Neglect.

Wow. Have I truly not posted at all this month? Well, let's get back on track.

Firstly, I want to share SuperBaby's first handknit sweater, the Offset Wraplan, designed by Fyberduck. It turned out so well, I almost wanted to keep it just so I could admire it. The sweater is a bit on the big side for SuperBaby right now, as you can see.


A touch big for him ...

It was knit in red Rowan Felted Tweed (wool and alpaca), and has little blue fish buttons that I found at Jo-Ann's. I hope he has some time to wear it before it gets to be too small for him, not to mention unbearably hot for Iowa. (We have strange weather here. I swear I heard the weather man say the temperature will climb to 80 by the end of the week!)

Let's see ... what else is new? I've really been enjoying Dollhouse and Castle, and I read the other day that Project Runway will be back on the air this summer; season 6 will finally be aired (on Lifetime, which I'm still not sure about), and they're putting out casting calls for season 7. So glad to hear the show didn't get flushed entirely. I was really beginning to be concerned about my Tim Gunn deficiency.

Also, I discussed starting up a community musical theatre group with a few former classmates. That would be kind of fun, I think.

As for what else I've been up to, let's let some crappy camera phone pics do the talking.



Watching your parents playing tic-tac-toe with straws and fake sugar at Perkins on a Friday night is always a great way to beat boredom while waiting for your nosh. (Note: this is before I got pulled over for speeding. With the parents in the car. At midnight. Talk about awkward. Good thing I only got a warning, or as my mom said, "That was almost a really expensive dinner." But we got pie, and ate it last night and it was delicious.)



I discovered this gem, a store version of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!, when I was making grilled cheese for lunch yesterday. It was sitting innocuously in my parents' fridge, and cracked me up. When I commented on it later, my mom got very defensive and there was a five-minute discussion on how often my parents got real butter during their childhoods. I think I might draw a question mark on the packaging, because the phrase is really screaming for one.



And finally, the forsythia is starting to bloom. Spring is really here. (Of course I could have told you spring was really here yesterday; I was woken up by a chorus of every chirping bird in town telling me that the sun was going to come up soon. Ah, the woes of being able to sleep with the windows open at last.)

Superbaby!

It has been nearly two weeks since my last post, and though I have thought about blogging rather a lot, that probably counts for bupkis.

The most exciting thing over the past two weeks happened last Thursday: I became an aunt.


I got to hold Superbaby!

As you can see by the way my arms envelop the little guy, he's quite tiny (as babies tend to be). As I've heard tell many times already — my mom's very talkative — he came out flying. Bounced off the doctor a little even, hence his nickname, Superbaby. I suspect his tale will be told many a time at that hospital.

Ii don't recall if I said a whole lot about my brother Brox becoming a father. He turned 20 earlier this month; a few times I saw the deer-in-headlights look on his face and I could almost hear him thinking Holy shit, what have I gotten myself into? But I think he will be a good dad.

Being a proper knitting auntie, I have already queued up a number of knits for Superbaby, not limited to something World of Warcraft-related and a peepee teepee (no, really!). Chiefly on the list, though, is a sweater with a detachable cape, fitting his aerial entrance into the world.

To justify the WoW dorkiness, I'll tell you that, in addition to some thicker clothes, Superbaby's leaving-the-hospital outfit included an I (heart) Star Wars beanie and a onesie that read I'm the first in a clone army! (And I'm very impressed with the Etsy seller WeROnesieful who managed to fit that all on a onesie.)

So. Eventful.

Also, on the way back from lunch, I saw this, er, interesting yard art:


Wow.

That's a soldier with a rifle kneeling at a noticeably-smaller-than-the-gun cross. Scary.

That's all she wrote, folks. I've got stuff to do.

Top o' the mornin' to ya!

I saw the pattern for Lacy Clover last week in the HP House Cup group; someone had made it for Charms class. Well, I snagged some DK cotton and a hook last night, and set to making the pattern. I found it was a lot easier to follow the schematic than the written instructions (once I deciphered all the symbols, that is). I finished it off this morning. Have a gander at my terrible cell phone photo below:


Just in time ...

It's a bit brighter than that, but my photo editing program didn't want to go there. I'm pretty happy with the project; it was fairly simple, yet challenging in some spots. (I re-crocheted the last two rows of the leaves two or three times to get it to look right, and in the end deviated slightly from the pattern.)

