I Did It! :) I Completed A Project!

Hooray! I'm back on the crafty bandwagon! :) I knit a Heart from the new Knitty for hubby dearest, and I'm now in the process of knitting a second one - purple and green stripes, even - for a friend in Chicago. I'm probably also going to knit up some washcloths, because I have cotton yarn and a lack of washcloths (since they all seem to have disappeared...).

Oh, sheesh! Mentioning the hearts reminded me I need dried beans so I can make heart hotpacks. Bah, I knew I forgot something at the store yesterday! (Okay, so I forgot the brown sugar for the body scrub, too... epic fail.)

I would love to show you the pictures I took of the heart, but until my new battery gets here for my phone, I'm stuck without - and, of course, that's where all the pictures are. Leave it to me....

So, yeah, this is just my little update... in the spirit of crafting, I'm off to find myself some Scrabble letters! :)

You're Always Preparing!!!

Yeah... I've disappeared. :) Well, I'm back now, but yeah... only sort of.

Seems that my computer sucks more than I could have originally realized, and I'd like to punt-kick it out the window most days. That's alright, though... having removed one hard drive, reformatted the other two, and then run into a slew of problems gave me a serious appreciation for all the downtime I've had lately - it's now mostly back up and running. Which means, in theory, so should this blog. :) Yay for little victories!

I've decided during this time that the absolute worst part of redoing EVERYTHING on your computer is the fact that it is always "preparing" - especially preparing to install, which seems to be the default message on everything, not even just the Windows Installer.

Can't wait to have my laptop back in my hot little hands!!!

So, other than not blogging, what have I been up to? Not knitting. Not spinning. Doing, well, ZERO crafting, as a matter of fact. I guess I've been a little kitchen crafty... but mostly just hanging out. Taking it easy. Debating the future color of my mohawk. Teaching Kestrel that birds are friends, not food. Kestrel is the little kitty we adopted because her owners couldn't take care of her (really, couldn't put up with her antics, and F's a bitch), and she's getting sooo big and happy. :) She's not much a yarn stealer, either, so that's nice.

Hmmmm... I've also been working. Less than I was, since we're all caught up and there's a lack of work to do, but enough to survive and still have a little here and there for yarn. I haven't bought any yet this year. I could have, but I've decided these amazing shoes I found are more important... and they've got a pretty hefty price tag. $139.00, and that's over $100 off. They're MBTs, though, and should fix my back and my knee problems associated with standing all day at work... and they burn more calories, and work muscles I normally wouldn't work in a day, so that's good. Waiting for my new iPod so I can go to the gym, too.

Work and knitting seem to be intertwining more and more - my boss is always showing me the awesome knit stuff she's got, or discussing knitting and crocheting or fiber in general with me, which is awesome. :) She bought me new scissors for Christmas, too! :) I want to knit her something, but I'm not sure what. I'm lacking in boss-esque yarn at the moment, anyhow, so I'll have to keep my eyes peeled. She likes chunky-knit stuff, which is awesome... maybe a purse or something. She loved my vagina bottle holder, even though she didn't quite understand the anatomy of it (literally) and I wasn't about to explain... so something like that? I'm not really sure.

Yeah, so back to the continuation of "preparing" the last of the things I need, at least for now. :) And hopefully, I won't neglect you anymore.

And Then The World Starts Falling Apart....

Well, all my knitting plans have been put on hold.

My friend Felicity (the one who has a baby on the way) was working today when she found out her grandfather died.

So a teddy bear is on the way - but I'm not sure where my own pattern for a teddy bear went (somewhere in the depths of my computer), so Ravelry and Knitty joined forces to give me the perfect project: Bubby.

So, that's going to take up the last of my Creative Focus, since she doesn't like acrylic either. :) I hope she likes it....

I Should Have Started Earlier....

Yes, I realize that I'm facing incredible odds for finishing the things I'm starting up... especially since I suddenly find myself having a life. Weird, I know. But, I'm going to get it done, one way or another, even if I have to spend every minute that I'm awake and not at work knitting.

What could possibly be so terribly huge that I can't finish it before Christmas?

