Posts from Spring '06

Bye Bye Booty Kickin' Baby Blanket Blues?

It hardly seems real, but it's finally done. I finished it on the 25th, yesterday at the time of this posting, and I could barely even believe it. It hasn't even sunk in enough for me to be excited yet!


After I cast off the last stitch and pulled the yarn through the last loop to tie it off, I promptly took a nap to 'celebrate'.
The blanket is the perfect napping size for a grown person, so it is, as I planned, big enough to be useful to her well into her teens. Not so babyish as to be embarrassing, and cuddly cuddly soft soft. It has the feeling of nice soft quilt, but not too heavy. During the knitting process I was putting aroma therapy essential oils on my hands to give it a soothing calming scent. I'm very happy with how it turned out =)






Once I had rested up a bit, I weaved in the ends and took a few pictures.



I even like how the wrong side looks, it's kind of cool too.

I used purple for one border and blue for the other one, and the border up the sides is just knit in line with the stripes. I didn't want to pick up a hundred thousand stitches up the sides to make it look like the other borders. It always looks wonky when I do that. So this blanket is definately a baby blanket Ala-April - meaning I broke all the rules and only sort of followed the pattern. At least this time it was on purpose instead something I can attribute to being an air head =)





Here I am posing with the blaket to give you an idea of how giant it is. I'm 5'6" or so and this thing is only slightly shorter than me. I think it makes an excellent wrap, yes? (no)























It is the weirdest feeling being finished, though, I thought I'd be wild with joy and giddy and jumping up and down, but no, I just stupidly sat there staring at it in disbelief. It's odd, like a whole chapter of my life is closed. I'm almost sad or something! I've finally gone off the KNIT end. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this?



Correct Colors Captured

Pattern: Bernat Baby Free Pattern available at their website (modified a LOT)

Yarn: Knit Picks Crayon (running two strands together at all times) Purple and Light Blue


By the way, thanks to everyone who left comments last post expressing well wishes for my poor little sicky. She's doing 200% better now and I think we may all be over the stomach yuck for good. hope hope hope =)

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Yaaaawwwnnn Strrrreeetch... is it morning?

aaaaahhhhh RATS! 10 more minutes? 5 more minutes? COME ON! I need some sleep! WHY did I stay up so late? I'LL tell you why....... somewhere in my twisted head I must have known that at least one of my kids would be throwing up all night.

Poor thing, she was the last one of the kids to get the stomach bug that's been going around here. I have to say, though, out of all my kids to have it in the middle of the night, she's the best choice (not that I wish it on her at all) it's just that she handles it much better than the other two. She always wakes up, she always manages to recall that she has her container and she doesn't need much help. I checked on her a few times at first, then the last couple of times although I woke up, I just listened to see if she called me. She's a total pro. She sure is worn out though, poor baby.

This bug really sucks the life and color out of you, too. My oldest was sent home from school a week ago Monday with it, just in time to miss his field trip =( NATURALLY! He came home and just crashed for something like 8 hours. The youngest got it on Thursday night, just as we were about to leave for a special meeting. So the hubby and the other kids went and we stayed home.

Anyway, it's been a long week, but not all bad. I got loads of yard work done this week and I've even made a dent in that mountain of laundry that seems to be the 7th member of my household. 5 people, 1 dog and the laundry beast. I swear it gets up in the middle of the night and raids the refrigerator. How else can I explain why that thing is empty all the time?

Well, since I worked myself into a frenzy on Saturday in my yard, I put off doing the podcast this week. I've got a little game going into the next one, though, and if y'all want to participate, you can. I'm doing a segment called "The Name Game". The premise is, look up the meaning of your name and see if you think it describes you. If you want to participate you can leave a comment here or at the podcast blog. If you go to the podcast blog you'll get to see me in my "Farmer April" yardwork outfit.

