with my staggering fame, how could I ever keep up with demand? (Which is my way of saying, "Would I sell a damned thing?")

Okay, you've been patient. Here's my official new favourite Google search term that somehow - God only knows how - landed someone on my blog. I am both concerned that I discussed anything that was similar to this topic, and acutely worried about the sort of person who'd be looking into this.

"rent a baby"

Uh. Yikes.

Quick Updates and Stuff

2008-03-17T16:37:00.003-04:00

Thanks so much to everyone who's purchased the Bob's Party Sock pattern so far! I love making Ravelry money - it's great fun, and I appreciate everyone's support, kind words, and purchases. :-)

I spent the weekend doing all sorts of fun things:

Dress shopping with Patrick and my best friend for her wedding in West Palm. We found a beautiful dress for only $99, though time will tell whether that dress "sticks" or we find another. (I ended up with two, why should anyone else be any different? Still, a hot dress for $99, who could pass that up?) We had lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger (they DO have a veggie burger!) and drank shakes and ate fried food - it was AWESOME.

Then when I got home on Sunday, I got to work.

I set up the "dye studio" on the front porch and went to town with the acquisitions from the yarn sale last month. (There will be a shop update tomorrow with all the stuff I dyed. There's about, um, ten skeins, I think? Or rather sets of skeins - I'll quietly disclose here that I used Koigu as the fingering base, Louet Sport for the sport base, and I have three additional skeins of a merino/nylon yarn base obtained from another source. And always with the caveat that who knows when I'll have any more, since I do this sort of thing very rarely, and all the colours are limited edition, non-repeatable, all that fun stuff.)

While I was out there, this happened:

To anyone who ever doubted that the new neighbours were pretty bad. This was a domestic disturbance call (which I'm proud to say I did not make, though I thought about it - however, I was concerned that it'd be pretty obvious that the chick who'd witnessed all the screaming from the front porch was the one who called) and best I can tell, it was the two brothers who were involved, and the mother called the police. Hurray. One of the guys got hauled off in that car on the left. Sigh - it used to be a lovely quiet family neighbourhood...

And finally, for the mandatory dose of cuteness to follow all stories of arrest, I present Rooster's Favourite New Place To Hang Out:

Comfy.

Yet Another New Pattern!

2008-03-13T14:49:00.001-04:00

I'm on a roll, though, ain't I? Kinda makes up for the fact that my only FO of the year so far is the Cobblestone. Well, and these:

There's a special significance to this pattern. This is my Bob's Party Socks pattern. Why Bob? (Uh, why NOT Bob?)

The stitch pattern I was playing with was called Raveling Leaves, which of course made me think of Ravelry. This was written as a Ravelry celebration sock. ("Whee! Got my invite!" Remember those days?)

The yarn is wonderful stuff, the merino/silk/nylon base sprinkled liberally with real silver, and was custom-dyed by Helen of Painted Skeins to match the Ravelry logo. It came without a name, but I dubbed it "Ravelberry" 'cuz I'm nerdy like that.

This is my first for-sale-by-me pattern - I've provided free patterns, now it's time for a little dough. BUT! The dough's not for me. All proceeds from the sale of this pattern will go straight back to Ravelry!! I'd really appreciate it if you'd buy it, pimp it on your blog/flickr/rav boards, whatever - it's not about me, I swear - it's about making coin for Rav! I'd love to come up with a HUGE pile of money for them!

Download the pdf from Ravelry for a $5 donation!

See, Bitty's got her socks, and she's STILL waiting on that invite! Come on, Bob!

Random Happies

2008-03-10T15:51:00.002-04:00

A friend of mine from college has this thing she does called "Happies". There's a whole set of rules to Happies (your happy can't be someone else's sad, you can't repeat someone else's happy, etc.) and we do them before meals. It's a great way of starting out a meal on a really positive note, and it tends to keep the mood high. And I don't have much knitting or spinning to show due to a smashed thumb - a rather ill-timed smashed thumb, since I had self-imposed some pretty important deadlines and smashing my right thumb in the pantry door kind of left me knitless for about a week. So instead, happies!

Happy the First: My final installment of Scout's Indie Swag!

This one's a little bittersweet - I LOVED this club and was so lucky to be a part of it, and I'm quite sad that it's coming to an end. She's doing another round of it - though it's formatted more as a sock club, without the swaggy stuff - but due to budgetary constraints, I have to sit it out. This was, bar-none, the best sock club I've been a part of. Worth every last little penny. The swag was always great - this month was a bone shawl pin from Designs by Romi, a pattern from Romi, and this lovely yarn from Scout.

Happy the Second: My new coat!

Love the colour! It's been a bit grey/windy/rainy/cool here lately, but I feel so great walking down the sidewalk in this cheery turquoise trench. And it was cheap! (Yay Target! It's a really well-made coat, too, quite sturdy with nice finishing.)

Happy the Part C: My herb garden!

I get tired of buying fresh herbs all the time, but my thumb is a crusty brown colour, not green! I'm hoping I can do a better job with this garden. I love the planter - sassy red. Hot.

Happy the Four: I make stitch markers now!

Shoddy picture, but you get the idea. I'll be selling these in the shop as they come together. They're Posh Markers - glass beads with sterling silver findings. The larger ones will fit up to a US5, I think - I'll test it before I make the guarantee - and the smaller ones fit up to a 2.50mm needle (US 1 1/2). Those aren't entirely practical, so I wasn't sure I was going to sell them until I came up with a name I couldn't resist. Teeny markers = Marktinis! (I'm a dork.)

