Knitting is meditation-the cats help!

Yesterday I was home upstairs in my super fabulous craft room knitting away on another oddball bag. These are bags of my own design, I just cast on and knit a squareish bottom, pick up the outside stitches, and knit away. When I run out of one ball, I add another. I have lots of oddball yarn, so this is the greatest stash reducer, time waster of all. DH came home and asked what I was making. I said I wasn't in the mood for spinning, or lace scarves, or such n such, so I just cast on for the oddball bag. and he said, "oh, meditative knitting" I love the crap out of him.

On another note, meditative knitting is also enjoyed by cats. Mulder seems to really like to lay in between meditative knitting and the tv. Hence, belly loves commence. What he wants he gets. On the other hand, Itchy wants to KILL the knitting, which is not ok with me, so he is banished to "go away or I will swat you" land.

Cat stuff

I love the crap out of my cats. You know this. If you have a cat, you have your own reasons for loving the crap out of your cat. I will tell you my reasons, as many as I can remember, with photos of course. The first reason is that Mulder likes to drown his mice. Stuffed mice. And only the mice. For a while he didn't have any stuffed mice because I was sick of fishing them out of the water bowl. Then we got a free one with his food, and he had a new mouse. Immidiately in the bowl. Pic 1 of poor drowned mousey, pic 2 of proud drowner. We even have initiated the "how long does it take Mulder to drown the mouse if we hide it" game. Put the darn mousey on the bathroom scale, went in to pee, Mulder followed, found mousey and HIGH FREAKING TAILED IT to the water bowl. It was a sight to be seen.

I thought he thought he was killing them. But I went to the vet and she suggested that he was putting them in a safe place for later.

Which makes total sense now, because our 2 cats have EXTREME territorial issues over the water bowls. One is Itchy's, one is Mulder's. It changes on a day to day basis, and only they know the rules of the water bowl game, but clearly, there are rules. Apparently, this day, Mulder had the blue/red bowl. Don't freaking ask me.

I knit more stuff

I've been knitting from my stash lately. I feel really good about this. Not that I don't want to buy more yarn, I do, but I seem to have this radar for estate and garage sales that sell an enourmous amount of yarn and I buy it all. Like the Textiles center garage sale a few months ago where I walked away with 1 1/2 of the large Target bags full of yarn for about $100. I know that sounds like a lot to drop on yarn, but consider the quantity, and also the quality. This wasn't crap acrylic. this was great yarn, some with 5 skeins for a dye lot.

So I'm trying to knit from my stash because it is estate and garage sale season. I'm not dumb. I know I will find a huge stash of someone's somewhere and drop a couple hundred $ on the best yarn purchase of my life. It happened last year when a yarn snob passed away and her friends sold her stash. Got the best yarn of my life in complete dye lots of 12 or so skeins a piece. Egyptian cotton, mohair, silk, etc. Thousands of dollars worth of yarn at that sale and I wiped them out for a few hundred. Again, lots of $ but not when you consider. I swear.

Back to knitting from stash. I have a great stash. Love my stash. Except that I have some weird stuff in there that can only go for specific knits. Such as pink. Really. Who wears pink? Acrylic pink? So a coworker is having twin girls and yep, you guessed it, she's getting 2 pairs of pink booties. Another coworker had a grandson. She got green baby booties. Bought the book Knitting Little Luxuries, made the Charlotte bag from stash. Even the darn ribbon was stash.

Look out Craigslist. Here I come.

I think I can spin!

I love my new spinning wheel. My mom gave it to me about a month ago, and i hated the freick out of it. Tension wrong, missing a part (spring). Ordered spring. Oiled the freak out of it. Spun crap. Hated it.

But last weekend the wheel decided against being firewood and decided to play nice. It caught a good tension, and let me spin to my hearts content. I have heard that the spinning wheel is a bit like a bicycle. Once you get the tension, you can get it again and keep going.

The pic is of my best spin yet. Not so high on the almighty greatness of spinning, but way way way better than anything else ever before. The stuff in the middle of the bobbin I swear is of even consistensy. And the stuff I spun today is even better. I even moved on to my "good' roving which is some beautifully dyed stuff, and am spinning that. Na na to anyone that says you shouldn't spin your good stuff until you rock at spinning. MY wheel rejects crap roving and I have the proof.

Best weekend ever!

