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Jun 5, 2008
Checking In A few of you have sent me emails. Which is awesome because it means you care that I haven't posted in like a month. But it also clearly outlines the fact that I have neglected my bloggerly duties. Sorry folks! Between returning hubby and busy babies I have forgotten to let you all in on what's happening! Mostly there will just be pictures, but I'll type a bit too. We went to Savannah on  vacation for a week. It was really lovely. We were actually on Tybee Island, but that's alright. There was a little beach, and a pond full of turtles! They were funny little critters. My brother was even there for a few days! Unusual for him with his "busy" life! In knitting type news, I started the Icarus shawl with some really lovely purpley-blue lace. Oh and you all missed the BKG Pastie Swap over on Rav! That was loads of fun! Actually, it still is fun. Pasties are a hoot! Quick and effective. Besides, I learned how to twirl the tassels! How great is that? lol There will be some pastie patterns going up soon. Both on here and on Ravelry. Unfortunately I'm kind of stalled out on everything else. I've got a Fidget on the needles for a gift. Icarus and Somewhat Cowl are both kind of on hold. With the SCowl's history, I'm kinda  loathe to knit it in 90+ degree weather. As for Icarus...I found a stupid mistake about 12 rows down! So I am trying to gather the strength to not only rip back (ha, it's below the lifeline, go figure) but also to try to determine what row of the pattern it's on. Tomorrow I have a tattoo appointment that I am VERY excited about!! It will be a knitting related tat. :) The only problem is I'm going to get it on my arm so I probably won't be able to knit while getting it. And it will probably be my largest one to date. So I'm going to get kinda bored I think. We'll see. That picture links to more racy ones ;) These are the pasties I received from one of my partners. They are done with Knitpicks Shine Worsted and it is ohhhh so soft! Labels: finished object, pasties, shawl, updating, vacation 16:28 | | 
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Nov 27, 2007
Oh GeeWow. Where do I begin?! Normally, I'd say "at the beginning", but I am not even sure where that is. Let us work backwards then, shall we?
 Crap. I just somehow managed to delete my entire post about Thanksgiving. And I didn't really feel like writing this in the first place. So just...enjoy the mosiac. I'll give you some details about my Mouse encounter and the Harlot's Unoriginal Hat (which I revamped ever so slightly to work with a worsted weight yarn instead  of bulky). Oh, and of course, as always, lots of pictures. Whilst in Georgia with my family, I visited with Mouse! Not even sure I mentioned I'd be doing that on here. If you don't already read her blog, she is totally awesome. We talk pretty regularly and I am convinced we share a brain. lol Really, it's a little scary sometimes. Our first attempt to get together was thwarted by a freak illness! The little Ky bug got a horrible fever the day before I was to meet up with Mouse. We just rescheduled though. So, I went to the House of Mouse (sorry, I had to) and we hung out. She showed me all her super amazing soaps, and scented oils, and jewelry...and I think I almost died. She gave me some super cute stitch markers that I apparently forgot to *gasp* photograph! A Converse sneaker and a little devil ducky! SQUEE! Then we went to a yarn shop, oh, it was so much fun. Too bad the Crazies were shopping as well. And wanted all of the expensive stuff. I might have walked out with some things. Malabrigo may have hopped into my basket. Possibly. I can't be sure. It hopped onto the needles so fast that I am still not sure. That whole bottom row on the pictures is Malabrigo pics.  You may (or may not) have noticed that the Unoriginal Hat is what I decided to use my Malabrigo for. Actually, it was what I picked the yarn out for. Except...the hat is written for bulky weight, and this is a worsted weight. After toying with the idea of leaving it in the skein and using the skein as a scarf (I wore it like that almost the entire time I was at Mouse's), no, I decided I must actually knit with the famed yarn. After swatching, and doing some maths I CO using size 9 needles. Then...about 5 rows into the pattern, I realized that the cables weren't looking at ALL the way I wanted them to. Nope, nope. So I did what any crazy good knitter would do. I re-charted the cable. That's what you would do, right? Right?! lol Even though I had to do a lot of tinking (yeah...at first I just re-charted in my head, then I realized I might actually need to write it down), I love the finished product. Here is the low-down:  Pattern: Unoriginal Hat by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Loro Barranquero Needles: Size 9US/5.5mm Gauge: 16sts over 4" in cable pattern Notes: There are a lot of these, bear with me. I loved this hat. I might do it again with the proper yarn weight. Anyways, I decided originally to add in a few purl stitches and add an extra repeat of the cable. 