Happy the Where Am I: Bumper stickers that make me snort:

Heh. Heh heh.

Happy the Who's Counting Anymore: MY ROOM!!!!

WHAT THEN!!!

In case you don't remember where I'd last left it - it was hideous.

I am STOOOOKED!! It's so clean and organized now - I threw away SO. MUCH. CRAP. - and it's decorated and everything! (And Rooster is so beyond thrilled - he loves this room. He sits outside it and whines when the door is closed. So do I.)

The only "problem" with the room is that it's a little rear-heavy (join the club). The room is at the front of the house on the second story, and there's all this amazing light because the whole front wall is windows - it's wonderful for natural light and photographs and work, but it's not so great for furniture placement - so everything is on the far wall.

And I finally have a viable desk/workstation/sewing table. I'll now be working from home - just one day a week, but I've been dragging my feet on taking them up on the deal because it's so difficult to do without any kind of dedicated work space. Now that I have this nice desk area, I'm all set!

So despite my poor smushey thumb, things are going pretty great. Hurray!

Oh, and if you want to try The Best Macaroni And Cheese Ever OhMyGod, here's the recipe. Cheers!

I'm Still All About Me.

2008-03-05T16:24:00.002-05:00

Lest anyone should think my selfless knitting for the hubby that I showed off yesterday indicates that I'm turning over some new unselfish leaf: HA!!!

This post is all about me. If you find me dull or uninteresting or self-indulgent, then you should: a) pat yourself on the back, you may be right; and, b) skip this post. (But there's fun stuff amidst all the indulgence.)

First of all, the big exciting news: you can buy my handspun yarns at The Sweet Sheep! Look here!! (Anything with a "YO" in the title is mine. All fiber is dyed by Michelle, Ms. Sweetie herself.) I'm in the wholesale business now! Wow! There's still items, all on sale, in my shop, but if you want finer weights, sport/DK or fingering, they're all to be found in Michelle's shop - I was saving up my sock mojo for her. :-)

Okay, so let's talk about my awesome mail day. In addition to my final Scout's Swag club installment (which I'll talk about in the next post,) I got this wicked package from Kristi. Kristi got to go to Stitches last week, and in order to get me to shut up about it and quit bugging her about who she's seen and what she's petted, she sent me a care package. Don't you wish you were as annoying as me so people would give you shut-up gifts??

Check it! Much-coveted Ravelry t-shirt and pins (neener!!), some wonderful fabrics for spinning (or sewing, maybe sewing...I can picture a little coin purse in that nummy orange one), and some awesome fibers for carding and playing with. Woohoo!!

Speaking of nummy orange things:

I bought this for myself on my husband's birthday. After calling him and asking him if he wanted to go ahead and get me a birthday present. Which he did. So I bought it. I've been needing a good laptop/travel bag, and this one is PERFECT. And ORANGE. And it was on sale at the outlet. It was a good day. (Maybe even as good as the day I had at Jo-Ann's on Sunday, when the checkout girl rocked my whole world by scanning a "40% off item" coupon for almost all of my purchases instead of just one. And also somehow - and I wish I'd noticed this before I got home, I would have made sure they fixed it - I paid $1.79 for ten yards of muslin.)

Someone at the Tumi design house is a knitter. There's a freaking notions bag. Plus tons of pockets, plus a mesh divided pocket compartment on the inside, perfect for WIPs. Come ON! Awesome much? (And with my new Ravelry pins on the strap, it's even more awesome. What.)

I have other self-centered things I could go on about, but that'll do for today. I'll carry my egocentric ramblings on into tomorrow. I have to share a little bit of potential sacrilege with you before I go, though.

I found this pamphlet at the post office, and I believe it's for a Franciscan church, so I can only assume this is supposed to be a monk. But....

....whatever, that is TOTALLY Obi-Wan. And Obi-Wan, from the looks of things, doesn't necessarily approve of this Jesus guy. Interesting that this is supposed to be pro-Jesus, and this guy looks confused. (Doesn't ~~Obi-Wan~~ the monk kind of look perplexed about the Jesus, like he's trying to decide if he's supposed to eat it or what?)

And that's your daily reassurance that I'm probably going straight to hell without passing Go. Happy knitting!!

Surprise!!

2008-03-04T11:45:00.005-05:00

So!! Yesterday was Travis' birthday. He celebrated by going to work. I celebrated by taking the day off. Ha! But all for him - I got up when he did - crack of dawn - and made him a nice all-homemade breakfast of chocolate croissants, pancakes with blueberry maple syrup, and bacon. (Then he went to work and I went back to bed.) Then, so excited I could hardly stand it, I drove out to meet him for lunch and presented him with his birthday present. I asked him if he had ANY idea what he was getting, and he said he didn't - judging by his reaction, he REALLY didn't.

"What.....wait, is this......when.....how did you.....when did you knit a SWEATER?????"

His next question was, "Did you measure me in my sleep?" It fits him absolutely beautifully, and I'm so happy to finally show it off. He confessed he didn't think he'd get a sweater from me for a VERY long time.

Unfortunately it's starting to get entirely too warm for sweaters, but I'm hoping for another couple of cold snaps before it's all over. I'm definitely into sweaters now - this one took five weeks, but remember I could only work on it at work, on the bus, and at knitting meet-ups, any time Travis wasn't around. So they don't take so long after all!

