Bloomin' Bloggin'

His Faithful Squire

2011-08-22T17:07:00.000-07:00

His Faithful Squire is out! This is the second book in the Dream'verse by KD Sarge. I've been ridiculously tired, sleepy, and unmotivated this month, so I'm recommending this book late (It was released on August 1), but at least I'm finally getting it done.

Here's the review I posted on Amazon and a few other places:

Rafe spent the first twenty years of his life learning how helpless he was. He's been with Taro for two years, living under the protection of Taro and Taro's formidable sister. He's learned some new skills, but he's pretty sure he's still helpless. However, when he and Taro strike out on their own, problems keep cropping up, and suddenly Taro is the one who needs to be rescued, more than once. It's only after Rafe's found solutions--however unorthodox--that he begins to realize that perhaps he was never as helpless as he'd been taught.

His Faithful Squire is a wonderful book, written from the point of view of the very chatty and personable Rafe. If you're ever been dissatisfied by a "happily ever after" ending, you'll appreciate this look at a relationship that's not exactly new, but is undergoing new stresses. And both parties need to learn how to adapt individually and to work together as a couple. If you've read Knight Errant, the first book in this series, you'll enjoy seeing memories from Rafe's perspective, but if you're new to this universe and this author, His Faithful Squire is an excellent and very welcoming starting point.

If you head over to KD's website, be sure to check out her Crestomanthy, which has links to all of her free short stories and excerpts. (While you're there, check out "The Staff" column on the right and realize that I've knitted 2/3 of them.) Do read "Romeo and Julien: a near-tragedy near Verona", which is a lovely little contemporary romance with a nod to Shakespeare (worth clicking just for the picture, but stick around to read when you're done drooling). Then head to the Turtleduck Press website to read the first three chapters of His Faithful Squire and Knight Errant for free. And then go buy them! There are links to all available purchase points at Turtleduck. (Amazon is the only one that sells the paperback. All of the links sell the ebook.)

And once you read and love the book, be sure to review it and recommend it to your friends. Maybe more promptly than I did. ;)

Color Meme

2011-04-25T19:23:00.001-07:00

Iiiiinteresting. I'm terribly late to the party (over 2 years late), but I just did this color meme and this is my result:

You are the sort of person that needs a peaceful environment. You seek release from stress and freedom from conflicts and disagreements, of which you seem to have had more than your fair share. But you are taking pains to control the situation by proceeding cautiously and you are right in doing so as you are a very sensitive person.
You are feeling very disillusioned at this time and you feel that you are being left out of things. You know - or you think you know - what you want, but you seem unable to exert the effort to achieve your objectives. As a consequence, you are feeling left out and neglected. You would like to be afforded greater security and fewer problems.
You have a high opinion of yourself. It is perhaps because of this self-centredness that you become exasperated when you feel that your needs are misinterpreted by those around you. When this happens - and it does quite often - you feel that there is no-one that can understand the way you feel and it is because of this egocentric self that you are quick to take offence.
Setback after setback has resulted in considerable stress and now you have got to the stage where you are continuously on your guard, not only to protect yourself from others but to protect yourself from yourself. It would seem that many of your unfulfilled hopes and dreams have led to uncertainty and suspicion. You no longer wish to answer to others and you are insisting on freedom of thought. You feel that you are fully self-sufficient and can control your own destiny. You are seeking ways to protect yourself from further loss of prestige and against further setbacks. You have become very dependent and you doubt that matters could possibly get any better in the immediate future and this negative attitude is leading you to exaggerate your claims and to refuse reasonable compromise.
You wish to be left in peace... no more conflict and no more differences of opinion. In fact you just don't want to be involved in arguments of any shape or form. All you want is for 'them' to get on with it - and to leave you alone.

It fits. Really, really well. How did they manage to eavesdrop on my inner dialogue? >_>

Morton Arboretum & Some Links

2011-04-16T03:34:00.001-07:00

*ignores the many-month-long lack of posts*

*whistles innocently*

So, I went to Morton Arboretum yesterday. My mom bought herself a membership last fall and added me to it for my birthday. I've been there 3 times in the past 3 weeks, and it's a lot of fun to see all the new blooms as they show up.

This week the crocuses are gone and the daffodils and snowdrops are blooming instead. There's another change on the East Side as well. I strongly suspect that someone at the Arboretum is an Adam Lambert fan.

Evidence:

(relevant lyric, from "Aftermath": "Tell a stranger that they're beautiful." But everyone knew that already, right? RIGHT?)

Sorry about the bushes that are in the way. It was raining, and I'd have had quite a bit of trouble walking far enough to see it from the path that has a clear view anyway. But you get the idea. I wonder if they're leaving it up all summer, or if it's just for the race today.

I ended up taking over 100 photos. If you're interested in seeing the rest of them, here's the link to my photobucket folder. (or view as a slideshow)

... ETA: I'm sorry about the blurriness of some of the pics. It was rainy and windy, so if I had to use my zoom (most of the time), the focus wasn't great. The Arboretum's a beautiful place though, and I hope you get that idea.

Other Links:
Hidden Worlds by Kit Campbell is listed as a Goodreads Giveaway at the moment. Enter until May 15 to win a copy of this young-adult novel about a writer who gets trapped in her own book! At the moment it's on the top of that page, but you know the giveaway page. Enter soon while you can still find it! >_>

Speaking of Goodreads, Knight Errant by KD Sarge has 4.57/5 stars there, and 5/5 on Amazon. Go here to read the first 3 chapters for free. Bet you'll want the rest of the book after that. The ebook is still just $0.99 on Amazon. You can read it by downloading the free reader there. The price will be going back up at some point, so buy now for maximum savings. ;)

Turtleduck Press also has a new book out this month. Erin Zarro's second poetry chapbook, Without Wings, was released on the first. Perfect timing since April is Poetry Month.

If you haven't seen these two videos featuring Stephen Colbert ... wow. You live under a bigger rock than I do. But go watch them now! Walgreens (really funny bit starts at 1:35) and Friday

Okay, I think that's it for the links. Other life stuff? Still no job. The temp one ended on April 2. That schedule got me so stressed and wound up that I wasn't even knitting, and I haven't really started again yet. I need to get back to that. Other than that, nothing new really. Oh, wait. My mom's retiring on April 21. Just 4 more shifts. o.o

Maybe I'll post more often from now on. Just don't hold your breath.

Color Meme

2010-12-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

"If you want to do the meme, leave a comment requesting a colour and I'll give you a colour that I think represents you / makes me think of you, and then you list ten things you like in that colour!"

Stolen from Kate & Scribbles & Taya & a bunch of other people. Scribbles gave me "green". I haven't done Kate's and Taya's yet.

So, GREEN:

No, I kid. The Grinch is much too Christmas-y for me. Even in that pic.

Yes, yes, there are eleven pics there. Two of them are really the same thing. I was having trouble deciding between the two windmills, and then I needed something to balance the lower corner, so they're both in there.

Anyway, left to right, top to bottom. If you get confused, look at the pictures for heaven's sake. ;)

Windmill: I like green energy. I like lower electric bills. I like the look of wind farms.

Mountain Dew: Do I really need to explain this one? It's the elixir of life! Or at least of NaNo.

Yarn: Again, this should be self explanatory. Yarn is soft and squishy and has such amazing potential to become cool knitted things. Or crocheted, I suppose. This is the color Evergreen from The Unique Sheep.

Cat's Eyes: This is Tiptoe, my mother's cat. (The cat formerly known as Spare. My mother finally caved to the peer pressure and renamed her.) She has beautiful green eyes.

Money: I like having money. I like having enough money that I don't need to budget every penny. I really like having enough money to spoil my friends. >_>

Desktop: Kate made this for Kay, but it's so pretty that I stole a copy (with permission). It hasn't been off my desktop since.

Moss: I love the look of moss. I used to love the feel of it, too, but there was an incident with a moss-covered rock and a wolf spider. *shudders*

Forest: I love trees, especially in forests. I may be part dryad or something.

Knitting Kit: This was a "freebie" from one of the shipments of a Sock of the Month club. At first I thought it was kind of silly, but it's incredibly useful and handy to have all my little tools in one place, and to not have to worry about losing them because they're so small.

Tupperware Bowl: I'm a dork, but I really love this particular Tupperware bowl. This isn't a picture of ours, which is a slightly darker green (mom/camera problems), but it's really a wonderful bowl. Microwave-, freezer-, and dishwasher-safe, even on the lower rack. It's a great size--big, but not too huge. The perfect size for hat modeling. >_> And jambalaya storage.

The other windmill: (see above)

Links & a Contest

2010-11-24T19:18:00.000-08:00

Just 1 week until Knight Errant (by KD Sarge, available from Turtleduck Press or from Amazon for the Kindle. Or a few other ebook places, I believe) can be bought. Want to win a copy? Go here! KD is giving away TEN copies on Library Thing. (LT account required, but free.) You'll need to scroll down to find the right give away. KD and Knight Errant are also on Good Reads, and I've even got a (very brief) review up there. I'm working on a better one. >_>

I can't wait to get my hands on an actual PHYSICAL copy of the book! That will make it so much easier to reread all my favorite scenes at night. As it is, I go to bed, want to reread something, and have to decide if I really want to reboot the computer to get to the proofreading file.

Bookmarks! And Squid!

2010-11-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

My bookmarks are here! YAYAYAYAY! They arrived yesterday, and I'm still gleeing about it. :D Sorry about the weird background color. The colored paper I had handy was melon-colored, but it scanned pink. Hope the boys will forgive me. (Click to embiggen so you can read it! Even my mother thinks it sounds like a good book!)

Do you want a bookmark of your own? (And if you don't, WHY ON EARTH NOT? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU???) Go here! KD's still giving them away.

Now then, I believe I promised people a post about a squid hat. >_>

It's big.

Really big.

Almost as tall as I am.

It took me about 5 months to knit it, using this pattern. Except I think KD's squid is cooler, because I made him in rainbow colors. (His name is Skidoo.)

It started with this.

Well, actually it started with this. I cut the yarn into lengths and spliced it to form the rainbow ball(s).

Then there was the inner hat. I don't actually have any pictures of that, so here it is inside out. The circle is where the eye was attached, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Next, 8 arms. Although I think of them as tentacles. (Yes, there are only 7 in the picture. Hush. I obviously wasn't thinking about photographing every stage as I did it.)

Then the 2 tentacles proper. (You are ignoring the backgrounds of the messy house, right? >_> )

Skidoo is so friendly. Even before he was completed, he'd hold hands with me.

Now come the eyes.
And the other one.

Attached:

Next up, the body! It took FOREVER, but at the same time went much faster than the tentacles. I don't have any pictures of this stage completed either. But here are the fins.

And the finished hat! Yay! (No cats were eaten in the taking of this photo. Afterwards? >_> Well, I think Lilac's still around here somewhere.)

And here's a post from KD in which she talks about Skidoo a little.

SO EXCITED!!!

2010-11-06T17:06:00.001-07:00

Anyone who follows me on Facebook or Twitter knows that one of my all-time favorite authors is releasing her first book on Dec. 1 (Knight Errant by KD Sarge, available from Turtleduck Press). Now she's giving away bookmarks! Squeeeeeeeeeee! I've wanted one since she first posted a pic on her blog, but I felt weird asking for one since they're a promotional tool and I'm already buying the book. >_> But now I can have one! Yay!

I've read the book already, as sort of a beta/proofreader. It's wonderful! You should all buy it! Seriously! Buy it, tell me you bought it, and I'll knit you something. Maybe not something as big as the squid hat, but something.

What's that? I never posted about the squid hat? You're right! But that's for next week. I don't want to distract from the bookmarks.

Edited to add: KD has now written a blog post specifically about this bookmark giveaway here.

Deadline Knitting

2010-07-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

I like crazy deadlines. This explains a lot about me.

It also explains why I'm knitting a child-sized afghan. In 2 weeks.

You see, one of the charity knitting groups that I'm involved with (For the Children of Pine Ridge (Ravelry link)) is trying to make blankets for the children enrolled in the Head Start program at one of the kindergartens on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Many of the children do not have their own blanket at home. Starting this past April, group members began knitting and crocheting squares to be joined into afghans. The goal was to make a blanket for every child (130 total), but at this point, we're still a bit short. So I'm going to make a whole afghan by myself. In 2 weeks. Yes, crazy deadline. But it's not really like I'm doing much else at the moment.

So, here's the yarn. (That shiny thing is a quarter.)
Each skein makes three center-pull balls like this. (Same quarter.)

And here's my progress so far. (The edges look stretched and uneven, but once it's blocked and the border is added, that will be fixed.)

I started last Tuesday. It's about halfway done at this point, because there will be a border to knit once the square's completed.

(This is the From the Heart Mystery Baby Blanket. (Ravelry link) I'm adding a bigger border to make it the required 48 inches square.)

Also, obviously, the blog has a new look/theme. Orange was my favorite color when I was a little kid -- so little I pronounced it oranch, as my mother never fails to remind me. It's taken a while, but I seem to be back to liking it. So welcome to my orange blog. Sunglasses are on the table to your left. >_>

A Week in the Life of Some Yarn

2010-06-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sale at LYS, Nana's Knitting Shop! 30% off! Mom makes a purchase for command knitting!

Zillions of patterns to choose from, mom settles on one that's not readily available. Attempt to improvise something similar. Success!

Hmm, some leftover yarn. What to do? Socks!

Done now.

Coming Soon

2010-06-17T03:40:00.000-07:00

I'm here. I'm not dead. I've been starting to get calls and e-mails, so I thought I'd mention that. >_> I keep meaning to write up a post about the squid hat I knit, or how life is going, or something else. But then I don't get around to it. Sorry about that. I'll try to get something more up this week.

A small reward will be issued for information leading to the successful capture of my motivation.

How to Knit a Love Song

2010-03-30T08:35:00.001-07:00

I've been reading Rachael Herron's blog for a couple of years now, so I was very excited to be able to buy her first book, How to Knit a Love Song.

The book "in the wild"

The Wild

I bought the book at The Bookstore in Glen Ellyn, even though they had to order it for me, which meant that I had to wait for it to come in. The Bookstore is a tiny, little bookstore. However, they're also next to my LYS, String Theory Yarn Co. (on the left in the photo), so I suggested to the owners of both shops that stocking the book could be a good idea. After all, there's a pattern for Cade's sweater in the back of the book. Buy the book, then head next door for the yarn. Win-win, right?

Of course, the book is also available online at Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Powell's. It will be available in Target stores starting in April.

The Review:
I'm not always much of a romance reader, but I enjoyed How to Knit a Love Song. I admit, at first I was horrified at Abigail's assumptions and borderline rudeness. And sometimes Cade's an idiot. But things start to work out between them, and by the middle of the book I wanted them to get together, without feeling any of the whiplash sometimes associated with such a change of opinion concerning a character.

I loved Eliza Carpenter. The quotes are great -- very much reminiscent of Elizabeth Zimmermann without actually copying her. The knitting-related parts of the story felt very real to me. I'm not entirely sure I'd like to have EC organizing my life like that, but it surely works in the story. And I love the sweater pattern that's included. I'm tempted to cast on for it right now, but I should probably finish at least one of my dozen or more current projects first. So I have the right sized needles available, if nothing else.

My regular readers are probably shocked by now. No complaints at all? So unlike me! Therefore, full disclosure: I could have lived without the last 14 paragraphs of the epilogue, but that's my hang up. I don't really like what a friend calls

**SPOILER ALERT**

Baby Ever After endings. Like I said though, that's my hang up. It's a common enough type of ending in romance novels that lots of people must enjoy it.

All in all, a very good book. I'm definitely going to get the next book when it comes out. I want to see what else Eliza's been up to.

EDITED TO ADD: The book is published as Eliza's Gift in Australia. I probably should have mentioned that earlier, since I know I have international readers.

Frustrating Weekend

2010-03-15T19:58:00.001-07:00

What do you mean, I didn't post last week? I see no week!

So, yesterday we went out for my sister's birthday. (New Star! Best Chinese restaurant ever! Well, within 15 miles, at least.) I even finished the hat in time.

You're just waiting for the frustrating part, aren't you? The hat was rejected. Deb didn't like it. It was too short, despite the fact that it's longer than she asked for. It's too loose, despite the fact that it's tighter than she asked for. I was waiting for her to tell me that she didn't like the color, despite the fact that she picked out the yarn. So, here's a photo of it in it's formerly completed state. (Well, the photo was before I cast off, but it's close enough.)

And the poor hat's current condition.

*sigh*

School? My Spanish midterm went well, complete with the 8-minute one-on-one conversation with the prof. This week I'm working on my midterm philosophy paper, in which I get to argue both sides of the legalizing prostitution issue. Fun! :/

Didn't Win

2010-03-01T22:13:00.000-08:00

Current photo of Deb's hat, my project for the Knitting Olympics.

Yeah. No gold for me.

Oh. Right. Monday.

2010-02-22T16:13:00.000-08:00

Nothing much this week. I'm planning to turtle extensively for a little while, and hopefully reemerge feeling human at some point.

My Olympic knitting? Yeah, it goes slowly. This picture shows about 1.5 hours of work. Just the knitting, just this bit. Those 1.5 hours don't include the swatching, measuring, pattern-combing, plotting, calculations, ripping out, other attempts... none of that. Just this bit. 1.5 hours. The increase patterns are insane, but they're all I've found that will look good and lay flat(ish). Never again, NEVER AGAIN does Deb get to dictate exactly what she wants in a knitted item.

I no longer worry that I was setting the bar too low by choosing just this hat for my project.

