The Hat They Called Jayne

Tiny got so excited when she saw this hat all finished. It's a replica of the one worn in Firefly by Adam Baldwin. Wearing it ups my geek cred.I know it's not pretty, but his is just as bad. See?I started working on Firehorse. It's another prayer quilt. I don't know who it's for, but I hope it will cheer someone up! I'll add a wide border of the horse print. I think I have just enough. All of the fabric for this was scraps: yay!

Missions Accomplished

The Kimono Death Gloves have been completed and mailed. Bwa-haha. I am so enjoying Glove Wars, although going to the mailbox is a new experience in fear. These gloves have to get to Pennsylvania. I'd love it if they got there today, but I only mailed 'em yesterday. While I appreciate and respect the USPS (really!) I try not to over-estimate their abilities.
And I completed that special needs quilt I laid out for you--I've named it "Little Bit." Here's a close-up. I even had enough time (barely) to sew a back. Stashbuster Alert! I used up even more scraps--yay!

The Carnage Continues!

See what arrived from Jojo today! Not my doom, but the fate destined for Mother of Purl. Bwa-haha. Sorry the pic's a little out of focus. I can't spare the time to fix it. I must knit. Knit like the wind!

Silver Linings

This is the perfect metaphor for today: I had all the wrong letters on my Scrabble rack, but I wasn't going to give up. Now it turns out we're actually playing Monopoly.

1. Went geocaching. Somehow I screwed up the instructions and wound up in the middle of the street looking for a cache. Oh, well. I got some sun and some exercise. (And some dirt and some sweat.) Good thing: saw a pretty view.
2. Went to quilting. Good thing: added the final two seams on this top. Bad thing: completely forgot about a quilt I'd agreed to make. Even Applecheeks agrees: it's impossible. We don't know who it's going to--man, woman, or child. We just know he/she will have "special needs." Pretty broad strokes, huh?So this is what I came up with. Here's a sample of what I pulled out of the scrap bins today. I laid it out for you to give an idea of what it'll look like.
3. Went to pick up Tiny on the other side of town. Realized I had left her medicine at quilting. Gah! You have no idea the permutations I had to go through to commit that blunder. Good thing: she doesn't need it right away.
4. Came home and had to fly right back out to get Tiny to her rehearsal. Good thing: got to watch a movie with the Man of the Place.
5. Fussed at the Man of the Place for having the nerve to be present when I couldn't get a pan out of the drawer. (sigh) Good thing: he loves me.
6. Realized that the sock I had already completed is just too tight and will have to be reknit. Good thing: ... I got nothin'. Maybe you can suggest the good thing.
7. But here's the good news: Glove Wars, day 8. Still alive.

Perspective

Glove War, Day 7. Status: still alive. Jojo has received her gloves and must mail her project to Twitch who, thanks to the postal system, remains kicking.

And in other news...
Jayne's Cunning Hat makes some progress. Working with these large needles and yarns should go fast, but the whole thing feels weird to me. It's like using cannoli instead of chopsticks. And the Cherrytini Jubilee socks are moving along. I'm almost to the gusset. I have to say I'm really impressed by how pretty the Lorna's Laces yarn knits up. It's just a joy to look at.But you have to have perspective...
Still a long row to hoe yet.

(Glove) War is Hell

Okay. Here's what's going on. I finished these Weapons of Lass Seduction on Saturday and mailed 'em out from the main post office. Oh, my hands were tired. And still are recovering, but I'm raring to go for round two.
Tuesday found me watching the usps.com site obsessively, seeing that my package had gone through the sorting facility in Massachusetts and were on their way to their new owner. Finally, Dragonlady (my target) announced she had received her gloves and was happy to die because I had included a Starbucks card. (some people are so easy) This was her cue to send me her unfinished gloves so that I could finish them and send them to her target, Twitch.
However (and here's where it starts to get complicated), Dragonlady had just that day sent her death gloves to Twitch.
Twitch hasn't received them yet, so is still alive. She has killed TGirl in the meantime, who already mailed off her gloves to Jojo.
So Jojo's unfinished gloves will go to Twitch, unless she receives her death gloves from (remember?) Dragonlady. Should this occur in time, Jojo will mail (finally!) the unfinished gloves to me.
My job will be to madly knit these gloves and ship them to Jojo's target (now my target), Mother of Purl. (phew!)

