bath mat

inspired by brooklyntweed's love for garter, i thought i'd take time out from all of my wip's and start this simple cotton bath mat.



i'm basing the mat on the simple cotton bath mat pattern from the purl bee. i've modified the center panel from stockinette to, what else...garter. great U.S. Open knitting project, nothing to distract me from all of the great qualifiers playing this year.

my intention is for this to go in the master bath, where i would need 2 matching mats, one in front of each sink. let's hope that i don't get into the same pattern that i get in with socks, otherwise this mat is going to have to sit by itself in the missing mates pile for a while.

office recycling

ever wonder what the guy in the next cubicle does all day? the next time you go up to the kitchen, take a look at what might be sitting in the recycling bin...you just may get an idea of what your co-workers are up to.



that's right, an empty bottle of jack daniels, skin trip moisturizing lotion, and juice all wrapped up in one cellophane bag. the funny thing is, i know only one person in this office who even knows what skin trip is, and so i think my assumption of who these bottles belonged to are pretty accurate.

this explains why she looked so tore-up this morning.

cardi for jenna

project update: progress is being made!!



now that the 2008 summer olympics are at the halfway point, i guess i am right on track with my amanolympics project. the bodice is done and i am now working on the "skirt" portion, which is made up of the lace pattern. i have taken liberty with the pattern and changed the lace from a sort of herringbone type to more of a diamond lace.



i am really happy with the mod, and i am anxious to get this thing done and blocked!

party for one

i was looking forward to the banquet party my friends were throwing for over a hundred guests this weekend all week long. as i spent my saturday running errands and doing chores that is what kept me going through the heat of the day, as i usually prefer to keep my sweat glands from overworking on my days off. or at least i'd rather do such tasks in the cooler hours of the day...

so i got ready and got myself to china town...found my way to the restaurant and parked my car, i thought to myself "the parking lot is kind of empty, everyone must have found street parking..." i chose my spot, looked down into the courtyard and didn't notice a number of people heading to the front doors. i made my way to the restaurant and thought that cute shop selling the paul frank merchandise was worth checking out, but i had to hope they'd still be open after the dinner.

so i make my way into the restaurant, pausing to let a few rushing people holding huge bouquets by. no one in the lobby, "hmm that's strange" i thought. the hostess looked at me as if to imply, can i help you? and i stated, "i'm here for the [treese and pete] party..." she's like, "who?" i repeat myself. "what?" at this point, i am thinking...does this woman even speak english? i repeat myself, she starts flipping pages through her book. "OH!" she exclaims, "they moved the date" as she points to the name on the calendar. "uh...ok, thanks" i say and turn to walk out.

so at this point, you can imagine the rush of emotions and thoughts that run through my mind as i made my way back to the car. at first, embarrassment. next, confusion, then of course irritation...thinking, did they call everyone but forgot me? i finally realize that i should double check the invite and you know what? the party is tomorrow.

guess what i ended up having for dinner?



i was so flustered, i had to stop and pick up a pie for myself.

don't get too excited

as i've mentioned, i've joined the A Mano Crew to compete in the first ever amanolympics during the 2008 Olympic Games. the mission is to challenge oneself to knit or crochet something before the Games end. The official cast-on time for the amanolympics was during the 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremonies yesterday and must be finished by the end of the closing ceremonies on Sunday, August 24.

last night, a friend had a get together at his place to watch the opening ceremonies and have a little chinese take-out. i guess that was his idea of a "theme". the food and the company was great, and i was excited to cast on. as i pulled out my pattern, i looked it over to get myself oriented. stitch markers, got 'em. yarn, got it. tape measure, check. stitch/row counter. check. size 6 circs...wha...? yup. i totally forgot the needles when packing up my knitting tote.

we had to run out to get the take out before the ceremonies began, and luckily my friend (who is not a knitter nor a crocheter) remembered that there was a yarn shop in the complex where the restaurant was. that feeling of disappointment and slight panic washed away as i heard this news, so we ran over to the shop as the food was ordered.


* for more accurate color representation, see first image in this post

we get back to his place and sit down to watch the opening ceremonies and i start to cast on. not bad since i had to buy addi turbos instead of addi natura (bamboo), which i prefer - especially with the cotton fleece yarn which is kind of slippery for me. so i get 6 rows in and i stop to admire my work (which i highly recommend you do constantly to check for any mishaps along the way) and i notice my gauge is a bit loose, oh great.

i had to put the knitting back in the bag, i guess it wasn't meant to be...so this morning? ripped! i'll be casting back on shortly...

stashbuster

work in progress...



i've put myself on a yarn diet of sorts, although i did just buy some new yarn to participate in ravelympics 2008. whoops. in reality, i wasn't going to partake, but i found a cute cardi pattern that i want to make for my niece on knitty. so i figured that since i was going to make this anyway, and shannita had asked if i was going to participate in ravelympics...i thought i might was well since there was no logical reason not to.

but i digress...

i have been itching to knit up a chevron patterned striped throw, and i just couldn't decide on a stitch pattern to use. well, i did narrow it down to 4 but i realized that i didn't have the right yarn to showcase any of those stitch patterns. so since i had a ton of GGH solitaire and GGH esprit lying around from other projects and projects that never came to be, i decided that a simple garter throw was appropriate for using up this portion of my stash.

as you can tell, i am randomly alternating between the solitaire and esprit, as well as varying the width of the color stipes. it's probably about 12" now and i will just keep going until all the GGH is used up. i just hope it will be enough for a decent finished size.