Friday Miscellany

Okay, there's gotta be an easy way to reply to comments on Blogspot. Is there a setting or something I need to change? (The FAQ and poking about with different combinations of layouts isn't helping.) What really obvious thing am I missing here? Or is LJ really just that much more advanced? I'd actually like to be able to reply to the comments I get, even if it's just a "thanks!" or "ooooo, neat!"

In book news, whilst searching for Yarn Harlot Audiobooks/files, I disclovered Free Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again, available fall, 2008, in hardback. Hmmmm. May have to preorder that. Also looks like "Yarn Harlot" isn't an *available* audiobook (drat), so will have to figure out if I'd rather have "Knitting Rules" or "Meditations for Women who Knit Too Much" on the iPod attached to the shiny new exerbike. (Seriously. I have speakers for my iPod now; they came with this cool exercise bike attached.)

Also, In all the moving things around on Wednesday, I found my Britney purse, and I couldn't figure out if I'd shown it here or not (I don't think so, not since it got lined), so ta-dah!!


And the matching eyeglass case. I just *adore* this color green!


It's going to look so cute with my finished Britney top, once it gets warm enough to wear it!

The house ate my yarn.

Out sick yesterday. In between bouts of much-needed sleep, I pulled apart the parts of the house I could easily reach, looking for the little Michael's bag containing the other two skeins of Paton's "Allure" (colorway had "rose" in the name - but I don't think it was "Rose Quartz", since it was peachier in tone - and there was a lot number, I know there was...) that I tracked down when I was one repeat into the scarf. As it turns out, I really only needed *one* extra ball, since I got four repeats out of the first one, and I really only need seven... but hey, if I put an edging on it, it'll be a shawl, right? Ooo, will do that. Anyway, can't, due to no yarn. Pfeh. This is exactly one ball of Paton's "Allure" in the Travelling Roses Scarf pattern. Here's how it looks right now, accompanied by a shot of my lovely "stained glass" back door:


Since I couldn't move far after all the non-yarn-finding exertion, I ended up going back to SotS-II, fixing the stitch I'd dropped, and continuing on. I'm about 1/3 of the way through Hint #3 at this point.


You'll note I was a good bunny, and didn't start something *new* just because the house ate my yarn! (And I thought about putting sleeves, or starting to, on the Cat Sweater, hence its appearance in the photo above. Thankfully, that impulse passed.)

(pretend it's Wednesday)

Out sick yesterday, thus blog twice today.

Drat Silkweaver's Fabric of the Week! It's Mocha, possibly my favorite for actually stitching stuff on. And it's still Lent. Darn!

In unrelated news, I figured out my problem (well, one of them, anyway): I want to have knit a sweater this week. As in, "have a completed sweater magically fall off my knitting needles, without having to stress much about it". Yeah, I'm a dreamer.

I found a couple I like: the Dovetail Pullover from the Spring '08 Interweave Knits; Mariah or Josephine from Knitty. (Josephine might actually happen someday, actually.) Or I could do something really, really radical: finish one of the sweaters that I'm working on. Specifically, finish the bloody sleeves! I've got two sweaters in almost-sweater form at present:

The Stoplight Sweater Just Needs Sleeves!

The Cat Sweater Just Needs Sleeves!

Okay, the Stoplight Sweater also needs to be steeked and its zipper put in; the Cat Sweater needs to be steeked and its button band put in. But that's really not all THAT much. And I could have two sweaters, both of which would be really nice to have since it's STILL bloody cold here!

For folks who actually *do* knit things and finish them, check out Teeny Project Runway. I think I like the argyle sweater on Kermit the Frog best, but Molly the Sheep in her string bikini is ...something, too!

UFO sightings (and not)

So I figured out something as I looked at my UFO list yesterday. I have a lot of UFOs. (Okay, we all knew that. Hush.) The majority of them can be divided into three categories: (1) too big/heavy to haul around; (2) involving complex beading/tweeding that doesn't travel well and (3) "I can't see the bloody thing but I know it's in here somewhere." (Quite a few projects are in more than one category, mostly because I know they're in the craft room... somewhere. If I actually get around to moving the Huge Pile of Boxes that's taken over the floor in there, I'd probably be able to put my paws on 90% of the listed items within five minutes. It's that "moving the Huge Pile of Boxes" thing that's causing the problem.) The annotated list of projects is presented below. Items in bold I can both find *and* are small enough to carry around. Items with an asterisk (*) I can find, but there's a part missing or about to run out.

