S.E.X. Hijinks

Friday Ms. Val, Moontear and I took a jaunter out to try and increase our stash supplies. Dulcinbradbury suggested Alfred's in Latham, since it was having an enormouse sale (going out of business?). So directly after work I ran up and grabbed Moontear... She helped me take everything out of my backseat and shove it in the trunk, then we ran down and picked up Ms. Val.

We bounced over to Latham, only to discover Alfred's had closed at 5pm. *cries* Val and Moontear dug through their memory bins to remember good places for yarn. The one Val likes a lot was definitely closed, and the one Moontear suggested was also closed. Val called from her cell instead of wasting the gas to drive out there.

Needless to say, I was border line heartbroken. I wanted to dramatically increase my stash, not buy "just enough".... but without the sales to take advantage of, I had to cope with the "just enough". We headed over to A.C. Moore so I could at least get the yarn for Moontear's scarf... I made her help me pick out the yarn and colors. In the end we decided on Homespun in purple and black. Extremely soft and nicely textured. Let's see if I'm able to pull off the pattern with the yarn. ^_^

I also grabbed another skein to "practice" with. I figured some of the reason I've gotten the urge to get more yarn, is from the fact my practice yarn is just a little too reasonable to make a project with. Soft, black yarn and a unique purple... Definitely too tempting, even if it is difficult to work with.

So I grabbed an enormous skein of Redheart in the most lurid flourescent pink I could find.

I wouldn't make anything for *anyone* -- including my worst enemy -- with this yarn. It's terrifying. (Although Vin did have a good point... a yitty bitty teddy bear, might actually be cute ^_^).

Sweet!

I called Moontear, and I've emailed with Val.

S.E.X. tomorrow!(And for you all pervs out there S.E.X. = Stash Enrichment X-pedition, so get your minds out of the gutter).

This works out perfectly, since I get paid tomorrow. I just have to be careful, since tomorrow's check is VACATION MONEY! W000000!!!

I fully believe that several skeins of nice yarn for Ms. Moontear's scarf is considered a necessity for a long car trip. ^_^

We leave in a week -- I'm stoked.... and nervous. ^_^

*combusts*

So I didn't go on a yarn binge. I resisted my temptation.... instead I gave in to eating mass quantities of Taco Hell. I'll regret that tomorrow. ^_^

I did make an interesting discovery though. Well, not really interesting, but definitely good to know.

Closed up windows + Cranked AC = Still not cool enough to work on this blanket.

Who knew crocheting could be a sweat inducing experience?

I'm finishing up my fifth or sixth pair of skeins. I have four sets left. I'll post more pics when I'm halfway through my next skein. Adding five rows doesn't make a huge different in a project this size. Especially since there isn't a discernable pattern.

I really need to go to bed. I didn't realize it was heading towards midnight.

Sweet dreams folks!

Edit -- Updated my tracking for the waterfall blanket. ^_^ My low original estimation + what I've worked on today = some place between 55% and 60%. Go me!

Jonesing man... jonesing...

I need/want/crave more yarn.

I showed Moontear the scarf again, but I'm looking at it and realizing, I canNOT continue with the yarn I'm using. The black is extremely soft (and low cost) but the splitting is making it impossible to work with. The Redheart is easier to work with, only splits a little, but is ridiculously itchy!

SO... I'm probably going to scrap the scarf. :(

I WILL remake it though. I'd love to try working with chenille, but I'm pretty sure I'm not at that level yet.

I'm definitely going to get some yarn in the next couple of days. Tonight maybe? Tomorrow? While I do need to get yarn for the scarf, I'm seriously just jonesing to have a stockpile! Not that I have room for it, per se... But I will MAKE room.

*twitch*

Not that I haven't exactly mastered crocheting yet, but now spinning is piquing my interest. Before I try my hand at that, I'm definitely going to finish my first crochet project.

The blanket is halfway (or more) done. Unfortunately, that'll be impossible to bring with me on the trip. Way too bulky to manage in the car. Which is why it is VITALLY important to get yarn for this frickin scarf. *twitch*

Ok... I sound like an addict in need of a fix. *giggles*

Is this normal?!

On this day in history

Ms. Val tagged me, so now it's my turn. ^_^

Here are the rules: You go to Wikipedia's historical page and select your birthday (only the month and day). Then you write down 3 events, 2 births, 1 holiday, and then you tag 5 friends.

Events

1861 - American Civil War: The Constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted.

1941 - World War II: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into law, allowing American-built war supplies to be shipped to the Allies on loan

1993 - Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn-in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.

Births

1950 - Bobby McFerrin, American singer

1952 - Douglas Adams, English writer (d. 2001)

Holiday

Lesotho - Moshoeshoe Day.

And I tag -- No one! Well... only because I don't have 5 friends that read this blog. :P Moontear, feel free to do it! =D

Practice makes perfect... and what's up with my cat?

My cat keeps squeezing next to the refridgerator. I can't figure out if she thinks it's cooler back there, there's something living back there, or if she's just totally nuts. It's probably the last. :P

Anyways... I am still crocheting. My last post shared how I had started my first project. I was making steady progress, but now that it's warmer out I'm having a hard time working on it at all. The unfinished blanket draped over my lap while I'm working makes me all roasty toasty. In the mean time I've been practicing reading patterns and attempting to actually make different stitches look good together (switching from hdc to dc to sc and tc all in the same row without adding or dropping stitches). I'd say it's been slow going, but as I've really put my mind to it, I've steadily increased in my success. A week ago I couldn't get ANYTHING to come out right. But over the last three days I've gone from being semi-successful to actually mastering one particular pattern. Yeah, it's a simple pattern, but it's really fun and cute.

ONWARD TO PICTURES!

This is the current state of the blanket:

From the other angle:

I don't know why the color came out so dark on those photos, so here's a close up of the stitching and colors:

It's still not as big as it looks in the picture, although Val did say it would be a perfect lap blanket as of right now. I am going to keep at it though, so it's at LEAST a perfect square before I call it quits. I made it too narrow to make it a perfect twin blanket, but I still want to add some length so the excess blanket can be bunched up around the feet.

I'm going to give this to my mom as a much belated mother's day present. I showed it to her Mother's day weekend and she LOVED the colors, even though blue is more of my thing.

That particular pattern is nothing more than a repeated sc. Kinda boring, but the colors make up for it. The "special" thing about that pattern is the fact you hold two pieces of yarn together while you work. My mom made a blanket exactly the same way, but instead of using two different shades of the same color (or even two different colors) she used straight black. While monochrome (heh) the blanket is very very warm. :)

Now the pattern I mastered yesterday/today is called Slip Stitch Texture. It's from a leisure arts book (cheap at Walmart's LMAO). It's nothing more than 5 slip st alternated with 5 hdc. The "trick" to this particular pattern is to only work with the back loops instead of both.

This is the effect (sorry for the blurriness... lots of coffee today ^_^).

I liked how that was coming out so much I decided to make a project of it. Ms. Moontear loves her purple and black, so I am making her a scarf using that pattern.

This is it so far (and it's lighter and easier to work on than the blanket in these warmer days):

The colors came out all weird in the picture again, so to clarify... The purple is a very RICH, but BRIGHT, purple and the black is well... black.

I should be at a public Stitch and Bitch tomorrow, so I'll probably bring the scarf with me. As much as I want to continue working on the blanket, the thing is really too large to be toting around.

Now that I've procrastinated for almost two hours, I really need to go to bed. Sweet dreams!

YAY!

My newest addition to my blogging habits!

My "crafting" blog. ^_^

Or maybe I just missed blogger? :)

There is one backdated entry... =P