One more post...

I've got laundry on, and we're going out with our friend for dinner, but I thought I'd upload my 'double happiness' scarf pictures. I call it 'double happiness' because of the chinese character used on wedding invitations, and the Noro (japanese, I know) that brings me such happiness.

If one skein of Noro Kureyon is happiness, two is "double happiness".




It's a simple scarf, and yes, I know one end has ribbing, and the other seed stitch. I'm not undoing it after it's been bound off. So :P

Benny likes it, and that's what counts.

The saddest thing you'll see today...

And the happiest post-surgery cat you'll ever see. Stefano needed surgery on his ear -- he had a hematoma and it was very sad. His ear was swollen up almost so his ear filled the whole ear-hole. We took him to the vet, and at 9 years old, they had to do extra blood work to make sure it was safe for him to go under anasthaesia -- he's only had to do so once before, around 8 years ago, for his neutering.

Needless to say, I was worried about him all day on Tuesday.

He's fine, and feeling like himself (he was trying to stalk Murrie this morning), but he looks so sad in his collar, with his ear all sewn up. He's convalescing on the sheepskin we bought last week. Rotten thing that he is.

Yarn Crawl!

So, Saturday was our first group Denver Yarn Crawl. I need to get pictures of all I bought, but it was lots of fun. I enjoyed myself. Even after Leisel *AND* AntiKathy drove the wrong way on a one way street. :D

Here are the places we went:

String: Nice. Cute. Arranged by color, with a lot of cascade and brown sheep yarns in the back room. Some Noro. Some silk yarns. A bit spendy

A Colorful Yarn: Um. They had large 'pucks' of yarn, but I wasn't comfortable in the stuffy basement store. I *did* buy the pattern I had seen elsewhere that I wanted, though.

Recycled Lamb: Small shop, but they have roving and they had a couple of looms hanging out in the shop. This is where I bought some of my cute buttons.

Aurora Yarn Supply:Awesome prices, strange selection, cone yarn.

Showers of Flowers: Lots of selection. Much of it icky. This was the only place I didn't buy anything at all from.

So what am I going to do today?

Well, I *did* get this yesterday in the mail...

I may dye some yarn today, which I enjoy, although Ben's only working until noon today, and he needs a haircut (and lunch). But it's here for me to dye when I want to, that's the good part. :)

Cute Dog Pics - and Why I'm not at Knit Group this morning.

I was trying to get a picture of the 'dead dog' pose, but I knocked the camera lens against the window, which woke her up.

Here she is under her favorite tree, next to her dog house.

And here she is hanging out next to the back door, waiting for me to let her in.

Ok, so here's why I'm not at knit group this morning. I woke up late, and the house was cold. I remembered Ben said he needed his jacket, but there was no mention of ... SNOW.

I kinda wondered why the dog was still in the house, too, but she went out after I asked her twice if she wanted to go out. Then she gave me this look. "You know this is cold, right?!"

I knit funny.

I stayed late yesterday at knit group because neither Kathy nor I wanted to go home and do stuff. So we hung around and hung around.. Bryan showed up for a little while, and then left. Kathy had a question about her yarnovers (which she was doing as YO + K1), and I taught her three new things:

1. How to make a slipknot without using an entire lap. (She had been using the same technique since she was 8. It worked, but having another way can be cool, especially if you have a dog or cat in your lap.)
2. The knitted cast-on.
3. The Cable cast-on.

She was doing the long-tail cast-on, and when her 2nd finger went down, her middle finger went up... the flip-off cast-on.

I also verified what I had assumed for a while... I knit funny. I drop the yarn up and over my knit stitches, instead of coming up from under them. My purls are similarly backwards. But it works for me. The fabric comes out looking the same.

I'm trying to teach myself how to "pick" instead of "throw" today, though. Just because I think it's faster, not because my throwing is weird. I can throw the other way 'round (which I did when demonstrating to Kathy), but it's slower for me to do.

Yay! Yarn is up!

