I still haven't put batteries in the camera. I can only charge the batteries when I have all 4, the charger is freaky that way, and at the moment I can only find two. Considering how much I cleaned last week I'm really at a loss as to where the hell the other two could be.

The week has been odd. There are a lot of things going on at work all of which lead to big changes in store. The decision making is way beyond our store level so we just get to sit around and fret about it. Change is always hard, anticipating unknown changes is the absolute worse. Believe me I am queen of the worst case scenerio.

This has kept me a bit preoccupied this week. I finished binding off one edge of Ice Queen and I'm hoping to do the other one this weekend. I tried to start the actual knitting on Jeannie but I screwed it up right away. I need to get my ass in gear if I want it ready for the cruise.

I have two articles overdue at Pink Raygun. I also need to catch up on the Knitting Blog Ring. I've neglected it horribly. This weekend seems to be all about catching up and catching my breath.

Have a great weekend!

I kept telling myself I would blog last week as soon as Ice Queen was finished. I figured it would be done by Wednesday. That didn't happen. In fact it's still not done. The pathetic thing is I'm still on the first cast off row. The picot bind off its super slow for me and frankly I appear to suck at it. Hopefully I'll finish it off tonight at knitting group. The batteries are dead in my camera so no progress shots, sorry.

My vacation last week was disturbingly productive. I donated two huge garbage bags full of my clothes. I cleaned out Avery and my closets which resulted in 3 garbages bags of crap tossed out. I straightened up my books. Sadly I only got rid of a handful of them but Rinaldo put up some book cases in the basement so there's more room for them now.

I'm starting back at work sick as a dog. It appears I'm not quite up to this level of cleaning. It's left me feeling quite bleh. I'm wondering if it's allergies since I noticed some green in the backyard. Either way, yuck.

Can I go back on vacation now?

Monday, Monday...

I can't complain today since:

A-I'm on vacation this week

B-my children aren't

and

C- I got this in the mail on Friday:
My Ravelry queue has grown an obscene amount since it arrived. Let's see there's Darcy, Dusk, Tess, Amory, Haven, Valient, Faith and Cherish (the site for it is down so no linkage, I'll come back and add them later). I'm going to keep Rowan in business for the next year. Sadly my Dark House body did not arrive with the book and I'm not melting away as I expected to when it arrived. I guess I will have to take care of that part myself...damn.

Since I wasn't quite ready to cast on for any of these lovely pieces I decided to spin some Dark House type colors. I went into the fiber stash (dear god yet another stash!) and found this:
the pictures do it no justice this is the closest to the actual colors

It's merino that I picked up for 50% off from Blue Moon at Rhinebeck. Hiro showed his appreciation for it as well:
I have some problems spinning merino. It's seems a bit delicate for me still. I tend to break it but I got better as I went along:

I have about 10oz of this, goddess only knows how long it will take me to spin it all but I'm in love with it so spin it I will.

Happy Monday!

A whole lot of nothin'

...that's not completely true I do have a progress pic on Ice Queen:

She's actually further along than that but I'm too lazy to take another picture. Just imagine an inch or two more on that and you have where I am now. The needlemaster needles are only problematic on the actually lace row which comes every 4th, it's not too painful. Hopefully my needles will arrive soon.

Since I don't have much to say I thought you would all get a kick out of a General Hospital scene from Wednesday. The characters are chasing a serial killer. While looking around they find the contents of Nadine's bag which included knitting. Maxie Jones grabs the knitting needles, a metal 13 or 15, and brandishes it as a weapon when she's caught by the killer.

I couldn't find a shorter clip so fast forward to minute 4:30 or so to get to the actual stabbing:



Happy Friday!

It's Wednesday...

I had planned to show you how ice queen is coming along but I accidentally left it at home, along with my lunch. I had taken it with me to Ian's school yesterday. He had a trip to the NY Hall of Science. We had to wait for one of the school buses to arrive. It ended up being an hour late. This meant that I got off to a good start before I ever left the school so I wasn't complaining. Let me tell you lace knitting on a school bus is a form of torture in some countries I'm sure. Particularly since I'm working on my old Needlemaster needles. It's like knitting sewing thread with two unsharpened pencils!

I think I discovered where my mojo went though. I can't locate my number 8 Knit Picks points. I have no idea where they are but I know that most of the projects at the top of my queue are done on 8s. I dug out my old Bates set so I could start Ice Queen. They're not ideal but they'll do until replacements arrive from Knit Picks.

I'm buying two set just to be safe.

Since I don't have Ice Queen shots for you. I'll share some Saturday Spinning instead.
This is Snow Squall, January's selection in the Spunky Fiber Club:

It's Icelandic wool which means I love it even though it's a bit rough. It amazed me how much it still felt like real animal hair though, more so than anything I've worked with before. It spun up nicely:

After a nice long bath in Finesse for course hair, a good beating on my kitchen counters and hanging out to dry. I balled it up:


It keeps getting better. I might actually be a real spinner at some point:D

Only two days left people, two long days...

Monday Morning you looked so fine...

I finished something!!! Aren't you impressed? Yes, yes I know it's only one sock but still at this point something is something don't you agree? RPM sure does look fine:

I'm very happy with it. I'm even happier about my mad kitchener skilz. Never in all my years of sock making have I kitchenered a toe without the instructions right in front of me. Yet here I was today, at my desk waiting for my computer to stop acting erratically, grafting the toe on my sock solo. That's right no net, nada, nothing. Just my mad skilz. I've told you before it's the little things that make me happy.

I also ordered yarn for Jeanie. I'm hoping to make it for Tisha's birthday cruise in April. I was going to go for Brooks Farms Acero but I saw someone had used Knit Picks Essential on Ravelry and it looked lovely. It happened to be on clearance at the moment so I went ahead and ordered.You just can't beat $18 over $51. I chose Riverbed Multi. I love brown/blue combos.

While I wait for my yarn to arrive I'm going to cast on for Ice Queen. Maribel's mom has a birthday coming up. I'm going to do it without beads. At some point I'll make one for myself with beads. I'll cast on for the second RPM too but I actually want to make Ice Queen so I need to ride that wave.

Happy Monday!