I Have Proof

see.... I have been knitting. Just a couple more arms and legs, oh and a few curls and this mama will be good to go. The word on the street is that the recipient of this here doll has a thing for fairies and recently her room was redone in Tinkerbell so I think it's only fitting that the doll get a Tink dress too. I so lucked out, I didn't know about the Tink room until after I had received the yarn so it was a total coincidence that I had ordered a skein of green yarn too. I was planning on embroidering a few simple flowers along the bottom of this dress which is why I got the green skein. Like I said luck. I have an idea of how I'm going to do it so we'll see how it turns out. I'm waiting until the body of the doll is done before I start the dress though since Tink's dress is a bit on the short side and well frankly we don't want any of Sally's unmentionables showing, just pretend they aren't in the above pic.

I am so behind on my knitting. This is the first time that I've ever had things to knit for people. I mean I've knit things and given them to others before but never knit things with the people knowing that they are getting them, so to speak. Another friend of mine asked for a hat to replace the one that accidentally went through the wash. A good reminder of why machine washable is a must for those with young ones. Actually I would've run it through the wash too just not the dryer, which she suspects her older daughter did. No problem though, I half expected it, or the twin that was given to my sleeping nephew to get destroyed long before it did so hey. So for those of you keeping count, that's one doll, one hat, and one other hat...Ok so I've kinda made it my personal mission to knit Corben a new winter hat each year. I mean he is after all the closest thing I have to a nephew on my side of the family. And how could I not, he loves my hats so...This by the way is the hat that I have to replicate. So anyway back to the count, one doll (I'm so making myself one of these in the future), two hats, a wild stripes blanket, and a cow scarf. Now given the last two don't really have a deadline, well none of them do but I would like to get the doll out by the time the kid graduates and Corben's yearly winter hat would need to be done well by the end of winter, but I have made the decision to not start anything new until I have everything off the needles and I so want to start the February Lady sweater. Ok, ok I can start the striped scarf that I got the yarn for the other day but that's it, nothing new until the one doll, two hats, the wild stripes, cow scarf, and striped scarf are all complete. Oh and I also need to start...kidding.

Pinkie admits to Complete Failure...

I got nothing, absolutely nothing accomplished this weekend. I guess since I haven't been around in a while I could give a quick update. The Mr. bought a new welding truck, well not new, actually far from new but new to him, and he has been working on it the past two weekends. So after last weekend's incident that ended with my leg catching on fire, no worries no harm was done, I decided I would stick to the sewing machine this time. I was in charge of making straps to help lift a tank out of the truck. Ok so right away the engineering side of my brain starts cranking, it was only squeaky for a short time. Anyway long story short the brilliant idea, and I mean it was brilliant, that I came up with was beyond a failure, maybe it was so brilliant. Then while the sewing machine was out I decided I'd finally make that bag for the Mr's work clothes I've been promising him. Oh it started out great, I even made box pleated corners, or whatever they're called. Then came the time to put the grommets on. I have found the new devil. Another long story short a grommet came off after I had the top all hemmed up and everything. "Fuck it" is all I have to say about this weekend. And while I'm on the subject of the weekend...why is it that my house cannot survive one. We go into the weekend with the house looking great, I mean spotless. Then by Monday all hell has broken lose. Specifically my table... This table had nothing on it except a candle/hurricane and a table runner on Friday. This was taken Saturday so I'm sure it's even worse by now but I have refused to look at it. And I figured while the camera was out I'd play a bit more so....here is the Mr. Actually I got a few really good pictures of him welding this weekend. I'd love to put a few up around the house but I'm thinking if he's going to want pics like that he'd want them of him actually welding pipe not playing around in his backyard so oh well.... On a side note Blogger is not playing nice today. My pictures are not resizing like they normally do so I'm doing in manually and it just isn't working out so well and I have to run so they are staying screwed up until later, probably much much later but screw it.

In knitting news, Sally is starting to make her way into the world, head first no less. That's right Jhonda I started on your Sal. Her head is almost finished, hair not included. No pics yet though, since there's really nothing worth taking pics of yet, then again I have a picture of my husband welding on my knitting blog....But anyway I'll get some pics up when I have a bit more finished. Amber helped me pick out the colors so if you don't like them it's her fault not mine. And since I've managed to lose one of my size 7's, knitting on my COW scarf(the one from the last post) has stopped. It's just so patiently sitting over there longing to be picked up, maybe I'll try to find that needle today. Anyway until next time....

