Long time, no see.

Have you lost weight? Your hair looks great like that. Gee, it's really been ages... I'm hoping a bit of flattery will keep you from noticing how long it's been since I've posted anything of substance. But, here we go folks, the tide's a-turnin'. I have something to tell you. That involves knitting. I finished the left front of my anthropomorphic cardi... Don't believe me? Check it out. If you don't remember what project I'm talking about, I wouldn't be surprised... This is what I'm shooting for, even though I'm pretty sure at this point that by the time I finish this cardigan, it will be too cold and dark to wear it. That is if it's even wearable. That's what I get for trying to design something myself.
As I mentioned before, there has been some crocheting, mainly in the way of blanket squares. I'm kind of using making a baby blanket for a friend as an excuse to brush up on my crochet before I turn my hand at making the edging for this cardigan. I won't show you my blanket squares because they might be made of dirt cheap acrylic, and I might be a bit embarrassed by that fact. I will however show you what I've been working on when not making baby squares (sounds dirty) or lace-y cable-y moss-stitching... I have to wind all 975 grams of this lace weight merino into balls. This is what I'm going to use to knit my birthday-PhD friend's jumper (see 20 July entry), but I'm certainly not knitting it at lace weight. I'm going to have to hold a few strands together, and see how it goes. I bought it off a seller on e-Bay for a song, and it's really lovely stuff, so soft, with just the slightest sheen. I'm hoping I have a bit left over to make myself something lacey. So, hand winding 7 billion miles of laceweight merino, though it sounds like a holiday in the sun, is starting to make me go a bit loopy. It's so pretty though. As you can see in the photo, I use the empty film canister method to make a centre-pull ball. The empty film canister is also where I keep lots of stitch markers and safety pins, so it keeps busy.
I'm not promising anything, but I'll try not to be so derelict in my duties in the future. I've just been absorbed by trying to hang on the the last remnants of the English 'summer', which for me has involved a lot of outdoor imbibing of spirits and staying out way too late, then getting to work late the next day, then having to work later, lather, rinse, repeat. One day I will learn to be a responsible adult... Don't expect it to be any time soon though.

The Worst Knitblogger ever???

I don't have much to say about knitting because I haven't done any in AGES. I'm still sorry. The camera has returned from Japan, and it looks like it had a good time. It also returned with some strange yarn that may or may not be acrylic, but hey, the point of the trip wasn't for yarn. I got some very exciting souvenirs though, when the sun is out again, I might take some photos and let you all in on the fun.
There may have been trips to clubs and maybe too much dranking again, but, you know, it's the summertime...

All I can do is apologize

So, I have been knitting, and crocheting, and stash-enhancing, but will you believe me? I finished the I-pod cozy that was loosely based on Grumperina's pattern, but knit in cotton and with an extra flap to cover the front... I couldn't take a photo before I gave it to my friend on Wednesday for his birthday, but he at least pretended to quite like it. Also, I went on a crazy granny square kick and got an exciting book out of the library called '200 Crochet Blocks'
by Jan Eaton, and I'm totally nerdin'* on it. I also took out the Erika Knight pattern book 'Baby Bloom' because I just found out one of my good friends from my adolescence is pregnant. This is the first friend that I've ever had to be pregnant, and it's really a bit weird for me, but all I can think of is 'must make stuff for the baby'! I even bought the 'Crumpets' pattern in case it is a girl, and really I didn't need much of an excuse anyway, because I think the pattern is so cute. And if it turns out to be a boy, I have a niece that is of approximate Crumpets proportions, so there you have that. Does anyone have any favourite baby stuff patterns or yarns they would like to tell me about? I've never knit for a baby, I'm kind of afraid I'll knit something that might possibly be deadly. Any words of wisdom?
If you are not too bored by my photo-less ramblings yet, and want to read about of bunch of non-knitting stuff then please continue reading. If not, you have been warned. So, I let the caterpillars go because the stank that they produced was unbearable. And they were suffocating each other with the amount of poo they produced, so I set them free in the front garden. One of them had already gone into a chrysalis, so I put him right outside my front window so I can watch him become a butterfly. The main impetus for getting rid of the smell that I had been able to stand for so long was the cracking hangover I had yesterday after a long night of celebrations for my friend's birthday. Will I ever learn not to drink to much? Probably not. We had a great time though, so I think, now that I'm on the other side of the hangover anyway, that it was worth it.
So that's all for now!

* Some friends of mine in Texas have stumbled upon this theory that no matter what you're doing it's always much more fun if you're doin' it, if you catch my drift. Like fishing is no where near as cool as fishin', knitting is far more boring than knittin', and I'm sure some of you might even be familiar with the concept of 'goin' muddin' ' as a way to spend the weekend . Anyway, so when you know you are doing something nerdy, and that you are probably one of the few people in the world that are actually interested in what ever you are doing, some folks might say you are 'nerding' or 'nerding out' , which is not entirely cool. But if you're nerdin' , or if you have gone nerdin' then you've re-established yourself as 'hip' and 'in the know', and now nerdin' is a fun acceptable passtime. So, when I start going on about knitting to my non-knitting friends I always warm them with the disclaimer that I'm about to start nerdin'.