Trend for '09?

Looks like May slipped right out the door too, sometime between coaxing tomato plants not to die and building a garden plot to house their squashy and cucumber-esque kin. Happily, there has been knitting. I am putting the last touches on a knitted bunny for a new little girl. She arrived before the bunny is finished, but I hope to unite them soon. Pictures to follow, once Mr. Foo has all of his lapin-appropriate parts. At the present, he is minus an ear and a tail. More to come....

Late spring also seems to be the time to clean out the craft room. I am discovering bits of my stash all over the house. Unfortunately, there are a couple of really good on-line sales, so the stash may be destined to grow a bit more.

Rites of Spring

Well, it looks like March blew out of here before I could get anything posted! Only one project really got finished last month. The Boogie Vest, which I opted to knit without the cable pattern, was finished in time to wear for St. Patty's Day. Paired with a pale green shirt, it worked out really well.

I am hopeful that April will be a time of growth and new beginnings. We are planning a vegetable garden for the summer. The location and dimensions have been decided. Now we just have to do the work. I also have teeny seedlings in the sunporch that are ready to move outside as soon as the frost clears out for good.

The knitting landscape is hopeful as well. There are new colors coming out in all of my favorite shops and websites. With the weather improving, it is easier to pick up a small project and take it outside for a bit of sun and fresh air.

I have also done some stash exploration in hopes of completing a project to wear for the spring and summer. More about that later. First, I will have to finish a pending baby project (since the baby arrived at the end of March.)

Finish line

Blanket -- 2/22/09

Mitts -- 2/24/09

Pics are from a cell phone. Not great, but at least I have a record!

Marathon (wo)Man

WOOHOO!!!! I get so excited when I can update my project progress on Ravelry even just a little bit! The blanket is about 75% complete, but the baby will be here any minute. Add to that a new mini-project set to go to NY at the end of the month, and, well, you can see that my every spare minute will be tethered to a ball of yarn.

Not that I am complaining, mind you. For the first time in a while I have incentive and a clear progression of project priorities to follow. AND we had some wonderfully light and warm days this weekend -- perfect for knitting outside. As I understand it, we are to have a few more of these during the week. Maybe some outside knitting is in my future during lunch hour.......hrmmmmmmmmm

Time flies when you're having rum.....

Or watching pirate movies. Or both! All are acceptable ways to spend a rare snow day, as long as you are knitting.

No snow day for me though. I was hard at work once we slogged through the ruination of our secondary road. No knitting in the company of friends that night either. Sigh.

So, this Tuesday was a long-distance participation in Knit-Night. I am now in a race to finish a baby gift for one who is set to arrive at the end of the month and to start another for an April girl. To make things even more interesting, my friend Lenore challenged me to a race. Pictures to follow.

As for the sweater, I goofed. I have pics of it in progress, but the final product was not captured photographically for posterity. Oh well.

Freezy poofs!

It has been a while since the last knitting update, mostly because I had some ideas about projects for Christmas presents and ....... well, that just isn't working out to plan. Those projects are on the same path to destruction as the other unnumbered cross-stitch projects that are marinating in the closet from Christmas-es past.

On a happier note, I finished the baby sweater! It's not exactly to plan, but it worked out for the best. The pattern was for a little layette with jacket, hat, pants and booties. It was in seed stitch with I-cord trim. I decided to do the jacket, in a size slightly larger to account for my knitting speed so that it would actually fit the recipient when it was received. The I-cord also ended up by the wayside. The ties were cute, but the color of the trim keeps playing tricks on my eyes. It really does match pretty well in the right light. Other times, not so much. So, I edited the I-cord to the length I could stand to knit and designed a closure that would be baby-friendly. Pictures will go up after Christmas. (This one made the deadline.)

As for the others, more to come. Maybe if I get busy now, at least one will make the show. The weather outside has been frightful --- wet and foggy for the weekend changing to sunny and blustery today. If I hold my coat just right and run REALLLLY fast, I might even get airborne.

Let me tell you why I suck.....

I, being of unsound mind, have been found guilty of suckage by the Tribunal of the Needle and by my own admission. (To learn more about the Needle, click here.) My penance is to write out this admission, here in what will be known as "the flog blog", the top ten reasons why I suck.

• 10. I use movie quotes in conversation. For proof, see above blog title.
• 9. My yarn stash is quietly taking over my house. I have yarn that will probably never see a project but that I can't liberate or trade at the moment. Maybe someday, but not today. My preciousssss.......
• 8. I have a frog pond the size of Lake Erie.
• 7. I love Hot Topic. Deal with it.
• 6. I love Halloween. I didn't dress up to answer the door this year and so this Halloween was terrible. There were also only 5 trick-or-treaters which made it a double-bummer.
• 5. I am an accountant and I love my job. Working to pass the CPA exam is partly to blame for me having to write this post. Still working on that whole work/life balance thing.....
• 4. Heavy Metal music is my personal drug of choice. The louder, the better. My hair will always be long so that it whips around as I bang my head. Given enough time and AquaNet, I will make my hair bigger than yours.
• 3. Disco sucks, but ABBA will forever hold a special place on my MP3 player. I'm not giving up my roller skates either.
• 2. I want real paper in my newspaper and my books. The on-line versions are just not the same to me.

And the number one reason why I suck:

• 1. Bailing on my friends at the last minute after PROMISING to make it for the first time in weeks. For one who was present at the conception of the Needle, this is probably the biggest reason why I suck.

Respectfully submitting the above, I throw myself on the mercy of the Tribunal.