He does now understand why I've been trying to kick him out of the house so much these past few weeks - when our best man and his wife had their baby and he asked me to go visit with him, I told him to go ahead, I wasn't really in the mood. Of COURSE I was in the mood to see a brand-new baby, but that's how desperately I needed him out of the house so I could finish! Fortunately, Awesome Neighbour came over and asked him to go to a buddy's house Saturday night, bless him, so I got to finish it all up then.

He took photos patiently for a while. And then he started busting out the Sears catalog moves:

The "Excuse me, do you have the time?":

The "HaHA, this guy said something funny!" (that then turned into him cracking himself up):

And the "Seriously, woman, are you done with the pictures yet?":

Project Details:
Cobblestone Pullover
Pattern: from Interweave Knits, by Jared Flood
Yarn: Rams Wool Selkirk in Red (itchy, but cheap and durable)
Needles: US7 for the body and yoke, US6 for the sleeves and collar, US9 for bindoff
Size: 43 1/2" (and PERFECT fit)
Start: January 23, 2008
Finish: March 1, 2008
Modifications: I was concerned for the hugeness of the sleeves, so I knit those down a needle size. I also added length to the body, on the recommendation of Raveler Courtney, and I'm glad I did. (Thank you, Courtney!!) Just an inch or inch-and-a-half, and it's just exactly right. Why can't my sweaters ever fit me this well?

I hated this thing So. MUCH. by the time I was done, because it was giving me that sense of temporary-project-insanity. The yoke almost killed me, just because it seemed like I'd knit and knit and knit and measure and, somehow, have a quarter-inch LESS knitted fabric than an hour ago. Garter stitch in the round, on the bus, supporting what feels like a ninety-pound sweater over your lap under less than ideal sweater-knitting conditions ("Sorry, the air's not working today,") gets harder and harder as the days trudge on. But I absolutely love it now, and with the fit and the colour and the fact that he's happy with it, I'm thrilled. (He did deem it, when asked, "a little scratchy," but said it wasn't a problem. I don't think he'll be likely to wear it without an undershirt, so it's no biggie.)

I topped it all off last night with a nice dinner - chili-rubbed seared elk loin over five-onion polenta, roasted asparagus, sauteed mushrooms in a shallot shiraz reduction - and I think it was a pretty successful birthday, for a Monday! (I'm not sure which he appreciated more, the sweater or the fact that I managed to handle that much very raw, very red meat to make him a good dinner. Seriously, blech. I'm still working on handling meat comfortably. I'm not sure I'll ever totally get there.)

So now that I know that I can knit an entire man's sweater in five weeks without ever working on it at home, I'm feeling better about garments. I'm going to finish the Juno cardigan from Rowan, then I'm going to start my next sweater (from Fitted Knits). Maybe for me, sweaters are the new socks!

I have a few other minor little happenings to discuss - a happy mail day, a couple of fun scores at bargain prices - finally, something to write about! Maybe I can be a better blogger in March. Finally having an FO seems like a great start!

Oh Yeah.

2008-02-29T22:50:00.002-05:00

Yahaira made a good point - this is my only chance in four years to post on the 29th of February.

Ummm....

Sooo.....

Yeah.....I.....uhhh....

Oh, good news: the neighbor's dog seems to be back home. Saw him last night, tied up outside the apartment building. For like three hours. It was about 40 degrees. I am keeping an eye on this situation. I'd like to point out that I am going out of my way to be neither overly nice nor at all mean to this guy until I really have to make that call. Here, however, I can be as nasty and judgmental as I want. Isn't the internet wonderful? :-D

Here's big news: The Project? Done. (Well, mostly done. Tiny bit of finishing.) Hoooo. Rah. (There will be pictures and stuff. To read way too much information about the progress, you can follow that link to the Ravelry page. The last few days come across maybe a bit frustrated - but I'm fine now that it's done!)

And now I'm back to long-dormant Juno. (Link to the most inspiring finished object EVARRR.) I think I'm down with knitting adult garments that aren't socks or hats now. Woohoo!

I'm Gonna Try...

2008-02-28T13:05:00.005-05:00

Six posts for February?? That's pretty pathetic. Maybe I'll just start coming up with random stories.

Here's two.

Conversation between Travis and me last night after a commercial for the Smurfs DVD (Smurfs!!):

Travis: Gargamel. Heh.
Alyson: Ooh, there's a name for our boy!
Travis: .............. GARGAMEL JOHNSON.

The look and tone that accompanied his statement cracked me up. The name wasn't really funny until you said it in its entirety, stone-somber. (I should note, once again, that we're not pregnant, but I'm always on the lookout for clever boys' names. We have something picked out for a girl - and it's a doozy - but boys are harder. And I like to be prepared.)

Then there was ..... the new neighbor.

Okay, first of all, I should point out that I'm not normally a big fan of new neighbors. They almost always instantly irritate me in some way. (With the exception of people who moved in nearby a few months ago and rock the whole world.) This guy though - he's had people over helping him move, and he's been throwing the windows open and letting everyone holler and carry on well into the night on weekdays. I'm not a total prude, have your fun, but at midnight on Tuesday, dude, it's time to shut the eff up. Anyway...

Last night I see this GORGEOUS red Eskimo dog come running out the front door over there. The person with the dog hardly took notice. The dog ran into the yard, peed, then ran into the church yard next door, took a crap, and bolted. Okay, now if you're one with a proclivity to letting your dog wander around leashless, that's super, but he should probably be trained to handle it. I watched people run off after the dog, and about an hour later I saw the dog bolt through our yard. (I'd figured he'd been caught long since, so I was a little stunned.) I went outside and tried to call him to the house - despite the fact that he's proven himself at this point to likely be a little on the wild side - but to no avail. Eventually, the guy comes plodding out of the house, slowly makes his way across the street, and calls for the dog:

"DEMON!!"

