Crafty Kitty

Yesterday morning I was finally able to get to my LYS.  I woke up super early (on a side note - why is it that when I have to get up for work, I feel like I could sleep forever but when I CAN sleep forever, I wake up nice and early?).  Anyhow, I was able to buy the much needed gray yarn to finish the cabled hat from SnBN for the boy.  I hunkered down outside in the gorgeous weather with the stero blaring good music and finished it up.  It turned out quite well I think.  It looks even better on the boy than me.  Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me to capture the look, but I will eventually.

Great progress has also been made on the Joseph sweater.  Yay for me.  I think I shall get that project done in the next day or two.  I need to go to the store to get some more yarn but I plan on doing that shortly.  After I finish cleaning my dirty, dirty apartment. 

On the left hand side you will see one shag rug, purchased at Ikea in October 2004.  On the right hand side you will see one knit newsboy hat, using yarn purchased at the Joann Superstore for $3.  Do they not match perfectly?  Indeed they do.  And now I just wish that the colors of the hat, instead of matching my awesome rug from Ikea, actually matched some of the colors that I have in my closet.  Cause the hat matching any clothes I have?  Not so much.  I don't know what I was thinking but it's a pretty kick ass hat.  As I was knitting it up, I told the boy, "this is either going to be the ugliest thing ever OR the awesomest thing ever."  Luckily it turned out to be the latter.

I can finally cross this damn thing off my list.  I finished knitting the thing over a month ago and it has just been lying around waiting to be seamed.  So, since I had to wait for the darn cable guy anyways, I decided to finish this baby up.  Check it out:

I made the small using Cascade 220 Quatro in dark pink.  It fits pretty well, but will fit perfectly once I lose these damn extra pounds I've been carrying around for the last few months (well since I got back from California).  Note to self, drinking lots of wine and eating lots of cheese will only add mucho pounds to your little frame.

Here's a more close up photo:

I was a little worried that it was going to be too long, but I think it's the perfect length.  Big phew.

Being sick + taking an afternoon off of work x (new yarn + pattern) x boy's niece's birthday coming up = one back of a Joseph sweater completed!  Yay for me. 

It helps having Gilmore Girls in the background and your cats curled up at your feet.  It's for the boy's cute little niece Amelie who is turning 2 on August 8th.  I cheaped out and am using Sensations Mohair in bright lavendar-ey-purple with Lion Brand Incredible ribbon yarn in Purple Party (what a name!).  It's supposed to be a lightweight coat, which is what it is turning into, even though I sort of had envisioned it being even MORE lightweight than it is.  It's actually kind of heavy, but I think it will be really warm and perfect for those fall days.  I'm trying to get an in with the boy's family by knitting this for her.  I think they think I'm a heathen or something since I sort of kind of skipped saying Grace when they had me over for dinner.  And they're pretty religious.  Like so religious they don't really believe in sex before marriage.  Thank God the boy doesn't believe that.

So tonight calls for finishing the front two pieces on this puppy!  I should have plenty o' time considering I have to take off of work and sit around waiting for my cable, that's been out of commission for the last week and a half, to get fixed.

Gah, I have a cold.  I hate having colds in summer.  Colds in winter are to be expected.  Summers are supposed to be illness free dammit!  And I think I gave the boy the cold too, which is no good because he is currently overworked at the moment and can't afford to miss any work.  I on the other hand am going to work for four hours today and then go home and eat soup, knit, watch Gilmore Girls and read Harry Potter, which I totally wanted to finish on Sunday evening but ended up falling asleep at 5:30 and sleeping all the way through until 7 the next morning.  That's when I knew I was sick.  I never sleep that long, ever.  And then last night I again fell asleep at 6:30 and slept all the way through until 8 this morning!  And then I was late for work, although it didn't much matter since my boss is gone and he's the only one who cares or notices if I'm around (and sometimes I even wonder if he actually notices at all).

