TAKING BACK [THE KNIT]

Here they are! Some of my favorite pictures from my trip:

On the 2nd of July, we went across the lake to the casino at which my mom's aunt and cousin and various other relatives were staying to see a fireworks show. The picture's of the barge they took out onto the lake loaded down with explosives. Yeah! The show was more than a half an hour, and set to music! Probably the best over-all fireworks show I've ever seen. (I did take pictures of the actual fireworks but they all look the same. And I'm hoping you guys saw your own awesome fireworks for the 4th!)

Walking through the casino parking lot, I saw this. It's a little blurred, but the amazing-ness shows through regardless. I almost fell on the ground laughing when I saw it.

I thought this was an awesome name for a boat. Especially a camouflage one clearly meant for hunting.

This is the "cabin" we stayed in. The motel "RESORT" has regular hotel-style rooms and then ones set apart, like this one. Looks cozy, doesn't it?

Well it WASN'T! This is the view from the side! We were supposed to have a much larger cabin with 4 beds and a living room and all that jazz. We got a room with 2 beds and a tiiiiiny kitchen. (Mind you, there are at least 4 people staying in the room at any given time.) The "resort" fucked up our reservations and then told us it was this or NOTHING! No apologies, no offers to comp anything! We have stayed at this place every year for the last 20+ years, before I was even born. And this is what we got. They recently changed ownership, and the new people SUCK! Needless to say, we are looking for a new, cheaper, and better place for next year. I was going to take a picture of the divot in the floor, the cracks in the ceiling, and all of the other shit that was falling apart, but didn't get a chance.

This is the view out of one of our painted-shut windows.

Once again, needless to say, with so many people crammed in such a tiny space there were a lot of arguments, some yelling, and WAY too much snoring. I had the oppurtunity to come home early, and really should have taken it. Eight days is too long for a vacation with family!

Knitting content: next time!

I'm back! And I'm currently in the {long} process of uploading pictures. I will have quite the tale of fucked up resevations, my crazy family, some sunburning, and lots of intertubing.

 I bet you won't believe it, but I didn't knit all week. I started something new, and ripped it out after a few rows. I did a little bit of embroidery, but I was generally not feeling crafty. Anger and sheer frustration will do that to a girl.

i will be back on july 8th. hopefully i will have tons of pictures and fun stuff to talk about!

That is what the termometer on my patio said yesterday. Keep in mind that it was in direct sunlight. But STILL! I live in Northern California, not the face of hell Arizona. The temperature in my pool is a staggering 88°! It's practically a hot tub. And it's not heated in any way (other than the sun shining on it, of course). This afternoon, the temperature in my boyfriend's house (without an AC) was 101°. IT'S TOO HOT!

It's 2:30 in the AM, I'm not tired, and I am seriously considering drinking a glass of iced tea. I think I will get to sleep some time around ... Thrusday.

In addition to the heat around here, it also seems to be spider season. I have killed upwards of ten spiders in my house THIS WEEK. Yes, there are screens on our windows. No, there is no real reason they should all want to be in here like thousands of tasty flies to eat. Unless they're just in here to cool off. In which case, I can't really hold it against them but they definitely picked the wrong house to venture into.

And then there is this, because that's just how I roll. I'm a list-making mother fucker. Kind of an update on the to-do list.

I'm going on vacation in 6 days, and I'm trying to figure out which projects I'd like to start and take with me. I'm thinking I'd finally like to do some embroidery again. I have some waste canvas for cross-stitch but I'm not sure what I'd like to stitch on. Hm ...

 I started a Nautie with some Caron Simply Soft I had lying around, and I'm going to use some of the yarn I got from my great grandma for the face. It's going well, but I really dislike DPNs in tight spaces.

 Back to that vacation thing, I am leaving for 8 days starting July 1st. But the way I blog, you'll never know I'm gone!

to be sitting with a heat pack on one's lower abdomen in 90°+ heat. But sometimes it happens. I guess it is better than the alternative, as any parent could tell you.

ANYWAY, since I've been out of school all I have done is knit, watch tv, and party. Things are either incredibly hectic and busy or I don't even get dressed for days on end. I've got a number of projects going: SitCom Chic in a wool/cotton blend, a bag/purse thing I am making up as I go along in Patons Classic Merino, and my mom's afghan is STILL not finished. I believe I am still on the same square I was the last time I posted.

I went to Michael's yesterday and bought some stuffing for a future Nautie or two. I'm excited about that; I have never knit a stuffed animal before. However, I'm not letting myself start it until I finish something else. Preferably the afghan.

I bought two balls of Lion Cotton, the Lion Brand equivalent of Sugar and Cream, in this summery and cute turquiose color and I have NO idea what to do with it. It's so heavy! I've thought about a Lelah skirt, but I don't want to sew in a lining and all that. I am dying to knit something for summer, but I'm at a loss as to what. I pretty much dress for fall all year 'round, so that also leads to other issues like whether I will have anything to wear with something turquoise and knitted and whether I would actually wear it.

I should update that to-do list and compare it to what I have actually done. You guys will definitely find it hilarious!

and printed out 103 pictures at the one hour photo deal before going shopping. paid for them and all. and left without picking them up. BRILLIANT!

And this is one of those times. This entry has taken a couple of days. The combination of my super-slow dial-up and having to stop and save my entry every few minutes is slow going. Especially where pictures are involved. A plus: I figured out how to upload my pictures without bs resizing them. sah-weet!

FINISHED! 'Sassy Socks'

yarn: Moda Dea "Sassy Stripes", hence the name. Totally unrelated to the Sassy Stitchess, Kaitlyn. Although I thought of her every time I looked at the word sassy on the label.

Pattern: "Pippi Kneestockings" from Stitch N Bitch.

neddles: US3. bigger than the pattern recommended, but I am a big girl. leg/foot-wise at least.

I love these socks! They turned out so well, especially for a first pair. They are a little bit big, and they don't stay up as well as I like, but I'm still in love with them. The yarn was okay, very acrylic-y, but still soft. The stripes turned out wonderfully, minus and error on my part. But we will get to that part in a second. I love that first picture. It came out so well, just using the self-timer and putting the camera on the ground. Although, the ice chest in the background isn't the best back drop.

In the course of taking pictures of the socks, I realized I intended to wear them for dance and I should take pictures dancing in them. This was the result. Now, while that may look impressive, if you know anything about Highland dancing you could probably nit-pick 4537943 things with it. But I'm stopping before I get started.

For some reason when I joined a new ball right after turning the heel on the first sock, I didn't get it at the right part in the stripe progression. The one on the left is the one with the fuck-up; the one on the right is perfection, so if you look (not-so) closely, you can see there are two sections of the salt-and-pepper bits with a thin black stripe. I couldn't figure out why the colors weren't matching up when I was starting the toe decreases on the second sock, and then realized what I did. I just really shit the bed on that one. I figure it's not like I'm wearing these with any shoes that the foot would show anyway, so it is no big deal. But I felt like a dumbass. I clearly was not thinking.

The top of the knitty surprise tea cosy made me think "nipple!" as soon as I looked at it. I've been thinking about knitting one of my tea-drinking friends a tea cosy but I'm not sure about that one. Maybe I could purposely make it look like a boob. That could be mildly funny. :/

One of my friends requested a sweater [STOKED!] with 3 x's on the chest, as he is straight edge. I'm thinking I'm going to base it off the "Jesse's Flames" sweater in SnBN (with no flames, of course) since those books seem to be the only think I've been knitting from lately. I buy magazines all the time, I have a few books, there are beaucoup magazines and free patterns online, yet I seem to end up knitting out of these books a lot. I guess that's good. I just feel like some new jack knitter who just picked these books up and started knitting. It is kind of weird to think that I was actually knitting before those books came out. Makes me feel good. Like I did it before the trend, and that somehow validates me. I'm weird like that. ANYWAY, I am excited about this. I am not a sweater or scarf wearer, so I would like to knit them for other people more often.

Speaking of knitting for other people, I picked up my mom's afghan again, for the first time since I broke my hand. It's the aran afghan from knitty gritty/diy network (too lazy to find a link). I think I was originally going to finish it in time for her birthday (August 12th!) LAST YEAR, but it ended up being pushed off 'til Christmas, then I broke my hand. Then I thought maybe Mother's Day. Nope. It's like the never-ending project. I've got 4 squares left, and I will be done with this motherfucker! I'm aiming for the end of the month, although setting a goal to be done seems to be my downfall. I've got most of the boring pieces done, so it should be entertaining going from here. BUT here is my real qualm with this pattern: why design an afghan that will be 16 pieces, with only patterns for SEVEN squares?! I mean, at least with 8 you can just repeat everything twice, but now I either get to do everything twice and two squares three times, or to design one my own. That really wouldn't be too hard, but it would be a pain in the ass. I don't want to crunch numbers to find gauge and increases/decreases for something like this. So I'm not sure what I want to do. I am getting bored enough to want to design, though.

In the process of getting started again with this afghan, I started and finished my boobholder adaptation without even a mention of it here. [Maybe I have mentioned it, but not in detail, I don't believe.] I will take pictures once I get the rest of the ends woven in, and I tink the bind-off of one sleeve, as it is too tight. It de-stashed the rest of my red Cotton Ease. I really love that yarn. I still have a little less than a ball of blue left. Ideas?

More pictures next time I post. I have been out of school since Monday {fuuuuuck yeah!} so I have had a lot of time to craft in general, and thus have shit to take pictures of. :)