Checking in…

So what have I been up to lately? What has been keeping me away from posting? I wish I could say world peace but that isn’t it. In the spirit of having something up here, I give you bullet points.

• We found out it was a friend of ours who left the lovely Buddhas so I can stop being afraid that they are going to rise up. Of course they still could.
• My FO posts are slow to come because Photoshop has been a pain in various regions of my anatomy. I need to download Gimp or something. One theory is that it is the new monitor and the other is my Photoshop settings (except I can’t find any settings). I suspect there may be an accident with a steamroller in my computer’s future.
• I started running. It’s sad. Little old ladies using walkers are passing me.
• I’ve been playing a bit more in Cafepress. I now have 4 stores–Kisknit, Kisknit 2, Kisknit 3, Kisknit 4. I want to actually have a nifty paid space but need to have items and enough money coming in to make it pay for itself. My pieces are cheesy and probably horribly designed so I doubt that will happen.
• I’ve been sewing! *gasp* I’m almost done with the darn piece. It only took 5 months of sitting out to get me started. That and realizing it’s almost July.
• In just over a week, my sister-in-law gets married and I will finally be a bridesmaid!

FO: Hat for Charity

Pattern: None
Yarn: Cascade Superwash Wool
Needle: US 7

I am so far behind on FO posts. I think I have 3 more to come after this…

This hat is my second-made but first-posted contribution to Made By Hand. This year we are making handmade items for a local homeless shelter and a domestic violence shelter. This is the first of some (hopefully) warm, masculine hats for the homeless shelter.

I tried casting on for this on our trip to Maine but it just wasn’t working at all. I think I cast on and then frogged four times before giving it up as a temporary wash. So for our trip to New Jersey, I decided to try the darn hat again on different needle sizes and the darn thing worked. Apparently for me, New Jersey is the land of hats.

I made the hat extra long and extra big for a larger-sized head. Will it end up actually fitting someone? I’m not sure. It’s not terribly large compared to my head and the Husbands and many men have large heads (not intentionally a jab at boys) so I think it will do.

When it was finished, I had the Husband try the hat on to check size and he almost didn’t give the hat up. I see making a hat for him in the future. A hat for the Husband who doesn’t wear hats. Of course, he did just hack off his hair after 13 years so I imagine his head will be colder than normal. But I like the guy and the yarn was nice so I’m more than happy to make one or two extra for him.

What’s with all the Buddhas?

We are the victims of a drive-by Buddha.

After we returned from NJ this past weekend we noticed an addition to the back garden–a little, happy Buddha. We had no idea who left it, but thought it was cute and decided to keep it as part of the garden.

Then, yesterday morning the Husband came in from his run to let me know that another Buddha had appeared in the front garden. At least he doesn’t remember it being there before. I suspect it’s been there since the first one and we are just oblivious. Either way we now have two.

The first was cute.  A second is a bit creepy, like horror movie creepy. I expect one morning I’ll walk out to get the mail only to be confronted with a cadre of little Buddhas come to kill me and my neighborhood. I suspect they are more around and they are secretly holding meetings.

Or not.

We think a friend is putting them in the yard, although her boyfriend is denying it was either him or her. We’ll see how long they continue denying it after the Buddhas cut out my liver!

Harry Potter patterns

In my current Harry Potter obsession, I give you patterns at the Leaky Cauldron!

FOFOFOFOFOFOFOFO & Harry Potter

Over the last three weekends we have driven to various destinations–Rochester, NY; Maine; and New Jersey–each trip was over 3 hours 1 way and two were over 4 hours. Ugh. But with all those trips as mostly a passenger I have finished 1 blanket square, my sweater, a shawl, and a hat. I still of course have ends to weave in. At some point soon I shall get photos and post. Unfortunately I’ve been re-reading books 5 & 6 of Harry Potter in anticipation of the final installment in 34 44 days (edited: I was looking at the countdown for the movie. Oh cruel world…)!!!!! (according to The Leaky Cauldron) I’ve just finished number 6 tonight. And I still have my theories of what’s going on. I’m going to put them behind the cut so that the Husband who is still re-reading them (I got to them first because I’m the slowest reader) won’t be reminded of what he wants to reread

As I said it’s behind the cut so if you don’t want to see how horribly wrong (or horribly genius) I am, don’t clicky the linky