The people are demanding.

Seriously...you people are noodges! Fine, then. It's a post with photos, now with added best-friend goodness.


This is Catherine, my best friend and former roommate. She's wearing her birthday present: a feather-and-fan scarf (one repeat with a two-stitch garter border) in Lion Brand Suede, Seacrest Print, about 1 2/3 balls. Not measured, but it's approximately 62" x 5 1/2". This turned out very plush and silky, and she loved it. Caety lives in Fort Worth, where she'll actually have a use for the thing.

This photo was taken outside of Yia Yia Mary's Greek Restaurant in SW Houston. Notice that this means Caety was visiting me! We visited the Renaissance Festival yesterday, then had lunch with my folks today. Caety brought along Scott, who my mom got pictures of but I didn't, and...


Thomas, the coolest two-year-old ever in the history of two-year-olds. My mom brought him a little stuffed Blue (of Blue's Clues), who posed with him, and a double-decker Matchbox bus, for which Blue became a stopping wall. In this photo (he was wiggly today, so I did not actually capture the bus), Thomas is making the bus go "zoom" across the table.


Here, he's hanging out in my mom's lap, eating a lemon. Already a culinary adventurer, Thomas had also enjoyed hummus, pita, olives, and a little chicken souvlaki and french fries.

My "nephew" is quite the fun kiddo. He's pretty articulate for his age, adorably funny, loves to give hugs, bouncy but well-behaved, completely entertaining. The scarf was Caety's early birthday present (which was actually late...it was supposed to be for her *last* birthday).

Her other present: I'm going to Fort Worth next weekend to visit and babysit so she and Scott can go out, and so I get some more Fun Kid Time. And to drag her to Super Jo-Ann with me. (By the way, will somebody remind me to write Jo-Ann and ask why the hell they don't have any Superstores in the Houston area?)

More knitting content:

My first (and possibly only) Ballband Dishcloth. I like the way it turned out, but I just didn't enjoy the pattern that much...I've never worked with two colors before, which could be part of the problem - my edges looked a bit messy. Perhaps my problem was that it was boring, but not mindless. I don't mind boring if it's mindless; then I can do something else for the fun.

As for interesting and not mindless:


The "fingertip towel" in Sugar 'n' Cream Countryside Ombre; stitch is a fagoting panel from the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook. Not sure how useful it will actually be - I mostly did this to get a good idea of the rhythm of knitting a lace pattern. But I'm really kind of proud of it - not a mistake to be found in the lace - and I love the angular "S" thing that the ombre did. My next step in practicing lace: sport weight yarn, more complex pattern, larger item.

And, since I cut off the top of her head in the photo above:

A much better photo of my mom, taken in August 2004 at my wedding shower. She had a great time today - Mom is the biggest fan of little kids, and Thomas takes to good people like a duck to water. He and my mom have always been crazy about each other, and I know the visit just made her week.

It made mine too - I really miss living closer to Caety and her family. Not that my family or great Houston friends are chopped liver, mind you! If I could just move the three of them down here, or move all that's good about Houston to DFW...sigh.

Other news briefs:

- Amy gave me a whole bunch of jewelry supplies after I mentioned some of the projects I had planned for holiday gifts. Yay! Thanks, Amy! My newest pointy sticks: a five-piece set of jewelry pliers (I bought those myself).

- Speaking of holiday gifts, I'm now working on them in earnest. One of my 43 Things (of which I don't yet have 43) is "give an item I handmade to each recipient on my holiday list." There will be beads and wire, knitting, baking, and a few other skills involved.

Hey, quit laughing. I actually have a few done already.

- Caety bought a bodice from Unicorn, and I bought a pair of Dream Shoes, both for ren faire garb wear. We've been swearing for about a decade now that we'd go to faire in garb; now it looks like we're taking the steps. Over the years, it's been "time, but no money" or "money, but no time" to buy or sew what we want...plus, I'm still developing my sewing skills. But I do believe, come time for Scarborough next spring, we just might be ready to make good on the threat.

FINALLY (heh!): no complaints allowed on the length of this post - when the people demand photos, they must take the words that go with them! In all seriousness, I'll be working on updating twice a week, with more frequent photos. The joy! The anticipation!

The miles and miles of BS!

Three pointy sticks and old-man laughter

And I am again ashamed to say I have no photos to share yet. It's not that I forget, exactly...it's just that...yeah, I got nothin'.

At any rate, there has been more crafty action going on. I finished the lacy fingertip towel (which The Crochet Dude declared would have to be used on "really small fingertips"...thanks, Drew :) ) at SnB last week, as well as what may be my one and only Ballband Dishcloth ever (looks snazzy, but I just didn't enjoy the pattern that much).

So, some missions accomplished, I've started working on a freeform-knitted spiderweb, full of random increases and YOs and interspersed with elongated knit rows. Yes, I'm happy to report that I got the knack of the double wrap and the proper way to drop it. This will come in terribly handy for Christmas knitting.

This week's third pointy stick...well, I suppose that's a bit inaccurate, as I used chopsticks at dinner last night, and there were a lot of pins involved in my newest endeavor. At any rate, I am proud to report that on Monday evening, having never done such a thing before, I properly wound and loaded bobbins, then threaded my sewing machine - and last night, I used it.

Now, I've had my hands on a machine before, and I'm only sewing straight seams so far. (Well...straight in sort of a Dali-istic way.) But I'm pretty proud of this, as I have largely stayed away from seamstressy pursuits up to now. Unlike knitting, I don't get an immediate sense that I'm just going to love doing it - but it's a useful skill to have, if nothing else, and I'm glad I've taken the first step.

Finally, I couldn't resist sharing a Rhinebeck post with you. While there are tons and tons out there, Kilted David has written what has to be my favorite, including a Harlot reference and some lovely descriptions of New York's turning leaves and of eating at the CIA...

...not to mention one passage that made me laugh so hard I couldn't breathe. If you don't already read David's blog, or know him personally (color me jealous!), I highly recommend it - there are frequent photos of Himself knitting and wearing Utilikilts (often at the same time). He's also funny as hell and really great with a camera.

The next few days promise to be hellaciously busy outside of work, but I'll photograph the spiderweb (if not the sewing) and try to show it to you in the next post. I might include the other FOs as well...scary!

...fortunately, unlike my current projects...

I swear that my long posting absences are not a pattern. Really! My previous post summed up most every weekday for the last four weeks, up to last Friday. As I told my S'n'Buddies (yipe, I'm making *myself* cringe) two weeks ago (which was when Bryan insisted I go to regain a measure of sanity...and yes, it worked), the Really Big-Ass Trade Show took a whole hell of a lot out of me, and out of a lot of other people, too.

Fortunately, the RBATS was this week - is, in fact, closing up shop right now. Monday still had some loose ends, but the last three days at work have been been filled with:

- Bloglines
- Yahoo! Groups
- Television Without Pity
- Cute Overload
- Watching the entire episode of Heroes that I missed on Monday

...and very little work or angst to interrupt it. I was actually given half of Tuesday off on comp time (which, you know, doesn't really exist and all) and inadvertently spent it with my mom, which still worked out OK - partially because I finally picked up a couple of boxes of kitchen toys from my wedding registry.

From my wedding. Which was TWO YEARS AGO on Monday. Procrastinate? Me?

On the other side of that, Bryan picked out Pappas Bros. Steakhouse as a venue for the eating of Wedding-Commemorative Meat. As I so often get verbal smackdowns for making people hungry with my food descriptions...and as I'm not into drooling on my keyboard at the moment...suffice it to say that he had ribeye, I had lamb, and a good time was had by all. Certainly worth missing Heroes, hee.

As for the rest, my brief evenings and coveted weekends have been devoted to doing Anything But Working, Much Less Thinking About Work, and involved much semi-dressed, husband-couch-cats-knitting time, with a little shopping thrown in. I picked up the Reader's Digest Ultimate Sourcebook on stitch patterns...

...and employed it to create an AFO in the last two weeks. I'd say "look, here it is," but...yeah, I generally suck, even when I have too much time on my hands. As a preview, it's my first almost-complete lace pattern project, employing a fagoting panel with a four-row repeat. OK, so I wussed and it just happens to be a hand towel...on 8s...in Sugar 'n' Cream. But it's really pretty, I promise! I'll finish it tonight and post pictures soonish.

I enjoyed working the pattern quite a bit - not too fiddly and gave me a chance to get accustomed to the rhythm of lace. I'll certainly need more practice, but it's given me a chance to get my sea legs while not overtaxing my already overtaxed brain.

Otherwise in the works? Gifts - one of which is for someone who's now a confirmed reader, whose birthday is exactly 150 days after mine, who put up with sharing space with me for a looooong time, and who's bringing her fantastic TallKid, TallHusband, and TallSelf to my neck of the woods in just over two weeks.

So no, I'm not telling. :D

This weekend, there will be knitting, sewing (!), and - oh yes - the first baking of the autumn season. After much ugly rain and a couple of days of early-summer temps, Houston is also benefiting from one of its five Gorgeous Weather Days a year: 70F, sunny and clear. It's all I can do not to make little happy noises every time I walk out the door.

Since I'm all out of "all I can do" after the last month, I've at least tried to keep my voice down as I sigh contentedly in the breeze.

It's good to be back.

Spinners on a dirty minivan with an Ernie doll hanging from the rearview mirror

If you have been up since 6:30 am, and are in the car going home at 7:40 pm, and have not been home before this, and barely had time to eat lunch, and laughing at the aforementioned
minivan has been the best thing in your day so far...well, it sucks.

If, however, you walk in the door to your adorable husband waiting on the couch with Chinese takeout and an episode of Star Trek: TNG on the TV, in waiting for the season premiere of Veronica Mars...your day just got a whole lot better.

Dragonflies in my belly

Actually written at ~1:30 pm

My hands are figuratively (spiritually?) twitching and my insides are doing flip-flops. Why? I have a creative burst just BEGGING to pop out of me like...a really gross analogy I just decided not to make. How about...like spring snakes out of a tennis ball can?

Seriously, I have dragonflies in my belly (like butterflies, but more fiery and much more original, don't you think?). I have started listing. I have been shooting around on crafty blogs looking for ideas. It is all I can do to not grab my purse and my portable Ballband-in-a-bag (don't you love it when you find the perfect shoulder bag?) and haul ass to any of 85 creative stores I can think of right now. I even feel sure that the Sucky Jo-Ann on Weslayan* could yield magnificent possibilities.

So why haven't I? What is holding me back? Why am I writing a blog entry when I could be:

a) finishing the Ballband
b) stopping by my mom's to pick up the supplies I left there Christmas before last
c) meandering through Michaels or hopping through Hobby Lobby to get more supplies I don't really need
d) fast-forwarding to tomorrow, when I get to go to High Fashion Fabrics† on a mission with Holly
e) at least sitting in front of Mom K's sewing machine and pretending to start on my Easy Cotton Tiered Skirt**
f) starting my first Curve of Pursuit†

Because, my dears, I couldn't be. Because I Am At Work.

The beauty part of my job is that I write and edit for a living...so if I handle my Windoze just right, I can look for all the world as if I am Working Hard instead of Hardly Working.*** This is one of those cases. I dared the Fates and surfed for a bit, but at the moment, I am creating this very entry in Word.

I think it's a serious case of autumn fever...those couple of days of cool breezes (even if they were only in the evenings) have me itching for more. And it's making me nuttier, as evidenced. There are pumpkins to carve, scoop out, mash, and bake into goodies. Skirts to sew. Objects to knit. Paper to cut and fold. And it's at least another three and a half hours before I can get anywhere close. I could pull something out of my hat on the lunch hour I still have coming – but then I wouldn't want to come back, and I already don't want to be here.

Suddenly, I find myself also feeling sympathy for those of you who are reading this right now. Creative schizophrenia and being antsy for autumn do not good writing make. Would it help you all to know that this is making me feel better?

No? Okay then.

One actual creative update. I took the time last night to plot out the squares for Curve of Pursuit in Illustrator, so once I get the whole thing properly set up, I can easily switch in and out to create color arrangements. Sure, I understand that the concept of Log Cabining is to wing it...but I just couldn't bear it if Curve of Pursuit looked too...well...wung. So this solution is effing genius, if you ask me. Short rows, here I come.

The Ballband will be finished this weekend – this I decree. Beyond that, there will probably be baking and possibly sewing and origami. There will definitely be shopping.

And now, there will be lunch...though I can't promise that I won't do a few rows of Ballband, too. I'll take what I can get at this point.

Update, 8:30 pm: Haven't touched the Ballband yet. Have, however, just polished off a lovely bar of hazelnut chocolate. I am all about the diligence.

* I must ask that you all forgive the Rampant Use of Unnecessary Capitals.**** It's just the Mood I'm In.*****
† These two are not my fault; the titles really look like that.
** But you were warned.
*** Thoroughly warned.
**** I can't stop myself.
***** Somebody help me.