Lick My Sticks

You know you want to! That’s right, I’m an Avon lady. Consider this your “ding-dong”.

One paragraph of shameless self promotion and then onto the knitting!

Because Avon has gotten so technological over the years, you can shop online via my store and have it shipped right to you. (Or if you live near me, I can deliver it!) If you’ve ever thought about selling Avon/Mark makeup and products, let me know. Right now I’m not making much money because I spend it all buying Avon. (Very clever, Avon, very clever) But I don’t mind because I have used Avon my whole life and their stuff rocks. When you’re a rep, you get to buy demos for like 75% off the catalog price, it’s insane. Fun way to either make some extra scratch or get lots of free and cheap make up! I’m really enjoying it so far!

OK, knitting…I’ve been knitting away at Sizzle. I’m almost done with the back! Of course it’s easy to talk yourself into knitting when you can do it here in the BEAUTIFUL weather (smell ya later winter!):

Fear not, that blinding white is merely my legs. Don’t be scared.

Jon, Zoe, Nick (a friend who’s living in my craft room at the moment), and Abbath spent Monday afternoon down the street at Battleship Cove basking in the sunshine. I sat in my beach chair listening to Faith No More and finishing the arm holes of Sizzle.

I think Abbath enjoyed himself more than we did.

We’ve finally broken him of his car sickness so we’ve been taking him along for rides all week. You haven’t quite lived until you’ve seen Chihuahua ears flapping in the breeze.

Over the weekend I went by my cousin’s place to hang out. I showed Jacky (cousin’s wife) the hoodie I’m planning to knit for Adrianna (recipient of Baby Kimono last month). How could you NOT love knitting for this face:

Jacky has some pictures of Adrianna in the baby kimono, I’ll have her send them to me and get them posted!

It’s going to be pretty non-spectacular here in Southern MA for the next week. We got three beautiful days…fucking New England. I can’t wait for the summer! Fall River might have the most beautiful sunsets I’ve seen in Massachusetts.

Jon and I found this cool overlook down the road on the way to visit the cousins. Can you tell we’re happy about the weather!?

First of all, I must say that yesterday’s shootings have really saddened me. I’m very sorry if any of you have been personally affected by this senseless bullshit. I’m disappointed in the piss poor handling by the school administration and police, but I won’t get into that. Hearing about the holocaust survivor who used his body as a shield and gave his life so selflessly to protect his students, the belly dancer who survived the war horrors in Iraq last year only to be murdered this year…it breaks my heart. I hope that schools (including my own) take this terrible tragedy and learn from it. Schools should be prepared for all kinds of crises. We can’t change all the disturbed people in this country, but we can do more to be prepared for the worst case scenario. So my heart goes out to the victims, friends, and families involved in this horrible ordeal…

Unpleasantness aside, this is an otherwise happy post. Sunday morning, my sister-in-law woke me up to tell me that Eva, our local crack yarn dealer shop owner, was having the 1st Annual Tea at Eva’s in an hour. My husband, silly man, told her, “I dunno, she’s sleeping…not sure if she’ll want to go.”

I was up and ready twenty minutes later!

The shop was PACKED with knitters. Some I recognized from the Knit Night’s. Allison (sister-in-law) and I roamed the shop, but not after grazing the snack table:

Our MIL finally called Allison back and she was at the shop 20 minutes later! We must have circled the shop 50 times, debating colorways, patterns, and spending limits…stopping occasionally to refill our tea.

(Crime scene photo of gratuitous yarn fondling.)

I came home with two balls of clearance’d (!) Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk DK in hot pink, and three balls of Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK in a paler pink. Both are for gifts for my little cousin (recipient of the Baby Kimono). I am making a little hoodie for her out of the Dreambaby, but I’m not sure what to make with the Debbie Bliss. I would like to make something like this…but I’m not sure I could modify that, I don’t have the math skills or patience. If anyone knows a similar pattern in a closer yarn weight, let me know! (Or a different cute hat!)

I also bought my first pair of Addi Turbos, I wasn’t impressed right away, but I’m starting to really like them! I swapped out the straights on my Sizzle top for them. (Which I’m halfway through the back on…more on that in a moment.)

I also found the GREATEST buttons! I joke that Eva MUST have bought them for me…turns out I was right! Check ‘em out!

I’m thinking a sexy black cardi is in order for these!

And here’s Eva’s beautiful smiling face! She recently bought another building and will be turning it into a pub and grub, with a special drink called the SSK! (For the monthly knit and drink night! My two favorite things!) So congrats on the new business venture and the packed tea party!

Later that day it was the first bout of the PRD Roller Derby season! The Boston Derby Dames and the Providence Roller Derby joined forces to create the unstoppable N.E.R.D’s (New England Roller Derby). The played against the Hell Mary’s from the Texas Roller Derby. And uh, the N.E.R.D’s KILLED em! Oh it was ruthless! What a great bout! And take a look at this sexy mamma in the Dickies dress who’s so fast she’s but a blur…

Need a closer look?

