Out with the old and in with the new

Earlier this week I had an urge - a REALLY big urge - to do some felting. I got bored with my current tote after a few weeks.



I knit it well over a year ago and honestly, I hate the colors I picked. I wanted something fun and funky and girly to celebrate the summer. AND, I haven't felted anything in ages. And for those of us who love felting, its serious fiber crack. I did some stash busting and am finally starting to use some the handpainted.com yarn that I bought eons ago. Its so pretty that I haven't been able to bring myself to knit with it. After some tinkering and a few hours mindlessly knitting (I love to impress myself by knitting without looking at my hands) whilst watching Whale Rider, VOILA!




The tote is NOT an original. It was inspired by several different patterns I've seen as of late. I'll post my version of the pattern tomorrow and will give credit where credit is due. I know how touchy this copyright thing has gotten lately and I want to tred lightly.

So here's what's new this week...

Zira has finally arrived safely in Canada. Phew! I was so worried about my little girl because it took so long even though I sent her global priority mail. But Froggie Meanie is taking good care of her and has already posted about her arrival on Zira's blog. You can now add it to your bloglines subscription. Newfoundland is truly a beautiful place.

I feel like we've lived at the club swimming non-stop for the last couple of weeks. I'm turning into a cocoa puff even though I'm bathing in SPF 2,000 sunscreen every hour. We've closed it down most evenings that we don't have a thunderstorm. I think I'm the only person in bloglandia who's not complaining about the heat. Bring.It.On! I love, love, love the heat, the sun, the long days and short nights, the smell of chlorine, sunbleached hair - all of it! I took the camera today to try to catch Thing 1 and 2 soaking up the rays but alas, I was visiting with friends and completely forgot to snap a single shot.

Newsflash - I'm losing weight, I'm losing weight. Thanks to the WW Core program and all this swimming, in just two weeks I've lost almost 6 pounds! Yippie! I hope that I can keep losing. I need the ego boost in a major way.

Other little snippets... my "little" brother turned 33 on Tuesday. I can't believe we're getting so old. If all continues to go well, he's going to be a firefighter for Howard County in September. I'm just now starting to get scared for his safety. But then again, his reserve unit almost got called up for duty in Iraq which is even scarier. I'll really start praying for him in the near future.

Drive In Movie night is Friday and we're going to watch another classic - National Lampoon's Vacation. I love this movie and hope that the weather holds out. We're got a solid formula which always involves tater tots, Cosmos and some sort of sinful dessert. For Vacation, we're thinkin' bologna sandwiches - heh heh heh! Over the past few weeks we've seen, Baron Von Munchausen (meh) and Jaws (which is still scary after all of these years). I'm voting for Office Space and Raising Arizona (two of my all time favorites) to be the next movie. Most have been fun to watch so far.

I'll be back tomorrow with the tote pattern. Enjoy the weather!

Fantastic Foto Friday

Oh yeah, I've got some fotos for you. First, here's a shot of the first skein of flurfy spun Finn with the mermaid lady. She's the equivalent of the leg lamp (from A Christmas Story) in my house. Since we moved, she's been banished to the boys bathroom.



Next here's mermaid lady with a '04 UFO that I begrudgingly finished last week - the dreaded Eros triangle scarf. That crap is on my never again list.



Mermaid lady looks much better in it than I do. This photo proves to me that I am NOT a shawl/stole girl. But then again, my grandma who's 85 won't wear them either :)



I also went to great lengths and risked showing too much boobalage to give you a shot of the corset.



Ignore the remnants of Eros that I used to slip stitch the front together so that I wouldn't flash ya. I'm using a nubbly yarn so it doesn't have the crispness of stitch that the original does. I think I'm going to make another one using one of the KnitPicks blends. I love how this is turning out even if it is a bit unique.

Finally, I can announce that Zira's tour has begun. She's winging her way to Froggie Meanie who is vacationing in Newfoundland. Froggie's home is Ontario. She's been knitting/crocheting for 10 years and is recently into felting and sock knitting. She finds time to do all of this while on maternity leave. I know that I'm impressed. I can't wait to see what Zira gets into while in Canada. I've never visited but it sounds like a diverse and culture rich country. Click here for Zira's travelblog. There's nothing there yet but I'll be updating with info over the weekend and in the coming weeks.

To keep me company while Zira is away, I'm knitting some new monkey buds. This is little Caramel who's nestled in with my angel collection (they live on my jacuzzi tub so that Thing 1 and 2 don't break them). He still needs a mouth but is a cutie inspite of it.



I caught a glimpse today (thanks to Thing 1) of the MTV show the 70's house. This show is too damn funny. They take these kids from 2005 and force them to function in the 70s. No cell phones, no 2000's speak, no groovy clothes - its all 70s all the time. And if they play the hustle over the house intercom, you have to stop what you're doing and dance. I love it! Its so funny to revisit such an important era from my youth. If you get a chance, catch it. You'll laugh your ass off. Have a groovy weekend!

