Thursday, December 07, 2006
Knitting did not bring us together, oh no, nor even our fondness for fruity drinks. It was the prospect of trying out Kathy's new DSLR that lured me out of my little cave, and I must say, Give it to me. Give it to me now. I need to do more research and a little soul-searching, but I'm definitely ready to upgrade and use the big guns. And hopefully with more time and practice my shots will not be so overexposed and will become uh, focused.
Filed Under: Life | Postcards from Dottie
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
14 lbs of diced chiles from NM just arrived today! They're frozen solid, but even so I could smell their hot green goodness. Oh yeah LET'S PARTY!!!
Filed Under: Cat in the Kitchen | Life
Monday, December 04, 2006
So. I will not be posting a pseudo-pattern / explanation / guideline / thesis / whatever you want to call it for the Mermaid Gloves like I said I would. Steph was the first to make them, and it is her prerogative to share the details if she choses to, not mine. The boundary of intellectual property can be fuzzy one, and without thinking I might have crossed that line. At the end of the day I'm not out to step on anybody's toes, and that's all I have to say about that.
But, they really ARE the simplest things ever to make. If you can follow Chart A for Pomatomus, if you can knit something like a glove - or follow instructions for one - whether it be with full fingers or half-fingers or no fingers, like these Opera Gloves or Fetching or Eunny's mitts, then the Mermaid Gloves are a snap. All the elements are out there for the taking and the piecing together. Just give it a whirl!
I just got through saying I had no time to post and now here's another one. I'm always lying.
I'm always procrastinating too. Today sucks. It snowed this morning and I said "yes" to helping out a former client on work I thought would be quick but not only is it not quick it is just disgusting, filthy work and I want to stab my own face for agreeing to do this. My fault for saying yes to everything.
The sky has cleared, the snow is all gone, and I can see in the horizon the last remnants of an ice-cold sunset. Ever since coming back from Santa Fe, I find myself constantly evaluating the quality of the sunsets here. And you know what, they aren't that bad.
You just can't easily SEE them with all the trees and buildings in the way. The sky is smaller, the horizon is lower, the sunsets more confined. But they're lovely just the same.
Filed Under: General Knitting | Life
Monday, December 04, 2006
I've had no time to post. Or I've made no time to post. The car broke down AGAIN this weekend and had to be towed away. It happened in the tiny and cramped parking lot of an Asian grocery store in the city. By the time it was finally dragged away there was a 15-car long backup that snaked all the way out into the busy intersection outside of the lot. I was almost more stressed about causing shopping mayhem (it's chaotic there without a disabled vehicle to contend with), and whether the tow truck was going to be able to fit in the lot in the first place. It was a real nailbiter. Well now we get to throw more money into this car which one breakdown ago officially became a dinosaur. Ugh dude ugh. But again, like the other issues that occured before Santa Fe, and while in Santa Fe, we were lucky that they all happened while we were approaching a parking lot, and not during any of the many moments we were speeding crosscountry along the highway.
Still. Come on car. Get with it.
"I'm not wearing any underpants." - Dottie
Filed Under: Life | Postcards from Dottie
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Pattern: My own, inspired by Steph's Mermaid Gloves which were inspiried by Cookie's Pomatomus stitch pattern. For one of the gloves I flipped Chart A in order to get mirror-imaged scallops.
Yarn: Koigu KPM, 2 skein, and Sundara Yarn in Plum over Slate for the cuff.
Needles: US1 dpns
Couldn't be more pleased with these gloves. Well, maybe if they were in a different color, like the lovely bluish variety that Steph used. Those Koigu semi-solids are hard to come by. But no matter, I'm so glad I attempted them because they are just divine. And so easy to make! Really!
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Gloves | Mermaid
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
1) 2 skeins of Five Spice from HelloYarn
2) One skein sock yarn from HelloYarn
AH! This colorway just sold out?!
3) "MiamiInk" Razr. I'm not a huge fan of the Razr and I hate the user interface on Motorolas, but these are SEXY.
4) Dye kit from HelloYarn
5) Socks that Rock in Amber
6) Yarntini self-striping in Pure Fall
7) A chateau in France (optional)
8) A bunny rabbit
Filed Under: General Knitting
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Only 5 half-fingers to go and the Mermaid Gloves are done.
Thumb gusset is much neater the second time around.
