I’ve definitely been blogging less ever since I started working a second job, but my posting has gone down even more ever since I signed up for Plurk! Plurk is similar to Twitter, but I find Plurk much more interactive. Updates are threaded, similar to IM, so it’s easy to keep track when someone replies to you. Also, the interface is prettier, though the timeline can be confusing initially. Once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty easy to navigate (especially if you use a scroll wheel). I had abandoned Twitter initially, but discovered Ping.fm, which allows you to update both sites simultaneously. The current beta code is letmeping if you want to sign up. Anyway, I’m having lots of fun plurking, so come over if you’re so inclined and friend me! I will send you a dancing banana if you do.

I found out about the Nanner Sock pattern from Plurk. The pattern was written by Wendy and it’s currently only available to Plurk users. (Send her a message via her contact form if you want the pattern.) Lots of other plurkers are knitting these, and because I am a sheep, I cast them on. Well, that’s a longer story than it should be. The Nanner pattern is written toe-up, and I have had an aversion to toe-up socks ever since knitting my Brick House socks, my only toe-up socks. But, I figured I would be a valiant knitter and knit the pattern as it is written. I know I could have done them cuff-down, but I wanted to challenge myself.

It literally took me hours to figure out how to cast on properly! I can’t remember what cast on I used for my other socks but I decided to learn Judy’s Magic Cast On for the Nanners. I started and restarted probably a dozen times! By the time I figured out how to do the cast on correctly, I measured and realized my gauge was WAY off–I started with US 0 dpns but eventually went all the way up to US 2s in order to get the correct gauge. Finally, success! I am now very comfortable with the Magic Cast On, by the way, since I have done it so many times in the past two days. Picture soon, once I remember to take one!

How about a house update? We’re closing in ONE WEEK agghhH! hehe. It’s very exciting but I am still freaked out. M and I are trying to decide which insurance company we’re going to start a policy with, and it looks like Farmers has the best rate for our house. I was hoping USAA would give us a big discount (we both have several accounts with them already), but for some reason they’re quoting a more expensive premium than Farmers. Also, tonight we’re going furniture window shopping again, as well as handing over our bank statements to our mortgage lender.

Sidenote: dude, it feels so weird and grown-up to be using terms like “homeowners insurance” and “mortgage lender,” and it’s kind of freaking me out!!

Anyway, we are planning on moving in next weekend, Friday through Sunday (the 27th - 29th). We both took Friday off from work, so hopefully we can get everything moved in by Sunday night. I’m so excited to bring my doggies over there! I hope they like the backyard. It’s not as large as my parents’ yard, but at least they will have a bit of grass to run around on and I am really, really looking forward to having them roam around the house again. (Remember, my parents always keep them separated from their dog because of the Great Dog Fight of 2007, which will NEVER be repeated, ugh! ) Also, M and I will be able to take them for more walks and have all kinds of fun with them, yay!

I will absolutely take oodles of photos once we move in–actually, I will probably take a bunch once we close, before we even put our stuff in. Because nothing’s more fun than photos of a furniture-less house, right? hehe. And I know someone will poke me if I don’t take lots of pics! I’m super excited about the second bedroom, which we’re planning on using as a spare room/workout room/yarn room/office. Basically M and I are drawing an imaginary line down the middle, and on one side he’s going to put his workout stuffs there, and on the other side I’m going to put a desk, bookcase, and (hopefully!) yarn cabinet, eeee! Right now the room is baby blue because the current owners have a baby boy and that’s his room, and honestly, I liked the wall color so much that I talked M into leaving it up. A) we won’t have to paint over it and B) I love blue and I think it’s really pretty. Once the crib is gone and we move our stuff in, I don’t think it will look baby room-ish at all, anyway!

I have a very specific plan of how I want to arrange my side of the room, down to the desk I want and everything. I’d draw a diagram but my drawing skills suck. Also, that desk is only available on target.com and I don’t know if I want to risk ordering it and having it damaged in shipping because that’s a mighty expensive desk. I really dislike the look of particle board furniture though, so I might have to look elsewhere for a glass & metal desk.

