A little insight

When my house looks like this after several hours of packing....

I do this...

Its the sweater I was talking about here.

Miss Annie does not like moving boxes, but did agree to pose with my first attempt at a hat for the Tall Guy from about a year ago mentioned here and here.

Calling all knitting readers.

I'm toying with knitting a shawl or wrap for the big "w" in August in case the day turns chilly (it is in NH after all) Can anyone toss a pattern idea my way that covers the following:

• not make me want to poke my eye out
• be fun but, no charts, please
• be lightweight, but not mohair (refer to first bullet)

I've been thinking about the Clapotis, but if so, will be seeking yarn suggestions as well. Something light in colour and I'm not against a little bead/sparkle.

Thank you!

Are you kidding me?????

Yesterday, after a long day of packing, moving stuff around, and dealing with a dog on the verge of a nervous breakdown (dogs don't like moving, esp dogs who were brought to the Humane Society when a previous owner moved), we decided to run a few errands.

We ran the errands, had my wedding dress in the backseat (in a bag, don't worry the Tall Guy didn't see it!) and were sitting at a traffic light about two blocks from my house when I noticed an altercation of some sort happening at the McDonalds. Keeping in mind, we're sitting in the middle of a three-lane-in-one direction road, I don't think too much of this until I see a man sprinting into the intersection straight for our car. The Tall Guy quickly locked the doors and rolled up the cracked windows as the man looked into the car, not really seeming to see us and then held on to the roof rack as the light changed and the Tall Guy made a move to pull out of the intersection. Quick as can be, the man, yelling and gesticulating wildly hopped onto the hood of the car, and slid up so he was sitting on the edge where the roof and windshield meet with this feet resting on the windshield wipers. For a moment, we were dumbfounded, totally perplexed as to what was going on. Carefully, as cars careened around us, the Tall Guy was able to pull off to the side a bit where the man continued to yell at the ghosts he was claiming were following him. As I called 9-1-1 and a crowd was collecting, the man reached into his pocket and pulled out... a beer. No joke. He cracked it open, it went shooting everywhere and I was running through the list of possible outcomes as the 9-1-1 operator took our information and kept saying "So, he's just SITTING ON the roof of your car? For no apparent reason?" to which I said politely, that he appeared to be an intoxicated schizophrenic from my view, through the windshield so anything was possible.

This went on for about 3-4 minutes and suddenly, cop cars came from all directions. The man decided it was time to mosey (seriously there was no urgency in his motion) off the car and as he climbed down nonchalantly, he was promptly tackled by MoCo cops. In the end, there was minor damage to the Tall Guys car with a scratch on the hood, no one was hurt, we had 7 police cars on the scene and my wedding dress is in one piece (my concern, of course). The police said they hadn't quite seen anything like this before, and we headed straight to the car wash to get the beer smell off the car. We were both a bit shaky, but obviously fine. I'm just so happy we didn't have Annie with us, as she tends to flip out when people approach the car... so, in the midst of all our other chaos, the karma gods or someone decided to toss one more thing out there for us this weekend. Let's keep our fingers crossed that that's it for a week or so...

boxes, clothing and yarn... oh my

I'm currently camped out on the Tall Guy's bed in the midst of a lot of boxes and packing materials as its sort of like the "Home Base" in a game of lava from when you were little. (Admittedly, I loved these sorts of games from childhood).
I've escaped my own house for the day because, even though my brain is fine, sometimes its really stressful to be in a non feng shui sort of place for long periods of time.

In the meantime, I've started a new project... I kept looking at this half finished sock, feeling like it wouldn't be good socks. I kept thinking that while I love love love socks, should I really use this yarn with all its silky-goodness on my feet when I could put it somewhere more visible? Well, in the light of my lost chevron, I decided this may make a good scarf. So far, so good, I'd say.
This picture just cracks me up, so I had to share. Annie doesn't appear to have an aggressive bone in her body. Until recently, she also had no idea what to do with a rawhide bone. Well, this week, we finally got her chewing on one and she's hooked. The problem is, the bone is pretty big for her so she had trouble getting it all in her mouth at once, thus resulting in some pretty amusing facial expressions. What can I say, I'm easily entertained.

yarny goodness= good valentine!

