Runs With Needles

Misdiagnosis

Remember a few posts ago when I said I had Startitis?

I was wrong.

I have knitting ADD.

I have started more projects.

Here is a Booga bag:


And Roger:


The still unamed socks that I have started FOUR times because I'm too dim to do K1P1:



And a shawl which I will cast on soon:



I have made progress on the Falling Leaves Blanket:


Speaking of the Booga bag, I have been wanting to make one of these for forever. However, one line in the pattern kept stopping me: "Knit 5-6 feet of i-cord."

Five to six FEET of i-cord? I would rather gouge my eyes out with flaming dpn's than knit that much i-cord. The three feet that I knit for my little green bag damn near killed me.

I know that there's no law that says you have to use i-cord on Booga, but I do love the look of it. I just hate knitting it.

Anyway......I dove into the Booga bag, hoping I would learn to love i-cord by the time I had to knit it.

And no, it didn't work.

So, this evening I dragged myself to Hobby Lobby to buy some 10.5 dpn's. As I was looking for the needles, something called my name. I turned, and saw this:




It's an i-cord factory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, that's not the offical name, but trust me. That's what it is.

It was only $6 more than the dpn's, so I grabbed it and damn near skipped out of the store.

All the way home I was fretting. I'm a bit of a major cheapskate and this was a lot of money for something I could do by hand. I worried my way over the 40+ miles home.

I needn't have worried. I am in love with this thing!!! I made this much i-cord:



in LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was worth every cent that I paid. I-cord is fun! I *heart* i-cord!

(Note to the KWA-ers, if you need to make i-cord, I will be happy to share. :) )

Also at Hobby Lobby, I found this:



And promptly turned it into a dpn case:



(Another note to my knit group: if any of you want these buttons, let me know. I have no use for them.)

I'm excited about this weekend. I plan on making it to knit group on both Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday will be sad, though. We will be saying goodbye to Ann. She's moving away. Hopefully it's only for a few months because she will be missed.

Lots.

Kishka was being really cute tonight, so I snapped a picture. Unfortunately, I take pictures about as well as I K1P1:

posted by Kathy at 9/29/2005 08:29:00 PM | 6 comment(s)

Disappointment.

"The Amazing Race" used to be my favorite reality show and one of my favorite TV shows.

Until last night.

It's not the Family Edition that has soured me on the show. It's a combination of two things.

The first is that they haven't left the U.S. yet and I've heard rumors that they never leave North America. WTF? I noticed that Phil didn't say his usual "racearoundtheworld" last night. He said "a race for million dollars".

My main problem with this season is the casting. These families suck. Some lowlights:

* If the family of sisters does not stop shrieking, I will watch this show on mute. I am not kidding. They are worse than a group of 7th grade girls.

* If the New Jersey family (with 2 teenage sons) does not get Philiminated soon, I may stop watching the show. The sons are so disrespectful that my jaw dropped more times that I can count. They were telling their parents to 'shut up' and that they are stupid.

* If the widow and kids do not stop praying to Jesus to help them on the Race, I will go postal. This mother repeatedly professes how important her faith is and then spent two hours last night asking for Jesus to help them find a highway and not get Philiminated. WTF. As one of my favorite web sites says: Jesus can't help you. He's in the tub.

I don't know what happened during casting and creation of this season, but the producers have gone horribly wrong.

Thank goodness "Lost" lived up to my expectations last week. Well, except for the fact that Sayid didn't take off his shirt. :)

No knitting pics yet. Frankly, I'm too lazy to find the camera.

posted by Kathy at 9/28/2005 05:43:00 AM | 5 comment(s)

Let's read!

It’s banned books week! How many have you read?

I’ll keep my rant short: if parents would spend more time PARENTING their children instead of policing the whole damn world, their children and the whole world would be much better off.

As for all the Judy Blume books on the banned books list: I read all of those books, multiple times, as a child and teenager. Far as I can tell, they didn’t send me down the moral road of hell. In fact, several of my childhood favorites are on the banned list.

I went over the list I linked to above and found that I’ve only read 22 of the banned books. I’ve got some catching up to do.

In knitting content: I’ve cast on another blanket, a Booga bag and a pair of socks. Pictures will come later this week.

posted by Kathy at 9/27/2005 10:43:00 AM | 9 comment(s)

No knitting, just a science geek venting.

This is scary. Damn scary.

As I've mentioned before, I'm trained as a biologist and I've studied evolution extensively. My unwavering belief in evolution is directly related to my atheism.

If someone believes in Creationism, more power to them.

However, calling Creationism science is wrong. Creationism is a belief system. It is not science. Anyone who calls it science has obviously never heard of scientific theory. Or if they have, they don't understand it.

There is a generation of children being raised with no understanding of evolution. The schools are scared shitless to even mention it. This is wrong.

If someone wants to teach their child Creationism, that's fine. Teach it at home, in church or in a religious school. Keep it out of public school.

