Phinney market and sewing

We had a pretty good weekend. On Friday we went to the Phinney Farmer's Market, which was the first one this year. It is very small, but has some good stuff. Not much in the way of vegetables yet, unless you like thumb-sized asparagus or salad (which I hate). But we did find a place that sold local, grass-fed, organic, free-range meat (of the 4-legged variety). We got a huge piece of top sirloin that will make three meals for each of us. Holy cow. (haha)

We also got some potatoes from them -- Purple Majesty. Made into mashed potatoes, they looked like Play-doh. But they tasted like normal potatoes. The meat tasted amazing, though. A little pricey, and you had to buy whatever size they had, but Abe just cut it into three pieces and then he cooks that and cuts it in half. I am drooling just in writing this. We also had some organic corn on the cob with it. Man that is a good meal. Anyways, they also sell bratwurst, so next Friday, we will go again and get maybe some pork chops and some bratwurst. Hopefully there will be more vegetables soon.Isn't that just the best looking dinner. The meat really does taste different than the other meat we have gotten. I cannot wait to try those bratwursts.

Then we went to good will. Or was that Saturday. Anyways, Abe got some shorts and a shirt, and I got some comfy corduroy pants and a cool black and white hounds tooth purse with red trim. Then I went to the mall and got a new wallet because mine was pissing me off. Every time I opened it the stupid cards would all fall out. So I went to Fuego and got an Angry Little Girls wallet. It is really cute. I almost wish I had gotten the vampire one, but this one is great and now I am not one of THOSE people. Turns out I LOVE that store. It is similar to hot topic, but funnier.

I also drew some more for the upcoming web comic, including a header image. So we are getting there. Arthur and Georgie are fun to draw. Actually, there are two new characters who are also way fun to draw. I will draw away and then stop to look at it as a whole and laugh every single time.

Yesterday, I wanted to go get some zippers for the cloth I bought to make skirts from. So when I got home, I made a skirt. I also got another zipper to fix a skirt that had a broken zipper. So now I have two skirts to wear. The skirt I made myself looks great. I had to make some darts and mess those up, but I think my shirts will cover it, and if not, I can always go back and fix it. I should have read the instructions in my Skirt book on how to make darts. Anyways, the book is Sew What: Skirts and it is awesome. The one I made yesterday was A-Line. I also plan to make a straight skirt with some green and cream hounds tooth, and a pleated skirt with some green and brown plaid. While I got the zippers, I also bought some clearance fabric because it as 30% off, so I got some cute red fabric that I will use as a layer over some black fabric for a skirt. I think that will be really cute. And I got some yellow fabric with pink dots that I will make into bloomers for which I will tat some lace to attach at the bottom of each leg. Nice, yeah? (FYI, I was totally spacing out every time Abe took a picture of me in this skirt.)

I have plans. I have too many plans. This is on top of all the knitting I have to do, including the new Rockin' Sock Club kit that should be coming in the next couple weeks (so far I am two for two - received two kits and both are already knit up) and the sweater I am knitting for my mom. Another Girl Friday, but in evergreen. It is coming right along. I have the left front, back, and one sleeve done. I started the second sleeve yesterday, but I only got about an inch in. I also have the Raven Swirl (rav) Rockin' Sock Club socks on the needles. I am almost half way done with the first sock. I love this pattern and can't wait for them to be done. Speaking of plans, I also got a free coat rack and I plan to sand and paint it this summer...There is a chance I might have more to do than can possibly be done...

One day when I was working on something at work, I looked out the window at the rain and had a bit of an epiphany on how to tell my water lady story. It was very satisfying. So that is my next big comics project.

Nudie parade

Two weekends ago we went to the Fremont Solstice Parade. It was really fun. We left a little early and then realized I hadn't looked at the weekend schedule. But the bus seemed to be late anyways. There were a good ten people waiting at the bus stop with us.The bus was so full when we got on, there was only standing room only. We almost left the bus stop because we were there almost 45 minutes before the bus came, but I am glad we stuck it out.

At the parade, we were right at the start of it. There were three guys next to us who were really funny. The start of the parade was nudists on bikes. Very strange. Most of them were painted up or in some sort of costume. There was someone dressed as Batman, but I only saw him from the back, so I am not so traumatized. Someone was on a skateboard and painted all silver - silver surfer. Some larger dude was dressed as Pan - it was awesome. The nude bicyclists went on for probably 10 minutes. Shocking!

