Year: 2003

Rrrrip-it!

Sarah Crafts

Here are the things I should have been doing lately:

  • painting the basement family room
  • working on MQP
  • practicing piano for a last-minute accompanist job
  • working on a wedding gift
  • working on Christmas gifts

Instead, I’ve been working on the front of Janda…and I paid for my sneaky knitting by having to rip out 20 (!) rows of the raglan shaping today.

Tonight, I promise to make huge amounts of quilting progress in between priming and painting the wall of the basement room that we’re going to install built-in cabinets on. The rest of the walls will just have to wait until I can move enough boxes to get to them. How on earth do they manage to do an entire room in two days on Trading Spaces? It takes me two days to strip wallpaper and patch a single wall to my satisfaction…although maybe I’m being a bit of a perfectionist – after all, aside from the top, oh, 10 inches or so, the wall is going to be covered with cabinets and bookcases…

Touchdown!

Sarah General

Woo-hoo! One hour, five minutes until pre-season football! The pot of chili is simmering on the stove right now. (Thankfully, the AC makes it feel like fall, despite the fact that it’s incredibly hot and humid outside!)

I know I haven’t been blogging much lately – I’ve been busy working on projects that I can’t post about. I’ve also made some progress on projects I can post about, but I’ve been too busy doing stuff to post!

Look Out! Flying Time!

Sarah General

Where has the summer gone?!? It’s the last day of July… I guess time really does start to speed up when you get older, because I’m pretty sure yesterday was June 1st!

All I’ve been doing lately on the knitting front is swatching – not very exciting. Maybe I’ll actually do something productive at Sit & Knit tonight?

Every Rose Has It’s Thorn

Sarah Crafts

Thank goodness I took the time to swatch the pink mohair for Grecian Rose before I went back to the store and bought the rest. It’s gorgeous. Pink, fluffy, soft to knit…until I touched it to my arm, where it turned into a square of thorns. It feels like there are bits of straw poking out of it into my arm. Sniff. I even tried washing it and letting it dry to see if maybe a washing would remove the itchiness. No such luck. Ah, well. I’m sure if I look around I’ll be able to find some other lovely pink fuzzy yarn that won’t drive me insane with scratchiness.

I think maybe this is a sign that I should be working on the projects I currently have going rather than starting something new…but that doesn’t mean I can’t be on the lookout for pink, fuzzy, non-scratchy yarn!

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors’ Knitting

Sarah Crafts

(It must have been one of those commandments on the third tablet that broke!)

Why am I coveting? My mom knits, too, and we fuel each other’s obsession…I’ve even gotten her hooked on knitting socks. Now she’s starting a new project: she’s going to knit a dress out of fabulous ribbon yarn. (Covet, covet.) The ribbon works up so beautifully!

Of course, it’s not like I’m not starting new projects myself! I’ve found a lovely yarn to use for the Grecian Plait sweater from Knitty. I think I’ll call it “Grecian Rose”.

When Good Dogs Go Bad

Sarah Crafts, Dogs

Warning: the pictures that follow may be too graphic for those with sensitive natures to handle.

What started out as a peaceful day quickly turned into mayhem and destruction, leaving one skein dead and another wounded Saturday afternoon. The victim, identified only as “Classic Elite Miracle”, was innocently napping in the shade of a knitting bag, unaware of the tragedy that was about to occur.

the culpritThe suspect, known on the street as “Destructo-Boy”, was taken in for questioning immediately following the discovery of the remains. Investigators believe they may have conclusive evidence of his guilt in this matter, and will be deciding on punishment shortly.

the victim

Relatives of the victim were mourning the loss late Saturday. “Who knew what might have become of her had she lived? She hadn’t even been swatched yet.” were the words of one close friend who was also in the knitting bag that fateful afternoon. The wounded – a swatch of Berroco – was treated and released, and declined comment. Members of Berroco’s family were outraged at the incident, and expressed a hesitation to ever visit the knitting bag. “Sure, that dog may look innocent, but he’s obviously a killer. I won’t feel safe until he’s behind bars.” stated one family member, on condition of anonimity.

For now, the knitting bag will never be left unsupervised while “Destructo-Boy” is roaming free.

Progress!

Sarah Crafts

After a late-night trip to Starbuck’s the night before last – I swear I got decaf! – I was buzzed until one a.m., so…

Suki is complete!

I added buttons to the straps when I sewed them on, to make it both more secure and prettier. Don’t ask me why I had several white star buttons sitting in my sewing supplies – no, really, don’t ask me, because I honestly have no recollection of why I bought them!

I’m not as happy with how this one felted – the white yarn didn’t felt up as uniformly as the blue and the purple, even though they are the same type of yarn. Maybe they bleach the white, and that alters the fiber somehow? I do like the over-all look, though.

…and, my first aran afghan square is done and ready to be blocked!

It ended up a smidge bigger than expected, but as long as they’re all approximately the same size, it shouldn’t matter. Now I have to decide which of the other great squares in the book to try next!

Busy Long Weekend

Sarah General

When things get busy, I apparently forget to blog. :)

Let’s see – spent the weekend with Denis’ family, cooked lots of food, ate lots of food, played some cards, lost $5.40 at the race track, and finished knitting a sock. (I think the track is probably the oddest place I’ve ever knitted. At least, the people around me thought it was pretty odd. Especially when I slipped my shoe off and tried on the sock!)

I haven’t sewed the straps on Suki yet, or even taken pictures. Tonight I’m going out, so I won’t be doing that tonight, either. Maybe tomorrow.

Old Auntie Sarah

Sarah General

No knittin’ yesterday – instead, I took the day off to run errands (hooray for fresh groceries in the house!) and spend some time with two of my neices (and their parents, of course!)

Somewhere between swimming, playing bubbles and drawing with sidewalk chalk (otherwise known as outside crayons) I realized I’m getting old. Woke up this morning planning on going to the gym…until I stood up. Ugh. Maybe the advil will kick in soon? I guess it doesn’t matter – lifting a three-and-a-half year old can probably take the place of weight lifting, right?

All in all, it was a perfect day. :)

Technically Crafting

Sarah Crafts

Has anyone else out there noticed the complete lack of crafting programs for the Mac? Things like knitwear designers or quilt designers…what exists is either very pricey, or ancient – c’mon, system 7?!? Windows users, on the other hand, have their choice of many $20 shareware apps. I’d break down and fire up Virtual PC if there was a decent interface among them. But, like most windows apps, they’re clunky and counter-intuitive – I don’t have an opinion on this or anything… ;)

I can see I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands and write something. If I can ever put down the crafts I’m working on long enough to pick up the computer.