The picture, above, is out of context I know, but I thought there should be SOME knitting content. I think she's well on her way to being a hard core knitter. She wanted to take her knitting outside, so we put the ball of yarn in her backpack and she sat it the shade peacfully knitting. Speaking of knitting, I think I'll pick up mine now. Maybe.....juuuust maybe...... nope, not gonna say it. Just keep knitting, just keep knitting, knitting, knitting, knitting la la la laaaaaaaaa la laaaaa

(the grass is cut now by the way, even though the kids were really mad about it, apparently it's good for hide-n-seek.... hmmmm.... good thing we don't have chiggers!)

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Something to Talk About

I don't know what's up with me, but I seem to be not feeling like blogging lately. I don't really know why? Well, maybe it has something to do with not really having my partner in crime around to say, "Hey that's funny." or "It's good." or even, "Yeah, I read it, look how many comments you already have!" booooooo whooooooooo

AH well, I need to get a grip, I know. I knew I'd miss Mica, I just didn't know it would make blogging less fun. I should have known, I suppose, the address IS MICAknits.blogspot.com how could it be the same without her?

Well, my dog is dreaming and barking in his sleep ever so softly, that's good for a smile at least.


I got tired of using my scarf as a pop screen, so I made one on Sunday.

Then I crocheted it to a baby hanger, although I am NOT much of a crocheter, but it's on there and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Edited to add:

I knew I should have defined "popscreen". It's a soft barrier between my windy P's and S's and my hot air laughs to keep those awful pops and hisses out of my Podcast. =) Just in case you couldn't tell, I've got LOTS of air and it blows and explodes out in downburts and updrafts just like any little Texas Tornado.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Project Spectrum Past and Present

PROJECT SPECTRUM PAST

I got my postcard from my Project Spectrum for the month of April! How pretty is this?

I LOVE it =) Thanks Angela! She doesn't have a blog, yet, which bums me out a bit, so everyone together say "ANGELA GET A BLOG!" It's so weird how blogging introduces a certain security to life. You can always check on your friends to see if they are ok. Peace of mind or something. hmmm... why doens't everyone have a blog?


PROJECT SPECTRUM PRESENT

Look at this! My very own sock bag (now I have to start a sock project) made just for me by

Trek!

If you would like YOUR very own sock project on the move bag, visit her blog and find out the details =)

I really thought I had something more to say? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

OH! I've been knitting much more than I thought, I guess. How does that work? The Booty Kickin' Baby Blanket is getting HUGE! WHOO! I'm about halfway done with the last purple ball of yarn, and since I'll have more blue left than purple, I'm doing the end border in blue instead of purple like the beginning. Just to be weird and to conserve purple! hahaha

Hey! If I'm going to rebel against this pattern by doing it totally wrong, I may as well rebel against the whole thing! Bigger Yarn, Bigger Needles, DIFFERENT TYPE of yarn, refusing to pick up a GAzillion stitches along the sides at the end to make the border, changing the number of stitches that make up the pattern stitch b/c I'm lazy. Did you even KNOW that if you have a stitch pattern that has the slanted lines meaning you purl one at the beginning of one row and purl one at the end of the other row that if you JUST drop one stitch you can just do the pattern stitch with no beginning purl stitch or end purl stitch on the first line and on the other line you purl one at the beginning AND the end? I was very glad to discover that because it was MUCH easier to remember no purls on the purple and 2 purls on the blue. Are you sufficiently confused yet? OH, good, my job is done here! TTFN! bwa ha ha ha HA

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Cables Anyone? .... anyone.... anyone?

I'm happy to report that I'm finally knitting again. I had stopped knitting mainly because I ran out of the yarn I was using for the Booty Kickin' Baby Blanket. I was scared to start another project for fear I'd never return to knitting the blanket, a legitimate fear, as you all know. The yarn didn't exactly delay in arriving, but it was JUST long enough for me to get out of the knitting routine, I guess, because I didn't jump right to knitting as soon as the yarn arrived the way I expected myself to.