Recognize her? That is miss Christine from Knitting for Boozehags! She isn’t on the N.E.R.D’s so she wasn’t bouting this time, but she will be next month with the Old Money Honeys. I can’t WAIT to see her bout! Go Honeys!

Zoe LOVED her first bout, she’s got her program opened to the team photos and pinned to her bulletin board. (So cute) We had a great time!

And finally…I attacked my dog with the clippers.

OK so I lost my camera for about a week so this is late but check out the amazingly awesome goodies my wonderful Secret Pal sent me!!!

This is my FIRST skein of Socks That Rock yarn and it.is.beautiful!! She also sent me some size 1 Crystal Palace DPN’s and I squealed. SO awesome. THANK YOU SECRET PAL!

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. I spent the day with my parents and miss Zoe colored some mean eggs.

I got bored the other day and finally made a circular needle holder for all the circs I have laying around:

And I’ll leave this brief post with an adorable picture of my oh-so-metal child because with the week I’m having if I blog any longer I’m going to unload my shit all over the place and I don’t want to do that.

So I went on ebay for no good reason and bought 6 skeins of Cascade 220 in OliveHeather #9448/ Dye lot: 4485. I got them for a song…I just had to. Problem is I need one more skein to knit the large Central Park Hoodie (at least I think…maybe I need 2 more), I don’t suppose anyone has any of that lying around they want to sell me in that dye lot?

Fat chance right?

I know…I’m just the worst lately. I will blog constantly for a month, and the 3 times the next month.

So here I will give you a boring, pictureless update.

School is going great. I think I may finally pull straight A’s (my plans are always foiled by a B+ I didn’t see coming) and I was accepted into Phi Theta Kappa. Although I blew off the induction ceremony to go see the mighty Down in Worcester. They were so amazing, as always…I really love that band. Besides I’m not singing some silly song and holding a candle, get outta here with that shit.

I’m trying out for a band called Hive Smasher soon. They’re grindy, really heavy, but not shitty like most grind. They’re not what I imagined I’d be interested in, so it’s something totally different…which I dig. I’ll let you all know how that goes. If they don’t work out there’s another band coming together that I will try out for.

I am 1 ball of yarn into Sizzle, and working on my hooded scarf which should be done just in time for summer…ugh. I haven’t touched the socks…I have no desire to at the moment. Hopefully the desire will return so I can get them off the needles.

I hit the sewing machine yesterday and made a hanging holder for my circs, once I get the stick on numbers I will post a pic. I’m knee-deep in Craftster swaps as usual, so those will keep me busy.

I’m also sending out my Secret Pal’s first package soon, and my first package from my awesome Secret Pal is on its way now! Yay! I will post all about it when I get it!

Alright…I can’t leave you all with NO pictures so I’ll show off the goodies I got in some recent swaps.

From the Dollar Store Round 4 swap, from the awesome Zombiekilla I got:

Check out those amazing sewing shadow boxes!! She knew I needed some decor for the craft room. The boxes and bird plaque go PERFECTLY! Zombie is the best! The S&P shakers are etched with a skull and crossbones. So cool.

And here’s the haul from the Crafty Detective swap (a secret stalker swap!) from my awesome buddy bhean:

Awesome stenciled shirt

Yarn, cell phone charm, mini book, book plates, brain soap, KNIT PICKS YARN…awesome awesome awesome

And she even made Zoe a dress that says “Queen of Rock and Roll”

I’m so lucky! (The above swap links are the pages that contain what I sent out, if you’re curious!) If you’ve never done a craft swap, you’re missing out. I’m currently signed up for a beach bag swap, kid swap (Zoe is crafting), and an Altoid Tin re-con swap. Fun, fun! I just finished organizing the Craftster charm swap…I will show off my rocking charm bracelet soon, it’s very cool to have 20 or so charms made my girls all over the world beside the ones I made!

That’s about it for now! Is anyone going to the Maryland Sheep and Wool fest? I really want to go this year!!

Here it is! The majority of my yarn stash. I’m sure there’s more lurking around the house…I had some tangled skeins I didn’t bother with. I discovered I need to do some donating of my beginner acrylic crap, I have more than I’ll ever use (though I like having a little around for cat toys and the like). So…here it is!

Put away in the yarn tote:

Think I like Knit Picks yarn a little bit?

And for the WIP It Out part of FYS day:

That’s what I’ve got going right now. I haven’t been knitting too much (hence the lack of posts!) mostly because I’m just busy with school. I’m really looking forward to summer break!

Thanks to everyone on the nice comments about my hair cut, you’re all so sweet. I know I haven’t replied to everyone, I usually do…again, just busy. On the red tips: not now. I’m going to hold off for now, but I think I’ll do them later as the cut gets “old” for me. I might actually do hot pink, I’ve recently discovered that hot pink actually looks really nice on me.

Now I’m going to dive into Bloglines and comments and voyeur all your stashes!!

EDIT: Check out the official 2007 Flash Your Stash thread on the Knitty Board for more flashing action!