Sea Anemone Knits

So Thursday, before I left the office, I called Cafe Express. I just wanted to know if we could expect to get shafted and kicked out of our room again. I mean, hey, we HAVE been meeting up back there for more than two years you know? We kinda have dibs on that back room. So they put me on with Del. He’s the General Manager there. Really nice guy. He gets on the phone and is very interested in accomodating the group and wants to know if we’d like them to reserve the room for us. I’m all like, no, you dont have to reserve the room, i just wanted to know if anyone else had. We talk another minute and get off the phone.

I get to CE that evening. They’ve pushed a bunch of table together along the back wall bench and slapped a reserved sign on them. I immediately know that this is for us. So I sit down to knit and wait for other knitters to show up. Del comes over and introduces himself. We talk a bit and he’s very interested in what I’m doing and in the group, etc. Then, he informs me that he’s put two bottles of wine on ice for the group, on the house. I’m floored. So we had a lovely smooth Pinot Grigio at the group this past Thursday. How lovely is that? I’m always so thrilled to experience the niceness of people. It makes you feel very welcome.

Saturday afternoon, I went and saw A Prairie Home Companion with my Papa and Annie (his girlfriend). It was really good. I love Garrison Keillor. I’ve been listening to A Prairie Home Companion on the radio since I was a little girl. It was constant background noise at my grandparents house, and always on the car radio when we drove anywhere in the evenings. That, for me, is part of what home means. The movie does not disappoint. Except for names like Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson, John C Reilly, Lindsey Lohan, etc… all of the people are people who actually work on the radio show. So the sound was authentic PHC. It was so cool. Afterwards, we went and had dinner at the Black Lab. It’s on Montrose and is an English restaurant. Right down to the strange English meals. For dessert, they really will serve you something called Spotted Dick. SD is some kind of pudding dotted with cinnamon, raisins and currants. What an unfortunate name for something that is probably really good.

Later, I went out with Susan to Pappadeux’s where I sat and worked on the koigu Mom sock and she had dinner. The waiter was hot. And flirting with me. I’m still feeling saucy with this haircut. Tis a goood thing. We finished there and went to grab Jet to go see a movie called Little Miss Sunshine. Its about a dysfunctional family and how with as much as they fight and squabble amongst themselves, when outside forces come to pick fights with them, they all pull together. Its a sappy idea for a movie, but we saw it at the River Oaks theater (the one slated to be closed down! find a petition, sign it!) and it was a tiny movie room with a tiny, packed audience and we all laughed really really hard pretty much continuously. Then, after the movie, the three of us started laughing our asses off in the bathroom at Lord only knows what and practically had to gasp for breath we were laughing so hard. I don’t know what we were laughing at, but really, I don’t think it mattered. We had fun with it.

We also attracted some attention for having our knitting at the movie. This chick sitting in front of Susan was enthralled and wanted to know if we could teach her. Sure! So we told her when and where we have meetings and to come on by. Hopefully we see her. She seemed like she’d fit in nicely with the group.

And because y’all have been so patient with the non-knitting posting lately, I thought y’all might enjoy this:

Doggy Raincoats!!

Ok, let’s be brutally honest. If I were to show you a picture of The Hour right now, you’d wonder why I thought that I’d made any progress. I’ve done another inch, but she still looks the same. So I won’t waste your time or mine. Please, thank me later. Really.

So, you might remember Tuesday when I mentioned in passing that I might cut off all my hair and you chuckled? Ok, well be truthful, raise your hand if you thought I wouldn’t go through with it… Jeez, that’s a lot of you. Have some faith people! 

Let’s go with your standard crap, “Before” photo:

Not real great. And to think when my hair turned out decently curly that day in Austin meeting the Harlot, I thought to myself, gee, that looks pretty good.

And now we can enjoy 4 pretty “After” photos:

Thank you Mo, I love love love your stylist.

So, I sent Meryl off this morning. Sat in the chairs outside the security point and cried for a while til I couldn’t see her anymore and wandered forlornly off back to my car feeling like I’d left a part of me inside the airport. I know its only a year and this is the chance of a lifetime for her and that the year will be over before we both know it, but, crap, you know?

My hourglass sweater is coming along nicely. Kinda. I’ve been knitting slowly on the body. I’m almost half way through with the increases. I knit off the addi and onto my new knit picks needles and man, no change in gauge, the yarn flies and there is NO snagging. None. Zip. Nada. Zilch. I’m a believer!

We got shafted at the knitting group last week. Some group called and reserved the WHOLE back room at Cafe Express. (I have been left with the impression that they do not do reservations. How do I know, I’ve asked before. That’s how. *grin*) So we were stuck outside in the open section of the restaurant with about a bazillion knitters on the one time everyone and their Mom decides to show up. Literally - Jennifer had brought her mom along. Yay for knitter Moms! So I had declared that I would call and reserve the WHOLE back room for this Thursday. In reality, I probably won’t. I just dont feel up to messing with it right now. We contented ourselves with spying on the group and muttering about them. Mo decided to show us how to blend in with our surroundings and hide from them.

