A headless....

bear.

The boy asked for a rainbow teddy bear for Christmas. Sadly, my needle broke on Christmas eve day, when I was close to being done, so he sits here, headless, until after New Year's when I'll have time to finish him up.

And no, despite what my sweetums says, it's not a voodoo teddy bear :P
























While not knitting, I have been traveling extensively back in time, taking pictures of T-Rexs and their young :D

stash

I went through and inventoried my yarn last night, because I've been getting really busy in a arbitrary and random swap forum on Ravelry and needed to know what yarn I actually had anymore...my inventory sheet was woefully out of date.

All done and I added up the skeins and I have 282 skeins of yarn in my home :

I need to do some stash busting!!!!

Drops Babies

All these damn adorable baby patterns on Drops with adorable babies IN the kint items are REALLY making my uterus twitch.

Just sayin' :)

Despite how it may seem...

I have been being crafty! I am almost done with my green sweater-turned blanket-turned back into sweater :) I have about 2/3 of an arm left to go and then voila! I shall have my first sweater :) I also have almost a whole bootie knit and a swatch for a tank top. Of course, now that it's fall and summer is over, I'm not as motivated to knit a tank top, lol. I am hankering to start on a pair of fingerless gloves! My office is ridiculously cold (and this is coming from a woman who is always the "hot" one in a crowd!) and my hands cramp up and I can't type unless I have some sort of hand-covering :)

I also carved a pumpkin with my sweetie two nights ago! My sketch on the paper looked very spooky and menacing and then, transferred to pumpkin, it just looks jolly and Asian : Sweetie and I have taken to calling it Jackie Chano' lantern :)

Craftiness is still very much around me...I just had my camera stolen a few weeks back and so I can't take pictures of stuff right now and really, what's a cool crafty blog post without pictures?!

Usually never

I'm usually never preachy on this blog. I'm usually never political. I usually never talk in depth about the fact that I'm a big ol' dyke. But elections are coming up soon and I feel like I NEED to take a moment to urge everyone in California to vote NO on 8.

If 8 passes, people like me will have our recently won right to marry the person we love taken away from us. That's all it is. Two folks who LOVE each other wanting to have the same basic rights as everyone else. Being queer isn't going to be taught in school. Being allowed to marry isn't going to end the world. We've been doing it for several months now here in California and life is just going on the same as usual for everyone else.

If 8 passes, regular everyday people like me, a single mom with a 6 year old son, won't have some of the same basic rights everyone else has. That's what it boils down to. Regular, everyday folks just living life, going to work, picking up the kid at the babysitter, making dinner, reading bedtime stories won't have the ability to legally marry the one person in the world that they love and want to spend the rest of their life with.

We are not second-class citizens. We have had our rights taken away from us long enough. It's time to take one step closer to the vision of the Declaration of Independance and recognize that all men (and women :P) are created equal and deserve the same rights. Please, if you are in California, vote NO on 8 in November.

Thank you :)

Blame a goddess

I saw this on a friend's LiveJournal and I HAD to go play with it at yearbookyourself.com. A lot of the results were truly horrifying : I figured out I look best as a 1950's woman and a late 1970's or early 80's man, lol.

Don't believe me?





And I just look freaky/funny as a 70's woman, LOL.

Picture pages :)

Finally took some photos of my goodies my Secret Pal 12 sent me!

Clockwise, from top left, you see the raw silk orangeish bag :) Next to that is the maroon comfy yarn, then the three Knit Picks Harmony classic circulars in size 1, 2, and 3! We cut to the left and see the cute orange and green washcloth she made me, on top of which is my new Harmony cable needles (so pretty!) and a grow a fish that is supposed to be for the boy, but...well...we might share it :P Above that is two more skeins of Knit Picks Comfy in a dark chocolatey brown and then in the middle is the cool, unusual scarf book!

Thanks again, Secret Pal :)

Got my package!

