Donkey Bites are NOT Love Bites

So...I got bit by a donkey. There. I said it, it's out there, and it's over. But I won't be giving Louise any more apples or carrots. But her baby...that's a different story. Aren't they cute?

I also finished a sweater! yay! Yeah...I'm just not feeling that chatty today. I leave for London tomorrow morning and have a million things left to do, so I'm out. Happy knitting and I will post from England as soon as I can!

Oh yeah...and my Lizard Ridge ROCKED the Creative Knitting Newletter today! If you didn't see it, e-mail me and I will send you a link!

Stolen from Natalie Dee

I love this lady's daily cartoon blog. Every once in a while you get a true gem like this:

Must.....resist.....urge.....to......cast.....on.......

at least until Saturday, then I can start my new series of terribly English projects.

Yummmmmm

So, for those of you who missed the Thursday night petting, Peg gave me perhaps the most awesome going away present ever- her own handspun angora. It's amazing on so many levels... it may be too pretty to knit with. Until I decide what to do with it, it's in my guilty pleasures drawer (which also includes a godiva chocolate raspberry bar, cz crystals I have yet to bead, my own handspun merino/silk, some Mango Moon silk with beads on it, and a couple really bad romance novels that I don't need to world to know about) Here's a picture of the newest addition.

I also finished the pink baby hat and it is ready to head off to my distant relative as soon as my hair is dry and my brother finishes cleaning my Jeep (aren't grounded brothers the best? They're like indentured servants....but not) My mom also made a few burprags for the baby. She's an amazing seamstress, I'm crazy jealous of that. Here is the gift from the Sylvester Family!

So I will be off shortly to Joann (must....buy....buttons) and then to Janet's for a yarn-tastic day of food, fiber and football!

Pearls not Purls

Hey all!

Guess what I finally did today! I put my pearls from China on some wire and can actually wear them now! That only took....5 months. I love how they turned out though: Here's a goofy pic of me wearing my pearls and not nearly enough eye make-up.

So...Janet and I took a road trip (my definition of road trip is visiting a place you don't normally visit and taking more than 20 minutes to get there by the way) to Zionsville to check out the new yarn store and chill with Peg.

The Village Yarn Shop...is awesome! Their Cascade was a full dollar less than most stores, and I happen to use alot of Cascade 220, so this made me very happy. They had a TON of colors too. I picked out my next sweater's worth of yarn and a new skien of Dream in Color Smooshy, which although I haven't even knitted with it, I am in love with it. I would marry it if it were human and had a trust fund.

Village had a ton of other yarn too...I must have spent an hour petting it all. It was super organized too, no yarn falling out of cubby holes, no digging for that last skien...I dig it.

Here's the obligatory stash addition photo:

Enjoy, and if you are knitting in the Indy area, you really need to go! It's so nice!

Dream in Color: (In a Leonardo DiCaprio Voice) I'm the King of the World!

Doilies and Emo Pastries (this may offend some people, but now you've been warned)

So I finished the doily of radio station awesomeness last night after Stephen Colbert and woke up this morning to starch it to the point that it could singlehandedly stand up to hurricane Ike. Mission accomplished. (Pictures below) While I was heading back upstairs, my mom asks me...."could you do me a little bitty favor?"

Maybe....

"Could you make me some sandwiches?" Sure, that's entirely do-able. How many?

60 Sandwiches. I guess she was hungrier than I thought. Turns out she volunteered me to make 60 bagel sandwiches for the JV and Varsity soccer team for my little bro's game in Bloomington tonight (Go Bears!). So..yeah. 2 hours and 60 bagel sandwiches later, I was about to miss Miss Elphaba's** appointment for her yearly checkup. Shit! Ran upstairs, tripped upstairs, somehow pulled a muscle in my foot (I don't know how it happened, either) put on some decent clothes and some make-up and drove to Tom O'Brien to get Miss Elphie worked on.

(You know what they say about big doilies? Yeah, me neither)

But it's never just an oil change, is it? Of course not! It's a leaking valve and replacing brake pads too! Whatever....I'd rather pay a little extra and make sure my brakes work. And I had the Lavender/Sage hoodie with me, so I had all the time in the world to kill, right? 3 hours and $350 later, I was ready to go with about half a sleeve more than I came with, still craving bagels.

