bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

On Company Time

because i don't have internet access at home (that is my boston home) i'm posting this from work ... on company time. oh not to worry. since i work in the non-profit sector, rest assured that i'm horribly underpaid for my qualifications, and that my employers are getting their money's worth even with me surfing a little during my lunch "5 minutes." so there. anyway -- that is also why i don't download new photos during the week. the whole digital camera download set-up is at J's house.

anyway -- kim, our friendly neighborhood american expatriate living in canada and genius behind crochetme just posted a few new patterns. i do have to say that the sushi tissue paper holder is my favorite so far ....
i'm not a big fan of sushi or tp cozies... but i like the combination of the two.

i've been a social monster this past weeks, with dinner plans everynight so i haven't done anything new since the bag. but the wheels are turning...

Spring Is Here!

it's official. spring has sprung in boston... is it the above 70 degree temps that have clued me in? no. is it the fact that every tree and bush and flower is in bloom? no. is it the fact, that this past weekend i tried on my spring wardrobe only to find out (and i was not surprised) that i'm too fat to wear it and need to do something about that pronto? no.

i know it's spring because there are feet everywhere. i hate feet. well the bare kind. the noisy bare kind. the *flip flop* *flip flop* *flip flop* kind. the "i didn't check the condition of my pedicure before thinking it was a good idea to wear open toed shoes today" kind. the things i must bear......

on another note, to those of you who suggested that i go into business for myself....trust me, i've thought about it. i just have to find my thing .... maybe i can design shoes...the closed toe kind.

Take This Job and well you know ....

ugh. i've decided that i hate my job. in fact, i think i hate working altogether. last night my friends were asking me what i would want to do instead and you know what? i couldn't tell them. some women i know have the option of getting preggers and staying home to raise their brood. i'm not saying that it's easier than my job (so keep your "you don't know what you are talking about you working no kid type person who doesn't know what she's talking about" comments to yourself, thank you very much). i know it's hard ... but still you're the boss and it's meaningful, and if someone gets on your nerves you can ground them. or something. i can not ground the people who make my life miserable at work. or give them a "time-out." "hey that was the dumbest thing i've ever heard anyone say ever ... where have you been for the past 6 months ... get with the program people ... or NO TV FOR 2 WEEKS." hmmm no, that wouldn't work.

oh well. i gotta start playing the lottery.

by the way, i love my new weatherpixie. she's so tarty.....grrrr

A Short Post Before Going to Work

here's a shot of the bag with the crocheted straps.

i went out with a few friends for dinner last night and they seemed to like it ... but they aren't knitters or crocheters ... so who knows. philistines ... no true appreciation! ha!

A New Bag ... Should it be Trashed?

so here you go. except for the straps, which i havent' decided upon quite yet, the tri-pocket tote is finished. and it actually came out better than i thought it would. the pattern called for Crystal Palace Deco Ribbon and Chenille held together. i had this gigantic stash of Lion Brand Homespun sitting in the closet ( i wanted to make a log cabin afghan that just wasn't working) so after crocheting a swatch and noticing i could get the same gauge, i said why not give it a try. and here it is .... drum roll please ....

this is what it looks like on the inside
so, not half bad ... clearly it's floppier than the original but it still holds itself up. if you do decide to try this with a different yarn than is called for, please make sure to swatch. it's critically important for the gauge to be correct because otherwise the 3 pieces will not fit together properly ... and then mayhem ensues.

on the topic of mayhem (one of my favorite words) ... i've been out sick for two days. just not feeling "right," probably saddled with some random virus that i caught on the plane. but i can't help but feeling guilty. i guess i could have gone in today. but on the other hand, it's not like anyone else will have to do my work in my place ... it'll just wait for me in my absence. plus, a study just came out ... i know because i saw it on the news ... concluding that if we're sick we're better off just staying home, it's better for the employer and for the other employees, instead of being a regular typhoid mary and getting everyone else sick.

anyway. now that i've got that bag done i'm thinking of doing another in another color combo... yes there's more yarn in my stash.

one more thing... why in heaven's name is this still happening? if any of us performed as poorly at our jobs as this man, we would have been fired. clearly they never polled me. i'd give them a good talkin' to.

