Pixie Purls

Today at work we got the numbers for our bonus! I love this time of year, right near the end of first quarter we get a bonus and sometimes an annual merit increase.

My husband and I talked last night and decided it would be a good idea for me to start getting into shape as the very few health problems I have all stem from my sitting on my butt each evening watching TV and knitting. I may be thin but I am very terribly out of shape and the neck problems I have stem from that, and the neck problems are what give me headaches.

So today during work I went to LA Fitness and signed up for 2 times a week with a personal trainer. I had to haggle with them but in the end I think they got what they wanted, which was a 6 month contract. I want to go at least twice a week with the personal trainer, otherwise what is the point? Once a week I don't think is going to make a big enough impact. So I told them i could not sign up for 6 months for 2 times a week it was simply far too much money to agree to when I have never even used them before. So we wound up doing a 6 month once a week, condensed into a 3 months twice a week, so we sort of compromised.

I get to start this Thursday and Friday, trying out two different trainers. I am excited about this; I hope this will put me in a mind set to actual work out. When I have gone to gym's in the past, well I simply don't have the discipline to make myself do it for more then 10 minutes, let alone several times a week. I need someone to motivate me. I also want to get into good shape before we start trying to have children.

So tonight on my way home from work I'm going to stop at target and get some cheap work-out shwag and a lock.

Last night I took a knitting break, I tried to attach the buttons but my chibi needle was too big to fit through the hole! A real needle doesn't have a big enough eye to fit the yarn through it. Argh... I'll see if Wal-Mart carries chibi's of some sort while I'm there.

Oh yeah, and I have a dentist apt in 2 hours... :(

Posted by pixie at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Read this article and make sure to watch the video link as well. Simply amazing, I feel like this is the stuff the news should show more often.

My original email;

From: Pixie Purls
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006
To: info@virtualyarns.com
Subject: some thoughts

I simply adore all the yarns and pattern on your site, soooo beautiful!! I know it may not be as traditional but I think it would be wonderful to see some v-neck sweater with shaping. I know there are a lot of 20 something knitters out there who really love your stuff, but want something that shows a little curve! Hope I don’t offend, love your stuff!

Their reply;

From: Virtual Yarns [mailto:info@virtualyarns.com]
Sent: Thursday, February 23, 2006
To: Pixie Purls
Subject: Re: some thoughts

Fiona Macdonald @ VY

In other news, I got buttons from Joann's over lunch. I can't wait to put them on tonight!

Posted by pixie at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Update 8:20pm:

Can I get a HELL YEAH!!

Okay well it still needs buttons. That means a shopping trip to Joann's or Micheals. It's a bit darker blue then in the photos below. I was thinking some kind of button that made it more boyish, like little boats or maybe ducks.

5pm:

It has been a fun weekend. I have done laundry and several loads of dishes. GO GO GADGET HOUSEWIFE!

I began playing with my SP sock yarn. I am thinking cables! I love cabled socks... or atleast I do ever sence I saw some on another blog. I may have to frog it but that's fairly standard for me and socks.

On friday I went to a conference in Atlanta, so afterwards I went to "Why Knot Knit" and picked up some Debbie Bliss Cathay in white.

I worked on this friday and saturday. Can you guess what it is?

I had a not so fun adventure on my way to this yarn store, I smashed up the front of my car! I was turning around in a U shaped inclined parking space in front of a store and I could not see that the cement white driveway also had a 2 foot tall white block. They should paint it yellow or something. I am too short and simply didn't see it. I got very upset and then in the end decided to go into the knitting store anyways. Then I told the women in the store as I was very flustered and sweating and all out of sorts. The store owner then let me know I was not wise to tell her because she knows all the shops owners, and was i sure I didn't damage his parking lot? NO I didn't, I am 99.9% sure there was no damage to his cement block. So there would be no harm in checking would there be... was her reply. So in the end after I purchased my yarn I told her I was not going to try to go over there again with my car (I was too out of it to realize it was litterally across the street and I could have walked), but besides it was her idea and I knew I didn't do anything.

Needless to say the owner of that store/parking-area came OVER to the yarn store and was extremly kind and wanted to know if I was okay. Hey, maybe he was afriad I could sue him cause he didn't have it painted properly. I didn't care, I just wanted to leave...

