WIP Wednesday - Happy New Year Belated Edition

I wasn't inspired to blog while on vacation, but now it's back to the grind and maybe back to a semi-regular blogging schedule.

A couple of these belong on a FO Friday post, but I don't know if that'll happen, so here's some WIPs and project updates.

I finished my Kawaii Winter Sampler from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. I also purchased the trim and cloth to make it into a pillow. That will happen sometime before next Christmas. Right now, it resides all together in a bag in the closet along with my Christmas socks - cause I just can't get into Christmas projects in January.

The finished (but not ironed) piece:

The cloth and trim:

Been doing a couple rows here and there on my Eilonwy cardigan, but nothing to write home about.

So - I don't really believe in New Year's resolutions, but I wrote a little list of craft-related things I would like to do.

1. Try to stitch one square of The Frosted Pumpkin Woodland Sampler a month. I started the border on January this week - no pictures, cause it's just a brown half-box.
2. Try to stitch one square of The Frosted Pumpkin Once Upon A Time a month. January will be tough for this one, because the pattern is released one square at a time starting on January 10th. The first month also contains the pattern for the entire border, AND one of the flosses I ordered is on backorder, so it hasn't shipped yet :((( Oh well - I'll just do what I can do.
3. Try to finish up at least one hibernating project. I have a few - (links are to Ravelry pages - you have to set up an account to see): 
1. My Skew socks will hibernate until late next yea, because they're super Christmas-y and see above on Christmas stuff. 
2. I have another pair of socks, but they're real autumn-y (and also kind of a pain in the ass). If I don't get those done this Fall, I'm frogging them.
3. I have very little done on a purple Torch Lily Tee made out of Shibui Knits Heichi that I hope to pull out and bang out some rows on soon.
4. I started a vest for Bill like a million years ago. It's not an un-fun knit, so I'm not sure where the love went on that one.
5. Last AND least, I have this long-suffering bag that hurts my hands, and the yarn blows. I do hope to finish it one day, but ugh. Thinking about it makes me cringe a bit.
4. Try to knit a pair of colorwork socks and make another pair of selfish socks too. On this front, I have been making awesome progress. I *suck* at colorwork and have done VERY little of it. Well, I pondered for days on patterns (I fell into a Rav-hole) until finally settling upon First Footing. I then went about shopping in my stash for the perfect red and cream colored yarns, and ... here is what I have so far!! I am so excited. They are fitting snugly, because I decided on small instead of medium. My size is between those sizes, and I usually knit socks with 2.25mm needles, and these are knit with 2.75 needles. I think it will work out. (also included in pic - an awesome yarn bowl Bill got me for Christmas)
   
   
    5. Try to make Christmas gifts. I am not good at this one. I have a few ideas - legwarmers for my aunt [by request]. Gloves for my sister [by request - I've never made gloves before]. Socks for my nephew [by request]. Vest for Bill [see hibernating projects above]. Embroidery pillowcases for Mom.
   
   
   Ok - that's the list. I also have a couple of finished objects I will come back and post about on Friday =DD Woot woot - Happy New Year, y'all.
   
   
   Oh - and just for giggles - here's a pic of some yarn I bought. I buy very little yarn these days. This is Numma Numma Toasty in the Georgia Peach colorway. This is a Georgia-based dyer. Yarn purchased from Eat.Sleep.Knit. (BEST YARN STORE EVAH). My picture sucks - see the ESK website for super top quality photos.
   
   Be sure to check out the other WIP Wednesday posts at Tami's Amis (although she hasn't posted one today yet)!
   
   
   

WIP Wednesday - Countdown to Christmas!

There is no way I'm finishing my Christmas socks before Christmas, but I've made some scant progress. I am not good at working on holiday projects after said holiday, so these might end up in hibernation soon. But for now, here's about half of a Skew sock in the 'Mery Mery' (yes, that is how it is spelled on the label) color way of Wisdom Yarns Marathon Socks North Pole. Looks like all the colors in this line have been discontinued, and it says "Merry Merry" as the colorway on the site, but that sho ain't what it says on my ball band.. Kinda skritchy because of the metallic filament, but cute colors. This pattern is super strange, and the sock looks super long on the foot part, and I have short feet, but it seems to fit ok so far.

