My Etsy Store

My Big Cartel Store!

My Stitches



Ack, Zombies!

Yarn Shopping!



Wednesday, October 31, 2007

MERRY HALLOWEEN!

(grrrr. argh.)

I can't believe it's freaking Halloween already. This is my favorite time of year, but for some reason we didn't decorate or buy candy. I am going downtown tonight with some lovely ladies for drinks and costume watching. I'll probably be dressed as myself, as usual, cause I'm just that scary all on my own.

Last night I sat around after dyeing a ridiculous amount of yarn and watched Resident Evil in hopes of scaring myself. If I hadn't seen it 10 times it might have worked. Then I chose Wes Craven's Dracula. Also decidedly not scary. So I added some creepy stuff to my Netflix queue for when Nate is out of town next week. He hates scary movies, so I'll watch them in the dark by myself while he's gone. Or maybe with a friend. And lots of kitties.

I like Emily's movie suggestions here, but I always love to hear what other people like! I really enjoyed the Scream series, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I was about the same age as the actors at the time and everything they were doing was relevant to that time in my life. Except for the nutty serial killer.

What are your favorite scary movies? Gimme some Netflix fodder!

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

under construction

pay no attention to the little html behind the curtain.

*ETA: Ok that's all I can handle for today. I'll add more blog links tomorrow. If you'd like me to link to your blog, leave me a comment.

Oh, and I had to share...



I was walking back to work from lunch when I saw this little accident. Looks like they tried to lift too much with the crane and the entire back end of the truck is off the ground. Smart.

Sunday, October 28, 2007

SAFF You!

Oh my, did we have a good time at SAFF! Anita, Steve and I cruised over to Asheville on Saturday morning and enjoyed the gorgeous day and glorious yarn! Some of it seriously tried to jump in my bag. I unfortunately had to return it to its booth. Next time I'll go with more money in hand!



As a SAFF virgin, I was a little stunned. And when I'm stunned I rarely act. It was all could do to walk around and drool while not running over anyone. Indeed, there was lots of drool. I didn't have much money to burn anyway, but I managed to purchase a Trekking colorway that immediately made me swoon and Cat Bordhi's new book. I'm kicking myself for not getting some Brooks Farm, but hey, a girl's gotta eat.

In addition to yarn, there were bun-buns (so soft you could barely feel the coat)...



llamas and alpacas (you talkin' to me?)...




and sheeps for the shearing...



And LOTS of Ravelers! I didn't catch everyone's name, mostly because in a crowd my inner hermit is trying to run for the hills and I become a little socially awkward (in my head at least), but this is Trillian42 on the floor in the shawl, ZKnitter in the corner chair, MeanGirl in the blue chair, SGeddes in green, and KnittingBetty in all black. (Thanks Jen, for filling in my gaps!)



Spinning ladies include funfairiegirl and turtlegirl, with a side order of bavgirl on the right.


And Jen was wearing her socks made in Lotus Yarns! I'm such a dork that I forgot to take a picture...figures.

It was great to meet so many familiar faces and I don't know that a meetup like this could have happened without Ravelry and the girls who organized. Thanks ya'll!

Now I must sleep. So tired.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Bubble Wrapped Hot Chicks (on a stick)*

What an eventful weekend! On Saturday and Sunday, I got to be a lesbian pizza girl in a silent film. Cause, you know, every silent film needs its lesbian pizza girl. Then I got killed by bubble wrap! Whee!


Brooke on the left, me on the right. Resting in peace (and popping bubbles when no one's looking).

If you'd like to see the short film in it's entirety, click here. It's part of the National 48 Hour Film Festival. We were given the Silent Movie genre, and everyone had to use the Celebrity Impersonator character, bubblewrap, and the line "it's hard not to look". We are super goofy, and also tons of fun.

On Monday, I took a personal day and went to see the Dalai Lama speak at Centennial Olympic Park. I think I love him. He was so inspiring. He spoke of the path to inner peace, finding happiness through being compassionate and helping others, and how such deeds lead to exterior/international peace.



I kept giggling though, cause I'm soooo mature, and his cute little robes and cute little face made me think of Pooh Bear, which made me think of Pushing Daisies last week and the whole "Kick, Pooh, Kick!" scene.


