I Took My Glove For A Walk

It looked so lonely sitting in the bottom of my drawer, unhappy to be sitting there unknit upon and lonley.  So Tuesday I decided it needed a walk, a breathe of fresh air, time away from the hectic office lifestyle.  I grabbed my glove and to cheer it up, I said “let go take a walk through St. Louis.”  

Working in downtown St. Louis has many advantages, there are plenty of people to watch and many sights to visit. All within walking distance of my office.  Busch Stadium is extremely close, in fact my parking garage is its parking garage. So I spend many hours watching people go to and fro to the game, see their happy faces when the Cardinals win and their looks of dejection and betrayal when they lose.But I found another use for Busch Stadium. Its a perfect place to try out your gloves.

A famous CardinalAnother Famous Cardinal

I must say though I did get some awfully interesting looks, running around putting my glove on these statutes hands! But it was totally worth it. 

Cardinal

One More Famous Cardinal

I was waiting for security to come and escort me off the premises, but after all these statutes are on the sidewalk, that is public even in front of a stadium right.  And I did not damage them. 

After our stop at Busch Stadium the glove and I went and explored other parts of downtown St. Louis. 

Stay tuned to see where we went. 

I was born to Felt.

I should have known.  That in life, once I learned to knit, and learned the beneficial attributes of wool yarn, that I would fall desperately in love with felting.  Although, I do tend to never actually finish the felt items, but that is beside the point.  See I should have known when my family name is Felt.  Had I realized this earlier in life, I would have been knitting and felting at age 6, and I’d be a lot farther along in utilizing my stash. 

The actual point in this is that I took a break from the sleeves for “Gathering Intentions” and started yesterday, with my foggy brain, the Diamond Mitered Square Bag in the Interweave Felt magazine.  Afterall it has my maiden name written in bold letters across the front, it had to be purchased. 

I’m using up bits of Casecade 220 that I no longer have enough of for anything substantial, but have plenty to knit a purse by using scraps and pieces.  It may turn out to be a horrendously ugly purse, but I’ll use it with pride, because I made it. And afterall, it’ll be a one of a kind. 

Soccer Master

I haven’t taken any pictures recently of my knitting, but I will eventually.  I’m out of habit from my blogging haitus. 

However, there are always pictures of the boys.  As you can see Abner is still totally in love with playing soccer.  Django, we recently discovered, also likes playing soccer, but not so aggressively as Abner.  He play for a few minutes, then lays down and takes a nap.  Abner would play until he quite literally collapsed and died.  Fortunately cooler weather is on the horizon, and so Abner will be able to play soccer all he wants soon.

Now I think I’ll go knit on my purse.  My brain can’t handle cables today.

May I Nap Now?

When I was little I called afghans naps.  Because everytime I layed down to take a nap, I used my Mama’s afghan she crocheted for us.  My grandmother crocheted the ugliest afghans, I mean naps, in the world.  (Oh Mama, is actually pronounced with long A’s and was my maternal grandmother).  They were absolutely hideous, typically orange and reds and greens, your typical 60’s and 70’s colors.  But they were extremely well-loved.  Mama always just used whatever yarn she had on hand, there wasn’t any particular planning, etc.  She crocheted for years, until she found her true passion in crafting which was stained glass.  She did phenomenal glass work, and I’m fortunate now to have several of her pieces adorning my house.  I miss my Mama.  But I’m glad to have so many pieces of her surronding me.

Her an my sister one year thought it would be a good idea, I think I was around 21, to make me crochet to help me stopping picking at my fingernails.  So I started crocheting again, and I made several blankets.  But I never could read a crochet pattern or master the art of it, so I just crocheted nap after nap.  Finally one day I was tired of crocheting and picked up a Learn to Knit book and haven’t looked back. It is my crafting niche. 

My Little Smiley Dog

This week I’ve worked 22 hours of overtime, I really do need a nap.  I couldn’t fall asleep last night until 2 a.m., but yet I still couldn’t sleep past 8 a.m. this morning. 

Maybe this afternoon I’ll take a nap, I no longer have any lovely ugly afghans by my Mama, but I still have their memories. 

Django smiles. All the time.  He is just the happiest little dog, well not that little, although lighter then Abner, he’s actually taller and longer, he’s just not as muscley.

