06:09 pm
Another meme! From Tchwrtr!
( What is my battlecry? )
mood: ![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/amused.gif)
amused
amusedI had kind of a scare earlier when I happened to see a rather large and well-defined hook echo on the radar for my mom's county, but nothing really bad happened. She got some smallish hail and though they had a tornado warning, the alleged twister never got to town. Whew!
Pres Man and I watched Lost tonight while I picked up stitches around the edges of the blanket with the contrasting yarn. It's slow going, because I don't have a very long cable for my Harmony needles and I'm having to squish the stitches on there. I'll probably end up getting out another cable and threading it through part of the stitches to hold them while I work the rest of them.
I like the way the contrast yarn is looking against the main color. I think it'll do nicely.
I've been thinking that I'd do well to have longer Harmony cables anyway; the notion was put into my head a while back, then reentered my front brain when a Knitpicks catalogue appeared in the mailbox. And tonight was the last straw. I had meant to order the cables "soon," but I need them NOW so I ran right to the computer and ordered them. They're surprisingly inexpensive, compared to how much I like their cable styles.
Meantime (since it'll be a while before they arrive; I'm a cheapskate when it comes to shipping), I can probably substitute with my Boye interchangeables. Not to knit onto, but to knit from, if need be.
I'm doing the border in Mistake Rib, which I've never done before, but it looks nice and I hear it's soft and stretchy.
So that's two things I learned on this project: Mistake rib and seaming! Yay!
I should take a picture of it; I don't think I have any pics of it yet. Crap. Oh well. I'll be sure to take some when it's done, if nothing else.
I don't really have much to say about Lost, except that this episode felt really short. I was surprised by a couple of things, which was good, I made a Goonies reference, which was lame, and one of my favorite characters reappeared, which was awesome. There you have it.
Life is good. No one told me that blood pressure meds would make me feel more peaceful. I guess it kind of stands to reason, but it's still pretty unexpected.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/happy.gif){kind=small}
happyI've seen a couple of people do the Goddess quiz, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
( So, who lurks in my soul? )
amusedOn Friday night, Pres Man enabled me to do a very startling thing. We went out and bought an iPod.
( Here's the official picture )
It was startling to me because normally I think about things a lot longer before I do them. When there is a substantial purchase involved, I mean. But Pres Man thought it was worth it to go get one now (I must've been pretty annoying...).
I had forgotten we had stores in town that would sell them. I mean, they're at Target, they're at Best Buy. Who knows where else. So we went to Best Buy and perused them, having already decided on the size, just not the color.
I got the blue one. It's more blue in person than it looks on my monitor. Though the green comes out more in incandescent lighting. It's really lovely.
I decided to get a Nano because the part of my current iPod that is dying is the hard drive. The nano uses a flash drive with a lower failure rate than the hard drive models (those are quite low as well, but I seem to be hard on my toys), so we're hoping that it will be a better fit for me. And as it is, with all the music I had loaded on the previous iPod, plus a free episode of "How I Met Your Mother," a four-minute movie starring the baby from The Incredibles, and a Maroon 5 video, I still haven't filled it halfway up. Yay.
It didn't come with a dock, but it works with my ancient dock so that's great. I didn't get a skin for it yet because they're all ridiculously expensive. Know what I have instead? A set of rubbery adhesive card holders. Yeah. I got them a long time ago and BONUS I actually knew where they were. I can stick one of those babies to a piece of cardstock or fabric or whatever, and the iPod can sit safely inside. No, the screen isn't clear that way, and yes, the buttons and wheel are covered up, but if I just set it on my desired playlist and let it go, I don't need to fiddle with the buttons or watch the screen. Good enough for now.
I've been doing a lot of laundry this weekend. So much so that my hamstrings are sore from hauling big heavy baskets up and down the stairs.
We weren't able to find The Graduate on Friday night, and I was disappointed. I was even MORE disappointed when I asked when it would be back, and they realized they didn't know who had it checked out. The movie is gone from their drawer but it's not checked out on their system. Whoops. It still wasn't back when I went in today to take our rentals back. Phooey.
But we did rent Dreamscape, an old Dennis Quaid movie that I always liked. It was as I remembered it; cheesy but good. The Digital Shelf didn't have Brainstorm at all, so that was kind of sad, but then, I don't know if it has ever been released on DVD.
