bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

And The Oscar Goes To ....

so i know a few of you are probably thinking  "yeah that's great.  you finally did your stupid taxes.  big whoop.  i got mine done in JANUARY YOU SLACKER AND I'VE ALREADY SPENT MY REFUND!  HOW ABOUT GIVING OUT THOSE PRIZES YOU PROMISED!!!"

well to those of you who are thinking that i say ... BITE ME!   and i'm on it.

thanks to the generosity of several kind people, i was able to award 14 prizes.  i numbered the prizes 1 through 14 and selected the winners using a random number generator so nothing was fixed.

and the winners are:

1.  susan who will be receiving from jess some donated fiber (or handspun yarn if she isn't a spinner).  thanks jess for your donation!
2.  rita who will be receiving from stitchy mcyarnpants an official MOKS t-shirt or tote (her choice).  thanks stitchy!
3.  cathi who also won a MOKS t-shirt or tote from stitchy. 
4.  ann who is going to score  a splityarn needle case (not this one, just one like it) from caro.  thanks caro!
5.  tish who who will be receiving a skein of blue moon fiber arts silkie donated by caro.
6. lucia who will be adding 2 brand new books to her knitting library.
7.  danielle who will be adding a skein of sockotta sock yarn to her yarn stash.
8.  cynthia who will be receiving 4 skeins of jo sharp yarn in a rich plum color.
9.  maureen who will be receiving 2 skeins of claudia handpaints fingering yarn kindly donated by rita.  thanks rita!
10.  laurie who will be receiving a skein of yarn pirate sock yarn.
11.  rachael who will also be receiving a skein of yarn pirate sock yarn.
12.  manise who will be receiving a skein of DkKnits sock yarn.
13. heather who will be receiving a skein of Tess Silk and Wool kindly donated by bridget (do you have a blog?)  thanks bridget!

and last but certainly not least ...
14.  norma who will be receiving some fabulously designed paper goods from kristen, a talented graphic artist who although doesn't knit (I KNOW! crazyness!), was kind enough to offer up a prize.  thanks kirsten!

so i think that's it. 

i have almost everyone's address so no need to contact me (i'll contact you if i don't have your address) and i'll make sure that the prize givers have your contact information as well.  prizes coming from me should be sent out in the next few days (i'm hoping by saturday as i'd really like to have this project behind me soon.  the squares were sent to elisa 10 days ago).

finally, i want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for your generous giving of time and prizes.  i couldn't have done this without you.

Cruelty

zits and hag hairs should not be allowed to set up residence on the same face at the same time.

Monday ToDo List

my days off from work are usually days of sloth and bad tv watching with some knitting mixed in.  i'm not proud.  and if asked what is my worse trait, or rather the one that  causes me the most frustration i'd have to say that it's procrastination.  i procrastinate with gusto and with energy and it's endemic as i come from a long line of procrastinators. 

so when i decided to take today off, i vowed that i wouldn't waste my day screwing around in the house, hating myself for not getting anything done.  I WAS GOING TO BE PRO-ACTIVE!!!!!

  so i prepared a to do list.

1.  fill out tax forms - federal and state.
2.  pay bills
3.  shred papers that need shredding
4.  file away 2007 bills and documents
5.  update my resume

i allowed myself a leisurely breakfast and flickr viewing.  i was taking a vacation day after all, but at 11am on the dot, i turned off the TV and set up shop on the kitchen table.

please note:  no computer or other distractions.   i had npr playing in the other room. 

by 2pm,  after a lunch/the young and the restless break, i had completed our federal forms (our taxes are relatively simple and although i'm a chronic procrastinator i'm also relatively organized so i didn't have to go searching for paperwork) and was just about to start the state forms. 

a couple hours later, the taxes were done.  the bills paid.  papers shredded or filed.  and the resume was updated (to be fair, i had updated the resume 6 months ago and it just needed a little tweaking).

by 5pm i was done. 

yay me! 

