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.

Thanks!

I really want to thank everyone who left comments, birthday and blogiversary wishes and contest entries over the past week. Hope you'll stop by again some time and leave your comments!

I had a nice birthday overall. Lolligagged around the house, stayed on the computer for way too long, took a shower at 3:00 in the afternoon, and then met my cute hubby and another couple for a lovely dinner at Trader Vic's. It was mostly a quiet day, but very nice, especially with enjoying a dinner out with some new friends of ours at the end of it. And reading all of your fun comments made spending most of the day alone seem not so lonely at all!

I haven't chosen the winners for the contest yet, but I'm working on it. I'm so pleased that there were so many entries! I'm still working on going through them to look at all of the links you left, as well as checking out the blogs of all of you who left your addresses. Lots of fun and talented people out there in the blogosphere!

I will try to announce the winners by the end of this weekend, but I am also working this weekend, so please forgive if I'm a little late by chance. In the meantime, for all of you who made guesses about how many skeins of cotton were in the Big Basket of Balls, here's a little teaser for you about how many balls are actually in there. Here's all of the skeins, emptied directly from that now-empty basket in the background and laid out on the floor...

The accompanying minions were not counted in the total, and no skeins were added or subtracted for the picture---just dumped 'em all out and lined 'em up on the floor....

For those of you now suffering with a case of shock and awe at the sheer size of this line-up, try to keep in mind that I've been collecting cotton yarn a little at a time ever since I used to crochet...years ago....before I even learned to knit. So what might first appear to be an uncontrollable cotton yarn obsession is actually a case of slow and insidious self-reproduction by the yarn itself! Yes, it's true! Every time the collection realizes I don't have a new color, they reproduce it themselves! And being snuggled all together in that cozy basket hasn't helped any. Of course, I disavow all knowledge of ever actually purchasing that many skeins of one type of yarn...

Were any of you close on your guess? I can say that there were no entrants that guessed the exact quantity!

Here's the latest project I just started. I had this beautiful (and impossible to photograph) skein of STR heavyweight in the stash in this very cute colorway---Little Bunny Foo Foo---and since fall has decided to start so quickly this year, what better time to knit a lovely little ruffled tea cozy?

I'm knitting it from a pattern I got at Churchmouse Yarn & Tea, while on the infamous LYS Tour last May. Yes, I know I still have an unfinished pair of socks leering at me from the basket, but with the days getting darker and colder, I thought I might start something knit on needles a little larger than size zero.

Love those socks, but a girl could go blind working on them. And I can't cast on another pair of socks until I've finished those. I have very few knitting rules for myself, but having only one pair of socks going at a time is one of them----Progress is slow enough for me on sock-knitting, but I'd never finish a pair if I allowed myself to start a second pair while one is still unfinished! I grew up Catholic, so maybe it's just some little knitting penance I've assigned to myself....or maybe I'm just weird....Either way, there's enough problems with UFO's around here without having two of one thing. Of course, the rule obviously doesn't apply to starting more different projects. (Hey, I didn't say I was a good Catholic...heh heh....). I can make my own rules only so strict if I want me to follow them.

And so I've digressed, as usual. What was the topic of this post again? Oh yeah, thanks again to everyone who entered the contest and commented, birthday, winners coming soon, and making tea cozy, which somehow led to strange, guilty excuse-making about still-unfinished socks and some insane blathering about my self-imposed knitting rules......

Be kind. My brain is a very strange place. It's not easy living here.

I'm really done now.