Progress on Circular Shrug

I love my mailman. He brought me more yarn today! This is the yarn that I will be using for my cabled pullover:

Wool of the Andes - Iron Ore

As I said last time, progress is slow on the Circular Shrug. It takes way to long to make one row. There were 240 Stitches cast on. I am working on the 5 inches of k2p2 right now and then I will go into the mock rib section and do that forever and then another 5 inches of the k2p2. The stripes will be vertical on the finished product. Maybe this will make me look skinny? I can only hope.

Isn't the colorway pretty?

This is my last post for the week. I'm leaving town early tomorrow morning for South Carolina for a family reunion type thing. I'll see you on Monday. Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Yarn!

I told you there would be a knitting/yarn post next didn't I?

Well, slow progress is being made on the Circular Shrug. When you cast on 240 stitches, it takes a while to make a row, but it is coming along. I'll have a pic of it tomorrow for you.

I do have some yummy pre-Valentine's Day yarn pr0n for you though:

MMMM! Yummy!

This weekend I went to the Knitting Emporium in Kennesaw, GA. This was my first time in that shop and I loved it. It's in a tiny old house and every single room is filled with yarn. It's a great place to explore every nook and cranny. I found this Colinette sock yarn (colorway - Bright Charcoal) in the back room. It's so soft and squishy, love it.

The Valentine you see is destined for one of the Eldest's teachers at school. I found the idea on a blog a week or so ago, but can't for the life of me remember where. If this was your idea, please forgive me! Let me know in the comments so I can give you full credit for this really cute idea.

It's so simple to make. Cut out a heart. Then take a hole punch and go all the way around the heart with it. Next, grab some yarn and a crochet hook. From the front, insert your hook through the center top hole and grab the yarn and pull it back through. Then do it again in the next hole and the next and all the way around. It was super easy to do and is an easy teacher gift for Valentine's.

Political Rant

If you dislike Political Rants, please skip this post. More adventures in Knitting will be appearing in the next post.

Today I felt that I had to write a letter to my Senators in protest against them voting to give the Telecoms retroactive immunity. I feel passionately about the issue of spying on the common everyday "Joe". This is not about whether I am a Republican or a Democrat, but how I feel about my Telecom collecting data on where I visit on the web, who I send email to, what I post on my blog.

While I know that the information that they will collect on me will be useless to them or anyone else for that matter (does the Government really need to know about knitting patterns or stitches or yarn or me lolcats to my Mom?), I dislike that they will be doing it at all.

I believe in my freedom, and I believe in my Senators upholding my Constitution which grants me my freedom. Here is a copy of what I sent:


Mr. XXXXXXX,

I'm disappointed that you would choose to vote for giving Telecoms retroactive immunity. Do you remember the Constitution, which you swore to uphold?

According to Article 1, Section 9:

No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law (ex post facto laws are seen as a violation of the rule of law as it applies in a free and democratic society. ) shall be passed.

The rights of the people that you serve are being violated Mr. XXXXXX. All citizens must have legal recourse when their rights are infringed upon, and companies must bear the responsibility for breaking the law.

I feel that the you and your fellow GA representatives have completely lost touch with their constituents (as in "We, the people...", not "We, the corporations and PACs who gave you cash...) and all of you who have voted for this legislation have completely lost my confidence and my future vote.

The saying that "Big Brother is watching" has never been true or appropriate. After writing this letter to you I fully expect to be watched very closely. It is unfortunate that the government will be wasting it's money by spying on a middle class American Housewife, don't you think?

Sincerely,

SHEA

I am positive that I have wasted my time in sending the letter and ranting about it here, but I feel better now, thanks.

PS - I would like to hear about what my fellow knitters and bloggers think about this issue - please leave me a comment and let me know!

It never rains, but it pours

It never rains, but it pours. That saying is so apt in regards to my knitting. I was complaining a few days ago about how none of my little projects were satisfying me and that the projects that I want to work on needed the needles that were supposedly in the mail from KnitPicks.

Well, I found a project that I wanted to tackle in the meantime. The Circular Shrug from Craftster. You can paw through all 55 pages about it on the forum (and they are very informative- you can make it like the one pictured below or you can make a vest, change the stitch patterns - the possibilities are endless), or you can just go here to the pattern from it. It is a pattern that was created to look like this one:

Retro Cool

The problem now? My needles came in, but now I don't want to put down this project. I'm using Patons SWS for this. I believe it's the Natural Earth colorway. Not sure, but it's definitely "earthy". Also, I'll be needing the needle this project is on, so I guess I'm just gonna have to hurry this project along huh? I'll be traveling this weekend and this will be going with me. If I can avoid car sickness, I might even work on it in the car. Dramamine here I come.


By the way, My kitty made it onto StuffOnMyCat.com again! here's the link: Tiger's pic

The Power of 7

ACK! I've been tagged by two different people for the Power of 7. I don't even know if any of the people I tag will respond, but here goes:

Lil Knitter and Knitasaur both tagged me.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. New Years' Eve has a special significance for me. The Eldest was conceived on New Year's Eve (that's what giving your hubby one glass of champagne while you consume the entire rest of the bottle will get ya) and the Youngest was born on that date (wasn't allowed to have any alcohol then when I really needed it, dammitall.)

2. I'm a major SciFi/Fantasy Bookwormaholic.

3. I heart mint tea.

4. One of my nicknames for my hubby is PudderF#cker. He's slow as creation when it comes to either making a freakin' decision (he moves nowhere without a list) or getting ready to get out of the house.

5. I am a female nightowl who lives in a testosterone poisoned environment with three male early birds.

6. On the day I got married my Mother In Law pulled me to the side and gave me some very wise advice - "When you come home from shopping, hide the receipt and then tell your husband you spent half of what you actually did spend." Thus, giving me permission to lie to her son. Cool!

7. I tried to marry for money but failed miserably.

I now tag these 7 victims people in revenge for me getting tagged:

The most fantastic lace knitter ever: Fleegle

Adrienne

Jeanne

Knit Me to the End of Time

In an effort to get her blogging again: Wonky

Another California Chick: Where Angels Fear to Treadle

Tienne Knits

Okay, there's my seven!