This morning when I walked Bella Schmoo McGee, it was a little chilly outside. Hoo. Ray. I've never wanted it to be fall so badly in my life! I'm usually a summer girl, but right now, I want chilliness and closed toe shoes and sweaters. And fireplaces. And scarves.

But, until then, I'll settle for chilly mornings, and having to wear a sweater sometimes. Speaking of sweaters, I'm almost done with Bell Sleeve #2 on the Cutaway! Here's a picture of Sleeve #1 and the Body hanging out together.

They're lurking in a shady corner on campus. They must be troublemakers.

I'm really excited about how this is going to look, although the sleeves are rolling quite a bit at the bottom. Does anyone have any advice for a simple nonrolling sleeve bottom? I was thinking of unraveling the cast-on edge and just doing a few rows of ribbing, or garter stitch, but other ideas are welcome. And requested.

In finished object news, here's something I finished a while ago. I cast it off and promptly put it in the mail for my mom, and she just sent me this picture of her modeling it:

How cute is my mom?

And here's another something that I finished last weekend - a purse using fabulous fabric from Hawaii that High Energy Jenny brought me:

I know it looks crooked, but it really isn't.
The purse, she didn't want to sit up straight for the picture.

I used the super easy Jordy bag pattern - you can find it on craftster.org if you search for "jordy bag". I still need some practice sewing in a straight line, and cutting in a straight line, but I'm getting there. I don't know that I'll ever sew wearable clothes, but it's nice to make a sewing project here and there.

So, there you have it. This weekend: show tonight -- I Am the World Trade Center and Boulevard. Tomorrow, there will be knitting. And running. And watching of Lost. And hopefully some chilly weather. And maybe a finished Cutaway? I know I've said that before...

Posted by Carrieoke at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (19)

It's been a good week.

Things I accomplished:
1. Did some laundry.
2. Ran 2 miles, twice. (That would be twice, two miles each.)
(And while we're talking about running, lemme tell ya something - running is HARD. I was feeling all cool, ya know, because I ran four miles, and I thought I was a True Runner Now and then I tried to run last Saturday after wearing heels all day Friday, and it HURT LIKE HELL. As in, it hurt so bad that my wimpy butt had to turn around and go home.
I called my sister in tears .... and she told me that it sounded like shin splints. This is what you do with shin splints:

You ice them.
The left shin got Ore-Ida fries, the right shin got a bag of ice cubes.

So, on that particular night, I was ready to quit training for my half-marathon, never run again, and return to my training for the Knitting-While-Watching-Law-and-Order marathon. But my sister and HEJ and AM and Jacob let me vent and then quietly encouraged me to keep on going. And Cathy brought me some cool socks. So, I waited a few days and tried again. It still hurts, a little, but I'm taking walk breaks and not overdoing it. I'm still aiming for the half marathon. )

3. Reworked one sleeve for my Cutaway sweater. I was about halfway through my first sleeve when I realized that I wanted something a little funkier for my cutaway sleeves. So, I enlisted some help (Jodi) with the math and some other help (Anne Marie) with computing the math and I got this:

It's a bell sleeve.

Now, I'm not completely sure how it will looked when it's totally done and attached, but I'm pleased so far. I'm up to the sleeve cap shaping now, and I think it's going to work. Hooray.

4. Watched the first episode of new Lost season. Note: I didn't watch this last season, so I had NO IDEA what was going on. Still liked it.

-------------------------------------
So, I started this entry on Friday, and now it's Sunday, and dude. I JUST RAN FIVE MILES. I'm so happy! I can DO it! I'm the king of the world! Wheee!

In other news, I rented the first two DVDs of Lost, Season One, and I'm loving it. Made me a little nervous about flying anytime soon.

This weekend I also made two purses and read a kick ass book. More on that later. Right now, I have to ice my shins and watch more Lost.

Whee. Five. Miles.

