Yarn Over

Where the heck have I been?

2008-06-02T10:28:00.002-04:00

Here, of course, and doing a little knitting, too. I am working on a replacement pair of Fuzzy Feet for the hubby. He wore the first pair so much, that he wore them out! (Talk about a compliment!) I only have one done and it really isn't picture worthy at this point, so you'll have to wait a bit for the final pics.

But Fuzzy Feet are incredibly easy, so how come I'm not done? (I cast on in April.) And why haven't I been posting, or doing anything on the Rav? Well.... I would love to say I was out globetrotting or something very cool, but it is mostly because we're buying a house. Our very first house. So, it is cool, just not in the same way. More in the "incredibly stressful and time-consuming" school of cool. :-) We have an accepted offer on a house and are closing this month. All the spare time has been devoted to the mortgage, the inspections, the giant stack of forms that must be understood and signed, and last but not least, packing. Oy to the packing. We started on the library yesterday. Let me just say this: twenty-six (26!) boxes of books so far, and we're not done.

So the Fuzzy Feet might not be ready for awhile!

Intimidation

2008-05-07T13:11:00.004-04:00

I fell in love with Butterfly, while browsing Ravelry.

I bought Rowan 37 so I could knit it (on the cover). Now the magazine is here, and man is it ever freaking me out. The patterns are lovely and classy and I want to knit almost of all them. But I am sooooo intimidated. Little tiny needles! Charts! Expensive yarn!

Yikes!!

FO: Newfoundland Mittens

2008-04-18T15:05:00.002-04:00

Horray!

I think I may rename these the strawberry and blueberry mittens, since each one looks like a different fruit. :-) I couldn't be happier with these; the colors rock, the pattern was easy, and my fingers will be toasty warm next winter!

(Check out my ravelry notebook for details on yarn, needles, and mods. I am LinknKnits.)

Love

2008-04-02T09:12:00.004-04:00

I am in love with this pattern and this yarn and my wonderful, almost completed first mitten:

It is the Newfoundland Mitten. It is so easy and cool looking that it boggles the mind. I started these on Sunday and am almost done with the first mitten (after I took this photo I started the decreases at the top). You can check out the stats on Ravelry (I am LinknKnits there), but I will just say that I am using Noro for the first time and am almost convinced it is worth the price (in this case, $18/skein. Yikes!). The colors are vibrant and the transitions subtle and the yarn soft and squishy... and can you tell I love it?

The one thing I don't love is that I started these NOW, instead of 4 months ago, and will have to wait until next winter to wear them!

P.S. I added a Library Thing widget in my sidebar to replace that list of books that I hadn't updated in months. If you are curious, I am only adding recent reads (not every book I have read, want to read, or own) because, quite frankly, they only give you 200 entries for free and my list would be WAY bigger than that. :-) I finished Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris last night (click the cover; I don't feel like adding a text link), which has a spectacular twist near the end. Totally makes the book!

Peep show

2008-03-26T09:16:00.002-04:00

First off. The picture is terrible, I know. My camera has been just incapable of taking a decent photo lately. They all end up blurry and out of focus and I think the tax refund may go to buying a new camera! :-)

Anywho, the pic is “The Peep Dishcloth” named in honor of Easter’s sugary little treats. Are those colors not classic Peep colors? The pattern is called Basketweave from this booklet, that I have had for years. I wanted to knit something that would give me a bit of instant gratification, because let me tell you, I am so bored with my Under the Hoodie sleeves right now. A bright and easy dishcloth seemed like the perfect solution, and it was. I really like it.

While knitting the Peep, I watched Escaflowne, another anime that came pretty highly recommended. Both my hubby and I hated it. There is also a series with the same name, which looks like it might be better and we were wondering if we should have watched that instead. In fact, I put in on my Netflix queue to give it a try. Keep your fingers crossed that it will be better than the movie!

A movie or three

2008-03-18T09:08:00.004-04:00

When I revived this blog last summer/fall, I had promised that I was going to talk about my non-yarn hobbies, too. I have been terrible about that promise, though, even though I spend a huge amount of time on them. I'm not sure why. Maybe I think that the people who stop and look at my knitting won't have the same taste in movies/books/games as I do? On the other hand, I love when the knit blogs I read mention something besides knitting. I have found many great books and movies based on the fact that I like so-and-so's taste in knitting patterns, so I *must* like her taste in movies, too. Ok, that logic is completely busted, but it has been true a surprising amount of times.

Anywho. Besides re-knitting my sleeve in the proper color (ahem), I have been watching:

1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? This is part of my Top 100 challenge that I blogged about, oh I don't know, six months ago or so. Excellent movie. It was a bit like watching a car wreck; you feel like you should look away, but are strangely compelled to keep watching the carnage unfold on screen. Taylor and Burton were amazing.

2. Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle. I have been on an anime kick recently and these are the two I started with. They are from the same studio and share a lot of the same themes, which is why I mention them together. The animation is beautiful and the stories intriguing. The stories never quite go where you expect them to, which makes them much more engaging than a Disney movie (at least, to me). My hubby and I often sit and talk about the motivations and meanings in these movies for days afterwards. Also, Christian Bale does the voice of Howl and man! That man has a sexy voice! :-)

If anybody out there has any anime recommendations, please leave them in the comments. Specifically for movies, as I don't have the patience to watch a long series right now. Thanks!

In which I discover that I am color blind

2008-03-11T08:30:00.002-04:00

Or can't properly read very, very, VERY easy directions. Scroll down to my last post. See that nice little sleeve I had started? Well, I have been diligently working on it ever since. Last night, I was one repeat (one repeat!) from finishing it. I noticed I was short on light gray yarn so I went rooting through the yarn for this project to make sure I had another ball. I didn't, but for some bizarre reason I had three balls of red. My brain sorta froze as I processed this information. And then it hit me.

I was knitting the sleeve in the wrong color.

The sleeves are supposed to match the thick stripe on the front, not the little tiny accent of light gray. What the heck was I thinking?

So, yeah. I am pretending that this whole incident was due to a temporary onslaught of color-blindness and that I am not just plain ol' retarded. I am also pretending that I didn't frog an entire sleeve last night. You know, setting myself back WEEKS and all.

I need a lot of pretending right now.

Under the Hoodie, continued (finally)

2008-02-17T10:22:00.003-05:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been working on a sweater lately. It is the Under the Hoodie sweater from Stitch n' Bitch. You may remember I started it way back here. Um, yeah. That is August of 2006. Yikes! Well, yarn doesn't go bad (thank goodness, because my stash would be moldering by now) and I was hankering to do some mindless stockinette. Which is what this sweater is; no real shaping, nothing fancy, just a box with sleeves.

I finished the front:

and started my first sleeve:

And am really enjoying a nice, easy knit. Hopefully, I won't get distracted (look, a shiny thing!) and I'll finish this before 2010!

Happy Heart Day!

2008-02-14T08:48:00.002-05:00

I hope everybody has a lovely day with somebody they care for (be it their sweetie, kids, or pets). Don't eat too many chocolates!

(Next post: I SWEAR I have been knitting. I actually have finished two pieces of a sweater and cast on for the sleeves last night. Pictures to come soon!)

Five Things

2008-01-21T08:43:00.000-05:00

1. I have decided I am going to stop apologizing that I don't post often. I am apparently on a "once every few weeks" schedule right now. I don't want to fill my blog with junk just to say I posted, so I'll be sticking to that schedule for the time being. (But please check in and I am so sorry... oops! I apologized!)

2. I have finally joined the 21st century and bought my first iPod. I am in love with it. I asked my hubby if I could annul our marriage so I could be with the iPod. He was offended until he played with it, too. Now he is leaning towards the annulment. :-) Seriously, I don't know why it took me so long to get on the trolley for this one. It's not like I am a technophobe or something. The first song I bought was this one by Marcy Playground and the first CD I uploaded was this one by The Killers. Bliss. :-)

3. My book club read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It is a little preachy (which you sorta expect from anybody writing about something they truly believe in), but really opened my eyes up to a ton of issues surrounding food. I made the hubby read it, as well, and we have both resolved to try and buy more locally (Ann Arbor has an excellent Farmer's Market, so this shouldn't be too hard) and organic when we can.

4. I haven't picked up my needles since Christmas. I think I am on a much needed break from all that stealth knitting.

5. I'll try and not post a list next time. :-)

Fork? Check. This baby is done!

2008-01-03T20:01:00.000-05:00

Whew! The SSSKP was finished, blocked, and wrapped well before Christmas. Horray for me! (Though it was a near thing there.) Here it is now, keeping a bottle of Michigan white wine cozy:

The yarn is so dark that you really can't see the cables clearly, which is a shame because they rock. On both sides. (Surf over to the Palindrome pattern and make this. Loved it.)

So, how was your holiday? Mine was busy with a capital B. My hubby's family lives in South Carolina, so we drove down and stayed a week. Or, I should say, we stayed 5 days and drove the other 2 days. Oh well. It was worth it, because we got to hang out with our nephew-puppy:

Isn't he adorable? He spent Christmas morning chewing all the paper to shreds. We had more fun with him then opening the gifts! Ok, not true, but pretty close. :-) We also did a Christmas light walk at the Columbia zoo one night:

It was impressive, though a little weird to be wandering around being festive in 50 degree weather. Luckily when we got back to Michigan, we promptly had 14 inches of snow dumped on us. I should take a photo; it is lovely.

Anywho-off to surf on Ravelry. I joined a Magic Yarn swap on the Knitters for Neil forum so I had best start thinking of clever ideas for my swap partner!

SSSKP

2007-12-13T10:09:00.000-05:00

The SSSKP (see last post for the oh-so-hard-to-deduce-meaning) is progressing. Slowly. I have 40 inches. I am hopeful that I can get up to 48 this weekend. But that will have to be it, since there needs to be time for blocking, drying, and possible tassle-ing (all while no hubby is around, of course). A 4-foot-long scarf is less than ideal. Hubby is over 6 feet tall.... the last scarf I made him (way back here) was over 8-feet-long!

Clearly, I was crazy back then.

Bowie's in space*

2007-12-03T08:33:00.000-05:00

Yeah. So, the lack of posting? Well, I am engaged in a Super Secret Stealth Knitting Project (hereafter to be known as SSSKP). It is the Palindrome Scarf and it is supposed to be done by Christmas for the hubby. And I am only working on it when he is not around.... so basically, I have less than two feet done and am starting to panic. I sorta want to shout at him, "Can't you go out with some friends? For about 6 hours every night? And give me a warning phonecall before you come home?" But he might catch on then. :-) And also? It is very hard to photograph SSSKP for the blog when hubby is hovering in the background.

Since I have no good knitting content, I'll tell you what else I have been up to (besides stressing about the times I am not knitting because my hubby is IN THE HOUSE AND HE SAID HE WAS GOING OUT FOR THE EVENING. Ahem. Sorry.). First and foremost, I have been watching Flight of the Conchords on DVD and laughing my butt off. Seriously hi.lar.ious. I have temporarily put the Phantom Hourglass aside and am playing Pokemon Diamond again on my DS. Last night I caught a Stunky and was thrilled. And.... hmmm.... wishing my hubby would spend a wild night out with the boys so I could work on the Palindrome? I'm not sure that really counts as a hobby though....

*You see, I have been watching too much Flight of the Conchords....

'Tis the season

2007-11-25T19:35:00.000-05:00

I'm back! Betcha didn't even notice I was gone, huh? Well, I wasn't gone so much as crazy busy with Thanksgiving. Hubby and I hosted this year, and I am happy (and relieved!) to say everything was delish and came off without any major disasters. Horray for us!

So, it is tradition in our household to put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We did yesterday and it looks great. Except.... I couldn't help noticing that there were no crocheted snowflake ornaments on it. Could it be? That last year, while I was crocheting my fingers to the bone so I could send snowflakes out in my Christmas cards, I neglected to make myself one? Apparently. What a flake I am (ha!). So I popped one out today while watching Simpsons reruns:

It is Number 57 from Leisure Arts' 99 Snowflakes. And now I think my tree is complete. :-)

FO: Fetchings

2007-11-19T20:46:00.000-05:00

Yup, I wove in the ends tonight. These babies are done:

I actually would have finished a few days ago, except I goofed the picot bind off on the first Fetching. I didn't realize it until I was done, though, so after I finished the second one I ripped out the bad picot bind off and redid it the correct way. It didn't take long, but I was sorta dreading doing it and kept putting it off. The thing I did wrong on the picot bind off? Well... let's just say that when a pattern tells you to cast on one stitch using the cable cast on method, you should cast on one, not two. Two = an ugly nightmare.

Besides the picot boo-boo, these were a breeze and I would highly recommend this pattern to anyone. Surf on over to Knitty and get it (I'm too lazy to add the link)!

Gettin’ my freak on

2007-11-12T15:24:00.000-05:00

With a book! (Had you fooled, didn’t I?) Specifically, with Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Any book that can compare sumo wrestlers with teachers and find a legitimate connection is a winner, in my opinion. :-) Seriously, I am not sure how best to summarize this book, since it uses economics to explore “the hidden side” of.... well, everything except money and finance. Why did crime fall in the 90s? Why do drug dealers live with their moms? Do teachers cheat on standardized tests for their students? It doesn’t sound like economics and it doesn’t read like economics, either. I kept comparing it to talking with that slightly geeky friend we all have, who knows everything, but is gifted with the ability to use that knowledge to tell a whammy of a story. If you liked The Tipping Point, Blink, or Guns, Germs, and Steel, you know what I mean.

