Blog #9 or Fall Has Arrived in Chicago and I Sure Wish It Would Stay

Okay, that was a little lame as far as sub-titles go, but hey, I got nuthin'!

So we are making magnificent progress on the baby sweater front. All of the pieces for my cousins' baby's sweater are done and drying after blocking. Later today I will be sewing them together and picking up stitches for the hood. Must, find, buttons. I also have half of a pair of baby socks for afghans4Afghans done. They have a due date in late September and I am, as usual, obsessed with getting as many little goodies knit for them as possible.

I found a pile of fabric that was meant to become stuff for the soon-to-be-ex-gay-husband. I started cutting. It's all easy stuff and the cushions project is on hold while we wait for fabric. Though the client did pick up what was done so far. He was thrilled. I rock. Going back to clothes for the gayhusband. I am thinking that I need to root around in the stash and see if I have more wool that would make fab pants for him. I have one Vogue pattern that makes a fairly skinny pant that looks great on him. I make him a test pair of these pants, but out of a funky vintage barkcloth. They are soooo funny! I must get a picture of them on here. I must get a LOT of pictures on here. Anyways, I am thinking that he could use some of these pants in more subtle wools and whatnot. So I will root around later and find some. I have to dig around and see what I can come up with for a slipcover for an ottoman for a friend.

Onto the Starbucks! I was going to avoid mentioning the day job by name, but then when discussing blogs with the roommate, came to realize that if I mention Starbucks by name, I am more likely to get random people seeing my blog due to the googling of Starbucks. So I will be mentioning them by name in a shameless attempt to gain readers.

After many, many years at the same store, I have, just this week, transferred to a new store. The old store just keeps getting busier and busier. Don't get me wrong, I love staying busy, but within reason. And the old store was TINY too. When I was first at that store, it was all gayboys. Being the quintessential faghag, this seemed like a match made in heaven. But so many of the boys have moved out of the neighborhood and been replaced by...... My new store is easier and faster to get to from home, and so far I loves it!

Blog #8, or Boat Cushion Madness and Why One Should Never Try to Re-use a 20 Year Old Zipper....

So while I am all about recycling, reusing and all of that warm-fuzzy-good-for-the-planet-and-keeping-all-kinds-potentially-still-useful-crap-out-of-landfills, I will never again attempt to re-use any kind of cushion or pillow ziper again. You see, I am in the midst of a rather large job, making new covers for a whole bunch of cushions for a boat of some kind. When first told of the project, I was imagining about 6-8 cushions, about 2"-3" thick, 'bout 16" or less square....then they brought the cushions over. The client had told me one the phone that the cushions were pretty much filling the whole car. He wasn't exaggerating one tiny bit! The largest is rather a triangle, 77" along the bottom by about 3 -4 feet high. There are 3 smaller, but still rather large cushions, and then 5 that I am guessing go along the back of ... something. They are all about 18' x 30". Then there are about 6 more in assorted sizes. I ordered the zippers first. I order all of my zippers and thread and whatnot from Atlanta Thread and Supply Co. They rock, but lack zippers that are 102" long. So I figured that it would just be faster to rip out the old one and re-use it. True enough, I could not have tracked one down on-line any faster than I ripped out the old one. Fast forward a few days. I am finished with the gigantic cover and am ready to put it on. It's going much better than I imgined, the cushion is big, and the foam thin for the size of it, making it incredibly floppy, not helpful when trying to wrestle said chunk of floppy foam into it's cover. But it's going really, really well. I get about a foot from the end and the zipper pull pops off. I panic, decide I can probably get it back onto the teeth. Until I flip the pull over and realize that the pull, the METAL pull, is broken. The metal broke. WTF!?! I thought metal was pretty much indestructible. So much for that theory. So now I have to 1) find new super-longass zipper, and 2) install it into the already completed and sewn-up cushion cover. argh. Well I have now completed both. Thank fuzzykitties! Not that they were really any help, just much needed moral support.

The above is the only really major sewing thing I having going on right now. Knitting is outta hand! Still haven't gotten a single baby sweater completed, though the one for my cousin's baby is getting really close. I have also been managing to get more baby hats than expected churned out for afghans4Afghans. I have about 5 done so far. They go pretty quick. I really can't stand the thought of not sending anything in time for the due date. My pink sweater has completely fallen by the wayside. This with yarn for about 4 other things for me in the wings. I have some chocolate brown alpaca that wants to be a poncho, some buttery-beige Jo Sharp that wants to be the classic V-neck in her Knit 1 book, some pea-green silk/wool that doesn't quite know what it wants to be yet, and some purple that feels the same way. Should I list the Christmas projects I've got listed in my head? It's a little bit scary. I haven't replaced the DVD player yet. Don't want to spent the money right now. I've just gotten better at knitting in bed.

Oh yeah, and the picture posting, I am having no luck with this at all. argh. When, when will the 'puter gods ( or godesses) smile on me and make it all happen by magic?! ( makes scowling face while shaking fist at sky )

'kay, gotta go knit now.

Blog #6 or, This week's goal is to figure out how to post pictures on here...

Wow, that final paragraph of my last entry is a wee tiny bit incoherent. Welcome to the slightly tipsy world of Bettie. Bettie, in case we are wondering, is my alter-ego. This stemming from me saying, years ago, that were I in burlesque, my stage name would be 'Bettiebubbles'. I must have told a few too many people this, as the nickname of 'Bettie' seems to be sticking. This would have been about 1992 or so, before burlesque made a bit of a come-back. For those of you who were unaware of burlesques' return to popularity, well it has. At least somewhat. I would be doing it, if I hadn't gained ridiculous amounts of weight working at a certain huge chain coffee shop that shall remain unknown. I say unknown because I am unsure of the spelling of anonymous. See? That looks totally wrong. But then, I've found that if I stare at any word long enough, it starts to look misspelled.

I have managed to finish up quite a few little bits in the sewing room. I have even gotten all of the cushions that I need to recover measured so that I can figure out how much more fabric the client needs to order. I have made quite a bit of progress on one of the baby sweaters, and gotten everything that has been sewn shipped of to the happy parents. No one else that I know is allowed to have a baby this year! Okay, fine, but if you do, you get nothing! I got an email from afghans 4 Afghans the other day. They need baby stuff. Seeing as to how I still have more wool, I am now feeling extremely guilty because I have no time to knit wee baby sized chapeaus to send off to them.

Really, someone simply MUST think of a way that I can sit at home and do nothing but knit and sew....oh wait! Rich husband is that answer. Shit, being a 39 year-old, overweight woman puts me WAY out of contention for anything anywhere near that reality. Crap.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering. after my last entry, I feel asleep for 3 hours, woke up with a huge headache, read a little bit more of Harry Potter, head still hurt, watched a Netflix movie, still had a headache, gave up and went to sleep. I did finish Harry Potter by about 2pm on Sunday though. No, I will tell NOTHING!

Blog #3, or my obsession with Harold's Chicken Shack

Yeah, about that. You see, they just put a Harold's Chicken Shack about 4 blocks from my house. I ain't never seen one this far onto the north side. When I was a kid, living in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago, there were a couple of Harold's Chicken Shacks. They always had this neon image of a guy in a chef's hat chasing a chicken with a cleaver. Pretty cool I thought. Then my brother and I ended up in a YMCA day camp one summer. The camp counselors would go and get lunch from Harold's, often getting lunches for some of the kids also. It always smelled so damn good! I should also explain that my mom, was the kind of mom who, while being an excellent cook, never made anything nearly so decadent as FRIED chicken. Fried chicken is bad for you, it still has the skin on it....we never got to have any kind of fast food, least of all fried chicken. Hence, my apparent obssesion with Harold's. I haven't caved in and gone yet. I am scared that once I start, there will be no end to the reasons I will be finding to frequent the place. By the way, the one near me does not have the neon of the chicken being chased with a cleaver.

So I suppose since this is supposed to be about the sewing stuff, I should mention some sewing stuff. I have been trying to finish up a lot of little loose ends in the sewing room. Getting little half-done and almost done projects finished and outta here!
I did finish many, many hats for afghans4Afgahns, but only the one blanket. I took pictures, but have yet to figure out how to post them.

On the knitting front, we have socks almost done for mom, which would be good, since I am seeing her tomorrow. I am hoping to finish them yet tonight so I can fork them over tomorrow. These would be her bribe for handing over her yarn stash for the afghan project. I had told her I would knit her socks if she gave me all of her yarn. I thought it was a pretty good deal. I am hoping she thinks so too. I am also working on a sweater for myself. I haven't knit a sweater for ages. I am doing it the right way this time, you know, swatches and gauge and all of that jolly crap. I am hoping like mad that it works out. I am also finding that my knitting speed had increased quite a bit. I hadn't really realized, must be due to all of the hats I've been knitting.

oh god. Yeah, so all of the mail order sources I like to use for yarn buying.....bastards are all having sales!!! Irresistible sales I might add. Patternworks had gobs and gobs of Jo Sharp yarn on sale. There are about 5 sweaters in Jo Sharp's KNIT #1 that I want to make, for myself. They had the exact yarn for two of them on sale. So Bettie did a little bit of shopping......KnitPicks is also having a sale, but I already bought some chocolate brown alpaca for a poncho from them so managed to resist. I am completely effed if Purl Soho decides to have a huge sale..... I need a higher paying job or rich boyfriend or something. Is it wrong to whore oneself out for the benefit of stash expansion?

Blog #2

I am so thrilled! The local PBS station here in Chicago has put Dr. Who back on the air! I have not watched Dr. Who since high school. Which was the mid-80's. Crap I'm old. I am a bit of a science fiction nerd, not inclined to go to conventions and all of that, but close. When I found re-runs of the original Star Trek on one of the channels here, I found myself not leaving the house when it was on so that I could watch.

Which sounds a little bit lame. Except I don't watch TV without knitting in hand and right now the knitting project of choice is hats for afghans4Afghans. There is a deadline on Mother's day and the goal is hats, mittens and socks for children 0-7. That and baby blankets. I don't usually knit quite so many items for them, but my mother just recently realized she was never going to get around to tapestry weaving, or the random kind of knitting that uses up little dribs and drabs of yarn. She had been buying odd bits of yarn for awhile and had it all divided by color in her quilting studio. It made me jealous everytime I saw it. I wanted it all. I kept telling her how much stuff I could knit for the people of Afghanistan if she would only fork over the stash. After she got back from her last quilting retreat, she decided I was right. Heehee. I burned bits of it all, it's about half wool and half acrylic. They don't want acrylic items for Afghanistan, so I will knit animal blankets for Project Snuggle with that. I am completely addicted to making blankets using the log cabin technique in Mason-Dixon Knitting.