New sweater!

Hi hi!

I finished (and seamed) my Calluna Sweater! Calluna is by Knit Picks. I think I may have a thing for Knit Picks, they are inexpensive, they are convenient. We don't have a LYS in Merced.

So, picture!

Still no buttons, and not blocked. But I am actually doing that tomorrow morning. I am going to use snaps on the closures, and mock buttons on the top. I am very excited that I will be able to wear this sweater at least once before the end of the winter/spring! Hope everyone is having a great begining of March.

Re-knitting.. bleh!

I am working on this really cute little shawl from a mystery Knit Along (from now on known as a KAL). It is called the Evenstar knit along. I have no idea how this thing will look when I am done (because it is a mystery..), and that is fun, but it is also frusterating when you know you have something not quite right and you can't figure out why it isn't working.

I think this KAL really has shown me my weaknesses as a knitter. I rely on the pattern too much, I rely on a picture of the finished project so I know what the hell the thing is supposed to look like.

So I had to knit back on this shawl about 7 rounds because I can't drop lace weight yarn strands and feel good enough about picking up all of those tiny little stitches. Right now it is only about 6 inches across and I have about 160 live stitches going. Ridiculous!

Cool little trick: if you are uncomfortable with a pattern, get to a point you feel may be difficult (or make it a point to do it every 10 rounds, you pick), and thread your yarn needle with dental floss. Then go ahead and thread that floss through every live stitch on your needles. It makes a nice safe place in case you mess up, that you can rip your yarn (gently!) back to. If you chose to use this tip, here is another: mark on your pattern or chart which row you inserted the floss at, so you can fall back to the right point in the pattern! Ok, enough of the wise woman act.

Since this sucker is a mystery, I will post pictures of it when it is done, to honor the creator of the pattern's wishes in her mystery KAL.

Ok back to fighting with yarn smaller then dental floss!

Wraps- or my fight with a sock

Fixed Camera! It wasn't actually broken, you just have to be smarter than the technology.. no the batteries weren't dead. I guess the memory card was not replaced properly in it's slot and so it wouldn't turn on as a safety? Good thing we figured it out before we took it to be fixed!

Anyhoot, wraps. Sometimes for toes of socks, heels of socks, mittens, hats, um.. I can't think where else I have used wraps, I think I used them on a tank top once. Wraps, or wrap and turn is a technique that is used for a process called short row knitting. Short rows are used to make a curve in your knitting, for example, shaping a waist on a sweater, or curving a toe on a sock. Do those examples make sense?

There are a lot of great sites with video tutorials and demos for short row knitting, let me link to stitch diva as an example. That is not what this whole business is about. This is about my fight with a sock- just have to give some back story for those who don't have the context.

Alrighty, so I am knitting this cute pink sock. And it is going along smoothly, I almost have the toe all done. I prefer a short row toe, however I am wrapping the damn stitches incorrectly. I am wrapping my knits like a purl, and my purls like a knit. My mind wasn't in the game. And I wish at that moment I had the camera working because it would have been the perfect picture for "What not to do".

There was all these loops in my short rows. I mean, it wasn't like there would have been a hole in my sock, it would have been like wearing toeless socks, every single toe could have slipped through. I could have started a new summer trend for flip flop wearers.

So I swore. A lot. I ate a lot of chocolate. Then I started over again. This one looks a lot better :) (Gratuitous shot of laundry in background)

Also today I am making slow cooker chicken. I haven't decided if it will turn into chicken soup or if we will just be having roasted chicken for dinner, but it is so easy, so if you don't take advantage of your slow cooker, you should! Only 4 hours on high in the slow cooker, season however you like, I prefer salt, pepper, onion and garlic, just a little rosemary and olive oil. Then if it turns into soup, I just add 6-8 cups vegetable broth to a pot, 2 carrots, 1 onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 cloves garlic, rough chopped, and mushrooms. Then egg noodles! So either way you are set. Take care.

Broken camera saddness

My camera is out of commission, I cannot show you the cute toe I am working on in pink sock yarn! I can tell you that it is Carnation by Knitpicks. Here is the link to the Fancy Feet sock kit. It is so cute, there are 7 skeins of Stroll sock yarn, one for each day of the week. There is a pattern for a different anklet for eac day of the week! I have opted to start with Tuesday.

The kit is made for toe up knitting, and it is supposed to be for two at a time socks, but I really favor one at a time on double points, that is the way I roll. Hopefully I will be able to get my camera fixed soon and show some progress on here.

It is nice to be back. Tomorrow I get to weigh myself, bleh. I hope I didn't retain water (gain weight) this week. See ya.

Yay!

Hi again. I tried my own advice on seaming, and OMG it works. The project I made for my cousin for Christmas, guys fingerless mitts, took me 2 weeks to do.

The only reason a Five Hour Project took me 2 weeks is because I was unmotivated with all those ugly seams hanging off of it. This weekend I made another set of mitts and they really only took five hours.

So maybe I have found out how to get over another hurdle in my own procrastination- make everything neat. Maybe I need to clean my house..

Screamin' about Seaming

I had a long talk with myself while I was working on a super secret knitting suprise for a friend. I said to myself, "Self, can you think of some things that took us away from knitting in these past few months?"

Self answered back, suprisingly quickly. "Yeah Kendal, you never Seam anything until you are done knitting the item. It makes one project into two projects, and the way you are stressing lately, it is no wonder you aren't finishing anything.. mutter mutter.."