Doesn’t she blend in well??

I’m off now to go find a haircut. I need one badly. Perhaps I’ll be saucy and chop it all off. We shall see.

Kelly and I were leaving Poison Girl after a couple of beers last night and I was telling her that we needed to walk slow because my shoes had rubbed blisters on my feet. Now, this guy (we’ll call him foot guy - FG for short) was sitting in a car hanging out the window and his friend was climbing into the driver’s seat and he says

FG: What about blisters?

Me: Oh, my shoes gave me blisters.

FG: Let me see your feet.

Me: (turns to show him my shoes)

FG: Tose are really nice. Party Shoes.

Me: Yeah, they’re for going out.

FG: Let me see the heel of em.

Me: (turns my foot to show him the heel)

FG: Those are really nice. (in a slow, thoughtful way)

AAAAAND Kelly and I scuttle off. Half a block away I was like

Me: Kelly, my feet just got hit on didn’t they?

Kelly: Yeaaah.

And we were both like EEEhhew.

Things are moving a little slower on the Hourglass. I love her. I really do. But she’s nothing but stockinette. Stitch after stitch of mindless stockinette. The sleeves, the sleeves move quickly. But I only have one sleeve done because I only have one needle for it and I dont want to just put the sleeve on waste yarn.  I need to get another picture of my progress. But as of 8/9, this is what I’ve got.

She is hemmed and a set of decreases are done on her. As of last night, I’ve gotten 4 1/2 decreases finished. I have to finish the last decrease (I added an extra one) and then to start the increases. I’m still debating on whether to do 4 increases or 5. We shall see depending on how the sweater fits and how long it is when I get there. As of this moment, I’ve used 4.75 balls of yarn and seeing as I have 12, I think I may be ok.

I did take some time off of Hourglass last night to spin. I spun some more laceweight and then I spun some handdyed stuff that I bought off of etsy. I can’t remember the name of the lady I bought it from, but this roving is incredibly soft and easy peasy to spin. I even managed to not spin laceweight! woo!

I’m thinking that I might use the handspun to knit a hat for a Chrisannakuh gift for someone I know. It would definitely be used and loved and taken care of. Something we all want for our handknits that we give away.

In other news, I’m still waiting for my new needles from Knit Picks. I ordered them on August 2 and they were shipped out on August 3. Now, here is where my great luck comes into play. Get ready for this… you ready? They were missent according to Smart Post. So I called and was like what does this mean? Well, the outcome of that conversation is that if I still do not have the needles by the 17th, I will call KP back and they will resend the order. So, I do not still have my needles. I got really excited about them, thinking that I was going to pick them up after work yesterday. But instead what I got was this yarn:

It will become a Waterlily top from the Spring 2006 IK magazine. It’s a little musty smelling so I do wonder about the storage used, but its fur free and doesn’t smell like smoke so a good washing should take care of this. Now don’t get me wrong, I am very excited to get this, but terribly disappointed in the idea that I’m not holding the needles I’ve been so very excited about. Ce’st la vie!

I have to warn y’all now, I’m going to babble about my hourglass sweater again. (Kelly, if you’re reading, you may just want to skip down a bit *grin* I know my love for this sweater is beyond your comprehension)

I am totally in love with this sweater. I’ve started the body of it and it’s going slooooowly. Which, if you take a look at how much I had to cast on and how little time I’ve had to devote to it in the last like 5 days, the slow going makes sense. Most of what I’ve accomplished will be folded over and sewn down to become the hem. I’m trying to hem this as I go so that there is less finishing involved at the end. I really love the way the fabric feels and looks. It is the most perfect tweedy orange. I saw some more of this yarn at Hill Country Weavers and theirs was a darker orange and much less attractive than mine. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Last week, I told y’all I finished the Blue Argyle Baby Sweater I was working on… it has been gifted and very well received. I was quite happy with the reaction to it. Much cooing and ohhing and aahing went on.

Pattern: Argyle Pullover from Special Knits by Debbie Bliss

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino in white, navy and a baby blue

Needles: 10" US 2 & 3 and a 12" US 2 circular

Modifications: I crocheted a button loop. I otherwise followed this one to the letter. I knit the 3-6 month size.

And now, before I go, this is what happens when you get bored and are playing with the camera. You get ignored:

Isn’t he sweet?

Just a quick little blab before I trek down to Galveston for the weekend to see my Mom. They let her go home from the hospital Wednesday, but they still haven’t made any decisions on what they are going to do to treat the cyst they found.

I finished the blue baby sweater and I’ll post some pictures when I get home Sunday. By then I’ll also be posting pictures of a fuchsia baby sweater that will be seamed this weekend. So there’s that.

Considering that I started the Hourglass Sweater with this:

I’ve made some progress. I put it down this past week so that I could get these baby sweaters done. So the pictures I’ll leave you with are the work of 3 days really. I cast on the sleeve at SnB on the 27th and by the 30th, I had this much done:

So today at lunch, I cast on the body and brought it home for inspection:

Until the next time then!