"Did you run out of yarn?"

...my boss asked. Duh...men can be such idiots. I just whipped up this adorable shrug and may have to make yet another.

The pattern is Teva Durham's Turtleneck Shrug from Scarf Style. I knit it in the Rowan Kid Classic specified in the pattern. The fuzziness is lovely and really not terribly itchy for mohair. The shrug is very warm considering its total lack of a front or back. I would definitely use this yarn again, but am a little afraid about roasting in a whole sweater.

This pattern was fast, easy and pretty darn close to instant gratification. And you get a lot of bang for your buck. Even non-knitters were complimenting me on it...too bad I could not take credit for the clever design. I have read that some knitters have found that theirs shift around a lot on the shoulders. This one is staying perfectly in place. I did knit it on graduating needles to accommodate my chunky upper arms...started with 5s on the wrist and worked up to 7s on the upper arms. The changes are not at all noticeable when worn.

And I love, love, love this color! Does anyone else hear the heavenly choir singing in the background? Why am I so obsessed with wearing black when I look so adorable in grape? I have my mind set on some of this in aqua for a ballet wrap sweater from Rowan's fall mag.

What Lisa Needs...

Type your name and needs in the google search bar. First 10 items that come up...

1. Twitter / Lisa: NEEDS a nap. But alas she has a TO DO list that is longer than the nap could ever be. 02:58 PM November 29, 2006 from web ...

2. In Reply to: Lisa needs braces posted by Dental Plan on April 18, 2002 at 05:09:29:. : : what a rollercoaster! congrats with everything!

3. You need a flat, fishes need the sea Lisa needs a tree. Lisa looked all around ... Lisa needs a tree. So Lisa moved to the town With all her family too ...

4. dental plan, lisa needs braces. some guy: "and that's when i realized that my glasses were on my *head* the whole time!" dudes: " .... " ...

5. This 'Mona Lisa' needs a bigger grin and lots more warmth from an overly conscientious Julia Roberts.

6. LISA needs to more clearly communicate to clients how they can benefit from being members of LISA. Up until now, many of its benefits have been ...

7. Amazon.com: "What Lisa Needs in Her Kitchen" A list of products including, Cuisinart DLC-2007N Prep 7 7-Cup Food Processor, Calphalon Commercial Hard-Anodized 2-1/2-Quart Shallow Saucepan with Lid, ...

8. Ethics Report 20 Oct 83 how Lisa needs to handler lower conditions.

9. MySpace Profile - lisa needs more fun, 46 years old, Female, , RHODE ISLAND, US, i like the way you say yes.

10. Lisa needs work... If you haven't heard Top model writers are having a fit about not having no union on the show, but my thing is i didn't know Lisa was a ...

...Silly? You bet!

Now some knitting stuff... my first stitch markers. Aren't these chicken beads a scream? They are for a swap and my partner has a thing for chickens, found these on ebay. I did find extra special lampwork chickens on Etsy, check out these expensive, but incredible beads.

And a new liter of kittens popped out of the Bernina. Two of the kittys are on Etsy.

There is some knitting going on, but no pics. Calorimetry and matching fingerless gloves in Malabrigo are done and in daily rotation. The turtleneck shrug/scarf from Scarf Style.

Open for Business

I have finally gotten off my tail and opened my Etsy Shop.

Many thanks to the lovely Maris who stood out in the cold today and modelled my handbags for me. Aren't her new bangs adorable!?!

Yup, there has been a proliferation of cuteness going on in my house. More kitties keep coming out of my sewing machine. I have actually run out of stuffing. Those who have witnessed my trunk full o'stuffing should be amazed.

I am really in love with this gal. She is my first sale!!! A work friend asked me to make a kitty for her granddaughter. The granddaughter is a two-year old, so I had to rethink the button eyes. The embroidered daisy was an inspired idea if I do say so myself.

This kitty is on her way to Tove in Finland. Tove sent me a wonderful yoyo doll in my first Recycled Stuffy swap. While browsing the site I saw that she had not received anything from her partner. I was really upset by this, Tove even sent a mousie for the cats. I wanted to make sure she got some love in return, so off goes this kitty. I know Tove will give her a loving home.

