Bun

Thanks for all the well wishing! It seems today so far has gone ok. A few nights ago, I even mustered up the time to make this:

Mr. Bun and a pillow for Xochtil. Mr. Bun is always ecstatically waving "hi" due to a sewing error. Im sure Xochtil wont mind.  

I also picked up some great fabric for ultra cheap from the store earlier this week, that I will have pictures of soon! 2 tweeds, and 2 printed. Im planning on trying out skirts!
Last night I made some good progress on Bad Penny as well, only 1 more inch to go on the waist! then i can do the edging and sleeves. Im thinking of possibly turning them into 1/4 length sleeves if i have enough yarn. I guess we will see! All my projects are so close to being done, but it seems it will be forever before I will see them finished!

BAD

What is up with this week?? is anyone feeling this but me? I guess it could have all started last Saturday. We all decided to get all geared up and go out to Palos for a ride. Unfortunately, contrary to our beliefs, the trails were pure brownie mix in most of the sections. we had to carry our heavy, dirt laden bikes outa there it was so bad! That led into a 2 hour cleaning session, which after we had uncaked our bikes, had left our shifting stuff completely useless. ugh.
monday, i wake up and am convinced someone broke into our basement. we have a side door that leads to the 4 tenants back doors as well as an unlocked basement door. the main door doesnt shut in the winter, unless you pull it hard. no one besides us does that, so the door is left open a lot, which is really bad. so i hear that door close and the basement door slam shut. so now i am convinced someone has hidden into our basement. I even saw mud clumps on the stairs that would have come off their shoe. i searched the whole basement with my large hunting knife that is a kind of heirloom in mikes family. well needless to say, i didnt find anything. i even came back from work at lunch to make sure. Paranoid i guess.
Then as I get to work, I find out Hunter Thompson killed himself. He is my favorite writer, and needless to say I took it kind of bad.
THEN im driving home and a cop pulls me over! She said I rolled through a stop sign. There is NO WAY i would go through a sign. I am way too scared of hitting a person, dog, or bike. Plus the intersection is blind, so you have to be extra cautious. She had a terrible vantage point as well. I went back to take pictures, wrote out my argument, and mailed off my intent to contest the ticket. See yall in court. she couldnt even spell my name right on the dang ticket.
Then today I found out my old coworker died. She was the best person, and I cannot believe she is gone. She fought a long bout of blood disease and pneumonia in the hospital, and yesterday, i guess it got the best of her. i am still pretty much in disbelief of everything. At least her loved ones could be with her, while she was stuck in a hospital in Mexico. this happened while she was on vacation.
All this as I thought on tuesday that the week was going to start looking up. Its like the last 3 weeks have been particularly bad, and we are all trying to figure out if its winter getting the best of us, or if theres some wierd atmospheric energy. Whatever it is, it better hurry up and go away.

picturely!

ok finally some photos to share... what a busy week! too bad it wasnt busy craftswise. anyways, here is my lovely new sewing machine. Hooray for me, I already broke 1 needle! Notice the lovely little improvised pin cushion- sorry squirrel :(

And after about an hour of tinkering at home, the result, my dog bed! Its very gratifying to have something done in so little time.

It's very comfy, even for a human.
Next up, is going to be a neat little fuzzy toy for Xochtil. Im thinking bunny shapes here.
The best thing about this whole making stuff thing is, I have all this stuff and hardly spent any money so far! well if you count the sewing machine, i did, but that was something I needed before anyways! plus i plan to make clothes with it.
And finally, knitting content!
Something really really exciting, Christopher brought me back some yarn from Prague!! Isn't it just awesome??
I am thinking something along the lines of the Stitch and Bitch first books Kool Aid dye sweater. Loose and airy. Thanks Christopher!
Update to the dog sweater,

I started increasing to accomodate the width of their chest and upper body. I hope this stuff will fit on her! if not, a rippin i will go..
The dog blanket i have barely touched,

And finally to good ole bad penny. I have about 3 more inches to go of stockinette, this one is also going slowly.