DESPITE that adventure, and the knitting store owner getting involved (my mom said that was wrong of her but really I can understand her perspective, they all look out for eachother's stores), so despite ALL THAT I simply looooooved this store. The owner chatted it up with me and didn't push the more expensive yarns on me. She was talky and hyper just like me, so I rambled off to her about things and probably said far to much about my yarn spending habbits. They had Karabella which was one reason I wanted to go to begin with, but I just wound up with the debbie bliss yarn and some Cotton Patine (elsebeth lavold) so that I could makes something summery and not to expensive.

I got to see the Kidsilk Haze in the jelly and that gold color-way and I have to say I am glad I never bought them online. They also had Trance and really that is my favorite color so I in the end am very happy with the color of that kidsilk haze, something I can't always say of internet orders. They had rowan 4ply and felted tweed so now I finally have a place to go to get my rowan fix in the future. I think my main reason for liking the store owner is she was the youngest one I have ever met. She had kids who seemed to be around 10 or so.

OMG look-it!! It's a nearly all together Baby Cardi. It's 5pm and I finished knitting the collar, attaching the left sleeve, seaming up the left side, then seaming up the sleeve itself, then I decided to darn in ALL the end. WOW who knew seaming took so freakin long? I had to take out a bit of it on one sleeve because it wasn't coming out even. Overall though I would say I'm not to horrible at seaming. I read about it in blogs alot, people seaming something and then hating it. Seaming comes more naturally to me then say, reading patterns. heh.

I might pick the cardi back up and finish seaming tonight, but I am ready for a break.

Posted by pixie at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

ARGH! I was on cnn.com and clicked the SI link and it shoed me SCORES FROM THE FREE SKATE!! I don't WANT TO KNOW!! I want to experience it!!

Well I already know the scores of Cohen and Hughes.. I won't share of course but HOW CRAPPY that I know! I also know who fell, I stopped myself, I had to tear my eyes away. Luckily Sluskya (sorry if all my spelling is bad) had not skate yet so I didnt say, FIND OUT WHO WON. Glad about that.

GRRRR!!!!!!!! EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by pixie at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Back durring the super bowl (hey it wasn't *that long ago*!) I won Scout's Superbowl Knitting Challange. I am not one to normally ya know, do that. The knitting Olympics are a great example of the fact I hate deadlines. But the Superbowl challange was just plain fun, and I have to say I think i got more done in that weekend of knitting then I have in a long time. I knit a hat from my handspun and I finished out all the pieces for the baby cardi (and blocked!).

So a week or so later I got this lovely package in the mail:

My favorite thing has to be the stitch markers, I am super picky about them and I just love these and I promptly used them on my husbands Dale Chamonix sweater. They will be in use for a while cause that sweater is prolly going to take a year! I got some very neat yarn I have never seen before, and I lot of it! My husband liked the color (he loooves when I wear purples). I wonder if it's enough to make a tank top. It also came with a cute card, needle case (yay!) and one of those really cool knitting magnets! Thanks Scout, this was soooooooooooo sweet of you and I can't believe I actually won a knitting challange!

Scout's is also another one of those bloggers that I keep up with and can remember! Right now her and Cara are being evil pushers and tempting me with Socks That Rock. I am NOT ALLOWED to join the club, but man would I love to! Luckily though my SP just sent me some nice sock yarn so I CAN RESIST!

Posted by pixie at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Mygomi of Two Left Needles sent me this lovely yarn probably over a week ago and I had yet to photograph it and post an official thank you. Check out her blog, she's having fun dying and spinning some lovely chashmere! She is one of my favorite bloggers, and the way to know what is because I acutually remember who she is! I have like... 300 knitting blogs in my bloglines but only about a dozen of them if you said there name could I remember what they are knitting. She's also knitting that cute norgi pirates hat from hello yarn that I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO KNIT I even have the yarn, BUT I SUCK at 2 color knitting.

I love it gomi, thanks so much! I wonder if I can get a shawl out of 500 yards?

Posted by pixie at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The only thing I could think to do to help me say thank you, my wonderful secret pal, was to take a photo of my happyness (I don't normally like to take photos of myself in my PJ's!).

