Damn That Woman!!

So a little bit ago, I was raving to Opal about Stephen West's patterns. Because I'm in love with his patterns. Seriously - his attention to detail makes my inner perfectionist sing.

Being the good friend that I am, I show (ok, I gush to) her the Herbivore. She was all "Oh, that's pretty." Obviously, home girl was not feeling my enthusiasm, because in my mind I'm thinking, "Pretty? It's freaking awesome!!". So I moved on and let it rest. It's ok that she failed to flip out over the shawl like I did. Right?

I've spent countless hours plotting what the hell I am going to knit the pretty thing with.

Then, out of the blue, Opal announces she's cast on for the Herbivore.

o.O

I promptly called her a bitch and decided it was time to get my act together and knit the damned thing myself.

I have been loving on a skein of Woolmeise for over a year. I am absolutely in love with the colors, and have toyed with the idea of socks for a while. I even thought about messing with the Clapotis. (Which, by the way I had sworn I would not knit for reasons I shall keep to myself)

This morning, I caked up my pretty yarn for the Herbivore. I can't think of a better pattern for the yarn, or a better yarn for the pattern.

So before I went to bed, I caked it up and had happy dreams.

What Is This World Coming To?

Headline from Yahoo News Ticker: Processed Foods Linked to Depression

I am so depressed right now, I can't even bring myself to read the article. I know you
feel the same way. Let's go eat some Twinkies together, shall we?

FoxNews had Alan Thicke on as a guest. To discuss parenting.

What in the hell is wrong with this picture? If he's an expert now, then so am I. SHOW
ME THE MONEY.

And before you go there, yes, I question my FoxNews viewing at times as well. All that channel has done for the last 4 months is bitchbitchbitchbitchbitch. Yeah, that's right, Fox & Friends, I'm talking about your bellyaching at 6am. It's too damned early. If you could at least present an alternative, I'd appreciate it. Simply griping about how wrong something is does me no good. Nor does it do anything to solve any of the issues at hand.

(I can't bring myself to watch the other cable news stations for reasons I shall keep to myself. Don't hate me because of my crazy news watching habits. We are way above that 'round here, right?)

Speaking of questionable viewing practices, can we discuss Dexter for a minute here? (No, no, I'm not going to spoil anything for you, just chill and listen)

Can someone give me a character with some depth? Please? Well, other than the serial killer du jour. It seems that the writers can manage to do a great job at developing a new serial killer per season, but the remaining cast? Geesh!

1. Rita. Come on writers, you can do better than a disenfranchised housewife who is always out of milk and bread.
   
2. Debra. Seriously? Put her on some Prozac and let's keep it moving. She's becoming a buzz kill. Quit trying to draw a parallel between her and her brother. Not gonna work people!


3. LaGuerta and Batista need to go and martyr themselves elsewhere. LaGuerta was a much better character when she was just grumpy all of the time. Every show needs a stick in the mud, right?
   

I think the writers are trying to create subplots to sustain the show if Dexter winds up in jail. Dexter + jail = no killings ergo, no Dexter. The problem here is that the subplots are based on poorly developed characters who won't be able to sustain crapola. Gimme some substance! Oh, and if our main man could stop thinking out loud, that would be great. We aren't stupid, we know what the man is thinking.

/rant off

To be honest (and after much discussion with Opal), I think at this point I'm watching Dexter simply to pass the time until Californication comes on.

David Duchovny.

I just love his lips.

MmmMMM good!

Yeah, the storyline itself is a bit over the top, but there's such variety! Teenage angst, marital turmoil, insane Boss Ladies, student strippers, drugs, odd sexual encounters... Need I go on?

It's disturbing, hilarious and frivolous. What more could you want out of cable tv?

Tired of my piss poor attitude? Check out this pretty stuff! I would tell you what it is going to be, but what kind of friend would that make me?

Smith out!

Insert Content Here!

For whatever reason, I've had a case of the lazybloggeritis.

Which is sad, 'cause I have had shit to share and things to say. Luckily, I have been posting the goods on Ravelry so I don't have to bore you with my FOs here.

As for the rest of my life, I can sum things up for you rather quickly.

1. I finished some things and started new things.

2. The anniversary of my entrance into this world was very mellow. Thank you friends. I needed mellow.

3. I've got the new computer blues. I miss Windows XP. And my keyboard. (And the money I had to spend just to miss the old one.)

I think I just end up in a zone where I prefer to hibernate. I'm thinking it may be the season change, but who knows.

The darkness at 6pm is definitely unfortunate, as is the cooler weather.

Yep, I am a heathen. As a knitter, I should be excited about the prospect of wearing wool! All of those hours spent toiling away at projects, looking forward to cooler weather so that I could sport the articles with pride.

I would rather be in sandals and a tank top with electric bills twice as high as last months.

Go figure.

Mini-Me has just informed me that she would like to shave her head and wear bandannas instead.


God help us.

I Heart Handspun!

Lots of things going on around here! Namely illness and coffee makers. and a bit of lace. Sexy!

