And the front:
Now here's the backyard this morning. Notice any differences?
And the front:
I did not go to work, today or yesterday. I have gotten lots of knitting done, and unpacked four boxes of books.
February 12, 2010
Snomygawd
Here's a picture of my backyard yesterday morning:
And the front:
Now here's the backyard this morning. Notice any differences?
And the front:
I did not go to work, today or yesterday. I have gotten lots of knitting done, and unpacked four boxes of books.
And the front:
Now here's the backyard this morning. Notice any differences?
And the front:
I did not go to work, today or yesterday. I have gotten lots of knitting done, and unpacked four boxes of books.
February 10, 2010
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!
Crawling ever onwards
And that title works on many levels, let me tell you.
Firstly, knitting.
'Member that sweater from last week? That I said was actually not that far from being done? 'Member? I tried that sweater on. That sweater was never, ever going to close over my boobs. I even momentarily considered knitting the button band extra wide, in the way that knitters consider these ridiculous notions in order to try to avoid frogging things. I considered it for about half a second.
I have frogged that sweater.
And cast on in the next size up. *Sigh.* Such is a knitter's lot in life. Often an uphill battle. But at least our uniforms come with hand-knit socks.
In happier news, Mom was here this weekend, and I asked about buttons, and she immediately dug out four big containers of buttons, and we manically sorted through a slew of pearl buttons, and I found buttons that I think I like enough to use. I found others that I like even better, but one set is, I think, too small, and the other set doesn't have enough. But still, progress has been made on the button front.
I also cast on for one of these babies right here. Mine will look awfully similar to the one on her blog, except I think Mom stole all my beads after I moved out, plus, sewing on teensy bugle beads sounds exhausting right now. So mine might be sans sprinkles. At least for the time being. We'll see how I feel once it's all knit up. It's not so far along right now, because I only cast on, and it's been a long couple of days.
Because I have a job (temporarily. I'm told that's what happens when you work for a temp agency). Which normally would not be so bad, but the job that was supposedly in north Fort Worth, is actually so far north of Fort Worth that it's no longer in Tarrant county. So the commute sucks pretty badly. But it's only two weeks, and otherwise, it's been good. So I'm trying not to complain. Plus, there's a 70% chance of snow tonight, so I might not even have to go tomorrow. Which would be nice, except for that whole getting paid thing. Which is the other reason I'm not complaining about the job. I like that part. I'd hate to miss a whole day of it. So, all pros and cons taken into consideration,
In other areas of making myself crawl towards something resembling progress, my brain has been bubbling again, and I've been taking those bubblings more and more seriously. There are exciting things beginning to take shape. And they'll do so even more once I start getting a paycheck or two. Yay for start-up capital. That's a hint, right there. But things are still pretty loose right now, so I'm not giving any more away. I'll just say that I'm feeling more and more excited about these things I'm working on.
Ok, I'm going to go knit now.
Firstly, knitting.
'Member that sweater from last week? That I said was actually not that far from being done? 'Member? I tried that sweater on. That sweater was never, ever going to close over my boobs. I even momentarily considered knitting the button band extra wide, in the way that knitters consider these ridiculous notions in order to try to avoid frogging things. I considered it for about half a second.
I have frogged that sweater.
And cast on in the next size up. *Sigh.* Such is a knitter's lot in life. Often an uphill battle. But at least our uniforms come with hand-knit socks.
In happier news, Mom was here this weekend, and I asked about buttons, and she immediately dug out four big containers of buttons, and we manically sorted through a slew of pearl buttons, and I found buttons that I think I like enough to use. I found others that I like even better, but one set is, I think, too small, and the other set doesn't have enough. But still, progress has been made on the button front.
I also cast on for one of these babies right here. Mine will look awfully similar to the one on her blog, except I think Mom stole all my beads after I moved out, plus, sewing on teensy bugle beads sounds exhausting right now. So mine might be sans sprinkles. At least for the time being. We'll see how I feel once it's all knit up. It's not so far along right now, because I only cast on, and it's been a long couple of days.
Because I have a job (temporarily. I'm told that's what happens when you work for a temp agency). Which normally would not be so bad, but the job that was supposedly in north Fort Worth, is actually so far north of Fort Worth that it's no longer in Tarrant county. So the commute sucks pretty badly. But it's only two weeks, and otherwise, it's been good. So I'm trying not to complain. Plus, there's a 70% chance of snow tonight, so I might not even have to go tomorrow. Which would be nice, except for that whole getting paid thing. Which is the other reason I'm not complaining about the job. I like that part. I'd hate to miss a whole day of it. So, all pros and cons taken into consideration,
In other areas of making myself crawl towards something resembling progress, my brain has been bubbling again, and I've been taking those bubblings more and more seriously. There are exciting things beginning to take shape. And they'll do so even more once I start getting a paycheck or two. Yay for start-up capital. That's a hint, right there. But things are still pretty loose right now, so I'm not giving any more away. I'll just say that I'm feeling more and more excited about these things I'm working on.
Ok, I'm going to go knit now.
February 3, 2010
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.
February 1, 2010
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.
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.
January 27, 2010
Stockinette and swatches
It seems like ever since we got back to Texas, I've constantly felt like saying, "It's already ____day already?!" Time goes so much faster when you've actually got things to do, even if they're mostly things around the house. And my mind has been going in so many directions that it's almost always a struggle to keep focused on one thing for long.
So I haven't gotten a ton of knitting done this week. The sweater is coming along, but it's just plain, mindless stockinette so far, which makes it even harder to focus for long. So I'll be glad when it's time for sleeves. I should start looking for buttons soon, too.
The other thing I started last night is that I was swatching for something I'm designing myself. I've had this idea in my head for months, and never got around to trying it. So last night I felt like starting something new. Maybe it's all the stockinette, or maybe I've looked at my queue on Ravelry so often that I've gotten bored with it, but I didn't feel like starting anything I'd had planned. So I started something new! Truly new! Very exciting. Maybe by next week I'll have more that just a swatch done. Maybe I'll have pictures of an actual original design!
So I haven't gotten a ton of knitting done this week. The sweater is coming along, but it's just plain, mindless stockinette so far, which makes it even harder to focus for long. So I'll be glad when it's time for sleeves. I should start looking for buttons soon, too.
The other thing I started last night is that I was swatching for something I'm designing myself. I've had this idea in my head for months, and never got around to trying it. So last night I felt like starting something new. Maybe it's all the stockinette, or maybe I've looked at my queue on Ravelry so often that I've gotten bored with it, but I didn't feel like starting anything I'd had planned. So I started something new! Truly new! Very exciting. Maybe by next week I'll have more that just a swatch done. Maybe I'll have pictures of an actual original design!
January 22, 2010
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.
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.
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