Gretel Lost in the Poppies

Been meaning to post this for a long while now but it got lost in the limbo of drafts for the last month.
And Drat. I just wrote an entire post and it got eaten by the wireless connection. Sigh. Frakking internet. Lets try this again. It won't be nearly as witty or insightful as the previous one.

Project: Gretel Lost in the Poppies
Yarn: Fresh From the Cauldron "Field of Poppies"
Pattern: Gretel by Ysolda Teaque

I absolutely love Ysolda. She is a 20something student who manages to make a living off of her designs.
Ysolda will make it into the Hall of Great Knitters.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, the GrandMamma of Modern Knitting is in that Hall.
Stephanie Pearl McPhee will make it. Not necessarily because of her designs (I'll be honest, I'm not familiar with her designs) but because of her voice in the knitting community. Stephanie leads Knitters Without Borders (which donates to Doctors Without Borders), she has been on a late night talk show because of the fact that she started the term "Kinnearing" (or Kinneared) (Greg Kinnear and the host called her to talk about it) - which if you are not familiar is the act of inconspicuously taking the photo of someone. Generally a celebrity. Which I myself Kinneared Howie Mandel in Vegas during my last trip. I didn't even know about the term at the time.

I digress.


I have learned a lot thanks to Ysolda.

I learned to "Trust Ysolda." If she says do something.. Don't over think it. Just do it. (Actually I learned this on another project from Ysolda.. but it worked on this one as well)

I learned how to do a Tubular Provisional Caston. (Come on.. you know you wanna say it like a surfer. Tubular dude!)

I learned that no matter how many times I do the Tubular Provisional Caston (which I have done a lot now), I still need to watch a video of it each time as I don't trust myself enough to do it from memory yet.

I learned how to do Twisted Cables. Which are not easy. But also not entirely hard. But they can be.

I learned not to do Twisted Cables when I'm tired.

Oh... and did I mention that this was my first project with cables??? Yeah. It was. Awesome huh?

I learned that I will be making many of these hats as I love them.

I guess thats all for now. Hopefully this will post and not get eaten. (I'm also going to be smart and copy it into a word doc first) (And thank goodness I did that.. as yes.. it got eaten since it still thought firefox was offline.)

100th post, and huge news!

How very lucky am I that I have huge news, and it also happens to be my 100th post on this particular blog. (Meaning, since I jumped over from Myspace... I don't miss it. I haven't even logged into Myspace in most likely, 2 months)

Yesterday started something major for me.
You've seen it coming.

The Asylum for Wayward Yarn is now up and running. It's a little bare at the moment. I'm working on logos and such like that.

I posted my first set of stitch markers.
A set of 4 Doctor Who "Pinstripe 10" themed gems. I already knew there was interest in them prior to posting them for sale. And guess what, they sold immediately. (didn't get the confirmation until after I came into work, simply because I had to go to bed at my normal time, and I don't have time to check my email before I come into work)
I had already had the package ready to go, it just needed the address, the postage, and the envelope to be sealed.
Mother of Mine has kindly added those last few pieces so that it will go out in the post today instead of tomorrow.

I am excited.

Here are the envelopes ready to go:


I had stopped off at Hobby Lobby on the way home and picked up some more fixings, also so as to pick up some envelope blanks, so that I could decorate them and of course get things shipped out.

Here are the fronts of the notecards:



New set of markers I made last night: and you can also see the inside of the notecards




Beth Turner, and some more Pinstripe 10


Tonight I must work on more of the skeins. If I get time, I will make more stitch markers, but first comes the skeins.
I still haven't gotten my dye pot. I hope it arrives today.
The knitting is going slowly, as the past few nights I've been focusing on *ahem* other things.

The next set of stitch markers, shall be Mick St. John. I look forward to him.
I also plan on having in my shop a "Mix and Match" option, so that, say if people want some of Beth and some of Mick, they can have it.

Alright. Time for me to get cracking at work.

I'm just very excited.

Oh. Quicky book review:
Dead and Gone - Charlaine Harris
Finished last night. I can see why some people are starting to feel that CH is kind of loosing the steam when it comes to the Sookie verse.
I don't quite know how to explain it. But whenever something major was happening, it reminded me of my first notes. It didn't actually show much of the violence (thinking of a big scene towards the end). It was written in the "I didn't think they would cut me. They did." type style. That style was how I would do my quick shorthand notes. Not the finished product. I don't know. I really don't know how to describe it. I don't know if I'm happy about what happened to a certain Vamp. Actually wait.. that really bugged me. This certain person had silver capped teeth. This person bit a vampire. That vampire was supposedly then poisoned. WTF? how would being bitten by silver be any different than having a silver chain cut into their flesh? Why then did they not get silver poisoning then? Totally a cop-out methinks. And also, CH forgot her own rules. Bill entered a house without permission (or no permission that we were aware of).