Ben & I worked together yesterday to get the hand-dyed yarn up on our website. We also made it over to Table Rock Llamas to buy some different yarn to dye. I got some licorice twist, and some weird thick-n-thin plied with a 2-ply wool, and oh yeah, pastaza. I'm going to dye pastaza! Yay!

4 yarn shops...

LYS Rankings!

I've now been to all 4 yarn shops in the area, so I think I can rank them now.

Number One: Table Rock Llamas. Surprised? I didn't think so. They're my favorite. They don't have a whole lot of anything, but they have a lot of what they have. Tons of Cascade 220, and lots of Pastaza (mm.... felting). Plus, they're really friendly, and the store is comfortable. Oh, and they carry not only acid dyes, but natural dyes as well. And spindles! Beautiful handpainted spindles!

Number Two: Green Valley Weavers & Spinners. Bright, well lit, and more Lamb's Pride Bulky (and Worsted, but I usually get the bulky) than you can shake a stick at. The sock yarn room is cool, too. But it leaves me sometimes wondering "where's the rest of the store". They carry dyes, but oddly enough, they carry procion mx (which is fiber-reactive, and mostly used for cotton) as well as the jacquard acid dyes (for wool and silk, although I've had some fairly good results with silk and the procion dyes).

Number Three: Needleworks by Holly Berry. A little close and cozy, a little higher priced. They have Rowan. This is where I got my $#@*^ Addis. [No, I do not like addis. the points are too blunt on the ones I have (10.5's), and I can't get the needle into the stitches.] They have some interesting yarns, in colors that I love.

Number Four: Knitter's Kove. For some reason, it seemed more disorganized than the others, and it seemed full of all sorts of novelty crap. A full third of it seemed to be Mirror FX, fizz, some sort of cording, etc. They have some roving and unspun fibers, but most seem to be in bags, not begging to be petted. I *did* buy some noro (kureyon) and pastaza, and I *did* get the sheep butt measuring tape, but it took a lot of looking to find what I wanted.

New Technique!

Oh, and I tried the 2 circ thing yesterday. I had to start my new bag, and I didn't have my dpn's. I picked up both of my 10.5 circs on the way out the door, though, thinking I'd have it enough done to transfer it onto one or the other of them. Got to work, no dpn's (as I had cleaned out my bag looking for something), and so... 9 stitches on 2 circs sucks. 18, too. 36, not so bad. 72's ok. I'm hoping to graduate to one circ soon.

2 circs left me with ladders worse than with dpn's (although I tend not to get ladders on dpn's) until I started treating the circ ends like dpn's, putting my "new" needle over the old needle and under the new one. I like the way a needle sandwich keeps the stitches close. Of course, I do the *yank* on the first and second stitch which doesn't hurt, either. I'd still rather have a good set of dpn's, though.

More yarn!

I rewound the blue-green skein last night, and started winding the SKEIN FROM HELL (the 40' one, with peach to pink to grey). I got discouraged around 10:30, 20 minutes into winding (and untangling), so it sits in a chair waiting for me to get back home. I still have to wind the rainbow lace... and take pictures, and put it on the crazymonkey website (so I have something to sell). I need to buy more 'blank' yarn, too. This is so much fun!

2 more skeins!

This is the 'last skein' on the right in the first picture of them drying. It came out looking like the desert.



This is benny's dye job...

Last one tonight -- the autumn colored laceweight

880 yds of laceweight takes *FOREVER* to wind back into a pretty skein.

Froot Loops?

My Second Skein

AKA the one Felicia called dibs on. I need to re-twist it a little better, but the colors.... mmmmm.... colors.

My First Hand-dyed Skein

Guess what's drying!

In my "dye studio", aka the downstairs bathroom...

Multi-talented?

Well, ok, I'm multi-talented. Here's one of my sketches... not all of them are as good...

Alpaca!

And a picture of the sunrise the other day -- this is the view from my porch.