On the Bookwormy Goodness Review Scale, where ***** is “go out and buy this book now, it is that good!” and * is “the most appalling awful book ever”, I give Freakonomics *****.

Sock Knitting, Interrupted

2007-11-06T10:20:00.001-05:00

Fetching the first
Originally uploaded by LinknKnits

Yup, I have taken a break from the never-ending sock knitting to start on a bit of holiday knitting. Since, you know, Christmas is like 49 days away or something. [Insert panic attack here.] I had mentioned in a previous post that I would be knitting Fetching for my mom. I started on Saturday afternoon, and as you can see, I have quite a bit done.

This pic is actually out-of-date. I took it at about 6:00pm last night and by the end of the night I had bound off and added the thumb. I am using Pure Merino by Berroco on size 7 DPNs. The pattern? Lovely and easy and quick and I am completely in love with it. I couldn’t be happier with it as a choice for holiday knitting, as it is quick (did I already say that?) and looks SUPER! (Ok, I am really enthusiastic about them. But come on! Lovely and easy and quick!)

Part of the reason I have nearly one whole mitt done, is that I watched two of the movies from my Top 100 quest over the last two days. Swing Time was perfect for knitting since the plot was just a vehicle to get from dance scene to dance scene. I got a LOT of knitting done during it. I couldn’t concentrate as much on my knitting during High Noon, since there was a plot and all, but it was a short movie and I spent the rest of the evening finishing (nearly) Fetching Number One. I have to check my Netflix queue and make sure I have some light movies coming up so I can finish Fetching Number Two as quickly as I did One!

In which I discover...

2007-11-01T18:07:00.000-04:00

... that socks, feet, and socks and feet combined are very hard to photograph! I swear, my ankles are not that thick in real life. I think.

I have also discovered that the sock is a wee bit tight. This is the first-time I have tried it on, and it makes me wish I had done so much earlier. I don't know. The heel and foot fit pretty well, it is the leg that is tight. If I cast on more for the second sock, I am afraid the rest won't fit. What do you all think? Except that maybe I really do have thick ankles....

Discovery Number Three: I am not making much progress on my current read, Lord John and the Private Matter. I can't decide if this is because it is a mediocre story or because of the next thing I have discovered....

I can easily play Phantom Hourglass for an entire evening. And be resentful when I have to go to bed.

And finally, I have discovered that I really don't want to put these guys away, even though Halloween has come and gone. They are too cute!

The black hole that is Ravelry

2007-10-30T15:39:00.000-04:00

This is a drive-by posting to say a) Ravelry is awesome (though you all new that, didn't you?) b) there is no new knitting content and c) this is mainly because of a. When I have a breakthrough on the new addiction (like, when I stop clicking on every possible project and calculating if and when I can make it), I'll have some new sock pictures.

Maybe.

(Also, we watched All the President's Men last night as part of my Top 100 movie quest. I would place it on the So-So list, mainly because it had the most abrupt, disappointing ending ever, so it can't be on the Good list. Very entertaining up to then, though.)

The sock it to me sock: update

2007-10-28T11:18:00.000-04:00

Progress has been slow but steady. I have finished the body, heel flap, turn, and am now working on the gusset decrease:

I love the heel flap for this pattern. It features a slipped stitch and looks great. You probably can't see it in this photo (which is very bad and I couldn't get my photo program to rotate it, so the whole photo shoot was a bit of a bust), but I'll try to get a good pic of it on the finished sock.

There isn't too much else to say about it at this point. I still love the pattern. I haven't had any disasters (knock on wood). I am actually going much faster than my first pair of socks. All in all, I am very happy with this sock so far. Let's hope it stays that way. :-)

ETA: I just got my Ravelry invite! I am LinknKnits (for my love of Zelda on the DS).... look me up!

Movie-riffic!

2007-10-22T14:32:00.000-04:00

I recently joined Netflix for the first time ever (yes, I am about 8 years behind the times; what of it?). Let me just say, I am loving it. The “watch the movie any time you feel like it without pressure because those stupid late fees” part of it is the best. Now, not having really rented movies in about ten years, and having a husband who hates to go to the theater, would make you think that my queue is full of recent hits.

Not true, though.

I have decided to watch every movie on the American Film Institutes’ Top 100 List; consequently, my “to watch” list is full of classics. Why am I doing this? I’m not sure, really. I think it might be the thrill of hitting a goal (like these two books, however artificial) or the fact that I have been really burnt out on current Hollywood fare for awhile (How many comic books can they make into movies? How many good books can be turned into mediocre movies? How boring and unoriginal can they be?).

So from time to time, I might comment on some of the Top 100 movies that I have watched recently. Thus far we have:

The Good
The Philadelphia Story
All About Eve
The Apartment
Rear Window
Casablanca
The Searchers

The Bad
Duck Soup
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
The Last Picture Show

The So-So
Some Like It Hot
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Bringing Up Baby
It Happened One Night

I have to say, it has been a thrill to actually see John Wayne in a movie (funny that I could recognize a John Wayne impersonation, w/o ever seeing him in a movie until The Searchers!). And who knew that Shirley MacLaine was a cutie before she was a nutter? (Watch The Apartment if you don’t believe me!) I highly recommend any of the movies on The Good list; they really do deserve “classic” status. (And in case you are wondering, I am just skipping around the list and watching them in whatever order I feel like.)

Tonight, the hubby and I are off to the Michigan Theater to see Spartacus. Which is on the list, of course!

Ribbed, but not for my pleasure

2007-10-17T18:24:00.001-04:00

As I said in my last post, I did get a little vacation knitting done. Just a little. This is the cuff and three repeats of the Elongated Corded Rib sock pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. (Can I just say, this book is awesome? Such a good idea! So many sock patterns, so easy to understand. Go buy it now. Seriously.)

I know this isn't an insanely impressive amount of knitting. You know why? Me and ribbing do NOT get along. It takes me forever. And yet, for some reason, I choose to knit a pair of socks that are almost entirely ribbed. What was I thinking?

I also bought a little yarn while in TC, too. Not sock yarn, but worsted weight superwash wool:

Last year, I made my mom these. She loved them. Wore them every day, and kept calling to tell me how great they are. How useful and functional and wonderful... except for one thing. They are an alpaca wool mix and are most definitely NOT superwash. And as she delivers mail for a living (read: dirty paper) they got real filthy, real quick. So I am going to remedy the situation with a new indestructible pair (cue evil genius laughter).

Between my slower-than-slow socks and the fingerless mitts, I should be pretty busy for while!

Back to reality

2007-10-15T11:12:00.000-04:00

But it will be easier after a week of vacation that looked like this:

Lighthouse on Old Mission Peninsula

Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Manitou Islands

Me with vineyards and the bay

Despite the lovely time, I did do some knitting and reading, so I'll post about some of that soon. Now, to plan next year's vacation....

Vacation

2007-10-06T12:53:00.000-04:00

Just a quickie to say that I won't be updating for the next week, as I will be on summer vacation (In October. I know. We are a bit behind!). We're going to Traverse City for the week and are looking forward to a week of cherries, hiking, vineyards, and autumn colors ~ even though it is 85 degrees and I am wearing shorts and a tank top right now. But I digress.

I will be bringing my knitting with me, so I hope to have some good pictures when I get back. Until then....

FO: Pebble Socks

2007-10-03T18:33:00.000-04:00

Yarn: Knit Picks Felicia in Pebble. I used one ball and just a shade of a second ball.
Needles: Options size 2.0
Pattern: From Knitty

Thoughts: Not bad for my first pair of socks (not counting my Fuzzy Feet from last summer, because felting hides all sins), but not great either. I viewed making these as a “just keep knitting”-type experience. So if I noticed mistakes, I didn’t frog but just tried to correct it. I knew that, especially for the first one, I would just keep frogging over and over and never get anything done if I let my perfectionist nature out. So there are some pretty obvious mistakes in the first; the second looks much better. (Hey, I do improve with practice. Encouraging!)

Did I like making these? Heck yeah. So much so that I went and bought this…

Mini book review: March

2007-10-01T10:01:00.000-04:00

I finished March on Friday night. Though a slim book (and a Pulitzer Prize winner), I had a tough time finishing it. I just couldn’t reconcile this vision of the March girls’ father with the original source material, Little Women. I know Mr. March was almost completely absent from LW so this seems a little odd. But my thought process was that this man, so adrift and in many ways such a loser in all of life’s major areas, could not have raised the sweet, wholesome girls of LW. It just didn’t work for me.

However, if I overlooked the LW connection, I thought March did a superb job of capturing both sides of a marriage; those little misunderstandings and slights that can drive two people who love each other apart. The Civil War scenes were pitch perfect. And Brooks’ portrayal of Northern abolitionists, the Underground Railroad, and John Brown were all fascinating. In fact, her notes at the end of the novel, where she discusses her source materials and the Alcott family (she used Bronson Alcott’s views as a template for much of March’s character) were almost as interesting as the actual story.

On the Bookwormy Goodness Review Scale, where ***** is “go out and buy this book now, it is that good!” and * is “the most appalling awful book ever”, I give March ***.

What does fall taste like?

2007-09-28T07:44:00.000-04:00

The week started sunny and in the mid-80s. And then, on Wednesday, we had a change of weather. Lovely, cool fall rolled in.... the high was 70 and it rained all day. I was in heaven. To celebrate, I made these chocolate chip pumpkin muffins, which I saw on Amy's blog. They are delish. They taste all nutmegy and clovey and gingery and are just perfect with a cup of coffee.

(The pic is not very blog-worthy, I know. It was the best I could do, given that I was scarfing muffins at the time!)

Two notes about the recipe: I made one modification and didn't use any whole wheat flour and it came out great. Also, it makes nearly 2 dozen muffins!

The Earth Says "Hello"!

2007-09-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Pam’s reassurance that I still have at least one reader, I think I have decided to jump into blogging again. Why did I quit, you may ask? Basically, a combination of a very boring to blog about project and some stressful life events. The boring project was this crocheted baby blanket. It took forever, I didn’t like working on it, and nobody really wants to see pictures of “one more row completed tonight.” So, even though I slogged through it, the desire to write about it disappeared pretty quickly. (I am awfully complain-y about this blanket, I know. I think because it was a shower gift for a cousin who lives out of state, so I wasn’t there for the ego-boosting squeals when she opened it. Those squeals can make boring projects so worthwhile. No squeals equals mild resentment. At least for me!) As for the stressful life events... well, they were stressful. Both my parents had health issues (and are doing okay now, thankfully), my husband isn’t very happy in his job (which makes me unhappy, of course), we bought a new car, work is always busier in the summer... in short, life happened, and I was left too tired to blog even a tiny little bit.

But, things have calmed down again, so I am going to try and update regularly. For me, woman of many hobbies that I am, updating regularly can become a bit of an issue, since I don’t devote all my spare time to yarn-ish fun. So I am also going to expand the scope of my blog a bit and talk about some of my other hobbies, too. Be ready for book reviews, movie reviews, my latest Nintendo DS addiction, tales of hiking woes, cooking successes and failures, and more!

So. What have I done in the last six months? (Besides the mind-numbingly-dull baby blanket?) (Which I didn’t even take a photo of. D’oh!) Here is one FO:

Close up of flower

I am not sure what the yarn is; the pattern is from One Skein Wonders. Truthfully, I am not crazy about this purse. I don’t like the way the striped yarn felted up, which is nobody’s fault but mine for choosing it. Also, I am a little leery of using it because it is seemed up at the weakest point (along the bottom). I think it would be okay for a night out, when you are carrying just the bare essentials, though. But I LOVE my needle-felted flower. I used this tutorial for a general idea of how to proceed. And can I just say that needle felting is so fun? Talk about a way to get out your aggressions! :-) I will definitely be doing more in the future.

That’s it for now. Thank to all who have stuck around and happy knitting!

Is this thing still on?

2007-09-25T13:54:00.000-04:00

Er.... so it has been like six months since I blogged. Holy disappearing off the radar, batman! Important questions to be answered: Is anybody still out there? Can this blog be brought back to life? Or should I just ride quietly into the sunset?

Egads!

2007-03-05T09:01:00.000-05:00

My hubby has made a confession. His much beloved Fuzzy Feet, knit last summer and worn nearly every night this fall and winter, have a hole! And not just a little spot that has worn out.... a big ol’ snag that has stretched and pulled and unraveled and is so monstrously ugly, I can’t bear to even photograph it. Boo hoo!

Like a good knit-hubby, he immediately requested a replacement pair... AND swore to take better care of them. Since I genuinely enjoyed knitting them, I will be starting a pair soon. I even have some garnet red Lopi in the stash that I think will felt up nicely.

But this time, I am making him take a vow that Fuzzy Feet v. 2.0 will last a bit longer!

Yes, I still blog. Sometimes.

2007-02-25T16:50:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it has been a billion and two years since I blogged. Dude. I have no excuse, except for the complete non-craftiness that has been happening in my world lately. But I have finally started a few small things, and taken a few pictures, AND moved my blog over to the new Blogger (which I was resisting out of sheer laziness on my part)... so here it goes!

First: Crocheted baby blanket, in white and yellow. This is for one of hubby's cousins who isn't expecting until August, so I have oodles of time to finish it. Thank goodness, too, because I am not enjoying changing colors every 3rd row! I think it will be sweet and non-gender-specific when it is done. And I really hoping the cousin doesn't find out she is preggers with twins!

