Rally time!

My mother in law changed her mind and decided that she wanted to go to the Obama rally so I went with her. The turnout was crazy. This only makes sense if you are familiar with Cleveland, but the lines were from the Keybank building down to Gund Arena at Tower City. This was more people than would ever fit in the venue, so they shunted the rest off across Lakeside which is where we were. You could still kind of see, but they did have a big screen up to let us see. It was crowded, and far away from Obama, rainy, and we were getting the stink eye from the people in nicer cars than I can afford who were leaving the Browns game, but it was still awesome. I'm glad I went.

Early voting achieved, now I'm contemplating taking the day off on Wednesday so I can stay up and watch the election unfold. I may or may not. I still remember thinking all was right with the world when I went to sleep the night of the previous presidential election and then waking up to wrongness in the morning. I really don't want a repeat.

Actual crochet content ... don't faint!

Baby camo blanket
Originally uploaded by teesachu

Finally finished the baby afghan for my coworker. Bernat camo yarn in the baby camo colorway. Turned out nice. The tan is less pronounced in reality, I promise :)

There's this old wives' tale that the baby won't come until the knitting is done. I had to take pity on her.

But yay! It's done! I can move on :)

Reincarnation Placement Exam :)

Your result for Reincarnation Placement Exam...

Garden of Eden

It's the Garden of Eden for you!

Well, this is about as cozy and simple as life can get. We hope you like it here. The real estate is not well developed, but the garden is top-flight.

Your answers indicate that you basically want to just coast through life. You don't want any trouble, and you don't want any special privileges either. That's fine with us. It's entirely possible to live a pleasant life without trouble or strife, and Eden is the perfect spot for it, as long as you don't... well...

Just try to behave better than the previous tenants. Evictions can be rough.

Take Reincarnation Placement Exam at HelloQuizzy

Camo time!

I finally found the baby camo I was looking for to make the baby afghan for my coworker. Woot! Now all I have to do is make the blankie. I started it, but I've been too tired/too busy to work on it much. Maybe I'll get to do some more tonight. That would be nice :)

And maybe I'll actually, update lol.

More meme :)

You Are a Visionary Soul

You are a curious person, always in a state of awareness. Connected to all things spiritual, you are very connected to your soul. You are wise and bright: able to reason and be reasonable. Occasionally, you get quite depressed and have dark feelings. You have great vision and can be very insightful. In fact, you are often profound in a way that surprises yourself. Visionary souls like you can be the best type of friend. You are intuitive, understanding, sympathetic, and a good healer. Souls you are most compatible with: Old Soul and Peacemaker Soul

What Kind of Soul Are You?

Waves hi and adds yet another meme, lol

Your result for The Color Code Test...

Color Code: BLUE: The Social Butterfly

Here is the basics: For a more in depth analysis, I suggest you look up the Color Code, and take a more intensive test.

BLUE MOTIVE: Intimacy

BLUE NEEDS: To be good (morally), To be understood, To be appreciated, Acceptance.

BLUE WANTS: To reveal insecurities, Quality, Autonomy, Secuirity.

SUMMARY: Blues are motivated by altruism. They love to do nice things for others. they look for opportunites to give up something in order to bring another person happiness. selflessness rather than selfishness is their guiding philosophy. Blues seek intimacy. They want to be loved and to love. A true blue will sacrifice a successful career to improve an important relationship. Blues crave being understood. They are gratified when they are listened to, when they feel understood and appreciated. Blues may have thier hearts broken more than most people, but they also spend much more time in love. Blues are directed by a strong moral conscience. They have a moral code that guides them in their decision making, their value judgements, and their leisure time. A blue would rather lose than cheat. Ethically, blues are people who should be in positions of power, but seldom are.

Take The Color Code Test at HelloQuizzy

Don't fear the seaming ...

bear 1
Originally uploaded by teesachu

Yay! Bear is done. Forgetting to take the brown to start knitting another one was kind of an impetus to finish.

