Spazzmanda

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.”

A thought that comes to my mind almost daily. I don’t know why some greenery enjoys the pleasure of my company while some flora abandons ship almost immediately. I have no green thumb, but I like to grow stuff, when I can. This year Jeff got me a loverly hummingbird bush (amongst other fauna) and I am eternally grateful for the beauty that is our patio right now. Now we have also adopted some plants that were “liberated” from an untimely demise (i.e. the dumpster at Lowe’s by Jeff’s Mom) and we have planted them as well, what the hell.

Now it is getting truly exiting. Brace yourselves, we have a burgeoning head of lettuce (about three bites worth) happily growing alongside some cilantro, which is also flourishing, I’ll have you know.

Now for my personal favorite… drumroll please… our “vegetable.” Somewhere along the way this plant lost its tag, but from the bar code we have deciphered that, at maturity, we will have a crop of “vegetable.”

Good to know. The center green thing that is positively thriving is a lonely refugee patio tomato, of THAT I can be certain (it had a tag.) However, the two spindly things on the outside, well, that can be anyone’s guess, but by the way that they are creeping, I’m going to hypothesize that maybe… possibly… they could be a bean of some sort? An Okra plant? Won’t this be fun? I’ll be sure to take a photographic essay of our journey together –so stay tuned.

Now for your daily dose of eye candy. I merged two birthday gifts today in a most delightfully brilliant way (um thank you, thank you very much). First, some really cute glittery rock star decals with my equally rocking, slicker-than-snot sewing machine- wanna know how I know it is rockin? Take a gander:

What, what?

Now from the side:

Boo-ya! NOW I’m ready to roll!

I love knitting for myself, it feels so decadent right now, my birthdayweek, particularly with the deadline knitting I’ve been doing, like, since November.

Here is the Rosebud Bag before felting (thank you darling Gnarly for being there for an indication of scale.)

And after, sorry no kitty for scale, but it shrunk about 13% or so.

I need to assemble and attach the roses and leaves, then put in the bamboo handles and finish it off with the lining. Here are the handles and lining (this fabric was going to be on the outside chairs until Jeff made me throw them away and get new and better chairs, no matter, it will be a pretty new lining for my new spring summer bag!) Damn it is hot here already. Can you believe it is already in the nineties? Doesn’t that happen in JULY???!!!

I need to make a pocket, any ideas on how to do that?

And here is the long-term project, with the Sea Silk. (mmmmmmmmm, pretty, pretty seasilk.) I was wrong yesterday the colorway is called “Woodlands” and it is subtle purples (more of an aubergine) with mossy greens and dark blues that look so much better in person than in this crappy photograph. The pattern is the Stormwater Shawl and will end up being this pretty, geometric-type lace pattern. I love it, but right now it looks like boiled ass- apparently all lace looks pretty craptastic until it is finished and properly blocked. Nevermind, here is the progress photo:

In the spirit of knitting for me, me, me, me right now because I can and I’m tired of deadline knitting for the moment and because it is my Birthday week- I have brought the Stormwater Shawl out of hibernation. This is the shawl knit with not one but TWO strands of simultaneous sea silk, probably one of the most decadent fibers ever produced. I think my colorway is “Paris” purple, green and blue, I can’t really recall at the moment.

I’m happy, it is a challenging project (a 16 row repeat for EVER) but I like a bit of a challenge and as far as lace goes, I could do worse. I have no photos yet (it isn’t very long yet). Also, in my endeavour to find out how to SSP (slip, slip, purl) I found out that all these years I’ve been doing SSK (slip, slip, knit) incorrectly. Is it worth frogging the first 32 rows of the shawl? Nah, but now I know and knowing is good. If I keep working on it I may actually be able to wear it at the beach! (realistically, the shawl isn’t much for ‘warmth’ rather than it is to be pretty and silky and slippery, I can’t wait for it to be finished!)

I’ve also fixed the handle on my knitted sari silk bag so I like carrying it again AND I made a pretty neato felted tote called Rosebud (you can buy the pattern here) which is drying as we speak so I might have it finished up this week. I can’t decide if I am going to line it or not, I think I have some nice scrap fabric that is all stripey in the same shades of green and pink that might make for a neat lining, so maybe it will be finished by next week. it is a good size and wouldn’t make a bad knitting bag.

Yay for selfish knitting!

Although I didn’t ever want to be strictly a knitting blog (because I do have life outside of knitting you know) I must face the fact that I am a serious knitter. I’ve got the ladies in my knitting class fooled into believing that I actually might know what I’m talking about, so I suppose if you walk the walk and talk the talk…. I was telling them last night that a top-down raglan construction kind of scared me because I was afraid I couldn’t do it, and wouldn’t you know, I can! My pal Pixie just wrote and published her first pattern on Ravelry, so of course I had to get me a copy and couldn’t wait to start churning out the lovliness that is the Country Kiddie. (This will be for Ashlyn’s first birthday this summer)

Yes, I’m Magic Looping because it is less fiddely and you only need one needle for, like, ever. Notice my beyootiful stitch markers, I got them at Knots of Yarn, they are sterling silver with a little pink bead, sooooo cute. (And quite the splurge for me, I was using washers and old earrings and wine charms before!)