Second: An embroidered tea towel from Sublime Stitches. Isn't that apple too cute? Considering that I have never done anything remotely like this except counted cross stitch when I was a kid, I think it is coming out ok. Just don't ask to see the back. :-)

Third: Hmmm.... no more photos.... so how about that tomorrow, February 26th, is the hubby and my two-year wedding anniversary? I can honestly say they have been the best two years ever... here's to many more. :-)

Blogger's (Silent) Poetry Reading Day

2007-02-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

I actually don't know who wrote this... in fact, is it really a poem? It was on a card I bought my husband when we first started dating... and I adore it. :-)

I ran up the door
closed the stairs
said my pajamas
and put on my prayers
turned off my bed
and jumped into the light
all because
you kissed me good night.

Short and sweet and it always brings a smile to my face!

Happy weekend!

Five things

2007-01-24T12:50:00.000-05:00

1. The scarf is still not done. So no updates or FOs to show off. Bummer.
2. I have been reading brain candy, in the form of Ten Big Ones and Eleven on Top. Complete fluff... but I always laugh my butt off when I read this series, so I excuse the goofy plots and lack of coherence. Plus, I love Ranger. :-)
3. I bought an embroidery kit from here... I love the patterns. They are so not “country samplers.” I was way excited to get it, but haven’t started yet. Probably because I hate ironing, which you need to do to transfer the pattern. How lame am I?
4. It is finally winter-like in Michigan. Hooray! It only took until January to get respectably cold. Of course, now I have to scrape my car in the morning. Not-so-hooray!
5. My hubby has been playing Final Fantasy XII on our PS2. I love all the FF games and can sit and watch for hours. Which probably explains the main reason behind number one, above. I am too distracted by running around and killing monsters. (And the plot. These games have a serious amount of plot. If you stripped away the gameplay, there would be like two movies in there.)(And I really can’t knit and watch tv at the same time. Unless it is reruns, but something new? Uh-uh. Bad things, like dropped stitches, tend to happen.)(How about one more set of parentheses to end this bad boy up?)

You can't go wrong with a scarf

2007-01-07T14:56:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is a photo of the first knit of the year, the scarf-in-progress for the hubby:

I am holding two stands together. The gray is Plymouth Encore and the multi-color is Inca Marla, which is 100% alpaca laceweight. When I first started knitting (last January!), my hubby immediately requested a scarf. So we went to the LYS and I let him pick out any yarn he wanted. He picked the laceweight, and like a dummy I said sure... not really thinking about the fact that laceweights are best suited for lace! So it has sat in my stash for nearly a year. I finally came up with the brilliant idea of combining it with another yarn. Thus, this scarf was born.

The pattern is merely moss and stockinette panels that I saw in my book of knitting stitches and tweaked a little for a scarf. Size 10 needles, so I hope it will be done soon!

The first of 2007

2007-01-03T09:30:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it is 2007? Yikes. Double yikes. Triple yikes. Ok, why all the yiking? Maybe because I was born in 1977.... which means I have a rather significant milestone-ish birthday this year. YIKES! Ok, it isn’t for nine months, but still. :-) (And btw, I like that I just invented a word. Yiking. Hee hee.) I rang in the new year in the only possible way... with a bottle of Chianti, a few shots of Jaeger, and a few very good friends. It was fun, but not nearly as fun as this!

I am a bit behind on blogging (About everything, I know. I am such a slacker.), and of course I have not taken any photos of any of my Christmas loot, but you can see this gift, and this one, and this one. So, lots of knit-related goodness and I am firmly resolving to actually use it! Not that I haven’t been knitting.... I have just slowed down a lot. Which doesn’t make sense because I love it and find it uber-relaxing and fun so I don’t know what my deal has been. I have started a scarf (of my own design, sorta) for my hubby to replace the crocheted one I made him last winter. Progress has been steady and I will show a pic soon.

One of my Christmas gifts was Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. So far, it is excellent. I really enjoyed Gaiman’s American Gods. This book deals with a lot of similar themes (fathers and sons, reality and myth, life and death) but is very funny, too. Like, laugh out loud funny. At about half way through, I am giving it a thumb up. Or a half thumb up?

Holiday meme

2006-12-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

The Christmas Meme... for you reading pleasure! I probably won’t blog again before the holidays, so I hope everybody has a safe, merry, and fun-filled Christmas and New Year!

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Egg nog usually once or twice... it is too rich to drink more than that!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set them under the tree? Definitely wraps them!

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? We have been putting up white lights the last few years, just because they were gifted to us. When they start burning out, I will be replacing them with green/red, which are my fave.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Naw. The hubby and I kiss enough as is. :-)

5. When do you put your decorations up? Usually the week after Turkey Day. They stay up until after the New Year.

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? I don’t have a big sweet tooth, and my family has never eaten “traditional” holiday meals. In fact, this year my mom is making lasagna, italian soups, garlic bread, and cannolis for dessert. Which sounds pretty darn tasty to me so we’ll go with that for an answer.

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child? There are so many! Maybe my younger brother and me hiding the GI Joe action figures in the tree? (I am not sure why, but this was always a big thrill for us.)

8 . When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? Actually, I can honestly say I never believed in Santa, despite all my parents’ efforts. I guess I just figured it out early on. I can distinctly remember when I was 6, trying to convince my brother who was 4, that there was a Santa for his sake, not mine.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Of course! How can you sleep through the night without opening at least one?

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lots of ornaments inherited from both sides of our families, plus special ones we buy for ourselves.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? As a Michigander, I am obligated to say I love it. I can’t imagine living someplace warm for the holidays.

12. Can you ice skate? Sure... if ice skating consists of falling down a lot.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? Ever? Tough call. When I was in my 20s, my mom completing redecorated the bedroom in my apartment without me knowing (like Trading Spaces, except I didn’t start crying and saying “oh my god!”), which was awesome. When I was in college and getting ready to study in London, my mom got me a set of luggage, which was practical and much needed. When I was in my teens, my parents always got me a pile of ridiculously overpriced but trendy clothes that I needed to hide my secret nerd status. And in middle school.... I remember getting my bean bag chair and thinking it was the BOMB. Basically, my family has always spoiled me and loved me to death. :-)

14. What's your favorite thing(s) about the holidays? Time with my family and friends.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? I could take it or leave it. I would much rather have a holiday shrimp cocktail!

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? My hubby and I always make a big breakfast after we open presents on Christmas morning.

17. What tops your tree? A blue and silver flower ornament. It is by default, as we haven’t been able to agree on a traditional topper that we both like.

18. Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Both, of course.

19. What is your favorite Christmas song? Little Drummer Boy (the Bob Seger version) and Silver Bells. Plus, anything by Nate King Cole.

20. What is your favorite holiday book? Despite being a book worm, I don’t think I have one.

21. Candy canes yuck or yum? Yum? I guess?

22. What's number one on your Christmas list this year? The same thing I asked for my b-day, and didn’t get.... KnitPicks Options needles! And I can’t wait for my hubby to open the Whalers jersey I got him from Ebay, I know he will love it. See... I do like receiving just as much as giving. :-)

December dishclothes

2006-12-16T12:22:00.000-05:00

I said I was going to cast on another garterlac dishcloth... and I did! Here it is:

When I was growing up, we always had knit dishclothes (from an elderly aunt). My mom doesn't really knit, so I think both of these are going to her for Christmas. They were fun little projects and I am glad I did them. FOs are always good in my book!

Working very sporadically (i.e., when I have a few seconds at work), I have made my way to level 19 on the Weffriddles (see last post for link). Sometimes I get them with my no problem and feel like the smartest person EVER, and sometimes I get stuck and even looking at the forums doesn't help and then I want to scream and punch the screen but I just can't stop. Hmmm... I might be a little addicted. And obsessive. :-)

I have a mountain of Christmas tasks that I need to finish this weekend (does anybody besides me dislike wrapping presents? I am so bad at it; they always look like a drunk chimp wrapped them.) but am feeling non-holiday-ish because it is SUNNY and WARM. It is Michigan in December. I want snow, darn it! (And don't quote me on that in about two months!)

Non Yarn Obsession

2006-12-08T14:12:00.000-05:00

I saw this on January One and tried it myself... and can't get past Level 7!

It is driving me freaking INSANE.

How Jen Got Her Groove Back

2006-12-06T20:36:00.000-05:00

As you may have noticed from the complete lack of posts, I have not been knitting much lately. I still loved the hobby/obsession, but everytime I looked at my half-finished Under The Hoodie sweater, I flinched and looked away. The barely begun lace scarf, which took ages and ages to even get one lousy inch knit up in, stared sourly at me from my WIP bag. Even little things, like the ill-fated headband, just didn't seem to go right.

I was down in the knitting dumps.

And then. I was bored on Saturday night. The hubby was out playing poker with the boys, the Christmas decorations were up, the house was clean... in short, there were no distractions. And I looked at the Under the Hoodie sweater and flinched and looked away. I almost gave up on the half-formed nugget of desire to pick the sticks up and create. Almost. But then I remembered my joy, when I first learned how to crochet, of the first dish cloth. So fun, so easy, so non-hanging around me like a fricking albatross.... and so I knit this:

I love it. Short, sweet, beautiful. A new technique, which I quickly mastered. The heady rush of accomplishment.

In short, the return of my knitting mojo. :-) I am so happy, I think I will go cast on another!

A sad day

2006-11-21T08:56:00.000-05:00

It has finally happened. I have a FO that I am not posting a pic of. And this is not due to the camera's batteries being uncharged or general laziness on my part (i.e., the normal reasons). Nope. This is because I have an FO that I do not like. In anyway, whatsoever. Which is a shame because my productivity has plummeted lately and I wish I could show some kick-butt pic to keep you all from losing faith in me.

Sigh.

For the record, I knit a headband to match the fingerless mitts I made my mother back in July and which are her Christmas gifts. Still love the color of the yarn and the yummy softness of it. But the headband really is just blah. I think it is too wide and too long (which is hard to know for sure since I don't have my mom's head to try it out on... but I am pretty sure). And I am not crazy about the ribbing on it, either. So I am chalking this one up as a failure, even though it is complete. The real question is, should I still give it to her? I need to cogitate on this one!

BTW, apparently everybody who took the Nicole quiz came up as Satine. So.... all of us knitters and crocheters are either secretly pining to sing in the Moulin Rouge or the quiz is busted!

I couldn't resist

2006-11-13T09:21:00.000-05:00

Which NICOLE KIDMAN Character Are You?

"Satine" in MOULIN ROUGE!You're not just a star in your own mind, you're the real deal. Beautiful, talented, and gorgeous. But life is short: stop worrying about money and fame. Above all things, life for love.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join
| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Which is fine by me... does this mean I get to sing and dance with my boy Ewan? Woot!

Lists are fun

2006-11-02T21:45:00.000-05:00

I am indulging in the way lame "list of non-related things to blog about"... cuz I am feeling very incoherent and scattered!

1.) I finished Sleep, Pale Sister by Joanne Harris. It is very gothic and dreamy and feminist, full of drug use and sexual repression, despite the Victorian trappings. Sounds weird, especially if the only Harris you have read is Chocolat, but pretty enjoyable. My biggest complaint was that it was told in the first-person for three different characters, which just gives me a headache.

2.) Er... knitting content? Um... none of that happening lately. I think I am a bit burned out.

3.) Er... crocheting content? Um... wait! Yes! I have finished two more thread snowflakes! Hurray for me! (And don't ask to see pics, because that would be asking too much...)

4.) I am still reading all of your blogs. Every day. I am just not commenting much lately. But I still love and appreciate each and every one of you. Keep it up!

5.) My husband and I don't watch tv (no cable and we don't get the local stations) so we are so behind on this... but we just rented the first season of Lost. I adore it. So addicted. And honestly. Sawyer? Hot.

6.) Jack is, too. ;-)

7.) My list is rapidly deteriorating into something a 14-year-old would write.

8.) I think I had best get myself off to bed.

I hate blocking

2006-10-24T17:54:00.000-04:00

Honestly. All those pins... and tricots... and twisty thread... and sprayed goo (a very scientific term):

But it does look pretty nice when all done! (Except the ugly yellow towel. Ignore that! It is only used for blocking "may come in contact with goo" purposes!)

Nothing new here

2006-10-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Which is why I haven't posted in a bit. I am very much stalled out on my Under the Hoodie sweater. Just too much repitition for me right now! I have crocheted several snowflakes, but they are unblocked and I would rather show the finished product. Hoping to kick start my knit drive, I started an eyelet lace scarf for myself over the weekend. It is in a nice cream laceweight and I have high hopes for it. If I make decent progress, I can at least show a WIP photo later this week.

And that is about it on the craft front. My mom asked if I was still scrapbooking (my wedding scrapbook)(from a year-and-a-half ago)(I have a grand total of 5 pages done). After my hysterical laughter died down, I thought to myself that maybe I should try and get oh... I don't know... maybe a page or two done before the end of the year. :-) So maybe I'll have a pic of some progress there soon. But don't hold your breath.

I can't even regale you all with a list of books read! I have only read two in the last month (Are You Somebody? and The Winter Queen... Thumbs up on the first and a so-so on the second). What have I been doing?! Hmmm... watching this, this, and this, maybe?

Thursday Thirteen + Yarn

2006-10-05T10:17:00.000-04:00

Thirteen yarnish projects that I would like to make!

Of course, the chances of making all of these is slim to none. Not enough time... unless I quit my job and devote myself to all things yarny... oh that sounds nice!

