sheepelicious

Witness the Eeevil with which I am forced to live...

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 15:14:08 GMT

These are my kitties..."Scowl" (aka, Marble) and "Deeemon (aka, Morgan).

Yikes! It's really no wonder that I am afraid of the dark...

Knitting the Godzilla

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:51:51 GMT

Quite some time ago, I knit a stuffed Godzilla for KB, from Knitted Icons by Carol Meldrum. I intended to post pictures a long time ago but am just now getting to do so. It's amazing how time flies by.

Godzilla is the first three-dimensional knitted object I have ever made. The pattern seemed to omit some essential steps, such as which way to attach the belly and where to attach the limbs. These steps may have been located online somewhere in errata for this book, but I didn't take the time to look and instead just soldiered through until he looked reasonably Godzilla-y.

At the time that Godzilla was in progress, my roommate and I attended a friend's birthday party. When we decided it was time to leave, we stood up from the table of young professional couples we had been sitting with, and the roommate announces to everyone that we must leave because I had a Godzilla to knit. Suddenly every eyebrow around the table went up and they all had this questioning look as if they wanted to ask but were afraid. While the roommate stood there with a big grin plastered on her face, D, another friend announced, "A Godzilla to knit? I like to knit the Godzilla too. In fact, I typically knit the Godzilla every morning while in the shower." I fumbled through my explanation as to what my roommate meant by her comment, as my face turned beat red and then I quickly shuffled out the door. So now, in my sci fi book club (one in which D and I co-founded), "Knitting the Godzilla" has taken on a completely different meaning than my roommate intended.

Anyway...here he is, in all of his yarny glory.

Godzilla socializes with the locals.

Godzilla studies up on neighborhood planning and development.

Godzilla contemplates the origin of existence.

Update

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 22:39:40 GMT

It's been so long since I've been here that I tried to log on 4 times before remembering my screen name. Yikes, was it really in July when I was last here? Eee-ghads!

Just to update anyone who's interested, Zach and Godzilla, my two old men ratties, both passed away in November. Zach recovered from his surgery rather well overall, but it was really downhill from there just because he was so old already. He was eating, drinking, moving around, and taking treats from me until the very morning he passed away, so at least he didn't suffer for a long period of time. Almost 2 weeks later, Goz passed away in almost the same manner. They had good lives.

The two new boys are doing well, and are as mischievous as ever. I can't remember if I posted but Skit was renamed Dexter and Paws was renamed Dieter (or DeeDee). They know their names pretty well now and like to come out and watch me spin (on the few occassions that I actually spin).

I just finished my first class for my program...well, sort of. I have one last assignment due on Monday that I'm working on. The sooner I get it done, the better I will feel. At that point, I will officially be 1/12 of the way through. Ummm...yippie? It's going to be a long ride.

Work is still work, and I'm hoping that some other things work out by next fall that will allow me to move on and concentrate more on getting through the graduate program more quickly.

I got to hang out with KB's family on Turkey day, which was a lot more relaxing for me than Easter. I actually had a good conversation with his mom. They all seem to like me alright, and I really like them, so that's good, right?

For any of you L&V listeners out there, V accidentally lost several episodes that we had recorded, one of which included my post-birthday thank you to everyone who sent emails and e-cards. Oops! So for what it's worth, thank you to everyone who sent me a birthday wish!

I'm knitting sometimes, when I can, but I honestly don't even know what I'm knitting right now. I have too many things going to keep track and just grab the nearest WIP when I have 5 minutes, regardless of what it is.

And on a completely random note, has anyone seen Tinman? It's good! I have seen the same bit of it twice now because I keep missing the beginning, but in spite of that, it's really enjoyable. I like the storyline and the cinematography.

Hopefully, if I can find the motivation to organize myself, I will get back here to post some pics of knitting and whatnot. I will admit that I am not of the personality type that can get motivated to become involved extensively in online goings-on, even when I mean to do so. If I had two of me or if our clocks had been based on a 48-hour day cycle, I might have better luck. Just don't be upset. I like you all. I think about you all. I'm just not here often enough to say it.

Proof that I have absolutely lost my mind

Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:06:19 GMT

As of this afternoon, I have two new family members.

Skit and...

Paws.

They are 4-month-old males from the same litter. Whoever had them as tiny ratlings socialized them very well. And they are terribly sweet. It was Skit who stole my heart through the cage window.

See, as I was doing errands today, I drove right past the Nebraska Humane Society. I still had Alex's dog tag on me and had been meaning to call to let them know that I no longer had Alex, but since I had yet to pick up the phone to do so, I decided to stop and talk to someone in person. I got Alex's license straightened out so that I would not get a renewal notice, and then decided to see what they had in the "Critter Corner". That was Mistake #1. I walked in and our eyes met. There he was, little nose twitching, white fury belly pressed up against the glass enclosure. He had seen me walk into the room and immediately wanted my attention. He had it.

His brother was snoozing underneath a plastic dome. I looked at the other small fury creatures in the room as the little white rat followed me from his cage. I decided to go ask if I could see him. Mistake #2. One of the Adoption Counselors came over and looked at my application. We went to get the little white rat and I decided to take a look at the other one who was still sleeping under the dome (whom the Adoption Counselor so rudely and unnecessarily awoke while retrieving Skit from the cage...while telling me that she didn't understand the attraction to rats as pets...heathen).

Skit and Paws immediately found comfort on my shoulders. They stayed there, entangling themselves in my hair, while I made a quick phone call to a friend whom I knew would encourage me in favor of the rats. In the end, it was simple. You see, I had to take them home. While I was on the phone, they had entwined themselves so much in my hair that I couldn't get them untangled. Ummm, seriously.

They came home with me and are now happily lounging in their new ratty condo, complete with everything but hammock, which will soon be remedied.

Zach, one of my two older boys, had surgery today. He had a growth on his back that he was scratching and biting at. I finally had it removed today in hopes that it would heal and he would no longer have a gaping wound on his back. The vet also removed two little tiny lumps right above his right rear leg pit (?). She also found an abscess on his belly, lanced and drained that. The poor guy looks vaguely like Frankenrat right now. But the surgery went well and he will hopefully recover quickly. When I heard about the abscess, I quickly went to check Zach's cagemate, Godzilla, only to find that he has something on his belly which fits the description of what the vet found on Zach. So Goz and I get to go to the vet on Wednesday to get him checked out. I am exhausted and enjoying a much smaller bank account. And thinking that I should have gone to veterinary school.