Next up, the project I've been spending all my free time on, and I have a slight possibility of getting this finished by Christmas. It's kind of turning into a true advent calendar with me trying to stitch one square per day. So with today being December 18th, I will be working on the 18th square. Kinda neat. I think I will eventually make it into a pillow with a Christmasy calico cloth as the backing. This is last year's Kawaii Winter Sampler by The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. If anyone cares for details, I am using DMC flosses and cashel linen in natural.

Yay for a little progress and Happy Wednesday to all.

Sharing on Tami's Amis - head on over and check out other crafters' progress!

Failure to load

So I failed on WIP Wednesday. I've been making progress on my sock and my cross stitched winter sampler, but like super slow snail progress that isn't fun to watch creep along. Hope to have some better progress by next week.

I did make it past the heel on my Skew sock so at least it doesn't look like a willy warmer anymore :)

WIP Wednesday December!

You know - there are hazards in my crafty work environment. One of the most pervasive hazards is dog farts. The dogs all plop down on the couch next to me when I am knitting or stitching and good lord do they let some gas fly!

Pee-yew! And they just snooze on through like nothing happened. Meanwhile, I am gagging and fanning and trying not to vomit. OSHA would be appalled!

At any rate, I have gotten a bit done on both of my WIPs from last week - my skew sock is coming along slowly. Yesterday, I was working on it while waiting for a doctor's appointment, and it hit me all of the sudden that my sock looks exactly like a wiener warmer! :-o

Hopefully no one thinks I am knitting a shiny, Christmas-y penis pocket.

Here it is:

Next up, my cross stitching project. I was off of work last week and finished up several more panels. This week is back to the grind, so progress has slowed...

I think it looks super cool though:

For those of you interested in the criminal element, here are a couple of the poot perpetrators looking guilty!!

(My niece Beth took this pic - check out her blog at The Pow Wow Factory)

Head on over to Tami's Amis for more WIP Wednesday posts!

 

WIP Wednesday Thanksgiving Edition

Took the week off work, so I'm getting more done on my new cross stitching project than I would otherwise. I am finished with 6 out of 25 panels - woot!

I screwed up the border on 7 about 3 times tonight. So after pulling out all the stitches in one corner for the severaleth (just made that one up) time, I decided to send it to bed early and give it a rest.

Amber and Derek won on DWTS which is cool - whoever thought at the beginning if the season that the big girl would win it all?? Pretty sweet. Also Derek is cute :)

Made a little progress on my Skew sock as well - I would say I'm working heel/gusset, but this pattern is wonky, so I don't exactly know what section I'm working. Apparently I am increasing stitches for the ankle area.

Haven't done any work on the cardi I was working on last week. Maybe soon I will pull out all my hibernating projects and assess where I am with them.

Happy WIP Wednesday and Happy Thanksgivukkah. Shalom :)

Have some crafty projects you're working on and would like to share? Head on over to Tami's Amis and share your crafty blog: http://feedly.com/k/1cuIwAs

I found my inspiration in an old milk crate

So... I haven't posted on here in approximately forever.


I am all the time reading other people's blogs, and I'm doing shit over here, it just doesn't usually seem very blog worthy. At any rate, I feel compelled today to do a WIP Wednesday post. A lot of crafters post their works in progress (WIPs) on Wednesday and share them around.


My efforts from one week to the next usually don't seem like a whole hell of a lot nor anything to write home about, and also, I am kind of a crappy photographer. ALSO - no one reads this blog, but you know what? Whatevs - I feel like posting, so I'm gonna.


I have a couple of projects in hibernation right now, and I'm not going to post photos of them cause they'll probably still look the same in several months as they do right now. I don't keep things in hibernation unless I intend to actually finish them someday - otherwise I just rip the whole thing out. So, they'll get done ... eventually.


