Maya returns!

Good news!  The Hubby heard meowing in the kitchen when he returned home from work. 

So he began to call out for Maya.  The weird thing was when he opened the door and called for her outside, he couldn't hear her anymore.  Being the intelligent Man he was he laid down ear to the floor and call for her again. 

This time he heard her plan as day.  She was under the house.  The very place I looked last Friday when she went missing. 

Guess she needed 5 days without food or water and a lighting storm last night to convince her to come back in.

We're glad she's back.

Maya on the clothes pile like she never left.

Zip ties in photos

Your winding up some yarn like normal and this happens.

(Just in case you weren't sure it's supposed to look like this:)

So I did this.

I'm skipping Spring Break...

...and going straight for Easter.   Lil Bit needed his very own Easter Basket this year.  (Last year he was 3 months old and we decided it wasn't necessary to celebrate.)  I don't know about your family, but my family uses the same basket year after year after year and it's a little bit of a production.  We dye eggs, crack open the plastic kind filled with money, hunt for bags of candy, play with new toys and eat a huge dinner.  So not just any Easter basket would do for Lil Bit.

I have been very happy with the majority of my purchases on Etsy, so I went there again for Easter baskets.  I didn't exactly find what I was looking for.  I found better.  Introducing Bridget Stitches and her take on baskets.

Boys can have bows.

The basket, for lack of a better word, was $18, plus $5 for embroidery and $6 for shipping.  That's an expensive Easter basket, until you break it down into how many years you will use it.  In my family that's at least through college.  So Lil Bit's got it for 22 years, breaking it down to just a dollar thirty one a year.  You can't get a cheaper Easter basket than that every year.

What you can't see in the candy already filling the basket.

Why yes, those are monsters in his Easter basket.  And we will be introducing him to chocolate.

Lofty plans

I was so enamored with my Aphrodite yarn,  I made immediate plans to use it as contrast color for the Drops 116-1 a pattern (rav).

When I got home, I made immediate plans to purchase more of the yarn for the main color from knitwitch's online shop.  In my head it was a beautiful grey.  On her website it was non existent, but no matter.  I emailed her and she dyed up a special lot for me.  Meet Pegasus:

I am smitten.  It's perfect. 

I dove for my needles only to realize...I bought the wrong weight both times.  It's a dk weight.  The drops pattern calls for a sport weight.  Let me reiterate that for you. I bought dk weight yarn at 21-24 sts per 4 inches, the pattern requires a sport weight at 24 sts per 4 inches.  It's feasible, I clamour. It's not that bad a difference. I'll just knit down a size, I tell myself.  My knitwitch yarn is an 8ply (11 wpi) according to Ravelry and the pattern is requires 5 ply (12 wpi).

So I start hunting the needles I need again.  And the same realization hits me in the face.  That's the difference of a size 5 or 6 needle required for my yarn and a size 2 needle required for my project. 

So follow Knitters, do I continue this delusion any farther and swatch?  or would you pick another yoked cardigan pattern?

Where were we?

Let's see. Oh yes, this is a knitting blog. That requires me to, ummm...actually knit. Dagnabit! I knew there was a catch. I just had a baby people! I'm trying to make sure that I'm not ruining an entire NEW person from the get go. I can not be required to shower on a daily basis much less have personal time to hobby about.

Let's not forget that after I knit I must also write about it. That's a whole separate issue. One thing at a time here.

Nigel investigating new furniture. Nothing whatsoever to do with my drivel.

And then there's the not really optional photography aspect, because let's face it, no one wants to read a huge entry without pictures. That's why the newspaper has photos. The New York Times is written on a fifth grade level. Hell, I'm surprised that someone hasn't invented a pop-up blog. TURBOchic536.blospot.com IN 3D! Geez, y'all are relentless.

Fine. Some knitting as gone on: a hat (gifted) and 1/4 a sock without any pictures. You happy now? I've got to run. SAFF is coming up and I have to prepare my cover as a faux-knitter so they'll let me in.

Nobody reads a title*

As my number of painfully paltry blogs posts might suggest, knitting has not been the forefront of my activities recently. All the room in my brain has been taken up by converting this:

and this (that's the crawl space under our home I am pointing to):

into this:

We recently redid our floors with a laminate-wood-panel flooring. We had this dreadful builder's grade carpet, or crapet as I like to call it, that was put into the house when it was rebuilt for sale 3 years ago (when we bought it). The crapet was berber and snagging every time I tried to vacuum. That means I was yanking up these huge runners and leave wonderful jute blanks where fiber was supposed to be. Mysterious stains and blotches were coming up all over the place, even though we don't eat over the crapet. Yes, we have pets, but in the other 3 houses/apartments I have been in with the exact same pets, I have always gotten excellent reviews on the carpet (without washing or steaming or any other professional cleaning of it). So the crapet had to go.

