Cruel Cruel Cruel!!

Oh the tricks one's mind plays. I got up at about 12:30 am, quite groggy, stumbled to the bathroom and did my business. And as I was sitting there I'm thinking, "Ahhhh, tomorrow is Sunday. I can sleep in." D'oh! Then of course it dawned on me that it was, alas, only Monday and tomorrow was Tuesday as in today. Lordy this is going to be a looooooong week.

Stash busting

I put some of my stash on eBay this weekend. Odd how tough that is! I love having this backlog of yarn. However, I realized that I just wasn't going to use it and there are projects that I want to do that need yarn that I can't afford. So - yay for eBay!! I even found four skeins of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Super Chunky that I forgot I had.

Here's the Berroco Optik. I thought I was going to love this but once I swatched it I realized it was too busy for a whole garment. It would be good for cuffs or stripes or something but I'm going to try to sell all but one of the 10 skeins.

I bought some Portofino Paper about a year ago to make a cardigan with fun fur cuffs and collar but I haven't done anything but swatch that so I know I'll never get around to it. It's pretty cool yarn though.

The fun fur is just gaudy. I know I'll never use that. Plus which the Lion Brand is a little scratchy. Not like Apart, for example.

And finally the Cashmerino. I think it's my favorite yarn except it pills a bit. But it is oh so soft.

A creature of habit

Yahoo mail was acting up this morning and threw my whole morning off schedule. I like to do things in a certain order - read and respond to emails being the first thing. Oh well ... I'll try to overcome.

Running the gauntlet and Bernie Bott's Beans

I just got back from a quick trip up the Ave (University Way, for the non-Seattle people) where I was accosted several times. "Hi, can you spare 5 minutes for the environment?" What I said was, "Not today". And what I got back was, "Well, enjoy the sunshine". What I should have said was "Oh, I can spare more than 5 minutes for the environment. What I can't spare is any time for sarcastic little twits who are trying to guilt people into donating to their cause." That just annoys the hell out of me! Here's what I observed today at lunchtime - in Seattle, one of the "greenest" cities, in the University District, one of the most liberal neighborhoods in the city, no one, it seems, could spare 5 minutes for the environment. Everybody, on the other hand, was enjoying the dickens out of the sunny day.

And, completely unrelated topic here, I tried Bernie Botts Every Flavor Jelly Beans this weekend. In case you're one of the 6 people who haven't heard or seen any Harry Potter, they're jelly beans that come in every flavor, even disgusting ones. Being a jelly bean fanatic I thought I'd give them a try and, quite honestly, I didn't really think that they would make the nasty tasting ones. I looked on the back of the box and there was a legend, kind of like when you get Jelly Belly beans showing what each color meant. Besides more normal flavors like cherry and toasted marshmallow there was also listed black pepper, soap, earthworm, ear wax, vomit(!), booger(!!), dirt and grass. I looked carefully at the list of ingredients and the only thing that made me think that perhaps they might be nasty tasting was that black pepper was listed as an ingredient. I was cautious but first off mistook an ear wax for a toasted marshmallow. Eeuuuuwwww! I spit it out. Thankfully the booger and vomit are pretty easy to pick out and pick them out I did, not even daring a nibble to double check that the vomit wasn't tutti frutti, it's closest lookalike. It was actually pretty funny and fun too, although Erik thought I was being a bit wasteful, since I was tossing away every 4th or 5th bean. I had a big laugh. Well worth the money.

Oh can you BELIEVE this???

Check this out:

Jul 20, 9:02 AM (ET)

LONDON (Reuters) - The word "fail" should be banned from use in British classrooms and replaced with the phrase "deferred success" to avoid demoralizing pupils, a group of teachers has proposed.

Members of the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) argue that telling pupils they have failed can put them off learning for life.

A spokesman for the group said it wanted to avoid labeling children. "We recognize that children do not necessarily achieve success first time," he said.

"But I recognize that we can't just strike a word from the dictionary," he said.

The PAT said it would debate the proposal at a conference next week.

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I'm sorry, but that is about the most asinine thing I've read in a while. In a very long while. Failing is part of life. What next? Assure the little darlings that they'll all live forever? Good gawd.

Omar goes home

I had to take Omie to the airport this morning. We had SUCH a good time while he was here. Here's a picture of him and Ruth at Ray's Boathouse yesterday, where we went for lunch and to discuss his Johnson O'Connor stuff. I think he had a good visit. I know we sure enjoyed having him around. I hope he is serious about moving up. It sure sounds like it.

Omar & his thiz face. Not really sure exactly what it is supposed to convey. But we were having fun drinking and playing pool last Tuesday night.

