Craftylilly's Garden of Yarn and Beads

Destashing

2007-11-20T14:10:00.000-08:00

Lot #1 - Hemp Yarns

5 skeins of Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy in color 06 - $22 plus shipping GONE

2 skeins of Elizabeth Lavold Hempathy in color 07 - $9 plus shipping

Lot #3 - 2 skeins of Lionbrand Cashmere Blend in Red

Price - $8 plus shipping

Destashing!

2007-11-20T13:49:00.000-08:00

All of this yarn has never been knit, still have ball bands, were stored in plastic tubs, and come from a non-smoking home. I do have cats, however. If you are interested in any of these yarns, please email me at craftylilly AT gmail DOT com. I only accept Paypal, and will quote you the final total after I figure out the shipping costs to your home. Lot #2 - Large skein of "Wonderful Worsted" from Alujzia New Meadows yarn This is a lovely handpainted worsted weight 100% wool yarn. The colorway name is Plum Perfect and is a lovely mix of purples, magenta, and blue. This is an 8oz skein and is approx. 450 yards. Price: $20 plus shipping

Packing up and moving!

2006-08-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

Yep, the feed problems have been the straw that broke the camel's back. The blog and I are moving! Come check us out at http://craftylilly.typepad.com/yarnandbeads . I'm trying to figure out how to export all of my blogger posts to typepad. So far I've figured out how to move the most recent 50 posts. If anyone has any advice on how to move over the rest, let me know. Please. I'm begging you. Until then, this blog will archive the posts I can't figure out how to move. So please update your links and subs! See you over at my new home!

Hanging in

2006-05-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

We're hanging in here at Chez Craftylilly. Ashe, the family, and I really appreciate all the well wishes and healthy kitty vibes. Ashe came home yesterday after being hospitalized for three days. He has a kidney infection on top of his already failing kidneys, so things weren't, aren't, good. He's very happy to be home, and the other cats are happy to have him back. Basically we are hoping to manage his kidney disease to keep him comfortable through diet and hydration through something called subcutaneous hydration. Our vet told us that his next crisis will be his last, so we're just hoping to have at least another 6 months with him. His sister, Wiji, also has kidney disease, so we're managing her diet too. I'm hoping that she won't have a crisis, but will just gradually have less and less kidney function so that when her crisis happens, it'll be her only and her last. We're very sad about this, but at least we get to have some time with them, and they'll be comfortable as we now know how to best handle their disease. There's been some other things going on here too. Nothing as dire as our cat's health, but still stressful as decisions are being made as SWB's speech therapy and schooling next year, as well as schooling decisions for PQL. All in all it makes for a lot. Add in the fact that May and June are the absolute worst months for our family in terms of birthdays, anniversaries, and other family celebrations. We'll make it through though. One day at a time, right? In postive fiber news, I dyed up my dye-o-rama swap pal's yarn. I used Knitpicks color your own and Wilton's Cake dyes in brown, burgundy, and teal. I like how it turned out. The colors of the yarn are fairly true in the picture. I'll be working on my PS Yarn swap yarn next week. I've got two different green Kool-Aid flavors, and an interesting green food coloring I'm planning on playing with. I'm also working on the front neck sections of Rogue. I'm hoping to have this done by the end of the month. I'm also working on the Simply Lovely Lace Socks from IK. I have other projects I'd like to work on, but with our current family circumstances, I'm keeping it simple. I've been reading everyone's blogs, but not commenting much. I am reading though! I hope to get back to all of your who've left comments or sent me such supportive emails. Hug and kiss your pets and your families!

Any prayers would be appreciated

2006-05-04T08:04:00.000-07:00

I will be writing a proper blog entry this weekend, but for right now, I need thoughts and prayers for my furbaby, Ashe. My poor Ashe is in kidney failure. The vet thinks we can pull him out of this crisis and through management perhaps have another year or two with him. His sister, Wiji also has kidney disease, but is not in failure. Ashe and Wiji are the first pets RM and I adopted together. We got them through a rescue organization when they were 9 months old. They were practically feral, having grown up on the streets. They've turned into very loving cats although we've had our share of health problems and a lot of socialization issues. I'm just hoping to pull Ashe through this and enjoy another year or two with them both.

When King Henry VIII proposes...

2006-05-01T06:46:00.000-07:00

Look on with suspicion. It's up!

The News

2006-04-30T17:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I just couldn't think of a wittier post title. Right, the big news.... On Monday take a little trip over to The Anticraft. I have a little surprise that you'll find there! I'm very excited! Sure, it's not knitting, but it is my other passion, beading. If you have worked with beads, or want to, now you can with my little project! Let me know what you think! I have also finished Knitty's Nautie. I think she's a cutie. Her name is Julsey. I used some leftover Lamb's Pride in medieval red and medium gray. I picked out the simple white buttons for eyes. Overall, this was a pretty fast knit. I knit her in about a week. I think I misread a couple of the directions, specifically for how to do the spiral, but it works. Now, I'm on the hunt for more toy patterns as I bought a ginormous bag of polyfiberfill and need toys to stuff them with. I wish I had a copy of Jess Hutchinson's toy book. Project Specs: Pattern: Nautie by Beth Skwarecki Yarn: Lamb's Pride in medium gray and medieval red Needles: Size 4 DPNs, aluminum Susan Bates ones I think. Mods: I made some inadvertant ones, such as working the spiral slightly differently. I also picked up stitches around the shell to make the face instead of knitting them separately. I think I'll just change colors next time to make it even easier. I also only made 7 tentacles instead of 8. I couldn't figure out where to place an 8th one where it would look normal. What I learned: I like making toys. I'm already madly searching for my next toy pattern. Also, don't you think this pattern could be modified to make a snail? I'm thinking yes... Julsey says, "Yo."

Wrapping up Project Spectrum April

2006-04-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

Well, yellow and orange, it's been fun. You colors really know how to party. I know you sensed that your time here in Project Spectrum was coming to a close. How do I know this? Well, when I added a little bit of our next guest color, green, into my beading project along with you, orange, things got a little heated. You assured me everything would be fine. You and green look absolutely fabulous together in the tubular netting design. Your fiery and cheery nature really warmed up cool green. We ran into problems though, didn't we? I made two of these tubular netting components meaning to add the boro bead that you look so fabulous in. What happened then, orange? The design didn't hang together. Cutting my losses, I made you into a bracelet, and I think you and green look divine now. I guess I should take this as a lesson. Sometimes the best results are gained through an accident. Maybe you don't have it in for me. (You better not, as I'm knitting Rogue with you, Orange.) Maybe you and green just had better ideas. By the way, since my necklace idea didn't work, I have a second bracelet just like this one. If anyone is interested in it and wears, or knows someone who needs a gift who wears, a 7 inch bracelet, let me know. I'd be up for a swap. A quick knitting update is in order. I've divided Roge into a front and back. I'm allowing myself the month of May to finish her. Rogue will be ready in time for the heat of the summer! Ugh. We've finally had some gorgeous weather here. I'm thinking it's time to start thinking about summer knits. Also, Nautie is coming along quite well. Her face is a dark red, which I think looks really great with the medium gray shell. I'm heading to JoAnn's to look for buttons for her eyes today. I'm also itching to start some socks again. We'll see what will happen with that. I've got some big news too! I'll share more in a couple of days. Trust me, it's good stuff.

What up, Home Skillets!

2006-04-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

I read a short article in the latest Good Housekeeping that gave a run down of the current teen lingo. Apparently, the new word for friend, is "home skillet." Now, I'm not sure what this comes from. I do think it's kind of funny though. The other one that tickled the funny bone was "chillaxin", as in "Hey home skillet! What you doin?" "Just chillaxin' G" Heh heh. Yes, I'm easily amused. RM and I saw Walk the Line a couple of weekends ago, and I've had Johnny Cash music on the brain ever since. I grew up listening to a lot of different music. My mother loves Motown. I listened to a lot of the Temptations, The Four Tops, etc. My dad, on the other hand, really likes Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, bluegrass, you get the idea. Highly amusing to see a Chinese man who grew up in San Francisco like his old-time country. Anyway, Walk the Line brought back all of that music. I had a similar experience after seeing Oh Brother, Where Art Thou. So inspired by the Man in Black, I've written a song for you all. If you know the Johnny Cash song "Folsom Prison Blues" you can sing along. Frog Pond Blues I hear a swift a comin’; it’s spinning ‘round and round again, And I ain’t seen a knittin’ needle since I don’t know when. I’m stuck in the old frog pond and I keep unravelin’ on. See that swift keeps pulling out my stitches until I’m all gone. When I was just cast on stitches, my knitter told me, “Wool, Always be true to gauge, and don’t split cause that’s not cool.” But I sagged and broke and snarled just to see my knitter cry. When I hear that swift whirring, I just hang my head and sigh. I bet there’s DK weight merino on her needles now. She’s fondling sock yarn, and holding cotton to her cool brow, But I know I had it comin’, I know I can’t be that cute cardi, But she’s knitting up some novelty, and that’s what tortures me. Well, if I was freed from this frog pond, if those knitting needles were mine, I bet I’d knit myself into an heirloom aran in no time, Far, far from the frog pond, that’s where I’d like to stay, Before that swift rips all my stitches away. Hope you all enjoyed it! If Nautie had a face, he'd be smilin'

I was wrong... so wrong

2006-04-23T10:41:00.000-07:00

About 6 months ago, I left a comment on Christie's blog. She was planning on knitting an all over cable sweater pattern, the name escapes me at the moment. I told her that I thought she was crazy. All those cables? No way. This was before I tried cables. The whole idea was very intimidating. A short half and year later and I'm crazy about cables. I'm in love with my Twist sweater, and this Rogue hoodie... It's a divine knit, that's all I'm sayin'. I think I've also become a yarn sniffer. Honestly I never understood the appeal of smelling yarn. This Jaeger Shetland Aran has a really pleasing wooly scent though. I've been pausing frequently to bury my nose in the ball and taking a big sniff. Lovely... I also decided to participate in the handwriting meme that's been going around blogville. Write a pangram on a piece of paper, sign your first name, take a photo of it, and load it onto your blog or upload into the flickr pool. Can you believe the atrocious handwriting? Do you pity my students a little? The only thing worse than the handwriting is my drawing skills. Peals of laughter would fill my classroom when I drew out a diagram of how the ancient world saw heaven, earth, and sheol (underworld/hell of the ancient Hebrews).

Bounty of Riches

2006-04-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

My mail contained a bounty of riches yesterday. I just have to share. I received the last Felted SP package and learned who my spoilee is! It's Illanna from Knit Powers to Peace! She has been a fantastic pal sending me malabrigo and big Kureyon, but this last package, wow... She sent me the book One Skein, which I've been eyeing for a while and organized the rest of the package around the theme. Each ball of yarn is labeled with a pattern that I could make out of the book. Isn't that clever? She also included some sock yarn, and an adorable knit cupcake that she made for me using a pattern from the book. Thanks so much Illanna! You are the best! I also received an unexpected package from Kim. I designed a few blog buttons for her and she sent me a thank you gift of a summer knitting bag, yarn for a summer tank or bag, a bookmark, notepad, magnet, eye mask, chocolate, and a couple of cute toys for my children. Thanks Kim! You are too kind! I also got a chance (compelled) to make up the other beading kit that Jill sent me. Here is a Chinese Lantern charm made from swarovski crystal beads. Pretty, huh? I ended up not using the head and eye pins included in the kit, and went with my own wirework on the dangle. I am going to make a million of these things. I can feel the mania setting in. It's been so much fun to do some beadwork again, specifically a bead weaving project. I do like basic stringing projects, but there's just something about holding a beading needle and thread (or in this case fishing line) and working small beads into something beautiful. It felt comfortable and right. It felt a little like coming home. I feel the same way about knitting, actually. The feeling of knitting needles and yarn flowing through my fingers is very relaxing and comforting. So is the feeling of beading needles, and the beads. I think I need to bead more. Which brings me to a question. Most of you who read this blog love to knit. What other activities and hobbies feel like home to you? What is it about these activities that feels so right and comfortable?

Potato chip beading

2006-04-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

When you can't make just one... The beadwork was feeling the love today as I worked up one of the temari ball kits that Jill sent me. The kit uses size 11/0 seed beads and swarovski bicone crystals. Jill sent me the stuff to make these into a cell phone charm, but I'm thinking about putting it on some cording and making myself a necklace out of it. Isn't it pretty? I'm already thinking about different color schemes, and using different beads shapes to change the look. Imagine the use of swarovski pearls... What would it look like if I used Czech firepolish beads instead... What about using cat's eye fiberoptic beads... You see where I'm going with this. She also sent me this awesome beading book. There are some truly interesting designs in it that I will be trying soon. I also think I've finally decided on the off loom bead weaving stitch I'm going to use to complement that orange and green boro bead I posted about a last week. I'm thinking of doing a tubular netting. I'm also really enjoying the Rogue knit. I thought I'd show you where I am right now. The body is going fairly quickly. I'm starting to understand the logic of the cable chart, and recognizing the chart symbols more readily. The Jaeger Shetland Aran is showing off the cables quite nicely I think, and it feels fairly soft. Speaking about Rogue, I took her to go get new tires on my husband's car. Due to a connection my husband's friend had, I ended up at a wheel place that mostly sells custom rims. I think tires are really an afterthought. Anyway, the guys working there were very nice, but the showroom looked a little like a cross between American Chopper and Pimp my Ride. They had this incredible large aquarium, with skulls and other stuff like that decorating the inside. They had two couches in the showroom. One was a leopard print chaise lounge. The other, the one I sat on, was red velveteen with two pillow, both featuring playing card suits. So I head into the showroom to wait for the tires and pull out my Rogue and my ipod shuffle. I'm knitting away in there, snickering to myself. I totally messed with this place's street cred. Oh, and for those of you wondering, all is well with the house. Things are fixed, and we're all set until the next crisis. :)

One Things Leads to Another

2006-04-18T06:46:00.000-07:00

Do any of you remember the song by the FIXX, "One thing leads to another?" Well, I've decided, after dealing with home repair in two houses now, that nothing could be truer. On the whole, being in this newer house has been much less of a headache than our first house. We bought our first house six years ago. Since we didn't have a lot of money, we bought a fixer upper. This house had potential to be a nice little starter home, but it had no curb appeal, and had suffered from lots of deferred maintenance. In five years we relandscaped both the front and back yards, replaced fencing, replaced a front door, upgraded the electrical box, put in a new HVAC, among other things. Every thing we did to house would open another problem that needed to be fixed first. We learned that the basic fix cost about a thousand dollars, and the big stuff, significantly more. This leads me to the house we now live in. We love our home. We love our neighborhood. In the scheme of things that we had to do to our old house, this one has been a dream. But, since Christmas, we've had to do a lot of work on it. On Christmas the sink disposal blew. We also learned that our furnace needed service and the ductwork needed to be sealed. Last month, the water heater had to be replaced. Now a valve needs to be replaced under one of the sinks. How does one thing lead to another in this latest episode? Well, in the process of fixing the valve and a running toilet, I noticed that a small lead started where the toilet meets the floor in one of the bathrooms. Yep, I'm going to need to get that fixed too. The joys of home ownership. Now, what does any of this have to do with knitting or beading? Well, I was going to bead last night, especially since Jill, who is a bead temptress as well as a fiber one, sent me a wonderful package full of kits to make temari balls. The house stuff has so messed with my mind, that I just couldn't concentrate on the beadwork, and I ended up knitting for a couple of hours last night on Rogue. I love this pattern! Of course I don't have any WIP pics because I just couldn't get it together, but trust me, the Jaeger Shetland Aran is nice to work with, and the burnt orange color shows the cables well. You'll just have to take my word on it. Since I couldn't leave a totally pictureless post, here's a pic of the yarn I dyed for the Project Spectrum Yarn Swap. I used Wilton's Cake dyes and think it turned out pretty well. My swap pal, Tara seemed to like it.

Peeps, an Easter tradition

2006-04-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

I hope that those of you who celebrate Easter had a peaceful one. We had a lot of fun today, despite the rain. We had a fun egg hunt, a yummy breakfast prepared by RM, and a pleasant Easter dinner with my parents. A good time was had by all. Now, the big question: did I finish my Peeps socks by Easter? Why, yes! Yes I did! Check them out! I love them. While I don't care if my handpaint socks match, I do like my self patterning socks to match. I think I did a decent job with these. I half made up my own pattern by using a simple seed stitch rib stitch from the booklet, Ribbing Plain and Fancy. I'm now realizing, that essentially I knit Thuja on fingering weight yarn. I love these socks! They are so cheery, spring-like and just scream Easter! Don't they look like the Peeps I bought? Project Stats: Pattern: My own using the simple seed stitch rib pattern from Ribbing Plain and Fancy Yarn: Knitpicks Simple Stripes in Sweet Tart Needles: I meant to use magic loop for these, but it didn't happen. I used my old standby of size 1 brittany DPNs. Magic Loop will be learned next pair I think. What I learned: It really isn't my imagination! I do knit the second sock faster than the first. It took me 2 1/2 weeks to do the first one, and 6 days to knit the second one. I've cast on for my Orange Rogue. The twisted knit stitches for the hem facing is going so slowly. I want to get to the cables!!!

As long as there is a smoldering charcoal briquet...

