Well, not the captioning part, obviously.

Kris* was sitting there, putting away an XBox game, and Meeko sat there in front of him and put her paw up on the game like that.  Kris and I started laughing, and for once my camera was within arm’s reach.  So, voila.  My first LOLDog.  And, you know, if you wanted to vote on it or anything, that would be cool…

Speaking of, did anyone catch this week’s “Big Bang Theory”?  The bit with Sheldon grumping at Penny for sending him a LOLCat?  I cracked up completely. 

*And yes, you will notice that Kris has no hair.  He had been growing it out, trying to see how long he could get it, but since he knew he was going to have to cut it for the show, he decided to just buzz it and get it over with last weekend.  It’s all teddy-bear fuzzy.  I like it.

But, there is something special about this one!  This is the very first thing I have sewn on my birthday/Christmas present from my darling hubby:

My brand-new, picked-it-up-today Bernina Aurora 430.  It is a thing of beauty, and I am completely in love.  I’m in negotiations with hubby to modify the Ikea desk on which it sits so that the machine will sit down and the desk surface will be even with the sewing surface.  We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.  I’d like to modify the desk I already have rather than buying a new one.

And since I was informed that I don’t post enough pictures of my beasties, here’s another shot of Rowena, in her “Jabba the Hutt” pose. 

I’ll have to get more pictures of the rest of the crew.  They just aren’t as photogenic as some other people‘s animals.    Have a good one!

OK, they look like utter crap like that.  The ribbing pulls them in.  So… a glove with a thumb and 1/2 of a forefinger, modeled:

I’m loving these, and I can’t wait to finish them up!

And now, a gratuitous picture of a fat kitty stalking a laser pointer dot. Rowena loves that damn thing.  She’s a loon.

One of these days, I need to get video of her chasing it around the room.  It’s quite funny.

Also, the pic he took of Turtle’s brand-new Lantern Moon basket.
And, just because we haven’t had any pictures in a very long time…
FISHIES! (There were algae issues. Ick. Not pretty. Happliy, solved now.)

He’s fine now – Kris and Jen and I went sailing with our friends Mary and Dave (and their oh-too-cute Beagle, Pooky) on Saturday, and hubby was in charge of the grill. Unfortunately, he was handling raw meat and didn’t wash his hands, which he then used to eat. So… food poisoning! Thankfully minor, but he felt like crap until last night. On the upside, he managed not to get motion sick, thanks to the ginger root pills he took on the advice of the Mythbusters. Seriously – he was once sick for 3 days after riding the Spider at an amusement park, and he was completely fine on the boat. Amazing stuff. I think he’s going to see if it helps when we go to Kennywood over Memorial Day weekend with some friends. (And yes, I know he could take Dramamine, but it really makes him spacey, and he hates it.)

OK, OK, I know why you are here – pictures! First of all, here is the Tammy Shrug in Cotton Tape. I still need to do some sort of edging to stabilize it a bit, but I’ve worn it like this. I really enjoyed working with the yarn, and have been trying reeeeally hard not to order any from elann, since they have it for cheap, and it is discontinued. I don’t have any specific patterns in mind for it, so I don’t need it. If I come up with something, I might break down and order it on my next YFC free day. (I am bound and determined to behave until then. I will NOT be forced to admit that yarn is stonger than me.) If anyone has any pattern rec’s, feel free to pass them along, of course. =)

Next, the moment you have all been waiting for (Just let me keep deluding myself, ok?) – the completed Prosperous Plum Tank! Again, let me rave for a moment about this pattern – well-written and lots of fun to knit. Very flattering fit (provided I remember not to wear some obnoxiously colored bra under it. Lace – duh) I promise – modeled shots will follow at some point when I am not here by myself. Or possibly this weekend at MDS&W, where I am planning to wear it.