Well, I have to start (which I can't do until Wednesday or Thursday, when my yarn gets here) two Op-Arts, a Koolhaas, a mitered square baby blanket, and quite possibly a Tetris blanket (which I haven't quite committed to yet, and thus didn't order the yarn for yet)... and have them all done by Christmas.

Yeah, I'm going to eat/sleep/breathe yarn for the next six-ish weeks. At least the Op-Arts are the smaller of the two patterns, since they're for a couple of toddlers... and the Koolhaas will be done with smaller yarn, on smaller needles, for an 8 year old boy. The baby blanket I COULD push past Christmas, since Mama Bear is only 6 or 7 weeks along, but I'd like to get it done - and it's the project I'm working on now, since it's the only one I had the yarn for. And, fortunately, it's quite the stash buster. :)

With the UN having declared 2009 the "Year of Natural Fiber," I'm going to stick with that, too. (Yet another reason this baby blanket should get done quickly!) I'm going to knit with absolutely nothing that isn't a natural fiber - and I intend to branch out into some fibers I haven't tried yet. That should be fun. :) Hubby dearest is, amazingly enough, entirely supportive of the whole thing, and is the one that actually decided I needed 3-day shipping on my yarn. :) He's been pretty great.

So, I've got to get back to work here in a second... but I should be posting more. If I ever remember, I'll steal Hubby's phone and take some more knitting pictures, too. :)

Here Comes The Bride....

Well, not quite yet, but sometime next summer, my coworker is getting married. She got engaged last Saturday, and even though her and I aren't the best of friends, we're working on it. So, I want to knit something (of course) as a wedding gift... but I don't really know what. She's 22 or 23, and her man is about the same age. She's not particularly girly, and I'm assuming he's not either. (For the record, I'm not that girly... well, not as girly as this is about to become....)

I'm thinking lace. A cover for their bed? A something? Lace, definitely, and beyond that I have no idea! So, I searched "wedding" on Ravelry. That didn't really help. Then I searched "lace," which helped a little more... but I'm still missing the oomph! I need to make this something worth doing, that they'll like. Sheesh, who knew wedding gifts could be such a pain in the ass?

The cold is gone, by the way, and my beautiful snow with it. I know it'll be back in full force soon enough... but I miss it anyhow.

Brr, Brr, Effing Brr!!!

And, yes, when I say Brr!, I mean it!

It's been snowing since last night, and it's supposed to snow for the better part of the next week! How did this catch me off guard?!?! I have no glove, no hats, no mittens, no warm-n-fuzzy socks!!! Noooooooo!!!!

I realize that yes, I live in Montana, and yes, it snows an assload here, sometimes as early as September. Never that I can recall, but a couple years ago we did have a nasty blizzard around this time, so maybe this is it's tamer reincarnation.

Back to the glove/mitten/hat/scarf-less issue. For some reason, I have these things every winter, and then POOF!, they disappear. EVERY year. So, rather that going with store-bought ones, I'm knitting myself some. Yep, finally knitting something for myself that will get some practical use. (That's not to say cherries aren't practical. Knit cherries are very practical, somewhere in the world.

Having a serious lack of cash on hand, I'm stuck knitting from my dwindling stash. And mittens or gloves or something seem to be of utmost importance, since I can always wear a hoodie under my coat, so I'm going to knit Pirate Mittens, but I don't have enough of two yarns to follow their directions, so I'm going to have to do a majority of it in black Red Heart Plush, which may be acrylic, but it's still fluffy and doesn't rip my fingers apart. It's amazing how picky you get once you've knit with "real" yarn.

I'm debating the fingerless issue, as well as whether or not to turn them into gloves instead. I'm not a fan of the cold, but I also don't regularly do things like stick my hands wrist-deep in snow. Maybe I'll do some fingerless ones for the time being, and then go from there once I go buy gobs and gobs of wool.

So, to top off our 31-degree weather, I'm also stuck listening to cockatiel calls. I realize that's my own fault, but seriously, the bird was getting pissy neither I nor the other bird would answer her, and that shut her up - briefly. Now, she freaks if I shut it off, and insists on singing and dancing for the bird in the computer. Gah.

