The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

11.29.2004

Why, hello! I'm back from Ohio! I wanted to stay longer, but I couldn't. I worked on this broadstreet mitten at my mom's while we watched Star Wars. This is a picture of Jon modeling it. I still have to make the 'mitten' and weave in the ends.

I went to a couple knitting stores and bought some yarn for some presents. first we've got the lambs pride

Then we've got the beautiful wonderful noro, and some superfine peruvian alpaca. Love this stuff.

And of course, I had to buy some sock yarn. Also, I bought some red merino for some some mitts I'm designing.

I can't wait to go back to Ohio. I had a good time but didn't have time to do most of the stuff I wanted to do. I didn't even get to meet my little sister, Abby. Oh well. I'll be out there for 3 weeks in January.

posted @ 10:05 PM

11.24.2004

Lily's at the kennel. Devan's at her 'mum-mum's' the light is working in the family room, and all is right with the world. I'm so excited to go to Ohio. I know not alot of people get excited to go to Ohio.... but I DO! I love my gramma and my brothers and my sister and my mum and my step-dad and my new little sister whom I've never met and the scenery and my aunts and my precious Kitty Bootsie and it's just gonna be great.

I'm also going to take this moment to explain the banner that will be on my website until I get back home. In a previous entry I teased my brother Rick because he constantly calls me a knowitall, and then is offended that it actually hurts my feelings from time to time. I will set the record straight. I am not a know-it-all. There are plenty of things I don't know, and wish I knew. I do know lots of things, and most of them are trivial. Here's a list I've compiled of things that I either, do not get or just completely suck at:

1. Chemistry. I'm really terrible at Chemistry.

2. Organized sports. I'm not really coordinated, and I'm not at all competitive, so sports are just impossible for me.

3. Crochet. I still just don't get it.

4. Talking on the phone or making smalltalk with strangers. Ok, I'm really bad at this and avoid it at all costs. Thank heavens for the internet though, otherwise I'd be completely isolated.

5. Returning phone calls or emails to friends. I suck at being a friend because I always forget to return calls or letters. Please don't hate me.

6. Dressing myself. I'm a fashion disaster even though I have really good fashion sense. I am the type to wear tee-shirts, jeans, and sandals until there is snow on the ground. I never have a nice hairdo, or good makeup. I am basically lazy when it comes to my personal appearance. I am trying though. I bought a pair of NICE khaki pants from the Gap so you know, give me some credit there.

7. Cooking stuff: Ok this is a situation where I WANT to be really good at something and thought I was decent at it but it turns out I don't do such a hot job at it. Here's a fun story for you. A couple years ago for Thanksgiving, I made an apple pie to bring to my grandmothers house. My mom whispered in my ear, as she was eating some that there was core in it. Ok the whole pie was full of core.

8. I'm bad at loading the dishwasher and doing laundry.

9. I am unable to hold a job. I suppose I am wired weird, but I very seldom think things through rationally. If I don't love my job or the people I work with, I find it impossible to get up and go there every day. Fortunately, Mr Handsome hasn't got a problem with me going to school and staying home with our daughter, because that's what I like to do.

10. I suck at video games.

11. I am not such a good 'baby maker' I got lucky once, and since then it's like... I don't know, am I a barren woman or what?

12. I am bad at simple math. In my defense, I LOVE algebra and geometry and stuff... but I am terrible at regular old addition and subtraction. I have to check my answers about 5 times before I'm confident. Calculators rule for this reason.

13. knowing how to answer an honest question without flipping my lid

14. Consistency ...something about numbered lists. check the comments, if you don't know what i'm talking about.

15. Dancing like a regular guy. ?!

Ok I think that's about it. But I am awesome at everything in the world that I didn't mention, of course.

Edited! I numbered the list properly and added 2 more things I suck at to the end of it, which were provided to me by my brother. Oh and Devan provided me with #15.

posted @ 4:38 PM

So there are the pics of Abby's sweater. Devan calls that doll "Color" because she colored all over the doll's head.

