I can't believe the news today ...

I've been promoted! Squee! They like me, they really like me ... lol.

Now I shall be expected to actually ... gulp ... know stuff. Oh wait, I already do.

I'm just being goofy. It's scarf time now, I swear, lol.

Atlanta -- Men in Kilts

I'm back from Dragoncon. For a girl who has never flown before the whole 4 planes in as many days thing is kind of dizzying. Unfortunately, I got paranoid about my carry on luggage. So I didn't pack my yarn. Sigh ... I was going to work on a 3 cabled crocheted scarf. Which would have been great since I spent a lot of time listening to the podcasting track of programming and had 4 hours to kill while my husband demo'ed a game. Oh well. Live and learn, especially with layovers at O'Hare.

But the truly horrible part is that I met a crocheter who was working on a Serafina shawl. The funny thing is that I recognized it from 7 feet away. I pissed off her husband by shanghaiing her to talk crafts, lol. Of course now we both kind of noticed the lack of crafts (besides costuming and 'bot building, both excellent pursuits), so I've been kicking around ways to remedy that. Lord help me I may start to podcast now, lol.

But my eyes are full, my brain is full, and my right ankle is the size of a baseball (not the best choice in shoes for walking between 3 hotels to see different things). I saw some gorgeous stuff (an Ent costume, gorgeous jewelry (my silver dream ter'angreal), a cavalcade of slave Leahs, and a totally awesome Jared from Labyrinth) and some truly horrifying things (mainly the male-pattern balding guy that had his hair in pigtails wearing a cheerleader outfit, one of the midriff baring ones). I also got my photo taken with Terry Moore as well as a couple of my Strangers in Paradise trade paperbacks signed. :D

There are tons of pics, but I don't have access yet, they are on my husband's camera. Next time I do this, I'm going to plan my luggage better, lol.

Okay, scarf time. I want this thing for the Red Scarf Project. :)

Confession time

My WIPs:

• Katie's Wedding afghan
• DH's afghan for the semi
• One Project Linus afghan
• one baby shower present

Not quite as bad as I thought. Then they announced an art/craft show at work. There was arm twisting I tell you, lol. But I'm going to put Bethanie's afghan in (rose filet afghan) and probably the candlelight doily. This is fine, these are already made. But I really want to show off. There is a complicated aran crochet scarf that I've been wanting to make. If I can finish it by mid-October, I'm putting it in. I'm such the masochist, LOL. Of course this is on top of the afghan I *should* be making as thank you to my MIL for cat-sitting.

I'm extremely proud of myself. I went out to dinner with a friend in downtown Cleveland. Not only did I manage to find reasonable parking, I did it on the night of an Indians game. You have to understand that I never go downtown by myself ever.

Must prepare more stuff now. Ta!

I'm not an addict, baby

So, umm, yeah. The outspoken crochet girl can knit. Surprise surprise I know, lol. I am self-taught, learned in high school from a big Reader's Digest book 'o many crafts (what embroidery I know comes from there as well). Knitting was actually the first craft my grandma tried to teach me. She sat me down with plastic needles and fuzzy white yarn. It didn't take, but then again fidgety, impatient eight-year-old + 2 plastic double points with no caps = knitting that slides right off the other end much to the irritation of both parties. So I stuck with crochet. Until recently.

My first intended knitting project was 2 Dr. Who scarves. One was supposed to be about 20' long and done in the season 16 colors. The other was supposed to be 28' and all white. I tried knitting them, I tried crocheting them. All the king's horses and all the king's men could not find enough psychedelic drugs to make me want to finish them. Seriously, this was a huge mistake, so they are not mentioned anymore. I may, however, eventually have a Dr. Who Babette, lol.

So then I found Garden Dishcloths to Knit. I was thinking I'd be all sneaking and convert them to tunisian crochet, until I rediscovered that it curls worse than regular stockinette in knitting. So I armed myself with my how to knit book and web sites and ... voila! The sunflower was born.



The sunflower is hard to see, the variegated yarn doesn't help I know, but damnit it is what I had and is interesting to me. I think it turned out fairly well.



My butterfly, actually in my head, hippy butterfly. Sugar and Cream buttercream variegated rocks my socks (even though it's too warm to wear socks, lol). I cranked this one out in a day. Until my arm started to ache from working with this all day. I forgot, cotton yarn does not like to give, and being a newbie, I was really cranking on the stitches still. Especially since I was attempting to NOT hold the left needle in my armpit. Weirdo habit from when I taught myself in high school, don't ask.



And the in progress hippy frog. I was working up to this one. The colors of the yarn match a friend's tattoo, so of course I had to make it for her :)

So, no, I'm not addicted to dishcloths or anything. I haven't been working on them at home to the exclusion of everything else (although, in my defense, a lapful of baby blankie is not pleasant in the heat and the dishcloths require no lap).

Wow, I guess I do design some ...

My husband has always bugged me about always following patterns. He tells me that with as long as I've been crafting I should make up my own patterns. I always scoffed, until I realized that I'm working on 2 blankets that are not in any pattern book. They are both gigantic modified dishcloths. In other words, I took a stitch pattern and ran with it. My beloved woven stitch that does such fun stuff with the pink camo yarn and also the Simply Soft variegated that I'm making the other blanket in. But seriously, it is a bit weird for me to think that no where out there did someone tell me to chain this many, do this stitch, and edge it this way. It's kinda cool.

Of course it has kind of sent my brain spinning. I have this plan to use my spare worsted weight cotton to make myself a kitchen rug. I have used a towel on the floor in front of the sink for ... 2 years now and I'm tired of it. I'm taking the natural cotton and mixing it with colors I have left over from the gigantic bag. It looks like one of those rectangular rag rugs in my head. We'll see what it looks like in real life.

And also my squiggle snake ... and recreating mom's squiggle clown. I've created a monster yet again, lol.

I'm off to attempt to cool off. I've been wanting to work on afghans, but it has been too stifling hot to do. I would work on knitting dishclothes, but it's so hot I get frustrated trying to purl. It's more work with my left hand than I am used to. I know I tension my yarn strangely when I crochet (in the fact that I don't really wrap it around my hand at all for tension, but I do when I attempt to knit, weird huh?).

All right ... of for coolness :)

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Pink Camo progress and bag porn :D

Been working on the pink camo blanket. One skein and a little bit more makes this much of the afghan (don't mind the sheets ... the bed is the easiest place to take the pics) ....


Here's the closeup of the pattern from the yarn (woven stitch) ...


I think it's looking good :)

And now ... for my new transport for this grand endeavor. You see, I found a bag that I really liked for $15 on Barnes and Noble's web site. So .... here's the bag in all its floral goodness.


Front pockets ....


Although I was disappointed in the size at first. I really thought this was small for what I wanted. That is until I started feeding yarn skeins into the interior pocket. This is a deceptive little bag ...


Six seven-ounce skeins of yarn. No problems closing it and it doesn't bleed all the space out of the front pockets. I am so impressed and so happy. I have been wanting this for so long, and swearing and plotting over Namaste bags, which I love the look of but can't afford in a million years. I know it's crazy to get this happy about a messenger bag, but wow, it's just so perfect. Now all I have to do is take it to work tomorrow to show it off to my coworkers who are demanding to see it and the afghans ... lol