A Real Buckeye!

So, Applecheeks got a request for a quilt for a fellah who's a real Buckeye fan. (That's the team from Ohio State University for them's that don't know) She found this panel on eBay and dug out some coordinating fabrics. Then I took over. It struck me that there is a quilt block called Buckeye Beauty. Here it is: It's gonna work great.
But what is a buckeye? I went to the web. According to wordnet.princeton.edu, the inedible nutlike seed of the horse chestnut. Really? Horse Chestnut?Really? A nut? One that you can't even eat? And they named the team after a nut? Huh. I mean, if it was up to me to name a team, I'd probaby pick something like a funnel cake. Yeah. The New Orleans Funnel Cakes. That'd get people to cheer.

Just About Perfect

The Dream Dancer is moving along, albeit at a snail's pace. But the shield is done (well, it looks done because I haven't sewn in the white yet, but let's just humor the nice blogger) and the outside of the cloak is done (really). I've decided that she needs a name. What do you think of Running Water?
And here's the back for Cowboy Christmas. I was going to piece it from stash fabrics because I didn't have enough of anything that would work nicely, but something wonderful happened: at Prayer Quilt Ministry, Applecheeks held up this cloth--3 yards! and said,

"This was donated to the ministry but we can't use it because* it's Christmassy
and it seems to be a shame to cut it up. Can anyone use it? Anyone? Really, I
was hoping someone would be able to put it to some use..."

Now go back and see where I put the *. It was at that point that I ran up and wrapped myself in the fabric, but she wouldn't let go and just kept talking and talking. Boy, that woman is strong!And here's a nice little close-up. I think it's just about perfect!

The Rest of the Story

This was lunch today. Do not fear the Spam.
I had some fun yarn shopping yesterday and decided to get creative with the pictures, so, I present to you my new acquisitions:

Tiny wants arm warmers in Griffindor colors--that's gold and red to you non-Harry Potter fans--so I think these will do handily. (The worsted weight we picked up earlier was just too thick for the pattern.) Besides, the gold is shiny. Ooh, look, shiny!

Also, Tiny got seduced by these luscious glittery purples and wants a hat. I will comply.

Knit Pix is so cool! They have a very good return policy. While I was knitting the Sense sock, I experienced a horrible knitting-related accident: the end pulled off of the needle! Instead of calling the insurance company, I called the seller direct. They will replace my needles, no problem. As long as I wasn't skydiving or shark-baiting, they are very cool. And since they were sending needles, I ordered a book. This one.Because... there's a new baby coming! Yay! My cuz is all preggers. I started a new set of booties, too.

The Non-Sense & Sensibility Socks:

Sense is done. So glad to say I'm halfway there. As to the pattern: I've never done a triple decrease for a toe. It looks pretty, but we'll see how it feels under a shoe. On to Sensibility.

And now, as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story. (the beginning of the story is here.) I got an email back from my pet TV star: David H. Lawrence, XVII. Here's what the man himself had to say: "Yeah, that's the story of my life - a chick stalks me, and then is distracted by something shinier... than my head." He's got a point. It is shiny.

Is this a Bad Idea?

I've been twittering and decided to follow one of the actors from Heroes: David H. Lawrence XVII. Shortly after, I received this message:

Thanks for following me! Please let me know why u did at (insert email addy here) (and yes this is really me, not a bot)

So, here's what I'm sending him:

Okay. Why am I following you? Um. I'm not. I was just... going to the same Starbucks, Barnes and Noble and Gee, That Was a Really Expensive Gadget store as you. The tracking device on the right wheel-well of your car has nothing to do with it. (No, don't go looking for it.) It's just a weird co-inkidink that I happen to have enjoyed your interview on 10th Wonder and your views on popular culture, not to mention (except that I am) your bizarre sense of humor. I'm not following you. I'm just, um... ooh, look, shiny!

Um
He's smart. He'll know I'm kidding, right? Right?

Knittin' Sittin'

I'm not a slug. I'm not. Really. I have a good excuse for not blogging and it involves doctors (not mine) and beds (okay, mine). But I'm not tellin'. So there.

I will reiterate my blog commitment: I commit to bogging three times a week, with absolute forgiveness if I don't. So there. Again.

In the meantime, I've been getting a fair amount of knittin' sittin' time. I finished the Koolhaat, and Tiny loves it. Yay!

I got the yarn for the Griffindor arm warmers, but I'm still waiting on the pattern. (Boo.)

I've started on another pair of soy socks, since I LOVE them. I'm calling these Soy-Lent Green, seeing as they're soy, it's lent, and well, green. These are my TV watching project, although NonSense has been there for a while.

Speaking of which: Yay. Sock #1 is almost done! Almost toe-time!

And here's the weird one. It's a headband. It is too. Really. I started out following a pattern but was running out of yarn. Um. Trust me, it looks pretty good on. Okay, but it only took two days.

So, yes, knitting galore. But hospital light is too freaking dim for stitching. And they frown on setting up a sewing machine there. They get really upset when you start up with the iron and rotary cutter. (But doesn't it make sense to be in a hospital if you're going to burn and/or cut something off of yourself that you normally have attached?)

Watch for Sailors!

Yesterday, in an attempt to appreciate my home town, I stopped at Spanish Landing and took a little walk in the tiniest strip park along the harbor. It was just lovely. Until about 30 sailors nearly trampled me in a horrible jogging accident. Okay, okay. It wasn't like I walked into the middle of a marathon.* They were going in singles and groups of up to four, it seemed. And they dodge walkers very well. Mostly I looked at sailboats, grass, sky, that one guy... Then I headed over to Little Italy for a caffe latte. I put the final borders on Pink Orient. I wish I knew what that Chinese calligraphy really says. I heard about a scientific journal that accidentally put an ad for a brothel on their cover! I think this will make a nice back. I was digging through my Asian fabrics for something without any success whatsoever. Then a wild hair made me open up the purple box. I had four yards of this scrumtious darling. It should do just fine.And Whisper is finishing up, very scrappy, if I do say so myself. I used pieces from the 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" box to make the final border. The style is called "Piano Keys." I still have to do the other two sides, but I really like it as a good way to increase a quilt's size quickly and use up scraps. Here's a link on how to do a really nice one.


