Ravelry!

I finally made it onto Ravelry. I actually had gotten the email Friday night at about 9 but didn't check my email all weekend. My ID is NoNeinNyet. I will hopefully be able to add more to my account if my cable appointment goes well this afternoon.

Shirts

I ordered these shirts today off of Glarkware. I haven't done much else today other than get free pizza for lunch and sit in a meeting where they told us everything they've told us in emails but this time, it was in person. With pizza. And brownies. And spreadsheets.

Seriously, y'all?

I'm kind of in awe of this. After over 2 months, I'm pretty much within days of Ravelry. Downside: I have not had Internet in my house (or any kind of cable services, for that matter) for two weeks. I'm going to get membership to a service that I can't even use in my own free time in my own living room unless Comcast gets a move on. Boo!

One Big, Happy Family

This past weekend, I spent the entire weekend with my family. From early Friday evening until I left a little after 8 on Monday morning. That's a seriously long time. I forgot the camera, so no pictures. I rarely remember to take them anyways.

Friday night it was my sister, my mom, and I as my father worked until 6. We made burritos and then headed off to see Hutchinson Community Theater's production of Bye Bye Birdie. It was pretty good, especially for community theater. Much better than the production of State Fair we saw there two years ago. The sound had sucked (still a little bit of an issue with this production but much improved). They had mainly focused on the dancing so the blocking, acting, and some of the singing had been off. There were some outfits that mysteriously included gauchos and I saw little to no gingham. The Iowa State Fair of the 1930's and gingham go hand in hand. As I said, this years production was very good. I would say their Conrad Birdie was a bit weak on the singing but the other casting was great. Gorgeous singing and Albert and Rose were amazing all around. Good full pit orchestra, too.

Saturday was a family reunion of sorts at my dad's cousin's house near Cambridge. Yes, I went west just to come back east and return west in about 24 hours. This was my biological grandfather's family and since he left when my dad was two my dad had lost touch with them and hadn't met many until this weekend. It was nice to meet about a forth of my extended family that I had known little about.

Sunday was the reason I ended up staying until Monday morning. My aunt and uncle have a Swedish exchange student that arrived this past week plus five of my cousins and my sister are starting or returning to college this year; of course, my grandma felt this meant we needed to have a picnic. It was at my parent's house, my dad grilled, there were salads, tortilla roll-ups (mmm), sweet corn, and more deserts than were really necessary. There were many pictures taken (I swear, my cheeks still hurt from all of the smiling), and I was sent off to the new Wal-Mart for supplies beforehand.

A Wal-Mart in my hometown is rather surreal for me. We've always had a Pamida but this Wal-Mart is new and imposing. I felt like I stepped into a wormhole and was far, far away from my nice small town. I would have rather gotten ice and pickles at the grocery store, thank you very much.

"Stop playing Reservoir Dogs"

One of the many reasons why Coupling is amazing.



Why did I have to see the crap US version first?

Secret Pal Questionnaire

I signed up for Secret Pal 11 and the following is the questionnaire I need to fill out to let my secret pal know a little more about me. Here goes.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I'm not too picky. I like cotton, alpaca, pure wool, merino, and even many acrylic blends. I've been a little afraid of mohair since it tends to shed and is difficult to rip back with. The only things I really don't like are Red Heart acrylic and fun fur and even those have their places, I just don't like to knit with them much.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

I've mainly been using the Knitpicks Options set and store them in the holder that comes with the set. I also recently purchased the Knitpicks sock needle set and also store those in the package they came in. I keep most of my other needles in a zip-up holder from JoAnn's.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

I've been knitting for about two years. My sister finally talked our mom into teaching her and while my mom got me going a little bit my sister relayed a few more things. My sister and I also picked up quite a bit from Stitch and Bitch by Debbie Stoller and I've taught myself a few other techniques mainly from online resources.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Yes, I have an Amazon wishlist. It should be able to be found using my name.

5. What's your favorite scent?

Peach and coffee come to mind quickest. Separately.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

A bit. I like chocolate, especially dark chocolate that also has mint, caramel, or raspberry flavor with it.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

I also cross stitch a bit. Otherwise my free time is filled with a lot of reading and watching movies.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like a lot of indie music and Broadway. My favorite band right now is Rilo Kiley. I listen to MP3s a lot and rely on my iPod to get me through long days in the lab at work.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

My favorite colors are purple and blue. I'm not a big fan of orange.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I currently live by myself in an apartment and don't have any pets.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I like scarves, hats, and mittens but not ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

I've been into sock knitting lately but also enjoy knitting hats and mittens/fingerless gloves a lot as well as dishcloths.

