Twists of Fate

YAY she finished! And congrats to all those who made it to the medal podium! Fantastic idea.

Upon reflection, I realized that I think I managed to knit a bit every single day since I cast on for the socks. That hasn’t happened in, well, I don’t know how long. So I count that as my Olympic accomplishment. Yay go me. *toots kazoo!*

Does anyone else find the fact that knitty.com’s store has Knitting Olympics stuff…odd? Like, are they profiting on the idea, or is that moolah going to MSF? Just wondering.

No real fiber content today. Still knitting away on the knee high socks….

I can’t remember which year it was when I read a story about Olympic officials being worried that their supply of condoms they were distributing free to the athletes was diminishing at such a rapid rate, they were worried they’d run out.

Talk about your international affairs!

That said, my whole theory behind participating in these Knitting Olympics has been rather like this - not everyone, or even most will medal, but boy howdy can I still have fun thanks to those free condoms.

To those who will or have medaled? I salute you! For the rest of us? Let’s find someplace with an open bar after the closing ceremonies and say “ciao!” with style!

And I thought I’d add a little something, just for all those who are actually, you know, trying to make it before the flame goes out.

Oh, wait. I take it back. This one is even better!

Not much fiber content today. I really had to fight hard to get out of bed this morning, which tells me I’m either PMSing, coming down with something, or just generally run down to the point where I’m going to spend most of the weekend sleeping and not getting much done. Feh. I did, however, manage to put the last of the Australian merino in for the pre-soak last night, which is a huge relief. One more giant bag of wool washed, dried and soon to be put away.

Oh! That reminds me! I can’t sew for the life of me, but needed to find some sort of inexpensive cloth bags that closed to store the fleece in. There’s way too much cardboard in my life right now to want to box it up, and I really want the wool to be able to breathe, but not right out in the open for any moth that comes along to make a home in. So, armed with my google-fu, I found some inexpensive zippered pillow cases. I hope to order within a week or so. YAY!

The funniest thing I’ve seen today. Especially if you go to the Store –> Demotivators section.

*ribs creak from laughing so hard* This is the kind of dialog that happens in my head. All. The. Damn. Time. Me love this site long time.

In sock news, I got quite a few inches done last night while attending another astrology lecture. Same person, different location, so not going back if they stick us in the teeny unheated back classroom. Plus, when I occasionally work at the store? I *work* at the store. At least half of the people who were there last night paid the lecturer directly, which is a no-no.

Stupid people chap my hide.

Anyway, socks! I am into the fourth band of color after the toe, and I am having to fight hard to resist the temptation to put googly eyes and a bright red knitted tongue on the end of the construction. Definitely Chameleon, should turn out OK even if the sock looks awfully teeny.

More updates once I get my breath back. ;D

With approx 190 yards of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Firestorm? I have really wide feet, so in order to make sure I had enough for a pair of socks, I bought two skeins. The pair I made could definitely come up higher on my leg next time, but they turned out pretty well. If I make another pair that’s the same length, I’ll know to juse use one skein. This was the remainder from one skein, and I just adore the yarn. And it was fun to use the niddy noddy for the first time last night after using the Wood Beams on it. I can’t even begin to tell you how much nicer it was to grasp and use. Plus, it goes together and comes apart so much more easily now!

Anyway, suggestions on what to make with it? I’m not really into another hat, though I think this would be really freakin’ cool to use as an accent on black, maybe in a Nordic-like band…. But that’s for another time and skill level, for lo, I am not ready to venture into stranded knitting just yet. *G* So, knitters - suggestions?

Socks progress, though definitely not at a pace that will win me a medal in these Olympics. I just didn’t recover from mis-reading the pattern. But it’s all good - I’m into the Opal now and I really enjoy the feel of this yarn more. It’s weird, but good. I’d definitely rather be home knitting than here at work today, but those pesky things like ‘food’, ‘electricity’, and ‘rent’ keep getting in the way.

But since I can’t be knitting, I’m going to kill a bit of time with a meme, for my one regular reader, who also was the snot who tagged me.

Instructions: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place. Then add your blog to the bottom slot.

strange little mama
Chef Messy
Knitter in Progress
Knitter Patter
Twists of Fate

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Hmm, not so much fun. I was working 40+ hours a week and taking 18 credit hours in college, attempting to work my way through school and failing liek whoa. I just about had a nervous breakdown (over six months of averaging two or three hours of sleep a night will do that to a person), and ended up “taking a year off” to recover. Sadly, I never went back, so no degree, but PLENTY of school loans to pay off. However, I also met the snot who tagged me for this meme at that school, which I can honestly say was one of the very best things to ever happen to me. So, you know, what’s $50K of school loans compared to a best friend in the grand scheme of things? NOTHING, that’s what!

What were you doing 1 year ago?
I think I was trying to keep on top of my newish job as a PM in Development. Hating my apartment. Acquiring fiber and yarn like it was going to go away, never to return. Generally feeling pretty meh about relationships.