Self has a rude streak. But she is right. I tend to work through a project until it is time to assemble it and then I look with dismay at all the stringy little ends hanging everywhere and I decide it is a good time to alphabetize my cookbooks, or give the dog a bath. Anything but a daunting project. It is funny, it only takes 20 or 30 minutes, but it seems like climbing Mt. Everest.

When I get to the finishing of a project, I want the sense of completion, not a gut twist sensation I am feeling when I finish projects now.

So, I made a little experiment. Self got to be the beautiful assistant. When I finished the first of my two items for my super secret project, Self reminded me to seem right then. So I did, even though I thought matching all the mystery socks in my laundry may be more fun. When I finished wrestling all five dangly pieces of evil yarn into place, I got that sense of completion! I haven't had that in a while. It makes me motivated to start the second piece to this project.

I'll post a picture when I have it done!

OMG Where have I been?

Where have I been? Obviously not blogging. Work has been crazy, and to be quite honest, my knitting has not been inspiring lately. I think that is why I have not been on here lately. I have only completed two sets of fingerless mitts for my cousins, seamed my aunt's socks and fought with a half-finished Calluna Sweater (more on that later, once I find the camera).

On a happy note, I made a resolution to get in shape and have made it half way to my goal already! Pretty good feeling.

I hope everyone is having a good New Year so far.

2 finished projects

Hi all,

Having a nice weekend here. I took some time this weekend to finish up some projects that were hanging out and hanging on... My Janet Lace Shawl (from Knit Picks) and a pair of Monkey Socks from Cookie A, posted on Knitty.

Here is the shawl:

And here are the socks. The fun thing I did with this set of socks was I knit one sock toe up and ran the pattern that way, then I knit the other one regularly, the pattern running the opposite way.. I wish I could have made the pattern more obvious that it is running two ways, but the yarn was a bit busy:

Lucy is getting bigger. Both her ears point up now. She is going to puppy kindergarten this month. So far she is the star of the class, she can sit, lie down, stay and come. She is having a problem with biting but we are still working on it.

I hope you all have had a great weekend and week. I had a busy one; I got a temporary promotion. I will be doing some management time, and helping someone cover my regular job. It is pretty exciting to me because I haven't been at this job very long. I was very honored to get tapped for this so early in my career with this place.

Talk to you all later!

K

Good Day!

Hi. I'm happy today. I did three jobs at work today, I was covering a lot of people's positions, but I really felt like I was productive today. Tomorrow will be a busy day!

This evening is what I am happy about. I made a really good dinner, I made my own alfredo sauce! I finished my food off with a cold white peach. It was so good and juicy! Then, well I didn't get to knit, but I was able to wind up my yarn for a baby sweater I owe a mommy.

My evening closed with the nicest 30 minute walk with Lucy. Not only was it a cool, beautiful evening with the nicest golden sunset; Lucy was really good on her walk! She hardly pulled at all.. and she listened to me! When she was pulling, I would give her a little pop with the leash and make a negative noise at her. She would listen and watch me, and she was still enjoying herself.

Then I watched my husbando and Lu play with her fuzzy buddy toy on the carpet. They are both so cute to watch!

Goodnite!

Witch Socks

So, last post I wrote about my Elf Socks I am making for an Auntie. I had a little problem.. When I read the directions for closing the toe, it said something to this effect: "Round 1, Knit. Round 2, Decrease at the beginning and the end of Needle 1, and then at the beginning and end of Needle 2. Round 3, Knit. Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until there are 14 stitches per needle." So here is where I end up making Witch Socks. I knit with my socks on 4 needles, not 2. So I decreased on my 4 needles, and then I suddenly had 14 stitches on each of my 4 needles. Then I began to graft my sock toes together, and well, they look a little flat. They look like there isn't any place for toes to be in these socks..


Have you ever seen the movie or read the book Witches by Roald Dahl? It is a children's book that used to really freak me out. The witches pose as everyday people, but they don't have toes. They turned some kid into a mouse and wanted to destroy all children. But the scary part is the no toes. I made Witch Socks! Oh, and the witches wear wigs because they are bald, scary, demony, hags.


So after I grafted my sock toes together, I lost a whole hour of time ungrafting them and then reattaching the yarn ends and completing the sock until the toe looks like a toe actually fits inside it.



That's all.

Lazy day

Today was so NICE. Oh my goodness, I have been working wayyy too much lately. I just found out this week that I will be taking over a supervisory position at my work, as well as keeping my regular 40 hour job. So I will need to learn to do my job faster, and will probably be more tired than usual! The nice thing is that I get to take some days off, AKA this weekend is a Four Day Weekend! Oh joy! Oh relaxation. Oh, I have so many things I need to get done but I have no inclination to get off the couch.. That is how this weekend is going. Here was my schedule for today:

5am- wake up and take Lucy the pup out. Go back to sleep and snuggle with pup.

9am- wake up. Wake Lucy up. Have breakfast. Chef Michael's and some dry kibble for Lucy, this really good pb&j-'dilla with sauteed Jazz apples for me. My really cool friend Maida has a vegan blog site, and this is one of her recipes. You should check it out! It was gooey and really like comfort food, a nice way to wake up

Afternoon: Watch the Food Network, and the movie Rudy. Have an unremarkable but large lunch with Husbando, and watch Ghostbusters.

