HERE I AM!

I hope you all had a great set of holidays. Good news is I finished my Christmas knitting, but I am still behind on Chanukah knitting, and as any 2006 calendar will tell you, I am really behind. But tell me if this isn't a brilliant plan. I am going to stay with one of the recipients of unfinished gift and part of the present will be watching me knit it. She doesn't knit and isn't around knitting, so what could be more fun than watching her gift grow before her very eyes? OK OK I'm pushing it.

I've also been quiet on the web front because I am cleaning out a walk in closet. It was in really bad shape because the climbers in the family got in it and pulled everything down. I'm in the middle of it- you know the stage where it looks worse than before because everything is on the bedroom floor? (no pictures there!) Good news is 3 bags of stuff so far is getting donating and I found a bunch of knitting projects stolen by the ferrets!

The number one question I've been asked by people that know I went vegetarian 18 days ago, was what did I do for the holidays? I found my fellow vegetarians at an Indian restaurant. It was really weird going to THAT part of the menu. I ate some sort of cheese dish and supportive WHN tried order my absolute all time fav Indian dish (chicken) before I threatened to create a scene and he ordered some other chicken dish. So far I am doing OK with the non-meat thing.

For Christmas I struggled with what to get WHN. Up and until 12/23 NO CLUE. And if you ask him, he says I DUNNO and I reply with I DO KNOW that if you have nothing to unwrap you will be unhappy. Finally I remembered a year ago he was looking for a rock tumbler (yes like the 8 year old toys) He has it going now for I guess 30 days and it makes a buzzing noise.


Today I went spinning at the local quilt shop and had a great time. I took 8 oz of Shetland that I almost finished plying (picture of that later) but here is the unplied singles (and other random pics)







(Thank you Sibille for my XMas gift and yes more please!)

It's very windy (50 mph) in Vegas so trash cans are being blown around (as well as dust, trash, branches, leaves etc etc) The wind itself is noisy and couple that with the banging noises, it's disturbing for someone like me who is not used to it. So at night with the wind whistling I come home alone to a dimly lit house with a grinding/buzzing noise. CREEPY! Then I took the dog out and as I walked in the screen door pulled out my hand just as Babette was jumping out to startle me. I've seen enough horror movies to know that the first startle is an animal and the next one is the homicidal maniac. So far I am doing OK all organs,limbs, skull intact.

And I have a great SP package to live for! It was delivered to my neighbors who have been out of town so sorry SP for the delay. Enclosed is peppermint hot chocolate (YUM), sweets, a cute knitting book and my favorite that I can't wait to to sit down and make, a SUSHI WALLET! I think I am going to do the one with 6 rolls. 07 will be the year I learn to sew, so the zipper and lining will hopefully have a neat appearance.




And since the Tiffany and Babette haven't made an appearance here in awhile:

Season Greetings From Vegas

Low Knitting Morale

I've tried to explain to her numerous times that stopping to throw a ball is not helping me get fingers done. I decided to do fetching for my SIL (another one- stupid big Irish families) but then decided that gauntlets probably aren't great for Ireland. I thought no biggy I will just convert fetching into convertible gloves. This was last week. I don't know, last week I kept making stupid mistakes: Do a knit instead of purl, forgetting which glove was which. Accidentally pulling out the needle from the work. Frogging the wrong stitches. The list goes on, but the final straw was I made the pinky next to the thumb AND I forgot to redistribute the stitches so the top of my hand had 5 extra stitches. At this point, I decided to take a break.

Tonight is the first night I am picking them up and unfortunately guess who is oblivious to my needs. She doesn't care that I am not just trying to finish a project, but get my knitting morale back up.


Note: pinky looks big because I have abnormally small hands- the size of a 5th grader or a Vietnamese female manicurist. Since I am making them for someone else I am going by the finger sizing in Magknit's Urban Necessities.

Mans best friend my ass.

Christmas in Vegas

Forget the trees turning or snow on the ground, we know it's Christmas in Las Vegas when the cocktail waitresses switch to their holiday uniforms:



And speaking of Christmas, I finally felted the clogs. I did the pairs separately, and midway through, the pinkish pair developed a hole.


I needle felted the repair before I tossed them back into the washer:


Finished felted repair:



Finished Fiber Trends Felted Clogs. Each clog took one evening to make using a combo of Crystal Palace and Loft yarns.


I'm happy with how the pink/orange/purple combo turned out:


Petunia, tired of me using her toy for sizing, interrupts my photoshoot:


Last week we had the National Rodeo Finals. Part of it involved a Cowboy Christmas at the convention center. So many people in cowboy hats in one location!



Brokeneck Cowboy:


Kid cowpoke:



Donut making cowboy:



Saddles and boots:



Basically you could meet all your cowboy needs:
From Top:

To bottom:


Tacky T-Shirts:




WHN succumbed and had ordered custom cowboy boots. I am sure they will look lovely in the back of the closet.


In other knitting news, the cable booties from One Skein are basically done. I just need to weave in ends and remove cat and dog fur. I want to make a men's scarf with with worsted weight navy blue yarn, but my ribbing always looks crappy (even knitting in back loop) so what to make what to make...

Knocking 'em out

So I finished the knitting of the 2 pairs of slippers over the weekend. I haven't felted them yet. I planned to borrow a slipper for sizing (I need size 8 and 7.5), but I haven't gotten around to it blah blah blah, and so here I sit with my clown shoes. I Google'd for a conversion chart of feet size to inches. At first pass I didn't find what I was looking for, but found the formula for converting shoe size to penis size (shoe size + 5 / 2 if your curious) Interesting, but not knitting cozies, so needed to focus. The few charts I pulled up, when I compared my size to inches (my feet, not making any anatomical confessions here today) it seemed off. Maybe I don't know my shoe size. Maybe all these years that I thought I was a stumbly drunk, I just had on the wrong shoes. Anyway, I hope to get these bad boys felted this week. Until then, enjoy some before pictures.


Do you see the cat hair sticking out between them??? Bain of my existence that stupid cat. I don't think I have had one UFO that he hasn't found and started to lick his ass on. Drives me mad!!! Anyway, if you can look beyond that cat hair, I don't know. I think these shoes are looking a bit too clownish... not because of size, but color. The recipient, says she likes all colors of the rainbow, particular reds, pinks, and greens. When I originally saw the yarn I thought felted it would look really good, but now I am thinking too orange and too Barnum & Bailey.


The other pair, much more subdued, I wanted to pose with the dog for a size comparison (dog and slippers, a natural pair) but dog is sleeping with her face buried. The next thing I thought was one of her manky tennis balls.




So hopefully I will get my act together and get these things felted and sent away soon. I have just turned the heels on the cable booties so hopefully I will have one pair done tonight. After that, a Chrismakuh scarf to do and then I can go back to my current obsession, spinning, which I will have to add dyeing to my repetoire because these cream sheep are bringing me down.


Yes this is yet another spool of plied beige yarn- approx 190 yds.