Now Back To Me ....

me me me me me. that is what a blog is, isn't it. the ultimate in "me" promotion. so rather than pretend i'm not being self-centered, i might as well embrace the fact that this blog is all about me.

anyway, some short notes about my trip to LA. this was the view from my hotel room
not bad you say? this is what i could have had ...

oh well ... i did have a celibrity sighting. i saw Amy Madigan at the airport. sure she's no J. Lo. but hey, the woman goes through security like the rest of us poor slobs. she had a NARAL button on, so my guess she may have been on her way to DC. yeah her!

now to the fun stuff. here's what i've been working on. from the Spring Interweave Knits, i'm trying my hand at the Tri-Pocket Tote

but because i like to live on the edge, i'm using Homespun instead which gives me the same gauge, and going with stripes. so far it looks like this...

i need to put the thing together. the fabric is most likely less rigid than the designer intended so i'm thinking of making it into some sort of shoulder tote and crocheting the straps. we'll see how it goes.

March on Washington

i want to thank all of those women, many who are bloggers, for making the trip to Washington, DC yesterday. thank you for marching on behalf of all women. i wish i could have been there with you.

So Did I Miss Anything?

so i've been away from a computer for 4 days and i am so behind on my reading. my trip was as expected ... extremely busy, exhausting, and i could have been in an underground bunker somewhere in the middle of nowhere and it wouldn't have made a difference. it makes no sense to me that i need to travel across the country just to sit in a conference room with no windows.... what the f*ck? oh well. i did get to stay in a very swanky hotel right by the beach ... i'll post a picture of my "view" tomorrow.

other than that, not much happened. today i spent most of the day crocheting and watching the third season of Sex and the City. you know, i think i'm Miranda. i know there's a quiz going around in blogville that'll tell you. if anyone has the link, pass it on. i'd like to know for sure. funny is that i married a Steve too. as for the crochet -- i think i like what i'm doing ... for now. oh -- i felted the flowers ... eh. didn't turn out that well. i'll post pics tomorrow.

and again -- the Red Sox have beat the Yankees.... heh heh heh.

alrighty. i'm off for the night. sweet dreams.

ok i had to comment on this. now it seems that pro-choice catholic politicians aren't worthy of taking communion. for the love of god, when will the insanity end? hmmm, i wonder if father geoghan and other pedophile priests like him were ever refused communion... i wonder....

Food Coma

i just had the biggest salad ever and now i just want to roll up into a ball and take a nap under my desk.
and i actually could today, without anyone really noticing. tomorrow morning, bright and early, i'm off to Santa Monica, CA for a two day meeting. today, i'm pretty much just tying together some loose ends here at work. ugh. i hate days like this. i'm one of those people who manages to accomplish a great deal in a small amount of time when i've got lots to do. but if i only have stupid shit to do, it takes me all day to do the most mundane tasks. so here i am, just sitting here. waiting for the day to end.

this is where i'm going by the way...

i think that could even be the view from our hotel. i will never see it. i'll be sitting in a conference room from the time of our arrival tomorrow at noon until we adjourn thursday night at about 7pm. i may be able to walk around early friday morning before my flight back to boston.

last year, i was in Santa Monica at about the same time of year for another meeting. my husband (i'll refer to him from now on as J -- since he has a name and since i still feel weird referring to him as a husband. plus it used to piss me off to no end when my mother spoke of my father that way ... "my husband thinks this ..." "my husband says this ..." jesus christ woman! everybody knows his name. refer to him by that name!) met me later on after the meeting and we hung out for a couple of days. which was fun. we rented this

and we drove around the LA area. when i was a kid, i lived in the area, so i insisted on checking out my old house and school. but of course, i only knew how to get there from memory and well, i was 10 when we left. so we ended up driving around for 3 hours until we finally found the street. isn't it funny how big things are when you're little? i don't have a picture of the house or the school. J wasn't about to let me out of the car for a picture after i made him drive around all day.

of course we went to hollywood and beverly hills. mmmm we weren't impressed. saw this and walked by the local mcdonalds.

but didn't see any celebrities...that is until we were back at logan airport in boston at baggage claim and i spotted will ferrell from SNL and Elf fame waiting for his bags.. ha!

alrighty then. that's about it. tonight i'm going to try and felt those flowers up and i'll probably be taking some crochet project with me for the plane ride over. i'll have pictures when i get back.

later.

Happy Patriots Day!!

today is Patriots Day and one of the peripheral holidays in Mass -- most government workers don't work, but the rest of us poor slobs do. most importantly though, it's Boston Marathon Day. that along with The Yankees being in town, means that getting into and around the city of Boston is mayhem. whoever thought it was a good idea to have over 20,000 people running from Hopkinton to Copley Square ON THE SAME DAY as a Yankees-Redsox game must have been smoking crack. by the way, as of this afternoon, the 4 game Yankees-Redsox series has gone to the Red Sox 3 wins to 1. heh heh heh.

the big news though is the weather. 2 weeks ago this is what was going on outside my window...
today they are predicting a high of 85 degrees. spring is so random here in New England.

and no, i did not finish priming yesterday ... but i did finish WALL PREPARATION which the man at the home depot will tell you, is the most important step. i took a vacation day today to avoid the insanity downtown, so i'm priming today. and during my union breaks -- because i'm entitled to them -- i'm doing a couple of rows of crochet. i'm trying something a little different. i'll post pictures when i've got something to post.