On that note, I wasn’t sure if the weather was going to allow me to wear a tank top, and I really didn’t want to cover it with a jacket or (my usual fallback) a denim shirt. So, I looked at the Cotton Fleece I had left (bought 6, used less than 3 on the tank), and I thought… I remembered the edging on the Knit Picks Leaf-Edged Bolero, and I thought… and I considered the Baby Boleros I have been making, and I thought some more… the result of all that thinking? The lovely pile there on the left – my very own bolero. I used the basic proportions of the One Skein Baby Bolero, sized up to fit not-baby-sized me, and including some design elements of the tank. The cable/lace pattern runs up the edges of the fronts (A la the Leaf Edged Bolero) and then down the back (like on the tank), and the sleeves will have the same picot hem as the tank. I am trying to get this done so that I can wear both of them on Saturday. If the bolero turns out ok, I might even put the pattern up here eventually.

While I was taking pictures on the back deck this morning, I decided to share a “dumb dog” story. A couple of weeks ago, we went to let the dogs in the house, and we couldn’t find Meeko (seen here looking terribly innocent). She is our escape artist, and has dug under the fence on one or two occasions. She also likes to hide under the back deck, which was where we checked first. Eventually, we did locate her under the porch, but we couldn’t get her to come out. Meeko has seizures, which are mostly controlled by medication. Once or twice a year, she will still have one. What we think happened was that she went under the porch and proceeded to have a seizure, and twisted around just enough to get herself stuck. The result?
Kris had to use the circular saw (set to a blade depth of exactly the thickness of the boards- don’t worry) to cut a hole in the porch and extricate her. Why two holes? We guessed wrong the first time on where she was. So… we’ll be replacing those boards at some point. *sigh*

And in the spirit of equal airtime – Ginger and Lola lounging in the grass. I assume Ginger is trying to see if she can pick up any more bits of nature with her unbelievably velcro-esque fur.

Oh, and for those of you hoping for fishie pics, I keep telling Kris that there is a demand, but I can’t get him to put in the webcam just yet. Maybe eventually.

ETA: Does anyone else wish Blogger had a “Preview” capability for posts? I’ve edited this thing about 5 times to get the pictures to lay out nicely. Grr.

I did finish Serena while we were in PA. I’m blocking it today, but it came out really well. I’m still in love with this yarn, although I was surprised to almost run out before finishing, since I should have had tons left over. I need to take a look at my gauge again and see if I was off more than I realized. (OK, I just checked – looks like my gauge was pretty much spot-on. I have no idea how I ran out of yarn.)

Other than that, I did have to start over on my One Skein Tank Top, because my gauge was horribly off, and it was going to be approximately circus-tent sized. Luckily, I was only an inch or so into it and have since caught up and passed where I was.

In other news, you will notice that my Yarn Focus Challenge ticker has been re-set. I blame Jen. See, she told me about this awesome sale at WoolWinders, and I offered to go as moral support/company for her. I was really, truly not going to buy anything. I mean, it’s only 2 weeks until Maryland Sheep & Wool. We got there, and I was being really good. I did play with a couple of hanks of Schaefer Laurel, but that was mostly because I love seeing the colors they come up with for the famous women.

Then I started thinking about the pattern I am test-knitting. It’s the Prosperous Plum tank, which Joanna is working on offering in more sizes than just her own. (Hence me test-knitting it). See, it calls for Cotton Fleece, and I don’t have any in my stash. I thought about subbing, and she told me that was fine, but I really didn’t have anything that I thought would work correctly. Plus, I was concerned that using a different yarn might be problematic if anything seemed off with the pattern – I wouldn’t know if it was the pattern, the yarn, or the knitter (you know – me). So… there was the cubby of Cotton Fleece. With a little orange tag above it, telling me that it was on sale for half-price. So, it came home with me, in a lovely shade of tan called “Teddy Bear” (a little less orange-y than the pictures). (And yes, I bought more than I probably need, just in case of issues)

And then there was Jen’s new shrug. She picked up the Rowan Cotton Tape the last time we were at WoolWinders, and this was the first time I had seen it in person. It’s very very cute, and the Cotton Tape was 40% off, so… yeah, I bought some of that too. Mine will be black, rather than that awesome orange, though. In fact, I’m almost halfway through it, just from working on it last night while Jen and Kris had their weekly DDO game with one of Kris’s buddies from work. Gotta love working on size 11 needles.

