EZ, here I come!

Due to Faythe's not-so-subtle pressure (you should see her chats with me!!) to knit a sweater, I succumbed and gave in to the best sweater resource I could think of: Elizabeth Zimmermann.

My ultimate decision to buy the book came when I saw the Seamless Hybrid on brooklyn tweed. I'm fascinated with the idea of a recipe versus a pattern. Plus, I love no-nonsense wise older ladies.

Oh yeah, and the sweater at brooklyn tweed...knit in the round!! Yeah! OK, don't forget to remind me after Christmas that I'd planned on knitting a sweater. You know how easily distracted I get!!

Halloween decorations

I love it when search engines change their design for special ocassions or holidays. Yahoo has changed theirs around a few times in the past two days. Earlier today a black kitty turned into a ghost and scared the hat off the witch. Now, a pile of bones turn into a skeleton and start dancing. He has at least two different dances, one of them is definitely from Michael Jackson's Thriller.

He's pretty cute. It seems you have to use Internet Explorer to view it, Firefox doesn't display the image.

Hopefully Google plans on making subtle changes to their logo like they always do.

Not earth shaking news but,

Herbal Essences changed their design.

Today I almost missed the collection even though it was sitting directly in front of me on the shelves. The design is totally different, gone is the fru-fru look. I like shampoo, conditioner and soap bottles that sit upside down.

Faythe's Yarn War "gift"

The plaid cat blanket arrived yesterday. Simba started kneading it right away. I think he slept on it last night too, since he's still banned from the bedroom.


There's another slightly different photo on the The Weekly Hairball. I have to admit, despite the bright obnoxious colors, the blanket is really cute. Are you going to crochet up the rest of that yarn, Faythe?

Nothing to say

I've been knitting up some items for Christmas projects but I can't post them. Let's just say there's been a lot of frogging going on. I just want things to look as good as possible. And if that means frogging everything I've knit for the past hour, then yes, I'll do it. Even if it kills me.

Other than that, I have nothing to say. I'm bored. And maybe boring.

Simba trying to blend in

The password for the cats blog has been forgotten (we won't be trusting Zoe with it again) so miscellaneous cat photos will be posted here until the password is retrieved. (We have to wait five days to retrieve it. GRRR BETA BLOGGER!)


Meanwhile, look how cute Simba is on the new bathroom rug! He's a sucker for soft stuff and fell in love with the soft rug as soon as we laid it out on the floor.

Shopping with Apollo

Today we went to a couple electronics stores. Apollo thought we were just scouting out receivers and other electronics so we can watch for good deals during the holiday season. But I was on a secret spy mission for Santa...and I took notes. I'm going to do some reasearch on Amazon.com later but at least now I have an idea of what I should be looking for.

I had planned on picking up something for him anyway since I spend so much on my own knitting obsession. I mean, he should have something fun too. Anyway, we were looking around the store and suddenly Apollo got really excited. Over a vacuum. This should give you a peak into how freakishly spoiled I am. Apollo loves cleaning. And doing dishes, cooking, laundry, etc. I know, I KNOW! I don't know what I've done to deserve this. Anyway, we bought the same bagless Dirt Devil we got Tee for Christmas last year. We have an old vacuum but Apollo keeps borrowing Tee's. He likes that he can see all the dirt in the cannister and the fact that the carpet lifts up when vacuuming with this machine. In his eyes, this means it's doing a great job.

The cats are pretty excited about the packaging. They love it when we bring home things they can sit on. Now, if I can figure out which electronic item Santa should get and where I can store it without his knowing it.


PS: You may be asking why I wrote this. I just thought it was weird he chose a vacuum cleaner.

On a recent trip to Viejas...

We lost some money. GAH! Several times we got three 7's in a row but didn't bet enough to get anything in return. Double GAH!!

Yarn War: Level 1

Well Faythe, you have succeeded. My annoyance level has reached level 1.

Today I knit on The Project on my lunch break. It wasn't until I looked away and then looked at the yarn again that I realized how awful it really is! What do people make with this color?? Knitted or crocheted street safety cones? Construction worker beanie helmets? Hunter vests? Wait, this gives me an idea...

My only consolation is knowing that you will some day soon be the proud owner of this item. Oh yes, you will.

The Art Of (Yarn) War (my version)

Have you read Faythe's blog* lately? Yep, I'd say it's darn-near** hysteria! In my defense, SHE STARTED IT!

See, a little while ago Faythe sent me some Blue Sky Alpacas cotton yarn in Flamingo. It included a scribbled note saying something like "bring it on!" You could practically hear her evil cackling through all that scribbling!


So, I brought it! OH YEAH I BROUGHT IT! I sent her some neon Caron Simply Soft Brites yarn.

Let's just say I haven't seen her this close to hysterics since the time I told her I was wearing a beanie. If someone can give you snake eye and the silent treatment in chat, well, she did!

Anyway, we talked today and wrote up our terms of war aka ground rules:

1) One ball of yarn only (and yes, this is flexible) sent to each person.

2) Yarn must be used to make an item for the sender.

3) Said ball can be of good or bad quality, but must be one extreme or the other. Must also be a surprise.

4) Recipient of item made from the yarn IS NOT ALLOWED TO THROW IT AWAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES--BUT--may give it away if they are lucky enough to find someone with inexcusable taste who will actually enjoy the monstrosity that has been created.

I already know what I'm going to make Faythe. HEEHEHEHEHEE

*And yes, I did refer to her indirectly as Korea since she was a bit hostile about negotiating at first. Brat!

**I said darn!!

In my spare time...

