otherwise Republicans wouldn't have a leg to stand on.
Seriously, The RNC is about the most ridiculous trainwreck ever. I'm only watching it because my poor husband, who is a little misguided, wanted to see it. I said 'Hunny why don't we tivo it and then you can fast foreward through the bullshit ---oh wait, what's the point in recording any of it then...' .... and that was before they started speaking.
9/11 was scary. Fact. 9/11 victims and families are being horribly exploited for political gain. Fact. The RNC makes me want to punch things and vomit--at the same time. Fact.
The highlight, to me, was when McCain, who I respect on some levels, called Michael Moore a disingenuous film maker, and then the cameras zoomed in on Michael Moore laughing. But the part I found disappointing was that McCain was being interviewed afterwards, and admitted that he never even SAW F9/11. He said, and I quote " I don't have any personal vendettas against Michael Moore." You don't call someone disengenuous 2 times and stand there while the crowd goes wild if you don't have something personal against them. He claims that Moore made Iraq look like a .. I can't remember his words, oasis of peace? is that it? That wasn't what I got out of the movie. When Matthews asked McCain if he agreed with moore about, well, the main point of the movie : the fact that the people who make the wars are seldom willing to send their husbands, sons and daughters over to fight in them, and the wars are instead fought by the poor, and disadvantaged -- McCain agreed with Moore's opinion. Pissed me off JUST A LITTLE! I'm sure no one was watching that though.
Ugh. On to something a little (and I mean a very little) more positive. We've found out the sex of the baby my father and my new mom (hehe) are having, It's a girl. I'm definitely psyched for a girl. I've been having a hard time dealing with my feelings about my father lately. I can't even really bring myself to type 'dad' about him because 'father' is so much colder and that's pretty much the way I want it right now. I'm psyched about a girl for all the wrong reasons, and I won't bore you with them because they're personal.
Can you believe it, I have barely knit anything in the last 2 days. At the beginning of the weekend I made so much progress. I finished the front 2 panels of Devan's seed stitch jacket, and had the pockets attached. Sunday I also worked on the first sleeve up to the beginning of the increases. Stupidly, I started doing the increases tonight, and by the time I got up by the shoulder pocket, we were watching the RNC and I completely screwed it up, so I had to start all over. I'm back to row 26 and am waiting to start the increases tomorrow - after I've slept off my anger over the RNC.
One final piece of knitting news - I opened my mailbox today and was greeted by a ball of Rowan Chunky Chenille in the color "Daydream" which is a bluish seafoamish color. It's gorgeous and will become a petal cloth or something, but I had no idea what it was from. Apparently I won an auction on ebay that I forgot I even bid on, and never recieved any notices about. The person was trusting enough to send me the yarn before recieving my payment. I sent her the payment through paypal today, along with an apology. Sometimes I'm a moron, what can I say?
Ok, before bed I'm gonna talk about some funny things. There's no real point to this paragraph- just stuff that cheers me up. We saw Run Ronnie Run over the weekend and it was hilarious. Today before my Dr. appointment (where my debit card was rejected - oh the humiliation! oh the torment! oh the embarrassment!) I started thinking about this movie and found myself giggling like a moron. It's really funny. The movie also contains some appearances by Tom Kenny, who I have an inexplicable crush on (yea, the voice of sponge bob) so that always makes a film better. Also, I've always had a fondness for Jon Stewart, but I've never really watched the Daily Show because I don't watch a lot of tv. But I have to say, I loved the John Kerry episode and the DNC coverage is TOP NOTCH A+ work. Are there DVD's of this show, because I feel I've really missed out over the years.
I think that's it for tonight. Except all of the sudden, I'm overcome with LOVE for my husband, so I'll give him a 'shoutout'. Jon is a wonderful guy and he is so funny and cool that it makes up for him being a young republican (he's not really. he's "independent"). Goodnight!
I got my Rowan Cork (Hearten) in the mail today. I love this yarn. It's kind of spongey and soft and quick to knit with. I also like the color, even though it's more orange than I thought it would be. Oh well I got a good deal on ebay, so I can't complain. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I'm making This sweater for Devan. I worked on the first 12 rows and wasn't thrilled with the job I was doing, so I ripped it all out, and will try again tomorrow (unless I go somewhere).
Oh PS. Sorry, I accidentally made the comments on my blog for blogger users only. The mistake has been fixed, so comment away!
My brother and I stayed up all night last night. I'm pretty tired right now, but I told Devan we can go to the playground this morning, so I can't lay down - otherwise I'll sleep too late and feel crummy later on. So I'll try to make the best of this situation I got myself into.