There has been another kitty sighting on Krissy's blog. And check out all the gorgeous red accessories she has for her office from See Jane Work. I stopped by and bought this snappy journal in Lime.

And speaking of cute...did you see the news? A wallabee is on the loose in Berks county?

Fetching, indeed

Many thanks to Wendy for her enabling words that allowed me to say ppppthhht to 2007 resolutions not to buy more yarn. They came just in time for me to uncover these gems at Rosies. The Anne has such a lovely sheen and the colors are pretty subtle, no pops of hot pink here. The big debate is whether the skein will become socks for my stepfather or moi! The other skein is Autumn House Farms, Alpacita in the Hattie's Zinneas colorway.

The Alpacita was immediately cast on for a pair of "Fetching" fingerless mitts. I confess to being a bit obsessed with this pattern...this is my fourth pair- two for me, one for my mom and a pair for Muffy. I keep tweaking the pattern, the cuff on these is lengthened (to compensate for all the 3/4 length sleeves in my closet), an additional repeat is added at the knuckles and I did a regular bind off. Go on, knit a pair or five!

I have also been hitting the swaps again. This little kitty is for another Recycled Stuffy swap on Swap-Bot. She is headed off to Cielle on the west coast. I hope they have a happy life together...bye sweet kitty!

January 6th?!?

Could this really be January 6th? In Philadelphia? Are you sure it's not June 6th? Today it soared into the 70s and Rittenhouse Square was packed with people and their dogs. I sat with the cutest duo today, Fred and his husky, Jack. I am smitten. It was the perfect chance to hang out in the park and get my knit on and work on my third pair of socks... Jaywalkers in some scrumptious yarn from Black Bunny Fibers. This is a great sock pattern and I can see why so many of my friends have knit these socks.

Cruisin through the city today I ran into many friends...the fabulous Maris and her friend Olivia, Mike and his partner, Sharon C and Josh, and made some new acquaintances in the crowd at the Mummers Parade.
I lived in this city for many years and held the Mummers in great disdain...grown men strutting down the street in dresses, feathers, and make-up? Now as an adult I now appreciate the Mummers for the fun and wonderful tradition that is so uniquely Philadelphian. Yeah, the crowd can be drunk and rowdy. But I really admire the dedication of those that strut up Broad Street and the hoards of helpers who push props and scenery behind them. And I really admire all the talented sewers who stitch the costumes, sewing all those sequins and feathers.

The one sad part of the day is that my bestfriend, Suzanne's father is quickly fading away. He was diagnosed not long ago with ALS and the disease is progressing much more rapidly than was expected. I am experiencing a mix of emotions...incredible sadness for Suzanne and her family on the loss of a wonderful father and relief that his suffering will not be long and his end peaceful and dignified, surrounded by people who love him dearly. If you are a person of faith, please say a prayer for this wonderful family.

Yowza!

This amazing Christmas Swap package came for me in today's mail from the awesome Krista in Atlanta, GA. Artemis, as is the norm, was the first to dive in and investigate. There was a mouse stuffed with catnip in the package, so everything smelled good to her. She started rolling in the presents until distracted by her ultimate draw, curling ribbon.

The package was incredibly generous. Everything was beautifully wrapped with ribbons and adorable tags. She really put together a package that was so thoughtful and showed that she read my blog and got who I am.

Inside was a bundle of cool fat quarters, a mushy cushy sparkly ball of fiber bits and pieces, beautiful bags of beads ( I see some stitch markers in my future), a silver frame ornament for a picture of Tosca for the Christmas tree, lots of cool flower appliques and stickers, an assortment of decorative papers, Dale Chihuly notecards, a stash of fun postcards...

a gorgeous mother of pearl pendant and the cutest "Clara Bow"ish button.

And there were a couple of Linder chocolate truffles that I immediately scarfed down, YUM. Thank you, Krista...the smile is ear to ear!

Recycling

Squirreled away in hidden piles are clothes that I just cannot bear to part with...sweaters savaged by hungry little bastards, pants worn through in the butt, shirts with a big ink stain. They are too ruined for Goodwill, but for some reason I cannot just pop them in the trash. The dream of doing something cool with them has always lurked.

Swap-Bot provided me with the perfect opportunity to wade into my stashed rags and start whacking away. A recycled stuffy swap was hosted on the site.

I went to Plush-O-Rama by Linda Kopp for inspiration and modeled my first ever stuffy after Carly Schwerdt's Moopy Bunny. If you haven't seen this book yet, it is lots of fun.

I dug out one of my former favorite sweaters that had moth holes in places that could not be decently covered by brooches or embroidery. Into the washer and dryer it went for felting. It produced some yummy felt! I also yanked out of my summer clothes a skirt that I loved on the hanger, but looked like shite on me. Snip snip and no more temptation to wear it and look dumpy. It made a pretty dress for the Bun-Bun with a built-in ruffle at the bottom. Her eyes are a bit crazy, but she is a sweetie. Bun-Bun is now happy and living in Seattle...spreading sunshine around.

This little sweetie was sent to me by Tove, all the way from Finland. Tove also included a mouse which has been claimed by Tosca.

I had so much fun with Bun-Bun that I decided to make another for a Christmas swap partner in Australia. Kitka was made from some of the leftover felt, an old pair of jeans, upholstery samples and a vintage green heart button that has tried to be part of so many other projects and failed. It is a long trip to Australia, so I packed her some chocolate and kitty treats to munch on the flight.

I forsee more of these stuffies in my future and hopefully a reduced pile of Goodwill rejects.

Red Scarf Project 2007

Have you started your red scarf yet? What? Don't know about red scarves? The Orphan Foundation of America is a nonprofit that provides scholarship and support for teenage orphans who have aged out of the foster care system. They are asking for knitters and crocheters to participate in their Red Scarf Project 2007. The red scarves will be in Valentines Day care packages sent to the teens. Help spread a little love to these kids and let them know there are people out there that care. If you really want to get involved they have a virtual mentoring program, please check it out.

All You Need is Love

...and may be some good drugs! This is a late Thanksgiving posting, but I had to comment on my first trip to Las Vegas.

My holiday was split in two, part one in Vegas with my father and Uncle David and part two in Carson City with them and my uncle's crazy (and not in a good way) girlfriend. Vegas was more fun than I imagined and not nearly as tacky.

We started off on a high note with the Cirque du Soleil's show "Love" at the Mirage. I am a huge Cirque fan and have seen a bunch of their shows in Philadelphia. This was different- Beatles music, costumes that weren't as wild as their norm, and more dancing than usual. It was wonderful and I boohooed through at least the first 20 minutes because I was sooooo overcome with emotion and memory. I wasn't the only one who was swept away, there were tears all around me.

We sat in the first row, not the best place to see the whole show, but we were inches from the performers and they made regular eye contact with us! The funniest for me was during Blackbird when a very cute cheeky baby blackbird crashed back to the stage in front of me and pulled himself right over the edge of the stage. He looked me in the eye and said "Mama?" I replied, "Baby?" before he was whisked away on his bungee. It reminded me of my favorite childhood book, Are You My Mother?


The Octopus' Garden was the most beautiful portion of the show. The aerial artists costumed as jellyfish were breathtaking. If you are ever in Vegas, go see this show...hell, go to Vegas just to see it! That is an order!

Other amazing sights in Sin City where the Venetian, Paris, Mandalay Bay, oh and the Bellagio. The gardens and pool are so gorgeous, I would love to hang out there for days. The glass flower ceiling in the lobby by Dale Chihuly is beyond cool. I want one of these for the next time I have bronchitis and am sucking down the codeine. Talk about a psychadelic experience!

Then we headed off to Carson City...and the turf war began. My uncle's girlfriend only envisions his family as being her, her daughter, and my uncle. She doesn't want one that includes my father and myself. We are a really small family, only the three of us, we are not asking her to share him with the masses. Being around her is incredibly stressful. I cannot imagine how my uncle deals with this 24/7. He has told me that he is going to ask her to move out before Christmas. But then my uncle has talked about this before, and nothing has happened. The sad part really is that the family...my uncle, my dad and I...all really love the crazy's daughter. We would adopt her into the family in a heartbeat. She is a great kid- smart, fun, polite, and she loathes Bush...what more can I say? Can we push her mother over a cliff somewhere? Arrrrrgh!

But now I am home with the kitties and detoxing from too much rich food and stress. Oh, and hoping that my uncle's christmas card is from him only!

Again with the Swapping...

One of my favorite things from my time employed at Penn was the Robert Indiana "LOVE" statue right on the Locust Walk. I was so shocked to find one there, at first I thought it had been moved from Love Park. How could I have missed that in the news? But no, the City of Brotherly Love has two of these statues. The image was one that struck me back when I was a kid in Pittsburgh and it was on the stamps I licked for all my mom's Christmas cards.

I signed up for a fabric postcard swap on my new favorite site, Swap-Bot. My swap partner is in Germany, so I thought I would use one of Philly's iconic images as my inspiration for my postcard. (Sorry, Mr. Indiana, but you really should have copyrighted the image.) And also love, or rather the lack-there-of, in my life has been much on my mind lately. Pretty damn cute isn't it for someone not so hopeful about the subject. I hope that it arrives in one piece.

Did I mention, that the Ken-Doll (former boyfriend) showed up drunk on my doorstep yet again? A classic, this time he was there to apologize for being a dick and showing up on my doorstep drunk a year ago (strangely almost to the day). Oye! What is it with me and seriously damaged men? Please any one who would like to introduce me to a nice sane non-alcoholic man, please do so...pretty please. I even promise that I won't whine if he leaves the seat up.


This is the postcard I received yesterday from my swap partner. The underlying material is really cute with its "Mischievous Monsters." She has machine appliqued flowers on top, some of them with beading. Unfortunately the beading had some damage, I think it got caught in a machine as it was a bit dirty there too. I love that she gave the tiny blue monster in the upper right corner a bouquet of flowers.

In the last few weeks I have also participated in a few CD swaps. Those swaps were ones with multiple swap partners. In both I had one partner who was a dud. It was quite disappointing. In the second swap one of the people I sent a CD to sent me back a copy of his mix that he sent out to his partners. I love generous cool people, and his mix kicks ass!

Well this is what came out of the washing machine. Everything is nice and dry and my apartment no longer smells like a barn of wet sheep. I am completely in love with the entrelac bags, the colors are just mind blowing. The temptation not to send off the pink/orange one to the fair is huge. I am really pleased with my improvised striped bag. The stripes were set using the Random Stripe Generator . If you haven't played with this nifty program yet, what are you waiting for? And while not being a huge fan of novelty yarns the red cellphone bag with the long fringy eyelash yarn is really growing on me. It has been dubbed the muppet bag.

Felting this batch of little bags has confirmed a suspicion of mine. Knitting and felting swatches is a waste of time. These little guys felted at a far faster rate then the larger bags I have done. Oh, and much smaller, I might add. Some of these came out barely big enough for my flip phone, much less my monster iPod. I am pretty pleased with them, but they could have been a bit bigger...sigh.

This entrelac bag was knit with merino and an interesting novelty yarn. A complete gamble, because the pattern was designed to have the body in wool and have the base, handles and top band in alpaca. The alpaca felts down much more than the wool and gives the bag a slight bubble shape. I didn't quite get the bubble shape, but the bag is still very cool looking. Two of my favorite little purses are here, the stripe one and the brown one. The picture does not do the brown one justice. Labels are all sewn in and the bags are ready to head off for Virginia. Lets hope I make enough money to pay for my bus fare down there.

Mama is a swap-ho

Today started out happy, as I boxed up my aqua and red swap package for Jennifer. It was quite the scavenger hunt around the office looking for bubble wrap, etc. All packed up, in the mail and me, extraordinarily happy that I hadn't done my usual procrastination thing.

Sadly, my day went to crap from there. The second sales meeting that I had planned for this fall was cancelled too. Even though it is through no fault of mine, my Calvinist guilt overcomes me and I had an awful time psyching myself up to deal with the canceling at the hotel. Maybe because our folks had put off signing contracts and hey, the meeting was supposed to be the first week in October. And then there was the merge letter from hell. I have done a million of these, and yet today I ran into issues I had never seen before...boss' signatures that are suddenly in red? Whaaaa?

Enough whining!!!! Cause when I escaped and got home I was plunged back into that happy swap glow. This lovely plump envelope was waiting for me...all the way from Israel. How cool is that? Artemis of course got the right of first sniff and gave the package a complete once over.



