Yahoo! Yesterday was a snow day! It was so nice...Got up at 5am to see if the university was closed...and it was....so promptly went back to bed and slept until 10AM. Then, we went grocery shopping, and I made pancakes and we had a day of cleaning, knitting and hanging out. It was so great...and all because of an inch of snow. (I know all you notherners are snickering behind your hands, and that's okay...we're pretty pathetic in Georgia when it comes to winter weather! The news becomes STORM WATCH 2004 when there's the slightest chance of snow or ice.)

Thanks for all your comments on my little pink cardi! Oh, how I love her. And Alison must have been reading my mind because I added a little button at the top! It's a little pearly pink button. I can't wait for the weather to get a little warmer so I can wear it to work.

But I finished something else on Wednesday night at knitting group! My blue top down raglan is completed. It is blocking as I type, and it looks great! I went ahead and made it short sleeved since I've really been wanting to finish it and cap sleeves look so cute on a raglan. Pictures of that tomorrow!

I got the new Interweave Knits in anticipation of my No-Sweat Pants Homespun yarn arriving from Bonne Marie. And I freakin' love some of these patterns! There is a cute faux-mandarin cardigan and a cute little top called Polka Purl Dots. Of course, the Pants are the first on my list...but I'm excited to have some other patterns in waiting. Not that I'm buying any yarn...no ma'am...I'm saving up because we might be moving into a new house!

Hooray! We are waiting to get the details squared away but we have found an absolutely wonderful house that's a little bit outside of Athens. Currently, we live very close to downtown, and our house (though very cute) is very old..historic, if you will...which means no central heat and air and old phone lines and wiring. All of these things=expensive bills. This new house is huge, with a HUGE yard for our dogs, and has all those things that we need to live affordably and comfortably. I could definitely see us staying in this house for a little while.

So send me and Jacob good luck vibes because we really want this to work out. We have to get out of current lease, get money for rent and security deposit, etc. etc.... With a little help from family, I think it will happen...I'm still nervous though! I don't think I've seen Jacob this excited about something since he got his PlayStation2 for Christmas!

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Here's my little pink cardi in her all her happy newness AFTER the revisions:

yay! I'm a snazzy pink cardi with a little white trim.

I like it so much better now. I didn't really change THAT much, but it looks so different to me. (Here's a shot of the old one if you need a reminder.)

Things I fixed:
-lopsided brown sleeves were turned into cap sleeves that match.
-sloppy cast off at bottom was unraveled, and I added an inch or two of K1P1 ribbing
-I added buttonbands down the front of the cardi! (this was my firsy foray into buttonbands, and they really weren't that bad. Now, mine are a tiny bit sloppy but I think next time I will really be able to make them look good. I simply cast on 10 sts, k1p1 for the length of the sweater, and mattressed stitched them on . Voila!)

I'm so happy that I decided to fix it. I think I'll actually wear it to work! Here are more pics if you want to see it more closely (click to enlarge)...

pink lady!	here's the back!
on the couch	finally, a dancing shot!

Uhh..just kidding. I'll leave that to the experts.

it's almost payday...I get to buy the new Interweave Knits so I can make some No-Sweat Pants! Bonne Marie of Chicknits is graciously sharing her stash of Homespun if she gets some Sweat Pant pics in return. This will be fun! I need some lounge around pants....

have a great day!

p.s. check out the awesome button (on the right sidebar) that the talented Missa made for me! She has all kinds of fun buttons on her site!!

Posted by Carrieoke at 8:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

So, I had a weekend chock full of activity, but I still found me some time to knit..(and some Jacob time too!) On Saturday night we celebrated our friend Leslie's birthday in one of my favorite ways...we went to our local Chinese restaurant and had a karaoke banquet! Now, I've never done karaoke in a Chinese restaurant before..it was so awesome. The mics were wireless, so one could, hypothetically, sing "Genie in a Bottle" while eating chicken wings. Oh wait...I did that. And it was so fun. Then, we moved to a friend's house and Jacob and I helped to continue the karaoke madness by bringing over OUR karaoke machine...it was good times.

