Four is the new three...

And that makes it a magic number! Um, yeah. I don't post so much. I read a lot, and chances are I'm reading you, but I just. don't. post.

I *am* knitting. Right now I am on the 1st sleeve of my Sandy Cardigan. And I restarted the dead bride. Also, for something that's just yummy and easy, I'm making the Misti Chunky Ribs & Ruffles scarf in this quite lovely color. Ahh... the pleasure of mindless knitting with obscenely soft yarn. *sigh*

But we were talking about four. So here you go.

Four jobs I've had:

Cashier at a chinese take out joint
Front Desk Manager at a fancy hotel
Technical Trainer for a publishing firm
Domestic Engineer - oh yeah, I'm a SAHM

Four movies I can watch over and over:

She's All That
The Princess Bride
Anything Harry Potter
Anything Scooby Doo - the Scooby Doo is a little frightening. I own 80% of anything Scooby Doo, animated and live action. And I go out on the specific Tuesday when they release the new animated films. I got quite snippy with the Blockbuster dude about a month ago on a Tuesday when he tried to tell me that Scooby Doo: Pirates Ahoy! was not being released that day. And then I sent the man to Best Buy to pick it up.

Four places I have lived:

Milford, Ohio
Omaha, Nebraska - just don't do it. Trust me.
Dayton, Ohio
Jacksonville, Florida

Four places I have been on vacation:

Cumberland Falls, Kentucky
Gatlinburg, Tennessee
Orlando - as a kid and with my own boys
Toronto, Canada

Four of my favorite dishes:

Chili's black bean burger
My own blueberry cobbler
My mom's barbecue - which I gave up to be a veghead
My mom's buckeyes - and no, I won't share.

Four websites I visit daily:

Bloglines
Knitty Coffeeshop
My bank account
Yahoo Mail & Groups

Four places I would rather be right now:

At the beach
At home with my mom
Sleeping
Getting a pedicure

Four bloggers I am tagging...

Eh, I am the anti-tag. But this was fun, so swipe if you wanna!

No, you're not imagining things...

It's an update! With pictures! And lots of exclamation points!!!!

When life hands you lemons... I buy yarn!


I've been fondling this for a couple of weeks at my LYS. And I thought it would be perfect for ChicKnit's Cece. So Saturday I swatched. And I was right. Even though it's technically worsted, I got a gorgeous on-gauge fabric on size 6 needles. And it's so very soft. And the silk gives it a gleam. It's not a color I would normally buy, but for some reason the soft color of terracotta that it is looked really nice with my skin. So there you go.

Oh wait. I'm not done yet.


I've also fondled this many times. It's kind of a periwinkle mix, or a purple, depending upon what light you're in. But it's pretty. And it's like knitting with clouds, or non-sticky cotton candy, or something else dreamy. Anyhoo... I'm making the matador bolero out of the fall Knitscene with it.

And progress on something I did NOT buy on Saturday *snicker*.


This is of course the Sandy Cardigan from Big Girl Knits. One of two sweaters I plan to use as pseudo winter coats when I head home to Ohio for Thanksgiving. The other of course will be my Rogue cardigan. I'm midway through the first shaped side panel. After I do both of those all I have is the sleeves and the edging. But I want to make sure this is done and ready to go!

So after all of these exciting updates, I now must tend to more mundane tasks. Just a word to the wise. If you take your boys to Steak & Shake after Scouts on a Friday night, and one of them makes wierd "whoa" noises... check the car before you haul everyone upstairs to bed. Otherwise you will miss the fact that Mr. Whoa has spilled a precious few ounces of his shake in the backseat. And you won't know about it until you go to drive to the library on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon. Oh but then, then you'll know.

Right now it's sitting outside with all the windows open, with the suspected spot scrubbed within an inch of its life, and the rest of the car sprinkled with baking soda. Next up, the car wash and the free vacuum. Pray it works. I can't afford a new car.

Don't knit with scissors.

