Sweater bliss

Well, last night while watching Heroes I finally finished my Sienna Cardigan

I am in love with it!

All that was left was to sew on the buttons so it was about time that I finished it. It's really soft and nice. The only thing I changed about the pattern (aside from the yarn used) was that I added ribbing to the end of the sleeves.

I also finished and blocked my Fir Cone Wrap

It's beautiful.

It did shrink a little, but it's still pretty much the length of my wingspan. (That's about 64")

It's made of JoAnn Sensations Dolcetto yarn. It's purple/pink colorway and it's very pretty. I washed it in the washer and then pinned it out to block it. Like I said, it did shrink a bit in the washer, but it's still nice.

I made up the pattern. It's based off of the Fir Cone Lace Pattern in the 365 Knitting Patterns calendar. I also knit each point individually so they would match the pattern and then crocheted an edge around it to help keep it flat.

These pictures don't do justice to the color (especially since it's another grey icky day today) but trust me, it's nice.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the little sweater I'm knitting

Sigh, am I ever going to feel better?

So, this day and the few previous days have been totally wretched. It's not like they are so bad that I can't survive but I have had this icky little cold for awhile now and since I don't seem to be too able to get a decent night's sleep, I can't seem to shake it. I have finally opted for taking some lovely cold medicine (which I usually try to avoid to allow my bodies natural cold-fighting abilities to kick int) that knocks me out for a good 8 hours. The flip side is that it gives me super duper weird dreams. I would just like to say thank you to a certain TV station for playing Resident Evil Apocalypse or some such last week instead of Law & Order which I watched and then had a really weird zombie dream last night. Gah! Glad I was able to wake up from that!!!
Meanwhile, my throat hurts like the dickens and nothing seems to help it and I have been knitting a bit but not a ton. I do have a happy little swatch getting cleaned right now and the full idea of what it's for will be revealed in the fullness of time since the deadline swiftly approaches for this project.
If you stop by from Ravelry hey. Welcome and make yourself at home. :)
I will post pictures of a finished object (waiting to be blocked and possibly that sweater I have been promising soon if the sky would not be grey and cloudy so I could take decent pictures!)

Avast Mateys!

Arrgh, today be talk like a pirate day and while I not be knitting pirated things, I be knitting and that be piratey in my book. I be drinking rum (or wine) with dinner and I be going over to Ravelry since I got my invitation there. My name be kalkette there too. Say ye hello if ye see me.
Not much else piratey to tell. Get ye scurvy dogs up to the deck and start swabbing.
I promise pictures soon.

Breathing

Well, despite the exceptionally icky day previously and the fact that the cold I thought was on it's way out is taking me down slowly again, I am doing okay. Mostly planning Christmas knitting and not getting much done at all. I still totally think I can get all the knitting done though. We'll see. Meanwhile, I will just be sitting here drinking tea and wishing I hadn't made plans to go out to dinner tonight because I'm so totally not up to it, but I am also totally looking forward to a chance to get out of the house (aside from taking hubby to the doctor this morning because we thought he had pink eye)

One, two, three, four...

