The Party is Moving, Hop on the Bus

I have moved my blog.

My new one is at the following address, which will hopefully show up as a link.

http://360.yahoo.com/purrrls

Note that now I have graduated to THREE (count 'em) r's instead of two.

If this is not working, please email me and let me know.

And when you find my new one please check in and let me know I've still got your listenin' ear.

Love, knitty

What Happened??

Well, for some odd reason my firewall at work started blocking my blog--I can get to blogger and I can post new posts apparently, but I can't view my blog.

If anyone has any clues as to why this happened, you all have my email so please let me know. :-(

Well, what do you think of that?

Apparently, it didn't eat it. I just looked and somehow it multiplied it by 3 and published it all three times.

Computers. Go figure. Well, now you all have 4 posts to read ;-)

Crunch crunch...mmmmm tasty post!

Ahem. So I did in fact write an entry yesterday and then my computer ate it. It must have been good.

New yarn:
*2 hot pink skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock. I'm doing a sockalong with a dear friend Dani in Florida. It is a new challenge for me and a SUPER new challenge for her; the pattern is 2 socks at the same time on one long circular needle. It is full of new techniques for me; 2 socks at once, Magic Loop, short row heel, cabled socks, and toe up socks themselves. Dani has not made socks before so hopefully this is a good experience for her!

*2 lovely teal green skeins of hand-dyed wool from Dani herself! They arrived in the mail on Saturday and were a balm for a bad/busy day, and comforted me on Sunday in the wake of very bad news from another friend. Right now they are snuggling together on the couch, waiting for me to decide what to make with them!

Current Projects:
*A care package for another online buddy. Nothing knitted in there, but a lot of sunny happiness. She likes bees, so I cross-stitched a little beehive and framed it in an oval embroidery hoop. I trimmed the hoop with ecru crocheted lace (no I didn't crochet it) and rough twine to give it an earthy look. I also made her a treasure box--I painted a small wooden box green and put little bee & hive cutouts on the top. Inside the lid I put flowers made from shells. I also crocheted a dishcloth for her and have a few other little goodies tucked in.

*A sleepy-eyed amigurumi cat for the above recipient's little girl.

*My capelet is blocked and dry--I felt it this morning and had to force myself to go to work instead of staying to add on the edge and the tassels! Pics coming soon!

New Yarns, & a Blocked-but-Wet Capelet

New yarns:

Hot pink Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock; 2 skeins for a wonderful new challenge I'm about to begin. I will be making 2 socks at one time on 1 long circular needle. The pattern is called Badcaul; and is just lovely. My friend Dani from Florida is going to be socking along with me via email--so wish us both luck! (She has already begun swatching, I am still waiting for my needles from Patternworks).

Teal green hand-dyed yarn from Dani (thank you sweetie!) that is just bursting with inspiration--I can't decide what to do with it yet so I am just going to enjoy petting it and thinking about what to make!

Blocked-but-Wet:

Finally had time over the weekend to block out my Spiderweb Capelet. I keep feeling it to see if it's dry, but alas, this is an exercise in patience :-) Once it's dry, I can crochet on the edge and the ties and begin wearing it!

New Yarns, & a Blocked-but-Wet Capelet

New yarns:

Hot pink Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock; 2 skeins for a wonderful new challenge I'm about to begin. I will be making 2 socks at one time on 1 long circular needle. The pattern is called Badcaul; and is just lovely. My friend Dani from Florida is going to be socking along with me via email--so wish us both luck! (She has already begun swatching, I am still waiting for my needles from Patternworks).

Teal green hand-dyed yarn from Dani (thank you sweetie!) that is just bursting with inspiration--I can't decide what to do with it yet so I am just going to enjoy petting it and thinking about what to make!

Blocked-but-Wet:

Finally had time over the weekend to block out my Spiderweb Capelet. I keep feeling it to see if it's dry, but alas, this is an exercise in patience :-) Once it's dry, I can crochet on the edge and the ties and begin wearing it!

