Oh sister mercy

Someone has a wild hair...

Apologies for the long absences. Mostly I knit slow and have nothing to show. Also, last week I was hit with strep (went to the ER and TOLD them it was strep but they didn't believe me until the culture came back positive TWO DAYS LATER no I'm not bitter why do you ask?) and had a miserable week. Friday I was feeling pretty good, and since it was Friday and the breezes were cool and the children were compliant, we went ouside, where they played and I flipped through the Keepsake Quilting catalog.

Oops.

It may have stirred a long-dormant feeling of bed-linen-dissatisfaction.  Namely, I have no topper and shams that I love.  I don't even have one that I like much.  T was not much use in this department when he moved in, being a boy and therefore in possession of exactly one blanket and one set of sheets, the pattern of which he described ones as "slug-shaped".  (They're paisleys.)  So, here we are.  We have a day off, we have settled on a basic pattern and color scheme that is neither too girly nor too boy, and we have tossed the stash.  (You understand that I'm referring to the Royal We, here.  T is at work and blissfully unaware of my new project.)  

I had a scrap of something that would have been perfect, so I toddled off to JoAnn's in an effort to find something in a similar tone.  As luck would have it, I found the exact fabric (plus a couple others I will use instead of those from the above photo).  And (ahem) a few other little things.

I'm off to enjoy lunch with my aunts shortly, and when I return there will be ironing and cutting and arranging of fabrics, and possibly even sewing of same.  I ALWAYS underestimate how long it takes to cut perfectly good fabric and reassemble it into a blanket.  This is evidenced by the fact that I am already thinking about hand-quilting motifs in my head...

Anyway, whilst you chuckle at my startitis and my craft-fickleness, I will leave you with a couple photos of paperwhites I forced in a vase in my kitchen  Courtesy of T's mom at Christmas-time. 

A random conglomeration of crap

If my little crepe myrtle looks like this after a little rain, you'd think I'd water it and make it look like that all summer, wouldn't you? You'd be wrong.



DH sold his boat last week, and the Bug was inconsolable. I had no idea that a 2 yr old could actually process the fact that the boat was going to live with someone else and that it wouldn't be coming back. Or maybe he just didn't want to share.

I left my Lene sock at work, so I have been doing something else this weekend.



The line at the "cafe" at Costco was too long yesterday, so the DH spontaneously decided on Chuck E. Cheese. OMG. What a hell hole. The Bug, of course, loved every ear-splitting, animatronic, shrieking, whining, crying, sticky, crowded minute.



The DH is in southern California for just today, while I am at home researching these.

I am particularly prone to infected tastebuds, and they SUCK.

Friday morning we all happened to be up quite early, so we got dressed and went to breakfast before work. We went to the neighborhood greasy spoon, where I got a nice bit of eye-candy.



The picture is craptastic because I was trying to kinnear them, but there must have been 30 cops in there having breakfast when we got there. (Shrub was in town on Friday so I assume they had just finished extra traffic duty or something like that.)

The Bug is being disturbingly quiet, and I must go check out what he's doing. Don't let the innocent pose fool you.

More FOs

I loved that little bag I made for La so much I decided to make several for myself. Blogless Lynn and I got together yesterday with our stashes and grand plans. We called it the Afternoon of Unrealistic Expectations. I wanted a sock bag, a padded bag for my camera (still in the shop) and a bag for my iPod. Lynn wanted a padded camera bag and a larger sock bag.
We got to working. She was more ambitious than I and tried a jacquard fabric for her camera bag. It came out great after much fussing, except the padding ate some of the extra room and it wouldn't close. It became a sleeping bag (an oh-so-luxurious sleeping bag) for the little softie mouse she made the other day for her daughter. My iPod bag came out just the size I wanted, but I forgot to account for the extra fabric needed to close over the top of the iPod. Sigh.
Instead, I decided it would be a notions bag. After Lynn left, I got to cutting and made a sock bag with the same fabrics I'd used for the iPod notions bag, only reversed (the lining of one is the outside of the other, etc.)