Evolution should be taught in public school. It's science.

And if someone is threatened by evolution being taught to their child? Well, that just tells me that their beliefs aren't very strong to begin with.

posted by Kathy at 9/26/2005 08:39:00 AM | 5 comment(s)

Friday. Glorious Friday.

I've had a wicked case of start-itis this week.

Introducing:

Falling Leaves Blanket





Lily Pad Blanket





Lilac Blanket




and the newly named:



Morning Glory Blanket.

Thank you to Kirsti for suggesting the name for this blanket.

I've been so inspiried by my yarn stash lately. Everytime I think of a blanket idea, I cast on for it. I may be out of ideas now, though.

If you use Firefox, make sure you download the just released update .

There's been a lot of counter surfing around here lately. So, tonight, I booby trapped the counters:



Yes, that's bits of bologna in a mouse trap. The dog grabs the bologna and gets a mouse trap springing at them. I've gotten Max and Kishka in the last hour.

I figure a day or two of this will solve my little problem.

Then again, I may end up with little doggy puddles on the kitchen floor.

posted by Kathy at 9/23/2005 09:43:00 PM | 3 comment(s)

Long time, no blog.

And yes, I have an excuse. I've been a bit a lot testy bitchy from the lack of caffeine. The worst is behind me, though. The withdrawal headaches are just about gone and my mood has stablized. (Last week, I was ready to bitch slap anyone who ventured within 20 feet of me.)

I have cut my caffeine consumption by about 2/3. I'm not cutting it out completely (are you nuts?), but am drinking just a fraction of what I was two weeks ago. Thank you for all of your comments and emails in support and admiration of this. It is very much appreciated.

All of my nervous energy was tranferred to knitting!

Presenting...............................



What: My mom's shawl
Yarn: 3 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun in the color Williamsburg
Needles: 11
Pattern: The first half of the diagonal baby blanket
Lesson Learned: None
Destination: My mom. :)

This was a pretty fast knit. And it was mindless so it was perfect for DVD watching! It's already packaged up and will be in the mail to Michigan tomorrow.

My other projects are progressing, too. Here's my second sock:



I apologize for the blurry photo. I still have a touch of the shakes.

Here's the Touch of Red Blanket:



And introducing:



The blanket that is not yet named. I can't think of a name for this one. Anyone have any ideas? It's shades of pinks, purples and white. It's very pretty, but I'm stumped about a name.
Finally, I picked up a little something at a yard sale last Saturday:



Cost: $3.

SCORE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my best yard sale find ever. I wanted to jump up and down when I saw it, but I stayed cool. Until I got in my car. :)

"Lost" starts tomorrow. I just started watching it this summer and am hopelessly hooked. I can't remember the last time I was so excited about a TV show.

posted by Kathy at 9/20/2005 08:38:00 PM | 7 comment(s)

Jitters

You know those people who always talk about doing something, but never do?

I’m going to stop being that person.

I’ve talked for years about cutting back on caffeine.

I really drink too much of it.

I started cutting back yesterday.

It ain’t pretty.








You’ve been warned.




Of course, this caffeine cutback does not include caffeine consumed at knit group.

posted by Kathy at 9/13/2005 04:56:00 PM | 11 comment(s)

September 11, 2001

posted by Kathy at 9/11/2005 12:01:00 AM | 0 comment(s)

Obsession

For the past week I have been obsessed with making a felted bag. I haven't knit anything else. I was a woman obsessed.

Before felting:





After felting:






Open:





Closed:





The details:



What: Felted bag to carry my sock projects :)
Yarn: Cascade Pastaza. Less than one skein each of colors 042, 059 and 079.
Needles: 10.5 for bag, 8 for i-cord
Pattern: I made it up as I went along
Lesson Learned: This much i-cord will make a girl crazy.
Destination: Me!!


I'm very happy with how this little bag turned out. It is the perfect size for carrying around my sock knitting. (Yes, I am totally obsessed with socks.)

Obviously, I didn't use the yarn I posted last weekend. That's because when I knitted a swatch, the pink yarn bled horribly. So, I picked out two new colors to go with the light green. I'll figure out how to make my pink yarn colorfast later.

posted by Kathy at 9/10/2005 06:35:00 PM | 5 comment(s)

Sock it to me Sunday

My first completed sock!

It's too big, it has ladders and dropped stitches. But it's my first sock and I'm proud. :)

I plan on casting on the mate to this sock today. Unless I get sidetracked by my felted bag.

I've been surfing patterns on the web and haven't found one that I love. So, I'm going to design my own. I was sketching designs last night and even woke up this morning thinking about possibilites. I'm going to felt a swatch of the yarn today to check out the shrinkage. Hopefully by then I'll settle on exactly what kind of bag I want to knit.



Kishka says........

Give a little.

Give a lot.

But just give.

posted by Kathy at 9/04/2005 09:45:00 AM | 4 comment(s)