And for those of you who were asking:
Fishies! We’re up to 9 now – 2 Zebra Danios (A), 3 Von Rio Flame Tetras (B), 2 Glow Danios (C), and 2 Cory Catfish (D). Obviously, not all of them are in the picture. They didn’t want to pose for Kris. Silly fish. So far, the Corys are the only ones with names. Kris calls them “Haim” and “Feldman”. (What can I say – we’re children of the ’80′s.)

ETA: Further thoughts on Serena: Looking closely at it, and comparing it to Zib’s original, I think the difference is that I wrapped the diamonds more loosely than she did. It looks like that may have taken up a fair amount of excess yarn. I am now debating whether it is going to make me crazy and therefore needs to be frogged and re-done, or if it won’t bother me. Thoughts?

I had a discussion last night with hubby regarding the current length of his socks and the amount of yarn left. When he realized that I wasn’t actually kidding about then turning into knee socks, he told me to forget using up the yarn and just make them the same length as a pair of his other socks. I checked those today, and I was actually able to cast off the neverending socks! They ended! Yay!

Pics to follow once my model is home from work.

ETA: And now, my hubby in his natural habitat – at his computer.
Oh, yes, and his socks. His not knee-high socks, which he has pronounced very comfy and warm.

I forgot to post this earlier. As I was watching the Olympics Tuesday night, Rowena joined me. The Ladies’ Short Program was on, and Rowena did something I have never seen her do before – she stood there and watched the tv. She was completely entranced by this one skater (and now I don’t remember who it was – one of the Japanese women, I think). As soon as this skater was done, Rowena lost interest and walked away. Seriously – she has never even glanced at the tv before, and she was just suddenly fascinated by this skater. Silly, silly cat.

I think it looks pretty cool. I swatched with one of the skeins that took less of the dye, figuring I’d use the more vibrant ones for the actual purse.

I started the actual purse itself Monday evening, and got a lot of it done yesterday in between loads of laundry.

The purse is moving along – I’m about 1/3 of the way through the pocket portion, and then I have about a million miles of icord to do for the strap. Yippee. Then, I felt and assemble, and ta da! I think I am going to try to find some beads to put on the flap of the purse once it is done.

I have to say, I like these colors a lot better than I expected to. I wasn’t sure just how the combination would work out, but it’s really cool. I might even do something for myself with these at some point.

To digress from the knitting stuff for a bit: The last month or so has been really difficult on a personal level. Kris and I hit a crisis in our marriage that I never saw coming, and I found out that a friend was not at all the person I thought she was. I am still dealing with the repercussions of all of it, and still find myself veering back and forth between so angry I can’t see straight and so upset I want to curl up in a ball and die. I am really thankful that I have knitting projects to focus on so that I can escape from it for a time. It has made it possible for me to deal with everything without actually going crazy, and to let my mind work on some decisions without spiraling into an emotional wreck. I’ve had to make some decisions that are really tought and a little selfish, but my first priority has to be my marriage.

OK, enough of that. Happy kitty pictures – Rajah perched on the couch :

(Nice flash reflection on the window, oh genius photographer)

Thursday was the typical Thanksgiving – I cooked, Mom got yelled at for trying to clean up, and Kris sat outside babysitting the turkey in the vat-o-oil. We brined the turkey this year, which was new. It worked quite nicely, I think. Next time, I might brine it longer (like overnight, instead of just 4 hours), and I think I will rinse the brine off the bird before we fry. The skin got really dark, but that may have been a combination of the honey in the brine and the oil having been used before.

Friday morning we got up and went to breakfast. Then Dad and Kris went bowling, while Mom and I watched. I think they really had a lot of fun together. They had to head home around 2:00 so Dad could get to work Friday night, so it was a short weekend.

Thursday night, Julian and Betsy had called to say that they were coming through Bowie on Friday on the way back to Florida, so they stopped here and we had dinner and hung out for a while. It was really awesome to see them. We miss them. Of course, Betsy is now trying to convince us to move to Florida so she and I can open a yarn store.

After J and Betsy hit the road, Saturday was pretty quiet around here, which was nice. Sunday, Kris had another World of Warcraft LAN party, so I hid in the kitchen and played with Kool-Aid, working on the yarn for Nora’s purse (the commissioned piece I mentioned before). I also got a fair amount of knitting done through the weekend.

So, the current status on the Christmas gift list:
I finished Jessica’s purse last week. I’m happy with how it came out – it actually looks like I planned it to look. The miracles of swatching and measuring! The inside suffered from an over-abundance of Fun Fur, so I trimmed off the fuzz once it was felted. The handles (It’s hard to see in this picture, but there are two, honest) are each two icords that I twisted together after felting and let dry that way, so they seem to be holding their shape nicely. The purse is about 10″ across the top opening, and about 8″ across the base. I felted (OK, fulled, technically) it for longer than I have with the other bags I have done, so it’s pretty firm and stands up on its own.

Janelle’s purse was completed while Julian and Betsy were here, and it went in the washer on Saturday.
Before felting, it looked like this:After about 3 ten-minute sessions in the washer with a pair of jeans, it looked like this:

Closed on the left, and open on the right, obviously. The base didn’t come out quite as square as I had hoped, but it’s very close, and I think it still looks pretty darn cute. The icord handle pulls through an opening on the front of the purse to close it. There was a woman in Stitch DC one day who had something like this (only smaller), and I used her purse as a jumping-off point for this one. I also have some pretty green Cascade 220 that I picked up the weekend before Thanksgiving with the intention of making a Fun Fur-free version of Janelle’s bag for myself at some point. I may eventually write up the patterns for both of these bags, once I have time to sit down and do it. I took pretty good notes, so I should be able to recreate them.

I finished two more squares on the afghan for Kris’s grandmother – 3 down, 9 to go.

So, while the geeks were having their day in the computer room yesterday, I broke out the Kool-Aid and got to work on the purse I am designing for Chapman to give to Nora for Christmas. He decided he wanted red, purple, and blue, so this is what I ended up with:
All of them were dyed together, but for some reason, the ones in the center took the blue Kool-Aid much better. I’ll save those for the actual bag, and use the other two to start the swatching process.

A closer shot of the yarn:
From left to right, that is Tropical Punch, Berry Blue, Grape, Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and Cherry Kool-Aid.

So, the plan for today is to wind the dyed yarn (which is now dry – yay), and start swatching it and figuring numbers for the purse. I also want to get started on Kris’s gift. As soon as I have Nora’s bag done, I’ll start on Dad’s Satchel. And theoretically, I’ll get this all done by Christmas. I hope.

And just for fun, I decided to see what Simba would look like in my Clapotis. He was incredibly patient and stayed put while I got the camera.

Quite dashing, isn’t he?

Finished:

And open to show the pockets (I added one on the end for his cell phone):

And, just because she looked so funny, here is one of my kitties, Rowena, being a total fat sunshine whore:

And my younger brother called me today! He lives in California, so we don’t actually get to talk that much between the time difference and our schedules, but I actually talked to him for a whole 20 minutes tonight! Yay!

And, for anyone who cares, I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 5 hours and 20 minutes. Went to Barnes & Noble for the release, met a cool knitting woman who I hung out with the whole time while working on a purple Baby Bobbi Bear. Got home around 1AM, stayed up all night reading, and finished it at 6:20AM. And yes, I cried (and if you don’t know why, I ain’t saying). I’m a dork, ok?