So - WIPs - first up, a wool sweater I started about a month ago. I'm not good on finishing large projects, but this one's coming along ok. The yarn is mega soft Yarn Love Anne Shirley in Belgian Chocolat and Sweet Tangerine colorways. The pattern is Eilonwy by Carol Feller. I read Carol's blog here: linky


FYI - I plan to try harder on photos in the future :-o





Next up - Skew socks in a pretty obnoxious Christmas pattern. I am a bit obnoxious about holidays - I love cheesy Christmas socks and sweaters and the whole nine. This yarn is self-striping (which I hardly ever purchase), and I wanted to make the most of the yarn without just doing a plain sock (which I know I would NEVER FINISH). I've had my eye on Skew for a long time, but the lack of sizing scared me. Oh well - I just decided to jump in. I made some FANTASTIC Christmas socks for myself in 2011 out of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight
in the comfort and joy colorway. The yarn and pattern were part of a Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club kit (the pattern was called Joy). Anyway - long story longer - my dogs ATE. MY. SOCKS.


So the Christmas-y Skew socks are for me to try and replace my chewed up Christmas socks. Anyone with some self-striping yarn sitting around in the "I don't know what the hell to do with this, but it was super cute" pile, check out this blog entry - I read this blog regularly (and use Feedly if anyone is looking for a blog reader) - Self-striping sock patterns.


Here's the first sock in progress (the yarn is a little rough, but it's because it has a metallic strand running through it) - I like them so far :)





Last but NOT least, I have not done cross stitch in forever - probably not since 1990-ish? I recently saw a WIP Wednesday post that BLEW ME AWAY. To the max. Here it is: Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday post that started it all.


I think my brain exploded a little, and then when I followed the link to the pattern and website the sampler same from, my brain exploded a lot, and I think my wallet exploded a little too...


Here is the magical fairy land called Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery. So, now fast forward to about 16 days later, and I'm working on one of their samplers. I decided to go with a Christmas sampler, because a) I LOVE HOLIDAYS and b) Halloween is over. I ordered my supplies, but later found out that the fabric will take a while (maybe 3 weeks), so in the interim (because I am super patient n' stuff), I ordered last year's Winter Sampler and all the supplies, and I started on it over the weekend! My first panel SUCKED big time, so I cut it out and started again. It's my first time cross stitching on linen, and I so much appreciate all of the tutorials and photos out there that people posted to help me along my way. Here are some of my faves:


Rosy Little Things (a blog I found during this process and now LOVE)
Mochimochi Land (I have made a few of this designer's knitting patterns and also read her blog)
Mary Beale School of Needlework


And here's my first panel (little warped looking cause it's still on the hoop):





And just because I feel like it, here are a couple of my project bags - the Christmas one was part of a Woolgirl club kit. I'm not sure what crafty person made the bags, but they're pretty awesome! Skew is riding around in this bag.





And my Eilonwy sweater is riding around in a large drawstring kitty cat bag that I bought at Cast-On Cottage. Again, I'm not sure who made it, but it is a fantastic bag. Large, durable, and cute. The inside fabric has all kinds of names of different cat breeds. It looks lumpy cause it has a sweater in it, and, not surprisingly, is also totally covered in cat hair:





OK - that's it for me. Hope I can make another post before 5 years go by.

And in a whole "circle of life" type of thing, I am linking back to the blog that inspired me to cross stitch and blog, and I'm posting my WIP Wednesday post there, too ;)

Tami's Amis WIP Wednesday

Ahoy. I just finished a pair of socks. For some reason I've been way more into buying shit that knitting lately. Oh well.

Here's a pic of my recently finished sockies:

This is my second pair of pink socks. The first ones were solid pink, though, and these are handpainted, so they have several different colors peeking through. The pattern is called "Flabella," and is part of a sock club I'm in. OK - so I'm in 4 sock clubs. Sue me. But this is the first one I got in the mail. I haven't messed with the other 2 I've gotten, although I did wind one handspun hank into a ball last night, and I'm contemplating patterns. It's hard to find the perfect pattern. Snazzy handpainted or handspun yarns call for a sort of bland pattern, because the crazy yarn can obscure the crazy pattern. Crazy patterns call for a solid or semisolid color yarn.