Scotty beamed up to the great beyond

Scotty can rest in peace now. I'm so sad to hear that he's gone and even more astonished at his age. He was the same age as my grandmother. While I wasn't an official Trekkie, I spent many years watching the reruns afterschool. Scotty was one of my favorites. I bid you a fond adieu, Mr. Doohan.

Now, I'm sure that you've been wondering where the hell I've been. I'm in la la land right now and am finally recuperating from all of my time off. The extreme heat coupled with outright laziness has made it difficult for me to get motivated to do but so much. I started reduced hours last week (15) and shhhh don't tell anyone I.Love.It!

So what did I do while away from Bloglandia? Well, after my dear friends from Cali left, we shipped Thing 1 and Thing 2 off to camp for an entire week. King Thing and I haven't had this much time alone in YEARS. King Thing pampered me last week by taking me to out to dinner every night. We had brazilian, seafood, yummy salads, decadent desserts - and I didn't have to cook any of it. In fact, I didn't cook a single meal while the boys were away. Yippie! Every night we also snuggled up with a different movie and stayed up way too late pretending that we were in college again (nudge nudge wink wink say no more). By the end of the week, we were beyond exhausted. I pampered myself with lots of shopping, a trip to the spa and of course, plenty of knitting and spinning. But all good things must come to an end and we picked up the boys on Friday. They had a great time at camp with only one minor injury to Thing 2. It was so great seeing them again after so long. I can't believe that my babies can function without their mom. It makes me kinda sad.

So this week, I'm trying to get back into a routine. We're doing some homeschooling with Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the summer so there has been lots of reading, writing and math (yippie - NOT!) in addition to LOTS of whining. But we don't want them to be ignant so we're learnin' them some new stuff for the upcoming school year.

I HAVE been knitting quite a bit. I decided to join the lace craze and cast on last week for Annie Modesitt's lace corset. I'm using a cotton/rayon (gasp) hand-dyed yarn in a really pretty purplish colorway. While I love, love, love silk, the recommended yarn (which is worsted) felt way too heavy for my tastes. I'm half way finished with it and might wrap it up sometime next week. It would be a quicker knit if people wouldn't talk to me when I'm knitting - grumble grumble. Yes, there has been much frogging as a result. I seriously can't follow charted patterns and talk at the same time. Otherwise, this project would go much faster. I attempted to try it on yesterday only to find that the boobalage has expanded an entire cup size thanks to PMS (does this happen to anyone else besides me?). Yikes! I guess I'll only be able to wear it during certain times of the month.

I bought the most beautiful variegated skein of blue Feza kid mohair as a small yarn treat (my stash does not really need anymore enhancement). I love mohair in tiny doses and this is just enough for a quick lace project. I've searched high and low for that "special" pattern but haven't come up with anything. It would look really nice knit up in Branching Out so I may just settle with that one with an added lacy border.

As far as spinning, I'm slowly working my way through 3 pounds of Finnsheep. This stuff really poofs up after I wash all of the lanolin out of it so it takes a long time to spin even an ounce of it. 2 oz nets me about 180 yards of worsted weight yarn which means that I should have more than fleece enough in this batch to make the White Lies Angelina sweater (which requires 1200 yards - yikes) in the next few weeks (my next big project). My knees are still on the mend so I only allow myself 20-30 minutes of spinning at a time. (((sigh)))

I'll get some pictures up tomorrow as said camera has run out of memory and I need to do some photo purging. I also have some other news for ya.

I also went back on Weight Watchers Core last week. I'm way bigger than I'm happy with and want to slim down by the fall. eI just love to eat but I also love to live so I'd better whip into shape. I've lost two pounds already and hope to force myself to exercise more once the unhappy knees cooperate.

On the surface, the past few weeks don't look very exciting, do they? So why do I have a smile the size of the Cheshire Cat on my face? I can honestly say that I've learned the true meaning of "into each life, some rain must fall." Sure as of late, I've felt so very alone and lost. And then Heaven showers me with the manna of friendship, laughter and an over abundance of love. I have had the opportunity to visit with nearly every single important person in my life in just the past month. Heaz, Ei and Lauren; My brother, nephew and parents over father's day weekend; my dear friends from college and their beautiful children; my grandma; King Thing for an entire week; my boys after camp; our good friends M and K who recently moved away to NC; my Suppa club buddies last night over a delicious dinner and on Friday, my bud E will be in town. Wow what blessings and I don't think I would have appreciated them as much if I hadn't experienced the "dark times". Oh yeah, Life.Is.Good!

And now for something completely different...

I didn't have time for a typed post and thought I'd give audio blogger a try. For those of you who can give it a listen, let me know what you think. I'll be back blogging again next week after my guests from California have left. I seriously underestimated how busy I would be with them here this week. But trust me, it has been wonderful. Catch ya next week and keep knitting and spinning...