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

Booga Too!

I'm making a second bag, this one's for Brandon, who wants a project bag, and though he didn't want one in the fuscia and grey, I did happen to have this blue/black kinda tweedy yarn that Larissa gave me when I visited her .. which is also when she taught me to knit. I came home with an extra suitcase full of yarn when we left Michigan that May. Jason was just glad I didn't have to buy much yarn then .. though I've bought -much- more yarn since I picked the knitting back up again last fall, before I even bothered picking up the yarn she sent me home with.

But here's the progress thus far. I'm making this one a lick bigger than mine, and I'm going to be a bit more careful in the washing process so we don't felt the shit out of this one.

I'm just at 4 rounds through the body of the bag .. the bottom I made at 40 stiches and 40 rows, so it's just a wee bit bigger. The upshot of this is, I like this bag so much I'm definitely going to go check out the rest of the bag patterns at Black Sheep Bags and pick up one or two.




I have spent the morning after our Weight Watchers meeting and dropping Jason off at work downloading the podcasts of Cast On and knitting on the Booga for Brandon. I'm enjoying listening to Cast On, immensely. I'm up to episode 2 right now .. I especially liked the 'bonus' podcast entitled Snow Day .. it made me tear up a little actually, because it just sounded so beautiful. Yes, I'm a sap .. build a bridge and get over it, already.

I lost another 2.8 pounds this last week, by the way, for a total weight loss this month of 10.4 pounds. I'm halfway to my first goal of 20% of my starting weight. I'm perfectly on track to have lost that by my birthday, if not well before. I want to lose a total of about 70 pounds though, so that'll be a while. I'm still happy though if I keep at this losing right around 2 pounds a week!

Friday Five & Saturday Sky

Many areas of the United States are having a heat wave. Global warming, anyone? Look on the bright side of melting glaciers and enviro-destruction by taking a crack at the Friday Five:

1. What's the high temperature today where you are?
Actual high for Friday, July 28: 96F

2. Favorite way(s) to beat the heat.
Going to the beach and sitting with my feet just in the water. Going to the pool and not getting out (with waterproof sunscreen of course!). Going to the mall and walking and knitting. Sitting inside with my remote control and some diet soda and fresh fruit.

3. "It's not the heat, it's the humidity." Evaluate this statement.
Actually, I find it to be kinda true. Down here it gets extremely humid, and walking outside when it's humid is like walking into a sauna, it kinda takes your breath away, and it's harder to breath.

4. Discuss one or more of the following: sauna, hot tub, sweat lodge, warm-stone massage.
I had a hot-stone facial once, and I have to say, it was about the most incredible feeling ever. It was incredibly relaxing .. I can only imagine that a hot-stone massage would be even more incredible and relaxing. I still remember the girl that did it .. Cricket. And she reminded me of one a little .. she was oddly shaped .. large hips and thighs, but small everywhere else.

5. Hottest you've ever been in your life.
Uhh .. very likely the time I went to school with a temerpature of 102F, though I claimed I 'wasn't sick' ... I had strep throat and it was lucky I went to the school nurse when I did.

Non-temperature related bonus: In your opinion... who's hot?
Besides my husband, who is the hottest thing ever .. Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Janelle from BB All-Stars. (I'm sure there's more, but I can't think right now.


I've eaten now, and I can finally post my Saturday Sky Pics.

More Booga

I got poked at by Kelly, who reminded me that though I posted pictures of the finished Booga, I didn't get good enough pictures because of Isis interference.

So I managed to get some more pictures, since the feline beast of cuteness is perched elsewhere at the moment ... I'm not completely sure where, but I'm certain it's someplace warm.

The colors are a little less bright than this .. I blame the horrible lighting in my house. Someday, I'll replace this awful fixture with a good overhead light.


A couple shots of the strap, which doesn't show it perfectly, but more or less, this is how it looks. The grey kinda got lost in the fuscia .. probably because the grey yarn is much thinner .. almost laceweight I think. I'd have to double that with a strand of the fuscia to get them equal I think .. I'm gonna play around with it and see what works best before I make the second one with this yarn.