I had such an awesome weekend! Saturday I hit an estate sale where I found a box of knitting needles, tons of notions and dpns for $4, a thread holder that hangs on the wall for $15. Came home, looked at it all and knit on the Classic chanel for a few hrs. good fun. Sunday, today, I got up and went to the paint store. I got some paint that matches the tv stand color in my craft room, dug out the $2 shelf I bought about 3 years ago, and painted the shelf and the thread holder. See pics after hung on wall. I am so proud of myself! The whole room has been completely redone by me, and I love everything about it! I feel very crafty and proud of myself. Then I finished the Classic chanel, and because my hand hurts so darn much from using such unforgiving yarn I got the wheel out. I actually was able to mostly (about 60%) spin some decent singles. I may actually dye those singles and see what happens. Seriously. This was a great weekend. For me to get all that accomplished, and spin some semi decent yarn, happy!

When does the other shoe drop???

Drunken Knitting Night

Ravelry has a group for MN knitters, and once a month a bunch of random people show up at Merlin's Rest and knit together. Tonight was my 2nd time going and I have to say this is the best fun this side of the law to be had. If you knit. We talk yarn, ravelry, knit books, knitters we know, needle choicees, etc. This isn't all we talk about, but it is the majority. And I love the crap out of it. I have gotten a few knitter friends to come with, which rocks, because they get to see that I am not the only crazy obsessed knitter in the world.
The best part ever though? Both times I have gone I have walked in, sat down, said hello, and someone says "hello, I'm .... (insert ravelry name)" and I say oh my gosh I am Mulderknitter, and we instantly feel like we know each other. Freaking cool. I came in tonight with my sweater/turned bag and promply was told that someone had seen in on my project page. (Beam with pride) A woman showed up later that I knew from somewhere, said her ravelry name, and ohmygosh she's on my friends! We had a great bonding moment of remembering when I friended her and she didn't know who I was and I told her I just wanted Mpls knitters for friends and she obliged. Very nice girl. Very gracious girl. Even if she didn't like my brand of yarn choice (you know who you are!)
DH thinks I'm even dorkier than him now. We shall try to prove him wrong. See later posts for pics of snoring/splayed on the couch sleeping. I shall win

The sexiest man alive

Mulder is my soulmate. He is my guardian, he is my best friend, he is the only one that gets me and leaves me be. He is the best thing in the world that has ever happened to me. He was lost for a day on an adventure that was the worst day of my life.

My Mulder has diabetes. He is almost 13 yrs old. Please, if you have a story of keeping your diabetic cat happy and comfortable, tell me.

Yarn hoarding justified

I am making the Classic Chanel jacket from the book Knitting Simple Jackets by marilyn saitz cohen. If you don't have this book, you should get it. there are 25 jackets in there, some are more ponchos, but I really like almost all of them. Most are labeled easy as well. The shoulders are mostly dropped, so there is really no shaping for the armholes. I cast on this one last night. That's the back up there. Using the same yarn as used in the book, because remarkably I had it. The hancock fabrics closed here a while ago, and I got the Lion Brand chenille thick and quick for about $2 a skein. I have about 5.5 left. Just enough for the size small.

Which brings to a beautiful view I have about yarn. I have a lot of it. Really, I know that I do. So much that it fills my wonderful walk in closet from top to bottom and some is in bins here and there, and some is on the floor in ziplocs because I just don't have that much physical space on my home planet. But if it is on sale, like above, I will buy it. I bought this over 2 years ago. It has been in my closet for 2 years. I forgot it was there. I certainly had no project in mind when I did buy it, but there were 6 skeins right there, so I grabbed them. (do not come between me and sale yarn. You might be my friend when we walk into the store, but if you get it and I don't, you won't be my friend when we walk out.) But lo and behold, 2 years later I have a book that calls for that specific yarn. And I have it! I don't have to try to find it at regular price somewhere or do some bizarre mathematical equation and jump up and down 2 times when the moon is blue to substitute.

So there! Yarn hoarding justified.

Help me find a capelet pattern for this

So this is the yarn I want to use to make the capelet below. 1000 yards of laceweight mercenized cotton. feels and looks like silk. Got the tilli thomas silk and seasilk to do the edging.

Guess what? 2 hrs on the internet and I can't find an appropriate pattern for the capelet with this weight of yarn. Yep, tried ravelry. yep, did google.

I found a few that might work if I could do the math for it. Ugh.... hate math. Only part of knitting that sucks for me.

So, take a look at the blue capelet below, and help me find a pattern that kinda looks like it. I don't want sleeves. I don't want cables. I want light and pretty, allowing the yarn to flow and drape like it should. Don't worry about the edging. I can figure that out I am reasonably sure.

