Friday, March 30, 2007

200 and a new book!

So I haven't blogged lately because school has been soooo stressful and I got sick so I didn't have anything nice to blog about & it's my 200th post so I wanted it to be slightly interesting. I figure today is a good day to blog because I decided it was going to be a good day, ergo, happy blogging. Well, first of all I slept in till 9, which was wonderful! I've been waking up around 6ish this week and that just kinda kills me. Then I read blogs and ate cold pizza and watched the Price Is Right and wrote poetry till 11, when the mailman came and brought me the Yarn Harlot's new book! Here's a shot of Blinky saving my spot from the kitties so I could come blog. We're reading it together. Now there is a lot of stuff to do this weekend. My killer week is over thank goodness. I had a sex presentation on Tuesday for my education class with the POO prof. It was a lot of fun, we stressed why teachers need to know sexual education even if they aren't teaching it and at the end of the class we had a group activity where one person is blindfolded and wearing oven mitts and has to get a condom onto a banana. It was hilarious! Cutie Patotie boy tried it and he ended up breaking the banana, it was so funny! And then this darling young lady in our class, so sweet and nice, got the condom on the banana in 30 seconds, it was hilarious, she was so amazed at herself. Three hours after that I had another presentation for my women's studies class on Andrea Dworkin and Josephine Butler which went well even though I was freaky nervous beforehand, I think because I really wasn't feeling well, as I wasn't getting much sleep at that point. Then on Wednesday my paper was due, and on Thursday I had a quiz in my POO class. Meh. So this weekend I need to work on my poetry, here's a shot of one of my artsy poems
It's taken a lot longer than I thought it would but hopefully it ends up the way I hoped. I am also still writing and editing a lot of my poetry. Our chatbook should be about 35 pages and I believe I have around that but there are a lot of poems I don't know if I want to put in so I'm still writing a lot, and I have to find all the poems I wrote randomly, like in my textbooks or on scraps of paper on my floor somewhere. And of course there is knitting, just not that much since I have barely been home. My sari silk shawl was coming along so quickly but I haven't worked on it for the past five days! Sigh. Here's some shots of it but it's really hard to show the detail right now cause it's all scrunched up on the needles.
I'm really pleased with it. I have made a minor/major booboo but meh. It's all good. You also can't really frog with this yarn cause it frays quite easily. I work on my sock in the wee bits of time I get on the bus or before classes start. I've gotten a lot of compliments on it, but I think it's due mostly to the beautiful yarn. I've started increasing for my calves (which by the way, are freaky huge. Okay, my ankles are 8 inches around and my calves are 16!!! That is when I'm flexing them but ohmylord! Deformed much?)The white bit is Spike by the way. He started posing around everything I was taking a picture of in an attempt to plead with the readers to send him fresh tuna. He's wasting away you see, skin and bones that one. I did take it picture to please him than he immediately settled down into his kitty bed. Oh the abuse. Oh yeah, and I'm also taking a weaving class but I have no pictures yet of the shawl I'm weaving. It's gorgeous! The only thing about being social and having a cold is by the time I get home I have no voice. Poor mom probably thinks that I'm five times worse than I say I am because when I talk to her in the evening I'm croaking like a frog. I think I am getting better though. This morning I had absolutely no voice which is really hard when the cats are being bad and all I can do is breathe out in their direction, but as the day progressed it returned and I'm feeling better. Oh yeah, and everytime you think it's spring in Northern BC, guess what? It bloody snows.

And here's the yarn I've got soaking in the crock pot! I've already dyed some but I'll wait till I've finished dying this one then I'll post the pictures. I've taken it from this article by this lovely hilarious lady and am having a lot of fun. I was on the phone with my friend Reanne when I was preparing the yarn and she accused me of being too crafty but in a good way. It was funny. You may have had to been there, but trust me, funny.
And of course, couldn't end the blog without some kitty pictures. I'm planning on going to 300 tonight if it isn't sold out again, so yeah, wheeeeeeeeeeeee! Back to my book!

oh so sleepy Chuck.

