CraftyME: SOX! SOX !SOX!

Hello all. I know I have been a bit of a blog slacker. Lately I've been feeling very WoeIsME. Life is trying to drive me to the CrazyME side. I keep saying I'm gonna come blog about it but I haven't really felt like it. I have however been doing what I do best, being CraftyME. All I do is knit, look at knitting online, and listen to people talking about knitting.

 One of the things that I have been focused on knitting is SOX. I know it's crazy. I know I said why would anyone want to knit sox. But I'm sucked in, thanks OCS aka OnlineCrackSpot aka Ravelry. So I completed my first pair back in March. My cutie almost matchy rainbow sox.  I f'luv em. The second one is a tidbit smaller than the first. This is because I was so anxious to finish and my big ol size 10 foot wasn't helping the cause. But it's all  good.

So after I finished those I decided I wanted to learn how to magic loop 2 @ a time. Make em both at the same time. That way they will match and be the same size.  So  I had some affordable neutral sock yarn and ordered my book 2@a time socks and jumped on in.  Again my big feet are not my friends. I so wanted to be done about halfway through the foot. A month or so later, i.e. this past weekend I finally finished. They are comfy and cozy.

Midway through I was getting kind of bored and decided I wanted to try something a little more challenging. So I cast on Spring Forward from Knitty. My first chart pattern, yay. Until I realized I separated the stitches wrong on the needles. So I had to frog 2 days worth of knitting. But the good news is I frogged and re-knit and got as far as I was when I frogged all in the same evening.  Now I am to the heel but I have a bit of a conundrum.  I don't think that this yarn is working for this pattern. You cant really see the pattern because of the color. And I'm sad because I really love the color and I really love the pattern. But I'm thinking I may have to frog it and try again with a different, maybe plain colored yarn. Le Sigh I think I'll just let it hang out under my nightstand for awhile, I can't bring myself to frog it just yet.

Now that I've cured my second sock syndrome by learning 2 @ a time, I've got to cure the big feet blues. I'm thinking 2 @ a time toe-up sox are next on the agenda.  This way I can get the boring foot part done first and then start the fun/challenge of the leg. Since I can't be WorkME right now because our computer systems are down, I've been practicing Judy's Magic Cast on this morning. Before the day is out I will be casting on some toe-ups. I'm just not sure which ones.  WannaME needs to get busy searching for patterns.

RememberME: MemoryMonday....80's food

This week's edition of MM was inspired by a convo with the BFF yesterday.

So we are sitting there watching tv and a Mountain Dew commercial came on. And we get to talking about how addicting and yuck it is. Then we were both like Dude they have Mello Yello at Target!!!!! OMG I loved Mello Yello. Mello Yello was the truth. The Best Soda EVAH!!!

Then a commercial comes on that had someone eating a smore's . So then it's like Dude remember the microwavable Smore's.

Of course that segues into....Wait for it.....

MICROMAGIC!!! Remember they had shakes and hamburgers and fries. Oh how I begged my Gram to please let me buy those. And please could I use the microwave? Cause I don't know about y'all but my Gram wouldn't let anyone use the microwave. She didn't want anyone to break it. Lol

RememberME: Memory Mondays.....the 80s

  Let's start with a belated Happy Mother's Day to all for whom this is applicable. Hope you all felt loved and appreciated. Now let's get down to business. Today is Memory Monday. And I don't want it to be always about remembering a lost loved one. Sometimes you just wanna think about the good ol' days. So from time to time RememberME is gonna take a stroll down memory lane. Join me, won't you?
   So a friend recently posted on FB that her daughter's homework assignment was to ask a parent what they liked and disliked about the eighties. Dude I may have been made in '77 but I'm a child of the 80's. And since it was such a wonderful time to be a kid, there is no way I could list EVERYthing I loved about them.  So here's a couple to get us started. Back in my day.......

   Back in my day, I loved......JELLIES!  Best shoes evah. Second only to Skippies. In the summer, jellies were an indication of how good a play day it was. There was nothing like taking off your jellies and having dirt stencils on your feet in the pattern of the shoe. They did have a down side though. Getting a rock stuck in the heel made for a very uncomfortable walk home.

   Back in my day, I loved......SLOUCHY TWO COLOR SOCKS! You know the ones I'm talking about. The super extra thick ones that made you look like you had cankles for days. Oh yeah. You could get really creative with it and mix em up. Yo, how did our feet not spontaneously combust?

     Back in my day, I hated.... TINTED LENSES! Ok so, what I begged my dad to let me get purple tinted lenses. He didn't have to let me get em. Or the pink ones neither. And seriously did they have to make the frames so big?

