Twistedtexan's Weblog

OK, y’all.  This is how I will be planning my vacations from now on.  Check it!!

KnitMap

Pretty freaking sweet, eh??  😀

Last night we had a little gecko running amok in our house.  I was far from amused.  Yes, I am perfectly aware that they’re harmless.  And small.  However… it is a reptile.  And I don’t do reptiles.  At all.

Hehehehehe… I made the lady squeal like a little girl!

And you want to know what the worst part of having a gecko in the house is?  It’s knowing that your cat is as big a wuss as you are.

Zipper, however, was totally clueless.  Love the little fellow to death, but he is useless.

Sigh.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the hubbster and I managed to usher the intruder towards the back door with a broom, and I sort of swooshed him out of the house.  All is right with the world.  😉

Over the weekend, the hubbster and I went to Austin to visit friends.  We had the opportunity to spoil our little God-daughter rotten (she is into playing dress up in a big way, and we were more than happy to oblige).  And I got to introduce her mom to the Wonderful World of Knitting.  (Or at least the Wonderful World of  Casting On and Knit Stitch.  😉 )  Here are a few photos from the weekend.  I apologize for the poor photo quality — as these were taken with one of our camera phones.  (Dummy me forgot to pack her camera.  D’oh!)  

 Trinity as Cinderella

Cutie pie Minnie Mouse

“Knitting with Aunt K”

Relaxing after her big shopping spree at the Disney Store with “Uncle C and Aunt K”

I love when I receive surprise packages in the mail!  Have a gander at what J sent me from Aussie-land.  Is it not the coolest t-shirt ever?  🙂

 Say no more, mon amor! 

 Seriously.. the picture just does it for me.  It’s beyond hilarious.

Damn the man!  Save the Empire!

Last night Twisted Yarns hosted The Yarn Harlot at Carl Wunsche Senior High.  As expected, she was every bit as entertaining in person as she is in her books.  Perhaps even more so??  I attended the event with Denise, my best friend’s mom.  (You know, the best friend nutjob that lives in Oz??)  I won’t bore you with all the small details, but will leave you with some photos instead.  Enjoy.  🙂

A very dark photo of The Yarn Harlot.  Sorry, y’all… I was near the back of the room and this was the best my little camera could do.

Denise waiting in line to have books signed for J.

Fuzzy photo of Denise and me waiting to have our books signed.  (Plus other random knitters.  LOOK!  Knitting while standing!  AMAZING!)

The YH signing one of the books for J.  Both have a rather unique inscription inside… But I’m keeping that a secret.  😉

Mark Twain even paid the Harlot a visit!

My sock and I say hello while I am getting my books signed.

And my favorite photo of the evening.  The Harlot saw my sock, stands up, thrusts her sock into my hand, takes mine and sings “SWAPSIES!!”.  So we swapped socks for a little photo op.  DUDE!  I swapped socks with the Yarn Harlot!  😀

Pretty dull weekend at the Twisted house.  We took it pretty easy, as the Hubbster is still recovering from his bout with vertigo.  

I did manage to complete the sock I have been working on from the Ann Budd book and cast on for the second.  I have officially dubbed them “By the Power of Greyskull” socks.  (Hee!  I love Hot Fuzz!)  I’m halfway there to a complete pair!  Yay! 🙂 

I love socks!

Next Tuesday I will be going to Twisted Yarns to see The Yarn Harlot!  That alone is reason enough to be totally geeked out.  But it gets better!  A month later Crazy Aunt Purl will be at Yarntopia!  I have yet to make the trek to Yarntopia (it’s way out in Katy, which is a bit of a drive for me) but I am definitely going to make a special trip out there on October 13.  WOOT!  🙂

Not much has been going on in Twistedland.  I’ve been steadily making progress on my very first cuff-down sock.  I’ve been using the guide from Ann Budd’s Getting Started Knitting Socks and it has been going exceedingly well.  I am seriously loving this book.  Y’all have to remember that I am not the world’s greatest knitter.  It often takes me way longer to learn a new technique than your average knitter.  So for me to be able to complete a sock is just amazing.  I feel like I can conquer the world!  (Or at the very least, be able to conquer knitting a sweater).  🙂

I hope to post photos of the completed sock this weekend.

