Mittens

I decided to knit mittens. To match my earflap hat. But they were boring.

Then I saw the Tannenbaum mitten pattern from Berocco. I frogged the above mitten and cast on for Tannenbaum. then I wound up with an extra stitch. Grrr. So I put it into timeout and cast on a hat. Which I also effed up. Fun times....

Exciting!

Hope everyone's Christmas went well. We had a bit of excitement around here Christmas eve. The neighbour across the street was having a little get together. Then this happened:A drunk hit the car parked on the street and completely trashed it! They had to put the rear end of the car ona little trolley to tow it away. And THAT car ricocheted off another car parked int he driveway. Not much damage to that one, it seems at the moment anyway. Drunk got hauled off in a police cruiser. I feel bad for the people who's car got trashed. Merry fucking Christmas, eh? At least it was only the car and not people who got hurt.

Ciao

Merry Christmas! Fingernail Friday Version

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

Hades Hat is DONE!

My Hades Hat is done! This is the third time around. The first time I chose the wrong pattern and ran out of yarn. The second time I knit the brim too big. This time I went down to a 3.25mm needle for the brim and only cast on 96 stitches. At the first part of the body of the hat I increased back up to the 104 stitches as I really liked the slouchy part of this hat. It is knit with Knit Witch yarn and is absolutely lovely.

Ciao

I Hate Winter

Temperature dropped to -15C. Which sucks. But what really sucks giant rocks through a bendy straw is coming out of work at the end of a busy, tiring day and having the view from the driver's seat look like this:

Yup, that's ice on the inside of the windshield.

I Would Forgive You If...

You thought this picture meant I was done the Raisin beret. Now known as the Hades Hat

It was blocking. But the brim turned out to be too big. I keep forgetting that when a pattern says "average head", I am not average. I am a delicate flower. With a small head, apparently. So I frogged it and restarted it. After 2 repeats, I realized my stitch count was off. Somehow, I dropped 2 stitches. So I had to frog back 4 rows. Currently it has the correct stitch count, I have 1 more repeat and then the decreases. Fingers crossed it goes as planned

Ciao

I decided I wanted another hat. One that is a bit slouchy. I have gotten this far:

and am going to run out of yarn. But isn't the yarn pretty? Le sigh. So I am going to jigger the pattern a bit. I'm not going to do all the repeats asked for. I think I will now go into the decrease portion of the pattern. Then I will block the bejeebers out of it to get as much 'slouch' as I can. It is 100% wool, so hopefully the blocking will help. Either way, I like the hat, so it's all good. I already have plans for another hat that is even slouchier than this if this isn't enough! Oh, a picture of the slouch so far:So I think with the final bit of knitting and some blocking, it will be pretty nice. Even if it isn't quite what I had envisioned! Isn't that the way it often goes?

Twilight/New Moon Silliness

The Twilight/New Moon story as told by lolcat. Freaking funny!

Fingernail Friday

Finally!

ThE Black Tomato Top is DONE!!!! The yarn softened up considerably after washing, so I an really pleased.

Alas, I fail as a model. Didn't realize it was rucked up a bit on one side for the photos. Ah well, rest assured the knit doesn't ACTUALLY do that...

Deets:

Pattern: Tomato from No Sheep For You

Yarn: Stella from Debbie Bliss (60% silk, 20% rayon, 20% cotton)

Needles: As called for in pattern

Modifications: didn't do the coloured band across the chest. Made it long sleeved. Did that by changing back to the larger needles called for in the pattern about 4 inches out from the body. I didn't do any decreaes on the sleeves and that resulted in a nice bell-like sleeve.

Verdict: I really like this sweater. It is very soft now that it is washed. I probably won't be buying this yarn again, though. It was QUITE splitty.

ciao

Teh Kewt!

Best Pals

This nev er gets old for me!

PSA-How To COUNT Change When Your Cash Register Is Wrong

So, I went to the grocery store yesterday. Bought $51.49 worth of stuff. Gave the cashier $55.00. She rang in $550.00....and then couldn't figure out how much to give me! Poor thing was gonna give me well over $5. So I stopped her, told her to put all the change back int he drawer and start counting over.

Me:Count up from $51.49 to $55
Cashier: ??
Me: get a penny, htat makes $51.50, now 2 quarters, that's $52.00, now a toonie and a loonie makes $55. See?
Cashier:Here you are

Ths thing I found scary was that clearly she had not been taught how to make change. You give whatever the little screen tells you and that's it. If hte screen is wrong, they flounder. This was the second time in 2 weeks I've had that happen. The other time the cashier was going to give me $60 more than she should have for change....

So, the way to make change, if your little screen is clearly wrong, is to count the money UP from the sale value to the money totlat that was given to you.

It would be funny if it didn't keep happening to me. And I am too honest to take the extra money and run.

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Cat Bed

Over the weekend,I did a little ironing. Since I don't have an ironing board, I use an old beach towel over my table as an ironing pad. Then I had a fit of the lazies and didn't put the towel away. This evening we found Elvis on the table sleeping on it. So we put the towel away. It got me to thinking. She tends to retreat downstairs to an old chair in the basement. Maybe she needs a defined space as 'hers' upstairs. When Micha left us, I had put away the knitted blankie she liked. This seemed like an opportune moment to dig it out. The husbeast will probably complain when he notices it, but he'll just have to deal with it, I think. 'Cause not long after I set it down, I got these pictures:

So, if this gets as much usse as I suspect it will, it's staying. And that's all I got to say about that!

Ciao

Knitting for A Friend

My friend mentioned to me that her ears were getting cold on her daily walks and that she didn't like the earmuffs she found and that it was too warm walking with a hat on. I had a perfect solution!

