Progress!

Do you right front, take thee, left front, to be joined in holy stitch-lock, until death do you part? I do. Ahh....we're knitting in the round now! I'da kept on keepin' on last night, but then I got to where it said "switch to yarn B..." and I have no yarn B. I have all just Denim Silk. I've toyed with several options. 1) No beads, no sparkles, no nothing. 2) Shiny or sparkly carry-along thread 3) Stitch on seed-beads strategically after. 4) Find beads and string them on the Denim Silk Gah. I dunno. I think I'm going to go without, and see what it looks like when it's done. I want to wear this to work, so no sparkle would be more appropriate. In sock news: I'm not that far along, but it's coming. I love how the Cherry Tree Hill is knitting up, and it so soft and buttery smooth to work with. And this pattern is so easy to follow. It's the Anastasia sock from Pepperknits. And, no, I haven't finished seaming the camisole yet, but I at least started it's matching shrug. Lemme tell ya, this pattern is a mess. I swear whoever wrote the pattern was on crack. [(*do shit*)do some other shit, repeat from *to *] repeat that shit a couple more times. Gah. And Tvini can attest to that. She had to help me decipher it. Crazy. Speaking of Tvini, she finally shows up early to knit-night at Books-A-Million, and see what happens?

What's Your Level of Knitting Experience?

NeonTetra came up with this quiz on the knittyboards to determine just what level of experience you can say you have in knitting. So? What are you?

What is your level of knitting experience?

You're a knitter. There's no turning back now; soon you'll have calluses on your index fingers and double-points rolling around on the floor of your car. There are still plenty of new things you can try, but you have the basics down pat.
Take this quiz!

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Let's Clear This Up

Ripple is in the front, Morris is in the back. Ripple: Ripple is 7 years old. He likes to lick soap and generally gorge himself on whatever edible things are around the house. Especially the kind on a plate in front of me. Morris: Morris is somewhere between 12 and 15. I lean to the latter, the vet leans to the former. Whatever. When the cat is mostly gums rather than teeth, I'm thinking he's closer to my estimate. He licks no soap. Sorry you conspiracy theorists. Ripple has all his teeth and they still look nice and white and shiney. There, chew on that. Yeah, I know, they look a lot alike to the untrained eye. Morris is the old guy. Remember this? So, when you see a photo of a grumpy old cat here. Chances are, it's Morris. Ripple looks more like this: Ok, now that we've cleared that up (and believe me, my friends that see them all the time are still confused occasionally), I have a question for y'all. Here's my dilemma. Ripple is a pig. He wants whatever Morris is eating and more. Now that Morris can't eat the hard food, and he's entering his twilight years, I'm having to switch him to soft food like Tender Vittles and Whiskas (in the purple pouch). Which is all well and good. Morris deserves a good spoiling. But once I run out of hard food, do I continue to buy it for Ripple? Maybe just the Dental Diet for him to crunch on? I mean, Tender Vittles are decently cheap, and so is soft food in the can for the most part. I'm stocked up now on that. But do you think it's healthy to switch a 7 year old to that? In the mornings this week, I put mostly hard food in Ripple's dish, and cover it with a little Tender Vittles so it looks the same as Morris' dish. The rest of the packet goes to MoMo. Then a smattering of Temptations on top of each (Morris still inhales those - I'm not kidding when I say that. Remember - he can't chew). Morris has his fill, and perhaps a moment before he decides this, Ripple is horning in on MoMo's dish. When I left, there was nothing left in Mo's dish, and most of Ripple's left. All hard food. Gah! It just seems like it'd be spoiling Ripple when for Morris it's a necessity. Do y'all think it's ok to make the switch for both? In knitting news (just because): I started a 4th hank of Denim Silk on the SKB last night and split the arms off the body. A few more rows and I'm ready to join in the round. For those of you wondering if you should or could knit this - I say yes! The instructions themselves say it's the easiest sweater you'll ever knit. And it is! If you can increase and decrease, you're good to go. Get gauge on a yarn you can afford and love, and go for it! I love the look of the Denim Silk. The drape is wonderful on it. But, I only have 2 1/2 hanks left until I work up a bit more credit at the shop to get the rest. I'm loving this knit! I can't wait! The Anastasia socks are coming along as well. Though I did notice I missed a YO in the 4th pattern row. I'm calling it a design element. My "signature" if you will. Because I'm not about to rip out and inch and a half of the foot knitted on size 1 needles. No way. Fuck that.