Alright I'm done for now as I really must get back to work.

Bugs and Hisses people.

Dream, Snow, and Sookie

Alright, while it's fresh in my thoughts..

I just finished reading The Absolute Sandman Vol 2.

And I say just finished, as I also just started it. I quite literally read it all in one go. (Okay, not just one go as I did get up and use the ladies at least twice)
But I gotta say wow!

Vol 1, took me at least a week to read. And that was with skipping an entire section because the art and the story was absolutely of no interest to me.

But Vol 2 I just zoomed through. And I didn't skip over any of the stories.

I can't wait to own it. Because yes, I will own it some day.

And actually, it has made me ponder some colorways that would be awesome. Nope. Not allowed to start dyeing yet. Nope. Won't do it. But I know I'll look through the book again later when I do start dyeing and such like that.

Also I really shouldn't ponder a project after reading that book, as it's making my brain go into many different paths of ideas.

A friend of mine posted a 5 People Gift giving Pay it forward type thing. The gist of it is, you post the note, and the first 5 people to respond will get something made by you. Rules are though that they must also post the note, do the same for the first 5 people, and also make something for you. So, she is making something for me, and I am making something for her.
As this was done on my facebook, if I don't get enough people responding, I will post it here for all my non facebook people.

Now onto Sookie...
I made a project that I have dubbed "Sookie Stackhouse Laceup Sexahhness"

Jen at Fresh from the Cauldron sent me a ball of her Sookie Stackhouse colorway, which is a silk base. It wasn't much, it was roughly... about the size of a Leprechaun's ball. (Oh yes, that just gave you a mental image you won't be able to escape from)
The yardage wasn't important, it was simply so that I could knit it up, see how my hands react during the knitting, and then also how the swatch would be against my skin.
Well, me being me.. I couldn't just do a boring swatch.
So instead I did a laceup wristwarmer.

Seed Stitch because I think it's so pretty.
And, I also taught myself how to do something I didn't know how to do before.
a 3 row buttonhole. I can honestly say, that this is my most favorite buttonhole that I have yet done. It was so simple.

Now, of course I will post photos, but unfortunately my camera sucks, and there is no way to turn off the auto focus, so there is never any way I can take a good photo of seed stitch at all.
So the photos do NOT do this little wrist warmer any justice.








Now on to my discussion about snow.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that this portion of the country has had some extreme weather.
We had a Blizzard.

No big deal right?

Well, this is the first time in more years that I know, where they called it a Blizzard before it hit. Previously, they would just call it a "severe storm" and then when it was over they would call it a Blizzard.

All day long while at work yesterday I was watching the weather reports...
At 9:00am I went outside, and it was sunny. You couldn't see the mountain (Pikes) but that wasn't uncommon.
By 12:00pm, apparently it was snowing.
I went out at 12:30pm and it was really snowing.

I flicked on the traffic cams, and saw that things were getting worse.
So at 1:00 I made the decision to leave early. you all know how I feel about driving in bad weather ...

Well Janice and I did the buddy system driving home. Which was comdedic.
Oh well, first I had to clear off my car, which was a miserable experience. Because I didn't wear a hat. So my hair was drenched and my ear was frozen. My hair wasn't just drenched, it was frozen.
Janice and I forgot to exchange phone numbers. Mistake. Whoops.
The plan was, that we were taking the safest route home, and she was going to break off from following me at Academy and Woodman. (where I turn right, and she would go forward)
Well, we get to Academy, and she's turning along with me.

I'm making hand signals out the window because I was like "dude did you miss it? that was woodman!"
then, I notice she's got a sign in her front window she's holding up (yes, this is all while we are driving on very bad roads with cars) that says "Call me" and her number.
Which I could not for the life of me see the number. Even when we were stopped at one point I opened my car door leaning out to look at the number. I was of course blinded by the snow so I couldn't see the numbers.
We pulled off into a parking lot (the first chance we had) and she informed me that a friend of her's had just been on Powers (the road that runs parallel to Academy for the most part and was going to be her route home to avoid the bad hills) and that there was a huge accident. So she was going to go down Academy with me and cut over after the bad hills.
Back in the car I go, and once again we start making the trek. The weather is getting worse and worse, and it's just about to become 2pm. Then I run into traffic before Dublin. There is this little bit of a hill there. Which I had forgotten about, but there is no good way to avoid it. It's the least of all the hills going that direction.
Well, in my previous car, I remember having problems on that little hill before. So I was nervous for good reason. Though, so far my car Byron had done fabulously on all the little inclines we had. Mind you, I had been coaxing and praising and encouraging my car the entire time. Yes, it would have been amusing if anyone had heard me.
But so Byron makes it up the hill without giving me any fits at all. Though, there were newer and fancier cars that were abandoned in the middle of the road at the median, and one that was being pushed up the hill by a nice guy with a big truck.
So I was honestly shocked that my car did so well.

