Lick My Sticks

It’s July and Ravelry is prepping for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Canuckistan by wrestling all those WIPs languishing in the back of our closets!

I am, so help me Bob, going to finish these goddamn scarves. I AM. Maybe.

And of course I will finish, if it kills me and it might, my Forest Canopy Shawl. I have 2 more repeats before I think I’m ready for the edging.

I have yet to knit a stitch but I got some photo work done yesterday and today so I think I’m due some quality knitting time. Team LSG is over 100 strong and already putting in some FOs! Take that L.

For everyone who asked, btw, my other blog is my photography blog/website and it is located at http://pamelahelmephotography.com. I am hoping to curve it toward a teaching site, in the vein of Pioneer Woman but obviously not as cool. (Bar is set high there!) I also post jobs I do and other photo projects. Hope to see some of you over there too!

Latest posts over there include lots of these:

^That one? Turning ONE in 13 days. wtf.

Testing the blog after my being a huge idiot nuked my site (don’t ask). The awesome guy at POEhosting.com came to the rescue (again) so we’re back in business. I’m thinking it may be approaching time to merge both my blogs into one website like the Pioneer Woman does…what do you guys think?

I’m still knitting away on the Forest Canopy shawl, I’m a few repeats away from starting the edging. From there I’ll be casting on for the Featherweight Cardigan and the Favorite Cardigan. I’m all about the cardigans lately.

I got my new rug from CSNrugs.com as previously mentioned for reviewing. I.love.it. Look at how perfect it looks in my living room!

It was really light so when the FedEx guy dropped it off and I was thinking it might be kinda cruddy because of that but it’s not, it’s super thick and squishy and not scratchy like a lot of area rugs are (the type that feel like Red Heart yarn…yuck, this one is not like that). It’s staying put really well too which is awesome, I hate slidey area rugs. The colors are beautiful and it tied my whole sitting area in nicely since I’ve had to push the coffee table against the wall to keep Aiden from tugging at the cable plug. The floor was looking really bare like that and this fixed that up nicely!

The baby and dog won’t get off it either, the baby likes the colors and I think the dog just doesn’t like that it doesn’t smell enough like him yet, jerk.

Look…mmmmm new rug.

Big thanks and props to the people at CSNrugs.com, I am so happy with this rug I’m planning to buy the next size up for the sitting area and move this smaller one behind the couch to the desk/books area. My carpet is nice but it is beige beige beige. This rug really fit the whole room together. Thanks CSN!!

BTW- I got the Radici - Sofia 1453 Beige Rug This size is only 60 bucks! Not too shabby!

ETA: I’ll let you guys know how it does on juice stains. I just caught a cup mid air so I’m thinking that’s inevitable! haha

So I got an email the other day from CSN Rugs saying that they’d send me a free rug if I’d review it honestly on here. Um, yeah! Sign me up! You all know how I feel about interior decorating and I was totally drooling over the rugs on their site for an hour trying to pick one.

I settled on this one. I can’t wait to get it! It’s going to look perfect in my living room. Stay tuned for the review!

In knitting news: I haven’t touched my shawl in about 4 days. I think I’ll break the silent treatment today. I screwed it up like 3 times in a row one night, brutal.

That is if I get through all the photos I need to edit. Bleh.

School has been out only 2 weeks and I’m already back in full knitting mode. Amazing what a little spare time can do, right? I finished off Mom’s Clapotis that I promised her sometime in the early 90’s…alright maybe a year ago…and I’ve already started a new project.

FO: Mom’s Clapotis

• [rav link] [pattern]

• Yarn: KNITPICKS! Wool of the Andes in Mink Heather

• Needle: US8 Addi circulars

• Modifications: Zilch. Although I tried purling the stitches to be dropped instead of using 900 stitch markers…genius!

It blocked beautifully and should keep my forever-frigid mother from shivering in her conference rooms where she swears they have “mistaken us for slabs of meat”.

Now that I’m done with that it is safe to say I will never knit another Clapotis in my life. Not that it’s a bad pattern…I just HATE knitting the same thing more than once.

So I’ve cast on for the Forest Canopy shawl to KAL with LSG in our spin off KAL group on Ravelry. It’s a pretty simple lace pattern I’ve managed to screw up 3 times already. It’s currently on the time-out chair and I’m not speaking to it but I think I’ll get to tinking back those three butchered rows today. I am using a lifeline every repeat but naturally I didn’t feel like getting up to get my dental floss after the last repeat and thought “screw it, I’ll just be careful”. Famous last words.

Here’s some in-progress shots, color correct thanks to the use of a gray card. Finally my yarn photographing nightmares are over. It is Handmaiden Sea Silk I picked up at Maryland Sheep and Wool ‘08.

Speaking of Maryland Sheep and Wool, I forgot to post the photos on here when I got back. Here’s my Flickr set from the weekend. We had a GREAT time! LSG had their first ever after party in the absence of an “official” Rav party. We’re going to do it for every fest now because we just had an amazing time. Not that the official Rav parties weren’t great but there is something about a smaller crowd of “your people”.

And hanging with 4 out of 6 of the LSG Mod Squad was so great. LanieRed and Jo (Multispork) were sorely missed, so we made a video for them. Ignore my drunkface.

Thanks to all the LSGers who came out and made it an amazing time. I’m going to keep the sign I used to draw the crowd at the daytime meetups forever.

Michelle’s LeSlouch [top]

Originally uploaded by Pam Helme

Finished Le Slouch!

If you’re slurping me in a feed-reader, click through and tell me what you think of the new site design. It’s hilariously classy for someone as hilariously un-classy as myself.

I got rid of my books page and all my FO pages. We have Ravelry now and I found a Wordpress Ravelry plug in I’m going to attempt to install. And if you’re not on Ravelry, I’ll obviously still post all my FOs here.

I condensed the Bad Ass Knitter pages to one page. I may end up canning the ring. Webrings are basically obselete lately and it’s a pain to approve people now since RingSurf did away with the code check. I’ve got broken links everywhere…it’s a mess. I dunno…what do you guys think?

I’ll also be cleaning up the side bar, again with Ravelry I don’t post on any of the KAL blogs anymore so I’m going to make room for other stuff in their place! I also lost an ass-ton of stuff when my template commited suicide so I’ve got a few hours of slinging profanity at Wordpress/CSS ahead of me.

Anyway, off to hit my book (btw if you’re on paperbackswap.com, shelfari or goodreads…click the links and add me!)

Oh and Happy Inauguration Day!!

I finally finished off the greuling finger-cramping nightmare Potato Chip Scarf and naturally it was way shorter than it was supposed to be. Fail. But it was cute and I packaged it up for my Obama Scarf swap partner and sent it off with some knitting earrings.

It’s much more blue than that but I took it in unnatural light and now it’s gone, so just imagine it blue-er. It’s alpaca and wool but I accidentally tossed the ball band. Ooops.

I’m currently working on Michelle Black’s yellow hat. Michelle is the beautiful and talented photographer behind The Hideout photography forums and these really amazing actions and presets. I use her Soft Bleach Out action like it’s my job. Anyway, she said she really wanted a mustard yellow slouchy beret type hat so I’m working on a Wendy Bernard Le Slouch for her.

I’m using Knit Picks Swish in a nice yellow, creme brulee or however you spell that.

Next up: Mom’s Clapotis in WotA and a hat for Chilerox’s bald head!

Now I get to go nit pick Zoe’s head because despite meticulous picking and combing for 2 weeks, I just spotted some more nits. Someone kill me plz.

Also watch for a new blog template…this one is broken and I give up trying to fix it. Time for a change anyway!!

I have an FO to post!!

Pattern: Fiery Bolero by Debbie Bliss [rav pattern] [rav project page]

Yarn: Brooks Farm Solo Silk [rav link] [site link]

Needles: Size 5 circs and DPNs for ribbing and uh…8’s? For body

Modifications: I omitted the short rows on the collar because I couldn’t seem to pick up the right # of stitches and saw no need for them anyway. In hindsight I was correct as this looks and fits perfect without them.

I’m mid-packing hell right now so I haven’t been knitting much. However I thought I’d post some swap goodies from the LSG Tacky Ornament Swap from crabbycrocheter (the ever-awesome Jean).

Look at this haul!

I started unwrapping, first came the Poo Poo Paper…which is made from elephant shit. RLY. We tricked Ministicks into rubbing a piece on her face and called her poop face all night. Ah, lolz.

Next the package for Babysticks, which is just so unbelievably awesome…I got a little misty. Then I punched my husband in the face to make up for it. (Kidding)

Babysticks approved:

And next came my ball-o-tacky:

Me approved:

Other goodies, on par with the shit-theme of this swap?

And a surprise for my mother in law which I will give her today on the way to the MFA where I’m meeting up with some other LSG bitches!

Thanks Jean, you are fucking awesome and I will treasure my tacky forever. <3

I’ve also been nesting and packing like crazy over here. We’re hoping to get the keys this weekend. I painted my old plain wood magazine rack, made a wist of my IKEA furniture needs, and whipped up a magazine bowl…which I’ve been wanting to do forever.