New yarn...Like I needed more. & Visions

Yesterday, after getting hired at one of the coolest yarn shops. I went to one of the other coolest yarn shops to buy some more Rowan Polar. I bought 2 balls of "The Blues" last week during the Wednesday night knit-together, and I have been heavy petting with it ever since. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to use it for, but I knew that I needed more of it!!! It is on sale @ said LYS because it's being discontinued....ACK, the pain in my chest, just thinking about the death of Polar!! So yesterday I returned to purchase a couple more balls, and alas... There she was....It was another color of Polar just hanging out in the sale basket! My eyes danced upon "Red Hot"! I knew that it would have the time of it's wooley alpaca life (we don't talk about it's acrylic roots) alongside "The Blues". It was meant to be!! So, I bought 2 balls of "Red Hot Mama", still not knowing what I wanted to do with it. (I must admitt, that I could possibly be satisfied with never knitting any yarn, I am so dammned pleased with all of it just happily stacked up in neat little color coordinated balls or hanks scattered all over my house... Constantly petting it of course!)

Then last night, as I was TRYING to fall asleep, I saw visions of a thick stripey "Red Hot Blues" cape (or possibly a poncho) doing the CHA CHA in my head. Maybe with a hood, maybe a cape with a collar, or a turtle necked poncho... What about i-cord ties with big sexy pom poms swaying to & fro!!! OHHH the possibilities!
But you know what all of tis means... don't you? I may need to bring home a couple more balls.

I also realized last night that I need to post on this here blog, lists of WIP's, FO's, & TIMME (twinkles in my minds eye, or things I would like to do). If I write them down, and make it public, I am more likely to stick to the tasks at needle.... right? hmmmm, I wonder.

I am no longer an unemployed bum!!!

On a fluke I ended up getting a job at one of the very cool LYS's in the area. As you all know, I was wrapping up my last sock class on Sunday HERE. And as I was leaving, the shop owner, Christina, said "good luck in school. Make sure to come and visit...yadda yadda."

Now I have been wondering where I am going to work while in school. FIDM requires all students to work a part time job within the field of their study. So for a fashion design student that pretty much means retail, or peon gopher in a design atmosphere. My main requirement was to work on this side of the Bay, & not commute to the city for both work & school.
So, back to Sunday.... When Christina mentioned school, it dawned on me to ask if she was still hiring (I had remembered seeing an email on the yahoo group for AP about help wanted). To my luck, she was still hiring. So we chatted about hours, days of week, I asked when I could bring a resume by.... yadda yadda. I swung by there this morning, & by lunch time I was employed!!
WOO HOO!!!!
It's been over two years since I have worked (the injury, I am not a bum for no good reason)!! I am sooooo excited to be back in the swing of life! And what better place for a textile, color addict to work than a yarn store!

I will still be loyal to my hometown LYS! I love that shop, and the owner, and the Wednesday night knit togethers, and the gals that attend. No one yarn shop can satisfy all my needs!

Well, I have some serious loafing to do this week before I rejoin the working class! So I am off to the cafe to sip some iced tea, & knit in the sun!

Screwed up Beloved Socks & Tinking is a BITCH

Yesterday was my last sock class. The other three students were no- shows, so basically I had a private two-hour sock lesson. Since I had completed my sock up to the point of the Kitchener stitch, we mostly gabbed for the two hours, while I worked on the second sock. I really enjoy working with this instructor, she is so cool!! She is super knitty knowledgeable, has an infinite amount of patience, and just fun to hang out with! You know, the kind of person that every knitter wants to knit with.

Speaking of the Bitchener stitch, it really was no big deal. Though I only closed up a total of eight stitches (four on each needle) so I didn’t really get to do whole lot of Bitchener stitch, but I think I’ve got it down.

