A mountain of laundry
I tell you what, I am surrounded by mountains of laundry. It sure doesn't look like I have this many pieces of clothing when they are all put away, that's for sure.
I got some cute orange Lion Brand boucle yarn yesterday, BTW. I am going to knit a jack o lantern. Just a little funsie project to keep my hands busy on the train to work. I dunno what I am going to do with it or what it will look like, but that's the fun of knitting...
I'm back
I'm home again. I've got so much stuff to do to catch up with work and stuff around the house that I just don't even know where to begin. I did get a lot of knitting done on the flights to and from Arkansas. My felted satchel is ENORMOUS. I think I can sit inside it. Here's hoping that it shrinks about 25%, or else it will be a felted duffel bag. It's still smaller (number of stitches-wise) than the knitty messenger bag, so I am very glad I opted for just making the smaller satchel in a larger size...
I'm going to run along and move some laundry from the washer to the dryer, from the dryer to the counter, and folded stacks on my bed into the proper drawers. Then I am going to bed. I am sooo tired.
Oh, my grandfather and my Aunt Margaret sent me home with a bunch of yarn that was my grammie's. I've got to sort through it and see what I am going to do with it, but it is nice to have something like that in my stash. It'll add a little sentimental twist to everything I use it in.
End of an era
My grandmother died today. She had been ill for a long time
(alzheimers), so in many ways it is a peaceful ending for her. I am
going home to Arkansas tomorrow morning.
I'm actually looking forward to it. The funny thing about funerals is
that so often it's the only time you get to see certain friends and
relatives. Folks whose company you enjoy but for one reason or another
you just don't keep in touch. I'm sure I'll see some cousins I haven't
seen in years, and it will seem odd that grammie isn't in the kitchen
cooking something for us all to eat.
Of course I will be knitting all weekend. Grammie was a big fan of
needlework and thought everyone should have some sort of project to work
on to keep them sane. I'm a definite proponent of that thought.
A totally wasted evening
I didn't do anything this evening. I sat and looked at my knitting and some books I am reading, and mostly just thought about all the stuff I should be doing to go out of town this weekend. I did get a load of laundry done, but that was all....
Blue skirt
My Bernat Disco skirt us coming along nicely. This yarn is as soft as rabbit fur, and knits up super fast. It'd be a fantastic scarf, it's so fun and soft and groovy. I think I will have to go get some more in another color to do something fabulous and soft with. A pillow or something would be totally swell, maybe.
I went to yoga tonight and the cute boy was teaching again. He's good in a couple of ways, I have to say- first he's cute, and second, his class is so hard my shoulders are tired just tying this post! After yoga I went to do dinner and karaoke with a friend. Actually, I only did the dinner part, but my pal did a couple of songs and totally rocked!
Ok, it's late, I gotta go to bed. Tomorrow I think I will be finished with my Disco Mini Skirt! I'll post a picture of it. Too bad the picture won't capture the fluffy softness completely.
I look like a ghoul
I went swimming tonight and the goggles left these really funky circles around my eye sockets. They make me look like a ghoul or a heroin addict or something. It's two hours later and they are still there. Note to self- do not go swimming before I need to go somewhere I want people to not think I am a goth girl. Not that there is anything wrong with goth girls. I'm just not one, is all.
Terrific weekend
After my weekend got off to a crap start yesterday, it picked up nicely. I had such a relaxing restful weekend with Turbie. We walked, we knitted, we went to the beach. We also read and tried to go to the drive in movie, but the mean man at the ticket office wouldn't let Turbo in. Only seeing eye dogs are allowed. Which, I guess I can understand, but it meant I couldn't go to the movie because I had no where to leave Miss T. So we went back to the campsite and I sat in the hot tub there for a while (Turbo sat in the Santa Maria working on a bone) till a drunken dude with a big ol' pot leaf tattooed on his shoulder got in the tub too. I saw no good end to that scene so I mumbled something about "dinner with my husband" and ran away. I have no husband, but he didn't need to know that.... Otherwise, all was grand.
Gosh I so don't want to go to work tomorrow.
Recovery day
My roommate and I had some friends over last night, and I exceeded my
two drink limit by a wide margin. Today I have been paying dearly for
it. I haven't had the energy to do anything, really. Around 2:00 I
finally got dressed, loaded up the Santa Maria with a change of clothes,
a bunch of knitting, and my dog Turbo. We are having a little impromptu
camping/ knitting/ beaching adventure in Santa Cruz. I think we will go
to the drive in movie tonight. Or maybe just hang out at a coffee shop
drinking herbal tea and knitting. Either way I am going to try to end
the day without the hangover I started it with.
Progress Report
Here's my satchel- slowly inching along.
And the very teeny tiny little beginnings of a skirt I am knitting in the midnight blue Bernat Disco from Walmart. It'll be festive for the holidays, I think.
Hola, como esta?
