Rowan, How I Love Thee..............

I love everything about Rowan.  EVERYTHING!  I love their yarns – Silk wool dk, Cashsoft dk, Calmer, Big Wool, Biggie Print, Summer Tweed, the list goes on.  I am anxiously waiting on an order from Jimmy Beans Wool Watcher for 12 skeins of Pure Life British Sheep Breeds BFL in mid brown Jacob.  I need a 12-step program for their Wool Watcher site.  Grrrrrr. 

I love Rowan’s patterns!  I am making the Anise (unfortunately not in a Rowan yarn), and the pattern is brilliant!   First, it’s in centimeters!  So nice to swatch in cm! Then, they assume you are intelligent enough to not need everything spelled out ad-nauseum.  They have you match the front to the back shapings by counting down 9 rows to start the decreases, measure the stockinette for the fronts against the back to start the double moss stitch, flip the fronts, etc!  Come on, we all do this anyway, so why waste a lot of words and paper, right?  Thank you, Rowan, for knowing we use our brains to knit.  I am on the 2^nd front, then will do both sleeves at the same time, as they are worked flat.  The only thing is, I need a real Knitter to figure where I can shorten the sleeves.  From the armscye, it is 46cm (18 inches) long.  That would put the sleeve length past my fingertips. Tuesday knit night, Here I Come!  I would post pix, but Blogger is sucking right now and won't open the upload link.  Sigh..........................

Sock update- I am still wimping on turning my heel.

Stray pup needs Help!

While on duty on Sunday, my son found a 3 month old puppy in one of the parks.  He was full of bite marks, and had a badly broken leg.  The Humane Society took him in, did a complete work-up, and had to send this poor baby to a specialty vet for surgery.  His leg is badly damaged, and the surgery and therapy is going to run almost $3,000.00 dollars.  we are asking to please find it in your heart to make a donation to his surgery and recovery.  The info for donations is as follows:

All donations can be sent to Associated Humane Societies,

124 Evergreen Avenue, Newark, NJ  07114

...Attn:  Res-Q Fund. (Riggs).  The dog’s  ID# is 99291

All this poor baby wanted when he found him was, food, water and to nuzzle.  He is the sweetest thing I've ever met, and I know ALL THE DOGS.  lol

More Stuff I've Learned

1.                  Judy’s Magic Cast-On is magic.

2.                  Cat Bordi’s video for the cast-on is both funny and informative

3.                  Malabrigo sock cannot be made into socks on a #2 (3.0mm) circ.  At least not by me.  Drapey socks are not good.

4.                  The BF has narrow feet.  Long, but narrow.  And those gross witch toes.  You know, the one’s where the 2^nd toe is longer than the big toe?  Blech

5.                  I can’t find my Knit Picks circular 1’s & 1.5’s

6.                  Knit Picks doesn’t care if I order more needles.  At 2:00am.

7.                  Along with some yarn to make knitted panties.  That I need like a hole in the head. 

8.                  My daughter, who is home from college for a long weekend, cannot find her way from Massachusetts to New Jersey.  She’s only done it 20 times.  Her gps is apparently more useful when left in her desk drawer at school.

9.                  And she has absolutely no sense of humor when you ask if the exit she saw for Springfield was perhaps only meant for the Simpson’s- not her.

10.              And all that started because she missed her train, because college doesn’t teach you about having a sense of time, the realities of traffic, or friends not remembering where in the parking lot they left their car.  Although physics did teach her that you cannot get a half an hour away in 12 minutes- in a car.  Even if I was driving it.  Sigh……………

11.              College students will steal the Bunny Nugget you just made and not give a rat’s ass that you didn’t get a picture of it.  Or that it involved learning a 3-needle bind-off.

12.              3-needle bind-offs are totally cool.  And easy.  And kinda fun- but I thought Kitchener was kinda fun.

13.      Pom-pom making hasn't changed since I was in Middle School and used to make them for my roller skates.

14.              Regia 6-fadig has some weird (read: gross) color transitions. 

15.              Although, it knits up faster than fingering weight.  Duh

16.              My back is out. 

17.              Ice makes it feel better than heat. 

18.              Chiropractors are closed on Sundays.

19.              I am dreading coming to the heel of my sock. 

20.              Typing this blog is keeping me from getting closer.  lol

21.              Word refuses to accept that “lol” should not be capitalized after a period.

22.              My 7 month old Chessie likes to pee on the rug in the room the cats hang in.

23.              The cats don’t care.  Frankly, they think she’s stupid.  And gross.  I tend to agree.

Hedgie pix

      Ok, I finally finished the Hedgehog, and he is in the machine felting as I type this.  I even remembered to take before pix.  lol  Thank you, Debbie for the eyelash yarn, because in a fit of stupidity, I threw all mine away figuring I would never use it again.  And of course, now I want to make ALL. THE. HEDGEHOGS.  Sigh.................



