Got my first Knitting 4 Money project on sticks last night. Because my co-worker friend Jenny was sporting the Black & White Harry Potter Scarf I made her at our last department meeting at work and a couple of people asked me to make them scarves too. I got my first 4 pay scarf commissioned last week and I got it started last night BUT I ran into a snag. I got this Lion Brand Jiffy yarn in Autumn-y colors which was hard to find one brand/type of yarn that has most if not all the colors requested. It isn't the easiest yarn to knit with because it is so soft and stringy but other than that it is looking pretty good. Here are some pics of my progress...

It was my birthday weekend so I didn't get much knitting done but I hope to have it finished by this or next Friday. That is my goal. I am really digging the whole cabling thing now. I imagine I will feel confident enough to try a more complicated cable after I finish this and my Irish Hiking Scarf.

I still do not have my Iceland Madil yarn because they woman I bought it from on eBay had a massive power outage at her house and didn't get orders until Friday. Hopefully, I will have it by the end of the week though because I am really wanting to get my IHS and matching beanie done cause it is actually cold here in Austin for a change.

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So, yesterday was my 29th birthday. The last of my twenties, and we had a little party with some friends on Saturday. We watched the Winky Wright vs. Ike Quartey fight and had a little mini Xbox 360 Fight Night Round 3 tournament. It was fun. My poor kitten, Revan had his 3rd round of shots that morning though so he was only playful for a little while. I thought he would be very overwhelmed with all the people but he actually handled it quite well. Only one hiss at our friend Mike which was weird because Mike was one of the two people he has seen multiple times. Revan definitely made a few fans though, he's cuteness is so deadly.

As you can see he was captivated with one guest in particular, Amy. She also has cats and I think he was digging the other cat fragrances.

I didn't get any other pictures of the actual party and I blew out my candles before Tristan got the lens cap off the camera so I don't have anything more to post about it really. Hopefully when we have our next gathering of people at our place we'll have pictures to share. =)

Hooray for eBay!!!!

I went searching for my Iceland Madil on eBay again yesterday and found that someone had 6 balls for sale. I should have bought all six but I decided on four. I hope they get here this week because I am eager to get my IHS finished and wearing by the time we have our first freeze (lasting all of 36 hours) in Austin.

I also want to get a matching hat on sticks as well. I am working on a black one at the moment from the Licorice pattern in the Stitch n' Bitch Nation book. I figure it will be good to test it on this so I can make the necessary adjustments once the Madil yarn gets here. I am so excited I would love to have my first matching hat/scarf combo I make for myself be with this lovely cable pattern.

I also finally heard back from the IHS KAL administrator person thingy and got my name and link on their blog. So, I posted my progress there. I can see this scarf becoming a popular gift thing for me. I will not be satisfied until everyone I love has one, and since it is such a quick knit I may actually get some banged out before Xmas, wouldn't that be awesome.

I really can't wait to get this on some charcoal & heather grey yarn, those are 2 of my favorite colors and with this pattern I really think it will just be loverly. I want to make a matching on for me and my bff Lulu (that's Elizabeth to you though).

Let's see, anything else on my mind knitting-wise? Oh yes, I mailed out my UFOs to Kristina Wong for her play (See previous post.) I hope she tours through Austin, cause that would be the only way I see my work again. (j/k I'm interested in the play) I think it is a cool idea to be part of a performance art piece without all the performing and memorizing of lines for me etc. XD

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Now to bring this blog back to Revan, my kitten. He is nearly 13 weeks old and still completely adorable. One little thing he did yesterday is entirely worth bloggin' about on account, he was so cute and I love him.

If you know me, you know I am a lover of hats. BIG TIME! Something left over from my babydom when my grandmother Fusako (the nice one) used to put hats on me and laugh. It kind of lingers and I am compelled to put hats on when I see them. But I digress...

Anywho, I took off my hat yesterday and laid upside down on the coffee table, and my cute little baby boy crawled in it and fell asleep. "R U KIDDING ME? How can you be sooooo cute ALL THE TIME Revan?" If you don't believe me about the cuteness here are some pictures. I woke him up while snapping but I think you get the point.

How could you NOT love this little cutie?

I haven't been able to catch him squeezing into Tristan's soccer sandal yet but I hope to before he gets too big cause that is funny too. I guess my little boy just loves things that smell like his human parents.

Revan gets his third round of shots this Saturday, which is also the day before my 29th birthday. We are planning on maybe having some friends over for the Winky Wright vs. Ike Quartey fight AND hopefully see Ike get his ass handed to him on a platter. I love having a fight fall on or around my birthday. Its one of the few fun things we still do.

That should do it for now I think I am finally becoming a real blogger. I have blogged pretty consistently for the last week or so, hopefully it sticks.

FINALLY I finished ANDREW's Beanie

After many months of procrastination and retarded gauge issues I have finally finished Andrew's beanie. I don't know why I struggled with the beanie so much. At first I procrastinated, and then I got started and kept F'in' up on the gauge, so I increased the needle size and banged it out last night until 4 AM. I was determined to get this off my sticks since it sat there so long. But now that it is finished I suddenly want to made more hats. Funny how that happens huh?

Well, here is Andrews beanie done on size 8 dpns from my own little pattern, nothing crazy special but still nice looking.

It's Stitchmas Time

What do you want Santa to bring you for Stitchmas? I know what I want, just one thing really and I would be more than satisfied...

Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles

From what I hear they are the best and longest lasting of all the interchangeable knitting needles. I just really think it is time for me to start bigger and better projects and the Denise needles will really be helpful.

What do you want for Stitchmas this year? Have you written your letter to Santa yet?

Tragedy sets in... I ran out of yarn for my Irish Hiking Scarf. I guess I knew I would because I only had 2 balls of this Iceland Madil that my friend's brought me from Italy and I am having a hell of a time finding a place online to purchase it. I missed a damn ebay auction by like 15 minutes so I'm screwed. I have a wonderful half of a scarf that I would love to be wearing but I can't cause I don't have anymore yarn.

I am still going to try to hunt down a few more balls cause I would like to finish it and maybe even a matching hat.

Even though I won't get to finish it for awhile I am happy with how it has turned out so far. The stitch is nice and easy and it knits up really fast. Hence, my getting this far after only a couple days.

I'll just have to make another one with some of the Caron Simply Soft cause I pretty much have a huge Rubbermaid bin full of it, in all sorts of colors. Diggin' it.

Funny knitting thing I came across while surfing the Internet at work waiting for this very long, day before Thanksgiving weekend, work day to complete....

I was reading and searching knitting blogs to learn new things and see what knitters are up to in the world and I came across this post about a girl that is a performing artist that is asking knitters from all over the world to send her some unfinished project to become a part of her next performance piece called "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". I just thought it was kind of a cool idea to be a part of something that will maybe raise awareness on an issue I doubt many people are aware of... mental illness among Asian American women. Being a quarter Asian American woman myself I really wasn't aware of this issue being so staggering but apparently it is, and now I am concerned. I did a little goggle search after reading about this performance artist and came across this article from the APA which talked about some interesting problems that second generation Asian American women face. A lot about our growing up bi-cultural and feelings of pressure to maintain our Asian-ness while also being American. Which is actually something I have always tried to explain to American friends but always seems to be looked at as a non-issue. Read the article and learn a little something, I know I did.

Now I am a new advocate for getting the word out to help other Asian American women out there, and all I was trying to do was surf some knitting blogs.

But anyway back to the knitting request that Kristina Wong makes. I'm just going to paste it in here cause I think it is cool and I am going to send her the back of a hooded sweater I never got around to making the front of.

Dear Knitters,

Got an old knitting project that you don't plan to ever finish? Half done socks? Five inches of a scarf? Now they can be part of a touring theater piece! Help performer Kristina Wong demystify the knitting circle and unravel the deep psyche of the master crafter in her new solo show "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Your donations of unfinished knitting pieces from around the world will be included as part of the set for a live serio-comic exploration of maintaining sanity in times that seem almost fictitious. All contributors will receive set construction program credit for the life of the show. (Please forward this notice to all the knitters you know) Your friends in crafting, The Cuckoo's Nest WHY UNFINISHED KNITTING? "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" originally set out to explore the sky-high rates of mental illness and suicide among Asian Pacific Islander Women. Asian Pacific Islander American women have the highest rates of suicide in the country in a statistic that seems to be widely unpublicized and often disregarded. The unfinished knitting collected represent incomplete intentions, women's work, spinning a yarn,and loneliness. During the show, Kristina uses the knitting pieces to represent “unravelling” women and even unravels some of the pieces during the show. These knit pieces may also be displayed as part of an art installation later in the run.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING: Please include the skein of yarn (if there is one) attached to your unfinished knitting. Include the knitting needle it's sitting on, or if you want to keep you needles, pull some waste yarn through the loops so that your piece doesnÂ’t unravel in the mail. On a sheet of paper please include the following information. This information is all optional as it may be displayed as part of a public installation of this work. Name (or alias) Gender Age Ethnic identification Where do you live/ Where are you from? What was the original intention when you cast on this piece? What reasons do you have for not finishing it? Any information about this piece that is pertinent to its history or to your history. If you are interested in knowing where "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" is touring to, please include your email address. Note: Your name and hometown must be included if you want to be credited for set construction.

