Yay! I finished my pretty-in-pink honeymoon cami!

oh honeymoon cami, how I love thee...

Click here to see the back of the cami. (Pardon my crazy hair and eyes in these pictures). I love this tank top! The pattern is easy to follow and creates lovely shaping on the sides (thanks, Julia!) and it's in the round, so no side seams for me! (You know how I feel about side seams...) If you want a quick, sassy little tank for the summer, I highly recommend this pattern. Thanks also to my Secret Knitting Pal who gifted me with the luscious yarn for this tank...I can't wait to find out who ya are!!!

More project pics for ya! My sister Michelle is working on the adorable Daisy from Summer Knitty, and check out how cute it is turning out!

I'm a tiny sweater! Woot!
Okay, how cute is that? Baby sweaters are precious, and Michelle is making this one extra pretty. I can't wait to see it finished!!

And, for your viewing pleasure, some silly pictures of our little party this weekend...this was actually before people came over, when me, Leslie and Jacob were singing karaoke by ourselves. Oh, it was damn fun. Stop laughing.

'Love is the drug got a hold on me.....'
I left this picture wide so you could see not only Jacob's karaoke face, but our dark wood paneling in the den, our bug pictures on the mantle, and the barracuda that Jacob caught over the mantle. You like our decor?



Here's another one for good measure: me and Leslie singing...umm...Mandy? I can't remember. Oh! It was Copacabana. We love us some Barry Manilow. So I guess today is a photoblog of knitted items and karaoke fun. Which kind of sums up a few of my favorite things.

Did you watch American Idol? It was really good. I thought Diana was going to take it (her first two songs were really great) but Fantasia came through in the end and completely blew away Diana with her last song, 'I Believe', The American Idol Single That Will Be Released. (The song was really, really bad....cheesy lyrics and every cliche you could think of...and Anne Marie suggested that whoever wins should NOT have to release that horrible song as a single.) But I think Fantasia deserves to win, although I will be happy with either one of them. They both deserve a record deal anyways.

I can't believe tonight is the last night of Idol...what will I do with my Tuesday and Wednesday nights now? Knit, I guess.

P.S. We watched Law and Order SVU last night, too, and Jacob read on my blog that I thought Stabler was a hottie, and now whenever we watch it, he gives me a hard time. I'm hereby declaring that I also think Jacob is a hottie.

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (22)

my twin sis Cathy and her little schmoo Molly

Countdown to beach time: 2 days.
Number of schmoos coming: 2 (Foxy and Molly, my sister's dogs. My schmoos get to stay at home and guard the homestead.)

ohmygoodness I need this vacation so badly. I closed at Molly's on Sunday (a favor for another waitress) and I made ONE DOLLAR in tips. No, really. I worked from 7:00 - 12:30. But hey, I got a lot of knitting done! Sorry I haven't posted in a couple of days. I keep meaning to take pictures of my progress on the Honeymoon Cami (I just have the front left side and back left side to go!) but someone took the batteries out of my camera and put them in the remote control. And no, it wasn't Bella.

I finally got the issue of Vogue Knitting with the fabulous strappy tank on the cover. I already swatched and cast on using my Phildar Licorne (perfect gauge! it was meant to be ), and I am freaking excited about this top. I've actually never gotten a Vogue Knitting before, and I liked a lot of the patterns in the mag. There were some freaky things, don't get me wrong, but the cute outnumbered the freaky, which is not always the case in knitting magazines.

Do you like the new look? I'm still deciding. It's a really dark shade of red, but I needed something different. If you miss the blue, just click on 'check out the skins' (on the left sidebar) and you can go back to that one.

This weekend Jacob decided to have a little party with some of his old friends from college. So we bought some beer and had a small and rather strange gathering of people at our house. My favorite part of the night included sitting at the piano playing 'Mandy' while my friends Leslie and Natalie sang along. ('You came, and you gave, without taking...and I want you to know....')

Jacob also built a fire pit in our yard (we have a LARGE yard, 2 acres!) so eventually we all ended up around the fire, singing along to someone's guitar. It was really fun, it was just a strange mix of all the social groups I've been a part of from college to now. Do you know what I mean? Like, you know these people would probably never cross paths if they weren't together at your house.
I guess that's a really cool thing.

