The Year of the UFO

As 2007 draws to a close, I'm busy making plans for 2008. This year has been bittersweet. While it's been a tremendous year for personal growth, it's also been a year of loss and I'm happy to see it end. I know that the habits and insights I've learned this year will continue into the next so I've declared 2008 - the year of completion. All those little projects, knitting and otherwise, will get completed - my daughter will finish high school - I'll reach my WW goal - I'll empty out my knitting bins of all UFOs - and life will be good.

So my wish for everyone this holiday season - is a very happy and healthy Christmas - and a joyful 2008.

L O S E R!

I finished my very cute clothespin doll in time for our family party on Sunday. She took far longer than I anticipated but I think she turned out way better than I thought. In fact, she turned out so good, she didn't even place in the contest. In fact, my daughter, who took one of those little scrapbook ornaments - the one that is a Giants baseball outfit, won first place. She spent about 35 seconds opening the package, peeling off the sticky bits and positioning them on a nekkid clothespin. A total investment of $5.95 and under a minute of time. Me, on the other hand, invested at least 10 hours and far more money than I'll admit to, and I lost.big.time.
Not that I'm bitter and not like I entered only to win (the prizes for Avon for god's sake!)
And after all that, my cousin decided she wanted my doll and took it - so I don't even have the doll anymore either. Bah Humbug :)

Bad blogger - no cake

I've been a bad blogger lately - or more accurately - an absent blogger. It's been a tough couple of months in the candie household. My mother-in-law was hospitalized on Halloween - only a week after she cooked a huge feast for my daughter's 17th birthday. In retrospect, the request for my daughter for a special dinner of lebanamo perhaps was foresight on her part. Normally, my daughter wants a H U G E party with all her friends and my fried chicken. I feel she's too old now for those types of parties so she asked if her grandmother would cook her favorite arabic dish with the whole family in attendance. It's almost rare these days to get all of them together - there's always some type of drama and a family owned business to run. The last time the entire family were in the same place as at a wedding 3 years ago. So Sitty cooked and cooked and almost every aunt and uncle and cousin came to the house to feast. Unfortunately, it as the last time the whole family would eat together. A week later she was hospitalized and on Thanksgiving she passed away. The week leading up to Thanksgiving, we spent many hours in the ICU waiting room hoping for a miracle that never came. Just as my family gathered in front of our turkey - my mother, my sister, my two neices and my two children - we got a phone call that it was time to come say good-bye at the hospital.

Even though my mother-in-law didn't see eye to eye for most of my marriage, every Thanksgiving, I'm going to be grateful for that wonderful family feast she prepared for my daughter. And I'm going to be grateful for the fact that even though, legally, I'm not a Lama anymore, I'm still part of the family.

So my knitting and my blogging have been on the back burner this past months and I'm sooooooo ready for 2007 to be over and I'm hoping and praying for a better 2008.

Obsession...thy name is Amelia

The pattern book is here. The crochet thread (or at least most of it) is here. The spanish moss hair is here. The wooden knob head heads are here. The teeny tiny roses are here. A gazillion wee baskets are here. The creepy faux ringlet hair is here. 3 eBay purchases, 2 in store Joann's purchases and one online purchase. One Beverly's in store purchase. And I think I spend a grand total of about $30 bucks. All for a freaking clothes pin doll. I'm not sure how exactly this became an obsessive endeavor but it has. And I'm not sure how I'm going to only make one. And I have no clue what I'll do with them when I'm finished. I think I'm going to make the holiday one whos name is Amelia and the pink one - both on the far right - and I may make a semi goth one with pink and black fishnets (told you it was an obsession). At least I've abandoned my first choice - drag queen nun dolls.....although if I get these done quick enough....there still might be time for some sewing...............

