I Resist My Temptations By Passing Them On To You
This is a quickie (woohoo for quickies!) …..ahem….. but as some of you may know I have an Etsy shop. Funny thing about Etsy shops, if you have one it does not makes you immune to the lure of products in the other shops…. in fact you are more susceptible (or however you spell it). But in order to curb my spending habits, I will show you cool stuff I would want to buy but won’t
Knitting Tote Bags……
Knit Or Die Bag
Stitch Markers……………..
Scrabble Tile Stitch Markers
Ice Queen Stitch Markers
Garden Gnome Stitch Markers
And you know what else you can get on Etsy? Yarn……
Yarn
Yarn
Yarn
Yarn
Yarn
Knitting Needles…….
Ram bamboo Needles
Alpaca Bamboo Needles
Handmade Purple Swirly Knitting Needles
Four Sets Of Boye Knitting Needles
Spindles And Roving…. sometimes in combo packs…..
Kundert Heart Spindle
Handpainted Austrailian Wool Roving
Stone Spindle with Roving
Handpainted Spindle
Cotton Candy Pink Roving
Not Etsy, But Made the Stone Spindle Above
Remember the contest!
Maybe Its the Change In Weather…. Or Maybe Its My Blogiversary….
But I have been doing alot of rearranging lately, like this blog and in my house. Yesterday, I spent a good portion of the day stealing the shelf from the kitchen so I can use it for my crafting supplies and leaving the kitchen with my old meager crafting shelf.
Clearly you can tell I’m a crafter, since I chose to have my crafting shelf be bigger than the shelf to hold my food. Who needs food? Clearly I need the space for my yarn.
I’m still arranging stuff on this here blog. Like I lost a good bit of linkage and buttons, its just a chore getting them all back from wherever I got them.
When not tearing up the house in reorganization, I’ve been sweater harvesting for my yarn empire. While I realize that I could just go to the store and buy yarn, I have been forced to regulate myself on a yarn budget. Gasp! I know. As well, you can’t deny the appeal of a sweater’s worth of yarn for $3 rather than $35 (and that’s from Kntpicks!). I think some hooligans have been clued in to my source though, since there was a severe lack of wool sweaters at the Southside Goodwill- but I did find a nice selection to play with. Like this cotton pretty that will provide ample stripe-age:
I am currently working with my sweater problem child… this yarn:
That would be my cell phone case and thumb for size reference. That is 2/3 of one sleeve. The issue? I have a sneaking suspicion that the 1% Lycra Spandex it lists on its tag is this stuff:
I seriously hate this stuff. I have to stifle my gag reflex if I accidently touch a spider web nowadays… this stuff is just evil. And its not just at the cuffs and edges…. oh no…. its knitted throughtout the entire sweater. So, as I unravel a piece, I pull the yarn one way and ball that stuff up in the other hand. As well its kind of hard to tell in this pic, but when I first looked at the sweater I thought having a nice chunky cotton would be sweet. Except this is no chunky weight yarn, its two yarns knitted at the same time.
See? I told you, problem child.
So I unravel so far…. ditch the cobweb lycra with a weird contorted bejeezus dance, pull the two strands apart, ball one strand then attach and ball the second…. on one hand I’m getting serious amounts of mileage of cottony pink yarn… on the other its a complete butt load of work with no swift or ball winder. I may get pushed over the edge…… but before I go rampantly falling over edges of madness….
My Blogiversary contest!!!
So in recognition of my blog’s being around for a year… here goes:
I would like a button for either my blog or my shop or one to use for both (both have the same name… how easy is that?!) that sort of goes with the new setup around here. Now, you can make the button yourself and send it to me at stephieface (at) hotmail (dot) com with ‘Stephieface Button’ in the title -OR- you can leave a comment with a description of any ideas you have for said button.
All entries must be received by Ocotober 5th, and the winner will be announced October 6th.
The winner will receive a skein of brand newish (it may have been sitting about, languishing and eating grapes) untouched yarn in my stash… most likely from Knit Picks- unless you are totally allergic to wool then I will give you something from my acrylic stash…. AND if you actually go through all the trouble to use your mad skillz and make a button, in addition to the yarn if you win you also get a knitting bag/purse made by me for you (you don’t get too much say, except like ‘I totally hate yellow’).
