KateOhKatie blogs

Last night I elected not to knit due to a sore right wrist (sure sign I need a day off, AND need to learn continental!), so I decided to play with my yarn anyway

I went to Wal-Mart and picked up 3 plastic bins of varying sizes, and put them to work containing all my nicely organized stash.  Coupled with the massive black bag and the massive clear plastic bin I already had, I now have a place to put all my yarn.

But, like a woman who looks into a full closet and announces “I have nothing to wear!”, I, too, upon sorting my stash, realized that I have (almost) nothing to knit with.  Think about it:  if we got a huge blizzard and were snowed into the house for 3 weeks straight, what would I have to work on?  OK that’s not quire fair, since I *do* have enough laceweight to do 3 wraps in addition to the one I’m  working on now, so with that alone we know I wouldn’t run out of things to do.  So, then, what if we got a huge blizzard and were snowed into the house for 3 weeks straight and Jeff burned all my laceweight so we could keep warm?  I’d kill him.    Just kidding.  But if that did happen (the blizzard and the burning, not the killing), all I would have is 100g of Urban Silk and 5 pairs’ worth of sock yarn.  And THAT, my friends, is not enough!  Hence, as soon as I have discretionary income, I must get myself down to Hillcreek for some serious stash augmentation treatment.  I need mooooooooore sock yarn!  I need moooooooore worsted weight! I need enough of a delicious DK to make the Basic Black cardigan which I so lust after!  I cannot wait ’till I have discretionary income

In the meantime, here’s the result of last night’s diligent sorting, ball-winding, and Ziploc-bagging:

What I consider to be my ‘good’ stash, tucked away in its little under-TV hidey hole:

(There’s also one of Jeff’s Christmas presents on top–a Sopranos trivia game which he LOVES, but which we haven’t played yet because he’s afraid it contains spoilers and we’ve only seen through season 3   Sounds like a good reason to buy seasons 4-6, no? )

The scraps:

I’m saving them, because they’re all ‘good’ yarn and I know someday I’ll have a use for them–some stripey wool socks, or some Weasley sweater ornaments, perhaps?  Or cat toys?

Here’s what I consider “the good stuff” (Ravelry-worthy):  my laceweight, sock yarn, etc.

On the left there are my nearly-complete Fetchings, which I still have to fix   Sad, it makes me.

Layer 2, lurking underneath:

You can also see my cedar balls.  HA! I have balls of cedar!  Like Paul Bunyan?

And finally, to distract the reader from that horrible comment above, here’s the rest of the stash.  None of it is Ravelry-worthy, in my eyes–it’s all old RH, a couple of Fun Fur novelty yarns, etc.

And, of course, my lovely new rolling knitting bag on the left.  I love my lovely new rolling knitting bag

Knitters, post yer stash!

Yarrrrnnn

I have been knitting! Really!  Thing is, though, that most of it has been appearing on Ravelry instead of here.  Oops.  So, to make up for it, sit back and behold…

My pride and joy:

A hooded scarf in a simple 4×4, reversible C2F cable pattern (you’re right, Alissa–it is easy! ), made of Soy Wool Stripes.  <3.

Close-up of the seam (which is visible on the inside).

My Ravenclaw house scarf from PoA and GoF.  I CO 76 then just knitted in the round on a 16″ sz. 10.5 circular.  Yarn is Lion Brand wool in “midnight blue” and “pearl gray.”

It’s going to be so cozy and warm. I <3 it!  And, I’m about halfway done…the end will soon be in sight!

My “Invisibility Shawl” from Charmed Knits.  Jaggerspun zephyr 50/50 merino silk laceweight.

I’m maybe 20% in on this one now.  It’s going very quickly, and the lace is super easy–no charts!

I made these for Jeff for Christmas, also out of Lion Wool (that stuff really is decent, and it’s within my price range).  The pattern is Ken, by Berroco.  Not the greatest, but it got the job done and yeah, these were my first pair of gloves!  I think I can handle socks now.

That’s not the correct color at all; here’s a better representation:

That, clearly, is from when they were still in progress   I sort of wish I’d gotten a set of the shorter DPNs in the size, also–those long ones got rather unweildy up on the fingers:

See?  Deeply offensive.