So this morning, I was feverishly finishing up the second sock! I was so excited to be almost done with my very first pair of socks, that I completely forgot to switch colors and do the second toe in pink! Overall, the socks have a few wonky parts to them, the heels have more pink than I wanted (I wasn’t sure how soon to start color changes, not completely knowing where along the heel I was, as I was knitting), and the toes are pointier than I like… BUT, they will forever be my very first pair of socks, and I LOVE them!! xoxoxo



I have also come along with the my-so-called-scarf. I switched to #15’s, MUCH MUCH better!!! I truly believe that this yarn was specifically created for this stitch pattern, it’s so perfect, and looks so friggin cool!!!! I have run into a couple of “snags” while working on this scarf. Saturday night I was knitting, talking with a friend, and watching a live performer at Julie’s… I passed a slipped stitch over w/out knitting into it!!!! ACK. I didn’t notice until I got to the end of the row & only had 19 stitches!! I have NO problems UN-knitting, or tinking, when it’s stockinette stitch, a k2tog, ONE slipped stitch… But this thing…. Aye carumba!! Tinking this was a major bitch. I dumb lucked my way through it the first time. Tonight, I screwed up on the purl side! I forgot to purl into the first purl after P2tog!!! I struggled with it… couldn’t figure it out. I faked it, and added a stitch. You can KIND OF see it; luckily this stitch pattern is soo crazy looking that it is virtually impossible for the human eye to stay still in one spot for very long!
I guess that I need to learn how to unknit psso’s & all of that stuff that is easy to do, but not Undo!!! UGH!

Good morning everybody!
I took this picture of Rosco yesterday. I have this really cool canvas basket/box type of thing, which I was storing a ton of yarn in. The basket was not working for me, as far as yarn storage was concerned. So I emptied it all out, and set the basket on the dining room table, while I mulled over it's next purpose of storage. Within minutes I hear a loud slide, crash, thump! I come into the dining room and see that the basket is hanging half off of the edge of the table. And as I’m walking closer I hear this loud, sassy, whiny “meow”, & see one ear poke up out of the basket. I took a bunch of pictures of him in the basket, and naturally he posed for each one, he is a camera slut; this photo is my very favorite of the set (you can see the others on my flickr page). He spent the entire day snoozing & cleaning himself in the basket, guess I am not going to store clean towles in there now. :')

I began the “ so called scarf” yesterday. I did not want it to be as wide as the “pattern” recommended so I cut it down from 30 stitches, to 20. I am totally happy with the width,…I think, maybe 24 stitches, hmmm. The side edges are a little bit wonky to me, and as usual, I hate the way that the stitches right above my cast on edge look on the back side, there is this sort of gap… maybe it all just needs to be blocked after I’m done.
I wasn’t sure, as usual, about the slipping of stitches. When a pattern does not specify slip knit, or purlwise, I never really know. I’ve been told that when the pattern does not specify, it’s always purl wise. But with this pattern, and some others, it just didn’t look right. So I went with the knit slip.

I am trying to decide whether or not to try this on larger needles it seems really stiff and I think that larger needles might help that. What to you guys think?

So my plan for today is to try very hard to ignore the “so called scarf” and concentrate on getting that second sock caught up to the first sock.

One Big Fat Skein of Delicious!!!!

Ok... In effort to catch up to my life's current events I am posting twice in one day.... Lightning strikes!!

Delicious!!!!
Originally uploaded by punk rawk purl.

Say hello to the newest to my yarn family, I call her Delicious!!! Let's face it, we call it our stash... But really it is a part of our family. If there were a fire, what would you go for first... Your wedding album, the cuisinart, the cats (just kidding), your collection of autographed Partridge Family albums... Or your stash! Yes, that's what I thought!
I bought this last night during our Wednesday night knit fit. Honestly, last night I felt more like shopping & perusing knitting books than knitting. I will be making the "my so called scarf" (look under the patterns heading) with this hottie of a yarn! Super Janis, a.k.a "my knitting hero" wound it up for me. I have never used striping yarn before, it was so cool watching it form into a tasty little cake of yarn on the winder. As she wound, the cake went from red to blue, to orange, green, etc..... like an everlasting gobstopper! HYP-NO-TIZIN!
Also last night... I decided to buy a 2nd set of #7 dpns so that I can power through the 2nd sock before my final sock class on Sunday. I want to be able to practice the kitchner/BITCHner stitch on both socks in the presence of a professional. I hope it's another one of those things that everyone makes out to be harder than it really it is.


