on the needles

Friday, August 11, 2006

Ooops - I did it again.....

Okay - I'm fessing up. When I linked to Maggie's shop in the last post I saw this. And now he's on his way to my house. You know what that means right? I mean, I can't just have TWO of Maggie's animals. In my obsession prone mind two does not make a pair, two makes the beginning of a collection. :) How cute will they be in my craft room? I'm imagining a whole shelf full, hanging on the wall, over the sofa.....or maybe I'll need two shelves.....

Actually the craft room is a bit crowded these days. And my LYS had Rowan Yorkshire Tweed at 50% off! I'm not even going to pretend I thought for one minute of resisting that sale. Yorkshire Tweed is in my top three favorite yarns. There is simply no such thing as too much Yorkshire Tweed. :)

Friday, August 04, 2006

My New Blog Mascot!

Why have a blog mascot? Because you can. :)

Meet my new mascot, Caroline:



Caroline (who is named after Lady Caroline Lamb - of course!) was made especially for me by Maggie Smith. Maggie is a talented children's book author and illustrator who has recently begun creating handmade toys as well. I collect children's book art so when I saw Maggie's Etsy shop* I was immediately intrigued. I bought a small pink bunny for my daughter who has a passion for rabbits. Then I saw Maggie's sheep and I knew I had to have one! She worked with me to choose the vintage printed fabric and brown velvet to compliment the colors of my blog. I think she did a great job. (Thanks Maggie!) At the same time, Maggie made another lamb as a prize for one lucky member over at my other internet home, Knit the Classics. The design of that lamb was inspired by our reading last month of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India.

My Lady Caroline wears a demure little lace collar with a small bell attached. So far she is not as naughty as her namesake - but only time will tell!

* Do NOT click on the link to Maggie's shop unless you have super human resistance to cuteness. I won't be held responsible! :)

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Starts With Random Stuff I Find Interesting. Ends Up With Butt Jokes. Don't Say I Didn't Warn You....

The new Rowan Magazine preview is out. It's a bit hard to see - even when you enlarge the pictures - because it looks like they are leaning towards a fairly dark palette in this issue. But there do seem to be a few interesting looking Fair Isle sweaters so I will be checking this issue out when it hits the stores.

I saw this over a Whip Up. It's an article about exploring color by using Great Painters as a guide/inspiration. The examples they show are from Van Gogh and David. I thought this would be a great exercise for learning how to put together a color palette for a project - or it would also be a great way to jolt yourself out of a creative slump.

Scout is doing another meme. This one is to show off (read: fess up to) your UFO's. I'm not too sure I will be doing this meme. I learned my lesson about letting other people see my fibery dark side when I flashed my stash. There was an equal amount of gasping in admiration and gasping in horror on that occasion so now I'm gun shy! (And it has nothing to do with the fact that my stash continues to overflow the closet like some kind of yarny monster. I swear I haven't bought much lately, only a few skeins of sock yarn. WHY is there no warning label on sock yarn?? It's the crack of the knitting world. You always need "Just one more skein. It's such a little skein. And really pretty cheap too. I'll stop after this one skein I promise...." )

And lastly - I won a contest over at Peeve's blog! Poor gal was viciously attacked by a rare breed of wasp called "The Butt-Biter". She tried to see the funny side of the situation and invited readers to finish up her top ten list of "Reasons Why It Is Bad To Be Bitten On Your Butt By A Wasp". My wise-crack (oh har har! Don't tell me I'm the only one who sees a pun in that!) involving "uneven butt swelling" and "a thong bikini" made her laugh her butt off so I won. :) Yay! Finally - being a wise-ass has paid off. ;)

Okay - I swear I'll stop with the butt jokes after this last one. You know I've been knitting lots of Log Cabin blankets lately. It has taken super human self-control for me NOT to start a knitting update post with: "My Log Cabin knitting is still moving right along. Despite a general slow down, I've still managed to squeeze out a log or two everyday for the past week!" followed by much Beavis and Butt-head type snickering and more obvious innuendo.

Phew! I'm glad I got that out of my system. It sure takes a load off!

(Heehee heehee - I said "load".)

Oh - and I also recently advised Karen to have her husband pee all over their yard. But that a whole other story. :)