Demon? Effing DEMON? You have a dog named DEMON and you don't own a leash? Damned Demon ran all over the neighborhood all night long, crapping and peeing on everything he could find (thanks, dude, my dogs are going to be apeshit for a month) and completely ignoring his owner's yells. (By the way, the owner? Yeah, not the shiniest looking apple.) There's a park across the street where women and children were playing tennis, and the dog went over there and terorrized them for a while, then ran off down the street, nearly getting hit by a minivan in the process, while Neighbor did what could only be described as saunter down the sidewalk loudly yelling obscenities at the dog. (Again, please note: women and children.)

All the while I'm on my knees praying to the heavens above that this beautiful dog doesn't get hit by a car. And I might have prayed that a nice family with the capacity for love and discipline would stop and pick him up.

Did I mention that this whole time, Neigbor is wandering around in everyone's yards? Yeah, hi, nice to meet you, welcome to the neighborhood, would you like a muffin? Please get out of my backyard, since I just yelled that he's across the street again. My shed should be of no interest to you. The proper way to proceed in this situation, for future reference, is to knock on someone's door, introduce yourself, and say that you don't want them to be alarmed if they see you wandering around in their yard but your dog is loose. This will keep you from getting shot for trespassing (remember, this is Florida, so all these people are from Jersey), and it will keep the legal owner of the home from tearing you limb from limb in the aftermath of what ensues from letting their own six-pound pup out to pee, not realizing that your ill-behaved dog named DEMON is roaming their backyard.

I reserve the right to be proved wrong - but I don't think I'm gonna like the new neighbor.

Off My Game, and Sale News

2008-02-25T16:51:00.005-05:00

Something feels ... off. Do you ever have that feeling? It alternates between jitters and nerves, lying awake at night worried about.....something? (Something I said? Something I'm going to say? Something I did? Didn't do?) Strange aches and pains and itchy nagging coughs and that odd lump in my lower back - coupled with too many years studying forensic pathology and investigating medical claims? Constant self-diagnosis. (Fibromyalgia? Restless leg? PTSD? Have I even been traumatized ever, let alone lately?)

Weird. I'm fine, really, I'm just....off. Maybe that explains the total lack of blogging ability lately? Where's my ... sparkle? :-)

I'm still knitting, though. Not spinning...after the last blast of spinning and yarn-creating, the shop languishes with too much stock (or so I think), so I haven't been very motivated, despite the acquisition of Lexi's book Intertwined. That book is going to have a big motivating effect on me once I come up with a good excuse for spinning again.

Good excuse would be less stuff in the shop, so I'm having a sale right now. Lower prices on everything. Help yourself, if you feel so inclined. :-)

The Oscars? I was stoked. It's a big night for me, since I'm such a fan of (good) movies, and I was really happy about the winners, if not the fashion. (Oh look, another black dress. Yawwwwn. Black and red - what is this, the Modscars? Also, was Cameron Diaz at the gym and realized she was supposed to be at the Oscars like five minutes ago? A ponytail and a shower curtain? Really?) Oh, and I can't help but be a little peeved on two tribute points - one, way to cut Heath Ledger off at the knees there at the end. (Oh yeah, this guy died too. We're not sure if it's still too fresh or if everyone's tired of thinking about it, so we'll just flash this one quick picture and cut to commercial.) Two, ever hear of Brad Renfro? You know, that other young actor cut down before his time - no matter how self-destructive, all talent deserves recognition.

For the record, of the 23 categories, I was correct in 18 of my picks. Not bad - I've had better years, but considering how wide-open the races were (and my perhaps against-the-grain picks that turned out right) I'm pleased. I had a sushi lunch on the thing, and I won, so that was a lovely little boost - I do love my volcano rolls.

We watched a record number of movies and DVDs in the last week in the final run-up to the big show - Juno, Michael Clayton, Gone Baby Gone, Away from Her, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford ... It's that last one that had me flummoxed. If you're in 80% of a movie's scenes, you're pretty much the head guy, right? Casey Affleck, while flattered by all the attention, must have been kind of surprised to find out he wasn't the lead in that movie. ("But see Casey, you're The Other Affleck Guy, and he's Brad Pitt. So he's the lead. Right? Okay, action.")

I've decided I'm a fan of This Affleck as the director and That Affleck as the actor. Let's stick with that dynamic.

I was thinking today - I can't believe how little I've done in the way of acquisitions this year. Very, very, very little yarn or fiber has made its way into my home, unless it was part of a pre-existing agreement or custom need. (Sock club or special order, that kind of thing.) I'm sort of proud of myself, and yet I sort of feel like a poser. Enabling and acquiring at bizarre rates of speed, these are kind of my niches, you know? I haven't felt the pull of many things this year, really. But - how badly do I want the Hello Kitty sock kit from Woolgirl? Really badly, that's how badly.

Sales & Sadism

2008-02-19T10:01:00.006-05:00

Hey, Michelle at The Sweet Sheep is having a big ol' clear-out-my-inventory-please sale, so check that out. A very large portion of her shop is even cheaper than usual. That's always a good thing.

Speaking of good things cheaper than usual:

Yep, Kathleen's pretty cheap. (No!! I kid!) This is me and K looking awfully chipper considering we got up at the ass-crack of dawn. What's the one thing that could get a knitter out of bed at 6:00 on a Saturday, with a smile on her face?

BIG SALE!

