Moving day

I've moved over to Wordpress - come find me there!

Found here on Flickr, with the caption "Credit to Justin Wick for the idea, and Kevin Steele for the photo."

I don't really get into LOLcats, but this one cracks me up.

Wanted: Thief

Wanted: Thief
Item stolen: Bag of potting soil
Item last seen: in my car port, Tues morning
Reward: Um, not thinking you're crazy for stealing a bag of potting soil.

Seriously? Who steals potting soil? Am I to believe there's a rabid gardener in my apartment complex who had a gardening emergency? "Quick, we've got to get these pansies into soil stat! See if you can find any open bags of year old potting soil to procure for free! Preferably with old bit of dried up dead plants and broken pottery.....now go!"

Thief, if you're that desperate for dried out dirt, it's all yours.....

Etsy sale!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! In honor of St. Paddy's, and spring, everything in the store is 30% off - just wait for a revised invoice before paying.

A quiet weekend meant I made some good progress on my Lady Eleanor - I'm on ball #7 of 10. I decided to take a break from knitting last night and weave in some of the ends - I know it would drive me crazy at the end otherwise! Progress on my dad's socks is still slow going. I tend to be in a hurry about wrapping up socks (esp. when they've been lingering as long as this pair) and now I'm a little worried I'm making it too short - anyone have a good rule of thumb for how tall they make socks for their guys? I'm going by the measurements in one of my sock books, but it still seems to short.

All in all, good progress on the March goals!

Sweater finished!!

It's finished! The fit is great, and probably the first time I've done so much to customize a sweater to my seemingly long torso. If I were to do this over, I'd make the sleeves a little smaller, but I'm still pleased with it.And a closeup of the buttons - after an excruciating search at JoAnns, I picked these. Unfortunately, they didn't have enough, so I bought a toggle button for the top. I figure it's ok to have one button different :) Though I have no idea what I'll do if I lose one of the fish.....

Still sick, but not as bad as yesterday. Hopefully back to work tomorrow!

Sick day

I haven't had to take a sick day in awhile, but when the sore throat started on Saturday I suspected I might (damn illness, taking up my weekend!) I'd thought I might be ok for work, but when my stomach and I had a disagreement this morning I thought maybe I should just stay home....


...and here I am. A season of Grey's Anatomy and the first Harry Potter movie down and really hoping this passes soon. In good news, two hats were finished last week (one for me, one for M) and I got buttons for my sweater (which I hope to finish soon....maybe even tonight!)


Time to figure out what kind of dinner will stay put! Happy Monday all!

I know it's Sunday morning....

92%DRUNKARD

But I swear I'm not drinking.

Update today

Etsy update at 3 pm PST today!

Picnik

Can I just say how much I love Picnik? When I first thought about advertising for my etsy shop on Ravelry, I had to figure out how to add text to pictures - and at the time the photo editing software I was using (came with the camera) didn't have that option. So I used Powerpoint. I know - terrible idea. Especially since I couldn't resize my images small enough for Ravelry's specifications.

Then I remembered Picnik - I wish I had used this from the start (I know, if wishes were horses I would need a larger apartment). So in the start I just used it to resize my images, but last night I realized it may be better to use it to create my ads instead....

I like these so much better.

The yarn diet is going well and I'm actually finding that I'm not experiencing as much withdrawal as I'd thought. Sure, I still check out the STR or Wollmeise listings on Ravelry, but I'm less interesting in acquring yarn now. Of course, this has something to do with how insane it's become to buy yarn from indie dyers (no fault of the dyers). These yarns have become so coveted (and for good reason) that people stalk their stores and sometimes buy up whatever they can, whether they like the color or not. This bothers me, because it's not being bought to be used. It's being bought to be sold or traded or collected. Not that everyone does that, but I've seen a couple instances on the boards where people talk about just buying up whatever they can during shop updates....

Anyways. February didn't really result in any finished projects, but I have high hopes for March. I've already finished two hats (pictures coming later), but also on the goals for March are:

1. Finish Buttony Sweater. It's soooo close.
2. Finish my dad's socks.
3. Continue Lady E
4. Continue Clapotis
5. Pick up spinning wheel

Yes, I'm getting a wheel. After asking my mom for advice on choosing a wheel and what she thought of the one I wanted to buy, she offered up her old wheel. I vaguely remember it from when I was a kid, and I think it's single treadle, but it's definitely worth checking out.