Let's see, what have I been up to since the last post.  Well, I did NOT finish the boobholder in time for Chicago, I think because I didn't check my gauge and my gauge is now slightly smaller than the pattern calls for and I therefore have to knit more rows which I was not taking into account when I was budgeting time to make the damn thing.  I then mistakenly decided to try and sew a cute hatler-ish top and managed to muck it up to so I didn't have enough time to seam rip and get it right.  I meant to do that on Sunday too, but see above re: sleeping.  Then the boy and I went to Chicago.  And it was awesome.  We went to the Museum of Science and Industry and saw Bodyworlds, aka as the awesomest AND sickest thing you will ever see in your whole entire life.  Basically it's anatomical displays, but with real bodies that have been injected with plastic so that they keep FOREVER or something like that.  I'm not 100% up to speed on the whole plastination process.  But it was creepy and wonderful and everything I hoped it would be.  If you can get to Chicago before September 5th, I highly recommend that you go check it out.

Then the boy and I found our hotel, which was in the financial district.  We went to the Berghoff for lunch, which upon entering we discovered was more of a stuffy old place where I imagine my grandmother would enjoy dining.  They also had very small portions.  I ordered the fried shrimp and got like seven dinky little shrimpies.  And the boy ordered the pork roast or somethign with meat and potatoes and there was not a whole lot of food on his plate either.   We did however have room for dessert, and I must say the Berghoff has delicious cheesecake.  Plus, the beer's not SO bad.  Although, really it's just a step above Miller Lite and Bud Lite.  Give me New Glarus any day!  We then proceeded back to the hotel where we enjoyed a short hour and a half nap.  Man, I love me some naps. 

By that time it was 7:30 or so and we walked over to where we could pick up the free trolley to Navy Pier.  We waited forever for the Trolley and then we all had to jam in it like sardines and I HATE people bumping into and touching me, especially when we're all hot and sticky.  Ick.  We discovered that they were only running one trolley that evening, while a gazillion tourists were trying to take advantage of it.  Luckily we picked a stop that had very few people waiting for it so we were lucky to board and get our asses to Navy Pier.  At Navy Pier we rode the ferris wheel which is something I've always wanted to do.  And we held hands and kissed at the top and it was so ridiculously cheesy that I could hardly take it.  Then I had a bloody mary and the boy had a beer and we got ourselves some primo seats for the fireworks.  However, since my cell phone was dying I left it back at the hotel, neglecting to remember that neither of us wears a watch and we depend on the cell phone for the time.  Eventually the fireworks went off.

We then headed over to the Rock Bottom Brewery to have more delicious beer.  Oh how I love beer!  We also ordered the most humongoid plate of nachoes, that were quite tasty.  We only stayed there for one beer and then went to some random jazz club, had some more drinks and then called it a night.

So that was pretty much Chicago.  I arrived back with a nasty sore throat.  I blame it on all the children running all over the place at the Museum.  Kids are always running rampant with illnesses, I tell ya.  Now I'm just waiting for my four hours to be up so I can go home and get some rest.  And knit on the boobholder.  And sleep.  And recover.

Gah.  I didn't mean to go this long without posting.  Man, I suck.  Let's just say I've been slightly busy and slightly preoccupied with some other things.  Let's see, where did I leave off?  Well, nothing much more interesting happened during the week.  Saturday was my workplace's summer outing which was actually encompassed by the WICPA 100th Anniversary celebration they were having at Miller Park (I work for a CPA firm).  Yes, our summer outing was a tailgate and tickets to the Brewer's game. 

On the drive down to Milwaukee I did manage to make a ton of progress on the newsboy hat I finally decided to make for myself.  It's out of this crazy, cheap acrylic yarn I got at JoAnn's for 3 bucks.  It's variegated brown, tan and teal and it funnily enough sort of matches the shag rug I have in my bedroom from IKEA.  Before the game, we went to the lakeshore in Milwaukee (Bradford Beach).  It was packed as soon as you got off the highway to go to the lakeshore because there was a huge air show at Veterans Park.  We were stuck in traffic for a good half hour and that kind of sucked.  But the beach was a lot of fun, minus the horrendous sunburn I received on my back.  However, there was beer invovled and by the time I got to Miller Park I might have been a little bit schwilly.  Then I had two more beers (but also food so that almost cancels out those last two beers).  During the game though, I didn't drink at all because I was so dehydrated and so was the boy so we kept buying $3.25 bottled waters.  That got a little pricey after a while but damn I was thirsty!  After the game we went to a friend of the boys apartment downtown and just chilled for a bit.  Then the boy drove us (me and his drunk roommate) back to Madison at one in the morning.  I didn't even want to sleep in the same bed with him because I knew we were both so sunburned we would just be in pain.  I really need to remember to bring the SPF 50 next time.