Weeeeeeeeee. So there you go. My only restriction…. no pics of lady parts.
Get Crackin!
I so totally forgot to add! I got this template from this site. They have about 20 or so free Blogger templates, of which all look pretty awesome. There is even a green argyle one to match this one. Sadly I have no knowledge of “html” or “Other cool useful things I could use to make the internet better”… but there you go. Remember if you use one of the templates you will lose anything you added extra to your original template- like links, and sidebar sections. Also when you first apply the template it won’t look sweet at all- you will have to apply images to the coding to make it work(the background, the header, and all the bullets are each a seperate image). Like I just loaded the images up on Blogger (like regular old photos), published my “dump post” (if you like you can see it…. titled ‘oh Yeah”) then I had to have two windows open- one with my template ready to edit, and the other at the dump post with the images- and when it came to a certain phrase…. you cut and paste the web address for the appropriate image from one window and paste it over the phrase in the first. Then you have to go back and add once more your links and buttons.
Whew!
But there you go if you too are looking for a change.
Of Course, My Luck Still Holds….
I was excited to learn I was a winner of the Housewife With Yarn’s “Guess what I’m knitting” contest (Congrats Steph!!! [she is a Steph too, just so you don't think I'm patting myself on the back]) and winning yarn is just as awesome as anything I can think of right now aside from winning the lottery. Then, just as I read that and am high on yarny happiness….. I discover that HBO has decided to not make a fourth season of Deadwood and is instead ending the series completely, and making two two-hour movies to tie up all the plot lines…….
NNNNNnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
I honestly get bothered sometimes by TV programming. Not by content mind you, but by the fact that anything good never lasts long (which goes with the old saying you know… too good to last). Like they take shows like Deadwood, Carnivale, and Farscape away- but leave us with shows like Sex in the City, Friends, and Frasier to watch forever. Mind you, Friends was good now and again, but Frasier makes me sleepy and Sex in the City makes me want to kick puppies… except for the episodes with Mikhail Barishnikov (but that’s solely because of youthhood Nutcracker fantasies… but we’ll not get into that). So, this would be reason #937 of why we watch DVDs all the time at my house. We were thinking of getting HBO so we could watch Deadwood all new and stuff, but not now.
But I did win yarn. wooohoooo!
And before I go I leave you with this:
Randomness Thursday! Or… How I Couldn’t Come Up With A Catchy Post Title….. And ETAs!
Much as I hate to divert from the subject of Ian McShane, it had to happen someday. Onward! *sigh*
So I finished a scarf to put in my shop on etsy. I call it, the Swearengen Scarf (ack- I still can’t get away from him!) because, once again, I watched an abusive amount of Deadwood while knitting it. Its about 7.5 to 8 feet long, which I think is lengthy enough without accidently shutting your scarf in the car door and have it drag along the street.
The fishnet hole-ness off it reminded me of all the dilapted holey torn raggedy stockings of the Gem Saloon Working Gals…. hence the homage…. that and my addiction to Ian McShane- but there you go.
So, last weekend I went to one of those LARPing things I am prone to do now and again. It was a fun time, though the ride up had a lot to be desired being shoved in a backseat and packed in (by packed in, I mean at pit stops there was a 15 minute unpacking spree just to free me so I could go pee….seriously). Friday though was interesting. Fridays of such trips are usually hectic and stressful, and make me question what exactly is worth all that trouble. Friday is normally a flash of pictures in my hurry to get all the last minute things (which should have been last week or last month things) done before I commit to the commute. In my travels that day, I found something interesting. Has anyone else seen this?
The Ben & Jerry’s milkshakes? I had though by mere glimpse that it was one of those high falootin Starbucks frappacinos- but it was the word ‘monkey’ that made me look a second time. So, as a treat for the kiddos I bought one for each of them, then when serving it to them I totally did the I- Am- the- Mom- and- I- Open -Stuff- So -I -Can- Steal – A -Sip- Thing. First off, its not frozen, its just refridgerated. You have to shake it up to make it all shakey. It does taste like the ice cream it says it is, but its super thick in a way that makes me think I’m drinking glue. There was only like 3 or 4 flavors there at Walmart if I can recall, this, Cherry Garcia, and Something Chocolate Who’s Witty Name I Cannot Remember. I don’t know, I’m still iffy on the whole thing… like if they did Chubby Hubby… how would I feel drinking liquified pretzels? But if ever a flavor demanded the milkshake treatment, it surely is Dublin Mudslide, get on it Ben and Jerry!