I've decided to knit a sweater. Being that I'm a poor decision maker, I'm sure it will take me some time to figure out which pattern and yarn I want to use. I'm waiting for a certain book from Amazon.com to arrive, hopefully it will have some suggestions. On the other hand, I was cruising through some blogs and I saw the pattern for The Perfect Sweater on Mason-Dixon Knitting. It looks good, it really does. The authors recommend Cascade 220. Now, I'm all for Cascade 220. It's beautiful, if a color exists, they have it! But...it's wool! I have a really hard time with wool and the fact it doesn't usually pass The Face Test. (TFT=must be able to rub on face or neck without feeling of repulsion) Plus, I'd have to wash it special, segregated from all the laundry and Apollo (let's not forget the recent Red Lipstick Incident where I was accused of trying to ruin all his clothes even though I was not the one *cough-cough-he-did-it-cough* who did laundry).

Meanwhile, I've decided to make Apollo's Christmas stocking on my lunch break at work. I'm going to leave all the supplies there so he doesn't suspect a thing. Any suggestions on a manly pattern?

:l

I'm typeless. What use does this have? (not work safe)

First stocking

As I was taking the photo, I realized I'd forgotten the little loop used to hang the stocking. Oh well, I have time. I still have to add the liner but there wasn't anything at Joann's that appealed to me. I need something in flannel with a Christmas print.

The white yarn has a sparkle to it, hopefully you can see it in this photo.

The other yarn is a heathered sage green, not gray.

A couple hats

I originally intended on converting the pattern to smaller needles but eventually got lazy and bought a set of size 13 needles. 13! It took me a little while to adapt to knitting with kindling, but I finally got over it. That and knitting with two strands of fuzzy yarn, I think I made a few mistakes. Fortunately, the Plush hides it well.

I used Berroco Plush in Bubblegum and Boysenberry because they're the softest yarn I could think of. If clouds had texture, this is what they'd feel like! The Boysenberry turned out a bit different than I thought but I still like it.

It's been a while since I knit a hat. In fact, I think the last time I knit a hat was when I made Faythe's beanie. Hehehehe, just thinking about the horror on her face gives me pleasure. Anyway, done with the quick knits, on to something that takes a bit more time!

Brrr!

It's definitely fall, the temperature is in the lower 60 degrees! That's freezing! HEEHEEEE! Now that I've been in San Diego for all these years, my blood has gotten thin. It's chilly out! I just wish it got colder. I love the cold weather!


Apparently the cats think so too. They're always cuddling up to get warm. You can see how spoiled the cats are, they have a fleece blanket in their cat tree bowl. It has cars on it cause Simba likes automotibles. No really, it's true. Whenever he hears a big truck drive by, he runs to the bedroom window and looks out. Dumptrucks and street sweepers are his favorite!

Don't they look annoyed? I know, the look of annoyance is so uncharacteristic of cats. :)

OK, I admit it. I have nothing to post. Hence the cat photo.

Why yes, my vision is blurry, why do you ask?

I recently experienced a virus in both eyes. It was great. I felt, well, vindicated. Have you ever gone to the doctor and found out you just had a cold? Something that's treated with drinking water, taking aspirin and plenty of sleep and you felt stupid for wasting everyone's time? This time, I was right. I was giddy with glee, kind of like the time I broke my elbow and the doctor said, your elbow is broken, you can't drive a car! And I said, really? But I've been driving for a week even though it hurt when I turned right. And left. And shifted. Yes, that kind of glee, an unbalanced loco HAHAHAHA kind of glee. Anyway, back to my eyes...there was definitely something wrong. Instead of being worried, I was happy. But then again, I have developed a habit of waiting until an illness or broken bone (heh) has gone on a wee bit too long before I go to the doctor. How do you know when to go anyway? Shaw!

So, my final visit to the doc to make sure this whole bad viral thing was gone included checking my vision. Apparently I was over compensating with one eye for the other! This made it difficult to get an accurate reading, so he resorted to dialating my eyes. He said something about paralyzing the muscles...cool. Anyway, long story short, my eyes are much worse than anticipated! He asked me if my vision is blurry. My response, Yes, isn't it supposed to be like that? I was serious! I didn't think anything was crystal clear, for some reason that just makes sense to me. (Remember, I cried myself to sleep for a week because my elbow hurt so bad but it never occurred to me I needed to get an x-ray.) So I get a prescription, go to a local store to buy contacts and - well, it turns out that ONE OF MY EYES IS SO BAD THAT THEY DON'T CARRY THE CONTACTS IN THE STORE! That's right! So the headaches I've been experiencing after staring at the screen all day long will have to continue until my special order arrives.

Lasik is starting to sound more and more appealing each day. That and therapy.

Mattress stitch

I finally finished my Aunt's Christmas stocking tonight. Well, actually I'm not completely finished, I'm going to add a flannel liner later. But the yarn part is over.

Like the Knit-Nerd that I am, I was so excited to finally learn how to do a mattress stitch correctly last night. I took pictures! When I seamed the Christmas stockings last year, I used a whip stitch. Eek! I finally looked up the instructions for the mattress stitch on KnittingHelp.com where I was able to watch a video. There's also some great instructions at Knitty if you're not able to stream videos.

You can firmly pull the seam together while you're stitching or let the strands hang loose like I did here in this photo. I liked this method cause it allowed me more control and, well, it was just fun to watch the stitches slide into place!

After several stitches, gently pull on the yarn...

...and joila! It's like magic! The rows meet up against each other as if they had always been there.

Here it is again with several loose stitches before pulling each side together.

Shazam! It's one piece! Yay! (Ignore the intarsia problems. I still have issues with that.)