Cratfalicous!

I love Susie. I would even go so far to say that if I weren't married - I'd marry Susie - if she would have me...and if I were gay...and she was gay...and I lived in New York. You get what I mean.

Dear Susie said I wasn't lazy; she said I was craftalicious! I was so moved I opened up a Word document, typed craftalicious and put it in my dictionary. That's the kind of thing that can really move a person to adequateness! I can't be quite as lazy as I would like to be now that I am craftalicious.

I've made a couple more of the caps and I think I have the pattern where I want it so I will start putting them in the shop when I have five of them. I don't know why that's the magic number but I'm not going to fight it. I made four that don't make the cut, but they can still be worn. The three that are done are the pumpkin, orange and aubergine ones. Pics to follow when I'm not feeling so lazy (yeah, well, I'm trying.)

Didn't make it out to HB yesterday but I am thinking today will be the day. In fact, it will be within the next hour or two. I have another reason for going, I need some netting to make pot scrubbers. I have a ton of dish clothes and spa cloths I made for the sale that didn't make it to the store and I want to add pot scrubbers to them before I add them. So, I have the perfect cover..I mean..reason to go. But I have to say I am still hesitant about getting the yarn even though buying one skein of it is the same as buying 3 skeins of the yarn I make prayer shawls with and I would get almost the same amount. It really makes no sense.

I am off to my Facebook Cafe World. One of my cousins got me started and I have to make sure the food hasn't spoiled on the stove and all my guests are well taken care of!!

I'll let you know if I get the yarn...but I have a feeling you already know.

Breakdown Dead Ahead

I got up this morning and I look like I've been in a fight. I remember waking up and feeling quite normal. I made a phone call to clarify something with Lois and when I hung up the phone, my eye felt funny. I walked into the bathroom and my right eye is practically swollen shut and I have no idea why. Something must have gotten into my eye and I must have rubbed it right in while I was talking on the phone and not even thinking about it. Mr. Honey wanted to know if it was painful or inhibiting my sight. No to both counts and I think it's getting better because I'm beginning to feel it pulse like the blood is flowing again - bummer. Do you see this pile of prayer shawls? I've made twelve total and this Sunday we are going to have a prayer shawl blessing at church. And the prayer shawl tear continues but I've added more of the hats, too. So, how is your New Year's going? I've had a busy beginning and no one to blame but myself. Fourteen days into the new year and I want to be lazier than a son of a gun.

I already have a plateful of stuff to get done (3 websites, job description, organizing the craft cafe) and I love having stuff to do - but it is direct opposition to my desire to be lazy. My 'free' day was yesterday - the day I could eat whatever I wanted and I had a sugar rush. Which means I am having sugar withdrawal today which just encourages the laziness - and with the eye and all - it just seems a day made to take it easy.


Anyone have any tips on overcoming laziness? I suppose there's no real cure except to do the non-lazy thing which is to just do something other than be lazy. I'm gonna get right on that. I know people like that. Folks who have that get up and go and that fire in the belly drive and working all out on everything. I watch them as they go by and I admire them so much. And I want to be just like them...someday. I guess.

Right now. I have to work out and I am contemplating a trip to Hobby Lobby...wait..wait don't jump all over me about going to my yarn place. Remember I said there were exceptions to the not buying yarn rule and one of the exceptions is if a certain yarn goes on sale. And it's on sale. Besides, I said I was contemplating. It may never happen. I'm lazy, remember?

The Chicago Top Ten for the Week of Nov. 9, 2009

Let's do some housekeeping:

1. You can enter the giveaway contest to win a copy of Knit Fix and other goodies here.

2. I hope you are all reading the tips that have been entered. There are some really good ones there, heck, they're all good. And they will all be the subject of their very own posts giving credit to the person who submitted them. I'm learning some new things every day from you guys (which happens to be a very good tip submitted by a reader!)

3, You won't believe what I just did! I had a meeting with my new pastor this afternoon and of course, I mentioned my knitting. She said she knew someone who had a stash of yarn from a yarn shop that closed down and they were giving it away and she wanted to know if I might be interested in having some of it.

I said no.

Before you beat me to a pulp.

Then I said to myself: "Girl, you crazy, you better get some of that."
I said: "This is yarn from a yarn shop?'
"Yes."
"Oh yes, we want some of that. We can use that to make prayer shawls and use them for members and the like."

You can put your knitting sticks down now. You won't need to beat me with them. I was thinking about the huge stash of yarn I already have and I was also thinking my mother also told me to say know when folks offered stuff.

But that was all overridden by it's yarn from a yarn store and if it's the yarn store I think it is - they don't sale very much acrylic yarn (which I love) but this could be a source of some natural fibers and that would be a great source of higher end items that can be made for church members.

