Author: Polgara

Categories
Shopping

Wave bye-bye to the pretty wagon

Yep, it’s true–I fell off the yarn wagon.  I was being so good, knitting only from my stash for my Christmas presents, and then I read Ravelry.  That’s where I heard about the yarn sale at Michael’s, which in itself wasn’t enough to tempt me.  But then, in the same post, there was a mention of feltable yarn for only $3.50 a skein.  ?!  That’s half the price of Cascade 220!!

*sigh* So I got in my car, headed to Michael’s, found out it moved, called my brother-in-law who gave me the new address, and, well, $90 later, I have so many more colors to choose from now!

I am weak, I know.  Reset the clock as we try the cold turkey thing again.

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Good day? Bad day?

It’s been a partly productive day, partly terrible day.  I woke up ridiculously early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I was actually up and drinking tea at 7am this morning, the better to start off a planned Day of Laundry. I got a lot done–cleaned my closet and got rid of five bags and a box of clothes; cleaned out the fridge; dropped clothes off at Out of the Closet and mailed a package at the post office.  The seventh and eighth loads of laundry (winter clothes, gak!) are waiting for the dryer, with another four loads minimum still in line.

Then I noticed a termite on the couch–yuck!  I grabbed my dustbuster to terminate the sucker, and found he wasn’t alone; in fact, he had an entire party on the couch!  GAH!  Wondering where they came from, I pulled the curtain back, and found EVEN MORE on the window sill, and between the closed window and the screen.  ?!!!!  This was too much, and I pulled the building manager away from his garden to come look at the insanity.

The short of it is, some guy is coming in on Monday to “spray”.  Yeah, ’cause that’s gonna help a wall that’s been infested for long enough that it should be crashing down any day now. Thanks so much.

I did my own spray job (I can finally smell something other than Raid), and have been dustbusting the stragglers all afternoon.  It’s depressing and demoralizing, because I live in a rent-controlled apartment, which means that I pay a fraction of what apartments are going for in L.A. right now, i.e. I can’t afford to move.

Anyway, to cheer myself up as I sat staring at the couch, waiting for another interloper, I pulled out the purse I finished knitting last night and actually stitched up the bottom–go team me! To my own surprise, I think this one is my favorite so far.  I didn’t think the colors would work (turquoise and white), but so far they totally do.  We’ll see if I feel the same after it’s been felted.

That’s the it for now.  The mountain of laundry is calling.

WGA Strike

support_wga_iconThis is very off-topic, but it’s for a cause I support.  As you must know by now, the members of the Writers Guild of America are on strike.  This means there’s no one in Hollywood or New York writing for television or movies. I’ve seen some critics blasting at the strikers, claiming they’re all rich folk crying for more money. The fact is, the “rich folk” are the show runners, and the writers the next level under. The baby writers–the ones just starting out, the ones still climbing the ladder–they’re not rich folk, and they make up the majority of the WGA. These writers go from show to show, and oftentimes spend many months unemployed between shows, so the shiny dollars they earn when they’re employed have to stretch over those leaner times when they’re not. Residuals–for instance, moneys paid for reruns, syndication and dvd sales–help them over those lean times, but their cut of these residuals is miniscule compared to what the studios are reaping, not to mention the complete lack of percentages from sales from downloads and advertising for streaming.

To find out more about the strike, check out United Hollywood.

Categories
Knitting and Crochet

Purse three, on the needles

The brown and red purse is off the needles, and now I’m working on a turquoise and white clutch purse from One Skein.  I brought it with me today to work on during lunch, but forgot to bring the pattern, and I couldn’t remember how many increase rounds there were.  Damn.

I’ve starting thinking of the next month as my own version of “Summer of Socks” only instead of summer, it’s the holiday season, and instead of socks, it’s felted purses.  It’ll be interesting to see how many of them I can finish in the next month.  But then, I also want to make items for my b.i.l. and a couple of other people that aren’t purses, so I’ll have to find time for that, too.  For now, though, it’s all purses, all the time!

Knit purseAnd to give you something pretty to look at, here’s a picture of my first ever felted purse, made for my mom for the first Christmas after I learned to knit (2004). It was made with Cascade 220, and the pattern was free from the store, but I think they’d downloaded it from the web. It has a magnetic closure.

Contemplating Christmas presents….again

So I made a list of the people I’ll probably be gifting this year, and it’s about 23 people–GAH! I wish I’d made this list two months ago, as now I’m thinking knitting my way through as many gifts as possible, while stressful and not at all easy, will at least be cheaper, ’cause yo, seven boxes of stash!

At the moment, I’m contemplating the Birdhouse Bag from Elann.  The pattern looks easy enough, but I’ll have to check the colors of my feltable yarn to see if they’re suitable.  If it’s manageable and I can make them quickly enough, it could be the gift of the year for as many as six little girls that are on my list!