Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Quickie

Just a little update as I've been rather quiet lately. The quiet has been because of the lack of good weather. It makes me so grumpy and blah feeling. Fortunately yesterday was a delightful 82° but it hasn't been all that long ago (just over a week) that we had a 36° morning. And let's not even discuss the rain. So yeah, solar powered as I am, I have not been having a good spring. We still have the plastic over the screened porch and I can't even begin to guess when we can put the pool up. It's all very depressing. Boo.

I've been managing to get some knitting done, though. Currently I'm working on a (slightly obnoxiously colored) pair of socks. I'm hoping to have those done in the next week to ten days. I'm sure I'll post about them when they are done, but you can hit the link above to see some in-progress pics (if, for some reason, you actually care). They are working up a bit snug due to the stitch pattern. Hopefully I won't have to find them a home when they are done.

In other news, the house next door has officially been sold. The new owners have been moving their things in all day. So there goes Dan's side job of lawn mowing. I don't think he'll extend the offer to the new neighbors - the last year or so he's been hoping our old neighbors would decide to cut their own lawn, regardless of how nice a bit of extra cash is. But they did end up paying for our old lawn mower, one mow at a time, so we can't be too unhappy with how that all worked out. Also good news, the new neighbors appear to be an older couple. Grandkids are always a possibility, but it does look like they will be overall a quite family to have next door. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of moving, Dan and I are semi-officially looking for a new home. Semi-officially for the next few weeks and then, at the end of May, officially. I imagine it will take us a while to find exactly what we want as we are both quite picky so who knows when we will actually be moving, but we are hoping for Christmas in a new house. I've already offered up my potential new dining room for the family dinner!

And in the last bit of news, playoff hockey starts tonight. Both my team and Dan's made it in. Yay! The Ducks were #2 in the Western Conference (& the Pacific Division winners) while they Blues were #4 (and #2 in the Central Division). Naturally, I'd love to see one of our teams win, but I'm kind of prepared for Chicago to hoist the cup. They've been burning it up this year.

And that's all the news that is (or isn't) news at the moment. All rather boring. But with nicer weather comes more activity! So I hope today's and yesterday's sun means normal weather is here to stay. I really need to soak up some vitamin D!

Monday, April 22, 2013

I Knit Ridiculous Things

Sigh. I am apparently attracted to knitting ridiculous things. Take my latest project:

Flat Cap!

Yes, I knit myself a flat cap. I rarely even wear hats! Yet I sort of adore this one, mostly because of the absurdity. But outside of the absurdity of knitting a flat cap, I think it's pretty awesome.

Notes, additional pictures and random rambling are here on Ravelry. I'll admit, I'm kind of thinking of doing a second one in a more summer-appropriate yarn. So nuts!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Just In Time For Summer!

In the past few days, the weather has finally become spring-like. Just in time for my latest knit project to be ready to wear! Cuddle socks!

More Socks!

They are wonderful - soft and slouchy and they make me want to cuddle up under an afghan and read as soon as I put them on.

Which means I probably won't be able to wear them until Thanksgiving. If that means the weather stays nice, I'll be okay with that. (Though I probably will pet them before then. They are really soft! They have angora in them!)

Saturday, April 13, 2013

It's Not Knitting!

Look, I'm posting about something that isn't knitting! I suppose it is still technically craft-related, but it's craft beer, not arts & crafts.

Revolver Brewing

Yep, we went on another brewery tour! This one was Revolver Brewing. It's a really small brewery - it was new to Dan, probably because they don't even have a bottling machine, yet. All of their beer is sold in kegs at local restaurants & bars.

Revolver Brewing

Yep, a pretty small and new brewery, but Dan liked the logo (it is cool, isn't it?) so he was up for going to an event that would get us some beer glasses with a nifty logo. And we'd get to try some new beers, which is always a bonus.

They had five beers on tap, four of which are their normal ones and one super-special one that ran out really quickly (but not before Dan had a glass of it). They had a wheat beer that I was interested in trying (because I like wheat beers best, typically), but their Revolver Bock was my favorite (Dan's too, actually).

Revolver Brewing Revolver Brewing Revolver Brewing

Actually, both Dan and I were really pleased with the beers on offer. Even the ones I didn't like were still smooth and drinkable. Even their American blonde ale (their "normal" beer) was pretty good.

Revolver Brewing

We each had four "punches" available; each punch got us half of a 16-oz glass' worth of beer. Of course, their definition of "half" was a bit more generous than I think what you'd find in the dictionary. I did drink all of my bock and most of my wheat. Dan had my other two punches.

Revolver Brewing

Needless to say, I drove home.

Monday, April 8, 2013

I'm Full

Well, I just rearranged my yarn cabinet to squeeze my newest purcahses in there. Things are getting a little snug!