SOOO anyway... I was looking through the dpns, and I saw these little white dwarf needles. Janis mentioned how much she loved them. I said it seemed they would be too short to keep the yarn on... She explained that they are much easier to knit with because you don't have all that extra needle length just flopping around. I went home, cast on... And voila, once again... She was spot on right!

Saturday Yarn Shopping...

One of these days I will get caught up & post things the day they happen...

After completely neglecting this scarf for sooo long, I am finally "into" it again. I am about half way through it. I really wanted to figure out a way to knit it as one piece, but have the leaves go in two diff directions... so that when worn the leaves would all go the same way. I asked my sock teacher last weekend... She had some ideas, I tried them, and... uh... NO. So it looks like two separate pieces grafted together it is!

Last Saturday Chris' mom, Mary called me up and said she would be in the East Bay & asked if I wanted to have lunch & hit some yarn stores, specifically the Alameda yarn shops. Oh yes, and maybe a bead store, which is not my thing, but I do enjoy ANY store with lots of bright & shiny stuff & tons of colors!! Bead stores fit that bill perfectly! So I say, "Hell Yes!!! Let's shop for yarn!" And shop for yarn we did.
We began at the yarn shop closest to my house, it shall remain nameless because my opinion of it is not so nice. I will say that it has an Italian name.... And there are only 2 yarn shops in Alameda... So you can probably figure it out unless you are just plain dumb, and in that case I wouldn't know you, or if I did, I wouldn't expect you to read my blog!
So we go to yarn shop #1. I have been there 2 or 3 times before, several months ago, when I was first learning to knit. Now the folks there are friendly enough, one grand-motherly woman is extremely sweet & helpful to new knitters who make silly mistakes, the store smells good, it's clean & organized, they even play nice music. Soooooo, what exactly IS my beef with this place, you may ask. The main reason is plain and simple, I do not like the yarn that they carry. The selection is pretty narrow. They have lots of the same yarn, in the same colors, and a very very narrow scope of colors it is. Literally 2 or 3 shelves will all have one kind, in one color! And they carry an awful lot of novelty yarn, and not just novelty yarn, but lots of tinsel-y glittery, eye-lashy yarn. It's like a Jo Anns or Michaels super store threw up in a real yarn store. My other beef, is that I tried to exchange a pair of needles, never used, never even taken out of the package, receipt still in perfect condition... They said that I have to talk to the owner to make any return or exchange!!! I have left numerous messages for her, & nothing! So I gave up months ago.

So onto yarn store #2, Yarn!, my fave. Mary was instantly impressed. LOTS of different textures, color palate's, & price points. I even found some ribbon yarn that doesn't make me cringe. I quite like the choo choo yarn, and I LOVE to say it! Chugga chugga chugaa-CHOO CHOO!! You get the idea. I love it so much, that I am afraid to knit it. So many novelty type yarns that look good in a ball, look sooooo bad knit up. I am thinking drop stitch scarf for this beautimous ribbon. Any other suggestions? Mary bought 10 or 12 skeins of purple mohair. It sure was a lot of purple mohair! Ahhhh, another satisfying trip to Yarn!

Socks, School, & Being An Old Broad!

I will start with knitting talk, and get that out of the way. Not that knitting is something I want to get out of the way, quite the contrary!
Last Sunday, not yesterday last Sunday, but the week before…
I took my first of a three-session sock class. In that first class we basically cast on, knit the ribbed cuff, & started working down the sock. There are 3 other students besides me, one of them had to also learn how to use DPN's, not an easy feat. We were going to learn how to turn the heel in this week’s class, i.e. yesterday. But being the brave little newbie knitter that I am,

