bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

Two FOs for the Price of One

so with all of this spinning i've done of late, and the making of yarn cakes, i decided it was time to knit some of this stuff up.

first, i present to you a hat that i made using the hat recipe from ann budd's pattern book. 

the picture's lousy i'm afraid.  i gave j the hat to wear when it was a bazillion degrees below zero out after only getting a chance to take a couple of pictures of it in the dark, and haven't seen it since.  it's probably lost somewhere in the truck.  poor hat.  anyway, the knitting is pretty simple but what i'm really pleased about is the fact that it's made with yarn i spun. 2 ply yarn.  and the hat isn't all weird and shifty which means that my yarn is probably pretty balanced.  and that,my friends, is a good thing.  if i ever see this hat again, i'll be sure to take a decent picture during daylight hours.

then, remember this?

well i made a scarf with it.  and it's made me very happy.

for added interest and also to make my yarn go a little further (i only had about 200 yards), i alternated 2 rows of garter stitch in patons merino in off white with random blocks of garter stitch homespun.  i really like how it turned out. 

And the Oscar Goes To ...

no oscar recap today because i didn't watch the awards.  but i do have some winner's to announce...

yes, for today's installment of "Things I Like Monday" i'm going to start with:

1.  Picking Winners.  I picked two winners for the sock rules contest.  One winner was selected using the random number generator.  and that person is vrkdorell.  if this is your entry ... please leave me a comment or email.

the second was hand selected by j.  i asked him to pick the one picture that caused him the most visual discomfort.  i'm surprised (this is not the most heinous combo in my opinion) and yet not, by his selecgtion (when i painted our bathroom a light yellow, he went and got the neighbor across the street to ask her if the color wasn't a bit too bright)   congratulations kat ... he picked you.  email me your address and i'll send you something knitterly ... or not. 

2.   I like finishing projects.  i have a couple to show.  tomorrow when i'm not so pooped.  (it's 10:30 -- way past my bedtime.  yes, i'm pathetic).

3. And I like getting excited about new projects.  I have a couple in mind.  Here's a hint for one of them.

(if you like the bag, you can get your very own right here.)

ok, i'm going to bed. 

Midday in New England

Blue, Grey, White ... and Other Colors

here's my Eye Candy for today ...

It's Only Been a Year

over a year ago, i purchased 4 oz of merino in this yummy pink grapefruit color from michelle at fun with yarn. 

monday, while watching the devil wears prada (ok movie.  book was kind of just ok too.) i finally spun it up.  last night i plied.

yeah, my spinning still ain't all that great, mostly because i just don't have the patience.  and that's ok with me.  surprisingly enough, the skeins are pretty balanced so whatever i make with this shouldn't be all wonky, so that's a good thing.  this is my first time spinning merino too.  and it's very soft but i had some jerky moments drafting and spinning at the same time.  which is why i have some really fat parts and some super thin parts.

whatever.  it's not a competition.

 

MMMMM Cake...

Today's "Things I Like Monday" is easy  most notably because of reason number one.

1.  Today is a holiday so i didn't have to go to work.  I like not having to go to work.  Droopy cat had to go into the vet this morning because of bit of a health emergency over the weekend, but she's better and her feline leukemia test came back negative. 

2.  I like cake.  And my inlaws loved Crazy Aunt Purl's  Oma's Chocolate Cake recipe.  My inlaws like to celebrate birthdays (this weekend we celebrated J's) and i've been instructed to bring Oma's cake back again.  Thanks Laurie for sharing this wonderful recipe. 

3.  And i like cake ... yarn cakes of all of my handspun yarn.

here's the bittersweet skies shetland

some grey wool of unknown sheep origin (the wool was a very generous gift from maggie).

and some blue faced leicester.  who needs to go to SPA?

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my sock contest is now closed.  i'll be awarding two prizes.  one winner will be selected at random.  the other winner will be the one combo that causes J's eyes to burn the most.  his taste tends to be a little conservative so this should be fun, for me anyway.   i hope to announce the winners in the next couple of days. 

Friday is for Housekeeping

or in my case, more procrastinating, of which i am the queen.

a few announcements.

1.  because of some whining, i've decided to keep the my sock rules contest open until sunday, february 18th, midnight, ET.   with everyone's permission, i've posted pictures of all entries here in this flickr group.  if you entered, and your sock combo is not there, please let me know.

2.  one of my new year's resolutions (the only one i've actually stuck to consistently) was to take a picture a day.  i decided to post all of my pictures in it's own blog called "one thousand words."  links to others participating with me can also be found there in the sidebar. 

that's all for now.

talk to you later, gators.

Bittersweet Skies

remember this?

that inspired this?

 

well i finally spun it up. 

happy friday!

Happy VD!

a few of you asked how my meeting monday night went.  it went ok.  i was nervous, and when i'm nervous, i get a little shifty eyed.  for some reason, i had hoped to impress this guy, which is dumb since it was just an informational meeting, not an interview or anything.  oh well.

so the information.  i'm a bit disappointed.  for some reason i was under the impression that i could get my teaching license in no time.  but i guess not.  there are a couple of classes to take, some field study sessions that aren't always offered every semester (which kind of makes me want to scream), and tests.  it's possible that i may have to take a couple of biology classes again.  this whole process could take up to two years, which  is very frustrating since once i make a decision, i want to start immediately.  oh well.  if anyone has any advice i'd really appreciate it.

on a more fun note, don't forget to enter my "sock rules contest."  you have until tomorrow, february 15th midnight to enter.  check out the entries here. 

