For the leaping greenly spirits of trees

There are days when certain song lyrics ring true, and today is one of them.

Garbage — Only Happy When It Rains
I'm only happy when it rains
I'm only happy when it's complicated
And though I know you can't appreciate it
I'm only happy when it rains
You know I love it when the news is bad
And why it feels so good to feel so sad
I'm only happy when it rains

Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me
Pour your misery down, pour your misery down on me

I don't mean to sound like a sad sack, as after the first line it sounds pretty emo when you're just reading the lyrics out. But it is grey and dreary today and I absolutely love it. More often than not, drizzly days energize me. I know lots of people get dragged down by the weather; I usually feel about snow the way most people feel about drizzle. To me, rainy days seem to have more secrets, and more adventure.


I finished Tudora yesterday before church. (My mom asked me to sing a descant yesterday, so I went.) Tudora's a neckwarmer, and today was a perfect day to wear it. (So was yesterday, for that matter.) And bonus! It's got green. Perfect for everyone's favorite verdant holiday.



Pattern: Tudora by Cheryl Marling, Winter 07 Knitty (Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in dusty olive
Needles: US 6 Boye Balene 16" circs
Cast on: March 8
Cast off: March 16

And for the record, I did wear a lot of green today. Crocs, earrings, squirrel necklace, a shirt, Koolhaas and Tudora. Bam. And I got a green-frosted cupcake from a co-worker. Mmm.

My only problem now? I'm out of Malabrigo.

Koolhaas is finished

I don't know that I mentioned when I posted yesterday that I finished Koolhaas on Friday.


PhotoBooth, how I love thee!

Pattern: Koolhaas by Jared Flood, IK Holiday '07 (Ravelry)
Yarn: Malabrigo worsted in dusty olive
Needles: US 6 Boye Balene and US 8 aluminum (both 16" circs); US 8 Clover bamboo
Cast on: February 26
Cast off: March 7

But what's really distracted me on Ravelry today is the thread on Mystical Creation Yarns. I've finally caught up with the train wreck of a thread which, at 2,137 posts, is a marathon to read. (There were nearly 200 posts to catch up on from what I'd read last night.) The thread concerns the poor business practices of the owner of said online yarn shop. This person has now allegedly faked her own death. It's sad, gossip-y, and really hard to look away (hence "train wreck").

Oh, and my new favorite radio station is Capitol 106.3, because when I turned it on this afternoon the song playing was Tori Amos' "A Sorta Fairytale." (And for the record, I turned it on when I got home for lunch at 3:30. Three-freaking-thirty.)

In memoriam

When I read on Ravelry last week that sock designer Gigi Silva, known as MommaMonkey on Ravelry, passed away, I was stunned. I'd seen in passing, when looking up some of her beautiful sock patterns, that she was ill, but never in a million years did it occur to me that she was that sick.

Though I never new MommaMonkey personally, I know that she was such a loving, caring person. I decided the only thing to do was to finish my Bellatrix socks, one in a series of Harry Potter-themed patterns she released last July, as a sort of tribute.


This pair's for you, MommaMonkey.

Not dead yet!

I live by the red dot. White is snow, pink is ice, green is rain.

It really wasn't bad out this morning. But of course, I didn't have to try to keep tires on a road, so my perspective is a little different. I did, however, have wet insoles by the time I got to work; my shoes are clearly not as water repellent as I once believed.

I've been knitting up a storm lately, having had a number of ideas for xmassy sorts of presents. I've done up a hat for the brother that is going to visit his girlfriend in Maine and not be home during the holidays except for two days at the end. It's a Karma Hat, done up with a fun alternate decrease a la Brooklyn Tweed that keeps the cable pattern. (Jared at BT, by the by, has the most gorgeous photographs of knitting. Have a look-see, even if you're not a knitter.)


I swear I was awake. I swear.

I'm also doing up a hat for my other brother using the Cameron's Cap pattern. It's the same grey wool (Lamb's Pride Worsted) with few color accents in turquoise and ruby. I don't have a photo of it yet.

I will be starting my first foray into the world of knitting with beads, as I plan to begin Ice Queen from the Winter Knitty soon. It's going to be out of some purple and lime Crystal Palace Kid Merino, which is left over from a short scarf I knit last year. I even picked out some pretty coordinating beads.

And I want to make some ruby slippers from Berroco's Sacha slippers in a sparkly red yarn. (I forget which it is at the moment.)

As for a giftie for dear old dad, maybe I'll make up a pattern for a towel-shaped bookmark — I'm giving him a volume of Douglas Adams.

Anyway, I really have to get working, or I'll be here forever tonight.

It's a Breeze!

Dear friends, I give you the Breeze socks.


