skittermagoo!

Secret Palloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Did you do something spooky this weekend? I did.

But in addition to Halloween, I also celebrated Secret Palloween . . . when I opened the mailbox yesterday, this is what jumped out and said "BOO!":

Wow!! My SP really seems to know me well . . . there was chocolate in that thar package! Yep, and not just any chocolate, TOBLERONE chocolate!! Yum! There's also a box of Peeps Pumpkins, glow-in-the-dark PEZ dispenser, some adorable stickers with halloween cats and dogs (in costume, no less), and some really wickedly cool spiderweb candles.

What's that, you ask? Is that a hank of Halloween Orange Koigu in the foreground? Why, yes, yes it is . . . and this is where things get a little spooky. Ya see, all day yesterday I was trying to find enough time to go to the LYS and buy some Koigu (I've never knit with it before, can you believe it?). And it was a busy day (getting ready for spooky stuff), and I never did get the time to go, and I was kinda bummed about having a non-koigu kind of day, and then I went and checked the mail, and my SP sent me none other than KOIGU! Wow.
And for all you other Koigu V*gins out there, I gotta tell you, this stuff is realllly soft! I can't wait to knit something with it!

And in other Secret Pal news, there is actual kntting content in this knit blog! (amazing, I know, considering that I've been boring you all with tales of crankiness for the last who-knows-how-long).

Yes, I've been knitting. With Silk Garden that was sent to me by my Rockstar Secret Pal:

Ahhhh, yes. Perched on the head of Paula the Polar Bear (my childhood buddy) is the Silk Garden Beanie I've been working on! I got the pattern here, and it was soooo easy and quick. Love the pattern! Go, make it. Now.

With the other skein of Silk Garden that my RSP sent, I'm making an abbreviated version of the Voodoo Wrist Warmers from Knitty . . . I'll make them a bit shorter and use them as fingerless gloves if winter ever comes. Yeah, I'm still waiting for Fall to come back.

Hey, is anyone else really anxious about the US election on Tuesday? It's giving me an actual tummyache.

October Surprise

Woot! The Fall Surprise is up at Knitty!

In other good news, The Mood has passed! Coincidentally (or not), I've got a new project or two on the needles; no photos yet, but soon. I finally figured out what to do with the gorgeous Silk Garden my secret pal sent to me . . . I can't believe it's taken me this long to discover the absolute heaven of knitting with Silk Garden! I decided to make Stephannie's one-skein beanie and some Voodoo Wrist Warmers. NanC and I are both in on this Silk Garden Madness, so I guess it's a mini-knitalong!

I won't be able to knit on my Silk Garden Lovely tonight, though, because NanC and I are going to see the Indigo Girls at Bass Hall in Fort Worth! Wheee! I may try and take something to knit on "just in case", but once the music starts, I'll be on my feet and not paying attention to anything yarny. Can you tell I can't wait??!!

Too grouchy to blog . . .

Yes, yes, I am. Seriously grumpy. It's a trend lately, I think.

Plus, I just simply have too much to do and not enough time to do it all.

Hopefully this will pass and I will be my Usual Cheerful Self™ (hah!) and be ready to blog again soon (and maybe even have something to blog about other than my horrible mood, which you don't really want to hear about anyway).

Before The Mood started, I got RAOKed! Margene sent me some fabulous cuticle balm and lip balm that is all natural and smells great (and I don't have a picture because I'm at work, but maybe I'll add a link later). And Aileen sent me some yummy-in-tummy truffle chocolate (how did you know that Lindor is one of my favorites?). Thanks, y'all!

OK, so until The Mood lifts, I may be a bit scarce around here . . .

Crazy Week!

It must be the Crazy Water, I dunno . . . but it's been an insane week! This is the first evening I've been home, and there's soooo much I want to do, and already it's after 9pm.

