For instance, yesterday was my birthday! It was well spent – I was at the store for the day where I was gifted with an awesome purple orchid in a purple pot (which totally matches my purple kitchen!).

After work, I met 16 of my friends for sushi at my favorite all-you-can-eat spot. A now traditional sushi face was made:

And while I really only needed people to join me in sushi-gorging as a present, I was gifted with comic books, music, booze (Tequila Rosa – never had it, but it sounds good! – and a bottle of Kraken Rum, which I’ve been looking for all over, if only for the awesome label!), homemade toffee-chocolate bars and these gorgeous flowers:

Afterwards a few of us went and saw Despicable Me, which was hilarious and a perfect way to end the day. Should have gone right to bed when I got home, but I wanted to read the comic books, lol. Today I met some of the friends that came ALL the way down from Saratoga for my birthday at IKEA to hang and shop a bit before they had to head back. All in all, a good birthday, for sure. *grin*

In other news, the heat wave of the past week hasn’t killed too many of my plants, although my window box of African Daisies might be kaput. At least the ones in the big pot I planted with Calendula have started to rebloom – here’s one of the first ones to return, one of the “bronze” ones!

I also had a visitor to the garden who allowed me to get closer and closer with my camera allowing me to get some really good shots:

And check out the head on this creature – even though I know this is really the top of its head, doesn’t it look like a cartoon face?

I also learned something cool about dragonflies – when you see them sticking their abdomen straight up like that, they’re doing something called “obelisking”. Basically, they are trying to reduce their surface area that is facing the sun so they can cool off and prevent overheating. This one kept hopping back and forth from one of my roses to my double day lilies, completely *in* the sun. Why it didn’t seek shade, I have no idea – it was so hot out that the sidewalk was burning the soles of my feet. The WHITE CONCRETE sidewalk. Yeah, I know I should have gotten shoes, but I’d already run out with the camera and I was afraid it would fly away before I got my shots. Dedicated to my craft, I am, lol.

So, knitting. Well, I dug out my Swing Top that I started last year too late in the summer to warrant finishing. After a brief period of where the frak did I leave off, and which size was I making (I lost the photocopy I made from my book with all my notes on it), I am back on course. The Classic Elite Premiere is really lovely to knit with…

I also did a super quickie store sample from a pattern we just got. It’s a cute little drawstring bag using Berroco Suede Tri-color (which I know is discontinued, but we still have some and heck, you can just stripe with multiple colors or use a solid anyway). Only took a few hours in the evening to go from…

to…

AND I had leftovers, so I made a little cozy…maybe for an iPod Nano? ‘Course, I’ll have to find someone who has one – or I could use it for the little thumbdrive mp3 player I have that I’m giving to my dad…

The felines are still well…I caught a somewhat sarcastic look on Remy’s face…

…and cute, fuzzy Zoe Toes…

So, I guess I’ll see ya in a month, lol…

I especially loved how the red parasol came out with the chinese coins, bronze & copper beads and red crystal chandelier beads. I figured if we sold any of the three, it’d be that one and YAY it did sell!

I still was at the Robin Hood faire for the first and third weekend and that was also a lot of fun. Plus we had an adorable next door neighbor.

So, until the Midsummer Magick Faire, I actually have some time to do whatever I want on the weekends, which is really nice. I’ve got a little bit of knitting done for the store, but managed to get some for me too!

I made it a *little* farther on my Geodesic Cardigan, up to the point where I have to start doing the decreases and pay attention!

I also got a few rounds in this past weekend on my Nutkins socks.

And speaking of Malabrigo…I got my prizes for winning second place for Most Creative Photo during Malabrigo March! I got one skein of Worsted Merino in, I think, Rhodesian and a skein of the new yarn Rasta!

The colors in Rasta are AMAZING! Every time I turn it around I find a new angle of pretty…

Oh, and some new characters have joined my ridiculous number of tape measures – the two new colors of Lantern Moon sheep! They’re just so damned cute.

And so is sleepy pancake Zoe. Hee.

So, hope everyone out there is safe with these severe storms that have been blowin’ around the past few days…stay safe. And enjoy the weather when it’s nice, ’cause when it has been, it’s been gorgeous!

So, April was a busy, busy month. First of all, two of my closest friends got married and I contributed my sewing skills to help out. Since they were having a Renaissance-style wedding, they wanted the ringbearer to have a doublet, but couldn’t find one for a two-year-old, so they asked me to make one. Then the bride realized they didn’t have a ring pillow, so I made one to match! Here’s the pillow, which is silvery fabric that I piped with the same fabric I used for the doublet:

And here’s the adorable ringbearer in his doublet – he did an awesome job!

