Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

Sandra Backlund's designs are pretty entertaining on the runway.



But I love them even more as animated gifs!

Competitive Bleaters

This morning I woke up when Wes started jabbing me in the arm. I knew immediately what was happening. The goats were bleating in the yard below our window. He must have thought I was talking in my sleep or something. For a few moments we lay in bed worried that the bleating would disturb the neighbors. But soon we couldn't hear goats because the other kids, our children, were running around screaming. They quieted finally too. Because our older son decided to squeeze in a little cello practice! Please people, we're trying to sleep here.

The new goats are much noisier than the other two. I never heard Obi-Wan make a sound and Obie would just bleat once or twice when I came outside. I pretended she was saying hello when I know she was really saying, "Please don't take my food." As she and Obi-Wan were being taken away yesterday they were frantically grabbing up every leaf they could reach on the way out to the van. As I clear the stripped branches the goat (both sets) run alongside me to make sure I'm not taking any of the good stuff. Don't worry, folks, there's enough to go around.

And now your daily moment of goat zen.

Life in the Goat Lane

Things are moving along pretty quickly.


Before Goats


After One Day



After Three Days

Wait a minute. Who are you?



Meet Spot and Speck. Obie and Obi-Wan got swapped out this afternoon. Obi-Wan's foot was bothering her. Her owners thought it would be better to replace them with some goats that were less pregnant. These two are boys so there's no danger of anyone dropping a kid while I'm at work.

As far as the progress goes, the goats eats leaves and small shoots. Then I come in with my loppers and cut off all the stripped branches and dead wood. There is a huge pile along the side of the house already. I don't know if I'm helping them clear the yard or they are just motivating me to do it myself.

How Long Before Someone Makes a Mashup of These Two?

Kittens on a Treadmill (not embeddable anymore)

Monica

Pattern: Monica by Christine Schwender
Yarn: Tahki Cotton Classic
Needles: US6(?) and 3
Notes: I knit this in the round instead of in pieces. I just subtracted out the four side seams. The three rows/rounds of garter at the bottom of the tank and the ruffle will not keep the curl in check. In the picture the piece is pretty aggressively steam-blocked. In real life this will curl a lot. I bound off the top and knit the straps on US3 needles. I had read that the straps were too stretchy and I didn't like the look of that whole area knit on the 6s. That is if I did use 6s. I think I may have accidentally knit this on 5s. It might be too small for the recipient. I have no idea though. I've only met her once and I didn't take her measurements.

More on the Girls

The goats are being rented from The Goat Lady. Last year I tried, unsuccessfully, to rent goats for the same job. All the places I contacted said it was too small a job and they couldn't do it. This year I heard about The Goat Lady from Linda K. and got in touch with her. My yard isn't fully fenced so the goats are on tethers that are staked in the ground. I can move them around as they clear. The goats will be here for as long as I need. It will probably be two weeks. It is likely they are both pregnant. I was told to call if anyone gives birth and they would bring a replacement goat. Like I wouldn't call if one of them gives birth!

Goat is the New Black

Today two goats finally arrived to eat my insanely, dangerously overgrown blackberry jungle yard.

Eat up, girls.




Goats appear to be taking over Seattle.

Yesterday's NYT had a this picture from the Getty Center.

There you have it. Goats are now "in."

Lunchbox Swap

When I joined Oh Fransson's Lunchbox Swap I had grandiose visions of beautifully sewn, thoughtfully prepared items for my swap pattern. My first attempt came up short. I was kind of trying to wing things and it was my first time working with iron-on vinyl. I set it aside. Then I got crazy busy. Then I missed the deadline. Then I got really upset with myself and freaked out. I totally psyched myself out. So today I set aside a few hours and forced myself to finish my gift. I started from scratch and didn't use the vinyl. I pretty much used the Vintage Pillowcase Lunchbag Tutorial. I changed a few things for no good reason. It's done and I'm reasonably happy with it. I also got my buddy a blue bento set and some chocolate as an apology for being so late. I was ridiculously tense while working on this. I realized I was holding my breath a lot and my heart was racing. Crazy. Who knew a lunchbag could give me such severe performance anxiety? I'll be very happy when I get it in the mail tomorrow.

Tailored Scallops

Pattern: Tailored Scallops by Pam Allen from Lace Style
Yarn: My handspun Cormo/Silk purchased at OFFF in '05 and spun for the Tour de Fleece '06
Needles: US9 and 10 Denises
Notes: This is a really simple, straightforward pattern. I think I dragged my heels on it because I hated the needles. I can't say why I didn't change needles. I guess I was worried it would change my gauge. There's something not quite right with the top of the sleeve cap. It comes out a little peaked which I see in other versions I've seen knit. It's very soft and comfortable. I'll need to find a good closure for it.