Monday, March 26, 2007

oh Regina Spektor

I'm not a late study person. I like sleep. I mean, having lowerish blood pressure that leads to fainting spells is a good reason to get my sleep, but regardless (oh..... irregardless, yes, excellent) I prefer sleep. I will miss it for fun things, like knitting shawls, playing nitendo, or the occasional drinking with my buddies (buuuuuuuuuddy) but missing it because your editing a paper because you spent THREE hours working on a group presentation that should have taken 40 minutes but it's not that the other people in your presentation did anything wrong it's that they did TOO much and you spent hours cropping their presentations in order to make it relatively but not really close to the time limit and yeah. the presentation is tomorrow, and you have another one but thank the heavens you worked on that last week, and the paper is due on Wednesday. Sigh. Anyhoo, I'm tired. I've been eating crap for the past three days because of the group studying (pizza, chips & salsa, timbits... sigh), it's a good thing I have good stuff when I am home (mmmm..... soup soup soup!). Right so I'm tired, sugar and grease intoxicated, editing my paper, and singing along to Regina Spektor (LOVE HER!) really loudly so Spike came over and slapped my leg than walked away. I mean, I shouldn't complain, my people I'm presenting with are SO funny, so wrong, and they are great, but I'm not overly happy with the presentation, and I just dislike group presentations overall. Meh. And yeah, so okay, back to the editing. I just had to blog about the singing. Oh.... the CD ended and now it's Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams!!!! ARRRGGHHHH! okay, I fixed it.

Saturday, March 24, 2007

I mean, it's just writing after all

Ugh. Even when you like the prof, even when you like the subject matter, even when you have done all the readings and have a good outline- it is so difficult to write papers. I don't know why. It's stupid, whatever the reason is. It's probably 10% stupid computer screens, 20% annoying chicago style, and 70% laziness. I had all these minor computer glitches today as well. I can't seem to open my uni email, which is SO annoying. Oh yeah, and my mom left this morning. Sigh. I much prefer having her within hugging capacity. And Jenn is in New York eating iron chef food. I don't know why I blog when I'm this mopey. I think I will just knit* for a bit. I did do some more reading today for my paper and I did some poetry and some work on my presentation so it's not like the day is a total waste. I just don't know why it's so hard to sit down and actually write on my paper! In other news, the kitties would just prefer for me to release live mice into the house for them to batter around and eat instead of wet kitty food. Jenn and I weren't giving them wet kitty food before, but they think in lieu of this whole 'rat poison' incident, they'd prefer the mice.
And don't worry about me being all on my lonesome, I have quite a few friends coming over to play nitendo, drink tea, gossip, and eat caramel rice cakes(what paper?) and I also have very attentive neighbours on all sides. And of course, my two brave kitties are, as always, willing to defend my honour at any chance.

Don't you hate it when you eat foods that are too similar and you kinda get a weird tummy ache and then two hours later you can't tell if you are hungry or if your stomache just still hurts?

Oh yeah, and the night when I wore my sweater to the chocolate thing was soooo much fun. I taught so many slightly intoxicated women and sober women to knit! I had one woman remember the difference between the garter stitch and the stockinette stitch by applying the terms to lingiere. I got a free lipstick doohickey from Mary Kay (not her, but a representative of hers named Becky who one time knit a cabled sweater on a train in one week) and I got so many compliments on my sweater which held up very nicely but it took me about half an hour of tedious brushing and picking to get all the cat hair out of it so I wouldn't have an allergic reaction to it. It was just a great night.



*it's the Raj Silk shawl from fiddlesticks

Friday, March 16, 2007

Photos of..... knitting?


