How did I get so busy?

I truly don't know. Swapping yarn/books has been fast and furious these past few days. I've been at the post office numerous times. I've got lots of goodies coming my way though. By the way, I've posted more yarn, books, and patterns in Craftylilly's Bargain Bin. Check it out in my sidebar. There have been a lot of commitments for my son's preschool lately as well. I've had a few sales of stitch markers and have designed a few new ones too. I've got a few hush-hush projects in the works as well. More details when I've got them. The upshot of all this is that I haven't had as much time to knit or spin as I'd like. I think the swapping frenzy is going to die down soon as what I've got up in my Bargain bin is all I've got left to clear out of the stash. The hush-hush projects will be wrapped up soon as well. The kids... well the kids still needs lots of care and attention, but at least they still take naps! Speaking about naps, they're taking one now, so I better go getting some knitting in!

Here's the roving my son and I dyed and the beginnings of the spinning. After dyeing it, my son thought it looked like Christmas colors. I think it's more like and Italian or Mexican flavor.  

Here's Hopeful. I'm using Wool-ease in Oxford Grey. I like the stitch definition so far.  

I finally have something to watch on Sunday Nights

Thank God!!! Mr. Craftylilly and get addicted to some of HBO's own series. We love Deadwood and Carnivale. We used to watch Sex and the City pretty regularly before it ended. We also used to watch Oz when it was on. Tonight marks the beginning of a new series, Rome, and it looks right up our alley. WooHoo!!! In keeping with my practice lately of talking about our recent movie watching, I've got two movie reviews for you. First up, Ring Two... Moving right along to the second movie, last night we saw a movie from the late 70s called The Duelists. It was Ridley Scott's directorial debut. It also had Keith Carradine, looking very young, and Harvey Keitel who looks much like he does today, frighteningly enough. It wasn't bad. You could tell that Scott has talent, but of course this film is no where near as good as some of his later work. Even Alien, made a few years after, shows much improvement. In knitting news, I'm moving right along on Hopeful. I also signed up with the Kepler KAL, but am still waiting on my yarn, Cascade 220 Tweed in Eggplant. It'll be my first experience with cables so wish me luck. I'm also spinning some. I decided to give my Zebrawood Bossie a whirl with some wool roving my son and I dyed with Koolaid. It's coming out nicely I think. My yarn is still a little uneven, but I can tell I'm slowly improving. I've sold a few markers on Etsy and have put up some more. I'm also been quite active on the Swap board of the Knittyboard. I'm going to be adding new yarn to my bargain bin this week. I'll post when the new stuff is up! Off I go to get the kidlets up from napville!

Destashing Mania!

I'm really trying to destash a little bit. I've been pretty active on the knittyboards these past few days swapping some of my yarn stash for needles, notions, and books. I've decided to also start another blog where I post yarns that must find new homes. You can find my bargain bin here. I offer all of the yarn up for sale or swap of like value. If you find something you'd like, leave a comment, or if you are already a blog buddy, send me an email. I'm going to be adding to this bargain bin as I continue to sift through the stash. Right now, it's mostly TLC, Patons, and Lion stuff.

A fun little meme

I got this from Amylovie. My 23rd post, 5th sentence reads: We drool over yarn together. Too funny, and a little gross... The context was a yarn shopping trip that my mother and I were taking, and yes, we do ooo and aaaahhh over yarn together all the time! Instructions for meme: 1. Go into your archive. 2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. 5. Tag five people to do the same. I'm tagging everyone who wants to be with this one. It's fast and interested to see what you were thinking back then!

Blasted Spam!

Ok, just deleted some more spam. I decided to add a the option where if you want to leave a comment you need to type in some letters. Sorry about this everyone, but I'm trying to cut down on the spam. In happier news, I'm working on another blog to post links to the blogs I like to read, and to start posting old FOs. More details when I've got them!