Seriously folks. This will drive me batty. I need your help

A quick thank you and some new yarn

Hello! I want to say a quick thank you to the people who have been reading and leaving comments, mainly Eccentric Scorpion, Knitpurlgirl and Iwouldratherbeknitting. If you have a blog, you know how cool it is to read comments. It is a sort of validation that someone has heard you. I read other people's blogs, and try to leave comments when I can (ie have time) so I TOTALLY apprectiate the fact that you have all taken the time to leave a comment. BIG GROUP HUG!
In other news, I visited our new lys in northeast mpls today, Bella Lana, which you can find on ravelry. They carry Tilly Thomas yarns. I fantasize about her yarn. silk, pretty pretty colors, beaded and sequined, 200- yards for $40. I can't afford that in any sense of the word. But, I can afford her newest creation of 270 yards of sea silk and silk blend for $18. No pic yet, but it is destined to be the trim on my version of below blue capelet. I have the perfect yarn for the body, I bought it about a year ago, silk in a dark ivory. Wait till you see! Pics tomorrow!

For my grandma

When I was a kid I used to spend summers, and sometimes longer, with my grandparents. This was usually really cool because it felt like I was really on vacation with all the grandparent spoilage included. And my grandparents aren't that old. They were probably only in thier 50's when I was there. so it was great. My grandpa would even play barbies with me, and my grandma and I watched The Young and The Restless every single afternoon on tv. Buffy their dog hated the high pitched part of the music credits and howled every day. It was good fun.
In the midst of these many summers my grandma tried to teach me many crafty things. She is the master crafter of all time and space. She does it all. I surmise today that she was trying to find something we had in common, that I would latch onto and she could bond with me on. She taught me cross stitch, latch hook, crochet, and sewing, that I can remember. (why she didn't think knitting i will never know!). The only one that took was the sewing. I have pictures of me and her sewing when I was a kid with straight lanky blonde hair, it was a blue heart shaped pillow with my mom's initials on it. I was so proud of that! I think grandma did the actual machine part, but I still thought I was pretty awesome.
Today I still sew. A few years ago I bought myself a cheap sewing machine and relearned everything. I remembered that I have a natural talent for throwing pieces of fabric together and making things without a pattern. I think my grandma gave me that. I can usually look at a fabric and know what it needs to be.
I recently discovered that a part of that has moved into my knitting, see "this yarn talks a lot" post. That's my grandma. She gave me fiber whispering.
The fact that I have learned to knit is a great joy for me and for her. She has always knitted, but now I do too. I never appreciated the huge 2 color purple afghan that she knitted for me until 2 years ago. Now it is my comfort afghan. I can't believe she made me that.
I am a relatively newbie knitter, just over 2 or so years now, so every xmas I try to knit her something. Last year I "designed" my own cabled scarves. They weren't all that great at all. They curled on the edges and were kinda skinny. But she called me and sounded so proud that I had learned cables. I am old, and my grandma still makes me feel so happy with her praise! She learned that I am knitting socks, so for my birthday this year she dug out a 30 or 40 year old argyle sock pattern that she used to use and sent it to me. I can't say I will ever use it, but it sure is nice to have a piece of her knitting with me.
I sure hope to be able to knit her many xmas presents for many years to come. Maybe she'll get an afghan.

I hate the freaking dentist

I have really good dental insurance. I work for a major hopsital here, so I have great insurance. But I hate the freak out of the dentist.
But I go. Because my insurance pays for 2 cleanings a year, and I DO NOT WANT any more dental problems. I have had my share. I have crap teeth. All of my molars have fillings.
And then there is the root canal of 2 years ago. Absolutely hands down put a stick in my eye send me to 4 pap smears instead worst experience of my life. When I was 16 I decided to go sledding in a very bad place. Metal poles, stairs, etc. We were dumb. The last run of the night I got on the tubey thing, spun out of control and went face first, thigh second into a metal pole at eight million miles an hour. Busted out my front tooth. Got it fixed. Then comes 2 years ago. Fixed part falls off. Refix. falls off again. need root canal. After which ensues the worst month of horror of my life. The darn tooth (front tooth) is so infected it no longer takes novocaine. The dentist slit the infection open and drained it WITH NO FREAKING NOVOCAINE. If you have had a root canal, bless your heart. I am glad you survived. I can't beleive i did. If you have not had a root canal, you have no idea the amount of pain, not just at once.... nononononono... over a period of a month or more that you have to endure. Shove a barbed stick in your eye and don't seek medical attention until next month. Then you'll know.
So, all of this in history, my body has a bad rejection to the dentist. It likes to barf on them. Stick those things in my mouth for xrays? barf. drool. burp. disgusting. Get the cleaning thingy out? drool, gag, barf, drool.
It has gotten to the point that the dentist doesn't ask if I want polishing. I don't. Clean the suckers and get me the f out of there. My stomach hurts from gagging dry heaves. You are a nice person but I hate the freak out of you

If I clean something and my DH doesn't notice, does it count?