In other news, this is the last full week for you to purchase yarn at my etsy store and contribute to the Habitat for Humanity fund! Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I hope to have a nice big check to send come November 1! (I'll be adding a few more skeins later tonight when I get the energy!)


*not really "on a stick" per se, but congrats if you get the reference! yes i watched a lot of stand-up comedy as a teenager. also, i wonder how many google hits i'll get from that title? hehe.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

I like brown. (aka WIP update)

Or so my recent knitting would have you believe. Also, say hello to all my Christmas knitting. There will be no more. I have spoken, knitting goddess, here me now. There will be no more Christmas knitting other than these projects. The End. Amen. Etc. (ack! except for the hat for pete. i haven't forgotten, p. i swear. stop peering at me.)

Nate's Cobblestone. Round 2. First attempt had to be frogged because I can't read simple directions. And also because I should have swatched, apparently. This attempt will prove successful or I will burn 15 balls of Skye Tweed in effigy. Or shame it back into the stash for another project. One of those.



My step-dad's Irish Hiking Scarf in Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed. To sort-of-match the brown tweed hat he got last year. Oh shit, just remembered I have to make my mom a red one too. Guess I better revise the above "I have spoken" statement.



This is the enchanting and lovely Tyrolean Stocking in Knitpicks Swish. For me. It will probably take me until Christmas to finish these darn socks. And you can guess what's getting most of my attention. YUM.



And today I got this for my birthday from my boss, along with a gift card to Borders (woo!).
The sheep is from bossysfeltworks. She even has a cute little sheep bum, which I declined to photograph for the protection of the innocent. (p.s. iPhone camera is not too shabby!)



BBSHIP!!

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Call Me a Convert

Nate and I had a small fit of retail therapy on Saturday. We had been saving up to buy him a scooter for those days he needs to work late, and since it's finally decided to get cooler, we figured we'd wait until spring and reconsider.

We've been in a serious love/hate relationship with our Razr phones since we bought them a while back. They're too slim. They get dropped a LOT (especially mine). And I have a hard time hearing through the ear piece way too often.

So we indulged and bought iPhones.



They are super fun (a little *too* fun)! My only fear is crackberry-itis. I don't want to be addicted to my little black-screened friend here. There's no way I'll fill this thing up with music, movies, and podcasts, but Nate probably will fill his. I like to change my music out a lot, lest I get bored. And I still have my little blue shuffle for running. There's no way I could have this huge phone apparatus attached to me during a run. Sticking to my cute little clippy ipod for that chore.

I'm officially a gadget geek. As if there was any doubt.

Tomorrow there may be a little WIP Wednesday action around here...stay tuned!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Greenspeak for Blog Action Day


Today is Blog Action Day. That means lots of bloggers are going to be talking about the environment today, which is awesome.

As Georgia is having some pretty serious drought problems, I'm going to limit my focus to some local issues. While this may not interest everyone since it's "local," do read on anyway, as our problems are not unique.

This month our governor declared that October is "Take A Shorter Shower" month. This in addition to the *complete* ban on any outdoor watering might give you a taste of what we're dealing with. As I type, we're 36 days from "forced rationing" of water in this county. Just last week Atlanta made ABC News with the fact that within a year the city could be out of drinking water. Watch that video would you? It's eye-opening.

Part of the problem is excessive lawn watering. Few things could anger me faster. I'd much rather have water to drink and a nice, hot (quick) shower than a green yard. Let the grass go, people. It grows back.

Another issue specific to Athens and other college towns is the number of students and football fans taxing the ecosystem. Ever wonder why College Station Rd. stinks the day before a football game? The waste water sanitation plant is flushing the poo tanks to make room for 90k extra "contributions". Nice, eh? Not that I have anything against college students or football games in general, but the influx of so many extra people is hard on the system. More resources are necessary and more trash and pollution are generated.

The vast majority of students and fans I've run across in my years dealing directly with them (at this particular school, mind you) are wasteful, neglectful, and generally couldn't give a shit about this town. Some have a very different mindset, of course, but after you've worked in a very large complex and have to deal with $300 water bills, you come to realize that most of them either don't care or don't think it's important to conserve or recycle. And why should they care? They're here for their own personal adventure and then they're out in 4 years and only return for football games and nostalgia, leaving a trail of trash behind them. I know; I was that student.

