I'm moving my photos to Fotki instead of Flickr .. Flickr doesn't give me the flexibility I really am looking for as far as organization is concerned unless I shell out $30 for a 'Premium' account, and to make a new Flickr I have to make a new Yahoo completely, and I dislike that prospect. I have enough to keep up with as it is.

So, to view my pictures now, you can go to my Fotki pages.
Finished Objects
Works in Progress
Stash
Project Spectrum

I also made albums for the knitalongs I've joined, as a way to keep track of what I did or received or gave for what.
Summer of Stash
Mason-Dixon KAL
Knitting the Classics

Yarn Ho!

Okay, that was silly. But I have to report that today in my mailbox, what did I see??



I was the very first recipient of one of seven boxes travelling the world in the Yard Aboard II swap! So cool! I was just telling Brandon yesterday about it, and how grateful I was that I already had my yarn for my partner!



I got the Christopher Columbus box .. welcome, Chris, to my little corner of hell. Well, not really, but good gracious, it's hot enough to be!! I'll have to start finding places to take him. Perhaps a little photo-tour of what passes for home around here.




Goodies inside! But really, I must wax on about the lovely boxes. So cute, right down to the little traveler's log sheet!




I just love getting presents .. especially ones I don't know about beforehand! Amanda, thank you! Well, my diet doesn't thank you, but I'll be good and not let it sabotage me!



Archer Farms' Chocolate Drizzle indulgent snack mix. So evil! But it looks so yummy too. I love snack mixes, especially those with chocolate! I'll have to point this, since I'm on weight Watchers, and it'll have to wait until tomorrow, which is weigh-in day, but I will definitely enjoy this yummyness. And I can share it with hubby!



The most adorable little journal .. it can be my knitting journal, now that I'm ready to start knitting more than dishcloths! Thank you, I love it! And I especially love that it's fabric covered and padded .. utterly and completely precious!




This will be the first addition to my beautiful journal, my postcard from Louisiana. Specifically, from Magnolia Mound, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I've been to New Orleans, a few years back, and I do love the area. So to have a postcard is nice. And the little blurb about the house is fascinating. Makes me want to explore it!




Last, but certainly not least, the yarn! And a sock pattern! Woot! The pattern is from Fiber Trends, the Peak Experience socks - with patterns for Angel's Rest (women's) and Mt. Hood (unisex). I love them! They don't look terribly difficult at all, and I love they way that different yarns make them look!

The yarn is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn in Mother Lode, and I love it. It's deliciously autumnal. I just need to get needles, and I'm good to go for making myself some lovely socks for Fall!

Thank you so much, Amanda! I love being a part of this, and can't wait for the next go-round!

I won I won!

Okay, so the important thing is that Jackie and Janette raised a considerable amount of money for Dale. But I won something! I never win anything. Well, okay, I won the 'Knit Big' t-shirt from Pottercraft. (And I still contend it should say 'Big Knits' .. and my husband agrees!) But I won!

And such beautiful prizes I won too. A beautiful basket, and a Think Pink! watch. The basket is perfect for a yarn basket, and the watch will be well used when I start working!

I feel good that I was able to help out, even in a small way, considering our serious lack of funds right now. But I have a job .. I should start next week in fact, and Jason's business is picking up, and we should also be getting money for school. So I feel no regret except that I couldn't have given more.

Strange Sky, UFOs, Reading and Knitting

Feh. Flargle. Blogger, play nice!

I'm trying to post pics of the sky tonight as the sun was setting, but Blogger's not playing nice at all. What's the dealio!? Grrr!

Anyway, the sky tonight, just as the sun was setting, was incredibly strange. Outside had this odd red cast to it, it was reflected on the cars in the parking lot and such. And the clouds to the east were reds and oranges, but the ones to the west were white and fluffly. Wierd!


Sydney said that Scout asked us to confess our UFO's. So here's my confession.

I have this yarn. Caron Simply Soft. I bought it for an afghan, because it's yummy soft, even if it is acrylic, and because it's in simply gorgeous colors. The problem is, I started one block, and am now stuck. Painfully and impossibly stuck. I cannot bear to keep knitting the same color in the same dull pattern for row upon row. And so it's been sitting, unloved and nigh forgotten, in my knit-tote for months now. I suppose I should pick a different pattern for it. I've considered making the tesselating fish blanket, but I'm not sure I want to do that. Recently I've fallen in love with the patterns from the Mason Dixon girls, especially the log cabin, but also the mitered squares .. but will I love them long enough to finish this beastie!? ('Ello, beastie....)

Dammit, Blogger, post my damned pictures! It's not -that- hard!

*grumble*

Chris is having a contest to celebrate her new blog. She wants people to write haiku inspired by her darling Chaos.

I've joined the Knit the Classics KAL. This month they're reading Lolita, by Vladimir Nabakov. I'm not sure I will be able to start this month, what with the new job and school likely starting, but I'll know more soon. They're also taking votes on the books for September, October and November. I'm torn between a few of them, but have a while to vote, which is good.

SEPTEMBER:
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Little Woman - Lousia MayAlcott
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

OCTOBER:
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Evelina - Frances Burney
Candide - Voltaire

NOVEMBER:
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Emma - Jane Austen
The Last Man - Mary Shelley


Aha!! Pictures .. see, the sky was so oddly red!