And remember this, the Capelet Sweater? A snail's pace progress, but progress nonetheless. I had to frog back a few rows and thought I'd try it out while it was off the circulars. Pardon the shitty lighting and the wrinkled shirt underneath.
Ha! That looks like ass! This should have been finished a long time ago, as it's just mindless straight stockinette done in the round. I'll try to get it done before 2007.
***
So I caught my first episode of H3roes last night after hearing all sorts of buzz about it from friends and family. We were without cable tv while in Santa Fe so we missed all the premieres. So I'm watching this show and suddenly I sit up and scream, HEY! What are you doing there you?!
This dude. I know him. We graduated from the same university. From the same department. With the same degree. OK his degree is actually much beefier than mine but you get my gist. We come from the SAME PLACE.
And we're both ASIAN.
But I'm not on a hit show now am I.
How random is it to be a CGI programmer and an actor at the same time, and how annoying is it to be so successful in both? If you were nice and less greedy you'd pick just ONE THING to be amazing at and share your other talents amongst the rest of us normal folk. He'd probably be the most fabulous knitter ever if he gave that an afternoon's effort. Ugh! I hate him! What with all his walking around all day using all sides of his sickeningly gigantic enormous moist brain. You suck!
Filed Under: Gloves | Mermaid | Japanese knits | Life
Monday, November 27, 2006
...the Wii
Golfing, bowling, boxing, kicking ass.
We brought it back with us to western Mass. for Thanksgiving. No more awful 80's music trivia boardgames thank god. Now with the Wii, everyone can actually participate, even those who have never played a video game in their lives, and everyone has a great time! Duck's mom loved it, ha ha!
...and cute little babies
This is our nephew B who turned 1 last month. We hadn't seen him since July and in that time he has become fully mobile and 110% adorable. We spent a whole day with him and his parents on Friday, they were even cute enough to dress him in the Baby Star hat and jacket I knitted last year just so I could see.
The awesome fleece jacket with the horse hoodie we bought in Santa Fe. When you see a baby like him dressed in a hoodie like that, you'll forget that just a few hours ago you had declared that you could not eat another bite, and attack the chubby baby leg closest to you.
While I was sitting on the couch watching everyone else play games, B saddled over and just headbutted me, full-force against my temple with no provocation. I almost said outloud, "DUDE WTF!" (it hurt!!) before his dad yelled, "AAAWW!! He just kissed you!" Nothing shows how much you care like a good solid thwack against the skull, but that's how the little bugger does it. And I have to say, it was the highlight of Thanksgiving for me. It's been half his lifetime since he saw me, but at the end of the day I was considered headbutt-worthy.
HOORAY!
Filed Under: Life
Monday, November 20, 2006
One down, one to go! Actually this one glove isn't quite finished. I need to close up the hole between the thumb and the index finger and finish up weaving in the ends. The holes in the um, crotch, of the other fingers are really not an issue as it turns out. One, you can't see them and two, you can't feel them. I may not even bother grafting them closed at all. Woo woo woo. I'm wearing this one glove now as I type. The fingers are free to be but roasty toasty. Perhaps this winter I'll be able to avoid the unpleasant Swollen Pinky Syndome.
For all you glove v!rgin$ out there, let me reassure you that gloves aren't really difficult to knit at all. I think socks are more difficult than gloves in construction; gloves are only more difficult in execution, ie fiddling with dpn's for the fingers. The hardest part for me was visualizing the process, which I like to do before I start a new knit. Like Steph told me, you just need to do it and once you do, it all makes sense.
I can't believe Thanksgiving is already here?!
So speaking of the holidays, it came a little early this year. Duck was his own Santa Claus. He waited in front of Target from 10pm to 8am this weekend to get his hands on this...
A fresh batch of the Nintendo Wii, and a game that has you destroy rabid bunnies with toilet plungers, among other crazy crazy things.
...which he has been talking about incessantly for the last YEAR. This thing is crazy. No more controls and complicated button combinations - just swing!
All afternoon we were serving and backhanding, pitching fastballs, bowling for strikes, throwing jabs and uppercuts in boxing. It's so real-time and realistic that I was really following through with my swings. Look ma I'm exercising!! And now the whole of my back is in complete disarray. My shoulder muscles, obliques, triceps, biceps, all of them howling in pain. Can't pull up pants, can't pick up coffee mug, can't even effing drag 'n drop with the mouse without coming close to tears. Heh heh. Ow.
Filed Under: Gloves | Mermaid | Life
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