I didn't want to risk the hill on the street before my neighborhood, as that is the one where I had my first experience of not making it up a hill and having to maneuver back down. So I just went around to the only other option on getting into my neighborhood. It worked though because it let me out at the top of the hill instead of at the bottom.
Yup, I got home safely. It only took me an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 7-10 minutes it normally takes me. But man am I glad I did leave early.

I slept restlessly, as I could hear the storm and my neighbor's wind chime all night (seriously.. I hope that stupid chime might 'disappear' someday. )
So at 4 am, I got out of bed. Looked outside. Saw the 3-4 foot drifts around my car. (Thats what happens when you have a end of the row parking space)
i fire up the laptop, and check the traffic cams.
Not many cars on the road, and the roads don't look bad. At first glance. But I noticed that there was a suspicious gleam.. that meant ice.
I make the decision that I'm not going to risk it. Not at 4am with no other cars on the road.
I go back to bed.
Janice texts me around 645 asking me if I was going into work.
I tell her my reasons why I wasn't but that I hadn't checked the roads in a while. She was going to see if her fiance made it to work then make her decision.
Daniel then texts me 730 (or something like that) asking the same things. Only he doesn't have inet right now so he can't check the cams himself.
So I get out of my nice warm bed and fire up the laptop. I really did need the update so I didn't mind.
I see more cars on the roads, but they are all 4wheel drive type vehicles. And things still looked icy.
Janice then texts me again after I've gone back to bed, and informs me that she attempted to go out on the roads (in her big 4wheel drive suv) and didn't make it far before she gave up. Apparently it was really slick. At this point, I'm not feeling guilty about not attempting.. I don't have 4wheel drive. And I have to replace one of my wiper blades. Specifically the driver side one. The rubber has decided disconnect from the metal. So really, it is useless. Which means if the roads turn into Splashback, I'd be screwed before I could even get to the store.

And guess what happened after the sun came up? The ice started melting, and splashback is the huge issue right now.
Yeah.. I'm not going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest.

Yes, the sun is out and things are melting. And I possibly could have gone to work after 12.. but I still wouldn't get all the hours I've lost due to the weather, and it would also mean staying till after the sun set. Which no... not doing. So the amount of hours I could actually make up.. wouldn't be worth it.

So yesterday and today I've been watching Andromeda season 1.
Oh and finished Witchblade. lesigh I miss that show. Though yes, season 2 got WEIRD.
I still love it. And I will still own my buell. And I think I've mentioned this already.. .

I've got a stack of dvd's to get through... and I'm sure I think of a new knitting project.. and I can also finish reading the Sookie Stackhouse short story "Unusual Suspects"

Methinks I'll finish it this afternoon. I would have finished it when I first started it, but I decided to put it down and then yesterday I was simply knitting.

I'm rambling.

Final Vamp Colors - VOTE!

Alright.. it's time to vote. You only have till 3/19/09 to vote (gotta turn in my list on the 20th)

Here are the two that are confirmed that I want:
So 8 Lucien


2 Michael Corvin


And here are the ones I haven't decided on. I only get to get 2, doesn't have to be 2 of the same, but just 2 of something. I think I'm in love with Armande and Lestat.. yummy.

Also, there is a bit of a problem arising with the whole dyeing part. So jen and I are working on that to get the bamboo to do what we want it to do when it comes down to it. So, who knows I might end up with something entirely different than any of the ones below.

So here are all the colors I like and that are Vamp club exclusives

From True Blood (Sookie Stackhouse):

Debbie Pelt:





Anne Rice Colorways:

Louis:


Claudia:


Armand:


Lestat:





Underworld Colorways:

Sonja


Viktor


Selene



Twilight Colorways:

The Volturi

Interview with Louis..

For those of you who have read Interview with the Vampire, or hell.. even if you've just watched the movie... You will remember Louis.

In the movie, Louis was played by Brad Pitt.

In both the movie and the book, Louis was a whiney bitch. I can't stand Louis. He's just so emo it makes me want to gag. Now, Lestat.. he's a vamp I can sink my teeth into. yum.

But, Jen over at Fresh from the Cauldron just posted her Louis inspired colorway.

And don't worry, I will repost one blog with ALL the colorways for your viewing and voting pleasure.

I kinda like this one..




He's kinda like a Baroque caramel yummyness.