Spazzmanda

For all you fiber heads, I have actually finished something. I KNOW, it’s been so long!

Whatever does a finished object even look like? Well it is a very cool project! I made the Moebius Cowl in a beautiful beaded silk, it is simply lovely and I used up every bit of that wonderful yarn! (Thanks Jen!)

Do you like the current hair color? I can’t remember what box it came in, but it is a slightly darker shade of mocha for the fall. And yes, I have bangs now. But they are cute bangs. No “bang intervention” necessary.

I’ve made more progress on Florence, yes the yarn is from last Christmas (thanks again John Olin and Margaret!) But this isn’t procrastination. No, this is PERFECTION, and perfection takes time. This is the softest knit fabric on the planet. I can’t wait to wrap myself in it some day in the next ten years.

Gigi is blocked and ready for seaming (feh, I hates the seaming process.) And will be lovely to wear in the spring.

I started some pedicure socks as a demo for the class I am currently teaching. A class on socks. A class on socks in the magic loop method. My students are all doing so well on their little practice sock, I feel like a parent on prom night, I want to whip out the camera and dab tears from my eyes at each milestone. YAY! we have turned a heel! Save this sock in a scrapbook, seriously!

For this particular pair there will be no toes (duh, that is where the pedicure part comes in.) I dyed the yarn myself months ago with kool aid. This was my demo-day yarn. I was sick as a dog that day, can you tell? I would have to file this self-striping yarn under the category of fiber disaster. The colors are very much like giving a child some rainbow sherbet then placing them on the tilt-o-whirl. It is rather like sherbet regurgitated. I suppose these socks, due to their unfortunate color palette, will have to be “keepers” but I may gift them if they come out even remotely cute and then I shall christen this colorway as “Sherbet Spew From Me to You.” Oh, and with love.

And finally, I’m making the Baby Yoda Sweater (free pattern on ravelry) for little Nevin in some left over yarn from the ROYGBIV blanket. I will make the sleeves and piping details navy blue on the burgundy sweater, it is going to be cool. The detail picture isn’t very exciting, so I’ll leave it up to imagination for now.

I’m so organized! Could you just die? Or at least be flabbergasted at my mad organization skillz?

No?

My friend Fox had her baby yesterday, I’m looking forward to meeting her today. I’m so excited! Girls are fun. Which means I finally got off my arse and finished “Norberta” last night (it only took me until 1:00 AM but I want to take it to her today.) This was a free pattern from knitty.com that I’ve been working on for a few months on and off. Mostly because of all the pieces but also because of a false start, you see I used an acrylic boucle double stranded and my first start with the gauge was so freakin’ tight it was practically bulletproof. So I started again and blah, blah, but here she is, a dragon fit for a princess. (I gave my version a little hairdo.)

I embroidered all the details (since it is for a baby and all- safety first!)

In other news, I have to work tonight (feh) and tomorrow I cut out my Halloween costume. More to follow on that… I seem to have convinced myself that I’m capable of sewing a garment so, er, we’ll see. Luckily my mom has agreed to help, if indeed I do require it!

I had visitors on Friday. Which pretty much made it the best day ever. Nevin and proud Mama Megan were in town. The kid is quite exceptional, he likes good art, and at only 8 weeks old! What a sweet boy. I lurrrves him.

I’m so proud. My mother completed her shrug.

Isn’t it beautiful? I’m so pleased with her work that I could just pop!

My mother visited last night. We had such a fun time. She wrote a lovely guest column for the blog about my preparing her dinner late last night… oops.

Guest Blog Column by Rebecca Ann:

I have come home from paradise and things are much like I’ve left them. No, things are much better. This trip was a much needed escape from everything, it was heaven on earth with the most wonderful beach companions I could ask for. We rode bikes, ate seafood, oreos and ice cream sammiches, floated on noodles in the ocean and I enjoyed a peace the likes of which I haven’t known since Jeff brought the bunny boiler into our life. In a word, it was perfect. Thank you John Olin and Barbara for bringing me, once again, on this beautiful family vacation.

This is what fishing looks like:

And bike riding

And the house:

And my favorite girl:

OH! Of course, AND my finished shawl (I did manage to get my windswept photos of my finished stormwater shawl.) I wore it to warm me from the air conditioning and here on the beach, it is a very good wrap. I didn’t knit a stitch, but I read two and a half books and floated and sampled many daiquiri flavors…

I’m ready to return to the land of the living now, some minor post-vacation depression was nixed by a lovely, relaxing visit with my mother today. I’m good to go.