1. Socks, socks, and more socks!
2. Snowflake Afghan (So Christmasy!)
3. Garterlac Dishcloth (Ok, this one is more likely than the others. Short and sweet.)
4. Ribby Cardi (If I ever become the world’s fastest knitter... maybe.)
5. Sizzle (Too quote Paris Hilton, “Hott!”)
6. Irish Hiking Scarf (My hubby would love this.)
7. Ivy (Why do I like wrap sweaters? Just do.)
8. Market Squares Bag (Because you can never have too many bags.)
9. More crocheted snowflakes (I have been working on these throughout the year, so it isn’t a total pipe dream.)
10. Something from Cool Crochet (I own the book. I should at least make one pattern from it!)
11. An Aran sweater for my hubby (completely dreaming on this one!)
12. A pair of these mitts for me instead of a gift for somebody else!
And this isn’t really yarn, but so cool! I must have!
13. Sublime stitching kits

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Impossibilities

2006-10-02T08:56:00.000-04:00

Let’s say you have a large, square-ish knit item, like the front of a sweater. Let’s say that it is 86 stitches across. Let’s also say that this sweater is supposed to be a hoodie. (Noting that a prime component of a hoodie, besides the hood, is a pocket on the front.) Now, if the pattern instructs you to knit the entire bottom portion, and then go back and pick up 60 stitches in order to start your pocket, you would assume this is possible, correct?

You would be wrong.

Because I am here to tell you that it is almost impossible to pick up 60 stitches in a straight line when a) the bottom is performing the stockinette curl and b) the top is slightly puckered from a stitch holder.

IM-freaking-POSSIBLE.

Having spent many, many, MANY hours this weekend trying this maneuver, I am here to tell you that you should skip the picking up stitches nonsense and merely knit the pocket separately and attach it later.

Because the picking up stitches in a straight line? It will drive you mad!

A Bookish Thursday Thirteen

2006-09-27T21:05:00.000-04:00

Thirteen of My Recent Reads

To be more precise, my last 13 reads. As I mentioned in my last Thursday 13, I keep an Excel spreadsheet of every book I read. So here are the last 13 books I have read (and up slightly early, since the list is on my home computer so I can’t post at work):

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2. Kafka on the Shore by Murakami Haruki
3. The Nursing Home Murder by Ngaio Marsh
4. Died in the Wool by Ngaio Marsh
5. Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas
6. Scales of Justice by Ngaio Marsh
7. Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas
8. Pardonable Lies by Jacqueline Winspear
9. The Accidental Tourist by Ann Tyler
10. Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
11. Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh
12. Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh
13. Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

The high amount of Ngaio Marsh has to do with a recent trip to Aunt Agatha’s (the best used mystery book store ever!).

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

The first finished object in months

2006-09-23T17:24:00.000-04:00

The combination of the endless miles and miles of gray, gray, GRAY Under the Hoodie knitting and the library finally having a copy of Mason Dixon Knitting for me yesterday led to this:

Bright colors! Finished in just a few hours! A welcome respite from the neverending sweater! Hurray!

It is, of course, the Ballband Dishcloth that swept the internet like ... I'm not sure what. Insert an appropriate metaphor of your choice. Anywho. It was fun and quick, but I don't know if I'll make another. I'm not crazy about the back of it. The front looks sweet and the back looks... Well, sorta messy. And I like my dishcloths to look good from both sides, because you see and use both sides. But, I do like how the random colors of Lily's cotton that I happened to have look together. Almost like I planned it. (I really didn't.)

Also, has anybody ever heard of kitchen cotton going bad? I have had that dark green in my stash for awhile and boy,it shed like mad crazy! Great big hunks of dark green fuzz all over everything. Yuck.

Thursday Thirteen

2006-09-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

Thirteen Things about Jen

Since this is my first Thursday Thirteen... here are some basics about me!

1. I am double-jointed.
2. I just celebrated my 29th birthday.
3. If I could eat Thai food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I would.
4. I met my husband in April 2004. We were engaged in June 2004. And married in February 2005.
5. I have a birthmark on my right elbow. My mom has one of the same size and shape on her ankle.
6. I don’t intend on having kids.
7. I love cats, but can’t have any because of my husband’s allergies.
8. I have kept an Excel spreadsheet since 2001 of all the books I have read. It has over 200 books on it right now.
9. I secretly resent all the knitters that don’t work. They have so many FOs!
10. I think Ann Arbor is the coolest place in Michigan and am thankful I live here.
11. I am still best friends with a girl I met in fifth grade.
12. I have been living in apartments and condos since I was 18; I can’t wait to own a house!
13. It was pretty hard for me to think of 13 things for this list!
Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1. One Life Among the Many
2. Gone to Plaid
3. Caylynn’s Contemplations
4. Notes in the key of life
5. The Zeus Excuse
6. The Shrone

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!

The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Back to the grindstone

2006-09-20T15:11:00.000-04:00

The picture that sums up my vacation the best:

AAAAHHHHH.... Cape-y. :-) I could also post pictures of lazy days curled up with books (finished two), wading on the sand bars, sipping cups of coffee on the porch in the morning, a bit of knitting.... Sounds incredibly relaxing, no? Well, I may be neglecting the massive amount of driving, the family wedding, and the wild cramming in of visits to friends! It's called selective reporting on my part. :-)

I also visited this store in Eastham and bought some of this yarn as a vacation treat to myself. Mmmm... yarn.

(And thank you all for your kind birthday wishes! I had a lovely day!)

It's my birthday!*

2006-09-08T14:51:00.000-04:00

And it is Friday! And I go on vacation tomorrow! Does life get any better?

* And no, I am not telling you all how old I am. Let's just say I am between 25 and 30 and leave it at that....

Excuses, excuses

2006-09-05T11:53:00.000-04:00

I am a lazy, lazy blogger. I apologize to all. It’s just that work/life has been pretty busy.... but not with things worthy of being blogged about. Working 12-hours days? Fascinating, if you like to hear me whine. Family BBQ? Fun, if you happen to know my oh-so-weird-but-lovely-and-quirky family. If you don’t, the stories just sound like we are certifiable. (Well, maybe we are, but that is neither here nor there.) Books read? Well.... I am reading and enjoying Kafka on the Shore.... but did you see the first question? It has really caused my reading rate to plummet. Perhaps an update on the Under the Hoodie sweater? Scroll down to the last post. See the picture? Now add another 10 inches to it. Awe-inspiring, no?

There is something I should have blogged about days ago, though. I received a completely out of the blue, totally unexpected, made me incredibly happy gift (click here to see) .... now, the uber-kind-and-way-cool-person who sent me this is not looking for public thanks, of course (in fact, I had to really strain my brain cells to confirm it was her!), but you all should drop in on Sara and say hi and tell her she rocks. :-)

And one last thing... my way bad (Ha! Look at the way I mangle the English language!) blogging is going to continue for a bit. The hubby and I are going on vacation from the 9th to the 18th. We will be hitting CT, Cape Cod, and Maine and are so. looking. forward. to. it. Hopefully, when I get back, I’ll have tales of knitting completed, books read, and salt air enjoyed!

What I've been working on lately

2006-08-28T18:23:00.000-04:00

I know I promised a picture of my fiber fest spoils, but that will take too long! So, this is a drive-by posting to show the progress I have made on my latest project, the "Under the Hoodie" sweater from Stitch n' Bitch.

As you can see, right now it is basically still a square... another few inches and I'll get to do something exciting. But I am enjoying the endless stockinette and I am pleased with my color choices. I am always nervous ordering online, which is what I had to do to find any Lamb's Pride this time of year. I was terrified that the red was going to be orange-red or purple-red or brown-red... but it ended up a nice red-red. I like-like!

I picked this pattern as my first knit sweater because of the almost complete lack of shaping to it. Hoodies are one of the few things that look good when they are boxy and not form fitting. I didn't want to add the "let's make this flattering by doing lots of decreases and increases" into the equation, so this pattern seemed perfect.

Now, back to the stockinette!

Tease

2006-08-21T09:32:00.000-04:00

The lack of blogging (and commenting on all of your blogs!) will probably continue for a bit. Super busy at work. Knitting a sweater in stockinette, which is super boring to photograph right now. But. When I return, it will be to report on the Michigan Fiber Festival and to show the bags of loot I obtained at said festival.... (That is known as a teaser. Are you teased?)

Books, books, books

2006-08-10T10:29:00.000-04:00

I recently checked out two knitting books from my library. Despite its very 1980s cover fashion, The Knitting Experience: Book 3: Color by Sally Melville has some great patterns in it. I am not crazy about the sweaters (which do tend to be boxy and a bit out of style) but there were two skirts, several bags, and some placemats that I loved. And the instructions? Phenomenal. The photos for working intarsia and Fair Isle were in color, so you could really see what yarn was supposed to be going where. I think when I am ready to tackle these types of knitting, it will be to this book I turn. It is on my “to buy” list.

The second book I checked out was Debbie Bliss’s Special Knits for Babies: 22 Gorgeous Handknits for Babies since I have a few cousins and friends with babies and some good stash yarn for a wee one. The designs are lovely. But, I admit to finding it frustrating that every pattern called for an expensive Debbie Bliss yarn. I know, I could swatch with what I have and figure out all the math, but... is it so hard to list several yarn options? Maybe I was just in a grumpy mood, but I ended up just feeling very blech and lazy about it all and will be returning the book w/o having made a single item.

Besides knitterly books, I am reading volume I of Samuel Pepys' diary. I don’t know if I really have the desire to read all ten (he kept a yearly diary from 1660 to 1669) but I am enjoying this one. I love reading old letters and diaries. I am so nosy!

And I am taking breaks from Pepys with an “easy on the brain” mystery by Ngaio Marsh called Dyed in the Wool. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any knitting in it.... just a corpse in a bale of wool! eeeeeewwwww.....

Back to my first love

2006-08-07T20:13:00.000-04:00

Ah yes, back to some crocheting. What did you think I meant? ;-) I took a look at what I have been doing over the past few months and it has all been knitting since my Spider Stitch Shrug (finished in May). This is partly due to the joy of my growing ease with knitting, partly the small projects I have wanted to do have just happened to be knit, and partly because (shhhh... don't tell any one this) I am finding that I just like the look of knitted fabric better than crocheted. However. I still really enjoy crocheting (and in many ways find it more relaxing because there is less tension concerning dropped stiches and it so much easier to rip!) so I was eager to start another crocheted project. Enter: the Bacon Blanket. No, I am not turning into Lady Linoleum ! ;-) My hubby took one look at the wavy chevrons and colors of my afghan and dubbed it the Bacon Blanket...

No pattern, just the chevron pattern from the Crochet Stitch Bible. We'll see how it turns out... maybe it will need an egg pillow to go with it?

Two posts in one day...

2006-07-31T19:57:00.000-04:00

... means an FO in my book!

Please keep your applause to a minimum; it only took half the summer to get these little babies done. :-) Now, I can't wait for Christmas to give them to my mom.

In-law visit = no knitting content

2006-07-31T10:22:00.000-04:00

That's my new equation. :-) And while it was wonderful (especially for my husband) to have them visiting, it also means that I haven't finished my mitts yet or started anything new. And (most horrific of all) it also meant that I couldn't go to the Yarn Harlot's reading yesterday, even though I really, really, really wanted to. Sigh.

If my husband ever has any doubts as to the depth of my love, this should prove it!

But. I did do a little escapist reading... I bought and finished Scandal in Spring, the final book in the Wallflower quartet. I enjoyed it, but thought it was the weakest of the four. The 'scandal' really wasn't that scandalous and the other characters acceptance of the 'scandal' was ludicrous. Didn't really fit with the times. Oh well... it was a pleasant diversion. And I admit to wanting to read the upcoming book with Rohan in it (briefly mentioned in Devil in Winter, my fave of the bunch). Talk about summer reading!

Career change is in order!

2006-07-24T15:15:00.000-04:00

My mom and I spent the day on Friday roaming around Ann Arbor’s Art Fairs. I hadn’t been in several years, and really enjoyed myself this year. There was less “kitsch on a stick” and more art/photography that was truly impressive and beautiful.

Except. We saw three booths that were selling knit products. And this is why I apparently need to get out of the Medical Editor business and into the Art Fair circuit.... because one of the booths? Selling knit, felted bags? For $150 EACH. Another booth? Selling shrugs for $90? And still another artist? Selling plain ol’ stockinette stitch sweaters out of plain ol’ wool? For a cool $110.

Mind you, I have no idea if people were actually crazy enough to purchase these works of art that any knitter can make... or is they were like me and shrieked and ran towards my LYS... so I’ll be ready for next year’s Art Fair! :-)

Sweet, sweet lack of clutter

2006-07-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

... isn't it perfect? This is the "Yarn Station" I mentioned in my last post. Also known as a way of organizing all my hooks and needles and junk! It makes me feel great to walk into my bedroom and see this, instead of grocery bags and stacks of books on the floor. What can I say, I am a bit anal about cleanliness ("Ha!" says my husband. "A bit?").

Another reason I am loving this is because the desk is a family heirloom of sorts. My great-grandfather made it years and years ago. It was just sitting in our basement gathering dust, so I feel it is being put to a much better, more respectful use now.

Update

2006-07-18T11:03:00.000-04:00

As feared, I have hit SSS with my fingerless mitts. I have made almost zero progress in the last week. And because I am trying to be a “one project at a time” type of crafter, I have not started anything else, either. So, nothing to update you all on. Except that I have been watching my hubby play Kingdom Hearts on our PS2, which is a great way to waste time without getting anything done... :-)

But. I DID reorganize my stash and I now have a space that is completely dedicated to all things yarny, so I’ll take a pic of that soon. I feel much more at peace with my patterns/books/magazines/needles/hooks/yarn now that it is all contained in one space and not laying about in bags.