[hola!]

I’m at a place called vertigoooooooooooooooo!

Poor Hubbster has been stricken with a major case of vertigo: dizziness, nausea, the whole nine.  It was bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor’s office.  After three (!!!) hours, and several inches later on my sock, we finally saw a doctor.  But I’ll save that rant for a different day (grumble, grumble, expletive, expletive).

What was very surprising to me about this trip is that this doctor wasn’t quick to dump a mountain of pharmaceuticals down the Hubbster’s throat.  I can honestly say that I can’t remember the last time I have gone to the doctor and not come home without at least 3 prescriptions.  Instead of souping him up with narcotics, she actually showed us a couple of maneuvers to help rectify the vertigo and offered a natural remedy to help alleviate the nausea (ginger root).  I have to say, I was completely shocked that we were leaving with zero prescriptions to fill.  The whole experience was so different to me, that I felt the need to share it with you guys.

And now I leave you with something pretty to look at:

This is one of my Aussieland photos: Daintree estuary tour

I just found out today that knit picks now offers a set of options needles in birch. All I have so say is that I hope that Santa Claus sees what a good girl I have been this year and delivers a set of harmony wood needles under my tree. 

Buddy says: “Hey, Ma, get that camera outta my face before I unravel your sock.  Oh yeah, I said it.  I will undo each and every stitch.  Try me.”

Zipper says: “Hey!  Look at me!  I’m King of the Kitty Tower!  Is it naptime yet?  Better yet, is it FOOD TIME??”

This weekend was a regular yarn extravaganza! On Saturday the Hubbster and I took a small detour to Spring which could only mean… TWISTED YARNS!  I have a serious love affair with the stuff they carry at TY.

For instance, I bought this yarn:

for the spiral boot sock pattern from Interweave Knits.  It is Mama Llama merino/tencel yarn in the sea colorway.  I had originally purchased some hot pink Cherry Tree Hill yarn for that pattern, but once I saw the blue Mama Llama yarn, I knew that they would be perfect for those socks!

I also purchased this:

for my sister-in-law’s clapotis.  It is Schaefer Laurel in the Frida Kahlo colorway.  I love how the Schaefer yarn people created a series of yarns that are named after various “memorable women”.   They even attach a little bio with each skein of yarn.  So cool!  I absolutely cannot wait to cast on with this yarn, as I think it is gonna be a gorgeous clappy!

And get a load of this yarn, boys and girls. 

This particular yarn is for my bestest friend, and it is the reason why I will forever remain her bestest friend in the entire world.  You see, she is currently obsessed with the combination of purple and lime green.  And like yours truly, she is also obsessed with making socks.  So, you can see why I’m the most awesomely awesome friend in the world.  Purple + lime green + sock yarn = one very happy best bud.  Yarn particulars are as follows Madeline Tosh merino sock yarn in plum tree.

And since it was a long weekend, I had time to knit up a birthday gift for my friend Rosario. I made 2 washcloths from Bernat Cottontots in the sweet cream colorway. One washcloth was a simple seed stitch, and the other was a quilted diamonds washcloth.  I placed the washcloths on a plate that I picked up at Target, added a couple of bars of soap from The Body Shop and VOILA!  A really great (and easy) birthday gift! 

Happy Birthday, Rosario!

And as if that wasn’t enough, I also had some time to dye some yarn.  I had some yarn that came from an enormous Scottish wool sweater that J and I frogged while I was on holiday in Oz.  I think we ended up with about 8 skeins of this yarn, and we decided that it would be perfect to test our hand at dyeing with Kool-aid.  I think we only paid $4 bucks for the entire sweater, so if we ‘effed up some yarn, then it wouldn’t be a big loss.  So here’s a quick before and after of my dye attempt in Oz:

before                       after (sorry for the weird “after” photo.  I’m too lazy to fix it.)

I decided that I liked it enough to dye the remaining yarn the same colors.  Now I have  4 skeins of yarn that I have dubbed “Aussie sunrise”.  🙂

Believe it or not, I also had time to complete ANOTHER knitting project over the weekend… but I can’t tell you about it.  It’s gonna be a surprise!