How many projects can YOU count?

The stash

Tinkerbell at the lake

It is sooooo bright at the lake. This picture didn't come out too well. This is another mobile blog. It's Tink at the water's edge. She just loves it there. She doesn't go out too far in the water, preferring instead to just paddle at the edge and then lay down in the shallows.

My Omie

This is pretty blurry, but Omie at the dog park. It is hot hot hot hot today. You can see what a big boy he is.

Too much going on

Omar has been visiting and I've taken time off work and not been spending too much time at the laptop. I have been trying to get my mobile blogging deal going but I think there's something wrong with my phone. It won't let me send pictures, which is weird. And it won't let me receive them. Time to go to the Cingular store I guess. Plus which it's HOT and I haven't been knitting too much. Maybe this afternoon I'll go downstairs where it's cool and do some stuff. Crazy wanting it to be cooler so I can knit.

Guilty pleasures

Oh this is terrible. More terrible than sneaking a peek at that Nanny 911 show. I have been just scanning through blogs and it is just ... well, kind of like looking at something really awful. I can't stop after one. I go on and on. It's just insane what people write. And I have noticed a similarity in templates. The religious ones go for that parchment look. Many of the political ones go for the black. Weird. What is embarrassing though is that many of the young girl ones read just like my old diaries. How incredibly self-centered girls are. Or I was anyway. I shudder. I am so very very thankful I don't have any children.

I am ready to tear my hair out!

I hate hate HATE Internet Explorer. And Microsoft. I am going crazy trying to get some quizzes made and I have to use IE rather than Netscape to do it and it freaking thing keeps crashing! Arghghghgh!!!!!! I spend so much time dealing with brower issues and compatibility issues and I'll bet that 99% of them are non-issues and simply Microsoft or Mac being pissy with one another. No wonder I want to knit all of the time. It's meditation. Rather like sucking one's thumb.

I had to change my blog template. I was looking at random blogs last week and realized that I have the template that is used by all the little girls. So, as much as I love pink, green is a good second.

It could definitely be worse

Last night was Ginny's night out with the girls. Kind of a bachelorette party without any tiaras or strippers. Plenty of drinks though. I had the foresight to book a Doctor's appointment for 11 am so I didn't come in to work but rather slept in a bit and left from home. I actually don't feel too bad, considering I drank 5 martinis. I did eat though, which is key. I would have been in serious trouble if I hadn't been eating. So, of course, no knitting last night for me. I managed a couple minutes with my orange sweater while I was waiting for the Doc. I was thinking of maybe putting in a row of eyelets and threading a ribbon or I-cord under the bust. Kind of making it an empire type thing. It could be cute. Can't decide. I want to do something though because I think that unrelieved orange might be too much, even though it's off the shoulder. I tell ya what though, I sure as heck don't feel like working. urgh Maybe I should get some lunch.

I love mohair! And felting too!!

I scored big yesterday. I can't remember how, but I found this place called Paradise Fibers. They have mill ends of some odd ball yarns. I bought some mohair because I had finished up that Flower Power shrug for my sister and loved it so much that I thought I'd like to make one for myself. Even though this mohair is blended with synthetics I thought I'd give it a try. Can't beat the price. It is $10 for 1500 yards! Here's the colors I got. There isn't much of a selection but I originally thought I'd make another Chain Link scarf with three colors and, while it doesn't show up very well here the color on the left is green and it looks lovely with the two blues. But then I got to thinking that maybe I'd like to make a throw. When I was making the latest felted bag I noticed how pretty the pattern was on the bottom of it. When you knit in the round and increase once at the beginning of each needle (you're using 4 dpns when you start out) a wonderful swirl pattern automatically happens. I thought it was so pretty and that it would make a great blankie. Especially since this mohair is washable because of the acrylic content. I also figured that in order to make it reversible - the only problem with knitting a throw rather than crocheting it - I'd have to stripe it by knitting a few rounds then purling a few rounds. Well, here's the very start of it. Can you think it a sillier time to start knitting a blanket?? But I like to have a few projects going so I don't get bored and this is a mindless type of project that I can just sit and do while watching a game or having a drink. No counting.

I whipped out another felted bag. This is another version of Sheree-Lee from Spun. I had knit one that looks exactly like the pattern and then branched out, using stash. Unfortunately I didn't make the handles long enough to put over the shoulder, but at least this time I put rubber tubing through the eyelets so that when I felted it they didn't close up and now I can use the handle as a drawstring, which I couldn't do with the first one. Prefelted it looked like this. And after felting like this. I love making felted bags because not only can you use up stash, but they go so quickly and you don't know really what you're going to end up with until you take them out of the washing machine. Each one is unique. I also finished the BF's guitar strap and felted it. I haven't put the holes in it yet. He loves it. I can't wait to see that on his guitar. I guess we'll have to do that this weekend. It looks pretty darned good though, just laying on his guitar case.

