I Lied

Ok, So I lied. I'm a horrible liar and can't stay true to a project.

Whew, got that out of the way. So after I finished my post yesterday I pick up the baby blanket and knit a row, from the side of my bed I see this container, with my Lopi Reynolds yarn. I do need to know how it knits and felts before I use it to make a bag right? Then from my desk I see my new rune stones, and they are telling me they need a homemade bag, since my sewing machine and special silk I use to make my bags for my rune stones and Tarot cards is all packed away, I figure, Hey I'll knit then felt a small bag.... after I get to 180 on this baby blanket.

20 minutes later finds me with my size 15 needles and pink Lopi yarn casting on 30 stitches. I work 3 rows, and think, hey this is going fast. About 10 rows in I figure I'll just do 2 more rows then cast off and sew together and save for felting. 4 rows later I'm thinking one more row then cast off. I finally cast off and start sewing it together.

20 minutes later finds me in my bathroom in front of the sink felting for the first time. Yea, I'm sticking to washing machines. It didn't quite lose all stitch definition but it ended up a bit bigger then I wanted, and at this stage it fits my Ipod quite snuggly. I have the iPod sticking out in the picture, isn't it cute? I'm debating about embroidering something on the front. It's not exactly the best iPod cover out there, but hey I only have $5 in my checking account, it's not like I can buy one, or yarn to make a better one.



My other baby Akasha finally agreed to pose for a picture, with my small penguin. Oops, I mean, HER penguin.



I received an E-mail today from a friend(T for short). He was stationed in Afghanistan, he e-mailed to say that he was arriving home tomorrow at 12:20. That is great, he'll finally be home. The weird part, for me at least, His last e-mail said that he was leaving Afghan and coming back to the US, he also said that he "wants to see ALL! of YOU!" that's a direct quote. He e-mailed to over 20 people. Now we're not really friends, I've known his barely since high school *late 90's* I knew of him then, he was a friend of two guys I knew, then in about '03 I introduced one of my best friends into a guy I knew *and liked* They ended up dating and getting engaged, and T was this guys best friend. So we hung out once in a while with the overly PDA couple, Then the couple got married, and he received leave from Afghan for the wedding. (last August) We hung around awhile during a couple of the events with another girl in the wedding party. After he went back to Afghan the grooms sister e-mailed us all with T's e-mail addy, and we e-mailed a couple times, usually only the mass e-mails with an "I'm alive doing good hope to come home soon" e-mails. Now my problem is did he mean me when he said get together, cuz that might just be uncomfortable, and due to the fact that most of my friends aren't in town anymore I don't go out, so there goes the "a group of us are getting together" thing. I realize I'm probably to old for this worry, but I do have a huge social anxiety problem and fret over these little things. Ahh well, I suppose the fact that I don't know if I'm attracted to him is part of the problem. I suppose since I'm "on the fence" about it, I'm really not attracted to him. Anybody know of any good ways to help with social anxiety? (Drugs don't work on me, so I tend to use natural remedies. When it takes 2-3 800 MG ibuprofen every 2 hours to dull a minor headache, you find that peppermint oil works just as well. Let's not even start on "that time of the month")

On the Needles: Baby Blanket.
New to the Stash: *Sigh*
In The Player: More Podcasts. *I'm down to 380, yea!!*

Booga Booga

I finished the Booga bag! Yea!!



My first finish object of the year! Yippy!!! I ended up just using the rest of the yarn on the icord straps, so instead of the recommended 6 foot I have a 13 foot. My first thought was that I don't want a small ball of leftover yarn and that I do like long handles, and it will felt smaller. My thought after measuring it? The leftover will make a great cat toy. hehe. I have yet to felt it, reason being I have to use a laundry mat, and me being a new felter *this will be my first felted project* I plan on commendering my parents washer when they arrive back for the summer. Since I'm in an apartment I have no qualms still using my parents washer and dryer occasionally, it's not just for college students.


My first FO for the year. Yippy! I've only done two more rows on the baby blanket and haven't even dug my clapotis out of the travel bag I had it in. Ahh the life of UFO's. As if my insomnia isn't enough, I hear these little muffled sounds coming from the bag at night, apparently it's not happy to just be sitting here, apparently it feels it needs to be finished for my birthday so it can be shown off this summer. I don't know if the little one will gets it wish, though I have till the middle/end of May.



My main goal is to finish the blanket, but boy this is dragging on. I'm only at 145 stitches and need to get to 180 with one yarn over increase every row. Every other stitch is knit. I'm going through the ARGGG! part. I'm trying to fend off the "make something" vibe, or as Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee puts it "startitis." Spring has hit me with the nice weather the past couple days,and the rain today *Yeah rain! My favorite type of weather EVER.*

This book that is sitting on my desk has been whispering to me all week. The book in question is Sensational Knitted Socks. I refuse to bow down to the peer pressure of my books. I rule my books they don't rule me. *This works right? I can win this battle right?* I refuse to cast on a sock until I AT LEAST reach the 180 point on the blanket and start the decreases. I figure by then I'll be able to actually purchase sock yarn. I only have one ball, and I'm also toying with the idea of learning knitting socks on circular needles, I have found out with my two possessive cats (apparently all yarn and needles are their property and I'm only borrowing them when they deem fit) that projects in the round lose less stitches on circulars then DPN's. Though I still love using DPN's I don't have a favorite of the two yet.