Dolls & Crochet

It's just a few weeks away from an annual tradition in my family - the Mifflin Family Christmas Party. My mom was #8 of nine sisters. 7 of those sisters had children - lots and lots of children. Last count I had 53 first cousins - most of them girls - almost all of them crafty. We're a crafty bunch of ex-Mormons. (actually some of them are still mormons but most escaped)

So every year at Christmas - since my mom was a little girl - the family all got together for a big dinner and gift giving. When I was a little girl the event moved from homes to halls. Last year it was at a hotel ballroom in Sacramento. Certain sister's families host rotating years so the food, location and activites change but we always have contests - ALWAYS. One is the shopping bag contest which was actually a stroke of genius. Since there are gifts given out to the kids, those kids need something to haul their loot home in - hence a contest to decorate a shopping bag. This year, in addition to the shopping bag contest, we've got the "Best Dressed Clothespin" contest. Now I will admit when I heard about this, I imagined one of my cousins was hitting the crack pipe the day contests were discussed. However, once I did a little googling, I discovered there's a whole freaking industry in the clothespin doll market. I even found a Saint Theresa clothespin doll on eBay for a mere $7.00. (and hell yeah I bought it). Then I came across some crochet patterns for clothespin dolls. Naturally, I had to take a trip to the craft store looking for doll hair, pipe cleaners and something to fashion a stand with. I also ordered 2 pattern books from eBay ($2.00 each thankyouverymuch). I already had the proper crochet thread and needles so I'm now good to go. Who would have thunk it?

I'm feeling the urge to crochet something else - maybe little tiny granny squares made into a bigger purse - lined - hobo style. The wheels are turning in my mind :)

Christmas comes early

I've actually starting my Christmas shopping. I feel so damn organized!!! Normally, I don't event think about it until after Thanksgiving but I've already researched gifts and actually purchased gifts. I'm almost afraid I'm going to jinx it!

I still have my son's birthday which is just 2 days before Thanksgiving. And I work M-T-W of that week so there won't be much preparation time. And I've promised my former MIL that I'd help her roll grape leaves and she wants to do that the night before Thankgsiving. It's gonna be a busy, busy week.

I had grand plans of knitting a ton of stuff for holiday gifts and I've pared that down emmensely. My sis may get a pair of socks - new baby in the fam is getting a cotton bib - but I'm thinking that may be it. Maybe next year I'll start in January!!

Let the eggnog flow - it's holiday time :)

Suicides & Quakes

It's been a rather eventful Tuesday here in candie land. At the office we were in mid-holiday hell. My job involves producing advertising for a ginormous retailer and on this week we finalize the stuff that runs the day after thanksgiving - it's a HUGE deal for most retailers and we have to be perfect. Naturally there are lots of last minute changes, added approvals and media that looks like a badly edited kung-fu movie. And misspelled words - several of them. So it was a hellish day and I've been pretty much feeling sorry for myself and whining most of the afternoon.
The hellish day caused me to leave work late - naturally. I get to the BART station and just miss a train. I'm not one to run down a moving escalator to save myself the 5 minute wait for the next train. I have visions of falling on my face, breaking several teeth (that I've barely finished paying for) and having my hair get stuck in the mechanisms and getting ripped out by the roots. Yeah, I know, vivid imagination. So I walk to the end of the station because the blinking red sign says Daly City 10 can train. At the end of the station I'll probably get a seat and I can knit my way to Glen Park. So the blinking light says 1 minute til the train - for about 15 minutes. Now the station is packed - and no train in sight. Finally, a voice from above tells us that there is a medical emergency at the next station so trains are delayed. I can live with that - I've waited out medical emergencies before - maybe 15 minutes. I comtemplate taking out my knitting even though I'm not sitting but decide the station is too freaking crowded. Another 15 minutes and we're told the next station is actually closed and they'll update us when them can. I don't feel like waiting so I figure I can walk to Civic Center - it's 2 stations beyond where I'm at - and I've already walked 1/2 mile from my office - it's maybe another 1/2 a mile - no hills - still light outside - I can do it. So I walk - and when I get to the next station - the one with the medical emergency - I see news vans, police cars and the coroner's van. Yeah, that station won't be open for a while -so I keep walking and hope to see a cab online the way.
No cabs - and since I'm now in the seedier part of Market street, I walk fast - very fast. I finally get to Civic Center - and I'm thinking it can't be too bad - I've gone past the closed station. Yeah, I was wrong. Coming down the escalator there was a sea of humanity - wall to wall - shoulder to shoulder - there wasn't an inch for me to stand - and I didn't feel like teetering on the edge of the platform so that I could be the basis for a 2nd cororner's visit. So I headed up to the street hoping to see a cab. All I saw were drug dealers so back down the escalator. There were less people this time which told me trains were moving. The voice from above told us there were 15 minute delays - to which I replied - "Bullshit" as it'd been more than 90 minutes since I first set foot on BART. Trains were all running on the same track - so it was taking longer - each train that pulled up was so full of humanity that there was no way in hell any of the thousands standing next to me would get on. So it was a waiting game. I knew I had no control of the situation and neither did the voice from above so I decided to be silent and find something to lean up against. Lots of trains passed - too full - or empty and stopping one station short of my final destination. When a train finally arrived that I had a hope of getting on - a big, fat, ugly, ugly man decided to take a position directly in front of me and let several dozen people board the train - I tried to get around his massive girth but the sea of humanity would not part - and each time i said "excuse me" he said "that trains going to daly city" and I yelled "so am I". When the fat bastard finally got out of my way - the doors closed. I contemplated kicking him in the balls just to satisfiy my anger but figured it would probably be the closest he'd ever got to human contact in that region so I controlled my urge. I did wish him a long lasting case of the runs. So I waited, and waited and the voice from above kept reminding us that we could leave the station & go grab dinner. Although I was hungry, I wasn't in the mood for dinner with crack whores and drug dealers this particular evening. 30 minutes went by - and I'm texting my daughter trying to figure out which street car goes close to my house and maybe I'd be able to grab a cab from there. The voice from above kept promising trains and finally, Millbrae/SFO headlights came my way. The train was packed but standing another 30 minutes was nothing now. Almost 3 hours after I should have been home, I arrived home to discover the medical emergency was a suicide.
4 minutes after arriving home, we had a 5.6 earthquake.
I ran to the liquor store to buy lotto tickets.
I'm due.

