L A S T
1. Friend you saw: Umm... Does Dylan count? If not then Zana I guess
2. Talked to on the phone: Krystal
3. Text: no cell phone
4. IMed: Krystal

T O D A Y
1. Wearing: Red shirt and old ripped jeans
2. Better than yesterday? Man I hope so

T O M O R R O W
1. Is: Saturday
2. Got any plans: Gotta get groceries and maybe mow the grass cause it looks bad
3. Dislikes about tomorrow: See my plans. lol

F A V OR I T E
1. Number: 4 or 7
2. Color: Don't have one.
3. Season: fall

C U R R E N T L Y
1. Missing someone: yeah
2. Mood: Blah
3. Wanting: A million dollars. I'd have so much yarn....

Q U E S T I O N S / A N S W E R S
Q: first thing you did this morning?
Brushed my hair cause it was awful

Q: Do you have anything bothering you?
Sinus headache, money worries

Q: What's annoying you right now?
The stupid "Delilah" song on tv

Q: Do you support long distance relationships?
Yeah, but I can honestly say I hated being in one

Q: Is there a person who is on your mind right now?
yeah, Krystal because she had a root canal today and I know she was really scared

Q: Do you think that that person is thinking of you too?
I don't know, it depends on how bad her mouth is hurting right now

Q: Where is the last place you went?
The bank last night

Q: Do you look like your family?
Yeah, I look like my dad

Q: Do you smile often?
Depends on how I feel


Q: Choose one to have (love, beauty, creativity):
creativity.

Q: Do you wish upon stars?
sometimes

Q: Are you a friendly person?
Usually

Q: Who's bed did you sleep in last night?
The bed I share with Dylan

Q. What were you doing at 9 last night?
Talking to Krystal and worrying Dylan would have a hard time finding a bus home

Q: When is the last time you saw your parent(s)?
*sigh* Over a year ago. I miss ya mama

Q: When was the last time you cried?
Well I got a little teary answering that last question, but if you don't count that then I guess I'd have to say yesterday

Q: Do you get angry easily?
Depends on the state of my hormones. *grin*

Q: What were you thinking about before you went to sleep?
I don't remember

Q: What song are you listening to right now?
"Glenuig Hall"... Celtic music, k? It relaxes me

Q: Rate life as of right now 1-10.
4 or 5 It'll get better though. I'm buying yarn today

S A D S E C T I O N

01. Have you ever really cried your heart out?
Yes

02. Have you ever cried yourself to sleep?
Yes

03. Have you ever cried on your friend's shoulder?
Once. Not friends with that person anymore though

04. Do you cry when you get an injury ?
Not usually. Physical pain doesn't do that to me

H A P P Y S E C T I O N

01. Are you a happy person?
Sometimes

02. What can always make you happy?
Dylan (a good 95% of the time lol), Krystal, writing, knitting, Hanson

03. Do you wish you were happier?
Oh yeah

04. Is being happy overrated?
I don't think so

05. Can music make you happy?
Almost always

L O V E S E C T I O N

01.Anyone besides your family ever said they loved you?
Yeah

02.Have you ever told someone you loved them?
Yeah

H A T E S E C T I O N

01. Who do you actually hate?
I don't hate anyone. I feel hating someone only hurts you. The person you hate isn't usually bothered by the fact that you hate them

02. Have you ever made a hate list?
no

03. Are you a mean bully?
no

04. Do you like George Bush?
No. I think I may have liked him for a grand total of 6 months into his first term. After that... well...

E V E R :

-ridden in a taxi
yes

-jumped a ramp on a bike
I dunno, maybe

-been used
yes

-been fired
No

-celebrated New Year's in Times Square or Disney World
no

-gone on a blind date.
yes

-had a crush on a teacher
yes

-celebrated Mardi-Gras in New Orleans.
no

-been to Paris.
no

-skipped class.
No. I skipped school, but just a class? no

-had a sleepover.
yeah

-gone ice skating
no

-had your tonsils taken out
yeah

-have had a truck.
no

-totaled a car.
Totaled Mom and Dad's van by hitting a deer

C U R R E N T L Y W E A R I N G

01. Shorts?
no

02. Shoes?
no

03. Necklace?
no

H A V E Y O U E V E R

01. Hugged someone?
yeah

02. Been on the phone until the sun came up?
yes

03. Put a song on repeat for more than an hour?
yeah

L A S T S

01. Last person you talked to in person ?
Dylan's mum

02. Last person you talked to online?

Krystal


03. Person you talked to on the phone?
Krystal

04. Person you hugged?
Dylan

05. Person who made you laugh?
Dylan or Krystal

06. Person you messaged on myspace?
Barrett

O T H E R

01. Do you get along with your parent(s)?
Usually

C U R R E N T

01. Current Mood:
Tired, grumpy, and worried

02. Current hair:
Up in a ponytail with my bangs pulled back. The usual

03. Current Thing You Ought To Be Doing?
Going to pay our bill at the pharmacy and going to buy myself yarn

04. Current desktop picture?
Some Happy Tree friends thing. I should make my own account on the computer so I can have my own stuff. Happy Tree Friends grosses me out sometimes

05. Current music?
Some Celtic thing in Gaelic

Bad Knitting Mojo

So as Krystal (that hobag) pointed out in her comment to my last post, I've had a bit of bad luck with my knitting lately. The shawl that never even made it to the blog was struck first. "Why would she stop with just four rows left to knit on the edging?" You may be saying to yourself (as if anyone but Krystal and Dylan and my mom read this blog lol). Well, I stopped because I had to. I ran out of yarn. Yes, I have to buy a whole new ball... a whole 220 yard ball... for four rows. *has the urge to impale herself on her needles* I'll just make a scarf or something out of it.

