The hat is finished and so am I.

The hat is almost finished. The ear flaps have't gone on with their devil tails yet. But it's done enough for Alice TOMMORROW night!

I am so tired, I haven't been sleeping well at nights and tonight I'm going to bed early, I may even have a nap tomorrow afternoon. I would hate to be too tired to enjoy myself. TOMMORROW night. It's kind of hard to believe it's here.

They were auctioning off two tickets and a meet and greet with Alice today on my local radio station for a charity event they run every year called Give Me Five For Kids (it's to raise funds to donate to children's wards at local hospitals) it ended up going for $600. Waaaay out of my price league, but it'd be worth every cent both for meeting Alice and to the charity.

Now that the hat is (almost) complete for Alice, I should probably return to my sock. Maybe on Saturday. I'm not knitting until Saturday. Provided I feel like it.

I went op shopping today, the yarn was thin pickings. I found a denim skirt, in that oh so fashionable last season dirty denim, a denim shoulder bag (perfect for knitting) and a pair of black ankle boots.
Well, I've got a pair of shoes for tomorrow night, still haven't got a shirt I'll have to rifle the wardrobe and finsh out the outfit. At this point in time, it'll just be black skirt, top, jacket and boots with the Devil Hat.

I wear a size 9 in shoes, do you know how many pairs of black ankle boots I looked at before I found a pair in size 9? All 7's and 8's till I found one lone pair. There we're some really cool looking shoes, if only I could shrink my feet by a size or two.

I'm going to crawl away and vegetate, something the cat did at lunch time. Must have been that bad daytime movie, really why he watches those things....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

The Devil Hat of DOOM!

The hat is DOOM!

I knew it, I should have left well alone when I those five little words popped intp my head - "How hard can it be?"
Why didn't I leave well alone?

I finished knitting the cap part of the hat last night, it looks fantastic and I love it. This was so the colour to make a devil hat from Zhivago in the shade Ruby.
I was in my bathroom trying to put safety pins into the hat where I wanted my horns as suggested by the pattern when the phone rang. It was my mother telling me that the craft get together we go to on a Wednesday was cancelled.
Instead of picking up stitches to start knitting the first flap on the side of my hat I attempted to figure out how I was supposed to pick up stitches from the top of my finished hat - 15 in total for each horn.

I've got a friend coming to visit me this afternnoon I think I may just fling the hat at her and say fix it! At this rate I'll have a half finished hat for Friday. Devil hat is not a devil hat if it dosen't have horns - it's just a hat with flaps!
The flaps may wait, I hate I-Cord with a vengence.

I know I talked about the SNB knit along the other day and I have joined up. I can't wait to get going on it, this month (June) was the Coney Island Scarf. A little late even for me to start one now, I can't wait to see what they pick for July.
Another really cool one I'm thinking of taking up is one Cathy told me about, and I read Sharon is taking it on as well, is the UFO's Anonmoyus.
Yes, I know I have far too many UFO's it really is time for some finishing. Maybe someone will inspire me, no wait Cathy might just nag me....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

It all begins again.

I went to Batman Begins this afternnoon, and I absolutley loved it!

It is the best movie I have seen since ?????? Okay it beats the Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potters and X-Men. It was even better than Spiderman.
Hmmm I think the last movies I saw and enjoyed that much was Underworld and Pirates of the Caribbean.

I have to thank Cindy for telling me what else Christian Bale did before Batman, I knew he'd been in somehtng else I just couldn't remember what. Reign of Fire - I may have to check it out as I quite liked him in Batman.
Katie Holmes didn't really do much for me, I thought she did good in her role nothing mind blowlingly amazing but my sister thought she was better than expected. Apparetnly a lot of reveiws have said Katie Holmes acting was less than desirable.

My sister has finsihed the main part of her kitty hat so I've got my double points back. FINALLY!
I'm going to finish the hat tonight and either do the horns or the ear flaps. Fingers crossed it's done by Friday. Yes, Friday is the day! Alice Cooper live in concert!

