It’s not easy being Green

This is the SEVENTH TIME I’ve tried to update. I swear to the angels above, I will stab my computer if it tries to eat me one more time.

So, I have a random observation. Last night, as I was digging through my stash (becuase we ALL love to dig though our stashes.), I noticed something.

I REALLY like green.

Observe:

Green Yarn (That is all of it that hasn’t been used.), piled high on my favorite chair. That’s just the surface layer that your seeing, there’s alot more underneath. (I know, some of it looks blue, I swear it’s the camera.)

Green knitted/knitting stuff:

(Clockwise, starting at right – Yarn Vomit scarf, Half finished sweater, “Hannah” hat (with a hole for a ponytail), my brand new fingerless mittens, my circular knitting needle case, and my notions binder.)

Okay, so someone who has studied psycology – explaint o me WHY I like green, and what my color choice says about me. This is something I’d like to know.

Oh, and those fingerless mittens?

Sexy, right? Pattern is called Warm Stripings (from Creative Knitting, winter ‘08, I think.), and I modified it a TEEEEENSY bit. I love the garter rib stitch around the cuff, more interesting than regular rib stitch. Yarn is Moda Dea(d)(R.I.P) Silk n Wool blend, and is AKA YUMMYKINS.

So, about a week ago, I got pissed off that I had a tiny box to keep my notions in, and that my yarn needles were constantly falling into a black hole that was obviously inside that damned box.

So I did something special for me:

First, I took an old dayplanner ($5.00 at Family Dollar):

And ripped the insides out. Then I glued in my design journal (Stitch n Bitch, a design journal. I liked the design pages & the graph paper. $12.00)…

And then, I turned the wallet in the back into my notions bag.

The wallet part fits the following:

Knitting Gauge, Ktchener Instructions (on the back of the photo of my grandfather. <33 ), WPI card, Pocketknife (until I can get new scissors), crochet hook, Yarn Needles, Stitch Markers, KachaKacha, approx 5 yards of scrap yarn, and a tape measure.

It’s nice to have everything all in one spot, ya know?

Speaking of organisation, I also found a way to keep alllll my patterns organized:

The green one is a non-3 ring (just plain) zip binder, which houses all my knitting magazines.

The solid red one hold all my knit & crochet toy patterns that I’ve printed off teh interwebz. I slide them into page protectors, and then into a 3 ring binder it goes.

The sithly star wars one (ever a nerd. ) houses all my knitting & crochet clothing & accessory patterns (which is 90% hats). Also in  page protectors. I need to buy more..

 

So this is OBVIOUSLY the month of hand warming. I don’t know why, but I’ve been addicted to knitting gloves and mittens. I knitted mom a pair for her birthday..

Fluffy, bright mittens, that she wouldn’t take off. Which was cute, becuase it made opening her other gifts kind of hard. At one point, she used her teeth to remove wrapping paper.

I also decided that dad needed new gloves for the winter, and so I deided to make him a pair for his birthday. Until he saw me knitting them in the living room…

So now he’s getting a hat for his birthday, but I still have to finish these damned gloves.

I haven’t worked hardly on any of my other (coughbabyrelatedcough) projects, but I started two new ones!

a lunchbag for mom:

And another “scarf that ate the world” for a friend of mine. I’m calling this one Road Rash, becuase it looks like a particularly bad case of it.

Doesn’t it look bloody and gruesome?

Also, I turned the hat I was knitting (the cabley one) into a doll hat for a rag doll that mom made me over the summer. I love Elisabetta (my doll..), but she looked cold..

She still needs a sweater for the winter.

PHEW! That’s it for now, I think. It’s friday which means cleaning, and taking care of stuff ’round the house.

But I’ll leave you with new additions to the stash:

Fisherman’s wool is yummy. I like the fact that it has lanolin still in it, which makes mah hands softeh.

a weirdass acrylic mohair blend laceweight that I kind of hate a little bit.

An anonymous wool/woolblend sockweight in a lovely ice blue.