It turned out cuter than I thought but this was still a lot a practice bear. Maybe it's because I'm really not used to seaming (I've avoided it for years, rectangles and rounds for me, woohoo!). I'll see how it goes for the next one. I need to find a thicker yarn to do the face. She really does have a smile on their. Then again, taking pics at midnight ... yeah.

So huzzah for the bear! :)

For all my fellow cat-loving geeks ... :)

see more crazy cat pics

Mother Bear Project Bear

mother bear project main body knit
Originally uploaded by teesachu

Here's the body. I'm working up the strength to try and seam this puppy. I made a mistake that I will not make again. I slipped the edge stitches on the garter stitch sections, which of course will make mattress stitch much more difficult. Sigh. I think I need to eat dinner before I can think about seaming the head so I can knit on the arms. So far, this has been fairly easy, but we are heading into the soft sculpture section that I've never been good at.

People are strange ...

So, my hair is down past my waist again. I just noticed that it was about six inches away from being back to the longest length I ever had it again this morning. Which is a bit scary in itself. The thing that made it really bizarre was a coworker asking me if I ever urinated on my hair. Okay, wtf? Even when I could sit on it that never happened. I couldn't believe she asked me that. If I ever needed proof that people are work are crazy in their own unique way, that was it. Sheesh.

My brain hurts. I think I'm going to go do my taxes to make my brain stop hurting. No, I'm not kidding, I think it might help. Sigh.

Or search out yarn to make bears for the Mother Bear Project .... hmmm ... decisions decisions.

Dude ...

garterlac dishcloth
Originally uploaded by teesachu

I was forever trying to figure out how the whole entrelac thing worked in knitting. It made zero sense to my eyes after doing tunisian crochet entrelac for several years now. I figured it out. In pretty much one day, go me, lol. Although I must admit that it wasn't my brightest idea to attempt to learn this about 20 minutes before I needed to leave to go to my inlaws' house for dinner.

This was kinda tough, especially picking up stitches, for me. But once I trusted the pattern it made infinitely more sense. Hooray for garterlac dishcloth!

The only problem with success is that every time I manage something new in knitted cotton, I need to go out and buy more colors ... more ... moar ... teehee!

Reason why I only left my house by foot today ...

Because my front porch looked like this ...



Yes, that's snow up to my bumpers on my car and halfway up the railing and almost halfway up the post for the mailbox.

Then there's the trashcan and my front window. It was knee deep the last time I went out. Joy. I know I have a friend who really misses this, lol, not.



I'm starting to be very afraid that my neighbors are right about me being barking mad for not starting to bail myself out of this. But I hate having to do this crap twice. Seriously. I'd rather take it in stages and do it once than be out there six times. It really slowed down though, thank heavens. It was coming down at an inch an hour for a fair bit of time. Now it is just flurrying.

There. I have documented it ... LOL.

I started out so well ...

I even managed to post every day for a month. Now it's a lucky thing if I manage to post once in a month. Oh well. I'm all about the running and less about telling the world about it in blog form. Besides, there are a fair number of people that I see pretty much on a weekly basis anyway. Although I wish I would have written down my experiences about the woman I got behind at the autoscan at Giant Eagle -- Legacy Village a few weeks back. Dressed like she made 3 times what I do and the machine is smarter than she is ... so sad.

I finally got to give the gift of a grocery bag to the friend for which it was intended, as well as the dishclothes that I made with her in mind. I trolled around for every frog pattern I could find and then only made one frog, lol. She liked them. In fact, much to my surprise, the next time I went to her new place she was using one. Wow. I'm not used to that. My husband thinks that they are too pretty to use. But more power to her, I'm glad she is using them :)

Got persuaded to go see The Other Boleyn Girl last night. I had been planning to keep that one for a Netflix choice, but getting to go see it with others who enjoyed it (instead of furtively watching it while my husband is on the road) was actually quite nice. I liked it, if you are a fan of period pieces from Tudor England, most definitely go see it. I'm still waffling about Persepolis. I loved the graphic novels and the movie keeps the artistic style of that, but someone had to remind me of the "Eye of the Tiger" scene. Sigh. Then again, I probably should go see it in theater because who knows how long it will take to get it out on DVD. Hmmm ... maybe a Monday thing so it's only $5 instead of $8.50 ... we'll see :)

In honor of Valentine's Day ...