I did some knitting on the baby blanket and I'm past the halfway point now. It's looking okay.
Today I am in a bit of a Disney mood, so I rented Escape to Witch Mountain and Pete's Dragon. Those should be good knitting movies. I really need to get this blanket done.
The Saturday night game was very satisfying. I didn't make any great hits or anything, but I did have some very useful spells that I had just gotten from leveling up. I was able to use Remove Disease to get rid of the nasty spore thingies that the Vrock showered us with, I was able to save Marin's horse when it was bleeding out, and I was able to align our weapons with Good so that they cut through the Vrock's damage reduction. W00t! Those little things helped our party do a lot better than we did last time we faced Vrocks. And then our wizard was able to stun the Vrocks with his Demon Dirge spell and once that happened we could beat the tar out of them. We made it look kind of easy, but the truth is that it could have gone a lot worse if the rolls had been different. Luck was on our side!
I woke up early this morning. I don't usually wake up so early on a Sunday. And I not only woke up, I immediately jumped into doing more laundry. Huh. Something must be wrong with me.
Today Pres Man and I went out to run errands. We returned with laundry detergent (go figure), a new litter box, a giant bag of cat food, and various other equally exciting items. We did NOT find an iPod skin that I thought was worth the money. Not when the skins for the older nano version are on sale for two bucks. You just can't make me believe that a stretchy skin in that shape is so much cheaper to make than a stretchy skin in this shape. It's the same stuff, just cast from a different mold. I'm not into paying the "status symbol" markup on that, thankyouverymuch.
It's a lovely sunny day outside, if still a bit cool. It was nice to get out. And we ate at Quizno's, so I had a very tasty turkey bacon guacamole sandwich. Yum.
It's been a good weekend. I'm not ready for it to be nearly over, but that's okay; at least I know that on Monday I'll have lots of good music and the possibility of a sad face on my iPod is very slim.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/grateful.gif){kind=small}
gratefulAnd just like that, the iPod is well again. I really don't know what made the difference. Was it that I downloaded and installed the new version of iTunes? Was it that I let it sit for long enough that something inside clicked off or on?
Whatever the reason, iTunes finally recognized it tonight and I was able to do a restore. Yay for no more Black Screen of Death. My songs are updated and it's happily charging right now. We'll see how it goes at work tomorrow.
Pres Man and I changed a couple of bulbs on his car tonight. That was kind of fun but BOY did our hands get dirty. Car work, even the easy kind like this, is really dirty stuff.
I'm still upset about the MagKnits debacle. But a lot of the designers are either making their patterns available as free PDF downloads on Ravelry or they're making arrangements to host them for free elsewhere. So there is hope that the majority of them will still be accessible.
I need to do my Econ homework and I would really rather knit. Hrmphf.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/tired.gif){kind=small}
tiredI should be doing my Economics homework. Instead I am taking pictures of stuff on my desk (on which my Econ book is open, so that counts for something, right?). So here is a picture of the not-quite-finished pink cabled headband that I'm making for my sister. The pattern is called ( Bamboozled )
Wow. Something is seriously bad here in Manhappiness. Everyone who has even a slight Spring allergy is really feeling sick. We've got one guy coughing, my boss's voice is croaky, and everyone sinuses are just burning. WTF??
I took my Allegra like a good girl but it wasn't enough to fix the problem. I came home, did the Neti Pot, and went to sleep. Five hours later, I feel a bit better, but the pressure is still there. Next step, ibuprofen.
I did not do any knitting tonight, and though I want to, I recognize that it is too late to start anything right now. If anything, I should pick up my Econ text and start reading (ha. that'd probably put me right back to sleep).
I'm really hoping that since everyone is feeling as icky as I do that it is only allergies and not the precursor to the Martian Death Flu that has been sweeping the nation.
Tomorrow I will take my iPod to work and that will make everything better. Yes it will.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/sore.gif){kind=small}
soreToday I finished binding off and weaving in the ends for all three knitted pieces of my bag. The next step will be washing and blocking the pieces, after which I will use them as the basis for a paper pattern (for the lining).
It took a lot longer than I anticipated to do this. Weaving in ends ALWAYS takes longer than I think it will, and I remind myself every single time that it takes longer, but by the next time I bind something off, I've forgotten again. What is that about?