Late Afternoon: Nap with Lucy and let Husbando do the mid-month bills. Wake up at around 8pm. Today was kind of like being in Spain. Siesta just went a little long.

8pm and on: No dinner, still full and it is too hot to eat. Take Lucy on a walk. Protect Lucy from the 60+lb Husky down the street from us that got out. He was just a big boy, only 1year old, but he was looking too big off his leash for me to deal with. I put Lu in the house and put the Husky on Lucy's tiny little leash and took him to his home across the street. Then we got barked at by a German Shepherd and a Springer Spaniel, and sniffed rather thoroughly by a Sottish Terrier at the park. It was an eventful evening for Lucy, she crashed after that.

Good news, I got some knitting done, even with my hectic and totally busy day. Hehe. I have to say, I loved what I was working on today. It is called the Rivendell Sock, by Janel Laidman. I am creating this sock out of a Knit Picks yarn called Dolphin. It is a pretty, dolphin blue color made of 70% Merino Wool and 30% Silk. It is actually left over yarn from my time with the Apres Surf Hoodie. I way overbought, I have 4 hanks of this Dolphin yarn left, but it is cool, I really love it.

I will be giving these socks away to my Auntie who thinks she is an elf. No, she isn't mentally unstable, she just really likes the movie of the Lord of the Rings. After the movies came out, she kept saying she was part elf because her ears are a bit pointy on the tips, and she likes archery. So she needs elf socks.

Well, its time for me to go to bed (again- I did a lot of sleeping today!), take care!

Fun weekend

Hi all, just here to say that after the week from heck at work, I was ready to have a great weekend, and I sure did! Husbando and I took Lu the wonderpup to Jackson Ranchoria RV park. Husbando's parents (I guess I could say parent-in- laws, so if I interchange, you will know who I am talking about) go RVing alot with a fun group, so we made it into a day trip for lots of good food and relaxation.

Also, it was kind of a reunion for Lucy; she got to visit her two sisters Lexie and Lacey. Of course, gratuitous shots of them all playing. They all have their own little personalities, and are all adorable, but Lu is definatly the most laid back and biggest of the group, so when the other puppies got too nippy or bouncy, she just pushed them over or sat on them.

I was hoping to get a nice nap on the way down and back to the RV site, but on the way down I was the Navigator and Puppy Holder as well as Puppy's Favorite Nap Lap. Naturally, those titles were joined with Knitter. Yup, got to knit on the way down, and a little at the site when everyone went to the pool. Unfortunately, not much to look at yet, just 8 inches of a 36 inch round tube..

It will eventually be the Knit Camisole top from Romantic Style, great book, 1920's, 30's style knitting and crochet with lots of frills, lace and feminine pieces. I really like this book; if you like detail, working with smaller needles and lighter weight yarn, this could be a great book for you.

I actually got Romantic Style originally for The Butterfly Dress (on the book cover). I have the yarn for it and I think my skill level is there to make this dress, but I want to be in shape for it. So I keep putting it off. I think I should start making the dress and then that will make me start working on the dress! The yarn I got for it is really pretty. It is a lace weight yarn by Knit Picks, it is called Midnight. It is blue-black with a hint of green in it, it has a lot of depth to the color and I bet it will look great over a long black slip. Maybe this will be my next project! Who knows?

This week, in honor of my finding out there will be a New Book in the Series (!!!)I am on a Diana Gabaldon kick with her Outlander Series. Tonight I am finishing off the second book, Dragonfly in Amber, and tomorrow I am going to start Voyager. I listen to these from audible.com.

Well.. I hope you all have a great week! -K

Knitting Again

Hi All! Just dropping in to say I am knitting again. The house is almost, Almost done. Lucy the puppy is Almost potty trained. I am tired. I have been working on a little sock, just in my spare moments. It is a Reversed Monkey Sock. Why reversed? Well.. a regular monkey pattern goes this way:

(The pattern spreads to the bottom of the sock)

These reverse monkeys are made toe up, and I didn't change the pattern, so it is backward:

I really like the colors. They are nice to work on for my lunch break or when my car pool buddy is driving. That is the only time I have for knitting right now, mainly because Lucy the carpet shark keeps me so busy.

I got brave and downloaded The Shining to my iTunes. I don't particularly care for Mr. King, but I really liked this one.

A New Family Member!

I have been gone for a bit, hi again! Have been working on our house, and it is a NEVER ENDING project. I did not realize we had so much stuff!

Here is the big news.. no I am not pregnant. But I am getting a new small friend! Meet Lucy, my new puppy! Lucy is 6 weeks old, so we don't get to take her home for a couple of weeks. She is a Jack Russel Terrier/Chihuahua mix. We found her today at the Merced SPCA. I wasn't going to put a deposit on a puppy today, but I fell in love. There were 3 little girls at the shelter from the same litter. One was not interested in us at all, the other one we didn't choose was a little too wild, very distracted (and no we were not asking for an hour of attention, only like a minute). Lucy was very calm. When we held her, she was very interested in being with us, and she wanted just to be in my lap or next to my face or chewing on my fingers.