I couldn’t wait. I turned the heel on my own sometime early last week.
And can I just say…. What’s the big whoop about turning the heel? The way people talk about it; I was expecting to sweat bullets of frustration & pain trying to “turn the fricking heel”! I was actually a little disappointed that it was not a challenge. But it WAS very very exciting to watch this heel shape itself! Short Row shaping, I Love You!!! Now I am not as scared to try intarsia!
So yesterday in class, I was quite a bit ahead, and was able to start shaping the gusset (very boring after making a heel), and WORKING TOWARDS THAT TOE! I felt a little like a schmuck, it took the entire 2 -hour class & then some for everyone else to turn the heel. The shop owner was teasing me that I don’t even need to attend the 3rd class. I am very proud that this whole knitting thing is something that just seems to have come naturally to me.

It’s official! I’m going to GET MY LEARN ON! On Friday I went and registered for my classes, though school does not actually start until October. I do admit that I was a bit nervous about meeting my classmates for the first time. As I had suspected, the majority of them were fresh out of high school, and looked an awful lot like they had just come from a Mary Kate and Ashley convention. There was a large contingency of girls that looked like they were in a uniform:
*Very straight and long blond hair, some with highlights, and some with black streaks.
*Skintight jeans, worn very very low on the hips (or lack thereof), with a super flared bootleg
*Super high-heeled boots with very pointy toe
*And they each wore a blazer. Now to be perfectly fair the blazers were all a little bit different from one another. Most of the them were pink, but some were striped, some were floral, some corduroy, some denim.
*Oh, I almost forgot... part of this uniform were oversized jangly dangly brassy earrings. Truth be told, I was expecting a bit more from future design school students. Especially the Fashion Design students.
Maybe it's just me.... I'm just OLD!!! :) But I am more than comfortable with my slightly chubby, funky glasses wearing, tattooed self! I don't think at any age I ever blended into the crowd. I have always marched to my own beat!!

I’m very excited about my first quarter classes! I will be taking survey of Western Art I, Textile Science for Fashion Design I, Fashion Sketching I, something called Success Seminar (it’s a the workshop type class that every student is required to take during their first quarter. It’s to help you analyze your study habits, balance school, work, social life. And ultimately, to help you be a better student. All and all, it’s a good idea for both the young fresh out of high school kiddies, and the old broads like me who have been out of school fifteen years.)
And the class I’m most looking forward to, Color and Design Theory. Doesn’t that just sound like fun?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OTIS!!!!!!

Otis is a lil' devil
Originally uploaded by punk rawk purl.

Today Otis is ten years old! I didn't have the heart to make him pose in a birthday hat on his birthday (truth be told, he's a little grumpy today. I guess he is officially a grumpy old man!). So here is a picture of him last Halloween as a devil, close enough!
Tonight he will get some tunafish on top of his diet senior citizen health food kibble... mmmm! sounds delicious!
Happy Birthday Otis, mommy loves you! OXOXOXOX

Cats, Hats, Rats... Oh MY!

I dedicate this post to Robin, a friend from flickr, who loves the kittyville hat so much, she wants to learn how to knit.

I have finished the hat, the earflaps, the i-cord, and made a sample dead mouse to replace the pom poms (I am using the mousy pattern from the cat warming set in the s n'b nation book). Last night at the LYS knit-together I started the kitty ears, and got a really good idea from one of the gals!! Have a dead mouse on one i-cord & a wedge of cheese on the other. The other day I was thinking a fish skeleton, but I have absolutely no idea how to even begin knitting a fish skeleton!! I LOVE these ideas! btw... The same smart gal who thunk up the cheese wedge, also noticed that while I was gabbin away, I was putting my second ear on lopsided! I didn't catch your name, but thanks a ton, you were on the ball last night! :')

On the topic of the LYS knit-together... I had so much fun last night! Those ladies are fun, fun, fun. There is lots of laughing, a little bitching, and even a few good curse words! :0 :) It's an easy going bunch, everyone takes an interest in what each other is working on, they are friendly, helpful, and just plain happy people. I have been to some Sn'B groups that are comprised of some real sour pusses! Jeesh! If you cannot lighten up & have fun sipping coffee or tea, eating a freakin scone, & knitting with your neighbors... STAY HOME and bitch to your cats! I am all for the bitchin as well as the stitchin... But come on people, lighten up!!!