I have been working on being the number one maid of honor in THE WORLD by helping Cathy reserve hotel rooms for her wedding and also drawing up a map on Photoshop that we can put in the "Save the Date" cards. This whole maid of honor thing is new to me, so I'm trying not to shirk any of my responsibilities. I think I might need a So-You're-A-New-Maid-of-Honor handbook. Do those exist?

Now I'm rambling. Tomorrow, I promise, I will have pictures of a hopefully completed honeymoon cami. I'm really that close.

AMERICAN IDOL FINALE IS TONIGHT! are you as excited as I am?

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

look at meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

that is what Bella does when she wants attention or has a weird itch on her back. She was frozen like this for 2 or 3 minutes last night...

So we ended up actually having knitting night again...since American Idol was on and everything. Seriously, I'm really glad that none of my friends have cable or they might never come over! (Just kidding you guys...) Here's a picture of Anne Marie, my friend and knitter extraordinaire, with her lovely finished blanket. I believe it will be donated to the awesome Critter Knitters Knitathon!!

i'm cute and so is my blanket!

Anne Marie used a dishcloth pattern and made it big enough for a blanket by using chunky yarn and big needles. Here's a close-up of the stitches. What a fun, easy to make a blanket for a little schmoo at the pound! Fabulous job, Anne Marie!

American Idol last night : Yay, Jasmine has left the building. I cannot wait for a Diana / Fantasia showdown. It's gonna be fierce, people. (That's right, I said fierce.) I'm so excited.

So yesterday was not only a fun knitting day, but a good mail day too...I got a little package from my rabbit friend in France...and it was several balls of this loveliness. Yum, Phildar. I was planning to use the cute pattern that came with the yarn, but finally, finally, I got the issue of Vogue Knitting that has the little crisscross tank in it. Check out Rachael's version and Em's version to see why I must knit this tank top. Now, I'm not quite as blessed in the - *ahem* - chest area as one might like, so I'm hoping it doesn't make me look flat. I'll hope for the best, because damn it, I'm knitting this tank, and I'm using my Phildar Licorne to do it! (Merci beaucoup, Becky, for sharing your stash with me!)

Honeymoon tank progress pic can be seen below. Almost up to the bust shaping...yahoo!

I want to be done now!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

A little peek at my honeymoon cami.

Yesterday was full of knitting fun times. My older sister Michelle came up for a visit and we visited the local yarn shop (The Cat's Meow). They are so cute over there. The owner is a young woman and she's so excited about the yarns, and knitting in general! I was wearing my Chevron Tank (see my gallery for a pic) and everyone realized that I'd knitted it and gave me so many compliments! Yay for knitters who understand what goes into knitting and finishing a top. I wanted to buy everything but I resisted temptation.... I was hoping to get the Vogue Knitting with the snazzy tank on the cover but they already had the new edition out. I might go to Barnes and Noble this afternoon and see if they have it....

The picture at the top is my honeymoon cami in progress. (Please ignore the cake plate, two glasses, and fake ponytail in the picture. I took it right after coming home from waiting tables and I was exhausted....) Here's a close-up of the very cool mirrored decreases that Julia, the designer, put in the pattern. I think this is going to be a very cute tank!! I got even more (I think I'm up to 8 inches now?) done last night since it was Knitting and Watching American Idol at La Chez Carrieoke!

Okay, I *heart* Fantasia. She is just adorable, so comfortable on stage, can sing anything. And Simon did pick a great song for her, even if he was completely smug about it. (Is he strangely attractive to anyone else? How about Stabler on Law and Order: SVU? Yum.) Diana struggled a little tonight, but in the end, she busted out "Don't Cry Out Loud" like a pro. That song might be annoying, but she rocked it. I really want a Diana - Fantasia showdown. I'm not going to make any predictions because I know I'll be wrong, but if Jasmine doesn't go home tonight, I'm gonna fight somebody. Here's us after American Idol went off and we were furiously trying to call (along with 24 million other people). See, knitting and American Idol go together like milk and cookies. Or ham and cheese. I'm hungry.

