Tomorrow evening I will be getting together with my friend Erika (yes, THAT Erika! Again with the hob-nobbing with the famous folk) and her friend Cheri to, yes, knit. In public even. The original plan was to hook up at the Starbucks by Occidental and… Main? Jackson? something. The one in Pioneer Square that’s not the one on first and Yesler. You know. That other one.

And then we realized that tomorrow evening is… Stitch n’ Pitch.

Yes, folks, we’ve been chased away from our first choice of mutually convenientish public knitting spot by….

wait for it……..

too.
many.
knitters.

1 Comment | In: Outings and get-togethers | | #

What?! I got tagged??? I’m generally not a meme person, but what the hell. I’m amused that someone actually tagged me for one, so here ya go.

5 Things always in my purse knitting bag: (I almost never carry a purse, and when I do, it’s usually full of knitting)

1. big, blue Leatherman multi-tool widget
2. 5 extra sets of sock needles (seriously. you never know when you’ll find sock yarn you HAVE TO cast on right this second. best to be prepared for that)
3. Sock yarn and/or socks in progress
4. Sunscreen
5. Checkbook (see #2)

5 Things always in my wallet:

1. Drivers license
2. Debit card
3. Insurance card
4. Picture of the Booger
5. Several fortune-cookie fortunes

5 Things always in my refrigerator: (these things are always in the fridge, which really ought to imply to you that I don’t eat them. I’m not nearly as healthy as this list (except #3) makes me look.

1. Eggs (we have chickens, so that one is a given)
2. Homemade jam
3. One scary, unnamed thing lurking in the back (you throw it out, it magically reappears)
4. Baby spinach
5. Yogurt

5 Things always in my closet:

1. Hand knit sweaters
2. Utilikilt
3. My secret stash of Coach purses
4. Non-hand-knit sweaters
5. Pants I can’t fit my fat arse into at the moment

5 Things always in my car:

1. Sunscreen
2. Bottles of water
3. Oh, hey, look! More knitting. What a shocker.
4. Hair elastics
5. iPod

5 Things always on my desk:

1. At least one dead or in the process of being repaired computer (it’s my job)
2. Melting iced soy mocha
3. Random computer parts and cables
4. Advil (vitamin I 4tw!)
5. Earth Goddess Essentials “Calm, Cool, & Collected” essential oil blend to keep me from crawling under my desk and melting down

5 People to tag

1. Erika (just because I know she’ll roll her eyes at this)
2. Angela
3. Lara (again with the eye rolling)
4. Kim
5. Devon (who does not knit (much) and doesn’t carry a purse either, but still, he’s usually game for the meme, so HA! Tag.)

1 Comment | In: General | | #

DAMN I love the internet. There’s so much wacky shit out there. Seriously.

Take seatguru.com for example. Who knew there was an entire website devoted to telling you which seats on which airlines and which airplane models are the sucky seats or the good seats. Now y’all know which seats to run for on Southwest… (well, except that they’re supposedly not doing that idiotic damn cattlecall no-seat-assignments-be-havin’ thing anymore)

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It is too hot. And worse than that it’s heavily overcast at the moment, so it feels like the air is pressing down, rather flattening me right into the ground. It’s muggy. It’s just gross out there.

I have SO much I need to be getting done today, but it’s just too damn hot to want to do anything but hide in the basement where it’s dark and cool.

And for all you folk in the really really really stupid-hot parts of the country? Yeah. I know. I’m weak and I know it. I embrace that about myself.

5 Comments | In: General | | #

Now hush. All y’all.

4 Comments | In: General | | #

I just had 14 or so inches of my hair cut off. Locks of Love got most of it, the rest was just cleanup and, god forbid, a tiny bit of style.

No pictures for you!

Neener neener.

8 Comments | In: General | | #

Well, kinda.

I have made exactly fuck-all in the way of progress on ANYTHING in the last week. Pathetic, really. The big YAY, however, comes from my finally figuring out the damn reverse band heel thing I’ve been trying to remember how to do. It was something that Angela showed me when she was down here last time, and I’m pretty sure I have written directions for it *somewhere*, but damned if I could find them. After knitting and ripping the heel extension on the STR Fire On The Mountain super plain sock no less than 14 (truly embarassing) times, I have finally prevailed against the tyrrany of my crap memory and figured out how to make it work without looking like roadkill. So yay! I’m half way up the slip stitch heel now, and it’s coming along swimmingly.

I did, kinda, managed to make a whopping 4 rows of progress on the purple Trekking sock, but since that took a stupid long time and really doesn’t feel like progress, I shant count it as such.

This afternoon, though, I will be doing the swatch for my self-designed-from-crazy-Japanese-stitch-pattern-books sweater. That should be quick and simple. I think I need quick and simple today. Attention span? What? Ooh! Shiny!

And did I mention that my back is all borked again? And by ‘back’ I mean my sacroilliac joint, which has pulled itself apart again. AGAIN. Crap.

