Twists of Fate

Thursday, 5 February, 2009

Monkey see, knitter do?

Filed under: brain_dump — moiraeknittoo @ 12:46 AM

OK, I cannot remember who in the list of blogs I read linked to the International Stashbusting Giveaway Day for those who are interested in knitting and sewing, but dammit. Now I want to organize something similar for those of us who use Ze Yarn in our crafting. Seriously. Imagingermonkey is so incredibly fabulous for doing such a mindblowingly simple, yet totally fantastic thing.

I’ve been pondering whether or not it would be possible to do something similar for us yarn (and spinning fiber?) folk. Something along the lines of “All Things Being Equal” on the day of the Equinox that’s coming up here in a few weeks? Wouldn’t that be completely full of awesome? I know I’ve got a few skeins of some pretty groovy stuff in my stash that I’d put up for something like this. I’d even organize and do the links for folks who might be interested. What do you think? Would you be interested in something like this?

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Monday, 2 February, 2009

Live long and milk that cash cow baby.

Filed under: brain_dump — moiraeknittoo @ 11:33 PM

OK. For those who don’t actually know me all that well, I am a Star Trek fan. I adore Trek.

I wanted to have Picard’s highly intellectual and terribly sexy babies for a while there when The Next Generation was in the full throes of it’s run, or at the very least find out if Data really was fully functional.

I got lost, for a while, and had to abandon Deep Space 9, but I came back to it later when I could rent the entire series from Netflix and was utterly enraptured for weeks. Best plotty series of the bunch by far, with the subplots and story arcs and uberthemes…seriously smashing tv.

I won a trip, once upon a time, to visit the set of Voyager, and got to sit in Janeway’s chair and ponder why such an amazing universe couldn’t write a female captain to save their lives. I have a tattoo that’s Trek related, and I did my part to support the Paramount juggernaut that was the Trek “enterprise”.

By the time Enterprise rolled around, even this die hard fan was “meh” about it all. And believe you me, my pre-teeny crush on Dr. Sam Beckett burned with a white hot intensity that I thought I’d never get over when they canceled Quantum Leap. If that couldn’t break through the ennui about Trek at that point, could anything?

Enter JJ Abrams. I adored Alias. For the first two seasons. After that, I think Lost started up and the show began drifting and there was this sense of…no one minding the helm? It was a show without direction, done in by it’s own cleverness (did no one learn from The X-Files?), and honestly, every ep I saw of Lost managed to cement that impression.

So you can, perhaps, understand why I am concerned that they turned the cash cow over to JJ to milk for a while. I have no doubt that the effects will be amazing. The action scorching and breathtaking. But JJ tends to, well, over-complicate his story lines. All his shows have had a trademark of seriously twisty plot turns and “never saw that coming” moments. He can’t do that in a two hour movie, so what can he really do?

Don’t talk to me about Mission Impossible 3, please.

So. Kirk. Spock. Going back to where it all began and doing it over again? I know we get a lot of those “reset” button eps throughout the various series, but…it’s Kirk. And Spock. And JJ Abrams.

*skeptical Vulcan eyebrow* I find this highly illogical.

What about you? Will your bum be warming a chair in the theater come May?

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Sunday, 1 February, 2009

Something for me, finally.

Filed under: knitting, knitting-questions, knitting-wip, yarns — moiraeknittoo @ 8:26 PM

OK. I’m about three quarters of the way through my first mitten, which is full of awesome and I’m enjoying knitting with the lovely Elemental Affects Shetland yarn. It’s just lovely, the colors are a gentle pastel that makes me think of Sweettarts, so these are officially the Sweettart Mittens in my head. I’ll post a photo when I’m done with the first one, which may be as soon as tomorrow. I’m not 100% sure about that, given that my forearms are feeling pretty tight, but I’m taking frequent breaks and will be doing some self-massage on those muscles tonight.

But after that? I’m going to take a time out from doing stuff for other people. I’ve joined the Kauni Shawl KAL on ravelry, and am pondering my color choices. The pattern for the KAL is the beautiful, and I think you can find it here as well as on ravelry. The design name is “Revontuli”, and it’s beautiful.

I am doing my best to knit from stash, and I have more than enough of both EQ (rainbow) and EF (rust, blue, grey, green). I think I’d wear the EF shawl a lot at home, especially in the wintertime. But I’d like to actually wear something I knit out in public now and again, which has me leaning toward the EF, especially for work (should I ever be employed again). Those are a lot of the colors I wear to work, so I’m pretty much guaranteed to be wearing something that’ll go with that shawl.

I think the pattern looks simple and lovely enough to be a repeat knit, especially given the quantities of Kauni in my stash (oh hai VYT, it’s so easy to pick up a 150g ball and plop it in my basket as I doot around the store). But we’ll see.

Which color do you think I should use?

In other news, I met up with the lovely Knitting Kitty (of DragonFibers fame) today for breakfast. She was a lovely companion, as always, and I really enjoyed the two hours we chatted. I think we could’ve gone on for longer, but I had to get to my sister’s place and head out to find some pants for interviews.

I’m recovering from my now two week old cold. Slowly. I’m utterly exhausted after my little outings today, and the week promises to be a full one with my mother visiting from Colorado (she’s staying with my sister, thank. Gods.), and my brother returning to the area to look for work on the big ass container ships as his usual bridge crew gig. All I have to say is “viva la NyQuil!” Off to knit a bit more and head to bed early!

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Thursday, 29 January, 2009

But I don’t wanna!

