Double-yay!

Playtime at Azkaban has certainly charmed me. The Bellatrix pattern is moving quite fast--it's all those dropped yo's. And that whole wavy thing is cool. It certainly wouldn't show up with an all-over single color. Good thing I'm using IceHouse! And here's something weird: my hands are changing. They're harder, somehow. Perhaps the muscles I'm using are tightening up. Too bad I can't work up a good sweat and call it exercise, huh?

And I got to work on Warm Water Wash: it's finito! Yay! I love the feeling I get when finishing something. My breathing changes. I'm more relaxed. Yay! Ooh, that's a double-yay!

Book-wise: I just finished reading Beyond Stitch and Bitch. It's about finding peace, inner and outer, through your knitting. A very quick read. I had accidentally picked it up from Paperback Swap because I want all the Stitch and Bitch books. They're modern, upbeat, and full of interesting patterns.

Knit Happens

First I have to tell you about Saturday morning. My knitting friend, Sherry, and I met at Liberty Station, as we usually do. Sometimes the group is much larger, but this week it was just the two of us.
Now and then we are joined by a new friend who finds us through Ravelry or Yahoo groups.
Well, there we were, chattering on, knitting our little brains out, when who should show up but Daryl Hannah. You know, the actress who knits those lovely garter stitch scarves? She sat down and we taught her how to purl. Okay, Sherry taught her. I got distracted when Debra Messing showed up with a sumptuous sequined silk/rayon DK weight that she's working into a shrug. The whole morning kinda fell apart, though, when our new members got into a tussle about the right way to knit: picking or throwing. Heavens! That was just when Lawrence Fishburn appeared with an amazing grey cashmere and... well, you'll just have to imagine the rest because I'm done. The only part about these celebs that is true is that they all knit.

Now a little update with my cross-stitch projects: I completed Snowy Evening... at least the stitch-y part. I think I'll finish it the same way I did Liberty Bears.
And here's the October portion of The Red Thread. I sewed most of it in a breezeway between two coffeeshops near Tiny's school. I call that spot "my happy place."
Also, I pulled "Warm Water Wash" out of the closet and got some more work done on it. Frankly, I think it could be finished pretty quickly at this point. All that's left is a bit at the bottom. I completed the sand castle today while I was watching "Persuasion." You can see theblue bucket is about half done. All that's left is the picnic basket, the right pole, and sewing on the buttons.

Knit-Wit

Check out this cool sock. The pattern is called "Bellatrix," named for the evil psychotic witch in the Harry Potter series. (Okay, one of the evil psychotic witches.) I love that the designer choses "twisted rib" for the the cuff--how appropriate. And the dropped stitch pattern that looks like a bajillion mistakes. It looks like a psycho designed it: marvelously, madly evil! I'm calling the project "Playtime at Azkaban." That's the name of bedlam/prison that she escaped from.I've been on a major knitting jag. I think part of the deal is that it's portable: much more so than my super sewing machine, Molly. It's been so hot lately that being in a home without A/C is... a thing to be avoided. So I go out. Starbucks is nice. But less computer time that way.

Some cross-stitch is happening, but mostly knitting. I want to finish Tiny's knitted Christmas pressie, but ...Azkaban is calling...

Okay, who put the curse on my car? I mean it. Thursday, the engine light went on: $500 later, I managed a reasonable weekend, um, knitting. Then Monday morning, that blasted light went on again: this time it signaled a $1000 repair, which we'll skip for now. And now, the Man of the Place was driving it and got backed into by a kid in a parking lot! Add this to the two not-my-fault minor accidents earlier this year and I'm beginning to think this is deliberate. (Of course, it could be coordianated action by the Coalition to Get Desi Out of Her Old Car And into a Hybrid. Yeah, that's what it is. The boys from CGDOHOCAH.)

Oh, and my birthday's Friday! Yep. Twenty-two.... What? Zip it and wish me a happy birthday already!

Shake Your Bootie!

You don't need a good memory if you've got talent. --Chris, whom I met today

I'm just going to keep telling myself that.

So you can see that the Baby Needs New Shoes project is done. The skateboard shop owner was very surprised when I asked if I could use one of their boards to photograph a pair of booties!

And, um, they didn't catch me at the grocery store... So, tada! Sleeves Without a Sweater! One is actually done and the other is a few inches in.*

And I got a little progress on the Scrap Trick prayer quilt. (yay!) I will go through the scraps and cut up 3.5" pieces for a second border.

* Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. It's a stupid rule and only meant for the romance languages and the guy that proposed that it be applied to English took it back, so there!

This Little Piggy Went a-Stitchin!

I've been moving along on the Red Thread, but I forgot to show you.

So here's August. I really like the little crab. He's got personality. I think he should have a name. How 'bout Shmooie? Shmooie the crab!


And September's County Fair. How cute is that little piggy? I think he should be called porcellus balloonicus. I got the idea from some doctor who was looking for names for the middle toes. You know, there's the big toe and the pinky toe, but the others were anonymous. So he wiped the slate clean and came up with new names for all five. I think they are lovely offerings:

• porcellus fori (the little piggy who went to market)
• porcellus domi (the little piggy who stayed home)
• porcellus carnivorus (the little piggy who ate roast beef)
• porcellus non voratus (the little piggy who had none)
• and porcellus plorans domum (the little piggy who cried wee! wee! wee! all the way home.)

