Y Words

YEP, I'm still here and still blogging. It's been a pretty good weekend. I got to watch some YUMMY new episodes of some of my shows, play with YARN, hang out with my Ames (YES, I'm getting territorial, but I've almost learned to share) and my SPOH. Life gave me some goodies for a while.

While I'm not as YOUNG as I used to be, there's still days that I don't feel my age. Okay, most days I don't feel my age, but that's beside the point. I'm learning not to dwell so much on the YESTERDAYS and look forward to the tomorrows more.

I can tell that it's starting to warm up more now. My hair is starting to get YELLOW-blonde patches, mainly on my left side from driving.

Okay, okay, stop YELLING! I'll go find a photo to share...*insert elevator music here*

Here's a photo of me trying to show off both of my wristicuffs. These were the first pair I made. I've since made three and am working on pair number four...

I'm running away now because I can't stop YAWNING..

SH Words

Hmmm....hoping that Ames will SHARE her format with me here. I'm having a bit of a problem with my knitting needles. They're not SHINY anymore so they're not as slick as they used to be. For the SHAWL, I kind of need them to be slickery.

Sometimes it's just fun to pick on (in a good way, of course) your SHY acquaintances.

Nope, I still can't make a proper SHAMBLE! (PTerry reference for the uninitiated) But, as I said before, I don't keep enough stuff in my pockets for one.

SHOCKINGLY, I'm thinking of starting yet another project. I figured out that 4 W.I.P. s will suit me nicely. Then I don't have to SHLEP everything from room to room. One in my room (Candle Flame Scarf), one in the cpu room (Kiri), one for the living room (maybe the other SHIRT I have a pattern for), and one portable project.

Of course, if/when I lose all my teeth and before I get dentures, I can use another PTerry quote: " I hate SHOOP!"

Go find a good SHINDIG, or failing that, a decent movie.

I Words

Interesting - Some of the topics Ames and I chat about.

Intelligent - What we've been accused of being.

Itty-bitty - see photo. It's my next lace project at the moment. The name of the pattern is Kiri and you can see what it's supposed to look like here.


Invigorated - How I feel after spending time with my people.

Indescribable - How I'm doing at the moment.

L Words

LACE - Projects. The Candle Flame Scarf is slowly but surely making its way into existence.

LAUGH - Ames and I do this fairly often, usually at ourselves. :D

LIFE - One of those hard-to-kick habits. Think I'll keep it as LONG as I can.

LOITER - I did this today at Ames' house, 'til the pasta kicked in...

LOUNGE - A regular activity for many peoples.

LEARN - Still working on this one...

LAUNDRY - Tomorrow!

LAME - Some of my jokes/puns, but hey, they still get a LAUGH.

LUCKY - I think I am for the friends I have!

LISTEN - Friends do that for each other.

Ha! I stayed out of the gutter! That was the most difficult part ::grins::

Domestication

Here's a photo of a painting I did a while back. It's pretty basic but I liked it enough to put it up on my wall. If you know me at all, you know that I don't hang my own artwork up. Most of it is in a portfolio in the closet. And it's from a long time ago. And I just feel kinda weird flaunting my own art in my own home. I keep wanting to change it and work on it more. Like this one. I need to fix the boulders in the foreground, but I'm too lazy to get out the paints and brushes and do it. But, that's okay, because it's my damned domicile! I can hang whatever I want on the walls, provided I don't make too large of a hole or anything...

I got to hang out with Ames again today! I hope she doesn't get bored with me anytime soon! This woman saves my sanity at times, I swear. Not to mention we get to hang out and have fun doing things that normally bore us to tears. Like going to hell, er, WalMart and doing laundry. Thank you, Ames for being my friend ::grins::

I've been knitting a manly version of the wristicuffs for a different friend of mine. Needless to say, I've almost got one of them done. After starting over 4 times... I tried to keep the swearing to a minimum while working on them, as they are a gift and should only have good thoughts attached.

I have had an idea for some foodstuffs to prepare at home. And I wanted something with a little more oomph than Ramen or instant taters. So, sometime today, I'm going to attempt to make Chili Bowls. I already have the recipes. I just had to figure out how to make biscuit bowls. A quick Google search later and I know how (or at least I have the general idea, anyway). I'll let my two readers know at a later time if/how they work out. And how much swearing was involved. If memory serves me correctly, there is plenty of swearing in the biscuit recipe. And the chili is permanently etched in my memory barring a large head wound.

