Saturday, March 29, 2008

For the Horde!

As promised, finally, the chart for the World of Warcraft Horde.

So show your Troll, Orc, Blood Elf, Undead and Cow pride.

I wouldn't try to make any $ off this though as Blizzard will come after you with pointer sticks than you lovely knitters are used to.

Sometimes columns 5 & 17 can be left out if you move the horns (3-5 on 5 and 7) over to 4 and 18 if you are running short on room.

Right, now back to the sock yarn sweater.... oh sleeves why wont you knit quicker?

Friday, March 28, 2008

I can haz ur...

( image of a spindle i super want from Butter Fly Girl Designs on etsy. Check out her stuff.)

....Spins?

So, I think I want to learn how to spin. If I can make it to the 11 Annual Shepherd's Harvest Festival I may just get some roving and tools to go with this line of thought.

Now the big question here is why? Why Ikisti, do you want to add another thing to your plate. Here is another thing that is taking away house $. Here is another thing that is taking up time that you should using to make photographs. Here is another that is taking time away from the kitties.... wait, who wrote that....

Well yes, those are all valid points. But, for a while now I've been craving the feeling of wool sliding between my fingers. Sliding down and spinning around and turning into something I created from start to finish... well almost start to finish.

Now i'm going to try and start small. I have no room for a spinning wheel. Even the little tiny ones that we looked up today. I've done drop spindle spinning before (a long time ago) and I think it will be easy to pick up. Think of all the fabulous felt mouses I can make for the kitties.

Yep, I'm going to give this a try.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Shiny Socks

I finished the Shinny Socks :)

They look pretty good. I have a few little oppses. You can see the main one in this picture. But on the whole it was a fun easy pattern. Pretty good for my first toe up sock.

I have to get cracking on the Sock yarn sweater. I started one sleeve last night. I think it might be a good idea to do both at about the same time. That way I don't have one long arm and one short one. Though I really want to get it done before the Harlot gets here on the 10th.

Boy, March is really heading out the door at a quick pace.


*Edit* It's really Shiny Socks, I just for some reason think it looks better with 2-Ns in it. shrug*



I also started the super cool Lace Ribbon Scarf from the new issue of knitty. It's already #3 on the Ravelry WIP list. That's pretty darn fast for a pattern that just came out.
So far there are only 2 or 3 goofs on that pattern. :)

I've come to the conclusion that I'm sort of a process/final product knitter. I only bother going back and fixing/ripping back if it's a huge "I can't live with it" goof. If it's just something small or not super noticeable, then I just
sort of think, "Well this is showing my learning process. You can see where i started and where i got to." So does that mean i'm lazy? Or just willing to show my skill progress in my cloths... hum.

Well I'm off to pick up my book for the Harlot event and then to learn about new cameras.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

"My Mom and...."

So I left Friday morning around 9am. It was snowy and wet and a bit slippy on some of the roads. But i am stubborn, had music to sing to and promises to keep.

I made it to the DM house at around 1:30/2. Dad and I chatted for a bit. It's funny when you start realizing that your family is getting older. Not in a bad way mind you, just one of those life realizations.



Then Mom got home and we started getting things done. Like feeding me way to much :)
Mom and I went to some of the LYS in DM and WDM. They were all full of nice owners, but you have to wonder how some of them stay open. Dark lighting is never a good idea for a store, I like to see what i'm buying.
I didn't buy any yarn. I did get
Great American Afghan book. Mom really liked some of the patterns in it and so did I. I figure it is justifiable. Then we headed home had some tasty dinners and watched Wild Hogs. It's a silly movie, but those are the best kind to watch with my mom.

Saturday, Dad, LS (Little Sis) and I went out to get a plastic bit for a fuel pump. Then it was back home to show them all Ravelry and to have them pick out a few patterns. LS would like a Calorimetry knitted out of the orange opal sock yarn that I have. There should be enough left when I'm done with the shiny socks. Then we went shopping.

It's funny how hard it can be to find bras that don't creep up. But we did and we had a coupon so that always nice. LS and HSTB (her Husband soon to be) came over to the house once the fuel pump was fixed. Turns out HSTB would love a Jayne hat. I love the fact that she is marrying a geek. Though he like exercise so that's good too, she's very sporty.


