So I suck at blogging...

Which is no big surprise to anyone who may have attempted to follow my life on this stupid thing...oh well!  Enjoy the pieces as they fall, I say (not really, but what the hell).

I'm falling into old knitting habits, as the Moose so graciously pointed out last night when I emptied my knitting bag to reveal 3 current projects...all actively being worked on, but nonetheless.  That doesn't even including the Arden Bag, which has been sleeping for the last two weeks because houndstooth is kind of annoying after a while.

I'm actively dealing with the babydoll/boyshorts set, the Tiger Eyes scarf, and just cast on Kernel...the babydoll will be tedious because it's so many stitches wide in a boring lace pattern.  I'm SO close to finishing Tiger Eyes, I really just need to buckle down and do it.  Kernel, well now that's a different story...the yarn is so beautiful I just want to knit it up and be done with it to see the finished product!

The mystery project has not progressed at all...I can't justify knitting up something that I can't size out because I'm so much heavier than I want to be.

On that note, L and M have been keeping me honest (for the most part) with our workout spreadsheet.  Granted, I've been listing yard work as "weights" but digging out trenches for sidewalks certainly should count as something!  

I'm really excited about the yard, even though it's taking from my knitting time. I think we'll probably attack it the same way this weekend as we did last...work til there is no light left on Saturday, and just in the morning on Sunday so that we can take some time to relax and clean the house.

We shall see how it all plays out.  We shall also see if I keep this up again...

Ribbit....Ribbit...Again

I went to KnitNight last night to discover that about 50 of my 400 stitches had come off the needle on Hush-Hush.  Fantastic.  Guess that was a sign that me ignoring the goofs wasn't going to fly.  Ripped the whole thing and started again.

Mystery project update...I think I'm going to add a cable edging to the bottom of the top.  It could be gorgeous, but I want to make sure it felts properly.  I made my first gauge swatch the other day, which I believe I've already mentioned, but I'm still so happy about it.

Things at home are doing better too.  We're laughing together again, which is something I thought was going to take a lot longer.

Time to start figuring out Christmas for the family.  I've got to get some serious knitting done if we're having a handmade Christmas again, which I'd assume we are.  I have no clue what to make this year....last year's slippers were a lot of fun to knit up but I doubt anyone wears them.  That's the most frustrating thing about investing all that energy into making stuff that no one cares about.  I would have loved to have some slippers like that, but I gave them all away.

Time to Ravel for ideas.

Tinking life

ahh if only this were a possibility.  I have so much I'd like to tink back sometimes.  Thankfully, the Moose has the patience of a saint, and the faith in me that only one of those would have as well.

Back to other things though, the mystery project may be coming back to life.  I knitted and felted my gauge swatch for the top, and was pleasantly surprised by the way the Knit Picks wool felted, though the jeans gave it a kind of dingy look that even the sparkly crochet thread I knit in didn't offset.  I'll need to remember to felt it with something else of a like color, if at all possible.

In the quest to make the perfect mystery project, I am learning a lot about bust darts.  There are some really cool sites out there that have some awesome equations and tutorials for getting perfect darts.  I plan on getting started on a test for those shortly.

However, since the mystery project can only be worked on in hours of solitude, and yesterday was spent entirely with the Moose's family, I got started on Hush-Hush with my Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock in Flamingo Stripe...no way I'll finish this by the November 1 deadline for Knit for the Cure, but it would be fantastic if I could do so.

If not, I'll just keep it for next year.

What that translates too is that for the next 11 days, all I'm allowed to work on is Hush-Hush.  At 400 stitches per round right now on size 3 needles, needless to say, this is going to be a challenge to my patience.  Not only that but the yarn winding itself has been challenging...seems like every hank I open up of the LLSS is tangled.  Very frustrating.  I had to resort to winding by hand yesterday instead of on my yarn-ball-winder.  I suppose once I get it wound by hand, I could go back and create a nice neat center-pull ball on the winder, but that's time taken away from knitting.

My plan of attack for today?  At least 8 more rows on Hush-Hush.  It's football night in San Diego though, so I might not get that much accomplished.  We'll see.

a month of excuses

i always seem to be full of them.   this time, they've affected those i hold most dear, including my knitting.

long story short we're on eggshells again and it's my fault again.  i could really use some knittherapy with the gang, so thank god today is a Wednesday.  Last night's group was all right...i definitely felt the outsider though.

MPC hasn't gotten much accomplished on it since last Wednesday.  It blocked beautifully though, which was a pleasant surprise.  I've got the front half results up on Ravelry.

Fish's dino sweater was a rousing success...he danced around in it and reminded me of Max from the Wild Things (which movie I am greatly anticipating).

I did about 5 rows on my design last night, which was good because I needed some mindlessness for awhile.  I'm aching to be numb again in moments, which scares me.

I can only blame so much on my disorder, and so much on my upbringing before all I've got are excuses, and I refuse to be that girl.

I have an addictive personality, in the non-complimentary way. I'm addicted to so much in my life, both healthy and unhealthy.  These days, it seems as though my counterproductive addictions are those that are taking the stage.  I've got a fight ahead of me again, and this time, I'm very much on my own.

