skunks and paint and shawls OH MY!

Where does one begin?

Monday night we were awoken at 3:30 by this little guy trapped in the window well below our bedroom. The board you see was put in hoping he would find his way out. No such luck. Thankfully he is too young to spray. Not knowing this yet nor knowing if Mama was around we left him their hoping he would make it out on his own. Nope...and he kept us up the rest of time until dawn. In the daylight we attempted to usher him into a bucket but he just huddled in the corner. Finally a towel was thrown over him and he was picked up. My love released him behind the back shed. I hope he found his family. It was exhausting excitement.
And where were the girls during all this you ask?? My viscious hunters? ASLEEP ON THE BED. Isis was even snoring. I'm thinking of demoting them.





Today's top mission includes all this. I am finally painting the trim in the back room. The weather isn't ideal for this type of work (more rain) but it is my only free day to do so. I'll do the second coat this afternoon and pull all the tape. That leaves a few wall and ceiling touch ups and the shoe moulding. That I will paint in sticks and he will install it. I'm rather happy how the room is coming out. I sense I will be spending copious amounts of time this winter because it is so springy looking. Plus it is now the only room with insulation in the walls. I need to get this done soon though. I'm tired of it's half finished state. Especially since I need the beds to block this...

i'm a schmuck

I don't have the promised pictures. It started raining friday...and I mean go gather the animals and have the boy draft ark plans raining. Not good weather for taking pics. I much prefer the natural light. I am behind on the shawl. Chart 5 should have been finished last night but I am still about 9 rows short of that. I am working on a non-knitting project that if it works out could mean great things for me. I don't want to divulge but it has me nervous and excited and a borderline wreck. I will try for some pics tomorrow.

An open letter to the man i saw jogging yesterday

Dear Sir:
While I admire your commitment to physical fitness, (and indeed you do look fit) I have a few suggestions for you. Firstly, I would recommend burning your white running shorts and buying something in a more opaque color. Granted the color white will keep you cool in this heat, it does not suit this type of garment, especially when you are drenched in sweat. Secondly, if you insist on wearing above mentioned shorts, please, PLEASE, PLEASE do not wear black bikini briefs with them. If you are confused as to why, think to a wet t-shirt contest and the answer should become clear. These are things I do not need to see while stuck in traffic. Thank you, and ever onward for your quest for fitness.

Sincerely,

Gothknits

Hockey and Shawls

The Hurricanes Won!!! Woo Hoo!!!

I know what you are thinking. I'm not really a sports person at all. I hate most of them and most of their fans...but for some reason i LOVE hockey. I love to watch it and I really, REALLY get into it. I once turned down a guy asking me to dance (which never happened to me) because I was watching a hockey game. Game 7 was an exciting game to watch and I was able to keep my stitches on my needles. However, when the Hurricanes made the third goal to an empty net I cheered so loud that I scared the cats. Poor kitties.

AND I managed to get 5 rows done on the shawl. I'm behind where I would like to be. I have only 5 rows left in chart 4; a chart I had hoped to complete on Sunday. Chart 5 looms before me. It is the largest of them all...requiring to be copied, cut and pasted together because it couldn't fit on one page. After 5 it looks quite managable. Chart 6 is only 10 rows and 7 starts the border pattern in one of my favorite stitches. I don't have more pics because its just a blob....i swear there will be some at somepoint this week. I the mean time is a pic of me knitting at a goth club taken about a year and a half ago. Enjoy!

Tonight I learned

that i cannot knit with charts and watch hockey. It's just not possible. My love even threatened to turn off the game if I did not calm down. I only did 2 rows throughout the whole game.

Hrm.....

Anyone notice that NyQuil is green and anise flavored like Absinthe?....minus the wormwood obviously but it makes one wonder. Or is it just the cold medicine?

:P

I'm sick today. It is my day off and I hate being sick on my day off. I always feel that I'm owed a healthy day off to make up for it. I did go to work sick yesterday, because I was the only one in my department all day. I came home, ate dinner and proceeded to mimic death so well that my husband kept waking me up to check on me. Summer illness is the worst. All colds/flu/sinus infections should strictly be a winter thing. I had tons planned for today but kept it tame...a few loads of laundry, a sink full of dishes, swept the house and shawl knitting galore. All this while doped to the gills. Don't know if I'll make it to work tomorrow. Not sure that driving all that way at night while on cold meds is the best plan of action. We will see how I am tomorrow.

