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.

Hello Cable

After about 3 1/2 weeks, I finally have cable television and internet services restored to my apartment. I've almost gotten used to not having it. I forget that I can go back to looking stuff up when I'm wondering and I'm still watching DVDs since I just bought Heroes on Friday. In honor of having my own internet connection back, I offer pictures of knitwear.

This from the pair of Corazon I started last winter and all I had left was to kitchener stitch the top and finish the thumb on one mitten and yet I let them sit until now. Instant satisfaction right there

I've also got the Fake Isle Hat from Mag Knits that I finished in about a week It's all bright and pretty colored and makes me excited for winter so that I can wear it.



As you can see, I'm very happy to have my internet back and have gotten quite photo happy. I don't know if this is a trend I can continue, but Ravelry has at least inspired me to start updating a little more frequently.

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.