2006-04-14T17:54:00.000-07:00

on the BBQ of justice... Occasionally kid shows really crack me up. We saw a Fairly Oddparents today that was a play on the old Adam West Batman series. Some of the dialogue was priceless. I do feel a little like a super knitter with my new cape, erm, I mean, Clapotis! Here she is in all her glory! There's not a lot new to say about the knit other than I love it. The knitting of it was a bit boring, but the finished result is quite pretty. I felt similarly about the Ruffles scarf, actually. The one new thing about my Clapper, is that I used the yarn that I hand-dyed using Grape and Strawberry Kool-Aid. I'm wondering of the blue Kool-Aid and Grape would be just as nice... Project Stats: Pattern: Clapotis by Kate Gilbert Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Natural, 3 skeins, dyed with Grape and Strawberry Kool-Aid Needles: Size 8 straight Bryspuns. I love these needles. The tips make it so easy to purl and knit into the back loop nonesense. Modifications: I only knit 10 repeats in the straight section instead of 13 as I was running out of yarn. The finished product is plenty big. What I learned: 100% wool can be very sticky. It took a lot of prodding to get the stitches to run. Here's a close-up of the colors and stitch pattern. You can see the difference in color intensity. It doesn't really bother me, as I dyed the yarn myself. For some reason, I'm so happy with the dye job, that the color intensity doesn't bother me as much as it would have if I had bought the yarn already dyed. In other news, I received my yarn from the Project Spectrum Yarn Swap from Tara! Isn't it gorgeous! It reminds me of the beautiful coat of my tabby cat. Tara is very talented and is starting her own store. Check her out! I sent her yarn in the swap this month, and we couldn't have ended up with more different takes on orange and yellow. Mine resembled more of a tequila sunrise, and hers is very tiger-like. Too cool. I also received my postcard from the Project Spectrum Postcard swap. I love this swap as I've met such creative people. Last month was Teresa, and this month I've gotten to know Claudia. Claudia lives in Germany and sent me a great card/kit to make orange and yellow bunnies for my kids' Easter! Check 'em out! I had to make them right away. She seems equally pleased with what I sent her, origami kites. She's very into Japanese crafts. I'm really looking forward to continuing to read and email these two ladies and meet someone new next month! For those who celebrate, have a peaceful Easter.

Raindrops keep falling on my head

2006-04-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

But that doesn't mean my eyes will soon be turning red... Sorry for the music moment. The rain continued through the night, and I'm so ready for it to be over. According to yahoo weather, it'll clear up next week. Thank Goodness! SWB has been thirsting for sunny weather so that he can play outside. I've been hoping for sun for the same reason. Cooped up children and rainy weather is not fun. Thanks to all who empathized with us! We are feeling better. Yesterday started out with more of the same. We ended up at Kaiser with PQL for something known as nursemaid's elbow. She's fine now, and we now know how to keep it from happening again, but it was scary. The rest of the day was fun though. I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures of the finished Clapotis yet. The weather has not cooperated for taking nice pictures. This weekend I will try to get a good picture of them and hopefully my Peeps socks. Here's my Wikipedia meme answers to entertain you though. The mission was to do a Wikipedia search of my birthdate without the year and list three events, three births, and three deaths. Here goes. Events: 1920: The US postal service rules that children may not be sent parcel post. 1935: In one of the biggest upsets in boxing history, James Braddock defeats Max Bauer to win the world heavyweight championship (Cinderella Man) 2004: A 4 kg meterorite hits the house of the Archer's in Ellerslie, New Zealand destroying the roof and a couch. Births: 1865: William Butler Yeats 1928: John Forbes Nash (A Beautiful Mind) 1974: Steve-O from MTV's Jackass Deaths: 1965: Martin Buber 1986: Benny Goodman 1987: Geraldine Page Ok, here are a couple of thoughts. I found it strange that I had two people in my Wiki search that have been portrayed by Russell Crowe in a movie. Also, how embarassing to share a birthdate with Steve-O, a man who will snort wasabi for America's amusement.

Ever have one of those days...

2006-04-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Today was exhausting, and I can't even go to sleep. Usually, if one member of the family is having one of those days, the rest of us are doing ok. Today, we all were having one of those days. It wasn't pretty. The day started innocently enough. My son had a good morning at his speech preschool, PQL and I had a good time running some errands. But as the rain settled in once again (I'm so sick of the rain, people), so did all the good feelings. First, PQL got tuckered out from all the running around we did while SWB was at school. I think she's teething too, one of the canines. She cried all the way home. Now, those of you who have kids, or have been around little ones know that being in a car with an inconsoleable toddler is not fun. SWB kept trying to make her feel better, but everything he tried caused her to cry louder. To make matters worse, I managed to get behind every slow driver on the planet. A truck with a trailer even blocked a whole lane right in front of me. So we get home, have lunch, and I put PQL in bed for a nap. SWB decides he wants to rest too. This is good. I'm getting things done, my Clapotis for example. I look outside again, and realize it's raining pretty steadily now. SWB has his first ever swim lesson in the afternoon. Hmmm.... Everyone gets up. PQL is in a much better mood. We snack, change and head out to the swim lesson. It rains the entire way there. We get out to the pool, and SWB doesn't want to get in. This is an outdoor pool, well heated, but outdoors. I'm in jeans and a coat, at the edge of the pool, coaxing a now screaming SWB to just put his feet in the water. By the end of the class, he didn't venture any farther in the water, but he stopped crying. I, on the other hand, was wet and had a rapidly expanding headache. After the busy day, I had a meeting for SWB's regular preschool. I'm on the board. It was 3 hours long and now I can't sleep. Late meetings always amp me up. Tomorrow's bound to be a better day, right? At least I have a completed Clapper to where for Easter...

As 40 days for others comes to a close...

2006-04-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

I can show you what I've been working on. I pledged to complete 4 afghan squares for the Knit the Classics afghan which is to donated to Warm the World. I used some leftover Wool-Ease in a pretty red brown. Our squares needed to be bordered with white yarn so our squares would have a common theme. I used some Red Heart to crochet an edge on each square. After completing the crochet edge, I went to Amazon and took the new Stoller crochet book off the wishlist. Crochet is not for me. I'm so slow at it. It took me so long to so a simple border it was pitiful. Now it's on to finishing up my Peeps socks for Easter and assembling the kidlets Easter bags. I bought some cute denim totes, and will be ironing on a patch onto each before filling the bags with Easter goodies. I've also bought way more Easter egg dye than I actually need. I plan on doing some yarn dyeing with the extras. As for my Project Spectrum project... Well, I'm planning on starting Rogue once the berry fountain soda Clapotis is done, but I also dug out a lovely borosilicate art bead, and will be creating a necklace with it as a centerpiece too. I've been itching to do some beadwork, and this bead is just the inspiration I need! I also just updated the bargain bin! Books and yarn... The link should work now!

So let's talk about yellow and orange...

2006-04-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

As it's been noted on many blogs, yellow and orange tend to be underutilized. I must confess, that yellow and orange aren't my first choice for my beadwork or my knitting. I do like the combinations of pink and orange (made a pretty necklace using those colors) and yellow looks very nice when accenting lavendar (my wedding colors). Overall though, it took my husband buying me burnt orange yarn to actually get the color into my knitting. As for yellow... well yellow has only been featured in variegated yarns of the stash. Now let's pause for a moment to reflect on the cultural implications of these colors. Let's start with yellow. Yellow is a nice bright color. It's the color of the sun. It's a color in flames. It's a color featured in many flowers, the daffodil for instance. However, it's also featured in the phrase, "What's a matter with you? Are you yellow?" The implication that yellow is a cowardly color. As an Asian, yellow has also been the word used to describe our skin color. Technically, this characterization is not true, as my skin is more olive than yellow. Yellow skin would mean jaundice. But I digress. Yellow is a complex color, no doubt about it. Let's now look at orange. Orange is the color of, well, oranges. Yummy! You can also find orange in flames, tabby cats, the California Poppy, Orange Chicken, I could go on. Orange is also the color that many fake 'n bakes will turn a person, plus nothing rhymes with orange. Truly annoying for the poet. Overall, I think of orange and yellow as being bright, in your face, cheerful colors. Orange and yellow aren't for the brooding, the quiet, or the shy. They scream, I'm here and I'm happy. It's one of the reasons I always seem to pick out orange shirts for my daughter. Orange just seems fitting for the child that runs into her big brother's preschool yelling, "HI!" One of the reasons why I'm challenged and yet having fun with the Project Spectrum's colors this month, is that by appreciating the yellow and orange in nature and in our lives, I'm finding that my mood has improved some. I just can't be all that sad or depressed when working with yellow or orange. I like it. I also think that I'll be thanking my lucky stars when we get to May and turn to green. The peppiness of this month is exhausting... So from my home to yours, Spongebob and Nemo say, "Go Giants! and eat lots of Reese's pieces!" P.S. Check out my completed Peeps sock! I love it! I've got to hurry up and finish it's mate so I can wear them on Easter.

Stuff in my cabinet

2006-04-05T07:03:00.000-07:00

Kate has come up with a funny contest asking people to take a picture of the cupboard over the refrigerator and show off all the useless junk we store up there. So here is mine. It's mostly filled with travel mugs. Some of these things date back to college days. See that Caffe Strada mug and the Impressionist mug next to it? Those mugs have seen some good times... good times.... Oh, yeah, and you can see some of the Raiders drink cups that RM has collected at games for the past couple of years, a pitcher I forgot I had, a thermos, a training sippy cup that neither kid ever took to. And what's that I see? Is that a Nintendo 64 box? Why yes, yes it is! It doesn't have an old broken down game system in it though. It's filled with a set of plates that my mother in law collected for us. RM's had those plates for a long time. Honestly, I keep forgetting we have them. Sorry, mom! Well, that was enlightening. I really need to get in there and get rid of some of that. How many travel mugs do we need? I finally decided to close up the Etsy store. I may post things there in the future, but I just haven't had the time to update it. So, I've decided to offer up the last 4 items that I have already made on the blog. Reply to this post or email me at tabbytuxedo AT yahoo DOT com if you are interested in any of them. Free shipping for all to the U.S. What's available: Top left - set of 5 stitch markers using word beads and glass accents. The color scheme is deep blue. The wire is non-tarnish silvertone and will fit up to a size 9 needle. $11 Top right - set of 5 stitch markers featuring Swarovski crystals in green and yellow. Wire is non tarnish silvertone and will fit up to a size 9 needle. $11. Bottom: set of 5 stitch markers using Czech glass peach swirls and seed bead accents. Wire is nontarnish silvertone and will fit up to a size 9 needle. $8 Bottom picture: Classic black bracelet featuring Czech glass opaque black rondelles, Czech glass faceted opaque black beads, and seed bead accents. Toggle clasp. Length is 8.25 inches. $15 That's all I have left from the store! I am planning out a couple of jewelry projects for this month's project spectrum, so I may be back at etsy soon.

Who decides what gets to be on TV?

2006-04-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

I really think they need some help. Firstly, enough already with the reality TV shows. I'm over it already. I don't necessarily have a problem with reality TV shows in theory, but there's a limit. Then you add the notion that much of what's on TV really isn't any good. (At least in my opinion.) Finally, someo really good shows get cancelled way before their time. Case in point, RM and I just finished watching Firefly on DVD. Now, that was an excellent TV show. The dialogue was good, the idea interesting, good acting, compelling story. Why cancel it after only one season? Some more evidence, Freaks and Geeks. I loved that show and again it was cancelled after just one season. La Femme Nikita (pre-Alias, Alias totally copied it) went several seasons, but then it gets cancelled unexpectedly, and the show ends with a completely ridiculous and unsatisfying ending. HBO's Carnivale suffers the same fate. I'm annoyed, deeply annoyed. Of course, RM and I really don't watch much network TV anymore. Most evenings find us on the couch watching something on DVD. You did all notice the DVD stash, right? I wanted to thank Kelly for sending me a lovely Karma Swap package. She sent me two balls of Knitpicks Palette in a lovely purple. I've never used or seen Palette before, so I'm very excited. She also sent along a couple of balls of Bernat Handicrafter Cotton destined to become some washcloths, and some cute stitch markers. Thanks Kelly! Felted SP is also coming to an end. I'm excited to discover who's been spoiling me with Noro and Malabrigo. Progress continues apace on the Berry soda Clapper, and my Peeps socks. I hope to have some progress pics soon. Until then, enjoy these pics of yellow flowers that came in an arrangement that my best friend sent me in remembrance of my grandmother. I really am developing a new appreciation of yellow and orange.

Stash flashing will not be occuring today

2006-04-01T12:46:00.000-08:00

The main reason for this is RM actually reads this blog. Now, he knows that I have a rather large stash. No where near the dimensions of a few of you, but sizeable nevertheless. Last year, someone talked me into flashing the stash. That's how I learned that RM read the blog. He sent me an email about his shock and horror of what's pent up in the plastic bins taking up our closet space. So anyway, he knows I have a lot. He doesn't need to see it out in all of its glory though. In place of a yarn stash flash, I will share another sizeable family collection. This represents most of our DVD collection. Some friends have called us their personal blockbuster. Now, having kids has curtailed the DVD buying. We still do rent through Netflix. It's the only entertainment these days. I'm sure some of you can relate. Here's another member of the family's stash. SWB actually is the proud owner of 2 sizeable stashes of his own. There's this one; his toy cars. Then he has a sizeable collection of Star Wars figurines and action figures. Yep, we're a family of collectors here. Back to the fiber for a minute, I've reset my ticker to begin today. I'm armed and ready for the Stashalong and Yarn Focus Challenge. Fully expect to read much weeping and gnashing of teeth through the next three months. Oh, and a final note, sign-ups for the knitting vacation swap end tomorrow evening at 8PM PST. Take into account Daylight Savings time, and you have 30 more hours to sign up. We'd love to have you!

Whipping out the WIPs

2006-03-31T08:14:00.000-08:00

I'm taking the bull by the horns. I'm showing my yarn and knitting who's boss. I'm in control, not the stash. I'm a knitter, hear me roar. I'm not going to let the fiber win. I'm going to stick it to the man. *Hey, aren't I sounding a little like RM here? I guess I've got my own brand of crazy.* I'm serious. I've got a lot of yarn pointed at my head (literally, as I've been beaned by my own stash in my closet while trying to rummage around), and I'm asking myself if I feel lucky. Actually I do feel lucky! Like I mentioned in my last post, I joined up with the Stashalong, and am taking the Yarn Focus challenge which coincidentally is the reason I now have a ticker in my header. I also took up Elspeth's challenge to show all my WIPs today. Now, I don't have a lot, just four. I'm actively working on 3 of them. I'll show those first. First up, we have the infamous Clapotis that I'm knitting with the yarn I dyed last week. I'm loving this project. I have noticed one problem though. Even though I dyed all my yarn together, the skeins aren't quite the same intensity. this is noticeable as I've joined the second ball of yarn. I've decided to consider this a design element, and quirk as hey, I hand-dyed the yarn. In that same picture I have my socks. I meant to try to learn how to do magic loop, but I cast these socks on the day after my grandmother died. Emotional time + new technique = cursing and gnashing of teeth. I went back to the DPN's and threw in a simple ribbing from the pamphlet ribbing plain and fancy. I'm dubbing them my Easter Peep socks. Ok, next picture features my third active WIP. This is my fourth square for the KTC Warm the World afghan. These squares also count for my 40 days for others project. This particular square uses a basketweave pattern. I'm using Wool-ease. The other red and gray feather and fan thing... yeah, well that's a blanket I started 2 years ago, when I was first learning to knit. It's still on the needles. I got super bored with it, and shoved it in a corner. Plus the sheer amount of knitting I would have to do to finish it scared me as a beginning knitter. I have since traded away, given away, or used all of the Wool-ease that I bought to make it. All that's left of the materials for the project you see here. Why don't I just rip it out? Well, that would be a lot of effort. I'm thinking of just casting off and giving it to the cats.

Random Wednesday... on a Thursday!

2006-03-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

Try as I might, my posts have been feeling a bit scattered of late. It's a hallmark of an overtaxed mind, I think. So what randomness do I have for you today?

Elspeth has challenged us all to show all of our WIP's tomorrow on our blogs. I actually don't have that many, as UFO's give me hives, but you'll actually see some knitting pics on the blog.
Signups for the Knitting Vacation Swap end on Sunday night, so email me at craftylilly AT yahoo DOT com to sign up if you're interested! It's a one-time swap with packages to be mailed by June 1st. $15 minimum to spend. It's a great way to hear about all the fun vacations people will be enjoying this summer and sending along a little knitted gift and other goodies to accompany a friend on the way!
I joined the Stashalong for 2 months, starting April, and I have to plans on what part of my stash I'm going to work on. Maybe I'll commit to working through at least 10 balls of yarn by the end of the Stashalong. That, and not buy anymore yarn for 2 months. What did I just sign up for?
On my way home After dropping my son off at school today I found myself at a stop sign behind a large white van. The van was one of the ones with no windows on the side of the van. The vanity plate on the back of the van said "Pimp Daddy." And it had a bumper sticker that said "My other ride is your mother." I was embarassed for the 3 20 something men in the van. I was also embarassed for their mothers. I better not find that kind of car swag on my son's car when he grows up. There will be hell to pay... hell to pay.
Here is a link to a fun little video that my kids love and I think is hilarious. This is especially for Chris.
Here is another Link for anyone with intimate knowledge of Ebay. You know who you are. Did I mention I joined the Stashalong?

The blog meme

2006-03-28T06:48:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting around to the blog meme that JenLa tagged the world with. I'm enjoying reading others answers and have found some new blogs so I hope to add to the body of blog knowledge. I'm sure you know the rules but here they are again. Rules: Your finds must come from knit blogs. -You may not use a blog for more than one item -all items must come from different sources. -Finds can come from current entries or archives. -You must post your answers with the title of the blogs they were found on and a link to the blog/item (permalinks where appropriate) on your blog. If no permalink is available, give us the post date. -Do not steal anyone’s bandwidth-which means you should not hotlink pictures. -You need to comment and let us know when you have completed this meme. 1. A blog which you think people have not discovered. Ok, I found Zarah's Blog Beauty School Dropout just recently as she is organizing the hand dyed yarn swap. I love the name of her blog; she's super nice, and she takes some fantastic photographs, especially of flowers. 2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative. Carrie K of My Middle Name is Patience lives 5 minutes from me. 3. An unusual or weird animal picture. Why do you allow such indignities, Carmen? Check this out at Knit together, wonderfully made. 4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers. I almost snarfed my soda while reading Knit and Plenty's Knitting Oscar nominees. 5. An idea you wish you’d thought of. Alison of the Blue Blog's Sockapalooza 6. Something you’d like to knit. Take a look at Winnie of Knitting Escapism's Forecast! Gorgeous. Zarah, if you're reading this, take a look at this sweater. It'll make you want to knit it even more... 7. A picture of something you consider beautiful. Jane of Yarnstorm takes gorgeous pictures and is so creative. Take a look at her connection between food and knitting. 8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person. Hmmm, to tell the truth, I'd like to meet loads of people that I read and have *met* online. I'd probably like to meet Chris at Bits of Knits. I can relate to a lot of her blog posts. 9. A blog of someone you have already met in person. I haven't met many bloggers in person. Other than Carrie K I have, however, met Sharlene of Mommio knits, and Lu of Maglia. Whew! That's a lot of linking. Oh, and by the way, I've added more to the bargain bin. Lots more yarn there, and some cross-stitch kits. I know most of you are knitters, but you may know a stitcher. Let them know!

I have lost my fragile grip on reality

2006-03-26T06:23:00.000-08:00

Remember when I said that after I finished my sockpal's socks that I would have nothing on the needles? I did get a couple comments and emails expressing shock and wonderment of what I was going to do about that problem. Well, the answer is, add to the problem and make plans for five projects all at once. Now, I'm a 2 maybe 3 project at one time knitter. Give me more, and I start getting twitchy. I begin to try to find ways to knit every spare moment because, well, all the projects need to feel a little love. When I don't get to a project, I feel a little uncomfortable like it's hanging over my head. I knew I was in trouble when I retrieved the three skeins of natural wool of the andes and started picking out Kool-Aid to dye it with. You see, my sockpal's socks were done, I was marking time between projects until something grabbed me but I needed to work with fiber. I decided to dye in my stew pot instead of the microwave as I had so much yarn to dye and I wanted it all to look like the same dye lot. Five packets of Strawberry and 5 packets of Grape later and I got this gorgeous yarn in shades of deep purple, lavender, magenta, red, and pink. I love it. It's the most successful Kool-Aid dyeing I've done to date. It's the reason I signed up for the Project Spectrum hand dyed sock yarn swap. Hey, I told you I lost my grip on reality! Anyway, back to my lovely dyed yarn. It needed a project. I know that I want to cast on another pair of socks (which I did immediately, I've been meaning to learn magic loop. Yes, I know the socks you see in the picture above don't have circs in them. They're DPNs. I've learned that one shouldn't learn a new skill when having a bad week). I want to make an lovely burnt orange Rogue for the April Project Spectrum. I have my yarn and needles all ready for the Mountain Stream Scarf. I have completed two of my four squares for the KTC Warm the World blanket and was halfway through the third. However, my Berry Fountain Soda yarn(as I've now started to call it) was crying out to be knit. I started a Clapotis. I've lost it people. I really have.

Wild Sock Kingdom

2006-03-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

My sockpal's socks are fini! I really like the look of them. Working with Fixation takes some getting used to, but I like the end result. I can imagine making more socks out of Fixation in the future. The only pause I have with the socks, is that one sock is much more stripey than the other one. The balls came from the same dyelot, but the finished product does look a lot different. I suppose this kind of difference is par for the course for variegated yarns. Right? Anyway, I hope my sockpal likes them. Project Stats: Pattern: Lacy Socks off the Cascade Website Yarn: Cascade Fixation in the Harlequin colorway Needles: size 4 aluminum DPNs Time to complete: I never know what to say here. Two or three weeks? Maybe more like two because these socks went super quick. What I learned: When working with a yarn with a lot of spandex, you can't pull to hard on it because the tension gets really screwed up. Also, do your best not to drop a stitch. A dropped stitch is really hard to catch. Again, spandex... Cascade Fixation is a great sub for someone who is allergic to wool socks, but the texture doesn't lend itself to some patterns. Work with needles that are smaller than you think. If you've never worked with Fixation, keep in mind you may have to knit the same first inch about 4 times before you get into the Fixation groove. I also received a package from KTC's Mystery Swap. Melanie aka Teabird sent me a fabulous package with two mysteries, a fun Nancy Drew Journal, and a fun pink small tote with a couple skeins of pink fun fur, pink Lionbrand Suede, and Hello Kitty Gear. I am so excited about the mysteries she sent me. One is actually about a beader that solves a crime, and the other is about a needleworker/detective. I love it! Thanks Melanie! And my last news of the day, I've added even more to my Bargain Bin There's some good stuff there! P.S. Some of you commented on my piano in the background of my Angelica pic. That's my piano from when I was a little girl. It's a beautiful Yamaha that my children will use when they take piano. Music is so important to be exposed to, I think.

Lots of little things

2006-03-21T10:03:00.000-08:00

I don't really have one cohesive theme for this post. I have just a lot of little things for you all. I received a lovely package from my Felted SP on St. Patrick's Day. It came the same day as I got the sad news of my grandmother's passing, so it was doubly apreciated. She sent me three skeins of Big Kureyon in a lovely red and purple colorway, and a little set of adorable stitch markers made by Good to Be Girl. Thank you SP! In other swap news, we have 12, perhaps 13 members for the Knitting Vacation Swap. Sign-ups go to April 2, so there's plenty of time to sign up if you want to! I'd love for the group to reach 20 participants. We have a good group going and I've been spending some time gathering links for ideas of what to make for our pals. Again, if you're interested email me at craftylilly AT hotmail DOT com. I'm almost finished with my sockpal's socks and I will officially have nothing on the needles. Nothing. I'm feeling a bit adrift. I have lots of options. (Don't we all.) I want to knit Rogue with the lovely pumkin spice orange Jaeger shetland aran yarn that RM got me for Christmas. I was thinking that would be my April Project Spectrum project. I joined the Mountain Lace KAL, and want to knit the Mountain Stream scarf. I've decided on some lovely dark purple Karabella Lace Mohair gifted to me by my SP5 pal, Lu. I'm also itching to learn how to knit socks using the magic loop method. I'm thinking of just using some self-striping Knitpicks sock yarn and the simple basic sock pattern and giving it a go. Of course, the Sexy Knitter's Club has decided on two sweater to knit for April and May, the Somewhat Cowl, and Orangina. I've got yarn for both of those sweaters in the stash, but am thinking maybe I should stick with the Rogue. I have a feeling that I won't be able to continue knitting wool pretty soon. I'm also trying to decide what I'm going to do with my small stitch marker biz. I'm contemplating wrapping it up soon. I've been knitting way to much to make many new markers. When I do get a chance to bead, I'm more interested in doing some off-loom beadweaving and stringing projects. When I finally make my decision, I may be offering up some stitch markers at a discount. I'll let you know. Oh, and I've got some yarn going up in my Bargain Bin late today. There'll be some GGH Esprit, some Cascade 220, and some better quality acrylic going up. I'll edit this post when I finally get the pictures taken and the post up. Thanks for all the kind comments about Angelica! She was a fun knit! Oh, and pardon Ashe in the SP gift pic. He can't seem to stay away from new yarn. EDITED to add: I've got the yarn up on my bargain bin blog. Take a look!

Angelica in Autumn

2006-03-19T15:38:00.000-08:00

But isn't it almost spring? Yes, it is dear friends. I'm talking about my Angelica tunic that I completed last week. I didn't get a chance to take her picture until this weekend. We finally had a break in the rain and general unpleasantness. I like her quite a lot and will be wearing her a lot this spring. I think she will be perfect for next fall too, the Indian summer time for sure. So without further ado, here are the specs. Pattern: Angelica Renaissance Tunic by Stephanie Japel Yarn: Cotton/rayon/silk blend handpainted by Over the Rainbow Yarns in the Autumn colorway Needles: I used size 11 circ for most of it, and a size 8 circ for the keyhole Time to complete: Once I got started, this sweater took about 2 and a half weeks, give or take. I don't keep real complete records on when I start a knit. What I learned: Most of the skills needed for this sweater, I'm already familiar with. I have to say, that I did learn a bit about how to attach a crochet loop for the button. I crocheted a rather long chain, and ended up tacking it in several places behind the sweater. This makes for a more stable buttonhole, and makes the finished product look more tidy. I also found that even though my yarn as advertised fit the intended gauge of the sweater, I achieved a much more drapey fabric than many of the other knitters who've made this and used wool, or even the Hipknits silk suggested. I can only surmise that this has to do with the fiber content, and the needle size I had to go to to achieve gauge. I rather like the extra drape. I also found that Over the Rainbow Yarns makes a fine dyed yarn. This colorway is gorgeous and knit up really nicely with minimal pooling. I want to thank everyone who left such supportive comments about the loss of my grandmother. It has been a difficult time, and I really appreciate the concern, thougts, and prayers.

Irish Eyes

2006-03-17T19:23:00.000-08:00

When I was about 8 or 9 my grandmother taught me how to crochet. We didn't get beyond single or double crochet, but she did teach me how to make a chain and a little purse. When I was in high school, she told me to go through her yarn stash, and pick out several colors because she wanted to crochet me a blanket. I picked the craziest colors ever, mostly because I thought each one was pretty. I didn't think of the overall picture. However, my grandmother didn't say a word, and crocheted me a beautiful blanket that I still have. In many ways she introduced me to fiber before my mother did years later. She was also the person who introduced me to stamp collecting. The stamps didn't stick with me, but collecting sure did. She also once stood in a line for several hours just to get me a Cabbage Patch doll when they were all the rage and every store was selling out of them. She always had Fudgesicles in her freezer. Her garden had the most delicious fig tree and strawberries that I ate right off the vine. My dog Rosie loved her, and the two of us had a good time with her and my stepgrandfather when we stayed with her. I remember her at my wedding wearing a pink dress and being very happy. Even though she and I had a very difficult relationship in my adulthood, I still loved her very much and secretly thought that maybe we could somehow resolve some of the issues before her passing. That unfortunately was not to be. My grandmother passed away this St. Patrick's day. I'm Catholic, and half Irish of which she had lots to do with. I like to think that St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland helped to welcome her home. I like to think that she knows that no matter how difficult our relationship has been that I love her and see a bit of her in my own daughter. I meant to do a fun post for St. Patrick's day, but perhaps this Irish blessing is more fitting today. May St. Patrick guard you wherever you go, and guide you in whatever you do-- and may his loving protection be a blessing to you always.

Mrs. Strangecraft: or how you know kid gates should probably come down

2006-03-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

My house currently uses a very complicated gate system. SWB at almost 4 doesn't need the gates, but PQL at 19 months, is still in need of some fencing. We are getting hints of the end of our gate life, however. For the past couple of weeks, my children have been getting up early. SWB loves to get up and go into the next room to visit with his little sister. Usually this works well and buys me a little extra time in the morning. That is it used to until a couple of mornings ago, they broke down the gate that shuts PQL in her room. You see our house is two stories. I uses a gate in her room to discourage wandering, especially since the bedrooms are upstairs. Now, you'd think that I'd learn and bring the gate down and figure out another solution. I didn't though and still gated her in at night. This practice has resulted in scuffed walls, and gates being taken down by small children every morning this week. I think the kids are trying to tell me something. This realization came home to me this morning as heard the sound of running water upstairs and knew immediately that they had taken down the gate once again. I go upstairs to find this. Two kids brushing their teeth in a bathroom that the younger of the two should have been gated from. Good thing the bathroom is childproofed within an inch of it's usefulness. I also wanted to show you all the lovely postcard I received from Teresa from the Postcard swap! I love it! Thanks Teresa! I sent her a monster movie themed postcard. She posted it on her blog; scroll down her top post to see it. I'm glad she liked it. You never know what kind of reaction you're going to get when you send someone a postcard featuring Godzilla, you know?

The hop in my Knitalong...

2006-03-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

When I was about 9 years old, I got a dog. She was a beautiful, and very spunky long hair black and white chihuahua named Rosie. When she was a young dog, she developed a luxating patella, or dislocating knee cap. It was in one of her hind legs, so when she ran around and the knee cap slipped out of joint she had this strange limp, or "hop in her getalong" as my grandmother called it. We got her the surgery to correct it, and she went on to run, play, and be the sweet dog she was for many more years. She remains the sweetest Chihuahua I've ever met. Chihuahuas I've met since haven't been as nice. When I was thinking about what I was going to name this post, the memory of Rosie and her "hop" gave me inspiration! Now onto what you're really here for, the knitting! I've gotten quite a bit farther on my sockpal's socks. I think they look great. I've checked the fit, and they work too. The size #4's did the trick. I think though, that the magic loop method or two circs would have been better than working with DPNs with Fixation. I've had to switch my joins several times to avoid laddering. I never have this problem usually with DPN's. I'm blaming it on the stretch. I should have a finished sock soon. As the second sock usually goes so much quicker than the first, I should have a completed pair in a week or so, just in time for the Sock a Month KAL! Also this colorway really reminds me of a zebra's stripes. I think I could count these socks as my Life of Pi project as well for KTC! Double Dipping, you have to like that! Angelica is speeding right along. I'd be done with her, if I didn't have the sockpal socks, and a big project for SWB's preschool that I'm madly working on. I'm halfway down the second sleeve, and picked out a fab button to finish her off. Angelica will mark the end of the Angelica KAL for me, and is my Project Spectrum project. Woohoo! Double dipping again! Expect FO pics soon! I've also cast on for the first of a few squares I'm knitting for the KTC Warm the World blanket. This is also for the 40 Days for Others that I'm doing. I'm planning on getting at least 4 squares done, one for each member of the family. Since I'm on the verge of completing a couple KAL's I ... ahem... joined another one (The Mountain Lace KAL), and of course started the knitting vacation swap. I'm done making excuses for myself. I like KAL's and swaps. I think I'm as addicted to them as I am yarn. Which by the way, if you're interested we'd love to have you join the knitting vacation swap! Scroll down for the post that discusses the guidelines, and shoot me an email if you want to join up.

Vacation swap details

2006-03-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it sounds like several of you are interested in this small swap. I've worked up the details and created a Yahoo group to help me moderate it. Here we go: The theme of this knitting swap is Vacation. What is meant by this? Well, each person participating will be knitting a small project for their swap pal that can be used for the swap pal's vacation. Ideas include a small felted bag with a paperback inside for beach reading, a set of knit spa washcloths with some nice soaps or candles for spa theme, an ipod cozy and guidebook for an urban vacation, a handknit small project pouch with a pattern for a small project that can be taken along on a road trip, some felted slippers to keep toes warm and cozy for a camping trip. I'm sure there are other ideas out there! Finding out what your swap pal has planned or wishes for their "vacation package" will be important! This is a one time swap. Sign-ups will close on April 2nd. Matches will be sent out by April 16th. The swap package should be in the mail by June 1st, in time for summer vacations. The minimum spending amount is $15, which I think is reasonable for a one-time only swap and hopefully economical for people who'd like to swap. Also at least one part of the package needs to be handknit whether that is felted slippers, a felted bag, spa washcloths, a panta, a summer hat, socks, and ipod cozy, etc. Small projects are the idea here. So if you are interested, send me an email at craftylilly AT hotmail DOT com . Give me your name, snail mail address, and I will send you an invite to join the yahoo group. I have set up a database in the yahoo group for people to add in their preferences, so those without a blog can participate!

A New Look for Spring and feedback needed

2006-03-11T13:51:00.000-08:00

What do you think? RM created this new header for me, and I love it! Please let me know if it looks funky to you, or if you the text is moving too quickly. RM says he can fix it if it becomes a problem. I am noodling around with a swap idea and want to know if anyone is interested. I'm thinking of starting a "Vacation Swap." My idea comes from the promise of spring and summer. I was thinking that we do a one time small swap of something knit that follows the theme of a summer vacation such as a felted bag with a paperback inside for beach reading, or a set of knit washcloths with some nice soap and potpourri for a "spa" theme. This would be a small swap, with a cost suggestion of $15 total, but the swap would need to include a knit item. I'm thinking that the date that the swap package should be sent by June 1st, in time for summer vacations. Anyone interested?

An Ode to Project Spectrum

2006-03-09T07:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Margene instigated a meme of red and pink. She suggested that Project Spectrum participants find red and pink in our homes and then post pics of all the red and pink goodness on our blogs. I'm rising to the challenge here. Having two wee ones, a boy crazy about superheroes and Star Wars, and a little girl, red and pink is not a problem. Take this pink hippo that was my daughter's Valentine's gift, and my son's Elmo. Elmo's big at Chez Craftylilly. You can barely see it, but the toys are on SWB's bed which prominently features Spiderman, another red superhero. Other than lots of red and pink toys and kid clothing, I also have some red and pink purses. I love purses and bags. It's a good thing I don't have lots of money or places to go. I would have quite a selection if that were true. The ones we have here is a little pink Vera Bradley purse. I love Vera Bradley... The other red purse is the little satin handbag my SIL gave me for her wedding. It's a perfect evening bag. Of course in my beading life, I've worked a lot with red and pink. This bracelet is something I designed a few years ago. It uses an off-loom stitch, peyote stitch. I used two colors of pink seed beads and

purple seed beads, and slowly transitioned from color to color. I finished it off with an

toggle closure that I made with silver beads and one lovely art bead that I bought from a glass bead artist, Val Cox. Pardon the cat hair in the picture. It's funny how I don't notice the cat hair until I take a picture. I really should clean my window sills. But I digress. Then finally, we have Angelica. I've finished with the body and am onto the sleeves. Again this isn't the greatest representation of the colors of the yarn. I had to take another dreary day pic. Angelica is turning out quite nicely though. The knit has been relatively quick, and so I hope to have her done soon. What about the rest of the Project Spectrum participants? Flash your red and pink!