Today is a blog catchup day for me, as I've been busy getting things handled for my new job, like consenting to drug and background checks, and going in to the lab to fill a little cup. I think I'm the only person I know that can burn herself at a drug-test. The lab tech warned me gently 'Careful, the water gets really hot.' So I'm thinking "How hot can she mean? I'm used to hot water .. I felt stuff!" So I turn the water on, soap up my hands, and when I went to rinse them off ... Yeouch! I scalded my right ring finger . Their water indeed gets very hot .. like, boiling temp right out the faucet!

Other than that though, things are going well. Now I just have to wait, probably until Tuesday/Wednesday, for the results of the background check and drug test so I can get my training started. By this time next week I expect I'll be busy busy reading the training materials and reaquainting myself with a Telzon gun.

We're still following Weight Watchers religiously .. except for me forgetting to eat all my fruits and vegetables half this week, and being so tired I didn't eat all my points one day. The one-month mark comes up tomorrow, so I've got my extremities crossed for a good weigh-in. Things are fitting much better, so that's a good sign.

On the knitting front, I'm still working on finishing a quick boa-scarf for my other niece, and a Booga for Brandon. His is in this yummy blue/black tweed-ish merino I have, something Larissa gifted to me when she taught me to knit. Once that's done I hope to make another Booga in the Pink/Grey for Larissa. She has gotten back into knitting, though that girl has ventured into garments, whereas I stick with accessories for now. That's just being smart though, I think. I mean, I'm losing weight .. I don't want to make myself anything that won't fit me a year from now!

Like probably most of you all, I'm enduring ungodly heat hereabouts. This is the hottest summer I can remember .. and I've been in the South for 9 summers now. I've been hearing bits and bobs of things trying to explain the heat. Some have said the last big 'quake was preceded by a massive heat wave. Lots of people call it 'Global Warming' .. though without seeming to really know what they're talking about. I'm of the opinion that it's a natural cycle, and that the world isn't going to come to an end just because it's gotten hotter. We may have helped it along, sure, but we didn't cause this cycle. That's just pure arrogance.

Isis and the Booga.

First things first, everyone should go read Gretchen's post
about her friend Erin. Erin lives not far from me, and is raising money through the Charlotte Heart Walk in remembrance of her two little angels whom she lost to congenital heart defects. Gretchen is having a contest for anyone that donates even a little. Being in the Charlotte area, I'm thinking I might do one better, and sign up to walk. It's only three miles, and it's for a phenomenal cause, and I should be in shape enough to walk it by then. If you're close to Charlotte, please consider joining the walk, or at least donating!

This is my completed Booga, with the beginnings of a second Booga in some blue/black tweed on the circular in the foreground.



Isis, being the queen of cuteness trying to figure out what this strange thing is on her perch.

See? Her perch. Hers. Upon which she is quite happy and comfortable. I need to make her a kitty bed soon though. Just because I must.

Good News - Not Knitting

As you probably know, I have been jobless since February of 2005. At the time, I was very happy about it, but lately .. in the last six months of so, I've been getting anxious. I know that until Jason gets through another year or so in the car business, money might be iffy at times .. because it's the car business, and it's often shitty like that. So I've been trying to find something part time, that'll pay for my car and maybe give me a little spending money ..

.. but nothing has been going well. Even the grocery store I applied at didn't want me, and it had been getting very disheartening. It's hard being told you're not even good enough to work at a grocery store for Lady's sake. So when Jason sent a posting to me last week .. wait .. 4 days ago actually ... I wasn't very hopeful, but I sent in my resume anyway. Yesterday, I got a phone call from one of the company's recruiters, saying that I had the qualifications and he wanted to have the District Manager call me. So I waited for her to call .. and when she finally did I was very happy. We arranged an interview for today, and the usual anticipation and nerves began.

I was late .. only a couple minutes but still late .. for the interview, but luckily it was understandable, as I was driving in an unfamiliar area, and she didn't seem troubled by it. The interview went well, I thought. I was personable, charming, and not too needy. And to be honest, the job is something I actually enjoy, merchandising, so I appeared interested .. because I am. So we filled out the paperwork (I-9's and W-2's and such) she'd need to get done and she gave me the form for the drug test I'll have to take, and told me she'd be mulling things over on the way home, and that I'd know by tonight.