So this is when this gets a little bit more. More what? More puppies! We put our deposit on Lucy and left, and then I texted everyone I know and husbando's parents called us and wanted one too! So we got to pick out a second puppy for them. We sent them texts and told his parents about the other two puppy's personalities. It took a while for them to decide, but it was great because I got to snuggle some more with Lucy. The whole time this determination was going on, she was climbing all over my lap, trying to lick my face or just snuggling into my arms. She did not want to be on the ground, she did not want to play with the other puppies other than chew on them. It was a great time just sitting there and being with Lucy.

OK Back to the cleaning of the house. Have to get it ready for the new family member. Oh.. no yarn anything in the past month, I don't even know where my circular needles are. I know where all my beautiful yarn is.. all over the spare room!

Hiatus!

The next week I will not be blogging as often, just putting the word out..

We are in the process of moving from the apartment to our first house! I won't be able to be any kind of consistent with the blog for the next 2-3 weeks, but I will try to post some pictures of our house, the new colors are beautiful. I will do some before-after pictures. It is quite a process. First we have to paint, clean, and move things from our local storage unit to the garage. Then, we have to pick up things we have left all over Northern California. Apparently, I have a whole room full of stuff at my parents house: our wedding china and breakable stuff.. yarn, go figure.. summer clothes and shoes, a whole bathroom of shampoos, TP, towels, face soaps and such. Then husbando has the same at his parents house. THEN.. we still have a storage unit in Sacramento. We are going to have a big arse garage sale once we go through all this stuff and find out we have 5 of everything.

I am very impressed with husbando. I didn't know he was so handy with the tools. I thought he was more of a thinker, and now I am finding he is very much a do-er. So far, he has installed a ceiling fan, installed a new chandelier, new lights everywhere, new vent for the AC, and mowed the lawn, other than painting with the family, re-boring the water spigots in the front and back, installing new door hardware.. can I say I am impressed?

So, needless to say, not much yarn happenings this past week. I have half of the baby sweater done, but it won't be done for the shower, so I am going the gift card route, and then put a picture of the sweater inside a card.

Have a happy week!

Starbucks-In-A-Jar Drama

This morning I had major issues. MAJOR ISSUES. I don't usually use caps, but today, MAJOR ISSUES. First off, I had to be up before the sun. Yep. 4am. I haven't seen 4am in a long time; probably the last time I saw 4am was on the flip side of the time frame after a long night, rather than a nice sleep! I had to be at work at 5:30am, so I needed backup! Backup consisted of Starbucks-In-A-Jar from the convenience store.

On the way into the office, I opened the bottle, drank some of the Starbucks and ever so casually slipped it into my knitting bag. Why did I do that?? Oh the misery! The pain! The sticky yarn! Yes, the bottle tipped and leaked.. leaked all over my friends baby sweater!

I don't know what to do about this one.. I think she may be getting a gift certificate for her shower present instead of the sweater.

On the upside, I got to go home early today, and I got some overtime too!

On the up-upside, we get our house tomorrow! Woo!

You have Died of Dysentary (No yarn in this post!)

If anyone knows the reference, then woo to you! My inner nerd just waved at you. For all you other people.. Welcome to old school video game references day! This past week, I have been searching online and around to remember the good old days, back when games were cool even though your little hero dude looked like an orange blob with legs.

So I went back.. Way back.. to Zork! Yes, Zork: The Great Underground Empire, was the first video game I ever played. It was released in (don't quote me) 1979, and I played it when it was obsolete, 9 years after it was made. Zork came on floppy disks, it was played solely by typing to navigate your way through the maze of text-descriptive rooms. My friends and I would draw maps of Zork. I am not sure we ever won it, but it was very fun.. so long as you didn't get eaten by the Grue!

After that for me was Oregon Trail (reference already been made), Montezuma's Revenge, Jungle Hunt, Dig Dug..

Then onto Nintendo! Oh NES, how I loved thee. The only game I ever beat was Mario Brothers II.

Then Super Nintendo.. And for some reason I am now hooked on Harvest Moon. I downloaded an emulator (and no, I am not going to tell you how to do it or where or any of that such, I am not sure of their distribution copyright stuff) for Super NES,and I am having a blast wasting my time.

Does anyone remember Jones in the Fast Lane? There is an external link from this site so you can try it out if you were not so fortunate to have it in the 90's.

These were my favorite old school games. Then there are RPGs and all that happening of the inner nerd running amok in my life.. but that is another story.

Happy gaming!

Hockey, My troubles with Legalese, and some Gratuitous Yarn Shots

Tonight is a normal night at home. Husbando and I are in our Shark's Jerseys and we are yelling at the TV. Ivan can't stand it and so he starts squeaking at the TV. I gave him a Wheat Thin, but it only silenced him for about 15 seconds.



Let me vent quickly about my troubles with legalese, or legal writing. I am a creative person. I never was the greatest essay writer, and if you have made it through more than one of my blog posts, you probably can tell that it is a good thing I have a day job.. "Therefore, your request is not in alignment with our goals for ____" Therefore.. according to the merits of your case.. you are not in compliance with the requirements stated therein.. It really just isn't my style. Oh well.