Howdy folks. I've been knitting like a warrior on the 35 WIPS I've got going. I'm making a lot of progress over all, but each individual project isn't seeing just huge gains in new acreage, if you know what I mean. I'm having fun though. And anytime I get bored I just pick up a different project. Yeah!
There's a dog in the yard
The cutest little pit-bull mix dog is in the yard. She looks like she's about 8 or 9 months old, and maybe part yellow lab. She's soooo skinny though- you can see all her ribs. The guys putting new gutters on the house aren't too thrilled with her being here, because she's getting in everyone's way trying to get them to play with her. I went out and goofed off with her for a second. She's really sweet. A little on the hyper side, but what dog that age isn't a ball of energy? I think she'd keep me out there playing all day if I had the time.
She doesn't have a collar, but she's really friendly, which makes me wonder if she belongs to someone in the neighborhood. Pit bulls and pitty-mixes are pretty popular in my neighborhood so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possible. It's also very popular in this little area to let your dog run loose. It's kind of scary actually, because I am always afraid I will see a squished pooch in the road when I come home. I am kind of concerned that she's so skinny though. Not like ultra-malnourished-call-the-ASPCA-right-now skinny, just like she maybe doesn't get enough to eat compared to the amount of energy she expends every day. I'd give her some lunch if I wasn't afraid she'd decide to stay here instead of going home to her family.
And on that note, I need to go back to work so I can keep putting food on the table for the pets I already have and the stray cats in the yard.
Souvenir from Napa
I stopped at Walmart in Vallejo on my way to Napa this weekend. I didn't really need anything, but the Walmart tractor beam pulled me in. I left with gum, jerky, and 4 balls of Bernat Disco in this cool metallic midnight blue color. What I'm gonna do with it I haven't a clue, but I just couldn't leave it there, now could I?
Telephone poles
I started knitting my iceland scarf on the train today. I am using size 13 straight needles because my size 13 circulars are otherwise occupied at the moment. I haven't used straight needles (besides short little dpns) in ages, and I kept whacking them into things and tripping over the stitches and dropping them on the floor. I was a total retard. I should have dug out some point-covers (or what ever you call those things) and used 2 of my new size 13 dpns instead, since they are shorter. Its amazing how much differently I knit with straights or circulars.
I am about to go to bed. I am tired, and I have to get up early in the morning to get ready for work and for a camping trip to Napa Valley this weekend! Woohoo!
It's getting close to Friday!
The only news of any importance that I have to share is that I had a good hair day today. That and the fact that in 26 hours it will be Friday.
The county fair is in my neighborhood
I "met" my secret pal today! Her name is Liz, she lives in Dallas, and her blog is
http://thedalaimama.blogspot.com/ Three cheers to my secret pal! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!
I've gone about 10 more rows on my satchel. I'm getting close to being done with the bag part, which means I will have to start the arduous task of I-cording the edges of that sucker to get my circular needle out so I can do the flap and strap. I bought some lovely rosewood size 13 dpns to us on it while I was at The Yarn Place this weekend. I prefer plastic and metal to wood needles, but these were so beautiful I couldn't help it. I hope they knit as beautifully as they look. But if not, I always have that pearl of wisdom from the pattern to fall back on - "all your mistakes will be felted away." Doesn't that sound great? I wish everything in life was that simple.
In addition to the numerous chickens that call my neighborhood home, it sounds like goats or sheep have been added to the mix. Funny that, considering that I live in the 10th largest city in the US, and I am not out in the suburbs.
I just got home from yoga. There was a totally hot boy teaching the class tonight. I hope he teaches again sometime. He's very flexible and strong but not in that freaky cirque du soleil way that some of those yoga people are flexible and strong. More like rock climber/ surfer flexble and strong. So anyway, enough of that non-sense. I am going to go enjoy my new hot water here at the house. I was enjoying going to the spa, but there's just something nice about having hot water in your own house.
Inspiration and motivation
I was just digging through my stash to see how well the little flashy taupe and bronze karabella yarn would look with the brown fun fur for my vest and found all sorts of goodies I forgot I had. And amazingly enough it is stuff that I actually want to use... Isn't it funny/sad how you buy some stuff thinking it is the most beautiful thing you have ever seen, and then 6-12 months later you sort of lose that lovin' feeling. And then 6-12 months after that you start to think "gosh-a-mighty, what stress was I going through when I bought all of
that?"
Fortunately, most of the stuff in my stash is still in the honeymoon phase. Only a couple of things have moved into the separation-pending-divorce category. I'll be filing for divorce from one of my WIPS -Kyoto- very soon. Irreconcilable differences is the reason I'm giving. I've decided that Kyoto is much too high maintenance. The 237,597 stitches/rows per inch is more work than I want to do for a sweater I will grow tired of in one season. So I'm leaving it for another project. A much quicker and less tedious project. With bigger and better rewards.
It's 11:07- how did it get to be that late?
Pictures at last!
First things first- according to the news, Sienna Miller is looking for more expert lovers. Since the article was written in British English I am unsure if that is a reference to quality or quantity. Either way, it's kinda funny.