So then, I drove home and began the arduous wait for 'the phone call'. I tried not fretting about it, but I hate getting my heart set on a job only to not get it. It's hard for me. 5pm came around and I started getting anxious. But I knew she had a bit of a drive, and I tried to not think about it. I finished my Booga bag I knitted, and started working on Brandon's Booga. Jason's dad called to find out how the interview went at 6:15 pm, and then three minutes later, the district manager called .. offering me the job!!!!

Yes, that's correct, I got the job. It's permanent part time, 12-15 hours a week, working Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, no more than 4 hours a day in the local Best Buy store, handling their DVD department. My title is Merchandising Specialist. basically, I make sure the DVD department and any other displays in the store are arranged according to plan, and that stock is kept on the floor as it should be, and keep track of the ordering and such. I have to have a weekly conference call to discuss the weeks focus and challenges, and a weekly review of the plan on the company website and a quiz on said site. And I get paid for my mileage if I end up covering another store other than my own. I already know that coming up in September I'll have two projects coming up that will be more than the usual hours, which will be nice for money too.

It will be nice to have something to do. Nice to have something going on in my life other than .. well .. lounging around the house. It's no more than 4 hours on any given day, which means I can easily keep the house still .. and with Jason's change in schedule, it'll be nice because I am flexible in the time I need to go in.

So tonight I filled out the online paperwork I needed to get done, and now I wait for them to get me my employee number, and then I can go take my pee test, and then I wait some more, but only for them to send me my shirt, and my little inventory gadget, and my nametag and such. Then I get some online training, and then 2 days of in-store training, and then I'm on my own!

First of all, I just love this video.

My Booga bag is going to be so cute I think. It's not Noro, but it'll be just as good. As soon as I finish the strap, it's going into the washer today. At least, that's the plan.

Completed Booga Body ... shown next to my needle case for scale.

Closeup to show the beautiful stitches, not to mention the colors .. oh, I love the colors!

This is the strap in-progress. I don't have dpns to use, so I'm having to use the same circ I used to make the body. Ugh! Making i-cord on circular needles is not fun! Neither is changing colors .. but once it's done, it'll be done!!

Edit:
Jason asked me why I wasn't just double-stranding the yarn for the icord, and he's so right. Duh! So I frogged the few inches I had done in two separate blocks, and started again, double stranded. I think it looks much better now.

It's thundering outside. Deep, constant rumbling thunder, accompanied by the flicker-flash of lightning. And not just in-the-distance heat lightning, but a good, ground-soaking, weather-cooling storm. I've been delightedly listening to the rain pounding on the ground outside for the better part of 2 hours now, and I couldn't be happier. And it's still coming. I'm considering going to bed, just so I can go to bed listening to the thunder.

What a weirdo I am.

Brandon and I walked at the mall today. An interesting experience I have to say. We took our knitting too, and on our breaks we knitted in public. We stopped in a couple stores ... Bath & Bodyworks and Yankee Candle, and Hot Topic, where I picked up my equivalent of a little black dress ... a t-shirt with a screen printed image of Jack Sparrow on it and the words 'Captain's Wench' over that. It's perfect, and I will fit into it sometime soon.

Knitting Content:
My Booga Bag is finished but for the i-cord strap, and the felting. I will post pictures tomorrow, after I've slept. I want to go sleep to the rumbling thunder now.

Saturday Sky

Didn't have a very fun Sky morning, sadly. We got a hell of a storm lastnight ... one thunderclap was so loud it shook the house, and I buried myself under the covers with Isis. But the storm seems to be cooling off the high temps for next week, so I'm not going to complain. Not to mention, the plants really can use the water. One of my clematis might be dead, it's been so damned hot. I'm hoping it'll bounce back, but not holding my breath.

For some reason, this picture isn't showing how bright it actually is outside. It's not so dark, really.

See?!

I took this shot because a plane was going overhead. See? Top center of the shot .. it's a plane!

Some Stash

This is 6 skeins of some Tahki New Tweed I picked up cheap in Asheville my last time through there. (Before SOSKAL started.)

Isn't it just lovely and pretty and .. no, I don't know what I'm going to do with it yet. A scarf of some sort, yes, but I don't know what kind at all.


This is the yarn for the second hooded baby towel I need to make. Of course, before I can do that I need to rework the pattern, because the last one was, though cute, terribly wonky.

I just adore the colors in this one.

This is my lone skein of actual sock yarn. I do lurve the colors though, and eventually, I'll get around to knitting them.