Who knew? So yes, a quick blog, mostly photos, of my most recent knittings. The Skully Yoke Sweater is done! Done I say! Here's my coy picture in it. See how coy I am? It's a bad photo but I'm so coy in it. The living room comes across as much more messy than it is. I was wearing my houserobe (the red thing on the couch) and all the foreground stuff is the stuff on the mantle of the fireplace. But back to the sweater... it's done!!!!Here's a slightly better shot of the skulls that line the yoke and the sleeves. And in previous posts I commented that I thought there was going to be about 200 stray ends to weave in just with the yoke, but I'm happy to say that I counted and there were only 170 ends in the yoke to weave in. There's Jenn in the background, being crafty.
The skulls continue all the way around. It's not suppose to be off the shoulder but I knit the skulls too big because I was worried about the intarsia pulling in the stitches and making it too small but as it turns out.... nope, that didn't happen (it happened in my swatch dammit). Regardless, the sweater still works.
Another shot of the yoke. Sigh. I'm wearing the sweater tonight at a fundraiser or something that I'm going to. The owner of the LYS, Darlene, asked me if I could help her woman the knitting table that she's setting up. We have this wonderful big bulky wool in cream and are teaching or getting people to knit squares that then may hopefully turn into a blanket. And the theme of the evening is CHOCOLATE!!! I'm planning on a sugar comatose by midnight. It was soooo nice of Darlene to ask me to come, I'm very very excited. And I get to wear my sweater! I'm hoping it will be cool in there for the chocolate not to melt because a sweater knit at a tiny gauge made out of wool? I'm not getting frostbite in this one, despite the fact that it's a veritable blizzard outside! ARGH I HATE THE WEATHER!!! But my boootiful sweater eases my worries.

And the new sock! Knit toe up! It's a hybrid of Wendy's toe up socks and this cuff down pattern from Knitty. And this sock yarn is like crack. It's just amazing. It's Lorna's Laces in Crazy Stripes, and I had the label three seconds ago but it's gone missing so I'll get back to you on it. My tattoo looks like a fiddlehead in this picture. Heh, snort.
Fuzzy progression.
Currently...
I'm going to have to figure out what to do with my giant calves. I was going to go up needle sizes but that will loosen the gauge and I'm knitting these with 2mm instead of my 1.75mm so I don't want to go up even more. I'm thinking instead of 6 stitches between the swirls I could make it 7 stitches, or I could divide some of the stitches, like right now they are knit 6 purl 3 knit 6 purl 3 but I'm thinking if I increase into the purls, one stitch a row until they are purl 6, and then split them, that would be cool but would require some math.

And some sock porn socks before I go. Enjoy.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Revelations of a Tuesday

  • running on an incline is waaaaaaaaay harder than running level. If you are running on an incline, then you can only run for about five minutes before wanting to die and you think you are a total slacker because you use to be able to run for fifteen minutes, but then you decide to run level and you can run for ten minutes without wanting to die.
  • Leone needs to read instructions. Really. I mean, really. Because when there are a group of options for assignments, and there are 2 you have to do, and you think there are five assignments, so you have done 3 of the non-option ones, and then you go back to do the 2 you have to do, then you read the instructions and realize you only have 4 assignments total, you kinda just screwed yourself over.
  • when you need to hand in transcripts, request them months before they are due. Months.
  • don't think a banana will hold you over till you get home. It's 12 and I am starving!
  • in class, when someone (I mean, this wouldn't be the prof could it? how could a prof possibily infer something like this?) says that the date rape drug problem is due to stupid women who think they can drink, don't let said person get away with that. Be loud, be opinated, put your foot down. It always rocks when someone can't respond to your comment because you are soooo much smarter than them. It helps counteract the stupidity you feel when you realize you have misread instructions for your other class.
  • chocolate soy milk is the best drink ever.
  • grammer is irrelevant.

that is all.

carry on.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Happy International Women's Day

Shouldn't every woman be allowed to sleep in on this day and get free foot massages? Cause, I'd kill for one right now. Seriously though folks, calm down in the back, I'm just going to take a minute and reflect on what this day means to me. I am so insanely fortunate to be surrounded by all the wonderful women in my life. My Mom, who, I mean, is so amazing, I really don't know who I'd be without her because she has helped me realize so much of myself and my abilities. My Grandmothers, Shirley and Hazel, who have these amazing dry wits and calculating humour that makes me want to grow up so I can be like them. My sisters, Julia and Jennifer, who are the yin and yang in my life and who I need more than anybody else in my life. My Aunt Shirley, who makes everyone happy and is the ultimate artist. My cousins, Lisa, Jessica, and Susan, who are those women that no matter the distance or the time I know I can always rely on. My friends who I've carried with me for so long, Jodi, Sheena, Kayla, & Adrienne, all amazing women who I am so proud of and it makes me estastic to be around. And well, me too, cause I rock. And I'd like to thank the academy... oh wait, that's for my leading role as Angelina Jolie's lover in the forthcoming 'Angie Loves Leone'. God I really hope I didn't forget anyone. Thanks to all the amazing women bloggers, and the amazing women Bears for all the cuddles! Love love!

