the year that was

of course it was, right? but i think i am calling 2004 the year that was mostly because 2003 was the year that wasn't. well, at least it was the year that i wish had not been, although honestly it ended up feeling like it didn't happen. with R's depression and subsequent suicide and the numbness that followed for me, i can only remember bits and pieces of 2003. last week my landlord asked me how long it had been since R's death and i at first thought it was just this summer. but it wasn't. it was June, 2003.
2004 started with me getting pieces in 3 different shows and ended with me in another show. the first 3 were juried exhibitions, the last one an invitational. None of them were strictly photography. 2004 was the year i started knitting again, almost 8 years after picking up the basics from my roommate when i lived in germany. 2004 was real for me. it had its ups and downs, but it is ending on a note of me feeling alive and, even more fantastic, me wanting to be alive and so it was definitely the year that was.

just in case you mistakenly thought

that pink was my color, i offer the following picture as definitive proof that it is not.

yup, it's a zeebee, this one is for my neice, who will look stunning in pink. i tend to look like someone who is not very adept at being or looking feminine trying to look as if i were feminine with the end effect being not disimilar to the look of a drag queen. except that i am female in the first place, so it just looks odd.

i also finished a 2-tone zeebee for my dad. it is pretty well just like the one i made for myself a while back, except that it is knit on smaller needles and i did a better job at the grafting. in case you were wondering about how i grafted a two-tone, garter-stitch beanie, here's what i did:

First of all, i made the last quarter of the zeebee the contrast color, when i had finished the 4th quarter, i slipped the main color stitches from the provisional cast-on as described in the zeebee pattern. Here is where we start grafting.

1. With the CC yarn loops showing on the outside of the main color yarn, bring the two edges together so that the 'back' needle, with the contrast color, has a knit row closest to the needle and the front needle, with the main color, has a purl row closest to the needle.


2. thread the CC yarn from the back needle into a darning needle


3. thread the yarn through the first stitch on the front needle as if to purl


4. thread the yarn through the first stitch on the back needle as if to knit


5. thread the yarn through the first stitch on the front needle as if to knit AND slip the stitch from the needle


6. thread the yarn through the next stitch on the front needle as if to purl


7. thread the yarn through the first stitch on the back needle as if to purl AND slip the stitch from the needle


8. thread the yarn through the next stitch on the back needle as if to knit.
   in progress:


9. repeat the last 4 steps until all stitches have been removed from your knitting needle. work in ends.

at the end, you will have a grafted 2-tone zeebee like this:

hallucina .... oh hell

yup, those people at subversive cross-stitch really are speaking to me today. my super powers are fading and frankly, there will be no posted hallucination because i am going off so little sleep that pretty well everything is a hallucination to me at the moment and yet i really doubt that you want to check out the picture of my hand and wonder how on earth i could be seeing anything BUT a hand. the good news is that i have tomorrow off. the bad news is that this will not mean more sleep for me. oh well, i'm on a roll, albeit it a slow one going down a very gradual, almost imperceptable, slope, but oh well, i'll ride this roll as long as i can.

oh, last week i saw a knight in armour, one of those suits of armor with the many joints at the shoulder that make it look kind of puffy.

hallucination hump-day!!

wow, such a variety of hallucinations you guys had last week. very cool: saruman, pods, a horse, and of course, the nude woman (or she-man) . let me tell you, i took the picture because i saw a man whistling in that tree, and who doesn't like a good whistling tree? then, as i was taking the photo, i saw the nude - wow, she has a big belly-button!

today's submission keeps with the tree theme: i do like trees! i know what i see, but can't wait to see what you see, too!
click on image to open a larger version

good gravy!

i am a super woman, well, at least i think i am, apparently. you see, i am going to get tons of knitting done in my sleep between now and christmas it seems, at least it must seem that way if you look at my project list and compare it to the amount of free time i have.

one of the projects i am working on is the very-cool scarf from the winter 04 knitty, wavy. not saying whom it's for, although i am really quite positive that the person does not read my blog, people who know this un-named person might read it and spill the beans and i can't have that!

so here it is so far: 44 rows of wavy (and only 396 left to go)

in the past, many people were dead

it's time for an engrish moment:

hallucination hump-day

yup, it's wednesday and it is time for another picture to get creative on. last week's image (which was actually posted on tuesday, but let's not get technical please, as i have this cool catch phrase happening now) was the light slipping through the wood-slat blinds in the morning and it looked like a face to me as i lay there not wanting to get up. i liked the responses though, and so i have another image today.

now, i am not asking you to say just what it is (pretty obvious this week) but what it looks like to you. my first thought was different than my second one, but i'll share those next wednesday. for now, it's time to get through the hump with a little hallucination:

WhooHoo

that is what my mailbox said when i got home yesterday. not because it was glad to see me, but because it was not so dreadfully lonely and wanted to share its joy with me. and do you know why it was joyful? because thuy had sent us a package of goodies!!!
let's open it together, why don't we?

but before we do, check out the great note on the back:

no worries thuy! it arrived in perfect shape!
first: an overview of goodness:



do you think she wants me to write her a letter?

but she must know that i think tea is delicious!

and that i love cotton candy made of kitties! (just kidding, but aren't these great? there are even pictures showing how to add the kittens into the cotton candy machine!)

and my favorite - nemuri neko, the sleeping cat!

THANK YOU thuy!!! you are