Creative Painting Avoidance

my husband and i will celebrate our "6 month" anniversary in a few days, but we do not yet share a home. during the week, i live in Boston in my apartment and on the weekends i drive out to his place which is only about 45 minutes away.

this is why:

the whole entire house looks like this. this is what we found when we pulled up the 35 year old carpeting. the floors must have been used as one great big litter box to some cat with the biggest bladder on the face of the planet because there was so much damage, that sections of the flooring had to be pulled up and replaced. anyway, since i have a perfectly lovely apartment just minutes from my job, and to move my stuff in just to move it out when we redo the floors, makes absolutely no sense, we have two abodes. the plan was to have the house done by the wedding. HAHAHAHAHAHA! that was his plan. i knew better.

anyway, right now i'm supposed to be applying primer to one of the back bedrooms. painting is my job. i'm not doing it well. all morning i've been avoiding the whole painting situation by starting another crochet project -- and it's not going well. in fact, you might say it's butt ugly. notice i didn't post a picture. why is it that it's always better in my head than in reality? hmm? why is that?

on a totally different topic, i watched John Kerry on Meet the Press this morning. how refreshing is it to hear a presidential candidate respond to questions intelligently without once saying "we'll stay the course" and without having to have the questions submitted to him AHEAD OF TIME.

ok i'm off to prime.

OOOH So Many Comments!!!

thank you all for your nice comments. this is fun!

well now that i know i have readers, i'll have to make an effort. oh god the pressure. anyway, since i read mostly knitting and crocheting blogs i figured that i would show my work as well. i'm not entirely sure if this will become a forum for my more creative endeavors, but whatever...

lately i've been doing a lot more crochet than knitting. mostly because, i usually knit sweaters and crochet non-wearables and i've gotten too fat to even contemplate spending time knitting myself a sweater only to feel like a shlump wearing it. so here's some of my stuff.

these are two scarves i made using the same exact stitch but with different sized yarns and crochet hooks. i believe the light green one is made with Patons Divine. the purple one was made with some mohair i had leftover from an old sweater.

these are some flowers that i crocheted using Landscapes from Lion Brand Yarns. i was intrigued by the colors and i couldn't pick just one, so i just bought them all. not knowing what to do with such a thick yarn, i made these flowers. landscapes can be felted apparently, so i'm going to throw them all in a hot wash and see what happens.

finally, this is a detail of an afghan i just finished for my friend kate's wedding coming up in june. she doesn't know about this blog so there's no risk of her seeing it ahead of time. if you can believe it, i made this with Sugar 'n Cream using a pattern i found in Simple Crochet by Erika Knight. sugar n' cream -- it's not just for dishtowels anymore.

i probably shouldn't have shown you everything all at once. now, what will i post?

i'm sure i'll come up with something.

Can I Post More Than Once A Day?

ehh what the hell, it's my blog and i'll post if i want to.

this is me by the way. well when i'm drunk anyway. it was my bachelorette party. no, there were no strippers -- i was 40 at the time -- "been there, done that." i did scare the 20 year old waiter though, by insisting that he hug me. it's ok, we left him a big tip.

oh by the way, i knitted that sweater you see there. i've been watching the us version and the uk version of What Not To Wear, and both design teams would throw that sweater in the trash. stacy and clinton hate bulky hand knits and trinny and susannah wouldn't want me wearing a "polo" neck. oh well. if i ever get on the show, and who knows i might -- my husband hates my big orange parka and keeps threatening to set me up -- i'll just hide it.... i'm glad though that if i do get set up, that it'll be the us team helping me out. the uk team -- trinny and susannah -- are always touching their victims inappropriately. "hello ladies, do not put your hands on my boobs thank you....i mean i barely know you and i haven't had nearly enough to drink."

ok i think i've got the hang of this. i'll post more tomorrow.

My First Little Post

so, um, i guess i've done it...i've got a blog.

i'm just testing right now..

TESTING 1-2-3

oh i want to thank Rachael for helping me out and for answering my lame questions.

WOO-HOO