Project Spectrum: August

Project Spectrum August has begun, and I'm not sure what I'm going to knit for it! Maybe I'll start (and hopefully finish!!) my mesh knit shopping bag finally .. I've only been saying I wanted to knit one for freaking ever. I have a whole cone of Sugar 'n Cream in ecru that I've had planned for just that purpose.



Beyond that though, I don't have any really neutral colors, nor black or white. But my friend and our recent houseguest Brandon, whom I taught to knit and am incredibly proud of, made this lovely indeed black and white mosaic dishcloth I want to show off.

Lammastide

Today is Lammas, also known as .. but not entirely the same as .. Lughnassadh. It is today we honor the Lady in her guise as Mother, as she grows large with the child growing within her womb, the child she conceived with the Sun King at Ostara. Now too does the Sun King begin to die as days grow short and nights long. Today we celebrate the harvests of the ending year. We begin to reap the bounty of our toils of the previous year, and prepare to settle in for the winter, living off that bounty until springtime.

I have grown throught the years from being raised Roman Catholic, turning to Wicca in my high-school years when I came across a book in the bookshop near my work. Since then .. and that was back in the very early 1990's .. I have walked a long and often lonely path to come to where I am today. I have moved a thousand miles from the home I knew. I have made the dreadful mistake of moving in with friends to help them out in Georgia. I came back to this home, to Jason's parents, and put my life back in order. I endured a hellish job much longer than I should have. I have survived over a year of joblessness. This last year has been full of fret and worry, but this new month is bringing work to me, and with it peace.

This Lammas I am celebrating the fruits of a year's toil in my quest for a job. I am celebrating the joy of knowing I can help provide for my household, and doing it in a job that I really believe I will enjoy. I am also celebrating going back to school, something I've wanted to do for a very long time. I'm still waiting to hear that they've gotten my transcripts, but I'm accepted, and with luck I'll start August 23rd. If not, I'll probably start October 2nd.

We will have our Lammas feast tomorrow, because today we gave ourselves a bit of a 'free' day. We enjoyed popcorn and Twizzlers at the movie (Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest) and then had fast food for lunch. I enjoyed half a medium fry, some chicken nuggets, and a double quater pounder, and I do not regret it. It was yummy, and it killed a craving I'd been having, and now I can continue on my weight loss without feeling I'm depriving myself.

While in the movie I managed to knit at least 10 rounds on Brandon's Booga bag ... it's very nearly done!! I think I'm going to go to 75 rounds, since I made it a little bigger at the base. It should be done today or tomorrow, at least for the knitting. Then I'll have to knit the i-cord strap and felt.

Goodies for me!

I got a lovely little gift from Spiderwoman Knits today .. a little package of hand-made stitch markers from her 'blogwarming'. How cute are they! Thank you hun! They're simply precious, and will be very useful once I'm done with the Booga-making!

I also got my new Interweave Knits today, and have found a bazillion patterns within that I want to make. Some of them are rather silly .. what's with that skirt? But I love love love the Portland Pullover, as well as the Gatsby Girl Pullover, but I think my favorite is the Equinox Yoke Pullover. Down to the little rolled hem .. it's simply lovely. And the Northern Lights Jacket .. they both make me itch to try Fair Isle!

And the lace patterns .. I really like the Glasgow Lace sweater, though I think it should be a bit longer .. anyone else with me, or am I just crazy? I feel the same about the Breton Jacket .. but I've never been overly fond of short-waisted tops I think. Maybe when I'm thinner.

The Father and Son Socks are very nice .. I might make some once I have appropriate yarns to do so .. and the Spartan Pullover for men is nice too. I could even make that for my dad!

I am simply in LOVE with the Weekend Pullover though .. I'm wondering how much of a misnomer -that- name is though. Despite the 'easy to remember' stitch-patterns it uses, I doubt it can be made in a weekend. It's lovely, however. As is the Sienna Cardigan .. yet, again, we have the short waist issue. I probably shouldn't say that though until I actually knit something wearable.


I also picked up a few other magazines when we went to pick out some books for Jason's Aunt Patty, who fell the other day in the yard and dislocated her jaw. OUCH!

I grabbed Family Circle's easy Knitting Spring/Summer issue, which has a few nice summery sweater patterns, but the cutest I think is the felted bowl patterns it has. I also finally broke down and bought Vogue Knitting's Spring/Summer issue. I knew it had several patterns I liked, but I'd been putting it off. But since Fall is coming, I thought I'd go ahead and get it .. since I'll only whine that I didn't later anyway. And Creative Knitting's September issue came out .. and it has a dishcloth pattern again! Yay! As well as a couple cute sweaters, and a non-felted slipper-sock pattern.


I don't have enough actual UFO's to actually join, but I came across UFO August KAL in my blog-reading today, and thought I'd promote it a little, for those of you that might actually read me and might be interested.

I say ... and you think ... ?

1. Italy :: Florence
2. Honk :: y-tonk
3. Shades :: Cool
4. Tool :: Belt
5. Modern :: Impression
6. Tension :: Headache
7. Conservative :: Liberal
8. Weight :: Watchers
9. Insurance :: Policy
10. Political :: Boring

From Unconscious Mutterings