I've Moved!! Move With Me!!

Update your RSS Feed, your bloglines, your Google Reader, yourwhateverthehellitisyouuse and meet me at the new shack.

I like it better and I think you will too. Trust me.

Go here. Now.

If you need me to spell it out for you... http://msknottyknits.wordpress.com

Seriously.

It is what it is, and Mini-Me's pose sums up the current situation quite appropriately. Not that I am a nose picker, but when there's not much else to do, ya might as well do something useful, right?

Like freak out the kiddo by posting a picture of her picking her nose on a blog for all the world to see. Good times ya'll.

School is out tomorrow at 12:30. While I'd like to say that I have a lot of fun and exciting things planned for the summer, the truth is I've got nothing. Zip. Nadda. Zero. Now that I am on an unexpected vacation, kidlet will be expecting great things.

Personally, I'm expecting to not hear my alarm clock at 6:30am for a while.

In knitting news, I am determined to seam up the sleeves on my Creature Comforts Cardi. I finally re-read the pattern and noticed that it told me how long to make the seams, which is nice, because I was at a loss as to how to figure it out. Hopefully I will have pictures of a completed one for you in short order.

Whats on the needles next?

1. A stole for the marvelous Patsy P.
2. A baby blanket for Miss Jaicie
3. Frost Flowers and Lace. I've had the yarn for almost a year. One would think I would get down to business by now, eh?

And let us not forget the Tour de Fleece. I've been warming up my Cranky Pants now for about a month.

Let the good times roll.

A Worthy Blog Post.

I know, I know. I am back to being a bad blogger.

Now that I'm back to having time on my hands, I can go back to being a good blogger. Well, maybe.

The real reason for blogging is because of Jaicie Addison, who graced us with her presence on May 31st. Born to Bria & Joshua, she is already an amazing baby and has overcome many obstacles in a short period of time. I cannot wait to hold her close to me and tell her how much I love her! Her mother Bria and I have known each other since the age of 12, and I could not imagine my life without her.

We have been through everything under the sun together, and it has broken my heart that I've not been able to be there for her, as she was for me when Mini-Me made her grand appearance.

So, in order to keep myself busy, I've been knitting a bit for little Jaicie...

The Confection Shrug and Baby Rollin' Beret.

The great Zondarino suggested the shrug, and I can agree with her that it was a quick and easy knit. Total knit time was around 6 hours. I even managed to seam up the sleeves without assistance.

Great things are happening all over the place, I tell ya.

All the pretty colors!

So the last time I rambled, I was needing to refocus. And I did, somewhat.

It made me happy.

This made me stupidly happy. It's 440 yards of merino fingering weight. It's done on a base that I'm in love with and am tempted to buy more of. I'm still just using Wilton's but hey, that's what happens when you have a small kitchen and a crock pot that can't only be for dying yarn.

I don't have a name for it yet... But I kind of like Shanghai Surprise, and I think I'll use the name again in some fashion if I choose to dye this way again as the end result was a total surprise to me!

I dyed this by first dying three sections - teal, blue and brown. I then went back with a little yellow and red in between the color changes, where I could see a bit of white remaining.

After the first rinse, I wasn't happy with the intensity, so back to the pot it went, and I added more red and yellow, only this time with a bit more randomness and a whole lot more dye. I definitely think I will dye this way again. It was a bit labor intensive, but the results are well worth it.

Don't ask me what I am going to make with it. I actually think it may deserve a good home, but I haven't decided that yet, either.

I've been plugging away at my Creature Comforts Cardi. I won't bore you with the details, because you can find them all on Ravelry, but here's what I have so far!

This is a fun knit and I am really enjoying the yarn. Dream In Color Classy is definitely something that I will collect more of. It is so much nicer than any other worsted weight yarn I have used before! It's very soft, it's very bouncy, and it's like knitting with buttah baby! I have decided to follow Zonda's guidance and alternate skeins every couple of rows. I can't tell a difference between the skeins knit up, which makes me happy.