And finally, a VERY nice, incredibly soft cotton that a friend sent to me as a birthday gift. In real life, the color is more pinkish, and less coppery.  Still nice, though.

 

Did I hear you say you wanted more content? Well ya know what, you can go screw yourself. I’m not gonna sit here and type for hours and hours about how it han’t stopped raining for two weeks, ad how my hands are freezing cold, and how I’m ptting stuff off to do nothign becuase the cold has awakened old injuries I didn’t know I had.

K?  You’ll just have to wait ’till next time.

*Insert Title Here*

Yup, I’m too lazy to come up with witty reparte today, so here’s the pics of what I’m working on.

 

First, I got rid of the shrine. I loved it, but it was breeding spiders like woah. So, out the door it went, Right now, my yarn and supplies are packed in two steamer trunks, right where the shrine sat. I HATE HATE HATE it.

So, while cleaning up, I came across my Hiatus bag.

Inside the bag was a hat. It was supposed to be a peppermint striped hat, one of those waaaayyy long stocking caps.

Except I got bored. So I stuck it on some waste yarn, and put it away.

 

So I was looking at it, and I pulled the string, which cinched the top. I decided to add a pompom…

Yup. Cute, right?

 

So, after I finished up with that, I decided that some more work was in order on a scarf that I had on the needles. Red, seed stitch. A classic.

I finished it last night.

Sexy, right?

 

So, now I only have 7 things on the needles. WHEEEEE. I’m workin’ on it. I want to get down to less than 5 things on the needles, before I cast on anything else.

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Yeah I couldn’t keep a straight face either.

So, I made progress on three other items in the last week:

The first is a pair of green silk n wool flip-top glove mitten thingers. I tried, no crap, 7 times to get that STUPID #^%$*&^#%#^$*!*^$&!! flip top, but the directions were just NOT WORKING in my head. So I unraveled the thumb and reknit it…

Yup, my fall bike-riding mitten..thingeys..

Then, on saturday, I finished the back of the Gypsy Baby Sweater (for my sister(’s baby). ), and started work on the front(s).

 

And, sometime during the week, I finished up the palm of the wool gloves I’m knitting for dad, and almost finished the first finger.

 

Nice, right?

 

So anyway. I have more knitting to do. ‘Till next time (whenever that may be.)

WiPit…WiPit good.

So how do you know you *might* have too many projects on the needles at one time? When you have TWO BUSHEL BASKETS TO HOLD THEM.

Yeah. It’s not that I have that *many* projects – there’s only 8…it’s just that some of them are large.

2 baby blankets, a sweater, a baby seater, a scarf, a hat, and 2 pair of gloves.

 

So what am I doing?

 

Yeah I’m changing my layout. Nice, ain’t it?

Overdue

Overdue

 

So, this is the overdue post that I’ve been promising. I swore and swore that I needd to update, but let’s face it: I’m freakin’ lazy. I’m so lazy that I’ve been doing anything I possibly could to purposefully not update.

Sue me, okay?

Tonight my conscience decided that it was time to end the antici….pation. So, with coffee in hand, and headphones in ears (pumping a constant stream of AC/DC, Fall Out Boy, and the Eagles..)I give you the post-county fair update.

(Duhh..which way do we go, George? Which way do we go?!)

To start with, we had lines. I mean like..I waited in line for 45 freakin’ minutes to get my stuff registered. While standing there, I noticed the mirrors on the shelves that we use for the canning & veggies. I couldn’t resist a picture of the line, reflected in the mirrors.

 (note, I’m not that fat. Srsly. Those mirrors made everyone look bigger. It was a complaint of many teenage girls during the fair.)

After getting my stuff registered, and running back and forth 40,000 times to get more registration tags (we went through 2,000 of them on Sunday alone.), I headed down to the cattle barn to help Loretta (who is obscured in the next pic, cus Lou was in the way.), and Kristal (ditto) register people for the pageants. I wasn’t really needed, but hey, no one can say I wasn’t there to help out.

 

 

See? I really was there. Also..Lou was not feeling her own butt. I think. I dunno for sure. She might have been.