I finished the back of Devan's seed stitch jacket.
It's kind of fast and fun. I'm using Lantern Moon ebony needles and while they're nice to knit with, I've already had a splinter come out of one of them. That's kind of annoying considering that they're pricey needles.
Oh, I promised a photo of the teaset - It's still not finished, but here's what I've got:
My plan is to knit another set in sage, and finish knitting a complete set in pink, because I don't like the colors together as much as I thought I would. Oh well.
Today, armed with my grab-bags of knitting projects
We set out for the playground, only the playground was way too busy. There were soccer games and all kinds of nonsense going on, so instead we went to Michael's and Borders. The reason we went to Michael's was for a potty chart we're making for Devan. She's doing fine with #2, but she's having trouble holding #1 in...She chose a black posterboard, and we got stickers and letters and stuff to decorate.
I know I'm supposed to be saving money, but how can anyone expect me to go ANYWHERE near yarn of any kind, and not buy something. Well. I decided I'm making the mitered square rug from Interweave Knits (spring 04) and the rest of the yarn is for Christmas gifts...that... you know... I had to buy right now.
I just finished Johnny Got His Gun. Now I have to finish Oryx & Crake.
I was thinking out a new design for this page. I really HATE it right now. It's hideous, and it's really disorganized and needs to be cleaned up. I've been toying with moving somewhere else, and I have a domain name in mind, but I'm not sure if I have the time to do all of the work involved right now. I love my idea for a new design. It's very, um, minimalist? I hate the pink on this journal. yuck.
Well I'm happy to say that I'm feeling MUCH better than I did all weekend. Today I picked some tomatoes and made chili. I blew it at the very end when I added mesa flour. Ruined the taste. I mean it's still edible, but not as good as it was.
I would have been finished knitting the back of Devan's chocolate brown seed stitch jacket at around 1pm today, but I noticed that I screwed up 1 stitch about 6 inches down, and had no choice but to rip back. If we hadn't lost Charlie for a few hours tonight, I would have finished it much earlier. Devan refused to go to bed with out her 'sister' so, you know, that's toddler life.
I plan to take Dev to the playground tomorrow and maybe work on Jon's sock. I'd like to finish up what I'm working on this summer, so I can start working on fall projects.
With the weather being as chilly as it was tonight (well, now yesterday)I've done two distinctly 'fall' things: I've pulled out my favorite Lands End stretchy sweatshirt and actually worn it, and I impulsively started knitting an autumn jacket for Dev. It's from Zoe Mellor's "Adorable Knits for Tots". I'm using a chocolate-y brown yarn (Debbie Bliss Merino Aran) and I'm thinking about lining the inside of this jacket with a pretty feminine fabric for 2 reasons. 1, it will be warmer. 2. it will look more girly, since it's all in seed stitch and brown yarn it looks kind of boyish. I'm also thinking about attatching some sort of knitted flower. We'll see if I actually get that far. For some reason seed stitch takes me forever. I've completed about 4 inches of the back of the jacket and it's taken me at least 3 hours. Any advice for lining a sweater?
Last night we watched Ned Kelly and I worked on my pooling scarf. I have about 35 inches of it done, and I must say, this scarf is gorgeous. I like the lace pattern -especially with the smaller needles. (I'm using size 4 with 41 stitches). I love this scarf SO much that I am thinking about buying some different colors of Anne, and knitting some more for Christmas presents.
What else am I working on... Oh yes, the tea set. Tonight I added some handles - 2 to the sugar bowl, and 1 to the pitcher. I'm just about finished with this project. I just need a couple lids and I'm all set. I'll post pics when they're finished drying.
Jon's poor 2nd sock will get some attention tomorrow at the playground.
Someday I'll actually finish a project and it will be awesome. I have attention deficit.
I'm up really late because I've been sick and sleeping a LOT.
i have this tastebud on my tongue that is sore and sticking up, so I keep biting at it, trying to pull it off, knowing full well that when I achieve my goal - it will feel much worse than it does right now.
Also, as far as knitting is concerned, look at yesterday's post, multiply the length of the scarf times ohh, approximately 2, and imagine half of a sock leg. That's what I did today. Kisses, Peggy
With some helpful advice from a kind soul named Barbara, I've made some progress on my pooling scarf. I think that the main thing I was hung up on, was that my cast on edge has so much contrast from the next row, and I didn't realize that it wouldn't match up, no matter what I did.
