NotScarlett

Sweet Saturday

Oh, weekend.  How I love thee.

Today B and I got up, grabbed some coffee (which I only allow myself to have on the weekends now), and picked up his mom. We headed down to the coast, no planned destination in mind.

I started a sock in the car and alternated working on it with working on a hat my sister requested.

We stopped at Bald Point State Park which is amazingly beautiful and extraordinarily well maintained. While watching some kite flyers get set up, I took some pictures.

We hopped back in the car and cruised down to Apalachicola, where we stopped and had lunch at Caroline's. Sitting out on their screened "porch" area, the breeze ruffling our hair, water sparkling under our feet, we ate some tasty local seafood and watched the shrimp boats come in.

There's a yarn store in this town, which I looked for but could not find, since I had no idea we were going to end up there and didn't have the address. Oh well. Another day. Apparently, it's butterfly migration season, which would explain why we saw butterflies EVERYWHERE today.

While checking out some of the gorgeous historic homes, I found my dream house.

The owner drove up while I was taking this picture and chatted with us for a bit, long enough to tell us the house was built in 1898 and that if he didn't have to leave for an appointment right then, he'd gladly give us a tour.

B took the long way home, heading through Tate's Hell and state forests where we saw tall, spindly pines and thick stands of palmettos whiz by. The conversation was delightful, and the day passed by too quickly.

I also picked and tasted my first wild prickly pear this afternoon, with coaching and guidance from my MIL.

She's so awesome, I learn so much from her about the area we live in every time we go on one of our little excursions. She grew up here and had eaten just about everything that lives or grows in the Gulf, the forests, swamps and rivers in the area. She's fearless and funny and smart and I adore her.

Such a great day. Hope y'all are having a fabulous weekend.

P.S. I have it on good authority that another edition of a certain blogger's (um, hi, that would be me) column will be up on the Daily Chum at the crack of dawn tomorrow.

P.P.S. DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CONTEST!!!! Come on, you can do it...use the blog, use Flickr, use your Google-Fu to answer as many of those questions as you can. Email me your answers by 12pm EST, Tuesday October 2, for a chance to win some handknit socks of your choice!

Blog Birthday CONTEST!!!!! UPDATED! Deadline extended!

As you can tell by the last post, B and I had a lot of fun last Thursday. What a show. It was amazing. Yeah. I love rum.

In my slightly hungover stupor the following day, I neglected to mark my third blogivesary! Happy Blogiversary to me! Blogging has truly enriched my life in many ways, and I am so thankful to all y'all who drop by my little corner of the innernets to see what I'm up to. I've been able to stay in touch with family and friends, make new friends, improve my knitting in a crazy way, and learn all kinds of things about knitting, crafting and life in general during my short time in the blogosphere. I love the sense of community I've found among knitters, crocheters, spinners, and other fiber arts enthusiasts and have had so many great experiences in the time I've been blogging, I really want to give a little something back as a way to say thanks. So, In honor of being three blog years old, I've decided to have a contest.

Here's the deal:

You enter the contest. If you win, you get a prize. Pretty simple, no?

The grand prize winner will get to choose a lil' somethin' from my sock yarn stash......to wear on their feet. If you win, you will receive a pair of hand knit socks, especially for you, from me. You'll have your choice of three patterns, Hedera, Monkey, or plain vanilla stockinette. You'll get to choose which of the following yarns you'd like to have your socks made from:

From l to r:  Zen Yarn Garden BFL in Blue Ice, Lime & Violet in Jantzen Horses, Fleece Artist Merino in Rose Garden, and STR medium weight in Puck's Mischief.

The socks will be cast on shortly after a contest winner is selected, and I will have them to you by November 15th, just in time to keep your feet toasty for winter.

I'm gonna make you work for this one. This is what I like to call a selfish scavenger hunt. Over the past three years of blogging, I've put all kinds of bits and pieces of me out there on the Internet. You gotta find some of 'em.

The rules:

Answer the questions, providing links to where you found the info. Use the blog archives, use your Google Fu, etc, etc to find the answers. ETA: Remember, the blog is not the only place you can search for answers....

