skittermagoo!

The ballots are in!

Wowie zowie! Thanks to everyone who put in their $0.02 on my yarn choices for Clapotis . . . I had no idea it would be so unanimous! Nor did I have any inkling I'd get so many comments . . . wow.

So, the Artful Yarns it is . . . I couldn't help but get started on it today after Stitch-n-Bitch. Of course since I'm an idiot it took me about five tries before I got the first 14 rows right and had the correct number of stitches, but here it is, so far:

Since I did finally get it right, I had to stop for a while and bask in the fact that it only took me five tries. What did I learn from this (other than that I'm an idiot)? I learned how to purl through front and back loops (I'd done each maneuver by itself, not always intentionally, but had never used them together to increase).

It's too bad that "feel-o-vision" doesn't exist on the web, because even this tiniest of tiny knitted triangles is sooooo soft.

And speaking of soft yarns, this jumped into my knitting bag yesterday (I had nothing to do with it. It jumped there on its own), and quickly became this. Yep, that would be the Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock that I bought a while back (and which was the first yarn I ever wound from a skein from my swift). This is going to be my "take everywhere" project . . . I learned yet again yesterday that one should always have a sock or something with them at all times, just in case.

Decisions, decisions . . .

I have a yarn decision to make, and I'm counting on y'all to help me! Please?? Pretty please?

It is not to decide whether or not to knit a Clapotis . . . that has already been decided. I actually had no choice in the matter, despite the fact that I keep telling myself and other people that I'm just not a shawl/wrap kind of girl. Nevermind that, though -- shawl/wrap girl or no, a Clapotis is about to be knit.

The question is, what yarn to use??!!

I've narrowed it down to three choices. (Actually, I bought a specific yarn for it, but my yarnventory spreadsheet and my brain had to interfere and muddy the waters a bit).

Here they are:

1. Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool

This is the yarn that I bought specifically for the project, but sorta kinda reconsidered because the gauge (5.5 st/in) doesn't match the pattern (4.75 st/in). I could probably make it work just fine, though, and even if my Clap turned out to be off-sized from the pattern, I'm okay with that (after all, I may never wear this thing).

Then I started thinking (dangerous), and realized that I have two other yarns in my stash that would also work. Some of you may remember when I first started talking about knitting Clappy, this was the goal, to use stash yarn. Hmph.

2. Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (in Nymph, an icy pale blue)

Gauge? Much closer to the pattern, at 5 st/inch. Color? Doesn't really make me drool, though I've been wanting to knit with Cotton Fleece for a while now. This would be a good opportunity. And it'd probably result in a good warmth level for this area (doesn't get too chilly here in TX).

The biggest "against" argument with the Cotton Fleece is that I'd be cutting it close on yardage . . . I have 645yds, and the pattern calls for 615 (and I've heard many people say they needed more than that).

And finally,

3. Artful Yarns Fable in a nice green/blue/brown

This isn't the best picture of the color, but you probably get the idea.

I bought this yarn on clearance, and I have plenty . . . probably not enough for a sweater (my original intent), but WAY enough for Clappy. Gauge is 4 st/in, so it would probably work up pretty firm for the pattern. I'm leaning towards this one, but my biggest hesitation is that I will have lots of yarn left over, but not enough to really do anything with. (bad grammar. I know.).

I've already polled some of my local knitgirls (though only on options 1 and 2), and it was a split vote. I'm pretty much okay with any of the three, though I'm leaning towards the Artful Yarns, mainly because of the color. I just can't decide!! Help!!??

In other news, the Magic Window socks are done!

I finished 'em last night instead of posting, and I can't wait to wear them -- I lurrrrve the way they turned out! Woot!

Just because

I don't have anything more interesting to give you today, so I give you this (seen at chrisknits, among other places)

bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.

Wow, I didn't realize how many midwestern/western states I haven't been to!

New blog on the block

Hey, y'all! Go check out the new kids on the block, the fabulous Petra and Pamelalala!

