Cotton Ease.... You know you want it!

Well I sure did. I went crazy. I bought too much of it. And then, after much shopping for cotton ease and other un-necessary things, we hit a budget bump. A big one. An unexpected blow per se. A blow that made me look at the numbers and think oh my goodness how the heck am I gonna afford the birthday party that invitations have already gone out for. So before I beg, borrow, and steal...

Here it is... The remainder of my cotton ease stash in all it's glory. Don't you want it?



If you do, e-mail me at rincaro at yahoo dot com. I'm looking for $4 a ball plus shipping, but if you're buying a bunch, make me an offer. Listed below are the exact amounts and the dyelots. I'm doing paypal only. Thanks for looking and listening to me whine.

3 Pineapple – 20431A

5 Sugarplum – 29431

6 Cherry – 29430B

3 Candy Blue – 29430B

1 Blueberry – 29057

3 Pistachio – 29431A

1 Pistachio – 25659

6 Bubblegum – 25659

lace becomes her...

Or yarn becomes lace? I ended up frogging 21 rows of #19 because I think too much. Yes, you read that right. I think too much. I was so prepared for the pattern to have an error that I thought too much and I made up my own big fat error. So I re-cast-on and now I have 12 rows worked. It's so beautiful. But there will be no more pictures of it. Pictures of lace are a jinx.

I went to the LYS and wound up my swap yarn. There's like eight or nine hundred yards of that stuff. I need to figure out whether I'm gonna do socks or something else. Decisions, decisions...

Karmic Significance

I am not sure what this means in karmic terms... but look what I found today after church.



I had forgotten to check the mail on Saturday, and there it was lying on the concrete near all the mailboxes. OUTDOORS! I don't know why he didn't put it in one of the larger keyed boxes. It was open just as it appears, and fortunately it was dry. It's postmarked June 10th. What the heck have they been doing with it for two and a half months?

Here's the lovely yarn inside:



It's a pretty mix of blues, yellows, and oranges. Not sure what I'm gonna do with it. I think I had originally intended it to be socks. It would make some nice autumn socks. Not that we get autumn around here. We just get hot and hotter.

Oh and wait just a gosh-danged minute! I'm so sorry Kim for any angst I caused you on this. See? I knew the knitting deities were just spanking me for some reason.

And I'm making progress on #19...



Wait, that's not progress, that's a hairy looking lump.

Here's the true progress....



There is a place at about row 5 that looks like a mistake to me. But when I look at the actual shawl, that's the way it's designed. So.... It's part of a series of yo's & k2tog's and I'm not sure how to correct said mistake without effing up the stitch count. So I'll leave it be, I guess. The main body of the shawl is 6 repeats of a 36-row lace section. I'm on row 16. Surprisingly, it's going faster than I expected.

23rd post, 5th sentence.

I got this from tabbytuxedo.

My 23rd post, 5th sentence reads:

I'm gonna start making hashmarks in my arm each time I frog it.

That was when I could not get soleil to work for the life of me. And had frogged it 27* times.

Instructions for meme:
1. Go into your archive.
2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to).
3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

I'm tagging everyone who wants to be with this one.

*27 is the random number whenever I feel like I've done something a million times.

Secret Pal Goodies

I got my final secret pal package today. All kinds of fun stuff, perfectly suited to me!



A beautiful hand-knitted flower chenille washcloth, a lavendar sachet, jasmine soap, butterfly notecards, eucalan wash, Bags: A Knitter's Dozen, and two skeins of knitpicks sock yarn in hydrangea. The sock yarn is a beautiful mix of purples and pinks. I can't wait to find a sock pattern that is "worthy" of it. Thank you so much Neecie!

It's electric!

I heard that song today and now it's just stuck in my head. Sorry to share my misery with you.

I was a bad girl today. After I dropped the boys off at school, me and the lil' dude went shopping. Serious shopping. First stop, Barnes & Noble. Where I had a caramel frappucino and he had chocolate milk and coffee cake. And I drooled over number 19 in the new Vogue Knitting. But I didn't buy it.