*This is a little more meandering from the story, but some guy in the waiting room and I had a lovely conversation. He said he hadn't seen anyone knit since his Grandma died 4 years ago, and what he missed most about her was the hand-knit sweaters she made him every year for Christmas. It's amazing how a sleeve in progress will make someone open up to a perfect stranger. I'm glad he did though, he was very nice. Even bought me a Coke! Back to regularly scheduled Bagel story*

I passed Panera on the way home, craving Einstein bagels like Whitney craves rocks, and then realized...they close at 4. It was 4.23. Poo. Since I had to pick up insulin for the dog, I figured I would go to Marsh and see what they had for bagels...and was a little surprised to find these.

Are they Emo bagels? Apparently not, they would have cut themselves if they were.

Came home, ate the bagel, and decided it was a lovely day to do a photo shoot with my new Smooshy from Saturday and my new Sheepytime yarn from Mandie. I have decided that because it is black and red and destined to be Bellatrix socks, it is evil. Here are some of the better ones from the photo shoot...

(There was another one with purple flowers and Smooshy but it keep vanishing from this section. If you see it hiding in a corner, shivering with fear, please let me know and I will come and pick it up.)

And finally: Buttons.** To the new readers: Miss Elphaba is my green Jeep, named after the Wicked Witch of the West because she really is that green. So now you know...

***I'd like to thank J for his concern about my bras being too tight. After wearing a new one all day, I have remembered how nice it is to inhale. And exhale. And inhale again.

Just being lazy...

Knitting:

So...I'm not making a lot of progress on anything. I've turned the heel in the Miss Match sock but considering how far I got on Saturday, that's not really a surprise. I just need to find the motivation to finish it.

I started a tank top for my mom about a week ago and am almost up to the armholes, but am too lazy to figure out how I want the rest of it to look. Meh...novelty tank tops...not my fav.

Haven't made it to the decreases on the second sleeve on the lavender/sage hoodie yet, but I did find some awesome buttons on clearance today at Joann. When I remember to take pictures before the sun sets, I will take progress pics with the new sparkly buttons.

Am finished with the lettering and almost finished with the decreases on the WJBC AM1230 doily, and it took waaaaaaaaay longer than I thought it would. Not looking forward to the border. Am looking forward to being done with it.

A distant cousin (mom's mom's sister's daughter-in-law) had a preemie today and turns out none of the hats I made her a few months ago fit. So I cast on for another at the request of g-ma Rosie. That shouldn't take too long at all.

Artichoke socks are slowly sinking into hibernation....which is not a good thing. I really don't want to take them to England, and I know I need to rip out a few inches (including the heel) to set it straight again, I just really don't want to. I'm in a bit of a knitting rut right now.

Non-knitting

Found a grey peacoat today at Burlington, which should help with the wonderful London weather. It should also go with just about any scarf/hat/mittens ever knitted, so that's a plus. I was tempted to get purple, but I figured that would set me back in all my efforts to become a grown-up. And it wouldn't actually match anything.

Got bras on sale today! Woohoo! Since I have stopped growing (physically) UP, my body has started growing OUT, which means absolutely nothing fits right now. But now I've got 3 bras that really do, and that's a relief. Seriously...the bras I've been wearing are waaaaaay too snug.

I'm so looking forward to Wednesday....goal is to finish 2 things before we hit the road! That way I won't feel so guilty looking for Panda Cotton.

P.S. I have decided that I need more Panda Cotton, as I am wearing my socks right now and wondering why I only have 1 pair of Panda socks. Must change that.

P.P.S. Still no Visa. Am starting to get a little nervous...

1 week, 2 finished blankets

Hey there! Paige here, waiting for the novocaine to wear off from the appointment that took place 3 hours ago so that I may go to Blockbuster and return a movie, rent another, and order a sandwich without drooling all over myself.

