How Can You Tell If Your Teenager Loves You?

Tiny's just finished her Murder Among the Mateys pirate party. I was the corpse. Yyyyup. I guess you can't have a murder without a corpse. It seems telling that she'd choose her mother to be the dead body. At least I was included.
At PQM, Uphill Both Ways got finished up. Here it is, all sewn together. And here's the back Cathy made.I've been working on more zipper pouches. This is the front of one.And this is what I originally was going to use for the back. Something just struck me as wrong, so I used that for lining and chose this for the back instead.It's in process. I'll show you the finished project soon.

What I did for my summer vacation...

Guess where I was this week? Some people say I was at San Diego Comic Con, but that's not true. I was actually at a knitting convention. First I went to Battlestar Galactica for some training. As you can see, the crew chief helped me with my Caribbean Sunday Market Shawl:
Then I met up with Captain Hammer and Doctor Horrible (Doctor Horrible's Sing-along Blog)--I gave him a few pointers and let him work on the shawl a little. And now it's almost done. I blocked it out yesterday and just need to weave the ends in.Then I went to a sock workshop. The teacher was Belle (Beauty and the Beast) and she showed me how to get my Slayer Sox to practically knit themselves. (I'm told she has moving furniture.)Here's a closeup of the progress made. It's slow work as it's on size 1 needles, but the ribbing is ideal for keeping my fingers busy while gazing into Nathan Fillian's dreamy eyes.... Oh, sure, there were 900 other people in the room and the lights were down but we made a connection.

No Proble---Oops.

I am working on what must be the simplest knitting project that isn't garter stitch: The Sunday Market Shawl. The only weird thing is that you have NO IDEA how it's going to come out until the VERY LAST ROW! I'm not kidding. Click on the link if you want to see how it's supposed to come out. Look anything like what I'm doing? I think not... Oooh. I just realized I wasn't following the pattern. Ahem. I have to go.

But before I do, I inherited this. Anyone know what it is?

Not that I have Anything Against Frogs...

...but when they turn into verbs, I can't stand 'em! See how far I'd gotten on my lovely Kaylee-nomah? I was actually even farther than the photo shows: three repeats into the ripple lace on the edge. Then (insert doom-presaging music here) I dropped a stitch!Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Yeah, just try and fix lace after you drop a stitch. If you succeed, let me know and I will throw a party for you in my head. Once I get over being horribly jealous. Well, I've got it back on the needles and am currently sorting it out. I'm hoping I won't have to rip-it back further. Or the whining will once again commence.

Kinda Like Sausage

Every time I photograph this shawl-in-progress, it looks exactly the same. I remember a vaguely spooky story about a pioneer girl who had a similar problem and suspected magic. It just turned out her grandmother was unravelling it. Hm. I guess if my grandma was unravelling it, it would be spooky. Not that I would put it past her...

I got inspired and actually did a little work making yarn. On the spindle--that's that wood thing on the left--is some pretty green sample stuff, just in a single ply so far. On the right is 15 yards of two-ply yarn that I made. That's right, folks, I can make yarn! It's kinda like sausage: we think of it as coming from the store, but it really comes from an animal source and a person who puts it together. (But if I drop fiber on the floor, I don't have to worry about anyone seeing me before I pick it up and put it back into use.)

Dr. Joyce Brothers Would Know...

I wanna know how come my hands hurt like the dickens today when I was doing stupid yucky annoying things like driving all over town (twice) and talking to the same saleslady (twice) and cleaning up someone else's mess... yet at improv practice tonight when I was catching butterflies in the wallpaper and exploring a Mayan pyramid my hands didn't hurt at all.I've been giving longing glances at my sewing machine, but Molly's on sabbatical until I have strong hands. Maybe Friday. But for now, she's got the TV.

PS: I knit a little today. It's part of Tour de Fleece, but--to extend the metaphor--I'm walking my bike.

No, Not Really

People can't help but ask, How did you hurt your hands? Well, here's the mitigated, heavily varnished truth: I was training for Tour de Fleece*, feeling stronger by the day. I was pushing myself pretty hard when I hit a banana peel slick. Turns out that the local circus had lost containment on its monkeys at the same time a sensitive delivery of extra-slick experimental bananas were being delivered to a nearby biotech firm. Well, there must have been about a hundred peels right in front of me. Completely unavoidable. I spun out out and flew over the handlebars. All I can say is thank God for the raft of cream pies that cushioned my landing. Twenty clowns piled out of a tiny ambulance, but the best they could do is suggest I rest my hands, knit slowly, and avoid washing dishes.
Kaylee-nomah, made from Kaylee yarn in the Multnomah shawl pattern (pdf), which is slow-knit friendly. Beaded Slayer Sox--to be avoided until further notice. (Buffy Anklets pattern in Noro Kureyon Sock.) 1 mm crochet hook. I honestly had no idea these existed. That's what you use to get beads on Slayer Sox.

*a knitting and spinning event that parallels Tour de France and has actually nothing to do with bicycling. Or pie.

Love

Finished the Gorgeous Butt(e) socks and I'm wearin' 'em right now. They are so pretty the picture can't show how much I like them. So trust me. I like them! (I'd say I LOVE them but I can't bring myself to love things. It's people I love. Okay, maybe the planet, but people mostly. And really good cheese.)

It has come to my (somewhat foggy) attention that I have SIX official followers. May I make a little announcement to all six? I adore you. And you. And you. And you. And you. And you. It may be the afterglow of a family party. Or the ice cream. Or that delightful glass of red wine... but really, I think it's you. You took a moment to push a few buttons and declare yourselves. Squee! (That's the--albeit short--musical accompaniment of the happy dance.)

And to those who are unoffical followers, I love you too. Just differently. Unofficially.

No, really. It was only one glass. Well, it was a big glass...

Ahem. Since I hurt my hands, I have had to step back a bit from, oh everything, but yesterday I couldn't help myself, I had to finish up some zipper pouches. I completed five. My hands ached from the ironing so I have taken myself off ironing duty for at least two days. That means no sewing, too. That means this pile of unironed laundry is actually a symbol of me taking care of myself. So there! (Hmm, think I could blow off cooking duty too?)So today I took all five pouches to my knitting group, sold three, and came home. Then I took pictures. Dur. That means I have... only... two to show you. Again I say, dur. But here they are. This one is the same front and back: And this one has a little variety. Front... ...and back.

I have two more pouches planned with these fairy tale panels--they're all pinned and everything but... no sewing for TWO DAYS! At least.