~ [Shadkitty Knitty] ~

Dec 17, 2007

I Must Have Missed Thanksgiving

I really don't know why I'm posting right now. Everything is a little fuzzy. There are hundreds of things I should be doing. The Lady is sitting in my living room, I'm working on that Cerelia from Spincerely still. Gotta pay bills. Fold laundry. Bake cookies. Finish a gift. *sigh* I haven't read blogs in ages (sorry guys!).Obviously, I posted that hat pattern. Glad that went over so well, I hope to see a few people knitting it on Ravelry. :)

Anyways, that's not what this post is about. Since my husband left, I haven't really had time to miss him. Right up until December. December is my favorite month. Yes, it's my birth month, but it's more than that. I love the Christmas season. There are fudge, cookies, lights, Christmas music and specials...it's a loving and warm time of the year. My husband and I met in November of 2003, we married three days before Christmas. Of that same year. Yep. I know. There were times we thought we wouldn't make it, and I wasn't really sure I'd miss him that much when he was gone. Sure, I'd hate being alone. But miss him so badly? Nah. Saturday will be our fourth

anniversary, and I miss him more than ever right now. The littlest things will make me tear up. Over the weekend I got my order from The Loopy Ewe and discovered I'd made it! I was a Loopy Groupie!! Now, I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but Sheri is doing a thing supporting Random Acts of Kindness this month. Go check out her blog if you haven't heard of it yet. Anyways, a few weeks ago Sheri emailed me to let me know that someone had donated a $25 Loopy credit as a RAK, and asked Sheri to find someone. Sheri had chosen me! That made me cry, I come from a small place, and live in a town where everyone is pretty much the same (all Marines and Marine wives). For most people here, your husband being deployed doesn't make you special at all. Civilians don't usually grasp the concept, and until you experience deployment...it's difficult to relate. He's far away from us, we can't call him, I can't ask him to come home, and war is scary.

Right now, we are financially sound. We don't have a lot of money, but we have enough

to pay our bills. However, I don't have that many friends in my area. People here are difficult to rely on. And, of course, I try to choose my friends carefully. Mostly, I am depending on the kindness of knitters to help get me through all of this. Even though they cannot be here with me, just having someone to talk to helps. Thank you to all of you who are there for me during this difficult time. Even when I disappear for a bit, I'm still knitting, and still thinking about all of you. *hugs* Where would I be without knitters?

Labels: blah, blogging, busy, family, friends, gratitude, knitters, Loopy Ewe, procrastinating, purchases, rambling, yarn

23:01 | |

Sep 14, 2007

The Long Goodbye

This, my friends, is going to be a long post. So long in fact, that I am going to post all of the non-knitting related stuff elsewhere. Mr. Shad leaves tomorrow. :( And I am going to miss him, but that is all I will say here. If you really want to you can go read the other post.

In knitting news, I did start Mad Color Weave with Amazonas. Actually, I started them later that evening. There were several "false starts", I couldn't decide which size to do, then I couldn't wrap my head around the pattern. It's funny because it's such a simple pattern. Could have something to do with using 3 needles instead of 4, ya think? All that is left now is the toe, then I can start the second sock. They are a little snug, but that can actually be a good thing. Thelonious has a tendency to sag a bit, and I hate that.

Even though we are still in full on summer swing (weather-wise) down here, my mind has already started to turn to sweaters, Christmas gifts, and other fall knits. Mr. Shad helped me choose between knitting the Luna Dress or the Somewhat Cowl. He said that the Luna Dress was too frumpy. :/ Whatever. Anyways, I'm okay with the Somewhat Cowl, actually the more I look at it the more I like it. I even ordered yarn for it, which Mr. Shad also picked out. He would pick olive drab. lol The color is called Fern, but it's actually much nicer in person than it looked online. I was having second thoughts at first. The original appears to be green as well, for some reason I kept thinking it was brown. Then again, certain shades of green and brown look almost the same. If you don't believe me, come over some time and I will show you my living room walls.

Okay, I must admit to something, I hate knitting those stupid Converse Booties. I

started another pair for a friend's baby, and nearly threw the yarn across the room. Why on earth did I make the toe so complicated and ridiculous?! Oh yeah, because it looks good. >.< Anyways, I ended up modifying the pattern so it could be done in the round. When I am through with all of my posting I will go add those alterations to the little pattern so that it can be done either way. Still a lot of ends to weave in, but at least there is no seaming. Finishing the second booty is part of my goal for today. Which includes: finishing the booties, finishing the first Amazonas sock, swatching for the Somewhat Cowl, and knitting at least 1 rep of the pattern on Goddess.

