My Swanky New PSP

No, not one of those newfangled hand-held whatchamahoosits. Close though! Well, not really. Okay, not even close. Introducing, my Project Spectrum Purse! That's right, today, the last day of Project Spectrum, with no planning at all, I whipped out a cute little shoulder tote in some cool neutral fabric I had lying around. As some of you may know (and if you didn't, I'm about to tell you), August was neutral month for Project Spectrum. So, without further ado, I present to you in all its neutral glory, my new purse! This is the front. The black ribbon goes around the entire purse as an elegant accent. I lined the inside with a plain black- the same fabric I used to make the shoulder strap. I really love it! The fabric is great- it is some fabric James picked out over a year ago that I used to make his requested pillowcase. Here is another view. Now, for some shits n' giggles, here is a cool stormy sunset picture that I took a few weeks back.

Hodgepodge Post

Things have been pretty quiet the last few days. I finished my wheelie finally! Yaay for one neutral project down! I really like it, but after being on the steering wheel a few days, it has stretched out some because of the elastic in the yarn. I took it off so I can put some puffy paint dots on the inside to help it grip the wheel so my beloved (or me!) don't die while driving because we couldn't turn the wheel. I show some pictures once I get it back on the wheel- since it is black you can't really see how cool it is unless it is on and stretched out a bit. I got a bunch of yarn and stuff that I ordered from KnitPicks. One skein is for my pal, and the rest is for projects for moi and a few knitted Christmas gifts. I also got 2 bottles of Kookaburra Woolwash- one for me, and one for my Favorite Color Swap pal. It kind of smells like a clean hippy. (Is that an oxymoron?) I also got this chart keeper- I LOOOVE it! It is something I really needed and already use. Muy helpful! If you are a knitter or crocheter, I highly recommend this product, especailly if you tend to knit patterns that you have printed off the internet, like I do. I started crocheting this cute stole- I'd been searching for a pattern that resembled a shawl a friend got from her Grandma (I think), and this is pretty damn close. I'm doing it in a great electric blue color, and it is coming along awesome! I did have a bit of a crisis early on because I'd never heard of "sc in ch-5 sp", but I called a LYS and got it all figured out. I did have to rip out my first 3 or 4 rows, though. Oh well- it looks much better now that I know what I'm doing. Hopefully this doesn't take too long to finish. It looks a little weird at the moment and that is why there are no pictures of that. Once it is finished and blocked, it'll look better. Then you can have pictures. I'm debating if I should cast on this shrug or this hat for my next knit- what do you think? I think I want to do the hat, to have something smaller to contrast my stole. Or, I could cast on for this scarf in my sari silk. Or I could start one of the many knitted Christmas gifts I have planned. Decisions, decisions... Oh, yeah. They found my car at a McDonalds on the other side of town on Thursday. I had to pay $70 for them to tow it somewhere. Dickheads! Ahem. Excuse me. We decided to sell it to a junk yard- it was still driveable, but it was running like shit and was all gross. Just driving it to the junk yard made me sick to my stomach. Blech. We did get the car seat base back, though, along with some books I had borrowed from family. Everything else was gone- James' new boots, the stereo, all the CDs we had left in there. Oh well- at least now it is truly over and done with. The diet James and I are doing is going really well. We survived the first two weeks of torture a highly restriced menu, and now can add in goodies like whole grains and fruit. I definitely feel better, and can tell I've lost weight. James looks damn sexay too! I'm glad to finally be doing something about being fat instead of just bitching about it. Well, time to start dinner- taco salad- yum!

Nichole Needs...

A cool little waste of time I saw over here. Thought I would do it to increase my post total for the week. You should try it, at least for your own personal enjoyment! Google "your name needs" and see what comes up! Here are a few of my favorites. Nichole needs all the prayer she can get. Nichole needs to get hooked on some Twinkies! Nichole needs her pants back. It's hard to find some that are the actual spelling of my name! Lots of Nicole Ritchie comments. Anyways- go do some slacking and see what comes up with your name!!