What were you doing 1 hour ago?
Farting around reading email while also desultorily doing some work, and drinking coffee. There is never, ever enough coffee.

List five creative things you want to achieve this year:
1. Teach myself how to draw cartoon animals for a fannish thing I have lurking at the back of my head.
2. Spin more.
3. Learn how to dye/blend my own batts on the drum carder I have yet to buy.
4. Read more about Navajo weaving and make some sketches for works that have personal meaning.
5. Paint my journey drum and make a beaded deerskin cover for it.

List five snacks you enjoy:
1. Cheese.
2. Wasabi peas.
3. Honey roasted peanuts.
4. Applesauce.
5. Chocolate covered espresso beans (like you didn’t see THAT coming).

List five things you would do if money were no object:
1. Help fund the filming of Passchendaele, and maybe talk myself into a job helping with it. I think that would be very cool, and there’s a number of things that I daydream about that are sourced off this wish. None of them have anything to do with PG nekkid. OK, well…maybe one, but I’m only human after all!
2. Help get my family settled into homes, etc. And never, ever feel obligated to them for anything, ever again. Wipe the slate clean, as it were, so we could all just relax and relate to each other as people.
3. Build that farm compound homestead I have envisioned in my brain.
4. Travel the world, taking the snot who tagged me for this meme with, for she is adventuresome and well traveled, unlike Yours Truly.
5. Get in shape, learn how to take care of myself, and frankly, once I am in shape, probably have cosmetic surgery to remove all the extra flabby bits that will be the inevitable result.

List five bad habits:
1. Cleaning? What is this thing ‘cleaning’?
2. Stubbornness.
3. Eating what’s easy, rather than what’s right, because I’m a lazy ass.
4. Tuning into a book or the ‘net, rather than doing what needs to be done, because I’m a lazy ass who has turtle-like tendencies when it comes to interacting with people.
5. Cheese.

List five things you like doing:
1. Knitting, like hello.
2. Reading.
3. Running through a whole season of a favorite television show in just a couple of days, and basically ODing on the wonderfulness of it.
4. Learning something new, usually prompted as a tangent to a thought about a television program or film.
5. Daydreaming.

List five favorite gadgets:
1. Wahl Magic Coil. Hey, you asked. It’s a girl’s best friend, as far as I’m concerned.
2. Ze Crackberry.
3. Computers.
4. Knitting needle sizers.
5. Netflix, which isn’t really a gadget, but it rocks, yo.

Name one thing you like about yourself:
My curiosity, and willingness to go out and learn something new.

Tagged: Meh, do it if you want and let me know in the comments that you have.

OK, so all along, since starting with the fucking eight (excuse me, FIGURE eight) cast on, I’ve had a weird feeling about this sock. The sort of feeling movie-goers probably had when watching the shower scene in Psycho. That “OMG LOOK OUT!”, peeking between the fingers, can’t-bring-yourself-to-look-away kind of feeling.

I completely, totally and utterly fucked this up. Misread the directions utterly. The sock-in-progress is so far from what is intended by the pattern writer as to be a five-times-removed Alternate Universe of a sock.

You know what this means.

To the frog pond I go.

AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!

Take two will begin this afternoon, after a nice fat slug of Laphroaig.

*headdesks and moans pathetically*

I made quite the undignified sound when I checked my PO Box today, but I didn’t care. The package from Goodies Unlimited was here. YAY!

I ordered some Wood Beams, some Everything Balm, and two soaps a little bit ago. The Wood Beams because the Norwegian desperately could use some moisture, and I want it in top condition if I sell it. The rest was just icing, because well. I feel weird about ordering under $10 of merchandise form any small business. Plus, I was about out of soap, and I could probably sand the unfinished Ashford Precision Lazy Kate that’s in my living room with my heels, so the Everything Balm seemed a no-brainer.

Speaking of the APLK, I wanted to do a test drive on the Wood Beams before I used it on the spinning wheel.

Ho. Ly. Cow.

This stuff? Is *amazing*. I will do a before and after shot soon, as I left one side of the APLK unfinished for now. So I could do the before and after. I left the Wood Beams to soak in on one half of the Kate, and did the unfinished Ashford Niddy Noddy while I was there. What can I say - I went for the relatively cheap tools for now, until I figure out whether I really like this spinning thing.

I can’t wait to see what they look like when I’m done buffing them. They were really, really horribly dry, and I could practically hear the wood sigh with relief when I was applying the product. I’m really not much of a chemicals kind of gal, and like the idea of the wood being able to breathe under the coat of beeswax and other natural ingredients. I may do the unfinished bookshelves if I have enough left. If there’s anything left after *that*, well. The rest of the furnishings in the house better look out.

Anyway, stay tuned (or at least the one reader I’m sure I have) for before/after shots, coming soon to a blog near you!