Then we headed off to Tuesday Morning. Which I didn't know they had around here. My cotton ease hoarding has become a sickness. I had 6 balls of cherry, 3 balls of cotton candy blue, 1 ball of blueberry, 1 ball of pistachio, 6 balls of vanilla, 3 balls of pineapple, and 5 balls of sugarplum. That makes 25 balls. I added nine more today. 6 bubblegum and 3 more pistachio.


I also picked up a 3-pack of sportweight wool ease in strawberry twist. 435 yards per ball!!! I figure I can whip up a cute lightweight sweater out of that stuff. Maybe a simple top down raglan, as it is quite a pretty yarn.

Then I headed back to my LYS. I felt the need to find lace. I spent a good hour in the "other LYS" looking at lace patterns. That place doesn't make me happy. Everytime I pick up a knitted sample of something to inquire about making it, they either don't have the pattern or they don't have the yarn. And they make me feel like a goober for asking.

So I went to the good LYS. She had kidsilk haze on sale. Damn I love that stuff. And I drooled some more over number 19. And finally after much chit chatting and hanging out, I bought this:


6 balls of kid merino in a creamy white. And I went to Books A Million and picked up Vogue Knitting as you can see so I have the pattern. The bad news is that the pattern is *not* charted. A thirty-six row repeat pattern and no chart? Ugh. I may have to chart it.

While I was chit chatting the LYS owner asked me if I was still interested in maybe some very part-time work. So she could take a day a week off or so. Am I? Am I? Is she kidding? She's looking at it starting in October, but right now I am so excited. I guess she's pretty desperate for some time off though as she's been open all alone for nearly a year now. So woo-hoo and yay!

It's pop quiz time! Can you identify this object?


This is what a man does when he snags his belt loop on the arm of his work chair. Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. He stapled it back together. The thought of my man in the bathroom in his underwear stapling his pants back together??? That's one of those precious memories you store for a rainy day.

Not funny, but kind of funny.

In interesting news, this is my 100th post on this blog. Isn't there supposed to be a cake or a party or something?

I finished my one skein wonder and tried it on. It's a bit tight under the arms. But now I can't get it off. No really. I need to hold my arms out behind me and have someone pull it off, but it's just me & PJ (3yo) this morning. Honest to goodness, I might have to put a shirt over it to go get the boys this afternoon so they can help me take it off. Um, yeah, because I decided it was a good idea to try it on in just my bra. Geez.

Eureka!

This post is not about knitting. This post is about all sorts of other stuff. Mostly "heavy" life stuff (please forgive the pun).

Last night I was bemoaning the fact that I don't really have friends here. And there are some of the man's old friends who we don't really see and I think it's my fault cause they don't like me. Or that could just be insecurity raising it's ugly head.

So I've been toying with the idea of going back to Weight Watcher meetings. Hoping to have that extra push to lose weight and to maybe meet some nice people in the same boat. That cheesy new commercial they had got to me.

But here's the idea. What if going to Weight Watchers was not about just losing weight? What if it was career training? I'm a teacher by nature. I didn't finish my teaching degree, but I did end up being a technical trainer at my old job. And I was awesome at it. I'm also quite a good Sunday School teacher if I do say so myself. I am a teacher.

So going to Weight Watchers every week could be career training of a sorts. All of their meeting leaders/teachers are folks who have worked the program. I could be an awesome leader. And to expand on the concept, if I want to make more money, I could get a personal training certification, or learn how to teach aerobic classes or some such. Yes, I'm horribly out of shape now, but getting into shape would be my career training for that.

And if you're fat and out of shape, who's is gonna motivate you? Someone born skinny with a six-pack? Or someone who's been there and done that and come out the other side healthy and strong?

For the first time in a long time I feel like I have a purpose.

Today's secret word...

...is exercise. I dragged my lumpy butt out of bed this morning at 6am, fell asleep twice on the toilet, fell asleep once while tying my shoes, but then I did it. I went for a walk and sweated a lot. The first few minutes of the walk were uneventful as I went over diet and exercise plans in my head. But then I picked up a dog. Well, not literally. But a dog started to follow me. He looks like some sort of siberian/german shepherd mix. Trust me, I would not want that fur in this heat. He had a collar and I think a tag. But having been attacked by a similiar dog when I was about five, I was not gonna put my hand near his mouth to check his neckwear.

