Hell's Kitchen Slouch Hat Completed

I cannot believe that I forgot to take pictures of the new slouch hat before I packed it up for shipping. Auuggg!  The hat is the pattern as the Scott Pilgrim Hat except it was done in solid black. Wow! What a difference the color makes. Black is most definitely slimming. I was concerned because it looked so much smaller and that was confusing as I was using the same Patton's 100% wool yarn.

It was a simple illusion. Putting the black hat on the regular blue and brown hat showed they were still the same exact size.

I named this hat Hell's Kitchen Slouch Hat as I watched four seasons of Hell's Kitchen while knitting it. I think I might have knitted faster without that show being on. Where do they find these people? I can't say how many times I sat there staring at the boob tube with my mouth gaping open. I now understand that I would never want to work or be anywhere near Hell's Kitchen. It's like passing a horrible car accident. You don't want to look but you just can't help your self. I only have four more seasons to watch before I will be set free again.

Meanwhile back on the needles is Mister Sock Monkey Hat.  I am loving it. The main hat is completed and I have done the red trim on the bottom along with adding to the two braids on the side.

I still need to knit the ears and the mouth and do the pom pom for the top which I will work on tonight. I've got the grandkids for the day and I still have no idea how any parent can write when they are called away from the keyboard every few minutes.  Seriously, I started this post over thirty minutes ago.

On a final note: Here's my plug for Netflix and Hulu Plus.  I love Netflix for it's selection. Yes, it could have a larger selection, but what it has is satisfying.

Hulu Plus was better than I expected.  The con is that it does have commercials but they are only a few and the best part of their commercials is that they don't blast you when they come on. In fact, it's just the opposite. The commercials are actually lower than the show's volume. That is a big plus in my book.  I haven't explored the selection a lot but I know Hulu has the old series Time Tunnel which is a kick in the pants.

I tried Hulu Plus for the free first week trial. I am pleased with what they have provided so far. It's a keeper in addition to the Netflix online streaming.

side note:
Interruptions consisted of:
Must go outside to play with gc
gc needs cleaner to clean windows
gc needs paper towel
gc needs to be picked up to reach
gc needs paper towel picked up from floor
gc needs to change pants as someone didn't make it to the bathroom in time
gc needs dvd started
gc needs hot dog
gc needs hot dog cooked and cut
gc needs fork
Need to find where gc put window cleaner

Blog entry finished. No more interruptions.

Hells Kitchen Slouch Hat

I should change the name of my Scott Pilgrim Hat that I'm knitting to Hell's Kitchen Slouch Hat. I knitted all day today while watching Hell's Kitchen season 2. Yesterday was all of season 1. I have to say that I think Hell's Kitchen looks as if it is going to be like Survivor in the sense that each season the contestants  try to be bigger obnoxious assholes than the previous season. Such a shame.

I will say that show has opened my eyes to behind the scenes. Not just the yelling that goes on or the politics or whatever, just the hard tedious work. So glad I didn't choose that as a career. I also realized that with all the swearing, the name calling, the insults that are hurled by Gordon Ramsey, I gotta say that they all had it coming. I'm surprised he doesn't throw them out before the night is out.

I got an email today from one of  the husband's best friend, Roy Bean,  promoting his completed books now available on the Kindle at Amazon. Augg! I'm so jealous, but I'm also happy for him.  I'm also happy for Klayton who has finished his first novel and is working on his second.  Meanwhile, I'm still working on the 2nd draft of Redemption. I was hoping to do more writing this week, but I really do prefer the knitting. Thank goodness I  have Jennifer who is also writing her novel.  Joining a group and setting up that once a week deadline guarantees progress.

No more sleeping in. Gotta get the most out of the time I have available. No more iPad in the morning. That puppy will keep me in bed til noon.

Callussed finger and on the tube

Oh wow! The Scott Pilgrim hat in solid black looks fantastic. Knitted all day and my wrist feels great. That might be due to my having it wrapped all day yesterday. However, there is not much feeling in the tip of my primary finger that holds the needle I got a 25 rows knitted on the hat and I ddi an additional few rows on the sock monkey hat.

On the tube was Conan. I was hesitant to watch it mainly due to the trailers that were lack luster and the eyeliner that Conan was encrusted in. turns out that eyeliner was just for the posters.

I was pleased to hear Morgan Freeman's voice as the narrator. I love his voice. Makes me feel all comfy cozy. Ron Perlman was wonderful although his character looked more like a caveman. The film wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was forgettable. I was disappointed at the death of the witch. It seemed a bit anticlimactic. Action scenes abounded but so did the flaws. Once Conan had what the King wanted, he didn't need to look for him. The King would have come to him and yet they send this woman off on her own with no escort. Raise your hand if you were surprised she was captured.  I'll watch it a second time but probably not again. As I said it is forgettable.

