Pixie Purls

Mmmmm, merino top is wonderful! I know I can spin better but I just havn't been doing it enough to get the quality up. It's still fun to spin, no matter how it turns out! I took this photo in my car this morning, because the wheel is still there from saturday.

I spent most of last night getting video games loaded onto my old computer. As of this morning they are *still* downloading files! I am looking forward to playing some games, Counter Strike in particular.

Every few years i will go back and re-read old books I love. This particular set of books "The Secrete Circle" by LJ Smith is an ALL TIME fav. I wish they would make it into a movie triliogy. With the success of Buffy and Charmed I think it would do great as a movie. It's like a guilty pleasure, except I don't feel guilty. Bubblegum books, nothing too heavy, and then in the car on the way to work I get to daydream out different endings to different parts. That's probably my favorite part.

Speaking of the car, 400 south was EMPTY this morning at 8:45. It was freaking me out!

Oh and knitting, well I was thinking maybe I can some how do 1 or 2 short rows to make the neck line even, apparently it's just the way the pattern is written due to the construction of it. In the photo if you look very close you realize it, but I doubt anyone would notice if they wern't told. So I might let it go, or I might try to hack it!

Posted by pixie at 09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

A top down raglan split neck. I love the split neck. I hope it turns out okay! I had to cast on stitches for the collar which I havn't really done before (I figured it out April!). I really like it but the neck edges arn't equal height, and I can only guess its because one has nearly 2 rows on the other because of the way it's cast on, but maybe once I get d far enough it won't be noticable. I'm excited about this knit, I love how airy the Silky Wooly is. This should be a size 34" which should make it a bit more loose then the the tank I just knit. It's a basic pullover with some nice shaping (always gotta have shaping!). I'm excited about it.

This coming saturday some of the NEGA girls are going on an Atlanta yarn crawl to celebrate the holidays. If your interested just post a comment and I'll get you the info. We are starting at Cast on Cottage, then to the new Strings and Strands location, lunch and then Why Knot Knit. I'll be getting the hempathy yarn for that next tank top I want to knit (which requires a strapless bra!).

Posted by pixie at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So about a year ago my Alienware laptop stopped working mysteriously (1 week after a root beer incident). My husband and I both spend at least 12 hours or more on the phone with tech support. After my 5th call, when i cried on the phone and begged the guy to please take it back and figure it out on-site, and after the man was mean to me despite my crying we set it aside and didn't touch it. 6 months later my husband bought me the now well known Mac with the power cord issues.

Both of these computers are beautiful machines. Both companies that made them provided the world’s shittiest tech support ever. I hate ALL tech support. If my husband and I have these problems, and we are actual computer geeks, how is the rest of the world doing? Wasting more money then us I am sure. We are software geeks by the way, not hardware geeks.

So I brought my laptop into work on Friday so a co-worker could take a look at it. By that evening he had it working perfectly. My $2,600 paper weight works again. I am thrilled, but even more angry and disappointed in Alienware.

Here is the email I received this morning from my co-worker;

Your Alien lives! It has a new build on it and it is ready to go.

I will put it in for you :-) In the mean time you can use the box just fine with an external keyboard. I will bring it in on Monday and I will take you up on your offer the keep the third Hard drive….

His name is John and he rules!

So wow, what a nice way to start the week! In other good news, the cat and big dog finally have hit a pivotal turning point in doggy/kitty relations.

(that's my husband messy office!)

Oh and here is a happy pixie this morning;

It's not the final FO pic, I have some fun plans for a photoshoot.

Posted by pixie at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Yarn: Silky Wool - Blue #13 lot #7892
Content: 65% wool, 35% silk
Needle Size: US 5 / 3.75 MM
SPI: 5.75 (23 sts over 4 inches gauge)

Posted by pixie at 06:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every Saturday morning I feel whiney and cranky. This saturday I woke up, put on my bathing suite and walked 1 block with Claudia to my pool. It was a very nice morning. We knit, we talked, we swam.

I was still out of it, and an Earl Gray helped a bit. My husband came back saturday and brought my laptop with him. Apparently however, he left the power cord in San Fran. Do you know when he goes out today to buy one, that will be the 4th one we have bought? The amount we have spent on powercords i could have bought a nice chair for the living room! No point crying over spilt milk I suppose. I didn't get mad at him, I wasn't really sure what to say when the cord wasn't in the bag. He quickly said he would go out and get another one today. I just sat there thinking, what the hell is wrong with us?

