Dressing Up the Lace

Here's the Bleaf Lace Scarf being dressed, one half pinned out. Yes, I know it's in two pieces. I made it that way. The pattern required me to make one half, then make another. That seemed dumb. So I made the two halves at the same time on the same needle. It set things up so that I'd do the lace row, then repeat it. Then I'd do the back, twice. Worked great! I know somebody who does both sleeves at once when making sweaters. That's probably where I got the idea. Or maybe from the two-at-a-time socks idea. Or maybe it came from outer space. Yeah. My alien implant from when I was working at the MIB branch. But I'm not supposed to talk about that. Oops. Would you please look carefully at this bright light while I erase your memory?
I can never figure out which way to point these silly things.... flash... What was I talking about?

Nothing to Worry About

Last night the doctor called to check in on me and say the lab results came out fine. I didn't say I already thought I was fine. It's kinda like the pilot coming on the intercom of the airplane and saying, "There's nothing to worry about." Makes me feel like I missed out on all the anxiety.... I guess that's not a bad thing.

In the meantime, I've been working like a dog. A clever dog. With thumbs. I pulled out my jewelry-making apparatus and dusted off the skillz. (Just added the z there. They were only skills when I learned.)So I'll be showing at the CRB Christmas Bazaar this Saturday! Me!

I found a box where I had dropped in some beads I thought looked pretty together and left 'em there. Baroque (that means odd-shaped) blue glass pearls, Blue Austrian Crystals, and these pretty seed beads. Using every single crystal and pearl, I made this collection. I'm calling it The Blue Frost Collection. Sounds classy, huh?

I'm calling this one "Crystal Palace," and yes, those green stick-things are actually woven of tiny beads. At least, they're tiny now. I think they get smaller when you don't use them. And if you say anything about needing reading glasses, you should know I'm humming It's a Small World right now, so I can't hear it.

There's a Snake in Mah Boots!

... and a hole in my bellybutton. I didn't want to bring it up to the beforehand and cause worldwide panic, but I just had a "procedure." That's what they call it when they knock you out, poke holes in you and take something out just so's they can look at it. I wonder if they ever dress you up in a feather boa and fake mustache while you're unconcious... I would.
Well, the upshot is I'm fine. But there's a hole in my bellybutton.

Meanwhile, here's a peek at a prayer quilt I've been working on. It's scrappy pink and dark green. I just behave as though the pink is all one color and the green is all the other. It's supposed to make a kind of star. We'll see. Looks kinda like strawberries to me.

And this is the Leaf Lace Scarf from Vogue Knitting Spr/Sum 2005. When I bought the mag, I could only attempt the very easy very Vogue stuff. Now I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Also, I charted the pattern. That's new for me. I think. The drugs are making me a little woozy. Not like that's a bad thing...

Messages I'll Never Have #1

We have a whole family answering machine*. That means Tiny gets her friends calling... or did, before the dominance of the text (but she still gets calls from her coaches and stuff), I get my cool friends calling to tell me about parties, and the Man of the Place gets business calls there. Now my friends are clever and fun and crazy messages are totally appropos. However, sports-minded individuals (coaches) and business-minded folk often aren't prepared for my ready wit. Or my recorded wit. So we have the boring-est message ever:

"Thanks for calling! Please leave us a message."

I mean, really. The outgoing message is a perfect opportunity for creativity. I have a friend whose message is that instrumental Boom-chicka-bow-wow, and that's it. I love it.

So, from time to time, I will reveal an outgoing message I'd love to have... but never will. Here's the first one:

You know what? We're not going to answer the phone. We're not. We're just not.
We may be screening, hovering over the machine, waiting to hear your voice. But
that's the thing. You don't know. (Pause) Bwa-hahahahaha! beep

Feel free to use it.

*Yes, we've heard of voice mail. We prefer to devote a portion of the kitchen counter to a machine that presides over our calls, blinking its little red eye at us.

Cinderella Redux

Last Hallowe'en, Tiny waved her magic knife and created a lovely Cinderella pumpkin. (She really amazed me.) This year, she continued with the theme:Think I'm proud of my kid? Of course! Turns out she's a fairy godmother. That's right. Tiny can turn a pumpkin into a carriage!

Quick Quiz

What is the difference between the upper pin (orange head) and the lower pin (yellow head)? And don't say one's orange and one's yellow.

Don't know? Look again.

Still don't know? Here's a hint: OUCH. That's right. The yellow pin can hurt you.

