Les clapotis est finis!

(as always, click photos to enlarge)

Specs!
Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty (duh). Great pattern - aside from my questionable color choice, I love this FO!
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, Bittersweet colorway (this yarn is a little splitty but sooooo soft), 3 skeins (literally - I have like 2 yards left, and no clue what to do with the 4th skein I'd bought just in case)
Needles: US size 8 Clover bamboo (bamboo was okay, but should have gone with straights, as dragging over that join was ANNOYING)


Quel est le problème? You do not like that I am finished weeks ago but did not appear in les photographies until today? Je suis désolé! I was busy attracting les colibris - yes, zee hummingbirds! - with my bright couleurs and relaxing in the son. -Pierre! Where is my drink?

Seriously. I had another "clever" idea, and as usual, it went a leeeetle awry. When I took the above photos, I was pretty underwhelmed by my ability to make this parallelogram-shaped garment look good stretched out on a chair. Rather than take more bad photos of it stretched out or draped over other various pieces of furniture, I thought I would step it up and wear the thing. And - bonus! - the (three) people who read this blog could give me an honest opinion about whether this colorway suits me or is yet another case of my raccoonish tendencies making a mess of things (you know, "ooh, pretty!" without regard to whether the colors are "me.").

However. The thought of posing for pictures wearing this Madamoiselle made me cringe. Even though my husband would inevitably be the one taking them, I just hate posing for pictures and generally won't do it unless I have to (and I only "have to" when I've paid someone to take them). Enter the "clever" idea: I would take the pictures myself using the timer on our camera; it would at least save me the embarrassment of posing. Well, that doesn't sound so clever, unique, or difficult, right? Ha. Let's see... I don't have a tripod, so I winged it by using a bathrobe on top of the back of a sofa. Which meant the camera did not have a sturdy, fixed position and kept moving ever so slightly after I'd positioned it. Which means lots of pictures like this:

Finally, I started to get closer - oh look, there's my boobs.

Then there was the - quick! run in front of the camera! throw that thing over you like you meant to wear it that way! say fromage - er, cheese! - in five seconds act that followed every click of the shutter button. Much of the time, I literally did just throw it over myself - which caused a few inadvertent "Hi, I'm nekkid" pictures. All of the time, the camera cut the top of my head off. Most -okay, all - of the time, the pictures were absolutely ridiculous -and because of my limited "tripod" location, none of them really showcase the Clapotis. Nor did I want neck-to-waist shots of just the Clapotis, because the other purpose of this exercise was to ask for opinions on whether or not this color works for me, so I kind of needed my mug to be in there somewhere. In retrospect, though, I should have just gone for headless, because it would seem that I didn't achieve a whole lot with this other than making myself look awfully silly.

On the bright side - maybe you will be equally amused? Some of the better ones:

Aaaaaand I look like I'm naked underneath this thing.

Oh - and here, I look like I'm naked and happy about it, too.

In case you are wondering why it seems that I am a grinning fool in most of these, it's because I know from previous photo tragedies that when I don't smile for pictures, they are infinitely worse. Somehow, they always come out looking like I'm trying to be baaaaaad or like I'm just pissy:

Dirty girl. Wait - dirty and naked girl.

This one looks like - Grrrrr.... okay, I've had quite enough. Or, I think I'm about to be run over by a truck - take your pick.

So - ha ha - anyone want to venture an opinion about my color choice?

Because I am so "clever," the one or maybe two pictures that would have been necessary had I asked my husband to man the camera became, I don't know, thirty-something. I thought that if I took lots and lots, at least one would have to come out okay. Right? Right? Riiiight. Lesson learned. Again.

If nothing else, I serve to entertain... I have a knack for making a fool of myself; might as well share the laugh with you.

Next post, probably some WIPs (and chains to go with my dirty girl pics - no, kidding).

Paralysis (but there is an FO, er, Effed Oh; also, Yarn!)