Mr. Mailman brought my package today from my Secret Pal 12 pal :)

Thank you so much, my sneaky friend, for the goodies inside! I'll try to post a picture soon. But until then, I'll tell everyone what I got with good ol' words :)

1) The book "Knitting New Scarves." It was on my Wist and looks like some really amazing projects in there :)

2) Size 1, 2 and 3 Knit Picks Harmony classic circulars. Gotta love more needles :)

3) An orange and green ballband dishrag. It's so squishy! Yay :)

4) A pretty orange raw silk pouch-thing. Inside was:
A really funny "Grow a Fish" toy for my son
Knit PIcks Harmony cable needles...*swoon*

5) 5 skeins of Knit Picks "Comfy" cotton and acrylic yarn. It's SO soft! Three are a deep maroon color and two are like a dark, chocolatey brown. Did I mention how soft it is? MmMmmMMmmmMmmm.

Thanks again, Katie :)

Sappy Mommy Alert

Today was the boy's first day of FIRST GRADE! I know he already had his first day of Kindergarten and his first day of Kindergarten at special ed. But but but! Somehow, Kindergarten is still a baby and FIRST GRADE is a boy.

The private school we got him into (got the green light at 4:30 PM on Friday, when the first day was today...nah, nothing like last minute, lol) is just great and I have such high hopes for the boy there! We met his teacher, the gagillion aids for his first/second/third grade classroom, his therapist and they were all very welcoming and friendly and spoke with the boy and shook his hand and he has his own desk and wrote his own name on the nametag and just. Gah.

Deep in PMS territory is no time for the boy to do something monumentous like this. Much crying and vaklempt heart squeezing abounds today :)

Don't question it...

There's a scene in a Will & Grace episode where Grace is devouing a roast chicken and Will makes some sort of negative comment. She replies, "Hey! Jews and chicken. It's real and it's deep."

That's me today. Except it's baklava.

"Hey! swedish-french-dutch-irish-english-native-americans and bakalava. It's real and it's deep."

Okay, maybe it doesn't work as well, but it's still just as true.

MMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. *licks my fingers, loaded with honey and flakey little pastry bits*

Yay

My pal got her package finally and she liked it :) Yay :)

The preceding post was brought to you by the letters P, M and S :)

Grumpified

I sent my Secret Pal 12 Pal's package a bit late due to some extenuating circumnstances that I kept her in the loop on. Because of this, I sent a MASSIVE huge awesome package for July and August all together. I sent it Fed Ex so she would get it ASAP. and she hasn't received it yet. I keep checking the tracking every day. I even emailed her and told her it was in her town, she just needed to either be home to get it or go over to FedEx at night and pick it up. And yet, I check tracking again this morning and for the third morning, it wasn't delivered, it is still in FedEx custody. I don't know how many times they will attempt delivery before sending it back to me. I'm frustrated and impatient and I want my pal to get her DANG package!

This hasn't been the best swap for me, so far. Ah well.

*grumble grumble grumble grumble*

How to knit dissapointment

I have been knitting like the wind on my circle cardigan the last few days. I finished the body (per the instructions) and started in on one sleeve. In my excitement, I tried it on with just the one sleeve hole opened up and I am pretty much 100% sure it isn't going to fit in any way.

But I followed the directions exactly! and they are based on my own measurements, so how the HELL can it be wrong? I think the error comes in with the fact that you're supposed to knit the front portion the same size as the back. Well, I have a lot more of me on the front than the back...you know, these breastual things...so I think I should have knit a LOT more on the front. As it is, the sides of the cardigan, when pulled taught, don't even come to my nipples :

I also think I made an error. The directions had me making a circle the diameter of my back plus 1"(which I did) and then knit in some waste yarn for the armholes, which would be done later. Well, the directions for where to put the arm holes were VERY sketchy and just didn't make any sense and, rather than email the pattern designer to clarify, I just assumed I knew where they should go and put them there. Now, the cardigan isn't right. You're supposed to wear it one way for a longer back and shorter shawl part and then you can flip it to make a shorter body and larger shawl part. Well, my arms are in the middle, so it's just...even and floppy.

As much as I wanted to have this cardigan, I think I am going to unravel the arm that I've knit thus far, kitchener up the arm holes and then call it a throw blanket and send it to my sister for her birthday.

*grump grump grump*

When can't I ever seem to knit clothing correctly? *feeling really down on myself today*

Jam fan

Saturday, someone gave me a whole flat of raspberries! I LOVE raspberries, but I knew I wouldn't be able to eat them before they went bad. So, what did I do? I decided to make freezer jam for the first time in my life. I threw in one container of blackberries, just for the heck of it, but otherwise, it's amazing, delicious, fantastic raspberry jam! YUM!!!!!!

The whole time I was making it, I was remembering the Friend's episode where Monica makes Jam and Joey sits there and eats it with a spoon. Having only ever had store-bought jam and jelly before, I couldn't understand why he would do that. Yuck. Well, licking the spoon on my freezer jam while I was cleaning up, I now know why. Hot dayun, that's some AMAZING stuff! I almost wished some of it didn't set so I could pour it over vanilla ice cream :D Delish :)

Yay for jam :) My son even asked for a jam and peanut butter sandwich for lunch today, instead of the usual peanut butter and banana sandiwch :D

It's so different than jam in the store. It's slightly creamy, but firm and not too sweet and tastes like real raspberries with a tiny hint of blackberries at the back of your throat. God, it's good. I need to invent things to eat it with :)

Anniversary presents

Yesterday was my partner and my third anniversary :) We went out to dinner at our traditional anniversary restaurant in Berkeley and had a wonderful time! Why am I telling you this? Because guess what I got for my anniversary present?

A swift!!!



And you know what is even cooler? My partner MADE it for me...like, from scratch! He's been taking wood working classes on the weekend as a hobby and he wanted the first real thing he ever made to be something for me and this is it :D :D :D

It is so pretty and wonderful and special and spiffy and I LOVE it almost as much as I love him :D

Yay for anniversaries and love :)

New Specs

Guess I need to change my icon up there because I have new specs! The sweetie and I were joking last night that, what with my new eyeballs and a hands-free phone thingie in my ear, I'm turning into a cyborg! Oh no! I wonder what will be next.

I took some pictures (of course) to show off my new specs (of course). I LOVE them :) I can see so well and everything's so shiny and clear and I still get a kick out of the fact that the lenses are hydrophobic :P I want it to rain now, so I can see the water not stick :P

The pretty pose:


The non-smiling pose:


The cheezy grin, black and white artsy pose:


The Grrrrrrr, growly face grumpy pretend pose:


And the driving in the car and you can see the transition lenses working but it's early in the morning and my hair is still wet pose:


Also, I wanted to share two new additions to my bike :)





Adding these to my already schnazzy bike makes me a happy fraggle!

culinarily creative

I know, I've been a bad blogger and SP 12 participant. It's just that I usually blog at work and the last week and a half has been RIDICULOUS! I was working till 8PM many nights, planning for a big company functioning I was throwing. And now it's over! yay! I am knitting away on my circular jacket, it just rocks :)

But I don't have much else to share that's crafty, except....

cooking!

I decided to get brave and make the boy some gluten free/casien free mac n cheese for lunch today. It used to be his favorite food and I know he's been missing it a lot since we started him on the GF/CF diet several weeks ago.

So, I started by cooking some brown rice pasta (Trader Joe's). Then, I melted some casien-free butter type stuff (Earth Balance) in a pan, added some gluten free multi-purpose flour (From Bob's Red Mill) and made a roux. I cooked it for a bit, then added a bunch of soy milk. Cooked it for awhile more, till boiling and slightly thick, then added pepper and a wad of casien-free grated cheddar cheese type product (Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet). I whisked vigorously while the cheese-type stuff melted (takes a little longer than real cheese, but it DOES melt) and it lightly boiled and thickened. Then, I poured some over the pasta and set it in front of the boy.

Two bites got a "MmmmMmmMM!" and a thumbs up. When asked if he liked it, he smiled, gave me nod and rubbed his belly. He ate the whole bowl :)I'm just thrilled :)

Now, I had a LOT of sauce left over, so I poured it into a container and put it in the fridge. I think it will solidify a la velveeta and I can cut some off, re-melt in a pan and have cheese sauce whenever he wants mac n cheese or cheese sauce on brocolli, etc :)

I'm just SOOOOO happy this worked really well and he loved it :) Yay for me!

Week three SP question & WIP

What would you consider the perfect amount of stash?

Well, MY stash is just the perfect amount of stash, of course :P I have alpaca, wool, wool blends, silk, acrylic, cotton, bamboo, soysilk, and some misc. stuff. Three shelves in my fiber center and three space bags in the closet. Because, of course, I buy new yarn for any project, lol. Stash is just to inspire and pet :)

In other news, I decided to frog my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. I had finished the body and was about to start the arms and I realized, ya know...I hate this thing. It's too big, it's mis-shapen, it's just ICKY and I hated knitting on it. So, I sat down and ripped it all out and made a bunch of adorable yarn balls. I already had another sweater in mind, don'tcha know :)

I'm making the Circle Swing Coat found here (if you're on Ravelry) http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/circle-swing-coat. I cast on a few days ago and it's so totally fun to knit and I'm just really enjoying it. I need to knit about three more inches in diameter on the back, then I get to set up the arms and do the front.

