Dear Flickr. Suck an egg.

I thought I’d give a small update while I’m waiting for my lunch to warm up.

Look at my little baby, she’s growing up so fast. I had to take a picture of her today when I realized my little baby looks like a hair model. So pretty, she has her Father’s hair color.

Finally got all of the cards addressed and stamped, ready to mail out tomorrow.

I received this spiffy post card the other day from my friend Christy. I really do miss SF bay area, and promised an inquisitive 2 year old that she and I would run away there for a trip when she’s older.

This is the felt santa wreath I’m working on, It is slow going and I think it will have to be a next year decoration.

Here’s a little closeup on the sequining and beading

Here are my lousy socks. I was trying to use up the bits of sock yarn I have laying around and I fear that I’m not even at the heel yet that I’m going to run out of yarn before I can even get an ankle socks out of them. pattern is Diagonal Lace Socks

Procrasta…what?

I can’t bring myself to do homework, or write an essay, or start the heel of my diagonal lace socks. I’ve made some progress with my felt wreath but not much.

I don’t know if it’s because it’s super cold outside, or I’m just lazy. But today all i want to do is knit and re-watch season 4 of the Office or linger on the internet, reading blogs, and experiment with salt dough.

It’s beginning to look like Christmas!

*

I’m slowly but surely turning into an Amish house wife. I’m on the edge of no return. The worst part is, I don’t care.
Homemade apple butter – Done that
Homemade Strawberry Jam – in the works for this afternoon
Homemade breads and other various baked goods – I’m a pro
Add that to my already grandma-ish repertoire of knitting, crocheting, cross stitching and I’m one step away from farming sheep in Wyoming. Actually that doesn’t seem half bad. I would like the solitude. I would like to see how long I would last making all my meals from scratch before rushing out to the nearest Target for a frozen pizza. I think if I had a working Internet connection and a credit card I would last pretty long. I can’t think of much that you can’t just order on line and have delivered to your front door. I think the hardest part would be convincing Zach to give up city life.

With that said, Here’s some random photos

Ishbel = FO!!

Yes, of all of the awesome and not awesome things I’ve done lately, finishing Ishbel has to be the top of the cake. I started the damn thing back in June. I think if I had more pins I could block it out a bit bigger, but I’m satisfied with it. It’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I can drape it across my back and that’s a big feat since I’m in fact a chubby girl. Here it is being modeled by a toddler who is still covered in breakfast.

and again on the floor.

and the obligatory closeup.

it’s far far far from perfect, and the only way I pushed through was by knitting two together whenever my stitches didn’t line up, and by lifelines every so often. I am thinking of making another while it’s still fresh in my mind. Maybe another malabrigo version since it drapes so nicely and feels so good to handle.

In other news,
Zach got invited to a chocolate seminar/sales thing at Johnson and Wales. They had a chocolatier come in and demonstrate how to make a chocolate flower centerpiece. It was neat.

most of my pictures came out blurry because I didn’t want to be that asshole with the flash. The finished object was stunning! Gold dust and edible paints are so neat.

Earlier in the week we went to the park to meet Toby, the newest addition to the Hale family.

Natalie loved running in the grass, trying to keep up.

Gotta love her neck tattoo right? When we play tattoo parlour, she always wants one tattoo on her right bicep, one on her foot and one on her neck. I’m hoping it’s not a glimpse of her future. strangers give me lots of strange looks when they see her neck. I think it’s cute even though it screams “Future Felon”

On the fritz

My camera is on the fritz and that pretty much just means that I (once again) forgot to buy AA’s for it.

I have a pile of wips that is threatning to strangle me. and instead of working on them, I’ve been knitting Turn a Square hats. And my neverending project, I’m knitting the stockinette section of Ishbel on size 8’s with Worsted weight yarn (for no good reason). I also decided I love wash cloths, I’ve knit a couple for use in the kitchen instead of germ filled sponges. I can just bleach these with my whites and it’s brand new.

My birthday came and went without me buying any yarn. It’s a bummer. I should have planned out the money better. Maybe it’s not too late to buy a skein.

Zach’s Mom is coming for a visit at the end of the week. We have to ditch the baby on saturday to do the “mom is coming deep cleaning” which means we will actually have to put away all of our clean laundry. phooey.

I’m being tortured by Natalie’s obsession with Dora the Explorer. She’s like a zombie when Dora is on.