I'm kind of tired. I have to take the dog to the kennel today and I have to pack all of our bags to go out to Ohio. I'm not in the mood to do anything like that yet, so I'm just watching tv with Devan. We're watching a show called Lazytown which I think is the creepiest television show ever. I absolutely hate it. It has these creepy plastic puppets and another creepy guy (robbie rotten) with some sort of plastic mask on his face. There's the hero, Sporticus, who sports a really odd mustache. Oh and then there's Stephanie who wears a wig that looks an awful lot like Devan's hallowig.

Fortunately, Backyardigans is coming on now. (We love Backyardigans)

posted @ 10:43 AM

Ah. What a day.

This morning, Devan read the 3 Little Pigs to me. Devan version, of course. I got up to brush my teeth and lo! The water was not working. I immediately ran upstairs and found the note on the door that said the water company hadn't recieved payment and turned it off!

Turns out they made a mistake, and didn't ever apply some check we sent them 2 or 3 months ago. So they sent a man out to turn it back on.

I got in the car with Dev and Lily to go to the vet. I made it halfway down the mountain before I realized my brakes were not working. Sweet! So I called and rescheduled. Then my vet appointment for Lily was STOLEN from me, and the office called back to tell me I couldn't bring her in at 6pm. I had to call all over creation to get another appointment.

I completely switched vets to one right here in town and hey, they're cheaper too! But when we took lily for her appointment she pooped on the waiting room floor. Seriously. Devan spent the whole time coloring, and was completely unphased.

Jon's mom made us chili for dinner and it was really good (I have the authority to say this because, you know, I'm an "expert at chili" or something. Yea, that's a dig. In public too! OOh damnnnn)

Devan looks completely adorable right now. She's in her tiny little bed, all cuddled up and she's hugging her little brown puppy. aww.

I finished Abby's sweater tonight. It's cute but I may want to put a crochet edging around the collar and stuff. It's kinda boring and I'll post a pic tomorrow. It's your basic raglan. Oh well, better get to sleep. Packing tomorrow for Ohio.

posted @ 2:58 AM

11.22.2004

Well I promised photos today, so here goes:

Click on the pictures for a larger view.

again with the tongue...

I think the Stepford Wives had an effect on me. I got up this morning and CLEANED MY KITCHEN. Then I did laundry. Then I WASHED WINDOWS. Can you believe it?

I got Last Minute Knitted Gifts today in the mail. Y'know I really want to make the hourglass sweater. Unfortunately I'm fresh out of Noro Cash Iroha AND regular old ordinary cash. I'm sure I've got yarn in my stash that would knit at the same gauge, but seriously...that yarn is so gorgeous that it might actually be the only reason I want to knit it.

In other knitting news, I am still working on the back of the Harry Potter sweater and I still didn't watch the movies. Not to worry though. I've got an 8 hour trip to Ohio coming up, with Mr. Handsome at the wheel, leaving me free to knit my little heart out. And my mother informed me that they have 3 Harry Potter movies at their house. It's nice the way life works out sometimes.

Right now I'm drinking my last can of Cherry Coke. After that my 'supersize Me' resolution starts. Wish me luck, because I'm breaking out into a cold sweat just thinking about it.

Oh, another thing. I absolutely LOVE the bag sale going on at elann.com right now. It's 'chunky' highland wool. I think it's more like a heavy worsted, but whatever. The only negatives are that it smells like vinegar or something, and that the good colors sell out really fast. I've got 2 bags of Raspberry and 2 bags of Black. I have a $50 voucher there, so I might buy a little bit more.

posted @ 4:10 PM

I'll update this in further detail when I wake up.. er, later today. Tonight, Jon and I watched the Stepford Wives remake. It was decent. I liked this ending much better than the original. Last night we watched Super Size Me, and we're both going nuts wanting to eat health food. I even made a resolution to not drink soda anymore AT ALL, after the last 2 cans of cherry coke in the fridge are gone.

I've done lots of knitting this weekend. I finished Molly, which is adorable, and started a red raglan sweater for my new little sister. It's from the Debbie Bliss Baby Knits book. Easy Peasy.

As you may have noticed, I'm redesigning. If you don't see the newest look, refresh your browser! It's nothing special. I just grow bored with the layout very easily.