Just another one of those days

Nyquil + me = a horrible combination. For some reason I never remember this before I'm chugging the stuff down, but the next morning it all suddenly comes back to me. At first I woke up thinking I've caught the draggin' disease again. It wasn't until after I returned this morning from running a few errands that I remembered the nyquil. It is 12 hours later and I still feel like shit, you know that heavy feeling that you get, like it's even too much to just walk around, yeah that's what I feel like.

Well anyway I know I promised a picture of the scarf I was working on and I never delivered so here ya go, and because I lied I'll even give you not one but two....

The pictures don't really do it justice. The yarn that I'm using is one that I got when I was in ArtsyGal's sock club but since it no longer had the ball band on it, I was going to use it on something else but obviously that fell through, I don't know what exactly it is other than yummy. It really is. It is nice and squishy and I'm lovin' the colors. This is where the pics aren't doing it justice. It really is more of a blue green color not just a blue and it has these great sections of purple and an even greener blue green. At first I wasn't diggin' how it was pooling. All the green and purple were on one side and the other was just kinda blah in comparison but after a while it started shifting around and I just fell for it.
As you can tell though I'm not very far. I really should be further along by now, especially with that lazy, I mean time saving way of not winding the yarn into a ball (did I mention that I had a ball winder).

The Sweet Smell of Success

Ahh...wish you were here to smell it. Are you wondering what "it" is? It is my bread of course. Remember I'm getting domesticated. For those of you who have done the math, you aren't crazy I am indeed two days late, so we'll see how it turns out. I hear that the starter is very forgiving but who knows.

It has been a very eventful day around the Pinkie home. First our bloodhound refuses to stay in her pen, so I'm constantly greeted with a whining dog when I walk outside. Next the little dog, the one in the pumpkin picture ruins our DVD player/surround sound and get shocked. Somehow I'm thinking she won't find lizard hunting such a good idea next time. So what I'm thinking is if I didn't have dogs maybe my life would be just a tad less stressful. I just finished cleaning the hell out of the house so that when the Mr. gets in from working late maybe the fucked up DVD player won't seem so bad, I don't think it's going to work though.

Seriously I need to knit, which is what I'm going to go do now. I'm working on the Crest of the Wave Scarf out of some of ArtsyGal's sock yarn. Also if you would like you can buy a kit for the scarf here. Anyway I'm off to work on that, I'll get some pics of it up tomorrow.

Just pretend there's something clever up here again

Why is it so damn hard to come up with clever titles anyway. So my swapper finally posted today that she had received my package which means I can now post pics, however bad they may be. I didn't want to post them before she said she received it because while I am normally horrible about surprises, I think everyone must know what they are getting for Christmas especially me, this time I wasn't spoiling it. Warning they are quite fuzzy at least the scrubby pic is.

I told ya it was fuzzy, I couldn't get a great shot so I finally just said fuck it. I have to say I was a bit worried during the swap. I sent out my box on the 16th and when I hadn't heard from her a week later I figured it had gotten lost and started a new cloth. This being my first swap I was determined not to be a sucky swapper. Then a couple days later I decided I'd send her a message to let her know another box would be on its way. No worries though she just hadn't checked her PO box. However after being worried once I have to say I remained worried until she posted that she had received it. Hopefully she liked it. I enjoyed doing the swap, it was small and cheap and fun to get something in the mail other than bills. The cloth I recieved is at the bottom of this post.

Picture courtesy of Topaz. I decided I'd borrow her pic, it looks much better than mine. Hopefully she won't mind, if she/you do let me know and I'll take it down.

UPS love

Don't you just love that little, well it's not really little but it's not 18-wheeler big either, brown truck that pulls up to the house bringing you glorious goodies. If you can't tell I am in what some might say is a UPS euphoric state. I some how managed to convince the Mr. that I needed a new camera, a shiny new tiny one to put in my purse. I mean don't we all need one of those. This is my old camera.

It isn't really that old. I think I got it for Christmas two years ago. It has definitely been a love/hate relationship. It loves to make me hate it. No really I'm learning to love it, now that I'm learning lighting. I loathe camera flashes so I insist on not using it. What I end up with is, well sometimes great and sometimes not so great, actually more like a horrible grainy mess. I have learned that if I must use the flash to stand as far back as I can then zoom into the whatever it is that I'm taking a picture. This I can live with if there is no other option. The camera takes great outdoor shots. My SIL got the same camera about 6 months to a year after I got mine and she has gotten some excellent pictures of her kids since. So it isn't the camera really, it's my obsessive ways that sometimes make me want to set the camera down calmly and jump on it. Again kidding I actually do love this camera.

This however is what the UPS man brought me, that sweet sweet man. Now I must admit I skipped the usual 3 week period where I just sit crawling the Internet for every review to find the exact camera that I wanted. I wanted to give Nikon a try and this one was in the price range I was willing to go so I went. Again the reason I wanted a new camera was so that I could pop it in my purse and take it everywhere with me. While I love my camera, and while I just got an enormous purse that would so fit my camera, I just felt a wee little one would work better. So far I'm liking it but so far I've only played with it for about 10 minutes. Below are pictures taken with the new camera.I've made two more teenie weenie pumkineenies. I might just be addicted to these little guys. I only have a few more, 15-20, to go to fill up the bowl/hurricane that I'm planning on using. Yeah I know I'll probably give up long before then. I then decided to take a picture of one single pumpkin and the pup decided that she wanted to make the pumkin her toy...
While I was never able to get her to leave the pumpkin alone so I could take pictures, I was able to talk her into allowing me to include the pumpkin in a picture of her, such a ham. Please forgive the rat's nest that is her head. It's a good day if her hair even makes it up in a bow/clip/band.So far I'm likin' my little Nikon. I'll have to let ya know if I change my mind after I use it some more. Off to go play now....

One word: Cute

How cute is that teenie weenie pumpkin.  Oh that's right you can't really see just how small it is, just trust me it is teenie.  It's definitely smaller than those tiny pumkins that you always want to get but have no idea what to do with, admit it you always want to get them when you see them.  I love this little guy.  I'm going to attempt to make a whole bowl to put in the center of the kitchen table.  Oh yeah the pattern can be found here, you know you want to make one.

Pinkie Goes Domestic

You heard it right folks, this chica is getting domesticated. As if the knitting wasn't enough, I'm making bread. I have fond memories of Momma Pinkie's bread starter and all the glorious bread that came from it. So I finally decided to give it a go. Actually it started when the neighbor offered to give me a bit of hers and I gladly took it, only to let it die. So yesterday morning I started one of my own.

I bet the Mr. was wondering what the hell I was doing this time. When I went in to check on it this morning it was all ballooned up, which means that more than likely it was when he got up this morning. The plus side, I've trained him well, he did not touch it. Nine more days until the Mr. comes in and says what's cooking, it smells good, or at least I'm hoping it goes more like that than the opposite.

Along the same domestic lines I've been cleaning like a mad woman. I don't know what it is but something about the weather and getting to open the windows puts me in the mood to clean. I guess I just imagine this clean house with breezes flowing through. So I have made a list of all the non norm things to do. Yes to all those remembering back to my cleaning schedule I am all about the lists, how the hell else am I suppose to remember what I need to do.

See that up there, one thing already checked off. Now I have a nice bag of kitchen utensils all ready to make their way to goodwill, actually it isn't goodwill but close enough. How I was able to fit three drawers worth of crap into 2 drawers I will never know. And why I felt the need to have not three, not four, but five, yes five ice cream scoops I will never know. Just getting rid of three scoops (yes, I'm still keeping two), two vegetable peelers, and two pizza cutters, gave me worlds of room in the drawers. Seriously this is all the crap I'm getting rid of.Now it doesn't look like a whole hell of a lot there but trust me it's at least one drawer if not more worth of crap. This Pinkie is going to have one happy Mr. when he comes home. He hates, no despises all of my clutter.

And just so I can continue to call Hal here a knitting blog...

...this is what I got from the dish cloth swap, minus a bit of candy that has already found it's way to the candy jar. I love the multicolored yarn and it looks great with the orange. I mentioned that my light blue kitchen looked surprising good with orange and my pal musta paid attention, or got lucky. Anyway this is why I like doing these here swaps, I would've never picked up that multicolored yarn on my own, and I would've been missing out cause I'm seriously diggin' it but now I don't have to cause I have some.

