Just a drive-by post today. I've made no real progress on the finishing of the dalek, nor have I gone much further on the sleeve of Rogue. All work and no play makes Nancy a dull blogger. I work tomorrow but I do have the luxury of Sunday and Monday off which is lovely. The husband sadly only has Monday off.

I'm hoping to get some spinning done and maybe finish up on the dalek knitwise. I doubt that I'll get it stuffed but I'd like to get him right to the stuffing point, lol. Mostly though I want to lay like a vegetable. Ian is already crying anytime anyone brings up the fact that Tuesday school starts. So I am not looking forward to that morning at all.

I've decided since I've had such a poor participation rate so far on my contest (3 so far) to extend it for another month. So the drawing will be on October 1st, rather than September 1st.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

You can tell by the sporadic posting and the time of year that we are in the thick of it here at work. The freshman moved in this weekend. Hell it even made the news. From my perspective it means endless days, 6 day weeks and being in a constant state of exhaustion. Of course to top it all off the boys start school on Tuesday. Oh joy.

I received some more goodies last week to help keep my spirits up however. I had participated in a swap on FiberFlix over the summer. Unfortunately I got shafted. My buddy ( and it wasn't anonymous) never came through with my gift. When I saw that there was going to be a new FiberFlix swap I thought I should let the moderator, Jennifer, know about my partner should she decide to participate again. Jennifer is a real doll and decided to send me a consolation package:
...I feel much better now;) The chocolate is gone. The pattern is picked for the yarn and as soon as rush is over there is a trip to Blockbuster in the offing. Thanks Jennifer I really, really appreciate it!

Since I'm doing better at the whole spinning thing. I decided to use the gift certificate that came with my wheel. I took a trip to Bountiful:

Pretty, pretty. If I ever have time again I will be very happy to try spinning any one of them!

I also hit Knit Picks (hey shopping is a great stress reliever;)) for yarn for the Tomten sweater, picked out by Mr. Mathews himself of course:



Knitting wise I finished the Dalek's body but my color work in the round sucks so I need to fix it up a bit before I stuff. I also need to make the arms. Meanwhile I'm working on the sleeve of Rogue. I figured I'll start small.

Happy Monday all!

Winning Week

I had a very lucky week last week. First up I won over at Chante's blog:
Her fantastic stitch marker for the Sidewinder socks. They're also available in her Etsy shop if you like them.

Then I won over at Bron's blog:

Her Good & Plenty dishcloths.

Thanks to both for making the contest so damn easy! By the way I'm still having that contest for the Brooks Farm yarn. Info is over at the sidebar. Only two people have donated so far, don't make it so easy for them!

Meanwhile Shameka made me do it. I really want to make the Mirepoix sweater for myself. I put it on my Ravelry queue and forgot about it, but Shameka would have none of it. She talked me into signing up for the Mirepoix Knitalong. We're looking at using Dale of Norway Falk. I'm a bit intimidated by the steeking but I have a sewing machine and plenty of liquor so I think I'm prepared;) Thankfully the knitalong starts on the 1st of October so that gives me and Rogue some quality alone time.

Things are gearing up at work but my mother in law has doctor's appointments today and tomorrow so I'm doing the work from home thing. It's a little schizophrenic but at least I won't fall behind.

Back to answering e-mails from work, while sitting on the floor in my jammies, working from home has it's privledges...

I actually picked up the needles a bit this week. I started Rogue but I've decided to go down a needle size. I had decided to knit it at 4 stitches per inch to make the math work better for my size. The measurement on the large is 43.5" and I'm 44" but it was a bit too loose after I washed and blocked the swatch. It's disturbing how seriously I'm taking this sweater. I never wash and block my swatch. I decided to just add a couple stitches for the extra room. It blocks out quite nicely so I think it will be just fine if I knit it to gauge.

I've been moving along on the dalek. Now that I'm finished with the damn bobbles it's going along pretty quickly. Although I keep forgetting to change colors so I've had to tink back every once in awhile:



Man I have never had to explain a project as much as I have to explain this one. I was in the dentist's office with Avery on Monday and people kept asking me what I was making. I decided to just say it was a doll and everyone said of course they could see it was a skirt for the doll, how cute, lol. Even at knitting group no one could quite get that I was knitting a killer robot. It would be the ugliest project ever if it wasn't a dalek. It's quite amazingly good for a dalek though. I did find this short parody video for those of you who haven't seen a walking rolling, talking dalek. Oddly enough his colors even match my little guy:

Have a great weekend all!

By Jove I think she's got it...

Tuesday:


Thursday:


Saturday:


Getting better all the time...

Birthday Redux
I actually did the teeniest bit of knitting this weekend. I worked on the dalek and I swatched for a sweater but I'll get back to that.

I've been meaning to show you a few other birthday goodies and somehow I never did but as my final birthday present just arrived I figured, a month later, it was time to show off a bit.

I bought myself this:

Technically it's not a birthday present as I bought it with my retro check but I considered it one anyway. I've been needing a new machine as my old didn't fair too well in the move. I'm not hugely into sewing but occasionally I'll need to hem something for the boys or line a bag and it really comes in handy having a sewing machine.

Tisha and the boys at work went to the ends of the earth (or Ebay did for them) to fulfill my Bollywood fantasies. I adore the Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan so Tisha found a way for me to declare my love publically:

...and since I can't have him in person, she got me the next best thing, see he's a real doll:


I've decided since I'm a bit old for dolls, poor Hrithik needs to earn his keep. This is the real present that I bought for myself way back in June it finally arrived this week. I've been swatching like crazy to make sure it will fit perfectly. My spokesdoll Hrithik presents:


Rogue. I've been dying to make this sweater for years and while Kathleen keeps throwing down the gauntlet of St. Brigid, I think I'll do this first. I think I might actually complete rogue in this lifetime;)

Time to get some sleep, I really don't like Mondays...

I had planned on sharing some pictures of the products of my spinning endeavors but I seem to have forgotten my camera cable. Damn shame that;) I blame exhaustion I was at work 12 hours yesterday. Mind you I was a bit of a slacker, when I left Tisha and a few others were still here. Oh the joys of rush preparation!

I have spun every night but last night. In fact yesterday I took a virtual trip to Bountiful. Maribel purchased my wheel from them and along with it I received a $60 gift certificate which I had yet to use. Since I am nearly finished with the bag of roving that Gina bestowed on me I figured I could justify obtaining some more.

I'm off to lunch in a few with Risa. She has a brand spanking new job starting on Monday so I will not be able to enjoy our lunches as frequently as I am used to. Of course she'll be close to Seaport so that seems a worthy excuse to head a bit further downtown for a lunch;)

Have a great weekend all!

This is basically a drive by post. I haven't knit a damn thing. Not on swallowtail, not on the Dalek, nothing, nada. Oddly enough last night I was actually spinning on my wheel. I figured if I wasn't up to knitting maybe I should spend that time spinning. I think all my mentors have finally started to make a dent in my thick skull. I have two small balls of horribly spun (half over-spun, half under-spun) to show for my two hour Closer marathon. That is however the most productive I have ever been on it (and let's not even pretend I ever did anything on the drop spindle). Some of it looks pretty damn good if you look hard enough.

Most importantly I seem to have finally gotten the rhythm of it which was my problem up until now. Pre-drafting helps a lot but the pull, pinch thing was a bitch for me. Last night I did it pretty well. Even Rinaldo was impressed. Of course the beer might have helped;) I'll definitely work on it some more tonight.

Maybe I'll even take pictures...

See Bel you didn't waste your money after all...

Tagged and a contest...

My good buddy Carla tagged me:


...and I'm such a baby I've been dying for this one:D

My choices for Rockin' Girl Blogger (it was tough keeping it at five, I gotta say) are:

Gina of Life in LaLaLumay Land
Susan of Labradorable
Karen of Spinning Goth
Kathleen of KatyKnits
Maribel (of course) of The Knitting Cube

Ladies feel free to pass along the crowns as you see fit...

Speaking of cool chicks who rock, my friend Leslie is doing the breast cancer 3 day walk out in San Diego. Les is a very, very good friend and cancer has hit close to her best friend's family. She is showing her support by raising money. I'm sure you all know that I lost both my parents to cancer so I want to do all I can to help her out. For the month of August when you donate to her walk I will enter you in a contest to win two skeins of my favorite yarn, Brooks Farms Four Play. I'm even going to let the winner pick their own colorway. We go on the honor system here, go over to her donation site, make a donation, come back and tell me about it, either in the comments or by e-mail. On September 1st I will pick a name at random. Once I've e-mailed you, let me know what color you want and I will place the order and have it shipped to you. I had been planning a contest for my 500th post (two posts away) but I decided this was a far better reason.

Go on and donate, don't forget to come back when you're done...