Actually he didn't really bother me. Just padded along a few sidewalk blocks behind me. But then I had to cross back across the very busy four lane road. And I didn't want the dog to get squished. So it took a very long time to cross the street. And now I'm sitting here trying to get rehydrated and feeling rather badly that I didn't check the collar. Ugh.

In knitting news I thought I was gonna finish the one skein wonder last night while watching "A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" for the umpteenth time. Why would I watch such a bad movie umpteen times? Cause it was me and the man's first date movie and he sometimes gets all nostalgic-like. Anyhow, the back was the right size, but the sleeves turned out to be way, way, too small. I guess I will have to do some creative increasing to figure this out.

Wow. I post a lot. No really, a whole lot.

So the other day I was behind this lady who had her own cleaning business. And she had spelled "a lot" as one word on her car magnet. There was some other typo as well. And well, this is a blog, so grammar be damned, but on your business stuff? Be a little more careful.

The cable project is resting nicely on my office futon, and I plan to pick it back up tomorrow. Right now I am feverishly working on a one skein wonder out of leftover vanilla cotton-ease. I frogged the mini-sweater, although I'm still not exactly sure why.

Strange list of knitting things I need to do:

1. Make the final Mariposa strap, weave in ends, and block.

2. Shorten the chickami straps.

3. Figure out what to make with certain stash yarns.

I ordered a pattern from White Lies Designs. I assumed that it would be electronically transferred. Um, nope. They want extra so that they can mail it to me. Um, ok. So they will print it for me, and then mail it? I don't quite understand. First off, the cost of the printing and the postage is inflated. Plus the fact that this pattern is nearly twice as much as other comparable patterns. Plus the fact that the yarn requirements are not available on the webpage. Plus the fact that when I e-mailed inquiring about the yarn requirements, no one answered me. Plus the fact that they said my order would process in "24 hours" and it took almost two whole days before I got the link to paypal for it so that they could charge me extra for shipping it????? I guess I kind of get it. If they mail me a pattern, it would be more difficult for me to illegally redistribute it, I guess? I'm not sure what the reasoning is. But the long delays and the no response? That's just bad business. So I'm thinking I'm not gonna buy it. I have to follow the link and fill out my paypal stuff, blah, blah, blah. And um, yeah. Plus part of the appeal of ordering a pattern online is the whole instant gratification aspect.

Wow. That paragraph had a lot of pluses. But I'm still confused and quite disappointed about the whole mess. So maybe Milinda is not meant for me.

Cable Experiment

Well, after about 17 different froggings and/or tinkings, I'm making some major progress on my Kitt Trinket Bag. I've used a full skein of the Mission Falls 1824 Wool. Danged little skeins. I got all of the ribbing done for the top and about 2/3 of the first cable repeats. I'm glad I decided to do this project, as I'm really learning quite a bit about how cables go together. This gives me some confidence to maybe try Mariah or one of the girlfromauntie cabled pullovers. Actually though, I really need more of a cardigan sweater or hoodie so that I can use it as a winter coat. It just doesn't get very cold here, so a coat or even heavy sweaters for indoors is just silly.

In other news I wore my chickami out on the town Friday night. The Get Animated crew came to our town and the boys played games and got prizes. My baby did his best dancing and won a video game for his mad skillz. But as the evening wore on, the straps on my chickami about doubled in length. So I was showing some major boobage and bra by the time we got to dinner. Always nice in polite mixed company. *sigh*

I made homemade pesto tonight and it was a disaster. So bad the man and the boy who enjoys pesto pizza would not even eat it. That bad. What a waste of $27 worth of pine nuts. Not really, but pine nuts are super expensive. Can you tell I'm avoiding my husband? 9:33 on a Saturday night and I'm holed up in my office with my knitting, my Harry Potter books on CD, and my computer. Pathetic. But he got bossy about housework again. I may just spend the night in here.

Just call me a post slut!

I would have shown you my whole self, but I spent the day out in the Florida sun and humidity and therefore I have the lion's mane of frizzy death. So nope!

