Why I haven't been knitting

It's spring. I've been gardening.

Something I'd rather be doing than knitting right now.

I'm enjoying tending to my tomatoes, potting seedlings, pinching herbs, and trimming borders way more than knitting these days. So is Ginger. She is my little gardening assistant, although you have to be careful with her outside - she is quite the little escape artist and has given her meowmy a couple of heart attacks when she has jumped the fence and then I run around the yard and through the neighbor's howling her name, just to find her munching grass in the front by the very busy street we live on.

Well, it's not entirely true that I'm not knitting because of the weather. I have also just taken my second to last ARE, which feels awesome. It will feel even more awesome if, when I get my result letter, I have passed. That means I am one exam away from being a licensed architect. Yet I feel like I have so much to learn. Luckily, as for the test I have saved for last, everyone who has taken it says it is a complete joke. I suppose that means in relative comparison to the other exams, because some of those kicked my butt and made me feel as if I had been hit by a train.

I am looking forward to having an awesome patio and garden, and we are partway there. Just need more stuff potted, and I am looking for patio furniture but am playing with the idea of building my own redwood patio table. Then I can have it in the size I want at a fraction of the cost to purchase one. And Craigslist around here is touch and go as far as patio furniture goes. Lots of glass tables, but I don't want a glass one. Not with the wind we get here in the spring.

Another sewing project, and more!

I made another knitting needle roll-up case, this time for my straight and double-pointed needles. Prior, they were all just jumbled in a drawer, and a pain in the butt to dig through. So, I headed over to Jo-Ann (where they are having an awesome sale, btw) and went a little nuts in the fat quarters. I did have the project in mind, though, so in addition to looting all their cat-themed prints, I got fabric for this:

(I haven't snipped all the threads yet)

Ta-da! It holds all my needles! With some room to add more needles, as I like bamboo straight needles in anything over a size 5. Less than that, and I break them. The back has batting and is quilted like the other one I made; it gives it just enough structure and support. And now I have an empty drawer to organize all the fat quarters I seem to be amassing.

You probably noticed all the Knitpicks needles in the bottom row and are wondering, "Knitpicks? But Nancy, weren't you just hating on them?". Well, yes, however, I must admit that one product of theirs that I have been very impressed with is their nickel-plated DPNs. Sharp, pointy, sturdy, don't bend - they are awesome. I'd buy DPNs from them any day.


I put the Everlasting Bagstopper to the test on Sunday, and boy does it stretch! To the point where it is hard to carry if the stuff is too heavy and stretches it down to your knee, or past it. If I ever make another one, I will make it about half the length.


And a third thing. Does anyone know how to frost a cake? I suck at it. Yes, I have tried warming up the frosting and the cake is always completely cooled before I try to frost it, but for some reason, I just can't frost a cake! I have a special spreader and everything (thank you Cutco wedding registry). When I try to frost across the top of the cake, the top if it just rips off. And then the whole thing just goes to crap. This also happens with cupcakes. This is very bad, as I love cake. It doesn't stop me from eating said dilapidated cake, but I plan to have kids, and I heard that they have birthdays, and at these things called "birthdays" they eat cake, and I would really like to make it for them, because I am too damn cheap and stubborn to call Baskin Robbins. I know I can master this, but I need serious guidance:




It looks like someone has already chewed it up. If anyone out there has cake frosting tips or advice, I need it! Help!

Alive and Well

I am coming to terms with the fact that I am a sporadic blogger. I can't guarantee that will get much better, but I expect it might as I want to make sure I document projects, and this blog helps me do that. I haven't been doing much knitting, as spring is here and I am excitedly working on little projects around the house, and am enjoying sewing much more than knitting at the moment. I do have one knitting project I have completed, which is very springy:

This is the everlasting bagstopper from Knitty. The yarn is a mercerized cotton (incredibly strong, soft, and well-spun) by Tahki Stacey Charles

I bought the yarn at my new favorite store, Fiber Chicks. The ribbon is from Jo-Ann, and doesn't quite match, but I don't quite care. I plan to put the bag to the test at Sunflower Market tomorrow.