Okay. Gotta work. Must earn money. Downtown Parking called me yesterday and threatened a court summons for my arrest if I don't pay my parking tickets. Before you laugh, know that it's not just a few...it's a lot. Okay, now you can laugh. Of course I won't be laughing if I actually go to jail but I sent them a letter and some money today. I might have to start a collection for my bail if I do go. I wonder if I can bring my knitting needles in my jail cell? Just kidding people! Come on, if I don't laugh about it, I'll sit at my desk and pout al lday. Just being a ray of sunshine....or trying, at least.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Okay, so I know I owe you some pics and a post or two.

I'm here! I'm here! I'm just super busy!

First things first...my new tank top!

my first ribbon tank! don't look too closely...

Jacob had just returned from a week of senior portrait training and was practicing his techniques on me. Put your hand on your hip...turn your head this way...here are some more shots of the tank, including some more serious and pensive poses...do you like?

I knitted this top in Katia Idea with Denise Interchangeables, size 9. I knitted it in the round instead of in pieces since I hate seaming, and the shaping still ended up working. This pattern is very well written. Also, I changed the neck line from a funnel neck to kind of a swoopy kind of collar...I think it's more flattering for me than a funnel neck.

I wore this top to my sister's lingerie shower this weekend and got many compliments...yay! it's dressy! This is definitely one of the most wearable, stylish things I've ever knitted. Yahoo. I posted this picture of me, my sis Cat, my sister Michelle and my mom at Cathy's shower this weekend (click to enlarge). If you want to see even more pictures, check out Cathy's brideblog and check out the photo album!

I've already started on my Honeymoon Tank, in pink pink pink. It's cruising along, and the Cascade Rich that I am using is really fun to knit with. It's soft and flexible and yummy. I think I may have screwed up the decorative ribbing on the bottom of the tank, but it still looks good so I'm moving on up. Don't tell anyone....
Thanks for all the well wishes about my wallet. I never found it, and my only concern now is that I think I had a check book in there. But so far, so good. And hey...things could be worse. At least I didn't get into a car accident like Monica! Go on over and send her some get well wishes.

I got my first paycheck for playing the piano at church this week. Yay! In other job news, the two nights a week at Molly's have definitely made me a little more tired, but ya know, the extra $400 a month definitely is worth it. Maybe, just maybe, my finances are improving? Maybe? I don't want to curse it.....

My last show of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change was this weekend. I was a little sad, but I'm excited about having my weekends free again....well, until I audition for the next show. Next show: Little Mary Sunshine. Haven't heard of it? Yeah, me neither. Check out a synopsis here...it looks interesting! I'm going to try out because I know I'll go about two weeks without some new music to learn and then I'll get restless.

Well, I gotta go work. Have a good day and more pictures tomorrow!

P.S. Go read Dooce's post for May 17. I am smiling and tearing up right now. It's damn adorable.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

Okay. I think I've had my share of bad luck for the year, or at least for six months, don't you? Money problems. My car got towed. I rear-ended someone.
So yesterday when I couldn't find my wallet at lunch, I figured that it was in the car. Then I figured it was in my house. Then, I figured it was in my friend's car. But no, it freakin' got stolen. And guess what was in it? My tip money from Monday night's waitressing gig, minus what I had spent this week, and a check for $400. ! I just bought a book of stamps too. Grr.

So, yesterday I had to get another check cut for me, get a new driver's license and cancel all my wallet stuff before the bank closed so I could deposit money to cover my power bill. Everytime I think things are about to start looking up, fate smacks me in the face with a big "NOT YET." Grr.

At any rate, all the stuff is handled and the money is in the bank. So I'm better today. But yesterday I was ready to punch something. Or pull my hair out. Instead, I channeled all my frustration in Super Fast Knitting Hands and I finished my Katia Idea tank. Pictures tomorrow...I have a picture, but I changed the collar a little from what the pattern originally called for. I really want to show you but I'd rather show them together (ya know, before and after). This may be one of my favorites finished objects ever!!

