Half-Nekkid Thursday again.

I haven't been to sleep yet on Wednesday night, but as it's nearly 5:30 am, it's definitely Thursday. *sigh*
This patch of insomnia has been horrendous.
Anyway.

Happy Half-Nekkid Thursday, y'all.


I really love my freckles. My elbow's all red from hours of leaning on it, playing facebook games in bed all night.

I'm really almost almost ALMOST done with Christmas knitting. Slightly over 2/3 of a scarf and stuffing an already-finished ball with catnip. Really, that's all I have left. It should be exciting, but I'm just drained at this point. I've got a migraine building that I'm afraid will be horrid. I have the Iceland ad song stuck in my head constantly, and it's driving me waaaaaay past round the bend.

Do you even REALIZE how luxurious selfish-knitting is gonna be? So soon I can almost taste it.

Also: I would cut a bitch for a candy cane.

Home Stretch.

I'm almost done with giftmas knitting/crochet. After much travail and swearing and tears and SUPER helpful input from my poor, put-upon husband, I settled on a chunky-ass fisherman's rib scarf for SIL's boyfriend. It may or may not get to have pockets, depending on how long it ends up and how much yarn I have. I'd love pockets on it, but he's tall, fisherman's rib DEVOURS yarn.... so we'll see. I've got to finish a ball for my kitty but I can't do much more until I have some 'nip to put in it and I have to felt it first and then make sure I can still stuff it and finish it and somehow felt the finished bit by hand, dry..... *sigh* But anyway. Everything else is done.

Mitts for SIL:
Capelet for MIL:
Convertible mittens for FIL:
Little wrist purse for GrandMIL:
Beardy hat for BIL:
Boat for Uncle-in-law:
And here's the fraction of the scarf for SIL's BF:
And the going-to-be-felted-and-filled-with-nip ball for Tessy:

And surprises for Weezie & my husband that you don't get to see until after they've received them, but they are both fucking acebest. Just hope none of the rest of the fam reads this. XD

I feel really kind of bad that my actual blood-fambly gets squat because I've had to focus on getting things done for people that will actually be there on Xmas morning to have something to open. But my mom & dad got stuff I made for their birthdays in Sept & Oct respectively, and I made my bro that Trilobite hat recently, too..... I *will* get to them, and my grama.... I feel bad, though.

Anyway.
Let's do a meme.
Unconscious Mutterings.
Word association.

1. Up :: in the air
   
2. Scram! :: cat!
   
3. Smell :: coffee
   
4. Belong :: family
   
5. Doug :: awful cartoon
   
6. Collar :: bell
   
7. Squirrel :: "and they were married..." (we totes just watched Office Space)
   
8. Chinese :: food
   
9. Tracker :: gps
   
10. Apartment :: highrise
    

Now is time for watching Goodfellas, working on that scarf (good thing I find fisherman's rib so incredibly soothing, this scarf has been stressful), and farmville. ALWAYS FARMVILLE. *addict*

A meme a day keeps the readers away...

Boy Day: Assassin's Creed and Stargate.

>:6 <--- I make that face.

Hub has got his new video game & watched his backed up episodes of SGU which I, for some reason, can't stand. I'm a big sci-fi geek & I love Robert Carlyle. I just can't get into it. Assassin's Creed 2 is much more pleasant background noise, but that's 'cause it's set in renaissance Italy & I'm also an art history geek.

I finished the first of the convertible mittens for my FIL for xmas. I love it and desperately hope he will too.

They're a little big for me & a little small for my husband, so hopefully they'll fit his dad perfectly.

Roooooooooby Toooooooooosday.

Today I am working on these:


One day they will grow up to be convertible mittens designed by Emma. I am test crocheting them. That's an awesome light-up crochet hook from Weezie, but you can't really tell from that picture. They're intended for my father-in-law for Xmas. I hope they fit him. I hope he likes them. They're the Xmas gift I'm most unsure about so far. He's all.... classy and English and David Niven-ish. That's hard to craft for.

Best. Hat. Evar.

Earflap puffball hat with detachable/adjustable beard/stache for BIL for Xmas. Fucking WIN.


SO tempted to keep the damn thing for myself. You know you want it, too.

Bleh.

Not much going on today, yet again. We're still not quite recovered. I totes finished that bloody IRKSOME capelet for my MIL last night:


It's got the same pink kitten buttons I used on my boobholder. It's (obviously) not very me, but I think she'll really dig it. I adore the finished product even if I did get SICK of the pattern repeat & the yarn. Today I started a hat for my BIL. It's gonna be a basic stripey earflap stocking cap with a puffball on top, but it's gonna have a detachable beard & mustache. It's some fluffy mystery acrylic.