And although I didn't take this picture, I figured I'd put it here anyway because it's damned cute. :)

I've only been knitting since April

While I was checking on my current amazon.com order, I looked back to see approximately when I started knitting. I ordered the Stitch'n'Bitch book on April 2. If we consider that it takes about a week to get books from amazon, I started knitting on April 9th. 4/9/2005. Yes, April of this year. What do you mean I have too many finished objects to be knitting not even 6 months yet?

Harrumph! I'm going back to knitting Ben's socks.

Craziness.

So, I had a great birthday. I partied with my friends, and my family sent me cool things. My mom sent me an Eddie Bauer gift cert which I'll probably spend on Friday, and my aunt sent me an Amazon gift cert, with which I have ordered: Spin It : Making Yarn from Scratch, Yarns to Dye For : Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting, and World of Knitted Toys. They're on their way.

I've ordered some 'dye-your-own' from knitpicks, and some acid dyes from Dharma... I've been encouraged by the girls in my knit group to dye yarn, so... I guess I will. I already dye cotton & silk with fiber-reactive dyes. I want to dye yarn anyway, so if I have a built-in market, all the better. :)

I made some progress yesterday with Ben's monster feet (from snbn), and finished the first one. I'm still not sure I did it right, but I figure as long as I'm consistantly wrong, they'll turn out similarly. Basically, the instructions were for short rows wrap & turns, but they worked too many stitches. ie, you start at one side of your work, work 28 sts, w&t, then slip one, and work 28 sts. um... your instructions for w&t show putting the stitch back on the lefthand needle. That means the instructions for that short row are either wrong (because it works 29 sts when you only have 28) or your w&t instructions are wrong (and you wrap, turn, and slip the first st when you work the next row). Ugh. And the errata for that pattern wasn't any help with that, either. Although it did include 'oh yeah, you need to k all the way across to the other side before starting this other bit', which WAS useful.

So I cast on for the other monster foot last night, and worked a few rows. And grumbled about the twist being worked into the Lamb's Pride Bulky. I have to spin the ball of yarn every row. I probably should've wound it again, but LPB comes with the easy-to-find center-pull end. I thought it would play nice, like the green one did, but oh no. Yes, Ben's monster feet are green and purple. Purple soles with green tops with green Fizz. I kinda like using GIANT BULKY yarn with the itty-bitty Fizz. Even if the monster feet look like I could put my dog in them now.

Speaking of the dog, everyone seemed to enjoy her company on Friday night. She was very entertaining, and she loves people. Although she did keep trying to drink Anne's mudslide, and the reaction to my telling her NO in my "bad dog" voice was kinda funny. Shibas are the small dog for people who don't like small dogs. Although almost everyone else in the knit group has big dogs (GSD's, Huskies, Samoyeds, larger mutts), they all fawned over Miss PrancyPants. :)

Woo hoo! Happy birthday to me! :D

My birthday was Tuesday, and the KWA party was last night. I spent most of yesterday preparing for it -- fruit, veggies, etc. Ann, Anne, Kathy (TOK), Liesel, MJ (complete with Jr. and Hubby), and my friend Kelly came to my house to celebrate the loss of my 20's. I'm now officially 30, and can't be trusted.

I've been a bad knitter, and been too busy to get any knitting done. Bad knitter! Bad! Bad! Well, I *did* cast-on for Ben's sock, but that's about it. Since I traded Tuesday for Saturday at work, I'm at work today. I don't have the concentration for toes yet, so I'm knitting ribbing on Ben's sock. Size 2 needles, 75 sts, k3p2 rib. Exciting.

What were they thinking?

While waiting for my YouKnitWhat fix, I was looking for sock patterns. I had seen 80 bazillion of the same cuff-down sock pattern, and then... I came across these. Not all sock patterns, but, um... What were they thinking??!?

Ok, these are socks. Socks with loops. For children, supposedly. Obviously for naughty children who don't listen to their parents, because I can't imagine anyone over or under the age of 12 begging mommy for these.

