FO Sighting
Frank is modelling a childrens scarf. It's a basic 4 x 4 ribbed scarf and I made a little hat to go with it. I didn't get a picture of the hat, but I will admit that I just improvised a pattern based on other hat's I've made and it turned out a little bit more cone-ey than I intended. Pam put a pom-pom on it to reduce the cone-ey shape and made it look much better. This set is going to be travelling over to Mozambique next week to warm the neck and ears of a little one over there.
I got to meet
Kelli last night. She is the one carrying all the scarves and hats to Mozambique. It's so wonderful of her to take all the creations with her. I was looking at her blog tonight. The children at the orphanage are darling. I think I would have a hard time leaving without wanting to take one of those kids with me.
I also received delivery of my contest winnings from the
Luscious Gracious clan. I received
this and
this. Thanks again for the lovely prizes, you guys! I am contemplating which luscious wall will be graced with these prizes. I have a few ideas. And I may purchase another piece to go along with it all.
I've made good progress on the felted hat. Just have to figure out if a can just felt a brim onto it and have it be sturdy enough to support it's own weight. Otherwise, I will need to knit something over mesh, maybe. The swatch I felted seemed pretty sturdy, so I think I'll just go for it.
And the blanket... it's still in progress. Only 2 1/2 more iterations of the pattern and a border. I can almost see the light at the end of the project!
If you have a fast internet connection, and you love the Clapotis (and who doesn't?) you should check out the latest version of
KnitCast. It's an interview with Kate Gilbert, the designer! And while your there, you can also check out her interview with the Yarn Harlot.
Posted by Mel at 10:46 AM
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Come Out Wherever You Are
Ever have a desperate need to locate a crucial personal document, remembering that you have seen it recently, but can't remembber where or when? Yeah, me too. But while I was looking for it, I found a bunch of other stuff I had been looking for, though not as desperately as this thing I can't find. Here's to hoping it turns up soon. I'll be turning the house upside down again tonight and hopefully it will come out of hiding.
However, this will not keep me from going to Coffee Rush tonight to socialize and knit a few rows... Priorities... (or is it "Addictions"?...)
And... I made the jump to Haloscan for comments, so none of my old nuggets will be viewable anymore. In case you wondering where past comments went...
Posted by Mel at 4:47 PM
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I Got the Fever...
And the only cure is new blog template. I'm such a little lemming. Everyone else is changing their templates... It's all nice and summer-y. Anyway, I got this from Beccary. Check out her link in the sidebar. Hope you like the change.
I spent some time knitting with the SnB group tonight. We had a great time talking about all kinds of stuff. There were all kinds of South West Trading patterns to be worked on and I made good progress on my felted hat. I'm carpooling to work tomorrow and I think I will bring my blanket to work on during the ride. Yay Carpooling! Sure I'm doing a something to reduce pollution, but being able to knit is a great benefit to carpooling also. I should've started doing this a long time ago.
Posted by Mel at 10:52 PM
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Like
Eva said - help a dude out.
Does anyone remember the tv show
'Land of the Lost'? I found season 1 on DVD and had to rent it. I am laughing my buns off! And I never realized how cute the brother was. I don't remember having a crush on him. What was I thinking? He's way cuter than Joe Hardy (Hardy Boys). There's nothing like a little campy vintage tv to make a girl's night complete.
Posted by Mel at 11:15 PM
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Lucy the Blog-Hopping Dog
You've heard of time travel, but blog-hopping?
You might recognize Lucy as the ever-so-charming model from
Hip Hip Crochet! She popped over the lines to give my blog a little Dog adornment. Thanks Lu!
Actually, you may have already read this on Pam's blog, Lucy and I were giving a trial run to the idea of her staying here for 2 weeks while Pam is visiting with family and meeting her classmates. We didn't know if Ben & Jerry (the cats) would take too kindly to having a dog around that is larger than they are. And we didn't know how Lu would take to living with Cats as she usually only sees them from across the yard. My guys don't have front claws to defend themselves.
Well, I made a boo-boo. I didn't let the animals meet on their own terms. Humans should not interfere in this process! It only makes the animals more confused. I know this! But do I take my own advice? No.... So Lu lunged at the cats (no doubt encouraged by my movement towards them). The cats hid for the remainder of her stay and 2 hours after that (just to be sure she wasn't coming back, I guess. Or maybe to teach me a lesson about letting new animals into the house). It might have resolved itself if I had stayed out of the way. I wish that things had gone better. Aside from the Cat thing and the English Muffin incident (refer to Pam's blog for information on how important it is to put all food safely under cover to spare it from Lucy's mandibles) things went pretty well. I still Love Lucy. Thanks for hanging out with me for a little while, anyway.
On the Knitting front. I have a scarf ready to go to Mozambique. I am feeling lazy and don't feel like loading the photo tonight. Maybe tomorrow.