I think I must have been bitten by some giant spider with laziness-inducing venom, because I am feeling distinctly lazy lately. Laaaaaaaazy. Non-committal. Paralyzed by lazy non-committalness. Part of the problem is that my to-do list is so long that I suddenly want to do none of it. This is just the part that falls under knitting:

1. Summer of Socks '07 KAL - because my stash really needs it, as does my credibility around here ("no, I needed all this yarn because I'm really going to make all these socks, seriously!"). I just need to start the first pair: Embossed Leaves. I even wound the yarn for them - see? - but I haven't started, even though the KAL began two days ago (I guess I really do have to be fashionably late to every party). Green is an awfully prosaic color for this pattern, but look at it - you can't blame me, right? It's Merino Cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery, and the color is Forest Moss, and it's very, very, very pretty and mossy. I'm thinking - hoping - that when they are done and I put them on, I will be transformed into a little skipping sprightly forest nymph. A hot one - because nymphs just are. I wouldn't complain. Bet my husband wouldn't, either.

2. Baby things: a sweater, wee socks, cute toys...

3. Cole's blanket: I've knit two miters. TWO.

4. Lace! - why? why? why do I suddenly feel the urge to try this?? OH, that's right - because of these pretties, languishing in my stash:

Fleece Artist Kasula, DK weight, 1000 meters, Mermaid colorway - special co-op purchase, no longer available


Chewy Spaghetti Capellini in Keen

Perchance to Knit Midnight Rainbow / Harlot's Peacock


Handmaiden Sea Silk 150 in Rose Garden


Handmaiden Sea Silk 150 in Paris

5. Decent pictures of Clapotis in action so that I can do an FO post already - really, how lazy is that? Because it's so hard to get presentable enough to take pictures...

6. The Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts that I had no business starting just now, what with socks and baby stuff and a blanket and maybe even lace on my agenda. But I did, because I'm a sheep and everyone is doing it I was itching to see if I'd really, finally found a use for the two skeins of bluey-purpley Koigu that I've had for way too long. I had bought it online thinking it was a manly shade of blue, and when it arrived in the mail, realized that it would not do at all - I could have been wrong, but I was pretty sure that my dad didn't need bluey-purpley socks (so he got turquoisey blue instead, because that was so much better. I had no luck with colors on the internet when I made the Thuja socks!). I haven't liked the Koigu until now, paired up with the Spunky Eclectic Club edition of Nightshade (pictures later when I've got more of it done - in other words, check back in December! ha)

7. Blog post about the Spiderman socks, which are now finished!

Oh, wait... that one, I can do:

Tangentially, what I really couldn't do today? Because you really need to know? Locate and clean the source of the doggy doo smell that insulted my delicate sensibilities the instant I woke up this morning. I'm bad, and I'll admit it: instead of getting up, I lay there and waited for my husband to wake up and then announced, "I smell poop." He said, "Good morning to you, too - I hope you aren't talking about my breath," and when I repeated, "no, I just smell poop," he got up, found it and gagged a bit (turned out to be doggy diarrhea, on the carpet no less - couldn't just be on the hardwood flooring, nooooo). Then, he came back and said, "I'll clean it up, you go play on the computer. And light a candle." Awfully nice of him, reflects awfully badly on me... it's why I teach high school English and he works in a hospital: I can't handle poop, and he can. I can barely handle the baby variety. Now, poop in a figurative sense - that I've handled by the load...

So, this little boy - inventor of the sequel to Snakes on a Plane -





Snake in a Truck! (this one was a fun few minutes of fishing a rubber snake out of a tiny hole in the roof of an old yard sale toy diesel truck with my $20 tweezers, while he stood by and supervised and insisted that I get it out)






and Pirates of the Carribean IV: Speak No Evil
















wanted Spiderman Socks to add to his collection of Spiderman paraphernalia (because, you know, two dolls, a pillowcase, shoes, a ball, a paddleball, a mask, stickers, a sippy cup, plastic dishes and silverware, a backpack and a bubble pen clearly aren't enough). Here they are (the WIP picture in the post below this one showed the colors much better than these do):

Specs!
Yarn: Cidermoon Blizzard in Superman colorway
Needles: 2.50 mm Knitpicks dpns
Pattern: Opal Kid's Sock, free pattern - chosen because it looked easy and quick, and it was!
Size: Toddler size 7
Mods: I skipped the four rows of stockinette at the cuff and just did 3" of ribbing for the leg. At the end of the Gusset section, the pattern says to knit all the way around for a row, and I should have trusted my instincts and continued the ribbing for the front of the sock, because it looks a little funky - but you have to be looking for it, and since I made them, I was looking. Otherwise, no changes made or considered.

Not wanting to disappoint me, my inventive little boy thought to use one as a cat-teasing toy about ten seconds after I handed it over. I didn't know this - I thought the repeated squealing of "Spiderman sock! Spiderman sock!" and half-crazed laughter meant that he was that delighted. I wasn't looking because I was weaving in the ends on the second sock. So, when he came back and said, "Mama fix sock," I initially thought he meant that I had fixed it, because I told him that that was what I was doing as I was weaving in the ends. What he really meant was that he didn't want me to think that my work was finished. Not surprisingly, cat snagged sock when it was dangled in cat's face. Cat ripped through one of two plys in the yarn - just one stitch, but enough to necessitate surgery, again. Another darning job for another yet-to-be-properly-worn sock (What is this, some kind of a curse? Apparently something crappy has to happen to nearly every project, but particularly if it's socks! I'm 0 for 3 for a no-problem sock knitting experience so far.). This is why, if you look at the modeled-by-boy photo again, there is one stitch that seems to stick out a bit on the top of the foot. It's ugly, but I think it should hold.

Keep your, um, toes crossed that Embossed Leaves will be my first drama-free socks...

Eleventy billion other things I should be doing right now...

Such as:

1. Working on Spiderman sock #2 (I finished the first one last night). I LOVE THESE COLORS.

2. Reading A Trip to the Stars, since I'm only on page 30 or so and I'm supposed to have all 512 pages read by next Wednesday for an online book group.

3. Returning emails ("Hi, how are you? Sorry I've been crap about writing lately - well, more so than usual...").

4. Eating breakfast.

5. Enjoying the birds who have finally figured out that the food in the feeders is for them (including a hummingbird at the hummer feeder! Yay! Hummingbirds are right up there with fairies on the cute-o-meter).

6. Housework and / or laundry (HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm a funny girl.).

7. Taking a shower so that I can have my husband snap some Clapotis-in-action photos. I refuse to be photographed (willingly) with my hair like this, in pjs that no longer cover my baby bump.

I could go on, but you get the point... so, what have I been doing all morning instead???

RAVELRY!! I got my invite! It may become detrimental to my ass, as I have been spending a whole lot of time sitting on it now that I'm officially "in." When I signed up for the wait list, I had no idea how cool it was really going to be. You can post your projects, look at everyone else's (great for figuring out yarn subs!) and make comments, list your stash and needle inventory, add patterns to your queue of things you'd like to make, join knitalongs... the mind. It's boggled, in a good way! I know I sound like I am about to have a geek-gasm just now (I won't. Promise!), but I am amazed at everything there is to do at this site.

Ohhhhkay. Moving on... we went to Disneyland Tuesday, thinking that we should squeeze in one more trip on our passes before they block out the rest of the summer. We were only there for five hours, and while fun, it was ENOUGH. It was SO hot, so many people, and so much walking - which normally doesn't bother me, but it does right now in my current condition. I think our longest wait was actually for food! Cole is now a little too aware for rides like Pirates - he was excited until we got on, and then he huddled up next to me until we got past the cannons. After that, the Haunted House was a definite no-no, so we went to Mickey's house instead, where he decided to pretend to sleep on every fake flour sack he saw:

and then, surprise! I'm awake!

His favorite attraction of the four we made it to was Buzz Lightyear. He's still talking about it. "Buth! Buth Light-ear!"

Off to maybe do something, um, "productive"...

The King Has Spoken

Today, I was going to wind a skein of Merino Cashmere sock yarn from The Knittery with the intent to begin the Embossed Leaves socks from Favorite Socks. Until, that is, I heard, "No, Mama," and saw a certain little boy grab a different skein from my stash. Yarn in hand, he said emphatically, "Spiderman."

So, then.

How could I say "no"?

Little boy Spiderman socks, coming soon...

Delirium.