New Things

I know, I'm still a wretched slacker, but with so many things competing for my time, your lucky you get updates at all! So, sit back and enjoy one of the rare posts from me, and quit whining! This one is a good one too- filled with all kinds of new goodies! First off, I would like to announce to everyone that I am having an affair. (Good thing James doesn't read this thing, huh?)That's right- a dirty, illicit, scandalous affair. I love my other like I have never loved one before. Sleek and smooth, and especially handy- what else could a girl want? Want a picture? Of course you do. You might want to get the children out of the room first- this picture bares it all! There it is, folks. My new love. That, my friends, is a Brother CS-6000i. It has a needle threader. It makes 6 different custom button holes completely automatically. It has over 60 stitches, most of them customizable with length and width. It has an LCD display for my stitch selection. A button to raise and lower my needle. It came with all the geegaws and doodads a girl could possibly want. I am in love with this machine. It is slick and sews like a dream. I find myself staring at its glory from time to time. I wish I could just take some coke or something and stay up for days and sew myself a complete new wardrobe with accessories to match. That is how wonderful this machine is. Sorry, James. You're still my favorite non-appliance! In more new things, I picked up the book Stupid Sock Creatures about a week ago. I loved just reading the book, and I bought some socks ( I know, I should be recycling socks, but these are for friends and I don't think they'll want my ratty old socks made into toys.) to make a few with this week. So if you're a friend, be prepared to receive one of these in the coming months. I could even sew little clothes for them! Oooh, the possibilities.... More new things! (Isn't this exciting?!) Here is Joie's new ability. It is not quite perfected, so it results in a lot of falling, banging her head on various things, and face planting into even more things. At least she's having fun... Yep. Standing. She pulls herself up on pretty much everything she can. And a few things she thinks she can, but can't. It was a little unnerving the first day she started to do this- things on the coffee table are no longer out of reach, and she falls a lot more so we have to watch her closer to make sure she won't seriously hurt herself. I don't know if I'm ready for her to start terrorizing the apartment in new ways! Oh, my baby is growing up so fast. Lets see, what else is new...It was James' birthday on the 17th- we got together with friends in Santa Fe and had a little Greek food, some belly dancing, and some presents. It was a fun time. That was the last time I saw our friends Dave and Marie- they moved to Seattle this weekend. We're really going to miss them- they're fun people. Although now we have a good reason to go visit Seattle! I've always wanted to go- I'm a bit afraid I'll fall in love and want to move, though. Hopefully sometime next year we'll get out there. Alright, Joie is screaming at me from her crib (standing up, of course) which means I should quit typing and start mommy-ing. Adieu...

Dice Bag Pattern

Alrighty. A few of you loverly readers have aked for my dice bag pattern, so here it is! I would love it too if you would email me pictures of it when your done. Yaay for my very first pattern! Frilly Girly Dice Bag Yarn: I used Caron Simply Soft in Lavender, but any yarn at all will do! Needles: I used Size 6 straight. You should use a size or two smaller than recommended for a tighter fabric, unless you don't want a tighter fabric. Alrighty. I know most of you out there hate gauge, but you really only need to knit a few rows here- it won't be hard, I promise! So. Get your yarn and needles of choice, and cast on about 15 stitches. knit about 5 rows in stockinette stitch. Get out a ruler and measure how many stitches are in one inch. Multiply that number by how many inches wide you want your bag. For example, if you want your bag 3 inches wide and knit 4 stitches to an inch, multiply 4 and 3 for a total of twelve. Now multiply that number by 2- a total then of 24 for the example above. That is your number of cast on stitches. (I used 40, if you're wondering.) Pattern: Cast-on your decided number of stitches.( see above for instructions) These rows will make the two decorative bands along the bottom of the bag. If you do not want them, just knit along your merry way in stockinette or garter stitch. Row 1: knit. Row 2: purl. Row 3: knit. Row4: knit. Row 5:knit. Row 6:purl. Row 7:knit. Row 8:purl. Row 9:knit. Row 10:knit. Row 11: knit. Continue in stockinette stitch until the bag is one inch shorter than the total height you would like it to be, ending on the wrong side (purl side in stockinette). Eyelet row: knit 2, YO. Repeat until end of row. Knit 3 more rows in stockinette or garter stitch (whichever you are doing.) Picot edge bind off: Bind off two stitches, * slip stitch from left needle to right needle, cast on 2 stitches, bind off 4 stitches*. Repeat from * to * until no stitches remain. (Note: If you are right handed, please use the opposite needle in these directions- I knit left handed. So, where it says "slip from left needle to right needle", you should slip from right to left instead.) Finishing: Fold the bag in half, right sides together. Seam any way you want to. Flip your bag right side out, weave a pretty ribbon, small i-cord, or braid through the eyelets. Fill with dice or other things. Enjoy! This pattern would be really easy to customize. You could do stripes, felt it, do more rows of garter stitch, or pretty much any pattern you can think of. Have fun with it!