I need to add to my sock yarn stash. Unfortunately with only one part-time job that doesn't even pay my rent I don't have cash for yarn. Also the upcoming concert I'm going to is going to take up some cash as well. Luckily the ticket is paid for, and I'm staying at a friends who is only 10 blocks away from the venue. I'm staying there for a week and plan on hitting yarn stores. *I will visit an actually real yarn store GASP* I also plan on trying to convert her to the knitted masses. Since she is recently single and will have a whole free summer of no work *She is currently attending Law School* I feel her time would be best spend knitting, Plus deal with the frustration of being single after 2 years. *If you are reading this D be forewarned just knitting in front of you isn't enough*

I do have my gift certificate from Blue Moon Fiber Arts, but I am planning on buying medium weight and they are out.

That's about all the updates for today, I plan on catching up on some podcasts on my NEW IPOD. Sigh life is great I own an iPod. Why didn't I get one sooner? I have loaded it with my podcats and music, plus my nice collection of eye candy music videos, because hey, we all need a break to watch good videos. I don't recommend for anybody to subscribe to about 20 podcasts when they have this obsessive compulsive need to listen to them from episode one on in order. I have over 400 files to listen to and about 5-6 more podcasts I want to subscribe to. Oiy Vey. Have I mentioned I'm weird? The 5 knitting podcasts I listened to weren't enough, I needed more. Now I have to many. *Ok, so they aren't all knitting.*

Ok, here is the part I'm asking for help, if anybody that reads this is in the Minneapolis-St Paul, MN area and know of yarn stores that I should visit, let me know. I'm not planing to visit them till after the concert, so any cash left afterwards is probably going to yarn. Sigh, I need to find a job.



On the needles: Baby Blanket
New to the stash: I wish
In The Player: various podcasts.

Learning to Knit

In the Sticks and Strings Podcast David talked about how he learned to knit, so I figured I'd add my story to here, even though it's not to interesting.

When I was about 8 my grandma tried to teach my how to crochet, I made a Barbie skirt and promptly forgot, age 11/12 brought me to plastic canvas, then at 13/14 I learned cross-stitch, and tried to relearn crochet to no avail. At 18 I wanted to learn to sew, so at age 22(2002) my mother bought me a very nice sewing machine of my own.

In 2003/2004 I started a new job, and met a girl there I got along great with, instant best friend, we shared a lot in common. She knew how to knit, I remember in elementary school watching my then-best friend's mother knit and thinking it weird.*hey I grew up with crochet* She showed me her stitch n bitch books and I was hooked, She then showed me the basic knit and purl stitch, and I bought the SnB books and the Visually Teach yourself to Knit and Crochet book. It took me about a month to figure it out. She only showed me once, and from then on it was me and the books. Once I switched to a different yarn, BAMN I got it. I also taught myself to purl without hearing all the "it's hard" talk, so consequently I have no problem purling and find it as easy as the knit stitch. I started to make a scarf, then life hit and I put away the half finished scarf and forgot about it.

Then the happy hooker book came out, I bought it right away. Because Crochet is a family craft I really wanted to learn it. Also my mother inherited all my grandmothers patterns, and since no one in our family crochets and I'm the crafty one, I will inherit these patterns as well, so It would be nice to use them. So using that book, with minor help from my mother. *she is not a teacher and refused to teach me, but would help if i had a question* I was a little sad I was at my parents house because I had no access to my crochet needles *from when I was about 13* My mother disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a bag for me. She gave me a complete set of needles, all my grandmothers. That meant a lot to me, They were her mothers and the only grandparent I was close to.

My grandfather died 13 years before I was born, and I never was close to my dads parents, his father died when I was 11, and his mother still is alive but like I said, I'm not close to her and with her having 25+ grandkids and 10+ great grandkids, she doesn't know much about me either, those being the parents that raised my dad, his birth father died when he was 8, and the kids taken away from the mother when he was 10, her dying about a year or two after my parents were married, so about 13 years before I was born.

So with these special needles I learned to Crochet. That night when I got home, I drug out my knitting. I loved crochet, but it wasn't the same. So as I sat down and remembered how to knit, I was looking on iTunes for a podcast my brother told me about, on a whim I typed in Knitting.