This poster found here about sums up my feelings about my job search.

Not much to blog about

The sun finally came back out. And this is what my roses look like. If anyone knows what kind of roses they are please let me know. They came with the house. I know squat about roses. My love handles those while I tend all the other green things. This particular rosebush hates me and always pulls my hair when I weed near it. The first pic is in the morning about 10am. The second is about 4 or 5 pm. Not bad shots for how incredibly windy it was. I am trying to work more color in the garden. All the plants that came with the house are either red or pink. I've added the purple irises so far. I'm definately putting in some marigolds as well. They are just too useful not to. I can't wait to get my full garden going...to bad there is a bunch of poorly laid asphalt in the way.

I've been plugging away (faithfully I might add) at the shawl. I'd show another pic but it would just look the same but bigger. I shall do some more artistic shots of it soon. Grocery shopping was the main focus of the evening. I don't think you'd really enjoy a pic of the lovely brie I got at a fabulous discount. Not quite the same is it?

ugh! and something completely hysterical

That's about how I feel about the weather (we might see the sun on Saturday) and work. It went from the most boring day ever to the most boring week ever. I really can't take it. They are just wasting my time. I could be off doing more productive things...like doctor's appointments, or finding another job. And frankly at this point if my boss were to spontaniously burst into flames I would grab myself a stick and some marshmallows.

Did everyone enjoy 6-6-06? I sure did. And after my book club I took my love to see The Omen. It was good for a remake, though I still don't understand why they remade it. I know they wanted to take advantage of the date but why not restore the original and re-release it in theatres. It must be infinately cheaper. They did justice to many of my favorite scenes. I loved Mia Farrow as the nanny...the whole Rosemary's Baby connection just tickeled me. I really found the soundtrack lacking though. It was very unimpressive and usually find the music to be the heart and soul of a horror movie. Oh and I nearly bludgeoned to death some morons who wouldn't SHUT THE HELL UP during the movie. They really ruined it for us.

But here is your bit of the hysterical. My love and I were watching TV and an ad for the Nintendo DS came on. The familiar Mario Bros. music prompted him to ask me if I had seen a particular video yet. I immediately ran to ifilm to view it.

A Capella Nintendo themes! Not only are they sung a capella but the are chorographed!!!! The Tetris section was my favorite. You just have to go and see it. This totally turned around a horrible day.

Knitting...i'm plugging away on chart 3, which by far is my favorite so far.

HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There's a shawl picture. So there!

I am rethinking this knitting monogamy thing. Today we got new computers at work (woo hoo!) It's lovely having an operating system that isn't older than my car but it took until 3:30 pm to get it fully funcioning. THE MOST BORING DAY EVER! I couldn't do anything and really could have used some knitting. Damn I could have done a whole sock! But nooooo, I have to go and be faithful with all my other knitting packed away.

Rain rain go AWAY!

I had meant to write more on my last post but the thunder started to rumble. And it hasn't really stopped raining since. Which has totally obliterated my irises. But the roses are starting to bloom so I will have some pics of them soon.

June 1st was our 4th wedding anniversary. It was quite wonderful. We made breakfast of waffles and sausage. Then we went to Dinosaur State Park where we saw the exhibit and then hiked the trails. Then we came home to a light lunch and some lounging, showered, changed and off to dinner at our usual anniversary haunt. Then back home again. I think next year we are going to spend it in NYC which is where we got engaged.

I had a question or two about the pedicure socks. Well here they are. Mine are out of Cascade 220 since I have a bit of it on hand. Like I said, I have knit only 3 socks...not 3 pairs. All has been abandoned for the shawl.






Speaking of the shawl...it is going fairly well. I did have to tink back 2 1/2 rows last night but otherwise it is not that bad. (i know i just cursed myself). It is a bit of a struggle with the lace weight on circular needles. My style of knitting doesn't exactly suit itself to circs and I'm not use to the lace weight at all. The yarn is delightful however, and the charts aren't the hassle I thought they would be. I'm a few rows short of finishing the second chart. I would post the pic but blogger apparently hates the pics of my shawl.