I'm thrilled with them. I haven't put the drawstrings in because the cording I have is too fat, and I want something a little prettier. I'm trying to decide what style of cord I'll make out of cotton embroidery floss.

Blogless Lynn has talked in the past about having a coordinating strip on the outside of the bag, and that inspired me further. (As designed, the inside of the bag has a strip of the outer fabric at the top - see this post for a picture.) I made a few changes to the size of the fabric, and violà!



A coordinating sock bag and notions bag! I lurve them wholeheartedly. Ironically, the two socks-in-progress I have will coordinate nicely with the bags themselves, although that wasn't planned. (It just happened that I got the purple/green fabric stash box out, and those are the colors of the two socks I'm currently making.)

Would you like a set for your very own? Go here and donate to Norma's OFA scholarship drive, and maybe you'll win one, in your choice of colors (limited only by what's available in my obscene fabric stash).

ETA: HOLY SHAMOLEY.

Back, for now

We had a lovely time in southern California. We played for hours and hours at the beach, and the Bug got his first real taste of the ocean. We'd been there with him once before, early last year, but he was too little and the water was too cold to really enjoy it. This time we played in the waves, and he dug, rolled in, and ate sand to his little heart's content. I got to swim and jump and roll in the waves, DH got to lay around and relax in the shade of the umbrella while he played with the Bug, and Peaches the dog got to enjoy some cool weather away from her sisters. Unfortunately, my camera was in the shop and DH left his sitting on his desk (though he did bring the camera case... [sigh]). So, no pictures.
We even had time to visit with La and Mr. La in Irvine for dinner. It was good food, great conversation, and an all-around pleasant time. DH and Mr. La hit it off and spent half the time commiserating about their wives' fibery obsessions while La and I chased Bug around Irvine Spectrum. My only complaint about that was that the chasing left little time for more conversation, and the evening ended far too soon. (Note to self: make sure you have spare diapers next time!) La posted a picture of our sunny selves (and even managed to get one of the Bug hugging Mama's limited edition Dizzy Blond sock yarn in the JenLa colorway) here. Both the stepdaughter and DIL tried to claim the yarn as socks for them, but NO WAY. Those socks are for MY feeties!
For now, it's back to the grind, and next week we leave for a quickie trip to visit the inlaws in Montana. The Geek Squad people tell me my camera will be home from the hospital by then, so I will try to get some good photos of Montana scenery for y'all. If it's not home, maybe we will remember DH's camera this time. o.0
Knitterly pursuits were had, as well. I did a few repeats on the Vermont blue sock, and started some for DH. (Funny how he stopped complaining about my knitting as soon as it was for him.) I am trying two at a time on Magic Loop, a là Sarkasmo. They're going a little slower together than they would individually, but I enjoy the process, and the yarn (Misty Mountain Farms sock yarn in Sand River from The Loopy Ewe) entertains me with the color changes when the stockinette threatens to bore me. They were the perfect car knitting, too.
This weekend I plan to make a few more of those little bags from the last post. They really are fun and easy, and so quick they make for good instant gratification. I want a sock-sized one, a padded camera-sized one, an iPod-sized one. I LURVE them.

Yo, I sewed a FO.

I felt a little sewing bug. It's all Blogless Lynn's fault - I think she's making a career out of getting people addicted to enabling the rest of Tucson in new crafts... (Hi Lynn!)
Anyway, she pointed me to this little tutorial.

And I made this little bag.







Happy sock bag the first.

I am in LOVE with this bag and I need to make a million more. (Fortunately, even though my sewing skills aren't perfect, they're very much better than my late-night photography skills.)

I would take more photos tomorrow with better lighting, maybe a tripod, but alas, I can't. I'm off to the beach!

ETA: If you are a reader of JenLa, their blog is mangled and is currently in the process of being reconstructed. They should be back to their drinking, swearing and fiber soon, I hope - I will miss it.