Sunday, March 04, 2007

so who here knew Andrea Dworkin?

I'm writing my history paper on Josephine Butler and Andrea Dworkin. I'll keep you informed.

In other news, I finished my socks! It's 100% merino from Fleece Artist that I bought at the Art of Yarn in Kelowna. I made them ankle socks but now I have a tonne leftover. I was so paranoid that I would run out of yarn because I had such a small needle size and really small gauge. I realized when I upload this next picture that it's a little gappy at the join but oh well. They look cute with my silver shoes, but detailing I'm still in my pink penguin pajamas the overall look was quite sexy.
And some may have noticed that Skully has been put onto my finished label. The knitting part is over, I just need to sew it and weave in the ends. Luckily when I was knitting the sleeves I weaved in the ends as I went because I didn't for the yoke. Blinky was kind enough to pose in the picture with it because he was a big help when I was finished the yoke. The next picture is Skully's brains. Approximately 200 ends just hanging out, being all annoying and evil. I'm going to try to wear this to a knitting booth I'm helping at on March 16th, so when I sit down with it I try to do at least 10%, or 20 ends, and then that's only ten sittings which could be managable. I also need to block it again after I sew in the ends. It's already been blocked once because I wanted to make sure that the bottom would stop curling and thankfully it did. I've done 12% so far.
Just wait till you see the new socks I'm casting on for. Adrienne, if I was going to knit my wedding dress (smart ass), I would knit it out of this sock yarn. It's booootiful.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

SUGAR!!!!

I got a free coke! Wheeee heeheehee. So anyhoo, I just thought I should let everyone know that I applied to UBC!!! And soon I will also be applying to UBC-lite and UNBC but it's my first application sent out with all the 't's dotted and the 'i's crossed! (at least I sincerely hope- the mail lady kinda had to pry to application out of my hand because I was contemplating breaking the seal and doing another double check). I feel like such a grown up! Somebody get me a rye on the rocks!

In other news, sometimes, workshopping poetry makes me want to drink battery acid.

I'm at school so no photos :(

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

photo documentary

It's kinda late at night, but I really wanted to get a few blogs in. So this is in no order whatsoever. I just downloaded a bunch of my photos from my steals in Vancouver (I have no camera :( so no photos of there) and I'll just comment on them as I go along. Let's just clear some things up first however a) I saved up for this trip so it's not like I'm crazy rich b) it's YARN people, YARN and c) Jenn's cat Chuck just jumped up and took the post its that were beside the computer in his mouth and ran away with them.

So here is my precious brushed suri yarn. Love it. I had to forcibly take this away from Sheena, who, coincedentially (can't spell tonight), has the best burlesque name ever, very knittery. I have no idea what to knit with this because I love it so and due to it's price only got one. Apparently it knits up a heavier weight than it appears so I'm thinking.... nothing, I got nothing here people.