Ok enough of that.

I also finished my little red cowl and made a not-so-impressive but comfortable hat.

The cowl looks cooler when it's not on me which is kind of lame. Oh well. It's pretty. And it's warm.

I wish we would have a hugeass thunderstorm right now. That would be nifty.

I also made progress on my first ever Fair Isle or stranded or whatever you want to call it project. It's stalled right now because of the aforementioned socks I just finished. And I'm kind of more in the mood to knit something new than to pick up something older right now. I also started a shawl at the beginning of February, but I effed up on one of the lace repeats, and I haven't been in the mood to fix it. Bleh on that. Here's the stranded mitt:

I think it looks PDG (pretty damn good, of course) for my first stranded project. Yep. Didn't take as long as I thought either once I knuckled down and just started working on it.

Ok that is all.

WIP WThursday!

That's right - WThursday. It's kind of like Fourthmeal from Taco Bell. I made it up. Well, I didn't make up Fourthmeal, but it *is* made up. You catch my drift, yeah?

So, I finished a scarflet this morning, but I still need to wash and block it so it looks kinda crap right now. Also - buttons. It needs buttons, and I take forever looking for the perfect buttons.

I'm almost done with the Pretty Thing cowl by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I'm using yarn from a local dyer, and I love it. It's a dark-ish red color that's neato. I'm also working on the fiddlehead mitts. It's my first stranded colorwork project, so it's really clunky trying to figure out where the hell to put my hands and the yarn, but it looks awesome so far.

So not interested in posting pics though. Hmmm...here's some I took several days ago. Up there you see the scarflet made out of a variegated Malabrigo yarn that I can't remember the colorway right now. Also, fiddlehead mitts - I'm about to start the thumb gusset and am on the second contrast color. Lastly, you've got the cowl which is almost completed at this point. It's not as radioactively colored as it looks in the photo. I actually already have one project that was started and finished in 2010 - a pair of baby booties for a friend. I made Saartje's baby booties out of Miss Babs sock yarn in the Cleopatra colorway. They look awesome - still need some pesky (and teeny tiny) buttons though.

Holiday Knitting

That title is a lie...I am not doing any holiday knitting this year. Screw it - I'm just continuing to work on my own stuff. I'm finished with all my Christmas shopping - did most of it on etsy.com, and I'm really pleased with the stuff I picked out. Etsy never ceases to amaze me both in terms of the selection they have and the absolutely awesome people on there. Try feeling that good about your Wal-Mart purchases.

Right now, I'm knitting on a scarf and a pair of socks. I've been really getting into handpainted sock yarns lately. I really was only knitting in solids, because of all the crazy cabled Cookie A. patterns I'd been doing. The handpaints obscure the awesome pattern, but I've been digging around on ravelry for a while trying to find some nifty patterns for the handpaints. The pattern I'm working on at the moment is called Bellatrix. That's a Ravelry link (if you knit or crochet and you're not on there, you've been on the moon). It's mostly plain stockinette but with lots of on-purpose dropped stitches. I love dropping all those yarn over's off the needles. It keeps the pattern interesting, and it's coming along pretty quickly. The yarn is Misti Alpaca sock yarn in a really obnoxious bunch of colors - I love it. Also making a scarf out of Malabrigo silky merino DK but no time to talk about it now gotta go clean out cat boxes.

Slacker

Wow - so those WIP Wednesday things never seem to stay in my memory for very long.

I screwed up a whole row of my scarf and didn't notice it till a few rows later, so I'm procrastinating on ripping out 4 rows of 400+ stitches cause it's gonna suck.

Finished one sleeve on the February Lady Sweater and picked up stitches for second sleeve. So, not much farther to go on that project. I haven't been in the mood for knitting lately, though. I am on a reading jaunt. I read a self-help book that was kind of like "homework," and now I'm reading lots of poetry and a poetry how-to guide. I also ordered a ton of books from Amazon and went out and picked up a whole ton more in person. On top of that, I bought several magazines. Voracious. Reading.