1. Sanctuary/Drawn Thread (1),(3) 2. Pocahontas "Proud Princess" (3) 3. English Knot Garden (1) 4. Guenivere (3) 5. Tiffany Wisteria Window #1 (3) 6. Autumn Sampler - Twisted Threads OCSJ class project (3) 7. Welcome Friends (1),(3) 8. Spirit of Christmas (1),(3) 9. "Castle Sampler" (1),(2) 10. "Day" (2),(3) 11. "Unicorn" ("Night Watch") (2),(3) 12. "Peacock Tapestry" (2),(3) 13. "Arcadian Angel" (2),(3) 14. "Dreamcatchers II" (2),(2) 15. "Fairy Tales" (1),(2),(3) 16. "Waiting for Ships/Mermaid of the Pearls" (1),(2),(3) 17. "Autumn Queen" (1),(2),(3) 18. "Angel of Christmas" (1),(3) 19. "Wedding Sampler" (3) 20. "W - Christmas Signpost" (3) 21. "Angel of Hope" (FIL) (1),(3) 22. "Mysterious Spirit Woman" (1),(3) 23. "Abundant Acorns" (2),(3) 24. "Once Upon a Time" (The Fairy's Secret Love) (2),(3) 25. "Tropical Dreams" (1),(3) 26. Stoney Creek Chivalry Sampler (2),(3) 27. Water Dragon (from M) (1),(3) 28. Pocahontas "Beautiful Braids" 29. Tiffany Wisteria Window #2 (1),(3) 30. Firebird (3)

31. M&I's Sampler (3) 32. "MS 2000" (1),(2),(3) 33. Eight "Joy" Ornaments (JCS Ornament issue '06) (3) 34. Six Williamsburg Mini Ornaments (2),(3) 35. Lounging Leopard Rug (1),(2),(3) 36. White "Bagaria" Afghan (1),(2),(3) 37. Illusion Dragon Blanket (1),(3) 38. Stoplight Sweater, Take III (1),(3) 39. The Cat Sweater/"Kitty Love" (1) 40. Secret of the Stole (3) 41. Peacock Scarf (3) 42. Traveling Rose Scarf * 43. Secret of the Stole II 44. September 11 Patriotic Shoo-Fly Quiltlet (1),(3) 45. Optical Illusion Squares Quilt (1),(3) 46. Block-Of-The-Month/ Red, Green, Gold (3) 47. Blue Triangles Quilt (1),(3) 48. "Northwoods Challenge" Quilt (1),(3) 49. A Very Broncos Christmas (3) 50. Quilt Block Exchange Quilt (1),(3) 51. Quilted Christmas Chessboard (3) 52. Dragonfly Window (1),(3) 53. Bargello Flames Bag (1),(3) 54. "Partridge in a Pear Tree" stocking (1),(3) 55. Fishing Pillow for Dad (1),(3) 56. Peacock Mandala Canvaswork * 57. Stained Glass Peacock Kit (3)

So, I can actually tell you where about 7% of my UFOs are, and could actually finish, without having to tear the house apart, half of those.
These numbers need some work!

Knitting Out Loud

Knitting Out Loud is a new audiobook publisher that publishes audiobooks about KNITTING! Having checked "No Idle Hands" out from the local library (I think it's overdue - whups!), being able to listen to it would be *much* fun. I do wonder about the pattern book audio books ("patterns not included"), though. Is it bad of me to hope that eventually Stephanie Pearl-McPhee will get into audiobooks? Hm, let's check: She has! Okay, I may have to cave and get Audible after all. *sigh*

On the actual knitting front, I'm about to have a Yarn Emergency. I'm two rows away from finishing repeat #4 of Traveling Roses, and I've probably got enough yarn to get through about a third of repeat #5. SOMEWHERE in my house, there are two more balls of this dye lot (which were a BEAR to get in the first place!)... but I have no idea where they're hiding. And I'd really like to have another three or four repeats on the scarf, too! *sigh*