All the flower arrangements were gorgeous and I was able to take home some beautiful tulips.

Zoe thought they were pretty also…or at least interesting enough to smell, lol.

I got a french manicure for the wedding, and it’s been a long time since I had one. You know why? I do too damned much with my hands to get ‘em regularly, lol. I had ‘em done the evening before and I managed to make it to the ceremony with only one little chip in my right thumb (sadly, that is impressive). By Monday (got the nails done Friday night)? This is why I can’t have nice things, lol.

In other news, while I didn’t finish anything else for Malabrigo March besides the Quincy hat, I did manage to finish the sweater I started for it before May began. As in April 27th. BUT, that allowed me to wear it for the last chilly day we’ve had for the past week!

All the details on the project are here on Ravelry. And now, the photos!

Alternating skeins was totally the way to go and allowed me to use those especially green skeins I loved. I ended up using all but 8 grams of four skeins of the Malabrigo Worsted and the buttons are just perfect (and destined, apparently, since there were only four left of ‘em at the store!). I definitely like it best with just the shoulder buttoned, but when it gets cold again it’ll be nice to be able to button the other two for a full turtleneck.

And this month, I’ve been making various types of mitts for the upcoming Steampunk World’s Fair to sell at The Shady Emporium. After all, one needs to keep their hands safe and toasty when holding one’s parasol! *grin*

The cats are well and happy, as you can see…

And Spring has inspired me to shoot outdoors…

And lastly, gardening will happen as soon as Mother’s Day passes (as is recommended in my zone), but I couldn’t resist these surreal-colored African Daisies to plant in the pot at the base of my stairs. LOVE. Them.

I have 10 whole skeins of this colorway, but even within the same “dyelot” (a loose term when it comes to handpainted yarn, lol) there are BIG differences in some of the skeins. I chose one skein that lacks the lighter blues and greens that the Vaa colorway usually contains and doubled the yarn to get a similar gauge to the recommended yarn. My row gauge was also different, so I ended up doing fewer rows and trying it on as I went (as much as you can with this kind of pattern) to guess when to stop.

Since the decreases at the top are a multiple of 6, I just picked up a multiple of 6 stitches (which, because of the fewer rows, was a smaller number than asked for in the pattern) and decreased from there!

It fits perfectly, I love the color and it was nice and quick to get done!

So, now I have 9 skeins of Vaa. *ponder* I’m liking these two particular skeins that have a definitely lighter blue and green in them…and with all the variegation, I’m not sure I want to do something with cables…so I look through my magazines and Ravelry and decide on Sweater #39 (Rav link) from Rebecca #34 because I totally love the side button turtleneck.

Because of these two unique skeins, I decided to alternate skeins with two other skeins that were more on the lighter side. So far…I like…

I’ve also started to design a cabley hat for the design contest using one skein of Malabrigo Twist in Azul Profundo. What you see here has since been frogged and restarted as I decided I want to make it top-down and that there were too many purl rows between my cables, so I’m altering the pattern anyway.

So, if anyone out there wants to test knit or tech edit this for me and can do it sooper quick (I plan to have the pattern done by the end of the week and will need it tested within a week so I can be eligible for the contest)? All I can offer is the free copy of the pattern, or possibly some stitch markers? Leave me a comment!

I think the Malabrigo fever got to me a little, though, as these two last skeins of Rupreste Silky Merino followed me home last Friday. Oooops. I forsee possibly making long fingerless gloves for myself…

And most exciting of all? SPRING IS SPROINGING!

The pattern is amazingly easy to remember and I’m already up to the heel. Just have to choose a heel! I might just toss this onto stitch holders and work up the second sock to this same point.

Now, I certainly have other projects I should be working on *glances to left sidebar at WIPs*, but on Sunday a knitting emergency turned up! To be more specific, my Big Sis from the band sorority I was in at UCONN just became a Dad for the first time (NOTE: for the confused, both the band sorority and band fraternities are co-ed. So, actually, both my big and little sister are guys, my big brother is a girl and I have two little brothers – one guy and one girl. Heh.). And he has been SO excited for the day to come. She was due on the 28th, but decided to come a week early instead! Guess she’s just as impatient as her dad’s been, lol.

SO, I wanted to make something to send him and his wife for the baby. In looking at the stash, I found I had this one ball of light pink, old-school Cotton-Ease. In case it wouldn’t be enough, I knew I had a few balls of the hot pink for trim…

I then found an old Knit-List-based pattern through Ravelry and worked this cardigan up in about 6 hours total! The coolest thing about this pattern is that you work it from the neck down, then after the yoke you work across a front, make a sleeve, crochet it closed, work across the back, do the second sleeve the same way, then across the other front. And the rest is just the fronts and the back until you’re done. NO SEAMING. Sweet!!! I still had about 20g left when I was done so there was no need for the hot pink…but them’s some nice leftovers!