Sunday was the finale of Sex and the City. Oh, sadness. My sis Cathy had a little get-together so we could watch and weep together. It was so, so good. Why did it have to end? Couldn't they have gone on forever and been the Golden Girls of the 21st century? Oh, well. At least we have the DVD sets. (By the way, do you know which Golden Girl you are? I hate to admit it, but I think I'm Rose....)

So, I bet you thought I worked on my log cabin, didn't you? Well I did...a little.
Here's my progress so far. But you know what project enticed me this weekend? Fixing my sad little cardie! And I worked hard on it...I can't wait to unveil the whole sweater to you in a dramatic Trading Spaces-like reveal but I'm going to show you a few tidbits before...

Here's the new sleeve:

(this is the old sleeve in case you forgot)

and here's a little ribbing I added to the bottom:

do you like it so far? I'm getting excited...I might actually wear it! She's becoming quite the little sporty number. I'm almost done with my top down raglan, too, if anyone is keeping track. It should be done by this weekend if I am diligent. Yay knitting time!

Jacob and I are on the hunt for a new house for next year...since this is a college town, people pre-lease super early and our landlords want an answer very, very soon. Send successful house hunting vibes...we need 'em!

Check out the very cute banner that Cathy made for her teaching website. I love the crazy lady with the books!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Yay! I've been playing with my banner again, do you like? It's fun to have Photoshop and fast internet....the possibilities are endless.

All I've been doing is knitting on my log cabin square/blanket. This is very irresponsible of me...I have a top down raglan and a Chickami to finish! But my little Log Cabin square keeps calling to me...please, knit another row....it's so fast and easy...and I keep doing it. Probably will all weekend too. So there!

A couple of days ago, Jacob actually presented this question to me: "If you had to choose between never knitting again, or never seeing me again, what would you pick?" Ouch. I guess I've been knitting a little too much lately and neglecting my boyfriend. Of course I pretended to think about it...but really now. Did he have to even ask the question? (And yes, I would pick him, even though that would never, ever, ever happen...right?) So, note to self: spend a little less time knitting on the couch and little more time with Jacob. That I can do!

I've recently been reading Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Without Tears. She is so funny, and so down to earth in the book, and really makes me think again that I don't always have to follow a pattern and I can knit however I feel comfortable. This passage particularly makes me laugh:

Love that. And she said 'Pish' , which seems like a good exclamation to me. Her whole book is full of dry wit and intelligent information about knitting. I also especially like her take on gauge...she almost suggests completely ignoring the gauge on patterns. Now, I know I can't look at yarn and know what needles I need, but it made me feel a lot better about having to go up or down needles sizes so often.

Sorry this turned into a book review, but this book rocks.

Hope you have a happy weekend filled with knitting...I plan to!

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)

So I was getting excited about my rip fest when Susan and Allison and then everyone else (see yesterday's comments!) realized that I steeked the damn sweater and all I'm gonna get if I frog it is a lot of little strands of yarn. While this would be exciting for my dogs to play with, I'm not really interested in having little strands of yarn. I wanted a big long strand of yarn. Like six balls of worth. Grr...

But, this gives me a chance to be the boss of my knitting. So, my plan is to use yet another color...cream!...fix the sleeves, make it longer, pick up and knit a buttonband, and either give it to a friend or donate it to charity. So there. Now, this will all probably happen in 2006...but at least I have a plan now.

And who can think about doing that when I'm log cabin-ing like a crazy woman? Check out my blanket-to-be...don't laugh at the crazy colors. I'm using whatever I have to make the blanket so we've got some color clash going on. But it's okay...it'll be retro. Or something like that.

do you like me? I'm a log cabin blanket!

I love, love doing this. I know it's not perfect. It may even be a trapezoid instead of a square. But it's gonna be my beautiful squishy cotton blanket when it's done, and me and my schmoos will love it forever. Yay knitting!