Oh yeah, that. That's right, I haven't posted about Goddess in forever have I? Eh. Everything is pretty much done except the 5.5" of pattern at the end. Let me tell

you how much I loathe it. It is only 4 rows, and I'm lucky if I get half a rep done. I'm trying to do at least one a day, I should need about 13 total. Right now there are about 4 of them...so only 9 to go! If you don't see a FO post about Goddess in two weeks, start complaining. Apparently when I put things into hibernating they go in there for several months. Currently in hibernation (thanks for reminding me constantly Ravlery), I have the Uber-crop Raglan, Butterfly Headwrap, Harley Quinn, and the Martha/Nermal socks. I guess 4 out of 57 isn't bad, right? That leaves 47 things I have finished (4 in progress, and 2 frogged), including mom's top. If I can finish that I can finish anything. Once the cold starts to hit, I'll probably pull Harley Quinn back out, they are actually almost finished. Just gotta do the entrelac cuff on the second sock. Okay, now I am just rambling!

Last up on the dockett today (I think), Flint Knits swapped me her copy of

Twinkle's Big City Knits for a skein of CTH Supersock in Yellow. I think I got the better end of that deal. :) This is why I love knitters though, we were just pondering sweaters together and I mention thinking about buying the book. She says, "Ah, I have that and can't use it! Would you like to swap?" Would I ever?! Oh, but what do I have to offer? A quick look over the stash ~~tempted her~~ gave her an idea of what she wanted. I would have given her my leftover Wollmeise Poison Nr. 5, but feel kind of badly about it only being half the skein (literally, it's 76g). Probably should have sent both. :D The Skating Sweater (see above links) is really calling to me. So much so that I have been looking into yarn for it, and actually agreed to buy some Cascade Magnum off of a fellow Raveler.

In other news, this kind of upsets me. It's cool they mention knitting...but I don't want them encouraging others to fake it. :/ Okay, I am just ridiuclous.

Labels: alpaca, blah, blogging, booties, Goddess, gratitude, procrastinating, progress, purchases, rambling, Ravelry, socks, swaps, Wollmeise, yarn

09:10 | |

Apr 30, 2007

Neglect

I love you all. Really I do, but the Lady requires much more attention than I could have surmised. So, in lieu of posting, I give you pictures.

Okay, that last one wasn't from this weekend, but you'll live. Yep, that's Mr. Shad looking like an idiot. :D

Labels: pictures, procrastinating, singles, socks, spinning

10:55 | |

Apr 19, 2007

Let's Breathe

Yesterday I tried my hardest to maintain the calm. I didn't yell at Kyran for going

outside when I told him not to. When the laptop's power cord slid out and I had to reboot and find where I was...I didn't get upset. Even though Kyran wouldn't take a nap, I told myself that he'd go to bed early. Heather spilled milk all over the kitchen counter, floor, and me. Still, I didn't get angry at her, I calmly asked her to wait in her room while I cleaned up the mess. I almost lost my cool when I asked Mr. Shad (at 7:30pm) to pick up a couple things from the grocery store on his way home, and he said no. Not only did he say no, but he asked if he could just come home and I could go. Despite the fact that I had gone the night before and could not start dinner until he picked these things up.

I'm not the greatest mother or wife. But I do my best. I am an emotional person, it happens. Still, I never really go overboard and I apologize for being irrational when I am. So I cleaned up the house and waited for him. At 9 o'clock I went to the

grocery store and McDonald's. Cooking pork chops, peas, and mac&cheese seemed a bit silly now. On the way, my Ipod broke, but I was okay. Mr. Shad would fix it. So, I pick up what I need, grab the food, and go home. It's then that I realize that my order had been screwed up. Normally I'd have gone home and dealt with it. The number of little things that had happened seemed to weigh on me though, so I came home crying. And I refused to tell Mr. Shad why, because I knew that if I just mentioned the burgers from McD's he would not be helpful. Instead he was very understanding, and went back to get the order right. He knows that I am already beginning to deal with the fact that he will be deploying in September, and that he will not be here this weekend.

Today I got my second PRGE package! It's a much better day today! I feel good.

First, I'll let you all in on the secret of who my pal is! None other than the hostess herself, Sunne. Thanks Sunne, you've been fantastic so far, and the whole exchange has been running smoothly it seems. Ky was very excited about this whole thing, he was dancing around the table singing "whatcha got, watcha got, watcha got?!" What a haul! Handpainted Tussah Silk, a smidgen of purple merino, DPNs from size 1US - 6US, a needlecase, handmade soap, scissors, a catnip toy, a cute necklace and a little metal heart. The little metal heart made me think of this worry stone my mother used to have. Forgive the crappy pictures, as you remember, my camera died. *sniffle* I think I have a set of each of the DPNs, well except for the 4s and 5s, but you all know how rough I am on those! lol They will definitely come in handy.

