Be the Crazy You Want to See in the World

You know how sometimes life just throws all kinds of crazy at you? Good and bad crazy, but crazy nonetheless and it becomes hard to find a moment when you don't have a list of things to do, think about, and take care of. (Which can be good because when you have lots of downtime, the bad might creep in and overwhelm you.) Well that's my life lately.

I was supposed to be blogging about a finished knitting object, but while it's done, I haven't been able to get good shots of it yet. I've got crappy shots (well, crappier than normal) and those will go up later, but I haven't had time to even upload them to flickr yet. (Don't even get me started on how spotty my internet access has been the past few weeks--AT&T, you are my nemesis!--; I never realized how dependent I am on the internet until I didn't have it.)

But instead I have more progress shots of Nathan's baby quilt. I'm going to visit them for the 4th of July (more busy-ness...but good busy-ness), so I'm really hoping to finish it in time. So far pretty good. Here are some gratuitous shots.







My original intention was to just add another green border and call the top done. But now I think that looks just blah. So I'm going to make things harder for myself by adding a small middle border made up of stripes from the blues and yellows. My body may regret that decision. And don't get me started on how I'm going to actually quilt this sucker. I have no freakin' idea. Nada. But I do have the cutest flannel fabric for the back. My mind is all over the place...with this blanket and everything else...what can I say? I know, can I say that I love the way the crazy nine patch squares are? So visually awesome. I love them crazy much more than regular. Hahaha, in more than one way. Kidding. But not really. ;)

And now, I'm off to bed and then off to Texas tomorrow. I was going to bring my Clapotis to work on. In fact I was looking forward to major airport time to turn that sucker out. But alas my shoulder/arms have been starting to give me trouble again...more than usual...so I'm just going to take the time to rest. And I'll just have to say no to jet skiing.

Did I say how excited I was to be going to Austin, Texas? At first I was just looking forward to seeing my good friend and spending some QT with her. But now I think we are really, really going to have fun! And the weather here in the Bay Area has been ridiculous for June. I had to use my freakin' windshield wipers last night...are we kidding me? In Texas it's going to be 100 degrees. A lovely 100 degrees (I'm irrationally hoping to get a great tan within two days). And we've been emailing back and forth for the past couple of weeks about staying at the lake and hiking and checking out downtown and eating lots and lots of good food. I'm am super excited to say the least. Every time I think of Texas in my head, I shout it. TEXAS! It's also a little mini escape from reality for me. I'm already starting to regret only going for four days (and only two full days). If only the tornado that's hitting Ft.Worth/Dallas right now doesn't affect my flight tomorrow and my shoulder doesn't freak out from the flight. Whatevs. I'll just pop a muscle relaxer and hope for the best.

Alright, I'll see you guys when I get back. Texas, ready or not, here me and my crazy come.

Winner, Winner, Pumpkin Dinner!

Wow, you guys amazed me! I had no idea so many people would enter my contest. Cool.
To make matters even better DangAndBlast! mentioned that I was the only person giving away sock yarn...does that make me the popular kid for once?? Cool x 2.

Also, you guys cracked me up with all the cat hair love. I mean really I was just hoping to avoid killing someone who had a serious animal allergy, but you guys were all over it.

Anyway, I used a random number generator (who did not turn out to be my friend David...Pi...seriously, you are such a nerd) and the winners were Stephanie and Sara. I've sent the emails and am just waiting for responses. And Tina, I can't seem to find your email, but if you see this and send it to me, I'll send you a little birthday gift. Happy Birthday.

Next up, there is a finished object. I just need to block and take pictures. I was slightly worried about wearing wool to take the pictures, it being June and all, but there is a rumor that it might rain here in the next few days. In June. In Northern California. Enough already.

Giveaway Day

I've decided to participate in Sew, Mama, Sew!'s May Giveaway Day. Hopefully people will enter my contest. I'm giving away two sets of two skeins of Schoeller Stahl's Fortissima Colori Socka Color sock yarn in colorway 9073.





Anyone who leaves a comment here between 9am on Wednesday May 27th and midnight on Sunday May 31st will be eligible to win two skeins of this self-striping sock yarn. That's 210 meters per skein for a total of 420 meters or 458 yards. I will randomly select two winners after that and contact you to get your address. Be forewarned that while these skeins have been safely stored in a plastic bag, I do have cats in the house and there is a possibility that car hair will come as part of the package. Also, please make sure that whatever method you use to leave a comment has an email address associated with it (otherwise I won't be able to contact you to send you your prize). That said, have fun with Giveaway Day and good luck!

The non-felicity inducing Felicity.

I made a slouchy hat.

I don't know what I was thinking when I started this. (And truth be told, I probably won't ever learn my lesson--my ravelry queque is filled with similar items.) I saw pictures of this on others and it looked so cute and nonchalant. And it was made with less than a skein of Simply Soft Caron (acrylic--can we say bleh?).

