Definately not as good as Cabo.

Spring break has really gone down hill from Monday, it’s been rainy and cold and I’m bad at taking my antibiotics and I’m relapsing a little bit (and I’m underestimating because I’ve ingested a LOT of Advil) . So I’ve done knitting on this and that and I blocked the lacewings shawl but I need to take pictures yet (I’m sick). Anyway, because I’m sick and also because it’s Friday and we can’t eat meat Mom and I went to the movies for “lunch” (ok, popcorn) and we saw Blades of Glory, which was a typical Will Farrell movie, vulgar, ridiculous, and pretty darn funny. I’m not sure if Will Farrell got hurt enough for everyone to like it (one of my friends dislikes him a lot and only likes Talladega Nights because Will Farrell gets hurt a lot) but I liked it. It helped me that my Mom used to be a figure skater so we grew up watching skating and skating ourselves a bit so I really enjoyed it. I think I’ve been desensitized to these kind of movies though because Mom couldn’t get past the disgusting parts (there were quite a few) and I didn’t mind too much , though, so I’m either desensitized or else the medicine got to me.
Also this post makes me really happy because I filled this whole page with only posts I’ve made in March (which is only 10, but I’m still proud of it). I don’t think I’ve managed it before and so I’m very glad to have done it, finally. Perhaps I’ll become a good blogger.
Also, for a Brothers Karamazov I’ve only got 11 hours left now, which is pretty good considering (sick=sleepy). I passed from part 3 to part 4 today and it felt really good.
Anyways now I’m going to close because I keep coughing so hard that I tear up and can’t see and now I should sleep.

So no knitting today. I am sick and all my energy was spent fixing a terrible wrong in my living space. This morning my closet looked like this:
This is what I found under those clothes:
And this is what it looks like now.This is my entry way.
This is it now (sorry for the lack of turning again)
It looks so much better in real life, I messed it up a bit right before I took this picture by taking things like my book and water over to my bed for sleep. In case you’re wondering what is going on with the pink stripedy thing it is covering another wall flaw like the one you can see in the picture there. I have plans to put quarters and remnants and all sorts of clothy things all over my room like that (I’m not allowed to paint it). It’s all a result of this being next to the room where my sisters and I used to play and where my youngest sister lived. There is a lot of stuff on the walls and I’m feeling so much better with just the few I’ve already done.

Moving on, this is my bed, note how there were no sheets, and junk all over it.
And this is the wall behind the now spider man sheeted bed (yes, I have spider man sheet, I really am an 8-year-old boy deep down)

I like these a lot. I always wanted to paint this wall bright pink (it’s the one with arguably the most damage) and the brocade remnant and the quarter from JoAnn (God bless that store) are a most welcome change of pace. My old bedroom was very green and as I can’t paint either my dorm room or this the guest room, I’m glad for whatever color I can bring in.
Now I am sure you are wondering why am sharing the disgustingnessthat was my room with you all. Well, to put this plainly (because I am pissed off about it and I feel like sharing) my sister and mother (mostly my sister) have been treating my room (Dad says it is my room) as a dump and every time I come home for a break I need to clean my room all over again. I really dislike cleaning, especially when it is not my mess. Needless to say I am less than pleased about spending my whole day making this room nice again and I do not look forward to doing this again next time (Dad says he’ll keep my sister out but I don’t believe it). On the bright side I’ve been listening to Brothers Karamazov all day with the result that I have now listened to 20.5 hours of it and I’m beginning to realize how much this is serialized fiction. Oh my goodness is Dostoevsky long winded.
Anyway I’m sick and it’s late and perhaps I’ll knit again before I sleep, that would be nice.