Can you tell there is a ton of happiness floating around right now?

Yeah . You all know better. ;-P

Maybe It's Time to Refocus...

It's been a bit of a crazy road lately.. Going back to work full time threw me for a loop. (And that's putting it mildly.)

While the new job has it's perks, there is absolutely NO privacy. The company's goal is for everyone to work together - and apparently that means pushing 4 desks together into the center of a room without any dividers. I was really used to working at my own pace, and setting the tone of my day.. Well, not anymore! I consider it a true blessing that I happen to like the folks I work with.

(Read between the lines here - I miss sitting at my desk with my coffee reading blogs while I wake up, and surfing Ravelry while on conference calls.)

As some sort of strange consolation prize, I have been buying yarn. I was so good for so long...

Falling off of the wagon was inevitable.

Here is a sampling of Dream In Color (fuchsia and blue), Sanguine Gryphon's Skinny Bugga (olive green) and yes, some Wollmeise (dark fuchsia and the teals).

Told you I fallen off of the wagon.

So back to the whole point of this post - which is why the yarn is on top of the computer. Because it should come first.

I need to refocus myself and get back to the heart of the matter. Which is yarn, blogging, spinning and whatever else makes me happy. No Facebook games until all hours of the night. No more pointless TV watching unless the kidlet has gone to bed and it's something really good (The last season of The Tudors is back in 2 months, and Weeds shouldn't be far behind it). It's time to ground myself in the things that keep me sane.

While I was out of work, I also played around with some nekkid yarn. And I had so much fun. I found a base that I really like too... I need to focus on this, don't you think?


We call this one Tiger Lily.

Life has pulled me in a lot of different directions lately, and I need to remember that I set my course. I travel in the direction that I want to go in. And while that may not always be the best direction, it's the one that makes me happy.

Thank you for stopping by and for putting up with my silence! I promise it won't be another 45 days until my next blog post.

What Happens When You Try To Get Rid of Doggie Red-Eye?

Take me to your leeeeder........

Steel Horses and Sweet Lucy

If you haven't heard the good news, I am officially employed as of 1 February! I'm pretty stoked and relieved. Mini-Me's dad comes home from his trip to Douchebagistan on Thursday, and I didn't want to have to hear what he had to say if I was without employment.

I some times think that he's forgotten that I'm no longer his wife. 'Nuff said.

I had to throw steel horse in the title of this blog because getting a job means being able to buy tickets to go and see Bon Jovi in Charlotte with my girl Wenders. I've been in love with Bon Jovi since I was about 10, but never really had the chance to see them when I was younger. So, here we are, 24 years later and I'm going to see them, damn it.

Woooo-oh! Livin' on a prayer!

(Feel bad for Opal - I've been singing that for about a week now.)

In the mean time, I am taking full advantage of being unemployed. Remember the other day when I lamented about not having a life and just being a rather large slug daily? Well, this week will be full on slug week, minus a few odds and ends.

I've been working on an EZ Sweater - Baby Sweater on Two Needles, from the Knitter's Almanac. (Aka, February Baby Sweater) I'm really happy that I have a full size version of this sweater under my belt, as it's made life so much easier. Here's a progress picture, for those of you who are interested:


I did decide to go ahead and adapt the pattern so that I could knit the sleeves in the round. I don't seam well, and my only other option was to beg Zonda to seam it up for me. (My knitting Mama wouldn't have been pleased with me.)

Speaking of our Zonda, she taught Mini-Me and I to sew last week! We had a great time, and Mini-Me and I are excited at the possibilities.


While I've got the basics down, it still seems pretty overwhelming to me, so I'm going to rely on Sweet Lucy to make it aaalll better.


I lurves me some bourbon. And Sweet Lucy rocks.


For all of you Chewie fans, he's been laying low, wondering when the insanity is going to end.


Personally, I think he's been hitting the Sweet Lucy.