Now for some not so exciting stuff, I first discovered Bugsy's blog after she left comments on Katt's blog and i know both Katt and Cathy are avid readers of Bugsy's blog. I don't read it as often, it's one of many I don't read as much as I'd like to, I get to Yarn Harlot about once a week now and she was my all time must read!
Back to the topic at hand, I see shades of me about Bugsy so I can't help but like her. I don't mean like me in the sense of a strange insane individual more....oh I don't know I can't think of a word to describe it I know what I want but not how to word it.
Bugsy is going through a very tough time at the moment and I am once again at a loss for words, stopping by and saying I'm so sorry for you just dosen't seem quite enough.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

A Happy Knitter

I am not.

I sat down last night and knitted till nearly 11pm, I only gave up then because the number of stitches left on the hat required me to change to double points. Which I lent my sister so she could finish her kitty hat. Which she hasn't finished. Now I'm in a crank because I wanted the hat done by today so I could do the ear flaps tonight and tomorrow, the horns on Wednesday and have Thursday in case something went wrong and I needed more time to fix it.

At this rate it'll be Friday and I'll be madly trying to finish it. Arrghh!

Yes, it's this Friday! It's so close and I am so excited! Also exciting is Batman - I go tomorrow. Cathy's son has been and apparently it's quite good. I was watching the trailer online yesterday and I must say it looks good. Tomorrow afternoon! If I'm this excited about the new Batman movie, what will I be like by Friday?

I'll have to work on something else until I can finish the hat....oooo - what will I choose? I'm at a loss, I suppose I could finish the heel on the sock, it's almost half done then. Just have to finish the foot and the first sock ever is done!

The knitting drought is over and I am moving onto more exciting projects! I am actually thinking of joining this Knit Along - Neoknitterstitchnbitch · Stitch N' Bitch Knit-a-long.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Nobody Panic!

I had a minor crisis yesterday when I discovered my seed stitich was in fact rib - seed stitch - rib and had to undo all my hard work and start the brim of my Devil hat again.

It's all good now and I've started on the stocking stitch I'm hoping to make it to the first round of decreases tonight, then I'll be so much closer to finishing it.

Tuesday I'm going to see Batman Begins! I am very excited, I love Batman. He's always been my fave Superhero only one who's close to take his top spot would be wolverine from the X-Men cartoons - I love Hugh Jackman and all but the cartoon Wolverine seems to have more attitude.

Speaking of heros, the very delectable Matt Hardy. Something fishy is afoot, fish go off real quick and smell.....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

One Week!

One week! In a week's time I will be going to see Alice Cooper. I can't believe it and I am aboslutely still excited. If it turns out to be not good (highly unlikely) I will be disappointed.

I didn't work on the Devil Hat last night, this is very bad since I want it done by next Friday. I will work on it tonight and all weekend. I think it will knit quickly - now if only I could get it to knit itself like Mrs Weasley's knitting.....

Something else exciting I haven't talked about was the Bendigo Shade Card which arrived on Tuesday. For their new wool, I don't remmebr it's name but it's got a bit of everything in it. I would have liked a more diverse choice of colours personally.

Another something I haven't talked about is the Deadman's Hoodie. It's kind of in limbo because I'm trying to decide if Bendogo's 12 -ply would be a suitable substitute for the yarn specified in the pattern. The question of gauge bamboozles me. The pattern is knit on 6mm needles and gets 14 stitiches, Bendigo 12-ply knits up on 6mm to 16 stitches. I'm hesitating to purchase the wool until I can decide if it will make a major difference or not.

For those not up on this conversation, I decided to take the pattern for the Boyfriend Hoodie in the first Vogue Knit 1 ( I still haven't got the second one yet - I couldn't find any at Kings Meadows when I went out.) and add the free skull pattern from Domknitrix to the sleeves creating a Deadman's Hoodie!