As for my next project, I was tired of the mess the cheap plastic case my Knitpicks Options came with had become. I opted (ha!) to sew a roll-up for my options needles that I can put in the cheap plastic case with all my cables. The motivation for this project was when one of my size 4's inadvertently slipped out of it's cheap elastic holder on it crappy piece of cardboard and broke. (Can you tell I am not a fan of Knitpicks' quality?) So, I made this little case. The back is quilted, and I pretty much winged it. I didn't follow a pattern, although I did sketch out the idea before I started chopping up fabric. The fabric is leftover from the living room pillows I sewed up in December.

I am pretty happy with how it came out. Again just some by-the-yard ribbon from Jo-Ann.

They kind of look like little crayons

Ginger helped me take photos, and mugged on Mr. Chair. She has lots of inanimate object boyfriends. But then she gave me some snorgles.

New Yarn and Fiber Shop in ABQ!

I was wandering through Old Town over the weekend and a shop sign caught my eye - Fiber Chicks. I went in and sure enough, it's a new LYS in town!!! Yay!!!!!!! They have only been open a few weeks, but they are very friendly, and the best part is that the owner wants to know what people in ABQ want to knit and crochet with, and will look for a distributor to get it in the shop! I have already put in a request for Malabrigo. So, please do go check out the shop and let her know what you like to knit with! They (it's 2 ladies that co-own it) also carry some roving, and are working towards carrying more local fiber than you can normally find around ABQ (which isn't much). Anything other than Fiesta would be appreciated by many, I am sure! I chatted with the owner that was there, for a while, and her husband is an architect in town who went to school with one of my bosses, which was very cool.

Needless to say I made a purchase. I got some beautiful mercerized cotton to knit this bag for groceries. While we do reuse plastic bags in our house for trash and when we scoop cat poop, the grocery store bags are flimsier than they were in years past, so I am converting to taking my own bags, not for the social message or any shit like that, but simply because the grocery store bags are crap, and if I can't reuse them, I don't want to just chuck them in the landfill without being able to repurpose them.

So, go forth and visit Fiber Chicks! It's in Old Town, in the little plaza just south of La Placita, off the SE corner of the main plaza. A very cool spot and hopefully to become a staple for the fiberistas of Albuquerque.

Great sewing idea!

If you are like me and are not a huge fan of mini-blinds, but don't love the retail cost of Roman shades, then this is for you! What a great idea! I love the photo of the living room with the green print shades.

I think next on my sewing agenda will be curtains, as I don't think the landlord would appreciate it if I massacred the blinds in the front picture window.

I am currently studying for the 5th ARE (just took #4 a little over a week ago), and if I keep on my schedule and keep passing the exams, then I will be done and licensed by the middle of the summer! Yay! All this studying throws a wrench in the works of all my crafting projects, but it is definitely worth it.

Just because it can be knit

Does not mean it should.

I ran across this beauty on Ravelry.

What the fuck is this? A knitted tube? Is it over or sewed to the polo top? Maybe the stitch gauge was off when the inventor of this travesty was knitting a coffee cozy, and they decided, well, hell, I better use this tube of knitting for something! I know! A tube top! And I'll make the concept of a knitted tube top even more ridiculous by wearing it over a shirt, which in no way makes any sense! Yeah!

People, come on. Don't waste yarn on this sort of crap.

My computer is down and I can't post any pictures of my current knitting, so I am posting this fug from the computer connected to our entertainment center. You're welcome.

Fugly

One of the things I hate about "learn to knit" or "learn to crochet" books is that the patterns are often butt-ugly. And while it makes sense that in the beginning, one can only knit or crochet rectangles, I think garments beyond a scarf should be avoided until one has mastered increases and decreases so as to shape a garment. Beginners patterns have gotten better in recent years, but it bewilders me that anyone would put this kind of crap out there as a free pattern to promote their yarns:

What the fuck? Is it a vest? A tunic? And what's with the preschooly color blocks and gigantic pockets? Could this thing be any boxier? She only remotely has a figure because of the way she is thrusting out her hip. Look at the size of those armholes! Either they were expecting a much larger model, or this pattern is just fucked up. I vote for the latter. If she took the stupid vest off, she would probably have a decent outfit.