New Yarns, & a Blocked-but-Wet Capelet

New yarns:

Hot pink Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock; 2 skeins for a wonderful new challenge I'm about to begin. I will be making 2 socks at one time on 1 long circular needle. The pattern is called Badcaul; and is just lovely. My friend Dani from Florida is going to be socking along with me via email--so wish us both luck! (She has already begun swatching, I am still waiting for my needles from Patternworks).

Teal green hand-dyed yarn from Dani (thank you sweetie!) that is just bursting with inspiration--I can't decide what to do with it yet so I am just going to enjoy petting it and thinking about what to make!

Blocked-but-Wet:

Finally had time over the weekend to block out my Spiderweb Capelet. I keep feeling it to see if it's dry, but alas, this is an exercise in patience :-) Once it's dry, I can crochet on the edge and the ties and begin wearing it!

Don't Call Me Cross

So last night, I didn't knit a stitch. I cross-stitched instead.

I've been plugging away at cleaning out my craft room--I have lots of things hanging around for crafts I don't really do anymore or things that were saved for crafts I never did. I'm trying to do up the ones I want to do and rehome the ones I'm not going to do. So I can have more room for yarn, of course ;-) I just don't feel inspired in that room and it's because there's too much stuff.

Anyway, I was mucking out a big drawer and found literally a dozen embroidery hoops. I used to do a lot of cross stitch but not so much anymore; I might take it up again but a dozen hoops is a bit of overkill, isn't it? Now, I have one that I really like, and I have a couple that are antique that are just super pretty, but that left me with about 10 or so extra ;-) What the heck did I buy all of those for??? I considered donating them but then decided I would use them, along with small pieces of aida cloth I also found, to make little cross stitched gifties for my friends at work. Along with them I unearthed a few spools of lace to embellish them with, too.

I decided on simple designs (the hoops are mostly small) of things that made me think of those people, and then I put a single word underneath. I stitched a little house for one lady, bearing the word "home". Two chickies for another; "friends". A cross; "faith", and 3 rolling ocean waves; "calm". I also made a cute oval one for an online friend with whom I'm doing a swap. It's a beehive with bees flying around it, the word beneath is simply "hive". It looks cute. I'm concerned about it looking too 'country' for that friend, so I'm going to embellish it with some jute twine I have, and I'm still trying to figure out what to trim the back with; usually I use some eyelet lace. I may go for some colored lace to make it a bit less frilly.

My goal is to do up as many of the crafts as I can and make birthday and Christmas gifts for my friends and family. Then I will get the fun of doing the crafts, save a little money, and have a wonderful clean craft room to boot come December!

I'm pretty sure all crafters do this; but it drives me nuts that I will buy nice supplies to do a project, then go buy something else to do the project because I just don't want to use them up....anyone else think this is pretty dumb? No more--I'm telling myself this: you bought the supplies to use. They are not being used just sitting there in storage. Use them already!

I did it!

Yesterday I finally bought the needles :-) I figured I had 'visited' them about 5 times and it was time to take them home. I couldn't wait to bust them out when I got home, and started a simple summer scarf to give them a test run.

Here I am knitting at my desk with them.


And here they are just tangled up in a ball of Rowan Summer Tweed I scored at the thrift shop for only $1.50.

Temptations

Lantern Moon needles. Need I say more? The speckles, the smooth feel, I think I may just have to buy a pair. Besides, Easter money should be used for something you wouldn't buy yourself, right? Somebody please tell me the answer is 'right'.

Lorna's Laces. The only question is, do I go into the city personally and buy them, or do I simply order online? If I go into the city I can get bubble tea again. But it seems crazy to spend money on the train ride just to buy two skeins of yarn. Wait a minute...actually that doesn't sound crazy at all. There is bubble tea at stake here.

That blue spun silk the color of a pool that's at the Knitche right now. Yeah, it's $35 for a skein. But it's the color of a pool! Surely I can use a lacy stole the color of a pool, making it a...practical purchase. Yeah, that's right. Practical.

Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. Mmmmmm. And in such lovely colors too! Pink and green and blue, I can't decide. I want them all. I want them piled up in a big pile and then I want to roll in them.

