The Mother of All Posts

Man, I am a blogging slacker. Many other kinds of slackers too, but my blogging seems to be the worst. Almost three months and not a word and I left you with so many things to come! Well, the end of the year is coming to a close, so I figure I better wrap it up. There is moving, knitting, family and sudden realizations to come.

So, I made it to Oklahoma. Um...yeah. We'll just leave it at that. Moving on! Most of my stuff is either unpacked or in storage. The only things I kept out of storage were my yarn/fiber, clothes, and a selection of books. I, oops, sorry, I mean, my mom limited me to one six-foot bookcase. The only thing that contends for space in my realm is yarn and books. They are at constant battle. The knitting book shelves is an interesting boundary.

While I have been unpacking, putting yarn back into it's loving spots among plastic drawers and bins, it really, and truly hit me. I have officially hit SABLE status. For the non-fiber folks, that stands for Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy. That means that if I never (hah!) bought yarn again and just knit from what I have, I would not run out before I died. I have sat and looked at all the money that's locked up in the yarn and it is quite baffling. "Yes, my 8 little balls of cashmere. I know you were 50% off and to pass you up would have been a sin against the knitting gods, but when will I ever get to you?" Yeah, I talk to my yarn, what of it?!?

To counter-act that, let's look at some actual knitting that was accomplished. So remember what I was doing this time last year? Yeah, so that was apparently the start of a trend.
Yep, another one....actually, two but the other one is still on the needles. We just won't talk about it, shall we? Luckily, I got to pick the yarn so knitting this one didn't actually kill me. I got me some nice Cascade 220 and went to work. This one is for my cousin's new wife. They were just married last month. I really enjoyed this one and I think it turned out really well. However, I was definitely freaking out when it got a bath, saying "Please don't let the red bleed, please don't let the red bleed..." And it did, but only on to the white towel I had it drying on. Interesting, no? A towel can be bleached. White parts of a stocking cannot.

More to come....

So....much....CRAP!

Okay, so I am done-ish with packing before I leave and, as always, I don't understand why I have so much stuff. It boggles me.

A couple of weeks ago, my mom was down visiting for the PKD walk that we do every year. (Of course I forgot my camera...but I know someone has a picture...more to come.) She brought the pickup and we loaded it up with boxes that I had packed up and we filled it the best we were able. BTW, that first load had my knitting books in it and of course the day after she left I needed to look something up. I now have two large suitcases, two large duffles, 12 boxes, and various bags packed into my car and it still looks like I could be living there (short of the empty closet and dresser).

So here I sit in the "Business Office" at my apartment since my internet-connection apparatus is packed, there is a no wireless. Yeah, I sat at my laptop for 10 minutes trying to figure out why the internet wasn't working. S-M-R-T

Once I get to the Other State and get situated, hopefully, I can get those updates up that I have been promising! Happy knitting!

I'm Back

Allright, I'm officially back on the blog and things will be back to normal....well, normal-ish.

As I mentioned before, I've been away, dealing with things. Everything is fine now, so don't worry, but it was a little hairy there for a while, hence my absence from my and everyone else's blog. Very long story short, I have ended up transferring to another Barnes & Noble and I will be moving....to Oklahoma....and living with my parents. Surprisingly, the bad part about this is the living in Oklahoma.

Now, I don't want to hear from all the Okies about me ragging on their state. It's nothing personal. Oklahoma and I have just never gotten along. Last time I went to visit my parents (who moved there not too long ago), I got my new-to-me car and the state chased me out with TWO tornados. Yeah, we don't like each other. We aren't going to talk about the last time I actually lived in OK. Plus, I'm a Texan, so there you go.

So this week, I have been packing, which is quite a chore 'cause long-time readers of the ol' blog will know how much CRAP I have. It's progressing nicely and all was going well. This weekend we had the DFW Knit Out which was awesome and I got to see folks I haven't knit with in a while. Tonight, however, was my last Knit Night with the Rockstars. We had a blast doing some eating, drinking, and knitting. I left to go home and then it hit me. I'm really leaving. Yeah, I cried the whole way home. It's crazy how it just hits you like that after all the preparation.

