Two photos of frosty windows, and lots of words besides

I'm pretty sure Google has gone crazy, because my computer is displaying it in Spanish. It seems my IP address changed (although I don't know how, as I have had a static IP for a long time).

Anyway, what I really want to show you is proof that I will indeed have patchwork tape windows.


Cat Attacks Window, Leaves No Sign Of Struggle

WTF? My windows are not made of catnip, last I checked. Ah well.


Awesome swap package!

I joined an ornament swap for the Knit / Crochet House Cup on Ravelry. My package arrived yesterday from the UK, sent by the fantastic cmelvin, who is pretty much a rock star. As you can see, she sent some really cool stuff: an angel, a drop spindle ornament, a book plate, and a postcard, as well as a letter from Professor C. Melvin and a Christmas card. I love it all.

I sent my swap package off today, which heads to Florida. I hope the recipient enjoys what I made!

And now, before I'm buried in the ice storm and potentially lose power (seriously, they're projecting that the eastern 2/3 of the city loses power because we have above ground power lines and the rest of the city has buried lines), I'd like to share two more things. First, it's my kitchen window this morning. The frost looked kind of pretty.



And lastly, a local story from the Associated Press, which was shared by elisamatic over on Plurk.

Iowa town's roads well seasoned
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Slush has never smelled so spicy. City crews in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny are using garlic salt to melt snow and ice on streets from Tuesday's storm. The salt was donated by Tone Brothers Inc., a top spice producer headquartered in Ankeny.

Public Works Administrator Al Olson said the company donated 18,000 pounds of garlic salt to use on its 400 miles of roads.

Olson doesn't have details, but he said the salt would have ended up in the landfill, so the company donated it. A telephone call Wednesday to Tone Brothers wasn't immediately returned.

Olson said the city mixed the garlic salt with regular road salt and it works fine. He said some road workers say it makes them hungry, but Olson doesn't recommend it to spice up lunch or dinner.

Really, Iowa. You just keep getting crazier. Now I want to go to Ankeny and see if it makes me crave Italian food.

Anyway, I'll let you know what happens.

CBF 2008, and some knitting content at the end

I don't know whether I have a whole lot to say today, as I'm rather tired from the Covered Bridge Festival this weekend. I will, however, show you a bunch of photos.

First, I did a little running around on Saturday morning. I got back to my house to find two things: a package on my stoop and, thanks to the festival, a car blocking my driveway. My driveway's not entirely obvious as it's covered in grass, but there is a cut-out in the curb, and it should be fairly obvious, considering the weird gap left between my house and the neighbor's attached garage. So I left a note. (Check out my sexylicious handwriting.)


Passive aggressive? Why yes, I am.

And then I opened my package, and it was the Kauni I ordered from WEBS last week. I did the biggest happydance ever. (You'll just have to take my word for it, as there is no photographic happydance evidence at this time.) I got one skein each of EH (bronze and blue and dark brown) and EQ (rainbow). I cannot wait to work with them. Aren't the colors so pretty you could just eat them? Now to decide on projects ...

After leaving that nice note and opening the yarn, I went downtown to see what they had this year for the festival. And I found alpacas there, with sock yarn nearby. I purchased the purple on Saturday; my dad gave me the green/gold on Sunday. What's funny about that was I was initially debating between the purple and green yarns, choosing purple in the end. And here my dad goes and buys me the yarn I didn't get. He's too good to me.

And someone sheared sheep occasionally.



And there was a parade on Sunday.



Yesterday was a long, long day. There was probably stuff about covered bridges in there somewhere, but I didn't pay any mind. After all was said and done, I needed a little knitting time. Here's some of what I'm working on right now.


Young Helena hood, with cool feathers.


2x1 Flat Feet sock.

Oh, and I forgot to say that I sent off my package for the Ravelry Firefly Swap on Friday. Kaylee, along with a lot of fun little goodies, was inside:

I swear I didn't inject collagen in my lips!

