Friends bearing yarn

Christie landed for a brief stint in the 831 and brought me some sweet yarn from South Africa! Lookie!

Pigeon Parts

I don't have any finished items to post so here's a pigeon I'm working on. The recipient isn't old enough yet to surf the net unassisted, so I think the secret is safe. She's the child of a former grad student who gained infamy for drooling over pigeon porn during his lunch breaks.

(When I say pigeon porn, please be aware I mean innocent pictures of pigeons doing G rated pigeon things like standing, scratching the ground, and whatever else pigeons do. Yeah, I know the first time I heard about this habit I was a tad mortified by the stretch of my imagination before the phenomenon was clearly explained. The dude just likes pigeons.)

Fixed!

I got my truck back today, so at least it wasn't the worst day of my life.

Cheese

Here's a random photo of a cheese I bought at Staff of Life just because it had Wallace and Gromit on it. I am so susceptible. It tasted like a cross between blue cheese and cheddar.

Swatch!!!

Here's another Baby Surprise Jacket I'm working on. Oh wait, you don't know about the first one either. It's a surprise...

Cool Buttons

Lunchbox Received!

I've been having a crummy few days lately, as encapsulated last night when I told my brother , "I wish my life didn't smell like ass." Well, there is one cool thing right now, this lunchbag I received from the Oh Fransson! lunchbox swap. adogsbreakfast (Renee) made it for me! Here it is in use, holding :

2 apples
one bottle of grape gatorade G2
one cheese stick (colby jack "disco cheese")
several veggie patch brand Chick'n nuggets (that means they're made of soy)

Swatch Watch

For the non-fibre artistes among you, a gauge swatch is a small piece of crochet or knitting that you make before the large object to see what size the finished object will be. I try my best to swatch, but it doesn't always happen. The next few weeks are sure to be full of swatches, or my cheated close-up view of a finished object "swatch" to conceal the true nature of a surprise gift. This is the second type of "swatch" with its chosen buttons soon to be attached.

Socks + Soaker

Baby Socks

Yesterday my white truck was rear-ended by another white truck. Everybody was fine and I think the damage was minimal. My bumper is now oriented about 60 degrees or so south of where it should be, but the new angle provided a nice opportunity to photograph these socks.
Lemons---> Lemonade

Wheel of Fortune

Here's a picture for all of you out there dying to know what my apartment looks like. Here's the neatest, tidiest, corner of all (not sarcasm) with the yarn swift engaged, drying grape gatsby.
Click here to go to the flickr album and read the notes to see what all the junk is.

Grape Gatsby

This skein of the same superwash wool was dyed with grape Kool Aid. I dyed the entire thing once with 3 packets, then overdyed half with 2 more packets. It's difficult to see the subtle color variations on this scale, but I'm optimistic about getting neat-o patterns once worked up. I think it will go into my first Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise jacket.

Note on the color name: this yarn was dubbed "grape gatsby" in honor of the Houk Lab renovations at UCLA. The designers had some cool paint chips lined up, with "melted butter" and "gray smoke" also applied to the walls.

Wool a'Lorange

This is one skein of Nashua Creative Hnadknits Superwash dyed with orange and lemonade Kool Aid. I love these colors and it is knitting up like a dream. The added bonus of a work in progress that smells like Tang is just icing on the orange cupcake.

Black Cherry Soaker

This soaker is knit from superwash wool and then dyed in black cherry Kool Aid. Soaker is another name for a wool diaper cover to be used with cloth diapers. The name is kind of gross and misleading as the whole idea is that the wool will be water/liquid resistant. I'm going to have to experiment with lanolinizing a few of these before I send them out.

On a personal note, I have never changed a diaper. This shocks some people, but I don't know many babies, and none well enough to fish through their frass. I'd like to keep it that way, so don't be driving to my house with a poopy baby so I can have a growth experience. OK? Good.

Psychedelic Butt Sweater

This is my first foray into the field of baby diaper covers (here modeled ironically by a roll of toilet paper...). I've never been quite sure if this colorway of Malabrigo was hideous or awesome, but it is captivating for me because of that question. The stripes came out pretty cool on this item.