Moving

I've decided to move my blog - you can now find me here.

For Chirs

Chris is having a contest where you share your before-blogging stories for yummy yarny prizes. Reading through all those comments really got me thinking...

A long, long time ago, I was about to start junior high and there was a certain brand of jeans that all the cool kids were wearing. I begged and I begged and just had to have a pair. Now that I’m all grown up, I can’t believe how much money I begged my mother to spend on my being “cool.” I am so not cool. I am so nerdy. After months of constant, never-ending begging, my mother bought me a pair of name-brand blue and white striped denim shorts (I am so sorry, typing “blue and white striped denim shorts” made me shudder - oh, the horror of having to read it!) for back-to-school. The rule was that back-to-school clothes and shoes could not be worn until school started. No exceptions.

One week before school started, a friend of mine was having a birthday party and I begged and begged to wear my new shorts. Since it was only a week before school started, my mother caved into my begging. I got to wear my new school outfit early! You have no idea how excited I was.

On the day of the party, all dressed up in my name-brand shorts, big hair and way too much lip gloss, I was ready to make the birthday present pretty with plenty of helium-filled balloons and way too much ribbon. In order for to really pretty up the present, I needed to sit down and focus (I can’t be the only one who has to sit when crafting (or working on maths), can I?). I fell right through the bottom of the chair, bum on the ground and scrawny legs in the air. Oh, the embarrassment! Oh, the furry in my mother’s eyes! Oh, the pain!

Internets, my mother was in the process of updating our kitchen chairs - removing the tweedy brown fabric and replacing it with pretty blue fabric - one at a time. In my infinite clumsiness, I had picked the chair without a seat. I picked the chair she was working on that day. So that she didn't loose any of the screws, mom taped them to the base of the chair, pointy side up. One such screw grabbed a hold of my shorts and tore a hole in them. A hole in my new name-brand shorts! But that’s not all, it also tore a hole in my bum!

I missed the birthday party because I was at the doctor’s office having my bum stitched up. The nurse who was assisting in the stitch-up was the mother of one of my many boy friends (being nerdy does have its perks). I was so mortified! Mortified!

I've only had one set of stitches – those two mortifying stitches in my bum – which is really amazing given how clumsy I really am.

Now with More Kitty Pictures!

That look right there, that's why we only have one kitty.



I finished the Lollipop socks and, boy, are they tasty. I didn't use a pattern unless you call making it up as you go a pattern. The yarn is Opal Lollipop 1012.



Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Wild Raspberry, very delicious.



Interweave's Retro Rib sock pattern.



All for me - I'm totally spoiling my feet.



I've also started the sweater that everyone and their dog/cat is knitting: Central Park Hoodie. This sweater knits up incredibly fast. I ordered the yarn online and it arrived 9 days ago. As of this morning, I've knit both sleeves and a big portion of the back.



Berroco Peruvia, Grano. It is a very soft single ply yarn that reminded me of Lamb's Pride when I first noticed it online. I've always loved the look of Lamb's Pride, but think it's just too itchy for next to the skin wear (the reason I never wear this beautiful hat). One of the local shops carries the new Berroco yarn - only a few skeins in each color, not nearly enough for a sweater - and I fell in love the second I picked it up. The heathered colors are full of a depth the Berroco website doesn't come close to capturing, and it is so soft. Seriously. Soft. Since it is a single ply yarn and so loosely spun, I'm certain it will develop a halo and may have a pill problem. I'm hoping it will add to the charm of the sweater rather than be a big ugly eyesore. Oh, and the yardage! I wound the first skein into a ball and started knitting a sleeve. I knit and knit. And knit. And knit some more. The first ball ran out half way through the shoulder shaping. Holy shit. The yardage. It's amazing. I just started the fourth skien. All that knitting used only three skeins.


Hey, grrlfriend, quit your yapping and get back to work - that sweater's not going to knit itself.

Happy Birthday

Today is Margene's birthday and last night we had a celebration at SNB. I actually came out of hiding to attend the event and baked brownies. Rich, decadent, dark chocolate brownies.

Week-Old Photos

I don't have any knitting content to show you, so I thought I'd post a few old pictures.



The Mr. took this photo about a week ago while I was sleeping. Either Kally is using me for a pillow or she's turning into zombie kitty and wondering just how delicious my brains are - if she could only be bothered enough to get up off her lazy ass.



I took this photo of blondies and bellies about a week ago. Yummy.

Lollipop lollipop

oh lolli lolli lolli lollipop lollipop



Socks on the needles, finally! I bought some sock yarn from a friend and it’s lovely (there's more here if you're interested). It's Opal Lollipop 1012 and I can now say that I am no longer an Opal virgin. Did I already say the yarn is lovely? Because it is, it really is lovely. Here are two of my favorite details of the sock in progress ...