Due to lacking email access at home, I wasn't able to post that I received my sock from the Wee Tiny Sock Swap. But I did! It came on Friday. (So did a wedding invitation ... eek!)


I've already put it on my keyring!

Isn't it adorable? I love quick little swaps like this. Thanks, Brooke! You rock!


Let me tell you that sometimes, when I wake up, my lips are huge. They look like collagen-induced nightmares. Today they're big enough that I can barely put my bottom lip over my top lip. It feels really funny. (I don't know why I shared that, but happy Random Tidbit About Xa Day!)


You know what they say about people with big lips ...

Also, I will say that sometime the gamer dork in me comes out to say hello, and I dive into a video game I haven't played in ages. Most recently it was Super Mario World, but now I've been sucked into Zelda. Lemme 'splain.

On Friday I was suddenly struck by the need to play the (rescued from my brothers) N64 that's been hiding in the bottom of my entertainment center for ages. I dug out the console, the cables, and all the games I have (some of which, like Madden and Star Wars Rogue Squadron, I'll never play). And then I saw it: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. And I dove in with my character named Izzard. (I'm covered in bees! Help!)

I've already beaten two of the dungeons; one without any help whatsoever. I'm pretty proud of having beaten the ice palace without cheating. It only took me two tries — the second without any fairies. The only reason I had to go it again was that I was running out of time. Most Zelda games don't really have time limits, except in mini-games. Majora's Mask is an exception: your character has three days to save Clock Town from the giant moon that's going to crash into the city.

Luckily, your character gets to play a song on his ocarina that allows him to manipulate time — you can jump forward half a day, slow time down so it's double-speed, or save and start again on the first day. (The only problem with that last one is if you don't save your rupees in the bank, they all disappear. So do arrows, bombs, magic beans, and other funky stuff like that. But that's all easy enough to recover.)

That said, I'm ready to tackle the third dungeon, which is on the ocean. And maybe hit a few spider houses once I get the hookshot from the pirate.

Okay, that's plenty of geekery for a Monday.

Wee Tiny Sock Swap

I haven't blogged lately. Oops!

I joined Yarn Miracle's Wee Tiny Sock Swap a couple of weeks ago. I just sent this little one to live with Mariie, who lives in one of the other states that starts with 'I'.


Like my inside-out Panta? Me too.

The yarn is left over from my Bellatrix socks: Skacel Trampoline. The needles were US 0 (I think. I couldn't find my gauge to measure them, and they were almost the biggest in the packet of aluminum sock needles.) I turned the sock into a keychain and threw on a little charm because I thought it would make it cuter. I think it worked.

Alma mater

I'm back from the alma mater now, having spent the weekend in the usual schmoozefest that happens when they have alumni gatherings. Not to say it wasn't fun, because it really was. The concert Friday night was standard fare for the end-of-year first-year choir concerts: lots of songs, and boys with rather dorky but fun choreography. We stopped at La Rana (which is Spanish for "The Rana", of course) on both Friday and Saturday nights. We drank ourselves quite drunkly, I must say. ($67 table tab in one night? Yes please!) After church and an 88-piece sushi platter at Cho Sun, we parted ways with the usual, "Oh, let's get together this summer!" (Which, unfortunately, doesn't always work out.)

Our lodgings for the weekend were pretty interesting; we stayed at a friend's house. She was out for the weekend photographing someone's wedding, and we were left to our own devices with an empty house and a horse in dog's clothing Shuba the giant schnoodle, which seems to be a cross between a giant schnauzer and a poodle. (Emphasis on giant.)

I had a very fun time, friends. Can't wait to get together again.



The AC has been going nonstop all day here at work due to most of the women in the other end of the office going through menopause (or it was hot today), and the return vent is about five feet from my desk. It's like being next to a jet plane when it takes off, or like driving for hours in a car with a muffler that's going out. I feel rather deaf, so I'm going to call it a day.

Oh, and before I forget ... I received my final package from Monster Pal just before I left for the Bulbous Nose of Iowa. It was fantastical, filled with four skeins of Lamb's Pride Worsted, a book on felted knitting that I haven't really gotten to peruse, and chocolates. Woo! I scored big. And I figured out who my SP is, thanks to a little unscrambly game she made: Mrs_P! What a rockstar.

