It's Cold!

It officially got chilly yesterday. Time to get serious about the knitting. I'm working on another small project but sweater weather demands, well, a sweater. But which one? I've got four in mind. While I typically reside in a reality of my own design, I'm not delusional. I know I'm not going to make more than one. I might not even finish one. But, in my own reality I will, so I need to get going. Anyway!

Here are the contenders:

*The Minimalist*

Pros: I have the pattern, it's stylish, and looks really wearable.
Cons: It's a LOT of seed stitch

*Midnight Circular*

Pros: The back looks really neat and it's constructed in an unusual way.
Cons: I have to buy the pattern. Not entirely sure I would wear it.

*Modern Lace Henley*

Pros: The pattern is free. The lace looks interesting, and it seems to have a high amount of wearability.
Cons: It's listed as "Piquant" on Kinnty, and I'm not sure if I want something too hard. The lace is charted, which I've never done before and am intimidated by.

*Circular Shrug*

Pros: Free pattern. Looks fairly quick, opening up the possibility of making two larger things (delusional!) Could possibly add full sleeves.
Cons: No sleeves. Gauge instructions are vague.

Anyone want to help me make up my mind? I'm leaning towards the Midnight Circular. It looks comfy.

Tilty Quilt

This is my new quilt project, the tilty quilt. I'm making it up as I go along...I'm not sure how I feel about the colors...on the one hand, it's autumnal. On the other, it's kind of rag bag 70's leftover hippie-ish. We'll see, I guess.


The leftover scraps are pretty.

Mr. Dangly

Pattern: Mr. Dangly
Needles: size 6 dpns
Yarn: O-wool Balance in Graphite & Peridot

*this is how monkeys are made*

I love, love, love this pattern. Knitting everything in pieces makes it feel even faster than it already is. I modified it to knit in the round, so the only seaming I ended up doing was attaching everything. Speaking of, there are no real instructions for the part attachment. I winged it and hopefully the intended recipient won't quickly tear his head off.

*what up?*

I want to make more. Many, many more. A dangly army. It's an excellent stash buster. The yarn was left over from Turn a Square (about half a ball of each color). I used it almost all up - I didn't mind throwing away the little bit that was left.

And I've mentioned before, I love teh o-wool.

I've had good knitting luck lately...I htink I might press it by knitting something large (gasp!) and wearable (eeek!)

This is Awesome

I just discovered a great, free video podcast. YOGAmazing comes in 25 minute sessions and each one is dedicated to a theme, like upper body strength or anxiety or even for gardeners (I haven't done the gardening one, so who knows what that's about).

It's taught by a real yoga instructor instead of some Hawaiian model. He actually holds the poses long enough to be worth it and he clearly describes and demonstrates everything. The only downside is that you have to sit through a commercial, but I think that's fair since they have to make money somehow.

I used to go to Joy Moves. It's a great studio with lots of class options and it's very affordable. Alas, we've moved and getting there to make a class de-motivates me. I think sitting in traffic each way would undo any benefit that I would have gotten.

October is "Alexis, take care of yourself month" and doing a little exercise was definitely on the list!

Elephants are Poopier than Donkies

But Republicans poop more. A LOT more. Sarah Palin is the Jessica Simpson of politics.

*You can buy the Poops t-shirt at Threadless

Sppikey, Yet Soft

Pattern: Celestine
Needles: size 6 dpns
Yarn: a mystery

It's hard to get an idea of the size of this thing. I forgot to put in a reference object. It's huge. 12 inches in diameter. i like it, but I'm not sure what purpose it could ever serve.

It could be a fun baby toy. It's pretty hugable, despite the points. It was a really fun knit and a great stash buster. I could imagine doing one and felting it for a whimsical decoration or doing one in a bulky yarn to make a weirdo couch pillow.

When I first started knitting, I was anti socks and toys. I thought they were kind of stupid. Then I realized sweaters tended to be boring, expensive, and rarely fit the way I wanted. Although I am hankering for a bigger project...we'll see.

Mysterious Visitors

There are a lot of people crossing my path that I've never met and know nothing about.

We don't have a balcony or porch. We have a very wide walkway. We have a little table and chairs and some plants on our section of the walkway, as do most people in our complex.

We also have a mysterious person who regularly fills up and empties the ash tray. And someone is kind enough to keep our plants watered. (Smoker with a green thumb? Plant elf?)

I like that our little patio area is welcoming to strangers and the strangers are kind enough to take care of it for us. It's an invisible community. I almost want to leave our ghostly guests a little note, but I don't want to scare them away.



My other mysterious visitors are from the internet. I get an e-mail on Mondays telling me how many people read my blog, where they linked from, etc. The majority of my visitors find me through Google.
The keywords searched? Not "awesome knitting" or "really cool chick that likes to ramble". No. "Opposite of xenophobia" (a post about our trip to Italy and Spain) garners me the most hits. I rank number TWO on the search page for that one.

The second is "largest gauge" (about how I knit a big sleeve and my gauge was correct.) I rank number ONE! on Google for that.

So, just by writing those words, my hits will go up noticeably. Weird. I hope the people don't mind being led of track to a knitting/craft/randomness blog.