Then Mom and I fallowed LS out to her friends house for some Gamer Girl pictures. The picture in her is just a taste of what will be up at the show on May 3rd at the Van Brabson Gallery. There is some info an cool pics on fellow artist e. Katie holm's myspace page. As we were leaving LS called HSTB saying " My Mom and Aunt are leaving" Sigh, i haven't seen the girl enough so now she's confusing me with our aunt. That or all the gaming messed with her head ;)

This morning was political rants with the Brother. He gets really agitated about politics. I bet he could get a job in it if he could leave the house and get his mind under control. (side note) If you have a child who you think might just have a mental illness, please talk about it with your dr. Why do I say child? Because then you can make them go to the dr. When they are past 18 (now 29 almost 30) well, you are just shit out of luck. (back on topic)

I got to chat with Grandpa. He thinks it's good that HT and I are looking for a house. He sounded really good too. He's 83ish so it's always good when they sound good.
Then Mom, Dad and I cleaned out the car and it was time for heading home. (It took a while to clean out the car). It was hard to leave Greenish lawns and head back to the snow. But the ride went well. I listened to Mort by Terry Pratchett. It was the only book I could get iTunes to give me.


I must say, it's really nice to be back here with my kitties and my boy. Home, even though it isn't a house, really is home now.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

prep for the trip

This is not me preparing for the road trip. This is just some photographic evidence of the strangeness of my kitties. They really like bananas. Siren will try and take it from your hands if she can. If you look close you can see her licking her lips.

So I had a kinda busy day today. Pack up the knitting, organize med
s, remind ass. manager of the things he needs to do while i'm gone, eat to many cookies, was told that oatmeal would have worked as flour sub (doh), met Chris at Common Roots for knitting and chatting (mostly about crazy cats, It was of fun), packing up the old sewing mach, picking up The Lady and taking her home from class ( ie listening to her ramble about the soon to be ex), organizing the music list (I like to sing along to things in the car. Helps keep me awake) and tryed to buy The Light Fantastic off iTunes.

Now i say "tryed" because it kept giving me an error
message. If i have a bunch of charges i'm going to be pretty pissed.

Common Roots was super busy tonight because they were having this wine tasting thing. It was almost too busy for me for a place to be after work, but having Chris there to chat with made it nice. There was this funny little girl, maybe 10 (i'm bad at guessing age) who kept walking by and staring at our knitting. It took her a while to ask what we were doing ( even though i said hi in my nice work voice). I guess she had knitted herself a purse that was at home.
Though she did look kinda horrified to see us knitting in public.

It's like people think you are parading around in your underwear. Though I will note that when people parade around in their swimsuits and jump about, that that is closer to parading around in your underwear than knitting in public. (end tiny rant)


So the roads are supposed to be wet tomorrow but i'm not supper worried. Wet is better than ice.

Oh, so i'm packing knitting to take with. Here is what is going with me, Shinny Socks, HT's Love sweeter vest, Present 1 ( though it will
be a not telling what this is for kinda thing) and the yarn & needles for the new knitty lace scarf. The Lady has a lace scarf that she wears a lot and it always makes me think "I need to get something like that to finish off a few outfits" (yes sometime i have very girly thoughts like that, I also watch ANTM but don't tell). So I figured I make one and this pattern seems like the trick. That and I like the color of this yarn too much to hide in shoes.

I really think that this might be my color of green. (though it looks a little blue in the day light, the strip on the right side (at least on my monitor) is prefect though.)

Right, off to bed as I have 3 hours of driving to do tomorrow.

Night.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

no knitting, but we do have...


Baking. Well, sort of. As i'm sure you can see, i didn't have enough flour for the cookies. I decided to try it anyway though. The 2 that you see on the bottom right, they merged to become 1 monster cookie. That and the cookies sort of taste like caramelized sugar, not really like cookie. Oh well you live and you learn.

The left shoulder is feeling better, but I'm still trying to rest it. It tingles a bit when i move it one way or lean on it. So that, my friends, is why there is this sad attempt at baking tonight.

I'm normally a much better baker. I just have to remember to prepare before starting :)

I'm going to be heading home to DesMoines this weekend. HT is going to be staying here to watch the kitties and the March Madness. It's ok other than the fact that I wont have anyone to drive me around so that I can knit in the car. Joice, I'm starting to think that you and I should come up with some kind of robot driver for these trips through the midwest.

I'm going to try and stop at a few yarn shops (and not buy anything, "I'm saving for a house" is going to be my mantra.) Hopefully photograph the little sister's girl-friends playing some video games. And maybe, just maybe have a civil conversation with my brother.

Wish me luck as the roads are saposed to be bad on Friday.

Monday, March 17, 2008

pain in the....

I just realized that this must be one of the 2 wrist warmers that I sold at the art-sale. Hum I wonder who purchased them.

So the reason I'm showing you an old photograph of my arm is that I hurts, quiet a bit really. HT thinks i just slept on it wrong and I really hope that is all it is, but.....

Well i'm going to see the Head Dr. tomorrow anyway so if it sill hurts i'll just have one of the Body Drs take a peek at it.

The snow that was falling today was super pretty. Big, fat, dance around in a deep red or purple frock in a field and get your picture taken sort of snow flakes.