    Back in my day, I hated.... JERI CURLS! So did not want. But that was one I had no choice in. Like every woman in my family got it., my mom, my gram, me, everyone. WHYYYYYY?!? Not a good look at all. With or without the plastic cap. 

 Put it all together and what do you get? Jellies, slouch socks, tinted lenses, jeri curls?...........

A Hot mess! Enjoy the smiles
 ME

TouristyME: Maryland Sheep & Wool Fesitival 2010

Once again OnlineCrackSpot has ME into something I would have never known about it. Now I'm sure my non crafty friends are thinking the same thing I was...Seriously a sheep and wool festival?!? You're gonna walk around a farm looking at sheep all day? Yeah there will be a couple of vendors selling food and handspun/ handdyed yarns. But, Really?!?

 I waffled back and forth all week on whether I should go, especially with the chance of a rainy week. Then 2 things happened to make me change my mind. First the forecast changed from showers all week to a super sunny 87 degrees. Second, a couple of my fav podcasters (see InterestME: Podcasts for links) were organizing a meet & greet. Now I don't know if you read my last posts (which you should by the way;) ) but I have been listening to podcasts pretty much nonstop lately. So there was really no good reason to miss a chance to let my inner FanGirl miss an opportunity to meet KIPing it Real's Jackie and The Knitmore Girls themselves, Jasmin & Gigi.
 So I lurked the boards on Rav and found that a LYS Rosie's Yarn Cellar was running a bus down to Maryland. TouristyME was gonna venture out on her own on another touristy adventure. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

 This little farm turned out to be a hugemongus amount of acreage. And that couple of vendors...try over 250! Oh the food! Oh the yarn!  Oh the heat! Did I mention the 87 degrees & super sunniness? Poor TouristyME was so busy trying to shuffle water bottles, maps, note-taking, and sweat wiping, that I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked. But I did get to meet Jackie, Jasmin and Gigi.

I even managed to control my Fangirl-ness long enough to give Jasmin my hastily thrown together card, asking her to pleasepleaseplease check out this here little blog. I told her about my entry on them inspiring me to blog and maybe one day trying to podcast. Get this Jasmin said if I do it, to send her a promo and she'd play it on their show. How cool is that?

 Both WannaME and CraftyME were in heaven. There were so many different types and colors of yarn that I didn't really know where to begin. But trust, WannaME found a way to lose her mind and tried to put us in the poor house. I went with vendors whose names I've heard mentioned before, such as Tess' Designer Yarns, Miss Babs and Creatively Dyed Yarn.  Look at all the pretty:

I'm happy to report that I was able to calm WannaME down a bit. I just knew early in the day that I was gonna leave MDSW with a drop spindle & some roving and call myself a new spinner.

Yeah after sitting in on a mass spinning demo.... 

...eh not so much. Maybe next year.
   All in all, it was a wonderful Touristy experience. I met some awesome people, learned some new stuff, and ate some great food. It was just the perfect starter course for the fiber festival world.  Next stop Stitches East 2010, in my hometown of Hartford CT! I'm saving up now.....

CraftyME: Hey Ma Look what I made!!

   I woke up this sweltering morning in kind of a CraftyME mood. Now you would think I woulda picked up some knitting after spending all day Saturday surrounded by yarny goodness. Nah. I knew I was going to knit group later. I'm still stuck on this idea of sewing and quilting. But since WannaME lost her everlovin mind at MDSW yesterday and spent the craft budget for the next xyz# months, who knows when I'll get to start quilting.
 But I was pretty smart on Friday after my doctor's appointment.  I went down to Spool fabric store to do some browsing on my day in the city. I ohh'd and ahh'd over all the pretty fabric choices. I found yet another type of quilt to be obsessed over. Kaffe Fassett inspired quilts such as this one created by Sunnysidey.

Thankfully I was overwhelmed with all the variety and I didn't want to tap into the $$ I set aside for Saturday. So I just bought a couple of KF fat quarters to make a bag that WannaME's been eyeballing.

 So this morning I dove in. The Buttercup bag pattern looked simple enough. HA HA HA yeah right. Somewhere along the line I forgot that I can barely sew in a straight line. At least my cutting straightened up a little.  Still I trudged through. I was finishing this damn thing. TODAY. 3 hrs or so later. Ta dah!!!! My first full on sewing FO.

Go ME. Go ME. Kaffe Fassett quilts I'm coming for you......

SleepyME: MDSW....ahh

Ok this is gonna be short & sweet. A teaser of sorts. I am home, fed, & showered after spending my first day @ Maryland sheep & wool festival. Wow is all I can say at the moment. TouristyME will have a complete rundown tomorrow. Just wanted to pop my SleepyME self over here to say .... Yeah it was a good day.
Good night
    ME

PS: it's not an indication of age, ME going to bed @ 9pm on a Sat nite. Lol