Sunday I hardcore vacuumed my apartment and did some miscellaneous straightening up.  I then decided to venture out to run some errands, which was sort of insane considering it was like 95 degrees out and humid as hell.  I couldn't even touch my car's steering wheel at first.  I had to use my mail to grip it, it was so freaking hot.  But I managed to go to JoAnn's where I couldn't stop myself from purchasing more cheap yarn.  I also finally got some size 8 double point needles so I can finish the boys pretty winter hat.  That is if I can get may ass to the LYS to buy the remaining yarn I need to finish the hat up.  Damn my LYS and their summer hours!  I also went to Kohl's and bought some cute new clothes and then went to Barnes & Noble to purchase the new Harry Potter.  I've only got one chapter read so far, but I like to read those books all in one sitting and I won't be able to do that until the weekend.  And then I will finish it, oh yes I will.

Sunday night I started Glampyre's boobholder in red to match this black cherry print strapless dress I bought in California at the Ross Dress for Less for like ten dollars.  Man I love the Ross Dress for Less and I really wish they had them in WI.  They're like TJ Max but with better clothes and cheaper prices.  The boy and I are spending the weekend in Chicago and I want to get kind of dressed up for dinner so I'm hoping I can get it done in time.  I also worked on it for quite a while last night.  My goal for the evening is to go home, work out for half an hour, and then plunk myself down in front of the TV with the boobholder so I can get it done.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

AKA a post totally unrelated to crafting

My coworker’s dad passed away on Friday night.  The boy and I and Philhouse were hanging out at the boy’s house watching a movie.  We had just enjoyed a beer butt chicken from the grill (take a chicken, stick half a can of beer up it’s butt and then cook for an hour and ten minutes – it results in the most delicious and tender chicken EVER).  We had been discussing how we should have invited coworker over too.  Coworker kind of likes to be the center of attention though, and we all kind of just wanted to relax and chill and not have to sit and listen to his antics.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very nice person and I do enjoy hanging out with him, but we were all in kind of a funky mood on Friday.

Coworker calls the boys house and asks for Philhouse.  Philhouse and he go way back and Philhouse is the reason he is now our coworker.  He tells Philhouse that his dad just had a heart attack and so he’s driving back to Iowa and he probably won’t be in to work on Monday.  We finish watching the movie and Philhouse goes home.  The boy and I are watching Conan when the phone rings and its Philhouse.  He informs boy that coworker’s dad actually died.  Boy and I just looked at each other in shock.  I haven’t lost a parent and it’s one of the things I’m most scared of happening.  Boy’s mother passed away four years ago, so I’m sure he can sympathize with coworker.

Later that night, as I’m lying in bed and thinking about coworker and what he must be going through, I find it hard to hold back the tears.  I was pretty sure boy was asleep but I didn’t know for sure so I held it all in, in case he thought I was crying about something related to what we had being doing before the sleepy time. 

Yesterday was the funeral for coworker’s dad, which I didn’t attend because it was four hours away.  But last night as I lay in bed I again couldn’t stop thinking about what he’s going through.  I’ve had people close to me die.  Both my paternal grandparents passed away within a year of each other about eight years ago.  I was sort of removed from that situation, in the fact that for the last 5 years we had lived two hours away from them.  But it still hurt.  And even a year after my Grandma died, I would sit in my room and all of a sudden be overwhelmed by this deep intense aching in my heart and I knew it was because I missed her.  I missed knowing that I would never see or hear from her again.  I felt an especially close bond to her because I was named after her.  But I would just talk to my Mom about it and we would remind each other about all the things we loved about her and we would feel better.

As I said above, one of my deepest, darkest fears is the one where my parents die.  I don’t know what I would do without them.  They give me strength and encouragement like no other people can.  I can remember watching Legends of the Fall about a month before I moved out and away from them.  It came to the part where Tristan comes home after traveling around the world, only to discover that his father has become an old man and because of a stroke can barely even speak anymore.  I burst out crying – because I never want to see my parents grow old and debilitated like that.  I want them to always remain my loving, doting parents. 

I know growing old is a part of life, as is death, but somehow it doesn’t seem feasible that my parents will one day not be a part of my life.  I see them growing older.  I see the gray almost completely taking over my Dad’s beard, but yet I’m in denial about it.  I worry that they don’t take care of themselves well enough and that they’ll cheat me out of extra years I could have spent with them.  I guess I just need to learn to appreciate them while I have them and remember everything they have ever done for me.  I just want them to be there with me to experience all the joys and sadness I may have in life.  They have and will always be my rock.