The Tall Guy had a package come in yesterday and it was a belated V-day gift for me. I haven't used it yet, but now I am the proud owner of a yarn swift!!! I can now set up my hanks of yarn by putting them on the swift and then spinning it into a ball using my ball winder (last year's birthday gift).

Here's a photo of the swift (from Joann.com, where it came from, saved to my server)

I think there's a reason why I'm keepin' this guy. Most dudes go for flowers or candy (I did get candy too), but this one, he knows the way to my heart is through fibery means. :)

Here's the ballwinder from last year...

I don't have photos of the new toy in action, as I opened it, squeeeda bit and then packaged it back up. With t-minus 9 days to moving, I practiced self restraint and simply packed it up with everything else. Sigh.

have you seen me?

I'm about to put it on a milk carton.. (do they still do that, I wonder??).

I can't seem to locate my chevron scarf anywhere and I love love love this scarf so much! I fear I'm just going to have to knit another one... I do have jitterbug in colorways that would work, but I am so sad to have this one missing!!!

On other topics, we made it back and forth to NH just fine. Tonight, I plan to kick back, pack a box or two and drink a beer. And not talk about the "w".

I'm w-worded out right now. whew!

Tuesday, but its a Thursday in my head!

yay for that! The Tall Guy and I head to NH for the long weekend on Thursday... it should be an adventure! We're driving, with Annie and it will be our longest road trip together to date. We'll be doing wedding-y stuff, but also getting to see friends, hang out with all our parents (Mr and Mrs Tall Guy are coming in too!) and it should be a great time or, at least really funny and entertaining.


Before I space out and forget, here are the socks I finished... they are some comfy! I can see why people are obsessed with Socks that Rock. I'm pretty sure they took me about 2 minutes to knit. maybe 3. I'm pretty down with Magic Loop (or ML) too. For the Muggles out there, ML just means I have reallllllllly long cord on my two needles so I don't have to use all the little pointy sticks. Its just a different technique and it seems to be "faster" for me.
And on the needles now... Another ML sock, this time using a pattern called hmmm... what's it called? I have no idea. Carolina Queen of Naples maybe? I'll have to get back to you on it, because I've already memorized the stitch pattern, its evading me now. For sock knitters out there, its similar to a Jaywalker, but with a yarn over instead of a m1 and a k3tog instead of a ssk/psso.

The Tall Guy keeps looking at these ones and laughing at the colour. I'm kind of in love with them, so I don't care, but they are bright...which is just what I wanted!

Yarn: Storm Moonknits sock, "Pretty in Pink" You can find it here. She's a local indie dyer, who I got to meet at Stitches this year.
The top photo is the best colour representation.

And that's about it for now... back to work, its totally nuts today!

don't worry, I have SOCKS!

Who needs valium when a beer, socialization and some socks can make it all better?
This weekend was busy, but with a good dose fun mixed in. The Tall Guy and I spent time with both sides of our friends (Okay, yes our friends are blending, but there's still "his" friends and "my" friends, you know how it goes), time with each other AND got a bunch checked off on our "to do" lists. On Saturday afternoon, the Tall Guy and Annie went on a grand adventure mountain biking with Rob. Everyone came back tired, happy and in one piece. This time, while slated for errands and house cleaning, managed to also be knitting time for me. Yay!
I finished the basic socks I had been working on and they've already been worn. My camera and I are not in the same place, so pics will wait til tomorrow. In the mental state I have continued to be in, I cast on for another pair of socks right away.
I know... I have baby gifts to finish. I know... I have a scarf for my aunt to finish. Oh well. Right now, socks are what makes my little brain calm and happy, and as the Tall Guy watched me work away, he said "knit.the.socks."
Really, what else needs to be said?

Twelve minutes. That's all I want some days is that twelve minutes of uninterrupted time for just me, on the train with my knitting and ipod.