Blurgh

Wow . . . I meant to blog several times this week. But I had one of "those" weeks, I guess. Lots of work stress, and what seems to have been some weird hormonal thingy going on. Anyway. I got to spend a couple hours with some of my knitting girlfriends last night, and all is better.

Been knitting . . . and doing a fair share of unknitting. On Tuesday I was up to the heel flap part on Magic Window Sock #2 and ended up dropping stitches, not being able to retrieve them, and subsequently ripping out the whole thing. Sad, just sad. I also have "reclaimed" some Projects Gone Bad . . . will have photos to show you soon.

I'm so glad it's Friday, you can't even imagine. For the first time in months, the Hub and I have absolutely no plans or commitments this weekend -- the only thing I must do is buy cat food (or else face certain feline punishment). And the weather is supposed to be soggy and gray, so I'm hoping to spend lots and lots of time playing with yarn. Bonus: I have Monday off work -- yay for long weekends!

OK, must go reintroduce myself to my pillow and the book I'm currently reading . . . hopefully I'll be back to "normal" tomorrow!

Happy VD!

That's what my pseudosister used to say to me on Valentine's Day when we were in, say, Junior High and up . . . and it still cracks me up! 'Course, that was back before "VD" was replaced by "STD" (oh, man, I just realized what kind of awful sp*m I'm going to get because of this!).

Anyway, it's not only the Day O' Cupid and all that, but it's also my Knitaversary! Yep, I started knitting exactly one year ago today. The Hub got me Stitch 'n Bitch for Valentine's day, and I remember going out in the freak snow to Hobby Lobby to get some yarn to learn on. Little did anyone know what would happen next, which has culminated in entirely too large a collection of sock yarn!

So, in honor of my Knitaversary, I'm off to go knit! I'm still working on the Magic Window socks, as well as the flame sweater for Hub and those endless wrist warmers. Who knew a year ago that I would not only still be knitting, but have multiple projects going on at one time? No, really. . . who?

P.S. Where in the hell is my Interweave Knits magazine? I saw it at the bookstore on Thursday, and have yet to see it in my mailbox. This happens to be one of my particular pet peeves: if I subscribe to a magazine, I expect to have it in my grubby little hands BEFORE it makes it to the newsstand! Grrrrrrr.

Quick shopping trip!

OK, so when I got up this morning I wasn't planning on going out and buying yarn today . . . but then I realized that this might be my chance to check out the White Rock Weaving Center (no website, unfortunately) here in Dallas. I'd heard that they have roving and spinning supplies. Didn't know they also have yarn.

So Hub and I jumped in the car and ran over there just to check it out. They have lots of weaving supplies, and spinning stuff, and some yarn (though they aren't primarily a yarn store). Nice resource, though a bit crowded (lots of little rooms and kind of cluttered and disorganized). I've also heard that their hours are unpredictable, so I called first to make sure they were open.

This is what came home with me:

3 oz of Merino superwash roving . . . I'm going to spin this up on my drop spindle and try my hand at kool-aid dying, I think. Also 4 skeins of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, which is hopefully going to make a nice Clapotis. Yup, I gave in. I had decided not to make it, since I didn't have enough of the stash yarn that I wanted to use. But then I saw it in person and waffled. I hope this yarn works for it, because I really like the color (a rich brick red with flecks of something orangeish but not) and the way it feels.

A different king of music thing

Does hearing a certain song ever change your mood? Or maybe get your day off to a particular kind of start? Both of these things happened to me today on the way to work.

I woke up kinda grumpy this morning (and with a migraine, which luckily I took care of quickly), and was on my way to work mulling over the huge list of things I needed to accomplish today . . . and trying to schedule it in my mind for maximum efficiency so that I'd be able to leave the lab at a reasonable hour. The headache was threatening to return, and I was feeling a little shaky from the migraine pill I took. All that thinking and planning (without paper, which is a sure kiss of death) was making me feel like I was struggling to tread water, and the day hadn't even begun yet.

And as I was pulling in to the parking garage at work, a song came on the radio that made me perk up just a little bit: "Groove Is In The Heart" by Deee-Lite. It's one of those sing-along-in-the-car-when-nobody-else-can-hear-you things for me, and as I pulled into the parking space, I decided that the lab could wait just a few extra minutes.

So I sat in my car in the parking lot at 7:25am and sang at the top of my lungs, and danced a little in my seat, and went in to work with a smile on my face, and I think that just that one silly little song by a one-hit-wonder novelty group (Deee-Lite is the Fun Fur of musical groups!) made my busy hectic day just a small bit easier.

And then I came home and tried to buy the song on iTunes. They don't have it.

That Music Thing

Well, well. Seems Steph got me with the music meme! And here I thought I'd dodged it . . .

I guess it's pretty good timing, really, since I spent a couple hours yesterday starting to put this:

into here:

(and if you want to know what I was doing while this was going on, click here)

incidentally, I only got to "C" in my alphabetized binder of CDs yesterday . . . I've got a while to go before I'm done!

So okay, here it is!

Total amount of music files on your computer
4.07 GB (825 songs), so far. I have a lot more CDs to load, though!

The CD you last bought is
"Purple Rain" by Prince (I bought it at a secondhand store, much like a certain piece of pink headgear he sings about)

What is the song you last listened to before reading this message?
“A Town Called Malice” by The Jam (it was playing on Radioio80s, though I also have it in my iTunes library)

Write down 5 songs you often listen to or that mean a lot to you: Ohhh, this is going to be hard!

“Panic” by The Smiths, because this line: “The music they constantly play . . . says nothing to me about my life . . .” holds true to me today just as it did when I was 16.

“Closer to Fine” by Indigo Girls, because when Amy and Emily harmonize just so, it makes the hairs on my arm stand on end!

“Vertigo” by U2, because I’m just not sick of it yet!

“Close to Me” by The Cure. Reminds me of high school, but in a good way (!).

“You’ve Got Another Thing Coming” by Judas Priest. Because it rocks. And because I bet you weren’t expecting that one, were you, hmmmm?

Who are you going to pass this stick to?

I think I may be the last blogger on Earth who hasn’t already done this! So, if you haven’t done it yet, consider yourself tagged. Or something.

Football (belated)

OK, I meant to post this yesterday (what with some big football game on TV and all), but I got distracted watching the first season of "24" and never made it. Speaking of . . . thanks a LOT to my Hub's coworker for lending us the "24" season 1 DVDs and getting me hooked on yet one more TV show that I really don't have time for. It's a great show, don't get me wrong. But what with knitting and hanging out with my knitting buds and reading about knitting and thinking about knitting and surfing the web reading blogs about knitting, I really didn't have room in my life for any more shows. As it is my TiVo is full of unwatched episodes of the other shows I love.

ANYway, that wasn't really the point of this post. This one is about football. I can't tell you how many people (some of them more than once) asked me over the course of the last 2 weeks what my superbowl plans were, or which team I was rooting for. Okay, yeah, I can tell you how many people it was. 37.

So anyway. My answer to those queries ran along the lines of, "No plans", "Oh, yeah, the superbowl. When is that, again?", and "Who's playing, anyway?". And "Knitting".

It's not that I don't like football. I actually do like it. A lot, much to the chagrin of Hub, who doesn't like it at all*. I especially like college football, but that's another topic entirely. Nooo, football is fine. I just happen to suffer from a bit of, ahem, tunnel vision when it comes to pro football in particular.

You see, I like pro football, but I only like one team. Yes, it's the Dallas Cowboys. I know. I can't help it. Having spent the majority of my life in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, it was inevitable. And also genetic, I suspect. Anyway, with the exception of one season when I was 14 and declared myself a 49ers fan to piss off my parents, I have been a Cowboys fan.

And here's where the tunnel vision comes in. I only watch/pay attention to football when the Cowboys are playing. When it's some other team, I couldn't care less. And consistent with this, when they aren't in the superbowl, I am hard-pressed to even tell you who is playing or when the Big Game is.