Actually, everyone's a rockstar lately; I got my Gaiman angel package from zkitten last week, too. Sister Berte brought it into the office for me on Wed.

Oh, and remind me to tell you sometime about the house suddenly being sans roommates. Yep, they're moving out. Random, right? Right.

Peace out.

Don't worry, I'm here!

Hello, friends, and welcome to another edition of "Crimson's Been A Very Bad Blogger"!

As today is the infamously known and insidious Friday the 13th, I thought it would be a good day to post something other than a meme. (Really, although I like memes to a point, posting two in a row is quite unnecessary.)

Firstly, the forsythia (aka Giant Shrub Of Doom) in all its yellow splendor. It has since passed the flowering stage; all the flowers are brown and leaves are slowly beginning to bud. Really, it looks like it died. But it didn't.



Secondly the stash, which fit rather neatly on a twin size inflatable mattress (you might recognize this, Dustro, as I crashed on the very same mattress for the NYE bash). I put it in front of the forsythia on the lawn, but all you could see were the trimmings, so I went with this shot instead. I took it on April 2, the day after the official Flash Your Stash day, but I didn't think many would care.



And lastly, hats.



The description attached to the pattern for this first one said "makes baby look like tree elf" or something. I thought it would be a cute little hat for baby T. Baby T and momma D are coming up in May for a bit of a visit.



This last one is one momma D requested: a hat with a skull. I did her one better and put four on it. The skulls are loosely based off Hello Yarn's We Call Them Pirates hat. The skull pictured has an eyepatch, which I saw somewhere else and thought it was entirely too clever. It's a rectangular hat, by the way, with tassels on the top corners. Very adorable. I had my mom iron some interfacing on the strands on the inside so they won't catch on anything. It should keep it safe from puckering, I hope.

The yarn for both hats is Dale of Norway Stork, 100% cotton and very soft. I held it doubled in the skulls hat, as I learned that fingering weight doubled is the same as worsted weight.

I made another black and white hat for baby T, just a simple striped beanie that I haven't photographed yet. I'm working on a pair of black no-slip baby booties in the remainder of the yarn. I might embroider little white skulls on them, if I have a chance. I think momma D will be pleasantly surprised.

I've also been working on more stuff for The End swap, and trying to come up with a really good package for the last SP8 sendoff by the end of this month. I've got some entrelac-in-the-round to start up here pretty soon, so I best get to that. And perhaps read through my feeds, as my Google Reader is full up of interesting stuff to know.

I signed up to go to the 25th anniversary of Pike Kor and Norsemen; I'm waiting to hear back from LC. I'm kind of excited. I hope BS and D(S)O'M were able to sign up, too. It should be fun.

When the first bud opes

I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass, And the river flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opes, And the faint perfume from its chalice steals — I know what the caged bird feels! —Sympathy, Paul Lawrence Dunbar*


Spring is my favorite season. It has been for at least a few years. Fall is a close runner up to spring, though I prefer the growing to the harvest. Snow gets old fast (especially when it's slushy and dirty). Hot, muggy Iowa summer days get old faster.

It's the green that gets me, I think. The green on our front lawn seems so vivid; looking at the bright, saturated grass, it's as though I've never seen color before now. Especially on days when a mist hangs in the air, perhaps as a last glimpse of night, I'm struck with awe. I love it.

---

I've finally gotten my pictures from the latest package from MonsterPal on my Flickr. This is a photo of the yummy scarf she sent. I love the colors! It must be Noro. I sent out a package to my SP a few days ago. It should arrive by the weekend. I hope she likes it.

I worked on a bit of HP swap stuff last night. Something I'd intended to finish for the Hogwarts Houses swap is going to be used for The End swap, as it's still the right color. I needed the needles to start project number two, so I just went ahead and finished the WIP. I'd show a picture, but I haven't taken one. And I want Mint to be surprised. After I cleared the needles last night, I cast on this morning for a sort of cozy. It will be about the size of a small handheld device — phone? camera? iPod? I'm not telling.

