a dillydallyknitter: July 2006

Saturday, July 29, 2006

(ôb'zhĕ där')

n., pl. ob·jets d'art (ôb'zhĕ där').
An object of artistic merit.

[French : objet, object + de, of + art, art.]

This week's Knitty Blog assignment: Objet d'art around the house. As you can see, my house is lacking in the art department:



But I did think of this handmade and hand beaded doll. She was purchased on a trip I made to South Dakota and created by a Native American Artist, Dorthy Ann Little Elk. Dorthy is a member of the Rosebud Sioux tribe and her work is been displayed in the Smithsonian. I wish I had a better camera to capture the detail of her work, which is exquisite.

She stands about 12" (30.5 cm) long. Her moccasin boots are 2" (5.1 cm) tall.

Back of her dress, with her tiny knife shield and bag:


Detail of back of her shoulder dress:

When I travel, I like to buy one small item handcrafted by a woman artist. Something small: A bit of lace in Ireland, a woodcut print in Hawaii, a little petit point from Vienna, a basket in the Carribbean.

I enjoy and rely on my hi-tech, electronic toys but I treasure my little baubles made by human hands.

______________________________________________________________

And now for something completely different, the gangsta kitties practice their synchronized carpet swimming:








posted by cpurl17 @ 5:05 PM   12 comments

Thursday, July 27, 2006

The Color Purple

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it. --Alice Walker



I received an amazing Project Spectrum postcard from Jody at Javajem knits:


The card is so pretty and creative and came tied with a soft purple bow. And inside, she wrote about all things purple. Hard to believe this is her first PS card swap!

For her card, I found a mini canvas and painted it purple and added some collage pics ripped from magazines.


This is the card I received from my SP07--isn't it perfect for Project Spectrum? The back of the card just says "dyes" but not where the photograph was taken.



Drenched with purple,
drenched with dye, my wool,
bind you the wheel-spokes–
turn, turn, turn my wheel!
-----H.D. [Hilda Doolittle]

posted by cpurl17 @ 3:30 PM   6 comments

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

London Calling

When I arrived home last night, there was a power outage in my neighborhood but I didn't care because I found a little package from my CA$P!

Guess where she recently moved?


She went to Loop yarn store. I always see it advertised in knitting magazines and, someday, when I make my world yarn tour, I must visit this shop. As you can see, she bought me some Debbie Bliss Cotton Angora in a pretty teal color colour.



She also sent some Dairy Milk bars, and they got a little melty but after a few minutes in the fridge, I devoured one.

I think my CA$P is the very best of British!


I have only been to London once. Several years ago, I was on the way to Ireland to meet up with my roommate and I had about a day and half layover in London so I tried to make the most of it. I checked into the smallest hotel in Covent Garden near the Royal Opera House (shabby room, but great location) and spent a jet-lagged afternoon walking around the City to see as many sights as I could.

That night I went to see "Les Miz" and, as I was walking towards the theater, someone stopped and asked me if I knew where the tube entrance was. Since I had just exited the tube station a block back, I could point it out. I was thrilled that I was mistaken for a local!

The next day I did some more sightseeing, some souvenir shopping and then headed back to the airport (where, by a random stroke of luck, I ended up in First Class with a singer named Robbie Williams and his band).

I can't wait to get back to England someday! And, this time I'd have wonderful knittyheads to meet up with so I'd have even more fun.




You Belong in London



You belong in London, but you belong in many cities... Hong Kong, San Francisco, Sidney. You fit in almost anywhere.

And London is diverse and international enough to satisfy many of your tastes. From curry to Shakespeare, London (almost) has it all!

posted by cpurl17 @ 8:57 PM   3 comments

Saturday, July 22, 2006

Chill Out

This week's Blog stalkin' post topic: Shoot your freezer.

This is a sad, sad expose into the world of a woman who cannot cook. Nor stock food. If this was Shoot your Stove day you'd all be saying, wow her stove is so sparklin' clean. Easy to clean when you don't use it. Hmmm..possible place to store more yarn.

See the black area on the left? Ice maker broken.




Full Frontal shot.



$0.99 freezer trays of ice cubes. Gee Cpurl, why don't you get the ice maker fixed? Because we have very hard water here so I don't want to get it fixed until I can buy water softener. But part of my backyard fence is falling down and I can only handle one Home Repair at a time. Ugh.


Green tea.

Kitty treats. Why pray tell do I have CAT TREATS in the freezer? Well, this is the only place I can store them where Cary, the cat with uber-nose, can't get at. Hmmm, I think there's a bag of frozen veggies behind the treats. Wonder how that got in here.


Now, seeing my meager food choices, you'd think I was a waif. Snort.



To the right, vanilla ice cream. Not a temptation so that's why it's still there. Since Christmas. Notice there is no Ben & Jerry's. To the left, a jumbo sized bottle of Cinnamon Buns shower gel ordered from QVC. Don't ask. Ok, you asked. I thought it smelled too "Christmas-y" for this time of year so I thought I'd store it away until next winter.



There you have it. So very sad. And what kind of self-respecting knitter doesn't have a ball or two mohair tucked away?

posted by cpurl17 @ 8:08 AM   12 comments

Friday, July 21, 2006

It's Been a Really Good Week.

Every once in awhile the stars align, God smiles upon you and the Universe grants you something Really Good. This was one of those weeks. After, months of searching, crying, whining and hoping, a new Opportunity in the form of a new job offer came in this week. *cpurl does the happy dance*



It's been a long road and I don't know how I would have made it without the support of my family, friends and, those of you who knit will understand, the pointy sticks. I wish I could measure how many inches of sock fabric I knit trying to calm my nerves while sitting in the parking lot just before an interview. Or how many stitches it takes to ease disappointment. Or the joy of spending my unemployment check on yarn. (JUST KIDDING)

Oh, and lest you think I've lost my snarky side:

posted by cpurl17 @ 11:13 PM   7 comments

Thursday, July 20, 2006

The Goodness Continues....

The SP Goddess continues to stop at the Cpurl home!

Today there was a package in my mailbox from my CheapA$$SecretPal!!
I think she didn't get the memo about "cheap" because look at what she sent me!! The theme was "handmade" because most of the items were hand made by her!


She sent me 3 skeins of soft and lovely yarn--two in a fall color spectrum colorway and 1 green skein in a shade that matches the striped yarn beautifully. She sent me lace and fair isle patterns for inspiration, a cute Hello Kitty notebook (perfect for knitting notes), balloon toys to amuse the kitties, a great scented candle, handmade stitch markers, a fantastic hand made card, an adorable handwoven pin and a hand weaving 'starter kit' that I can't wait to check out!

Isn't this the coolest card? She wove the fabric piece on the front.


She also wove the fabric on this pin. It's so soft and delicate and the colors are divine.



She also makes beautiful stitch markers.


Check out my weaving kit! Soon I'll be able to toss out words like "warp"" and "weft" like all the cool weaver chicks.


My trio of gorgeous yarn:



Thank you Cheap Generous A$$ Secret Pal!!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My friend SK sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers today--I'll tell you why tomorrow ;)

posted by cpurl17 @ 8:45 PM   6 comments

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

A Good Day! A Very Good Day!

If you read the Knittyboard you always hear about knitters arriving home from a bad day at work only to find an SP package has magically appeared on their doorstep. Well yesterday, not only was I one of the lucky ones, I was lucky twice over!!

Out of a giant Royal Mail pouch came pretty packages wrapped like this:


When opened, they revealed a sock theme extravaganza. And as we all know, I'm a sock yarn addict.


Ignore the white paw in the upper corner, that was about as far as I could shoo Cary, the wonder cat. The first thing I unwrapped was a book that's been on my "list" forever, "Knitting On the Road" by Nancy Bush. It's filled with fab sock patterns that I cannot wait to try. Then there was a pack of Brittany's, my favorite brand of sock needle. TWO skeins of yummy sock yarn. One is from Fyberspates in Wales and the other is an hand-dyed yarn by the Knitting Goddess in the UK. She also included a choice selection of mini Green & Blacks chocolate bars (not only delectable, but they survived 100 deg. California heat! Joyful, Joyful we adore thee, Green & Blacks!). There is a tin of the prettiest glass stitch markers (photo below)




A little yarn Pr0n:
The Knitting Goddess hand dyed yarn




Fyberspates from beautiful Wales


My SP also included the most beautiful card and lovely hand written note. I'm saving the card for my Project Spectrum post--you'll know why when you see it. Thank-you SP, I'm just blown away by this generous and thoughful gift!

And That's Not All...


In a "swap" with the lovely Zonda of Z Knits...and Sews (And lucky for me she really does sew) I received the better end the deal with the prettiest needle holders this side of the Mississippi:




And she tucked in a RAK of some MORE awesome sock yarn!! This time from Sunshine yarns in Massachusetts, USA.



I love the Knitty world. I love Knitters. Yes, we all love the internet deals we get from Knitpicks and WEBS but we also support these women-owned, women created businesses and each other. It's our knitting legacy, isn't it?

posted by cpurl17 @ 9:34 PM   8 comments

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Sunday Random Thoughts

It's too hot to think so I borrow from my Knittyhead idol, Ali and give you the cpurl news update:

Just Say No

So I was working on my Project Spectrum postcard for July, stepped away to go to the bathroom and came back to witness this:

A GLUE SNIFFING CAT!!

Luckily I was able stage an intervention before his sister succumbed to the evil world of craft glue sniffing.

Under the WTF file:

My friend, K, noticed this wierd banner ad on yahoo:

As if the day-to-day job of raising kids wasn't hard enough, stressed out Moms should also worry that their kids are worrying about the level of life insurance their parents are carrying.

Don't worry Mom, Daddy marries the hot young gal from Purchasing he's been having an affair with for the past two years and I get sent off to live with that Grandma who hides Brandy bottles in her knitting bag....but thanks to that LIFE INSURANCE you were clever enough to buy, Daddy was able to buy his new wife a Mercedes...

Yes, you can teach an old bitch dog new tricks:

On Saturday I took a Beginning Lace class. Last night I cast on for this Beginning Lace Birch Leaf scarf, did a few rows, messed up, started over. This morning I worked on it again, dropped some stitches, spent an hour trying to fix a mistake and ended up ripping back most of what I learned and started over. I won't even admit how long it took (an entire DVD showing of Mrs. Henderson Presents) to knit this itty bitty bit:

 Flower basket shawl, here I come! I looked up from my knitting and saw this on the screen:


Looks like we have some prime Knitting Weather on the Mainland United States...

Australia anyone?

posted by cpurl17 @ 11:29 AM   13 comments

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Happy Birthday to ME....

....Sort of.

My sweet SP, who signs her name as "Mystery" sent me a 'belated' birthday surprise! But, my birthday is in December so, for me, it was a happy mistake! Inside this pretty paper

I found an adorable scarf, some Body Shop products and a yummy chocolate bar and a very funny "bad hair day" card!


Thank you SP! You're the BEST!

posted by cpurl17 @ 2:31 PM   4 comments