Then came the rest of the parade. My favorite was the dark stilt group. They had wings like birds and intricate wicked looking masks and huge stilts. There was a small marching band that had 10 people or so. There was even a drummer being pushed on a cart. Awesome. There was another good rock band dressed in gold spandex. Creepy, but definitely the best sounding band on amps. There was a break dance group I felt bad for because before they could really get going, they got overrun by the group behind them.

When the parade was over, Abe and I walked a good half way back to the house. Well, we walked maybe a quarter of the way, caught a bus for the middle half and got off and went to Fred Meyer's where I got some new walking shoes. My old ones are full of grass seed. They are itchy and poke me. And the new ones look nicer. They are a little too long, but good in length, which is typical for my wide feet. They are Adidas in grey with mint green stripes. My old ones are just ugly white ones. New Balance, which is a great brand, but I don't like white sneakers. That was so much fun.

Also at Fred Meyer's, we bought Sims3. When I got home I played for 10 hours and then another 5 or 6 on Sunday. I love it. The Sims look better. It is more customizable. The sims act better (still weird, but better). However you can't do the same thing where you play multiple families in a town. You have to make new save games. You can change your active household but you lose control over the household you gave up. You can switch back to them, but who knows what they would have done. Blegh. So far, I made the Harry Potter crew, Enterprise D crew, the Disney princesses, and some other random ones, including a family that look like mice. I played another 10 hours this Saturday and some more on Sunday.

Last week, Abe and I started watching Chuck, season 1. It is awesome. We are having a blast watching it. I don't have much to say about it, but it kicks butt. I love Adam Baldwin from Firefly. His character is very similar, but not. Such a funny show.

You know what other show is funny. Rules of Engagement. Patrick Warburton is frickin' hilarious. I LOVED him in the Tick. That is really what sealed the deal for me. Haha. I am not sure if it is him or his writers that make things sound so absurd and funny.

On a craftier note, I haven't knit on the Fraggle Squiggle Socks in a while. I am all the way on the foot of the second sock. But Nisa go caught in the ball a while ago and ruined it. I just had to wind it again, but it took an hour to get it wound back up. And I am about a third done with a quarter of the front half of the quilt. This is going to be one crazy ass blanket.

I also bought some new pens at Fred Meyer's this weekend. There are three sizes of nibs and a brush pen. I am really excited for the people drawing class. Next weekend I have lunch at mom's on Friday, a day of walking around with the dogs on Saturday, and a baby shower for my cousin on Sunday. And maybe Abe and I will finally watch Sweeney Todd Saturday night. We have been meaning to for over a month. But man alive, are we forgetful.

Edited: Added paragraph breaks (the HTML was missing before) and fixed some misspellings. The funniest was in the last sentence. Alice instead of alive. I wrote half of this post while laying on my stomach on the couch watching TV.

Stank Breath

So as a pre-reward for cleaning the fridge, I am going to make Abe an acid green tawashi that is a skull and cross bones that will be designated for cleaning the fridge. I will have to make this one up, but I might write down the pattern. I am not as good at crochet, but I think I can do it.
I have another comic ready for tomorrow (we'll see if we can get on a M-W-F schedule, haha). Abe is sketching them and then I get draw them. The last one I used pen on tracing paper over the pencil drawing I did from Abe's tiny drawing. The next one (for tomorrow) I did using the pad thing that Abe's friend Cliff has loaned to me. So, it won't look as nice, but I should get better with practice and as long as Abe keeps doing the sketches and scanning them in for me, I will continue using the pad thing and practicing. I totally can't remember what it is called now. We thought of at least three more comics to draw last night and I nearly laughed myself to sleep last night thinking about it.
Anyways, I am working on the quilt. All the stripes for the back are ready, so I am sewing them together. I have almost three stripes sewn together. I started with the smallest stripe, so this could be pure torture. So far I have the black sewn to the snowflakes on blue and the green is almost sewn to the black. Then I have 3 more stripes to go.
So in other non-news, the dogs have the worst breath. Like from three feet away, when Nisa breaths in our direction, she can clear the room. Amazing.