"Aim careful, and look the devil in the eye"

I just have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed Sin City. The film looked great, and the kitschy dialogue was enjoyable and memorable. It is a violent movie, but violence doesn't bother me much in movies. Actually, with the sheer amount of movies I've seen, not much bothers me anymore. Well, bad dialogue, choppy editing, and horrible acting do. I've been making a lot of jewelry and stitch markers lately, only some of which has made its way to Etsy. I've got two designs that I submitted to two beading magazines. One design was rejected. I like the design, however, I don't think it fits in with the magazine. I'm more invested in my other design, but I won't hear about that one for a while. I've also been messing around with mixing wirework with different mediums. Lately I've been combining it with leather. Most of my stitch markers have been going on to the swap, but I've been messing around with Shrinky-dinks and hope to be adding them to the ones I sell as well. My blogger secret pal sent me the final package and finally revealed herself. I love everything she sent from the books, to the cute tape measure, to the yummy yarn! She is truly the best. She's got a great blog as well. Check it out here. Thanks also to all the people who sympathized with my grocery store trip. I know many of us have been there. Those moments are far outweighed by the fun times like when boy and I dyed wool roving with Kool-Aid together with matching rubber gloves. Hee!

Yet another pic of my arm with a bracelet on it. I really like this simple design though and it uses some of my new wirework skills. 

Here's the necklace design that got rejected from the magazine. Oh well, I like it. 

My blogger secret pal is the best! I love everything! 

Charlotte's debut

Well, I finished up Charlotte, and I think she looks lovely. I decided to go with a picot edge instead of the crochet edge suggested by the pattern. I hate to crochet, and didn't want to put fringe on her anyway. I like the effect. I have a lot leftover from the first two red skeins, and some left over from the blue, and green skeins. I've got plans for amulet bags with the leftovers. The lace pattern was really simple once I got used to it. I would suggest writing out the first 20 to 25 rows if you don't like to deal with charts though. I did, and it helped a lot. I also finished spinning up the pink and yellow roving. It's slubby, thick and thin, and very uneven, but I enjoyed spinning it so much! I definitely am going to continue spinning, and I'm sure my yarn will get better looking over time. In other news, I've had a few false starts with Hopeful. I'm hoping that I've picked the correct yarn this time and can get started for real today! I've also recieved the info on my Knitty Secret Pal 5. I'm so excited to get started on it. I thoroughly enjoyed my blogger sp5 experience and hope to have a good experience with this one.

Here's my first 4 oz of yarn spun up. It's totally uneven, but I'm still proud! 

A close-up of the edge. I used picot. 

Here's Charlotte looking purty... 

A short yet forceful rant...

I just got home from what might possibly be one of the worst visits to the grocery store I've had in a while. It began with the shopping cart. I had both my kidlets with me, so I was looking for one that had a belt that worked as my daughter is intent on escaping any and all carts. I went through 5 carts and all didn't work. So I finally just grab one, pop daughter in and head in the door. I quickly realize that the cart not only doesn't have a belt that works, but lists to the right. So here I am trying to hold my daughter down, shop and guide a left listing cart with one hand around the store with my son in tow. It's difficult, but I'm making it. Then around the onion bin, I son says, "Mommy, I need to pee-pee." Lovely. I rush the cart and him all the way to the other end of the store where the bathroom is. I leave my cart, get my daughter out of the seat and head into the bathroom. I think I pulled a muscle holding my daughter in one arm and hefting my son up onto the potty with the other. Of course before this I'm one-handing the toilet paper covers to make it somewhat sanitary. He pees, I'm one-arming off the potty and trying to wrestle his clothes back up. We finish collect our cart and go all the way back across the store to where we left off. For the rest of the trip, I'm battling my daughter's desire to escape and trying to keep my son from putting every box that has any character that he recognizes into the cart. By the time I reach the check-out, my hair I'm sure was flying in a million directions and I had the wild-eye look of a mad woman. I know this because two other shoppers who pulled into the line behind me moved to other lines. They moved not because I was taking too long; they moved because I looked demented. Of this I'm sure. I'm going to go eat some Tapioca now and try to relax.

It's going to be a good movie weekend!

