You know you're a knitter when...

... you're at work and you look down at the sleeve of your sweater and think, "there's a knit, that's a purl, there's three knits, and then three purls..."

... instead of taking smoke breaks during the day, you spend your 15 minute breaks at work surfing knitting blogs.

... you often print free patterns on your laser printer at work instead of using the inkjet you have at home.

... you have knitting blogs and pattern sites in your favorites at work.

... you often daydream of leaving work so you can go work on your latest WIP.

... when a co-worker shows you his/her new store-bought knitted item you think, "I could make that."

... lunch break often translates into 5 minutes of eating and 55 minutes of knitting.

... co-workers no longer look surprised when they walk into the break/lunch room and see you knitting.

... on payday you think to yourself, "I wonder what kind of yarn I should buy today..."

... you update your knitting blog from work when you should be doing something else. ;o)

"I do it in public"

To prove that I really do still knit and often do it in public... a picture post. This is the dreaded Moderne Baby Blanket that STILL is not done (as seen at Lake Lansing North last Saturday). I've decided that since I only have 11 days until the arrival of the little monster I'm cutting this blanket short. I'd planned on doing that anyway, but still... yeah. I'm going to work on that top block there and once it's of a decent size I'm done. Then I'll do all of the crap needed to put the back on and say, "Wee I'm done!" Then I will go to Michaels and buy the materials I need to do my Day of the Dead KAL project because the next thing I knit after this blanket is ALLLLLLLLL about me. Then I'll return to knitting for other people. :o)

But yeah... the verdict on this pattern... it's easy and mindless (until those intarsia blocks which I'm avoiding like the chicken pox) but it's complete torture when done with the size needles suggested in the book. If you do this, I HIGHLY recommend that you get a bulky yarn and use big needles to speed things up. Then you might not risk never wanting to knit again because you're stuck knitting forever huge blocks in garter stitch. :o)

In other news... school is going well, my Great Aunt Jean died, my mother is getting divorced from Step Dad and is moving out of their house tomorrow, my sister in law is ready to pop out the baby, work sucks as usual, my baby brother turns 11 on Saturday *sobs*, and things are just nuts in general. :o) Oh and I SO want to make a tee shirt about knitting that says "I do it in public" or something along those lines. :o)

Happy Thursday!

Woo hoo!

I think I've finally decided on a Day of the Dead project. :op I was doing some random blog hopping last night (mostly looking for socks because I'm SO going to do some socks soon) and came across an idea that I'd considered before but never really followed through on.

Knitty has a very cool pattern called Perdita that I'm going to attempt to do. It'll serve many purposes if I can actually do the project...

1. It incorporates beads and lacey like knitting which I've never done so it'll be a learning experience for me.
2. It'll be a fabulous cure for when I need to cover my wrist tattoos but don't want to load up on bracelets and watches (although I don't mind doing so most days).
3. Two of the names for the three projects listed are names that remind me of my Grandma. Lily of the Valley: Her maiden name was Lilly (and I hope to have a daughter named Lily one day) and lillies are my favorite flower. Lilac: Her favorite color was lilac. :o)

So I think if I can ever finish my freaking moderne baby blanket for my nephew (countdown: 18 days left!) then Perdita will be my Day of the Dead project. :o)

CafePress Goodies

Before I ran out of money I made a fabulous fun purchase that finally showed up in the mail today. :o) I love fun mail!

From Stitch This I got this bumper sticker:

From Stephen's Shop I got this tee shirt:

It says "Nine Deadly Needles... Worldclass Knitting Crew"

And this sticker:

From Swell Designer I got this bumper sticker:

I've been working on my own products to sell at CafePress... will post the link once things are up and running!

Pet Meme

I don't normally do meme's in this blog, I leave that for my daily blog, but I couldn't resist this one that Kristi posted and since Kristi is a knitter, I'm putting it here. :o)

5 Odd/Unique things about my pets...

Oscar...

Oscar is my youngest at the age of three, he's a rescue kitty and is the biggest cat I've ever owned. :o)

1. Oscar has extra toes on both front paws. 6 on one paw and 7 or 8 on the other. He looks like he has fluffy white mittens on.

2. Oscar has what the vet calls a birthmark on his back where the hair won't grow thick. Instead there's a somewhat scratchy short buzz cut blob there that he looooves to have scratched.

3. Oscar likes to lay on his back and reveal his belly. He's the only cat I've ever known who will let you rub his tummy without eventually going psycho and attacking your hand.

4. Oscar's favorite game is "Torture the Big Sister." He frequently uses his size to intimidate his older sister Kira (who is much smaller than he is) and knock her around until I have to yell at him to quit it.

5. Oscar has several middle names. I didn't choose his first name, but since I got him several middle names have been discovered. Oscar De La Hoya, Oscar De La Renta, Oscar Fonzerella (yes I know it's not actually Oscar but Arthur, but it came out of my mouth one day and has stuck).