I am SUCH a lucky girl, I have the BEST pal ever! I always, from the first days I heard of Secret Pals, thought how fun it would be to get someone from another country. How lucky I am that I did! She is sooo thoughtful in all the things that she gets me. I am simply in bliss over this package.

Burts Bea's Cuticle Stuffs - Lemon, yum! I adore Burt's Bees and just recently accidently washed the only Burt's item I owned, some lip balm which I loved. So this makes me very happy!

Marmite Yeast Extract - This is very foreign to me but the note came with suggestions for use, and the one that says to put 1/2 tsp in hot water and milk, well that I *must* try.

Highland Shortbread - Oh how this reminds me of our trip to Australia! All the hotels had shortbread cookies and tea. We don't ever get that in the US, even in expensive hotels. I loved Australia so much because every hotel room had tea, and not "lipton" tea but tea's with actual flavors!

Twinings Aromatics Organic Earl Gray - Can I say wow? This has the most unique flavor, I have never seen this tea before but I am familair with Twinings. When I opened the box i felt like a princess, it was just all very grand and the design of the box was so pretty. I could smell the tea when I had first opened the shipping box. As you can see in the first photo, I have had some, and the cookies are soo yummy in it. I am a big fan of organic things, so how neat these are organic. My pal has superb taste :)

The yarn, lets talk about this yarn! This yarn is EXACTLY the type of sock yarn I would see in a store and love and want! It's soo pretty. The color is called "Ocean" and it reminds me of the color of the water, when your in Hawaii or the Bahamas, and there is white sand, and there is a place or a large sandbar, so the sea water is ever so thin and see-thru and has that slight aqua hue to it. It is faded and antique and perfect. MY PAL RULES! Thank you soooooooooooo much my wonderful Secret Pal!

Oh yeah, it's Cuious Yarns, 100% wool (Superwash!) 4ply 260 yards. I can make some cute little socks with this!

I just finished my first cup of that Early Gray. So Yummy! *happy dance happy dance*

Posted by pixie at 01:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Tala likes to watch all things yarn:

Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4-ply arrives from the UK:

I got this whole lot for a bit more then $40. I love good sale yarn!

Cute Chibi-like case from kpixie.com:

This thing isn't all it's knocked up to be, very tiny (as in won't fit the chibi needles!) and not as nice looking as I imagined. I wouldn't spend $7 on it.

I worked several rows on the collar and MY HANDS HURT! Bed time, but here be pics...

Mid-Seaming up the button band:

All proud I seamed it and it looks good!

2 button bands later, complete with button holes:

Posted by pixie at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If I finish the baby cardi AND the essential stripe, i am allowed to buy the yarn to make this:

I got the pattern for it some time ago. It takes 8 to 9 skeins. This stuff seems to run about $11 a skein so that means it would cost me about $100 after shipping to make this sweater. So I'm just dreaming today cause I know I should not be buying yarn.

Collinette Point 5 - Velvet Damson

Mmm... dream color! Hard to find too :(

Yes you can get Colinette for $10 a skein, here is how!
Cucumber Patch - $11.50 each
The Knittin - $9.95 each (£5.70 ) - Current Rate

Both of those require shipment to the US but say it will come in 14 days.

Posted by pixie at 02:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

While watching the Olympics I decided to work on the Baby Cardi!

I am very proud of capturing this moment with my camera. This couple was the most exciting of all the ice dancing, because they had some kind of fight going on. It was great TV!

First I seamed the shoulders, as per the directions:

Psst... this was my second time ever seaming shoulders!

Then I knit up one of the button bands:

Then around 11, I researched the part in the instructions that say to "Slip st button band in place" which I can't seem to find proper instructions for:

I am pretty sure it's because rowan is european and it probably has a different name in my American published finishing book. The internet was not much help so I posted on knitting.livejournal.com hoping for a responce sometime tommorow.

Also being the good wife that I am, I did the dishes and cleaned out the cat litter. Score! Points for pixie!

Posted by pixie at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last night i got into bed while the husbeast was still playing video games, so I brought birch to finish a purl row. I was sitting in bed and realized, there was 4 of us. "When we have kids, is it going to be 5 of us in bed then?" "Yup", was the husbands reply. Good thing we have a king.

