8 Random Things.

I was tagged by FiredUpFairy Knits. Go check out her blog, she is awesome.
Okay were to start?

1. I secretly want to be a performing belly dancer. I am fascinated by Rachel Brice. She has such a great style and wonderful movement. She does a style of belly dancing called Tribal. Don't tell anyone, but I even have belly dancing costumes.
2. I can't spell. Thank God for spell check.
3. Speaking of God, I have issues with the Bible. Unlike my Christian father, I don't put all my faith in something that men wrote, divine inspiration or not. I do believe in God and I am saved, but I don't follow typical Christian teachings.
4. I hate to be hot, which make living in Florida a challenge.
...this is getting hard...
5. I love to learn about all sorts of things mostly history, especially ancient history. My favorite channels are the History channel and History International Channel.
6. I am a licensed Message Therapist, but don't practice. I do keep my licence and I do keep up with my continuing education credits. I will use it someday.
....thinking. thinking....
7. I hate bars. I hate to be around drunk people. There is only on bar in my area that I will even consider going to and that is only because it is fairly calm and doesn't always have loud music playing. When I go out I like to socialize with people and constantly having to say "what" gets annoying.
8. I love the rain. I love to cuddle in bed when it is raining. Or knit. Or just sit out side and listen to it rain. This is were it is a good thing to live in Florida.

So there you have it. I don't know who to tag...I will get back to you on that.

Froged it

German Stocking after being frogged and reknit.

I couldn't stand the cuff of the German Stocking being so floppy. So I frogged it. I am now at about 3-3.5 inches. I've been thinking about my knitting alot lately. As I was contemplating frogging the sock I kept asking myself why it was bothering me so much to frog it. Was it the time I had spent? Was it just that it was messed up? What? I started wondering, am I a project knitter or a process knitter? Is it only about getting the project done or is it about the process itself that I enjoy? I don't know. I do know that typically when I am knitting something, I am always wondering if it is going to fit or look good. I have had so many projects that have just looked like crap, or just fit weird. I know that in the past my mistake was just jumping right in and not even doing a swatch or looking over the pattern and schematics. I think that these previous blotches on my knitting resume are probably why I am so anxious about finishing and trying on. I have gotten to a point in my knitting were I know enough that I can control to an extent the final outcome. When I make a mistake I am more likely to frog back and fix it.

So, back to the question. Project or Process? At this point I am going to be honest and say that I am a project knitter who is going to make an effort to enjoy the process. No more words like boring and phrases like "pain in the ass" are going to be used. It is about the process. It is about the relaxation not the anxiety. If it doesn't turn out, that gives another opportunity to enjoy the yarn running through my fingers or the needles clicking away without having to spend any money. I think I got caught up in the "how fast can I knit this?" not "how well can I knit this?".

Have to put it down

I am about 4 inches in the the German Stocking pattern from CookieA and I didn't look at the errata. So, instead of doing the 1x1 ribbing at the cuff, I did 1x2 which was on the pattern. I felt like it was wrong. My gut kept telling me to look at the errata, but I didn't I just kept on knitting. So here's the dilemma, do I keep on going and add elastic to the cuff to tighten it up or do I frog back? I am putting it down for the night and will think about this over night. I'll let you know what I decide.

Epcot Food and Wine 2007

Paul and I went to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival yesterday. We eat and drank our way around the world.
1st- Ice Wine and Merlot from the festival center.
2nd- Sangria from Morocco.
3rd- Sake from Japan.
4th- Honey Mead and cheese plate from Ireland.
5th- Champagne, Merlot, and Strawberry Crepe from France.

It was a really great day. A little overcast and sometimes rainy, but that didn't ruin our day. Great fun. Great food. Great drinks.

3 project update

Hourglass: So can we all say "Boring!"? But I continue on with this one. I tried it on and much to my surprise, it fits pretty darn well. Yeah!!! The yarn is lovely and once washed will be much more soft. It is in waiting for a few more days because I am waiting for my delivery of size 7dpn's for the sleeves.

German Stocking: Just cast-on. Not much to say, the yarn is soft!

Starsky: What can I say about this one? It is hard to knit at this point due to the bulk of the fabric. I hope it fits!

Welcome back...Howya been?

