Home for the Holidays

I am back! Once again I have returned, unscathed, from the land of the in-laws. Such wonderful people... it was a week of much laughter, much fun, and much FOOD. That family can COOK - I think they even managed to fatten me up, something my own family has been unable to do for thirty some-odd years...

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season, filled with love and light. My holidays are a bit extended this year, as I will be celebrating Christmas with my own family here in Colorado on Jan 2nd. And as such, I had a wee bit of extra time to finish up the family's knit presents. Hooray!

Since my husband got himself a bad-ass new camera for Christmas, he graciously offered to take pictures for the blog. So here we go!

For: Momma :D
Pattern: Weekend Cardigan by Ivete Tecedor
Yarn: Knit Picks Swish Superwash, doubled, in Fired Brick
Needles: Size 10
Mods: I knit this in the round and added a few decreases to the body for shaping. I also added toggles all the way down the front.

For: My sister

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie by Heather Lodinsky
Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool
Needles: Sizes 5 and 7
Mods: None

For: Nana, the knitting matriarch

Pattern: #107 Bobble, Bobbles Everywhere by Nora J. Bellows
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needles: Size 10

I'm so excited to give her this gift. Bobbles have been a running family joke for years... I think she'll be over the moon about this bag. I'm SO pleased with how it turned out!

There are many resolutions in my near future... not the least of which is to have a fantastic new year and wish you all joy in the coming days and months!

'tis the season indeed

I am, by involuntary action, a cynical person. I tend to believe the negative things more than the positive. I don't know why - it's certainly not by choice - it's more a habit that I fall into and forget how to get out of.

Every once in a while something smacks me out of this. Today I read a post that actually caused me to shed tears in the realization that such wonderful people exist in the world. This knitting community has touched me far more with the graciousness of good than I ever expected it to, and I am very, very grateful to each of you.

If you are reading this... you are charged to do something good today. Give a random gift. Call someone you haven't talked to in a long time. Buy lunch for the homeless guy on the corner. Something good. Something unexpected. Bring joy.

If you are the one who inspired this post, you'll know who you are. You're off the hook. And thank you for smacking me.

Back in action

After a month of sheer craziness, I finally have a moment to sit down and rest. Snow is drifting by my window and there is that utter silence that snow brings, broken only by the dog snoring and my typing. It's really quite nice.

So. What have I been doing for the last month? It's been a hectic four weeks! We had family in town for Thanksgiving, so there was all the attendant madness there. My mother's family is nuts anyway, so having them around is always an adventure. :D Work is keeping me on my toes and extremely busy - I've been learning a lot of new things, which always makes me feel like I'm just flying by the seat, you know? Fun but exhausting as well.

In the last two weeks Soundvice had its first show with the new lineup, and Dave and I have been to the mountains twice for music for him. The first was a 36 hour ski event they played at, and this past Thursday his band opened up for Ziggy Marley in Vail... that was fun. Dave's brother was in town too - I don't think he'd ever seen Dave play, so it was neat to see his reaction. Other than that, we played tourist in Vail and drove back through a mad snowstorm. They closed the pass just after we got through...

As for crafty stuff, I have (for the most part) finished my xmas knitting. I have the buttons to sew on and the button hole band to do on the CPH, and I need to find clasps for my mother's weekender. The ones I fell in love with are too too big. Sad. Last night I dove into the mad yarn barfage that was my bobble pile and I sewed them all up into neat little balls.... pulling them out of their tangled mess was an interesting process. Behold the pre-bobbles:

THAT was exciting. The dogs even got involved, as one of them took off with a blue bobble and the rest of the pile went dragging after her... and then they made a game, as I ended up chasing them around the house as they stole bobbles. Ahh, fun stuff.

I took out my sewing machine a couple weeks ago and made some pretties for myself. Primarily a grey shift dress with some lacy bits. I don't have a photo, since my camera battery is nowhere to be found, but pictures will eventually ensue. I'd forgotten how much WORK sewing is. It looks like it should be so simple...

Contrary to popular belief...

... I am not, in actuality, dead. I will provide updates and yummy pictures soon. :D

Everybody knows it's Windy....

