Crafty Kitty

I'm in a hat knitting phase, I can tell.  I just started one yesterday for Chris and I can't put it down.  It's a little big for me but I think it will be perfect for Chris because he has a LOT of hair.  The colors really suit Chris and I can't wait to give it to him because I think he'll really dig it.  It's a pattern of my own creation, using a stitch pattern from The Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns.  Of course the variegated yarn doesn't show of the stitch pattern as well as it could, but I think it will still look nice in the end.  Here it is thus far:

Woe is me.  I have such a busy and active social life that I haven't had much time for knitting lately.  I've been slowly but surely working on the boobholder and I bet I'll have it done by the end of the week.  I'm making plans for a few hats for people and then the next project I'm working on is going to be Lelah and I can't wait!

Let’s see – what have I been doing instead of knitting?  Well, my dear friend Chris who I know from Oshkosh has moved to Madison, and has therefore been distracting me from my yarn.  I am so excited to be able to hangout with him again.  We’ve just been chilling like old times and we went to see a show at the High Noon on Thursday night.  So there’s that.  Then the boy brought me back a bottle of excellent red wine from when he was out in LA so we had to cook up a steak dinner (with baked potatoes, of course) which we had on Tuesday night.  We then went to see March of the Penguins, which was so, so cute (even though maybe I was so full and a little tipsy from the wine I might have fallen asleep for the last 10 minutes or so).

And then there was this past weekend.  My friend came down from Oshkosh and we just lived it up old school style.  I took a half day from work on Friday because I had to go downtown to buy my books for the class I’m taking (that starts tomorrow night and has me a little freaked out about being back at school even though I’m the hugest nerd ever and I LOVE school).  Chris joined me while I went downtown and we had lunch at Frida’s.  Oh my god, how I love Frida’s!  I have now turned Chris on to the joys of Frida.  Chris was eyeing up all the tequila they have there and got the bright idea to buy a bottle of really good tequila for the evening.  We stopped at Steve’s Liquor on the way home and he bought like a $40 bottle, I can’t even remember what the name was.  We stocked up on a bunch of beer too.  Then we went to my house and sat outside drinking some beer while we played cribbage and for once I finally beat him at it.  I always get dealt shitty hands when I play with him and he’s skunked me once or twice before (which sucks, because sometimes I can be a sore loser).  Then Deanna arrived and had the bright idea of going to Red Robin for dinner, where I then proceeded to order fried shrimp and scarf it all down to the point where I had a stomachache.  After dinner we stopped by my apartment once more to grab all the beer and the tequila, some pajamas, and pillows and blankets because Deanna and I were going to crash at Chris’s apartment.

When we got to Chris’s, we decided to play some drinking games to get a buzz on.  Chris and I did a few shots of tequila but Deanna wasn’t having any.  Once we were sufficiently buzzed, we called a cab to take us to the Great Dane in Fitchburg so we could play some pool.  We had the freakiest cab driver ever!  Firstly, when we got down to the car, he gave us this lecture about how he had been waiting 6 minutes and if we call for a cab, we better make sure we’re ready for the cab when it comes.  So then we apologized and we were just sitting quietly in the cab, waiting to get to the Dane.  Then out of nowhere he was like, “I had this substitute teacher in high school,” and he continued to tell us all about her and then ended the story with, “and she was driving behind a truck full of sheet metal and it stopped abruptly in front of her and a piece of sheet metal came flying back and decapitated her.”  And since I’m slightly drunk I can’t help but laugh out loud because that is the sickest story ever and why the hell are you telling us this?  The lady who drove us home told us he was the new guy.  We were like, “Watch out for the new guy!”

Chris lives within walking distance of an Adult Video Store, so since we were pretty wasted at this point, we decided to head over.  I coerced Deanna into purchasing a little mini-vibrator and told her that she and her boyfriend would have an excellent time with it and that they should thank me later.  I feel I need to extol the virtue of vibrators to everyone I know.  Then we came back and passed the heck out.

Saturday morning we went down to the Capital Square and went to the farmer’s market.  We purchased all sorts of veggies because we were having a cookout at the boy’s house that night.  Deanna made us stop at Jamba Juice because she loves that shit and I must admit they do make a mean smoothie.  That night, we had beer butt chicken (made with Guinness) at the boy’s house.  It was me, Deanna, Chris, the boy, the boy’s roommate and his girlfriend and then our coworker and his wife.  We had a pretty dang good time, although hosting a dinner party is a lot of freaking work.  I didn’t even get to relax and chat until all the cooking was over.  Chris left early, but then some of us went to the bar at the bowling alley close to the boy’s house to play pool.  The pool tables were all full so we played darts instead and Deanna whipped all of our asses.  She made me buy her a shot and then the bartender proceeded to give us free shots.  I did a shot of Crown (bad idea), and shot of Crown with butterscotch rum (bad idea) and then some shot the bartender mixed up for us (very bad idea).  I ended the night by puking my guts out in the boy’s bathroom.  He was all worried about me and holding my hair back because he’s never seen me like that.  I haven’t drank like that since I lived in Oshkosh and there is a REASON for that.

So yesterday was just a chill and recover from the previous two nights kind of day.  Well, that explains my lack of knitting.  This week should be better!

In honor of the fact that I saw the first two Care Bear movies in the theater as a little girl, I decided to find out which Care Bear I am most like.  Here are the results:

	Tenderheart Bear You are thinker, organizer, peacekeeper, and leader all in one. You have a power to command attention and people listen to you. However, you are often so concerned about not hurting others' feelings that you don't tell them what they need to hear and this gets you both into trouble. But you always have loyal friends to help you out.
Take the Which Care Bear Are You? Quiz!