Things I Like Monday

J calls me a pessimist (i prefer to think of myself as a realist) and one of his pet names  for me is groucho farts.  at work, i get 10 minutes every friday at the start of our weekly data meeting to complain about some of the prima donnas and lazy ass fuckwits that i have to deal with on a daily basis.  it's not written on the agenda, but if i start complaining during the week, one of my bosses tells me to "save it for friday."  and like elisa, i hate mondays with every strand of DNA in my body.  (trust me, there's a lot of DNA).

all of this negativity isn't good for me, especially with this dark cloud of doom that's been following me around lately.

so stealing the idea from the mafia lady and putting my own spin on it,  every monday,  i'm going to try and find at least 3 things that i feel positive about. 

1.  i like the smell of christian dior lipstick and lip gloss.  well i like the smell they used to have.  they don't smell like that anymore.  revlon liptick used to have a good smell too.  um.. ok.  not so positive. this one doesn't count.

2.  i like listening to audio books in my car.  this weekend i went to  the local library and checked out a couple of audio books.  i don't know the name of the book i'm listening to right now but hope davis' voice is very soothing and my heart didn't even skip a beat when i noticed a state cop following me in my rear view mirror this morning.

3.  i like blue and orange together.

4.  i like bananas.  they're a fruit, so they're good for you with the potassium and the fiber and yet they taste and feel decadent to me.  plus they come in a cute little package.

5. i really like that the dixie chicks took every award that they were nominated for in the grammys last night.  take that you conservative, bush ass-kissing, country music establishment.  (was that kind of negative?)

so not bad.  i managed 5.  well three anyway, and two that are kind of not quite as positive  but not totally negative.

The Color of a Summer Sky

my latest FO is the ingenius bainbridge scarf  written up by minty of pepperknits.  when i saw this scarf on her blog i thought "how does that work?"  and "i must make one immediately".   she generously shared the secret and it became my first project spectrum 2.0 project.

here's what it looks like ... well half of it anyway ... when it's just laying around.

here's what it looks like when it's hanging out around my neck.  i made it with one skein of knitpicks andrean treasure in summer sky, trimmed in mystery.  i cast on 172 stitches to make it a bit bigger because i have a bigger neck but i'm not sure the proportions are right.  minty's scarf looks so much neater.  it could be that the 100% baby alpaca although supremely soft, doesn't have enough body.  but whatever.  i really like it anyway.

thanks minty!

if you'd like to seem some of my project spectrum pictures you can check out my flickr sets ...

Get Off the Pot

so i just did something kind of exciting ... for me anyway.  and i'm excited enough about it, to want to tell you all.  so here goes. 

i just made an appointment with an academic advisor at a local college to find out about getting my certification to teach.  i meet with this person Monday night.  i've been working in academic medical/public health research for 20 years (yes i started working when i was 6) and it's time for a change.  a change that i've toyed with since college but have found a multitude of excuses not to pursue.  i'm the queen of procrastinating.  it's a sickness really.  so this might not sound like much, but for me it's huge.  and with the appointment made, i won't back out.

alrighty then.

a little eye candy friday for today.  this was taken yesterday around 5pm.  and you know what that means?  the days are getting longer.  woo-hoo.

The Swatching Project 2007

you've seen some here and some there ...

here are mine ... we have in the blue ... clockwise starting from the top left, 1.  The Faggotted Zig-Zag; 2.  The Centered Eyelet Diamonds; 3.  Grand Eyelet Lace; and 4.  Braided Eyelets. 

in the peachy pink, we have  (again going clockwise from the top left) 1.  Pennant Stitch; 2. Deep Chevron; 3. Ladder Stitch; and 4.  Ribbed Woven Stitch.

i'll give them a good blocking over the weekend and then they'll be ready for their close-up.

*************************

by the way, don't forgot to enter my sock rules contest.

 

No More Space Shuttle for You

you know, the past few months have been a little challenging for me.  i don't know if it's the time of year, or what, but let's just say i haven't felt like doing much, i've been feeling a little more anxious and stressed out than normal, and have been at a loss about how to get out of this funk.

but at least i'm not her.

jesus, mary and joseph....what WAS she thinking.

Green Socks and Ham

ta-da!  my green socks are done!

not only are these my first pair of lace socks, but they're also my first pair of toe-up.   

i used the waders sock pattern by jennifer young from the january 07 issue of magknits.  (go check out jennifer's blog by the way.  she's an american expat living in korea).

for the toes, i followed adrian's  figure 8 cast on tutorial.

for the short row heel, i followed wendy's toe-up recipe. 

i kind of like green.

 

Weekly Housekeeping

Project Spectrum 2.0 has begun!  And as usual, I'm behind.  Project Green Socks is still not finished.  Soon though.

don't forget to enter my contest.   and please, follow the directions.  i want to see shoes, socks and your pants (or skirt).  now i know why so many people have trouble with knitting patterns....BECAUSE KNITTERS ARE VERY BAD AT FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS!!!!

finally, baby bookish is on the way!  yay!