Filed under: knitting, knitting-wip — moiraeknittoo @ 11:41 PM

Long time no write. I got sick with some hideous awful very bad no good cold, went through a few boxes of tissues, got a very attractive chemical burn from the Vicks I put under my nose (I have a nice red ’stash there now, great look!) and have been doing a fab pendulum swing between NyQuil comas and utter insomnia. Good times!

Tonight, though, I feel like a four year old…I don’t want to go to bed! I’m enjoying working on my latest project too much! I started the Arctic Spring Mittens this evening out of the Elemental Affects Shetland fingering yarn I, um, rediscovered in my freezer. (I will occasionally cycle part of my stash through the freeze/thaw/freeze cycle, just for kicks, giggles and hopefully nasty critter prevention.)

I made a few changes (ravelry link) to the colors, because I didn’t have an exact match for either of the colorways pictured. I’m not sure how this’ll look knitted up, but am giving it a shot with what I have on hand. This helps with the (again, ravelry link) stash knit down effort, as well as giving me a lovely fun palette cleanser of a project to work on. They also happen to be the first mittens I’ll have knitted, so it’s a three-for-one! Or something.

I have a lot to do tomorrow, and so need to head to bed, but I would really rather keep on knitting. Y’all know what that’s like, right? I hate being responsible.

I’ll try to do actual WIP progress shots of this project, but can’t promise. I am uncertain of my color choices, but will wait until I’ve gotten past the colorwork cuff and into the mitten hand before I really make a decision.

If I ramble on about this much longer I’ll reach for the project again and start knitting, which would defeat the purpose of this post. So, I hit publish and head on to bed now.

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Saturday, 24 January, 2009

That’s a hell of a sale.

Filed under: brain_dump — moiraeknittoo @ 9:45 AM

Little Knits is having a hell of a sale right now. Half off bags of Noro! Lots of other discounts! Whoa. Might be good for those of you who are doing NaKniSweMo, no? A friend who is a new knitter and who lives on the opposite coast showed me the link last night, after she placed a pretty damn substantial order. She’s stashing at an amazing rate. I feel proud, if a bit sheepish. I mean, it’s one thing to encourage her to try out a lot of different types of yarn and fiber, but another to cheerlead right into financial crisis. I think storage limitations may help curb the rampant enthusiasm (but it’s so cute!) once that box arrives.

Wish I had a job. I might actually be able to get enough stuff at a reasonable price to make myself a sweater in my size.

Head cold is migrating south into my chest. Today is all NyQuil, all the time. I think. I dunno. Everything is pretty fuzzy today. Like the feral kitty who came by early for breakfast, but apparently doesn’t care for chicken & salmon in gravy.

Would like to knit, but feel very…odd. May just go back to bed.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

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Wednesday, 21 January, 2009

It’s a curious floaty sensation

Filed under: knitting — moiraeknittoo @ 9:46 PM

I have a head cold. It’s been looming for days, ever since I went to my niece’s first birthday party and was surrounded by teeny germ factories on legs. Seeing her mother beam at the teeny sweater that was not a germ factory (to the best of my knowledge) was worth it though. I hope to have a pic of it soon.

I can’t remember the last time I had a cold in my head, rather than my lungs. There was the winter where I separated some ribs from coughing so hard, which was different and, all told, kind of painful. This? With my head being so full and my right inner ear apparently either doing the backstroke or sommersaults? Is a curious floaty sensation. It’s very odd.

Though not entirely unpleasant. I suspect when the nose chapping kicks in and I look like some horrid mummy whose peeling nose looks like small bandages are making a break for it I’ll be singing an entirely different tune. But for now? (Exhaustion + stuffy head)fever = …curious detachment.

I finished a sock. Of course it’s on US 6s in worsted, but it’s one half of a pair and I cast on the other and got about ten rows in before I decided floaty and knitting didn’t work because I felt like a really large balloon on the end of a fairly small string.

In news of The Job Situation, I had two recruiter phone screens on Monday, which turned into something like half a dozen submittals, a phone interview on Tuesday, and a couple more submittals today. I asked my guides and guardian spirits to remove my fear of being tossed out in the street to live in a cardboard box at the full moon, and I think that helped because I no longer feel the gut clenching panic I was feeling right around the first of the month. When rent is due again in Feb and I don’t have it, that feeling may return, but for now? I think the germ factories (who are hard to resist when they give such enthusiastic smoochies) plus the insomnia and general lack of eating (today’s tally – a peanut butter sandwich, a cup of tea, and about six ounces of soup, but anything else will come right back up) have resulted in a cold, and who knows. Maybe it’s my guides way of saying, “Sit the fuck down while we work on other people so you can be smashing when it’s time to actually worry about shit, m’kay?”

If I owe you email I apologize…I am seriously out of it and have been for at least a week. Bleh. I find that I am too stuffed up and floaty to really care about much of anything. Except a small niggling concern that having a full blown crush on the hotness that is our new President could be a bit embarrassing. But I figure I’m one of millions of new fangirls and boys, and it’s nice to be in good company for once instead of on the fringes, yes?

Hoo boy. Maybe I’ll take my intarwebs fic via my Crackberry off to bed and stuff those tissue cones in my nose to stop the drips and ultimately conk out and wake tomorrow, late in the day.

Best. Plan. Evar.

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Monday, 19 January, 2009

Today is a good day

Filed under: personal — moiraeknittoo @ 3:56 PM

Tonight, I am opening a bottle of red and celebrating the fact that today? Was the last day of the Bush Presidency.

I’ll drink to that for sure.

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