Posts Tagged ‘swap’

And the lake is damp

I know this won’t come as a surprise to everyone reading this blog, but Bell sucks. I’ve had the misfortune of being a telephone customer of theirs, as well as a customer of Bell Sympatico. For anyone who pays attention to this sort of thing, my opinion is: don’t use Bell unless under threat of death.

Why? In short:

- they have stolen money out of my bank account (by doing something they *specifically* claimed was impossible) then wouldn’t give it back until I involved my bank

- they’ve cut off my phone service for not paying *someone else’s* bill, and even after it was proven that was the case they still wouldn’t reconnect it, and still wouldn’t even after we proved that it was, in fact, their fault that it was possible at all

- they’ve sold me a service that didn’t exist (which lead to me having to pay the cable company an extra hookup charge since they had to come to my house twice)

- and most recently they failed to fix a connection problem. For two weeks. They claim to have made 6 appointments for techs to check out the problem, but we only saw 2. Each of those techs “fixed” the problem, only to have service go back down within 24 hours. (They also both complained bitterly about working for Bell!)

So, what’s a gal to do during this internet outage? (Did I mention that the internet wasn’t working at work either because of a computer virus? *yanks out hair*) Well, I certainly didn’t plan any part of my wedding! (Whose idea was it to keep our notes about it in a Google document? Oh wait, that was me…)

I crocheted, naturally! I also loom-knit.

You all remember Mom’s sorority’s charity thing with the kids hats and scarves right?

Check it!
DSC03737

The plan is to fill a bin with these. The current count is 23 complete sets (I took this picture before finishing a few of them… all of those hats in front of the pile have matching scarves now, plus there is another set not pictured… and a blue hat I still need to make a matching scarf for…)

I also made quite a few dishcloths. And a crochet-on-the-double hat using Bernat Soft Boucle (that still needs sewing up), and blew through a few more balls of red on the Ladybug blanket. I’m woefully behind on motifs, but expect to see a rush of those soon, as I’m in another motif swap. ^_^

A possible conclusion from all of this might be that having no internet access can be really good for my crafting! Another conclusion might be that having no internet had the potential to drive me so crazy that I needed that many projects to distract myself with just to get through it…

*eye twitch*

Where have YOU been?

Holy guacamole, what a summer! You are right to demand to know where I’ve been.

Since the last episode of fantasticmio.com my laptop broke; it still works, it just doesn’t stay open! Just check out that hinge:
broken laptop hinge

It was decided that I needed a new computer. Not wanting to bother with Windows Vista, and not willing to muddle through with the broken laptop, I got a netbook that runs XP.
Acer Aspire One netbook
We named it “Sprinkles”.

But that’s not why I haven’t blogged.

I turned 32 a few weeks ago. It was awesome.
mio turns 32

That cake was decorated by my 8-year-old neice (she’s the one in yellow. You may remember her from the Breast Cancer walk post.) She’s been taking the Wilton cake decorating classes at Michaels. It was her idea. The lower age limit for the classes is 10, but they agreed to let her take the classes if an adult took it with her, so my Dad is also taking the classes. Word is that the only thing she’s having trouble with is making flowers with the Royal icing. Not because making flowers is difficult, but because the icing is so stiff that she can’t pipe it out of the bag properly. I hear her buttercream roses are beautiful, though!

Yes, that IS the basketweave technique.

For my birthday I received all sorts of wonderful things. A Cricut personal cutting machine, as well as a bunch of accessories for it; an iron which I intend to use for all manner of crafty purposes, including using in conjunction with the Cricut machine and some freezer paper to make amusing t-shirts; some clothes; tickets to see Riverdance (always a good show!); a really neat Halloween cross stitch my Mom made; and, of course, YARN!

More on the gifts in another post!

My birthday isn’t what held up the blog either.

What held up the blog is our fantastic news: we’re moving! Moving day is Sept 1, but we had to get the current place ready to show to potential renters, and what a job it was!

We packed up some clutter, threw a lot of stuff out (including the entire contents of the fridge when it died suddenly), and most traumatic: packed up the yarn! *sob* Most of my stash, which turns out to be at least twice as big as I thought it was, is now living at my parents’ house.

Evidence of our efforts:
clean kitchen

Cleaning for the move made me late in sending out my packages in the two swaps I’m in, but they’re all out now, and half of my partners have received.

Whew!

I’m hoping to spend the next little while catching you up on the crafty things I’ve been doing and if I time it right, I can show you the motifs I made very soon! Here is one of my favourites I sent out:

broomstick lace in the round crochet motif

Stay tuned until next time, same fantastic time, same fantastic channel! ^_-

Plan B

BOB didn’t go well (stupid rain) but that’s ok, because I had a backup plan!

These blankets are going to charity:
pink stripes Striking round ripple Peach Rainbow Round Ripple purple Fibonacci blanket (in progress)
(I should get a better picture of that purple one made at the show before I send it off…)

I’m going to make these three bigger and give them as Christmas gifts:
Pink Rainbow Round Ripple Yellow Rainbow Round Ripple 3way Tunisian

These are Christmas presents, and I’m keeping them as is:
Tetris pillows

And this one is MINE:
Settlers of Catan blanket

My current main project is a gift for someone who reads this blog, and I really don’t want to give the surprise away if I can help it, so pictures and updates will be made on Ravelry (where you need an account to see it). Don’t worry, once the Big Day has come and gone, I’ll post all of the gory details. ^_^

Now that BOB is over, I find myself with my own crafting time again, so I’m waffling around trying to decide what to do. I’ve joined a couple of swaps, I still need to make the June square in the CAL, and I’ve been itching to just make my way through my growing collection of motif books and make at least one of everything.

Of course, there’s still Christmas coming, and various birthdays left to think about. I’ve been hoping that Bernat Satin would go on sale for the last several months, but I haven’t seen it. If you do, could you please let me know? I’m planning on buying a LOT of it, not only because I’ll need it for some gifts, but also because it’s my go-to yarn for worsted weight acrylic and I’m starting to run low. It’s soft, works up well, and the colours are pretty nice.

Anticipated projects: at least one more Snowflake afghan, maybe the Hawaiian Flower afghan, more 3-way Tunisian, lots of hats and scarves, some geeky afghans, and of course, Dad’s Christmas present.

My work situation has changed and I suddenly find myself with a good chunk of crochet time. That time can only be spent working on a pattern I know really well, and that doesn’t have any tricky colour changes. The project I’ve been working on lately has recently become too large to do while I do my job, so I need a replacement project. For now, I’m prepping some scarves (doing the base chain and first row at home on several), and I’m thinking of doing some granny squares. Any thoughts on what else might work? Basically, anything I don’t have to look at too much, that can easily be done a couple of stitches at a time.

Finally, check out this Spiral Granny Square I made: click here.