Okay, I was done writing, but I went to put on the Thursday night shows. The Info says it is How I Met Your Mother, but it is NCIS. A little disconcerting when you think the beginning of a TV Crime series is a sitcom. Ew.
-Angela

FOs and pictures - what you gonna do

Well, I have stuff to show off. But first, this last weekend, we went up to my mom's. I brought Star Trek scrabble and Abe, Isaac, mom, and I played. Jim was on dictionary duty. Mom won, I placed second. It was a fun game. We all play pretty nice, less cut throat. Especially since I don't know when the last time Isaac played was, if ever. Before that we played Boggle. Jim has gotten better. He had at least 8 by the time we quit.
For dinner we went to Cafe Akatori, a Greek restaurant in Bellingham. Delicious. Mom and I split the lamb shanks at rare to medium-rare. It came with potatoes and rice. Both also very good. For an appetizer, we had some cheese thing and fried zucchini. The cheese thing had brandy and the waitress put it on fire when she brought it. I didn't like the first bite, but every bite got much better until I wanted more by the last bite.
I finally took a bunch of picture and uploaded them and now I can load them to Blogger in Firefox, so pictures coming from now on.















Here are the Rogue Roses socks from the second Socks that Rock kit. I love it. I usually not a pink fan, but this color with the weird green is awesome. I wish the picture were better.



















I also made this kerchief from the remaining sock yarn following the stitch pattern from the socks. It turned out okay. I definitely plan to try to make more of these from the other socks kits.














Here is the Spring purse pattern from the 2008 LYS tour. I finished it just in time to take it on our LYS Tour 2009. I needle felted mushrooms instead of the flowers that the pattern used in the store. I got a bone button the looks really great with it at Weaving Works. The needle felting was fun. I plan to needle felt a fern around one of the edges from the back onto the front.


















Here is some yarn I spun. I bought the roving at Weaving Works. It was a blast to spin up. It was soft and luscious. The color actually looks better than the picture shows. It is a three ply using the Navajo ply, which is really the only one I use because I am lazy and the only one I know how to do, really. It is, I think, an aran weight. I have no idea what I am going to make out of it. Perhaps I will use it as an accent on an empire waste sweater. Or a cowl.


















Here is the skull skirt I made. I love it. It is a skitch longer the I wanted. I used a zig zag stitch to sew the stripes of black and patterned pieces together. There is so much sewing in this skirt that I used at least one complete spool of thread and blunted a sewing machine needle. Impressive. There is a second layer of white muslin on the inside. I used one of my existing skirts to cut out a pattern using the cardboard type roll of paper I have. It was pretty easy, actually. I got the courage after I bought the Sew What: Skirts book. Before actually making a skirt in the book.
















Here is the mushroom skirt I made. I bought the fabric a long time ago (a month or so) to make this skirt but kept chickening out. But I recently bought more fabric to make a couple dresses so I figured I better just make this skirt already. This one is from the Sew What: Skirts book. I really like it. It is a simple skirt with two pleats in the back and two in the front. I need to find a ribbon to put around the top where the pleats start. That is part of the pattern, but it would look really cute. I just haven't been able to find any that match yet. It is weird 60s/70s colors.


















I also finally finished the Plug n' Play shawl that I started at the Fall Fiber Arts Retreat in Calgary. It is not shawl sized, but it makes a great head shawl. I actually like it a lot like that. I haven't blocked it yet because I really don't have a place to do it. It is too big to do on the ironing board, which is what I usually use. And I can't use the bed because it has a memory foam cover. But it even looks pretty good as a head shawl without the blocking. Very retro. Abe said I looked like Audrey Hepburn. The someone else who I hadn't heard of.



















Yesterday I finished the butterfly bag that I got from Let it Rain Yarn during the LYS Tour 2008. That shop is closed now. I used some beads I think I got from the Queen of Beads socks, the first kit from Rockin' Sock Club 2009. It is super cute and I got a great fabric to line it with. Plenty left over, so I get to use it in the quilt I am starting.














It has birds and flowers. I can't believe how good they look together. Like they were made for eachother. I need to put a zipper in, but I am not sure how and I would have to find one. It is about 6.5 inches and I don't think zippers come in that length.