These are called "Knitted Squiggle Beasties", and they give me nightmares just looking at them. Scary otherwordly masses of felted yarn have come to take over the world. I welcome our yarny overlords!

I found these "Sandal socks" to be ... well... um... too much. Obviously, too much is not enough is about all that I can say about these socks. I'd say the 80's called and want their socks back, but I can't remember seeing such. The colors, the patterning, and the BEADS work together to make me hate these socks.



Ok, to leave you scratching your head and sweating profusely from your feet, I present the link to THRUMMED SOCKS. Yes, you heard right. Someone thought wool socks aren't warm enough, double-knit wool socks aren't warm enough either, so let's put wooly bits in them to make the feet feel like they're in an inferno! (Yes, yes, there are parts of the world that would benefit from this, but those places are small and inhabited by snow-people.)

Happy frickin' Labor Day

I'm celebrating Labor Day this year by being at work. We've already had one "fire" this morning, so I'm not especially optimistic for the rest of the day. I want to be with my knit group, not in front of a computer. I want to be knitting and chatting, not grumbling and working. Sigh. C'est la vie, I guess. I *am* getting paid 8 hours holiday pay in addition to my 10 normal hours today.

I need to re-ball my sock yarn before I start my second sock. My ball winder is on its way, but since there's no mail today, it'll be tomorrow at least before I get it. And of course, I won't have much time until Thursday or Friday (as I commute 1h, work 10h, commute 1h). I don't think I'll suffer from SSS (Second Sock Syndrome) as I really enjoyed my first sock. Toes rock.

I'm indentured to the tune of:
One set monster slippers (SNBN)
One pair grey socks with blue toes & heels
One pair tan socks with blue toes & heels

Ben went to 2 LYS's with me this week, and we bought the yarn and needles to complete the above projects. So, those are on my list. I haven't finished the sweater yet -- I'm taking a sock break from the endless stockinette (another 13" of it) for the hood. Eris is waiting for me, too.

Everyone's doing it!

I blame MJ. Her really cute tube sock she's making for her husband has inspired me to knit a sock. Well, 2 socks eventually. I desperately need a ball winder, though, because winding 100 yd of sportweight yarn is not my cup of tea. So my ball of yarn looks like catyak.

This is another image of it, kind of sitting next to the oval catyak ball of sportweight yarn. I'm using 50 sts on size 4 needles, and for some reason, k3p2 is more interesting to me than k2p2. I think it's that one has to think a tiny bit with the k3p2, but not so much with k2p2.

And this final one shows the pretty pretty k3p2 ribbing. What a pretty color! I'm thinking I want to do an afterthought heel, and I'm going to try to do the 'piggy toes' from the Twisted Sisters sock book. Hard? Sure, but I *heart* toe socks. Just ask the KWA gals about my cow toes! (I had to show them off -- I really like the cute pink-toed cow-spotted socks.) If I can make my own toe socks... look out world! Here come my toes! The ones I can re-knit if they wear out! Woo hoo!

Name 6 of your favorite songs

Ok, ok, I got tagged by Kathy on this one.

"Baby Seat" by Barenaked Ladies: "You can't live your life in the baby seat. You've got to stand on your own, don't admit defeat."

"I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz: we picked up the exclusive ITMS Wordplay EP while waiting for his new album to be out. It's a sweet, simple love song.

"Another Postcard" by Barenaked Ladies: Any song that has chimpanzees in it is obviously cool. :D

"U Can Look"" by Jump, Little Children: I saw them in person at SXSE, and at a couple places in Augusta. They're cute, this song is sexy-cool, and it's just a great song.

"Elevation" by U2: It's just a great song, and works well for driving. How can you not sing along? El-e-va-tion!

"All Around Me" by Savage Garden: similar sexy-cool vibe as U Can Look, and Darren Hayes is Cuuuuuuute. My aunt and I saw Savage Garden in concert in Atlanta, and this was the only song that wasn't on the album they had out. I ended up buying the Australian import CD to find it.