16sts x 5 reps = 80 So I CO the 80sts and got to work. Then I realized that the one cable wasn't opening up as wide as it did in The Harlot's hat, which is what I had wanted. That was really my favorite part. Tink back, twist a stitch here, one there, ah, much better. Knit a few rows...and now the other cable isn't looking quite the way I'd like. *sigh* At this point I decide to print out some graph paper and chart what is going on in my head. It's very late at this point. I had just gotten back from Mouse's, then hand wound the yarn (singles can be tricky, they don't like ball-winders), and I had dinner of course. By the time I re-chart the pattern, it's far past 1AM. Off to bed I go, but I have a plan now and that hat will be gettin it, oh yeah. As you can see, the chart worked beautifully. If you would like...I can write down the chart row by row...or maybe I'll find a scanner and scan it in. Really, all I did was add in 4 extra rows, and 2 extra stitches.  When I got home there was plenty of mail. To include two skeins of STR, the new Raven Clan...like I was going to be able to resist it. They are Rook-y and Corbie. I am really happy with Rook-y, which is good, because I had been eyeing it for awhile.   Labels: blogging, busy, family, finished object, food, friends, hanging out, hat, knitters, life, mouse, pattern, pictures, purchases, rambling, updating, vacation, wool/fleece/roving, yarn 13:59 | |
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Jul 15, 2007
It's BigThis will be a long post, with lots (hopefully) of pictures. Some of them haven't  been uploaded yet, but I will get around to that. Right now I just want to start the process of blogging. I have a new camera! So...that means much better quality for my photos. Whew. Also, I wanted to thank everyone for being here for me and all of the touching comments you have left, it all means a lot to me. I can't believe I forgot to say that before.
Well, I told you all about Heather and her busted nugget. So here are the pictures. The staples have been removed and she is totally okay now. But here is an idea of how far she fell.
You will probably have to click on this and see the larger size to make out the staples in all of that hair.
 Here are a few random shots. Some from the burial and some just of the kids. Then I will tell you all about the aquarium and going to PA to visit Elizabeth from Gee, You Knit!. Most of the pics from that trip will be posted over on the Truly International Sock KAL blog as well.   We took the kids to the Baltimore Aquarium, they had never been to one before. I was so amazed by the way the kids reacted. Kyran was just fascinated by all of the fish. He would stand by one tank after another, content to sit and watch them all day. My MIL would have to drag him away, and he would be upset until he saw there were more fish. Heather liked the dolphin show, but Kyran wasn't really impressed. It was really awesome to see how they reacted to everything though. The whole experience was so new to them. I've been to that aquarium many times, somehow going with the kids made it a much more exciting adventure. Fish are not as interesting to me as children are. :)   One of the best things about knitting, is knitters.  We are everywhere, and we are always happy to see another one of our kind. So when I found out that we were making a trip to Maryland again, I emailed Elizabeth and started arranging a meetup. Finally we settled on a date (teehee! a date!) and I steeled myself for the 2 and a half hour drive up there. Actually, I did pretty well, and only got lost for a little bit and wound up in VA. Let's not talk about that. lol When I got there we each had a glass of water (soooo hot) and discussed our plan for the day. See the sights, go shopping, hang out and knit. Good times. I was thinking...man that's not a whole lot, we're going to have SO much extra time, since I also planned on sleeping over that night. The idea of driving home in the dark didn't really excite me. Boy was I wrong! We make a perfect touring team.  