4.29.09

I cannot stop knitting this thing. I'm about 1/4 of the way through the skein after 24 hours. Blame it on the NBA playoffs. Or the "Just one more row" addictive quality of this yarn.



As you can see, just as I was getting to the end of the first navy blue section, I found one of those annoying knots where a new colored was tied on in the skein. But I'm trusting the yarn on this one and just kept going.

BTW, this yarn was an impulse buy from eBay about a year ago because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about over Noro Sock Yarn. I am definitely glad I went the shawl route instead of the sock route. After reading a few reviews and feeling it for myself, I don't think this would last for one season knit up as socks.

Speaking of yarn, I've got a few more additions. Thank you Webs.


Elsebeth Lavold Silky Cashmere, 4 skeins, to be knit into a Claudia hat for M's grandma.


Malabrigo Laceweight, 2 skeins in Olive, to be knit into a Sarcelle for me for a couple weddings we have this summer/fall

Love that is Noro and Stockingette Stitch

I had a moment of I need it, I want it, I have to make it NOW last night.

So pretty in the morning sun!

We Act Like We Have Any Control Anymore...

"What?"

"You've never seen a dog in a chair before?"

Happy for Sandals

This has been a fabulous morning. I slept in until 750, got up and did aerobics AND yoga, and I still don't have to be at work for an hour. So THIS is where the missing hours of my day go...

Alas I will be at the office until 7pm tonight, but whatevs. Thanks to the super-productive morning, I can come home straight to a glass of wine instead of sit-ups and downward dog.

I started a new project last night:

Day 1 progress, thank you L.A. Lakers

Happiness from Norah Gaughan Volume 4.
Knitting it on size 5&7 needles with Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece from the stash.

Apparently I am a sucker for twisted stitches, between this and the vest I'm knitting for my dad.

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File this under RANDOM: I got some new shoes last week and I love them:



So much so that I am posting them on my blog for no apparent reason.

It Was the Pirate In the Galley With The Sword!

Matt & I went to our first murder-mystery party last night for one of Matt's longtime friends. It was a Pirate-themed shindig:



My character was a gold trader, and I was supposed to wear tons of jewelry. I thought I ended up looking more like a hippie than a pirate (or Nicole Richie when I had sunglasses on), but whatevs.

Matt was a Buccaneer. He's wearing my scarf around his waist.

We didn't know a lot of the other people so it made it a little awkward to walk up to someone and tell them "AYE! I know you've been dealing with pirates!", but it actually ended up being a lot of fun...



... and I figured out who the murderer was! Matt thinks it was because I got better clues than him, but I think it's because I watch a ton of CSI.

Uh. Weatherdude?

Please explain yourself. It is NOT supposed to be 100 degrees in April!

4.16.09

As Tammany summed it up in the comments of my last post: "My dogs would think it was Christmas and their birthday all rolled into one."

Our Katy would be so excited if she could go into a restaurant she wouldn't know what to do with herself. Seriously. This is the dog that prefers hanging out in the car for HOURS rather than the back yard when we go out. However, our dog has such ADD she would probably pace around the table, lick other patrons, and then get us kicked out.


My cute little mutt-dog, who likes to sleep with her beloved tennis ball in her mouth.

So speaking of Katy, we've had big breakthroughs in our house over the battle of the bed. When I last spoke of it, the dog and car were sharing the space but not happy about it (well, VIVA was not happy about it).


All is well in the kingdom. No cuddling yet, but this is definite progress.

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I've been working exclusively on Diamonds for Dad...



... and I'm fairly certain that it's been contributing to this nasty pain I've got in my left neck/shoulder/upper arm. It's this odd pain that I can turn my head the right, but hurts like a MOTHEREFFER when I turn it to the left. I think it's a lot of things - I sleep on my left side, I carry my purse on the left side - but the times that it flares I seem to be working on some knitting project with cables (in this case, it's cabling without a needle). The Swish Superwash doesn't have a lot of give, and that paired with my tendency to knit tight hasn't been fairing well.

Anyway, enough whining. It's Friday, there's a fun craft/food/fun fair at the U., and we have a leisurely weekend including a Murder Mystery Party and Greek Easter - Christos Anesti!