Anyway, I did that while I watched trashy TV (Rock of Love II). And that's most of what I actually accomplished today. The rest of it was just regular weekend stuff and I don't have anything to really show for it. I really like the comfort of routine, but I really hate feeling like life is just me running to stand still. Fighting entropy is hard.
My sister seems to be past the worst part of her bug, thank goodness.
Oh. Pres Man and I also watched some movies this weekend. I do not recommend Lost Continent or Warriors of Terra (which by the way is a completely horrible title for that movie). I highly recommend The Darwin Awards. We also watched Sweet Land, which is an adorable movie in a very quiet and boring way. The story is good and the performances are mainly good (I feel like Mr. Heard phoned it in), bu this is a movie that you actually have to sit and watch, because a lot of the lines are delivered in Norwegian and they don't translate it for you. You have to see the body language and facial expressions to follow what's going on.
It has Tim Guinee in it. He's the guy who played Tomin on Stargate: SG-1. Pres Man says there needs to be a movie where he and Nathan Fillion play brothers. I'm down with that.
The Saturday night game was good. I felt pretty effective and we triumphed over the bad guys, which allowed us to seal the breach between planes. The Big Bad died in a spectacularly funny way. In this world, if you "lose" a spell, that magic isn't lost; something random happens. In this case, the Big Bad was preparing to cast lightning on our Orc fighter, so we hit the baddie with some ranged attacks. It was never enough to break his concentration, but we managed to knock him out so he lost the spell anyway. When Pres Man rolled to see what happened, it was a fireball. BOOM! "Dude, you've got some Bad Guy on you..." It was hysterically funny, more so because we were worried that the random effect was going to hit someone (or everyone) in the party.
My mom has asked me to knit her some more gloves and a matching hat (same hat pattern as my sister's). She wants them black and bright red. I thought about trying my hand at stranded colorwork, but she said she wanted stripes so I'll honor that request (and probably save myself some headaches along the way). She wants them done in time for her Alaskan cruise this summer.
I shirked my homework again. I suppose I'll end up doing it in a hurry on Tuesday night like I tend to do.
I think the next project I'll knit will be a headband made out of that leftover pink bamboo yarn from my mom's cowl. I think Bamboozled will look pretty in pink, and even though I don't like it much, my sister seemed interested in it when I showed her the yarn a while back. If I hurry I can get it done and mail it with her scarf and hat. No, they're NOT mailed yet. Because I suck, that's why.
I didn't do anything special for Easter. No church, no baskets, no eggs. Easter is hard for me because it reminds me of all the conflicts I perceive about Who Christ Was and What He Did. But rather than exploring that yet again, I think I'll just let it go for another year.
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sleepyI had a wonderful time at the game last night and a wonderful day off today. I slept in ridiculously late, knitted a ton on my Brea bag (the back is now finished, and I think I'm halfway done with the gussett), ate ro-tel and chocolate donuts, and watched movies with my husband.
It was a fabulous day.
happyTonight after work I did make a run to the yarn store. I got another two skeins of my Blue Boy in the correct dye lot (thanks to Kennita, who helped me find it when I was despairing!), and then I saw the Cascade 220. I ended up bringing some of that home as well. I think I have enough for a vest. It's a lovely blue green colorway. I should take pics and add it to my stash on Ravelry.
I'm planning to cast on for the back of the Brea bag tonight and hopefully this side will go faster than the front did. Now that I know the pattern it should be a smoother knit.
I was wondering where I'd find a good button and zipper for my bag, and tonight at Wildflower I saw a LOT of gorgeous buttons and she showed me where the zippers are hiding as well. Whee! I'm thinking about picking through fabric remnants to find something to line the bag with. I should not need that much fabric. I'll try to be good and actually create pattern pieces prior to purchasing fabric, so I'll know how much I really need.
I guess I need to think about what to include in the lining. I think I want one large divider down the length, but I'll also need a side pocket or two, either with velcro or zippers. Velcro in a knitted bag makes me wince, but surely an interior pocket would be okay with velcro closure, right?