I finally ordered my shoes for the wedding in July. I'm rather picky about shoes. The MUST be comfortable. So these are my first try. I hope the red works with my dress, not that you will really see my feet anyway. Now I need to find a bra. I'm actually looking for something a little more corset like. It has to be strapless and I don't want it to go low in the back. They stay up better if they don't, but its hard to find a strapless bustier without the low back. And my sure thing store has gone from independent to chain and their stuff sucks now. I hate that. I swear once they find out I like something, they change it. Like the good staple pullers. Grrr

The Lusty Month of May

Tra La!
(bonus points to you who know what that is from)

I'm back...well I have been back. I did start a blog post this past weekend when the darling computer shut down on me...losing everything. It didn't crash...just shut down. The CPU was overheating and apparently we have a failsafe...and apparently it doesn't include saving whatever you were doing at the time.

But to happy thoughts here is a beautiful Iris from my garden from the lot Woolybuns gave me last year. My tulips may have been a bust but these are just to die for.


May was a long and insane month. I was out of town the first three weekends, and when I wasn't out of town I was at work. The trips were my best friends bridal shower/bachorlette party, my dad's retirement party, and wedding of my love's highschool buddy. The month was filled with the good (seeing friends and family, a riotous live performance of the Full Monty, a huge knitting sale, bartending for drunken firemen, meeting my friends daughter for the first time, reading several books, boat loads of knitting, and lots of time with my love) and the bad (lots of rude, obnoxious screaming customers, driving, grandma in the hospital, shattered hopes of a pregnancy, exhaustion, driving, an unwanted job offer that set my life off kilter for a bit, and more driving).

It did inclue a bit of knitting though:

• I finished the 'm' bag
• I started and finished a 'j' bag (this was started monday night and the zipper was installed in the car on that very say friday...felting and all).
• 3 pedicure socks.

Right now I am in a bout of knitting monogomy...the shawl for my best friend's wedding gift. The wedding is July 16th. It is a Fiddlesticks pattern with 9, count them 9 charts. I'm not exactly a chart knitter but I am turning into one. The gauge swatch was a bit of a trial. I knit it with the suggested yarn on the suggested size needles....stitch count too small, row count too big. WTF!!!!! ok.....jump two needle sizes....stitch count too big, row count too big (actually the same as the other swatch) Again WTF! So I went to the size in between the two. I didn't swatch again. I figured that was the close as I was going to get and I am not getting out the micrometer to make in between size needles. Its a shawl, not a bra...I do have some leeway. This is how it looks halfway through chart 2. Notice the lovely lilac life line. I may be crazy but I'm not stupid. (photo loads but doesn't show. See my invisible shawl)

So that's a quick and dirty update.

I'm not dead....

just really really really busy.

...

I know I haven't blogged in a while...i'm a bad little blogger.

but this is how I feel right about now so I hope you'll forgive me.





















i wish someone would steal me

Happy Peep Day!

Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it. I don't consider myself christian so the day doesn't mean much to me. I do have fond childhood memeories of family gatherings, but I have no family out here. Holidays can be rather depressing when it is just us here. He has a small family so its not that big of a deal to him. Sometimes its very painful for me.

but onto fun things. PEEPS! My love absolutely loves these things. I wouldn't eat them on a dare. I do however enable him often. Then I found this website and literally fell out of my chair laughing the first time I saw it. So enjoy and consider it my gift today.

Peep Research

and it's all in the name of science.

Inner Vampire

Just a bit of something for fun.

Though I think we really need to worry about my outer vampire.

Your Inner Vampire
Name
DOB
Favourite Color
Your Vampire Age	Ancient
Your Weapon of Choice	Mind Power
Your Hair Color & Style	Short & Red
Your Eye Color	Icy Blue
Your Wardrobe Consists Of	Leather
You Belong In a Vampire Book by	Laurell K Hamilton
This fun quiz by GodsmackedAngel - Taken 3843 Times.