But things move forward and it's not like I'll never be back......or wat least I hope I will!! TTYL

MIA

Okay, so I'm here.....sort of. Stuff has been going down and I have really been paying much attention to the blogosphere lately. I miss all of ya'll greatly and will be getting back into the swing of things soon.

I just wanted to let you know that I am here and I haven't been buried underneath a pile of yarn and fiber (although that is always a possibility). Information will be coming forthwith, including my experience in meeting the person I most wanted to meet. Well, famous person that is....all though some of ya'll bloggers are pretty famous, whether you know it or not.

Until then, may your gauge be correct and may you always have enough yarn!

P.S. Ripped out the sleeve on the baby sweater, started to reknit it again and still forgot to add on the stitches at the beginning of the rows. Yeah....it's still in time-out. FTL

Verbal Expletives

I seem to be in a funk. A knitting funk. Thus, the lack of knitting content lately. I had a nice knitting day with my friend Becky and actually started to progress a bit on a baby sweater for one that's due in August. Figured I should get going on it.That would be the EZ February Sweater being done in CottonTots. I do like the pattern....probably make the adult version someday.

So I'm at the Rockstar meetup on Tuesday, planning on finishing the second sleeve. Had to keep the little the mojo I had going. So I do finish the second sleeve that night and sit back to admire my work. This is the point at which I came very close to a very loud verbal expletive in the middle of a public place.

I had forgot to increase the 14 stitches on my sleeve.

Shit.

So, I pick out the bind off, put it back on the needles, wind up the yarn and put it in the bag. It's still sitting there. It's in time out. It's been naughty.

New Year's Day Curse

Want to guarantee something won't happen, like say trying to blog more? Make it a New Year's Resolution. That's sure to nip it in the bud. So, since it has been a while, that makes for a long post. I'll at least lead you in with some good knitterly content: my adventures from World-Wide Knit-In-Public (WWKIP) Day.

That Saturday morning, both Diana and I had to work for a few hours and the ol' B&N. Diana was wonderful promoting our National Holiday. We even got a coworker to make out with some yarn!
Okay, small tangent (you knew it was coming). The night before, say around 10pm I finally decide to get my stuff together for the next day. I start sorting through projects...and more projects.....and I realize, I do not have a portable, mindless project on the needles. That's ok....I'll pick out some sock yarn that I wanted to just make some plain socks out of. Also, I wanted some done toe-up for me. (Why did I not take my mom's socks? Well, me and the calf increases still aren't speaking to each other. I would just end up making a scene.) I cast on toe-up with the crochet CO, got it started and put it in the bag, after about 4 rows.

Okay, so back to WWKIP day. Diana and I get ready to head south to pick up Kristina and meet up with the other Rockstars. I reach for my knitting bag for the directions to her house. Didn't bring that bag. Schnikes!! That's okay....I'll just call her. Forgot my phone. Double schnikes!! So much for leaving straight from work.

After a small detour to my apartment, we head down south, pick up Kristina, and head to north Dallas where we go to hop on the DART rail to head downtown. That was our big thing for WWKIP day. We were going to take mass transportation for as much of the day as we could. The DART lines don't quite reach up to us, so we had to drive a little ways. Not only is it "good for the environment", it's good for the wallet.

Okay, so this is my first time on a train of any kind, so this was an experience for me. I grew up out in West Texas where the term "Mass Transportation" involved the back of someone's pick-up. I would have to say, I absolutely loved it! If I lived a little farther south, I would be using it every day. As we wait on our train, we, obviously, pullout our knitting. I'm going along when I realize.....I really need to go down a needle size.....badly. Triple schnikes!!! We still hadn't left the car yet, so I run and get my emergency knitting out of the car. If you want to know, it constitutes of a pair of US 19 needles, a skein of Homespun wrapped into a double stranded ball, CO 10 stitches, K till you run outta yarn. Perfect scarf. Plus, I tell myself, we are stopping by a LYS, I could pick up some needles later.