Dogs in Restaurants

Did I ever talk about how you could bring your dogs into restaurants in Italy?



Because you can.

(click for larger)

Diamonds for Dad

Not bad for one day's worth of work! That's what you get with a whole lot of driving between our respective family house's on Easter.

This is my first time using Swish from Knit Picks and I'm really liking it. However, is it just me or does it take on that squeaky acrylic feeling every now and then?

Ravelry: Diamonds for Dad

QUACK

We came home from lunch and found ducks in our front yard.



Matt just tried to catch one but he realized it might be a pretty embarrassing experience for a 31 year-old guy to have to explain to the emergency room why he was bitten by a duck.

Saturday Morning Live

Here's how my Saturday morning started out:

My husband just stuck his head inside after talking to our neighbor (J) with the super-well maintained yard and said "I shouldn't have talked to J, now I'm super-motivated and am going to replace our entire sprinkler system!"

So this means, I've got an entire day to myself. So on to the knitting!

I finished Pucker yesterday - What do you think?



I'm on the fence about it.



Raveled over here.

And with that off the plate I started doing some prep on a LONG-overdue sweater (vest) for my Old Man.



I'm using the pattern Diamonds for Him from Knitty, and Knit Picks Swish Superwash (because I seriously don't trust him to NOT throw it in the washing machine someday).

There's also been some progress made on Laurent.

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Now I'm off to make about 10 pounds of Chocolate Swirled Rice Crispy Treats for tomorrow. I LOVE to cook, but manage to screw up almost everything I bake, so I had to choose something that is almost fool proof. And for extra insurance, I'm using this recipe from Cooking for Engineers to guide me. Have you ever seen that blog? It is one of the most unintentionally entertaining websites I've ever found.

Puckering

Pucker is almost finished.



I sewed everything together, and all that is left is the bottom band to “gather” the front. I opted to do this at the end instead of on each piece PRIOR to sewing the side seams. I’ll pick up all the stitches along the bottom and work in the round.

Not sure if I love it. It's ok, but not the grand hopes that I had.

I also don't know why this photo is pink. There is no pink anywhere in my house.

PLAY BALL!

Yesterday was Opening Day at AT&T Park and my dad, sister, and I were there as always.



However, earlier in the day, there was a grim outlook on the status of the game.



Before we left Fresno in the A.M., I checked the weather and there was a 100% chance on rain in SF. But we decided to head up anyways, joking the entire way that it probably just meant that the weatherman is a Dodgers fan.

Around Daly City, my hopes were low. The sky looked like it was about to explode and send 10 inches of rain down upon us. But we continued on to the park.

After grabbing beer and hot dogs, we settled into our seats and had to endure a few sprinkles. But by the 6th inning what did I see? Blue skies, smiling at me!



This just proves that YES, the weatherman IS a Dodgers fan, but God is a Giant's fan ;).

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Also, in my blog reading in the last couple of days I found this pattern booklet at Loop.



HOLY CRAP how have I never seen this before. I CRAZY love Olive.

Rambling Rose

This weekend I did the final finishing (blocking and buttons) on Rambling Rose:



I absolutely adore it, except that it is WAAAYYY too big.



You can't really see it in the photos, but the armholes hang way too low and it's definitely a lot more roomier than needed.


However, have no fear! This is a bit premature, but it’s going straight into my “pregnancy pile” (stuff I’ve shrunk out of since I’ve lost some weight). It’s actually going to be FAB with a baby bump someday.

DETAILS:
Rambling Rose, Interweave Knits Winter 2006
Knit Picks Andean Silk in Chestnut, 11 skeins
Size 6 straight needles
Raveled

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One other small FO to share. Another Quickie Baby Sweater.



DETAILS:
Quickie Baby Sweater, from D-Made
Paton's Classic Merino Wool in Cognac Heather, less than 1 ball
Size 10.5 straight needles
Raveled

I swear almost everyone we know who is married is having kids right now. Luckily, all I needed was a weekend at the cabin, snowed in, to get this finished.

Summer:

Now: