Quick! Alert the Press!

I'm posting for the second time in a week! OMG! The reason of today's post is this:



That's right; new baby birds! Jon is livid because of what, I don't know, but he is wishing that the nest had been removed. What I love about his position is that *he*, the person who doesn't like the birds, is somewhow excused from being the one to remove the nest. I figure since he doesn't want them there, he should have removed the nest. I like the birds, so I didn't. And now we have a new batch of baby birdies on the way.

I have been spinning lately, and struggling with self-patterning yarn. I wish the stupid yarn came with a simple "cast on this many stitches" instruction. As it is, I usually have to start and rip a few times to get the stripes right. Harumph!

I do have an almost-finished pair of Jaywalkers in Koigu, though. These are the ones that the girls helped me out with on Sat.



I love this colorway, but I wish Koigu would name them (like Socks that Rock and other cool companies do) so that we could keep them straight. It's hard to memorize a number and even harder to describe the color!

And lastly, Oslo in repose:

New Week New Post

I'm sitting in my most crazy, insanely boring macroecon class right now. This last week I decreased further off my medication which made me even more unstable than I usually am, but my whole depressive state was compounded by the first anniversary of my dad's death this past Sunday. My best friend was in town from San Francisco and it was really only the activities that we had planned that kept my mind off it. We had a beautiful lunch on overlooking Seattle. Left to right: me, T. and J.





Can you believe this view? Me neither!

But she left, much too quickly!!, on Sunday afternoon and The Mope descended. Jon has spent the last few days renting comedies to take my mind off things (note: do not rent the Nathan Lane/Matthew Broderick remake of The Producers; it sux majorly and stuff).

So, in lieu of more depressing stories of depression, have some pet photos! Being that I am home a lot more these days, I have been catching the pets in various hilarious states of repose.

I was in the spare bedroom closet when I heard a sound.



Can you find the Heidi?



There she is! The most hilarious thing is that this is the view from her Heidi-hole (that sounds vaguely dirty, but I swear it's not):



That's right; it's my stash. She swears she was just keeping an eye on it, not plotting what to bring as an offering to us in the dead of night. I also took advantage of Wednesday afternoon to re-cover the couch with my dear friend E.



Huxley, however, thought that I was making a bed especially for him. At least *he* likes the old cushions (blech!).



Today, though, he picked up my Missing J. Vibe and took a lengthy snuggle in the guest bed. Meanwhile Oslo was nonplussed:



He does, however, like the new throwpillows from Cost Plus very much.

I swear that I will be back to my vibrant ridiculous self soon. There have been too many uninteresting, mopey entries lately (or lack thereof). The knitting has been progressing and I just got the remainder of the yarn I bought from Shlasdair Yarn (the Skye Yarn Company) yesterday and was dismayed to find that it wouldn't work for the sweater I wanted it to. So I am currently looking for a new project. If anyone has any ideas for a worsted weight yarn (600g) please do let me know. I'd like an expandable (read: not too fitted) comfy fall/winter sweater.

Oh and I almost forgot! I hosted a marvelus Stitch n' Bitch on Saturday in honor of J.'s visit. We had a grand old time and the girls helped me to fix a problem with my WIP Jaywalkers. Thanks ladies! I hope to make the SnB happen every month. It's a great chance for us all to get together and help each other out. I taught a yarn virgin how to knit and another dear friend, R., helped out. The kicker was that I had also taught R. to knit. She knits while waiting for raids in World of Warcraft to start (it takes awhile for 40+ people to get organized). I think that's just so neat; we're all helping each other and spreading the joy of wool. It's like a new kind of social disease! :)

Lull

Hey folks. So yeah, about those vacation pics. You can really just see them all on my Flickr page. Breaking down the trip is kind of tedious and I have (baseless) fears of creating the links to the woolfolks that I bought from. I should really just put together a great big list and post it in the sidebar or something...

The last week has been tough for me. This past fall and winter, as you may know, I struggled with being very sick and quite depressed and anxious. Because of that, I went on medication (Paxil, then Mirtazapine, then *finally* Zoloft) and went through some extensive therapy. The time has come for me to go off the meds. I started the decrease last week on the 4th and have been a lethargic, emotional, achy, nauseated wreck ever since. Getting up the energy just to write this entry has taken me awhile (I know, you're shocked!). But, just because I am struggling with withdrawal doesn't mean that I haven't been knitting. It's actually quite nice to have something so soothing and familiar to retreat to when you're feeling down.

I have made a pair of around-the-house booties:



Yarn: Something or other Eskimo in color "The Joker" (my name for it)
Needles: 6mm dpn
Guage: 3 or 4 st/in
Pattern: my own. Basically I cast on 40 stitches, worked 6 rows in the round alternating knit/purl so I got a garter-like stitch, then took 20 stitches for the heel flap, knit it until it looked long enough, worked a short-row heel, and knit the foot until it was as long as my foot when I tried it on. Only *then* did I decrease for the toes (the decreses were worked in a haphazard manner every other row) until I had 16 stitches left. Kitchener-stitched the toe shut. Felted in an equally haphazard manner.

I know it sounds complicated, but you can do it, I swear. Basically, when making felted booties, pick a yarn that will felt nicely (Eskimo is a bulky 100% wool single-ply)and knit a sock with no leg that is about 30% too big for your foot. Felt in whatever manner you like best (mine is, obviously, haphazard).

I also have about 9oz. of Opal merino sockyarn that I am planning to do this to. Not the shawl or the colors, but the knitting up a rectangle then dyeing it thing. The technique looks like a lot of fun except for the whole knitting a plain white rectangle part.



What else, what else? Oh yes, I am working on the Lotus blossom tank from the cover of Interweave Knits Summer '06. So far, it looks like this:



I'm knitting it out of a really neat (but completely frustrating and unforgiving) yarn; GGH-T Safari in color 30. The stuff is 75% linen and 25% nylon, so it's really no wonder it's so damn stuff, but the color is fantastic so I'm sticking to it.