Last night was knitting group and I brought my camera to capture the moment. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are my knitting girls:

Crazy Leslie eating a calzone and knitting some sideways gloves.	Camille working on a bag with fun yarn and bamboo handles.
Jenna looking very seriously at her seven day afghan that is taking lots more than seven days.	and here's me, log cabin-ing! Don't I look happy?

Thanks for all your comments on my sad little sweater. I'll be sure to keep you posted on its progress!

And, hey, while you're here, go check the Purling Puppies Web Ring! We've got 29 awesome members and there's always room for more.

have a great day!

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Here is the first top down raglan I ever made. She is made of 100% cotton yarn bought on Ebay and Smileys Yarns.

But I don't know if I can bring myself to frog it...it's my first top down sweater, and I was a young knitter then...those were the days. Just kidding.

But seriously, I went home last night, pulled out every scrap and strand of cotton yarn I have, and went to town starting a log cabin square(by the way, that's an example fron Mason Dixon Knitting, not my square!!)

And dude, I'm going to make it a log cabin blanket. It's so fun and easy. I seriously did it for like 4 hours straight, watching "Iron Jawed Angels" on HBO, (stop laughing Cathy) and Sex and the City. So, the point is, I need the 6 balls of cotton yarn that are tied up in that rinky dink sweater for my new fabby blanket. What should I do?

I'll probably frog it. So much for being sentimental. I'm too poor to waste good yarn.

Today I was walking around downtown Athens and a stranger stopped me and said, "hey, weren't you in a play on Saturday? I saw you! You were great!" I felt so happy that he actually stopped and said something that I started gushing..."Thank you! That's so nice! Thanks for coming! Hee! Hee!" I'm sure he thought I was insane. But hey, it was nice of him to stop!

Tonight I'm doing something I haven't done in a while...waiting tables. I picked up a shift at the restaurant I used to work at to help out a friend, and help myself, because I could really use the extra money. Hope I haven't lost my mad waitressing charms. Ha.

Make sure you go visit Bethany tomorrow..it's her birthday!

Also, Sarah made a really cute ribby shell. Check it out!

But before you go, leave me a comment and tell me it's okay to rip out my first top down sweater. Please. I need your support.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How I missed you so! I was sick for two days...Thursday and Friday of last week...and I felt so out of it when I got to my computer and started reading blogs. Is this an unhealthy addiction? I think I was having withdrawals...But hi, I'm back. I had two shows this weekend, and they both went very well, hooray! and now I have a break until April when we re-open the show in a new theater with an even larger house to fill. (our current stage sat 72, this one will sit at least 140, maybe more! Yahoo!) So, plan your trips to Athens for April and May so you can come see my show. Tee hee.

Got lots of knitting done this weekend...I worked hard on my top down raglan, and I actually tried it one for the first time in a while. I still need 3 or 4 more inches on the body to be done. So I kept knitting. And knitting. I'm ever so much closer...but not there yet. At least I'm working on it.

And, I had a good heart to heart with my works in progress. Chickami? Wrong yarn, wrong gauge, just wrong. R-R-R-I-P-P! Frogged it. I had started Demure with some yarn that was so NOT even close to the right gauge that I doubled it and then realized how silly it looked...R-R-I-I-P-P! Frogged that too. It was all very refreshing.

But it made me realize that I need to knit with the yarn I've got so I can clean that stash out, save me some money, and get yarn that matches the projects I want to do! Luckily, I have had some Katia Idea in my stash for a while and I've been waiting for a good project for it. I got gauge for a Chickami, so I started a wide strap Chickami with that. (My yarn is a creamy off white color.)

And, after surfing the knit blogs today, I am so going to make some afghan squares and swatches in this fabby way...Log Cabin Style! Go to Mason-Dixon Knitting for an excellent how to log-cabin post and general good times. They are really freakin' funny.

Okay, I know this is long, but a few more fun things to tell ya....my friend Karen from Knit N Purl Diva sent me this fabby knitting book in the mail. It's from 1947, and it totally rocks. Let me show you the ones I want to make...
One Piece Suit or Ribby Goodness
or

This one's my fave!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Today has been a busy day over here at Carrieoke's little blog. See, I'm trying to revamp a little, and get organized, and tweak my design skills.

So.

I'm still not brave enough to try writing my own CSS from scratch. But I have no problem taking a template and customizing with colors and text and font variation, etc. etc. So check out a little something I'm trying to work out for the blog. The design is from Blogstyles, with a little customizing from me. I'm trying to make the transition from the main page to the photo page seamless...well, sort of, anyways. But you get the picture.

And I finished my legwarmers!

dancin', dancin' machine! watch her get down! watch her get down!

And I so wore them to work today, because my legs were cold. I told my bosses that my legwarmers were purely functional, and that I did NOT think they were a great and professional fashion statement.

I mean, they are a fashion statement...but not in the office world. Ya dig?

I think I will post the pattern, just so I know I actually wrote it down. I'll probably lose it if I don't. Tonight I will hopefully be knitting and working on crafty things with some of my knitting girls, and spending time with Jacob and the schmoos. That can all happen together, right?

I will finish my sweater. This week. I promise. Aarrgh. Somebody chastise me for procrastinating! I'm never going to do it!!! And I want to wear it!

By the way, through Mariko's blog, I found Dogster. Oh yeah. It's like Friendster for dogs. And you know Miss Bella has got herself a Dogster page now! Chili's will be up soon. Go make a page for your dog and make friends with mine.

I have too much spare time.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Yahoo! Opening night was so fun....we sold out the house, bay-bee!! And the show went well. I didn't forget my lines and my voice didn't crack. Hurrah! And get this...our show for next week is alreay sold out too! Yay. I love me some theater. Thanks for all the good luck vibes..it totally helped.

So what did I do after having a lovely show on Friday? I knit all weekend and hung out with my sis Cathy. We shopped (although Cathy is the strong arm of the law and wouldn't let me spend any money) and played around in Athens for a while. Looked for bridesmaid dresses, looked at a church for the wedding. It was lots of fun, although it was freakin' COLD and WINDY in Athens. Grr.

That night, I decided that I definitely needed to procrastinate a little bit more on finishing my top down sweater. So what did I do? I knit up a legwarmer!

you like?

I like it a lot. (Sorry it's a little blurry. I was using my remote control for my camera and balancing my skinny little leg on the chair...it was quite a task for me...)

I made up the pattern myself, used some inexpensive acrylic yarn that I had laying around, and kept trying on the legwarmer to see if I liked the fit. And I do! What a fun, easy thing to knit. Now, if I had spent all that time on my raglan, I would probably be in sleeve territory now...but I figure if I keep procrastinating like this, I'll have a whole new array of small, fast projects, and maybe some new designs as well. I actually wrote this pattern out as I went along, so I might type it up and post it.

In other news..Georgia decided to keep the word 'evolution' in the science curriculum...Thank God.

And, I've added some non-knitting blogs to my links menu over there on the right...it's getting pretty crowded over there. Maybe it's time for a blog-cleaning?

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Aack! It's opening night! Send courage. And lots of air so I can belt out those notes, baby.

Thanks for all the support on my strange angry acquaintance. It made me feel so strong, like, my knittin' sisters got my back, ya know? Girl Power.

Thanks for all the comments on my glove! I love them. And I will tell you all a secret if you PROMISE not to tell anyone else... okay... the buttons are actually a pair of earrings that I bought at the thrift store for a buck. I superglued the earring backs, snipped off the edge of the earring post, and sewed that sucker on. Voila! Don't think less of me....

Just to show you that my sisters like to keep it in the family, here's twin sis Cathy's sideways glove that she just finished:

Doesn't it look great? She's using Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted in Almond and a pretty button that she got...I love them. Yay Cathy! Visit Cat's Wedding Blog to see the finalists for the bridesmaid dresses. Lovely.

