I am soon on my way to the grocery store to stock up for a weekend of eating crap. I haven’t had a total crap binge in quite a while, and the last time, I noticed I would have a few bites of something and then move on, so even though I am thinking binge and saying binge, it really won’t be a binge. Yay for me…

The list so far? Cheddarwurst, Velveeta mac and cheese, Pepsi, chips, sushi, ice cream(maybe), and I am thinking of maybe having a nice juicy burger for dinner unless something else catches my eye. I think I might actually walk the aisles and see what else sparks my nostalgic indulgence radar.

Adios muchacha…

Yesterday was the beginning of WWKIP Week and the knitting readers I meet up with monthly decided to combine our monthly meet-up with some public knitting at the mall. We met at the fireplace area at Memorial City Mall and had 4 new to us knitters join us.

I decided to bring Lady E along to knit on because she is so showy with all her Noro-licious color changes. I am about 5 or 6 balls into this and the stole is about 5 feet long with at least another foot or so to go. I am totally enamoured with this bit of knitting just as I am every time I start one of these. This is my fourth one if I am not mistaken.

Not sure if I have already mentioned it, but Elizabeth and I joined a Frida Kahlo art journal Round Robin. There are 11 women participating, and by the end, we will all have a Frida Kahlo art journal with a page contributed by each member. the deadline for mailing them is tomorrow and mine is finally ready to go out the door. I decided that rather than a traditional journal format, I will use materials salvaged from the trash. The panels for my pages are the sides of six-packs. The theme for my journal is Dia de los Muertos. I used loose binder rings to hold the pages together and it will live on a shrine that is another work in progress, hanging from cup hooks, I think. I say I think, because my first plan was to collage a tin or box to hold it, but I think I want something more available. Of course I might also change my mind again a time or two since it will be about a year before I get it back again.

My first felting project was a Lady eleanor Stole gone wrong. I was 2 balls of Noro Kureyon into it when it occurred to me how warm it was sitting in my lap, and how inescapable that warmth would be the more of it I knit. Kureyon is wool and a worsted wool at that. That means it’s heavy. A little too heavy to get much use in Houston.

As I folded what I had already knit in half, the knitting was covering my laptop that was on the table in front of me. I knew from reading about felting that most things shrink 30%. this seemed about a third bigger than my laptop…hmm…

I made the decidion to sew up the sides of my bag and give it a try. She turned out pretty good and I learned some things about felting in the process. I also didn’t have to rip out all that knitting. the bag was a perfect fit for my at the time new Mac iBook. Now that the iBook has a new home, I use the bag as a knitting bag or sometimes as a lunch bag or just…a bag.

More recently, I knit this Lady E as part of the Gratitude Project for my friend Beth. This one was in a bulkier yarn and soft and luscious in shades of pink and black. I tried knitting a basic striped wrap with this same yarn and it looked like barf. Lady E was the perfect solution.

About three or four years ago, I had some extra birthday cash that coincided with a less than pleasant dental appointment. As a reward for keeping the appointment and making it through it, I stopped and bought some Noro Silk Garden Lite that was intended to make a Lady Eleanor that wouldn’t be interminably hot for the Houston clime. There was a sale involved plus a quantity discount, so I ended up with 14 balls of the same color and dye lot. Woohoo. I think i was in there choosong for more than an hour.

I thought the yarn was various shades of pinks and browns. I think I even remember the blues peaking about. I had no idea about the lime0ish green, or even the mossy green, but I have to say I absolutely love them. With noro, there are often color surprises hidden deep within the ball making it necessary ro look closely to know what you are getting. I am sure I didn’t know this then but really, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

This Lady E is color way number 2014 lot B. somepeople, when knitting with Noro, will painstakingly cut and splice so that they have a continual progression of color patterning throughout their garment. That. Will. Not. Happne. Here.

I am about halfway through the second ball and finding it rather addicting. L O V E it.

It was so easy to blog every day when color week was going on…having that prompt made it more necessary in my brain, I guess. Today, my brain is just misfiring, so there shall be no cohesion or effort toward such in this post. You’ve been warned.

Last week I had a little knitter finishing spree and I finished up 4 older projects. Do I have pics? No…but I was feeling very accomplished and most of the items will end up in the gift/sale bin. I did manage to cet a scna of the Traveling Woman shawl.

I started and finished this on our trip to South Africa. It’s knit from Colinette Jitterbug sock yarn and it is a nicely saturated mix of denim blues. It was headed to the gift pile, but Elizabeth put a stop to that, gently suggesting we keep it. The pattern was quick and relativelt easy and I think I am going to knit it agin, maybe in some Malabrigo silky merino.

In lieu of finishing up a few things, I finally cast on for another Lady Eleanor wrap. I will leave musings on LAdy E to her own post because really, she deserves lots of eye candy. I am using some Noro Silk Garden Lite that I bought a few years back just for her.

I am a little concerned about the Round robin Journal project I started in one of my Ravelry groups. I make every effort to not be attached, and this doesn’t feel like attachment as much as just wanting it to progress to its conclusion. It should be over already, and I have only gotten 4 of the 9 journals, one of them my own. It seems to have stalled out and I am at a loss for how to nudge it along. All things in time, I guess.

On another journal note, I am getting ready to participate in a Frida Kahlo round robin journal swap. I am mostly ready and still have about a week and a half before my journal must be mailed. I am trying to not be intimidated by the project. I sort of feel like I don’t knw enough about Frida to do a page in 11 journals, but I think it will evolve for me as I go so I am not stressing about it or anything, but it is on my mind.

I am also trying to keep momentum with my online journal class and really the only thing for that is just doing the artwork. I find a spurt of desire around it every few days and have just been going with that particular flow.

Maybe now that some of this has spilled out ontot he page so to speak, my brain might get back on track…maybe…