Counting to ten isn't going to be enough. I may have to count to a million.
If you were looking for knitting, I'm sorry, but today you aren't getting it. I am normally not someone who gets upset about little things but today, today I am so angry I can barely see straight.
Let's start from the beginning. The day started fine with getting up and spending a few minutes snuggling with hubby on the couch watching TV until he had to get ready for work. (Two days a week he works an evening shift so this was one of those days) When he got up to get ready, I went into the kitchen to make myself some coffee. Disaster struck! I use an unusual coffee pot. It's handmade pottery and is a carafe with a lid and also a funnel. In the funnel, you put a cone filter and then the grounds and pour boiling water over it. It makes fabulous coffee and while, we do have a regular coffeemaker, this is better because it makes just the two cups that I drink. Usually, I use my hot pot to heat the water and pour it in slowly a bit at a time. Today, it was going really nice and quick and I poured all the water in, only to discover that it had ripped a hole in the bottom of the filter and leaked all the coffee grounds into the pot.
Mess ensued. While trying to refilter the coffee to get the grounds out, I managed to spill about a half a cup all over the kitchen counter. I should have known to just stay home and go lie in bed knitting because that was an excellent indication of how the rest of my day was going to go.
But no, I am apparently, a glutton for punishment because I decided to run some errands. Yup, that's right, might as well tattoo idiot across my forehead. I went to the yarn store and the grocery store for just a few things. I finally remembered to pick up the pictures that I ordered online and discovered that you HAVE to pay for them at the photo counter. So, even though I have a cart full of other stuff, I have to pay twice. Stupid, stupid store. Then, (it's a rather large supermarket) while I was in the back, trying to find Fat Free Half and Half which they are apparently out of and have decided to fill the spaces usually taken up by it with regular half and half, I realized that I needed to use the restroom. Badly and immediately. The only restrooms are at the front of the store. I was in the back. Of course, what else. So, I rush to the front of the store and get to the door, that I recently entered through and notice a large orange fence and a sign, these restrooms are closed. Yup, closed. You have to go all the way over to the deli to use the teeny tiny restroom over there. Where there was, of course, a line. It is only by the grace of God that I made it in time. I decide to head for home, having paid twice in one stupid store and stop at the post office to pick up our mail on the way home.
It should be noted here that we live in a small town about 6 miles away from a city. The city isn't huge but since I was working in that city, when we moved into my uncle's house, we have our Post Office Box (where we receive all of our mail) in the City. The Post office is currently being remodeled. You probably know where I'm going with this, but I am an optimist. I thought, I'll just nip in here and get our mail and be on my way. When I had to drive through the parking lot twice just to find a parking space that was about a 1/4 mile away from the freaking door, I should have known. (The parking lot is long and has only one row of spaces which are usually all but two or three, empty. Not today. I had to drive through, wait for 6 cars to pull ahead of me out onto the busy street to loop around and go through again.) I do this, park and grab my keys and run in. They have changed the layout completely. There is a line of (and I'm not exaggerating here) 20 people. Now, some of you are probably thinking, well, in my post office, it's not unusual for there to be more than 20 people waiting but this is a smallish city post office and I am used to seeing a max of 5 people in the place. This included the 3 older gentlemen who run the counter. They aren't particularly speedy but they do usually keep the line down to a minimum. I walk all along the new row, looking for our Post Office Box number. I finally find it and insert the key. It doesn't work. I am so angry by this point that I can't even wait in the line to find out what's wrong (I just paid the box fee like 2 months ago so it isn't that.) I storm out to the vehicle and head home. Just be glad I had to drive 6 miles or this post would be filled with the language I normally avoid!!!!
P.S. Note to the "gangsta" style teenager who ambled slowly across the busy intersection in front of me on the way home. Watch out for the lady in the little red van. At this point, I would have no qualms about driving over you and I would keep on going.

Finally, the things I brought home

Unexpected real life stuff has kept me away from the computer and blogging. Sorry, sometimes, that stuff happens.

I also lost the pictures of what I brought home and had to take new ones, so I finally got around to that today.

This is a handmade mug (that currently contains coffee) and two dragon picture prints from an artist. I got the prints because I thought that I could possibly color them myself (I did go to school for art.) and then mat and frame them to hang in my home. The prints that were colored in the shop were absolutely beautiful but out of my price range if I wanted to eat that day, so, I just settled for something I could use and afford. I would imagine that this is absolutely NOT what the artist had in mind but since they are simply for my own use, I think it is okay. The mug is a beautiful purple (my favorite color) with some blue on the top and while it doesn't have one of the beautiful Renaissance Festival logos on the side, I chose it because it is easier to wash out (I can fit my hand in it) and I can therefore use it for coffee. :)

This is a necklace that I bought myself which is a unicorn with a little jewel kind of thing and a present from my hubby. A Pewter castle. (He said he wanted to buy me something and I said that this would be good so, there you go.) The castle is very small.

Observe the mug added for scale. I find the fact that it is tiny very amusing. Since we will most likely never own a castle that we can live in, this will do for me. I love it and keep it on my nightstand where I can look at it every night and every morning.

