Saturday, February 24, 2007

Secret Pal 10

I've been workign on this little by little but here is my Secret Pal Questionaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I'm not wild about acrylic and chennile. They have their places, mainly kid's clothes, but I don't like them for myself.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I have my needles and hooks in a few Ball/Mason jars on my sewing desk. They are blue and clear and different sizes. It's very country.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I taught myself at least six years ago. I was working in a group home, third shift and it was something to do to stay awake. Then I really got a taste for it, and now I think I'm addicted. I'm willing to tackle just about any pattern, but I have a toddler, so I've been working on things that have simple repeats, because I have to put it down a lot, or work at night when I'm already tired. Someday I'll get back to my Eris, but right now I just can't get anywhere with the cables.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
I think I have an Amazon wish list, but it's been a while since I checked in. I should really that.

5. What's your favorite scent?
Now that depends. I'm very sesonal with my scents. At the end of the year, I long for my pine and orange candles. Come spring I yearn for lavendar and peony. And in the summer nothing makes me happier than fresh basil. My absolute favorite perfume has fig and almonds and spice. Of course I also have basil perfume, and of course rose oil too.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
Wehn it comes to candy I like salty sweets and dark chocolate. nothing too sweet. Things with nuts (for the salt) nad dark aggresive chocolate. I keep a bag of Dark Hershey Kisses in my freezer at all times, and I always end up eatign at least one Reese's Peanut Butter Egg at Easter.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I have a drop spindle but I still havent' quite got the hang of it. I'm hoping to work on it more this summer, when my classes are over. I also sew, garden, cook, scrap...

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 nearly everything except for Country and Rap. I've gotten into Irish music lately, love that Irish and Celtic Music Podcast! I also tend to like soundtracks (mainly from chick flicks) and muscials. My Ipod has a lot of jazz mixed in with Sheryl Crow, and Simon and Garfunkel.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I love pink and green and red and purple. pretty much in that order too. I've always wanted a soft buttery yellow sweater, but I tried one on recently and I looked like a corpse. So yellow is pretty much out. I also love the autmun for it's colors, so that whole palette is very pleasing to me.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with my husband and our daughter who is approaching the terrible twos. We have a modest house with a nice garden. We also have a house rabbit (a diva) who is liter box trained and named Abby, and a fancy tailed goldfish named "fishy" (becuase my daughter can actually say that).

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes, I esecailly like scarves, and I want to make a pair of fingerless mits.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I'm very partial to socks and lace lately. But I like just about everything, escpecailly if it's done in the round.

13. What are you knitting right now?
I'm furiously tryign to finish a claptois before I leave for New York. And I'll be takign a lace scarf and soem lace socks to work on while traveling.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
I love it, but it doesn't happen very often. Usually I'm gifting someone else.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
Circular, much earsier on my wrists. I don't really have a prefrence to actual material. i have them all, but I do want to try the new knitpicks circulars, mainly because I her they are so very pointy.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Not yet, but if I keep up with the handpainted yarn, my husband will get tired of holding my yarn for me, so I may get them for christmas.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
You don't get that inofrmation with out dinner and a drink. It's jsut that embarassign.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I love Chritsmas and Halloween and Thanksgiving. I'm a very fall-ish person.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Not really. I started collecting those little ceramic shoes from Hallmark, but they stopped making those. And I started collecting martini glasses, but then I got preganant and I rarely look for or buy anything for myself, except yarn of course.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
The knit picks circulars look cool, as I mentioned. And I'm on the look out for cool knee socks.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I don't think so. I've tried a little of everything. Maybe steaking, although it scares the heck out of me!

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Oh yes! 8" and 8"

23. When is your birthday?
December 31st.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

How Nice

Just for fun, which I needed after grinding potassium bromide for an IR scan.


I am a
Snapdragon


What Flower
Are You?


Tuesday, February 20, 2007

It's all relative

During Calculus this morning, my second spindle sock began it's siren song from my book bag. Now I didn't pull it out and work on it during Implicit Derivatives, but I did think about it lust-fully. I want to finish this pair in the worst way. They are soft pink and so squishy and warm. I'm hard pressed to think of something more comforting (maybe my homemade turkey veg noodle soup, but anyway). So my mind wandered between "the derivative of y in relation to the derivative of x" and the lovely winding cables on my socks. The pattern is really pretty simple and easily memorizable after a few repeats, but even still I've ripped these suckers back more times than I care to count. They were all dumb mistakes like my gauge was too tight so I needed a bigger needle, and then I missed a row so one cable was shorter than the others. And I just can't live that. So I've been working on them for awhile even though it's a really fast sock. At any rate I really want to finish them so I can enjoy them before it gets too warm. And we have been warming up here, we're supposed to flood this weekend when all the snow melts. Anyway I'm sitting in class thinking over all the mistakes and I started to compare the sock mistakes to the stupid mistakes I make in Calculus and Organic chemsitry for that matter.
This semester I have a new study motto: Math and Science are just like the damn paino, keep practising! And today it occured to me that these are all similar to knitting. The more I work with yarn and needles the easier it becomes. Certain stich patterns are second nature, and I rely on the patterns much less. And the better I get at fixing mistakes the less they freak me out. This is so true with Math. I blew the first Calculus exam, but I could see all the dumb mistakes and it didn't bother as much as it would have a few semesters ago. And the more I work at it, the more comfortable I am with a pattern and the less I double check against the solution manual. So I guess my thought for the day is that everything in life is realted. Lessons learned in one area of your life can easily translate to another, and often times get you off that ledge (the math ledge). And for those of you wondering I did cozy up with the sock after class, and I feel better for it.

Monday, February 19, 2007

So Much

I have been so neglectfull of my blog. School got crazy, the munchkin got sick (so we followed suit) and then the snow came.

The munchkin offered to man the snowblower.

And she also wanted to help Mommy knit.

I did get alot of knitting done during our two snow days. My friend Brad's Xmas socks are finished, I worked for hours on the longest lace scarf ever. Yes Athenae, I'm still at it. It may be finished by next Xmas but it really is lovely, and I got a good start on a Clapotis. It's sad when you turn to Kogiu because it has heft to it. I love the way the lace looks and feels but I really didn't realize that it would take so long. I've never done real lace, wtih lace weight yarn before. Wow! What an experience.

And now to add my two cents worth, I hear there is a heated deabte going on... I was so excited for the new Interweave. I'm ready for soem fun spring knitting and I had already downloaded the new Winding Cable Knee Socks. And I thought: Oh look a new format, it looks really nice. Well I'm refering to the online pattern format. It is nice. The magazine format however.... It looks like Vogue Knitting. Why did they do that? I love that they aren't Vogue Knitting. I love that the patter is right next to the pattern. I hate flipping back to see what a pattern needs and then flipping back to the picture. Ugh! I still like the patterns but i felt like I was reading some new magazine instead of my comfort food magazine. I'm going ot give it another try tonight, but last night when I turned to the new copy for some much needed realaxtion (after Calculus) I felt frazzled. I felt like I had to concentrate too hard. And so I put it down and plugged into an older episode of Cast On. Because Brenda Dayne always makes me feel good.