As you can saw above we had the original hardwood underneath that we chose not to refinish for several reasons:

1. It was in dreadful shape and I'm in no condition to help. (Still facing my medical condition.)
2. There are spots where it had been cut out for structural refinishing, like adding new floor joists.
3. In some places the flooring didn't quite make it to the wall.
4. A 60 lb dog isn't all that easy on a hardwood floor, while the laminate is a little more forgiving.
5. Construction dust. No.
6. We already bought the new flooring system.
7. My in-laws were there to help install said purchased flooring.
8. I restained some of my bookcases and already bought a new chair, ottoman and a fantastic new rug for the living room.

Maybe after I stop trying to solely recover the economy with home makeovers, I can get back to knitting. Ahem, a little shopping at SAFF this month may help!!

*The other day I was reading a blog and the first sentence really confused me. It apparently related back to the title and while I had recognized the fact that there was really a title there with words in bold at the top of the entry, I hadn't really read it and instead just skipped to the juicy bit. I ate around that title like the edges of a poptart. Anywho, the point is that titles always really stick me, so you get what you get today.

Real Life: part two (in lists)

I know. I know. On a knitting blog you are to do one of two things 1. knit 2. blog.

I have done neither of these things in several months because 1. Summer always throws me into a knitting jag 2. I need a new camera 3. I am contemplating giving up blogging.

But before I do any of those things, I thought I'd give it one last fling with at least the following sitting, currently gathering dust:

1. Pink booties
2. Blue booties
3. Some partially complete Japanese scarfage
4. PoPo's next sweater gone into hibernation
5. My Gilmore vest thrown into a corner awaiting a revival

Or maybe all of the above. Only time will tell.

Weekend excursions

Recently, I got to play matchmaker and normally I would not post about it (talk about unnecessary pressure), but something happened that tickled me and I just have to tell y'all about it.

First a little background info: The Hubs and I were taking his best friend Michael to meet one of my friends, a knitter. Michael is practically a mirror copy of my hubby and therefore extremely good about letting me natter on about knitting and it's nuances. He's very nice that way and as a side note he's very stylish. Anyway, I had already prepared the boys that there would be a possibly long visit to a yarn shop sometime during the trip.

Fast forward to mere minutes before the arrival of My friend the knitter: Michael pipes up that if he gets some yarn, would I knit him a scarf. His neck was awfully chilly this winter. I agree, because really what is better for a knitter than having her hand knits requested?

Fast forward to the yarn shop: Having knit several items for the hubby, I have an idea of what kind of yarn Michael should get, but I also know the most important rule of knitting for others. That rule is: The knitter, you, must listen to wearer's input. If they don't give you any drag it out with wild horses if necessary. We started with an easy question like 'what color?' (red) and moved to harder ones like 'how soft?' (very, but without all the fuzz). Michael was very good about touching lots of yarn to get a feel for them. I swear I almost feel in love for him when he started "grazing" on his own. He's fingers stopped dead when he reached the merino/silk blend, 'cause like I said, he's stylish. He had no problem snapping up two skeins to purchase. I took this as a good sign, especially when the girl he was set up with is a knitter.


Fast forward to hanging out a the host's house: Beers are passed around and there is talk of setting up the Nintendo 64 and kickin' it old school. However, Michael has been set up with not one, not two, but three pattern books and is faithfully browsing them for his scarf. I took this as another good sign. Then Michael picked out his pattern. It has cables. Lots and lots of cables.

In Japanese.

Great. I hope he didn't want that scarf in the next year.

Sock-it to me!

I totally forgot to blog about my recent birthday gift from Grasshopper! For shame TURBOchic!


Last year at SAFF, Grasshopper asked me to pick out my Christmas gift, which I was only to happy to do. I picked out a delicious 'Punky pouch and needle clutch' from KnitFitKits. This bag is slightly shorter than my other sock tote and slightly taller. It fits a freshly wound yarn cake better because of these changes, but can make cramming the yarn cake, WIP on the needles and your first sock a little tight.

I was all worked up to receive my knitting paraphernalia at Christmas (likely to be the only knitting goodies I got that I didn't buy myself) when the little whippersnapper up can held out on me! I had to wait another 2 months to get my rightful belongings as a birthday gift. Can you believe the nerve of my fellow knitter?! Let's just see if you get those wooden spoons you've been asking for in August when we celebrate your birthday...

eating up my time

I haven't been around much. I've been working lots of twelve hours days. There is knitting going on very slowly, but there is also this:


The new washing machine, which as you can see is already in use. It totally amazes me. I sat and watched the a 43 minute cycle in wonder and I'm not alone. The hubby sat right next to me. We both watched the entire duration of laundry without talking. The fact that this machine has a door on the front(!), uses 100x less water than the old machine and barely make a peep gives me the good kind of chills.

