Die Strümpfe

I was going to save this until tomorrow so that I wouldn't have to come up with something to kick off NaBloPoMo but I was too excited. They're finished!

Sorry the picture's not that great but I have yet to master photographing my own legs and without some sort of large sock blocker they look kind of floppy on their own.

Overall, I'm happy to be done with them and can't wait to wear them.

SP11 Halloween Gift

I received another package from my secret pal. This time there is hand-painted yarn with contrasting yarn for the toe and heel, some Bath and Body products, a packet of hot chocolate (yum), and strawberry and pepper flavored dark chocolate that I am interested to try. Thanks, Secret Pal!

Work + Batteries need to be charged = No pictures

I figured I'd do a bit of a knitting update even though I can't share any photos right now. I've got about a third of the motif of the second German Stocking completed and have begun decreasing for the calf shaping. I haven't been knitting on it much and I want to finish it by the end of the month for The Yarnery's sock KAL. I've been taking a bohus hat class there the past couple of weeks and it's been a lot of fun. The color work is fun and I enjoy the inclusion of purls which add a nice texture to the fabric.

The main thing I've been knitting on is a log cabin afghan out of Simply Soft using the tutorial in Mason Dixon Knitting. It's already over 2' x 2' and I'm trying to decide if I want to make it into a full sized afghan or keep it to baby blanket size. It goes pretty quickly since it's all in garter stitch so it makes really good mindless TV knitting. I've even been a good knitter and have been weaving in my ends occasionally so that I don't pull my hair out later when the blanket is done.

That's all for now. I'll try to get the camera going next week so that I have pictures to talk about once NaBloPoMo begins.

Boots!

I'm usually not too excited about any kind of shopping that isn't yarn shopping but right now I have a huge desire to go shoe shopping. Why? Boots. Need them, want them, probably in black, and they must have cute buckles. I don't even know what height I want them to be, but they need buckles. Do I need boots? Hell no! I have some fairly new black Dr. Marten Mary Janes that I wear most of the time. It would at least make a little sense if I wanted brown boots since I realized the other day that I wanted to wear brown socks and a brown belt but did not have brown shoes. I am now going to bash my head in with my shoe so I'll stop being such a girl.

These are the boots that inspired this insanity. I don't even like the whole boot that much, I'm just enthralled with the buckles. I really need to cancel the Piperlime emails. It's all their fault.

Why People are Silly

I didn't want to add to the drama in the actual Ravelry thread, but I had to say something about this. One of the Ravelry beta t-shirts includes the tagline that's been used for Ravelry on the site, on buttons, and other places, "Where my stitches at?" This is a fairly obvious, but funny, play on "Where my bitches at?" and people need to get over themselves. There has been a couple of gripes in the t-shirt thread about how this phrase is grammatically incorrect. Duh! Plus, there are two other t-shirt options. And I will wear my "Where my stitches at?" shirt with just as much pride as me "Good grammar costs nothing!" shirt.

Banned Book Week

I know that the week is almost over, but I wanted to post about Banned Book Week which is held by the American Library Association each year during the last week of September. Great authors like Toni Morrison, Mark Twain, and John Steinbeck have been banned for several different reasons throughout the years. While I think that many of the reasons that books have been banned from various public and school libraries are valid for why a person would not want to read a book or why parents may feel that their child should not be exposed to certain ideas, I don't think that a few people should be able to decide for everybody what reading material should be available to them. I support the ALA in bringing awareness to banned books and hope others do to.

NaBloPoMo

So, remember when I called myself foolish for making a goal to post at least once a week? Well, I've actually been doing OK with that and have now stepped it up to the next level. I signed up for National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). If that name sounds vaguely familiar to anyone, that's because this project was inspired by National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and also takes place during the month of November. So basically, NaBloPoMo = NaNoWriMo for wimps.

The way it works is that you post every day during the month of November. That's pretty much it. And then there are prizes for the people that have entered and complete this challenge. So I'm giving it a try. Sorry if I start reaching for material a bit much.