Non-Knitting Update

2010-02-15T15:32:00.001-08:00

There's been very little knitting progress here this week. I did finish the hand portion of one of the mittens for my mom's birthday. However, when I went to add the thumb, I discovered that the pattern had told me to make the opening absurdly low. There would have been very little cuff over the wrist, and there would have been over 2 inches of empty mitten flopping around at the end of the fingers. Therefore, the mitten has taken another trip to the frog pond (it's third). I have noted the new thumb placement on the pattern's chart, and the fourth time should be the charm. Not that I'm thrilled about needing so many tries.

I haven't even begun my sister's birthday hat yet, so it doesn't look like I'll be winning the Knitting Olympics this year.

The good news is that I went to the dentist today! Thanks, Julie, for your recommendation. I'm Very Pleased with this dentist, which is really the first time I've been able to say that about a dentist. True, I did feel the Novocaine shot a bit more than I did with my last dentist. However, I didn't feel the drilling AT ALL, and there was new decay under the (already deep) filling that had fallen out, so I'm particularly impressed by that. In fact, it's been nearly four hours since I got the shot and I can still barely feel the right side of my mouth. This may make eating dinner interesting.

Also, I got my tax refund this week, so I've ordered a gizmo that I think will help with some of the slowness I've encountered lately on my home computer. I don't want to jinx things before I get it hooked up, but it's arrived, and I'm hopeful.

Knitting Update

2010-02-10T22:03:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to post something on Monday, wasn't I? I seem to have started a tradition of flailing for a month or so at the beginning of every semester, and my blog is one thing that gets knocked off the table.

At any rate, I have a little knitting news for you all. I know you're excited. ;) (This is a photo-intensive post. Apologies to anyone with a slow connection.)

I have a new iPod (my first MP3 player, in fact). His name is George. He's purple. He also has a cozy. I always thought that people who knit cozies for their iPods and cellphones were crazy, but I didn't want his screen to get scratched in my purse, so he had a cozy within 12 hours of his arrival here. >_> I used some Claudia Handpaints fingering weight yarn that I had left over from one of my traveling scarf projects. I've always loved this colorway, and I'm delighted that I thought of something I could make for myself with the partial skein that I had kicking around.

I also did some knitting repair this week. Do you remember the Never Ending Scarf that I finished on Sunday, January 31, 2010? Of course you do. It was the cause of that whoop of joy heard 'round the world. Would you like to guess what happened on Thursday, February 4, 2010? No? I came home from school to find the scarf on the kitchen counter with a note asking me to fix it.

There had been a Zipper Incident. Can't see what I'm fussing about? Let George help to highlight the problem.

FIVE DAYS!!! It took me over 13 months to finish that blasted soul-sucking scarf and my sister managed to damage it in FIVE DAYS!!!!! And when I informed my sister that she was on knitting probation and would be banned from receiving any further handknits if anything else happened to this scarf or to the hat she's requested for her birthday, she had the gall to tell me that the scarf leapt into the zipper, even though she was holding her coat 3 inches away from the scarf at the time. I am skeptical. The pull has been mended as well as I could, given that this is acrylic yarn and thus splicing the torn strands is impossible.

While I'm at it, here are 2 pics of the entire scarf in its entirity, taken less than 24 hours before the Zipper Incident.

I've also been working on the mittens for my mom. After all, her birthday is tomorrow/today (depending on if we're going by the I-haven't-gone-to-bed-yet;-it's-still-Wednesday theory or by clock-based reality). Deadlines? I'm with Douglas Adams on those. ("I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.") This is still the first mitten. Luckily, we still aren't sure when we're celebrating, although it's extremely unlikely to be this weekend. The red line on the palm of the mitten is where the thumb will be knitted.

Unfortunately, missing this deadline is probably going to interfere with my ability to get my sister's hat knitted during the Knitting Olympics. Then again, I'm not entirely convinced that it's possible to knit this hat in the first place, since I'm supposed to be creating the pattern for a close-fitting, top-down hat in fingering weight yarn that will be longer in the back than on the sides and longer still in the front, but with no seams. Also, ribbing is prohibited. And my sister, who doesn't knit, has never seen a hat like this. I'm designing it based on her mental image of portions of several hats she's seen over the years, some of them possibly knitted. It needs to be custom-fit to her head. If I'm found stabbed to death with knitting needles anytime before March 12, know that I did it myself to put myself out of my misery. Also, this is absolutely the last knitted project that she gets to request. First the scarf, then this. Clearly she can't be trusted with the responsibility of it.

The SHoD (Squid Hat of DOOM) now has 3 tentacles. I really want to work on it, but that's probably because I need to be working on my mom's mittens. Hopefully I'll get those done in the next few days so I can squeeze in a day of fun knitting before tackling the other hat. Also, I'm not posting pictures of the SHoD because I want to spring it upon you in all its glory when it's completed. No spoilers. :p

Breaking News

2010-01-31T19:33:00.000-08:00

THE NEVER-ENDING SCARF IS DONE!!!!!!!!!

I would show you a picture, but I don't have one. My sister came over today and I made her try on the scarf. The Incredibly Shrinking Scarf. The one that, last time I knit 6 inches onto it, became 2 inches shorter than its previous measurement. The scarf that I've been working on (off and on, obviously -- only when it hadn't completely sapped my will to live) since December, 2008. Yes, 2008. Not a typo. It's double knitting in acrylic, with a lattice pattern that required reordering the stitches on the needles in every single row.

This is one of those projects that, if I'd had a little more experience when she asked for it, I'd have refused to make. Yes, I can do double knitting. Yes, I can do lattice stitch. Yes, I can even work with that horrible acrylic microspun yarn that splits like crazy and my sister loves so much. (It's fine to crochet with, and I don't want to rag on the manufacturer, because it's a perfectly good microspun product. I just don't like to knit with acrylic or microspun, particularly this stuff.) Yes, I can knit a scarf that's 6 feet long. The problem came when I tried to combine those four things.

Also, in case you don't know enough about knitting to realize this, knitting a 6-foot scarf in double knitting means that you've really knit a 12-foot scarf, because double knitting is two layers of knitted fabric that are attached to each other, like layers on a quilt or something.

Anyway, my sister tried the scarf on and said that it was long enough. This despite the fact that a measurement taken just hours before her arrival showed that it was still nearly 2 feet short. I snatched it off her neck and had finished casting off before she finished laughing at me. A speed record may have been set, if only someone had been timing me. She's now gone back home, and she was wearing the scarf when she left, so I must fall back on my original photos for this post. Someday, when the scarf is around and my mom isn't (digital camera issues are complicated in this house), I shall take a picture of the completed scarf. And then make you read another post about it. >_>

Side 1

Side 2

Please Stand By

2010-01-29T23:34:00.000-08:00

Testing

2010-01-16T21:18:00.001-08:00

This is a test post to see if I can link my pattern here. If you don't mind, would you see if you can view that pattern? I want to be sure that anyone can access it, not just me.

Thanks!

Designing

2010-01-09T17:55:00.000-08:00

I'm late. Again. I know. *hangs head in shame*

Want to know why?

I'm designing. I've decided that I'm going to be published by the end of January, even if it's only a crochet pattern. Besides, writing the pattern up will save me from having to reverse engineer this hat AGAIN the next time my mom wants me to make one. Which I may or may not have already done five times. >_>

In other news, school starts on Thursday, and I've begun to knit the SHOD (Squid Hat of DOOM!) I'm still in the first section of the pattern, and so far my main reaction is "Holy @#$* these colors are bright!" Which is kind of the point of rainbow, but whatever.

Perhaps I'll have something more interesting to say next week. You never know. Stay tuned! I might talk about the incredible shrinking scarf.

Secret Project Revealed!

2010-01-02T18:58:00.001-08:00

The Secret Project has arrived at its destination, so now I can post pictures of it. Yay!

Lying down

Sitting up

With his SPORK!!!!

Also, this squid has been named Huggsley by the recipient. ^________^

New Year's Eve Pranks

2009-12-31T16:56:00.000-08:00

I love tracking numbers. It's almost as good as driving the package cross-country myself, leaving it on the doorstep, ringing the bell, and running away.

(This is the Secret Project. As soon as it arrives, I can post the finished photos! *waits anxiously*)

Finished!

2009-12-22T22:47:00.000-08:00

The Secret Project is done! Want to see a photo?

(Okay, that was probably mean. But I'm very excited to have finished so quickly. I'm hoping to mail it next week, so a real photo will be posted sometime in January.)

Knitting

2009-12-18T21:40:00.000-08:00

Not much to talk about this week. All of my finals were on Monday, with my final project for one class being due at midnight on the previous Sunday, so the week was spent in frantic cramming and then recovery. You'd think I'd have learned better study habits by now, but obviously I haven't.

I did finish 2 knitting projects, and I've started another one:

The last of the Potato Chip socks for the Warm Woolies 10 for 10 campaign, which ended on November 30. Yes, I missed the deadline with these, so no yarn prize for me, but at least they're done and sent, and some kid will have warm(er) feet.

My scarf for the OFA's Red Scarf Project. This is actually the second one that I've started this year, because the first one has some fairly intricate cabling, and I didn't think I'd be able to finish it before the deadline. I'll keep working on that one after Christmas, and it can be one of my scarves for 2010.

I'm pretty pleased with how this scarf turned out, although if I make another one I may go down a size or two on the needles, because the fabric is a little loose. Then again, it's also made of Cotton Ease (cotton and acrylic -- Yay for free yarn!), so I included a note suggesting that it be sent to someone who doesn't have terribly cold winters.

I knit this lengthwise, circularly...

...and then steeked it, unraveled the edges, and knotted the fringe. It sure seemed to go a lot faster than the more traditional method of knitting back-and-forth across the width of the scarf! The stitch pattern is diagonal rib, and I changed direction halfway through, to eliminate potential bias stretching.

And here's the project that I cast on yesterday. Can't tell what it is? Good! Then the recipient of this gift, if he or she reads this, won't be able to either. I'll post a picture of the final item once it's been delivered.

Crud!

2009-12-12T20:25:00.000-08:00

Carp, it was Friday yesterday, wasn't it? This weekend has been consumed by flailing and studying for finals, so I didn't notice. Regular blogging will resume next Tuesday.

(Smiley snagged from TSR.)

Late addition: A friend Tweeted this link, and I thought it was a very interesting e-mail discussion between two guys who have been friends for years. They're talking about gay marriage: why one guy has a problem with it, and why the other one thinks that he shouldn't. (Shouldn't have a problem with it. Was that clear? My brain is dead from studying.) Both of them remain calm and respectful of the other throughout the whole thing, which is amazing to me, given how my discussions with my sister have gone. Maybe she just needs to get an e-mail address so we can communicate that way?

A Movie You Should See...

2009-12-04T11:35:00.000-08:00

*... or at least, some of you should see. If you want to. And know what you're getting into. But it's really, really good, and I love it! You should absolutely all see it. Every one of you. Unless, well,... [repeat from *, ad nauseam]

The movie? Shortbus (Warning: Wiki link. Contains SPOILERS.)

So, why am I hedging my recommendation? Well, there's a lot of sex in the movie. A Lot. If you have a problem watching sex, you're not going to like this movie. Also, for my readers with kids, you're going to want to watch it when they're not around. It's all reasonably vanilla. Even the scenes with the character who's a professional dominatrix are pretty tame.

The interesting thing is that, when I first watched it, the sex right at the beginning of the movie was... startling. A bit shocking even. However, as the movie went on, I wasn't startled or shocked at all. When I watched the commentary track, the director talks about how he actually showed less and less of the sex and more of the human interaction/connection aspect of it as the story progressed. So it wasn't just my skewed perception.

Another reason I'm hedging is because of a friend & reader who I think wouldn't have a problem with the sex, but might be bothered by the character who (SPOILER ALERT!!) attempts suicide.

I got the movie from Netflix and watched it probably at least a dozen times before I sent it back. And I've now requested it for Christmas -- from my Christian fundamentalist sister. (Hopefully she doesn't look too closely at it when she's shopping.) The commentary and documentary in the Special Features are also excellent and quite interesting. And if you want another, somewhat more coherent, review, here's what The Other Andrew has to say. (He's so much more articulate than I am.)

But really, how can you not love a movie that has one song that asks "How can I repay you for saving me and my hardwood floors?" (just ignore the weird video) and ends with a scene where a marching band shows up during a singer's performance and the whole thing becomes a raucous singalong?

Also? The film offers a different and interesting reason for the northeast blackout. Just thinking about it makes me giggle.

In Knitting News:

These are the items I managed to complete for Warm Woolies' 10 for 10 Challenge. Notice that there are only 9 of them. Rats.

You've seen the purple socks and the red sweater before, but the other three socks and two sweaters were all completed after my last knitting blog post (11/13/09). Here are individual shots for those of you who may be interested:

Potato Chip Socks in 3 yarns/yarn combos

Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong Sweater II (aka Calda Lana at Ravelry)
I had to learn how to seam for this pattern. A good skill to have, I'm sure, but not my favorite at this point.

This is the striped version of the Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong Sweater III. (You may remember that the red sweater was the solid version of this pattern.) And yes, the third pair of socks above were made with leftovers from this sweater.

Now, on to the scarf (scarves? We'll see how fast I am.) for the OFA's Red Scarf Project.

Calling All Knitters & Crocheters & Weavers

2009-11-25T00:30:00.001-08:00

Image created by Gale of She Shoots Sheep Shots. Used with her permission.

Norma of Now Norma Knits fame has posted in several places over the last couple of days about the shortage of scarves that have (or really haven't) been received by the Red Scarf Project. (Yeah, they haven't received mine yet either. Their deadline is after the Warm Woolies one, and I promise I'll crank out that scarf as soon as I can. Maybe 2 scarves, if I can find another scarf's worth of yarn.)

If you've never heard of the Red Scarf Project, well, follow either of the above links for a bit of information, or click on the Red Scarf Project button to the left of this entry. Or check out the Red Scarf Project Blog. The scarves made for/by the Red Scarf Project are distributed by the Orphan Foundation of America (OFA) in Valentine's Day care packages. These care packages are sent to college students who have aged out of foster care and have no family or other support networks. Often the OFA care packages are the only mail that these students receive that's not junk mail or bills.

The Red Scarf Project needs good quality, handmade, unisex scarves that are 5 to 8 inches wide and at least 60 inches long. They must be made of sport, DK, or worsted weight yarn. (Lighter weight yarns aren't likely to produce a unisex scarf, and scarves made from heavier yarns won't fit in the boxes that are donated for shipping.) The good quality is important, and the scarves must be new.

The deadline for the project is December 15, although since they need another 2000 or so scarves, if it's a week late, they'll probably still be grateful to get it. If you can help out with this, or if you know someone who can, please pass the message along.

If you don't knit or crochet or weave, or you don't have time to make a scarf, you can still get in on the act by donating to the Red Scarf Fund. (Paypal link here, or you can mail a check to the address on the Red Scarf Project Blog.) If you send an e-mail to RedScarfFund [at] gmail [dot] com with the amount of your donation, you will get one entry for every $5 into the drawings that Norma is organizing on her blog. Most, if not all, of the prizes are full of wonderful, fibery goodness. (If you're not into fiber, please remember that I am, and my birthday is very soon after Christmas. *wink*) The Red Scarf Fund provides "emergency aid because life happens and foster youth don’t have the safety net most people call ‘family.’ Red Scarf aid has paid for: medical bills, eyeglasses, musical instrument repairs, new tires to pass inspection, and sadly, funeral expenses."

So, who wants to help?

Fear

2009-11-20T18:16:00.000-08:00

Fear: (n) 1. a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.
(from dictionary.com)

There are more definitions, of course, but this one fits pretty well. I am afraid. In general, I don't show fear, for pretty much the same reasons that I don't cry in front of people. In fact, there have been 2 occasions in the past 10-plus years when I have shown fear in front of my family. Both of them are still talked about.

One of them involved a very large spider that jumped out of a drain in an infrequently used sink while I had my glasses off. Now, I'm blind as a bat without my glasses. 12 point font is too blurry to be read at 10 to 13 inches from my eyes (depending on which eye I'm using -- my right eye is worse). Without my glasses on, I could clearly see this spider posturing, see the aggressive positioning of its forelegs and the movement of its chelicerae (mandibles in non-spiders. Yes, I looked it up.). Freaked me the hell out, because I'm really, really not a fan of spiders near me. They're fine away from me, killing bugs and all that. Just not if I can see them.

I yelped. My sister and the dog we were dog-sitting both came to see what was going on, and my sister wouldn't get within 6 feet of the sink because she could see the size of the spider and wasn't getting near it. Neither was the dog, but she's a known chicken. I put my glasses back on and dealt with it, although my sister urged me to just shut the door and stuff a towel under it until the dog's owners got home in a few days. (My sister and Phil Jupitus have a bit in common there -- the relevant bit about his living room runs from about 4:30 to 5:00, although the whole thing is funny. There are 3 parts to it, and I highly recommend them all if you have some time, although you'll need about 25 minutes.)

The other time involved school and applying to the HIT program. I think the problem that time was that, if I wasn't accepted, I had no idea what on earth I was going to do. This one doesn't get laughed about when it's brought up. I don't say much of anything, and my mom and sister look at me out of the corner of their eyes and then at each other with a "What the hell's wrong with her" sort of expression. Good times.

Right now, I'm afraid of this winter. I don't usually feel this bad until the middle of January at the earliest, and I've been fighting it since early November. I can't quite imagine what February's going to be like. And I think that I probably don't want to know.

Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that school is not going well, and I don't really expect to be allowed to remain in the HIT program after this semester. This means, of course, that once again I have no idea what on earth I'm going to do. I don't think I could manage a full-time job right now. There's no guarantee that I could find one, even if I could handle it. And yet, my mom's 65. She wants to retire next spring. I know that the fact that I'm not working makes her worry about retiring. In school, with decent job prospects when I complete the program, I think she probably would have risked it, since I'd be working within a year or so of her retirement. But if I'm not working, if I can't? I just don't know.

I'm sure I sound like a broken record here, but I really think this all goes back to the pneumonia in 2007. Before that, I could work. I could walk at least half a mile at one go, although it wasn't much fun. I believed that things would work out, that I'd get accepted to the programs I was planning to apply to, that I'd find work after I graduated, that said work would allow me to get my own place. Now, I don't think I can work, I can't walk, and I really don't believe such pipedreams. Maybe the antibiotics shouldn't have worked. Maybe I was supposed to die then. It sure as hell would have been easier, since I was so sick that I didn't understand how sick I was, so oxygen-deprived that I couldn't comprehend the danger I was in.

I almost wish I'd get H1N1 or something. Some real disease that sometimes kills people. Then I could die without it being my fault.

Question 20

2009-11-13T10:34:00.000-08:00

20) How many times have I traveled out of the country?
a) None
b) One
c) Two
d) Three
e) Four

I have accomplished things this week! I have something to talk about! Yay!

...

Okay, my accomplishments are all knit-related. So what? That just means that you get to see photos!

I finally finished the WW MKAL3 Sweater! Yes, the one I started in July. But it's done! Woohoo!

I like it so much that I started a striped version. Besides, this purple yarn needs to be knitted up ASAP and sent back to Warm Woolies.

Three nearly identical pairs of socks for Warm Woolies 10 for 10 contest. I kind of doubt that I'm going to win at this point, but that's no reason not to try. These are also made of the purple yarn that Warm Woolies let me have to knit with, so they will be in the mail by next Friday at the latest. Hopefully I will also have the sweater done by then. A bit ambitious, but since I just started yesterday, I think I have a chance.

In other news, I've got a unit due Sunday night for my computer class. And there's homework for my HIT class as well. Joy. At least there's nothing for anatomy at the moment. Any vibes for motivation would be appreciated, since I've been struggling a bit with that lately.

Answer to Question 20: Two. Way back in high school (yes, in the Dark Ages), I had an opportunity to go to Europe over our spring break. In retrospect, perhaps I should have waited for a trip that wasn't "organized" by one of our most scattered teachers. Oh well. We got to see a lot of the Bavarian countryside while we were driving around lost. For hours. On quite a few days. In 2000 I took a cruise that stopped in the Bahamas, and that trip went much better. :)

And that's it for my questions. What on earth will I write about next week? Maybe I'll get reckless and post a snip from my NaNo. Assuming I've got more than 550 words by then.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 19

2009-11-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

19) If I could travel anywhere, where would I go?
a) New Zealand
b) Canada
c) Washington
d) Wisconsin
e) Iowa

My HIT professor is praying for me. I don't know if I can quite express how odd that seems. You all know that I can't walk well, so it should come as no surprise that our field trips, with their associated walking, standing about, and note-taking-while-on-the-move were significant challenges for me. I've also been dealing with a Depression-Induced Lack of Motivation[TM] lately, which has extended to class attendance and even completion of some assignments. I managed to drag myself to my HIT class last Wednesday because we were scheduled to have an exam. Even though I was going to be guessing on every question, because this last unit has been entirely based on handouts and lectures, not anything in our textbook. As it turned out, the guest speaker went a bit long, so the test was postponned until tomorrow. (It's a 2 hour and 20 minute class, but the exams take a maximum of 1 hour, so there's always something else scheduled for exam days as well.)

At any rate, after class on Wednesday, my professor gave me all of the handouts and asked what was going on. I mumbled something about my lung damage and stuff. Said that I know it doesn't look like it, but I really am trying. She said that she knew, she could see that. (I don't really understand that part either.) She kept waiting expectantly, and I ended up muttering something about my depression, said that was exacerbating my other problems. She kind of focused in on the depression aspect of things, taking it more seriously than some of my (past) psychologists have done. She was very concerned that I don't have anyone to really talk to about it (since my family is ... religious ... about it, and I'm really, really not), and she asked if it would be okay if she prayed for me. (Is there a polite way to say, "Sure, if you want, I guess, but you're kind of weirding me out here?" I've never found one.)

I think part of the startle-factor about it was that it's a secular school. If I was still going to one of the Lutheran schools I've attended in the past, I'd have been expecting that kind of reaction. And I know that just because it's not a religious school doesn't mean that none of the professors are religious. I do get that. I just really wasn't expecting that reaction. And I wasn't expecting her to be concerned. Very odd. It's been on my mind enough since then that I'm getting a little worried about tomorrow, and if it will be weird to see her again. (I am going to class though. There's an exam. One that I can even study for, now.)

Also? The director of the HIT program walked by us as the professor and I were walking out together. She's also been worried about me, and said she was glad to see me there. Maybe I've just worked for uncaring corporations for so long that human concern is baffling? I dunno.

I have done some knitting this week. In fact, I've finished 3.5 socks, and I'm almost done with the yarn from Warm Woolies that I'm using for the socks. Then I'll just have the sweater yarn left to knit up. Pictures next week, okay?

Answer to Question 19: Iowa. Canada and New Zealand are too far away. Well, most places are too far away for me these days. I've been to Washington (to see ArwensRose and Pansy and their homes/towns/city), but not to Iowa (to see Deenie and hers), so Iowa's my choice. Besides, it's just barely possible that I could actually go there someday. Wisconsin... I love Wisconsin, especially the Northwoods. I first went up to our family's cabin when I was 6 months old, and even though our current cabin is on my grandparents' land and not my dad's (because the lake by their property is both bigger and more accessible from our land), regardless of the fact that the cabin that's now there wasn't built until I was 5 or 6, the land and that lake are the home of my heart.

That said, I don't think I'll ever go back up there. The cabin just isn't accessible enough for me now. It would be hard to manage the steps down from the "parking lot," as we call the end of our road under the trees. I can't sleep on a bed without a lot of pain, and the chairs there are old and don't recline, so my dependent edema would get too bad if I tried to sleep in them. The shower stall is so tiny that I probably couldn't use it, since I wouldn't be able to sit down halfway through. And the hill is far too steep for me to be able to walk down to the lake, even if we still had a boat there that was licensed to go out on it.

Another problem is the political views of the people in the area. I used to dream about living up there, winterizing the cabin (or more likely building a small house in its place). Getting a job somewhere near enough to make winter commuting practical. But the area is very, very conservative, and realistically I couldn't live with that. When my mom and sister were up there this fall, they attended a community meeting about the area's elk population. Given what they've said about that, it's a good thing I wasn't there because my head might have exploded from the pressure of keeping my mouth shut. Then again, I wouldn't have gone to the meeting in the first place. But I have trouble looking past people's political views sometimes. I can't quite decide if I'm getting more intolerant, or if it's just that I'm noticing the political views of people I used to be completely neutral about. I can get past political stuff with friends, but if an otherwise benign stranger has political views that I vehemently disagree with, there's just not enough positive force there to keep my feelings about them at neutral. (If that even makes sense to anyone else.)

And then I remember my dad's last trip up there. It was about a month before he died, maybe 5 or 6 weeks. He knew he'd never see it again, and it was so hard for him to leave. Maybe I just don't want to do that myself. As things stand now, I have lots and lots of memories from up there, but I don't remember exactly what happened the last time I left. Realistically, I know that the last time I was up there was the time that my sister and I took three days and rented a U-Haul to bring my grandma's dining room set back down here so my sister could use it. I imagine that, when we locked up the cabin that time and I climbed into my car, I was just so relieved to be able to sit down and stop manhandling furniture up the slope and into the truck. But that's all reasoned out, not vivid memory. And I don't want my final memory of there to be fighting tears as I drive up the road, knowing my heart will never go home again.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 18

2009-10-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

If you live in Maine, VOTE tomorrow! NO on 1!

Live in Washington? VOTE tomorrow! YES on 71!

There is no valid reason to legislate inequality, or to overturn legislation which prevents it.

18) Which is my favorite Harry Potter book?
a) One
b) Two
c) Three
d) Five
e) Six

I have no content this week. I tried all weekend to think of some, but I couldn't. What I have instead is whining. Aren't you lucky?

I have a 1 to 2-page paper to write for class today. The class at 2 p.m. I haven't even started yet. There are 10 questions I need to answer in this paper, and I have all the answers written down and organized. I've had that part done since last Monday. By the time I answer those questions, I'll probably need to shrink my font size to make it fit on 2 pages. All weekend, this paper has been hanging over my head, dripping big glops of doom onto my head. But I can not get it started. Why is this paper kicking my ass?

My mother is home already. She Will. Not. Stop. Talking. To. Me. Whyyyyyyyyyy? She knows I'm trying to finish this blasted paper.

I haven't started NaNo yet, and my plot/idea has fled.

There's a thing about the blogs I've been reading this week that I want to whine about, but I can't figure out how to say it. You can thank me later.

It has been over 18 months since I've had a hug. This is not right.

Answer to Question 18: Book 3 is my favorite. Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and early enough that the government isn't so blatantly evil? Yes please!

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Blogs

2009-10-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yes, this post is ~~a week~~ eight days late. Let me distract you with pretty pictures.

Both pictures are from here. This is another of the several new blogs I've found lately. I haven't finished all of the archives yet, and sadly The Other Andrew is no longer writing, but I've still got over a year's worth of entries to keep me happy. And a list of blogs to check out after that.

In case you're interested, I've now read all of the archives of Ted's, Mel's, Kenny's, Chris's, and Paul's blogs. I finished James's, which I mentioned starting last time. Oh, and I've read a blog by another Chris as well, about coming out at age 48. I've enjoyed reading all of the blogs (or I wouldn't have done it), but this Chris writes about parts of my life. There are a jillion differences between us, really obvious ones (I'm not a gay man, for instance.) and more subtle ones (I'd never have had the courage to come out in his situation, no matter how soul-destroying it would be to continue to deny such a large part of myself.) that a lot of people don't necessarily know about me. But some of his posts articulate things in my life that I'd never say, don't even like to think about. Like his post about the holidays. If you read it, don't forget that my birthday is right after the New Year. Four kicks for me.

It's been a hard couple of weeks. Maybe I'll post more about it later, and maybe I won't. It probably wouldn't be much fun for you to read anyway. Some school stuff, some crap with my sister, and some of it's just the ever-decreasing amount of daylight around here. I hate -- HATE -- knowing that things are going to get worse before they get better. H.A.T.E. But at least knowing that means that I won't have to wonder what's happening, what's wrong with me. I guess that's an improvement. Have to believe that it is.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some blog archives to escape into.
(Yes, KD, you were very, very right about that. Even though I hadn't put two and two together yet.)

Question 17

2009-10-09T19:05:00.001-07:00

17) What city was I born in? (Kindly ignore the bad grammar.)
a) Clam Lake, WI
b) Addison, IL
c) Melrose Park, IL
d) Elmhurst, IL
e) Hayward, WI

I have a knitting photo! Are you as excited as I am?

This is the front of the Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong Sweater I. I still have to finish the neck shaping. The back is done up to the armholes, but since it was knitted in the round, you can't see it in this photo.

Nothing much has happened this week. I had a lot of homework last weekend (which I'd had a few weeks to accomplish, but it wasn't due until Monday), and then I had a paper & presentation due in HIT on Wednesday. I haven't had to do a speech for a while, and if I need to do another one, I'm going to have to get permission to be seated during it, because I was really having trouble getting enough air towards the end. I hate looking like I don't know what I'm doing, and I'm sure that I did. However, there's no way to change it now, and I didn't realize that it would be a problem before I began, so whatever. Other than that, I think it went pretty well.

It's been raining a lot here this week. Not huge amounts of water, with all the associated flooding concerns, but just days of slow and steady rain. Luckily it's been on days when I could stay home, so I've been able to enjoy it without worrying about losing my footing. I've also finished reading all of the archives over at QueerJoe's blog. I'm working on James' blog now. He lives in New Zealand, and some of his photos are excellent proof that WETA didn't do too much to the scenery in LOTR.

And that's it for this week. Not much blather, since I've got 2 exams this week. I should probably get back to studying.

Answer to Question 17: Elmhurst, IL. I've lived almost my entire life in Addison, but the nearest hospital is in Elmhurst. Melrose Park is where my mom's family lived, and where I went to high school. Clam Lake is the nearest town to my family's cabin in northern Wisconsin. Hayward is the nearest town with a hospital. I suppose that this question was skewed a bit towards local friends, but I didn't have any local friends on Facebook when I initially wrote the quiz.

Question 16

2009-10-03T15:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, I'm late again. I apologise. It completely slipped my mind yesterday that it was Friday. I finally remembered when I was heading to bed at about 1 a.m., so I guess I can honestly say today.

16) How many companies have I worked for since leaving school?
a) Four
b) Six
c) Seven
d) Eight
e) Ten

I have no knitting photo (again) this week. Instead, let me distract you with a picture of Lilac in her cat bed. She is scrupulous in upholding her reputation as our princess cat, so she will not lie in the bed unless it is placed on the couch.

Yes, it has a padded base and a coordinating pillow on top of that. Princess.

I suppose that I should post a photo of Spare, for equal time and all, but I don't really have one. This is because I don't like her much and she returns the favor. The only time I think she looks at all cute is when she's cuddled into her cat tent -- at the far end of the laundry room (which is at the opposite corner of the house from the room I'm usually in).

Oops, that's Lilac again. She's not a fan of flash photography. :)

Nothing exciting has really happened this week. I ended up ditching my HIT class on Wednesday because I couldn't find parking that was within walking distance (for me), even with my parking permit. Anatomy ... continues to try my patience. The good news is that he handed out practice midterms for us, and I got an 87% on it. Even though I haven't read several of the chapters yet, and we haven't even had lecture on 2 of the organ systems that will be on there. (The midterm is on 10/14.)

I also tried to go to the zoo on Thursday. I used to love going to the zoo. I've been a member (myself or on my parents' membership) since 1979. There were some years when I went about twice a month. Now, with the walking & breathing, I haven't been there in years. I went to their website a couple of months ago and discovered that they now have ECVs (Electronic Convenience Vehicles) available to rent, and I got all excited. Unfortunately, even though I'm under the weight limit, I can't fit into/onto the seat. The handlebars and controls are too close. I wish I'd known that before I got there. It was quite the disappointment.

On a brighter note, I've found another knitting blog that I enjoy. QueerJoe's actually been blogging since 2002, but I have spent large periods of time residing under various rocks, so I never got over there until very recently. I'm in the process of reading all of his archives, and am now up to 11/26/07. I am, perhaps, unreasonably excited by the knowledge that I own the same color of Malabrigo Laceweight Merino that he bought back then. (He knits with the most beautiful color combinations.)

Answer to Question 16: Eight. I'm not going to list them by name in case of future Googling. By description, they're as follows: (1) a department store outlet, (2) an answering service, (3) an office temp company, (4) a steel grating manufacturer, (5) another office temp company, (6) a data entry company, (7) the same office temp company as #5, so it doesn't count towards the total, (8) a real estate title insurance company, (9) #5 AGAIN, and (10) a car dealership. Ten jobs, eight companies.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 15

2009-09-24T17:23:00.000-07:00

15) What is my middle name?
a) Louise
b) Susan
c) Kathleen
d) Lou
e) Lois

I have a knitting picture!

This is the 7th pair of Potato Chip Socks for Warm Woolies, and these are quite a bit larger than the first 6 pairs. You see, there was a 6 for 6 challenge over the summer, which required 6 vests, sweaters, or pairs of socks that would fit a 6 year-old (or older). The socks were required to be at least 6 inches long in both the foot and the leg. This pair is for the 10 for 10 challenge, which--as you might guess--requires that the sweaters or socks (no vests this time) fit a 10 year-old (or older). The socks must be at least 10 inches in both the foot and the leg. I wasn't positive how much length the heel and toe would add, so I estimated a little long. (The leg is 12 inches and the foot 11.)

I'd hoped to have a finished sweater to show you, as well, but I'm still working on the second sleeve. Oh well. Something for next week.

I'm also not going to complain about school this week. Surprised? Me too, a bit. But I ditched HIT on Monday, and A&P was cancelled that evening, so I probably didn't spend enough time in class to justify moaning about it again. Besides, a few readers have already heard about it. lol

Answer to Question 15: Louise. Susan is my sister's middle name, and Lou my mother's. Kathleen (and Katherine) were in the running for my first name before I was born. I tossed Lois into the mix because I already had 2 L names, and also for Lois McMaster Bujold. (Remember her? My favorite author.)

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 14

2009-09-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

14) I am a good liar.
a) True
b) False

I think I'm going to start doing my blog posts on Fridays. I mean officially. I thought that Thursday would still be okay, since I don't have classes. However, my classes on Wednesday go for long enough that I'm usually a bit (or more than a bit) wiped out, and then I spend most of Thursday recovering and not thinking too much. So Friday it is. At least until these next 23 class days are done.

Hmmm? What's that? I wasn't counting down, you say? Well, tough. I am now. I was going to count down by weeks, but because of the way some days off fall, that makes it sound worse (12 weeks, plus finals) than it really is (23 classes, plus finals). Okay, not much worse, but still worse.

This Wednesday, my afternoon class (HIT - Health Info Technology) was as bad as my A&P class, and that's saying something. We were supposed to have a computer-based lab, and getting proper access set up for all 15 students (the prof never did get her own set up) took the first 1.5 hours of the class. Not the prof's fault, since apparently someone on the IT end at the service that hosts the labs didn't get the permissions set up properly. However, it was still really annoying. That's also the class that we had a test in on Monday. When we got to the lab, we were told that we'd have to retake the test this coming Monday because there'd been 2 Question 24s on the test, and someone had (against the prof's instructions) answered them both, throwing off all the rest of their answers, etc. The usual ScanTron problem. I was appalled, but most of the class seemed excited by the prospect of improving their scores. I guess I was one of the few who was satisfied to start with. But then the prof decided to just drop that test from the possible points for the course. I guess that's marginally better than having to retake the test, but I'm still a bit irked. All that studying for nothing. Oh well.

A&P was just its usual frustrating self, complete with Doritos chick fondling her Doritos bag. I promise you, that's the most innocuous word for her actions that I can possibly come up with. She reminds me a bit of Dr. Evil stroking his cat. But louder. And more annoying.

My computer class remains my favorite of this semester. That's probably due in large part to the fact that it's online, so I never have to meet my classmates. I really expected to be frustrated by this class more than by the others, since this is one of those required-for-my-degree classes that covers really boring stuff. In fact, part of one of our assignments was to write an introduction including our reason for taking the class, and every single one of us is taking it because it's required for some degree or another. Not one person mentioned anything about being interested in the subject matter. But it's my favorite class at this point. *rolls eyes*

In non-school whining, I had my 6-month check-up this week, and got a flu shot. Apparently I was also due for a tetanus booster. The appointment was on Tuesday. There's still a lump on my arm, and it's still rating somewhere between sore and outright painful. Stupid tetanus.

Trying to move away from whining altogether, my mom and sister got home from vacation last Sunday. They brought all kinds of northern Wisconsin goodies with them: bran muffins, cashew turtles and brittle from a wonderful candy shop, cheese, sausage, etc. I asked my sister to bring me some soap from Gitchee Gumee Soap Company in Bayfield, but she hasn't given me any. I hope she's just saving it for Christmas.

No knitting pictures because no knitting has been accomplished. I really need to find a way to study and knit at the same time, since I've got a lot of yarn to knit up for Warm Woolies by the end of November. And, of course, November is NaNoWriMo, so I'd really like to finish the knitting before it starts.

Answer to Question 14: I say True. When my sister took the quiz, she said that she can always tell when I'm lying, but that she thought my answer was true anyway. I think that, if she can always tell, she's remarkably adept at not indicating it, but perhaps that's beside the point. If nothing else, I'm wonderful at lying to myself, so it's true on that score. I do try not to lie to people who matter to me. It's just that some people who don't matter too much (people like co-workers who I used to see once a week, or fellow students in one of my classes whose names I haven't even been told) seem to think that they should matter a lot.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

Question 13

2009-09-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

13) Why don't I knit more socks for myself?
a) It takes too long.
b) I don't wear socks.
c) Different sized feet & difficulty adapting patterns.
d) a & b
e) b & c

Not a whole lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. I've been enjoying the solitude while my mom & sis are on vacation. They'll be back on Sunday. *sigh* Luckily, they're bringing me some wonderful semi-local to our cabin food, so that will mitigate their reappearance. That, and the fact that the cats will be happy to see them. I'm getting a bit sick of the yowling. (Both cats are lonely and miss my mom. I am clearly an insufficient substitute, not even good enough to pet them.)

Classes have been going okay. The prof for my evening (anatomy & physiology) class has an unusual lecture style, and I could live happily without ever having another class with some of my fellow students, but it's still okay. Less than 16 weeks left now, you know. (I know this because we have 16 week semesters, not because I'm counting down frantically. Yet. That may come.)

I have gotten some knitting done. Specifically, I've finished the first sleeve on 2 of my sweaters-in-progress, and have begun work on both of the second sleeves. I've also cast on for the second Potato Chip Sock, because last night I really needed some mindless knitting.

Then there's the package that arrived yesterday.

That's a 14 x 18 x 10 inch box. Full of yarn. F.U.L.L. Curse Webs and their semi-annual sales! You know, in that Curse-them-but-they'd-better-not-be-late-with-the-next-sale-flyer kind of way. I obviously mis-estimated how much yarn I'd need for a pair of socks, because I thought I'd get about 8 pairs from the yarn. I must have been really, really tired when I was doing that math. But this should keep me happily knitting through most, if not all, of next year. It could be worse.

I could be out of yarn.

Answer to Question 13: E
I don't really care how long a project takes if it's a pattern that interests me. And socks are usually pretty interesting. Even the plain ones have heel and toe shaping, and it's pretty cool to watch a knitted item become a 3-D shape, at least to me. That knocks out answers A and D.

I don't wear socks. This is mostly because they don't seem (to me) to go with Crocs, and I wear my Crocs year round. Also, I think the little bumps on the insoles of my Crocs would probably be pretty hard on socks. I can't imagine knitting socks and then abusing them like that.

It's also true that my feet are different sizes. Not length-wise. It's the widths that are off. This means that the only matching socks that I could really knit that would fit my feet would be plain, solid-color socks. For them to have any chance of fitting inside my shoes, they'd have to be made of sock-weight yarn. Maybe lace-weight, on days when my feet are swollen. Do you have any idea how many stitches that would be, with teeny-tiny solid color yarn, worked round and round (forever!) in stockinette stitch? I'll stick to other projects, thanks.

Outer Alliance Pride Day

2009-09-01T19:16:00.001-07:00

I'm squeaking in under the wire with this, since they've chosen September 1 for Outer Alliance Pride Day, and I just found out about it (since I don't really write much of anything, and thus don't get to a lot of writer sites). Here's the text/link they asked for:

"As a member of the Outer Alliance, I advocate for queer speculative fiction and those who create, publish and support it, whatever their sexual orientation and gender identity. I make sure this is reflected in my actions and my work."

They also suggest posting "a short example of queer speculative fiction." And since I don't write much, the only thing I have that qualifies would be a snip from my very, very unedited 2007 Nano, which I don't think I can really get post-ready before midnight. (Especially since I still have homework for tomorrow.) So go read my friend KD's, because it's good, and it has one of my favorite couples in it.

Question 12

2009-08-28T17:26:00.000-07:00

12) Crocheting is...
a) tedious
b) time-consuming
c) faster than knitting, but boring as all get out
d) something I used to do much more
e) all of the above

Poor, neglected blog. I'm late again, and I haven't even named my newest 7 dragons yet. Heck, I haven't even entered my new egg into my spreadsheet. This school thing is sure time-consuming. More on that later.

I haven't done much knitting this week, either. Partly school and partly getting my mom ready for her vacation -- she left Friday morning for 16.5 days. Ahhh, the peace. And I get to shut off the cuckoo clock. Shhh, don't tell. ;) Actually, the reason that this didn't go up on Thursday was because I didn't even get to the computer until very, very late, and then I didn't have enough brain power to write coherently. My mom has a truly amazing gift for creating panic when faced with packing. You'd never think that she's been taking at least one major vacation a year for the past 50+ years. The reason it wasn't posted on Friday is because I slept most of the day, recovering from Thursday. I have no excuse for Saturday.

Sorry, I wandered a bit there, didn't I? I was talking about knitting. I think that part of my problem at this point may be that I don't really like to knit sleeves. I currently have 3 sweaters-in-progress that are at the sleeves stage. I have another one that's approaching the sleeves. I think I may not like them because I have to pay attention and count rows, and I'm not too fond of doing that. Or maybe it's that sleeves come in pairs. Then again, so do socks, and I can whip those out when using worsted weight yarn, and the sleeves are all in worsted weight or thicker, so I'm not sure that holds water. At any rate, I present Potato Chip Sock number 7a. This is made with the yarn I got from Warm Woolies, held triple. It looks huge because it is -- the foot is 11 inches. This will be for their 10 for 10 campaign, and those socks have to have a foot length of at least 10 inches. I erred on the side of caution.

So, school. It started last Monday. I've got 2 classes that meet twice a week, and one that's online. As some of you may know, I still haven't met the professor for my evening class -- he was on vacation this week. The first week of the school year. Without leaving any information for his substitute beyond the syllabus and the fact that we were to cover Chapter 1 and part of Chapter 2 (but not how much of it). An interesting approach to teaching. It's really funny, because 90% of our grade is based on 2 tests (midterm and final), so the syllabus reads like he's a bit of a hardass. And then he, he ditches the first two classes. I am puzzled. And sort of looking forward to meeting him, even though I suspect he'll greet us with a quiz, particularly since most people probably aren't expecting it. (There was a phrase in the syllabus that made me think this.)

The other class is Intro to HIT (Health Information Technology). It's interesting because it's a class that's specifically and only for HIT students. It may become interesting in a broader sense after we get through the first couple of chapters. I'm working hard to learn everyone's names, since I'll be working with these women for the next 2 years. This is a little difficult since I sit in the back row, and therefore may not recognize them if we meet face to face. It's coming along though.

I ... um ... haven't done much of anything with my online class yet. Oops. (Although the first assignment isn't due until 9/14, and the first week of classes isn't over yet. By several hours.)

Answer to Question 12: All of the above. My mom and sister tried to argue that crocheting can't be both time-consuming and faster than knitting, but that's just because neither of them can do either. Besides, the question never says that knitting isn't also time-consuming. At any rate, since I learned how to crochet years (decades) before I learned how to knit, it is indeed something that I used to do more. However, I do find it tedious. It may be faster than knitting, but it surely doesn't feel like it. Then again, I haven't knitted as many baby blankets and afghans as I've crocheted, so perhaps if I do that, I'll find knitting tedious as well.

But that's just a very good reason not to cast-on for any kind of blanket.

These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, 40% among my sister's friends, 41% for my mother, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.

More Dispiriting Scores

2009-08-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

I forgot to post the explanation for the questions with my last post. So here:

"These questions are coming from my 'How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?' quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better."

Normally, I would figure that wasn't important enough to mention. However, I've got 2 new scores to add. My mother (who isn't on Facebook and doesn't read -- or even know about -- my blog scored 41%. (This is because I didn't ask her a couple of the questions, like I did with my sister.) My Sister's Friend, Julie, got a 40%. Yes, that's right. My sister's friend scored better than any of my friends. (She also doesn't know about my blog, and she's new to Facebook.)

Question 11

2009-08-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

11) Who is my favorite fictional character?
(NOTE: published fictional character)
a) Mary Russell
b) Dag Redwing (later Dag Bluefield)
c) Ivan Vorpatril
d) Ista dy Chalion
e) Miles Naismith Vorkosigan

Good heavens, is it Thursday already? How did that happen? I have no knitting photos (again) because I've hardly knit at all this past week. I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm leaning towards blaming the cuckoo clock. I've been very, very tired since we got it hung up. It's closer than I'd like to my bed (then again, everywhere in the house is closer than I'd like the cuckoo clock to be), and I think that it's twice-hourly festival of noise may be disturbing my sleep. It doesn't wake me up entirely, but I think it might partially. Perhaps I'll get used to it.

I do have a bit of knit-related content, if anyone's interested. I've been subscribing to Interweave Knits for about a year-and-a-half now -- since shortly after I began knitting so much. Several knitbloggers recommended it, and I enjoyed the free trial issue enough to subscribe. The articles are interesting and informative. There's almost always a pattern that I want to make. I even like the ads. I usually flip through it quickly and then spend 3 or 4 weeks reading it at a far more leisurely pace. Basically, if you're new to knitting magazines, give this one a try. (If you're not new, you probably already get it.)

In contrast, I received my trial issue of another knitting magazine today (which I'm not naming because I didn't like it at all). I found the articles frustrating, for reasons ranging from bad grammar/vocabulary to insulting and patronizing tone to sheer idiocy of the author. As far as I could tell, their yarn feature's theme was "pink," which is a nice enough color, but not really enough to connect 20 very disparate yarns. A couple of the patterns were nice, in a "That's pretty, but I don't know anyone who'd wear it" kind of way. A couple of them were just insane. I don't know people who'd be caught dead in the same room as those items, much less wear them. For example, there's a "capelet" that's made out of 1 strand of heavy worsted held together with 1 strand of yarn that I'll call super bulky only because I don't know of a thicker category. The recommended gauge is 1 stitch or 1 row = 1 inch. The pattern uses size US50 needles. Those have a diameter of 25 mm! (For comparison's sake, a reasonably thick wool sweater would be about 5-6 stitches or 6-7 rows to the inch, on US7 needles, which are 4.5 mm in diameter.) And this capelet is photographed with a "little black dress" type of outfit, hairdo, etc. It reminded me of nothing so much as a show poodle, like this. *shudder* Although I think the poodle pulls it off better.

I had to laugh a bit at how uniformly horrible it was. I did get 1 useful piece of information out of it though. You see, Interweave Knits had an ad for a company that does craft cruises, with classes in knitting, crochet, mixed media, and other crafts available on the "at sea" days of mainstream cruises. I was looking at their website, checking out the knitting cruises in a "if I win the lottery in the next 6 months" kind of way, and I liked the look of 2 of the cruises. However, the instructor for one of those cruises wrote an article in the second magazine. Having read it, there's no way I'd take a class with her as the instructor, much less a cruise-worth of them. So if I win the lottery in the next 6 months, I'm definitely signing up for the cruise to Bermuda. Heck with the one to Canada & New England.

(If anyone's really interested in the bad magazine, leave a comment and I'll contact you with the name of it.)

Answer to Question 11: Mary Russell. She's the wife and partner of Sherlock Holmes in the books by Laurie R. King. Yes, his wife. And she reads Theology at Oxford. It's a very interesting series.

The rest of the characters are by Lois McMaster Bujold. (You remember her, right? The answer to my favorite author?) Miles Naismith Vorkosigan is the protagonist of most of her Vorkosigan saga/series. Ivan Vorpatril is his cousin. Ista dy Chalion appears in The Curse of Chalion and is the protagonist of Paladin of Souls. Dag Redwing/Bluefield is the male protagonist of the Sharing Knife series. (He takes his wife's last name when they marry, as is the custom among his people.)

Question 10

2009-08-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

What is the very first thing I would do if I suddenly won millions?
a) Make a will
b) Pay off all my bills
c) Buy my own place
d) Seek medical treatment I currently can't afford
e) Hire a personal assistant

I have no knitting photos for filler this week. I did finish Clue 1 of the WW MKAL1 Sweater, but it looks very much like the photo from last week, except that it's now 12 inches long instead of 8 or 9. I have also added some length to the Potato Chip Sock. You'll get a photo of that when there's a pair, since that shouldn't take too long. (Note: shouldn't, not won't)

I don't think I've told you yet that I started my scarf for the OFA's Red Scarf Project. (Red Scarf Fund donations can be made here.) I'm making a variation of the DNA scarf this year, but it's not long enough yet to show well in a photo. Plus I'm using a dark yarn, and I'll need daylight to get it properly photographed.

And that's it for knitting news this week. I've barely done anything, because of an amazingly wonderful gift that a friend sent me on Sunday. I don't know if I'm supposed to talk about it, so I won't, but it's ZOMG SO BLOODY SHINY!!!!!!!1!!111!!ONE!!

*ahem* Not that I'm ridiculously excited about it or anything. I don't know how you got that impression.

Just in case anyone really was holding their breath for it, here's a bit about my Taco Bell Epiphany mentioned a couple of weeks ago. As most of you probably know, I had pneumonia pretty badly in early 2007. While I have recovered, I still have not achieved the level of general health that I had before getting sick. This is ... not always on my mind, but it's never very far from my thoughts. I'm not sure if this is morbid preoccupation associated with depression/dysthymia, or if it's a semi-normal part of getting used to life with a chronic ... medical condition. (I mean, it's not exactly a chronic illness. I dunno. Apparently I'm less good with words than I thought I was.)

Anyway, it suddenly occurred to me (and I have no idea what about driving to Taco Bell triggered this) that breathing problems are not exactly new to me. Yes, they're worse now, but they're not new. I mean, if I think back objectively, I was orthopnic when I was in 3rd grade, for heaven's sake! Granted, I didn't know what orthopnic meant back then, and no one (parents or doctor) told me that it's Not A Good Thing, but I couldn't sleep when lying flat. I had a wedge-shaped pillow that kept me closer to sitting upright than your average bedrest pillow would nowadays. (Those weren't as common back in the ancient times of my childhood.) And it wasn't just when I was in 3rd grade, but that's the earliest year that I'm absolutely certain I was using that pillow. I was hospitalized with some sort of lung problem when I was about 18 months old. Maybe I wasn't a lazy child, I just didn't like to run (literally run) as much as my friends did because of that whole breathing thing, and the trouble I had with it.

Maybe I started out as a healthy baby, but every time I got majorly sick, I just didn't bounce back to quite where I'd started from. So I was a healthy baby, was hospitalized, and then was a mostly healthy kid. Except for the wheezing and the orthopnea, which I was told were allergies (except that I was supposedly only allergic to mold and the problems lasted all year long). Then in 6th grade I had mono and was out of school for around a month, maybe a little longer. Sports got harder after that. I got really sick when I was away at college, in February. And I failed all my classes for the Spring semester because I had trouble walking all the way across the (really not that huge or anything) campus, even after I was better. And then the next big one was the pneumonia in 2007.

Maybe I didn't fuck everything up somehow. Maybe I'm just sick. Oh.

Answer to Question 10: Make a will. I'd probably do most of those things, but the will would be first, because it's all well and good for money to go to the nearest relatives and all that, but if I've actually got enough money to shake a stick at, there are other people and places to which I want it to go, as well. Then I'd pay off my bills, hire a personal assistant, buy my own place, and maybe get around to seeking medical treatment. (Note: This quiz was written before the Taco Bell Epiphany, so that wasn't really taken into account when I figured out the answers. Having had the TBE, the medical treatment would definitely be sought, perhaps even before I got my own place. Definitely after the personal assistant though.)

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 9

2009-08-06T00:34:00.001-07:00

9) What is my favorite season?
a) Spring
b) Summer
c) Fall
d) Winter
e) Doesn't really matter to me.