Gearing up for the Summer of Socks

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 04:24:22 GMT

The Summer of Socks starts tomorrow, June 21st, on the summer solstice. In light of that, I thought I would make a quick post so that I'm updated on the other projects that I've been working on.

Knitters Connection was earlier this month in Columbus, OH, and let me tell you that I had an absolute blast (despite Miss V's unfortunately-timed illness). I met a whole lot of wonderful people, and if for any reason Lime & Violet don't get to attend next year, I really want to make it back out there to attend the classes and such with everyone else. I managed to get pics at dinner on Thursday night, the second night that I was there. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the restaurant, but the food was quite tasty and the company was the best ever.

From left to right around the table, Miss V's friend, Sideshow husband, Miss V, Katie from Yarn Love, and Katie's friend (sorry but I have completely forgotten her name).

From left to right, Amy, David, and Gerald. (Added later: Gerald was our volunteer Starbucks runner, and I seriously don't know what I would have done without his help.)

And from left to right, Knitting Lizzie and Violet 913. These two were so funny at the live podcast recording. They were both working on their Chevron scarves, and held them up for show when I talked about mine. Violet 913 even spun her yarn up from some Cider Moon roving that is just gorgeous.

When I checked into the hotel room early on Wednesday morning (around 2:30 am), I cast on the Eleanor sock from Socktopia.

These kept me pretty busy during my time in Columbus. I finished one sock there and started the second one. They are now both finish and have been gifted to a friend of mine who has smaller feet than me, because I made them slightly to short to fit me comfortably and frankly was just too lazy to frog and redo anything at the time.

Right now I'm working on a new sock design that I'm almost done with (the first sock, anyway) but unfortunately I don't have any pictures to post. I have my yarn and needles poised and ready for cast-on tomorrow. My first sock for the Summer of Socks KAL is going to be the Walking Meditation Socks by Tara Jon Manning. If I stay up for another 45 minutes, I could technically cast on. Any to think I had plans of going to bed early tonight. Baa-hahahaha!

OMGWTFBBQ?

Thu, 31 May 2007 16:50:58 GMT

This morning I found an entry on Violet's live journal about how she just recently had an idea for a podcast that she could do on her own. So I emailed her about it. In my email, I told her that I've been getting a little burned out and thought that maybe this new idea of hers would give way to the possibility of L&V going to a bi-monthly or a monthly podcast. I thought to myself, "Hey, this would be fantastic! Fewer L&V podcasts can give us both a chance to focus on other L&V projects, like the book, designing more patterns, working on a new project that hasn't even officially been announced yet. V would have more time to do her solo podcast. We could both win in this situation."

As of this point, I haven't heard back from her. But now she has a post on her lj about finding a lawyer. OMGWTFBBQ? I never said I wanted to quit, so why would she need a lawyer?

I know V has a lot of stress but we all have stress in our lives. I have a day job and just went through my annual review. It was less than glowing. I spend too much time on my personal email and on the internet...i.e., I spend too much of my work time getting distracted with keeping up with L&V email and looking for new yarny goodness. And not that anyone needed to know this, but I recently had to go out and buy new underwear and socks because I didn't have time to do laundry...because I had spent too much time knitting something to talk about on the podcast and organizing my items to go up for sale on the shop.

I want to focus on some of the stuff for L&V that Violet and I have started working on. I want to spend more time doing some of the creative work for the L&V empire. I never said that I wanted to quit. I don't get why I haven't heard from her or why she's looking for lawyers. In my email to V, I suggested all of these (what I thought were positive) opportunities about what recording fewer podcasts per month might offer us. Now all I'm worried about is that I may have just lost my dearest friend.

I hope that I haven't. And I hope that I hear back from her soon.

Cthulhu is not amused

Thu, 10 May 2007 16:56:45 GMT

I brought Cthulhu to work with me yesterday. This is not actually a picture of Cthulhu at my work. This is a picture taken by Miss Violet from the depths of the fiber studio for the Lime & Violet blog. I don't have a camera with me today so I had to improvise.

Today Cthulhu was discovered by my own ~~disgruntled minion~~ co-worker whom I "supervise". Soon everyone in the office had to catch a glimpse of the Evil Overlord (TM) and as they clamored into my office to see him, they laughed unabashedly. One office monkey even called him "cute". The nerve! Cthuhlu is not amused. I am quite certain that carnage is soon to follow.

Another long-overdue post

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 02:03:29 GMT

By now, most of you who know me or read my lj know that Alex has gone to another home. This was one of the most difficult decisions to make and it actually took me over 3 months to come to the conclusion that I just could not give Alex all of the love and attention he needed and deserved. After all, it's just me in a small house. At the time I made the decision to look for another home, his previous mommy contacted me and told me that she was in a position to take him back. After several emails and a very long car ride, he's back with dog mommy #1, the girl who rescued him when he was a year old. This is the girl who cried when she had to give him up a year ago and the one he cried over at the door for a good 6 minutes after she left. This is the one person in the world who could possibly love him more than I do. I figured it was the universe telling me something and I decided to let it happen. I miss him greatly and my house feels very empty as a result, but I know he's in a wonderful home with several humans to give him love and his brother, Bruiser, to play with. Incidentally, after being separated from Bruiser for almost a year, the two sniffed each other for a few seconds and then played as though they had never been apart.

Here's a picture of Alex and me in the car as we waited for Dog Mommy #1 to arrive. It was actually a cool and breezy day in Tampa and we had a lot of fun the few days beforehand. The day before was filled with a trip to the Renaissance Fair where he got more attention that he ever dreamed of...okay, maybe not, but it was a lot of attention. We spent evenings in the hotel room curled up in front of the TV and went for many a ride in the car after the sun went down. As hard as it was for part of me to let him go, it was a good experience and I know for sure that he's happy and well-cared-for in his not-so-new home.

As for yarny goodness, I received my STR Rockin' Sock Club package before I left for Florida!!!