And enjoy this. The song is by a guy named Jonathon Coulton. Check him out. My favorite line? “We’re not unreasonable, I mean… no one’s gonna eat your eyes”
Jonathon is pretty cool…. I mean all songs about zombies eating your brains aside… he releases all his songs under the Creative Commons License which is a really cool thing if you don’t know that that is- check him and it out.
ETA: My one kid has just taken to screaming “Johnny BigOnes” at the top of his lungs. I have no idea what he’s talking about- but that doesn’t mean I’m not giggling my ass off whenever I hear it.
Fingerless Gloves Are My Socks
Not like actually wearing them as socks, but as far as knittery goes. Sock knitters knit socks all the time, like Terri Lee Royea (who has a kick ass sock tutorial if you’ve never tried sockery[in an unrelated note I seem to be adding 'ery' to everything lately]) socks are the project they can do with their eyes blinfolded (unless its that potowhatsit sock). With that in mind, fingerless gloves are that way for me and everyone seems to want a pair. Of course, I hang out with alot of Live Action Roleplayers who appreciate the wonders of being able to stash things in a glove that are normally unable to be stashed (like medical size popsicle sticks….long story). Next up is a set of gloves in the Shamrock KnitPicks yarn in the Dougherty colorway (that’s the very green one).
I truly hate to admit it, but I think I am in love with Ian McShane from Deadwood. Well, that is a total lie- I know I am. The fact that he is a slightly overweight older gentlemen only speaks volumes of his charisma. Its true. Quite honestly, it wasn’t until I looked him up on the Internet Movie Database that I realized who he was. He was that guy. I know that’s totally revealing isn’t it? The importance of that guy is huge, and you’ll soon see why. When I was younger I used to watch older movies, a practice garnered from sticking around on the channel that hosted Sunday Morning Kung Fu Theatre after the last throat chop was thrown. You yourselves may have watched the same channel in your younger years…. the schedule was basically the same regardless of where you were in the US….
The Little Rascals
The Three Stooges
Kung Fu Theatre
A Random Danny Kaye and/or Bob Hope Movie
Some Random Black and White Movie from the early 60’s or early 70’s
Golf
Now, as I look through the Imdb list of Ian McShane movies I see alot of movies I have watched before (that only seem familiar because the title rings a vague bell) during that black and white early 60’s or 70’s movie slot. So then I naturally googled Ian McShane and discovered………… he was one of two men who utterly defined what I found physically attractive in men during my formative years, and who would be the standard I would use to forever dictate which men were my ‘thing’. Really. I mean… how could you not? Ian McShane was Jude Law before Jude Law was a glimmer in Mr Law’s eye- proof!
I can also not ignore my discovery that it was Ian McShane who played my FAVORITEST HEATHCLIFFE OF ALL TIME!
I can also not ignore the fact that he was Sitting Target with the other definition of what I consider manly and hotness…. Oliver Reed
Ian McShane was totally that guy. I told the Mister that he had to write to Mr McShane and thank him for imprinting on my then young 80’s soaked brain that dark brooding machismo was what I would desire in my future mate….. you know, rather than the alternative….
Deadwood Is An Awesome Show… But The Title Does Make Me Snicker So….
So, this past weekend, the Mister and I got curious about the HBO show Deadwood. So while we were at the inlaws’ we decided to check out an episode or two. Mind you, I was never really one for westerny type things…. well I totally lie… I was never one for traditional westerny type things. I had my love affair with Young Guns and of course Young Riders , then there is also westerny like Firefly… but Clint Eastwood and John Wayne type westerns never really did it for me. So the idea of Deadwood started to escape me, but we had just recently watched the HBO series ROME, so I was intrigued to see if this was as good.
Oh yes…. yes indeedy it is.
