I’b totally sick today. By nose is all stuffed ub, and yet it’s running like a faucet. Gross. It’s so stuffy that I can only breath through by bouth, so by borning iced coffee was a real treat. I was afraid that while I was drinking through the straw I would create a vacuum and imblode, bossibly sucking by head right into the straw! Lucky for be and cars near be, this was not the case. But I did try to swallow with by bouth oben, just id case.

~~haa-chooo~~

****sssnnnsnnnnnnngggghghghhhhhhhh*****

Excuse be.

But I refuse to be sick for Rhinebeck. Even if I am, I’b still going. Hobefully Kellee and Belanie won’t mind all by sniffling. Ban, this sucks! I feel like I’ve got a whole cat stuffed in by sinuses! I was hoping by allergy medicine would helb, but it hasn’t. At least there’s Nyquil sweet nectar of the sick. And Buffs Blus tissues! Those are the best. Jon has this cold, too, so we ran out of Buffs Blus and have resorted to toilet baber. It’s not a bretty scene at Chez Yarnbants.

I think I’b gonna need a thicker sweater for this weekend. Babybe I’ll make one of these babies. I still have time! At least you’d be able to find be. Just follow the bointing and laughing.

I could stuff the sleeves with all the yarn I buy! (is it just be, or does this look just like Heather Graham?)

I could totally half-ass the sleeves AND hood and end ub looking like a frightened turtle wearing beach-colored wrist gauntlets.

Or I could just boke a hole in an afghan and call it a freaking day.

Today I have shoe p0rn for you. Charlene and I are going to Spain early in November (more about that in the coming days), and I needed some good shoes to traverse the narrow streets of Seville.

No, wait, wrong Seville. I meant this one. The one littered with frilly Flamenco dancers.

I also needed some to stroll in the rolling farmlands surrounding our pension in Andalucia.

Sometimes when I look at that picture, I think I’m just going to pass out from sighing so much. I mean, should anything be allowed to look so peaceful and welcoming? ~sssiiiiigggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~

*thud*

Whoops! There I went. OK, enough fooling around. I’ll write all about the trip soon. But for now, let’s get to the good stuff. New shoes. I’ve finally decided that I’m done spending smaller amounts of money more often on cheap, crappy shoes that fall apart after the first couple of weeks. I will never again slip my feet into what smells like a pair of day-old carcasses. And no. More. Blisters. EVER!!!! Nope, I’m going to spend that money on fewer pairs of well made shoes that will last longer and provide more support than a couple of empty Kleenex boxes.

And so I started this magical shoe odyssey with Dansko, the mother of all comfortable shoes. I give you Folly. This photo isn’t all that great, you can see them a lot better on their website. One of the things I love about Dansko is that they come right out and call it a bowling show. A lot of companies would shy away from this comparison. I happen to love the look of bowling shoes, which is why I picked them out immediately. These babies are right up my alley. har har.

And then I stumbled upon the NAOT display. Wow. Comfortable, practical, and most of all, adorable. May I introduce Camila. These are like hugs for your feet from the second you put them on. They have a removable cork insole that molds to your feet. When it wears down, you can just get a new one. Amazing! I love the little pattern on them, and it’s highlighted with a bit of stitching for extra fancy goodness. I really liked them in brown, they look great with jeans. But I also wanted to wear them with a skirt, and as stupid as it sounds, I don’t know how to wear brown shoes with skirts. Since I can’t pack too many shoes for our trip, I needed a shoe that could be casual or a bit dressier, so I had to order them in black. And yet the brown were so pretty. So they came home with me, too.

I dare say that these are the types of shoes I’m likely to have cobbled. What a concept, shoes worth repairing. Hot damn! I’m going to take them for a test run at Rhinebeck. Give ¢â‚¬Ëœem a little work out to break them in.

But the day of decadence didn’t stop there. I also happened to be in Porter Square, so I popped into Mind’s Eye yarn shop and nabbed a little treat for myself. I got three balls of Marks and Katten “Dream”. It’s got just a pinch of angora, hopefully not enough to make my nose twitchy, but just enough to make me want to pet my future scarf all day. I set up a little threesome to show just how hedonistic I was feeling after buying such lovely things for myself.

And then Mike got bored with the shoes and the yarn, so he brought his toy to the door and said “Heeeeere’s Mikey!” in a very sinister way. He also claimed that all work and no play makes Mike a dull boy, so I decided it was best to do as he said.

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Man is that a cute baby!

Anyway, I have a couple of finished objects! ~gasp~

I finished Maxx’s sweater and he looks very dashing in it. He loves wearing little outfits and does a good job of lifting his front legs to help put them on. He’s a good guy, that Maxxie. I recently discovered that he spells his name with two “x”s and I think it makes him even more of a stud. I learned of this odd spelling in a most peculiar way. Maxx’s owner is a dear friend named Ronnie. Ronnie’s mom was an amazing woman who passed away last week after a long battle with lymphoma. It was impossible not to love Carolyn. And she loved Maxx to smithereens, often taking him with her and her husband on weekend getaways to their vacation house. Carolyn left strict instructions to have a bouquet of peach roses from Ronnie’s and his sister’s dogs and cats placed at the head of her casket. When we went to pay our respects to her at the wake, there was a lovely bouquet from Oliver, Felix, Maxx, and Miss Kitty right beside her. It’s always such a great relief when someone can provide you with a smile at such a solemn occasion, and when it’s the guest of honor that’s providing that smile, it’s even better. It was such a perfect testament to the kind of lady she was.