I also bought some yarn last night. Was it because I have already knit up the entire MOUNTAIN of yarn at home??? NO! Maybe because I won the lotto, & had money burning a hole in my pocket? NO! I know... It's because I saw the yarn & knew EXACTLY what I would use it for!!! Well.... Closer. I told myself that I was going to to buy ONE skein of yarn. I am planning to make a certain something for a certain someone & I have most of what I needed. I wanted to get something in a shade of purple, a color that I quite like, but am not naturally drawn to on my own. So I pick up the Lucky Lime that I already have, so I can choose which purple will be coming home with me. Okay folks... here is where my weakness won! I LOVE LOVE LOVE that dammed green! The problem was that dammed green was really best suited with not one of the two purples, but both! So in order to fully compliment the favored Lucky Lime... I had to buy ANOTHER (the 3rd) skein of Lucky Lime & one EACH of the purples... Who's names I have not yet learned or made up! My dream job as a child was to be the person who named colors, for crayons, J. Crew, or anything!!!

My Latest Yarn Crush & What An OUCHIE BLAH Day...

I am in lust with this yarn right now... It is Mondial Genius, I have 360 yards of it, & I have no idea what I am going to use it for. I just love the way it looks sitting in it's little happy ball on my bamboo knitting platter, next to my knitting chair. I just really like to look at it, occasionally petting it. Heavy petting with yarn... Am I a sicko?

As part of my long and tortuous ongoing attempt to correct all the screwed up damage that my body has suffered as a result of this injury, I have been working with a kinesiologist . Let's call him, Mr. Pain. Yesterday Mr. Pain & I had an extra long session, we had several breakthrough moments where I was able to do exercises/stretches that I could not dream of a month ago. Yesterday I came home with a grumpy thigh muscle. This morning I woke up to a very ANGRY back. I spoke to Mr. Pain this morning, he said it was okay for me to go on my daily walk.

My new friend, Heidi & I have been taking walks around town, we live in a really cute/cool town!. It's a lot of fun, getting to know a cool new person while just chatting & strolling. Thanks for walkin & talkin Heidi!

I also met with my trainer, Franklin, at the a gym. Franklin ROCKS, he loves his job, cares about his clients, and knows just how far to push you without actually injuring you!! Chris has been working with him too, and has lost about 35-40 lbs since January... Men suck! Franklin measured my BMI (body mass index)... UGH!! The good news is that, in roughly 8 days since I saw my doctor for an annual chick check up, I have lost 5 pounds without really trying (those walks around town??). The not so hot news is that my BMI is wayyyy not so good. But more good news is that now I have a goal.


Chrissy had his first real official day of school yesterday. He came home in a good mood, we had a nice dinner, then he disappeared into his office & studied for the rest of the night. I cannot wait til I start school!! :)

SOCK it to me!!

So yesterday, I took my first of a three session sock making class. I love the instructor, I took an advanced beginner's class with her a few months back. Her name is Julie, she makes everything so much fun, it's like hanging out with friends, not like learning. First I had to choose yarn for, what would be my very first pair of socks (that is, socks that I made myself. Not that I have never owned a pair of socks before. We were not that poor.) The sock pattern that we would be using, called for worsted weight yarn, which I thought would be too bulky for socks. But what the heck do I know, I have never made a sock before. I wanted to use washable wool for my socks, because I just can't imagine hand washing a pair of socks. But I could not find anything that fit my color/fiber criteria in a washable. So I went with some lambs pride, guess I will be hand washing my socks after all. Anyway, we didn't get very far, just started the cuff. Next week we will turn the heel!! WOOO HOOO btw.... this is the first time I have used lamb's pride (I bought a bunch to felt, but haven't used it yet). I love it! I love that fluffy fuzzy goodness!


