They say it's your Birthday!

No blogging. Well, a short blog entry. I am sitting on my butt today and knitting. It is my birthday and I get 3 days off of work! I will get to finish Aberlady and be done with it!

And the winner is....

I got all your comments yesterday and I have picked a winner. Well, *I* didn't pick the winner because I wanted to give everyone that commented a prize just for commenting. "Mr. Yarn" said that was stupid. That only one person wins a prize. He choose. The winner is Titanium Rose. She said that I should use it for fringe for curtains in a double wide trailer. So, Titanium, give me where to send the cra...I mean stuff and you will be in for a surprise. You might wanna tell me what kind of yarn you like because you never know. My stash is noteworthy.

So on another front...
I am new to this blogging stuff. Being the kind of person I am it becomes a bit obsessive. I mean I feel guilty when I don't have a picture. I was scanning other knitting blogs and I noticed that much of the time there is no knitting content and no picture or there is a picture of a cat. We all know how I feel about my two cats. Wait, maybe I never told you that I own two of the most obnoxious cats on earth (hi Annie, mommy loves you). My daughter foisted them on me.

So being the guilt ridden type of person that I am and feeling guilty that there is still no knitting content on here because I am at the VERY end of both sweaters and I just need one or two more days to finish both of them, I leave you with this


Molly gave me this Redwood Burl because she was going to Oregon and I whined that I wanted one. I killed my other one. Who knows, maybe one day it will turn into a drive through tree.

Too crafty or is that senile?

(double click for larger image)

I bought these trims at Poppy Fabric. At the time I had a really good idea of what I was going to do with them. They have been sitting around my house for a year now. I can't remember what that really good idea was. I don't even particularly like them. Oooooh! a contest. Come up with an idea and the winner will get a prize.

Yeah, that little blob on the left is the cat. That is the only press she is gonna get.

Damn, I love yarn!

There I was minding my own business when all of a sudden the UPS guy walks into the shop. I figured it was just another shipment of yarn that was going to have to be put away. It was late in the day and I didn't feel like putting it away because I was feeling pretty tired.

I opened a mystery box and this is what I found



It was my birthday gift from Mr Yarn! That is why he is Mr Yarn! because he buys me yarn (at retail mind you) even though I own a yarn shop. He understands the need for me to have this kit. I wanted this kit! The pattern is by Jade Starmore and the beautiful yarn is Alice Starmore Hebridean 2ply.

This is what it is going to make


I am lucky.

She made birdhouses in that neighborhood

It is going to be my birthday Saturday. In many ways it makes me really sad to get older. I look at myself in the mirror and I can see the changes. I look at my hands and I see myself getting older. It doesn't really scare me, but it just makes me feel a bit sad that it really happened. That time changed me. I knew that it changed others but I had this secret thought that *I* would be different.

There are also great things about getting older. I don't take crap from people like I used to. I don't care about how I look the same way I did when I was young. I am sure of myself and my actions (most of the time) and I pretty much do not make impulsive decisions. This leads me to "She made birdhouses in that Neighborhood".



When I was much younger (and I mean MUCH younger) I went with some friends to another friends art opening. We all met up after work at a local bar. We had a few drinks before the art opening started. We then stumbled over to the cafe that the art opening was taking place. There was much champagne there. As time went by I was feeling little pain and I decided to buy the above piece of art. This piece of art cost way more than I could afford. Hell, I had NO business buying this. The friends that were with me did everything in their power to talk me out of buying it but they couldn't. So, I bought it.

Over the years it has given me tons of amusement and comfort. It makes me feel ok about getting older. It was well worth the money and is one of my favorite hangings. "She made birdhouses in that neighborhood", never made sense and didn't matter if it did. I sorta understood.

Socks for Jules

Yesterday was fun. Everyone came over and we had a really good time. I miss my old friends alot and was really glad that they were there with my new friends. I knew better than to work on the "Aberlady" sweater. Once I got gabbing I knew that I would mess up anything I was doing. I started Julie's socks because I knew that gabbing couldn't mess those up. I hope they fit her and I hope she likes them.




As I worked on them last night I remembered something that Julie made for me years and years and years ago (she gets mad when I say this, but she is my oldest friend. I don't mean OLDEST, I mean how long we have been friends. She knows this is what I mean but it still bugs her everytime I say it). I bet she doesn't remember it. Maybe she does. It is a bit worn and has been dragged around in the trunk of my car forever now (I don't even remember how it got in the trunk of my car). I love it. It is one of VERY few things that someone has ever made for me.


Thanks Jules!

Gone Fishing

Getting ready for my knitting pals to come
over and have some chow and knit.

Basket Weaving 101

I was putting stuff away and I found the above. It is from a trip that I took with Mr Yarn, my sister and her husband. We went to Cambria. My sister being the third grade teacher that she is thought of cool stuff for us to do. She wanted us to see the General Store that the Hearst family went to when by the beach. It was a really cool place. It was an old time General Store with lots of stuff in it. It had the original post office from the 30's and it looked like nothing had been touched since then.

We saw these basket making kits. At the time it seemed so cool. Now I am wondering what I could have been thinking. Basket Weaving 101. Hmmm, maybe that is right up my alley.

Men who wear sweaters

(double click for more detail)

I am knitting this sweater for the shop. It is from "Men in Knits" Interweave Press and it is out of Rowan Polar.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the sweater and I only have one and a half sleeves to go, but who is going to wear it? Everytime I have knit anything for a man it has been a disaster (Annie, don't do it!). Mr Yarn wouldn't in a million years wear this sweater. It is too big for almost everyone I know. You are asking yourself why I knit it, aren't you? Well, it was another mannequin story. I will save HIM for another time. I am making this for a male mannequin that I bought for the shop. It ends up that the mannequin that I bought is a bit scrawny. This sweater is going to swim on him (I will probably name this mannequin "Chip").

Anyhow, the moral of the story. . . Don't knit for men.

Update on Jane

Here is an update on Jane. I don't know what to say. Jane did finally get clothes, but look at her. She looks like a bag lady. What is it that you put on a 5'11" mannequin? None of my stuff is long enough for her. Check out the dress she is wearing. It was the best I could do for now. Oh well. Maybe since summer is coming up I will knit her a bikini and really drive the mailman wild.

Grandma

I found this in my drawer the other day. It was made by my grandmother. I am not sure why I have it but I am pretty sure that I asked to keep it when my mother was cleaning stuff out. It looks timeless to me. My grandmother has been gone for a long long time and I know that she made this way before she died. I would say that it has to be at least 60 or 70 years old if not even older than that. She could have even made it when she still lived in England. I will never know. What strikes me about it is that it looks like something that someone could wear now. Even down to the pink color.

I miss ya grams.

I promised Timothy Leary

I don't have any knitting news to tell you today. All projects are going nicely and I just have gotten into bit of a knitting slump. Until the current stuff is done I don't want to start something new (what is wrong with me?)

Anyhow, here is a little story...



I met Timothy Leary at a party about 15 years ago. It was about 2 weeks before he died. He was nice enough if not a little too grabby for my taste, and we had a long conversation. To tell you the truth, I don't remember about what. I remember thinking how strange it was that I was actually sitting there next to a cult figure. I then remember that he started asking me about what I did for a living and as his hand traveled farther up my leg I was getting annoyed. I told him that I was a Webmaster for a Think Tank in Santa Monica (which at the time I was). This fascinated him (of course it did). Then it happened. He said to me "when I die can I contact you on the Internet?" I said "Huh?" He repeated himself. I had been drinking a few so I thought perhaps I heard wrong. I didn't. He wanted to contact me on the internet AFTER he died. I figured I had nothing to lose. I am pretty good at responding to email. So, I said "sure Tim, you get a hold of me after you die".

Years have gone by and I still haven't heard from him. Then again, I didn't really give him a conduit for contact until now. So, Tim if you want you can leave a comment on my blog. I will answer it.

Great excuses

Well, here is a picture of the sweater I am (was?) knitting from the other kit
that I bought from Sommerfugen. I really do like this sweater but I have gotten a phobia about going back to knitting on it after more than a year. The picture is so bad that it actually makes me feel better about dropping this project (Mr Yarn! you throw this in my face and you are in BIG trouble). Anyhow, you can see a bit more detail of this beautiful sweater if you double click on the picture, but you really can't see the color on color.

Ok. enough with the lame excuses. I am going to go knit on "Aberlady". I am almost finished with that.

I love my cakes!

Sale day at Yarn! went great. My friends were all there helping me out and I sure
am glad they were there. It wouldn't have been half as fun without them. Purl Gurl made me TWO cakes. I loved them both and both got eaten up. Thanks Purl Gurl!

Happy Anniversary Yarn!

Bad picture but today is Yarn!'s 2nd Anniversary! I can't believe that two years have gone by. Anyway, I don't have lots to say today because I have to get my behind to the shop. There is a big ole sale today. Wish me luck.

Rare Please!

I love strange yarns. I love yarns from far off lands. Not the big company name ones. I love the ones that came from little farms and little countries. I also love rare yarns. I have collected many. Some of which are from Afghans for Afghans. Afghan women spin the wool . I also have some that is Quivet, Cashmere, and Yak.



But I must say that my favorite is the stuff that friends bring back for me in their travels. I was noodling around the back bedroom this morning and found this:



My friend Lori brought this back for me from Nepal. To date, this is the farthest I have gotten my yarn from. I love this yarn. I keep thinking that I am going to knit a Sherpa. Lori knows that my deep dark secret is that I want a Sherpa. I don't need him to help me climb, but it sure would be nice to take walks. It would look cool. Ok, so I went off on a tangent. I can't knit a Sherpa, but I can pretend that I am in Nepal when I look at my prayer flags and yarn that traveled all the way home with Lori and was for me.

I'm not Swedish.

I was looking for some sock yarn and came across this kit that I ordered last year. Please tell me what made me think that I was a Swedish woman with blonde hair and 10ft tall and how I could have thought *I* could pull off wearing this sweater. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with the beautiful kit, but it just is so opposite of me that I think that sometimes I have blackouts. I am 5'1 and I have dark hair.

I do have another of these kits that does fit me and I will show a picture when I am not too lazy to go into the basement and get it. I also have to finish it. I got to under the arm (it is done in the round and steeked). Then again I am not sure that I ever will finish it (don't tell Mr. Yarn!, I just tell him I am taking a "rest) because I have a fear to go back to it. What would that be called? finishphobia? hah hah...get it Finnish and finish. Damn, I need coffee.

p.s. I just read on another blog that it is tacky to post a response to a comment on your own blog. Crazy Aunt Purl posted this. She didn't know this either. That makes two of us that are out of the "loop". Good thing she told me. Well, she didn't tell ME but she posted it. From now on I won't answer but if you want me to comment you better leave your email address.

Faith

(double click for larger picture with more detail)

I finished the back of Faith. That didn't take too long. Afterall, I did stop in the middle to knit the chicken hat. I finished the chicken hat too. Check it out at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59668310@N00/9265955/

My chicken came out a bit weird. Looks like it is running. That is ok. I like it that way. Looks crazy. Also makes me feel a little bad for it. Hey, wait. It isn't a real chicken. Ok, I feel better about it now.

Larry

I don't have much to talk about in the way of knitting today. You have seen my projects and there isn't much more to say about them until I am further along. Perhaps the chicken hat will be finished today or I will get further on my sweater that I am working on at the shop and then tomorrow there will be a picture. But for today there isn't much to show. So, this frees me up to talk about Larry.

I loved Larry. I even had the chance to buy Larry. Mr Yarn! couldn't believe that I was being serious. When I convinced him that I was, he came up with all kinds of reasons why Larry wouldn't fit into our family. He told me that Larry would be messy and that the other animals wouldn't like him. He told me that Larry would get into my knitting. He told me Larry was too expensive (ok, this was the best of the arguments other than the getting into my knitting part) and last but not least he told me it was illegal to have Larry in the State of Calfornia. Mr Yarn! won, but my heart is still with Larry.



Check out the fingers. He would have been a great help with my knitting.

Ew, what was I thinking?

I was going into my cedar chest today. It holds sweaters that I am not using. Imagine my shock and horror when I pulled this out. What was I thinking when I made this. Where did the pattern come from? Where did this ugly yarn come from? I was living in Los Angeles at the time that I made this. I can't for the life of me imagine where I would have gotten this pattern or yarn. Ew. Scary part is that there is a whole chest of shame. Not just outdated but really really ugly sweaters. Maybe my mind was taken over by aliens. Maybe it was that I had just gotten divorced. Who knows. Just thought I would share so that I could make others feel better about themselves.

Dogged by Lily

You think you know your dog and then WHAP, she lets you down. I asked Lily to please model the "Raw Chicken Viking Hat" for my blog. I woke up this morning and it seems like "Ms Dog Breathe" has gotten too big for her bitches...Er....you know what I mean.

Chicken Surrealism

I was working on my Raw Viking Chicken Hat yesterday. Everything was going fine. I joined the circle and it wasn't a mobeius. It looks like it might fit me. I understood all of the instructions. I decided to put it down for a while and work on my "I love this sweater" sweater. I was joyfully knitting on it when something really scary struck me. My chicken hat and my sweater were the same "goosebump" stitch. Did this mean that my sweater was going to now be the "Chicken Sweater"? Then chickens kept coming up as a theme. A customer said "what are you making"? and I told her I was making the Raw Viking Chicken Hat. She said "I make chicken hats too, but they aren't raw". Hmmm. I came home from dinner and Mr Yarn said "Want chicken for dinner?" (well not really, he had made pot roast but I KNOW he will make chicken for dinner tonight).

If I fly the coop you will know why.

My friends are not geeeks

I think my friends don't get this "blogging" thing. I tell them "read my blog" and they are all too busy. Where did I go wrong in picking geeky friends with bad priorities? My family is worse. My kids think *I* am a big geek and blogging is passe. I haven't even told my mother because she would get so frustrated navigating to my page and would call me 10 times to help her. My sister sort of gives me that "look" (although it is over the phone I can see the "look"). Ok, enough of that. I will just have to feel like a moron like I did when I was in high school.

Then there is THIS. What do I make out of this? I have 10 skeins and I am crazy about the color but it may be too too.

Chicken Heads UNITE!

I have a confession. Somehow or other I have become addicted to reading blogs. It started off by reading knitting blogs to keep up with the knitting community, and it has grown to include ANY blog. I have been on them for hours and hours. Mr. Yarn shakes his head and says "What are you DOING?". I am a reformed webmaster for gods sake. *I* should know better. I kicked the habit once in the late 90's and here I am again going down the same path of destruction.

Well, what I have noticed in the hours of being a snoop into other peoples knitting lives is alarming. As I float from blog to blog (float sounds better than click, right?) I notice that many of the projects shown are the same garment. I know that this is known as a "Knit-along" but I find it disappointing to click and to find the same hoodie on one blog as the next. I want to see DIFFERENT. My prayers were answered. Don't ask me how I got there, because when floating the blog (my phrase equivalent to "surfing the net", like it?) you never know how you end up anywhere. I came across "Rabbitch (link in sidebar I want you to read the rest of this and not click because there is a moral to this story and I want you to follow it...yes, I AM evil). So "Rabbitch" is having a knit-along. Not just ANY knit-along, but the grandest of grand. THIS knit-along I can identify with. I think everyone can. It is my first knit-along and I am a proud Chicken Head.

A New Beginning

I am starting a new sweater at the shop. I had to do something after the previous disaster. Couldn't just sit there.



This is a "Faith" out of Rowan Magazine 18. Just a simple cardigan, but I love it. Here is a fraction of it done:



I am knitting it out of Rowan DK CashSoft in "Crush".

Forgive me... I am sick

(click for larger image)

Ok, you saw this already. I didn't post yesterday and today is boring. I am SORRY. I am sick. Been sick since yesterday. Feels like there is golf ball in my throat. Not only that but I went to make myself chicken soup and backed up the sink with carrot peels. It was fun having the Rooter guy there at 10:00 at night. No really.

Anyhow, this is Aberlady with a sleeve done. I PROMISE that I will have something more unique posted tomorrow. You should see the new sweater I am working on at the shop! Photos tomorrow.

Public Apology

This is Butterfly from the new Rowan magazine (cover). I apologize to all of those that excitedly waited for me to finish up the tiny little bit that I had before I was finished. It aint going to happen. I have never been so bored and disgusted with a project in my whole life. After faithfully working on this dress for over a month, there was a mistake halfway down the front. I tried to rip it out but it just didn't seem to work.

RIP Butterfly.

Yeah, I NEEDED this

My kit from the Bohus museum arrived. It is beautiful. I am getting the instructions translated. Actually, by the time I get to this project *I* could have learned Swedish.

Who you callin fool?

Happy April Fools Day everyone. I think I am the fool.
I went hunting for something and found more yarn.
I don't mean yarn that I thought "Oh yeah, I remember that". It was
yarn that I looked at and for a moment started to believe that my yarn
is spawning in the window seat. Good thing that Mr Yarn bought shelving
and storage bins for the basement. Thanks honey.

I better start knitting a bit faster.