"Well, since the machine is out...

... I'll just put a seam on every piece of fabric I can find."

This weekend, my brother and his maties threw a pirate party. I felt the pressure to do the sexy pirate wench thing, but I couldn't get it together (not to mention all the other girls at the party are about 6 years my junior and half my size). So I bucked the system and went as unsexy as possible. I went as the sleepy pirate who got woken up by the loud pirate party.

While many females believe that Halloween is for dressing like a hooker without getting paid for it, I have often taken the path less travelled and gone for Festively Ugly. I made the hats and eye patches for both myself and my pirate bear buddy. The jammies are from Marshall's. The slippers and gold earrings are from Rite Aid. The robe is actually my wool coat minus the belt. The beard is Smashbox eyeshadow (only the best!) in Smoke.



Senor went as the Dread Pirate Roberts from The Princess Bride.

The Dread Pirate Roberts is coming for your SOOOOUUUUULLLLLS!!!

We bought him gloves, but forgot all about them. I made the head covering and sash.

And since the sewing machine was out, I began crafting. One of my projects I can't show yet, as I'd like it to be a surprise for a certain British contest winner...

The second, is a bottle gift bag. I taught myself to make button holes on the machine for the ribbon to thread through.




And the last project, though not quite finished is a Christmas inspired baby quilt. Why a baby quilt you ask? No reason, except that they don't take as long as grown-up quilts. Gotta work up the stamina, you see...


When it will get finished is completely up for grabs, as I have now put the sewing machine away...

Voila!!

Let's see if it blocks out big enough to be cozy instead of cramped...

Come on Down!!

ANNE-MARIE is the winner of the "What's Your Favorite Age" contest!! Congratulations Anne-Marie, you are going to be the recipient of three skeins of Cascade 220 in Pistachio, plus a few other little goodies, I reckon. E-mail me with your address whirleymarge AT hotmail DOT com and I will get the treats out as soon as I can, since they'll have a bit of a journey to make.

In other news, the car has a name. Beet. For several reasons. It started with this precious little story (ironically from a post titled "We Have a Winner")... ever since I got the sound in my head of a little boy's voice saying "Ah Beet?" it's never gone away. We say it around the house sometimes. It's become a bit of a pet name and a pet saying (Thank you, John, whom I've never met). Well, what a perfect name for a car that I love, that's the color of a beet, and who's horn says, "Beet!" every time I lock it?

With all the ash and soot falling from the sky from the fires in Malibu and surrounding areas, Beet is looking a bit beat. We'll have to give a bath ah Beet. Not until the fires are out which, God willing, will be soon.

Mommy, I Made a Downpayment!!

Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaaaa!! My first brand new car! She's so cute, and so fast, and so bright red! I am very proud of us for getting to a place where we can do this. We are working on a name for her, but she's 112 miles old, and she's just the most precious thing ever... With 4 doors!!!! Woop! Somewhere to put other people!


And because I am no knitting tease... here's the new sock:


Not sure how I feel about the way the colors match up. I'm afraid G-Rocks might have been prettier in the skein. And yet I knit on...

No Really, I Don't Have Enough!

Jaywalkers, that is. Yes, yes, I admit it, I cast on for Jaywalker 4.0. This week has been on the chilly side, at least for us Angelenos, and I work 4 days a week but only have 3 pairs of Jaywalkers. How can I keep my tootsies warm without wearing these all out too fast?!

So I did it. I wound a skein of Socks That Rock (my first time!) into a center-pull ball and cast on. Oh you lovely G-Rocks!!


I'll post a photo of the sock once I have a few more rows to show.

Yes, I have two other single socks on the needles. But you do, too. "Sticks and Stones, Kate Monster..."

A Woman Who Knits Too Much

Because I'm excited, and because I know they'll appreciate it, and because you'll probably be jealous, and because my boss doesn't like it when I use his stamps:

Thank you Monte and Barbara for a most appropriate and appreciated birthday gift!!!

I am not able to upload photos, so the link will have to do for now. I'm really excited about this book, as it represents a growing bravery amongst my loved ones, the bravery to enable my knitting addiction in the name of gift-giving holidays. The guts to walk into a yarn store and proclaim, "I will buy knitting goods today, but I have no idea what my daughter/friend/sister/wife/in-law would like, and I know nothing about yarn, someone help me!"

Of course Barbara is a knitter, so she knows stuff, but my mom and dad also braved the overwhelmingness of a yarn store, and a Canadian Yarn Store at that (you know their selection is WAY bigger and better than ours), to make my birthday special (again, photos to come).

I feel the love, people! I feel it!!

It Has a Certain Ring to It.

Twenty-Nine Years Old.
Twenty-Nine, walkin' the line.
Twenty-Nine, feelin' fine.
Twenty-Nine, drinkin' wine... not this second, but I bet I had you fooled for a minute.

I think 29 is gonna be a BIG YEAR!! As my brother and I used to say when we were kids, A Biggy Biggy Good One.

In honor of the big 2-9, and of this my 200th post, let's have a contest. Yarnies, you shall be entered to win 3 skeins of Cascade 220 in Pistachio, the lovely mossy green that I am using for my Ariann sweater (I ordered too much). Non-knitters, you'll have to wait to find out what you might win because, though I hadn't thought of it as such, the prize I was going to offer is not quite legal. Stupid pirates taking all the fun out of life...

Now, the contest... something everyone can play... Leave me a comment telling me which was your favorite age and why. Senor will draw your name out of a hat to determine the winner.

The deadline is this Friday, October 19th, at high noon! Ready-set-go!

Your Patience Has Been Appreciated

Knitties!! Weeeeeee!


First and foremost in my heart at the moment is the Best Friend Purse from Knitty, a sudden and compulsive cast on from this weekend. I bought some brilliant white silk yarn on Saturday, and I was defenseless. You can't really tell in this photo, but it is totally lustrous. Lovely!

And since I had the cable needle out, I did a little of this:
A baby hat, 'cause they're quick, and if your personal design skills just don't work out, the frogging doesn't hurt as much. Fortunately, I think this one worked alright.

I started this over the summer, but I thought I ought to dig it back out and at least let is sit around guilt tripping me.

Now that the Classic "Cashmere" Sweater is complete, I need some car knitting. The pink neckerchief will do nicely thank you.



And may I just say that, while getting older is kinda for the birds, birthdays are freakin' sweet! For those that have already made my birthday bright, thank you. And for those who are yet to do so (it's not until tomorrow), you rock too!

And wait until I show you the Handmaiden yarn my mom and dad gave me, woohooo!!

Here's the Deal

No, I didn't lose 7 pounds since Tuesday. But. But. At home, where I've been weighing in, I have a digital scale, and I don't trust it. I never have, but I figured if it's inaccurate, at least it will be consistently inaccurate. I still believe that is true. I weighed in in a towel at 187.4 on Tuesday. Okay, nude, but wouldn't you?

But. Last night I discovered that they have a scale at my gym, which I hadn't seen before, and it is the kind with the spinny needle. Still not the most accurate, which I figure are the kind where you slide the weights over yourself, but more accurate than the digital kind. Would you agree?

Well. The scale at the gym said that I weigh 180lbs. In my clothes. With my shoes on. That's a much better vision of the world for me, so though my starting weight is probably also incorrect, I am going to leave it there as the scary potential reality, to remind myself how freaked out I was when I thought that was the case. I'm still heading for 160 and I still have an intimidating 20 pounds to go, but at least it's not as grim as I once thought.

Phew.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Yes, friends, I've joined the world of Etsy.com. Check out my new shop!! Though it is not fully stocked yet, I am going to be adding items as quickly as I can. Keep an eye out for any items you might like to give someone for Christmas or Hanukkah (even if that someone is YOU!).

I love the smell of commerce in the morning!

Do This

Go get this book. Read it.