So much for my ultimate design that I was thrilled to be starting on...the mystery project will have to wait until there is at least a chance again, and right now, hope is all I have...a very weak hope at that.

Can anyone ever truly change? I used to believe so, but I question it in times like these.

why i must never allow a headache to progress

Because it turns into a damn migraine.  Now here I am at work, needing to power through the next few hours, and I'm fighting a throbbing, light-sensitive, nauseating doozy.  

I've had this stupid headache since yesterday, all because I didn't have enough caffeine.   I hate that I can't just get a headache like regular people and then take two tylenol and have it go away.  No, I've got to get stupid, crippling migraines that make me want to curl up and die.

I vent.

I finished the front of MPC last night and I'm now blocking it, though blocking acrylic doesn't really work.  I'm hoping that Comfort might be the exception?  I doubt it.  Thankfully, Ravelry has guided me and I think I'll attempt steam blocking it tonight, though I really don't want to ruin something that pretty...alas, that is the price I pay for knitting with Comfort.

I'm almost done with the body of the Fish's dino sweater.  I think before I do the sleeves I'm going to try out the back spikes, just to get some variety in my life.  I really need to get working on the back of MPC, though.

Bummer; yesterday I just realized that because I've got tickets to this Sunday's Chargers game, I'll be missing Knit for the Cure.  I'm super excited about the game, but wish it didn't come at the cost of knitting with my favorite group of women.

Alright, meds are starting to kick in now, so I should probably stop blogging and see if I can't sneak in some interesting client calls in this last hour of work.  I crack myself up!

why the t-shirt blanket may never be finished

because knitting on size 35 needles, while it produces very quick and large results, is kind of obnoxious.  I forgot how frustrating it is to move those damn clunkers around.  Alas, I finished only one square before losing my patience and putting up the uber-project for who knows how long again.

Went back to MPC, but the other night's lesson of no lace knitting during football stands true, and I had to put it down after three rows.

By the way, the new issue of Knitty is up! How exciting...and it appears that it's gotten a facelift!  There are some beautiful patterns on it, and I'm going to have to stay away if I'm going to finish anything in time for Christmas.


Speaking of, I think the washcloth idea is a good one, but my pattern-a-day calendar has different ideas, as a bath mitt pattern came up yesterday.  Perhaps that would be more appropriate, and a little more intriguing to knit than just squares.  I've not yet attempted anything resembling a mitt, other than my wrist warmers for the desert.  Those were just glorified ribbed tubes with holes for thumbs.  


I've got to come up with something clever for the Fish.  Perhaps some knitted toys, but I worry that they might be too young for him.  


You know, I could probably Ravel and blog all day long, if I allowed myself too.  But Spingo has other ideas for me...no way I'm going to get 250 calls/emails in this week at my current pace.  Alas, I'll give it a go.

I did just figure out what to make Fish and M...I think I'll make them dino hoodies.  Fish loves his beanie that I made him, and a dino hoodie might just be too much fun.   I can make a simple top-down raglan, pick up stitches for a hood, and then add spikes.


Okay, I've spent a lot of time on this post now, between Ravelry and blogging, so I'm back to work now.

why cayenne pepper will not stop a determined dog

Actually, I have no idea why it doesn't stop her.  Stupid Samantha is intent upon digging up our cactus garden.  To be truthful, she's intent upon digging up anything that we plant in that stretch of dirt, because she dug it up when it was just dirt.  She's got this little burn on her nose now from the pepper, but did that stop her?  NO.

So my solution was a dog run.   I was vetoed though, by T's dad.  He said that it would make her more like a guard dog and less like a pet.  I kept my mouth shut.  T decided that instead, we would install two galvanized steel fence posts, six and a half feet above the ground, one and half feet below, and rig a pulley system like we had in Humboldt for Edward and Gigi.  This one is just for Sam though, and I have a sneaking suspicion that Edward is going to tease the crap out of her while she is on the line.  We put her on it for about 10 minutes yesterday while we were home, just to make sure the line would hold, and she just laid as close to the patio as she could and whined.  Great.  I'm sure the neighbors are going to love this.

Yesterday was our first Football Day, and for the most part, it was glorious.  We went on a ride in the AM with a bunch of the neighbors, so we missed the first half of the 10:00 games, which kind of bummed me out, but oh well, it wasn't like we missed the Chargers.

I didn't get to any housecleaning, so there is still Scentsy wax on the dining room floor from my attempt to "pour" hot wax out of the warmer.  FYI- Does not work.  I didn't even finish laundry all the way.

I got really frustrated with N yesterday, as did T.  He was just being unbearable to J and TT, like he was trying to tick them off.  And in all honesty, I'm getting a little fed up with S spending all of her time at our place.  I think they're starting to get sick of each other a little bit, but we'll see.  

In the world of knitting, I'm up another 10 rows on MPC.  I didn't get much done on it this weekend, but need to get moving if I'm going to do the top and bottom.  Right now, it's looking like just the hipster is going to get finished for Knit for the Cure.  We'll see though.  I'd love to offer a full set.


I didn't get the T shirt blanket back out yet, but I think I will tonight.  WOO MNF double headers!  Go Chargers!