And then this morning I pick up the mystery project (so far un-named because I wasn't sure I liked it and was going to keep it) and work on it while waiting to see Dylan off to work. Somehow, I don't know how (it could have been that I was ogling Elvira Kurt) I missed a yarnover or something. But now the pretty mesh is a jumble of messed up stitches. It will probably be going to the frog pond.

I think the knitting gods have been angered by me starting a new novel. Can't knit if I'm writing. I think I need another pair of arms. lol

B, C, and Actual Knitting Content

That alpha-blogging thing didn't get off to such a great start. lol Let's try this again. Today's post: B & C

B

Books. Really. I'd die without them. I always have at least 3 or 4 out from the library at any given time, not counting my knitting books.

Basketball. The only sport ever created that can keep my attention for more than an hour. Spurs kick ass baby!

Boys. Yes, I know, this may seem strange because a good 80% of the time I'm not attracted to bio men (excluding two Hansons and a certain actor) but I have a specific boy in mind here. Gay boys. Gotta love them. The world would be an awful place were it not for gay men. ;)


C

Chocolate. (Maybe I should have saved this for "d" since it's dark chocolate I'm talking about. Oh well.)

Crochet hooks. Best way to pick up dropped stitches, hands down. (I'm a dork. I'm aware. Moving on.)

Computers. Without them I would have never become a knitter. Without Knitty I would have thought the world of knitting patterns was made up of fun fur and baby clothes.


Ok, now on to the knitting content. I told you there would be some. I'm always curious about the process behind knitting. What made that knitter decide on that pattern with that yarn? What went into the design? The technical parts are all part of the fun for me. So I thought I'd go over how I pick out a new knitting project, since I have space in the queue for a new project. A shawl that never even made it to the blog is 99.9% done, all that's left is four rows of edging and a good blocking.

So how I start varies. Sometimes I start with the project in mind and then find needles and yarn accordingly. This time I have the yarn and needles, but no certain project in mind. I think this is my favorite way to start, but it can also be frustrating.

To start off I have some laceweight and size three needles (one of my preferred sizes for knitting with laceweight). I have a crochet hook too, just in case I need it for a cast on or a dropped stitch. I've already done a gauge swatch with this yarn and these needles and I know I'm getting around 20 sts/4". Gauge isn't crucial for a shawl, so I'm not overly concerned about it. I'm just keeping it in mind for a guideline.



Merino Oro (There's more than this, this is just one ball I've wound. We won't speak of the rest of it)



Usually I would start with the internet because there are an incredible amount of patterns out there. Knitting Pattern Central is one of my favorite stops for getting started. But this time I have a great book out of the library, so I'm going to start there.





This is an amazing book. I have to admit that there may be only 3 or 4 patterns in this book, out of 40 I think, that I don't want to knit at some point. I definitely want this book for Christmas. I'd leave that as a hint for Dylan, but he's gotten bored and clicked away by this point.

I start off by just flipping through the book and seeing what jumps out at me. This book has wonderful pictures.






This is the first shawl that jumps out at me. Looking at the pattern I see that the center panel is made up of a simple 6 stitch, 8 row repeat that also makes up a good chunk of the border. I'm not sure if I can do something this monotonous, but I really love this shawl so I'm leaving it on the list for now.






This is the shawl that prompted me to want to look at this book in the first place. It's called "The Cap Shawl" and it was originally written as the top of a baby hat. I love this shawl, but I don't know that I want to knit something in the round that's this big. This is a shawl of massive proportions. I'm taking this off the list right away because, as much as I love it, I have many projects going right now and I need something that's going to be a little bit quicker than that.






This is another gargantuan shawl. It's gorgeous, but taking a closer look at the center panel I can see that it's a little too simple for me. Also it's knit in the round (there are half hexagon and fichu sizes as well that are knitted flat but the biggest one is the one that struck me the most) and I have size 3 dpns and a size 3 24" circular, but I don't own anything between that and I wasn't wanting to buy anymore new needles for this project.






The color is off in this photo but the shawl itself comes through just fine. Looking at this one I can see that the center panel is interesting enough to keep me occupied and the overall piece is beautiful. This is definitely the leading contender for my new project.






This is another one that I really really like. The construction is really unique as well. You cast on for the wide border and work it first, knitting it to the length of shawl you want, then you turn and pick up stitches for a simple and very narrow center pattern worked widthwise. Then you cast on stitches again for the other side of the wide border and work it lengthwise again. This is giving the previous shawl a run for it's money.