ETA: I added a NotifyList mailing list to the sidebar for my etsy shop - so if you want to receive updates when I add to my shop, sign up! Though I'll probably continue to post here too :)

Things I want and things that make me laugh

Want:
Chef'N Garlic Zoom Chopper, found via AT Kitchen

Chef'n Palm Peeler, found via AT Kitchen (of course).

Laugh:

Jimmy's revenge on Sarah. It's crude, but star-studded. Found via CairoKate


Wow. Found via Le Blagueur a Paris.

Found via Serious Eats. And sort of how I usually feel midweek....

Shop update!

More sets uploaded to the etsy shop!

Is that good or bad?

15

(Thanks Catherine!)

Temptation, part III

Ah! Someone's selling their used Kiwi!

Temptation, part II

There's a used Lendrum DT for sale on Ravelry....From what I understand, this is equivalent to the "complete" package, which retails for $622. It's being sold for $550, including shipping/insurance/tracking. Here's my question for the spinners - are the extras necessary for a beginning spinner? When I was originally looking at wheels, I was looking only at the wheel and the bobbins it comes with (not lazy kates, plying heads, etc). Thoughts?

Little WIP update

Chevron scarf - I finished a skein of the blue (Sundara, in Dusk) and figured this was a good time to pause for a photo shoot.
And a close up. I've been playing with my camera more and trying to learn how to use all the different settings to make more of the light I have. The beauty of digital? Taking as many pictures as it takes to get it right. And then some more.
Little charms, shaped like hands, that say hand made. I spotted these on gradschoolknitter's blog and immediately headed over to etsy to hunt them down. Extra motivation for finishing things!
And finally, a hat to keep M warm (Thorpe) when he goes back home - his uncle died this weekend, so he may be going home sooner rather than later.

I'm off for an early night, after an incredibly early morning (6 am conference call. Seriously). Good night everyone!

Thanks to all of you for your comments. In the end I did email him, and it turns out he hadn't noticed my last email had arrived and had been wondering why it was taking me so long to respond. But the whole incident has led to alot of thinking about how we all deal with the difficult situations in our lives. Do we back away? Do we hover? There's no good answer for how to help someone through a difficult time, and you can't please everyone. But I'm glad this time I said something.

A dilemma

I'm facing a bit of a friend dilemma, and I'm not sure what to do. An old friend of mine from college (and high school actually) resurfaced on Facebook this month. In some ways we were close - I thought of him as sort of my conscience in college and he always encouraged me to pursue things outside of science because I think we both knew that I was sort of in between to two sides of the brain. We exchanged a few messages catching up and I mentioned my brother had died, and that dealing with it had been hard due to how he died.

I haven't heard from him since. This isn't the first time a friend has dropped off the face of the earth when I told them how my brother died. Things have been awkward with a number of friends, old and at the time new, since it happened. But usually I don't say anything. But for some reason this time it really bothers me, mostly because I never thought he would be one of those people. Not because we were extremely close, but because of who he is.

The dilemma is this - do I say anything, or do I continue to do what I've always done and ignore it. I feel like I've lost a number of friends in the last year and coming out and saying something to someone who has just resurfaced may or may not do anything to foster friendship. But in many ways I feel like I'm being 'punished' for something I didn't even do when people drop out of my life and I'm tired of it. It's hard enough dealing with what my family's going through without people backing away when support is what we all need most.

Shop update!

Shop update!

Um, am I losing my mind?

A couple of weeks ago, REI announced their winter clearance sale and I, being the retail moth that I am, quickly snapped up a larger backpacking pack for my trip to Mt. Whitney later this year (did I mention I'm climbing Mt. Whitney?) - in addition to a pair of shoes and a jacket (which will probably go back). REI ships with UPS, and I opted to have my shipments delivered to my home instead of work or the store because I was so excited about this new pack. And didn't want to have to drive to Northridge or carry a large REI box around work. The initial delivery estimate was for the 18th, but as of last week became the 15th. Which was bad, because I was leaving Friday afternoon to drive up to the Bay Area.

I crossed my fingers and hoped it would arrive before I had to leave. After 4 hours it hadn't, so I left a sign on my door instructing the driver to leave it at my front office and NOT on my doorstep. I arrived in Santa Clara and received an email saying my packages had arrived. Left at FRONT DOOR.

A call to my complex and UPS confirmed that FRONT DOOR really meant my front door, not the front office. Upon arrival yesterday, luckily my packages were there. But my sign was gone....

Here's where I feel I'm losing my mind a little. Any other package, it wouldn't have mattered so much because typically I don't order things that sell out quickly so they could have been replaced. And UPS insists that customers can leave delivery instructions at their door. I did that, and not only were my instructions ignored but they were removed. An email to UPS did nothing but result in a response that, "We checked our records and it says your package has already been delivered." Thanks, but the two boxes in my apartment told me that.....