The yarn should be called Vexation

2006-03-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Because I'm seriously vexed. I've finally decided on a pattern to use with the Fixation for my sockpal's socks. It's the free lacy sock pattern off of the Cascade website. I love this pattern. It's easy to memorize and looks really good with the colorway I've chosen. I'm happily knitting and about halfway down the cuff when I think to myself, "Gee, this is looking a bit big." I stop and try them on. All I can say is, "Wowza." I refer back to the pattern. Hmmm, no gauge is mentioned. Size 5 DPNs are indicated. Hmmmm... A ripping I will go. Now I've got to decide whether a size 4 or 3 would work better. I'm going to try a 4 today. The good thing is these socks zip right along with the larger needles. I am getting the hang of how to work with the yarn too. Don't pull too tight! Let the yarn flow but give it a little tension. Hopefully I'll have better news for you in a few days. Here's a picture of my efforts, the large cuff that shall be no more by tonight.

Field Trip, Man madness, and a book meme

2006-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

I got a whole mess of random for you today. I'll start with the knitblogger backyarn field trip that I learned about at Knitting Interrupted. I'm a bit late, but I think we're ok. I'm going to show you around my rather small backyard. Now, my backyard is a mess. When we moved into this house a year ago, we discovered that we had some trouble with a couple trees and drainage. Nothing we did could save the lawn in the backyard. Add that with RM's lack of will and time to work on the backyard, and we end up with a mess. It's a mess that the kids can still play in, but it's not attractive. So the views I have for you of the backyard are heavily edited. We have a long and thin backyard. The previous owners have a lot of shrubs and trees that ouline a lawn in the middle, but the whole thing is at a bit of a slant, thus all the rain water ends up keeping one section of our lawn rather wet. I do like our backyard though. We did a lot of landscaping on our last house, which has quite a sizeable front and backyard. It's nice to only worry about this small space. We'd like to relandscape, take some trees out, fix the drainage, and redo the lawn. Eventually we'll replace the wood deck we have too. I don't have pics of that as it is covered in kid toys. All this discussion of the yard brings me to some man madness, specifically RM's brand of crazy. RM is a handy guy. He is rather good at fixing things. If he had more time, he could probably finish many home improvement projects. Now having said that, every home improvement project that he embarks upon always bring up problems that he doesn't expect. These problems bring about much gnashing of teeth. He then works even harder at making the project work because, "He's going to win! He's going to beat the (insert home project here). This weekend he's had a project he's been working on. Nothing has gone as planned. Gnashing of teeth has ensued. Querying children, curious about why daddy is holding a drill and has a crazed look on his face are told that he, "is on a mission from God." (Blues Brothers fans will understand this reference.) Please reassure me that I'm not the only one living with this brand of crazy. Please. And now for the book meme. I've read this meme on several blogs now and thought I'd share too! Feel free to answer this meme if you'd like 1) Name 5 of your favorite books: The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Byzantium by Stephen R. Lawhead, Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden. I could go on. I love lots of books. 2) What was the last three book I bought. Hmmm... I honestly can't remember. I've Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress recently. 3) What's the last book I read? I finished the Knit the Classics February selection, Woman at the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Actually this may have been the last book I bought... 4) Name three books I've been dying to read. Well, I've got way more than 3 that I could list here. I really want to read Anna Karenina, Son of a Witch, and Outlander. Oscars are tonight! You know where I'll be while knitting.

It's all about the red and pink, baby

2006-03-03T13:56:00.000-08:00

Project Spectrum has started in earnest at Casa de Craftylilly. I'm working on my Angelica Tunic with this fantastic cotton/rayon handpaint from Over the Rainbow yarns on ebay. The yarn is just gorgeous. I usually find working with cotton to be a bit more uncomfortable than working with wool, but this stuff is quite nice. I took the photo of my progress yesterday, which was overcast and ugly, so you don't really get a good look at the beauty of this yarn. The colors go from red, to magenta, to a coppery green. The colorway is called Autumn, which it really does resemble. The rayon adds a nice sheen to the fabric as well. Angelica will be the perfect spring sweater. I've been noticing that we like the colors red and pink quite a lot at my house. Take the kidlets clothing for example. Lots of red and pink action here. Then of course there is my sock knitting bag. I bought this bag at Piddleloop, a fantastic little company that makes the cutest knitting bags and pouches. The overall color of the bag is purple, but there's a lot of pink in there too. Now my sockpal's yarn, the Cascade Fixation, is decidedly not pink or red. It is a rather subversive black and white. The yarn totally fits my sockpal though. I'm really enjoying reading her blog. She's a fun knitter, who definitely knits to the beat of her own drummer. I like a girl who know her mind! I wish I could share her blog with you. You'll just have to wait a couple of months! I'm using a free pattern using Cascade Fixation called the Sp ring Garden socks. I think the lace pattern will look interesting with this yarn. *EDITED TO ADD* I just spent the last hour trying to work with this pattern and yarn. Ummm, I think I'll be choosing a less complex pattern for this yarn. Fixation is going to take some getting used to, and all the YOs and twisting is too much. Wish me luck. As a final note, I usually don't advertise about my bead stitchmarker and jewelry shop over at etsy.com, but I've been getting some emails from people so I thought I'd just mention that I also do special order stitch markers. If you let me know what colors or themes you'd like for your markers, how many you want (I usually do sets of 5 or 10), and what size needle you'd like them to fit, I can work something out with you. I haven't updated my store in a while, but am working on it. I hope to have some new sets up by the end of the month, but feel free to contact me if you have something special in mind.

My children are in cahoots

2006-03-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

with the cats. I mean look at them. They're trying to crush me in this picture. I've stepped on countless toys today, and slipped on one. The fall was not pretty. I fell right on my rear end in my daughter's room trying to put her down for a nap. After I fell I look up at my daughter and she's looking at me like "Whoa... What happened?" Of course this is the same child who managed to shut my computer down 2 times, the wrong way. Plus, SWB just finished up a round of antibiotics a couple of days ago and now has pink-eye and is complaining about his other ear. Putting eye drops in a 3 year old's eyes are not fun. Not even bribery with the little Easter themed marshmellows is working. Where is the good health angel when I need her? Now, my three cats are laying low, but I know they're in on it. They can't fool me. They're probably working up a really good hairball, or have plans to chew on some knitting needles. I just know it. I'm just about to cast on for my Sockapaloooza socks with the Cascade Fixation and was wondering, does anyone have any tips for working with this stuff? The ball band has this crazy stretched and unstretched yardage. Say what? Does that matter when using it for socks? Any help would be appreciated.

Unbiased... the bag

2006-02-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

I managed to finish up my Unbiased bag from Knitty.com yesterday. Over at Knit the Classics we were challenged to knit something that tied into the current book selection, Woman at the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Our project could tie into any character, theme, or tone of the novel. After reviewing the stash, I decided to work with several skeins of recycled sari silk yarn. Some of it I had received in swaps, and some was part of a gift I had received from another Knit the Classics member, Stephanie, as part of a Knit the Classics swap. As the book is about a woman who has a connection to a future utopia that included a very "earth friendly" ethic, I thought using recycled material would fit in. This future utopia also is a model of acceptance of the "other" and a place where prejudice and bias have no home, so I saw a connection with the name of the bag on Knitty.com that used recycled sari silk, "Unbiased." There are more connections with the book that I go into on my post over at Knit the Classics. Now the making of the bag was rather quick, but I've found recycled sari silk as not the easiest yarn to use. It sheds quite a bit. I'm finding bits of the stuff even upstairs even though I knit the bag in my downstairs living room. It's not that easy on the hands either. I developed a rather sore spot on my fingers of my right hand. There are some twigs and things I found in some of the skeins that I pulled out along the way. The finished product though is worth it. I like how the colors come together, and I like the scrappy look of the final bag. Since I used sari silk from two totally different sources, one half of the bag has more of a magenta hue, and the other half is more of a brick red, but I think that just adds to the overall look. After working with this yarn, I'm not sure that I'd make a garment or something that will be worn with it. It is perfect for a bag though! I also received a prize that I won over at Jess's blog for her one year blogiversary. She sent me some lovely sock yarn in her signature colors, and some cute magnets and notepapaer. I'm getting to be quite the sock yarn addict, so the prize is perfect! Thanks Jess! Next up for me is working on my Project Spectrum/Angelica KAL. I've started it last night and have already had to go up several needle sizes to get gauge. I also have plans to start my sockpal's socks. I was very pleased to see that the pattern I've chosen uses size 3 needles! Yay! No toothpicks for these socks!

Music and knitting

2006-02-25T19:18:00.000-08:00

Well, you all had very good suggestions for good music/entertainment to listen to while knitting. Here is a list of what you all came up with: Single songs: "Love Shack" by the B52's (Tin Roof!! Rusted.) "Layla" by Eric Clapton "Shout to the Lord" "Hey Mama" by the Black Eyed Peas "Explosive" by Bond (and all women string quartet, very cool) "Pagan Poetry" by Bjork "Bizarre Love Triangle" cover by Frente! (Love the original, must check this out) "Combat Baby" by Metric "H" by Tool "Even Cowgirls get the Blues" by EmmyLou Harris (Love her!) "Jive Talkin" by the BeeGee's (I hummed this song the rest of the day after I read this.) "Where the Streets Have No Name" by U2 "Supposed to be" by Jack Johnson "Under African Skies" by Paul Simon (I haven't listened to this in a long time. I forgot how beautiful it is) "Closing Time" by Semisonic "One Love" by Bob Marley "Trip Through Your Wires" by U2 "Come Away with Me" by Norah Jones "Losing my Religion" by REM "Sweater song" by Weezer CD's The Last Samurai Soundtrack Peaceful Praise by Gary Prim Any album by Coldplay (I love them too!) Canyon Trilogy by R. Carlos Nakai (Native American Flute Music, very relaxing!) Memory of Trees by Enya Anything by The Knitters (how cool is that name!) Kathleen Battle sings Mozart Teresa Deng (I am in the process of checking her out right now. I love exploring new music!) Benedictine Monk Chant (Love this for meditiation actually) Anything by Death Cab for Cutie (I've got to check them out. I"m intrigued by the name.) Garden State Soundtrack Shimmering Warm and Bright by Bel Canto Space Flower, the Wild Swans and Deep by Peter Murphy ( I love Peter Murphy) Infinity by Trout Fishing in America Non music selections Cast On podcast with Brenda Dayne (Knit, knit like the wind!) I'd have to include all knitting podcasts actually. Speaking about podcasts, I have to thank all the people who have sent kind words about my interview on Whit's podcast. I had lots of fun and was much relieved that I didn't sound like a dork. Good editing, Whit! I got so many music tips, I'm not going to lack music for my Ipod shuffle! As far as music I enjoy while knitting, I've been listening to podcasts, and the new music by Train. And now for our winner... I used a random number generator and Mary Ann aka "Mom" won the Tropical Handpaint! Congratulations! I will be sending her the winnings this coming week. I hope she enjoys it!

A ticket for Jaywalking

2006-02-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

I wonder if anyone has actually gotten a ticket for Jaywalking? I've never heard of it happening, and yet, the few times I've done it, I'm always checking for cops. I don't want to see that fine. As you've probably guessed, I've completed the pansy Jaywalkers. The Sock Garden in Pansy is a very striking colorway. My first sock took a very traditional turn, striping in a nice predictable fashion. The second sock did some very interesting pooling. I like it! I think one of the fun things about working with a variegated yarn is seeing how the colors develop in a sock. This pattern is perfect to show off variegated sock yarn to its best advantage. I used size 1 DPNs which I am finally getting rather comfortable using. They no longer feel ridiculously thin. The finished sock is very warm and cozy. Many knitters had some problem with sizing with the Jaywalker around the ankle region. I have to say that getting these socks on is a little more snug than I like, but I can get them on no problem. Now my sock plate is ready for my Sockapaloooza socks! Project Specs: Pattern: Jaywalker pattern by Grumperina Yarn: Knitpicks Sock Garden in Pansy Needles: Brittany Size 1 DPNs Time to complete: About a month? I think? Comments: I like them! I think I'll be making more for gifts. I enjoyed using the Sock Garden, and may try out some of their other colorways. I've heard that Sock Garden also felts, so I'm thinking of using the leftover yarn to make my Ipod Shuffle a cozy. In other blog news, Whit who has both a blog and a podcast, About Time, interviewed me for her latest episode. I read a poem that I wrote for Laura's blogiversary and talk about knitting and beading. There are a lot of great things featured in this episode like a very funny song, and a really touching poem written during WWI about knitting. Whit's podcast is great, so if you haven't already checked it out, you'll enjoy it! Thank you to all who wish us good health! With the help of pharmacology, we are feeling much better and almost back into the swing of things. Good thing too! I've got to get my sari silk project done before the end of the month!

Anitbiotics, and the weather is fine

2006-02-22T15:48:00.000-08:00

Yep, three of us are on antibiotics. Remember that cold I told you about 2 weeks ago? Remember how I said that we were all getting better? I'm here to tell you that I am no health professional. SWB got and ear infection. RM and I have sinus infections. Only PQL seems to have almost kicked the ick. Oh yeah, we're a sad bunch. I have been getting some knitting done though. I am up to the toe decreases on my second Jaywalker. FO pics and stats soon! Plus I can finally get that "F" for the sock a month KAL. I am also up to the final piece of the recycled sari silk project I'm doing for Knit the Classics. Sari silk sheds like crazy. I'm finding little bits of the stuff everywhere. It's in my knitting notions bag, inside the socks I'm wearing, in my kid's toy box, on the cats. It could be a great CSI clue illustrating the notion of fiber transfer. I've told myself that I need to get these two things off the needles by the end of the month so I can start Angelica, my Socksapaloooza socks and a project I'm designing. I feel on target so far, barring any more illnesses. There's still time to get in your favorite music to knit by. Leave a comment or send me an email! The suggestions have been wonderful so far! Oh, and to distract you from the fact that I have no picture of yarn and/or knitting, have a camel. ;)

Stitches West 2006, the experience

2006-02-19T15:39:00.000-08:00

Last year I went to Stitches West with my mom. We went only to shop. It was fabulous, and we decided that we had to go again. This year we eagerly made plans to go. In order to get a more full experience I signed up for a class and we had originally planned to stay the night. Well staying there didn't work out which is just as well since my son's cold turned into an ear infection, but I did end up making Stitches a two day event nevertheless. Mom and I shopped on Saturday in the Market, and then I went back this morning to take my class on Intarsia with Sally Melville. First I must tell you about the Stitches Market. I think the Market is even bigger than it was last year. There must have been about 9 long rows of booths that took up a lion share of a huge room at the convention center. Lots of Bay Area LYS's were there as well as smaller, independent yarn retailers, designers, and some larger stores like WEBS. I spent most of my time combing the booths for new yarns that I couldn't get or even see at my LYS. I spent some time at the Blue Moon Fiber Arts booth, and picked up some lovely STR in the Yosemite colorway. Their stuff is fantastic! The colorways are even more brilliant in person than online. I also spent some time at Tess Designer Yarns, and yes Yahaira, I did pick up a skein of their sock yarn. Lovely stuff. I also found a really interesting yarn company called Just our Yarn. I bought a skein of yarn called Caravan that is a mix of wool and camel down in a gorgeous red colorway. Their yarns are beautiful and worth looking at. I also really enjoyed spending time, and money at Philosopher's Wool. I bought a kit called Color Your Own in the Night Sky colorway. It's a beautiful Fair Isle sweater kit with really pretty buttons. I guess I'm going to have to learn how to cut my own knitting to make her. Scary! I also visited a local artisan, Lisa Souza. Her colorways are gorgeous. I got a skein of lovely purple sock yarn for a really reasonable price too. I also picked up a ball of Lana Grossa Mega Boot Stretch that I'm interested in playing around with. The class I took with Sally Melville was also a lot of fun. Marianne, a LYS owner that I know was in the same class, so it was fun to learn something new with someone I know. I also met some very nice knitter's in the class. Sally signed my copy of ther color book too which I'm over the moon about. She's a really good teacher. She's patient and helpful, and I came away from the experience with some good tips and tricks to make intarsia not so intimidating. She brought many of the sweaters that are featured in the color book as well. I have to say that the final sweaters are beautiful. The pictures in the book don't show just how stunning the designs are. She also taught us a cool trick to help design our own sweaters using intarsia. I also got to meet two Bay Area knitbloggers, Sharlene and Lu. I enjoyed meeting them. They are both very sweet. I wish I could have met more knitbloggers, but the weekend was crazy! All in all, I enjoyed myself and got to learn the ins and outs of a knitting technique new to me. I highly recommend making the trip to a Stitches event if you're able. Remember to leave a comment or email me at the address in the previous post to enter my blogiversary contest! There have been some great songs to knit by suggestions so far!