After our train ride, we met up with the other Rockstars for lunch at the Trinity Hall Pub.Apparently, I should have just skipped work and gone straight to the Pub because Dawn had earmarked several cute European soccer fans, but they left right before we got there. Damn...

After we were done eating and drinking (of which I did none, for which I was thankful for later), we hopped back on the train to head to The Shabby Sheep. This involved taking the train to the only underground trainstop, taking two very long escalators topside, where happened to be about 10 feet from the freeway. Completely freaked Dawn out. We then headed over to the spot where we were going to hop on a trolley. And these were originally trolley's folks. It was awesome.From here, we walked to The Shabby Sheep. Now, we were originally under the assumption that it was 2 blocks from the trolley stop. Oh not so....try about 6-8.....in June......in Texas. And being in Texas, most of us are in flip-flops. So, once we got to the shop, the shop owner took one look and got us all some water. It was wonderful. So I got my US0 for my socks when I saw it. I had searched for the perfect shade of it and never really found one I liked enough to buy. Meet my future My-So-Called Scarf.My first Manos. I seriously couldn't have left this there if I tried.....and I did. Didn't happen.

After we left the shop, we lost a few Rockstars to a cab back to the station, but others of us were on a mission. We headed down to the Dallas Museum of Art in search of a statue. We searched high and low, even had to stop and take a knitting/water break.Then we began to search and search. And with some help from the DMA, we found it.We loved the accuracy of the statue: the unlady-like posture, the multiple bags she carries, and the fact that she had multiple projects in said bag. It was a good end of the day.

WIP it Wednesday

Thanks for all of the complements on my hair. I absolutely love it! The length is just perfect. Shorter would be bad. We've been down that road...it wasn't pretty. Longer and it would juuuust be too short for a ponytail and that would drive me nuts. I have even almost gotten to the point of got getting out a gallon of shampoo to wash my hair. What's harder than putting shampoo back in the bottle: conditioner.

Here we have the current, active WIPs:This my lifetime-perpetual project, enabled by Tasha. This is my first square for a Barn-Raising quilt from the new Knitalong book. This has become my purse knitting 'cause it's mindless and easy to remember! Great for using up sock scraps. You might recognize this as the Lorna's from my Flaming Monkeys.

I decided I needed a larger needle and a baby sweater for my boss, so I started a EZ February Sweater outta some CottonTots. When I first saw the sweater I really loved it, until I realized that it was done on small needles. You know me and kid stuff on small needles. But after surfing the Ravelry, always dangerous, I notice alot of people doing out of worsted, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Since summer it starting, this is the time of year when we start......
CHRISTMAS KNITTING!!! That's right folks! For those of us who are trying to be proactive about our Christmas knitting (or those of us who tend to knit REALLY slow), we use the 100 degree temperatures to remind us that in the knitting world, Christmas is just around the corner. This is destined to be a surprise Christmas stocking, and on the off chance they see the blog, this will be the last time you see it until it is given. Frankly, this is more of a Hey-mom-I-really-did-cast-it-on kinda entry! :-) (BTW, I got a little free reign on this one, so it's getting made out of Cascade 220, not Red Heart this year. WOO HOO!!) This is #1 of 2 that will need to be done, which is why I'm starting now like a good lil' knitter.

Scrunchies Need Not Apply

Yep, won't need a scrunchie for quite a while.....

It's so long....and HOT.....

Aahhh......that's better......

Although I don't have the 20-second hairdo anymore, I really like it! Much cooler for the Texas weather. Interestingly, my aunt had another gal come in that day to donate hair and a gal who was recovering from cancer. Crazy!

Birthday, Part Deux

Yep, I made it through the night, and surprisingly, didn't have a hangover. Don't know how THAT happened......

The actual part of my birthday was even better! I group of my friends and I hung out for most of the day doing fun stuff.

Did I take my camera? Of course.....

Did I actually take any pictures? Of course not.....

But I can show you the results!

Stop #1Manicures and Pedicures....don't my feets look better?