Camouflage Knitting

Are you familiar with the concept of camouflage knitting? Try this. The next time your at a knitting group look around and see how many people's clothing match their knitting. It happens all the time. I see this at spinning events too.

I once had a customer in the shop who was struggling with her yarn selection. "I don't know," she told me, "I like these colors but I don't know if I'd ever wear them."
"You're wearing them now."

I had to laugh today when I looked down at my knitting and realized it was the precise same shade of mauve as my shirt.



This is Monica in Cotton Classic. I am making two for Wes's cousin's daughters in LA. We stayed with them (family of four) in a one bedroom condo! They deserve a nice gift.

Tailored Scallops is almost dry on the blocking board.



I know this photo makes it look like it's also the exact same shade of mauve. It isn't. It's a slightly browner shade of mauve. I'm flexible that way.

My Life is So Glamorous

Here I am hitting the red carpet.

Thursdays are for What the Hell is This?

I just realized I hadn't shared all of my Moscow fashion week picks. I thought I covered it in these two posts.


Is there actually a garment here? I see scraps of fabric over leggings.


This one has a sort of I Dream of Jeanie meets Gwen Stefani meets Fergie kind of vibe.


Nothing says fashion like animals skulls hanging from your belt.

I Am a Wrecking Machine

Last night while finishing up the last front of my Tailored Scallops I broke another Denise cord. That's two on just this project. In fact, something has broken on my Denise needles on nearly every project I've ever used them on. I'm just a brute I guess.

Another Big Seattle News Day

Raccoon causes power outage in Ballard

I particularly enjoyed the line, "they could tell by the smell that an animal was involved."

I'm Not Cut Out for a Trendsetting Lifestyle

So tired. So very tired.
Our trip to LA started on Saturday morning. Wes's parents agreed to come to our house and watch the boys for the weekend. We headed to the airport nice and early. Virgin America just started flying from Seattle to LAX. I highly recommend it. They fly from a different terminal than United, who I usually fly. Not only don't you have to ride the annoying little train but there was no line at security. No line. None at all. All the on-board amenities have been much hyped. There's a little touchscreen in the seatback in front of you where you can watch satellite tv (when it's working) or pay to watch movies or "premium" tv. There are music selections. You can create your own playlist but the choices weren't that great. There were some lame games, some music videos. The one feature I liked was the Google map that shows you where the plane is and how many miles are left in the flight.

In LA we stayed with Wes's cousin, his wife and two daughters in a one bedroom apartment in Little Tokyo. There was a big birthday celebration for Wes and another filmmaker, Michael Kang. We had a big dinner in Korea Town then karaoke back in Little Tokyo. It was, just by chance, across the street from where we were staying.

Wes's film screened at the Director's Guild of America. It's a very nice venue. There was a sold out audience and a very responsive audience.

A good college friend of ours and his boyfriend made us a wonderful dinner on Sunday night. Then we got up super early on Monday morning and flew back. I got home with about 10 minutes to shower and get ready for work.

I guess I forgot to set my alarm because my older son came bursting into my room and screamed at me, "IT'S 8:34!!!! GET! UP!!!" It's a lovely way to greet the day, I can assure you.

I forgot to charge my camera battery so the only photos I took are on my phone and Wes has the cord for that at work.

In knitting news, I have a few inches done on my Merino Lace socks and I finished all the pieces to my Tailored Scallops. I just need to assemble it and knit the collar.

One funny story from the trip: I was knitting at the restaurant as people were showing up to the dinner. One woman was asking me about my knitting and I was telling her that I made a baby sweater for Mike and his girlfriend. Another guy standing nearby heard just the tail end of the conversation, looked at my socks and thinking they were the start of a baby sweater said, "Are you trying to finish it up?" Later our friend, and knitter, Kristina Wong (you may remember the article about her [.pdf] in Vogue Knitting last year), came and I was telling her the story. When I said, "Are you just trying to finish it up?" Wes said, "At that gauge? Are you kidding??"

There is so much more I'm forgetting but I'm really tired and have a lot of catching up to do.

Off to LA

Wes and I are going to LA for his birthday weekend and a screening of his film. This will be my third trip to Southern California in '08. Before this year I had been there once. Weird, right?

Knit Your Cares Away

I started a Hemlock Ring Blanket for a shop model. It's a really fun knit. The beginning is a small bit of lace--nothing too complicated and then you feather and fan until the cows come home. I chose to start with a circular cast on using magic loop. I get really frustrated trying to keep four dpns from slipping or twisting when doing a circular start, especially on big needles (US10) like this. I quickly switched to a 16" circular. As I knit I noticed my blanket looked like an angry skull face.



It also strongly resembles the trash heap from Fraggle Rock.



It looked a little nicer once I got it on a 32" circular.