The lovely Barbara came to help me finish painting this little corner of my universe and last night I finally put all my crap back into place. (I have a lot of crap.) I know the blogiverse has been waiting with baited breath for the “finished” shots so without further ado, here is the finished dining/crafting area:

Yes, I am down one rug because I SPILLED PAINT ON IT. It is currently drying on the porch after being hosed down in the driveway last night. Yeah, I like to screw up royally, if something is worth doing, it is worth doing with some style. A quart of green paint falls, pops open and glug, glug, glug.

Here is a detail of my little sewing/computing “nook”:

My mother made these curtains, aren’t they lovely?

Thank you to the ladies that dragged me kicking and screaming through helped me with this painting project. The results are lovely.

Guess who did a radio interview this morning?

Yes Ma’am. That’s me on a local Christian station talking about work stuff. Pretty neat, actually. I’ve never done anything like that before and it was a 30 minute interview so I just kept on talking. (It wasn’t very hard at all.) Look closely at the FINISHED stormwater shawl. Yuppers. I finished and blocked that beast last night, I just couldn’t wait one minute longer. (More to follow.)

So you had better do as you are told.

You better listen to the radio.

Woah-oh, living on a prayer.  Not a bad song to have stuck in your head at all. Especially because we’ve made some serious strides in finishing up operation apartment do-over.

That is half of a finished apartment. Windows painted, patches where painters tape pulled off the paint fixed, furniture moved back (and vacuumed), new curtains courtesy of Momma (thank you again P.S. and by the way) and art work hung.  We stayed up late. I had a smidge too much wine, but it was all well worth it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful living room that can actually be lived in. (This might actually get me out of bed.)

Now. As far as the other half of the apartment…. not so much… yet… but there really isn’t very much painting left. I’m feeling pretty good about all of this. We watched “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” last night (yes, again) because musicals and whores, what is better than that? They do look so happy being whores, singing, dancing, hanging out with Dolly Parton. I asked my mother if she actually wanted to ask a local singing, whoring individual who shall remain nameless if she enjoyed her work half as much… I think I might still have her number here somewhere from the last time she called me and got all white trash on my voice mail (I might have touched a nerve with the old blog here…)

Oh, in other news, two of my college roommates delivered baby girls yesterday! Beth had her second- Sara Kate and Nicole had her fourth- Vivian Lauren. Way to go with the birthin’ ladies, the last two weeks have been all about the new humans coming into the world, I couldn’t be happier for all of you guys!

Have a great holiday weekend- I’m retreating to the mountains again, it should be fun… ish. We’ll see.

Layin’ low this weekend. Did laundry. Mopped. Finished the Hegie- I ended up stuffing him with polyfil and some stones- so he would be heavy. I needle felted his face on yesterday, very easy finishing after he dried.

This is him in the herb garden this morning before the storm rolled in. He will go to live with my mom (surprise mom!) after I get a chance to take him to a meeting to be photographed with the other hedgies.  This was a fun KAL.

Also working on a test knit for Pixie, here is a glimpse of another something cute she has up her sleeve:

That is all for now. Have a marvelous week.

There are some changes going on right now where I work that have me all… conflicted. A sad departure? A new opportunity? On many levels, I’m just so torn, between what there is to be done, the thing that needs to be done, the moral right thing to do and what is currently expected from me– and none of these things, mind you, are ever, ever, ever the SAME thing, the comfortable thing, or even the easy thing. Blah. I can’t even really communicate all that is going on, nor do I really want to… once again… right here… in my safe place.

I shall skip on to the knitting.

Super-secret-finished-object numero uno:

For more details, see Ravelry.

Also, I started this over the weekend:

For our “Hedge” A-long- where many of us are knitting a felted hedgehog at the same time. I made much progress on this little fucker before finishing the blanket o’death (pictured above.) All yarn from said hedgehog is a remnant from my stash (and Shari’s- thanks for the fun fur so I can make him all one color.)
This isn’t the “easiest” pattern to read, you are kind of have to be assumed to have half a brain, I really favor “moron-worded” patterns myself.

Yeah, he will be a cute little door-stopper for my mother once I come up with something heavy to stuff him with. Shari suggested rice, I asked her- “What about bugs?” She mused, but confirmed that rice would probably be better…

Wait for it.

It is funny… Maybe you had to be there.

Me and my knittas went to the Twisted Skeins in Clarkesville this weekend (gosh, I needed that outing. It healed my soul a little that day, thanks in great part to Shari for being… a perfect friend and destination-knitting-companion exactly when and where I needed her. Uncanny.)

In the immortal words of Forrest, Forrest Gump:

“That’s all I have to say about that.”