I'll have to decide also whether I want to mess with credit card pockets or whether I'll start carrying a billfold in my purse. Decisions, decisions.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/creative.gif){kind=small}
creative( Some Knitting Pictures (okay, only two): Owl in Progress and the front of my Brea Bag )
creative( Three pictures under cut )
I finished this hat tonight. After being sick all day (and sleeping all day, rilly rilly), I woke up feeling a lot better and finished the crown of the hat. I'm think of giving it a bit of steam blocking to shape the crown; I'd like it flatter, the way it is in the online pics with the pattern. Then again, my dummy's head is smaller than a normal head, so maybe when it's on a real person the crown stretches out and gets flatter.
Anyway, I'm very pleased with it. I love the way the color changes pooled and I think that my stitches look nice and even. I have to give the Harmony tips a thumbs up for this hat. I used them all the way to the end (when it got small near the top, I changed to working with two circular needles).
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/accomplished.gif){kind=small}
accomplishedI'm still a bit screwed up from the time change, but I'm sure that'll wear off. Probably not before a long and draggy Monday though. :)
I've been doing very well on my sister's hat; I am done with the main body and now just have to do the crown shaping. I tried it on tonight and I think it will be very nice on her.
I had an excellent weekend, which ended up being lots of sleeping punctuated by visits from friends (Hi Crafti!) and fun movies.
This weekend I saw:
The Name of the Rose
10,000 BC
Beowulf (the CGI one)
and Fiddler on the Roof
Not all of those were new to me, but I enjoyed all of them, old and new. Also, I had a great time sleeping. Lots of sleeping.
I've been using my Neti Pot and it's going better. My right sinus is still clogged in one spot, but that's always been a problem area for me. I enjoy feeling like I'm using more of my available area when I breathe.
The game on Saturday night was fun; we fought some lesser Beholders (ick) some undead nasties (double ick) and once we'd finally cleaned the place out, we managed to give our position away to more Beholders (ick to infinity). And that's where we stopped. Now we have to figure out where and how we'll find time to rest safely because we are nearing the end of our resources and they're going to be hunting us down.
I get to level up before then, though. Hooray.
I sent my sister pictures of her scarf and she loves it. I'm so glad I can do things like that for her.
This is going to be a busy week. I have a test in Econ and I may be putting in more hours at work. But it should be a good week, despite being busy. I'll finish that hat and finally be ready to send my sister her birthday present. :)
happyWell, let me say first BOY WAS I WRONG ABOUT FARADAY!
My error stemmed from missing Charlotte's first line in the card scene from last week's episode. When I heard it properly this time, it changed the whole scene for me.
I really liked the stuff that was revealed in tonight's episode. It was quite touching at times. Also, Pres Man came up with a theory about Kate and her situation in the last episode. I'm not going to post it here, but if he's right (and he COULD BE), I'll be totally squicked.
Ultratim and Tesseracity came over and watched both the old and new episodes with us. And we wound Tesseracity's huge chunk of yarn! She got a large quantity and we had a great time using my swift and ball winder. That swift is realy cool, so thanks again to Quix for making it! I had not yet gotten a chance to use it, but it worked like a dream and I really enjoyed watching it. That was probably the high point of my otherwise crummy day.
I tried swatching for my sister's hat, but I was talking too much when I was changing out my needles, and I WENT UP a needle size instead of down. So there's another swatch down the drain. Phooey.
I'm in a slightly better mood tonight than I was earlier today, and I'm hoping a good night's sleep will improve my outlook still more.
Mom got home safely and her friend got her settled in fine. May have spent the night there with Mom for all I know. She seemed very happy to be home when I spoke to her and her cat was nearly beside herself with joy now that The Lap was back. Poor lonely kitty.
Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm looking forward to that. It's a chance for good things to happen. Maybe I'll accomplish a swatch on the right sized needles and have the correct gauge. Maybe the cafeteria will have something tasty to eat. Maybe we'll go see a movie. And then there's the knitting meetup on Saturday (I'm still not sure who is all going aside from us; maybe KnittinLib will be there). I think I may work on my owl then. I have some soft white yarn with which I'm going to attempt a white owl. I don't know if it will technically be a Snowy Owl or what. But it's going to be owlish and white, with yellow eyes and a black beak. Maybe even some feet and talons if I am feeling particularly adventurous. I haven't yet shopped for a beak and talons; I'm sure they exist though. If not, out comes the Sculpey.
I'm trying to think positively. Life is good; it's just my mood that is bad.