Okay, I'm at home on my dial up, so this has to be short and sweet, but everyone have a great weekend, and hopefully I'll have some pictures from the play to show you when I get back on Monday. I'm crossing my fingers for no dropped lines and lots of applause.....ACCK!! I'M NERVOUS!

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I finished both of my sideways gloves. Would you like to see?

Two days until my show opens.....I'm used to rehearsing for HOURS every night when a show is close (affectionately known to us theater geeks as "hell week") but there are rotating casts for this show so I only have rehearsal one more time before I actually perform...*gulp*. Eeks. Send me fabulous vibes, please. And memory potion so I don't forget my lines.

So what's next on my knitting agenda? Gotta finish the top down. I keep knitting on it, and it keeps getting a little bit longer every time, but I just need to finish the damn thing. Why? Because I cast on for a Chickami last night, in some extra yarn that I had lying around. I've been wanting to make it for so long, and I just got the itch last night. I literally had my top down, my gloves, and my newly cast-on Chickami all in my lap last night, switching off between projects as I watched Open Range with Kevin Costner. (Which isn't a bad movie. It's actually kind of touching. I just love Annette Bening.)

*warning: random complaining*

I'm a little grumpy today because an acquaintance is upset with me and won't tell me why. I'm one of those people who wants everyone to like me...and I mean EVERYONE. Like, I want the bank teller and the cashier at Kroger and the mailman to like me. So if someone gets upset with me, I want to fix it. Now. This person just emailed me and said, 'oh, I'm upset with you, but I can't talk about it right now. It's just too hard.'What? Why'd you tell me then? I got enough stress in my life right now...Grr. So, the people-pleaser in me is running through all my interactions with this woman to try and figure out what I did wrong. And the sassy, independent woman side of me is saying, "Screw off, lady!" So I guess I need to go home and knit a lot to take my mind off a silly situation that should be unimportant but is actually kind of important in the back of my head.

*Sorry for the random personal life rambling but I had to say it all somewhere.*

Here's another picture of my dogs, just because they are so cute. And yeah, that's my bed they're on. Can you tell they run the house?

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

That's right, folks. Our freakin' washing machine was leaking LOTS of water from the bottom...and flooding our laundry room...and causing all kinds of problems and stress at my house. I'd already made one trip to a friend's house to do laundry.

But, my boyfriend Jacob took the machine apart on Saturday and fixed the problem. Loose hose, no problem. Aw, yeah. Ya gotta love a man who repairs appliances, and cooks. He's a keeper.

This weekend was lazy, lazy, lazy. I slept a lot, and knitted even more, and watched the AKC Eukanuba Dog Show. I LOVE watching dog shows, and this one is like the Super Bowl of Dog Shows. The dog that one was a Norfolk Terrier (which looks like this) and the winner gets $50,000 and a new car. Maybe I should show dogs...

Ha. I could never show dogs. My favorite breed is the Schmoo, which is not purebred, does not obey, and probably gets groomed twice a month. But she is super lovable....and obviously much smarter than those hoity-toity show dogs.

Tee hee.

So what did I knit this weekend? I knit on my top down. The never ending topdown. It's so close...just want to finish the body and start the sleeves...soon...And, for a quick and easy and useful project, I started a pair of sideways gloves (link via Becky, thanks!)...they are knit on straight needles and are fast fast fast. I already finished one and the other one is about 75% done. I will post pics tomorrow!

So that was my weekend. Didn't watch the Super Bowl -- don't care. I know that's un-American of me but I hate football. (Shh..don't tell anyone in this town...them's fightin' words!!) This week includes plans for possibly designing a knitting pattern....and finishing all these little projects I have going...and knitting some swatches for my Monkey girls.

And, in between all the knitting, I have to rehearse for my show. The one that opens this weekend. The one that we haven't even started doing costumes or props for yet, even though the shows opens in 4 days. ACCCKKK!!!

...Deep breath...

p.s. what do you think of the new colors? I like them. Becky designed this template and made it easy for me to change the color scheme...tell me whatcha think!

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)