I started the Inside-Out sock and actually really like it. I haven't worked on it since the trip but hope to get back to it soon. Pictures are forthcoming, of course.

And today, I received a package from my L&V Yarn Pr0n swap partner! Oh, she wasn't kidding when she said, "Prepared to be spoiled!" I still need to send her a personal thank you, and I still don't know who she is on the messageboards. I must find that out! This person ROCKS! Check out all the goodies!

She (or he) is from Holland! There were cookies and chocolate too but they're...gone. I did eat the chocolate bar all by myself today but the cookies were so good and I was so excited about them that I shared them with the girls in my office. It seemed to make everyone's day and they kept telling me how good the cookies were. I can't wait to knit this yarn! There's also some locally-made wine that she sent me, I believe. My Dutch isn't nearly as good as my German so I really can't just read the label and haven't had time to translate it yet. There's also some hemp handcream that is to die for! I think it's sandalwood scented, which is my all-time favorite scent in the world! I'm sure I looked like a freak walking around smelling my hands all day, but hey, I have yarn and yummy things, so who cares!

February - A knitting retrospective

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:31:18 GMT

Despite all of my intentions to get over here and post as I was working on things, it just didn't happen. So here is a brief summary of what I knit in February.

First for the month were these:

This is a basic K2-P2 rib pattern that I made using the Magic Loop technique (actually learned it while making these socks) with Trekking yarn , #108. Yardage = 459 yds; total yards for the marathon = 1244 yds

Next, I started these:

The pattern is Lounge Lizard and is an original design by me that is going into the book. I used Sophie's Toes in Froggy. I love this yarn! It's so squishy and soft! Yardage = 350 yds; total yards for the marathon once I finished them = 1594 yds. BUT before finishing this pair, I got side-tracked by making these:

This is the Alien Babies pattern, the first pattern that I ever designed. It's been worked and reworked, and this is actually the 3rd time I've knit a pair (on top of having someone test knit it). I used Lisa Souza Sock! in the Berry Poppins colorway. Yummy! I love Lisa Souza! The sock on the left was made on size 1 dpns, and the sock on the right was made on size 2 dpns. I don't care much for the pooling on the sock on the right, plus the fit is just a little too loose, so I'm probably going to frog it and reknit it on 1s to match the sock on the left. Yardage = 450 yds; total yards for the marathon = 2044 yards.

And somewhere in between these other projects, I knit these:

I will say right now that this picture does not do this yarn justice by any stretch of the imagination! This is Interlacements Tiny Toes yarn that I got from The Loopy Ewe. The pattern is the Roza Socks in the Spring 2007 Interweave Knits, and I knit them up on KnitPicks size 1 dpns. This pattern was fun to knit! On top of that, the yarn was wonderfully squishy and colorwize was like knitting up a painting. Interlacements has definitely been added to my top favorites list. I want more and unfortunately for my inner-yarn-hoarder (but fortunately for bank account), Sherry is currently out of this yarn on her site. When she gets more in, I'm in trouble. Yardage = 370 yds; total yards for the marathon for the month of February: 2414 yards or 1.37 miles. I had hoped to knit more than that. My goal was to knit 1 mile per month. Oh well, 1.37 miles still isn't too shabby.

Today is a snow day for the city. Schools and universities are closed, so I have been curled up on my couch knitting since 6:00 am. I started the River Rapids socks in Mountaincolors Bearfoot Thunderhead colorway. I had originally started knitting this yarn up into one my designs for the book, but the yarn is too dark and too varigated, and the finished sock turned out to be too big for my foot. So I frogged it two days ago and rewound the yarn. I'm ready for the heel flap on the first sock and hopefully I'll get a lot more knitting done today. Unfortunately I'm feeling the pull of other things that should be done, so I don't know how much more knitting I will get done.

Just yesterday, I picked up my Lime & Violet toe-up knee-high sock again. It's about half way up my calf and coming along nicely. Pictures of that and the Thunderhead socks will be forthcoming, along with my recent yarn acquisition... Bad, bad girl! Not only did I break my yarn diet, but I broke it 3 or 4 times over. It's a sickness, I tell you!

For my Lime & Violet Yarn Pr0n secret swap pal

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:54:22 GMT

1. What kind of fibers do you prefer?
Wool. I'm starting to branch out to soy silk and the like. I don't care much for the feel of cotton though.

2. What kind of weight do you prefer (sock, worsted, bulky)?
Sock weight, mostly.

3. Do you spin?
Yes.

4. Do you crochet?
Yes.

5. Are there any books, patterns, magazines would you like to own that you don't?
Oh, are there books! See the link to my Amazon wish list below. As far as patterns go, I really want the Rogue Hooded Pullover and the Eris V-Neck Cardigan from the Girl from Auntie website, but I haven't purchased either of them yet.

6. Are you participating in any themed a-longs like the Project Spectrum?
No, not currently. I am participating in the L&V sock marathon in an attempt to knit up as much sock yarn as possible, before it attacks me and smothers me in my sleep.

7. Do you have a wishlist on Amazon.com or Half.com? (provide a link)
Yes: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1909UOMBJ33QH/

8. Any Etsy stores that you would love to get something from?
Fearless Fibers, Vidabliss (Funky Carolina), Bird In Hand Yarn, TwoLoops (Yarn All Over)...

9. What other crafty things are you involved in (quilting, drawing, painting)?
I like doing scrapbooking, sewing, and painting but have not had time to do any of this lately. I love pottery (as in take a lump of clay and make something with it) and silk painting too but saddly have not done either in years.

10. What is your favorite sort of scent?
Fresh scents and earthy scents. Sandalwood and amber are two of my all-time faves. Anything with names like Fresh Rain is good. I also like the smell of almond fragrance, especially in soaps.

11. Do you have a sweet tooth and what kind of sweets do you like best?
Oh, yes. My big weakness is Peanut M&Ms. I LOVE Peanut M&Ms!

12. What kind of music do you like?
It's easier to say what I don't like...rap, most country music, and that stuff that's so popular right now that always starts out with some guy going, "Yeah...uh, huh...that'swhatI'msayin'...". It just doesn't do anything for me. Faves are British New Wave from the 80s, 80s alternative/underground, celtic music, Sting, and really hard stuff like Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson. Yep, I said it, Marilyn Manson.

13. What do you like to knit? And for whom?
I usually knit socks for myself. I've also made a shawl for my grandmother and two scarves for my mom. I just recently purchased Victorian Lace Today and am really fascinated by the idea of making some of the pieces in that book. I am also getting ready to start a Charlotte's Web Shawl.

14. What sort of things do you like to collect?
Dragons, penguins, sock yarn, spinning fiber, and anything Monty Python.

15. Do you want needles? And what kind do you prefer?
I have a lot of needles but it never hurts to have more. I seem to have lost my set of KnitPicks dpns in size 0. I also just learned how to do the Magic Loop technique and want to learn how to do 2 socks on 2 circs, but I only have one size 2 circular needle.

Finding old friends

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:54:39 GMT

Through a random, round-about way, I found an old college friend of mine on myspace. She had apparently sent me a friend request yesterday and I had approved it, even though I didn't log onto myspace yesterday. It's all good because she is a friend that I miss often and had lost touch with. And yet, there she was, with her college nickname that she insisted we all stop using (despite the difficulty we all have of calling her anything else). From her profile I found friend after friend after friend from college...a whole slew of my old Cornell friends right there on myspace. That finally led me to an ex. He really isn't "an" ex; he's "the" ex from those days. We were together for 5 years, lived with each other for most of that time, went through a lot of happy experiences, growth, crap, etc.

All I have left are the memories, and every so often, the question in the back of my head that goes something along the lines of, "What the f*#k was I thinking?" The first two years with him in my life were two of the best; the last three were three of the worst. After almost 5 years, under the pretense that we were going to spend the rest of our lives together, I left a good job that I loved in a city that I felt at home in for an equally good job that I liked in the middle of BFE Iowa. It was 30 minutes to anything, and at least an hour to anything good. I watched everything fall apart around us for the first two months we were there until I came home one day from work and all of his stuff (and some of mine) was packed up and gone. Just like that.

He freaked out for a month and traveled until he came back, sort of, and wanted me to hang around while he tried to figure things out. Figuring things out meant all kinds of things that I had already gone through years before meeting him and really wasn't interested in waiting for him to go through. I found out through 3rd parties that he had been sleeping with anything that moved whenever he was away at ren faires for the weekends, and had even stalked an acquaintance of mine and a friend of his. Some of our mutual friends were under the impression that I had found out about all of this and kicked him out. Others thought that he had left me because I beat him on a regular basis and he was finally getting away from the abuse. I lost some of my college friends over this one. As if I could beat the crap out of a great big solid 6'4" Scots-Irish man. I lost in tickle fights. There's no way I could have ever taken him physically in any kind of brawl. But people believed him.

So as I sat just a few minutes ago looking at his profile picture, I noted how much and how little he still looks like the guy I used to be so close to. I also realized how unattractive he is to me now. Funny, that. It's in the past. I've dealt with the pain and the wounds. I've even picked myself up a couple of times since then. I'm in a much better place in my life now. I can deal with a lot more than I could back then. I've learned an amazing amount of stuff which I didn't even realize back then I that I didn't know. I was stung for a moment as all of the memories came flooding back, and then I realized how enriched I became from it all. I feel weird. I feel lonely. I know that it will pass and in a matter of hours I will be meeting a group of friends to go see Flogging Molly, not to mention those that I will see later on this week and this weekend. I know I'm in a much better place emotionally now than I ever was then. The next time I drink, I think I'm going to raise my glass and make a toast to my friends here. I don't know what I would do without them.

Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:33:18 GMT

Since I've been too lazy to download my latest knitting pics from my camera to my computer, I give you a brief doggie interlude.

This is the Alex-monster, in all of his cute, doggie glory, trying to get a better sniff of the camera or just trying to be uber-cute and hamming it up for the photographer. Personally, I think it's the latter.

Don't let him fool you, folks. This is the MOST MANIPULATIVE DOG ON THE PLANET! This is the dog who sucks in his stomach so as to look more pathetic and needy when you are eating your people food, because he's just so emaciatingly thin (at 67 lbs and counting). This is the dog who, when he wants in from outside, will paw at the metal screen door to be let back in, and when that doesn't work, turn around and pretend to start barking wildly at some potential threat because he knows someone (I) will come running to let him back inside. This is the dog who, when all of the chairs in the living room are taken, lays down on his over-stuffed doggie bed and proceeds to stare longingly at each person in the room in hopes that they will share their seat with him (because he's used to having his own seat, couch, etc, most of the time).

I love this dog. He oozes charisma and charm without even trying.

Mad, mad Thuja love

Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:52:05 GMT

I just finished my Thuja socks. These are the ones that I cast on while at the Guns & Roses cover band. They knit up uber-fast! I finished them this morning during my 15-minute knitting session that I do every morning before getting ready for work. Some people work out in the morning...others knit.

Yarn: STR light-weight in Blarney Stone
Needles: KnitPicks #2 dpns
Started: Fri, Jan 12th at 10:30 pm
Finished: Fri, Jan 19th at 6:30 am
Yardage: 360 yds

They're a little short for my personal taste but I was so afraid of running out of yarn that I made them a little shorter than normal. I ended up with enough yarn left over that I'm actually contemplating picking up the stitches around the cuff and knitting up so that they're a little longer. Then I will at least be able to wear them without pulling at them all day long.

Public knitting can get you rock stars...

Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:04:24 GMT

I always mean to get my butt over here and post but it never seems to happen as frequently as it should. Of course, I suppose it should happen as often as I have the inkling to do it. After all, it is my journal. And I'm always under this strange impression that others are too busy to care about what's going on with me so why get motivated to sit in front of the computer any more than I absolutely have to. An acquaintance from UNMC summed it up like this: "Work is so busy right now that you sit in front of the computer all day long concentrating, and when you get home, the last thing you want to do is go sit in front of a computer again." This is so true. I spend about 9 hours in front of the computer a day when I'm at work, diligently entering information and solving people's problems. By the time I get home, I am utterly braindead. Sometimes I can't even muster up the concentration to knit. But I'm not here to complain about work. I'm here to post about my knitting and update those who look at my journal on what's been going on in my own little world of yarn.

