Hello Happy Bloggers!!

No, not sure why I'm excited today. Ok, that's a lie. I've been going to Curves and have lost 4 lbs in 2 weeks. At this rate I'll be my ideal weight by Christmas of next year. Unbelievable. And no, I'm not on the super-scary Akins diet or anything. I just cut my portions in half. Now that my stomach has shrunken, it's not so hard. I just stop eating when I'm full.

I know, I know, that's what everybody says, but it's true. Not so hard, really.

Look what I bought!




It's the Boyd NeedleMaster set. I've wanted one for ever so long. Biddy, who didn't like it because the tension of her knitting makes the tips unscrew, sold it to me. I don't knit that tightly.

I also bought 2 skeins of some silky, slippy yarn. Trendsetter Volia print, in color #21, Ocean Water, and another in gray. I'm knitting a scarf (how original,) alternating the dark purple blue of the Ocean water with the soft gray. It will be nice, I think.



I have decided, for sure, to buy a wheel with my tax return, which I should get any day now. So... Which do I get? I'm leaning toward the Ashford Traditional, because I can use it at the *Renaissance Faire*, and because I know 2 women who have them, and are happy. Any thoughts, oh great blogging masses? (assuming, of course, that anybody reads this thing anymore...)

Oh interesting thing.

Last night I had a dream about Wendy. No, not that kind of dream, you sicko! This one was... odd. I dreamed she wrote a blog entry, and this is what it said:

"So, it's true. I have been accepting gifts from the International Broccoli Counsel. So far, they've given me a neat box and this shawl. (Picture of Wendy holding the shawl and Lucy) Now, whether this will change my mind about the Issue, I'm not sure, but I can say that those guys at the IBC are swell."

....

Ok, I have no idea where that came from. Wendy, do you take bribes from the IBC?

Good things are afoot.

I got a camera, so I'll be able to post pictures soon. Yey. I started (and finished) a hat, of which you will hear the Saga of the Hat in my next post.

But the most exciting thing, for me, is that i'm going to buy a spinning wheel with my tax return. Now I just have to figure out which one...

Short post. I'll update when I get my pictures off the camera.

Alright. I'm participating in the ThreadyBear knit along, and Matt has come up with so many different colors for us to try!

Here's the colors I'm debating: (in order ) Hedgerow, Jeans, Spice, and Tumbleweed








I like how these colors bring some of the pattern forward, and some of it back. Dimensional! Which should I do?

On other news: I've made some health decisions, and joined Curves. My goal is to drop from a 24 (you didn't know I was a fat mouse, did you?) to a 14. Which, technically, is still 'overweight' for this society, but fuck um. And, while I am changing my eating habits, I don't mind the weight, as long as I'm healthier. I'm geneticaly disposed to getting diabeties, so i have to be careful... I have to be able to keep up with the boy when he's dancing, you know.... Wish me luck.

New templet. I like it.

Now, if I could only get this thing to archive!

Happy New Year!

:)

I gave in. Rob at BlackDog kept talking about this luscious yarn.... 70 % alpaca, 30% angora... yeah, I have Indulged. 2 skeins natural, one purple fire. I might dye the natural. Oooo, handpainted Indulgence... that sounds nice. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with it... something either for the face, or something that will get a lot of touching, like the belly of a teddy bear. Mmmm, maybe make a 'nu nu' bunny, named for the noise my friends child made when she stroked a certain stuffed friend.

On other news... ThreadBear rocks. I emailed them, and within ten minutes, my yarn was packed and ready to go. Bless you, Matt and Rob; enablers of our yarn habits, pushers of inspiration, purveyor of yarn lust. You are the madams of the bordello of knitting joy.

The other thing I'm currently obsessing over (mouse, obsessing? No...) is shadow knitting.

Don't roll your eyes at me. I know that most of the patterns are insipid, and that most of the people doing it are that strange and unknowable quantity the 'machine knitter', who will 'save time' and let the machine knit... and then hand convert the purl stitches... But the technique itself is so interesting, and my feral little brain has been chewing on it.

Vivian Hoxbro has a book coming out soon, and that might help, but my brain is churning with thoughts of dark garments in small pinstripe, patterned with messages and things glimpsed out of the corner of your eye... and intarsia type scenes with surprise elements... I know, I'm nuts. Let me run for a while with this, and it will either pan out or I will curse myself and get back on the well worn path of the knitting traditionalist.

I never could leave well enough alone.

I finished a Coronet hat for Biddy (hi biddy) and started one for myself. I love cabling. Maybe if I finish the Thready Bear sweater I'll be confident enough to make a real one, and maybe it will have cables... Now, if I could just read damn cable charts....