skittermagoo!

Yes, yes, don’t faint or anything . . . I have an actual finished object to show off!

The only thing that might not make you question whether it’s really me or not on this blog is that the finished knit is a pair of socks!

The specs:

Yarn: custom-dyed Yarn Nerd sock yarn, a birthday gift from the Purling Ps; the colorway is called “Knitforce Nine”

Pattern: again, a custom pattern from the Purling Ps

Needles: Addi Turbo size 0 (circular)

Gauge: Oh, hell, I don’t know! I think about 8 sts/inch?  Lemme get back to you on that.

Comments: I love, love, LOVE this yarn!  Of course, it helps that it is made up of the favorite colors of my favorite knitgrrls . . . and I love the finished socks — I can’t wait until it is “sock weather” here in North Texas (which is oh, around November maybe?).

Wanna see a closer view?  Well, you’re gonna get one whether you like it or not!

The colors in the photos look a little washed out on my monitor — these are some seriously bright socks!

Next up on the “what to knit” list is the Neverending Cardigan . . . I wonder if it’s neverending because I so rarely work on it?  Anyway, I’m going to knit on it monogamously and resist the urge to cast on more socks until I get the fronts DONE!  Ha!

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In response to my last post, Jen wanted to know which five veggies I don’t like . . . I thought I’d milk an additional blog post out of it and answer that question here!

But first, a disclaimer:  This list only counts veggies that I’ve actually tried and disliked . . . there may be more to this, but I’ve never for example tried a rutabaga, or a turnip.  Or parsnips.  Not that I have anything against them; I would try them if I had the opportunity.

So, without further adieu, the List of Five:

1. Brussels sprouts

2. Lima Beans

3. Cauliflower (though I had some at an Indian restaurant recently that knocked my socks off — this one may be taken off the list soon)

4. Beets

5. Celery

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. . . will get me jumpstarted on blogging again?

Yes, kids, it’s another one of those “I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in ages” entries!

And it’s not like I don’t have anything to talk about . . . I’ve been knitting (albeit on the same two projects I’ve been working on for ages), I have garden stuff to show off, etc, etc.  I guess it’s just been another one of those months — hopefully I can kick the blogdrums with a quickie meme, though.

Jen tagged me with this one, and it’s easy-peasy (just right for a blogging re-entry)

6 random things that you might or might not know about me

1. I have an irrational (?) fear of clowns and ventriloquist dummies.  And no, I don’t think it’s funny when people tease me by showing me clowns or ventriloquist dummies. No amount of “conditioning” will abate this fear.  Please, do not invite me to the circus.

2. I read almost every single night before going to bed, usually for half an hour to an hour (longer on weekends).  I have trouble getting to sleep if I haven’t picked up a book first.

3. There are five vegetables I don’t like.  (I may or may not have blogged about this in the past.  If not, I may blog about it in future).

4. My first words were, “It’s in the refrigerator.”

5. I’m very good at keeping secrets.

6. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone from high school.  Sometimes I regret this, and sometimes I don’t.

Now, according to Jen’s post, I’m supposed to tag six people, but I’m not gonna!  If you want to do it, consider yourself tagged.

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So, I’ve been doing a bit of spinning lately, when it’s not too hot in my fiber room — I hate it when the roving sticks to my sweaty hands!  And man, the weather has been scorching here lately . . . my outside thermometer reads 101 right now.

So yeah, spinning.  I’ve been trying to spend at least half an hour a day at the wheel if I can get there at all, and I’m slowly working my way through my fiber stash.

I found this one waaaaay down in the bottom of my fiber closet . . . I think I actually bought it before I bought my wheel!  I bought it at the now-closed Simpatico Yarns, and it was marked “wool”.  Jen tells me that she thinks it may have been hand-dyed by Mary Jane, who owned Simpatico, which makes it kind of special for me — Mary Jane is one of the nicest LYS owners evar.

I quickly found out that this fiber was reeeeally compacted, but managed to open it up and predraft it with some effort.  I’m spinning it in my wonky self-taught semi-worsed way (I also tend to overspin), and it’s gorgeous and surprising.  Parts of it are ending up very vivid and clear with the colors:

While other parts are turning out rather subdued and muddy:

Hard to believe it’s the same fiber!

In gardening news, the canteloupe (ick) is growning at an astonishing rate — I swear it gets bigger by the hour — and is covered in pretty yellow flowers.  We also planted pumpkins last Sunday, and on Thursday I saw the first seed leaves poking out of one of the hills.  So if we’re lucky, we will have home-grown pumpkins for Halloween!

Tomorrow morning at the butt-crack of dawn I leave on a road-trip with my mother to Missouri to see her parents; I’m sure the trip will yield some good stories if nothing else!  Some of you may remember the last time we made this visit back in 2004.  This time we are driving, which should add a new dimension to the whole experience . . . also the lack of internet may drive me to drink. a lot.

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Since I check my garden at least once a day (sometimes twice), I sometimes don’t notice when things have grown (except for the canteloupe plant, which seems to grow 3 feet a day) . . . but it’s pretty surprising to look at pictures from one month to the next . . .

This is our second raised bed, right around the time we planted it.

And here it is now:

Amazing!! Now if only we would get some actual veggies/fruit out of it, I’d be thrilled — so far we have melon flowers and lots of leaves, but nothing edible.

I guess that’s what I get for planting late, eh?