*not like that time we drove into the Cody Stampede. That was an oopsy I won't soon forget... So we were visiting Cody, Wyoming on our first cowboy vacation. We knew there'd be a rodeo and we were looking forward to it. Driving into town to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, we became aware of about 200 cows and numerous cowboys headed straight for us and not a block away! "Aah! Turn! Turn!" I shouted. The Man of the Place did so and parked. We hopped out and watched the rest like a parade. It ended well. I bought beads.

Twisted but Happy

Non-Sense and Sensibility Socks

So the heel flap is done and the heel is turned! I really like the stitch pattern. Well, I really like the way I did it. Wrong, I mean. I slipped purl-wise. It's probably very close to what it's supposed to look like. I figured out that I was doing it wrong on the last row, so I wasn't about to pull it out. I'll do it right on the foot and then we'll see.

I brought the Koolhaat to knitting group on Saturday and got quite a bit done. Jo said I was "brave for knitting that in public," but I figured knitters would understand when I went silent or sat there going, "one, two, three, four, oops." It's the toughest pattern I've ever done, but I'm getting it. I even fixed a couple of dropped stitches. I hope.
Sleep Baby Sleep is getting some attention. I got the basketweave done on both sides, and completely filled in on one side. It's pale pink. Yeah, I know you can't tell. Trust me, it's there.I found this on etsy.com. I typed in a destash yarn search and found tons! Of course, I knew better than to go absolutely nuts, so I only bought this. I plan to use it to make the Annetrelac Socks pictured below.

I think it's gonna be really pretty in those blues and pinks and browns.

No, Really. Who Am I?

As I'm working on the Sense & Sensibility socks, I decided to take a quiz and find out which Austen character I am:

Take the Quiz here!

Go figure it's one I know nothing about! Well, that'll be remedied. I plan to read six Austen novels this year.

1. Sense and Sensibility a
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Mansfield Park
4. Persuasion
5. Northanger Abbey (you mean I gotta wait 'til October?)
6. Emma

So, anyway, here's the sock progress:You can kind of see how pretty the chevron pattern is becoming. I'll block it when I'm done, (get it wet and pin it out to dry) then you'll really be able to see it.

I've got a little further on Pink Orient quilt. Stashbuster Alert! I wanted to use up the three fabrics in the blocks, so I cut it pretty close. All the fan fabric (black background and cream background) is gone and I have just enough of the pink to go around with one little 2" border. Measly, I know, but if you look in the upper left hand corner of the photo above, you'll see a little squarish piece of pink: that's all that will go into the scrap bin.

Detail of Pink Orient

When You Can't Quilt...

I think I figured it out: don't use Molly (my big sewing machine) when I'm migraining. I think the constant noise is too much. So today, I knitted. Here's the dish towel. I love that the color name is Pink Panther. Too cute!And I baked. Although when I had all the rest of the ingredients ready to go, I realized that I had less than half of the right amount of yeast. So I gave it a lot of time to rise and an extra knead. It came out good, if a little short. And I knitted some more. The pattern is the Koolhaas Hat. (I'm calling it the Koolhaat.) The problem that I found is that the gauge is based on the lattice pattern knitted in the round. I've been trying to be a good little knitter and knit up a guage swatch to make sure I'm using the right needles, but (Rant Alert!) how can you get an accurate sample of this booger if you knit it flat? And how would you do that anyway since the chart is written in the round? Here's what I think: I think that any pattern with a guage specific to the pattern has a lazy designer! (Hmph!) I don't think it's possible to make a swatch for this despite the ingenious circular-to-flat method Katy showed me. It won't work because the pattern is written one way. (Well, maybe it would work for Katy.)

So I decided to skip it. I checked numerous projects based on this pattern on Ravelry and, from other knitters' notes, it seems that, if I knit according to the pattern, it should be fine. And I did a tiny bit of beadwork. After receiving some beaded stitch markers with my Sense and Sensibility yarn and examining 'em, I knew how to duplicate them. So I pulled out my wire and tools and beads and made two. Just two, though. Let's not get carried away.Didn't do much else, though.

Welcome to Sock World

I've--eee!--started the Sense and Sensibility socks. The pattern was tough to start but I got into the swing pretty quickly after the first two or three rows. There's a technique abbreviated as p2tog tbl. Supposedly it means purl two stitches together through back loop. What it actually means is: twist your knitting into a mobius shape, stretch your wrists in ways that the greater apes (man included) have long forgotten, force a camel through the eye of a needle, stick your tongue out and curse because you just dropped the stitch. Okay, maybe it's not that bad... And the edges are starting to scallop: back to happy!The Soy Toy socks (made of soy and something artificial) are officially finished! I sewed 'em closed on Tuesday and wore 'em. On Wednesday, I noted that I had dropped a stitch and was getting a nice little ladder going, so I had to use a crochet hook and some more yarn to fix that, but no big deal. They are now wearable and gorgeous. Okay, they're not exactly identical twins--they're fraternal!

And since I've finished two knitting projects...

I done went shopping! But only for projects I have in the planning stages. This green and pink soysilk (actually a by-product from the manufacture of tofu!) is going to be a lace scarf. (The shoes are just shoes.

And this wants to be a hat for Tiny.

And meet my new hand towel... I guess it still needs some work.