So then this morning I woke up, and Willow the big golden was snuggled up against my right side, basically forcing me onto my husbands side, then Toby, the black one was snuggle in-between both of the bottom half of our legs. I was completely surrounded. This is how we live. When I wake up, I feel very loved. It's cute how they don't just sleep in the bed, but snuggle as close to us as they can. They are terribly spoiled.

Here was my husbands view 2 weeks ago when he went skiing at Camelback with his dad.

Here is the state of Birch as of this morning.

I worked on this all day yesterday. When I say all day, I mean it. It was like being in a "Trance" (ehem). I simply could not stop myself from knitting on it. I would say I was slow for the first whole 8 row repeat. The first two rows where very scarey because I had some YO's right near the markers and was never sure where to put the marker. Everything seems okay right now. I'll hope for the best. I can see the pattern (I think!) so I'm going to keep going and going. I hope I don't have to frog or tink. I feel like if I work on this I will get even more out of shape and gain weight because I mean I literally for well over 12 hours just sat on my butt on the couch and knit, knit, knit! Last night when I was to tired to work on a complex purl row I worked about two rows of chamonix. This is how I like to knit. Mutli-task. This is how I am with all things in life.

I hope it's okay I am doing YO's where it says yfwd.

Update:
Had to frog the whole thing, The dogs and the husband kept coming into to talk to me. I'm feeling highly frustrated and wondering if I can knit Lace when I live with 2 dogs and a husband.

Posted by pixie at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My Birch kit arrived and I see there are two versions of this shawl and the book does not in anyway shape or form attempt to show you the difference. Anyone have an example or thoughts?

Getting to know the yarn:

Yikes, the clover circs I got suck cause the tips arn't nearly sharp enough. I grabbed some small crystal palace straights so I could atleast practice a bit. I hate how I always gotta buy new needles!! I think I love this yarn, but I think it will be a pain to frog. I adore the color, even if it's not what I thought I was buying.

"Trance" colour:

It's a bit brighter/shinier in this photo because of the flash but it's fairly accurate in color. In my houses night time lighting it's just a bit more faded then this.

My first attempt at a lace cast on:

It's a neat trick and there is a way to go about it and not be too slow.

Posted by pixie at 01:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I have a knitting Meetup this evening after work but I forgot to bring my knitting to work with me. So I IM'd him and was saying as much and he said, "oh well I'll come up there and bring you your knitting, we need to get dog food anyways".

So I called him and he went on a treasure hunt finding everything I needed. First get large ziplock back from the kitchen, next pick up all the pressed pieces of the baby cardi from off the sewing desk, next find my book on finishing tecnique from the pile of books on the floor on the bookshelf. Put them all into the bag, then go find my vera bradley coin purse (cause it has me chibi and yarn cutter) and put all that into the bag. After that go find my knitting basket in the living room and pull out one of the spare balls of yarn (to use for seaming) along with the original pattern book for the instructions.

WOW what a good hubby!! So he'll be here in a little while with my knitting things. I suppose I could have made it easier and picked a different knitting project lol, oppsy! That was the first thing I tought of working on!!

Posted by pixie at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I want to work on my essential stripe, I want to seam my baby cardi. You all know I hate crafting under pressure, or with deadlines.

I have decided to say, "Down with knitting deadlines!" I am not going for the gold, cause it just hasn't been fun!

Arrivederci knitting olympics! Good luck to all 3,999 of you :)

Posted by pixie at 10:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Well so sweetgeorgia made a comment on the knitters review to my Birch posting, she pointed out it's brighter then the knitting garden's photo, and boy is it ever!

Trance as Florcent Blue - oye I hope it's not really that bright, but it is pretty and atleast not dark.

Trance as Baby Blue - this was closer to how I imagined it would look.

Trance as a deep turquise - Probably looks so deep in color because it's on the ball and not knit up.

So knitting garden agreed and took down there photo which I thought was very cool of them. In the photo's above I like the the baby blue looking one, which was what I thought it was going to look like. Maybe that was a really old dye lot and they never realized there was such a difference in color (they being rowan) because the Trance photo that is wrong is the same on pretty much all the major rowan resellers.