Mr. Craftylilly and I decided to go back to Netflix as our Blockbuster membership went up 5 dollars a month. Highway robbery for only one movie out at a time, I say. We go two good movies to watch this weekend from Netflix, and another interesting and highly recommended one from the cheap bin at Target. First up, Sin City. Ooooo, been looking forward to seeing this for a long time. I've also got another foreign film, Maria, Full of Grace. Mr. Craftylilly doesn't know about that yet. He tends to grouse when they look too drama filled. He's more of an action or comedy guy. Of course he always ends up watching them with me, and if they are good (like Children of Heaven) he enjoys them. I also got Boondock Saints for $8 at Target. Since it's come highly recommended from some fellow knitbloggers, I thought we'd give it a whirl. It'll be penance for putting Maria, Full of Grace in our Netflix queue if it ends up being too boring for the hubby. As you can probably tell, not much to say on the knitting front. For some reason, I haven't cast on a new project yet. I've been feverishly trying to finish up Charlotte. I'm about 2 rows an a picot bind-off away from completion. Of course then there's the weaving in of ends and blocking. I hope to have some pics up this weekend. I've got the yarn ready to go for my friend's gift. As she doesn't knit she won't recognize the project (it's the Tivoli). I think I'm going to wait until Grumperina posts the combined pattern at the end of the month before starting it. I've got the yarn and pattern ready for Hopeful, and the yarn and pattern ready for the Glampyre's Camisole Tube. I hope to start one or both of those soon. I think the real time suck has been the spinning. I've been spinning... a lot. It's just so relaxing! I'm almost finished spinning up the 4 oz of pink/yellow I started with. Now it's slubby and a bit thick/thin, but I think I'm getting the hang of the whole thing. I'm trying to decide if I want to ply it or leave it as a single. Hey all you spinner out there, did you ply your first spinning attempt?

Just another manic Monday...

Just a quick post today as I've got a million errands to run. The worst/best one is my daughter's 1 year check up today. On the good side, I'll get to see her current weight (heavy) and height (seems tall). The bad side is the using her leg as a pincushion for shots. Ick. Well, my son will be relieved it's not him. This weekend was busy with daughter's first birthday party. I got a free cake at our local Safeway. I ordered chocolate frosting on chocolate cake. It was delicious, and allowed for the requisite, adorable cake face and hair shots of the wee girl. My son didn't really get the idea that the gifts weren't his; he's three. But we all still had a great time. I'm close to the end of Charlotte. I've decided not to do the crochet edge on her, and find another edge. I hate to crochet. I've been flipping through Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the edge. I'm thinking a picot edge, but I need it to work mathmatically. I'm open to all suggestions! Oh, and I have a film recommendation! If you enjoy foreign films, you might like Children of Heaven. It's an Iranian movie about a boy who loses his sister's show by accident. He and his sister share his shoes for school as they go to school at different times. The boy enters a foot race where the prize is a pair of sneakers. It was really sweet.

Behold! I have made yarn! 

Here's my Cold Shoulder.  

"You spin me right 'round, baby right 'round..."

I finally stopped being such a chicken used my spindle for the first time last night. I've got to say... I'm hooked. I happily spun away for and hour and didn't even notice that time had passed. I referred to the the spindling basics article in the latest Spin Off magazine, and used the beautiful Pink roving I purchased at the Carolina Homespun booth at the TKGA. I've got lots of practice ahead of me, and a billion questions, but I started! In other news, Cold Shoulder is finito! I really like how the Jo Sharp SoHo summer DK drapes, and the color is lovely. I'm not totally sold on the style on me. I did enjoy the knit, however. I'm also really glad I bought an extra ball of yarn,because I needed it. Thanks for the heads up on this, Amy. Now, I've just got Charlotte on the needles and will be starting a new project. I joined a new knitalong for the Hopeful Sweater. It's a great cause, as the money spent to purchase the pattern, ($5), plus an extra dollar donated by the designer, Jenna Adorno, will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research. A mother of a recent alumni of my son's preschool is struggling with breast cancer right now, and my great-aunt has been fighting it for a long time, so I felt called to the sweater and the cause. If you are interested in purchasing the pattern, use the Jenna Adorno Link. The KAL is the Hopeful link. I heard about this sweater and KAL from Christie. Thanks, Superstarra! I also need to start another sweater destined to be my friend's Bridal Shower gift. I'm not going to talk much about that project though, as she reads this blog occasionally.