I would have stuck it in my hair, but my hair would have none of it today. (Not to mention it's a bit heavy, as it's DK cotton and about the size of my palm.)

Don't drink too much green beer.

Bread pudding and meditation

Bread pudding makes a delicious breakfast, by the bye, if a little sweet. It's like shredded French toast, really, with raisins on top. And sugar.

As you can see, I did a little baking on Sunday, to celebrate the arrival of February and that spring is just a little closer. It was so nice that I was able to turn off the heat and prop the front door open for a little fresh air. Of course, then we were back to ice cube air by Sunday night, but spring is tip-toeing closer. And I did a little pre-spring cleaning, besides. Four bags of shredded paper? I think so. And Saturday I pulled out the washer and dryer to dig out everything from behind. I found old mail (not mine) from 2006 back there, as well as enough dust bunnies to join forces and make a dust jackalope.

I've also been doing a bit of knitting, as usual. Here's something to help with meditation a bit: the Baltic Finger Labyrinth.



Except I got a little carried away last night and will have to frog back a couple rows. Something is a little whacky with the center. I'm not exactly exactly following the chart to the letter, so that might be why my center is strange. I tried dropping the offending stitches this morning to attempt to fix it without frogging, but I think I just made it worse. So when I'm finished with choir rehearsal tonight, I'll curl up in my chair, queue up a few podcasts, and work it out.

I'm still quite pleased with how it looks otherwise. I'll have to add some edging to it to keep it from rolling — probably single crochet — as I chose to knit the project in stockinette. The original was knit in garter stitch, which probably would have been a smarter choice, but I decided to go with smooth.

That's all she wrote for today. I can't really think of a whole lot.

Let's go treasure hunting!

I accomplished the homework for another House Cup class since I last posted, and I'm a big fan of how it turned out (and I didn't bleed due to trying to put it on my cat).

Because this project was so open-ended, it took me a really long time to come up with something. In the end, I decided to make something for my steampunk alias, which I'm still in the process of developing. Her name is Ginevra Lucette Valentine (and kudos to you if you can figure out the two references in there), and she's an adventurer and explorer.



The task was to come up with a project corresponding to the Character, Heart and Social numbers unique to your name. (Numbers discerned with the help of this link.) What's interesting is that my online alias xamonster and my steampunk alias have the very same numbers: 3 Character, 3 Heart, 9 Social. (A link to the further explanation of personality numbers can be found on the link above.)

Here's my description from the project page:

I chose scarlet (S9) and tangerine (C3) for my main colors. I chose to do a travel case (h3) for a map (C3): no true steampunk treasure hunter goes exploring without a map! I opted to crochet my case in order to have a stronger fabric.

The disc for the base began with 6 stitches (3+3) around, increased to 24. I continued in dc for 9 inches before finishing in sc with 3 tangerine stripes. The disc for the cap began with 9 stitches around, increased to 27 (9x3), dc for a few rounds, then adding sc with 3 tangerine stripes. The strap was dc on a base 3 stitches wide.

To reinforce the case, there is a cardboard tube, which will (at some point in the hopefully not-so-distant future) painted a metallic color with a Mod Podge top coat to protect it.

Check out my sexy coffee table. It's a trunk that used to belong to my great-grandmother.

That is all.

Two photos of frosty windows, and lots of words besides

I'm pretty sure Google has gone crazy, because my computer is displaying it in Spanish. It seems my IP address changed (although I don't know how, as I have had a static IP for a long time).

Anyway, what I really want to show you is proof that I will indeed have patchwork tape windows.


Cat Attacks Window, Leaves No Sign Of Struggle

WTF? My windows are not made of catnip, last I checked. Ah well.


Awesome swap package!

I joined an ornament swap for the Knit / Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. My package arrived yesterday from the UK, sent by the fantastic cmelvin, who is pretty much a rock star. As you can see, she sent some really cool stuff: an angel, a drop spindle ornament, a book plate, and a postcard, as well as a letter from Professor C. Melvin and a Christmas card. I love it all.

I sent my swap package off today, which heads to Florida. I hope the recipient enjoys what I made!

And now, before I'm buried in the ice storm and potentially lose power (seriously, they're projecting that the eastern 2/3 of the city loses power because we have above ground power lines and the rest of the city has buried lines), I'd like to share two more things. First, it's my kitchen window this morning. The frost looked kind of pretty.



And lastly, a local story from the Associated Press, which was shared by elisamatic over on Plurk.

