Hold on to your butts

I don't know where that quote came from, but in my head, it's something Samuel L. Jackson said. Maybe Jurassic Park, I dunno. Anyway. You know those days where you're pretty sure you should just stay in bed, for the safety of yourself and those around you? Yeah, well, I'm having that month. I'm pretty sure I couldn't have gotten out of the house this morning on time to save my life, and then I discovered I'd locked the door behind me and left my keys on the table. Sigh. Fortunately, almost all our neighbors have a set, because we are keyless more often than we'd like to admit. (I keep trying to leave a hidden key outside so I don't have to bug my neighbors to get in my own house, but DH keeps giving it to whomever is feeding the dogs on any given weekend. There are about 247 copies of my housekey in existence, and I have exactly ONE.)
Anyway, the weekend was a good one - we visited stepdaughters and wandered around the humid swamp that is Oklahoma City. Actually, that's just my bad mood talking - aside from the disturbing lack of anything more than 12 feet tall, it's a very lovely place. Lots of greenery, lots of trees and grass and flowers and birds, etc. I saw my first lightning bugs, which are completely freaking amazing. The Bug loved them and would have sat there in the damp grass for hours if I'd have let him. (I wasn't willing to sacrifice myself to the mosquitos.) I even got to sit on the porch swing and swing and knit all by myself, watching the birds and the breeze and the bugs, and it was everything I'd imagined. (Oldest SD lives in an oooolllldddd house with a beautiful yard, in a neighborhood full of old houses with even nicer yards than hers. You couldn't beat the view with a stick.)
Not a lot of knitting done, but what I did do was good - great yarn with a great pattern makes for soothing knitting. Sadly, no pictures.
I have so much on the needles right now that I feel like I need to make a schedule or I'll never get it all done. To that end:

Monday:	SPINNING!
Tuesday:	blue Vermont socks or feet of argyles
Wednesday:	argyles
Thursday:	eyelet cardigan
Friday:	whatever I feel likeElizabeth reminded me I forgot Faina
Saturday:	shrek lace, argyles
Sunday:	shrek lace, blue Vermont socks

(Anybody know why all the extra space appeared above and below my lil ol' table? Erm, nevermind, I figured it out.)

Now, I know that I am fickle enough that if you tell me I have to knit one thing, I'll want to knit anything but. So I make the caveat that I only have to finish one pattern repeat (or two inches of stockinette on sock feet) before I can pick what I want to knit. Most of these don't even have deadlines, but I feel at lose ends and can't seem to make progress on any of them, so I'm taking drastic measures. Maybe Lene would make me a spreadsheet...

And now, for your comments about how cute my kid is viewing pleasure, I give you the Muddy Buddy.


You can't embiggen this one, sorry.

And this one, because I think it's completely adorable.


Embiggen all you want.

Hogwarts update

Gimme some house points for Ravenclaw!
Sadly, my pal's socks still look like this:


Socks don't grow in timeout.

I will be travelling this weekend - I hope they will grow some while I'm out and about, but I have to redraw my chart.

ETA: Yarns are Lorna's Laces in Cranberry and Sunshine, pattern is my own argyle, using Julia's instructions from Moth Heaven.

LOLCAT

Button shamelessly stolen (but not hotlinked) from JenLa

Because there is no knitting, my new obsession:

http://icanhascheezburger.com/


Some of my favorites:

Bunny
Lion
Shiny Device
Prophetcat

Fine ass

Oh yeah. Click to embiggen the fineness.

THAT is what I'm talking about. My little chickadees, surely you didn't think I'd give up after two little tries?
Work is still ass-tastic (arse-tastic for Ulster Lynn). We went to the lake this past weekend, where I had camnesia brought on by authentic Mexican food and the brief episode when Bug locked me out of the camper and I had to call 911, and the boy couldn't figure out what all the fuss was for. For my sanity's sake, we shall not speak of this again. I did very little knitting of any type, and my psychological state shows it. Unfortunately, in an effort for Mother Nature to remind me that I need breakfast with FOOD VALUE, I burned the F*@K outta my finger, so I dunno how much work I'll get in on any of my projects.

This is only a test

of my YouTube skillz.

Más messes.