That new Jordana Paige satchel purse. But I *really* don't need it. It's just so chic. Like a big fashionable doctor bag. Dr. Knittykat, K.D. (knitting doctor).

Koigu for socks. I think I need a pair of Koigu socks. Who doesn't?

****
So y'all should be able to tell from that post that I have just fallen gleefully into the world of lovely yarn, credit card in hand ;-) Someone is going to win money on this, I can tell. You all had a pool going, the "When is knittykat finally going to cave and turn her back on Red Heart yarn in favor of something godawful expensive?" pool. Whoever won I hope you bet more than $5.
******
So over the weekend I decided to finally knit the Spiderweb Capelet from S&B Nation. It's all done and waiting to be blocked. I used the yarn from Williamsburg carried along with a strand of Cascade in cream. It looks pretty and nicely sheep-colored. Sheep colored. Heh.

Two, two, two socks not one!

I finally finished the Third Sock. I don't know why I had so many problems with this pattern but I did.

1. The first sock was markedly smaller than the second one.
2. The toe on the second one had to be ripped out and redone to remove a whole inch of length
3. I had to look up how to do kitchener stitch because it has been too long.
4. I finally finished the second sock last night, and had to regraft it 3 times because I kept screwing up. One time I already had the end woven in and everything and realized the stitches were way sloppy and loose at the beginning of the graft. I know it was late but did I suddenly forget how to do this or something???

But they're done, the same size, and I believe the intended recipient will enjoy them.

***
I did in fact cheat a little on my no-new-projects-until-this-one-is-done rule. When Laurel gave me that lovely pink linen yarn I could wait to tangle my paws in it. She warned me it might shed a lot, and so I took the precaution of unravelling it outside.

She very kindly included a pattern, but I think I am actually going to make a crocheted bucket hat from it, similar to the cotton one I have (which is slowly showing its age) but nicer and pink! I believe the shedding is somewhat less pronounced with crocheting. Either that or the breeze kindly took all the sheddies and carried them to my neighbor's house ;-)

The Greatest Weekend

I had a wonderful weekend!

Since I have opened myself up to new experiences and new things, I have been having the greatest time. I am tired on this Monday morning, but it was worth it because I had a fabulous time.

Friday I went to a bar for the first time. I met my best friend Carrie at Quigley's in Naperville and had a positively lovely time enjoying a beer and some long-overdue girly chat. We had our boys meet us after a couple of hours and then enjoyed a nice dinner together. I'm going back! I had a blast!

Saturday I got up and caught the train into the city to meet up with my other friend Janet. I rode a packed train loaded with excited Cubs fans--I think I was one of about a dozen non-baseball-goers on the train. I sat with an interesting lady who is a painter and a jewelry designer, we had some nice conversation on the way down.

Janet and I had a great time walking around downtown Chicago. She taught me how to find my way around in Chicago; it is really quite simple once someone explains the theory behind it. We went to Loopy Yarn, which my knitting buddies always talked about but I had never had the pleasure of visiting. We spent some time there petting yarns, but didn't buy anything.

Then we walked back up State and went to Argo Tea Co. and I had my first bubble tea. Ever since I heard about bubble tea over a year ago, it has been one of my life's missions to try it, but I could never find a place. This time I was bound and determined--I had 2 locations mapped out on a little cheat sheet in my pocket, so I could at least get to one of them!

For the uninitiated, bubble tea is a drink, not always tea, but sometimes a smoothie or other cold drink with large tapioca pearls lying in the bottom, which you slurp up through a very large diameter straw. One chain of bubble tea shops is called Fat Straw. The pearls are chewy and sweet. At Argo the pearls were little cubes, which was also quite nice. We had a sandwich and bubble tea and enjoyed sitting in the very sleek and posh-looking tea shop. I pretended I was a fancy lady who lived downtown in a terribly chic loft :-)

While there I also taught Janet how to crochet! So we both learned something new this weekend; I learned how to get around in downtown Chicago and she learned how to crochet. She was a very quick learner and I think I may have hooked (heh) her on this fabulous hobby.