Your mission should you choose to accept it

2006-02-17T06:29:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks this blog's one year anniversary. I can't believe I've been blogging for a year. When I started this blog, we had just moved into our new home, my youngest had just turned 6 months, and I was getting sleep and into the swing of things. I was beginning to feel a bit more like myself. As I came out of the haze of my youngest's early infancy, and had waded through the last of the real estate stuff, it began to sink in that I was now a SAHM. I had left my teaching position at the end of the previous school year, but between 3rd trimester pregnancy, selling and buying a house, and no sleep due to round the clock feedings, I hadn't really given much thought to it. Now I began to think about it. Some things that I realized that I needed were a sense of community, and something that would get my thoughts down on paper. Anyone who knows me, knows that I always like having things to do. I'm not a good idle person, although lately I'm beginning to see the charm of a lazy afternoon. Knitting really helped with this as it gave me a relaxing task to do when I had a moment. Knitting at home gave me the something to do, but didn't give me the community aspect. I had been reading blogs for some time and enjoying them. The thought occured to me that I could blog too, and thus maybe be a small part of a larger community that I enjoyed. I could participate in the conversation as it were. So I signed up for a blogger account and started writing. A year later I've made some friends, and expanded my blog reading. I enjoy updating my blog and adding to the sidebar. I join (too many) KAL's and swaps. I really feel like I craft and create along with all of you. Now my off line life has gotten significantly busier due to my children's school commitments. I can only imagine that life will continue to be busy. In a few years I plan to return to the classroom as well. I feel at home in front of a classroom of teenagers. Strange but true, I know. But I think I will always carry this experience of blogging, both writing and reading, as a charmed part of my life, even if I decide one day to stop blogging and write in a journal instead or join a local knitting group. Well enough about my musings on my last blogging year, onto the contest!! In celebration of this blog's first year anniversary, I thought we'd brainstorm a little about good music to listen to while knitting. Now I have very eclectic musical tastes. I can and will listen to all genres from folk to reggae, country to heavy metal, rap to alternative. What I listen to often changes with my mood, or what I'm doing. I can listen to Metallica when I go out running, but Bach is better when I'm trying to relax with a glass of wine. So what 3 songs do you think would be perfect to knit to? Send your three song nominations for "the best songs to knit to" to craftylilly AT hotmail DOT com by next Friday, February 24th 7PM PST. I will pick a winner randomly. The winner will receive 2 skeins (400 yds total) of Treasure Island Cotton Handpaint by White Lies Designs (87% cotton, 10% nylon, 3% rayon) in a lovely tropical color mix. I will also compile all the responses and make a posting of all the songs suggested. Dig into those music collections!

Red and Pink

2006-02-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Valentine's day colors are so wonderful. I just love red and pink. You can throw my favorite color of purple in there to. I love all the hearts, roses, chocolate, and mushy sentiments. I've always liked it. I see it as more than a romantic love holiday. It's a day to celebrate the love you have for anyone you may care about. That's why I was so touched to receive a Valentine's card from my son that he made for RM and I at one of his schools. Look at his little hand prints. Love it! This is just a short post to wish you all a happy Valentine's day with the people you care about. I also want to thank everyone for the kind words about my Cranberry Twist. Those of you going to Stitches West this weekend may see it in the fiber! Which, by the way, if anyone wants to meet up at Stitches, send me an email, or leave a comment! My one year blogiversary is this Saturday, prime Stitches Day, so I will making a special post on Friday with the details on a contest in celebration of this humble blog's birthday.

Cranberry Juice Twister

2006-02-12T19:07:00.000-08:00

I like the Tropicana Juice Twisters. They're full of sugar, I'm sure, but the mixture of fruit juices is quite yummy. I think there are also alcoholic beverages that also use cranberry juice and call themselves a Twister, but I digress. This meandering post beginning is just a clunky way of saying... Twist is complete! I. Love. This. Sweater. Even though I've knit other sweaters, this one seems like my first really complete sweater making experience. First, there's quite a bit of seaming, as the sweater is knit in five pieces. Second, the cable panels on the front are some of the more complicated cables I've knit to date. Third, this is the first sweater where I really feel like I did a good job on the buttonholes. They're even and look professional. I used a method that I learned from Annie Modesitt's book, Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. I'm here to tell you, the method works! I didn't modify the pattern at all. Bonne Marie Burns write a clear, concise pattern. Project Specs: Pattern: Twist by Bonne Marie Burns for Chicknits Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry (9.5 skeins) It was a squeaker as I only had 10 balls of the stuff. I really like working with the WOA. Nice stuff! Needles: I had to go up to size 9's to get gauge. Usually I can get gauge spot on, but I've been a bit stressed lately and have been taking it out on the knitting. Mods: None. Things I've learned: Well, like I've stated, the buttonhole method in Confessions of a Knitting Heretic. Thanks for the suggestions on a more flexible DPN. I think I'll hit a LYS and check out my options. I did contact Brittany, and hope for a replacement needle. Until then, I've had to take a needle from another set so that I can get to the second Jaywalker.

I will watch anything when I knit

2006-02-11T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well, maybe not anything. I've sunk pretty low in the past though. Every once in a while we will rent a wretched film. Movies like The Fantastic Four, The Ring 2, Alien vs. Predator, there are others, but I'm working on a mental block. It's times like these that I am thankful I have my knitting to distract me from the train wreck on the TV. Last night, RM and I offended our movie sensibilities yet again. We sat through... Doom. I wish I could erase that almost 2 hour horror show from my memory. It was truly horrible. I really wish Karl Urban, the guy who played Eomer Eadig in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy would pick some better movies. Yikes. On the positive side, I got a lot done on my Twist collar. I should be able to finish up today. I did manage to finish up one Jaywalker yesterday. I like the look of the Sock Garden and it is quite comfy. Getting the sock on is a little tight, but it's manageable. Once the sock is on, it's comfortable and warm. I need hurry up and cast on for the second one so that I can have a pair of socks soon. One of my Brittany size 1 DPNs bit the dust while making the jaywalker. It broke totally. I like working with bamboo, but I'm wondering if I should use sturdier DPNs for sock work. I'm not a big fan of aluminum DPNs though. Any suggestions? In other sock news I got the yarn that I'm going to use for my sockapaloooza pal's socks yesterday. I'm planning on using Cascade Fixation in the Harlequin colorway. I'm excited to get started on them, but I think I'll get the second Jaywalker out of the way first. I also want to send a huge thank-you to my Felted SP! I got the package a couple of days ago and am just thrilled with everything. She sent me 3 skeins of Malabrigo in three lovely colorways. I'm dreaming of hats and mittens! She also sent me one of the new orange Chibi's, a knitting diary, and the yarn estimator card. I love everything! Thanks to everyone who sent us good health vibes. SWB feels a lot better. PQL is still feeling a bit down, but is improving. My symptoms have turned into just a cold. Enough to make me feel a little sluggish and sick, but not enough to knock me out, thank goodness. RM feels about like I do. I'm just hoping to kick it before Stitches next weekend!

The beads are feeling neglected

2006-02-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

The yarn gets a lot of love on the old blog and at home. Knitting is just more reasonable to do with young children. First, there's the choking hazard presented by beads. Second, the set up and take down of my beading workstation is quite labor intensive. Third, setting down a bead project is a bit harder to do as beads by nature are quite fiddly. I will be doing a bit more beading the next few weeks as I have a special order of stitch markers to make, and a peyote stitch cuff that has been burning up my idea notebook. I also seem to feel more motivated to bead when it starts looking more like spring outside. I can't believe I already see buds on the trees. Today, I thought I'd share with you one of my first beading projects that I designed myself. This is an amulet bag that I made using the circular peyote stitch technique. This technique uses a beading stitch in the round. How you do this with beads is work the off loom bead weaving while holding your beadwork on a wood dowel, to stabilize the beads and to provide a surface to work the stitch. I used 11/0 seed beads for the project and designed the bead pattern myself. I'm quite proud of it the results, though I hardly have the opportunity to wear the piece. Well, this will be a short post as SWB and PQL have been battling really bad colds this week. I feel the virus sinking it's meaty claws into me as well. Before I go though a preview of coming events. I've seamed up Twist and am in the final stages of knitting on the button band and collar. The Jaywalkers have been shown some love lately, and I hope to have the first Jaywalker to show soon. If I'm not in bed coughing up a lung by the weekend I hope to have some FO's for you soon!

Unfortunate names

2006-02-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you've all had experiences where you've seen a billboard, or a store name, or a person's name and thought to yourself, "Why would someone want to do this to their (store, child, business). I had one of these experiences today, my friends. There's some construction going on next to my local Costco, and my eye was caught by the signage in front of the site. The sign publicizes the name of the construction company working on the site. Now, this company is named after a person, the owner of the construction company, I'm sure. What is this person's last name? Manlove. I'll let it sit with you a minute. Now, if that was my last name, I think I'd change it. When I saw this unfortunate surname, I was reminded of the name of a TV and stereo repair shop that was on a main street of Vallejo, when I lived there. This store was also named after it's owner, a Mr. Harry Butts. I mean, really. Or how about this one, Polly Esther Sheets. Not cool, not cool. I finished up the Hermione Mittens for my mitten swap pal, and will be sending them along in a couple of days after then finish blocking. I'm quite proud of them! I think I finally mastered the bobble. Now, I know that bobbles aren't to terribly difficult for most people, but they always seem a bit fiddly to me. I usually avoid them for that reason, but they really add to the mitten, so I had to add them. I love this pattern and will be making many more. The Hermione mittens I received from my pal, is making giving away these mittens a little easier. I hope my pal likes them! Project specs: Pattern: Hermione Mittens from Atypically Knit Yarn: Cascade 220 in a kind of teal/turquiose heather (still can't find the ball band. Rats!) Time: These mittens took about 2 weeks to complete. That's really quick for life at Chez Craftylilly. What I learned: I think I've got a handle on bobbles, and now thumb gussets don't scare me! Now, before I post my last pic for you today, I should touch upon the reference to Annie's post and my trepidation to post the lovely mittens that Karen knit me for the mitten swap. After reading Annie's post (scroll down and hit the link in my previous post if you're interested), I began to worry about how people were perceiving me posting the gifts and swaps I've received from various secret pal exchanges and swaps I've been involved in. I sat and pondered whether or not the posting of these gifts/swaps are in bad taste, and might make someone feel excluded from the knitblog community. After some discussions with my family, friends, and other concerned knitbloggers, I've decided that writing about these swaps and exchanges are, for me, not in bad taste. I feel that an appropriate thank you sometimes includes a more public thank-you on my blog. After all, these swaps and exchanges are organized and executed online. Plus all the swaps and exchanges I've been involved with are open to everyone, and are not exclusionary. I hope that if you are a reader of my blog, whether new or have been reading for a while, that you experience my posts in the spirit with which they are written, a little humor, some exasperation with the trials and tribulations of life, a whole lot of enthusiasm about knitting and beading, and a sharing of the experience of knitting and life. SO, in that spirit, I want to share with you what Stephanie sent me as part of the Romance Book Swap for Knit the Classics. She has spoiled me with two fantastic romance reads, Age of Innocence by Wharton, and Anna Karenina. She also is feeding my sock obsession with Koigu, and Over the Rainbow sock yarn(Woohoo! Have been wanting to try this out for some time!). There's some recycled silk in there too, and a few other goodies. One of the awesome parts about Knit the Classics, other than the great discussions, great reads, and fun knitting related contests, and knitting projects, are the book swaps. I encourage any of you who love to read and to knit, join us over at Knit the Classics. Well, I think I've blabbed enough for the day. Have a good week everyone! (Edited to add: I don't think Annie's post is meant to criticize all knitblogs, nor that her commenters are picking on everyone. Her post just brought this idea to the forefront for me and caused me to think more about what I blog and why I blog.)

Superbowl Sunday... Woop Woop!

2006-02-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

Although neither of the teams in the Superbowl are the "family team," I always enjoy a good football game. I think this one will be entertaining. Both teams are good ones and should make for some great knitting time (children willing... yeah, right, who am I kidding?). Speaking of things to watch while knitting, the movie watching has continued here at Chez Craftylilly. We just haven't seen much that warrants a review on this blog. I have to tip 5 DPNs to the film Lord of War, which has been the best movie we've seen in the past couple of months by far. Interesting story, good acting, and a very well executed starting credits where a bullet is followed from its creation to its use. I also should give 3 DPNs to Mean Girls (cute, terrifiying because of the threads of truth), and The Island (entertaining enough, great first half, and hey, Ewan McGregor). I've seen a lot of other movies, but none worth mentioning. For the most part though, I've been knitting through TV shows that we have on DVD, the Sopranos, The Wire, CSI, and of course Project Runway. Now where are the results of knitting while watching said movies and shows? Well, I finished up the last sleeve of Twist last night while watching The Island. You can see that I've started blocking it today. I could fit everything but one sleeve on my blocking board, which bums me out. I figure I'll block the second sleeve once the rest is dry. It's just annoying I can't get the whole thing blocked so I can seam it all. I want to get to the button band and collar! ARGH! I also received my mittens from the mitten swap I've been involved in through the knittyboard. They are gorgeous! Karen knit them for me out of FleeceArtist Blue Face Leicester Aran in lovely blue, purple, and green colorway. She also used the Hermione Pattern which is fabulous since I was thinking about how hard it's going to be to mail off the Hermione Mittens that I'm knitting for my pal. After reading Annie's last post about some people feeling put off by the posting of gifts and goodies received on knitting blogs, I've been waffling back and forth about whether or not I should talk about these lovely mittens, but the beauty of them, in the knitting, and the yarn just needed to be written about. Thanks Karen for both the lovely mittens but the lai see for the kidlets.

Dumplings and Bao

2006-02-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

If you are into Chinese cooking, Martin Yan's Quick and Easy Cookbook is pretty good. We've liked almost everything I've made from it, especially this sweet and spicy Shrimp dish. Yummy! Well, in honor the Year of the Dog, I made a recipe called Monday Night Dumpling Soup. I made it on a Tuesday, but hey it tastes good any day of the week! Now being that this soup is from a book called *Quick and Easy* I used store bought frozen dumplings. The end result was quite delicious. Also, since most meals I make need to be *Quick and Easy* I also steamed up some frozen Cha Sui Bao (Sweet Pork Buns) to have with it. Now, those fans of Dim Sum know that Cha Sui Bao is some fantastic stuff. RM could eat these things all day. Both SWB (my picky eater) and Little Girl (who'll eat anything) scarfed these babies down. You must try one if you haven't. Speaking of Little Girl, seeing as she's a bit too young to pick her own blog alias, I have decided to name her myself. Can't have the whole family have cool aliases and hers be the plain one, now can I? I am dubbing her Princess of Quite a Lot (Englebreit reference), PQL for short. I think anyone who has a little daughter, or a little niece understands the reference. I got my sock pal match yesterday as well. I'm very excited! The door seems to be wide open design wise, but I do have a rather big constraint. My sock pal doesn't want any socks made with wool, even a little bit of wool. That really narrows the field of sock yarns I can use. Plotting has commenced. Oh, and I'm one sleeve away from coming home off of sleeve island. My brain is weary, but I look forward to the blocking and seaming so I can get the button bands and collar on Twist.

KAL Report

2006-01-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

I've got nothing much of interest to report about my knitting progress other than to say, the first sleeve of Twist is an evening away from doneness, the jaywalker has a heel flap, and the mitten mate has been started. I do, however, have a couple things to report on the KAL front. I joined up with Socksalpaloooza as a beginner and am very excited to be getting my match tomorrow. I really like the whole idea of a knitting swap. It's fun to learn about someone new and knit something with them in mind, and have someone do that for me. It makes the knitting even more meaningful. I also joined in with the Project Spectrum fun that Lolly has set up. I see this as more of an exploration than a KAL. We're starting to play with red and pink shades in March. I have the perfect project to do, of course I reserve the right to change my mind and do something else. The yarn for the Angelica sweater has been languishing in my knitting bag. I bought some lovely red handpainted cotton/rayon blend from Over the Rainbow yarns. It's begging to be knit, and Project Spectrum makes the perfect excuse. I'm finding that I really do enjoy KAL's but I'm more apt to stick with one if it doesn't focus on one project. Sometimes, ok, many times, I just don't feel like doing the same project as everyone else. I'll sign up for a KAL, take the Kepler KAL for example. I love the sweater, have the yarn, and then lose interest. I think more general KAL's are more for me. How do you feel about KAL's and your participation in them?

Welcoming the Year of the Dog!

2006-01-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

Gung Hay Fat Choy everyone! When I realized that this year is the Year of the Dog, all I could think about was the 90s band Temple of the Dog. Remember them? I also thought about how this summer would truly have the "dog days of summer." I could go on, but I'll spare you. As you can see, I did get together the oranges lai see, and candy out. I was also able to get some CNY stuff together for SWB's school. I think I'm good. I'm also going to make some dumpling soup this week, so the family is looking forward to that. Enough of New Year's festivities! On to the knitting!

I have managed to complete a project this weekend. Meet Ruffles, my new favorite scarf. I started her way back in October when I needed a travel project for my plane trip to San Diego. I didn't get very far on that trip, but another trip to San Diego and several nights of CSI, and a few movies later, we have scarfage. I have to say that after a while this pattern got well, repetitive. Since I kept getting bored, it spent large amounts of time alone in its little knitting bag. Now that it's done I'm in love with it. It looks awesome, and the Calmer is so comfy. It's a perfect scarf for California weather.

Project stats:

Pattern: Ruffles from the Scarfstyle book, designed by Amanda Blair Brown

Yarn: Rowan Calmer in Joy

Needles: Clover bamboo size 6, 16 inch circ

What I learned: When a pattern starts getting a bit boring, yet the results look so good, soldier on. The FO will be so worth it.