I have also been looking ahead to my next project (How typical is that? I can’t motivate myself to finish my current one, but am already planning for the next! LOL). I want to use Lamb’s Pride, but my LYS has about 4 colors, which is a disgrace. I am trying to talk myself into buying online, but am soooo worried about color quality on my PC. I have switched my color scheme about ten times now, trying to find a ‘sure fire’ one that can’t be screwed up if the colors look wildly different in person. I don’t think you can go too wrong with light gray, dark gray, and red.... can you?

Also, awhile ago I mentioned that I had started bicycling with my hubby. Well, we have been going nearly every day since the beginning of June. My progress has been slow but steady. I can now ride at about 13 mph for around 8-9 miles. Not stellar, but so much better than when I started and just a couple of miles was a struggle! So, despite the lack of knitting progress, I have been making improvements in SOME areas of my life!

Friday meme

2006-07-14T11:18:00.000-04:00

The List

I have seen this on several blogs, so I thought I would join the crowd... :-) Like Tara, I am going to answer as well as bold the ones I have done...

HAVE YOU EVER:

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink (No, I am a girl... I am supposed to have drinks bought for me!)

02. Swam with wild dolphins (Sigh. I wish.)

03. Climbed a mountain (Lived in Denver for a few years, so yeah.)

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (No desire to.)

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid (On the list of things I want to do before I die.)

06. Held a tarantula (See number 4)

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone (I actually can’t stand baths, and wouldn’t find this romantic at all.)

08. Said ‘I love you’ and meant it (To my husband every day)

09. Hugged a tree (No????)

10. Bungee jumped (See number 4)

11. Visited Paris (Yup. Only for a weekend, though.)

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (Ah, flashback to college...)

14. Seen the Northern Lights (Another thing on my list to do before I die.)

15. Gone to a huge sports game (Michigan stadium holds over 100,000 people, so I think that is pretty huge! Also, of course, Tigers, Pistons, and Rockies games)

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa (See 14)

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables (I would love to have a salsa garden someday)

18. Touched an iceberg (I have walked on a glacier, so I am saying yes to this! Close enough.)

19. Slept under the stars (In a tent, of course...)

20. Changed a baby’s diaper (Back in the bad old baby-sitting days of my youth.)

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon (See 14)

22. Watched a meteor shower

23. Gotten drunk on champagne (Can’t stand the stuff. We didn’t even use it to toast at our wedding. I had a whiskey and my husband a beer!)

24. Given more than you can afford to charity (No)

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope (Took an astronomy class in college)

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment (I don’t think so...?)

27. Had a food fight (With marshmallows around a bonfire at my dad’s. He was not happy the next day when he had to pick up half-melted, ant-covered marshmallows from the lawn!)

28. Bet on a winning horse (Not a betting type.)

29. Asked out a stranger (Too shy.)

30. Had a snowball fight (Of course, this is Michigan.)

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can

32. Held a lamb (No.)

33. Seen a total eclipse (No.)

34. Ridden a roller coaster (Can you Cedar Point? Love that place!)

35. Hit a home run (I’m sure I must have back in my t-ball days... but it obviously didn’t leave much of an impression on me.)

36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking (I always look like a fool when dancing.)

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment (I have felt consistently happy about my life since 2004. It’s a good thing.)

39. Had two hard drives for your computer

40. Visited all 50 states (I think I am at about 27 right now?)

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk (Ex-boyfriend... husband... myself... the list goes on and on... )

42. Had amazing friends (I am lucky to have some very close, wonderful people in my life.)

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country (A disco in Dublin....)

44. Watched wild whales (See 14)

45. Stolen a sign

46. Backpacked in Europe (See 14)

47. Taken a road-trip (Too many to count)

48. Gone rock climbing (Not really interested, I am too klutzy. Plus, Michigan isn’t really known for its mountains!)

49. Midnight walk on the beach

50. Gone sky diving (No, but my mom has!)

51. Visited Ireland (Four times at this point...)

52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love (Sadly, yes. I think being dumped vs. doing the dumping is the big culprit on this.)

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them

54. Visited Japan

55. Milked a cow

56. Alphabetized your cds (No. Our books, on the other hand, are alphabetized and sorted into categories.)

57. Pretended to be a superhero (After watching the X-Men movies. What can I say, I love me some Hugh Jackman!)

58. Sung karaoke (Heavens no!)

59. Lounged around in bed all day (Only when sick.)

60. Posed nude in front of strangers (Shriek of terror!)

61. Gone scuba diving (No, but have gone snorkeling.)

62. Kissed in the rain

63. Played in the mud

64. Played in the rain

65. Gone to a drive-in theater (Dated a bit of a stoner once. His idea of a big night out was to the drive-in to see Jackass: The Movie. We didn’t last long.)

66. Visited the Great Wall of China (See 14)

67. Started a business

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken (I am married, after all.)

69. Toured ancient sites (Visited Mesa Verde, that’s pretty ancient.)

70. Taken a martial arts class

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight (Shudder, no way!)

72. Gotten married (Hurray, yes!)

73. Been in a movie (Do cheesy home videos count?)

74. Crashed a party

75. Gotten divorced (Thankfully no)

76. Gone without food for 5 days (No, but I have gone without meat for much longer)

77. Made cookies from scratch (My peanut butter cookies are pretty awesome)

78. Won first prize in a costume contest (When I was a Rubik’s Cube for Halloween in first grade. It involved wearing a box, which meant I couldn’t sit or use my arms. )

79. Ridden a gondola in Venice (Do I even need to say it? See 14)

80. Gotten a tattoo (No. When your entire family has tattoos, they seem far less cool.)

81. Rafted the Snake River (No, but I have rafted the Yellowstone. If by raft, you mean, gently paddled down!)

82. Been on television news programs as an “expert” (My expertise would be... ? )

83. Got flowers for no reason (My hubby’s an awfully sweet guy.)

84. Performed on stage (Elementary and middle school talent shows and band concerts. Since then, nada.)

85. Been to Las Vegas (But only for a lame trade show for work.)

86. Recorded music

87. Eaten shark (Alligator is pretty close, right? Both are ferocious predators. Tastes like chicken.)

88. Had a one-night stand

89. Gone to Thailand (Actually don’t look at 14. I could skip this one.)

90. Bought a house (Sadly, not yet.)

91. Been in a combat zone (The first time I went to Ireland was before all the current cease-fires and general peace. It was weird having the military search my luggage and actually really quiz me on who I was and where I was going and see their guns as they did it. It wasn’t truly a combat zone, but close enough for me.)

92. Buried one of your parents (Thankfully, no)

93. Been on a cruise ship (Twice now!)

94. Spoken more than one language fluently (If you count Latin, a dead language, that you don’t actually speak... sure.)

95. Performed in Rocky Horror. (Gasp! I haven’t even seen it!)

96. Raised children. (Does my husband, the over-grown child, count? :-))

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour

98. Created and named your own constellation of stars

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over (After college, just up and moved to Denver.)

101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (Actually, I have not. But I have walked the Mackinac Bridge which is just as lovely.)

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking

103. Had plastic surgery (Hee hee! When I was 6! I smashed my nose on the side of truck -- don’t ask-- and they did a bit o’ surgery on it to keep it from being hideously scarred and ugly. That’s why I have such a cute nose. :-))

104. Survived an illness that you shouldn’t have survived

105. Wrote articles for a large publication (Well, for a small trade journal. They even had my picture on them!)

106. Lost over 100 pounds

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback

108. Piloted an airplane

109. Petted a stingray (Sounds fun, though.)

110. Broken someone’s heart (We are not going into details on this one.)

111. Helped an animal give birth

112. Won money on a T.V. game show

113. Broken a bone (Weird that I haven’t... I am always covered in bruises.)

114. Gone on an African photo safari (Let’s say it together... “See 14!”)

115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced (er... no)

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol (Do water guns count?)

117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild (I don’t eat fungus)

118. Ridden a horse (Took horse-back riding lessons for years.)

119. Had major surgery

120. Had a snake as a pet (Though I love snakes as part of nature’s plan, no.)

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours (No, I am one of those people who get up at 8 on the weekends.)

123. Visited more foreign countries than Canada (Besides the lovely Canada, I have been to Mexico, England, Ireland, France, and various Caribbean islands.)

124. Visited all 7 continents (Who can honestly say yes to this one? Antarctica is awfully hard to get to.)

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days (Sounds like too much work to me.)

126. Eaten kangaroo meat (No, and I don’t want to. They are too cute to eat!)

127. Eaten sushi (Yes, I tried it. And hated it. )

128. Had your picture in the newspaper (For graduating valedictorian in HS)

129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about

130. Gone back to school (Naw, I did the whole straight from HS to college thing.)

131. Parasailed

132. Petted a cockroach (Why would you want to?)

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes

134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey

135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read (Even though I was an English major, I never had to read much Dickens. So I read Bleak House and Great Expectations after I graduated. So soap opera-y!)

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (NO. And I never would.)

137. Skipped all your school reunions (I proudly skipped my 11-year reunion last month.)

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language

139. Been elected to public office

140. Written your own computer language

141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream (My answer is too corny for ya’all)

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care

143. Built your own PC from parts (My hubby has.)

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you

145. Had a booth at a street fair

146: Dyed your hair (Well, highlights.)

147: Been a DJ (With my mom at a friend’s wedding.)

148: Shaved your head

149: Caused a car accident

150: Saved someone’s life

Quite a list! Kudos to you if you made it to the end! My total of bolds is 54/150. Not bad, but the number of things I still want to do is pretty daunting!

One down...

2006-07-09T13:21:00.000-04:00

... one to go!

(Note: If you are right-handed, it is pretty darn hard to get a pic of your own right hand... especially if the camera's button is all the way to the top right! So, only one not so great photo.)

This is the first Rib-and-cable mitt from IK (see last post for link). It came out slightly longer than I wanted, but I think my mom's hands are bigger than mine, so hopefully I will be all good. Obviously, I am not following the pattern exactly. I decided to use a variagated yarn and to skip the contrasting colors. It is also not a DK weight yarn so I have been modifying a little for size, too. Once I finish Number 2, I'll write up all the changes I made.

I adore these colors and love the single cable down the back of the hand. I may have a hard time giving these away at Christmas! :-)

(And let's all hope I don't fall prey to Second Sock Syndrome and finish the left one soon!)

Bits and bobs

2006-07-05T09:26:00.000-04:00

I have returned from the Moose Capital of Michigan... we didn't see any moose, but did see a very territorial pheasant that kept charging us as we walked out the front doot. Fun! :-) It actually was very fun, despite being a good 6-hour drive from Ann Arbor. We swam, we sauna-ed (which is a very Yooper thing to do), we had a bonfire, we grilled, and we drank! LOL. Good times.

I have also been slowly working on the Rib and Cable Mitts (scroll down). I say slowly because dpns+cabling=not very fast for me! The yarn I chose is beautiful, though. It is an alpaca/merino blend in green, blue, and purple. If all goes well, I hope these will be a Christmas gift for my mother. Keep your fingers crossed!

I finished reading The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler. I enjoyed it, but it took my FOREVER because it is NOT a beach read; i.e., it has all this character development and plot! ;-) It was one of the library book sale purchases and I would say it was worth the $.25!

And finally, just for fun...

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Which is fitting, considering Kid Rock is a native Michigander!

I am not dead!

2006-06-27T10:50:00.000-04:00

Just really, really busy. So busy, in fact, that little progress has been made in all things yarn related. So nothing to cry about or sigh about (Thank you all for the good advice, by the way! It's good to know that I am not alone!) or triumph about. And the busy-ness should continue past the 4th of July, so there won't be much to report on for awhile (well, except all my lovely vacations... to Mackinac Island... and Traverse City... and to the U.P. next weekend... lots o' driving!).

I will be reading your blogs, of course. And when I have something worth reporting on, Yarn Over will be exciting once more! :-)

Sigh

2006-06-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Why am I sighing? The great foray into sock knitting is not going well. After countless hours wrestling with size 2 dpns (which are small, people!) and sock yarn (which is not like a good ol’ WW wool, let me tell you...) I was making progress. Sure, it was only about 7 rounds, but enough so I could actually see the ribbing pattern begin to take shape. The dpns were behaving nicely and I was starting to get into a nice little rhythm.

And then I f*&ked it all up.

Because, while admiring my pretty little ribbing pattern, I noticed a dropped stitch from the second round. Out came my Knitting for Dummies book and crochet hook. “Not a problem,” I said. And then a bunch of things happened at once involving yarn and 3 dpns and a hook and trying to figure out if the stitch should have been a knit or purl and to make a long story short.... it became a problem. I then continued knitting.... and realized my ribbing is all goofed up now. As in, K2P2 is now like K4P2 in that one section.

Insert scream of frustration.

I could tink and try and fix it, but given my obsessiveness and the fact that I will probably make it worse, I think scrapping my wee tiny bit of progress and starting over is the way to go. Which is why I am sighing.

Because that wee tiny bit of progress was several hours worth of work.

Maybe I should go back to crocheted snowflakes?

A June Snow Storm

2006-06-15T19:00:00.000-04:00

... if by "snow storm" you mean "three tiny little flakes," that is!

My blocking is a bit erratic on these; one of them is really quite deformed. I need to take more time before spraying the starch. Lesson learned! I have this wonderful fantasy of including (non-deformed) snowflakes in my Christmas cards this year... will this come to pass? That depends if the cold front stays in Ann Arbor for more than a few days! :-)

Five things

2006-06-13T09:23:00.000-04:00

First: Read this. It is the funniest post ever. I laughed so hard that I cried.