As you can see here, I am doing it mostly in one color, Dark Horse Fantasy green multi, but I have two skeins of the same yarn in black/grey multi that I think I'm gonna do the last few rows in for an interesting edge :) I am doing an occasional stockinette ring in between the garter stitch rings to further enhance the circular nature of it :)

I just LOVE it :)





The above pictures were taken with my camera phone on the hood of my car whilst waiting to give blood. They were running an hour behind, so I got a LOT of knitting done. Unfortunately, my blood wasn't good enough, so they sent me away. I'm anemic :( I see Iron pills in my future today :)

SP 12 week two question

As a kid, what did you look forward to most about summer vacation/break/holiday?

I can't think of a specific thing as a young child...perhaps being able to ride my bike around the neighborhood all day with my friends? Perhaps summer camps? But I know once I hit my teen years, the BEST thing about summer break was getting to sleep in as late as I wanted :) I would sleep until noon or 1:00 PM, then take a long bath and read a book and then stay up until 2 or 3 reading and talking with friends on the phone :)

I'm a night owl by nature :)

SP 12 Question of the week

What is your favorite summertime drink?

Well, I pretty much only drink water. All the time. Water water water :) But when it gets summery, I like to have an occasional lemonade. My favorite is the lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick :) I also like frozen lemonade that you get at the fair or other places of suspect cuisine. I just bought some frozen raspberry lemonade concentrate from Schwanns, but I haven't made it yet. I LOVE raspberries, so I expect I'll love this lemonade :)

Cold, icy, refreshing and slightly tart...mmmmmmm, lemonade :)

Picture Tuesday

Here are a number of not necessarily related pictures I've been meaning to post here. Enjoy!

Two weekends ago, my sweetie reupholstered my kitchen chairs. I love how they came out :) He even reupholstered one with plastic sheeting on it for the boy's chair, so it's wipe-off-able :) Now, we want to make a linoleum rug to put under the table and hide some of the nasty renters kitchen floor I have going on, lol. Maybe an olive green with a brown trim?


Close-up of the groovy fabric I picked out :)


When I went to the Maker Faire, I got some great photographs of these sculptures that were placed around the grounds. They were two or three stories high and were just stunning in workmanship and beauty.




Close-up of the bird the metal guy was picking up :) It amused me, hehe.


You know I love animals, but these goats cracked me up, straining SO HARD to eat the grass on the other side of hte fence...even though it was the EXACT same grass as on their side of the fence :)


There was a posse of folks driving around in cupcake cars! This one was cool :P


This was stunning...the woman in the background was kneeling in prayer or subjugation of this massive spidery alien thing with one giant red eye. The woman had a fire in her chest, where her heart would be and the flame came up and down to a heartbeat. The head spun around and when the red eye lined up with the woman, her whole body went up in flames. It was AWESOME!


The eye


Regular heartbeat flame


When the red eye landed on her


There was also a robot giraffe that we saw last year :) He's just too cute for words!






Then, I have some pictures of the quilt my Great Aunt Lois (who died a few weeks ago) sent to me.

I thought it was just one of the many quilts she had around the house and was thrilled to get it. However, the story is even more poignant because, when I picked it up from my Aunt, she told me that about a year ago, she had visited Aunt Lois and helped Lois pick out the fabric for the quilt with me in mind. Aunt Lois was making is especially for me !!! and was going to bring it to me the next time she came to visit, but she passed away before she came to California again.

Although it isn't a color scheme I would normally go for, I love it so much and I will really treasure it for the rest of my life :) And even though I don't like teal at all and don't care for blue that much, every time I look at these pictures, it grows on me more and more. I expect I'll soon have it out on my bed, loving it and it's colors :) How can I not, when it's made with such love by a master quilter!












Voila! My camera is now empty....for a few days, at least ;)

SP 12 pal!

