Flash Your Stash 2006

April 1, 2006 By

This is NOT a joke. I repeat. This is NOT A JOKE. This is really my stash, and I’m warning you now, it’s going to be VERY ugly. And not in the sense of oh my god it’s going to be ugly because it’s actually going to be so good you’ll be so envious you’ll want to kill me and steal my stash, I mean the pictures are pretty damn awful. The light was waning in the afternoon sun and it was hot in my bedroom even though I peeled out all of the clay caulk shit G used to seal the windows and moving stuff around was boring and sweaty and by the end I really didn’t care how much fucking yarn I have. But I know YOU do, so I’m showing it to you. Don’t say I never did anything for you. 😉

Here’s the stash. All of it. I’m proud of the fact that it can all fit into the space next to my bed in our bedroom – and that’s including the fabulous dresser which I now love more than anything (be sure to click the links if you don’t know the whole story.) (Sometimes I just run my hand along the top and open the drawers to smell the soap and look at the yarn and then I close them so I can fondle the drawer pulls. Ahhhh. I really do love it that much.) This is a picture of the bins in their natural habitat:

The other stuff on top of the closet are shoe boxes and empty notebooks (I used to journal and I have a lot of empty notebooks. Now I blog.) and empty picture frames. This is the walk-in closet in our bedroom which holds all my clothes, shoes, other crap and a lot of my yarn. Before you go all feeling sorry for G because I got the walk-in closet, he has a dresser in the bedroom, a WHOLE OTHER ROOM in the house with a closet and tons of drawer space and another closet in another room in the house. He’s well taken care of space wise. Believe me.

In case you didn’t notice, I numbered all the containers, so I’ll start with number 1.

1) This is the fabu leather basket I got at a kick-ass sale at Crate and Barrel. It holds a bunch of WIPs and is usually in the living room.

Among the projects pictures here are the Prarie Blanket, Short Rows, BDFS, the long abandoned Sunshine Sock, the Powell 106 shawl, other stuff I don’t even know about anymore. (If you’d like to see more about these projects, check the sidebar for links. I’m feeling quite lazy.)

2) This clear bin with a white top (one of two) holds some nice (read: expensive!) stuff:

You’ve got your Chocolate Calmer in the front, Rowan CashSoft (a gift from Jen!), ArtYarns Supermerino – in purple/pinks and in orange – enough for two kid sweaters, Brooks Farm from Maryland – two bags, Donegal Tweed for a felted bag, Jo Sharp Desert Garden – a bag from WEBS, various Manos, some Malabrigo, some Cotton Fine left over from my Flower Basket Shawl – or actually some extra in purple as an alternative. There may be other stuff in there, but I can’t tell from the picture and I already threw it back in the bin.

3) This is the JO SHARP BIN!

Remember like a year ago, or maybe even longer, when elann.com was selling all that Jo Sharp super cheap. Yeah. I bought a lot of it. But I’ve swatched some and knit some and this is the yarn I think about most when I’m thinking about knitting from my stash. We’ve got Silkroad Aran in a light blue, Silkroad Ultra in a chocolate color, Silkroad Aran Tweed in a grayish color for a sweater for my dad that I SWEAR I’m going to knit someday. Soon, Daddy, soon. Some leftover Silkroad Aran Tweed in a navy blue that I used for G’s vest. Silkroad Aran Tweed in a lighter blue – possibly an aran for me. I’ve swatched it AND I bought buttons. Kiss of death. And finally, two colors of Silkroad DK Tweed in a pink and a green. This is the stuff I’m always thinking about.

4) The smallish clear bin.

This is a little bin which holds all the stuff that I haven’t had a chance to put some place special. All the fabulous yarn my best pal Kris sent me. A birthday present from Elspeth. Some Trekking and Regia sock yarn, all purchased BSTR – before Socks That Rock. My birthday Starmore collection.

5) Smaller blue bin in the back.