I'll update with photos tomorrow. It will be grand.

posted @ 3:36 AM

11.19.2004

My journal's kinda effed right now because I'm doing some redesign and it's not published yet.

I'm scrambling around trying to find a kennel to board Lily, because we completely forgot about how busy kennels are this time of year, and at the last minute decided to go out to visit my family this Thanksgiving. Who knows, maybe we can't go. None of these places are returning my calls and it's driving me crazy.

In knitting news, I'm working on several projects at once, trying to get holiday gifts finished. Most recently I finished the body (minus the ribbing) of "molly" from Junior Knits. I'll post a picture when it's completely finished. I do like that it's all knit in one piece.

I'm also working on the Harry Potter sweater for my little brother. I had the back finished, and decided to make it one size larger so it fits him longer. *sigh*

I'm gonna go eat dinner now!

posted @ 5:17 PM

11.14.2004

I finished dev's little socks. I tried to get the stripes lined up but I wasn't entirely successful.

posted @ 11:49 AM

11.11.2004

I started the Harry Potter sweater yesterday, after I went to the store and bought some US #5 circulars.

I really like knitting with tweed yarns. I like the rustic texture of it, and the pretty flecks in the knitted fabric. Truth be told, I've never seen any of the Harry Potter movies, nor have I read the books. It's not that I'm not interested, because the movies definitely look fun. Maybe I'll rent the movies this weekend to see what all the fuss is about.

Devan and I watched An American Tale (you know, Fivel) this morning. I haven't seen this movie since I was a little kid, so it was fun to watch it again. I knitted a little sock for Devan while we watched:

I've named the image 'toosmall.jpg' because unfortunately, I didn't try it on devan before I started the decreases for the toe. I just assumed it would fix, and you know what they say about assuming. So I have to take it apart and knit about one more inch. Oh well. The yarn is nothing fancy, just Lion Brand Magic Stripes.

posted @ 6:03 PM

11.09.2004

I started this sock the other night, and boy is it ugly. Oh well. It's comfortable and that's all that counts. I showed devan and all she said was " I think you need to make another one."

I joined the Weasley-along over at Alison's blog. I'm making it for my little brother in Ohio. Tomorrow I need to go to the store and get some US 5's, because all I have are annoyingly long ones, and my gauge is off on 6's.

I'm not getting a lot of work done these days. I've been going to bed really early (We're talking 8:30 pm). I think this has something to do with ceiling lamp in my family room. It hasn't been working correctly, so the light is dim and relaxing. I can't see to sew, and I'm trying to finish up some blankets.

Maybe the light can explain how I FINISHED that attrocious sock. If I'd been able to see how ugly it was, I probably would have put it down right away and never looked at it again!

Oh, Another thing I wanted to tell you about: The Knitting Books!

I have a ton of knitting magazines and books that I got from Jon's grandmother. I took some pictures the other day:

posted @ 5:10 PM

11.07.2004

Well the Pooling Scarf finished! It's actually been finished since wednesday or so. I tried for a couple days to take a decent picture of it. See my attempts: 1. 2. 3.

As we all know, the Holiday season is rapidly approaching. I've been collecting yarn to make presents. Here are the newest editions!

socks, scarves, and shawls

A couple notes about the photos - There is something to be said for running lifelines through lace! ESPECIALLY when your lace is MOHAIR. Garrr. So I screwed up the perfect pie shawl. Not to worry, I wasn't terribly far into it. So I bought some greyish black mohair to make a new one. See the 2 balls of teal plymouth dk baby yarn? Devan insisted I buy it and make her socks. It's incredibly soft and how can you resist your own child asking you to knit something for her? The Patons wool is for a 'besotted scarf' from helloyarn.com, (it's an xo cable) for Jonnyhandsome (who hopefully won't read this). 2 different pairs of fingerless gloves w/ mitten caps (not unlike knitty's broadstreet mits) will be made in gray and black. Black and red striped knee socks for me.

Lots of Love for Elann.com I'll be working on the chicknits ribby cardi in chocolate brown and starlight blue highland wool. I've also grabbed a bunch of oxblood highland wool for rogue (if I can get gauge. If not, it will be a pullover.