Oop! I hear the timer for the last load. I must attend to the machine.

New Additions

I am adding this blog to my roll. Kazooisms. Real life conversations by a two year old. I wish I could talk like this everyday.

Life: It gets in the way.

In October I had some startling news from the doctor about my health and and over the last six months my shed roof, microwave, washing machine and as of today my 1-year-old dryer decided to crap out on me. Let me say first in regards to my health, that I am not sick or pregnant, but the news was disturbing enough to put the blog on hold for a while. However, I'm still having trouble digesting it and coming to terms with what it means and I am unwilling share it as of this moment.

Please forgive my absence-if your still reading.

For moment I thought I was in the wrong year

That's 2007 ravelers online and it blew my mind. I thought I had entered the twilight zone and was off an entire year.

Reason 101 why I am clever.

After pulling three outfits from the closet and discarding the first for being "meh" while the other two somehow managed to both have spots on them that required washing, I was a little frustrated getting dressed you might say.

So I yanked on a completely unmemorable pair of pants and a top and added some quick touches of sparkly in hopes that no one would notice, well, anything. I was about to dash out the door when I spied my very favorite "create" stitchmarker, from this very talented woman, on the floor which had been flung from my bed Tuesday when I lay unable to retrieve it due to a pulled neck muscle. I was already running late so my only option was to take it with me. I dare not put it into the doomed depths of my purse from which nothing returns or slip it protectively into my change pouch on my wallet because I'd never find it again as I don't carry cash. Instead, I needed a place in obvious sight where it could constantly be seen and I wouldn't forget it. My bracelet seemed to be just the right place, don't you think?

Why yes, that is very tricky of me. Thank you. I can proclaim my mastery of my craft and even carry it with me while not having needles or yarn in sight.

(If you haven't figured it out by now, my mother was excellent in the "you are such a smart child you can do whatever you want" encouragement department. My Dad, on the other hand, helped develop my satirical wit. This post was a joint effort.)

Have you seen TURBOchic?

Where o' where have I been?

Was I visiting Alice down the rabbit hole? No. Fortunately, I have not had any LSD induced hallucinations involving oversized talking animals and maniacal rules hell bent on death. (I go to the movies for that.)

Did I forget to come back from vacation? I wish. I really do think my life calling could be a paid vacation.

Perhaps I was just away from the computer so as to reenergize my ability to have witty monologues with my virtual friends? Sadly friends, I am just this insane all the time. Really, if you could make it through just one day in my life and go back to your own-you'd be patting yourself on the back for just how much smarter you are than the average bear. Last week, I nailed the back of my hand, by putting it in the way of the falling vacuum cleaner, because my brain came up with the a brilliant idea to "catch" a 40 lb vacuum cleaner by letting it land on the back of my hand. I am by no means exaggerating the thought process in my brain here. large object falling? Insert hand. Sometimes, I think writing the thesis sucked up all the good brain cells. Other times, I think I am becoming dumber the longer I am separated from the real world. Either way I am SOL.

In actuality, I have been knitting in extremely sparse moments due to life's other *coughcough*reroofingsheds*cough* activities *coughcough*watersealingporches*cough* which really haven't proven to be good for conversation or for good blogging for that matter. Oh look, I knit 5 stitches today after several hours of laundry. Boy, was that stinky! What'd you do this weekend?

Also, my personal work camera was "confiscated" by another department for a "few days." I am the bigger person here and can be gracious enough to let my personal blog suffer. Although I was very tempted to have a "blackout" post where I actually posted black squares as pictures and gave a "woe is me" narrative about having to share "my" camera.

So there you have it my very lame excuse for disappearing from the knitblogging scene. Feel free to email me pics of your FOs for me to post as my own.

Not my opinion

This is not my political opinion. I don't have one. However, I still found this bumper sticker rather clever. First of all, it's witty. Secondly, I love that it proclaims the owner's political opinion, but screams GEEK! at the top of it's lungs.

OMG

Rabbitch just left me a comment. How to reply? Do I try to be witty? Should I just be short and sweet? Is it possible I am more concerned with this reply than I was about any date in college including the multiple dates with my then-future-husband? Yes. Dear Knitting Gods, I might be freaking out. Remain Calm TURBOchic. You can do this. Although, this is almost on par with the time the Yarn Harlot replied to one of my comments on her blog. Almost.

Sorry, Rabbitch. You haven't entered the level of geekdom in my heart that the Yarn Harlot did when she wrote about the unholy passion (for her bohus) that burns brighter than a thousand glowing afterburners on Colonial Raptors. When you can knit and make a complete and totally serious geek comparison, then you will earn a little piece of my heart.

