the Akamai Knitter

I haven’t been up to much this past week. I’ve mostly been working on the sock from hell and various other small projects. One of them is a little alien cat toy (Ravelry details). It’s a little dorky but the cats seem happy with it.

dorky alien!

Since that’s all I got, I thought I’d show off some stuff I just got.

Even though I don’t sew, I recently acquired some fabric simply because I couldn’t resist. Luckily, my friend Acornbud does sew and she just opened up her own Etsy shop. So I begged her to make me one of her cute project bags and a crochet hook roll. She acquiesced and I couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

project bag and crochet hook roll

The project bag is just the right size for a ball of sock yarn and my sock project. What I love most about it is the little charm she put on it.

skully!

And the crochet hook roll? It’s perfect.

hooks!

As for what I’ve been doing with the hooks? Well, I’ll save that for another day. In the meantime, here’s a peek. (If you plurk, you probably already know what they are.)

*appendages*

Happy Saturday everyone! Enjoy your weekend!

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This will be the last time I ever knit with Noro Kureyon Sock. Never again will I be tempted by its lovely colors.  I hates it.

Why? Because it breaks.

The first time it broke was during a detangling episode because not only does it break, it also emerges from the ball in copious amounts of yarn vomit. I tried to be very careful detangling the stuff, but as I was closing in on the toe I was left with this.

I wasn’t really bitching about this though. I figured this would happen as the yarn is a single ply and it seems to me to be a very fragile single. It also isn’t very hard to fix. What really had me bitching was this:

oy.

After much bitching ensued, I managed to fix it and finish the sock. I tried to get a close-up picture of the area where the hole was repaired but I encountered some difficulties.

ouch.

Suffice to say the first sock is finished and I’m working on the second sock. I’m ready to kick this yarn’s ass. Game on, Noro. Game on.

As for difficulties during my photo shoot? There is still no anger for the Sammy because he still wears this face.

sleepy sammy is so deceptive

Happy Thursday everyone! Friday is right around the corner. :-D

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On Sunday the Honolulu Academy of Arts had a family event and they invited us Aloha Knitters to demonstrate and display our wares.  I took along a few of my shawls and my spinning wheel made its first public appearance with me.

Dorothy and Veronica also brought along their wheels and we became a sort of row of spinning wheel soldiers. (I’m supposed to be in the middle.)

spinning!

May brought along her fabulous mutant bunny.

Mutant Bunny!

Teri brought her lovely afghan squares.

teri's afghan squares

Patrice brought her gorgeous freeform crocheted pieces.

freeform crocheted afghan

freeform crocheted purses

You can tell by the happy faces the demo was a success.

Kai and May

Despite grabby hands and parents that insisted we were spinning cotton, I had a really good time. I hope the Aloha Knitters get a chance to do more of these types of events. If you’d like to read more about it, the lovely Acornbud took some pictures of her own. I might even be in one of them.

I have a lot more catching up to do, but I think I’ll save that up for another day. I gotta ration out the blog fodder. ;-)

Happy Tuesday, everyone! Thanks for reading!

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I can’t believe how this week has flown by. There were some high points and some low points this past week. One of the low points of the week was a trip to the dentist to get a temporary crown. But it was necessary and I survived it.

The lowest point was a call from said dentist yesterday. All he said was that there was a mix up at the lab and that I needed to go in for more work. My mouth was and is still really tender from the previous trip and I kept envisioning the dentist with his wicked needles. By the time the I left the house I was in quite a frenzy.

After the appointment, I felt quite ridiculous because all he did was insert some gooey stuff in my mouth for a mold type thing. It took all of five minutes.  No scary needles whatsoever. Silly Opal.

Noro Sock

I started a new pair of socks and that was a nice high point. I’m just using a simple 60st 2×2 rib pattern. I’m not sure how I like the Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. On one hand I love the vivid colors and the rustic look of it. On the other hand the yarn itself is scratchy and prone to producing yarn vomit when pulled out of the ball.

gratuitous close-up

I don’t plan on keeping these socks, but I’m still not sure who I’m going to give them to. Luckily, I haven’t reached the foot yet so I still have time to decide.

Another high point has been all the beading I’ve been doing. I spewed out about 10 pairs of earrings in one day and I plan on slowly adding them to my shop.  I originally got the charms for stitch markers, but they’re much too big for that purpose.

fire dragon earrings *clickety*

Of course the highest point has been having Sammy here. He’s settled in quite nicely and the other two cats have fully integrated him into their little pack. For the most part he’s continued to show little interest in the yarn and the fiber, but there was an Incident when I was plying.

I keep my Lazy Kate on the floor so the yarn travels from the floor to the spinning wheel. He wasn’t attacking the yarn or anything like that.  He just decided that walking beneath it all was an excellent idea.

All my pretty yarn got caught on his tail.

He was nearly out of the room before I caught him and untangled said yarn from said tail. It was rather difficult to get back on track, but I think he realized from all the yelling and swearing that ensued that it’s best to stay away from the equipment.

Yet, I could not be angry with him for long.  Not with this face. Could you?

sleepy sammy

Happy Friday everyone! Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

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Look who came home with me this weekend!

Even though my favorite character is Dean, I named this little guy Sammy after Sam from the show Supernatural. Since Sam is the younger brother in the show and because little Sammy will be the youngest in my bunch, I figured it would be appropriate.

Sammy is approximately 6 months old and we adopted him from the Animal Care Foundation, which is the same shelter we adopted Quincy and Scheyer from.

I really had intended to adopt a little girl kitten, but once I had this one in my lap it was all over. Sammy has to be the most affectionate cat I’ve had to date. He loves to sleep on my lap, on my chest, on my shoulder, on my… you get the idea.

So far he’s been getting along fairly well with the other two boys. I’ve been crossing my fingers and hoping that this will hold out. All of my boys are still young so they should have an easy time adjusting to the new status quo.

Sammy’s also been pretty good with the fiber to date. There were a few problems knitting while he was in my lap, but I think that’s to be expected. For the most part he’s left the yarn alone.

The best thing is that he hasn’t shown much interest in my spinning wheel or in my spinning fiber. I’m a little nervous about plying with him around. All those strands of yarn dangling from the floor to the spinning wheel might prove to be too much for a kitten to resist. I’ll have to put him to the test soon as I’ve got two sets of singles eagerly waiting to be plied.

I’m a little nervous though, I haven’t been very successful in swaying him from his intended course of destruction. It’s really hard disciplining such an adorable ball of fuzz.

Happy Sunday, everyone! I hope you’ve had a great weekend. Next time there’ll be actual fiber content. I promise!

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