The next day was the judging of the non – perishable stuff. It was top secret, so I couldn’t take pictures, but I can tell you that if your going to enter quilts MAKE SURE YOUR CORNERS LOOK GOOD. Srsly.

Tuesday and Wednesday was the taking in of perishable entries. Vegetables, Baked Goods, and Flowers. I didn’t get any pics of that, but I did get pics of the judging of some of the veggies.

 

 

Adam is sizing up some corn stalks, while the judge (behind him, barely noticeable) looks at some more that are lying down. Sheila and Sue are in the backround, working in the baking cases.

And for note: if it says “Best Display of Gourds (not less than 3) they mean DISPLAY. That lot had like..8 entries. They only gave 3 prizes. You know why? CUS THERE WERE ONLY 3 DISPLAYS.

This was dad’s, which won 1^st place:

The rest of them were pretty much just people putting in 3 gourds. There were nicer gourds than dad had, but his as the best DISPLAY.

Of course, if you wanna be stupid, I’ll be happy to take that blue ribbon off your hands next year.

Also, if you have a vegetable that is HUGE by it’s standards, enter it. Like this Sweet Potatoe that won Best in Show. That sucker was literally bigger than my head.

Okay, so while the judging was going on for the veggies and flowers, The pageant girls were rehearsing. They were nice enough to stop for a sec and let me get a pic.

The girl who went on to win wasn’t there for rehearsal that day. The other girls took it really hard.

So, after this, the next day was opening of the fair.

First stop, check for ribbons.

(My socks pwn joo. A cabled sweater and a prayer shawl beat me.)

(A colored pencil replica of an Utomaro painting of a teahouse waitress.)

(Watercolor painting of goldfish. The purple ribbon is NOT mine, it belongs to the painting above mine. )

(Pen and Ink drawing of a panda. Yeah, so it took 20 mins. SO?!)

 

(Acrylic painting of Mt Fuji. The ribbon covers the japanese writing that I labored over for 4 hours until i got it perfect. I HATED MAKING THIS DAMNED PAINTING. And it got 1st place. Oy.)

 

(Crocheted potholder. Mine is the Green on Green in the middle. With the 4th place ribbon. >.<)

(Knitted dolly sweater. No Pattern. )

(Vanilla Mint + Green Tea Bath Salts – 1st place! out of 6 entries! WOO!)

(Cabled Owl mittens & Hat – Woot! I knew these would get 1st place.)

I had 39 entries, these were just a selection of pics that i chose at random from my album. I would be here till 4 in the morning (it’s midnight as i write this) trying to put in photos of everything that won ribbons. Everything of mine anyway. Who cares about what anyone else won?

Then we went to watch the pageant. By a stupid mistake my camera was busted and wouldn’t work properly (thank you dad, for fixing it, finally!). I did manage to get 2 nice pics. The girl in front (Racheal, who I was PRAYING would win.) ended up getting Miss Congeniality. The girl at the end (in the poofyish dress) ended up winning.

The Rodeo went on right after the Pageant. My camera was still being stupid and I ended up with NO pictures of it. Which stinks becuase I love seeing pics of the guys falling off the bulls.

Two nights later, we had the Tractor Pull. The cool part of this was that the Fairest of the Fair decided to drive a tractor.

Okay, maybe not, but she was happy to pose for a pic for me, on a tractor (actually, she was getting her photos taken for the fair scrapbook, and I snuck in and got some pics, too.)

The really cool part is that when you watch a tractor pull, you dunno what will happen. One thing for sure, is that the front end of that tractor will pop up 3-4 feet in the air. Here’s an example:

 

Cool, right?

Yeah I know. I’m a dork.

I’m a dork that likes cows:

I’m a dork that likes Celebrity Photo Opportunities:

(Barney Fife is the cool. Shut up.)

 

(That’s J Mac – My fav DJ on my Fav radio Station. Yup, dad snapped it RIGHT as I blinked, and stupidhead didn’t take more than one picture.)

