Filth Flarn!

I'm having one of those days. You know--the kind that makes you want to say naughty words? I'm still trying to decide whether to keep this blog PG-13 or let it all hang out. I think I'll keep it clean for now. It's all good, though. I expect to win the lottery any day now, and if nothing else, I will no longer feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest from all of the financial worries.

This was a boring post. Let's add pictures. This was a flannel quilt I made for a baby gift. The lighting isn't very good, but I did quilt wind swirls and grass and waves. You can almost see them. Wish I had taken better pictures. But as my mother always says, "Wish in one hand, shit in the other--see which one fills up first." Oops. There I went and used bad language anyway.

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: sewing,quilting

Sushi sells sea shells by the sea shore

The in-laws invited us to lunch. We're po' folks, so they take pity on us and drag us out once in a while. The sushi, as always, was amazing. Even the 10 year-old loves it. We rarely eat out, being the Thrifty McFrugalsons we are. When we do, we like it to be something we can't make as easily at home. No steakhouses for us. The mister has perfected that at home. We tend to go international. Thai. Indian. Greek. Sushi. It's all good.

Not much going on here. We're supposed to get another snow storm tonight and tomorrow. I've settled in with some laundry and some knitting. I did pull out the sewing machine this week and made me another rice bag. I had some dried lavendar from my patio garden, so I threw that in there as well. Pop it in the microwave for a couple of minutes, then it's nice and toasty and fragrant. My back has been talking to me, so I usually wedge it around my lower back and my knitting chair. I need to sew more. It helps with the instant gratification that knitting leaves to be desired.

I cast on for a three way shawl (link to come) to use up the Lion Brand Amazing I thought I would love but didn't. It's very velcro, so not very pleasant to work with. The colors are pretty, but it's scratchier than I thought it would be. There's an error in the pattern that I discovered right away. The cast-on is 40, but the third row is k2tog, yo all the way across. This has you ending with a yarnover which basically has you purling a hanging piece of yarn on the first stitch of the return row. Others found the same issue. There are a couple of options, but I think I'll go with beginning and ending with a single knit stitch, and doing a yo, k2tog to the last stitch, then finishing with a knit stitch. That seems to be the most symetrical solution.

Not rocket science, really, but I"m such a rule-follower that altering patterns is never my first thought. No wonder I hate errata so much. When I was a new knitter, I always did exactly what the pattern said and drove myself nuts on more than one occasion thinking that I was surely doing something wrong. It never occured to me that there could be mistakes in published patterns. And not just a few. It's apparently a given. Now I know to search or just adapt if it's something simple like this one.

Widgets and Tweaks

Found the template I want, but it's an oldie, so I'm not able to customize it easily. Were I well-versed in HTML, I could widen the margins and get rid of the negative space at the edges. But I'm not. I'm also not good at picture-type things, so let's play, shall we?

This is my pup, basking in the sun and attempting to look aloof.

Technorati Tags: dog

Slipper-y Slope

I have a slipper block. Everything else I knit, including socks, generally comes out fine. Slippers, not so much. The first ones I did were M. J.s . The pattern was fine, but it involved seaming ends to sides. I am not the seaming queen, so there were unsightly holes and bumps where the uppers joined the soles. Yesterday, I knit the first of Brightly Beaded Moccasins from this book. I skipped the colorwork and the beads. I really just wanted a pair of slippers that would stay on. The pattern wasn't hard, but again, it involved seaming, and picking up and knitting. I don't know why I suck so badly at these things, but I do. The slipper is too big, and the seams could be a little less bulky. Once I stop pouting, I'll rip it out and re-knit it smaller. But not right now. Later. When I'm over it.

I'm mostly cranky because I have Sylvi in my queue. I even have yarn for it. It requires seaming. If I were rich, I could hire someone to seam it for me. But alas...

Pay It Forward

OK, so I don't usually jump on the Facebook bandwagon of pasting status updates in solidarity, but a crafty friend posted the Pay It Forward status, and I bit. The first five people who respond get a handmade item from the poster in the coming year. Maybe it's something that's done every January. I dunno. I'm kind of out of the loop on those sorts of things. I requested an item from her, posted the status, and in no time had five recipients of my own. Knowing I have a whole year is a bit of a relief, although I do tend to procrastinate. I'm thinking one per month is pretty doable.

What to make? I'm leaning toward fingerless mitts. I can knock them out pretty quickly, and they don't take much yarn. I could burn a little stash while I'm at it. I'll be posting the progress. Stay tuned.

Wish You Were Here

Welcome to the maiden voyage. I anticipate the look changing considerably as I figure out this whole bloggity thing, so hang on.

The weather here in the cave today was partly cranky with scattered self-pity. I dubbed it "the day from heck" in an e-mail to my husband. Nothing even worthy of a full-on rant. Really just a half-assed attempt at a day.