Also, my dream yarn cabinet is available from IKEA but it’s rather pricey as well and our closest IKEA is in northern VA, and I really don’t want to take a drive up there. blah. I wish I knew where to find all the cool furniture around here, but I haven’t bought furniture in years so I’m pretty clueless! Anyway, my main thing is that I want to get my yarn stash out of Rubbermaid bins and into a cabinet, but I want a cabinet/bookcase with doors, should a disastrous thing happen like a moth get into the house and into my yarn stash. I had an open bookcase in New Mexico, and never had a moth infestation, but I’m paranoid now that I’m back in VA and don’t want to take any chances!

(btw, just noticed that my dream cabinet is, in fact, made of particle board. Is it true that IKEA used to use solid wood once upon a time?)

All right, next time I update I’ll have pics of my Nanner sock in progress and possibly house pics, eee! My class is still kicking my butt–I have a paper to write this weekend, as it’s due by Monday night–so it might be a few days till I post again. Plurk me in the meantime.

Posted: June 20th, 2008 under Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 1

Wow, I haven’t posted in a week. Let’s see, what’s going on?

I had a great WWKIP Day on Saturday! I met Tasha (and now want to knit a Pi Shawl because of her) and Laura at Starbucks and we knitted and chatted for a couple hours. I hadn’t seen either of them in months, ever since I started working nights, so that was really nice! I started a sock in Trekking and knit more in those few hours than I had in weeks. Of course, I haven’t worked on it since Saturday, but maybe I can do more knitting once we close on the house.

Speaking of which, it is 11 days and counting till M and I officially own it! eek! The bank is doing its appraisal this afternoon–we don’t have to be present for that–and of course our last financial review is this Friday at 5. We are starting to window shop for furniture–yesterday we went couch hunting and sat on several comfy ones, but nothing really caught our eyes. We need to look around more.

School is kicking my butt just a little. I’m kind of bummed because I had gotten a 100/100 on the Week 1 conference and then I checked yesterday and I got a 77/100 on the Week 2 conference. I emailed my instructor to ask for details on why I didn’t get a very high score. I posted my Week 3 response last night, and now I’m worried that it wasn’t up to par. Plus, our first writing assignment is due on the 23rd and it needs to be 1,500 words in length and I haven’t even started it yet, ugh. Why did I want to go back to college again?

I hope I can find a better job after we move into our new place so that I don’t have to work two jobs anymore. I miss having free time. And knitting time. I really miss knitting time.

Posted: June 16th, 2008 under Knitting, Miss Education, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 1

I made a For Real swatch last night. Actually, it was kind of late night last night, as in, I cast on at 1 AM and started it but got really disturbed by the “To Catch a Predator” special on MSNBC that I just kept knitting the more weirded out I was by all the pervs. I am trying really hard not to think of this as the To Catch a Predator swatch, as it really is the Sideways Spencer Redux swatch.

I have been buying way too much yarn lately, so now I must justify it by actually using it. During the Memorial Day weekend sales, I hit up two LYSes–one of them twice–and came back with three sweaters’ worth of yarn. One of them will be the SSR (because Sideways Spencer…is a really long name for a pattern).

I know, we’re on the precipice of summer and I’ve got wool sweaters on the brain but I really have a logic to this. At both my jobs, the temperature is always kept really cold–maybe my employers figure that freezing the minions will cause them to work harder? Produce more? Who knows, but I don’t need to catch pneumonia on top of everything else. So I think the SSR will be a nice cover-up for those chilly summer indoor workdays.

I guess this means I’ve finally overcome my aversion to the swatch. If only colorwork and steeking were as easy! (Here is where someone will inevitably try to convince me that colorwork is easy but I am NOT BUYING IT. All those strands and dangly bits just scare the crap out of me.)

I will say, though, that I proudly knit the cables on this swatch without a cable needle and will do so when I actually knit the sweater. It’s easy since it’s just a four-stitch cable and really does speed along the process.

oh knitting, without you, where would I be?