Iowa town's roads well seasoned
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Slush has never smelled so spicy. City crews in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny are using garlic salt to melt snow and ice on streets from Tuesday's storm. The salt was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a top spice producer headquartered in Ankeny.

Public Works Administrator Al Olson said the company donated 18,000 pounds of garlic salt to use on its 400 miles of roads.

Olson doesn't have details, but he said the salt would have ended up in the landfill, so the company donated it. A telephone call Wednesday to Tone Brothers wasn't immediately returned.

Olson said the city mixed the garlic salt with regular road salt and it works fine. He said some road workers say it makes them hungry, but Olson doesn't recommend it to spice up lunch or dinner.

Really, Iowa. You just keep getting crazier. Now I want to go to Ankeny and see if it makes me crave Italian food.

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens.

CBF 2008, and some knitting content at the end

I don't know whether I have a whole lot to say today, as I'm rather tired from the Covered Bridge Festival this weekend. I will, however, show you a bunch of photos.

First, I did a little running around on Saturday morning. I got back to my house to find two things: a package on my stoop and, thanks to the festival, a car blocking my driveway. My driveway's not entirely obvious as it's covered in grass, but there is a cut-out in the curb, and it should be fairly obvious, considering the weird gap left between my house and the neighbor's attached garage. So I left a note. (Check out my sexylicious handwriting.)


Passive aggressive? Why yes, I am.

And then I opened my package, and it was the Kauni I ordered from WEBS last week. I did the biggest happydance ever. (You'll just have to take my word for it, as there is no photographic happydance evidence at this time.) I got one skein each of EH (bronze and blue and dark brown) and EQ (rainbow). I cannot wait to work with them. Aren't the colors so pretty you could just eat them? Now to decide on projects ...

After leaving that nice note and opening the yarn, I went downtown to see what they had this year for the festival. And I found alpacas there, with sock yarn nearby. I purchased the purple on Saturday; my dad gave me the green/gold on Sunday. What's funny about that was I was initially debating between the purple and green yarns, choosing purple in the end. And here my dad goes and buys me the yarn I didn't get. He's too good to me.

And someone sheared sheep occasionally.



And there was a parade on Sunday.



Yesterday was a long, long day. There was probably stuff about covered bridges in there somewhere, but I didn't pay any mind. After all was said and done, I needed a little knitting time. Here's some of what I'm working on right now.


Young Helena hood, with cool feathers.


2x1 Flat Feet sock.

Oh, and I forgot to say that I sent off my package for the Ravelry Firefly Swap on Friday. Kaylee, along with a lot of fun little goodies, was inside:

Hey look, I can blog!

First things first: I adopted a friend's cat. She has become increasingly allergic, and I've got extra room, as it's just been Demetrios and I.

At first, things were a little rough, and Burgy demonstrated her dominance (although one night Demetrios decided to retaliate and camped in front of the litter box. That was fun). Now they get along. There's the occasional nose-touch and butt-sniff, so I call that a win. See? They're pals.

Now I'll tell you what I've been doing lately: knitting! (Like you couldn't guess that anyway.) Actually, it's really geeky knitting, so beware. I joined a Firefly Swap on Ravelry, and below is a test model for one of the many fun things I have planned. I even found some fun packaging that has a bit of Chinese flair, like so much of Firefly does.


A tiny Jayne hat was a warm-up for a similar keychain, which will be sent to my (secret!) Firefly Swap pal.

I also joined the HP Knitting / Crochet House Cup on Ravelry, which also has a blog. I'm knitting in Ravenclaw. Each month there will be assignments for different classes; we're allowed to do as many or as few as we like. Being the typical Ravenclaw, I signed up for everything except Quidditch.

In Potions, we're meant to knit something using two yarns you wouldn't normally hold together. I decided to use jute twine and fun fur. As you can see below, it's very ... colorful. In Astronomy, the assignment is to make something star-shaped, or with a star on it, while the Herbology task is to knit a dishcloth with hemp or cotton. As for Transfiguration, the assignment is to learn something new, or get better at something we've barely tried. For me, that's definitely spinning. So hopefully by the end of September I'll have a nice, consistently-spun skein of yarn to show.