 

(Yup, that’s the Shoney’s Bear WTF man, why do I look purple? 

I’m a dork that plays with the “Night Scene” option on my Camera:

Most of all, I’m a dork who has no more pics of the fair.

 

 (As a side note, This was my very first year on the Board of Directors for the county fair, and I want to send out some thank you’s, becuase these people deserve it.

Thanks to Ricky, for being so cool about us asking “Where do you want us?” 2-3 times a day. Thanks to Robert & Lou, for being so welcoming to the three of us, and eating our portion of the pork bbq and the bacon seasoned beans. I hope I’m on the Fair Board as long you have been. Thanks to Sean for being the butt end of all my jokes, and allowing me to embarrass him. – You got girlfriend, county fair? Thanks to Sue & Sheila for giving me something to do that involved knitting. Thanks to Little Ponderosa Petting Zoo for the fleece & Fiber, and thanks to the guy who’s name I can’t remember, for being so nice. I hope you enjoyed the cake, and I hope your trip home is short. Thanks to Greg Farmer, for pulling my butt up on stage. Thanks to the National Gaurd, for letting me stalk ya’ll around the fair. Finally, thanks to the James Gang, for thowing that midnight bbq, and showing me that this isn’t just a business, it’s a family. Thank you all for cementing me firmly in place. You can’t blast me out of the county fair with a stick of dynamite, now. See ya’ll next year.)

 

How far can I reach up my ass?

Becuase I’ve got 4 days left, so I gotta start pulling some shit out of it.

I swear, I’ll update properly again soon. Just hang on until next Thursday.

I love you, my readers. I promise I do.

Hiatus?

No.
Did she die?
No.
A terrible car accident which left her hands crippled?
Close.

It’s county fair time in East Tennessee. Thusly, I’ve been working my fingers to the bone (literally in some cases. Tatting with thin – size 80- thread cuts my fingers to ribbons.), and I only have *CENSORED BECUASE MY COMPETITION MIGHT READ THIS* more items to go in 18 days.

I think I can do it.

At night though, i have to sleep with duct tape around my hands, becuase I think they are about to start rebelling from the 16-18 hour crafting days I’m putting them through right now.

Expect a very large, photo filled update, with little text, on August 9th or 10th.
Expect my obituary, from being murdered in my sleep by my own hands, sometme before then.

Till next time, Kids!

Why do I craft?

I craft becuase it’s calming.

I craft becuase I can make stuff for Friends & Family

 

 

 

I craft becuase my Fandoms tell me to.

And I craft so I can have Wool Socks that fit my feet, in the middle of June.

.

 

But mostly, I craft, so I can PWN JOO. (Note: This only counts for ANYONE who is entering stuff in the Jefferson County, TN, county fair. If I happen to know you, consider this your warning; YOUR GOING DOWN.)

 

.

 

Just over a month until the fair! I got to get crackin!

 

P.S.: The new knits? That would be te Jayne Hat, and the socks. Continue your vast admiration. You know you want to.

Daydream

Yup. It’s a knitted tie. Kickass, right? And yes, it really is that vibrant of a blue.

 

I know it’s been like…a month, since I last updated. I woke up oneday and said “HOLY CRAPNUGGETS ITS LIKE 2 MONTHS UNTIL THE FAIR.”

So I’ve been doing everything EXCEPT stuff for the fair.

My sister is having a bebeh in the fall. So I’ve been working on stuff for that thing.

A crocheted bebeh blanket. I have 5 more rounds in the light teal, and then 1 round in offwhite, and it’s done. Yes, it’s shaped like a star.

Monstar Bebeh Booties. Nuff said.

I’ve also been making items to sell in my artfire shop. Yus! I have an artfire! Stuff like:

A tatted “Pansy” necklace.

A tatted “Clover” bracelet.

A pair of tatted Earrings.

A recycled pair of pants into a cocktail apron.

 

Yeah. No one has bought anything yet. BUY STUFF FROM ME, PEOPLE.