I am also working on a second Kittyville hat. This one is in a really cool peacock blue (the photo really does not represent the proper color). These hats are fun for me, they are good projects to do at a stitch and bitch, or in any social setting. They don't require much concentration, I can use the more economical lion brand wool ease yarn, and they are really fun, everybody loves them. Check out my kitty friends set in flicker, I made every one at our party on Saturday wear the Kitty hat and pose for a quick snapshot. The results were very funny.

I also began another BHB. I haven't taken any pix. I am still on the base of the bag, it's a really pretty bright navy blue. I will snap some shots when I get the body started.

Yarn, potted meat, creepy singing children, & life...

I took Friday off from blogging because I was preparing for our "back to school bbq party", which was yesterday, and was a ton of meaty, boozy fun. & I took Saturday off from blogging because I was having tons of meaty fun. So here I am blogging on a Sunday, can I go to Hell for that? :')

I came across this creepiness today. It is hilarious, mesmerizing, & very creepy all at once. I wasted some valuable time listening to all of my fave classic songs being crooned by the lost member of The Addams family!!

Friday Recap-Soooo, after hearing so many great things about a yarn shop (that shall remain unnamed), I dragged myself out there to take a peek. They are having some mega sale right now, sounds promising right? It is about a 30 minute drive through a section of freeway (the 980/580/800 interchange) that must have been designed by Satan!

Now, I am the first to admit that I am a ragging retail snob, so it could just be me. As I approached the store I see the fairly large window displays... I honestly do not recall what was on display, just the HUGE lint balls & dust bunnies, & dead flies. I cautiously walk in, thinking to myself "no biggie. There's sale yarn ahead, go forward young knitter!"

It was very very disorganized, it looked like someone's SUPER CLUTTERED craft room with ugly safeway style linoleum floors. I spent a few minutes carefully maneuvering through the chaos. None of the individual skeins were priced, SOMETIMES there was a price chart hanging from the shelf, but usually the yarn on that shelf did not match up to the list attached to said shelf. ARRGH! Anyway... it was all very picked over. The colors were not doing anything for me... at all. Mostly pastels & muted primaries. I did buy a couple of skeins of cascade 220 for felting. (the gold & the dark green on bottom are from the messy store) That suitcase is one of my fave vintagey things & I am very excited that I have a pile of yarn (all purchased at different times) to recreate something in that beautiful color palette.

So I drove back to home base & straight to my local-est of LYS & chatted with the delightful store owner (you know who you are:')) & relaxed in a beautifully put together retail environment, carpets, organization, warm lighting, clean, neat, & the yarn from here ALWAYS smells really good, not flowery or overpowering, just a subtle comforting scent. I dunno! But I bought some really cool bright, fun, exciting yarn.

Saturday Recap- bbq fun & cool "back to school" gifts from some of our really cool friends! Thanks Tricia & Dan & Irene!!

Oh... and Potted Meat, how could I forget!! While walking the streets of Alameda with my friend Heidi the other day, I came across this in a cool little Asian/Indian/Funky grocery store.

Rosco, Rosco, Rosco....a.k.a. Professor Stinky Bottom

Rosco, named for Rosco P. Coltrane (and yes, I'm seriously thinking about getting him a basset hound named Flash), is 5 years old, going on 2 1/2. He is an Abyssinian mutt, or an Abby Tabby. When he was a kitten he had stripes like a normal tabbycat. As he grew up, & his ass got big & fat the stripes stretched out into spots, like a leopard. He still has some stripes... in spots. hehe He is the Bad-luck Schleprock of felines! When he was about 6 months old he was sniffing around this Mexican pottery jug thingy (ya know a really narrow neck that bulbs out into a huge... well, bulbous thingy). I kept shooing him away from it, put bitter apple on it & everything. Sure enough, one day I hear this crazy suction sound, and then here comes Rosco running laps around the house with a big blue jug stuck on his head! He finally ran into the wall & busted the jug, but the neck of the jug was still around his neck. It made his neck very long, like a beautiful African woman. The emergency vet hospital was laughing while they took pictures of him. And that was the beginning of many hospital trips for Rosco!

