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September 30, 2004
Goodies! I Heart Goodies!
Look at what my sweet and ever so talented Secret Pal sent my way!!!!
OOOOOOH!!!! A whole mess of little goodies from Sanrio (I am SUCH a sucker for anything Sanrio!! I swear this girl reads minds!!!), a set of the coolest little magnets ever - they are pieces of quilt blocks so you can design your own! Neato!!!!, and an absolutely AWESOME scarf that she knit for me in Manos del Uruguay Cotton Stria! I have the most thoughtful pal ever - she knows I can't wear wool so she made me a super soft scarf to cuddle up in!!
I tore this bad boy right out of the package and wrapped it around my neck! And I have already received multiple compliments on it! You do great work, Pal 'O Mine!! Thank you so much!!!!! ;)
Posted by Sarah at 10:20 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Progress for the Stitch Bunny!
Okay - so FINALLY - as promised...... Pictures!!! I'm not a liar, I swear....just sloooooow. And now having recuperated from the head cold/flu/mystery virus from H-E-double hockey sticks, I can finally get
some work done on this blog!!!
First up..... Pia!! In all her pink pink glory!! I loved knitting this - quick and easy! I knit her up in Rowan All Seasons Cotton and used magazine 35 for the pattern. LOVE IT!!! Of course....the day after I
finished her, the temp dropped to 60 degrees and hasn't really raised since..... sigh.
Please Note: This was the first time I had to take pics of myself! Props to all of you that do such a good job with this - for I truly SUCK at taking my own photo!! Hee! Eep!
Next - a smaller project that somehow took me over 9 months to finish....a scarf. LOL. I knit her up in Colinette Fandango and Giotto - both in
the Morocco Colourway - on US 11 bamboo needles. She is soft and FUZZY and cuddly to the max!! I set her aside after being distracted (okay.....tempted then lured!) by a few other projects that seemed much more interesting at the time! (Let's see.....my French Market Bag....then Honeymoon....then that Cross Strap Tank.....yeah NOT rectangles......) Anyhow, she has finally arrived and I luff her!
And now some progress pics - because goodness knows I can't sit
still!!!
I recently joined Drew's Man-Along! Here is the progress I have made so far on Bune's Skully sweater!!! Yeee!! He will look so handsome! ;)
And then we have a little mystery birthday surprise!
My Pop's birthday is October 10th (only 3 days after mine!) so I have been working on something for him. It was going to be one thing and then I kept messing up....and finally took it as a sign that the yarn wanted no part in that project. So it was transformed into something else! He reads this blog (I hope!!) so I can't divulge anymore just yet.... But here is a clue! He is a VP of sales at a corporation and his territory just got moved around so he will be up here in the North more often - and it gets cold up here!! Maybe this present might help stave off the chill? Hmmm? I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!
Posted by Sarah at 10:16 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Hi-Larry-uss-ness
Okay - too funny NOT to share. I urge you all to read this post on my sister's site....
Her obsession with making small felt monsters has reached a new height.
Posted by Sarah at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 24, 2004
Voulez-vous crochet avec moi ce soir?
At Tuesday night's meeting of the Hat City Scissor Squad (which was really just me, Anne and Eva hangin out at Java's...LOL), Eva taught Anne and I how to crochet!! Ooh I feel so fancy!
I have been sick all week (UGH!) and actually went home early from work on Wednesday and stayed home altogether yesterday! Feeling a little bit better now that I slept for hours upon hours..... In my small amount of awake time yesterday, I dug out an old needlework book and practiced single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, triple crochet and double triple crochet! Phew!
I feel like I am starting to get over my seemingly irrational fear of crochet hooks. I use them in my knitting when a little surgery is necessary to fix a wrong stich or pick one up that I dropped (gasp!) - but I have put off learning how to use them for their actual purpose. I hope that little hook feels a little more fulfilled now that she has been used for actual crochet! Props to Eva for being a great (and patient!) teacher for us! She's planning on teaching a crochet class for kids at the Y where she works - how cool is that???
Another new trick I learned (we were so productive on Tuesday!) was Magic Loop!! Anne took the time to show Eva and I how to knit even the tiniest item in the round on circulars! And it was so simple that I proclaimed a giant DUH! for all to hear! I just could not wrap my head around it until someone actually showed me how to do it..... Thank to both Eva and Anne! I need to think of something I can teach in trade!!!
Not much knitting news in the last few days.....way too groggy to follow that cable chart! My yarn for Skully should arrive today or tomorrow! I am hoping to get that sucker started this weekend! Can't wait! And now that I am feeling alittle bit better, I might just allow someone to photograph me in Pia..... TRUST ME, you did NOT want to see what I have looked like the past coupla days......