It's not lining up exactly, but right now I kind of like the way the colors bleed into each other. It kind of reminds me of watercolor. If I change my mind before I get much further, I'll rip it all out and start over and be a little more precise.
Tonight I watched the House of Sand and Fog. I read the book a few years ago, and finally got around to watching the movie. While I watched it, I started the ribbing on the second Jon sock. Here's a shot of the first:
I'm glad he likes them (well at least the first one) because my brother said they looked like girl socks while I was working on them, so I was a little paranoid. They're really comfortable, and if I hadn't told Jon they were his, I'd keep them for myself. I used Ann Budd's book (Knitters Handy Book Of Patterns) and some yarn I got from Elann. I don't have a label near by, but it had elastic in it, and is a nougat color.
Oh well, that's it for tonight. I'd like to read for about an hour and then go to bed.
Ok. I slept til almost noon. Not continuously, oohh no, not in this house with my dog and my daughter. haha. But I refused to drag my filthy germ-infested body out of bed until noon. Thank goodness Jon was home, otherwise Devan might have blown the house up.
When I did finally get up and start moving around, I went upstairs and found our upstairs bathroom sink clogged. Devan announced proudly that she 'made a tower' in it. The tower was expertly constructed using tissues and q-tips, stuffing them as far into the sink drain as possible and then turning on the cold water and splashing. It didn't resemble much of a tower to me, but whatever.
I didn't get mad until I noticed my box of 200 dollar earrings was open and one of the earrings was missing. Devan said it fell behind the toilet. I looked all over and started losing patience. I finally lifted the toilet seat, and spotted it at the bottom of the toilet. How nice.
Well that woke me up. So I scolded Jon for not watching Devan. It went something like "so now do you see that staying at home with the baby isn't just sitting around and watching tv? Do you now understand that there's actual work involved?" and of course he saw my point and got down on his knees and begged my forgiveness. Or not. He went out and picked up lunch. Shrimp and broccoli for me, Chicken and broccoli for him, and wonton soup for little Devan.
After lunch I came downstairs and fiddled around with the pooling scarf. no real progress was made unless you count me begging for divine intervention... Jon fell asleep on the family room couch for several hours, while I surfed the net and got my desk organized. I uncovered my grandfather's memoirs that I had swiped from my brother last week. I'm psyched to get a chance to read them one of these days.
Before dinner, Jon, Dev, and I went to the grocery store to pick up some vegetables and fruit and peanut butter tasty kake ice cream (yum), and Halls cough drops. Then we picked up his car from the shop and came back home for dinner. I had soup. I am sick as a dog.
After dinner Jon watched Hellboy - which I thought was a completely silly movie, and I finished knitting sock 1 of Jon's comfy socks.
after Jon went to bed I talked to my brother (who's anxiously waiting to come back over) and read 100 pages of Johnny Got His Gun.
Whew. All of that and no visual aids. I'll try harder tomorrow. For now, I'll leave you with a pic of me and Devan at the playground taken by my brother on his nifty new camera phone.
I hate to complain but damn. I caught Jon and Devan's sore throat. I have a stuffy, runny nose, and a nagging headache to look foreward to now. Also I have cramps. And while I don't get them every month like normal women, I get them like labor lately and it sucks bigtime. So this week should be lots of fun, right?
Today, er yesterday, was Jon's birthday. I got him the Soprano's season 1 dvd set, a sweatshirt for jogging, socks, a few shirts, a funny card... and Devan (me) got him a really nice tool box and I helped her make him a card. It was cute, and had a big tiered birthday cake made out of felt.
We went to the library today. I got 3 knitting books. Debbie Bliss Nursery Knits, 100 Afghan Squares to Knit, and a Vogue Knitting bag book. So far, I'm only interested in 1 of the bags and nothing else from the other books.
Devan got Ferdinand the Bull, Wee Willie Winkie, and a couple other little kid books. We read Ferdinand tonight. She had a hard time understanding bullfighting, and I tried to explain, you know, minus the gore and death.
I'm sad because I didn't finish Jon's birthday present. And the pooling scarf is still at 0%. I'll update with visual aids one of these days. Jon's got the day off tomorrow, so either I'll read Johnny Got His Gun or I'll knit. Or I'll take pictures and update this blog with them. We'll all have to wait patiently to find out.
I, like probably most of you, have seen Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11. Its title is a parody of the title of Ray Bradbury’s great science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451. This temperature 451° Fahrenheit, is the combustion point, incidentally, of paper, of which books are composed. The hero of Bradbury’s novel is a municipal worker whose job is burning books.
And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.
So the America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries.
