Baby You've Got No Teeth But That's Ok, We've Got Creamed Corn

Words of love from some chick who appeared on Jerry Springer to express her adoration of her mother's toothless boyfriend. Or something.

No FO's to show, but I'm making progress.

Twist is coming along. I'm almost done with the back. The color in the top photo is more accurate, but the picture on the bottom shows how well the cables pop with this yarn.

Twist is a nice pattern. Now that I've learned (the hard way) to read ahead for those 'blah, blah, blah, ....and at the same time do THIS' instructions, it's moving along pretty nicely.











Plain ol' socks are nice when I don't feel like counting and cables. The yarn is Opal Rainforest, in 'Jakob the Cheeky One' colorway. I like cheeky.






Trading Old for New

No, not husbands - I took part in the yarn swap at Purlescence today. I left the house with 2 bags full of yarn, and came back with one. And a pretty nice one at that:

Some cotton in a pretty sage from Southwest Trading Company.








A linen blend that Jasmin brought in. I think it's going to become a nice, lightweight sweater







A silk and mohair blend put up for adoption by Kathy. I hear a Christmas Present coming on; there's enough here for a wrap or something like that.






Another item from Jasmin's swap pile. I'm not sure of the fiber content but it's a combo of a couple of things wound together. All I know is it's soft, a great color and there's a ton of it. It's going to be a wrap or something for me.





I forgot - I actually do have an FO:

I haven't made this in over ten years and I don't know why - it's easy, it's quick and it's damn good. Not to mention healthful. I can't publish my recipe because I actually follow this one straight from a book (More 60-Minute Gourmet by Pierre Franey) but if you do an on-line search for Arroz con Pollo, I'm sure you'll find an equivalent. Basically you saute some chicken, toss in some veggies and seasoning including saffron, add rice, broth and wine, cook for a while and you're done.

Yum.

Funny How the Grades and Drinking Score Are Nearly Equal...

85%DRUNKARD

Looking for

">x ray tech schools?

It Wasn't All Se..never mind...

You paid attention during 86% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

What's even more amazing is that I remembered all that stuff.

I Fed All My Arsenic To My Ex And It's New Lace Anyway

Done, done done! This is the Zig Zag Lace Shrug by Ava Coleman, knit up in Touch (Merino, Tencel and Cashmere blend) from The Yarn Place. I actually knit it for The Yarn Place as a sample - if you're going to Stitches West, you'll see it there.

'Touch' is really nice yarn - super soft and squooshy, and not splitty at all. I highly recommend it.












View up close - check out the beads - my first beaded project! They slow things down like crazy but they're fun.









My favorite thing about lace?

How This:









Becomes This:

Still Lace with Beagle

Thanks to some Christmas loot, I've been able to do a little guilt-free stash enhancement. This is some Malabrigo Laceweight; I've been ogling it for months and picked it up at Purlescence as soon as I had some cash in my hot little hands. I'm not sure yet what it's going to be, but it's sure to be soft and absolutely faboo.


I also got to place an order at Webs - here's what has arrived so far:
Elsebeth Lavold Classic AL - an ultra-soft worsted-weight baby Alpaca/Merino blend. I've got plenty for a long-sleeve sweater which is what this will be - I just don't know which one.






Malabrigo in the Sol y Mar color way. This, along with some already-in-stash Noro Cash Iroha (below) is going to eventually become Poppy from Lisa Shobhana Mason's book, Yarnplay.












The colors in these shots aren't too accurate - some of the blue in the Malabrigo does match the purply blue of the Cash Iroha.

Last, I picked up some fun sock yarn, for socks for myself. This is Opal Rainforest, Jakob the Cheeky One, whatever that means - I liked the colors.
These are just plain ol' socks - nothing fancy about them. But I knit all of that yesterday because I couldn't stop - I had to see what happened next. A morning in the hospital (just annual 'make sure you don't have cancer' testing) didn't hurt in terms of knitting time either.




I also picked up a little unspun fiber:
This is 8 oz. of Bombyx silk. I plan to dye it myself.








I'm also adding to my yarn stash by spinning!









This is the roving I dyed last fall.

This is some superwash Merino from Crown Mountain Farm.
It'll probably become socks; I'm just wavering between 2 and 3 ply, and regular or Navajo ply.















And this is my newest spinning challenge - silk! Another Purlescence purchase - 2 oz. of Bombyx silk from Chasing Rainbows Dye Works. Neither picture is particularly accurate. The color on top is more true but doesn't show the sheen of the silk. The picture on the bottom overdoes the sheen and makes the color a lot more silvery. Trust me, it's awfully pretty stuff.

Changes

I'm not too big on resolutions at the New Year - they tend to make me feel pressured and I usually end up dropping them pretty quickly. But I have a couple of things I would like to accomplish. On the fiber end of things, I want to improve my spinning skills - learn a few more techniques and try some more fibers.

I'm also working to improve my health. We joined a really nice health club this fall and I've been pretty good about incorporating a couple of workouts into each week. I've also been doing cardio mid-day in the gym at work, and I've made a commitment to walk (or treadmill) 100 miles by April 1st. As for diet, I've decided to focus on making sure I have enough of the right things rather than constantly denying myself things that are considered 'wrong'. When I include the right stuff I have found I'm much less interested in the wrong stuff. Sodas have almost been eliminated from my diet, I've cut way back on sugar and I try to make sure that a majority of the carbs I eat are as unprocessed as possible.

While weight remains a frustrating issue (cancer and chemo pretty much trashed my metabolism) I am seeing results in other ways. Not only did I have to up my weights this week, I found out yesterday that over the past 6 months I have reduced my cholesterol by 80 points. Without medication. I am freakin' thrilled about that one!

Somebody Stop Me

First FO 2008 - and it didn't take freakin' forever to make!

Mr. Greenjeans - started November 2007, finished January 2, 2008. It would have been a quicker knit but it got set aside in favor of the stealth cashmere projoect.

I used Malabrigo worsted in Stonechat. Love, love love this yarn! And it's a nice pattern too - super quick knit and really easy. The only alteration I made was to adjust for length. Because I'm so freakin' tall and all.























I also made a couple of quick projects in December:

Warshrag - all of ours are looking pretty ratty, so I decided to pretty things up a bit in the kitchen. This is just Peaches and Creme (or something like that) pulled from stash - standard cotton in the ballband pattern. Easy, easy. I need to make some more.

Fetchings for me. Made from stash yarn - a single ball of worsted weight from KnitPicks. For those freezing CA mornings.

Now, back to the beaded lace - I promised this would be done by Stitches West!

ETA: Why, oh why does Blogger insist on screwing up picture and text spacing? I'm no designer but good god, I'm better than this!