I made the Kilted One a pair of Packers socks. I used the Thuja pattern on knitty.com, and the Oregon Ducks colorway from Fancy Image Yarn. And boy, did these knit up quickly! These are my first official pair of socks for the 2007 L&V Marathon.

Luckily, they fit him perfectly and he seemed to be rather excited about them. Between these socks and the Godzilla slippers, his feet should stay reasonably warm.

After finishing the Packers socks, I cast on the 2nd Monkey sock of the pair, made from the colorway Crabapple from Two Loops. I LOVE this yarn! On the day I received this yarn, I fondled it off and on for about 6 hours before I finally stopped everything and cast on the first Monkey sock. And the only reason I made it for 6 hours was because 5 of those hours were spent in front of my desk at work. Incidentally, Monkey is a really fun sock pattern and knits up pretty quickly. I may have to make more of these.

And lastly but not leastly in the world o' socks are these:

Kiltboy ran sound for a Guns N Roses cover band this weekend, so Friday night before I headed out to meet him, I grabbed a skein of STR that was all wound up and ready to go. I think the colorway is Blarney Stone. I decided to use the Thuja pattern for this yarn because I had the pattern memorized and figured it would be easy to do in a dark, loud setting. I cast on the first sock at 10:30 pm and knit until the band stopped playing at 1:00 am. Not many paid attention to the girl sitting behind the sound board playing with yarn, but Kiltboy seemed to be amused by it and would every once in a while peer over at me all smiley to see the new sock's progress. At one point, I got this odd feeling that someone was looking at me and when I turned to my left, there was this little white-haired lady grinning at me and watching my hands intently. It was amusing. I'm pretty sure she's the mother of the owner of the bar, or something. She was there again on Saturday night, and although I found out she was a non-knitter, she was rather excited to see the progress I had made.

I turned the heel on Saturday night after the band was done and the house lights came on. Oddly enough, the guys in the Guns N Roses cover band were actually curious as to what I was doing, and the lead singer even came over and sat next to me while the Kilted One helped the others load out. I didn't think much of it, but pretty soon, Lead Singer boy was making up knitting lyrics and singing them to me. And he asked me at one point if I also knit willy warmers. Well, duh! Poor little oblivious me didn't think anything of this until later when Kiltboy and I sat in the Under the Sea Lounge (i.e., the smoking room in the boys' house that's located under the garage) chatting about things and he commented that I could have gone home with the lead singer tonight. *blink blink* "You mean he was hitting on me?" *blink blink* Kiltboy seemed rather pleased that the lead singer was hitting on me and yet there I was with him in the lounge. Again I say...Well, duh! Is the moral of this story that knitting makes you hot? At any rate, I kitchnered the toe of the first sock at E's this afternoon and cast on the 2nd one.

I have now spent almost 3 hours online catching up on email, getting the new batch of L&V sock yarn ready to ship tomorrow, and updating this site. My brain is mushy. But at least my feet are warm.

2007 Lime & Violet Sock Marathon

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 05:39:00 GMT

This is my sock yarn stash...all 8.64 miles of it. As half of Lime & Violet, I'm kind of obligated to participate in 2007 Sock Marathon. I'm not complaining by any means. This is just a big kick in the pants to get organized, get back online, and get knitting like mad. I have 2 pairs of socks that I have to finish up, which I did not include in my mileage. One is the Monkey socks pattern that I'm making with yarn from Two Loops. The other is an original sock design that I'm making with some Mountain Colors yarn in Thunderhead. I may count these last two socks as one pair for the purpose of the marathon. I also have a skein of Lisa Souza in the L&V colorway that I started knitting way back when. I'm just past the ankle on my first thigh-high toe-up sock with this yarn. Okay, just thinking about this gets me feeling a little overwhelmed.

One thing I think I am going to have to do for at least the first 3 months of 2007 is to not buy any more new yarn. I need to knit up what I have, see where I'm at, and then decide if I want to and can extend that 3 months to perhaps 6 months. We'll see. I may go stir-crazy in the process.

And, as mentioned on the podcast, here are pics of Kiltboy's Christmas present, some custom-designed, hand-embroidered Godzilla slippers. It's basically a black pair of slippers with felt shapes of Godzilla and Tokyo embroidered on with embroidery floss. The kicker is the voice-recorder disks that I inserted into each slipper. The slipper with Godzilla on it says, "Grar! Look at all the little Japanese people I am squashing!" and the Tokyo slipper has Miss V's voice saying, "Ahh, Godzira!" followed by her, sideshow husband, and myself screaming. The slippers were, needless to say, fairly well received.

What tarot card are you?

Mon, 04 Dec 2006 17:09:05 GMT

I found this test on the blog for Knitterly Things and thought it was kinda cool. I'll be back soon to actually update for real, I hope. *sigh*

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Update

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 21:10:23 GMT

One month later, I'm finally back here to post an update. And this one is brief since I don't have my camera to download photos and whatnot. Smudge passed away on the night of Wed, Sept 27th. I held him in my lap that evening as I worked on the show notes, and then set him in his cage when I had to leave around 8:00. I returned home at about 2:00 am to find him gone and in the same position he was when I laid him down on the fluffy towel in his cage. I give kudos to the Kilted One for dealing so well with my late-night sobbing phone call. We had parted only about 15 minutes before I called him, but I know I woke him up. He didn't seem to mind at all. That in itself means more to me than he will probably ever realize.

L&V is on a brief hiatus as Miss V deals with life stuff of her own. The Platonic Boyfriend and I have been splitting dog duty. Last night as I was sitting in the living room with all of the dogs, I realized how ga-ga I am over Shenzi. She's always been the mastermind behind things and sometimes her intelligence can be a bit startling, but last night as I was scratching her armpits (yep, I did just say scratching her armpits), she gazed up at me adoringly and then she and Alex proceeded to follow me around the house in that protective manner that dogs do. It's just really neat to be part of the pack.

I miss E and J, and realize with them out of town how much time I spend over at their place on a regular basis. If I can get my butt in gear, I might make some headway on several major projects by the time they return. I've spent the last few nights bent over my notebook, needles, and yarn, only to be frustrated by the results (or lack thereof) and frog the whole project. Last night I almost scrapped my current design completely, but today I realize what was off kilter and will hopefully be able to fix it tonight. So here we go with round 3.0...