/snort

Check out my new friend. I love it. I may even name it.

In case you can't read the mug: Cooking & cleaning are for people who haven't discovered knitting yet. Fitting, no? If you like coffee and gadgets - this thing is for you!

After finishing the shawl, I had the urge to cast on for another. Particularly after I decided that a sweater-that-shall-not-be-named was not fun to knit and the pattern was written in such a way that really made me want to burn it.

I looked in my queue and decided to knit Deep Forest. I've liked it for a while, and I've been itching to knit with some of my own handspun! Here's what I've got so far:

I will say that the construction of this shawl has thrown me off. In my mind, I thought that the cast on edge was the top edge of the shawl.

As you can see, that is not the case - it's really the bottom edge! Oops!





No wonder the decreases start with ssk as opposed to k2tog! I have really had to fight the urge to start my rows with k2tog. It's made my brain hurt. Habit is habit, ya know? I can't think of a single stitch pattern I have knit thus far that didn't have k2tog before ssk.

Now that I've reversed my knitting polarity, I've been really happy with how this is turning out. And it's a quick knit, which is even better!

Speaking of shawls, Opal still needs to finish her Oyster Bay Shawl. Go and bother her until she finishes it. She's not that far from the end!

Aaaand We're Blocking......

Oyster Bay Shawl

Knit with Knit Picks Gloss in Sterling, on US 6 needles.
KAL with Cookie and Opal

Now what the heck am I going to knit/obsess over??

Well That Was Fun!

So this weekend, I had some lovely time to myself. Waking up to only to a dog who doesn't get up for a full hour after you do is a delicious thing. I also got to spend some time doing fibery things with our Zonda. She took all the good pictures, so go stalk her blog.

While I was enjoying the silence, I decided to play with some nekkid yarn and food coloring. Wilton's to be exact!

Using this fabulous article from Knitty as a reference, I heated up the crock pot, threw in some vinegar and had at it.

Here is a pre rinse pic:

And here is the end product!



I only used two colors - blue and green. I started out by pouring in the blue, then hitting the spots that were still light with the green. Initially, I had twisted the yarn a bit, and ended up with more white than I intended. Once the yarn had cooled off so I could examine it, it went back to the crock pot. I added more blue and just a snitch more green, which exhausted pretty quickly leaving still more white than I wanted. I quickly made up some blue dye, and then added a wee bit of green making a neat teal color. I dumped it in and called it a day.

I love it, and I learned some lessons.

1. It's fun to play with vinegar. For the green, I had secretly poured vinegar right where I wanted the color to go. I can say it worked, and worked well.

2. If the water is still hot, you can add more dye.

3. Next time, use the oval crock pot. The second go-round, I just put the yarn in, with no arrangement and had a lot less white, however, it was still tricky to get the dye into all of the nooks and crannies. Using my oval crock pot will allow a lot more room for play.

4. Dyeing yarn is just like any other fiber related play. Addictive.

Here's a sneak peak of another addiction.


And just in the event you needed an interesting factoid, today is the day, back in the 50's that LSD was deemed illegal.

Love Is In The Air!

See this batt? I love this batt. (I know, it's really hard not to see it, eh?)

I picked it up from Uniquely Yours. I've been eyeing it for some time now, and finally gave in. I've already started working on it, but I can't share. It's either going to be a complete success or a total failure, so I'll keep you posted. I figure if it's an absolute flop, I can always use it as an add in or something to ply with.

o.O

(Did I just have an art yarn thought there? )

In recent days, I have decided that there are a few other things that I absolutely love.

1. Crochet thread. Size 10. Seriously good stuff here. Shall I count the ways I can abuse you, oh fair crochet thread?

• Corespinning
• Plying
• Life lines
• In-A-Pinch stitch markers
• Waste yarn

I've decided that a little ball of it shall remain in my knitting bag. While knitting on the shawl (which is so large a row takes forevah), I would catch myself forgetting a yarn over (YO). I would check out the rest of the row and notice the same missing yarn over. I'm at the point where tinking back is only going to happen when a major disaster strikes, so I just snipped off a bit of thread and tied it where the YO should have been. On my return purl row, I created a YO, knit it and kept on moving.

I know, I know, there's no rocket science involved there, but it's made me love crochet thread, and considering I have little love for crochet (because I can't, mind you) - this is a big thing.

2. ZOMG. Hand Knit gift tags. Go check these out - if you are gifting knitting for the Holidays, these are too perfect. My favorite is the pirate. Argh Mateys!!

3. Fall weather. It brings good hair days.

4. The fact that the new Outlander book is winging its way to me. And let me just throw some love at Amazon. Locally, the book would have run me well over $20. Amazon? $16 and some change. (Oh, and free shipping, but only because I had to pick up Knitted Lace of Estonia. I think I should have gotten A Gathering of Lace, but oh well.)

Ok children. That's enough love for now. It's making me feel all happy inside, and too much of that will stain my cranky pants.