I have also completed my first Hermione glove for my mitten swap pal. I love this pattern; I love this yarn. I'm using Cascade 220. I love this color, but am a goof and now can't find the ball band. I think it's the same color that Laura is using for her backyard leaves scarf. I think Laura will agree with me, that this color would make a fantastic sweater. (Must find ball band.) This pattern is very fun and relatively quick to knit. I finished this glove in a week which, believe me, is quick. The really good news, is that the glove came out quite big for my hands. I've got rather small hands. You know those stretch gloves you can get at Target? Yeah, my hands barely stretch them out. I think these will fit my pal perfectly with minimal blocking. Yay!

I wish you all a fruitful and prosperous year full of fun and fiberly goodness!

Fear of a Pansy Jaywalker

2006-01-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm up to knitting the heel of my first Jaywalker and find myself paralyzed with fear. I've read so many knitbloggers out there who have had to frog the sock and start over because of sizing woes. Everyone seems to discover this sizing issue around the heel. I'm afraid. I'm very afraid. I'm also a bit stalled on my Twist. I have the sleeves to knit next, and I'm not a big fan of the tours to sleeve island. Sleeves are kind of like Gilligan's Island. It's supposed to be a three hour tour, but it ends up being days of boring. So the only way to counteract knitting fear and boredom is to work a lot on another project. I'm very happily knitting away at the Hermione mittens that I'm doing in a blue-green Cascade 220. They are coming out so cute! I've finished up the thumb on the first one and hope to be done with the first mitten by the weekend. I'll have pictures up later this weekend. So what should I do about propelling myself forward and breaking through the knitting inertia that I find myself in when it comes to the Jaywalker and my inevitable trip to sleeve island? Eat cookies of course! Don't you love how SWB likes the feast or famine approach to sprinkle placement?

Ever had a holiday kinda sneak up on you?

2006-01-24T15:14:00.000-08:00

Well, Chinese New Year has broadsided me. Things have been humming here in Craftylilly Town. SWB's two schools are keeping me busy. I've been knitting away on four projects, and been sneaking in reading next month's selection for Knit the Classics. I've been thinking about some design ideas, and keeping up with the regular day-to day stuff of life. Frankly, I've been enjoying the calm after the storm of Christmas and the New Year's wedding I was in. I've been lulled into a false sense of security. Chinese New Year festivities start THIS weekend, people. Do I have my oranges? No. Do I have enough red envelopes (lai see)? Barely. Do I have candy? No. Red flowering plant? No. New money for the red envelopes for the children? No. No, no, no, and wait a minute... No. For future reference for any of you who celebrate the holiday, don't go to your local Asian market expecting to find red envelopes the week before New year. They won't have any, and will enjoy telling you that they had a lot a couple of weeks ago, but are fresh out now. Sheesh.

Thank yous are in order

2006-01-22T13:49:00.000-08:00

I want to thank everyone that made it through my last post and left such kind and encouraging comments. I'm feeling much better now that I've made my peace with the inner joining demon. After writing that post, I actually have felt pretty good about my knitting and have been making steady progress on all my projects, mitten notwithstanding as I will cast on for it tomorrow. I'm close to working on the heel of my first Jaywalker, will be finishing up the right side of Twist tonight, and am about 2/3 of the way done with Ruffles. I'm doing well, I think. As far as the mitten is concerned, I've picked out a lovely blue-green color of Cascade 220 to knit them with. I'm excited to get started as I bought a pattern specifically with my mitten pal in mind. I don't think she reads the blog, so I'll share the pattern. I'm going to be knitting the Hermione mittens for her. Pioggia tagged me with a meme, so I thought I'd share my 5 strange and unique habits with all of you, although I think I revealed a lot of neurosis with my last post. Don't want to scare any of you, after all. ;) 1) I always end up reading the last chapter of a book well before I've gotten to it. I just have to know how it ends, or it proves too anxiety producing for me. 2) I love to do laundry. I could do laundry everyday for the rest of my life. It doesn't bother me that laundry is neverending. I just love the process, the smell of clean clothes, and the satisfaction I get from folding them and putting them away. 3) I oftentimes will trust that my subconscious mind will work out a problem or a project idea. I will tell myself that I'm going to set aside worrying about the issue and will go on with my week. I often find that within a week, a solution will make itself known upon waking up or as I'm working on a mindless chore. 4) I have to sleep on the right side of the bed, or it feels really wrong and I have trouble sleeping. 5) I learn best when I have music or something going on in the background like white noise. For some reason information just sticks with me longer if it is paired with music or some sound. I've also had a discussion with my little guy as to what he'd like to be referred to on this blog. He's decided that he like the alias "Star Wars Boy" which considering the post I did a couple of days ago, fits perfectly. So Star Wars Boy is it, SWB for short. Now, I just need to figure out a name for little girl.

I need a plan with some flexibility

2006-01-20T06:43:00.000-08:00

I, along with hundreds of other knitters, joined up with Stephanie's Knitting Olympics. Now I've got some serious buyer's remorse. I've always been a person who feels compells to join activities. In high school I got seriously overextended and ended up really sick for a month because of all the stuff I got involved in (Church youth group leadership which included planning and attending retreats, my high school dance group, a full load of courses that included some honors work, some clubs, you get the idea). I didn't learn my lesson and spent college and my working life involved in too much stuff. Apparently I still haven't learned and am in several KALs, a couple knitting swaps, a SP round, have four things on the needles, am trying to design a sweater, keep up with bloglines sub, want to update the blog, plus the home duties of a SAHM mother of a toddler and preschooler who a coop with at a preschool. Then I sign up for the Knitting Olympics... Obviously I was out of my mind. Now there are several other options out there right now. Margene writes about the Eddie along where we all relax, knit what we want and enjoy the process of the three weeks. There's the UFOlympics where people can finish up things languishing on the needles during the three weeks. There's the Homer Simpson Olympics where we just knit or not knit for three weeks. Margene's Eddie along is probably the closest fit to how I should try to be when it comes with knitting, or with life for that matter. Do what you enjoy, make decisions as they come with intention, enjoy the process, and how life unfolds. For someone that runs to the anxious and the overbooked, I could take a page from that book although the idea both liberates and terrifies me. What I really think I should do though is to not join any Olympics in all of their forms. I think I need to sit out of this one and concentrate on working out what I've got on my plate. I need a plan with some flexibility. I can't give up on the idea of a plan as I'm finding that without a plan I feel a bit scattered and none of my projects get worked on or enjoyed. I need to knit what I've got on the needles, with purpose and intention. I need to not think about the next project but enjoy what projects I'm working on (which by the way, I'm in love with all of them). I need to enjoy expressing myself on the blog and enjoy reading and celebrating/commiserating with my blog friends. I need to not let the idea of KAL translate into pressure. So here's my tentative plan with a full understanding that this can be changed at any time due to a variety of reasons not limited to illness and life. Ready? I will work on Twist everyday as my goal is to wear her to Stitches. I will start Mitten 1 for the mitten swap on Monday. I will alternate between Ruffles and Jaywalkers as time and interest permits. There you have it. Ah, I feel better now.

Trust in the force

2006-01-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

I vaguely remember seeing the Star Wars, A New Hope at the local drive-in with my parents when I was my son's age, 3. I think I fell asleep. (Ah, remember the drive-in double features? There's nothing like eating candy and popcorn in your car with a device hanging on your window with tinny sound.) I grew to love Star Wars over the years. My favorite is Empire Strikes Back. I'm a sucker for the darker stories. My cousin, G, was wild about Star Wars. He had the sheet set and all the toys. RM has similar stories about his childhood. As an adult, I went to see the older three movies rereleased and remastered in the theater, and have been disappointed the most recent three as most of the other Star Wars fans. Little did I expect that I would give life to THE biggest Star Wars fan I've ever met. Little Boy is crazy for Star Wars. Crazy I tell you. He has tons of Star Wars toys, he collect Star Wars trading cards, he watches the original trilogy, he loves the animated Clone Wars. He taught little girl to make realistic light saber sounds. He uses the force every day. RM and decided that we'd give in to the mania. We all now own our personal light saber, mine's purple. A family that duels together, stays together, right? I also have been meaning to mention that I won first place in Laura's "Ugly Ball of Yarn" poem contest. I think all the winning poems were quite clever, and was flattered mine was chosen! I thought this contest was wonderful way to celebrate her 1 year blogiversary. Now, I just need to come up with one for this blog for next month. Hmmmm...

Creative Minds

2006-01-15T06:39:00.000-08:00

After reading what many of you had to say about your *memories* of me, I'd have to say you all are very creative! Stephanie may actually know me and my predilection for making up dumb dance moves. Laura has been in my kitchen. Some of you (Donni, Amy, Heather) have some of the most wonderful memories I never had. *Sigh* If only all of those things did happen. Christie and Jess have the kind of *police show* memories where no one can agree on the details. Carrie, Candsmom, and Laura hold the memories of my *forgotten* college days. Ah, yes... And Rincaro and Whit, Shhhhhhhh! Elspeth tagged me with another meme, so I thought I'd play along. 4 Jobs You Have Had in Your Life: Deli Counter Sandwich maker After hours Church receptionist Medical Equipment Manual editor High School Teacher 4 Movies You Could Watch Over and Over: Jaws Vertigo Benny and Joon Napoleon Dynamite 4 Places You Have Lived: Atlanta, GA Vallejo, CA Walnut Creek, CA Petaluma, CA 4 TV Shows You Love to Watch: House, MD Project Runway The Wire Rome 4 Places You Have Been on Vacation: Yellowstone Seattle Vancouver San Diego 4 websites you visit daily: Bloglines and the knitting blogs therein Knittyboard Yahoo news Craftster 4 of your favorite foods: Sushi Several Dim Sum selections Banana Cream Pie Salami 4 places you would rather be right now: Las Vegas Hawaii Victoria San Diego 4 Bloggers You are Tagging: I'm going to say, whoever wants to play along can! P.S. Jaywalkers have been started, Ruffles is growing slowly but surely, and I've finished the back and Left Front of Twist. Pics soon!

The first FO of 2006

2006-01-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

I finished up the prayer shawl I've been working on a couple of nights ago. Somehow it feels fitting that this is my first FO of the year. I'd like 2006 to be a year where I knit for others outside my immediate family and for charities. I love knitting for my family, and of course enjoy knittng for myself, but adding intentional knitting for people I may not know but who need the warmth and care of a handknit has become important to me. This prayer shawl is for the neice of a dear friend of mine, who was in a devastating car accident right before Thanksgiving. She had severe head and brain injuries and has been in a coma. My heart hurts for my friend and her family. Her neice had just gotten married this summer, and her husband has had many difficult decisions to make in the past couple of months. Once I heard about the accident I looked through the stash for an appropriate yarn and cast on. These past weeks I've steadily worked on the shawl, trying to be mindful of why I was working on it. As it's grown I've received updates on her progress which has steadily improved, although the doctor's still don't know how far her recovery will take her. I hope that this shawl can bring her and her family some comfort, or at least warmth this winter. Project Stats: Pattern: The standard Prayer Shawl Pattern from the book Knitting into the Mystery Yarn: Red Heart Light and Lofty in Navy Grape. I chose an acrylic for ease of care, and to completely eliminate the itch factor. The pattern calls for a textured yarn, and I think the finished fabric is light yet warm and very soft. In other news, I won third place for the Knit the Classics Classic Knitting photos contest. Although there was no way I could compete with a couple of other members who had so many wonderful photographs that they found to share, I was able to find over 20. If you like check out all the photos that were found here All of them are beautiful and very interesting for those who enjoy learning about the history of knitting. My contest winnings included two lovely balls of cotton blend sock yarn. As this has become sort of the year of the sock, I was thrilled!! Elspeth tagged me, so I'll be back tomorrow with my answers to that, and some other knitting news!

My name is Ashe, and I am a slave

2006-01-12T06:39:00.000-08:00

Many of you have *met* Ashe by now. He's the pic in my blogger profile, and he is featured in a few of my FO pic on the blog. Pictures can be deceiving. I'm going to reveal to you today the essence that is Ashe. It is his turn to be featured, and he's been pestering me about it endlessly for the past week. Ashe and Wiji, the black cat featured last month, are siblings. RM and I adopted them together from the Animal Rescue Foundation when we got into our first apartment that allowed pets. When we adopted them, they were already 9 months old, and a bit neurotic. They had been owned by a homeless couple who gave them up for adoption, or so we were told. ARF had given them the enviable names of JoJo (Ashe) and GiGi (Wiji). We decided that those names must change. We decided to name him after the main character in the movie Army of Darkness. It's a cult favorite of ours, and the main character bears some resemblence to his feline counterpart. They are both quirky, leading men who are kind of dopes. The first thing Ashe did when we got him back to our home was hide, perched on the side of the tub between the shower curtains. We kept hearing him thump into the tub and then scramble back up to his perch. As we got to know him better, and he grew to enjoy our company, he let his true self loose. Ashe, my friends, is a prankster, a comic, an acrobat, a friend to children, and a lover of knitting, not so much the yarn (as my other cats are partial to), but the movement of the knitting needle. I get ahead of myself. One of our first glimpses of his nature occured when we bought them a cat condo. He would spend hours jumping off of it doing strange and wonderful acrobatic feats. We also noticed that he thought of himself as the Big Cat of the house, strutting around and trying to boss his sister about. Don't be fooled by his bravado however. Ashe is a "scaredy cat." Every time the cat is taken in his carrier in the car, he cries and defecates. I think the vet has a special notation in his chart of that fact. He's a smart one too though. He taught our youngest cat how to open closet and cabinet doors. Now since this is my knitting/beading blog, I'll fill you in on his love of the knitting needle. Whenever I settle myself to knit, I usually have my three feline friends come to visit. The other two are looking to snatch some yarn, or to rub themselves all over some merino wool. Ashe, is a cat of a different ilk. Ashe likes watching the knitting. He enjoys watching the movement of the knitting needles and yarn, and can watch for quite a while before getting bored. He also loves to be in pictures involving FOs, thus his inclusion in this blog. I think he thinks that the yarn is where the action is. How wise he is. In other news, the prayer shawl will be complete tonight. I will be Jaywalking by tomorrow! Submitted to The Carnival Of Knitting 2

Video killed the Radio Star

2006-01-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have a love/hate relationship with technology. RM is a techie. He doesn't have the budget to be a true techie, but he generally loves tech gadgets. Case in point, the man is spending some of his Christmas money on night sight goggles. Yes, you read that correctly, night goggles... For camping... Now take my feeling about technology. I love my laptop and see the wisdom of the cell phone, though I use it only for emergencies. I like TV and appreciate the remote. (Especially since my father refused to upgrade to a TV with a remote and made me change the channels until I went away to college.) I like the power windows and junk on my car. I've gained an appreciation for DVD ROMs, DVD and CD Burners, and have downloaded MP3s on my computer. I use a digital camera. I have a blog. For the most part though, I can be a bit resistant. Here's some evidence of that: RM practically told me that he would stop dealing with my computer unless I got more RAM to make it go faster. My laptop's battery is toast, yet I'm having trouble coughing up the dough to replace it. RM downloaded some awesome software to make banners and buttons for the blog, but I haven't done anything about it. Now why do I really hate technology sometimes? Because sometimes the stupid stuff that's supposed to make your life easier is the bane of hell. It's taken three days to figure out why my new ipod shuffle (a bridesmaid gift from the wedding I just was in) and itunes wouldn't work on my computer. It's fixed now, but I now have problems with my firewall interfering with the use of MSN Messenger and Outlook. ARGH!!! I want to scream, I really do. So to distract myself from my technology woes, I present you with this meme that I've picked up. I actually saw this and played along on two other blogs, Laura's and Jess's. I'd love to hear what you guys come up with! It's lots of fun. If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL MEMORY OF YOU AND ME. It can be anything you want--good or bad--BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.

"Please don't take a turn to negative town."

2006-01-08T10:05:00.000-08:00

Right, well, I've been knitting a lot lately, but not on the ruffles scarf or the prayer shawl (which I really should be trying to finish). I've been working a lot on Twist and loving it. I should be finishing up the back today and can't wait until I get to work on the front with all the lovely cables. The cables on this sweater will be the most complex I've worked on to date. I think they will show up really well with the yarn I'm using, Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Cranberry. I think I've sensed a potential snag though. I have 10 skeins of the WOA and I'm making the smallest size which calls for 1100 yds of yarn. My bag of 10 skeins works out to 1090 yds, which is a smidge short. I'm hoping I make it. So, here's my question: do you think Twist needs the collar fringe? I'm thinking if I omit the fringe I'll have enough yarn to finish it. I may be worrying a bit too soon, but I would just like to prepared with a plan B. I do really need to clear Ruffles and the prayer shawl off the needles. At least that's what I'm telling myself I must do before casting on for the Jaywalkers. I'm thinking that my will power isn't that strong, so I'm making a deal with myself. As soon as I finish one of those two projects, I may cast on for Jaywalker... I'm thinking the prayer shawl is closer to completion, so I should concentrate on that for a week or so. Ah the wheeling and dealing I must do.

Can you imagine having a roomie that looked like this?

2006-01-05T07:10:00.000-08:00

After reading about the horrendous avatars being created after reading JenLa's blog, I had to make one. Can you imagine showing up to college and finding out you have to room with this? I think I'd immediately put in for a roomie change.

We've had a break in the monsoon...

