Sunday, January 30, 2011

Cardican't

Yeah, this cardigan is absolutely the most awful thing I have ever knitted. There is no other way to describe it. Not in the sense that it looks horrible, but more in the sense that putting it together is proving to be harder to do then shifting the Continents back into Pangaea.

My sleeves are longer then both back and front. So now I'm having to scrunch, and staple, and threaten the wool for it to co-operate. As it is, only one side is actually matching up...after I practically put a pleat into it. Do you know how strange a single pleat in a sleeve looks?
And then there is the side seam. It looks wonderful, until you tug on it a little and then BAM! there is my seam showing. Like a damn game of peek-a-boo. Where's the stitching? there it is!
But my sleeve seam looks wonderful according to my Mom, so there is that I suppose.

Tomorrow I'm taking the whole thing over to my Mom's so that she can look at it, and help me/fix it.

But the more I look at this orange disaster in my lap, the more I'm realizing that it's really not so bad. Honestly. If I only tug here, and sew that down, and pin here, and add a button there, and tape it here, and apply the flame thrower here, I'm sure it will look great. *goes to look for chainsaw*

To Vlog or not to Vlog

So I spent a good chunk of my time on YouTube (mostly to run music in the background), and sometimes I check on my subscriptions, mostly when one of the more amusing people posts a new video. And whenever I watch Vlogs I can't help but think "I can do that." Especially what the more basic people do. You know, sit in front of a Webcam and talk. I can do that. As a matter of fact I like talking about myself and things that generally annoy me...like the world...and people.
But then I keep thinking that I probably sound funnier in text form (if I go by what my Mom says). And let's face it, I have trouble uploading photo's sometimes. I don't even want to know what would happen if I uploaded a 3min video.

In knitterly news: The Cardigan I started last year is still not done. Don't judge me! I just can't be arsed to finish it. xD All the pieces are blocked and I started sewing it together, but I'm horrible about sticking to something even slightly boring...so I stopped after the first side. I'm sure it will be finished by the end of the month...maybe.

My convertible mitten pattern isn't up yet, mostly because my mother hasn't sent me the pictures we took with her camera. Yeah, remember those pictures Mom? the ones I kind of need? But I'm thinking that for testing sake I'll use the pictures I took (the ones that have my bedroom floor with all it's messy glory as the background) and I'll swap the pictures out when it's time to sell the pattern.

Work goes well. Pierce and I take a small walk just about every day. For the last few days it's been really rainy so there are usually puddles around when we take our walk. And I let him run through them. Which is one of the cutest things I have seen in a long time. He's 19 months old and at first he stood in the middle of a puddle, staring down at this rain boots like he was going to be sucked in or something. So apparently Mommy doesn't let him puddle jump...which is a shame. Now he will shout "Puh'le!!" (not sure how to spell his awkward pronunciation), pull me over and slosh through it. We still haven't gotten to full on jumping yet...but I'm working on it. =D

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Le Update

Whenever I'm done with work on Fridays the song "Proud Mary" by Tina Turner pops into my head. Mostly because of the line "working for the man every night and day". Which makes no sense cause the rest of the song is like about dinners, and southern states, and rivers, and fish, and boats...or something like that. But that's the song that pops into my head every time I walk to ma momma's.

Did I mention before that I walk from my job to my Mom's? it's a lovely 25 min walk. If it's not raining. Otherwise it turns into a 25 min struggle with my umbrella and my bags, and my hair (which is usually trying to strangle me by then). And by then I'm so pissed off that I'm just waiting for a car to hit me so I can beat the driver into the ground.
Did I also mention that sometimes I have to walk from my house? that turns the whole trek into an hour. Do you people realize how creepy my "city" is at 6am? It's all dark and there are creepy people driving their creepy cars. Like o.m.g ya'll don't even know. I usually walk with my umbrella extended so I can wail away if someone attacks me...not that my little mini (does that make it a micro umbrella?) umbrella would do me any good...but it's the thought that counts.

Speaking of thoughts that count. A while ago I spun up some yarn and I handed the first skein to my Mom 'cause I have no real use for it. And she made a glove out of it! It looks so spiffy. Now I juts have to provide her with the second skein so that she can make a second glove to go with the first one. She said that she's all uber proud of me and the yarn, which is awshome. I made a second skein but it was like a lot thinner then the first one. So I'm going to ply that skein together with another one of my singles and see if that makes it thick enough....I'm thinking I'll just add single ply's until it works out for me. So my Mom is going to get like a 13ply fingering weight yarn...that should be fun for her.

