Plath’s Adventures

I’ve just realized that I signed up for Knit the Classics, and never participated. Oops. So, I’ve vowed to actually participate. I nominated a few books for the next few months, and I’m looking forward to reading a few classics. If you’re not signed up, go and do so quickly– nominations for September, October and November end August 2nd!

Here’s my Saturday Sky:
As you can see, it was taken from inside,
where I stayed for most
of the day yesterday. It was HOT. Sure, not as hot as those of you with temperatures in the 100s, but it was still hot. It’s 81*F right now at 9:30 a.m., with 75% humidity. Yuck. Needless to say, I’ll be spending most of today inside too, I think.

Nothing like coming home from a long day of work to a big box of yarn just waiting to be squished and knit with. Here’s my Knitpicks order I received Thursday. I like the mainline yarn– I took a gamble ordering it, since I’d never knit with it before, but it lived up to my expectations. It’s smooth and soft, and will be great for a short sleeved pullover or camisole pattern. There’s actually 6 skeins of the green color, not three (the other 3 are hiding below). The Shamrock yarn is gorgeous, although a tad rough, but I was expecting that. The Swish superwash has a great feel to it– I may need to stock up on this one. It would be great for some heavy weight socks.

Marzi sums up what I want to do for the rest of the day, nap in the air conditioning.

ETA: I think I have the kink worked out now! Yippee! Ok, it’s still a work in progress, as my later posts are screwy and I’m not sure how to fix it…, but the new template is up. What do you think?

Not a good week. Yesterday I got into a small accident in a parking lot on my lunch hour, so the back of my jeep is smashed in. No fun. I love my jeep, so that was devastating (not to mention scary– my first accident without Jason). Then we’re also having neighbor issues. I don’t really want to get into it here, but our neighbor is seriously crazy, and Jason had to call the cops on him yesterday morning. Fun. Then, we’re also having septic issues (oh the joys of living in the country), so we need a whole new system and field to be installed which is MAJOR money. When it rains, it pours.

On the other hand, I did just stumble across an awesome deal on the discontinued cotton ease yarn, thanks to the cotton ease yahoo group.
Smiley’s Yarns has it for $1.99 a skein!
I picked up some cherry, bubble gum, orangeade and candy blue. I’m thinking this sweater will be a good use of some more of my cotton ease stash. Then there’s Green Gables, too….
Too bad smiley’s didn’t have licorice, vanilla, ice blue or blueberry. I’ve never been able to find the vanilla, and I’m using up the last of my licorice on my cardigan now– I really hope I don’t run out, but I’m on the last skein (I think– I’ll have to root through my stash later), and I’m not quite finished with the first sleeve yet. Yikes.

a strange search this week to get to my blog this week:
Can pregnant women go up the CN Tower?
in answer to your question, yes they can…

Favorite Color Swap Questionnaire

1. What are your top three favorite colors?
all shades of green, sapphire and ocean blues, deep orange (ie not hunters orange LOL more like this shade http://www.vitralii.ro/filme/transparent/216-Deep-Orange.jpg ) I don’t like pastels at all.

2. What crafts do you really enjoy?
knitting, although I do dabble in scrapbooking and soap making, and I would love to learn to sew if I could ever talk dh into helping me un-mystify our sewing machine.

3. What products do you really covet?
wool yarn (especially merino) like manos, malabrigo, cascade 200 or superwash, Aracaunia Nature Wool , merino sock yarn –mountain colors bearfoot, cherry tree hill, spunky eclectic, or any of the fabulous squishy sock yarns I always see on etsy, cute bags/purses (especially handsewn ones) to carry knitting projects. I’ve also been wanting some cotton blends (mission falls cotton, cotton ease, aracaunia nature cottom) for easy-care tanks and pullovers or blankets.

4. What other activities do you enjoy besides your favorite crafty things?
reading and cooking

5. Is there anything you collect?
garden gnomes and vintage/retro kitchen things like old mixing bowls and measuring cups, neat christmas ornaments. Not hallmark or anything, but ones from different places, vintage-y ones (like blown glass) or handmade ones, etc

6. What is your zodiac sign and/or Chinese zodiac symbol?
cancer

7.What are your favorite…

…scents/smells?
orangey scents (especially satsuma), ocean-y clean smells (no florals like rose or anything spicey– dh can’t stand spicey smells)

…types of music and/or bands?
I like just about everything except rap and “modern” country. I especially like singer/songwriter stuff and groups like the killers, modest mouse, etc

…authors?
I do my share of reading Chick-lit, but I also like the classics like Jane Austin, Fitzgerald and Hemingway. I’m more of a true-life, coming of age book reader. And then of course I love my knitting books! Currently I’m reading The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

…animals?
I like frogs and turtles, but not to the point that I collect anything with them

…places to shop?
Amazon, Knitpicks, Elann, garage sales and thrift stores.