Unless I'm dead.

Confused? Yeah, me too. Happily, I'm not in charge. There's 31 in the game and we play until there is only one knitter left. With cold hands. Poor thing. Nobody finished her gloves.

Casualties of War

Hands... tired. Must... rest. Go on... without me.

Knit or Be Killed: Glove Wars is Coming

I got a squishy! I've been waiting since June for this baby. It's my Jayne hat. (some assembly required) The woman who makes these kits has a kid with special needs and sells the kits and the premade hats to help keep above water. Love it! Bigger yarn than I'm used to. It should knit up in a flash!

But I have a delay: gloves of doom!
No! Not these! Not my beautiful Hartfield Gloves!
Gloves that kill! I am a part of... Glove Wars! I have received the dossier on my target and will knit her a pair of beautiful blue gloves. Barring my death, she will receive them from me and die. Okay, yes, it's a game. A silly game. A knitting and mailing stuff game. For further details on this madness, go to the Glove Wars Home Page.
But it doesn't start until Thursday night. So, let's see, this is Tuesday, I have about, oh, 53 hours to knit what I want until I must kill or be killed. Probably both.
If I am killed, here are the notes on my most recent Mile-a-Minute quilt blocks so you can finish the quilt for me. (sad yet noble music to be played here) Above you can see the inspiration fabric. I found a number (33) of small scraps of this and decided to make each block with a little of it.This is the pile of fabric scraps I thought would coordinate well (enough).It has been here incorporated into a crazy block before trimming. What? I said it was crazy.And here trimmed to 8.5". Scraps on the right will be discarded, scraps on the left back into the pile. Stashbuster Alert! It's a great use for those itty bitties that you just can't bear to toss. Speaking of which, I hear that the completely useless bits are (if clean) prized by pet rats for nesting in. Keep it out of the landfill for just a little longer!

A Conversation Between Me, Myself, and I

Me: It's hot.
Myself: It's Thursday. It was hot yesterday.
I: But we had someplace to go yesterday.
Me: I don't wanna be hot.
Myself: Where can we go that's cool? What is cool?
Me: Cheese is cool. Can we go to cheese?
Myself: (sighs) No. We can't go to cheese. (looks at I) What else is cool?
Me: Fonzie is cool.
Myself: That's nice. But cool to the touch.
Me: (waving hand) Ice! Ice is coo--
Myself: Thanks, anyway. Back to the subject.
I: No, wait. Ice is a good idea...
Myself: What? Iceland? That's kind of a long commute.
I: No! The ice rink!
Me: I don't wanna go skating...
Myself: No need. There's chairs and tables...
Me: And people to watch!
I: And I can bring my knitting!
All together: Score!

And I finished a pair of socks while I was there. What? Two socks make a pair, right?

Little Things Mean a Lot

My own homemade row counter. I used jump rings and soldered rings and a pretty lampworked bead. I like how it goes with my Cherrytini Jubilee socks. I've almost finished the first one. Squee!I call this top Jane Austen. Somehow that blue always takes me back to her. All the blocks are Mile-a-Minute blocks made from tee-ninecy scraps. Yes, made that since the last blog entry.

My exciting new hobby: Geocaching! Have you heard of it? You go to this site: Geocaching.com. Here. This movie clip explains it really well.

When I looked it up, there are 32 (!) caches within a mile of my house. Some are urban--found one attached to a fire hydrant--and some are in the wild, just off a hiking trail. This is what I found in one cache in a local canyon.
Who Says Size Matters? These socks fit perfectly. And I can do the finger can-can in them. La-da! Da-dee-da-da!