Shibori Felting gone bad

I finally finished knitting a giant swath of stockinette I planned to shibori felt and then sew into a pillow cover for the living room with a zipper and all. Well, it felted, but the shibori part was a bit of a disaster. Most of the bottlecaps fell off in the wash and the finished product looks like a giant piece of felt with a leprosy problem:


With flash. As if that helps:

Patons Merino Wool
More skiens than I care to count

Certainly not my favorite project. I guess I can still make it into a pillow cover, but I'm not really sure I want to. I mean, it's ugly. It didn't cost much money for the yarn, but I was knitting on that thing forever! This being my first foray into felting (if you don't count accidentally felting sweaters in the wash), I am not exactly smitten with the craft.

At least Ginger knows how to make me feel better. Here she is snoozing on her kitty rag quilt, reminding me that all of my projects are not disasters, they are mostly successes:

I can't get the picture to rotate, but she is cute just the same. :)

Frankenknit

I had my ancient Kenmore sewing machine serviced recently, and have gotten into sewing again (after a many-year hiatus, because the sewing machine needed servicing and I was too cheap to fix it while I was a student). I started with recovering our hideous couch pillows. I kept this felted sweater in my sewing stash for the past few years, and always knew it had aspirations for a second life.
It was a nice sweater, until I washed and dried it at the laundromat. oops. I didn't really know how or why (or that) wool shrunk, when I was in college. I got it at Old Navy years ago, before their clothes started being made with that signature falling apart in the wash.

Here is the butt ugly pillow that needed recovering. What the hell was I thinking when I bought TWO of these in college? Who ever brought back animal prints? Or have they just never gone away?

I cut out the body of the sweater, and seamed it all into a square on the machine, then added the zipper. There really isn't a fancy trick to sewing in zippers - you just turn your pillow inside-out, pin the zipper in, and then sew it on. I didn't really follow any instructions or use a zipper foot (as I had lost mine ages ago and recently just bought one).


Voila! Who's your zipper-sewing daddy?

Here he is next to the other hideous pillow on the couch in the den. The other one will be recovered in a shibori-felted blue to go in the living room. When I get around to it.

I can't get the dang picture to rotate!

We also had two ugly pillows in the living room. They weren't ugly as much as they attracted copius amounts of cat hair, which makes them look gross. So, I wanted to make covers for them that could be removed and washed. Here is the finished result:

The fabric is from Jo-Ann. I was impressed to find something there that isn't country kitsch. I don't like to spend very much on DIY projects, because that defeats the purpose for me, so I am glad to see they are carrying some cuter patterns than they were when I was in college. Or maybe I don't just cruise the clearance table anymore now that I am out of school. Gee, could that be it? The pattern reminded me of India, where I traveled in college, and the fabric is made there. Coincidence? I think not!

Next on the list was wanting to learn to quilt, so I started with a rag quilt tutorial on about.com, and decided to start small and, inspired by Paula's kitty's blanket, I made a blankie to put in the sunny spot Ginger, my assistant, likes to lay in.

Just some standard cotton fleece from Jo-Ann

Chopping it up

Piece it all together, snip all the seams, toss through the washer and dryer, and voila again! Rag quilt!

I haven't gotted a picture of Ginger on it yet, but this guy seems to like it:


I think it's hilarous that the mean cat likes the pink frilly blanket.

In other news, I have been studying for the next ARE. Three down, four to go! After I take the next one in a couple of weeks here, I will have tipped the halfway point. Yay! I didn't study very much while my husband was on winter break (he is a PhD student), as we finally had time to hang out. But now we are both back to studying habits. Sigh. And I have all these sewing projects out of my system so I can concentrate on studying more, but it also makes me think of all sorts of fabulous things to sew!

