Peering out of the Mayhem into the light of June

Seems that things are starting to clear, and normalcy may set in, but life is certainly much quieter and less stressful. Thank you for holding on, I seem to generally find the month of Mayhem just to be such a doozie, and never for any real raisin (reference Phillip J. Frye and attack of the Brains here please).
So without any further interruptions I give you the log cabin squares:








In their current state they are all sewn together but most likely not in this order. I'm reusing the Cascade ecowool that just wasn't a Hemlock as a border between all the squares (to make it bigger) and around the outside. Keep in mind that the majority of this Noro silk garden was left over bits and balls from all the mitletts I made for the past 2 years. Plus a full skein or two. I really have no idea how much Noro is in this, but I can attest to it's warmth and softness. And I should have enough balls (not scraps) saved to make my own blanket, as this one is still destined for the FIL. It's more of a family blanket but it is being made with him in mind. Don't you just love Noro and it's self striping yummy~ness.

This weekend is my greek gypsy friend (Kyriokos') 30th birthday. We're driving up to Davis to make it to his BBQ and I believe I'll be delivering a bottle of the St. George Absinthe to the young man. He insists that Absinthe does nothing to him, aside from the last time when on a tiny Island called Quajaline (SP?) he and a bunch of fools finished a Chech bottle and thought it would be a great idea to catch the baby sharks out in the reef. Thankfully nothing foul came of it for anyone, but it certainly sounds like something he himself would even suggest. Remind me to tell you of the time we borrowed the little row boat and went out to a barge in the bay, late at night, drunkenly.

After that comes the first Faire of the season, Valhalla. I can't wait. It's my favorite Faire, and who knows maybe they're still be snow on the ground, as I have it on good word that it was snowing up that way this last weekend.
Well the morning alarm is going off, I suppose I should go and put the kettle on for tea, and make us some breakfast.
Til then, cheers.
Oh and what do you call a husbeast that has shorn all of it's facial fur off??? No really. I suppose Love Bug will do until there's something respectable on his face again. And yes I did take picts they're still in the camera though.
Anon and thanks for waiting.

The proof is in the Pudding...

Mmmmm, pudding. Have I ever mentioned that I love Tapioca pudding. It's my absolute favorite. All those little bubbles of squishyness, yum.
But this really isn't about pudding is it now.
So what you see here is evidence of my knitting related injury. Yes it's true I have shoulder-itis. Ah so painful. But I have used 5 balls and am onto the 6th which is depleting faster and faster as this monster grows. It really is a quick knit.
But sadly last night I hurt so much from knitting on this the previous evening, that I had to pick up a needle and thread and begin on the hat for the ball. As evidenced by my horrible phone pict, yes these two items are relatively the same color. The hat, ahhhh how I love the fabric I found for it. It's just so wonderful and such a color that I find peaking out all over my house. At first this was to be vertical stripes that would find themselves coinciding on the brim, top, and the vertical part. But alas big, thick, chunky stripes don't like to converge in nice, pretty lines when they need to be sized down considerable from the top of the hat to the base. So sadly I cut another piece of precious fabric and placed the stripes horizontally, which really does work for me still. As you may see from the pict, I am at my stopping ground, as I had reached the back seam to la petite chapeau. They are always the most difficult to manipulate. But fantastically the sewing has gone rather quickly, as it's nearly finished from one nights work. I would estimate that a hat may truly take 3 nights to construct. Damn this day job!
And soon my loverlies I may have real picts to show again. The husbeast had a wonderful epiphany the other evening when I was whining to him how he's rather ruined my computer (he did warn me not to move it into the home with him...) and he realized that he had a computer program that I could take to work with me and use it also on my home computer. It's called Gimpshop ToGo. And it's a free plug in that doesn't require any software to be installed onto one's work computer. When I'm done with the pict I'm working on, I just save it to the little card-thingy, and go home, viola, c'est fin! So this GIMP program is just like Photoshop, but not as easy to navigate, but it's free so if you can't afford the $$$$ for photoshop, or don't have a hacker friend (hey wait I married one!...) then you can use this great program. There are help books out there to give aid when using the program also. I believe the link provided may give anyone interested enough info...but if not don't ask me, I just do what the husbeast demands. (Well, he doesn't really give me a choice now does he when it comes to actually buying software, now does he.)

a hat for all seasons.

It was another eventful weekend around East Bania here. For one I finally got to go shopping for some essentials. Essentials like material for my Venetian Ball hat. Did I mention that the husbeasts company is throwing a Ball in the big city on the 8th of December... at a rather fabulous hotel, very riche and posh. Thankfully he gave me the invite immediately and now I am finally preparing. Being in the style of a Venetian Ball, that means we get to dress in fancy costumery! Something I absolutely adore. He's leaning towards being a penguin, the Linux goofball that he is, and well I'm aiming for some sort of winter inspired woodland creation.