The argyles have been in timeout all weekend. Every once in a while I'd think nasty thoughts at them. (I would have given them dirty looks, but I can't remember where they are.)
On Friday I got a wild hair, and dove into this new project without thought for time frame or knitting/planning abilities. My coworker has been diagnosed with two kinds of breast cancer (who knew there were TWO kinds?!) and had a mastectomy last week. Prognosis is good as her lymph nodes were clean, but I felt like I wanted to send her some knitted comfort anyway. I got the idea to get a skein of Sea Silk and pull a Grumperina. I do not own Victorian Lace Today, nor do I have any desire to. I could not find a free pattern online or a pattern in any of the books I do own that I liked, that would be suitable for one measly skein of sea silk. (I found lots of lovely patterns, just not The One I Wanted.) I decided to make it up.
Oy.
I got out my little BW #1, found the pattern I wanted, and charted it. When I was almost finished with the chart, I hit the wrong key and changed everything to the same symbol, and it was one of those No Undo functions. Drat. I fixed it, made a copy so it would be two repeats wide, and tried to knit it. Took me all weekend to work out the bugs. Tried to modify it a little, and made BIG mistakes. Ugliness ensued. Behold, I have created the only lace in the world that looks reasonably okay unstretched, but is TOTAL ASS when pin-blocked. On top of that, I'm still not sure the pattern I picked is open enough to allow for a decently sized scarf with only 438 yards to work with.


Ass-tastic lace. Oh yeah, and I can't count.

No way I'm posting that all pinned out. It's heinous.

I took a break to have a Mother's Day celebration that included this:


Fresh berries make it all better.

and some of this:


This photo utterly captures the essence of my son.

and a little of this:


I'm glad no one takes photos of me looking like that.

Lastly, Blogless Lynn (not Ulster Lynn) is on notice: quit finding more hobbies for me, dammit.


It doesn't help that you can't make ugly beaded stitch-markers. Damn.

Public Service Announcement

If you're knitting happily along on your argyles and you notice, say, that there is a misalignment a few rows back and your points aren't lining up, you might be tempted to frog back a few rows. Don't do it. Just. Don't. Tink, baby. I don't care if you have to tink ten rows - you will never get all the strands back on the needles at the same row, and you'll end up having to tink anyway.
Not that I would know first-hand, or anything. No. Not me.
Oh yeah, and if you're interested in Frank's Buns, he posted a link to the recipe in the comments.

Random Wednesday

Just under the wire.

Take a moment to go see what Pikku-Kettu just made. (Unless you're Blogless Lynn and you can't NOT start a new craft.) In my next life I want to be a Scandinavian knitter, please.

Hey, look, it's Gecko Season!


Can you see him there, under the basket?



How 'bout now?

Look at that cute little reptilian eye. What a sweetie. I like to leave the porch light on a little while to attract bugs for him and his offspring. (Leastways, I assume it's gecko generations and not the same gecko who's been hanging out by the porch light for the last eight years.)

Last but not least, HI FRANK! (I'm trying to score some cake, people.)

Unholy messier

Here it is again, only bigger.


Unholy crap


Mebbe not so bad from the front?

Yes, it's an argyle sock. For the preppy Gryffindor in your life.


A chip off the ol' block.

Unofficial eye candy

Look what I got.


O. M. G.

3 hanks of Great Big Sea Silk in Periwinkle, from here, for this.

All the colors I'd hoped for, the shimmery depth, the softness... Scuse me while I roll around in it nekkid.

And now, a shot of my latest project unholy mess.


Again, I say: O. M. G.

My husband is the awesomest of all, and other things

See what he built me?


Favorite coffee and knitting spot

See what I get to put on it, when we find some planter boxes to hang from that new happy railing?


Random assortment of purdy flowas.

See the gate that latches (with a lock) so the Bug can't get to the pool?


Foiled again!

It's okay to be jealous.

Kristen asked how the tie-dye roving is spinning up. Well, besides slowly and unevenly, this is how it looks.


Suddenly I crave chocolate bunnies.

I LURVE it. I think I want to ply it with navy blue. Anyone know how to make navy with koolaid?

Here is my mad weave sock, in Jessie's brilliant hand-dyed yarn. Go there. Buy some. Ask her to dye some in your favorite colors. Tell her you covet her yarns. (And her farm, and dye studio, and talent, too.)


Yarn + Pattern = True love

Last but not least, I have cast on for my Hogwarts sock swap pal. I can't tell you how entertained I am by the fact that this ribbing is knitting up at 11 stitches to the inch. I feel like I'm making doll clothes. I'm easy sometimes, I guess.


Tiny ribbings, oh how we miss you Don Ho.

And now, for the requisite Bug photo:


Oh how I love my green blankie.