Firemen & Puppies!

To make up for my total lack of anything cool yesterday, I present to you, as promised, Firemen and Puppies (well, dogs anyway). I hope this makes your friday a little bit better.

Splurge

Today I found myself in the neighborhood of Three Wishes Fiber Arts and decided to give it a shot despite having my monkey in tow. Hurray! Found exactly the yarn I was pining for yesterday: 1750 yards of laceweight Gems Pearl Merino. Not free, but not bad ($25). The most this ghetto knitter has ever spent on yarn, but it should take me forever to knit it up. I think I'm going to start on the Shetland Tea Shawl. Has anyone ever dyed wool with tea? I've "aged" paper and cotton fabric with tea before but have yet to try wool. May be my experiment tomorrow.
Three Wishes' owner, Kristine Bullock, was also so nice and helpful. She even gave the monkey a little treat despite his insistence on spinning every single spinning wheel. I can't imagine a more boring place to be for a 2 year old boy than a yarn store but between the candy, the dog and the Easter baskets he was as good as I could possibly expect.
And here is the part where I post the most boring picture ever to be blogged:

Oh yeah. Giant skein of white yarn. Knitters everywhere are rolling their eyes. Non-knitters are lapsing into comas. To make up for this I'm going to have to post pictures of hot firefighters holding puppies or something tomorrow.

Rain!

Hurray! Today it rained off and on, cleaning my car and otherwise making me happy. I really wish I could hear it, but apartments are not really conducive to hearing the rain beating on your roof. Sometimes when the wind works with me I can hear the rain against my window, but most of the time I have to be content with watching it fall. The air is all clear and bright, so the quality of light around 6pm was just perfect. To top things off there was patchy rain and clear skies around sunset, giving us an unbelievable double rainbow. So pretty.
Tonight the monkey and I went for an hour of stitching and bitching. I decided to mix it up by bringing tatting this week, instead of the usual knitting since I still don't have a project in the works. What I need is a huge cone of (free) laceweight wool, because there are a number of amazing lace projects I would like to do. The Sampler Stole or Shetland Tea Shawl from A Gathering of Lace, for example. What amazing design.Projects that really should be undertaken with a quality yarn. The tatting is going well though, and delightfully is acomplished with a two dollar spool of cotton that should last roughly for forever. Finshed my second little snowflake, a two-thread design instead of a one-thread. It makes a lot of sense now and is easier than I thought, any more complicated pattern than this is just more counting.

Lent

Not being Catholic, I'm a little fuzzy on the rules but I may have just screwed up on Lent. Unless Sunday is the day you get a by; if so, I'm ok. I gave up overindulgence for Lent this year, and have been very good until tonight when I found myself alone with a very seductive bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs. Not feeling so hot now. Bless me Father, for I have binged.

Busy

About time I get back here. Things have been crazy busy for me, cumulating last night when my band played at Mo's. We played well, but it seems like everyone there was in a terrible mood. It probably started with the 8:00 act not even showing up. Yeah that sucks, but we were there, on time and pleasant, so there is no need to be pissy to us. The manager really defensively announces to us that we are not getting paid because there is no door charge as soon as we walk in, which we are fine with. We were asked if we wanted to charge a cover and said no (what, I want to charge my friends to come see me play?) This is also the third time we've played there and have never charged before; we seem to be ok with that. The booking person/waiter we deal with was in a terrible mood too, snippy and actually asked us to wrap it up early. She didn't book us for another show last night either, which is troublesome. Did they decide they didn't like us? Was she just in too much of a snit to talk? I'd like to tell them to find another band but we are hardly a big highly sought-after band, we've got to kiss ass just so we can play for free. Meh. If we can get Sean #1 a bar permit then we can play at bars, where we could conceivably make some money.

I did get to see my little sister yesterday though, very fun. She and a couple of friends came up from that school in Happy Valley to hear us play. They arrived early to play with the monkey and make duct-tape dress forms. Once you have your technique down, you can do one in about an hour. We finished two and are going to do mine next weekend. Here they are, looking like superheros.


I also did more tatting, a tiny little snowflake. Tried to do something larger that completely didn't work out. Upon further review of the book I realized that I was attempting to do it with one thread instead of two separate threads. Ahhh, it makes so much more sense now.