Kira...

Kira is my little diva. She's almost 6 years old and is my beautiful baybeee.

1. Kira "talks" to birds. Ever since she was a kitten if she sees birds out of the window she runs around trying to get to them and talks to them in a very weird voice that can't be described as a meow but also can't be spelled. :o)

2. Kira was named after the musical artist Shakira whom I had a massive crush on at the time that I got Kira. :o)

3. Kira likes paper. As in, she likes to eat it. If she finds a stray piece of paper laying about she'll try and eat it... she's particularly fond of shiny paper like the papers from stickers or anything that makes noise when she chews it.

4. Kira was an only child for most of her life and still acts like it demanding attention and Princess-like treatment at all times.

5. Kira gives kisses. If I ask her for a kiss and make a kissy face at her, she touches her nose to mine.

Cherub...
Cherub is my roommate's dog but I spend more time with her so she gets mention in this too.

1. Cherub is smaller than Oscar.
2. Cherub is terrified of Kira and won't even walk past my bedroom (where Kira usually stays) unless someone is standing in between the door and her to protect her from Kira.
3. Cherub's favorite human food is popcorn . She can hear the sound of a pack of microwave popcorn and know even before it starts popping that it's being made.
4. Cherub's human mom is a local radio celebrity here in town.
5. Oscar is Cherub's boyfriend... they play and cuddle together on a regular basis until Oscar gets freaked out and runs away. :o)

The 2nd post

There's the fabric and stuff for the back of Devin's blanket. It matches quite well... Kira wanted to help show it so she put her head in the picture just as I took the shot. :o)

Picture post

Here you'll find pictures of my retro yarntainer that I inherited from my sister in law. It belonged to her grandmother who used to do a lot of crocheting, lace making etc. It's not exactly pretty, but it's pretty cool. :o)


Handy dandy yarn hole in the top of the container for yarn to come through without letting it roll all over the floor or get attacked by furkids.






The fabric covering it is much like an old grandma couch and quite fabulously retro. For some reason I decided to take a picture of the back of the container. Perhaps I wanted to show the uneven seaming? :o)















And finally, here's the container with the top closed and locked.














Here I am knitting in public at Jeepers in the Great Lakes Crossing Mall in Auburn Hills, MI this weekend. The children were running around like animals in the play place while I knitted and sat with my sister in law. :o)











Close up shot. As you can tell, I was also having a fabulous boob day. :op Ignore the odd way I hold my knitting in my left hand... I'm an unconventional knitter (aka I don't know the "real" way to hold it).












And last but not least, Devin's blanket thus far. The big black block is the one I'm currently working on, it's about three or four rows from being done. Then I've got at least one more block to do in the periwinkle-ish color before stopping to see if it's big enough. Technically there are two more blocks after that (the scary intarsia blocks) but I might not do them in order to save myself some time and sanity. Plus I still have more to do once the knitting is done (I'm putting a back on it like this) so yeah... the sooner the better. Crap, I should take pictures of the fabric I'm using for the back huh? It'll have to go in another post because Blogger sucks.

Labor Day

I'm currently having an alergic reaction to the massive amounts of cat hair that my youngest furchild has so graciously deposited around my bedroom. I'm in my bedroom because I'm also in one of my Dysthymic funks and I don't want to see or talk to anyone including the roommate so I'm watching Prison Break on fuzzy non-cable tv and sneezing every few minutes while trying not to rub my itchy eyeballs out.

Mom had a cookout today which I was fabulously cranky for. Everyone seemed to be talking at once and on hyper mode and it was driving me nuts. I'm sure I snapped at my mom at least once and several times I wanted to get up and just go home when Sheila made snarky comments in my direction. I'm sure the bulk of this is because I'm functioning on less than my usual dose of meds thanks to my current financial situation (and yes I know that's not a good thing, no lecturing please), but it's also part stress too. Stress of hating my job, being back in school, needing to buy four more text books and my meds refill but not having my financial aid yet so I can't buy any of them, my mother's current situation, and everything else that's going on now. Blah is the word of the day/week/month.

I logged on because I feel like if I don't get some creative writing done I'm going to explode soon. But now that I'm sitting here in front of the screen I don't want to do it. I did manage to get some knitting done on Devin's blanket this weekend in the car on the way to Auburn Hills and back as well as at Mom's. I also did some reading, albeit not school reading like I should have done. I'm currently up to chapter twenty of The Mermaid Chair. It's not my favorite read, but it's keeping my attention thus far and I'm curious about what's going to happen.

I really need to get up and take another benedryl and grab my chord for my camera. Maybe in the short trip I'll also find my muse and will get some writing done tonight, but we'll have to wait and see about that. Knit photos soon if Blogger isn't a weenie and lets me upload tonight.