Dunno what the beard/stache will be made of. I can't decide whether to go natural or unnatural colored. We'll have to see when the hat itself is done.

Meme time.

Today's Unconscious Mutterings word association:

1. Alarm :: clock
   
2. Guest :: towel (lol, where'd that come from? The whole concept of those ridiculous little hand towels you're not actually supposed to use appalls me!)
   
3. Worm :: Richard Scarry
   
4. Puppies :: basketful
   
5. Honor :: roll (yeah, I got good grades, what?!?!)
   
6. No! :: means no.
   
7. Stomach :: blerghy (been sick lately, can you tell?)
   
8. Counter :: space (we have some, my husband is great & tidied the kitchen yesterday!)
   
9. Waffles :: House (Waffle House is quite possibly my most missed thing about the US aside from my family)
   
10. Plates :: armor (specifically the ones on the back of a stegosaur)

Aaaaand Sunday Stealing:
The Strange Question Meme, Part 2:

26. What color is your watch?
Don't wear one. INVISBLE ZOMG.

27. What do you think of when you hear “Australia”?
Upside-down kangaroos.

28. Would you strip for money?
You mean someone would PAY me for it?!?! Win!

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?
Usually go in, there isn't as much cause for drive-thrus in the UK.

30. What is your favorite number?
i

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?
Ooh. Probably my husband? God, I really have no idea.

32. Any plans today?
Fuck, it's almost bedtime. No. :D

33. In how many states have you lived?
4? Yeah, 4 I think. Plus, you know.... England.

34. Biggest annoyance right now?
John & Edward.

35. Last song listened to?
Little clip of One Moment In Time on X Factor

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards?
Even while very, very intoxicated. Skillz. Mad ones.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?
LMAO.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
My fake-ass Uggs. WHAT? DON'T YOU FUCKING JUDGE ME.

39. Are you jealous of anyone?
Insanely. Envy is my second worst deadly sin, after sloth.

40. Is anyone jealous of you?
If they are, they are seriously misguided.

41. Do you love anyone?
Ferociously.

42. Do any of your friends have children?
Yep.

43. What do you usually do during the day?
Knit, play Farmville, watch Maury. It's a fucking difficult life.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?
I don't think so.... Not exactly.

45. Do you use the word hello daily?
Probably.

46. What color is your car?
Grey.

47. What size wedding ring do you wear?
Smaller than the one I got when we got married.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?
Yeah, this guy, 'cause he's on my tv, bein' all sexy & I can't figure out what else I've seen him in.

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Many of them. But mostly Over Georgia. Hundreds of times, prolly.

50. How did you get your worst scar?
Hm. The most noticeable one is my chicken pox scar on my forehead. I had chicken pox on my 6th birthday. I got a She-Ra set, including wristlets, a mask, a sword, etc. I put the mask on & it scratched off one of the scabs & marked me forever. The one on my thumb might be a little worse, but it's hardly noticeable, given where it is. My first few weeks of college I was opening a package from my grama & the scissors slipped. Cut off pretty much the whole pad of my thumb. Couldn't have stitches, as it was a flat surface cut. I got home from the hospital and finished opening the package. There were Band-Aids inside. Thank you, psychic grama.

Knitwise.

I have put the Xmas knitting on hold for awhile, as I need to whip something lovely out for Hub's grandmother's birthday. It's not for a little while longer but she's coming up from Wales this weekend for a joint b-day do with Hub's sister, who gets the kokeshi.


I decided on one of these (pdf link, sorry) in some frankly GORGEOUS Rowan Tapestry soy blend that was intended for a My So Called Scarf for my FIL last year that got pwned by MIL saying he had too many scarves already. I sulked over that, as I know he'd've loved it anyway and then the cat got into the yarn so I only have a ball & a half left, blah blah blah, you know how it goes. Anyway, this photo doesn't do the colors justice. Moorland, it's called. It's blues and tawnies and greys and is just totally lush.

So the capelet for MIL is on hiatus til after I finish emergency birthday present knitting, as is the Lacy Karius (sorry again, Rav link this time) I started for myself (I got fed up with having *no* selfish knitting on the go!) with my latest PhatFiber winnings from Calizona Designs.

And today in the mail I got the most beautiful gift ever from the beauteous Carry, some yarn from Knitivity.com in a colorway that pretty much exactly matches my kitty.

It has her white bib and socks, and her fluffsome tawny belly, and her tigery black stripes, and her magical gradient of greys. I'm gonna spread it out among small projects for the people who love her best. Socks for my husband, a headband for me, and maybe even a little mousie to match her for her dear unclecat Arnie who tolerates her so stoically when the little upstart goes to visit her grandma & grandpa!

goddammit, mommy. i'z tryin to SLEEP. goway.