My dog hates the wind. She's fine with thunder, fireworks, whatever. But the wind... not so much. The night before last blew a fierce storm, and Kona paced... back and forth... clickety click across the bathroom floor. Occasionally she'd paw at us or cross the bed back and forth.

For hours this went on. Finally, around 2am, I got up and as a last ditch effort, made her a little fort right next to Dave's side of the bed. I pulled over her bed, and stuffed a towel and a blanket between the bed and the nightstand. The result was this:

but hallelujah if she didn't stay there all dang night. She's not real pleased with me... I pulled up the towel to show the fort... previously she was all snuggled up under there feeling safe and secure. That is a not-happy-with-me dog.

I made my dog a fort. I don't know if that's ridiculous or inventive. But I made my dog a FORT.

My little pony

The weekend cardigan, minus her clasps, is done. Despite massive color bleeding when washed, I love the yarn. The color and the feel... it's wonderful. If I make this again I'll probably make a few mods, like holding on to the edge ribbing stitches for the neckline and picking up fewer neckline stitches. But overall I'm very very happy with it. I think my mother will be too...

Pattern: Weekend Cardigan by Ivete Tecedor
Yarn: Swish Superwash from KnitPicks - double stranded
Needles: Size 10
Colorway: Fired Brick

I've also cast on for my sister's CPH and made some pretty good headway. I've set myself a two week time limit to finish this sweater... should be more than enough, don't you think? Especially when you consider what I did yesterday...
The back piece is knit to the armholes. I am hoping to finish the back tonight and do the two front pieces this week. We'll see. I am going to the hockey game tonight (GO AVS!!!!) and I have music Tuesday and Thursday. It'll be a row here and a row there.

Everything else is plugging along. I picked up some adorable vogue sewing patterns this weekend. I think after Christmas I might pull out my sewing machine, dust her off, and make something pretty for myself. I've been leaning towards 50's style dresses lately... I realized this summer that hey - I have no summer dresses. Boo. This must be remedied. So what do you think? With a nice linen fabric maybe? Or cotton? I also picked up this for my neice... she's in the "heesee" phase and loves everything related. She's even got my little ponies... remember those? Yeah, me too. Funny.

:D

busy bee

Things seem to be back to normal around here. All the evacuated are back home and still HAVE homes (for which I am thankful) and we've stopped staring intently at the television and gone back to having the history channel as background noise. In the interim we went to the punkin patch, where DD and Unga Dees appear to have had too much coffee...

And I have just about finished mom's weekend cardigan. This is the body. One sleeve is about done, I just have the other sleeve and some finishing to do. I'm not totally sold on this yet - we'll see how it blocks out and how the toggle clasps work... I may pull it apart and make some mods if I have time. Honestly, it's such a quick knit that it's hardly a big deal at all!

I'll hopefully soon cast on for the sister's cardigan, and I need to bobble for the bobble bag. Other than that, I'm in pretty decent shape. Last year this time I hadn't even started. Maybe this year my hands won't fall off. :D

world is on fire

If you've been reading this blog, you'll know we just got back from my brother in law's wedding in San Diego... Scripps Vista, to be precise. Everyone's out, including some other family I have just north of there. So we're safe, but I *REALLY* hope none of you are in southern California right now...

The all-purpose cardigan

My wardrobe is simple. I have a lot of very clean lines and single color items. So I tend to rely on accent items to spice things up - shoes, scarves, sweaters... Now that the weather has started getting colder, I'm relying a lot on tshirts and cardigans... ergo this lovely item is going to be a staple.

Behold the black CPH - superwashed, blocked, and currently being worn.
Pattern: Central Park Hoodie - KnitScene Fall 2006
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Needles: Size 5 and 7
Colorway: Black

This knit up pretty tight - in fact, I was a little worried about the fit. But blocking made this soft, supple, and just the right size.

LOVE.

More shots - can you tell how much I'm in love with this sweater?

Utter madness

In light of the recent weather (it's 43 degrees and drizzling) I figured it was time to pack away the summer garments and bring out the nice knit sweaters. Plus I was cold.