Oh, this is the cotton I got for Julia's baby blanket even though she's not planning on having a baby any time yet. I like to get a head start on these things. There is a brown skein to the right there that kinda meshes into the couch. This stuff, when it is washed, I tell you it feels like butter. It's what the boobie square was knit out of, and yeah, the boobie square is only a four inch square and it was knit using a modified pattern from this knitty. Julia picked out the colours and we're thinking a fair isle argyle pattern with a lining so I don't have to weave in the ends.
Mmmmm..... this is a present for someone! Well, once I knit it it will be. Wheeeeeeeee! (ps- Lorna's Laces)
My new purse! And, this was a necessary item because my Emily purse got soaked my first day in Vancouver (really, in Vancouver? No!)
Heh. Shiny for my eyes. Julia and I had a fun time in the MAC shop. I'm so glad I don't live closer to one.
Look! It's a new duck! And unlike Satan Duck, Pirate Duck doesn't list, probably because he's more use to water. I mean, you would think that Satan Duck would have a problem with being submerged into water, what with the fire and brimstone. Heh. Pirate Duck and Satan Duck both come from a most darling friend (Hi Sheena).
New shoes! New shoes new shoes new shoes! (Theme? What theme? I see NO theme!)
Oh! Tassles! On pasties! My most delicious friend Melly (ohhhh.... pretty dress) a host of a Pasty party and I made these (so much fun!) and then we all put on the pasties and had a swirling lesson. It was a blast. My burlesque name is Ruby Kitten. Seriously, it was one of the highlights of the trip.
Yarn from Quebec that I'm planning for a sweater one day.
Another shot of some yarn. The Lorna Laces is on the left, the Suri on the right, the middlest is called bunny hop and is mostly synthetic but has some angora in it and is a lovely colour scheme and the reds are part bamboo and wool (called Panda Wool) and some nylon so they may become socks. I also bought the middle three because the labels were so cute.
And that appears to be the end of my photo commentary for today. Thanks for dropping by. Sorry for my absence in the blog world of late, as you can see I was quite busy in Vancouver, I didn't even have time to knit, I think I may have gotten about an inch done of my sock while I was there. I had the most wonderful time and even though I went a wee bit over budget (mostly due to food which was a problem in the creation of my budget) I would do it over and over again. smoochies to Vancouver!

Mom go no further

Another souvenir of Vancouver......


Grrrr argh I be a pirate!


(right side ribcage)
(the part of the skull that looks like my skin is actually white- I want the credit for getting ink there too even if it isn't obvious)
(comment-this tattoo looks a lot more bad-ass taken out of it's context ie. Me. Why? Because I am so cute that even a skull and crossbones gets affected)

Saturday, February 17, 2007

oh my

Going to be in Vancouver in... 12.5 hours. Heh, kick ass!

In other news, I have a picture of my sweater that would make most knitters cry. I'm so anxious to finish and to see if it fits that I'm not weaving in the ends of my intarsia skulls. So currently that's about 60 skulls (120 ends) with the borders and another row of skulls to finish. It's not a bright idea not to weave in the ends but I don't care- must finish sweater! It will hopefully not take much longer but I won't be taking it to Vancouver with me.

It's reading break!

My feminist history class exam was the first exam where I was literally scrawling text across the page in a mad rush as my professor told us it was time to pack up. Scrawling I tell you. And I couldn't remember the National Union of Women's Suffrage! Argh! I remembered everything else but I just made something up for the name.

The Yarn Harlot is coming to Victoria! Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm going to try so hard to get there but I don't know. Still, that's pretty close!

Applying to schools is stressful and hard. Boooooooo!

Wish me a good trip!

Thursday, February 08, 2007

6 doohickeys

I am so sick right now. Today I missed my POO class which was fine, but I also had to miss my kickass feminist history class which sucked. This cough is going around the university and I know who I caught it from so SCORN but she doesn't read my blog so meh. I sometimes like memes. I think most of my dislike is that I can never remember the correct way to pronounce them (me-me or meme like french?). I find the weird meme interesting however. I mean, who is defining weird here? Cause a lot of people have memed things that frankly don't seem that weird to me. Anyhoo, I've decided to do a 6-doohickey meme. Just six things about you, which I know is the theme of other memes, but frankly, with a vague term like weird or strange attached, it's just a matter of opinion so. And I tag Julia, Melly, and Eileen. And by tag, I mean, whatever, you don't have to.

  1. I organized my stash last month. I have a lot of mohair.
  2. I buy toys and people I love buy me toys (the blonde is from Cairo).
  3. I can't decide who I like more, Batman or Superman. I make up my mind and the next week I'll change it. Batman can be way too much angst for me, but sometimes Superman is just so squeaky. I mean, we all know that Spiderman comes in first, but who is second?
  4. My art teacher from high school gave me his time-life art collection of the masters and so far I've only read one (bad art student bad!) They are my pride and joy.
  5. This cat knows I love him and will use that to his advantage whenever he can.
  6. I really like my Emily the Strange bag.