Potions by the Numbers

Oh, and I almost forgot Charms: we're to create something using either lumos or wingardium leviosa. For wingardium leviosa, we're do to something that flies. For lumos one must have something that holds or gives off light; I'll be knitting a tealight holder out of wire and beads. It might even turn out to be sculptural, if I can find some a light-gauge wire that is still sturdy. Maybe a Whomping Willow candle holder?

So I'm about half done with both my Potions and Herbology homework, and a third or so of the way done with Astronomy. And that's all she wrote.

Drive by blogging

Alas, the drag queen challenge wasn't quite what I wanted it to be. I think maybe Project Runway is losing its zest and zeal, which just makes me sad.

But what I really came to talk about was the knitting, and how I even have pictures. (Hush, Oboekönigin! You have such a dirty mind.) I finished my Ravelympics socks on Friday and a shawl earlier this afternoon. What's interesting about the shawl is that I started it yesterday afternoon. Lemme show you it.



It's the Ruffled Shawl from a new knitting magazine that will be on stands early next month. Here's my Ravelry page on it.

I also mentioned the Kaylee socks, of which I'm quite proud. See?


My feets aren't deformed. It's an odd angle. I swear.


Oboekönigin and Sister Berte might remember this sculpture in a more put-together form. It's currently parked a block from my parents' house.

But I just got a call that the closing ceremonies have started, so I'm going to head back to my parents' house and watch them. And ponder what to knit next. 'Cause I've got yet another knitting event coming up. I'll probably enlighten you tomorrow, or whenever I happen to post next. (You know me and my sporadical posting.) But here's a hint.

Talk about shear genius.

I took a picture of myself on my computer yesterday, just because I felt like it. Here it is:



I'm not totally sold on that shirt, by the by.
It almost makes me look like a tomato.

And I took a picture this afternoon, just after I got back from my hair cut.


Gasp! Hair all one color? No one can live at that speed!

I love it. I kind of want to dance because of it. The stylist was even impressed by my fabulous taste. And yes dear friends, you are indeed seeing my natural hair color. It rarely comes out of hiding.

I've finished the Shetland Triangle, having done 11 repeats. I have yet to block it (surprise) or photograph it ('nother surprise), but it will be done. You may not see pics until after Dorian, but they'll be here eventually.

Speaking of Dorian, D minus 3 days until I head north! Woo!

'Tis June.

I got a new phone today. It was about time — my old phone pooped out about two weeks after the warranty expired, and I had to switch to my very first phone. Good thing I kept it. My mom decided it should be an early birthday present. Woo! Free phone! (Pause here. Can you believe I'm going to be 25 next Friday? I surely can't.)

We both got new phones, actually. Mine has the most phenomenal ringtone called "Acapella Beatbox." You can listen to the mp3 directly here, after I read a blurb about funky ringtones on a post this guy made. The ringtone is so cool that my mom almost got the same phone (LG UX380, if you want to know).

And my phone has Bluetooth. In fact, I just Bluetoothed some pictures that I took today to my computer.


Here's my mom at Ben Franklin. That's her phone. She was taking a picture of me.

Also, I started the ninth repeat on the Shetland Triangle shawl. Yes, the pattern calls for only eight. I'm doing 13, because I like the number.

Here's a blurry picture of Shetland from the phone. I sharpened it a little with Picnik.



P.S. It's about 3:30 a.m. that I'm posting this. Nothing like Saturday night insomnia, eh?

Ooh, it's that creepy eye!

I took a few photographs of the magnolia next to the courthouse. They've been blooming lately, and they look gorgeous.



As I was webbing the paper* this afternoon, I caught a couple of spelling mistakes that I know SpelChek would have caught (despite our layout program's dreadfully inaccurate dictionary). For instance, "improbe." One of the correction choices was "improve," which was the correct choice. The other was "imp robe." I would very much like to read a story that has imp robes in it.

Right.

I was almost returned to being a one-cat household last week. I hadn't seen Gwiffen for almost a week — I'd let her outside because it was so nice last week. She turned up on Tuesday, and is doing quite well.

Oh, and my brother was one of the four characters in the spring play (Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie) last week. Here he is with the girlfriend, who played his mother.


Check out those eyes!

Now I've spent my afternoon listening to the Sweeney Todd and Aida soundtracks, playing a little Snood and a little PackRat, I'm content. I think I'll go home and read about ebola. That's really all. I finished this post precisely two hours after beginning it. Crazy.


*webbing the paper: putting this week's edition online.

Project monogamy

I've spent a good portion of the weekend working on Laminaria, which was in the latest issue of Knitty. Below is the most recent picture, taken Friday. I'm considerably further along now.



