pants on fire

i did not get the picture of honey taken last night. we were on the roof until dark and then ate and that was about it for me! oh yeah, i did knit a bit more ;-) so, tonight i am going home after SnB and will take a picture of honey. i have started the center back (i am knitting the cardigan as a solid piece instead of as 3 flat pieces).

Hey Amie, i think i fixed the problem with the links! let me know if they are still hidden. i want to redesign the whole page, actually, and use my own design rather than a template, but i have to get off the roof first!

oh geez. i am at work and freezing; actually shivering here! all the more reason to book it on that cardigan! and then some fingerless gloves!

i wish my pants really were on fire!

scrub-a-dub

the long-awaited picture of the 'japanese scrubbie' from the dishcloth duo pattern is here!. it was SO easy to make and SOP really likes it! ok, he has not actually used it to wash dishes; he says it is 'too nice'. i told him i'd knit him a spare that he can hang on the wall.

i made it with an acrylic yarn i bought at michaels for $1.50 and i believe i can make a few dozen more from that skein. i don't really like the feel of the yarn, but then i don't like doing dishes either, so why not double my pleasure?

it's been a long week with work and a long weekend on the roof helping SOP. ugh. can't we just get it done? we have most of the felt up now and have started on the shingles. i am becoming a master shingle slider. my mother will be so proud!

coming tomorrow: pictures of honey so far! (you know you want to see it)

excuse of the day

i was supposed to start my pilates class today. i am trying not to be a blob, you see. well, i got up at 5:00 am so that i could get my stuff together and leave at 5:45 to be there and ready at 6:30 am. i decided to have a cup of tea but, as per normal, forgot about it and needed to reheat it. So, i put the cup in the microwave and let it heat for another minute. i took the cup out of the microwave and walked about 7 steps when the water started gurgling and shot up from the glass into my face! AUA! so, i spent the next half hour applying ice packs to my face and not walking to my pilates class. it feels like a sunburn, very odd and disturbing!

you make me feel like dancing

yup, they are done! and my feet are happy!. sure, they are very generic, and i have a few ideas on how to custom fit them a bit more, but my feet were so happy as soon as i put the on that they started dancing around! it's almost as if they were red, not grey.

click on the picture to see my feet at the disco!

hmm... what this i have found?

why, it's a camera! yes, it's time to post some photos. past time, actually. i had hoped to get something done in order to post photos, but it looks like it will have to be an 'in progress' kind of day.

our first offereing today is the almost completed pair of socks:

that is followed be a lovely detail of the heel area which so fascinates me:

and lastly, as we approach a cooling autumn (and an ever cool office), we have the first 7 rows of "honey" the cardigan of Rowan's Summer Tweed:

not keeping me very warm yet, but it will get there!

buddha

my sister wrote a beautiful entry on her blog about our grandmother. she remembers the blue candle, i remember rubbing the buddha's belly for luck. i also remember first reading 'the giving tree' at her house. R knew i loved that book and gave it to me. he really was so sweet and caring. i miss him so much. maybe i should go rub the buddha's belly.

oh

i forgot to mention. it is cool and autumny today! i am half happy and half sad. will my tomatoes ripen? will i get to wear that green shirt before next year? am i in shape for skiing? maybe, no, no. sigh.

it's good to be home

i slept SO well last night. in my own bed. in my own space. it was so nice. i do miss harley, though. he sure is a sweet dog.

i made a scrubby for SOP based off the dishcloth duo pattern. i used an acrylic yarn for extra scrubbing power and it was so easy to make. now i will have to make one for me. i am also going to make one in linen as a scrubby for my face. soon,

my second sock is coming along. yes, i should post pictures, but i am too tired and lazy at the moment. soon. when i am done you shall have beautiful sock pictures to admire!

work is very busy this week. getting ready for the start of the semester and of course all the professors have shown up this week and forgotten their brains. okay, only some of them, but enough to make you wonder ;)

week of the dog

Officially it's called dog- and house-sitting, but Harley and i like to think of it as hanging out. He wakes me up at an un-godly hour (perhaps if i were a god he would not do this, but as i am a mere mortal, he feels free to remind me of this fact) and we go for a walk. At some point he decides that the leash is a great toy and starts jumping for it and pulling me around. Usually, he ends up with the leash wrapped around his muzzle and legs and we give up on the game, but it's fun while it lasts. we go back to his house and eat breakfast and then i have to go to work and he gives me 'deserter' accusatory looks. later on, when i am done with work for the day, i go back to his house and he pees on the floor with excitement and i get to clean it up. we go outside and wrestle for a bit and then hang out some more and eat dinner, wait for it to cool down and then go into the garage where i put on his leash and hit the button to raise the garage door and he runs under it as it goes up, splatting me into the door as i am not as short as he is.