So, during that Big Game last night, I did other things. I went grocery shopping soon after kickoff (I thought the store would be empty, but noooo, it was crowded with a bunch of other suckers who also thought it would be empty), and also watched a ton of episodes of "24", which I am firmly addicted to now. I also spent quite a bit of time transferring music from my CD collection to iTunes.

Incidentally, I did this not realizing that Steph was going to tag me with the music meme that's been going around . . . but y'all will have to wait until later tonight when I'm at my "home" computer for that. I know you just can't wait, but please, contain yourselves!

*I say he doesn't like football at all. And I'm not lying. But he did get into the game the year that we were living in Central PA and the Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers were in the Superbowl. The whole town was decorated in gold and black, and I suspect we were literally the only people in the whole place who weren't cheering for the Steelers. None of my students would even meet my eye the next day (the Cowboys won). Heh.

MIA (but back now!)

That's where I've been this week . . . Missing In Action! I spent the first part of the week with The Ick, and just had no energy or motivation to do much at all. Then I went back to work, and had major catching up to do.

I did do some knitting while I was down with The Ick . . . and I have my first Finished Object of 2005! May I introduce the Sockapalooza socks?

I have no idea how they look on your monitor, but on mine, they are pretty true to color: orange/pink/blue. I can't wait to send them off to my Sockapalooza recipient -- I really hope she likes them! I also hope she doesn't mind fraternal twins . . .

I've also been knitting on the Magic Window socks

This is sock#1; I'm working on the gusset decreases right now. I really like how these are coming out -- the blues are pretty bright, but the way the pattern is coming out actually tones them down a bit and makes them more subtle than I thought they would be.

Last night my knitting buds Angi and Lilyan came over, and I actually brought out the Voodoo Wrist Warmers that have been hibernating at the very bottom of my huge knitting bag. And I have to say, I made pretty good progress on Warmer Number Two.

These are of the Noro Silk Garden that my Secret Pal 3 sent to me, and I adore both the colors and how the yarn "behaves". Mmmmm, Noro.

Ah. This brings us to the Flame Sweater (from Stitch-n-Bitch Nation). I've been knitting on this intermittently . . . it's the first time I've knitted with yarn that is blackblackblack, and I find that I have to a) have really good light and b) not be very tired when I work on this. And as is the case with black yarn (or so I hear), it does not photograph well.

Oops, I almost forgot! I promised to show y'all the pink yarn that I spun last week (after I learned how to use my wool carders). No drumroll, please -- it's not worthy.

It's muchmuchmuch more even than my first attempt, but I still think the color is hideous.

Last but not least, Cloey wanted to drop in and say "hi"

what a ham!

Almost a week? Really??

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted . . . wow. Where did the time go? Oh, yeah . . . I know. The Ick is what has been occupying my time. You know? The Ick? Where you have a sinus headache and a fiery sore throat and a fever and you lose your voice and eventually it begins to settle in your chest and you cough like someone who has been smoking 8 packs of cigarettes a day for 40 years? Yeah, that.

I've been knitting like crazy, but nothing really photoworthy that you haven't seen recently already. Sockapalooza sock #2 is to the finished-with-the-gusset-decreases-and-now-it's-just-stockinette-until-the-toe stage. And Magic Window Sock currently has a gusset and is actively decreasing. Flame sweater (for Hub) is languishing in the bottom of my knitting bag due to the extreme blackness of the yarn (I can only stand to work on it when the light is excellent). But the worst languisher? That second Voodoo Wrist Warmer. I've not even touched it since I took the picture for the sidebar list.

I've also been hit with a case of wanna-do. I wanna do a Ribby Cardi, and a Rogue, and a Mariah, and of course more socks, and those monster slippers from Stitch-n-Bitch Nation, and maybe a felted bag or two. But I'm going to keep all that under control at least until I finish that second wristwarmer. Yeah.