Last night I went knitting with my girlz (NanC, Petra, and Kathy . . . Pamelalala was absent); we also picked up our packets for Knit Race for the Cure, which is Saturday. NanC is going to knit while we walk (possibly wearing her adorable pink hallowig), but as I'm not that coordinated, I'm going to monotask and just walk. I'm knitting a cute and easy garter-stitch kerchief to hold my hair back, which I better hurry up on, as I'm going to try and get to bed early tomorrow so's I'm not so much of a grump on Saturday morning.

Speaking of knitting . . . I seem to be stalled on a lot of things. I think it might be the DNA scarf contaminating everything else. I have a lot of good intentions, but that doesn't get sweaters done, now, does it?! I'm not quite sure what's wrong with me . . . I may have Knitting Flu -- I wasn't vaccinated, you see.

So other than the stalled DNA scarf, I have multiple other projects in various stages of stallnation: I finished the second part of my niece's poncho, but can't seem to bring myself to block and seam it (I think, in part because I have a sinking feeling that the pretty ribbon yarn I'm using is going to be toooo drapey and end up saggy instead). I have a Retroprep to make . . . I've got the yarn and everything; I just need to reswatch using my newly learned continental stylie. I've got lots and lots of socks on the docket (ooo, that was fun to type!). I have yarn and pattern for a cardi for my mom, I want to make a cabed scarf (other than the DNA scarf, that is). I have this scrumptious Silk Garden from my Secret Pal which is currently slated for wristwarmers and a hat.

I could go on, but it's just getting a little sad, isn't it. I think I need to go knit on this kercheif thingy right now so I won't think about all the pitiful little cries of the planned-for yarn in my closet.

And if this weren't enough, I think I may want to learn how to spin.

Crazy Water!

Wow, what a busy weekend!! At least part of the busy-ness was knitting related, though, so it's all good.

On Saturday I traveled a good 2 hours away to go to the Crazy Water festival in Mineral Wells (the town where I was born!), so named because the town was built around a well that gushed (and still gushes) water high in, well, minerals! But the festival wasn't the main reason we went . . . the main reason was to tour the historic Baker Hotel, which is a veritable skyscraper in this little town, and is currently closed down and fairly derelict.

See what I mean by "veritable skyscraper"?:

At fourteen stories, it is by far the tallest building in Mineral Wells by about, oh, 12 floors!

Why, oh why, did I want to tour a derelict hotel, you ask? Well. Because the tour this weekend was a fundraiser to try and raise money to reopen the building to tours, as well as someday restore the hotel. And I love old buildings, and think they usually should be restored and treasured. If you want to read some history of the Baker, the group that did the fundraiser has a good bit of history on their website. Oh, and the hotel is supposed to be haunted as well, which is always fun to explore.

Here's a picture of the hotel from the front; I couldn't get far enough away to get the whole thing in the photo without standing in the middle of traffic:

And of course I couldn't leave the festival without a couple of souvenirs:

The bottle reads, '"Crazy Water" was discovered in the 1890s when a local woman with a mental illness was reportedly cured after drinking the mineral water.'. Interestingly, our tour guide told us that one of the first wells in town produced water that was very high in Lithium. Hmmmm. 2+2=?

Ohhh, and before I forget, here is the obligatory sky picture . . . I waited because for the last 4 days it has done nothing but rain.

Ohhh, and I almost completely forgot about the knitting content . . . I went to Stitch-n-Bitch yesterday, and finished the second rectangle for my niece's poncho! Yay! And just don't even ask me about the stupid DNA scarf . . . I'm in a fight with it right now.

Cheers!

Where have I been?

Or more specifically, why do I always seem to be the last to know?

Okay, so let me preface by telling you I've been really busy lately. But it's really no excuse. All the cool kids are doing it, after all.

For a while now I've seen other bloggers rave about this thing called Bloglines. Was mildly interested, even. But didn't really have time to check it out.

And yes, I admit it, I was a bit apprehensive at first glance. I can't help it, it's in my nature to wonder what the catch is.

But. Today I finally had a chance to sit down and look at this bloglines thing . . . and I gotta say, it TOTALLY rocks! Why, just today I was able to cut my blog-surfing time almost in half! In half!! If you use New Math, what that adds up to is that I will be able to dick around at work for the same amount of time each day and read twice as many blogs! Woohoo! And I won't have to keep clicking on certain blogs every day in hopes that the blogger in question didn't really abandon us forever, only to find that there is no new post. (This is just one example of a blog that I've missed . . . there are more. I will refrain from listing these because I don't want to depress myself)

ANYway, I'm busily adding blogs to my new bloglines thingy . . . a bonus to this thing is that I can access my list from work or home, which means I don't need to keep separate bookmark files in each place (which overlap slightly, but don't match. Because I'm a doof.). Yay!

OOP, my bloglines thingy just told me that someone updated their blog. How cool is that??!!

I ♥ Bloglines!

p.s. Does anyone know what the catch is? Because I'm still convinced that there's no such thing as a free lunch . . .

A very small FO . . .

OK, so a group of us at the Dallas Stitch-n-Bitch decided it would be fun to walk in the upcoming Race for the Cure . . . and of course we need something to wear (other than clothes, of course) to set us apart and yet unify us as Knitters For the Cure. Special T-shirts proved to be logistically difficult -- I'm not even sure if there will be more than a few of us -- so the ideas flew, and at least one of them stuck.

NanC made one, and so did Petra (who with Pamela is still blogless), so of course I had to make one, too:

It's a wristcuff! The pattern is from the Stitch-n-Bitch book, with an improvised pink-ribbon design. Yarn is Lion Brand Cottonease, leftover from another project. I'm not thrilled with the way the ribbon turned out, and it came out a little bit long (wide?), but hey, I'll be walking fast (?) and moving that arm, so nobody will see that it's a bit wonky. I may even make one for the other arm! It was a very quick knit; took me about an hour and a half total, if that.

In other fun, I was RAOKed twice today! Christine sent me a cute card and some even cuter stitch markers (love these!)

And Lynn sent me a mix CD (what a GREAT idea!), which is playing in iTunes as I type this . . .

I've RAOKed a couple people, too, but was really sneaky about it and made it anonymous . . . heh heh heh.

Other than all that, there has been precious little knitting going on at my house lately . . . I seem to be in a bit of "anti-startitis" (is there such a thing?). I'm working on a poncho for my niece, which seems to be going really slowly, and although I have a "want to knit" list a mile long, I can't seem to get started on any of it. Hmmm, maybe some socks could turn this all around! Yeah, socks, that's the ticket! Yay, socks!

Fall, y'all! (I hope I don't jinx it)

Happy October, and welcome to my favorite month! Yeah, I have a favorite month . . .

In classic October fashion, the weather here in North Texas has cooled, at least temporarily, and it is actually starting to feel like Fall! Yes, it is in the mid-70s, which probably is "Summer" to many of y'all. I'm wildly jealous . . . as I am about people who live in locations where there actually are four seasons, each roughly 3 months long, and where Fall means leaves turning really nice colors and stuff. I lived in one of those places once upon a time, and it was great (except for Summer, which was 345% humidity and did not feel that much cooler than our arid-ish summers, and also except for Winter, which lasted 7.5 months and consisted of at least a foot of snow per day. Or so it seemed.).

Nope, here we often joke that there are 3 seasons: Hot, Cold, and Tornado. Didn't someone, somewhere once say that all jokes are at least half true?

But I digress . . . today it is FALL! Who knows whether it will last longer than the usual 2-4 weeks, or if Hot will be back within a few days, or if we will get lucky and get a full 5 weeks? Hmmm. I'm not going to worry about it, because it is FALL! My favorite season. I'm almost giddy with it! And I'm having the craving to go knit lots of wool sweaters and thrummed mittens that will never get worn (the season of Cold is not really that cold here . . . I can count on one hand how many times it was actually cold enough for mittens while I was growing up!).

Fall, y'all! Time to go play with some yarn!