The only thing that I'm finding difficult about the pattern are the 2-into-9 and 3-into-9 stitches. They're a little tricky (especially the ssk after the 2-into-9), but I've managed to convince the stitches to go the right way. I'm halfway through the second repeat of the blossom chart. There are eight repeats total, followed by two edging charts.

My only goal for completion is by Dorian, and I think I'm quite on track to meet it. I have a few more projects in mind to have done by Dorian as well, but I'm going to try to practice project monogamy for the moment.

Now I think I'm going to catch up on an episode of The Riches via Hulu, which is the greatest site ever. Today.

In which I actually post photos! OMG!

I thought you might enjoy seeing what my bruised leg looks like today. Thanks to the new iMac, the fantastic program Photo Booth, and my willingness to show a little leg at work ... here's an accurate representation. To be polite to those of a more delicate nature, I'll put the technicolor artwork bruised leg photo at the end of the post. To delay the moment of squeam, I'll distract you with a headshot.


See how long my hair is? See how long my roots are?


Watch as I ponder the red minion, guardian of my desk.

Other than taking pictures of my technicolor leg, I've been working a bit on my Koolhaas hat, although I had to frog almost three repeats of the eight-row chart, due to the fact that I completely omitted the third row all the way through. While it looked cool, it just didn't have the effect I wanted, so now I'm ... one repeat in to the chart.

Aside from that, I've finished The Wee Free Men for the Ravelry Book Challenge. I started both Freakonomics and Talk to the Hand yesterday, the former to the suggestion of my well-read cousin and the latter because I enjoyed the author's first book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves.

And now, dear readers, I depart, leaving you the ghastly picture of my leg to haunt your dreams. Mua ha ha.



Check me out! I'm wearing pretty excellent pants today, though you can hardly tell from the picture.

The Birthday Party of Doom, or How I Spent My Saturday Night

The Birthday Party of Doom! That wasn't the real name for it. I mean, it was a birthday party and all, but there wasn't a whole lot of doom. Just liquor and mostly-naked women and dancing.


Bug-a-boo standing in front of the party bus, our posh mode of transportation.

My cousin Bug-a-boo, which is not her given name but in fact what her parents used and still do call her from time to time, turned 21 on Saturday. It was very handy to have been a Saturday, because Saturdays are very good days to have parties, mostly due to lack of obligations on Sunday, which is commonly known in the 20-something crowd as Recuperation From Drinking So Damn Much Day. (Yes, commonly known as. That's what everyone calls it. No lie.)

Her friend, who I will call Denim because if you know his name it's horribly clever but you probably don't know him so he's just Denim to you, also celebrated his birthday. Denim turned 24.

If you're doing the math, or if you know me, you know that my birthday is in June, and that I will be turning 25 this year. That made me one of the oldest people at the party. (I was not alone in being one of the oldest people at the party. Denim's friend Jeff Jeffty Jeff is 25. We high-fived because of it.) It is no small thing for me to be one of the oldest folks, because I am usually one of the youngest in my circle of friends. Anyhow, back to the drinking.

We started at a bar & grill, because all good things start at bar & grill establishments. (Or not. I don't really know.) There were drinks, and pork fritters, and more drinks. The bus showed up, carrying us and our accompanying alcohol to the first bar — did you know you can take beers and other liquor on party buses? I didn't know that kind of thing was even legal. Ah, the conveniences of modern life.

We went to the strip club,* where there was more drinking and milling around watching half-naked women dance. And then Bug-a-boo's friend talked to the emcee, and suddenly the birthday kids were up on stage being stripped upon by all the half-naked women in the joint. It was very funny, and I took incriminating pictures of it. (Denim, by the way, has a girlfriend who is 20. I can only imagine how she took the news that he was all danced upon.)

We went to the second bar, which was one of those college bars downtown. The bartender there made very strong drinks, and Bug-a-boo continued to drink them.


My cousins, trying to prove that they look alike, which shouldn't be surprising as they're siblings.

The above photo was taken at the second bar. Bug-a-boo and Noraa were showing their friends how much they look alike. Or they were trying to. Doing such is exceedingly difficult after you've imbibed a few beers. Bug-a-boo pulled back her hair and Noraa attempted to cover up his sideburns, which doesn't so much work when you're still holding a beer and facing a different direction.