Stop #2Went and saw Indiana Jones. Come on, if this movie came out on YOUR birthday, you'd go see it opening day too! Didn't hurt that it came out on a Thursday, which is College Day at the movie theater, i.e. $3.50 admittance. Fun Fact: The last time I saw my birthday as a release date on a movie poster? Mission: Impossible.

Stop #3:
The Woolie Ewe....one of the biggest LYSs in the area. First, I got a free bag for being in their Ravelry group. Second, a selection of Cascade 220 for some Christmas stockings I am making for my aunt. Next, Happy Birthday to me - a skein of Berroco Comfort Sock in Dusk (which is SO freakin' soft and just wanna roll around in it) and a Woolie Ewe mug, which the sales lady threw in for my birthday! Lastly, a lovely selection of Plymouth Happy Feet in #2, which was given to me by my friend Kerry. She "made" me pick out some yarn for my birthday.

Stop #4
Home...for a home cooked meal. Yeah, I could have gone out, but there is something to be said for making yourself a really good meal. I don't really cook for myself very often, mainly just as far as stir-fry. I mainly cook when there are more people to cook for. But then I wondered why I didn't feel like I was important enough to cook all-out for. So, that's what I did....sort of. First, the wine and cheese course:Hmmmm.....I love me some Laughing Cow Cheese.....even better with my carefully horded last bottle of "Family Reunion" wine.The main course: Roasted chicken, roasted rosemary & garlic potatoes, and corn-on-the-cob. This is where I cut corners....I just bought a roasted chicken. Frankly, it's too freakin' hot to be roasting a chicken in my apartment.

My birthday was great and I had a wonderful time. I will be adding to the fun this weekend as I head out for the weekend to go visit family. First on my list, chopping off my hair. T-minus 18 hours.....I can't wait......

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Alright, so apparently, it has to be a holiday for me to post, seeing as the last time I posted it was Earth Day. But today is my birthday and to celebrate, I am vowing to update the blog more efficiently. (We aren't going to talk about the fact that it was also a New Year's Resolution).

So, 27 years ago today, at 12:01 am, my lovely mama gave birth to me. Even though I took my sweet time about it (23 hours), she decided to keep me around.

And when you are live in a college town and have college friends, what do you do, especially when these "college bars" have things called "birthday shots"....
My Official Birthday Dealers......my choice on Mexican Beer Night (do they have these anywhere but Texas?)........"Oh, it's your birthday?!? Lemme buy you a shot! (Red-headed Slut, if you must know....)
...My First Free-Birthday-Bar Shot (Fancy Pants - 180 Energy drink w/ a shot of vodka)........This was another "It's Your Birthday?!?"-shot (Red-headed Slut), but we just thought the picture came out really cool.....

...We found another guy celebrating his birthday, so we took free birthday shots together....
...Finished of the night with another Mexican Beer and a sandwich from the only place that was open , within walking distance.......

...on a complete side-note (follow the bouncing bunny....), I got the Veggie Sub (only 'cause my veggie friend wanted to split.) Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE me some dead cow (or chicken), but this was truly an awesome sandwich. Even if you are a meat-lover like me, you gotta try it. End of song.

Yes, I took my camera. What kind of nerd do you think I am?!? I promise, this is not all that will happen today. Just what has happened in the first 2.5 hours of my birthday. I promise to follow up with other happenings, especially what has happened in the past month that I haven't blogged!

Happy Earth Day

So, yeah, it's Earth Day. It seems everyone is doing something to celebrate and well, you know me. I'm a joiner! So I figure today at SnB I will start my Zoom Swiffer Cover (pdf). I have thought about doing one for a while, especially after reading weeze's study. I am a huge fan of the entire Swiffer line, so anything that will keep me from using the disposable cloths is a good thing.

