Thursday, May 31, 2012

Cheers!

Today, friends, is my birthday.  Here is how I feel about that...

thoughtful....


with just a hint of mad dancing!  
(yes, I did get permission from Hannah to post this picture of her)


Well I am off to smell the lilacs and enjoy myself in general.  My only goal for the day: wear all of my high heeled shoes.  Which means quite a lot of shoe changing actually.  Should be fun.  I will probably get blisters and have swollen feet and what not but it will be worth it!

Monday, May 28, 2012

Time. It Passes.

This, folks, is my project update.

Update:  I have a lot of knitting projects going.  Some well.  Some terribly.  A few are partially frogged.  So pretty typical there.  As always, I am behind on the photo taking front but I'll take some soon!

The second wedding shawl is gorgeous.  I can't get enough of it.  Which will make it extra hard to give away...

The Justice League scarf is blocking!  Another of my absolute favorites.  And I DO get to keep that one.

Some of the others include a cute little baby cardigan, a pair of lacy leg warmers, a drawstring purse, more felting madness, and a shawl of my own design, among other things.

On a side note, check out these pictures of Aquaman.  Here's the original:

And the updated:


Strange how things change, no?  Then check this Aquaman:


I think the tritony whippy thing actually IS his hand.  

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Weekend Madness

The past few days have been really quite ridiculously busy.  This morning I awoke feeling like I hadn't slept because my subconscious had been going full tilt all night.  Today is my (supposed) time to catch up and get stuff done.  We'll see about that.

On Wednesday my mother and I went to visit my grandparents and happened to stop in at a most fabulous of all fabulous yarn shops.  It's called Tawas Bay Yarn Co. and was way more than I could have imagined.  When I say we stopped in, we actually spent about 2 hours lost in yarn and for once, I was not the biggest spender in the group.  Mom got enough yarn to make hats for about a year!

For those of you who haven't seen it, this is the knitting bag I've been lugging around lately,
It is actually one of three...  

Well, the to do list is calling to me again.  Best not to ignore it.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Onward Ho!

My mind has been reeling with thoughts of action and adventure.  Yesterday Hannah and I went to see The Avengers (another Joss Whedon triumph) and then spent the evening watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (which is surprisingly much better than Pirates 2 & 3. Combined).  Now we are off to play this game of all games:
This time, I am determined to win. All these superheroes and pirates have ignited my fighting spirit.  Should be an excellent show down in the sheep pastures.

In other news, this crazy thing,

is no longer just sleeping on my bed everyday.  Oh no, that would be far too simple.  Instead she is actually sleeping between my sheets and slightly under my pillow.  Right after spending the afternoon rolling around in the dirt.  Good thing she's cute.   


Monday, May 21, 2012

Heat Wave

Yesterday, mired as we were in the third day of an intense (for May) heat wave, tensions started to grow.  No one wanted to cook so we ate salad and fruit.  Exclusively.  I tried to knit to calm the nerves but my hands were sweating all over my yarn.  Which really puts a damper on things when you are trying to get your Justice League scarf done before your fast approaching birthday.  When the rain finally came to cool us off later that night, I stood outside and revelled in the cool summery shower.

The Justice League scarf is also done.  The Superman block proved to be extremely challenging, however.  I not only had to strand 3 colors simultaneously, I also discovered I had no worsted weight blue yarn!  At all!  So I had to double strand some blue sock weight yarn.  Which meant I was tangling and untangling 4 strands of yarn each row.  By the time I moved on to the 2 color Martian Manhunter block, it felt like the simplest pattern I'd ever knit.

More project updates to come.  In the meantime, I am off to enjoy the slightly cooler but still sunny weather!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Summer Knitting

I have a friend who puts her needles and yarn away as soon as the weather warms.  I, personally, have no idea how she can do this.  Even when I am very ill, I still try to put in a few rows of garter stitch a day.  However, I understand the discomforting challenge involved with knitting wool in extreme heat.  But that's why we have so many different fibers right?  Cotton, linen, bamboo...  All good fibers for summer projects.

Last summer I knit my sister a lace cardigan out of a cotton sock weight yarn and my dad a grocery bag out of a thick hemp.  The cardigan was a fabulous project but I don't actually recommend knitting with hemp.  It's rather unforgiving and harsh on the hands.

This summer I have plans for a couple of lace projects, some projects in cotton, and perhaps even little projects out of wool.  Definitely no sweaters until the temperature cools again!

The one thing that I haven't mastered is beach knitting.  Any ideas for something that I can knit in the bright sun and sand?

In other news, I matted and framed this photo for my grandma's birthday this weekend!  Hope she likes it.