ETA: forgot to mention that the yarn I’m using is Malabrigo Worsted Merino. And if you haven’t heard from Ravelry yet, Malabrigo recently had a mill/warehouse fire. Sounds like no people were hurt, and that’s the most important thing! They did have some considerable structural damage, though.

Posted: May 30th, 2008 under Knitting.
Comments: 2

Today is THE day. M and I have an appointment with our realtor this afternoon to draw up the offer paperwork on the house. I am so nervous! Up till now, I’ve been fairly confident about making the offer. I think we’ll get the house. But then every so often, my mind stops for a moment and I get this empty-bellied feeling of PANIC! (at the disco) and I think, oh no what if we don’t get it! Or, what if we get it and life is dandy, la di da, then one month we can’t pay our mortgage?? I don’t really have any reason to be worried about these things…I’m just jittery and freaking out, I guess.

In a sense, I feel like we’re taking somewhat of a risk because nothing in life is guaranteed, right? I mean, recently a tornado swept through a neighboring city in this area–a TORNADO!–and a bunch of people lost their houses. What governs the universe? Is it all chaos? It doesn’t help that my parents seem intent on freaking me out even worse than I already am. They are convinced that the neighborhood is borderline ghetto. When I came home from work last night, how did my mom greet me? “You know someone got shot in that neighborhood. In the HEAD.” My response was, “ok?”

We could buy this house and be perfectly safe and happy and content there. Or we could buy a house in a “good” or “better” neighborhood (whatever that means) and get shot anyway! Or hit by a bus, or I don’t know, a plane could fall out of the sky! Or maybe NOTHING bad will happen. You can’t live your life in a bubble. That’s just weird. And I, for one, refuse to walk on eggshells in life, too afraid to take chances and have fun and actually LIVE. I have always been a pessimist but this static from my parents is just ridiculous, even for me. I think if you go through life EXPECTING bad things to come, then I don’t know, maybe the universe bestows that upon you because you set the bar so low for yourself. But I think you just have to *try* to do better. And sometimes, that should be enough. Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of the negative juju from them and I just want to move on. From the past, from my previous mistakes, from THEM. [/end rant]

Now let us discuss the matter of yarn, and test knitting! (I always have to switch gears and talk about knitting, otherwise my blood pressure will skyrocket and I may give myself a mental breakdown.) Recently I was watching the Ravelry forums radar (interesting, the things that pop up on there!) and saw a post about South West Trading Company needing test knitters. I read through the thread, and people were saying that SWTC had put out a call (on the SWTC group, I believe) and so people had contacted them, and they in turn sent patterns to test knit and they pay in YARN. I figured it couldn’t hurt, so I sent them an email and sure enough, Jonelle emailed me back to say that she could use my help! This week she emailed me the pattern and the yarn is on its way. I’m not sure what I can or can’t say so I’ll just mention that it’s a baby item so it shouldn’t take too long to knit up. I skimmed the pattern and it looks pretty straightforward and I’m really curious to see the yarn I get to work with! Then once the item is finished, I’ll send it back to her and I get paid in SWTC yarn. Very cool!

I still have dreams about setting up a yarnspace in the new house, and I try not to get TOO ahead of myself–we haven’t picked out furniture or anything yet, but I sure have been looking! I think it’s good to have something to occupy my mind in the meantime…otherwise I’ll think about the Galactic Empire* and get depressed.

*or the Death Star, or Darth Vader, or whatever other geeky Star Wars reference you’d like to insert here. On my mobile phone, I have different ring tones set up to play depending on the caller. My ring tone for my parents is The Imperial March.

Posted: May 9th, 2008 under Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 2

Need money, must destash.

ETA: Some has been sold, others are still available, more have been added. Details here!

Posted: April 17th, 2008 under Knitting.
Comments: 1

ok, if you’re on Ravelry and frequent the forums, then you likely know about the MCY debacle. Last night it all culminated into MCY itself (themselves? herself?) joining Ravelry–allegedly–or at least someone claiming to be MCY. It got so wacked out that Casey even created a group just for it!