Well, we have been very busy bees around here. This is just a quick post so my blog doesn't get lonely. We have finished with the painting of the rooms. We only have to paint the trim and put up new trim/crown molding. So the 2 projects that are left...1. but up and paint trim, 2. strip and refinish the floors. I have my bedroom back now, it is no longer being used for a place to put stuff from other rooms that are being worked on. It is a proper bedroom now, which is nice, makes it a comfy place to go to sleep. So, in the next few days I plan to take lots of pics of the house and my progress on projects and post them.

Break from remodeling

The side panels have been finished and the back is very close to being bound off for the sleeves.

Paul's dream machine. He got the Halo XBOX 360, also not pictured, he got the Legendary Edition of Halo 3.

Friday night I got a new tat on my upper forearm. I love it!

Cat Rocks!

So, I am probably one of the last to figure out that Cat Bordhi rocks! But, I have been hearing lost about her and I had seen one of her videos on YouTube. Well, I figured I would take a look at her other videos. OMG, she makes so much sense and makes me want to try to a magic cast-on again. I tried it once and it did not work for me. And I just reached the increases on the Hourglass sweater which were ktfb increases and I wasn't that happy with them, like Cat says they leave a knit zit. Like I said, I watched the video on decrease and used her SSK decrease technique. I love this because it is the nicest looking SSK. So, her increase technique is going to be used for the rest of the Hourglass, just saying. I know I am rambling, but I am very excited.

perfection sucks!

The left panel of the Starsky cardigan went very smoothly. The right panel howerver has been kicking my ars! First I was about 5 inches in the pattern portion of the panel when I discovered that I twisted the cable in the wrong directions. Instead of holding the 3 stitches to the front, I held them to the back. At first my though was to just let it go and then I decided that I would never be totally happy with it if I knew there was this ugly goof up. So I frogged that. Then, I was about 1 inch from binding off at the top when I realized that I had no decreased enough on one of the edges. Was it the center edge or the armhole shaping? Who knows. So, again I frogged it to the point of shaping the center edge. I am currently re-knitting this and have finished the armhole and center shaping and I have the proper amount of stitches on the needles.

On the home front...I painted the dinning room yesterday and DH scrapped up all the linoleum in the kitchen/dinner area. It was so ugly and yellow and old...it had to go. It wasn't part of our original plan, then again the original plan was only to paint the project room. Since then we added the bedroom, kitchen/dinning room, and living room. I also convinced DH to let me put up a tile back splash in the kitchen. Damn DIY channel!

okay...thats bright.

The project room is painted, well the walls are painted I still have to paint the trim. I picked this turquoise color which is kinda scary right now, but I know that once the furniture goes in it will not be so bright. So, furniture plans. In this corner I want several book shelves, in different shapes. I also want to get a cushy chair for that corner. In the front of the room will be my sewing machine, cabinet and sewing area. On the opposite side will be a very long counter top for a lot of working space. the counter top is going to span almost the hole length of the wall.
On the knitting front. I got the left panel of the Starksy done. The Flirtation cable pattern worked out great I think. I am very happy with it.

I can explain...

We have been so busy around here.


Did we watch too much DIY? First it was the craft room (right). I wanted to take down all the ugly ass wallpaper, paint the room, and add a nice long project table. So, we started this. Then, I have been wanting to remove all the hideous paneling in the whole house. There was wood paneling and fake brick paneling in the living room. There was more wood paneling in the dinning room and fake red brick paneling in the kitchen. There was also wood paneling in the bedroom. So, one day after work DH decided to pull off all the wood paneling. This has led to lots of spackling, and drywall work. And...lots of DUST! The best part, if you notice on the bottom left pic of the dinning room there are black strips on the wall. This was were the paneling joined and they didn't want the light paint showing through. Who knows how much primer it will take to cover these. The strips are in the dinner room and bedroom. Good times!





Also, Sunday while at the coffee shop I was going to take some pics of my WIPs, but instead I decided to break my camera. I set my knitting bag down in a chair and it fell over and the camera went tumbling to the brick. There is a crack across the middle of the viewing screen, which meant I could not see what I was taking a pic of. How can I live without my camera? So, Monday night I went and got my new toy.

It is so cute and thin. I love it. I had an Olympus before and I'm familiar with the many functions, so another Olympus meant I didn't have to learn how to use it.