(a) the all green picot, and



(b) the beautiful heel flap.



I'm going to do something a little unusual around here and venture outside of Knitting Land. Don't worry, I'll be back to Knitting Land by the end of the post, I promise. I have something to show ya'll that I hope you like, so read on or skip to the end. Whatever.

I've been really busy this semester with several never-ending projects from Frustration Island, projects that eat up all of my scheduled lab time and almost all of my free time (Do you have any idea how many days I had to wait to watch Heros (next week looks awesome, by the way) because I don't get home from school until bedtime most nights? I'm currently working on a microphone / speaker circuit. I started the testing portion of the lab by frying one of my transistors – I forgot to place a resistor between the transistor and the negative power supply. As soon as I noticed the smell of melting components, I turned off the power supply and went to pull the transistor from the circuit. Should you ever find yourself in that position, do not touch the transistor immediately. I have a tiny little blister on my index finger as a reminder. Fucker was much hotter than I expected. Then, I looked at my circuit and the big mess it had become. I decided to move things around and arrange it so that the first half is on one side of my bread board and the second on the other. I disconnected the speaker portion of the circuit to test that I had set up the microphone portion of the circuit correctly. I noticed that my negative power supply was off by a few volts. I instinctively cranked the knob to obtain the right voltage. Oops. I blew up one of my electrolytic capacitors. The big bang and horrid smell caused heads to pop up over the cubicle walls like little prairie dogs. Having blown up my first capacitor, I think I'm going to encase it in plastic and put it on a cutesy scrapbook page titled "KA-BOOM!"

Warning: Gratuitous capacitor gore below. Viewer discretion is advised.



Now leaving Frustration Island with a quick layover in La Gata Malo Ciudad. The Mr. and I are big pushovers when it comes to the cuteness that is her shitty-ness. We only have two rules: (i) no biting of the humans, and (ii) no kitty on the tall kitchen surfaces, i.e., the table and the counters. In our initial Kally training days, we tried to use the water bottle method without success. She's too damn fast. Our vet suggested we use canned air. It worked wonderfully. All we had to do was ruffle her fur and she blamed the air can. For a long time, empty air cans were placed where we didn't want a kitty or any kitty help. We reached the point where she refused to jump on the table or counter despite our coaxing. Success. Or so we thought. The other day, the Mr. came home and found shitty kitty sleeping on the counter, puffy face and all. Bad shitty kitty.


Whose bad?

Now we're back to Knitting Land. I've been working on a bit of a secret project for a little one whom we'll call Ramona. Ramona is my grandmother's middle name (Eliza Ramona) and I like her middle name much more than my own. I've often thought of legally changing my middle name to Ramona. I've also thought of tattooing several stars across my back, but always chickened out. I'm pretty sure changing my name will fall into the same category. So, here's Ramona along with a close up of the buttons:





Some Babies' Things (February) from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac
Mission Falls 1824 Wool Color 534 Rhubarb

Did ya'll enjoy the journey?

Happy

The craziness has hit hard, again. I'm starting to be easily annoyed and am slipping back into my anti-social ways. After a chat with my therapist, it's time to think happy thoughts and speak up when I feel like I'm entering doormat territory (which is happening far more than I'd like). So, rather than rant about boundaries, I'm focusing on things that make me happy right now...

Battux.


He's so cute! And completely indulges my inner batnerd. A few months ago, we switched over to Linux and I love it very, very much. Although, you should note the 'we' is totally suspect: the Mr. did all the work and I've just been playing around.

The best soap ever.


Seriously, if you have not tired Blessed Juno soap, you really should. Each batch is made by hand with only the best raw materials. I know because I watched a batch being made. It scared the shit out of me, but I helped stir. And it's made by a knitter, so you know it's good. (Last night, the Mr. caught me standing at the counter with a bar of hand knit special edition soap pressed to my nose and asked if I was going to snort the whole thing, and I was like, fuck, I don't know, it's so very delicious. Internets, it really is that good.)

Kally helping.


Grrlfriend loves to help. 'nuff said.

Lace.


I'm nearing completion of the Leaf Lace Shawl with one purl row left before I start the edge chart. I've been working on this for months now (not exclusively, of course) and love working with the Zephyr. Love it.

Beads.


These are the beads that will adorn the points of the Leaf Lace shawl and I'm almost ready to use them. This is one of my favorite color pallets and it works so well with the gray yarn. I love the little details that are an inherent part of knitting.

Wiskers.


I *heart* my little shitty kitty!