My mom's feet suit these socks so much better than mine!

Also, I've been working on Bellatrix as well. This is the most recent picture I have, though I've actually turned the heel on both and am shaping the gusset.


Blurry photo of Bellatrix! (I made it small so's you don't see how blurry it really is.)

That's all I know.

Dr Who scarf done!

It's officially my dad's birthday, and sure as the sky is blue, I finished the Dr Who scarf. Wanna see?



I don't have an action shot on my dad just yet, but if you want to see an action shot and a scary expression on my face, here you go.

Other than that, I've been working on my mom's Breeze socks and a little more on my Bellatrix socks. (I would have linked those to their respective Ravelry pages, but there are no photos yet, so there's no point.)

I've joined the group on Ravelry called The BobBoosters, which is kind of a warm, fuzzy, make you feel good group. I also volunteered to coordinate a Bobmas Eve party for Iowa Ravelers. Bobmas Eve is Thursday, April 10, because Ravelry was born on April 11. (For non-Ravelers, Bob is the owner of site creators Casey and Jess.)


But now I have to go deal with customers and answer phones in the front office because of some really stupid work stuff.

What I do for fashion

I forgot to mention that I went to the Renaissance Faire one last time Sunday with my parents. My dad called me up at 2:30 Sunday afternoon and said, "Want to go?" I said, "Um, where?" He, as if talking about visiting an old friend we've all known for years, said, "Ren." Silly dad, Trix are for kids.

And another comment that concerns the Ren Faire: pickles. I want to talk about vikings peddling their pickles. Yes, you read that right. Picture a man in fur and a viking helmet, wandering up and down the lane with a bucket in hand, shouting, "Try my juicy pickle!" Dirty, dirty. But toward the end of the Faire, I started to think, Wow, a pickle sure would quench the thirst right now. And they're crunchy! And the vikings walked by again. "Try my juicy pickle!" About thirty seconds later, I saw a little girl — couldn't have been more than 12 years old or so — chomping down on a large pickle.

I couldn't do it.

---

I had a marathon crafting session last night. No knitting was involved. Instead, I broke out the beads. After having read an article on DIY Life praising The AntiCraft for having a "cheeky attitude." Having read The AntiCraft for quite a while (hence the link in the sidebar), I already knew this and loved Renée and Zabet for it.

The article mentioned this necklace: Henry VIII's Wedding Gift. As it was from 2006, I didn't remember it at all. (Work-induced short-term memory.) I clicked on it and thought, Eh, that doesn't look to hard. I could probably crank that out in a night. Because when I start on beading projects, it's best to get them done in one sitting; the second sitting rarely ever happens.

I got back from my parents' house at 10:30 after screwing around and having helped bathe the dog. I popped in a movie I'd never heard of — Bell, Book and Candle (made in 1958, it's an interesting little movie about witches) — and got to work. I finished the first, "set-up" tier a little while before the movie ended and decided that, since there were only two more rows to the entire necklace, I could probably get it done in no time.

Ha. Only. Those two more rows and the accompanying weaving in of ends (four of them) took me until about 3:20 a.m. I'm bloody exhausted and my brain hurts, but I'm wearing a hot necklace today.

Circles and circles, again

Spiralen is pinned to a towel in my bathroom, blocking. I don't have any high-tech blocking equipment, like those famed T-pins and blocking boards everyone's so keen on. Towels and push pins seem to do the trick enough for me. If I want it to be perfect, though, I'll have to find the pins I got some months ago and start over, since I could only find seven straight pins this morning.

The spirals are really quite pleasing, and I think I'd like to do a larger, maybe blanket sized Spiralen in a worsted weight yarn. Probably something inexpensive, because I'm cheap. Maybe even something from the acrylic stash, since I ought to be getting rid of that beast. I think I'll use size 10 needles. Or maybe size 9. Whichever I'm not using for the entrelac bag.

Speaking of size 10 needles, I'm going to bust out the 14-inch straights that Fyberduck gifted me ages ago, and make a little something with the handspun yarn BAS gave me for my birthday. Something easy, perhaps, with a 1-row repeat. But that's all I'll say about that project for now.



Oh, and my mom bought me an obscene amount of cheese and a cheese slicer today, still poking fun at me for my cut thumb. I told her I felt as though I was a cut above the rest of the people here at work ...

In which I rant a little

I don't like to complain. (Okay, I lie. I do like to complain, but hate to be perceived as one who constantly does so.) But this whole moving thing seems to be getting a little out of hand.

I liken our move to shoving a tuna, scales and all, into a sardine tin. We're moving from a rather large building to the backside of a rather small one. We're going to be cramming eight computers and their desk space into a space that would otherwise comfortably hold three, maybe four desks.

Meanwhile, the other publication housed in the "new" building continues to encroach on our space, saying they need storage for their inventory. That would be fine; we're moving into the area they used to store it anyway. But their shelving "needs" to accomodate boxes full of reams of paper, which will eat up a good 18 inches on each wall. Granted this isn't the whole room, just a sort of nook off to the left as you go in the adjoining door, but to us it's still precious space where we will have none.

The people heading up this moving operation seem to think that we won't be able to bring a whole lot of stuff over, but they're starting to nix items that we pretty much need in order to function. For example, a big, sturdy layout table (which we use when putting out special sections), and couple of filing cabinets (one of which is rather bulky but could easily hold our printer). Are we only going to be able to bring two desks next?

I'm really not surprised. I'm just cranky about the whole situation. I almost feel like we're descending the steps into hell. Speaking of which, it's already 73 degrees outside. It's a nice day.

In knitting, I've finally finished the Swallowtail Shawl from the fall 06 IK. All that needs to be done is the blocking (and boy does it need it!), so I expect to have photos soon.

Also, I entered a contest over at Sock Pr0n by submitting a couplet to Choka On It. Here's mine:

"Interconnectivity:
Knits the world wide web!

Dorky, but to the point. Maybe I'll win some goodies. I don't often enter blog contests, so this should be fun.

Anyhow, I think the padre and I are going to lunch soon, so I should get a little more work done before we do.

Kitty Pi-rate! and other such nonsense

On Monday my family received a visit from the Christmas Pirate, who had a large bag of booty slung over her shoulder. Okay, fine. That was me. I thought it would be fitting to break out theDepp-wear again, since I knew I'd be getting some piratey gifts — giant cardboard Johnny Depp (Be jealous. Be very very jealous.), my very own copy of POTC2 and a Davey Jones' key keychain. There were pictures that were taken, by the by, but of course they're on my mom's camera, so it will be a while before they see daylight again.

I managed to finish almost all of my holiday knitting; the only thing I didn't finish was the pair of glittens for my dad, but I knew they wouldn't be finished. I'm not that quick a knitter. I did promise my brother a new Jayne hat, though, since he got theoversized monstrosity. We'll just give the huge one to their friend, my honorary third brother. (He's at my family's house so often that my mom's begun referring to him as her third son.)

Speaking of knitting (as if I'm ever not speaking of knitting), I decided earlier this evening that my cats need a cat bed. I started on Wendy's Kitty Pi cat bed tonight with some left over Lopi, in a variegated brown and a cream. I hope the cream color decides to felt, though if it doesn't, it will just act as edging.

In bloggy news, both of my roommates decided to start blogs. I Work In A Cube is Kas' blog (whose alias I mispelled last week, sorry). Tarnished Border Collies is Sister Berthe's.

Time to call it a night. I've got a new book to read — Seven Touches of Music by Zoran Zivkovic. I'm through four of the stories thus far.


Whoa. I just watched Alton Brown make sushi. He is a god.

Little Shop of Knitties

Looks like we made it through to beta-land. I think everything looks okay-ish, so I'll go with this until I hate it.

I've managed to finish one of the Jayne hats — it is officially ginormous. So much so that I am thinking of stuffing it and sewing it shut to use as an odd throw pillow. Really, it's that big. If I pull the top all the way down to the top of my head, I look like that one guy from Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. Seriously.

I started another Calorimetry, this time in Lion Wool Prints. I don't know what colorway it is because the cat is sleeping on it. It's going to have mini-cables, too.

And now that I've confessed my love of Rick Moranis in Little Shop of Horrors in the Knittyboard Chat, I ought to hit the hay. (Oh, it just started raining again.)

Bye bye, Rainbow!

There was a moment yesterday when I might've had to choose another kitten name, as the potential owner wasn't sure which her five-year-old son would like better. We sent photos, and he chose the girl, who would have been named Trillian had he chosen Slartibartfast. Slarti's on the left in this photo. I don't know how we got them to pose like that, but they're adorable (adorable flujo, even).

That said, I finished my projects for Fyberduck and will send the package out after work. (And let me just say that one hank of the alpaca I got during the Covered Bridge Festival was actually wool, perhaps a blend. I hadn't noticed before, but the fibers are kinky and not so alpaca-like. But it still looks good knitted up.) I'll post pictures probably a week or so after she gets the package.

After that, I'm grabbing Rainbow, the kitten that looks most like her mother, and taking her to DSM. She's the first to leave the house; I wonder how Sarah will feel, having only four kittens to look after.

I have more Festivus knitting to get done, including mittens, a scarf, and some hats. Time to look through my wool stash!