So far my colors are a periwinkle/slate palette. And the dress is being shipped as we speak. Joy. I decided Saturday that I CAN and I will make the Casual Glamour Capelet I've been eyeing for so long. So I went shopping at Article Pract in Berkeley, and grabbed 13 skeins of the most softest and most glorious yarn I have yet to knit with. It's 100% Baby Llama, in a worsted weight. It's also a newer yarn,

See that, that's Mirasol Miski yarn from Peru, in shade 101, which is very winter in color, and very pale, and very pretty. The great thing about this company is that proceeds from the purchase (well some of them) go to educating the kids of the village it hails from and making a new school for them.

I've gone through 2.5 of the 13 skeins necessary to make this, but since I started it on Sat. and it's now Mon. I believe that's a great start. *crosses fingers* The pattern for the capelet is super easy, just knits and purls and some YO, and eventually some short row shaping. Aside from grabbing the yarn Sat. I went and spent a pretty penny for a yard of fabric that I believe may be perfect for the matching hat. Picts to follow.

And then,.....

Dicken's begins on the 23rd of Nov. You know, Dickens just like Renn Faire, but in Edwardian garb! And the mask maker will be there, and I'm dragging the husbeast along so we can grab a few leather masks for the Ball.

Yes and now I realize that I have nothing better in my life than to plan for future events. Oh well, at least I have fun preparing for them in the mean time. Well nothing else, besides replanting my garden from the old house into the front yard of the new house. I think it looks great, and everything will grow in rather pleasingly.

Cheers for now. Happy knitting.

Cookies, woohoo.

'Tis that time of the season, where the persimmons are ripening on the trees just so, but doncha know it's persimmon cookie time. Oh yeh, sure.
My version of Persimmon Cookies was from a typical recipe, but since we've just moved and I left all the regular flour in the old freezer, well I improvised.
Persimmon Cookies
INGREDIENTS
2 ripe persimmons, pureed
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Dissolve baking soda in persimmon pulp and set aside.
Sift flour, spices and salt together, set aside.
Cream together butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and persimmon. Stir in dry ingredients. Stir in nuts and raisins.
Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

So it seemed that all the recipes I googled were relatively the same, so this is the first one that came up...
I used Irish butter from Trader Ho's and doubled the batch since I had 5 persimmons.
The puree was the worst part of the entire experience as my little Cuisinart attempted to burst my eardrums with it's shrill motor. Seriously the sound was deafening and kind of throbbing while it worked. Yeh it's a rather new acquisition.
I also peeled my little Fuyu persimmons before I pureed them. Nice and crunchy they were though.
The flour I used 3.5c of wheat and .5 of self rising. They were really squishy and somewhat like bread. I'm not sure it that was from the self rising or if they're normally like that.
I also adjusted the cooking time to 20 minutes.
With all said and done, I'd have to say they were rather yummy. I believe there would have been more of a persimmon flavor had I used the standard Asian one, Hachiya, but I have yet to steal any of those from an old neighbor's tree!

Onto the knitting tails...
Last night I trudged through and struggled with the puddle formerly known as the Hemlock Ring blanket. And I may have won. There was a ton of swearing, much drinking, and perhaps even a little shaking (in a corner perhaps more rocking than shaking..), and now there are 2 rows that I give up on and am planning on just tinking back those two to get it back to where it should have been were I paying attention to my knitting. I swear I've never worked so hard to get so many extra stitches where there were none before. But it'll work, or I'll be damned.
Secondly a huge thanks goes out to Alyson of the Yoyo Knits. I am the proud owner of new Noro, via a sale she pointed over at Woolgirl. Yeah, 5 new colorway of the Noro Silk Garden. I swear by that yarn. So loverly and wonderful and colorful. I'll be making a few pairs of slippers with some this time around I believe.
Oh and did I mention I'm back on Ravelry, yes my work has finally unrestricted my access. My belief is that some big wig higher up, or such is a knitter and complained that she/he couldn't get on. I was hoping someone eventually would. Take that Big Brother!

Knee Deep in Hemlock

and when I say knee deep, I mean knee deep in some major surgery. See I was getting into a groove last night while watching that horrid Superman Returns movie (yeh still no cable~still cool by me though) when I looked at the last set of stitches before a new row and realized that 15 stitches is no where near the 36 that all the other set had. So a plan was devised and instead of putting it off for tonight, I ripped, and I ripped and now there's 24 rows that need some attention.

Those are them on the holder, I practically had to rip back to the beginning of Jared's pattern for the feather and fan section. Turns out that I was off by 1 stitch somewhere after the first repeat. Yes that 1 stitch turned into 24 rows of reknitting. I must admit though that I'm kind of stoked that after these 7 years of knitting that I am confident enough to be able to fix such an erroneous mistake without ripping the entire thing to the frog pond, not like I had to last Thursday. That's right I've really been working on this since Friday morning while our leaky pipe was being fixed.