 

 Before felting- kinda looks like roadkill   :-)

After felting in my Kenmore Oasis, which doesn't have an agitator thingy.  He doesn't look very comfortable jammed between the iron & the gallon of distilled water, but it is holding him in the shape I need him to be.

The Oasis does an ok job of felting, I just have to run the water in the slop sink to get it as hot as possible to go in the machine.  I throw a couple of big bath towels in with whatever I'm felting, and run it through two wash only cycles.  I have no idea what yarn this is.  It had no labels.  He will have eyes tomorrow.  :-)  Still not sure what I'm doing for a nose, though.

#%*&% cat ears

      Have I mentioned that I hate knitting these fucking cat ears for the Stackable Cats?  They should use this part of the pattern to torture prisoners, I swear to God.  The medium cat has 5 ears- 3 attempted on dpns, and 2 with magic loop.  Guess which ones are now in the garbage?  3 times I wound up messing up the stitches, so there were 2 or 3 rows of stockinette, and the rest reverse stockinette.  WTF?  Stoopid toothpicks.  lol  The magic loop ones are fine.  The feet and tail will be magic looped, too.  And I am going to make the ears, feet and tail for the large cat first, then make the body.  I am soooooooooo looking forward to embroidering the faces on them.  My embroidery skills suck ass.

      I am almost done with the Hedgehog.  I had to stop because my hand was killing me.  The first section of short rows is done, and now I have the decreases to do (I think).  We may have another snow day tomorrow, so Wooo-Hooo!  Lucky me!  Another day of knitting, cooking, trying to keep the dog from going stir-crazy and moving snow (to who knows where- there's no more room for any more of this shit).

     I will post pictures tomorrow, although everything looks like cat puke at the moment.  Nothing creepier than an unstuffed, unfelted hedgehog.  :-)

Sewing and stuff

Here are the pictures of the Birdie Sling I made. 

                          Can you spot the helper cat in this picture?   lol  The white ceramic stove behind my cutting table holds all my spinning fiber.  The floor holds all the shit I am too lazy to pick up.  :-)

       I have material here to make another one in black and cream, and more fabric is coming to make one for The Daughter Figure.  I think I am obsessed.  It happens with everything I do.  lol   I also am waiting for her new book, Amy Butler’s Style Stitches, because I want to make ALL THE PURSES!  I also made dpn pouches for all my toothpicks dpns.  I machine embroidered the sizes on the cases to make it easier.  I used Amy Butler fabric from fabric.com.  They have some good deals.  AND bought 1 bolt each of interfacing and batting from Overstock.com to make a shitload more purses.  See the obsession taking hold?  This is how I roll with everything- crochet, knitting, spinning, reading.  I have EVERY crochet hook known to man, and most every book.  Same with knitting stuff.  I have fiber up the wazoo for spinning, and a drop spindle that I am too spaz to work.  I have a very good (fro back in it's day) sewing machine, a serger, a pressing ham (really ??), 2 irons... you get it.  And when I find an author I like, I devour everything they've written.  Book, after book, after book.    lol 

       I started a turquoise Huggable Hedgehog for The BF last night, even though I have the Anise and the 3^rd Stackable Cat on my needles (and a pillow, and an Emerald Isle Cardigan).  Sigh…………..  The hedgehog seems to be going fairly fast.  My GF that I met in our Rav crafting group gave me the fun fur for his back, because I threw all mine (um. Ok.  Word wants me to change mine to mines.  Do I have the Ebonics version of the program?) out like 3 weeks ago when I moved everything downstairs.  I said to myself- when the fuck are you ever going to use all this crappy novelty yarn?  Hahahaha!  Smart move.

Thinking, not Doing

        I have been thinking about writing every day since my last post, but I haven’t down and actually done it.  I have been busy at work- the bad weather causes havoc in my department, and I just have to hold on for the ride.  It is very stressful sometimes, especially when problems crop up out of the blue and smack you upside the head.  It’s the worst when I’m very busy on Facebook or Ravelry, and I don’t have time for this work crap.  lolol  

        I am still knitting the stackable cats.  And knitting.  And knitting.  Stockinette, anyone?  The first one took what seemed like 2 seconds to knit.  It was very quick.  The 2^nd one, not so much.  I was under the impression delusion that I might be able to get them done for Valentine’s Day, but I think I will go back to the original plan, which is finishing them by the beginning of April.  The cats are a surprise for The BF, but he keeps putting his 2 cents in every time he looks at my computer while I’m on Ravelry.  He saw the Huggable Hedgehog pattern, and promptly lost it.  “Awww, they’re so cute!  I neeeeeeeeeeeed one!  I can strap it in my back seat!  Can you make a smaller one to hang from my mirror?”  Sheesh!  He’s worse than The Daughter Figure.  lol  

        And, God help me, I have been sewing again.  I moved my table and machine down to the main floor, along with all my knitting book, yarn, needles, fabric, blah, blah blah.  I brought my grandmother’s really cool foldable dining room table up from the basement.  I can open just one side and it is perfect for laying out and cutting patterns.  Have you heard of a work triangle for your kitchen?  Well, I have one in my craft room.  lol Sewing machine, cutting table, ironing board.  All accessible on a rolling chair.  How lazy cool is that?

