Casting On, Tuning Out...


I've been irritable again (sigh... a-gain) about the state of my apartment. Chalk it up to living with three men, two of whom are under the age of 10, chalk it up to being aggravated at pretty much every area of my life at the moment, chalk it up to looking at one too many issues of Real Simple or watching too many episodes of Top Design, but there you have it. I've been knitting myself into a fury in an attempt to escape the growing aggravation every time I look up.


We did some clearing out in the living room today; I'm hoping that at some point, they'll all understand that the less crap I see cluttering every flat surface, the more I'll actually be motivated to clean and make things look even nicer. Which will fall on deaf ears (blind eyes?). But it'll make me less crabby to live with, so hopefully that will be an attractive bonus.


Hubs surprised me by getting me some gorgeous bamboo sock yarn for me on eBay - who knew he even remembered me mentioning I liked bamboo's feel and wanted to knit with it? Good husband points aplenty there.


I've been nominated for an I Love Your Blog award! My Ravelry/Plurk/blogging bud Nancy over at Bronx Girl Knits nominated me, citing my superior taste in hobbies and science fiction... to quote her, and at the same time espouse the phrase that many of my geek gals and I have shared over the years, "We geek girls gotta stick together." So here's the deal:

1. Please put the award on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.

3. You must nominate at least 4 fellow bloggers for this award.

4. Add links to the recipients.

5. Leave a comment so the recipients know they have received an award.

I’ve read the rules, and I promise to comply, so here it is - my shiny new ribbon!

And my nominees are... (drumroll, please!)

1. Stacey - the whole reason I started this blog, not to mention the best bad influence one could want in a craft store. Geek sisters of the world, unite and bow.

2. Linda - pull up a chair, have some coffee and danish at the ready, and read about freelancing, raising a teenager, and enjoy some fabulous commentary on music, movies and more.

3. (Not-So) Cynical Gal - Another knitting friend I've made in cyberspace, (Not-So) Cynical Gal's blog has the best of all worlds - she has beautiful pictures of her garden, her pets (including the most adorable golden retriever EVER), her knitting, and her sweet little niece.

4. Bronx Girl, aka Nancy - Gotta throw it back to the bud that nominated me; no apple-polishing here, just a real appreciation of the blog and the blogger. Anyone who subtitles their blog, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Knitting," is a blogger I need to know. Geek gal, sci-fi fan, and she likes Duran Duran? C'mon.

In other news, Hubs took Heartbreaker to a wrestling show yesterday - not a taping of one of the WWE shows, more like a autograph convention where some old school and even more recent wrestlers get together and sign pictures for fans. Heartbreaker was in his glory, especially when he got to hang out with the Blue World Order. The guys were very cool with him, as you can see.

Freaking awesome.

I'm now watching a commercial for the Clone Trooper helmet voice changer. I think I need one.

I've Been Remiss...

My blogging, knitting and hot saucing pal over in The Windy City, the (Not So) Cynical Knitting Gal, has a great blog with fantastic photos of her garden and her pets (especially her smooshie-face doggie, Gracie - who has her own blog). I've been remiss in visiting her blog, so I'm off to comment all over it. Just thought I'd share. If anyone likes pictures of golden retrievers that you just want to bury your face in, I highly recommend it. And honestly, if you like gardening or just beautiful pictures, I really recommend it - how she gets those shots is beyond me.

As for me? After a brutal allergy day yesterday (thanks again, FHLL, for neglecting Field 4!), I'm back in business, sounding a lot worse than I feel.

I've gotten to the heel work on sock #2, and hoping to turn the heel on the way home if I get a seat on the train (har har). Since the first leg was a bit tight, despite the ribbing work, I cast on and knit the initial ribbing with a slightly larger needle (which Stacey would still say looks like a toothpick - we'll start Stacey off with some nice chunky worsted and size 15 needles), so I'll see how it fits when I'm done. I am fighting the urge to try on the sock now, since these needles are shorter and if I drop any stitches off the needles at this stage of the sock, I will burn them and never knit again. Okay, maybe not that drastic, but I'll whine and cry and make Mike's life miserable for a while. That's far more realistic.

Pinwheel Blanket

I came across this pattern on my website tour and fell head over heels in love immediately. It's round. How cool is that? If I could make this one work, I will be a rock star. I've included pictures of what the completed blanket should look like; I've also included a shot of my success at finally getting the five stitches cast onto three double-pointed needles. I must have tried this cast on about 50 times, but so far, it's knitting up nicely. I'll keep you posted; I am so psyched to do this blanket. I think I'll trim it in a nice chenille - but I'd better not get ahead of myself.

Also, in my quest to find all things sparkly and shiny to stick on my blog margin, I've included a new link to Naughty Secretary Club - get your minds out of the gutter; it's a crafter's blog by Jennifer Perkins, who's on two of my DIY obsessions, Craft Lab and the ultra-fabulous Stylelicious.

BTW, I'm in danger of becoming a crafting couch potato if I don't get some gainful employment soon. Now I'm DVR-ing Stylelicious, Knitty Gritty, Craft Lab, Uncommon Threads and Creative Juice. Creative Juice is very dangerous because they have crafting and cooking tips. Deadly. If I stop blogging for a significant amount of time, do me a favor and have someone check in on me. You may find me catatonic in front of my TV, remote frozen in my hand. Merci.

Needle Love

I've spent the last few days combing the web for interesting baby blanket patterns. I'm in a cabling state of mind these days, so I'm looking for cables like crazy. But you know me - I do love my skulls, and since Will is hankering for a skull blanket, I innocently googled the term, "punk knits" - and lo and behold, a plethora of skull-y goodness ensued, as did some other great stuff. There are tons of great sites out there, but the blogs are the best. Knitters ain't just knitting grandma's stuff anymore - hell, you know it by now. Bring on the skulls and horns. I love reading about other knitters, especially the ones who have the talent to create stuff on their own (I'm not there yet, but hopefully one day I will be). So I just wanted to mention a couple of the many cool knitting blogs I've since added to my Bloglines (thanks, Nancy, for suggesting that - now I actually READ all the blogs I've bookmarked!)

You Knit What?? does for knitting patterns what GoFugYourself does for celebrity fashion. They're not blogging anymore, but the commentary they've left behind is hilarious.

Vintage Stitch-o-Rama has great patterns including Ankh Earwarmers and the "Camisole of Death". Love it. She's also got vintage patterns that go back as far as the late 1800s - awesome.

I'll post more later (right now, my ancient computer is giving me attitude about opening up another Internet Explorer window and letting me cruise the many bookmarks I've racked up the past few days). Pictures to come, too; I've got an unbelievable amount of little hats I've knitted up (god, what did I do before I learned to knit in the round?) and I'm agonizing over which blanket to knit for Will's teacher, as well as a friend of mine in MD. I've found a couple of interesting patterns, at least, right?