Making progress on the other WIPs as well. Purchased the Ballet Tee pattern off the Loop-D-Loop web site and am planning a test knit with some Lion Brand Jiffy acrylic left over from the poncho I made back in the fall. It's Turquoise and will probably be sweaty as hell, but I want to make sure the lines of the garment will look good on my body before I go out and buy some good yarn. I hope it looks good because I want to make a dress like
Kiki's. I'm very inspired, if I haven't said it before.
Book club was yesterday. I got it sort of backwards. I read 2 chapters of "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult. Everyone else read the
whole book and rated it 4.4 out of 5. I was strongly encouraged to finish it before the next book club book is read - A Long Way Down, by Nick Hornby. Less knitting, more reading? Searching for balance...
Posted by Mel at 9:29 PM
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Reading is Fun-da-Mental
Eva tagged me to explain my reading habits. It ain't pretty, but here goes...
1. Total number of books I own? An accurate number would be hard to gauge. My books are still mixed in with the ex's and he has thousands! I bet I'm in the 100 - 200 book range, especially if you count my cooking and guitar chord books.
2. The last book I bought? Food Addiction, by Kay Sheppard
3. The last book I read? Do you mean all the way through? I have a bad habit of starting books and not finishing them very quickly. The last book I actually finished was "Everything is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer.
4. Five books that mean a lot to me? Stitch-N-Bitch by Debbie Stoller - I wouldn't be sharing this post with you today if it weren't for this book. I can safely say it changed my entire life. I could write a book about how much my life has changed since I first read it.
Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene - The first book I read that could be definied as 'real' literature (I think it was on the suggested reading list for college prep students when I was in high school, which is how it came to my attention). It's a 'yardstick' book for me. I go back and read it every once in a while to see how life experience has changed the way I read it.
Four to Score by Janet Evanovich - Number 4 in a 10 book (maybe 11 by now...) series of Stephanie Plum mystery novels. Very funny series of books. Entertaining and hilarious as all get-out. I like #4 because it is one of the funniest I've read so far.
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer - I'm not just including it because it's the last one that I read. I really thought the story was told in an interesting way and I can read this book over and over to see lots of different little details in it.
The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield - I think about this book a lot because of a couple of things. Coincidence is always an opportunity to learn or experience something, and every interaction you have with someone yields some sort of information or detail that you will most likely need at some point.
5. Tag five people and have them fill this out in their blogs.
Illanna, who shares my love for Jonathan Safran Foer, and the
Luscious Gracious clan. Yep, all 4 of em.
Posted by Mel at 3:13 PM
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WIP it Out
I feel like I haven't been discussing the knitting too much lately so here is a photo of the current works in progress. Above is the blanket I'm working on for my sisters little bundle (making it's way into the world in September). I am very close to completing the knitting portion. Then I have a few little bonus stains to remove before it's really done. What happened was, I left my project bag sitting underneath one of those scented oil plug-ins. It somehow got turned sideways and the oil spilled on the blanket edge. It has a wonderful apple scent, and I have come too far to rip it out. So, I'm banking on the fact that some product will help me get the stain up. I think there is a coffee stain on it somewhere also. Carbona Stain Devil will surely help me there.
The other projects are scarf (which I'm hoping to get done for sending to Mozambique with
AfricanKelli) & a felted hat (an extremely belated holiday gift). That is the top of the hat shown here and I'm making a symbol in red. I originally started working on this with dpns, in the round. I'm working off of a diagram and it was just hurting my brain too bad to use a linear diagram to make a circular object. So I switched to knitting straight and I will pick up stitches later to start knitting in the round.
Sarah steered me in this direction and I feel a lot more confident that the symbol will look correct. Better pictures, later...
I was talking with some fellow bloggers last night about how we struggle to take the 'perfect' picture of our projects and usually we get it right after about 80 pictures. It's all about portraying ourselves in the best possible light and why shouldn't we? Only I am really prone to impatience, so I would rather post a marginal photo than spend the time to get the best picture. I hope you understand...
Posted by Mel at 10:56 PM
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Out of the Loop
I just got an email from my boss announcing the birth of his new child. I didn't even know that he was expecting a new child! Don't you think that would've come up in conversation in the span of 9 months? It's his 4th, so maybe it's not a big deal to him anymore? So what do you guys think- is a baby gift in order?
BTW, if the pictures from the last post are still showing up as huge, I apologize. I guess I'm having some technical difficulties with photobucket.
Posted by Mel at 9:35 AM
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Yay
Worldwide Knit in Public Day was a lot of fun. If you weren't celebrating with me, I hope you still celebrated somehow. The group I was with had a great time. We knitted for hours and then went and had some dinner at NYPD. Yum-my!
Today, I received my new "matching" furniture.