Just a friendly reminder for all you "real women with real curves" this is the size 38" version on a size 46" bust. This is how the cotton-ease clings to the curves. Your mileage may vary.

Fashion question

Can a plus size girl wear a skirt like this?



And what do you call that sort of skirt so I can find one should it be suitable?

And while I am asking questions.... why are there so many ugly yarns? I went to Jo-Ann's with my sister cause she needed art supplies. The ugly yarns outnumbered the nice yarns 10 to 1 at least. They have a few new things in the sensations line that are nice, but not nice for the price they want for them. And so much ugly stuff. Ugly stuff that is expensive too. It's sad.

I did cast on for the Kitt Trinket Bag. The Mission Falls wool is not so nice on the fingers. I wish I would have just picked up a skein of Cascade 220. I can't even begin to imagine wearing a garment out of that stuff. Course I think it's discontinued, and that could be why.

Yahoo! Finished Chickami!

This was a very easy knit. It took longer than it should have because I had a few "non-knitting" evenings thrown in there. Actually more than a few.

Notes, etc....

Pattern: Chickami by Chicknits - wide strap, shaped version
Yarn: Vanilla Cotton-ease - less than 2 1/2 skeins
Size: 38" bust, but it has a lot of ease in this yarn
Needles: Sizes 6 & 3 Addi turbos

This was so easy and fun, that I do think I will make more of these. A nice tank sweater is a good staple for here. I have a bunch of random skeins of cotton-ease, blueberry, pistachio, etc. so I think a striped version would be adorable. Definitely a pattern that was worth the money!

I feel a bad moon rising...

I ran at the (virtual) mouth, I said unkind things, and I whined and complained when I am blessed and happy.

Something bad is gonna happen now. Something worse than having to clean PJ poop off of the shower curtain. (Don't ask.) Yep, I done asked for it. Again, I'm sorry. I suck. And by complaining about my bad luck, I am now pretty darn sure that more bad luck will come. Cause I did move a while back and I tried not to give bad luck my forwarding address. But I'm sure they've found me by now.

I talked to Justin's kindergarten teacher. She says, "He's so bright". She means, "He already knows all of the stuff I'm trying to teach these kids, and he's a squirrel, and he won't sit still, and he's a disruption". I can tell you know. My poor overly smart squirrel. Not quite six and reading chapter books. What am I gonna do with him?

I signed Jeremy up for boy scouts tonight. I think it's gonna be very, very expensive. Ugh. But he's so excited. And of course during the silly meeting I knitted. I cast on for my Kitt Trinket bag aka my first cable project. My LYS lady says she wrote out the chart. I think I'm gonna brave the chart. I loved using the chart for branching out. Have we mentioned that I've never cabled before?

I really should finish chickami before I get going on this one. I'm becoming a pattern ho. I bought one skein wonder and milinda from white lies designs. I'm kind of hoping that my sugarplum cotton-ease will work for Milinda. That would be pretty.

Random whining.

Ugh. I shouldn't have posted this. Or the edited version. Or the edited edited version.

I don't think the folks I swapped with didn't send me the yarn. The first version reflected this. I have this horrible luck where packages just never come to me. Birthday presents, yarn swaps, it's all fair game. I do not think that either of the folks I swapped were bad swappers. I just have bad luck with stuff like this. It's happened with all sorts of things. And now, I will probably have more bad luck of this fashion because I posted negative stuff!

Kim, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been all whiney.

For the record...

And in case there is any question, I have issues. Yarn and knitting issues among other things. Today instead of running all the errands I should have, I went to the yarn store. I had planned to go and look around, make friendly. But I spent my entire 2 hour window there. I knitted, I chit-chatted, I made with the extreme friendliness.

And I spent an obscene amount of time fondling a cabled bag.



And then I bought the Mission Falls superwash wool and corresponding pattern book to make the bag. In my defense, I've been wanting to try cables for a very long time. And the bag is so cute. It's got a pretty swirly bottom, and well, just wait til you see the pictures.

Ok, I'm done trying to justify. I have to hide this before my husband wakes up from his Nyquil induced stupor.

Progress...

The chickami is coming along nicely. I tried it on again today and for some reason it looks way more flattering. I think the fact that it's nice and snug though means I can get a good deal of wear out of it. It looks like a top sized for a littler person though, at least it does to me.



My husband is home sick and my nephew is taking his nap. I'm gonna take this opportunity and leave the house and go to fondle the yarns.... aka a trip to my LYS.

I really like the chickami pattern. I'm thinking more of my pattern dollars might get spent at ChicKnits. That's all for now. I'm wasting valuable yarn time.

Bored now.

Having the boys in school is boring. I tell you what.

I'm nearly finished with the front of my chickami, and then I just have to work the back and the straps. I still can't decide what sort of straps to do. It looks like I will only be using 2.5 skeins of cotton-ease for this puppy. It fits, but it makes me look sort of well, lumpy. The knitpicks shine skims so nicely over my not so smooth middle, but this cotton-ease seems to have lump-magnetism. Oh well. More incentive to have less lumps.

I'm trying to decide what to make next. I have six skeins of cherry red cotton-ease ear-marked for Donna. I think that will be a perfect fall/winter sweater what with the weather round these parts. But now I'm afraid that sweater will make me look lumpy too. I also have some random projects in progress. Two pairs of socks for the man, clapotis, etc. I guess I should really finish those before I cast on for anything else new. Oh yeah, and mariposa. One lousy strap short. *sigh*

Last night the man and I watched "Hide & Seek". That was just creepy. Not satisfyingly scary. Just creepy. Yuck.

I'm valuable dangit!

I've been thinking about value. And about free patterns. And about knitting of course. I wonder if knitting designers feel pressure to make their designs free. Why? Why should they? Why should they spend hours knitting something, and measuring, and frogging, and making it just so, and then typing up painstakingly perfect directions and then give it away? (Ok, so the directions aren't always perfect. But shut up. It's free.)

I'm starting to feel a whole lot of respect for the designers out there. I've been secretly trying to come up with some stuff, and man, it's tough. Tough with a capital T and a grunt.

I'm feeling kind of useless around the house. The man is dropping hints (ok hint bombs) that maybe I should go back to work. All of my money would be extra and then we could save up for a couple of years, get completely out of debt, buy a house, and then I could quit. Um, yeah. Doesn't he know that folks spend what they earn? I used to get along quite nicely, me and both boys for 25K. Three people, full-time daycare, on 25K. I don't know if I could do that now. Honestly. You spend what you earn. And sometimes more than that. I think the real answer is for me to become a better money manager, and then for me to find somethings to do out of the home to make money. (Knitting design is not on that list. Shoot, it takes too long and there's no guarantee anyone will like what you make.)

And the secret quiet part of all this, is that I don't want to give up another 2 years of my boys' life to some random daycare provider. I lost all the early years already. I'm selfish. I want to be there when they get home from school.

Brought to you by the letter P, the letter M, and the letter S...

Well not really. But that's what I'll blame that last entry on. Let's just say the P was for Post this time.

Things are not quite going my way. I'm a bad housewife and an even worse money manager. Not good at all. I really need to get off the computer and do some housework. No boys at all today. Just me, myself, and I. So....

It's just wierd and wrong. And it was tough having PJ all by myself all week. He's not as easy to care for without the boys to entertain him. Sure they have their little pint-sized squabbles, but those boys are danged good babysitters.

I might have to give up babysitting and get a job. Or something. I don't know.

snark fodder

No, not shark fodder. That particular phrase is what you call my big ole butt when it goes into the ocean round these parts. Course the sharks seem to eat more people in the gulf... but I digress.

A while back when I was crocheting the snood of doom, I joined the lj crochet community. Needed some help. Got some great help by the way. There are some super nice folks over there and my snood turned out uber gorgeous partly because of the great thread recommendations I received from some sweet girlies on that list. So if you are one of the sweet ones thank you! But then I found out about the crochet_snark community. Where they spend a good amount of time linking to posts off of the main crochet community and making bad fun of them. Not good fun, like I can’t believe IK paid you for that strange and disturbing design. Bad fun, like “what does that sausage-armed bitch think she is doing wearing a shrug?”. Bad fun. As I realized that quite a few of the crochet ladies were also snarkers in disguise, I decided I really didn’t need to be a part of that particular group.

