Updates in the world of me. - SWAP SPOILER

So the past few days have been kind of a wash. I haven't done much of anything, really. My depression is setting back in, big time. I've gotten paperwork from the Social Security administration about my disability claim. I need to fill it out and get it back to them. I'll probably do that today, fill them out right after I get done blogging and put it in the mail this afternoon. They scheduled me for a mental evaluation the day after christmas, which is in the morning on the 26th. I'll be leaving at 1 PM on the 26th, so it's cutting things a little close.

I got my partner for the Ravelry holiday swap. She's going to be a tough one to shop for, considering she has no blog, and only 27 posts on the forum. I don't know what in the world to get her. SWAP SPOILERS ahead. If you are my partner on the Ravelry 2007 Holiday Swap, or you think you are, or know who it is, DON'T LOOK ANY FURTHER. In fact, I'll do what movie spoiler sites do...If you want to read the spoiler, highlight the text below to read.




I'm not at all sure what to get my partner. I was thinking of giving her some of the Fantacia Te Amo yarn I've got in my stash. It's 50% acrylic and 50% silk. Two skeins should be enough for a hat. I'm thinking of including a cute little cloche hat pattern, as its one of the few crochet patterns I found that was actually cute that used bulky yarn. This yarn is mostly bulky. I mean, it isn't worsted and its not a true bulky. It's in a rainbow of colors, so it's bright and fun. I'm also thinking of getting her some coffee samples so she can try different types, and some bag balm, to soothe hands. Also thinking of making her a crochet hook organizer and getting some some soaps, maybe a book to enjoy, althugh I don't know what genre she reads. Maybe a rubber duckie and do not disturb sign for her door. She has kids, so these things may come in handy for relaxation. I'm also going to figure something else out for her.

My main concern is that cigarette smoke bothers her, and my house has two smokers living in it. Yikes. I'll air it all out, wash what I can, and spray what I can't with air freshner.


Now, with all that said, I've been knitting a bit. I started on my mom's citrine socks. THe unravelling didn't work out so well. So I'll be doing it in Caron Dazzelaire with some white acrylic for the heels and toes. Pastel colors make me sick, but the yarn is so soft and fuzzy. It makes me happy. I also worked a bit more on the Big Girl blanket. Besides that, though, ravelry and secondlife have been eating up a fair bit of my time.

Holiday cheer?

I feel like I should be spreading Holiday Cheer today. It's not like I've got any myself, so I can't exactly be spreading around feelings that I haven't got. We don't even have the money to get a tree or ornaments, so its going to be a sparse christmas this year.

Last night was Molly's 24th birthday party. There were card games (including one that was a lot like double solitaire, but whose name I cannot exactly recall.), Egyptian Rat Screw (the polite name for it, mind you.) and Sequence. There was also Age of Empires, which made me and Molly very happy. Pi came along, and he enjoyed himself very much. I found out I can knit while intoxicated. In fact, certain substances make it easier to knit. haha.

I'm also just in a very bad mood today. My moods fluccuate depending on a lot of different factors. Today, my mother was laying down a massive guilt trip on me. I do not feel good about that. I'd rather not have to deal with it. But it's a fact of life. I've been surfing the Kaoani websites (those little animated gif images sprinkled throughout this post. It's a japanese thing, and it's super cute, in my humble opinion), and they've kinda cheered me up. Reminding me I haven't done any christmas knitting today. My Y key on my keyboard keeps popping off, so I'll cut this post short. Toodles!

Unproductiveness

These past few days have been very unproductive. We went up to visit David's great grandmother last night. She's dying. I've only met her once before, but the difference was astounding and its such a shame. Even her cat, Hilary, knows what's going on. Hilary was cuddling up to me and begging me to take her home, I think. I felt kind of bad, because the cat has hot spots and is miserable on top of it all.

I brought along Baby Katelyn's "Not a Baby" blanket. She's three years old now. It's a big girl blanket. It's going to still be tiny, I only have two skeins of Super Saver to work with, but that's what her mother gave me, so that's what I'll use. Stockinette center, moss stitch borders and a crocheted edge in Lavendar and Sage, to match her new "big girl" room.