13. What are you knitting right now?

I've got two pairs of socks going, Mystery Stole 3, a cabled scarf, a pair of felted clogs, a pair of fingerless mittens, and a pair of stranded mittens.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

I appreciate handmade gifts a lot.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

I prefer circular needles and dpns in metal.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

I do not own either.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

A tessellating fish afghan that's probably just under a year and a half old that has been sitting dormant for about nine months or so. It's out of Red Heart.

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Thanksgiving. All of the food and family of Christmas without the stress of gift giving.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

I have a collection of old books I received from a recently passed away family friends that I cherish.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I've thought about picking up The Happy Hooker and try my hand at crochet. I don't have any knitting magazine subscriptions yet but I have been thinking about getting one to Interweave. There were a few patterns in the most recent (Fall) issue that appealed to me.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'd like to try some entrelac and some mosaic knitting. I'd also like to improve my stranding skills.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

I've hit a bit of a sock knitting kick lately. My foot is about a women's size 8 to 8 1/2. My ankle is about 10" around. It's about 6 1/2" from my ankle to the base of my heel. My foot is about 9 1/4" long.

23. When is your birthday?

22 February

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID?

Not yet. There are now less than 2,000 people in front of me, though. I'll probably post my ID once I get on, though.

Banana Bread

Proof that I didn't just sit around on my ass and waste a Saturday.

Big Ups to Dan!

I've been drinking coffee in the morning again because of the early mornings I've been pulling lately. I got going a little late this morning and didn't make any coffee. My coworker Dan has brought his coffee maker in though, and provided me with a delicious cup of Kahlua Vanilla Cream coffee this morning and I am now very happy. Let's hear it for Dan! If only it actually had the alcohol in it.

What? This is a knitting blog?

I've finally finished clue 3 of MS3.


I now have to decide if I want to shorten or lengthen it or just knit it at pattern length. I'm tempted to just knit it to the pattern since I just don't know what kind of length I want it to be. My decisiveness is blowing your mind, I know. Clue 4 may just have to wait a bit. I've got more than another week so hopefully I don't get too caught up on it.

I also pulled a sock out that I had started awhile ago but ended up ripping out because the 0's I was knitting it on were giving me a fabric that was too tight. Now I'm using the 2.50mm needles from my lovely new KnitPicks sock needle set. I use the Yarn Harlot's current sock needle of choice. I feel suddenly cooler.



I started it on Friday after work and knit on it while standing in line for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at Borders. I went to the baseball game with a coworker and knit on it there. She also brought her crochet but we didn't sit in the Stitch and Pitch section because we used her family's season tickets. I've gotten the heel turned and decreased the gusset. Other than that long ago frog this is one of the fastest moving socks I've knit.

Ouch!

I went to the dentist today. I get to go back Tuesday. My teeth make me sad.

And So It Ends

Reading done. Can't speak without bursting out with spoilers. They all look really pretty together, don't they?

Shoo Bop Shoo Bop, My Baby

I'm going to see Rilo Kiley! They'll be at First Ave on 14 September and Liam and I are going. Tickets are bought and I'm so excited. They're my favorite band. We're also planning to go to They Might Be Giants on 17 September but the tickets aren't available for that yet. It's going to be a great few days. Liam will be here and we'll go to some concerts for bands we love.

Good News, Bad News

The good news?

You can now look up where you are on the Ravelry invite list.

The bad news?


Yeah, I think I should just be glad that it shouldn't take much longer before they're open to all and go distract myself with Harry Potter and MS3 instead.

Yea Harry!

I felt that this was appropriate for the next week or so. It's a LOLcats picture from a couple of weeks ago and I am now obsessed with the LOLcats, only months later than the rest of the world. I'm going to the movie tonight with some coworkers and I'm rather giddy about it.

Moving Forward?

Not much knitting news in this one. I've caught up with MS3 and that's all I've really knit on in the past week.

In other, more progressive if maybe less exciting for others, news, I have registered to take the GRE. I have a college GPA of slightly under 3.00 because I slacked a little too much sophomore and junior years so I have to take it for pretty much any grad school program I would like to apply to. I really do want to start taking classes in something and so this is the first step towards that. I'm not quite sure what I want to do yet but my two main thoughts right now are either secondary science education (mainly chemistry) or a Master's in library and information science.

While I think the need for good science teachers is huge (my sister's physics teacher was horrible at interacting with students), I'm still trying to decide if it's something I could really commit to. In a way, I think I'm being selfish about it. I think I could do it. I've worked with middle and high schoolers a lot in the past few years and have enjoyed it. On the other hand, it wouldn't pay that much. I'm probably making about teacher's wages right now. I would only need the GRE for this if I decided to enter an initial licensure graduate program where you go to school and then student teach for about a year and then you're licensed. In order to complete your education Master's you only have to come back for three months (generally over the summer) to finish it off.