Ann! This one’s for you! In the front on the left is all the yarn I bought to make the Flower Basket Bag that was in Vogue a few issues back. The one with the trellis like pattern and four thousand flowers and you felt it? Knit on size 19 addis or something? Yeah. I never made it. One day. Also there’s some Cascade 220 in really bright colors that I actually bought for a photo shoot I was thinking about that never really worked out. I tried it but it turned out to be a bad idea. And some Chasing Rainbows tussah/merino blend that I think I had earmarked for a Clapotis. Some Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the horried Tapestry color that they discontinued but I wasn’t smart enough to realize they discontinued it because it’s ugly as shit. I used this to make the Pinwheel Blanket for my nephew that I’ve learned to loathe (the blanket, of course. Not my nephew. Him I LOVE TO DEATH!) I never gave it to him. The boy turns one next week. In the same bag is a sweater’s worth of some very expensive hand-dyed merino/mohair yarn I bought at Maryland last year. It’s still pretty. And some Peruvian Highland Wool, another yarn I’ve learned to hate.

6) The big blue bin.

This is the proverbial junk drawer bin. It’s got all the leftover bits of yarn and half used balls and swatches (although I recently gifted my niece a TON of swatches – mostly acrylic stuff – to use as blankets for her dolls) and all the ACRYLIC and projects that I really need to rip and reclaim the yarn. Like I said, the junk drawer.

7 & 8) The dresser (and the little box in front!)

We’ll start with the fiber:

This pile actually makes me the most nervous. When am I going to spin all this up!?! I keep the fibers in the shelves behind doors in the dresser. I also keep my handspun yarn there.

My handspun. Claudia‘s handspun, which I like to take out and study because it’s so beautifully spun. A vendor at Rhinebeck’s handspun. Some other stuff.

The top big drawer in the middle area and the top top small middle drawer hold this:

Here we’ve got the Koigu, the Cherry Tree Hill, some Tiny Toes, some of Felicia‘s yarn, some Vesper, some Fleece Artist, other sock yarn stuff. This is the mostly handpainted sock yarn that’s not STR.

And last, but not at all least, I leave you with my Socks That Rock collection, which gets three drawers (a large and two mediums):

And yes. This one really is as good as it looks.

Hope you enjoyed my stash! God help me.

Filed Under: Stash

All is right with the world.

March 31, 2006 By

Honeys! There is NO NEED TO PANIC! The world is not coming to an end. Just because I say I might be bored with knitting socks, please, everything is A-OK. Actually, The Wise One hit the nail on the head. It’s not that I’m bored with socks, per se, it’s that I honestly can’t see me needing to wear any until, oh I don’t know, Socktoberfest? And really, one of the things that kept me knitting them so fast was that I couldn’t wait to wear them! The natural state, though, of my tootsies is barefoot and if that’s possible, we’re gong nakid! Besides, why would you want to knit socks when you can be doing this?

It was WONDERFUL! My bare feet on the pedals, a nice breeze, the late afternoon sun on my face and hands. I don’t have an IPOD, but I downloaded and burned to a CD the first episode of Cast-On (figured I should start at the beginning.) I’ve never listened to a podcast before and it was nice!

When Ann was taking me for the tour of her house, I commented that if I were her, I’d be spinning all spring and summer long outside on her expansive deck. HOW RELAXING! Just so nice. She said we should have a great big SPIN-IN in Central Park and all kinds of spinners could come and wouldn’t that be fun. Ann gets all the credit for this fabulous idea because really I was just the YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! girl.


SPIN ON SPIN IN SPIN OUT!

Saturday, June 24th, 11AM

Central Park

(exact location TBD)

Are you in? Bring your wheels! Bring your spindles! Don’t know how to spin? Bring your knitting! Want to learn to spin? Come for the FUN! How very cool will this be? TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS!!!

Please RSVP here, in this post. We’d like to keep track of how many people are interested, just in case it gets huge, and we need to look into permits or something. And anyone who knows the ins and outs of the park, please! HELP!

Once we gauge the interest, more information will come. Thanks so much! YAY FOR SPINNERS AND KNITTERS!

UPDATE! I’ve applied for a Parks Permit – so we should be all legal and everything and get this! I’ve been contacted by Spin-Off/Interweave Press! They’ll be sending some prizes for the day! HOW GREAT IS THAT! Thanks Amanda and everyone at Spin-Off/Interweave Press!

