The Lost Day

I had big plans for yesterday (Sunday). Yes, I fully intended to sleep until I woke up naturally (translation: no alarm clock!), since I hadn’t done that in months.

Then I wanted to do a little housecleaning (It’s out of control. We desperately need to find a maid service here. I'm horrific at housecleaning and I hate it. I will give up yarn/fabric money to get someone to do it for me.) and I reeeally wanted to do some quilting. I’m sadly, pathetically behind on my M&Ms, and that’s not fair to my friends in California.

[We shall not mention that those terrible people are all at Asilomar. I’m so envious I can hardly see straight]

But that’s not what happened. Let’s back up a bit.

On Friday night, the hubster and I went out for dinner at South Side Works. While we were there, I stopped at REI to shop. It’s one of my very favorite places to browse, and yes, I’m a member. They had a good chunk of stuff on clearance and we found Derf a new hat. See?


Yeah, I know I’m capable of knitting something similar. And someday, I will. Meanwhile, I’m quite happy to have gotten a nice fleece-lined TurtleFur earflap hat on clearance, thankyouverymuch.

Anyhoo, after food, we went to Heinz Hall for a little culture. Then home. Saturday, I worked at Bloomin’ Yarns while the Hubster had his crash-and-burn day. Remember I told you how different each individual skein of a single Farmhouse colorway can be? Looky here:


Those are all Fannie’s Fingering Weight in the Kalidescope colorway. Honest Injun. I promise! This is why you should select your Farmhouse sock yarn in person! And, if you want, you can pick them out with the help of Carol Martin, the owner of Farmhouse Yarns! She’ll be at Bloomin’ for their anniversary sale on Friday and Saturday, April 4 & 5 (and if you come on Saturday, you can see me AND have birthday cake!)

Anyhoo, on Sunday, it was my turn to crash and burn. I slept until 11:30 am and came downstairs to finish the first Fountain Foxglove sock. Check.

That’s where my list for the day ended. I wound up needing a nap that afternoon, which was nice. We did leftovers for dinner and I went to sleep at a reasonable hour.

But this morning? Instead of my normal AM groggy, I feel like somebody punched me in the throat. Not just a sore throat, but an ache. I wanted to take a nap this afternoon, but I never pulled it off. I did manage to accidentally help Sid (my cute furry next-door neighbor) break her collar. Oops. All is well though, and it’s time for me to go to sleep. Nighty-night!

Just For My Friends in SoCal ...

On the way home from an errand today, I stopped at Costco. This Costco.

For my readers who live outside of Southern California, here's what you need to know to understand why I'm posting this.

When you go to Costco in SoCal, it's a contact sport. You have to circle the parking lot half a dozen times just to get a spot that's a full football field away from the entrance. Once you get a cart and actually get inside, you're shoulder-to-shoulder with a thousand of your closest friends and it takes a good solid half-hour to get through the check-out line on a good day.

And if you go on a weekend? Double everything I just said.

So today, I tooled into my local Costco. Eased into a parking spot that was about three spaces away from the closest possible point to the entrance. I went inside, and as I got towards the back of the store, it felt ... empty.

I completed my shopping and snacking (gotta love the sample carts!) and walked towards the front to check out. There were a grand total of THREE people in the front third of the store. They were all checkout people, and they were congregated under one of the checkout registers examining ... something.

When they noticed me standing there, waiting, two of the three then helped me unload my cart onto the belt, and I was on my way in under five minutes.

As I walked away, I felt the need to document this for posterity.


Yep. Crickets. Did I mention that this was at 4:30 pm? A full four hours before closing time? Sorry. Didn't mean to rub it in.

I love Costco. Well, I love Costco when it's outside of SoCal ...

Ho! Ho! Ho!

I know it’s Yarn Pr0n Friday, but I don’t have anything photographed and my head hurts. So you get to see/hear about my Christmas presents!

I did pretty damn well IMHO. Got two gift certificates from Bloomin Yarns (Hubster and brother/sis-in-law) and one for The Loopy Ewe from the in-laws. Also got a gift card from my parents for my gym so I can find me a good personal trainer.

It has nothing to do with New Years Resolutions, but I’m fed up with the weight I’ve gained since moving home to Pittsburgh and am informally planning to get rid of all of it by Memorial Day. Not an unreasonable goal as long as I get back on the Workout Wagon and stay there!

Anyhoo, the Hubster really scored with the trio of books he picked for me.


I'm still poring over my Harmony guides. They're extremely cool! I also got More Sensational Knitted Socks, and my jaw hit the floor when I opened up a package and it was the Sweater Wizard CD! I have no recollection of asking for it this year (I did ask last year, but didn't get it), but I must have marked it in the KnitPicks catalog I gave to the Hubster as a shopping guide. Yay!

Oh, and what did I get for the Hubster? A book, a new electric razor and this


Yep. I just happened to be at Costco when they put out a whole flat of Wii, so I snatched one up. Now you see why the basement had to be cleared out. It’s the official Wii Area, since that’s where the bigger TV lives!