Eye Crazy Ass Bagel Friday

i work near a bagel shop and yesterday, when coming back from a meeting, i got a hankering and decided that a bagel made a perfectly nice lunch.  so what if it was only 10:45am.

yes i know it's green.  but doesn't it look great with the strawberry cream cheese?  very spring like.

yeah, because if not for the green bagels, you'd never know that yesterday was the first day of spring.

More Fire Knits and Attack Geese

yesterday, a woman at work rudely asked me why i was wearing a scarf in the office.  (i didn't consider the question rude.  just the woman.  trust me.  she's very rude.  always. and unstylishly scarfless)  i told her that it was freezing in my office, which it is.  but the other reason i wear scarves is because i have lots of them.

and here's one more.

this is the wavy scarf from knitty, knit in malabrigo worsted in sealing wax.

i added a slip stitch edge to give it a more finished edge.  details raveled.

and having nothing to do with scarves but a sure sign that spring is just around the corner (despite the fact that this morning i woke up to snow falling).

the geese are back!  (although how great would they look with a little red scarf around their necks).  see how close they are?  they were really that close.  i must have had "snack" written all over me.

Eye Candy Friday

the skies are gray, the air is still a bit chilly, and the trees are still bare, but the snow has melted (for now, it's still only march) and earlier this week i came across the first sign of spring.

i believe this is witch hazel and it almost matches my socks!

these are nutkin socks that i knit with sundara sock yarn in orange zest (i've had this yarn in the stash for awhile so i don't know if you can get this color anymore).   i don't do short row heels (well i can do them, i just don't like to wear them) so i made a heel flap and a traditional kitchenered toe (the original pattern has a short row toe).  i also was afraid i'd run out of yarn, so i made a shorter cuff (a too short cuff as it so happens).  these socks were fun to knit and deceptively easy.  and with the orange and red in there, they're project spectrum worthy too.  i raveled the details here.

so that's all i've got.  happy friday!

ETA:  a couple of people have asked if my socks twist any.  there's just a little bit of twisting that i was able to straighten out for the photos.  i did not block the socks.  apparently other knitters of the nutkins have noticed a major biasing of the sock.  i'm thinking that maybe my socks are less twisty because the leg of my sock isn't so long or because i knit different heels.  who knows?

I Must Be A Freak ...

... because i'm the only person it seems who isn't annoyed by the premature start of D.S.T.  sure it kind of bites that we've lost an hour but in a couple of days my body will sort itself out and getting up won't be so difficult.  i'm just happy that tonight when i get home from work, the sun will still be out and i can feel like i have a life again.

so the real purpose of this post ... SQUARES!!!   in january, i put the knit signal out for squares  for blanket for elisa's dad and a bunch of great knitters/crocheters responded.  Eighty-six squares worth!

i bet you all thought that i had forgotten about them, or that i had decided to keep them for myself or something like that.

nope.

there was SPA, and the sickness, and several weekends of rain and snow so no light for photos.   it also took me awhile to log each square into a handy dandy excel spreadsheet entering the names and addresses of every participant.  then i had to tag each square with the crafter's name so elisa knows who made what. 

yesterday, i finally packed them all up in a big zappos box.  good thing the squares are nice and squishy because they all fit perfectly.   

the plan is to get this box off to the post office sometime this week and then to give out some prizes.  stay tuned.

Thyphoid Mary(se)

so i'm sick.  nothing too serious but sick enough to have kept me in the house and in pajamas all weekend long.  last night i slept 14 hours.  i haven't done that since college!  craziness.

so i don't have much to talk about except that i've got a couple FO's for you.

first on the list is larissa brown's mabel scarf knit in malabrigo worsted in tiger lily.  its orangey goodness makes me very happy. 

and just finished earlier today is  jared flood's koolhaas hat also knit in malabrigo in vermillion. 

sorry, no model shots of the hat for you since i've got serious sick face today.  details on both can be found in ravelry.

anyone who was with me at Spa, i hope you aren't sick.