Swallowtail shawl

I made a Swallowtail shawl! Hooray for not having a job and having lots of time to knit!



Here it is before blocking. Holy cow, blocking makes it so different!

I've been baking!!!

Look! I made a Domo Kun cake for my friend's birthday!


And I made some cupcakes on a stick! Like from Bakerella.




I've been knitting too (O_o) but more on that later...

Look! I'm knitting!

It's gonna be a mitten! That flips open to be fingerless gloves! Eventually! The pattern is based on the Leyburn socks pattern.

Snow, hat!

Hi! It started snowing again, so I started knitting again. I decided I needed a slouchy hat, because everyone I saw when I went to a conference in Philadelphia was wearing a slouchy hat, so I made one! Here it is!


I'm not completely convinced that it doesn't make me look like Mario, but I love it anyway, and it's the first thing I've knit in AGES! It feels good to knit again. I already cast on for a matching scarf. Well, the hat was made using Lamb's Pride (and I had to modify the pattern a bit for that sub) that I frogged from the Fake Isle hat I started awhile back, and the scarf will be out of some really really skinny yarn. I don't anticipate the scarf ever actually getting finished....

Here's the pattern for the hat, if anyone is interested: Tam Pattern

Turtle Power!

So, I read other people's blogs and think to myself..... "maybe someday I will update my blog!" Well, today is that day!

Here is a picture of some karate friends and me in our rockin' Halloween costumes! They were so fun to make. We sewed pillowcases into shell shapes and drew shell patterns for the back. We painted cardboard for the front shells. The mismatched green sweats were very comfy and I felt very smug in the face of all the other "slutty-whoever" girls dressed up downtown. Go us!


Since they are my favorite, here is a picture of the kitties and cute and cuddly on the couch. This never happens. Usually Calvin is trying to kill Cuddle Duds.

Meet Calvin!

Here's a new kitten I got today! His (well, I'm not quite positive it's a male, but either way) name is Calvin. We chose that name because the other cat is Cuddle Duds, like the underwear brand, so we thought it would be funny to continue giving the cats underwear names. If it was a girl, it might have been Victoria, for Victoria's Secret, for example. We had some fun vetoing "Fruit of the Loom" and "Hanes" and settled on Calvin Klein. Plus, he's orange like Hobbes, so Calvin's a good name for him.




Um... my garden is going pretty well in some areas (like the jalapenos) and not so great in others. Like corn.

This is the one ear that grew on the 2 stalks I had. The main problem, I am guessing, is that the one morning I went to look at the plants and saw that there was pollen all over the stalk, there was a huge thunderstorm an hour later and it all washed away. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. Can you get kicked out of Iowa for failing at corn?

I should point out that I made some fabulous spaghetti sauce out of the tomatoes, basil and oregano I had growing, so I pretty much love the garden.

Yes, I realize this doesn't count as a real post.

Here is a picture of Radiohead playing at Lollapalooza, for your viewing pleasure!