The first ten people in line at the LYS got a CRAZY discount, so we made sure to get there early. K was actually the first person there, and fielded increasingly frantic text messages from me en route (and, in an extra show of support, read them aloud to all the other people in line. I do love her. My arrival was even met with a smattering of applause. Wiseacres.) The doors opened and we went nuts, but quite calmly - knitters politely stepping aside for other knitters, handing each other stuff - it was all very civilized and classy.

We were there until about 3:00. I was done shopping at about 9:30. But it was just such a nice day to sit and knit and watch people scurry around, piling yarn in corners like so many squirrels, making ooh and ahh noises over each other's scores, and asking whether they thought this yarn would work at this gauge for this sweater...

My haul?

Not bad, eh? I was very well-restrained, and I made up for the money I spent by purchasing a ton of sportweight Louet and Koigu KPM. Note that they're all undyed. Wonder what that means? (The reason I will dye very rarely is because this is the only way I'll be getting base yarns - I want good solid base yarns that people will enjoy working with, and I don't want to have to buy $500 worth of the stuff at a time, so I just wait for the sales and stock up for a small round of dyeing. I think Doni's used to it.)

There was also a 15-skein slip-up that will hopefully result in a sweater:

I'm gonna love me some of this sweater. The yarn is Mirasol Sulka and it is DELICIOUS.

What was the benefit to the early-morning arrival?

Off everyfreakin yarn in the store. And there may have been an additional small math error in my favor. (Which was let slide on consideration of my, um, past and probable future performance in the store.)

We had a blast, and then I got home and started trying to get my stuff in order ... the Great Craft Room Explosion of 2008 carries on. Here's some fun shots for you - keep in mind that things have progressed somewhat since this point.

So I have my shelves set up (thank you sweetie!) and I started stocking:

Looks great so far, huh? (That whole top row of yarns? Yeah, that's all sock yarn. I know, I KNOW!! Don't you judge me!)

Things start to get harder to take as you rotate clockwise around the room. The cedar cubbies Travis built me have shifted to the right:

These will house random skeins of yarn, projects in progress, books, dyestuffs, whatever else... and the old bookshelf will now house actual real books, the kinds that have more words than pictures.

Then...okay, brace yourself. This IS a work in progress. No more words from me, just pictures:

It'll get there. I promise. All the photos make me accountable. (Thanks for your help.) The biggest mess of it is going to be the paperwork - all the bills and house paperwork and every other bit of paper I've kept for the past three years - there have been four moves in that time, too, so stuff has tended to just get shoved in a box and I've not been as organized as I would have liked. Getting all that squared away is going to take the longest, but paper is easily stashed in the closet and dealt with over time.

Oh, and did I show you my new favourite perfect-for-me t-shirt that Jessi got me from Threadless for Christmas?

Yep, that's me.

Food. I Like It.

2008-02-15T09:39:00.003-05:00

Well, Valentine's Day was kind of a bust. By the time the outlets were done and the cleaning up was out of the way, it was pushing 10:00, so we kind of ended up not doing that whole dinner-and-DVD thing. Whatever, I have a fully functioning office/craft room now, with working grounded outlets and everything!

And I had really good company while the men worked:

(Stock photo, but this is about right. None of them wanted to leave me alone on V-Day. Indiana even stuck her head downstairs and meowed at me.)

My main reason for posting is to share a few recipes. I'm always talking about the cooking I've been doing lately, and there's a few in particular that I think are worth you giving a shot, so I'm sharing the recipe links. The black bean tortilla pie that I mentioned the other day is worth almost any sacrifice. (Psst...the recipe calls for beer or water - if you're okay with it, go for the beer. It totally makes the whole thing.)

I like to serve a simple thrown-together sour cream concoction with the tortilla pie, or any spicy mexican/tex-mex/southwestern dish, or with chips, or with a spoon. (I love sour cream maybe a little too much.) Mix together about 8 ounces of sour cream, the juice from half a lime, a few finely chopped green onions, and a few pinches of salt. You can add some finely diced jalapeno too, if you want a little heat. I tend to buy two containers of sour cream, and I leave one plain and mix the other one up this way so I have it on hand. (Seriously, SO good with potato chips. I went through a lot of this during the Super Bowl.)

I also want to point you to this Emeril recipe for the beer cheddar soup I mentioned yesterday. (Not all my food contains booze, it just worked out that way in this post.) I'm normally not an Emeril fan - I don't follow the dogma that in order to be good, food must be drowned in rich sauce, fried, covered in salt, and topped with more rich sauce. But this soup is delicious. The recipe also mentions fried broccoli - I don't bother with that, obviously. 'Cuz I kind of figured all the cheese and whole milk was enough without adding fried greenery.

On the knitting front (there IS knitting): The Project carries on, by the way - I keep a very detailed progress report going on Ravelry, if you're interested in reading how things are coming along.

I'm proud to be a federal employee today - I'm looking forward to my three-day-weekend! (For.....what is it? Some holiday....something about presidents, maybe? Whatever.)

Happy weekend!

The Boys I Love

2008-02-14T16:29:00.002-05:00

I've always been a little boy crazy:

Even if we don't go out of our way to celebrate it, it's as good a day as any to show 'em off and mention how much I love them. Especially that big one in the pink there.

I plan no chocolate or roses today; just some new electrical outlets, some reheated beer cheddar soup, and some quality couch-and-DVD time with the hubby. A perfect romantic evening, in my book! :-)

Hope everyone enjoys a lovely Valentine's Day / Thursday!