So after knit night last thursday I moved the lavender sage blanket from the craft room to my bedroom, which automatically put it in "Not going back into hibernation" mode, and then after renting "Stranger Than Fiction" (Which I really liked, even though it had Will Ferrell in it) the blanket moved downstairs in front of the tv and was then shifted into "Not even going back upstairs before completion" mode. So...since I got home I started working on it and then decided that even though I had not finished all of the yarn, it was plenty long. So I finished it. Here are its glamor (or glamour- I am moving to England, you know) shots with a bouquet leftover from the funeral and an amythyst from Brazil.

And here is another shot of it in its new home, the "crochet acrylic blankets and poker chips" cabinet.

I guess this means I have to get back to work on the radio station doily....darn.

Some days you are the bird, some days you are the statue

And I am feeling a little more statuesque than normal.

I went to a party in Lafayette with my friend Andy last night. Which means I pissed off my boss by requesting today off even though it's a sunday. I went to the party, was having a great time with this guy that was there and Andy pulls this guy aside and tells him that if he doesn't leave me alone, Andy would break his ribs.

Great. So cute guy left because he didn't want his ribs broken. 2 hours later: New cute guy comes and we start chatting and Andy, once again, tells the guy if he doesn't leave me alone then he would break his ribs.

Very mature Andy. So I've driven 2 hours to get to this party, taken off work and now nobody will come near me because they are afraid of having their ribs broken by Andy. Fuck. So I left and drove the 2 hours home. Got home around 4 am, went to bed.

E-mailed cute guy #1 saying sorry Andy is the world's biggest asshole, please come with me to the Superhero party, I will be dressed at Catwoman.

E-mail ten minutes later: Superhero party has been moved to the 27th, which is of course, the day I leave for England.

FUCK! Why does the Universe hate me so much? I JUST FINSIHED buying all the parts for the catwoman costume ($100) and now I will never be able to wear them. Now I just feel like an idiot because I have been looking forward to this party all summer. I should have known- as soon as something good is about to happen, it goes terribly wrong. Every. Single. Time.

Done. Done. And fingers crossed.

So...for those who weren't at knit night:

I finished the Lizard Ridge last night. It was pretty awesome. I actually kind of miss it though...those little squares were very nice to carry around in my purse. I need to wash it and block it again now that I've put it all together and crocheted the border. Here it is, with my cat modeling it. Seriously, I can't keep the cat off of it. I am glad that she likes it, I am not so glad that it is a day old and already had 2 pounds of yellow cat hair on it.

I also finished (this is old news by now) the red CPH. I am thrilled to death with it, too. Fits, I think it looks good and used up nearly all of my red rowan. And used up most of my Celtic knot buttons...which also pleases me. The only way I could love this sweater more is if it were all one dye lot. Whatever...it's on the back and I can't see it. Here is the worst of the pictures, the one in which I appear to be stoned out of my mind but unfortunately, am not.

Which means my project count is starting to dwindle down a bit...again. This happens and then a bad week happens and the project count spikes.

I currently have on the needles (that will be finished by the time I leave for England)

3 pairs of socks, all at halfway or more

1 afghan, getting close to finished

1 baby blanket (would like to make 3 or 4 before I leave for the purpose of inventory)

WJBsomething or other radio station doily

2 hoodies, 1 of which will likely be donated to goodwill for being fugly but still a UFO

1 sweater

1 scarf; needs an hour of knitting but 3 or 4 of spinning to finish

Things that have no chance at being finished before I leave:

3 year old Mariah sweater from knitty

Doable? Only time will tell. And by time I mean not quite 3 weeks. Game on, knitting.

I also submitted what I really hope is the last of my Visa paperwork for the British student Visa. I really hope I had everything, but knowing the government, something tells me I will be without a passport and visa the day I need to leave for England. But it's out of my hands now.

And as for the catwoman costume, anonymous commenter: You will see it when I am good and ready to dress like a whore. And that's not today.

And I thought Lizard Ridge was a big project...

So this art student knitted a Ferrari. So I won't be complaining about how big my Lizard Ridge is anymore.

Check this video out of Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP8XnQm7FjY&NR=1

That's going well by the way. Will try to finish seaming tonight so I can carry it in the car going to and from the funeral. May finish the applied I-cord before knit night.