And now.. What am I working on? Well, let me tell you! I am making the cutest baby boy hoodie ever! My best friend's daughter had one made for her in white, and I have been looking for this pattern for a while. Here is a link to the Robin Hood Sweater, by Zoe Mellor and her book Adorable Knits for Tots: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0873498526/ref%3Dasc_df_0873498526745710/%3Ftag%3Daskcomel-20%26creative%3D380333%26creativeASIN%3D0873498526%26linkCode%3Dasn

There are some beautiful cable crosses in this pattern, and other than the easy moss stitch on the edges, it is only a 4 row pattern. You can see a beautiful finished object on Jennifer's Website: http://loopyknitter.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/robin-hood-jacket-2/

Visit her site and tell her how cute the Jacket is!

Here is the photo I have so far. I am hoping to finish the back tomorrow. This next week, we are going to be working on getting paint, and painting our new house!! Also, I have to get up at 4:00 for work on Wednesday and Thursday, so no promises on hearing from me this week, but I will try. Have a great week!

Pup Sweater, Food Dilemmas & Hockey, Oh My!

This is the sweater I made a while back for my cousin's puppy. He just ran around and enjoyed himself in his little sweater. I love how the turtleneck looks on him, and how the color changes were pretty clean.


Working on a little baby shower surprise for one of my friends. She is having a boy! Ah babies, what a good excuse to start a new project. I got a nice cotton blend yarn in navy for the project out of my stash.

It was yarn for husbando's sweater, but that is on hold because he is exercising and changing sizes, so I do not want to put effort into a sweater that will be too big for him by the time he is all done resizing himself. I will post the finished project after the baby shower. I don't know if my friend knows I even have a blog, but just in case, right?

Headache all weekend.. I don't know if it is allergies or sick, but it is definitely sinus, and there is drainage (Yeah you really wanted to hear that!) and pain.

Nothing tastes good due to this stupid clogging. I have tried to tantalize myself with an asian salad (bad dressing brand choice, ruined the salad).. bbq pizza.. chocolate.. really healthy right? Nothing is good. Ooh. A thought. Be right back.

*********Intermission Music***********

Ok. Making Ramen. When all else fails, go basic. Much better.

San Jose Sharks vs. Anaheim Ducks.. 1,1. Go Sharks! Never knew I was a hockey fan until the beginning of this season. I like the skating and the play better than the blocking and the fighting. Hockey is a hard sport! It is constant sprinting, very aggressive; you have to be tough, athletic and quick thinking to play this game. Very impressive to watch. We have been lucky enough to get to a game, and we may be able to make a playoff game this year. 12 minutes left. See ya.

V&L cont. + something I forgot

So to continue with Lime and Violet.. Usually I am able to finish a podcast in a single drive. Wait. Let me back up. At my old job, I used to listen to my iPod for 9 hours to make it through the day in a sane state of mind. Needless to say, it was a breeze to spend time with Lime and Violet and my other favorite podcasters in the morning and then get serious with War and Peace or Pride and Prejudice or another audiobook for the rest of my workday. Now, I just get my 30 minute drive and my wind down time in the evening for my podcast listening.

Yesterday I listened to the man talk on Lime and Violet and today I listened to the interesting travel talk. But the best part, other than the yarny talk, was the Intellectual property topic, about yarn patterns. Seriously, if you haven't listened to this Lime and Violet, and you are a fan of Knitty and what it represents, definitely listen to this podcast. http://limenviolet.blogspot.com/
There is a link in the middle of the page. Snaps to you, Miss V, for bringing this up.

Another thing that I need to mention, and need to thank Trina for (Thanks Trina!) is about learning to knit. Since I am, well I am weird, no other way around that. Some people learn from books because they don't much like to make fools of themselves public until they are experts. That would be the category I fall into, so I try to teach myself things. However I have to say local yarn shops, craft centers and community centers that offer yarn classes can really be the way to go! Not only do you get help picking supplies and first patterns, you get hands on assistance through your first efforts. You have someone verbally and visually explaining it to you. So have a lot of fun and don't be afraid to make mistakes, that is how you learn! The idea I really want to get across to new knitters is that this new craft will probably be frustrating to them because it may not happen perfectly at first, but don't give up.

P.S. My Janet Shawl is Done!!! Perfect example of not giving up. Restarted a billion (probably 7) times, and started almost 2 years ago.. Just needs to be blocked! I decided to leave off the last ruffle edging for now, it is so pretty to me as is.

L & V

Just downloaded the new podcast from Lime & Violet. It great, they are a yarn podcast and the first 40 minutes of this latest one, they talk about men. All different kinds of men; and then they finish up with straight, knitting men that glow in the dark. Nice transition to knitting, ladies!

So, if you aren't one of their 30,000+ listeners, and you have an mp3 player, give this and other knitting podcasts a shot. They are informative, give up to date info about yummy yarn and patterns, and many are just a nice shot of hilarity for your drive home. I like listening to Lime & Violet for new inspiration. They talk about patterns I have thought about making, cute sweaters like the Snow White Sweater: http://ysolda.com/store/sweaters/snow-white/
(I have the pattern, just waiting..)
And give awesome links to the new things out on the internet for us to find.

My Janet Lace Shawl is ALMOST DONE! 2 more rows!!! I will post pictures of it tomorrow.

Ivan says Hi! (I love this picture, so Deer-In-the-Headlights!)

New Knitters

Got a comment from a close friend, she wanted to know how one starts to knit? Well.. I started knitting just by working it out and messing up and trying something different and messing up again and reading the directions over and over again. Working it out on my own. I wanted to be independent about it.