Now onto figuring out how to get to work on Friday. The only day of the week the husbeast and I don't carpool since I work at 1 in the afternoon, and he doesn't. Turns out my truck won't be done until Friday morning, I decided to get the dent on my hood fixed since there are no turkey's in our new neighborhood. Yep that's right Turkey's damaged my hood with a pecked dent about 1/4" deep, and numerous scratches otherwise! Not quite as bad as the husbeasts though.

So in other news, while waiting for the husbeast last night, I made my way to Beverly's crafts and picked up some consolation fabric, it's kinda cool but still not what I need for the next hat, this is just for something in the mean time.

Talk about crafting spazz's

I know what a horribly unoriginal post, and title as it's already been done by KnitSonya yesterday. But really she got me to thinking, and then last night as I was organizing the house yet some more, I was just rehashing all my crafting junk. And all my non crafting things that I still have no idea what to do with. You know those things that accumulate and stick around for the just in case some day scenario where I may be able to figure out what's what. Well those bottle caps are the majority of them, but there are more in the kitchen, it's like they're breeding. I can't even envision what they could become. I have used some in art projects before, but that wasn't much, and that wasn't that cool. Perhaps someday I'll show you. I liken that project to an artists tambourine. Yeah......right.

Then one Halloween I was at this huge, rad, weird party up on the hill. I sat on a couch and opened the abandoned plastic bags, and oh my do you spy what I found looking up at me. A multitude of eyes... no really.

It was thousands upon thousands of eyes! In all manners, and shapes and colors, ok 4 different kinds. And well there were tons and I gave away handfuls at a time. This is what I carried home with me, after I put a few back into their place on the couch. I do believe there was some sort of free sign with them, so fret not over my thieving nature.

All these little things, what to do. And mind you there are stashes of these things all over the house. I am trying to keep them to a minimum. But I just can't throw out my junk. I may need it some day... I .. just .....know it. Oh well they can be humble-ized by sitting on top of my fridge in a huge jar in the meanwhile.

In knitting news, here's the latest on the newest Hemlock Ring blanket. This is done in the loverly cascade ecowool, on size 9's with oodles of stitch markers. I love knitting this, I love what it's to become. I can't wait to make more.

That's it I must go now, cheers.

I spy with my little eye,

with my little eye,

a piece of candy

faintly rolling on the ground

as if in a whim

it's smells of old men,

and cherry pipe tobacco.

It has the fondness of a far off land

and I am certain it's now in my hand.

what a treasure,

what a delight,

what a sight.

It's Kauni.

So being a couple of weeks or so ago, my mum had the audacity to order the coveted Kauni yarn from a company in Denmark, and she was sweet enough to think of me.n the mail it came today, it's so colorful, want to take a peak. It's okay too.

isn't it just perdy.... and tiny, and like fingering weight! Oh my how am I supposed to knit with such tiny yarn? I might as well be making socks (something I don't really do.) Oh well it's soo loverly though.

On another note, know how I mentioned the swap-a-doodle I'm doing w/ a mystery blogger, well I suppose I should email her and ask her for her address, for her pressie, she is finito! And I so need to ship her off, hopefully in time for this weekend's festivities. And once it's in her hands, well then I will post details. And I'm so stoked because as I was placing the coup De grace last night, I finally figured out how to attach the little thing. Albeit I had to apply more stiffie, but who cares, it looks fabulous! I can't wait to show you guys.

obligatory boobage!

I'm the "small" set in the middle in blue. If you look real hard you can see my hands still knitting!

Sorry, but it was actually more tame than the other pict of me and my other friend and one of the glass thingies that was in the um back room that she had in ahhh her bodice, that I was in no way insinuating doing anything nasty towards with my mouth agape, or anything of that manner and stuff, like she said!........ . . . . and without much further ado, the one day Tam hat, please pardon my shiny worker-bee nosicle.

Hey, how's bout's a titles heres...

Are you still a Rockin' Girl Blogger if you don't know how to edit HTML? edit: hey, not HTML, just a stolen picture, well glad I finally figured that one out....

But seriously I generally Rock out with my Caulk out. Who doesn't love a little tile work! Ha, I kill me, well I certain someone may try now at least. Enough with the corn...
So last night on my walk w/ my lady friends, I was again reminded that I had previously referred to my boobs as the Enormoids from the Deep, well the friend that was so tauntingly reminding me of such tales just had it coming to her. So I named her's litteler than mine but not too shabby. Nah not really, they will actually forever be known as Hairy Fluffer Knuts. *squinches nose in retaliatory angst and cunningness!* I just wanted to get that out and in the open, in case I ever forget what I had renamed then to. Of course we were preparing for the big event this weekend, oh god I hope she doesn't slap me in public when she reads this. Thankfully she is blogless, and I will of course keep her nameless, ya know to protect the innocent and all.

