Not Another Knitwit

I have been on a two-week long cleaning binge here at my house... it started with my bedroom (I found my bedroom floor!!!!) and has been slowly progressing through the rest of my life. Those of you who know me know that I am not an incredibly neat person... so the enormity of this task is simply overwhelming. The joy of it all has been finding yarn that I forgot that I had, or the half finished projects that just need to be sewn up to be completed, but also that necessary de-stashing that has gone hand in hand with all of the discovery. I'm sending some of the yarn in a care package to a friend, but most of the yarn that I know I will never use is going to Lynn H. and her CityKidz Knit program. I love reading about all the great stuff these kids make and since I know that there is some of this stuff that I will just never use ever in my life, I figure it should go to someone who will use it and have fun with it!

I've also been knitting along on some of my projects here, including a baby blanket that I'm knitting for a friend who was an avid crotchetier when she was younger but arthritis has robbed her of her ability to craft with her hands any more. It's going to be a simple 9-square (maybe a 12-square depending on how big I end up making the squares) blanket with each square done in log cabin with a trio of blue shades then edged in white. I'm trying to make it big enough so that this kid will be able to use it as a toddler blanket and beyond – not just as a baby blanket. The only draw back is that it will be made of acrylic so it won't really be able to be a nap blanket, just a supervised use blanket, but I was given the yarn by my friend and asked to make it into a blanket and because it is a favor I'm using the yarn that she gave me.

No pictures today, I'll get going on that later this week. Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

I had a really good week! I also wasn't too diligent about keeping my camera around when things were happening so I don't have any pictures for you again... at least not any pictures of my knitting (oops). I will distract you instead with pictures of really cute bunnies!

That's Spencer and Gypsy. They are current residents of the Midwest Rabbit Rescue & Re-home and are totally cute. Gypsy is an Angora and I can't remember what kind Spencer is right at the moment. My sometimes deranged (but in a loveable way) DW had decided that he really really wants to get some rabbits.. I haven't really made up my mind at the moment. I'm pretty sure that I would love having them if we did get them but I'm not sure I need the added stress of caring for another living being more complicated then a fish. So the jury is still definatly out on this decision, but I suspect that it will come to a conclusion sooner rather then later.

I actually have a social life!!! I know, it's such a shocker... DW and I made a haggis dinner on Saturday night for a group of friends. In addition to the haggis we had tatties n' neeps (potatos and turnips) and a good time was had by all! For all of you who are cringing or looking for the nearest bathroom at the thought of haggis just stop it! It's a pudding (the British sense of a pudding not jello) form of meatloaf. We used kidney and liver in addition to the lamb and venison that we used for the meat portion and then there was oatmeal, onions and spices. We weren't able to get our hands on a whole stomach but we had one that was cut up so we wrapped that around the filling and wrapped the whole thing up in cheesecloth and tied it shut. We ended up not having a big enough pot to boil the whole thing so we added a pint of beef stock and plopped the whole thing in a casserole dish and threw it in the oven so that we could use the tempature probe that came with our oven to ensure that it was cooked through. We ended up having four of our friends over and they all really enjoyed the food. Despite being a bit time consuming this is definatly a food I will cook again! PS - that isn't a picture of our haggis, ours didn't look quite that pretty at the end, oh well.

And I leave you with the cuteness that is penguins in sweaters! The Knitist! deserves all the credit for this find. It's an Australian Broadcasting Company article about the Aussie Fariy Penguin population and the use of sweaters to help them recover from being exposed to oil spills. The whole story (and the pattern for the Penguin sweaters) is here!

Well thats all for now folks! Hope everyone has a great week!

And Happy Earth Day to all the rest of you! This last week has just been excruciating. I haven't really been on a steady sleep schedule for the last couple of weeks because I haven't been working many hours. But this week I was out at a job until 2 in the morning and then didn't get home until after 3am. Then 2 days later I had to be up early to get equipment from my boss and go to a job abour 45 minutes away from my house. It hasn't made for the most pleasant of weeks. I'm trying not to complain about my job because I am glad that I have a job, but there are some issues that I am having that I will definatly need to work out soon or I may start to seriously start investing in a vacant plot to hide some bodies (not really, but who doesn't dream).

Went up and visted my parents for my Dad's birthday. My dad is great, he is a wonderful musician and I've mostly lost track of the number of groups that he currently performs with. So here's to another year of having a kick ass Dad!

Here's a sneak peek at the baby blanket I'm knitting for my friend. The big square will go in the middle with 12 of the smaller squares around it all connected with a border of white. It'll be really cute and totally boy friendly. More to come as more of the smaller squares are done.

And this is the little bit of stuff I've been working on the last 2 days. It's a shawl for Grandma. It's just going to be a simple center increase shawl with a border in the "Thistle Lace" from the first Vogue Stitchonary. I'm really optimistic about how this will turn out and I haven't run into any problems yet!

Long week at work but I made it through and had a day to recover. I think I'm mostly going back to bed to prepare for my week, but I also finished my socks! These were the first pair of socks that I didn't really follow a pattern for. I cast on 68 stitches and just made what felt right. But there is someone out mowing the grass and I can't see the computer screen anymore so I'm going to go and take a allergy pill and curl up in the basement. Later all.