I’ll try and have a Basil picture for my next post.  He’s being anti-social lately as he’s molting and very unhappy and uncomfortable.  But it should be over soon, and my rotten little bird that loves to snuggle shall return.

Have a lovely weekend.

I’m Addicted to British Television

Its true.  I can’t get enough: Midsomer Murder, Hamis MacBeth, The Last Detective, Lovejoy, Foyle’s War, Dr. Who, Jeeves and Woster, Fawlty Towers, MI-5 and the list goes on and on.  Part of the fun though is seeing what sort of delicious knitwear one will see.  The best for knitwear has to be Hamish MacBeth.  It stars Robert Carlyle.  I think.  Honestly, I’m horrible at actor’s names.  Its set in the Scottish town of Lochdough.  I probably spelled that wrong.  But the knitwear is phenomenal, and 90% of it looks hand-knit.  The show itself, really not that great, but the knitwear made me but the entire series on DVD. 

The other shows too usually have decent knitwear, but no where near as many as Hamish.  So tonight, I think I’ll work on my sleeve, that is after I finish my office work I brought home, and watch Hamish. 

Down Comforters Are Fun to Eat

I thought I’d share this picture of the boys.  This last spring, they decided to eat the down comforter.  I came home, was sitting in the living room, turned on the whole house fan, and suddenly saw little feathers whirling through the air.  It took hours to clean up, but they sure had fun!

Have a nice evening!

I Wish I Had a Kangaroo’s Arms

Currently I am knitting away on two main projects.  1) sweater Gathering Intentions and 2) a pair of gloves from Selbuvotter.  Mainly though I’m working on the sweater.  I knit the sweater in the round, I really don’t like sewing seams.  I finished the body, all but the turtleneck, and am steadily working away on sleeve 1.  Nick looked at me today and said, “Wow, you are really making progress quickly on that second sleeve.”  No, it is the first sleeve.  It seems to never end.  Ever.  The worst part is, I still have another sleeve.  But I trudge on as I would like to have a new sweater I created for winter. 

Kangaroos are fortunate, their arms are disproportinately small to their bodies.  Plus, they don’t have to carry purses, they have a built in pouch.  I really wish I was a kangaroo.  Oh, and lets not forget their cool tennis shoes with zippers and velcro pouches to keep their milk money.  Yes, kangaroos are very fortunate animals.  Plus they live in Austrailia, which is near New Zealand, and that is where all the cool sheep live.  I bet there may be kangaroos in New Zealand. 

Since I am not a kanagaroo I trudge forth, thinking of the day when the sleeves will be done, my sweater will be put together and I can either start some hats, mittens, or that cool Mitered Square Felted Purse from Interweave’s Felt magazine.  Designed by none other then Kristi! 

Wiggly Dog Not Wiggling

I was in a mitten mood until I saw that purse, and I really could use a new purse for winter.  There is always time to knit mittens. 

But we will see, the one thing I learned during my haitus was that I’m happier when I knit what I want, when I want, and don’t put internal or external pressures to knit certain things at certain times. 

That is of course if this wiggly beast will let me knit, he does insist on sitting on me at nearly all times that I am sitting and does not appreciate knitting as the yarn tickles him. 

Well I suppose since I am not a kangaroo, I should get back to that sleeve, the first sleeve.

Yarn to the Rescue

Over on Lobstah’s blog she talked about how yarn rescued her.  The more I thought about this I realized that yarn has rescued me or others around me more than once.

Most recently this spring we were having a particularly rainy month.  Nick changed the windsheild wipers on the car. Good thing, no? Well they immediately lost one of their cappy thingys. (I’m so technical aren’t I). As I’m driving down the interstate on my way to work the blade portion of the windsheild wiper starts sliding off.  I pull over, get drenched, and fix it.  Which I had to actually get off the interstate as it was rainy so hard that pulling off on the interstate and attempting to fix on the shoulder would have been too dangerous.

I head off again and within a few miles I have to pull over and fix the wiper again.  Finally I get to work and pull into the parking garage.  By evening it was still raining buckets, and not wanting to have the same ride home from work as I had to work I realized it had to be fixed. I go out to the car and start inspecting the windsheild wiper.  I realize that there was a hole near the end of the wiper which I’m assuming the cap snapped into.  Yarn to the rescue.  By tying a piece of yarn through the hole and around the end of the blade I stopped the blade from sliding off. 