I feel so terrible that I havent had time to knit much, but hopefully weeks to come will allow more time and energy!

no picturely

Sorry this is a large pictureless post...! well with the excitement of a new dog coming into our house soon, we have been prepping all week! we bought a large dog crate (apparently greyhounds who have raced only feel at home in the crate, until they get used to the house, its kind of like a teenager and his bedroom) for very cheap on craigslist. We got me a sewing machine so i could sew up a few dog beds, one for the crate, and one for a bed. I spent the larger part of this week trying to figure the darn thing out. I sewed when i was little, but its been a LONG time since ive operated a machine. So there was a lot of guess work and manual reading in this one. I sewed up 2 hems so far, but am having tension issues with the thread, so it may be awhile. Besides doing those beds, i bought some super fuzzy fabric, that reminds me of a bunny, that I know xochtil will love after i sew it and stuff it as her toy. My mom bought us a little welcome card and some chewy dog toys as a "pup warming" present! so cute!
Anyways, to knitting news, knitty has their 2 surprises up today! the baby hat is really really cute. I wish i knew a little baby girl to make it for! I havent done hardly any knitting this week, besides a few rows on the dog sweater. I think as of now, the bed is the most important thing, since we are getting her in march, and it will be warmer by then. I am going to need a raincoat for her though, and lauren found a great resource for greyhound sewing patterns here. I know, I know, sewing sewing blablabla, but sometimes, we have to be open to doing certain projects in different formats! i cant very well knit a rain coat... unless...
I hope to have photos of the machine and some progress soon.
Lastly, on a hilarious note, sarah has made a comic of one of our more unfortunate lunchtime visits to jewel grocery in elgin... click here to read and stuff. In a nutshell, we went to this jewel for lunch one day, and this really really negative lady who worked there just overreacted to every little thing. despite sarahs efforts to cheer her up, she was still as rotten as can be. Mind you, the comic is no exaggeration. Well, maybe a little...

introducing...

Introducing, our dog! Whee!
We went to the kennel today and picked out our dog! Unfortunately Snowy was already adopted by the time we got there. after visiting with 6-7 dogs, we found Slammer! Slammer is her racing name, we are thinking of renaming her Xochtil (pronounce SOW CHEE). She won our hearts over. Here's a link to her specs!






Here are some random shots of us before we left. She gets all her vet work done this week, and then stays at a foster home for a few weeks to get housebroken and learn all the basics (stairs, windows, etc). Then they drop her off to us!
Looks like its really time to get cookin on that sweater and stuff. Also, i bought a sewing machine today! I am going to make her a dog bed, as well as some stuff for myself in the future (skirts, etc. maybe gifts).

mo wedding

We finally got our black and white disk from Morgan today. I won't get to see it until later, but here are some that Mike sent me through email!! You can click them all to see larger versions.

Here we are posing before the event!


Here is an over view of me walking in with my parents.


Here's us at our table. That's my mom ducking behind me!

As for knitting news, i am about halfway done with the dog sweater. It's coming out very cute. I'm using brown sheep lambs pride worsted in Lotus and Raspberry. The 2 colors together just rock! I cant wait to show you the finished piece (on SNOWY). We are going Saturday to wisconsin to visit the kennel and find the dog thats right for us. Snowy is still available as of now, so I'm very excited!

blablabbla

Ok bear with me, this is going to be the longest post ever. So many things to update you on! Well last weekend was quite an adventure. It all started out with a gas leak that I promptly took care of in the basement. That day yielded no knitting for sure. I was supposed to go out to celebrate a friends birthday, too. Oh well. Then Saturday I drove out to Dekalb where my friend lives and goes to school. I had the best time driving down the country roads, seeing horses frolicking and what not. I got there, and we went to eat at a greasy spoon, and then on to the Dekalb yarn store, The Yarn Exchange. That place was pretty amazing. They had most every product Brown Sheep Company had made. She even said they didnt have it all! They carried a wide variety of colors, and were very helpful and friendly. I picked up 3 skeins of mystery expensive yarn, 350 yards for 5$ each! its perfect sock yarn- heres a look-

