Spazzmanda

In the hub-ub that was last week, I forgot to post this picture.

The lovely Claudia bestowed upon me some really beautiful lace weight yarn. Over 1400 yards of some very “Amanda” colors and I just love it. It is nice and smooshy. But now I suppose I shall have to make something lacy with it. Hmmmmmmmm. Maybe something this fall will inspire. Thanks for the yarny goodness girl!

Do you like my flat-leafed parsley? It is the only thing other than the “vegetable” that seems to be thriving in this heat. What do you do with so much abundant parsley? I finally had to make a jumbo batch of pesto last week and freeze it so the basil crop wouldn’t go to waste. All my hopes for summer cooking have long since been obliterated what with no one to cook for and no desire to eat. Feh. Maybe fall will be better.

I got home from my wicked cool yoga class tonight only to find a mysterious and smuooshy package. I saw it was from a little slice of heaven on earth, Knitch, only the finest yarn shop in Atlanta. Inside was this:

A pattern for a shrug and some of the most beautiful beaded silk I’ve ever seen. (I’ve been coveting this yarn for, like, ever. But it wasn’t in the budget on my current yarn diet.) I thought to myself: “Self?”  “Did I win something???”

Nope, my fantastic friend Jen (of Sugarchef.com) sent it to me as a pick me up. And boy howdy, it is the perfect end of an almost perfect day. I had a good day at work, a good evening at the gym and now I have some silky, sparkly lovliness to occupy the rest of the night.

Jen, I can’t thank you enough. You are truly a wonderful, wonderful friend and I’m missing you lots.

Ok, one close-up for the road:

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM. Have a great weekend!

Here it is all close up an pornographic:

Makes you all tingly just looking at it. I’ve found my knit groove again and am focusing on selfish knitting for ME! (Thank you lord it only took me three weeks.) I started the Gigi sweater from the Summer 2008 Knitty using some luxurious hand painted yarn I purchased some time ago at Knitch in Atlanta, which is where I went today with the beautiful and funny Jackie and Claudia. I met some loverly new knitting friends and I finished the ribbing for the back of my sweater! I really miss Atlanta sometimes, maybe I will move there again, who knows? But the traffic is a nightmare and I really have come to love Gainesvegas, the town is cool and I have many good friends here.

I’ve had a wonderful (and mostly drama-free) weekend, although it is very unfortunate that I must reiterate to all the haters out there to leave me and my life and my memories the hell alone. I don’t need or require any more dirt, my current life post-trauma is just not all that entertaining, so please, please, PLEASE just watch some soap net, ‘kay?

More good news, the “misery diet” would seem to be paying off. Unfortunately my boobs are shrinking (Shari says “firming” but whatever) but also shrinking, apparently, is the rest of me. My jeans are all too big already and I’ve had to cinch them up an extra notch on my belt. The gym is not only a life saver for how I’m feeling (particularly when I’m trying to sleep at night) but also with the nifty butt-firming, ab-toning side-effects. Which is all very good for the self esteem, that quite frankly was shot to hell, and whose wouldn’t be when their partner strays from their relationship? Through my unhealthy obsession to follow the fall-out, I came to the following conclusions that I thought I’d share with the blogiverse. (It is really very cleansing…)

Girlfriend simply isn’t terribly attractive. I suppose I could go into illustrated specifics (that are both petty and cruel) but why bother? She’s pretty -ish- but not really striking or memorable, mostly sort of just feh (for lack of a better word.) I guess it would be much harder for me if he had fallen, be it ever so briefly, for a woman that was actually devastatingly beautiful, but for just adequate I’m finding it rather easy to get past this issue. Even though it was still a blow to the ego it isn’t worth much more thought on the matter. In retrospect, I suppose now the biggest problem I am having is pinpointing the initial attraction at all. Not just because of the physical mediocrity, but because she just wasn’t all that interesting. The few conversations I had had with her I never really could find anything worth talking about and I had given it a real shot (because she was Mr. X’s friend so I tried for his sake-what a fool I was.) At first I thought back that maybe I had subconsciously “vibed” into the fact that she is sort of predatory (which I still don’t rule out) but she didn’t even “blip” on my radar as any sort of legitimate threat because she was so…dull? Maybe a tad boring? Not very bright for certain, again, feh . Her personality is lackluster and flat.