Of course, if you are looking to create a drinking game simply to get kerschnookered in the least amount of time…. Deadwood is your show…. You just have to pick words like the F-bomb or (sorry mom!) Cocksucker… you’d be 3 sheets to the wind in as many minutes surely. Though typically, the Mister and I go for shows where the main chracters are good guys, like Millenium. The main character, Frank Black, was a good guy. Deadwood, however, is really all about the bad guys, and in a way its okay. Though, if you are the type to balk at overdoses of random nudity, it may not be for you, because they have nekkidness every chance they can get.
On the knitting front….. Here is my most recent project… yet more fingerless gloves:
I’m not a big fan of really long gloves which is why they are short. They are knit mainly in 2×1 rib (except the black, that’s just plain stockinette). The black yarn is from a sweater recon a while ago, and the other is the Knit Picks Shamrock in the Kelley Colorway. The Shamrock is very thick and not at all scratchy. When the skeins arrived in the mail I was somewhat nervous of their size, they’re quite small, and I had only bought 3 skeins each in a different colorway. So when I decided to make the gloves, this is why I opted for the black stripe. I think it was a good decision on my part since this was all I had left at the end of two gloves with a different colored stripe:
It looks like alot, but really it isn’t. What it does leave is a nice amount to do some duplicate stitched intarsia if I wanted, which I have been considering in the black stripe. At $2.49 a ball its not bad either, actually rather good considering you can get an almost set of gloves out it. So provided you have a coordinating yarn you can get a nice set of gloves out of a ball… err rather mittens more like.
More to add later……
This morning I awoke and came back to this post…. only to see my handless pic of the gloves glaring at me. Mind you, Stephieface and Perfectionist are not two words that go together, but the pic I had posted irked me to no end.
Was it the colors?
Was it the setting?
Was it the posing? (as much as laying a glove on a table is posing)
Was it that it was tooooooo early in the morning and I was just likely very grumpy?
As realistic as each of these questions are, I deducted that it was my gloves had no hand. Gloves are jazzhandiest when they have hands in them. So, off I went to take a picture of my own hand.
See? They look marvelous with a hand job (it HAD to be said…. I’m sorry….. I told you I have been watching too much Deadwood). I do have to say that I hate taking one handed pics. Because I’ve had to take so many for listing in my shop, I’ve really grown to dislike the one handed shot. Alot of people are asking at this moment….
“But Stephieface, do you not have a Mister? He could take pics for you.”
And I would reply….
“Oh surely I do, but he takes terrible pictures like this-”
“-and I surely cannot rely on his photographer skills.” Like, for instance…. which child is that? I know who it is for I know the secret, but what child is this that we must keep his identity secret? Have I indeed given birth to pastey unearthly glowing children who can light the world with their luminesence at night? Is that indeed a ghostly visitor in the upper left hand corner like I have seen so often when Sylvia Browne guest hosts the Montel Williams show? So, as you can see…. I must take the pictures myself!
But the gloves are cute… aren’t they?
Bwaaaaaaa…… My Baby Is Getting Older!… and Newer ETAs
Tomorrow is TJ’s 2nd birthday….. doesn’t he look ready for it?
Though I am having some difficulty explaining to Sam that just because he’s first out of the car, and first in the door, and first to get butt wipings, and the first out the bath- does not necessarily mean that he gets the first birthday. Birthdays don’t work like that. Sam is three and this doesn’t gaurantee that he’ll accept that.
In other news, yesterday I received a package from Mama Grouch. I had entered in a contest she ran on her blog and took third place! Yesterday I received the prize… a sock creature!
Thank you Mamma Grouch and The Creep!!! (In case you can’t tell, the sock creature is the one in the middle)
A housewife with yarn is running a contest over at her blog, check it out and enter!
I have to start thinking of gifts for the youngster’s birthday tomorrow….. any bets that I’ll actually get something made by tomorrow?
ETA: On the salt note, we gave up on the substitute after one meal each. We have instead cut regular table salt with a buttload of Onion Powder and Garlic Powder. We may end up having stinky breath… but we will have cut our salt intake! I hope I meet some hippies soon…….
“Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhheyyyy What’s hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhappening Hhhhhhhhhhhhhhippies?”
One can only hope my breath can contend with the patchouli (ha!) ((this is funny because I dress like a hippie most of the time))
ETAA: I recently listed a new sock doll in my Etsy store, here she is….. (she also counts as knitting content gosh darnit because the Halloweiner gloves were already snatched from my grasp and replaced with a crisp $10 bill before I had time to take pics- seriously…. it happened during the Steeler game)
This chicky took about 15 hours of work, most of that time being devoted to her hair and wardrobe. See her wee knitted cardigan… that’s knitting content by gosh. I made all of her clothes by hand. What was the most time consuming of the two time consuming activities was her hair. First I crocheted a long chain and sewed that chain to her head, then I used the secured chain to anchor each hair strand…. a la latch hook….. because I wanted her hair to be partable and not traditional bald underneath homemade doll hair.
On a whim a while ago I ordered a skein (or three) of KnitPicks new Shamrock yarns. They lured me in with the Irishness of it all…. the yarn names, the colors………. which is ironic because the yarn is 100% Peruvian wool. On one hand the yarn is softer than their other 100% peruvian wool counterpart the Wool Of The Andes, on the other hand it may be just me but the yarn seems to unwind itself from its plying as I go to knit with it. Does that make sense? It knits up awesomely…. I’m loving the Kelley colorway…. I just have this subconcious urge to twist the yarn as I knit with it just to make sure.
Just Trying To Figure Things Out
So lately I’ve been trying to figure out the state of the world. First we lose Pluto as a Solar Sytem Planet, and now we lose Steve Iriwn famous Crocodile Hunter. If suddenly all chocolate becomes foul tasting, I will cry out “Shenanigans!” and arm myself with a broomstick.
Here in the Stephieface household we have decided as a group that we need to eat better. So I decided baby steps. Aside from serving smaller portions of food on smaller plates (so that it looks more filling) I also thought we would try a salt substitute. So, cheapskate that I am, when faced with two different kinds at my grocery store…. “No-Salt” for $6.99 for a big honking shaker….. and Morton’s “Salt Substitute” for a 3 oz shaker for $1.79…. I of course chose the Morton’s. First off, you have to know that I use alot of salt, and by “alot” I mean I think I’m pickling food as I eat it deep down in my gut, so really a change is needed. So I tried it out on my first meal……. try food….shake shake….. try food again….shake….. try again…..shake….try again…..and Eeeew. I have found that the Substitute doesn’t taste like salt at all….. its actually quite bitter rather than salty. In fact it doesn’t taste salty period….. some substitute.
I refused to buy Pop (or soda for you southeners) this go round and decided to buy tea instead…. we’ll see how that works out. I also bought spring water gallons, the city did work on the water last week and ever since (at least to me) it looks like it has a browny tinge. Mr Stephieface looked and said it was fine, but on the other hand ….ahem….. “stomach upsets” have been plauging the family since the construction. I’ve already called the landlord. I just guess I should chalk this up as reason #43 why we should move.
I still have not finished the Halloweiner gloves…. I know! I am so lame.
This upcoming Saturday is TJ’s birthday… he turns the big 2! Next thing you know he’ll be going to college.
I don’t know why my kids spoon- its kinda weird.
My Short Stature…… Finally Explained!
I have finally discovered why it is I am short as hell….. I am one of Santa’s elves! Yes! Finally! Knowing is half the battle.
Why, you ask, am I one of Santa’s elves?
Because I apparently have some scary freaky talent as a toy maker, and as I said I’m short as hell (I long to reach the top shelf), that’s why. Proof!
See that cat? That cat is made from socks…. oh yes… elfin qaulity footwear! So far the things with the most views in least days are my sock critters. Can I share a secret? As a knitter I cry a little inside when I cut up socks….. it’s true. In any case though, it appears that socks are my medium……Ommmmmmmm……..
Thanks for the comments on my bags- seriously. Believe it or not I floundered for days with what to price my bags when I first opened the shop. I wanted to stay affordable for my college student Live Action Roleplaying friends, but I also wanted to make yarn money. I don’t know that I could ask $25 (cause the ladies with the $25+ bags have a surplus of bags and I have to work to keep one or two in there) I’m being iffy right now with $17. I might have to hire you Zeeppo…. can I pay you in popcorn?