Second: I have continued bicycling and am now up to 5 miles a night. I feel like I am going to collapse into a wheezing, sweaty mass afterwards... but hey! We’re not all Lance Armstrongs. And my behind is feeling much better since I bought a nice pair of padded biking shorts (just in case you are wondering about the state of my tush...).

Third: I have not really been doing anything crafty worthy of taking a pic of. I finished a crocheted snowflake last night and started another. Is it really worth taking a pic before they are blocked and starched? Maybe when I have a whole pile done. I also bought size 2 dpns to start my first pair of knitted socks. I am trying to gather the courage to take the plunge.

Fourth: Summer reading has taken over my book list. What’s summer reading, you may ask? Well, it can’t be too complicated and it must be a paperback and there can’t be “themes” or “symbols” or “character development” or even much “plot!” For me, this means Ngaio Marsh mysteries (think a New Zealand Agatha Christie). Her stories are fun, but I confess that I usually solve the mystery at about the third chapter. They are ridiculously easy. Which is perfect for summer reading! Besides easy cozies, I have also started Kon Tiki (and am trying to ignore the racism, outdated theories, and wanton killing of sharks in the hopes that the story of the journey will be worth it) which sorta qualifies as it is easy and I already know the outcome!

Fifth: There is no fifth. I just felt like I should have five items on my list!

Blue feet and a bruised behind?

2006-06-06T21:44:00.000-04:00

I can add another FO to the list (the...er... imaginary list I keep in my head...cuz I don't actually keep a list...er... ok, I do! I am all list-making and anal. Sorry.)! So Fuzzy Feet are off the needles and felted. I am very happy with the way they turned out (except the toes, which are a little wonky, but still not bad for the first attempt). Each FF didn't take a terribly long time and they were a great intro to sock-making.

Here are the Fuzzy Feet pre-felting:

And post-felting:

And on my hubby's feet (though still wet and uncomfortable):

Ahhhh... fuzzy goodness! :-)

And on to a completely unrelated issue. Such as the fact that I went bike riding the last two nights for the first time since I was 12. And. Let me tell you. My tush is paying the price for it! Ouch! :-) It's fun, though. My hubby and I are just biking around the neighborhood right now, since I am majorly out of shape. I was puffing and wheezing after 3 miles tonight. But I hope we continue biking, because I know I will eventualy get into shape... if my behind cooperates!

My very first crocheting pupil!

2006-06-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

It’s true. I taught somebody how to crochet yesterday! Well, I tried at least. I am NOT a very good teacher and have a hard time verbalizing actions, so my method was more on the lines of, “Watch what I am doing and then try it yourself.” But she seemed to a) get it and b) like it enough that she wanted to borrow the yarn, hook, and a beginner crocheting book I own.

Hopefully I have started her on a long path of obsessing over all things yarn-related!

A question and a meme

2006-05-31T09:18:00.000-04:00

Ok, technically I wasn’t tagged for this meme, but I am a little light on yarn content. I have made good progress on the second Fuzzy Foot but am sparing you all the boring progress shots. Actually, here’s a knit-question that I hope somebody has an answer to: The directions for joining the toe say to “graft toe” together. My handy-dandy Knitting for Dummies book doesn’t explicitly state what this means... I am assuming that it is either the Kitchener Stitch or a 3-needle bind-off? I used the 3-needle bind-off on the first FF and it worked fine, but I was wondering if there is a standard toe graft technique that I should be using in the future?

Anywho. I saw this meme at Sue’s and it felt like a nice, mid-week “I need to make a list of something” type of thing:

5 Things in my fridge:
Leftover Pizza House Pizza
Leftover grape salad from Memorial Day
Cranberry juice
Onions
Hummus

5 Things in my car:
Garbage v 2.0 CD
Plain ol’ garbage!
City maps of Kalamazoo, Detroit, and Ann Arbor
Diet Mountain Dew that the hubby refused to drink
Sunglasses

5 Things in my purse:
Wallet
4 types of lip product
ID badge for work
Stamps
Wedding pic of me and hubby

5 Things in my closet:
Crates full of purses
Shoes, shoes, and shoes
Hidden treats when a holiday is approaching
Extra hangars
Box of wedding mementoes that I swear will be put into a scrapbook. Someday.

Happy, fuzzy feet

2006-05-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

First off, let me show you a few crocheted granny squares from the swap at Crochetville:

I received these (along with the cute yellow dishcloth) from my April and May swap partners. Lovely!

After the never-ending drama of the Spider Stitch Shrug, I decided I needed a little break from crocheting... so I am now happily plugging away on the knit Fuzzy Feet. Wow. So, before this, I had never knit in the round. I am now completely addicted. It is sooooooooooo fast. Also? I think I could become one of those compulsive sock knitters that I keep reading about in blog-land, because I am simply blown away by how elegant (does that make sense?) sock knitting is. Ok, I know these are on size 10s with WW wool and will be felted... but the fact that you can make this shaped tube without having to knit all the little pieces by themsleves and then join them later (which is what my experience with crocheted socks has been)... honestly, it is pure genius. :-) So here is what I have so far:

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay. I am making the pair to be a little mismatched and funky. The dark blue toe of this FF will be the body of the second one, with a light blue toe. (And we're pretending that I did that on purpose and not because I realized after starting that I wouldn't have enough yarn for a matched pair.) I'll keep you all updated on the progress. Since I have a 4-day weekend, hopefully I'll fly through them. :-) Speaking of which...

Have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Good times

2006-05-24T11:50:00.000-04:00

Just thought I would share the joy I am experiencing in this: Grand Hotel. And why am I joyful? My hubby's work is paying for us to stay here for a weekend in June! Yes, he does have to attend a conference... but I don't. (Hee hee!) So I will be riding in the horse-drawn carriages around the island, eating that famous fudge, perhaps riding a bike around the entire island... fun! The only downside? Well... dinner at the Grand Hotel is a formal affair and requires evening attire... so I will have to do a little shopping first!

(A more yarn-related post in the works. Knitted Fuzzy Feet? LOVE THEM. Pics soon.)

Good books are out there, too

2006-05-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

I realized today that I haven’t posted anything about my current reads (since my scathing review of Teacher Man). Amazing how it is so much easier to write nasty rather than nice things, isn’t? I have read several very good books since then and just haven’t felt motivated enough to sing their praises. So here they are.

The Subtle Knife, by Phillip Pullman (Book two in His Dark Materials trilogy)

I am thoroughly convinced now that these books aren’t for kids. Pullman may use simple language and have children as protagonists, but this mixture of science, religion, fantasy, and adventure should be read by adults. In fact, I am not even sure your typical 12-year-old would really get the overarching story line of “fighting against the creator” to right the wrongs of original creation (Though, I don’t know any 12-year-olds, so correct me if I am wrong.). I, however, loved this installment in this series and can’t wait to read the final book. (I hope the armored polar bear is in the last one! I loved him and he wasn’t in TSK.)

Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard

I have a real weakness for historic fiction. I also love stories that tell you the “rest” of the story which isn’t covered in the original novel (like Wide Sargasso Sea does for Jane Eyre). Mr. Timothy combines both of these happy-making aspects.... it follows up on Tiny Tim from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1850s London. Timothy is a grown man, struggling with his own “ghosts” and trying to do what is right in morally foggy London. The murder/mystery aspect of the story is gripping (although at times I felt like I was watching an action movie, as some of the chase scenes were spelled out in agonizing detail) but it is Timothy’s strides to make something of himself that really give this book heart. I liked it and was cheering him on through the whole tale.

I am currently reading Never Let Me Go and am nearing the end. I'll save that one to discuss for another day.

Ta-Da!

2006-05-14T19:39:00.000-04:00

My very first non-scarf, non-bag, non-hat, non-grannie-square wearable! Yup, it's the Spider Shrug, done at last.

I did change a few things in the pattern. I decreased the cuff size by 1/3. I wish I had done the same for the collar, because as you can see, it is a smidge too big and has to be folded down. I also decreased the sleeve length by 1 repeat. But besides that, I followed the pattern pretty much exactly.

I'm pretty pleased with it. I love the spider motif (which you can't see so well in these pics, scroll down a few days to see better ones). When I finished it up this morning, I hated the collar and was really upset that I hadn't noticed before that it was just too wide(though, I did make the smallest size). But, I wore it to Mother's Day festivities (mmm... Japanese Steakhouse... is anything more fun that a flaming onion volcano?) and my family loved it. So... I am now moderately happy with it. Especially as this is my first ever piece of clothing.

I'm not sure if I would make this again, but I am chalking this up as a success. :-)

Progress

2006-05-10T21:11:00.000-04:00

Is slowly but surely being made on the Spider Shrug. See*:

And a bit of a close up of the stitch pattern:

Now just the cuffs to crochet... and then attaching them... and then blocking... and then the seaming...

... and I might be able to wear this by Winter! LOL

* By the way, I am aware that my sleeves have slightly different shapes. I have no idea how this happened. I am hoping that when I seam them it will just disappear. Please don't disabuse me of this notion!

Two great tastes that taste great together

2006-05-09T12:47:00.000-04:00

Or something like that. See, I just discovered that the Ann Arbor District Library has twenty-seven (27!) pages of knitting books available in its catalog. Let’s say that again: twenty-oh-my-stars-seven pages! Knowing my love of the library, it is a little shocking that I didn’t tumble onto this a few months ago. But when I first started crocheting last summer, I was all eager to see every book out there, so, of course, I looked at the library. And the most up-to-date book they were offering was from like 1985, with black-n-white photos and models with poofy hair. Yikes! Knowing that knitting is way more popular, I should’ve figured that the AADL would be hip to the times and have good knitting books... but... dang! I wasn’t expecting 270 books worth! Hee hee.

So I have requested a modest amount to start with. Just four. I’ll save the other 266 for next time.

Frog Princess

2006-05-05T08:57:00.000-04:00

Yup. That's me. I was making good progress on my Spider Stitch Shrug this week. Started the first cuff at Sit-n-Stitch, and worked for nearly two hours on it last night while re-watching Independence Day (for lack of anything else to watch). Please note: I was watching a movie. I wasn't actually looking at what I was crocheting. You see where this is going? Because the movie ended, my cuff was complete, and I thought, "Oh good, I'll do a progress shot for my blog" and looked down at the cuff, I mean really LOOKED, and then screamed in horror.

Because, the cuff I had crocheted was a hideous monster cuff. The type of cuff that rampages in Tokyo and squashes innocent bystanders. That will haunt my crochet dreams forever. Because... I hadn't been paying attention, and apparently was adding one to two stitches per row as I crocheted... and what started out as a 15 stitch cuff grew to over 40 stitches at the other end. *shudder* Don't ask how I didn't notice. I blame Will Smith (by the way, when is he going to have another movie out? I love Will Smith!).

So. I frogged. The whole darn thing. And did NOT take a picture for all of blog-land to laugh at. (Though I am sure you all are snickering right now. Well, I would be, too.)

And then I resolved no more Will Smith movies and crocheting. Apparently, they just don't mix.

One of those deadly sins... sorta...

2006-05-02T11:16:00.000-04:00

Book Lust

As I am sure is obvious by now, both my hubby and I love to read. Really, really love to read. When we first met, one of the first things we did together was read... and that’s how I knew he was the one for me (well, one of the ways... being a good cook helped, too! LOL)! But the problem, of course, is that books are expensive. I skirt this issue by using the public library as much as possible, but borrowing books just doesn’t feel the same. You have to wait for the ordered book to become available, and then race through it, and if you just don’t feel like reading it at the moment... well, you’re screwed.

So, we are always overjoyed when the library has their “let’s-get-rid-of-all-these-extra-books-that-the-good-people-of-Ann-Arbor-have-donated-to-us” sale. Which they did on Saturday. We were like kids in a candy store ~ or maybe, more appropriately, like two bookish nerds in a library with dirt-cheap prices... :-) Here’s what we got:

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler
Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayer
Tricky Business by Dave Berry
Kon Tiki: Across the Pacific by Raft by Thor Heyerdahl
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
Second Nature by Alice Hoffman
Duplicate Keys by Jane Smiley
Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi

Tied up in Tinsel by Ngaio Marsh
Photo Finish by Ngaio Marsh
(I can’t remember the third title) by Ngaio Marsh

Plus, my hubby bought 7 Agatha Christie paperbacks....

And guess how much all this cost? Ahhh... that is the beauty of the library book sale... the grand total was $7. Mmm.... less than the cost of a new paperback novel (cue the Beatles song).

Looking at the majority of these books (which are for me, only the Christies are my hubby’s) I am struck by the fact that almost all of them are women authors. Hmmm... I didn’t do that intentionally, but I am not surprised. All of my fave authors are women.

Yarn Lust
Sit-n-Stitch is tonight! Hurray! We have been meeting a bit irregularly lately, as our group is pretty small. If one or two people can’t make it, there goes the meeting. But it sounds like everybody can make it tonight, so it should be fun. I have been making steady progress on the Spider Shrug from a few posts ago. Just made it through the first set of repeats for the first sleeve. Maybe I’ll make enough progress tonight to make taking a picture worthwhile...

I....?

2006-05-01T09:12:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the complete slacker-ness about updating my blog lately. I actually have been crocheting nearly everyday, but the "pics in progress" just aren't very exciting.

I swiped this meme from Sue's blog. Until I have better content, it will have to do!