Time to feed Hal

Yeah to all of you who weren't there for the big start up, ok ok I can admit it, for all of you since you weren't there in the beginning you probably don't know that this here blog's name is Hal. So next time I mention Hal and you find yourself wondering "just how crazy is this lady" just know that while I am crazy (I mean who names their blog anyway) I am just not completely insane (I do not see dead people, who happen to be named Hal, and talk about feeding them all the time). I figure it's been over a week since my last update, I know big surprise, anyway I guess I figured it was time to give ya guys something.

Lately I have become somewhat addicted to dishcloths. Not too bad, but I did join a swap and convince Newbs to as well. I haven't received my dishcloth swap package yet (mailing deadline isn't until the end of next week I believe) anyway I did send mine out yesterday. I had fun searching for just the right pattern and yarn and of course knitting it. Can't post a pic in the off chance that she stumbles over to get any info, yeah I know very unlikely that someone else would voluntarily come to my blog but you never know. I can however post this....

See slightly addicted. In my defense most of these have been finished for a while and are just awaiting a needle and a nonlazy person to weave in the ends. I would say all but three still need the ends woven in.

I also realized recently that you haven't actually seen the above yet, well not felted at least. I'm really happy with how it turned out. And even happier that she is using it. Contrary to the above photo my cats are not the normal roll in a ball sleepers. They are more of the let's see how much room we can take up sleepers. She was just getting pissed at me for taking pics so this is her semi hiding semi leave me the hell alone pose. Anyway since they stretch out this bed is great because the sides, as you can see, fold down easily.And just because I love how this picture came out I'm including the one below too.

I had to sweet talk her into getting into the bed that day. But I just love how the light hits her sooo...

Just to show you how lazy my mail lady is. Yes that is my mailbox with the door wide open and yes the mail could go flying out. Oh and yes this was taken from inside through the blinds if you are by chance wondering what those dark things are going across the pic. And yes I just completely and randomly went way off topic there, oh well.

Also since I'm dragging out this post for as long as I can I just wanted to say that I did not forget your requested project Jelly Beans, I'm just waiting on the yarn to be restocked so I can actually place an order for it.

New Knitting Monday

So with a new week comes new knitting right. I have so wanted to knit my dog a sweater out of finger weight yarn for the longest time and as I was staring at her thought today would be the day I start. I don't know why but for some reason my own biggest accomplishments come from knitting things in smaller weight yarns. So I grabbed the newest skein of sock yarn I've bought and cast on. After the cast on and a few rows in I held it up to her, way too big. So out it came, and with it out went my idea of starting her a fingering weight sweater. It is a great idea though, I figure it won't be warm enough to keep her warm outside but it would be perfect inside. It would keep her a bit toastier while not making her too hot. Anyway I went in search of my next project. Why yes I could have picked up Wild Stripes but what fun would that be. Besides he's nice and tucked in in the guest bedroom, shhhh....he's sleeping. So I ran through my Ravelry queue trying to pick out which hat I would like to start. This is the hat I settled on...

yeah I know not much of a hat. It's actually a Klean Kanteen Kozy and frankly I think the baby sized ones are just the cutest little things. A few weeks ago I finally ordered the Mr. some of the Klean Kanteen bottles. I figured reusing the plastic toxin leaching bottles wasn't the best idea, although we've been doing this for quite some time and no ill effects as of yet. Anyway he's a freak about stainless steel so I knew he would digg these bad boys and digg he does. So after he used them for a couple of days he mentioned how cold the metal gets from being in his lunch box/cooler. Well I knew with the trusty needles in hand, a good skein of yarn, and a great pattern I would be able to remedy that problem. Now logically I know he will not use the covers. Ha do you really think he's going to be ridiculed at work? Hell to the no. But I figured if I ever use one then I'll have a great cover to keep my hands from getting cold. Now to get on top of buying those reusable shopping bags...

And just because I want to show off some more here's a bit of a blast from the past...

yep that's right today's post is all about the cozies. I knit this one a while back. The yarn is some I dyed myself and I actually really like it here. There is apparently an ice cream cozy in a book somewhere but none of the other patterns in there were screaming to me so I figured I could wing it. To this day this is one cozy that I feel everyone should have. I know some people are anticozy but the first time you grab that pint of ice cream out of the freezer and dip your spoon directly in the carton all the while your hands are remaining unfrozen, you will thank me for telling you you must have one. There is nothing that compares to the satisfaction of this guilty pleasure and I urge everyone to knit yourself an ice cream cozy so you too can be a bit more comfortable when indulging yourself with ice cream straight from the carton.

Why I knit

The house was pretty much in order today so that left me a bit more knitting time that usual. I did something that I haven't done in quite a while, I broke out the "pointy sticks" and turned on Cast On. Every time I listen to it, it reminds me of why I knit. I knit for the history; the history that is already in the knitting and the history that I'm making. Every time I pick up my needles I can't help but think of the generations long ago, I see their hands working the needles and the yarn slipping through their fingers. The last time I was knitting with my niece she started asking about "who made up knitting" and such. It just made me smile that she in her own way is thinking about the past of knitting. We discussed it for a bit about how much there was to knitting and how many people added to it in their own way and just the pure intelligence/engineering that that first person had to start knitting, or weaving, etc. One of my favorite episodes of Brenda's is the one where she discusses knitting memories. I know we've all picked up something we had knit a while ago and were immediately back where we were when we were knitting. We were back sitting on the beach, or driving to our eldest son's graduation, or just on the couch on an ordinary day with the sun sneaking in warming up the living room. The history, that is why I knit.

Nonknitting Sunday

Lazy Sunday is more like it. Lat night we went to some friends' house to watch the game....Roll Tide Roll. Another win for the Crimson Tide (not much of a win, but a win none the less). So anyway today I decided I wasn't doing a thing. The poor husband has different thoughts. He's been outside working all morning. Who knows what all is getting done but hopefully its not going to require me getting rid of more of my stuff. Why is it that every time he decides he's going to clean it turns into me sitting down and sorting through stuff and trashing half of it...

Now today hasn't been a total waste mind you. I broke out ole trusty (no not that, get your minds out of the gutter people, my sewing machine) and went diggin in the black hole, umm I mean my sewing closet. I had a great idea to make a needle case. Sadly the only material I could find was supposed to be made into the sister's bag last Christmas but there wasn't time so it's been sitting in my closet ever since.  And by the way I wasn't the slacker this time it was my Mother, for your information.  I've picked up the fabric a couple of times to use on something else but decided I better not well not today I said to hell with it and used it. She does have good taste though...

That's my Dad when he was little if you were wondering. Mom's right beside him but she didn't make it into the photo. I bet you didn't know that I was also a master on the sewing machine as well did ya? Yep that's me Pro Seamstress, ha. I went through a quilting phase and learned all things sewing, well a lot of things sewing.

I'm happy with how it turned out. I've made one before but it was out of white canvas and was just too plain. This one has a bit of character and spunk and a bit of edging on the inside (this is my fave part). Speaking of the other one I haven't been able to find it these past few days so that's why there is a lack of needles in the new case. It seems a bit big though so eventually I might make a smaller one. One that only holds a few sets so it's a bit easier to take on the go. It's only about 18"x24" (keeping in mind that the height allows for the top to be folded down a bit) but I would still like a tiny tot version. Anyway here she is in all her glory.

The Beast is Complete

well almost. It's in the machine felting as we speak oh oh oh hang on a sec...sorry I had to go check on it. Bet you want pictures don't you?
Doesn't tell ya much does it? Ha ha ha. Yeah so the husband decided to take a nap this afternoon so I was able to get this monster finished. For some reason I seriously underestimated this thing. It wasn't hard it just took quite a bit longer than I thought. But hopefully it will all be worth it. Sophie has already shown some interest in it see....Although she's probably just wondering what the heck it is and what it's doing on her chair. Yes it is upside down on a chair. How the hell are you supposed to get a picture of it, this was the best I could do. Check back later for the post felt grand finale photos...

Hint hint...

Yeah I can't keep a secret...at least you don't know what color it is.

I saved 2-3 lives yesterday..

but went through hell to do it. Keep in mind though I didn't save the 7-8 like the husband did but oh well I guess 2 is better than none at all. We gave blood yesterday. I somehow managed to sucker the hubster into doing it, neither of us had ever given blood before and no time like the present to start. I've always wanted to do it, and always knew I should, so yesterday when we were driving home and passed the LifeSouth bus I knew we had to go back. The husband only agreed to do it if I agreed to go fix his deer feeder with him (the reason I wasn't going to go is way too long and boring and will prob make me sound like a complete bitch so I'll leave it out), however if losing my pride means saving a few lives I'll do it. And did it I did, right into the trash can. That's right folks I got sick, almost passed out, and starting sweating profusely. It wasn't a pretty site. I just felt sorry for the guy that was up next, facing my direction, and had no other choice but to watch. The hubster did great mind you and not once did I hear a "I told you so". I think he felt sorry for me. Later last night though I asked if he got worried for me (because come on we all like a little pity every now and then right) and he said yeah but then said that when it all started he thought to himself "Boy I bet she's regretting this now". Ah the love. I managed to hold off getting sick long enough to give enough blood though. Yeah I start feeling nauseous and tell one of the ladies and then the other comes up to, they start rubbing an ice pack on my neck and such but they just weren't taking out the damn IV. So seconds later when it really hits me I'm just thinking to myself "if they don't take this damn thing out of my arm" because at the time I seriously thought if they took it out everything would get better (maybe not immediately but soon enough). I just wasn't thinking at that point I was too far gone and that taking the IV out wasn't going to matter. So anyway here's the battle scar cause I know you all want to see it.

I would go through with it again though, because after all if you are able to do it, it really is the right thing. Oh and yeah about the 2-3 vs. 7-8 lives the interviewer was seriously bragging and rubbing it in that my "boyfriend" will be saving 7-8 lives well la te da, touch him. Here's proof that I really did give blood and my arm wasn't the result of some heroin incident gone wrong.My shirt...actually the husband's but still, I couldn't find mine. And my iron was great, which as you may know "it is really an accomplishment cause it's hard for us ladies for have good iron", yes another interviewer comment. Seriously though all the gals in there were great especially the ones that had to take care of me. They were so sweet and motherly and that's just what you want when you're head is in a trash can, you're Momma.

Ok so now on to the closest thing to knitting I got today..my Mom's Christmas present.

I've been watching ebay for hand turned crochet hooks and these are the two that I've won so far. Ebay is serious business I tell ya, first all the panic of will I win the bid, and oh that bitch just outbid me, then the wait for it to arrive if you are so lucky to win, but don't think it ends there oh no you still have to remember to leave a comment and feedback...oh the pressure. I'm going to try and get her a couple more by the time Christmas rolls around, hopefully she'll enjoy using them if now I'm sure she'll enjoy looking at them. If you're wondering the blue one is a graydog and the other is a daystar. You should be able to do a search with that and crochet hook and they come up if not let me know if you're interested and I'll get the usernames of the folks.

Just pretend there's something clever up here

So my ass has been DRA-GGIN lately. I can't figure out what it is. I've done everything from get enough sleep to get too much to get not enough, nothing matters. I've started exercising again this week hoping that maybe that would help, and finally today I'm noticing a bit of a difference but not much. So now not only am I still draggin' but my arms and chest are also hurting. My ass and abs finally quite hurting so there is hope for my arms. Too bad Cooper I won't be able to toss ya up i the air this weekend though. I've also been trying to stick to a schedule since I seem to not want to do ANYTHING. So what's up for today you ask...

Well that would be wash the bedding and clean the kitchen. Usually I would take this opportunity(kitchen days) to clean out/organize the drawers or wipe out cabinets or something like that in addition to cleaning the kitchen but something tells me that the counters are just getting cleaned and that's it. On the bedding front, I know you are all so enthralled right now aren't you, anyway I've already stripped down the bed and am just waiting for the load of clothes to get finished before the sheets go in. Damn I lead an exciting life, I now understand exactly why I have such a large group of readers.

So I've been knitting up a storm lately, NOT. Oh that takes me back. You know what word/saying I was thinking of the other day "cool beans". How stupid are the youth. I was just going to say how stupid were we but I'm sure there's saying being used today that 10 years down the road someone will sit back and say remember when we used to say "insert cleverly stupid phrase here", boy what were we thinking. Just for my own peace of mind though, I must say I never said cool beans, I'm sure I used other stupid sayings but not that one. So back to the knitting, Hal's gettin' hungry, I'm over halfway done with the sides of Sophie's cat bed see....