I went to barnes and noble yesterday and found a few books I want. First I want the Last Minute Gifts book. I really like the Noro pullover. I also want the Little Box of Scarves book. I guess I'm kind of on a scarf kick.

Last night I fell asleep at 8:30 on the couch. I woke up this morning at 3, with Jon on the other side of the couch, and the tv blaring, so I couldn't get back to sleep. I have no idea what I'm going to do today. Maybe I'll knit some christmas gifts.

posted @ 7:36 AM

11.05.2004
: )

rumor has it that my pattern did indeed make it into s n b nation! So check it out when it comes out next week!

posted @ 7:42 PM

11.03.2004
Dear Ohio,

It's pretty obvious at this point why I moved away.

posted @ 1:52 AM

11.02.2004

Pooling along!

Click on the above pic to see a larger version. I wanted to post this pic because the scarf really doesn't line up perfectly but I LOVE that effect, so I wasn't too concerned.

I have a few more pictures, with different flash levels because the honest colors are somewhere in the middle.

pic 1

pic 2

I've been sorting through magazines all morning. What magazines, you ask? Well last Wednseday Jon's grandmother gave me about a million old knitting/needlework magazines. The dates range from 1942 to about 1993. Most of the magazines are from the 70's. There are quite a few awesome ones from the 50's. In fact, many of the ones from the 50's have designs exactly like some of the patterns you'll find in Vintage Knits. I love looking through these old magazines and books. There are so many hilarious ads that would be completely inappropriate today. I also love some of the old crafts. I've found a few really good guides on dollmaking and embroidery. I'm going to do lots of scanning after I vote (yay!) so stay tuned for pics and more pics!

posted @ 9:11 AM

Sean Hannity

Sean Hannity is such a ridiculous human being. Tonight he interviewed Karl Rove (and by interviewed, I mean kissed his butt) and Terry McAuliffe.

First of all. Hannity starts by asking McAuliffe if he'd renounce and denounce what Ed Rendell said about the Usama Bin Laden video (that he clearly was trying to help Bush, because Bush is the best recruiter for terrorists!). Hannity thinks this statement is SO LOW. Hannity goes on to say that this tape ENDORSES Kerry for president (how is this not low and completely out of line?)

Also, Hannity asks Rove to predict a winner (duh) and then says to McAuliffe "I'm not even going to ask who you think is going to win because I already know what you'll say." Thankfully McAuliffe actually spoke up and said "you asked Karl Rove, come on!"

So anyways, later on, Hannity lets Colmes take over the interview, and McAuliffe mentions that Cheney's been making all kinds of crazy statements, for example, that nuclear weapons will rain from the skies if Kerry is elected. He says Cheney might need to change his medication.

At the close of the interview Hannity puts on a somber face and says "I'm going to give you a chance to take back what you said about Cheney changing his medication"

McAuliffe, who was OBVIOUSLY joking, doesn't take it back and says it again. Hannity shakes his sad little head and mutters about how low the statement was. McAuliffe shakes his head and laughs and says "Fox - fair and balanced!"

I thought it was ace. I have no idea how Hannity can actually pull this crap off. How does this dork keep his fans? How can they not see what a hypocrite he is? Maybe his tight little collar has cut off the oxygen to his pea-brain causing a bit of brain damage. I wish there were a valid excuse for his ridiculousness.

Oh, Colmes the meek, said something interesting " Suddenly we are taking Bin Laden at face value. Suddenly he's a credible news analyst!" It's a good point. Who gives a FUCK What Bin Laden thinks about ANYTHING? Lets keep playing the tape and giving him exactly what he wants. Stupid ass talking heads. Sorry.

I'm almost (I think) done with my beautiful rainbow colored pooling scarf! I actually had to wind it into a ball because it was wound in a center pull ball and was not getting any smaller. It was psychologically defeating me. Now that I can actually see the progress, it's much more enjoyable.

GO KERRY

I'm not a religious person but I'm totally praying to a higher being that Kerry pulls this off.

posted @ 2:49 AM