So then last night (sat night) I took a tylonal PM because I have been so tired on the weekends latley with no way to sleep in longer. I just woke up, it's 1pm. It's pouring rain out (yay!) and I have a slight headache and a stuffy nose, all i am sure from allergies. I am sitting here calm and happy (and hungry!) despite all of that, because I had a fun weekend. I finished my tank, I went swimming, I spun some yarn. Life is good.

(proper pics post "blocking" and "darning" coming soon to a blog near you)

Posted by pixie at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

I almost don't want to allow myself to get too excited in case I screw up! Last night at 11pm (While watching Harry Potter PA) I finished up the decreases on the back for the armholes. I was wise and put the needles down so I wouldn't rush to cast off. So then like a dork I ran into the bathroom and tried it on.

In this one you can see my decreases/increases;

Tommorow morning I am going for a swim for the first time (I've lived here 2 years) in my neighborhood! it's just a short walk away but as I'm not really a sun person I never ventured out. Plus when i was putting red in my hair it would just pull it out so it was like throwing money down the toilet. After that is knitting group, and then I hope this weekend to atleast go to the movies, there is SO MUCH I want to see. The Devil Wears Prada, Superman, and The Lake House.

Side note: Is bloglines being wacky or is everyone re-publishing their whole blog?

Posted by pixie at 09:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

S. Charles Collezione
Spring 2006 Collection ($14)

The Kit - Way to expensive if you ask me!

Stacy Charles - Muse Yarn ($9 x10 = $90)
Fiber Content: 65% rayon, 25% cotton & 10% nylon
Ball Weight: 50g
Yardage: 163 yds.
Yarn Weight: DK
Gauge: 20
Needle Sizes: 6 U.S. (4.25mm)

Yarn Substitution, nearly half the cost!

Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy ($5-6 x 10 = $60)
Fiber Content: 41% Cotton, 34% Hemp, 25% Modal
Ball weight: 50 g
Yardage: 154
Yarn Weight: DK
Gauge: 22
Needle size: 5 (U.S)

It's 4 colors and a base, I was thinking of doine the white/cream as a base, and then Sage, Turqiuse, Blue and Sand. I'll have to see it in person, I may want go to with the darker brown to get more contrast (and then I think I would swap out the Sand for Citrine). I think it would be a challange for me because I have not knit anything with any complex patterns. Not a bad challange, a good challange!

Any feedback on colors is welcome. I am still brainstorming and wouldn't be buying the yarn until I was able to run by Cast on Cottage (probably the saturday after next).

Posted by pixie at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

For some reason those last 3 inches seemed to take a while, but I got to it last night. So tonight I can bind off the under-arms and split the front and back. 14 inches BAY-BEE!! That's how tall it is, wooty! I hope it fits, it would look cute with my khaki capri’s.

Okay so yesterday while I was at work, my husband opened my craft room door shortly so he could print something. The cat ran in as quick as can be. I have locked her out of there because she has gone under the sewing machine table, or in the dogs crate and thrown up fur balls (Claudia got to witness, or rather, hear one of these wonderful events). So she ran in and jumped into the crate and the husbeast went to see what she was doing to get her out. She was in the dogs crate. PEEING. Yes she was PEEING. This was her vengeance on me because I don't clean her litter pan often enough, to her EXACT specifications.

It was not even that bad, I have seen it worse!! So as soon as I got home I cleaned it out and all last night she was not allowed in any of the carpeted rooms except our bedroom. When my husband is out of town I lock myself in the bedroom like a freak at night and take all the animals with me. So last night at 3am she wanted OUT of the bedroom, and then at 5am she wanted back IN the bedroom! I was up anyway because the air conditioner has conked out again (can you say 90 degrees people???).

My air has always had problems once the temperature outside gets past 84 or so. We had a guy come fix the coil last summer but we knew that didn’t do it, and the ass holes ignored my calls and wouldn't come out again. I'm so angry about house stuff right now I could slam things around and break them. i won't go into all the details but the pest control people, the air people and the landscape people all are shitty, useless and stupid. I feel better just typing it!!! Thanks for listening to me vent...