Yay! I received my Secret Pal 12 downstream swap pal in my email this morning :)

*happy fraggle dances all around the office*

We seem to have a lot in common and my brain's already churning with ideas and plans for her packages! I hope she loves them and I can just tell we're gonna hit it off :)

Happy Monday, y'all :P

Secret Pal 12 questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love almost all yarn *swoon* I especially love alpaca and can never have enough, lol. I am fond of knitting with wool, although I never seem to do it enough. It's just so sproingy when I get to it :) I also really like knitting with things like bamboo and soy :) I have nothing at all against acrylic or polyester...some of my best friends are acrylic or polyester, lol :) The only things I don't like are fun fur/novelty yarns or anything with mohair or anything that isn't soft. I'm a big tactile person, so it must be soft.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I store my knitting needles in an over the door shoe holder on the inside of my coat closet in the living room :) It works wonderfully, one pocket for each size, plus extra pockets for Knit Picks cables, cable needles, etc. There's extra pockets and maybe someday I'll come up with a use for them as well :)

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I have been knitting about 2 1/2 years at this point. I think I'm intermediate. I've done just about everything except for colorwork and entralac...mostly because I don't care for most colorwork things nor how entralac looks :) I love lace, cables, etc. Interestingly enough, I love knitting garter stitch the best of all :)

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Amazon, no. But I have a Wist. It's located at http://www.wists.com/fragglefemme/ and I update it fairly regularly. If I buy or get as a gift something on there, I am sure to take it down right away.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Hmm. I love vanilla, lavender, powdery scents. I love anything citrusy - my everyday perfume is lemongrass tea from The Body Shop. I don't tend to go for spicy scents.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Sure I do :) I like swedish fish and sweet tarts the best. I don't eat chocolate very much, as I'm allergic. I'm much more likely to enjoy a cinnamon roll than a brownie or a snickerdoodle over a chocolate cookie. I have been known to eat Dove milk chocolate on occasion, though :) I actually have more of a savory tooth than a sweet tooth. I love chips, rosemary potato bread, pretzles, beef jerky, etc.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
Yes, I spin. I have several spindles and an Ashford Traditional wheel. I love spinning and never have enough time to do it *grump* I also sew, make jewelry and other misc. crafty stuff. I wouldn't be out of place reupholstering a chair or building some make-shift shelves. I am in love with my digital camera and take too many pictures :)

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I call my favorite genre "Chicks with guitars." Ani Difranco, Gina Young, Joan Osbourne, Jonatha Brooke, etc. I also love most 80's new wave, some punk, folk and broadway show tunes :) Yes, my computer is fully-functioning :) In fact, I don't have any CDs, having long ago burned them all onto my computer.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I live in a cloud of green and orange...dark green, leaf green, pale khaki green, emerald, sea, grass, rust orange, traffic cone orange, brown-orange, any orange. I also am a fan of brown, grey, black, some darker purples. Basically, anything earth tones or foresty. I can stand some blue, but it's not a favorite. I really don't like yellow in any fashion or pastels at all.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I have a 6 year old son with high functioning autism whom I co-parent with my ex-wife. Yes, I'm a dyke :) I have a partner of 3 years, but we don't live together right now, although we spend an awful lot of time at each other's house :) I wish I could have a kitty, but no pets are allowed in my duplex, so *sigh* I have to make due with kitty time with my partner's two cats :)

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I love scarves and mittens, especially fingerless mittens and gloves. I enjoy hats a lot, but it is difficult to find one that doesn't look dorky on me. Ponchos on a 5' 11" tall busty, broad shouldered woman is just so wrong I would be arrested, lol.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I actually like knitting small things. Hats, slippers, purses, washcloths, scarves, etc. I don't have much patience for sweaters or blankets, although I keep saving patterns for these things that I want to knit, lol.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Right now, I have several things going on. I am about 3/5 of the way done with a Mr. Greensleeves cardigan. I have one slipper done and one fingerless glove. I am to the heel on a pair of socks. I am almost done with a hat. I just finished a washing mitt for my son and need to seam up the one edge.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
But of course :)

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I only knit with circulars. I prefer wood or bamboo, but some metal are okay. I'm not a huge fan of plastic needles and only use the ones I have in necessity. My favorite needles are Knit Picks interchangeable wooden and metal needles and Crystal Palace bamboo...that swivel join is just to die for! :)