Elizabeth is a self-proclaimed terrible tour guide. Which is fine, because apparently I am the worst tourist ever. The Liberty Bell has a whole building full of displays and things that you can read...we breezed past all of this, going straight for the bell itself. Snapped a few photos, and were gone. On to Independence Hall, where we encounter difficulties finding an entrance. Too hot to be bothered with asking, we just snap pictures from outside the gates. Hey, it's the thought that counts, right? We decided to end the tour there, since neither of us were really too hyped to see any of the other touristy stuff. lol  So we hiked to groping yarn. For a brief (and obviously deluded) moment, I actually thought I might *GASP!* never knit again! Good thing Loop, where I spent hours  I collected my senses! All of that yarn definitely reminded me of why I knit. What is it about yarn that we all love so much? Who cares, it's gorgeous! I fell in love with two skeins of yarn, one came home with me, sadly the other had to stay behind. Love does have a price, at least my husband thinks so. I ended up spending a (not so) grand total of $43.50. A dollar and fifty cents more than the cost of the Claudia Handpaints Silk Lace (in Turquoise Jeans) I was drooling over. After visiting it several times, I realized the price tag would not magically change, and resigned myself to the idea that it was not meant to be. This time. Instead I picked up a single skein of Koigu KPPPM (shush! I know I hate it, but it was all sad and lonely...so prettttyyyyy), and three of Allhemp6 in aubergine.   The Koigu turned out to be problematic. It was unsure of what it wanted to be. Since it was a single skein and I couldn't find any that I wanted to pair it with...well, there wasn't much it could be. So, I tried out several things. A panta, a Dreamswatch Head Wrap...and so on. Finally, after returning home the next day and searching Ravelry. I discovered a pattern for a head wrap that I liked. The Happy Butterfly Head Wrap, I think. Wow...I just went to hunt down a link to the pattern and got totally side-tracked. Gotta love Ravelry. Right? As if there wasn't enough for a knit-blogger to do online? Now that I am home I think I will block  >this on the needles and see how I'm liking it. It will probably end up more as a thin scarf than a head wrap. Not to mention I'll probably gift it. But to who? Probably my MIL. She is outstanding. she bought me this incredible dress. Seriously, I have to get some good pictures for you guys. It's just...so me. Oh yeah. I almost forgot, Coachella. It's nearly finished now. Only about...two or three inches left. Not quite sure how I feel about it. Maybe you guys can tell me what you think?? At first, I totally hated the color. But once I started knitting it, I loved it. Then...I wasn't so sure about the idea to make it a halter. Now...I'm not sure about the fit/drape in the chest. *sigh* I complicate everything.  Whew, and to wrap it all up, here is a picture of my friends and family outside of one of my stand-bys, Three Brothers in Bowie. It's a great pizza place. Try it if you are ever in Maryland!  Labels: accidents, aquarium, babies, Coachella, knitters, knitting, life, Maryland, Philadelphia, pictures, progress, purchases, rambling, Ravelry, stalking, Truly International Sock KAL, vacation, yarn 12:27 | |
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May 11, 2007
What What? Uh...I'm not explaining that.
Anyways, yeah. I don't know what happened to me. Had some difficulties mid-week. First I screwed up my neck, and then I just didn't feel like it. I didn't even check bloglines. Tuesday and Wednesday were not great days. Things are fine now, I just needed to rest I suppose. However, I have been on Ravelry. Sloooowly uploading my info. I can tell some of you others are too, your Flickr accounts have been updated with old pics. ;) Which reminds me, being new to knitting right now is good. I've only gotta update with stuff that has happened over the last year. lol
Actually, I have some new and old pictures for you all today. In a stroke of  brilliance last night I learned that our laptop has an SD drive. All that time I spent hooking up the camera to the computer...wasted. lol So, even though the camera is broken, the SD card still has the pictures on it. I uploaded those. Now you have good pictures of my haul from San Jose. As well as the guy from the hotel that we became friends with. So, here are those pictures. If you click on the picture of my Knitting Arts buys, it has labels. In case you are unfamiliar with any of the yarns.
Friends are the best. I am counting on all of you when Mr. Shad gets deployed! Anyways, a few of you have expressed interest in the TOFUtsies, I have to go back through my emails and see who wanted it and then make a decision. Guess I am just indecisive right now. Actually, I should do it right now, there are some things all packaged up to be shipped out sitting in my kitchen, that I meant to send earlier this week. Instead I just looked at them and didn't do anything. Sorry!! So, if you get a gift or anything late, my bad.
Dunno how my self-imposed mini-diet will go. It seems like I picked a bad time for it. Mr. Shad is going to Yuma until the end of June. *sigh* Hopefully I can still go up to MD Memorial Day weekend. I'd been telling everyone that I was coming, making plans, and then...oh DUH, he's not gonna be here. That's okay though, I need to get back on the horse and make the trip. We'll see how well it works out. I wanted to wait until the YP Deep Cove got here to post pictures of the last Loopy order I made, seeing as how I ordered them on the same day. It's not here yet, but then, she did have to dye some more due to over ordering. I just didn't think I was an over-order. Then again, I like to send all of my packages at one time, maybe she does too.
So anyways, here is the last Loopy order. The pictures suck big. There is a cute stitch-marker that came as an extra, and you just can't see it. My order was the  yellow CTH. Man, it is so AWESOME! Can I explain to you that yarn has sucked me into this huge colorful hole? Seriously, I hate yellow. It's one of my least favorite colors. But it goes really well with green, which I have a lot of. Ridiculous people. This is crazy. The only question now is, which pattern?! I'm thinking the Child's First sock in Shell pattern. Then again, I want some cables. Dunno why, but I've been wanting some really yummy cables. Nothing too intricate. Maybe like this? Yeah, that's definitely going into the queue.
Hmm. What else happened?? Oh, my Twisted Flowers sock is up to row 18 on the foot now. If you are going to do this sock, seriously, take the time to learn cabling without a cable needle. You'll be glad you did. Otherwise, you might forget to cable  or twist here and there, considering that 14 rows out of the 32 row repeat on the leg have at least one twist or cable. Still, it's been fantastic to do. And going down a needle size has made it just the right size for my legs, which helps to make the design pop a bit more.
Shoot, right now I should be cleaning, my MIL just crossed the NC border and should be here in a couple of hours. She is a very tidy person, and I can't believe I didn't clean yesterday. Just not in the right frame of mind. Hopefully today I can get those packages out and get to the yarn shop. I'm hoping she weighed the Alpaca fleeces she got in. I want some. Have some milk and cookies.
 * updated to add pic of the YP Deep Cove, that came in after I posted this* Labels: life, Loopy Ewe, purchases, Ravelry, socks, updating, vacation, wool/fleece/roving, yarn 08:30 | |
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Apr 18, 2007
Substantially Less PhotosBut twice as much fun! This installment not only includes my night with the famed BobaKnit girls, but also a contest winner! Me! lol I don't win things really, not by chance anyways, occasionally by skill. Didn't even win Bingo as a kid in elementary school. Yesterday I commented on Mouse's blog, because I would have even had there not been a contest. Imagine my surprise today seeing my name! Isn't it amazing what a small slip of paper can do for one's mood?
 Lately I've been adjusting to being home again and have not knit much. Haven't even been in the mood to blog! I skipped an entire day of blog reading and feel awful because I feel like I missed some important things happening in my fellow bloggers' lives. *hugs* to Pins&Needles (go read the blog entry). And to Roxtarchic, because it sure sucks being in the country. ;) Alright, on to my adventures in California!
So, Thursday, after all of the shopping we did, we returned to the hotel. We sat at the bar with Matthew (who by now was a friend), even though it was closed. He fixed us a great drink, we talked about boys being boys, and I tried contacting Kristi. Cingular was having some technical difficulties that day, and we both apparently have Cingular. lol After using Matthew's phone, I finally contacted her and got the time for BobaKnit. Mr. Shad and I drove to Mountain View, and ended up being like a half an hour (or more) early. We ate a bit, chatted a bit, and then made a short walk up the street. He dropped me off, I think he was scared a little. hehe I settled into a seat somewhere in the middle of this huge group of knitters, it was so awesome. Words cannot describe how much fun we all had! Seems like I had a lot in common with many people there. Lots of pictures were taken, but this is the only one that turned out. Clockwise from left to right, are Jeni, Hannah, Kristi, and Tina. Hannah was hilarious! These are some great ladies, I hope that if any of them was ever (for any reason) over here that they'd give me a call. Or an email. I'll have to update later when I have even more links to give you. FiberFiend (creator of the thumbhole mitten pattern) was there, but I didn't have a chance to meet her. We were at opposite ends of several tables. Oh well. Aside from Jeni, Hannah, and Tina...I also met Jasmine, Rachel, Katie, Lisa and Anabel. Now, I want you all to know if I spell your name wrong I apologize, just leave me a comment chastising me gently and providing the correct spelling.
Alright, this post is already long and I haven't made it to Friday yet. Friday we went to the Winchester Mansion, I haven't put the pictures on Flickr yet. It was great, except when Mr. Shad thought it'd be funny to scare me. Um, we went to San Francisco and Pier 39. It wasn't that great. There were some fun little shops, but it was freezing cold. And...a city is a city in my opinion. We (meaning Mr. Shad) got to stop and help out at a car accident. He's had all sorts of fun training and always feels obligated to help. I was not going to get out, the traffic was on my side of the car. It's all for the best anyway, you don't need too many people or gets confusing. Then, we went to a bar with Matthew. It was the greatest, I have no gaydar. It didn't dawn on me that he might have been gay. Oh well, everyone there was fabulous and we had sooo much fun! After it closed we went back to the hotel and ended up chatting with another couple and Matthew until like 3am. So much FUN! Our picture with Matthew, which turned out pretty well, is stuck on my broken camera. *sigh* Well, that's really all I got, summed up and in a nutshell.
I'm off to eat. Wait, can I mention something totally awesome? Of course, it's my blog. The Blue Sky Organic Cotton I bought was for a baby sweater. I only bought two balls originally, and later realized it was not enough. When I bought it I figured I'd just purposely stripe it, you know treat the two colors as if they were not the same? Yesterday, when I pulled out the two I bought from Stitch DC, the lots are all the same! Can you believe it? Gotta love organic cotton. :)Labels: BobaKnit, contest, knitting, pictures, vacation 11:56 | |
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Apr 16, 2007
Return of the Prodigal KnitterThis is a longish post, if you want a summed up version, my buddy Joel supplied one for you:
I knitted and stuff and then i talked to the most wonderful guy who ever lived on yahoo IM and i can't wait to meet him in person so i can ravish his body if he wants me to or not
Just kidding. :P
Okay, so I was here yesterday. Mostly I was just...unwinding. The trip was fantastic. Too bad I have no pictures from it though. Well, I had a few on the digital camera, but it apparently no longer works! *sniffle* Kristi is supposed to send me some pictures that we took with her camera. Awesome. I'll post those then.
 When we got there we took a nap, then went to Japantown in San Jose so  Justin could get some sushi. Then jet lag took us back to the hotel and bed. Wednesday we went to the Flea Market, the Great Mall and then to Saratoga. We meant to go to Hakone Gardens but got there a bit late. Instead we ate dinner at this cute little Italian deli, it had the best hondmade ravioli. There was also this Irish pub called The Bank, but I wasn't impressed. Then again, it was only like...6 o'clock. Thursday it was back to Saratoga to stroll around and look through the shops, and to Hakone Gardens. We went back to Lupretta's for lunch,  and on our way to Saratoga Chocolates (a gourmet chocolate shop that was gorgeous), what did I stumble upon?! A knitting shop! Mr. Shad was bemused to say the least. He actually was very obliging and sat in the shop the whole time I shopped. And allowed me to spend a slightly ridiculous amount of money. The pictures of my purchases are on my poor dead camera's memory card. If I can I'll see if I can find a way to retrieve the pictures. Anyways, the store was beautiful. Full of high end yarns, at least, in my opinion. There were some affordable yarns too. It didn't matter, it was yarn.  I tried to hold myself back from the Tilli Thomas and Artyarns. What I could not restrain myself from was the Koigu, I've been wanting to try some out, so I picked up some KPPPM color #1520. It's a bright green. Yum. Now, what to do with it? I'm thinking one of Cookie's patterns...like Flicker or *gulp* the Twisted Flowers sock. Also jumping into my basket were a few balls of RYC Bamboo Soft, Rowan Tapestry, and a ball of Blue Sky Organic Cotton. I also snagged Knitting Without Tears. :) It was very exciting.  Well...actually Mr. Shad just brought me the pictures. So now I'm going to put up some of those. We'll save Thursday night and Friday for tomorrow's post. I'm not really knitting right now anyways. Just trying to get into the swing of things. Labels: happiness, knitting, pictures, pretty, purchases, vacation, yarn, yarn addict 19:54 | |
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