I am such a bad blogger

I mean Curt Schilling has more posts than me. And he’s a busy professional baseball player. Oy. I’m mostly just popping in to say ‘hi’ complain that I am inferior than Curt Schilling (I guess I knew that already though, didn’t I?) And to show/remind you of this:

Harry Potter Cover Art! I like how different the color sceme for this one is so different from what it has been in the past. All the other American covers have tended to the cool side of the spectrum with the exception of Chamber of Secrets which was predominated by a rich, almost jewel toned. red. This cover seems to have taken its pallete from a sunset, I suppose it could be a sunrise in the sky back there, but considering where Harry’s heading I’m inclined to believe it’s a sunset. The concept will look great on the Halfway Day T-Shirt. Halfway day is the midpoint between the announcement of the release date for the Harry Potter book and the actual release date itself. I celebrate with a custom T-Shirt (I think I may tie dye this year’s). This year halfway day is in mid April but I don’t have the date at home with me. Previously I’ve been pretty bad about the t-shirts (for Half-Blood Prince the Art was really off center) but I knew this was coming and hopefully I can make some rockin’ Potterwear!
Talk to you tonight!

Friggin Taxes

I just don’t understand how this all works and where I thought I understood now I have no clue, but as it is approaching midnight I’m giving up and I’ll blog instead. I really feel like a bad person because I took so long to post about the wonderfulness that is my swap partner. To tell the truth I had a horrible two weeks leading up to and through my birthday. It was 90% unrelated to anything except outside things (neither school, nor knitting, nor reading related) taking up so much time that I had no time for anything anymore. Anyway in the depths of all of this I received (on March 16, right before my birthday) this: Now not only do I, as everyone else must I’m sure, love getting mail, but this came so immediately before my birthday and after I told her (or him) that it was my birthday that I decided it was meant to be a birthday present and the fact that I opened it a few days early was of no matter. It really made my day and (here I begin to cry trying to describe what it meant to me) I was in such a dark place that this totally restored me to light because someone out there actually cared about me enough to send me a little present. So, swap buddy, if you’re reading this THANK YOU, thank you, Thank You.
I mentioned a while ago that I had received another package and I did take a picture of it (on top of the beautifully decorated LnV envelope as a mater of fact). Here it is:
A Susan Bates sock needle set. I saw one over Christmas Break and have been lusting after it ever since. As I was faced with a JoAnn Gift Certificate I used it to my advantage and had this sent to me. It came the day before the LnV package and once again made my day. I have yet to use these (I have a knitting related plot which I’ll get to in a moment) because I’m knitting other things and not any of my beautiful sock yarns, but you can bet your boots I will knit with these soon!
So on to my knitting related plot. I have been obsessed lately (inspired by a certain someone) with whipping my life into order. I’ve made to do lists, organized my life (no, really), and I really want to knit all of my UFO’s (which is about 3 at the moment, because I’ve lost all the other ones) I finished the Lacewings shawl (I still need to block it; then I’ll post pictures), and I’ve made little progress on nothing else since. I need to be in a color work mood to work on the Tiffany mittens, I failed for hours at the second feather and fan sock, and I started the wrist warmers you saw yesterday. The only sign of progress anyone can see is the Weasley Sweater. Now I started the Weasley sweater in January 2006 as my interim project. I made the back and started the front before the knitting Olympics got in the way. As I am painfully aware I didn’t finish my Tubey sweater until October and until last week the Weasley languished in the bottom drawer of my stash unit (I’m a poor college student, give me a break!) I think this picture may have been taken while I was still on the back but here is the only other picture of the sweater:

From January 2006. And here is the front now:

It’s maybe 10 inches long right now. I have a strong and desperate desire to finish it in the next week, because a week from today I will be getting ready to meet the Yarn Harlot. Luckily for me I still have… 30 hours of Brothers K left (give or take some minutes). Now I’m off on a desperate quest… I am going to clean my room. Update tomorrow.

Almost as good as Cabo

I apologise in advance for my lack of any kind of photo editing including and mostly limited to being too lazy to rotate photos before I uploaded them into blogger. Sorry guys!