So, knitting inevitably has to suffer.

Waking up with weird anxieties. I don't know what causes it, but it's not cool.

WIP Wednesday a smidgey early

I can never remember to make these posts on Wednesdays, so let's call it the Weekly WIP (although I am sure it will probably become biweekly then monthly then annually - you catch my drift).

I screwed up on the first sleeve of my February Lady Sweater. It's an easy fix, but I'm just not in the mood for it. I want loud colors and no pile of wool lying in my lap creating sweat. So, I've been reading Paper Towns (just finished it last night - don't like it as much as John Green's other books) and knitting on my Blooming Cotton Scarf cause it's got loud colors and it's not wool.



It's brighter in person. So yep. That's about it.

Also, I got some ink for my favorite fountain pen, and I think I might dig in and do some writing if I can settle my brain and body enough to do it.

The Green book led me to wanting some poetry in my life. So, I've been listening to the Writer's Almanac podcasts, and I picked up Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass and Billy Collins's The Art of Drowning - the name of that one really appeals to me. Makes me think of The Piano and The Awakening - two stories that have always captivated me. Also bought a book of Poe's poetry. Bill and I are planning on reading poems to eachother at night instead of watching lame TV too late too often.

I am feeling kind of crummy today and in no mood to do any public speaking which is what is on the menu for this afternoon. Would rather go home and crawl up in a ball. My head aches.

Cake trials and tribs

OK - I am not a cake decorating person. I have now decided this. After looking at the zillions of Barbie cakes out there, I thought it would be a cinch but no no no. Not so.

I did succeed in making the cake, but it was not nearly as cool as I thought it was going to be. Oh well. I will order a cake next time and skip out on the stress.

It's not the worst cake ever, but it's still kind of lame. Oh wells. I tried. Amelia liked it, and it tasted pretty good.

Now I need to figure out what cake I want for my birthday. I am a buttercreme fan as I may have mentioned before. So, I'm going to go for a massive cake with lots of icing. That's the main requirement for any cake in my opinion.

Last week at a meeting at work, they had this awesome yummy cake, and I dropped my piece on the floor. Not cool.

That is all.

W.I.P. Wednesday!! (except on Thursday)

I have been working solely on my February Lady Sweater this past week. I stuck the Blooming Cotton Scarf in the closet, because I've been knitting on the move, and having a bajillion different colors of yarn doesn't work well as a travel project.

So, here is a picture of the sweater on the needles as it now stands - the sleeves are sitting on scrap yarn to go back and work later.

The color is way prettier in person that is looks in this picture which is kind of washed out because my camera sucks. I have been eyeballing digital SLR cameras lately, but jeezy peezy they cost like $600+ which I can not justify spending on a camera that I do not actually need.

I have been eating to much junk lately. Anyone who knows me very well knows that I have an insatiable appetite for buttercreme frosting. Can't get enough of it. I dream about it at night.

I have a meeting this afternoon and someone is retiring, so they have cake. I have my sights set on that corner piece covered in frosting and flowers.

And then I will feel guilty about eating it for the rest of the day.

This weekend is sure to be covered in buttercreme frosting, because Bill and I are going to experiment with making my niece a Barbie cake for her 6th birthday. If we can pull it off, she is going to FREAK. Do a quickie search of Google images or Flickr, and you will find tons of homemake Barbie cakes like this one I found on Flickr:



So anyway - frosting, knitting, cake-baking, and living life. That's what's going on my way.

Blue blue electric blue

Well orange actually.

In honor of a recent spate of water-hating, I am changing the color of my blog to the soothing color of orange juice. Water has been grossing me out lately. I usually drink gallons of it per day. Instead, I have been drinking Kool Aid and OJ. I have a fondness for the two ends of the OJ spectrum but not much love for anything in between.

