That’s what sisters are for October 20, 2009

I’m lucky. I have a pretty sister to model my shawls, who happens to work at the same office as me. We had a spur of the moment photo shoot with the shawls I blocked last night. Here’s Di modeling the Zoe by Emily Kausalik.

Hopefully a review of the pattern and the Noro Silk Garden Sock will be up on Socks Debunked tomorrow. I am also planning on posting reviews of a couple more small shawl patterns and a couple sock yarns.

Christmas knitting is back into full swing again and I am less stressed about it at the moment. I found a few patterns that I am excited to work and in yarn that will be nice to work with. What I am dreading at the moment is the 4 or 5 hats that will need to be made. I’m sure I will be ready for those if I work through the other small shawls, chunky blanket and kids dino hoodie in quick time.

Tonight was nice. After work, I went to the yarn store and worked on my Christmas present at the moment and hung out with Dani. She gave me a silkscreened poster of lyrics from my favorite song of all time, “There is a Light that Never Goes Out” for my birthday. I love it and can’t wait to hang it in my music room in my new house.

I am refraining from posting about anything too deep this week because I am insanely stressed about work over the insane meeting last week. I figure if I try to keep everything light around me then things will lighten up and I will too. Time to catch up on tv missed and go to bed.

Current Listening:Those Darlins S/T

Rough. October 19, 2009

Work was a test in patience and just plain rough today. I had to take a couple of anxiety pills to calm down after being overwhelmed over really nothing. This was one of the telltale signs of a bad day (while counting money)

There is no use in detailing out the annoyances or my hate for my job. I feel it would just turn this blog into a bitching blog and no one likes a warm pickle. So after the insanely long day and waiting an hour at the pharmacy for my very expensive pills, it was nice to get home and block my shawls. I also watched the first disc of House (the only person crankier than me today) season 5 while working on my Traveling Woman shawl. The shawl is moving along fairly quickly and the Malabrigo is to die for. If I could knit out of Malabrigo for the rest of my life, I am pretty sure I would, in a heartbeat.

I’m hoping the shawls will be dry enough tomorrow to model and take pictures of to update my Ravelry projects and finally finally update on Socks Debunked
It has been way too long.

Current Listening: Jemina Pearl “Break it Up”

2/365 WIP October 16, 2009

Today I meant to get a picture of me and my sister at work but I forgot and it didn’t pan out. Most of the day I was wishing I could be home to watch the Adventures of Pete and Pete and work on my Limerick that Dani and I are reviewing for Socks Debunked. So I got home and went to work and it was nice and soothing. Below a not so pretty picture of the progress. The shawl is actually really pretty and going to be super awesome.

The yarn is Noro Kureyon Sock. I plan on getting a review up of that and the Silk Garden Sock. I have fallen behind on my Ravelry and blog updates. I hope to get back to it this weekend as well as my Christmas knitting.

It has begun August 11, 2009

This year is going to be different. In fact, it already is. I have a mostly completed list. I have most of the yarn purchased and actually am about 50% done with the first one. I am talking about my knitting holy grail. Christmas. For the past few years, I have been saying 95% of my Christmas gifts will be handmade and failed miserably everytime. But the main difference between this year and past years is that I made the decisions not at the end of November/beginning of December, I made the decisions in AUGUST. *taps head* I really thought this through this year and I am insanely proud of myself for it.

So far I am about $185 in for 12 people’s gifts. Pretty cheap compared to prior years. I just need the time. Lucky for me, I got picked for jury duty yesterday and will be at the courthouse at least until Friday if not next Monday. While waiting yesterday I finished the knitting portion of the bag Propeller by the awesome Kelley Deal. I just need to make the straps and duplicate stitch the pattern on the bag. No pics yet but soon.

While I plan to knit all of my Christmas presents, knit two pairs of socks a month as apart of the Cookie A sock along and SKA sock along, I will also be looking into buying a house. I am pretty jazzed and think it is wise for me to load up my plate to keep myself busy. My closest friends will be starting school again in a couple of weeks and won’t be able to hang out as much. Crazy, yes?

Here are some pics of previously mentioned projects:

Evangeline Gloves (inner goth)

Vilai in progress

Need to move laundry around and figure out what to wear to court today.