I actually have a 7th, because I *have* to include him on this list,

"Let Love Be Your Energy" by Robbie Williams. It's a great happy song, and fits with me like "I'm Yours" and "Baby Seat".

Now I have to figure out who to tag...

Not a single knit stitch

I haven't knit a stitch since Sunday. I've been so busy with work and then when I get home, we go out... sigh. These sleeves will never get done at this pace! Waaah!

At least it's Wednesday. I work Sun-Wed, with Thur-Sat off. (Although I came in an hour early today because the 3rd shift dude has the plague.)

Yay! It's my Friday, and while I have some bathroom painting to do tomorrow, hopefully there will be enough downtime to pick up the needles again so I can get this thing done before knitgroup on saturday (which, this week, is RIGHT BY MY HOUSE, yay!).

Things I've learned about knitting...

1. Stockinette will curl. There are edge treatments you can do to force it flat, but it wants to curl.
2. Knitting looks like ass until you're done with the first 5 rows. Don't judge yourself too harshly on the first few rows.
3. Gauge matters. Really.
4. Knitting is very calming, and somewhat mind-engaging as well. Great for a cross-country trip.
5. Knitting is better on Saturday mornings.

Speaking of Saturday morning, I'll bring the Wool of the Andes for anyone to swatch with for eris.

Already a Curmudgeon...

I've not been knitting but 3-4 months now, and I'm already a curmudgeon. I'm tired of the One-Skein Wonder. If I see another one, I'm going to scream. I think it's ugly, and doesn't work well on most women over the age of 14.

I'm also tired of seeing kool-aid dyed wool. I'm tired of fun-fur boas, and fingerless gloves that are a tube with a thumb hole (but no thumb). Knitty, while somewhat cool, is *not* the greatest thing since sliced bread. If I see another "Branching out" scarf on craftster, I will scream. If I see another rah-rah cheerleading "I love everything about knitty" on the knitty boards, I will scream. If I see *ONE MORE* poncho disguised as an anything (capelet? really? looks like a poncho to me!)... argh.

I get grumpy when someone starts a new discussion about something that's not just on the board still, but something that was talked to death last week, but they didn't bother to do a search to see if anyone else had the same problem.

I'm probably alone in thinking that addi's are too slick, and not useful (especially for the way I knit). Don't get me wrong, they're wonderful for people who knit tightly, or for people who like circulars for everything. I just don't. I prefer double-pointed needles when I can get away with them. I don't think Magic Loop will save the world. I think knitting socks on two circulars would make me go insane.

Sigh. I'm already old and grumpy. Who needs a 30th birthday to remind them of that? [T - 30 days and counting]

My box of yarn...

As those in my knit group should know, I got my KnitPicks order on Saturday. Here's a sample... this is Sock Garden in "Morning Glory".

And the lovelies together (I didn't open the 10-pack of yarn, so here's the 5 leftovers and the sock garden). Of course, I will bring them for fondling on Saturday, so that the KWA gals (and guy) can cop a feel of my new blue yarn. The Wool of the Andes (in Winter Night) is destined to be an Eris. Yes, I know my second sweater will be considerably more difficult than my first sweater, but I'm ready for it!

Sleeeves!

I finished the front of my sweater while at knit group and have started on the sleeves. I'm knitting them both at the same time to make them not take forever (and ever and ever and ever).

Allergies... it must be allergies

I felt so much better after it rained last night, it was uncanny. So, armed with Claritin (no more of that pseudoephedrine stuff for me) and a good attitude, it was off to work with me today. I'm about to finish the last 6 rows of grey and start into the stripes on the front of the hoodie (Yay!).

Yes, I will be knitting at work. Why? Because it's Company Picnic Day, and no one's at work but the NOC (my group) and Customer Care. As long as nothing breaks, there's not much for me to do.

Feelin' Woozy

I shouldn't have taken that Advil Cold & Sinus this morning. Now I feel achy *and* lightheaded. Or I should've eaten something. Or not had that cup of coffee... I'm not sure which was the worst decision. So I'm at work, kind of working. Spacing out, mostly.