Go Herbie!!!

2008-02-11T15:38:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I don't really give a hoot one way or the other, but I'm just glad of all the nominees, Herbie Freakin' Hancock won the Grammy for Best Album. Why am I thrilled? Because it proves how ridiculous and out of touch the Grammys are. Mind you, I myself am ridiculous and out of touch, so at least we have that in common - but anywhere that Kanye West gets applause and not jeers for being a total douche, that's not a place I want to pay tribute.

Seriously, WHY is that man such a huge wad? That's the perfect argument for what my mother calls an abundance of positive feedback. Her entire argument against kids today is, "Who told these kids they're so damned special!? I never told you you were special!" Well, of course she did, but what she meant was that I was never told I was infinitely more special than all other living breathing creatures on the planet. Which is apparently the proper way to raise children now. I'm going to make sure my kids don't go around thinking they're better than everyone else. Just because their mother is, that doesn't mean they are. (Ha! I kid! Or do I...? Probably depends on who you ask.)

We went to Ikea for the first time this weekend. And then for the second time. Yeah, it's pretty much heaven on a concrete slab. I got a full-blown wood (not particle board) desk for $138. Thank you, Scratch & Dent department! And it was already put together! Sure, there was a nick in the wood at the back of the top of the desk, but by the time we'd ripped the leg off getting it upstairs, hell, you wouldn't even notice that scratch! Heh. (We fixed it.)

Yesterday, except for our second Ikea adventure, I was in the kitchen solid the whole day. Sauteed zucchini and summer squash, baked acorn squash with pecans and blue cheese, roasted asparagus, roasted brussels sprouts, black bean tortilla pie, potato and mushroom gratin, moonblush roasted tomatoes, pan-fried capers, fried calamari, sauteed calamari in wine and lemon, a few dipping sauces, and...yeah, I think that's all. Oh, and threw some ribs and chicken into a two-day marinade, going to roast those up tonight for Travis. So yes, there will be no, "Do we have anything to eat?" cries in my home. And just as I reached the home stretch, I somehow managed to get the mother of all jalapenos to spit fiery evil venom into my right eye and both nostrils.

Have you ever felt like you were bleeding from every orifice in your whole head?

I've never been in such acute and sudden and unceasing pain in my LIFE. I've been in pain, but not sheer excruciating will-this-ever-end pain for 20 straight minutes. Travis didn't react right away to the severity, either, and seemed to have an almost eye-rolling get-over-itness to the situation. (From a man who weeps at the mere glimpse of a white onion.) Turns out he just didn't grasp the level of franticness I was exhibiting right away. Since the inception of All Day Cooking Sundays, he's used to the sight of me dabbing at my eyes after a whole day of chopping onions, so he didn't really notice the difference - and he spent the rest of the night apologizing. The final stage of my complete toxic-seed-and-rib-induced breakdown had me standing in the shower, having managed to not even partially undress before just leaping in and sputtering under a spray of freezing cold water which I was trying desperately to force into my nasal and ocular cavities. The thought of just prying my own eye out did briefly occur to me.) This has happened to me before, but never to such effect. I mean, it's a damned jalapeno, not a scotch bonnet. Since when do jalapenos = pure death of vision? It was clearly the Devil's Pepper.

I'm convinced it was because I wasn't nice enough to the Jehovah's Witnesses who dropped by right when I started sauteeing garlic. (DON'T LET THE GARLIC TURN BROWN FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WHATEVER YOU DO, said the recipe. I might have been a bit, uh, brisk with the unexpected visitors.)

And for those of you who feared for the safety of my jalapeno-laden creation - I returned and managed to finish chopping and the tortilla pie came out fine, with jalapenos intact. Though I didn't quite get around to cutting up that second jalapeno for the sour cream. My epicurean sacrifice only extends so far.

With that, I sign off. No pictures, no knitting, no spinning, nothing. What the hell is that about? (I promise something knitting related someday....)

Destashed.

2008-02-05T13:37:00.000-05:00

You won't be seeing this again any time soon.

Not that you've seen it any time in the last, oh, say, two years. Which is why I finally sold my bike. We listed it on eBay THREE TIMES, dropping the reserve a bit more each time (and then trying to make a deal with the people who won but didn't reach the reserve, only suddenly they didn't want to buy it anymore). So now it's finally gone (or at least the auction has ended and pickup has been arranged.) I should have sold the thing like, oh, two years ago. Because what did I pick up right after the bike?

You guessed it.

Knitting. Specifically, sock knitting. And with that, my passion for motocross died. And my poor Travis' hope of having a daredevil woman died as well. However, I'm fairly certain he's secretly glad, as I was at least as likely to be found under the bike as on it, and he spent a lot of time squeezing my extremities and saying, "Does this hurt? How about this, does it feel tender here?" And I'm fairly certain my appearance at work wasn't especially professional with great bruises and road rash on my face and arms.

See, I didn't halfass anything. Gonna ride, might as well ride. And don't waste time steering. My days on the bike would go something like this: Full throttle straight ahead, until running into a fence or tree. Fall over. Get picked up by Travis and turned ninety degrees. Repeat into side of shed. Repeat into fence on other side of property line. Repeat into dog kennel. And so on. Thankfully he loved me enough to not point me directly at the lake behind his house, or God knows the bike and I both would have drowned there in the reeds. I did eventually pick up steering, but all four of my limbs were not usually willing to work closely together, so there was a lot of turning-and-falling-over or turning-and-choking-the-clutch or turning-and-screaming-for-help. It's probably for the best that I took up knitting. Not that I haven't done damage to myself with pointy sticks, but the pointy sticks move much more slowly than the 120 cc engine. (I should note that most of the major running into stuff was done on his bike. By the time I'd gotten my own bike, I had gotten steering down pretty pat but was starting to gain interest in socks.)