he is really such a sweet and gentle guy. i am very much enjoying his company, even if he does snore like a freight train.

all i have to say is

i had better get knitting!
i have so many projects that i want to do and quite a few that i already have yarn for as well! the green top is taking a long time, and it will take me a long time in general, i think, and i really want some alternate projects to work on at the same time that i can do while i walk to work and such.

what i am working on right now:

1. polka-dot purl top from spring IK


2. BBBB from stitch n bitch (ok, not sure this really counts as it is a do-a-row-here-and-there kind of project


3. socks for me (first pair ever, one sock done)


4. washcloths (2 started)

here's what i have yarn for and wanted to get done this summer (LOL!!):

1. jade from elsebet lavold's sentimental journey


2. polka-dot purl top from spring IK (started - see above)

hmm... i thought that list was longer.

here's what i have yarn for and want to get done this fall and winter:

1. aud from the viking collection


2. liv from the viking collection


3. honey, from summer tweed


4. the baggy turtleneck that i can't remember the name of, from summer tweed


5. chamomile, from summer tweed


6. hat with that foofy wool yarn i bought last year


7. sweater of my own design

and more things i'd like to do:

1. socks! there are at least 3 patterns in 'folk solks' that i want to make right away


2. poncho? (i do not know why i put a question mark there - i am signed up for a poncho knit-along!)


3. cardigan from simple knits


4. dolman updated from winter IK


5. granny-square pullover from winter IK


6. gloves! (with fingers long enough to fit me!)


7. kyoto, from knitty


8. ...

not to mention i have a chair portfolio in photography to work on, an urn to turn, scraps of a life to lead, my wife to kill and guildor to frame for it!

gotta get me some corduroy

cos i'm going to see david sedaris on nov 4!!!

you know you're from

utah when...

hey, guess what! i finished a sock! my very first sock ever and i tried it on this morning and it even fit! pretty cool, eh? um, that has nothing to do with being from utah. only the above link has anything to do with that. sorry if i confused you.

stitch marker directions

well, PJ asked about directions on how i made the stitch markers. it is pretty straight forward, so it was easy to write up instructions

on another note, i have turned a heel! at first, i was reading the instructions and just thinking "how on earth does this work?" but i figured i would just try it and about 5 rows in i was just dancing because it was so cool! i can see why people like making socks!

oh, and i got the yarn for making honey. i think i'll probably wear it WITH a shirt underneath, though. i am so weird that way.

a few inches in (but miles away from the hard part)

so far i am enjoying the sock thing, but i have yet to do the heel flap or turn the heel, all i've made is a tube so far. lol, yeah, this is cake! maybe tonight i'll start on the heel. yikes. wish me luck!

i love you man, *hic*

i am giddy and goofy and very into telling people how wonderful i think they are at the moment. it's been a sucky day and by the end all the stress had just worked me into a state of goofiness. my grandmother died and i feel very odd about it as i was not a good grandchild, my boss was a pissant to me again today and i was very mad at him for quite sometime, still am, but i am letting it go, (see! there it goes in that bubble i have realeased. watch it floating away over the tree-tops, oops! someone just shot it down with a pea-shooter. oh, that was me...). so, by the end of the day i was telling people on KR how wonderful they are, challenging VaxGirl to a jello-wrestling match and generally sounding like it was last call at the okey dokey saloon. oh well.

you all are great, let's never lose touch!

my more-or-less sister

my sister sometimes refers to me as her 'er' sister, and then elaborates : "smarter, taller, thinner, younger..." Hmm. silly girl. well, if that is the case, then i declare her to be my 'more-or-less' sister: more patient, less tempermental, more diligent, less selfish, more devoted, more family-oriented, less angry, more successful, more socially-adept...

just so you know.

say it ain't so!

deep fried fish less healthful! (2nd article on the page)

apartment?

a friend of mine is out of town on a fellowship for a year and thought that the professor who would be taking his place would sub-let his apartment. well, she just informed him that she will not. it is too old of a building to be quiet enough for her and she is unsure about the safety of the neighborhood. well, if she wants to live close to town, it is a pretty safe neighborhood, but oh well. i love his apartment and had always thought the apartments in that building must be really pricey. but his apartment is only $550 a month and it has two large main rooms, a nice-sized bedroom, a balcony that you could actually sit on, a storage room, a decent sized kitchen and bath. i was paying $475 for a place half the size 3 years ago! it is a great older building with the tiles typical in buildings from the '30s and '40s and wood floors.