I put it off and off, things started to take priortity over it. That's how it goes when you are interested in a million things, though. It's sort of a mixed blessing to have that many interests. Things never get boring, but it's easy to lack focus. Funny.... that's the same note I always get from the 1st grade teacher regarding my son..... hahaha My husband and I had the same problems in grade school, lack of focus. That's ok, we turned out just fine. I think grade school is structured for a certain percent of the population, and the rest of us are up a creek! But as usual, I digress.

SO....... one of the ladies in one of my online knitting groups designs patterns and was looking for a couple of volunteer test knitters for a very small project. So I volunteered! I was very excited to be chosen and here it is!

Chain Reaction

by Wendy of

Wendy's Wee Woolies

&

Creations W.E. Design

Yarn Knit Picks Peruvian Wool Sock Yarn Stuff

Friday, May 05, 2006

MUST SHARE

OK, so I'm desperate! None of my Podcast Pals are online, none of my grown family is here, there is NO ONE around here to share this with and I am just much too excited to stay quiet. So..... hopefully none of YOU are tired of me talking about my Pocast. If you are, just bear with me for a couple of seconds PLEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!!!

Here's the painting I did today for my Podcast that's going to be my new profile image for awhile and will be (hopefully if I did it correctly) in iTunes on the feature page. BY THE WAY... I'm on the feature page!!!!! OMG OMG OMG I am SO excited! I have about 110 subscribers and I'm FINALLY starting to get feedback!!!! WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'm totally flippin' out DUDE eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Ok, sorry, I'm also SO hungry I can barely do this, so this will be a quick post.

Monday, May 01, 2006

I am the Knitting Borg Queen

I am happy to report that we the Knitting Borg have assimilated another Non-knitter into our perfection. Thanks to blogging and knitting and lots of nano probes. I think it's not a coincidance that blog and borg are only one letter's difference from each other.

So I can't keep up smooth cold borg queen talk for very long, I'm just too giddy! Can you see the borg queen being giddy? NOPE, if she's anything, it's coooool.

ANYYYYYWAY..... How cool is it that we have another knitting convert? It's such good news to me that it's nearly enough to DE-funk my attitude! I'll be skipping about like..... uuuuhhhh.... something that skips a lot. hahaha, I'm SO tired, sorry!

So this new convert, is Mica's and my cousin in Minnesota, who has been reading our blog for a while now. So all this knitting talk has started to infiltrate her brain. It probably helps that Mica's and my sister-in-law is great friends with her and she also has been assimilated. hahaha In fact Mica taught her to knit socks a couple of weeks ago. So Tiff, my cuz - and Meli my S-i-L are like twins and they love each other. They both started blogging fairly recently and we keep in touch with each other that way to some extent. So I'm reading Tiff's blog today and it's all about knitting!

Check her OUT! The crazed ramblings of a Dark Side Twin

posted by Aprilynne @ 9:01 AM 17 comments

Posts from Earlier Spring '06

Insanity Levels Rising, Yellow and Orange Alert!

First:
Thanks so much for all comments and compliments on the previous
post, whether about my Daughter's cuteness or my song!

In protest of Daylight Savings Time I decided to do something equally stupid. I've ordered MORE yarn for the Booty Kickin' Baby Blanket. You heard me, MORE - I can't get this far and give up, I just can't. The thing is, you see, I've already sealed this thing's destiny by making the width of it collossal. This means that if I stop knitting when I run out of the yarn I currently have left... this thing will be about 3 times as wide as it is long. We all know that baby blankets are usually square or at least trying to be square. This thing is going to be a freak of nature no matter WHAT I do, but I did have to save it from being the super geek of all the baby blankets. I'd hate for the other baby blankets in the closet to mock it and tell it what a freak it is. That would really make it feel bad and this blanket is all about the good. So, I'm thinking one more ball of each color (which really means 2 balls of each color b/c it's double stranded to be chunky) will make it only about twice as wide as it is long. Hopefully, anyway. If it is a super long rectangle It would end up being more like a towel, or a runner - this blanket needs to be cuddled and squeazed like a teddy bear.