I've officially been free for the summer for a week, and somehow, all my plans to be a whirlwind of productivity have yet to come to fruition (do you like how I make that sound like it's completely out of my hands?). This morning I had to ask my husband what day of the week it is, because I really didn't know. The days are already starting to become a blur, and it's only been one week. All this time off seems to be a mixed blessing, but I think that's more a result of my lack of organization and motivation and several other attributes that would prevent me from being a lazy lump sitting on the couch. I can only play the pregnancy card so much before it becomes... well, playing a card. Making excuses. I feel like I was more productive when I was stressed out and had no time to do anything, so was trying to do everything. Now I have plenty of time, and so I do nothing. Bit of an inverse time / productivity relationship at work there.

So, the house is still dirty. The book is still unread. The knitting is still not done. I feel a bit guilty about all of it.

What have I accomplished this week? I did some shopping with my husband for the sorely needed bathroom makeover. New shower curtain, rod, towel holder and TP holder freshly installed today. Now that he's painted the bathroom and our bedroom a color that doesn't make me want to curl up into a ball and rock in a corner, he's all into redecorating. Which makes me happy! It's so long overdue. (I don't think I ever mentioned the first color he painted these rooms in January as a surprise for me. Oh, I was "surprised" all right... by the baby food (specifically, Gerber sweet potatoes) coating our walls. It was so bad that the only color it matched was itself - it didn't even go with white or black. I still shudder when I think of it. I appreciated the gesture - can't say I appreciated the accompanying nausea it caused.). He's even said that he wants to repaint and update our living room and dining room areas, and I didn't think he'd ever say that. In the past, it has always been his policy to just live with ugly and / or tired rather than spend the money, time and energy on making things pretty. Those two rooms in particular look like my grandparents decorated them, because they pretty much did - we went with the antique thing because I ended up with a bunch of their stuff when they died. There is nothing wrong with this look, necessarily, except that it's just not really either of our styles. I prefer clean lines and simple color schemes, contemporary without necessarily being "modern." I love looking through the Pottery Barn catalog for ideas - that's my style (although certainly not my price range!). What do you call it... classic? warm? comfortable? It's not flowery sofas, old and stuffy framed prints, and "don't touch" things everywhere. This was fine when we had just moved in and couldn't afford our own furniture, but it's time to change and make this place feel more like "us." Anyway. I forget where I was going with this. I think the late-night delirium is setting in, so I should wrap this up.

Speaking of, I did finish Clapotis (haven't gotten around to pictures... maybe tomorrow)! I stayed up until 2:00 Wednesday morning (I think it was Wednesday? It was definitely a day this week) because I just wanted it done so I could move on. In the wee morning hours, my mind does weird things. That night, it was to invent new lyrics to one of Audrey Hepburn's songs in My Fair Lady, "I Could Have Danced All Night," while I was knitting: "I could have knit all night, could play with yarn all night, and still go shop for more. I could just roll in wool, Buck nekkid like a fool..." I can't remember the rest (probably a good thing), but this is enough to demonstrate that me being up late = absolutely horrifying foolishness. Why was I even thinking of this song? I haven't seen this movie for at least ten years. Bad subconscious, bad.

Today, I thought I would start working on those miters again for Cole's blanket (okay, not "again" - I've only actually done one), but wanted to organize my stash and supplies first. Ever feel like everything is so messy and disorganized that you can't even think of starting a new project until you've fixed it? Suddenly, that was me. I think I went overboard (shocking). I ended up making crude tables in Microsoft Word listing all my yarns by vendor, colorway, yarn type, yardage, gauge, # of skeins and intended project, if any. There's one file that's just sock yarn and another one for everything else. This took a while, and not the ten minutes I thought it would. I'm sure there's an easier way to do it, too, a computer program available or something, but the hard, tedious route demonstrates stupidity builds character. Then I made another file listing all my crochet hooks and needles. Then I separated all my other supplies into cute little baskets I picked up at Walmart this week. Finally, I made a flickr account and uploaded pictures of all my finished objects and added descriptions of yarns / needles used and so on. Don't ask me why that was necessary, because I really don't know.

(This is abrupt, but wow, I'm actually drowsy. I'm boring myself? In lieu of falling asleep at the wheel and posting something ridiculous or inscrutable, I'm going to go to bed now.)

Hmmmm...

Froggin\' Knit Up -- [noun]: A master of storytelling 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

I'm hardly a master of anything, but I thought it was a funny coincidence, given my last post. :)
(I like the definition for this much better than the one it gave for my real name, which was, "A person who is high all the time." Huh.