SO, if you are looking for a semi-furnished apartment in salt lake city until May (?) 2005, this is a deal! comment! i'll get in touch with you!

i am in love

with bill bryson.

well, i must admit, i've been in love with him for quite some time - ever since i read "the mother tongue", actually. but, today i've been listening to "i'm a stranger here myself" again and it is just such a lovely commentary on american ideosynchrasies as well as his own. i believe the second or third article (the book is a collection of articles, i.e. not an entirely cohesive unit) starts out with "i have very happy hair. no matter how serene and composed the rest of me is, not matter how grave and formal the situation, my hair is always having a party. in any group photograph you can spot me at once, because i am the person at the back whose hair seems to be listening, in some private way, to a disco album called 'dance craze 97'". what is not to love?

it's been a odd, hectic, kind of sucky few weeks. my car needed its spark plug wires replaced, then i got it back from the shop (i didn't think of asking how hard it would be to do the spark plug wires myself and it would not have been a problem) and it was leaking coolant. the shop said there was a puncture in my radiator and there was no way they could have been to blame because they were only working on the top of the engine. great. then my car cover was stolen, which my parents had bought me after i had to have my entire car repainted due to a mystery substance that was eating away at the clear top-coat of my car, my cell phone died, my land phone line went out, my new computer had to get a new motherboard, and a bottle of balsamic vinegar exploded in the back of my car leaving a 2 inch puddle in the basin where my spare tire sits.



but, i woke in time the other morning to walk outside and see a flock of geese just at that very moment flying overhead. i can put a loaf of bread in my car in the mid morning and by mid-afternoon have a yummy, balsamic-laced, bready treat. i have folded laundry today and done many other dreaded tasks that make you feel like you have actually accomplished something when you are done, i have lovely tomatoes growing in my garden, and i started to knit a pair of socks, an item which i have been scared of for ages. all in all, today is being one of those rare, wonderful days where you think you wouldn't mind doing this whole thing for quite a while longer.

what kind of yarn

are you?

You are Shetland Wool. You are a traditional sort who can sometimes be a little on the harsh side. Though you look delicate you are tough as nails and prone to intricacies. Despite your acerbic ways you are widely respected and even revered.

in theory it's supposed to be making me more patient

but in practice it just pisses me off.

grr. i was working on my polka-dot top and helping SOP with his roof. mostly, he was a a stage where he just wanted someone there to make him feel safer on the roof, so it should not have been a problem, BUT he needed me to hand him something and a jumped up to get it, caught my shoe in my yarn (okay, actually they were his shoes so i was already looking like an escapee from the ringling brothers), pulled my knitting, or actually tinking at the time because i was un-doing a row, across the lawn and lost a bunch of stitches and two stitch markers in the grass. the yarn is kind of a pain to pick up stitches because it is made of a lot of little threads and after picking up somesttitches, the ones that were not yet on the needles would drop another row and, after much swearing and threatening, (does the yarn listen when i say "don't you dare even think about dropping you little hunk of crud!!", No! It drops another stitch with defiance!) i ended up pulling it off the needles completely and ripped away. i did stop myself from ripping the entire garment and just ripped about 10 rows to a point where i could actually get all the stitches. i even found, okay SOP found, one of the stitch markers. grr. give me a beer, baby!

tour d' Dream

i'm in my neighborhood, on my bike. i want to stop by that little consignment shop on 8th. I'm on 10th, and then 9th. i get off my bike to go up a very steep hill. soon i am getting off my bike to go down a very steep hill, but i am not really sure why i do that. i am riding on the sidewalks, which are wide and smooth. i remember that as a child i wanted to be in the tour d'france. did i actually want this? i do not know, but the dream me did.

i am waiting at the traffic light listening to people talk. i am in germany. a group of 4 men walk up and are speaking english. american english. i can tell they are native speakers. they are talking about just being boston and the DNC. the light changes.

i cross the street and end up tripping into a cosmetic store. i literally slide into a display. it is a row of stores, but not a strip mall. i am now carrying a pillow, a looseleaf, and a small duvet with a printed cover. The duvet came from my prison cell, though i think the prison cell is just my room. i find something i want to buy, but them realize i do not have any marks (which would not have done me any good anyhow as i would need Euros, but apparently the dream me does not realize this). i plan on returning once i have exchanged some money. i leave, with the goal of finding the consignment shop on 8th (which in real life is on 9th, so i guess that is why i never found it.)

why i love engrish.com