No really. Don't get the scissors out until you are done knitting. Until you need to trim the ends you've so carefully weaved in. Because you might think that you can use the scissors to cut your unfroggable mohair lace project back to a point where you can pick up the stitches. You would be wrong. And if you've had the week I've had, you might attack your poor knitting. And your lace, which looks like a serial killer attacked a bride with the gardening shears, will be sitting in the trash on top of the broken jar of barbecue sauce. And the dark red stains will add to the image of a bride snuffed out on her wedding day. It's a sad, somewhat disturbing picture.

So don't knit with scissors.

In other news, VK #19 from the Fall '05 issue is now officially off the WIP list. Officially, even.

The mystery that is SpongeBob...

So presumably SpongeBob lives underwater, right? So how come he fills a bathtub with water to bathe Gary? Wouldn't all the water just meld together? It's like they show them as underwater when it suits them, but as if they are in air on other occasions (such as when they use a campfire). I know, I know, it's a cartoon. But the absurdity of it struck me this morning.

Can you tell I've had too little sleep?

Last night was a 6-midnight knit-in at my LYS. I had a great time and made some terrific progress on my Sandy Cardigan from Big Girl Knits. I have great plans to upload some pictures and soon.

But before I can knit or take pictures, or any of that, I've really got to clean up this house.

Gratify yourself.

I needed some relatively instant gratification and I gots it. I halfheartedly cast on for this on Sunday - 11 whole stitches - and then promptly ignored it. But UFO August is helping me change my ways!

Pattern: Flower Petal Washcloth from Weekend Knitting

Yarn: Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille - less than one skein

Needles: Size six dpns from Lantern Moon

I picked this back up last night at Knit-In and then spent two episodes of Angel with it after I got home. One more episode of Angel this morning and it's finito! Very soft, very cute. The picture is natural sunlight, but it's really more of a plum color. I suck at the pictures. Yes, I do.

Kicking it up a notch!

At the end of a long day, after my kids have gone to bed, and my husband is watching insipid television, nothing is more relaxing than a nice bubble bath.

Wait a minute. Scratch that thought.

Nothing is more relaxing than kicking back with my knitting.

Oh shoot. I can't decide.

I've heard tales. Of bubble bathing AND knitting. I'd even seen artfully arranged photo shoots of such activities. But would it really work?

Well, I'm here to tell you brothers and sisters. Yes, yes, it does work.

I figured starting with a warshcloth was a safe way to go. And I knitted in my bath. My scalding hot, my skin's still red when I get out, but it makes me happy bubble bath.

A few notes for the extreme relaxers out there:

1. The bowl is plastic, I just figured clear made a prettier photo op. I think glass would be more likely to tip.

2. It's probably better to stick with single stranded knitting. The resting yarn tended to get slack and wanna go swimming.

3. Wet kitchen cotton is really stubborn.

4. I highly recommend investing in one of those five dollar blow up pillows. Makes all the difference.

Now go! Relax! Right now!

I should have loved it.

I love many things with the word Mystery in them. Mystery! the PBS tradition. I mean who doesn't love Miss Marples? She knits for goodness sakes. Mystery, Inc. is the company name of my favorite meddling kids. Mystery books are among my favorites. I even love a good surprise.

But the Mystery Stole? Well... I don't know. It's just not my style. Or something. Basically I'm bored out of my gourd with it. Having to pre-count all those little stockinette squares is time-consuming and sucks the fun out of the chart. And the fact that the last three charts have been basically the same motif over and over??? It's an easy quick knit and I imagine I will finish it, but right now it's just not making me happy. I may just buy Leda's Dream and do that one instead, because this one is just not doing it for me.

So I've returned to Icarus where fortunately, I'm just in time to start working on the actual lace. So I've been doing that and it's making me happy. Have I mentioned how dreamy the Misti Alpaca is? Dreamy.

I got my hands on the new IK and there were a few things I'm a-wanting. But one thing at a time, methinks. And that one thing right now is cutting down on the WIP list.

97, 98, 99....

Ok, well not that many. But it's time to count the wips.

Wips I've touched recently...

1. Perdita in size #8 silver perle cotton, size 0000 needles, and pearl colored #11 seed beads.

2. Ball-band dishrag in sugar & creme.


3. Mystery Stole #2 in cashwool 100% merino on size 3 needles.

4. Icarus in Misti Alpaca on size 3 needles.


Um, other wips, that just aren't feeling the love...