Is a turtle


This, as of yet, unnamed turtle now belongs to a friend who was having a really shitty week at work (and I can't just offer to cook for her and clean like I do with Jenn- well, I guess I could but regardless, I just knit). He's knit out of 100% bamboo. There was a major booboo with the crochet aspect which than unfortunately affected the i-cord but overwell he went really quickly. I'm hoping to knit him some more shells once I forget all the cursing I did with the first one (Jenn was there, she can vouch).
And the four muppet heads for this lovely lady who is doing this for children with cancer. The second from the left made an amazing swirl pattern, which was funny at first, because it reminded my of jupiter, and then I thought 'and it was jupiter one's blog that drew my attention to this cause in the first place' and then a few hours later I realized the blog is JanuaryOne, not Jupiter One. And this is pre-medicated Leone state.
And how nice that the same day I finish all the work on the Skull Yoke sweater I can I get a phone call letting me know that my freakishly expensive addi turbos are in (the only ones I could get in that length) so I can start on the yoke! The body is a lot longer on that it just curls up right now.

Okay, I'm going to go do another post, which you have probably already read cause it will show up above this one, unless you get here right after I post this one and before the new one. Medication makes for a boring blog doesn't it?

Friday, February 02, 2007

Silent Poetry Reading

So this is from this. And I thought Adrienne Rich would be best due to all my ravings. I would highly recommend reading this poem, even if you don't care for poetry (I know you know who you are- punks) and even though this is silent on my end, I would also recommend reading it outloud. Who knows, the other people in the computer lab may actually appreciate the break from textbook jargon. Yes Jodi, I am talking to you.

Integrity

the quality or state of being complete; unbroken condition; entirety -Webster

A wild patience has taken me this far

as if I had to bring to shore
a boat with a spasmodic outboard motor
old sweaters, nets, spray-mottled books
tossed in the prow
some kind of sun burning my shoulder blades.
Splashing the oarlocks. Burning through.
Your fore-arms can get scaled, licked with pain
in a sun blotted like unspoken anger
behind a casual mist.

The length of daylight
this far north, in this
forty-ninth year of my life
is critical.

Th light is critical: of me, of this
long-dreamed, involuntary landing
on the arm of an inland sea.
The glitter of the shoal
depleting into shadow
I recognize: the stand of pines
violet-black really, greeen in the old postcard
but really I have nothing but myself
to go by; nothing
stands in the realm of pure necessity
except what my hands can hold.

Nothing but myself? . . . My selves.
After so long, this answer.
As if I had always known
I steer the boat in, simply.
The motor dying on the pebbles
cicadas taking up the hum
dropped in silence.

Anger and tenderness: my selves.
And now I can believe they breate in me
as angels, not polarities.
Anger and tenderness: the spider's genius
to spin and weave in the same action
from her own body, anywhere-
even from a broken web.

The cabin in the stand of pines
is still for sale. I know this. Know the print
of the last foot, the hand that slammed and locked that door,
then stopped to wreathe the rain-smashed clematis
back on the trellis
for no one's sake except its own.
I know the chart nailed to the wallboards
the icy kettle squatting on the burner.
The hands that hammered in those nails
emptied the kettle one last time
are these two hands
and they have caught the baby leaping
from between trembling legs
and they have worked the vacuum aspirator
and stroked the sweated temples
and steered the boat here through this hot
misblotted sunlight, critical light
imperceptibly scalding
the skin these hands will also salve.

-1978

Friday, January 26, 2007

I ain't too bright

So yeah..... I honestly, honestly, have moments where I think I am not lactose intolerant- that I'm faking it for attention. And then I get mad at myself and think 'you've taken this too far- go eat cheese!' and then I have to re-convince myself that I actually am lactose intolerant. But I keep on pushing it. I'm okay with organic yoghurt in small quantities, and dark chocolate in somewhat larger quantities, cause I mean, it's chocolate. So not only can I exist in moments of complete denial about my stupid stomache, but I can also be really stupid about it as well. Just now for instance, I had another piece of cheese. A small slice of cheese in itself is fine, sometimes I put them in my sandwiche, but three slices in the space of three hours is apparently too much for me. Urgh.

See? I'm not really lactose intolerant, I'm just faking it for a blog entry.

Ow.