SP11 Meme/Contest

For the secret pal exchange I'm in we have to say what our favorite of each of the following things are to enter a contest. Here goes!

Actor - Neil Patrick Harris (robbed of the Emmy)
Actress - Reese Witherspoon
Animal - Chinchilla
Band - Rilo Kiley
Book - The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Bubble Bath - Peach or citrus scented
Candy - Chocolate
Color - Purple
Flower - Daisies
Food - Banana bread
Lip Balm - C.W. Bigelow (the stuff they sell at Bath & Body)
Lotion - Warm Vanilla Sugar hand cream from Bath & Body
Movie - The Princess Bride
Song - "It's a Hit" by Rilo Kiley
TV Show - Heroes (if we're talking current, because it's a debate for my all-time favorite)
Vacation Spot - Boston

German Stockings=1/2 Done!

I'm on a role with this whole "actually finishing stuff" thing lately. Sort of. I got one of the German Stockings done.

I ended up going to the Yarnery on Friday and while I was there I signed up for their Socks in the Cities KAL and I think I'll enter these in that and either the Pomatomus or something else in Knit'n From the Heart's Socktoberfest as I'm not certain the Pomatomus will remain socks because they're a little tight for socks but seem to fit my arm perfectly. I'm just sad that my legs are so stubby because if they were longer then the twisted double moss stitch section would have gotten larger if it had more space to spread across. I am also in need of sock garters.

25 of 125

Lisa posted that the St. Paul library staff, to honor its 125th anniversary, put together a list of the 125 books published in the past 125 years that have changed their lives in some way. The list can be found here (pdf). Often when I see a list like this I like to find the books I've read and see if I agree with their placement or if I feel like something is missing. I've read a whopping 25 of the 125 books on the list. I agree with many of the selections but I still feel that we were correct when, at a camp I worked at, we nicknames The Giving Tree as The Co-Dependency Tree and that while I enjoyed The Age of Innocence, I'm not certain I can view it as life-changing unless you were previously stuck in a very odd, antiquated mindset. I was also kind of surprised to find that Catch-22 was not included.

The one book I'd like to highlight on the list is The Catcher in the Rye. When I first read it, I liked it because I felt, as a moody, obnoxious teenager, that I identified with Holden Caulfield. I still consider it to be my favorite book, not because I identify with Holden but because I really don't. I feel like it's a huge identifier of how far I've come as a person, that I don't feel on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I actually have more to say about this list than I originally thought I did. I know there is the controversy about whether or not Laura Ingalls Wilder actually wrote The Little House series but I do consider it to be life changing for me, especially as a reader, and am surprised to not see it on a list put together by a library in the Midwest. I still totally want to make candy with snow and maple syrup, OK? Oh, and no recently deceased Madeline L'Engle, either. I know there were only 125 slots and that my paltry 25 books indicates that I'm not so up on the past 125 years of literature, but I still feel that there are a few missing. Perhaps I should have made my own list like Lisa did.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain

The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger

Charlotte's Web - E. B. White

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

The Giving Tree - Shel Silverstein

Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Green Eggs and Ham - Dr. Seuss

Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling

His Dark Materials trilogy - Philip Pullman

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

A Light in the Attic - Shel Silverstein

The Lorax - Dr. Seuss

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell

Number the Stars - Lois Lowry

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant

Sarah, Plain and Tall - Patricia MacLachlan

A Time to Kill - John Grisham

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Velveteen Rabbit - Margery Williams

Secret Pal Love

I'm in the Secret Pal 11 exchange and I got my first package today.


I got Buffy the Vampire Slayer yarn, a cute little crepe fruit strap, orange linden blossom herbal bath, a vanilla perfume sachet, and chocolate with liquid raspbery filling. So thank you, secret pal, this was a great gift.

Friday Morning Footgasm

I actually finished something for once. I think the startitis might finally be cured.

I Caved

I finally decided to get a ball winder and swift. I was waiting for me when I got home from work today and I made lots of pretty yarn cakes.






I've also been taking steps towards avoiding second sock syndrome. Not much more to go before I get to decrease the toe. I haven't been doing much other knitting but I think I should be able to get back to it more again, especially now that it's been so cold and rainy.

Ahoy there, mateys!

Avast, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! So be adding lots of arr's and aye's to your talkin' today or be marked as a scurvy land lubber. I'm off to drink me grog.

Once Again, Bored at the End of the Day

I'm pretty sure I've seen something similar to this as a meme before, but I just did it out of curiosity. I looked up my birthday (February 22) on Wikipedia and wrote down all of the people that share my birthday that I recognized since all I ever remembered before was that George Washington and Drew Barrymore were also born on February 22. I can't say I'm happy about all of these.

1732 - George Washington, First President of the United States
1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
1918 - Don Pardo, American radio and television announcer
1932 - Ted Kennedy, U. S. Senator from Massachusetts
1952 - Bill Frist, U. S. Senator from Tennessee
1962 - Steve Irwin, Australian herpetologist
1966 - Rachel Dratch, American actress and comedienne
1968 - Jeri Ryan, American actress
1971 - Lea Salonga, Filipina actress and singer
1974 - James Blunt, English musician
1975 - Drew Barrymore, American actress

I think my new goal is to start learning more about other people born on my birthday.

New Knitty!

Do I need to say anything else?

Actually, now that I've looked at it, I don't know that there's anything I would knit from it. At least not right now. The Woodins are cute and give me flashbacks to freshman year of college, but other than that, nothing inspires me.

German Stockings

OK, I swear that this is the last post of the day. I knitted entirely too much on a pair of German Stockings this weekend and had to share my progress. I knit almost the entire leg and I think I'm only going to get up to but not start the heel flap tonight. It's time for mindless television watching tonight. One last shot of the stocking, close up on the main motif this time.

RIP Madeleine L'Engle

I know this makes post number three for me today and I may get up to a fourth, but I needed to acknowledge the passing of a great author, even if it is four days after the fact. Madeleine L'Engle shaped a lot of who I am as a reader and for that I am grateful.

Boredom to the Max

I can't really do anything at work until after my training session tomorrow so I am very bored. I cleaned my desk and keyboard and now the cleaning chemicals are giving me a headache. I changed blog templates and tweaked the colors. And then I took a quiz.

Free Online Dating from Mingle²

That's right. More useless knowledge that will do me no good in life. I think the only one that I got wrong was who sent the first e-mail. I'm OK with that.

Weekend Knitting

To really show what I knit this weekend I should be waiting until I'm at home to take pictures but I'm updating now, instead.

On Friday, my Knit Picks order came in. Other than the cables I got for my Options set to qualify for free shipping, I got Selbuvotter by Terri Shea and three skeins of Shadow in Lost Lake Heather for the Secret of the Stole KAL. I really liked browsing through Selbuvotter, and want to make more stranded mittens.

I knit my swatch up for SotS on US4 Options. I think I'm going to stick with this size. I don't know if I'll start it when the KAL begins because I still have MS3 along with some other projects to work on plus I'd like to see a little bit of the pattern before committing to it. Takes a little bit of the mystery out of it, but I'd rather do that than start it and feel obligated to finish something I'm not too crazy about.

I actually did a lot of a whole new project this weekend. Due to the drizzly weather and not many other plans, I finished almost an entire leg of the German Stockings. I purchased some Louet Gems in burgundy at Borealis last Wednesday and couldn't resist starting. I'm really enjoying this. It was kind of fun keeping track of the charts along with remembering to decrease for the calf shaping as I went. I'm all done with the calf shaping and just have about another inch and a half to go before starting the heel flap. No pictures just yet but I should be able to add some soon. Maybe even tonight.