5. Cozy in Iris Garden Shepherd Sport on size 8 needles.

6. Fuzzy feet for the man in royal blue Cascade 220.

7. Chicknits Cece in sugarplum cotton ease. Not the right yarn at all. Must find something different.

8. Via Diagonale in black & pink elann connemara cotton. Really a winter style purse due to the colors, so on the back burner.

9. Sitcom chic in bubblegum cotton ease. Um, next.

10. Vogue #19 Lace Shawl in Kid Merino. Ahh... the beauty project. Intended for my husband's holiday party. Which I have sworn not to attend. But that's another story for another day.

11. Airy Scarf - Wasn't this supposed to be a Christmas teacher gift. Not sure what to do about this.

12. Splash Scarf - Yes, a fun fur scarf. I really should finish it and find someone who might actually wear it. Meaning not me.

13. Flower Basket Shawl in Knitpicks Oregon Coast shadow. I'm not sure this is the right yarn for this one.

14. Baby Kimono in sugar & creme ecru cotton. Needs seaming. Needs a knitter with an attention span.

Um, wow. This is worse than I thought. Must start finishing things. Now.

Well that just sucks.

Um, well, my other knitblog? Gone-dee. Goodbye. You can't have it anymore. Had a little issue and it wasn't resolved to my satisfaction. So now I can't even get my entries. Oh well, such is my life.

Anyhow, if anyone is still reading, I'll be back later. And yeah, I've been knitting. I haven't finished anything, but I've been knitting.

It's been awhile...

I’ve been knitting. Sort of. There’s this whole vicious cycle thing going. The boys are out of school so the house is a disaster. But it’s impossible to clean because the boys are out of school. But I feel guilty for not cleaning. So I don’t think I should knit. But even if I felt like it, the boys are out of school, so I can’t really just sit down. Because then the house would hit that mess level where you can’t find any unders.

For your amusement… Broken lantern moon needles. The boogers. So cozy is stalled.

The puffy lump aka Icky the Icarus. I’ve only done just two repeats of the five needed for the straight section. If you look above, you can see the true colors of the cozy.

But I’ve been really distracted by this…. This has my first Intarsia attempt with the star. The bad news is the instructions suck a$$ and so I’m kind of not sure whether or not I could continue.

So these are my frustrating adventures in knitting. How’s things in your little corner of the world?

The olympic equivalent of...

I guess you could say I'm *this* close to being disqualified. Six days have been marked off of the Olympic Knitting Calendar. And I've only knit about 25% of my Sitcom Chic. I didn't take another picture, because quite honestly folks, there's nothing to see. Why didn't anyone tell me that knitting Sitcom Chic would be mind-numbingly boring??? I mean the sweater is a cutie. That's for sure. But the knitting itself is snooze-a-rama as only miles of stockinette could be. I can't even bring myself to think about the sleeves.

To make matters worse, the TV is conspiring against me. I thought that if there was interesting stuff on, I could knit through the boredom. But no.... Gilmore Girls was inspid this week *yawn* and then Supernatural and Lost did a double whammy on me. They had lots of grossness. (Gross is relative I know. It was gross to me.) So I had to close my eyes a lot. And while I can knit without looking, for some reason closing my eyes totally throws me off. Why? Who knows.

But I have done some very good knitterly things. Oh yes. The fifth FO of 2006, first in all it's glory blocking...


And then hanging out on the bed. Because yes I wore it today, but no, I am not showing you the oh so popular shawl shot. You know the one. Where they hold it up behind them with arms spread wide and someone takes a picture of their ass. You do not wanna see a picture of my ass. We are in the process of reducing said ass and we do not really need to see it to know that it is big.


The true color is somewhere in between the blocking "natural light" shot and the boudoir (flash) shot.

Project: Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark (Fibertrends)
Yarn: Zephyr Jaegerspun, two 2 oz. cakes, 630 yards each, held doubled
Needles: Size 7 Crystal Palace circs, 32 or 35 inches
Notes: The zephyr is to die for. Except for the fricking, fracking knots. I literally screamed out loud (once in the yarn store) when I found the last two. It really pissed me off that there were so many (at least 7) knots in the one cake. The CP needles though worked like a charm. Much better than the addis I've been attempting to use for lace. I did 12 repeats of rows 31-40. When all was said and done I only had 6g (out of about 112g) of the yarn leftover.

Please don't tell the knitting police about my Olympic failure so far. And Beth, to make matters worse, I'm giving serious though to finally finishing Rogue by adding the zipper and attaching the sleeves. I'm hopeless.

Regarding Unsupervised Husbands...

If you wonder what will happen if you leave your husband alone at home to participate in the Knitting Olympics...

Friday night I hit the LYS to cast on for my sitcom chic. It was good. When I got home the man was doing laundry. Seems like a considerate thing, no?

No.


Just so you know, Big J is not mad because he has a brand new pair of fuzzy feet, that used to be his mama's before Big Daddy got ahold of them. No. He's mad because apparently I made him sit in a girl pose to take the picture.

On Saturday the man took the boys out to buy Valentine's presents -- supposedly for me. I went jeans shopping (yay for clearance) and then back to the LYS to work on my olympic project. I get a call. He's looking at aquariums and he starts rattling off sizes and prices. And I'm like, honey, it's your bonus, buy whatever you want.


Overnight it got all ph happy. And today we will pick up some of the hardier fish I guess.

You know the moral of the story.

If I didn't know better...

I'd say he loves them. Them being the fourth true FO of 2006. As in I had to weave in ends and wash them. He actually helped me smooth them out.


Project: Socks
Yarn: Knitpicks Parade in Forest, maybe a skein and a quarter
Needles: Size 2 addis

And then we trained. Trained hard I tell you. There was swatching, there was sweating, there was measuring. Ok, so there wasn't any sweating. It's not really hot here today.


Bubblegum Pink. I tell you what. I'm gonna nickname this sweater Hubba Bubba.

I have made a decision.

Yes I have. And to support my decision, I have also made a button.



It's a simple button. But it's my button. Plus I have that exact shade of cotton ease to do my sweater in. So next we swatch.

Last Minute Louie....

Aka a later gator. Procrastinator extraordinaire. That would be me. I *still* have not selected a project for the Knitting Olympics. I'm feeling a bit guilty though because I still haven't knitted man socks. Or boy #1 socks. Boy #2 has socks. But that's it. So it may just be that I try to finish boy #1 socks, and then do the man socks as my KO project. I got the book Sensational Socks and the man loves all the cable patterns. Trouble is, I don't know if the yarn I have is enough for cabled man socks. I might run out. Which would be sucktastic and awful.

The real challenge this morning is to get off my duff, take a shower and get the day going. The more time I spend lollygagging on the internet, the less time I have to knit.

A severe case of finaphobia

I'm working on repeat 11 of my leaf lace shawl. The plan is 12 repeats and then edging. It's getting closer. The taste of victory. So would you like to know what I did yesterday? Ahhh yes.

I went to the "other" LYS. I petted a bunch of dk weight yarns. I bought a couple of balls of perle 8 cotton. I want to make another sort of cuff or bracelet with beads. They had lovely silver perle 8. Yummy!

Then I went to the LYS. The one I prefer. I petted more dk yarns. The owner was kind enough to let me see the pattern on her computer so that I could decide which one was best. I ended buying a ball of cascade indulgence in a lovely shade of muted wine. And some 16" size 5 circs. And I came home and strung beads and cast on.

WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH ME?

Why would I cast on for a new project, with money I really shouldn't have spent, and needles I had to buy, instead of working on any of the million UFO's I have floating around in my house? Besides, this is freaking Florida. I don't need a hat. Like ever.

I'm attributing it to finaphobia. The fear of finishing things. Yes, oh yes, I made that word up. I felt it was justified.

fe, fi, FO, fum!

I *still* haven't figured out what to do for the Knitting Olympics. Although a recent look at my budget has helped me decide that it will be from stash. But as my training for the Olympics, I am trying to tie up all the loose ends per se. I'm shooting for a record number of FO's. (Ok, so record is a bit vague and subjective). I'm shooting for lots of FO's.

So we present, the third FO of the year... the "fashion scarf". Modeled by our favorite fashion model, PJ, aka my nephew, the son of the recipient. This is for my sister. And I *know* she won't let me snap a pic of her.


My sister picked out this yarn up in Fernandina Beach back in October when my mom was visiting.

Project: Fashion scarf aka cast on 12 stitches and knit every row til it's done.
Yarn: Online Linie 67 - label lost. The colorway is a mix of turquoise, blue, and navy.
Needles: Size 15 crystal palace circulars.

This yarn is actually very nice. I'm not a fan of novelty stuff personally, but it's very soft, and it has a pretty mixture of matte/shiny/furry. Did I mention it was soft? ;)

Cuff 'em & stuff 'em

I don't like it. It reminds me of those cuffs people wore in the 70's while exercising (or not exercising). The striped ones. Maybe it's the yarn and beads I chose. They go nicely. The heathered shadow and the softly variegated beads. Maybe it looks like gym socks and not jewelry because the beads are matte? I don't know. But it's done. The second FO of 2006.

Pattern: MaryElla from Knitty
Yarn: Knitpicks Shadow in Oregon Coast
Beads: Sead beeds from Art on Park
Needles: Size 0000 addis

On a clear day you can see forever...

Or at least to the end of your legs. Presenting the first FO of 2006.... Fuzzy Feet!


A nicer shot of them outside on the balcony relaxing.


Pattern: Fuzzy Feet from Knitty
Yarn: Cascade 220 leftovers - the heel & toe in quattro. Less than one skein total.
Needles: Size 10.5 16" circs and size 10.5 dpns (or something like it)
Verdict: Quick, easy, and delightful!

I was reading Franklin's blog and he has the nicest picture of wintery Chicago. Here we don't do so much with the winter. Although we did have to wear jackets today, I don't think it broke 65. So I present...

The view from here...

February is the new January

I really hate it when they do that. "Brown is the new black". No it's not. It's brown. And yes, brown has become more of a wardrobe staple than it was in the past. But go try telling all the goth kids to start wearing brown. Maybe a nice tweedy chocolate? Yeah, right.

Speaking of chocolate, my dieting resolutions have already sputtered out. Well, not so much sputtered. More like I did a spectacular cliff dive into a lake of chocolate ala Willy Wonka.

And I was thinking about knitting vs. dieting. How they are similiar. The effort to result ratio that is. Losing a bunch of weight is like knitting a cabled sweater, or a beautiful lace shawl. Lots of hardwork, but the end result is so very much worth it. And you can strut around with pride in your new shawl (or your new butt) and just bask in the compliments.

And then there's quick and dirty dieting. A couple of days of frenzied effort to drop a few pounds of water weight. So you can wear your rings again and your face won't look quite so puffy in your new work ID card. Kind of like fuzzy feet. Or a washcloth. A short spurt of crazy knitting yields you something little and cute.


Of course maybe it's like one of those crazy big knit ponchos. Yarn the width of a garden hose, size 75 needles. And you're all proud of yourself until you wear it out. And realize that you look like a schmuck. Just like the water weight comes screaming back as soon as you eat a single lay's potato chip. And who can eat just one?

There are differences though. Dieting is about deprivation. Knitting is about burying yourself in piles of gorgeous yarn. And then there's the whole UFO issue.

UFO. UnFinished Object. Knitters are famous for their UFO's. Like my Rogue. I pick it up, I put it down. I've been working on it off and on since August. But everytime I pick it up, it is just where I left it. No stitches have unravelled. Just as much progress as I expected. No backsliding. It's a beautiful thing.

You can't leave dieting in UFO status though. You can't *stop* dieting and then pick up back where you left off. Nope. If you stop and ignore it for awhile your butt will get bigger. And don't even try on those rings. Who are you kidding?

Happy New Year folks. Come February 1st I'll be toasting you with rice cakes and um, rice cakes. At least I can still gorge myself on yarn.