Obsession du jour...

Like so many others out there in the Garden of Blogs, I am abandoning Blogger for greener pastures. I have been lured to Typepad by the promise of: posting that actually works, REAL push-button photo blogging, self-contained photo albums, and much, much more. Here's my new home:

www.obsessiondujour.typepad.com

Wheeeeeeee! A new home just in time for Spring...if only the bathroom re-model was this easy.

P.S. TOTALLY worth the $5 a month.

So I hop on the train this morning and grab the only open seat (yes, I'm still too uncoordinated to knit standing, so a seat is way more important to me now than it should be), and as I sit down I notice that the woman on my left is knitting. No, not just knitting, but knitting a sock! On teeniny little metal dpn's -- and in a STUNNING green yarn. We have a brief little discussion as I try to stay cool and not gush all over some stranger in the train just because she knits (in public), but woohoo! Two chicks with sticks, not only in the same car, but right next to each other. It's a movement I tells ya.

After maybe 10 nanoseconds of restraint (because I have the self control of child) I did, however pump her for info on her sock yarn because it was seriously gorgeous. It was definitely self-striping, but the stripes were wider than most, and they sort of faded into one another instead of having hard edges. The whole thing was various shades of heathered greens, and it was all I could do not to hit her over the head and steal it. She couldn't remember the name, but it was one of the German ones and she had gotten it from Woolcott. Guess where I'm going after work? 'Cuz, you know, I need more sock yarn like I need a hole in my head, but who cares, this stuff was beautiful. Is it a bad sign when sock yarn can make me drool with envy?

You know how in the movies when imaginary friends come to life or show up on your doorstep, it's always some kind of freaky, scary thing and you just know that something bad is going to happen? Well, I'm here to tell you that it just isn't true. Hollywood has lied to us yet again. Case in point: Ms. Melanie. After emailing back and forth a bit, sharing memories of our mutual hometown (Atlanta, Ga) and such, we decided it would be more fun to do that in person, and it totally was. She's charming, funny, witty, has fabulous taste in knits, and has a deep love for pulled pork and hard cider(no one can have a deep love for pulled pork and hard cider and be a bad person, it's impossible). Also, she didn't hit me on the head and tell me to shut up after I talked her ear off for two hours, and that goes a long way too. Oh, AND she didn't make fun of my congenital inability to carry cash, even to a restaurant that only takes cash and checks. When was the last time YOU paid for dinner with a check written with a purple Sharpie? Yes, I'm a dumbass. And yes, it was THAT Sharpie. Hopefully she won't hold it against me and will come out and play again soon.

Pictures? Um, no -- no pictures. You'll just have to take our word for it that it was fun and that you totally wish you were there.

Hi my name is Josephine, and I'm here to talk about teenage pregnancy.

He said it couldn't happen the first time. He said that he was going away in a few days, and that by the time he came back it would be too late for the two of us. He said no one would have to know. He said he loved me -- or maybe it was more like "assume the position" -- I'm not totally clear on that point. But anyway, I'm here to tell you that you should never believe anything a boy tells you when you're in heat. Never.

**ED note: Yes it's true, our little 7 month old kitten is pregnant. As in kittens here in less than two weeks, pregnant. Apparently, just 4 days before we took Napolean in to be fixed, the two of them actually figured out their own version of the birds and the bees. We and our vet were pretty darn sure that there was almost no chance that they could successfully breed so young, and he had seemed oblivious to her slutty behavior so we thought we were safe. Ooops.

I MUST have one of these:

Is this the cutest thing EVER? Yes.

It all started with the idea that I needed a new knitting bag, mainly for toting my constantly changing 2 or 3 projects up and down the stairs so as to not continuously have a 20-foot stack of crap in the middle of the living room floor. So I grabbed some Kureyon, some sticks, and a pattern, which I promptly ignored, and set to it. A few hours, three skeins, and a whole bunch of icord later and we had this:

Please note the 3 distictly different colorways blended for "artistic" effect. This will be important later.

Then, 2 trips through the handy-dandy, super-magical felty machine and a night spent stretched over my favorite pot, we had this (cord not yet attached):

Let us please not mention the close up of my dry, chapped, wine-stained lips. Some things are just too beautiful for words.

Notice the beautiful hat brim on my knitting bag? Yup, this is what happens when we felt different colorways at the same time. Cute, eh? Brim or no, it's the perfect size, came out pretty much how it was envisioned, and once the straps are attached and it's full of knittiness, I won't care about that at all. And THEN, it gets unceremoniously tossed aside for later construction while we get some long overdue shots of the hoodie. When I turn around to gather it up for it's trip to the work room, I find this:

She's so damned cute that I don't have the heart to make her get out, but Napleon says:

HEY! What about me? I want to get in here too!

Who else feels like there might be a Kitty Pi or two hitting the worklist soon?

It never occured to me, when I started this blog, that the hardest part of my finished objects would not be the hours of knitting, nor even the painstaking finishing of seams, but instead would be the positioning said objects in front of a camera, in reasonably flattering light, preferably on said knitter...or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof. I need to get me some 24 hour daylight. Until then....heeeeeeere's hoodie:

and from the back:

I guess that's actually a backwards Rachel, for the full frontal version, go here. And for the stupid funny pose, here:

Particulars:

• Pattern: Under the Hoodie
• Source: Stitch-n-Bitch
• Yarn: Peruvian Highland Wool from Elann in Oxblood, Coffee Bean, and Aubergine.

I love this sweater and this yarn, plus it was a kick to knit. It took just long enough to really FEEL like big project, but was really only a little challenging for a fairly new knitter. All-in-all, perfect for a FIRST FREAKING SWEATER EVER! What? Lent is over. I can say it all I want.

Oh, and please ignore the wine-stained lips and the drunk-eyes. Unless, of course, you think that sort of thing is attractive...uh, but don't tell me about it if you do, mmmkay? And stay away from my cocktails.

I love the word confluence. It's second only to serendipity in my book. Why are they so high in my list-o-words? Who knows? Could it be that I love what they stand for? I guess, but probably not. Part of what I love about them is that they sound like what they mean, if that makes any sense at all, and I love that. Mainly though, I think they're just fun to say. Go ahead, do it. Say confluence out loud.....fun, ain't it? Now, run out and try to find a way to use it in a conversation - preferably two or three times in less than 5 minutes, bonus points for using both definitions in the same conversation. Then you'll have the fun of getting to say it, but also of having your friends/family/co-workers think you've suddenly gone a little batty. It IS April Fool's Day after all.