Thankfully there's an on-campus organization that's doing some recycling after games, though I have doubts about what percentage of trash they're able to recycle. Compared to the amount of trash tossed aside on the way to the game, I don't see that they can really collect any where near the majority of it.

To get some idea of the volume of trash we're talking about, check out this article from the University of Tennessee's student newspaper regarding the UT/UGA game last week and the volume of trash generated. 12 tons is the average. In one day.

Some students are taking up the proverbial torch, however, by launching "8 Days to Go Green" (Oct 14-21) in recognition of National Energy Awareness Month (Go Green Alliance). Yay! Students who care!

So what do Nate and I do to be more green? Lots of things!

Shorter showers and turning off the faucet when it's not necessary. Drinking all the water I pour myself or watering plants with anything left over. Not flushing every time (using the "if it's pee, let it be; if it's brown, flush it down" rule. Switching to Swheat Scoop for our cat litter, which caused a short rebellion that was quickly squashed. We use big reusable bags when grocery shopping. We carpool, in the hybrid naturally. We recycle everything possible (including junk mail and cataloges, and even going through the trash to dig out anything we threw out by mistake). We have water and energy efficient appliances, especially the washer and dryer. We've replaced almost all of our lightbulbs and we unplug things not in use (mostly). We use cloth instead of paper napkins when possible. We regulate the thermostat (and I wear more clothes).

I know there are more things we could be doing, and we'll be adding to our list. The next big thing we'll do is get rid of our carpet (donating it if possible) and put down bamboo floors. So excited. Must save money.

And maybe our next house will be green all over like Chris's Green House.

If you're interested in some more green blogs, check out Green as a Thistle, No Impact Man, Treehugger, and Eco Chick. All of these have great links to other blogs, companies and products.

What are you doing to be greener, if anything? Got any suggestions of things I can add easily?

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Ravelholic

If you didn't already know, I'm pretty much obsessed with Ravelry. I didn't expect to be. But you know that when you stalk *your own* projects, you have a problem. What are they gonna do, knit themselves?

As I also stalk my bloggy friends' notebooks (via friend activity, woo!), I've come to realize that there are many features lots of you aren't taking advantage of yet. Maybe you are overwhelmed. Intimidated. Afraid to look at your own stash of knitting related items and admit that maybe, just maybe, you have a problem (it's not your fault, blame the stash.). Nevertheless. Only in knowing what we lay claim to can we tackle the beast. Or at least create a cool spreadsheet to compare with other folks' and see that we're not so nuts after all. There is righteous justification in being able to say to one's significant other, "at least *I* don't have as much stash as she does..."

Without further ado, I present:

"What you might be missing on Ravelry"
(aka, little things they keep adding to enable your addiction)

The Needles/Hooks page:


(as ever, click for bigger!)

Located in the "my notebook" section, this is one of my closet favorite features of Ravelry. Not only can you enter how many of each needle type you own, a little box pops up and asks for more information. I plug in what brand and sometimes where I bought them. You can see here that it would appear that I don't have many needles. I use my Denise set a LOT, though I don't see the point of adding them to the spreadsheet. I don't use straights any more, nor do I use DPNs (please don't stab me). So I basically catalog my circulars for socks and what not. Then I reference this page in my notebook when I'm ordering more online (hi KnitPicks, love you), or I can click the Print a Little Card button and have a reference to take along to the LYS. So cute.

Ravel It! Bookmark button:
This button can be found at the bottom of the main patterns page.



See? I'm also super crafty with my arrows. Anyway, drag this nifty little button to your bookmark bar, and when you run across a pattern that geeks you out, clicky and the ravelry page with that pattern comes racing to a tab near you. Awesome for addicts like me.


Custom Search Features:




Wanna know what baby items have been made with purple DB Baby Cash? Voila. How cool. You can now search yarns to see not only what people have made with them, but by category and color. Nifty!

Favorite Yarnies:
(p.s. ahem...hint hint)




Now you can add yarnies and commerical yarn to your favorites! That Casey and Jess are so smart.


What are your favorite features?

Thursday, October 04, 2007

The Fall Season So Far...

I love TV.

I even went so far as to major in it. Well that and film. And radio. And then acting. I'm so diverse and junk.