Happy Birthday to You

D E A D

Death by cashmerino - socks were in the mail when I arrived home today and they are B E A U T I F U L. Tory J did an amazing job - and included some stitch markers pinned to the socks. And, the socks are almost exactly the same shade of green I chose for my first weapons.

I wish I'd taken pictures of the socks I inherited from clumberknits - they were a similar shade of green as well. I guess great minds think alike.

This really was a fun experience and I hope to do it again next year. Tory - thanks for some beautifully knit socks - good luck with your next victim!!

Happy Birthday Kitty

Did you know that yesterday was Hello Kitty's birthday? She's a whopping 25 years old. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Ms. Kitty stood outside her store in Serramonte posing for pictures while young girls signed her birthday card. Not exactly the way I spent my 25th but then I'm not as animated as the the birthday feline. When we happened upon this celebration during my search for a DVD player and some lunch, I was struck by the fact that those lined up to take a picture with the ever-so-patient Ms. Kitty, dozens of grown ass women. And I use the term "grown ass" in the most benefical way possible. Naturally, my almost grown ass daughter and her friend decided they too needed to pose with the cat as evidenced above. So happy birthday you big puss - and many happy returns.
In knitting news, I have been triumptant in the first round of knit wars having dispatched my first victim, clumberknits, last week. My victim was kind enough to send her unfinished weapons of cotton destruction most swiftly. I had hoped to have the finished pair in the mail on Monday but I fear it will take longer as I had some Jayne hat knitting to do this weekend. So I've turned the heel on the first sock and hope to finish it or come close, this evening. And I won't be able to knit until late Monday so 2nd sock may not be ready to mail until Wednesday. So my death may be fast approached as my status on the database changed on Friday to "dying" but still no word from my stealth assissan. My only hope is that it's not the killer who's cutting corners on the socks by making the foot all stockinette. I hope to die a noble death :)
And I'm loving the yarn that clumberknits has for her weapons - cotton and elastic are my friend. I'm gonna have to get me some of that and make a pair for myself - I'm loving it.

Weapons Of Wool-ish Destruction

First shot fired - my weapons of wool-ish destruction have been mailed to a soon-to-be-vanquished knitter by the name of clumberknits. I bite the bullet so to speak and stayed up til 2am to finish these and get them to the post office this morning. Needless to say, my day at work sucked since I yawned through every meeting and no amount of caffine could stop my graping mouth syndrome. However, I have drawn first blood - not a peep yet from my wanna be asassian so I may survive the first scrimmage unscathed. And, tomorrow is Friday so I'll have the weekend to finish off clumberknits socks and sent them out on Monday to her target.