Also, I forgot, I think, to share this package with you. It came in the mail almost

right after I got back. Fantastic. It was an order on Etsy from Traveling Rhinos. I think the roving was like five bucks. Who can pass that up?? Also grabbed a pocky button, man do I love that stuff. It's a priority one! The stuff on the top also came in this package. She was making up for sending it a bit late since they were traveling. Which was actually fine because I was gone. So it arrived as a bit of a surprise!

Labels: life, PRGE, procrastinating, purchases, wool/fleece/roving

13:58 | |

Apr 4, 2007

I Need Another Project Like a Hole in my Mitten

Apparently I like word play. :D

Thelonious needs a mate, there are booties needing knitting (one actually OTN), that sweater for my LYS owner is looking lonely in a corner, my grey raglan is in a bag waiting my return, the Martha socks are still in my purse, as is the second foot thong. I really don't need another WIP, not even a small, simple, quick one.

I couldn't help myself though. Today was boredom and stress and I just...wanted something easy to pass the time. Plus these are so freakin cute! Who can pass them up?? The pattern is really simple, though the language is a bit befuddling. There are also no other sizes offered. My plan is to make a second, slight larger pair for Kyran, we'll see how that goes. If it turns out well, I plan on embroidering "Suck This" onto the mittens, a la Knucks from Knitty. As always, click a pic to see a larger version.

Specs:
Pattern: Thumbhole Mittens from Fiber Fiend
Yarn: leftover Schoeller + Stahl Fortissima Socka in black
Needles: Bryspun 2.5US/3.00mm set of 5 DPN
Notes: This pattern is a bit confusing, even though it is a really simple pattern. The cast-on after the thumbhole sounds a lot like the cabled increase from Baudelaire. Instead I picked up one stitch, cast one on, and picked up another. I used the Backward Loop CO, as it's just a quick fix. I did kind of flub the pattern a bit, she has you putting the decreases so that the thumbhole is on the side (isn't that where your thumb is?) but I didn't understand it, so my thumbholes ended up on the front. Nolan doesn't seem to mind, babies tend to keep their fists curled, placing their thumbs towards the front of their hands anyway. There are also no other sizes, just the 6-9 mos size. After I do the pair for Ky I will post what I did here.

Labels: babies, knitting, mittens/gloves, procrastinating

09:56 | |

Mar 29, 2007

Play With Me

Okay, now it's time to post some of the things I wanted to post yesterday. Today is for knitting booties. Heather is still sick, Kyran is getting sick, and Mr. Shad has work tonight. Oh, and I finally fixed my Haloscan HTML so that it is on my archive page as well as the main page. People who were viewing my page on Bloglines (I assume) linked directly to the archived post, and were still posting comments via Blogger. It was making me nuts. So, I went in this morning and fixed it. You can still see the comments people made via Blogger, but not the Haloscan comments. In the future there won't really be any to see. Trust me, if I could figure out how to display the Haloscan comments on the page, I would do that. Maybe I will, but today is not that day. It's rainy and crappy, and I really just want to have fun.

That brings us to today's game! It was supposed to be posted yesterday, but I forgot to close a stupid tag and Blogger ate my post (I swear...some days....), so today it is. The game is, "Sock Yarn Frenzy!". Alright, yesterday this game had a much lamer title. lol

SOCK YARN FRENZY

Now, the goal of the game is to help me figure out what to do with some of my sock yarn. I like to have patterns for things when I buy them. Except with sock yarn, which somehow just magically jumps into my virtual shopping cart all on its own.

First picture clockwise from top left: Ruby Sapphire in Trudi, Wollmeise's am kalten Polar, J. Knits in Maryland, and STR Lucy. Poison Nr. 5 and Rolling Stone both already have a purpose. The second picture was a gift from blogging buddy Ann-marie (remember?), and is called Neopolitan. Instead of you all just randomly listing patterns (which by all means feel free to do), I will supply you with a list of patterns I want to do, but just haven't yet. Some are links to pictures since they are from a book, they are also in no particular order.

I think that's all for today. Back to booties, I'm hoping to finish the blue and white ones first, in time for the very last bit of ProjSpec's first triad.