Now down to his stats:
He is a Pisces, which is a water sign, hmmm... yeah that fits. Rosco enjoys sitting in the tub immediately after someone has showered (he likes to wait for the drips & try to catch them, sometimes jamming his entire paw all the way up into the faucet, I smell emergency vet bills AGAIN). He is an avid bird watcher, & also enjoys bird calling (he coos & warbles like a dove & his whiskers vibrate at impressive speeds ). His other hobbies are chewing with his mouth open while walking through the house, whipping his head around to see who is coming down the stairs, while eating & spraying food up to 5 feet away, playing peek-a-boo, delivering his toys to your lap, or in bed while you are still sleeping (a subtle clue that he wants to play), & then of course... Zealously grooming Otis' posterior side (ewwww tossed cat salad!, it's like kitty prison). But, I love my big gay cats!
And finally Rosco has a serious fetish for grooming human hair, he will lick you bald if you let him! He sits on the couch behind you, and begins by gently head butting you & rubbing his face in your hair, then he starts to get a little rough. Eventually he winds himself into a frenzy, licking & chewing your hair, then he inevitably starts to bite your scalp, not very hard... but it flippin hurts! On his super perky days he will grab you around your neck & hold your head still. My fave is when he grooms someone with long hair, he will poke his head out through their hair & look like he is wearing a long wig.
In a nut shell, Rosco is a sassy, spazzy, clumsy drama queen. He is very talkative, mostly whiney, and always tries to get the last meow in! I suspect that someday he will own his own hair salon in the Castro... sashaying about, attending to his clients beauty needs & ummm... possibly more.

Tomorrow I will introduce one Cool Cat, the sexiest, he's a real Tiger! RRROAR! :')

Another room DONE!

I am stuck at home waiting for the plumber to show up, for the second day in a row now... So I thought I would take some pix of my damned good looking house. Voila... HOUSE!
We have lived here one month shy of a year. We painted the "moonbeam" (lame name) living room before we physically moved in. Five months later we painted the "melted chocolate" entryway. And now we have completed the "lotus queen" dining room. Next, the bedroom. I expect we will get to that in another year, or whenever we both have a school break that overlaps.

The entryway, mmmm chocolatey! Note how my felted bag color matches my living/dining room.



The living room, a bit messy, but I wasn't going to clean up for the stupid dummy head plumber!! OOOH, and my knitting chair! Knitting with my feet up, ahhh luxury.



And the dining room. We don't have anything up on the walls yet, but I love that color so much... I don't care if we EVER hang anything up! There is a great story about the antique Monterey Ranch furniture. I touch on it in the flickr descriptions. Maybe I will retell it here in full someday.

My Very First Blog Entry...

So, here I am blogging away! Woo Hoo! I will attempt to entertain you all by talking about my newly acquired obsession with knitting, mothering 2 fat cats, loving & living with a law student, loafing around until I begin school in October, trying to improve my photography (dare I say?) skills, & recovering from a work related injury that has changed my life forever!

I taught myself to knit a few months ago. I have taken a couple of classes at one of the many super cool LYS's. You can see my knitty-ness by clicking on my flickr badge at the left. In the short time that I have become addicted to knitting my yarn stash has managed to multiply like bunnies ... Kind of how my fabric stash exploded very very shortly after I learned to sew. hmmm... Am I this compulsive with everything? Uh... Yeah!

Today I will introduce you to the oldest member of my family (oldest in cat years). This is Otis, he will be 10 next week. He is a Maine Coon Mutt. He is a Leo (obviously!!). He enjoys long walks through the litter box, being brushed while watching "Law & Order", wool blankets, his squeaky toy, who is a dead ringer for himself (pix to come), & tucking Chris & I into bed at night. He also enjoys ice cubes in his water bowl on a hot day. Otis is super sweet, & very delicate for an 18 lb cat. He is the epitome of terms like "fraidy cat" & "gentle giant".
Tomorrow we will meet the wonder that is Rosco.