It has begun

I'm about 1/3 of the way thru my first sock - no doubt I'll be able to put these in the mail on Monday morning so they should reach my target by Wednesday or Thursday but - and it's a B I G but - some people finished already. We got the pattern around 4pm pacific time Friday and it's about 40 hours later and some people have freaking finished. Who the hell knits non-stop? And, a few peeps have actually altered the pattern which is making it a quicker knit for them. Now I understand that this is a war but cheating is still cheating - takes some of the fun out of it. Oh well, back to the needles :)

Things I won't be knitting anytime soon....

Candy Corn

Candy Corn - I'm totally in love with this yarn but I can't decide what sock pattern to use. Course I got this for my daughter and she immediately asked for red and silver instead.....ingrate.....so maybe I just knit socks for myself and screw everyone else :)

eBay store stuff

I've finally gotten this lined and finished and posted in my eBay store. I used some hand-dyed yarn I bought off eBay quite a while ago and the pattern is my own. I've got so many other WIPs that I hoped to get into the store before the holidays - if only I could knit all day long!
I've got two more purses in the works - one that just needs handles - and at least 2 more sketched out - one of which will be crochet - so it'll be a quick stitch!
On top of that, I've loving knitting my Monkey sock - the first one is verrrrry close to being finished. Lorna's Laces is so nice to knit with - I actually ordered 2 more skeins today to make some socks of my demon spawn's upcoming birthday.
I've also joined sock wars - it's a very clever idea where everyone who joins is matched up with a victim - in order to "kill" your victim you must finish a pair of socks (from the same pattern), pop them off in the mail. If you get socks before your victim, you're dead and you send off your unfinished work to your assassian. It's simplier than it sounds! So I went and order some yarn that should work for the pattern that will be revealed in about 10 days - I'm hopeful but not expecting to finish first but it should be fun.

Jayne, oh Jayne!

Jayne Hats And More

Socks hate me, really, they do....

On Sunday I posted a picture of the cute little Monkey sock I'm knitting out of Lorna's Laces in the Cool colorway. I was a proud sock knitter. So what happens Sunday night? I fall asleep with the socks on my bed and proceed to f*ck them up beyond any hope of salvation. So I frogged - one repeat away from turning the heel. Yep, socks hate me.

Tomorrow is the end of an era in San Francisco and it makes me sad. Barry Bonds won't be returning to the city as a Giant in 2008. Baseball will go on but it won't be the same. I grew up watching the heroics of his father and his godfather and unless his son gets drafted soon, they won't be much to watch at 2nd & King next year. I did go to quite a few games this year, including two Dodger games and got to see a few home runs in person (and got the pins to prove it).

I'm not sure what it is about the game of baseball that grabs your soul and never, ever lets go but I'm a victim and I consider myself blessed to have been able to watch the most powerful, graceful, entertaining hitter to ever play the game. (and I hope those two bastards at the chronicle choke on their illegally gotten grand jury transcripts).

In honor of Mr. Bonds last game at AT&T park, I leave you with this pic, from the year the park opened (I think).

It's my daughter and a bunch of her classmates on a field trip I chaparoned to a Giants game - all those cute little girls are high school Seniors now. Time marches on - no matter how much we want things to stay the same.

And this is her this year - mugging as usual - at a Dodger game - where she discovered if you heckle Dodger fans and they react too strongly - security will kindly escort the obviously misguided fan out of the park. :)

Progress Report!

To steal a line from the gods & goddesses at Ravelry - where my stitches at?

I've been knitting away this weekend (including 3 hours Friday night/Saturday morning making a Jayne hat). The T-twist tee is moving slow but it's moving - I think I had to cast on something like 220 stitches and I've knit maybe 40 rows - that's almost 9000 stitches. In comparison, a complete Jayne hat, with ear flaps, takes less than 3000 stitches. Now I remember why I took to those damn hats, they're quick and easy. The first Monkey sock on the left isn't even at the heel yet and I've knit more than 3000 stitches. (not like I'm counting or anything)

The allergy demons have decided to visit me this weekend - and I do thank them for visiting during the rainy weekend, rather than durning the work week. The thing about these demons is that you don't really know they've arrived until they've unpacked and ordered room service - far too late to take any preventative measures. I so enjoy grocery shopping with allergy exhaust running out of my nose (but it does make me shop quicker and not buy stupid shit!)

