Spazzmanda

Boo. Could you just die? His name is freakin’ BOO?! See the little teefers? And the button on the wings, I think I’m going to have a stroke from all of the cuteness… call an EMT… tell him to bring vodka… STAT.

I’ve already ordered my pattern at Mochimochiland, have you?

On another note, working until midnight at the old grindstone for a special event, then bright and early for Art in the Square here in good ol’ Gainesvegas so no sleepytime for this gal in sight. But lots and lots of cultural fun and raising awareness in the arts and all of that crap, so come on out and see me at my booth tomorrow and stuff, kay?

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.

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.”

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…

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:

Anyone recall that I participated in the International Fiber Collaborative project last year, well, early this year when I finished? No? I posted about it here and even here.

Let me sum up. Artist Jennifer Marsh came up with the brilliant idea to essentially upholster an abandoned, unused gas station as social commentary on our country’s dependance on oil products (I hope I got that right- forgive me if I am not completely with it, I’m too excited.)

So, I sent my square. (You can see it here if you are so inclined.) Well, I got notice she had received it, but I checked and checked on the pages where you can view the squares on her site and alas, mine was not there. I was sad. Then I got an email about the installation of the project (it looks pretty freakin’ awesome in the completed state) and I found this:

Look closely, verrrrry closely. THAT square on the front right corner is all MINE baby. (Well I did have some help, thanks to the Northeast Georgia Yarnsters) but see that mitered square- that was me for rizzle dizzle. I’d recognize that bulgy hunk of crap anywhere. I’m so very pleased. I aided in an important work of art, a large-scale politically-minded cozy.

Now, you too can create a delightful “Green Ogre” hat (a la Shrek) for your little beasties. I am thrilled I get to share this as my very first pattern. I’ve made things up before for sure, but this time I took the trouble to do MATH for you people and type it all out.

Click on the link below and you should magically have a PDF file.

Enjoy!

spazzgreenogrehat

(Modeled by my favorite red-headed monster. Photograph courtesy of my pal Olaf. I totally “borrowed” it from his flickr site because the only other hat photo I have is this. I’m sure all will understand why I thieved.)

*Disclaimer: I am not as proficient in mathematics as I am verbal, and subsequently, the pattern may not be without flaw. But handmade things have flaws and I’m ok with that. If you are not, I suggest you gauge swatch and do your own math. Let me know if you have problems with the pattern, but I reserve the right not to care. It is free. Free as a bird. Free like the wind. Free as…Well, you get it.

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.

That is the sound of success.

This is what it looks like:

See those stripes? Yeah, I did that, me, some Kool Aid and some $4.29 wool sock yarn from Knit Picks. (Twisted Sister’s “I wanna Rock” is looping in my head right now.)

That’s how I roll.