I crocheted this shawl for my grandma out of Caron Simply Soft.  She’s allergic to wool, and would honestly be offended if I used a fancy yarn on something for her.

The pattern was All-Season Shawl by Priscilla Hewitt, and it worked up really quickly…maybe 10 hours of work?

I haven’t made it out to Sumner to give it to her yet, but I’m sure she’ll love it

I also made a pair of Fetchings for myself, but am not all that happy with them.  They’re (surprise surprise) Lion Wool.

Aside from those charming little cables, I guess I just don’t see why everybody’s all agog over this pattern. I think I need to take them apart, add anohter round of cables, and then just do a straight bind-off to reduce that curl-back.

Like I said, charming little cables.

I also did a bunch of other random stuff for my preschool’s fundraiser–scarves, hats, y’know.  Skating Queen is done, apart from putting elastic into the waistband so the damned thing’ll actually stay up.

I’ve got lots of other exciting projects queued up for the new year…here’s to knitting in 2008!

I’m back in the saddle again…

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!!!  It really made my day…no honestly!   <3 ya’ all!

First of all, I’ve decided to stop doing that whole protected thing.  It was no fun, and besides–why blog if I don’t want people to read it?  It’s not like I post anything that I don’t care about the whole Internet seeing, and being amazed by .  I’m reducing my protected list back to those core people it consisted of already, and at some point in the future I’ll probably get around to making allllll my old posts public again…but we’ll see how soon I can make *that* happen.

So to make up for the craptacular picture-less entries as of late, and to celebrate my discovery of another cable compatible with my camera that was buried amongst the crap on Jeff’s desk (I think it originally went with my old Dell Jukebox)…pictures!

Oh yeah, and here’s *why* I have time to make a massive picture post:

Yes, that’s a foot.  My foot, to be precise.  Injured while walking off my front porch and attempting to carry a conversation at the same time, my ankle took it upon itself to twist in a most painful direction, resulting in Jeff laughing at me and our upstairs neighbor–the awesome med student–hearing my stifled whimpers giant sobs of pain and coming downstairs to check it out and make sure it wasn’t sprained.  Have I mentioned I love our upstairs neighbor?

Anyway, with this handy excuse to avoid doing laundry, I’ll finally post about my birthday weekend!

Friday when I came home from class, Jeff had our gift bag (the same one we always use when exchanging birthday, anniversary, whatever gifts) ready and waiting for me!  I opened it up to discover all this:

Yes, that’s “I Love Lucy” season 1, Barrel Fever by David Sedaris, and a ginormous bag of peanut M&Ms. 
He loves me.  He knows me and he loves me.  How could I have been so lucky as to find someone who’s 2 for 2?

After I stopped squealing, we headed down to KC where my parents had fixed me a yummylicious birthday dinner of slow cooker chicken, biscuits, mashed potatos, green bean casserole, and creamed corn.  YUM?  YES!  omg.  I still drool just thinking about how delicious it was.

Saturday night my dad procured tickets to a Kansas City Wizards game for me and Jeff:

We’d never been to a pro soccer game before, so we were really looking forward to it!  The team plays in Arrowhead stadium–home of the Kansas City Chiefs–and all the seats to Wizards games are general admission, so look how close to the field we sat!

That’s seriously 12 rows up.  I know people who would give their left nut for seats that good to a Chiefs game, but for the Wizards they could barely give ‘em away.  Why is it that the most popular sport in the world is one of the least-popular ones in the US?

See that pink dot in the middle?  With the legs up in the seat in front of her, and the red hair?  That’s me.

We were cold.  Very cold.

And happy.  Very happy.  Oh, how young we were then!

It seems that they let anybody who wanted to, stand on the field before the game to greet the players as they ran out.  This included lots of random mascots (for Wonderbread, mongolian barbeque, and a few local high schools), some ghetto cheerleaders, and a bunch of kid’s soccer teams:

As well as a few people who, I’m sure, thought they were just in line for the bathroom.

In that picture above you can also see how well-attended these games are.

We unknowingly sat next to a section designated for rabid fans…several of them had drums that they beat throughout the game, confeetti, and flags with Che Guevera.  No really.

Listen and see for yourself!

Aside from that, the best part of the game was *definitely* at halftime, when all those aforementioned mascots played a game of soccer:

and another video:

Maybe you’d have to have been there, but it was the funniest thing I’d seen in a long time!