Teehee! I got roses at work. And 15 people in my cube while I discussed the roses with my husband. So sweet. He knows I love roses. Since he sent them to me at work I can actually enjoy them instead of locking them in the bathroom so the orange terror doesn't decide he needs to "lurve" on them with his teeth, lol. Oh yeah, I also found this and couldn't resist ...

Your Candy Heart Says "Hug Me"

A total sweetheart, you always have a lot of love to give out. Your heart is open to where ever love takes you! Your ideal Valentine's Day date: a surprise romantic evening that you've planned out Your flirting style: lots of listening and talking What turns you off: fighting and conflict Why you're hot: you're fearless about falling in love

What Does Your Candy Heart Say?

:-)

Back to my shows and the mistake rib dishtowel that has hooked me. Now I can't stop buying kitchen cotton damnit. Ooh I need a different size needle, hey that's a pretty color lemme buy it ... lather rinse repeat. Sigh, oh well. At least I will have pretty handmade handtowels. If I actually used them for dishes I think my husband would faint, lol.

Color Meme

you are darkslateblue #483D8B

Your dominant hue is blue, making you a good friend who people love and trust. You're good in social situations and want to fit in. Just be careful not to compromise who you are to make them happy. Your saturation level is medium - You're not the most decisive go-getter, but you can get a job done when it's required of you. You probably don't think the world can change for you and don't want to spend too much effort trying to force it. Your outlook on life can be bright or dark, depending on the situation. You are flexible and see things objectively.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

And the little [cotton] castle is new every time

filet crochet castle
Originally uploaded by teesachu

The castle is finished. At least the first version of it. I'm going to make it again in extended double crochet. I know I can block it, but I want to see if it makes a difference.

I really do like it though. Now I can make my castle/dragon/middle ages theme in my cube. :)

mmmm ... goddess afghan

mmmm ... goddess afghan
Originally uploaded by teesachu

This is still in progress, but I had to show the kitteh enjoying it. Hey, it keeps him from chewing on the wires :)

Here Be the Dragon!

'Tis finally done! My dragon for my cube at work! Woohoo! I loved doing this. I forgot how much I love filet crochet. Also it's kinda cool making a little bit of history since this is a pattern from 1906 I believe. Not to mention that I believe it turned out beautifully (look at how those curves turned out and this hasn't been washed or blocked yet). But, before I get too wordy, here's the pic :)


I kinda forgot about my crocheted lace stuff just because I haven't had a use. Having a huge backlog of doilies has not been necessary for a while. Between my mother and I, we've tired our family out of doilies. I kinda scoffed at it. Then reading stuff on Ravelry and lace knitting made me realize something. There is something to be said for the delicate stuff in thin threads. Why? More bang for your buck. More entertainment for less money. The materials to make the filet stuff I'm making is insanely cheap. Mercerized cotton thread goes for a song. It only took a little more than $5 in materials for a 12" x 20" wall hanging. And I used "better" thread than I normally would. Yes, I know, cheap crocheter, how stereotypical of me. But you know what? I like this. I'm not worried about function with these projects now. I want to do art filet pieces, hence me digging around on the Antique Pattern Library. So much gorgeous stuff.

Time to get cracking on my castle now :)

We now interrupt our regularly scheduled silence ...

Just a placeholder to say I'm still alive and kicking. I wanted to post pictures, especially of my dragon that I'm making for work, except I have enough battery power to take a couple more pics, but not enough to sync with the laptop. Sigh. So it will have to wait.

But I'm still here, being trained for new stuff at work. Life is good :)

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone had fun and all :)

I want to share part of last night's festivities that I found on YouTube. So .... here it is ....