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/cranky.gif){kind=small}
crankyWhat a great evening! I worked almost an hour late getting things finished up (it's hard to catch up when you're gone for a couple of days; the Multiplier Effect kicks in and stuff builds up way faster than it should), came home and had pizza with Pres Man, and got to watch Lost with Tesseracity and Ultratim. It was totally spontaneous; they wanted to discuss some theories before the show started and Pres Man said "Why not just ask them to watch it over here?" And that's what we did.
While we were tossing various theories and interpretations around, I managed to graft my sister's scarf halves together neatly and I wove in all my ends. I removed all the lifelines and now I just need to wash and block it! I will probably do that on Saturday, when I can devote a lot of time to placing each pin just so. And I'll probably block it on our big bed, shutting Piewacket out (he can't resist damp yarn).
It's still crumply but at least it resembles a scarf now. I'm really hoping I won't find any glaring errors when I pin it out. Or that if I do, they can be easily fudged so that a non-knitter wouldn't think anything of them. :)
I liked tonight's episode of Lost. It was not chock full of answers, but there were some good things. I think next week might be a Desmond episode, so I'm psyched for that.
Tomorrow is Friday, and I'm SO ready. We're going to go see Jumper. It may suck, but I am looking forward to watching it. I love the premise.
I'm going to cast on for my sister's hat tomorrow night, I think. Maybe I can finish it during the game; hats are usually not that difficult and this is a simple rolled-brim jobbie.
Pie's meow just turned into a yawn; I think someone's ready for bed.
accomplishedSo, the bag my sister got me had a tag on it with a website. I went exploring and it turns out that this bag was featured in Knitty! Cool!
After browsing the Offhand Designs website, I am not even sure if you can get one exactly like mine now, which is sad, but also kind of cool.
If you want to see the colors and patterns of my bag, go here and scroll all the way down. It's the last picture on the bottom right. Dark blue velvet with tan/aqua bulls eyes and aqua interior.
It was such a thoughtful gift! Way better than if she had tried to get me yarn or needles. I am so touched by her desire to get me something for my knitting.
Also, for those who are thinking "Who IS this sister, and why is she spending that much on a KNITTING BAG????" rest easy; it was on incredible sale. Or maybe she just told me that to make me feel better. But I choose to believe her. :)
![[mood icon]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/neko/kaokitty/ecstatic.gif){kind=small}
ecstaticOH! Also while I was adding stuff to Ravelry, I ended up adding Crafti's sock pattern. So now her pattern is linked on Ravelry and she's officially listed as a designer! That's kinda cool. I made two pairs of socks from that pattern, and they came out pretty nicely.
Which reminds me; I should probably add one of those as a default pic. At least until Crafti gets on there and can add her own.
accomplishedI have been a busy girl today. I now have nearly every single knitting project that I have ever completed (and a couple that I haven't) added to my Ravelry page. If you are on Ravelry, check it out. If you're not on Ravelry, you will not be able to view that link. If you are a knitter/crocheter/spinner, you should sign up. And then check out my awesomeness.
I was surprised to find that I had knit so much since learning in the end of 2005. Go me. I've done cables, some simple lace, socks, hats, , mittens, scarves, and entrelac. Not too shabby. I still haven't made an entire sweater (no, the Cleaves don't count), but it's only a matter of time.
Some of my projects are missing some details because I'm tired now and cannot be arsed to look up specific yarns and colors. The main stuff is there though.
It's really neat to be able to see all my projects on one page. I am pleased with my progress and also with my diligent picture-taking (since most of these have been given away and I wouldn't have a chance to shoot them now).
I'll try to post some pictures of my recent stuff here in the near future, for those who are not on Ravelry.
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proudI was very sorry to learn on Saturday that ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
crafti's baby boy, Jayne, passed away. I never met him, but by all accounts he was a wonderful cat, very loving and sweet. He was fascinated by the computer and the aquarium, to the amusement of his mother and sister.
If I understood correctly, his kidneys failed. It happened suddenly and was a shock to everyone.
It is the third time that someone in my close group of friends has tragically lost a cat child. You never get used to that. Not that you should. It's just so sad.
Jayne is survived by crafi and his sister, Jaxyn.
I believe that cats go on. I think that we will see them again. In my universe, Jayne is waiting for Crafti and Jaxyn so that someday they can all be together again.
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sadThe yardage of the superwash merino is 580. My goodness.
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