Runs With Needles

Vacation

I'm on vacation from work until July 5th. Yay!! My parents roll into town tomorrow, so I probably won't be on the computer for the next week or so.

Until I return, I leave you with this.

Watch it and be afraid.

Very afraid.

:-)

posted by Kathy at 6/26/2005 12:17:00 AM | 4 comment(s)

Non knitting, but very important rant.

If you own property, please educate yourself on this.

I am infuriated by this decision. It basically allows wealthy developers to take your home so they can build what they wish.

And do you really think you'll get fair market value for your property?

Another thing that makes me angry is that when vacancies on the Supreme Court are contemplated, most people get in a tizzy about the whole abortion issue. Guess what? I don't really care about that issue. It doesn't affect my day to day life.

Legally stealing my house? That, my friend, affects my life.

I hope to have knitting content either tonight or tomorrow. With pictures, of course. (Otherwise Kirsti gets mad at me.)

posted by Kathy at 6/23/2005 11:14:00 AM | 4 comment(s)

Summer night

The unbearable heat of the day has given way to a gorgeous evening. It's pleasant (71 degrees) outside, with a light wind blowing, the moon shining brightly and a spectacular lightning show to the north. Max and I just sat outside on the deck and enjoyed the night.

Hmmmm....I just admited in public that I was sitting in the moonlight with my dog. Some would call that sad. I call it a damn fine way to spend the evening. :)

I've been a knitting maniac lately. Yesterday at the Knitters With Altitude meeting, I worked on the Crayola Blanket:



Mucho thanks to Anti-Kathy for showing me how to fix a mistake. I would link to her blog, but she doesn't have one! She definitely needs one. Anti-Kathy is funny as hell. She's currently knitting a chicken hat. Wouldn't you love to see pics of that?

I've also been working on J's baby blanket:



September is drawing closer, so I need to knit faster on this!

And now, some new projects are making their blog debuts:

The A Touch Of Red Ruffle Blanket:



I'm doing the pattern from the Purple Ruffle Blanket and using navy blue, with small, random stripes of bright red.

The Summer Somethin' Project:



If I continue to love this project, it will be a shawl for me. If not, it will become a blanket for Warm The World. This is Lion Brand Microspun yarn in the colors lime and coral. The colors didn't show up very well in the pic.

The Blue 'n Purple Scarf:



A totally mindless project. I knit a row or two on this when I'm waiting for the dogs to finish up outside, before I leave for work, etc. I really like how the two colors are mixing.

I also cast on this scarf pattern four times. But, apparantly I'm a moron (or the heat is melting the brain cells) because I messed it up every single time. It's been frogged and the yarn is now put away, so I did not hurl it out the window.

I should probably warn my blog readers that they're in for about three months of me bitching about the heat. I'm a native of The Great White North. I can't take anything above 80 or 85 degrees. Granted, I don't miss the harsh winters that I left, but I do not like that heat of a Colorado summer. It's the one thing I don't like about Colorado.

Today I set up my 'beat the heat' system:

Fan one is directed at me:



Fan two is to circulate the air:



Also, note that fan two is pointing directly at the dog beds. I am a well trained dog owner. Kishka enjoyed the fan today:



The other night it was very windy and the clouds were looking pretty cool:





And Sam was looking very photogenic:



I also took a picture of myself, waving at all of you:



:-)

posted by Kathy at 6/19/2005 10:51:00 PM | 6 comment(s)

Have I mentioned that I hate heat?

This, makes me cranky:



Today I am sitting in front of fans, knitting, watching "Sex And The City" DVD's and bitching to the dogs about the heat.

A photo filled post will be written later today.

If the godforsaken heat lets up.

posted by Kathy at 6/19/2005 01:31:00 PM | 0 comment(s)

I'm not the slut I thought I was.

Apparantly, I'm not a project slut. After reading the comments on my Project Slut post, I realized that I merely aspire to be a project slut. And in case you're wondering, Anne is the Project Slut Queen. She has fourteen projects on the needles. Can anyone top that?

I never put more than four or five projects on the needles because I didn't think I should (how anal retentive is that?) and because I had limited needles. Well, now I have Denise Needles, so I've decided to start a project everytime I get a good idea for one. So, in the past couple of days I have started the Summer Somethin' Project and the Blue 'n Purple Scarf (I frogged the Blurple Building Blocks Blanket and am reusing the yarn). Want to see pictures of my new projects?

You can't. I know. Now I'm a tease. I have limited time tonight and if I take time to do a picture filled blog, I won't have time to knit. I'm sure you understand my priorities.

I'm also going to start another scarf tonight. I have some rose colored Wool-Ease that is calling to me.

I had some wonderful comments on my Purple Ruffle Blanket. Thank you. :) Maus commented that I knit this one 'quite fast'. Um, not really. I started it last October and was not inspired to knit it until I began my torrid love affair with Denise . Then it finished up very quickly.

I also know that I am not going to take the Purple Ruffle Blanket to the Immoral Knitters With Altitude group meetings. Felicia pretty much threatened to steal it. Speaking of the lovely Felicia. Go check out her new blog . That girl ain't right.

Jane inquired about whether the pattern for the Purple Ruffle Blanket is online. Why, yes, it is! I did modify the pattern a tad. I loathe small needles, so used sizes 5 and 15 instead of 3 and 13.

Finally, I want to give a shout out to Melanie. Keep your chin up and take care of yourself and that adorable baby of yours. :)

posted by Kathy at 6/15/2005 08:36:00 PM | 5 comment(s)

Not guilty does not mean innocent

First O.J., now Michael.

What the hell is wrong with juries in California? I just don’t get it.

How many more boys must be sexually molested before this man is stopped?

Forgive my tangent into the non-knitting world, but this really pissed me off.

posted by Kathy at 6/13/2005 03:24:00 PM | 5 comment(s)

Finito!

What: Purple Ruffle Blanket
Yarn: One ball of Lion Brand Pound of Love in the color lavender
Needles: # 5 and #15
Lesson Learned: Straight needles are the debil. I hated this project until I switched it to Denise Needles . Now, I'm going to make another ruffle blanket!

This blanket is destined for Warm The World, unless my friend J's ultrasound is wrong and she has a girl. She saw this blanket when she was here and loved it. I may make one for her in a different color.

Kirsti came up with the coolest term: Project Slut. She blogs about being a project slut today and it cracked me up! I'm definitely a Project Slut, too. I only have four things on the needles right now. :)

I've been working exclusively on the Purple Ruffle Blanket, so don't have any progress on my other blankets. However, I'm now keeping the Sassy Stripes Scarf next to my bed and I knit at least one row each night before I go off to dreamland. Here's the scarf, lounging in the sunlight:



I really like how this is turning out, but I hate the size 3 needles.

I was watching DVD's the other night and all of a sudden found myself modifying the Instant Gratification Scarf:



Much better, no?

To those of you keeping count, the projects currently on my needles are: The Sassy Stripes Scarf, the Blurple Building Blocks Blanket, J's baby blanket and the Crayola Blanket. None of these are calling to me, though. I may have to cast on something new!

In non-knitting news, here's a better picture of the hole in my kitchen window:



After I took the picture, I taped the outside of the window, covered it with cardboard and then covered the whole thing with duct tape. We've had a storm since I patched it and it's holding up perfectly!

Pioggia asked if my insurance will cover the window. My deductible is $1000, so no, it won't. I haven't even called to see how much a new one with cost. As long as my patch job holds, I'll postpone it as long as I can. My budget doesn't exactly have room for a new window right now.

Another casualty of the storm was the two side mirrors on my car. Thank goodness it wasn't one of the car windows!

Here's a pictures of the Shepherds, lounging after a fun game of fetch:

posted by Kathy at 6/07/2005 09:26:00 PM | 10 comment(s)

Someone pissed off Mother Nature.

All afternoon today I was looking forward to this evening. I was going to knit my knuckles off and then do a blog post related entirely to knitting!

However, that was not how I spent my evening.

There was a tornado watch when I got home, so I found all of my emergency supplies (cat carrier, dog leashes, flashlight, cell phone, etc) gathered them together and put them by the basement stairs. (I do this whenever there's a tornado watch.) I wasn't concerned, though. I've lived here since 1999 and only run for the basement once. (For the local readers, I spent 7 hours in the basement the night Ellicott got hit by a tornado three years ago.)

Then I took some pictures of the approaching storm.







Just after snapping these pictures my weather radio sounded an alarm and announced a tornado warning and gave the location of a rapidly rotating thunderstorm. The location was over my house. Yikes. So, I threw the cats into the carrier, leashed up the dogs and took off for the basement.

The cats were not amused.



About 30 minutes later, I came upstairs and surveyed the damage. There was hail piled up in my yard and two screens were torn off north facing windows. And, my kitchen window took a direct hit from a hail stone. (You can see the hole just under the glare from the flash.)



Luckily, it's a double pane window and only the outer pane was broken and cracked. After I taped the window, I emailed my brother (his house survived three hurricanes last year so I consider him an expert on securing windows) and followed his advice.



(Yes, those are Priority Mail boxes. My apologies to the postal service, but it was the only cardboard in the house!)

I ran out of duct tape, so am going to take tomorrow morning off work to buy more tape and finish the patch job. There's more storms predicted for tomorrow and I'd rather not have the whole damn window shatter.

In knitting news, the Purple Ruffle Blanket is coming along wonderfully!



I'm going to keep knitting on this blanket and will hopefully finish it this month.

Kirsti and Melanie asked about how I like the Denise needles. I love them!!! I'm enjoying the Purple Ruffle blanket again and it's just so much easier to change needles. I should have bought them ages ago.

Thank you to Pioggia for reminding me that I actually do finish projects. Some days I feel like all I do is start new ones!

Felicia has the same source of hand pain that I do. :) Since I stopped using straight needles, I'm not longer having hand and wrist pain. Thank goodness. I don't want to limit my knitting!

posted by Kathy at 6/02/2005 10:55:00 PM | 7 comment(s)