But at least the crochet snarkers have the balls to do it in an open community. Not so with the knitters. Apparently there a bunch of secret places where the knitters who think their shit doesn’t stink go to talk about the rest of us. *

But now I feel kind of unsure. Like the friendly community of knitters on lj that I’ve come to love are really a bunch of stuck-up bitches who never got over when Billy didn’t ask them to the prom, so now they are practicing clique and pack mentality in any shitty way they can.

And also lately, there has been some very openly hostile stuff on the main list. What the hell is wrong with these people? Would you ever say the things you “say” online to someone’s face? I doubt it. So you hide behind your cartoon icon and your made-up name and get your jollies being really shitty to flesh and blood people? Then I have no use for you.

Like I said. Snark fodder. Of course I could have an overinflated opinion of myself and no one is reading this at all.

*Disclaimer: I don’t see much wrong with places like “You Knit What” where they talk about published designs. They aren’t snarking on whether or not Heather is skinny enough for that tank top. And it’s not secret.

Lace = gas

There's a reason you don't see a nice batch of new lace patterns every season. Because A. most of it has already been done and B. it's freaking hard.

I sat down today and decided it would be nice to work on my violet and butterfly designs. Bad move. I charted out the violet. It looked lovely. I worked it and made a huge mistake. But my huge mistake looked very butterfly like. So I did some more charting and knitted up my butterfly. Oh man. I won't post it. It's ugly. And not butterfly-like at all. Maybe I'll go back to the violet. *sigh*

Growing Pains

Big J wakes up in the middle of the night with his poor little legs just aching. Growing pains. I spend all day yesterday morose and lonely, eating ice cream sandwiches because BOTH of my babies are now in school. Also growing pains.

I'm working on the plan. The master diet plan that I can actually live with and will stick to. That green water nonsense was just that. Nonsense. I know better.

The chickami is coming along nicely. I've just finished the decrease rounds. SSK's and K2tog's do not mirror each other. The SSK is very noticeable where the K2tog is nearly invisible. It's on the sides so it won't be terribly obvious, but I don't know why they do that.



When I picked up my size 3 addi turbos the other day, I needed to spend $5 more to get a punch on my card. She does it in $20 increments. So I bought a ball of Kid Merino. I think the colorway is called violets. It's mostly purples and blues with some green mixed in. Oooh, wouldn't an african violet lace patterned scarf be just lovely? I'm still working on the butterfly lace pattern for that candy ball of kidsilk haze you see pictured. Candy is more of a fuschia than that picture shows. I'm curious to see how the kid merino works up. It's nylon instead of silk, but it's the same weight and a smidge more yardage. And it's $5.50 a ball instead of $13.95!!!

not so lovely

It's been one of those days. The man has been a total toddler. And I have this strange combination earache/neckache/shoulderache thing going. But the shoulder ache is on the other side. How does that happen?

It's 9:53PM on the night before school starts. And one or both of my boys is still awake. Tomorrow I will have both of my sons in school. Kindergarten (or kinTERgarten as my baby calls it) and first grade. It's just so completely unreal. That I am this old and that my babies are schoolage children who read and write and use very big words. Unreal.

I ended up having 5 girly beers last night. Which is unfortunate. Because if I had two left, I could down them and be asleep in like 20 minutes. But one just doesn't do the trick.

Lest you think I'm a lush, I very rarely drink. Like once every 3 months or so.

I'm working on a chickami. I think the size I am making is gonna be too small for me. But I'm hoping that will be incentive to diet harder. Cause I always lose upper body weight first. A chickami in white cotton-ease of course.

Woozy for a whole 'nother reason

Four O3 Bacardi thingies. I am the definition of a cheap date. Normally 2 drinks means lights out for ole rincaro. I probably shouldn't blog while I'm drunk.

I definitely should not blog while I'm drunk. Definitely. And online shopping while I'm drunk? Not the bestest of plans either.

I have edited this because I really shouldn't blog while I'm drunk. Sweet Jenna from thisgirlknits offered to refund my money because her page used to not have the sizing info. But the sizing info has been updated. Soo.... in summary: Jenna rocks, the hopeful pattern has been gifted to a teeny friend, and I shouldn't blog or shop while I'm drunk. That is all! :)

Woozy and yeah, very, very woozy....