WIPs and Stuff!

First of all, meet the toothless wonder. He's ok. Just missing a helluva lot more teeth than we thought. Apparently all he has are his Canines and the teeny tiny teeth between them in the front and below. Joy. The vet thinks that it's due to resorption. Apparently a natural thing as a cat ages. He probably swallowed the other missing teeth. (!) I have medicine for him to help ward off infection and for any pain he might be having in his gums. He'll deal with that for 10 days, then we'll go back in a month to make sure all is well and I don't have to spend $500 on his mouth. Gah. (ETA - Heh, no Dave I don't have to pre-chew his food, though all that gravy in the Whiskas certainly is tempting.) In actual knitting news, have you noticed that the Lacey Camisole's progress bar has been at 99% for over a week? Yeah. I need to seam it up. I did finally face the grafting of the 1 x 1 ribbing of the straps. Yeah. Here's a pictorial: First, I placed the pieces of the camisole in position, with my Vogue Knitting book strategically in place. (Which, by the way, has craptastic directions for doing this : "graft stitches as shown" followed by one picture. Um yeah, you suck Vogue Knitting!) Then, I separated the knits from the purls on each strap. Then I said "screw it" to Vogue Knitting and used my superior knowledge of Kitchner stitch to graft the knits to the knits on the front, then flipped the piece to graft the purls on the back. Not too shabby. I coulda done better, but the hell if I'm going back and trying again. I still have the side seams to do. Maybe tonight. In other progress bar news, you see a new one over there. The Simple Knitted Bodice from Stitchdiva. I joined the KAL and everything. I'm so into this sweater it's crazy. I started late Saturday Night and last night joined the 3rd hank of Berroco Denim Silk. Me likey!

Feet on a Floor!

Ah, another weekend, another blogstalking project. Chunky, Bezzie's kidlet, has instructed us to shoot our feet. Easier said than done, but alright. Let's try. Umm...Ripple isn't being very cooperative. Yeah, Morris doesn't look too thrilled either. He's grumpy. Why? Well, He's Morris. That, and this: Does the tooth fairy visit cats? I found these this morning. They're his bottome eye teeth. Poor boy. We've got an appointment with the Vet on monday to make sure there's no infection and to see if the roots need to be removed as well. Thank God I work for yarn 'cause after Monday, I don't think I'll be buying any for a while. Anyway, back to the feet. Raise your paw if you're sure! Ripple was very resistant to the feet shots. I at least was able to use a timer. And all you people into foot fetishes that have already viewed this photo on flickr - even though it's been uploaded for all of 2 minutes - hope this gets your rocks off. Oooh! Size 9! Sexxay! Finally, with a little bit of a vise-like grip between my calves, I got feet and paws in the same pic! I'm so cool. Heh. And thanks to Chunky, I finally removed the chipped nail polish off my toes that's been there since the wedding on the 12th. Phew! Thanks for the prodding Chunky! In other news, last night, after having a couple beers at the pub, I wandered over to the yarn shop, as one would do if their pub was located next to a yarn shop, and ran into my friend Tvini. Me, being the fun tipsy girl that I can be, convinced her to spontaneously go to a movie! Yay! No, I didn't drive. I let her drive my car since for me to ride in hers would have required entirely too much work. Geez, woman, clean out your car! Don't you have, like, a family? Heh. Anyway. So she drove my car and promptly went about 3 exits too far down 485. Hee hee. And she thought I was drunk. Looks who's laughing now! Ha ha! We were going to go see Pretty Woman playing at a new fancy schmancy theater that you can eat and drink at and all that lovely stuff. Well, since by the time we got turned around and back on track, it was half an hour past it's showing, we ended up at the next closest theater to see what we could see. Now, originally I was trying to get her to see Snakes on a Plane with me. But she was so not interested in that it was unreal. Well. We went and saw Snakes on a Plane. Heh. And we absoluetly loved it! It was the best bad movie I have ever seen! She gives a better review of it HERE and to her credit, owns up to the missing the exit by a longshot thing. She even sent me an e-mail from Samuel L. Jackson that was entirely too funny. You too can get a personal e-mail from him at the website http://snakesonaplane.com it is too funny!

Yarn Pr0n - Hot! Wet! Soapy! Ooh La La!

So, earlier this week, rosi g. (i.e. "The Soapy Knitter") asked me to make her an avatar. She joked that maybe she should just stick a skein of yarn in a bathtub and take pictures. Heh, that got me thinking. So, thanks to some Herbal Essences, a candle holder, and a shallow sink, we have soapy yarn. I used Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille in the end. But I started out with "safer" stuff. Like Sugar 'n Creme and some Caron acrylic. Then I thought better. Rosi is awesome and deserves a better quality of yarn, even if you wouldn't really be able to tell in a 60 x 60 avatar. So I busted out some Anny Blatt superwash wool (the one in the bottom right) and then the chenille. I figured it's going to be used for facecloths anyway, so no true harm could come to it. I shot it on the best quality my camera could produce, and sent her a link to a flickr photoset to take a look at what I'd come up with. She liked them so much, she asked if maybe I could come up with a banner for her blog. I did. (I still have one thing to change on the font - so it's not up yet over there). So without further ado, true yarn porn. Naked, wet and soapy.

O is for Oregon

Heh - y'all shoulda seen this one coming a mile away. Here's my parents and I at a gorgeous overlook just north of Manzanita. Yeah, I look like my Daddy. My sister and nephew at the same overlook: And some eye candy: Oh yeah, this trip was very timely for the ABC-along. One more letter and I'll be caught up.

Why Couldn't Y'all Lie?

Bah. Broomstick shroomstick. I dunno if I'm up for it. I mean, I could do it, but really, there's no replacing that blanket so why try? I think I'll have to weasel my way outta that. Dammit. Friggin' crochet. At least one thing cheered me up yesterday. Somerset, aka LadyLungDoc, sent me a wonderful birthday present! Santa Wool and a Turtle Watch fob! I think that's what you call it anyway. It's a watch shaped like a turtle that hangs from a clip. It's so cute! Can't see it though, can ya? Here's a better look: She said it was a lost turtle and she meant for it to find it's way home. Awwww. He sure did. Thank you, Somerset! I also received another set of stitchmarkers on Monday! These are from PrincessRach84. It's neat to see how different everyone makes their markers. She uses wire to string her beads from and ties it very tightly around the ring and hides the end back inside the beads. How she deos this, I have no idea. But I like it. The iridescent beads are gorgeous. And check out the cute little pin she included with it! Hee hee. Monkey love. Thank you Princess!

A Call for Help

See this? It's my nephew's. My Aunt Geraldine made it for him when he was born. She passed away not long after. My nephew loves it. As you see. My sister has requested perhaps a replacement for it so that this one may be put to rest and not further demolished. I know, it's the best compliment one can receive of a knitted object. To use it alot and love it so until it falls apart. But still, I've agreed to do it. But I need your help figuring out the pattern. Here's some up close shots: Near as I can tell, it involves wrapping 5 stitches an extra time or two, then knitting into all 5 stitches on the next round. Shit. If y'all confirm my fear that the entire thing is crocheted, I'm gonna die. It's not that I don't like to crochet, it's that I haven't really done it since I was a kid, aside from the pinwheel baby blanket edging. I mean, I know this thing has a crocheted border, but is the whole thing crocheted? Help! If you know the pattern stitch, I'd appreciate it. Better yet, if you know a knitted version, I'll love you for life.

Hey look! A Dishcloth!

Wonders never cease, eh? This is the latest from the Monthly Dishcloth KAL for August. I'm a day ahead of schedule (go figure). Pattern: Three and One Checkered Cloth Yarn: Cornflower Blue & Butter Creme Ombre Sugar 'n Creme How do I know the pattern source? Same way I cheated. I did a search for one line of the pattern and found it right off. I have the transcription to do of Deadwood tonight and didn't want to fall behind. This cloth turned out so soft, and that's saying something for Sugar 'n Creme. I find that the newer batches of it are indeed softer than the old, but the pattern also lends to it. It's more drapey or something. I really enjoyed this. I started another one at lunch today. Same colors. I think I'll start stashing these away for Christmas. And that reminds me. I need to start my list. Bah. (humbug)

Will it Float? And other stuff I've been needing to blog.

First things first. Will it float? Heh - just kidding. Though Ripple was oddly intrigued with my load of delicates this morning, he did not, in fact, try to float. Instead, I took these to the pool to test. A heavy (for it's size) ceramic turtle, a plastic turtle, and a rubber turtle. One would think perhaps the plastic or the rubber turtle would at least float. But alas, no. Straight down to the bottom with them all. Oh well. In other news. Holy Crap! I was mentioned on PopPolitics.com in an article on Deadwood wow. I do the transcriptions soley for the fans. It's easier to discuss the show in message boards when you can quote from it accurately. Plus, you get a lot more out of the show when you read the wonderful dialogue in addition to watching the show. Wow. I love that my name was mentioned and spelled right even! The transcript site has been mentioned before online in articles and whatnot, but never has my name been mentioned (aside from a thesis article on Chinese and Deadwood.) It makes me feel good. In other news, I finished some socks while I was in Oregon. Just your plain old generic toe-up sock a-la Wendy. Only difference in these from my past ones, I tried out the Magic Cast-on from the Spring Knitty and I LOVE IT! This was Sockotta in the lovely color name "5616". Wonderful. It reminds me of Sweetarts. So I'll call the color "Sweetart". Heh. Stupid number names. Yarn should be called names like O.P.I gives it's nailpolishes. Like "Nice Color, Eh?" and "I'm Not Really a Waitress." Much more interesting that way. In stitch marker news. I've received two more sets and shame on me for not gushing and posting about them immediately! I'm so sorry Purrl and Hotmama! These came from Hotmama: And these from Purrl: Aren't they purty? Thank you so much ladies! And finally. I feel like a grown up. I bought a new comforter today with the help of a Gift Certificate and some birthday money. Why does a comforter make me feel like a grown up and turning 30 didn't? Well. The old comforter was for a full size bed and I had to turn it sideways to fit. Now I have one that actually was made for a Queen size bed. Isn't it pretty?

Yarn Pr0n Friday Goes to the West Coast!

Only I didn't get stuck in a cave with Vincent Price because of some cursed tiki. No no, my vacation also yielded yarny goodness. Of course. My family is very supportive of my knitting hobby. The more stuff that gets gifted to them, the more supportive they get. Heh. Especially when it comes to the dishcloths, but hey, who doesn't love a handknit dishcloth? More on that this weekend. On to the pr0n. I had told my oldest sister that while I was in Seattle, on the only full day I'd be there before my parents arrived, that I'd like to check out a few yarn shops. My sister (the bride) had other running around to do and wasn't able to come with us, but she did pick me up a few skeins of yarny goodness while she was doing her errands. Below is some Moda Dea Dream and some Trendsetter yarn. The Dream she bought that day, the Trendsetter she'd had at home waiting for me. I see the Dream being a nice comfy wrap or triangular shawl of some sort. It's so freakin' soft. The Trendsetter, um, probably will go in wrap comprised of many different yarns of that sort. Like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Yarn Coat. In return I had gifted her with some pairs of novelty yarn that I had in my stash that I thought she'd enjoy. She's really attracted to that sort of yarn, so why not enable her right? Heh. Anyways... The first shop we hit was called Tricoter. Besides having an absolutely useless website (they list no address - just directions off the interstate - but we found it anyway). Here's what it looked like inside: Pretty huh? Yeah, pretty fuckin' frustrating to find anything in. As nice as sorting by color looks, and hiding all the labels, it's dumb as hell. What if you're one of those people hyper allergic to wool or animal fiber? You see something pretty and pick it up only to find it's 100% Alpaca? Umm...yeah. What if you want to make a sweater out of a specific yarn but don't know what color? Good luck finding that yarn in the first place, never mind all the colors they have of it. Anyway, off my rant and onto the yarn. I went to Tricoter for one thing and one thing only. Socks that Rock. I picked up the Lemongrass and the Tanzanite. There were a few more colors but these were the ones that called to me. Can you see why? So rich in color. So unique in tonal variations. Just lovely. I also picked up a little emergency sock yarn keychain that they had and a Black Sheep tape measure. The keychain is in another picture below somewhere. The next stop was Cultured Purls. After Tricoter, it was a sigh of relief. I chose this place because they had Lorna's Laces. I didn't buy any (I didn't see any that called to me, and barely any of the sock yarn variety). But I did get one small hank of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. It was the only one left in this color and I couldn't put it down. I'll find something to do with it. Not sure what, but I'll figure something out. Oh, and I bought my nephew some yarn, needles and book here. He asked me to teach him how to knit on the car ride from Seattle to Oregon the next day! Of course I said yes! That's it for Seattle. Next stop. Oregon. As we arrived in Manzanita and were looking for the Inn we were staying at, I was looking out the window of the car and saw this: See that? <---Right there. QUALITY YARNS. Oh yeah. The whole back of the shop is a yarn shop. It's freakin' wonderful! And the name was even better! "Bad Woman Emporium" I loved it. And we were staying NEXT DOOR! (I may have mentioned it in passing before.) Holy Crap. It sucked my whole family in. My mom bought a lantern moon basket, and I got some sock yarn and a lantern moon bag. My Brother-in-Law even bought some yarn for some Fuzzy Feet he wants me to make! First, the sock yarn: I really tried on this trip to limit my yarn purchases to only the yarns I can't get or haven't seen yet at home. This Swizzle is one of those. The color selection wasn't great, but I liked this one well enough. I also picked up a pattern for a mobius scarf - only to catch up on watching Knitty Gritty and seeing that Cat Bordhi demonstrated her cast-on and a lacey pattern. Hmmph. And this pattern has me grafting and shit. Oh well. I'd rather do Cat's so maybe I can find someone that wants this other pattern. This is the Cascade 220 my Bro-in-Law chose for his Fuzzy Feet. Stripes. I managed to make a whole pair out of one hank for my sis with size 11 feet (oh crap, forgot to get a pic of the pre-felted finished object.) So I'm thinking I should be able to get 2 pairs out of this. Now, onto my new tradition. A knitting bag from each trip I take. I got one on my trip to D.C. to visit my sis and Trillian42 so I figured I should get one on this trip too. I like this new tradition. Hey, Stacey does it. The one on top is a Lantern Moon bag. Perfect for small projects like socks, or all the Fuzzy Feet I'll be knitting for Christmas. The one on the bottom is from "Baskets of Cambodia". Hey, Angelina Jolie collects children from there, I might as well collect their purses. That's about my speed. It's a purse, yes, but I see a potential sock bag for the pool. Why the pool? It's waterproof. Heh. Love it. And there you have my yarny swag from my trip. Yay!