So it was 81 degrees today. 81. I picked a really good week to be on spring break. Speaking of break I think this may be the first time I’ve managed to blog while on break. I think the weather is totally to blame, for once I’m between being completely inactive (alright I was completely inactive between Friday and Today) and totally over scheduled (like I am when I come home for the weekend in the middle of the semester). I’m just mostly stuck at home, but there’s plenty to do. Mostly, I need to “read” The Brothers Karamazov.
As I’ve mentioned in the sidebar Brothers K (as we affectionately call it) has been my requires bedtime reading for my fifth and (thank God!) final Great Conversation class. There is no way of getting out of it, we’re spending two weeks on discussing this monster and there is no way to fake your way through that much discussion. I’ve been terrified all semester as friend after friend has told me their reading speed on this, we’re hearing 20 pages an hour. For reference, I tend to read about 80-100 pages an hour on fiction and when I’m reading a new book and have a lot of enthusiasm/adrenaline I’ve been known to push that even higher (I read the entirety of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in 4 hours the first time). So needless to say I was less than pleased at trudging at a depressingly slow clip through my least favorite of all genres, Russian Literature (it’s true, my copy of Anna Karenina is covered in various multicolored versions of “I hate Russian Literature”). I’d rather read the driest, most boring scientific textbook in existence than face another long Russian novel. It’s not that I dislike the ideas , The Seagull is actually one of my favorite plays and I find it very thought provoking, despite it being Russian, but the endless philosophical drivel and the unending talk about class and socialism and politics make it impossible for me to really enjoy a lick of the book. Now we know that our edition of Brothers K (not listed on Amazon anymore for some reason) is exactly one page longer than the American Edition Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I’m not sure if it’s hardcover or paperback, because as you can see:
my book is still unopened but my guess is the latter so longer than everything except Order of the Phoenix and Deathly Hallows and at 20 pages an hour it would be about the same length (37 hours) as listening to the Audio book. So I’m listening to the audio book and I am going to knit up a storm, clean and (provided there’s time) redecorate my room, do a huge amount of chores, and I’ll probably still be scrambling for things to do with my leftover Brothers K time. Now the best part about the Brothers K thing is that I gave up TV for lent (well, watching TV alone) and this will fill the hours that I probably would have spent watching Angel or Buffy otherwise.
So after that long ramble I should really get back to where I left myself at knit out. When we last left out heroine she had been joined by her mother and the two were preparing to plunder and pillage their way across the Mall of America in search of knitting goodies. There was so much plunder that when I finally got around to unpacking it all I just put it in piles according to what kind of stuff it was. So this will appear in no particular order and I’ll explain what I can remember about everything.Not from the knit out but still partially knitting related this ingenious little doohickey props open your book so you can read hands free, page turning is not the easiest of processes but you can get into the rhythm eventually. I had one of these guys and lost it so this is one of two replacements ans stands as the best solution I’ve found so far for knitting and reading at the same time.
A Clover catalogue. In case you forgot I bought a set of clover bamboo size 0s in London and I loved them to pieces (sadly one of those was literally) so I am trying valiantly not to order anything from this catalogue.
Clover bamboo size 17’s. I have no clue what I’ll knit on Bamboo size 17’s but I know I could slay a few vampires with
This is a pin we got from Clover, which I should have worn on St. Patrick’s day but I forgot due to the fact that I was distracted by my own flashing Shamrock Earrings. I thought it was just so cool of Clover to give us this, it was part of what won them the favorite both award in my book.

My single favorite item from the pillage, my very own needle gauge! I’ve been wanting one forever and I am so glad to finally have one. I’ve put mine to good use already by organizing the DPN’s and I put Mom’s to good use by finding 5 5’s for a project I started here out of the disorganisation that is her needle stash.Just a shot of the pile of full size magazines, patterns and advertisements I got (I predict that I will use exactly 0 of these but they were free)

Crochet hooks may be the spawn of the dark arts but I really like that I have them. I do have serious ambitions of the amigurumi type so you never know but I may just put these to good use someday. half size ads… le sigh
a sample of one of the Vicki Howell Yarns. I’m not sure which one this is, (the one with Milk in it maybe) but I like the color!The real yarn haul!!! There are four skeins of the fluffy stuff (I’m dreaming of a mostly free sweater!) and some surprisingly complimentary free “crap” yarn (this may provide the means for creating Amigurumi aliens)
the Half sized patterns, The Mason-Dixon girls (Happy Birthday Kay!) would be so proud of the mitered square blanket on top there!