Weekend excursion

I left Saturday morning at 8 for a day with my mom and a night with my friend Noob. Normally I am a very condensed packer for trips, not this time.

It apparently takes me six bags for one overnight trip. But I will grant myself that I was taking not one, but two hobbies with me. One of them was scrapbooking which requires a lot of stuff. Yes, that's the technical scrapbookers term for all the paper, stickers, cutting tools, pens, photos, albums, and pages they need. Stuff. Three bags of stuff. The others include a bag for overnighting, my purse and one bag for knitting. Knitting it would seem is more ready for travel. That's six bags.

Anyway, since this is not a scrapbookers blog, and it is a knitting blog I will just skip over to the knitting parts.

Noob and I try to visit each other at least 4 times a year. Neither of us have kids yet, and we live about 4 to 5 hours apart (round trip depending on traffic). It was my turn to go see Noob at her joint, since she had come down twice last fall. Once for a visit and once for SAFF. Plus, she got new living room furniture last August and I still hadn't seen it.

I arrived at Noob's and was greeted with this:

Doesn't Charlie look like he owns that chair? What a lucky dog. My dog would pee her pants if she was let up on the couch.

It gets better, Samantha decided that she would get in on the action:

So I got a snuggle buddy while we knitted on the new couch. Isn't it lovely, by the way? It was deliciously new couch soft.

Noob and I wasted no time as you can tell mincing words and frivolities. We both knew what this trip meant. Our own personal k2tog time. I plopped down and drew out my knitting. Noob already had hers out. She was ready to learn the bind off for this baby.


Her first ever knitted object the infamous garter stitch scarf. We picked out those turtles and sewed them on for interest. Noob added the fringe herself once she discovered the joys of the the crochet hook. Shhhh, don't tell her that those camps are rivals. I am inducting her as if everything is harmonious and easy.

Because, Knitter's Truth, when you are learning to knit on your own, you don't think anything is hard until someone tells you it's hard. Changing colors? Not a big deal. Stop knitting with one and start knitting with another. The hole can be closed when you weave in ends, but sit in a group and hear someone moan about the woes of intarsia and you'll never touch it with a ten foot pole.

I believe in empowering the newbie knitter by explaining things in the simplest terms and letting them come to their own conclusion about the difficulty of knitting. That might be why Noob loved her sock, but hated the ssk in the gusset. Her idiotic instructor (me) explained the ssk as, "slipping two stitches from the left needle to the right needle one at a time as if to knit and then simply knitting those two together as one, like you would do for the k2tog."


The idiotic instructor thinking she was very clever, because the student already knows how a k2tog is constructed and knit, so it will be rather easy to switch gears into a ssk. The more experience knitting teachers reading this have already notice the glaring mistake in those instructions. The idiotic instructor did not mention that the rearranging of the stitches in a ssk requires you to knit behind your left needle. Poor Noob was slipping her stitches and then coming in from the left side of the front and grabbing the stitches that way. Very fiddly and without much room.

So when the instructor saw the error in her own explanation and demonstrated the picking up of the right side of the stitches, Noob enjoyed the ssk much more during the toe decreases than she ever did during the gussett. Moral of the story? Simplification for Simplification's sake makes for some sloppy instructions.

Don't you agree Charlie?


Charlie just wants more knitting to happen because that woman comes over and feeds him all those treats at breakfast.

And the winner is...

Congratulations Ikkinlala! You're a wiener! Ikkinlala really hit home when she said, "What really makes a birthday celebrated (for me) is the family birthday dinner. For the past few years, mine has been more than a month after my actual birthday - which is okay with me. I like to stretch it out. Friends, yarn, and alcohol sounds like a good combination, too. I hope you have a great time!"

I couldn't agree more. For many years getting together for dinner with my family has been my birthday party. I love sharing quality time with my closest relatives and loved ones, who thankfully aren't insane. It really gives the reason for a celebration...

...That and they hand out money I can spend on yarn.

New Years Eve

New Years Eve is always such an anti-climatic holiday. You wait up to all hours of the night to count down from ten to watch the clock change. (Yes, I am 26, but my sleep regime is that of an 80 year old.) Then there are all those resolutions people make and break within one week.

Plus, January 1st is never as grand as you expect. The world is not all sparkley and shiney-it's just the regular old same world. Unless it's your birthday; I have a whole different opinion for birthdays.

So for this blog's New Years Eve post there will be nothing new either. I will post, yet again, about my show-and-tell gift. This time it's the month of January from my animal calendar this year, which I am more than slightly fanatic about because Older Brother picked this out for me. He always gets me my animal calendar. Sometimes it's guinea pigs and sometimes it's frogs, but the fact remains that I adore his effort picking it out for me. It makes it special.

See you in the New Year!