Well, anyways, I said to Jerry, “Jerry, you seem a bit down. Is there something bothering you?”

Jerry says, “You know, all this rain is just getting to me. Chilling me to the very center of my being.” (Jerry is very, very deep.)

I say, “I  know, the rain really sucks and I really wish it would stop. I saw these earthworms flailing on the pavement today and it realy grossed me out and made me feel so sorry for them.” (I tend to babble when I’m around Jerry or anyone else for that matter.) “I hate to see you so depressed, is there anything I can do?”

Jerry says, “Well, I would like to see the world!”

I got excited because, I, happened to be able to oblige immediately.

“Seeeeee my world, Jerry? Get it, it’s a globe and it lights up and I showed it to you.” Tee hee.

He gave me a look. I knew he was in no mood for my corny sense of humor. He hadn’t had his cocktail yet apparently and didn’t see how dang funny I was being. You see, Jerry can be pretty humerous at times, there was this one time we had a bottle of Jagermeister and a chicken that had fallen off the chicken truck. You see the chicken wasn’t hurt or anything, but then Jerry poured him some of the Jagermeister… needless to say I never drank Jager again after that night. But I guess you had to be there.

Anyways, right now, he was calling me out on my stupid little joke.

Jerry said “I was thinking a change of scenery, like somewhere more warm and near the ocean. Like somewhere in California…”

I then sighed and poured a glass of wine. I knew this day would come. Jerry, you see, wasn’t meant to stay with me forever.

He took a little sip of my wine. (He’s a terrible flirt, but I don’t mind.) I gave his foot an affectionate squeeze.

I say to Jerry, “How does San Francisco sound to you?”

He smiles and squints his eyes, “Groovy.”

I’ll take him to the bus stop this weekend.

For those of you that want to know, pattern: Stitch and Bitch Nation -Henry Rollins torso, Joey Ramone head arms and legs and about 8 hours with some fun fur (don’t  ask.) yarn: total stash bust, but washable so YAY. Going to the arms of a sweet baby girl- the daughter of an old, dear, friend (a hippie who will appreciate the humor of this creation) and his lovely wife whom I have not yet been fortunate enough to meet!

I finished this so quickly, only about 2 1/2 weeks because it knit up like butter. The Malabrigo baby lace is by far one of the most decadent fibers I’ve ever worked with. At $10 for one hank it was a great project to use luxury yarn on. I think I’m going to focus on small projects like these with nice yarns, it is very satisfying work. I love the color. I even took a painstaking amount of time  to embellish the row before the ruffle and the bind of edge with glass beads. Had the beading hook I purchased in a kit at SAFF actually worked I wouldn’t have had to use a dental floss threader to slide each and every bead on an individual stitch.  It took me two days to bind off 544 + stitches. I lost count, it was all good though, I think the work will b worth it.

In for a penny, in for a pound, right?

I’ve been coveting this yarn. It is so very, very sexy. I think that Malibrigo may be my new best friend. So,  I’m making THIS for the spring, in the same color and everything, not because I lack imagination, but because I often bend like a reed to the power of suggestion. Says the shawl “You know you want me….” and I’m all ” yes I do, for you will make my  life complete.”   And then “Faithfully” by Journey plays in my head.  Isn’t that how it goes for you? No? Just me then?

I’ve fallen hard for this yarn and this project, a love I haven’t experienced in a while and I can’t wait to get to work on it in earnest. Uninterrupted. Alone.  Just me and my yarn and my Journey.  But before I’d even let myself cast on, I made myself finished the Palindrome scarf.

Now, don’t get me wrong, knitting with cashmere, and special, special Christmas gifted cashmere is fantastic. And we have a cold pop here in Georgia and I knew it would come in handy this weekend, but I was so damn bored with this pattern I wanted to scream. There’s simple and then there’s a snooze fest and this was that other thing. But I do love the finished product, perfect color, length and the cables are reversible, so that’s pretty cool, not to mention that the cables really enhance the yumminess of the yarn. Overall, I’m pleased with the result (and pleased to be done!) And speaking of reversible cables, if you hate when shawls or scarves have an obvious ‘wrong’ side (which I do) I think the whole reversible concept is really very brilliant. So, one of these days I’m going to make Jeanie (reversible cable and drop stitch shawl.) Because that’s how I roll.

