Kung Fu Knitting

In an end-of-the-month effort to keep up with Project Spectrum, I rummaged through my photos and came up with a few in blue. Sugar and spice and everything nice, that's what cables are made of. and these were made with Pleasure. Ah, such a soft and pleasant yarn. Darn you, Berocco for getting rid of it. It kept my brother nice and toasty this winter though. A Beautiful day fishing on the lake. It was a fluke day for April in CNY. I remember needing to put on sunscreen, feeling the sun shine on my back and feeling the relaxation of that warmth right to the end's of my toes. And of course I give you an Arizona sky. Can you see the "little fluffy clouds?" Burton: "What were the skies like when you were young?" Jones: "They went on forever – They - When I - We lived in Arizona, and the skies always had little fluffy clouds in 'em, and they were long, clear, and there were lots of stars, at night. And when it would rain, they would all turn - They wer...

I have a great One Skein Secret Pal that rocks! Seriously, take a look at my suprises. Isn't my one skein phenomenal? My pal got the exact yarn that I wanted to try! The much talked about and much praised Jagger Spun Zephyr. It so soft and it's a lovely, lovely color (Not captured very well by this amature photographer on a cloudy day. It should be almost the color of the candles in the photo below). I'm just itching to knit it up! And then there were great goodies. The hand creme is just amazing. The candles smell scrumptious and I can't wait to try the soap. Plus a great pattern for the yarn. How complete is that? Thank you secret pal! I appreciate all the thought you put into my gift. It's truly wonderful.

A. Being a creampuff. Seriously, I was a real pushover with the the ex. I think that a lot of it had to do with the fact that he was so much older than I was when I met him. But I think this has carried over to the here and now because it was established for so long in my other relationship. That's something that I'll need to be vigilant about. It's so bizarre because I don't think of myself as being a creampuff at all. In other areas of my life I am so tough. Not many people could deal with being an inner city high school teacher, living in another country, etc, etc. I have no problems standing up for other people. It's becoming obvious that I need to work on that for myself though. B. Letting people mess with your head. See 2A.

It's nice to know that there are people out there that I have who have sent me positive energy and good thoughts during my recent tough times. It's really unbelievable though that there would be someone out there that I have never even met in person that would send me a care package. I am truly touched by your generousity and heart, Bev. It's a little hard to see in the photo, but she sent me a set of glorious sandalwood candles with chinese dragons imprinted on them. I love how apropos they are for my situation. I need inner quiet, strength and wisdom. And she sent me this lovely book, Morehouse Farm Merino Knits. It's got some really nice classic designs in it. I am particularly enchanted with the Rabbit-Proof Scarf (I loved the movie as well) and Erin's Tunic. Definitely two things that I would love to make and wear for this coming winter. Thank you, Bev, your kindness is outstanding! As for my recent dating adventures: I was so gaga over the guy that I recentl...

Let's start with last Friday, shall we? The evening began with my work's end of the year party. We went to Just A Taste and I started off with a flight of red wines (more than samples of 5 different wines). We had a lovely dinner and I ate some of my favorite food in Ithaca. And I had more wine. After wine and tapas we were ready to hit the bars. Fortunately there are many to choose from on the commons in Ithaca. So we hit up the first one for shots (a concoction that my boss created), went across the street for more drinks, then on to the last bar of the evening where I had two double vodka drinks (that my boss also created). Yes, I have the worlds coolest boss. And my coworkers are delightful. It's always a great time when we hang out. It's so sad that so many are leaving Ithaca. I got home past 1 AM and that was bad news because I had to get up at 5:30 to catch my ride to Utica. Two of our boys from the gym were supposed to fight (I think as qualifiers for the ...

It turns out that the pattern that my LYS gave me for the circular felted tote was wrong and wrong. The first time it had to do with the intructions for the ends of rows. The second time had to do with the number of skeins needed. Oh, yes. As I was knitting along, I started to feel that awful, itching feeling you get when you look down at your skein and know you are going to run out of yarn. I wasn't even halfway done, but my yarn was more than half gone. So I went back to my LYS and sure enough the udpated pattern that they found for me says that it takes two skeins. No wonder I didn't find any of these felted purses in blogland! The owner had another skein of Kathleen on hand in my colorway, but the tones were too different for my taste. I didn't want the front and back to look too disparate. So...I had to come up with something else. The moment I had walked through the door, I had seen a bunch of Noni Bag Patterns blatantly lounging about on the coffee table. Having a...

Monday was my birthday (nevermind my age) and I treated myself to a couple of things. I bought a beautiful handmade market basket from my local coop. It was made by a cooperative in Gana and each basket is different in size shape and pattern. It works great for shopping with it's wide circumfrence and open top. It holds flowers and carrots with long greens easily. It seems to be really sturdy and you can reshape it by wetting it rather like a felted item. I love the colors and patterns on it. It also holds my boxing gear quite nicely, at least until I finish my boxing bag . I bought some birthday-yarn, too. I mean, what kind of knitter would I be otherwise? (eventhough I haven't knit much lately. It's in my blood and you can't escape that). Here it is: it's an undyed, 5+ ounce skein of fingering (?) merino/silk. It's soft and lovely and I want to knit a nice lace something or other in it. A shawl? A top? Something purely for me. Meanwhile, I will be in the corn...

Sock! in South Pacific by Lisa Souza Last fall I bought a skein of Sock! from Lisa Souza Yarn and loved it. Since then I have been deeply in love with the South Pacific colorway (isn't it glorious). I didn't want to buy anymore yarn until I used what I had, but I have tried to make the shade garden skein into a scarf on no less than 3 occassions.The last iteration was to be a Mother's Day present and I started and frogged it about 4 times. It holds up well I must say. It's a lovely colorway, but I think it's telling me that it wants to be socks not a scarf. Anyway, I am so happy to have this lovely skein. I think it will just be a gazing skein for a while (as opposed to a touching skein or a working skein). I love it just the way it is, sitting on the window sill in the sun. This is a bad yarn buying sign, I think. Help! I must be falling into the knitter's abyss....the overflowing abyss of yarn stashdom. Anyway......... (here comes the personal issue stuff) O...