I detest spam and a Meme

I've just spent the last 15 minutes deleting spam from this blog. Whoever thinks it's a good marketing strategy to make anonymous comments on someone's blog and actually get people to go to their site is wrong, dead wrong. Another tip for my legitimate blog reading friends. Microsoft has a new Anti-spyware software which they are Beta testing available on their website. As long as you have a legitimate copy of Microsoft Windows, you can download and use it. I also have Norton Security, and thought that I wouldn't find a bunch of spyware on my system. However, the program found 16 programs on my computer, including a trojan. (shudder) It's free, so you may want to try it out. Ok, enough unpleasantness, here's some fun things to talk about. I now have a button that I made with Adobe Photoshop. I used a tutorial that deety over at the knittyboard wrote. Very cool! I also took a quiz over at quizilla to see what kind of yarn I am. You're the 'classic' brands. You use lots of 'just
wool'. Technique may be very important to you,
as opposed to a yarn that does all the work.

What brand of yarn are you? (Knitting)
brought to you by Quizilla I also got a meme to answer. Christine tagged me with this meme. So here you go! 5 CDs in your Player: To be honest, I don't listen to much music anymore. Here's what I've got in the car. 1) A mix of 80s and 90s music I made for my Secret Pal, and then burned for myself too. 2) A mix of kiddie music given to me by another mother at my son's preschool 3) Maroon 5 4) Moulin Rouge Soundtrack - I LOVE this movie 5) Grosse Pointe Blank Soundtrack - Another great comedy 5 Movies You've watched Recently: I am a huge movie buff, so we see a lot of these, albeit on DVD these days. 1) A Very Long Engagement - This movie is excellent! 2) Constantine - Love Keanu Reeves, always have 3) Hide and Seek - Not so good 4) Alexander - Couldn't even make it through the whole thing, it was so bad. 5) Million Dollar Baby - Wonderful movie! 5 Nice Things That Happened To You Lately 1) Scored a lot of nice roving at the TKGA market. 2) Cooked and then ate a great soup called Ribolleta. MMmmmmmm. 3) Received Harry Potter the day it came out via Amazon. 4) Son is learning how to use the potty! Yah!!!! 5) Daughter is turning one this weekend! 5 MP3s on your playlist See CD comment. I have downloaded a few songs for my hubby's Ipod though. 1) New Order - Krafty 2) Stevie Wonder - Superstition 3) Black Eyed Peas - Don't Phunk with my Heart 4) Gwen Stefani - If I were a rich girl 5) Damien Rice - Blower's Daughter I've done a lot of tagging recently, so if you want to participate, consider yourself tagged!

"Conquer your fear, and you shall conquer death!"

Alexander was a horrible, horrible movie. It is a true waste of film. Hubby and I had a horrible weekend of movies. We couldn't even finish Alexander, and that's saying a lot since we have in the past finished such masterpieces as Alien vs. Predator. We also had the "pleasure" of seeing Hide and Seek. It was also pretty bad. At least we could finish it. Got a lot of knitting done during it. That's saying something. For those of you who frequent a local KMart, I discovered yesterday that they are employing a new marketing strategy. I'm in the lotion aisle when a girl approaches me. She's wearing a KMart nametag, but is dressed in regular clothes, not the characteristic apron. She proceeds to say that she is the store model, and that the jeans and shirt she is wearing is currently on sale in the juniors department just in time for back to school. She then hands me a coupon book for the weekend's specials, and a free tote bag with more samples and coupons for the coming weeks. This took me totally off guard. I had two thoughts going on at the same time. One part of my brain is trying to compute what is happening, the other is trying to decide if this is a good marketing ploy. I haven't quite made up my mind, but I did get a great new tote bag (for knitting of course) and some Reese's pieces, which I already polished off. As you might have already noticed, I've got nothing to show or say about knitting. I hope to have Cold Shoulder done sometime this week, and Charlotte says hi!

