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)

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!

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?

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

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.

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.

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

Knitmas stash (photo happy)

And there it is, in all it's glory (cue singing angels). This is all the yarn and yarn relatedness that I brought back with me to PG that I did not have before. Not all of it is presents- I went a little mad at some yarn stores but when a wall of fleece artist stares back out at you how can you not? I should also acknowledge my dear friend Kayla who drove me to the Urban Yarns in Vancouver and, well, Adrienne too because she did offer to help me take the bus there so the thought counts. In the same breathe, my sister Julia did walk seven blocks and back with me to another horrid yarn store that was CLOSED!!! so she gets many a kudo for that too. She gave me the yellow cozy pet bag you can see above, along with Jason, for my birthday. I will carry knitting projects as well as the occasional textbook to school in that. For some reason my picture of the bag didn't turn out but the above photo does some justice to the cuteness of my dear cozy pet bag. Spike and Chuck were so tired from helping me clean my room all day they fell asleep ontop of my sock pile.
This is my Rio De La Plata, which is hand-spun kettle dyed (I have no idea what that means) 100% pure new wool from Uruguay 'faded gold fushio' aka... yellow. I bought this in a 'holy crap is there yarn in there?' moment walking on fourth in Vancouver with Kayla and Adrienne. The store had mostly noveltly yarn but some really, really, really fun novelty yarn and some others, like Noro and Colinette. I'm planning some fingerless complex cable gloves with this. It's very soft.
Here's a good shot of my swing needles (eeeheeeehee) from the River John Needle Company. They are made out of birch. I don't really know what the point of swing needles is, I mean, I've never had a moment where I'm knitting with straight needles and thought 'my life would be easier if these with dpns RIGHT NOW' but maybe I'm missing something important here. Behind my expensive frivolous needles are my darling mission falls 1825 wool100% merino superwash. Those are going to be a baby blanket for Jim and Jenn even though Jenn is not pregnant. My hints are carefully planned and sneaky. Very very sneaky. On this moniter, the colours of the yarn are represented truely and they work well together. I'm think a celtic knot patchwork with smaller patches going around the edge with an i-cord cable that changes colour. Did that make any sense? I've got a diagram started on paint for it so when I'm done I'll blog that so it makes some sense. I bought this yarn in Vernon. The needles are from Urban yarn (link above).
This yarn I bought from Urban Yarns as well and is called Be Sweet Magic Ball and is baby mohair with ribbon and everything. The yarn changes are part of the purchase and I just could not resist (despite the outrageous price). I had already started knitting this up on massive needles and is the shawl-now-scarf aka. first finished project of 2007 I was talking about earlier. The yarn is spun and dyed by women in South Africa in a program set up to help them earn income so that really helped me justify buying it. I would recommend it. I know I will buy more next time I'm in Vancouver (it's a really good thing I don't live there).
This is the first of the Fleece Artist mohair I bought, this one in Vernon. The picture only does it partial justice. The hues and shades and colours in this are all just bloody awesome. I want to knit a shawl out of it with points like a dragon wing. Why? Cause I'm a nerd who knits. That's why.
Oh sock yarn, how do I love thee? This picture sucks, you have no idea how brillant the pink is and how shocking the blue is. I love them. Lorna laces in crazy stripes. I'm going to knit these socks toe up to get the most out of each skein. Le sigh.

These skeins are from my parents for my birthday. They are 100% wool hand spun and dyed in the Okanagan. I have no idea what to do with them, besides pet them and ogle, but there's quite a bit so I'm almost thinking vest or a bag. I love that these are local, and the colours are wonderful. Nothing goes wrong with black but black with a moss forest green? It does make the heart grow fonder. Of yarn. Seriously, how do people not knit?
And behold-copious amounts of mohair from Fleece Artist, enough to knit this cardigan (pattern comes with) for such a reasonable price I nearly collasped on the floor. I actually went and checked with the yarn lady because I wanted to make sure that it was actually real and happening to me.
And me knitting books. Starting with the top left and working kinda clockwise we have the book of sweater patterns. Love a knitter? Buy them this book. It was a present from my parents for my birthday as well as the pattern a day calender below it (so not clockwise at all). I went through the calendar and sorted the patterns by pattern category, not date. It has some excellent sock patterns in there and just hordes of patterns altogether. I had such a fun time organizing them. Next to the calendar we have At Knit's End by the Yarn Harlot, a gift from my dear friend Adrienne who evidently understands me quite well. This book is hilarious, even if you don't knit (or so non-knitter have told me). You can also see my Stitchionary from Julia and Jason which compliments my book of sweater patterns so well you'd think it was planned. I love this book, I need more now. And then you have my Spiderman stationary from Jim and Jenn because in these pages I will write even more about knitting and mail these letters to my friends all across the world. And this blog entry took a really long time to put together and I am soooo sleepy so I am going to bed now. Kisses!
*grammatical errors will be dealt with at a later date so keep your tsks to yourself
*I never said I wasn't spoiled
*and I just realized I should have included the hand knit massive beautiful hand dyed blue shawl my Mother knit me for Xmas. Boooootiful. There will be photos of that too.