I AM: a Medical Editor, wife, daughter, sister, friend, cousin, bibliophile, Ireland-obsessed, yarn-obsessed, flamingly liberal Democrat.
I WANT: another cup of coffee.
I WISH: I could see my friends more often.
I HATE: shopping (for groceries or clothes... blech!)
I MISS: summer vacations while in school.
I FEAR: kids.
I HEAR: co-workers chatting in the hall.
I WONDER: why people watch so much TV?
I REGRET: that it took me such a long time to meet my husband!
I AM NOT: very outgoing.
I DANCE: to cheesy 80s music.
I SING: only to Beatles in the car.
I CRY: occassionally. I am not a very crying-type of person.
I AM NOT ALWAYS: understanding of my parents’ decisions as divorced adults.
I MAKE WITH MY HANDS: crochet and knit goodies.
I WRITE: book reviews for Curled Up With A Good Book.com. Haven’t done it in awhile, though.
I CONFUSE: discrete and discreet. Shhh... don’t tell anybody.
I NEED: to visit the dentist.
I SHOULD: update my blog on a more regular basis.
I START: too many patterns.
I FINISH: every book I read.
I TAG: anyone that wants to play.

Book review: Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

2006-04-25T09:50:00.000-04:00

Sigh. I don’t know what the deal with my book club’s choices have been lately... but honestly... I don’t think I have truly enjoyed more than 1 in the last 6 reads. And let me tell you, Teacher Man was NOT the one I liked!

I guess I should preface this by saying I am not a Frank McCourt fan. I bought Angela’s Ashes in Heathrow airport way back in college, for my return journey from my summer semester in London. This was long before any “buzz” about the book in the US... this must have been the summer of ’98, I think. Anywho. I read the book from London to Detroit. Upon landing, I was about half-way done. I stumbled off the plane, jet-lagged and bummed to be back in Michigan. And never picked up the book again. I had no curiosity about how things turned out for little Frank and family. I have long assumed that my complete lack of interest in finishing AA (which is pretty rare, I finish almost everything) was due to it being associated with my flight home; i.e., I really had a great summer in London and was coming back to my senior year in college and maybe I just didn’t want to be reminded of that flight. Or some weird psych rubbish-y thing like that. But after reading Teacher Man, I am now wondering if it was just because it was an annoyingly bad book.

So, going into Teacher Man, you could say I wasn’t a “fan.” Mildly curious/indifferent would be the best way to describe it. The book’s blurbs all talk about how inspirational it is... thirty years in NY public schools... the triumph of good teaching over bad environments... that sort of thing.

Bull.

As far as I can tell, McCourt spent the first 15 years in vocational schools, where he had no control over the students and had no idea how to teach them. To compensate, he endlessly told them the stories of his horrible upbringing in Ireland. How does this relate to teaching the English language? It doesn’t. He was just wasting time... and not teaching anything significant to his students. After about 15 years of this nonsense, he got a job at a top-notch school where the students were motivated and college-bound. At this point, his “teaching” “takes off.” Mmmm.... here’s a little secret. It isn’t hard to teach kids that actually want to learn. You can put a chimp in a classroom of bright, motivated students (I know, having had several “chimp-like” teachers in HS where I knew more of the subject than they did... I just taught myself what I needed to know.).

And talk about whiney. *Shudder* The life of a teacher is not easy. I know that. They are under-paid and over-worked. But to hear McCourt tell it, digging ditches or working on the docks is more rewarding. The book is a litany of complaints about the hours, the parents, the students, the administration... I am not sure where the “inspiration” is in all this...

Ok, enough. I just had to get this all out of my system. :-) As you can all see, I would NOT recommend this book (Ha-- understatement of the year!). I am curious what the teachers in my book club will think about it (we have two). Do they agree? Sympathize? Wish he would shut the f*&% up? (Hee hee!)

All I can say is, our next book better be spectacular to make up for this one!

Treats

2006-04-20T18:43:00.000-04:00

As promised, here is a picture of some of my Easter goodies to drool over:

The blue-based yarns are both Manos del Uruagay from my MIL, and the brown is Andes from my hubby. All of them look, feel, and smell great. (Cuz I am odd like that.) The book is also from my hubby; it is probably a little advanced for my knitting skills at the moment, but I love that he thinks I can use it! (It is great having a supportive husband who thinks you are the bomb where yarn is concerned... even if you are not!)

And here is what I have been crocheting lately:

This is the Spider Shrug. The pattern is uber easy to follow and I am really enjoying it so far. I bought this like a month ago, and then had yarn issues (without going into it, let's just say I do NOT like discountyarns.com!), and wasn't able to start it until last week. Hopefully, I will be able to finish soon.

That's about all for me, at the moment. Laundry, dinner, and crocheting are all calling for attention tonight...

I'm in love

2006-04-18T09:02:00.000-04:00

Have you all seen this site? Check it out (and have your PayPal accounts handy!):

Destash

I think I will make this one a regular visit on my blog rotation. It will, at the very least, teach me some self-control!

Sorry I have not been blogging or commenting much lately (though I assure you, I have been reading your blogs). I had a nice, long 4-day weekend where I resolved not to even look at a computer. And the weather was soooooooo nice (spring has finally sprung in Michigan) that I spent much of my time outdoors. But I did get some sweet Easter gifts from my hubby and mother-in-law, which I will be taking pics of soon so we can all drool over them together. :-)

Now go help those fellow bloggers destash. You know you want to...

Jumpin' on the bandwagon

2006-04-13T09:03:00.000-04:00

Yup. That’s me. Being a little lemming-- er -- follower and doing the Wikipedia Meme. If I actually had crochet content I wouldn’t need to do this... but I don’t. So, here it is... I think I saw this at Good Yarns and Crochet All Day and Quirky Musings....

The Wikipedia Game:

Search for your birthday. Post 3 events, 2 births, 1 death.

September 8th.

Events:

1636 - A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony establishes the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

1945 - Cold War: United States troops arrive to partition the southern part of Korea in response to Soviet troops occupying the northern part of the peninsula a month earlier.

1974 - Watergate Scandal: US President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office.

Births:
1157 - King Richard I of England
1979 - Pink, American singer

Deaths:
1949 - Richard Strauss, German composer

I am wondering, in this game, do your choices reflect anything about your personality? I know I picked people and events that were familiar to me... Is it weird that Richard I and Pink were the births that stuck with me? Hee hee... what a pair!

April Square

2006-04-08T10:14:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have noticed the Granny Square Swap button in my sidebar. This is a year-long swap... and I think I have posted a sum total of zero of the squares I have made (note: it is now April!). This is usually because I finish it and run out the door to the post office and pop it in the mail, forgetting that "taking a picture" phase. But, I actually remembered to snap a pic this time, so here it is:

It was a quick crochet. I like it.

The hubby and I had a "date night" last night. It was so fun. We had dinner at our favorite Italian place. We were... how shall I put this... pigs. It's hard not to be at this place; the food is divine. We started with a bottle of wine... had baked asiago cheese for an appetizer... I had a house salad with balasamic vinegar (yum)... a huge amount of pasta... and then dessert. Yes, they practically had to roll us out onto the sidewalk! :-) We then headed over to the theatre to see "A Doll's House" which was excellent. A little dated, but still relevant. I was practically cheering for Nora when she finally left her marriage! It was a good production; if you live in MI I suggest seeing it (at the Performance Network in Ann Arbor).

Have a lovely weekend!

I sniff yarn

2006-04-05T13:37:00.000-04:00

It's true! Just ask my hubby, whenever I get new yarn, the first thing I do is take a big whiff. I don't think this is just a yarn fetish on my part; smell is very important to me. I sniff EVERYTHING.

But.

Since smelling yarn does look a little odd (especially in public!) when I saw Grumperina's new button... well, I had to add it to my sidebar. It's good to know there are other yarn sniffers out there!

This is how a stash is born

2006-03-30T20:38:00.000-05:00

Honestly. I just stopped into my LYS for size 13 knitting needles. That was it. But. They were having a sale. I had to look (really, how could I not look?). A 50% off sale. That's HALF OFF, peeps! So, I walked out of the store with this:

Five balls of Rowan Cotton Rope. I have no intended project for this. But it was $3.50 a ball ~ normally $7. Honestly... I would have been losing money by not buying it.

At least, that is what I told my husband.

Bits and bobs

2006-03-27T13:49:00.000-05:00

Besides having fun with blocking, I have been getting a fair amount of non-yarn-ish things done lately. I finished not one, but TWO books over the last two weeks. The first was The History of Love for my book club. As I have commented before, our club has been in a bit of a rut lately (read: our choices have stunk!). But this book finally broke that pattern. The characters were so real that I wanted to call the author and ask who they were modeled on (I actually did read a few interviews with her and she stated that one of the younger characters, Alma, was based on herself as a 14-year-old in a lot of ways. I believe it. ) History deals with many of the same issues as Krauss’ husband’s book, Everything is Illuminated, but in a less absurdist fashion. There are comic, unreal moments... but there is a big dollop of humanity and kindness, too. I liked it. The other book I read was The Killer Dolphin, which I bought in the Friends of the Library sale last December. This is the third book I have read by Marsh. She wrote in the same time period as Christie and Carr and her books have many similarities to the two, though they are not as well crafted (I almost always figure out some major plot point in hers). However, they are very atmospheric and capture early 20th century English life very nicely. So I enjoyed this one, too.

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was asked to nominate myself for Shronehood. So I did... and was accepted! Here are The Shrone’s reasons for accepting me:

You have an abiding love for Ireland.(The City of Shrone is your native soil!)
You know what it is like to live with a chronic illness.
Most importantly, you love cats!
You know the enjoyment and pleasure of Talisman, the best board game of all time!
Something about you says when you get old and withered, you just might go out cruising for penis!
You are unknowable.
You have good tastes in books.
You acknowledge the spiritual side of people and believe there is some greater force in the universe.
You're one groovy chick and I think you are super cool!
You haven't killed your inner child and you freely allow it out to play.

And you can all see, I have added my official button to the sidebar! :-)

Yesterday, I hinted that a yarn order could be arriving today, but I checked the tracking today... and it hasn’t even shipped yet. Gack! So I doubt I will get in and be able to start my shrug before next week. Very disappointing. However, in the mean time (uh-oh), I think I will start a knit purse... and because I am insane, I might try a cabled one. I don’t know. Do you think I would be biting off more than I could chew on this?

The beauty of blocking: a picture story

2006-03-26T20:16:00.000-05:00

I think my little picture-story tells the whole tale on this one:

Now, I do wish this scarf could be a little longer... but I ran out of yarn! And since I bought it in CT... the best I could do was block the heck out of it and hope for the best. The positive: I will now be able to wear this. The negative: it was intended for my husband... and there is no WAY this bad boy would go around his neck. Ah well. At least it will be worn (and it will... I LOVE the colors and the pattern. I am almost glad it ended up being mine! LOL!)

I have many more important updates ("Books read! Shrone-ness proclaimed! All on your 11 o'clock news!"), but I am pooped so it will have to wait until tomorrow. When I will hopefully have my new yarn order... mmm.. yarn...

Honestly, I have been yarning! (edited again*)

2006-03-20T17:24:00.000-05:00

Here's the proof (even if they are NOT finished):

The blue scarf is my first non-dishcloth knit project. I love the yarn's colors and like the pattern (which is really easy to remember: k1, yo, k2tog). But, I am just a slow newbie knitter, so I have been working on this forever!

The bottom brown crocheted bit is the very beginning of a Garnstudio sweater pattern. Actually, their pattern is for a dress... but I am hoping to modify it into a sweater! We'll see if my math skills actually exist... or if this will be heading to the frogpond! :-)

Finally, I have been accorded quite an honor. The Shrone has asked that I nominate myself for honorary Shrone status! How cool is that? I have yet to fill out the form (I want to give it the thought and attention it deserves) but I have been feeling very hip all weekend because of it! LOL

** Blogger and Photobucket have gone insane. My photo was first huge and blurry and now it is tiny and unviewable. I will try and edit this again when the internet is not out to get me.
***Ok, I think I have fixed it? Blogger seems to be non-insane now. Keep your fingers crossed....

Luck of the Irish Meme

2006-03-17T13:38:00.000-05:00

Swiped from The Shrone in honor of St. Patty’s Day....

1. Are you Irish?
Was I born and raised in Ireland? No. Does my family claim an Irish background? Yes. Although I am really a “mutt” (with a little Irish, English, Italian, and Swedish) I have always identified the most with the Irish part of my heritage. Perhaps it is my last name (McCready) which I kept in hyphenated form when I got married, or maybe the four (yes four) trips I have made to Ireland... I love the place.
2. Are you by any chance wearing green today?
Actually, no. I tend to be in too much of a haze in the morning to remember something like wearing green for St. Pats. I did eat a green-frosted cupcake at 9:00 am, though, which I feel covers me in terms of green-ness for the day (my innards are green now, right?)
3. What kinds of special things do you do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?
Like most of the country, I will be heading out for a drink after work. No green beer for me, though. Jameson’s all the way!
4. Do you believe in luck? How about fate?
Luck? Maybe. Fate? No way. I am too grounded in practicalities for that.
5. What would you do if you found a pot of gold?
Run like heck, so those quirky little leprechauns wouldn’t beat the stuffing out of me! And then I would spend it on something truly decadent... like diamond knitting needles and 1000 pounds of Aran tweed yarn. Just because I could. :-)

A Michigan heat wave

2006-03-13T09:15:00.000-05:00

Can it be? Is it really... a post? GASP! I know, shocking. Do you ever do the thing where you are like, "I should update my blog... but I want to wait until X happens" and then X doesn't happen, so you keep delaying and delaying? And suddenly it is like two weeks later and you realize what a slacker you are? :-) In my case, X is completed objects. I have had a big, fat zero lately. I have also lost the motivation to actually finish anything (which may explain the lack of FOs). I blame it on the weather. Michigan in the winter is a dreary, grey, dark and cold place. Now, don't get me wrong, I love it. I wouldn't move to Florida or anything. I am just explaining that it fosters perfect conditions for lots of inside and cozy activities ~ like crocheting. But then, at the first hint of spring, Michiganders go a little nuts. We're like, "Holy heck! Is that blue sky? And sun? It is 55 freaking degrees out ~ a heat wave! We must spend this precious time outside before winter strikes again!!!" and then we drop everything that we are doing and hike and frolic in the steamy outdoors. So, as you can guess, it was sunny and warm here this weekend and I behaved like a true Michigander and went hiking for 5 hours on Saturday and took a long walk around my neighborhood yesterday and didn't touch a lick of crocheting. It's a good thing, too, because it is storming today and the temperature is supposed to drop again tomorrow. So I did the right thing (or so I tell myself).