What a dilemma, weld with the husbeast, or go to Faire 2 days in a row, with the monetary aid of the oh so generous husbeast. I may have to do the Faire thang. But repayment for such kindness, and him watching over my doggles, Haze, 2 days in a row. Hmmmmmm, what to do what to do.
The Hemlock Lap Blanket comes along well. Still not onto the additional chart, but am eagerly awaiting it. I have also received the third installment of the respun wool, woohoo.
As to which knitting shall accompany me this weekend, not sure, but I believe the Chevron scarf may travel the best as it is a smaller acticle.

and again in the immortal words of the creepy kid from Six String Samurai:
TAG YOU'RE IT!
Madame Fury, good to be girl, Knit Sonya, Spindelicious, Nocturnal Knitter
yo peeps, like always, I will not be commenting on your blogses, so feel free to run with it. Get it tag, run... !
damn I'm outa here.

Onto something new.

When I first spied this little diddy over at Brooklyntweed, ~hello why have I never come across him before?~I nearly peed myself! Scroll down until you see his Hemlock Ring Blanket. Isn't it just to die for. So I cast on. Not right away, because I was waiting to hear from one of my lady friends to whom I had given some really bulky Alaskan yarn to respin. Well she came back with 2 skeins of this really rad respun wool. It's a tri-color gray in a worsted weight. Just the perfect size for the must have blanket. Both skeins were about 65yards, and there are still 8 more to come. Which is good because I've gone through the first one and am just starting the second. Yeah for tiny skeins which make me think I've done way more than I really have. The wool was purchased last June when my mum and I took a cruise up to Alaska with the company she represents. I bought it in Victoria B.C. in a tourist shop of all places. I remember each enormous ball was about $7 American. They wool was relatively loosely spun, so I took a chance, and Erin the Magic Finger Spinner that she is came back with such a lovely product. I love how all three colors have softened all the tones, and now keep the eye moving. The texture at first is rather rough, but every now and again this rad and weird sensation of silk seeps in. I believe it's much softer when knitted up also. I'm one happy camper here.

That's just a sneak peak of the inside. But all I want to do is curl up in a comfy chair and knit away. Kind of like calgon, take me away, but all, hemlock take me away... There is a knitalong set up for this pattern, and it seems like it may get a bit more confusing when I get to line 40 something or other, which is about 10+ rows off. So far smooth sailing. And it also has just the right amount of lace work. Not too much to drive me batty, and just enough to keep me focused.

This weekend ushers in the Renaissance Faire in our area, NorcAl, biotch. I missed the opening days, but I rarely ever go on opening weekend. This weekend though promises to be filled full of Fairing Frolicks. Maybe even twice the goodness, if the pocket book holds out. Not too sure on that front though. Saturday I am fo' sure going with the hippies, who could resist when the roommate drives, and I can drink a butt load, and have a day to recoup. There should be about 10 us going from Eastbania, and we're meeting up with 2 more from further south. Soooo it'll be a doozie. The theme is Pirate Invasion, which is fun, but I don't really fulfill that particular style. Close enough, gypsy, pirate, rapscallion, whateva. The costume is ready to go. This year I am on the lookout for a green long skirt, maybe a new clay jug (for sneaking in wine), 2 more bottles of the Perfumed Dragon's Baltic Amber for me smelly parts (did I mention I rarely use deodorant~all that aluminium and everything - no I'm not a hipppy!-), what else, what else, hmmm. Well that's all I can think of right now without having gone yet.

All this talk about Ren Faire actually brings me to this, I kind of want to start going to or even working at Dicken's Faire. It's held at the Cow Palace in South San Fran, I've been once and was rather well entertained. There were dancers, singers, and just tons and tons of great and NEW things to do there. Also a bunch of new people. And the costumes are rather more ornate. Which is a problem in that it's harder to get a group gathered in such expensive garb. Well shoot I've been doing Ren faire for over 15 years, and I've always been a bit more peasantry than royalty or nobility. It's a stretch going from one style to another. I think if I were to start going to Dicken's I could drag the husbeast along much easier than to Ren Faire. I don't know why but he hates Faire. Which is a huge bummer for me. I believe what I'm trying to say here is that I'm trying to find a happy medium for the two of us to come to when it comes to the odd bits of entertainment.

Babbling done, cheers and here's to happy hemlocking!

ahhhh holidays

What a novel notion having 3 days off. I only left the house once on Saturday, otherwise that we stayed put, and it was just lovely. We did have people over for a BBQ, you know all the peeps that didn't go camping. It was fun and a bit boring, but all in all it was rather impromptu. And in most ways I must say we have some rather kookie friends. Nothing was ready in time, all the food came in more like a 7 course meal action. But once that was over with, out came the instruments. I hope our neighbors left, but I really don't think they did.



We all shared instruments, and let me just be the first to say I haven't played a true piece of music since 5th grade back when I played the cello. The husbeast and I dug out or roomy's trombone, and harmonica, and someones left behind and broken (but fixed by hubs) drum peddle, and an electric guitar. One of the friends brought a very nice acoustic. Then I was bad...I went and dug out my child's accordion. Really it's more of a squeeze box w/ 2 cords. But lemme tell ya...it's real fun to play on New Year's Eve at our local camping spot, and even better in their toidies. (bathrooms another words).



