In addition to my busy Christmas gift making schedule, I have also been taking home a lot of painting and stitching work for my job.  

  Eeyore Brights mini mini Just about the cutest thing ever.

   

Tinker Bell mini mini "Does my butt look big in this?"

 I have discovered that I really like Paint By Numbers.

	Kittens on Keys Paint By Number
	Tow Mater Cars Paint By Number - I only did touch ups on this one, which was painted by the lovely ladygwyn
	The Chase Cars Paint By Number
	Lightning McQueen Cars Paint By Number
	Red Cars Paint By Number
	Eeyore Pooh Brights Paint By Number
	Nemo Finding Nemo Paint By Number

I have been a very busy girl this week. So here for your viewing pleasure are some pictures of things I have finished. Card Swap Here are my 10 cards for geekpixie's card swap. Sheep Bag Completed 11/15/05 Stitched with wool on canvas - a very bad idea, by the way. And yes, that is 80 million french knots making up the sheep's body. Entrelac scarf Finally put the fringe on this baby - made with an alpaca/wool blend yarn that I dyed myself. This sucker is very warm and soft. Fuzzy orange scarf This is my cheap Target yarn scarf. It's soft and fuzzy, and barely weighs anything. Feather and Fan Scarf Finished 11/16/05. Made with 2 skeins of Moonlight Mohair. It's purple, fuzzy, and sparkly. Yay!

Went to Webs today for their Knit for Hope event. Made scarves with lordavon, ladygwyn, and jadefu. Was silly and fun. Also, I started my first sweater, Mariah from Knitty. Currently working both sleeves on my new Addi Turbos, which I like very much. I started this on Sept 20 and this is all I have done so far, so we'll see how long this takes.

Work on various and sundry projects continues, at its usual slow pace. However, I took a break from some of them to make a nice easy bag, which I quite like.

I said I wasn't going to buy any yarn. I lied. But it's sooo pretty.

I started working on this little handbag in July. I've been finished with the knitting part for some time, but actually had to drag out my new sewing machine to sew a lining for it. I was excited to use the sewing machine for the first time (not the least of my excitement had to do with the fact that this bargain purchase actually worked). I sewed the lining in by hand, and then realized that the handles, which I had taken off of another bag which I was throwing out some time ago, needed be to put on before the lining. Ripped the lining out, attached the handles, and sewed the lining back in. Upon further reflection, I should either have gotten smaller handles, or made the bag bigger, but in any case...here's the finished product:

This post is all about my yarn. If you don't care about my yarn, then this is not the post you are looking for. I suggest you skip it and move on. So, I went to the UPS center today to pick up the yarn the the guy from Caron had offered to send to me. When I spoke to him at the trade show, he said he'd send "a couple of skeins". I put down 2 color choices, in case for some reason they should be out of one. I clearly marked them as 1st and 2nd choice. I expected to get 1, or maybe 2 skeins of one color, enough to make a scarf or something. When I picked up the box today, there were 9 skeins of each color inside. Now I have to figure out what to make with it. Because I was still driving around with the yarn I bought from geekpixie, as well as some cotton ease and other stuff I had bought at various points on sale, my yarn drawers needed a little better organization. I took all of the yarn out, and sorted it more or less by type. Now, with the exception of the single skeins of acrylics, and leftovers of various sorts, all of my yarn fits into the yarn storage unit.

I've been something of a slacker lately...at least when it comes to writing. It's not that I haven't been doing anything, but I guess I haven't much felt like writing about it. So, some of the exciting things I have been doing lately include: 

Numerous trips to the club for fun and flailing

An expedition to Mount Greylock

Another weekend in NH

A business trip to CA and Chicago

An outing to Salem

A trip to the zoo

I've also spent a good portion of my time working on my knitting. I've taught myself how to do entrelac, have played with dyeing yarn, and have made another fingerless mitten (though I have yet to make its mate). I am probably going to do some lace work, and start a sweater as my next projects. I have a completely unreasonable amount of yarn. Additionally, I've been reading more lately. I had definitely slacked off on this respect for some time, and have been making a conscious effort to read some of the books that have been waiting for me. In that spirit, I have read several books in the last 2 months: The Plague Tales and The Burning Road by Ann Benson Shade's Children by Garth Nix Madame de Treymes and Others by Edith Wharton Secrets & Confidances edited by Karen Eng Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire The Whole by John Reed Sloppy Seconds by Megan McCafferty I get a lot more reading done when I am suffering from insomnia. Otherwise, not a whole lot of interesting developments. 

So, last week, I started experimenting with Entrelac. I used some acrylic yarn I had leftover from another project as a test of the pattern. It came out pretty funky, and I think I am going to make a pillow out of it. I'll post pictures once that is done. In the meantime, here are some pics of a scarf I am working on with an alpaca/wool blend yarn that I dyed myself. I am such a dork. Also, I forgot to mention that geekpixie and I had a yarn-for-money exchange which I think worked out very well for both of us. I am very much looking forward to making a sweater with the bottle green patons classic wool. =) And, continuing on my yarn entry: I received an e-mail today from the guy at Caron yarns that I spoke to at the trade show. My sample skeins of yarn are on their way to me. Rock on! Free yarn! Tonight's plans: clean room to make space for yarn.

The trade show itself was really interesting. Most of the stuff was scrapbooking, and a lot of it looked the same, but there were some cool things. And there was yarn, Lion brand, Caron, and Coats and Clark all had booths. I scored some free stuff, 6 or so skeins of yarn from the Lion people, a set of crystallite needles from Coats and Clark, and (hopefully) a couple more skeins of yarn from Caron (one of the sales guys was going to send us stuff). Go me and my feminine wiles. I also got to fondle some rosewood needles, and boy were they pretty. Speaking of knitting, I completed the body of a little handbag during my various flights, and now just have to figure out how to use my sewing machine, so I can put the lining in and attach handles or straps of some sort. It's cute, and the variegated yarn did a neat looking spiral-y striping thing, completely by accident.

My roommate and I are making good progress on this, I think. After I had completed the head and torso, I passed it off to her, and she completed the arms and skirt, and then returned it to me. It took me about 3 weeks to do the wings. Damned metallics.

The pattern called to leave some portions of the wings unstitched, but we didn't like the way it looked, so it's filled with pearl blending filament. What a pain in the butt.

My "It's Happy Bunny" cross stitch was intended as a Christmas present for ladygwyn. However, even though the stitching was done last August, I never got around to completing the project (mostly due to my complete inability to sew a straight line). Thanks to a coworker who offered her sewing skills, this piece is now a pillow, and has finally gone to its rightful home.

I've lost my motivation.

If anyone should happen to find it...please return it to me as soon as possible.

Yesterday was a very good day. The first one of those that I've had in a while. We left for the beach in the early afternoon, since we didn't have anything better to do. Although it was chilly and windy, there were other stupid people out flying kites, playing in the sand, and walking around in their bare feet. I was tempted to buy a cheap kite at the convenience store, and try my hand at flying...but monetary concerns being what they are, I just took the opportunity to enjoy the view. There's something about being at the beach when there aren't many people around that is very calming. Sitting in the sun, with the wind whipping my hair around my face, smelling the sea...it's like my whole body relaxed in a way that it hasn't done in months. I felt refreshed and invigorated...though maybe that was just the cold. Anyway, I took a couple of pictures.

 After we had pretty much exhausted the possibilities which the beach had to offer, we wandered around a little in search of a place to eat. Mostly everything was closed, and it was actually a little creepy. Kind of makes me wonder what it's like to live in a place like that, if you just get used to how desolate it looks in the off season. We found an open restaurant and had some dinner. Although the food was okay, the service was kind of crappy, and I think our waitress was a bit of a flake. Oh well...at that point, I was just glad to be sitting someplace warm. Finally, we went to see Flogging Molly. The two opening bands were okay. There was a bit during the opening set when the band played "Stand By Me" and people were moshing; that was quite amusing. Also there were people in mohawks running around in circles like fools, and body surfing. I haven't been to a concert where there was body surfing in years. We stayed in the back of the room, so as not to get our asses kicked by stray fists or feet. Flogging Molly was fantastic, and I found it amusing that almost all of the songs they played were ones that I had selected more or less at random to put on the CD that I was listening to in my car all last week. No "Devil's Dancefloor" but it was a good set, and there was a lot of dancing. Part of me sort of wanted to be down there in the thick of it, flailing my heart. But it's probably best that I stayed out of harm's way...since if there is any possibility that I will get hurt, I most certainly will. Anyway, I also splurged and bought a t-shirt and a hoodie, which is going to quickly become my most favorite article of clothing. I had an awesome time, my face hurt from all the smiling, and my good mood and energy lasted about half of the way home, before it was overtaken by exhaustion. Managed to get home without driving us off the road, which was a nice way to end the day. It was a little before 2, and I crawled into bed, read for a while, and then had a good night's sleep. Also a nice way to end the day.