I managed to get the sweater knit just in time for her to see it, though I hadn’t gotten the buttons on it yet. Knitting this was a major stress reliever, I did it all on the day before seeing Carolyn for the last time. We all knew it was going to be the last time and I didn’t know what else to do with myself, so I made a tiny sweater for her grandpup. I’m glad Ronnie doesn’t have a Great Dane!

So here is Carolyn’s special little guy in his brand new sweater. The buttons don’t hold it closed, they’re just decorative. And I could have sworn I sewed them on straight. Maybe the sweater is just a little twisted from being on a wiggly dog body.

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It has a pocket on the back so he can carry his favorite toy or maybe a few extra bucks for some Snausages in case he gets hankering during his walk.

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Wow, I didn’t realize how much that sweater meant to me until just now.

And here is another thing I’ve finished as a thank you to someone who’s helped me out tremendously recently. There’s just something about being able to make a handmade gift for someone. So much gets poured into it that it feels much more real than buying a gift. I’m really happy with the way this turned out. I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but I lined it and attached an old-fashioned label from Charm Labels that said “From the needles of Stitchy McYarnpants” inside. I also attached metal grommets to the inside of the lining. I did this mainly because the grommets wouldn’t fit over the felted fabric, but I think they might have ruined the look of the bag if they had been on the outside. Don’t ever let anyone tell you to just “pop in some grommets, it’s easy!” It ain’t. Not by a longshot. I ended up tossing the stupid little grommeting tool off to the side and just smashed the crap out of each one with a hammer. Turns out it was the only way to get them to attach themselves. Sure, they got all banged up and dented, but it looks more homemade that way. Yeah, that’s it. Dented = Fine Handmade Quality.

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Hooray for finished objects! Hooray for heartfelt offerings of yarny goodness! Hooray for cute doggies! Hooray for smashing crap with hammers! Hooray!

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OK, in perusing magazines for MOKS fodder, I ran across what very well may be the cutest baby ever. Don’t you just want to squeeze him? He looks like a little Purdue Chicken. I can’t stand it.

It saddens me a little to think that this baby is now in his late 40’s. Or maybe he’s a magical eterna-baby who never grew up. Yeah. I’m going to assume that’s the case. He’s to cute to have a second mortgage and a boring job that he hates.

The knitting masses say Word Verification, and Word Verification it shall be. Thank you, gentle readers. And spam you, spamsuckers! Blow it out yer spamhole! (This may be my favorite new way of swearing.) I love the idea of typing in a word to prove you’re human. I feel that my existence in validated every time I do it. Typing “Ve6t8soK” means I’m me! I just hope that I haven’t offended any artificial life forms. If any of you are artificial life forms, I apologize, but I just can’t take the chance that you won’t turn out to be a spambot. Sorry.

I’m so glad you guys enjoyed the Opacity link. It’s nice to know there are so many admirers of old out there. AND, my sister-in-law, Becky, says she lives near Bannerman’s Island, which is one of the places the guy at Opacity explored. CooOOOool! Road trip!

So I’ve decided on my own personal Rhinebeck sweater. It’s the SnB Under the Hoodie sweater. I have all the pieces knit, now I just need to do a little Dr. Frankenstein magic on it. Stitch it up, bring it to life and voila. If I could only remember where I stored those pieces lo those many months ago.

I’m really looking forward to Rhinebeck this year. I went last year and had a great time. Now that I know more people, it’ll be even more fun! Last year, Jon came with me. What a trooper. He said the only way he’d come this year is if he could host a booth with vibrating Lay-z-Boy chairs, video games and a beer keg for all the yarn widowers who were dragged to the fair unwittingly. (one can only assume that at least some of the guys there thought they were going to a rifle range or an outdoor comic book convention) He even wants to put up a dart board with a luscious skein of alpaca as the bull’s eye. He will not be joining us. I’m heading over with my sistergirls Kellee and Melanie (and Melanie’s lil’ knitters-to-be). My mother-in-law and sister-in-law live up that way as well, so I need to see if they can make it. (Becky, I know you read this blog, so whaddaya say? Up for some gratuitous yarn porn?) My mother-in-law came last year and reacquainted herself with lure of the stash. She hadn’t knit in a long time, but since going, she has returned to her yarny ways.

I wish there were a blogger booth or something. It would be great to be able to sign in and out with arrival and departure times. Then you could see who was around at that time. It would be like a living scavenger hunt trying to pick out all the bloggers in da hizzy! Maybe we could do Blogger Bingo and whoever fills up their card first wins! Oooooh, someone needs to do this! As it is, we’ll all be able to sign a living autograph book so she’ll be easy to pick out.

Now, I’m going to research that insulation as FiberFetish suggests. With a name like that, how can she possibly be wrong?? And Leisel left a helpful comment about decorating. She suggests finding a piece of fabric or artwork and decorate based on that. That makes sense. Can I base an entire house on the contents of my stash? Hmmmm . . . (by the way, check out her blog, she has a hilarious button about Fun Fur as it relates to the flesh of Cookie Monster. Good one!) You commenters are awesome! I know I’m terrible about responding to comments, but just know that I appreciate everyone’s feedback. I feel the love! Mwah! Perhaps part of the turning of my new bloggy leaf is being better about addressing comments. Tell me, is it considered good blog etiquette to do it in the comments section?