Sew Mo Risin

A title tribute to an old fav...Clare will know who...

Two pair of Coquette socks are finished. I won't be making any more of these. As cute as they are...that cuff was a bitch! I never want to do a k3tog on size "0" needles again!In an effort to get my mind right about events beyond my control I've been communing with my Singer 327 the past couple of days. It's great therapy. I love her...My intention was to make The Saint a couple new pair of jammies. I picked up some flannel on sale yesterday for this pattern...Since the fabric was 60" wide I had remnant flannel. As I picked up the pile of scraps I noticed how soft, heavy and warm it was...hmmm, wonder if there would be enough to make a lap blankie for The Saint. Something to put across his lap while he's watching tv at night.

I grabbed the rotary cutter and a 6" by 12" ruler and started cutting and stacking up the pieces. Then got busy with my trusty old Singer and started sewing the resulting, odd length blocks together in strips. With Stephen King's Under the Dome playing in the background I whipped through the pieces and ended up with a nice 48" x 76" quilt top in just about 4 hours.

I'll run out later and get a polyester batt then make a nice warm sandwich.

Have a great weekend!

already missing summer

Now that we've had a few weeks of autumn weather I'm ready for summer again. I'm going to miss seeing this...and I know Max is going to miss the little tidbits she manages to catch while The Saint is smokin some meat.

What is everybody knitting and spinning? Are you ready for the holidays? Nah, me neither!

I'm off to City Knitting today for the first of the last Saturdays hangin with my knitting peeps. I know it's going to be a tough one. We'll get through it, I just have to remember get everybody's contact info so we don't lose track of anyone. The countdown has started...

life must be good

It's the only conclusion I can come to when the worst news I've heard in a long time is that my LYS is going to close at the end of the year.

For me, it's not so much the loss of an awesome, close to home resource for all things knitting (a knitter/crocheter can get those things delivered to their mailbox any day of the week)...it's more the loss of a community I've come to regard as family. You just can't find this group of folks hanging out together anywhere else in town. The cultural and educational diversity that I've found in the gathering space at City Knitting is beyond imagination. I've made many friends in the past 3 yrs that I never would have encountered in my daily life if not for that particular gathering space.

Looking back now, I realize that I took several classes for their social value rather than the knowledge of technique they imparted. It's always been about the community for me. You can buy yarn anywhere, it's much more difficult to find new friends while living a busy life.

I imagine I'll might have a cleaner house and maybe spend more time actually knitting but those things pale in comparison to hanging out with the gang at City Knitting. There will be a big empty place in my heart.

I wish Lorilee well in her future endeavors and I know her family will appreciate having her around home more. The rigors of owning your own business are many.

My mind will be set to the task of finding a suitable place to gather after the doors close for the last time. There are those of us that need the community to maintain good mental health (especially me) and with a bit of effort we may be able to keep it together.

For now though I'll be sad at the loss - cause I'm selfish that way!

lace...

OK, I don't know what's happening in my world but the crafty planets seem to be aligning differently of late.

First, I was hypnotized by the siren song of the spinners...thanks to SpinSanity I'll be resisting that venture for at least another month...thanks Spinny!

Now, I cast on size 3 needles and started a Multnomah shawl - doesn't sound like a big deal unless you know that in the past I've had disastrous results on 4 attempts at lace knitting. Anyway, I frogged my first attempt at the shawl this morning - I didn't like how the STR medium weight looked or felt. Then I cast on with some 100PureWool laceweight that I've had in the stash for a long time and it is amazing! I love how it looks and feels. Who'd have guessed?

Everybody have a great Friday the 13th tomorrow!
Max says hey!

Fibery fun with ZPDK

OMG! I don't need another hobby...please someone help me!
Yesterday I fell under the spell of the Zombie Prom Date Knitters at MommaCloud's old church turned house an hour away from home. We had a fabulous pot-luck lunch then settled in for some fibery fun.

That's when I found out I was surrounded by spinners! They tempted me with fiber and spindles and wheels! I didn't even realize it was having an effect...until after I got home.

I may have watched my fingers type these words to someone earlier today..."if the hand-painted, zebra-fish spindle is available I may be interested in purchasing it"...wah!? Am I crazy? I told myself that I was just interested in having it to go in my collection of sewing and knitting tools...huh!? You know I don't have room for one-more-thing-to-do! Why would you let me get sucked into the spinning vortex?

And to make it even worse...WonderWhyGal almost had me talked into buying an alpaca on my way out the door. jeez
Maybe it was just a dream...

If not, I'm blaming the ChickenLady!...in her Strawberry Shortcake jammies...What a great time it was! Thanks Kim, for inviting me to meet your friends.

decisions, decisions...

I'm torn between this awesome lace tunic... and this amazing wrap... any opinions? They're both in the Fall 2009 issue of Interweave Knits.

Then I got this book today with super cute toys in it...WAH!! What to do?

I'm almost done with (meaning I'm doing the heel flap) the second sock of my Summer Sox pair in the Yarn Love so I'm itching to start something new...even though I still have The Saint's Big Ass Sweater on the needles as well as my ZigBagZ, although they aren't really portable so...

Anyway, Boomer's new sweater is done. Doesn't he look handsome? It turned out to be my own design as I had to alter it a bunch and I added the Skully on the back so he would look tough in his new sweater. Didn't end up much like the pattern for the dog sweater I found in Stitch N Bitch. The pattern didn't call for decreases in the belly area...must be the model dog was a little less shapely than Boomer, heheAnd Sam wasn't impressed or intimidated by the Skull, even though Boomer was giving him his best mean look...he still hogged the Loofa Dog all to himself.I'll be enjoying a day off tomorrow, got to give the car a wash, oil change and some gas. I may be taking a little road trip on Saturday...

November...already?!

El Dia de los Muertos: To those who celebrate today and tomorrow - peace to your ancestors.
Chez B managed to avoid the Halloweenies last night by leaving the porch light off. I wonder what the Scrooge equivalent is for this holiday? Anybody know? I'll certainly claim the title. I was just not feelin it yesterday. Cold & windy weather, swine flu all over town and rude Halloweeners last year just put me off of it. I did see some interesting costumes out and about during the day yesterday though and that was fun.

I have the back of Boomer's new sweater almost complete. The skull accent is done and the rest is just straight stockinette. About 4 inches and I'll be on to the chest piece then picking up stitches for the neck and back edge and the two little leg edges. I'm hoping some wet blocking will even out the two-color stitching. I added a few rows to The Saint's Big-Ass Sweater yesterday and as soon as the skull sweater is done for the dog I'll be rockin The Sweater! If I don't get distracted by Multnomah when my new Knit Picks needle gets here, hehehe.It was a great Halloween day for me though...breakfast with my family at Marie Catrib's, a stop at Fulton Street Farmer's Market and then hours of knitting at City Knitting with the old crowd from last winter. Last night I hung out with Boomer, Max & Sam in the craft room while The Saint watched NCIS and the ball game on tv.

Boomer tried to help me on the computer for awhile but he is definitely limited by his lack of opposable thumbs and his need to cheese for the camera.

Have a great week!