In other news, as much as I loathe Black Friday, I really kind of enjoy the day-after-Christmas sales. I buy all of my Christmas cards for next year at 50% off and hit some other sales as well.

Mom and I hit the stationery store at the Galleria, You’re Invited (stationery) in downtown Mt. Lebanon, the kinda pathetic sale at Quilters Corner, Trax Farms (I got a bunch of clearance Xmas stuff, including all new extension cords for the outdoor lights for next year, since what we have out there now is, in a word, scary) and then I hit Michaels. That’s where I probably got my favorite single item of the day


It’s a snowman basket for all of our incoming Christmas cards! And I think it was just $3. I love clearance sales! I’m hoping that by next year, we’ll have an entryway table of some sort for this basket and the two awesome snowmen that I have purchased in the last two months that are itching to be displayed. I'll pick snowmen and penguins over santa 90% of the time. I just feel like they have a longer shelf life ... more "winter" than "christmas"

Today I got the rest of what I wanted to acquire to store all the holiday junk in the attic. 2 more red/green tubs for Christmas stuff, and I actually found a purple/black Halloween tote (!!!) for $3. Yay, clearance, again!! I figure we’ll do the packing up and putting away of the Xmas junk in two weeks, since Tree Recycling is January 12. No sense in putting away most of the stuff and leaving a naked tree sitting in its stand if you ask me.

OK. My headache is not-so-politely asking for a nap, so I think I’ll give in. I hope Santa brought you what you wanted for Christmas … or that you found it at a bargain in the last 72 hours!

Welcome to the Time Suck!

Yep. I got my Ravelry invite. Yesterday, right at kickoff. Lemme tell ya – Steelers-watching and Ravelry-browsing are not particularly compatible activities. Especially when your team is playing a truly pathetic game. Hmmm … on second thought, maybe it was a good thing I didn’t have to devote my full attention to that debacle.

I managed to watch about 90 minutes fly by while I photographed the “upstairs stash” this morning/early afternoon. I’ll probably upload that stuff tonight.

In other news, Hubster and I went errand-running on Sunday. The stated objective was to find a good winter coat for him. Since we’re members, we started at REI. Where I found these. (left) Yes, I know those are summer sandals for me, not a winter coat for him, but they were about 40% off, so I got ‘em.

I managed to find a really cool (warm) coat for myself at our second stop (right), and I’m quite pleased with it. I still don’t have a sock on the needles, and my only active project is my second Jaywalker scarf (the green/pink one). I’m thinking of doing SJ’s no-purl Monkeys next. Perhaps with my Yarn Pirate? Hmmm … that’s sounding pretty good. We shall see.

I voted. Did you?

First of all, work last night was awesome. Seriously awesome. I got to meet/interview six members of the all-time team, all of whom were players I really admired while I was growing up. Oh, and the game was seriously awesome as well.

On a side note, when I got dressed for work yesterday, I realized that my only “grown-up” watch (not made of plastic with big digital numbers) had a dead battery. Then I got called in an hour early so I could park and not be dependent on others to get home in the dead of night.

I stopped by Batteries Plus near my house in a terrible rush/panic. They not only sold me a new battery for my favorite "real" watch, they installed the new battery and set the watch to the correct time. Plus, they got me in and out in less than 10 minutes. Great experience. Highly recommend.

The down-side to last night’s avalanche of awesome-ness was that I got home at 2 am and didn’t get to bed until about 2:30. I didn’t set an alarm, and I scraped my sorry behind out of bed just before 11. As I walked downstairs, still in my PJs, I could see my mom walking down from the street to our front door. After re-hashing last night, we decided to do an errand field trip to vote, then go to Costco and the J-store.

I just have to say that I had no idea how election-spoiled I was in California. Every election, general and primary, we received a full sample ballot so at least you knew what the heck you were voting for. Allegheny County is so chopped up into little municipalities that it’s hard to find information on many of the candidates. And those nifty sample ballots that used to magically show up in my mailbox? They don’t exist here. I got good info on judges from two good lawyers I trust (the parents) and guessed on the rest. *sigh* I appreciate that the United States is “advanced citizenship,” one of my favorite lines from The West Wing, but being new to this community, it was a little harder than I’d like to figure out all the local stuff.

The biggest “news” of the day is that I got a new pair of shoes. Two reasons for this purchase. First, I need a reliable pair of shoes that will play nicely with the morton’s neuroma that my feet struggle with that will also be appropriate with dress slacks that I wear for work. Second, I wanted a pair of shoes that would encourage me to actually wear my hand-knit socks.

These fit both bills and I have to say that I had an extremely good experience at The Walking Company. With my foot issues, I really need to try on shoes before purchase, so web shopping doesn’t work for me. My next purchase of similar shoes will most likely be there as well.

So that’s about it from here. I have a quilting class in the morning to make this pattern, and I have no clue what I’m taking to Hurricane Knitters tomorrow night. Wanna find out? Show up at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble at 7 pm Wednesday night!