Now that I've finished that, I have big plans for a Honeymoon Tank using the soft pretty cotton blend that my Secret Knitting Pal sent me. And I'm going to try and make it a little dressier by adding a tiny bit of sparkle, courtesy of some Phildar sparkly fun that Becky sent me a while back. Oh boy!

I received a package from Glammy Stef last week that included some yummy German stuff, including the fluffy blue ball of yarn that you see to your right. Yum! It's soooo soft and fluffy....here is a closeup of the yarn texture, and here's the scarf I'm making using this fluffy fun and some Bernat CottonTots. Yum. I also got German chocolate and some gummy candy...mmmm. Dank, Stefanie!!

Jacob comes back into town tonight, which means my week of girls' nights out and frenzied knitting will come to an end. But you know what? I miss him! And I think the schmoos might miss him a little too. So we'll all be happy too see him ... a little time apart never hurts to remind you how much you love someone, right??

[Idol Chatter]

Did you watch American Idol? Ooh, girl. You should have. Latoya got kicked off in yet another shocker... Jasmine really deserved to get the boot, but I can't say I'm that sad to see Latoya go. It wasn't Latoya's confidence that I didn't like, it was her lack of enthusiasm. She just seemed like an ice queen to me. I'm sorry if I like my pop stars a little perky. I mean, she is extremely talented, but the girl's got a record contract in the bag, and I think a final two with Diana and Fantasia is going to be much more interesting. If Jasmine wins....but she won't.

[/Idol Chatter]

All right. I've got rehearsal tonight and gotta go shopping for Cat's lingerie shower this weekend. I want to get something cute but not slutty...it's my twin sister, ferpetesake! I'll leave the edible panties to her co-workers. On that note, have a great Thursday night...

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Mornin'.

Last night was knitting and watching American Idol night at the Carrieoke household. I worked on this:

Please excuse my wonky stitches.

This is my first time working with a ribbon yarn (this particular yarn, Katia Idea, is a cotton-linen-viscose mix - here's a close up of the yarn texture) and boy, mistakes show up A LOT. I wasn't sure if I was going to like how the tank looked, so I just rushed through the first few inches and you can tell. Oops. Well, maybe blocking it a little bit will help the wonkiness. The pattern is found at The Girl From Auntie, a great site by designer Jenna who designed the lovely Rogue you've seen all over Knit-Blog-Land, and lots of other patterns.

So, while knitting that, I watched Diana DeGarmo totally kick so much ass on last night's Disco American Idol. That girl can sing and she looked so comfortable on stage. The other girls better bring it or else... Latoya didn't wow me with her first song but her second one (Don't Leave Me This Way) was excellent. Fantasia was great, as always, although her second song was NOT a good choice for disco night. In fact, a lot of the songs they chose kinda sucked. (People, what about Never Can Say Goodbye, by Gloria Gaynor?) Jasmine is so gone, unless America has lost their freakin' minds. Which is not entirely impossible.

Knitting with the girls was fun. What will we do when American Idol is over?

Okay. So here's a finished Sophie bag for ya..she's kinda cute! I used the Sophie pattern from MagKnits and it's really an easy pattern. I used bulky yarn instead of worsted weight so I didn't knit as many rows as the pattern required. (I always feel like my worsted weight felted stuff is floppy and I like my bags to be solid.) I love the way the decreases give this bag a big wide bottom and a narrow top. So, yahoo for Sophie!

Waiting tables on Monday wasn't so bad. I made decent money and got back into the swing of things pretty easily. I was really, really tired on Tuesday morning but I think my body will adjust to a new work schedule. I'm glad to be back working with my friends, but geez, the customers at bars are so...drunk. Go figure. At least they usually tip me well when they're drunk.

Next day of waitressing : Friday.
Number of day until I get to go to the beach: 16.
Number of performances I have left in my play: 1.

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Well, hello there. I had a really nice weekend, with two great performances of my play and lots of family time. We even had two additional schmoos in our house this weekend! Jacob's sister Alison has two tiny dogs - Yoda, a Yorkie chihuahua mix, and Lucas, a 9-week terrier mix. Dude. These dogs are tiny. And. adorable. I know this is starting to become Carrieoke's Doggy Blog, but I just have to show a picture of these two....

don't step on us! we. are. so. tiny.

