bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

J is for ....

who else, but J.

able to lift small child with one arm tied behind his back.

calls his mommy every day

intrepid traveller not afraid of carrying his wife's purse

cuddler of cats.

friend of dogs

flipper of birds...

Allez Les Bleus

this is good news.  when i left work this afternoon, the score was tied, 1-1.  but france prevailed in the end beating spain 3-1.

after a scary start in this world cup, looks like france has found it's legs and are advancing to the quarter final.

this quarter final will be played against brazil, currently number 1 in the world.

but i'm very excited, because i'll get to watch this match in france.  can't beat that!

Honey I Shrunk the Kids

inspired by silvia's felted laptop bag from alterknits, i did some swatching.  diving into my stash of patons classic merino and using the random stripe generator, i came up with some stripe patterns.  honestly, i wasn't really struck.

 

but i really like how they look felted. 

 

 

i think i'll do more experimenting before i commit to a pattern.

Charity Begins at Home

a week ago saturday was "closing for the summer" day at graceful stitches, the shop where i volunteer.  the place was rocking and knitters came in in droves to stock up on yarn for the summer.  (the shop will open again in september).  so of course, i had to do my part to fight cancer.

you'll notice a theme here.

2 skeins of colinette point 5 in this wonderful berry color.  i kept petting it.  it had to come home with me.

5 skeins (i know there's only 3 shown here) of touch me.  if i ever make a scarf again, i'm making vintage velvet from scarf style.  this picture does nothing for the color of this yarn.  trust me, it's so rich.

1 skein of berroco suede.  i have an idea of what i want to make with this but i'm not telling right now. 

So Close ....

i'm almost finished......

French Lessons

j and i are always on the lookout for the "home of our dreams," and every day i receive via email real estate listings that might be of interest to us.

the "cul de sac" appears to be the type of street you want to have your house on.

"cul de sac" means "ass bag."

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ooh, today is my half birthday!  happy half birthday to me.  i think i'll half a cake.

Not Another Word

i've seen this meme popping up here and there in the past couple of days.  i hesitated posting it here because i was concerned that it would seem like i was fishing for compliments or something. which i'm not.  how presumptious of me to even assume that i would get compliments.  ha!  but seriously, i'm curious to see what kind of impression i give off with this blog o' mine. 

anyway, here goes.

Please leave a one-word comment that you think best describes me--it can only be one word long.  Then copy and paste this into your blog so I may leave a comment about you.


 

ARRGGGHHH!!!!!

what a lame ass day.  if it weren't for the encouragement i've gotten, i would have definitely thrown the color on color scarf out the window.

i spent over 6 hours knitting this....

why?  because i had to redo it 3 times.  this has been a problem with this pattern.  lots of frogging.  not all my fault.  not always my mistakes.  anyway, i have one more section to go. 

tonight, i'll relax by working on my project spectrum june sock.

I is for ....

ICE

i will be thinking of these pictures when the temperature hits the 90s this weekend.

Bloggers Suck

i read over and over again how wonderful knitbloggers are.  how kind and generous and how they look out for eachother, yadda yadda yadda.

you know what?  that's a bunch of bullshit.

and let me tell you why.  i asked you people to help me out with a small problem.  and did you help?  NO!

clearly you all couldn't be bothered. 

i just ordered it.

no thanks to you.

heh heh

(hey i needed a bag for france)

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Update:  cheryl had a brilliant idea.  no one can resist an -along

no need to sign up.  just go shopping.

Something Old

about a month ago, claudia blogged about this relic her mother  had found stashed away.    a crocheted stole, carefully crafted by claudia's adolescent hands, she was ready to throw it out like an old rag.  "crochet!" she exclaimed.  blech!  in blue, no less!  double blech! 

so i told her i'd give it a good home.  this blue stole had lasted this long, it deserved to be finished.

check out the change in gauge though.  on the left, are the first few inches.   did she use a different sized hook?  were her hands relaxed and happily crocheting?  on the right, are the last few inches.  was she hating the stole?  hating the crochet?  was her dislike of blue so overwhelming that she would forever associate it with crochet? were her hands clenched so tightly in crocheting hating frustration that her stitches were half the size?  was this the beginning of the end for the crochet?  and why she's a knitter today?

who knows?

Who You Callin' a Ho?

now that the sun is out, i can actually take some progress photos.

here's where we left off with the color on color scarf that i want to finish for the world. cup.  i only have 2 more sections to finish (they're big sections though) and then i'll have the i-cord to do (all of those individual strands are i-cords waiting to be knitted).  i'm hoping that my feelings for icord (i kind of like it) don't change by the end of the project.

 

so those of you who don't think i can finish and who have mocked me ... i give you the evil eye. 

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here are some washrags that i've finished.  sugar n cream is so cheap and colorful that making these things is very addicting.  i especially like seeing the patterns that emerge from the variegations.  it isn't always pretty but it's always fun for me. 

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and here's where the title of the post comes in (what would you call this thing?  a back hoe?).  this is what greeted me when i came home from work the other day. 

isn't it lovely?  (it was free, so how could j not bring it home?!)  if we weren't bringing down the property values of the neighborhood before, we certainly are now.  good times.

GGGGOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL!

oops i did it again. 

i joined another "knitalong." 

we all know how well the last one turned out.  but our hostess, yarn monkey, has given me the ok to finish what i started way back in february.

"kick off" is sometime tomorrow afternoon ET (6pm Central European Time) but i'll probably dig in sometime tomorrow night and i've given myself until june 29th to finish.

wish me luck!

and Allez Les Bleus!!!!

3rd Time's a Charm

if at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  and you might finally win anjo's project spectrum CD contest, like i just did. woo-hoo!

wrapped within the cobalt blue tissue and the polka-dot fabric (which i love -- i love dots)

was a "blue" CD

and matching handmade gift tags

check out the "blue" tunes.   i'm a big dork when it comes to music.  i don't know what the kids are listening to these days.  and most of the time i really don't care.  but the mix has opened my ears to sounds that i normally wouldn't have considered and it's been fun. 

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"the mug's too gay, but the word "kitty" even without there being a cat around ... apparently not!"

H is for ....

man oh man, i'm way behind.  "H" was hard. at first I wanted to post about "hands."  I've got a thing about hands, especially men's hands.  Problem was, I wanted a good hand picture and well, it just wasn't working. Then I thought, "I'll post about 'home'" except that I wasn't all that sure I wanted a picture of my home on the internets. And well, my home kind of looks like ass these days.  Remember, we are the hillbillies in the neighborhood.  (oh i could have made my "h" hillbilly hill!). 

so here it is the beginning of june, and carole's posting about kissing and i'm still 3 letters behind.  so here we go.

HARE

.... because we have an entire bunny family (i've spotted 2 -- so you know there's more) living on our property.  so fuzzy and cute.

25 Years Ago

I got this meme here ...

Fill in the blanks about your senior year. The longer ago it was the better.

1. Who was your best friend?: Karen.  She lives about 15 miles from me now.  We don't see eachother very often but when we do it's like we're still 16.

2. What sports did you play?: Hahahahahahahaha.  I have absolutely no gross motor control. 

3. What kind of car did you drive?:  I was really good with a metro map. 

4. It's Friday night, where were you at?: Home on the phone, or at Karen's or at another friend's house Gab.  I didn't get out much in highschool.

5. Were you a party animal?: No, not until college.

6. Were you considered a flirt?: Nope.  I was one of the smart girls with an attitude and wasn't considered a "real" girl because i could do math.  Seriously. 

7. Ever skip school?: No.

8. Ever smoke?: No.  My mother smoked and I hated it.   I did end up giving it a try in college and smoked for a year.

9. Were you a nerd?: Not really.  I was one of the better students, but not really nerdy.  Not cool either though.  Although I was probably cooler than I thought I was.  Because I moved around so much growing up and was picked on a lot in elementary and middle school by the time i got to highschool i had a bit of a chip on my shoulder and could be kind of snarky.  (Yes, that's why I am the way I am.)

10. Did you get suspended/expelled?: Oh god no.  I think I got one demerit and that pissed me off.

11. Can you sing the Alma Mater?: I'm not sure we even have one.

12. Who was your favorite teacher?: Hmmm.  Mr. Flanagan in 12th grade.  He was my AP biology teacher.  Oh and Mr. Miltenberger for english.  I think I had him in 11th grade.  He was fabulous *wink*.   Oh there was Mr. Austin too.  Again, another 11th grade math teacher.  A good grade on his exams was a 75.  In 12th grade I liked my ceramics teacher, Ms. Gift I think her name was.

13. Favorite class?: I liked my ceramics class and I liked english class discussion (but hated writing papers) and calculus.  I loved calculus. 

14. What was your school's full name?:  The American School of Paris

15. School mascot?: I don't think we had one, but I could be wrong.

16. Did you go to Prom?: No.

17. If you could go back and do it over, would you?: Hmmm.  When I was in highschool, school wasn't tough, but being home was.  So for me college was very liberating.  So, no.  I wouldn't want to move back home and do highschool all over again.

18. What do you remember most about graduation?: Our caps and gowns and yearbooks hadn't arrived yet from the States so we sat up there without the full regalia.  Don R. sat next to me and kept poking me in the side, making me giggle.  I thought he was cute but didn't trust him further than I could throw him since he had been kind of mean to me in the past (although he was a little nicer to me senior year).

19. Favorite memory of your senior year?: Oh man.  Honestly, I don't remember it's been such a long time.  But I did have fun during Winter Break Ski trip, and the trip to vienna with the math team (i really wasn't a nerd, really.)

20. Were you ever posted up on the senior wall?: ???

21. Did you have a job your senior year?: Nope.

22. Who did you date?: Hahaha.  No one.   I had plenty of crushes though.

23. Where did you go most often for lunch?: To the cafe across the street (that no longer exists) and the library (where we weren't allowed to bring food but I did anyway).  When the weather was good, we had lunch outside. I can't remember where else we might have met up for lunch (we didn't have a cafeteria).

24. Have you gained weight since then?: Oh yes.  Which is kind of ironic since i thought i was ginormous (i really wasn't) and could never get any fatter.  Ha!

25. What did you do after graduation?: Moved back to the States and went to college.

26. When did you graduate? 1981.

Wish Lists

look what showed up in my Amazon recommendation list.

how cool is that?

Save Me From Myself

and buy this bag so that when i finally break down and order it, there won't be any more.

get it at kpixie.  i'm begging you.

Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue...

it's june people! 

that means 2 things.

1.  it's a month of blues for project spectrum .... i started the month off by winning anjo's june blue music mix CD.  yay me!  i've only been trying to win these things since march.  anjo's a brilliant and inspirational crafter, and generous woman.  go say hi and check out her stuff.   

it'll be nice working in blues again. 

2.  i'm going to france!  for the first time in 4 years, i'm packing up and heading home.  it's j's second trip and i know he's more excited than i am.  and we're taking our 17 and 18 year old nieces.  it's their first trip overseas.  i'm so excited to show them my other country.  june 29th can't come fast enough.