And No, I Have *Not* Disappeared!

I'm just, well, in hiding.

Not so much hiding, per se, as I'm busy with, well, everything.

I got a new job. Finished some knitting. Started some more, ripped it out, and then got birds.

Yep, birds.

And I now live in cockatiel hell.

Thanks, Erika.

I'll be back again soon, I hope, once I get a second cage so that my bird doesn't totally pluck Hubby Dearest's bird.

Yeah. Because my bird? (S)he is the devil. I swear to you.

So, no, I haven't disappeared. I'm just, well, not really here.

Sweeney Todd Glove(s)?

There are a ton of fingerless gloves in the movie Sweeney Todd. EVERYONE is wearing them.

But there is one single glove in particular I want to knit.

That's not to say it's a PAIR of gloves - it is one individual glove. You see, I noticed it tonight when I was watching the movie... and I went back and paused it to look at this glove. It was magnificent! It was strange, and gorgeous, and the other one doesn't match. The grey one everyone and their dog has knit, the garter stitch glove, is not the one I'm looking at.

If you pause the movie where he has his hand up, waiting for the "Miracle Elixer" formula from Pirelli, he's wearing a quite distinct glove. It's green, has a lighter colored stripe, and is knit in stockinette stitch. All the way to the top, from the looks of it. But the thumb has either ribbing or garter stitch going on. It's gorgeous, and I'm going to pause it when I get back home, print screen it from every angle I can, and work up a pattern for it. It will be mine!!!

I really really really want to get my hands on (in) those gloves!!! They have to be wool. I might even consider Cascade 220, even though I hate it. Because it would be well worth it to have the world's most amazing gloves ever. And they would be.

Yes, I Thrive On Yarn, Conflict, And Chaos.

On the needles?

My bag, still, but also a mini OpArt from Knitty. It's using up the rest of my pink and white (I'm sorry, dried rose and goldenrod) Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted (did you notice I say that a lot? It's because I love it). And it's turning out effing awesome. :)

Unfortunately, the new job does demand my attention and give me less time to knit. But, on the plus side, I'm not so homicidal. :)

Great news today! :) There is a distinct possibility my sister might be moving back to Glendive! :) Hooray! No more No-Dak relatives! ;) Not that I have something against North Dakota, I just love to give her shit.

I seriously need to buy a drum carder, because I'm not coordinated enough to hand card, and I really really really want to spin. I have the most wonderful little Louet S10 single-treadle, and I can't do anything with it unless I get a drum carder or roving... and yes, the roving would be a lot cheaper... but not as much fun as the carder, right? :D Right.

Hubby Dearest is sick today - pale, and all hot and cold, and just not feeling well. :( Poor guy. He slept all day, and is sleeping again. At least he ate something to keep his blood sugar up since, yup, Hubby also happens to be a diabetic. I really should knit him socks, but I have a hard time finding yarn he likes that wouldn't be horrible for his feet. I'm considering Tofutsies, because that would be something good for his feet, different, and just kinda out there. I should knit him SOMETHING to make him feel better, at least.

Gah. I'm hungry. That's what happens when you skip breakfast because you're busy telling your former boss off, and then have to rush out the door. Oh yeah, and you skip lunch because you're checking for a reply from said former boss. Whoops.

What can I say? I thrive on yarn, conflict, and chaos. :)

Yarn! And A Distinct Lack Thereof....

I have pictures somewhere of my stash, before I started this massive de-stashing. I should find them and upload them, because there is a stark contrast between then and now, no matter what Hubby Dearest says. Knitting is a serious addiction - kind of like heroin - but at least I'm making sure all my stuff is clean, delightful, and will bring me nothing but pleasure. :)

My shopping bag is mostly done, but I'm going to start in on another design for one once that is finished - I think this one will have a couple solid panels, and some cable. It might even be the right project for the last of my Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted - which, I learned today, is made in Italy. And, in learning that, it reminded me I love love love Nashua's Wooly Stripes, too. I soooo wish my yarn store here hadn't gone all stupid on me!