(By the way, Noraa's nickname comes from the time he dressed up as a woman and went by Noraa. Bug-a-boo simply calls him Airhead. Which he isn't as he's actually quite well-read and knowledgeable about a multitude of random topics that piss off our grandparents, but that's a story for another day.)

We went to the third and final bar, which was a dance club. There was dancing and, as you might suspect, more drinking.

After all that, the party bus took us back to the bar & grill, where the remaining eight or so of us (down from the 21 that boarded the bus initially) milled around in the parking lot, freezing and talking. Three folks begged off, saying that they had to "work tomorrow" or "go home and drink more." (Lame excuses, really.) The rest of us went to IHOP, which was packed, and we ate food and went home and slept.

And in the morning, there were no hangovers. (Well, except for Noraa. He came out of his bedroom much later than Bug-a-boo and I, and he was groaning about a headache. She and I had nary a hurt.)

That was The Birthday Party of Doom.


* By the by, I did not take yesterday's picture of my cousins and I at the strip club. I actually suck at that sort of thing (by which I mean taking photographs of myself and others all in the same shot), while others, by some strange miracle, don't.

It's a Breeze!

Dear friends, I give you the Breeze socks.


My mom's feet suit these socks so much better than mine!

Also, I've been working on Bellatrix as well. This is the most recent picture I have, though I've actually turned the heel on both and am shaping the gusset.


Blurry photo of Bellatrix! (I made it small so's you don't see how blurry it really is.)

That's all I know.

What makes the muskrat guard his musk?

Courage!

The Wizard of Oz was excellent. My brother is such a cheese ball. (Or a ham, if you're not vegetarian.) My mom and I nearly busted a gut a few times during the performance.

Not all of the hilarity was due to the Lion, though. The special effects were very creative. After all, how would you simulate a cyclone in a stage production? Why, you'd put the house on casters and have two stage ninjas stagehands physically spin it around while Dorothy's inside, of course! How about the fireball the Wicked Witch throws at Scarecrow? Flash paper! And all the smoke when the Witch suddenly appears out of thin air? Fire extinguishers.

The production was great. I loved it. And Chloe makes a fantastic Toto. She's a star.

---

So Saturday I got up insanely early (6 a.m.? What?!) with the family to do some early shopping at Kohl's. (Our family has this wake-up-early-and-go-shop sort of bug. I think it's contagious.) Well, when we got back to town, I was surprised by a package on my doorstep ...


Look at all these things I get to play with!

Fyberduck sent me mail! You can see three different yarns (one of which I can experiment on with dyeing), stitch markers in the foreground of the orangey hank of yarn, pirate stencils and a pirate car freshener. (It's called Funky Fresh, and the package reads, "Freshly Swabbed Deck Scent!" Seriously.)


I love the stitch markers. I'm starting to have a stitch markers by Fyberduck collection.

I mean really, how cool is that?


She sent me autumn, all fiber-fied!

These are screaming to be socks. I'm pretty sure the orange-purple-red yarn will become Kaylee socks. It just screams "Firefly" to me.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Fyberduck! I love it and I can't wait to play with it all!

---

By the way, I did some spinning. Finally, from all that lovely alpaca Fyberduck sent me last year. I have to admit, despite the instructions, I confused myself a little. After I exercised a little Google-fu, I figured out what I was doing differently and changed.


Look! An Iowa quarter! How fitting.

Here's another shot so's you can see how varied my spinning was. (I listened to three different Tori Amos discs while spinning, so I'm not surprised terribly.) My next goals are to even out my tension and the spin. I don't think I need all those coily spots.


32-ish yards of single-ply handspun glory.

I'm so proud. I think I might knit it on very large needles in stockinette so you can see all the differences in spin. Then I'll frame it or something.


What a fun weekend. Hee!

All hail the Gutterball Queen!

Hope's Divas: Medic, Darrrcy, BAS, Xa. The shirts were made by the one and only Darrrcy.

Bowling was a lot of fun. I am proclaiming myself Gutterball Queen; for the first half of the first game, I had knocked down but five pins. (Even with the help of the metal rack thing you see below, which is what the three-year-old in the next lane over was using to bowl. Pitiful.) The bowl-a-thon raised over $3,000 for the Children's Miracle Network, which is excellent. Hope's Divas provided $240 of that.


Not even the rack would keep my ball out of the gutter!

---

Also, I'm knitting socks. See?


Breeze socks!