PS – Feel free to swipe the button AND the idea! Have a SPIN OUT in your neighborhood! How cool would that be – spinners and knitters around the world UNITE. June 24th. Be there or be square.

Filed Under: Spin On Spin In Spin Out

Random? Umm. How about aimless? Desultory? Haphazard? Hit or miss?

March 30, 2006 By

My left eyelid has been twitching on and off for a week. That means I’m dying right? Or I’ve got some terrible neurological disease? How long does it have to twitch before I need to see someone? It doesn’t hurt. My eye doesn’t shut. It’s just the corner (farthest from my nose) won’t stop twitching.

Last night I didn’t spin or knit but I thought about it. I was kind of in a mood, shall we say, and I didn’t feel like anything but I didn’t feel like nothing either. Makes sense, right? So I climbed into bed and read my book. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. Our favorite Bookish Girl kept telling me to read it and I picked it up way back when and I’ve been reading like half a page before I fall asleep every night. There is nothing better than falling asleep while you’re reading. Seriously. It’s the best sleep. Anyway, I noticed the other day when I opened the book that my marker was on page 500 and something. I thought oh I stuck in there and fell asleep. Reading half a paragraph a day CANNOT get you that far into a book. But I was that far. I’d say that’s a testament to the story. I must really like it to have read so much. It’s a good story.

I LOVE Turbo Tax. LOVE IT! We used to have our taxes done by a friend and then I decided I wanted to do them myself. We don’t have lots of fancy stuff to do – I mean my business is really just a Schedule C, nothing too complicated, but TT gets you through it all. And we usually end up with a nice chunk of change in the end. I know that the experts say you’re supposed to work it out so that you break even at the end of the year – owe nothing, get nothing back – so that you’re money is your own, but we like to think of the IRS as a kind of savings plan. The money in our paychecks would just be shit away anyway. So when we get that nice check in the Spring we can take a vacation. Pay some bills. You know. It’s like a present. 😉

Yesterday I started doing the taxes. I used TT last year so it saved A LOT of time. They just transfered over all the stuff from last year’s return and I just have to fill in this year’s numbers. Voila! They need to be done by this weekend. I’ve got company coming next week. I think. YAY!

I also sent out a job yesterday and my Project Spectrum Postcard swap stuff that is very, very late. I hope though, that my pal, Kelly, will get it before the end of the month. You know. When pink/red is over. I suck. I’m really hoping to do better next month. I promise.

My sister and the kids get back from vacation tomorrow! They’ve been gone FOREVER! YAY! I miss them so much. Not this weekend, but the next weekend, is the baby’s FIRST BIRTHDAY! Can you believe it? He’s such a sweetie pie. Ooooh! I miss them all I just want to eat them up!

Thanks for all the ghost stories. I haven’t picked a winner yet – I haven’t had a good read through them yet. Although when I read Jen‘s comment I didnt’ realize how long I had been in my office, that has no windows, and when I got up and walked into the hallway the house was pitch black. Every light in the house was on in like seconds. I’m just saying.

I miss my Beaded Diamond Fantasy Shawl.

I think I’m bored with socks. And I think I can’t do my sock pals socks two on two circulars. I tried to work it out in my mind and it just feels uncomfortable. And I don’t want to do magic loop. I’d love to cast on for them, but I don’t know how many stitches and what needle size and I don’t feel like figuring it out. Blah.

I need to start running again.

Filed Under: Life

Do you see dead people?

March 29, 2006 By


Limited Edition Sericel from Hanna-Barbera Studios

I’ve got no knitting or spinning (Well I did spin last night and let’s say I was underwhelmed at best. One step up and two steps back.) so I’m going to talk about something else. I can’t give all the details because it’s a client, but a new project has come to me that deals with the supernatural. This person has written their life story detailing their adventures with the “other side.” I may have alluded in my re-cap post about my weekend at Ann’s that I’m scared shitless of this stuff – basically because I guess I believe it. I hate scary movies. I’ve never had my fortune read and won’t. There was that unfortunate incident with the Ouija Board that said I’d die in like October ’88 but I’ve since decided that it was my so-called girlfriends fucking with me. Basically because I lived. 😉 My problem tends to be the fact that I have an extraordinary imagination. And not always in a good way. So nothing is really outside the realm of possibility for me because if I can imagine it, it can be true. (My shrink has often remarked I’m stuck in the magical thinking stage so characteristic of five year olds. You know, the idea that if you think something you can cause it. Like a kid may wish a parent dead, then think it could actually happen.) This contributes a lot to my anxiety as you can imagine. I can think up some pretty horrific things. 😉

But I’d also like to think I have a healthy dose of skepticism and rationality in me. For instance, I’m skeptical of EVERYTHING our current government says. I’m often extremely logical and rational.

I’ve personally never seen a ghost. There was that one instance with my dead grandfather when I was a preteen, but I was in bed reading Go Ask Alice and I probably thought I was high or something and made the whole thing up. More likely, though, I will dream about dead relatives (mainly my great aunts and grandmother) and when I wake from the dream I usually have a feeling that they came to tell me that everything will be all right. It’s not only happened to me, but my sister and my mother as well. And they’ve all had this same reassuring feeling afterward. Nothing scary. Just peace. When I’m feeling bad or uncertain I often wish to dream about them, but it doesn’t happen like that.

Anyway, in the last few days I’ve spent a decent amount of time talking to this person who I’m going to be working with and I have to say, I believe everything they say. They’re earnest, honest, exasperated a little bit and more than anything, they’ve been burdened with this ability to a certain extent. Besides the “supernatural element,” this project is about writing the story of coming to terms with something in your life that you don’t really want – that you didn’t ask for – but has stuck around nonetheless. I could immediately relate to her. My anxiety will not go away, but it’s much more manageable now that I’ve accepted it into my life instead of fighting it and being afraid of it. The person I’ll be working with is a medium, but has been terrified of it since childhood. I don’t know the whole story yet, but it seems that in the last ten years they’ve made a conscious effort to learn about it and explore it so as not to be afraid. To be accepting and open and hopefully have a content life.

I’ve been talking to G about this and while he gets just as freaked out as I am, I’ve tried to explain why I believe what this person is telling me. I suffer from anxiety and panic, which is basically the fight or flight instinct gone awry. My shrink, when he’s not admonishing me about my magical thinking tendencies, likes to joke that I would’ve been GREAT in the time of the dinosaurs. You know when that anxiety mechanism kept you alive instead of making you think you’re crazy? Well who’s to say that at that same time, humans needed to be able to communicate with people who might have passed before them in order to survive? How many of you can say that you’ve never known something was going to happen before it happened? Or had a feeling about something that you couldn’t shake, and only later found out what that feeling meant? Everyone has anxiety. Some of us are lucky enough to have some kind of mix-up in our brains where that anxiety switch is set WAY TOO HIGH. So what’s to prevent someone from having that extrasensory switch set WAY TOO HIGH? In my mind it’s the same type of thing.

I often remark to myself how extraordinarily powerful the mind is – I see it all the time with the convoluted shit I come up with – so it’s not out of the realm for me that these things can and do happen. What do you think?

Here’s a little game we’ll play. I’ve been feeling pretty calm since my talks with this person – like I’m not so terrified of the whole ghost thing anymore. I’m trying to inure myself to all this ghost talk – I mean how am I going to deal with this project if I can’t sleep at night – so tell me your scariest (but TRUE!) ghost story! The person who succeeds in making me run screaming from my house will win a skein of STR Prove It All Night. Gather round the campfire, kids. We’re gonna tell ghost stories!

PS – Does anyone remember that really freaky deaky scene in Three Men and A Baby where you can see the kid behind the curtain in the window? OHMYGOD that was so SCARY! (And apparently false. What do you think?)

Filed Under: Life

The following preview may not be suitable for all audiences.