In the near future, probably the beginning of next month, I'm going to begin selectively re-stashing. I'm going to have to be fairly trusting, since I don't want to order sample cards of everything, and hope the yarn I get is not only the right color, but knits the way I'd like. If I can't knit it up nicely, I'll be pissed, to say the least.

It looks like, at this point, I can have 15 different kinds of yarn on hand if I buy large quantities of them, and more if I buy less of each, and still have them stashed all pro-like. :) Chances are, I'll just expand my stash-buster and buy more yarn, but at least I have a limit set for now. I start back at my old job tomorrow morning, which will be lovely since that means I no longer have to work for the world's most inconsistent (not to mention lazy) manager, and I no longer have to de-Rita myself on the way home. Oh, yeah, and it's not a freaking mile and a half each way to work. :) Only 8 blocks. Small-town blocks, even. :) Much, much better. And once I'm a bit settled at this job again, I'll go yarn crazy, and have one hell of a time. I can feasibly get away with buying another stash-buster and getting extra yarn if I buy "guy" colors and share with Hubby, too. Because my Dearest can knit, no matter what he tells people, and he keeps whining at me that he has nothing to knit. I can sure fix that! :)

I need to buy more needles, too, since I'm limited to a handful of various sizes of straights, three sizes of DPNs, and three sizes of circulars. I gave some needles away to my niece, but most of them were duplicates. Except those dreadful size 13 circulars. Who in the world needs size 13 circular needles, honestly?

I've decided that, if my sister ever brings me back my other size 15 straight needle, I'm going to knit hugs for my brother and sister I never talk to's children - three of whom I've never met, even though they only live 80 miles away. They don't like us, and I periodically put it out there that I'm open to voluntary civil thought exchange if they are, but I never hear back from them. So, other than Erika's kids, who I do see fairly regularly, I have: Sadie - 11, Seth - 9, Sam - 3, Saul - 2, T(a)yl(o/e)r - 2, and Kylie - 2 months. (T(a)yl(o/e)r is my sister Angie's kid, and she says his name one way and spells it the other, and neither Erika or I is 100% sure which it is. We just call him TJ, which pisses Angie off to no end when she hears about it.) That's a lot of hugs to be knitting for them, but it looks like a fun, easy project, and I think the kids would like it.

So, yes, two posts in one day - and no, I'm not feeling ill. Just talkative. :)

Inspiration Comes From Funny Things....

Lately, I've been rather limited in the movies I'm watching, more or less out of sheer laziness. One of those movies happens to be 300. And you know what? I've found it rather inspiring. I just need to go buy yarn... which means I have to wait until payday. Bah.

The new Knitty is up, too, and for the first time in quite a while, I really like several patterns. Maybe I'll pick up some yarn for those, too, and see how it turns out. :) What do I like best? That, even though I'm in the process of quitting being fat, some of the uber-cute patterns come in size gigantic. :)

Yesterday, after I went new-job seeking, I saved about a bajillion patterns. I love Ravelry downloads. Ravelry is my best friend, I've decided. :) For some reason, I have a serious love of PDFs, too, so that works out well for me. I've cast on a grocery bag, since we walk to and from the grocery store (and everywhere else - oh, the joys of living in a small town!). I found a lot of patterns I liked, but couldn't quite make any of them MINE. So, I made a hybrid mix of them... but I didn't have size 9 dpns, and I don't have a short enough size 9 circular needle, so... I've had to improvise. :) It's working, and I'm finally getting rid of some of that horrendous 220, so that's a plus.

I really want to have some stuff ready for the craft fair this winter... but I'm not sure what I want to knit, and I need to invest in more yarn. Hopefully Hubby Dearest will get this new job, and I'll be able to sit at home and knit for things like that instead of having to have a real job. Seriously - knitting for a living? How wonderful would that be? :) I know. You don't have to tell me.

I'm also joinking my neighbor's net, so if I don't post for a bit, or you only get partial posts... that would be why. Sometimes, it just doesn't cooperate at all. However, I'm being cheap and refuse to pay for what I can get for free. :) I used to have a great wireless connection I left open for anyone who wanted to use that - I think it's common courtesy. Unfortunately, most of my neighbors don't seem to feel the same way, so I'm left contorted into strange positions on my couch, hoping to get - and keep - a signal. Like just now? Totally lost it.

I've discovered I'm really on this cable kick. I suck suck suck at knitting cables... but I really love the way they look lately. Ravelry being my best friend and all, I've found a lot that are just to die for. Maybe I'll make something with cables for the craft fair. :) Maybe, just maybe, I can sell all these "test-patterns" of mine that I've been trying out to see how I can make thing like my awesome halter hoodie. :) Because if I can make it look good baby-sized, then I might have the desire to make it adult size. Let me tell you, it's a good thing everyone I know has kids, or is in the process of cooking them. :)

I saw that Nashua has a new yarn out, too! It's called... Natural Focus Ecologie, I believe. Maybe it's not a new yarn... but it's new to me. And yes, I could look up the name... if my joinking adventures were more joink-friendly. Seriously! The guy next door? The church up the block... SECURED connections. Bah. So, back to the yarn!!! :) It's wonderful, it's all super sexy lovely yum!!! It comes in wool and cotton and makes me just want to pull it straight out of my monitor! :) I <3 Nashua Handknits - they are my other best friend. Totally. :)

Still Uninspired...

I joined a KAL of sorts.

I'm not really much for KALs, but this one is kind of a strange, pattern-less, go-at-your-own-pace knit-along for a scarf, to be worn on January 20th. You know, the day we get a new president? I'm gathering ideas in my little brain, but I have a feeling this will be done long before it's supposed to be. Maybe I'll make them for the whole family. Oh, and everyone else I know. :)

So, with any luck, I'll be casting that on soon. Or maybe not. Who knows? Still in that "I Need To Knit" mode... and I still really want to use that Nashua Handknits I've got, but... I can't find the right something to knit. At all. I even almost bought yarn today, just to find some inspiration - but I've been like this before, and I know it wouldn't help. It's like the knitting version of writer's block. Oh, yeah, and the fact that I'm trying to almost completely de-stash. (Thank goodness my sister and her daughter knit, or I'd be swimming in yarn by now!)

So, that's my lame little update for the day. I'm going to go fondle some yarn and wish I knew what to do with it now.

Waiting, And A Lack Of Inspiration

Waiting....

Not really my strong suit. My sister Erika is at church, or at her in-laws, or somewhere other than here. She's supposed to come over to get her birthday present, and a bunch of family pictures I printed for her... but I'm not a patient person. And I *really* want to give her her present - even though her birthday isn't until Tuesday. It sucks that she lives in Beach - sure, Beach is supposed to be a nice town, and is super-tiny and only half an hour away, but I never see her anymore. Thus the nearly four hours we were on the phone yesterday.

What is her totally awesome present? It's purple, and fuzzy on one side, long, skinny, has nothing to do with clothing or yarn, and is not a door snake (don't ask!). That's precisely what it is. It's more or less motivation for her to pick up the thing she was doing so diligently this time last year, because she loved it and as far as I know hasn't been doing it all that often. Yes, me, encouraging someone to do something *other* than knit.

I need to knit something. Desperately need to have something on my needles. I don't know what, though, and it's about killing me. I want to make something all my own, for me to keep - I had started knitting a Snood, but then looked at the errata for the book, and that's a no-go, because the Snood (I only had 4 rows left of) is made large enough you can tuck your hair inside it. I have a serious *lack* of hair, especially since I got rid of my hawk for NOTHING. Grrr... I hate being an adult.

I could cast on for the Spiral Mesh Cap, which is essentially just the smaller version of the Snood, but... I did all that work once, and while it was fun, it was fun because I was sitting at work, and *EVERYTHING* is fun when you're sitting at work. I could cast on Mystery Stole 4, but I'm waiting on that. It's really bead-heavy, and I'm using two different colors, sizes, and styles of beads, so I want to see the next clue before I decide how to do this, if at all. It might be a project for a rainy day when I really need to knit some lace.