        Later today or tomorrow I will post pictures of the bag I made and the dpn cases I whittled out of fabric.  I forgot how much I love to sew, and it is so much nicer to have it all at my fingertips.

Cat Matching and stuff

            The BF’s birthday is at the beginning of April, and I thought he would love a set of Stackable Cats, since he loves his babies so much.  The Daughter Figure and I spent many days comparing cat colors to yarns, and think we came up with the perfect combos for each of the critters.  For the smallest cat – *NOTE* sizing terms are for illustrative purposes only.  Under no circumstances should anyone believe that these cats are small.  lol  Ok, for Honey, we chose Knit Picks City Tweed HW in Orca. 

For the middle cat, Wicket, I am using Knit Picks Shimmer in Spice and KP Merino Style in Fedora.  Since the Shimmer is lace weight, I will hold 2 strands together along with the Merino Style.  This should prove to be endless fun on dpns. 

For the big ,Willow, all 30 pounds of him, I am using KP Telemark in black (duh) and Crystal Palace Mini Solid in Walnut Brown held together. 

            I have been working on a sweater coat for me.  Yeah, me!  lol  The pattern is Anise from Sarah Hatton for Rowan.  I have added a few centimeters to the length because I want to make sure it covers at least half of my ass.  I am almost finished with the back.  I’m not sure if I will make both fronts at the same time.  I am usually ok with doing that, as long as I separate them before I start any decreases.  Not doing that would make my head explode.  I am using Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick-n-Quick in denim because I want to be able to just toss it in the machine.

Really, Insurance Company? Really?

            After almost 3 months of doctors, blood work and more doctors, The BF has a diagnosis.  He was born with a genetic disease called Klinefelter Syndrome.  Nice that it took 46 years for someone to figure this out.  It explains so many things about him, though.  It is a very interesting chromosomal abnormality that is not inherited; it's just a 'shit happens' kind of thing.  Ok, so now we have a diagnosis (which I suspected from the beginning, but who am I)?  lol 

            We have a prescription for a testosterone gel, and a $40.00 per prescription discount card.  All is good, right?  Well, I take everything to the pharmacy, the guy plugs in all the info, and it comes back DENIED.  Ok, I will not hyperventilate in front of the nice pharmacist guy.  He assures me he will fax the necessary info/forms to the doctor, and the doc will hash it out with the insurance company.  I go home, empty handed, and immediately call the doctor’s office.  I’m sure they don’t want to hear from the girlfriend, but I don’t give a shit.  Since it is lunchtime, I leave a message with the insurance woman at the office.  I text The BF and tell him to also call.  I wait a few hours, and call again- this time speaking to the woman at the main desk.  I then call the pharmacy- twice.  Nothing back from the doctor, and the claim is still denied.  A different pharmacist assures me she will re-fax the papers to the doctor.  I am starting to think that choosing women doctors was a mistake.  A male doctor would totally get it, and would have personally called the insurance company.  lol  

            The mission tomorrow, since The BF is off, is to both keep calling the doctor’s office until they beg us to stop.  Oh, and in case you were wondering, because I was, to fill it without insurance is $366.00.  Oy fucking vey!

Comcast vs the Power Grid

Well, The Boy finally got a service call Comcast, also know at our house as either “The Company That Sucks Moose Cock”, or “Sucks Monkey Balls”.  Take your pick.  It was scheduled for Tuesday between 1 & 3.  At 2pm, they called and said the guy got a flat tire, so they were rescheduling for Wednesday. I already had rescheduled a delivery to my house and took the day off work to wait for their installers.  The Boy went ballistic on them, so they sent a different crew.  This is where the REAL trouble began.  The service guy shows up with a rookie trainee, and proceeds to let him drill through the molding and wall to the outside. While he waited in the nice warm truck.  Leaving the rookie totally unsupervised.   Apparently, no one measured, and the kid drilled dead center into the power line that runs into the electric meter.  The rookie is lucky to be alive.  How he didn't get electrocuted, we will never know.  The siding on the house is burned, the shrub and grass was on fire, and power to 2 blocks was knocked out.  This takes incompetence to a new level.  We had to get PSE&G to do an emergency call to reset the transformers in the neighborhood.  And each time a neighbor asked the Comcast people what happened, they said it wasn't them.  They have nothing to do with power.  Really?  REALLY?????  The Boy was on duty clear across the County and had to be reassigned to take care of this, and an electrician had to come restore temporary power.  He STILL didn’t have cable or internet.  Comcast sure lives up to their service commitment, don’t they?

The electrician came back in the morning to give him new service and a new electric meter.  The cable guy, who promised to be there between 8 & 8:30am, showed up promptly at 9:30.  The head supervisor said that they will take care of the electrician’s charges (ya think?!) and replace the burned siding.  Since it is a color that they will never match, I think they have to reside the whole house, don’t you?