My aunt told me last night that I was the most laid back bride-to-be she's seen. Apparently I'm putting on a good show, because most days I feel like I'm completely spinning in circles between work being out-of-control-crazy again, starting to pack my house to move, planning a wedding from 500 miles away and still trying to maintain something resembling a normal life with my Tall Guy and pup, still returning phone calls, having dinner with friends etc. Seriously. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.

So, that's why I love my 12 minutes. I knit. I sit. I knit.

I have nothing of interest to show you because all I've knit this week is a sock. Socks, at times like this are all I can handle. By August, I may have a lot of socks.

personal freedom? or wild dog?

Before I hop up on to my soapbox for Monday rant, I'll acknowledge last nights event. Yes, the Pat's lost. And it was a travesty. An upset was bound to happen, and I'm glad it happened to them, and not the Red Sox...

So, every weekend since we've had the little monster, the Tall Guy and I take Annie for at least one good hike on one of DC's trails, or for a good romp in a park. Annie's a great pup, while pulling on the leash, when put on a longer rope (we still hold onto) she rarely strays far. On every single one of these walks, we have at least one encounter with a person who is walking with their dog off leash. Now, I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there is a leash law in both DC and Maryland... oh yeah, I looked and while its not worth linking to, they exist.
That said, I'm not even that worked up about laws being broken, as much as how obnoxious this seems to be to me.
Annie, while wonderful sometimes gets skittesh when approached by other dogs, especially when they are what we only can describe as "nosy" or in her business. If Annie decide one day, when one of these off leash dogs bounds over to her to check her out, to lash out, instead of sitting down and growling under her breath like she normally does, this would somehow be my fault, in the eyes of the off-leash-dog's owner, right? I mean, it shouldn't be, I'm doing the right thing, but lady running with your 150lb Golden Retriever, I really don't care to play with your dog with my dog's ball, just because your dog is nice (and 30ft away from where you're running).
Apparently, I'm not the only one talking about this, but it doesn't seem to slow the situation. Here's a piece from DCist in May. (Where the comments really emphasize my opinion)
Is this me just being picky? Or is it legitimate? Is it a DC thing, since so many of our running/walking trails feel like you're in the woods? Or is it a DC thing because it always feels like so many people here see themselves as self important? I'm just curious. I mean, if we were on a trail in the middle of nowhere, or on a farm, etc, I would love to let my dog run free, but in the parking lot of my apartment complex, all the time? (Yes, this does happen) That's just obnoxious.

Why Hello!

DSCN2178
Originally uploaded by sparklypia

Happy Saturday from Annie!
"Why are you and tall guy working on wedding stuff, you should be playing me ME!"

i heart socks

I had started a sock on Christmas day (new yarn!) trying out the elusive "Magic Loop" technique and then promptly put it down and forgot about it. This week, I was suddenly overcome with a compulsion only knitters with my level of dedication (okay, obsession) understand. I had to knit a sock. There's something totally different about sock knitting then sweater knitting, or hat knitting or what-ever-else knitting and I wanted to work on a sock. So, I picked it up on Tuesday or so , finished the leg, turned the heel and wrapped it up last night. It's the most simple sock I think I've ever knit, as I wanted to fully understand the process without getting bogged down in the pattern and it seemed to work.
The deets: Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight in Christmas Balls, Needles: Addi lace 24 inches in size 2. Pattern, based off of a few things (in teaching myself Magic Loop without the official Magic Loop pamphlet) including Knitty's rpm pattern and the Yarn Harlot's generic sock pattern for basic measurements, though at this point I don't really need them.


I'm continuing to baby knit as well. Below is about 40% of the baby kimono for my future-future niece. Its looking a bit funny now, and I need to go get more yarn this weekend (ugh) but, otherwise, its been a fairly interesting, yet not overly taxing knit. That said, I'm not a big fan of knitting with cotton. Its lack of elastic qualities is killing my wrists.
Its been raining in DC for over 12 hours straight with no signs of stopping at this point. If this had been snow, we woulda' been buried!