2006-01-04T14:55:00.000-08:00

It's rained a lot here. I think the word "monsoon" may only be a slight overstatement. Imagine the kids' and my pleasure and seeing the beautiful sun today! We've already been out playing in it twice. I actually don't mind the rain so much unless it becomes dangerous, which is sometimes does. There's been a lot of flooding here in Northern California. On the positive side, we shouldn't have a drought this summer. Another positive, I'm all about knitting wool right now. I've started on my Twist cardi, although swatching took a while. I finally got gauge using 9's. I guess I've become a tight knitter. I've also got out my Knitpicks sock garden in Pansy to try my hand at Jaywalkers. Yeah! Like I've mentioned before, I'm supposed to be knitting Angelica with my lovely handpainted cotton/rayon blend yarn, and picovoli with some lovely cotton I've got, but I'm just not feeling the cotton right now. I'm still working on the ruffles scarf with the Calmer, but hey, it's Calmer. It doesn't matter that it's cotton, knitting with it is a joy! To distract you from the fact that I have no pictures of yarn, I'll leave you with a picture of the beach down in Carlsbad. I love walking along a beach and listening to the waves. So relaxing... Oh, and I've added a couple of things to the bargain bin!

Ringing in the New Year!

2006-01-02T07:35:00.000-08:00

RM and I haven't really celebrated New Year's since the birth of my son. Face it, we're tired and would rather sleep. Well, even though we were down in San Diego for a wedding on New Year's, we didn't make it to midnight. Since we had a morning flight back home, we left the party around 10 and were fast asleep by 11. Maybe someday, right? The wedding was beautiful, and it was wonderful to see my best friend from college get married and to be a part of it. Congratulation R and M!! Many long years of married bliss to you both! I did get to work on my Ruffles Scarf while traveling. I'm almost through the first skein of Calmer. I also decided to switch needles. I was using my Denise set, but now have switched to my Clover bamboo circ, and am zipping along. I've decided to start another pair of socks after the scarf is completed. I think I'm going to cast on for the Jaywalkers. I also want to start a new sweater. I'm in the Angelica KAL, but the yarn I've chosen is a cotton blend. It's stormy and ugly outside, so I don't feel like working with cotton. I do, however, have 10 skeins of Knitpicks WOA in a beautiful Cranberry color which is just begging to be knit. I'm thinking Bonne Marie's Twist. I'm going to swatch for it today. Exciting! Oh, and remember that Mexico yarn I spun up from the roving the Boy and I Kool-Aid dyed? Well, I finished spinning it, and plied it. I used my Zebrawood Bosworth midi to spin it, and then plied it with my Cascade Little Si spindle. What do you think? I think I'm going to knit a hat out of it. I like how it turned out, though I think I've got a lot to learn about making my spinning even.

Back to Normal

2005-12-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

My sink disposal got fixed yesterday. I'm very happy. The plumber said he'd never seen such a bad leak before. The important thing is that it's fixed and done with. Yay! Now that the house drama is taken care of, I can share with you my Christmas yarn goodness. I got a lot of yarn. RM got me the Nordic mitten Rosenborg kit in a deep purple and slate gray colorway. He also got me that full bag of Jaeger Shetland Aran in a pretty pumpkin spice color. My parents gave me some money to spend on yarn, so I picked up a bag of Rowan All Season's Cotton in a discontinued color called Eden. My MIL bought me 5 skeins of Malabrigo in Geranio. It's so soft, and I have enough for a sweater! Thanks, Mom! I also picked up the Handknit Holidays book from Amazon, and a traditional mitten book. It was a very knitty holiday! Now, I just need to decide on projects for it all. I realize that I haven't done any movie reviews lately. We haven't seen very many good movies lately, but I do have two movies I can recommend. Four Brothers, directed by John Singleton, is an entertaining movie. It's violent but a very good story about four adopted brothers trying to figure out who murdered their adopted mother. I also recommend The Great Raid, the movie about the real liberation of a WWII POW camp in the Philippines. I wouldn't call it one of the best war movies ever made, but it was interesting. Other than that we've been watching the 5th season of CSI. I won't be updating the blog until after the New Year. We're off to a wedding in Sand Diego this weekend. Have a nice and safe New Year's everyone!

Two things that can put a damper on Christmas...

2005-12-27T08:14:00.000-08:00

1) Eldest child throwing a tantrum at the dinner table because he doesn't like any food offered up for Christmas dinner. He's a picky eater, and I don't know where he gets it. We've tried many tactics to get him to eat a variety of foods. No joy... literally. General attitude towards food lasted through yesterday. RM and I are working on regrouping. 2) Sink disposal under the kitchen sink springing the mother of leaks WHILE making Christmas dinner. Yep, cleaned up the kitchen floor twice. We had to clean it up once when we realized that the disposal was leaking around the entire circumference of the disposal bottom. The second time came when we started up the dishwasher. We didn't think the dishwasher emptied out into that side of the sink. Well, I'm here to tell you, "Yes, yes it does." What adds to my general annoyance is that I called our home warranty company yesterday morning to make the claim. They give me the name and number of a plumbing company and tell me that I will be receiving a phone call within 24 hours. So I call three times yesterday, leaving messages twice. I never get a call back. I start getting a sneaking suspicion that this plumbing company is closed. I call the warranty company back this morning, 24 hours later. I tell them I never received a call and couldn't contact the plumbing company. The representative informs me that some companies had yesterday as a holiday and I should give them more time. When I tell the rep that I should have been informed of this yesterday, they say, sorry, but can't do anything about it. Now, I'm really annoyed since we wasted an entire day waiting around for the phone call. So I call the plumbing company. Yes, they took the day off yesterday, and yes, my warranty company knew this fact and should have told us. The rep at the plumbing company was very nice and is trying to fit us in today, but may not be able to fit us in until next week. Now, mind you, I can't use my dishwasher, and have limited use of my kitchen sink. So, if I can't get fitted in today, I'm calling the warranty company back and will try to get them to find another company to come out and fix the flippin' disposal! ARGH!!! Did I mention that I'm traveling to be at a wedding this weekend in Southern Californa, and this sink problem just better be fixed by then? On a postive note, I got lots of nice yarn for Christmas, and the kids had a blast with all of their toys. I'll post about the good stuff in a day or so, once I've calmed down...

Socks for Christmas

2005-12-22T08:10:00.000-08:00

I finished up my gray slip stitch socks just in time for Christmas! I love them. They are cozy, warm, and can be worn dressed up or down. These are also my first real socks, and I'm not quite sure what was so scary about knitting socks. In fact, I'm looking forward to my next pair. I think another pair of socks will be my New Year's Day project. Project Stats: Pattern: Classy Slip-up Socks from the book Knit Socks! Designer: Betsy Lee McCarthy Yarn: Knitpicks Essential sock yarn in gray Needles: size 1 bamboo DPNs Time to complete: about 3 weeks What I've learned: Socks are fun and satisfying to knit. RM is also rather impressed by the knitting skills as the finished product looks so "professional" (his words). I can't wait to break into some sock yarn with lots of color! Want to see them modeled? Ok here they are. Now what to knit now. I'm still working away on the prayer shawl. I'm thinking of picking the ruffles scarf up again to get that off the needles. I want to start on another sweater but am not sure which one I want to do. Twist perhaps? Also, I can't forget the socks I want to start on New Year's. Jaywalker perhaps? I think I'm going to take some time over Christmas to think about it. I know I've got some fibery goodness coming my way! I may change my mind. I want to wish everyone who celebrates Christmas a very merry, and peaceful one. May it be filled with joy and fellowship. Hohoho!!!

Blog Exposed...

2005-12-20T12:31:00.000-08:00

I was reading Grumperina's blog yesterday and was fully enjoying her transcription of a conversation she had with her mom and grandmother about a shawl she just knitted for her mom. Kathy then added an addendum saying that her family does not know about her blog. She asked her readers to talk about who knows about our blogs and why as a sort of meme. Well, I originally wanted to keep my blog sort of private. I didn't tell anyone except for RM about the blog, and that was only because he saw me working on it. As I continued to blog, and my participation in a variety of KALs and article writing increased, it grew harder and harder to keep it private. Now, I'd say that my entire family and most of my friends know about the blog. How did they find out about it? Well, I mentioned that I had one to my mother, but that I wanted to keep it personal. She respected it (sort of), but it drove her crazy that she couldn't read it. I finally gave in and now she reads it often. I told my MIL, my SIL, and my friends because they would ask me what I was working on, and it was easier to direct them to my blog for pics and such since they all live a great distance from me. The rest of my family found out when I emailed them all about an article I had published on the Muench Yarns Website. When they went to go read it, they all saw that I had a blog. I'm at peace with it and kind of like it now. I know that my mom, husband, MIL all are regular readers. My SIL has read it, and my best friend reads when she can. It's become a way for people to keep up with me and my life for the moment. Ultimately, due to privacy reasons, I'm careful about what I put on my blog picture wise and information wise, so all the content on this blog, with the exception of gift knitting/beading, are things that I don't mind my family and friends knowing about. I did get into *trouble* once though. I posted a pic of my yarn stash a few months ago, and RM emailed me from work to "inquire" about it. Found out he read the blog on that day... *ahem* So now you all know where I knit, and who know about the blog. What about you? Who knows about your blog? Also, if you haven't already done so, where do you knit?

The Knitting Couch

2005-12-20T06:23:00.000-08:00

I haven't officially been tagged with the "Where do you knit" meme, but I thought I'd share anyway. Like most of the pictures I've seen out in Blogville, I knit while sitting on my couch. Now, my couch is known as a happening place. It is the staging ground for many a 30 car pile-up, a battle ground for star wars men to storm a princess's castle, a holding area for comfort lovies, a bed for sick kidlets and sleeping cats, a seat for xbox playing RM, and a beading zone for me. Most of the time, my knitting couch looks like this. When I'm real tired or stressed, I'll just shove some of it aside and knit scrunched over in a corner amongst all the toys. See that castle? The ramparts are actually a good place to put the working ball of yarn. Most of the time though, I clear it off to create a more peaceful place to knit. Here's what I like for my couch to look like. Peaceful, no? Yep, I just need a tasty beverage, a pattern, some yarn and needles, and a good show on TV to knit to. I want to direct you to a lovely poem that KSD wrote over on her blog. Go take a look if you have a moment. Her sentiments mirror my own about all of the people whose blog's I read, and who to the Garden to visit. I appreciate you all!

Anyone have good recommendations for a decent hand lotion?

2005-12-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

My right hand is in a bad way. This is the worst time of year for my hands. First off, the heater is on and makes the air rather dry. Then the cold makes my hands chapped. Then add to that household duties like cleaning of kitchens, bathrooms, laundry, cooking and preparing food. Finally add kid duties like cleaning kid's noses and bottoms with the mandatory hand washing involved after said duties. My hands are a mess. I use the Aveeno Intense relief hand cream and Eucerin liberally and often, but my hands are still cracked and hurting. Luckily, I'm not working with yarn that snags easily, but still. Thoughts? Suggestions? The Boy and I went out together for some Mom/Son time at the mall. We had a lot of fun! All the Christmas shopping is over so we just walked around and got in the Christmas mood. The only damper is the miserable weather. No Cal is in the middle of one torrential rainstorm. Driving home necessitated driving through standing water 3 times. Ugh. I'm about to knti the heel flap of the second sock! Yay!! I better get back to it. I've set a goal of finishing the socks by Christmas.

List 'o craftiness

2005-12-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

Last week I was reading Julie's blog where she listed all the crafts with which she's ever dabbled. Julie challenged her readers to post all the crafts that they have had experience with. I've been meaning to post my list of crafts/arts that have been a part of my life, but got distracted by the mad sock knitting. So here 'tis. latch-hook cross-stitch embroidery sewing plastic canvas candle-making card-making book binding crochet macrame calligraphy origami Spinning with a hand spindle dyeing fiber And then of course: Knitting and Beading Since the following aren't strictly speaking crafts, but they are art forms, I thought I'd include the following in a sublist. (I love lists.) Dance Martial Arts Writing short stories and screenplays Now, I originally intended this blog to be about both knitting and beading. Knitting has kind of taken over this blog. Well, since a lot of my beading has been in secret, due to submission reasons, I thought I'd share some of my past work with all of you from time to time. The piece I'm sharing today is one that I wore all the time when I was working. It still is one of my favorite pieces. I have a thing about chokers, so it's a choker made with borosilicate lampwork beads, sterling silver spacers, and 4mm amethyst round beads with a sterling silver clasp. It's a simple stringing design, but sometimes the simplest designs are the best especially with such gorgeous beads.

One Lonely Little Sock

2005-12-13T06:50:00.000-08:00

Finished up the first solid sock last night while watching last week's Project Runway that we had burned on disc. I really like how it looks! The small needles are worth it. According to the pattern, the heel is a "traditional French heel." Does anyone know what that means and what makes that different from a regular heel? The essential yarn is pretty easy to work with, however, I've never knit a sock before, so this is my first sock yarn. From my blog reading there's some pretty divine stuff out there. I sort of want to take one day break before starting on the other one, but since there's a time constraint to the KAL, I think I'm going to have to at least cast on and get a few rows of 1x1 ribbing done today. The first sock took me a bit of time to get through. I hope the second goes more quickly. I've also joined two other knitting groups. I joined up for the Felted SP 2 round which starts in February. I've enjoyed my two other experiences with SP programs, and am looking forward to this one as well. If you'd like to join, click on the button in my sidebar. More are always welcome! I've also joined up in a mitten swap organzed through the knittyboard. I've not got a lot of info on this one, but this will my first swap involving knitting for someone else, so I'm excited. Please check out my Bargain Bin page for the destashing madness if you haven't already!

Massive destash!

2005-12-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

Take a look at my Bargain Bin for details. I'm off to try to finish up my first sock!

Hazy Shade of Winter

2005-12-11T08:09:00.000-08:00

Meet Hazel, one of the feline scamps that live in the Craftylilly house. She may look sweet and innocent sunning herself on the steps, but don't let that fool you. She's willing to squish herself into any small space that I have next to me in bed at night. I can't tell you how many mornings the Mr. or I have woken up with back pain due to the cat curling up between our legs or in the small of our back. We've even woken up both of use perched at the edge of our bed to find her sprawled out in the middle. She has great taste in yarn too. She'll snub all acrylics but will make a bed out of anything wool, especially if it's got a little mohair in it. Blackberry? Oh yeah, I've found her sleeping on it.

Speaking of people living in the Craftylilly house, I've decided that Mr. Craftylilly needs a new alias. Now, when I asked the Mr. what he wanted to be called, his answer was "Raider Man." Please refer to the Christmas ornament pic I posted a week ago. Since the best I could come up with was Fantasy Football Fanatic or FFF for short, I'll go with what he wants. Raider Man 'tis. RM for short.

Now, RM and I saw a great movie last night off of Netflix. If you haven't already seen Cinderella Man, you must. The acting is superb (Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger), and the story is engaging. I'm not all that into boxing as a sport, but the movie is done so well, even I got into the boxing match scenes.

I want to thank all of you who left such kind and supportive comments about Blackberry. The fact is, I'll probably wear her a lot this winter. I tend to wear the knits that I'm not in love with more, probably because I'm not as afraid to mess them up. I still have my reservations, but I think that with the right shirt underneath, it'll look better. I'm still trucking away at my sock. I hope to have the first sock done and the second sock started by midweek. I'll post a pic when the first sock is done.

If you've made it through the meandering post, I salute you! Have a good Sunday everyone!

Do I like it? Or do I like it, like it?

2005-12-09T06:33:00.000-08:00

Well Blackberry's done. I'm not in love with her. I'm more in like with her. Blackberry was finished up while watching an episode of the Wire on DVD (love that show). While all in all she was an enjoyable knit, I'm not sure about the fit. I made the smallest size, and perhaps should have made the next size up. It's not that Blackberry doesn't fit, it's more that the body of it fits nice and snug, but the cables on the arms make my arms look kind of big and bulky. I knit the arms longer than the 17 inches called for, and I'm glad I did, as I like sleeves to be more at where my fingers begin. I also put a button instead of leaving the ribbing blank for a pin. Love the button, it's shell. I think my hesistation all comes from my huge looking arms. I'm beginning to realize with this knit, that I think I look better in sweaters knit with aran or less weight yarn. Although I'm not a big person, bulky knits kinds of make me look/feel... well bulky. I think if the sweater is meant to be/look bulky (Banff for example) then the bulky yarn/design would probably be fine. Blackberry, however is supposed to be more fitted. So to sum up, cute design, fun knit, not so great fit. Project specs: Design: Blackberry from Fall Knitty, by Jennifer Thurston Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky in Khaki, 4.5 skeins for the smallest size Needles: Size 15 straights and circ Mods: Added a button, made the sleeves 19 inches instead of 17 Summary of What I've learned: Just say no to the Bulky knits, unless they're meant to be bulky. Pardon the pictures. It's been dark when Mr. Craftylilly gets home so I just decided to take the pic myself. If you want to get a picture of the cable on the sleeve, here you go!

DPN or toothpick, you make the call

2005-12-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

So, I'm trucking along on my gray slipped stitch socks (loving them by the way), when it occurs to me that my size 1 bamboo DPNs look quite a lot like long toothpicks. Another thought then hits me; I've been working on this one sock for an awful long time. I guess tiny yarn plus toothpick needles equals slow progress. I'm aiming to be up to heel by this weekend though. I have to have these suckers done and photographed for the Solid Socks KAL by the end of the month. I also joined another KAL... ahem... The good thing is this one won't start until after the New Year. I joined the Angelica KAL. We are knitting Glampyre's Angelica pattern from Hipknits. Everyone is searching for subs right now. I think I have a solution, but I'm not sure yet. As for my other KALs, I'm thinking that Kepler just isn't going to happen. I like the sweater, but after seeing other people's FOs I'm thinking I'd want the sleeves longer and the construction changed to a raglan. Right now that seems like a lot of mods to figure out. Plus, the new Knitty has the Forecast pattern that uses the same yarn I got for Kepler. Hmmm... Choices, choices. The Sexy Knitter's Club is still voting on a pattern, but I'll be up for whatever is decided. All the choices are good, and again this would be an after Christmas knit. Right now, the top priorities are: finish Blackberry in time for Christmas, finish the gray slip stitch socks, get the prayer shawl close to completion. I'll leave you with a picture taken by Mr. Craftylilly... of a Raider's Christmas ornament. He's unbelievable. :)

Pictures!