Submit your answers in an email with the subject line "CONTEST" to notscarlett7 AT yahoo DOT com by 12pm EST Saturday, September 29 I'm extending the deadline! Submissions are due by 12pm EST, TUESDAY OCTOBER 2nd.  The person with the most correct answers wins the prize. If there is a tie, the winner will be selected by a random number generator.

Well, what are you waiting for?? Have at it!

QUESTIONS

1. When did my fiance propose to me, and how did he do it?

2. Other than Ravelry, Flickr, or a knitting related message board, can you find me as part of any other internet networking/community site? (doesn't have to be knitting related!)

3. In what city was I born?

4. What did I originally want to name my dog?

5. If you read here often, you know I have a crappy immune system and always get some funky version of whatever is going around at the time. You'll also know that I have two pesky recurring health conditions I deal with on a regular basis. Name one.

6. Where did my significant other live before we lived together/in the same city?

7. Tell me about one of my tattoos: what is it, where is it, and why did I get it/what does it mean?

8. Can you find the name of the lake I live on?

9. What is my favorite brand of sock yarn?

10. Where do my significant other and I want to move someday?

BONUS QUESTION

11. Do you know my middle name? I'll give you a hint: It starts with a consonant and is more than one syllable.

Remember, send your answers, including the link to where you found the info, to notscarlett7 AT yahoo DOT com with the subject "CONTEST" by 12pm EST Saturday, 9/29 Tuesday 10/2.

Good luck! I can't wait to knit some lucky person some yummy socks!

TWO PEOPLE are exempt from this contest due to the fact they probably know all the answers to these questions. Stephanie and Stacey, you ladies are gonna have to sit this one out. Don't worry, I'll make it up to you though.

Warning: Drunk Blogging Ahead

Dear Josh Homme,

Tonight I went to see your band play. I love you. And your band. Rum is really really really delicious. I think I lost my voice singing along to all your songs. Your first opening band was awesome. The second one sucked. I cannot believe you did Mexicola for an encore, I was in QOTSA geek fan heaven. The chicks sitting next to use were so lame because they didn't shake their asses to any of your songs like I did. My fiance is in drummer love with your drummer, and bass player love with Troy. He also loves you, but not like I do. I know you are married and everything, but dude, I still love you. I wish I could have brought you all home in my pocket and had you play in my living room. I am sad that you did not play No One Knows or Regular John or The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret, but it's ok. I almost wept with joy when you played Go With the Flow. You are tall. I think we might buy tickets to see you tomorrow night in Jacksonville and come see you play again, because I love you so much I would drive 2 hours (or more) to see you again. I dig your chandeliers.  Can I quit my job and just follow you around? Not in a scary stalker way. Just in a "I love you and your music so much and could you maybe throw us oldtimers a bone and add just ONE Kyuss song to your set by the way you are so sexy and I want to lick your guitar" kind of way.  The bartender at the secret bar that no one else went to at the venue is my new BFF because he loves rum too, and put extra limes in my drink and I tipped him more and more the drunker I got. I saw some of my friends at the show and that was cool. Not as cool as your awesome light show, Josh. And definitely not as cool as when you stopped the show to throw the drunken asshole who was pushing all the chicks in the area in front of the stage around. THAT WAS SO AWESOME. You said some completely offensive things to him and I cheered you on. I love you. You are the coolest. You guys sounded fucking amazing live. I can die happy now. You are my hero. I love you. I love rum. Thank God I have the day off tomorrow. I need to drink water. And not get drunk at shows and then get talked into going to a bar for more drinking afterwards.

The end.

Bedtime.

SHOW WAS SO GOOD.

Charades!

  Charades with shadows 
  Originally uploaded by notscarlett7

See? They're done.

Pattern: Charade
Yarn: Yarn Pirate, Rum Runner

I'm ashamed at how long it took me to post about these. The pics are kinda crappy too, I couldn't get anything decent with the light here today. Not that I'm complaining; I love the way the shadows are getting longer and the days seem to be shorter. I always think of it as "Fall light."

Anyway. More photos in my Flickr stream and my Ravelry notebook.

Thanks to everyone who has checked up on me after my last post. I'm really ok, I swear. I've just gotta deal with some emotional baggage, and then I'll be feeling much better. Promise.