Lately she is overly juicy and leaky from her facehole. She's been drooling a lot, but showing absolutley no other signs of illness or being off at all. We've got her a *whisper-spells V-E-T* appointment Monday morning to have a peek round the inside of her mouth and stuff.

Fingers crossed it's nothing. <3

Day The Twentieth. Sooper Sekrits.

I took a break from Christmas knitting today to crochet something which I will tell you about Thursday or afterwards. Here is a hint:

Mostly I have been working on a little lacy capelet for my mother-in-law:

(photo got husband-bombed)

And I'm not sure I posted the finished mitts for my sister-in-law:


Today I got my latest Phat Fiber winnings!!!! SQUEE!!! They are nommy.


Also Weezie sent me some of that lush jasmine tea I mentioned earlier OMG. She is so best. She is surely my bosom friend.


Hm. Reading over this, it seems like I like to bite things.


Actually the only time I ever got in trouble at school (read: ever got caught) was for biting a dude. I was 17 and a senior in high school. There had been a fire drill and we were all flooding back in. This big dude who must've been a freshman or he'd've already known me and known not to fuck with me, knocked me down, scattered my books, and walked on, laughing at me. I gathered myself, kept lemming-ing back to class, and found myself walking just behind him. He looked over his shoulder, at one point, saw the little freak girl behind him who he'd knocked down, and decided to fuck with me some more. He stopped short, on purpose, to provoke.... something. Who knows? Anyway, instead of slamming into him as was his plan, I bit him hard as a motherfucker on the back of his shoulder. He turned around and slammed me into a locker. We both got suspended for fighting for one week, despite the fact that the 2 friends I was walking with had not actually seen me bite him at all, and insisted I was innocent. They seriously thought that, because I am a stealthninja. Anyway, I was devastated and figured my parents would disown me. My mom was very consoling and mommish, but waiting for my dad to get home was some of the worst anxiety I've ever had. He got home. I told him what had happened, sobbing the whole time, scared to death. He looked at me for a few seconds in that dad way and very sternly said: "Next time, you shouldn't take the law into your own mouth." And we all rofled and each of my parents took a day off work the next week to hang out with me and take me shopping and stuff. It was pretty great.


I'm not a big fan of purple cabbage.


Keep that shit out my salad, bitch.


I dunno, today I've just felt incredibly small and vulnerable. I think a migraine is starting.

Day The Eleventh. Associate.

Unconscious Mutterings:

1. My treat :: thank you!
   
2. Bell :: book, and candle
   
3. Five :: is alive
   
4. You’re crazy! :: usually.
   
5. Disgust :: Dannii Minogue
   
6. Tempest :: Ariel
   
7. Bummer :: dude
   
8. Brim :: full
   
9. Hose :: pipe
   
10. Lollipop :: stick
    

Turns out I'm not the only calendar girl in the family! My brother is Mister September in the fundraising calendar to get lights in the skate park in my family's tiny town in Idaho! He's a lanky goggle-eyed freak.


And, lest we forget, & because I am an attention hoar, let's revisit how AWESOME I was as Miss Februrary in the LSG NSFW knitting calendar this year!


Today I shall work on what I have finally settled on for SIL's Christmas fingerless gloves! Della Mitts! (Rav link, sorry everybody else)
I'm doing them in gorgeous "Taffy" sock yarn, Patons Stretch Socks.


I'm not looking forward to starting the PITA thumb gusset. God, gusset is a horrible word.
::shudder::

Day The Eighth. Knitting For Other People. And bonus hotness.

Last night I finished my section of the next LSG traveling scarf.

It's for the only boy in my group. I was aiming for manly & regal. It's a dark green chenille under that quilting stitch, and in real life it's quite plush & lovely.

Then I started a crocheted kokeshi doll for my sister-in-law's birthday later this month. I made a couple for my friends Mimi & Louise awhile ago & they love them. I hope Meg enjoys hers. She has a small collection of store-bought ones. I hope this just doesn't come across as a cheap get-out gift. She can be a tad unsentimental. :)
And she has a pretty little iridescent leaf bead hair ornament:



Then, this afternoon.... I officially started my Christmas knitting.

The rest of that green chenille is going to be a pair of these for said sister-in-law. I hope they come out as cushy and lush as they are in my imagination.

While I worked today, I watched Operation Petticoat. Tony Curtis may have pretty eyes, but I've never really seen the great attraction, especially when he's standing next to Cary Grant, who may be the perfect man. My grama agreed, when I emailed her and mentioned what I was watching - "Cary Grant - a dreamboat! Tony Curtis - nothing very special." Good taste runs in my family.

Let's have some gratuitous eye candy, shall we?





Wait a second!!! Gregory Peck?!? How'd your fine, broody ass get up in there? Oh well, this is me not complaining.