I haven't been knitting very much lately.  I decided to frog the boobholder I had started because my gauge was all off and it wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to.  I re-started it last Sunday and now I'm back to the point I was when I ripped it out.  It's much better now.  I think I'll have it done by next weekend.

In other news, my good friend Casey asked me to make a purse for her.  She picked out the fabric and gave me a general guideline to follow for what size she wanted it.  She said she wanted a zipper for the top and that was her one request I didn't follow through on.  Otherwise it had everything she wanted.  The cordury came from some pants that I bought at the thrift store that were like a size 22 so there was plenty 'o fabric to go around.  I have enough left to make another purse just like this one.  Anyhow, I'm pretty proud of the way it turned out and Casey really, really liked it - even if it didn't have that top zipper.  Here are the pics:

Let's say you obsessively watch Gilmore Girls while you knit.  And let's just say that maybe, maybe you've watched the three seasons that are out on DVD multiple times in a one month period.  Then maybe should you not be surprised when in the last week you've had two scarily in depth dreams where all the people from Gilmore Girl land were involved?  Probably not.  Thank God I got some new DVDs to watch and I can get the Gilmore Girls out of my system.

Well, I finished all the pieces to the Joseph sweater and I blocked them last night.  Today I plan on seaming them up.  Then I just need to get a zipper and put that in and it will be finito.  Phew!  The neice's birthday is actually this weekend, but the boy is in LA at some SQL training so we won't be getting together with his family until later in the week.  I hope it fits Amelie and that it looks cute on her. 

I also worked on my mother's shawl some more.  I thought I would have enough light purple yarn, but sadly I didn't.  I need to go to my LYS to get some more, but I banned myself from going for a while and I don't think I have enough will power at the moment to go in and just pick up that one skein.  I'm going to delay that for a little while.  But here's the detail of the shawl:

I can't wait to get it finished and give it to my Mom.  She already saw it in progress so it's not like a big surprise or anything, but I know she'll like it and wear it.

In other news, I'm participating in Secret Pal 6 and I am ever so excited to do so!  I love getting things in the mail and I love sending out things too so it's a win win situation.  It's just the neatest idea ever and I'm so glad I get to be a part of it this time around.  Woot!

Also, I'm planning on redesigning my blog a little today.  Get some new colors and graphics up in here.  I've been meaning to do so forever, and even though I went to school for computer science and learned web design, my skills are a little rusty and my favorite reference book was at my parents house.  My brother brought it down with him last weekend so know I can get cracking.  Plus with the boy away, I don't have much else to do.

I have been bad, so so bad, lately when it comes to the knitting.  This past weekend my brother and his girlfriend and my two cousins came down to Madtown to party it up.  Details of the evening are here, and needless to say, I was slightly hungover on Sunday and not much in the mood for knitting (or doing anything for that matter).  Then on Monday night, I got absorbed in The Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe (the book), that I yet again didn't get a chance to pick up the sticks.  Then last night, the boy and I went to our coworker's house for dinner, watched Boondock Saints (coworker's favorite movie for some inexplicable reason - oh wait, he said it's about faith and that's why he likes it so much) and got slightly drunk.  Actually coworker got wasted.  I feel asleep for a little while because I drank a bottle of wine by myself (I swear I usually don't drink that much) and by the time I woke up, he was three sheets to the wind.  So much so that he was trying to hold this really personal conversation with me as we were leaving.  He told me if I ever hurt the boy he will hurt me.  He really likes my boyfriend as a person (I guess).  I was like, okay, I swear I won't hurt the boy. 

But tonight, tonight, I swear some knitting will occur.  After I work out because I need to get serious about losing 10 pounds.  Philhouse also keeps asking me when I'm going to make him a hat because he was jealous of the hat I made for the boy.  He's allergic to wool though so I need to get some acrylic for him.  At least acrylic is cheap as hell.  I've spent so much money at the yarn store and at Joann's this past month, that I've banned myself from going to them anymore for a couple of months.  I just can't go in and not come out without dropping $50 bucks on shit.  I need to work on some projects and get some of the shit I've already purchased cleared out of my bedroom before I can buy anything more.

Man, I stayed up until 2 in the morning on Sunday night finishing up Harry Potter.  I avoided reading the spoilers but I shouldn't have bothered because I wasn't that surprised by the ending.  It was kind of my hunch all along.  But it was still quite a good book and I cannot wait for the 7th one.  Damn JK Rowling and her whole taking years off between books!

Because of the above, there has been a severe lack of knitting happening.  I was so tired all day on Monday so that by the time I got home, I knit about five rows and then just couldn't do anymore.  I beached myself on the couch and watched some Gilmore Girls and ended up falling asleep super early.  Then last night, the boy and I had plans to go see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and there was again no time for knitting.  And unfortunately this evening we're going to see the boy's roommate's improv group at the comedy club.  But I think after the amount of knitting I did this weekend, I almost needed a break like this.  Hopefully tomorrow I will be all refreshed and ready and rarin' to finish that Joseph sweater!  The niece's birthday is only a week away.

To Caryn who commented:  I would have e-mailed you but for whatever reason, your e-mail didn't show up with your comment.  I would definitely be interested in knitting "comfort shawls".  I am all about the volunteer work, and sadly I've been lacking in doing anything for a while.  Just let me know what I need to do!  E-mail me here.