Tip for the day: tuck the end of your super-pointy pins back into the fabric.
It'll save you loads of time. (I was gonna make a joke about waiting to clot,
but that's just gross, right? We'll skip that for today.)

News! I've been crazed lately (Yeah, I know, how is that news?) Well, I've got a market for my bags: Two Sisters and Ewe in La Mesa, California. And they're ordering other stuff, too! DPN (That's Double Pointed Needles, to you and I) Cases and Circular Needle Cases (They're not really circular: it's two knitting needles connected by a cable so they can be any shape you want. You could even call 'em Pentagonal or straight-ish or Polyhedronal Needles, if you wanted to. Of course, nobody'd know what you were talking about.) But I digress. A lot.

Anyhoo, here's what they look like:

(in process. Gotcha.) I put batting in both styles to give it strength. It's like a little bitty quilt to hold your needles. (Wait. You gotta read "little bitty" in a squeaky voice. That's why it's all slanty.)

Here's the DPN Case open...

...and closed.

And the Circular Needlecase open...

...and closed. I wanted a closure on this case that would keep the needles inside really well, so I made a buttonhole and fabric loop closure. I couldn't find any ideas that I liked so I had to innovate. (And that's my Word of the Day.) Did you remember to read that in a squeaky voice?

Here's What I Can't Work On...

... because it's Christmas run-up time! See, I got the beaded cable part all done on both socken (plural for sock.) And here's what I can work on... ... But I can't show you. On account of needing to practice my sneakiness. Guess you'll have to ask Spycat. So we'll call this project Spycat's Secretz. It's about 10% done, thanks to a day of hardly anything else. It helps when Tiny's sick and her care preempts going out stuff.

Tortured Lace Equals Happy Lace

It occured to me that I haven't shared the done pics of my Travelling Heroine Shawl, despite the fact that I've been flaunting it up and down California. Currently it's got a Celtic wolf pin in it that I got during a vicarious trip to Edinburg. Vicarious in that I didn't go. Earth Mother did. And she told me all about it. And brought me a lovely souvenier. So I practically went.
This is my shawl, dressed.

Dress (verb) Take a piece of knitted lace, soak it in
water, stretch it until it screams, pin it in place, and leave until
bone-dry. While you and I would balk at such treatment, lace actually wants to be treated this way. Until it has been thus tortured, it will
refuse to do anything more than sit in a wad and scowl, looking more like used dental floss.

But look how pretty it is after the rack:
And my Elinore Gloves are all done. They took less than 25 grams of sock yarn so I used leftovers. I may have to repeat this little experiment!

The Good News...

... is that I can upload photos at last. The bad news is that I can't get HP Image Zone working so I can edit them. So if I took the picture sideways... well, let's just say it was a gravity issue. Yeah. Gravity. Now that we've got that straight, or sideways, here's the news:

I'm just back from the CogKNITive Fiber Retreat. What a blast and a half! 53 knitters, spinners, crocheters, and a few of their unwitting family members got together in Tehachapi, CA... ... to eat, shop, laugh, drive, and manupulate various strings and string-like materials. It was a great time. I am so glad I went this year.

Great moments:

• When Gemma pushed Nathan aside so she could hug me.


• When Tika and I got into a Battlestar Galactica/Caprica smackdown. (She was wrong, by the way. Caprica rocks.)


• When I realized that Chris didn't get annoyed by me, despite the fact she was my roomie.


• Playing with Gigi's spindle. (No, a real spindle. Get your mind back on the sidewalk! What? That was just me. Oh. Sorry.)


• Being told that I was in charge of choosing the restaurants next year because I did such a great job this year.

This time I planned to get there a full day early so I could settle in. Last year I was so excited I couldn't sleep and was shambling around zombie-style for much of the retreat.
Part of the festivities was a fund-raiser for the very worthy Mother Bear Project. While I didn't win a prize, I could drop off my bear.

I call it Bear 1999 because it's supposed to look like the uniforms in Space 1999. Yeah. I know.

And I have started a new pair of socks! Yay! The pattern's called the Traveler. It features cables, beads, and a little pocket in the cuff. The yarn is from the Mean Girls Yarn Club and is called "Totally Wicked." It came with the cute witch stitch marker in the photo, a bar of poison apple soap, and ruby slippers lollipop. I love my yarn clubs. Last year I was in the Jane Austen Yarn Club. Forrest Gump would like 'em, too, I think. You never know what you're gonna get.

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!