Monday, August 27, 2007

And Another Thing:

Quilts? Awesome. They make me want to knit afghans. Especially THIS ONE:

Check

This

Shit

Out!

I live! Promise.

Sorry it's been so dead around here, folks, I've been so busy knitting (and frogging and knitting and frogging and knitting again) that I completely forgot to blog about it. Plus, I've been finishing up a couple of small side projects for/with friends. For example, Hastur and I are working on a cross-stitch for a contest in some magazine she subscribes to - I forget the one, but the prize is a cubic fuck-ton of hand-dyed silk threads by her absolute favorite dyer, dinky dyes. Something about their five-year anniversary, I believe ;) We designed it together, and she's stitching it up this week. I hope it makes it into the finals.

In other news, HarlotWatch continues! I have reserved three seats at the event, either for myself, Sweetie, and Hastur (who I am trying to convince to come with me), or myself, Hastur, and Meagan (if I can convince them to do a girl's day out). I'll be taking my littlest brother to see Lucy at the Houston Museum of Natural Science that weekend, so it should be good times all around.

In knitting news, not much is going on. I've tried two or three different types of cuddlefish eye-bulges before settling on the final version (you'll never guess how it works. I'm so excited), so now all I've got to do is actually finish the damn thing! Luckily, I've decided to start the mouth shaping just after the apex of the eye-bulge, so I'm ready for that now. It's good times. I'm so eager to show off the Cuddlefish, I don't know if I'll be able to keep him out of photographs so I can submit him to Knitty, or if I should just give in, post him everywhere, and submit him to MagKnits. Knitty seems to have a higher readership, and be a better stepping-stone to eventual author-dom, so I will resist the urge (like anyone's here for the photographs anyway, right?).

Anyway, that's all for now. I ordered some Mama Llama merino lace yarn, and it's time to start obsessively checking the mailbox, on the off-chance that the postal service was three hours late today. Sweetie says my belief in the six-o'-clock mail pixies is silly, but I think knitters know better than that. If you truly believe, then the yarn will come.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

It looks like the internet

is back up, for now. Sorry for the delay.

So I got a raise. How cool is that, right? I'm almost making as much now as I would have at the pathology lab, and I'm not cutting into dead things. A $0.50 difference per hour is definitely worth it for that, and I'm hoping it will help ease the blow to my dad when I tell him that I like my job and will not be looking for another one (in this city, at least) any time soon, even if it means he doesn't give me the car, which is what I'm betting on.

At any rate, knitting is going well. I started a pair of socks with some Louet Gems dyed by Cherry Tree Hill (beautiful gem tones), top-down picot-hemmed Jaywalkers with twined-knit heels (which takes forever, in case you were wondering, but makes a wonderful, thick, elastic fabric. Remind me to borrow Hastur's camera and post a tutorial on it), and guess what? I ran foul of the usual complaint with Jaywalkers: Too small. I can get them over my heels, but with major effort, so they're going to be undergoing some major surgery when I can bear to look at them again. I'm going to rip back to where I picked up for the gusset, snip the final row of cuff before I started the heel, provisionally cast on over the instep, and do plain stockinette down to the toes. Then I can pick up around the ankle, knit up a cuff with what's left, and yay! Socks. Just not socks right now.

Right now it's all Cuddlefish, all the time! I finally figured out what pattern I want to use on the head (staggered diamonds, the simplest thing ever, with lice patterns on bottom), so I've attached the siphon and started working in earnest. It should definitely be done by the time Yarn Harlot comes to Houston.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Internet at home currently dead

I'm working on the Cuddlefish, I'm working on some socks, and Hastur has got me designing some cross-stitch with her (who'd've thunk?). Also, got in some lovely fiber from the Painted Sheep. Sweetie's making beer tonight!