In any case, that old training was left behind!

But that's not why you're here. You're here to see who and what I've chosen for this week's list. I am eager for you to see them so without further ado (what's an ado, anyway?) here, in no particular order, is this week's top ten:

Gray Mohawk Hat by LeafLee
Come on, now. You gotta admit it's way cool. I like the fact that it even exists.

Fall and Grapes by promirta
This is a lovely and unusual piece. The entire shop is like that. Another newbie who makes the list their first time out.

Evening Stroll by Elizabeth Wren
This isn't the first time Elizabeth has made our Top Ten and with work like this lovely shawl, it won't be the last. It's just beautiful and it looks snugly.

Crochet Picture Frame by double stitch
Now this is something I've never seen before and when you look at it you say, 'well, of course!' I love creativity and resourcefulness.

Abstract Gold Earrings by allisonmooney
These earrings are almost 3 inches so they have substance. I was thinking I shouldn't wear the big earrings because I have no neck and then I saw a reporter on the t and v and she has hair even shorter than mine and she was wearing these big a earrings and she doesn't have a neck, either. That's why these earrings are on my list.

I want to thank the new followers that I've picked up and remind all of you that I will give a shout to all of (especially if you have a blog or store or both to promote. In the meantime, I enjoy you all very much.

Now, back to the show...

Red beret for kids by fril
I've never seen a leaf pattern done in this way. Great job? I'm so gonna make my own version! Thanks for the inspiration,

Holographic Bling Pendant by FireGrog
Gimme,gimme,gimme,gimme

Blue Dreams Quilt by kateemarie
Wow! Lovely simply lovely. I don't have this kind of patience!

Rebecca's Growing Garden Pendant by westbyron
The piece is very sweet and the description is touching. Read it for yourself and fall in love with it.

Spiral scarf by trucksandpearls
This scarf is quite lovely and the care that went into it shows up very nicely. If I didn't knit, I'd be looking to buy it.

There you have it - isn't an unusual but exciting list? Christmas is getting closer, do that holiday shopping and you can have bragging rights over your friends. Look locally, look at handmade and see if that doesn't supply your every gift giving need!


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I Feel Love - This Week's Chicago Top Ten

I want to give a shout out to this week's Chicago Top Ten - ten items from artisans who do their work from the Chicagoland area. I must admit there are more places out there to look for artisans than I know about so if you know someone in the Chicagoland area and you want me to take a look at their shop to perhaps get some free pub, then let me know and I will go looking for them - or if you are the artisan and you want me to take a look, send me the name of the shop!

Here, in no particular order, are the shops and the link takes you to the item I fell in love with this week:

Drop leaf earrings from diffraction
Lotus blossom earrings from chinacherie
Katana Print Pillow from distinctiveinstincts
Hand Dyed Yarn from RainyDayArt
Shopping tote from Earthcadet
Nesting Bird Print from cindytomczykart
Moving announcement from DailySip
Records from LiamParkison
Blue Wave from ArtsDesireGlass
Neapolitan Marshmallows from Vintage Confections

There's food and vintage and all kinds of goodies on this week's list. Have a look at them (even buy them if you want) but your visit to the artist's shop lets them know their work is being looked at and perhaps appreciated and that's something an artist wants (sales are good, too!) but an artist really wants to know they are living out loud and they can't really know that until they know someone is listening and that's what a click or a view in their shop gives them.

So, share the love!

Don't Fight It

I was looking for a pic of me and the hubby and though I have tons, they are all in glued in the wedding album.
Today is our 13th wedding anniversary. Every year I ask him if he wants me to renew his contract for the coming year and I ask him for a two year extension. So I'm locked in until 2022 while he's only committed until 2010.

He didn't know what he wanted for his anniversary gift. Usually he'll want a book but he couldn't think of one he wanted this time around. I know he's been working really hard at his retirement job and around his mom's condo getting it ready to sell. Someone is giving me a free coupon for a massage so I am going to give it to him. I'll make the appointment and drive him to wherever it is and wait while he gets his body tended to. I'll even let him have a female masseuse.

What did I get? I got a shopping trip to Hobby Lobby and I got 21 skeins of yarn, 5 sets of double pointed needles and sequins in black, green, blue and pastels. I tried to buy more. Seriously. This was a different Hobby Lobby where I'd never been. It is a huge store, but the yarn department wasn't very big. There wasn't much in the way of clearance yarns so I went with the tried and true. I really did my best to clear out the store, but it just wasn't to be.

I still got a boat load of my favorite yarn. Didn't need the yarn but now I am so set. He didn't even flinch when he saw the total and he even carried the bag to the car.