Now that I have dazzled you with my blindingly creative genius of an idea, go on admit it you were dazzled! I'm going to admire people who are really creative - Glampyre is one of my faves.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide devilish red head and damn proud of it.

The Devil Finds Work For Idle Hands.

Has anybody else seen the new English knitting magazine Simply Knitting? I saw the first issue and went back today to buy it, only to find it gone and the second issue out. I bought the second instead, I quite like the patterns. Really like the denim look stuff, there was a bit too much how-to begining stuff for my liking. A basic guide is one thing, pages and pages of it is another.

I've almost finished the heel on my first sock ever! My first sock ever! Took me two years to reach this stage but I'm still highly impressed, other people who have been knitting socks for years will probably think I'm mad. I think these are one of the best kept secrets in knitting. They are that easy to do.

However the completion of the sock is about to go on hold in honour of my outing to see Alice Cooper. I am commencing a new project. If it all goes pear shaped I shall never speak of it again and I hope you will extend me the same courtesy.

If agreed, you may read on to discover what this magnificent memento will be. If not, what are you doing on my blog? I don't like difficult people.

I went into my local Spotlight today to get the right size needles for this new project. 4.5mm circulars and double points, $7.00 and $6.50 a piece. Almost $14 just for the needles for this project! Which is making it kind of pricey already.
And some yarn, Patons Zhivago, which is on special at the moment, I got the colour Ruby. Do you know what it is yet?

I am making a Devil Hat! It's a basic hat more or less with simple horns added on top and with pointy tails coming off the ear flaps. I'm using the pattern from Stitch N' Bitch by Debbie Stoller. The pattern also includes instructions for making a Kitty Hat - basically the Devil Hat but with kitty cat ears instead of horns. My sister is making one out of a dark grey not quite charcoal Angora Supreme and it looks good!
The pattern is available on the net as well for the Devil Hat or at least it was....it also had it in baby size. Very appropriate. I've had a slight malfunction with my bookmarks - they kind of disappeared. Not through any fault of my own you understand I'm sure.
Arrgh! I'll look it up and post it later for you all.

I hope to have it finished in time for the Alice Cooper concert, of all the things that came out of that box when Pandora opened it, the worst was Hope. It has a lot to answer for.

I've temporarily put aside plans to knit a tight sweater with no sleves for Matt Hardy and am now considering a Devil Hat for him since he's become the Angelic Diablo. Very fun sounding isn't it? Matt should have a devil hat to wear when he's feeling - um.....devilish?

But then I thought about Matt Hardy compared to Alice Cooper. It looked a little like this....



Hmmmmmm. I think Matt may have a lot to learn. One of Alice's daughters is playing Paris Hilton in this tour, apparently in the last tour she played Britney and not nice things happened to Britney. Awww, I would have liked to have seen that!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head who's knitting like a fiend and damn proud of it.

The Eyes Have It!

Well this is the Eyes of Alice tour.

And I have it! Yes, picked up my ticket today. I am so excited now I just have to figure out what to wear. I can't just wear anything to this awe inspiring once in a lifetime experience.

And Alice is on The Great Outdoors tonight talking about his hometown Phoenix, Arizona. I am excited! It was so cool seeing him on Enough Rope last night.
No, the sock heel never got done. I also never saw the end of Desperate Housewives if something critical has happend can someone please tell me?

Only a quick one tonight because Alice will be on soon! I am so excited! I'm actually going to see Alice Cooper in concert!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A very excited bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Tonight's the Night!

First off a big thankyou to Cindy, Sharon (and surprisingly my mother) for telling me about Alice Cooper on Enough Rope tonight. I'm wildly excited and looking forward to it! My mother also told me she saw Alice was going to be on one of the travel shows this week giving a tour of his hometown. Hmm I'll have to watch out for that one.

The sock is progressing nicely, tonight I plan to do the heel. It's done with short rows which sound easy. This is probably a sign of bad things to come. Anything I look at and think How Hard Can It Be? always turn out to be an absolute nightmare that I shout at.
I'm sure all knitters shout at their knitting at some point - some of them even write letters to it. Yes that was Yarn Harlot, she was having trouble with a sweater she was working on.

Now that Batman Begins has opened I'm making plans to go see it, probably one afternnon next week when I'm free. I'm thinking Tuesday because it's half price. I'm very excited to see how this one turns out because I loved the original two Batman movies ( I can rememeber when the first opened it can't have been 20 years? If not, very close to it.) they we're a bit dark and not all around nice. The third and fourth lost some of the darkness and became more Happy Meal material.

Until next time,
Suzi,
A bona fide batty redhead and damn proud of it.

What have I been up to?

Well I've finished a small child i.e toddler size scarf making that project 12 done! Only 8 more to go - how long has it taken me? Longer than I'd originally planned but I think I was underestimating the speed or should I say slow at which I knit.
Ah, well the MSF (or Doctors Without Borders) and The Wilderness Society have done well out of me. As well as some local charitys such as ST Vincent's De Paul and the CWA International Tsunami Fundraiser. Buying yarn from charity automatically cancels it out as I've already given money. Unfortunatly there's been a temporary lull in yarn donations to my local charity shops although I think it is picking up now. Around about this time of year a lot of cupboards get cleaned out.

I've been working on the sock since Friday night and today I've finally finished the ribbing. What took so long? Do you knit that slow? Yes I knit that slow and I'm on 2mm needles. Which I acquired in a bundle of needles I picked up off a market stall and they've been knocking about ever since. They are plastic so at first and still a little bit now it's like trying to knit with a couple of pieces of uncooked spaghetti. But now the rib is over I can move up to the 2.75mm which are metal. Yeah!

I was some time ago going to knit myself a Harry Potter scarf, well I am still going to knit it. Once the yarn diet is over I am going to buy enough wool and knit it up. I'll include the link for the original pattern I was going to use here but I will also include the new Lion Brand pattern for the HP scarfs. Lion Brand had this to say about their pattern "Scarves shown are designed to be made at moderate cost for costume use and casual wear. They are not exact replicas of those shown in the Harry Potter movies from Warner Bros., which use approximately 7 times as much yarn!"

Of course if your inspired by Harry Potter knits, you can find a range of patterns inspired by the movies here.

Knitting aside - my other fave topic. No it's not chocolate. Or impractical shoes. Although I love both of those. It's Matt Hardy. The Man himself is launching his own reality internet show. Having seen the trailer for it I am intrigued, amused and left wondering about the spanking. Nobody panic! Everybody was fully clothed! I gather from what I can find out the lady giving the spanking was a daughter of one of Matt's father's friends who'd he'd met for just the first time that day.
They do live in rural North Carolina, maybe it's a local custom there to spank your host upon meeting them for the first time (or everytime?), if so I think I may have to pay a visit or move there they seem like my kind of people.
The kind who would appreciate fabulous but impractical shoes and sharp pointy sticks. I'm off to knit myself a magic carpet so as to fly my way there.

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide impractical shoe wearing red head and damn proud of it.

Did you know?

That I finished the hat from Caressa Wednesday night?

That this is now Project 11 done?

That all those people who don't have a sense of humour are absolutely right and Matt Hardy is a very naughty boy and should go to my room.....

That I have started a second Drop Stitch Scarf?

This second one is made from Caressa.

That I rang Cathy today with an order from the shop I work in that Cathy knits for and what do I get?
"What do you want?"
Is that anyway to treat the sales assistant who gives you an order? What is the world coming to?

That I am planning on embarking on my first pair of socks tonight?

I am going to use a free pattern from OzYarn for their Easy Socks.

OzYarn was closing down, so are now most likely closed. But I have the PDF.....

My mother dosen't approve of me going to Alice Cooper.
But is it because she dosen't approve of Alice Cooper?
Or is it because she dosen't approve of Rock Concerts?
Or dosen't she approve of Alice Cooper's Rock Concerts?
Hmmmm.....

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

Who am I?

You entered: 10/23/1978

You were born on a Monday
under the astrological sign Scorpio.
Your Life path number is 4.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2443804.5.
The golden number for 1978 is 3.
The epact number for 1978 is 21.
The year 1978 was not a leap year.

As of 6/16/2005 12:25:55 AM CDT
You are 26 years old.
You are 320 months old.
You are 1,390 weeks old.
You are 9,733 days old.
You are 233,592 hours old.
You are 14,015,545 minutes old.
You are 840,932,755 seconds old.

There are 129 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 27 candles on it.

Those 27 candles produce 27 BTU's,
or 6,804 calories of heat (that's only 6.8040 food Calories!) .
You can boil 3.09 US ounces of water with that many candles.

Your birth tree is

Maple, Independence of Mind

No ordinary person, full imagination and originality, shy and reserved, ambitious, proud, self-respect, hungers for new experiences, sometimes nervous, many complexes, good memory, learns easily, complicated love life, wants to impress.

There are 192 days till Christmas 2005!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning gibbous.

http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp

Cinderella Shall Go To The Ball!

And the Bad Ass Knitter will go to Alice Cooper.

As soon as the cheque clears.

In a pleasent surprise I discovered that Telstra have sent me a cheque for what I was in credit with them for. Very unexpected but very very pleasent. So I rang up the Silverdome and booked my Alice ticket. I was worried they might have sold out - the lady I spoke to told me she still had a couple hundred tickets she'd let me have - if only they had been free!

Now I've started panicking - now that I'm going what if they don't sell enough tickets and it's cancelled? To think I was freaking out because it was the only concert in Tasmania...but it may be another case entirely.

On the knitting front I am continuing to work on my hat in Caressa - have I told you about this hat? Hmm I'm not sure off hand but I finished the Drop Stitch Scarf on Monday. Project 10 done!!!!!!!

Jubilations shall follow.

Unitl next time,
Suzi
A bona fide red head who's going to Alice Cooper and damn proud of it.

I'm Only Happy When It Rains!

I do love the rain, really really really love it! Yes I am in a far better mood than the other day, there are simply some days when there are bridges short of a troll.

I have finished project 9 on the yarn diet, it's a pair of Cressa gloves from Get Creative's Designer Knits. They are very cute little things also a little weird looking unless your actually wearing them...
But there will be pictures soon, alos of the hat to go with it. Once I get excited enough to cast on 81 stitches, I hate casting on. Loathe it with all my heart!

While knitting last night I started watching some late night movie, but the hthing about it that really grabbed my attention was one of the names listed at the start, Joanie Laurer. Unless your a wrestling fan the name will mean nothing to you, for example my sister. Joanie worked for the WWE under the name Chyna and I've often wondered what she did after she left. Well I shall wonder marginally less now!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.

My heart is black. My soul is dark. And I'm cold!

The darkness of the soul is not lighted by moving the body to another place. - Eastern Proverb

But despite this I managed to achieve a minor plumbing feat, by myself, last night and now I have slightly cleaner water. Yes, I have figured out how to fit my on tap water filter. It was originally my mother's but my father couldn't follow the instructions and declared it was impossible, so it sat in its box waiting to be liberated.

Now that I have cleaner water, I am marginally less of a crank. Just marginally. I blame my crank moments on the weather, it's as good as excuse as any.

After this small but incredible achievement and working some more on my Drop Stitch Scarf today and thinking about how fortunate I am, I decided it's time I was less of an uncharitable bitch and more of a charitable one.
In this effort I will smile at people even if they aren't paying customers, even if they are one of these people who look at half the contents of the shop and not buy anything.

I will be grateful that I have clean water (or water at all), that I have a soon to be finished scarf to keep me warm and a job that means I have to smile at non-paying customers.
Wait a minute, maybe my new charitable resolve can wait another day or hundred days.....

Also I Can Kill You With My Brain

I know I wrote yesterday about what I like to go with my knitting, well I have found something else I would love to knit at.

Thanks to Karen over at Spinning Goth I've discovered this little gem, anyone up for a trip to Hollywood? It's Saturday night cinema at the Hollywood Forever Cemetry, and yes I had to follow the link to read about the cemetry itself. Does that make me weird? My dear readers who have been following my blog for some time probably figured out the answer to that question looooooooooong before I even considered asking it.
Back to the topic at hand, I quite enjoyed browsing the Cemetry's website and I now have a notion to Google for more to look at. Hmmm, the knitting may be neglected tonight.

On the knitting front, I am going to have to rummage through my stash and see what I have to knit a pair of slippers out of. My sister is currently knitting a pair - first one's done and I think she's started the second from the Guardian Angel pattern book. For those of you not near a Guardian Chemist the pattern is a Shepherd one and can be found at their website in the free patterns section.

I think that's it for today, anybody who's a fan of Joss Wheedon and his stuff (if your not familair with him he was the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer), I have just finsihed watching the Firefly series. Having seen it I remember catching the start of it a couple of times when it was on tv but it was late and I really had no idea what it was at the time. Firefly is set in outer space after we've all left the Earth and at times it's a bit wild west, kind of wild west meets outer space in the future. I enjoyed it, it was funny and dark. Like the early season's of Buffy before they got a little out there.

Ding Ding! Darkside Station everyone out!

I picked up the new Creative Knitting today, and I know it has at times got a bum wrap but I quite liked this issue. Another magazine with a new issue is Spun - their summer issue is out. Yes I know Summer they are based in the Northern Hemisphere.

I love the Rainbow Hot Pants! Very cool and also on the very cool list is another sari silk project I love getting more ideas for that stuff.
But what I really liked was the bag made out of plastic shopping bags, my sister accumlates enough to make multiples of these bags.

I love a good murder with my knitting and to suit the cold weather I am enduring I think it only apt that tonight's murder will be on Cold Case. But another murder to soon go with knitting is a murder mystery called Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton. Knitter's Review have a review up for it, can't wait till it washes up on our shores.

My highlight for tonight so far was answering the door to the pizza boy who told me that I had made a good choice because his favourite was Pepperoni Lovers as well. I am very excited, but I realise dear readers that your probably all off doing exciting things and leading that mysterious thing called a life while I am rapt about ordering the pizza boy's fave topping. It's the little things that count, now if only Matt Hardy would deliver himself to my door......

Blog Update!

I know I have a link to Bloglines for those people who want to sign up and get updates - well it's not very satisfactory or at least I don't think so, so I am changing to Bloglet which actully e-mails you with a notification that I've updated. More practical I think.

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The Naughty Knitter Slinks Back!

Yes, it's been a while and I've been very remiss with my blogging. But I have been workign very hard on my Drop Stitch Scarf and planning what I will make out of the Guardian Angel booklet this year.

I saw Cathy on Thursday and she already had her pin, I wonder if I'll make something in time this year? I missed out last year as they hadn't expected so many knitters to donate. Which is good in a way.

Matt Hardy is drving me to distraction, but when is he not? At least I've managed to accomplish some knitting around it.

Last year at the CWA Craft Camp I attended I did a class in Felting. I bought this months Better Homes and Gardens because they had knit throws again - they've also included some crochet this year. Immediatly after the knit throws section is an article on felting, it's the hot trend this winter and here I thought it was crochet.

This isn't the knit and full technique. This is where you felt actual fleece, I won't say my effort last year was the world's greatest but I think I know enough of what I did wrong to get it right this time around. Starting with a Coffee Plunger Cosy - I've been looking for one of those!

Until next time,
Suzi.
A bona fide red head and damn proud of it.