Look what else I found while I was fishing around for these pictures:

Baby Brodie!! These were the first photos we ever saw of him. (And my first hint that this was NOT going to be a six-pound MinPin like Bitty is.)

Did I mention the shop update this past Sunday? (I know, I'm completely shameless. I'm also in need of funds to continue to pay stupid vet bills. Damned corneal hernia.) I'd like all that stuff bought so it's not sitting on my dining room table. I can hear them talking. They're planning to knit themselves into a blanket. Help!

I picked a favourite:

Yep, the orange one. Well, duh.

Super Tuesday folks, hope you're getting out and voting. Don't care who for - just vote!

Happy knitting!

Sad/Happy, Happy/Sad

2008-01-31T20:57:00.000-05:00

It's been kind of an up-and-down week. First of all, a sweet blogfriend lost her precious kitty, and that has kept me sad for a few days, because I know how very close they two were. (Rooster knows it too - he's been staying even closer than usual to me ever since I teared up and announced to my hubby that "Jiva lost her Rooster". If I explain it that way, he knows it means they were very close. I love all of my pets dearly and more than life, but Rooster and I definitely share a bond.)

Speaking of bonds, Bitty's been feeling pretty bonded to something lately:

Poor Bitty! Her bootie's healed, but now she has a corneal hernia (fancy term for "eye bruise") and we have to keep her in this cone thing so she won't mess with it. We also have to inject ooze into her eye every few hours, and the ooze happens to be plasma from her own blood. While it's pretty cool to be cured by your own blood, it's a little heebie-inducing for me, so the eyedrops are totally Travis' department.

Progress on The Project continues at a surprising clip - I've been able to work on it quite a bit, so I'm making pretty decent time.

El Capitan had asked me to attend some training this week, and I wasn't looking forward to it too much, until I got there. It's not like I was dreading it, but I didn't realize how awesome (and widely used) the software I was learning would be. Turns out that the skills I'm acquiring pretty much will make me a Tech Writer, a position that I've always thought would suit me rather well. (I love to tell people what to do, I'm anal retentive, and I'm a nerd.) Not that it means I'd have any desire to leave my current job - but with the economy the way it is, it's nice to acquire any and all marketable skills, you know, just in case.

Hey, also, it's one of those nice times when I can tell you why it seems like I never knit:

My latest pattern for Zen Yarn Garden, the Daydreamer Socks (Ravelry link), is now available in her shop. May I recommend the cashmere? (Oh yeah. It's pretty sweet.)

As long as I'm talking about my patterns, I should mention that I uploaded all my free patterns to Ravelry today, so you can download them right from there now, if you like.

Promptly after my vote was submitted, my candidate dropped out of the race. How's that for making you feel like a blight? (And yet, what an odd time to step back. I heard a very interesting theory in conversation with someone this week, someone who's involved enough in politics to qualify as a voice of authority, and basically, in a surprise-but-not-really twist, it would amount to an Al Gore / Barack Obama ticket. Let me be the first to say that I am ALL FOR THAT.)

I'm heading down south this weekend (Miami!) to spend a few days with my best friend Jessi and another good friend - Jessi's wedding fast approaches (squee!) and we get to spend some time looking at dresses and just basically reverting to high school and being silly. I'm looking forward to it very much!

And when I return, there's a shop update scheduled for Sunday night. (Yes, yes, right in the middle of the Super Bowl. I know it's probably not the best time, but I'm not exactly Sundara here, so it's not like stuff flies off the shelf.) There will be twelve (twelve!!) new handspun skeins up for grabs.

Preview you say? Here's ten of 'em:

Yeah, so that's what I've been up to. I was shooting for fifteen skeins, but I now have noticed something that feels like tennis elbow in my left arm, so I think I'm done spinning until after I get back - my body is definitely telling me to give the repetitive motion a rest.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Snuggles and happy knitting - give your pets a big hug. (Or kids, if you have those instead. Or yarn. You know, whatever fluffy stuff you got lyin' around, just pick it up and give a snorgle.)

Call Me Mill

2008-01-28T18:06:00.000-05:00

I'm spinning like mad. I did FIVE yarns this weekend. FIVE. I'm serious about this shop update, dangit.

Does anyone want a skein of Socks that Rock in the Flower Power colorway from the 2007 sock club? I never really liked it but was waiting for the end of the term to sell it. I didn't ever even bother to get a picture of it, but Adelle did, and so I'm stealing hers to show you. (You don't mind, right Adelle, 'cuz you love me and stuff, right? hehe...I hate being a thief, but I'm just so laaazy...) Anyway, that's what the skein looks like - if anyone wants it, drop a comment. $20 includes shipping to US/Canada.

I'm supposed to vote tomorrow. Not that it counts. I guess I'll vote for the point of it anyway, but man I hate that the Democrat votes don't get counted (they stripped our delegates since we moved up the primary, although there's a theory that the decision will be reversed) and it's compounded by the fact that the Republican votes WILL count - is it just me, or does it seem like Florida is just TRYING to defraud the system?

We watched the movie Once last night. I loved it - the music was captivating, and the love story grabbed me. It's not your typical love story, more about how two people can share passion, a love for an idea, and the connection that creates - but it's really a beautiful story. (Assuming you can understand a word they're saying...)