'Deep Thoughts'

So I've been having quite 'deep thoughts' lately. The thing about the new year is that it's also right after my birthday and this was a rather milestone birthday (the quarter of a century one) and with my tattoo which was pretty important to me getting finished and healed as well so I've been thinking many pensive and epiphany-wannabe thoughts. Here's a list of all my deep thoughts cause I still like lists- that hasn't changed.

• I felt different at school yesterday, my first day back, and a good different- maybe because I'm graduating or cause I was still coming off my hordes-of-vancouver-yarn-high, I don't know. It was fun. I hope it lasts for at least awhile. Oh, a good example is when some random person I didn't know was rather rude to me, and instead of picking a fight or feeling sad, I just was cool (I can be cool you know) and at a later point in class let it slip that I have four tattoos and oh yeah, that's right -I'm so cool! It's funny because I don't think amount of tattoos define someone's coolness, but luckily for me, everyone else in the class did. Heh. Yeah. So there's that.
• I just sat down and finished three yarn projects tonight! Don't worry- photos later (see end of blog for details) but I mean... wow! A baby hat, a shawl (kinda small), and a scarf! This will be documented later because I do want to keep a tally of my 2007 projects ala Wendy, but instead of a gazillion fair isle sweaters, it will be... well.... me stuff. A very good start to the new year I believe. The shawl was started and finished this year, and it's more of a scarf, it was suppose to be shawl-like but it's more like a small square which I'll pile around my neck like a scarf and pin it. Seriously, booootiful.
  
• I cleaned my room. If you know me, than you know that this is no easy task. And by clean, I mean clean. This task is so signficant, it too will be a blog entry (I took photos). I also organized my stash (sooo much fun). It was like a cleanse, a non-icky cleanse of happiness. My art books are now all in a line- lovely.
  
• My friend Jade called from France! It was so great to hear her again and it was so lovely because we hadn't talked for so long. This caused me to think about all the friends I need to see this year. I'm planning another trip to Vancouver to see some friends, and another trip to the east coast to go to friends wedding and hopefully see lots of my katimavik friends, and my cousing is getting married this year too, I know it's a small wedding so I don't know if I'll be going but I definately want to see my cousins this year, and yeah. Getting back in touch with a lot of great people that I love a lot.
  
• Check out my horoscope from Aunt Purl! 'I love me some Capricorns. I have all kinds of Cappy friends, and my Dad is a Capricorn, too. Your 2007 is marked by change, good change, and I keep reminding myself (so I will remind you, too) that all change -- even when it's awesome, and expected, and anticipated -- creates stress. It's just stress. You don't have to plan it away, or worry it away, or decision it away. You can actually have stress and that's it, no to-do list at all. Of course, you are a Capricorn so you would shoot me if I just left you hanging there. Your 2007 To Don't: Don't rush headfirst into a thing just because you have the deep, scary sense that life is careening along out of your immediate control and you MUST MAKE A DECISION NOW. Truth is, this will be a busy and chang-y year for Cappies, so you're going to feel crazy sometimes. Don't make decisions just to assuage your crazy self. To Do: Breathe. Roll along with it for a while, see what your options are, and when you start feeling pressured (ya'll always put more pressure on yourselves than anyone else does!) make it your absolute priority to have some quiet time to think. Your one best asset this year will be your brain, use it! Your second best asset is your heiney. Do with it what you will.'
• That's right people! My heiney!!! Woohoo!

