Quirky Quirky

Tagged by Vyque of Fasshonaburu:

Here are six of my ‘quirks’

1. I constantly play games with myself for motivation. “We started this job at the same time, I can totally double his numbers” “If she’s at 400 calories for an hour, I can beat that with 600 for the same time.”

2. I’ve found that I can make almost anything grow outside my home.  Inside, I’m seem to be the carrier of a vegetative plague.

 3. I apparently have a very soothing phone voice.  In my current occupation, I am on the phone all day, and I have the ability to soothe and tame the savage beasts that call me for information.  It shows in my numbers.

4. I have an aversion to small motorized vehicles.  Go-karts and bumper cars kind of scare me and I will avoid them at all costs.

5. I do alot of things I don’t want to do.  I think this is mostly so that I have something to complain about.

6. I like to be just a little bit manipulative.  Not because I actually want to make people do things.  Just because I want to know I could…

I’m tagging…

1. The also missing miss at Octopus Knits
2. The Ladies at Team Knit
3. Novamade the Merry Pie Maker
4. The Newlywed of Wine and Needles
5. The Yarn Pushers at The Yarn Lounge
6. My very favorite born again housewife from Constant Evolution

The rules are as follows:

* Link the person who tagged you
* Mention the rules in your blog
* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of your’s
* Tag six following bloggers by linking them
* Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged

And before you know it, a month has passed.

So it’s been a month.  I thought often about posting.  But my schedule was all topsy turvy the first half of the month, and I was so busy with the new job that I really felt I didn’t have a spare minute for weeks.  I really didn’t feel that I was knitting enough to show.  I did finish the Lotus Blossom tank.  And also Aamu part II.  and I actually finished the first of the Lenore socks.  It took me about 3 weeks to finish Aamu… It only took 3 days to do the first one.  I wonder what happened there.  I think it might have something to do with my glorious jobless week last November when I did Aamu part I.  That, and have you noticed that any pattern the second time around just isn’t as exciting?  Just me?  Okay.  Anyhoo, I hope the recipient likes it.  Now that my schedule is more predictable (not completely, but more) I should have more time to knit, more time to photograph, and more time to write.  It’ll be lovely, you’ll see.  I’ll have mornings off, and so I’ll have good photo light.  I can raid the LYS before the crowds come by to scoop up the goods (this one might have to wait for a couple paychecks… and until after the wedding.)

**as an aside… I’m getting married in UNDER 2 MONTHS!** 

 Also… I may have caught a bug.  A certain yarn making bug.  I ordered a bottom whorl drop spindle and some sampler roving on Etsy today.  I keep imagining that I’m a spinning prodigy and I’d be able to spin laceweight evenly on my first attempt…Stop Laughing.   

Movie Meme!

OMG I LOVE MOVIE QUOTES! 

RULES of Play:

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.

2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.

3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.

4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.