Calorimetry!

Plan B-ish

Sooper Sekert Giftmas knitting has been derailed due to lack of skill. I though it would be nifty to knit socks like this:

Except, husbeast can barely get them over his heel, so the recipient probably would have trouble too. I am going to have to practice my stranded knitting a bit more before I attempt socks again! Maybe I'll try a hat with this at some point. The hubbunny would probably wear a hat like that. At any rate, Giftmas recipient will be getting something else.....

Cuteness Times Two

" Hey, there's a spot where your fur is mussed. I'll fix it"

"Nope, nothing interesting here, move along..."

Things That Make you go Hmmmmmm

Fingernail Friday

Love is......

Sharing your tuna water.......

(i.e. the water the tuna in the can came packed in)

Earflap Hat

I finally got enough daylight to take some pictures of my earflap hat!

Yarn: Malabrigo Worsted

Pattern: Earflap Hat pattern generator

I have already worn this out a few times and it is exactly what I hoped! WARM.

Smile Inducing

Filling In

I am kitting a sooper sekert Kissmoose project. So I can't show you my knitting. Instead, I offer you a laugh.

You know you're a redneck when....

Fingernail Friday. The SCARY edition

Tidying Up

Elvis is a cute little kitty. Except for when she claws up my stuff. Had to change my wip basket from this:

To this:On the bright side, it DID force me to go through what I had in the basket. I found a number of things that could go back into normal yarn storage. Which is bigger totes in the basement....I won't be showing you that anytime soon!

Husband Cooks!

I did finish the earflap hat. I have yet to take pictures. Sigh. So, in lieu of that, I offer you another distraction. How I get my husband to make dinner.

First you get the main ingredient ready (beans in this case) and the first batch of seasonings together.

Label as '1'Then you get the second batch of ingredients/seasonings readyLabel as '2'Then type up instructions like so:

Drain beans and dump in biggest pot.
Add 4 cups distilled water
Add contents of bowl labelled '1', stir
bring to a boil and then REDUCE HEAT to low, cover partially and simmer for 1 hour
take out bay leaves and throw out.
Add contents of bowls labelled '2'. (there are 4 of them-2 bowls and 2 measuring cups)
stir
Cover and bake in oven at 350 degrees. check regularly to see if they need water. Add if you think they are not wet enough/stir

And the last step is....(drumroll please).....make sure you (me) are going to be home before it is done!

Actual recipe for Baked beans I am using is here.

Outsmarted Myself

I am working on my earflap hat. The pattern says something like, 'pick up the number of cast on stitches and knit together to form a seam. This is easier to do if you pick up a few cast-on stitches at a time on your dpn.'

Genius that I am, I thought I would pick up all the stitches at once using a circular needle. I neglected to factor in the small detail that the cast on stitches will be rather tight. Even with a much smaller needle, they weren't going to slide over the smallest circular needle I had. But I had already picked up all the stitches, I didn't want to pull them off and re-pick them up. So I unscrewed the needle tip (gotta love interchangeable needle sets) and am transferring the stitches a few at a time over to my dpn. My itty bitty sock knitting metal dpn. It's a pain, but it's getting the job done.

I WILL have my earflap hat. Dammit.

Life of a Cat

First you find a sunpatch:
Then you ascertain if it is large enough:And then you invite a friend over Ahhhhh, the difficult life of a cat!

Tragic Tragedy

The husband and I have been going on alot of walks lately. now that the weather is getting cooler, I pulled out my Calorimetry to wear to keep my noggin warm. However, I doubt it will be warm enough if the weather gets much chillier. The which it surely will! So I decided I needed an earflap hat.

Looks pretty good so far. Ummm......Damn.

Reswatching with new yarn.

ciao

Fingernail Friday!

Halloween is just around the corner folks!

That Time of Year

It's that time of year again. You know, the time where there is Sooper Sekert knitting happening for Kissmoose. So I can't show you what I am doing. I did pick up the gusset stitches on the hubby sock, but I didn't take a picture of it. What's to see? Grey sock with gusset stitches. Whoop tee doo da.

But I do have a picture for you.

Elvis is in da house!

Silly Things.

Lately, I came across a few silly things, so I thought I would share.

First up, All Nippon Airways wants all it's passengers to go pee before boarding. The theory is, the passengers will be lighter and the airline will save gas. I want to know, who doesn't go pee before getting on an airplane? Given the option between a public bathroom on terra firma, or a cramped, smelly bathroom shared with 450 other people, I know what I'll choose....

Next up, I found a set of pictures on Flickr that illustrates BMI. My favorite so far is Moxie.

Then there was the following....


see more Epic Fails

Anyone else found silly things to share?

New On the Needles

Last week I wanted to start on the mitten kit I bought at the Kitchener Knitter's Fair. However I did not have the 6mm dpn's required. So instead I started the promised pair of socks for the husband. I attempted to take a picture to show the world, but the only picture that was even close to acceptable to post is the following one:

This picture was snapped milliseconds before both fibre inspectors (seen on the top right and bottom right of photo) deemed the fibre acceptable and tried to take off with it.

Today I bought the dpn's required for the mittens. Should I finish the hubby socks? Or cast on for mittens? Hmmm.......

Fantastic Picture!

I got a great picture of my kitties! I am so excited I have been showing everyone. So, of course, y'all get to see it too!

Is that not a great picture?

Crochet Mesh Bag Done

I frogged the last attempt at a crocheted mesh bag and found a new pattern. This one (scroll down) on Turtlegirl's blog. It's well written and explained for newbies like me.

The assistant fibre inspector had to check it out:Apparently the bag passes muster! ciao