Posted by pixie at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

From me and mine :)

Posted by pixie at 10:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Winding the mohair (and all the fuzz that flew up my nose) reminded me how much... I don't like mohair! Then I started knitting it up, and remebered how much... I love mohair! I can remember how it felt when I tried the shop version of this jacket on in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Yummy. Better then chocolates, it was hard to stop knitting.

Love Your Yarn people! Happy V day!

Posted by pixie at 10:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Okay so we all know math and spelling are not 2 of my strengths, but I did do some math last night. I was able to knit about 3 inches over the course of one day. I think on average I could get 2 inches a night if I knit for 3 hours. This means I will not be able to finish Chamonix in time. There is just no way i coudl do this unless I quit my job.

So last night around midnight I realized I had to make a change and be more realistic. I really want to finish a garment/sweater though because I feel like it's a big challange. So I dove into my stash and quickly came up with this KIT;

Fleece Artist Garter Stitch Jacket

It's knit in one size so you just go down a needle size or up a needle size to adjust the size a bit, I'm going down from an 11 to a 10. I am having some issues reading the pattern (Did you in some parts of Canada they have something called "Swing Needles" aka circs?) so once I get that all worked out I can start. Hopefully tonight.

It's still a big challange, but the chanses of my finishing it are higher then with Chamonix. I am happy I got Chamonix started properly so it's not all a loss. Did you know tonight is the first night of figure skating!! Those evil tv people have stretched it out across the next 2 weeks. Women arn't until next tuesday.

I need to remember to post tonight about my lovely presents from Gomi and Scout! Reminder to self!

Posted by pixie at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Willow says, "Snow? I don't see no stinkin snow!"

Do you see the snow? Sadly it looks more like a bad case of dandruff.

Whoa Nelly - Snow on my face!

I'm soooo jelous of all the wonderful snow I see in all the blogs out there. It's wonderful to see the photos though. I miss virginia snow!

Chamonix Update, er Rewind

Well last night I was nearly done with my 3cm of 1x1 ribbing and I was so exicted to get to the st st because I knew it would go much faster. I realized however that for the first time in my life I had fallen victum to the dreaded twisted knitting in the round. This has never happend to me before, and I have always been weary of it. I think it's more difficult to tell when you have 316 stitches cast on a 24" needle. Yes I am nuts, a 316 stitch sweater. It's supposed to be about 44" round. I'd call that a challange! I see a lot of you guys just jumped right in and nearly took out 1/4 if not more of your projects within the first 2 days! Crazy people!

Hey Scout do you recognize that stitch marker? HEHE!! :D I'll have to post about that monday!

Update 11pm

I have made it to the stockinette and then some, so I am pleased. I fear though I am going to get extremly bored on this, like my Harry Potter scarf (slated to be finished for the NEXT movie hehe) so I'll need to have some really interesting TV/Movies to keep me going. Did you guys hear about Michelle Quan? So crazy, I was watching 4 years ago when Hughes won, it was soo amazing. I am not a Quan fan, but she is very talanted and it is very sad. I have always been into ballet and ice skating so that's the part of the Olympics I am really waiting for.

Posted by pixie at 01:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Well it technically started out as a spinning Soiree. After the distaff day celebration I was motivated to have all us bloggers to get together and knit. But I suppose in the end it was a Knitting/Spinning Soiree as there was something of both!

Everyone having fun knitting!

Melissa Spins some beautiful merino

Sarah Knits on a very pretty wrap for her mother

I had a blast, I do like to host things. I got everything as planned, Strawberries and Rose'. Merlot and cheese. Would you believe we ate all the cheese? I wish I had a photo of the before, it was two bagfuls of square cheese. Everyone brought some yummy treats, scrumptious chocolate chip cookies, apple crumb cake, and my favorite some delicious white cake with chocolate icing which Sarah added red sprinkles cause she knows I love that. Thanks everyone for bringing the yummy treats!

Oh and of course I knitted on Chamonix for the Olympics

Did I mention i got a little drunk from the wine? Shhhh, we won't tell anyone!