Got a Squishie!

Squishie (n. SKWI-shee): a soft package sent or received through any of various federal or commercial agencies, usually known to cause a squeal of delight on the part of the crafter involved. May contain fabric, yarn, quilt squares, beads, or fiber of plant, animal, mineral, or chemical origin. On rare occasions, squishies have also been known to contain completed items, promised up to twelve years ago.

Progress on knitted objects: The Red Herring Purse

Sleeves Without a Sweater

And a completion: Home Sweet Home scrap quilt

"There is no wrong way to knit. The debate between throwing the yarn and picking it, using circulars or straight, choosing Fair Isle or intarsia... it's all a moot point. If you get something knitted at the end of it, you are doing it right. We should all agree to stop correcting each other and deal with the more important issue. How wrong crochet is."

--Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, At Knit's End

Disclaimer: I have actually been known to crochet. Not much and not often. And not well. But for those of you out of the yarn loop: there is a fundamental difference of opinions between those who use two sticks and those who use one. Go figure.

Please Sing Along to the Tune From Bonanza

We've got the right to knit a little knit, Bonanza!
We've got the right to knit a little knit, knit a little knit with you! Finished up the mitts, Christie took the pics, Bonanza!

Finished up the mitts, Christie took the pics, finished up the mitts with you!

Yarn of green

Yarn of blue

Think I will buy two! (Whoo!)

One of our kin has a baby needs socks, Bonanza!
One of our kin has a baby needs socks, gotta make socks with you!

Gotta get yarn, gotta get pink yarn, Bonanza!

Gotta get yarn, gotta get pink yarn, get pink yarn with you!

Lauren gave--

me more yarn,

and sock patterns, too!

(Yee-haw!)

Got to work on an old cross-stitch, Bonanza!

Shouldn't have more than an hour's work, sewing on dark blue!

Dark blue, ooh-ooh! (cue orchestral close)

We are Our Experiences

... and here's a few of mine. Things I started. Things I haven't finished. Intentions. Let's start with the oldest first.

This is one of the first patterns I pulled from a magazine. I have no idea where I found it, because I copied the pattern by hand, as you can see here. The threads aren't even marked. I'm guessing it's probably about twenty years old, maybe twenty-five. That's odd. I'm only twenty-two...
Next we have an attempt to fix a problem. I had started on a sampler for a friend's wedding. Then it vanished. Just vanished. Perhaps a new black hole appeared when Starbucks came to San Diego. Anyway, this was a second attempt to made a wedding sampler. However charming the replacement pattern is, though, it just didn't seem appropriate to this couple. I think I wound up giving them a CrockPot. Three years later, they're still going strong, so if the started project ever reappears...
And lastly, a truly beautiful one. The last of the bunch and certainly the one I will enjoy stitching on the most. It looks like a garden in Siena and a I'd like to just slip right into the picture.

A Few Thoughts on Family

Here's the Red Herring Purse in progress. I got together with my knitting group--my first outing with friends for TWO LONELY WEEKS! I had a cold and I try not to spread these things. Anyway--no more grousing--I had a lovely time. We had a long talk about family and I still feel like I'm the lucky one.

Sure, there are bad times, especially when the teenage years are involved, but all in all... Well, I have fun going to the cemetary with my mom. Even when I'm grouchy. Or climbing the unbelievably steep hill to get pears with my dad. Or making jello with my aunt. Or helping my sister-in-law with her final preparations.

Perhaps it comes down to laughter. If you can laugh, how bad can things be? If there is laughter, joyful, real laughter, perhaps there has to be love. In my family, anyway.

close-up of the Herringbone Stitch (for some reason, it came out orange in this photo!)

"You can pick your friends, but your family, well, you're stuck with your family!" --Mike Warnacky (I think)

Darn Socks!

These are the first socks I ever knitted. I made 'em for myself and enjoyed 'em. In fact, I walked right through 'em. Now and then I'd see 'em and say, "Oh, I have to fix those," and then put 'em away. At other times, I'd find the leftover yarn and say, "Oh, I could use this to fix those socks. Now, where did I put 'em?" and put the yarn away. But in a synchronicity that must have had something to do with this debillitating cold, the yarn and the socks appeared at the same time! So I googled "how to darn a sock" and found a very helpful video on You-Tube. Did I darn sock no. 1? Yes, indeedy, I did! It went along quite quickly. But, as I had plenty of leftover yarn, I decided to try my original idea and unknit sock no. 2 past the hole and reknit it. That way I could see and feel the difference. I did so, taking about four times as long.

Then came the test. I walked in 'em. And what did I say? "Darn!" Sock no. 1, aka "the darned sock" bothered me: pushed right up against my foot and told me it had been worked on. So I gave it the same treatment as sock no. 2. Now they match.
Here's what I'm hoping: that the darning wouldn't be as much as a problem with actual sock weight yarns rather that this thick worsted weight that these socks are made from. I'm not giving up yet.

Next: check out these darling fingerless mitts! The pattern's not hard and they are flying off my needles! Not only that, they're one skein wonders! (And boy, do I have a lot of orphan skeins!)
Stashbuster Alert: I'm using yarn I already have! This is Classic Elite Fame: a combination of rayon and silk. Somebody on Ravelry used it to make these sweethearts already, so I just kinda followed her lead.