Here’s my dilemma: I used to buy yarn from MCY, back before they got all…uh…BAD and stopped shipping to people. I never received any rude emails from them, even when they once shorted my order. In fact, they corrected it rather quickly and I got more yardage than what I had ordered. And though I used to live in New Mexico, no, I am not Danielle. I am, however, one of the…lucky?…customers who got what they paid for in a semi-reasonable amount of time. I used to own more of their yarn, including some sock yarn and more laceweight, but those were swapped and/or sold months ago. I feel badly for the people I swapped with, wondering if I should contact them after the fact and warn them about the yarn? I thought it was fine because it sat in my stash for so long and didn’t rub off on anything else, so maybe mine were from good batches…?

The thing is, I still have two balls of their silk in my stash. I did test one for color-fastness way back when I first received it, and while the dye bled, the colors have continued to look fine (no fading or felting or anything weird), so I think it’s safe. The other one hasn’t been washed. But moreover, I feel like the yarn is utterly tainted! Just knowing the source and all of the heartaches other knitters have had with MCY, I feel badly just owning the stuff. What should I do? Knit with it anyway? Get rid of it? Throw it away? I don’t know, so in the meantime it’s just sitting in my stash.

And it just occurred to me that while I could have posted these concerns on Ravelry, some of the other people there are so out for blood that I’m a wee bit concerned they might think I’m Danielle too.

Posted: April 15th, 2008 under Knitting.
Comments: 9

I hate even typing this, but I have to vent! I am still sick. This virus I’ve had for over two weeks just won’t seem to leave. I feel better than I did two weeks ago, that’s for sure. But my throat is still acting funny and I’m just hoping that I’ll be all healthy soon.

On to happier things! The weather today was dreary and rainy and I had to work this morning, but I went to one of my local libraries and borrowed a copy of The Book Thief for the April selection of the Ravelry Book Group. (My library where I work didn’t have a copy on hand.) I know very little about the book other than the summary on the Amazon page, so I’m excited to discover a new read. Also, I’m hoping I can keep up with the other book club members because I read pretty slowly. I’m also still reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, which has gotten really interesting (I found the beginning kind of slow to start). But I am definitely getting back in touch with my bookworm-iness (hehe). I go through phases when I read a couple books in a row, then don’t read for a long time. Lately instead of knitting in the morning before work, I’ve been reading TTTW and it’s so interesting that I’m ok with sacrificing knitting time temporarily.

Speaking of knitting, I decided to stay off the yarn diet since I’ve been doing so well on the book diet. I have not bought any books since January 1 and have reduced my book stash by ten titles thanks to Paperback Swap. Also, I’ll be mailing another book this Friday. Book destashing seems much easier to me than yarn destashing. Maybe I am less emotionally attached to books than to yarn? If you’ve seen my Shelfari shelf lately, you can see just how many books I own. My goal is to get rid of nearly all the books I’ve read but haven’t read more than once. And eventually, I’d like to read through my To Be Read list but that’s a long-term goal!

In other thoughts…there is yet another WordPress upgrade available, 2.5. Why do they update so frequently? And why can’t there be a one-click easy upgrade? Make my life easier, WordPress people! I will get to it eventually. I know if I upgrade right now, I’ll be staring at my screen for another hour or so, not because upgrading takes that long but because I’ll be clicking all the new buttons and poking around the new interface.

I have laundry to do but I also plan to cast on the Diagonale Shawl with my new Yarntopia Treasures rayon. I admit, I purchased the yarn out of curiosity borne out of the Ravelry discussions. i.e., is YT another incarnation of Mystical Creation Yarns? etc. etc. I think the consensus is no, the person behind YT is not the lady behind MCY (who allegedly has died, though again, the Ravelry consensus is no, MCY lady is not dead, just crazy). But I’m just amazed at the heatedness of some of the posts on Ravelry. I read the threads voraciously, of course, because it is the train wreck/soap opera effect and well, entertaining.

Do me a favor and send me some happy thoughts/get healthy wishes! I just want to feel 100% better, and can use all the positive juju I can get!

Posted: March 30th, 2008 under Bookworm, Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 5