I've had "the plague" since Sunday morning, so hopefully I didn't infect anyone else. If so, I'm sorry. I didn't know I had the plague. I thought I just knit too much on Saturday and that's why I was tired and achy on Sunday. :D

Houston, we have a pocket.

While knitting with the girls (and guy) from KWA on Saturday morning, I came within one repeat of finishing the pocket on the front of my hoodie. I knitted the pocket to the front last night at 5pm. No pictures, but still, it's a pocket! :)

I ordered yarn from KnitPicks this morning (Wool of the Andes Winter Blue) for Eris (which I also purchased this morning). If things go well on the sweater I'm currently working on, I could be done in another week or two, and ready for Eris by the beginning of September. The girls are planning an Auntie-along (Rogue and Eris), although I have a feeling it will be a total Eris-along. :)

Books: Knitting books from my aunt

While on vacation, my aunt Sharon gave me a bunch of her books; in addition to a few on celtic knotwork and crafts of ireland, she gave me the following:

Fishermen's Sweaters by Alice Starmore
The Celtic Collection by Alice Starmore
Classic Designs (ARCO Publishing)
Sweater Design in Plain English by Maggie Righetti
Patterns for Guernseys, Jersey & Arans by Gladys Thompson

They're all old and somewhat dated, but if you cover up the models' hair, some of the sweaters are really nice. :)

Baby's got Back!

... And I don't mean my prodigious posterior. I finished the back of my sweater (Under the Hoodie), and the neck stitches are on a 'holder' -- a scrap of acrylic threaded through the stitches. [Probably the best use for acrylic.]

I'm already 38 rows into the front of the sweater... 19 more and I start into picking up the pocket stitches. Yay! Pretty pretty sweater!

Finished Object: Hurry Up Spring Armwarmers

My armwarmers... they'll probably be on their way to Maine, to my brother. Yes, they're fraternal, but I like them that way. They're unique that way(and only used one ball of Kureyon... mmmmm Kureyon). These were my first foray into cables. My second pair, which I'll post later, I used another repeat of the cables. I use them to shield my arms from the sun as I drive to work. Being "generic white people" -- German, Irish, English, with a touch of Cherokee -- I burn easily. Mostly German (my father's parents came from Germany to the US), then Irish (my mother's mother's parents came from Ireland -- she was a Catholic, he was a Protestant -- you can see the issue there), and then English/Cherokee (mom's dad's grandmother was full-blooded Cherokee, the rest of the ancestors were English).

They turned out cute, and I think my brother can use them more than I (especially since I already have a pair). :)

Nulla

We've wanted a Shiba Inu since before we knew what one was. Ben saw one in a pet store and asked what it was because he thought it was cute. We did our homework, and last fall, we drove to a breeder in Kansas to get the Nulla-dog. She was one of two left -- they had 2 litters 2 weeks apart, and there was one girl left from each litter. Nulla and Willow. When we got there, they were running around, chasing each other (as pups will do). I picked up Willow (a sesame), and she just kept on wiggling. I put her down, and Ben picked her up, and she did the same thing. I reached down and picked up Nulla, and she quieted right down. I put her down, and she was running around again, and Ben picked her up, and she was quiet again.

She's been fixed, and she's 17 lb of muscle from running around her back yard. She loves the kitties. She kisses them, and chases them around the house. She's eaten all of their good toys, and pulled apart their wooly bullies. But she's a sweet dog, and a happy dog. She gives kisses (sometimes a bit too much) and tolerates being held and snuggled on (not bad for a 1yo shiba!)

Murrie

I had been living with Ben for about a year and a half, and we had talked about getting Stefano a friend. We jokingly said that the new cat would have to be named "Murray" because that's what Stefano kept saying when he talked to the house. We weren't looking for another cat specifically at the time we found her. We were shopping for a Christmas gift for Mrs. Benny's Mom. The kitchen store was next to a pet store, and the humane society was out with puppies and kitties. He saw the muted calico and said "I want that one." We went shopping, found what we wanted, and we went back outside. A quick trip to the ATM later, and we had a tiny kitten who was doomed with the name "Murrie".

