Moonraker Lampwerks

Well that week FLEW by! Always the worst part of taking a week off - the CATCHING UP you have to do when you get back to real life.  

SOMEONE had a 17th birthday the other day. (Hint: it wasn't me.)

Thanks so much for the kind comments about my poor boo-boo kitty. He perked up a bit mid-week and seems mostly back to normal now, or at least his 'normal'. As his brain started healing though the 'must eat everything sight' switch got turned off again and I'm now back to trying to coax him into eating all day. He really, really, really hates the kidney diet prescription food. Like, really hates it. What's the point of food to extend his life a little if he's going to starve to death in the meantime? I keep trying to stick with it (and have for over a year) but at this point I think we have to concede that we are both terrible at sticking to a diet. I can't blame him for being happy with bits of ham or cheese. Aren't we all?

Anyhoo, I'm trying to catch up on photos, photos, photos. I keep taking photos of things but then never posting them. Grrr. I actually did manage to finish a few things on break, that I was very glad to get finished and off to the great Finish Bin in the sky, I mean my closet.

 God I really don't like these socks. I started them in January and JUST finished them, so that right there tells you how disinterested I was in them. I took a skein of yarn I really didn't care for (too thin and splitty) and paired it with a slip stitch pattern that I also didn't care for (because it's a TERRIBLE CHOICE FOR A SPLITTY YARN) and GUESS WHAT? They were a miserable knit from start to finish and I will forever be shocked AND awed that I finished them. (In my defense though I picked that pattern because it helped alleviate the thinness of the yarn. It creates an almost woven fabric that adds bulk.)

 Also finished: the bonus charts from the L*K mystery sampler that I started last summer. Very much not miserable to finish and I'm glad I finally got to it because these are cute and I love Halloween stitchies. :)

 And a bunch of totally unphotogenic Scrap Yarn Blanket of Doom squares. I needed something mindless and quick to start/finish to clear my head of the oogie-boogies from the stupid socks. Blanket square I can finish in 90 minutes? YES PLEASE. I think I'm up to 8 new squares now to add to this never ending, not even CLOSE TO BEING FINISHED project because I'm still having fun doing up new ones. Once I get a bunch, like a dozen, I'll wash and block them so they look pretty and totally not like wadded up Kleenex. :)

To 'reward' myself for finishing a stitchy wip I did up a brand-spanky new-to-me small one. I randomly picked colors for this Val's Stuff freebie and think it came out pretty good. (Though I curse you Belfast green linen for always being IMPOSSIBLE to photograph nicely. What is it with this color??? So pretty in person SO HORRIBLE ON THE INTERNETS.) Could use some more contrast in the nose but I can live with it. Original pattern doesn't chart a flower or bunny tail but it's pretty easy to put them in. (Can't have a bunny without a TAIL?!?)

Now that that is done I reached into the nether regions of my wip stack (also known as my storage ottoman in the living room where things go to die a lonely death) and pulled out another wip to tackle. Oh, how optimistic I was when I happily stitched in the year 2012 on this!!! Twice. *face palm* Oh well. 2012, 2013. Isn't time just an illusion anyway? How can be sure that ANY sampler with a date stitched in is correct, right? So I'm keeping the 2012. And don't be thinking I'm almost done with this because there is whole other section of frames that go on the bottom of this. I originally abandoned this because - SURPRISE SURPRISE - I made a little boo-boo with the border and one of those borders is off a little. And ripping out black floss is miserable so I put it in time out. I think I'm mostly over it now though. Aside from talking about my failure on the internets, of course. lol

Whew. Now I'm all caught up I think, aside from adding these to my project pages. Yay!! :)