Long Beach Dog Parade

Last weekend was the annual Dog Parade in Long Beach. Even though I am very much a cat person, I have to get out of the house every now and then. So Aj and I decided to go to the park for the afternoon. And boy, it was worth it.
Owners dress up their dog and walk them around one block of 2nd street. Some people kept it simple, a store bought costume and a leash. Bumble bee and devil seemed to be the most popular. Some people decided to pull their pup in a cart, with or with decorations. Oh, and did I mention that some of the owners also dressed up along with the dog's theme...
And that is still nothing compared to ... the crazy people. Now, it was the cutest little puppy and it's owners dressed it up as Indiana Jones. And they had the cart with a spinning bolder on it. And it's all good so far. But, the reason I call these owners crazy, is because the woman would constantly hold up treats to get dog's attention. If the puppy wanted to lay down for a bit, she would pick him up and sit him down facing the crowd. Constant fixing of the hat. And then more treats to get the dog's attention towards the crowd. She was a true stage mom. And her husband dragged into it. I'm not so sure how much against his will though.

Don't get me wrong, I got nothing against dressing up dogs, occasionally. (Lord knows I have holiday hats for my cat. Not that they stay on long) And as for people dressing up,... I say yes! Yes to it all. But when you cross that 'stage mom' line .... no, that is just too far. Let you dog take a nap on the wagon if he wants to. Let it face the wrong way. If his hat is slightly crooked, it's ok. Your puppy is fluffy enough to make up for all the little imperfections.

As for knitting, not much done. I'm trying to make my Xmas deadline for 3 baby blankies.

Taco bell and new yarn

Yes, that is exactly what my Monday called for. Driving home from work my car all of a sudden took a detour to Michael's. I don't how I ended up there. And then, when I walked out, I had 12 skeins of sugar and cream... Such a weird day. I guess all I needed to some food.
In the mean time I cast on for the baby hoodie blanket. I even did a little swatch, turns out size 7 needles would give this blankie a very nice look. I would have to cast on 112 instead of 100 stitches to get the right size, not a big deal. So I grab the white yarn, cast on, switch to the blue yarn, and it's all coming along nicely.
The stitches look just a little bit bigger then in the swatch, but then again I think I'm knitting them a little bit looser. I was kinda curious and I took out my measuring tape, turns out, my blankie is pretty wide across. Again, not a big deal, I'll just have to add extra rows to the top, increasing my knitting time. (And with my procrastination skills, that can be a bad thing, I need to finish 3 of these for Christmas)
I cleaned up my room, found another pair of circular addi needles, that looked kinda... small. I mean, they looked like the size I should have been knitting with and oh yes, go figure, they are my size 7s. Turns out, I'm not knitting loosely, I'm knitting my blanket on size 8s. Gosh, I'm such a dork. O well, the blanket will be huge, but it is for a fast growing boy :)

Itching to cast on

I've been away for another while, and I wish I could say I was too busy to blog. But no, sadly that is not the case. I did get addicted to a new show on sci fi channel. It only had 6 episodes so it didn't fill up the dvr.

For a while I had a very responsible streak going. I was working on some of my older projects. Made a little bit of progress, but I do believe that every little bit helps. Then work started to interfere with just about every aspect of my life and I had to put the knitting down for a while. But now work has settled down and I can pick up my needles again. And the old projects, the prospect of finishing them ... it does nothing for me. I have cast on fever again! I've been looking at patterns on ravelry. Michelle has turned into a superstar pattern writer and I want to make her stuff. It is so pretty. So I will pretend my yarn stash isn't flowing over already and go buy some more yarn tomorrow. I found a cute pattern for a hooded baby blanket. Looks like a very quick knit. Should go fast. So I can pretend I never strayed, haha.

So I will be casting on, adding to my list of shame a.k.a my never ending list of WIPs/UFOs. And I will also need to get over my costume of shame. I was at a rock band party. I decided to go dressed in a skirt that was more like a belt, tank top, blond wig, and cheeto dust all over the skirt (like I was wearing that one again, ha, no need for a belt skirt. tank top on the other hand) and bare feet. Anyone guess who I was... I looked so super classy and only dressed this way, because it was all friends at the party.
Now that I have seen some pictures, I wonder why I couldn't go as a classier person (or a classier period in this person's life) I'm not lying when i say, I don't have any pics myself, but if I get a hold of some, I will let you enjoy the trashy version of me.