Stay toasty warm this weekend knitting fiends.

A brand new concert flute.

You may naturally be asking why.  I will attempt to formulate an adequate response for such an odd impulse purchase. You may not know that the  Spazz played the flute from grade school through high school. And I didn’t totally suck either, my junior year I made it all the way to fourth chair before I started losing interest and nearing the finish line of my high school career. I maintained a not too shabby front line of the second string, but alas, my instrument was stolen during my senior year over 14 years ago. (I know, who would steal a flute, right?)  I stumbled upon a moderately priced concert flute this weekend at Tuesday Morning of all places. (Don’t you just LOVE Tuesday Morning?)

Long story long, I snapped it up after very little persuasion from mom. Turns out, much to my surprise and the amusement of both Jeff and my mother, I can play a B flat scale AND arpeggio.

Thaaaaaat’s about all folks.  But I look forward to practicing and re-learning what I can so I can bust out  some wicked “rock flute” at a future gathering. I’m thinking some “Smoke on the Water” or “Stairway to Heaven” or even “Enter Sandman” would be nice to add to my repertoire.

I need to work on my posture. And clean some junk off the fridge while I’m at it. (Yes I voted for Obama and yes, I’m currently a little disappointed even though I didn’t like that other guy much either.)

In other news, I finished a cupcake hat. Well, actually, I finished five cupcake hats. There are too many delicious little girls that needed warm heads this winter. Because I am wildly impatient and couldn’t wait until official gifting time, not to mention the fact that this little nugget was hat less on Saturday evening (shame, shame Ole) I have already gifted one hat.

I’ve got it baaaaaaaad for this little one. She’s both my weakness and endless delight. In short, she’s my pwecssssssousssssesssss. Yes, she has red eyebrows .  RED eyebrows I tell you. Be still my beating heart I almost can’t stand it and want to gobble her up every time I see her. The empty womb is apparently knocking. (Don’t worry, I’ve hit snooze.)

Diminishing Rib Cardigan, from the cover of the Spring, 2009 Interweave Magazine.

Taa daaa!

Here is my monkey, Osvaldo:

Do you want to touch my monkey? He won’t mind.

Pedicure socks for Barbara that I wanted to give her, oh, in December, but didn’t finish until Sunday. I dyed the yarn my own self using kool aid. I was sick at the time and the color combination that resulted was reminiscent of regurgitated sherbet. So I call the colorway Sherbet Spew- from me to you (Oh, and with love.)

Glad she liked them!

I say I tried because as the side by side will show you, I got a little lazy with the shield and just sort of said “fuck it” there at the end.

But the cake itself was yummy. I focused on making it so just in case it wasn’t real pretty. I used regular yellow cake but made two thin sheet cakes and sandwiched raspberry jam in between the layers. I then iced it with whipped cream cheese icing and since red food coloring + icing almost always yields pink (not to mention the fact that I was correct in my deduction that precision with icing and stripes would not be plausible for me) I used decorators sugar and a piece of paper to get the sparkly stripes. Decorator’s sugar was easy to find and an awesome value at $1.89 a shaker with an added bonus that I only used a wee bit.

The birthday boy liked it so I felt it to be a culinary triumph if not an exact replica. The kids went NUTS over who got the biggest piece of the “shield,” which, for those that are curious, was made of piped white chocolate, twizzlers and Mike &Ike.

I aim to please.

Here she is with her finished object, a cute little drawstring bag. (Not quite as funny as the fact that her living room, couch, cat and outfit are all TAN!)

I also finished my Amelia Earhardt hat in just enough time to wear it in this COLD weather!