October 2009 ArchiveOctober 26, 2009Saturday,
just by chance, I happened to catch a blog post from the WEBS site
(yarn.com) that there was a big knitting convention going on this
weekend in Hartford. WHAT? *blink* A YARN convention? I've never heard
of any such thing outside of your usual outdoor fair/festivals. HOW DID
I MISS THIS??????????????????? A whole dang convention center full of
yarnies? You know I just had to check THAT out. I can count on one hand
the number of times I've been to Hartford, even though it's only a
little over an hour away - I have some sort of mental block about the
city. I always seem to think it's much further away than it is, that
the drive is terrible to get there, etc. And then, on the rare occasion
we go, I get there and go "Hmph, this is it?". Because it seems
really.....small. I don't
know. I'm weird about Hartford, ok? But anyway. I'd never been to the
convention center and it turned out to be really nice. Very bright,
lots of windows. MUCH better than the one in Providence that I'm more
used to. So next time I see commercials for this or that going on at
the Hartford one, maybe I'll actually go. lol (Though, in my defense, I
can get to Providence in about 30 minutes so it *is* a lot closer and,
bonus, connected to the Providence Mall where there are a ton of places
to eat. I didn't see any where to eat near the Hartford one, at least
not close by, and we ended up getting something closer to home.) As far
as the show goes......there was almost TOO MUCH stuff there. Honestly.
My head started shutting down after the 3rd mega aisle of vendors and
there were (I believe) eight aisles in total? Oh the damage I could
have done with an unlimited budget. Hehehe. But my money, like 99% of
everyone else on the planet, is budgeted so I tried to get stuff that
was either on sale, not easy to purchase online, or just something I
*had* to have.  The
purple yarn (which totally DOES NOT LOOK LIKE THIS - it's *MUCH* less
blue/more purpley) was on sale but is also something just dyed for this
particular seller, I believe, as it was called Stardust (it has silver
strands in it) and is different than their Starry line? Got 2 big
skeins of that for.......stuff I can't talk about. :)The pale
lettuce and pale gray sock yarn was from Tess' Yarns which, last time I
checked anyway, is not very easy to order online because she's a very
'go with the flow' type of dyer. I got pale colors to possibly use with
some cabled designs I have - the pale color helps makes the cables more
visible. Nothing worse than putting all that time into cable work and
not be able to actually SEE the cables because your yarn is too
loud/variegated. And I got 5 skeins of the Melody stuff to a
swirl shawl that I saw a sample of and just *had* to have. *HAD TO*.
I don't want to hot link to someone's personal Flickr photos but you
can see an example of the pattern here.
That is the scarf size, which is a little narrower than the shawl size.
(I think the shawl size is two spirals wider.) Mmmm, YUMMY! I would
have started it LAST NIGHT but I've already got too many things going
at the moment. I'm thinking maybe it will be a nice early January
project. Also got this Checkerboard Swirls pattern
to (hopefully) go with some stash yarn. It looked great as a sample at
someone's booth but, alas, I can't find anyone online who has knitted
it. Guess I'll be forging new ground with that one. lolI didn't
*quite* stay under my self-imposed $100 buying limit but I can REALLY
DAMN CLOSE, OK? I'M ONLY HUMAN. I totally passed up on the ONE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY DOLLAR SKEIN OF YARN (ONE SKEIN, JUST ONE FOR THAT PRICE)
that made my heart bleed it was so awesome. I had to go back and fondle
it ONE MORE TIME before we left, it was that awesome. But, alas, that
is out of my price league for ONE project. (And what made it so
awesome? It was spun with 12 different kinds/thickness'/colors of yarn
into one skein. So as you knit it, you would get these wonderful gentle
transitions of colors and textures. I've never seen anyone make
anything like that, hence the price I guess. It must be a bitch to
spin.)
October 23, 2009XMAS MARKET IS NOW OPEN!! Lots and lots of goodies for Xmas. Just too much really, if you ask me but when I do something, I really want to do IT. lol That being said, if I get a real rush of orders in, it *might* take a wee bit longer than my normal 'please wait up to 7 days for shipping'. Might. We're
not talking anything crazy here though - so no worries! Any one who
knows any thing about me, knows I keep paid orders a top priority. No
waiting for weeks and weeks for stuff here. :)I have other things I
want to add to the Xmas theme, like a new Fairy and stuff but I
probably won't get those up until next week. It just wasn't happening
this week. Sorry! And
I'm on one of those tangents this week where I don't sleep and stay up
til 3am with my head buzzing like a hive of bees so, no, I didn't post
these this *morning* - I just haven't gone to bed yet, hence why I am doing a bead update at 2-freaking-am
in the morning. Better to be productive than play my 2,345,724,346th
game of Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook, yes? (Don't EVEN get me started on
that EVIL EVIL game! I was an obsessive player, got bored, then they
just changed it and made it SNAZZIER and OOOOOooo SO PRETTY so I'm back
to being obsessive. No one but no one should be playing that game at
3am when you can't sleep. You start to feel like you've been on a 3-day
bender but you_just_can_not_stop_playing. Argghhhh!!!)