So after reading Bezzie's post, I thought I would share the few things that I do. Granted, like Bezzie, it's kind of a side-effect of cheapassness, but hey, it still counts!My Market Bags (formally of Magknits, linked to author's pdf). I have made these two, but really need another. These things are wonderful and SOOOO much better than the non-earth-friendly counterparts. They form much better to food and boxed and don't blow out when you poke a hole in it with some sharp corner. I think you can hold a lot more in them too. Plus, knitting them out of cotton, if something leaks or whatnot, you can just throw it in the washing machine.Reusable containers. This is my favorite! It's a Wonderbread sandwich container. It a little battered from being loved so much. It fits nicely in my purse and I can go quite a while before having to wash it. Granted, the sandwich is usually peanut butter or turkey with mustard - not exactly mess-makers. I rarely use plastic bags for anything. I will put anything else in a reusable container.Programmable thermostat. One of the best investments in my apartment. This helps by turning off the AC/Heat when I am not home, without having to remember to turn it off. Even if you aren't sure of what settings are good for you, most of them come with an "Energy Star" set of settings. These are designed to effectively use the energy. I only changed it a smidge by having it cool down a few more degrees in the evening (74 degrees from 6-10pm) main 'cause this is Texas and it's hot! But even so, I have the cheapest electric bill in the entire complex.Windows. Free light. It's just that simple. I usually don't have any lights one, just the blinds open.

My recycling initiative. Bezzie commented last time that she liked my above-bed shelving. That's because The Bez has a cheap eye! :-P I absconded those from work. They were formally "corrugated displays" for paperback books. Next time you go to your favorite bookstore, you will see them EVERYWHERE! Once the promotion is over, we do recycle them (we recycle a TON of cardboard), unless a bookseller absconds with them. So, I get free shelves and extend the life of a manufactured recyclable. Go me....

Sidenote: I discovered a new level of crack...the literary kind. Check out Shelfari at your own risk. It's addictive. I will be trying to keep it current with what I am reading. I warn you, it's random!

I must have been born the Year of the Rat.....

.....or at least the Year of the Pack Rat. But my mother says I come by it honestly from my father, so see, it's not really my fault! When I started my whole "cleaning frenzy", this is one of the things I was trying to overcome. Mainly, getting rid of the stuff I REALLY don't need, i.e. TRASH!!! This means that whatever I keep needs to have a place. But even after going through everything, I still have a hard time finding a place for it all.

You see, I have a lot of stuff. Granted, as a knitter, you acquire the necessary implements of the trade: needles, yarn, books, fiber, the wheel, etc. As a student, you acquire a plethora of books, notes, journals, etc. When you like to read (and work at a bookstore), you also acquire various reading material. This makes for a very crowded bedroom.The paperback collection...along with my most read works, Harry Potter and the Outlander series......More yarn storage, hardcovers, chemistry texts, knitting texts, and class notes.
"The Desk"....this is its natural state. Like the rest of my bedroom, this is as good as it gets. It is just a permanent state of chaos. No use in trying to tame the beast.

Speaking of taming the beast, this one will be tamed at the end of May.....I am planning on donating my hair at the end of May. By then I should have enough and still have shoulder length hair. I am sure by then I will be begging for my aunt to cut it off 'cause, well, it gets a bit warm in Texas by Memorial Day weekend.

Proof positive....

All right, so apparently I struck a chord with folks who hate to clean. Did quite realize ya'll felt the same way. I have even had a few converts! However, off-line I have had a few skeptics wonder if I have actually cleaned. Seems there is some sort of disbelief going on...can't imagine why....

Well, check out......the living room.....
Look, ma! You can see the floor!
Hey, that's about as organized as the knitting area gets.....Yeah, that's only a smidge of the amount of tea I have...it's crazy......but tasty!God I need a bigger kitchen.......It's so white...........a free of makeup residue.......



What? Can't here you.....you say you wonder where the pictures of my bedroom are? Well, yeah, so the bedroom isn't quite done yet. It always seems to be the last to happen.

Hey, look knitting!Pattern: Evangeline, formally of MagKnits
Yarn: Lion Brand WoolEase in Blue Mist
Needles: US 8
Notes: These were done elbow length, per the recipient's request. These were for a coworker and she was just ecstatic over them. Seriously, she wore them for like an hour around the store. Good to be appreciated.