At some point in the near future, I am going to download my bazillion pictures that are stored on my camera right now, and get a new post up about my latest FOs and WIPs. There has been a lot of them lately, and even more floating around in my head (so many that I find it easier to go about my normal business than to sit down and organize them). Tonight I am off to the house once more for some time with the dogs, perhaps a good movie, and hopefully some good ol' yarny success.

Things are brewing

Fri, 08 Sep 2006 21:22:31 GMT

It seems like ages since I've updated. Usually I don't have much going on and/or don't have photos of my new stuff, but this time, that's not true. First off, Lime & Violet is going really well. We made a couple of big announcements that seem to have everyone buzzing. And why not? I know I would be buzzing about these things too. Oh, wait...I am!

First, L&V have partnered with Goddess o' the Dye Pot herself, Lisa Souza. We approached Lisa and asked her if she was interested, and she quickly came up with a wonderful colorway of the LimeNViolet type. She's truly amazing!

This right here is what "sheepelicious" is all about. It's wool and it's delicious. Therefore, it is sheepelicious. I'm seeing a pair of thigh-highs in my future.

Second, the very first L&V original sock pattern was posted for mass-consumption yesterday. It's being received quite well, much to my delight. It's called "Snakes on a Sock" and can be found in pdf format at http://limenviolet.blogspot.com. And I'm dubbing E the Goddess of Graphic Design from now on. I've been told by people in the past that I have talent. Oh, no! I was aware that this is what E does. This is her thing. So I had no doubt that it would be good. But I didn't realize it was going to knock my friggin' socks off.

These two announcements and all of the hype that has followed, coupled with a ~~fairly~~ negative review of our podcast has lit the fire under me (see here). Last night, I couldn't sleep so I finished a new sock that is going to be one of the next new L&V patterns. I have two more to finish revising and then I can move on to other design projects that are currently cluttering my head.

With all of the commotion, I've actually been a bit stressed lately. I was reflecting on that earlier and realizing that the few things that are bad are only few (although one is fairly big), and the good things are coming in waves right now. On the list of the bad, there is the fact that the plumbing in my house is currently rebelling. To my plumbing, I bite my tongue and move on because I will be the one declaring victory here (once my plumber shows up on Tuesday morning). There is also the fact that there aren't enough hours in the day to do all of the knitting for L&V that I want to do. This just equals stress to me, but I step back, tape a deep breath, and prioritize (mostly because I can't afford to quit my day job). And then there is the fact that the life of my poor little Smudge is coming to a close. Tears well up in my eyes whenever I think about it. He was essentially my 2nd rat, offspring of my first rat, Sadie, and cuddle-monster extraodinaire. I kid you not, this guy would perch himself on my lap and gaze up at me intently when I would talk to him, while his roommates paid virtually no attention and busied themselves with other things. Now, he's lost a lot of weight, he doesn't eat or drink more than a couple of drops of any given thing, and he hangs on his cage gasping for breath. Perhaps it's inhumane for me to not put him to sleep, but I just can't do it yet. Instead, I've spent lengthy hours knitting with him sitting on my lap. He still has good moments and bad moments, and seems to relax a bit when he's next to me. This is the big, bad thing right now. I know it will be okay but right now, it's difficult for me to face.

On the list of the good, there is the increasing momentum of Lime & Violet. I'm having a lot of fun and feeling like this is a culmination of everything I've done in my life up to this point. All of my searching and studying has led me here, and I'm awe-struck by that thought. Also on my list is the new boy in my life who kicks major ass. After more than 6 weeks of not being able to get him out of my head, he (FINALLY) came around. We haven't spent much time together but he always seems to know exactly when to call and how long to talk, etc. I wouldn't go so far as calling him my bf yet, but one of his roommates the other day referred to me as his "girl" which can't be bad. Other good things: I'm healthy, my other pets seem to be happy and healthy, I figured out my finances for this month in spite of the looming plumbing repair, work goes well, the L&V projects are slowly coming together, and we are surrounded by friends and support. So, there you have it.

It's Friday. My amazon order arrived today (squee!) which means I now have The Twisted Sisters Sock Workbook, Knitting Under the Influence, and Blogging for Business. I'll be reading and knitting this weekend for sure.

Knitting quiz

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 15:56:47 GMT

What Kind of Knitter Are You?

You appear to be a Knitting Purist. You are an accomplished knitter producing beautiful pieces with a classic feel. You sometimes lament losing half of your local yarn shop to garish novelty yarns. Perhaps you consider fun fur scarves the bane of knitting society and prefer to steer new knitters towards the wool and cotton blends. Some might call you a bit of an elitist but you know that you've been doing this craft long enough to respect the history behind it and honor it with beautiful piece that can last a lifetime. http://marniemaclean.com
Take this quiz!

Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Funny, but this is fairly close to the truth. I didn't realize that I'm such a snob about yarn and knitting, but I suppose I can be if I'm not careful. Yipes!

Yarn from overseas

Fri, 25 Aug 2006 13:47:19 GMT

Squeeeeeeeeeeee! I just received the package of Opal yarn from my knitting friend, Nadine, who lives over in Germany! (*happy dance happy dance*) We did a little yarn exchange in which I chose two of the Opal sock yarns that I wanted and she chose an equal amount of KnitPicks yarn. Neither of us can get these yarns in our respective countries so we bought each other's picks and mailed them off. I think she just mailed the box on Monday...I know that it wasn't too long ago. And it's already here!

The yarns are beautiful! I got one called Blue Moon and another called Road to Socialism! In addition to the yarns that I picked, Nadine also included three balls of leftover yarns. One is all purples and greens, another is reds and blacks and browns and oranges, and still another is khakis and light browns and puty colors. And she included tea and sugar sticks! I feel rather bad now for not sending her anything extra with her yarn. I was so excited to have received her KnitPicks order that I simply repackaged it and mailed it off to her within the very same hour. Hopefully she'll be so excited about the yarn that she won't notice...maybe...