Jaywalking

Yeah, I did a little bit of that today, on my morning constitutional in downtown Seattle. The down side was that we didn't stay in the funky little hotel where we normally stay. Up-side is that I was able to walk to So Much Yarn! in downtown. It was fun!

I got a little bit of yarn (spent under $40) and will have photos later. I cut it a little close with my walk back through the market, so I didn't have time for a hotel photo shoot.

SJ had warned me about making sure the cuff on my Jaywalkers possibly being too small to get over my heel. I remembered this warning while on the airplane last night, but just kept knitting away while watching the end of Stranger than Fiction and most of The Prestige. (I watched the Prestige in three chunks. Gotta watch it again all in one sitting before I send it back to Netflix). Liked the 2nd movie better, but there's a lot of detail and I missed chunks of it because of how I watched it.

Anyhoo, once I got to the hotel, I tried on the sock. And couldn't get the damn thing over my heel. Freaked out a little bit. Then decided that my kick-ass KnitPicks DPNs were the problem.

So I got out my darning needle and threw those live stitches onto a strand of dental floss and tried it on. A little snug, but definitely do-able.


No interesting photo ops for RT in seattle, so the Jaywalker photo is it. Gotta keep the instructions handy. Hoping to turn that heel on the trip home tonight. Have a great Wednesday!

New Toys

Baxter's "leg warmers" are done. No new photo, because they look exactly the same as they did in the last post, just without needles in the 2nd cuff.

Anyone want to place a guess on when I might do the felting? *sigh*

I also picked up my traveling sock yesterday for the first time in a few weeks. No new picture of that either, since it looks exactly the same as it did in its previous photo-op (here).

My latest KnitPicks order arrived yesterday. Woo-Hoo!

It was half needles and half sock yarn.


I bought the two colors of Memories that I had seriously considered, then discarded, for the slipper socks projects. On the left is "Cape Cod" (more impressive in person) and on the right is "Fly Fishing" (way more disappointing in person). In the middle is 2 skeins of Gloss in dusk. I like that one. About as much as Cape Cod. The Fly Fishing? Not so much.

But the really fun part of the order was needles.


Knit Picks 6" DPNs in US 0, US 1 and US 2. Two pairs of 16" circs in a US 2. I did a Koigu swatch last night on the 1 and 2 DPNs. WOW. I LOVE THESE NEEDLES! They are exactly what my sock knitting mojo has been missing. I hope to zip through the remaining sock on the icky bendy Bryspuns I'm currently working on (I'd switch needles, but I don't have any other needles in this size) and cast on in the light blue Koigu for a pair of Jaywalkers.


Here's the back of the V-neck sweater, finished and awaiting the front for a three-needle bind off. Love the patterning on the top and bottom. Not over the moon with the pooling in the center, but I can live with it. I'm mildly nervous that it's a little too narrow, but I'm just gonna go with it.

That's it from chez DPUTiger tonight. Gotta get packed for a work trip. Three work trips in the next 12 days as a matter of fact. *sigh*

I’ve Got a Fever and the Only Prescription is More Cowbell Sock Yarn!

Edited Saturday night to add the Yarn Pr0n photos. Better late than never, I hope! Especially since I got LOTS of strange looks from my coaches when I was taking these photos over by third base post-game yesterday. :)

OK, so I went a little nuts yesterday. I jerry-rigged my afternoon responsibilities and got to the Cotton Shop in plenty of time. Got two fabric options for the back of the X-block quilt, and I’ll get my friends to help me pick tonight.

Then, I went over to Beach Knitting. Where they are having a store-wide 25% off sale through tomorrow. I came home with this.


Two skeins Trekking XXL. One of Sockotta. Two of Cherry Tree Hill. One of Jitterbug. Plus a skein of chocolate brown Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran (not pictured) that will eventually be another pair of Fetchings.

I’m going to take some better Pr0n shots shortly and will edit them in tomorrow. I appreciate your patience (and once again, this is why I’m not on Turtlegirl’s Yarn Pr0n blog ring!)


Fun with Photoshop!


Pretty!


Mmmm ... me likey!


Possible socks for the Hubster


This colorway is just too fun. Had to bring a hank home!

I also got a copy of Vogue Knitting.


Your lovely models are Derf on the left, Baxter on the right.

Remember, everything listed above was 25% off!

Then I went to Borders. Ugh.


Well. I went a little overboard there too. *sigh* Four knitting books, including the new one from the Harlot. I checked the computer and it said that it was in stock in the store but I couldn’t find it on the shelf. So I found a human, who checked the computer. That said they had 14 copies in the store. She wound up going in and finding it in the back in about 2 seconds. They didn’t have it out on the shelves at all!

Tomorrow I will have pics from “Adventures in Home Improvement.” All I have to say is ICK!

Oh, and by the way, SJ is such the Queen of Socks that she even ID’d the yarn in my slipper socks correctly! Yikes! ;-)