It Ain't So

A while back I bought some Corelle dishes. I have heard they are pretty much unbreakable. Not true. Raven managed it:

Yup, he was trying to get at the cheese dip leavings and pushed the plate off the counter. Fortunately, Raven is fine. A bit scared, but fine. We cuddled him back to normal.

The Knitter's Fair

Finally! I have some pictures to share of the Knitter's Fair in Kitchener.

My sister and I :

Melanie, who also came to the fair to be overwhelmed with colour and squoosheenessAnd of course, the haul:The black is from Zen Garden and is called Serenity worsted yarn in Charcoal colourway. I saw a pic of this on Ravelry and had. To. Have.It. So I made a beeline to her booth when we got there. The purpley loveliness is a mitten kit. The gold is laceweight mercerized cotton. I was thinking an Aeolian . However, there is some serious yardage there, each skein is 1400yds. So I might just make something else....Decisions decisions....

Cuticle Cream Anyone?

First up, the finger-nails:

Next, the thumb-nail..

I really need to go buy some hand cream I think.......

Drumroll Please!

I present, the Hairpin Lace Shawl!

And a silly one, for fun:Ciao

A Sneak Peek

I have no modelled shots as of yet, but I thought y'all might like to see a bit of my hairpin lace shawl.

I'm thinking to bring this to the Kitchener Knitter's Fair for it's first public appearance and for modelled pictures.

What About Raven?

Raven wants all of you to know that he quite likes his new sister and that she makes a pretty good playmate. She does seem to have oodles of energy, so he is glad she will play withthe catnip mice and stuff on her own too.

"Hmm, my fur seems to be a little mussed" "There. That's better. Elvis sure does play alot"

Settling In

Elvis is settling in fairly well. She is still a bit jumpy. If we approach too quickly or make too fast a movement near her, she skitters off. Not far, just out of arm's reach. She is joining us at night for part of the night for a snooze, though. Which makes me happy. I am used to having kitties on the bed!

She also follows me around the house as I go about my business. The last 3 or 4 days when I came home from work, she met me at the door. So I am hopeful she will become more comfortable and affectionate as time goes on.

I'm Almost There

The hairpin lace shawl is almost done.

That's the shawl in the pre-blocking-soak-bowl. Also, the local fibre inspector.

Shawl is currently blocking, but it's dark and this is the only picture I'm willing to post just yet.

More soon, I hope!

Fingernail Friday

PSA About Tooth Staining

Are your teeth getting unsightly stains in between? Do you use a mouthwash or toothpaste with cetylpyridinium chloride? STOP!!!!!

This ingredient can cause that weird darkening. I had noticed it on some of my clients, but I just figured they smoked. Then I had a client who doesn't smoke. Did some research. Turns out this ingredient kills the bacteria on your teeth, BUT, if you don't floss and brush very carefully to remove the dead bacteria, they turn black.

Cetylpyridinium chloride is an antibacterial, so you will likely find it in mouthwashes that "don't sting" and some toothpastes.

It appears that the stain is removable by a dental hygienist, although it is stubborn.

Be warned!

Liguria Front

I finished the front of my Liguria tank top. Now to cast on for the back....

ciao

Fingernail Friday

Oops!

Um, I finished joing the four strips of hairpin lace and pulled out the dental floss I was using to keep the strips tamed. Um. I think I messed up. I suspect I should have counted the loops on BOTH sides. It's a little,um, long....

It actually goes past my toes to pool a little on the floor. So,I can a)rip it back. b) join it to itself so it is twice as wide, but half as long and skip the edging. I need to play with it and see if b) is an option or if the corners would be too awkward. Ah well, this is why I made something not gauge sensitive for my first attempt.

Back to the drawing board.....

ciao

Mousie

The new addition to our family needed her very own mousie. According to me, anyway.

Pattern: Catnip Mouse Pattern 5

Yarn: Paton's Classic worsted, small amount

Needles: Um, dpn's size, 6ish?

Enough dry, boring stuff, on to the action shots!

ciao!

Very Little Crafting, Sad and Happy

That pretty much describes my weekend. On saturday, Ceiling Cat decided that he wanted my lovely, ornery Pagan. We loved her and miss her.
Ceiling Cat, however, sent this darling to help heal our hearts:

Everyone, say hello to Elvis!