Luke weighs, like, 2 lbs. For an even weirder view of things, check out this picture of Bella next to Luke - Bella looks like an enormous wolf dog.

We had breakfast on Sunday morning with Jacob's family at the local IHOP .) (why do all IHOP meals come with 3 pancakes? As in, I ordered a country omelet with ham, onions, cheese and hash browns...and it came with THREE pancakes. WHO needs that much food? And yes, I finished it all Then, I went to a cookout at my sister's house and saw my family and Cat's fiance's family (they're really fun.) Here's a pic of my mom opening her scrapbook that Cat made her. Isn't my mom cute? We ate lots of food, played with the dogs, played a little pool, and I even knitted a little. It was good family time. I wore my striped top down raglan and got lots of compliments from the fam. Although it was so freakin' hot and muggy that I need to be wearing a strappy tank! Good thing I'm working on a tank top right now....

Sophie pics tomorrow, and progress pics of my tank-top-that-I-just started. And maybe anything else I start this week. Jacob is staying with his parents all week because he has training at work and it's really far away from our house, so I will be having lots of knitting / schmoo / girlfriend / movie time. Also, I'm waiting tables tonight for the first time in MONTHS. So wish me luck and big tips...I'll probably make a few mistakes!

Gotta run, it's almost five and I need to eat before I go to wait tables or I'll be eating wings all night... it's free wing night at Molly's! Oh, joy.

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

we are schmoos and we love our dog house!

Isn't this the cutest? Jacob took it, of course. He can make the schmoos do adorable things and capture it perfectly and when I try to take their pictures it looks like a blur of fur. Oh, well. This morning, Bella heard a puppy nearby crying and escaped the fence to try and help it. Twice. Grr. There was a little weak spot in the fence and the Little Escape Artist Schmoo decided to take advantage. She came right to Jacob when he called her, so good girl, but escaping=bad. So Jacob is checking the fence for weak spots.

Thanks for all the nice comments on my sweater! It's really comfortable. It's a quick knit with any worsted weight yarn you want! Sharlyn commented that for complaining about having no yarn, I knit a lot of fun stuff. That's because I have friends like my Secret Knitting Pal and this rock star who sometimes send me pretty yarny things. But, I've been trying really hard to use what's in my stash too...(although Homespun and Lamb's Pride wool aren't exactly summery yarns....)I'm about to start not one but TWO part time jobs (playing the piano at church on Sunday, and waiting tables at Molly's again. Blah.) so after paying all my bills and starting to make a dent in my debt, I MIGHT have a little extra left over for yarn. Maybe I should budget that in.

I did knit up a little Sophie bag last night for fun. I've been wanting to felt something else for a while and that pattern is so cute! I used bulky yarn instead of worsted weight but I think it ended up being about the same size (I shortened the sides a little) I'm trying to decide if I should keep it or give it as a gift...it's pretty cute. Pictures of that after the bag dries.

Did ya watch American Idol last night? I so wanted Jasmine to be kicked off. And George Huff was so gracious and smiley and nice even though he lost. I'm not really a fan of his, but he seems like a damn nice guy. My inner high school theatre geek is rooting for Diana DeGarmo ... but probably Latoya should win.

I have rehearsal tonight and then a show on Friday and Saturday this weekend. Jacob's family arrives on Saturday to stay with us...so Intense Cleaning of the House will happen tonight and Friday. This week has flown by...

Me and Cathy and her fiance and Jacob are planning to go the beach over Memorial Day weekend. Yay vacation!!! I hope it works out!

Posted by Carrieoke at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

do you like my sweater?

