Knitted Together

My father got married this weekend, which explains why I have been sleeping for the last few days and am now up way too late (that, and the inexplicable heat). It was a beautiful ceremony and I am very pleased for the happy couple.

If anyone out there is in need of a wedding gift for the well-established couple in their lives, I cannot over-recommend the Bespoke Pillow from Interweave Knits.

It's lovely, personal, and who really needs a punchbowl anyhow? This only took a few days in Knit Picks Shine Worsted and will remind them of my regard whenever they take a nap on the couch.

The Husboy and I also critter-sat for them while they honeymooned overnight (don't worry, they're spending a whole week together at home as well), and I took advantage of the desert location to wash and dry a few more skeins of inventory.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like my etsy shop will be open any time soon; my oncologist wants me to take it nice and slow for a few more months. After this not-too hectic weekend and the two days of solid sleep afterwards, I can see his point. It takes longer than you'd think to get back up to full strength... please send patient vibes in my direction if you can spare them.

Oh, and in case you were worried about Stinker being alone all weekend, don't fret. She has a big feeder, water-er,

and fresh batteries in the remote.

Music Meme

I remember when I wasn't older (or that much older) than my fellow knit-bloggers, but as I stole this from (witty title) and she graduated in 2001, that makes me ancient...

The rules:
A.) Go to musicoutfitters.com
B.) Enter the year you graduated from high school in the search function and get the list of 100 most popular songs of that year
C.) Bold the songs you like, strike through the ones you hate and underline or italicize your favorite. Do nothing to the ones you don’t remember (or don’t care about)

1. Too Close, Next
2. The Boy Is Mine, Brandy and Monica
3. You're Still The One, Shania Twain
4. Truly Madly Deeply, Savage Garden
5. How Do I Live, LeAnn Rimes
6. Together Again, Janet
7. All My Life, K-Ci and JoJo
8. Candle In The Wind 1997, Elton John
9. Nice and Slow, Usher
10. I Don't Want To Wait, Paula Cole
11. How's It Going To Be, Third Eye Blind
12. No, No, No, Destiny's Child
13. My Heart Will Go On, Celine Dion
14. Gettin' Jiggy Wit, Will Smith
15. You Make Me Wanna..., Usher16. My Way, Usher
17. My All, Mariah Carey
18. The First Night, Monica
19. Been Around The World, Puff Daddy and The Family
20. Adia, Sarah McLachlan
21. Crush, Jennifer Paige
22. Everybody (Backstreet's Back), Backstreet Boys
23. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing, Aerosmith
24. Body Bumpin Yippie-Yi-Yo, Public Announcement
25. This Kiss, Faith Hill
26. I Don't Ever Want To See You Again, Uncle Sam
27. Let's Ride, Montell Jordan
28. Sex And Candy, Marcy Playground
29. Show Me Love, Robyn
30. A Song For Mama, Boyz II Men
31. What You Want, Mase
32. Frozen, Madonna
33. Gone Till November, Wyclef Jean
34. My Body, Lsg
35. Tubthumping, Chumbawamba
36. Deja Vu (Uptown Baby), Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz
37. I Want You Back, 'N Sync
38. When The Lights Go Out, Five
39. They Don't Know, Jon B.
40. Make Em' Say Uhh!, Master P
41. Make It Hot, Nicole Featuring Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott and Mocha
42. Never Eve, All Saints
43. I Get Lonely, Janet
44. Feel So Good, Mase
45. Say It, Voices Of Theory
46. Kiss The Rain, Billie Myers
47. Come With Me, Puff Daddy
48. Romeo And Juliet, Sylk-E Fyne
49. It's All About Me, Mya and Sisqo
50. I Will Come To You, Hanson
51. One Week, Barenaked Ladies
52. Swing My Way, K.P. and Envyi
53. The Arms Of The One Who Loves You, Xscape5
4. My Love Is The Shhh!, Somethin' For The People
55. Daydreamin', Tatyana Ali
56. We're Not Making Love No More, Dru Hill
57. Semi-Charmed Life, Third Eye Blind
58. I Do, Lisa Loeb
59. Lookin' At Me, Mase
60. Looking Through Your Eyes, LeAnn Rimes
61. Lately, Divine
62. Quit Playing Games (With My Heart), Backstreet Boys (I'm as surprised as you are)
63. I Still Love You, Next
64. Time After Time, Inoj
65. Are You Jimmy Ray?, Jimmy Ray
66. Cruel Summer, Ace Of Base
67. I Got The Hook Up!, Master P
68. Victory, Puff Daddy and The Family
69. Too Much, Spice Girls
70. Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are), Pras Feat. Ol' Dirty Bastard and Mya
71. How Deep Is Your Love, Dru Hill Featuring Redman
72. Friend Of Mine, Kelly Price
73. Turn It Up [Remix]/Fire It Up, Busta Rhymes
74. I'll Be, Edwin McCain
75. Ray Of Light, Madonna
76. All For You, Sister Hazel
77. Touch It, Monifah
78. Money, Power and Respect, Lox
79. Bitter Sweet Symphony, The Verve
80. Dangerous, Busta Rhymes
81. Spice Up Your Life, Spice Girls
82. Because Of You, 98 Degrees
83. The Mummers' Dance, Loreena McKennitt
84. All Cried Out, Allure Featuring 112
85. Still Not A Player, Big Punisher Featuring Joe
86. The One I Gave My Heart To, Aaliyah
87. Foolish Games/You Were Meant For Me, Jewel
88. Love You Down, Inoj
89. Do For Love, 2Pac
90. Raise The Roof, Luke
91. Heaven, Nu Flavor
92. The Party Continues, Jd
93. Sock It 2 Me, Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott Featuring Da Brat
94. Butta Love, Next
95. A Rose Is Still A Rose, Aretha Franklin
96. 4 Seasons Of Loneliness, Boyz II Men
97. Father, LL Cool J
98. Thinkin' Bout It, Gerald Levert
99. Nobody's Supposed To Be Here, Deborah Cox
100. Westside, TQ