Posted by pixie at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

"ba-ba-ba-baaaaaaaaaaaaad"

Well last night i got very depressed after looking in my checking account. After several large unexpected bills I didn't have nearly as much saved up as I had meant to. I was going to help my husband pay for the flooring, but he told me not to worry about it. So I had $300 left last night, but today I knew was pay day.

So what did I do last night? I cast on for the Kitty Pi bed (aka knitting on nothing) and did a few rows. Put that down, realized I left my Dale book at work and wrote myself an email to remember to bring it home because tonight.

Okay so how was I bad? Well after I realized I didn't have my Chamonix pattern and I couldn't swatch or anything useful, and plus I was very tired I decided to do a little shopping.

Oh yeah and how the shopping spree started was on the kpixie site, I ran across something I had seen in Spin Off and wanted for a while now. All you orange chibi owners can drool over this :)

I can't show you the one I got because they removed it from the website. I am wondering if I bought the last one. Once you go to the buy pages the colored ones are gone. I got one with little blue butterflies engraved on it.

So then I spoted some beutiful salmon mohair lace weight yarn they had, and then I started looking for a simple begginer lace pattern that I liked. Birch seemed to be the easiest and much to my taste. So that led me to just get Kidsilk Haze because I wanted to make sure it looked just as pretty as everyone elses and you know I'm a chicken about substituting yarn.

Kidsilk Haze Trance #582

Isn't that the prettiest color? LOVE it. I have wanted to try a big lace project for a while. Hey Sarah you out there reading this? You should get this kit too! We could knit it together!

Then of course I had to get Rowan #34 for the pattern

Sweet Georgia's Birch
Knitting Doc's Birch
Escape's Birch

I wanted to show you yarn harlots green one because I love it in the green but I can't access it from here (the word harlot probably lol) so I'll show you Fiberspaces's instead, It's just as pretty but not completed in this photo.

Is anyone else not impressed by the newest Rowan #39?

Also I am super excited because one of the places i called in Maggie Valley called me back today about a pet friendly cabin near the Chataloochee ski area. It works out perfect because it's a weekend I have a friday off for a knitting class in Atlanta. Way cheaper then going to telluride and just what the doctor ordered!

Posted by pixie at 10:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The requirments of the KAL was to finish a pair of solid socks before the new year, and photograph them creativly.

Jan from Pass the slipped stitch over
I think Jan took this contest very seriously and took a very creative photograph, still life! Her socks are such a pretty pattern and lots of forethought went into them!

Coffee Crazy Knitters April
I love the photo of the socks on the bed. I can imagine April snuggling her feet under the covers feeling all happy cause she made her first pair of socks and her feet are all cozy.

Congratulations April & Jan! Please email me your addresses so I can send you some socky goodness in the mail!
Pixie a-t pixiepurls.com

Sorry it took me so long guys, I'm not a very good KAL host.

Posted by pixie at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

View new Phildar website and designs >>

Posted by pixie at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

HOW COOL is my secret pal?? She is also phycic!

It came with instructions so I was good and listened, besides who doesn't like to dive straight into the present?

All kinds of goodies for me to love!

Okay my pal really got stuff I would like, but it was all unique stuff I would have never expected! Oh did I mention my Pal is overseas! That makes it like, twice as cool.

Alpaca Roving - This is going to be fun to play with, I love it, cause I adore alpaca! ALPACA! It's a very pretty color too.

Vanilla Candles - yay love it, never can have to many of these. I have two little glass votive holders on my mantle that I needed to replace and the ones in it before didn't even have any smell.

Horlicks - I have no idea what this is but it's some kinda malt thing and it looks yummy and I will be having some tonight!

Clover Yarn Guide - YOU READ MY MIND!! I was at the quilt/yarn store last saturday and they didn't have one! I was going to get one! You rule! *happy dance* This whole knitting with 2 hands thing is just not currently working well for me.

Clover Basting Pins - Oh you KNOW I needed these! I'm getting together with some knitting friends this weekend and hopefully they can help me seam up that baby cardi, and I'll be using these for sure! I was gonna use my quilting needles, haha!

and the last item in the box, well it was very funny and it's sort of an inside joke I guess but lets just say I was perplexed and THEN suddently my mind went PING and my mouth went OH!