So there we are, sitting around our little bonfire, shooting shots of Casadores, each person playing a bit of this instrument, and then passing it along to the next person, and so on and so on, until we had each played everything we wanted to. It was fun! It was silly, it was cacophony! Let's just say I really can't hold a tune on a trombone, nor a harmonica (sometimes) and well the accordion no one can hold a tune but it's cute and makes hideous noise.

But that acoustic guitar. Oh my! I would almost go out and buy one for myself if they weren't so darn costly. I haven't played a guitar with such gusto and conviction as I did on Sat. I really enjoyed the sounds and the way that they just rolled off of the cords and out of the body. What fun!!!!



What a night, awkward and just weird. Much akin to most of our gatherings.



On the knitting front I dug through my stash and came across some sock yarn and another mystery yarn. The sock yarn is Jojoland, and the mystery stuff is 2 ply that I am currently unplying as I go along. So there's the green stripe and the blue stripe that are from the mystery yarn. Oh yeah, I'm using these things to make the Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. Yeah for crappy cell phone picts!
Cheers all and Happy knitting.

and knitting away

Sprout grows!
I'm past the ribbing on the body, and am nearly up to the arms and all that.
Unfortunately tonight is another Street Party as well as the Beer Btich meetup, and my friend Damon and his lovely family will be meeting me downtown. So I'm thinking that my knitting time may be a little shortened. But who cares, Damo only comes back from China once in a blue moon, so long lost friends over knitting for me anyday. He's a really cool guy, and the most accomplished graphic designer and painter that I know. And his baby, oh my, the cutest little guy around. He has even been on a Chinese baby shampoo commercial, has strawberry blond hair, and is a half Asian, part Portugese/Italian/Scottish wee one. Too cute!
Cheers for now, and Happy Knitting

and I knit some more.

So last night I started and finished the other sleeve, and cast on for the main body to Sprout. I can't believe how quickly it goes when you're not knitting on 1's and 3's. Go figure huh.
So yesterday I had an epiphany. Not one of much brilliance, but I did realize that my Dolly Maxi superwash is probably not the same yardage as Gedifra...guess what they aren't! The Gedifra called for in the pattern is actually more than the Dolly Maxi by about 120 yards (cumulative). So off I was, ordering 2 more balls, and the gal over at Pure Knits was more than lovely in writing back that she orders sweater yarn in bulk. Ah the knitterly love, just feel it, and go ahead, squish it about, you'll love it too. But what do I know, I've only had one cup a coffee so far this morning, so maybe I'm a little delusional at this point, but nah I don't think so, as I generally only have one cup in the mornings.
And I suppose I should apologize to Amy Boogie for being such a ninny and asking her advise, when I pretty much already knew the answer. But she again was such a sweetheart in writing back to my yardage question. Again the love it's bursting from the scenes around here peeps. Just bursting I tell ya.
Go ahead, and burst someone's scene's today. Go ahead, surprise them, it's kind of fun.

I knit, and I knit, and I knit

and knit, out of love and joy. Out of needing to get things done. I enjoy working with the Laines du Nord, Dolly Maxi. The name reminds me of Dolly the Sheep for some reason, poor poor DNA deficient Dolly. But this dolly isn't deficient in DNA. It's deficient in twist. But the yarn is so squishable that I really don't mind when I have to tink back because I missed a strand. But I may mind when the little strands begin to get caught on things like fingers and purses ~but lo, that's in the future. Currently though I am really enjoying Boogie's Sprout Cardigan I spoke of last. And by the by huge thanks to that crazy YoYo Knits for the heads up on el cheapo yarn!

So far a sleeve has been made. That's since last night when I realized that I had received my yarn earlier that day. I'd say it was about 10:30. We had just eaten dinner and I was trying to pass out on the couch when the reality of new yarn in the house began calling. Don't you just love that sound. The gentle nudging of the merino drawing me nearer and promising that I will be just so happy to knit it. I mean after all it is Super Wash. What a star fiber super wash. ~Here I come to save your knitting today, it's me Super Wash, with a chest all emblazoned with an unfelted "S". ~Do great balls of super wash have chests? I believe I've gone one step beyond. But eh gads who cares, it's Super Wash. Yes I admit it's my first experience with super wash, but I believe I'm keeping my cool. Not like I've actually made the super wash hero suit, yet.

Sorry for the larger than necessary delay in babble~status (blogging) but I've been doing summer things, like gardening, and planning a reception, and cleaning house, and making invites, and then making more but different invites, then making more of those different invites.

scanner time, scanner time, whoah, hoahooh.

It dawned on me a moment ago, I can at least scan the invites I have on hand just so you can see their gocco cuteness.
Do keep in mind that these are the second generation of printing, hence the little dots of color from the well used screens. But they were still rather successful I believe. The back side is the bottom image, of the Mad Hatter and the Hare trying to stuff the Doormouse into a tea pot. Too prosh! They are printed on either black, brown, orange, lime green, or light blue (as you see above), and are about 3.5"x5. The size I used really got me to work out how to keep the registrations straight. Each card was pressed 3 separate times, once for the back, then the little blue dancing people (from the silhouettes out of the Cinderella book), then a third time for the rest of the text. Yep these are for the invite only after party that's up at our house. And yep there is a slight mad hatter theme going on, but that really isn't unusual as I try to throw one every year. But this one may just have decorations to match.
(One of these day's I'll give a gocco tutorial. Since my machine is the PG-11 I didn't really find any tutorials for that model. And then some other day I may even watch the video's that came with the kit...I just can't stand reading or watching instructions, I prefer to figure most things out myself.)
The reception down at my mum's house has a much more proper, white paper with black ink and rather official invite, well as official as a backyard BBQ invites can be, but still boring...!

Harrry potter harry potter harry potter harry pot

harry potter harry potter harry potter harry pot

oh potter boy oh potter potter boy

oh potter boy oh harry-o!

Potter potter harry-oooooooo

(sung to the tune of Sarasponda)
Still waiting to see it. Lo there is no one left to go with me...Oh well there's a midnight release of the book this weekend at our downtown hangout. Can anyone say books and beer! Woohoo, butter beer. I wonder who will be killed off this time, or if Hermione and Ron will finally get it on in Moaning Mertle's bathroom. You know that's where J.K. is going with it. Watch, pretty soon there will be parodies just like there were for the Brady Bunch. Mark my words. oh what's that? There already are? Oh poo!

Cheers and Happy Knitting to one and to all.

Just sometimes

I get jealous. Not like green around the gills jealous. But jealous yet still in the smallest way. I was just reading the Harlots loss of a ripped fair isle sleeve, and her sorrow over so much lost effort and work. But here I think to myself as I am nearing completion of my first sweater, just how nice it must be for those smaller knitters out there that can knit a small sweater and be able to wear it. Here if I were to be making same said sweater it would need to be an XL just to fit over my boobs alone. I run into this feeling of jealousy every now and again. Don't think I'm not trying to work on it, for I am. I try to knit faster so I can compare the time it takes me to knit something to the time it takes some other, but it just isn't the same. Perhaps I'll just take longer walks in the evening to try and make the difference only 2 sizes, and not 3. That would certainly be a decent way to remedy that fact of size and of what really matters.
My lovely Rowan sweater has half of a half sleeve left to be knitted, then my mum has promised to show me how to seam them all together. I'm so excited. And it seems that it will be finished in time for the reception. The question still remains as to whether or not the darn thing will fit AND look nice on. I did try it on once, by pseudo seaming the front and back together and well it wasn't flattering, but hopefully it will.
I ordered yarn yesterday. I had it on good faith that there was a sale going on over at Pure Knits, thanks to the lovely over at YoYo Knits. For a decent price I got six balls of a lovely bright shade of blue, hmmm rather similar to the one you see on this blog hmmm, it's Laines du nord's Dolly Maxi aran weight yarn. The only reason I went out and splurged was because of just the cutest short cardi that Boogie had done up. Check it out ! Doesn't just make you think cute! Well it does for me. So that's the next on the needles, and if you look closely, it's not done up on size 1's or 3's. That there's genuine 6's at least. Woohooo. I really don't want to be making another size 1~3 sweater again, at least not for a long time.
Neither have I given up on the purse idea. After all I'll need something chic to go along with my dress for my reception. EEEiiii it's getting so close, and things really are just starting to fall into place. If not just a little late in the timing. Oops did the invites get out 3 weeks late? Bad me. But 2 people have RSVP'd. Not bad, eh. Back to the purselett though, I have some nice frames. And to me it's the frame of the purse that should really make it sing. I'm leaning towards the larger frame, coin purse style. It's copper colored, and has sparkelies for the clasps and a bit more detail. I'm a little torn on which yarn to use. I would like it to be small in gauge, and may just use some of the sweater yarn so as they could match, but incorporate some brown Rowan Glace that I have lying about. Of course it would be rather similar to a clutch, but a small strap from the frame is necessary. I'm a little nutty in that I can picture it, but when it comes down to it, is that what will come out, we'll just have to see.
Have a lovely weekend all, and Cheers.

Keep on, Keepin' On

Well it's summer, it's windy, and it's not really all that warm.
Currently I'm trying to get a proper registration for the invites, but am getting rather tired of the whole affair. I also want them to look all cool and retro and rad, but am finding the creation process without my photoshop a little more disappointing. I want my computer back, and I want it the way it was. This is truly driving me batty. But I'm whining, which is rather unbecoming of a lady.
Last night while waiting for the husbeat to pick me up from work (yeah we carpool) and I actually finished knitting on the hat, and later that night I knit the 2 flowers that will go on the brim. Tonight, after laying more of the stone patio at my mums I'll work on felting the cloche hat, and let it dry. That should only really take 5 days, right.....
Also tonight I need to work on the flea problem. I'll start with the diatinascious (sp?) earth. And a little lemon water for the poor flea bag of a husbeast. For some reason, he is one of those people that will be bitten by ANY bug that is around. He must have really good blood!
Oh, and this weekend, I'm going to head over to Marin to look at some gals destashing alpaca. For $3 off of craigslist, I don't know if I can resist. It's from Peruvian Wonders, perhaps not top of the line, but I'll investigate that when I get there. And she has newer books to. It's a bit of a drive, but will fall into my Sunday morning errands, and I get to knit in public in Marin. Cool, something new.