However, just because I haven't been crocheting, doesn't mean that I haven't been buying yarn! Cari at Dogs Steal Yarn was de-stashing and I bought the Wild Apple Hill Farm Wool. It is about half way down on the post. It is a beautiful bronze-y, brown and I have it earmarked for a sweater. Some day. I also bought a pair of circular knitting needles from her, but I haven't done more than look at them in awe at this point. It is nice to know that when I am ready for them, I have them, though!

I also finished The Book from the last post. For those who were curious about it, I would give it a conditional thumbs up. The condition is that you read it bearing in mind that you will probably be slightly disappointed in the last 50 pages. The author did a superb job of building suspense and mystery through the entire story... and then sorta ran out of steam in her explanations. I was a little disappointed, but still enjoyed it.

Ok, this is long enough. Hopefully, the next time I post there will be a finished object or two!

Bear with me, people...

2006-03-06T09:44:00.000-05:00

Crocheting content: none
Why: I have been sucked into this book, all 650 pages of it. As I was telling my husband, any book that features undead librarians is a must read and I simply cannot put it down.
When will the hook, needles, and yarn return?: As soon as I finish devouring The Book. I am thinking I have another two or three days on it. That is, if I don’t stay up all night to finish it, which I was tempted to do last night. The hubby talked me out of it (like talking a jumper down from a ledge... cuz, ya know, I have work and dishes and life to attend to today), but I’m not sure how successful he will be tonight.
Amount of guilt over unfinished yarn projects: It was high, but it is waning. Because, The Book, people. It will not let me go!

Must...finish... book....

Quiz-a-licious

2006-03-03T11:35:00.000-05:00

You like blue sock yarn. You are a fellow. You
don't like bars, you prefer pubs.

What color of sock yarn do you prefer?

Blue is more my hubby's color than mine, but I would agree to the pubs bit! Especially if they are serving Irish whiskey.... :-)

Multitasking

2006-02-27T19:01:00.000-05:00

... well, at least my photo is. Combined in this pic, in a wonderful yarn-ish symmetry, are the 100% Merino Aran sweater I bought in Ireland, the 100% Irish yarn (Don't ask what type, I am not very clear on the details of the purchase. Yes, I bought yarn w/o a label. Shuddup. I was overcome by the sheep outside or something.), and the 100% knit-by-me-but-not-in-Ireland dishcloth. It is green, so I guess it fits the Irish theme, right?

I am pretty happy with the dishcloth (for those of you keeping track of such things, this is my second knit object. Woo-hoo!). The pic doesn't do it justice, as there is a pretty neat ripple pattern on it.

On the plane to and from Ireland, I read two books. I did bring crocheting, but found I couldn't really get into it. It made me too aware of the non-passage of time. ("Oh look, one row done. And look, I still have another seven hours and thirty-two minutes on this flight.") So the books came out and I became so engrossed in them, that it didn't really matter if time was passing or not. The first one, Eva Moves the Furniture, I would give two thumbs up to. The language is deceptively simple, and it sucks you into a tale of a woman and her two invisible friends in wartime Scotland. Sounds odd, but the characters are well drawn and the end very moving (i.e., Jen was crying on the plane!). The second book, Eragon, I was less impressed with. I have been reading alot of young adult fiction lately and was expecting quite a bit from Eragon. Good reviews, best seller, and all that nonsense. So I was disappointed to find it trite and a basic rehashing of every fantasy "coming of age" novel out there, owing quite a debt to The Lord of the Rings and Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. If I was kid and had never read any other fantasy book, I would probably have enjoyed it more. As an adult, I would give it a so-so rating... but probably won't be reading the sequels.

Well, I had best get back to my knitting! And my poor hubby, who is suffering from a massive headache and generally not feeling all too well...

Eireann go braugh! (Warning: pic heavy)

2006-02-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

Yup, I have returned (however unwillingly) from the land of eternal green to the land of eternal gray skies! Our trip was wonderful. We had surprisingly good weather (only sprinkled a few times) and it was warmer than Michigan, so we couldn’t complain about that. If you have a map of Ireland handy (doesn’t everyone?), you can trace the basic route of our trip... we stayed in Mullingar (a little northwest of Dublin) with our pals that we were visiting. Nice town, but I didn’t take any pics of it. We took a three-day trip that went from Killarney National Park,

to Glengarriff where we stayed at a nice B&B (and ate the first of many enormous Irish breakfasts... any meal that includes several varieties of meat is a little too much for me!), and then drove the entire Beara Peninsula.

What can I say about Beara? Some of the most rugged, breathtaking scenery EVER. If you have a choice between the three most popular “scenic” peninsulas in Ireland (Beara, Ring of Kerry, and Dingle) I would say ignore the more “popular with tourists” Ring of Kerry and go for Beara or Dingle. Anywho, after Beara, we headed through the Gap of Dunloe

(note: Irish roads? One lane most of the time with no shoulder. Going through mountain passes? Can be a little dicey!) and up to Dingle. Stayed the night at a lovely B&B called Doyle’s

and went pub-crawling. Two highlights of that evening for me: Stopping at the pub that was a hardware store by day and a pub by night, and listening to Irish music and watching the pub patrons dance reels in another local pub. As it isn’t tourist season yet, pubs and restaurants were not packed with fellow Americans but with actual Irish people (fancy that!), just hanging out. It was lovely. After Dingle, we headed over another mountain pass and headed north towards Tralee. Eventually, we took a ferry across the River Shannon and then headed back towards Mullingar. And then collapsed because that is a lot of driving! LOL

We also spent a day in Dublin (which I had visited several times before but the hubby had not) and visited the Book of Kells at Trinity College and the National Museum. And we spent a day at the Fore Abbey in County Westmeath, which was built around the 7th century or so.

But, you may ask yourself, where is all the yarny goodness that I REALLY want to see? Well, I haven’t taken pics yet, but stay tuned for the beautiful Aran sweater I bought myself, as well as the lovely tweed yarn.... And let me just say this. Sheep? The CUTEST animals ever!! We were considering trying to smuggle one back with us. Seriously.

Until next time, BAAAA-Bye. (That was incredibly corny, I know.)

Dia daoibh! (Translation: Hi There!)

2006-02-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

I finished “The Golden Compass” by Phillip Pullman. I cannot say enough about this book. I thought it was one of the best books I have read in a long time, even if it is a “kids” book. This review from Amazon.com pretty much sums up the reason why:

“In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end.”

It’s true… I wish it hadn’t ended! And am itching to start the next book in the series!

Not much progress to report on craft-wise. I have been working on this shrug for about a week… and I am not really enjoying it. This is partly my fault, and partly the pattern’s. My share of the blame is that I am not crazy about the yarn I picked. It is a bulky black boucle by Ironstone that I am pretty sure is too bulky for the pattern. Of course, I can’t be sure, because the pattern just says boucle for yarn used. No weights, no suggested yarns, nothin’. So I guessed and am now wrinkling my nose at the way the yarn looks as a shrug everytime I crochet! LOL But the main reason I am not enjoying this pattern is that the pattern is just not very explicit. No bust measurements, no “now reverse the right side to make the left side,” no details on how I am supposed to know where the heck to stop seaming the shoulders at! Ggrrgggh. I have been figuring it out as I go, but as this is my first piece of clothing, I had really hoped for directions that were a bit more clear!!

Oh well. Enough of my griping! (And a loud cheer erupts from the readers!) So, on to happy things… like… I am going to Ireland on Monday! Hopefully, this is what we will be seeing:

I am so excited, it isn’t even funny! I have been in Dublin and Northern Ireland several times, but have never seen much of the countryside. So this time, we are visitng Cork and doing a nice long drive along the coast…mmm…. Scenery-rific. (And yes, I picked this pic of Kerry because of the sheep in it!) And this will be my hubby’s first visit to the country, AND I will be visiting some very dear friends that I haven’t seen in awhile, AND not working for a week and a half, AND… I think I have short-circuited!Hope ya all have a great couple of weeks…Slan go foill!

Odds and Ends

2006-02-07T08:59:00.000-05:00

I finished my February Granny Square for the swap at Crochetville. It should go in the mail today... but I didn't take a pic of it! Oops! I had some measuring issues near the end (apparently, I can't read a tape measure correctly and ended up with a 13" square. GACK! There was a little frogging involved.) but fixed everything and it looks pretty darn good (if I do say so myself!).

We had book club on Sunday and talked about The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard. The group was split pretty evenly on whether they enjoyed the book or not; I was in the "yes, it grew on me" camp. I can see how people would NOT like it, though. The dialogue reads like a 1940s movie... which isn't really a good thing. But Hazzard's ability to turn a descriptive phrase into a symbol for something more is often pretty impressive. And the novel offers an interesting insight into post-war Japan which I hadn't read much about. So I would give this book... hmm... maybe a B-? We have been in a bit of a reading rut lately in the old bc, so I am hoping our next book, The History of Love, will be a hit.

Back to yarn chatter... we have Sit-n-Stitch tonight, so that is exciting. Maybe I can finally work on my shrug. I bought the yarn like two weeks ago, but became distracted by the granny square, and then by knitting the dishcloth, and then by reading for book club... I just have too many hobbies! LOL

A day late

2006-02-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

I saw this Blogger’s (Silent) Poetry Reading today on several sites... a day late. But never having been one to let a little thing like timeliness stop me, I decided to participate!

So I started thinking, what piece of poetry really means something to me? As I have a BA in English Lit., you would think that the list would be too long to count. But the truth is, I have never been a big fan of poetry. Only took the one (!) required poetry class in college that was required to get my degree. I know, scandalous. All through college and high school, poetry always felt boring and pompous and not-like-something-I-want-to-waste-my-time-reading.

But I DO have very fond memories of a middle school English teacher, who actually made reading a few poems enjoyable. He taught them more as stories to experience and less as “what is the meter and rhyming scheme of this piece?” So, in Mr. Taylor’s honor, I give you two poems that I first read in 8th grade and I still enjoy because of him: Emily Dickinson’s Because I could not stop for Death and Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess.

BECAUSE I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

************************************************************
That's my last duchess painted on the wall,
Looking as if she were alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands
Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
Will't please you sit and look at her? I said
"Frà Pandolf" by design, for never read
Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
But to myself they turned (since none puts by
The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
How such a glance came there; so, not the first
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, 'twas not
Her husband's presence only, called that spot
Of joy into the Duchess' cheek: perhaps
Frà Pandolf chanced to say "Her mantle laps
"Over my lady's wrist too much," or "Paint"
Must never hope to reproduce the faint"
Half-flush that dies along her throat": such stuff
Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
For calling up that spot of joy. She had
A heart--how shall I say?--too soon made glad,
Too easily impressed; she liked whate'er
She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast,
The dropping of the daylight in the West,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace--all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
Or blush, at least. She thanked men--good! but thanked
Somehow--I know not how--as if she ranked
My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
With anybody's gift. Who'd stoop to blame
This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
In speech--which I have not--to make your will
Quite clear to such an one, and say, "Just this
"Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
"Or there exceed the mark"--and if she let
Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
Her wits to yours, forsooth, and make excuse,
--E'en then would be some stooping; and I choose
Never to stoop. Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt,
Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without
Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
As if alive. Will't please you rise? We'll meet
The company below, then. I repeat,
The Count your master's known munificence
Is ample warrant that no just pretense
Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
Though his fair daughter's self, as I avowed
At starting, is my object. Nay we'll go
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!****************************************************
Thanks Mr. Taylor!

The zen scarf

2006-02-01T21:00:00.000-05:00

... as seen in CrochetMe's Winter issue. I really like the way this scarf turned out, especially after it was blocked. My only quibble (and this is pretty minor) is that the article talks this up as a quick crochet... and I didn't think it was. I have never found it easy to crochet into chains, and there are a LOT of chains in this scarf! But as the end result is so pretty (and I was in no rush anyway) I will let the time factor slide. :-)

And here is a bit of a close-up of the yarn. I LOVE (read: adore, want to marry, and have its kids) this stuff. The color shifts are so subtle and the texture so... wooly. I guess that is the only way to describe it!

So, the major disappoinment of the day is that I was supposed to meet with up some of my normal Sit-n-Stitchers in an "off week" mini-meet type thing. And woke up today feeling lousy. And went to work feeling lousy. And finally left work early feeling lousy. So I did not go, but instead tried to recoup on the couch by watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (it didn't really work, I still feel lousy!). But, I was cheered up when I came home and saw my purty flowers a-blooming! My MIL bought me one of those bulb kit boxes for Christmas and it has really turned out well:

I could actually see the flowers as I drove up to the house! But I am rotten with flowers... can anybody tell me what the heck these are?

I think I am going to curl up in bed now and think "non-flu-ish" thoughts... good night, all!