I know, I know, I'm late this week. In my defense, I was hardly able to touch my computer on Thursday and Friday *twitch* since my mom had commandeered it for an online renewal course for her chemo certification. *twitch* I'm still suffering some withdrawal symptoms, even though I've got it back today. *twitchtwitch*

My sweater progress also suffered from this separation, as the patterns are all stored on my beloved computer, (my printer having long since given up). Normally it's easier to deal with the patterns on the screen anyway, but it does have its downside. I have finished one sleeve on the WW MKAL2 sweater (the aqua one). One more sleeve and some seaming, and it will be finished. I haven't worked on the WW MKAL3 sweater (red) at all this week, but I haven't posted a picture of it at this stage yet, so it's in the group shot, as well. I'm up to the sleeves clue on that one, as well. The dark green is the WW MKAL1 sweater, never before seen on the blog in this incarnation (yarn). I'm still working on Clue 1 for that one. The purple bit is the start of another pair of Potato Chip Socks, in a larger size this time. I'm using 3 strands of wool because it's the free wool that Warm Woolies will send (if you meet their Yarn for Volunteers requirements), and these skeins are somewhere between sport and worsted weight. (Meaning that one measuring system tells me it's sport and another says worsted.) Three strands seems to be the same approximate thickness as all the other PCSocks that I did with the recommended 2 strands of worsted, so they should be okay.

Answer to Question 9: Spring. Summer is right out -- all that heat and humidity. Blech. Winter can be lovely (I even enjoy the "character builder" days ... as long as there aren't too many in a row), but snow does make things more difficult, so it's not my favorite either.

Spring and Fall both have the transitional weather that I like (temperatures, amount and type of precipitation). For a long time, I used to say that Fall was my favorite, because the coming of Fall meant relief from Summer and its yuckiness. However, for the past several years, I've been enjoying Spring more, even with Summer looming at the end of it. Part of it is that, as my mobility issues have increased, getting around in the winter is more and more difficult. Fall provides relief from Summer, but Spring now provides relief from Winter. Spring has looming Summer; Fall has looming Winter. The more trouble I have in the Winter, the happier Spring makes me -- and this past year in particular gave me a troublesome Winter.

Fall has also lost ground as I've come to violently dislike the Fall and Winter holidays. I was never much of a fan of Thanksgiving. I no longer like Christmas at all. And Halloween has all those kids. *shudder* (I live with 2 cats. I have a cane. I'm practicing my yells of "You young whippersnappers." Soon I'll be a card-carrying member of the Old Fogey Association. I'm sure they'll be happy to waive the age requirement.) True, Spring has Easter (of which I am also, shockingly, not a fan), but at least that holiday has the decency to appear on its own, not as part of a gang.

So, Spring it is.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 8

2009-07-30T00:22:00.001-07:00

8) What is my favorite show currently on TV (not in syndication)?
a) NCIS
b) CSI (the original)
c) CSI: New York
d) LOST
e) I don't watch TV.

No knitting pictures this week. I suppose I could take a picture of the 9 inches of sweater body I've completed of the Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong #1. However, since it's not yet to the end of Clue 1, I haven't bothered yet. I also did not finish the WW MKAL2 or WW MKAL3 sweaters by last Saturday. For the record, I didn't make a pair of socks for the 10 for 10 either. I didn't even knit at all last Friday, thus blowing all of my goals for that 2 week challenge. Feh.

Not much has happened this week. My mom was off tons and tons of time (9 days out of 13), although she has worked the last 2 consecutive nights -- for the first time since July 14. I'm thoroughly enjoying my nighttime solitude, believe me.

Nothing new on the job front either. The dealership that called last week was looking for someone who could work full-time, and my school schedule will preclude that. The one class that I absolutely Must take this semester (unless I want to wait and try to get into the program again next year) is from 2 to 4:20 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays, which conveniently nixes most day and evening jobs at once. Handy, that.

I had one of those probably-blazingly-obvious-to-other-people epiphanies today, when I was driving to Taco Bell. (Yes, I'm still on unemployment. What? I don't do it very often.) I think I'm going to mull it over for a bit before I inflict it on all of you. It's either angsty or depressing, and enough other people are having real problems right now that I'd feel weird (read: self-centered and self-indulgant) posting about it. Stay tuned! Next week you may get to read all about it! I suggest you hold your breath. That way you may be unconscious by the time I post it.

Answer to Question 8: NCIS, hands down. I usually watch CSI, and occasionally CSI: NY, but I can do without them easily. I haven't bothered with LOST since Season 2. And yes, I do seem to only consider TV shows that have initials instead of titles. (Except for Pushing Daisies, but that's not around anymore anyway.) Oh, and if watching the shows online doesn't count, then the answer is E.

Late Edit: I do have a photo for the week, after all. This is the Siegling's bag that I received from Pansy earlier this week. It's currently full of all three of my WW MKAL sweaters-in-progress. I think it wants to go home to Washington state, where it might have to carry gardening tools in the crazy heat, but at least it wouldn't have to worry about exploding. lol

.............
(front and back, with and without flash, respectively)

Question 7

2009-07-22T20:41:00.000-07:00

7) What Facebook app do I play most?
a) Farm Town
b) myFarm
c) (Lil) Green Patch
d) Send Good Karma
e) Castle Age

Photo Filler for the Week: Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong 3 (WW MKAL3). Sweater is shown at the end of Clue 4. (I'm working on the sleeves now.)

I have also almost finished one sleeve of the WW MKAL2 sweater, although I don't have a photo yet. I had actually worked the entire sleeve through the ribbing and cast-off, but when I put the sweater pieces together, I saw that the sleeve was definitely too short. So I've ripped back the 3 inches of ribbing and I'll lengthen it. I've had bad luck with the measurements on this sweater, and I'm a little concerned that the neck is too wide for Warm Woolies, but it's a nice pattern. I may try to add a collar or something, although I'm not sure quite how I'd do that. We'll see.

Also, last week I joined a challenge that ends this Saturday, and I set my goal as finishing these 2 sweaters and working through Clue 1 of the WW MKAL1 sweater (or a pair of socks for the 10 for 10 (scroll down), but I think the sweater will be easier). My mom's been off a lot lately (7 days out of the last 9), so I don't know if I'll make it, but there's still a chance.

In non-knitting news ... I'm not sure if there is any non-knitting news. Hmmm.

I got a phone call today about a potential job at a dealership up in Schaumburg. I'm not sure if I really want to commute so far again, and I don't yet know if it's part-time or full-time, but at least it's a potential.
I haven't heard anything yet about my permit to register for my HIT class, which I was supposed to have received by now. And the program director hasn't responded to my e-mail either. Fun!
I have been completely eaten by novel-snips and fanfics from a not-yet-published author. Sadly, this means that I can't share the novel-snips with you. The fanfics and 4 original fic snips are linked on her blog. I keep staying up waaayy too late, rereading her stuff. She's very good. (Seriously, the last time I complusively reread stuff like this was when I discovered Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife series.)
In an odd bit of ... recurring theme? cycles in life? something like that. Anyway, as I've become less involved with most aspects of the Shieldmaidens, I've been getting more active (truly! "More" is a relative term.) with Sporkers. (ie. the author in the previous bullet point is a Sporker.) And this summer, a number of the Sporkers have started Walking to Rivendell. So far as I know, I'm the only crossover between the two groups. And I've never even made it to the Stock Road.

Answer to Question 7: Obviously this isn't a terribly important question. However, as the quiz was made on Facebook, it seemed like decent filler. I play all of the listed apps, but Castle Age is my favorite.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 6

2009-07-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

6) If forced to choose, would I ... for the rest of my life?
a) Read only books I haven't read yet
b) Read only books I have already read

Remember that sweater I started last week? Well, this isn't a current photo (because Clue 4 came out late last night, and I've started working on that now), but as of yesterday morning, this is what it looked like:

It may be hard to tell, but the entire body of the sweater (waist to arms) is knitted, and the back of the yoke is knitted. Half of the front of the yoke is also knitted. Clue 4 contains instructions for the rest of the front yoke and the collar. I hope to have it completed by morning at the latest.

I haven't made much progress on the bag I started last week, but that's because I was focusing on catching up with the clues for the sweater, since I started the knitalong 6 days late. I don't really expect to get very far on the bag this week, either, as I (perhaps foolishly) posted a challenge goal of finishing this sweater, the sweater from the previous (second) knitalong, and Clue 1 of the sweater from the first knitalong by July 25. Luckily the second sweater is at least 69% of the way done already. However, I think I'll be exclusively focused on sweater knitting for at least the next week and a half.

Edited to Add: OH! I almost forgot to post a picture of the completed Rivendell socks.

Answer to Question 6:
b) Read only books I have already read. I know that I'd miss out on some good, new books this way, but I simply cannot imagine never being able to reread my favorites again.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 5

2009-07-09T13:52:00.000-07:00

5) From most to least, what are my favorite types/steps of knitting?
a) knit, purl, graft, cable, yarn over
b) knit, graft, cable, yarn over, purl
c) purl, cable, yarn over, graft, knit
d) knit, yarn over, purl, cable, graft
e) Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to rank them?

This week's filler is NOT the Rivendell socks, although they are finished. I've mailed them off to Pansy, and I don't want to post pictures of the finished objects until she can see them in person. I originally thought that I'd just post the picture and hope that the package got there before she checked my blog, but then I didn't get to the post office until this afternoon, so that seemed risky. However! I have another finished project to show you as well. I finished my 6 pairs of Potato Chip Socks for Warm Woolies' 6 for 6 campaign, and they were also mailed off this afternoon.

Having finished 2 sock projects (and 7 pairs!) in the past 2 weeks, I decided to cast on for a couple of things, namely the Warm Woolies' Mystery Sweater Knitalong 3

and the Montavilla Market Bag (from Knit Picks).

This one has been burning a hole in my stash for a while now, but I didn't think I should cast on for it before I finished some other stuff. That's probably still true, but after resisting for at least 6 weeks, I caved. Also, I realize that neither of these projects is very far along, but since I cast on for the sweater on Monday and the market bag just last night, I'm not terribly worried about that.

In other news, I finally renewed my library card (expired 11/08) and went to the new library building. I realize that the old building was, well, old. And small. However, I'm still not entirely sure I approve of the amount of money they spent on the new building and the ways that they spent it. Then again, since I don't get a refund for boycotting it, I may as well get something to read. Also, no news on the job front. I didn't really expect to find something this quickly, given my somewhat restrictive school schedule and all. Plus the fact that I have no professional wardrobe anymore, having worn uniforms for the past 3 years and rather extreme Business Casual for the two jobs before that. Still looking.

Answer to Question 5: D (knit, yarn over, purl, cable, graft)
This was just a silly question, and I didn't really expect anyone to know the answer. I'd decided that it would be nice to have a round 20 questions, and towards the end it was getting a little tricky to think of them. I enjoy just about everything in knitting (at least everything that I know how to do), but some of the techniques can get a little tedious if you have to do a lot of them. Knitting is easy, of course. Yarn overs are even easier, because it's basically half of a knit stitch. Purling doesn't bother me at all, probably because the first two times I tried to teach myself to knit I ended up knitting through the back loops (similar movement to purling, but behind the needle, so a little more awkward). This means that, back then, I actually preferred purling to knitting. Cabling is fun (especially since I learned to cable without a cable needle), so long as there's some give to the yarn. It can get a little old if there's too much of it though, or if you're doing twisted cables or something. Grafting is fun because of how invisible it is (assuming you do it well), but it's one of those things that gets tedious pretty quickly. But like I said, the question wasn't terribly serious in the first place.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Question 4

2009-07-01T17:47:00.000-07:00

4) What is my religion?
a) Lutheran
b) Christian (no specific demonimation)
c) Pagan
d) Eclectic Wicca
e) Gods only know.

Photo Filler: Do you recognize this photo?

I bet you don't. You just think you do. Know how I know? Because -- Ta-Da:

That's right -- the first photo is of the second toe, just completed. Yeah, yeah, it looks like the first toe. It's a pair of socks; that's the point! I have finally completed the Rivendell socks! Woohoo!

Okay, technically they're not quite completed, because I still need to weave in the ends (4 total) and block the socks. But the actual making is done! Woohoo again! (Yes, I may be just a bit excited about this. So sue me.) And ... AND! It took me less than a year to complete them. Not much less than a year, true, but still less than a year. For me and fancy, grown-up socks, it turns out that's about all you can hope for.

Answers to Question 4:
This one really needs to be taken by the process of elimination. Lutheran? Nope! Raised Lutheran, yes, but that is emphatically Not what I am anymore. Generic Christian? Tried that, didn't take. Eclectic Wicca? Ditto. Pagan? This comes closest, but given that I couldn't even tell you which pantheon(s) I would focus on if I somehow found the energy, I can't really claim it either. That leaves "Gods only know." And they may. Or not.

I feel like I should explain a little what I do believe, but I have trouble pinning it down. Basically, I believe there are many gods. (You might consider them powers or forces, ie. nature/portions of nature.) However, I don't believe in an afterlife, so I'm not too worried about pissing them off by not worshiping as they decree, if they decree. 'Nuf said? Good.

Now wish me luck. I have to back to the campus and register in person for the first of the HIT series of classes. Maybe the parking will be more reasonable this time? And none of the offices will have moved? I can only hope.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

Breaking News

2009-07-01T17:35:00.000-07:00

I got into the Health Information Technology program!!! (That's a fancy way of saying medical billing & coding, for the uninitiated. They've even eliminated the medical transcription part of the program, which was the most interesting to me. Oh well.) The application packet warned that the acceptance letters would probably not go out until August, but mine got here today. Whew! It's not a paying job, but now I have an answer to the "Should I give up and get a full-time job, or hope that I'm actually accepted and aim for a part-time gig that's flexible enough to accomodate changing student schedules?" dilemma that I've been tying my intestines in knots over for the past couple of weeks. Whew! Again.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go collapse into a puddle of relieved goo in the middle of the hallway. (I'd collapse in a corner, but then I'd have to vacuum first. Or risk reconstituting with loads of dust bunnies involved.)

Question 3

2009-06-25T11:27:00.000-07:00

3) How many published authors do I know (1-1 communication, not fan-based)?
a) None
b) One
c) Two
d) Three
e) Four

More knitting photos for filler! I know that I should have been working on the Rivendell socks, but for some reason (!) my stress levels have been rather high over the past few days. Since the Rivendell socks are important, and I don't want to ruin them, I have been working on kids socks for Warm Woolies, for their 6 for 6 project. So far I've completed 2 pairs and cast on for a third. I've started calling them Potato Chip Socks, since apparently I can't knit just one (pair). Please note that I'm not really a fast knitter, it's just that I'm not doing much else right now, and these are knitted with 2 strands of worsted weight yarn on 4.5mm needles, so they work up very quickly.

In case anyone's interested, these are worked according to the Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe (available in Knitting Rules), with some numbers (cast-on stitches, start for the heel turn) snitched from Kimberly Turnbow's Warm Woolies Socks (to save me from doing the math myself). The legs and the top of the feet are ribbed, so that the socks will fit a wider range of foot and leg widths well. Unfortunately, that also makes them look really narrow in the photos. Also, the brown yarn at the toes of the brighter pair is because I tied them before digging out my camera. Anyone who has ever had to match socks after doing a load of laundry will immediately understand why Warm Woolies asks that you tie your socks together in pairs before sending them.

The answer to Question 3 is ... tricky. When I wrote the question, I thought the answer was 2: Susan Greene and Rachel Herron, both of whom I met online and don't know terribly well or anything, but I do know them (and knew them before they were published, to boot). Two of my friends got this question right, according to my original answer. However, when my sister took the quiz, she pointed out that I actually know, or knew, three published authors, because I did know Karen Wynn Fonstad, who died about 4 years ago. Of course, that's just two/three at this point in time. I fully expect to know more just as soon as some friends connect with decent agents/publishers.

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

All Right, What's Next?

2009-06-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

This is not my weekend.

Erin, the other part-time cashier/receptionist at my dealership is in a wedding today, so I was planning to work both shifts. I got up at 4 a.m., dragged through my morning routine with lots of sore muscles and aching joints because of the fall yesterday, and headed off into (okay, technically away from) the sunrise. When I was about 5 minutes from the building, my cell phone rang -- unusual in and of itself, but particularly so early. It was Erin, and she was calling to tell me that the service manager had just called her and said that the service advisor who opened today called him (Is anyone else reminded of junior high here?) to say that all of the managers from the other store were there, and they were taking all of the new and used cars, and apparently they're closing our dealership. Oh. This should be interesting.

I continued to work, figured I'd at least find out the official version. Cursed a lot in my head about that 4 a.m. wake-up call for nothing. When I got there, I found out that they wanted me to work until 11, basically answering the phone and telling people to go to the other store. After half an hour or so, they decided that I should call all of the customers who had left cars at our location for service and tell them that they'd have to pick up their vehicles at the other store. You know what? Absolutely none of those customers were happy to hear that. Most of them stopped yelling at me when I explained that I had arrived at work and been told that we were closing, and that I would have loved to have given them more notice, because that would have meant that I'd had, yunno, ANY. One didn't, but I think I'd woken him up. Maybe he's always grumpy in the mornings.

So this weekend officially sucks. And now I get to launch a job hunt. J.O.Y.

Well, Blast!

2009-06-19T20:14:00.000-07:00

I want an attached garage.

This is not a new want. I've thought for years that it would be nice to have a garage that's closer to the house, so it wouldn't be so far to carry things. Attached would be wonderful so that it wouldn't be quite so cold or so hot on the way to the car. So I wouldn't get rained or snowed on. Basically, I wanted one because I was lazy.

Well, okay, maybe the lazy still applies a little bit.

I fell again tonight, because it was raining hard when I got home. Rather than spend the night in my car in the garage, I chose to walk to the house. In retrospect, this may not have been my brightest moment. Balance is never my strong suit, but when it's raining hard enough that not only are my shoes slipping on the sidewalk/driveway/porch/lawn, my feet are also slipping around inside my shoes, things do not go well. My cane was steady on the ground (non-slip tip -- truth in advertising FTW!), but the manufacturer never claimed that the handle would be equally steady in my hand. Rats. Insult to injury (however minor): I didn't fall until I was taking the final step into the house. In my defense, opening the door did not magically dry my feet, shoes, porch, cane, or hand, and there's actually a fairly steady fall of water through a poorly designed roof/gutter join right over the door. However.

The good news is that I think I'm only going to lose half of a toenail this time, and a good whack off the tip of the one that got ripped off last September and had nearly grown back completely. I've also got two cuts and a bunch of scrapes, but that's it. Not even any bruises. Well, okay, a bunch of banged up places that will probably still be sore for a few days, too. Anyway, it could be much worse.

But I'm still sick of the can't-walk-well thing.

Question 2

2009-06-18T14:51:00.000-07:00

(These questions are coming from my "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz on Facebook. Thus far, the high scores are 35% among my friends, with my sister scoring 74%. I'm bringing the questions to my blog in the hopes that some more people will get to know me better.)

2) Who is my favorite author?
a) Laurie R. King
b) Lois McMaster Bujold
c) Dorothy Gilman
d) Charlotte MacLeod
e) There is no possible way to choose just one.

I have no knitting photo this week. I am still making progress on the second Rivendell sock -- the heel is complete and I'm nearly halfway through the foot. I just haven't taken a photo of it yet, and I don't have one of the first sock at this stage, either. I haven't worked on the Warm Woolies sweater at all this week, since I've been focusing on the sock even for my at-home knitting. This is a good thing because something is wrong with the fan of the computer at work, and it's making so much noise that I want to smash things with sledgehammers (yes, plural) by halfway through my shift. I'm fairly certain that this would interfere with my ability to maintain the correct yarn tension (typically the higher the tension in the knitter, the more tightly they pull the yarn) for any project whatsoever. Since the Rivendell socks are meant to fit one specific person, with specific-sized feet, this would be a problem. I suppose I could cast on for something new and work on it only at work, so at least the tension would be uniform. However, I'm very reluctant to admit, even tacitly, that the fan will never be fixed and the noise is permanent.

Also, I'm very grateful to have 2 days off in a row at the moment. Just saying.

I was going to whine for a bit this week about how I'm so tired of dealing with depression and dysthymia, especially when it's exacerbated by PMS and the injudicious reading of some online fiction (recommended by a friend of mine) that turned out to be way more S&M than the light Dom/Sub vibe that I was expecting. In a rare display of sense, I stopped reading it about 15% of the way into it, even though I'd really kind of like to know if they ever resolve the non-human racial discrimination of the ... immediate setting. I still kind of want to toss my brain into the washing machine though. However, I've decided to skip the long, rambly whining rant-ish blather on the subject and go with one long, rambly whining sentence instead. I hope you appreciate it. ;-)

The answer to Question 2 is Lois McMaster Bujold. It's not easy to pick just one favorite author, but it is possible, so answer e is out. Laurie R. King writes great books, and one of her series includes the character Mary Russell, who is an option in my still-to-come question about my favorite character. She also wrote Keeping Watch, which is great and wonderful and suspenseful and powerful and haunting. Dorothy Gilman wrote Thale's Folly, which I used to list as my favorite book. It's still in the running, although I now have more trouble with that question. Charlotte MacLeod wrote "screwball myster[ies]" according to one reviewer, and I think that adjective is very apt. They're also a lot of fun. Nonetheless, Lois McMaster Bujold beats them all. She has 3 series: the Vorkosigan saga, the Chalion books, and the Sharing Knife series. I love them all, with the possible exception of Falling Free, which is set in the Vorkosigan universe although it has no Vorkosigans in it. FF is a good book, but the villian(s) is(are) just too believable for me to really love it. They don't win, but their defeat isn't quite complete enough for me -- I'm much more vindictive than most of the characters. But for sheer rereadability and shininess, LMB can't be beat.

Question 1

2009-06-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

1) What is my favorite curse?
a) Shit!
b) Fuck!
c) Frak!
d) Da-shiong bao tse shr la doo tze!
e) Blight it!

Obligatory knitting picture, so the answer isn't revealed unless you scroll down a bit:

This is the Warm Woolies Mystery Knitalong II Sweater at the end of Part 3. Well, it needs 2 more rows on the left shoulder to be completely done, but since I'm using these HUGE skeins of yarn, I've already started the second-and-final skein. The sleeves are just knit straight down from the edges, so I didn't see any reason to cut the yarn on the right shoulder so I could work 2 rows on the left, and then later go back and reattach the yarn to the edge of the right shoulder (and thus have extra ends to weave in). I have begun the right sleeve, but I'm only about a third of the way done. There will be another picture when at least one sleeve is complete.

The second Rivendell sock is still coming along, but since it's almost exactly at the same stage as the first sock was in my May 24th post, I thought a picture might be a bit boring. Besides, then I'd have to drag my camera out and get the cord to upload it and all that jazz. (Yes, the camera and its cord live in the desk drawer directly under my keyboard. And the sock is currently sitting about 8 inches to my left. What's your point?)

So, the answer to Question 1 is b) Fuck! I like Fuck! (It requires the exclamation point.) because of its versatility. It's been my favorite curse for about 22 years now. Shit! is fine, and I do use it. Frak! comes into play when I'm at work or somewhere else where pure cursing would be looked askance at. It's also a relatively recent curse for me, since BSG isn't something that I watched on TV. Da-shiong bao tse shr la doo tze! made the list because several of my Facebook friends are also Firefly fans. Blight it! is there because (so far as I know) none of them have yet read Lois McMaster Bujold's The Sharing Knife series, and they all should.

Sock Update

2009-06-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have a new status photo of the Rivendell sock:

Yep, that's the sock that's currently on my needles. Looks a bit shorter than last week, doesn't it? That's because this happened yesterday evening:

Want to see the whole thing?

(I promise the heel will look more normal once it's been blocked.)

And in case anyone suspects me of recycling a photo of the first sock, here's proof that they both exist at this very moment. :)

Also, as some of you know, my friends are not scoring very highly on the "How well do you know Beccaie Jamieson?" quiz I created on Facebook. Therefore, I will be adding a brief explanation of at least one question on the quiz for the next however many weeks. (I'm thinking of doing 1 question per week, but we'll see how it goes.) The good news for you is that this means I've got ready-made topics for a while, so my blog posts should be on time. The bad news is that some of the information may be redundant, if it's a question you got right. I will start this next week, in case anyone wants to take a bash at the quiz before I begin.

And if you wait until I've covered all the questions and then ace the quiz, there are no prizes. :-p

Finished!

2009-05-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have completed Clue 2 of the second Mystery Sweater for the Warm Woolies knitalong! Woohoo! Of course, those of you who read and remember every detail that I post here (lol) will remember that Clue 3 was released on April 24. But better late than never, right?

That white stripe down the center is actually a measuring tape, which shows that the body of the sweater is 13.5 inches long at this point. On to the shoulders.

The Rivendell sock is also coming along. The heel is completed and I'm nearly halfway through the foot. I hope to have a completed sock to photograph for my next post.

In other news, I have now turned in my completed application to the appropriate office at school, along with the required side trips to pay the application fee and request a(nother) transcript audit. Then there was the extra "field trip" to the office where the application packet said I was supposed to submit it. Of course, once I got there, I found a sign on the door telling me to go to another office in a different building. For the record, I printed off this new, updated application on Tuesday, May 26 (because before that the online version still said it was for the June 1, 2008 deadline) and submitted it on Friday, May 29. Quick move for an entire office! And with construction vehicles blocking two doorways, I ended up walking about half a mile (from the handicapped parking area!) to get everything properly submitted. Perhaps they're hoping that a percentage of the applicants will just give up and apply to another school?

Knitting Again

2009-05-24T15:04:00.001-07:00

Finally, some more knitting! I'm currently working on some socks for a friend. She bought me the yarn and the pattern, and it was months and months ago. Unfortunately, the Rivendell sock pattern is entirely dependent on gauge for correct measurements, so I've had to switch needles several times before being able to get socks that would actually fit this friend. (There is no other way to adjust the circumference of these sock. Usually it's possible to add or subtract a motif or a repeat of a stitch pattern to allow for different sized feet/ankles.) The really frustrating part is that it takes a couple of inches before being able to get an accurate measurement, so I've done a lot more knitting (and frogging) than it looks like. However, I've got the right size now! This picture was taken just at the beginning of the heel, and I've even added a bit since then. Also, the color is a little off, but this shot shows the pattern, which I think is more important at this point. :)

Also, 2 of the secret projects that I've been working on are now completed and sent to their new homes. Woohoo! One of my scarf groups has had quite a few problems, including having the original moderator step down suddenly and having one of the members kidnap two of the scarves. However, a number of very kind people volunteered to help me make "Angel scarves" for them. They all knit one or more sections for each of the scarves and mailed them to me. I then kitchenered/grafted all of the sections together, added my own sections, and bound off. One scarf is already home and the other's owner doesn't read my blog, so here are the pictures.

Silence

2009-05-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

"Dark have been my dreams of late." -- Theoden

That quote explains quite clearly the blog silence for the past couple of weeks. I've been knitting things that are secret/surprise gifts, so I can't post about that. Work is normally so boring that it's of no use as blog fodder. (Although I am pleased that the dealership where I work is not one of the ones that's being forced to close, the other two dealerships owned by "my" auto group are on that black list, so who knows what's going to happen as they scramble to consolidate positions and job descriptions?)

My mom and sister are on vacation right now -- at this moment I believe they're still on their whale watching cruise out of Port Angeles, WA. That's been another fun thing lately -- explaining to all who ask (and they all ask!) why I'm not going with them. Vacations/trips used to be something I lived for. As soon as I returned from one, I was planning the next. Getting over that is proving to be more difficult than I'd like.

Oh, and I might be becoming more proof that anxiety frequently goes with depression. For example, since I'm home alone for 10 days, I've got my cell phone within 3 feet of me at all times, just in case I fall and break a leg or something. What fun! [/sarcasm] It turns out that I internalized a lot more of the "Ella's so stupid, always nervous about everything. And lazy! Depressed. Hmph. She should just snap out of it." comments about my grandmother (that I'm sure I wasn't really supposed to hear when I was a child) than I'd realized. Fun again! Joy and rapture even.

Oh. Um. [/sarcasm] Again. No, I mean it this time. See? I've stopped typing.

Not Quite

2009-04-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I was right -- I'm behind again with the sweater. As the knitters among you know, one of the reasons that swatches are so hated is because they lie. They lie like dogs, like cheap rugs, like ... any way at all that you'd like to finish that simile. My non-swatches told me that I was getting close-to gauge (which is close enough when the sweater is for charity, because even if it's not a perfect size 10, surely someone somewhere wears a size 10.9). They promised that a US8 produced reasonably tight, warm fabric. After all, the yarn calls for a US10. Surely going down 2 needle sizes means that the sweater will be very warm.

My mistake? I believed the non-swatches. For 6 days, I looked at my knitting and wondered, but then reminded myself of what the non-swatches had said. After all, it's a mystery pattern. Maybe it's suppose to be a little lighter in this section or something.

Sadly, I finally -- after 8 inches of knitting and 6 days of wondering -- I finally stopped looking at and listening to the non-swatches and paid close attention to the sweater. I measured it. I was no longer getting close-to gauge. Gauge is 4.5 stitches/inch. The non-swatches told me I was getting 4.25; the sweater itself proved to be just a shade over 3 stitches/inch. I measured the circumference of the section. Supposed to be 32 inches. Per the non-swatches, it should have been 33.8 inches. It was actually 44 inches. Blast. To the frog pond it went, and I'm now up to 8 inches of a sweater (on US6 needles) that's only 34 inches around. That, I can live with. And the fabric is now much more dense. I'm officially behind though. I've only glanced at the next section of the sweater, which came out last Thursday. Maybe I'll catch up, but I'm not holding my breath.

On a completely unrelated note, here's your Depressing Thought of the Week:
(note: Any god metaphors spotted in the following blather were NOT god metaphors when they were written, no matter how much they seem to lean in that direction.)

I belong to a writing forum, and one of my friends there (call her A) has been having a tough time lately -- no monumental tragedies, but big problem after big problem compounded by other big problem, followed by yet another big problem, etc. Another friend (E) was encouraging her that things will have to get better, because if A's author was bothering to torture A this much, she must have a really great plotline/story/character arc. Naturally, this got me thinking about my life (because the entire world revolves around me. What, you didn't know that?) and I wondered what my author was playing at, with how things have gone for me. Then I realized something -- I think maybe I've been cut out of the book. I wasn't advancing the plot or I didn't fit in as originally envisioned or whatever. My pages are lying on the metaphorical floor somewhere, my story abandoned. It would certainly explain why I don't seem to have a plotline or a character arc, and why nothing shiny or really bad ever seems to happen to me.

All Caught Up!

2009-04-17T18:08:00.000-07:00

I've joined another Mystery Sweater Knit-along for Warm Woolies, and as of yesterday morning, I was all caught up!

Of course, the Week 1 section was 2 non-swatches -- so-named because most knitters (including me!) hate to swatch, but swatches are/can be important. So this pattern has you make 2 swatches that later become integral parts of the sweater. In some mysterious fashion. Well, it is a mystery sweater knit-along.

This week's section is 12.5 inches of the body, which is 144 stitches around. I think I might be running behind again.

I'm just sayin...

2009-04-12T20:36:00.000-07:00

The first minute-and-a-half is the really pertinent part, although it's hard to go wrong with Eddie Izzard.

Knitting

2009-03-06T14:51:00.000-08:00

Overview:
I've been thinking for the past couple of weeks, trying to come up with something to blog about, and it seems like the only safe subject for me is really knitting.

A couple of months ago, I was talking with my sister, and realized that there were a certain number of things I wanted to do before I die. And most of those are knitting.

One of the very few things that is consistently able to make my mind stop racing in circles, trying to run itself to pieces, is knitting.

Does this mean that I'm hanging by a yarn? I mean, I don't do such fine lace knitting that you could really call it thread.

Details:
I work for a car dealership -- one associated with an American car manufacturer. I won't say which brand, but I will tell you that I strongly recommend that you don't buy their cars -- after all, I process a portion (just 25% or so, really) of the recall paperwork on the vehicles. Layoffs have been happening, and we're starting to get the feeling that this particular location may not be open much longer. Par for the course, really, I suppose, with this economy.

My mom is 65 this year. She has arthritis in one knee and has been having a lot of trouble with it this winter. She'd been planning to work until she was 66-and-however-many-months, for Social Security payment reasons. Now she can't decide if she should retire sooner because of her knee, hold on another year-and-a-bit because that's what she's been planning, or shift her mindset to working indefinitely. And the hospital has started laying people off. Not excess management, of course. They got bonuses in December. It's the regular employees who's jobs are in jeopardy. Again, par for the course, although I'd have thought that hospitals would be safe a little longer.

Part of the floor in our only full bath is getting "squishy." In the course of getting estimates for that, we discovered that there's water in the crawlspace -- but not consistently. Currently, the estimates to fix everything range from about $3,000 to over $35,000.

School is currently a lot of deadlines (pressure) interspersed with such incredibly boring curriculum (curricula?) that my brain is in danger of leaking out of my ears. And the application deadline for the program I'm currently pursuing is (a) rapidly approaching (June 1), and (b) about as far as I can lower that bar.

I'm still not in terribly good shape -- my lungs and the neuropathy being the two biggest (physical) problems. I doubt I'm capable of working full-time.

I have actually become accustomed to being suicidally depressed. This is either a good thing (because it's been going on for quite a while and isn't likely to change) or really, really bad. Either way, it's very risky to say, since saying it means that I'll be legally judged to be mentally incompetent as soon as someone decides to start persecuting me for my own good.

I'm not Mooting this year, and I'm not even that upset about it. Even though the person I most don't want to see isn't going anyway. I have become (relatively) resigned to not traveling anymore. (Relatively meaning that I know travel is not possible, but it still makes me cry sometimes.)

On a brighter note, I've learned how to drive (and more difficultly -- turn on) those riding carts at Target, so I can actually get a bit of shopping done again.

Conclusion:
So that's my life in a nutshell. I'm going to go play with two sticks and some string now.

I'm doing you a favor, really!

2009-02-27T13:13:00.001-08:00

I have a cold. There are few things on this earth that make me more whiny than having a cold. Seriously. I've been trying to think of something to write about, and every idea I've had has been so full of whining and self-pity that I can't make myself finish typing it out, much less summon the will to ask you to read it. Therefore, I will post again when I'm well. Or at least better. Or less whiny.

Besides, you should all be busy reading this.

The latest book by Lois McMaster Bujold. The fourth (and final *sniff*) book in her Sharing Knife series. Fawn and Dag take on... Well, I'm not going to actually post spoilers. But you should read it. And the rest of the series. And her Vorkosigan books. And the Chalion books. Seriously good book(s).

Yuck

2009-02-17T13:21:00.000-08:00

I spent most of the weekend (Friday through Monday morning) battling with my ISP/phone company, so no entry this week. I'll try to think of something really good for ... ugh, the day after tomorrow? Already?!?

25 Things About Me

2009-02-05T15:20:00.001-08:00

I got tagged with the 25 Things meme. What the hell, at least this week will be ontime. :)

1. I don't tag people with memes. Feel free to snatch the meme from me or my blog, but don't expect me to tag you.

2. If I'm going more than 10 yards, I walk with a cane. The only exceptions to this are (a) in my house and (b) when I'm with my family -- because they don't like to think of me needing a cane, and will argue with me until I give up and hobble without it.