I hate cleaning. Like you would not believe. My first job at 14 was dishwashing. I hate washing dishes. My mom was a single mom, so every day after school and every weekend I had a list of things I had to do before I could play. And she CHECKED. I had to redo half the list all the time. So I hate cleaning. And I am a kind of messy person. Not dirty per se, at least I like to think so, I just have STUFF. I like my stuff. I have lots of it. I knit. I have yarn. lots of yarn. I leave my knitting all over. I spin, kinda. I sew. I do puzzles. I have stuff all over the freaking place. And quite frankly I LIKE having my stuff all over the place. I like to be surrounded by the things I do and love to do. I like to look at it even if I am not working on it.
But I still hate to clean. So even if I have a bunch of stuff laying around, dishes accumulate, laundry doesn't get done, the lawn needs to be mown, the recycling needs to go out, etc. I hate that crap. If it was just me, I would do it when I ran out of forks, underwear, got geese living in my lawn, etc. But it's not just me, and DH hates messy house. With a freaking 7 am on a saturday cleaning the litter box because it smells passion. (Mulder doesn't care that his box is dirty so I don't either)
So my question is, if I do some cleaning, like put the dishes away and throw a load in the laundry and DH doesn't notice, does it still count? I feel like I want my cleaning points or something. At least points for doing something just to make DH happy because I hate hate hate hate cleaning. When he comes home do I bombard him with the stuff I want points for?
Because, seriously, what is marriage if you don't try to compromise by doing the crap you hate to do (like watch a girly movie on dvd with me) just to make the other person happy?

As many things as I can think of about me

1. I am a 31 yr old female living in Mpls, Mn
2. If you don't know, Mpls is minneapolis, the land of 2 seasons, frigid and blazing hot
3. I have a great, sexy, wonderful, husband that I love the crap out of. Really.
4. I have been with my husband since 1995, married in 2001
5. don't ask what took so long
6. he proposed in Paris, France at Versailles. great story. ask me if you want to hear. it makes his ears turn red.
7. because i only type in caps at work i have effectively lost the ability to use shift
8. this bugs everyone but me and my coworkers
9. we have 2 cats, Itchy 2 yrs old, and Mulder, 12 yrs old
10. I got Mulder before I me and hubby got together, so he wins every cat fight
11. Mulder has diabetes. this sucks. this is expensive. read blog
12. Itchy was found by me in our lilac bush. I ended up at the ER getting a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
13. me and hubby fight about who wanted to keep him. I maintain that I did NOT want to keep him. hubby named him. called me at work. kept Itchy. My story, not his
14. Itchy is completely insane. If the walls had carpet he would climb them. His favorite thing in the world is water.
15. I haven't taken a shower without Itchy for 2 years
16. Itchy's second favorite thing is a paper bag. Really. He gets pissed when you throw it away because it is a flat piece of paper and not a bag anymore.
17. I love the crap out of my cats.
18. I think Mulder and I were married in a past life. Seriously. That cat gets me.
19. I bought my first house 3 years ago
20. Even though this is Mpls, right in the city, on the showing there were deer in the front yard. I have pics to prove it.
21. the house was so perfect I had a panic attack upstairs when I realized we could buy it
22. This is the first house I have ever lived in
23. hubby hates house/yard work stuff
24. so do i
25. hubby does most of it and tries not to bitch.
26. I appreciate the crap out of #25
27. I am a messy person. I leave crap everywhere. hubby does not. this sucks for him
28. I appreciate that that sucks for him and try not to leave crap everwhere. Our version of crap everywhere tends to not be the same though.
29. This sucks more for him than me. Except when he gets mad. Then it really sucks for me.
30. I am a knitter. How can I not leave crap everywhere? it's just yarn! and needles.. and a ball winder.. and a swift..
31. I am trying not to leave my kntting crap everywhere. Serioulsy.
32. Check back with hubby next month on how #31 is working
33. I grew up all over the place in the midwest, but ended up in Milwaukee in 6th grade.
34. I went to school in Milwaukee, specifically Wauwatosa East high school
35. We had a school shooting that no one ever heard about
36. That bugs me.
37. I had pink/blue/red/orange and other colored hair all thru high school
38. I thought that was fun. I might do that tomorrow. Kool aid dyes hair as well as yarn
39. after high school I spent the summer awol with friends. Mom and stepdad were VERY unhappy. was some of the best days i ever had with my friends. Totally worth it
40. haven't been back since. sometimes good days are best left in the memory instead of trying to revisit
41. I went to college at the U of MN
42. My 1st major was English, my second Mortuary science
43. I ended up with a Bachelors in Independent studies, psych, women's studies and cultural studies
44. it took me 5 yrs to graduate
45. I am still paying off the loans. no end in sight
46. I hated college.
47. I recently completed my master's certificate in health care management.
48. i went back to school to make more money and get a promotion
49. i did and i do
50. my job rocks
51. yes, it's billing management for an HMO, but I have been there 7+ years, and I rock at my job
52. I get to help solve complicated claim problems, and that is cool.
53. I know what I am doing, and that is cool.
54. I love my coworkers, and that is cool
55. My boss is the best boss on the face of the planet, and that is the coolest thing of all
56. I love the crap out of my life most of the time
57. Itchy is the first cat i have ever known to sleep under covers. he's under the comforter on the bed now. it's cute as shit
58. My stepdad Enrique turned me on to knitting. For a b-day present he gave me yarn, chopsticks and the Stitch-N-Bitch book. Best present ever
59. I knit a bookmark and hated it
60. I was diagnosed with panic disorder, took knitting back up because yoga was way hard
61. He created a demon
62. I will knock you down if you touch my sale yarn
63. You will get a handknit item for a present. It might not me on the right holiday... but you will eventually get it
64. If you send me good yarn, it might go in the bowl of "show off yarn" It doesn't mean i don't like it. it means i like it so much I have to show it off.
65. If you inherit me yarn i don't like i will donate it to a good cause. I have done so in the past.
66. If you request an item and you get it 4 years later, it's not an insult. It's that the yarn I have didn't tell me it wanted to be that yet
67. yes, yarn speaks to me. sometimes it yells (see blog) other times it sits quietly for years. I have no control.
68. Call me the yarn whisperer. That's fine