This is another one where the color is off (this digital camera really does not like the color orange) but once again the shawl comes through just fine. I like this shawl a lot, but doing an big triangle out of trinity stitch in white yarn? YAWN Maybe with some handpainted or something.







This pattern was one of the first to jump out at me, but looking at it a little more I can see that it's just the bottom pattern that I like. I would get past the clover leaf lace chart and hate the shawl. Possibly even sooner. I like the color variation of this one though. I'm a big fan of natural colored wool.





I like this one as well, but after just a few minutes of studying it I can see that it's really just the border I like. The center pattern would be too repetitive for me. Also, it's garter stitch. I don't like garter stitch too much.



This one is one I really like a lot, but I can't quite put my finger on why. I don't like the border too much, I feel it overwhelms the center panel. I would probably change the border to something a little less geometric, maybe even the border from the shawl above. I don't really want to have to fiddle with the design of anything though. The shawl I'm just about finished with is one of my own design and I've had enough of that for now.

By this point I've narrowed it down to two shawls, the green one with the interesting construction and the orange one whose color won't show up properly. I would give the real names of the patterns, but when this book was written not much thought was given to names. The name of the green one? "Scarf with the No 20 edging from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, 1850" So they'll be green and orange from this point on.

Looking at green's pattern, I can see that the gauge is similar to mine (18 sts to 4") and the size is pretty good. I can also see that the yardage is about half of what I have. I'm not sure of the width (20"). I was wanting something a little wider, but I think I could modify the center panel by working more rows of chart b. The only thing still bothering me is the idea of picking up 222 stitches to work the center panel. We'll come back to this one.

For orange the most important thing for me is that there's only patterning on right side rows of the center panel. I need that purl across row to give my brain a rest and enable me to work on this around my husband without tears. The border has something going on every row, but I really think that it's do-able. The width is exactly what I had in mind, the gauge is close enough (again, 18 sts to 4"). The only thing I'm concerned about is the yardage. It's exactly what I have and that concerns me because my gauge doesn't match completely. I'm worried I'll run out of yarn. While buying more laceweight wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for me, I'm trying to keep the stash under control and having an unknown amount of laceweight sitting around waiting for me to turn it into something makes me twitchy.

I think for sanity's sake I'm going to go with green. I can deal with picking up 222 stitches a lot more than worrying I'll run out of yarn.

A is for....

So I'm stealing a blog idea from PoMo Golightly, whose blog I found through Yarn-A-Go-Go, since I've been a little light on the blog content lately. In an attempt at posting every day or nearly every day...

A is for

Angora. Softest fiber I've ever touched. Also the most expensive. $15 a ball at my lys and it's a small ball

Autumn. My favorite season. Absolute favorite. Seriously. I wish it could be autumn all year long.

Angelina Jolie. Nuff said.

What my body is worth

$4500.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. From Mingle2 - Free Online Dating

Mingle² - Dating Site

New Scarf

Yarn: Patons SWS "Natural Violet"
Needles: Boye size 6
Pattern: My own. 17 stitches in seed stitch. I love how the green and brown stripes lined up at the ends and in the middle.

Posting this so I remember

This is the pattern I'm working on. It's a rip off of the "Baby Suprise Jacket". Just in case I get up tomorrow and think "Where the hell did I find that pattern and what do I do next?"

The Ex

Taking inspiration from Stephanie (see her post from the 6th), today's post will be "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" Saskatoon Ex style.

The Good:

-Dog shows. Seriously, those Superdogs were pretty cool. Especially Pot Roast (the "watermelon with legs" or bulldog lol) (To see Pot Roast go to the page I linked to and look at the third dog down)

-Petting zoos. Got to touch a sheep and an alpaca. Yeah baby.

-Funnel cakes

-Bus drivers with cool Aussie accents (see the bus thing under "The Bad")



The Bad:

-The crowds once the sun went down. Good Lord.

-My aching feet

-Free Ex shuttle buses that were packed so full of people that they were standing in the aisles

-Getting to the Confederation bus terminal and finding out there is ONE bus left to catch (Scary!)

-Being so tired that I can't even bring myself to get up out of this chair to go to the bathroom and make myself something to eat lol


The Ugly

-People who smoke in public places. Really. Just because you want to coat your lungs in tar doesn't mean you have to come sit down beside me on a public bench and light one up. And you got smoke on my yarn. It's rude.

-Rude carnies.

-Heavy backpacks that make it so even wearing a BRA hurts the next day

I love LOLCats

Your Score: Lion Warning Cat

80% Affectionate, 62% Excitable, 48% Hungry

You are the good Samaritan of the lolcat world. Protecting others from danger by shouting observations and guidance in cases of imminent threat, you believe in the well-being of everyone.



To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

MS3 update

I've just finished clue 2 and I'm completely excited about the theme being posted tomorrow. I'm almost 100% positive there's a dragon involved. My evidence:


I've outlined the dragon's face in red, the eyes in purple. See it now Krystal? (btw, my beads are so not hot pink like they're showing up in this picture. More of a mauvey purple.)