Lick My Sticks

I’ve been knit-lazy the last few days, so not much to report there. I’m letting 2 weeks left of college finishing work pile up and when I get stressed (rather than DO what I’m putting off) I tend to get really lazy and just watch a lot of TV. I’m a champion like that.

But what I HAVE been doing is planning for this weekend’s pilgrimage to Maryland Sheep and Wool!! Who’s going? If you’re going, I have a little bit of a contest for you! The prize? Knitting earrings!

I’m going to whip up 5 pairs of knitting earrings for the first five people that find me at Maryland! That’s it, you just gotta spot me (not hard, I’m in my third trimester and will be wearing a Bad Ass Knitters shirt and most likely my hot pink bandanna) and say something like “I SPOTTED YOU! I WANT EARRINGS!” I might bring more than 5, but I’ll say 5 for now in case making more earrings becomes a stress thing I avoid! See you there!! Trust me, this won’t be hard to spot:

Secondly, in lou of this “stimulus” tax money I’m getting Monday, I opted to finally treat myself to a nice knitting bag. I’ve been looking for a nice big purse for 3 weeks now and haven’t found a thing, so rather than waste money on some “meh” purse, I figured I might as well get a nice knitting bag that doubles as a nice big purse.

What did I get? The new drool-inducing Namaste Cali Malibu bag in Charcoal:

Oooohhohohoh I can’t wait. The Loopy Ewe has them in stock right now and they’re only $59.00! If this comes in time for Maryland I will be ridiculously happy.

I’m also thinking I will cut my hair like this:

Thoughts?

Alright, end of knit-less blog…stay tuned for a big-ass Maryland post!!

I am experiencing a mania-laden week. I’ve had to be physically removed from cleaning by my husband twice (there were fingerprints on the door frames…twitch), I have knit the rest of my French Market Bag, organized my office area, yarn bin (one of them), read all my piled up magazines, painted my toenails (this was difficult as they are now seemingly out of reach), knit THREE ____’s for the Crafty Detective Swap, and caught up on some schoolwork. Last night 3 of my daughter’s friends slept over and today, Hubby and I took all four of them to the zoo and out for ice cream.

I am exhausted, so let’s have a picture fest:

French Market Bag, pre-felted.

With elephant background for ambiance, obviously. With the full sunlight, I finally got the true color of the yarn (Knit Picks Amethyst Heather) to come out right. I don’t have a washing machine, busket, plunger, or tennis balls…hence the lack of felted action going on right now. I’m beginning to realize why I’ve never done a felted project before…I lack the necessary equipment. Guess I’m doomed to hit the laundromat. Eeech.

I can’t post about the other things just yet. My Crafty Detective Swap partner might read my blog so it’s radio silence until she receives her goodies. I should be sending in a few days if my mania continues and I finish everything. Rest assured, I am knitting my expanding arse off at the moment.

On to the fun stuff, a trip to the local zoo! I figured “these kids had me up at 6:30am, I’m tired and my back hurts, why not try and keep track of them in a crowded zoo on the first day of school vacation!?”

We did have fun though, it was a brief trip (small zoo) so it was pretty stress free…plus I had free passes. Bonus.

Zoe’s been to this zoo a few times so she immediately went for the Otter exhibit, only she must have forgotten the name “otter” and yelled “YAAAAY THE WATER FERRETS!!!” which I thought was pretty hilarious. Right up there with asking me for a tissue from the “glove department” the other day.

These little fuckers were really enjoying the gawking onlookers. They were racing around their tank and playing with each other…until one of them apparently grew tired of us and with a hard glare he surfaced and raspberry’d us. Like a full blown “PPPBBBBLLLTTT”. Smart ass.

The girls had a great time modeling for photos, and by modeling I mean making goofy faces while I plead with them to smile nicely. We got some cute pictures though. Note my child working the camera…

We took them out afterward for a “holy cow”. Those unschooled in the ways of Newport Creamery don’t know what I’m talking about…the “holy cow” is ten mother-effin scoops of ice cream under piles of whipped cream, hot fudge, bananas and jimmies (or sprinkles for you non-Bostonians) that grown ass men can hardly even finish.

This is the Holy Cow:

This is the Holy Cow LESS THAN TEN MINUTES LATER:

Needless to say we promptly returned the other three to their parents before the sugar really kicked in.

All in all it was a nice day. This Spring is shaping up to be one of the best I’ve had yet! For all our little problems and struggles, I really have a great life. I have an amazing husband (hello? woke me up with a French Toast breakfast yesterday for no reason), a great kid, a so-far healthy son on the way and a warm place to sleep at night. I’m getting pretty optimistic and satisfied in my old age.

It’s not such a bad way to live.

Wanted to whore out my friend Jacky’s crafty charitable endeavor. She’s making “sock Monstahs” and donating all the proceeds to charity (The American Cancer Society). These things are so cute! I have one so far…they’re less than 10 bucks and all hand stitched. She does custom work and has just put up an etsy:

EDIT: Jacky has changed the URL to wackyjacky.etsy.com…easier to remember!!

Wacky Jacky’s Sock Monstahs
Here’s my sock monstah, Gabrielle…seriously…so cute:

Here’s some of the others she has made:

Again, all proceeds go to charity. Jacky is doing the relay for life (Team “Electric Avenue”) in June and after that she plans to continue making the Monstahs for various charities.

Royal Purple, Candy Apple Red, Black, Black/Hot Pink, HOT pink, True Blue…

Coming soon: Light Green, Grass Green, Blue Sparkle and white!