Knitting Probation

I am slowly coming to terms with the fact that I’m burned out. Nothing I touch is going right. Between the Ishbel, and the socks I’m frustrated.

So my big plan was to buy tons of wool ease and just bang out hats for no one in paticular. Only, that didn’t go well. I tried 4 different hat patterns, some of which I’ve not only made before but really liked. Disaster. I tried impossible patters like the Amelia hat, I tried patterns for hats that were outlandish and terrible. Failures all of them.

So, in my desperation to not give up knitting once and for all I went back to the one thing I know I can’t screw up. 2×2 rib.

I’m going back to basics, and by basics I mean Silver’s Sock Class. Worsted weight, size 6 needles. It’s torture to be knitting plastic/wool socks, But I think this will get me back on track. Or at least buy me some time so I can track down and recapture my knitting mojo.

Lost that lovin feeling…

I can’t win. I’ve lost my knitting mojo and need help.
evidence that I’ve finally “lost it”

1.Ishbel. I can’t get the stitch count right no matter now hard I try. Something went wonky somewhere and while doing the lace portion I’ve never had the right amount of stitches. I need someone to look at it and help me.

2. While making Wendy D’s Diagonal Lace Socks, I’ve gotten to the heel portion with only one mistake (who needs all the yo’s in the right sequience anyway?) I can’t wrap my head around the heel she is suggesting I use. I made a perfectly good heel on my own and realized that since she made me add all the gusset stitches I didn’t know how to decrease back down to get the 33 needed to “begin working in the round” again.
I’ve tried this heel no less than 3 times. I even turned off the Biography channel feature on Hunter S. Thompson that I was watching just so I could pay close attention. Nothing. And since I’m being a goof and knitting them one at a time I can’t even fudge my way through because I’m going to have to remember what I did for the second sock later. Plus trutfully I’m not loving this panda wool. It’s splitty after you knit and frog it 5 or so times. I think it should be more durable.

3. I’m going to have to start knitting hats, hats never frustrate me, hats never let me down. Hats never have irregular stitch counts or crazy intricate lace portions. (although I’d like to see a hat with a crazy intricate flower lace panel on like 3 of the sides of the hat. Wow I should see if there’s a pattern like that on Rav.)

I need a knitting group again.. waahhhh someone call me a whaaaambulance.

Dear Ishbel…

Dearest Ishbel,
I know that I’ve been avoiding you for the past week like you have the SARS; However I’ve hooked up my lifeline and I’m more than ready to take the plunge with you. I have my instructions all printed out and ready to go. I’ve posted on Ravelry in the Ysolda group to make sure I have the right order for the lace sections we’re about to embark on. I’m feeling rejuvenated and optimistic.

I am ready to put our rocky past behind me, namely the frogging and YO problems we faced early on; to embrace our brighter, lacier future together. I think that the knowledge that you are my first shawl/lace/malabrigo project has caused a lot of my cold feet. Rest assured my dear, I’m ready to go!

Right after this cup of coffee…

With Love from your devoted Fan,
niney

My______ hurts…

1. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me but I’m about 49% sure I have a UTI. ugh. It wouldn’t suprise me, I drink massive amounts of coffee and very minimal amounts of actual base water.
2. I don’t have insurance yet.
3. ho hum.

Update on Ishbel,Ishbel: I’m not sure if it’s just because I haven’t physically printed out the lace portion of the pattern, but based purely on looking at the pdf, I can’t figure out the mod that I jumped into. I got so excited because on Ravelry I saw the Ishbel L size stockinette, and S size lace. Not sure how to figure that one out. I am thinking that maybe I have to print out the charts and see what happens.

Today is the Sakura Festival here in Denver, I can’t wait to check it out. It’s easily my favorite little festival. Alas, Zach had to go into work because his kitchen flooded during the last rain storm. They have to rip out the entire floor and put in a new one. The kitchen is closed until further notice. On the upside, since he’s helping haul the ruined floor away he’ll still get some kind of money for the weekend.

and also this weekend is Pridefest. Now, I’m not 100% gay but I’ve gone to Pridefest every year that I can. I like to support my LGBT family and friends. And truth be told, I love the fact that Debbie Gibson is playing this year. I can’t wait for Natalie to see all the pretty pretty Drag Queens, she’s gonna love ‘em.