PHILDAR! Hah! My first ever ball of phildar yarn. Ya know it's pretty dang soft! I LUV it! :D Colors, acrylic and all, Phildar!! yay!

So then i read the cute card (love the card btw), which my husband said "she has good hand writting", and she does. I had to show each item to him and explain how cool it all was. It was a sweetly written note. So thoughtful. I am a VERY lucky SP!!

Thanks! :D

I had a 2 hour dentist apointment so this made my day!

Posted by pixie at 06:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In less then 1 hour the men had moved the heavy furniture, ripped out all the carpeting. Did some kind of hammer thing all along the edges, vaccumed up stuff and then prepared everything to start putting the lamanet down.

I have been sticking my head out of my husbands office to catch brief glimpses!

12:30pm

2:30pm

10pm
haha I was so tired earlier I forgot I took better photos!!

Some sort of smell is *really* bothering me near the cats bathroom, but I see no pee or anything nasty anyplace and I totally cleaned out her litter pan last night. I'm thinking its the blend of the litter with the smell of the dust from the flooring mixed in that small area. I hope it goes away soon!

I also decided to boycott the WE channel after I saw a commercial for "Lip Explosion".

Does it look like real wood?

Posted by pixie at 12:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Check out Scout's blog and read all about it. Scout is a cool knitter with a cute pup and recently had her blog re-designed and it looks fabulous! Go check it out.

/bows gracefuly, with needles in hand

I would like to thanks my husband for complaining I never knit him a cool hat, and my dog toby for sleeping on the yarn while I was trying to knit with it! Without all of your love and support I could not have done it!!

Posted by pixie at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I had to get a photo of it on the husbeast, and he likes it lots!

We cleaned out the living room, dinning room and hallway so it's all ready for the new floor tommorow. I get to work from home so I can watch over things, and now that Jesse is back I have starbuck so it's much easier to blog.

My husband heard today from a co-worker that the search engine dogpile gets 4,000 searches a day for free knitting patterns. I wonder how many google gets? hehe!

Posted by pixie at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

6pm: OMG I correctly cast off the back of the baby cardi. See I finished all the pieces but was too chicken to do some of the last few rows because it had so much crazy shaping. So YAY I did the back right, but then I totally screwed up the top of the right front (same deal.. too chicken... see I was justified!! lol). But that's okay I am going to frog it a few rows and re-try. I got confused and did the reverse shaping on the wrong peice. So now I am running out to pick up some sushi to refuel. I am actually watching the super bowl, but mostly cause I wanna remember to watch grays anatomy after. The previews look so good, I have only caught parts of the show before.

Tala says "Thats... great... yeah"

9:30pm: OMG again you guys this is my FIRST ever completed set of "parts" lol. All I have to do is seam and sew up the button bands! I pressed it all pretty, yay!

OH yeah if you want the before photo. I did actually finish the last sleeve after I finished the hat but it went fast, that was a lot for me today!

I fixed the side I did incorrectly, and then finished out the rest of the pieces:

Then I got to press them, way more fun then I expected!

* happy dance*

Posted by pixie at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It was nearly one am and my left hand index finger was so sore! I spent all saturday day knitting nothing. I was indeed knitting but it was just fits and starts and rips. I wasn't motivated to work on anything amungst all the other stuff going on, so around midnight I decided to start the hat from my burgandy handspun.

I finished at 2pm today.

Durring all of this Toby insisted on sleeping on the baby cardi. It was really driving me mental but I finally just let him and prayed none of the yarn got knotted or tangled. He slept on all 4 peices.

Posted by pixie at 12:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Good lord, the estimate today on the flooring from "Empire Today" was $6,700. I nearly laughed, well first I nearly cried. The Home Depot Estimate was $3,800 and I had heard Home depot was more expensive. Um, not true!

Well we "talked" for a while and he made a few "phone calls" which SO reminded me of buying a car, and came down to just below 5k. The husband cringed when I called him but said it sounded alright.

So when he first came in he offered to put plantation shutters on one window for free as a promo. I said yeah that sounds cool I always wanted my kitchen window to have that. I understand its to get me to buy more but I actually had thought of just doing that window so okay. He says, it's totally free.