Jacob takes school pictures for a living, so he posed me for this picture. I really like this sweater! The white is Bernat Cottontots, and the stripes are Cotton Fleece. I used size 8 Denise Interchangeable needles and size 5s for the ribbing. I used Stef's top down pattern and zoomed through. The nice thing about using interchangeable needles for this pattern is that you can keep trying it on without having to transfer the whole sweater to scrap yarn and then back to the needle again. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the stripes, so they are sort of random, but I think I like the way they turned out. Yay finished sweater! I'm so wearing this all summer...it's perfect for warm weather, for my business casual office, and for fun times. Yahoo. I only used a little less than 2 skeins of CottonTots for this, minus the stripes of course.

What fun! On to the next project! I'm going to be making a Bottoms Up hat just like mine for my twin sister so we can be twinsies on Memorial Day when we're hanging out at the lake. I'm also trying to find the perfect project for my new beautiful yarn..I was thinking Gigi, but it's long sleeved and it's gonna be a hot summer. So, then I thought about that pretty criss cross tank from Vogue Knitting (see Rachael's beautiful version). That's a definite maybe. Or, possibly, something from the old Interweave Knits, or maybe the new one that's about to come out....any suggestions? It's about worsted weight gauge, I believe, and a cotton/polyamide mix. Yum. Give me ideas!

After seeing Brainy Lady's beautiful feather and fan shawl, I think I want to make one of those too! I probably need a beautiful, light yarn for this, but I was just thinking cotton. I don't freakin' know. I just keep seeing all these pretty pretty patterns that I want to knit....

Now, some pictures for fun! This is what I do sometimes when I'm having a bad hair day and I'm sick of my short hair...here's a front view. It's my fun clip on ponytail! I actually have several....Just because sometimes you want long hair. Sometimes I use them in plays too, but they are mostly for fun. The other night we went to a friend's barbecue and I wore this one and a couple of friends I hadn't seen in a while said, HEY! Your hair is so long....I fooled them!
Tee hee.

Have a great Tuesday night, and don't forget to watch American Idol! It's Big Band Night!

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

So I'm having sort of a crappy morning....went to a meeting at 8:30 only to find that the location had been moved and no one emailed or called to tell me where. Grr. Then, I find that the printer toner and paper I ordered for SPEEDY delivery on Thursday was not at the office. Or en route. Instead, it was delivered to Arnold. Whoever that is. Wrong office. Grr.

So I went to lunch with a grumpy feeling, and I checked the mailbox to find.. this!

my Secret Knitting Pal made my DAY!!!

It's 10 (!) skeins of Cascade Cotton Rich, a luscious, soft cotton blend that makes me want to swoon. Oh, the softness. Oh, the color! Here is a close-up of the color...it's a soft warm dark pink flecked with dark purple. Oh, lovely yarn. How I love thee. Obviously, my Secret Knitting Pal not only has impeccable taste in yarn, but she senses when I am going to have a crappy Monday and TIMES the yarn delivery accordingly. Secret Knitting Pal, you rock my world. THANK YOU!

La la. I'm determined to have a good day now, even though the Office Gods are conspiring against me.

This weekend was fun-filled! I had a great show, and here are some pictures from backstage to prove it.

To the left, you see me and my fellow actor Bryan. (I was concentrating on keeping the camera steady) We have a bunch of scenes together, including a kiss (!) and two(!) where I play his mom. Tee hee. (It's a musical, people. You gotta suspend the disbelief.) Then, here is a dopey picture of me dressed as an annoying mother... kinda scary. The show went SOO well, although the audience was small, but a friend from work came. This weekend Jacob's family is coming, including his parents, his sister and her boyfriend. Yay! And ooh, I'm a little nervous. I hope the show goes well. I've never done a run of a show for this long before, so the show has become second nature...but it's like when you're reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, and then you start to THINK about it, and then you forget all the words. You know? Or is that just me... The show WILL be great!!

Okay. top down is almost done. Maggie asked me in the comments why this one was so much more fun for me that the last one...I really think it's the yarn. The CottonTots is so soft and light and fluffy, it just feels like it's flying off the needles and it goes so fast! The Lamb's Pride Worsted just gets a little heavy after a while. I'm also a lot more familiar with the pattern now.

Hope you're having a good Monday. I'm going to finish this grumpy day off on a good note, grr.

P.S. I put up a new skin -- some green. It's fun.

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)