Here is some yarn I got on the LYS Tour 2009 at Bad Woman Yarns. Not sure what I am going to do withit, but I love the colors. Their pattern was a crochet shawl, but I wasn't a big fan. I was thinking of making another shrug like last years from the pattern I got on the tour at a shop in Edmonds just north of here. Cute shop and really close to the Edmond's Farmers Market.

















I got this lace weight yarn on sale at the Queen Anne Hilltop yarn store. Beautiful shop, but so hard to get to. We drove around the block like 5 times looking for a spot. This skein was only 6.50. pretty sweet. Plus I got 5% off because I had been there before and I am on their mailing list or something. They had two great patterns, a button scarf (knit) and some crocheted mittens.














I got this Manos yarn at Beach Basket Yarn and Gifts in Birch Bay, which is much farther north than I thought. I thought it was the north side of Bellingham, but it is farther north than Ferndale. It is just so cute. Green and brown and the like. Their pattern was a nice cowl out of mohair boucle, but it was $40 a skein so screw that. I might try to get the skein later.














And finally, here is the skein I got from Fiber Gallery. First skein I bought on the tour this year. Now I have two or three skeins of this. I should probably use one... It is just so soft and luscious.
I had also started working on the Stochastic Blanket again. I may need to get some longer needles. I am knitting it from the center and increasing out. Trying to use up all my left over skeins of Lionbrand Homespun.
As for the quilt, I am pretty close to the right number of squares. I need to save some cool cloth for strips on the back. I think I am going to use a ti-dyed square in the middle of the back and mitered stripes around it. I hope I am not being too ambitious.
Uh, I think I am out...

Busy Times = should blog more

Man I need to post some pics. I have finished the Rogue Roses socks (rav link) from the second Rockin' Sock club kit. I then made a kerchief out of the remaining yarn that matches the socks (though I will most likely not wear them together).

And this last weekend, I sewed a skirt. It is AWESOME. But I have no pics, so I will talk about it later.

I also started the Spring Purse pattern (rav link) that I got during the Local Yarn Shop Tour last year. I think it is going to be nice. I will needle felt some mushrooms onto it. I have a big poster of mushrooms, so I will use that as a model, I guess. I have a fascination with fungi.

I also spent some time working on cutting more fabric for a quilt. I currently have 143 completely random 4" squares (plus 1/4" spare a side for whatever...) For a quilt that is half the size of our king size bed, I need 195. For one the entire size, I need 360 squares. Minus whatever type of border I decide to use, if I decide to use one. Plus I need something to go on the back.

So this weekend I watched The Witches of Eastwick, which was a seriously strange movie. I waited a while to figure out what I thought about it, but I am not sure still. They were all really fun to watch. Jack Nicholson was so Jack Nicholson. So very. And the women in it are cartoonly skinny. I am not sure if they were really so thin or if it was my screen, but Jack Nicholson looked fine... Michelle Pfeiffer just made me want to watch Batman though. (There is one shot that she really has a Catwoman look.) Which reminds me, I need to get those on DVD. I only have them on VHS and neither of our VHS players are hooked up.

I also watched the second to last dvd of season 2 of Boston Legal. William Shatner and James Spader are two of the most awesome actors ever. Which reminds me of Tina Faye from 30 Rock who is my favorite actress ever. (I frick frackin' love that show.) She is amazingly funny and so good at everything she does. She knows other people's strengths and lets them play to it. She has quite the talent.

And finally, I bit the bullet and bought the entire series of Star Trek Next Generation. I finally got the Brent Spiner CD back and remembered how much I absolutely love that show, so I got it instead of doing the entire LYS Tour this year. I haven't even finished all the projects from last year, so it was probably a good way to go. I also found Star Trek Scrabble and bought that. I will be bringing it to my mom's when I go up for my birthday. Got them hooked on Boggle. Maybe I can get them hooked on Scrabble too. What a dorky family we are. All our favorite games are word games: Boggle, Scattegories, Baldderdash.

I worked on a drawing tonight based on the Ingrid Michaelson song Lobesterman's Wife. But it turns out I don't really know the details of what a lobster looks like, so I will have to finish it tomorrow. When I am done, I will put it up on deviant art.

Oh yeah. I signed up for deviant art. Here is "my" site. I only have two things up so far, but I will add more as I do them.