And finally knitting content! I’ve been quoting Evil Willow all day and I think my family is getting sick of hearing “Bored Now” every ten to twenty minutes (were Brother’s K a sentient being I think it would be more sick than anyone). Now I don;t feel like working on my most current project, I’ve resurrected the abandoned Weasley sweater (do you remember it from last January) my progress thus far has been negative due to dropped stitches and a bit where I knit part of a purl row but I figure I can get used to endless flat stockinette again, especially because I have an insane desire to finish it before April 4 when Her Harlotness comes. This may seem impossible until you remember that I have 37 hours of Brothers K to listen to and suddenly 3/4 of a sweater in 8 days seems possible. I have plans for it, but I’ll talk about it tomorrow when I have no plans a a whole lot of free time. Anyway the child of toady’s boredom was this: Which will be yet another pair of wrist warmers this time for a friend who I don’t think reads this blog but I won’t name because she may just be as bored as I am this week and she does not have Brothers K hanging over her head (lucky nonner*). I also want to block the Lacewings shawl, finish the Tiffany Mittens, and knit a sock. My guess is the sock and the sweater won’t finish, but the other two (being gifts) will.

This has been epic and no matter what Blogger says it’s actually 2 am on the 27th so I’m gonna sleep now. Nightie Night! (I’m gonna listen to Brothers K to go to sleep…Sadly)

*as opposed to a conner, or someone participating in Great Conversation
**Also, today I discovered I can spell Amigurumi correctly, which makes it my third most impressive word that I can spell from memory after Nietzsche and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (I learned that one before the musical made it easy!)

St. Patrick’s Day ( a bit late)

Happy (late) St. Patrick’s Day Everyone! I know everyone and their brother posts this blessing but I really love it.

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the Sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields,
Until we meet again, may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

It’s my birthday today so if I don’t post for the 18th you’ll know why but there will be lots of pictures with lots and lots of swag (I got 2 packages and took pictures of my Knit Out Swag and it’s my birthday so there will be presents). This may take more than one post!

Fun in the sun and Knit out post 1

I’m good at rhymes. 🙂
Anyway so I’ve been waiting on making the post for knit out until I took pictures of all the swag I’d gathered. But I’m a lazy bum and I haven’t even touched any of it lately so I thought I’d updat with what I have done. First off, I’ve been pretty active about the photography side of things lately, for those who don’t know I’m a fairly accomplished photographer and I’ve produced a lot of images for yearbooks and publicity stuff and this year I started working for the newspaper here at school. My favorite assignment so far was the Motion City Soundtrack Concert concert I covered this fall and for which the camera ate all of the pictures (I took some really good ones too!). My second favorite was covering the dedication ceremony for our newly restored chapel and organ and while the best picture I got of oran and choir made it into the paper, my favorite overall shot was left by the wayside. However, thanks to the glory of blogging I can still share it:
I made the candles match up with the windows. 🙂
Anyhoo, knit out! I can’t believe it was almost a month ago already, it seems like only yesterday I was showing the tiger mittens the snowy Minnesota countryside
Of course while the miten and I were making our may to the Mall of America I remembered that while I lacked a pair of mittens, what I really needed in my outerwear was a pair of fingertip gloves. And so I pulled the gloves back a bit and they rapidly became the tiger gloves.
So once we reached the Mall of America the Tiger glove and I began meeting knitters. We were playing in Legoland (I actually drooled over the Star destroyer, real drool too, not metaphorical stuff) when a nice lady pulled us aside and asked if my sweater was the Fairly Easy Fair Isle from Sittch ‘n Bitch Nation, which, of course, it was. It turned out that this nice lady was a knitter who was allergic to wool and was wondering if the sweater could be knit in a non-wool. Now it so happens tht I could not afford wool at the time of my knitting the Fairly easy Fair Isle and it happens to be knit in Lion Brand Jiffy which is similar in guage but not anything else to the lamb’s pride bulky called for by the pattern. After telling her about the non wooliness of the sweater I told her about Amy’s book, which she had not heard of (imagine! not knowing of the guru behind knitty!) Speaking of Amy I started the eventful demand for her in Minneapolis and we’ve reached #3 on the most demands list. I’m striving for at least #2 so if anyone hasn’t voted yet or doesn’t care I would be much obliged if you would go put in a vote for us! Back at knit out, the tiger glove and I took in all the knitters assembled to take advantage of the many freebies and knitting celebs present.

And then we proceeded to wait for Mom, for a really long time, which we filled by wandering around the mall. We went to buy the new Knit.1 and then went to the knit.1 booth to meet Michelle (I got a shout out on her blog, but forgot to take a picture with the tiger glove). Then we went shopping and bought some gloriously nerdy shirts (X-men AND Snakes on Plane!) and went to Starbucks (for Juice!) until Mom finally showed up…At which point I was too busy pillaging to get pictures, the swag will have to speak for itself.
In more recent news as the temperature rose snow began to melt my friends and I began a rather large project…
Snow penguins. They were destroyed by drunk and/or stupid people over the weekend but I got pictures right after we finished them. Those are my friends Brian and Carl posing with the Daddy and also the baby penguin.
And looking further in the past again (this post is readin like a postmodern novel) This is me with Cherry J0nes after seeing her in her Tony winning role in Doubt. I went with my sister on a whim during a home wekend and I was so glad I went, most of the original cast was there with the touring prouction and I just get shudders down my back thinking about it. I’ll discuss when I have time to go in more length.

Knitting Content:
I actually have some. The Lacewings shawl is thisclose to being finished. I had actually started casting off when I discovered that I didn’t have enough yarn. I’m currently tinking back one stitch at a time amd then I can cast off.And I also finished the Tiger gloves a while ago.
Stockinette + hard other projects = Tiger Gloves! Hopefully I’ll have the shawl finished and ready to show to you tomorrow, along with the rest of the Knit Out recap, but I’ve got a 17 item to do list for tomorrow and knitting, knit out recaps, and blogging are the easiest to put off until later.

Oooh! Also I found out the date for Stitch n’ Pitch 2007, July 22. Which would be the day after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out. I’ll be long finished with the book, and probably have caught up on sleep as well, but if I’m in mourning again (as I was in 2003 after OOP) I’ll need something black that is also knitted so I can show off.

Survey Says!

So not only have I been totally remiss about posting but also I just haven’t been knitting much. It’s been a week thus far, let me tell you. just one thing after another after another. Anyway to entertain the knitting masses I present, in living black and white. The Lime and Violet survey thingy. My partner sent me one she wrote herself, although the one I wrote for my partner was way funnier although I, obviously, can’t tell you anything else about it. It was funny though, and she thought so as well. Anyway onto the survey.
1. What kind of fibers do you prefer?
I am a woolslut but also a MoHor
2. What kind of weight do you prefer (sock, worsted, bulky)?
SOCK SOCK SOCKEDY SOCK SOCK SOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11
3. Do you spin?
Yes, when I have time and fiber
4. Do you crochet?
NO! I do not practice the dark arts. OK I know how to single crochet and I have a personalized signed copy of The Happy Hooker. No thank you on the crochet stuff though. 😛