I'm not feeling the colors. I'm just hoping that when it's felted it will look better but in the end it's a cat bed so really what difference does it make? I love the blue color, I mean I LOVE it. And I'm really diggin the brown with it, I wish I had just gone with brown and white as the background colors and the blue as the main color. The yellow isn't too bad but I don't know what I was thinking with this green. The green itself is fine but it's just not working with the rest, oh well. And just because a knitting blog isn't bad enough I'm also including pics of the cats today. Yes I wish to be even more of a dork...It's not the greatest photo. Apparently the focus feel on the scratching post (guess it's not so much a post anymore huh) and Chandler's white is sooo blown out. You see how Sophie's ears are pinned back she's waiting for Chandler to attack, like he normally would have but didn't this time. He is however doing his typical look away as if you say I'm not about to attack you ha ha ha. Also please excuse the dirt on the floor under the cat scratchy thingy it really isn't dirt it's catnip. Sophie is a total junkie when it comes to the stuff and I knew that if I rubbed it on the cat scratchy thingy it would so draw her in. The part I didn't think about is how much would be all over the floor, there was tons of the stuff everywhere. Luckily though I was able to get to the bag before Soph made a HUGE mess when she stuck her head in the bag, I told you she was a junkie.

Don't mind the ends

Bet you're wondering what that is aren't ya? Well I'm calling it fairy poop and it's proof. Proof of what you ask? Well it's proof that I am actually trying to make progress on the next fairy recruit. Sadly though it's also proof that I'm not very far. I have a couple reasons for that pile. And just because you're wondering I'll tell ya what they are, lucky you. Well reason number one (probably the most important) is I was short a stitch. So why didn't I just try to find the stitch and fix it? Because I didn't like the yarn. I like the yarn just fine; it's Vanna's and it's pretty darn soft, but it has too much halo/fuzz and not enough drape for the dress. Soo....out it came and on the search once more I am. I will find the perfect yarn for this. The doll itself is going to be the same yarn as the last, all except for the hair, so I don't have to worry about that. Oh I will find it you can bet your bottom dollar I will.
The title pertains to this project, obviously. I need to weave them in then I can felt these bad boys. They are going to be pot holders/hot pads for my sister and I'm going to knit some dishcloths to go along with them. She recently moved into a new house and I thought this would be a cute little something to give her. If you are wondering about the colors, oh admit it you know you were, my mother pretty much choose her kitchen colors for her, well at least the red. And the ole hubby decided he liked the grey. Yeah as you may recall my small mistake a few posts back thinking that the square would shrink down to nothing well I suppose it was a happy mistake because it gave me the idea for the sister's small housewarming gift.

The houseguests

As you may have guessed from the title we had company this weekend. Technically I don't know if you would call them company though. It was more like a sleep over. Two of the husband's nieces came over. And if I may brag on them a bit they were GREAT. Not one single fight was had. Although one did let in our wet, muddy, smelly bloodhound who had dug out of the fence in the rain, but other than that no problems. We even got to play with yarn. I convinced the youngest, who is actually a knitter herself (very much a beginner but a knitter none the less), that we should dye some yarn even though she actually wanted to start knitting something. Here is her creation...

I think it turned out nice. I made one with pink, yellow, and orange and the colors weren't as vibrant at all. She was very pleased with it. She just kept feeling it and wanted to start knitting with it immediately but once I explained that since it's sock yarn it requires smaller needles and more stitches she quickly choose my worsted weight version. I'm considering making her a pair of tube socks with it and surprising her but I don't know if she'd like that or if she'd rather knit it herself.

While we were cooking the yarn I was felting a pair of slippers for the my other niece. They've been finished for a while but I'm also making a pair for their mother and figured I'd wait to give them to her until both pairs were finished that way they wouldn't have to do the whole felting thing twice. But since they were over and it's my water bill I thought what the hell, in they went. I love this pair, the two ladies in the yarn store also loved the colors together. I forgot to get a pic once they were finished but here's a pic prefelting. I had to throw it in cause the prefelting pics are always so funny.
Oh this one is growing up so fast. Knowing her I can even see her little attitude in the pic, yes I know it's just of her feet but trust me it still has attitude. She is 13 and just got her own email address. She was so excited showing me her 6 contacts and 19 emails, so now all my g-rated emails will be heading her way. Hell I even filled out one of those get to know me things so I could send it to her. Oh well until next time...

Use a coaster

Here is the promised knitting post for the day. I didn't steal your idea this time Newbs, it was truly an accident. For some reason I thought that the coaster would shrink to half their size. Yeah it didn't as you can tell. Now I have a pot holder. And by the way for those of you who felt these things by hands you are crazy. I tried and it so defeated me. My arms were sore, my shoulders were sore, it turned out all wonky shaped, and it still wasn't felted completely. So into the washing machine it went (which brought back the found teddy bear memories). It is still wonky and still toooo big.

I also got the yarn in for my cat bed as I was typing this so here it is. The blue will be the main color, I'm kinda torn whether I like it or not but either way this is it....

VENTING

Ok you're probably going to want to cover your ears....er I mean cover your eyes on this one. I am officially writing another letter. Yeah so I say this so much that my husband has started counting and he claims this is the 236th letter that is supposed to be written. Oh and I promise there will be a knitting post later on so just ignore this one and wait for the other one. I'm felting a ummm coaster? and so when I went into the laundry room all the bad memories resurfaced (from last night) and now rather than pay a shrink 300 bucks, I'm paying you guys nothing.

So I bought some fabric softener from Sams this weekend, I won't tell the brand but just know this I now I hate teddy bears. So as always at Sams you get this gargantuas (although I don't know how to spell this word it really works here, so its staying) amount that takes the equivalent of two people's lifetimes to use. No worries though it came with a handy dandy little spout poury thing, so no heavy lifting right? Yeah so yesterday I use it for the first time. I pull off the spout poury thing's cover which is also very conveniently a measuring cup stick it under the spout poury thing push the spout poury thing's button a couple glugs later I'm finished. It was great, effortless if you will. I'm likin' it and since I'm very picky about how my FS smells (the husband will tell you this also, usually in a bitchy tone) I will add that the smell is nice (I know this because my entire house now smells like it but that will be explained shortly). Ok so great it worked as it should great. Well Wednesday has now become our grocery day so when the husband gets home we head out, after a quick shower of course. When we arrive home with our fresh Publix produce (we're new Publix shoppers and the newness hasn't worn off yet), I walk in and am pleasantly greeted with a lovely smell of FS. I think to myself damn that's some strong FS, I've only done one load with it so far, but continue unloading bags. So as you can imagine when I later walk into the laundry room to see a third of my new FS all over the floor, dryer, and some clothes I'm thoroughly pissed. It had leaked, and yes I did replace the cap. I kept it on its side as I would've thought I could, but apparently shouldn't have, and it leaked. Now I know what you're thinking, because I already thought of that and my husband already told me, you probably shouldn't leave it on its side but damn the instructions on the back are written sideways so that when it's on its side, so that you can use the little spout poury thingy they are right ways up. So it only makes sense, what with the instructions and spout poury thingy to keep it sideways. Where was that damn teddy bear when I was having to clean my laundry room last night. On a side note as mentioned earlier my house smells GREAT. Oh and I told you to skip this one....

Hello old friend

Now that I've finished the Hemlock I'm picking back up Wild Stripes for a bit. I put in an order for the yarn and DPNs to make this too cute cat bed. I'm not too into making things for my pets, especially the cats but I'm lovin' this bed. I honestly don't even know if they'll use it but I figure worse case scenario I throw a blanket in it and the pup can use it. So when the yarn comes in the Stripes go back in the corner.

Well in case anyone cares here's a bit of info on my Hemlock. I managed to get to row 81 of the Fan and Feather chart before I started to bind off. I was cutting it close too, I only had around 12 yards of yarn left. I didn't use the third skein at all, so I guess I wasn't cutting it too close but I had decided that I really didn't want to use it unless I had to. It's about 55 inches from point to point although it could prob be bigger we didn't block it very aggressively. Yes that was a we, I suckered the ole hubster into helping me pin the beast out.

If a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

...then 8 pictures must be worth 8,000 words?