Also on the needles is the Yarn Harlot’s Earl Grey Socks (Ravelry link here)

There’s a LOT of stitches in these little buggers. And the cable is interesting, but these are going to take some time. He may have them in time for winter. Now there is a “sweater curse” that if you knit a sweater for a non-husband type (ahem) you will immediately break up. Miss Jenny pointed out that there are a lot of stitches (possibly sweater equivalent) and that I might want to use caution. I might end up agreeing with her, but I like the yarn and I like my man a lot so I do want to make something for him with love (awwwwww.) Also worth noting, he did lose the Alien scarf. Lost. It.

Socks are less likely to be lost since when out of the house they are attached to your feet, so I’m not so concerned about the can-you-handle-the-responsibility-of-made-with-love-knitwear. Food for thought.

I’ve been messing around with chicken. Yummy, fluffy, yarny chicken.

See?

How cute is the chicken foot?

This is a gifty for a sweet baby girl about to turn two this weekend. More pictures to follow…

UPDATE (for your retro viewing pleasure): Does anyone remember the Wendy’s Chicken Commercial “Parts is Parts”? (I think it had something to do with “Where’s the Beef?”  Well I didn’t either, Jeff was so kind as to fill in the blanks for me. Enjoy!

I just can’t talk about this.

Can’t. talk. about. the. knitting. (It will be a present soon-ish.)

But I can talk about the yarn, a little. Berroco Comfort is very soft (and washable, which is good when an item is getting gifted.) And I like it. So there.

So, in the immortal words of Forrest, Forrest Gump “That’s all I’ve got to say about that.”

By the way, has anyone seen this scarf?

Jeff “I Forgot” McClure has misplaced this item somewhere in northeast Georgia. Everyone stop what you are doing and look around you maybe we can find it together. I’d be more pissed, but it was starting to coil, and I just didn’t like that. I loathe to make him another exactly like it (particularly because of what happened to this one…) but I think I might like like to come up with my own illusion pattern, possibly a black and white one with a rabbit and a hat or something magician-like. Then I could post it on my site and become a big knittin’ rock star or something. But there is another teensy problem, contrary to the weather yesterday and today, it is spring and I’m in no mood to do any scarf knitting. I think I will make him these instead. Maybe, if he will let me staple them to his feet.

Happy Good Friday! Apparently, us heathens get to benefit from someone’s goodness somewhere, because my boss (who is taking the day off today) realized as she went to the store that everyone and their brother, mother and uncle’s ex-boyfriend is off of work today, which is why, I, one happy Spazz, is off of work today at 2:30 in the afternoon!

I decided the only beverage that could do the occasion justice was this one:

Aaaaaaaaah. Bloody Mary. I am partaking whilst I am supposed to be toiling. Nectar of the Gods. You should’ve had a V-8 because I sure did. Yay Good Friday!

I did manage to do something rather productive also, I took some progress photos on the silk/mohair “Florence” I’m currently knitting, and I likes it mucho so far. It will be a long and satisfying knit and I sure hope it looks good on me. That is the one problem with knitting garments, you hope, you pray, but you never really “know”until you are finished.

Here is the progress thus far:

… and now for the money shot:

Can you appreciate the softness of this yarn? Note the fluffiness, see the sheen that is only found when working with silk, I am truly blessed and privileged and fortunate today to be working with yarn of this caliber (ahem, thank you Margaret  and John Olin). It totally rocks. Hopefully the outcome will to.

Ok, to sum up, be good, and have a marvelous weekend! I will be collecting my Little Ol’ Lady on Sunday and taking her to Easter festivities at Jeff’s aunt’s home. I have a new dress and it is very pretty. More photos to be posted later.

I am still working on “Florence” a lovely and simple design to use my much coveted Christmas yarn for a garment. I know I’m not using the cotton yarn recommended in the pattern, but I’ve achieved proper gauge and I love the fabric drape of what I am making and I feel confident that the silhouette that will be created will be stunning.

Confident.

Now, it is slow going, size 5 needles and seemingly endless stockinette with minimal shaping, but it is really going to be beautiful. Truly.

Beautiful.

I’ll post some status pictures soon.

Been thoughtlessly neglecting ye’ olde blog lately, I have had so much to do. BIG deadlines at work - lots of fun-fun stress, not to mention that “Spring Forward” sucks ginormous donkey balls. My show is now up as of today and a full two days ahead of schedule thank you very much Senor Juan Valdez, not to mention the things that I’ve volunteered for -I’m the local chapter DAR scrapbook chairman- (did you know they gave out certificates for giving out the most certificates???) AND the square that just won’t end is due this week (you would think I could knit a 3 foot by 3 foot square in my sleep people! Not so much fun is the seaming!)

Life is overall very, very, good right now. I’ve been very busy, but that hard working exhaustion is a good thing. Been cooking a bunch, crafting a bunch, hanging with lots of new (and old) friends a bunch, pretty darn happy.

Speaking of friends, I went to a wedding for a friend last summer, he just sent me this:

Now if that isn’t a Kodak-chocolate-covered-happy moment with sprinkles on top, then I just don’t know what is! I’m going to meditate for a moment. Ahhhhh. I loves my man.

Have a lovely day folks!