Well, well well......been a while, hasn't it? I wish I could say that I was too busy having tons of fun to write, but mostly it was that I was working a lot because I am getting all sorts of fun responsibilities at work (no, seriously). You know what responsibilities are good for? My career at awesome company X where I work. Do you know what they aren't good for? Keeping up on the blog. The sad part is that it isn't that I haven't wanted to write, I have. I make up blog posts in my mind all the time. It's the actual sitting down and writing them that tends to be the stumbling block. As usual, it all comes back to time.

So how about a quick update?

• wedding planning is continuing: next items are nailing down catering, photographer, and wedding cake flavors and style
• milestone shawl was started - 3 times. The Skaska yarn (cobweb weight) is simply too thin for the shawl - the nupps just won't be done - the strands can't be moved to the other needle reliably, and my nails are too thick to assist (yeah, my frikkin NAILS are too thick. That is some thin yarn!)
• work - going to India - looks like mid June
• Fiber Festivals - 1 on June 4th, maybe also BSG at the end of June

So, enough with the talk - how about the pictures?

 Look at this!! This is a journal made for me by one of the podcast listeners. Isn't this cool? Now, look by the girl's hand - that's a zombie. It's hard to tell from here, but it's ambling toward this poor girl from the background. Isn't that hilarious? I was DYING when I saw that, I must have laughed until I cried. 

And speaking of the podcast - have you listened yet? www.brassneedles.com - you can download it on iTunes.

 What's this? Another listener gift!! This awesome bookmark. You can't really see it in the picture, so let me explain. It's a zombie wrapped in yarn and it says: "Zombies are crap at Knitting." :)

 

 But the tour-de-force, as it were, is this. Can you see this? It's another listener gift! A chenille crocheted She-Ra teddy bear! It's got a blonde web, a hand-made sword, a blonde wig, and a voice box. It plays the beginning of She-Ra's transformation sequence - from "For the Honor of Greyskull" through the first couple of "She-Ra"s. So cool. I have been hugging the crap out of this little chick, hand crocheted She-Ra outfit and all.

 

This may be sort of a creepy photo, but focus on the tiara!! You see that? Smartest Monkey just finished making it for me for my Steampunk Wonder Woman outfit! It's made from a silver-colored tiara with a deep blue stone. The mods were cutting off the stone, spray painting it brass, and affixing the star after drilling a hole in the tiara to accommodate it. The star was made from a 2 silver star military decoration we purchased from the  military surplus store. Smartest Monkey separated the two stars, spray painted them red, and then drilled a hole in the tiara so he could slide the pin portion of the star into the tiara - then had to affix a piece of foam so that it wouldn't dig into me too much and also to cover the pin back of the star. 

The rest of the costume pieces are still in progress. We have about 2 days until I need to wear it. You know, I did buy some bright red GoGo boots, which might say that I need to make a real Wonder Woman outfit rather than a steam punk one. Ah well. Costumes are always a work in progress.

April Project Round -Up!

So, another month of knitting over, and what did I accomplish?
Well, not that much. Check the stats:

• 1 Japanese Garden Shawl (FOR MEEEEEEE!!) - note this was made from hand spun yarn :)
• 1 Daybreak (FOR MEEEEEE!!)
• 3 pairs of baby booties (for ChariTEEEEEE!!) (See what I did there?)

So, the selfish index for this month is amazing compared to earlier months this year.
Selfish index for April 11 is 40%! It would have been even better except that I felt guilty and churned out those three pairs of baby booties right before month-end.

You know the drill, photos of the projects which have not been posted are below (in other words, if you want to see my fancy handknit, handspun shawl, you have to go back one post)

Daybreak in progress is a hot mess:

 Daybreak done is a hot piece: (I've worn it now two days in a row since it came off the blocking wires and may make it three days tomorrow)

And now for the crappy cell phone picture of proof! (do you see that awesome star trek communicator shawl pin? My Feff rocks)

And the preemie booties: I'm especially happy with these because the green ones are left over from my pair of monkey socks.