Easy. (She is most certainly that.) Men act foolish when around loose women.

Self esteem healing, objective number one almost complete. Have a lovely week, I’m so stressed at work I’ll barely have the time to think, much less blog, so see you later!

Mom came over again and we painted some more. Still not finished. This is going to take a long, long time.

Here is the progress of her RUG that she is knitting. (Who knits a rug? I wouldn’t be able to bear someone putting their feet on something that took this much time, but whatever floats your boat.) I think it looks like Uncle Sam’s lower intestine, but I’m assured it will be rug-shaped.

She then made me this salad, which was very appetizing even though there were no tomatoes.

I’m mad today. Mad is better than sad. Sad sucks.

Angry is working for me today.

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.”

You might remember that I won something back in May on one of my favorite blogs– Shut Up I’m Counting. Well the package arrived yesterday, and believe me, these teensy felted stitch markers were well worth the wait. Er, confession time, I got a tad impatient and so much wanted the mail to deliver cute things rather than plastic, windowed envelopes (yuck!) so yesterday I sent a strongly worded email as to why said stitch markers weren’t yet in my possession– and wouldn’t you know it- I get home and there they are, right in my mailbox. I’ll be honest, I won the contest in May so being a slight, tad-bit ornery at the end of June is probably ok, right? Can I be forgiven? How about if I give out some major accolades to the vendor and the lovely lady who ran the contest in the first place? Can I be forgiven NOW?

OK! Drinks all around! These little buggars are even cuter than their photo! Baaaaaaa. AND there was a keychain thrown in for shits and giggles (awww, thanks!)

These were handmade and sold on over at Etsy in the Jelby shop- and they really rock (I believe they are updating their inventory as we speak so take a look if you can!)

Thank you again Cass for the awesome give away!

Baaaaaaaaaaa.

So, I have added all of my UFO’s (Unfinished Objects) to my Ravelry notebook so I will have to be forced to deal with them. Not too terribly bad-while I have technically 4 WIP’s (works in progress) my only abandoned for the time being UFO’s are a headband and a pillow, the Tumbling Blocks pillow to be exact. It is giving me a rash just thinking about it because I don’t like intarsia and no matter how much I practice I still suck at it. I suppose I am coming to terms with the fact that I don’t HAVE to be good at colorwork just because other knitters are and I am becoming okay with this although part of me wants to keep going to see if I “get it” but the other part wants to rip it now so I don’t have to be disappointed with the final product later. The yarn is so pretty (Rowan, yum, yum) I’m thinking of making an entrelac scarf out of it, but I just don’t know… yet, so I’m sittin’ on it for the time being.

Also- look what got FOUND!

Yep. That is one found alien illusion scarf. It was at Jeff’s Daddy’s house. I washed it by hand then hung it inside out to deal with the “roll” issue (which, when he starts wearing it, will only start to roll again. I may take the new slick sewing machine and “line” the wrong side of this scarf with some jersey or something to help it lay flat, I’ll talk to the boy and see what he wants. I’m really glad he found it, I was a bit bummed it was gone. So he is officially OFF the hook … (for this.)

Ok, what else? OH! Since I now fancy myself a seamstress and seem to think I can tackle a GARMENT- I think I may try a garment! My mother says she will talk me through any difficulties, but I think I will start with a simple, wrap skirt- but I want it to feel “vintage” so I think I’m going to use this tutorial and make a black and toile one (I lurrrrrrrrve toile!) We shall see. So many projects, so little time. Jeff is also going to assist me in the casting of some resin jewelry (I had a stroke of brilliance recently that I’ll blog about at a later time because it is a surprise for someone dear that may or may not be reading.) I’m knitting something also in secret so that can’t really be discussed either (but it is in my Ravelry file here if you can’t stand the anticipation.)