5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t.

~~~

And begin:The movie quotes, from my favorites!

 

1. “She spent the last three months writing down her married name. “Mrs. Judy Hicks”, “Mrs. Donald Hicks”; “Mrs. Judy Mitchellson Hicks”, sometimes with a hyphen, sometimes without a hyphen. Sometimes, she spells the hyphen. “

 2. “I shall call him squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my squishy!”   Finding Nemo, spotted by Kayscrilla (woohoo… love this one)

3. “I think you’re really beautiful and I feel really warm when I’m around you and my tongue swells up.”  

4. “Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken.”

5. “I’ll turn him into a flea, a harmless, little flea, and then I’ll put that flea in a box, and then I’ll put that box inside of another box, and then I’ll mail that box to myself, and when it arrives… I’ll smash it with a hammer! It’s brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I tell you! Genius, I say!”

6. “Irregardless, ex-boyfriends are just off limits to friends. I mean that’s just like the rules of feminism. “

7. “Each cut, each scar, each burn, a different mood or time. I told him what the first one was, told him where the second one came from. I remembered them all. And for the first time in my life I felt beautiful. Finally part of the earth. I touched the soil and he loved me back.”

8. “ It’s a crystal. Nothing more. But if you turn it this way and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this is not a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby. ” Labyrinth - Darkirish (wtg!)

9. “OK! I’ll talk! In third grade, I cheated on my history exam. In fourth grade, I stole my uncle Max’s toupee and I glued it on my face when I was Moses in my Hebrew School play. In fifth grade, I knocked my sister Edie down the stairs and I blamed it on the dog… When my mom sent me to the summer camp for fat kids and then they served lunch I got nuts and I pigged out and they kicked me out… But the worst thing I ever done - I mixed a pot of fake puke at home and then I went to this movie theater, hid the puke in my jacket, climbed up to the balcony and then, t-t-then, I made a noise like this: hua-hua-hua-huaaaaaaa - and then I dumped it over the side, all over the people in the audience. And then, this was horrible, all the people started getting sick and throwing up all over each other. I never felt so bad in my entire life. ” The Goonies -Darkirish (wtg!)

10. “You’ll be one of those grumpy old men sitting in the corner of a crowded cafe, mumbling to yourself, “My ass is twitching. Your people make my ass twitch.”     French Kiss - Tana

 

Absentee blogger

I haven’t been around the last two days because I’m training at my new job (!) For probably the next 2 weeks I’ll be training… maybe less.  It depends on how quickly I pick everything up.  It’s soooo much info, but I think I’m getting it all.  Anyhoo… I’m still knitting.  I would be done with the Lotus Blossom tank, but I got everything done except the arm hole finishing and blocking of course, and then tried it on, and it’s too big!  Even though I did the size smaller than I am!  Why does this keep happening?   My gauge is even tighter than called for!  I’m still going to finish it, but now it’s being repurposed to gift status, for my mother-in-law to be.  She’ll like it, it’s just her style.I’m working on Muir, and I don’t think that I’ve ever worked on something that has required so much undivided attention.  I can’t even talk and work on it at the same time.  I can have the TV on, but I’m not aware of what’s going on.  Sometimes, I even have to pause what I’m watching, because the noise distracts me.  I’m only to row 23 (of 32) of the 1st (of 13) pattern repeats!  It’s been days. Lenore continues to languish, although I have now completed the heel flap.   I know, it’s been many posts now without pictures.  Bret stole the camera 2 weeks ago to take it to Florida, and he has yet to remove it from his car.  And I don’t think about it at night since I can’t take good pics then anyway.  Plus it’s been so gloomy in Virginia, that you probably couldn’t see the gorgeous colors I’m working with.  It’s quality not quantity here at chez purlparables.Once my regular work schedule kicks in I’ll be here all morning every morning, so it’ll be daylight pictures galore! 

A Shawl Showdown!

Wow, I may have only gotten 2 comments with shawl ideas, but they were great suggestions.

 Suzanne suggested the gorgeous Kiri, one I already had in my queue, but had somehow passed over as a contender.  Tempting, tempting indeed.

And Steph (I think… all I have for sure is the screen name “whoneedsgauge”) suggested the Pretty as a Peacock shawl.  This one is also gorgeous, and I fully intend to make it at some point. But I don’t think it would tickle my grandmother as much as it does me.  (I am just the slightest bit obsessed with peacocks right now.)

I was going to wait for more suggestions. I know I’m not the most prolific blogger, so I knew I would have to wait around for my other readers.  But I was doing that Ravelry thing… You know, that thing where you go to check out “JUST one yarn honey, and then you can have the computer back, promise!”

I got around to the pattern browser and started checking out the recent pattern submissions in various categories, when I stumbled across Muir.  You know the one… from Knitty.  It was the cover featured pattern in the latest issue.  

And I thought… “That’s it!”  It’s definitely reminiscent of peacock feathers, and yet has the subtlety to be worn with anything without having an assumed theme.  

 

And so… it begins! 

I feel so special!

So the other day, a co-worker found out that I was a knitter.  And I got to show off. You know how I love to show off my knits!  So I showed here some things on my ravelry and right here on this little bloggy thing.  She was impressed and expressed a desire to learn.  Well, at that point we were interrupted by work stuff… how dare that work stuff!

Yesterday, a different co-worker asked if I sold any of the items I made.  I said, “No, not commercially, but I’d be happy to knit something for you if you pay for the yarn.”  So she requested the Ribbed Shrug and the Aamu sweater.  And she still wants them after I estimated about $80 cost for the Aamu! 

I am so flattered by this I can’t even really put it into words.  She’s supposed to be getting back to me today with her measurements, at which time I suppose I’ll be going into production mode. 

I feel a bit guilty charging any more than the cost of the yarn, but I suppose I have every right to, since I am putting my time into it, right?  What would you charge for commissioned pieces?  The Aamu took me a little over a week to make.  How much is my knitting time worth?

What do you think?

As some of you know, if you’ve been reading the blog for a little while, I’m getting married this May (the 24th). 

A theme of the wedding turned out to be Peacock feathers.  This was an accident, though a happy one.  I picked out colors, (Peacock blue, pale green, and chocolate brown) and then later realized that they are peacock feather colors.  I am sometimes not the brightest crayon in the box.  But I did realize it eventually.  So, now we are incorporating feathers into the invites,  and flower arrangements.  I really like this idea, and I would like to just say… I was on this feather thing before anyone decided it was the “in” thing to do for this spring/summer season.

Anyhoo… I wanted to knit my grandmother a shawl to wear at the wedding, and I have gorgeous peacock blue lace yarn (a whole cone! 1400 yards… yay!).  I was planning on doing the Peacock Feathers Shawl by Dorothy Seimens.  I think it’s terribly appropriate and pretty.  

I went to Ravelry this morning to get to the download page for the pattern… and of course, it’s not a downloadable pattern.  I have to order it.  Which means that not only am I paying $12 for the pattern, I’m paying tax and shipping too.   I don’t wanna.

So, I’m looking for other options.   I already have the patterns for the Shetland Triangle, and the Icarus Shawl, so I’m leaning toward those.  Especially in these lean money times.  I think both of them have the suggestion of feathers, perhaps the eye of the peacock feather is more obviously suggested in the Shetland.  Plus, we already know I can knit them without problems.

Now, what I need from you, my dear sweet readers, is your very important opinion. 

Should I save the money and knit what I have, or will I regret not going with the theme?

Lolcats

I madez a lolcat! Votez for muh pic puhleeze for me goes ta Vegas!

More on the online Poker Cats Contest

Is it just me?

On Knitting Daily, which I’m sure many of you get, they are having a poetry contest…

How much fun is that?

I already have 2 poems.

I went to check out the rules to see if I could even submit more than one (but I don’t actually remember getting my answer… oh well, easy enough to look again…) And I saw the prizes!

PRIZES

• First prize: receives their original, winning poem knit into a pair mittens. The pattern will be offered on KnittingDaily.com.
• Second prize: a three-year subscription to Interweave Knits
• Third prize: the spring 2008 knitting book collection from Interweave Press

Awesome prizes I think…

Except,  I really would prefer the second and third prizes to the first prize any day.  I can make my own mittens, with stuff in my stash even…  What I can’t do (at least right now, or for the next 6 months or so) is buy any of these books and magazines they speak of.

I want 2nd or 3rd prize!  How do I make that happen?

On a Blue Blossom

I’m currently waiting for a couple of yarn orders to arrive… so when I finished the Gretel Snood I looked around for projects/yarn to work on.  I cast on for a couple things and I was just not feeling the love. 

The Lenore socks, although very pretty, remain languishing at the bottom of my rather large purse.  I have not been able to find spare moments to knit on them and they just aren’t grabbing my attention the way I’d hoped.  I think in the last 3 or 4 days I’ve done maybe 3 rows.

I had some KP shine sport lying about and decided to swatch it to see if the 16 balls of it that I ordered for the Printed Silk Cardigan would be of any use… I swatched with 4 different needle sizes… I don’t see how it’s going to work.  Unless I do some major math… I’ll have to ponder that one for a while.  I got stitch gauge with 2 of the 4 needles, but was WAY off for row gauge.  I’m talking 4 or 5 rows off.  How in the world does that happen I ask you!?!? 

I suppose one can always modify sleeves and bodies easily enough when row gauge is an issue… just don’t knit as much.  But it becomes a problem for me in the shoulder area.  One doesn’t want armholes that hang and make one’s newly svelte arms look all a-jiggly.

I decided that while I pondered the fate of those 16 balls of yarn, I might as well knit something.  I searched and searched, and compared with my swatch notes.. and decided on the Lotus Blossom Tank from an Interweave from years passed.  What year?  I’m sure you can Ravel it… I don’t remember and I don’t have it with me.

KP shine sport seems to be the most popular yarn sub for this pattern, so I don’t feel too adventurous.  And the blue might be a bit questionable.  It’s very bright… but I’m sure once I’ve subjected myself to some kind of tanning (I’ll probably start doing the fake spray on tan this year) it’ll be quite lovely…

Plus, I can always frog it