Tuesday, October 30, 2007

pumpkin horror

sometime yesterday this happened.



fucking squirrels.

Monday, October 29, 2007

the one in which i fall into a time suck and find some yarn...

as if the poor blog wasn't being neglected enough, a couple weeks ago my ravelry invite comes along and BAM - no more posting. the site is in a word amazing, but you've heard all that before.

so now, not only am i not knitting, i'm not blogging, and i'm spending hours exploring ravelry for ideas, inspiration, etc. it is addictive. i'm stephanieayn over there...come say hi.

although, i did unearth from the depths of the boxes, my project bag and the ivy pattern. honestly, i do want to knit again.

oh and i may have bought some yarn and ordered some magazines - if you didn't know Interweave Knits is having their back sale.

speaking of interweave, the winter '07 preview is up...i like the sweater girl pullover (although i'd have to sub the yarn - an entire sweater in mohair, ugh) and the gathered pullover but nothing else was really doing it for me.

ok, this was a really random post but its all i got on a monday morning.

Friday, October 12, 2007

bruises, splinters and paint chips, oh my!

ok, so it's been WELL over a month since my last post and i'll be honest, i've actually felt really bad about it, but here's the thing.

i.have.not.knit.a.stitch.

seriously, in over a month. this house-buying, moving, rehabbing, shit is for the birds.

and really, this is supposed to be a knitting blog, but since i have none of that, i will share with you a bit of what i have been doing.

i bought a house.
it's really cute.
the previous owners were dirtbags.

this is a fact that i was not fully aware of until we actually closed - i just thought they had really bad taste! so...my grand plans of painting, de-wallpapering, etc were put on hold while we cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned and cleaned and, well...you get the point.

so in order for us to actually be able to live there, we've been working our collective arse's off.

first up...the kitchen. here it is in all it's burger king glory...



yes, thats right, you are looking at vintage 1982 dark lacquered knotty pine cabinets, a red laminate countertop and linoleum floor. After much grease-scraping, priming, painting and purchasing of new appliances, here is what it looks like now...



yeah i know, it really needs a full gut, but that won't be happening till...oh i dont know, forever. so in the meantime, its clean and a little easier on the eyes (sorry about the blurry pic, too many late late nights).

there have been many other projects...and since i cant quite figure out how to link my pics to flickr just go here.

hopefully the knitting will resume (as soon as i can locate any projects, yarn, etc)...oh, the good news is that i am now in walking distance to a yarn shop.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

I know I am alone in this


...but I have a very hard time buying yarn in person. I know, its weird, but I buy much better in the sterile environment of the Internet. On the Internet, I think about things like yardage, and content and gauge, price comparisons and user reviews. This is how I shop. In real life there is the looking and the touching and the smelling, but no dry data. I honestly get turned off from buying anything at all. It all looks and feels nice, but I can talk myself out of it so easily.
Now, this creates a moral dilemma for me, because in my heart, I'd rather support the small local business person than buy online in the nameless, faceless cybersphere. I really would.
So that brings us to last weekend's Knox Farm Fiber Festival.


Last year Stephanie, Carolyn and I went, and I didn't purchase a darned thing. I thought so many things were beautiful, so many things I couldn't easily buy elsewhere, but I went home empty handed. So, this year when Carolyn and I went again, (Stephanie's moving day-yay)I asked for moral support from Carolyn to help me actually buy some yarn. (Can you imagine?)


It started out tough- I saw a lot of beautiful yarn, but I had an excuse not to buy all of it. I would seriously pick up a skein, admire it like crazy, then make up a reason not to get it. The festival is petite and soon we had seen it all, I realised it was do or die, so we went back and I picked up a beautiful skein of Looped Backsock yarn in a beautiful color called sand- sort of a semi solid caramel brown, and also a lovely skein of Knox Farm Fiber a lovely hand spun worsted in a mix of purples. They even put a picture of the sheep whose wool it is and her name on the tag. (but what was it? I don't remember!)

It wasn't nearly as painful as I expected and I've already come up with plans for both! Yay to buying yarn in real life!

Thanks to Carolyn for taking photos. Heck knows I am unreliable in that regard. (not to mention the lack of camera)