It's so FLUFFY!!!!!

And beautiful....If you haven't seen "Despicable Me", not only are you missing out, but you probably won't get this reference. Lily and I went to Build-A-Bear and I picked up this little guy:

He's pretty much fabulous. His name is Francis, and he is very fluffy. He is also a pen. We have decided that he has magical powers, powers of comfort.

We also found these little stuffed dogs, who are EXTREMELY fluffy. I don't know if they're suede, or some other sort of fabric, but they are most excellent. Mine's name is Beauregard. I love him dearly. He's my old stuff-dog, Alfred's, new boyfriend. They are doggy loves. I don't think dogs really worry about sexual preference, they just love each other. I'm sorry if you feel differently. But I think some of us could probably take a few pages from dogs. Just not the butt sniffing one. Not because we'd have to bend over, but because I highly doubt human butts are as clean as most doggy butts.

Enough about doggies. (I love them, passionately, forgive me). Last night we had a little impromptu spinning session. Lily learned a few things and made some pretty strings, see?

Lily don't read this part.

::in a conspiratorial whisper::
If she doesn't finish spinning it, I'm going to steal that stuff right out from under her and finish spinning it myself. I didn't like the colors until she spun it up, but now, I really wants it.

Okay Lily you can start reading again.

I also did some work on Robert's scarf. Mostly because he was teasing me about the fact that it's been like 2 months and it's still not done. I ran out of yarns on my shuttle, which meant I had to wind more on. I HATE winding yarn onto a shuttle. Its tedious, I always scrape my wrists somehow, and I never commit long enough. I tried to fit the cake through the opening of the weft....

But as you can tell, it didn't want to fit. Short of using up some AstroGlide, I don't think I could even smush it through there if I tried. As my brother is fond of reminding me, AstroGlide can be used to fit a Cadillac in a dog house. It's more likely the dog house for a St. Bernard, than a chihuahua, but they aren't specific, so it gives me hope for the possible uses.

I'm off to build a Lego bulldozer. And maybe make my unicorn, Francis, dance around. I might even knit and do some homework. We'll see!

Tomorrow's the 5k, I'm a little worried....wish me luck!

Ah blessed sleep

I have finally (thank the Lord Ambien, and any other responsible deity) slept for 14 hours. Straight. It was beautiful. I don't think I snuck out and shagged anybody, because I tied an impossible knot in my sweats and they were still on this morning. So that's something.

I have spun a smidgen more silk. Lily is here and wanted to know why there were orange fuzzies all over my coffee table. I feel like this doesn't need explaning, as much as I just need to hand her some silk and see how long it takes for ALL OF IT to stick to her basoomers, or other extremities. (I find silk has a basoomer affinity, strange that.) I have it all contained around an old snapple bottle. It's looking very acquiescent. No?

It still so very shiny and lovely. I only have 22 grams left to spin! (there was only one ounce to start with, I can't tell you what it is in american-ese.)

As an aside, I do wish they would sell more than 8 bottles of Snapple in a container, because I can kill that in about 2 hours. Maybe I just need to ease up on the snapple....






I promised to introduce you all to Owl-ette. It was supposed to be a coffee cozy. Instead its a candy-dish cozy. I love it. (As a side note, I'm grateful for that flash, as you could totally see down my tank in the reflection on the microwave)

I love his little beady eyes. They're fabulous, and butterscotchy, which is why I filled that dish with butter scotch. I almost took him to work, but I'm afraid someone might permanently borrow him, which would make me sad.

I also love that my microwave is red, but that's less relevant.


I am working on fishes, from the fish blanket of wonderfulness. This is the first one! EEE! I love the little fishy body hanging off my needles. (morbid, but true)

There was a rather strict warning about how if your gauge is off the fishies wont fit together. I didn't swatch, hope I guessed okay on the needles and everything. Or I will have a few sqiggly fishes. Oh well. Knit a little, live a little. Following patterns closely is for weenies who want to get the proper knitted object the first time.

Lily is doing jazz hands and declaring she will not be making any shawls for a while. HEr mother has also verboten blankets. I think I can maybe talk her into some fishes. Hehehe.

Also, I am making some fun socks, its my next design. It's going to be crazy beans. You'll love it.
Check out the color:

I also need to finish my paper on ballet shoes....hmmmm. For now I think I'll go have a leetle nap. Or maybe some fish. Or I did just get that yarn in the mail.....

::wanders off talking to self::

If you see me tonight....

Turn me around and send me back to bed.


Because I haven't really slept in about 3 days, the doctor called me in some sleeping pills. He said if the first one doesnt work in an hour take a second. I'm thrilled. YAY SLEEP. So I go pick up the magical pills of happy.

The pharmacist highlighted this little section for me to ponder over...I read it AFTER I had popped the first pill.


