blogging oddities

I have some finished projects to post when i have the time. suffice it to say that right now, with two jobs and working seven days a week, all knitting has been put on hold. i even had to sell my tickets to the folk festival because i couldn’t take time off for it, because one of my jobs is brand new, and this ist he first time in eight years i’ve missed the festival. ugh.

so if there’s total silence from this area for a while, i’m sure i’m still alive, but there just really isn’t anything to talk about.

i just won Dottie Rose on eBay, she’s on her way!

moar funny pictures

created at i can has cheezburger.

here are sid and nancy enjoying a tasty cardboard box that they’ve been playing with nonstop since last night!

also… two more piggers coming home to live chez pixie this weekend. they’re gorgeous and needed a home, as their family can’t keep them. update soon!

sid and nancy, two beautiful little punk guinea piggies, came home with me yesterday. the PLAN was a little aquarium and gerbils… but what happened instead, was that i saw these two absolute beauties, and even my MAMA loved them… so now they are living in my living room.

for now they have the largest cage i could find them, but plans are already in the works, thanks to guineapigcages.com, to build them a fantastic c&c cage, maybe with multiple levels, and an open top so that we can pet them all the time! mr. riot says it will be like having our own petting zoo.

this pic is dark and fuzzy, because they don’t want to come out of their pigloo, and i didn’t want to use the flash so that i wouldn’t scare them. but here are my girlies!

that’s nancy on the left, and sid on the right. he’s a little twitchy. must be the heroin….

okay, let’s start with the weight watchers update - 21.2 lbs lost as of today’s meeting!

that means that a) i am past 19.8 lbs, which was my initial 10% goal
b) i got my cute little 10% keychain, which is now a pretty copper colour instead of silver, and
c) i’m past the 20lb mark that i set for myself as the point at which i was allowed to make an appointment for my dark mark tattoo. not that i can AFFORD the tattoo right now (becase my money is going into having my hair dreaded on sunday), but it means i’m allowed to have it, and that’s a big deal right there.

so anyway, that was my happy happy joy of the day. can’t wait to get more great little charms for on my keychain!

on to the knitting content. since just before my choir trip to banff this spring, i’ve been working on teva durham’s inside-out top from the first issue of knitscene. it’s been seamed for quite some time, but i was putting off the last of the blanket stitching, because it takes FOREVER.

however last night, this morning, and tonight, i kicked my own butt into gear and finished it! so, i present to you inside-out blue. knit in ‘capri’ knitpicks swish superwash, my favouritest yarn ever. slight mods - after seaming i picked up stitches around the bottom and knit a bit longer, in garter stitch, to have more of an edging. also, i switched the right arm and the left arm (one has the seam on top, one has it on the bottom.) other than that, as written.

more pictures at flickr or the rav. links on the homepage.

pattern follows the pictures!

Need a natty way to keep your dreads tucked back? Or just a funky, relaxed hat for those days when you just can’t be bothered with a hairstyle? Here’s an easy handspun hat that will

leave you lookin’ cool.

Materials:
Less than one skein of handspun DK/sport weight yarn
US 8 straight needles
Tapestry needle for finishing

Size:
S-M-L
Small fits a normal sized head with no dreads.
Medium fits a normal sized head with dreads, or a large head with no dreads.
Large fits a big ol’ head with dreads.
ms. pixie riot wears a large in the pictures, but without dreads to fill it out, yet.

Gauge:
After blocking, near the bottom of the hat, each knitted rib should be about 3cm wide.

Pattern:
CO 80 (88, 96) stitches. Work flat in 4×4 rib until piece measures 26 (28, 30) cm long.

Next row: *k2tog twice, p2tog twice. Repeat from * across row. 40 (44, 48) stitches remain.

Final row: k2tog across row. 20 (22, 24) stitches remain. Break yarn and thread yarn tail through remaining live stitches, pulling tight.

Finishing:
Sew up the back seam. Block well into proper shape. (See example below.)

Feel COOL when you wear your new dreadlock hat!

here’s a small taste of stuff i’ve been working on lately.

’super-natural’ baby sweater for a friend’s new nephew:

one piece of my monk’s travel satchel:

my beauteous new ashford skeiner, which i built yesterday:

i have SO many projects on the go right now. this doesn’t include the hidden agenda sweater, or red hot & wicked, or the inside-out sweater, or the diagonal stripes pullover… i like having LOTS of projects on the go.

just as a bit of how things are going - 19.4 lbs down. at 19.8 i will be at my ten percent goal, which is crazy awesome. when i hit 20 lbs down, i’m getting a new tattoo to celebrate… and this weekend, i’m getting my hair put in dreadlocks. so exciting! i’m knitting myself a dreadlock hat that i can wear as soon as i get ‘em. i’m making it out of my own handspun, too, which is exciting.

here’s a little preview: (colours aren’t great. when it’s finished, i will get proper photos in proper lighting. the fiber is ‘party girl’ from copperpot woolies.)

and here is the yarn i am spinning now, which is going to become a dreadlock hat for my bff in maine when i finish it: (fiber is ‘cry baby’ from copperpot woolies.)

i love spinning so much. can’t wait to get a wheel…

well, let’s see what i can come up with to say. i’ve had a lot going on lately, work and the store and life and choir and just so many things.

the store update has been kind of disappointing. i haven’t sold any of the new colourways, and because i just bought a new skein winder (i’m going to pick it up today) there’s no money in the yarn account. which means the next batch of dye and base yarn comes out of my savings… ah well, i knew this kind of thing was possible when i decided to start a business.

when i’ve made a bit more money, i’m thinking of expanding into fiber and getting a drum carder. i love big fluffy batts to spin from, and the thought of making them myself is quite delightful. anyone have any ideas on this? any spinners in the house?

as soon as i’ve got another bunch of stock built up, yarn oddities will be carried at www.yarny-goodness.com. how cool is that?! i’m pretty darned excited.

had a bump in the weight watchers road, gained a few, but it’s all off now and i’m back down to the 17.4 lbs that was my lowest so far. i’m really aiming for my 10% goal this week. it’d feel SO good… but just the fact that i’m wearing new jeans, and tshirts that were too tight at the beginning of the year, that feels really good.

head on over to www.cdbaby.com and look up ‘paul emme’. he’s a canadian singer songwriter whom i met at a gig on the 7th, where my a cappella group was performing. he’s incredible, his way of looking at the world is a little bit skewed, which i certainly appreciate. i get the impression he spends a lot of his life questioning the things he knows to be conventional. plus, he has a song about how you can’t play slide guitar in a space suit. enough said.

let’s see, what else what else. my parents have been here and i have visited them, mr. riot and i have spent a fair amount of time with them and with his family. his mum is doing a LOT better and we took her out to a movie last night. iron man. i’ve seen it twice now. if you haven’t seen it, GO SEE IT NOW. if you have seen it: “let’s face it. this isn’t the worst thing you’ve caught me doing.”

on a knitting front, i’m almost done the accent stitching on teva durham’s inside out top, i’m more than half finished the hidden agenda sweater from knit wit for mr. riot, and i’m a good chunk of the way into the monk’s travel satchel from knittingdaily.com. i think i’ll need to order more yarn though, as i’ve changed up the pattern a little. i need a new purse, and this is going to be perfect.

remember. iron man. paul emme.

one more colour to show you, and a few pictures of the whole update in one place.

magic dance (for the labyrinth fans, hee hee)

so that’s seven brand-new oddities, and my plan is to post them when i get up tomorrow. so look for them appearing in the etsy shop starting at 10 AM eastern time (noon for me… dude, i’m gonna sleep in)