New - Kwiz.Biz Astrology and Horoscopes

Not much knitting

I have willfully neglected my knitting this week. I was in too much pain after glazing the walls and didn't wish to risk any permanent dammage to my wrists. I have gotten quite a bit of reading done. I devoured Son of a Witch in a few days. I have grown to love Wicked but was rather disappointed in the sequal. He does set up for a third book though. Actually that's how this feels to me...merely setting the stage for the next part. Kinda like Attack of the Clones.

I don't know what else to write at the moment so I'll leave you with one of my favorite internet photos ever. Look how proud she is!

Apples

Here is a pic of the walls glazed. I am fairly happy with how they came out. My love said I can be happy with them but not anally happy with them. That last one requires me painting them about 75 times. Besides I can always hide the areas I hate with furniture and pictures.






Here is a more artistic view/interpretation of them. I really like this shot despite the fact the color is not quite right. I just couldn't get the lighting to work for it. I may have to do this with my manual camera and actual film.

Flash the Stash!

Yes, that's me. I couldn't resist. *evil grin*

So here it is:

First is the Jaggerspun Zephyr that arrived in the mail today. 1 pound that I won on Ebay on Sunday! Some of it is intended as a wedding gift for my best friend. (The wedding is in July.) Now I just need to get my hands on the pattern.

Wool: mostly Cascade 220, some Patons Classic wool, Lite Lopi that was inherited and the Malabrigo from the knitters breakfast. The Patons is for a cape thingy. The Cascade is what I have been making the bags out of, as well as some socks. And speaking of socks...

This is my collection of sock yarn. Some Opal, some Koigu, Foliage, Confetti...the magenta stuff is handpainted that I picked up at woolstock (Reinbeck Sheep and Wool Festival)

*************************

Wool Blends

Mostly wool/acrylic. There is a lovely pile of Silky Wool (the plum) that is going to be a Lavold sweater.

***********************

Cotton: A bunch of this was inherited and will probably be sacrificed to the dye bath gods. Most of it is kitchen weight but one can knit only so many dish cloths. The stuff on the right is nice to knit but I forsee it having a life as another color.

**********************************

Ummm....the rest of this is various forms of acrylic and other stuff much that was obtained before I became a fiber snob. The rest was donated.

****************************

This is actually some quality stuff that I have in random amounts. A touch of Debbie Bliss. Some Colinette that was a sweater that I knit and then frogged. Also a skein of Euroflax in black. That is one I wish would tell me what it wants to be.

*************************************

Yes I realize that this is way more fur yarn than any human should possess. But to be fair I didn't buy any of it. It was all acquired.

************************************

So there it is. Damn there's a quite a bit there. But I STILL NEED MORE. And if my husband happens to read this post and says anything, I will post pictures of his lumber rack. And the computer components. And the chainmaile rings.

Remember Payback is a bitch...and so am I.

Sweet dreams.

Paint & Yarn

That's what it has mostly been about lately.

Wednesday I went to pull up Kyoto from blocking so that I could reknit the front right side when I found this:

Does she look remorseful or guilty? No of course not. She merely looked at me as if to say "yo, what's up?" Isis would have run away guilty when she heard my yelp. Not Loki. Its easy to be dumb when you are so pretty.

But did you notice that I remembered to take a picture before I removed her from the sweater??!?! Am I becoming a blogger, or what.

At SnB I manged to reknit most of the fubar'd side, and finished it at home that night. It has been safely (read cat free) blocked and the shoulders seamed. I also attached the sash. Now all the remains is the collar and the sleeves. I'm quite giddy. My first completed adult sweater. But I shall say no more lest I curse myself.

I also just finished the second coat of glazing in the room, now dubbed the Apple room, since it is the same color as my favorite type of apple...Granny Smith. I'll get a pic once its dry and the blue tape has been removed.

Saturday was also the Spinner's Guild. I learned a lot and got a lot more done on my drop spindle. I also was checking out a few wheels. I think I'm starting to figure out what I want. My love mentioned picking up an Xbox 360. I said sure then I could get my wheel. For some reason the conversation stopped. hrm...

I have to stop typing now. The glazing did a number on my wrists and they need a break at the moment.