D'em be boobies.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Adrienne Rich & Nanaimo Bars (or 'Life Imitates Knitting Blogs')

It's amazing in a four day weekend how I can do so much, have it seem like so little, and forgot to do many things. I read this entry from the Yarn Harlot about her frustrations with knitting fingerless mitts.... then the next day, without thinking about it (had I thought about it, I would have maybe known that reading that blog entry would have been a foreshadowing technique) I decided to start knitting my fingerless mitts out of my yellow wool. So I swatched a honeybee complicated cable pattern and decide upon that. I do a long tail cast on for mitts because of it's stretchiness and it took me four tries(!) to cast on the right amount of stitches, which had lent itself to a considerable amount of cursing, but I didn't like the bulkiness so I frogged the mitt soon afterwards. Than I decided to let the yarn speak for itself and just do a plain pattern with a few plaited cables going through it (mmm.... plaits). So I swatched again, came up with five stitches per inch, needed 6 inches to begin, so I cast on 30 stitches, joined, started knitting in the round.... 15 inches wide people. I ended up with a tube 15 inches wide. I mean, what the hell? (At this point, I started calling out for chocolate). Madness. Anyhoo, than I decided to just knit it lengthwise, did a neato lace pattern, made some more changes.... and it still doesn't fit! If this wool didn't feel like soft butter than I'd throw it against the wall and jump up and down on it.

In non-knitting related news, I just finished two books, The Girls by Lori Lansen and A Wild Patience has Taken Me This Far by Adrienne Rich. I would recommend The Girls to anyone, it's unlike any other book in that it seems more true than non-fiction, and it's one of those books that you recall like an actual memory and Rose and Ruby just become part of your life unlike any other book. As for poetry, I've always loved Adrienne Rich but now that I'm reading her collections I love her even more. She writes in a language that is plain at the same time as being extremely significant. I don't know but not many poets connect to me the same way she can.

Oh yeah, I know I already said it, but it deserves saying it again, my sister got married! And no, she's not nekkid. Isn't she beautiful? The one with the frizzy hair is me, and yes, that hair is on purpose. Check out that necklace! I just had to blog this photo because it is by far my most favorite photo of the decade. I don't know, I just love it. I think cause I didn't see Hoobers for so long, and I didn't have any really good photos of just the two of us so this bears some sentimental goopiness for me. The picture below is of some flowers beside the cake that Jason made. I like that photo too. Jim made Nanaimo bars. We like that Jim.

I'm made a new ally in my Painful Owful Otupid (POO) class which hopefully will get me through it. We mock the same people for all the same reasons and both got so mad in our last class that we were white knuckled.

Here's a photo of the dragonfly I crochet for my friend's teacozy that I knit her. I had a lot of fun with the dragonflies.

It's amazing in a four day weekend how I can do so much, have it seem like so little, and forgot to do many things.

Monday, January 15, 2007

When do you accept...

...that you need to go to bed or get ready for bed because you have to shower before you go to school and you have to go to school at 8am? Because it's 10:51 pm and I'm watching TV, reading blogs, drinking hot chocolate, and... mmm, that's about it.

And I'm like.... when to go to bed..... when to shower..... oh-January one!


**and in a complete different topic**


And I try to keep an open mind, but I'm sorry, if you get cosmetic surgery for no reason other than vainess and you try to pass it off as 'building confidence' than screw you but you are now part of the machine that holds women to unrealistic standards and you are the reason other people feel bad and you are SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE for fucking up the emotional lives of girls and women everywhere.

Jackasses.

In other news, my favorite artists lately are Martha Wainwright, Emily Haines, Regina Specktor (sp), and Ember Swift. Not sure about the fourth one but what do all these artists have in common? You tell me. (I already know).

Be Sweet Scarf

Following this short text are some shots of my beautiful new scarf-suppose-to-be-a-shawl- but-what-you-going-to-do that I started in 2007 and is also my first finished project of 2007 as well. It's knit on 15mm needles (I know but I wanted to lacy work to show off the esquisite yarns) and just garter stitch. I really wanted the yarn to be the focal point of this scarf and while I didn't mean for it to be a lengthwise scarf it still turned out perfect. It's short but I can tuck it into the neck of my coat or sometimes I pin it around my neck. Let's just take some moments and reflect on the scarf shall we?


Be Sweet Magic Ball-Ice Cream