So, I made up some thumbless baby mitts! Didn’t have enough Cotton-Ease left to do both the ties and the connecting cord, though…but then remembered having leftover Sirdar Magic! So I used that for the ties and the cord and voila! Yeah, I got corny with the composition, lol.

But then, I thought…I should use the rest of this Magic also – it certainly matches! I figured I’d use a top-down pattern in case I didn’t have enough, and I ended up using a pattern for chunky yarn and just adding more in-between-increase rows. And STILL had some left. So I put on earflaps with ties (always a good idea for baby hats, anyway). And, guess what? Still some left over. >.> That’s it! POM-POMs. But since they didn’t come out terribly fluffy, I decided to put them together and put them on the top and now? All. Gone.

STASHBUSTING, AWAAAAAAAAAY!

Shaun stepped in to model it for me, too.

Yes, I am a Knit-inja!!!

Remy says: “Uh, yeah. Whatever. Zzzzzzzzzzz.”

The heel…

I even wrote up a pattern. Want it? You can haz. I can’t guarantee it, as my only test knitting was making the second sock, but it seems to be ok. Let me know if you try it and it fails.

I realized as I was marking the project as finished on Ravelry that I started these socks exactly a year and a day ago. Heh.

Well, as usual for this winter, our weather has defied the predictions of the meteorologists. Last storm we were supposed to be pummeled and it was maybe 2 inches. Today was supposed to be a dusting and we got 7-8″+. *facepalm*

Awful purty, though, ain’t it?

I have a new orchid, given to me as a late holiday gift, and I thought I’d better shoot some pics before it is done blooming. Which reminds me that I should try feeding the other orchid so many it’ll bloom again.

And there was another bloom that inspired a photo in the sunlight…

On Sunday I attempted to ward off the “VD” by celebrating Chinese New Year instead! Handy! Went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant (first time I’d ever gone ON Chinese New Year, which was fun) and had their fabulous Szechuan Chicken and introduced my dinner companion to the awesomeness that is Scallion Pancake. It’s the only Chinese place around that still has it on the menu, so I HAD to get it.

Today, completely by accident when I was looking up a reference for substitutions in pancake recipes I discovered something (after all, it was PANCAKE DAY today – I made Vegan Pumpkin Pancakes. They are perfect for those with cholesterol issues as they are eggless. You can use regular milk instead of the soy.). So, I basically realized that The Joy of Cooking HAS a Scallion Pancake recipe! ARGH! Why did I never notice that??? So, I’m totally going to have to try making that SOON.

And on that tasty note, I will leave you with some kitteh love I captured. Shhh…you’re not supposed to know…

And tomorrow comes another Snowpocalypse to the East Coast. Why does it seem that these storms always turn up just as I need to get regular old groceries? Gladly, no one had to be mauled and I got what I needed this evening as planned. Zoe is prepared – my Lizard Ridge, aka her favorite blanket, is on the couch. I love the look on her face here – she’s like, WHAT???? I’m SLEEPIN’ here…

So, for the past month and continuing into this one, I’ve been trying to be more practical about my groceries in that except for stuff that needs “refills” (milk, bread, etc). Basically, I’m trying to base all my meals on what’s in my cupboards. I mean, seriously, I found stuff in there that I forgot I bought – and to let it go bad is wasteful both of food and money! Call it “Frugal February”. *grin*

As it was, I had to throw out some ancient barbecue sauces (circa 2001-2003 – and no longer the color they should be) and OMG there was a seriously disturbing discovery. Found about 5-6 cans of pineapple in the way back of the top shelf…that were BLOATED. o.O

I have never SEEN bloated canned goods. I didn’t realize it could even happen. But the thought of it exploding on the shelf? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK.

Yeah – those went RIGHT in the dumpster. ASAP.

So far, this experiment has been working out very nicely, I’ve been having some perfectly good meals (still low in fat as per the low cholesterol diet) and my grocery bill is lower. At the same time, I’m not buying stuff *just* because it’s on sale. Only if I’m actually *out* of something.

In knitting news, I have two more FOs! One is a bias-knit scarf made from one of my earliest wheel-spun yarns. One strand is alpaca/merino/silk in a multi-red and the other strand is black extrafine merino. I really needed another scarf since the skin on my neck has been especially sensitive of late (so much that even the nice, soft Neckie I made was making me itchy. I plan to try soaking it in Eucalan to see if that fixed it, but this handspun had been a long time coming in being worked up. I’m quite happy with it!

Looks pretty good on Zoe, too!

