NaBloPoMo

Just a reminder (I think I've talked about this before. I'm very tired.) that I'm going to be posting every single day in the month of November. Or at least I'm going to try very, very hard to post every day. If my internet dies for a whole day, I probably won't go seeking out an internet cafe, although I might try the library. But anyway, that's the plan. Please come by! Say hello! Make me feel like I'm not talking to myself. Not that I wouldn't keep it up anyhow. I talk to myself all the time anyway, or to the dog and cat, which is practically the same thing.

So um, come by. I talk to my dog and my cat. I must be exciting!



(If this is all a little incoherent, please forgive me. I've been knitting for over three and a half hours straight. But hey! My green sweater has a hood now! Only stupid button bands and hood band to go!)

ETA:Okay, I've tried my damnedest to get the badge to be in my sidebar. It should work. I've done this before. But it isn't. I give up. There's a text link instead.

Ravelry

Yo! I'm popping in quick like to say that I've gotten my Ravelry invite. My handle in there is JessieMae! Come visit! There isn't much up yet, as I have a nasty cold, but I'm hoping to add stuff soon.

For tonight though, it's more work on the green sweater hood, redoing the ribbing on a hat for my sister so that it will actually stay on her head, and bookmarking recipes for later. Charlie's off having a boy's night with a friend, so I'm going to make up some soup and hunker down with my projects.

It's turning into a real sweater!

I can get over how this has become a real sweater. I almost typed "looks like a real sweater", but it doesn't just look like a real sweater, it is a real sweater. An unfinished sweater, but it's getting close. I've got the hood under way, and after that I'll do the bands, give it a wash, than sew on the buttons and it'll be ready to wear.

The magic of a string looping around it self to form whole, recognizable objects is one of the big appeals to me with knit and crochet. It isn't just with this sweater. It's ever sweater, every sock, every hat, ever toy, and so on. They're all just an artfully arranged ball of string. It makes me feel very clever and powerful, that I can get the string to arrange itself that way. Never mind that it's pretty easy and something many people can do. It just means that a whole lot of us get to feel clever and powerful. And that makes it even better, because the more people who realize how awesome they are, the better.

Safe!

So, tomorrow I'm hoping to put up pictures of the green sweater progress. It has two arms now, the same number of arms that I have! Convenient! And the beginning of a hood. But it's getting dark, and I want nice daylight to take pictures. So you have to wait.

But! I wanted to check in and say that I have not been consumed by fire. Not that I was in any real danger. The closest of the fires to me was about 30 miles away, and I think that one has been contained. Also, the LA Times historical map and a variety of friends who grew up in Southern California assure me that Pasadena doesn't really get the fires. It's still scary, and our air quality sucks, and I'm incredibly sad for all of the people who've lost their homes, and in a few cases their lives. But I, personally, am safe. Freaked out, but safe.

One other thing- I'm the only woman in the 20-40 age range who doesn't like Say Anything, aren't I? I just don't like it. It always feels sort of creepy and stalkery to me, and John Cusack spends the whole movie being so whiny. I don't begrudge other people their love of it, but it really isn't my thing.

Green sweater! Now with half sleeve!

Sweater shots! Now with hot sleeve action! Or at least hot half a sleeve action! The sleeve is going fast. I'm really digging it after slogging along on the body. Plus I should be able to make both sleeves with four skeins total at most, leaving five skeins for the hood and bands. So I'm good. I have enough yarn for this sweater to reach full awesomeness potential. And I think it just might.

Body: Finished!

The body of my green sweater is done! I'll do pictures tomorrow; I finished just in time for the sunshine to be dying down. It took a little more yarn than I had expected; the end count for the body being just short of eight skeins. But that still leaves nine for both sleeves, the button bands, and the hood, so I should be fine. I'm in the home stretch!

Green sweater progress!

Hoo boy am I tired. Charlie didn't get home from work until midnight, and I'm always totally on edge until he gets home. It's not the being by myself, it's the worrying about him that gets me. I can only imagine how exhausted he is right now.


The upside to an evening alone is more sweater progress! The body is almost done. In fact, I could declare it done right now, but I think it'll look a little better with an inch or two more on the bottom. I'm doing a seed stitch border, and it's slower going than stockinette, but I'm enjoying the change of pace. That said, I actually really enjoy long stretches of stockinette. I like how it looks, and I enjoy doing it. It's nice to have my hands busy without really having to pay attention to what they're doing.

It's turning out well in general, and I think when it's done I'll wear it a lot. Plus, I think I have enough yarn that I'll be able to make a hood. I'm almost done with body, and when I am I think that part will come to about 7 and 1/2 skeins. What I'll have let to do then are sleeves (I have long arms) and button bands. So the 9 and 1/2 skeins I have left should totally be enough for those things, plus a generous hood, right?

Four new faces! Buttons!

Four new faces today! One will be for the last of the secret Christmas commision, but the rest don't have specific fates. Mostly I'm just really enjoying working on this style of toy guy again. For whatever reason, I was stalled on ideas for them for quite awhile. All of the sudden, for the past few monthes, I'm really on a roll. And I'm extra excited now, because after one more secret toy, I can start showing them off again! I'm really interested to see what people think of the ones I'm working on now.



Plus the buttons for my new sweater came today! I got them from The Button Shoppe, and I really like them! The sweater is progressing nicely, so I should get to put my buttons to use soon. Now I just need the needles I ordered for the sleeves to come. I tried to buy them at the yarn store near my house, but she doesn't stock the brand of needles I started with. And while my Clovers are the same US size as the ones she stocks (6), the metric size is different (mine are 4.25mm, everything she had was 4mm). The difference probably isn't enough to be a problem, but I'm not risking it with that much work involved.

Also of note today- I gave the stove a good scrubbing, which it was really needing. It looks good now though. It also took forever.

And for anyone still reading, I leave you with this- I went to the kitchen this morning to get a cup of tea, and there was Rusty, my tiny little cat, eating the dog's dry food. Which is a mystery of sorts, since the cat has plenty of his own food, and this is dog food that the dog isn't even interested in. Rusty is a weird little cat.