In less ranting news, I'm almost done with the first sleeve of the Buttony Sweater. Ooh, and I saw a spinning wheel on Telegraph as Jasmine and I were walking around - it looked like an Ashford, but maybe that's just because I've been thinking about them so much :)

Hope everyone's having a good Monday, especially if you have the day off!

V-Day approacheth

I'm not one to do much for V-Day (and this year M will be on his way to the slopes), but this tutorial (found via not martha)on making your own conversation hearts made me grin with possibilities....

Odds and ends

• Slow down, you move too fast

Yesterday I went to the post office after work to mail some destash yarn (more about this later) and of course chose the automated postal unit over the long line in the lobby. However, there were 2 people in front of me and an elderly man already using the machine. While talking himself through it. "No....no....enter zip.....wow that's expensive...go back.....no....no"

As the line grew and we all silently plotted to throttle him (I know I can't have been the only one), I realized this is what bugged me about my ex's apology. He had waited over a hear to apologize and acknowledge he had failed to treat me like a human being. But he couldn't be bothered to sit down and at least email me from a freaking computer.

We're all in such a hurry these days, and that's been part of the anxiety I've been feeling since the new year. Hurry up to define my relationship, hurry up to resurrect broken friendships, hurry up to get over my brother's death. I suspect all this hurrying is why I wake up before my alarm clock these days.

• Obligatory politics

I've been listening to Al Gore's The Assault on Reason the last couple of days. And a few things come to mind - one: Al Gore has a very distinctive writing style. It's like he's talking to you. And even though he's not the one narrating the book, you know it's him. Two: how the hell did we end up here? I'm not one to follow the news anymore, but listening to his accounts of the last few years have me up in arms. Though his account of hypnotizing a chicken is pretty funny.

• So, you call this a knitting blog?

Only very loosely. In my anxiety to clear out material goods (apparently I am not my mother's daughter on this score), I've managed to destash about half my stash. And made a vow not to buy any more new yarn until Easter. I've decided this applies to a wheel as well. By that time I should have my tax refund and feel a little more certain about this whole spinning thing. In the meantime, I am knitting from my stash, finishing up UFOs (or frogging them), and practicing on my spindle. Unfortunately all this WIP polygamy has slowed down progress on the Buttony Sweater (the Chevron scarf was too pretty to leave in the basket!), but it will be done.

Some day....

Temptation

Yesterday I had a day to myself (most weekends are spent with M - though now that ski season is in full swing that's more the exception than the norm) and took a mini road trip up to the Santa Ynez valley. I had a food club shipment to pick up (yes, I'm in a food club and it's awesome) and a wine club shipment as well. But the real reason? To try out spinning wheels at Village Spinning & Weaving.

I am in love. I tried out Ashfords, Lendrums, a Louet, a Kromski, and a Majacraft. My two favorites?

This Lendrum:
And this Ashford:
Up until yesterday, I've only spun on a spindle before. And while I like it, I don't really have a rhythm to it. There's alot of stopping and starting. But the wheel just felt smoother. Here's my dilemma though - why should I buy a wheel? It's a relatively large investment, and right now I think I'd be buying it just to spin and not necessarily to make yarn....There's also the retail therapy to think about. I've been hugely stressed the last few weeks. Work has been unpleasant, and things with the family have been hard. And my MO to deal with being unhappy and stressed is to a) hole up and knit and b) shop! So I'll wait. But man, did I love spinning on those wheels yesterday :) And I so highly recommend Village Spinning and Weaving - both the owners are absolutely wonderful and helpful.

Today brings laundry, a trip to REI, lunch with an old friend from college, and of course some knitting. I'm hoping to finish up the Buttony Sweater within the next week or so :) Happy Sunday all!

Um....

Headline on Yahoo!: Spears quietly released from LA Hospital.

Does anyone else feel this is somehow....inaccurate? It's like the year I was living in Santa Barbara and Michael Jackson was on trial. All Britney, all the time.

sent from my hands on the keyboard. (Sorry, but I got an email from my ex last week signed "sent from my iPhone" and I'm still a little snippy. Simmering down now)

ETA: I assumed it was a default setting on the iPhone. It's really more that he's coming out of the woodwork. With an iPhone. Long story.

