PDXYarnHo Knits

(I think I know V-man’s answer to that question….hehe)

I’ve been recording the history of my stash for some time now. Well, at least the number of skeins and total worth, plus the name and such. I worked on it a bit tonight, too, and while looking through it I realized how many little potentials there were in there. It’s just eating away at me.

So much of what I have is not in real project quantities. A ball here, a ball there. Now, I have plenty of experience writing one-ball patterns, but for myself? I’d not wear much of it, and frankly the yarn I have doesn’t really lend itself to be a hat or a ruffly little whatnot. So I have a lot of sad, but hopeful, little onesies in my stash. So many. Much of it is unfortunately not machine washable, so even baby things are out.

I need to figure out a good purpose for all of this random stuff. And see, the trouble is I actually like all of it, so I don’t feel that I want to give it away. Possibly some day, but for now, it’s mine because I really wanted it.

And the weirdest part? I’ve got nothing new on the needles. There are a couple of projects that have been languishing for a few months, and the Lisa Shrug (which I have been working on when I get time), but other than that, nothing new. I just don’t have time to knit. It’s sad.

So, here I sit in a pile of yarn (virtually and literally), wanting to do something with all of it right now, yet strangely unable to do anything.

I think I’m spending all my motivation on work. *sigh*

Tags: General Knitting, work // Add Comment »

Though all the guesses were very good, I’m afraid you underestimated how much of a total loser geek I am. For that fourteen yards of shiny sunny satin will transform this dumpy broad into a Princess. This one, as a matter of fact:

Oh yes. Yes, my friends, I am diving headlong into the beautiful world of cosplay. Of course, this isn’t in all seriousness… it’s just for fun. I love costuming, and I figured PAX was a damn good excuse. Especially considering who is going with me:

Hehehehe… Oh this is going to be AWESOME.

Tags: Costuming // 2 Comments »

Yay! I finished my easy peasy hat a little while ago:

and just to give you an idea of just how big my head is…

This giant thing is a perfect fit. Yay, another hat I can’t wear for 8 months! Wooooo! hehe.

Honestly I haven’t done much other knitting recently. It sucks. While I was sick I did absolutely none - it hurt my skin to touch anything, wool and needles included. Just about the only knitting I’ve done is swatches for work and *one sleeve’s* i-cord border for the Lisa Shrug. If I could only find the time… it’s a shame, really. Between cleaning and sewing, being sick and working too much, knitting has just fallen by the wayside. ANd it sucks. Really really sucks. Especially with so many baby things I want to knit…

And now that I have this in my stash, I just have to do a baby surprise! Argh!

*sigh* Oh well. It’s hard to imagine that there’d be a downside to having a knitting related job (and there really isn’t much), but I don’t get a chance to do much of my own knitting. Poo. Well, that’s what meetings are for, I guess.

Tags: General Knitting, work, yarn // 2 Comments »

So I did pick up that wee package that arrived for me while I was sick:

Yes, the photo sucks. I was sick, gimme a break!

I’ve busted out the sewing machine and have tested some seams on a remnant of the same fabric. Now, if you can correctly identify what all that fabric is going to be, I’ve got some fresh cookies for you!

Me and the V-man started the long and arduous process of sizing my Uniquely You dress form this weekend. It’s a fabulous thing, this form, but oh is it ever a pain to size it. But, once you’re done, you’ve got a dress form that is a darn-near-exact replica of your body. For me, with all my stupid shapes, there was no other real option for me when searching for a dress form. There are plenty of knobbed models out there, and standard-sloper soft forms, but I’m not standard sized. No way.

Besides the time investment, the only other drawback of the Uniquely You form is that it doesn’t have individual legs. I’d love to do pants on it…

Pants just don’t fit right. Pretty much ever. So, I’d like to make some. But even more than that, I want to hem the pants I do have. But, no luck - she only wears skirts. Oh well.

At any rate, I didn’t get too far with the sizing - but V-man is having so much fun playing tailor. It’s cute.

In other sewing related topics of interest, with the coming of summer and longer days comes the bedtime-before-sundown issue. So, I informed the V-man that I will be buying some heavy velvet or canvas and making some blackout shades. He was pretty happy about that. Where he’s from, there’s no noticeable chance in seasons, so he’s always had a problem with the changing light. I like it myself. But it does feel weird to go to bed when it’s still light out.

