Ready for a mid-winter nap...

So, made myself another needle case - this one is for my DPNs.

Pretty - but I messed up on the sewing of the case - it's actually a mess when you look at it too closely. Will have to adjust the design to have a larger seam allowance, but it's all part of the learning process, eh?

Remember this roving?

It's spinning up like a dream.

I figure that I'll be able to get sockweight out of what I have here already and another ply of the same roving. Although wool+silk = uncertainty about sock usage...think they'd be too itchy as socks?

Finally, Mr. Ninja actually asked for a sweater. Seeing as we've been together for a decade, I'd say that I'm fairly safe from the sweater curse. Am going to borrow one of the cables from Viking Patterns for Knitting (Thanks Ms. FE for the lowdown on the book!) and will post a pic of the general design soon.

Biggest knitblog list?

So, I was checking out who was hitting my blog...and it turns out that somewhere deep in the heart of Sweden, someone took a lot of time and catalogued a massive number of knitting blogs. Check it out at:

www.stickamera.se

There are blogs upon blogs there....let me know if you find anything good.

Seeking Light Therapy.

So, it seems like there are babies popping out EVERYWHERE these days - my cousin is having one, and I'm on the hook for at least 3 more baby showers/gifts. So I started whipping up some booties. (pattern from Knitting For Baby)

After taking this pic, I started frowning when I realized exactly how much my messy house shows up in my photos. So, I decided to make myself a lightbox for photos. Instructions here.)

Of course, goofy me forgot to take the flash off initially, resulting in photos like this.

Blah.

But once I got the hang of it...I think that it will work nicely. Even took a photo of the Monkey socks.

I just have to figure out how to get the damn thing lit on the days that we don't have sunbeams throughout the house...

Enraged.

Am currently concentrating on not letting my head spontaneously explode.

...

Y'all know how I just bought a new computer? Say...oh, 13 days ago? Last night I got to use a new addition to my vocabulary thanks to the Yarn Harlot - my new computer bricked on me. Stuck looping infintitely between the lovely soothing blue screen of death and a message that kindly informed me that "windows had failed to load properly."

*sigh*

So, for the second time in two weeks, I'm sitting here and installing and installing and installing and installing. Oh well. At least I have Justin and the lovely ladies of Victoria's Secret to accompany me during this time of tribulations....



(Don't ask me why, but this actually is soothing while I'm grinding my teeth and waiting for yet another application to install. Maybe it's my inner slut clawing her way out. Who knows. Don't think that Mr. Ninja's going to complain about this one, though.)

Oh and hey, before I forget - the MSC Napoli is beached about a mile off the coast of Devon, England...Looters have been "finding" treasure like BMW motorbikes, kegs of wine and have been leaving behind these. What is wrong with these people?

Knitter down...

Scene 1

Fade in:

A pristine white room with several control panels on the walls and several more desks/chairs with white jumpsuited workers at them. Camera zooms in on one of the workers sporting a nametag of "Higher Brain Functions", clearly occupied with some paperwork and with an underling hovering at her shoulder.

Higher Brain Functions: Report.

Underling: Mr. Munchkin is currently occupied with his grandmother and is staying at her apartment for the day.

HBF: Excellent. (sighs) So what chores are left to be done today then?

Underling: Well.... (flips through some papers on a clipboard). Nothing. It seems that the Ninja decided to get everything done yesterday. Dishes, laundry, you name it...it's clean.

HBF: (pushes chair back in amazement) What? Everything?

Underling: Yup.

HBF: Well well well. Seems like we're ... on holiday!

White room erupts in spontaneous joy. Much backslapping ensues.

HBF: All right - everyone take the day off! Immune system (nods at another worker who has bags under her eyes and several cups of coffee littering her desk) - you've been working overtime since Mr. Munchkin was born. Get outta here and get some fresh air!

Underling: (in an under the breath muttering) Ma'am, are you sure that's a good idea?

HBF: (shrugs) What could go wrong?

Fade out.

Scene 2

Fade in.

HBF has her head down on the desk, moaning beside a massive pile of used tissues on her desk, sniffling and hacking away. Underling passes her a bottle of cold medicine and a thermos of hot tea.

Underling: Told you so.

Fade out.

All this to say that I'm sicker than I have been in a long time. I even missed Happy Feet at the Imax with my parents, Mr. Ninja and Mr. Munchkin. BLARGH. Did get some knitting done though. Pictures soon when I unearth my camera from under the tissues.

Cravings.

So, what with the grim weather these days - I've been craving colour. (And chocolate, but that's nothing new.)

I've been haunting a few blogs like Posie gets Cozy and Yarnstorm, if only for the gorgeous quality of the light in the photos there. The pretty things to look at don't hurt either. Another way to drive the winter blues away is to virtually window shop - in my case, Etsy is my cuppa poison. In particular, I lusted after this hank of yarn...drooled over it...attempted to justify the price. Couldn't. Was driven to surf on over the Wool Peddler and placed an order to make my own sari yarn. Mine's merino and Millefiori.


Thinking of a scarf for myself - the yarn's got a wicked soft drape to it...and I could do with a dash more pizazz on Monday mornings.

Went to Gaspereau Valley Fibres a few days ago to pick up a new bobbin and driveband for my wheel, as the ones that came with it were starting to take a turn for the worse. Not to mention that the boy was thrilled to his toes by the prospect of seeing sheep. And a llama. (Mr. Ninja's given me a stern lecture or two about how I'm warping his son...) While there, Mr. Munchkin spied this.


Wool/Silk of unknown origins...but the colours are incredible. Here's how it's been spinning up so far:


This stuff freaking glows.

1 Monkey sock down - second one is halfway through the leg. I never would have thought that it would be such a quick knit, but I'm enjoying myself thoroughly - despite having to rip half of the 1st one back.

It's a New Year - It's a New Ninja!

Well, not really.

Blogger's just being a prat and not letting me switch over to the new version. So I am virtually thumbing my nose at da man and making me a new blog.

Also, add the fact that my old computer decided to commit seppuku - just the video card to be specific... Mr. Ninja took one look at it and said "This thing is 6 years old. There's no point in trying to save it. Let's go to the store." So, I'm reinstalling, transferring over and generally purging my (electronic) systems. So, new 'puter to get used to. Have crafty news - will post as soon as my World of Warcraft patches decide to stop hogging all the bandwidth.

>_<