"After taking, you may get up out of bed while not being fully awake and do an activity that you do not know you are doing. The next morning you may not remember that you did anything during the night. Reported activities include: (note that these are only the reported ones)

-driving a car
-making and eating food
-talking on a phone
-sleep-walking"

ANNNNND, are you ready for this one?

"-having sex."

If I frisk any of you this evening, I'm sorry.

YOU KNOW WHAT?!?!?!

note to self...
you are in college. if you yell that at your professor after an exam, not only will you get "that look", but your mother will not be able to call and dig you out of yet another "situation" because you didn't keep your thought to yourself.

note to the professor?
DUDE. If you put something on the review sheet EIGHT TIMES, I will learn it. I promise. If you mention, in passing, a "fun" algorithim one can use in database searches for some archane amino acid thing, and suggest its just interesting, and not NEED TO KNOW INFO, I won't. I think this is pretty reasonable. I'm sorry you disagree, but I bet everyone gets that question wrong on the test. As a small side note? That "fun fact" was not worth 30 of 100 points. Just saying.

My sister says I use "dude" more and more frequently the angrier I get. Anyone else have this problem?
Dude.

If you're in a college class, you probably shouldn't inform your professor, prior to final grade submission, that just because he has an M.D. does not mean he can write an effective test. Heads up on that one, in case you run into this little problem.

In other news...I might've gone a little sock crazy? 5 new pairs in one evening is probably an indication of being too stressed.

I then put those down and did some spinning. I made it through 2 grams before I moved on. Pattern design at 2am is not suggested.

I finally gave up and did some weaving.

It may not look like much to you, but if you recall the last time you saw that I was at the beginning of the (omgneverending) goldenish colored section, I finished all the yellowy for the time being and am now to the blues. That amount you see there between the blue and the bottom yellow stripe? I wove about 2x that length.


If you are thinking about getting a loom, know this. It is not a "stash buster". It is a "space eater" and also a "big knitting distraction".  But it is really quite a bit of fun. I wouldn't give that floor space back for the world.

I'm off to see if I can catch some Zzzzzz's (yes, its spelled like that because you really hold that sound before you stick the s on, makes it sound like some sort of sickness, if you knit, you know). I haven't been to bed since yesterday...sorry if this is rambly-er than usual. and also for the made up words...and the worse than normal grammar. and the lack of using that shift button at the end here.

what was i doing?

oh yeah. sleep!

PS-if you don't read Franklin Habit, go look up muffatee. It's going to be my new swearword, I don't care if that's not the correct use.

PPS-if you didn't know, knitty is up.

PPPS-remind me to show you my new decoration, Owl-ette Koolaidsskin. Lily made him, I think you will like the use I put him to.

PPPPS-I hope, if I am ever depicted in yarn (cute laughter) that no one makes my nose this big:
Royal Wedding

Murphy...

one of those weeks where if it could go wrong, it will. Extra homework, extra test material, not getting enough sleep to function, having the flu...it's just like that.

I was trying to use socks to destress, but since this is the third version, and I've spent four hours trying to make them the right size, it wasn't really working. Gauge? Lies...just saying. I can do math, and I even triple checked with a calculator. But alas, they've now been ripped out thrice. This is their current state:

I'm realizing that I might need to start staging these photos in different places, as you only ever get my coffee table, and so you probably thing I'm some sort of terrible slob. I promise the rest of my house is really actually very tidy.

Anyways...I had reached a point last night were I just couldn't take it anymore. I'd tried drowning the stress in the bathtub, I'd exercised, I'd laid down for a little rest, I'd just made a list and worked through most of it...nothing was working. Then I looked up and......

I may or may not have pulled this out of the fiber basket...It's called "Ohhh! Shiny!! I WANT!"....1 oz of Mullberry silk. It really is shiny, and soft, and wonderful. Spinning is my ultimate destress, how hard is it to flick a spindle and watch magic happen.

Silk, is apparently, a real mother f!@#$%^& when it comes to simple spinning. Some things I learned? Only pull off a tidgen of it. Really, predrafing is probably a bad idea. Don't forget to put a towel down to wipe your hands on regularly, don't let go of it, and a static sheet for the dryer? Might be helpful. I'm more or less a beginning spinner, and have only ever messed with wool. Or other reasonable fibers. But, after a little fighting, some use of a lint remover, and a deep breath?

I think I might make it. Maybe....

Anyone a whiz on Hidden Markov Models?

I'm off to study, and maybe I'll spend my breaks perusing knitty. We'll see.

Quarterly Updates and Yarn Goodies

Quarterly Update:

Back when I started the blog I gave you all a little list of WIP's, to do's, etc etc on the yarn front. I keep track of all the stuff I have planned/started in a little excel sheet. Well, I felt like I was making ABSOLUTELY no progress, and Lily suggested that I give little updates on occasion to prove to myself/others that things really were getting done, even though it didn't feel like it.