I just measured this monster and it's a whopping 5 feet wide - and not 2 feet long. So when it's done the thing I'm calling width, will be the new length and stripes will be up and down instead of back and forth. I really have gone crazy, haven't I?

I really think I should have ordered 4 more skeins of each, but I ain't gonna go there. I do have to protect myself from me sometimes. I had originally put each order at 4 each, then I realized that even if I got tired and sore and paralyzed again, if I had the yarn, I would knit it till it was gone. So I took preventative measures against that, by limiting the yarn, it's the only way to insure I don't self destruct.

I've been knitting it today and yesterday and even though I've taken about a 2 week break from it, I still get a little ouchy after a while. Proceed with caution to prevent permanent injury. =) If I sing the Baby Blanket Blues again, I want it to be purely for recreation. If I push too hard, I'll have to write more lyrics!

I will be going to bed early tonight, for Daylight Savings Time takes no prisoners.






Project Spectrum
For April I should do
a better job on the next few
pics. I wasn't even thinking
about it until just now.
OOPS! =)

Posts from Early '06 Winter '05 - '06

Progress Report and a Very Short Story

Progress is being made on the Baby Blankie, it's just not really enough to show. I did some weird thing to it, I think b/c I put it down mid row, which although dangerous, is necessary sometimes when the children have run amuck again. Anyway, I think at least one or two stitches got dropped and then ran down a couple of rows and I didn't realize it for some crazy reason until it was much to late. Even with gallant and very masterful repair efforts, if I do say so myself, it was hopeless and I had to rip back about 4 rows. It was only a tiny bit painful, but mostly because I spent all that time trying to repair the thing instead of just ripping back to begin with.

ONE of these days I will finish my Picovoli and also the Baby Jays, and then I'll get to start the illustrious Odessa. AAAAAAAHHHHHH, Odessa, you swirly, beaded, scrumptuous temptress of yarny hatness.

Now for something completely different, wink wink.



The VERY Short Story - that just happens to be true

In case you were wondering about it, no matter how light and fluffy a ball of cotton baby yarn feels, you must never throw one at your sleeping husband's head, because, no matter HOW patient and loving he is, he WILL still be jolted into an instant state of 'OH SO MAD'. Furthermore, you absolutely must NOT laugh as you try, to apologize, because that would be rude. What's more, it's my duty to inform you, that if you find yourself in this situation, you must not, later that night as you try to fall asleep, giggle intermittently for at least 20 minutes while you replay the whole scenario over and over in your head, it is very naughty.

I just thought you should know that.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Irrational Fears, Strange Art and Knitting Slump Recovery

Have you ever wondered about phobias and how they work? You have about 10 cats and your best friend has a total panic attack at the thought of saying, "cat" that they have to SPELL it rather than pronounce the word. I've always pondered those phobic people with genuine interest and concern. The people I know with phobias are truly petrified when it comes to their particular issues. Some people know when their phobias developed, some don't. It a very curious thing.

Now there's me, no normals fears tremble within the recesses of this weirdo. I LOVE heights. Spiders intrigue me. Snakes are cool and I love nearly every sort of pet there is. I like fishing and have been hunting with my dad. Crowds, spaces, water, inclosures? Nope. So what could possibly bother confrontational, protective, extroverted weirdo me? It makes no sense. I am terrified of biscuit cans. You know the kind you peel the paper off of and they BLOW UP? Well, some blow when the paper peels and some of them, you have to trigger the explosion, but they FREAK ME OUT!! The other day, I put one down after I peeled it, because I wasn't ready to face the fright yet. As soon as I turned my back, the sneaky little thing blew! YES, I jumped and screamed. I ALWAYS do. Even when I am pushing the spoon into the crease of terror I am screaming slighty. POP and AGH! The pulse is racing and I slowly calm down. Why do I keep BUYING these things anyway? I guess I'm facing my phobia, but I'm not getting better. My only revenge is that I EAT the biscuits to punish them for scaring the heck out of me.

Do any of you have any strange fears? I'd like to think I'm not the only weirdo out there =) so, if you can share, that'd be cool.

Check out the work of a budding artist! Those are birds at the bottom, btw, a momma and a baby bird, just in case you can't see it.

I particularly like their eyes and the purple sun. This was done by my 5yr old DD. My other kids are good artists too, but I'll save those pieces for another time. **dashing smile**

Well, I don't know WHAT has been up with me, but getting to the knitting has been a real challenge for about 3 weeks. This is odd for me, but I think maybe it had something to do with some HEAD issues I was dealing with. I had a Dr's appointment on the 2nd of this month to try to get a handle on my migraines and it has worked wonders. He's not your normal MD, even though he is that, but he knows many many different approaches to wellness and that includes emotional stuff. So we breached a big issue and I've been sorting through it which has taken quite an energy toll. Good news is, no migraines since then!

So I finally picked up the knitting a couple of days ago and finally made SOME progress on the baby blanket. I'm still happy with it! YAAY!

The picture on the right is a better representation of the correct colors.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

A Thanks to all the Lurkers! for real

When I first learned about the concept of Blogging, it sounded interesting, but since I was only mildly curious, I never checked it out. I was Internet saavy, online shopping rocks, especially for knitting supplies. I searched patterns, yarn, and even joined a knitting forum or two, but would soon loose interest. Then came the Saxon Braid Scarf pattern, which although VERY cool, had a couple of minor errors. So, very LLOONNGG story short, there was a search for 'saxon braid errors' that lead to a forum that led to a BLOG that led to Mica starting THIS blog which she generously allowed me to participate in. We were so excited to find such an interesting subculture of knitter bloggers!

When we first added a counter to the blog ( I say "we", but MICA did all the work on that front b/c I had no idea of what to do with html code at that point ) we watched this counter almost constantly! We were so excited when it reached 20 and 50 and 100, 200, 1000!? and so on. Ecstatic is more like it.

In the beginning we had scarcely any comments and we were a little worried, but we've relaxed since then, because we have several faithful regular commentors, and we love every single one. It's been so cool to make new friends this way! We already feel very close to you, and I thank you for that, not just here, but personally as much as I can every time you comment. Something has been missing, though.

We are comfotably settled into blogging, we have lots of new friends and we still watch our counter very closely. The milestone numbers are climbing higher and higher! Our comment number flucuate a bit, but they are always pleasantly high for us. The COUNTER though, is really starting to snowball! I can't believe how FAST the numbers are starting to climb and it's SO cool that we have so many hits. Those are the numbers created by lots of lurkers! We LOVE those people, we have over 7000 hits, which for us and our humble newbie blog feels a very Scottish Grrrand!

In view of that, Mica and I would like to take this opportunity to THANK, not guilt you out, but THANK you, our dear loyal lurkers, very sincerely, wherever you may be. You steadily and faithfully drive up the numbers on our little counter and we appreciate that now and always! Thank you, thank you, again and again. I hope you keep visiting us for a long time to come =)

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

The Continuing Saga of the Baby Blanket

Oh WRETCH! Oh BLAHHHST! I have had so many false starts on this project that I have started to hate it, and by 'hate', I mean an expressive HAYTE in a very pronounced Cockney accent, starting now: "I very decidedly HAYTE this harrible proeject. So I figga, I must, at dis poynt, relinquish it to the GAHbidge, if ya pleeeze. Dis whole awful bizniss must be put to da scrappa to mayke a fresh staht. Tank ya kindley."

I have very reluctantly went along with those of you who said, "Throw out the PINK - it's WEIRD!!!" I SO wanted the pink, but it was NOT TO BE. So that's THAT!