Also, Knittyboard's annual Flash Your Stash is on April 1. I'll have to see if I can clear a space in the house long enough to flash ... hopefully the cats won't attack my yarn. I joined the Flash last year, so I should probably see how my stash enhancement has developed over the last year. I've got time. I'll take a personal day tomorrow. It's not like I have a whole lot to do at work at the moment, now that we've gotten moved.


* I chose this stanza of the poem particularly for the line that reads "When the first bird sings and the first bud opes," though I do love the rest of the piece. That line captures how I feel about spring, I think.

Ba-ba-ba-books!

Because I can't resist books or memes, here's one from Lick My Sticks.

In the list of books below, bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)
9. *Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. +Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. +Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. *A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. +Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees (Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. The Stand (Stephen King)
19. +Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. +The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morrie (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. +Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) (Trying to finish this one)
34. 1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. *The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. *The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. *The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible (some, from class mostly)
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. +The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. +Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. +She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. +The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. +Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. *The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood) (I keep confusing her with Kingsolver for some reason.)
60. +The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger) (Working on it.)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. Interview with the Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. *Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. +One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) (Tried, couldn't stand it.)
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. *Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. *The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On the Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. *Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. Watership Down (Richard Adams)
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding) (I read this on the bus in Turkey.)
93. The Good Earth (Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. *The Outsiders (S. E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98.* A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. *The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)


I got a great package from Monster Pal today ... I'll see if I can post photos tomorrow. (It's almost time for choir rehearsal, so I best get my butt in gear and stop eating these delicious Jolly Rancher jelly beans.)

So it's Thursday again

Everything has pretty much mellowed out at work regarding the move. We can't move until there are cables for phone and the internets, but we have to move before the 24th, lest we be caught in the middle of an auction. So we're continuing to pack stuff up as usual.

This weekend, there is apparently a show and parade at a local gay bar coordinated by friends of Kas and Sister Berte. (And by extension, friends of mine.) I expect we'll have fun. Next week, the fam and I are intending to take advantage of my brothers' spring break and head down to Kansas City. We heard that the Dead Sea Scrolls will be displayed at Union Station, and wanted to have a look. I doubt my brothers will be interested, but my parents and I are. And on the 25th, the local music club is giving a recital, in which our dear Timmy is performing. I look forward to that, too, as I haven't heard him sing in a bit.

Oh, and Kas and Sister Berte got a new Jeep, as the black Jeep's tranny problems weren't to be resolved. It's a nice 2000 model, a Laredo, I think. Fun stuff.

Otherwise, I'm trying to think of good crafts for The End swap, though I haven't received my match info yet. I haven't managed to block Swallowtail, either. I kind of need to find ample blocking space first.

I ran across a nice recipe for peanut butter cookies that I'd like to try this afternoon. They're gluten free (ooh, aah).

So, in closing, all I can really say is ... blarg.

Yes, I'm still here

I know, I know. It's been a minute since I've blogged. I have kept up, mostly, on the blogs I read regularly, not to worry. It's just that I've been quite busy lately, doing all sorts of random stuff. Here's a rundown:

• sent my Hogwarts Houses items to liebschien, who received them with joy and rapture
• received liebschien's fantastically crafted Hogwarts House items
• made some ATCs, some of which I entered into a Craftster contest
• sent and received matchboxes full of doodads
• almost lost my job at the end of April due to our upcoming office move
• didn't end up losing my job after all
• worked on a cat tree until the electric screwdriver's charge died
• joined another HP swap ("The End of Harry Potter Swap") because I had so much fun with the last one

... among other things.

So it's been fun. I've realized over the past few days that I've somehow been sleeping wrong and as such my shoulder is kinked up all to hell. It might be time to find some new pillows, as the ones I have been sleeping on aren't doing diddly. Either that or I'll just start sleeping on this kickass owl pillow from liebschien.

Entrelac? Yes, please!