I can't wait to start knitting one of these skeins up (unfortunately it's going into the large project que that I have right now). And the little leftovers are great because I'm hoping to make a log cabin blanket (from Mason Dixon Knitting) out of all of my leftover sock yarn. I think I stole the idea from Wendy Knits but it's a good idea so I just couldn't help myself.

Okay...time to calm down and get back to real work. There really aren't enough hours in the day to accomplish all the knitting that I want to do right now though.

Hand-dyed sock-yarny goodness

Mon, 14 Aug 2006 05:12:45 GMT

So, not too long ago, I ordered some undyed sock yarn from Wool2dye4. And recently, I finally got a chance to play with my Cushings dyes that I picked up at Estes Park. Here are my results:

I'm pretty happy with this one. The pinks and purples make me especially happy.

I am in MAD, MAD LOVE with this one! Mrrrow!

This is a small skein, only enough to make either short socks or to combine with something else.

More MAD, MAD LOVE! I actually squeed when this one came out of the dye pot!

This was a result of my lazy, rainy day mood.

I wasn't too crazy about this one until I saw it balled up like this. I was going for a much more subtle color variation and was rather disappointed at first, but now I'm kind of liking it.

Now that I've had a taste of dying yarn, I want to do more! It was all I could do to not order more undyed the other day when I placed an order on KnitPicks. Speaking of which, I'm doing a yarn exchange with a girl in Germany! She will be sending me some Opal sock yarn that isn't available in the states and I will be sending her some KnitPicks yarn in exchange. This means that I placed another order with them the other day and spent some more money that I really wasn't planning to spend. I, of course, had to order enough stuff to qualify for the free shipping. So I ordered Nadine's stuff and then ordered some yarn for myself to make this sweater. I've never made a sweater before. It should be interesting.

Last weekend, I finished putting the kit together for my ksks partner. I mailed it out last weekend and she received it a few days ago. I think it was a hit. I haven't checked her blog, but after all of my apprehension, she seemed happy with it. Here's what I sent to her:

Two cabled sock patterns, some sour gummy worms, some other sour candy, cable needles, a set of the new KnitPicks dpns, some soap just because, some tea and a tea infuser, some lemongrass tea mints (very yummy!), a skein of Lisa Souza's Printemps yarn, all stuffed into a multi-colored Booga bag. I kind of felt like I went a little overboard with the extra stuff, but you have to have the knitting tools and what if she didn't have cabling needles? And she must have plenty of sour candy to munch on, and some of the world's most wonderful tea to drink while she's relaxing with her knitting... I had so much fun putting it all together.

I finished up a pair of socks today too! These are my first pair of original socks. I designed them. And they came out kind of cool-looking! Pictures are forthcoming. And tonight, I FINALLY cast on my Baudelaire socks! Oh, but they are delicious! I'm not even very far into the toe but this pattern is going to be fun! I recently received a skein of yarn from J Knits to review (limenviolet perk!), and while I wasn't planning to use this yarn for my Baudelaires originally, I'm becoming more happy with this choice as I proceed.

They sent me their Orlando colorway because I'm from Florida. I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth but this probably isn't a colorway that I would have picked out for myself. However, I am delighted with it! At first glance, it's a fairly loud pink but as you knit it up, you can see the subtle differences in the intensity of the color and it gives the resulting fabric a wonderful depth that is just going to be gorgeous!

Well, I WAS intending to knit some more tonight but seeing as how I've spent all of my time online roaming around and getting caught up on things, I sadly must wander off to bed and leave the knitting for another time. Boo! There's just never enough time in the day (or night) to get all of the desired knitting done. What's a girl to do?

And who could knit with a cutie like this begging for attention anyway, huh?

Seriously! Don't let the innocence fool you. He's plotting to take over the world. He's going to rule us all with his big brown doggy eyes. Excuse me. I must go get him some doggy treats...

A good day for food and yarn

Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:56:54 GMT

All I want to do today is eat and knit, not necessarily in that order. I've been munching on some trail mix that has, of all things, M&Ms in it! I have an extreme weakness for M&Ms. Now that it's lunchtime, I've decided to go for a more healthy choice of the spicy peanut butter chicken I made yesterday.

There is so much going on in my head yarn-wise that I'm swimming in it! My sock kit arrived in the mail on Saturday morning from my secret ksks partner! Squeee! I was doing the happy dance before I even opened the package. Inside, I found a wonderful selection of sock patterns and a gorgeous bag! My partner made me a knitted bag with cables out of some Malabrigo in the Autumn colorway. The colors and the design are both beautiful! And the best thing about this bag is that it's the perfect size to double as a purse! Last week, my purse strap broke and try as I may, I have not been able to come up with a fix that lasts for more than a few minutes. I took this as a sign to go get a new purse, but my shopping attempts so far have yielded absolutely nothing. Maybe what I like, which is a small-sized purse on a long strap that I can sling across myself, just isn't in style right now. Not to worry now, though, with this new gorgeous, perfectly-sized bag I just received!

Anyway, inside this beautiful new bag was a neat knitting journal with all kinds of shopping sayings (appropriate given how much I seem to shop for yarn), a little tape measurer painted to look like a dog (you push it's nose to reel in the tape measurer when you're done!), a set of Lantern Moon size 2 dpns (Eeeee!), a very cool little rat puzzle game, and some Socks that Rock in Highway 30! Squee-elicious! My partner bought another skein of this yarn for herself and started knitting it up into socks already. She has pictures up on her blog and the colors are just beautiful! I can't wait to start on mine! STR yarn looks yummy online, but in person, it's 10 times more gorgeous! And somehow, my ksks partner managed to pick out one of my top 3 choices of colorways. It's a tie, really, between this one, Jasper, and Fluorite. But seriously, all of the STR colors are great.

I'm feeling a little apprehensive about my own kit that I'm putting together. I wanted to get my person some Socks that Rock in Jasper because she likes purples but at the time I thought you needed a Paypal account to actually purchase STR yarn through the Blue Moon website. So instead I ordered Printemps from Lisa Souza, a colorway that's predominantly white with some bright blue and green flecks in it. It's very pretty, but shortly after it arrived, I realized that Paypal has this new system where they will accept your credit card even if you don't have a Paypal account (which I don't because my previous one caused me nothing but headaches). Hopefully the wonderful woman that I'm making a kit for will love the Lisa Souza yarn. My original bag design didn't turn out right so I'm sending her a multi-colored Booga bag that I made a few months ago. I have filled the bag with all kinds of goodies for her, and am hoping to add to it some Knit Picks size 1 dpns and perhaps a hand-made needle bag. There's enough stuff in there that she's bound to like something in it, surely!