New year, new blog entry

I'm not a consistent blogger, I have come to terms with that. I hope my friends still come check once in a while, though! And I'm not resolving to be a better blogger- I don't do New Year's resolutions- they just stress me out, having self-imposed anxiety for no reason other than it being a new year. If I'm a sporadic blogger, then it is what it is.

I do, however have an FO to show off! Here is one, a sweater I knit for my niece. She's almost 4 months old.

Cascade 220 Superwash
Size 7 needles

The pattern is the Baby Kimono Sweater from the Lion Brand website (free pattern) I added the ruffles by picking up stitches and then increasing every round and binding off after doing that a couple of times. The tie in the pattern kind of sucks (just cast on stitches and then cast off across the stitches), so I made I-cords instead. You can judge the length of an I cord as you are making it, and it's more beefy than a dinky little tie.

Bad Blogger!!!

I'm still here, alive and well, just too dang busy to blog! I've been able to keep up with friends via Facebook, plus I haven't had an FO in a while, so the blog has been faltering. I will post images soon of my latest FO that I just finished this past week.

All is well. I passed one ARE, haven't heard about another and am taking another one in December. All in all, I should be done with the exams by next June or July, which sounds like a long time, but in the scheme of architectural licensure, is not bad at all, and is actually shorter than average. That is, of course, counting on passing all the exams the first time!

I am SO excited about the holidays! I love Thanksgiving and Christmas! LOVE them! It has been cooler, so we are using the fireplace, and I got a wild hair up my ass this morning and drove to Wally World and bought fall linens for the dining table and a bunch of candles that smell like yummy fall things, like pumpkin spice and gingerbread. I could bake, but no time for that right now, not until after my next exam.

Political - not knitting!

If you are as pissed about the current economic mess as I am, and am as worried as I am, then you must go watch this video. I don't believe everything I see on the internets, but this video is a good synopsis of a lot of information and articles that I have read, and is a good intro to some surprising facts behind the housing mess. And some key players that may really surprise you, and probably piss some people off.

Dang!

It's been a month since I posted, just about. Jeez! I have some knitting to show for, but still need to photograph it. But I can show this:


This is the ONLY tomato we have gotten out of our garden this year. It's been a shitty tomato year here in NM, apparently, which makes me feel less bad about my gardening skills. I felt bad eating it. But it was soooooooo good!

I finished the vest, and I need to weave in the ends and post it. I am happy with how it came out. I love Stefanie Japel's patterns! I have been busy cramming for my next registration exam, so I missed SnB last week, but I have my exam this coming Tuesday morning, so I should be there this week!

Something I can post!

I finished the Welt Fantastic socks I started a while back and put on hold to knit the summer tank and a present I cannot yet blog about. I am very happy with them! The sock on the left however, I had to finish the toe in another blue sock yarn I had leftover stash of, as the second ball of Knitpicks Felici had significantly less yarn in it than the first ball! Grr!!!! While cheap, they do have some serious quality control issues over there.

Welt Fantastic Socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
Knitpicks Felici, 2 balls (and some yardage of a random yarn!)
Size 0 DPNs. I like my socks knitted tight.

Overall, I am happy with them. I am much more impressed with Felici than I ever was with Essential SUCK yarn, their standard sock yarn. Felici is spun more tightly and isn't all fuzzy and bloomy. Which brings me to a review of Swish Worsted. Kind of sucks. It's super-bloomy, and had I known that, I would not have knit the tank out of it. I was disappointed. It kind of pisses me off, because Knitpicks' motto is to bring us affordable luxury knitting, but I would hardly categorize what they produce as luxury, at least what I have experienced. Grr. It's cheap, and it shows. I have even had problems with my interchangeable needle set - the needles don't screw onto all the cords correctly - my size 7's pop right off of the thread where they are supposed to screw on! I can only use those on the 24" cord so far. I think I will call them about this one, because it is a faulty product, and you don't find out until you use a certain needle size. Seriously. Lacking. Quality. Control.

Ginger approves of them, which is of utmost importance:

Isn't she just so damn cute????