Wait A Minute Mrs. Postman

I have been uncharacteristically dreading mail service this last week. You see, I slaughtered a knitter and am fearing retribution through the USPS. Before the authorities come to my house to investigate a possible homicide or misuse of the postal service, I should explain that I am participating in Hat Attack 2.

For those who may not have heard of it, Hat Attack is a knitting competition of sorts. The participants are all assigned assassins and targets. On a predetermined day in a predetermined time frame, the pattern for a hat is released. The object is to knit the hat to the specifications of the pattern, then mail it to your target. When your target receives it, they are dead, and must forward what they have finished of their hat to you so that you may kill their target. All this time your assassin is knitting and trying to kill you with their knitting.


This round is being sponsored by SWTC, and the yarn suggested is their Therapi line. Of course, I substituted something in the stash, white Rowan Cashsoft Baby DK and frilly Rowan Kid Classic. Firefairy always comes up with these amazing patterns that are challenging and make beautiful hats, but I'm not sure I would do if my knitterly life was not at stake. It's like eating tough ribs: too much effort, not enough reward. I think I will use the colors and stripe pattern again, but the Fibonacci ribbing is just too much.

So right now I am hunkered down in my apartment, for the first time hoping the extremely pleasant mail carrier doesn't bring me anything. Well, except for this:

I really lucked out with my SP12 pals, both downstream and up. My secret pal sent me a box chock full o' goodness, including the pattern and yarn for one of the oldest projects in my ravelry queue. She also sent me some wonderful yarns and teas and so many squee-worthy goodies that were exactly what I wanted but wouldn't admit to myself. You may notice that the novel in the picture is rather uncomfortably sitting on it's open spine. She was kind enough to leave a little note in the front proclaiming this as her favorite book, so I cracked the book to see what it was about and ended up reading a third of it before I knew what hit me. I had to force myself to put it down and take a picture of all my fabulous loot before heading out of town to my father's wedding... but that is another post.

Second Place is First Loser

The HusBoy's birthday was last week (he gets older and older every year), and as usual we did what I wanted to celebrate. He took off of work and we went to the Los Angeles County Fair in the middle of the week. We had an altogether better time at the fair than we did last year, when we went on the last Sunday of the fair and entered through the fairway (yuck). This year we went through the Blue Gate, which goes straight to the animals, our favorite area.

As it turns out, we were the animals' favorite too. We were both mauled by goats in the petting zoo.


I am only grateful that someone warned me that three goats were trying to eat the back of my skirt (which is not made of any natural fibers whatsoever, thank you) before I was arrested for indecent exposure.


I witnessed my first shearing:



and learned the fate of my county fair entries:


I am very happy to get my little red ribbons for my first fair entries, but I can't help but be a tad disappointed with second place, especially with the shawl. I think my blocking was better and pattern more complex than the first place shawl, but since we do not get notes from the judges, I may never know why. The HusBoy couldn't be more proud of me, and bought me some hand-spun alpaca from the Heritage area in celebration.

In other news, only two more radiation treatments and I am done. Yippee! I cannot wait to get rid of this strange tan, but will miss having people draw on me everyday.

I have survived the first round of Hat Attack, but may not be home to receive my next weapons shipment, as my father is getting married this Saturday. Good times all around.

Stitch N Pitch, Take Two

Back in June the Dodgers hosted our area Stitch 'n' Pitch, and I was far too sick from my last chemo treatment to go. I was heartbroken, but sent my excellent emissaries (HusBoy, bil, mil, & aunt-il) in my place and resigned myself to having to wait until next year to enjoy my peanuts and purls with my fellow knitters at the ball park. I mean, it would be unreasonable to ask Major League Baseball and TNNA to schedule another event just because I was unable to attend the first one, right?



Well, it turns out that I didn't even have to ask. The Angels, who must have somehow heard of my plight and known that I take their side in every freeway series, unexpectedly hosted their own Stitch 'n' Pitch late in the season. And though I came home utterly exhausted and in no small amount of pain, it was totally worth it.


Though I and the HusBoy may have initially grumbled a little bit about being corralled into the nosebleed section, our seats were in the shade and we had a nice breeze for the entire game, making the epic climb very worthwhile.

I even made a point of talking to my neighbors and met some very nice local knitters, Cre8vleigh and Hipcheck11 (Ravelry), though I have to admit not a whole lot of sock knitting got done.

I also have to admit to sneaking down to the field level for the end of the game. My sister-in-law was there with a friend and two extra tickets; we didn't even know that the other was at the park until the HusBoy sent out one of his smarmy "wish you were here" text messages and received a "we are here, dingus" reply.

The Angels won a spectacular game in the bottom of the ninth inning, the fireworks went off, and I got back a little piece of normal. Life is good.

Hat Attack Two starts tomorrow morning, so if you're in, I hope you have gauge, because I sure do. The HusBoy and I have both investigated our shipping options and, before the week is out, someone will have Death by Discount Rowan on their doorstep.

Catch Up

I wish I had new batteries for the camera just now; the house is dripping in freshly-washed skeins of yarn. I know that I've neglected the blog again and am ashamed, but if you saw all the work I did between power-naps I think you would forgive me. Since there is so much to tell, I am resorting to a bullet post:

• Thank You's: I won Trek's Box Top-palooza and, in addition to helping out the Neatnik's school, I used my prize of $25 at Amazon to pick up Franklin Habit's new book and the Red and Blue Fairy Books. I would also like to thank the Yarn Yenta for sending me the pattern for Hansigurumi's Cuttle Fish. I love everyone who is so nice to me when I'm feeling so "oh poor me".
• Knit Night: I went to Knit Night last week (and will be going tomorrow night, barring disaster of course). I had an absolutely splendid time and had everyone rub my head. One of my fellow knitters said my new baby hair felt like cashmere! If anyone wants to make my day, all they have to do is compliment my new 'do.
• Secret Pal 12: The final box for my pal went out yesterday, we're hoping it gets there before the hurricane does; think "tropical depression" real hard for her, please?
• Knitting Progress: I have been working half-heartedly on the socks for my dad and the pillow for my dad and his blushing bride. I really want to start work on a sweater for myself, but the wedding is coming up at the end of September and I really need to get hopping. I'll be taking the pillow with me to knit night tomorrow to try to get through the endless seed stitch.
• Skin: I and my little burn are doing much better. All the broken skin is healed up and the bit of dead skin is gradually clearing up. I have two more weeks starting Monday; thank goodness they are upgrading the machine and I get this little break.
• Pimping: Check out my friend's comic site: http://bobslamelife.blogspot.com/. She is hysterical and you don't want her soul to be swallowed by corporate America, do you?

There's more stuff, but I really can't remember any of it right now. I will try to come back later this week with fresh batteries in the camera and show you some of the new wool.