Uncle Leona's Day Camp

Excuses? Nah. Just lazy.

It was pointed out to me at guild the other night that I hadn't blogged in a while. A long while. Like almost a month.

Well, I'm back.

Not that there is much going on. Work is work. The kids are full of contagion, and it's flu shot season, so things are pretty busy there. I am, however, now on an 8-day vacation, where I have planned nothing but fun, fun, fun!! In no specific order, I will:

1. Get my teeth cleaned.
2. Get my fibroid ultrasounded. Internally. Yeah, baby.
3. Visit the gynecologist.
4. Get a mammogram, or as I like to call it, my action for the year.
5. Vote.
6. Visit my brother and the gang in Toledo to celebrate his birthday.

Yep. Fun and frolic. At least the road trip will be entertaining. And cheap--gas is now down to $1.97 around here!

I have managed to do a few things around here that are a bit more interesting. I harvested my tomatillo crop a few weeks ago:

It wound up making 11 pints of yummy salsa verde. I'll be consuming it all winter. Next year, I think I'm going to plant a few more tomatillo plants; for what it's worth, my back yard must be the second coming of Guadalajara.

I did make a few more pieces of jewelry while watching football games this month. The latest will be for my sister-in-law. First, some background: she runs the spirit shop for the kids' high school and peddles a lot of Fighting Green Bear sportswear. So, to match the attire...

It's done in a tubular peyote stitch, for those beadheads out there. I made one for me in orange and brown. Gee, I wonder why?

Oh, yeah. PUT BRADY QUINN IN!!

I feel better now.

As for the knitting, the Japanese Vest is essentially done:

I think I'm going to add a couple of closures--it just doesn't want to stay put across the boobage. I also need to reblock the shoulders. There's an elf quality to them that doesn't quite work with the far east motif. Another vest will be made in the not-so-distant future:

This will wind up being Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Vest. I took a class from her this past week and got pretty damn inspired to work with variegated yarn. For 6 hours, she showed us all sorts of tips, tricks, and techniques to make variegated yarn work on a project. Here's my lovely little swatch:

The stitch pattern at the top is what really got me stoked. It will wind up being trim on a simple grey Paton's wool pullover. Lucy assured me that the small skein of Manos that I have will take care of the trim. We'll see about that. I may be ripping a square out of Afghanistash if things don't quite work out.

On the needles right now is a cardigan. I'm in sleeve purgatory right now, but here's a look at the front:

This is the same pattern I used a year ago for the ArtFibers cardigan. Very simple, but with fancy yarn, very classy. This yarn is some stuff I got on sale from Ram Wools a year or so ago. It's a wool/angora blend with a little gold sparkle in it. Should be lovely for the holidays and beyond. I just hope the bunny part doesn't make me sneeze. I've been on so much Claritin for my mold allergy this month that I can't tell if the yarn will be a problem or not. Stay tuned.

As a continuing contribution to my guild's Toyalong (which seems to be only joined by me), I whipped up another little felted creature. At first, it seemed as a muppet in need of rhinoplasty:

After felting, however, we have this guy:

I used KnitPicks wool for the body, which didn't felt as thick as I would have liked. My recommendation is to stick with Cascade 220, which is what the pattern suggested (we had no petal pink in town, though, so I thought I'd give KnitPicks a try).

He's still awfully cute. Drunk-looking, but cute.

New hobbies are dangerous

I have officially lost it when it comes to beading. I now know where every shop is in the tri-county area, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and who I think is friendly and who isn't. I think I now have enough beads to cover New Jersey, and I have honed my already pretty decent skills with needlenose pliers.

Here's the latest attempts at putting Tiffany's out of business:

I saw these charms at one of the stores and couldn't pass them up. The earrings were simple, but cute.

I have no clue what I'll wear this with. I have nothing. Maybe I could knit something. I know how to knit.

All of those beads came on one string at one of the LBS trunk shows this weekend. I love the colors! I do know what to wear it with, but it isn't cold enough for the turtleneck or the sweater yet. I should be stylin' next month.

And then, the hobbies merge. All of these bracelets are knitted with the beads. The top two were Bead Soup or Stew kits from earthfaire, the bottom two were my own concoctions. The kits are so easy, and SO addictive! They are perfect first projects for anyone wanting to try to add beads to their knitting. And if you are so inclined, you can show off your college pride (or in my case, med school pride) by getting a little creative:

A little scarlet and gray love, as it were. And yes, I made the buckeyes. Love me that Sculpey clay.

Oh, yeah, and I'm still knitting. The latest project is yet another from Folk Vests (my third, for those of you keeping score at home).

It is designed to replicate the indigo woven fabric common in Japan. The carries are meant to show a little to further resemble that fabric. I'm using Jamieson Shetland from Halcyon Yarn--so far, so good. I'm hoping that the wool fluffs a bit during blocking; it's a tad stiff. The colors are spot on, though.

After this is done, who knows what's next? Maybe something to match the seahorse.