Also watched the first season of Hell's Kitchen for the first time. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. Not that I would ever want to participate in that show. (lol)

Sock monkey on hold

I did get to knit some more on sock monkey hat today, but then I got an order for the scott pilgrim hat in solid black. That should be interesting. Meanwhile sock monkey has to be put on hold. I'm sure I'll still add a couple of rows when I get a chance. I've moved up to the white color. It is so exciting watching it come together.

On the tube, Harper's Island. That was a cool mini series. Got boring after a while as each episode knocked off another resident, but I did really like the ending. Made it all worth the boring parts.

I missed a blog entry a couple days ago. It really bugged me. I'm still working on what kind of blog this should be and I don't think I'll ever settle for one thing. Just my randomness and that will have to be good enough.

Crazy sock monkey and on the tube

Tell me again why I chose to knit a sock monkey hat? It is going to look crazy as well as anyone who would wear it. Just as I am crazy for knitting hours on end on it. I kept saying, "One more row. Just one more row." Of course, after that row, there was one more row.  I can feel that nerve pull all the way up to my elbow. I must be crazy cause  I still want to knit that one more row.

On the tube tonight is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Granted it has subtitles, but I've watched it enough times that I could still knit and enjoy the film. The new version is soon to be released. I've mixed feelings about it. The new version is not so much a remake, but a different adaptation of the book. There is more focus on the accident that blocked the bridge when Harriet disappeared. I wonder if they will also be making new films on the other two books.

Score! Best find ever!

I finally got the nerve to talk to the neighbors down the street and asked if they wanted to sell the Little Tykes playhouse that they had in the front yard. Hooray! They said yes and they only wanted ten dollars for it. Super Score! I even had ten bucks in my wallet.

That said wallet is now empty and I have one happy grand daughter.

Her grandpa went down and dismantled it to bring it home. The bad thing about Little Tykes products is that they are not meant to be disassembled once they've been assembled. Grandpa had a problem with the bolts and washers. Not that it kept him from doing the job.

House is assembled and she loves it. Unfortunately she also wanted to take it home with her at the end of the day. The word no did not please her at all.

I loved how she went inside and used the phone to call her mommy. She opened and closed the windows. Simple child's play. It was fabulous.

Minimal knitting done as the baby needed a bit more bouncing and attention than normal. I got my double pointed needles today. Oops. Wrong size. I needed size ten. I ordered ten inch size 10.5. I'm not going to worry about it considering I've adapted the needles to begin with.

Spent some time in the kitchen today. I made bacon and sausage in the oven for the first time. First I checked out youtube to see how to do the bacon. Four different videos gave me four different ways. I chose tin foiled covered cookie sheet, 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I didn't turn over.

Bacon came out crispy. No limpness to it, but not burnt. Cleanup was nice. No grease on the stove to clean up and my kitchen didn't get all smokey like it usually does. Those are all pros in my book. The sausage came out ok too.  Very hard not to eat it all up before the party.

On the tube: Ghost of Mars Off the tube: Ghost of Mars
Cheap cheap ass sets. It makes me think of watching a film from the sixties. Bad acting due to bad script. Surprising cast assemble with zero chemistry.   I won't be wasting my time watching the whole film considering it starts with an investigating court with the soul survivor of the event.  That pretty much tells me the cast gets killed.  I know that it's an organism that possesses the body.  I don't have the patience for the flash backs in such a short film. Not on my watch again, but I think I will do a fast forward followed by a hot shower. (TMI?)

Off the needles and on again

I totally get now why the ear flaps are knitted on double pointed needles. That said, I am as much a fan of new patterns as I am of taking a test on any subject. I don't know why I freak at the thought of a test, but I do. Any and all knowledge I have of a topic goes flying out the window the moment the word test is said. If I know there will be a test before I begin to study, I will only see a blank page. Happens every time and I did not ever grow out of it.

So it goes with following a new knitting pattern. The pattern called for an increase in stitches at both the beginning and end of the row. I missed the part about the end of the row and so I ended up with an ear flap large enough for an elephant. Perhaps that is a tad bit of an exaggeration, but not much. If I was knitting an elephant, it would have been the perfect size.

