signing off

Tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Quebec, and I'll be gone for five weeks. I've heard that internet access where I'm going is limited, and at any rate I've been such a slacker about blogging lately that I doubt I would post anything with such distractions as "having to speak French all the time even though my French is atrocious" and...well...actually that's the only distraction I can think of right now. I am hoping that the break will make me more interested in the blog when I get back.

Later gators.

score!

I adore Value Village, especially when I can buy 12 (TWELVE!) balls of Paton's Kroy Socks for $7.00.



I must confess that I did a fair bit of maniacal laughing when I found it, and then proceeded to walk around the rest of the store with the bag clutched to my chest (I didn't think it was safe in the cart. Admit it, you would have done the same thing.). Looking back, I suppose my behaviour might have been embarrassing my friend, but she was nice enough not to mention it.

sorry

I am being such a blog slacker. My sincere apologies. Since my last post I have knit two socks, one washcloth, and ten Weasley squares (I have 96. I need 140.) I also moved into a new apartment, and that was about as much fun as you think it is. Right now I'm going to go knit more squares, and maybe I'll have this blanket finished before September.

c is for cookie

Reasons Why Eating Cookies All Morning is a Good Idea

1. Cookies are very tasty.
2. It's easier than going grocery shopping.
3. It's too hot to cook.
4. They go well with milk.
5. The cat doesn't try to eat them too.
6. Did I mention it's too hot to cook?

Reasons Why Eating Cookies All Morning is a Bad Idea

1. You can't eat cookies and knit at the same time.
2. Heat makes me sick. Excessive amounts of sugar make me sick. They will not cancel each other out.
3. There'll be less cookies to eat all evening.
4. Have I told you how nauseous I feel right now?
5. I'll feel obligated to vacuum later.
6. Seriously. How old am I?

and by 24 hours I obviously meant 2

pattern: Jaywalker Socks
yarn: Sockotta by Plymouth Yarn (45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon)

I must confess I liked the yarn better in the ball than I did knitted up, and was a bit irritated by the weird flashing thing it did in the second sock after behaving so nicely in the first, but I do think the Jaywalker pattern used the yarn best. I first started making just plain stockinette socks with it, and it did that weird flashing thing all over. I don't really mind the zig zags, but the colors of this yarn made it look like a kindergarten classroom threw up all over it.

motivation

There's nothing like pretty yarn, and only one set of needles to knit socks on, to cure the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.



Expect to see finished Jaywalkers in the next 24 hours.

nobody loves garter stitch like I do

I've been hanging around the knit blogosphere for a bit now, and I know you all understand buying something yarn-related just because it is a ridiculously low price. So, I assume you'll understand when I tell you that I bought a whole box full of crochet cotton at a garage sale, because it was only a dollar for the whole box.

Heh.

I'm not really sure what I was thinking. When I got the box home, I just kind of looked at it for a bit, in a dazed, confused way. Then I got a popsicle and stared at it some more. Then I remembered that I started knitting Jaywalker socks, and I forgot about the crochet cotton until a couple of nights ago, when I pulled out some skinny knitting needles and started knitting.



So I don't know what it is. Maybe I'll just hang it on the wall. I like hanging things on the wall. I sorted all the crochet cotton by colors, so I'll have a large, garter stitch, pinky orange thing:



And a large, garter stitch, green thing:



And a large, garter stitch blue thing:



And another green one:



I'm a bit light on the purple:



But maybe, if the first four don't drive me insane, I'll go pick up some more purple-ish crochet cotton.

jaywalking

getting it out of my system

finals finals finals

So this morning I was doing normal morning stuff (get dressed, trip over the cat, burn myself on the toaster oven, etc.), and the knitting came pouting over to me with one of those "I'm depressed and it's your fault but I'm going to pretend like everything's fine" looks. Generally I ignore such silly behaviour, but I make allowances for my knitting. I mean, it's my knitting. So I said, "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing..."

Ok, fine. I went back to burning myself on the toaster oven.

"It's just you've spent all week with those textbooks!"

Slightly surprised, I said, "But you know I have exams next week."

"That's not an excuse. We were together before you had exams."

That doesn't even make any sense, but again, I let it slide. Knitting.

"Listen, this isn't because I don't like you anymore. You know I love you. You know I want to spend every waking moment with you. But, if in the near future you want me to have disposable income to spend on you, you have to leave me and the textbooks alone for a few days."

The knitting didn't answer. It slunk back to the knitting basket (where it belongs) and I went to work. I thought about telling it about the lovely long train ride we'll have together next week, or the lovely nice yarn shop we can visit in Detroit, but it's being so pouty I don't even want to.

terrorist tactics

"One false move and the yarn gets it."

I got an A+ in Nerdology 101

I finally wove in all the ends on the Gryffindor scarf the other night, so I suppose I should be mildly grateful for the weather giving me the chance to wear it around before the summer. In this picture I am demonstrating rare use of the flash, frizzy hair, and my desperate love for the color balance tool in Photoshop ("Ooo, I can make everything MAGENTA!"). Maybe I'll talk somebody into taking better pictures of me wearing it...but don't hold your breath.

Stephanie 1, cat 0

I have found her weakness at last...wool!