March 28, 2006 By

I’m giving you this preview of future projects because the ones I have going on right now are either, stalled, boring or in a time out. And really, all I want to do is spin, but I can’t because I have work to do and I’m procrastinating. I tried to work on the collar for short rows yesterday and it looks awful. Really awful. Did I ever tell you Claire’s inspired idea? You know the whole “should I stripe it or not” question? Well, Claire suggested I stripe the FRONT, but not the back. Great idea, no? I liked it anyway. So I started it and the thing needs to be ripped. I love the sweater so much and I think the knitting is really done well (if I don’t say so myself) and I refuse to fuck up the sweater with a shitty collar so I’m putting it aside for the time being. Maybe for Maryland, instead of Passover? We’ll see. I might need some help on it, and luckily help is coming soon. Current socks are boring. YAAAWN. BDFS is ready for action, but all I want to do is spin. See a pattern? But deadlines loom. Like this one:

Here we have my choices for my Sockapalooza Socks! That’s HOT FLASH Socks That Rock and the Simply Lovely Lace Socks from the current IK. My pal likes bright colors and ankle socks, so I’m pretty sure these fit the bill. I’m a little concerned about sizing though, as she wears a full size (or more) bigger than me and I’ve never knit for someone different than my size. The pattern says cast on 60 stitches on size 0 needles, but I plan on knitting with size 1s. It’s a six stitch repeat – do you think 66 stitches will be too much? She said she’s a bigger girl, so that’s why she wears ankle or crew socks. The best part? I know the person who made her SockapalTWOza socks, so I sent off an email this morning. Hopefully I’ll get some good advice. Of course I want these socks to be perfect. I’m going to try something new with them as well – two socks on two circulars! This way I can also be in the Cirque Du Socks KAL!

Neat, huh? You need to knit socks on two circulars, but if you’ve done that before, then try something new. So I’ll be casting on soon – 2circs2socks style!

Here’s another preview:

Thinking ahead to April’s Project Spectrum spinning! (Even though I’ve still got like 12oz of March spinning left to do. Did I mention all I want to do is spin? 😉 ) This fine fiber is from AmyBoogie. It’s her Almost Solid series in Corriedale, Sunflower and Marigold colorways. I saw some of the Sunflower spun up over at Marnie‘s, and even though I have some batts on order from Graton Fibers, I couldn’t resist. I LOVE Amy’s fibers. LOVE LOVE! And her dyes are wonderful too. Look what else I got from her:

It’s Amy’s Handpainted Tahiti biffle and if I had all the time in the world to spin, it would be a nice transition fiber from March to April – it’s got yellow, orange, pink, reds – just a whole lot of sunshiney goodness. YAY!

Filed Under: Project Spectrum, Sock Pal Socks

Just can’t quitch ya.

March 27, 2006 By

My house is too damn quiet. Don’t tell Ann (or god forbid my husband) but I think I might miss the chaos of the dogs and the cat and the screaming and the whip and the laughing. Oh my god the laughing. I don’t think I drew breath once the entire weekend we laughed so freaking hard – my stomach still hurts. My anticipatory anxiety evaporated as soon as I saw the elegant racing stripes of Onslow and we were off. Guess I’m not as crazy as I like to think I am, or, more likely, Ann and her wonderful family and friends are so welcoming and comfortable, craziness is the only way to keep up. I can’t thank them enough for embracing me with such love and laughter. Seriously. They are all the real deal.

I’m finding it very difficult to blog about the weekend. You know how some adventures are meant to be blogged? And some are just friends getting together and you say oh yeah I stayed with Ann over the weekend and we had a blast? And that’s all? It’s kind of like that. We’d go places and we’d have our fun and then one of us would say – we forgot to take pictures. Oh well. We were IN the moment. Blogging is a very conscious act. It’s deliberate. And I’d like to think that most of my life is just lived. You know?

There was some blog fodder though. On Friday, Ann drove me out to the lake for my spinning class. Ann and some of her friends (Hi Peggy! Hi Ricki!) have been taking classes with Peggy E. for about five weeks now. Ann’s been documenting it over at her site and she and Peggy E. were nice enough to carve out a HUGE block of time for me. We’re talking a FIVE HOUR spinning lesson. When we left the lesson Ann and I were exhausted. Like could barely move exhausted. We went home, scarfed some homemade spaghetti and meatballs, crawled into our pajamas and took up our chairs in front of the TV (think Archie and Edith – guess who I am?) and knit the rest of the night. And laughed. Can’t forget the laughing.