The absolute best part of this highly productive yet snotty weekend happened at 10:05 this morning. That's when the ticket master demons decided they liked me and I was able to purchase tickets for this. I've been a fan since the first album and although I think what they did to Michael Anthony was very shitty, and even though the ticket prices are disgustging, they're still my favorite band of all time. I prefer the Sammy years - but there was no way in hell I was going to miss seeing Eddie play again - no way. So December 22nd, me, my son and my sister, expect to kick off Christmas week with a bang :)

Socks!

Or sock to be more exact. After frogging the Jaywalkers because they were puckering, I cast on some Lorna's Laces in the Cool colorwar for these Monkey socks. So far, me like. Easy pattern, well written and they knit up fairly quickly.

Babies Make The Cutest Yodas

Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen? Doesn't it make you want to know a small child with Star Wars receptive parents just so you can crochet this?

Update on my knitting related experience with my mammogram -- got a postcard from my friends at Kaiser that says "Congratualtions, You don't have boob cancer!"

In real knitting news, I F I N A L L Y made it to the post office to send off the latest piece of Scarf Circle III, my aunt's Booja birthday bay & a Jayne hat destined for Canada.

I spend a good chunk of tv time last night working on the Jaywalkers - I've made them shorter but I'm afraid I may run out of yarn. I'm going to be able to finish the first sock durning Emmy /Big Brother 8 knitting time tonight. I'm actually not too depressed about frogging this sock since there are some minor issues that I noticed too far in to fix easily so I just forged ahead. Just a couple of twisted stitches that NO ONE would see cept me. I'm excited to finish the pair and actually wear them as my other "first" pair of socks got adopted out to my daughters best friend. Maybe I won't leave the house today - it's very gloomy looking outside - and just knit all freaking day :)

Knit Wars!

http://www.chorewars.com/character.php?name=yarncandie
ChoreWars - so freaking addictive!
I've signed up for sock wars as well http://yarnivation.blogspot.com/
Gonna be a busy busy fall!

FOFOFOFOFOFOFO!

Some finished objects and a WIP -

Mrs. Caster

Here's a really bad pick of my lasted FO - it's all lined and purty but my camera phone sucks. Tomorrow I'll have real pics - of several FO's. Three day weekends rock!


Over on the Lime n Violet message boards - Miss V suggested, in honor of Labor Day (ok - she confused it with Memorial Day but it's still great idea) we members knitters and projects we'd loved. So below is what I posted on the LnV Message Boards of Doom!



I've actually told this story on the boards before - almost 40 years ago, my 5th grade teacher Mrs. Caster taught our entire class to knit. I can still hear the click click click of her knitting needles in class - always knitting a sweater - and usually with a skein of red acrylic. She taught us to knit squares to make afghans for the pagan babies in Alaska. No catholic school child could refuse any request involving pagan babies. So we knit squares and I really enjoyed it. I was dying to learn to sew (my grandmother was a quilting genius) but everyone deemed me too young at age 10 to use the sewing machine so I think knitting satisfied the crafty urge in me. As my classmates knit squares, I asked Mrs. Caster for something more challenging - she handed me some purple yarn and told me to cast on a number of stitches and come back when I'd knit a specific number of rows. That process went on for a couple of weeks - and along the way I learned to purl, decrease, increase, etc. By the end of the month I had a purple and pink stuffed alligator with a red felt tongue - every stitch knit by me - I still have that sucker somewhere in my basement. Aside from knitting - the other thing I remember (and totally love about) Mrs. Caster - is the fact that she kept a stash of booze in her cabinet in the teachers lounge. When she wasn't knitting in class, she was drinking coffee, little did we know it was her own special blend!!! So tomorrow, in memory of my favorite knitter and teacher, I'll have to hoist an adult beverage in her honor!

Knitters Arent' Strangers

I had two doctor's appointments this afternoon so I took a boatload of knitting with me in case I had to wait too long.

I almost took a phone pic of myself - in the teeny, tiny paper-thin gown - with my knitting propped up close to my chest trying to keep the aforementioned gown covering my "assests" - with a giant wall sized window overlooking downtown San Francisco on the most glorious sunny day. But I couldn't figure out where I'd hold the phone and still keep the gown closed.

