Last weekend I whipped up a bed for the cats, so they will quit taking over our bed. I used Wendy’s pattern and Lion Brand Landscapes yarn. I read somewhere that it was great for felting. Well, I don’t know that it felted so much as shrunk up and got fuzzy, which is close, but not quite the same. I washed it twice, and that’s the best I could do. So it’s a little floppier than I had hoped, and the colors aren’t as pretty as they were in the ball, they got kind of muddy and the bright yellow flecks stand out more than I would like. Gigi is quite happy about the whole thing, but Dune isn’t too sure yet.

It was fun and easy and quick, so I may try again with some different yarn. You can’t have too many cat beds, can you?

I’m grumpy this morning. The sweet cat-the one that thinks he’s the cutest cat in the world-barfed on the bed this morning. On the clean sheets that I just changed last night. When the day starts off like that I get a scowl on my face that takes a long time to go away. Picking daffodils and hyacinths in the yard for my desk and stopping at the taco shop for huevos rancheros have helped a little. But there is also my approaching birthday on the 31st. Sure, presents are great, and chocolate cake is always a treat, but I do not like the number of this birthday and I don’t know how it happened. A few things might make it more bearable. Like a birthday sock, filled with Leonidas chocolates or maybe some iTunes gift cards or something from my Amazon wishlist. Yarn would be good, or a gift certificate to my favorite LYS. Okay, I’m feeling a little better now.

*Disclaimer: The above birthday gift list is provided for the sole convenience of family and close friends who may otherwise be stumped while gift shopping.

I’ve figured out something about the way I work, and the way I learn. When I decide to try something new, I go to the library and check out every book I can find on the subject. If possible, I might take a class or have someone show me how to do it. I learned to cook first by taking every cooking class offered in high school. Then I read cookbooks. I followed recipes carefully, step-by-step. For awhile I was crazy about soup. I whipped up all sorts of soup recipes, curried cream of chicken, fresh pea soup, chicken stock from scratch, creamy cilantro soup. And then I started to see how soups work. If you want a creamy soup, cook some sort of starch with the stock and then puree it, put the vegetables that take longer to cook in the soup first and add the others later. I learned how some seasonings work together and how much of a particular herb to use. It wasn’t until I followed recipe after recipe and really understood how the ingrediants worked together and what techniques were used that I felt brave enough to discard the cookbooks and do my own thing.

I went through the same process with bookbinding, reading every book I could find on the subject and following the instructions exactly as written. I took a class, saw the tools and watched what other people did. Then I made books in all sorts of different dimensions using different materials and combining techniques.

I think I’m finally reaching that point with knitting. I knit my first project without a pattern this past weekend (except for the odd garter stitch scarf, of course). It was just an experiment, and it didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted it to, and really, it’s just a couple of rectangles sewn together, but I learned and now I have a little more confidence with my knitting ability. I now know a little more about felting and intarsia and creating a chart to knit from. I also have a nifty little bag just for my sock projects!
 
I knit the polka dots a little more long than wide, because I knew it would shrink more in length than width, but I should have done one less row, they’re a little more egg-shaped than I wanted. Polka eggs instead of polka dots! I decided to try some blocks of color for the other side, because I wanted to try something different, and frankly, the polka eggs were a pain in the bum.I love the way it felted, it’s so soft and fuzzy and it’s a nice size for toting around little projects. So there you have it, a felted bag from scratch!

I’ve been busy with lots of projects, and I’ve been away from my computer, so I just thought I would quickly check in with some pictures of my weekend. We were snowed in! I realize this isn’t huge news in most parts of the country, but we live 45 minutes from downtown San Diego :o)

I had to shovel my way out to go to work this morning.

This is our sorry excuse for a snowman. He used to have a carrot for a nose, but you see those paw prints in the snow? Those belong to Bear. He likes carrots.

Here she is:

Lady Eleanor on Porch with Cute Car in background.

Lady Eleanor artistically draped on porch railing.

Lady Eleanor with sun streaming through oak tree.

I would like to do this again in a more subdued palatte, but I think the silk garden was a good yarn choice. It’s certainly eye-catching in these colors, and I’ve gotten a lot of compliments. She will be living at my desk at work for the afternoons when the tempurature suddenly drops 15 degrees. And she really does go with everything, even my new $15 bright pink corduroy pants from the outlet mall.

Not only did I finish Lady Eleanor this weekend, I made myself some mitts:

Action shots! I used a pattern in the latest Interweave Knits and some lovely alpaca/wool yarn. It’s cold in the morning, but I need to drive, so it’s helpful to have my fingers free. It also gets really cold at my desk at work sometimes, so I think they will come in handy there too. I’m working on a little scarf to match. "What about your Olympic Knitting socks?" you may be asking. Yeah. That’s not working out right now. I think it’s okay to change events, isn’t it? I’m feeling pretty good that I’ve finished a couple things, so let’s just be happy about that and call it a success. The socks are still on the list, but the circular needles? Aren’t working out so well. I’ll try again, but I was getting a big gap when switching needles, so I need to practice a bit more.

I was not too smart and left Lady Eleanor at work last night, so no picture today, maybe tomorrow. To make up for my broken promises, here’s some music to listen to (requires Quicktime):

Lullaby by Cary

Five days off in a row! It was so nice, and I was so busy. I got a lot done, but I’m not quite finished. Friday I moved all the furniture out, spackled and cleaned the yucky flat blue walls:

Then I painted. The color? Laura Ashley Heath. The result. Wow, I didn’t know green could be so ugly. It was like anemic pea soup. We hated it immediately, but I kept painting as the sun went down, in the hopes that when I saw it in the daylight it would magically become just the sage-y green I thought it was. Nope.

Saturday was the day to be out and about, so I left early in the morning, stopped at the paint store for a quart of a new color (Dunn-Edwards Spooky), Expo for the little brackets for my curtain rods, the madhouse that was Ikea for a duvet cover, $3 picture frames and linen curtains which will be cut up and sewn with the floral fabric for window treatments. There was also a stop for lunch, a stroll around a quilt shop where I didn’t find what I wanted for a quilt for this room, but found some munki-munki gnome fabric and a coordinating polka dot that I had to have, and lastly, a very relaxing pedicure. That evening I painted again, and the new color was approved by everyone.

Sunday I rested.

Monday, another trip to the paint store for a gallon of the approved paint, and a stop at Home Depot for sash rods for the door and don’t forget Petco for food for the dogs. Home again and got all the paint on the walls. Picture frames stained, stain not dark enough.

Tuesday I broke out some brown and black acrylic paint and painted the frames. Picked out which botanicals to use for the nine frames, ran to the local hardware store for hangers for the backs of the frames. The eye hooks and wire that came with them would make the frames stick out too far from the walls. Slapped a coat of paint on the little desk, washed all the new bedding and fabric (yay! curtain fabric arrived in the mail!). Hung pictures, measuring and hammering so the pictures will be a perfect grid with no space between frames. Some cursing and re-hammering, creating extra holes in newly painted walls. Curtain rods installed, only one screw stripped. Bed re-assembled in room, little plates hung, bedside table moved back in.

Aaah. I love it. I’m thinking of hanging that architectural dealie thing above the bed. I found black and white salt and pepper shakers at a thrift store minus one of the stoppers, so am using them for finials on the bed. I still need to get a couple more pillows for the bed, and I’d like to make a quilt using mostly solid fabrics, something like the What a Bunch of Squares quilt in the Denyse Schmidt quilt book. I got some cream fleece and hemmed the edges, I’ll probably keep it spread over the bed for the cats, as they seem to think this is their bed. Of course they also think our bed belongs to them, the little piggies.

Tonight the plan is to sew up some curtains, so maybe there will be some more pictures tomorrow.