I dig super cold OJ made from concentrated slime and poured over ice after you shake the hell out of it. I used to just scoop the concentrated frozen stuff out of the container and eat it when I was a kid. That fills me with nausea just thinking about it right now.

And I also love love love fresh squeezed. I don't have a juicer though, and that junk beez expensive.

In the world of knitting, I have been doing lots. Finished my first-ever sweater, and it's actually really cute. Also made a few pairs of crazy cabled socks, a capelet, bunches of cute slippers for Christmas presents (which I forgot to take pictures of before giving away), an annoyingly more complicated than I thought it would be Valentine's gift. I also finished up some of the hibernating projects from the closet - finished the mermaid gloves and monster slippers. Still have a couple of lingering hibernators, but I am in no mood to mess with them at the mo.

Right now I am working on the Blooming Cotton Scarf in its fiery red incarnation. It's kind of like the Ballband dishcloth from Mason Dixon Knitting with the colorwork done all with slipped stitches. Of course, the back of the scarf is gonna look like crap but whatevs.

Also working on a February Lady Sweater like everyone else. Mine is in a semi-solid deep bluish colorway from Dream in Color. I haven't taken any pictures of either of them. Maybe that will be my project for next Wednesday's W.I.P.

Livin la vida l'aspirin

I have a headache. This is a daily occurrence.

Reading - it's about all that I have been doing outside of work lately. Work has been very busy, and it will only get busier. I'm almost too tired to read when I get home, but I do it anyway staying up till the wee hours.

I have forced myself to get back into knitting my twisted flower socks. I am about halfway done with sock #2.


So my deal with myself is that I knit a couple rows and then I'm allowed to read a chapter. I am doing this to keep from flying through Breaking Dawn too quickly. By the way - don't investigate that link too closely if you don't want spoilers. I haven't read any of the reviews, and I will not until I finish the book. I bought the second and third books of the Twilight series on CD so I can re-listen to them. I listened to Twilight when I was in L.A.
I want to drag it out as long as possible, but wankers all over the Internet are publishing spoilers left and right, so I am trying to weight my wish to put it off with the horror that someone might ruin it before I finish reading it.
Ugh.

I have been wanting to write a lot, but I am not doing a very good job of making myself do so. I have even been having massive amounts of very memorable dreams. This is the easiest way to write - it's already all there, you just have to write it out. Easy peasy, but I have been slacking on that. I don't write them down cause I'm sleepy and then I can't remember them later in the day or I left my notebook at home. I am a disgrace.

I have a vague recollection of being the trophy wife of some old man. He was a nice looking old man, and I actually think it was Bill. He was super rich and had all kinds of houses and stuff, and I remember thinking he was awesome.

The books I read seriously inject themselves into my subconscious sometimes.

OK - enough for now. Headache and heart murmur still with me.

cheer me up. i am cheered.

My brain has something like a low buzz - a hum - going on inside. The noise of high voltage wires when you are in a quiet enough area to hear their sound.
It is the buzz of possibilities, but it is the smoothness of relaxation. It is an excitement and anticipation of something that I do not know. But the relaxation being there is unison is a bit odd. Smooth is the only word I can think of to describe it.
My brain is having problems concentrating on objects, people, places, things, but I do not seem to have a problem in thinking of the adjectives to describe those things. Although maybe I can not think of the *perfect* adjective.
Did you rub my lamp? Did you wake me up? Did you bring me here?

Why did you bring me here? Why start it if you are not going to follow through. There is never a finish. Why put out the advertisement if you never plan on purchasing or selling it? Abstraction.
Make sure that the love you offer up does not fall on barren soil.

"The soil is not barren, but it's mine."

So prone to worshiping I am on the one hand, and so completely vehemently against it on the other. And so let down so easily, but lifted up as easily at times it seems.

"love me, and cheer me up
show me you're the one who can make me happy
cheer me up, c'mon and cheer me up
I don't wanna spend the rest of my days in yesterday's daydream.."

But I kind of do want to spend the rest of my days in yesterday's day dream. Sometime about that seems incredibly appealing to me. Living out my dreams in the only place where they will ever come true 100%.