(I’m on a roll over here people.)

I’m also going to be announcing a little “FIND ME” contest for earring prizes at Maryland Sheep and Wool…details coming! Better less-promotional post coming…

So I was mere rows away from completing the body of my Central Park Hoodie last night when I noticed the cables seemed to be more to the left than they should have been. My dumb ass did the initial set up row wrong and did the entire left front panel WRONG. FAIL. SUCK.

So I frogged the whole damned thing, re-did the set up rows and angrily plowed though 2 chart repeats before I put down the needles and backed away slowly. Angry knitting = tension change. I have learned this over the years.

So what did I do? I cast on another project. Meet my French Market Bag:

That’s the bottom which I have been knitting since last night non stop. This is my first knit with KP Wool of the Andes since I was a newb and I am REALLY enjoying it. I don’t know why, but I’ve got a new found love for straight up WOOL. Plus the color (Merlot Heather) is gorgeous.

As for the cat, yes…he is dead serious about making that face at me, but in all fairness, I did stick Zoe’s new skater hat on him just before I took the picture. Fair is fair.

The skater hat is crocheted, from my wists, and came from my awesome partner in Craftster’s current Crafty Detective swap. I’m mid craft for my partner but I’m not posting anything about it until she gets her stuff so I don’t ruin any surprises. I got some great stuff including tiny crocheted earrings, furry bear feet booties for baby A, a cute market bag, and that bad ass skully potholder from Stitch N Bitch Happy Hooker…

There’s a reason I wisted that hat…could she look any cuter?

I don’t believe she could.

If you’d like to see what else I got, visit my Flickr. I can’t sit here another moment as my husband has graduated to “hard” mode on Guitar Hero III and I can’t take the bunk notes any longer without rocketing into a hormone-induced rage.

I’ll leave you with something fellow New Englanders wait a long time each year to see…a sign of Spring:

Just a quick note to say thanks to those buying up the Lick My Sticks earrings! I donated money to the Ravelraiser going on at Ravelry from your sales and I will continue to do so! I’m off to the craft store tomorrow to pick up some new colors so keep an eye out for that!
BTW- In just about 5 days, Ravelers have raised over 34,000 dollars and taken Ravelry out of debt and bought it a new faster server! Never underestimate what knitters in large numbers can do!

Here’s another FO, I actually finished this last weekend but I’ve been lazy about posting it.

• Pattern: Sizzle by Wendy Bernard of Knit and Tonic
• Size: Small
• Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport (5 balls) in “Sage”
  Needles: US7 circulars
• Modifications: None

Beautiful top that this is, that is my last Sizzle. I am definitely not a knit-something-twice kinda gal, especially something with a lot of stocking stitch! I’m unhappy with the way the neck looks. The Shine yarn is not very forgiving so it really seemed to show and slightly bigger stitches and despite 3 frogs of the picked-up neckline it just never looked as neat as my first one. BUT, with no swatching or measuring- it fits Mom like a glove and it looks really nice on her! Take that everyone who yells at me to swatch. Mission: success.

This week it has been all Central Park Hoodie all the time. I’ve completed the back, right front panel and I’m about to start the charts for the left front panel. It’s actually moving along pretty quickly. (Funny how that happens when you actually KNIT the thing, eh?)

Aside from that, I’ve been making some new Lick My Sticks earrings. I was planning to anyway but I got a boost when Miss LotusKnits wore her pair to the Yarn Harlot book launch last week and ended up getting a lot of “where’d you get those?” She was awesome enough to spread the word so now I’ve got some emails coming in looking for earrings. Here’s what I did tonight- no ear wires yet, I need to pick some up. I’m only buying sterling silver from now on, so there’s some more bang for your buck.

Like I said, they need a quick polish and some ear wires, but hey! I got some done. (These things are the bane of my existence and involve a good 2 hours of foul language and a lot of AAAARRRGGGGGHHHH’s…but I love the way they come out.) They’ll be up on my etsy for 10 smackeroos.

I spent the day in the darkroom at school printing off some older shots for my wall-of-black-and-whites I have dancing in my head. (Can you say nesting urge?) I also neurotically went through my Ravelry queue filling in all the yardage and specs for EVERYTHING so I can print off a final copy for Maryland Sheep And Wool.

I will leave you with the art my daughter just showed me. (Yes, I’m working on nailing “you’re” and “your” into her head) This is for her friend Britt:

And this…is for her sister: I don’t know why this made me laugh so hard but it did. Kids are hilarious.Oh and my friend had her baby yesterday morning, welcome to the world, Isis!!!

Blossom for Isis

• Pattern: Blossom from Magnits [link][ravelry]
• Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Sport in “Blush”
• Needles: Size 5 and 7
• Made for: Isis (friend’s baby)
• Modifications: I changed the construction a bit. I didn’t like the ribbon tie in the back idea so I sewed the right panel to the left seam just at the bend and used a ribbon to tie the other panel off at the right side. I substituted embroidery for cute buttons out of laziness and for an excuse to use these cute buttons.

Also: Sorry to anyone that’s getting double emails from me. Something is wrong with this stupid mouse and it’s double clicking EVERYTHING (or not clicking at all) which is proving to be the most irritating thing ever.

I plan to finish Mom’s Sizzle today, so expect another FO soon. So far mission Clean Slate is going well! The WIP list stands at:

1. Clapotis
2. Blossom
3. Mom’s Sizzle
4. Central Park Hoodie
5. Jaywalkers
6. Hoodie Scarf
7. Branching Out II