I went kind of nostalgic today. SPOH (Semi-Permanent Other Half) and I rented Casper and The Order. We got The Order because the video store didn't have A Knight's Tale. Believe it or not, I want to re-watch AKT because it has Wash in it, not because it has Ledger. (Wash = Alan Tudyk)

I wondered why people bought ball-winders and swifts for their yarn several times. Now I know why. I spent several hours winding 1375 yards of laceweight yarn today. That, my friends, is not for the weak of disposition. There were a few times I wanted to just fling the whole bloody thing across the room and shriek in frustration. You try untangling a knot in something about as thick as a pencil lead. NOT a pencil. JUST the lead part. Like mechanical pencil lead. Yeah, now you understand. Luckily, I only lost about a foot or so of yarn. It just got hopelessly knotted up. Not even a needle (regular sewing needle) helped me untangle it. So I mourned a bit and cut the offending knot away after buggering about with it to get the smallest amount of waste possible. Now I need a bit of a break, though.

Blow Me Away!

I know Indiana weather is pretty wonky. But I'm confused. Did Mother Nature decide to hold us back by a month? I mean, it's April and we're getting March weather. March weather = gusty winds, thunderstorms, one day warm, the next very chilly...

I'm not complaining. Okay, I am just a little. That's beside the point.

One of the things that made me a little too happy this week was the fact that the magnolia trees bloomed. And it looked like a full-bloom, not a half-bloom like last year. If you don't know what I'm yammering about, lemme 'splain. I heard this folklore? many many moons ago. When the magnolia trees bloom (not bud, actual flowers n stuff), then it will get cold-cold one more time before spring is actually here. Now, I've observed this for several years now and it has proven, to me, to be creepy accurate. So when I see the magnolias blooming, it makes me a happy chick. I know that I'll be able to put my winter coat away shortly. Anyway, the trees bloomed on Monday or Tuesday (I've almost slept since then so I can't remember which) and it's supposed to get chill this weekend. Yup, I'm a believer.

In yarn news, I've finished Mom's cardiket bag. The cardiket is a sweater/cardigan that I made for her (from scratch, no pattern) earlier this year. Actually, here's a photo:

It took me nearly a month to make this. But I was fairly happy with the result, as was Mom. Anyway, I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said a bag to go with it. I'm a day late on the bag. I hope she'll forgive me. It took me longer than I expected to get the thing sewn together. I didn't take a picture yet because I want to be sure that it works okay for her first. Here's a description: It's a simple flap bag about 9 inches long done in the same color as the trim and pockets of the cardiket. The flap top folds over the bag and has a snap fixture at the point to keep it closed. The strap is the main color of the sweater and attaches to the bag in a messenger bag style (one end on top, the other end on the side). I really hope that it fits her properly. I mean, I took measurements and all, but ya never know...

Ack!

Blogger didn't like me at the original time I wrote this. It refused to post and I thought all was lost to the ether. But it kept saying I had one more post than was showing. Thank the powers that be for autosave!

Okay, so I finished (kind of) the felted bowl. See previous post for those antics. I think I need to felt it one more time, though.

The ack! comes from my own general duh moment. I've been working on the Candle Flame Scarf for about a week now. Everything was going good. Too good, apparently. This is the first time I've ever worked from a chart so I've been going verrry slowly to make sure I'm doing it properly. And I made it all the way through 28 rows of a 36 row repeat ... until I turned on the tv...

I lost a stitch! Not dropped. Not twisted. Missing! It just wasn't there! So I start to tink (unknit) back to find this missing stitch, which I'm unfortunately starting to get adept at doing. Everything is going fine until CSI comes on. Then I drop a stitch. *sigh*

Given, I hadn't even finished the first go-through of the pattern. So I didn't think I needed a lifeline yet. I had every intention of inserting the lifeline at the beginning of the next repeat of the pattern. Now, I'm thinking I'll put two per repeat, to save on sanity. It actually physically hurts me to frog/tink a pattern I like doing.

So today's lesson, class, is:

When knitting lace, lifelines are our friends!

and

You can't have too many lifelines!
(Well, it would seem a little silly to put one in every row...)

Have Hook, Will Felt...dammit!

So, I'm more of a knitter than crocheter. Mainly because my crochet looks wonky and it's harder for me to figure out where I (probably) screwed up. I am not putting down crochet! I like crochet! I just prefer not to do it at this time.

Anyway, my nifty yarnaholic buddy Ames got me some really pretty felting yarn and was kind enough to include a pattern to make a felted bowl or three. Keep in mind that this is my first attempt at following a crochet pattern. And I'm fairly notorious for having trouble following a knitted pattern...

The following is a recount of my bowl-making adventure. Some of it may have been a hallucination, but most of it is really what happened.

Attempt #1:
Read the pattern. Attempt to decipher these strange letter combinations. Ask Ames what half of them mean. Set the pattern and yarn aside for the time being. Eat chocolate to celebrate new yarn and pattern.

Attempt #2:
Read the pattern again. Do happy dance that I actually remember what these strange letter combinations mean. Dig frantically around in yarn bag to find crochet hooks and pray I have the right size. Set yarn and pattern aside for the time being.

Attempt #3:
Put the pattern in front of me. Proper size hook in one hand, end of yarn in the other. Try to make both items mesh by jamming hands together. Stumble into bathroom for aspirin and bandaids for hook-induced wounds. Set yarn and pattern aside.

Attempt #4:
Look warily at pattern, hook and yarn. Have long internal debate about wisdom of mastering this blasted pattern. Begin working the pattern, using bandaged finger to follow directions. Forget to count stitches. Work 5 of the 11 rows of the pattern. Call Ames to ask if bowl is supposed to be bell-shaped before felting. Wait for laughter to stop, assure Ames that Yes! I'm following the pattern! Frog back to beginning, accidentally breaking yarn close to the end. Throw tools down in disgust. Change bandages. Eat chocolate instead of aspirin.

Attempt #5:
Snarl at pattern, hook and yarn. Drink caffeine for nerves. Begin working pattern, this time remembering to count stitches as well. Lose count of stitches. Lose place in pattern while trying to count stitches. Find place in pattern, but stitches aren't adding up right. Try to bully stitches into matching pattern count. Set project aside to eat more chocolate.

Attempt #6:
Wonder if bowl is going to double as a hat. Find place in pattern. Count stitches. Frog back row by row because stitches aren't adding up to pattern counts. Find properly crocheted row, mark pattern. Work one row, count stitches, stitches don't match pattern! Frog row. Try row again. Row done properly! Eat chocolate to celebrate.

Attempt #7:
Buy more chocolate!

* The bowl still isn't finished. Actually, it looks more like a plate at the moment. But I WILL master this pattern, by Gods! (I feel multiple exclamation marks coming on. I'm going to go eat more chocolate...)

Sinister Swap

Sounds odd, but there is a point. Over on Ravelry, one of the groups I'm in is doing a swap. (A swap is basically a care package exchange.) The group is for lefties, hence the 'sinister'. Needless to say, my swap partner (Demiguise) and I have mailed and received our packages. Here are a couple of pics of what I sent and what she sent:


This is what I sent to her. I might also mention that we had a spending limit of $30, not counting postage, and including something handmade. I made a little bag and a dishcloth. The little bag actually started out as three or four different things in three or four other colors and then my brain locked onto the bag/pouch.





This is what she sent me. I can't gush enough about all the goodies! We both decided to wrap up each thing individually and include a little note with each wrapping. My wickedly cool handmade item is the bag in the center. It's a lovely shade of teal, but my camera decided to make it look really dark for some reason.





I honestly couldn't say what was the most fun about swapping: making a new friend, choosing what to send, making it all nifty, anxiously waiting for it to arrive safely, or seeing what I get in return.

There are three other pairs working on their items as well, but Demiguise and I were the first to send ours out. Guess that's what happens when an Aries and Taurus get paired up *grins*

Here I Go Again...

New decade, new things. I'm going to try to keep a blog going (for the 7,000th time). But I think this time I might be able to do it a little better. Namely because I can put pics in now. Mostly yarn-related things, but sometimes I'm apt to find a bunny trail or three.

So, needless to say, I have no idea what to talk about. So I'll put in a couple of photos of my projects.

Headscarf:

This is my first attempt at lace. My eyes are always bigger than my patience and this was intended to become a shawl. Needless to say, I got bored and finished it off after using half of my allotted yarn. So it's just a tad bit big but it works so long as I don't move my head too fast.

Wristicuff:

This is my current project. Halfway there. Again, I got bored and finished it a little bit early. They are supposed to be about 6 inches long. When I measured it on my hand, it was a whopping 3.5 inches long. But, I like how it looks and the yarn just feels yummy. And yes, that's my hand doing the modeling.

On a side note, the wristicuff yarn was a gift (along with two other balls) from my boyfriend for my birthday. I must definitely keep this man as long as he'll have me! He said he wouldn't worry about me having too much yarn, he'd start worrying if I ran out!

So, I got a total (so far) of 6 skeins/balls of yarn for my day (along with some other stuff). And lovely yarns they are, too. Of course, now I'm going into project overload because I can't decide what to cast on first.