S.O.S.

Which I guess in this case stands for save our stash?

I stumbled upon a lovely new (to me) blog full of lovely knitted things, among other bits of gorgeous, and now all I want to do is knit lots of pretty cardigans.

Why does this only happen to me when it's way too hot in my apartment to knit? Months of lackluster knitting enthusiasm, and suddenly when it's 90 degrees out and my prime stitching spot is in direct sunlight, that's when I get motivated?

Brain. What are you doing?

Is it too obvious to quote Bowie here?

The last few days, I've been thinking hard about whether I want to keep doing the regular booklove and knitlove posts. I do love them (as, one would hope, the names imply), but I'm wondering if they still fit in my life, as much as it's changing these days. I did say I do better with structure, and I've got it now, but having new things usually means some old things will have to adapt, or be left behind.

When I started those weekly update posts, it was when I wasn't working full time (or at all, really), and I had more time for it. Now I'm starting to think I might like my free time to be just a bit more free. So I'm thinking it'll be back to random blog posts. Oddly enough, though, I feel like this means I'll post more. I've noticed over the last few months that I find myself thinking, "I could go write a blog entry, but tomorrow's knitlove day, so I'll just wait." And what kind of sense does that make? The set posts were scaring off the little random ones. Silly of me, I know, but there it is. So I think it's time to set free the set posts.

I'll still check in with knitting and reading, because how could I not? They're two of the things I love most, and who better to share them with than you? Plus, there has been plenty of both going on lately.

So that's where I stand now, readers. I'll see you when I see you.

One more thing

I almost forgot! Blog it forward started today. It's really cool. Lots and lots of bloggers (300, I believe) are all blogging together about what inspires them, and the first round is up. It'll go on for the next ten days, skipping over the weekend. Go check it out, and read some amazing blogs. And if you like it, put a badge on your own blog or website. Enjoy!

A momentous occasion

Image source: this fantastic bakery, makers of some crazy-gorgeous baked goods. I especially love the Chanel-inspired cupcakes.

Happy 100th post, everybody! I'm celebrating with a new header photo. Like it?

It's a really good day for it, too. There's quite a convergence of knitting-related awesomeness today. Not only is it Knitlove Wednesday, but today just happens to be the day I hit 1000 posts on the Ravelry message boards and my two-year Ravelry anniversary! I joined back when there was still an invite list and a 2-3 week wait, so I was really excited when I finally got in. So when I posted about hitting 1000 posts, we were joking that it'll be no time at all until I get to 10,000. I mentioned it only took two years, and then checked how long it'd been, just out of curiosity. And there it was. "Raveler since February 3, 2008" Yay me!

In actual knitting news (read: things people other than me might actually care about), my Kaleidoscope sweater is coming along.


I did my very first provisional cast-on for the sleeves the other day (or at least my first successful provisional cast-on. There have been several failed attempts), and I'm nearing the end of the yoke. I think I'll do one more round of decreases, since I don't want it to be quite as off-the-shoulder as the original design, and then I'll move on to the sleeves and the button band! I oughta start looking for buttons soon, too. Mom will be in town this weekend. I bet she'd be happy to help me look. Maybe she'll even give me some of hers. Maybe. She's got a button obsession that has yielded buckets and buckets (literally) of buttons.

Since I'm nearing the end of the sweater (sort of), and I've never been a monogamous knitter, I've been thinking about other things to cast on. I was planning to cast on a washcloth or two, until I remembered that my one ball of kitchen cotton was used for packing material in one of the boxes that hasn't made it to Texas yet. Luckily, those are coming with Mom this weekend, so I won't have to wait much longer. I'm thinking I'll do EXFOLIATE!, in honor of my recently developed crush on David Tennant, thanks to the posting of many, many Hamlet and Doctor Who videos, not to mention the scads of photos. He's on my desktop now, too. I'm also planning to knit a Skully dishcloth, too, since I have a whole ball of the stuff, and I don't know what else to do with it. I haven't been bitten by the dishcloth bug yet, and I'm not yet convinced I will, so we'll see how it goes.

Those won't take long, though, so I'm thinking I'll cast on a lace shawl after that. It'll be my first! I haven't decided which yet, but it'll probably be the Haruni shawl, in some Pagewood Farms sock yarn I got in Las Cruces this summer.

So that's all the knitting news from me on this, the second anniversary of my Raveling adventures. I think I'll go knit on my sweater now.

A growing addiction

Yesterday was a weird day. Just kind of off, from beginning to end. Which is why I forgot to do a booklove post. I'm not sure why I forgot last week. I think unemployment is getting to me. But no more.

I said I wanted to work more on this blog, and I meant it, so I'm here today. Not exactly with a booklove post, but a little-bit-of-everything post.

There has been booklove, though. I finished Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. This morning. It was the special edition hardcover edition, with 30% more zombie action, and full color illustrations, which Best Friend gave me for Christmas. And it was interesting. Best Friend's mom is an English teacher, and she mentioned she wanted to hear what I thought of it, as someone who not only reads a lot of books, but spent four years in college doing almost nothing but talking about books.

I'm going to have a lot to say when we have that conversation. I get the impression she is in the camp of wondering why the heck someone would want to ruin one of the greatest works in English literature with zombie nonsense. But I don't think it ruins it at all. Pride and Prejudice is a book about young women trying to get married because they have no other choice. A woman's role in that time was to get married, keep house, and have children. That's about it. Everything they do and say is dictated by what is considered polite and proper. But if you give these women actual skills, even if they're nonsensical ninja skills, it changes the entire social and economic dynamic. Suddenly they're worth more than their wombs and embroidery talents, and that gives them license to do and say things they couldn't have said in real life. Elizabeth Bennet becomes even more outspoken and opiniated, and I like her for it.

