travelling and knitting

I spent Tuesday night through Friday morning in Ft. Worth. Despite living in Dallas for several years, I had never been to Ft. Worth. I keep hearing how wonderful Ft. Worth is from everyone I work with (we have an office there), but I have to admit, I just don't get it. Downtown was neat, but not neat enough to move there for. I think the things I really liked the most about it were JenningStreet Yarn, Kalamata Restaurant (in our hotel), and Reata Restaurant. The yarn store was the best. To me it's just another city. I've never understood how people get all enamored with a city, it's just a city. You will get bored there too. Eventually the newness wears off, and you end up enamored with another city. Anyway, I still like Dallas more. We visited with my Dad, and then we visited with Mike's sister in Arlington. I liked that area, it was a nice suburb. But, it wasn't really anything extraordinary. It had most of the same types of stores we have. It did have more restaurants, but that's to be expected. It just seemed like a nice place to live. I would be happy living there, well, except that I hear they have tornadoes, and tornadoes freak me out. All in all, we had a really nice trip, but we were ready to get home. We really missed all of our animals.
I'm still plugging away on my Japanese Feather Scarf. It's coming along great, and I'm really enjoying it. My kit arrived for the Honeybee Stole last Saturday, and I can't wait to start on it, however, I am forcing myself to wait until I finish either my Math Whiz socks or Japanese Feather Scarf. I hate to admit this, but my poor Math Whiz socks have been very neglected since I started on my scarf. But I will finish them. I came home from Ft. Worth to find my Fall Interweave Knits waiting for me. I absolutely fell in love with the sweater on the cover. So, I ordered the yarn, and I will start working on that soon as well. I ordered the Berroco Peruvia that the pattern called for, but I ordered the Sea Turtle color instead. Wow, my to knit list is getting huge! Once I finish off what I am working on, I think I will work on Honeybee and the sweater at the same time. Of course I also want to knit the Delicato Mitts. Hmmm...maybe I can have three projects going at once (I usually set myself a limit of 2).

Anyway, that's all.....time to go water the plants.

Boozing and knitting

I am so happy it's the weekend. Although I really need to work on our banking (balancing the accounts, entering and filing receipts, general yucky stuff), I'm glad I can do it at home in my pjs and sleep as late as I want.

It seems to be cooling off outside; there is actually a cool breeze in the mornings. When I say cooling off, I mean it's getting semi bearable outside. It's in the low 90s instead of the high 90s or low 100s.

Our company had a party Thursday night. It was a ton of fun, however I learned a very important lesson...drinking yourself stupid on a week night is NOT a good idea. It may seem like a good idea at the time, but it seems like a horrible idea when your alarm clock goes off the next morning. It's okay though, pretty much everyone was trashed, so we all got to be miserable together yesterday. Consequently, last night I fell asleep on the couch at 9pm, and stumbled to bed around 10. I haven't been to bed that early in a looong time (since maybe middle school). Midnight has been my normal bedtime for years.
I got a new betta fish. They were table arrangements at the party, and I took one home with me. I was pretty impressed with myself, even though I was drunk, I was able to pick one of the prettiest ones (of course that was all before the after party, which is where my drinking really picked up). So, that brings me back up to two betta fish again.
I've been trying to find myself a new signature drink lately. I used to drink dirty martinis (Bombay sapphire only), but last New Years Eve I had a wee accident with about 7 of them (that's according to the people I went out with because I thought I only had 5), and now I can't stomach gin. So, I am on the hunt for a new drink. I've pretty much fallen in love with Patron, which is kind of strange because I had a wee accident with tequila (my first drinking accident) when I was 17. I guess I'm over it. I would like to add a disclaimer, when I say wee drinking accident, I don't mean I had to go to the hospital or anything serious like that, I just mean that I ended up sick. So, lately I've been drinking Top shelf margaritas. I wish I would have fallen in love with a cheaper alcohol, because drinks involving Patron are not cheap. I only drink margaritas when I'm out and about (which is not that often...I prefer to stay home and knit). If I even drink when I'm at home, I have a glass of red wine. I've really enjoyed Bohemian Highway Cabernet Sauvignon lately. It's a cheap wine, I got it at World Market for $5 or $6, but it's really good. Mike even loves it, and he's pretty particular about his wine. And it's from California, we don't usually do American wines. Our tastes are usually European....Spain or France. Anyway...it's good. If you are looking for a good cheap wine, try Bohemian Highway. They also have a Merlot and Chardonnay which we have not tried yet.

Ok...on to knitting. I'm still working on the Math Whiz Socks and Japanese Feather Scarf. Anne has a new kit she is working on with Wooley Wonka Fibers for October that I'm probably going to purchase. It's a pair of mits that have a tree and snow lace theme. Kind of a Christmas type theme. She wrote a couple of blogs about them that included in progress photos here and here. My Honey Bee kit should be arriving today! I'm really excited about it. I ordered the Tupelo Gold colorway, and in pictures it looks gorgeous. I hope the mail man gets here soon!

The new Knitty is up! So far I love Roam, Urchin, Totally Autumn, and Woodins.

I think that's about all. Sorry there aren't any pictures today. I'll try to post some soon.

The birds, the bees, and the knitted

I'm still working on the Math Whiz socks, well actually, I haven't touched them all week because I started on the Japanese Feather Scarf. I'm using Fearless Fiber's laceweight merino in Hendrix, which is gorgeous and super soft. I really can't say enough nice things about Deb's yarns, they are wonderful, and she seems like a great person. Here's her blog. Back to the scarf...I love it. I can't wait for it to be finished (and for it to get cold) so I can wear it. This is actually my first lace piece, so I'm really excited about it. I was intimidated by it at first, but it's going well. The pattern is actually really easy. I'm mildly concerned about blocking it, but I guess I will cross that bridge when I get there. It's actually inspired me to do more lace knitting, so I finally bought the Honeybee Stole. I actually bought the kit because it just seemed easier that way, and I really loved one of the colors they were offering it in. I still have no idea what I will do with a stole, but I guess I will figure that out later. It's just so pretty. Mike keeps saying that stoles remind him of old ladies, but I think it's all about how you wear it. He does agree that the Honeybee is a beautiful stole though. I have plans to break apart the pattern and knit scarves with the different types of bee sections, but I'm going to make the whole stole first.

Speaking of bees, we found a drone honey bee yesterday. Mike taught me a lot about drones (his father used to keep honey bees when he was a kid). I had no idea that drones didn't have stingers. Also, he said that once they mate, drones are not allowed back into the hive. So basically they die. I wanted to know more...well actually I just was looking for drone pictures...so I looked on wikipedia. Turns out, Mike didn't have it quit right. Maybe his father didn't know, or maybe his father didn't tell him the complete truth because the complete truth is terrifying, especially to a boy in elementary school (although his parents seem pretty open...so I doubt that). It's not quite as terrifying as preying mantis mating habits, but terrifying none the less. Here's why they die after mating:
"Should a drone succeed in mating it will soon die because the penis and associated abdominal tissues are ripped from the drone's body at sexual intercourse."
The drone we found was obviously dying, you could tell because it was having trouble flying. Nature is strange.
On the pleasant side of nature, the butterflies are out. They are beautiful. They don't seem to be afraid of people, or much of anything, although I'm sure they're afraid of something.

It occurred to me that I have never mentioned my pets on here. I have 3 dogs (Italian Greyhound, Papillion, German Shepherd), 2 cats, 1 leopard gecko, and 1 betta fish. Yeah, we're crazy animal people. I love my pets...they keep me sane. Ok, well sometimes they drive me a little crazy too.

I'll leave you with a few pictures. Here are some teasers for the Math Whiz socks, my small stitch markers, and one of my orchids.






*note: I did not create the Chinese kitty stitch markers, I bought them from Acloset and restrung them on my own findings. Those are for my personal use, and would never be sold on etsy (assuming I ever get my shop up and running). I would love to make stitch markers with those Chinese lucky cat beads, but I can not find a source for them. If you know of a place I can order them, please let me know.



Auf Wiedersehen!

Nudibranch

Since finding this pattern on etsy, I have become completely fascinated by these little guys.

Knitted verson (image from hansigurumi on etsy):



Real version (all photos taken from wikipedia, so proper credit is given to the artists over there...linkie) (click for huge):









They are gorgeous. However, I did a search on nano-reef.com, and it seems they are a bit of a pest for reefkeepers. They like to eat Zoanthids. Pest or not...I think they are beautiful.

I will probably get the pattern.

Oh, and really, I will post pictures of the math whiz socks. I just keep getting distracted.

Another Quickie

What is the best type of shoes for a knitter:



Oh yes...those are sheep....and they will be on their way to my house on Tuesday. Thank you Zappos.

My blog makes me sound like a compulsive shopper, but I promise I'm not. I just really like etsy, and I tend to shop when I'm extremely stressed, and trust me...with my parents separation/divorce among other things I have going on in my life...I am really stressed.