Before I packed her away in cedar and lavender, I photographed the summertime tunic to give you all a peek. So here she is:

Can you see the difference in lots? I thought I'd picked out all the same lot number. Turns out they were one digit off. I didn't notice until AFTER I was done. Oh well. You can't really tell when I'm wearing it. And it's comfy and cool and ergo it's going into storage until weather permits.

I'm about halfway done with the weekend cardigan. I'm knitting the two front pieces and the back all as one... a zillion stitches per row but it's less seaming when I'm done (woohoo) . About a third of the way through my most recent row, however, I realized that I'm probably going to want to do some waist shaping. There's none in the pattern, but I think my mother will appreciate a more streamlined form. I don't think I'll mod much besides that, but we'll see. So far I'm quite pleased with the color and the knit. Hopefully she will be too!

stitch-o-rama

I spent my Friday night at my Nana's, organizing her knitting needles into the needle roll I made for her. That woman has a LOT of knitting needles. She also has a vast collection of the funniest old knitting books. Good heavens we used to knit ugly stuff! As I got chances I did rows on my second CPH sleeve - I got to the bind off row before I realized I'd royally screwed something up and had to frog back to the beginning of the decrease section. Boo. But the darling black CPH is on her way! I promise!

Stash enhancement has occurred over the last few weeks, which is soon to become stash dehancement (is that a word?) because I'm starting to knit gifts for my family. This lovely lady...

will soon be the weekend cardigan for my mother.

A nice deep cedar green (which I haven't ordered yet) will become a CPH for my sister, since she keeps wanting to borrow mine! >:|

And for Nana? Well, she is getting something special. She'll receive a nice bright bobble bag. Her love of bobbles is a standing joke in the family - once she knit my father a brilliant kelly green sweater with bobbles all over the front... it was hideous... in fact, I think I inherited that thing... Yep. In the laundry hamper. Anything Nana knits you is to be worn with pride, right? Right. Anyway, Nana is getting the bobble bag.

Speaking of the kelly green bobble sweater...

It's a little (okay, maybe a lot) more neon than this, I think the red balances out the green, but... yeah.

7 things...

Per a friend to knit with, I am considering myself tagged to rattle off seven truths. :D
Here are the rules:
1 Link the person who has tagged you 2. Tell 7 true things about yourself 3. Tag 7 new people
4. Leave a message with the person you have tagged so they know about it.

Here we go!
1. mildly ocd - runs in my family. i either knit obsessively or bake obsessively or play music obsessively. my sister's obsessive about germs... she cannot wear dirty socks, and once she spitshined our wood floor because she'd watched some show on dustmites!

2. cooktarded - i can bake like nobody's business, but bloody hell if i can cook. in fact, the first 6 months we were married, my husband wouldn't let me use the nice new calphalon pans, citing some incident i don't remember about setting the stove on fire trying to make rice.

3. musically inclined - i could sing before i could talk, and my parents finally put me into piano lessons at 3 1/2 after finding me writing harmonies to tv commercial songs. it's my only real talent.

4. compulsive list maker - i love lists. i love writing them out. i like making things neat and organized, and seeing them written out helps me focus.

5. furnace - i sleep extremely hot. enough that my husband jerks away if i touch him and the dogs won't stay near me for any length of time unless the windows are open and it's the dead of winter. my mother makes jokes about roasting marshmallows over me while i sleep.

6. schmoopy movies - i like crappy drama movies. not the made-for-tv-lifetime type movies, but movies like "the day after tomorrow" and "the prince and me". they're awful, i know, but it's great background noise and it's totally mindless drivel for when I don't want to use my brain.

7. early riser - no matter how late i was up the night before, i am almost always up by 8am. normally i'm up by 6:30 or so. i love it - i love the quiet and the smell of dew on the grass - or the frost in autumn - or the coffee if my hubby gets up before me. if it's nice out, we'll sit out on the porch and drink coffee and be still together. it's my favorite time of day.


Since I don't know if there are 7 people who actually read this blog, consider yourself tagged if you read this. :D

Time for a new schema

Please stand by as my blog needs a tune-up. :D

I'm baaaaaaaaack! part 2

Wedding over we headed north to SLO to spend a couple days with the in-laws. It was much needed relaxation. We went to the beach...

I got a new dress, which I can't show you because I don't have a picture of, and we bought lots and lots of wine. And drank lots and lots of wine. PSA - if you're me and you drink too much wine with your father in law you will end up telling him all about knitting and how much fun it is and the differences between yarns and fibers and ... you get the idea.

We headed towards Monterey Bay and Carmel, and then east to Tahoe. We stayed in a town called Truckee - and I got to tell you - it's suprisingly like my home town. Even the smell. And the bear tracks... this dude knew exactly where he was going... straight to the rubbish bins. *sigh* They weren't locked or covered or anything. Maybe they emptied them earlier.

Anyway, it was snowing in Tahoe so we got out and did a little jig in the snow (we LOVE the snow) and then headed to Utah again... this time via the northern route. We stopped in Salt Lake City - I've been through their airport gazillions of times but never into the city proper - and I have to admit that I really like it there. It's not a big town, not nearly as big as I thought it was, and you can walk from one end of downtown to the other in about 15-20 minutes. The landscaping - there are flowers everywhere - it's freaking gorgeous... a riot of color everywhere you go. Everything centers around Temple Square... where the temple is and where Brigham Young's house (the Beehive House) was/is... we stopped in to see the place and ended up on a tour with a bunch of missionaries getting ready to head out... it was kind of a surreal experience. The house and its particulars are really well preserved... I drooled copiously over the music instruments, and there was a rack with yarn all ready to be made into yarn cakes. If you're ever in Salt Lake, I definitely recommend going by and taking the tour. The missionaries are for the most part very nice. They don't bite or anything! :D

Out of Salt Lake, through Wyoming, and on our way home, I started and finished the mother in law's Christmas socks...





And now we're back. And I'm never driving anywhere again. EVER.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Hello my lovelies! Did you miss me? I have returned from California land and have come to tell you the harrowing tale of travel, weddings, and knitterly things. So sit back with a nice cup of hot cider (or whatever) and I will begin my tale!

On the 9th we departed the house. Dave drove, I knit. What did I knit? I shall show you!

Dave's Thuja's! This is the second sock, and I finished it up as we were crossing the state line into... dun dun dun.... UTAH.

Utah is an interesting state. I have not been there much, except for a 7th grade ski trip to Park City and a backpacking trip into Moab. Oh yeah, and I did some climbing there WAY back when before I broke my wrists.

Anyway, Utah is interesting. We spent the night in Green River, apparently famous for its melon growing capabilities. I thought that perhaps my lack of blessing in the melon department would make me stand out, but it turns out it wasn't the kind of melons I was thinking of. Apparently LA is the place to go for THAT kind of thing, as I later discovered.


As we made our way to Nevada, I started knitting up this little guy:

It's for my grandmother, who will absolutely love the colors. It's knit in Cascade Fixation in some colorway that I can't remember at the moment. Nice and stretchy though. You'll have to forgive my rather icky blue toenails - my 1 1/2 year old neice painted them (with a little help). I must say, knitting socks on size three needles goes a lot slower than knitting them on size fives. (insert unanimous "DUH" here).

Anyway, as I was knitting this guy up, we're driving up a boring hill with nothing much to see, and we decided to stop at this totally random "Scenic View" thing to stretch our legs. As we pulled up, we saw THIS:

Holy crap on a stick. I was SO not expecting this - the picture doesn't even do it justice. It was PHENOMENAL. You could see down into the canyons and holler echoes and... wow. Just wow. I love surprises like this.

After recovering for a few minutes we drove away down the road. We arrived in San Diego Tuesday and spent the rest of the week in wedding preparations. The wedding was gorgeous, the bride was beautiful, the flower girl was adorable, and we had inordinate amounts of pictures taken. Mission accomplished, the brother and sister in law got hitched and are currently lounging somewhere in Central America.

Are you hooked yet? Part two tomorrow...

A quick update...

