Slam the Storm Doors, Stella! Hell Has Frozen Over!

And as rare as Hell actually freezing over, comes a blog post from me!

Don't fall over in shock! Yes, there's really a blog post here! Go ahead, rub your eyes. Still there. Not that I think that there is necessarily anyone around to even read it, but hey, I can live in denial about that fact. I run the rest of my life very successfully by spending lots of time in Egypt, so why not extend that to the blog as well?


I won't bother making any excuses about why I haven't blogged all summer. I've just been busy doing this and that, and blogging just didn't get included as a This OR a That. Unfortunately, most of the this-and-that is far too dull to even mention here. Let's just say it did NOT include a fabulous vacation or a lottery win, or anything else equally exciting.


And don't think I feel guilty enough to promise another post any time soon, either. Living in denial also affords me the luxury of a generous helping of guilt prevention, which I use very deftly when necessary---which is most of the time. So, for what's it worth, here I am for today anyway.


There has been a little knitting this summer! (and I do mean "a little"). I sort of lost my mojo for big projects and found lots of other things to do, but I did manage to finish a couple of small projects.


Made a bunch of these this summer, all of which went out as little gifts, except for this one:

These cup cozies really come in handy for keeping your cold drink from sweating and dripping all over everything. They also work great for hot to-go drinks as well to protect your fingers from the hot paper cup. I make them out of Cascade Fixation, and they are sort of like potato chips---hard to make just one!

Finished this cloth a couple of months ago. It's from a free pattern called Little Lace Kitchen Cloth that can be found on the web here. You can also find it on Ravelry as well.

Here's my finished Ruffled Tea Cozy! I started this one last year and finally pulled it out an finished it a few months ago. It's made from Socks That Rock and only used about half the skein. I haven't knit any socks from that yarn yet, but it was certainly nice to work with to make this cozy. Very squishy and stretchy! This was made from a pattern I got from the 2007 LYS Tour here in the Seattle area.

Here it is on a different teapot:

Those are little tea leaves knit directly onto the end of an I-cord coming from the top of the cozy. It was knit from the bottom ruffle up, and it came out very stretchy so it will accommodate a variety of pot sizes!

Have a couple of more projects OTN, but too lazy busy to post them right now. I'll try to be good and get some of them up on here soon---even the most embarrassing FO of all---a pair of socks that have been OTN for over a year (better known as the Tofutsies Torture Socks). I've told myself I cannot cast on another pair until I finish those, so I'm hoping to do that soon....or have some very cold feet this winter. Apparently I am not above following ridiculous, self-imposed rules, even though I hate following anyone else's rules. Don't ask---I can't explain it. But it's a rule, and I've followed it for months now, even though I couldn't tell you why. Aside from the stupid rule, I really need to start knitting from my sock yarn stash again soon or it's going to take over the house! So let's hope I get some enthusiasm up to finish the Torture Socks.

If anyone is still out there and happens to read this, please stop for a moment and say hello in the comments! Just because I've been too "busy" to blog doesn't mean I haven't missed y'all!

Oh, and while you're here--please try to guilt me into finishing those effing socks! I'm much more susceptible to guilt imposed from others, so maybe if you force me I'll actually finish them. Besides, I'm really sick of looking at them hanging around and I want my needles back...and my feet are cold.

This and that.....random catching-up

Finally, a chance to actually make a post to my blog! I think this has been the longest I have ever gone without being able to post, and I've really missed it! I never thought when I started this blog that it would be something I would "miss" if I couldn't do it, but I have.

With such a long time having passed since my last post, I guess this will have to be a post of some randomness and rambling, as one tends to do when trying to make a long story short (something I'm not very good at, but I'll give it a go...). It's just that there are so many random bits, I can't begin to even try to tie them together cohesively. So this will have to be a post of this and that and the other thing, all stuck together so I can quit storing it for later in my poor, tired brain.

Even on my best days, I can somewhat be the queen of the non-sequitor and non-sensical segway. But now that the last of my brain has been squeezed into a dried apricot by my current schedule of 14-hour days, a string of non-sequitors might make more sense to read. Oh well....if it gets confusing, you can skip down to the actual knitting content near the end...

"Graduated" from training at my new place of wage-slavery. Yes, there was an actual lame graduation with presentation of a certificate in front of the rest of the current slaves. We were told at about 4pm the day before that each class had to present something---skit, speech, song, whatever---to the attendees. Say What? My 5 fellow trainees and I looked at each other in horror. This couldn't be good. Suffice it to say that out of desperation for something to do at the last minute, I made the mistake of joking that I play the ukelele.....

Just a message to the wise: If you are ever desperate for lame ideas for a needed performance, don't ever let jokingly slip to 5 desperate nurses that you play ANY type of musical instrument, as you will then be forced to play said instrument in front of about 150 co-workers you barely know. You know, just to cement your new professional reputation amongst the colleagues. Not only that, you will then be forced to write a lame SONG to sing along with the bad ukulele playing!

Let's just say that there was an ugly scene at graduation of me playing the ukulele and all of us singing a song I wrote to the tune of "Tiny Bubbles" (a la Don Ho----sorry Don, don't roll over in your grave too hard...). There is a tradition of "Aloha Fridays" at my new place of employment, so it did fit in with a theme, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially since I added in lyrics about the training making us need a cocktail----mention of cocktails seems to please crowds of nurses, for some strange reason.

And oh, yes, this performance was complete with lei's and bubbles being blown by our trainer and fake cocktails with little umbrellas in pink plastic martini cups for all. Good times! But let's not forget that all of those other rat-bastard fellow trainees got away with a little bad singing, while I had to play a musical instrument (badly) in front of over 100 people!!! Let's just say I really took one for the team on this one, and those bi-atches (and I call them that in the most loving way) owe me BIG TIME!

And in a totally random change of subject......Have any of you ever entered contests on anyone's blog and won? Did they actually send you a prize? I only ask because I have won only once, which I mentioned gleefully on this blog a few months ago. And what did I receive as a prize?....Nothing, nada, zip!

Edited 7/25/07 - I am happy and relieved that the contest blogger mentioned above just sent me an email explaining the circumstances. Said she sent a package in May (which I didn't receive), and then wrote an email later, which she inadvertently saved rather than sending it. Thanks for emailing....I feel much better now that I know what happened (and that it wasn't intentional or due to a bad life turn...).

Official Knitting Content:

While the past 6 weeks have been like a never-ending freeway roadtrip with extended daily breaks of brain-draining confusion at work and occasional 4-hour peeks at my own bed, I have actually managed to knit a few rows here and there. Not much, mind you, and not enough to be particularly satisfying, but at least I got to touch some yarn and knitting needles, which made me feel a like I remember how to knit. Humor me here, I'm trying to feel better about pictures of very little progress....

Some progress on my Mermaid Wrap....

While taking the pictures, I really started to notice how the yarn is patterning in little "boxes" of color. Not sure I'm crazy about that, but I still love the colors anyway. However, I think I still would have preferred this pattern in it's original semi-solid color.

Here's a picture of very little progress on my Tofutsies socks---two cuffs. Believe me, I've tried to let these see the light of day once in a while, but working on size zero needles after 9pm has not exactly been within my abilities this past few weeks...

The MD Moss Grid Hand Towel has fared a little better. It's about 3/4 done at this point, and beginning to feel like a bit of a boring slog, but I'm hoping I can actually finish it soon!

And finally, in a last-ditch effort to feel like I could actually have an FO, I decided to make this cute little cup cozy out of Fixation yarn. We have these plastic cups at work that sweat like crazy when filled with ice water, and I saw this pattern for a Java Jacket that Chris wrote up and thought it was kinda cute! Besides, I needed something to work on that I could knit with no time available and minus a brain....

I have to say I wasn't sure about the actual usefulness of this cup cozy in the beginning, but after road-testing it for a few days, I can say it actually works really well! No drippy water cup on my desk all week! I liked it so much that I'm making another one in a different color to carry around in my purse for those drippy iced latte cups in as well! And better yet, it only took me (the world's slowest knitter) about 2 hours to knit up!

Instant satisfaction and a cute pink FO---just what I needed!

(Pay no attention to those poor, ignored, unseamed and unfelted, clogs in the background...)