Good Together Sunday

Quiet morning here at Chez Squirrel. I've picked up the knitting needles again and started on the second half of Hermione Bear. I've already made her hat, I'm going to see if I can crochet her a copy of Hogwart's, A History. :)

Colors

Wow, I just realized tomorrow's the last day of the month and I did not make a Project Spectrum project. I do have some yellow and orange (and green and red and white) tissue paper though, plus the bag I keep all my little single-serve coffee bags in.

Pattern Coming, Yarn Coming

Woo-hoo!
Knitting Knews Item 1: I got an email saying that my sock pattern is on the way. Actually in the mail. In the mail!
Knitting Knews Item 2: I just won an ebay auction for 5 skeins of what may very well be The Most Incredible Ribbon Yarn In The Universe. It's called Lana Grossa "India" and is an astonishing array of blues and silvers. I have big big plans for this, and they relate to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I hope this wakes up my knitting interest again. And by the way, I spent $3 more than I probably needed to because it was one of those Dutch Auction things and I didn't bother to read the definition and explanation of Dutch Auctions because a)I was excited b)Dutch Auctions are confusing as all get out, at least to me and c) it was about to end and I just wanted to bid now and strategize later. So just a word to the wise that they work a bit differently than the regular auctions and it might behoove you to read the help info first if you ever want to bid in one. But, even so, I will soon have The Most Incredible Ribbon Yarn In The Universe and it has made me happy. That's worth an extra $ 3, surely.

Egg

So I forgot all about posting this before Easter. The original plan was to make six and photograph them in a plastic egg tray, but well, we know how that goes. Here's the one that got made before I got bored with the pattern and wandered off. Pretty yarn, though, got lots left over. What to do...what to do....

Gratuitous Alligator Footage

My monitor guardian.

*Yawn*

Still no knitting, sock pattern, or Beatrice. Thought I'd better come do a quiz or something before I forgot how to login.

You Are A German Shepherd Puppy

You Are a German Shepherd Puppy

Intelligent, quick witted, and a bit aggressive.You've got the jaw power to take a bite out of anyone you choose.

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

Hope

Not much knitting or posting happening around the blog this week. I got bored with Beatrice, my white whale, and if I keep this up I will forget the stitch pattern and I'll never want to touch it again. My sock pattern hasn't arrived. I haven't been feeling very well. I've been very depressed and physically exhausted, coping with various health issues of my own and several of my pets. I generally try to keep this Blog Lite, and use it for fun stuff, pretty stuff, to remind myself of the beautiful things in life. One of my favorite quotes, which I painted on my garden bench, is: "Look to the Beauty of this day, Miracles are all Around You"
So during these last few weeks I dropped the ball briefly on plant watering, and was horrified to find one of my beloved mints brown and crunchy in its pot. But when I finally filled up the pitchers and set to watering all the other plants, I couldn't skip over my poor mint. I watered it anyway. But guess what. Mint are strong. Today I have been given a bit of hope. Look here:

O Beatrice! What are you doing to us???

For the Beatrice-a-longers:

End of row, before the last step:

End of row, after the last step:

Beginning of row, before the first step:

Beginning of row, after the last step:

This is just my personal interpretation of the instructions, let me know if you disagree!

Nautie and Nice!

I'm making Knitty's Nautie! What an ingenious pattern! I had to learn to use dpn's the other way from what I'm used to, so it would be knit-side out, because it's stuff-and-coil as you go and therefore can't be flipped around at the end like a sock, but a new skill is all to the good! I think I'm going to try to make the shell into a snail, though. The nautiloids are cute and all, but I really like snails.

Orchid Tree ~ Bloom & Seedpods

Cat Shaped Article

I almost passed these by in the cat food aisle, but then the basic shape of the container caught my eye, and I thought that once all the labels were soaked off it would make a cute place to store.... I don't know what... really small stuff.

See the potential? Assuming I can get the smell of fish, animal products, and various preservatives out of the plastic ... lol.

Anyway, it's orange and yellow.

Somebody just tell me to go throw it out now.

I Didn't Really Want to Make Socks Today Anyway

The sock pattern did not arrive and I'm wondering if it's time for the Politely Worded Email yet. Furthermore, I found myself in Joanne's today and dashed to the wonderful new Wall-of-Needles to buy myself a second set of #2 dpns so I could make TWO socks at the SAME TIME, only to discover the sizes offered only went down to #3.

On the plus side, I got a gigantic skein of cream yarn so I could start Beatrice over.

Ah, Beatrice.

I started a crochetalong for ole' Bea over on Craftster a while back, and we've been having a time over there trying to decipher it out, I tell you.

I've been crocheting for ages, I'm not a novice or anything. But every time I worked on this thing, I felt like I had to have a lie-down and a cold beverage afterwards. The directions were incredibly complicated - a solid paragraph of bafflement that I marked up with layers and layers of highliter pen. And there were errors. And yet... I kept going back. It was like trying to decode some secret language that you were just hovering on the verge of understanding.

And the irony? It's simple. It is a SIMPLE pattern. Let me reiterate. IT'S A SIMPLE PATTERN. I reached that point today AT LAST where you don't have to look at the directions every 10 seconds anymore, you know that point where you just roll happily along listening to the radio and thinking about whatever you want? That point. So here she is. I did make a mistake in Row 1, but I wasn't starting this thing over AGAIN! I've just started Row 3 here, so I have a ways to go before I have an actual garment, but it's a start, and I've cracked the code.

Reminiscing

The book Peaky Beaky (by Bertrand de Vogue, illustrated by Kelly Oechsli) fascinated me when I was a child. It was published in 1967, and was one of those Tip-Top Elf books. I took my copy out of the closet this morning and was looking through it. I remember vividly that this was my very favorite illustration:

And I also came across this picture, of Peaky Beaky's wife, which made me think "Hmmm...knitting...this could explain a lot..."

Plans for Patons

WHERE is my sock pattern? I mean, I know I paid by check, but honestly. I need blog fodder here, people! When the pattern does (eventually) arrive, they will be knit with this yellow:

Unless I decide the green and yellow are just too cute together and should be stripes, and that the butterfly socks should be done in lavender or something.

Other things not on the needles:
the bear series
the crocheted shrug
the spring-cleaning mouse with the little apron :)
the knitted Easter Eggs

Can somebody please come over and cast something on for me.... just to get me started?

Orange & Yellow

~~~

~~~