I also bought my mother a Christmas ornament that was intended to be for Christmas and a slice of handmade paper (I always call it a slice, I think it's fun and weird) and an envelope that is coffee scented. My mom is a total coffee hound and so, I thought she would enjoy it. I am impatient though and have already given her both. (The ornament was meant to be a Christmas gift). You don't need to tell me how unbelievably stupid this was of me. I should have saved it for Christmas, that would have been one less thing I would have had to knit, but I love giving people gifts. What can I say. I am deluded.

What happened to the Earl Grey/Brown socks? Well, they have been cast aside temporarily because these

had a deadline. They are for my uncle (with whom we currently live) for his birthday which is coming up. I am pretty proud of myself that I have these finished. I bought the yarn at my LYS on Tuesday afternoon and finished them last night (Sunday). It's Trekking sock yarn and the ball band is downstairs so I will tell you the color later. It's a simple rib pattern knit on size US2 needles.

After going nuts on socks for awhile (The first of the Earl Grey/Brown is finished) I needed something to help me keep my sanity. That's where this comes in:

It's going to be a kind of shawl/wrap thingy and it's knit on size 11 needles. More about this later.

I would, however like to note that husbands can be taught to appreciate wives. This morning I was awakened to a plate of scrambled eggs being handed to me, in bed. Dude is totally going to get lucky.

Later, I will tell you about the best yarn purchases ever and my deluded Christmas project list that I totally think I can get done in time.

Note: Does anyone else out there watch the NBC series Heroes? We missed most of the end of the last season and so, purchased it on DVD. We just finished it yesterday. Wowie! I can't wait for the new season to start.

What we did on our long weekend

Okay, so I'm a bad blogger again. Here I sit with all these pictures and I don't blog them. Bad blogger!

Have I been punished enough?

I have pictures :) Does that appease the blog?

Here we are arriving at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival.

The Sock was welcomed warmly. (That's my hubby's arm in that pic.)

Please note that in order to arrive for the opening which was at nine am. We got up and left our house by 6:00 am. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am SO not a morning person so it speaks volumes about me that I didn't hit our friend Jay at all that day, even though it was his idea to get up that early.

We met a knight (or kuh-niget if you are a Monty Python follower, specifically The Holy Grail)

It isn't really a knight. It was very warm out that day and anyone wearing this getup would have been passed out after about 15 minutes. It's a miniature suit of armor outside one of the many, many fabulous vendors.

We went on the Enchanted Forest/Secret Garden walk through the woods but the sock couldn't get close to the enchanted creature houses.

You can't tell from this picture but this house is about 4 feet tall at it's tallest point. It's absolutely adorable and there are several of these on the walk. There are signs that tell you about them and this one is the Bakery where I think a gnome is supposed to bake all night. It's super cute and even the kids love it.

Also while on this hike through the woods we saw this:

It's a door that leads right out onto a little pond. We walked over a really cute stone bridge over the pond. It's so beautiful and if we hadn't had about 18 children and their parents following us through the trail (please note there were several parents. It wasn't one family with 18ish children) it would have been very peaceful too.

I wanted to get a pic of me and hubby under this beautiful arch

Due to the excessive number of children behind us though, we didn't want to delay too long.

I didn't take a whole lot more pictures and for some reason, I didn't take any of the charming hobbit hole, but I did see some of these:

They had a petting farm with goats (as above) and sheep. One of the reasons they had sheep was this:

It's a sheepdog trial. Although I took several pictures while we watched this, I can't seem to see a dog and sheep in any picture. Oh well, the sheep are what you pay to see huh?

Overall we had a wonderful time. So much to see and so many people in amazing costumes. We are talking about making out own (okay, me making them) for next year. We'll see. No matter what though, it'll be a blast!

Tomorrow, what I bought (sadly, no yarn to be found although there were a few knitted projects but I didn't get any. I can't see spending $22.00 or so on a knitted hat when I can make my own. Sorry.)

P.S. You kinda don't feel as weird for taking pictures of a sock-in-progress while others are walking around in costumes.