lost my knitting mojo?

The big push to get the purple cardi finished has robbed me of my knitting mojo. I haven't picked up the needles since last Friday. I even brought my knitting camping over the weekend but never took it out of the bag (except to show it to a very disinterested 'tween. I am so uncool).
There are 2 baby showers coming up, babies due in August but showers at the end of June. I have, of course, enough yarn to clothe both kids many times over, but need something to get me going...suggestions?
Anyone else ever have this blah feeling?

P.S. I am slooowly burning those Guilty Pleasure CDs. Your patience is appreciated :)

Ta dah!

A momentous day.
The purple cardi is done! And the birthday Jaywalkers are ready too (top right).
Blocking away on the dining room table (I won't need it again till Thanksgiving so no rush)
Of course, I am still adding to the stash. I was in Bryan, Texas this week, at The Hook and Needle ( lovely wee store) and got some "Flat Feet." Basically a piece of knitted fabric that you knit from, without ever rolling into a ball. Colours are great, and I'm planning to go to Goodwill to pick up an old knitted wool sweater next time I need some sock yarn ;)

Guilty Pleasures: the final cut

OK - so had to make some cuts as there isn't a music CD (that I could find) that holds 71 songs. So may I present:

Guilty Pleasures - Rock:

You Shook Me All Night Long/AC/DC
You Give Love A Bad Name/Bon Jovi
Total Eclipse of The Heart/Bonnie Tyler
Money for Nothing/Dire Straits
Sweet Child O' Mine/Guns N' Roses
Me and Bobby McGee/Janis Joplin
Don't Stop Believin'/Journey
Rock n Roll all nite/KISS
Paradise by the Dashboard Light/Meat Loaf
Come As You Are/Nirvana
Crazy Train/Ozzy Osbourne
We Are the Champions/Queen
Black Betty/Ram Jam
I Wanna Be Sedated/The Ramones
The Galway Girl /Steve Earle
Come Sail Away/Styx
Whiskey In The Jar/Thin Lizzy
Pride (In The Name Of Love)/U2
Jump/Van Halen
Brown Eyed Girl/Van Morrison

and

Guilty Pleasures - Pop:
All Out Of Love/Air Supply
I Write The Songs/Barry Manilow
Uptown Girl/Billy Joel
Top of the World/Carpenters
If You Leave Me Now/Chicago
Brick House Commodores
You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)/Dead Or Alive
I Want To Know What Love Is/Foreigner
MMMBop/Hanson
Like A Virgin/Madonna
Beat It/Michael Jackson
The Other Woman/Ray Parker Junior
Can't Fight This Feeling/REO Speedwagon
Never Gonna Give You Up/Rick Astley
Don't You (Forget About Me)/Simple Minds
We Built This City/Starship
When Will I See You Again/The Three Degrees
Africa/Toto
The Hustle/Van McCoy

Like I said - let me know if you'd like a copy!

Fancy clothes

The Tuvstarr is blocking...The purple cardi!: Cast off the second sleeve last night while watching Roman Holiday. Had a girls night in - my friend (a Bombay native) stayed over, and helped me finally try on the sari DH got for me in India last year:
I could easily get used to dressing this fancy...

The long list of Guilty pleasure songs

Here they are:
If I didn't include your suggestion there's probably a real good, irrational reason*. Like I slowdanced with this one guy to Phil Collins...nope even 20+ years later that's still off the list.