I'm cleaning. Like a crazed woman. I am not sure why or what possessed me. But I am.

This is what I've done today:

Shined my sink (a la Flylady)
Scrubbed the kitchen floor
Wiped down all the lower cabinets, the oven, and the dishwasher
Did a ton of laundry (most of which is courtesy of he who shall not be named, but who really needs to stop sleeping so soundly in the morning and stop peeing the bed!!!!)
Scrubbed the kitchen counters
Cleaned out the toaster & the toaster oven
Scrubbed the entry way tile
Scrubbed the bathtub
Scrubbed the master bathroom floor
Purged the master bathroom countertop
Scoured the master bathroom sink (I've already said scrubbed too many times)
Cleaned the toilet (how does a 36 year old man still miss?!?!?!?)
Windexed the mirror

I still need to run the vacuum in the whole apartment, and water the garden. I'm hoping the rain will come soon though, cause that means free water.

I bought some Bam! and a magic eraser. The Bam! is powerful stuff. I used it on the tub. Hence the extreme wooziness. The magic eraser? Eh. It did bring up some tea stains on the kitchen counter and some hair color stains on the bathroom counter. But it did not remove scuff marks from the tile floors like it shows on the commercial. Oh well. You live and you learn.

Oh yeah. Knitting related content! I bought and downloaded the chickami pattern today. I'm back to wanting to make it along with a sitcom chic for a twinset. Call me fickle. I wish she had stated on the order page that you needed the size 3 dpns and circular. All it noted was the gauge with size 6 needles. So now I have to make a trip to the LYS to pick up a size three turbo addi. I've been eyeing the orangina pattern for awhile though, and it will work for that. But still.

Now that tivoli is finally done, I did some stash rearrangement last night. The romance twist colorway is flattering on me. So I feel like I should make something else with the remaining six skeins. But then to have two tops out of the same yarn? Seems a bit silly. I was thinking of trading it though. Don't know. I'd love to get some solid shine. In a perfect world I could get the right proportions to make Via Diagonale. Cause that's on my listy! :)

Tada! Tivoli Take Two Tee is done!

She's finished. And even though I questioned it every step of the way, she fits.

Here's a shot of her true colors on the ironing board.


And here is the requisite headless shot of me in my Tivoli!


Notes etcetera....

Pattern: Tivoli Tee by Grumperina
Size: 37" version
Yarn: Knitpicks Shine Twist in Romance, 6 skeins, with just a puddle leftover
Needles: Size 5 addi turbos, 32" to get gauge
Started: July 24th
Finished: August 3rd

I could have finished this sooner, but I had anger issues from my first failed attempt. I'm surprised at how loose it is, even around my bust. But I like the way it looks. I ended up just doing it exactly according to pattern. No extra rounds for length. It doesn't seem too short though.

I really did need to try it on.

I'm only 5 rounds away from finishing my tivoli. But I really did need to try it on. I needed to know how long to make it. I think I'm gonna add another 6 rounds (including a last increase) to give it a bit more length. Right now it hits the top of my shorts. But it fits. It's definitely a boobie top (which the man will like) but it fits.



**My bathroom is not blue with sailor inspired decorations. That is the boys silly!

It still fits.

I was a math major. I know how to use a ruler. Very well thank you. And my un-stretched tivoli does measure up at a 37" bust. My gauge is nothing if not perfect. But it fits. My 37" tivoli fits my 46" bust. I just checked my bra size (again) and it's a 42D. This is confusing me. Mucho confusing.

But I am plugging along. I'm almost done with the decrease rounds and then it will be time for the increases and finishing it off. It's actually coming along quite quickly.

In other news, I have recommitted myself to getting healthy. My husband came across a nice crazy diet for the two of us to do. I think this one will really work. Because if we don't cheat, and all of the food tastes like ass, we will quickly be down to eating nothing. Eating nothing makes you lose weight, right? Don't worry, when you are as fat as I am, it's not an ED. If you really want to read all the sordid details, go here.