October 20, 2009Hrrmm.
This whole 'sun moving' thing is killing my photo taking mojo because I
can't seem to figure out what is the best time to take pictures at the
moment. I waited until too late yesterday and it was too dim, today I'm
too early and the sun is still too 'hot'. I guess it doesn't matter if
I figure it out or not any way because the time changes in a few weeks
and then I'll be messed up again. (And yes, logically, I would just
have to adjust one hour after that but I'M NOT EXACTLY THAT LOGICAL IN
MY THINKING. It's like playing pick-up sticks - I have to find my way
through the minefield ALL OVER AGAIN to figure it out. lol) I totally wasn't into doing any new beads last week so, you know, I gots nuttin' to
show to in that particular area. I'm hoping, FINGERS CROSSED, that
particular mind set will be moving on and this week will be more
productive. (Or not. After seven years - !!! - of making beads, can you
blame me if I have a week or two here and there where I'm bored with
it? I THINK NOT. I'm only human, eh?) BUT. I have been rather
productive in my SOCKTOBER pursuits. (Big whoop. Boring. I know. *yawn*) I finished up some more of my Blackbird stockings, as in - actually finished.
Got two more stitched up and ready to go too but I'll probably wait
until I have a couple more stitched up to get to the finishing on those
because the finishing is my least favorite part of it. Oh, I don't mind
the sewing part - it's the other stuff that's annoying. Cutting the
interfacing, the fabric, ironing the interfacing on, snipping the seams
in the curves and then ironing the seams, etc. The (hand) sewing part
is a breeze in comparison. So seven stockings done........twenty
something to go? lol (I have no expectations of doing them ALL.) And
I managed to finish knitting up another pair of socks in the much used
(by me and many others) Jaywalkers pattern. I *love* this pattern for
stripey yarns - *LOVE*. Don't be too impressed I finished them though
because I actually started them in August.
They're a tiny bit too big, which seems to happen to me with this
pattern every other time I use it. They either fit *perfectly* with
very little ease, or they end up a little too loose. Oh wait, that's
probably something I could 'fix' by SWATCHING first but WTF swatches
for SOCKS? You just knit that shit up and make it up as you go along.
They are ONE BIG SWATCH. That you put on your feet. lol I have some
stripey yarn still in a CANDY CORN coloration. I am almost tempted to
start those up and knit this pattern up AGAIN, like, right this second. That's how much I love this pattern. It's a sickness. :)
October 13, 2009When
the sound of the town digging a huge six foot+ deep hole in the road in
front of your house wakes you up at 7:30am, you know there's trouble on
the horizon yes? Not sure what it is about but it knocked out my
internet connection for a long while. They either cut the line by
accident or, who knows, maybe they were doing it specifically to fix
the cable? The cable is finally back up but I'm not holding my breath
on it staying because, even after a lot of work on it, they left a big
plow here with crime tape around the unfilled hole. We'll see what
happens, I guess. Sucks because none of my neighbors have wifi I can
steal to get online when the cable is out. Why for they hate me so?
*pout*Did you know you can buy tax-free goods from the VA
hospitals? If that is socialism, I say sign me up! ;) The MIL dropped
the FIL's private docs and is dealing only with the VA now (a good
thing - and something she should have done MONTHS ago, IMHO) so there
has been a lot of time logged at the VA lately. I know there have been
complaints about some of the VA hospitals but the one in Providence is
a very good place to go. But exactly why do they sell consumer goods
tax-free and at really low prices there? I'm a bit hazy on that part,
though not at all in a complaining type
way. The hubby took advantage of it last week during one of the many
hours he's been stuck there and bought 'me' an iPod Touch as a *cough*
consolation prize for not getting a iPhone.  We
both want an iPhone......and that's the problem. We BOTH want one. Each
of us. Times two. And the plan is ridiculously, horrifically, insanely
overpriced for two iPhones. Could we swing it? Sure. Is it worth it?