GUILTY PLEASURE SING-ALONGS
Crank it up and let ‘er rip

Take On Me
a-Ha

You Shook Me All Night Long
AC/DC

I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
Aerosmith

All Out Of Love
Air Supply

All I Really Want
Alanis Morissette

Sugar Sugar
The Archies

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet
Bachman-Turner Overdrive

I Write The Songs
Barry Manilow

Stayin' Alive
Bee Gees

Piece of My Heart
Big Brother & the Holding Company

Lovely Day
Bill Withers

Uptown Girl
Billy Joel

You Give Love A Bad Name
Bon Jovi

Livin' On A Prayer
Bon Jovi

Total Eclipse of The Heart
Bonnie Tyler

Top of the World
Carpenters

If You Leave Me Now
Chicago

Tubthumping
Chumbawamba

Brick House
Commodores

(I Just) Died in Your Arms
Cutting Crew

You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)
Dead Or Alive

Come On Eileen
Dexys Midnight Runners

Money for Nothing
Dire Straits

I Touch Myself
Divinyls

Return To Innocence
Enigma

A Little Respect
Erasure

I Want to Know What Love Is
Foreigner

Radar Love
Golden Earring

Sweet Child O' Mine
Guns N' Roses

Hollaback Girl
Gwen Stefani

What Is Love
Haddaway

MMMBop
Hanson

You Sexy Thing
Hot Chocolate

I Want You Back
The Jackson 5


Margaritaville
Jimmy Buffett

Jack & Diane
John Mellencamp

Ring Of Fire
Johnny Cash

Don't Stop Believin'
Journey

Carry On Wayward Son
Kansas

Rock 'n Roll All Nite (Live)
Kiss

You Make Me Feel Like Dancing
Leo Sayer

Like A Virgin
Madonna

Paradise By the Dashboard Light
Meat Loaf
Beat It
Michael Jackson

Love Hurts
Nazareth

Come As You Are
Nirvana

Crazy Train
Ozzy Osbourne

I'm So Excited
The Pointer Sisters

U Got The Look
Prince

Purple Rain
Prince And The Revolution

We Are the Champions
Queen

Black Betty
Ram Jam

I Wanna Be Sedated
The Ramones

The Other Woman
Ray Parker Junior

Can't Fight This Feeling
REO Speedwagon

Never Gonna Give You Up
Rick Astley

Don't You (Forget About Me)
Simple Minds

Mandinka
Sinéad O'Connor

Baby Got Back
Sir Mix-A-Lot

We Built This City
Starship

Come Sail Away
Styx

Where's Me Jumper
Sultans Of Ping

Eye Of The Tiger
Survivor

Tell It To My Heart
Taylor Dayne

Whiskey In The Jar
Thin Lizzy

Africa
Toto

Pride (In The Name Of Love)
U2

The Hustle (Original Mix)
Van McCoy

Brown Eyed Girl
Van Morrison

Y.M.C.A.
Village People

Low Rider
War

Here I Go Again
Whitesnake

OK so some serious cuts must be made. The average CD holds 80 min of music (not 5 hours like this playlist...) Plus - how can I have Thin Lizzy and The Carpenters on one mix?
What to do - come up with sub-genres?
Suggestions please - and the offer to get you a CD of the final mix still stands. I've been having fun listening to these - all but a few already on my itunes list ;)




*I was just as irrational when it came to picking DS's name: so many otherwise decent names were out because of past experiences with people of the suggested name...

Becoming a theme...

Could be worse.

According to a story on NPR today, 14 people a day die on this service.

A DAY

I got a seat again today :)

I should have known

I should have known...
Last Friday I wrote a long post about all the lovely timefilling activities I've devised to occupy myself for the 60min or so I spend daily on the train.

Of course, most of these involve a sitting position to be comfortable.
Last Friday I got on the train, sat into a seat, had momentary conniption at the sight of a nearby used plaster (band-aid) but got over it, drug out jaywalkers and started listening to my book. Fifteen happy minutes later I realized we hadn't moved, and everyone around me was hoofing it back to the platform...when the next train arrived all 550 of us (or thereabouts) had to cram into one carriage and I had to stand, balancing with my legs astride my unreasonably big carrying case and clutching the tiny piece of wall mounted hand rail that was within reach (hanging off the roof-mounted one would have required feet leaving the floor).

Usually the Metro glides in and out of the stations, and after many years of this I've predicted my balancing act. Sometimes (like guess when?) rookie drivers stutter the train in and out of stations. Usually not a big deal except I was stood right in front of a seated man, and had to exert woefully underused glute and quad muscles to avoid landing in his lap as we lurched along.
Standing on the Metro also involves very close proximity to total strangers, though it could be worse.

I got a seat today though.

D'oh! Foiled again...

Knitting daily poetry contest results are out!

I didn't win :( but someone else called Denise won a prize so it's not all bad.

Here's my entry - which I didn't post at the time in case I won - Hah!

Jaywalkers and Tuvstarr

I am so pleased my my new commuting arrangement: having a dedicated train project makes me feel much better about the hours I spend there...

Here are K's Jaywalkers - still on track to have them done for her birthday. Took a pic of them laying on my clapotis/blanket, and no matter how I adjust the colours either the blanket or the socks look madly psychedelic...
Other things I have done on the train to amuse myself include:
- talking to people (hah!)
- reading work related materials (awoke snuggled up to grim-faced fed muttering about how she was getting too old for this shit)
- reading books from my stash (had to draw the line when the 7lb Happy Potters were released)
- reading the free papers (Metro/Examiner/Onion/City Paper)
- audiobooks/podcasts
- crosswords (I <3 Timothy E. Parker)
- Kakuro (haven't yet managed to finish a Sudoko...)
- people watching

Now there's a new distraction Bit o lit - the premier issue came out May 5th and included an excerpt of the book Sold by Patricia McCormick, the story of a young Asian girl sold into sex slavery. It's an overused word - but I found it riveting.

In other knitting news: my Tuvstarr vest is nearly done:
The Bling-Bling yarn leaves you all a-shimmer, but I think it'll be very cute when finished. I don't want to put buttons on (to avoid that grandpa look) and instead am going to just have an i-cord string to tie. I'll need to add a single crochet edging - look at the messy way I've knit the edges:
The bumpy side shows where I carried the silver and gold flecked yarns to alternate rows. Ah well.

I'm still collecting my guilty pleasure songs - which Bon Jovi song to pick? Which Air Supply? Decisions, decisions...

Guilty Pleasure Sing-alongs?