Inside was a trove of goodies: cool barrettes (one handmade), candles, Israeli candies, stickers, a bag of itty bitty ladybugs and a big ladybug stamp, spools of ribbon, felt squares, beads, a wee fuzzywuzzy notebook. I think this is the most fun I have ever had with an envelope! The chocolate strawberry candybar will be tonight's first victim...yum. Thank you so much to Ilil for making my first Swap-bot experience such a success!!! I hope that she gets a fab package from her partner.

Oh, and Marissa...you got a lot of postin' to do

Good Times

I have finally jumped into the swap craze. A link to Swap-Bot was on someone's blog as I was cruising the web. Next thing I knew I had gone from a swap virgin to a swap slut...hehehe. See... I should have had sex again before my 42nd birthday, none of this would have happened. Now I am committed to a handful of swaps in the next few weeks. Yow.

My first swap has an aqua and red theme... anything in those two colors. I have been running around acquiring some uber cute objects for my swap partner. While I was putting together my Santas for the Waterford Fair I noticed a bunch of aqua and red scraps in my bag. So I gathered them together and whipped up this little bag for my swap partner. I hope she likes my first swap package!

Two of the other swaps I have signed up for are music swaps. One is a mix CD of cover tunes and the second is a CD of random shuffle music. The cover tune CD has been really fun to put together.

On the topic of music, last night a gang went to World Cafe Live to see the amazingly cool band, Nouvelle Vague (pronounced vog.) They do rockin' covers of 80's new wave to a Bossa Nova-ish beat. They brought the house down with their cover of Bauhaus' Bela Legosi's Dead. Check them out, they're infectious.

Prezzies and Progress

This post is dedicated to Marissa who reminded me at knitting tonight that I was being a very bad blogger. Hey, it was a busy summer and I never seemed to have a good clean surface to photograph on. How could that ever happen?

Any way I am starting off today acknowledging two fab presents from my knitting buddies. Thank you so much Marissa and Sherry, you ROCK!

Marissa brought me back this adorable bag from her vacation in the Phillipines. It makes the best do-dad bag, it already is filled with scissors, a row counter, darning needle, blah blah blah, oh yea, it also fits a set of DPNs.

Which brings me to the fabulous gadget Sherry made for me. She had fashioned these clever point protectors for DPNs. Your needles are kept neatly together and better yet your stiches don't scootch off the needles!

As you can see, there has been some progress on the toe-up socks. They are taking a break though while I knit like a fiend on other things.

In October I am going to be selling some of my handiwork at the Waterford Fair in Virginia. Like a total boob, I miss read the inventory request they sent me. Now I am trying desperately to catch up. There has been a lot of stash reduction, which is a great thing particularly the wee amounts that I cannot bear to throw away. These are some of the smaller cellphone/iPod purses that I have been cranking out. Hopefully they will be popped into the wash this weekend and have the crap shrunk out of them. I am going to have a dining room table full of soggy stinky wool. Yipee.

These happy little fat guys will be Christmas ornaments, also for the fair. Why, oh why, do I procrastinate like this?

Studio Friday - Who?!

"I am curious to see/ hear/ read who everyone takes their inspiration from - an artist of traditional media, multimedia, craft world, living or dead. Who would we like to have the chance to meet and speak with, or to thank for inspiring us? " ~ Jo

For a gal who did so miserably in Geometry, it dominates my creative endeavors. Who knew?

The Amish, the ladies of Gees Bend, Denyse Schmidt and Kaffe Fassett are my primary inspirations when working on one of my quilts. Each brings something different to the party...unmuddied jewel tones and near perfection...joyous primitive utility...uncluttered imperfection...riotously unabashed loud prints.

Years ago I was very attracted to Gustav Klimt's paintings because of their mixture of realism and geometry.

More and more, I now find my daily inspiration in the blogs that I read. The people I would like to meet, have tea with, giggle with and quilt are Jane, Jan, Alicia and Blair.

Montreal Part Deux

These awesome Adirondack chairs were part of the street fair at the comedy festival. I thought, "This is an awesome photo-op!" Ann and Missy were less than enthusiastic. On the second pass I finally cajoled them into a photo with big blue chair. I found out at dinner tonight that I was quite the pain in the ass about it...moi? But hey girls, what did I tell you? Great photo, even if you wouldn't climb up and have a seat.

Good Girls Go to Heaven, Bad Girls Go to Montreal

...or so the t-shirts say.

Bonjourhello! It was time for the girls weekend. Ann, Missy and I jetted off to Montreal for a few days. We headed off for Canada to escaped the heat and humidty of Philadelphia, but of course we took it with us. Still it was nothing that couldn't be cured with shady decks and pitchers of sangria.

Montreal was a blast. We hit the International Fireworks Festival; gold and white weeping willow shells are my favorite. We went to see Dimitri Martin at the Juste Per Rire Festival and after wandered the street fair packed with performance artists, mini comedy venues and people playing games...pure fun.
We did the obligatory drinks at the Swelligan...ooops Nelligan, with the shi-shi people.

Best of all in Montreal were the men, oh my! Yes, they were short. But, heavens they were something to look at. I think the three of us agree that the award goes to Steve at Eggspectations where pancakes were served with a wink and a cheeky smile. We were three puddles in a booth. And of course a special mention to Sam at the desk of the Cantalie, who took flirtation to an all new level.

Yup, I think that Montreal is worth a second visit!

Studio Friday - Sidekick(s)

This week at Studio Friday, we were asked about the sidekick(s) that keep us company in our creative spaces. Well, these two have been the topic of previous postings for Studio Friday. But as an adoring adopted mom, I had to share more pictures of my babies, Artemis and Tosca.

My girls look a lot alike, but have very distinctive personalities. Artemis is the older queen bee of the household. She is way too smart for a cat and has a distinct talent for vengeance. My friends and I like to rile her up sometimes so we can get a good laugh over her growling hissy fits, she has quite a temper. She loves it when I quilt; nesting in all the cut pieces, using my lap frame as a kitty hammock, and having lots of doo-dads and spools of thread to casually push off the edge of the sewing table. Most fun, but slightly anxiety producing, is watching her daintily picking glass head pins off of the magnetic pincushion and dropping them back on, plink. She does not have much appreciation for knitting, although she has made off with several skeins of Reynolds Odyssey. Maybe she realized I was losing interest in the project and was saving me from the guilt of a UFO. But as I said she's a vengeful creature and she has gone to great lengths to get to projects and chomp off the yarn, just to show me that she is not too old or fat to get anywhere.

Tosca, aka Toscabelle, is the baby of the family. She is very petite and still has the impossibly soft coat of a kitten. She is the opposite of Artemis in temperament, relentlessly sweet, dumber then a stone, and truly able to leap tall buildings at a single bound (I suspect that she has been aiding Artemis in the stealing of skeins of yarn hidden in high places.) Tosca is a knitter! She loves to curl up on my lap while I knit and knead away at my knitting. I have seen her so enthralled with kneading a skein of slippery cushy yarn that she started to drool as she purred away. She never bites the yarn, just lays on it and kills the tension...sigh. Tosca's second passion is napping on the laptop...so what if my keyboard is jammed? It's so nice and warm.

I don't know if they do much for my creativity, and do tend to leave way to much of a hairy imprint on my work; but there is nothing better in a moment of stress than scooping up a warm sleeping kitty and burying your face in their fur.

Sock it to me...

...I don't think that this is what Goldie Hawn had in mind. Have to say that other than portability I have never seen the appeal of knitting my own socks. It is so much easier to pop into the Gap and pick up three pairs for $9. But, I am weak and susceptible to peer pressure. If all your friends were knitting socks, would you? Duh...

So, when Lisa from Rosie's announced that she would be teaching a "Toe-Up" class, I caved. And I started dreaming about socks.

On Sunday we gathered to knit socks from the toe-up. My knitting buds Sherry and Marissa were there, along with some other very nice ladies with sharp pointy DPNs. Only one other gal was a sock virgin.

Marissa and I picked the same colorway of Sockotta. Look Marissa...finally a blue stripe!!!!! Our skeins started in different places and it looked like we were knitting on different yarns. Her's was all blue at the beginning, no green; mine was all green, but I picked the yarn because of the blue.

This is the second start for this sock. My first attempt was too big and the stitches too loose. Now my stitches are fab, but the sock is still a wee bit big. Oh well.

My first toe is pretty, let's see how my first heel turns out.