The Wizards won, 4-2 or 5-3 or something like that, and even though we hadn’t really considered ourselves fans two hours prior, we sure did cheer!  We’d love to go to another game sometime…maybe they’ll play the LA Galaxy?

When we got back to my parents’ house, an angel food birthday cake with lime glaze was waiting for me!

I really was happier than I look here–I promise!

It was like the wedding all over again!  Except this time, I didn’t have Jeff to help me (he was behind the camera):

Mmm…sprinkles in the cake!  My favorite!

Also, lime icing!  My favorite!

Sunday morning we woke up bright and early to go to:

RenFest!  My favorite!  See?:

Not at all creepy, is it?

Enjoying our $3 sodas.  Not as bad as ballpark prices, I admit, but still.  $3?!

Then we tried on hats:

Lots of hats:

I tried really really hard to make Jeff buy this one!

Then it was time for the joust.  And Jeff never misses an opportunity to check out the maps!

Always with the maps.  And if it’s not maps, it’s instruction booklets.  I just don’t get what he’s thinking sometimes.

The queen announcing the joust or something. We couldn’t really hear what they were saying:

And because I’m a certain kind of special, I failed to take any photos of the joust.  But you know what’s it’s like.  Watch A Knight’s Tale if you want to see one.

But I did get a shot of Jeff learning to shoot a bow and arrow!

And my souvenir:

I call it my ‘tankette’ and it’s to go with Jeff’s mankard (man’s tankard), which we bought at RenFest 2 years ago.

We’re also big fans of the cutout head thingies.  See?

(Henry VIII)

Merlin:

I always wanted to be a mermaid!

This is my favorite of Jeff:

And my favorite of myself:

I always wanted a unicorn, too.

Finally, ’cause I know y’all love my dad, here’s one of him and his second favorite daughter (I fluctuate between being third or fourth favorite, depending on if the cat has puked lately):

Besides this:

I also got lots of other great birthday gifts!

Back in Kirksville, I took a couple pictures of my birthday gifts from Mom and Dad.  Part I:

and Part II.  These were made from vintage fabric given to my mom by her third grade teacher, way back in the day–I love ‘em!:

Part III was supposed to be a deposit into my checking account.  So on Sunday I went to the ATM to check my balance, and it read “$6.51″.  So I called my parents to ask where the heck my birthday money was, and upon telling my mom there was six dollars in the account she started singing…”Happy birthday to you…”.    Then Dad deposited the money.  And it’s all going into Katie’s Camera Fund!  (feel free to contribute ).

Oh, did I mention my new camera?  Guess what?  I get to order it on Oct. 1!!!!  Squeee!!!!!!!  I got my Bright Flight refund check on Friday, the price of the camera has dropped $40 since I last checked…life is good   I should have it in my hot little hands before my cousin’s wedding on the 7th!

Finally, I’ll leave you with an image so cute, yet so disturbing, that you’ll never be the same.  I promise:

Yes, I really did.  And all for this.  More pics coming soon.

…in a day and a half.

A cat was added, for scale.  Also, it’s not really crooked–that’s just how an afghan looks after a cat has been prancing all over it for five minutes.  For the record.

I think this will be one of the four afghans I hope to give my four cousins/flower girls for Christmas–if I can get the other two done in time!

Here was Macbeth last night:

Just a bit too innocent looking, no?  I’m sure if he had thumbs he’d be twiddling them.

And yes, just in case you were wondering, he was resting on Jeff’s crotch.  He did that to himself.

Wednesday (yes, the day before yesterday) I just couldn’t stand it any more.  Not one more minute.  Not one more 3 dc, (2dc in same sp) twice, 3 dc, (dc2tog) twice, 3 dc….. NO!  I won’t I won’t I won’t!

In a fit of passion, I hurled myself facefirst into my big bin o’ Red Heart and emerged yesterday morning having made these:

So, not knowing what else to do, I stitched them together and put on a few rounds of border, and by the end of the evening yesterday (approximately 30 hours after I got that wild hair), I had this:

I made an afghan in a day and a half.  I’m certifiably insane.

Now I think I’ll make three more, and give them to my lil’ cousins for Christmas.  No, I’m not kidding.