Posted by Sarah at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)
September 20, 2004
Quiet Weekend leads to Nasty Head Cold for Local Girlie
Okay. Mission Accomplished! Very quiet weekend (almost eerily quiet at times! Oooooooh! Oooooooh! That's my best eery ghost sound.) I got a LOT of knitting done and watched some good flicks! This weekend I watched Hellboy, Kill Bill Volume 1, KB Volume 2, and Conspiracy Theory (it was on TV) - and watched a heck of a lot of football on Sunday (yeee!). During this serious stretch of couch time, I finished Pia (pics are on their way - I am presently sans DigiCam - the sis is in Sunny Florida at the moment) Anyhoo, I sure love Pia. She came out quite cute and of course she was finished on a day that was inexplicably cold. Sigh.... Hopin' for a heat wave, folks. cue Martha and the Vandellas singing Heatwave...... I heart Motown.
So I was sick all day yesterday (YUCKERS) and continue to be so today....... But you know what that means? More couch time. LOL. It is kinda sad that the only way to subdue my slightly obsessive compulsive GO GO GO mentality is to be sick sick sick. And even sick time becomes productive time now that I have knitting......it's another enabler, but a healthy one, I swear!!
I also got somewhere with Lavender (from Rowan Summer Tweed Collection). She is my first grown up sized cable project! I started out by lengthening the ribbing a bit. I was reminded by Pia as I tried her on for the first time, that I have a long torso. (and short legs - yipee, right? haha) The belly button likes to poke out from Pia - which I don't really mind on a tank, but surely want to avoid on a sweater! I am about halfway through the first cable repeat on the back. It looks sooo cool! Again...pics forthcoming....
Another meeting of the Scissor Squad commences tomorrow night @ 8pm at Molten Java Coffee Roasters in Bethel, CT!!!!! All are welcome!!! :)
Posted by Sarah at 3:47 PM
September 15, 2004
Scissor Squadders Unite amidst Stitch's Busiest Week in Recent Memory
Wow. We had our very first craft-together last night and it was F-U-N! We are a rowdy raucous bunch and I wouldn't have it any other way. I was a little worried that my sis and I would be the loudmouths and we'd scare people, but we were just part of the gang last night! It is soooooo awesome to get together with people close to your age that are creative - I came away with a gazillion (shut up - it's a number!) ideas last night for new things to make..... While we were hangin out, I finished knitting Pia! Only blocking and seaming to go!!!!
We even had a guy attend! We told him he is our male Stitch Bitch! Isaac, Melissa's sweetheart, tagged along for the evening and ended up making two pairs of earrings (one for moi!!!) - we declared him the manliest man we know! Secure enough in his masculinity to hang around a buncha gabbing girlies and make his girl some dangly earrings to boot. He so rocks.
We took a buncha pictures - hopefully I'll get them posted tonight or tomorrow! You can take a look at our sexy mugs :) What a great idea to have the first meeting in a bar - it wa really fun and totally relaxed. Still pondering locations for next week's meeting.... Thinking cap - on.
Tonight it's off to Rosh Hashana dinner at Jamie's mama's house.... I get to meet Papa Dave, the 91 year old patriarch of his family. A little bit scared I am. Deep breaths, girl. Deep breaths.
And tomorrow, my Pop is in town for a sweet but brief visit before he heads back to Florida Friday morning. He is taking my fella and I out to dinner - yipee! I get to pick the restaurant ..... Thinking cap - on.
So a busy week here in the land of Stitch. This weekend will surely be spent on the couch knitting while watching Samurai movies. :)
Posted by Sarah at 1:10 PM | Comments (1)
September 13, 2004
First Official Meeting of the Hat City Scissor Squad
Wanna craft rock star style? Then you wanna run with Scissors!
Join us for our first official type meeting thing!
Have a pint with the Hat City Scissor Squad!
Tuesday, September 14 @ 8pm till we go home.
Hat City Ale House, 253 Main Street, Danbury, CT
I'm psyched that we have a little crew of craftsters to pull together our first get together. Can't wait!!
Posted by Sarah at 3:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 9, 2004
Help Jenny Hart!
Recently, Jenny Hart - the embroidery goddess who created Sublime Stitching - discovered that her legally protected, copyrighted designs had been snagged by a manufacturer and are being stitched on merchandise in India for resale in the U.S.!! With no credit or money given to Ms. Hart!
Read more about it here and help her out! If you see her designs on mass manufactured clothing please let her know!
This is the kind of thing that makes me go Grrrrr.......
Posted by Sarah at 4:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 8, 2004
This is the News.
Forgive the lack of eye candy - but I am having some technical difficulty at the moment- I post some pics as soon as I can! On to the News......
Secret Pal!
Oooooheeee! I got a neato completo package from my Secret Pal!!! Wow! She sent me a cute cute card with a little yorkie on the front! A tin of deelish peach tea! A little box of Godiva chocolates (!!!!)! And to top it all off..... a copy of Vintage Knits by Sarah Dallas! I am freaking out! And as they would say on the Knitty Coffeeshop - Freak me back in!
I can't believe it! My secret pal must have psychic powers or tiny cameras following me around at local bookstores to see what I drool over! Thanks Secret Pal!!
Pia Progress!
We are at 49.8% complete! Just finishing the left strap and the back is complete!! Then on to the front!! Whew! That went fast!! Maybe I will actually get this done in time for the last of the warm weather! Yeah! (I had secretly feared it would be finished the day AFTER the last day of warm weather.... you know how these things go!!! I have pleasantly surprised myself!)
The Box!
I received the Yarn Swap box and gave it a shiny new box to travel in style (and because the traveling stash was getting too big for it's original digs!!!) I snagged some cookie monster blue mohair/acrylic blend yarn for .... well, I don't know what! But it caught my eye and that was that! I tossed a bunch of suh-weet yarn in - I hope those of you swapping along will enjoy!!! Leftover skeins of shimmer, deco ribbon and cotton chenille to start things off! I love throwing good stash into swap boxes - because I know it will find a great home along the way! And goodness knows I don't have anything to use it for at the moment! :)
So, off it goes! See you at the next round, boxie!
My Kitchen!
It's yellow!!!! I painted it but good this weekend! Yay! Double and triple Yay! It looks so good that I can't possibly describe. We must wait for eye candy o share the joy that is my yellow kitchen. I love that feeling when you decide to do something you have been talking about forever and keep putting off because it is a thing that only you really care about so it never seems to take priority.......and then you do it. And it makes you feel as good as you thought it would!!! Sigh.
Why was it so important? Well, it was PINK. Yeah. Anyone who spends enough time in a kitchen will understand why I just could not handle that anymore.
Scissor Sqad!
We are up to 12 members, baby! YEAH! I am loving the chit chat on the Yahoo! group site so much - I can't wait for the first actual get together! It should be a blast.
We are thinking about organizing a field trip to NYC for craft shopping!! There is a Japanese bookstore we want to go to (and the tasty tasty Japanese sweet shop next door yummmmm!). I was thinking about maybe Purl? Does anyone know of any good craft shops in the city that we could check out? Cool bead shops? Other crafty places? My thinking cap is on......
If anyone out there would like to meet up with us, let me know!! Haven't come up with a date yet, but will keep you posted! ;)
Okay - that's the News. More at 11.
Posted by Sarah at 4:28 PM | Comments (3)
September 2, 2004
Pia, Pia, Why you Buggin?
Okay - so no pics today (BOOOOO!) because of lack of double A batteries for my sister's digicam.... So photographic evidence will have to wait until later.....
But, I have started Pia!! Hazah! Going very fast! And I LOVE her already! Now, this wasn't a marriage made in heaven, I'll admit..... First my issues with knitting a gauge swatch - Ouch! I just could not figure it out for the life of me! (Sometimes I need things like this to remind me I am not as knowledgable as I sometimes think I might be.... This stuff keeps me humble! LOL) Luckily, a quick Google resulted in a Pia gauge swatch tutorial by none of than the ever talented Julia!!!
Friends - if any of you are going to give Pia a shot, I implore you - read this tutorial first! Awesomely helpful as always, Julia walked me right through what was turning out to be quite tricky.... (at least for my pointed head).
Once I got that squared away, I feverishly cast on! I ribbed like I never ribbed before and ZOOM! I was suddenly at the first row of the body! "YIPEE!" I proclaimed and as I got to the end of the row.....what's this? I should only have 7 stitches left to purl.....why do I have 11? This is odd..... could it be? could I have? NOOOOO! yes. I had accidentally cast on for the size larger than I wanted. Oh my. Oh my. My sweetie was witness to the look on my face as I discovered this. And the shade of pink that I turned......
"So, she took a couple of deep breaths and in a very angry fashion, TORE the knitting off the needles and started unraveling madly! Then she wound up the yarn and tossed her entire project bag to the side of the couch and turned away from it as if it had wronged her in some way....."
Yes. Knitting and I had a fight that evening. Quite a row. But we made up the very next day after a long talk about staying calm enough to read the pattern carefully - despite the excitement pounding in my chest over a new lovely to parade about in. Sigh.
Hunny was glad to see me "back on the horse" the next day. :) He is a very supportive knitting widower. Not that he doesn't carry some bitterness around from time to time.... The other night he proclaimed that Knitting was my new boyfriend and that if I could marry it I would! LOL. Okay......hmmm.....maybe he's on to something? But, no. Not even Knitting compares to my Hunny....... AND THAT IS SAYING QUITE A BIT!!!!! :) Okay enough sappy sap sap......
I'll post some progress pics later :)
Posted by Sarah at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack