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Thursday, October 30, 2008

 

Happy Halloween, darlings

...and pleasant dreams!



# posted by Sharon @ 11:55 AM 0 Comments

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

 

Filler

Got this from Yarnhog:


Your result for The Best Thing About You Test...

Courage

Courage is your greatest virtue.


Courage, also known as bravery, will and fortitude, is the ability to confront fear, pain, risk, danger, and all that. "Physical courage" is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, or threat of death, while "moral courage" is the courage to act awesome in the face of opposition, shame, or discouragement. And you? You are remarkable. You demonstrate courage on all fronts. All 7 virtues are a part of you, but your courage runs deepest.


Courageous famous people: Genghis Khan, The Last Starfighter, Martin Luther King, Jr.


Your raw relative scores follow. 0% is low, and 100% is perfect, nearly impossible. Note that I pitted the virtues against each other, so in some way these are relative scores. It's impossible to score high on all of them, and a low score on one is just relatively low compared to the other virtues.


YOUR VIRTUES


70% Compassion


44% Intelligence


38% Humility


33% Honesty


0% Discipline


71% Courage


42% Passion

Take The Best Thing About You Test at HelloQuizzy


# posted by Sharon @ 9:57 AM 1 Comments

Saturday, October 25, 2008

 

Double happiness

This week I've finished not one but two big knitting projects that I just love, so I'm feeling rather chuffed! Without further ado, let's get to the pics.



The Lowdown


Project: Clapotis, by Kate Gilbert
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colorway 87, 6 skeins
Needles: US 7
I didn't bother blocking my Clappy--I just threw it on, went about my day and basked in the compliments!


***
Pay no attention to the fat lady with the camera. Just concentrate on the sweater, people.

The Lowdown

Project: Bombshell, from Big Girl Knits
Designer: Stefanie Japel
Yarn: Royal Llama Silk from Plymouth Yarns; 10 skeins
Needles: US 7 (body) and US 3 (sleeve, neckline and bottom edge borders)

I think this is my favorite sweater in the whole wide world. I can't wait to cast on another one for my daughter! Funny how Michelle wasn't all that crazy about having any of her mom's handknits (except the eyelash yarn boas I'm making for Rocky Horror), but when she saw this baby she decided she'd like to have one too! So I've got 6 balls of Berroco Comfort worsted in red, and I think it'll make a gorgeous Bombshell.
I almost wanted to wait until I could get Mr. Stitchjones to take my picture, instead of this ghetto self-portrait in the bathroom mirror, and of course I wrestled with not modeling my sweater at all because I'm fat. Well, you know what? Fuck it! Fuck it right in the ear. Tomorrow is my birthday, and no I'm not telling my age, just pick a number between 52 and 54. I can't magically be a size 10 no matter what I do. And even if I weren't fat, my bewbs would still be lopsided, because I had a lumpectomy five years ago. I was told I could have surgery to make 'em the same size, but decided I was happy just to have them both. Whatever, all I know is, I love the spit out of this sweater and I plan to wear it a lot!


# posted by Sharon @ 8:11 PM 11 Comments

Sunday, October 19, 2008

 

Decompressing

You know how I love baseball? So do lots and lots of other people; I feel the need to be more specific. I love October baseball. I especially love October baseball when the Red Sox are playing! So with increasing knuckle-biting anxiety, I watched every Red Sox postseason game, enduring TBS's miserable coverage (it's got to be an acronym for "Terrible Baseball Station") and being gradually but completely sucked into that particular emotional hell that only a true Red Sox fan can know. They had fought their way back from 3 games to 1 vs. Tampa Bay; last night they forced a seventh game and tonight they lost. So Tampa Bay goes to the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies. Thank God I'm a knitter; otherwise I'd be bored out of mah trees! I mean yeah, it's cool that TB has never been to the World Series and now they have their chance to be world champions; but hey-- it's only been since 2004 that the Curse of the Bambino has been broken! We denizens of Red Sox Nation were only beginning to get used to sweet victory! ;)



Before I completely lose the portion of my blog audience who doesn't give a rat's patoot about baseball, and by "blog audience" I mean of course you 1 or 2 good people, let me quickly change the topic. Let's see; yarn's always good. My alter ego, Stitchjones, got to go to Mt. Hood last week, and Michelle and I went along for the ride. We had a special invitation from the owner of this lovely shop. So I'm proud to say that Stitchjones hand dyed yarn and fiber is now available from "Hood to Coast". (Yes, I really wanted to work that in!) In all seriousness, though, if your travels take you to Mt. Hood, Oregon via U.S. Highway 26, do stop at the charming little A-frame house in Zig Zag with the sign on the roof that says "YARN". It's well worth it. The owner is also a dyer, and spinner, and just got her own drum carder oh my! Her stuff is gorgeous and I came home with some of it. Did I take a picture? No. Sorry, not yet. But it will come, as will photos of my girl's 18th birthday party. Which was attended by a half dozen of her friends, her dad and I, and of course her goofy aunt and uncle. We had a big Chinese feast and then cake. Apart from my brother's brand of "cringe" humor, the cake bit was the funniest. My family goes to this restaurant a lot, so we know the owner and servers. When we have celebrations, we give the cake to the wait staff and they present it, cut and serve it for us after the meal. I even remembered to bring a box of birthday candles, so I gave it to our server. When she brought out the cake, the candles were added and already lit, but uh-oh, she'd forgotten to take it out of the box. So one of the waiters was trying to help her wrangle a 1/2 sheet cake which was about to ignite the top of the bakery box! Fortunately, there was no need to call the Beaverton fire department, but man that was a close one.



I'm sorry this post is short on photos, I only have a couple to show you. Who'da thunk that this would become the new Stitchjones viral yarn?!








It's "Glam Sock" superwash merino sock yarn with silk and sterling silver fibers. I make it in all these sumptuous colors, one such being Electric Blue,





but Silver is the color I can't keep in stock! It sells almost as fast as I can put it up on Etsy. I sold one today, and the customer emailed a request for 7 more. Yow! So making lots of silver yarn is on the Stitchjones agenda for this week.



# posted by Sharon @ 11:50 PM 2 Comments

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

 

distractions


Ok, I confess that I'm a pattern hound. I am constantly buying knitting magazines, ordering patterns online and buying them from LYS's, and downloading freebies off the web. This is one such pattern, a nifty cabled scarf that will finally put to use that bigass skein of gorgeous wool and mohair from Adirondack Yarns. But these small projects that I can't resist are things that keep me from finishing the large projects I have on the needles, such as my Clapotis (which I actually need to finish because it's getting cold out!) and Annette's fine-gauge wrap, which she will get for Christmas instead of her Nov. 5 birthday. Christmas 2009, that is. And I've been working feverishly on a super stealth project which nobody knows about, but soon you will because it's almost done! Yeah.
I need to let you guys know that there's a contest on Sophanne's blog and it's a fun one. Go over and play, and tell her Chickenlips sent you. Prize is a gift certificate from Scout's Swag.
Yesterday I delivered some sock yarn and Little Feet kits to All About Yarn. I tripped, figuratively that is, and came home with 6 skeins of Malabrigo. I'm too lazy to take a picture of it, so if you don't mind clicking here you can see the colors. I've gotten out of the habit of photographing the yarn I buy. A sure sign that I buy too much and too often! Trust me, I have way more yarn than my Ravelry stash says I do. Storage is getting dicey. I religiously scour the newspapers for those Jo-Ann's and Michael's coupons, and buy up plastic bins at 40-50% off--ostensibly for business use, to store hand dyed yarn and fiber, but I filled one to the brim today, just with yarn I've bought over the past 6 months to "make sweaters". Ha! And lets not even get started on the sock yarn. Oh but it's depressing, thinking about how screwed up I am. Denial, it works for me.
While at All About Yarn, I met the lovely Melissa, who asked me if I get much time to knit these days, what with all the dyeing. Nope--but that's OK, I do manage to finish an item here and there. I just need to not feel inadequate when I read this blog. That lady can knit!
I was watching the ALCS and working on Annette's wrap, but the Red Sox were getting their butts handed to them, so I retreated into the bedroom to blog. Last I checked, the score was something like 13-4. Last night they lost 9-1. So their backs are to the wall--again. Let's see if they can do what they did last year, and also in 2004!
Family stuff
My dad is OK. His prostate trouble turned out to not be cancer but a stubborn infection, for which he got some antibiotics. I haven't talked to him in about 10 days or so, but a couple of birthdays are coming up which means family get-togethers. On Saturday night, we're celebrating Michelle's 18th birthday (even though she actually turns 18 on the 20th). Some of you may remember that a year ago, I was super pissed at my brother for standing us up on his niece's 17th birthday. Even though I think I deleted the more vitriolic of my blog posts, he got the clear message that I was not pleased, so he's going to be at our fave Chinese restaurant-slash-hangout with bells on. Because "turning 18 is special". Whatever. I like to think he knew his ass would be grass if he flaked out again!

# posted by Sharon @ 8:07 PM 5 Comments

Monday, October 06, 2008

 

may I have the envelope please?

The dye business is rockin', and I'm planning something special for the end of 2008 as a way of thanking everyone who helped make Stitchjones the yarn juggernaut it is today! But if there's any down side to running a growing creative business, it's that I have no time to knit and thus no FO's to show off on my poor neglected ol' blog. I'm making imperceptible progress on three projects currently OTN, but certainly nothing that's worth breaking out the camera for.




Before I continue, I wanted to let you know that there are fabulous new patterns at Yarn Over Lounge. Lee is a very talented designer--I love how she puts yarns together to create feminine, flowing and thoroughly unique garments! Do check out the YOL website, it's all beautiful but there are a couple of jackets in particular that are so gorgeous I get all weepy and stuff.




So since not much knitting is going on at Chickenlips, I thought I'd flash some yarn and fiber pr0n. Introducing Tribute Handpainted Superwash Merino DK, in honor of some of my favorite Oscar-winning actresses.



"Anjelica"







"Kathy"




"Meryl"






"Helen"






I was heavily influenced by Blue Moon Fiber Arts here--I think it was because the DK yarn I used has the tight twist which is a trademark of BMFA. Definitely the presentation style--un-reskeined and reining in my penchant for high-contrast and high-intensity colors--was me (pitifully) imitating Tina's artistry. But I always love letting my imagination take flight, and I've even sold a couple of these. I'm planning a total of 6 to 8 colorways in this series, as more cones of the DK yarn are on order. Bonus points if you can correctly name all the actresses!



There's new BFL spinning fiber over at Etsy, and here's a taste. More coming in the next couple of days.



"Untitled" (trust me, it's intentional,)



"Revolution Earth" (nod to the B-52's)



Tonight I had dinner with my friend Bev, for whom I knit the chemo cap I showed you last post. She really liked it and it looks good on her. We watched a movie I hadn't seen, "Meet Joe Black". What can I say, that was three hours of my life I'll never get back. I'm sorry, I know when I say this someone'll want to check for a pulse, but Brad Pitt does nothing for me! And the movie was all talky, nuancing, teary-eyed closeups and pregnant pauses. Ho-freaking-hum. We had a nice dinner though, and it's always good to hang with old friends. Now if anybody wants to know who my celebrity crush has been for the last 13 years...




And yes, I'm the reigning "Six Degrees" champ.


# posted by Sharon @ 10:06 PM 7 Comments

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