Tatiana, my friend, also wanted to learn how to make socks while i was there. She purchased some extra extra bulky yarn, and ended up with something that looked like a boot. they were cute and funny. Im sure they will keep her feet ultra warm. Here's what I did in the time I was there:

Ive gotten a little further this week along on the sock, but the yarn is so thin! im using size 1 needles that I got there, something Ive never done. I have to say, it is kind of enjoyable to knit something so teeny tiny.
After sitting at her friends house and knitting for a few hours, we went off to find food. I decided to possibly get my nose pierced, and then after meeting the piercing guy and seeing his shop, i decided that he was probably going to give me some infectious disease if I went through with it. I guess another time, another time!
I ended up cooking a great pasta for everyone, and then we got so full we fell asleep.
The ride home was awesome too. I really love the open spaces, especially after being pent up in the city for so long.
I stopped at Downers Grove to have a gander at Knitters Knitche, and Bead Heaven. At the Knitche, I discovered the most heavenly yarn ever- Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Bulky. I didnt get to buy any, but that stuff is definately got some of the best bulk, drape, and softness Ive ever seen! I would love to do a future sweater out of it!
Next up, Bead Heaven. I found a lot of stuff I liked, but these really stood out for me.



I just love the vintagy look of these guys! They totally remind me of my childhood and something my grandpa would have picked up for me from his afternoon on Maxwell street. Sigh.
Well i plan to use these guys, one at a time on different projects, such as hats, etc.
When I went to mikes parents house, his mom had a surprise for me-

She made us a wall hanging quilt to cut down on noise in our apartment! Theres a shot on our sofa. Isnt it cool? Ill have mike hang it when he gets back in town.
Then after that, I stopped at my moms house, and she gave me 2 tupperwares full of her famous yummy spaghetti sauce. I cant wait to dig in! She makes some of the best sauce Ive ever tasted.
This week has been filled with knitting stuff. I finally finished clapotis, as most of you know, and now i have some better photos of it. Here ya go!



I really really am happy with it. Ive worn it both days following its completion! Its very soft, in the Lion microspun.
Last night I decided to get a start on some of our dogs stuff. I am about a week away from finishing the blanket, Ill show that later. I started boots yesterday, but had to rip them out. I am not sure how to go about making them, because i wanted to felt them, and am not sure how much space i will lose in the process. Is there any standard felting rule that says you lose, lets say 30% or 50% room by felting or something like that??
So instead of guessing, I went on to her sweater. I found a great idea on craftster here. Its a nice pattern if you arent sure what size youll be needing. I modified the thing a little, added a cable, ribbing, and some stockinette on a garter background, and started last night! Here's a pic as of last night:

Here's a picture as of today!

I think it will come out good, unless Im totally off on the sizing (I hope not!)
That's it for now, my gigantically long (hee) post.

Clapotis time

oh boy oh boy oh boy! Clapotis is done! I think I am going to take it home and block it, and then I will be completely done. For now, Here is a bad webcam shot of the thing, and me tiredly modeling it!

Banjo thons

My oh my what a week! I have been so busy doing stuff around, and I haven't had much time to do anything crafty wise. I am looking forward to saturday, on which i will meet a possible banjo instructor! I am super excited, because it will be much cheaper than going to the Old Town School of Folk Music for lessons. Christopher was looking for some one to give fiddle lessons, and the banjo player from this band contacted him! We are supposed to go meet him and see how it will all work out! Im very excited, yet my banjo is in disrepair right now-- we will see about fixing that tonite!
This weekend was very adventurous, I will post soon about the whole shebang, but for now, I leave you with an updated picture of the clapotis! Almost!!!

The anticipation is just killing me...