And still on the subject of books: Our daily sources of news, papers and TV, are now so craven, so unvigilant on behalf of the American people, so uninformative, that only in books can we find out what is really going on. I will cite an example: House of Bush, House of Saud by Craig Unger, published near the start of this humiliating, shameful blood-soaked year.
In case you haven’t noticed, and as a result of a shamelessly rigged election in Florida, in which thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily disenfranchised, we now present ourselves to the rest of the world as proud, grinning, jut-jawed, pitiless war lovers, with appallingly powerful weaponry and unopposed.
In case you haven’t noticed, we are now almost as feared and hated all over the world as the Nazis were.
With good reason.
In case you haven’t noticed, our unelected leaders have dehumanized millions and millions of human beings simply because of their religion and race. We wound and kill ’em and torture ’em and imprison ’em all we want.
Piece of cake.
In case you haven’t noticed, we also dehumanize our own soldiers, not because of their religion or race, but because of their low social class.
Send ’em anywhere. Make ’em do anything.
Piece of cake.
The O’Reilly Factor.
So I am a man without a country, except for the librarians and the Chicago-based magazine you are reading, In These Times.
Before we attacked Iraq, the majestic New York Times guaranteed that there were weapons of mass destruction there.
Albert Einstein and Mark Twain gave up on the human race at the end of their lives, even though Twain hadn’t even seen World War I. War is now a form of TV entertainment. And what made WWI so particularly entertaining were two American inventions, barbed wire and the machine gun. Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don’t you wish you could have something named after you?
Like my distinct betters Einstein and Twain, I now am tempted to give up on people too. And, as some of you may know, this is not the first time I have surrendered to a pitiless war machine.
My last words? “Life is no way to treat an animal, not even a mouse.”
Napalm came from Harvard. Veritas!
Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler.
What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without a sense of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations and made it all their own?
I have't updated in a week or so. My brother, Rick has been in town for 2 weeks. We didn't do a whole lot, as far as adventures go. We spent most of our time sleeping, sitting, watching tv,playing with myspace, reading, and i did some serious knitting.
Rick went home just a few minutes ago. I'm kinda bored already. I enjoy having houseguests. It's nice to have him here, even if we don't do stuff.
Devan woke up this morning with a cold. She got it from Jon. I am trying to get her to rest, so it doesn't get worse, but she won't lay down.
Yesterday me and Devan found a pink purse at the mall. We meant to return it to an information booth or something, but we forgot. I opened it up and realized there was no drivers license so I don't have an address to send it to. Now I have to drive all the way back to NY to the mall. This is great. This is what happens when I try to do the right thing.
Oh yea, I got some terrifying news the other day. My father's girlfriend is almost 6 months pregnant. And while there are countless negative reactions to this news - there's only 1 positive. A new little baby to knit for. So yea. Devan's gonna have an aunt or uncle younger than her.
Knitting
I'm nearly done with the fiesta tea set. I need to make couple handles and lids. I might redo the teacups in pink.
Pooling scarf progress is at 0%. I'm so irritated with it I can't look at it.
i've been working on some socks and another felted bag too. I can't remember what else. I'm tired of typing.
For the last couple hours, I've been knitting and ripping and knitting and ripping. Something tells me I am missing something very simple, but I CANNOT get these colors to line up. I have no idea.. It's like, the colors will be lined up - but the yo's and the k3tog throw it off. If I don't figure it out soon, I'm going to scream.
I knitted the pitcher from the fiesta teaset on Saturday. We were driving all over, so I brought it along. We went to Quizno's which is right next to the Knitting Basket in Denville, and I walked right past without going in. Oh I definitely wanted to -- But I was outnumbered by men who didn't want to go in.
I've got to cut this short cuz my dog keeps bugging me.
Crapity Crap. Ok. Let's talk about a few things here. First, I LOVE Schaefer Anne. I really do. Unfortunately I'm having a hell of a time lining up the colors. In person, the colors are really beautiful and look awesome even if they're not lining up correctly. (It doesn't show so well here.) But that kind of defeats the purpose of doing this scarf.
Secondly, I really like the pattern and I think the scarf will be beautiful when it's finished - if I ever get that far. Maybe I'll switch to 6's and try it again. Or maybe I won't. Either way, I'm only 6 rows in and ripping won't be painful. I'm getting used to it with this pattern. If only I'd bought the skein I saw the other day at the Knitting Basket - all red and pink and melon-y orange. Subtle color changes might be easier.
In other news, Yesterday I made the creamer for the Fiesta Tea Set. It's cute. So here's a pic:
(Nov 19)
I've been asked to make a Christmas wish list, so here it is. Click on
Santa to view it!
(Dec 11)
I am unable to sleep, so I took time to make the blog archives work. of course, images that were on old yahoo server do not work anymore (read: anything before April 2005) so you'll have to use your imagination. Check the sidebar for a link if you're interested.
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(Nov 22)
There. I finally did it. Now go buy me stuff:)
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(Nov 7)Take note of the changes along the right sidebar. I've been reading blogs, and that, of course, means joining knitalongs!
However my next task (which will be my next announcement)
is to create a holiday wishlist, as there have been several people asking for one.
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(Aug 6) Hi guys, How cute is this: I have a new little niece!! Bryan and Mandie's little girl was born last Sunday (I think)
and in the spirit of utter ridiculousness, I give you, Madelyn dancing.
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(June
1) Here is a little picture. Obviously, these are BF5 lyrics.
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(May
23) Sup dudes? I was kinda bored last night, so I made a picture.
again. only tell me if you like it. I have a fragile ego.
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(May
14) Going through a wave of depression. Don't feel like
doing anything except artwork. Here are a couple
pictures I made. You may have seen them, since they're
meant for my websites. If you've seen them as background
images, excuse the tiling, I'm fixing it when I feel
like it.
if you like them, let me know. if you don't, keep it to
yourself.
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(April 28) Ok... I've been on hiatus. Bear with me and
my broken links and pictures while I move all my junk
around.
Life is good and I'm glad my site is working again.
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(Jan 11) Due to real life
pals/family complaining about how little real life
content there is in this journal, I'm going to make a
real effort to include that stuff, and not just knitting
stuff. I hope this pleases you guys.
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(Jan 10) Today is the
anniversary of my Grampa's death. We still miss you so
much.
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(Jan 4) Congratulations
Michael & Tiffany!!
Welcome to the family,
Tif!
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(Dec 30) Just two quick
notes today:
1. We've got another
completed Casey's Coat.
click to see Vito!
2. I'll be out of town
for about 3 weeks. My brother, Mike, is getting married!
After that I'm going to be house sitting for my mom
while she is out of town. This will not have an affect
on you or my blogging, I just felt like sharing.
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(Dec 2) My brother has
been making me some pretty cool knitting charts. I think
they're mighty awesome and I'm trying to figure out a
project I can use them for. They're pdf files, except
the first one (which is actually not his design, it's
the work of someone on myspace.com) so go ahead and have
at them. If he makes many more charts, I'll disable the
links and offer the chart patterns for a small fee via
paypal, because, after all, it is his art work and he
deserves compensation!
click the images to view full sized charts: 2nd & 3rd images ?2004 R. Wuebker
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(Nov 28)My little sister is a knittin' fool. We shopped
all over for some good needles for her. She's been using
these kids plastic-y needles that I find to be really
uncomfortable and annoying. We tried some aluminum
needles but they were too slick and long. We finally
settled on some Clover Bamboo needles and from what I
have heard, she likes them the best. She's working on a
lavender scarf. I'll have my mom take a pic so I can
post it here.
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(Nov 28) I'm back! Christmas Knitting and yarn stash
enhancement is in full effect in this house. There's a
new(?) Knitting/Fabric store in the town my mom lives
in. It's called Sew Krazy. image is property of sew-krazy.com
They are currently squeezed in a tiny location just
chock full of amazing stuff! They have a whole shelf of
Kaffe Fasset fabrics, which you know I loved. They
had lots of yarn by Rowan and Brown Sheep. They didn't
have any Debbie Bliss. The shop is working on expanding
in a new location, equipped with a beautiful fireplace
(My mom and I peeked through a hole in the door) and
it's HUGE. This place was great and there's a cafe
called Muddy Waters next door. So this place will be
perfect to sit down, relax, drink coffee, and knit by
the fireplace when I go out to visit for 3 weeks in
January. The building is also really beautiful and
contains many other interesting shops. Check it out if
you're ever nearby.
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(Nov 18)Last year for Christmas, Mr. Handsome gave me an
EZ Stir. If you haven't got a clue what an easy-stir
is, (consider yourself lucky) it's a device that
attaches to your pots and pans and stirs your sauces for
you! Ingenious! I have still not taken the EZ Stir out
of its package. This year, I thought I'd make it easy on
my husband and anyone else who wishes to shower me with
gifts.
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(Nov 17)Looking for unique cards to send out this
Holiday season?
Check out
Loobylu
and Darling
Studio for some fabulous and unique holiday cards.
