Glue Diva with Sticky Fingers

When Tiny came into the bathroom, this is what she saw. What can I say? Occasionally, mah jongg tiles need a good wash. Especially if you've played on a table in public use. It didn't take much, just a soak, once-over with the sponge, and drying. The real work came with glue and clothespins. Rubber bands, too. The inserts in my case had come a little loose. Not horrifying or anything, but the heat in the car probably cooked the glue a little more than needed.I'm kind of a glue diva. I have Krazy Glue, Elmer's Glue, hot glue, Gorilla Glue, School Glue, Paper Glue, Watch Cement, Epoxy--I've even made glue out of rice flour. So, when something gets broken, I go to town! Not a perfect record by any means, but sticky fingers are not uncommon around here.

I broke into Tiny's sock drawer and finally got pix of the Slayer Sox I finished, what? Four months ago? (She loves 'em, by the way, and wants more. Nice to be appreciated.)

I thought about putting this pic up for her socks, but her feet are just a little too big for booties now. The pattern is Elegant Snowballs Booties from the 2010 Knitting Pattern Calendar. (Hey, got another project down from my 2011: the Madness over on the right there.)Speaking of which, one charity project down: I'm calling the her the Sugar Plum Bear-ie. I'll be sending her off to The Mother Bear Project in February. It's a really cool organization and... CogKNITive and The Manic Purl are both randomly giving away prizes for Mother Bear Knitters! One entry per bear. Deadline: Feb 20. Look into it!

Oh, yeah, this bear is modeling on top of a new apron I made. Pretty basic apron, but the fabric is groovalicious, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Still Loading...

My poor regular computer is having some trouble, so I'm using the irregular one. I'm not sure if I can get my camera to load up here. If you see pictures in this post, rejoice! It means I've succeeded, but at this moment the little spinny wheel is still going next to the words "Loading photos..."
I guess I can tell you about my progress, though. I've finished three helmet liners and started on a fourth!
And after much hard work and concentration, my Traveling Heroine shawl has been completed. It's beautiful and 10% cashmere, so you can imagine how it feels on my shoulders. It's the first standard sized triangular shawl I've made and it's so much nicer than a "shawlette." Update: I just realized I haven't said word one here about this project. Details:

1. Started it during Comic Con (late July) for line-standing, because the beginning is a plain triangle.
2. Yarn was a Christmas gift from Teens. I figure gift yarn should be used for personal projects. It's a variety of deep greens and yummy as can be.
3. The pattern is called Traveling Woman by Liz Abinante and can be found here. Mine looks kinda like the sample.
   
4. I had to restart it twice and used a lot of lifelines. (Used up a whole container of dental floss!)
5. Repeated chart A four times.
6. Learned (much too late--like the next-to-last row) that you're not supposed to slip the first stitch on a triangular shawl. Just knit it like normal. But I like it anyway.
   

In a Garden has even had some progress. The watering can and birds are completely done, backstitched and everything. The stepping stones and birdbath are stitched but not outlined. I'd have to say it's 90% done. That's a good feeling.
Oh! And Slayer Sox are unofficially done. Tiny doesn't know and I want to block 'em before I hand 'em off. Since she's back at school and taking all honors courses (Eep!), she's a little distracted. Mwah-ha-ha! I wonder what mischief I can get up to... I could sneak into her room and--uh, make the bed! Take out the trash! Open the windows and air it out!

Evil Twin Fired

First off, my evil twin totally sucks. She said she'd take over the blog for a couple of weeks, but when I check in, nothing! She's really untrustworthy. Could be because she's evil.

So I guess I'll have to catch you up myself. I've been a busy little beaver! I've made even more--frankly surprising!--progress on In the Garden. Can you see the bird bath? I think it looks pretty great even without backstitching.I made another zipper pouch from fabric that CC passed on to me. (I love receiving fabric scraps! Even though it means my stash is overflowing.) This voluptuous floral just rocks my world.
And Operation Headcover continues. I've made two helmet liners so far and have another one on the needles. I have yarn enough for a total of five. (We'll see how that works out.)Tiny's Slayer Sox near the finish line. I'm loath to complete them, though. They are so good for bad times. We went to see a very good play, Song of Extinction, last night. It's about a heavy subject, so I needed knitting. I got about an inch of the foot done just sitting in the dark, trying not to cry. When I got 'em into the light, there was a whole new stripe of color!And then we come to Marine Comfort Quilt blocks. Well, Battlestar Galactica Fleet Power Battle group on Ravelry posted new missions this month. One was "Colonial Day": I was to make something patriotic. Some people are patriotic in the Battlestar Galactica universe or to a particular team or state. This is one of those charities that I occasionally help out in. I had three done and put away to ship off when I had more. So I dug 'em out and made ten more. I'll send 'em on Tuesday. Yay! I totally recommend this group if you're a quilter. If you have odd blocks sitting around, all you have to do is get 'em up to 12 1/2" square, sign 'em, and send 'em! When I have five, I send 'em. (Or thirteen, in this case.)

Paula Poundstone Touched My Knitting!

Okay, I know you can't see my knitting, but see those two little sticks in her hands? Those are the tiny size #1 needles attached to the Slayer Sox. If you look below, you can pretend these images are continuous. See, her hands... and the sock. You say the sock is as big as Paula's torso? Um... Tiny's got really big feet. Yeah.

The story is we had tickets to Paula's show on Saturday. Irresponsible parents that we are, the Man of the Place and I thought Tiny would still be away at camp that night. Oops. AND, she called us to pick her up early because she was sick. She's gotta be REALLY sick to miss out on the bus ride. Double oops. So we drove up to Julian, picked her up, and had drinks at the coffee place (no, it was her idea!). That's where I took out my beautiful Kaylee-nomah shawlette and draped it artistically on a vine. Here's the detail shot.

Once we got home, we did what we could for our feverish child and took off for our evening of fun. Small feeling of guilt? Yes, but

1. it's important to spend time with each other outside of the house.
2. she prefers to be left ALONE (her caps, not mine) upon returning from camp. Teenagers.

Poor baby.

And Paula? She was so funny! I think she's gotta be my favorite comedienne. Especially since she has two teenagers herself.

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, 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.