still alive!

But I've been mostly wrestling with cookies these past few days. Just a word of advice: if anyone asks you to make forty dozen cookies for their wedding, and your house is not air conditioned, say no. Because the weather will be in the 90's the whole week before the wedding, and your cookies will be fucked. Especially the ones that have melted chocolate on them.

This is what I get for baking fancy cookies. If I was just gonna do your basic chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies, I'd be fine, but nooo. I have to be dramatic about it.

Son of a bitch.

As for knitting, I'm knitting a Spawn of Large Blue Stripey hat when I get too pissed off with the cookies, and plotting my next move in the knitting world. Which may involve purchasing. No, wait: I have to figure out what to do with the other half of the Noro. I think it may become part of a hat for my mother. WHAT hat is the question.

picture pages

And here they are! Billions and billions of pictures. Well, ok, five. Aren't you lucky?

First we have Spawn of Large Blue Stripey, in two fun arrangements:
These guys went off to the Rebuilding Greensburg project, along with some random hats and such. Even though they're acrylic, I kind of love them, and may use the rest of Large Blue Stripey to make a triangle blanky.
And here we have the beginning of the Posh Hat, posing alluringly on a paper bag:
The Posh Hat, by the way, is actually the La Mancha Watchcap, found in a knitting patterns-a-day calendar thingie, designed by JoLene Treace. Am in a hurry, but will post a link to her page later. I've made this pattern about three times. I love it.
This time I did a much wider garter stitch brim, so as to have more rainbow-y colors. I also take out two repeats of the lace pattern, because otherwise it's WAY too big for my head.
And the aerial view. Must go hang out with tall people so they can enjoy it.

holy crap.

I just made an awesome hat. That's right, the posh Noro hat has turned out quite fierce. I'll have pictures tomorrow when my face is not scary.

And dammit, why did I have to make an awesome wool hat when it's 90+ degrees out? I won't be able to wear it for months.

ha ha!

Nothing like digging through your so-called stash and discovering one of the few balls of really nice yarn that you own. I'm too poor to buy the nice stuff without a plan, or let it sit around unused, but I guess this one just fell by the wayside . . . or maybe it was too splendiferous for Year One Knitter Me to deal with. Anyhow, I think it's Noro (its label has gone bye-byes, natch) and it's all about the rainbow-y goodness. With luck, it's going to be a hat. Well, the brim of a hat. With a teal crown bit. This is my plan, anyway.

And naturally, I took pictures of the gorgeousness but I don't know where the cord is to upload the photos. Curse you, moving. By the time I figure out where everything is, I'll be heading out again, I'm sure.

Ooh, and starting tomorrow I have to get on with the baking of cookies for a friend's wedding, so maybe we'll have food pictures. I'll try to restrain myself, though. There's nothing that makes me crankier than when I'm browsing the blogs enjoying the knitting pictures, and then suddenly it all turns to food. Maybe food pictures are like babies, though: your own are always the cutest.

Crack is Wack.

If I ever knit any more garter stitch or stockinette again ever in my life I'm gonna snap and . . . and . . . I dunno, build a shrine to Dick Cheney? That signifies deep madness, right?

I need a lace pattern and some small needles like woah.

That said, I might be able to convince myself to put sleeves on one last baby sweater because it really is damn cute. Someday my friends' children are going to rise up and smother me in all the knitwear I make them. This is a day far in the future, however, as none of them are older than one yet, so I'm safe for a few years.

the verdict

I'm pretty sure my brother liked the Large Blue Stripey. I'm not entirely sure, because the only comment I can remember was "It's big!" Well, duh. It is a Large Blue Stripey. He did also mention that it'll be useful as he's soon moving to colder climes. Which was the point. If I actually plan, (sorry, fun with italics) maybe he'll get a nice toasty sweater for Christmas.

Let's see . . . once I get the pictures uploaded, you'll get to see Spawn of Large Blue Stripey, as I did indeed purchase way too much yarn. In my defense, I'd intended to put a wider border on the LBS, but ended up liking the way the thinner one looked. Ah well. More random presents for the rest of the world, I guess. I could start on Christmas hats now . . . dunno, did a lot of hats last Christmas. Dammit, why do I know so many boys? And as if it's not bad enough trying to find decent patterns for them, birthday cards are almost as impossible. Graah. Well, I guess there's always the Keanu Reeves Matrix Sweater, though I may have to make one for myself first. The only thing I liked about that movie was the knitwear, and that was before I started knitting. I have a thing for grey sweaters. Have I mentioned that before? The first sweater I made was indeed grey and for me.

Ok. Gonna go request the Keanu Reeves Matrix Sweater Book (otherwise known as one of the multitudinous Hollywood Knits books by Suss Cousins) from my library. And then I have to finish the Pink Leafy Sweater so I won't feel guilty about buying more yarn for a sweater for me.

(I'm gonna talk about not-knitting for a minute.)

Right. Can't help myself. The tv is all freaking out about drunken astronauts, and all I can think is that it's about time someone brought the badass back to our space program. Bring back the days of the hard-living fighter pilot, I say.

In other news, today we'll discover what my brother thinks of the Large Blue Stripey.