Off I go to spin some more - snuggles!

Typical Friday Fare:

2008-01-25T11:38:00.000-05:00

So, as noted in yesterday's post (thank you for all your support, either by being appalled or by wondering why I thought it looked bad,) I have been very busy with the spinning. Since I've had nothing else of consequence to show off, why don't I just inundate you with handspun?

There Goes Alice

A bulky/superbulky blue-faced leicester yarn with mohair and angelina that I spun for my Funky Junkie swap pal. (Wool fiber by Funky Carolina, other stuff dug out of the stash.)

Swizzle

A twee little 50-yard skein from a Loop batt - I've had this one spun for ages and only recently decided that I like it.

Taffeta, Darling

A 145 yard skein of several wools, some bamboo and silk, and a bit o' nylon - spun from a batt prepared by Traveling Rhinos.

Curried

An 85 yard bulky skein with just about every fiber you can imagine - another delightful batt from Traveling Rhinos. I received and spun this one on the same day - I love her batts for relatively-instant gratification yarns; they make great funky singles and art yarns.

Aegean

Navajo-plied, about 285 yards of a sport weight self-striping yarn in superwash merino from The Sweet Sheep.

And finally,

Parnassus

I couldn't resist just one tribute to Heath. I'm sure he'd love that his yarn is pink and purple. (At least I didn't name it Ennis.) So this one's named in tribute to his very last project. It's a 285 yard skein of sportweight superwash merino, fiber also from The Sweet Sheep.

So there you have it. That's where I've been. Is it any wonder that Rooster has taken to sleeping on the treadles - he's probably sick to death of hearing the whir of the flyer! (At least Travis has managed to tweak out most of the wheel's ticks, squeaks, knocks, and rattles - my hobby was becoming a real annoyance to those around me.)

(As you can guess, there's hopefully a big shop update coming in the next couple of weeks.)

Cats Make Everything Harder - Er, Better.

2008-01-24T15:41:00.000-05:00

So, yeah, like you all didn't know, but the Interweave Spring preview is up (edit: no it's not - apparently someone goofed), and so are the Knitty surprises.

Me? I'm seeing some things I like, but honestly, can we stop with the 3/4 sleeve cardigans/blouses? I mean, they're real nice and everything, but damned if everything isn't starting to look a lot the same to me.

(I'd love to see some different names in IK, too. I love the designers they use, don't get me wrong, but I'd also like a hefty selection of fresh voices...)

There's a nice little profit-sharing thing going on at The Sanguine Gryphon right now. She's going to be splitting everything she makes with a family who very much needs it - you can read more about it on this post of hers. I thought that was quite generous and well-spirited of her, so if you're in need of anything - or if you're not - maybe you could shop there?

I stopped treadling for about seven and a half seconds last night to tear off a chunk of fiber from the batts I was working with. Turns out it only takes seven and a quarter seconds for me to lose all control of my intentions for the evening:

What is it with this cat? He wants to go to work, I'll put him to work!

As it turns out, work is not his style:

(It fell on him. He didn't move an inch.)

So, besides The Project, you wanna know what else I plan to work on this weekend? Remember this place?:

Yeah, now it's THIS place:

Horrifying, isn't it? I accumulated maybe a bit too much stuff. I'm in the process of reorganizing and in the meantime, the happy zen knitting room looks like this. It's making me nuts. Sharing it with the public will hopefully serve to motivate me even further to restore it to its former glory. Please, tell me how appalling it is so I'll be ashamed and lock myself in there until it's clean.

There's a ton of spinning around here lately - maybe for tomorrow (or whenever's) post I'll just do a nice collage. I've been busy. Well, when Rooster has allowed me to use the wheel.....

Things I Was Just Saying Today...

2008-01-22T17:22:00.001-05:00

...while discussing a preview I saw on Sunday:

"I know they'd be loathe to nominate someone from a comic book movie for an Oscar, but I really think he's going to be the embodiment of a bad guy."

"He's going to surpass Jack as the ultimate Joker."

"Remember Monster's Ball?? OH MY GOD."

"He's really extremely gifted. I wish I got to see more of him."

"Have you noticed that he's been looking a little rough around the edges lately?"

I know it's pretty far outside my world, but I admired his art, and it makes me very sad. Very sad indeed.

Are You Kidding?

2008-01-18T05:29:00.001-05:00

Dudes. I woke up at FOUR in the MORNING. (I'll make a great mother, apparently, because I can hear a cat barf from across the house.) Normally I'd manage to clean it up (and by clean it up, I mean shove Travis out of bed to do it because he can recover to sleep mode from just about anything) and get right back to sleep. However, this morning? Not so much. It didn't help that after Indiana did her sick thing, Rooster jumped up on the bed, curled up on my arm, sneezed on my neck twice, and then settled for sleeping on my face. Yeah, forget it, I'm up.

I've managed to do some things I've been putting off (for no good reason and to horrible effect, as I frequently wake up at odd hours of the night and morning with stomach acids letting me know that I do not deserve rest so long as I continue to fail to complete X, Y, and Z tasks) and now I'm even pondering getting my knitting room cleaned up. Or do I go back to sleep?

Crap, the first alarm just went off. I could still get another hour....

ETA: PS: Oh, THAT'S what it is. In the past four hours or so, my body has increasingly been reminding me that it's been fighting off a cold bug and it's out of battle resources - I'm not horribly ill yet, but I know my immune system, so I want to get it handled before I'm completely out of white cells and go fetal. Doctor's visit later this morning, then sleep, glorious sleep....