Busy with WIPs

Well, it's been crazy the last 3-4 weeks at work, so the motivation to blog has been steadily decreasing. Luckily, the motivation to curl up in front of the TV and knit hasn't :) First up, progress on the Buttony Sweater:

In spite of the weird looks I got yesterday when I pulled it out at a Super Bowl party, I knit for almost the entire game and made a ton of progress. A few more inches, and I think I'll be ready to bind off and start on the sleeves.

I also managed to make 2 trips to Anacapa Fine Yarns this weekend. One, just to get some Noro for the famous striped scarf, and the next day because they were having a Super Bowl sale (had I realized how late the game was starting and that I'd be able to go for the sale, I wouldn't have bought the first batch of Noro....). But, I also bought a new spindle:


My spinning is getting much more consistent, and I'm almost ready to break out the pretty roving I've been holding out on (until I got better. And stopped making slubby yarn)

And, finally, my sewing machine has been getting a workout. I made myself a circular needle holder awhile ago, but I decided I wanted one hold for all my DPNs and circular needles. So I came up with this:

Here it is, folded up in thirds (I still need to sew in some snaps, but you get the idea)
....and opened up. 9 pockets for circular needles.
...and here with one of the sets of circular pockets flipped over to reveal the DPN slots. I haven't used it yet (sew in snaps....must sew in snaps), but I'm pretty excited :)

Alright, that's it for me. Time to curl up in front of the TV (if only the TV put out heat too. Two birds with one stone there) and get to work on finishing that sweater. Happy Monday all!

PS - there was an etsy update this weekend. Just so you know :)

3rd Annual Blogger's Silent Poetry Reading

While I've had one of my own floating around in my head today, I'm going with the poem I had to memorize in college for German class:

Lied des Tuermers (Goethe)
1. Zum Sehen geboren,
Zum Schauen bestellt,
Dem Turme geschworen
Gefällt mir die Welt.

Ich blick' in die Ferne,
Ich seh' in der Näh'
Den Mond und die Sterne,
Den Wald und das Reh.

2. So seh' ich in allen
Die ewige Zier,
Und wie mir's gefallen,
Gefall' ich auch mir.

Ihr glücklichen Augen,
Was je ihr gesehn,
Es sei, wie es wolle,
Es war doch so schön!

As far as I can remember (and translate), it's about a guard sworn to stay in a tower and look out on the horizon. Rather than being bored with this monotonous job, he's really rather pleased with the opportunity to look out on the world (this is where my German is rusty).

Here's to a more positive outlook on the job :)

Shop update complete!

I've put all the old sets into the sale section, and uploaded 10 sets of Clapotis stitch markers in the etsy shop. Enjoy!

Mini update

I've been taking a break from knitting tonight to make Clapotis stitch marker sets - but I also went through the current listings and put everything in the sale section. So enjoy :) Next update hopefully Sunday night.

In the continuing saga of things malfunctioning at work, all of my data files and reports got deleted off of the network drive. It wasn't my fault, which is awesome. And they should be able to find them, but it's taking a long time to get any of these problems fixed. Everyone keep your fingers crossed - I really need all the luck I can get with work.

I also lost my yarn store links when they replaced my hard drive - so if you have a favorite (yarn, jewelry, fiber, etc) leave it in the comments!

Happy Weds all :)

Wicker

Wicker
Seaming in progress - use #26 for hair clips!

Artistically draped over the back of my couch

...and on me (courtesy of the self timer - Marie hasn't learned how to work the camera yet)

I'm proud of myself for finally finishing it - it took over a year and almost 8 balls of Debbie Bliss alpaca silk. I've learned my lesson about Rowan patterns - sit down and write out all the instructions, line by line. Be more realistic about gauge - especially row gauge. And understand your own measurements better - without blocking, the sweater is a little short on me. We'll see how blocking takes care of that.

And new on the needles:

Buttony Sweater. I redrafted the pattern last night to be more specific to my size and gauge and cast on. I'm using Malabrigo Chunky, in the colorway Charrua. I love the look of brown and blue on the skein, but I'm not sure how a whole sweater of it will look - thoughts? My LYS has a spectacular selection of Malabrigo Chunky, and I'm sort of tempted to exchange what I haven't knit up for another color....

In other news, work is still stressful. My computer started acting up last week, so I had to get my hard drive replaced. I got my computer back with the new hard drive today, and hardly anything has gone right. Email, Word, Excel, and printers all not working properly. Some have been fixed, but it put me a solid day behind. And with one report due Friday and a set of experiments due the 31st....I need a break. Unfortunately, it's going to keep on at this pace with two new sets of experiments next month and 4 or 5 reports to write around the middle of the month. And I found out today that my grandmother in Germany passed away yesterday. It's not surprise (we found out when my brother died she was sick), and I haven't seen her since I was 13, but with all the thoughts about trips there as a child, I'm a little sad.