After visiting his great grandma, we went back to his mother's house. I didn't know we'd be staying the night, so I got kind of pissy. David and I didn't bring anything to stay the night. We had no cigarettes (bad habit, I know.) and I didn't bring my meds. Because I didn't bring my meds, I started having rape flashbacks and misery and panic attacks. It was no fun at all. I cannot possibly miss my medication, and because of all that's going on with Job and Family Services, I'm going to be losing my insurance once I turn 19 (we make "too much" money for that age bracket. Never mind we cannot even pay the rent on a timely basis. The money bracket for 19 and over is 250$ USD a month. Ick.) And I cannot go without my medication. I'll be insane. I don't know what to do. So I'm trying to file for disability on the basis of medication dependency. It's going to take a while.

David's sister and I went out for a walk to visit her friends. Things got kinda muddled, and she got into trouble. I feel bad becaus I was partly responsible for having her out so late. But all in all, it wasn't a bad time. Walking the railroad tracks in Glouster was fun. I found a cemetery I didn't know was there, so all was good.

I'll be test knitting a pattern for someone on Ravelry. Details on this will be few and far between unless she says I can post. In which case, I will. She's sending me yarn to do it, and I'm happy about that.

All in all, that's really all that's going on. I measured my mother in law's favorite mug this morning, so I'll finish the coffee cozie sometime soon.l I also started unravelling a thrift store sweater for my mum's Citrine Socks. It's pink variegated, so hopefully it will turn out awesome. I think it's a wool mohair blend, because I did the burn test. It charred, smelled like burnt hair, but didn't self extinguish. It actually went up rather quickly, which is, if I'm not mistaken, a sign of mohair. It feels like wool and mohair. I just wish I had a definitive way to know what it was. I don't have any bleach to do the bleach test either. Ah well.

In other news, here's a photo of me and my friend Molly from her commitment ceremony. Her birthday is today. I know she doesn't read this, but Happy Birthday anyway, Molly! (That's her signifigant other, Amanda to her right, as well as David peeking in the background.)

FO: Quarter Horse PLUS: Updates

This is a bad photo of my little "quarter" horse, created for my friend Molly's birthday. He was done in Caron Simply Soft (a dark brown color), with some mystery acrylic in white added for eyes. He's got a very fluffy mane, and was crocheted amigurumi style. So, single crochet in rounds all the way. I added a keychain to him. He was done with a size F crochet hook and stuffed with polyester fiber fill.

I also made a card to go with it, which you can see in the very horrible photo to the right. You can kinda make out the horse's head. it was done in chalk pastel. That's a horse of a different color!.

I also thought I would update you on my christmas knitting...The Webs scarf still has no other progress on it. I haven't touched it since yesterday. But here's a photo (again, apologies for the quality) of the lace detail on the bottom. I eliminated the large spiderweb pattern, and just went to garter stitch after the lace holes row.

Also, the coffee cup cozie is almost done. I just need to figure out how long to make it, as we have no "standard" sized mugs in our home. What a shame. Oh well. I'll figure it out. (Photo below and to the right)

And just for fun, a picture of my fuzzbutt, Pythagoras (Pi for short). He's the cutie who used to be called Quita, until we found out he was a boy. Here he is eating the remains of my sandwhich.

Amigurumi

I just finished an amigurumi keychain for my friend Molly's birthday. She's a horse fan, so it's a horse head and neck. It's a "quarter" horse. hahaha. Okay, a little horsie humor. Oh well. Her birthday is monday. I put the little guy on a keychain, and drew her a nice horse card to go with it. I hope she likes it. It's a little disfigured. Anyway, maybe a picture of it later, if I can get the damn camera to work for me again.

Almost finished the mug cozie for my mother in law. Haven't touched the webs scarf all day. I'm a lazy little bugger sometimes.

Updates

I finished and grafted one side of my Grandmother Web's scarf. I got sick of knitting the pattern, though, and alas, started using the yarn (I know I'll have plenty left over) to create a mug cozy for my mother-in-law for christmas. So I'm working on Interweave Knit's Garter Mug Cozie for a while. It should be a quick knit.

