Fraggle Stick Car

Total hermit

I've turned into a total social hermit. I'm sorry friends :(

Here was my weekend.

Called into work at about 5pm on Saturday, and proceeded to stay there until roughly 5am.

Was rudely awakened by PlanetCheaters at 9.30am on Easter Sunday, and that started the day off mighty well. Then, proceeded to be dragged back to work. Its fine, that's part of the job / bargaining for raise that is coming around really soon.

I figured I'd stop by both my LYS to pick up "something" to make me feel better, and meet Dr L since she was nearby. LYS was closed, work told me to "GET IN NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TIME TO WAIT", so had to blow off Dr L.

Made fire fighting panic at work to fix some other company's moronic problem (my emails were referred to as "flaming shit rampages" or something like that). Then, during the conference call with various "very high up people at the very large company I work for", I get a call from my roommate.

My apartment building is in flames...

Break down imminent! Everything and everyone is fine, but this is stretching my fire-fighting skillz to the extreme.

Yes, if you know where I live, the greasy chinese joint basically was backed up with grease and went POOF.

Fast forward to 6.05 pm on Easter Sunday. I've been drinking to ease the pain and have also had my butt groped by Ms Sachet (I'm fairly certain of this... This could be major news...)

All in all, I think this gived me fairly good grounds for not going into work tomorrow

Hey give my money back!

Its Tax Time, and this view sums up what I associate with it. Its pretty much the only time a year when I go to Tiburon.

This year, I grabbed some gelato from some cute, pricey Tiburon gelatoria, and sat on the sea shore finishing up my tax prep before heading to my genius accountant.

_sigh_ See ya next year Tiburon!

On to knitting! Roots, Spines and Doctors!

First off... The finished Rusted Root! love love love!

Made from stash Kurosawa - my "I'm mad I can't use my Tilly Tomas Stitches yarn right now" project. I'm mighty chuffed at myself with this one, not only because I cut it REALLY close with the yarn amounts. This is something I'm being risky with of late... which brings me to Zukii Spine!

Yes, I totally caved. I busted out the Tilly to make Zukki. I decided to double up the non sparkle stuff and was making "kinda" gauge (rows were really off, stitches "sorta" ok) - yeah, I know. I figured I'd have enough since I bought plenty. And here is a finished half.

WRONG WRONG WRONG, I am such a turd. I have a) plainly not enough yarn to do the other side AND the neck and b) created half a NO SLEEVE SWEATER in a fabric that feels wonderfully soft and luscious and REALLY F'ING WARM. See the couple of problems I have?

So, I decided to put it down and debate. Was I going to buy more yarn and attempt to make some sort of sleeve so it would be more appropriate winter wear? This scares me since I haven't tried adding sleeves to anything... OR, was I just going to rip the sucker out and think of a more appropriate use for Tilly and yarn for Zukki?

I opted for option 2 - very sensible, I thought... Grown up, even - mature knitter anyone? One who can recognize and walk away from one's mistakes? SO - had it sorted and then I showed the sad half completed failure project to my roommate and he responded with "Oh my god that is the most amazing thing you have ever made, you HAVE to finish it"... Crap

Oh - and here is a bit of the Doctor's Bag. I'm half way through the second "large" side. Speed up Enabler and Melissa! The best news is, I think I'm running out of yarn for this too. I give up.

Color is closer to the mini insert... sorta

Where did I start?

More on stitches aftermath!

As soon as I got back, I was dying to start what I'm calling Spinal Column. The Zukki pattern that I was going to make in the Tilli Tomas yarn. The beaded yarn was going to be the main cables

I frantically swatched and realized that there was no way in hell that I'd make gauge... even vaguelly! I was too lazy to recalculate and was fairly certain I wouldn't have enough yarn when accounting for the recalc... I sort of knew all of this when I purchased the yarn, but it was so pretty and I got 20% off!

So, desparate to knit with my new yarn, I decided a change of plan was inorder. Bust out the rusted root that I've been itching to knit for some time! Tilly will work from that! Gauge matched! Wootness! The beaded stuff was going to be the leaves... So a couple of rounds in and then I hit disaster. If you are sharp, you'll spot the problem... yes - knitting in the round. Crap. Plan C needed to be divised - good old Kurosawa stash! Hopefully I'll have enough - and this is the progress so far.

Oh - and the Mobiues has finished blocking. I did wear it sort of, and sort of wet to stitches but had to re-block due to my impatience. Yes, new yarn has yet to be used, but rootsie is going pretty quick. I'm going to start the Knit2Tog Doctor's bag after this.

In other news, my knitting class I'm teaching at work is going well. All the ladies are well on their way for new scarves and no one has given up yet. I'm even getting gusy that want to join "Knitty Knitty Bang Bang", which I find very amusing.

C'est tout for now!

The triumphant return

Ah - the triumphant return from Stitches! The Enabler did a pretty good job, as did Melissa, who was a Stitches virgin and is turning into a pretty good enabler herself.

Below is the haul... No comment... Looks around... Hey, it was my birthday treat, dammit!

Stitches West - here I come!

Today is birthday treat day... Stitches West! Officially pretty much the only thing that will get me up and about before 8am on a Sunday :)

Back later with purchase updates!

Some yarn related updates! aka the cloche that nearly destroyed me

I've been trying to make this Stitch Diva Downtown Cloche for almost exactly a year now. The Enabler got this pattern at Stitches West last year, I purchased the roving, and J(f) of J and J fame spun said roving into some beautiful yarn for me. This is the yarn that I was told had spontaneously combusted on spinning, and very nearly didn't get...

It exactly a WEEK away from this year's stitches. It's now my anual birthday treat. Today, I finished the last round of crochet. I have attempted this damn hat at least 5 times, and only after the Enabler gave me some pattern corrections, did the penny finally drop.

So... here are some shots

The humble beginnings...

Actually got it bigger and looking normal

The pre-blocking result! My polystyrene head is a bit smaller than my head, and I'm hoping that the nobblyness will sort itself out in blocking. We'll see!

I actually ran out of the yarn, so used some Brooks Farm that I also bought at Stitches last year to finish it off. I don't think it'll look too bad, since I'm planning on a wide ivory satin band around the hat that will hide the color change somewhat.

The rest of that yarn is going towards a mobieus scarf that I might start very soon!

So... my fear of crochet may have been solved by immersion therapy! I'm not sure I oarticularly like it, but at least I can do it now.

Not as well travelled as I thought

I've got to get moving , I've aparently only visited 17 countries (7%) and there are some vast sections noticably absent!

create your own visited countries map

Luckily the addition of both the US and Russia makes it look much more impressive - but on the whole, I've been to small countries... Can you see the teeny little red dot in the middle of the Pacific (that isn't Hawaii - I got that by default)?... thought not

Fraggle Stick Car

SP7 Questionairre

On the twigs...

Done!... (warning - some pics suck ASS)

UFO - on hold...

In the queue...

Knitting pretty...

About Me

...Friendies

...Places I go

...Previous rants

...Kickin it old skool

...The US is like Britain, only with buttons

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Total hermit

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Hey give my money back!

Friday, March 02, 2007

More on stitches aftermath!

Monday, February 26, 2007

The triumphant return

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Stitches West - here I come!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Some yarn related updates! aka the cloche that nearly destroyed me

Monday, February 12, 2007

Not as well travelled as I thought