At least the weather was nice this weekend.

*****

Beating 1000.

So, I’ve passed 1,000 on two things recently. One being over 1,000 photos on my Flickr account! woooo.. many many more to come, you can be sure of that.

The other is that at the end of last week (maybe Thursday?) I passed 1,000 miles in my car. Not bad for only having her for a few weeks! She’s about due for yet another bath… the highway really takes a toll on her.

Tags: Not Knitting // 4 Comments »

Man, i think I’m finally kicking this stupid sickness. I’m de-cruddifying my poor head.

But, this being spring, it’s time for the annual de-cruddification ritual known as spring cleaning. For me that means (dunh dunh DUUUUUUNNNHHHH) wash day!

Wash day for me is more than just laundry. It’s a giant orchestrated event that involves the hand-washing of every woolen and handwash only wearable I own all at once. It’s usually more than one day, since I only have so much drying space in my apartment. One day it’ll be summer viscose and rayon dresses, one day outerwear, one day sweaters, one day accessories. I always do this before packing things away for the summer; that and fresh mothballs make it all less likely to get attacked by carpet beetles.

Maybe this doesn’t sound like a lot, but I assure you - it is. I have probably 20 sweaters alone that are hand-wash only.

So, to facilitate this massive odorous exodus, One thing in particular needs to be ready - the tub. It’s where I do a lot of my laundry, and most of the time scrubbing the bottom is enough. But I decided, no, this year, I’m going to scrub the whole thing. It’s a molded shower-tub thing; standard apartment issue. I got down on my hands and knees (of all things, the night before I got sick), busted out the new scrubbies, and got to work.

Now, I’m not a dirty person. I don’t like dirty. Messy, well, that happens. But I don’t like dirty. So it might be surprising to note that in three and a half years in this apartment this is the first time I’ve scrubbed the whole shower/tub thing. So imagine my surprise when, after all was said and done, I discovered that my lowly shower had some features I wasn’t aware of. Mainly, it’s white. Here all these years I’d been convinced it was beige. Goes to show what a good case of denial can do for you.

Now that my shower is clean, I have to wash my blocking towels and get my living room cleared out. Once that’s done, I’m ready to dive in! I’m looking forward to it. Partially because I got some new Goodwill threads that are going to need a good washing.

Besides the shower, I managed to get most of my bedroom clean, and get a load of dishes done today. I took out four bags of garbage and three recycling (another is ready to go out). I cleaned out the fridge. It was a very productive day, though I didn’t actually get to about 50% of what I wanted to do.

I did, finally, get one thing set though. I’ve been using a Brita-on-tap for the past 5 years; the tap piece belonged to my old psycho roommate; she left it behind. But it’s been squirting and leaking for almost the last year, and I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I bought a new one.

I’m amazed, they come in black now! Anyway, when I took the old one off, it was disgusting. The plastic had wrinkled and contorted in the strangest ways, and there was muck and algae all over it. ::shiver:: All better now! And now with my kitchen clean, it was the perfect time to make cookies.

I can tell you it’s wonderfully liberating to have a clean house. It’s not done yet (is it ever?) but I’m getting there. It reminds me of why I like this place so much. It’s amazing just how big my apartment is when everything’s put away.

Well, that’s it for now. I will have all sorts of other fun stuff to chat about later. But I can’t think in a dirty house!

Tags: Not Knitting // Add Comment »

In between bouts of concentration-loss, I’ve been working on work. But just to see if my brain was functioning at all, I did this:

In 2m 52s

Click here to Play

Now, that time would be better if I was a decent typist. Does it help that I named them in left-to-right order?

Anyway, i’m fighting through a wicked sinus headache right now. I’m able to walk, though, and I might just be teased out of my apartment to pick up a package that arrived at a store for me. We’ll see if I feel well enough, though - goodness does my head hurt. It is no fun to create a hundred radio buttons when your head hurts like this. Luckily, since I’m home, I can just lie down when it gets to be too much.

I really want to knit. My hands aren’t up to it though. Not to mention the only thing I’ve got active on the needles involves a mile of applied i-cord… I have to think for that. I’m still to out of it to think.

Well, maybe I’ll try to get the rest of these dang radio buttons done (creating a form), and then nap a little. And maybe if the weather clears up, go pick up my package. That is certainly blog-worthy.

Tags: Not Knitting // Add Comment »

I can hardly type right now. I had to go home early from work. I probably won’t make it in tomorrow either. i feel like hell and i have no voice.

Luckily a sympathetic V-man drove all the way up here to bring me soup and hugs. It helps

Too sick to knit. Bed now.

Tags: Not Knitting // 2 Comments »

This has been a weekend of finishing. I finished four knitting projects! The Saturday market gives me time to do that… that’s just about the only benefit of it right now. But I won’t get into that.

First is my autumn wheat sox:

Next is a little something I whipped up for the niece-in-progress:

The third, well I can’t show it because it’s a test knit.

But the fourth - it’s not done yet, but it will be - is my easy-peasy hat:

I’m just getting through the short rows on the ribbing to make it longer in the back. I’m going to short row it in the other direction next to make some earflaps. Or really, more ear-covering things. Not quite flappy.

Now I have to figure out what next to do. i have a bunch of old sleeping projects on the needles - I really do want to finish all of those. But I also have so much pretty stuff in my stash, and a new baby to knit for. Oh, the torture! And speaking of stash, I have this:

I remarked when I bought it how it was such a great V-man color, and naturally when I brought it home he said “Wow, what a great color!” so, we know what this will be. hehe. But it’s getting towards the season where he’ll be wearing thinner socks, so there’s no pressure for now.

But.. that still leaves me stuck! I want to cast something on tonight… or maybe I really should just stick to what’s already in progress. I still have to do the i-cord border on the Lisa Shrug, and there’s a pair of gloves that needs to have the fingers re-done. Not to mention that giant obnoxious blanket…. the chenille monstrosity that I haven’t touched in months.

Speaking of months, how is that I’ve been at KP for two months already?! where did the time go, seriously? It’s going to be May, like, this week. Then I’ll be buying a flying car, because I’ll be 50 and we’ll have them by then. hehe.

Speaking of cars, mine doesn’t fly but she did get her first bath today! Also I should be passing 1000 miles tomorrow or the next day. Not bad for only two and a half weeks…. Sheesh.

Speaking of sheesh, I bought more nail polish today. And not the inexpensive drugstore variety either:

Two look identical in the bottles, but as anyone who likes to do a french manicure regularly can tell you, looks can be deceiving. They have the same base, but one is much pinker when dry. Anyway, I’ve been desperately hunting the perfect French base color for a while now. I like something that’s opaque, but as closely matches my natural color as possible. This is as close as I’ve found! It’s totally worth it to find the right color, even if it is $8.50 a bottle.

Well, I think the pollen and the craziness of the last couple of weeks has finally caught up with me… I have a sore throat. I dumped some turmeric on my dinner tonight, and I’m going to load up on vitamin C. Oh, I have oranges! I might just go have one of those right now in fact. But it’s a miserable feeling to be sure. I really can’t afford to miss any work or anything because of this. I’ll make sure I get plenty of some sleep tonight.

I’d talk about the yarn harlot’s visit, but I think it’s been so well summed up elsewhere that I don’t need to just yet! And as for my bad behavior, well, I guess you had to be there!

Tags: General Knitting, yarn // 2 Comments »

Don’t believe it. I don’t care what they say about me. I’m a normal, modest, quiet and respectful person. Teh intarwebs, they lie! I never did anything to call attention to myself. As if! You can’t prove anything.

snicker snicker

Tags: Announcement, social knitting // 4 Comments »

Not that I didn’t intrinsically know, I mean, it’s a woman thing. But I’m getting a niece! my very own little minion life to corrupt enrich. It’s a special job to be an auntie, and well, I’m …special. Now I can start making frilly, ruffly, girlie-tastic pink things - yay! I’ve been waiting for that signal to begin my knitting craze… and now I know, and I have 4 months or so to prepare. Geez, only four months! Aye carumba.

In other news, the PDXKB pins that I’d been working on came in today - and they look awesome! I took a picture, but I’ve been too busy to get it uploaded. I’ve been preparing for the Yarn Harlot’s visit tomorrow - making sure I’m bringing enough knitting, my camera is charged, and I’ve got a very flat friend to bring along. You’ll just have to wait and see!

Well, it’s nearly 1 am. I’m so damn tired. I need to start sleeping regularly.

What a day!

Tags: Announcement, Geek Alert, social knitting // 1 Comment »