I ALSO, **sob** very reluctantly gave up on both wide AND random stripes. SAD, I know, but true.

NOW.....since I must get busy on a gift, I am going back to my old standby - a certain Bernat Baby pattern I've done, although not quite rightly, in the past. So far, it's good. Since I want it LARGE, I'm running two strands together & upsizing my needles. I made a tiny swatch and I like it! Hmmmm, it's better already, I hadn't liked ANYthing I had done up until that very moment! That's a new feeling. **sighs with relief**

I've cast on for the actual blanket and am poised on the brink of actually starting the pattern stitches. I am again, not doing the pattern EXACTLY as written, since I hate doing the border last and picking up the millions and millions of stitches along the sides... and all of the other irritation that entails for me. SO..... I cast on an extra 5 stitches per side and am knitting the border that way instead. I've seen that border on many a blanket that looked just fine. There ya have it, peeps.

Stay tuned for the next episode of.... (insert cheesy music here) .....

"The Saga of the Baby Blanket"

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

A Tale of Two Scarves & The Return of the Sasquatch

Once upon a time somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant, there lived a very strange little girl who just loved to sing. She would sing along with Snow White, impersonate Cher and even do her best to keep up with Sarah Brightman's Christine, although everyone in her village would scramble for the earplugs at the very thought. You see this little girl, while being small, had the lungs of a long distance runner. She was a willful child, who really was convinced, in most cases, that she knew exactly what she was doing.

When the girl learned to knit, she was a little trepidacious at first, but once she "found her feet" in the craft, the old over-confidence began to slowly creep back in. So, the strange, yet melodious little girl, singingly subscribed to two knitting mags, Creative Knitting and Vogue. In spite of the small voice of reason that would not be tolerated, she embarked on a "Very Vogue" scarf that was just too cool to ignore, the Leaf Pattern Scarf from the Spring/Summer 2005 issue on page 91. Unfortunately, she was not aware of the fact that she didn't fully understand yarn overs yet. OH she could DO a yarn over, she just didn't know ONE KEY VITAL DETAIL: The YARN OVER is not a stitch unto itself.

Confidence bordering on arrogance bolstered her to dive headlong into the pattern, and the strange little girl worked and worked to get the numbers right in her head. She knit and knit and knit, hundreds of little lacey leaves that in NO way SHAPE or form, resembled the leaves of the scarf in the picture. She twitched and toiled. She tweaked and squirmed, perplexed and stressed. She reworked and even changed the sequence of the instructions and gallantly struggled to make it work out, shaking her fist at those people, that person, wherever they were, that wrote the pattern that just wouldn't work. Even though the leaves she made DID resemble leaves, the just weren't the SAME leaves in the picture! "why?" she squeaked, then louder, "Why?" A small pause ensued, and then one little tear that in no way could have given anyone a clue as to what would follow. "WHY DO I PICK THESE PATTENS WITH CRAZY ERRORS?" she roared, in a foreign throaty voice.

Yes, the poor strange little girl was now starting to shape shift from cute and strange to beastly and VERY LOUD. The long distance runner lungs began to kick in with a vengeance. She shook her fist again yelling, "Khan! Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!"

What to do? She decided very emphatically that HER leaves looked better anyway. What else was she gonna do? Give up? NEVER! She would have her revenge on the elusive Leaf Pattern Scarf. (She may have thought about cussing at this point, we can't be sure, but she very well MAY have thought about it.)

Whatever the case, it was a good decision. It was time to relax and accept that her leaves were different, yes, but they were leafy at least and they would have to do. By this time, she had completely forgotten to read the pattern and it TOTALLY escaped her that the scarf was done in Stockinette Stitch, not Garter Stitch, because (obviously) she wasn't gonna be purling AND thinking about leaves at the same time, are they INSANE? (no they aren't insane, in fact, the sweet yet strange girl was in fact, now insane herself, but that's neither here, no there)

In a flash, she churned out two of these scarves. One with mostly green leaves and one with purple leaves for her best friend who really loves purple. She'd won, or so she thought. Then she moved on to the Lacey Leaf Scarf, when she finally got an inkling of a clue and got on the Internet and started looking for help. She finally learned the proper way to do yarn overs and the numbers finally made sense and AT LONG LAST made a scarf correctly. But she never looked back at the original scarf and only ever wore it once.

That is, until the other day when she had once again shape shifted from strange little girl into something beastly. This particular day she arrived at her looking glass only to find Sasquatch Freak staring back at her. Apparently she had drifted into a time warp. She thought that her hair was clean enough to throw into a ponytail for the evening to go to meeting, but she was sadly mistaken. She had already gotten all three children bathed and dressed and ready, it was nearly time to go. So she decided to try a little trick she'd seen on a talk show that she loves but will remain nameless in this case.

This 'trick' consists of a little baby powder and a blow dryer. Well, suffice it to say that in the case of the Sasquatch formerly know as Strange Little Girl, it didn't work so good. The hair began to grow taller and thicker, and as we all know, Sasquatch hair needs NO thickeners; it's already pretty dern thick. In addition to growing it turned a very disturbing shade of gross. No longer brown, not quite gray but just very, very, horribly inexplicably not human. She was already late, she couldn't wash it out, if she could only THINK! No longer was she strange/cute, just fuming, puffy haired, SASQUATCH, rage monster.

Stomping through her bedroom frantically, “A scarf perhaps? Did she even HAVE a girly, Jackie O type scarf that she could wrap around her head?” she wondered stupidly. Well, neither Sasquatch Freak nor Strange Girl was girly enough to own such a thing. But then.... her Leaf Scarf caught her eye. "It'll have to do!" roared Sasquatch Freak, and she tied her hair up in a spikey "Phoebe Do" with the scarf spray glued to her head.

Yes, she was Strange Little Girl again - which although eccentric and confusing while wearing a freakishly long scarf on her head, is always much more pleasant than Roaring Sasquatch Freak.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Stretchy Socks on Circs! by Mica

Hi everyone, gues what?

I'm knitting a pair of pink Jaywalkers......on Circulars! Ican't believe it, after I learned Magic Loop, it's so easy!!!

Now, I don't have to carry around a million Dpn's while I'm knitting, which is nice. & I especially love how the Toe up method looks.....No real seams....hee hee. I got off to a bit of a rough start, because it's my first time , but after a few re-starts I got it down. Practice makes perfect, lol. I think I'll ACTUALLY be able to finish BOTH socks this time :) I love the pattern so much because it doesn't get boring.

The yarn is from Knit Picks, & a BIG thank you April!!!

And Last but not Least, here's the pictures:)

posted by Aprilynne @ 12:45 PM 14 comments

Attention Please, *tap tap tap* May I Have...

.....Your Attention Please? Is this thing on? OH, thanks, Bob - I couldn't tell.

This blog still has 38 subscribers in Bloglines, and that's cool! I will eventually do what I said, and patch it back together.

However my NEW blog Clandestine and Candour has on 9 subscribers. I realize that my absence probably had something to do with that, but it's still a bit melancholy to start over that bare.

Are any of you coming along? I haven't totally gone off knitting, I want to share bits of the rest of me as well. C'mon over. It's nice and warm in there (or cool) whatever your comfort is.

Phantom or Raul? I've decided.

I love that play. But I'm not Christine, so I don't really have those specific options. As far as I know, I never met either. I'm pretty sure I would have remembered that.

So, what did I decide? After much non thought and almost exclusive use of raw instinct I've come to a decision about my new blog.

I didn't expect that for another week or so, but here it is.