The pattern is uber-simple and basic and you can find it on the project’s page on Ravelry if you’d like to make one like it.

I also finished my second Citron (for me, this time), which I called Avocado (Ravelry link)! SO nice and soft – lovin’ it.

I am also SO VERY CLOSE to finishing my Appealing Sox. But, I’ve been busy and I wanted to finish Avocado first, so, there it is. Painful, it is. But they’ll be done soon enough.

So, any of you watch Fringe? I LOVE this show on SO many levels and pray that FOX will allow it to run through the entire arc that it deserves. So, they do this cool thing with floaty letters showing what city they’re dealing with for that scene. I had me a little double-take during the winter finale…that led to a giggle. Apparently they need spell-check. Whoops!

In other FAIL news – I wanted to get some actual curtains for my living room rather than just the scarf I had draped along the top. I could actually feel the windows sucking out the heat, so I definitely wanted lined, insulated ones. Found some chocolate brown tafetta-looking curtains at Walmart that seemed like they’d do the job, although they were certainly too long. So, I figured I’d just hem them. While watching the Super Bowl. And feeling impatient. This was not a good plan, as you can see.

A little short. FSCK. And this was the “good” one. The OTHER one? I managed to give it a *curved* hem. EPIC fail. I will be undoing the hems, which I actually did fold over twice, so there might be enough to make it just long enough to hit the sill. If not, I have what I cut off to reattach – I think these need to become Roman shades anyway so I can still let the light in when I want to (they certainly work for light blocking, lol.). In the meantime they’re at least keeping more heat in than no curtains at all.

So, as tomorrow will be snowy and gray, I will leave you with something furry and gray in the sunlight.

Actually, both the cats don’t seem to mind being dressed up — except when there’s headgear involved. As evidenced above, lol.

Also meet this beautiful boy – those gorgeous eyes!:

I did a lot of work on my second Sox Appeal sock over the mini-vaca, getting to and past the heel and a little bit up the cuff. I might actually have a pair soon!

It didn’t get to be the last FO of 2009, but it *did* get to be the first FO of 2010 – Blood Orange (Rav link) aka Citron from the latest Knitty.com!

It was an easy enough knit, though I don’t know what crack I was on for the duration of it because I kept counting wrong and ending up with extra stitches at the end of the increases — but sometimes still getting the right amount of stitches. It was very weird and I thought there must be typos in the pattern, but it still was coming out ok and no one else seemed to post having issues on Ravelry. So, I said, whatever, it looks good and kept on. I decided not to block it in the end since I kind of liked the look of it as/is and figured I’d let the recipient decide for herself. And she likes it as/is also, so it’s all good!

And now I *know* I must have been on crack when I was counting for Blood Orange because I started Avocado (Rav link) and have had nothing off in the counts. *facepalm* Whatever!

Can’t wait to finish it – it’s the same Malabrigo colorway as my Star Crossed Slouchy Beret (Rav link) (Olive) and so close in the dye job that you’d think it was the same lot. So I’ll have a matching set when I’m done! Yay!

(All photos are linked to Ravelry for full information on each project.)

Well, it’s not been as a productive year as in the past, but I’m still kinda surprised at how many items I actually finished. There would be one more in there as well, if I had time to finish the Citron Shawl (heck, I may finish it today before New Year’s anyway…guess I’ll have to amend my post, then! I’m only 7 rows and the bind-off from finishing.)

For New Year’s I’m going up to Saratoga Springs, NY to party with friends and I can’t wait to see everyone. Bringing my Sox Appeal project in case there is sober knitting time. Heh.

So, Happy and Safe New Year’s to all and I will see you all next year!

So, since I’m still busy, here’s them pix, and a few words here and there, while I have two seconds.

Been working on my Dad’s sweater…

I finished five out of the five Red Scarf scarves in time and sent ‘em out.

My friend S. came down from upstate NY for an IKEA run and I met up with her for it. And yes, I found a beetle there. It was hanging out on the sheepskin rugs, lol. We particularly loved the chalkboard drawings.

There’s been snow…

I saw a disturbing diet product (I hope that’s not a front view of a waist. Ew.)

I worked on my Sox Appeal sock #2…

…and finished a pair of Artyarns socks. They were made in a class I taught making two socks at a time. I have leftovers, so I may pick up from the cuffs to lengthen them. Or just make them over again toe-up. I think I’m going to change my class to being toe-up. I hate having leftover sock yarn.

Started a new project. I will be gifting this one and making myself one afterwards!

And had a good holiday with friends. And their 18lb House Cougar.

If I have time, I may actually write a serious year-end-type post. Can’t believe it’ll be 2010 in just a few days…