3. It is easier to walk with a cane, and safer, and I can walk farther that way.

4. If I did not HAVE to see any people at all on a daily basis, I'd be fine with that. In fact, I'd be thrilled.

5. #4 does not mean that I don't like to see people sometimes.

6. Online doesn't count as "seeing" in the context of #4 & 5.

7. I live with 2 cats and hate 1 of them.

8. We just got a new shower surround and faucet/drain/showerhead. The new showerhead does not adjust directionally, and I can't use my shower caddy with it. This literally made me cry.

9. I am a liberal.

10. I am not Christian. I believe there are gods, but I've never taken the time to figure out who they are or decide which, if any, to worship.

11. If you have a problem with #9 & 10, that's fine. If you want to tell me that you have a problem with them, that's fine. If you are derogatory or insulting to me because you have a problem with them, I will cut you out of my life.

12. I love Lois McMaster Bujold and all her books. Every time I think I've picked my favorite, I think of another one and get all distracted by how shiny it is.

13. I have won NaNoWriMo twice.

14. You will never see those books. The first year, I figured it just needed a LOT of editing. I have come to realize that much of what I enjoy about NaNo is knowing that I don't ever have to show it to anyone. If there are plot holes (and there are!), it doesn't matter, because it's the process of writing it that I enjoy.

15. I knit. A lot.

16. I believe that I will not live a long life.

17. #16 does not trouble me. I do not fear death.

18. I am insanely fat.

19. Luckily I am also insane, so it doesn't bother me much. (mentally)

20. I have been dealing with depression and dysthymia since I was about 10. It's difficult to pinpoint the exact start. Could have been 9, or 11.

21. I am very jealous of people who receive long-term benefits from antidepressants. I see an initial improvement, and then it fades away.

22. Yes, I have tried more than one antidepressant.

23. I really dislike knitting with acrylic yarn. Even the nicer acrylics, which I don't mind using for crochet.

24. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to come up with 25 things. It was much harder to come up with non-gloomy things.

25. These ARE the non-gloomy things.

The Coward's Way Out

2009-02-01T23:44:00.000-08:00

===================================================================
NOTE: I am not posting this on my blog because I'm trying to "start" anything. A number of my more liberal friends were ahead of me in this decision, so if I posted this in the Garden, they would not see it. Also, since this is my blog, I can say what I want here. If people don't want to read what I think, they can close the window.
===================================================================

I think I'm leaving the Garden.

Knitting and Gardening don't mesh well anyway -- just imagine trying to keep the yarn clean while weeding.

For a long time, I've gotten the distinct impression that liberals aren't welcome in the Garden. I am a liberal. Ergo I am not welcome. The back-breaking straw was probably a joke that was posted there last week. Now the person who posted the joke wasn't part of the Garden during some of the more memorable and spectacular liberal-bashing that I've seen; she's relatively new there. And I'm sure that she thought that the beer parts of the joke were funny, and that's why she shared it. Almost everyone who replied thought it was hysterically funny. 1 person (our resident diplomat) declined to join in the laughter. Another stated that she was offended and hasn't posted since.

Me? I kept my mouth shut. Told you I'm a coward.

According to the joke, as a liberal, I
- am weak
- am less skilled
- live off conservatives
- am a jackass
- produce little or nothing
- like to govern the producers (conservatives) and decide what to do with the production
- believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans
- crept in (to America) after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing

The joke ends with "It should be noted that a liberal may have a momentary urge to angrily respond to the above before forwarding it." I suppose I'm guilty of that, since I am reposting portions of the joke. I would strike "momentary" from that sentence, however, since this joke and its effects have been much on my mind in the past week, even if it's taken me 6 days to decide how to respond.

Even before this, I'd started opening the Garden in a separate browser session, so as not to "contaminate" my knitting, writing, and other fun websites with its negative aura. This begs the question: Why am I still there? Why didn't I leave ages ago?

Because I kept thinking that the good would outweigh the bad. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Junk like that. So I'm taking a break. I won't log in for 2 weeks, and we'll see if I miss it. I think I won't.

Made It.

2009-01-31T21:42:00.001-08:00

11:42 p.m. CST. The mittens have been done for about 1 hour and 38 minutes.

I've decided to do only one bird "in the hand." The pattern calls for a duplicate stitched bird on each palm, but I've discovered a few things while making these mittens, and the fact that I dislike duplicate stitch intensely is one of them. I'm calling it a design feature, a la the Yarn Harlot and Norma. (I'm sure others use that term, too, but those are the two that come to mind first.) But they're still done.

Of course, the mittens for NaKniMitMo weren't so lucky. Here's the left one.

You'll just have to imagine the right -- it doesn't exist at all yet.

It's Another Deadline

2009-01-30T00:01:00.000-08:00

One mitten down.

46 hours to finish the next one...

Ta-Da!

2009-01-27T23:35:00.000-08:00

Kate's Hat, now finished. (Mickey Mouse modeling, as per usual.)

The brim can be rolled (slightly more stylish) or folded (for extra warmth over the ears on cold days). I'm pretty proud of this because it's my first completed improvised pattern. I've got a couple other projects still on the needles, but this "pattern" actually works, and I've got the photos to prove it! \o/

(Does this mean I'm actually early for this week's post?)

Knitting Update

2009-01-27T15:27:00.001-08:00

Don't you love it when I don't post on time, and then I just slap up a bunch of pictures of knitting? You do? Excellent!

Kate's Scarf

What do you mean, "that doesn't look like a scarf"? Okay, okay, is this picture better?

Kate's Hat

Well, it's started, at least.

Some more scarf sections.

The Red/Yellow/Orange-ish one is knit in the Fibonacci Series. If that means anything to anyone. Not quite what I would have chosen, but that's what the scarf's owner asked us to do. That's the last scarf I had to work for Group 6 -- now I just have to keep up with the tracking, since I'm now the moderator of that group. (Our original moderator stepped down.) The purple and brown sections are the last 2 sections I had to do for Group 23. As soon as I get my scarf back, I'm done with that group, too. Things are winding down for me, in the scarf line. I think that's a good thing, overall.

These three are from Round 2 of Group 26 -- the group that went so well that we decided to start again. This time we're using plant fiber yarns -- mine are all bamboo at this point. We're also sticking to purple and/or green. This should be a much lighter scarf -- more fashion-scarf than warm-in-bad-weather-scarf. I don't usually wear fashion-scarves, but this one may be special enough to negate that.

Some progress has been made on Deb's scarf and my Bird in the Hand mittens, as well.

The red line on the back is where the thumb is going to be. And the shapeless blob of red on the back is the bird that will be "in [my] hand". You know, when I get done duplicate-stitching it in there.

And that's it for this week. I'll try to post on time, on Thursday.

Swimming Against the Tide

2009-01-18T20:35:00.000-08:00

Twilight. Whatever your personal feelings, many people have been bitten. I haven't read the books or seen the movie, but a large contingent of my friends are constantly revamping. Then again, there's another group of friends who don't like the books at all. I'm not going to get in the middle of a debate on the subject; I'm chosing a third options.

Lois McMaster Bujold. The Sharing Knife books. Buy them. Read them. I started the first book yesterday and stayed up all night, reading, no, devouring it. I'm currently about a third of the way through the second book and still going. I think I may sleep tonight, but it's quite likely that I'll just drop from exhaustion right on top of the poor book.

What Font Are You?

2009-01-09T19:09:00.000-08:00

You are biergarten.

Some people have a misanthropic side. You, on the other hand, have it written across your face. It's not that you're in a bad mood, or that you're just naturally gloomy -- you just want to be left alone.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/helvetica/quiz.html

Unfortunately, it's not set up for blogs and the like, because there's no link to my results page. And biergarten isn't a font that Blogger offers (or Word), so I can't show you what it looks like. But for a 10-question quiz, that's a very accurate result. :)

Startitis

2009-01-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

Startitis: The inability to finish (a) current project(s) because of the compulsion to start (a) new one(s).

I think I have the plural form. :) Proof?

Existing Projects and Deadlines
Deb's Scarf -- Christmas
Kate's Scarf -- Jan. 15 or so
2 Traveling Scarf sections -- within 3 or 4 days of receiving them, whenever that will be
Mom's Sweater -- LAST Mother's Day
Pansy's socks -- "whenever," but really, as soon as possible. She's already been waiting a few months.

In the past 48 hours, I've cast on for the Bird in the Hand mittens, for the Jorid Linvik knitalong that's ending on Jan. 31. I've also joined the NaKniMitMo (National Knit Mittens Month. Ravelers seems to have become very enamored of the NaNoWriMo-type abbreviation) knitalong, for which the deadline is Jan. 31. I suppose that I could count the BitH mittens for the NaKniMitMo mittens, but that really feels like cheating. And then there's the Hat of the Month group (12 hats in 12 months), for which I'm making the Who? hat -- also by Jan. 31.

And I'm not even mentioning my half-completed pair of socks for Warm Woolies. Or their 10 for 10 by 2010 challenge. Or my ribbon socks. Or my Knotty or Knice socks. Or that shawl that I bought yarn for. Or the proposed (but not yet started) second round of traveling scarves for Group 26. Or ... well, I'm losing track. But I'm sure there's more.

And the LotR Sock Club starts the beginning of February.

Oh crap. I just opened the desk drawer and discovered (again) the soaker pattern I was planning to use for the virtual baby shower at SOAB. For which the deadline was Nov. 30. And an afghan. (Yes, I have about 1/4 of an afghan stuffed in my desk drawer. What? Doesn't everyone?)

Has anyone else heard about Structured Procrastination? This frequently works for me. Unfortunately, Deb's Christmas scarf seems to be my most important project at the moment. And I'm seeing her again on Sunday.

Also, Eddie rocks!

They're Here!

2008-12-26T15:50:00.000-08:00

My Options! They've arrived!

*glee*

2008-12-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

Where do my weekends go? I've been trying to post every Thursday or Friday (my weekend. Weekend = 2 consecutive days off), but I keep looking at my blog late on Saturday night and realizing that I've missed my deadline again.

So anyway, I've been trying to think of something to write this week. I don't really have any knitting pictures to show you, since all I'm working on at the moment is a slightly longer version of the scarf I already posted last week. I was thinking about doing some sort of anti-holiday post, trying to explain why I dislike this time of year, but that seems unkind -- like I want the rest of you to be miserable, too. (My sister and I have decided that I'm naturally green, like Oscar and the Grinch. I've just got some really good pink-skin make-up or something.) Besides, OneSweetTart just posted one that's really good, much more comprehensive than mine would have been, and which includes personal experiences of friends/co-workers of hers who are also non-Christians. So for non-Christmas stuff, I direct you there.

However, I think I will post about my new shoes. I love my new shoes.
Last year, I looked at the Mammoth Crocs, but I thought that the fleece lining would be too hot. Well, I admit that I do sometimes take them off when I'm at work, but I do that with all my shoes, so I'm not sure it counts. But they're nice and toasty when I'm wading through snow, and my feet don't get wet (unless I don't kick the snow off of them before getting into the car and turning the heater on). They've got better traction than regular Crocs, and the slightly higher heel cup really helps with stability, too. Basically, YAY! and Why Didn't I Buy Them Last Year???

I hope everyone is having a good solstice -- it's very sunny here, which is appropriate and ironic at the same time. And Merry Christmas to those of you who will be joyfully celebrating later this week. (Keep your chin up! and *hugs* to others who will be "celebrating," but not so joyfully.)

Knitting Update (Again)

2008-12-14T13:22:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm late posting this week. And technically I missed posting last week. However, I did post 7 times the week before that, so let's just call it even, okay? :)

I now have a finished Traveling Scarf! Remember all those pictures of 4-inch sections of scarf that I've been showing you? Well, my Group 26 scarf has come home, and I even got my final section added to it.
I've been knitting other stuff, too. More pics? Thought you'd never ask.

Other Group 26 scarves:

Group 23 Scarves:

Group 6 scarves:

Swap Projects:

And a Christmas project. It's going to be a 70-inch long scarf. What do you mean, "It won't be done in time"??? Don't you remember my NaNo? lol

DONE!

2008-11-30T18:43:00.000-08:00

..............................

...................................

..............................

50,554 words total, going by MS Word, which is what I've been using for my previous counts. The official NaNo validator puts it at 50,725. Either way, I won. And I wrote over 50,000 words in a week. (Remember, as of 3 p.m. last Monday, I only had 519 words.) Yeah Baby!

Nano Update Again

2008-11-29T05:53:00.001-08:00

13,049 words since midnight. And there's still about 16 hours left to the day, including a really boring (if past is prologue) 5-hour shift at work! Woohoo, there's hope again!

**Nearly Midnight Edit: 42,839 words total, so only about 350 added since 8 a.m. That leaves only 7,161 words to write tomorrow before midnight. Yay! I'm going to win after all. :D

NaNo Update, Friday

2008-11-28T21:28:00.000-08:00

"Cirque du Soleil" is in the default spellcheck dictionary in Word. Weird.

Yes, one of my characters is going to see one of their shows. I think I'm a bit jealous.

Total Word Count: 29,424
Word Count for Today: 4,329
Daily Goal: 8,302
Short by: 3,973

New Daily Goals: 10,288
Number of Days Left: 2

Possibility that I've left it too late and won't finish after all: Increasing

Turkey Day

2008-11-27T22:48:00.000-08:00

How does that horoscope guy know me so well? I don't think we've ever met.

"It's not that you are the Thanksgiving Scrooge; it's just that you value integrity over hope. You may downplay your high ideals now because you want everyone to have his or her own vision. You aren't willing to gloss over the truth just to put the proper spin on a piece of history. Maintain your clear-headed approach, no matter what anyone else says." [horoscope by Rick Levine, via iGoogle. emphasis mine.]

(I'm now over halfway in my wordcount race, ending the day with a grand total of 25,095 words.)

Wednesday's NaNo Update, a little delayed

2008-11-27T03:41:00.000-08:00

Rough day yesterday -- work was yucky, and there was some other crap. And there's this cloud of Meh that's just hanging over my head lately. However, I did get some words down, and I've been working away this morning. I'm currently at 22,660 words total, so I've only got 2807 to go to meet my modified daily goal. Of course, that daily goal is now 8178 words, so any surplus that I can build up today will be very helpful. I'm hopeful that the turkey celebration won't take too long, so I can get back to doing things I want to do and hanging out with people I want to be with. Which is kind of nobody at the moment, but try not to take it personally. ;-) I'm just a little character-focused right now. (And if anyone shows up at O'Hare suddenly, I'm sure I'll suddenly be in an appropriately festive mood.)

This blog entry was brought to you by 167 words that don't count.

NaNo Update #2

2008-11-25T20:14:00.000-08:00

Total words: 14,492
Words I needed to write today to get me to 50K by the 30th: 7309
Words I wrote today: 8348
Daily word goal, as of now: 7102 (over 200 words/day down from yesterday!)

And for a bit of a reality check...
Where I should be, if I'd been writing all along, like we're kind of supposed to: 38,341

Late update again: I'm now at 15,371, and it's about 5 minutes to midnight, so I think that's really and truly my total for the night. I'll do the rest of the math tomorrow. :)

NaNoWriMo Update

2008-11-24T21:34:00.000-08:00

After sitting at 519 for most of the month (since 11/3), my wordcount gathered itself and took a great leap today to 5422 words. That's a big jump, but still short of where it should be for me to win this year. As of this morning, I needed about 7200 words per day. Unfortunately, I think I'm done for the night, so I'm over 1700 short, meaning that my daily goal for the rest of the month is now 7430. Never say die though. I. Will. Win. This.

Late edit: Oh yeah, I'm gonna win this. I started to just fill in a couple of blanks in the story -- like the name of a restaurant and stuff. Things I'd written at work, where Google is blocked. (Yes, they really block Google. Yes, they are stupid.) 4335 words later...

And it's not even 3 a.m. yet! Woohoo!

Spoiled Again!

2008-11-14T13:48:00.001-08:00

It's happened again -- I got my package from Colleen (cgamroth on Ravelry) for the SOAB Round 3 swap! Check out my haul!

Everything, including the Butterfingers (disappearing as I type), Twix (which are being hoarded for late-night NaNoing), and two recipes – one for Sausage Fondue and one for Christmas Mix (a Chex mix kind of thing, but better).

The yarny stuff: 2 skeins of Noro Kureyon in gorgeous colors, a sturdy needle gauge (to replace the flimsy and now bent one I’ve been using), lovely stitch markers in a padded tin, and a lavender sachet that takes me right back to the Lavender Festival in Sequim, WA. It’s so powerful that I could smell the lavender before I opened the box, much less the plastic bag it was in. Lovely! (Also, excellent stalking, since it was quite a while ago that I mentioned liking lavender.)

The other stuff: 4 “B” notepads, one with a tiny pen included; 2 magnetic bookmarks, 1 postcard of Mt. Ranier, and the outside of the padded tin containing the stitch markers.

A close-up of the stitch markers. The observant among you will notice that I have lost a stitch marker between the first and last pictures. (Colleen was so smart to give me a lidded tin for them!) When switching the layouts between pictures, I managed to spill the stitch markers and one is now behind my computer desk. I’ll get it back just as soon as I can, I promise.

I just love swaps!

Demanding Fast Food

2008-11-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: I am not married. I don't have kids. Yes, to all outward appearances I seem to have very few responsibilities and/or demands on my time. However, (1) don't forget about inward appearances, and (2) this is my blog; I'll whinge if I want to.

Am I the only one... Actually, scratch that beginning because I probably am the only one. (Why doesn't Blogger have strikethrough text?) Anyway. Why does my fast food have to make demands on me? I mean, I'm getting fast food in the first place because I don't have the energy or the will or the something to make my own food. But the sauce packets at Taco Bell, they don't care. "Help! I don't know where I am, it's dark, and I can hear laughing" (or something like that). "Can I drive?" "Will you marry me?"

Honestly, I haven't been getting those last two questions lately. A few months ago, I started telling those sauce packets (yes, out loud. When have I ever pretended to be sane?) that I would let them drive or marry them for $5000 -- in advance and in cash. None of them ever took me up on the offer. And they (as a group) have obviously decided to go ask someone who might not have so many conditions to their agreements. Or possibly my agreement scared them, like the dickhead men in Unrepeatable.

The ones that really drive me up the wall though are the ones who ask, "Will you scratch my back?" Because I feel compelled to do so. (See above re: pretensions to sanity.) It's a small thing that they're asking. It's something I can do. Therefore, I feel obligated to do it. Even on days when the thought of one more request/demand, no matter how trivial, literally makes me cry. So I cry while scratching the back of the sauce packet, and then I have to worry about getting snot in my tacos.

Maybe I should just stick to McDonald's.

Obama

2008-11-05T11:25:00.000-08:00

Ohhh, thanks be to all the gods and goddesses that ever were, are, or may be. I know he won't be perfect, but he's so much better than what we've got.

Knitting Message

2008-10-26T11:15:00.001-07:00

Okay, this is completely self-serving, but I'm having trouble getting a couple of pictures to another knitter on Ravelry, so here they are. Hope you can see them now Christine!

^ the closest to the real color, although it's a tiny bit dark.

^ second closest, a bit light.

More Musings, with Eddie Izzard Thrown In

2008-10-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

I know I've talked about Eddie Izzard here before. Brace yourselves; here's some more. I was writing this up for something else, and some of it is stuff I'd like to say here, too. Even with the repetitive Eddie explanations.

I have discovered Eddie Izzard. And he's wonderful -- funny, intelligent, so confident, HOT -- just amazing. I've seen his 6 one-man shows (via YouTube and Netflix) many multiple times each, and there's still always something that will make me laugh. Watching his comedy can calm me down when I'm going out of my mind with mom-related stress, even when she's still around. I've never before found anything that could do that -- escaping from the building she was in was always an integral part of the solution.

He's a great actor, too. I'm working my way through all of his movies. Some of the earlier ones, where he had a small part and the "star" was someone like Ben Stiller or Matt LeBlanc have been borderline painful, but not because of his bits. Because of Ben Stiller and Matt LeBlanc. Particularly Matt. However, I am nothing if not dedicated -- I just added The Bee Movie to my Netflix queue. That's right, I'm even willing to sit through Jerry Seinfeld to hear Eddie.

The problem comes in that I'm enjoying his comedy, and some of his movies, and starting to daydream a bit about meeting him someday. Well, okay, the daydreaming is fairly well-established at this point. Details. But it's giving me a bit of hope. False hope, but still that hopeful feeling. And hope ... it's not a good thing. I'd finally stopped beating my head against the walls of my life, finally started to accept things for the way they are, and now I'm feeling hopeful again? This is not good.

There's a quote from a book, and I can't remember it exactly. I can't even pin down what series its from. Something about a president (perhaps Calvin Coolidge?) declining an offer of strawberries once, when he was living in a boarding house, because they would spoil his taste for prunes. I very much fear that Eddie is strawberries. But I've already tasted them (the strawberries!), and it's too late.

Okay, that metaphor gets a bit sideways, but hopefully you know what I mean.

More Knitting

2008-10-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

I missed one week and I'm late for another. What does this mean for you? More knitting photos!

More sections of traveling scarves:

Wristers -- not something I'd really wanted, but my mom brought me the yarn and pattern as a souvineer from an overnight trip she took. And they knitted up very quickly.

Hats:

Scarf for the Red Scarf Project:

I'll try to actually write something this week.

Knitting Update

2008-09-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

I was puzzling over what to write this week and realized that I haven't shown any knitting for a while. I do have 2 hats and 2 pairs of socks in process, and I finished my scarf for the Red Scarf Project last night, but I haven't done a photo shoot for any of those yet. So, without further ado:

A charity hat, a desert themed washcloth, and Ravelympics stuff

Swap items (kitty toys -- octopi & goldfish -- and a beer cozy. I didn't have any bottles, so my stapler is modeling it.)

Traveling scarf sections:

Full

2008-09-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

I never used to be a crier. From the time I was six or seven until I was about twenty-nine, I can count the number of times I cried. It does require both hands, but that still averages out to roughly once every 3.29 years. I learned fairly early that crying is just asking people to make fun of you. One of those seven times, I’d been upset about something for a few days. I don’t even remember what it was now. So I took the blanket and bedspread off my bed, pulled all my sweatshirts out, climbed into my closet, burrowed to the back, under all the old Halloween costumes, and piled all of blanket/bedspread/shirts on top of my head. Then I cried. But I still tried to be quiet. Not quiet enough, obviously. Parents are people too, you know.

One of the many, possibly myriad, reasons that I’m overweight is that I’m very adept at stuffing my emotions down, and food is as common a stuffer for me as it is for most people. When I do cry, I can stop myself very quickly if I need to – usually meaning that someone might see and/or hear me. I wonder sometimes if it would freak people out to see just how quickly. It almost freaks me out sometimes. I know at least one friend’s mom used to be kind of weirded out when I’d get hurt (wipe out on a bike or something). I’d be bleeding, but not crying. She never could wrap her head around that one. After the first time it happened, I secretly thought her daughters (my friend included) must be real wimps, if they cried that much. Nice, hunh? I must have been a really annoying kid.

The odd thing is that, lately, I’ve been getting a lot of practice at crying cessation. I’ve started to think that maybe there’s a single reservoir inside me to contain tears. It will hold a finite number over my lifetime. Such a large body of water, albeit suppressed water, would surely be affected by the moon, just as the oceans’ tides are. Higher tides during the full moon would explain why any little thing seemed to set me off this past week or so. And since the reservoir is so near its capacity, it’s much more difficult for me to prevent crying in the first place. Once some tears escape, it’s possible to close the gates again, but even water’s amazing surface tension will eventually give way and spill over.

So that’s it. I think I’m full. Done. Replete, even. Expect to encounter crying at any time from now on. And please pass the Kleenex.

Another Quiz

2008-09-13T06:31:00.001-07:00

I really liked this one -- lots of hypothetical situations, and some creative responses to choose between.

Your result for Reincarnation Placement Exam...

Tralfamadorian Messenger

We had trouble placing you, but finally found just the thing... for someone who adores technology and knowledge, but doesn't care for much else. Intrigue and adventure? Not important to you, evidently. The company of your fellows? Not to your tastes. The bustle and crowd of the city? Not for you. Were it not for your positive attitude toward modern technology, we would have made you a medieval monk and let you live out your days in a quaint little cell, with access to all the books you could possibly want to read. But instead...

You will be a mechanical being, born on a planet where machines have long ago taken completely over and organic life has become extinct. You will be sent as a messenger to the other end of the galaxy with a message of good will -- a journey of approximately 205,125 years.The message reads: "Greetings."

Hello. Goodbye. We hope you have an satisfactory journey.

Take Reincarnation Placement Exam at HelloQuizzy

Eddie Izzard

2008-09-09T18:37:00.001-07:00

Okay, seriously, am I the last person on the planet to have seen any of his stand-up? If yes, why on earth didn't the rest of you tell me to watch him? And if no, Go Now! Rent, Buy, YouTube! Links? Glad you asked.

Dress to Kill -- I think this is my favorite. (Skip to about 4 minutes in, if you just want the stand-up.)
Unrepeatable -- Unless this is.
Definite Article -- Great outfit. I love that color on him.
Glorious -- I'm not crazy about the beginning bit on the DVD, but that's not in this clip.
Circle -- I love the elastic, stretchy things for the stage set. And the DVD extras on this one are great. (Although I haven't found them on YouTube yet.) Also a very good outfit. Although I haven't seen him in a really bad one yet, anywhere.

Warnings: This is not child-safe stuff. Language, sex, etc. And he is emphatically NOT religious -- I love the bits where he tries to figure out the connection between Easter and chocolate eggs. Oh yeah, and he's a transvestite. If you think you'd hate it, don't blame me if you're right. ;-)

Want a window into my mind? Absolutely nothing he says is too liberal for me. In fact, I'm a bit more liberal than some of his stuff. Although I'm still kind of feeling my way to exactly what I believe religiously -- something in the pagan area, but nothing's felt quite right yet.

Honestly though, watch his stuff. You'll thank me.

Edit: YouTube just took down Dress to Kill. I don't know if the others will remain available. If not, I'm sorry. But rent them!

"Nice" and "Ninety?"

2008-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

No no no no no. "Nice" and "ninety" absolutely do not belong in the same sentence. Well, maybe if you're talking about a person who's ninety. Or a tree. Or ... well, I suppose there are a few possibilities. But I categorically refuse to concede that they ever belong in the same sentence that is describing the weather.

The weather guy on the radio this morning had the audacity to tell me, "It's going to be nice today, in the low nineties." On my way home from work, the weather chick was burbling on about the "beautiful" weather, and then read off a whole string of ninety-plus degree temperatures. I know that neither of them are meteorologists. (It's a dead giveaway when they can't pronounce things like "hurricane" or "cumulus" correctly.) However, I really expect more intelligence than that, no matter what their educational background.

You know, I'm as fond of alliteration as the next person, maybe more fond. But no one needs to natter on about nice nineties. Never.

Clearly I need to move farther north. That's not really an option at the moment, but it's definitely something I'm keeping in mind if the opportunity ever presents itself.

Ninety. Ugh.

NaNo

2008-08-29T16:32:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about NaNoWriMo lately. I won NaNo last year.

Oh, you remember me shouting about it at the time? Sorry.

Anyway, I've been thinking about doing it again, of course. Lots of people talk about a sophmore slump with it, and I'd like to be an exception. Then again, I don't have and idea that's quite so exciting this year. Perhaps that will make for a readable novel, instead of one that requires a dark, dusty attic with lots of spiders, so that anyone who thought they wanted to read it would get too discouraged or grossed out before they actually got to it.

However, what I've really been thinking about is trying NaBloPubMo (as I believe it's called). This one's scary though. There's no way to pull consecutive all-nighters at the end and still squeak through with a win. Which is very much my style. And yet, a couple of the blogs I read regularly are doing Blog365, and it's so nice to have new blog entries to read every day. If they can manage it for a whole year, surely I can do a month. I think.

Then again, this would mean that I'll need to write a blog entry every day, which is an entirely different animal from just enjoying others' writings. I'm not entirely sure what kind it is -- so far I can just feel that creepy, predator-type gaze nailing me in the back of the neck. And that's with just thinking about trying it. And yet, the whole point of NaNo is to challenge yourself. If I'm confident that I can write 50,000 words of a novel, is that still a challenge?

Or is the challenge proving that I'm not delusional? :)

I'm such a copycat.

2008-08-26T13:30:00.000-07:00

Your result for The Director Who Films Your Life Test...

Kevin Smith

Kevin will take your slacker life and turn it into the cult classic it deserves to be --- like Mallrats (just kidding). If you can handle the menacing presence of Jay and Silent Bob all throughout your film, then Kevin is willing to oblige. Basically, he can take the lives of people who don't have much of a life and make it entertaining, so you're in good hands. Go watch your copy of Clerks, now.

Take The Director Who Films Your Life Test at HelloQuizzy

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs and had to try it out. And I'm pretty happy with the result. :-)

Being More Vocal

2008-08-25T02:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I just posted at the Hope Is Kindled blog, saying that I've been talking more over here. So I'd better start talking, right? I'm actually typing this up in the wee, small hours of the morning, and we'll see if I post it in the light of day.

(pre-publish edit: I'm posting it. We'll see if I delete it later.)

Part of the reason that I rarely posted here in the past -- and wasn't terribly talkative on any of the Shieldmaiden boards, either -- has been that I've spent most of my life trying to fit in, be liked, and not piss people off. I'm getting increasingly sick of those past-times, and the gloves are coming off. (I might knit myself mittens instead. We'll have to see how that goes.) Many of my opinions and positions (notably political and religious) are, or certainly seem like, minority opinions when I'm with the Shieldmaidens, or my family, or my co-workers, or classmates, or just about any gorram place in my life. Since I do not seek out or enjoy conflict, my answer to that has been to keep my mouth shut and try to stay out of any lines of fire.

Shockingly (or, you know, not), this has led to me feeling very isolated and ... not exactly misunderstood, but not understood either. I'm tired of it -- feeling like that. I can't really be more outspoken with my family; I need to keep living with my mother. Can't piss her off so badly that she throws me out. And if she ever got that mad, my sister would probably already have tried to kill me or have me exorcised or something (and she's not even Catholic), so moving in with her would be right out. I'm not able to support myself right now, and I don't expect that to change. Hoped for years that it would, but things have been getting worse instead. Since the pneumonia, even if I magically got my head fixed up, I physically wouldn't be able to hack it on my own.

I could try to be more myself at work, but no one would notice -- they're a pretty oblivious lot. I say this with confidence because I've been speaking my piece more and more over the past year, and it hasn't really made any impression at all. Part of that, probably a large part, has to do with the extremely high turnover rate. Another large contributer is that I'm stuck in the office, by myself, and only get to talk to customers who come to the window. They don't really care what I say as long as I get them processed quickly and with some level of professional courtesy. And really, it would be incredibly unfair to target random strangers with my accumulated frustration. Classmates? All of my classes are online this semester; that's a no go as well. So my blog readers are elected. Don't you feel lucky?

You may notice that I left the Shieldmaiden boards out of that list of explanations. I think that's one of the places that I feel most isolated, really. People in my "real life" who know about the Shieldmaidens think that it's this huge group of women that I'm really good friends with. But I don't know if that's actually true. I've never really been willing to put enough of myself out there for people to know me, and if they don't know me, how can we be good friends? Friendly, sure. Even friends. But good friends? And yet I've been part of the group for nearly 6 years. It seems a little late to be introducing myself around.

I tried to talk this through with a close friend once, and she insisted that the group does know me, because just being around for so long makes it impossible for others not to see who I really am. Maybe she's right. But if she is, then lately some people have decided to try to determine exactly how pissed I need to be before I explode. (If you're wondering if I'm talking about you ... I'm not. I have spoken and/or e-mailed directly to the people involved. If you're not sure, clearly you're not them.)

Possibly my friend is entirely correct. The Shieldmaidens do know me. Maybe it's just that I'm feeling the need to reinvent myself, and they don't know who I want to become. Maybe it's one of those post-near-death reevaluations or something. Except the pneumonia wasn't really near-death. Hell of a lot closer than I wanted to be, but probably not really Near, given modern medicine and all. And if this is a reaction to that ... well, it's really belated. And yet the frustration has been building for a while. Who knows?

No, seriously, who? 'Cause clearly I don't. Someone must.

This whole post could probably be condensed into something like "General angst and stream of consciousness rambling. No resolution." And I don't even know what sort of resolution I would choose, if it were some sort of multiple choice exam. Future posts may have a lot more in common with this one than with other stuff I've posted in the past. Well, except for the knitting. That will stick around. It may even be an indirect cause. You see, I've posted and commented in a few knit-related places that link back to this blog. And I'm not interested joining another community just to feel stifled in exactly the same way. You might want to be careful -- I'm getting more outspoken just as I've started carrying pointy sticks (and yarn) around with me wherever I go.

Elephants on Parade!

2008-08-19T19:59:00.000-07:00

Or, you know, on Knitting!

My stitch markers have arrived! The other winners in the contest posted yesterday that they had received theirs, and I was so disappointed. But my elephants are here now, and I'm so happy. I immediately popped one onto the second Coronet Hat that I'm making, instead of the loop of yarn that I had been using.

(The obsevant and/or knitting-savvy among you will notice that the right side of the cable band is facing the same way as the knit side of the stockinette. Yes, that was deliberate. I was goofing around with the yellow Coronet during the photo shoot, and I liked the way that it fit better inside out, so I have flipped the band on this one.)

And then the other two elephants felt left out, so they're helping out with my Steam Scarf, for the Red Scarf Project. It's not really hard to count to 16, but it's easier if you don't have to. ;-)

Thanks again to MyOwnIgloo and mkvral on Ravelry for running / inspiring the contest.

Contest Results

2008-08-14T15:46:00.001-07:00

I won! I took third place in the "A Butterfly and a _____" contest. How exciting! Now I've got another package to anticipate -- elephant stitch markers. Wanna see?

(Stitch Markers made by FishBabeez on Etsy)

Such fun! Thanks to MyOwnIgloo for running the contest and to mkvral for starting everything off by having such an interesting Ravatar. It's been fun, reading everyone's stories.

A Butterfly and a __________

2008-08-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

So, what is it? The butterfly is obvious, but even though I know it's an eye and some really dark lashes, it always looks like a caterpillar to me. A fuzzy little caterpillar just seems to belong better with the butterfly than an eyeball. Plus my own eyes are really twitchy, and I don't like to think of an eye just sitting there in an avatar, vulnerable to anything on the internet that wants to stab it. Add to that the fact that this avatar (Ravatar) is used at Ravelry, home of all kinds of knitting needles and crochet hooks, and someone with a too-vivid imagination could have a really hard time looking at it at all.

I really wish I could see the elephant trunk though. That sounds cool.

This blog entry is for a contest on Ravelry, in case any of my regular readers -- oh, who am I kidding? In case Wiz is confused, since she's the only one reading right now anyway. Hi Wiz!