Hmmmmmm. One more thing- it has recently come to my attention that my grandmother is damn funny. Also because she is still with us (boy is she ever with us) I should be supremely grateful. So in the spirit of gratefulness (and funniness) I’m going to start telling some of her stories in my blog- maybe I’ll call it “Granny’s Corner” (lordy she would hate that). She also hates this picture (that I copied onto fridge magnets and gave to her children at Christmas… hee hee.)

Fist installment: Tales of a Slightly Pickled Southern Grandmother? (yeah, I need to sleep on this one.)

So, my Mamama lives in a pretty swanky retirement community in my little town (how convenient, right?) and she INSISTS on calling it “The Home” when it is anything but. I would say she likes to push buttons, but that would be making nice of the true issue, Grandmother likes to f*@k with people. Imagine a community of active seniors, all walking (or rolling) around wearing name tags and constantly greeting one another with various degrees of recognition. When asked “How are you” most respond with “Fine” or “Good.” Not my old lady, she says “Mean.” She gets endless entertainment about doing this because sometimes the inquirer doesn’t hear her or just assumes she said either “Fine” or “Good.” She gets more enjoyment when they merrily say “Greeeaaaat” after she says it. When they do, on occasion, happen to hear her, normally the LOL’s (Little Ol’ Ladies) like to say things like, “Nooo, you aren’t mean!” (and obviously they don’t know her.) This almost called a rumble in the line in the cafe the other day when one woman greeted her with “There’s that mean lady!” and then another lady in line got miffed and said “No she is NOT!” All while MMM (Mamama) looks on with glee, I can imagine a spark in her eye at what she had created. Pretty evil, huh?

She says this to Jeff when he greets her too. It cracks him up. She confided in me that her reasoning is that she doesn’t want to be a hypocrite and say she is fine when she isn’t, her arthritis is starting to bother her something fierce and her neck hurts and she is old so she figures rather than lie, mess with people.

I suppose I support her “shaking things up” over yonder at “the home” if it is for the sake of truthfulness.

More to follow…

I have much love for this blog, Franklin over at The Panopticon is truly a delightful read (for knitters and non-knitters alike.) He is a master craftsman as equally with a sentence as he is with heirloom lace.

Today, he outdid himself with a post about the world/society not understanding of knitters. Read it, you’ll thank me.

Who knew that I was a capable seamstress? Based on the string of foul words that came out of my mouth the last time I attempted to sew something with a machine, I would have never dreamed it possible. Apparently, the right tools make all the difference in the world! I recently acquired a loverly NEW sewing machine from John Olin and Margaret (hi there folks!) and it looks something like this:

Singer Esteem say hello to the world. This thing is truly wunderbar. The first very important item of business was to fill out the warranty card, you know, just in case you monkey strength the thing and have to have something, er, replaced. (I didn’t do that by the way, but it has been known to happen to other appliances, like the Cuisnart.)

Then you can sew. Once I got through the basics I was ready to rock and roll, the Singer Esteem (don’t you just love that?) is a MUCH nicer machine than the one I inherited a few years ago, but in all fairness, it was a 50 year old dinosaur of a machine so it is like comparing apples to fossilized apples or something. my Esteem is light weight, easy to understand and it sews like buttah. I lined my rosebud bag and finished it last night! It took two tries, but I made lemons into lemonade. My first lining was much too small, so I made a second, better lining, and the first became a snazzy hidden side pocket see?

Notice the stripes in the pocket and in the bag go opposite ways, let us pretend I did that on purpose (I like the effect though) I also used my zigzag feature because that is how I roll. And here is the finished bag on the outside:

All in all, not a bad project. The actual knitting was done in a flash, then add about 2 hours to sew on all the roses, leaves and insert the handles and another 2 hours (give or take) to do a lining. I am very pleased with my new summer bag!  Hey, thanks Jenny for the pattern suggestion, and again to John and Margaret for the snazzy new machine and of course, I’d like to thank the academy…