I thought I'd post a little teaser photo for my Hogwarts swap partner. Here you can see some entrelac done in Gryffindor colors. While I was working this project, I realized how amazing entrelac looks. It appears as though it's strips of knitting woven together, which is not the case at all. It really inspires me to do a little more entrelac knitting. Perhaps I'll go with a variegated yarn next time, that colors the squares automatically. Or maybe I'll try Eunny's entrelac socks in the knew Interweave Knits. I love it love it love it.

On with work so's I can get home and glue one more thing ... (oh, and speaking of glue, has anyone noticed how unique E6000 smells? Whew! But boy does it stick.)

Ah, it's Monday again

Them's some long Oscars, yo. Glad to see Helen Mirren picked up Best Actress and that Melissa Etheridge's song from An Inconvenient Truth took Best Song. Pan's Labyrinth got a couple of well-deserved Oscars as well (Art Direction indeed!). When it finally finished at around 11:15 last night, we flipped to Showtime tout de suite and caught the last of The L Word (which had its usual cliffhanger ending). I went to sleep almost immediately, but I'm still a very tired girl.

Ah, I heard back about the library position on Saturday morning while my mom and I were taking in some vocal jazz music in Creston (a hole of a town in my opinion). No dice, unfortunately; they wanted someone whose schedule was a little more adaptable. Oh well. My mom and I spent the rest of the morning browsing a couple of local shops in Creston — a fabric store and a scrapbooking shop.

The scrapbooking shop was my favorite, partly becacuse I don't sew but mostly because it was the type of place that sells lots of bits and bobs rather than scads of paper. There were lots of little charms and stickers and other fun stuff. I think the best part of the shop, though, was that it is a converted post office. It's a huge old building, rather courthouse / city hall-esque, with intact marble floors and old mail slots and counters.

I finished up a lot of items for my Hogwarts swap yesterday: knitting, crochet, doodles and a snap here or there. I'm planning a glue session during lunch, as there are apparently a lot of things that need to stick to other things. The matchboxes are done and will go out at lunch. I haven't heard from my Gaiman swap partner in a while. I'm wondering if she got bogged down with school or something. I do know that she got my package, though, so that's something.

I took the smallest cat, Gwiffen (whose full name is Slartibartfast), to the vet this morning, where I shelled out far more money than I expected on shots. I took him to a different vet instead of the privately owned one, and boy did it show. Good thing I got paid ... but I'm still kind of afraid to see what my balance is. Ah well.

But I heard tell of fudge in the back office, so I'm going to go find it.

Hecticity

I had my interview at the library this morning. It went well, but the library director said she'd gotten 20 applications and that some have degrees (even master's degrees), though not in the field. So we'll see what happens. I'll just be checking my phone obsessively for the next couple of days.

Last night I attended my brothers' pops concert. All of the performers did well (oh, how I love watching them sing and dance). One of their friends sang Evanescence's "Hello"; I think Amy Lee would have been proud of it. She has a very powerful voice, and I've been impressed by her talents frequently. She's a great actor as well.

In craft land, I've been working (albeit slowly, with all the hecticity* of work) on something inspired loosely on Knitty's Danica, an entrelac scarf. It won't be a scarf by the time I'm through with it. I've also got a couple of other things to find for the swap, but I may end up making my own. No hints, liebschien!

Tonight I plan to finish my matchboxes for the other swap. I just got the last address this morning, so maybe I can finish tonight and send tomorrow or Monday.

Now to get back to work and breakfast: yummy bagel chips dipped in Cranberry Boysenberry yogurt. Mmmm.


*New word. I thought I made it up just now, but apparently someone's put it on Urban Dictionary. At any rate, I thought it sounded better than hecticness.

I made you a cookie ...

I don't have anything constructive to say except that aside from work, I'm working on swap stuff (mostly Hogwarts Houses, though I've got some matchboxes to finish up). So I decided to share some photos from Cats hosted by Knitemare that kind of made me bust a gut.






Hasta!

TG&F!

Thank Gred and Forge! (I dunno. Call me crazy.)