If i pursued the MLIS I would probably use it to research for companies that produce chemicals, most likely pharmaceuticals or to work in a science library at a university. I would still find this fulfilling, albeit in a very different way than teaching, and the financial benefits have the potential to be much greater. I love research so much and getting to explore different scientific advances for other people seems really interesting to me.

I do know that whichever program I would pursue I would continue to work while going to school, at least at first. Between that and the fact that I could defer my student loans while I was in school, I'm pretty confident that I could be OK financially while I went to school. The problem would just be the massive amount of debt I could be under once I left school. That's why, as much as I'd like it not to be, the financial aspect does have to be a factor in my decision.

Ella, ella, ella

As a rule, I don't listen to top 40 radio. I said rule, not law, though. I usually listen to the Current or my iPod but occasionally I break down and listen to something like KDWB just so I'm not completely behind on what's on the radio. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised and hear an independent group starting to get mainstream play. Other times I hear songs like Rhianna's "Umbrella."

This "song" is on loop in my head, the annoying way that umbrella seems to be pronounced um-ba-rella and the echo-y part (ella, ella, ella eh, eh, eh). I've tried listening to Beck and Rilo Kiley, I've tried to listen to some catchy oldies, nothing works. It's one of those songs that's popular not because it's good but because it creeps under your skin and stays there and you need to hear it so you at least have a verse to go along with that grating bridge or chorus that you remember after hearing it two times. This is what I get for listening to a Clear Channel station.

ETA: Yesterday in the lab they had the radio on KDWB and sure enough there was umbrella. I didn't hear it today but Rehab by Amy Winehouse came on and one of my coworkers hates the "no, no, no" part of that song. The radio is working to drive us all insane.

In Minnesota We Say . . .

I know that this is by no means a unique post, but at work we were coming up with a list of things that are uniquely Minnesotan. A lot of things that seem to be strictly Minnesotan are still fairly regional throughout the state or pretty generational. I don't mean the things that we as Minnesotans will make fun of themselves for saying. Take "ya betcha," for instance. These are the things that Minnesotans (or at least me) take very seriously.

• Hotdish. You can make it in a casserole but the food itself is called a hotdish. That's all there is to it.
• Duck Duck Gray Duck. Frankly, this game is far more interesting than Duck Duck Goose. Instead of just saying "duck, duck, duck" over and over again, you get to be a little more creative and say "red duck, chartreuse duck, blue duck, cerulean duck, magenta duck" before yelling out "gray duck". You can play tricks on a person by drawing out the "gr-" sound in something like green duck. It is clearly the superior "sit in a circle and say duck a lot" game.
• Pop. Now, this idea seems to skip from Minnesota over a bunch of Wisconsin and shows up again in the Chicago area, for which I am grateful. I get enough crap from Liam for saying hotdish. Even I'll admit that soda is an acceptable substitute; however, the fact that the following dialog is possible disturbs me:
• "Want a Coke?"
• "Sure!"
• "What kind?"
• "Diet Pepsi."
• The Cities. You say it, people know where you're talking about. This one gets use a little more outstate than in the Twin Cities I've found. I may have gotten laughed at for sounding a bit like a hick one day. Maybe.
  
• Up North. See above. Yes, it is capitalized.
• OK, those last two are a bit ridiculous and I get why out-of-state people think they're weird phrases.
  

Blonde Cordy!

So, lately I've been rewatching Buffy and Angel and I've gotten to the unfortunate portion of Angel season 3 where Cordelia is blonde. More than anything else in this season, including the whole "child of two vampires is born and then goes away and comes back as a teenager" thing, blonde Cordy disturbs me. Charisma Carpenter is seriously beautiful and can pull off many looks, but blonde is just not one of them. Granted, if I keep watching Angel in order I'm going to have to relive the fact that Connor and Cordy get together to parent Jasmine, but I still think blonde Cordy bothers me more.

My Inner Good Girl Shines Through

Thanks to Sarah, I now know that

Mingle² - Online Dating

This is really disappointing. I don't want to egregiously start swearing and talking about sex and violence, but I don't quite see myself as being a G rated person. I think I'm having an identity crisis.

I Have a Problem

Look familiar?

What, you mean I made a pair of Fetching before?

Do I need another pair of Fetching? No. Could I have at least knit a different kind of fingerless mitt? Probably. To be fair, I am at least working on something else.

This is the beginning of Tiffany for my sister's birthday in October. Apparently my obsession is not just with Fetching but with Knitty patterns in general. And finally, note to self: must remember not to tell little sis about the blog until after the mittens are in her possession.