I'm running out of things to watch on my computer while knitting. We haven't got tv here at the house, and so it's tough to find watchable stuff on the internet, ever since TV Links shut down. I'm sure I'll find something though. I've been going through re-runs of Daria right now.

Not much else to speak of on the knitting front. It was a lazy day today, as I slept most of the day. It's also been a sad day. David got a call from his mother saying his great-grandmother is dying. So he's taking the day off of work tomorrow to go visit her. I'm busy caring for him tonight, so no real knitting is possible.

Just for photos sake, here's a picture of my darling David and I on our wedding day (January 22nd 2007). I made the dress and the tiara myself. The corset was store-bought.

Photos

Progress on Norbert, my dragon scales shawl.

The simple moss stitch scarf for my other grandma.

The beginning of my grandmother's Webs scarf, after frogging the ends and deciding to reknit them.

Webs Scarf.

I've been working on my webs scarf all week. It's almost finished. I ripped out the first end I had botched. Well, more like cut it since it didn't want to rip back. I'm knitting on some more garter, then knitting the edges seperately and grafting them to the scarf. Not ideal, but it had to be done. THe lace pattern looked awful and I don't think I could stand giving my grandmother something that awful. Pictures to come soon, I promise.

Right now I've got The Santa Clause 2 on, am muching on leftover turkey, and am knitting my Webs scarf. After the webs scarf is the scarf for my dad. I think I've decided on Henry from Knitty Fall 2007. He'll enjoy that. I'll probably end up doing it in some brown Simply Soft I've got. I guess my stash is dominated by Simply Soft. Oh well.

I think between scarves I'll work on the cell phone cozies for my sisters in law, and the mug cozie for my mother in law.

I'm participating in the Ravelry Holiday 2007 swap, so there will be details of that too. Whoever I get paired with must PROMISE not to read posts marked as such.

It's chilly today. Back to knitting.

Four A.M And nothing to do...

I've been on ravelry all night. I can't sleep, too much turkey. So I just surf ravelry and my knitting blogs list all night. Hoping someone else is a night owl like me. I took a quiz courtesy of BumbleFee .

What kind of knitting needles are you?

You are interchangeable.Fun, free, and into everything, you've got every eventuality covered and every opportunity just has to be taken. Every fiber is wonderful, and every day is a new beginning. You are good at so many things, it's amazing, but you can easily lose your place and forget to show up. They have row counters for people like you!
Take this quiz!

Turkey Day

Happy turkey day everyone!

I spent thanskgiving, as stated, with my in laws. While nice, some of them can just be far too intolerant. But this isn't the proper place to be ranting about being a bisexual, bipolar, goth and pagan in a small town. Nah. Me? Out of place? Never. hehe.

I got about ten percent more of my scarf completed. It's going to be a long scarf. My grandmother is 4'10" so I'm going to be making the scarf about 5" long. She's going to love it, I think.

I spent some more time on ravelry today researching patterns for other people's christmas presents. I got asked a bunch of times about when baby Katelyn's blanket is going to be done. So I need to finish that, soon, too.

Oh well.

For the love of ducks....

....please rescue me from my inlaws. Even my scarf-knitting cannot drown out the sounds of their intolerance.

Inventory Time

So It's time to take inventory of all that I need to do before the holidays -

Knit a hat for my older brother (probably a bucket hat, like the one from VK 25th anniversary) - no yarn picked out yet.
Knit Knucks for my younger brother (knitty.com) - no yarn picked out yet.
Knit a scarf for my dad (Still haven't found a pattern I like. The Irish Hiking Scarf maybe?)- Caron Simply Soft
Knit a pair of socks for my mom (Citrine Socks from IK Holiday 2007) - Unraveled cashmere thrift store sweater
Knit a pair of socks for Molly (IK's Tyrolean Socks) - Caron Simply Soft Brites
Knit a purse for Amanda (no pattern yet...maybe Zeeby's Bag from the first stitch and bitch!) - No yarn picked out yet
Knit cell phone cozies for my two sisters in law. - no yarn picked out yet
Knit my father in law socks (He's a size men's 15 triple E. Yikes) - no yarn picked out yet
Knit my mother in law something (I dunno what yet. Scarf? Hat? More likley a coffee cozie) - no yarn picked out yet. But scraps should make it easy to do the coffee cup cozie.