Life has been rather worrisome lately. We are waiting for a number of things that are out of our hands but still affect us profoundly, and that causes not a small amount of stress. Thankfully, there have still been wonderful little things happening to make me smile.
* Last night I took the monkey to the Stitch and Bitch and he was so good. He quietly snuggled and watched Nemo, and said/signed please and thank you to Margene.
* The monkey and I went to his toddler art class at the library and he has absolutely blossomed in there. He jumps right in with the crayons and pens, and is so joyful and creative with the paints. He really looks happy, my sweet little artbaby.
* After class he played with the big beads on twisty wires toy for half an hour, during which I sat on a miniature couch and figured out tatting. This is something I've wanted to try for years but have never found anyone who could teach me. But I found a basic book at the library and found a tatting shuttle cheap with my handy JoAnne's coupon, and figured out the basic stitch this morning. Yipee! I know my g.grandmother did this, and it makes me happy to try it.

Oops.

Lesson learned this morning: last night I got a really good start on Alita, the tablecloth/giant doily. Knit about 3 inches in diameter, which is a lot at the beginning-i have a hard time starting on the tiny 6 stitches you start with. Made a pattern error but wasn't sure if it would be visible. This morning the monkey made sure I would be completely happy with my end results by pulling out the tiny little size two needles. I must have been bugged about my mistake but too chicken to frog, because I wasn't even a little mad. Besides, how could you ever be mad at a face like this?

Lace

Finally I have picked a new project. I'm working on a big piece of lace from from Yarnover. There are a lot of really beautiful patterns posted there, with eye candy photographs of the things she does. I've finished three smaller doilies in the couple months making sure I could do this, and I really feel ready for something big. This should keep me busy for a while and for almost nothing, the ball of size 20 cotton cost about $2. I'm still looking for a good sweater pattern too, something fairly plain that buttons up the front and is fairly indestructable. Probably needs a hood too. This is a cute pattern minus the horizontal stripes, a good no-brainer for in the car or at the Stitch and Bitch.
As for being jobless I did re-work my resume and put together a darn good cover letter if I do say so myself. I hope I was able to gracefully put across my sense of desperation. Sent it off last night, now I just sit back and pray.

Waiting

So much of my life is spent waiting. I wait for the monkey to get up in the morning. I wait for Marc to get home from school. I wait for the monkey to go back to bed. We are waiting for graduation. We are waiting for the background check so Marc can apply for the bar. All week I wait for the weekend, then I wait for Monday and it's return to our regular schedual. I'm waiting to hear back from a swap pal to find out if she's ok with wool, so I can finish an elaborate project. I wait to sell something from my etsy store. I wait for the bread to rise. I wait for a time when we're not broke.
I don't do anything, I just wait.

I am so sick of waiting.

Fuck this, SOMETHING needs to be done. I'll be filling out job applications, if anyone needs me.

Regarding stashes...

I know that many knitters enjoy amassing large yarn stashes, made very apparent by the number of participants in the Stashalong. This has astounded and confused me for a long time though; the only yarn I have on hand is the yarn for a project on my needles, and leftover yarn from finished projects. Literally the only yarn I have with no project in mind is two skeins of the most hideous sparkly super-long eyelash yarn ever, acquired for free from some website. It sits in a drawer, waiting for me to have a stroke and decide I like it for something. Perhaps a shaggy teddy bear ready for hitting the clubs for a night of dancing. Maybe a faux fox, complete with head and feet. Actually the faux fox idea isn't bad, but I probably would never wear it due to the iridescent sparkles generously spun in. Anyway, back to stashes: I thought I didn't get it, until Marc made mention of my fabric stash. Now I understand. I have bought plenty of fabric with no intended purpose other than wanting to own something that beautiful. Sadly, I haven't added to it in quite a while, as I have been grounded from buying fabric for over a year now. So I want you all to know that I understand, and I feel your pain.

Hat!

Finished! I cast of Marc's hat tonight just in time for him to wear it to an Air Force thing tonight. Isn't he handsome :) This does mean that I have nothing on the needles though. Weirdo that I am, I usually don't have more than one or two things in progress. I don't even have an idea for a next project yet, so I'll probably end up pounding out another doily until I commit to something. I just checked out A Gathering of Lace from the library, maybe something will speak to me.

Well, my flan just came out of the oven so I'm out of here. Have a good night.