Fingernail Friday

So Busy I Feel Lazy

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I haven't forgotten about the blog! But the last couple of weeks have been so busy I'm not sure if I'm coming or going! Today was my first day off after a couple of weeks of solid work and I spent it running around town doing errands and getting paperwork together. Yeah. Fun times.

ciao

Contest Winning

This is how I feel about contests


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Needs Blocking Too

I am working away on the hairpin lace shawl. Really. I want to have it done by September. I was looking at it and realized something. Knitted lace needs to be blocked to look it's best. So does crocheted lace. Really. Look at this

That represents 3 strips of hairpin lace joined up plus about half of the fourth strip. Then I need to join the border strip. Which is as long as the other 4 put together. I'd better get a move on...

Ciao

Much Betterer

Second atttempt seems to have worked out gauge-wise. Yippee! My sister christened this project "Liguria" for me....

The above represents most of a long weekend knitting at poolside. Now that's a way to spend a long weekend.

Ciao

Cause I Wasn't High Maintenance Enough

I decided that I was tired of my makeup sliding off my face all summer and wanted to get something that would stay put. Ta da!

Eyelash extensions!

It WAS a Swatch. Sort of

I decided I needed to knit the Shapely Tank on the weekend. The yarn had been bought a few years back with the intention to knit this. When I looked at the pattern, however, it looked too complicated to me. I felt intimidated and set it aside. When I picked up the pattern this past weekend, I wondered what had seemed so difficult. Excitedly I cast on. A swatch was not knitted. The plan was to knit a bit and then measure gauge on the actual garment. About 25 rows in, I checked gauge. It's supposed to be 5 sts/inch. I was getting 6! Which means that the tank would have been about 6 inches too small. Dammit. I frogged it.

It looked lovely and I have high hopes for the final product.

ciao

Sock Knitting

I have been working on my Tofutsie sock in between shifts. This is the insanely busy part of summer for me. Since I do fill in work, summer time is a particularly busy season. in addition, I managed to get out of the the house for 6 days out of 7 for an hour long walk. This translates into a very tired knitter. A knitter that is too tired to knit! So knitting has been slow. BUT. I did get some in. See?

I also did something a little different on this sock. I decreased the gusset stitches on the back of the leg. I also added some stitches further up for my calf.

ciao

Fingernail Friday

Bet ya thought I forgot,eh? Nope, had a case of the tireds yesterday and didn't take any pictures during daylight hours. The night-lit ones looked like crap. So I waited till today's daylight to take the pictures.

My Mind Just Boggled

I am cheating on the blog again. Check out this very weird video:

You Named Your Kid WHAT?

Often in my business, we see unusual names. I found a website that lists some that are hilarious.

For example:

Andreana Calida [last name]
Damita Nicole [last name]
Adoncia Noella [last name]
Kamaria May [last name]
Elliot Ness [last name]

In order: An earthquake fault, a cheesy snack chip, a giant snake, a fried octopus appetizer and an untouchable are not things to name your child after.

If you want to read more, go here.

I'm gonna save this website and read it in little bits fon days that need a cheering up!

Sock Knitting

I am knitting along on my Vanilla Sock. The heel has been turned, extra stitches have been decreased away and now it's time for some soothing round and round. Then there will be some calf increases. But not for a bit....

Sadly, this was the only time I spent on the deck this weekend, The weather was too cool to make it fun. The sun made only sporadic appearances, so the photo shoot was it, for deck time this weekend.

Ciao

Fingernail Friday!

AGAIN???

I have been chugging away at joining the hairpin lace. It is tedious. Not quite as bad as seaming up knitting, but still.....

In other news, I went out to admire my basil, as it is finally getting big enough to admire and saw this:

I didn't see the culprit, but I am willing to be it is a repeat of last year's earwig buffet. This summer has been every bit as rainy and damp as last year's and htat is exactly what mucnched up my plants last year. Bastards.

I potted up some new seeds inside today as a failsafe and am going to try to save the outdoor plant using an organic remedy that a lady on Ravelry said worked for her-take a cheap plastic container like the kind you get sour cream in, poke a few holes in the lid and then put in a mix of half soy sauce and half vegetable oil. Apparently the earwigs like that better and climb in andcan't climb out. Now, to find a plastic tub....

ciao

Second Go Around

I sat down again to attempt the hairpin lace shawl join. This time it does not look like ass! YAY!!! It's gonna be a while to join it all up though. But here, a sneak peek:

Isn't it beeeeyoooootifuuuul?

Ciao

Canada Day

Yesterday was Canada Day,eh? So I did a quintessential summer thing on my day off.

Baseball! Tampa Bay at Toronto. Toronto won. Yay! While there, I did another fun summer thing:Beer! A requirement at a baseball game, no?

Then I took the train home, was felled my a migraine and slept for 13 hours. So most of yesterday was fun, anyway.

Ciao