2005-12-04T14:06:00.000-08:00

I really need to figure out how to post pictures using my picture host rather than picasa. I think the pictures look bigger using a picture host. Regardless, here are some pictures as promised! Other than the SP package, I've got a pic of my seamed Blackberry just waiting to be edged with ribbing, and the state of my sock. I need to get cracking on that. The prayer shawl didn't make it into the shot, but I'm working hard at that too. The last picture is one of the family working on the Christmas tree. We've got it all decorated and lit up! I'm feeling really festive now! Here's a quick movie review for all of you as we've finally seen some decent movies. If you haven't already seen Bad Santa, and you don't mind dark humor, you really must rent it. We laughed a lot. I don't think it deserved all the bad press it got. It's not an anti-Christmas movie, more of a story about a sad, pathetic individual that semi-receives redemption. Also, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is quite fun. We're still working away at The Wire, but are heartily irritated that there are only 2 episodes per DVD. Using Netflix, it's going to take us forever to see the whole first season. Oh yes, and if you haven't already done so, sign my Frappr map, please! You can find the link on my sidebar. Cheers!

My SP package!! Thanks Tara!

2005-12-04T14:03:00.000-08:00

A seamed Blackberry sans ribbing, and a sock

2005-12-04T14:01:00.000-08:00

Oh Christmas tree, oh christmas tree...

2005-12-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

This has been around the block

2005-12-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

I've been reading everyone's and thought I'd try my hand at it. 10 Random Things about Me… -I've always loved stuffed animals, even as an adult. Never been a doll girl. -I got married one week after my 24th birthday. -The best, most rewarding organized educational experience I've ever had was my gradutate program at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, a consortium of seminaries. -I used to write short stories and hope to do so again someday. -I never had a clear concieved plan to be married with children, but here I am. -I'm afraid of flying, but do it reluctantly. -I love Dim Sum, but never get to have it these days. -I have a love of pens and notebooks, and enjoy browsing through office supply stores. -I've been more creative in the past year since I left my teaching job, then I have been in any other period of my life. -I love being in my 30s and really didn't enjoy my 20s 9 Places I’ve Been…. -Yellowstone -Yosemite -Bryce Canyon -Oregon -Seattle -Disneyland -Victoria, Canada -Georgia -Las Vegas 8 Ways to Win My Heart…. -Be sweet to me and to others -Bring me Starbucks pastries -Have a good sense of humor -Be a natural athlete but not conceited about it -Listen to what I have to say -Stand up for oneself -Be open-minded -Have compassion and empathy 7 Things To Do Before I Die…. -Visit Jerusalem -Go whitewater rafting -Write the Great American Novel -Design a sweater -Visit all the historical landmarks in the U.S. -Go to Europe -Live anxiety free 6 Things I’m Afraid of…. -Spiders -Snakes -Losing a loved one -Being trapped in a situation or a small enclosed space -Flying in a plane -Losing control over my life 5 things I don’t like…. -Bad Dialogue in the movies -Bad breath in a person that I have to sit next to -Cleaning out the cat box -Soap scum -My kids bickering 4 Ways to Turn Me Off…. -Be a bigot -Have bad manners -Have bad hygeine -Arrogance 3 Things I Do Everyday…. -Knit -Play with the kids and cats -Email and blog reading 2 Things That Make Me Happy…. -My kidlets' laughter -Kitty purrs 1 Thing On My Mind, RIGHT NOW…. I've got a bazillion things to do while the kids nap today. I got the last package from my knitty SP today! She has been very thoughtful and generous. I think I've figured out that it's Taranichole. She has a great blog too! She sent me two skeins of Color Your Own sock yarn from Knitpicks, some of the cutest sheep buttons I've ever seen, the books, "Hands on Dyeing", and "Bad Cat," some cute tags for my beadwork, and a Hello Kitty candy cane ornament. For being her first time in a Secret Pal round, I'd have to say she's awesome. I'll put up a pic later. I'm doing the seaming of Blackberry too. I'm glad the seaming is done before the final ribbing. Seaming is not my favorite thing to do.

2005-12-02T07:08:00.000-08:00

Luck and Love

Picture card worthy

2005-12-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year where I break out the Christmas card list, a pen, several boxes of Christmas cards, a few sheets of stamps, and a heating pad for my aching writing hand. I haven't as yet fallen prey to the Christmas Letter syndrome that many of my family and friends have fallen prey to. I'm just not all that motivated to tell everyone about the past year. Most of them know about all of it anyway. No, I've gone the other route, the take a pic of the kids and make photo card and have your Christmas greeting preprinted route. If only Ofoto addressed the envelopes as well... I do have a teensy little problem though. We only bought 20 of these nifty picture cards, and I have a huge family, with the addition of Mr. Craftylilly's family which is not as huge, but still a sizeable addition to the Christmas card writing and sending assembly line. Well, let's just hope the family don't discuss amongst themselves what card they got from us this year. Against all my desires, I decided to start on the second sleeve of Blackberry. I had a firm talking-to with myself and reminded myself that I want this sweater done by Christmas, and that I needed to knit the sleeves as close together as possible to ensure that they will be the same length and width. Now that I'm fully into the cable portion, I'm back to enjoying myself. My solid socks for the solid socks KAL are still in the infancy stages. I've cast on, I've got about 11 rows of 1x1 ribbing done, and that's about it. After the Blackbery sleeve is done, I'm fully concentrating on them. I've also started the prayer shawl, but as I feel I should be in a good frame of mind, and not watching hilarious yet totally irreverent movies like Bad Santa (funny, funny, FUNNY), it hasn't gotten too far. I'll have more pics of WIPs this weekend, but for now, look at the lovely Asian themed journal that SharonP from the knittyboards made for me for the handmade journal swap! She also sent me a set of red knitting needles kept nicely warm in a beautiful red silk brocade knitting needle holder. Thanks Sharon! On her blog she also provides a handy knitting project tracker sheet that you can print off and use in your knitting journal.

Cabling with or without a cable needle

2005-11-29T15:15:00.000-08:00

I've been switching back and forth between the two ways of doing this, and I think I've decided that my cables with a cable needle are much more neat. Maybe I just need more practice with cabling without a needle. I'm using Grumperina's approach of grabbing onto the the stitches as they hand in midair which helps with my overall blood pressure, but the tension just seems a bit wonky without the trusty cable needle. Sorry about the horrible picture, it's a dark, dreary day today. I'm making an executive knitting decision today as well. I have 2 more scarves and another set of spa washcloths on my list of things to knit before Christmas as gifts, but I'm clearing them off the "to do" list as of today. A friend of mine who I used to work with has been emailing her friends and family to pray for her neice, who was in a devastating car accident about a week ago. Things are not good. I've decided to knit a prayer shawl and give it to my friend. I'm going to let her decide who needs it the most. I've got 5 skeins of Light n' Lofty in a beautiful purple and blue color that will work very well. It's machine washable, soft, and will be light yet warm. I just feel that this family needs to be knit for more than some of my friends, who would be just as happy with something else.

The long arm of Blackberry

2005-11-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been obsessed with a pattern?

2005-11-27T14:14:00.000-08:00

So much so that you can't stop knitting it until it's complete? Well, I had that experience with the Esther Williams hat. I LOVE this pattern. It's easy, but has enough interesting parts that it kept my interest. It's a small project and so I was able to finish it quickly, and I think it will make a fabulous gift for my SIL who will be freezing up in Denver this winter. Now, I realize that I haven't been all that organized when reporting on my knitting. I'm more of a big picture, large concept kind of girl. I'm not what you might called, "detail oriented." What I've learned by reading different blogs is that a lot can be learned by these details. I've learned a ton from Laura, Kathy, Becky, Margene, Siow Chin, and countless others. So I'm working on the detail thing. In that spirit, here are the project specs. Pattern: Esther Williams Hat by Laura of Poor Miss Finch Materials: 1 skein of Plymouth Encore in a buttery yellow Needles: Size 10 16"circ and DPNs, Size F crochet hook Time to complete: About 10 hours over 4 days What I learned: Well, I'm the slowest crocheter on the planet. The crochet edge took me forever, but I'm glad I hung in there. The edging really makes the hat special. I really like working with Encore as a acrylic/wool blend, although it did get a bit splitty with the crochet portion. You can't beat it for gifts for people with wool sensitivities. I know my SIL won't be itching. I'm also getting much more comfortable using DPNS. I think I'm ready to get my solid socks on the needles now with the further DPN practice. I just read on Laura's blog that she completed an Esther Williams in about 5 hours. I can see how making these hats will go faster with practice. Near the end, I had committed the pattern repeats to memory and whipped along much faster. In other knitting news, I'm starting the sleeves of Blackberry. I'm going to do it without Bobbles, I think. The bobbles just beg to be pulled upon by my kidlets. I'm also going to cast on my solid socks this week. Now the real question is, do I start another scarf or my last spa washcloth set for Christmas gifts? Ugh... Also, a fun contest is being run over at Just.Sew.Crafty. She's collecting pictures of knitters, knitting "in the wild." The best pics will be put up after the first of the year for voting. Fibery prizes will be awarded for the best pics! Go check it out. Oh, and for you beading enthusiasts, I have a bead project burning a hole in my idea notebook. I'm keeping it super secret to see if it will work out. If it does, I may try my had at submission again. If not, I'll post about it here. It does involve using Fireline though!

Don't worry, I'm not taking up fishing. This is for a secret bead project. Shhh....

2005-11-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

A completed Esther Williams

2005-11-27T14:12:00.000-08:00

Esther in progress

2005-11-25T14:52:00.000-08:00

Recovering from the Turkey Coma

2005-11-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was a success, which is a relief. It was my first year making the turkey, and it turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. We made all the other dishes as well. My refrigerator is stuffed with leftovers that will last a few days. Ah, Thanksgiving leftovers; it's enough to give thanks for that alone. Much knitting is being accomplished during this long weekend as well. I've gotten pretty far into knitting the Esther Williams hat. I'm using the acrylic/wool blend Plymouth Encore as my SIL is sensitive to wool. The yarn is a pretty yellow cream color. I'm thinking I'm going to need to make one of these hats for myself as it is turning out so cute. I also finished up a scarf and a couple sets of spa washcloths. Blackberry in the Lamb's Pride Bulky is moving right along as well. I finished the back and the fronts. I'm thinking of getting a big chunky button to fasten the front. We'll see what I can come up with at my LYS. You might have noticed that I haven't been reviewing movies on DVD lately. I haven't mostly because we haven't seen anything of note. We've also been watching TV series on DVD. Lost Season 1 is excellent, and The Wire is pretty good too. Movies we've seen include The Skeleton Key (not so good), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (just creepy), War of the Worlds (again, not so good), The Devil's Rejects (gross, and bad dialogue). So you see, I've really nothing of note to report. Tonight we're watching Cronicas, so I'll let you know about that one if it's worth talking about. You can bet I've knit through all of these movies, and will be knitting through the one tonight. I think there may be subtitles, but that's not stopped me before. I understand some Spanish, so I think I can fill in what I miss by listening. Hope Thanksgiving was bountiful and joyous for all of you!

I've got some good news, some bad news, and some ridiculous news...

2005-11-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

What do you want to hear first? I'll get the bad news out of the way first. I swatched away with the Jamieson's Chunky in the lovely Neptune shade to see if it would work with Blackberry. No joy... I just couldn't get gauge and create a fabric that I thought would look nice. By the time I got close, the knit was way to lose. I was officially bummed. Here's the good news, and it far outweighs the bad. One of the positives of having a substantial stash, is that you almost always have something in there that will fit a pattern you want to make. Luckily I had 5 skeins of Lamb's Pride Bulky in Khaki that did knit up to guage with some finagling of needle sizes. I'm halfway up the back, and have to say the yarn is working up quite nicely. Lest you think the Jamieson's will feel no love, I have the Rowan Cork Collection book, and I realized that the Jamieson's will work up to the same gauge as the Cork. Yeah!! Ok, on to the ridiculous news, I joined another KAL. I couldn't help myself, and since I got the kidlets stockings done for the Stockingalong, I had to do it. Now, if my mother is reading this (and she does, Hi MOM!) she's shaking her head. You see I've always been someone who overjoins things and then kills myself to get everthing done. She's got stories, lots of stories of me overbooking myself in order not to miss out on any excitement and then get really sick and or crazed from what I've done to myself. However, in my defencse, it's a fabulous pattern and is going to make my Sister-in-law a nice warm hat, since she and her new husband just moved to Denver. What KAL did I join? I joined the Esther Williams KAL (Synchronized Knitting). Laura, of Poor Miss Finch, designed the cutest hat, and is hosting a clever KAL for it. The KAL started yesterday and goes to December 16th. We are to be literally knitting the hat together, thus the synchronized knitting. The hat is so cute, and I've got plenty of stash yarn to make more!! Lastly, please sign my Frappr map! I've got almost 10,000 hits on this blog, there are more of you out there! Please sign, it's fun to see where everyone is from.

Blackberry for Christmas?

2005-11-20T12:09:00.000-08:00

The stockings

2005-11-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

RAK package

2005-11-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

I made my deadline... Whew!

2005-11-20T11:53:00.000-08:00

I've been industriously working on my kidlets' Christmas Stockings these past few weeks. I wanted to get them done by Thanksgiving, so we can hang them when we decorate the house the weekend after Turkey Day. I made my deadline!! They're both done! I still need to put their names on the stockings using the duplicate stitch, but I'm allowing myself until after Christmas to do it. You know what that means... I get to start a sweater!!! Yessssss.... Today I will be swatching for Blackberry using my Jamieson's Chunky in the Neptune colorway. A sweater for Christmas? I think so! I also want to post a couple of thanks to two very sweet people! Thanks to Xanthia from the knittyboards for sending me a Hello Kitty RAK package. You can see what she sent in the picture sans the gum. We devoured the gum almost before the package was unwrapped. Also, thanks go out to Caitlyn for sending me two balls of gray knitpicks essential sock yarn. I think I will using this yarn for my contribution to the Solid Socks KAL. Now that I've completed the stockings, I'm much more brave about knitting socks for real feet. Also, if I haven't blogged about it before, I want to thank Elisabeth for sending me a lovely spun cotton. It's in a tangle, but I've got ways to make it behave... If you haven't already done so, please place your pin in my Frappr map! I'm enjoying seeing where everyone lives and knits!

Now all the cats want a turn at the blog

2005-11-17T19:15:00.000-08:00

Ashe and Hazel cornered me this morning and gave me a piece of their feline minds. Apparently they are upset that Wiji has been the only cat featured on this blog. Needless to say, there may be a post from each of them in the coming weeks. I'm feeling much better now; thanks for the well wishes! I think the picture of the thin piece of cardboard covering the yawning hole in my floor that was an air register confused some people. You see, we've been having furnace trouble. In the midst of diagnosing our furnace with a bad motherboard, we were also informed that there our ductwork was unsealed and that we've been pulling in air from our garage and under our house. This actually explains a lot considering that we've all had wicked allergies since moving into this house almost a year ago. So, to make a long story long, we paid a ton of money for our ductwork to be cleaned, sanitized and sealed. It took an entire day. Those of you with small children know how tiring this is considering I had holes in my floor and ceiling all day and a very loud Hepa vacuum and high power air hoses at work most of the day. The good thing is now we have clean and sealed ductwork. I hope to see a cut on our energy bills. Oh, and another reason I'm happy the ductwork is not sealed, the guys who did the work found 3 dead rats under the house. The thought of pulling in air from under the house is just that much grosser. I did finally pick up my knitting after the kids went down for bed and got much further on little girl's Christmas stocking. I'm also plugging away at the spa washcloths. I got to tell you though, I'm getting really bored. After little girl's stocking is finished, I'm making plans on a sweater. I also HAVE to hurry up and pick a pattern for the Solid Socks KAL. I want to do something more exciting than a basic sock, but I'm just not sure where to start looking. I think I'm going to spend some time with the Sensational Socks book and see what strikes me. I've decided to follow the crowd and get my own Frappr map, so please check out my sidebar and tell me where you're from!

Hello, I'm Wiji, Craftylilly's Cat

2005-11-16T12:41:00.000-08:00

One of them anyway. There are two others, my brother and the little shrimp. They aren't the focus of today's post. Can I tell you a secret? I think Mom's trying to poison me. You see, a couple of weeks ago she took all of us to the Vet. None of us appreciated it. Well, at this Vet visit, we were told that my brother and I needed a teeth cleaning. Because of my heart murmur, I have to have antibiotics for a couple of days before the procedure. Anyway, last week, Mom gives me some which made me really sick. I haven't totally forgiven her. Well, yesterday, she tries to give me some more. Now granted, this stuff tastes different, and I dont' feel sick after it, but I still don't trust it. It's orange. I don't trust orange things. I've fought back. I dont' take this kind of treatment laying down (contrary to my picture). I've got teeth and claws and am not afraid to use them. Let's just say I've got big plans for when she tries to get me in the cat carrier tomorrow. Mom is having a bad day all the way around. That second picture you see? Those are the open holes in the floor and ceilings created when you get your ductwork cleaned. The little girl has been in her playpen all day, and the boy is stir crazy. The vacuum they are using is really loud and scary too. Mom says she feels a migraine coming on. I haven't seen her pick up her sticks and yarn all day. Ashe, Hazel, and I have conferred and decided she's going to lose it today. We've got our assigned hiding places figured out.