…season?
fall– I love autumn colors, the crisp feeling in the air, and treks to the apple orchard. And there’s nothing like slipping on a cozy sweater and a pair of jeans on a cool morning.

…yarn/fabric/paper/other craft supplies?
I would love to learn to sew, so I’ve started a very small fabric stash of adorable fabrics. When I scrapbook, I do 12×12, and I love all the great stickers and papers I always see in Memory Maker’s magazine (I’m not a victorian style scrapper– more modern).

…candies or goodies?
salt water taffy, dark chocolate, caramels

8. Do you have any wish lists?
an amazon one and a froogle one (see my sidebar for links)

9. Are you allergic to anything?
smoke

10. Do you have any pets? What are they?
yellow lab- marzipan and a cat– patches

11. Please include anything else you would like your secret pal to know about you- anything that would be helpful in finding you little gifts that you will really enjoy.

I love anything handmade– handdyed yarn, handspun yarn included. Etsy is certainly my friend in that regard! But overall, I’m pretty happy to please. I also love cards, cool pens and notebooks– I’m a bit of an office supply fiend, especially cute ones (I’m always surfing etsy for cute notebooks and stickers). When it comes to knitting, natural fibers are my love– I don’t like acrylics or novelty yarns, although acrylic has it’s place blending with cotton in my fav cotton ease!

My blog will probably be a little under construction the next few weeks. I’m hoping to upload a new template and such

Random Blatherings

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. We woke up, took the top off the Jeep and headed out to the farmers market. We loaded up:

Here they are unveiled:

peaches, raspberries, blueberries, sweet cherries, pie cherries, corn, blue potatoes and summer squash. Jason made blueberry waffles this morning, and we had corn with dinner last night, along with nachos topped with our own homegrown tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.

Then we headed out to Quake on the Lake, which is literally two minutes away– we could hear the boats from our house. It’s hydroplane boat races. I love living in Michigan– there are so many lakes. I drive by 3 lakes just on my way to work. Here’s a couple pictures. They use a crane to load the boats in and out of the water:

See our beautiful Saturday sky? I wasn’t kidding when I said it was a gorgeous day.

In cardigan news, I’ve completed the body of the sweater and am working on my first sleeve.

Knitpicks has unveiled new yarns! As if you needed a reason to shop there, Knitpicks is also having a big sale– 40% off a few lines. I picked up enough for free shipping of the Mainline pima/wool blend. I’ve yet to try it, but I’ve been wanting to, and what’s better than 40% off? I also picked up a few of their new yarns to check them out– a ball of the Swift superwash wool and a ball of the Shamrock twisted peruvian wool.
Click for sale here –not affiliated

Stolen from Booga J and Chappysmom– and from Booking Through Thursday.

#1 What is most battered book in your collection? The one with loose pages, tattered corners, and page edges so soft that there’s not even a risk of paper cuts anymore?

My most battered book is the edition of Pride and Prejudice I had in high school. I wasn’t crazy about it when I had to read it then, but re-reading it in college really made me fall in love, and I’ve since read it so many times it’s ridiculous. In fact, I think it’s about time for another re-read. I enjoyed the new-ish Pride & Prejudice movie (dh did too which shocked me!), but I far prefer the A&E version.

#2 Why is this book so tattered? Is it that you love it so much that you’ve read it a zillion times? Is it a reference book you’ve used every day for the last seven years? Something your new puppy teethed on when you weren’t looking?

Definitely because I’ve re-read it a million times. I love that the pages are so soft now.

Other heavily tattered books in my collection:
the entire Little House on the Prarie series. I’ve read the entire series hundreds of times
Fairy Tales retold by Katharine Gibson published in 1950. This was my favorite bedtime story book of my childhood.
Little Princess & The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I read and reread these constantly as a child and as an adult.

Why is it that I find such fantastic mugs AFTER I give up coffee?
Cool mug

Yes, I could use it for tea, but it just wouldn’t be the same…

And to add even more fuel to the fire, Kittycafe has asked us to post pictures of our coffee machines. Here’s my lonely machine with decaf in the pot. And yes it’s filthy– I need to clean it.

Fall VK preview http://vogueknitting.com/magazine-preview.shtml

Wouldn’t it be great if we got previews of the online mags like Knitty and Magknits? It would make the anticipation so much greater. Maybe they could do just snippets of the garmet, so as to not give away the whole pattern. That would be such a great teaser…

Another fun link: The Island of Misfit Patterns There are some great patterns here. Have a pattern that you submitted to the “big” online knitting mags, and it got rejected? Want it to be published SOMEWHERE? This is the place! (Or you could just go there and check out all the patterns, like the loser non-designer I am).