 

I’ve also been stashbusting. See? I used up A BALL of some caron SS in iris, that I had lying around the shrine.

It looks like ass right now, but I promise, it’s a shrug. I swear!

 

And also, making slow progress on THE SOCKS.

I’m not going to tell you that I knitted 2 chart repeats and started on the toe, completely finished the toe, and was working the sole, before I realised that I was supposed to do THREE pattern repeats.

Nope, not telling you about THAT part.

So…that didn’t take up that much time. Wanna know the rest of what’s been going on?

 

Yup. We now have 2 ducks, and 5 chickens. The one that you see above is our “pet” rooster.

Yeeeaahhh.

‘Till next time.

Morning in East Tennessee

Morning in East Tennessee

This morning is quiet. Not the normal flurry of activity that most people experience between the hours of 6:30 and 10:00 AM. Of course, I never have a flurry of activity at this hour, I’m usually still asleep. But with dad heading off to work early, and mom staying up all night with an injured furbaby, I figured I coud get up early and let her get some sleep this morning. So now its just me, the sleeping furbabies, Breakfast -

And my Works in Progress. 

Remember the sweater I was knitting? The green one? I finally finished the body, and I’m working on one sleeve. Really!

The yarn is double stranded Vanna’s Choice, in Olive. In reality it’s a little more gold and mossy. Pattern is “Topsecret” from knitty.

I tried to finish this before the FCE thing 2 weeks ago, but no dice.  I got partway through the skirt before I quit for the night, not to pick it up again till today.

 

So, a couple of weeks ago, I was lacking in having a project to work on saturday. Sooo I dug through my book ollection, and my yarn stash. Pattern + Yarn =

 

Yes its a blue knitted tie.

So?

Also, FCE Prizes.

Tatting – First place.

 

An apron I did – second place. This was made from bluejeans.

 

And the tawney owl hat and mittens.

 

Now I need to get shit done for the fair.

 

EDIT: I just wanted to add this, cus I forgot earlier.

You can read all the naughty details of this top on the Islands In the Sun Shawlter page.

Procrastin-a-a-tion

So, Today I was planning on blogging about how I had a finished sock and had a good portion of the second sock done, and everything would be fine before this competition on the 28^th, and no problem, I can get a pair of socks done in less than a month.

And then I remembered: I’m not Antje Gillingham (although she is a nice lady, and I love talking with her.). I’m not Cat Bordhi. And I’m damn sure not Stephanie Pearl McPhee, who can knit up a pair of socks in a week, if she is so inclined.

So what have I done, instead of knitting socks?

I finished a hat for a KAL on Ravelry. This hat is called the Flower Center Slouch, and it was crocheted with Patons Brilliant. In about 4 hours, on a Wednesday night. That’s my mom modeling it. The theme of the KAL is “April Showers/ May Flowers.”. Do one hat in a “rainy” yarn, and another in a “springy” yarn. This has metallic threads going through that look like raindrops, when the light hits it.  

 

So that took up 4 hours of knitting time. WHERE THE HELL DID THE REST GO?

Ravelry. And the AntiCraft. And more Ravelry. And a little bit of Omegle. And a whole crapload more AntiCraft.

But the good part is that if I bust my ass working on this sock, I’ll have it finished by today. All that’s left is ½ a chart repeat, 5 rows of ribbing, and the bind off. About 25 rows all total. I I REALLY bust my ass, I can get it done by 2 PM and have half the first chart done on the second sock by bedtime.

 

Yeeeaaahh…about that…

So instead of actually working on the stupid thing, what am I doing?

Making a new header (which is a close up shot of the patterning in said socks.), re-doing the layout, altering pictures, eating a bagel, drinking coffee, obsessively checking ravelry, the anticraft, and cakewrecks..

The usual morning ritual.

 

As a precaution, I de-fuzzed my tawney owl mittens & hat, and if all else fails, those suckers are going in the comptetition. They were made for that anyway, damnit. No one else has them, or me wearing them, so screw you all. The socks are still going in the county fair though.

 

Bagel, anyone?