Maya's Starsky is definitely coming along. Seeing one thin cotton sweater next to her thick winter coat as her only two cold weather options is starting to light the fire. I've made a few visible errors that I'm unwilling to tink or frog back to, in order to correct. Le sigh...
Being so monogomous to one project is hard! I've been working only on it because the other WIP I have to get done is the Hemlock Ring which for some reason is languishing beside my knitting chair. ? I like the color, I love the pattern... but I don't want to knit on it. I guess I feel great pressure on those lace rounds to get it right and then the following stockinette on 200 plus sts is alternately killing me!
Besides that, you know, I have joined the Halloween Mystery Shawl KAL. Wow! What a ride! I love Halloween lovers!! They're all so passionate! We all have our own ideas and I think we get disappointed when something so cool comes along and then its not as we envisioned. That's life! So much drama! Anyways...I haven't even cast on the dadgum thing yet!! I've bought 4 different sets of beads for it too. :)
What can I say? Give me a pattern with the name Halloween, Dracula, or black lace yarn with beads somewhere in the description and I'm in. Ya, I know, I'm easy.
Anyhoo, speaking of beads....after learning the name and theme was indeed vampires (YES!!) I decided I had to have red beads! I go to the closest Michael's. Apparently, I hit the tail end of a HUGE bead sale and most of the bead inventory is gone, including all but 2 packages of red beads. Hmmmmm. days later..... I Google bead stores in my area... 2 show up close: one near the mall and one up the freeway a bit. I circle the mall for about 15 minutes before realizing: "hey, maybe the store is inside the mall!" Genius that I am, I can't find it inside either. Next day I call said shop. They are in the mall, they're a kiosk. A kiosk? I drive there. I find them. Beaded necklaces people. Ugh. I try the next store which is about ten minutes further up the freeway. Lovely lady with a cute store! About 5 choices of the right size beads for me! Ahhhhhh! I wasn't about to leave empty handed! I bought two tubes of lovely silvery/grey beads in a size smaller then whats called for.

Black yarn and silver beads = awesome Halloween/vampire shawl, right?!

Next day, I'm with my Mom, heading to a fabric store. I tell her about my bead store adventure.

Mom: "Did you go to that bead store thats on B street?" (b street is five minutes from my house)

Me: "What? What bead store on B street?"

Mom: "The one right next to the grocery store!"

Me: .....

Mom: "We'll go by there now, it's on the way"

Me: ?!!!.......

Needless to say there is an awesome bead store very close!! The lady was friendly and the store had an excellent selection, including a great workstation in the back. There weren't too many seed bead size 6/0 options, but there was enough other cool stuff to make up for it. (Oh and also, I may have ordered some red beads as well, just in case those silver ones don't work out from Fire Mountain Gems last night in a desperate fit of red=blood for vampire shawl thinking.)
I bought some Halloween beads and made these:

my first stitch markers.

Starky is coming along

The days continue to whiz by! Brown belt classes are hard. Hard and fun. Its been frustrating though due to my broken arse. I'm not able to stretch and move like I should be, so things are that much harder. ARG! I'm tempted not to go on Saturday to give my leg a full 7 days of rest. It's been feeling better the less I do with it, but there is still pain.

I've finished the sleeves to Starsky Jr. and have moved on to the back.
I was sooooo excited to knit the cables part but I only got 3 rows into the pattern before I realized I was too tired to continue.
Getting to bed late is taking its toll. I did get to watch Last Man Standing which was interesting. I just wish there were more martial artists in the mix.
Anyhoo, I'm thinking I'm going to add some knitted gifts to my Christmas list. We'll be seeing my SIL and her boyfriend for the first time in a loooooong time and frankly, the budget is tight. I'm just at a loss as to what to make! This may call for some ravelry pattern searching!

Bad zippers, good belts

ARG! Me hates sewing. I suck at it. But how else does one attach a zipper? How, I ask you?
Look at the lovely jog in the front. Apparently, my ability to match up the sides leaves a bit to be desired. UGH! I spent most of the afternoon yesterday sewing the damn thing on, now I'm gonna have to go undo it all?! Thank goodness they've extended the deadline. The saddest part about all this is, as I'm going to post about my FO, I look at the uploaded picture thinking, "wow, that looks crooked". Duh.
In other news...... Looky what I accomplished last night.

Six long forms, 30 self defense, 19 kumite, 20 sparring, 16 nunchaku spins and 30 short forms later, I received my brown belt. AWESOME! I stayed after my hour long test to join the brown belt class which was as challenging as I expected and that was mostly because my legs were literally shaking with fatigue by then. But from this point on, I will be learning all animal forms which is unbelievably cool for me. Kung fu is so pretty that just doing the animal forms is a joy. Also, eventually they'll give me sword! A SWORD people!!!! Mine! I'll learn how to use it!! Holy frick I love this stuff!

Halloween approacheth....

Well, I struggled, I ripped, I seamed, I ripped, I weaved and voila!!

A mostly done Tomten! I began crocheting an edge around, but I really did not like the way it was coming out. I'm wondering if I should go for the I-cord border or just block and zipper. Hmmmmm. I got actual butterflies in my tummy thinking about casting on for Starsky Jr. today. In trying to keep down my rising frustration and excitement about the Halloween Mystery Shawl, I was telling myself I could work on Maya's sweater and get a good start on it without halloween distraction. But, alas, it was not to be for today (a mere 2 days after my order was placed!!) my shawl yarn arrived in the mail.


It is blacker and shinier and beautifuller than I imagined. In a weak moment yesterday, after spending $15 on beads, I went to the Yarn Garden to see what their laceweight situation was (I'd swear to you I was a patient person, but now, I'm starting to wonder) and they didn't have anything I really liked. The yarn I ordered was cheaper and better than what was there (love you Yarn Garden!).
So now I'm off to bust out the laundry, vacuuming, kitchen and bathrooms so I can wind this yarn so that when the kids get home I can do homework, snacks, dinner and cleaning, baths and then I can sit and cast on!!! T minus 7.5 hours.