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Some of you may have noticed that this knitting blog has been thin on actual knitting content lately . . . and you’d be right! I admit it, I haven’t been playing with the sticks and string much lately. I’m not sure if it’s the weather (it’s damn hot here — that’s the name of the season some of you people in other areas call “summer”; here it is called “damn hot”), or what, but I seem to have misplaced my knitting mojo. I have two projects on the needles: the Neverending Cardigan (which hasn’t grown since last time I posted a picture, I don’t even remember when) and the KFN socks (which even though I haven’t worked on them, I carry them with me everywhere I go). Or maybe it’s because the garden has been getting so much of my attention and time? Or my recent reinfatuation with my spinning wheel?

Ah, speaking of that, I have a wee picture! I spun up and plied 1oz of gorgeous merino (or was it BFL? I’ll have to check) from the sampler I bought when I got my wheel a couple years ago. I made a 2-ply yarn with it, but the picture turned out all blurry, so I’ll show you this instead . . . I of course had a bit of singles left over on one of the bobbins, so I chain-plied the leftovers.

I won’t bore you with another garden picture today (maybe tomorrow); it mainly looks the same as before but the plants are a little bigger. I may have a baby zucchini growing, but it’s still so small that I can’t really tell if it’s going to pan out or not (fingers crossed!)

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. . . and they blew the fence down!

Well, I don’t think it was pigs who did it, but yesterday apparently we had quite a storm at my house (though not so much where I work).

So yeah . . . this is the scene I came home to yesterday evening:

Admittedly, the fence was not in great shape, and I suspected that it was mostly being held up by that tree you see in the photo, but I was hoping that it would last just a little bit longer! The wind snapped the posts off at the ground, which really sucks — it looks like a new fence is in our immediate future.  Also, I know it could be much, much worse, and it’s nothing compared to what folks in parts of the midwest are going through with all the floods and stuff.

B and I did manage to prop up the sections and (hopefully) brace it a bit . . . we also zip-tied the sections together, which is gloriously ghetto-looking. But yay for zip ties!

I just hope it will stay up until we can get it fixed . . .

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So, ever since I broke my blog last summer (was it really that long ago?), I’ve been toying with the idea of switching over to Wordpress . . . everyone I’d talked to who uses it raves about it, and I’d become more and more frustrated with the blogging interface I’d been using for so long.

As you can see, I finally took the plunge! (no, not the Nestea Plunge, sillies — does anyone even remember that commercial?)

I’m sure the look of this new space will change over time (hopefully I won’t break this one too), but already I’m finding Wordpress to be a much friendlier interface.

So yeah, please adjust your bloglines and stuff . . . eventually the other web address will point here, but I’m not sure at all what that does when it comes to bloglines etc.

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Wow, where did May go?? I can’t believe it’s already June . . .

Let’s see, at the beginning of May was MSWF, which I feel like I’m still recovering from!

Then a couple weeks later I went to Galveston for some job-related training . . . it was okay, but I would have much rather been there with B on a mini-vacation than for four full days of work!

There was a cool bronze sculpture on the pier outside my hotel of a guy feeding seagulls.

I was afraid to actually feed the seagulls myself . . . I was fearful that they might swarm me like in the movie The Birds.

One of the nights I was there I walked a few blocks over and got a veggie burger and took it back to my room to eat . . . I opened my bag and found an inordinate number of condiment packages.

Really? Do people really use that many ketchups for a single order of fries? Sheesh!!

I’ve also been spinning again! It’s kind of strange, actually, how many spinning knitbloggers seem to be returning to their wheels lately (I’m too lazy to cite actual examples).

This past weekend, I spun up 1 oz of BFL from my Spunky Eclectic sampler . . . I meant to take pictures of the singles (which were gorgeous), but before I knew it I had navajo plied it and had it on my niddy-noddy!

The color is called “red maple”, but I think it’s really eggplanty . . . I may have to order more of this, because it was luscious to work with, and the color is rich rich rich!

Next up on my wheel is a bit more “practice fiber”, and then I think I’ll finally be ready to spin up a big project! In the meantime, I’m also trying to decide what to do with all the various-colored 1oz skeins I’ve spun up already — they are each about 40-50 yards, I think. Any ideas?

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ACK! Meg (who is one of my favorite knitbloggers evar) slapped me with a meme for the long weekend! I usually don’t do these things (lazy), but thought I’d switch it up a bit!

1) What was I doing ten years ago?

Working in a molecular toxicology research lab at Penn State, for the Best Boss In The World (BBIW). Oh, how I miss working in Jack’s lab!

2) What are five (non-work) things on my to-do list for today:

clean the kitchen (check!)
clean the floor in the downstairs bathroom
get a pedicure
knit!
at least neaten the living room — it looks like a tornado hit it!

3) Snacks I enjoy:

banana chips
cashews
gardettos mustard pretzels

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

pay off my house and all my other debt. buy a new car for my mom, and one for my stepdad. maybe buy myself a smartcar, and make my whole house solar-powered. I would also donate some to charity, and establish scholarships for women in science. Oh, and I would probably retire and travel and stuff like that.

5) Places I have lived:

Upsate NY; Philadelphia, PA; New Jersey; Arlington, TX, Albuquerque, NM, Denton, TX, State College, PA, Dallas, TX. Before NY State I lived in all kinds of places (Army bases), but that was all before I was aware of where I lived, so I’m not sure it really counts.

6) Jobs I have had:

babysitter (ugh), sno-cone maker, waitress, market research wonk, library assistant (x3), airport shuttle dispatcher, lab flunky (washing glassware), lab technician/research scientist, research lab manager.

7) Bloggers I want to know more about, if they want to do a meme:

Anyone who wants to!

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