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (43)

We came to bring the boom,
So thick you need a spoon.
Dig to delight for you --
Let's do this now or soon...
--Bling the Children Back Home

So much fun this weekend. So. Tired.

The show was really great. Jacob's sister came up on Saturday to come hang out and also to help me find the perfect blingin' outfit, which we did. (The boys in the band requested a hip hop look, which, ya know, is totally my usual style. Har.) So Alison and I tried on a bunch of different things and jewelry and came up with THE outfit.

Then, the boys called at 7:30 and said, "We've decided to go with a country theme." !!! Country bling, of course. I was told to think Daisy Duke, which is sort of frightening, but I went with it (with Alison's expert help.) Pictures ahead. You have been warned that my attire in said pictures will be country bling.

The Band.

The braids look kinda real, right?

And so many friends came out to see the show! We didn't start until like 11:45, which is kinda past my bedtime on Fridays (and definitely past Jacob's bedtime) but my awesome friends were out in full force. And my sister and her husband came up with two of their friends! Here's proof:

And also we had to take a pic because we both had long hair that night.

Yes, I wore a housedress over my bling because I felt like a hoochie mama. (But once I was on stage, it was fine.) Jacob was taking pictures all night, but HEJ managed to snap a picture of Jacob loving his camera:

The boy loves his 10D. Oh, yes, he does.

Some more pics from the evening:
I'm not nervous. No, ma'am.

Anne Marie and Catherine having lots of fun.

Jenny and John. Are. Adorable.

Me and Alison (Jacob's sister) -- she also did my makeup. She's my stylist. Hee.

I have flared nostrils. And also, Richard is getting down, country style.

I had so much fun actually performing - I haven't done a play in a LONG time, and it was so great to get up on stage and be crazy and sing. And the crowd was dancing their asses off, which makes it so much more fun. Playing in a band is so different than theatre - most of the shows I've done are in a fairly large venue, so you know people are out there, but you can't see them. With Bling, people are kinda up in your face, smiling, yelling, singing along, showing you their chest (that was just one dude.) Good times.

Knitting will return after this post. Promise. Here's a hint about what I worked on this weekend because of a suddenly imposed deadline:

Harry. Potter.

Posted by Carrieoke at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (38)

Thanks for all the nice comments about my break-in. In order to show the robbers that they can't bring me down, I've already re-knitted the entire piece that got stolen ... and then I kept on going and finished the ribbing on both front sides of my Cutaway.

Lovely curvy fronts.
Click for a close up.

Doesn't it match my black top and hot pink skirt? Har.

I'm very pleased with my shaped ribbing. Yay me. Sleeve #1 is about 1/3 done, so there's a possibility of a finished Cutaway this weekend. Now if it would just cool down...

Speaking of cooling down, Bella got a haircut this week. Her fur was getting out of hand and Jacob decided to give her a new shaved look -- she looks like a puppy! SCHMOO.

Hello, I'm trying to sleep here.

You probably can't tell a difference, but she's like a new little schmoo to me. He left her face scruff, and I'm glad.. as Karen commented, "it's like a sweet halo of schmooness all around her." Totally.

Trapeze class and knitting tonight! Woot. I ran four miles on Sunday (!!!!) and the mileage is only going up from here, so trapeze class is really some good strength training and stretching. I just wish the bruises on the backs of my knees would go away. And also ,I wish I was a little better at it. In time. I will be.

And finally, in other bizarre news, I'm singing back up with a band this weekend in Athens. The band is ... dare I say... hip hop? The name of the band is Bling the Children Back Home. Yes, you read that correctly. More on that later, maybe.

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)

So, I went to the new Omni gym in town with my friend Leslie on Friday. It's all kinds of fancy...the women's locker room has leather couches, a flat panel TV and two massage chairs. And, all the machines have personal TVs on them. I discovered that when I'm attempting to run four miles, I prefer my music to watching TV, although I left it on for distraction. I also discovered that I HATE steam rooms (hello, you can't see! and it feels like you can't breathe!), but loves me a sauna. Then, after our invigorating workout, we walked to my car and discovered this:

My car done got broke into.
They dusted for prints (that's the black stuff underneath.)

Grr. In a turn of miraculous fate, I had my wallet and cell phone inside with me, but they took my purse, which contained my digital camera, my new glasses, and the right front side of my cutaway sweater. Yes, they stole my knitting. Harumph. Clearly my losses are minimal compared to what thousands of people are going through right now, so I'm still a lucky schmoo, but did they HAVE TO TAKE THE KNITTING? Jacob said : "At least it wasn't a finished object." How right he is.

So, really, it's not that bad. The cop who came was younger than me and so sweet and nice (I think Leslie liked him). When he was taking down what I had in the purse, he asked me to describe my glasses, and I said (kind of ashamedly): "Um, purple...hornrimmed...glasses." And he looked at me and said (in a southern accent), "That doesn't mean anything to me, are those weird glasses or something?" Hee hee hee.

After the cops came, we went over to HEJ's for some good times, and because she's a sweet schmoo, Jenny is letting me borrow her old digital camera indefinitely since mine is probably at a pawn shop by now. Thank you thank you thank you. (Jenny said when she got my message about the break-in, her first thought was "Oh my god, her credit cards, her money!" and her second thought was "Oh my god, HER KNITTING!" Hee hee. We knitters gotta have priorities.)

Here are some pictures of Bella and Chili, because they are adorable schmoos.

Here's Chili protecting our yard. She's a good schmoo.

Bella says: No pictures, please.
She's a scruffy little schmoo.

Okay. I just reprinted Cutaway and I'm off to re-cast on for the right front. I might have to buy a second set of Denise needles because the robbers got my size 5s and a cord... dang, I hate having a reason to buy knitting supplies. :) Have a great weekend!

P.S. Be sure to go give some love to Gnome G this weekend. She had a little scare with her doggy schmoo Casey, and we need to send them good vibes!

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (50)

Is it seriously September? I can't believe how fast the summer has flown by. It's starting to get a little breezy and a little cooler around here...yepyepyep. Sweater weather, here we come (well, in like two months). I know I will be cursing the cold once winter hits, but right now I'm ready for the chilliness.

I've been knitting away on my Cutaway. Back piece is done, front left is done, and I'm about halfway through the front right. It's nice and easy stockinette with some shaping thrown in. I think the finishing is going to be the challenge with this pattern, but I'm looking forward to it. The front left piece came to brunch with me and Jacob on Sunday:

Jacob had his camera.

Here's The Pants at brunch:

I took this with his camera. Isn't he dashing?

It was such a nice long weekend. On Saturday, we went to the Cobbham Festival, which was a little festival in AM's neighborhood. They had bands playing on front porches, food, ice cream, and lots of games for the kids. There was also a trapeze demonstration and both of my trapeze teachers performed on a trapeze rigged up from a tree branch. It was v. cool:

This is one of my trapeze teachers.
Click for a closer view.

In addition to trapeze artists and belly dancers, there were superheroes:

They stopped saving the world briefly so we could take a picture.

and, the coolest dude in town: Rolin Joel.

Rolin Joel (that's his spelling, not mine.) rides around town on a bicycle that has speakers and a disco ball. His bike plays funk music. But he also is a bad-ass roller skater. Rolin Joel was performing at CobbFest, and we got some pics:

He didn't fall. Not once.
But he did do several splits.

The shirt.
Can you read what it says?

If the pictures enticed you, click here to download a little video of Rolin Joel that I took with my camera. There's no sound,and the quality kinda sucks, but just so you know, he was skating to Rapper's Delight. Hell yeah.

So, it was quite a weekend. I didn't even tell you about bowling, or the Labor Day fireworks that we shot off in our field, but I'm too tired to keep writing. And I gotta save those stories for another post. The good times just keep rolling. or rolin. Can you dig it?

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)