WOW. There was a knitting podcast, how cool, so I downloaded a couple. I fell in love with Lime & Violet and Cast-on, then on to It's a Purl Man, and Sticks and Stings, and The Knitting Cook... and so on and so on. I can honestly say if It weren't for Lime & Violet, I would not be as hooked as I am. They also gave me the courage to try something other then scarves. Even though I've known how to knit for a couple years, I haven't been serious about it for that long.

Also as an after story I'm no longer friends with that girl who taught me, It's a long drawn out story to reminiscent of stupid high school politics that I really don't want to be a part of, I'm 26 damnit, not 16. I still have to work with her, we play nice and pretend to be friends, but I only see her about once a month. I do thank her for first showing me how to knit and teaching me. I also thank her for showing me what I don't want to be.

And that's how I learned, in probably more detail then any of you wanted to know.

Pictures

I noticed that when I switched over to the new blogger, all my pictures disapeared from my posts. I am going to work on adding them back into the posts, but this did come at a good time, if there is a good time for all the pictures to disappear.

I've decided to switch all my pictures over to a flickr account, that way I will be able to be a bit more organized. *Me organized? huh* So with an internet connection going in and out every 5 minutes, this is no easy deal, but I'm going to switch from my Photobucket account to flickr, then setup and organize then slowly add them back to the posts. gee it's a good thing I'm only working about 2 days a week lately... though you'd think i'd get more stuff done. It's all Sims 2, that game is a time wasting machine! But my loading times are long and I can get one row done on my bag during loads, hehe.

I do have a couple pics for you today though! Just taken with my horrible camera phone. *I decided to buy an iPod before a digital camera.* So here are my current WIPs



My Clapotis I'm working on, has not been touched in about 2 months... I guess that makes it a UFO huh?



This is the baby blanket for a friend of mine, she is due in June, I have 134 stitches on the needles, need to increase 1 every row till 190 stitches, then start the decreasing. I have a LONG way to go.





This is my Booga Bag I'm working on, I know interesting yarn, but beggars can't be choosers. LOL


If you noticed the Black Cat posing for the pictures that is one of my babies. His name is Salem, he is about 3-4 years old. He use to be a friends cat, but she was unable to keep him. I do have another cat Akasha, she is all mine, but she was camera shy today.

Here is a new stitchholder. I don't recommend using these if not in the room. In fact, even if you are in the room I don't recommend them.



In Progress: See Above
New to the Stash: Nothing
In the Player: Sticks & Sting Podcast *Need to catch up, I'm so behind on all my podcasts... hance the iPod, my old mp3 player ain't cutting it.

Daria

Ok so this knitting blog really doesn't have much knitting content lately, but that is mainly due to slow projects and no money.

The other night in boredom, waiting for something to finish cooking I spotted some rubbermade containers that I have in my living room. I packed these containers about 4-5 years ago and haven't open them since, just moved them from place to place. I went through them. Whoa boy, memory lane.

I spotted some old vhs tapes I had made, two were of 2 tv shows that were on The 'N back in about 2000-01. Yea, I was a bit old for the shows, but hey who cares. 24Seven and Being Eve. The former a British show the latter from New Zealand. So I spend last night and today watching the shows. I did manage to get some knitting done.

The best thing I found, was 3 tapes full of Daria episodes. That show is probably one of my all time favorite tv shows ever. The most interesting part is the episodes are from the original airings on MTV, with commercials and all that. It was interesting watching the movie commercials and remembering how I either wanted to see them or hated them, and thinking back on it now. For instance the commercials for "Titanic" and "Rounders" "54." Commercials for the original Playstation and the MTV VJ's. Remembering that they were not as cool as Bill Bellemy and the ones from the 80's that are completely slipping my mind at the moment. And commercials with actors that have tv shows now.

The has been a week for old tv shows. With my non-existent money *read a gift card from Christmas for walmart* I bought the first two seasons of Forever Knight, at $20 each. I use to LOVE that show. Oh commercial for A Night at the Roxbury. My ex-best friend and I went to that in the theater. Sadly, I enjoyed that way more then Titanic. Of course being drug to Titanic 4 times probably didn't help.

One thing I discovered tonight, watching 4 hours of Daria is not a good idea if you are going to a retail job where you already don't like the customers.

In knitting news, I have done no new work on either the clapotis or the baby blanket. But I am over half way done with a Booga Bag. I also bought some wool yarn from Ben Franklin, the only store in town that carries something other than red heart. I bought 4 balls of Lopi Reynolds. 100% Icelandic wool, hoping to do some type of felt bag. I spent the last of my spending *Read: food* money on yarn. Looks like I'm enjoying some tasty ramen until I can find myself another job, or until April 10 when my parents get back from their summer down south. I have no problems with going over there and raiding their food, and inviting myself to dinner. Their my parents that is what they are for. Besides I fix their computer problems for free, that saves them a lot of money. What with my dad's complete non-understanding of what a computer virus is, I'm usually cleaning one off a week.

On The Needles: Booga Bag
New to the Stash: Lopi Reynolds
In the Player: Daria