That leaves me with somewhere around 1300 yards of Erdal Woolynella in this awesome dark olive green color, and nothing to do with it. It's wool and rayon, and has made me absolutely fall in love with rayon (really, no surprise there, since I used to have polyester and rayon bellbottoms, and another outfit I can't place at the moment that I remember as being polyester and rayon... I loved those!), and I already knew how much I loved to knit with polyester. :D Not nearly as much as I love love love my Nashua Handknits Creative Focus, though... and let me tell you, that stuff felts *beautifully*!!! It's so soft and lovely and doesn't get all splity on you... it's great.

So, I need a curtain for my bathroom because I have some crappy curtains in there, and I also need one for my living room's little window, because it bothers me that it doesn't have one, even though no one can see in. In reality, I need new curtains for my entire apartment, but I know there's no way I'm ever going to be that ambitious. So... where to begin? And what kind of freaking awesome lace pattern can I find or come up with that will look okay with that yarn? I was going to do skulls... but that doesn't seem like it's going to work. That, and my living room is totally covered in superheroes, particularly, Iron Man in many different forms (since Hubby Dearest loves him), and one big Ghost Rider. I don't see myself knitting an Iron Man curtain in green, though... and I do love the Hulk, but do you know how hard that would be? Still might be worth it, I suppose....

I have 3 half-skeins, roughly, of my Creative Focus left... and I have one full ball of pink Cascade 220, plus almost an entire ball of it in tan.... And I really want to use some of this. I've been on Ravelry for HOURS looking for the right something, and I'm just not finding it. Maybe because I'm in baby-mode, since I found out my friend is about to have her first baby. Maybe because I'm looking for instant gratification, and it just doesn't seem to be happening lately. If you've got ideas, I'm all ears. :) I need some inspiration.

I'm Back! :) With Pictures, Even!!!

Yes, I realize I've been neglectful... but it's because I decided to *gasp* get rid of my internet, and my laptop was elsewhere for a while there. So, now that it's back, I can be online and blog my little heart out! :) And all courtesy of my neighbor's unsecured internet connection.

What have I been up to lately? Well, knitting, and designing, and plotting, and shopping! :) Oh, and apparently killing my brand new printer, but that's a post for another day entirely. I've got pictures I'm going to go add to Fixated. I've also got pictures of the laptop bag I knit, which has now been replaced with a lime green and purple Sour Apple Laffy Taffy one that makes my day. :) I've got pictures of my water bottle holder, too, but I want to get that pattern together before I put them up. Shouldn't take me long, I swear!!! :D

I also got some balls and put in my two-weeks notice at work. I've got a job interview and a half on Monday, and even though it's not likely I'll be able to knit at work at one of them, at least I won't want to kill people. Always a plus, right?

So, here are a few of the pictures of my laptop cover, both pre- and post-felting, and even one during.







I ended up using the most luscious yarn ever - I used Nashua Handknits Creative Focus Worsted - which is by far my favorite wool, and I've fallen back in love with it after knitting my Snatchel and my water bottle holder. I used Goldenrod, Dried Rose, and Natural, and it knit up beautifully. (I used Nashua Handknits Creative Focus for my uterus portion of my Snatchel, and the main body of my water bottle holder, and Cascade 220 for most of the rest, and I hate how the Cascade feels in comparison. This Creative Focus is absolutely the way to go, and it looks awesome on any needle size from a 3 to a 9! :) I love it. Did you notice? :D

Adventures In Laptop-Covering....

I'm getting ready to go buy an unspecified amount of yarn, in unspecified colors, to create a laptop bag. Will it go well? Hopefully. Knowing me, it's not likely, but one can hope, right? I've got the dimensions saved on my awful, slow desktop, and, well, I've physically GOT my laptop, so it's not like I can't swatch it, do the math, and even try it on... but I'm not very lucky in that department; I'm hoping the grocery store sells wool, because my LYS is waaaay overpriced, and I'd like to felt it, possibly, just because I've *gasp* never felted before.

So, off I go....

Wish me luck!