Funny how having security cameras installed at your workplace just makes you feel like a criminal, innit? Actually, no. It's not funny, it sucks. 'Specially when we're moving out of this building in less than two months.

I got a surprise day off yesterday (mostly because that's when they were installing security cameras), which I spent applying for another part-time job (librarian), buying cheap-yet-clever crafty stuff, and making a huge mess in the living room (being crafty).

I joined another swap — the Fill-a-Matchbox Suppy Swap — mostly because I wanted an excuse to make funky stuff out of matchboxes. (I've seen altered matchboxes and matchbox shrines; they're pretty clever.) I found lots of stuff to put in the three I signed up for ... just by going through my beading / wire-working box. So apart from gathering little stuff, I've painted the boxes themselves. They're going to get more decorations, probably with Mod Podge or fun pens or something requiring hot glue. (I bought my very own hot glue gun a week ago to finish something for the Gaiman Swap. I love it. Yes, Dustro, I love a glue gun.)

Anyway, work calls.

Merda fit.

Shit happens. Today's title would be a particularly apt descrtiption of last week. I described it to a couple of people thusly: Imagine having a bad day, then having the same bad day four times in a row. So here's to having a much better week.

---

I realized the other day that I hadn't posted any pictures of what MonsterPal sent me, despite having taken them on Tuesday with the office digital. Above you can see the whole package, except the chocolates. (They were mysteriously absent from the photo shoot.)

The yarns: the orange yarn is Fonty, an angora/wool blend; the blue is MonsterPal's own handspun. I love it, and am trying to think of a really good project. The Renew lotion works quite well — I've been very happy with it so far. The wooden needle case didn't photograph well, but it's certainly gorgeous. And lastly, the skull booty from Paw and Claw Designs: it is fantastic. There's some really amazing art on their Etsy shop. (There are little gems on the ends of the bones, which I think is just adorable.)

As for today, my goals over the lunch hour (which at 1:50 p.m. still hasn't arrived) include mailing two swap packages — SP8 and Gaiman — and buying a box of cheap-o valentines. Aside from the lunch part.

I haven't done a lot of knitting lately, but I bet it would sure cut down on this crazy work stress.

*headdesk*

Oh. My. Gourd. Today has been one of those days. I got to the door of my office just a little before 9 a.m. There was a post-it on the door and my first thought was, "Oh, great. They changed the locks." My key wouldn't turn. So, with 3 degrees on the bank clock and slightly damp hair, I was calling the number on the post-it and saying, "Hey, it's a bit chilly out here. Can someone come unlock the bloody door?" See, when the boss man changed the locks on the building this weekend, he neglected to tell anyone that actually works in the building. (That would make too much sense.) He just told the people in the other building. Apparently, in the grand scheme of this whole business, I am chopped liver, despite my managerial label. Good to know where you stand, I guess.

I should have known at that point that the rest of the day would follow similar lines. However, my upstream SP — that's the one that spoils me — must've known today would be stupid and arranged for exact date delivery. She sent a very awesome package, which included chocolate. (That was the best part, as it helped to alleviate my feelings that for the most part today sucked big, fat donkey balls.) She also sent some two kinds of yarn: one was some of her handspun in lovely blue shades; the other orange, French, and "the softest in the LYS". I also discovered, wrapped in colorful tissue paper, some awesome booty that she got from an Etsy shop (bad blogger! didn't bring the link!) and a wooden (tapestry) needle case. I really, really enjoyed the package. Thanks, Monster Pal! I hope to provide photos tomorrow.

Here's an interesting sentence: Eat and enjoy visiting with friends and neighbors. All in all, pretty plain, especially when broken down into two sentences: Eat with friends and neighbors. Enjoy visiting with friends and neighbors. Unless you, like I, have had a crazy day and do not imply the first 'with': Eat friends and neighbors. Enjoy visiting with friends and neighbors. That would be in line with Willie Wonka's remark on cannibalism: Everything in this room is eatable. Even *I'm* eatable. But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.