pre warning-I'm about to get all boring and ranty and uber nostalgic snarky here.
Stay continued for a general better mood in the days to follow

deleted for my own sense of self satisfaction

A hat and some cake too

Actual knitting to report, it' s a hat. It's to be a felted hat, it's from Felt It! In particular, a rather fetching cloche hat with a really cute brim.I suppose I'll see if it felts and fits. The green is mystery wool, perchance from the riche~sheeshei LYS, not exactly in my area. And the grey is Cascade 220. Unfortunately I don't have any ball bands from the green mystery wool, but it's sooo yummy and lovely I couldn't pass up making a hat from it's 2 balls. (hehehe) It must have some sort of alpaca or angora in it because there are a few wild hairs that stick out from time to time, and well as I said it's just a delight to touch.

Hmmm blogger's auto double lining the posts again...

heheh

Yesterday was kind of fun around here. We began the day by helping my mum to create a flagstone patio for the reception and when I say we, I mean myself but more so the roommate!, created this awesome gorgeous stone patio. The rock is Three Rivers tumbled stone and there are little bits of green and red and black, and I'm showing my uber goober side when it comes to stones, ahghgk. I kill me.

The only reason I wasn't able to help as much as I would like is that my mum and I had a cake tasting date. And boy was that ever rad. The bakery is in Oaklandish, and just fabulous, not over the top riche~sheshei, but just right, as we walked in off the street in our dirty ass work clothes. I'm so delighted, I got the cake I was hankering over. It's a square two tier cake with butter cream frosting, yeah not much into the hard frosting crap. And there's three dimensional cherry blossom on the tiers. I'm so stoked, the flavors, yes each layer is different, are for the bottom, chocolate with a chocolate mouse with whole raspberries rolled in (that's for the husbeasty). The top layer of the cake is a cream cheese pound cake with lemon, and when I say lemon, it's totally all Lemon, and that's with strawberries, and more of my tastes. As to the colors of the cake, well I really want periwinkle blossoms, I love periwinkle. And for the base it should be a greenish or blueish color, with the brown from the cherry blossom branches. I'm rather leaning towards a nice lime green, with a darker green piping around the bases of the cake.

I'm so tickled over the fact that I don't have to make the cake, you don't even know. Woohoooooo. A big huge thanks go to my mum, for the cake. I was totally going to make one when she piped in that she wanted a traditional cake. That's probably better then the Persimmon Pudding with hard sauce that would have been our cake otherwise. Have I ever mentioned that we're not exactly normal people. This is where I may need to point that out. Perhaps I'm normal, but well the husbeasty he's a little different in certain aspects, like food. But I will totally save your ears for another day.

I guess that's it for now...

cheers and happy knitting then

I like getting up early

This was taken a few weeks ago when the computer was on a bit of a fritz. But gosh the sky was just so brilliant. And the color quality is rather similar to what you *hopefully* see. I swear the sky was like a watercolor. All murky and dreamy. What you can't see is that we have a rather decent view of the bay from the hill. Also behind the stupid Eucalyptus tree is actually the San Francisco skyline, but we can't really see it that well, again that darn tree.

I'm liking this moving in thing. It's taking forever though, perhaps that's because I move like 5 boxes at a time. Slowly though, it's piecing all together. Very daunting. I can't imagine what I would do if the place didn't have 4 rooms. 3 of which the husbeast and I occupy with our crap.


I have to admit though, I'm multi~tasking, so if my words seem wonky, that's because I'm working, and making reception to do lists, and writing. Eeeh! We finally decided on a reception date, Aug. 11. But we're holding it at my mum's house. It's a rather nice place, but needs a lot of yard work, and everything else...

I'm excited. Currently the husbeast is en route to my office from his with sushi! on the segway. Yes the company has 3 segways. Neat things they are, I just hope the arse-holio coppers on the island don't pull him over. mmmm sushi good.

Oh that's right did I skim right by the pict of the turkeys doin' it. Doin' it and doin' it and doin' it right. Mmmmhum yeah right. You like how they're just looking at me all "excuse us~we're um, busy...can we help you." Funny thing is, they just stayed there as I took numerous pictures. Freakin' weird birds. They deserve it though, if only you knew the raucous they make night and day. I've even caught the buggers pecking at the neighbors vehicle. And let's not mention their propensity for motorcycles. They like to stand there, or even come after ya. Cheeky beaks.