That visual probably pales in comparison to one of me, inside the mammy room, with little stickers with metal dots placed over my nips, gown dropped around my waist, my "assests" being positioned

in the vise-grip they call a mammogram machine by a woman I've never met before who happens to be from Petaluma but grew up in Columbia and was taught to cross-stitch by the nuns and now hates to cross-stitch because it feels like home-work. And I know all this how? You guessed it - the x-ray tech who vise-gripped my boobs is a knitter. She's looking for a new shop in Petaluma - her favorite lys closed and she hasn't knit a stitch since. And the more bizarre part of this whole event - once I knew she was a knitter - I totally forgot I was nearly nekkid in front of a stranger - knitters are never strangers :)

Some progress

still lots and lots of knitting to be done and not enough time to do it. I did make some progress on one of the Lime N Violet Scarf Circle III scarflettes - hopefully I can send it out in the mail tomorrow. I'm loving knitting the Twisted T - something about rows and rows of stockinette seems very calming - don't have to think much - just a decrease or two every 10 rows - easy BART knitting until it gets bigger. And Jayne hats are making a comeback - I still have a ton of Jayne yarn so I listed a hat on eBay which sold easily. So I'll start churning a few out now since it's going to be holiday time soon. I'm debating on whether or not I want to finish Mystery Stole III - I do want to hone my lace and beading skills but I know I'll never wear it - maybe a gift for my former MIL - she loves that kind of shit.

Some ladies at the LnV message boards posted this cartoon - made me laught - even though she says "crochet" when it's clearly K N I T. When will they ever learn?

Chore Wars

For all of us knitters with too much free time , the wonderful ladies over at Lime n Violet have devised a Knit Wars version of Chore Wars. Anyone familiar with MMORPs like World of Warcraft will find Chore Wars vaguely familiar - you earn XP for completing knitting related tasks. The whole point of the site is to encourge folks to do chores whether it's kids taking out the garbage or menopausal women knitting socks. Anything from finished a sock to resisting the temptation of buying new yarn ears experience points - and let's just say, I'll never earn XP for NOT buying yarn. It's a fun way to pass the time at work - of course only when I'm not actually working. I noticed tonite, as I put in some xp for the 2 hours of knitting I did last night while watching "The Trouble With Angels" (best.movie.ever). That gave me 40 xp plus another 10 for the 4 skeins of sock yarn I got online. 50 xp for the day. Not bad. I've got a total of about 400 xp. Then I looked at some of the other knitters - those who had thousands and thousands of experience points. On person had claimed 40xp for knitting dishclothes at 2 hrs a pop, 4 times in one day. I guess I'm glad I don't have THAT much free time. Course now that I've blogged about knitting, I can go claim some more xp :)
And, in other knitting news, I'm loving the way the Twisted T is beginning to look - the color of the Cotton-Ease is a most yummy shade of purple, it's far easier to knit than Sugar n Cream or Mission Falls 1824 (that stuff almost killed me), and I L O V E how the twisted hemmy part turned out - and sooooooo simple. I predict I'll be finished by the end of next month - and hopefully I'll be 10 lbs thinner so I'll look so hot (not!).
And, my ball winder arrived at my mom's bar today so I'll go pick it up in the next day or so. Not having a car sucks but all the money I save buys me more yarn!

Lot's O'Knitting

My efforts to avoid the nasty bug that's going around by taking a sick day on Thursday failed miserably. I went back to work on Friday and now I'm sick as a dog. I did run bar errands Saturday morning, and went grocery shopping, which make it all worse. So now I'm staying put, taking lots of sudafed and sneezing my brains out. The bug is more of an annoyance than anything else - I'm not sick enough to sleep through it and I'm hungry as a horse. My WW weight in tomorrow may not be pleasant.

But I did cast on for the Twist-tee from Knitty. I'm using Cotton Ease (because I couldn't find a shade of Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora that I liked) in a nice purpley-mauvey colorway. Since it's an actual garmet, I did knit a gauge swatch which was dead on so I'm feeling fairly confident. It won't be BART knitting and it pushes MSIII on the back burner (I wasn't loving it). I do have 2 swatches for Lime-n-Violet Scarf Circle III that need finished soon and some purse lining to do but I think the Twisted-tee is good for stay-in-bed-knit-all-Sunday-so-I-don't-use-another-sick-day knitting.