I am now starting the U-neck Vest from Fitted Knits. Ginger checked the pattern for errata, though osmosis:


In other news, Hugo thinks everything is an opportunity to go for a ride:


And I made pesto from our bumper crop of basil! Yum! I also made some creamy pesto sauce by mixing a couple of forkfulls of the pesto into some alfredo sauce, and holy Moses, was it good! We had it with four-cheese ravioli, salad and some delish wine! I admit it - I am a foodie.


El Hubbie mail-ordered 3 bottles of wine from Georgia (the county). It is really good, and was relatively inexpensive. This is just a standard dry white wine. Very tasty.

I don't get political on this blog, but what is happening in Georgia is despicable, and as we don't personally have artillery or tanks to lend them, Hubbie, the economist, believes the second best thing we can do is support them by trading with them. We also learned that Georgia is the oldest wine growing region in the world, going back thousands of years! Neat, huh?


Some precious kitty moments to leave you with, Ginger makes pillows out of just about anything:

Mr. Rogers ruled

And the last reason on this list is, I think, the best.

You must go to this website!

My dear friend Stephen has a small cookie company, Albuqcookie, and his website just went live and is taking orders! The cookies are amazing and worth every cent! They make great gifts; I buy some for my parents every Christmas. I served bags of Albuqcookies at my wedding as the favors! My favorite are the lavender lemon biscotti. You must try some so you can have a favorite of your own!

It's done!

The drop stitch lace tank is finished, and I love it! I wore it to work and received many a compliment, especially since no one knew I made it! I love knitted items that don't look "homemade". Handmade is very different from homemade.

I made it in the smallest size in the book, which was like, a 28" bust (which I am not!), and on needles one size smaller than recommended for the yarn (Knitpicks Swish worsted, I used size 6 needles). This pattern is super-stretchy, so I would recommend making it smaller than you normally would knit anything for your size. And I also modified it by knitting into the back loop of every stitch in front of and after the yarn overs so that the lace keeps it shape better. Otherwise, the lace looked kind of scrappy.




* Update - At her request, I am reminded I should credit my fabulous photographer, Katie, for taking the shots. The way she captures emotion through the lens, her ability to set the flash to "on" or "off" and the fact that when you tell her to zoom in and get some detail and she knows what the hell you are talking about (no offense hubbie) makes working with this Einstien of the photographic world a great joy each and every time.

Knit that Knazi!

Holy crap I HAD to take a break from studying to post this.


Rachel Matthews has created a pattern book so you can knit a doll of your favorite evil dictator! Who hasn't been waiting for this? (sarcastically said).

You can read all about it here.

Although the thighs are a bit femme, that hair and 'stache are pretty right-on, I must say.

I love that man of mine!

Yesterday was our 1-year wedding anniversary. Wahoo! To celebrate, we went to the zoo and then came home and cooked a big yummy dinner! I am working on perfecting my own spaghetti sauce recipe, an the one I made last night with turkey sausage was stellar! Some highlights from our zoo trip:








And this video, which was just hilarious. It has sound:



Every day I love that guy more and more! He really is a kick-ass husband, and my best friend. Mwah!

Progress!

Without the flash

With the flash. Much more true to the color.

The tank top is almost finished! Just some seaming at the top, a few buttons, and then I will have a summer project done! Yay! Then I can start the next one which has to be done by the fall and of which I cannot speak, lest the recipient be an avid knitting blog reader, which I doubt, but you never know. I don't know who reads this thing except for the people who comment, so I can't take any chances.




The kitties are trying to beat the heat. It has been really toasty lately:



Hugo is so cute sometimes. Sometimes.:


I got up early this morning and jogged in the foothills with my friend Susan. Man! That kicked my ass! I run almost daily, but it's just around my neighborhood, which has some hilliness, but is relatively smooth and even. I can't wait to get back out there and run the foothills again. What a great workout! I am doing another 5K in two weeks, the Chunky Monkey, which is in the valley and totally a flat course, so there's not really much to train for, except being able to run in a straight line for 3.1 miles.

I will probably not be at SnB Tuesday, as Melissa is coming to visit and knit on Wednesday, so I am taking that as a knitting night instead. Hope to see some of you Wednesday, same time and place!