So onto knitting news, the stash is being organized, and it's a bit bigger than I thought it was. Last night I was filling some wonderful book cases a girlfriend had given me Sun. The shelves are adjustable, which is great for books and bags of yarn, but when I lifted my old hard suitcase I queried why oh why could it be so heavy, looked inside and low and behold there's more yarn. I have yarn coming out of so many crevices I had no idea. And here I am all knitterly blocked.
Tonight I must begin a second pair of mittlets for the best friend who's going to Ireland with some other friends and her hubby. The first pair, well one was lost, so they're necessary, and I really don't mind. It's just that I have to give up more of my lovely yarn. Just kidding. I may love Noro Silk Garden, but I can totally afford to hand out a lovely matching pair. After all she has to help me plan my reception. hhehehhehhhhehheehhehhmhumhmmmmhuuuuhe.

On the Gocco front, I realized that I neglected to say where I got mine from, it was out of Florida, go here: I really like the gal, Judy, but through a series of Unfortunate events, I still have no ink, and still have no idea when it will get here. So I have the machine, I have paper, I have screens, but just the ink... So she's super nice, and super apologetic, and at the same time there was a family issue she was attending to in Canada, so I can give her that much. I suppose a note in the last shipping explaining where the ink was would have been the appropriate thing to do, or an email. That's the only thing I don't like. Or a response to my email...
I'm just eager though.


PS I don't seem to be able to email people back when they leave a comment, so please note that I'm not being rude. I will make an effort to comment back anything on your own blog, if that is what needs to happen.

Soo close

you could nearly smell the pictures they were just that close to being posted.

But alas again my poor computer had to/still is updating Adobe. And probably will be for who knows how long. Pooh! This started last night after the Darling husband :o) fixed the internet connection, and the printer's connection so I could both post and upload images. I dropped an image into photoshop, and Blammo~it went Adobe insisted upon updating. Well this time it's actually Adobe's fault. But still, pooh!

So in recognition of not being able to post any picts, yet again,

Here, take this:

a quasi bad camera phone pict, woohoo!

But what is this you may inquire, well lemme tell ya. You may or may not remember this post where in I had to go and track down 3 balls of a particular Rowan Cotton Glace, because I thought I had used all the ones I had purchased for the still unfinished sweater. Notice there are 4 in the same color, and then there are actually 2 more. One pretending to be a nearly finished sleeve. Hmmm seems they were hiding in the other half of my stash over at my mum's house, fornicating with her unused balls from her already finished sweater. Eesh how awful am I...

We'll see how far along the *update* is when I get home tonight. It hadn't visibly moved in 12 hours, so we'll just see, shall we.

Time to start knitting for Faire

Long time no talk, sorry about the huge interlude, gosh. I've been busy spring cleaning, since the roommate is still in the desert. But things are finally getting done. And we got a new coffee table.! That's cool, because it's long and I can put a plate on it, or my feet and the whole thing doesn't shift. It's delightful.

Spontaneous trip down to Willow Springs this weekend. The boy and I are going down to the AHRMA Vintage races out there in the Palm Desert area. We went last year, but didn't get to witness too much of the races due to the boy being in race school, this time we're just going to watch from the sidelines. :( Oh well racing isn't exactly a cheap sport, but watching sure can be.
Hope the weather holds. Maybe the boy will let me drive the Miata...doubt it.

On the other hand though, at least I can cast on for the stitch diva sweater I've been hankering for so long. You know, this one but in grey's and purples using diakeito Rococo color 110. It's so soft and so lovely, hopefully it won't pool, and hopefully it'll work well enough with the gauge from the Tilli Thomas that I'm using for the lace bits.

I also made reservations for the Valhalla Renaissance Faire up in Tahoe come June. Can't wait. Some of my lady friends and I went 2 years ago, before it changed hands, and it was really rad. This time it looks promising. Best part is there is no driving after faire. We can just stumble home to our tents! Oh I love faire. I may even post picts of me and my friends all dressed, we'll see. We are a bit of a ragmatag group of gypsies, pirates, peasants, and an Irishman. I personally am more into the gypsy side of the Faire, or rag~lady may just be a better description. But when you've attended for over 15 years, the costumes seem to go in flurries, and constantly change. One year something will strike as a wonderful idea, then the next it'll be something else. Last year I finally got a new skirt. The first new skirt in about oh 11 years. And yes was it ever necessary. This year, I really want to knit a sunhat, I can already imagine it, brown hemp in a sport weight, in a Parson's style (big brim w/ a fitted top, and a wire rim.) Perhaps I should work on making that happen before I cast on for the sweater, since Valhalla starts in June. I've also come to the realization that I could really use a shopping bag, something big and strapped over my shoulder across my chest in fair isle. That would be most glorious, yes, most glorious. (Family Guy~mocking Winona Ryder's acting skills in Little Women) The hat I attempted to knit last year never really panned out. It was supposed to be a flower where the petals lifted up and out, with again a wire brim, and a top that peaked like an elf's cap. I may still make that some day.... . .. .if only I had all the time in the world and some design geniuses intellect.

Ta for now. Oh the picts i have to show you. Yeah it's that good, and it involves turkey's on the neighbor's front lawn.