heylucy

happy birthday to me

I'm so sick and I'm at work on my birthday. Pity me.

I have gotten some very nice gifts, however. I will share pictures when I feel better.

daffodil

After my yarn disappointment last week, I decided to comfort myself with some other sock yarn, and I bought some of this:

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Daffodil. I started knitting a pair of Jaywalker socks. I have no idea what I will wear with these socks, but they're so cheerful! This is the first time I've used Lorna's Laces, and I really like the way it's knitting up. It also inspired me to go out and pick some of the daffodils that are blooming like crazy in our yard. I've been sick for the past 4 days, so the fresh air was quite nice. I think I better go lay down now, I'm worn out.

I also finished a sock using the Fleece Artist yarn I bought last month, but I don't have a good picture, it's been a cloudy day. I used the embossed leaves pattern from Interweave Knits Winter 2005, it's such a pretty pattern, and much easier than I expected.

evil laugh

Mwaaahaahaa. I got a skein of Vesper Sock Yarn from kpixie today. They went on sale at 1:00 my time and appeared to be all gone at 1:05. It was so hard to chose a color, but I knew I didn't have much time, so I went with Midnight Knitter (it's the one on the bottom):

Turquoise and Orange! Delicious! Now I just have to finish the other two pair of socks I've started.

UPDATE:
Well, that's what I get for gloating. My order went through, my card was charged, but apparently I was seconds too late, so no yarn for me. :o(

kitty pi

Last weekend I whipped up a bed for the cats, so they will quit taking over our bed. I used Wendy's pattern and Lion Brand Landscapes yarn. I read somewhere that it was great for felting. Well, I don't know that it felted so much as shrunk up and got fuzzy, which is close, but not quite the same. I washed it twice, and that's the best I could do. So it's a little floppier than I had hoped, and the colors aren't as pretty as they were in the ball, they got kind of muddy and the bright yellow flecks stand out more than I would like. Gigi is quite happy about the whole thing, but Dune isn't too sure yet.

It was fun and easy and quick, so I may try again with some different yarn. You can't have too many cat beds, can you?

scowl

I'm grumpy this morning. The sweet cat-the one that thinks he's the cutest cat in the world-barfed on the bed this morning. On the clean sheets that I just changed last night. When the day starts off like that I get a scowl on my face that takes a long time to go away. Picking daffodils and hyacinths in the yard for my desk and stopping at the taco shop for huevos rancheros have helped a little. But there is also my approaching birthday on the 31st. Sure, presents are great, and chocolate cake is always a treat, but I do not like the number of this birthday and I don't know how it happened. A few things might make it more bearable. Like a birthday sock, filled with Leonidas chocolates or maybe some iTunes gift cards or something from my Amazon wishlist. Yarn would be good, or a gift certificate to my favorite LYS. Okay, I'm feeling a little better now.

*Disclaimer: The above birthday gift list is provided for the sole convenience of family and close friends who may otherwise be stumped while gift shopping.

felted

I've figured out something about the way I work, and the way I learn. When I decide to try something new, I go to the library and check out every book I can find on the subject. If possible, I might take a class or have someone show me how to do it. I learned to cook first by taking every cooking class offered in high school. Then I read cookbooks. I followed recipes carefully, step-by-step. For awhile I was crazy about soup. I whipped up all sorts of soup recipes, curried cream of chicken, fresh pea soup, chicken stock from scratch, creamy cilantro soup. And then I started to see how soups work. If you want a creamy soup, cook some sort of starch with the stock and then puree it, put the vegetables that take longer to cook in the soup first and add the others later. I learned how some seasonings work together and how much of a particular herb to use. It wasn't until I followed recipe after recipe and really understood how the ingrediants worked together and what techniques were used that I felt brave enough to discard the cookbooks and do my own thing.

I went through the same process with bookbinding, reading every book I could find on the subject and following the instructions exactly as written. I took a class, saw the tools and watched what other people did. Then I made books in all sorts of different dimensions using different materials and combining techniques.

I think I'm finally reaching that point with knitting. I knit my first project without a pattern this past weekend (except for the odd garter stitch scarf, of course). It was just an experiment, and it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, and really, it's just a couple of rectangles sewn together, but I learned and now I have a little more confidence with my knitting ability. I now know a little more about felting and intarsia and creating a chart to knit from. I also have a nifty little bag just for my sock projects!
 
I knit the polka dots a little more long than wide, because I knew it would shrink more in length than width, but I should have done one less row, they're a little more egg-shaped than I wanted. Polka eggs instead of polka dots! I decided to try some blocks of color for the other side, because I wanted to try something different, and frankly, the polka eggs were a pain in the bum.I love the way it felted, it's so soft and fuzzy and it's a nice size for toting around little projects. So there you have it, a felted bag from scratch!

snow day

I've been busy with lots of projects, and I've been away from my computer, so I just thought I would quickly check in with some pictures of my weekend. We were snowed in! I realize this isn't huge news in most parts of the country, but we live 45 minutes from downtown San Diego :o)

I had to shovel my way out to go to work this morning.

This is our sorry excuse for a snowman. He used to have a carrot for a nose, but you see those paw prints in the snow? Those belong to Bear. He likes carrots.