My Boyfrend's Back!

He's also my husband, but in any case, he's back! He was in Santa Fe for two weeks getting nerdy at the Santa Fe Institute in a graduate workshop. I am so glad he's home! And I'm not the only one:



PA-THE-TIC!

Silly cats. Hugo was really torturing Ginger while Justin was gone. She was getting so scared, she jumped into the linen closet all by herself a couple of times, even opening the door herself! Maybe she's not so dumb after all:




He can be such a jerk. Now that Daddy's back, he's all calm and collected, barely noticing when I walk by, which is quite the opposite of our relationship over the past couple of weeks.

Paula and I had our garage sale today. My husband thinks garage sales are a waste of time, and well, even though I had a lot of fun today, I have to say he might have a point. It was so much damn work! And for the money I netted after buying lunch burritos at Golden Pride, I could have made that much in an hour of overtime at my office and not gotten a sunburn. I don't think I am having another one anytime soon. It was too much work for too little profit, but I have never had a garage sale before, other than selling stuff at a church rummage sale. Living on a farm on a dirt road, we never had garage sales as a kid. And I never had one in college because I never had anything to sell. It was still a lot of fun, and I got to hang out with my homie Paula and chit chat, since she is in that swimming class Tuesdays and can't make it to Stitch 'n Bitch.

This and That

The drop-stitch lace tank is coming along nicely. I think I will have it done in the next couple of weeks. Just in time for summer wearing! Although it has been summer here for gee, at least 2 months now! I can certainly wear this top clear into October with the weather we have here.


Hugo was so cute when I got home I had to get a picture of him:


The flash makes him look satanic, but he moved his head too much and there isn't enough light coming in the room (we're hoping some rain will come out of all these clouds):


I can't decide which picture he looks more evil in! Well, I'll leave that for you all, and I'm off to eat dinner then price stuff for my garage sale Saturday with Paula. Toodles!

For anyone wondering...

Our SnB meets at 7pm on Tuesday nights at the Flying Star on Rio Grande. There are always peeps there, unless it's Christmas Eve or something.

Nothing to do with knitting

My dad rules. He's 68 and could still kick my butt. This year Father's day was hiking in the Malpais and a watercolor painting session (sketching for me, though. I'm still terrified of watercolors). Note I am wearing the Regia Bamboo socks!!! This is a GREAT yarn for summer wearing!

Cairns mark the trail in the volcanic landscape

Both my parents were/are artistic, and my dad built all three of the homes I grew up in, so I think I might have an idea about where I get my talent.

Our studio! The umbrellas kept blowing away, so we eventually gave up on them.


The subject - La Ventana Natural Arch

After the art session, we then wandered around the sandstone bluffs bordering the eastern edge of the Malpais:

An abandoned homestead. According to Dad, it had to be from at least the 1920's judging from the use of concrete and gringo blocks. I would have to agree.

And, OK, something to do with knitting:

My Summer Knitting Goals
(In order which I wish to complete them)

1. Finish drop stitch lace tank
2. Present #1
3. Present #2
4. Finish the socks currently on the needles

5. Make U-neck Vest from Fitted Knits

Meme stolen from Melissa, who I miss dearly!

Drop stitch lace tank

This top is coming out really cute. After a few failed starts, I finally got started on a version I think will work well. I have modified the pattern to knit it in the round, and I am using a smaller needle size than it calls for. Like many who have made this top, I am knitting through the back loops on either side of the YOs. This pattern is really stretchy, so I am making the smallest size in the book on size 6 needles, instead of 7s. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine Worsted.

Ginger likes to help supervise the knitting:



Just more cute kitty photos:

Where my Stitchin' Bitches at?

Last night at SnB, there was only one other person there, novice knitter Diane (who is kicking all our asses, btw. She's only been knitting for 6 mo. and has already conquered socks!) Even the waiter/server noticed and asked where all our friends were. What gives? I guess it was just one of those fluke nights when no one shows up.

I have started the Drop-Stitch Lace Tank from Fitted Knits, after starting and frogging it twice before. I have finally modified it and am happily knitting away. I will post piccys soon.