I finished a puzzle

It only took about 2 years to do. 1000 pieces, called "sleeping beauty" my mom gave it to me a while ago, and I never finished. Itchy ran away with some pieces so I got frustrated. As you can see in the top left, itchy is still hiding some of those pieces. But it's finished! The green thing is a piece of felt that you lay the puzzle on as you work, then roll it up on a tube and tie so it stays together. pretty brilliant. Another present from my Mom.

Yes, I'm 31, but I like puzzles. If you are a knitter or a crafter of any type, you can probably relate. I like the process of completing something. I like picking yarn, the pattern, watching it all unfold (the right way of course). So that's why I like puzzles. It's a process thing. If you prefer the FO or finished object more you probably can't relate.

Off to start another puzzle. This one is only 500 pieces, but it glows in the dark!

To those of you that know me, Mulder went for another diabetes check at the vet today. He did a ferocious growl at the new tech, to whom I warned "he likes to pee on people". He did have his favorite vet who I think has a crush on him, so he was ok. His blood sugar is still in the 300's, but it could be stress, aka he hates the vet. I am going to buy a home glucometer before I up his dose or put him thru tests (aka $) to see if there is an underlying problem for the insulin resistance. Send money. Diabetes is expensive.

One other thing

This was for sale in a booth at Sheperd's Harvest. Wanted. Bad. But 180$. Gorgeous. But I had to pass. I kindly asked the lovely lady if I could take a pic and she said yes. Very nice of her because now I get to steal the design. mwaaaahaha !

She did say that it is a basic capelet pattern, with a lace pattern added to the bottom. The neck and the fringe are picked up stitches.

Not sure if I have adequate stash yarn for this beauty. May need to make a special trip. To the yarn store. Hold me back.

This yarn talks a lot

I saw this yarn at the Shepherd's Harvest festival, and there were only 2 hanks left. It spoke to me. It said buy me. 85% alpaca 15% merino. 10$ a hank. 300 yards. Minnesota grown and spun. It came home. I put it in it's own ziploc so it could whisper all it wanted about what it wanted to be. Every so often I would look at it and it was still just whispering, not sure yet. Today it yelled at me. It yelled "lace scarf!" ok. so I have 600 yards of the stuff, but for now only the one hank was speaking and it was saying LACE FREAKING SCARF! I listened. It is a cake that I wound on my handy swift. Hard to see the true colors, but it is a very lightly variegated white and lilac color. True pretty lilac. Love this yarn. Off to find pattern. I hope the other hank talks too.