She's still rather petite, but she loves to stretch out. Kelly (my friend from down the street) was watching them while we were on vacation, and freaked out because Murrie likes to lay on her back, and as I tell Murrie all the time... CATS DON'T LAY LIKE THAT!

Stefano

I got Stefano 7 years ago, when he was just a kitten, from the Montgomery County Humane Society in Montgomery County, Virginia. We were visiting my aunt Sharon, and had spent Thanksgiving with her. My aunt Susan (who I was living with at the time) took me to show me how hard it would be to walk away from the kittens. He reached out of the cage as I was leaving, and grabbed my sweater. So I took him home. An 8-hour drive. He met the dog when we got home (a chocolate lab/border collie mix), and climbed up my face to stand on top of my head to hiss at her.

He's the man of the house, and puts the dog in her place. Even though she's slightly larger, he still knows how to deal with her puppy-isms.

Christmas! (already)

So Ben & I (while at my oldest brother's wedding) made plans with my family to have Christmas in Colorado this year. Mom called on Saturday while I was out drinking coffee, so I gave her a call back, and we talked about Christmas -- she's been on-call for all of the other holidays this year, so she's already put in for it. I called my oldest 2 brothers (I have 4 of them, 2 college-age, 2 teenagers) and reminded them of this decision, as I couldn't remember if they had been informed during the 48 hours we were all together.

We need more beds. Bedrooms, we have 5 of. We have 3 guest beds (a double, and two twins), and a sofa now, and my supacool Pier 1 loveseat that converts into a bed. Not quite enough for my mom, Buck and Jen (my new sister-in-law), Jeff and Sara (girlfriend who we've invited), Matt, and Travis. Even if Sara doesn't come, we're still one or two beds short.

I'm actually looking forward to having a big Christmas this year -- we had one when we moved into the house with all of Ben's family (both parents, both sisters, both brothers), then a quiet one last year. We'll do another brined turkey (Yay, Food Network) and maybe some fondue one night... it'll be tons of fun. :)

Finished Object: The laptop bag

This was my second non-scarf finished object, and If I ever have the urge to install a zipper into 1/4" thick felted wool, I will allow anyone to smack me upside the head with a sheep.

I made one rather large change to the pattern from the Stitch n' Bitch book. I matched the stripes. I hated the non-matching stripes in the book. They gave me the heebie-jeebies.

Finished Object: Princess Snowball Cat Bed

This was my first finished object that was not a scarf. Although technically, the green bit was a terribly long garter-stitch rectangle that if not sewn to the 'circular' bit, would qualify as a scarf.

Hey, look, a blog!

Well, I guess this is it -- I'm officially part of the "blogscene". At almost-but-not-quite 30, I feel really old for it, but my knitting passion doesn't really belong on my slashdot journal.

Let me tell you something about myself. I'm 29 (30 in September), married, and have two kitties and a puppy. I've recently joined Knitters with ALTITUDE, a yahoo group of crazy colorado knitters who meet once a week at a random coffee shop to knit and chat.

In the short time that I've been knitting, I've completed the Princess Snowball cat bed (from Stitch'n'Bitch) in orange and green, the laptop bag from Stitch'n'Bitch Nation (modified so the stripes line up), two small felted handbags, and two sets of "Hurry Up Spring" armwarmers (also from SNBN). Oh, and of course the requisite "couple of scarves".

Needles: I'm in love with bamboo needles. Straights, DPN's, and Circulars. Currently knitting on size 8 bamboo circulars.
Yarn: My latest purchase was Rowan Felted Tweed. Merino wool, alpaca and rayon.
Technique: English. I'm a thrower. It makes the most sense to me.
Latest Project: "Under the Hoodie" from SNB in grey, navy blue, and teal.