Here are some random pics of my daughter and my niece shopping for clothes at Wal-Mart (who knew cool-urban teenagers would love Wal-Mart?).

C O T T O N rules

In a valiant effort to anilate my yarn organization, my almost 22 year old son insisted I drive him to the mall this evening as he needed a new backpack. Since his college classes started this morning and since I got paid today, I agreed. Unfortunately we found a parking spot near the Beverly's (conveniently located between Jamba Juice and Gamespot). As I'm feeling as if I'm coming down with a nasty little cold, I headed for the Jamba Juice. My son, being male, headed for Gamespot. We met in the middle, in front of Beverly's. What harm could I do in a chain craft store? After all I just got rid of thousands of yarns of Red Heart. Unfortunately I'd been reading Mason-Dixon blog whilst working and feel in love with the Buncha Squares Blanket that Ms. Kay just posted. It's quite fetching and it's cotton and its garter stitch. So I was thinking I could make something like that as a Christmas gift. I've got a decent selection of cotton but no creams or white which the aforementioned blanket required. The rest is a blur because I'm not entirely sure how I managed to spend more than $50 on little tiny skeins of yarn that cost a little over $1 each but when my son opened the trunk of the car, there it was C O T T O N for days. I did have an Eureka! moment about creating something other than a blanket with all this cotton which I'm going to go work on righ this second.......details later!

alpaca

alpaca
Originally uploaded by newspixie@sbcglobal.net

Protect your apples!

Does your apple need a jacket? What about your oranges or peaches or pears? Cherries!! Surley your cherries need the protection of a jacket. Once all your fruit are sporting hand-knits, won't your veggies get jealous? Avocados are fragile, shouldn't they be protected as well?
And what about those pork chops in the freezer? They definately need protection.
Gotta go.......off to make some handknits for my grocery list. :)

Stash Reduction Weekend

I've finally come to the conclusion that the massive amounts of yarn in plastic tubs in my bedroom are offically annoying me. I've also come to the conclusion that I will never, ever knit anything with the shitload of acrylic that I currently own. Since most of it was purchased decades ago, I would have no problem with tossing it. But since I'm a fan of Al Gore and try to be green I'm hesitant to add it to some landfill. I'm thinking I'll take it to Goodwill? Do they even take yarn? So tomorrow, instead of Angel Island picnic day, it'll be stash reduction day. Anything that doesn't have a purpose or potential purpose is going into a giant bag and sent to the garage until I find out if Goodwill takes yarn.

Then Sunday's gonna be organize day - I'm breaking out the Christmas list and starting now - because with less than 2 weeks of summer vacation, it'll be the holidays before you know it.

I've already got a pretty good idea of what I'll be knitting, and what I'll be sewing for holiday gifts, and even have most of the materials. It may also be time for a S E R I O U S yarn diet.

2008 is going to be an expensive year - high school graduation and the bigass party I'm going to throw for the graduate is going to take some fiscal planning. Not to mention the laptop someone was promised if she makes honor roll - or college tuition that'll be due next summer. But it'll be worth it!! Time to get organized - pics of progress manana.

And - GO B A R R Y!!

Booja denied

I've been rushing and rushing to finish up the Booja bag as it's an early birthday gift for my favorite aunt (and godmother). Her birthday's not until the end of the month but we were celebrating it this weekend on Angel Island - a traditional picnic spot for our family. But poor Aunt Laurie did a nosedive at the gym and broke her ankle - cancelling the family outing. I'm still going to try and get it finished - and superfastknit a pair of socks she can stretch over her cast to keep her tooties warm for the next 10 weeks! I can ship it off to her house since I know she ain't going anywhere!!! Yuck for broken ankles!