I will survive

B and I survived the babysitting extravaganza, including a sassy seven year old at her sassiest on Saturday, and a three year old with the stomach flu on Sunday. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. I think we're gonna hold off on the whole having kids of our own thing for quite some time, but really, things went well. I did manage to catch a cold in the midst of all the excitement, but other than being a bit congested I'm all good now.

I apologize for my delay in answering comments and my lack of interest in just about anything right now. There are some things going on "behind the scenes" that are both keeping me busy and causing some upset in my life. I got some news last night that kind of shocked me into a state of, well, for lack of a better word, shock. Add that to the other stuff going on, and I'm a little discombobulated.  Nothing too terrible, just one of those times we all have in life where we hit a little bump in the road. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things knitting-wise, and actually have some FO's to show, including the Charade socks I FINALLY got off my ass and photographed...it's just a matter of finding the camera cord now.

I've been working on another little project some of you may have seen over yonder. Looks like I'll be posting each Sunday. Anything you'd like reviewed, think I should check out, etc. let me know, I'd love to hear your input.

I've got goodies from a Ravelry swap to post about as well...maybe later this evening. For now, I've got to get back to work.

The Surreal Life

At four a.m. on any given morning, you'll find me curled up in bed, snoring up a storm, blissfully asleep.

At six a.m.? Same.

Seven finds me marginally awake, taking my time to get up and get going. I'm usually out the door between 745-750, and make it to work shortly before 8.

Not today.

Today I was up at 4. In the car at 625. Not my car, but a minivan. With two kids. After dropping them off at school, I made it to work by 815.

I'm so tired, I may cry.

Fortunately, I don't have to get up at 4 tomorrow; I can sleep until about 545. The parents left at 5 this morning to catch their plane so I had to be at their house with the girls when they left. Still, 545 is pretty early for me.

Tonight I've got another hour and a half/two hour run to pick them up when I get off work.

Do you get superpowers once you have kids? You must, because I have no idea how an average person does the driving, the disciplining, the cooking, the cleaning, the practicing spelling words, the bedtime stories, the "I'm just brushing your hair, not killing you, so stop crying," the feeding, the laundry (egads, the LAUNDRY!)...really. I think being a parent has to be the hardest job around. Add in an 8-5 gig, being part of a couple, hobbies and other interests and wow...how do you do it? How does a single parent juggle all of this? How do people with three or four or MORE kids do all of these things?

Parents, you amaze me. Truly. You are brave, strong, inspiring people. I've been a babysitter, an auntie, a big sister, a nanny and a kinda-sorta stepmom to various kids over the course of my life. I love kids. I'm good with kids. I've got those natural motherly instincts. Seriously though? I don't know if I have it in me to do this every day. Those of you who do are my heroes. I honestly mean that, I have so much respect for those of you who are raising kids. It's hard work.

Also? I'll totally pay big money for the scoop on where to get some of those superpowers right about now. I may need them to make it through the next few days with a 7 and a 3 year old.

Wish me luck.

Passing the Torch...

Just as the Southern Knitters Web Ring was passed to me, I'd like to pass it on to someone else. I've got a lot of irons in the fire right now and the ring is one of the things I've decided needs to go in order to free up some of my time. Anyone out there interested in managing the ring?  It's not extremely difficult and I'm completely willing to show you the ropes. Leave me a comment or email me at notscarlett7 AT yahoo DOT com. 

Monday already?

Did y'all happen to catch the horrific mess that was the MTV VMA's last night? I'm not even going to comment on most of it other than to say I cannot believe B and I wasted two hours of our lives sitting in front of the TV for that. There was a smidge of awesomeness in the form of Sarah Silverman, the ridiculousness of Tommy Lee and Kid Rock white-trashin' it up with a brawl in the middle of Alicia Keys' amazing performance, and the slick (if not a little overexposed at this point) Mark Ronson/Dap Kings interludes.

I would have killed to be at that Foo Fighter's suite though....after seeing my imaginary rock boyfriend Josh Homme, along with Cee-Lo and the kick ass cover of Holiday in Cambodia that Serj Tankian did with the Foo's, I went online to check out the rest of the set. I was not disappointed.  Mastodon? Lemmy? Cee-Lo + The Foo Fighters covering Darling Nikki? Dude. Cee-Lo singing a QOTSA song? DUDE.

Speaking of my imaginary rock boyfriend and his band,  I cannot believe they are playing here. We were planning on driving to Jacksonville to see them which was gonna work out great with Nina living there and all....then, completely by chance, we found out they're making a stop here the night before. I'm a huge Queens of the Stone Age fan, so this excites me in a way you cannot imagine. I think this is going to be our last super fun time before our vacation, and I'm thinkin' about taking the next day off work and making it a long weekend.

Since it's Monday, I've got a few loves to share.

Last.fm. I'm addicted. There's a Ravelry group devoted to Last.fm, and a Ravelry group over on the Last. fm site. Fun times. I just figured out how to scrobble the music stored on my computer to my Last account...as a non-iTunes/iPod user, it took me a while.

Red Velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My clapotis in Meg's gorgeous yarn...I'm finished with the straight section, and I'm totally taking my time on this, the knitting itself is so simple, but it's such a pleasure to work with the yarn and the pattern together, I'm savoring the experience.

Bulky yarn on big needles! I've got three projects ready for Feltapalooza '07, all made over the weekend. I've got a GIANT bag, a smaller bag, and a little clutch all ready for some felting action. I'm going to shoot for the end of this month for Felting Day, and hope to get several other items ready for soapy agitation.

That's all I got for today....I've got to get back to the salt mines. There's a lot of work to be done at the beginning of this week, since the end of my week gets kind of...um...interesting.  B and I are watching my landlords daughters, ages 3 and 7, from Thursday-Sunday. I just found out that in order to get them up, ready for school, and to school/daycare on time I will have to be up at 5am on Thursday and Friday. I am NOT HAPPY. B thinks my unhappiness at having to wake up when he normally wakes up is hilarious. This makes me even less happy.  Other than the early morning thing, I think we're going to be just fine. I'm a former nanny and have been around little ones as long as I can remember. I'm interested to see how B handles this experience as he doesn't have all that much experience with kids. Bonus: The 7 year old wants me to teach her to knit. Any suggestions for teaching kids to knit??

Bring on Fall

Thanks for all the comments about stash busting. It's good to know that I'm not alone in my grand plan for a Yarn Purge. I'm going home from work tonight and planning out 4 or 5 felting projects that I hope to finish this month, and then felt in one batch, which could be problematic....

...because our washing machine broke.

"But Sarah," you say, "didn't your washing machine already break?"

Why yes, astute blog reader, it did! This washing machine is an entirely DIFFERENT machine. Our old washer and dryer were donated to charity/whoever took them when we moved. The new place had a fully functioning washer and dryer, and seeing as ours were both 1. given to us for free 2. really old and barely working, we decided not to move them with us. Little did we know that the "fully functioning" w/d at the new place would not remain fully functional for long and would make a suicide pact on Labor Day weekend.

In short, appliances hate me.

Non-working laundry machines do not prevent me from knitting though. I finished the ribby scarf in Paton's SWS I worked on over the weekend, and am just shy of completing this scarf-I'm-too-lazy-to-finish-so-hey!-now-it's-a-neckwarmer in Mmmmmalabrigo.  I've got finished Charades, just like I said last time, still unphotographed. I'm halfway through the straight section of a full sized Clapotis in some yarn that is good enough to eat. I cast on for the toe of Heritage Sock Numero Dos. Pretty productive knitty weekend in my book.

The long weekend came and went much too quickly...I did manage to jam pack it full of fun though. There was family time with my favorite cousin, a rockin' Neil Diamond tribute band, tons of television/dvd viewing, shawarma eating, Superbad, dog playing/snuggling/walking, cooking, laughing, ticket buying, and reading. It was also chock full of housecleaning. (That was less fun than the knitting and other stuff, but way more fun than the washer breaking while full of water and clothes. ) It's the end of summer, and it's 97 degrees. Remind me why I live in Florida again? Ugh. It's way too hot for September. I'm begging for fall..winter...a freak snowstorm....and a laundry fairy.

Hope y'all had a great holiday weekend...and if you're not in the U.S., hope you had a great weekend and a lovely Monday!

September is for Stashbusting

I've put about 40% of my stash on Ravelry. This is really pathetic, seeing how I've been on Ravelry since March. Why haven't I put the rest of my stash up?

I've come to the realization that I am drowning in yarn.

Now, I know there are many, many folks out there with a bigger stash then mine.  I'm not trying to win any kind of big stash contest.  For me, my stash is the biggest it has even been, and I am completely overwhelmed.  I need to use a lot of it up before I take anymore in.

I've culled the stash in recent months;  getting rid of a ton of acrylic yarn I bought way back before I knew any better, using up oddballs, getting rid of scraps I've been hanging on to for some unknown reason. I didn't just toss the stuff, mind you, it was all used in some way or another or donated.

I still have a scary amount of yarn.

I have enough sock yarn to make about 80 pairs of socks. I've got enough dishcloth cotton to outfit the kitchen of everyone I know for every day of the week. You want random one and two skeins of stuff? I've got it.

That right there is the problem. Those onesies and twosies. What the hell am I going to do with all this crap?

After much pondering, stash combing, and further culling, I've got a plan.

1. Felting/fulling-my family loves this stuff. They eat up Fuzzy Feet and Felted Clogs. They love Buttonhole bags and felted purses.  This should eat up a good chunk of my random onesies and twosies of wool yarn, and quickly. Big needles + 100% feltable wool= FAST STASHBUSTING.

2. Accessories on big needles. Simple stitch patterns with maximum impact. Stripes.  I started a scarf last night using leftover Patons SWS in three different colorways. Mixing them together in random stripes on size 13 needles in K2 P2 ribbing is using up the yarn super fast while knitting up into a soft, pretty scarf. I see lots more of this in the future, as well as drop stitch scarves, fingerless mitts, roll brim beanies and cushy neckwarmers.

3. No buying yarn. This shouldn't be too difficult since I'm going through a phase where I do not want to bring any more yarn into the house. I'm tired of it, and I'm not getting a chance to use up what I bring in. I'm also on a tight budget due to medical bills from my recent hospital visits and saving for our vacation in November. I keep telling myself that it's ok not to buy up all the yarn I see...yarn will still be there when I'm ready to buy more.

This simple plan will help me get rid of a lot of my stash while letting me build up an inventory of gifts for the upcoming holiday season.

After I've cleaned out the stash, I'm making myself adhere to some yarn-buying rules.

1. Only buy yarn as I need it, with a specific project in mind. The exception is sock yarn because, well, I'm a junkie. I'm sick of having enough yarn to make 15 hats but no sweater. I want to plan ahead instead of being so impulsive about my purchases.

2. No more laceweight yarn! I have a few skeins, and have yet to knit a successful laceweight project or enjoy knitting lace on teeny tiny needles (with the exception of sock patterns)..I'm not a shawl girl and every time I try to make one, it ends up frogged and forgotten after I admit to myself how much fun I'm not having. After reading Grumperina's post the other day, I feel so much better about admitting that I'm not a lace knitter. I love lace, I admire every gorgeous finished shawl and stole I see, but it's simply not for me. I may offer some of the laceweight I have up for sale/trade at some point.

Think I can do it? I do. I'm at the end of my rope when it comes to my stash, and I feel like I need to simplify things before knitting becomes a chore rather than a pleasure.

As far as what is currently on my needles, here's the update:

CHARADE-Done! Just need to photograph them and give 'em a quick dip in some Soak.
HERITAGE SOCKS-Sock 1 still awaits it's mate; hoping to complete before SOS 2007 is over.
CLAPOTIS-halfway through the straight section
JOSEPHINE-Hibernating, possibly permanently.
TANGLED YOKE-Swatch is washed and blocking as I type...I went with Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool in Claret, a gorgeous red color.
SCARF I STARTED LAST NIGHT-should be finished by the time I watch the latest episode of Mad Men this afternoon on my On Demand cable service.

Anybody wanna share their super-quick stashbusting ideas? Feel free to leave 'em in the comments.