One of these days I'm going to have to get myself in gear and get out there and photograph when those things happen. Though I don't have a good willing model now that Grimis moved to LA. (She was quiet wonderful to photograph, because she would just be natural in the shot, not posy, and she was pretty and normal looking too.)

well i'm not knitting tonight or tomorrow at the drs office so that hopefully i'll have something to do with the Moonies. Other than pick out lace patterns that is.


Sunday, March 16, 2008

75% of the way there

So 2 nights ago I was working on the Sock Yarn Sweeter. I was knitting along, the repeats looked good, then the stitch marker slipped off the needles. I didn't notice and just kept knitting. Well I figured it out after a bit, but then I thought, why not measure it and see if it's long enough yet. So I did, it was and then i just finished off the edge.

So now all we need is sleeves. I'm thinking about holding off on knitting them so that I know it will be just right for April 10th. But then again I might get antsy and just have to finish it anyway.

I'm getting pretty far on HT's Love sweeter vest too. It's about 4" long already. I got a little worried that I wouldn't have enough yarn for it, but after measuring and doing some math. (hehe i'm starting to learn) I'm pretty sure that the 13 balls of dk yarn will be enough.
Now, i didn't get a lot of knitting done last night because it seems that my lap is the perfect place for kitties and computers, though it's hard to have more than a kitty on ones lap when it's a baby Grimers all flopping about. Though he's a cutie so it's ok.

I'm hopefully going to head out to photograph another girl gamer today. :) I'm getting ok response from my website and from friends of friends. I may just have enough for the show.

Wish me luck.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

2 days in pitures and few words.

First, my KnitPicks order came yesterday and made inventory day way better.
Then I got out of working today and got new door nobs to spiff up the bed room. They were on sale, $6 for 2. Not bad for a little spiffy item.
Then the Lady and I went this upscale store. I think this middle dress would be pretty if it were cocktail length I wonder if my Sis has picked out a dress yet?
Then we came home and Kool-aid died some yarn. It was really fun. I can't wait to turn it into a pair of socks. Oh, i didn't mean for them to look so red/white/blue. They were supposed to be dark red blending into purple, but maybe they will knit up nice. All in all I think it was a fun first attempt
What better way to end a day than with ducky cupcakes. They are supper cute.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

A goofy day

So I got my Swift and Ball winder today. The guys at the store were wondering how much yarn I got, because they came in a pretty big box. I wound up 4 balls of yarn. It was fun.

The kitties thought it was pretty interesting too, but they stayed away.

:) Good kitties.

They look pretty. Though I think aesthetically I like round ball ones better.


















This is the Fabulous Leica Polo Shirt Dress. It has gotten a lot of complements today. Though one person asked if I went to the arts high school (hahaha) We even sent the picture to our Leica rep and he's going to give it to the marketing folks. Who knows, maybe there will be a polo dress that they make for the ladies now.

Well that's all for today. I need to get cracking on the sock sweeter.

Monday, March 3, 2008

Domestic Day?

dd
( Leica polo shirt, M, already taken in on the sides)
So this is the before picture of my new shirt dress.


Right, so yesterday was kind of a domestic day. Which isn't a bad thing really, it just make the alarms go off in my head still when i hear it. I'm working on it though. Any way, we started the day with some french toast. I didn't put maple syrup on mine. I put just a little honey on it. It was really tasty with just honey. I might have to revise my lotto plan to put honey bees on the farm too. :)

So after breakfast we went to the mall to get HT some new running shoes. That went well until everyone wanted to meet us at the mall. HT had a little panic attack (he really doesn't like malls) so we had to leave.

I stopped into Joann's to pick up some fabric to make the shirt dress longer. If I'm going to wear it to work it has to be 2" above the knee (ish). Then it was home and baking cookies.

I owed some chocolate chip cookies to the BV gang for letting me have the day off Friday. It was really fun making them with the new mixer. It is way better than having to hand mix things.

Then our friend Rob and his new Lady came over. We had cookies and talked about crafts as the boys played Halo. I got some of the ruffles cut and stitched together. Then it was time for dinner. So i made pasta and garlic toast. Then Robs Lady said that I was super domestic. Which i kinda took offence to... that's silly isn't it. It's not bad to be domestic in your home... Though it doesn't happen often. Which I felt the need to mention.

Then my friends and their 2 year-old came over. Boy, seeing a 2 year-old in action will really show you how tiered and out of shape you are. She is a load of fun though.
After they all left i got the ruffles attached. So the dress shirt is almost done. I think it just need to take the sleeves up a bit. They are all most down to my elbows if i don't and that kinda looks funny.

So, yah yesterday was a pretty domestic day. But that's not a bad thing because i was enjoying myself.
So domestic, not a dirty word.