The wedding was a success! In fact, it could hardly have gone any better, despite the stress &etc. And here is my new beautiful sister-in-law wearing her flower basket shawl...


I've not been able to knit nearly as much as I'd hoped.... but now we're on our way home knitting as we go... so I'll hopefully have a couple of FOs to show you when we get back on Saturday!

Cheers and I hope you all are well!

On vacation...

Hello my lovelies!

I apologize for my lack of blogginess but I'm currently in San Diego getting ready for my brother in laws wedding. I promise I'll post soon with FOs and pictures and STUFF. :D

Luv,
Me

Whoa.

Good morning. I woke up this morning, put on my running clothes, leashed up the dog, stepped out my door, and stopped dead in my tracks.

Here's why.

A quick and crappy panorama circa 7am this morning. The photos were taken from the windows in my loft. I'll futz with it later with some actual photo editing software, but you get the idea.

The flower basket shawl is done and blocking. Photos to come soon...

:D

un-tardedly lacey

Since the man of the house is out on the east coast being spacey (AAHAHAHAAA - get it? being spacey... being... nevermind)

Anyway, I have loads of time on my hands and so I actually sat down and figured out the FBS pattern. In fact, I geeked out and wrote it all out in excel with formulas to update the repeats and a macro to run them. And now! Ta DAAAAA:



I present you the untarded lace. Doesn't look like much but I stretched it all out a bit and you can actually see the flower baskets! How cool is that?

Having procrastinated this project I now have a week to finish it. Well, a little more than a week, although I'm hoping to get it all finished and washed and blocked before we leave. Ugh. Wish me luck...

Yardwork, knittage, and stuff.

Dude, I just realized that I blogged about port-a-potties on my birthday. How apropos.

So! I have been a slacker, due to many things, not the least of which is the yard stuffs. We went from this:












to this:

within two weeks. HRB says he feels like we're cheating... we're used to doing all this ourselves! Fortunately we have a space for a vegetable garden that he can get all crazy-diy on building planters and such. He's actually quite good at this kind of stuff - at our old place he made this rad little planter (oh my gosh, did I just type RAD?!) that was a set of offset squares... it was really cool. I'm kind of excited to see what he comes up with...

I have, actually, been knitting. HRB has been out of town for the last week or so in San Diego giving some sort of nerd lecture, and this week he's out on the east coast making sure his space ship will fly or something like that. In technical terms, he's doing pre-flight calibration and testing of the instrument, but whatever. Back to knitting.SOCKS! My Thuja's are done and HRB liked them so much he requested his own. So I went and picked up a couple orphan skeins of superwash for him and away I go!















Next on the list is the startation of Christmas knittage. My next post will have the gift names of what I'm knitting for who, so if you're family and you're reading this, you are forboten to read any further posts!

Hmm. I think I need a dictionary.

The odd thing about port-a-potties...

Hi. This is a non-knitting post, but hey. I'll leave you with a nice pretty picture at the end. Deal?

So. Some of you may or may not know that my husband and I live in a relatively new development. Now, if you've seen these new developments, you know that they give you nice happy grass and a tree in the front yard and a big pile of dirt in the back. And then they require you to do your own landscaping. We were some of the last people to move into this development, hence, we are pretty much the only ones who still have dirt in our back yard (actually, it's a jungle of weeds that the dogs stalk crickets through) and the neighbors are starting to look at us funny.

Enter the landscaping company. We contracted to get some landscaping done.. uh... to be honest, it's a total overhaul. Being that this is a multi-day job, this nice landscaping company put a port-a-potty outside our yard on the sidewalk.

So the odd thing about port-a-potties is how many random people just stop by to use them. I understand the landscaping crew, that's fine. But the other night some random dude drove up in a truck, used our port-a-potty, and then tore out of the neighborhood like his hair was on fire. Just now the solid waste folks (yeah, I know, but I'm not going there) stopped their massive truck, both used our port-a-potty, and took off. There have been other incidents, but I wasn't here, the neighbors told me about it.

I don't know why, but all this random port-a-potty using seems really strange to me. I hate port-a-potties. I will only use them under extreme duress. I suppose it's easier for guys, since they don't have to sit down, but still. It's just gross. Isn't it gross? I mean, honestly. Just thinking about all this makes me wanna go wash my hands.

Let's change the subject. This nice new neighborhood also has a big field that they land and launch hot air balloons from. Hence:


This first one is from one of the loft windows looking left. You can just almost see the mountains under the right balloon...

The next shot is from what used to be our back stoop. The line on the right is my house. You see that park on the left? A few weeks ago, one of these balloons almost landed in that park!





The neighbor behind us got a good view...

Knock knock...

It's me! And look! Orangina was worn out and about today! I'm definitely a fan... though I might add a little length to it in the future. Maybe my next one. Ooo - in a nice raspberry rich red. Mmm. Raspberries!

I'm heavily medicated at the moment... this cold just won't go away. I even tried to make a deal with my nose: I won't use harsh tissues on it if it stops running. So far the deal isn't working. Even the medication isn't really working. Bah.

So what does one do when heavily medicated? One must try a knitting pattern one has never tried before. So what did I do? SOCKS! Did you hear that!? I KNITTED A NON-UGLY-SOCK!!! Well, I don't think it's ugly anyway. It's the thuja pattern... I'm trying out sock patterns for potential Christmas gifts. *sigh* August, and I'm thinking about Christmas. Anyway anyway look!

It's knit out of the leftover hourglass yarn - so I can wear my sweater and wear my socks and I will MATCH. Kick ASS. I finished this one yesterday, when not-so-medicated, and today (just now, really) I tried to knit the other side... I'm about halfway done but I think due to the medication I missed a whole set of instructions and I ended up with a smurf-sized sock. Hmm. Maybe I can make it a nose-warmer.

Um, what's left? My honey displayed his mad baking skills and made me a loaf of bread:

Really it's for him, but I get some. Not that I can taste the bread, or really anything, at the moment, but I'm sure it tastes great. :D

I think I ought to go to bed now.

Blocking blocking blocking...

Orangina is finished and blocking! To be honest, I'm not quite sold on her yet... I needed some length and while I *think* I got it with the blocking, we'll have to see. It's a beautiful pattern though and I'm waiting patiently to see how she turns out...

As you may also have noticed from the sidebar... I've had the Summertime Tunic finished for a minty... I'm just waiting to update y'all with pics before I move it off to the FO list. I'll take pics soon - really I will! The summertime tunic is way cute... I've already worn it twice since finishing it. Yay for happy patterns!

Today was a sick day... on the evening we returned from the backpacking adventure, I went to my nephew's fourth birthday party... many many screaming sugar-high children who were all in all pretty damn funny. At one point DD (nephew) was jumping around in the kitchen saying "I've... had... too... much... sugar.... sugar... sugar.... sugar..."

Anyway, children are petri dishes and lo and behold, I got sick. So I spent all day sleeping and knitting the sleeve of my soon to be new favorite sweater... the black CPH. I love cardigans, I love black cardigans even more, and I love the 220 superwash from Cascade. Let's hear a cheer for Cascade 220! Those COLORS! That feel! Love love love. I can't wait to finish this cardigan.

I'll update with pics soon! Stay tuned!

I'm baaaaaaaack!

What, you didn't know I was gone? Yeah, well. I was. Gone, that is. And now I'm back. But here's where I was:


We've been backpacking in Wyoming with some friends. I've never been backpacking with others before... usually it's either me solo or me with the hubby and dogs. But it was super fun! I confess, I thought about taking some knitting, but after somber consideration I realized that I wouldn't have knit even if I had yarn and needles. There's so much fun to be had! Like king of the mountain:














And swimming!
Did you honestly expect me to knit with such wonders before me? Most definitely not. I did think about knitting though. And now that I am home I will knit, and peruse Ravelry when I should be knitting, and probably buy more yarn for patterns I found on Ravelry when really I should have been knitting. And hopefully then knit.

Alas, poor skinny bitch, we knew her well...

Oh, hello!

I know, long time no type. Like others before me, I have fallen off the face of the blogging world, only to be caught up and swept away by the loveliness that is Ravelry. I cannot, in good conscience, apologize because it is just too wonderful to be swirling around in patterns and favorites and such, I can only offer that I haven't forgotten you completely... I WILL update again!... and if not already there, I will pray for your immediate inclusion into Ravelry. And if you haven't signed up for Ravelry yet...

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?

Uh, I mean... I will pray for your sanity. Wait, that's not right either. Um, yeah. :D I love you all.


Dude - that third sentence was AWESOME. Best grammar EVER.

SKU-WEEEEEEEEEEE

Ravelry!


(quick edit/update... my username is skinnybknits if you wanna find me....)

Lacetardedness

Uh. So.

I had planned on making my soon to be sister in law the flower basket shawl for her bridal shower gift, but it is just not going to happen.

Why?

Because I am completely and utterly lacetarded. Orangina is fine because it's a small repeat. Anything more complicated and my brain gives out. I can't tell if it's just that I use up all my brain cells during the day writing code and learning Russian, or if I'm just totally unable to count. I still add smallish numbers on my fingers, for heaven's sake.

The bright side of this is that Tiennie, who happens to have some kick-ass timing (as well as knitting), provided me with an alternate idea...

Check out her "love languages" blog post. :D


A general idea of my current state:



Courtesy of the creatures in my head.

WHOA!

Holy CRAP! Did you guys see THIS:

Student knits her own Ferrari

Art graduate Lauren Porter knitted a Ferrari sportscar for her honours degree at Bath Spa University.

The classic red bodywork consists of 250 squares of garter stitch made by Lauren and 20 family members and friends.

The windows are V-shaped stocking stitch, while the details are crochet and the badge is embroidered.

It's all supported by a steel frame which Lauren, 22, of Greatham, Hants, welded herself.

Incidentally, what the heck is "Bath Spa University"? I just saw "Legally Blonde" for the first time on tv and now all I can think about is Delta Nu.

Stockinette lace

Who knew? Did *you* know that Orangina was such a quick knit? Is it a craft secret?

This fabulous piece of lace only took me a couple hours to knit up. At this rate, I might have to knit myself 5 or 6 more! So easy! I've found, however, that I can't watch anything engaging on TV whilst knitting this. I get too involved and I've had to frog a few rows due to a rather interesting National Geographic show. :D What can I say, I'm a sucker for boring tv.

Speaking of TV, I woke up Saturday morning feeling rather ill - so in the interest of keeping myself on the couch and resting, I decided to do something TOTALLY boring. I popped Pride and Prejudice (both disks) in the dvd player and started the prairie tunic. Not as quick a knit as the orangina, but still coming along. The picture doesn't do the color justice, it's BEAUTIFUL. A vibrant, hallelujah, kick my heels up and rejoice at the beautiful sky type of blue. The kind of blue that my grandmother used to look at and say "look, the ceruleans have come out to play!". She was a bit bonkers, that one. But so sweet. And one HELL of an artist. So this color will remind me of her when I wear it, and I can watch anything I want on tv because it's ALL STOCKINETTE STITCH.

Ka-CHOW

She is finished! The hourglass is finished(I know, a wool sweater in summer? I must be nuts.) and I couldn't be happier. Well, I could, maybe with a large bar of real belgian chocolate and maybe sitting on a beach somewhere watching money fall into my lap and his royal braininess running around with no shirt on serving me drinks and... *sigh*

The hourglass. Right.

So... yeah. I must say, I now understand all the gushing about this sweater...it just FITS. I LOVE it. Really quite sad it's not snowing out, to be honest, because I can't wait to wear this sweater... maybe a visit home to Alaska is in order? To like, Barrow or scenic Deadhorse? Urgh.

To try to show you a better picture of the color....
isn't it just divine?

Pattern: Hourglass Sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson.
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash in color 863
Needles: Knitpicks Options, size 5 circular
Mods: Seed stitch borders for sleeves, neck, and waist. I also added 5 decrease rows at the neck.

I am so totally making this sweater again... in a nice summery cotton this time. :D