The best thing to do is get a basic book. Here are two:
The Knitting Handbook:
http://www.amazon.com/Knitting-Handbook-Instructional-Guide/dp/1592231756/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239766562&sr=8-11

The Knitting Answer Book:
http://www.amazon.com/Knitting-Answer-Book-Solutions-Question/dp/1580175996/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239766562&sr=8-5#reader

Basically, and many people have said this, Knitting is taking two sticks and some string and turning it into something else out of it. It is no longer yarn, it is a sweater or mittens or socks. If any of you have ever experienced this magic of creating something out of something else, well it is marvelous, and you just can't stop. So this is my warning and my disclosure about knitting.

Here is a pretty good You Tube video about how to knit, if you are a visual learner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uw-nUvGrBY

And if you want to explore the net, don't hesitate! There are tons of sites out there on knitting, you would be suprised!

One last link: www.ravelry.com
That one is for knitters and crocheters. It is a community for patterns, groups, friends, everything. If you haven't been there... go!

The parrot has the hiccups, see ya.

Need A Clutch Purse!

Ok so I have been really busy. Not only a new job, but a new house closing in less than a month! I haven't felt like I have had a lot of knitting time in the past month but also I but I still had a little time to do a clutch purse for myself. Where I work has high security and I need to have a bag for all my keys and I.D. and such, and this fit the bill! Next post I will show you all what little progress I have made on some projects, about some local happenings and maybe about some knitting goodness I have encountered..

I hope you all enjoy the pattern and appreciate that this is my first pattern I have ever offered, and realize I am not a professional at this (AKA don't be too harsh with the criticism!).
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Need a Clutch Purse!
You will need:
One skein (or more if you want some cool colors)
10 ½ U.S. Circular (16 inch) Knitting Needles
10 ½ U.S. Double Point Knitting Needles (2)
Tapestry Needle
Regular Thread and Needle
1 slip ring marker

Stitch Pattern:
It is a moss stitch pattern, two rows, piece o cake!
Round 1: *K1, P1… continue through round in pattern.
Round 2: *P1, K1… continue through round in pattern.

Pattern:
CO 40 stitches, join into round.

Start Stitch Pattern, continue in pattern for 2 inches.

Increasing Round:

K1, M1, continue in pattern for 18 stitches, M1, K1. Place Marker. K1, M1, continue in pattern for 18 stitches, M1, K1.

(Every Increasing Round is K1, M1, continue in pattern until 1 before marker, M1, K1. After Marker K1, M1, continue in pattern until 1 before marker, M1, K1)

Knit 4 rounds

Increase round

Do Pattern of knit 4 rounds, Increase round, 2 more times. (3 increase rounds total)

Decreasing Round:
(Every decreasing row will be SKP, continue in patterns to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog. SKP, continue in pattern to 2 stitches before marker, K2tog.)

Knit 4 in pattern rounds

Decreasing Round.

Continue in this pattern (if you like how it looks, or adjust the knitting and decreases to the shape you like) until clutch measures 6 ½ inches. Bind off in 3-needle bind off. Here is a good link to a 3-needle bind off (its at the bottom of the page): http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/casting-off

I-Cord strap:
Cast on 5 stitches with double point needles. Knit an I-cord that measures 18 inches. Here is a good link to making an I-cord (again, towards the bottom of the page):
http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/knitting-tips

Sew the strap together using the yarn and a tapestry needle. The ends of the strap must face the same way. Sew the strap into the inside of the clutch on to one of the decrease sides.

Felting:
Throw the clutch into the washer with a pair of old jeans. Turn the top loading washer (hint hint) onto hot, and let it run a cycle, you don’t have to put any detergent into it. Then just let the purse air dry. You can pin the purse to shape if you want to but I let mine free-dry, and did not get any drying wrinkles in mine.

Sew in the zipper:

Just find the shortest zipper you can (mine was 7 inches and I just folded it into the bag) and sew it in with regular thread and needle.

Enjoy: Do I really have to explain that one?

Moths and Fish Juice

Funny things today. Let me share!

Its like a horror movie. I move to my new place to live with the husbando, and there is a Moth.. outside my door.. Waiting. To eat my yarn.

So my life is really changing. My husband is on a mission to get some healthy into our life, AKA on my first day of work I will be getting up before the bum-crack of dawn to hit a gym-place with the husbando.

This morning we got up earlyish to try our routine, and the Moth was still outside! I looked closer and realized that the Moth was dead. Yay! My yarn is freed from it's oppression.

I have ripped back my circular shawl AGAIN. The lace-weight is starting to felt.. this is the last time and then I am putting it away for a year.

We got to put the puppy sweater on my cousin's dog today, and got her to take the pictures, hoping to get them from her soon! He loves it! It fits perfect! Success!

The other funny thing that happened this evening was that the husbando and I were making dinner, some mahi-mahi, asparagus, and left-over rice, and he kept rinsing the fish in front of where I was rinsing the asparagus. It looked to me like he was offering me the fish juice. I kept saying, "No thank you. I do not want your fish juice." He looked at me oddly the first two times and then he offered me the empty bag the fish was vacuum sealed in, since I was closest to the garbage can. Can you tell we have a very small kitchen? I looked at him and he smiled. We just started laughing about fish juice.

Have a good week!

Pre-Moving Maddness!

Everyone knows how moving is. How stressful it is, how it is best to take a few days to be at home and pack everything up, lose the packing tape.. find that half the boxes you have on hand have holes in them (no, not the top folks, you smarty pants). Then you step on the missing packing tape roll, almost break your neck, sort.. then sort some more... make some lists about what you want to sort.. and then end the evening by only getting one box packed. Yep that is how it has been going.

Mainly I am having trouble packing because I am not taking time off from work to do this tedious and stress-laden activity. I work all day, come home and look at the mess which is my strategic packing area of the house, find something to eat, and go to bed. This has been happening all this week and all last week. I start my job on the 16th! I need to get going on this.

SO I have a goal of packing 4 boxes tonight, and I am starting with the good stuff. The Yarn. The Yarn is getting put in the good plastic boxes. That should take 4 boxes, and then I will feel like I accomplished something.

New topic.. onto yarn.. I have been working on this beautiful yarn from knit picks. It is a lace weight which I doubled. It reminds me of a sunset. I would tell you the name, but I took the wrappers off this yarn in January of '08.. Yes, this project has been hibernating for quite a while! It is called Janet Lace Shawl, by Anna Marie Jensen. Knit Picks sells the pattern. It is truly lovely, it looks like a huge heirloom rose. So.. I am working on this because I don't want another UFO in my stash.. and because though I have a list of things that I want to create- on the top of the list is the husbando's sweater- I forgot that I brought all my knitting needles and my husbando's yarn for the sweater to the house in Merced. (Which I did so I could focus on the packing of this house!! It's not working!) So I am stuck working on my UFO.

I frogged the whole thing, and started over on Monday.. and I looked at my knitting today, and ya know, I made the same stupid mistake in the same row, that I did in the frogged work. So I have to back out 13 rows of lace. I am going to tink back because I am not so comfortable with my lace skillage yet. I have done a few lace stoles and shawls, but this one is kicking my bum! This picture doesn't do the yarn justice, but it does two things: it shows the spot where I flubbed, and it doesn't show my Scottie dog pajama leg!

Speaking of dogs.. I kind of want one. Did I mention that before? Almost got the cutest little Jack Russel pound pup, but they found her owner. She was stolen, and dumped in the backyard of a foreclosed home. She doesn't bark or whine so no one knew she was there until someone came to look at the home for sale. Sad story. I hope I can get a puppy soon.

OK. off to working on the boxes..

**Yawn** what a long day!

Oh yawn. How many times can I say that? This week has been rough but worth it. I am moving to the Central Valley to live with my husband after more than a year of living apart! But it is a quick move.. I have to get a new person trained, finish my work and my graphing work and pack an office and a few rooms of a house (Mainly my clothes, the rice cooker, and the crock pot.. The essentials.)

I have tried to knit this week but don't have much to show for it. 3 rows on my husbands sweater. It is great! I am combining a pattern from Knit Picks- a navy necked zipped front pattern with wide ribbing and set in sleeves; from a beginning knitting book-2x2 ribbing, half zip, thick yarn; and Elizabeth Zimmerman- raglan sleeves; to make this pattern exactly how my husband wants it: That navy collar with the half zip front, 2x2 ribbing in a light worsted/DKweight, in cotton (so I don't have to have horrors at hand washing), in a blue color called Planetarium by Knit Picks, and raglan sleeves.

So the next excitement is that we are in the process of buying a house! Well, house hunting. Right now, every time we are interested, no more offers are being taken on a house. So we will see. I am not going to just settle for a house. I want a pantry, a beautiful kitchen, a nice laundry room, a dining room, a beautiful master bath, and a decent master. Oh, and a knitting room. :)

If I get a house, I get a puppy! I am so excited, I have no idea what kind I want. Well, I have a general idea. Something small, calm, playful with me and friendly with other people. Very snugly too. So what should I get? A Cavalier King Charles Spaniel? A Dachshund? A Corgi? A Jack Russel? Or a Pom? Or how about just a cute little heinz pup? I don't know.. I have started saving for my adoption or purchasing fee for my little friend. I am so excited!

So, tomorrow. House hunting, appointment for the new job, pup hunt? Maybe clean the apartment. Who knows?

Yay!

Today.. I was offered a job.. in the same location where my husbando lives and works!! I get to move! I will no longer be doing the traveling on the weekend! No longer will I spend gas money on travelling to my two houses! I am very excited.

As promised, I finished my Doxie sweater for Bruiser. I used the Penny Pattern from Knitty, http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall03/PATTpenny.html

but I added short rows to the end of the back to make it a bit longer. It hasnt been worn yet, but when we try it on the little monster, I will post a picture!

All for today!

Ivan the Rock Star

We have a 4 year old African Gray parrot named Ivan. He is crazy fun, and is a garbled chatterer. He doesn't photograph too well. He poses for us and as soon as we are ready to photograph him, he will turn his butt to us, or preen, or lean in to the camera.. He also has separation anxiety.. so if we are at home, he wants to be able to see us. If he cant see us, he calls us, "Come here.. Come heeeere! Want up, up, up? Gooooood boy! Come heeeeeeere!"

This morning, my husbando and I were on a mission to get ready and go out for a day of getting things done, so while we were in the back room and the bathroom, Ivan somehow either jumped or flew off his cage, walked around on the ground and then climbed up onto the legs and joiners of a TV table.. and this is how we found him:

He is a funny one!