I had a rather uneventful weekend.  My mother came down on Saturday because we had planned to go the Farmers Market on the square and also do some other miscellaneous shopping.  However, when we got downtown, it seemed scarily busy and we had to wait in line forever to get into the parking garage on Johnson.  When we got to the square we were sad to discover there was no Farmers Market but instead there was Art Fair on the Square, which explained why parking was so difficult.  There were throngs of slow moving people around.  And slow moving people drive me batty, as does being in the middle of a large number of people.  I kept grumbling as we walked and my mother was like, "Are you taking your medicine?" and I said yes (that would be my social anxiety medicine).  I just hate people bumping into me and touching me and moving like they have crap in their pants.  But once I bought a papaya smoothie, which I happily sucked down, I was in a much better mood.  I was like a baby when they finally get their bottle.

We followed up the art fair by going to Frida's to enjoy some delicious Mexican food.  I also had a margaratia which really calmed me down after being exposed to that many people.  We did our miscellaneous shopping, my mother went home, and I began work on my second Newboy Cap from SnBN.  The first one I gave away without getting a chance to photograph it, but here is the second one in all it's glory.  It is going to my dear friend Deanna.  She told me she wanted it in that bright green.  I'm not sure she realized how intense the green is when she picked it out.  That's OK though.  I think she'll still like it.  Now I only have to make one for Christen (in this nice light beige color), one for Melissa (in bright yellow - which she specifically asked for), and one for myself (which will be in the nice purple-y wine color that I used in the Marsupial bag for Christen).  It's such an easy, cute pattern that I can mindlessly whip out, that I don't mind making one for everyone I know.  Plus the first one went to Clancy, who I'm not even that great of friends with, but it was so her style that I thought she totally deserved it.

Once I finished up Deanna's hat on Sunday, I started making a plain winter hat for the boy in gray, since that is what he specifically requested.  I know he'll like it.  He needs to wear a hat on his head in winter since he has no hair (you know, the whole I'm losing my hair so instead of looking bald at the age of 25 I'll just shave all my hair off look).  But I do find the shaved head very attractive so I'm totally happy with that look.

I also organized my stash this weekend, since I had it in about 5 different bags all over my apartment.  For some reason, I thought I had a lot more yarn than I do, although I've got quite the nice little collection going.  Most of it I specifically bought for a project I had in mind, but some of it I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to use it for.  That's kind of exciting.  I've thus far, obviously, used the green yarn for Deanna's hat, and I've started on a pair of socks for the boy out of the green and blue yarn (they were going to be socks for myself, but I might have made them slightly too big for my feet).

I am also posting this picture of my Accidentally on Purpose sweater vest from SnBN that I just need to seam up.  It's been in this condition for about the last month, and I'm just avoiding sewing it together:

I hope that by posting this picture, I'll get my butt in gear in order to have a FO.  It's summer though, and the thought of wearing that now in this 90 degree weather just doesn't seem very appealing to me.  Maybe I'll wait until fall.

I have two cats.  Their names are Taz and Simon.  I adopted Taz from the Humane Society when I was 19 and living on my own for the first time.  I was lonely.  I missed my parents and the menagerie of pets they had living at their house.  Luckily the apartment I was living in allowed cats so I ventured off one day to the animal shelter with my mother in tow.  Taz was in the sick room because he had an upper respiratory infection.  He was probably one of the biggest cats I had ever seen.  We took him out and into one of the visitation rooms.  My mom called him a lion because of his size.  I feel in love with him when he let me give him a belly rub, just like the cat I had at my parents house that I would have taken with me had she not been unnaturally attached to my father.  I filled out the paperwork and the following Friday I picked him up.  He still had that upper respiratory infection so he snotted all over my new furniture the first week I had him.  I treated it and he got better.  He later developed kitty acne, but once I switched his food bowl, it cleared right up.