After completing said two gargantuan ear flaps, I realized something was very wrong. I had two right ear flaps. I admit that I saw it coming, but I had to see it completed before I looked at the pattern to see what went wrong.  Found the error of my ways. That little extra stitch at the end made all the difference in the world. Cut my rows down to twenty instead of thirty-five reducing the gargantiousness of it. (yeah, I made up that word or just misspelled it) Then it came to knitting the flaps onto the circular needles.

That took some back and forth off the needles as I didn't use the double pointed needles. I didn't have them in the size I was needed, so I used regular ones.  Back and forth I went, till I got it right. Almost right.
After knitting the first flap and adding 18 stitches, I knitted the second flap on. Then I realized I was using the wrong strand of yarn. Instead of picking up from the ball, I had picked up the leader yarn from the ear flap.  Auggg!

I hate picking up stitches. I ripped the ear flap from needles and threw the whole thing to the side.  The little voice in my head told me not to lose my temper and rip out everything.  I know I would rather go to the dentist and have teeth pulled then pick up stitches, but tomorrow is another day. Things always look better in the morning.

I've lived long enough to know to listen to the little voice.

Morning came and I was glad that I hadn't ripped it all out.  With the rising sun, I figured out a way to fake the double pointed needles and got all the stitches where they should be.  So easy, when you pay attention to what you are doing and not blanking out because there might be a test.

Next came the joining. Do not twist. I said DO NOT TWIST. For the seventh time, DO NOT FRICKING TWIST! Wheh!  All is on the needle as it should be without twisting. Like I heard my self the first time. Maybe the voice could have told the yarn instead of yelling at me. Sheesh.

Now it's the easy part. (Famous last words?) No, really. It's just simple knitting in the round for the three to four inches.

I still think it's going to be a lot bigger than I expected, but an adult may be able to wear it comfortably. Alicia said she would wear it. She is a crazy person.

On the tube, NADA. The Vampire Diaries were ok, but I would rather have the peace and quiet for the time being. Threw the Lord of The Rings DVD on earlier today. Watched none of it.

On the Needles and The Vampire Diaries

The first thing I did this morning was get my new black and white floral storage box and filled it with all the yarn and needles and supplies including the patterns for the sock monkey, and the Scott Pilgrim hat. The material for the sweater is there, but I'll deal with that later.

Watched some videos about the knit forward and backward to add a stitch. That worked out pretty well. I started the sock monkey hat. It will probably be huge. I'm using a different yarn than recommended. It called for size 5 needles, but my swatch ended up being seven inches instead of four. I've increased the needles size to ten. So far, it looks good, but I think it's going to be huge.

On the tube, The Vampire Diaries. Believe it or not, as much I love my vampire flicks, I've never watched it. My impression of the first show was great beginning which quickly went to (snore) Twilight without the werewolf but I think I'm only in it for ten minutes so far and then I see it going towards the cast of Buffy without the slayer. What's with the fog that comes and goes? Perhaps a little Alfred Hitchock and The Birds?  I guess so cause that's what Elaina just said.

I won't bore you with a minute by minute call on this show as I'm watching it. That's what Twitter is for. (lol) I would just like to say it feels so much like Twilight. I will scream if this vampire sparkles.

Off the needles and on the tube

I read somewhere once, I can't recall where, someone said that it's not a bad thing when we have to rip out what we knitted. It's actually a good thing because that means we get to knit more and since we love to knit, that's a win/win situation.

Someone needs to to smack that person upside the head with a rolled up newspaper. Is she crazy or what? Ripping out rows is simple as pie. Picking up all those stitches is a whole other story. Picking up stitches is not knitting.

I had to rip out two rows yesterday and I spent a good couple hours picking up those darn stitches. It is not the same as knitting. It's time consuming and you really got to watch what you are doing. I would rather rip out the whole thing and start completely fresh than pick up stitches.

In this particular case I had 120 rows completed out of 135. I bit the bullet and picked up the stitches and I'm happy to say that the hat is now complete and ready to get listed at Etsy.

Now I'm torn. I want a new sweater, but I want to knit the sock monkey hat, and I do need to start a new Scott Pilgrim hat. The question is, do I choose one or start all three?

Meanwhile, on the tube, I sat down and watched Scream. Yep, the first one. I always got upset when Drew Barrymore's character was killed. It was a bit brutal and I like Drew. I couldn't bring my self  to watch it. I didn't have a problem with Scream 2,3, or 4. Just the first one.  Of course after, the first murder, it wasn't that bad at all and it had it's funny moments. More like ridiculous moments. I think Scary movie pretty much covered it. I can't believe she tried to get through the dog door and who has a dog door.





 I also  watched Scream 4 a few weeks back. All I could think of was CSI while watching the end. She obviously didn't think of the autopsy that would be performed. How do you explain shooting the guy in the groin and in the head when he is in the prone position? A little personal, don'tcha think? But the big giveaway would be the adhesive on his skin from the friggen duct tape. So obvious. Not that it mattered cause the bad guy always dies in Scream.

Speaking of duct tape, did you know that duct tape now comes in pretty girly colors now? It's true. Saw it at Lowe's today.

Time to hit the kitchen and make some spagetti, decorate the tree, wrap gifts, and contemplate the knitting.
Any suggestions as to what I should do?

On the needles and on the tube

Augg! Hat not going to be completed tonight after all. Somehow, somewhere, my yarn got weirded out. I ended up with brown knits where blue knits should be and vice versa. I have no idea what I did and whereas this pattern is forgiving when you skip a stitch or two, there is no way that this can be skipped over. That means I get the fun of ripping out a couple of rows and picking it up.

On the tube, perhaps one of the reasons why the stitches got messed up, was the film "The Horde".  I didn't realize at the time of choosing it that this was filmed in French with English subtitles. That made knitting go a lot slower.

Not a horrible flick, kept me a little on edge. I jumped mainly when someone walked in the room and even when the dog walked by. This is a zombie movie with a tiny twist. The zombies move fast as all get out. I'm not use to fast zombies.

I thought the casting was well done. Interesting characters. It had two huge flaws. One was the instant population of thousands of zombies. How did that happen? One moment everything is ok, the next moment the city is burning and what was with the explosions? The other flaw is the building's attraction to the zombies. The building is a multiple story condemned apartment complex. No one should live there but there are a few occupants. So in a large populated city, albeit a burning city, why would thousands of zombies be attracted to this one building?

Another  flaw I see in modern zombie movies is when the characters shoot twenty times into the body torso. Who on Earth doesn't know you take out the head? Even after they kill, the first couple ones, they still shoot at the body and they don't leave a final bullet for their self when they are being bombarded by the zombies. It just doesn't make sense.

On the needles and on the tube

I'm happy to say that I'm almost finished with the latest Scott Pilgrim hat. I'm hoping I'll have it finished tomorrow and definitely by Sunday. Once I get it listed, I'll start a new one with a ten row daily quota and also start knitting the sock monkey hat. I'm nervous about it. I've never been good at following patterns.

The Stitch N Bitch is next Thursday. It was really hard not to go overboard on the menu. We're having breakfast for dinner. I had to settle for scrambled eggs, pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, sausage and bacon. I wanted to add french toast and waffles but no one is going to eat that much food.

On the tube tonight is a movie titled Half Light. Demi Moore is the star of this film and it is a really nice spooky suspense film. Demi plays a novelist who lost her son to an unfortunate accident (always makes me cry). Her marriage ends and she goes to a deserted cottage with a light house nearby. Ghostly things happen. I love the twist at the end. It's not what you may think it is. I really do like this film. It's not a slasher/screamer. Just good old fashion suspense and a little creepy.



Now I'm back to the needles.

Crazy Winds

Only got a few rows knitted today but today was one of those unexpected nothing goes as planned days which kicked me completely out of whack with any possible time track schedule I had planned.

It started with the winds, big powerful, not ending, rip off your roof tiles, bang bang shebang against the walls all night winds. Woke up with no electrical power and I take much comfort in knowing I'm not the only person who laughs at the lack of power and then immediately tries to switch on the light. Walk out of the room, come back in and flip the switch yet again. Let's not forget getting the water ready and popping it into the microwave. Ug! Enough. I head over to my daughter's to watch the girls and hooray. Today is a short day just a couple of hours.

Wrong. Their fence was totally demolished. Well, mostly. What it did mean was that it would not be a short day, but a full day. So I packed up the kids and brought them back here and we had a busy day of running about which was challenging as there was no tv, no iPad, and people running in and out of the door.  I will say it was nice not having to listen to the bell on Blue's Clues which sounds exactly like a text message alert and Miss Dora the Explorer will never be missed with her "oh man".

Having no power has it's perks. No heat is not a perk and I was very very happy when the power came on. I sympathize with those who are still without power. I am grateful all our trees are still standing although they are leaveless  butt naked now whereas last week they had full beautiful red and orange leaves.

The news is full of coverages about trees coming down on cars and houses. A lot of damage has been done and even if the homeowner's coverage will pay for it, there is that big chunk of change known as a deductible.

As far as I know the worse is over. Wind alert until tomorrow at 3. Winds at 30 mph are much better than 80 mph. I think I'll be able to sleep tonight.