As for knitting projects, I feel as though I have so many things in the works right now. I'm working on a French Market bag. I signed up for the Baudelaire KAL but haven't even cast on the first sock yet because I've been distracted by another sock project. My friend Kathleen in Florida has a birthday coming up in August. Her son's birthday (my godson) is also coming up in August, so I'm putting together a package of goodies for them. Included in this package will be a pair of socks knitted for Kathleen out of Lisa Souza's Wild Things colorway. And just to make them even more special, I'm actually creating the sock pattern out of a pattern in the knitting calendar that I got on the way to Estes. That has been fun but also quite time-consuming and at this very moment, I almost can't see any light at the tunnel. When I tried the sock leg on last night, I had a bit of a time getting it over my heel. Hopefully that won't cause a problem. And then, this morning as I was knitting one repeat, I found a dropped stitch about 10 rows back. I don't understand this dropped stitch phenomenon, because at no point was I ever short a stitch on my needles. nor did I increase by an extra stitch. I'm rather befuddled. I quickly snipped a small piece of the Wild Things yarn, looped it through the dropped stitch, and tied the loose piece in a knot on the inside in hopes that it will keep that stitch from unraveling without being too obvious that there is a patch there.

I'm completely antsy to get back to working on these socks. Would it be bad to call in sick to work tomorrow so that I can stay home and knit? I wonder....

More Socks!

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 19:21:43 GMT

Lately I've been working like mad on the Widdershins socks. You may have seen in a previous post some pictures of the toe gone horribly wrong and the pile of frogged yarn that happened shortly afterwards. Those socks are finally done!

Yes, that is an end that I still need to work in on the sock to the left. I actually need to take the bind-off edge apart first and add a few increases. The socks ended up being so long that they are a little snug at the top right now. They are quite comfy though, and the yarn is so thick and soft that these will be wonderful socks when winter rolls around again.

Since variety is the spice of life, I decided I would take a break from my sock-obsession and work on a different project. On Tuesday night, only hours after the Widdershins socks were off of the needles, I cast on the French Market bag. I've almost completed the bottom of it and so far it is proving to be a wonderfully fun project. It helps that I am in mad, mad love with the red Cascade 220 with which I'm working.

However, my life couldn't be sock free for long. Oh, no! On Wednesday, I discovered a Baudelaire sock knit-along. The Baudelaire sock pattern has been staring at me ever since it made it's debut. Some recently-purchased red sock yarn is also calling me (loudly), so I decided to join the knit-along and will start working on these socks shortly.

Some of the pictures of socks that the others are doing are just gorgeous! Elle, one of the participants, spun her own cream-colored sock yarn and is now making these socks. I bow down to her, oh, goddess of handspun socky goodness, and I wish to make offerings of roving and chocolate!

New Motivation

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 14:45:22 GMT

I have finally found new motivation to loose the weight I've been wanting to loose! It's all right here: http://www.spunkyhats.com/acc_yarnpaint.htm!

Last year, I lost 20 lbs over the year only to gain it back this year during the month of March, while I was hanging out with a particular male-type person. Although I haven't spent any time with that person for several months and am now back to my old, healthier eating habits, I haven't been able to drop the weight again. I haven't been motivated and just don't care enough about it. But last night, while oogling the Spunky Ecclectic site (for the 4th time that night, I might add), it dawned on me. Before I went to bed, I set my first goal as loosing 5 lbs. My reward will be a skein of this sock yarn.

Right now I'm coveting 3 on the Spunky Ecclectic site: Juiced, Purple Potluck, and Chocolate Covered Cherries. If they happen to be all sold out by the time I reach my goal, there's always the coveted Lisa Souza sock yarn (http://www.lisaknit.com/yarn/animalfibers/sock.html) and Socks that Rock (http://www.bluemoonfiberarts.com/ or http://www.handspinning.com/thefold/yarn.blue.html). You know I'm going to find a skein of sock yarn SOMEWHERE that gets me all drooly and waggy-tailed.

So that's that! I'm all excited about this! It does kind of go against my vow of yarn dieting, but honestly, I think this is worth it. And really, I'd much rather loose real weight than yarn weight right now.

In other news, at Eliza's suggestion I went out and bought a copy of Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui by Karen Kingston. This book is changing my life! I am getting rid of crap that I've been carrying around with me for 10 years or more. Since this past Saturday, my back computer room has gone from junk depository to usable space! What was once the dumping ground for the clutter I didn't want elsewhere in the house is now my rat room/computer room/yarn haven, and I love it! Four days ago, my desk was completely covered with crap and there was barely any floor space. Now, the room is complete with a clean desk, a comfy chair, and a home for my spinning wheel, fiber, and yarn. I will now be kicking back with my little ratlings, listening to the latest podcasts, and knitting to my heart's content.

I have two more boxes in that room to empty and am planning to do a box a day for the next two days. Then that room will be completely done and it's on to the next room in the house. Woo-hoo!

3 Question Personality Test

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 16:09:28 GMT

This seems so accurate that it's a little scarey...

Your Personality Is

Rational (NT)

You are both logical and creative. You are full of ideas.
You are so rational that you analyze everything. This drives people a little crazy!

Intelligence is important to you. You always like to be around smart people.
In fact, you're often a little short with people who don't impress you mentally.

You seem distant to some - but it's usually because you're deep in thought.
Those who understand you best are fellow Rationals.

In love, you tend to approach things with logic. You seek a compatible mate - who is also very intelligent.

At work, you tend to gravitate toward idea building careers - like programming, medicine, or academia.

With others, you are very honest and direct. People often can't take your criticism well.

As far as your looks go, you're coasting on what you were born with. You think fashion is silly.

On weekends, you spend most of your time thinking, experimenting with new ideas, or learning new things.

The Three Question Personality Test