Yeah, I know. I feel crazier for having pointed that out.

500 posts!

Hooray! This is post #500! I can't believe CM has been going strong for so long. What a nice surprise today.

Let's see ... SP8 officially starts tomorrow, which means I ought to put up some sort of button or something. (Done!)

And the local art center is (still) begging me to teach a beginner's knitting class. I think it would be a lot of fun. I think about it off and on, about all the things that I'd want to do in preparation — swatch different stitches, swatch "right" and "wrong" techniques, have a giant swatch or display made with huge dowels and rope ... I know, call me crazy. But teachers get half of the entry tuition, which is a very good reason to ponder this further. Also, I should officially join the Friends of the Art Center group instead of just getting the mailing because we're a publication.

I haven't made much more progress on the shawl, unfortunately, but I've been working on stuff for the swaps I'm in. As I said earlier, SP8 is under way. Sendouts for the Neil Gaiman 3 swap on Craftster are next Friday; Fyberduck should be sending out the matches for the Hogwarts Houses swap tomorrow or Friday.

Oh, and I've officially been (sham)poo-free for a month. I notice a definite change, as my hair and scalp don't feel as dried out as usual. Winter is always the worst, but not so this time around. Now I just have to teach my face to keep up.

And off to the post office I go!

Honeycombs, swaps, and swallowtails

My mom's birthday was last Monday. I had decided to knit her a little something in order to keep off the chill when she's downstairs in sewing land, where there's no heat. (The basement is still unfinished.) I thought a nice wristwarmer and Calorimetry set would keep her warm. I used one skein of Lion Brand Wool in a purple-pink-orange sort of colorway; it had just enough yardage for the set.

I don't have any photos right now, but I'll give you my basic pattern for the wristwarmers. I used US 8 DPNs with the worsted weight wool. I started by casting on 42 stitches, using the alternate cable cast on (found at the bottom of the linked page). After 1 1/4 inches of 1x1 rib, I switched to a modified honeycomb cable.

1. C2F, *C2B, C2F* around.
2. Knit around.
3. Knit around.
4. C2B, *C2F, C2B* around.

It wasn't exactly even over the 42 stiches, as it's a 4-stitch repeat, but you couldn't really tell. After that, I did 4 or 5 rows of 2x1 ribbing, so it would pull in a little closer. I bound off in pattern, knitting the knits and purling the purls, and it was done. Were I to do it again, I think I'd make the stitches divisible by 4 to keep the honeycomb even.


Here you can see the chart over 12 stitches, created with VisiKnit.

Other than that, I've joined Secret Pal 8 on the Knitty board, and have been claimed by my upstream pal. I've also claimed my downstream pal. I've got some very good ideas for packages to send, so I just have to start getting them together.

I also joined a couple of other swaps on Craftster: Hogwarts Houses and Gaiman. I've got my partner for the Gaiman swap, and so have begun to work on rustling up some projects for that. Fyberduck, the busiest girl in the universe, is organizing the Hogwarts Houses swap, and will be sending our partners in the beginning of February. I've signed up as a Ravenclaw. I've also realized that my kindred spirit in the Harry Potter world is Luna Lovegood, because she's quite quirky and ... interesting. (I can't wait to see how she's portrayed in the upcoming release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.)

Oh, I almost forgot: Tim Gunn and Kate Moloney will soon be releasing a book, A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style. And now I think I'll get ready to go develop some film, and start a Swallowtail Shawl (inspired by this one) while I'm at it.

Edit: I've knit through one full repeat (of the requisite fourteen) of the second chart, and am thoroughly enjoying the pattern. I had wanted to start knitting lace more actively this year, but didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did, sitting at the Hy-Vee Starbucks drinking a caramel macchiato (tall's enough, thanks) and watching people.

Details of Past Craft Swaps

POTC Swap
POTC details
swap gallery
my photos

Ancient Cultures Swap
ACS details
swap gallery
my photos

Princess Bride Swap
PBS details
swap gallery
my photos

Earth Day Swap
EDS details
swap gallery
my photos