The following year Simon got pawned off on me.  He’s a Siamese with the typical features of a Siamese cat.  You know, with the crossed eyes and constant yowling.  He was my brother’s ex-roommate’s girlfriend’s parent’s cat.  Apparently they already had five cats or something like that and none of them liked Simon, who at the time was named Simba.  They all picked on him and would beat him up.  My brother took pity on the poor cat but unfortunately my brother also already had two cats, one of which really REALLY hated Simon.  If he would come within ten feet of her, she would freak the fuck out.  Needless to say, Simon didn’t handle this too well.  He is a very anxious cat and he licks all the fur off his legs when he gets stressed.  My brother saw that Simon wasn’t doing too well.  Since my parents also had two cats and a dog, they didn’t think it would be a very good idea to take Simon in either, so that left me.  I figured since although Taz was an attention whore, he was pretty easy going and I couldn’t really see him beating up another cat.  One evening I went and picked Simon up from my brother’s and brought him home.  I didn’t follow the rules about slowly exposing Simon to Taz.  I kind of just let Simon roam free.  Taz was a little apprehensive at first but within days it was like Simon had always been part of the family.  The best part about Simon is he LOVES to give hugs.  He will seriously put both arms around your neck and nuzzle his head up under your chin.  It is the sweetest thing ever.

I always joke now about how Taz and Simon are big gay buddies.  They have their occasional play fights, but for the most part they are best buddies.  They lie together and give each other baths and really, it couldn’t be more perfect.  I mean, I don’t honestly think cats can be gay, but my opinion on that matter changed the other morning while the boy and I were lying in bed.  Simon likes to sit by our heads in the morning and just kind of stare at us.  So he was doing this while the boy and I were chatting.  All of a sudden, Simon reaches over and licks the boy’s nipple.  I was like WTF!?!  I said to the boy, “Did Simon just lick your nipple?”  The boy replied, “Yes, yes he did.  He really is gay!”  I replied that that was awesome and erupted into a fit of laughter.  It was seriously one of the funniest things I had ever seen.  My gay boy cat licked my boyfriend’s nipple!  It was priceless!

Or maybe you just had to be there.

Wow.  I had a fairly busy holiday weekend which may explain my lack of posting.  Let's see.  On Saturday, after I finished the awesome purse I had been working on (I swear, I'll post a pic), the boy and I went to Rhthym and Booms at Warner Park.  We packed a picnic (well more like I made all the food and we packed it up together) consisting of egg salad sandwiches, pico de gallo and brownies with peanut butter chunks.  And of course there was beer.  We got to the park at 3 or so to get a good spot, but we were sort of dumb in the fact that we didn't bring anything along to occupy our time until the fireworks started (which wasn't until 9:45).  We alternated between sitting around and snarking about people and walking around the park.  It was actually quite enjoyable.  The unfortunate thing was that I started getting what I thought was a really bad sinus headache right before the fireworks went off, but which was probably actually a migraine because by the time we got back to my apartment, I had to hurl my guts out.  The boy felt pretty bad for me.  Hell, I felt pretty bad for me.

Sunday I forced the boy to finally purchase a grill, which we then proceeded to assemble together.  He promised me he would cook me brats the next day.  Then we watched the movie City of God which was about these drug gangs in Brazil during the 70's.  It was a really well done movie and I would definitely recommend it.  Then I went home because I knew the boy wanted to mess around on his computer and I wanted to knit.  I started working on my first ever pair of socks (from the toe up).  I made them slightly too big for me because I wasn't paying attention so they're going to go to the boy because I didn't want to frog them.  They're blue and green so I think he will like them.  I also watched In Good Company (eh, I could take it or leave it) and The Life Aquatic which I was throughly disappointed in.  The Royal Tennenbaums is one of my all time favorite movies and there was no way The Life Aquatic was on par with it.

Monday I worked on the socks some more and then went to the boys house to have the brats he promised me.  We then went to see War of the Worlds even though I hate Tom Cruise with the passion of a thousand burning suns.  He's such a freaking Scientology Asshole I can hardly take it.  It was eh.  I mean, the special effects were pretty good, but the rest of it kind of sucked ass.  Oh well, we only paid the matinee price so it wasn't so bad.  Then the boy and I watched the Elver Park fireworks from his kitchen window and afterwards called it a night.

On the crafting front:  I ran out of green yarn for my mothers shawl and I only have three more rows in which I need to use the green yarn.  Gosh darn it!  So I moved on to knitting the umbilical cord hat for a friend of my mothers.  I'm also working on the socks for the boy.  No progress has been made on my stencil since I have yet to get the paint brush I need.  Perhaps I will do that tomorrow.