Seriously, I need a break :)

Back to knitting!

FO!

Wicker is done! Well, minus 2 ends to weave in - I'll post pictures soon. Overall, I like the sweater. If I were to make it again, I'd make alot of changes. Use a less bulky yarn, maybe modify it to be top-down raglan, and definitely make it longer. I've only knit 2 Rowan patterns (and they've always been a struggle to decipher), but both of them have been too short and have had sleeve caps that were too long (my row gauge doesn't seem to match)

On the wave of sweater knitting, I immediately cast on for the Buttony Sweater with some Malabrigo Chunky I just bought (and of which I think I need to buy another hank). I had a hard time figuring out the pattern, as it's really written as more of a guideline. But all of this gives me a much deeper understanding of sweater construction, which is always good!

Just finished watching the Colbert Report - where he interviewed this guy. We're back to the days of interviews that poke fun at the interviewee it seems :)

I'm a joiner

All that about no resolutions? Then came the amorphous goals. Now comes one more specific one - Skeins Her Way is having a UFO Contest. And since Wicker is reasonable close to being done - I'm going to bite the bullet and say I'll finish her by the end of the month!

Thanks to everyone for their comments on my last post :)

ETA: here's the FO!

Aaaaarh

g.

It's only Monday, and I'm already hating this week. Thursday would have been my brother's 19th birthday which I can't deny is having an impact on my mood. I'm stressed about work and getting everything done in time. I'm exhausted and moody. And uncoordinated - I actually tripped and fell up the stairs coming home today. Which means I'm sporting a cute bruise on my forehead....sigh.

But the knitting is going very well. I'm speeding along on the second sleeve of Wicker and have high hopes this will be done by the end of the year (or spring. I want to be sure I set attainable goals here!) And while I don't make knitting resolutions I sat down last night to look at my WIPs and plans for the year. Gift knitting will no longer be a last minute thing. While I may not knit a gift a month (there's a KAL just for that purpose), I have written down all the gifts I plan to make so they don't sneak up on me (considering how long socks take me....).

I'm eying the new KnitPicks Harmony DPNs....I've tried to like knitting two socks at once on circulars and I still feel like it's too slow. While it probably isn't, knitting on dpns, especially wood, is just more comfortable to me. Has anyone tried them? Most of the reviews I've seen were good.

And finally, I submitted an ad for approval on Ravelry. Most of the general slots are taken for Jan and Feb, so I had to post them in individual groups. One of them was a Clapotis group - I'm thinking of offering Clapotis sets as well as the usual sets. I'm really loving the ones I made for myself :)

Fight Club

Work is like Fight Club.

The first rule of Fight Club? You do not talk about Fight Club.
The second rule of Fight Club? You DO NOT talk about Fight Club. No matter how much your parents ask you how Fight Club is going. No matter how many times your boyfriend asks you what you did at Fight Club today. Fight Club? What Fight Club? The Fight Club to pay the bills?

Normal blog arriving soon...

We have winners!

Congratulations to Betty, Suzie, and Dorothy! The Misti Alpaca and 2 sets of stitch markers on on their way to new homes.

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions! I'm reworking my banner in the shop and also creating an ad to place on Ravelry some time this month (I'm having some indecisiveness when it comes to design and what to put on the ad. And where to put it....). In addition to advertising, I'm planning on doing another update this month (in addition to knitting and going to the gym and...)

Nothing else to report - I went back to work this week and it has been really busy. Everyone wants their studies done by the end of the month, and I'm already a week behind. It should all be doable, but it's a little daunting when I look at the list and my calendar....

Happy New Year everyone!

No resolutions here

I've been reading alot of blog posts reflecting back on 2007 - something I did alot of throughout the second half of the year - or making resolutions for 2008. Given how well I stuck to resolutions of 2007, I may be better off making the resolution to not make any resolutions. The "eat anything" diet of knitting :)

Speaking of which...there's been a fair amount of. My wrists have been acting up again, so I'm taking it easy. But the navy socks both have heels now and are on the home stretch. Wicker is coming along nicely (I forget how quickly bulky yarn knits up when I'm in my sock phases!), and I gave in and started a new scarf to keep me entertained on the drive up and back from Tahoe earlier this week.

Hope everyone's having a happy 2008 - don't forget a few more days to enter the contest! Here's a closeup of the mystery prize.....