Saturday, December 31

2005: a honky cat

I've done my civic duty for the year — I volunteered at a Goodwill for over four hours today. Now, after playing Bunco with my family over at Di-Hitler's house (long story), I'm back with the peeps to ring in the new year with some games and some gins and tonics (and other assorted beverages).

Get back, honky cat. ( Elton )

Tuesday, December 27

Wise words

I have some hats to take pictures of — I gifted a snowflake beanie to an aunt and a pair of fuzzy ones to my brothers, appropriately matched to their favorite colors, red and green, which (as we all know) makes a dandy egg nog. NyQuil comes in two colors: red and green; and it's the only thing that tastes like red and green. (a la Lewis Black)

And in the wise words of Queen, You say, "Coke," I say, "Caine". You say, "John," I say, "Wayne". ... Bicycle! Bicycle!

Monday, December 26

Boxing

Happy Boxing Day, all. I hope your Annual Consumerism Day went well, and that the haul was exciting. Now that the season of red and green is, for all gifting purposes, over, perhaps life can get back to normal (or some semblance thereof).

Oh, and I'm fairly enthralled with the Blistex that is medicated berry—Santa was thoughtful this year regarding the dry weather. It vaguely reminds me of something, but I don't know what.

I've become rather obsessed with Firefly and its motion picture counterpart, Serenity. It seems that there's an entire LiveJournal devoted to knitting a certain hat from the show. Craziness. (It's all my family's fault that I've become addicted—they're the ones who own the DVDs of the series and now of the movie.)

But really, that's all.

Monday, December 19

Lovely?

What with all the church music I've been absorbing lately due to my mother's utter begging, it's no surprise that it's slowly seeping into back my brain. There's something irritatingly catchy about certain sacred tunes that makes them get stuck in your head; particularly the Lutheran ones, as the melodies are always awkward. Right now I've got about three songs from the cantata we sang at church today blending with "This is the feast" from my choir days at Luther when we were stuck at church.

But honestly, some of the lyrics from the cantata are terribly cheesey. Take this line: You're altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful to me. Worth and wonderful I can understand, but lovely? Is there something about the meaning of lovely that I missed?

Okay, I looked it up just now to be sure, and the first definition is "full of love; loving", which fits just fine. I always think of lovely as its fourth definition, "enjoyable; delightful". But still. Lovely? I think the lyricist was just tring to find a two-syllable word ending in the [i] sound.

Also, I'm quite addicted to this game, Bloomin' Gardens. Almost as much as Stack the Cats, which is kind of like Tetris, but with cat heads.

Saturday, December 10

Esther is done!

Esther Williams 009Here's a quick post to show off my finished work on the Esther Williams hat. If you'd like to see Esther sans edging, check out the Flickr. I discussed details in my previous post, if you care to read.

Woo hoo for my first KAL!


Now I'm working on another Panta, a Finnish headband, with a yarn whose dye is trying to turn my hands blue.

Saturday stuff

Being unable to make the trans-Iowa trek to the bulbous nose, I've been doing a little knitting [as per usual].

I just finished Esther about an hour ago. Even the edging. I'm no crocheter [hooker], so it looks a little dull and lifeless instead of its intended scallop-y nature. But that's fine with me — it fits wonderfully, and comes down to just about the right spot when I wear it. I will probably make another one, now that I've gotten the hang of it and done the decreases properly. I think I'll skip the edging next time and just work another half pattern repeat or so.

Honestly, when I was finishing it on my way up to Lutherland for Juletide, I must've been on crack. Of course, I was working on it in the car in a snowstorm [nearly] in the almost-dark, so that could have been part of the problem. Once I studied my shorthand of the pattern and realized that I'd done the decreases completely wrong, I ripped it out to the fourth-and-a-half repeat [just before any decreasing has begun] at the hotel, when we finall got there around 12 a.m. after the show. It sat around for about a week before I got up the guts to do the edging, partly because I didn't understand it but mostly because I didn't know how to do it. I'll be posting photos soon.

I've also been working on one of these guys, as well as a little entrelac action, which I'm greatly enjoying.

That's all, really. MJ's been griping for a hat, saying, "My head's too cold! Blah blah blah." So she might get one. But I've got to work on Dustro's hat, too. I'm too nice, really, knitting for all y'all.

Monday, December 5

Out with the cold

Really, I'm over having icy fingers every damn second of every damn day. Damn.

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Juletide was pretty fun. The drive to Decorah? Not so fun — it was windy and snowy and dark. The concert, though, was good. My parents and I sat in the front row of the balcony, a little left of center (right next to a camera for IPTV). The format was really different than it had been in the past few years, so I wasn't as wistful to be a part of it. This was a good thing, I think. I enjoy change, but really, the narration was a little cheesy.

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I want these [via Fifteen prudent gifts for the budget-minded]. They're an inexpensive investment of about $9. The bigger ones are about $10 more. They are delightful and charming [as, by the way, am I].

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I'm attempting to head off the knitting doldrums. They have a tendency to sneak up on me from time to time, especially when I'm working on things that are either too monotonous or that I've made a lot of recently. [Read: hats and scarves.] Fortunately for me, the newest knitty has been posted and has provided me with ample projects mull and attempt.
  • Danica is just the sort of thing I need. A new technique to fascinate and occupy me for hours — entrelac.
  • Thuja, a man-sized sock for my ginormous feet, will get me back into sock mood. [Maybe I'll even pick up Broadripple again.]
  • Marley's Ghost is a chain. Just a chain.
  • Bamboozelle is made of bamboo yarn, of which I have some.
  • Pocket Creatures, quite simply, are cute.
  • Kate is another cat. Yes, Dustro, I know how much you love the two knitted pussies that are roaming around the apartment ...

Also, this little guy is kind of cute, in his own way. I hope someone posts a pattern.

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And I'm sorry, teacherhumangirlperson, that you're mad at us. I apologize, and all I have to say is that dumb shit happens.

Friday, December 2

Esther Williams

I'm participating in a fabulous KAL (knit along) — my first ever. As it's Friday, here's my progress on Poor Miss Finch's Esther Williams hat.

Esther Williams 001
The first repeat.

Esther Williams 002
The third repeat.

Esther Williams 003
The second decrease.

Esther Williams 004
Detail on the second decrease.

As I was copying the pattern out from the page, as I'd forgotten to print it, I realized that some of the stitches sounded a little complicated. Once I'd begun knitting, however, I realized that it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had thought. It also knits up pretty quickly. I was surprised. But it's a beautiful pattern. Any of you knitters out there should consider it. It's a speedy pattern and, except for the edging, I should be able to get it finished over the weekend.


By the by, for all you Luther-ites, I'll be up there today for the late Juletide show with my parents.

Thursday, December 1

World AIDS Day

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