We then went off to a restaurant where we'd never been called Pete Miller's - we got a $100 off certificate that cost us $50. We brought home enough food for a meal tomorrow - best kind of meal is one you can have twice and pay for once!

So how is married life? I love it. I've been engaged a couple of times and this was the only time I made it down the aisle. He was worth the frogs that came before him.

Sigh!

You see that blue thing in the middle of the second picture? That is an actual City of Chicago Department of Streets and Sanitation Snow Truck. While we saw a lot of them last year, this is probably the second time I've seen them this winter - the winter that is already the snowiest winter of record.

Our mayor decided we didn't need to have our streets plowed as much as last year. He said it was a way to save money. Saving money is a good thing. And what was the reason to save this particular money? So the city could have services when it needed them. You know, like snow removal.

Snow did in Mayor Bilandic a couple of decades back when he didn't send the snow plows out after a storm. Yep, we shoveled his happy little a$$ right out with the rest of the flakes. Mayor Daley (who had been anointed mayor for life) overstepped a little bit. The snow combined with the pot craters (none of them are small enough to be merely holes) has gotten Chicagoans just a little cranky. It seems the mayor has revisited that whole 'you all don't need the street cleaned just because it snowed' edict.

We canceled our StitchCraft meeting today because the snow looked a lot worse this morning. I was going to bring the blanket that I'm working on. The one that didn't want to be made (see 'The Road to Hell') I'm going to be about a skein short of what I need so yesterday I took a trip to Hobby Lobby to get the needed skein of 'I Love This Yarn' in grape.

I do love that yarn. So much so that I will travel to the closest Hobby Lobby which is 25 miles away. I went at rush hour - that wasn't so bad. They've moved into a more spacious store and the yarn department is way bigger and it was my first visit there and I was quite thrilled until I got to where the grape yarn should have been...

and there was none.

Zip. Zero. Nada. Rien.

Not even a spare skein sticking the back. Not even a misplaced one in the bins on either side. Who the hell buys out all the grape yarn except me? I stared at the hole where the yarn should have been. And the hole stared back.

The very nice lady checked all the bins and then asked me to wait while she went to check the stocking list to see when it would come in. She came back to me with the list in her hand and pointed to 'I Love This Yarn' 'Grape' and then the letters T.O. "Do you know what that means?" she asked.
"Terrell Owens has all the grape yarn?"
"Temporarily out. There's none to be had. Can't even order it. We ordered last week and didn't get it either."
Sigh.
"Why don't you call us next Thursday to see if it came in?"
I thanked her for her kindness and did not add: Because next Thursday this blanket would have been totally reworked and I won't need that yarn; that's why.

I obviously could not travel 25 miles for nothing. So I did get some yummy bulky weight yarns that will make beautiful shawls and throws - yes, I know - but it's bulky weight. I need that.

I Didn't Buy Any Yarn

I am in the middle of dejunking my office because it will become a combination office and yarn room. I cleared away all the rubble, then I put everything loose into boxes and next I will move those boxes plus whatever furniture I can out of the room so the floor will be cleared for the hubby-bubby to come in with our steam cleaner and clean the carpet. The we will move in yet another computer stand and figure out where the boxes of yarn will go. I started this yesterday and yesterday evening I announced I was going to Joann.

"Why?" The H-B asked rather suspiciously.
Now, he has never asked why. He's never said anything. He has accepted the fact that his existence is now yarn based in the same way a cat lover's spouse must accept hair balls.
"Not to buy yarn. I just bought yarn. I am going because I want to make my own stitch markers." (This is the truth) "I'm not even going to look at yarn." (If God were Zeus, I would be struck by a lightening bolt.)
"Un-huh."
So, off to Joann I went. Got the stuff to make the stitch markers, picked up The Prayer Shawl Ministry II and Knit With Debbie Macomber - Back On Blossom Street book of Prayer Shawls. But not one ball of yarn. Oh, I looked and Lion Brand was on sale for 25% off, but I wasn't at the Super Store; I was at the regular store and they were practically wiped out. I did see some Paton's Melody that was tempting, but I have nothing to knit with it. (Though I could have looked in the patterns books and found something.) I felt it more important to be a good wife than an impulsive buyer. In truth, our house is a wreck and it is the yarn that has tipped the balance so I must reign it in. So no yarn.

I did make my stitch markers which will fit needles up to size 13. I will buy more goods to make them for size 13 and up. I don't often knit with 13 and up needles, but just in case.

I don't know when this became an obsession. But it could be worse - mebbe - I suppose it could be drugs or booze or young boys. Yeah, better that it's knitting.