Labels: life, procrastinating, socks, yarn

09:23 | |

Mar 20, 2007

I'm Just NOT a Martha

It's true. I can't be a -

Martha. I took the quiz, and read the descriptions, no doubts about it, I'm a Frank. Definitely. And I am trying. Really, I am. I don't expect to have these socks done in time, but I wanted to try to knit something out of character, to see how I do. *sigh* This is as good as it gets folks. Actually, to make matters worse I am wearing some Frank-type socks in the pictures! Ugh. Ironically, both yarns are Cherry Blossom Fibers. The socks I'm wearing were the Blue Flash "I Dreamed of Africa" socks. The socks I am knitting are a toe-up version of the Madder Ribbed socks from Knitting Vintage Socks in Nermal. The colors are neutral, but it's still variegated. lol And I had to do something other than

straight stockinette as I was kinda scared I'd never finish them, stockinette bores me. Really, the only reason I picked this ribbing pattern was for the name. Come on...Madder ribbing? Oh yes, I'm so doing this again in a bright pink and purple, so I can call them my "We're all Madder here" socks. bwahahaha! Yes, I'm nuts.

Anywho...Endpaper Mitt #2 is a tubular bind off and thumb ribbing away from completion! Actually, I got it to this point last night, and then realized that Justin had stolen the computer and I had NOT printed out the directions. Bad Kitty, bad! Oh well, I got through the last bit and managed to not break any more needles.

Since my 0s are metal (KnitPicks) needles, I'm not too concerned with them breaking. I am just procrastinating now. That means I have to start the Converse booties, and I'm kinda scared. Granted, I've done the pattern about...5 times already. Still, I am worried they won't be good enough quality. My seaming really does suck. *sigh* I wish the stuff would get here for my PRGE pal already! If it's not here by the end of the week, I'll email Sunne and let her know. Not like I won't dish out the extra couple bucks to overnight it or whatever, it'd be my fault and I DON'T wanna end up on that deadbeats list.

Labels: endpaper mitts, procrastinating, progress, rambling, socks

17:19 | |

Feb 23, 2007

The Unthinkable Has Happened

I have nothing to say really. That's so strange for me. Or more appropriately, I have nothing to really blog about. I started the sweater for my LYS, but I wanted to ask the owner a question before I got too far into, so I put it aside. Still working on the sock, but you've already seen how it looks...no new pics until it's done. I don't really need to make the other foot thong this minute as my best friend won't be here until the 22nd of March.

Mostly I've been thinking about shiny new projects. What do you think of a nice slouchy hat? They're doing a KAL over on craftster. I can stash-bust the leftovers from Wicked and I have a full skein of light blue Cascade 220 too. Spirals made hers out of brown and blue Cascade 220, so I'm seeing how much she ended up using. I think I'll need a new circ tho...My Denise 16" is awkward to work with. I could put little cabled crossovers on it, then it'll REALLY match Wicked. How hot would that be? Of course, I could always scoop up the last skein of #2448, then it would really match. But I kinda wanna stash-bust. Originally I was going to make a newsboy cap (which I have a feeling is a similar pattern) but then I won this from Anne-marie. So now I'm thinking Newsboy Cap might look better in this. Hm...or maybe I should do it the other way around?! Argh...so befuddled. What do you think?! Quick, make my decisions for me so I can run to the yarn shop right now and buy a new circular. lol

I wasn't going to post this, but this is what I got honestly and on the first try. So:

Your Blog Should Be Purple

You're an expressive, offbeat blogger who tends to write about anything and everything.
You tend to set blogging trends, and you're the most likely to write your own meme or survey.
You are a bit distant though. Your blog is all about you - not what anyone else has to say.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

Labels: blah, blogging, decisions, gratitude, KAL, procrastinating

10:33 | |

Jan 23, 2007

Frog Princess

Yep, that's me today.

So, here's the run down:
Hedera swap sock CO too tight. Must frog ENTIRE sock and restart. Going up a needle size, meaning the needles that my Endpaper Mitts are on.
Therefore, ripping Endpaper Mitts and inserting lifeline. Also going to Magic Loop it (since the needle size is perfect), which means METAL needles. We shall see how this works. *sigh* I might go crazy people.
I have 8 days to make a pair of socks. Are we taking any bets? Just to make it fun, you have until the 31st to post a comment about how long you think it will take for me to finish them (toes grafted, ends woven). Whoever is the closest without going over will win a skein of Crystal Palace Bunny Hop.

Edited to add:
I haven't actually bought the yarn, so if you are vegan or allergic, just let me know and I'll arrange a different prize for you. You are allowed to guess that it might take me more than 8 days, I won't be insulted. :)

Labels: accidents, contest, procrastinating, socks

13:34 | |