Though I'm not working in the field, I have some pretty strong opinions on the fodder they chuck on the air to try and sell to us. Some of it sticks, most of it oozes down the screen. Many shows just. keep. going. (Ghost Whisperer? Smallville???? for gods sakes!) I don't do full-on reviews since I can summarize why I do or don't like something pretty quickly in my head, and folks who get paid for that sort of thing do a better job than I would anyway.

But here's the quick and dirty of what I've seen so far (thank the gods for Tivo):

(I've only linked brand new shows...)

Heroes - Love it. Though I'm waiting for NBC to fuck it up. The over hyping gets old fast for me. The "MYSTERY OF THE BOX!!!!"?!?! Seriously? We're already sucked in; you don't even have to advertise for it anymore, mkay?

Dexter - I love this show with a sick fascination. Michael C. Hall is just perfect in this role. I'm on the edge of my seat with every episode. Very well done. Writing - excellent. Premise - brilliant. More, please.

Gray's Anatomy - Ok, I sucked it up and watched the first episode. Honestly, the only characters I have any sympathy for anymore are Callie and the new girl, Lexie. But if she's related to Meredith, that probably won't last very long. I'm sick of the bullshit story lines, so I doubt I'll watch for long, unless it's with disgust/fascination at the oncoming train wreck.

Pushing Daisies
- Lovely. Perfect. Well written, interesting, witty, and funny. Might be too stylistic. Possibly doomed for cancellation (especially since I like it.) Jim Dale of Harry Potter audio book fame narrates. He's awesome.

Bionic Woman - I love that this remake isn't campy. Will be interesting to see how long it lasts. Love that Katee Sackhoff is in it. Go Starbuck! (i should probably dial down the nerdometer now...)

Journeyman - Quantum Leap meets The Time Travelers Wife (book, not tv). I like it so far. The whole thing with Olivia following him is enough mystery to keep me watching. For now.

The Office - I bought sticky notes yesterday that say "I <3 Jim". Enough said.

Earl - Har. I'm so glad Jamie Pressley won an Emmy for this show. She's a hoot! And Jason Lee is not so bad either.

Desperate Housewives - Bored. Over it. Move along.

Reaper - Somewhat campy, but very well written and funny. I snort laughed at least twice, which is always a good sign. And when you have Kevin Smith directing on occasion, you know it's going to do well. Bret Harrison has this Affleck/Biggs quality that makes him cute and quirky at the same time. And what knitter can argue with a sidekick named Sock?


What are your favorite new shows and why? Am I missing something good?

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Socktoberfest is HERE!

First: Thank you all so much for the comments, emails, chats, phone calls, and Ravelry messages wishing me a happy birthday! You guys really went all out to make a girl feel special! I took the day off, did silly stuff, had a nice long nap, went to dinner, then had friends over to watch Heroes. It was a really great day.

Plus, I got some great knitting presents! Sunne sent me some stitch markers!

Hello Mr. Buddha, I'll be rubbing your belly now.


Some Punk Rock polka dots and rhinestone skulls.


Skulls...and crystals! (Girl must know I like Halloween or something!)


Buddhas, knitting balls (har), and a cute little sunshine!


Angela, my PRGE pal sent me a protozoa that she made, with funky blue hair, some punk knitting books and pattern yarn, some cool punk buttons, and Glow In The Dark Yarn. Ya'll. I can't wait to see what this stuff looks like knit up! Thanks Angela!


The hubby bought me the Heroes Season 1 DVD set. Woo! And Socks on Two Circs book. I can't wait to master that! Love me some magic loop!


And of all things to do on my birthday, I cast on a project for SOMEONE ELSE. It's amazing. I never knit for anyone else anymore, as my mad skills seem to go unappreciated, but Nate saw a sweater he loved and I finally put aside all my procrastination excuses and got on with it. This is the incredibly humble beginnings of Cobblestone in Skye Tweed's Heath colorway that I snagged from Webs. (The link goes to Jared's flickr pics...cause really, no one shows it off better than Jared. Rawr.)


Moving along. As you all know, with October comes Socktoberfest. Love. It. I have so many sock patterns that I want to knit right now!

Tyrolean Stockings. Rainbow Socks. Bellatrix. Nevermind the two pairs I have on the needles now.

Best get crackin'.