Huzzah!

Not Knitting
Back from the Bulbous Nose — had a fantastic time. Of course, who wouldn't when you're playing on a Catholic school's playground and taking dorky pictures on plastic mountains and stacking people up on slides? That's not all we did; there was also some drunken croquet and a couple rounds of Circle of Death, which is pretty much the funnest drinking game ever. (Although if I figured out how to make cribbage a drinking game, I'm pretty sure that would be even more fun.)

Let's see. I've given away three of the seven kittens. All I have left for people are two peach / cream males. (So hurry up and get your cat-friendly apartment so you can have Bellini, Timmy! And I get full credit for that name. I swear, everything is not about alcohol.)

In exchange for the first kitten I gave away, I got a starter for Amish Friendship Bread. I got a wild hair and turned on the oven last night to bake up a batch, after separating the other starters. I had a little bit about five minutes after it had come out of the oven and boy is it delicious. I was going to bring it to work today, because I had something else on the agenda this morning: kitten abortion.

Really, I'm just having Gwiffen spayed, but I'm pretty sure she's pregnant. I don't think she's far along at all, so I don't mind continuing with the spaying. I really don't want to bring more kittens into the world that may or may not have homes. I find that it's a waste of space. I live by Bob Barker's philosophy: "Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered." I'm pretty sure Gwiffen's temperament will be better, as well.

Knitting
On the way to the Bulbous Nose, I worked on my Boobholder. I got the sleeves finished per the pattern, but decided not to work on them at BAS' house. On the whole, it fits pretty well, but I'm adding a garter stitch short row section at the bottom of each sleeve, just for a little extra room. I've done one sleeve so far, and will probably do the other either tonight or tomorrow night.

I have to decide if I need a little more length on the front, as far as fastening goes. I might just knit some garter strips and knot them, despite the buttonhole that I've already done. (It was only a two-stitch buttonhole anyway.) On the whole, I think it's turning out pretty well. I still don't have pictures of it for you, because I'm a jerk like that. I think I can finish the Boobholder by Friday. There's not that much left to be done, really. A few ends to weave in, finish the sleeves, and figure out how to fasten it, and I'm done!

On the way back from the Bulbous Nose, I worked on my Eagle's Flight socks. I've now got the heel turned on both, and done about one row of the leg. I don't want to do much more until I can try them on, and I just haven't had time. They probably won't be finished by the Friday party, since I've got photos to take at the county fair this week.

I've been spending time on Ravelry a lot, joining groups and chatting in the forums. I've been talking a lot of Harry Potter theory in one of the groups. It's quite a lot of fun.

Anyway, back to work!

I suspect Nargles

Hello, friends!

Harry Potter!
My brother and I hit Order of the Phoenix last night. I was late leaving work, and we got to the theater at about 11:05. I went up to the counter to get tickets, and the checker said, "We sold out three hours ago." (Meanwhile, she'd seen my dork-ass self coming to the counter wearing my Trust Snape shirt, a string of corks around my neck and some weird looking radish-like earrings, and she didn't even give me that "oh, I'm so sorry but I'm going to tell you something you don't want to hear" look.) So off we went to a theater on the other side of town, which had plenty of tickets and seats to spare. They were much more prepared, and much more cheerful. Good for them. (Good for them. Hee hee.)

The movie itself? I don't know how I feel. I don't hate it, but I don't necessarily love it. My favorite character was Luna (of course, since I kind of dressed as her). Evanna Lynch captured the "air of distinct dottiness" that the books describe Luna to have. So that I loved. That and the running joke about Nargles throughout.

Knitting!
I've been working on the Eagle's Flight socks fairly steadily — I worked on them quite a bit Saturday morning at Sister Berte's apartment before everyone woke up, Saturday evening while waiting for Joan Jett to take the stage, and last night while standing in line for the movie. By the by, the photo above is (Harlot-style) one of the socks in front of the stage at the casino. Too bad I couldn't catch the Joan Jett and the Blackhearts sign better in the background!

Between Saturday and yesterday, though, I got very distracted by the Boobholder. I'm working it out of cheap-ass yarn: two skeins of navy TLC Lustre and one of bronze for $1.99 each. Well, and I had to buy another set of needles, so $6 more for that. $12 for a project? I'll take that. By the by, I have no Boobholder pictures, as it pretty much looks like a shapeless blob on the needles.

I worked on the Boobholder Sunday night, doing a lot of the raglan shaping, and then again on Monday night, when I noticed that my increases were off on one side of one sleeve. I dropped some stitches at the mistake and picked them up. It either fixed what I'd messed up or fudged it enough that you can't tell (I think it's the latter, personally, but who's to know now? Oh yeah ... all y'all who read this). I have a few more raglan increases to make before the edges of the sleeves will join around my arms.

Otherwise, I've been spending a lot of my time on Ravelry, where I've joined a multitude of groups. So with that, I'm going to Ravel a little more.

Tradition, tradition!

Today is 7-7-07, as you might well know. It's Kas' quarter-century birthday, and we're celebrating by going to a free Joan Jett concert. Free Joan Jett? you're thinking to yourself. Didn't they see Joan Jett for free LAST summer? Indeed we did, dear friends. This seems to be a new tradition we're starting. I told Kas and Sister Berte if it happens again next year, I'll be worried. (Except I said "wearied," which was funnier.)

Anyway, more Monday after I've had all this 7-07 fun, which has thus far consisted of knitting, singing *gag* country karaoke, and tearing up a Bridge to Terabithia. Though I did write a check to Papa John's for lunch today and the check number was — oddly enough — 707, so it's been an interesting day already, even without Joan Jett.

Now with massive linkage!

Aside from Ravelry, I've been watching a bunch of other fun sites. They're not the knitting kind of fun, but they're good, quality humor. I created a folder on my feed reader called "mental-tainment," which was the best description I could come up with yesterday. Here's what's in that folder ...

• the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks — my favorite is Sellersburg welcomes "President" George W. Bush.
• I Can Has Cheezburger — you should see the invisible series.
• Crummy Church Signs — "Stop, drop and roll don't work in hell" (sic).
• LOLgaimans — similar to I Can Has Cheezburger in that picture captions are in LOLcats form.
• lowercase L — CHIlES Y CHOCOlATE took me a long time to figure out.
• My Crazy Roommate — enough said.
• Passive Aggressive Notes — may the sanctity of the sink prevail.

If you're not all distracted by my eight billion links by now, I'd like to tell you that I cast on for the second Eagle's Flight sock. Not that I finished the first, but I wanted to do them at roughly the same time. Unfortunately, I lost one of my sock-length US 2 dpns and only have four for the set. I remedied this by using those four plus one US 1 needle. I read somewhere (Knittyboard, maybe) that you can do that and it won't make that much of a difference in the long run. I'm thinking that 2.25 mm and 2.75 mm are close enough that it will even out. And it's a sock, so it doesn't so much matter. Anyway, I think I have about two inches of foot done on each, not including the toe. Good progress!

I thought, since I was doing so well, I might make a Minisweater / Boobholder, since they're not entirely unflattering despite my, er, fluff.

Oh, and I got through all of the goals on Super Mario World, which switched the theme to what can only be described as "Halloween world." I only have two levels now where I need to find the Yoshi coins, and it'll be officially done.

Woo! Ravelry!

I got a surprise when I checked my email this morning ... I got invited to Ravelry! I'm pretty excited, except for one thing: I don't have internets at my house, so cataloging stuff is going to be a bit difficult.

Also, I did a bad thing. I ordered some books on the Amazon yesterday. The whole Dark is Rising sequence. And not just because there's a movie coming out, I promise. It's just that lately I've been on a kick reading series from my days in young adult literature. I love burying my nose in familiar books. (Just ask me how many times I read The Hot Zone in high school ... though it's far from being a young adult read, it's probably one of my all-time favorites.) Anyway, I at least managed to save $12 on shipping and some other random bonus, so that's good.

*pause for long break*

I've just spent a lot of time adding stuff to Ravelry. I'll have to make a spreadsheet and print it out to catalogue what I have at home. Darn. Going through yarn.

Just another manic Monday

(Now with pictures!)

Right now, my life is all Super Mario World, thanks to a Dorian we had during high school week. I saw her playing SMW on a Game Boy Advance (in a non-restricted area, of course) and was pretty much floored. So I went to Kmart this weekend and found a copy of my own for $20. I've been happily playing it since, off and on. (Although I'm stuck on the Special world "Tubular" ... those stupid football guys keep jumping at me and killing me!)

I got a new chair, a rocking recliner with a separate ottoman, yesterday at Pam & Ida's. It was on clearance for $40, which was such a good price that my mom got one as well. (She put it in sewing land in her basement and promptly napped in front of HGTV down there.) I'm still surprised that most of the furniture in my living room has come from Pam & Ida's. I usually think of it as more ghetto than Kmart ... which I was at on Saturday. (I actually managed to hit the Big Box Trifecta of Big K, Wally World and Chez Target all in the space of a week, so I really shouldn't be that surprised that most of furniture is from their younger sibling.)

I've been reading The Time Traveler's Wife, after finally picking it back up. (I'd gotten distracted by a load of other books and set it aside.) It's quite good, actually, and I'm reading a bit every night before I pass out. I'm also reading Chuck Palahniuk's Lullaby, which is about a reporter doing a story on SIDS and finding an African culling song along the way. It's strange, as his novels are (I've read Fight Club and Survivor, which I'd like to read again), but I quite like it.

I've been doing some knitting as well. (Gasp!) I'm about 2 inches past the brim on Chapeau Marnier; I'm in the endless stockinette portion. I have about 4 1/2 more inches, I think, before I can start the crown decreases.


Marnier, anyone?

I've also started a(nother) pair of socks. I'm using the lace from the Eagle's Flight pattern I found a while ago, except I'm knitting them toe up (and just doing the lace repeat backward). Thus far I'm past the toe and through one 6-row lace repeat. The yarn I'm using is a Regia yarn in "Spirit Color," which is sort of blues and greys. It's very Ravenclaw-y, and since the pattern is called Eagle's Flight, I figured that would be fitting. So far it looks quite nice.


Toe up! Toe up!

If I'm a very good knitter and don't get too distracted by Mario and Yoshi, I can probably finish them in a couple of weeks.

Your final thought for today: one scoop, please.


This kitten, for some strange reason, likes to nap in the poo scoop.