Without further introduction:


Pattern: Felicity by Wanett Clyde
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Navy
Needles: US7
Date started: Jan 11 2009
Date finished: Feb 15 2009
ravelry link

The truth is (and I'm really showing off my geekiness here) that I started this for Hatz for Rpatz. I had recently discovered and finished reading the Twilight series and fallen in love with it. (I have a thing for vampire stories, what can I say?) And so I joined the Twilight group on ravelry and that led to this hat. But my slowness prevented me from finishing in time and so I now have this hat. A hat that requires a certain amount of style to pull off that nonchalant, careless look. The one that says "Oh this old, thing? I found it laying around and just threw it on and here I am in all my fabulousness." I don't have that style. (I think it's because I'm too paranoid. I try to achieve the nonchalant style and then I start freaking out that I look ridiculous which leads to me thinking I do look ridiculous.) So, this hat...I think it makes me look ridiculous.



Here's a detailed view of the side/back.

Let's start with the yarn. It did nothing for me except make my arms/hands hurt. There is just no give with acrylic. It's official; I've finally become a true yarn snob. Acrylic...bleh.

And the hat itself is tight. I'd read that others had the same problem and so after the first few rounds, I tried it on and boy was that sucker tight. So I ripped and cast on an extra 10 stitches. Ten whole stitches. It only had 70 to begin with. But apparently that wasn't enough. It's my own fault really, not doing a gauge swatch. I've said it before and I'll say it again: gauge swatches for hats, not that practical IMHO.



And the shaping, it looked fine in all the ravelry photos, but when I finished the increases and decreases were so steep that it looked like a chef's hat. You know, the big white ones with the giant poof on top. Yup, that. And to confirm that thought, when I pulled the hat out to photograph it, my brother laughed and said, "What is that, a chef's hat?!"

And so this photo just had to be taken:


That is me wearing the felicity, drinking from a gigantic spoon of nothingness, because this hat leaves me lacking in the felicity department.

Heh heh heh.

(And if you think I've just been sitting idle all these months, I haven't. I've been slowly working away on a couple of knitting projects--this and this. And--I can say this here, because I'm pretty sure Katie doesn't read this blog at all, or any blogs for that matter--I finally started sewing again and have started the long overdue baby blanket for Nathan. Here's a pic of the progress.)

Finally!

Another FO! Woo hoo!

The title of this post refers to both finally finishing this project (it was a long time in the making) and finally getting around to posting about it. Cross it off the check list.


Pattern: Moebius vest by EZ in Knitting Around
Yarn: Beaverslide Dry Goods Fisherman weight in Wood Violet with Shooting Star trim
Needles: US9
Started: Aug 2007
Finished: Dec 2008
Ravelry link

When I first got Knitting Around and looked through it, I saw the moebius vest and knew that my grandma would love something like that. She is the only person I know so far who really wears vests. And the simplicity of the knit and construction of it lured me in. The perfect easy but big project. Miles and miles of garter stitch--perfect TV knitting. But I didn't work on it straight through. At first it was going to be a birthday present...and then a Christmas present...and then the next birthday present...and you know how the story goes. I had to stop whenever my shoulder would act up. And I was tempted by other smaller, easier projects that offered more immediate gratification. Finally, I got so close to finished that I knew I had to get it done in time for this past Christmas. That and my grandma had some health complications in the last quarter of 2008 that made me not so certain she would be around if I kept putting this off. (She's actually holding steady for now, thankfully.) So, on Christmas Eve eve I finally finished this bad boy. It was a long time coming.

Probably the best thing about this project besides the ease of garter stitch was the yarn. The Beaverslide is a great workhorse of a yarn. And it's one of the least scratchy yarns I've worked with. My only complaint is that the Shooting Star colorway for some reason was not as strong as the Wood Violet. If I gave the Shooting Star a strong tug it would snap. I'm not sure if that has something to do with the dying process, or what; it was a little frustrating though. But since the majority of the vest was knit with the Wood Violet, I didn't have to deal with it too much.

Here's a shot of the garter stitch close up.

Love the tweedy-ness of it. (If you enlarge the shot, you can see cat hair all over it. It can't be helped.)

This was my first attempt at I-cord and I thought it was pretty cool. But since I did it with a second color, the first color showed through on the back of the trim. Ordinarily this wouldn't matter because the back of the trim would be inside the garment, but since this is a moebius vest, for about half of the vest, the inside is switched outside. I read on Ravelry that this is common with I-cord trim and that the way to get around this would have been too knit the I-cord separately and then sew it on. But since I was on a deadline and that would have been a ton of sewing/seaming (which I'm not so good at yet), that wasn't going to happen. It turned out good enough in the end.

I was going to try and get a picture of my grams wearing the vest for this post, but since she's less mobile these days and doesn't really have much say in what she wears, I don't know if that is ever going to happen. Oh well, I guess that's what can happen when you keep putting something off.

That's a wrap for my 2008 knits. I hope to be as equally successful with my 2009 knits, if not more.