I'm on page 23, but I've been hooked since the first. You don't have to be knitting obsessed to love it. You just have to understand heartbreak.

And we all do.

On a different but slightly coincidentally linked topic, my weight jumped back up to 187.4, but that's still a 2 pound loss over 2 weeks, which makes a lot more sense based on my effort level than my original 3.4lb loss from last week. So I am at peace with it. Onward and downward.

Learning from the Best

So I've been having some difficulty working the raglan decreases on my Ariann. The problem was, I was doing decrease after decrease and not decreasing anything. My front panels were staying the same width, decrease though I might.



Sensing my error but not being able to explain it, I cautiously set Ariann down in the time-out basket and sat down at my computer. First I searched Ravelry to see if there were any discussions concerning pattern errors or frustrations... Nope. It's just me, I guess. I searched the ChicKnits website. No errata posted. Really, just me. Okay then. What to do...

... So I did the only thing I could think of: e-mail the designer.

After a day of working stockinette stitch on my Classic "Cashmere" Sweater, I sat down at my e-mail to check for any kind of solution to the Ariann problem.

And I had one. Bonne Marie Burns herself e-mailed me back to explain that when pairing raglan shaping and lace patterns, you have to remove a YO for every decrease you lose in the shaping and vice versa. That was my problem. I was never leaving the YO out, so I always needed the lace decrease, which I was simply replacing with the raglan decrease. Instead, I need to knit a stitch where the YO should be, then when I do the raglan decrease, I'll ACTUALLY decrease. Genius.

I learned a new basic knitting skill today, and I learned it from the designer. That's like learning to play four-square from Michael Jordan or learning to stir from Betty Crocker.

And I LIKE IT!!

One Year Ago Today (Roughly)

I was running my first 10K, and I was thrilled to have run the entire race. 6 months ago (rougly) I ran my second 10K (Superbowl 10K, no blog post, what is wrong with me?!) and smoked my time by 4+ minutes.

Today, beyond all expectations, I beat my time yet again. I ran my second Hometown 10K this morning in 1:12:44, which beats the last one by 51 seconds. It's not a lot, but IT'S A LOT!!!! Yay me!!

Lost.

Look what I did! --------->
See it? I lost 3.4 pounds. Yay! Wait, what?! How did I lose more weight than a couple of the official Biggest Losers combined? They workout 8 hours a day! Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to have a new number to look at, but I am the slightest bit concerned that it is not a true reflection of my effort level. I weighed myself twice and came up with the same number, so I'm fairly confident that it's not a digital scale anomaly, but it still doesn't seem possible.

So I need to take my effort level of last week, which I'd say was about a 3, and bump it up to a 5 or 6 so that I don't get a disappointment next week when 3 doesn't cut it.

I knit two rows of Ariann last night. And none the day before. Hmmm...

Coming Along

We're getting there. Ariann's sleeves are on and the neck decreases are under way. Each row takes forever, and I wasn't feeling great yesterday so I didn't get much done... :( But I'm hoping to be done by my birthday.

Gosh, I've been saying that a lot. You may have noticed that my running has slowed to a standstill. After running nearly every day last week, my legs were really aching, and not in a sore muscle kind of way. I went to the running store to ask the dude if I needed new shoes. In a gallant act of honesty, he told me that I didn't need new shoes, but that I was just overdoing it. And that I should rest and that I should ice my legs after runs until they get used to it. Nice. That saved me some money, which is good, but it didn't do much for my motivation, and since then I haven't run at all, in the name of rest. Now I have to run 2.55 miles per day to get through it by my birthday... Hmmm... the 10K this weekend will help, but if my legs were unhappy with 2 miles per day, I'm not looking forward to how they will feel now.

Also, I stole a moment on the scale to see how I was doing. And since my cup is half full, I have this to say: I haven't gained anything. Official weigh in is tomorrow night. I'm going to try not to gain anything in the next 36 hours. And maybe I'll actually make a step in the right direction.

Or maybe I'll just sit on my butt and work on Ariann.