Twists of Fate

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!

I’ve decided that my lesson this Olympics is to not be such a tight ass or stress about, well, anything. I’m coming off a difficult winter, and I need to be more forgiving of myself. So if I finish these knee socks, great! If not, it’s perfectly OK too. They’ll still be there when the flame is extinguished, and I’ll be tear free. If that makes me a loser? So be it.

I never did play very well with the other reindeer, so they can keep their reindeer games and I’ll be over here with my book. ;D

So, as I knit around and around and around on these socks (whomever made the comparison that sock knitters are the short track speed skaters of the knitting world? You are SO right!), I’m looking forward to what to make next. I have a shawl in progress, which is lovely and will probably be complete fairly rapidly. Which, by the way, amazes me, because I’m not exactly known for speedy knitting and I knit the first part of the pattern and FOUR of TEN lace section repeats in a single night. I just about plotzed myself.

But I need to make something for my sister first, as she’s in Wisconsin for the moment, and the cold really hurts her. I have some Koigu PPPM that I think would be great for hand coverings of some kind. She mentioned once that she would love some gloves, but w/out the fingers. I specifically asked if she wanted half-fingers, and not just open space just past the knuckleslike all the wristlet patterns in the world out there right now, and she said no, she’d really like the half-fingers.

I need to finish getting ready for work, but I thought I’d toss this thought out there - does anyone know of a pattern for what are basically half gloves where I could sub the Koigu? Gauge on the label is 28sts = 4″ on US 3s (3mm). Any help would be fantastic.

Thank you kindly. *tips hat*

Er, Valentines Day. Not an actual VD. Although with the lack of the sex-ay in my life, I might as well have one. Then I’d have an excuse.

I grew up in a little town that has this little Valentine’s remailing program. The name of the town was such that there is a Miss Valentine contest, and the entire town looks like it’s been hosed down with Pepto Bismol there’s so much pink and red around the place. There’s also those stupid candy hearts, only really big and wooden, and attached to all the light and telephone poles around town. Glittering foil streamers of hearts and Cupids, fluttering gaily in the ass freezing cold wind streaming down the mountains. And if I never see another bare-assed Cupid picture in chaps? I’ll be a very happy woman.

I hate this day with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

However, there is chocolate, and a bottle of wine awaiting me at home (though now that I think about it, perhaps a visit to the store that sells The Scotch would be appropriate), and more fleece to wash, and snot-green Olympic socks to knit up, so all in all? Not such a bad day.

I hope y’all have a good one. :)

Progress on the socks remains at a standstill, for the most part. I went to see Brokeback Mountain yesterday and it was every bit as crushing as I knew it would be. I’d read the story ages and ages ago, and am totally glad I went to see the film.

But as one friend put it: “It’s like a shotgun blast to the chest.”

I just hurt for the remainder of the day yesterday, and still feel really awful today. Another friend called it “a story of missed chances”, and a love like that? Where it’s terrible and beautiful and awful for everyone involved? I feel…hollow.

So not much progress on the socks due to extreme dents in the tissue box last night. Even trying to motivate myself by saying, “But Michelle Williams’ charater was knitting! On screen!” only made me cry harder, since her situation really sucked rocks and no amount of knitting was going to make it better.

And then today I feel like I stepped in a cow pie with another knit blogger, who is lucky enough to be very wide read, and very smart and witty and funny and most of all - easily identifiable. I’m really glad she feels comfortable enough to be as open as she is with her life online. But some of us have to separate various online activities in order to feel safe-ish, which can be confusing, and can lead to the perception of multiple personalities.

The reply struck me in a pretty tender spot, whether it was meant to do so or not (I realize ‘tone’ is difficult to bring across well in text form), and I asked a friend if I was overreacting. She cracked me up with this comment:
How rude! I think you should tell her you’re offended and now that you think about it, the rest of you are too!!

I do wonder why one of my special talents is apparently to annoy the hell out of everyone with questions, and honestly? It’s been a rough 24 hours or so.

However, progress on fleece washing continues. Sig is done, Sif is almost done, and there’s just a little bit of Alda left to go. There continues to be fibery goodness, just not of the Olympic variety.

If you’ll excuse me, I need to go find another box of tissue.

ETA: Perhaps the comment struck the spots still tender from the movie. Many of us joke about how our knitting and/or spinning hobbies makes us ‘odd’ or ‘different’ to others in our lives. But there are plenty of things in our daily lives that we may not choose to share with others we know, for whatever reason. Sometimes the basic facts of who and/or what we love that could bring serious real-life ramifications down about our ears, from friends, family or complete strangers if they become known. At the very least this would probably be uncomfortable. The worst case scenario is something I don’t want to think about.

I envy those that can be so comfortable and so open about their lives in their online. The fact that there is such a strong knitblog presence is fabulous! Great! But on the larger stage of life, knitting isn’t something you’re likely to get beaten up over. I, for one, am likely to take a more conservative route, even as I share what I feel I can with the public at large. Knitting is but one facet of my life that I choose to share. If the worst result of this voluntary separation of interests is confusion and the perception of “multiple personalities”?

I can live with that.

So I’m not actually making much Olympic Knitting progress since ye old Opening Ceremonies. I left work early Friday because I honestly thought I was going to faint, which seemed way too Melanie Wilkes for my tastes. Not to mention it would re-inforce the ‘weak woman’ stereotype that my incredibly annoying coworker seems to favor.

So I came home early, opened the windows for about an hour because it was such a gorgeous day, and made like broccoli on the couch. Which is also kind of broccoli colored, but that’s just a neat coincidence. It’s Spring for me, now that Imbolc has come and gone, and the small birds I missed so much were back in *style*. I listened to their songs for the whole hour, since droves of them were hanging out in the tree and the bushes in the back of the building. I wish I knew more about my feathered friends, but I mostly just describe them as ‘cute’.

And then my sunbeam shifted, and it got too cold, and I staggered into the bedroom and did a ‘9.9 from the German judge’ worthy faceplant into my pillow. Until my friend rang to tell me she was coming to take me the Bosworth Charkha away. Which was definitely worth getting up for. Yes, I am in fact that easy. Toss a couple hundred bucks my way and I’ll get out of bed. No coffee required even.

Long story truncated, my not-so-short nap had me wide awake until approximately 2:30am. And I ended up getting up at 7:30, to go do a really fabulous and enormously helpful seminar on Mercury Retrograde (coming soon to a chart near you!). And my gods, I wish I didn’t have terminal camnesia, because the view from the rise there in Edmonds was stunning. The Olympics (the mountains, not the event), the Ferry, the blue blue water and the blue blue skies…I’m kicking myself.

I got home, and opened the next bag of Icelandic fleece, which necessitated an emergency wool washing spree. Because there is nothing on earth that makes me want to hurl more than the smell of a male sheep fleece. Granted, I’ve never had to a goat fleece, let alone one from Kazakhstan, so what do I know about stinky fiber, but still. Gag-o-rama!

However, all my washing tubs were occupied by Asta, the lovely ewe Icelandic, so I had to finish washing her in order to put Sig, the black male lamb fleece in for a presoak. With soap. Because he *reeks*, and now part of my apartment does as well.

I feel a Melanie coming on.

So there hasn’t actually been that much progress on the knee high socks, but I am optimistic! Once I get some sleep, some food, and the smell of sheep piss off my hands, though probably NOT in that order? I’m all about the knitting baby.