My suspicions started back in the fall, when, somehow, this wool sweater that I have ended up sitting on my desk. The cat started sleeping on it all the time. It was great, she stopped sitting in front of the computer and trying to eat my knitting and generally let me enjoy having her around without her being extremely annoying. But then, silly me, I decided to wash the sweater and put it back in the closet where it belongs (I obviously don't know a good thing when I've got it). The cat reverted to her usually cuddly-but-somewhat-annoying self.

Then, in November, I got a wool coat. I often leave this coat draped over the armchair closest to the back door, because hanging it in the coat closet five feet away is a lot of work. The cat immediately started sleeping on it. She'd get mad at me when I actually wanted to wear it. I began to contemplate the idea of knitting her a big piece of wool to sleep on, but didn't really execute that plan because cats have a tendency to not like something if they think you want them to like it. Why waste the time and the wool?

Well, I've been knitting this wool pullover, and I finished the back last week. I had it lying on my desk a few days ago, and, surprise surprise, Sassy was all over it. Still, I didn't seriously contemplate making her a wooly blanket until today. I was sitting on my bed, trying to knit, and she was just mauling me. Biting the knitting, sticking her whiskers in my face, stepping on the cord to my headphones, and just generally making herself unpleasant. I got up and pulled the sweater back out of my knitting basket, and layed it on the foot of the bed.



Game over, I win. Coming soon to this blog: bright red wooly cat blanket.

In other news, this is the view from my apartment today:



So much for April showers. I wonder what April blizzards bring.

April blizzards bring big lizards:



Hmm.

April blizzards bring brave wizards:



No, not until July.

April blizzards bring turkey gizzards?

That's just disgusting. I think I'd rather have the showers, please.

just so you know

Planning and executing short-row shoulder shaping in your French class, without any help from the internet, will make you feel very, very clever.

And yes, I did learn some French tonight. I can conjugate l'imparfait indicatif like it's nobody's business. For example:

je tricotais, tu tricotais, il/elle/on tricotait, nous tricotions, vous tricotiez, ils/elles tricotaient

Watch out for me.

I swipe memes shamelessly

You scored as Luna Lovegood. You're an extreme introvert and because of this, are also a deep thinker. You ponder things others would never dream of pondering and stand with your beliefs without backing down. You find it more valuable to daydream than to socialize, because there's so much more going on in your head than others'. Most people don't understand it, but you seem to prefer it that way.

Sirius Black 72% Luna Lovegood 72% Neville Longbottom 69% Albus Dumbledore 69% Bellatrix Lestrange 69% Harry Potter 66% Remus Lupin 63% Hermione Granger 59% Ron Weasley 59% Severus Snape 56% Percy Weasley 50% Oliver Wood 44% Lord Voldemort 31% Draco Malfoy 25% Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test created with QuizFarm.com

Found it at Carrie K's blog.

feeling better

Before I talk about knitting stuff, can I just say that I love, love, love April Fool's Day on the internet? Facebook made my day:

click for larger

Anyway...

Still life with unblocked Argosy and cat.

I still don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I'm sure eventually some occasion will call for giving someone an orange mohair lace scarf, so I'm not too concerned.

And now, now, I am going to say to the world: I hate the carpet in my living room. HATE IT. I can say this because I'm moving into a different apartment in June, and I no longer feel obligated to tell myself the brown carpet really isn't that bad. UGLY BROWN CARPET!!! Ugh.

A strange family of turquoise yarn has taken residence on my printer:



But I am ignoring them in favor of a large quantity of brown stockinette:



The turquoise yarn looks a bit vulture-like, no? I was knitting Wavy with it, but I really didn't like how it was turning out. Frog pond! Now I am rather suspicious that it is asking to be another Argosy, but like I said. I'm ignoring it.

tune in tomorrow for the next episode, in which Stephanie starts a turquoise Argosy

blergghh

Finished Argosy. Too sick to write anything clever. You go look at Harry Potter cover art. I'll go read a Star Wars novel and moan weakly. The cat cares. mahgfuadhibjnhjfw...

belated blogiversay

I meant to post something on the 24th, which was the official one-year anniversary of this blog, but I wanted to post something...special. Something exciting. But, it wasn't finished yet. Heh.

So, last night (or this morning, if you want, but I generally consider everything before I went to sleep as yesterday, no matter what standard time keeping systems might have to say about it) at 3AM, I finished...a sweater!



And of course, I immediately rushed to take dorky blog pictures. I suppose that picture doesn't look quite so dorky, since I cropped out my dorky head. My face looked a lot like my driver's license photo, which basically looks like "WHEEEE!! DRIVER'S LICENSE!!!" Just replace "driver's license" with "sweater" and, well, you know...



Here you see the sweater actually being blocked, and the cat suffering intense inner conflict, as her urge to lay all over any piece of clothing battles with her deep dislike of touching anything wet.

I think we're under attack!

black sheep

Usually, I avoid horror movies at all costs, but this made me laugh hysterically. Maybe it's a Shaun of the Dead thing; it's kind of scary but you're supposed to laugh. Or maybe they just didn't realize that zombie sheep are hilarious. Or maybe I'm crazy.