Slacker

Gah, I know! I've been slacking in the blog-writing department. I'll try to do more, I promise! Things here have been going okay. We got a pretty hefty chunk o' cash from our good friends down at the IRS, so we've done some good eating out at the Outback Steakhouse and a little bit of shopping. There is much more shopping in my future. Although I think I would like to hold on to most of my alotted cashola and buy yummy yarn as I need it. It would be nice to knit whatever I want for the next 8 months or so, and have delish yarns to do it with. I've also been eyeballing knitpicks new needle set, but I'm going to hold out on that for a little while. Oh, the possibilities! The other day I nearly threw my sewing machine off the balcony. I had an awesome pattern all worked out and cut and ready to be turned into an awesome DPN/ circular needle case for my secret pal. All was well until I got to the final side of the bias tape edging, and my machine freaked out, then I freaked out and, well, long story short, I now have a wonky needle case and my pal will be getting a pretty (but one with no bias tape edging! NO I TELL YOU!) more simple DPN case. Oh well. Thank goodness I bought way too much fabric, eh? Speaking of Secret Pals, I really need to do some more goodie shopping for this chica! Well, after seeing more recent pictures of myself and being slightly disgusted by how fat I have gotten since I got preggers, I've decided to do the South Beach Diet starting on Friday. I've found some yummy recipes and some yummy sounding desserts, so hopefully I'll be able to do it. I'm really sick of being fat, y'all. So bring on the skinny me! I'll keep you guys updated on my progress, if I happen to make any. Hmmm, other news....Wheelie is coming along nicely, I'm a little over halfway done with it now. I'm planning to cast on for this shrug in black soon, too, and hopefully will have that finished by the end of the month, altough it won't really be a wearable object for a few more months. I might switch from the clapotis in my sari silk to this scarf instead. I'll see how the yarn actually knits up before I decide to go balls to wall with the clapotis. Good idea, no? What else, what else...OH! Being the sweet wonderful man that he is, James came home with a lovely pot of daisies and a single pink rose for me last night. I haven't gotten flowers in a long while, and I do so love them! They're super pretty, and if he didn't have the camera right now, I would take pictures and show you! Instead, I will leave you all with some new Joie pictures to enjoy. Buh-bye!

Yaaay Presents!

This week I've gotten two packages of goodies in the mail. I absolutely love getting packages, even when I know exactly what the contain, it is still like opening presents. Here are the goodies! FINALLY the copy of One Skein I ordered came! This book has some really great patterns in it that I can't wait to try! Being a frugal knitter, These projects are great for when I would like to use a more expensive yarn, but only use a little bit of it. I'm excited to try some of the goodies in here! Now for more presents... That, my friends, is ten- yes TEN- skeins of recycled silk. You really need to go look at the huge picture- it is so amazing the colors of this yarn- it is so beautiful! I was a little worried, because I got it on Ebay, and he didn't have a picture of the actual yrn he was selling, but it was such a good deal! I paid under $40- with shipping-for all of it. Pretty good considering it goes for around $6 or $7 a skein in lots of other places online. For those of you who don't know about this amazing yarn, recycled silk is made by women, very often widows, in India and Nepal to help support them and their children. It is made by spinning together the loose threads of saris, collected from textile mills in India. I love that this yarn has such a history! It is so amazing to see and feel- I'm really excited to knit with it. I've heard it can be a challenge, but I always love a challenge. I'm planning to knit a clapotis with it- I know you all might be gasping and thinking I am absolutely nuts, and maybe I am! But I saw one on craftster and it was so pretty! I really want to do something special with this yarn, and I definitely think this is the way to go with it. I've been fantasizing about knitting clapotis since the pattern first came out. Just a question for you folks- what do you find is the best way to carry yarn up the side of a project? I plan to alternete skeins every 2 rows, and I've never carried yarn up the side before, and I can't really find any good advice on how to do it. So help please! Alright. Enough babbling about my pretty yarn. The Project Spectrum month of August is dedicated to the neutral colors. I started a day or two early, but my wheelie is black. So there's one neutral project. James also wants an illusion skull scarf in black and white, so I'll probably try to start that this month also. I've decided to set aside the short row scarf until the "clean-up" month of P.S. My sari silk project will probably sneak in here too- I'm practically itching about knitting with it. It was even in my dream last night! I know, I'm a dork... Adios all- I have knitting to do!