A little of this, a little of that

I got a new car! I had my old car, a 1993 Thunderbird named Liesl, for 6 years, and she was getting old and arthritic and crotchety. (Well, she WAS 14 years old. Are there "car years," like dog or cat years?) Behold, my new as-yet-unnamed car (and our fabulous townhome!):


She's a 2001 Jetta GLS, one of my dream cars. (My second choice was a Toyota Camry, but in keeping with my poor white trash tendencies, Jettas are cheaper.) I'm thinking of naming her Lily, but I can't decide if that's a suitable name for a black car.

A little bit of knitting: My dear friend Maggi just had a baby last Friday, and I found the most adorable pattern for her new little girl. I don't want to spoil the surprise in case she happens to read this before I can get it to her, but it might even be cuter than the fuzzy bunnies. There was a bit of a mishap toward the beginning of it, which means I'll have to wash it before I give it to her, as she might not appreciate a baby gift that smells like rum. I was a little depressed because when I left for work that morning, both of our goldfish were doing, well, swimmingly, but when I came home from work a mere 9 hours later, one was obsessivly gasping at the surface of the tank and the other was dead. So I was drinking the expensive rum that we bought at the Mall of America last weekend, and I spilled it. I spilled it away from the yarn and the project, but then for some reason I neglected to wash my hands before I started knitting again. I didn't really notice it until the next day, when I was packing it into my purse so I could work on it over my lunch break. Wow, it was strong. It smells better now, but Maggi is a non-drinker, so she could probably smell it where I couldn't. I also spilled it on the Agatha Christie book that I had just gotten in the mail, and that smell didn't fade. I'm almost finished reading it, which is good because every time I turn a page I get this strooooong whiff of rum. When will I learn? No rum and knitting. Maybe I should start drinking my rum in a sippy cup.

Mutant Rhubarb!

LomL asked if we would turn green if we ate it.

Monty Python Flying Circus - Gangs in Bolton

Just a little Sunday morning silliness


Our local Hancock Fabrics is in the midst of closing and selling everything they possibly can, so the yarn (what little was left, anyway) was 50% off. I got some Moonlight Mohair for $4 a skein (the only brand they sell is Lion Brand.) I came home (at 10:45 AM, I might add) and proceeded to go through 2 of the skeins by the time I went to bed, on a cute little poncho. Yes, I know, I was using size 17 needles, but I was still pretty impressed with myself. So maybe by the time I'm old enough to be a Hell's Granny I'll be up to 20 balls a day. Anyway, I have about 5 more inches to go, then the sewing up and the fringe.

And some more

Arm warmers! I pictured myself wearing these on a slightly breezy summer evening, on the patio of my favorite restaurant. Then I actually wore them and discovered that it's rather difficult to eat and not get food on them. Cute, nonetheless. I made them in Paton's Classic Wool, just because it cost almost $9 for 50g of the Lion Cashmere, but only $5 for 100g of the Paton's. I'm nothing if not cheap.

The Brea bag from Berroco. I changed the decorative button to a clasp, and added a zipper. Not much else to say, except it was a pretty quick knit. Apparently, it's one of the more popular free patterns on the site.

This is a fun granny square purse that I crocheted, before I learned how to knit. I found it on a page of vintage knitting and crochet pattern links ("vintage," in this case means anything from the 1800's until the 1980's or so.). The page is still up, but all of the links to the patterns seem to have gone away, which is too bad. The original purse was crocheted in wonderfully garish shades of pink and orange and green.

Huzzah

These are some fuzzy bunnies I made for a co-worker who was having a baby. She didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl, so I made one in blue and one in pink. (The pattern can be found here.) The reaction at the baby shower when she opened the bag was life-affirming yet terrifiying. If you've never been in a room with 35 women all going "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" at the same time, you probably don't understand what I'm talking about. About the faces, in case you're wondering - it's not the picture, they just don't have faces. I left them off because I felt that they should be done in a soft gray rather than black as the pattern called for, and I didn't have any thread that color. Also, I finished the blue bunny about 15 minutes before I had to leave for the baby shower. On a totally unrelated note, holy crap, my fingernails are long in this picture!




Ugh. Not only did I not choose my yarn wisely, but I had not yet discovered the joys of blocking. The sweater also sat in a corner in the back of my closet for many months, which didn't help matters. It is much happier as a vicious polar bear. The pattern came from the Spring/Summer 2006 Vogue Knitting.

Woo

I'm getting a digital camera of my very own. So no more excuses, just pictures. Yay.

LYS

Still no pictures. We're trying, but apparently the gods are against us.

I finished the back of the fuzzy sweater! Between Saturday morning and Sunday evening, I knit 10 inches. I didn't even know I had it in me! But I'm taking a little break now, 'cause wow. I haven't gotten any farther on the little mini 2-for-1 sock, and I haven't unraveled any more yarn for my polar bear. Soon, soon.

A few weeks ago, I bought some fabulous yarn. It was the most beautiful shade of purple, and very soft and ... soft. By the way, this might be a good time to mention that I am not a yarn snob. We do have one actual yarn store in town, but I hate going to it, for several (probably baseless) reasons. You know how when you go to some stores you get attacked by sales people? They just want to help, but I want them to leave me alone. Well, the proprietors of Fargo's LYS apparently know this about me, because it is nearly impossible to get anyone to even ask if they can help me, let alone help me. I have to follow them around the store, looking as helpless as I can, looking them directly in the eye, saying "Excuse me, can you help me?" etc, etc before they will deign to acknowledge my existence. When I finally do get some assistance, I get the distinct feeling that the sales person feels that I just wasted too much of her precious time. Maybe they don't think that I should be a knitter. And it's not just me. The local paper did a news story on knitting a year or so ago, and featured the store. My favorite quote? One of the owners said, "I like it when men come into my store. They don't ask so many questions." So I don't go there very often, to avoid asking too many annoying questions. Anyway, I am (mostly) content to do my yarn shopping at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. The fabulous yarn was Hobby Lobby's Yarn Bee brand. I know that it's cheap acrylic, and I know that it will probably not wear well on whatever I decide to make out of it, but it's beautiful nonetheless.