The Florida sunset.  Nokomis beach, Florida

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Dishcloth Blues Part II

Dear Dishcloths,

I don't know why you have such a power over me.  Perhaps it's the pretty colors or fun patterns.  Perhaps it's the fact that you take about an hour to knit and I really like accomplishing things.  Perhaps it's that I can knit you in the dark without making any mistakes or in the bright sunlight without my fingers sweating.  Whatever the reason is, I cannot escape your allure.  I am once again caught up in the dishcloth blues.  Would you please release me from this craze now?  I have quite enough dishcloths, thank you.

I have tried to knit other things out of this yarn.  I am knitting a brightly colored, cotton summer bag at the moment.  Only, I keep thinking about how much better this bag would look as a couple of dishcloths...  See what I mean?  This is getting out of hand.  I know you are determined to use up all of that bright cotton yarn and I fully support that decision.  But don't you think enough is enough?

Sincerely,
Your Knitter

Monday, May 14, 2012

A Bit of Everything

We've been joking that all of the holidays are represented on our porch and it's true.  We have
Easter,

Christmas,

and yes, even last Halloween!

These may look like pots of dirt.  Which they are.  They're supposed to be basil plants but apparently, gardening is not my forte.

As for my knitting, well, it's been tough.  The true sign of illness is when you are too sick to knit.  I am on the mend, finally.  Going to see the new Dark Shadows movie helped A LOT.  

Friday, May 11, 2012

A Day in May

The warm weather has returned!  For today anyways.  I have taken my camera, my cat, and my knitting outside in a very uncharacteristic attempt to raise my vitamin D levels.  It just happens to also be the perfect weather to show off some of my recently finished projects!
My second Fibre Company hat!  I am obsessed with their hat patterns.  Kelly understands. 

Another obsession of mine has been to knit head wraps out of my hand spun yarns.  This is the one I cast off last night.

Per usual, Sorcha is up to no good.  She's been stalking my knitting projects for the past hour or so.  Which shows a surprising amount of determination on her part. 

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

A Little Game

So I took pictures of little tiny crabs while I was in Florida.  Only these little guys are masters of disguise and do not particularly enjoy being photographed.  Can you find the crabs in my pictures?  Because I can.
 But then, I am the photographer...

Knitting update:  I am on the Aquaman square of the scarf!  Almost halfway there!
I have also been spinning up a storm, have started a new infinity scarf, and had some brilliant ideas about what to knit all my family members for their birthdays.  Among other things.  It's been busy around here.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Plaid PJs

We all have things that make us feel better when we are ill.  I personally like to loll about in my plaid footy PJs, watching Disney movies, and drinking lemon/garlic tea.  Which is what I'll be doing once I'm done updating you all.

The UFO phenomenon has infiltrated the rest of my life!  Earlier I decided to look through my document folder titled "Books" to see what brilliant literary ideas I had followed for 3 pages or so before abandoning.  To my surprise, I have 2 books that are about halfway written!  Seriously.  I wrote 70 pages or so of each and then just left them.  That is what school, travel, and life will do to you.  Now the question remains, should I finish them?

To remind myself that the sun does shine every once in a while, I will share some pictures I took last week (before all this gray sky/rain nonsense).

The Moo Cow Infinity scarf, drying gently in the sun.

The Sunset Mittens.

Hark!  There be things growing in the sandy pit that we call the backyard!

Friday, May 4, 2012

UFO Recovery Mission

I have been finishing UFOs a lot lately.  So, by the time I got around to looking through the UFO bin, there were less than I thought.  These are just a few of the known and unknowns that I found in there.

The UFO bin.  

My Harry Potter hexipuffs!  These will be UFOs for a LONG time.  Each time I finish one, there are still dozens more to go...

  If this appears to you to be a random bag of yarn, you'd be correct.  That is, in fact, what it is.  

The mittens that I've started...4 times now.  I'm still determined to make them...someday.

These lovely little felted squares.  I have lots of them.  Still figuring out what to do about that.

I was very gung-ho about about this tank top until I realized that the 14" of stockinette was only for the front and then there's the back too... 

This one confused me.  The yarn doesn't go with the needles and that piece of paper?  I just scribbled some illegible notes on it.

But there is still hope for the UFOs!  I mean, if I can knit this Justice League scarf, I can do anything!  (Since this photo was taken 2 days ago, I've now got the Wonder Woman square done and am half way through the Batman square!)



Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Catblogging II

Just when you thought I was done catblogging...

Hershy and Rusty, the original top cats of the neighborhood.  This is the one and only picture where Hershy looks like he might actually win the fight.

This is Sorcha as a kitten.  So tiny and cute!

Knittingwise, my time has been consumed by my Justice League scarf.  I just finished the Green Lantern section and am moving on to Wonder Woman!  I finally have my own Green Lantern lantern.  And it is knitted.

I have also started knitting some infinity scarves which Hannah says are only for "a very special person."  Not sure whether I should be insulted.