Doggie Dermatology Day!

Yay! Today is the day I take little Tink to the dermatologist to find out what the heck is wrong with her skin. I can't wait and the poor baby, I am sure if she knew she'd be like calling me every 10 minutes to ask if it's time yet. I feel like a criminal though ... I forgot that she wasn't supposed to have any food in case they need to sedate her for testing. So as usual, in my groggy state, I filled her bowl with food and she ignored it until I was getting my breakfast stuff ready to take to work. I heard her crunching and that's when the penny dropped. So I had to pick up her food. At least I think she only got a couple mouths full so it shouldn't be a problem. I just felt so bad! Talk about insult to injury - there she is, dirty because I haven't been allowed to bathe her, and itchy, and HUNGRY and mom takes the food away!! I'll make it up to her tonight for sure.

I'm also going to take pictures of my finished bag and post that tonight or this afternoon. I actually did NOT knit last night! I read magazines. My magazine stash is getting out of hand. Funny how I used to read all the time and now ... I knit all the time and my magazines are stacking up and I haven't bought a book (other than a knitting book) from Amazon in ages. Oh well. I think I'll look into that audio book thingie that runs on MP3 players. That'd be cool.

More FOs

What a great weekend! I finished the BF's guitar strap and made a whole purse, which I felted up last night. Unfortunately I think I should have made the strap longer, but it'll be useful for carrying WIPs. I took pictures but didn't load them onto my laptop. Maybe I can do that tonight if I'm not too tired. I was disappointed the first time I made this bag because the pattern said to thread the i-cord through the eyelets and THEN felt it. Well, you can guess what happened - the i-cord just felted itself into the eyelets and you can't use it as a drawstring, which is what I wanted to do. So this time I threaded some rubber tubing through the eyelets before I tossed it into the washer and then pulled it out when it was done. Voila! Patent eyelets.

I don't know why this should bother me

It's the Tom Cruise thing. He's obviously crazy as a .... as a ..... I don't know what. I read somewhere lately that the reason we're all hearing more about his Scientiology is that he fired his old publicist and hired his sister and now he's just going around talking about all this stuff he wasn't allowed to talk about before. And now we know. He's a looooooon! I don't usually get caught up in the celebrity thingie but dang .... Now everytime I look at him I hear cuckoo clocks in the back of my mind, like in a cartoon. I'll never be able to watch "Risky Business" again.

Pink and Tinkerbell

What is it with me and the color pink? I can't really say. I guess it's the same impuse that makes me love Tinkerbell. This Tinkerbell and my own little Tink.

Is she not the most adorable Westie in the world?? Now if we could only get her skin problem cleared up. I sure hate to see her so itchy and biting at herself. We have to wait one week until we can see the vet and that's a week without any medication. Already this morning she was biting at herself. I can foresee a week of bad sleep. For her and for me and the BF.

FO Extravaganza!!

Finally I get around to posting pictures of my FOs and WIPs!

I'll start with one of the oldest, my Simply Marilyn from Interweave Knits.

Unfortunately, this beautiful sweater looks HORRIBLE on me so I am thinking of frogging it and using this lovely Cashmerino for something I'll actually wear.

This could be something I might actually wear - the Banff from Knitty and KnitWits:

This thing weight a TON. I knit it out of Elite Gatsby. I think I cast off a little too tight, but ... oh well. It really is something. It's warm at least. And I think it'll probably be about 4 months before I'll be able to wear it.

I am kicking myself for not taking a picture of the Flower Power Shrug from IK before I sent it off to my sister. But I made another of the shrugs from that inset, although I used ribbon yarn instead.

I LLLLLLove this Deco Ribbon yarn. I've got to make something else from it.

I loved Knitty's French Market bag so much that I made two - one from Lamb's Pride and the other from Noro Kureyon. The Noro one didn't felt up as well as the Lamb's Pride but it's beautiful. I use them for carrying my WIPs.

I couldn't help myself but had to make the Chain Link Scarf from Loop-d-Loop because I had some mohair left over from the Flower Power Shrug. I added a beaded flower just because I love making them

I have only 3 WIPs (yay me). A guitar strap that I will felt for the BF,

a Knitty Branching Out in fuzzy yarn so it's hard to see the detail

and an off the shoulder, top down raglan sweater in recycled cashmere yarn that I'm designing myself.

Whew! So that was a morning's work!!