Today I have a big list of things I want to get done:

1. Go to IHOP.

2. Go to the gym and sign us up. (After I am loaded with pancakes!)

3. Clean the cars, get some water for our water dispenser thingy, and go to the meat shop for some steaks, and fruits and spinach.

Speaking of spinach, I had the best Subway sandwich yesterday. I had them toast the wheat bread and had the chicken breast, with one stripe of chipotle sauce and spinach. Fabulous!

I also made a list of the next knit projects I have to finish for people and for myself:

1. a puppy sweater for my cousin's dachshund. I will be done with this today, post tomorrow about it.

2.My husbando's sweater.

3. A Chemo Cap for my new group on Ravelry, I think it is so cool to be able to help other people! (More about this tomorrow)

4. A tushy-load of mitered squares.

5. 2 pairs of Dashings, men's fingerless gloves.

6. A sweater for moi.

Later.

On the Road Again

Today I travel from one home to my weekend home. Doesn't that sound fabulous? Must be some fabulous vacation home or something. Not really. I work in one city and my husbando works in another city, and it is too far for us to commute every day. So we live together on the weekend. It is like dating my husband. At first, this situation was fun, but now it is kind of tedious (the travel, not the seeing of my husbando, that is always fun!). It would be so nice to live in the same place, and have relaxing weekends where we do laundry and watch Saturday morning cartoons. Right now, we make a big deal of seeing each other, and I think because he and I are so important to each other, we want to express that by doing things, like going to hockey games, spontaneous travel to exciting destinations. But I just really love being with him, I could just hang out at home with our parrot and be happy.

A little about the Parrot. Oh my.. he is a character! He is an African Gray, and they are very much one person birds. This one has finally accepted me as the second parent, and gives me kissies on the nose! At first all I got were bites. Now we have a hilarious and good relationship. He calls us "Dodo" and we call him "Dodo" and he reprimands us and laughs with us and is such a part of our little family.

So, on this road trip to my other house, lately I have been getting carsick, while I am driving. Weird.. So I have been sipping on small sodas for the carbonation, it seems to settle my stomach. I don't like drinking soda much, it seems very chemically, and counter-productive to my weight loss goals.

I lost 2 lbs this week! Almost there.. kind of.. :) Now I just have to eat more fish and vegetables.

I was invited to a new group in Ravelry. If you don't know what Ravelry is.. where have you been? (I really need to learn how to enclose links on this blog, I promise I will get there!) Ravelry is an awesome community for fiber freaks like me. It is amazing. I will talk more about what Ravelry really is another time, but if you are really curious, go to www.ravelry.com or (hey there is a link!)check out some other blogs about it, everyone has blogged about what it is, and probably a lot more succinctly than myself. This group is called Hearts of Love, and it seems very active. The goal of this group is to make Chemo Caps for patients undergoing therapy, as well as other kind gifts for these individuals. The caps can be donated to any group, but the focus project is to donate to UCDavis Medical Center Cancer Center in Davis, California. This really is special to me because my Grandmother died of cancer and did not have the chance to have treatment. I hope that when I knit a cap or a lap blanket for a patient, some of my love gor my Grandmother and my care for these patients will be felt on some level by the patient. That person will know someone cares, and someone wants them to get better.

Ok thats all for now. Off to the chiropractor, and then on the road again. Good song..

First Post! (In a sick Voice.. Cough, Cough)

OK, so this past week I decide that I want a blog, and I start writing in my notebook/journal thing what I want my blog to address, how I want my blog to look, who I want to read my blog.. Then the fantasy hits, and I am suddenly the Yarn Harlot, everyone is reading this, it is my dream job to tell you about my life, what I am knitting, what I am eating.. and then I snap out of it. No even knows I am doing this. I have zero readers.

So starting over again. If anyone ever reads my blog, it is a multi-use blog, for my words about yarn and my obsession with partially finishing objects out of string.. about my struggles losing the last pounds (not from a baby, not from anything interesting, well chocolate is interesting).. about living in a different city from my husband, and trying to move my job so we can live in the same home again.. Those are the life things I want to talk about.

I have a lot of topics I have written down in my journal/notepad, that I hope will get written about in my blog. Some ideas are about my longing to learn to spin without taking a class.. Why exercise sucks, AKA I need a sport less violent than hockey but as cool as hockey.. Podcasts.. Why knitters rock, and many more.

Today three good things happened. The first one was that I woke up and for the first time in four days, my sinus headache was less painful! Amazing. The second good thing was that my husbando called me to let me know I am a top candidate for a job I interviewed for, which is great way to wake up in the morning. The third thing that was good was that I finished a pair of socks. I call them my Lite Brite socks. The Pattern is called Anastasia. I will try to learn links for next blog.

(I like this photo, my sock is ALIVE!) Anyhow, they are really comfy, and I am really happy with them.

My next project is going to be a sweater for Husbando. Husbando has never asked in the 4 years I have been knitting, for any knitted item. This Christmas, he asked me why I don't knit for him, and I told him I didn't think he would be interested, and he said he wanted a lightweight sweater "just like the one I have that I wore out" (great, that will be easy.. sarcasm.. what if I can't do it??). The sweater he is talking about is a 2x2 ribbed, he calls it a Navy boat sweater, it has a half zip and a 2 inch collar. So I got a pattern from KnitPicks, I will post it next time. I am going to do some mods to it, and see what I get!