Here’s something adorable to purchase. A mini sock blocker for your keychain. I can just see myself knitting up different colors of mini socks to match my bags or outfits. teehee

Did I tell you I gave up caffeine? I did. No more coffee for me, unless it’s decaf. It’s a rather heartbreaking tale– I LOVE my coffee. The whole routine, getting so much accomplished in the morning on my caffeine-high, that little perk in the afternoon after a nice nonfat latte… BUT my obsession with coffee was not so healthy, especially with the whole trying to conceive thing, so I’ve given it up. It’s been almost two weeks, and I still miss it. Once upon a time, I drank at least a half a pot of coffee a day, so I was an addict, for sure. A few months ago, I switched to mostly half-caff, but a few weeks before deciding to go cold-turkey, I was indulging in almost daily grande nonfat lattes. I’m not getting the headaches anymore, since it has been almost two whole weeks, but Jason has noticed I’m a wee bit crankier. I told him to go take his delicious cup of caffeine elsewhere and shut up. Ok I didn’t say that, but I may have been thinking it. I’ve already decided– once I have my little ones, I’ll definitely be drinking the delicious cuppa again.

Anyway, in knitting news, I’ve nearly completed my One Skein project for my pal. It’s a Sophie bag waiting to be felted, but I want to do some sort of embellishment on it– perhaps I’ll try my hand at needle felting. I’m still uncertain. I do have another month to decide though.

I also made a recent stash enhancement. It’s handpaintedyarn’s delicious wool:

I really just can’t get enough of their yarn. I’m also eyeing the hemp yarn at elann and their cotton/acrylic blend they just put up– I’m thinking it would be similar to cotton ease, which of course I love!

And I’m still plugging away on my cardigan. Getting close to the bottom, and then I can start the sleeves.

I’m seeing so many awesome, beautiful, loverly Green Gables lately, that I’m really tempted to buy the pattern and cast on, but I want to finish my cardi first.
I’m also coveting Ms.Marigold like the ones here and here and many other places…
Or maybe Ballerina from Magknits… or something from Wrap Style… or a new pair of socks… oh the knitting bug has hit again! Yippee for that.

I signed up for another swap this week, but I’ve lost the link somehow. I hope my information got submitted. Eek. I know I read about it on another blog, but I subscribe to so many knitting blogs on bloglines, that I can’t find it. It’s for a favorite color craft swap (it’s not for project spectrum though). Does anyone remember reading about this? Nevermind! I read about the Favorite Color Swap on Labradorable’s blog. She kindly filled me in that the blog link is here– so go sign up! Be quick about it, because sign-ups end today. I got my match for the Yarn Aboard, and I can’t wait to start picking out goodies. It looks to be so much fun. I recently read on someone’s blog Labradorable’s blog that they were she was kind of over the whole swap thing, after being very underwhelmed after a few sp swaps, as though people were just going through the motions. I must say, I feel the same way. I have had a few WONDERFUL swap pals– Christina and Rox to name just a few, but overall I was feeling eh about the whole swap thing. Until now that is. I think I just needed a change in the type of swaps I was doing. So, I’ve joined the “cooler” (haha) swaps– One Skein, Yarn Aboard and the Favorite Color craft one if I can find it again…
Oh and a special note to secret pals, I failed to mention it, but I’m obsessed with garden gnomes

Another FO

Remember what I said about the Mason Dixon dishcloth being addicting? Here’s further proof posing in front of a vase of lilies from my garden:

I love how it matches my Fiestaware vase. This color combination is my favorite out of the three.

Hurry and sign up– the deadline is today!

TMI alert:
Remember my post about the keeper? Well, I used it all through my period with no problems whatsoever! I’m a total convert– I’m not going back to tampons again.

Weekend Knitting

Look I have two FOs from the weekend! One I cranked out while catching up on Grey’s Anatomy, and the other was during the World Cup finals (yay Italy!). I love games that go into shoot outs.

Round One:

Crazy colored round two posing next to our bottle of pinot grigio last night. I must say, that bottle was purchased because it was pretty and on sale, but it was pretty good.

As far as the pattern goes, I figured everyone was doing it, so I may as well join the herd. It’s the Mason Dixon washcloth pattern if you’ve been living in a cave for the past few months. Yes, I found it every bit as addicting as every other knitter has recently!

Don’t forget– the new Project Runway starts on Wednesday! My tivo is ready and waiting!

New Do

I decided it was time for a change. My hair has been long and stick straight for too long, so I got it chopped off and layered today: