Big Damn Hat

I hate making pom-poms. There's a reason I don't ever really do it. I don't have any of those cool plastic pom-pom makers, and it's hard to find cardboard and a nice-sized circle to make templates out of.

That said...




Beer. Is there anything it can't do? The "moon" on the blue moon box was the perfect size for a pom pom! Cut out the centers and voila: nice one-time use pom-pom makers. Why the heck did I need to make a pom-pom?



I had a request for a Firefly hat. (Isn't Steve a smashing model? His curly hair sticking out of the hat cracks me up to no end. There's a reason he doesn't wear hats.) No, I've never seen the show, and I don't really have any intention to run out and watch it. Oh well. I'd hate to fall in love with it and have to make yet another three-color pom-pom. Never again.



In other news, Jason, I have your hat. If you ever want to see it alive again (and your little snow shovel, too!), bring lambrusco to my apartment. You've been warned!

Lush

I'm going to leave behind the knitting content for a while; there is knitting going on, but most of it is semi-secretive holiday stuff, so I won't be able to post until they're FOs. I'm not sure how many of the recipients read this, but I don't want to risk it!

I've mentioned a few times before my love of alcohol, especially gigantic bottles of stoli. It usually just gets mixed with cranberry juice, but lately I've been mixing it into a bunch of random shots to spice things up. It's really important to me this time of year, when looming exams give that extra law school pressure...

I didn't photograph them, but I made a batch of Pudding Shots. In mentioning these, most people gave a confused expression. Pudding and alcohol? Yes! It can be done! And if you enjoy the taste of Irish Cream/Kahlua, you will probably enjoy these.

Chocolate Pudding Shots

Ingredients:

• 1 (3 1/2 ounce) package of instant chocolate pudding mix


• 3/4 cups of milk


• 1/4 cup of vodka


• 1/2 cup of Irish Cream/Kahlua (your choice)


• 8 ounces (yes, an entire tub) cool-whip

Mix pudding and milk until well-blended. Add vodka and Irish Cream, mix well. Fold in cool-whip. Divide into individual servings. (I usually get 18-20 shots out of a batch!) Place in freezer.

And that's it! After the day or so, they are about the consistency of soft-serve ice cream, and they're tasty, with a definite chocolate aftertaste.

What did I make tonight?



Classic jello shots in berry blue, my favorite flavor. I'm thinking the cranberry-raspberry flavor might be really good as my next attempt! These are actually a lot less complicated than the pudding shots, and I think there are a lot of neat variations out there... midori and watermelon jello, anyone?

Easy Jello Shots

Ingredients:

• 1 small (3 oz.) package of Jello (any flavor)


• 1 cup boiling water


• 1 cup chilled vodka

Mix jello with boiling water. Stir until the jello is dissolved. Add chilled vodka, stir in. Separate into individual servings, and put in fridge. Let set for 2-3 hours. Makes 12 shots.

Obviously the jello shots are much more potent than the pudding shots... Surely this makes up for a lack of knitting content... right?

It's not just about politics, but also my booze!

The pink mouse I made for the kittens last month finally met its maker. After spending the night in the cats' water bowl, I decided that it was in their best interest to just throw the soggy, tailless, unraveling, partially-felted guy away.



His replacement was made out of some leftover Malabrigo. I'm sad to report that this new kitten toy isn't holding up so well; after just one day of terror from Orangecat and Blackcat, his i-cord tail is already unraveled and gone! Oh well, it's obvious that these guys still love him, so I'm not too heartbroken just yet.



The Flame Wave socks from Favorite Socks finished! Fishnets no more, I rather like their second chance at life as comfy socks. I wish I could use these for the Southern Summer of Socks, but that action doesn't start until Monday. Don't worry, there is plenty of sock yarn just waiting for my sole goal of being knitted up!

Speaking of Monday, I should probably go to Meijer and get more liquor. Why, you ask? Well, my government is shutting down. It boggles the mind that the fact that Michigan is going into government-induced anarchy isn't making national news. Most of the residents of this fine state were blissfully unaware of the fact that this was a possibility. What do we get? We get limited police force, limited funding to colleges, and no distribution of liquor, among a lot of other random, annoying things until the legislature comes to some agreement over their budget. The most tragic part of this isn't really the liquor, it's the bazillions of people who suddenly are laid off. Virtually every government worker is out of work starting Monday. They are only keeping people in prisons and hospitals and such to keep this from being complete state-induced anarchy.

There are a lot of fingers being pointed at our governor, but I don't think it's entirely fair to place the blame on her. Rather, what I see is a bipartisan host of morons in the legislature so stubborn and so motivated by sheer politics rather than goodwill that they've caused a shitstorm. At least Governor Granholm has been proposing a budget since January...

No wonder West Virginia's economy is better than ours. Fuck you, Michigan. I'm going to go buy another huge bottle of Stoli while I still can.

Neverending scarf of doom

I'm starting to think that Knitty's exchequered is the neverending scarf of doom. This has been in my stash as a UFO for a long freaking time. I love how it looks, but I can't focus on the double knitting for a very long time. I don't like k1p1 ribbing much either, so I'm assuming that there's a connection there.

To ease the process, I'm having:



Delicious red vodka drinks with happy heart-shaped ice. I went to Ikea for the first time today, and I got a couple of spiffy fun ice cube trays. I also have puzzle piece ice!

Hopefully the Stoli will get me to concentrate on my knitting...

Back to our regularly scheduled fiber content...

...and no, I'm not talking about that kind of regularity.

I was supposed to be participating in Knit From your Stash 2007, but that has largely gone by the wayside. My stash is, if anything, larger than it was at the beginning of the year. Oops. Allow me to show off some of my recent acquisitions.



Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky superwash (that's not a mouthful!) in onyx, white frost, and stonewashed denim. I got it from Alpaca Fleece, who seriously are the sweetest people and have the best prices on all things Brown Sheep.



Apologies for the craptastic picture, but you try and photograph a glossy magazine with a crappy camera. It wouldn't cooperate with or without the flash. The brown sheep is for the sweater pictured above, from the holiday 2005 issue of Vogue Knitting. Hopefully I can get gauge and have enough.



In the future, these will be socks. The speckled Koigu was in my LYS's orphan bin when I was shopping for my SP10 spoilee. The Regia Nation was ordered to make awesome socks for a close friend of mine who just got back from studying in Germany. I'll probably start them soon so that they are definitely done by her birthday. We shall see...

Even though this isn't yarn, I still felt the need to show it off. I purchased that shirt last night. I love threadless.

And finally in non-yarn acquisitions...



1.75 liters of Stoli. It was so much cheaper than buying several smaller bottles. I just felt like sharing because it seems like such an enormous amount of liquor and I felt really foolish carrying it through the grocery store. Consider that the other purchases of the evening were brownie mix and toothpaste. I must have been a funny sight. Party on Friday, anyone?