My ex got custody of the couch, so I had to get a new one. My cats like it a lot. Frank blends in with it, too (completely a coincidence, I assure you ;-o). So who wants to come over and knit? Seating should not be an issue.
I found this thing in my back yard.
Does anyone know if it is a plant or a weed? Considering it wasn't there at all 3 weeks ago, I'm guessing it is a weed, but I hate to kill it if it's not. I've never seen one like this before. The stalk looks like Rhubarb.
I got a lot of house work and yard work done, in addition to lots of knitting. I'm very close to finishing the baby blanket. I've got a scarf in the works to be given to charity. Also working on a felted hat that I will talk about in more detail later.
Posted by Mel at 10:30 PM
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WWKIPD
June 11th is World-Wide Knit-in-Public Day. I am going to celebrate by doing what I do almost every weekend. Knit in Public with some of my friends.
This time I will be at Mama Java around 4 pm on Saturday. You are all invited to join me. Hope to see some of you there, since Knitting in Public is not really very much fun when you are by yourself...
Posted by Mel at 9:40 AM
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Thanks for the Mammaries
Since some of my friends are putting their legs and feet on the line for breast cancer research funding, I feel like it's ok to tell the world that today I experienced my first Mammogram (a.k.a. the Boob-squishing).
People always talk about how dreadful they are. If you're in that age group where they recommend having one every year or two, and you've been putting it off, let me just say that it wasn't bad at all. I mean, they ARE squishing your boob in order to taking x-rays of it, so there is a little discomfort, but it's so minimal. Please don't put it off because it's better to be safe than sorry.
And while I'm on my soap-box, don't forget to self-examine on a monthly basis (or at least occasionally). Furthermore (then I'll be getting off the box), if you feel like donating to the cause, click on links to
Brooke,
Eva,
Heather, and/or
Nancy. The sponsorship money goes to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Look for the "Knit1 Walk3" button and click to donate to that person.
Thanks for listenening to my rant. I'm going back to being quiet and non-threatening now...
Posted by Mel at 11:32 PM
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Where's My Vacation?
No need to answer my rhetorical question. I know the answer... I used it all up visiting my Family during last fall's holiday season. It's nice to see the family and all, but I wish I could take a few days off right Now. My family would say that I should move back to Michigan and then I wouldn't have to use all my vacation to see them. Uh... yeah. That's true. But I love Phoenix, even if its hot enough to cook eggs on the hood of my car right now.
My niece - who is 4 years old - told me in a very adult tone that I made the choice to live so far away from her and if that meant I had to fly across the country to be at her birthday party... Well, that's what I had to do! It's kind of pointless to argue with 4 year old logic, but man do I feel guilty for missing that party!
Anyway, today is the 2 year anniversary of my first day at my current job. I have a healthy liking of my job (some people say they 'love' their job, but I only like mine as a friend). There are so many things going on in my personal life that I sometimes spend half my day tending to personal business. Those are the days I wish I could just have a vacation day to deal with it guilt-free. Of course a "real" vacation day would be spent somewhere more exciting than in my living room talking on the phone or in some place of business. If I could take a 'real' vacation, I would like to go to any of the following places:
Hawaii. I've never been and I think that I should visit all 50 United States. And I hear its kind of scenic there, too.
Road trip up
Pacific Coast Highway in a Mustang Convertible. I can feel the salty breeze blowing through my hair as I crank up the stereo really loud! All the way from LA and up into Oregon!
Canadian Rockies and Lake Louise. One of the most beautiful places I've ever been. I have dreamed of going back for the last 18 years.
Northern Europe. This would require at least 3 weeks of exploration. But all the history and art and architecture... It's something I've got to do before I die.
Santa Fe. I think I drove through there on a family trip in the 80's. Looks like a cool place to chill. And I could go see an Opera! (I learned about the Opera House in the movie "The Tao of Steve")
Of course, I would take a knit project to work on with any of these choices. There are more, but those are the ones that came most quickly to mind. Does anyone else want to share their favorite dream vacation spots?
Posted by Mel at 10:39 PM
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Brusha-Brusha-Brusha
Brushing my teeth just got a lot more exciting thanks to my trip to "Mind Over Splatter" in Chandler! (Do I sound enough like a corny tv ad that you might see at 2 am?) You probably read all about it already on
Pam's blog. Here's the piece I painted. I wish the stars would have come out a little darker, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied with the way it looks.
Some of you may be wondering why there are 2 toothbrushes, when I live alone. No big news, no conclusions to jump to... I just put the extra brush in there from my last dental visit because my old holder would tip over if it wasn't balanced. I put the extra brush in there out of habit.
I'm in that post FO lull with my knitting. I still have 2 projects going, but they just don't seem as exciting to me as the Bear. I'm making good progress on the Baby blanket, and when I say that I will post pictures soon... Well... I really mean it this time! Stay tuned.
Posted by Mel at 10:25 PM
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