Stash

The top shelf is three deep on the left and two deep on the right. The shortbread is full of smaller balls of thread. The middle shelf is three deep all the way across except for the shortbread tin (which is stuffed with mostly-used-but-not-quite-gone balls of yarn). The third shelf is mostly just one deep - all the skeins are laying lengthwise and stacked up - with just a single layer of other goodies stacked in front on the left.

Yeah, it's a bit full. But it's not that bad. I mean, I don't even need to squish things to get the doors closed!

Of course, this doesn't mean I need to stop buying yarn. But maybe I need to rearrange things on the other shelves of my cabinet to give the yarn more room to expand.

And knit faster. That would help, too.

ETA: Oops. I just got the mail and it had a lovely package that had two more balls of yarn. Looks like I need to find some room!

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Like A Bandit

Today was a big day. It was the much-anticipated DFW Fiber Fest outing day. Or, as I have been calling it, Yarn Day. I spent way too much money (because Dan is a dirty, rotten enabler) and got some way awesome goodies.

See? (Clicking on a pic will take you to Flickr where I have the names and fiber content of each yarn cause they are simply that delicious.)

Paca-Peds Dreamsicle Gynx Yarns Luxe Sock Florence Western Sky Knits North Sea Budding Sock Yarn Minty Mocha Gynx Yarn Merino Sock Playa A Thing For String Sock Stained Tosh Merino Light Spectrum Gritty Knits Mighty Grenade BuenaSuerte Cat's Paw Frankly Alarming Budding Sock Yarn Yuma A Thing For String Sock October Western Sky Knits Just Peachy Trinity Ridge Alpacas Fiber Studio White Alpaca

Crazy wonderful, yes? YES!

I'll admit, for some reason I was super attracted to the bright, somewhat obnoxious stuff. (Please note my dayglo pink and acid green lovelies. Seriously, their intensity cannot be accurately portrayed through photographs.) Dan did manage to steer me away from the bright rainbow colors, though. Most of my goodies have a 90% likelihood of being socks - now I know I love knitting socks and one skein will give me a pair, so win win! Dan also got a couple of skeins of socks (the two darker orange ones) so he's gonna get some socks, too!

Also exciting, I got a huge variety of types of yarn. Even some with buffalo! I can't wait to see how everything knits up! Yay! Happy Yarn Day!

Friday, April 5, 2013

More Socks!

And it's another project I get to mark as finished! My Turkish bed socks!

Turkish Bed Socks

Footies are rather hard to photograph attractively, but I did what I could. You can see how they actually fit on my Ravelry project page (link above) if you are just dying to see them being worn.

Anyway, it was a really neat, quick and interesting project. Honestly, I think I could totally make them again without wanting to claw my eyes out (somewhat of a rarity as I'm usually not one for repeating patterns).

I'm totally getting into this whole knitted sock thing. Which is good, because I'm already working on a new pair! I'm about two thirds of the way done with the first sock and so far it's super cute. Hopefully I'll finish the first sock and be able to cast on for the second on this weekend. (I am trying the whole one at a time thing with the socks to see how it works. I will admit, while this way makes the sock seem to go quicker, I'm a little sad knowing I'm only almost half way done instead of being almost completely done, you know?)

I swear, someday something non-knitting related will happen in my life and I'll post about that. Promise!

Monday, April 1, 2013

BUTTONS!

I finally got my buttons today! Yay!

Of course, I was so busy that I wasn't able to put the buttons on until late tonight. But what matters is that I got it done! Which means I have a sweater!

I Got My Buttons!

(Yes, the picture was taken in our guest bathroom. We have a very limited number of mirrors in the house. As in two. I don't even have a full length mirror. Instead, I just stand on the edge of the tub. It's worked for nine years so I've felt no need to change it, but I might need to revisit since I keep finding the need to take pictures of myself in sweaters.)

Anyway, for the absolute best results, I probably should have used some kind of bracer button on the back of the buttons to give a bit of support because they are quite large (just under 1.5") and the sweater is a more drape-y llama (versus a sturdier, springier wool). Eh, live and learn. But I don't think it will be a problem. (Hopefully those don't go down as famous last words.) And honestly, I pretty much never button cardigans anyway so they shouldn't get much of a work out.

Hopefully the sweater will get a lot of use, though! I was wearing a tank top underneath it in the above photo and I think it is a good sign that I didn't find the sweater itchy. And lately I've been finding everything itchy. I've had to cut out tags in the back of shirts that I've worn for years. No idea why my skin is being so sensitive lately, but it didn't mind the llama & silk so yay!

Next up: seaming my purse (and then learning to use my sewing machine to line it) and working on my Turkish bed socks. Then, once those are done, I'm thinking another pair of socks and another sweater! I'm insane!