Tragedy......and a Trifecta

Just back from my Tahoe vacation - to my utter dismay the Jimmy Beans Wool store in Truckee is now closed. I was heartbroken that I would not be able to visit the store again (although my credit card was happy). To cheer me up, my daughter & my niece took the most recent scarfette from Lime & Violet's Scarf Circle III out for some sightseeing at Emerald Bay.
I did finally get to visit a Wal-Mart on the way up and on the way back. You see, the company I work for does some in-store advertising at Wal-Mart and since I don't own a working vehicle and there are no Wal-Marts nearby, I've never been in one. So I've never seen "my work" in action. So today, I got to visit the Wal-Mart supercenter in Dixon where outside the store it was a whopping 108 degrees. Inside the store, it was cool and crisp and I was able to see my work in action. And, of course, buy some yarn. Just a little cotton for some holiday washclothes, but yarn nonetheless.
In other non-knitting news, we did get home in time to watch Barry tie Hank Aaron's home run records. It was a classic Barry homerun - no doubts from the second the ball hit the bat - and watching him bear hug his son at homeplate was priceless. I almost bought tickets early in the season for Monday's home game - Irish night - but since it was my first day back at work from vacation, thought I'd be too tired - now I wished I'd gotten them because I'd love to be there when he breaks the record. Go Barry.
In addition non-knitting news, since today is my 29th birthday (again), along with a 6 hour drive from Tahoe to SF, I got some stellar birthday gifts - the best of which are a Darth Vader light saber and the UPSP Star Wars commerative stamp set. We won't mention some of the other gifts - like the Menopause For Dummies book - which my sister will pay dearly for when her big day arrives - but all in all, it was a good day. A trifecta of historical goodness - the anniversay of my birth, Barry hitting # 755, and my first trip to a Wal-Mart Supercenter. What more can a girl ask for?

When Good Yarn Does Bad Things......

There I was, trying to get to the post office to send off Ms. Merino's scarflette to it's next victim....err...knitter. The envelope had been addressed, postage calculated and all that was left was to stuff it's soft yarn-y goodness into the envelope. But nooooooo, it was no where to be found. I sent out an in-house Amber alert for the missing scarflette, even offering a small reward to the first teenager to locate the missing wool, unharmed. We're about to leave for our Lake Tahoe vacation tomorrow so the house is a tad chaotic but I didn't think I'd be distracted enough to lose a WIP that didnt' even really belong to me. Then, a sparkley something attracts my attention - and there, on top of the bar, I see the scarflette. Bad, bad, bad scarflette...even my teenagers don't go near the pimp juice! The deliquent WIP doesn't have far to go to its next destination - I do hope it behaves better!
I've got Yarn Diva's scarflette in hand. It'll be keeping me company on the drive up to Lake Tahoe - in a zip loc bag - I just hope it doesn't escape when we hit the casinios!

WIP Report

Two items on the needles currently getting all of my knitting attention:

Mystery Stole 3 - the cashwool I ordered from Jimmy Beans Wool on Wednesday, arrived on Friday. Yep, that's their normal shipping. When I die, I want my ashes to be kept in an urn in that store.

I'm about row 35 - and I love the way the yarn works, the beading is way easier than I thought, and I'm pleased as punch to get rolling finally. I don't like my needles - size 4 metal circs - but can't win them all.

The 2nd item is the Booja bag - which is going to be a gift - not exciting knitting but perfect for the BART trip to work every morning. I'm thinking I'm going to line this one and probably add a little zippered pouch because I've got 4 skeins of Noro and I won't need them all.

I've been spending so much time lately on ravelry that I haven't gotten tons of knitting done. But once I get all my stash, patterns and projects on there, the organizational aspect of the site will be a huge time saver.

It's not a mystery any longer.....

So I ordered some new yarn for Mystery Stole III from Jimmy Beans Wool on Wednesday. Their store is out of state - I ordered Wednesday around 3pm. When did the yarn arrive? Friday - at noon. How freaking amazing is that? I guess it's a good thing that their store is in another state or I'd be handing them over most of my paycheck twice a month. I will be visiting one of their two stores during my vacation at the end of the month :)

Not only do they ship same day, they always enclose a little treat with their order - today it was 2 A&W root beer candies all nice and secure in a little baby ziploc bag. They know how to make knitters happy.

On to the yarn....it's beeeeeutiful - soft and springy and just the right shade of ecru. I couldn't wait to finish dinner so I could start winding it. 1400 yards of winding - by hand. I'm really wishing I'd ordered that ball winder from Joann's earlier but nope, all by hand. I got halfway through and stopped as my shoulders began cramping - I'm such a wussy. I'm finish it tomorrow and then pick up some beads with some hint of purple/pink/lavender in them because I've decided I'm going for it. First lace project - first beaded project - hoping the goddesses of knitting are on my side. Wish me luck.

Nobody does it better