5. Are there any books, patterns, magazines would you like to own that you don’t?
I tend to generally love interweave knits and have not a single issue of my own (I have to SHARE) but I’m pretty well set on books.
6. Are you participating in any themed a-longs like the Project Spectrum?
nope, well I am doing the ribbon along, with disastrous results as you well know.
7. Do you have a wishlist on Amazon.com or Half.com? (provide a link)
not that I update with any regularity
8. Any Etsy stores that you would love to get something from?
oooh! Sunshine Yarns!!! And Scout, even if she isn’t on Esty anymore.
9. What other crafty things are you involved in (quilting, drawing, painting)?
I have recently been a blossoming artist of the drawing variety. I’d love to get good enough to draw my superheroes in action.
10. What is your favorite sort of scent?
Rose and Peony!!!
11. Do you have a sweet tooth and what kind of sweets do you like best?
Um… yes I have a sweet tooth. Chocolate, black jelly beans
12. What kind of music do you like?
Almost all kinds, I’m in LOVE with Harry and the Potters, They Might Be Giants, Deidre Flint, Plain White T’s, Motion City Soundtrack, Hellogoodbye, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Jimmy Buffet, Flogging Molly, Broadway Soundtracks (I’m a Sondheim fiend, a Phantom Phan, and a recovering Wicked junkie)
13. What do you like to knit? And for whom?
I like to knit for myself mostly but I have a lot of friends who I want to shower in knitted goodness as well.
14. What sort of things do you like to collect?
Music, Yarn, I’d like a fiber collection, yarn, sock yarn, um… tea cups.
15. Do you want needles? And what kind do you prefer?
I don’t need needles really, I just ordered the Susan Bates Sock needle kit!

Yay for surveyness and I’ll post pics tomorrow!

Whenever God Closes one door, somwhere he opens a window

I am seriously an irony magnet lately. First I track all the times Bath is talked about in Jane Austen’s Persuasion while I’m in a nice relaxing Bath and now I start a post about a major change in my life than basically involves quiting theater (at least theater here at school) with a quote from a Musical (sound of music).
About quitting theater, I’m not going to be a theater major. I just am not feeling the love of theater anymore and it’s partially me and partially them and the combination is just not what I want to live with anymore. I need to say this here because I’ve made a habit of telling my blogistas (it’s way cooler than blog readers) about the big things that happen in my life because sometimes it’s just easier to tell you guys things than my family or in the days gone by my friends. I’m better off on those categories now and I’ve definately gotten my share of hugs and it’ll be alright’s and I knew you were a totsl Eglish major’s but it’s hard.
If I can say anything about my work ethic it’s that I’m not a quitter. I stuck with Greek through 3 GPA killing semesters and I Captained Debate for 3 seasons even though I hated it. So I really hate quitting, but now that I’m a grown up (sorta, except that I’m totally an 8-year-old boy inside) I need to make descisions that will effect the rest of my life and in this case I’m absolutely convinced that sticking with theater will do me absolutely no good in the long run. I need to just “pull the trigger” as my Dad put it when we talked about it on the way to school today (I was home for Saturday). I’ve decided not to pull just yet, I have to spend 12 more days at this before I can cut and run but the descision is made. I don’t like it, really I don’t, but the not liking is nothing like regret, I feel like this is the right way to go. I mean look at this blog, I spent an entire post rhapsodizing about a Jane Austen novel, I named half of it after my literary intersts. I’m just not a theater girl anymore. Thanks a f***ing lot St. Olaf Theater Department.
Currently it take 22 minutes to do a row on lacewings and I hate colorwork. SO progess is basically inperceptable. Now WHY can’t I just major in KNITTING???

I hate this, IT is starting. This is not Her IT, but my very own IT. IT starts as soon as the semester gets underway, like right now, when I suddenly find myself unable to work ahead and barely able to work on time. I get incredibly stressed out and get absolutely nothing done by fear of not being able toget anything done. I hate IT but right now I need to get over IT and write a ton of words before tomorrow. If there is good luck I’ll get at least a partial snow day tomorrow and this will all work out, if not… well I’ve always made it through IT in the past, but the trick is focus, which I happen to be lacking spectacularly right now. Lord Help Me.