Yoga and stitch markers

Tonight I went to yoga and now I feel so nice and centered, very aaaahhhhhh. I sing the praises of the pigeon pose, which stretches your glutes in a way I didn't know they could be stretched. I know some people use yoga as their sole exercise activity, which blows me away. These people must eat so carefully, because while in my experience yoga is great at toning, it's just not there for cardio work.
I've had no time to knit yet today, but I do intend on finishing Marc's hat tonight. Cute kid story: last night I made a few beaded stitch markers so I wouldn't have to use huge ones on these little size 4 needles. Not thinking, I left them on my desk to use today and didn't get to them early. I was quite disappointed to find that the monkey had found them, and they were nowhere to be seen. But he obviously knew what they were for, because i just found them carefully rolled onto one of the needles for Marc's hat. Pretty smart for a two year old. I can't wait to teach him to knit.

Late

This entry is photo-free, because i'm just too damn tired to drag out the camera. Nothing to see anyway; everything right now is in progress. I'm just about finished with Marc's hat though, I've knit 7 inches of stretchy blue tube and it is time to close it up and end already. Actually, it is a little past that, I'll probably frog it back a few rows so it fits better. He'll be happier if it doesn't cover his eyes, and I dislike the weird effect of not pulling a stretchy hat all the way on (it reminds me disturbingly of the "resevoir tip" in a condom; an image you will never be able to get out of your head now.)
I took the monkey with me to the stitch and bitch tonight. It wasn't bad and would have been much better had I not been so stupid and left his little dvd player at home. I'm not sure how it didn't get into the bag; it was in my hand when I was loading up the backpack. I may have missed the opening and dropped it on my desk, because it was waiting here for me when I got home. We only stayed about 45 minutes, not bad considering. About as long as I could have stayed anyway. I'm having some major social anxiety issues today anyway; it was easier for me to be there with him than without him.

PSA

Public Service Announcement: If you are cooking with canned milk from your food storage, shake it up really well before opening it up. No, more than that. Actually, if you have access to one of those vibrating paint can stir-ers, use that for a minute or two.

Edited to become a photo dump. Just ignore the rest of this.

Lazy Sunday

We stayed up late last night, so when the monkey woke up early this morning we were super lazy and put him in bed with us. We all snuggled and tickled and dozed, making it the best morning we've had all week. This upcoming week is spring break for DH so we don't even have any "last day of the weekend" blues. We're too busy and broke for a trip, but it will leave plenty of time for DH to finish his internship hours at the Prosecutors office. Once that is done life should be much more relaxed in general.
Knitting-wise I started a hat last night and am zipping along on it. Suprising, since it is knit on tiny little size 4 needles-I've already knit 3 1/2". I bought this really pretty light and dark blue stranded Wool-Ease with the intention of turning it into the cabled Shedir hat from Knitty for myself. Sadly, the swatch just wasn't very defined with the two colored yarn, and if I'm going to all the work of knitting myself an intricate cabled hat it's going to be more visible than that. So the yarn was announced as available and DH asked for a hat. It is being knit in a 2x2 rib pattern that makes the hat look so tiny on the needles, like a hat for an infant. But it stretches out lots and would be fine on even the most enormous head.
Band practice tonight. I hope everyone shows up; there seems to be very little concern that we have another gig in two weeks.

Library

We took the monkey to the library this morning and had a wonderful time. The great thing about going with both husband and son is that I get to pick out books too, something not so true when I take the monkey by myself. Little weirdo, what kind of 2 year old doesn't want to wander the stacks looking for music theory books with his momma. But even better than getting a book, today the library was having a puppet festival and the monkey and I got to craft together! We made a sock puppet with kitty ears and fuzzy red hair, appropriately named "socky". He picked everything out, I handled the hot glue gun and limited the number of eyes to less than 100.

Spiral throw

So here I am, joining the legions of people already blogging away. I'm probably the last person to start, which is a trend for me. At Christmas my family declared that I was the only person in the US to not own a cell phone and presented me with one. With starting this I hope to prompt myself to finish more projects, art craft and otherwise, and document what I do for, oh, myself, since I can't even picture anyone else reading this.
To start this off, last night at my local Stitch and Bitch I finished a spiral throw for my couch. Still needs blocking, but I love it! Fantastic cream, brown, blue and green, brought to you with love from Red Heart yarn. Yes I know, you all hate acrylic but I am unemployed. No fancy yarns for me, we are barely feeding ourselves. Besides, I have a toddler-I need sturdy.