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
I have a yarn ball winder. I have been wanting a swift for awhile, and indeed have several plans for making my own out of my son's tinker toys or some PVC pipe or even wooden ones. However, I always seem to make due with my kitchen chairs or my partner's arms :)

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Hmmmm. Probably the fingerless gloves. A few years old.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I love fall, so I would have to pick Halloween :)

19. Is there anything that you collect?
You mean, besides yarn??? Yup :) I collect aprons, lizard and turtle things, Wizard of Oz stuff and books :) Oh, and spoons, like old silverware, not the commemorative little ones, lol. Oh, and I seem to have amassed a fair amount of octopi, lol.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
But of course!!!!!! (remember, you asked for it!)

Books:

• No Sheep for You
• Walker's second treasury of knitting patterns
• Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
• Zimmermann's Knitting Without Tears
• Beautiful Knitting Patterns by Klopper
• More Big Girl Knits

Patterns: (to name a few...I'm a total pattern whore and have about 3 GB of pdf patterns on my computer, lol.)

• Mentionable, Sizzle and Somewhat Cowl from Knit and Tonic
• Flicca from My Fashionable Life
• Justina skirt from norah gaughan, vol. 1 @ Berroco
• Prairie Boots, Petra and Brigitta from Coco Knits
• Wintergreen mittens from Kate Gilbert
• Sandy Breeze cardigan from turitknits

Yarn:

• Crystal Palace Merino 5 Print in 9809 Fall Herbs
• Crystal Palace Maizy Print in Birch Bark or Iguana
• Prism Lotus in tumbleweed
• Indiecita worsted weight most any color
• Misti Alpaca Chunky in Ember melange or tapistry melange
• Sea silk in forest colorway
• Knit Picks Andean Silk in any orange, brown, grey or greenish colors
• Knit Picks Comfy in Pomegranite, Fedora or Honeydew
• Knit Picks Shine worsted in Laurel or Fedora
• Knit Picks CotLin in kohlrabi or coffee
• Knit Picks Risata sock yarn in Umber
• Classic Elite Cotton Bam Boo in toasted almond, tiger lily, raspberry sorbet, or willow
• Patons Rumor in Fern Heather
• Bernat Bamboo in dill or wicker
• Bernat Cottontots in blue berry, grape berry, strawberry, lime berry
• Lion Brand Nature's Choice cotton in pecan walnut or pistachio
• Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in black, linen, taupe, chocolate, brick, rust, honey, dusty green, olive, dusty blue, dusty purple, mountain print, woods print, charcoal print, or autumn print
• Caron Simply Soft Quick in mango, bone, dark sage, autumn red
• Vickie Howell Love in Sarah & Maurice, Harold & Maude, Andrew & Sam, or Miles & maya
• Vickie Howell Rock in siouxie, billy, thom or trent
• Vickie Howell Craft in Libby, Cathy & Steve, Candi, Sandi, Kelly, or Suss

Other Stuff:

• subscription to Interweave Knits (mine just expired)
• subscription to Creative Knitting (I never seem to get around to subscribing)
• Knitter's block set from Coco knits
• non-dangly stitch markers

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
Some colorwork, I guess, if I could find a pattern I liked. Oh, also double knitting...I understand the concept, I've just never actually done it :)

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I want to be a sock knitter. I've knit one sock. Okay, part of one sock. I want handknit socks, damn it! But alas, I can never seem to finish one. My feet are a size 11. They're 10 1/2 inches long, 9 3/4 inches around at the widest part (the ball of my foot). Also, I'll let you know that I have a huge head :) It's 23 1/2 inches around! I'm just a big, tall gal, what can I say? :)

23. When is your birthday?
February 16, 1973, so I'm currently 35 and an aquarius.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?
Yeppers :) I'm fragglefemme :)

25. OTHER things I want my pal to know:
I'm allergic to mohair. I don't have acrylic snobbery, as long as it's soft soft soft I love to knit with it :) I don't drink coffee or tea or most anything besides water. I am not a big fan of chocolate. I am a sci-fi computer geek :)

Most improtantly, I will LOVE whatever you send me!!!

KNitterly

My Mr. Greenjeans sweater is still in the works, although TOTALLY different and customized and about twenty sizes too large. but I shall finish it, I shall :) I just need to do sleeves and button placket and then it shall be done.