I have some photos to download before my next blogs entrys, one will be on my clean room (CLEAN), one on my xmas yarn (and yarn related items), start my 2007 FO entries, and another one will be on the successful knitmas 06. And now I am tired. Did you read all my deep thoughts? Thanks!

Hesitant Hopeful Anticipation

I have some hopes for 2007. I have some really neato courses next semester (education, creative writing, and history of feminism), I'm graduating, I have a flaming kick-ass new tattoo, I will be applying for education programs (3 of them-I try not to think about it all too much), I'm swimming (hiatus for a bit cause of the new tattoo but you know), both my sisters are married (such a relief- I was getting concerned), & I have so many amazing yarn-knitting project lined up I may just go mad (sea silk, lots from fleece artist, sooooo much tweedy wool).

Why, Xmas you say? It was wonderful, I won't list all my presents right now cause I know I'll miss some but there was mucho yarn, books, toys, and even some Spider man themed stuff (mmm... Tobey). My birthday was also wonderful. It was quite neat, I had two gifts from two different parties that complimented each other perfectly without any planning!

Now I'm in Vancouver. My sister, Hoobers, got married today to Jason (no fun name for him yet) and it was wonderful! More about that later. The party still hasn't happened.

Just wanted to blog for the last day of this year. I don't really do New Years Resolutions much, I just do what I always do, all year long, which is.... 'next month, I'll do-' and for next month, it's keep better track of my finances cause I choked twice this month when I checked my balances, and be better with working out. That's about it.

Happy New Year!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

End of the year meme

Taken from Jenn, who took it from the Bears, who took it from Alisoo.

1) Harken back to your archives.
2) Collect the first sentence you wrote every month for the whole year.
3) Entertain us.


Spoiled I tell you! Heh. It's been a fun week. So... do you remember that whole fiasco like three weeks ago or so about a paper that I stressed out about then realized it wasn't due till the next week? I have had a very productive morning, just not necessarily schoolwork wise, though I did go to one of my classes! So I ordered a book on Amazon last week, I think it was Wednesday or something, and today I see a mailpost van in the driveway and I run out all excitied cause I'm like... wheee! There is a sale currently at the yarn store (I wish Darlene had a website in which to show all of you) but anyhoo, there is a sale currently so I went a little bonkers today. IT'S CANADA DAY! So... I've been back for a week. Two days before school starts and I get a coldsore! But then again, travelling on Greyhound is always fun. So you see the time for this blog? Only 24 days until my birthday, have you gotten my present yet?



I may do this again with titles, but for right now, back to the monkey! I have one arm and hand done, stuffed and sewn, the body is stuffed and sewn, the head is stuffed and sewn, one arm is knit, one leg is knit, the tail is knit, so just the other hand, the other leg, the two feet, the muzzle, and the ears. Oh yeah, I'll finish tonight.

that burning itching sensation

Don't worry- I haven't caught anything nasty- it's just that fun new-tattoo-itch that makes you want to run into walls that I am suffering from. I think it's worse than usual (this is tattoo #4) because I'm so stressed right now. I'm not sleeping very well and I now have two, yes, TWO cold sores so I may spend tomorrow locked inside the house like some loathsome beast. My neck hurts from all the computer work so even though it sounds nice, I think I will spend my first few days of freedom doing other things than playing Sims2 (we have pets now!). I have a lot of knitting that I need to catch up on and lots of reading as well (good reading, not journal article reading). Oh right, back to the new tattoo. I'm going to be a bitch and not actually post the entire tattoo because, this may be stupid but, it's my own design (drew it in english class) and it's so important to me that I don't actually want to post it online. If you know me, send me an email and I will send you a photo of it. Just not right now cause it's still healing. This is a small picture of it without the colour in yet.
The colour is amazing, the main colour is a sky blue but it's highlighted in dark blue, pink, purple, and white. It's a star by the way. Goodness my skin looks blotchy in that photo. Anyhoo, just thought I would blog. No knitting to show. I'm still slowly getting some of the body of my sweater done and working on the second sleeve. I also am knitting something for my tattoo artist, Thomas of Happy Monkey, a monkey (no really, he loves monkeys) because he is amazing and did an unbelievable job on my tattoo. It'll be a pirate monkey too! grrrrr. The paper is due on Thursday, I'm done the results section and am slowly wading through the lit review and the discussion. I'm not too concerned about the methods because I'm nearly done and then just the references and fixing up the abstract. The results was the major part of the paper and I'm happy with it. It's 9 pages single spaced so I think the paper when finished will be one of my longest yet. My longest paper was 36 pages and that nearly killed me, which is like this one. Though it does seem that the papers that kill me are also the ones I care the most about. Blah blah, I'm ranting. Away I go to sleep and try to have the same dream I had on Saturday night about being a rollerskate superhero. It was bloody awesome.

wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Calliope and Stompy and I are so happpy! The new knitty is out! I currently have three projects on my needles (sweater, monkey, & sock) but as soon as I'm done one of them then I'm going to start an army of Sheldons!
And when that army needs some friends to party with, I'll knit an army of Norbertas!
And when I'm am done knitting lovely creatures (does one ever truely finish knitting lovely creatures?) these two ( eiffel and emerald) will be added to my sweater queue.
And this scarf will hopefully be mine before the new year cause I mean... OHMIFREAKINGGOODNESSILOVETHISSCARF!!! And now the Bears and I are going to go to sleep because I worked today and it's not easy rearranging puzzles for seven hours. Aren't you excited? I'm so excited. Bounce bounce!

ps-Spike blogged.

Politics and sports

is all that is on TV today! Crap and double crap.

Just a quick blog about the mass amount of knitting I've done since last night and this morning. I knit and knit and knit and have little bruises on both my fingertips from the needles all to finish a Christmas present. This particular present is knit in 5 identical sections. I mean, I've knit it before so I know how it goes so I didn't bother to look up the instructions again. Foolish, foolish Leone. So, guess how many sections I knit? 6. Yup. About an hour of extra un-needed knitting that I now get to frog. Excellent.

It's okay to put vodka in your coffee at 1:30pm if you mess up knitting right? That's a given isn't it?

November-we hardly knew you

Only 24 days until my birthday, have you gotten my present yet? What happened to November? Seriously! Last thing I remember was Annika saying it was NaSomethingOrOther month and she needed topics. Job well done by the way Annika! Well, when you spend the month either writing papers or doing everything you can to avoid writing papers (most time spent in the second option) I guess it goes by kinda quickly. Do you like the lily? I forgot about all the photos I took of Jenn's beautiful flowers. This one grew right beside the bird bath. Sooooo pretty. Below is the toque I knit last week, it's not finished in this photo but you can see the beauty that is the yarn. Hmmm.
School is nearly over. I finished one class today and just have one exam to write (not a concern) and a final paper for my methods course- which may end up killing me but meh. I only have 1.5 Christmas presents left to knit and I'm also hoping to finish my sweater so I can wear on Christmas too. I've about four inches done on the body and only a third on my second sleeve but I'll get more work done on it as school is finishing up. Darlene, my friend who owns the yarn store here, now gets fiddlesticks, oh my oh my. I already had one of these, but I had to get another one (I now have plum and violet), and this pattern as well. I'm sure I'll get lots of knitting done with my helpers, here's Chuck helping me measure things.
Okay, bye for now.

too damn cold

So I've got my coffee, my sister's laptop, two kitties, and a view of the outside that makes me think.... I'll just stay here thanks. It's the still mute blue outside, everything looks frozen and sharp. Brrrrr. The picture isn't of this morning, but it's the same hue.

So my second out of three papers is due today. My first paper came back with an A and the comment that if I had proofread better and not made so many grammatical errors I could have gotten a better mark, which is funny because I am so happy with an A. All my grammatical errors were tense problems as well, not spelling or contractions or anything. This paper right now, I finished last night, is due at 2:30 today and I've got way too many words. I may be able to slash off a few hundred words while editing and try to get it down to 2200, since the limit was 2000, and I know most profs do the 10% rule; however, I refuse to edit the animals. My paper is on global warming so I was really, really, really depressed yesterday. I based most of my research on this book, I highly recommend it. Even if you don't have time to sit down and read the whole book, it is a book where you can just read one chapter or skip to chapters. Very good. Anyhoo, I did way too much research *sigh* and I answered all the critieria for the paper but I know I went overboard and the impact this is having on the animals. Don't care. People need to know about the Polar Bears! It breaks my heart.

Okay, I need to stop blogging and start editing.