I still have to finish my grandmother's Webs scarf. That's going to be easy to do. It's in Caron Simply Soft Light Country Blue, and it matches her coat exactly. I'm going over to my inlaw's tonight to stay for thanksgiving, and I'll be bringing it with me. I botched the lace pattern, and am eliminating the acre pattern for favor of garter stitch.

I finished my other grandma's scarf a while ago. Moss stitch in a nice virgin wool. dyed peacock like colors. Yummy.

I'm justifying my knitting myself a pair of citrine socks as testing the pattern for my mother's socks.

I'm also not sure what to get the hubby for christmas. Yeah. That should be interesting. I don't even know what he wants.

As far as other knitting related news, Ravelry is a time sucker. A yummy, yummy time sucker that grabs me in every time. I've been surfing knitting blogs all afternoon, in hopes that someone might return the favor and read mine. I don't usually have photos, my digital camera has a cracked lense, but I do make posts, and I'm hoping to make posts more often.

As far as projects that have been put on the back burner for holiday knitting, I have:
My wedding afghan - it's still not finished. I doubt it will be finished by my husband and my one year anniversary. I don't have the effort or money. It's single crochet, but so, so comfy.

My granny square afghan - just put on the back burner for a bit.

Scrubbies - we need new washcloths, but I don't want to knit them just yet. I've got a whole truckload of black cotton yarn to use, too.

Norbert - the dragon scale's shawl from THe YarnPath. in a lovely acrylic/mohair blend.

My steampunk gloves - fingerless. Acrylic. SImple.

My vest.

My aran isles afghan

My other Simple Sock

My other fingerless glove for hubby


And more, I'm sure I'm forgetting some. I know i am, in fact. But that's enough torment. I have too many projects.

Zombies.

Well, not really. There are no zombies around. But I feel like a zombie. Really I do. I had a job interview today. I had called about it yesterday, there was an ad in the paper asking for childcare for a four year old. So I called, and had an interview tonight.

Little did I realize that it's clear across town, and the bus stop is about 1.5 miles from their home. 1.5 miles TOTALLY uphill. ANd it's not a wussy hill. I may live in Ohio, but it's unglaciated Ohio. That means BIG HILLS. I was running a little late because I had to keep stopping on the way to their house. They seemed kinda pissed, but I can at least say I gave it my best shot.

The kiddo is four years old and absolutely adorable. I really hope I get the job. THat would mean about an extra 400 a month. And I'd get to keep my insurance. So yeah.
\
On the knitting front, I didn't get much done today. I'm planning on working on my grandma's Quiviuk Webs Scarf, that isn't really Quivit but Caron Simply Soft. I need to finish my other citrine sock, and work on a ton of christmas presents.

On the Webs scarf, I fudged most of the lace, and eliminated the acre pattern in favor of simple garter stitch.

The citrine socks are two color stripes now.

Gifting Time!

I've been working frantically to get christmas gifts done. But I keep getting sidetracked. I finished a moss stitch scarf for my grandma Audrey, am working on the Quiviuk Webs Scarf from Interweave for my Grandma Nancy. I did a prototype sock for my mother of the Citrine Socklets, and have the yarn for my friend Molly's Tyrolean Socks. That's about as far as I've gotten on progress. That's sad.

Back to knitting, I suppose!

Long time no talk

So it's been a long, long time since I've posted. Things have been hectic. I've moved out of Glouster and out of the house with david's parents. We moved into our own little shack in Athens, OH.
Since then, our friend Brett has moved in, since he's having wife problems. His little girl, Savannah, is the one who got the skull sweater knit for her. You should all remember that project. Whoo.
On the subject of the cats, only Pi came with us. Pi is the cat formerly known as Quita. We found out he was a boy. The other two cats are being placed up for adoption since my sisters in law cannot care for them.


On the knitting front, I've got some things going on that are new.

Brett's requested a hat with earflaps. That's being done in black Lion brand homespun.

I've got a granny square blanket to work on all my acrylic stash.

Other misc. projects that are still going on, but nothing real to speak of. Yeah.