After crocheting & bubble tea, we walked over to Millennium Park and enjoyed wandering around in this lovely green space. We walked under the Bean, saw the big faces, and walked over whatever busy street it is on the promenade. We saw the lake and we even saw people on a Segway tour, which is totally something I want to do now!

I was exhausted after 4 miles of walking, but totally happy as I rode on the train back to the suburbs, where I decided to cook myself a very nice dinner of a good NY Strip Steak, some broccoli, and a luscious tomato. After dinner I played Scrabble with my cousin until 11:00 and then retired, happily, to my bed.

Squeeeeeee!

Last night at knitting Laurel surprised me with a hat pattern and three skeins of light pink linen yarn to make it with! Totally sweet of her, and I can't wait to try it. She says it sheds, I think I'm going to make the most of it by telling people that I have a new light pink cat named Barbie.

Alas, I made *negative* progress on my malabrigo stole--but the yarn is so pretty to work with it's okay, I'm just enjoying playing with it. The fan & feather pattern is fast, which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I can burn through a whole ball in a few hours. A curse because while burning through said ball, I end up making errors that I don't discover....for a long time :-(

Oh, you wanted a picture? Okay.

The scallops along the edge are kind of curled up, I need to block it.

Now I'm Really Cooking Along

So I finished the afghan on Tuesday. Then I could get to my own projects which have been languishing too long because of the afghan. We've also been socializing non-stop since last Wednesday, so we took an evening off. I got to enjoy an evening in front of my favorite court shows, finishing up 2 projects in the queue.

I've finally finished the miser's purse with the beads. It's funny, I did the first miser's purse in an afternoon and started the second one, then finished that one that evening. I started this one....a month and a half ago. And I just finished it last night. And it wasn't like it was just sitting around somewhere, I was actually working on it here and there. The beads really really slow down your progress, as does the size 20 cotton. And the others were fairly straightforward and minimalist, while this one was very ornate. But it's beautiful and it's done!

The only project left in my personal must-finish-before-buying-anything-fun queue is the second sock, well, third sock. And it's not like I don't enjoy that project or anything, just that I'm sort of miffed I have to make a third sock, because the first two are totally different sizes. But once those are done, then I am free to do just about anything I want!

I can't decide between the Victorian bed socks, or the Starsky sweater. I'm thinking with spring coming, I might not want to be weighed down with the Starsky sweater. On the other hand, I want to have it done so I can wear it in the fall. Decisions, decisions :-)

OMG IT'S FINALLY DONE

Sorry to shout, but it's true! The afghan is done! My wrists are killing me, but it's DONE!

I am seriously doing a happy dance in the office here. I kind of enjoyed poking along on the squares, but once we had it laid out I just wanted it donedonedone.

I went to my mom's during my lunch break to work on it. I went to her house after work and that's when we finished it. I'm so thankful my mom was able to help me do it; she put in just as many hours as I did (maybe more) this weekend.

I can't wait to see the lady's face when I drop it off for her; I think she is going to love it!

****

Now I get to focus on some other projects of my own that have been languishing, and once that is over and my craft room is cleaned up I am SO buying myself some nice yarn and enjoying doing a project with no deadline, no squares, and no Red Heart :-)

Oh, I hate Granny Squares

My mother and I have spent our ENTIRE freaking weekend working on joining these afghan squares. I am SO ready to say goodbye to them. I am glad that I could help these people out, and glad that I am getting paid, but for heaven's sake I am ready for them to take their afghan so I never have to look at it again. I put in over 12 hours this weekend and Mom did too, my wrists are so sore I cannot work on my own projects because I have been putting in so much time and physical effort on these.

My goal is to have this finished by Friday.

******
I did buy the stitch markers, and then I got a set of darling glass bead stitch markers from a friend I did a swap with, so I am in stitch marker nirvana!

From my swap buddy I also got a pair of wrist warmers, a cute little magazine bowl, and some yummy tea. Oh, and the most darling turquoise bracelet, which I am wearing right now. I totally love it!

Not much else going on right now.