Current Listening: Sound Opinions Podcast

I’m Alone. That’s Okay. July 20, 2009

I am now 4 down on the big 1001 albums before I die project, 997 to go. I scribbled notes about everything under the moon while listening to those 4 records. I will hopefully get them in a coherent order and blog about it. After all the scribbling of the notes, I was mentally spent. It was like I opened my head and shook out all of my thoughts, which was fairly good.

What I figured out early on was that there are so many things I have always wanted to learn and know and research about music in general and the role it plays in our lives, I am especially interested in the gender politics in music, of fans and artists. I hope it will make an interesting read for the two people that read my blog and maybe make some sort of step towards school and maybe researching this topic in depth.

Meanwhile, my yarn stash has gotten a bit more out of control since the last time I attempted the stashbust. So I have gotten way more serious about it and am trying to crank out easy, quick projects. My favorite so far is my Malabrigo Morrissey button hat (thanks Dani for the pic! I take horrible pictures).

I made another one like it and will attach my peppermint White Stripes button. When I get pics of the other stuff I have made in the last week, I will post and probably create a separate page for all of it since I am journaling what I am knitting while listening to the 1001 albums of doom.

Current Listening: Elliott Smith (It’s gloomy outside and I am gloomy on the inside. Thanks last night’s dream. That was cool of you.)

A Plan July 19, 2009

I have a plan. I have loved music so much since I was a young child and me and my dad would watch MTV. Last year I got the insane idea that I would go album by album through the book 1001 Records You Must Hear Before You Die. I listened to a couple I already had (see repost below) and kind of got too intimidated by it. I AM GOING TO COMMIT TO DOING THIS IN THE SHORTEST AMOUNT OF TIME POSSIBLE. I have been in a rut lately music wise. I listen but haven’t really felt much and it’s upsetting. The one record this year that I absolutely adore above any other is the Dead Weather’s “Horehound.” It kicked the cobwebs out of the part of my brain that hearts the music and shook it alive. I want to figure out why I love the music I love and discover some music I may have missed out on.

The way I am going to slowly walk into the water (instead of jumping off the high diving board) is by going backwards, starting with the 2000s. I have plenty of the albums listed but am missing quite a few too. It will give me a chance to revisit some of those albums and find the reasons why I love them/hate them/nothing them.

I am going to let the experiment begin and detail it between here and probably Indie As. Plus it will give me something to really focus on while I am knitting mindless projects with stash yarn. More on that later since I actually am starting to make progress.

First album up on the EXPERIMENT: The White Stripes “Get Behind Me Satan”

Spinning Machine, I will be. July 6, 2009

With the change in my medication, I have been having a hard time focusing on anything for longer than 15 minutes. Needless to say, I am pretty frustrated. I tried to gauge swatch for a couple of things, tried watching Daily Show online, tried watch a movie, tried reading (and actually did finish a book and half way through two other books but mostly though I spent a bulk of my 3 day weekend just bouncing from room to room in my apartment frustrated.

Saturday was the beginning of the Tour de France meaning it was the start of the awesome Tour de Fleece. Spinners (and non spinners like me trying to be a spinner) spin everyday during the Tour to eat up stash, set personal goals and such. It’s pretty fun. My dear friend Daniella Marie bought me a spindle a month back and taught me how to spin. I have been slowly learning but still focusing on my knitting. During my vacation, I completed two pairs of socks and afterwords, picked back up my massive Girasole blanket (pattern by Jared Flood). I was trucking along, having tinked back 640 painful stitches while watching the Michael Jackson coverage, and finished a couple of the charts, only two have my two cables (separately) break on me.

I finally got back to the spinning on Saturday while at Dani’s house. We listened to a couple of records and recorded a podcast for Indie As, our music blog, about the two records we listened to and it slowly descended into our regular argument about Karen O and being “bigger than the sound.” I spun a little bit but not much since I was frustrated with my spinning not progressing fast enough. Dani spun a ton of stuff and will be adding to her shop what she spins and drum cards. Anyway, all the babbling leads to this…IT CLICKED this morning. I did a ton better today, not perfect but way better. I feel pretty good about it and cannot wait for the almost pound of roving I ordered last week to get here. Spinning machine, I will be!