I've also started reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes. I'm already through A Study in Scarlet and loving it. I've been meaning to read these books for awhile (not just because the movie came out- and the movie was great). So I'm really liking them so far, and I can't wait to read more.

In other areas of reading, I've been gobbling up blogs like crazy the past couple of weeks. It started with finding A Beautiful Mess. Then she announced that she got nominated for the Bloggies, and I started checking out some of the other nominees- . And now I find myself completely obsessed with the blogosphere. I've started following several, in addition to the decent-sized list I already checked on a daily basis. I downloaded an RSS feed reader, to make it a wee bit easier on myself. And I've started coming up with all sorts of ideas for things I want to change about my own.

My next post will be my 100th post. While I was thinking about doing a redesign and launching it for the 100th post, I don't think that will happen. There's something weird going on in my code (which is why my blog title has been so boring-looking for so long. It's stuck that way), and I don't know enough about coding to fix it. So I'm looking into it. But there will be some changes soon. Because I have definitely been bit by the blog bug. Again.

Dance-y brain

Today I'm feeling inspired.

I ate leftover potato-leek soup that I made on Wednesday. I've been cooking more lately, because I like cooking, and I've had the time, being unemployed, and it's cheaper than eating out too much. So I've been trying to cook more and more. The soup came out wonderfully. It's good with toast. I'll have to make it again sometime.

I'm trying to drink more water. I never drink enough, and I've tried and tried to drink more. Maybe one day I'll get myself in the habit. I am a work in progress.

I've been reading lots of blogs. Especially this one called A Beautiful Mess. I love her stuff, and it's hard not to get inspired by her blog posts. One of them, in fact, is the reason I started on a wee little painting yesterday (remember when I talked about those? I'm still at it), and I'm letting my brain dance around and bubble up with more ideas for those. I'm letting my brain dance around with all sorts of things. This is the reason I think I'll go to the art store soon. I want some paint markers. Being a writer, a lot of my art ideas encompass words and type and wordplay, and I don't yet trust my hand at doing lettering with a paintbrush. I'll keep experimenting and practicing with a brush, but in the meantime, paint markers sound like a good investment.

Which is why it's a good thing that I have a temp position lined up for Monday. Yay for income! It won't be much, since it's only a one day thing, but I'll take it! And in the meantime, I'm still putting myself out there and trying to find a good job. Fingers still crossed.

Especially if it'll allow me to do more of these inspired types of things I want to do. It's been good for me, trying to do as much as I can with as little as possible, but eventually a girl's gotta get her some paint markers.

Girlcrush

I think this right here may be my favorite blog post of anywhere. Of EVER. I love her. Can I be her when I grow up? Not that she's grown up, either.

NaBloPo-FeeFiFoFumEenyMeenyMiney-Mo

Oh my god, it's November.

How did this happen?!? HOW?!?

Crazy. But it's here now. Which means all the NaNo stuff has begun. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writers' Month), NaKniSweMo (National Knit a Sweater Month), and so on. There's one for crochet, one for journalling, and one for blogging.

Of which I will be partaking.

The challenge is to blog every day for the month of November. Just like Blogtoberfest, which I forgot about until three days into the month of October. So I'll be doing NaBloPoMo.

I actually did NaNoWriMo in 2006, and I even made it to 50,000 words. But between moving, and job and apartment hunting, AND Christmas knitting (which recently suffered a semi-tragic setback), I don't think piling 50,000 words on top of all that would be the best idea. Even though I did have some really good ideas for what I could write. It kinda sucked having to put my foot down and tell myself not to do it.

But blogging I can do. And this lovely month of November just happens to start on a Sunday, so it's BOOKLOVE DAY!

I'm still just reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and loving it just as much as I was before. It's fantastic, and it's going much faster than I expected, considering it's over 1000 pages long. To anyone who has thought about reading this book, but has been intimidated by the monstrous page-count, read it! It's such a fun read, you'll fly through it.

Granted, it helps that I am still sans job, but still. It's a good read.

My brain has atrophied in my period of unemployment, and I can't think of a title.

Being unemployed isn't so terrible, although I suspect I only feel that way because I already have an interview set up for this week, and I'm not too close to running out of money yet.

But other than occasionally being a little bored, it's ok. I've gotten a lot of reading and knitting done. And spent a lot of time on the internet. Both finding and applying for jobs, and killing time. I have read a whole lot of blogs the last couple of days.

A bunch of them have been blogs about one thing. Just cookies, or just cute food, or just art, or just soap, or just letters. (It was one of the chocolate blogs that gave me an immense craving for dessert yesterday, and led to us going to Copeland's, which was kind of terrible. The craving lives on.) I always love reading those kind of specialized blogs, and it always makes me think about starting one myself. But I can never manage to pick one thing I would want to blog about. I can't even come close.

Yes, I love chocolate, but do I love it this much? I actually don't think I love chocolate more than I love knitting. But I probably love books more than that. I have too many loves to only write about one in one place. My mind is too scattered to stick to one thing. So I suppose I should just keep reading other people's blogs, and keep blathering about whatever on my own.

Speaking of, sorry about the missed booklove post last week. Moving is exhausting. But like I said, being unemployed makes for a lot of free time for reading. Booklove update tomorrow, my lovelies!