bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

Could Some Please Pass the Crack?

so saturday, in the weather equivalent of the bowels of hell, i got into the mini (miss scarlett) and travelled over hill and dale to melanie's for another festival of food, fiber, and frolic. 

the usual suspects were there, including a few that i had never met before.  hi girls!  as usual it was fun.

but look what i learned how to do....

another view

kellee was kind enough to take me under her wing and teach me all she knew.  (this first attempt should in no way reflect on her teaching or her abilities when it comes to spinning.)  and let me tell you... IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!  i got so immersed, that i even MISSED stitchy's world famous sangria!

this morning, i decided to ply the mess....

not horrible for a first try, is it?

watching me, j asked .... so are you going to want a wheel now?   (by the way, the next time i complain  that j doesn't pay attention to what i'm doing, someone please remind me that he made the connection between a drop spindle and a spinning wheel without me ever having talked about spinning yarn ever ....)

mmmm maybe....

Cultivating My Garden

i am pretty allergic to grass.  not "i need to carry an epi pen wherever i go" allergic, but "red goopy eyes, red blotchy skin, wheezing" allergic.  it makes romantic picnics on the grass difficult but it really works out when it comes to getting out of mowing the lawn.

so i tend to stay out of the yard.

unless i'm huntin' wabbits of course.

but today, i thought i'd introduce you to one of my purchases from the other day.  probably the highlight of my purchasing frenzy really. 

my first garden gnome.

here he is trying out the boat ( yes it has vines growing out of it).

"ahoy there matey!"

here he is climbing into the treehouse. 

and here he's checking out the neighborhood.

it appears though that this gnome is just like me...not very outdoorsy

***SEXUAL EXPLICIT CONTENT TO FOLLOW***

bee's doin' "it"

Lame Ass Title

it's been 10 days since i last posted.  i don't think i've ever let 10 days go by without a post.

things have been very busy.  work's been nuts.  and j and i have had some sort of social obligation every weekend day (sometimes more than one) and some weekday nights (not counting dates with my boyfriend) since the beginning of may.  HEY PEOPLE WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS LONELY AND HAD NOTHING TO DO IN FEBRUARY!!!!????  anyway, tomorrow i'm taking a well-deserved personal day where i will run around getting passport pictures taken, taking books to my town library for donation (because they are closed on the weekends during the summer so there goes that idea of hanging out in the library some saturday afternoon...i'm a tax payer i should complain to the town elders or the librarian or something), and preparing for the air conditioner man who is coming on thursday to install our brand spankin' new air conditioner.  i *heart* central air.

in the meantime, i've been trying to calm my anxieties (i've learned that i'm not all that good with stress after all) with shopping.  i spent a fortune at j.jill the other day.  (curse them and their sales.  do you know what they do?  after you've placed an order, they send you an email with another link to another double secret sale that you weren't privy to prior to the purchase you made a microsecond before.  fuckers).  and joann had a sale this weekend so of course i had to go to the joann in my town and the one in natick.  the rat bastards at amazon.com sent me an email today with some suggestions.  so you know i had no choice but to order cool crochet, and cozy crochet, both by melissa leapman.

and i'm not done.  i just downloaded the pattern for the one skein wonder (i haven't seen a "big girl" wearing the one skein wonder so we'll see) and unloaded carolyn of some pretty yarn.

someone needs to save me from myself. 

E-VEL Genius

i haven't posted one of these quizzes in a long time.  this one i got from michelle.

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

i'm a little peeved that my logical intelligence is not genius.  i thought i was always so logical.  (ha!)

in knitting news.... my niece's graduation party is today.  in the fall, she's going off to fairfield university in connecticut.  so i thought she needed a friend to go with her.

i knitted up the sweater and crocheted the scarf.  i was going to emblazon the front with FU but J suggested that i go with the more simple design.   

she's a good, smart kid.  i'm very excited for her.

(plus she thinks i'm cool enough to let me come down and see her WHENEVER I WANT!)

Hot Date With My Boyfriend

ever since i've started hanging out with the girls, j asks me if i'm going to see "my boyfriend."   there are several reasons for this: 

1.  i get a little excited -- lately my nonknitting friends have not inspired me. 

2.  i shower and shave my legs ;)

3.  i'm gone for hours at a time

4. and i get home hours later than i said i would

so when i announced to j last week that saturday i would be driving up to portsmouth, nh for the day he asked, "are you going to see your boyfriend?"

yes i was...

i love portsmouth.  sure, it ain't paris, but it's got a metro...

after a relatively quick drive up 495, i arrived in Portsmouth, parked the mini in MY FAVORITE PARKING GARAGE ON THE PLANET --- SEVENTY FIVE CENTS AN HOUR!!!!!  and met up with the girls.

here are the girls.  hi girls!

we started the day with lunch and drinks, after i made sure that it was after noon and therefore socially acceptable to begin the drinking of the alcohol.  of course, 1 beer and 1 mimosa later (for some reason it's not taking much to make me loopy anymore) i was ready to spend some cash.

we shopped at the Yarn Basket, a very cute little shop organized like a shoe store.  instead of filling the place with every skein of yarn in her inventory, the shop keeper has one skein in every color that she carries, on display.  if you want more, she enters  THE CAVERN OF YARN (echo optional) and brings out more.  (by the way, that was just me calling it the cavern of yarn -- she doesn't call it the cavern of yarn).  jackie  and  elisa made some purchases.  i did not (i was tempted but resisted).  (wendy hadn't met up with us yet. )

we also went shopping for jewels.   well i did anyway.

big ass purple ring

big ass red ring

(not only can my big man/russian peasant woman hands comfortably knit cotton but they can also carry off big ass rings...)

and of course a date with the boyfriend in portsmouth was not complete without a haircut. 

before....and ... after

eh...you really can't tell what it looks like, can you.  trust me,  this is much better. 

after the haircut it was time to  enjoy an iced coffee  and mock passersby with thongs hanging out of their pants (jackie remembers the talking about growing up, i remember the mocking.  yes she is much nicer than i am).  when i finally was able to tear myself away, i was already more than 2 hours late meeting j.

i couldn't help it.  i was with "my  boyfriend...."

 

Baby Blankets 'R Us

it's baby season and i've got another baby shower to go to.  so i made a pinwheel blanket but only found the knitalong after i had finished it.  a knitalong i could have actually joined!

it's hard to tell, but i did three strips of 6 rows of garter stitch around the edges and then finished it off with 1 row of single crochet in lavender and 1 row of a single crochet picot stitch that i made up (or unvented probably) in a darker purple.  i thought purple would be a nice alternative to green and yellow.

sorry for the lousy pictures.  in other crafty news .... look what i bought.

i'm afraid to try it without having someone actually show me how.  the roving is too pretty to fuck around with.  know what i mean?

i'll tell you about my trip to portsmouth with the girls later.