Otherwise I haven't knitted nearly as much as I would like. Mostly because whenever I sit down to knit more then a single needle for a sock (had to switch to DPNS for this patterns, shoot me now), Pierce makes little whining noises to get my attention so that he can show me something ridiculous, like the fridge. Or the shrubbery growing outside his parents apartment. Oh the joys of being a Nanny. =﹏=

And aside from being part of "Frog it/Finish" it and "11 FG's in 2011" on my FingerlessGloves group on ravelry, I also decided to post the "Pay It Forward" status on my facebook, which is this lovely little thing: (please disregard the suddenly much smaller text, I have no idea what happened there)
Pay it Forward 2011:
I promise to personally deliver or mail something handmade to the
first 5 people who leave a comment here. They must in turn post this and send/deliver something they make to the first 5 people who comment on their status. The rules are that it must be handmade by you and it must be sent to your 5 people sometime in... 2011.
Yeah, I'm crazy like that. Although thankfully no one aside from my Sister-in-Law has commented so far so maybe I won't actually have to do anything. *small cheer*

Saturday, January 8, 2011

New Years update! and random video

Yes, I know we're only a few days into 2011, but so far quite a few great things have happened to me.

  1. The husband finally got a job. He works as a security guard and although I don't get to spend a whole lot of time with him now (aside from sleeping and I don't count that), I'm happy that he gets off his butt every day.
  2. I have a job now too! I'm a nanny for two wonderful children. The pay sucks (the parents are using DSHS, so that is the rate I'm getting paid 'cause they can't afford anything else) but the kids are great, so I'm kind of overlooking it. Plus it's still money I wouldn't otherwise have. So who am I to complain?
  3. Husband will hopefully get his basic training date this weekend while at his national guard weekend. If not, Imma be calling people and heads will be rollin' 'cause I ain't puttin' up with this sh*t no mo'. (Imagine that bit with the head-bobbing-pursed-lips-finger-wagging thing that some people do.)
  4. My second glove design actually worked out! Aside from the finger decrease...but that's a minor technicality. Have a picture... And yes, they are convertible mitts...and I suppose if one didn't like that, one could always leave the flip-top off and just make fingerless gloves.
    I'm hoping I'll have the pattern tested by people sometime this coming up week, so it will be available for purchase this coming up weekend. At least that is my plan.
My Mommy is thinking about (well, more like going through with) making a fingerless glove book. I'm uber proud of her for that. =3 And Imma be helping with some of the secret test knits for her.

Aside from the above mentioned, I can't think of anything else...OH! I've been talking with my Father on a near weekly basis now thanks to Skype. For those of you who don't knows (which would be everyone I s'pose since my friends don't read this. And if you are, come out of hiding and comment damn it!) my Papa lives in Germany. So I haven't seen him in 10 years. And while we have e-mailed each other on a semi-regular basis, actually hearing his voice, and seeing his face (he's gotten old!) is something totally different and wonderful and I'm pretty sure I grinned like a lunatic the first time we used Skype. But that's okay because when it comes to my parents I'm like a 5 year old on the inside, so there. =P

And with that I leave you on this note.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Happy New Year!

I'm only a little bit late on that one.

So, the new year is already off to a good stat. =3 All my Christmas knitting was done on time, Husband finally has a job and he loves it; he's a security guard for UPS., and I have a tentative job as a Nanny for two very wonderful children. I say tentative because there is a bit of an issue with payment. But we'll work it out.

On Ravelry a lot of people are doing some form of 11-in-2011. Basically people are knitting/crocheting 11 items of some the same kind (scarfs, hats, sweaters, socks, etc). And guess who's jumped onto that bandwagon? *raises hand* I'll be doing 11 Fingerless gloves. Which is great, because I need to get 2 of them out of the way a.s.a.p since they are belated Christmas gifts. But yeah...with only 11 to worry about, I'll probably end up knocking them out of the park by March...and then I'll have to find something else to do. OH! maybe I'll find a 11-socks-in-2011. I'm sure there has to be one somewhere.

And I'll let you know about my latest convertible mitten design. It looks great so far, I just can't decided on what kind of flip top I want to put on. A lot of the convertible mitts that I see hide the pattern once you flip the top over to use your fingers. I don't like that. So I was thinking of just putting the pattern on both sides of the top...but then there would be a lace pattern on the fingers when you put the flip-top over your hand....
Decisions, decisions.
Meh, I'll figure it out.