Of course as a knitter who is obssessive, I always have yarn with me somewhere.  In fact recently at work someone needed string. No one had string.  But of course I had yarn!  Which really is just pretty string.

The Tree Has Eaten Abner

I Will Get My Ball!

So here is my big boy, he’ll be 5 in just a few weeks.  And Django will have lived with us a year in just a few weeks.  Of course it is nearly impossible to get a good picture of my Django because he’s so wiggly!

He just couldn’t quite get the ball! But he sure tried for a long time.  Several months later we went back to the in-laws and he immediately went to this tree, looking in the crook to find his red ball.  And they say animals don’t have memories!

What I’ve Been Doing

During the past several months I have done very little but work, very hard.  We have several cases that are rapidly progressing to Trial, and my job demands a lot of my time.  I really do enjoy the job though, and am very thankful I took the chance to change employment last year.  It was scary in the beginning, but now looking back I know I did the right thing.  I only wonder if I should have done it sooner. 

As far as knitting, I’ve made a ton of hats this year.  I think I’ve been putting off knitting larger things for fear of failure.  Ringbloomst (my Dale of Norway) is all but finished.  I need to steek it, sew it, and finish the neck.  I keep thinking each weekend, that that will be the weekend I do the work, but then something gets in the way.  Considering the warmth of the wool, it’ll be a while before I can wear it, even if the Farmer’s Alamanc is correct and this year will be colder and higher snow fall then previous years.

The Best Kind of Elephant is Pink

Other then hats, I also got a strong urge to knit a stuffed animal.  So knit a stuffed animal I did.  This is a friend of mine’s daughter, who loves anything and everything pink.  She was very pleased to receive a big pink elephant.  Although when its tailed fell off in the middle of the night, and she woke up in hysterics, I’m not sure her mom was happy about the pink elephant.

Another think of note that has not happened this year, is yarn purchases.  True!  I have only purchased 6 skeins of yarn this entire year.  4 for a camo hat for Nick and his friend, and 2 for a scarf I’m gingerly working on for boss’ day.  Can you believe I’ve gone nearly a year without buying yarn! I don’t think I can.

Currently I’m working on a sweater for myself from Inspired Cable Knits by Fiona Ellis.  I’m making “Gathering Intentions”.  I have the body finished and have started working on the first sleeve.  Amazingly, I think this sweater may actually fit.  But we’ll wait to hold judgment until the sleeves are actually done. I haven’t had the best of success these late days with fitted items.

So that is the rundown on what I’ve been doing and haven’t been doing.  The kids are all fine.  You’ll note the picture of the boys up at the top of my blog.  Basil is also doing well.  Although he has become obsessed with staying in his cage and doesn’t like to come out for family time much.  But hopefully soon, when it gets dark earlier in the evening, he’ll decide that the living room is much more exciting then his bedroom.

Toodle Pip

To Blog Or Not To Blog

I’ve toiled with this question every since I gave up Knit Knack several months back.  I do enjoy blogging, but I also enjoy not blogging.  Recently however I realized that a large portion of the reason I had disliked blogging was the internal pressures I put on myself.  I had begun to feel like I had to finish things, just to show you – my readers – what I had done.  But in fact, finishing projects and starting new projects has nothing to do with you.  It has to do with me, and that is what I had forgotten.  That knitting and spinning, and craftin in general, even writing, is for me, not for you.  Not that I don’t appreciate the people who stop by and read my blog, but I had to remember that if it had become a pressure, it was no longer enjoyable and was sucking the fun out of my crafts. 

So I quit.  But I did miss it.  I missed keeping a journal of my projects and sharing pictures of my animals.  I missed writing.  Although my writing had become rather dull and mundane.  That however was because I stopped putting thought into my blog, because I was forcing myself to blog on a daily basis.  I don’t need to blog on a daily basis.  I don’t need to write everything down every day.  But I do enjoy writing, and telling people about what I’m doing. 

So as a way to keep connected with my family and friends, I decided to start this little blog again.  Now I just have to remember to share the address with my family and friends.  I just started this, this evening, and thus if you read this in the next 24 hours, or the next 240 hours, you’ll see many many changes and updates and personalizations.

So stay tuned and I’ll let you know how it goes.