Los Angeles

OK - So know of any cool stuff to do in LA? I haven't been there in years, and the last couple of times I went, I just hung out with my dad. I need stuff to keep me occupied. I always go with no plans whatsoever and then I realize I missed a bunch of cool shit when I get back. Any ideas?

Slackadaisical

I have been seriously slack about doing much of anything lately except for reading and listening to Clark Howard. I have gotten my brain all wrapped around personal finance stuff again. I kind of let it lie dormant for a while, but now that I actually have some money, I want to do useful things with it other than just buying yarn and yarn winders and swifts and stuff.
I haven't been knitting much at all lately, but I need to finish up an Easter basket I am making for Amelia, because Easter is creeping up mighty fast. I am almost done with it though, actually. So, it shouldn't be a big deal.
I have been rabidly listening to Clark Howard though, seriously. I used to listen every day when I had a super long commute, but I haven't listened in probably 5 years or more. I have been downloading podcasts like a junkie and perusing his website. I am often heard to say, "Well, I heard on NPR that..." and lately I have been saying, "Well Clark Howard says ..."

It is kind of a sad life I lead, but he seems like such a nice guy. I am sure I will get burned out on it again at some point. And I haven't skipped out on NPR. I am still listening to it too. I drive a lot, so I have time for lots of podcasts.

And I have been reading a (nother) nutrition book. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy. I was really jamming on it until I got to the current chapter which is about vitamins, and it is full of all these conjectures and studies which cancel each other out, and it has gone from what seemed like sound advice for chapters and chapters to something which sounds more like a load of BS.

I am at work right now, and I am bored to tears. I have something I could be working on, but it's my annual review, and I HATE writing those things. And then, I have to write up a review for my non-student worker employee, and I hate that almost as much. So, I'm putting it off.

I am going on a week-long vacation in April to who knows where. I haven't been on an actual and factual vacation like this in a really really long time. I hope it's fun, and I hope we find somewhere cool but not too expensive to go.

Brighten up, hippies

Seriously - do organic fabrics and yarns have to be so frigging boring? What if I don't *like* brown and beige, huh?

What if I like bright ass purple and midnight blue and blood red???? And - yep, this is a major stretch here - what if I want a cool PATTERN? Like skulls or something? Can't people who want organic cloth like skulls too??? All of the organic patterns have f'ing butterflies and crap. Wtf???

So - here is my request of you, hippies who own your own business - make something that would be interesting to people who aren't hippies and you might make some money. Hippies spend all their money on weed anyway.

OK and for real - this site I am currently perusing which does no straying from the beige/brown motif has actual pictures of people hugging trees. No joke.

Hi there bloggy land!

I have neglected you so. Go ahead and blame Ravelry, because when I have something knitting related to think about, I usually go there. I don't write on there, though, I just post new pictures of projects in progress.

Speaking of projects in progress, I am working on 3 right now. One I will abstain from mentioning till later.

The first one is the Sleepy Snake from MochiMochiLand. Mine isn't going to be as cute, but oh well. I'm totally done with all of the knitting. Just have to felt it a bit and sew on eyes, ears, toupees - you know, the usual.

Sleepy Snake and Mischievous Mouse

I might post pictures of my own version when I get finished. My snake is black and red and my mouse is gray and pink.

The other project is the knitting needle bag

That link is probably going to fuzzle up, but it's a neat bag knitting in trinity stitch (looks like little bobbles) with the last row at the top on each side left on the needles permanently. I have a couple of sets of badass needles I've been perusing online. I want some snazzy jazzy decorative ones. My bag is a pewter-gray color. The pattern hurts my wrist, but I like the way it looks so far. I am dreading when I get to the point of making the handles. ughhhhh I hate purse handles.

Anyway - so that stuff is pretty boring. See why I haven't updated?

I am going to see Al Gore speak on Thursday. Should be fun.

Back to my tea now.

Oh yeah - and I ended up becoming the chairperson of some library committee, so yay. I hope I don't regret it later.