At the END of the whole thing he says, well I went down in that price so much now I can't give you that free deal. Fine I say, I didn't want it to begin with really. My immediate thought it, bull shit that was free!!! It was built into the cost of the floor, just like the dang floor mattes in cars. They will try to charge you more for them, but the cost of the car really already has it in! Well I think you know what I mean, just freakin crazy.

So well after that he is leaving and says something to the point of we arn't here to take advantage or price gouge you, we want to give you good quality product and service. I thought to myself bull shit you dont price gouge, omg some other person prolly DID pay 2k more then me for the same freakin thing!! I still felt it was too much money but I have gotten atleast 3 good referals for them which is more then I can say for anyone else I have tried.

I'm emotionally exhausted now, but very happy tuesday I will have new floors and they will be in before the weekend! YAY! PLEASE send me good flooring thoughts!! PLEASE!!!

Quick Step Laminate

BRAZILIAN CHERRY - Eligna- U1005U

54,33x6,14x0,31"
25 year warranty

Posted by pixie at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Interesting link of the week >>

Morning Commute

I love driving over the lake near our house, it's especially freaky when it's foggy out because the water is invisible.

Knitting Meetup

Look everone is smiling! It was loads of fun last night. Now I have to decide if I want to renew my meetup account. I can't remember everones name but I had a blast, and one of the ladies showed me how she seams, and confirmed that my sleeve would fit in the cardigan (thank goodness!) because I was worried it wasn't lining up right.

Greta was working on a beutiful shawl with some yarn that knit up like Kidsilk Haze or whatever its called. She is a great knitter, go Greta!

Rowan Baby Cardigan

Last sleeve, I had to rip it out and even after I started again I saw another wonky stitch by decided to let it go as it was on the edge and would probably disapear when I seam it.

Posted by pixie at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Click and scroll down to see the worlds coolest geek socks ever!

I got my pal for the sock swap Alison and her sock sisters are hosting. I have to make a pair of socks by May for my pal, she seems really cool so I'm excited!

That's me happy because tonight is a kntiting meetup, but inside I am sad cause work blocked is so i can't send out a reminder email or check to see who is coming. I hope someone is coming who can help me seam my freakin baby cardi! Check out my cute gap sweater. It's 80% cotton and 20% angora. Soo soft, but not shedding!

That's my messy desk, I have a BIG deadline monday the 6th. Many papers scattered on my desk.

Posted by pixie at 10:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I went to Sears after work and ordered a new Dryer. Wound up with a Kenmore (made by whirlpool for sears, funny stuff).

The hubby is taking a very last minute trip to go to PA to ski with his dad. He hasn't seen his dad sence the wedding well over a year ago so this will be nice for him, and his dad is going to pay for the ticket! I thought it was interesting Hotwire.com cost the exact same as the tickets purchased off the airline website.

Orignally we had both wanted to go to Telluride to ski, but after researching I felt it was too expensive just to ski. I don't love skiing that much, I would much prefer to go closer and spend less. So I brought up my wanting to go to Europe, as in 2007 we will be going Australia again because he wants to go one last time before we have baby. So hrm, if he gets to have his wish why can't I have mine? Hehe, so we decided our one big trip this year will be to europe!

We have some some friends in the UK & london so I would like to see them, as well as maybe make it to Ireland (sp?) or some place like that. My father was actually born in London, and his mom was from Ireland and when he was little they all moved to Australia and then to California (clearly not the Jewish half of me!). So I get to dream of Europe for the rest of the year. I am guessing it will be around August and our anniversery that we get to go.

So then after that I came home and spun for a long while and nearly have a full bobbin!

Posted by pixie at 08:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So last night after everything, the husband and I decided some alky-hall and roving would make me feel better. Margarita's and the State of the Union Address for everyone!

OMG my roving totally matches my Margarita glass, wtf! Look close or click on the photo to find out who those people are.

I'm so proud of how this is going, it's nice and thin. The slower I spin, the thinner I can get it.

I sped through the burgandy Correidale. I prolly ruined it but who cares, I was tippsy and relaxed, so it was worth it!

I'm a rebel, I didn't even bother to set the twist!

Posted by pixie at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)