the no-frills version

So I had this post all written out earlier with links and photos and all, and Blogger ate it.

#@#(#$*^**(^*#!@!!!

So here's a quick recap of this weekend's activities:
1. made Radar from M*A*S*H* hat according to this tutorial:

2. made belt-loop-hanging ipod cozy a la this tutorial, which is actually for a lipstick cozy:

3. Have monkey toes:

saturday sky

Up my street.

The mountain wears a toupee.

i'll sell this screenplay for dozens and dozens of dollars!

My friend Damien used to say he was looking for the romantic-comedy movie ending, relationshipwise; if my quest for a digital camera were a movie, it would be something like "Green Card" or "Fools Rush In." My camera and I met, I bought it, took it home, and then fell in love. It's so little and shiny! And it has all these different modes and stuff! And it's totally easy to use, but not in a dumbed-down way! And it's got enough detail that you can see my individual eyelashes and eyebrow hairs and stuff when I take a picture of myself with the camera at arm's length! For example:

I think this was taken with night mode, which is why it's all romantic-candlelight looking (or am I just that much in love?)

I just noticed that I cropped that pic right in middle of the white of my eye, and it's creepy as hell, but I'm leaving it that way because a) I'm lazy and b) I think we need a little creepiness to cut the sweetness of this post. So you have lots of better-quality photos to look forward to, once my Vivitar Vivicam 5386 and I have gotten to know one another better.

ETA:

short'n'sweet

...that's me! Just kidding, I am actually average height. No, I just wanted to reassure the knitblogiverse that my green cotton hourglass was successfully shrunk in the dryer. (Also just wanted to spell something with 'n' in the middle, because I'm cheesy like that.) Although it is still baggier than I'd like, it's wearable now--I wore it to dinner last night. You may all breathe a little easier now. Sir, please, step back from the ledge. I know how you feel. But it's going to be okay.

Still hunting for the right digital camera. It's like dating at this point, i.e. irritatingly fruitless, but on the other hand I don't want to just settle, you know? Well, who knows, someday soon that special camera will come along and blah blah whatever. I'm off to Target with Wendy, who wants a new tent. (And they also sell cameras.)

the pit of despair

So I wore my lovely green hourglass sweater to work today and discovered some things. Things that have long been known to knitters. Things which I nevertheless disregarded.
1. Gauge swatches are important. (Duh.)
2. Cotton really does stretch out a lot.
3. Even if you have made a sweater in wool that looked fabulous and fit well, if you make one from cotton from the same pattern, you still have to do a gauge swatch. And knit a size down. Possibly two sizes. So that you don't have to come home on lunch break and change because the damn thing is so close to falling off your shoulders that your back starts to ache from all the hunching.

Also, I dropped a stitch on my Picovoli and may have to frog back like 15 rows. Son of a BITCH. Also, the t-shirt I changed into is one that I ironed an explodingdog image onto with that eighth wonder of the world, iron-on inkjet paper for dark fabrics, and the edges of the image are curling after only two washes, which did NOT happen with my iron-on inkjet paper for light fabrics. (I don't think I ever posted it here. So here it is:

...slightly wrinkly from my ever-worsening posture, based on this.)

sneak preview

Guess what's blocking:

Hourglass #2. Hopefully real FO shots tomorrow, when it's dry. And maybe with a real camera!

ETA: the color of the sweater is quite accurate. The color of my skin is quite Impressionist. I seriously see a rainbow on my neck. And since the rain (beautiful, beautiful rain!) has stopped here, I'm going to look for one (a rainbow, not a neck) in the sky. (Wouldn't it be awesome if I did see a neck in the sky? You know that oldies/possibly country song "I love a rainy night"? Well, when I was little, I thought it was "I love a rainy neck." I thought it was a song about a guy who didn't have a hood on his raincoat, and cold trickles of rain kept invading the space between his hat and jacket. Make sense? No. Entertaining to a five-year-old? Heck yes. I actually do love a rainy neck. Time to go get one.)

it's ALIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

So my days of 60-hour workweeks may be over, which means that I may actually blog again, and even better, I may actually attend an SNB again one of these weeks! (A coworker just returned from short-term disability. Which is good, except that I can't stand him, so even though I was run ragged without him, and with a couple of other people quitting at a really inopportune time, I'm not really glad he's back.) Anyhoodle. Before the Never-ending Month of Ridiculous Overtime, I actually did some crafts. I made the ever-popular McCalls 5137 (check out the many versions rounded up at Dress a Day) as a shirt, and now that I've gotten some distance from it (I always hate whatever I've just finished) I really like it (and will like it better with an actual hem!) and want to make another, dress-length. I think for the dress I'll use something slinky, as recommended, instead of regular ol' cotton. And I am almost finished with my cotton Hourglass. I would be finished already, except that I decided to do something funky with the collar, a la Glampyre's Cathode. I'm kind of disappointed with the way it fits--it's a little baggier than I would've liked, but that's what I get for not doing a gauge swatch. It'll be a good casual top, anyway. (And really, when do I wear anything but casual?)

As usual, please ignore the crappy camera-phone/bathroom-mirror pics. One of these things I'm thinking about treating myself to with all my overtime pay is a digital camera, so if you have any suggestions about a good point-n-shoot for the photographically challenged, let me know!