Current Listening: MSNBC

Knitting for good, Not evil. February 24, 2009

Post title says it all. The Mouthy Maries (me and Daniella Marie) have decided that we need to take some time and work from our stash and knit for charity. Since Friday, I have so far made 6 baby hats and the beginnings of a baby blanket (I had a solid 16 hours at the yarn store on Friday and Saturday hanging out with Dani) that we are going to donate to our local foster care center and women’s shelters.  I plan to make a redonk amount of hats (not just baby), scarves and blankets.

The project will do the following things for me: a) keep me off the street and spending money I do not have, b)bust my stash, c) keep me entertained with quickie projects and other long term projects, d) gives me a real excuse to knit constantly instead of doing housework, laundry and other boring stuff and the biggest plus is that it helps out a few organizations that are close to my heart and don’t get nearly enough donations and funding.

Baby Hats Pattern I found via Ravelry: Preemie Hats for Charity

Baby Blanket Pattern (knit in the round=awesome) I found via Ravelry: Round or Pinwheel Baby Blanket

Destashed so far for this project:
2 skeins of Bernat Soy Natural Blends (5 baby hats)
.40 skein of Vanna’s Choice Baby (1 baby hat)
and much much more yarn to go!

If I was an internets wizard, I would get some sort of progress bar for my blog. (hmmm something to look into)

Current Listening: The Long Blondes-Someone to Drive You Home

I can always be found. February 13, 2009

The week is finally over. Every work week seems to get longer and longer. Anyway, I have no plans this weekend so this weekend I am going to disappear from the world and do some reorganizing and thinking. The only exception is my robot’s 6th birthday party at the rollerskating rink where me and her mom will be trying out our best late 80s/early 90s rollerskating moves and no doubt fall on our asses (more than once).

My apartment is completely out of control. I feel if I can finally get it and the yarn stash under control, my life will follow? At least I hope so. I think I am going to go through all of my yarn ball by ball and determine it’s project. I have a feeling a lot of it will be used for charity projects and I will want to do those NOW. Also I need to go through the closets and see if there is more stuff I can trade online or sell and do that too. Spring Cleaning is going to rule. I just need more storage ideas for stuff. Also it will be an awesome excuse to listen to a ton of music I haven’t heard in a while or have a Henry Rollins spoken word marathon. I haven’t decided yet.

Current Listening: Liars-”The Other Side of Mt. Heart Attack”

January=Lesson in Terror; February=Awesome. February 3, 2009

Yesterday was an excellent day. For the past six weeks, I have been stressed to the bone about the growths on my thyroid that was found on my MRI on my spine from my car accident in August. 2008 was a terrible year that included a redonk amount of visits to doctors, specialists and the physical therapy offices. I was hoping 2009 would not be a repeat. Long story short, the growths aren’t cancer and I was hoping to sleep better last night (didn’t but there is hope). Anyway, I have projects and such to babble about…

I foolishly joined the 100 day SAL group on Ravelry, to make as many socks I can out of my stash in the first 100 days of President Obama’s term (wow. that still feels really good to think and type and say). I have so far finished one pair of socks in Fibernatura’s Yummy and half way through a pair using Noro’s Kureyon sock yarn.

Since I am totally obsessed about stashbusting the sock yarn, I finally got around to making the first of the Endpaper Mitts using Brown Knit Picks Palette and bestie Dyed by Danido “Modern Romance” wool sock yarn. I think it’s beautiful and need to make the sister mitt as soon as I finish those Noro socks.

So between knitting like crazy and watching everything on my dvr before I return it and cancel cable (to save money boo) and ranting and raving on Mouthy Maries with Dani and working, I am pretty occupied. I did manage to finally get through “A Dull Roar” by Henry Rollins. It was good but I need to be in a certain headspace when reading his journals because it always does a number on my head. More on that later.

To recap: no wammies, knitting from sock yarn stash and keeping busy. Also since I have not really played tetris in the past few weeks, I now suck again.

Current Listening: Jeff Buckley “You & I”