So I finally have a couple of pictures to post. I still have no hot water, but that will be resolved tomorrow. The gas company actually disconnected my house from the gas service prior to the termite tenting, and someone has to be home to let the PG&E dude in the house to verify it's all hooked up right. That essential fact wasn't actually communicated back to me or my roommate, but this morning I found a note from PG&E that they stuck in the front door sometime Friday night letting me know I needed to call to set up an appointment. We never use the front door, so I guess I am lucky I got a wild hair to go check the front porch for packages or something. Anyway, I called the number on the note, and sometime between 8am and 8pm tomorrow I should have hot water. Yeah! But back to the pictures... Here's an assortment of stuff for your viewing pleasure:
My knitty satchel. This chunk of the bag is about 17x9.
My Secret Pal Felted Bag. It hasn't been felted yet, due to lack of hot water for felting. The handles have not been attached either, I just stuck them there so you can see what the finished project will look like. Just how much handle sticks up from the edge of the bag depends on the size of the bag when it is felted.
Some nice hot pink and beige Cascade Iceland I got at the Knitting Arts Labor Day sale this morning. I saw
this scarf at Urban Outfitters this weekend and I thought, gosh, I could make that on the train. So I found a lovely color combo and got enough yarn to make a beige scarf with pink trim for me and a pink sweater with white trim for Turbo. I'd make her a scarf too, but she's only about 6 inches off the ground so I think she'd trip on it. I guess I could attach a faux scarf on the sweater so it just looks like she's wearing one. Well, anyway, I'll keep you posted how that comes out. If there is any yarn left over I will make some matching mittens for me.
Here's the loot from my fabulous secret pal! Can you imagine the fun I am going to have with this? I can't wait to try the kool-aid dyeing! My fingers are going to be stained pink and blue for weeks trying to figure out what colors I like best....
Finally, here's the fun fur I got to make the
furry vest I want. Earlier today there was a substantial bit of progress, but since I spent more time looking at hot surfer boys at the beach than I did actually looking at the needles, I didn't notice I had dropped a stitch that laddered back to the CO row. I tried to fix it, but it took so long to figure out which furry strand went with which furry loop I determined it would be faster and better for my sanity to just frog it and start again. I have not yet determined if I will be adding the ornamental stripes in there yet. I have some stuff in my stash that might work really well for that. We'll have to see how that goes though.
My 12 year old nephew back in Arkansas and a couple of kids he runs around with had a kool-aid stand over the weekend to raise money for the hurricane victims that were evacuated to Arkansas. They made a couple hundred bucks, but my mom said the sanitary conditions of the kool-aid stand were only slightly above what you'd expect to see in New Orleans right now, so most folks were just making a donation and not actually taking any drinks. Not that they were using water out of the creek to make lemonade or anything. They were just doing stuff like petting a dog and then using their un- washed hands to put ice in the cup that was rolling around on the ground a few minutes before. The usual kid stuff. I'm sure that there's lots of kool-aid stands all over the USA this weekend that had the same thing going on.
broken flowers and no hot water
My house has no hot water, and hasn't since Friday. Maybe longer than that, but I don't know for sure because Friday was my first day home since Aug 21 (12 days!) due to vacation and then the house was tented for termites and I couldn't enter the premises. I suspect the lack of hot water is a result of something to do with the tenting stuff. My roommate/ landlord is at burning man till tomorrow or the next day, so I am in a pickle.
Yes, I could call a plumber to figure it out, but on a holiday weekend they'll charge me a gazillion dollars to come do something silly like re-light a pilot light or something. I'd rather spend a gazillion dollars on something else, so I did what I think any other girly girl in my position would do. First I screamed bloody murder while finishing up the shower where I made the awful discovery. Then I booked appointments at a couple of spas in santa cruz for every day till Tuesday. For $15 bucks I can sit in a private hot tub for an hour and relax, then take a shower and be on my way. Yes, I could go to the gym to take a shower for free, but it's a holiday weekend and I have been camping either in a tent or in my VW camper for 12 days, so I felt like spoiling myself.
In other news, I saw Broken Flowers tonight. Very good, but the end was confusing to me. I couldn't remember which chick they were talking about by that point, and then it ended without me ever understanding what happened. It's a problem I have with movies in general, so I certainly hope I haven't tainted anyone's thoughts about this movie. I'd highly recommend it. Bill Murray is fab, and Sharon Stone looks GREAT!
I love 3 day weekends
I went to the beach today and started working on a fur vest. It's on
the "must have for fall" lists in the fashion magazines, so I figured
I'd knit one with some chocolate brown fun fur I found on sale at
beverlys. I am sort of making up the pattern as a go along. Wish me
luck.
I am still working on my satchel. It's not as portable as other
projects, since I have to cart around a pillow sized WIP and 4 balls of
yarn (it's 2 strands of alternating colors for stripes), so I am not
able to squeeze in a couple of hours knitting on the train or waiting
for an appointment. I am going to go work on it right now though!
