Whew. What a weekend.

Patrick is a member of the Texas State Guard. Besides the fact that I am very proud of him for serving our country in a volunteer capacity, what does this mean to me? That I have one weekend a month to piss off & do whatever the heck I please. Like most such weekends, this weekend was packed with knitting & knitting related activities.

I must address Podcasts. How these snippets of other knitters going on & on about knitting has taken over my life in a week is simply beyond me. I have found loads that I like and have listened to them nonstop in every moment I have in my car or alone not working or {gasp} I even went for a freaking walk just so I could listen guilt free. I have TURNED OFF MY TELEVISION to listen. Well, turned it down at least. Who do I like?
Lime & Violet - very cliche of me I know since they are uber popular
Stash & Burn - if you don't recognize yourself in their chatter, you aren't really a yarn buyer. And I don't know what to do with you.
Cast On
Knitty D & the City
It's a Purl Man
Lixie Knits It - because I swear everything sounds better with an English accent.

Ovewhelmed yet? Dude, I KNOW! If those aren't enough for you, my friend Manda also has a podcast and she has links to tons more on her blog. I always love listening to her because despite being informative, I am highly intrigued by the fact that she owns & admits to owning over 71,000 yards of yarn (and is on the road to knitting it up). There is also a chance that she'll mention me or someone I know & it makes me feel famous. I'm so lame.

Back to me.

I was looking over my list of FO for the month & it is once again pretty lame. I am making progress though - I am on row 44 out of 60 on my Noni Adventure bag so I could conceivably finish it this month. Doubtful, but I'm an optimist if not a realist, so don't rain on my parade. Today I got all the way to the toe on Patrick's wool ease socks, just in time for spring! (did you catch the sarcasm?) So all I have to do is kitchner the toe. For the love of all things that are holy, if you see me, please ask me about it & mock me if I'm not done. There really is no excuse for me not finishing them & then I can get on to some socks that are pink, I mean pretty, for myself without an ounce of guilt.

Saturday after going for a walk.....don't freak out, it's not like I'm doing it for my health or anything. I leave for Disneyworld 3 weeks from tomorrow and I'm deathly afraid that I'll miss a chance to see Mickey - or worse - Cinderella because I am dead from walking. Somehow I don't think the hours I spend sitting on my ass knitting up these gorgeous items are helping in the quest for walking miles & miles for a damn week. And I do have have to keep up with nieces - ages 8 & 5. And walking did give me more time to listen to podcasts. But I disgress.....

I dyed some yarn:

This was my attempt at using more than one color of Wiltons in my crockpot. It looks incredibly similar to the yarn that Liz dyed for me at the retreat last weekend. I think I'm stuck in another rut - albeit a pretty rut. Both of those hanks are drying in my garage as we speak so I'll put up their hanked up pictures in a day or so.

I cast on for a scarf from my Victorian Lace Today book. I can't find a decent picture of this scarf online so I took a picture of the damn book open to the page (actual pattern on page 90). I doubt I'll be wearing it along with the come hither look that the model has, but ya'll are welcome to hope.


This is my first attempt at what I call "real" lace knitting since it's small yarn. Jaggerspun Zephyr in Charcoal.

I gave this Multidirectional scarf a lavendar bath & prepared it for it's receipent (my Aunt Annette):

I have to say this. It pains me because I feel like I'm about to curse on the yarn alter...but I don't like the Noro Silk Garden. I think it's scratchy. And what is up with those sticks in it? The color changes are so beautiful but I don't think I'll be working with it again. It's pretty though, huh?

I added up the yardage of my stash. Let's just say it's not pretty. I was really fighting the urge to add it up - I have it logged in an excel spreadsheet and all I needed to do was the formula to add it up . Scary. More than a marathon worth. geeze - I was happier not knowing - this brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "the number".

This is how I spent my Sunday. At The Bead Market in Fort Worth. Don't fool yourself, all those beads that look purple aren't. They are pink. Forgive me, I have a sickness. Now I have loads of pretty beads to make even MORE stitch markers. Because wow, even though I have hundreds surely I need more right? It's also a sickness.



Tool of the week:

I know what you are thinking - "big deal, it's a row counter". But it's not just any row counter. And it's not just any PINK row counter. Dude, it has a lock. It's the best invention since Tivo. Please don't ask me where I got it because I don't know - it was a gift.

And I'll leave you with the picture of the week. My cat Chicken in lamb ears. Who on this day qualified for the most unhappy cat in the whole wide world. Hands down. But ain't it a hoot????

Sidenote: in case anyone is worried about the inhumanity of subjecting my poor cat to this torture, don't. He never bothered to leave my lap. He's that kind of cat. Had I attempted this trick on my other cat, I wouldn't be able to type this entry because she would have scratched up my hands along with my eyeballs. I'm just a little bit mean but I'm not stupid.