In knitting news I’m still chugging away at the Halloweiner armwarmers. I made a huge mistake last night. Not in the knitting mind you, my huge mistake was that I tried to knit while watching Phantom of the Opera starring Gerard Butler. Terrible idea.
I can’t have knitting and Gerard in the same room- its impossible. No matter how many times I watch that movie, the same question keeps going through my mind…. what the hell is wrong with that Christine chick?! Its Gerard freaking Butler! The hottest Phantom….. ever! I can totally overlook the mask, and the living in the basement thing…. the man can sing AND decorate AND has that whole sultry musician thing going on….. though there is part near the end where he looks less like Gerard Butler and more like Billy Zane…. but still, Gerard and knitting cannot occupy the same space. Now if Gerard had been Raoul and someone totally less hot like the original Phantom, Michael Crawford, had been the Phantom then I totally could have been rooting for Raoul…
Sorry, got distracted there for a moment by Gerard…. let me get my head straight…..
Severina, the rain you sent got here last night- that was fast! And thankies! I couldn’t stand the grey spitters any more.
Hmmmmmmm…………………………….
Is it me, or does grey spitters sound like a breed of dog or rude old people?
Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again……Um…. Can We Schedule For Some Other Time, Next Tuesday Perhaps?
The last few days or so have been overcast and damp, and while I haven’t needed use of my air conditioner (which is a bonus) I simply dislike noncommitted weather. Either Shine the Sun, or Storm my friend, middling weather is such an annoyance.
I’ve been toiling away at the Halloweiner gloves for my shop, and decided that both gloves will be different colors. I don’t know why, this is what the knitting muse tells me.
I made another bag for my shop, the Dots Ice Cream Bag:
I chose the Dots name because I couldn’t get the ice cream out of my head while making it, and it seems to stick better than the ” I Got My Period” bag which was bag name v1. I had to up my prices a bit (and if you recall I was thinking the prices were too low in the first place) , but I may end up doing the wishy washy thing and dropping them again. I think what I need is a tiny angry German midget who’s sole job is to sit with switch (southern smacking switch, not light switch) in hand and smack me with it screaming a heavily accented “Stoppen Sie es. Es ist fein!” (which is German for “Stop it. It is fine!”) every time I feel the need to go back and drop the price to dirt cheap amounts. Do you think that $15 is too much for a handmade bag? Opinions?
So, a neighborhood update…. The Man and Girl Neighbor have been silent for some time (at least since Sunday) and I started to wonder what was going to boil over over there. In talking with the lady across the street yesterday, I discover that after the shenanigans from this past weekend, that the police came and arrested the Man neighbor who now sits in jail.
I have many feelings about a situation like this, first and foremost is that the Girl Neighbor is dumb for sticking with him. Yes I said it, and I’ll say this….. if a man can get angry enough to strike you, he can get angry enough to kill you- and murder is not something this neighborhood (or any neighborhood) needs.
I was once in a relationship with a man who, although he had not slapped/punched/smacked me, he did push me on the ground and sit on top of me to hold me down. He was a good foot taller than me and easily twice my weight. He had done things in the past like throw my only pair of shoes off the balcony into the woods, kick the dog agaimst the wall, and flush my keys down the toilet- but it was the angry holding me down and purposely squishing the air out of my lungs so that I couldn’t breathe or scream that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The very next weekend when he was out of town, I moved out with my sister’s help (my sister who drove all the way from N. VA to NC after my out of the blue phone call) and left him. I was not going to be that girl, I was not going to wait for him to love me to death. No thanks, I rather enjoy this whole living thing.
Was leaving him scary? Hell yes! Was I terrified? Hell yes! But in the end, even though I had barely any cash and no place to live…. it was a billion times better than having cash, a place to live, and having to live my life with a man who might hurt me because he was angry. Fear can be a wonderful motivator or terrible deterrent, it all lies in which fear you fear most… the fear of the unknown or the fear for your life. I believe one of my favorite quotes from the movie Serenity fits perfectly,
“To hell with this. I’m gonna live!”