In the meantime, I just made the cutest little orange hair kerchief with a dark green stripe at the front (can you say "I ran out of orange before casting off"? LOL). I wanted it for driving around this summer in my sweetie's car that is without air conditioning. My hair flys around and get all knotted up (the curse of curly hair!) and I thought wearing this would keep things in place until we get wherever we're going.

Well, it's ADORABLE! I need to make more! I think I look totally adorable in it, with my short hair curling out around the edges and framing my face, while all the annoying hair bits aren't on my face or tickling my ears and I just think it's adorable :)

I am quite picky about how things look on me, so you know it must be cute if I'm gushing this much :P

But I cast on for a quicky little rectangle bath mit/glove thingie for my son. I'm hoping that if it is something that he can stick his hand into, he will actually wash himself instead of just playing in the tub.

Can you tell I am doing lots of quick, easy fun things to give myself a break from the ginormous sweater? hehe.

Oh! And I joined SP 12, so look for all kinds of Secret Pal tom foolery to appear over the next few months :)

Listen in! You know you wanna :)

Bad blogger

I don't know why I have been so remiss posting on this blog. I need to get on the ball!

Last night, I went through all my stash and pulled out the stuff I don't expect I'll ever really use and organized what was left. I put all my needles away in their appropriate places. I sorted through WIPs and just generally organized and spiffed up my fiber area.

It feels so nice!

Next comes the fabrics and generic craft area in my bedroom. I have SO MUCH FABRIC it's ridiculous. I need to go through it all and my partner had the wonderful idea of donating all the fabric I don't think I'll ever really use to a college or local theatre group for costumes :)

I was the costume mistress for our theatre in college, so I love that idea...giving a younger version of me a bunch of fun new fabrics to play with :) Yay!

Then, I actually need to start SEWING again. I want to make some aprons. I've seen such cute patterns and I really do love aprons...I just don't have any right now! So, aprons it is :) And bags. And clothes, lol. I got some AMAZING giraffe print fabric for the sweetie yesterday and I want to make her pajama pants out of it for the spring :) I think she's just get such a kick out of that!

Yay for crafty goodness, organzing and recycling :)

What we won't do for our kids :)

I turn 35 in 16 days. Pretty scary, eh?

Famous!

On the way up to Mt. Shasta for vacation, I finished up my pixie hat...kitchnered it up expertly, if I do say so myself :P, and put it on my head...only to find out it was too big, lol. Ah well, I love it regardless.

Here are a few pictures of the hat and my most recent scarf in action in the snow, lol :)







My partner got some pictures of the back and sides of my hat and one with my hat, scarf and mittens all in the shot! Of course, when I'll get a copy of it to post, who knows, lol.

Mittens ho!

So, I've never knit mittens before.

But, I'm going to the snow (as everyone knows and is tired of hearing about) and I decided I needed me some warm, bulky, squishy wool mittens. I found a knit-flat mitten pattern that looked interesting and cast on with some of my faaabulous new bulky wool yarn I got the other day. It's Plymouth Galaway Chunky in color 705...a very dark blue. I'm not usually one for blues, but this caught my eye and I thought it would make nice mittens :)

Here is the cast-on and ribbed wrist knit...going to start the thumb soon!


OoOoh! Making the thumb was totally cool :) But then, you can to crochet down the side to seam it up and well...um...I'm not a crocheter...so it's a bit wonky...but I love it anyway :)


Wonky crocheted-up thumb and some more of the hand knit...I was just all aglow :) Kept exclaiming, "I'm knitting mittens!"


Trying them on mid-hand length. Yes, my thumb curves weird. My sweetie's always making fun of my weird curly stick-out thumbs :P But the mitten fits perfectly thus far!


All the knitting is done! Now, how the heck do you do a three-needle bind-off again?


All sewn up and on my hand! Perfect fit...perfeect warmth...perfect gloves (even if the seaming is sooooo not perfect, they're still perfect to me! )


Mitten shadow puppets :)


Laid out flat and beautious on the couch :)


And because everyone loves kitties! This is Annie right before the flash interrupted her slumber and she glared at me then cleaned her toes :)


The other bulky yarn I bought on Friday :) This might become a hat? Maybe..... So soft! Bulky! Wool! Warm! Colors! Yay!




Yup. I made me some mittens :) Can you tell I'm proud? :D