Anyway, the spinning lesson was a dream. My one real concern was plying. I felt like my last attempt was really awful (I know now A LOT of that had to do with my spinning, not my plying) and I was anxious to learn. I had some of the gorgeous pink stuff spun up on two bobbins so Peggy E had me start plying that.

It was really great; I learned some fabulous tricks and I really hope I can continue it with my own spinning and plying. To say I was thrilled with the final product doesn’t even scratch the surface. I may have teared up. This is the most beautiful yarn I’ve ever seen in my life.

And look how fantastic it looks next to my skin!

Ann loves to tell the story that the first time we spun together I stomped around because I was petulant and frustrated and couldn’t spin for shit. I hope she continues on to tell the story of the jig I danced because I was so deliriously happy with my spinning. Delirious. Out of my mind. Thank you Ann! I’m glad you were there for both experiences.

There was lots of knitting this weekend, but it’s boring. Or not mine. I’m to the gusset on two socks, a jaywalker and the embossed leaves sock and they both look fine. I’m happy with them. I asked no fewer than a 100 people (the kids in McDonald’s were surely confused!) about the sleeves on my Short Rows. I will be back with a schematic and a question for all you experts out there. Ann’s FANFUCKINGTASTIC friend Claire (I LOVE YOU FLAIRE!) came over on Friday night and we talked until 1AM. (Of course I made Ann stay up another hour with me until I was dead tired because they insisted on telling ghost stories and it was either that or make her sleep with me because I hate ghost stories. I believe them and they freak me out and then I can’t sleep.) I was helping Claire out with a project, this baby sweater that’s got one of the most convoluted constructions I’ve ever seen. So I was working on that with her Friday night and then when Ann and I had our yarn crawl Saturday we came across the sample sweater and I realized we were doing it all wrong. When we went to Claire’s on Saturday to see the not one but TWO cemeteries on her property (cooler than cool is allowed to be, by the way) and then stayed around to visit with Claire’s friend Nancy Christie and read Claire’s autograph books from elementary school (which, Claire, should become your one woman masterpiece. I see you in a darkened theater, alone on the stage, spotlighted, reading the entries and telling your stories. I’d buy a ticket every fucking night.) I worked on the sweater for her. I wanted to be knitting, but I was bored with my own stuff so it was a nice fit to be working out someone else’s knitting. Ann said I was enabling, but if you can’t enable a little, what’s life worth anyway?

I had one of those really surreal in the moment, but looking in from the outside experiences while sitting in Claire’s (literally) 300 year old parlor. There were four women there, telling our stories, knitting, laughing more that people should really be allowed to laugh – one in her 60s, one in her 50s, one in her 40s, one in her 30s – and yet we were all the same and completely different. It was really quite extraordinary. I’m not sure if the other women were conscious of it at all and it might have been one of those moments that I romantacize to death but it was a true feeling for me and I was so glad to be a part of it. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.

No weekend on Lawn Guyland would be complete without a trip to GRANNY’S! Granny was fantastic. A find. A treasure and it was great to see Kathleen again, although our time was short. I will be back! I promise!

Once again, I’d like to thank Ann’s family – her husband, her daughter, her friends, her pets – for putting up with our silliness this weekend. It was my immense pleasure to meet you all and I hope to see you again soon. And to my dear real-life friend Ann. I just can’t quitch ya. Thank you.

Filed Under: Life, Project Spectrum

Don’t tell her cause I don’t want to hurt her feelings, but

March 24, 2006 By

OMG – Ann is wearing me out!

Filed Under: Life

Adventures in Babysitting

March 23, 2006 By

Because I am like a wee child who can’t be alone at night (even though I have my blankie to keep me company), my wheel and I are off to visit our favorite purling swine. She’s still on board even after I cried to her this morning that I am an anxious mess and likely not to eat, sleep or be drug-free this weekend. Now that’s love. Jen was kind enough to put me up last night even though I ran out of her house this morning like a bat out of hell at 7:30AM. No offense Jen, Xavi and Oscar! I’m just Crazy Aunt Cara!