Not at all. Do I weep a little when I see the awesome iPhone ads that
make me burn with the wanting of ten thousand white hot suns? Sure I
do! But what's life worth living for if you can't covet an
inappropriate purchase or four? lolAnyhoo, the iPod Touch is pretty
damn sweet all by itself. It's got the wifi thing, you can get all the
same apps that you get for the iPhone and play music/videos on it (of
course). Not too shabby. My favorite app is the game I Launched a
Sheep. It is exactly that: you click to launch a sheep into the air and
you keep tapping it to keep it going. (Which is not as easy as it
sounds.) I've gotten as far as Mars in outer space with it. The
graphics are so frigging cute I want to lick the screen. Seriously.
It's that damn cute. *loves it* When he's flying through the air, his
back legs wobble as if the wind is grabbing them. *dies* 
October 5, 2009Do you know what October means? It means it's SOCKTOBER TIME!Not
my concept, mind you - Socktober time has been going on as long as I've
been knitting/part of Ravelry and has been probably been going on for
as long as there have been usenet knitting groups.However, I'm not really feeling the
sock knitting love at the moment but I'm still covered by Socktober
standards because what I *have* been in the mood for lately is
STITCHING socks. You might remember I made a few earlier this year?
It's part of the Blackbird Designs stocking series they have going this
year. Every month there is a new booklet with three new stocking
designs. I've been buying each booklet as they come out with the
intention to do them all up (or at least a goodly amount of them) and
put them on my Xmas tree. I need new stuff for the tree this year
because we got a new 6 ft (maybe taller?) tree on clearance after Xmas
last year to replace the wee 4ft one we've had forever. That's a lot of
space to fill with new goodies. :)But, not unusually for me and
my short attention span, I put the project aside after I finished the
first three. Whoops. Heh. And then last week when I was going on and on
and on to everybody who would listen about how I just couldn't believe
it was October already (!!!), it dawned on me that the Xmas tree would
be up soon enough. Uhhh....... BETTER GET STITCHING! So I finished three since then. (Though, as you can see, they aren't 'finished' because, well, they're not finished.
But I'm waiting to do up another three before I get into the
icky-pickiness that is putting these together with the interfacing and
fabric, etc.) This is the March booklet, with a springy theme of a
daffodil, clover and, uhh, a quilt? (What do quilts have to do with
March.....anyone??)But let's take a closer look at that one on the left... DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!
I made a totally noobish, rookie, lame-o mistake of not double-checking
my fabric placement before stitching this one. Which goes to prove, I
guess, that no matter how long you've been doing something (and I've
been cross-stitching/embroidering since I was a child), you can still
make stupid mistakes now and again, even though you really really KNOW
BETTER. I not only stitched this one the wrong way (meaning I started
it on what SHOULD have been the side of the fabric, instead of the
bottom of the fabric) but I didn't notice until I was almost freaking
done with it (i.e. helllllllll no, ain't restarting it)!! And, just to
add insult to injury, if I had just started it a little lower,
I probably would have squeaked by with enough extra on top there. The
way it is now, I'll have to most likely sew a little strip of linen on
top and adjust the stocking template to move it down some when I'm
cutting it out. Which may/may not make the toe/foot area a little bare
but I figure I can do a couple more of those yellow stars to fill it in
if needed. So it's fixable but it will always be 'damaged' in my book
because it's not EXACTLY like it's 'supposed' to be. AND NO THAT
DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE BUT I'M A PERFECTIONIST AND THIS STOCKING IS NOW
DEAD TO ME, DEAD I TELL YOU! NOT PERFECT AND WILL ALWAYS BE A REMINDER
OF MY SECRET SHAME. Hehehe. (Which I guess isn't so secret if I'm
posting it on the interwebz.) Anyhoo. February and March
booklets are done. Onward to January and April-August! (I don't believe
September's been released yet. Let me go check.....Nope. Not yet.) Oh,
and I have a Halloween booklet containing 13 stockings too. Which would
probably be weird on a Xmas tree so I'll to find some other way to
display those if/when I get those finished. . :)
October 2, 2009
Few new beadies up here and on
Etsy. I've been working on new things here and there all week in
between orders and just realized today that I had enough to put
together a decent update. Who knew? I hadn't being much attention, I
guess. You know how it is when you get back from going away on
vacation. Your body comes back from vacation a lot sooner than your
brain does. lol
I didn't do too many things for Etsy - it's much
neglected of late. :( So if you miss something over there, just give me
a holler and I'll do up a duplicate for you. I really do need to be
prodded into doing silver core stuff. It's not that I dislike doing them - it's more that I just never make the time for it for some reason. (It could simply be because I'm lazy. lol) Back to Articles |