1 Comment | In: General | | #

So sayeth Aidan in reference to one of the two truly obscene(ly hysterical) presents Critterboy got at his birthday party yesterday. This being the object in question.

The other being… yes… The Oozinator. That goo it shoots? They call it “bio-ooze”. I kid you not. And yeah, it looks EXACTLY like what you’d expect something called bio-ooze to look like. ‘Bout the same texture too. And yes, the instructions say to ‘pump until white, gooey ooze shoots out’. Shocking that it’s being (been?) pulled off the market, no?

2 Comments | In: General | | #

By Wednesday before BSG I was going to:

1. finish the grey Everyday Cardi. That’s going to BSG with me to get Shiela buttons.

2. at least get the lavender baby sweater partly seamed and ready for embroidery

3. finish one each of the two pairs of Trekking socks

4. finish redrafting the pattern for the Summer Into Fall redux shawl so I can pick it up again.

and 5. have not purchased any more yarn. (the stuff I ordered last week doesn’t count, even though it will arrive between now and next wednesday. so there.)

How’d I do you ask? Weeeellll…… So so.

#1 - The EDC is done, but needs seaming. I was walking around at BSG knitting the button bands. But! It’s done! And I have two out of eight of the buttons. Sheila is making the rest of them for me, which I will pick up at OFFF in September (really, it’s not like I’m going to be wearing it between now and then). I’ll finish sewing it together when it’s not 85 degrees. It’s too warm to touch right now with how sick I am of that ocean of charcoal grey (I do love the sweater and that color, mind you).

#2 - Yes! That one I managed. Barely.

#3 - One Trekking sock done, and one of the Sockotta socks done, so… kinda.

#4 - Yes! I finished this. Although it’s still not quite as big as I’d like it to end up, so I may, at some point, add some sort of pointy border to it. We’ll see when I get that far just how sick I am of the whole project.

#5 - Go me! No yarn actually purchased for myself during that week. I did pick up two skeins of Trekking for a friend who doesn’t have ready access to the stuff, but since it was a)sock yarn and b)didn’t go into my stash, it TOTALLY doesn’t count.

So now the grand list looks more like this:

1. Sockotta socks for O, my ownish pattern, in my bag at all times (one done, second one not cast on yet)
2. blue Trekking socks, river rapids pattern, in my bag at all times (one done, second one not cast on yet)
3. purple Trekkings, river rapids pattern, in my bag at all times (first one just turned the heel, about to pick up gusset stitches)
4. charcoal Peace Fleece, Everyday cardi, in my bag DONE (except for seams and buttons)
5. wisteria Shine worsted, that foo-foo Adrienne Vittadini cardi, in my bag (the tiniest amount of progress EVER - this one is totally non-intuitive and seems to take forever to knit)
6. fire on the mountain STR, bosnian toe-up socks, on the couch in the craft pit (progress made! Almost to the heel on the first one)
7. Lorna’s Laces, uh… some damn pattern from some damn bookin some damn colorway that’s not on their site, on the couch in the craft pit
8. blue lorna’s laces baby socks from IK, on top of the tv in the craft pit
9. lavender cotton baby sweater from some Melanie Falick book (?), in the craft pit (just awaiting seams and embroidery) (partly seamed, awating embroidery)
10. Mission Falls cotton Bloomfield Bolero (omfg can you say ends to weave in??? wtf was I thinking?? and no, it hasn’t progressed much past that entry…)
11. pacific Lisa Souza Sock! potomatowhateverthefuck socks from Knitty (hating the pattern, not loving the yarn in this application, but that may be due to the fact that I’m hating the pattern, ‘cos mostly I LOVE Lisa Souza everything.) FROGGED
12. another pair of STR socks, totally can’t remember the pattern, or the yarn color for that matter, guess I should find them in the craft pit socks
13. Must Have Cardi in shaba green Peace Fleece for Melissa/Peace Weavers (shop sample)
14. swatches for Rock Star (4 yarns so far) and my base-jumping-of-knitting sweater (sport weight peace fleece) Rock Star swatches done
15. Oregon Shawl in sunset merino laceweight from knitpicks FROGGED
16. my revised Summer Into Fall shawl in Lisa Souza Laceweight merino (OMFG soft and yummy - LOVING that yarn) pattern re-written, tiny amount of progress made

The next 7 days are going to be crazy busy for me, so, giving myself two weeks here, by the 14th, I’ma try to have accomplished:

1. finish Sockotta socks
2. Finish at least one of the purple Trekking socks
3. Finish the embroidery on the lavender baby sweater
4. Get through at least one chart (of 11) in the no longer summer into fall shawl (fall into winter?)
and 5. finish the swatching for my ‘base-jumping-of-knitting’ sweater

So there. Now you know. I’m sure you were all just waiting and waiting and wondering…

2 Comments | In: General | | #