You all have a good weekend. I’ll see you back here Monday. Same bat time, same bat channel. Pass the Xanax.

Filed Under: Life

F is for

March 23, 2006 By

[Swiss] Francs

G left yesterday for Switzerland and before he left he tossed some currency on the bed to show me. I was IMMEDIATELY inspired and said to him, “Do you know if there are any words that mean money and start with F?” He laughed and said, “Uh, Francs?” I was overjoyed! I had my F! (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this ABC-a-long?) I had about an hour before he left for the airport so I set to work.

This is the 8th Series of Swiss Franc banknotes and they have no less than 9 safety features to guard against counterfeiting. They were designed around the theme of the arts: The 10 Franc Note is Le Corbusier; the 20 Franc Note is Arthur Honegger; and the 50 Franc Note is Sophie Taeuber-Arp. I’m embarrassed to say that I was so taken with the faces on the bills, so overwhelmed by the beauty of the colors, I never turned the banknotes over to see the backs. Isn’t that ridiculous? I only realized my faux-pas when I clicked on the banknotes here – the site flips them over for you. I encourage you to click on the photographs above – they will take you to a larger than usual version of the picture. I tried to get very close – they reminded me so much of Chuck Close‘s work.

I hope you enjoy the photographs. Thanks for stopping.

Filed Under: ABC-a-long

Aunti Meme!

March 22, 2006 By

Those Knotty Girls are at it again! They’ve sent us all on a Wild Goose Chase. Have you done it? Here are the rules:

-Your finds must come from knit blogs.
-You may not use a blog for more than one item-all items must come from different sources.
-Finds can come from current entries or archives.
-You must post your answers with the title of the blogs they were found on and a link to the blog/item (permalinks where appropriate) on your blog. If no permalink is available, give us the post date.
-Do not steal anyone’s bandwidth-which means you should not hotlink pictures.
-You need to comment [on their site] and let us know when you have completed this meme.

And here are my finds:

1. A blog which you think people have not discovered.
Kimberly’s blog The Giving Flower – I think she’s very creative.

2. A blog whose author lives close to you physically. Just get as close as you can, it’s all relative.
Jen from Two Purls. A better friend you could not find and she’s like fifteen minutes away. With no traffic. On the other side of the river I’m going with Mason Dixon Kay because I could technically be at her house in like 20 minutes. You know. With no traffic. And Kay is superfantastic cool.

3. An unusual or weird animal picture.
Any picture of my favorite Internet Dog, Petey. He’s always trying on stuff for his hot mama, and sometimes he’s trying to kill her. Or escape. One or the other but either way he’s the best dog on the Internets.

4. An entry that made you laugh and got you strange looks from family or co-workers.
Well, I’m generally reading blogs by myself at home so no one looks at me funny. At least I hope there’s no one looking at me funny. But here are two entries that kicked my funny bone’s ass: A shout out to Jenifleur – STASH WARS was the funniest fucking thing ever. And to my favorite PB Ann for giving us the knitting term Skank. The funniest part of this post for me was that in my mind I could hear Ann tell it – and that made it like a 1000x funnier.

5. An idea you wish you’d thought of.
The ABC-A-Long. One of my favorite things in a long time. It’s been a great challenge for me. Still need to find a kick-ass F.

6. Something you’d like to knit. (Links are to the knits and knitters that have inspired me.)
Am Kamin for sure. The Peacock Shawl. Seraphim. Ingeborg. Pomwhatever Socks.

7. A picture of something you consider beautiful
I think Amanda takes really beautiful photographs, like here and here and here.

8. A blog whose author you’d like to one day meet in person
That’s easy. Margene.

9. A blog of someone you have already met in person.
I’ve been very lucky to have met many, many knitbloggers in person. So hard to choose, but I’m going with Vicki as she’s been on my mind a lot lately. And Bookish Wendy because I love her so and now that she’s famous I hope she remembers me.

JenLa tagged the world. DO NOT DISAPPOINT THEM PEOPLE! Meme on.

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