Posted by pixie at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Last night I somehow convniced my husband to go to the mall with me. I picked out a bathing suit at PacSun (roxy), and also picked up some cute capri's from Ann Taylor and then got some really cute shoes from Perisians or whatever that dept store is called. On sale from $60 to $30!!

I love these shoes! I'll get lots of knitting done tonight as it's the first night this week I won't be running out and about. Ignore my blue toes pls thx.

Posted by pixie at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

So last week I got a cute wooden crochet hook on ebay, but I had yet to pay for it because I had to pick a size first (after you pay you say the size because it comes in any size you want). So I got an email this evening from ebay;

Well I'll be! Nearly 10 years on the internet and I have never been scammed before, but I was dumb and clicked the orange button to go to ebay and I EVEN filled in my username and PASSWORD. After the password screen it asked me to confirm by typing in the text from a box. Now I know ebay has never asked me to do this, often comments on blogs as for it to confirm your a real person and not a bot. So when I saw this screen I realized I had been tricked and without even checking the url's or making sure, I opened a new browser and went to ebay.com by typing it in myself and quickly changed my password.

Then I went back and looked at the email. Tricky bastages!!!

Oh and something fun to read about, an arctic seed vault for when the world ends!

Posted by pixie at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I only have one increase row left! The bad news is my husband and I both completly forgot we had tickets to go see Chappell tonight, I even had gotten us really good tickets from a pre-sale. We are both feeling very dumb right about now. He's pouting in his office on his computer and I'm sitting depressed on the couch.

Oh and here is a photo from Saturday, we pretty much took over one room of the St. Ives with all 12 of us.

Posted by pixie at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I couldn't decide which photo I liked better so I am going to post both. This is how much of a dork I am that on a saturday night I am having trouble deciding which photo to post of my knitting progress. I did get out of the house today, for nearly 7 hours!

I ran errands and then went to NEGA SnB which wow we had a lot of people today. I never counted but it was a lot! It was loads of fun, atleast 5 of us showed up an hour early, and then nearly half of us stayed an hour later (1pm to 5pm!).

I knit about 14 rows while there, but I wound up talking half the time. Now that I am home I have knit an additional 6 rows, and I am in the increases now so it's got to be about 50% done. Man I hope it fits! It looks like it's going to. :D

Oh yeah and I liked that sock yarn from claudia so much, that I ordered some cheap off ebay!

Posted by pixie at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Wow so now I have something to blog and podcast about. First there was the Sockapaloooza socks, then some other distracting things along with pms and a sunburn. I spent most of the beggning of this week with a headache, cramps and not so happy skin. That was probably TMI, but what is a blog if not a space to vent?!

Check out my loverly ChicKami coming along nicely, and then my fun summer socks. So far I am very happy with both of these knits. With the ChicKami I am not sure what kind of straps to do, the wide strap version never looks good in photos, but I hate i-cord straps. I was thinking of maybe doing the straps from calla or something.

Toby says, "whuz up".

Posted by pixie at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

argh... burns, hurts, itches!!

Solarcaine, Starbucks and Yarn are my saviours.

I can't stop myself from looking at this photo and remebering that merely 2 days ago I was in un-crispy happiness.

Posted by pixie at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I have decided to start blogging in a very organized way my gauge swatches, now that I am a decently experienced knitter I have yarns I like and I knit with them more then once! So I hope this helps me keep track of things.

Yarn: Dalegarn Svale - Lime #9012 lot #9272
Content: 50% Cotton, 10% Silk, 40% Viscose
Needle Size: US 4 / 3.50 MM
SPI: 5.5 (22 sts over 4 inches gauge)

Posted by pixie at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I sat outside for a good part of the day, at a mexican resturant. I thought I was in the shade, but apparently I wasn't.

Sorry about the paper, but I was rubbing off aloe stuff with toilet paper and it stuck :( OUCH OUCH OUCH!!

Fun link, The Kitten vs The Laptop - from JenLa

Posted by pixie at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Don't ever let me into Etzei's again. I spent far to much on dinner. I had never been before but the lady at my hair salon insisted it was the best "take out" in the world. Indeed it was very impressive. I got some kinda berry pastry and lots of different food and then some far to expensive chocolate that i just had to try.

Here is dorky me excited I found a knitting article in W magazine (may issue?).

(more pics in flickr if you clicky)

But before all the Salon fun I stopped by the WWKIP day in Roswell.