Hubbie and I are off to see Spamalot tonight. I am SO excited! We have had the tickets for at least six months. I listened to our Monty Python Sings CD at work today. EEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! On that note, I am going to get ready to walk down to Popejoy!

New socks!

In keeping with trying to knit only from my stash, I started another pair of socks a few weeks ago. These are in Knitpicks Felici, a superwash wool. I like this yarn a lot, it is much nicer than their Essential Suck Yarn; the only complaint I would have is that every now and then, at color changes, there is a little white bit of yarn, like the dyeing was getting a little sloppy. The pattern is Welt Fantastic from Sensational Knitted Socks. I have finished one, all but for kitchenering the toe shut. I am getting really good at using up every ounce of the skein. That little bit left is the last bit of a 218 yard skein. WHO'S YOUR (sock knitting) DADDY!?!?!?!?:


And I've started the second one:


I knit socks only for myself. The hubbie doesn't like knitted socks, and they take so much time that I have a hard time imagining gifting them. Plus, they have to fit so exactly, I don't want to guess at someone's foot size just to have all that hard work go down the drain when the socks don't fit.

Below is the Cascade I bought that I mentioned in the previous post. I can't wait to make this into a vest this fall!


Hugo REALLY hates it when we go out of town. When we are packing, he climbs in the luggage and attacks you when you try to put your stuff in, and you have to spray water on him to get him out.


We barbecued on the new ass-kicking grill last night, and Ginger found a blue-and-orange friend. I wonder if she thinks they're related because it's blue and orange like her:

Don't hate me because I'm so friggin' cute

Content

Pensive. Probably pondering great questions in life, like, When do I get fed again? and, When will that goddamn neighbor's dog shut up?

Back Home!

We took a four-day weekend to Durango, paid for by the Wyndham. We sat through a 30-min timeshare presentation, and got the four days paid for, plus a ton of other freebies. We've done this a few times before, and are very good at saying "no". We would love to purchase in a timeshare in the future, but the priority for us right now is saving for a house. All in all, it was a great weekend!

Hiking with my honey

New Socks!

Of course, I had to hit up the LYS while I was there. I did buy yarn, which, while breaking the diet, does go towards an intended project. Plus, they are moving up the street, so they were having a huge sale. I bought 4 skeins of Cascade 220 @ 25% off for a vest I have been planning on making from Fitted Knits. I doubt I would have bought anything had they not been having the sale.


It was a wonderful long weekend. We haven't been on a vacation since our honeymoon last summer. We went hiking, wandering around town, had some yummy food, swam in the pool, and were convinced that our decision to not have cable is a good thing, as out of 80 channels we had in the hotel, there wasn't a damn thing worth watching most nights we were there.

With scenery like this, who the hell wants to watch TV anyways?

Fear not. I did get my cat fix, via Pumas on Parade.


They are so darn cute!


There was a lot of cat art in Durango. The pumas, plus this public art on the side of the construction barrier around the site of the fire they had a while back:


And on the side of Sushitarian:


Well, DUH! Of course cats love sushi! But not as much as I love margaritas:

Cute husband and a margarita - a winning combo

All in all, it was a blast, but I am glad to be home. So is someone else:

Mommy, please don't ever leave again!

Sox

They're done!




Yarn: Regia Bamboo (45% bamboo, 40% superwash wool, 15% polyamid).
Pattern: Crossover Rib from Sensational Knitted Socks

I really love these socks. They are comfy for summer wearing, fit great, and super-soft. I hate slouchy socks, and these stay up and the ribbing helps them keep shape well. Unlike the ribbed socks I made out of that pink Tofutsies. I plan to frog those. Too slouchy.

Hugo made another friend in the neighborhood. I don't get this cat at all. He is so mean to people, and then turns into a puddle of love around other cats.



They had a little love-sit in the soon-to-be vegetable garden. There is one tomato plant and one bell pepper plant, soon there will be three more tomato plants, but that's it.

Kitty Cuteness

Because I have no new pictures of any knitting: