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!

N is for Nuptials

I coulda held out for "W" but why bother? My sister got married on the 12th to her love of 3 years. It was on Cannon Beach in Oregon. Gorgeous. They also had a "sand ceremony" where they took sand from under each other's feet and placed it in a vessel. In this case, a puzzle box in the shape of a cat. My family is a cat family, and the men are no exception. They have 3 cats - a "yours, mine and ours" kinda set. It was a nice touch. Best of luck to my sister and her new husband. May their future together be a happy one. If the sunset on the night of their wedding is any indication, it will be.

M is for Manzanita

M was going to be for "Magnets" but that is so lame compared to Manzanita. This is where my family and I stayed in Oregon for my sister's wedding. Simply gorgeous. If not freakin' cold. The daytimes were nice, but the wind - hoo boy. That's no joke man. The photo to the right - you can feel the cold can't ya? Brrr. And me, the idiot, thought "beach? Must be warm! Shorts and tops!" yeah. Not so much. I actually had to BUY a SWEATER! I told myself I'd never buy another sweater. If I wanted another sweater, I'd make it myself. Oh well. Emergencies ya know? We had a nice time. The wedding was on Cannon Beach in Oregon, and Manzanita is about 23 miles south of there. The road between the two nearly did us in though. Wow. I don't get carsick, but geez, did the drive ever make me dizzy. And do NOT get in the car to drive there if you are hung over. Just sayin'. So, I'm glad Steph wasn't able to get to a computer on Monday night. She called me and told me, and since I was at my sister's that night, I was able to blog. And I decided then, magnets simply wasn't good enough.

Hi Y'all

Blogging from the West Coast tonight! And so the Bloggy Thing goes nationwide! Ha! Whatever. This was supposed to be an ABC-along post, but the one I had was lame, so I'm shelving it until I get back with some of the FABULOUS pics I've taken while in Seattle and Oregon. Hoo boy. Just y'all wait. I've been a busy little photographer, and of course, yarn was purchased as well. That will be done when I get home. Some highlights, a quick recap of events: Went on a Hot Air Balloon ride! Stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach! Taught my Nephew to knit! Stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach! Sister got married! Stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach! Froze by butt off on the beach of Manzanita! Stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach! Drank wine - lots of it! Stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach! Finished a pair of socks and even my first hedera of a pair! Did I mention I stayed next door to a yarn shop on the beach? Heh. Stay tuned. I shall have my first installment of wonderous photos for you on Thursday.

Love Soap!

Finally! I have pictures. Westozcaat was so nice to send me a R.A.K to cheer me up after that blogrant I posted a short while ago. (And I hope the term "H.R. Fuckinstuff" has served you all well.) Anyway, as you see, there is some mini-gummy dinosaurs (yum!) and soap. The one on the right smells like licorice and went completely unlicked by the resident soap-licker. The Love Soap, oh wow. The wrapper on it is so freakin' funny. With lines like "All you need is LOVE SOAP! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!", "Beautiful people will kiss you on the street!" and "Become personally irresistable! You owe it to yourself! Buy THis Soap and Burn!" it completely cracks me up. But the best bit might be the "testimonials" on the back. "Thank you for your incredible love soap. It changed my life. Everywhere I go people walk up to me and say the magic words, "I love you Bill Gates". - Bill Gates "LOVE SOAP changed my life. People avoidd me, hated me, went out of their way to cut me in conversations, wouldn't respond to my invitations, gave me a hard time and told me to my face that I was dull, boring, ugly and rude. Now I'm a talk show host!" - name withheld. How funny is that? Hee hee. Thank you, Kate!

Fridays - All Pr0n, All the Time

Yes, my friends. I am away and have prepared Yarn Pr0n friday for you ahead of time. Today, we bring my swag from the last weekend of my LYS, The Peace of Yarn, the day before they closed to move to their new location (sadly, further away from me - but not too bad.) I scored some yummy Cascade 220 for my own Lucy Bag, as well as some mystery yarn (you aren't allowed to see it until I've finished my project with it.) There's also some Cotton Chenille (for - yeah, you guessed it, reverse bloom washcloths from Weekend Knitting.) Here we have some gorgeous Wick sock yarn. This stuff is supposed to be good for sweaty feet. Hmm...maybe I'd better use that for my sister the runner. She used to stink up some running shoes pretty well. Dunno if the story is the same for everyday shoe wear, but it couldn't hurt, eh? The green is color #516, Chartreuse, and the purpley-rose color is #467, Columbine. It's by Knit One, Crochet Too. I will be back Wednesday. Hopefully I'll have time for a blog entry with all the details on the wedding and various birthday related activities. Note from Stephy: this was supposed to be up late last night. I suck. I'm sorry.

Happy 30th Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday to me. She who has played model for a dear friend, stood reluctantly for photos as a 12 year old, a family that not only loves her, but puts up with her shit, used to eat lunch in the bandroom because she was a geek, had a Gilda Radner haircut her senior year of college, learned how to play the bongo drums from a red-headed hippie, loved lollipops, graduated to tequila shots chased with lime, met Kirk Muller and Steve Shutt, thought she was going to work for the CDC finding the vector to some deadly virus in the jungles of Africa, had a blast at Daytona Beach with her friends Lisa and Kristi, and been surrounded by sisters that love her, Happy Birthday to Cristi.

Thank you Shonze!

I got my stitchmarkers from Shonze today! Yay! And she was hoping these would be "funky enough." Sadly, no they aren't. THEY'RE FREAKIN' GORGEOUS! Lookee! And the cutest little handknit bag to go with them! boy, does that ever give me ideas for leftover sock yarn. Good idea! Wish I'da thought to send my stitchmarkers in something fancier than a plastic baggie wrapped in a paper towel. :/ Stephy has been kind enough to accept my request to mind the bloggy thing for me while I'm gone. I've prepared a few posts. Yes, yarn pr0n friday will be here! Thank you, Stephy!

Fair Warning

Ok, so I'm heading outta town for a week. I leave for Seattle tomorrow afternoon (and then Oregon on Friday). Not sure if I'll have access to a computer whilst I'm gone, but I've prepared some blog posts ahead of time. I may attempt to wrangle a fellow blogger to publish the posts for me, but if I should freak out and go on a publishing spree tomorrow, I have changed all the dates on the posts. This means, if you log in tomorrow and see a post labeled the 13th or something - you aren't seeing things and you haven't stumbled into a time warp either. See y'all next Wednesday (the 15)!

More Blogstalking Stuff!

So, this week is all about food. Take pics of something you made this week. Here, we have my Chicken Quesodillas. This is the first time I made them here on this stove, and as a result, we see why I really shouldn't be cooking anything that doesn't come out of a box with explicit directions on the back. I burned the hell out of these quesodillas. If I were in a restaurant, I'da sent them back. Ingredients : Tortillas Mexican 4-cheese blend Salsa Sour Cream Black Olives Black Beans Chicken And usually, shredded lettuce. But I didn't have any. Anyway, I cooked the chicken in the microwave (because I'm so efficient - heh) and heated up the black beans on the stove. When both were finished, in the top right photo, I put the cheese on the tortilla, the chopped up chicken and then some black beans. Then I proceded to put that in a pan with some oil that was entirely too hot and proceded to burn the tortilla in an impressively short period of time. We're talkin' microseconds here. It was awful. I blame it on the new stove and new cookware. Yeah, that's it. Blame the inanimate objects. When it was retrieved from the pan, I opened it up (bottom left) and coated it with some salsa, sour cream and black olives. Then, after trying to cool the pan down a bit and dumping the too hot oil. I made another one. And burned it as well. I suck at food.

Turtle beads!

Finally, as promised, the remaining contents of my kick-ass final SP7 package from Knitting Cat. See those turtles on top? They're beads! They are so freakin' cute. I haven't figured out yet what I want to use them for, but rest assured, it'll be treasured! On the bottom right we have the pile of marble she sent me to complete my garden border. I felt so bad for Robert, my mailman, when I hefted this thing inside. He was considerate enough not to put it all the way onto the ground in front of my door. Instead he put it on a rubbermaid container i have outside for my gardening tools. That made it a lot easier to lift. Boy, does she ever know how to use that flat rate box to her greatest advantage! On the bottom left, we have a fabulous packet of the most ingenious post-its. Arrows! Ya jealous, Trillian? She of the post-it's to keep her place strategy? Hee hee. It looks like the little hard-backed folder it's in was handmade. Did you make it KC? I love it! There's also another bath bomb - lilac scented. I loved the last one she sent and am so happy to have another! Lilacs are my favorite scent and flower. I miss having them in my backyard at home in NY. They don't grow down her in NC since they need the cold of the winter. It's too bad. She also found a mini kacha-kacha! I can put it on a necklace and wear it around my neck! This will be put to good use on the plane trip this week. I love it! I've never seen one of this type and am so happy to have it. One can never have too many kachas. Seriously. Save the whales! Collect them all! The turtley things in the center I think are meant for scrapbooking, or embellishing any freakin' thing I want. Very cute! I think they may have to dress up my computer monitor. Hmmm.... Knitting Cat asked me what gave her away. And if I told her, I'd have to kill her. So no, sorry KC, I shan't reveal my powers of deduction. ;^) You were a great SP! Thank you so much for everything!

Cristi Does Yarnography!

Wow - I'm one gift-recieving turtle this week. First, we have the R.A.K. from Mikomaio: Isn't it gorgeous? It's Lace weight Mohair. It feels oh so yummy. Two skeins! Two! On top of the cute turtles she gifted me! That was a fabulous giftie. Then I received the R.A.K from Westozcaat - and me, still the idiot, didn't take pics yet of the Love Soap and the orange licorice scented soap. But I will! I promise! Then I received the Koigu! (I got Koigu! I got Koigu! I got Koigu!) from Tvini for my birthday, that we saw yesterday. Ah hell, let's look at it again. Then, yesterday, I received my final package from my Knitty SP7! That's handspun yarn and some Green Mountain Spinnery "Mountain Mohair" - it's a 70% Wool and 30% Yearling Mohair and oh so, soft. The Handspun is spun by my SP's favorite local spinner - alas, I left the note at home and cannot recall her name. I will amend this post when I get home with that information. ETA:The spinner is Jenny Davis and she is actually from Washington State. It's gorgeous and so soft. It's called "Skittles" and you can see why. I can taste the rainbow in that. Heh. I think it's silk by the feel of it, but the label just has the colorway and the yardage on it. (40 yds) I'll show y'all pics of the rest of my package tomorrow. It's yarn pr0n friday and the yarn is the star of this post - heh. My SP didn't reveal her knittyboard name, but I'm pretty sure I know who it is anyway. Is it you, Knitting Cat? (As you see by this week's post, I have discovered the Flickr Photo Mosaic maker. It's more efficient to show off all the great snaps I take of the pr0nography and hope you like it. If you don't, and would rather the full size, tell me! Or just go to my flickr yarn pr0n photoset or click on the pics for more.)

I Got Koigu! I Got Koigu! I Got Koigu!

I've been saying that and thinking that ever since last night at the knitting group where I was gifted with this: It's an early birthday gift from Tvini, she of Wear With Style, home of the infamous Jayne Hat. (The woman has made over 250 of these - she's a machine! She also sells the kits to make them yourself. Go order! You know you want to!) When I asked her yesterday if she was coming to Knit Night at Books-a-Million (As I had a giftie for her) she replied "Oh, HELL yes I'm going to BAM.And I have a little sumpin' sumpin' for you too, birthday girl!" I was all excited! A birthday gift a week early! Yay! When she handed me the bag and I removed the tissue paper to reveal these two lovely skeins of KPPPM I squeed with joy! "I got Koigu! I got Koigu! I got Koigu!" Oh how exciting! That's 3 colors I have now - 2 of which were gifts (Thank you again, Trillian!)I am truly a lucky, lucky girl to have such friends. Especially ones with such fabulous taste in yarn and colors! Seriously, all night long I kept waking up and telling the sleeping cat next to me: "I got Koigu! I got Koigu! I got Koigu!" Man, my family has a pretty high bar to leap now. I also was the lucky recipient of yet another R.A.K package, this one from the fabulous Westozcaat all the way from Australia! I forgot my camera at work yesterday and didn't bring the contents with me to work today to get pics (I had to bring the Koigu for it's photoshoot. I couldn't let it out of my sight and touch anyway. Who would do such a thing!? Abandon new koigu like that?) But she sent me the most hilarious bar of soap - "Love Soap" and a little cake of bright orange licorice scented soap with a white and black stripe running down the middle. I let Ripple have a sniff of it, and for a moment I thought he was going to start licking it - but he backed off. Heh. Guess the licorice scent wasn't appealing to him. I thought it smelled good. She also snuck in some gummy dinosaurs which I can't wait to snarf now. Yum, I love gummy stuff. Thank you, Westozcaat! Yarn Pr0n Friday tomorrow! And on Bezzie's suggestion, it shan't be the 13th because yes, it should be saved for an actual friday the 13th. Which is in October. So, now I'll have to come up with some new and exciting post name for tomorrow. Suggestions are welcome.

Oh My, I do have a lot of Turtles.

So yesterday, when I got home, I had 2 yarnolicious packages awaiting me (you'll have to wait until Friday for pics). One was my order from Smileys with my 30 (yes - 30) skeins of Cotton-Ease. Hey, what's a girl to do when a discontinued yarn pops up in massive quantities via mail-order? You mail in an order! Sheesh, for $1.99 a skein it didn't exactly break the bank. ANYWAY - I also had a R.A.K package awaiting me from mikomiao! She had messaged me on the boards worried because she had sent it to my old address and wasn't sure if it would be forwarded on. Indeed it was, and wow. Inside was the collection of turtles you see on the right there. And one is even a candle! I'd had one of those ages ago but lost it in one of my many moves. It's so nice to have one again! She also included some gorgeous laceweight mohair. Ya jealous? Yeah, you should be. Just wait until you see some pics of this stuff. It's so bright and cheery! So, between my haul this weekend and yesterday's packages, I shouldn't be duplicating any yarnos for some time. Heh. Thank you Mikomiao! ETA - duh, the point of the title was this here mosaic thingie: Just a smattering of the turtles thingamajigs I have around the house. To see them in much better resolution and size, check out my turtle flickr set. I'll be collecting photos of all my turtles and adding them to the set as I get them.