So when we started, if you recall, there were approximately 40 things on the list, which wasn't really very accurate as I forgot several projects/planned things, but there you have it. Of those 40-ish things, 20 were WIP's. Which was a little bit overwhelming. Since January, I have finished 12 items from that list. YAY!

As of April 1st there are 43 items on the list. 17 of these are WIPs...and only 2 of them are new. Proving that a lot of those finished items were rather spur-of-the moment cast on projects, but what's a knitter to do, really? If inspiration hits, you'll go with it.

There are now only 5 blankets on the list. That's huge progress if you consider the time it takes to finish a blanket.

You'll be getting another update around July 1st.

In other news.....
Zach's Hockey socks are done done done! :) They make me very happy. I never realized how much larger his feet were than mine until seeing it in sock form...hmmm. But look, aren't they neat!

I'm wearing them right now, as my toes got cold and they were the handiest thing at the time. They look a little like some patriotic used condoms...Mostly because they're twice the size my feet are. (mens 10 vs mens 4) But anyways. I used up the whole skein of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. I used my little drug scale (okay fine its a food scale, but I use it for yarn, and it measures in drug like increments, and my friend accused me of being a coke-head for having a scale to measure small amounts) to divide the skein in half, exactly. Then I knit on each sock until I was out of yarn! They're quite lovely, if I do say so myself.

In keeping with Socks-a-palooza April, I then went digging in the closet to find the second pair of socks I ever started. (Just for a little background, the first two pairs of socks I've started, I've never finished. They were educational for making toes, thats about as far as they've gotten.) These socks are also for Zach. I was just going to lay them on top of the pair I just finished for size purposes, but they looked like this:

No matter how I squished, pinned, or manipulated the little boogers, they didn't want to lay in any other way than something similar to a yarmulke. Or a weird flat ellipse thingie. Or whatever. I got really mad at them, and ripped them out, since I couldn't tell poot from them anyways, might as well start over! Then I had two balls of rather unsightly and probably difficult to use sock yarn...so I decided to have a little wind-party and turned them into yarn cakes.


After I finished with the yarn-cakery that results from having a ball winder (huffah for that little gizmo! and no Paul, you cannot reconfigure the gear ratio, I need it to work, I don't care if it doesn't go quickly enough for you) I looked on the floor and what did I find? Two little strange bobbin thingies:

These bad boys had been nested INSIDE the yarn. I'm at a loss to what they are for. I went on a google-fest, and I still have no ACUTAL answer. If the yarn is indeed Lang Jawoll it is most definitely reinforcement thread to use when making the toes/heels so they are sturdier. Which is just too neat. I don't actually know what the yarn is as I bought it 3 years ago and lost the ball bands. I do know that I got it at Purls Tuscon. I think it's probably likely that it is reinforcment thread no matter what the brand of yarn is but I have no clue. It was fun to have easter-egg style yarn though. I was totally not expecting to have a little surprise in the center of the skein. It made finding out at 1 am that I had a paper due at 8 am that much more bearable. Anyone know for sure what these little babies are?

If anyone is interested in a KAL, or CAL, or something other than Lily, you should email me (yarndependentmeATgmailDOTcom) and let me know! Send some fun projects you want to work on too, and I'll think a list of fun goodies up, so we can pick what we want to do together. If it's just 2 or 3 of us we can do a mini, no worries.

Anyways, I'm off to be all soc-u-pied (I stole that from an e-mag, I'm really not that clever), and wait for my Jimmy Beans Wool color of the month to show up. And maybe work on some homework. We'll see. Have a good day all!

PS- Is anyone else in the Colorado area having problems with the weather being 75°F, then snowing, then being 50°F?

Back to reality

Zach's gone home, le sad. So back to my normal life! I apologize for the blog silence, but it's hard to sit down and get anything done when Zach and I are running around being crazy kids.


His socks are closer to done:

There's one on the left and the other on the right. Neither are finished but they do fit, as you can see, and that one is very close to done! WOO HOO! It was originally a 56 stitch sock but after an emergency fitting I realized they were WAY TOO BIG and had to rip them out back down to a 48 stitch sock. But thankfully, the crisis was managed. Yay!

I removed the poll, because it was closed, but Socks-a-palooza won it for the April Projects. Let's see how long I can stick to that shall we? I have the red/white/blue pair of socks to finish up and then another pair for Zach. I might as well finish them both since I have a comparison pair now. Then I'll get back to socks for me. I'll probably continue to work on scarves in class, it's just easier that way. 

I've been thinking about doing a KAL or something here for all of us to show off our knitty goodness. How do people feel about that?

I'm off to work on some socks! 

Homework? What homework?