THE NEW BLOG

This blog will still be here, I'll be rebuilding it as I recover more posts - and I'll use it as a reference material on the new one. But more about that in my new place. Same template - different names. See ya there! Remember.... it's not just knitting anymore =)*)

Ode to Joy

Can you sing that to yourself while you read this please? I'm singing it to myself as I type. It's so weird. Do you remember me saying I lost my journal in Belize? Well, it must have been just before I got to Belize because it ended up in the lost and found on the ship along with my camera and a couple of other things. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? (yes I know I didn't tell you I lost my camera, it was just so irritating I couldn't say it out loud) So YES I have pictures from the part of the trip I loved. I have to wait to share them with you though.

ARG! I know - it's too cruel, right? I repent =) The thing is, I'm working on assembling a portfolio, probably 2 portfolios, but the stuff I want to include in them, I think I should keep off the internet until I learn how to protect my rights to them and all that mumbo jumbo. I'm so jazzed about the portfolio thing though. I'll be telling you what it's all about if it works out at all. Am I being SO secretive? Yeah, I just don't want to count my chickens before they are hatched, so to speak. I also don't want to speak too soon, in case doing so makes it harder to reach the goal somehow. Sometimes things work that way, so I'll tell y'all about it soon enough, I just need to wait a bit.

What else, what else? Well, I have been able to recover some of the posts from my deleted blog! Can you believe it? I still have a lot of work to do with searching for them, but it's coming along. Also, some good Samaritan, can I say your name? I forgot to ask her, but you can look in the comments of the previous post and see who she is. Anyway, SHE actually had saved my short row tutorial post, pictures and all, and emailed it to me. SO, I can totally re-post it, and re-link it back to Grumperina's link. (hmmmm, I guess I should really tell her the old one is kaput, right? sheesh - it's bad when all the computers in your house get broken at once! very annoying) So thank you for that GW! You ROCK =) Also, AmyP told me to check out a cool Archive website that happened to have 3 of my posts. SO!...between these two awesome bloggers, and the wonder of cached stuff on Google, I have the story I was most bummed about losing, the last several posts I did, which includes Stormwatch Socks, the Best Friend's Jaywalkers, the latest Baby Blanket and lots and lots of other stuff. So that's something to sing Ode to Joy about!

I am REALLY happy that I got my journal back. I had written some poetry in there that I hadn't copied anywhere else and I was having trouble reconstructing it in my head. So now I have it back! yaayness!

I haven't knit much lately. I am still working on the cuff on only one sock in the Hill Country Yarn color Strawberry Swirl. My knitting is going to have to take a more secondary role for a few weeks. I am sorting through my life right now and rearranging everything. So I hope you guys can bear with me a bit longer and put up with less knitting for a bit. I'll be keeping you all updated as much as I can. I'm thinking about publishing some of my stuff, so I'll have to wait and see or get really good advice as to what is ok to share if you plan to publish. I have SO much to learn! BUT I'm going to take my time getting these things accomplished, because that is what I need to learn the most. S L O W D O W N! I'm always in a hurry and there's no need to be. Just take it one step at a time and think things through MO BETTA =) ..... and somehow do that without over analyzing b/c that is JUST as exhausting as running in circles! I think I have just figured out why I spun out so hard on my vacation! dangit - oh well - It was a learning experience in every way. I live, I learn, I love - I crash, I burn, I get up to live, learn and love another day.

Welcome to another beginning, and Ode to Joy, I'm still singing.

OK Don't Panic - Well Maybe a Little

Hey people, did that scare you? It scared me, too! The WHOLE blog got deleted! I can't believe it myself, I am totally bummed over it, but I'm getting better - slowly.

Anyway, all of my posts, stories, patterns, tutorials ---- gone. gone gone gone.

I should have had a back up or something!

So, I'm ok, I am going to keep blogging some - here and there. BUT I am going to change to a different blog name and address. I haven't decided yet what to name it, I have no clues as to where to start, but I AM as always open to suggestions and ideas .... etc etc etc

Y'all know me by now, so what do ya think?