I go there first and ran into Tammy and her hubby. Then many of the NEGA crew trickled in, and a guy knitter! Sorry if you think its dumb but I am always facinated by guy knitters. In particular older gentlmen with beards. I left for the hair apt so I missed a whole other group of people coming, grrr!

Ducks make it all better.

Oh and watching my husband on a webcam while he works is fun to hehe! He's talking to me in the photo, he's in Orlando on business. He'll be back tonight!

Would you laugh at me if I told you I was beyonhd excited that making the band 3 is starting June 15th and I'M ABOUT TO FREAK OUT!! Aubrey!!!! if I was a lesbian i would marry her, hah!

Posted by pixie at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Claudia the super knitter was very sweet and brought me back this lovely yarn from Germany! It's cotton which is great for summer. Today is brought to you by the color GREEN!

Driving to and from work yesterday was difficult. On the way in there was an accident someplace that I never saw, but did hear about. So I was stuck on 400 for 1.25 hours! Then on the way home I got stuck here;

On Friday's I like to go out for lunch and enjoy the sunshine. I have been good about saving money for the past month so i treated myself to some yarn as I'm feeling VERY un-inspired to knit anything. I got some pretty pale lime colored Dale Svale. None of the photos online capture the color very well so here ya go:

I'll be seeing lots of knitters Saturday at the WWKIP day!

The location actually changes slightly due to an event at the park, now it's across the street at Azalea Park. Updated Directions Here

Oh I saw Hempathy in person today, such pretty colors in that yarn. Not terribly soft, and VERY skinny! I would like to try knitting with it sometime.

Posted by pixie at 01:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Well man this week I am getting beat up my blog spammers. Some guys named Max and MIke who apparently want me to sign up for MSN.

Check out this beutiful crochet tank that Sonny321 is showing off over at Crochetville

Here are pics from this past Saturday;

Ann, Jen and Pixie

Jenny and Claudia (the ones who started NEGA SnB!)

After teaching me how to Single Crochet and Double Crochet, Jen went home and got the Happy Hooker book and whipped out one of the adorable bags from it.

I got the top left shoulder done (well I guses it goes higher but I properly decreased for the neck!) so I'm all proud:

Here is a special suprise for you:
SPECIAL SURPISE CLICK ME!

Posted by pixie at 10:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Well on my 5th attempt to start the yoke on this cute little crochet dress I had success. I have had to do several rows twice because I somehow wind up with the wrong amount of stitches. I have started counting EACH and EVERY row to make sure I am doing it right. I let 24 hours go by before I attempted this 5th time and I felt a lot more natural and better about it. I also felt I could see the stitches better. However, going into the foundation chain hurt my poor eyes!

The groccery store (Publix) had a display for this Biota water, the bottle is made from CORN so it's fully biodegradable.

Posted by pixie at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I give you the Holy Grail of my crafty world:

This was the first thing I ever tried to make with needles. It was what started it all. I would have never knit if it was not for this blanket. I had a friend teach me how to make a stitch and then I went off. I have no idea still WHAT stitch it is and I'll have to sit and try to remember when I work on it again. It's been a while! I took what I thought was a crochet class and wound up a knitter!

It's a pretty rag-like soft TLC Amore Lagoon - and I still like this yarn!

I wanted to pick a cute and small project to learn properly with. It just requires SC and DC (Single & Double Crochet) but it says it's intermediate. Wish me luck, I have started over 3 times! Oh it's Dale Baby Ull.

Now we all know I have bad laptop luck... this is what happend last night:

Notice the missing "O" key? Toby knocked it off by jumping onto the laptop while i was sitting with it on the couch. I can't get it back on. Another trip to the apple store, how fun!

And no sunday is complete without a nice cup of Jo in my fav cup from starbucks.

Posted by pixie at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Today at NEGA Jen taught me how to crochet properly. I only have ever known one stitch (but didn't know what it was called) and never knew what was technically the last or first stitch in a row.

Then I went to a house warming party with my husband and then had a bit of sushi and came home. Now for some knitting people! Wish my luck with my latest tank top...

Posted by pixie at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Cute strappy tank: Lux Tank Top

Oh and this is just to cute, i could imagine it in some really artsy yarn: Gesundheit

Posted by pixie at 05:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)