A Knitted Frenzy

Google Searches

I always look at what search terms are used to find my blog.  And every once in a while, I am surprised at what I find (licorice thong anyone?)  The latest to make me laugh:

Why my cat is licking my ipod earphones

Enough said.

Quickie

My sockapaloooza socks will mostly likely be late shipping.  :( 

The tinking really hurt my progress.  0US needles plus fingering sock yarn....  takes a while to knit up and tink and my fingers can only handle so much.

This weekend doesn't provide any reprieve in the lateness category... I'll be painting at my parents house while they're out of the country so they can list the house for sale upon their return home.  Kinda cuts into my knitting time.  :(

BUT I will taking a train on Monday that will provide me with three solid hours of knitting.  I'm hoping I'll be able to finish up during that time and still get the socks out on May 2.

Cross your needles for me.

Gratuitous pet photo.

Random Beauty Tip of the Week

In my former life, I competed in beauty pageants.  The kind that led to sparkly crowns, fancy dresses and the world of The Donald.

After years of competition, I've collected an innumerable amounts of beauty tips and tricks.  Some may make sense, others most certainly won't.

In honor of spring and bare skin, I bring you the first in the series:

Slathering Preparation H all over a cellulite speckled area (i.e. backs of thighs, arse), wrapping tightly with plastic wrap (be liberal with both PH & plastic wrap!) & sitting for 30-60 minutes 2-3 per week may help reduce the appearance of cellulite.

Now I'm not making any guarantees of any sort here.  Note that I said "may help reduce the appearance."  PH won't make fat cells disappear altogether. 

I've had cellulite since the age of 15 and I was a stick back then.  Fat cells are inherited and are always there.  For obvious reasons (I hope they're obvious because I'm not going into the beneficial properties of Preparation H), PH just helps to shrink the cells down a bit and make your skin look smoother.

Got a big date?  Going to the beach for the first time?  Try this trick whenever you'll be baring some skin.  It make take more or less time for this trick to work for you but it definitely does help. 

A little yarn p0rn for you....

These lovely hanks of Lorna's Laces sock yarn were waiting for me at my LYS:

Beautiful periwinkle!  Too bad I have so many other things on the needles right now or I'd have cast on at lunch.

Now Hear This!

A completely non-knitting related post for you today as I work frantically to beat my May 2nd deadline on my Sockapaloooza socks.

Quotes!

I love quotes.  I have quite a few strewn about my office.  Most are funny but there are a few serious ones.  Shall we start with the serious and end on a humorous note?  I thought so:

The behavior we tolerate is the behavior we deserve.

The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Fear is an isidious virus.  Given a breeding place in our minds, it will permeate the whole body of our work; it will eat away our spirit and block the foward path of our endeavors.  Fear is the greatest enemy of progress. (James Ford Bell - U.S. Businessman, 1879-1961)

Do not worry about anything; instead PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING. (Philippians 4:6)

There should be licensing requirements to breed.

You can't fix stupid.

It's like trying to put lipstick on a pig.

Don't make me get my winged monkeys!

Well that was a complete waste of makeup.

Cheers!  And happy knitting!

All knit up and nowhere to go

Out of this book, I bring the flower washcloth.  I'm not crazy about this cotton but it will work for a washcloth.  The edges of the petals are a bit wonky... not sure if blocking will help.  The pattern actually called for a cotton chenille, not being crazy about chenille, I opted to go with Sugar & Cream in white.  There's plenty left in the teeny ball for another washcloth.  I think it will be part of my mom's mother's day present (don't ask what else I'm giving her.... I don't know!)

The topic of the day is waves.  My hair for one.  All of a sudden it's decided it wants to be wavy/curly:

Eh, not such a great pic for showing off the hair.  This is my Don't-I-look-cute-in-my-white-tank look with a splash of hoochiness.  Oh well.  That's what happens when you try to take a picture of yourself with a camera phone.

I've had stick straight hair for the last 28 years and now it wants to be wavy.  Fine.  Whatever.  It just feels like I have even more hair.  (And no, I'm not pregnant... I've heard that the hormonal shifts of pregnancy can cause your hair to do the complete opposite of its normal routine... Unless pregnancy by osmosis is the new thing, I'm definitely NOT pg.)



The other waves are life waves.  People come and go, form strong bonds, let go of others.  Everything can be rosey at work and then turn to garbage and back to rosey again.  Things in my life are the move right now and I seem to subconsciously reference a roller coaster as my life.... things go up and then they come back down.  I used to think going on an anti-depressant would help even out all the ups and downs out but having actually been on an anti-depressant, they are not the answer for me.  All of my emotions were supressed and I developed an outer layer of numbness... like nothing really affected me and I didn't care one way or another about anything really.  I sometimes like having my emotions emerge in the raw.  I know I'm alive when that happens.

So I'm riding the waves.  All of them.

A-tinkering I go

I won't post pics of the carnage.

It's too bloody sad.

On the 2nd sock of my sockapaloooza sock, I noticed my pattern was off at the very end of the round after 4.5 inches of the top.  So I tinked a couple of rows and tried again.  Same end result.  Tink more rows, try again, the same. 

I did not throw the knitting per se, but I did set it down in quite a huff.

Two days and a calm meditative breath later, I picked up the sock and tinked 25 rows - 2.5 pattern repeats.  I saw the ugliness in hindsight formation. 

My friends I hope you never have to experience this.  And if you already have experienced tinking 1/2 your project in fingering weight yarn on 12" 0US circular needles with a deadline only 10 days away, we must form a survival group of some sort.

On with the show!

Can't get no satisfaction...

Who's satisfied?

Seriously, did they take into account the rise of Viagra use? (pun intended)

Lick to Kill

In the event that my house ever got broken into, everything I own would be stolen.  Why?  Because my two dogs would lick a stranger to death and not utter one bark to protect me and/or my yarn stash.

Case in point:  the PG & E man came out tonight, shined his flash light through the security door, yelled "Hello!" and all Sam and Jessie did was stare and wag their tails.  Not one bark from either one of them. 

My dogs.  They'd rather invite you in for coffee and help pack up my belongings as long as you'll give them pets before leaving.

CSI here I come!

Laurie shared her cat trauma today and asked for pet stories to cheer up Roy.  I shared this on her comments and thought I would repost here as today's post (I can plaguerize myself, right?):

Oh my goodness... do I have pet stories... with two golden retreivers and three cats, there are a few to choose from. Mostly, my 19 pound male cat likes to sleep on my face. He starts on the feet, crawls up to the back of the knees (cuz I sleep with my face smooshed into a pillow), then the butt  (purring the entire time of course), then back (at this point I can't breathe because my lungs are being crushed) and then he steathily lays his ginormous belly on top of my face, causing me to wake up and hack a hairball.

The last time this happened, it caused me to write an episode for CSI (anything to get me closer to Nick Stokes.. Hi Nick! I love you and want to have your Texan babies).

So here's the episode: A 20-something female is found face down in her bed, dead, of course. No obvious trauma. Sleeping pills and a bottle of syrah are found in her stomach (of course they can determine the type of wine, it's CSI!) and one cat hair. Rush to the end: her cat slept on her face after she downed the wine and sleeping pills.  She had passed out thus suffocation by cat.

Think CBS will buy it? :)