DO SEND: Unfinished knitting, all different shapes and colors that can be unraveled if pulled at the string. This could be the sleeve of a sweater you never finished, the first scarf you started, or any other piece of knitting that for some reason or another you have not managed to finish nor do you anticipate will ever be finished. Knitting that is full of mistakes are as welcome as are perfectly stitched pieces. Unfinished knitting attached to tangled skeins are welcome.

DO NOT SEND: Finished knitting or store bought knitwear, finished knits that are damaged, anything with more square footage than a baby blanket (3 by 3 feet) or tangled yarn. I am interested only unfinished knitting that has been pulled off the needle and that has the capability of unravelling. YOUR KNITTING WILL NOT BE RETURNED! At the end of the run of "Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," the remaining pieces will be stitched together to create blankets for charity. Any attached skeins of yarn will be cut and also given to charity.

TIMELINE: * Knitting received by December 1, 2006 will appear in the Berkeley premiere of WFOTCN on December 9 and the run at MACLA in San Jose December 15-16. * Knitting received by March 15, 2006 will appear in the East Coast premiere of WFOTCN March 23-24 at the Painted Bride in Philadelphia, PA. * Knitting may also appear in other national performances of this show.

MAIL YOUR KNITTING TO:
KRISTINA WONG WONG FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
PO BOX 251664
LOS ANGELES, CA 90025 USA

Please do not send anything COD. QUESTIONS/ PRESS INQUIRIES? http://www.kristinawong.com
k@kristinasherylwong.com

In Progress: Irish Hiking Scarf

I want to post a bit about my progress on my on the Irish Hiking Scarf. I have to say I am amazed at how easy this cabling is considering how much I struggled at my first attempt at cabling when I was visiting with my Great Uncle & Auntie in Canada last year (and I was so vigorously discouraged).

Anyways, the grey one I posted earlier was destroyed by my kitten, Revan. I was in the middle of knitting and he got a nice bite on it and took off unraveling it as he went. I tried to get it back on the needle but the wool I was using just didn't easily lend itself to that so I had to frog it. Oh well, it was good practice anyway.

It's dangerous to let Revan get this close to my knitting.

I remembered I had this fabulous blue yarn that my friend's Johnnie & Jon brought me from Italy last year. I was still some what new and wanted to wait until I was more confident in my knitting before I attempted anything with it. But since the Irish Hiking Scarf is so easy and looks beautiful I decided to give it a try. I am pretty happy about it so far. I do still want to knit it on the round but I wanted to learn the stitch first. We'll see, I might try it out soon. For now here is my progress on the flat one.

What do you think?

I've emailed the Irish Hiking Scarf KAL people to get onto their blog but no word yet we'll see.

Don't you hate it, when you are at work blogging and your supervisor pops up unexpectedly so you immediately shut off your Internet window without saving all the stuff you typed for like an hour?

No?

So, I'm the only person in the world that blogs on company time? Doubt it.

So, yeah I was bloggin' all morning about my sense of accomplishment from finishing Jenny's scarf, how I have two projects for others left on my schedule, but that in the meantime I joined this Irish Hiking Scarf Knit-a-long and in my excitement from stumbling on it I got to work right away. Now I have to type that ALL OVER AGAIN. Well, actually I summed it up quite nicely in this little paragraph, so maybe not. Hmmm.

How about I just talk about this knit-a-long!

I realize that this may cross me over into a different kind of a knitting geek (blogging was the first step towards geekdom) but I think it is such a good idea. A bunch of people on one blog, knitting the same pattern, and seeing all the different ways it could turn out! Doesn't that sound FUN!?! Yes, that is why I am joining up. I saw a few really beautiful ones on the Irish Hiking Scarf Knit-a-long blog and I also had to search Flickr since I am also a photography nut, and I came across one that really excited me. Let me tell you why. It was made on dpns which is what I want to do so that you don't have to see the ugly backside.

I started knitting the flat one last night and even though there is a little bunching its a lot better than the first time I tried to cable. Check it out...

Not bad, not bad. I still want to try to make it on the round, but I'll keep practice flat for now.

Okay, time to play catch up on my black & white Harry Potter scarf for my new friend and HP geek Jenny. (See picture)

Jenny & her scarf.

She wanted a black and white version on the famous Harry Potter scarf so I whipped one out but forgot to take in progress pictures like a dork. So just days before completing this bastard (I say bastard cause it took me like 5 or 6 weeks when it only should have taken 2 - 3 weeks on my work schedule) I snapped this pic with my new Nikon D80, Tatsu, (I know, I am bragging but I got a Nikon D80, you would brag too).

Notice I didn't carry the yarn through, yeah I don't know how to do that yet.


Here is the finished product, Well maybe before I cut the tassels.

Well, I finished the last two blocks and sewed up all the ends last night, and let me tell you I will never knit something with that many color changes in it again until I can figure out how to carry the yarn. I may have found the resource for it. Notice my new link on the side bar for the Knitten Ninja he made this gorgeous grey and mint green scarf that is passing as a Banana Republic scarf (nice) and I want to copy it. And he links to some instructions for color carrying and I am going to try that out later this evening. I'll test it out, and if I am successful I will post it in my Instructions section.

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Changing the subject...

I have also made a couple little electronics socks recently. The first was this one for my new Motorola Razr Phone, I have a tendency to drop my phones a lot and since I just got this one I figured I better put a sock on it (since it is so expensive). Plus, I get more practice on my DPNS...win win.

I also have one for my husband's digital voice recorder because he say it cuts on when it is sitting in his backpack so hopefully this will keep the buttons from getting knocked. I have some pics but I haven't uploaded them yet, and since I am blogging from work instead of working I can't get to them at the moment. (shh don't tell). I'll get the rest of my in progress pictures up later on. Until then....

Love, Peace, and Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooul Train!!!!

I really don't intend to turn this knitting blog into a kitten blog (well at least not exclusively) but since Revan is new to our little family and he is so cute... I just can't help it. When he first came home I started making this little knitted cat teaser kind of thing with some scrap yarn and he just loves it. At first he would only play with it when you dangled it in front of him but now he doesn't need anyones help to play. Here are a series of pictures of my little boy and his knitted toy.

and last but not least...

Awwwwww, you are so jealous that he is mine aren't you? The cuteness is deadly!

THE ONION: Evangelical Haggard Claims He Was Molested By Republican Congressman
November 10, 2006 Issue 42•46


COLORADO SPRINGS, CO—Evangelical leader Ted Haggard, who stepped down last week after confessing that he purchased methamphetamines and various services from a male prostitute, revealed Wednesday that he was repeatedly molested by an unnamed Republican congressman in the late 1990s. "We would communicate on the Internet and then meet in his Washington office to, I thought, discuss faith-based initiatives," said Haggard in a tearful admission in which he asked for the forgiveness of God and his congregation. "Before long, he had progressed from praying alongside me to having me sit on his lap at his desk, and then to touching me in my bathing-suit area. I trusted the congressman, and he violated that trust." Authorities have not acted on Haggard's allegations, saying that Republicans are often accused of wrongdoings simply because so many of them lead secret gay or criminal lifestyles.

___________________________________________________________________

And how OLD was Mr. Haggard in the LATE 1990's?

Revan, Prince of Cats

My little blue eyed bandit has some green swirls, which I never noticed before because I didn't have the kick ass NIKON D80 camera to take awesome pictures that can pick up details other crap cameras can't.

Yes, that's right I got a Nikon D80 and you are all jealous. My Tristan got it for me (though I imagine I'll pay for most of it in the end) for my birthday/Xmas/whatever else for the next year. Which is totally fair and wonderful! That is how Tristan and I give gifts to each other. He thanked me for buying his piano last year though it was his financial aid that paid for it and I thanked him for getting me the camera though it will be me making the monthly payments. So, maybe it is like we give each other permission for the big ticket items. I don't know if that sounds right but that is what we do and it works for us.

The picture quality is so wonderful, my Revan practically looks 3D in this picture, doesn't he? I have named it Tatsu, which means "dragon" in Japanese. Here's what Tatsu looks like..

Isn't he lovely?

I can't wait to really get to work with this camera. I of course will be posting pictures of my knitting projects soon. I have some in progress stuff and a couple small completed things to get up here. I have really been dragging on FINISHING lately though. I don't know why.

Peace & Love!!!