DH is preparing to go on a very long car-ride soon and to keep him awake I'm making a mix CD (how very 80s) of those songs you crank up and sing along to when driving...if you're by yourself. The idea came to me as I belted out the chorus to REO Speedwagon's "I can't fight this feeling anymore" in traffic yesterday. You know the kind of song - generally it came out more than half your life ago, people born around the time the song was released wonder how on earth you know the words, it's melodramatic in a way that today's music doesn't dare to be...
This is where I need your help!

I'm going to include the REO Speed wagon song, Journey's 'Don't stop believin'', something byAir Supply... what else?

Please if you read this leave a song title in the comments section - if you do I'll promise to send you a copy of the finished product OK. To start the ball rolling I'm tagging Knitty McKnitknit, Twiceknit, Flibbertygibbet, Ginger Lucy, Pheelya, A Pile of Laundry, Thyme to Sew and heck why not Crazy Aunt Purl.

My Sheep and Wool haul

I went along to the Sheep n Wool festival last Saturday, as did every other fiber enthusiast within a 500 mile radius (and some from waaay further afield by the sounds of things). It's just such a treat, quite the nicest thing I've done for myself all year. It was held at the Howard County Fairgrounds, only about 17 miles from home, and was set to open at 9am. I left home a little before 8, thinking I could amuse myself (by knitting maybe) before the gates opened. To my surprise, when I got there (missing all the traffic yay) the parking lot (i.e. surrounding field) was about 1/4 full, and the gates were open, and the majority of the stalls were already doing a steady trade.

Second stall in I met Helene and Karen from Sip N Knit, and we talked about how we were going to be good and pace ourselves...then another friend came and joined them, her shopping bag already happily bulging.

Later on I met up with Lyn and Knitty McKnitknit and we walked around fondling yarn, cooing at alpacas, marveling at the skills of Textillian and others who fared well in the various competitions, and wondering if the small of roasting lamb flesh had anything to do with the apparent consternation of some of the sheep...

And my haul: I got these, from "The Fibre company", 4 skeins of about 100 yards each of...something...in my rush to avail of these ($2.50 each) I managed to snag 2 skeins with no label, and the other two have labels but no yarn name. It's an alpaca/ingeo/merino/silk mix. Anybody know what it is??

Then, in a fit of madness, I bought 400 yards of boucle (mohair/wool/nylon)- I could not resist - look at these colours, all natural dyes, from, appropriately enough a company called Natural Dyed Yarns, who do not seem to have a website...
I say madness, becuase I have 400 yds of undyed boucle from last years S&W, which has been wound into a ball but lain untouched for about 9 months...maybe the two will come together some day in something wonderful. Maybe?
After I left Lyn & Debbi to go home (to bring DS to a birthday party) and was heading for the gate, I was called, drawn I was, to Tess' Designer Yarn, where I bought the pattern for the traveling cable top, and 2 skeins of microfibre ribbon. Soooo silky and pretty. I think I might make this into a waistcoat/vest rather than a shell as pictures...will see. And finally - couldn't make it all the way out without getting some sock yarn.
Lovely lovely soft hopefully non-itchy sock yarn. I felt kind of bad for the bloke running the stall though - his wife and daughter were keeping up a constant stream of moaning at the old guy.

But I left with a song in my heart, ten skeins of yarn in my bag, a sack of kettle korn in my hot little hand. Ahhhh life is good.

small progress

This new job is all well and good but is seriously cutting into blogging time. However, because I can't work from home (but rarely) anymore, I get some good knitting done on the Metro:

These socks are for my friend K for her birthday (around Memorial Day). Knit solely on the Metro. Kind of gives me a sense of achievement...hey you take it where you can get it right...

A few weeks back I went into All About Yarn (car just swung that way as I drove down Rt 108 - funny that) and bought something or other - and was told I had just earned my second $25 bonus. Which means I have now spent $500 there. And it's not like that's the only place I buy yarn or anything. Most friends would steer me to an intervention after such a confession. But I know you all are nodding along (right?)

So here's what I bought with my $25 (and the rest): An Elsebeth Lavold pattern book, and some Berroco Bling Bling yarn, to make this waistcoat/vest thingy. The yarn was on sale, but still expensive, and there wasn't enough of a single colour for the pattern so I mixed the gold and the silver. I've completed the back and one half of one front. This'll be a gift for Mum for when we visit in June (yay another Ireland trip!). I sent off the Mother's Day gifts to Mum and my MIL two weeks ago (they both waited maybe half an hour before opening, apparently).

And yes, am still plugging away on purple cardi.

Got the summer Interweave Knits in the mail last night yay. A lot of mad colourdey stuff I'd probably never have the patience to make. pretty though. Love my pattern pr0n ;)

Had to miss Sip n Knit this week, DH and I have seen each other for 5 min all week what with him traveling and me traveling, so someone had to watch the little guy. So I haven't made any arrangements to meet up for the Sheep & Wool, but will probably locate them by the squeals/catfights (heh).

Till tomorrow!

Denise xxx