Lifestyles of the Marginally Acquainted

I'm going to toot (TOOT!) my own horn. I have been added to Vickie Howell's photos page.

The Me Show.

Ok, so it's mostly about Vickie Howell...but if you go to the Knitters' Gallery mine is the last picture (so far) on the right with the two wristbands. You, dear reader(s), know what JFGI means.

Now I am a fan of Knitty Gritty and Vicki Howell, but not in the creepy follow around and whatever kind of way. No, I'm a fan in the finally, someone who is under the age of 75 who can talk about knitting in a very public venue (three-steps-up-from-basic-cable television) and who is able to bring very interesting designers on and make it accessible kind of way. Much like I think Stephanie Japel is a genius even though she has the following of knitters who love sexy patterns. Even Gene likes the Knit Bits.

On the note of Stephanie Japel and sexy knits, I think I will join the KAL for the Sexy Knitters Club if they do Stephanie's (Glampyre's) Simple Knitted Bodice. I liked it when I saw it, and it seems like it could be a pretty cool thing to wear.

You know, I'm just that cool. I'll wear my hair in dreads and hang out with musicians and talk about poetry and um, stuff.

In the interest of having photos on this post, I will give another quilting show visual snack.

And because I'm lazy (I am on vacation after all...) I'm going to post a picture of what the artist had to say about this piece. A reminder - this is fabric. FABRIC!!! I love sculptural stuff with fabric. I may try to scrounge a picture of a project I did in college with welded metal strips, muslin, foam, and iron powder that I rusted on purpose. Ah...Art School Days of Wine and Roses (actually, Beer and Art Markers). But I digress.

Enjoy!

Live, from the Northwoods...

I am here right now:

I have had the opportunity to do a lot of knitting and a decent amount of spinning. I'm working on the light green roving I bought at Stitches Midwest. It was dyed with Queen Anne's Lace (yellow) and Indigo (blue). I love the color! I try to get a little bit done every day, to see if I can get the whole chunk of roving done this week.

I've also worked a goodly amount on The Bedroom Sweater (scroll down to Purply Goodness). I managed to finish the edging around the collar and now I'm doing the seed stitch edging around the rest of it. Then all I have to do is put on buttons and weave in the ends; the Sweater Which Will Not End may actually finish! I thought of how long I've been working on this while we were driving to Eagle River, WI. Last summer we were here with Delores (which will never ever happen again) and she picked out the Carpet Yarn. So this sweater has taken me A YEAR. Well, it's obviously not the only project I've worked on, but still. Want. It. Done.

I also thought I found the pattern to use with my yellow raw silk. I realized that the tank top I wanted to make had an unusual neckline and that one strap was wider than the other - almost like a cap sleeve. No cap sleeve on these arms. It's no good to cut off my circulation or emphasize the sexy swinging of arm fat. Then I noticed that the pattern stitch is really not followed if you look at the picture. I thought, no biggie - I can just change it up a bit, espescially since I was a third of the way through the back and not even done with the first skein of yarn. I have 10 skeins. I should be able to change it up and have plenty left over. But after my fourth repeat of the pattern, I realized...I don't like it.

I just don't see myself wearing a tank top with this pattern. The pattern just below this one in the pattern book, though, looks like a nice, open airy sweater, so I'm going to make that. I've already frogged the above, so there is no turning back! I have discovered that I don't have the right needles, though, so I shall have to make a trip to the LYS here called Inspirations. Such a shame :)

Sharon and I are off to do some kayaking. In the words of the banner hanging from the pine tree - Life Is Good.

Ciao!

Yarn ho.

I have asked for this shirt from knitty.com for Christmas/My Birthday. Those of you who know Gene know that I actually have a chance of getting this because he likes shirts that refer to pimps, hoes (sp?) and the like. He also likes to wear them around my parents. *sigh*

I would like to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Jodi, at Knit and Plenty. She has graciously allowed me to link to her blog. Look at her kits. How freakin awesome are they? Make your LYS buy them!!! Organized knitters! What is the world coming to!!!

Stitches Midwest was this weekend. I spent all weekend touching yarn. It was AWESOME! I went both days. The first day I went by myself. That was actually nice, because I could search and pick at my own pace. The second day I took a friend who is interested in knitting. I had made the prediction that she would either be totally jazzed or totally freaked out. Luckily, she was totally jazzed. She has decided that she wants to learn to knit (no surprises there) and she came into the show saying she just wanted to learn how to knit simple little things - she didn't even know what that might be.

She left realizing that she wants to make sweaters. My work here is done. :)

I met a really great couple from St. Charles who had roving and drop spindles. I love the feel of roving, and so I got some of that. I got a drop spindle thinking I would give it to Gretchen - she's so not getting it! I have spun my first yarn, and I am totally jazzed about it. I'll post picks of that when I get a chance. I believe they'll be at the sheep and wool festival in Wisconsin next month. I hope to have all my roving spun by then. Now, I might want a spinning wheel before I get a serger. And I really want a serger.

The stash from Saturday (Sunday's will be on another post - I ran out of space on the camera):

Do you see all the roving? I am a crazy woman. :)

In other knitting news, I give you the knit-along I never joined. I made 2 matching cuffs with quite the snarky (LOVE THAT WORD) phrase: JFGI. Suzy got the JF and I got the GI. What does that mean? Well, you know how people ask stupid questions all the time that they could find the answer to on their own by using that ubiquitous search engine, Google? The should really save us all some time and Just F***** Google It.

:D

So the cuffs. Suzy's JF (on Suzy's hand)...

and mine (on my hand)...

I am so very hip.

Postapalooza

RASSA FRASSA!

Blog Spot is being persnickety. This is the additional picture fof the Postage Stamp quilt from two posts down that never made it in. I loses its impact up here, but well, it's all kinds of messed up. What to do.

On with the picture.

The Postage Stamp Quilt - about 7'x7'.

Stitches stuff coming up soon. I am thinking so many yarn thoughts!!!