So I had an idea...

to convert the Lelah top for my soon to be year old little girl. I picked a cheapo yarn, Caron Simply Soft in Light Orchard Peach, did a quick measurement of my kid's chest and cast on. A week and a half later, we have the Baby Lelah. If I was to do this again, I would shorten the straps a bit to pull the top up a little. On the whole this was a quick knit with cheap yarn, and relatively instant quick gratification was had. I really like the pattern, and think I will be making one for myself. The lace pattern at the bottom is very easy, and the results are nice. It's hard to get a shot of my kid standing still, thus the action shots. Also, my family room is a wreck. You all see what kids will do to a room with a couple of hours and a bunch of toys. In other news, my secret pal totally rocks and sent me a little gifty. She's feeding my passion for both purple and beads. Love the lace mohair from Karabella, and the beads. I especially like the little fishy beads she sent. They are already getting the creative juices moving. I also got my first set of stitch markers from the stitch marker swap. I love them. They are a bit longer and heavier than the ones I make myself, but the colors are beautiful, and the style is lovely. It's fun to see what others do with the same concept.

Here's the front view of the Baby Lelah. Pardon my messy kid living room. 

The back of my daughter's Baby Lelah. 

My secret pal rocks!!! Karabella lace mohair in a dreamy purple, and beads!!! 

My first stitch markers I received from the stitch marker swap. Aren't they pretty? 

"When somebody shoot you in the head, it make you think."

Have you seen the movie, "I Love You to Death" with Kevin Kline, River Phoenix, William Hurt, Keanu Reeves, and Joan Plowright? I loved this comedy in high school. I still enjoy it, 15 years later. In the course of the movie Kevin Kline's character gets shot in the head and doesn't die. He complains of a headache which is a huge understatement. Well, for the past week, I've had horrible headaches. I've tried drinking soda for the caffeine, upped my water intake, nothing was cutting it. The headaches don't feel like my usual migraines, and I couldn't figure out what was causing them. The headaches would often subside in the evening, and wouldn't start until my day got started with the kids. Well, I think I've figured it out. I got a hair cut last month for a wedding. My hair used to be rather long, and now it's above my shoulders. So I've been wearing a headband. Yes, the headband is causing the headaches. When I wear it, headache, when I take it off, no headache. Weird. I compressed the Tidal Belt Pattern's PDF file, so it should be easier to upload now, for those with dial-up. I changed the link in the sidebar so it should work! I hope to have more pics up later this week, maybe a FO pic.

W is for weddings

This past Saturday the kidlets, hubby and I headed out to Daly City for my grandfather's birthday celebration. Unfortunately we had to leave early because little girl was getting a bit cranky, but I heard that one of my cousins announced his engagement and upcoming wedding a year from this coming September. I'm very happy for him and his fiancee. Hopefully his wedding will spell the end to wedding for a while. We've had two or three wedding for the past three years, and two next year. I'm a bit wedding'd out, you know? I was able to figure out how to convert my belt pattern into a PDF and have put it up online. You can find the link in my sidebar. I have a max transfer of 10mb a day which is nothing, so if you can't access it, I have posted it here. Ah the joys of trying to spend the least amount of money to host my stuff online. I decided to name the belt "Tidal" as it was suggested my Elfknitter over at the knittyboards. I like the name! If anyone decided to make one, email me with any questions and confusions, and send me a pic. I'd love to see it. I didn't complete any projects, but I did get some more stitch markers up at Etsy, and mocked-up a necklace wire for wearing stitch markers. I think the idea will work. My goal this week is to complete my daughter's modified Lelah top, and bring Cold Shoulder close to completion. I'm heading out to a Stitch and Bitch tonight, so hopefully I can get a lot accomplished!

So here's the memory wire necklace with stitch marker idea. The pic is a little funky, but I like the overall concept.