And the bits came marching in.....

Today marks the official end of whoring for yarn (v1...don't be fooled into thinking there won't be a v2 when I'm not buried in Christmas knitting...suggestions welcome). On Saturday, I received these beautiful 9 bits from Jeanne.

Aren't they pretty? I'm not worthy! Thank you!!

Then on Monday, I received these nice sock yarn bits from...can you guess?

Complete with kitty card from Chris! Thanks again Chris!!

And then, I had a dose of yarny karmic rewards. I volunteered to make up a package for Stash Monkey in the KSKS swap because her partner deadbeated out. As luck would have it, karma rewarded me with a night out knitting and some wonderful yarny bits. Stash Monkey happens to live really close to meso we met up last night, and I gave her this:

Stuffed with goodies that hopefully she'll take pictures of because I forgot to. It's basically a Booga Bag made with Classic Elite Paintbox. Nice...really good felter!

And she gave me:

Thank you!

And I *THINK* that's it for the contest, unless a surprise shows up in my mailbox today. Though Tuesday's are bad mail days, so I doubt it! Thank you so much for helping with my blanket and GOOD LUCK! I'll draw the winner tomorrow and let you all know.

Finished Object Friday, The Forced out of Bitchiness Edition

I haven't been in the best of moods this week. I don't know if its school stress, work blues, or a preview of SAD to come, but I've been a scowling, mopey bitch this week. It got to the point yesterday where I decided, in the course of about 15 minutes, to take Wellbutrin through the winter and to start reading Thich Naht Hahn again. If those things don't make me chipper, well, there will be no other recourse but to grab Little A and fly to Aruba to start our new life.

Luckily, before I had to put in any amount of effort (like opening a bottle or locating a book in the stacks), my secret pal came to the rescue! Let me tell you, I haven't had a lot of fabulous pal experiences (except for Fiberflix, Jen was a great one!). I often seem to attract the deadbeats. Once, on a non-blog related swap, the woman didn't send me anything. After MANY months of being harassed by the hostess she sent me a package of exactly the stuff I said I hated. A big damn box full of orange cotton yarn. Sweet.

But this time, I tell you. The pal gods have smiled on me and I can tell you with full confidence that I have landed the BEST SECRET PAL EVER. EVER! You ask for proof? You dare to ask for proof?

Well, fine. The proof:

You are viewing a totally hysterical kitty card, 2 skein of beautiful blue/indigo/purple sock yarn, the yummiest dark chocolate on this earth (or at least in my stomach on my couch) and beautiful, soft roving!! Do you understand what that roving means??? It means my pal has faith in my spinning wheel renovations skills! I really hope its not false faith, and I hope I can keep my paws and my spindle off of it until the spinning wheel's maiden (well...its a really old wheel, maybe that should be cronen) journey. Thank you SO much secret pal!!!

So, after I received that awesome gift, I got myself moving long enough to finish something for today:

Those are trekking socks (I know I REALLY should've remembered to write down the color number before I came to work, sorry!) for my friend L. Those are my feet in them. I would've shown you more, but I've already fallen into my winter shaving cycle (can "not at all" be considered a cycle?) and I didn't really think you all needed to see that! They are just the socks I "do" so up top is just a 3-1 rib. You're not missing much.

These socks took forever. I had the worst SSS of my life with them which is odd because I L.O.V.E. the yarn. Trekking rocks, but for some reason, does not motivate!

And to make you hungry, Little A's lunch:

That's a freshly picked apple with cinnamon and sugar, carrots, pistacios, cheddar cheese, tiny little breadsticks with a little container of tomato sauce for dipping. Another big hit with Little A. I made a batch of dough the other weekend and froze little tiny portions so that I can make stuff like this for her more often.

And I have an apple tip for mel (blogless at this time I believe). I found that my apples don't go brown (well, those above are covered in cinnamon, so not those) if I do this--Cut them how you like and put them into a little salad spinner with about 2 TBSP lemon juice and some water. Swish it around like crazy, then dump the water out and apple spin it until they are dry. It works really well!

And last, but not least, I leave you with this thought. As Little A was getting ready for bed the other night she was singing (she ALWAYS sings in the bathroom...loud...even in public places like the LIBRARY) Miss Mary Mack. You remember this one, right? Along with the hand clapping moves? Right, so after a couple repetitions she breaks in the P.Ditty version of Miss Mary Mack, complete with "Yo"'s (but happily, not ho's). Just imagine it if you're feeling pissy. It'll help. Yo.

The monstrosity

I'm feeling a bit crabby this morning. A bit = stay the fuck away from me (at least to the boss it should mean that).

I got a really unpleasant call yesterday from someone who I hadn't heard from in ages and really didn't ever want to hear from again. It gave me creepy dreams and possessed the cat to run around the apartment waking me up at least 5 times last night (I *CAN* blame this call for the possessed cat you know....I CAN!)

In other (better) news, I got an A in A&P numero uno, Little A made the Junior Dance Team at her studio, and we went apple picking this weekend (a perfect weekend and so of course I forgot my camera).

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And without further ado, the requested pictures. Here is the pre-felted bag. It's a little odd that I continued to convince myself that I would get nice, gradual color changes when I hadn't planned for them at all. The mind's a mystery, eh?

So then, as you know, I attempted a re-dye. Purple. Which I should've known would be rough to concoct with Kool-aid. I mean, if I HAD purple dye, it might've been ok, but.... I dropped it in and after about a minute went to shuffle it around, yuh know...so the dye would be even. But it had ALREADY soaked all the color out of the water. So there is no evenness to be found. It's about 1/2 felted in this picture:

And its darker than is looks there. The flash brightened it too much because I was so tired taking it, I didn't even bother to turn on the lights in the room. (Yawwwwwn....)

So, what do you think? I think the shaping is still nice. I'm getting stuck on sort of a charcoal dye idea. With lots of little knitted applique things on it. I have Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments book and I've been wanting to try some of them out. So, maybe this is the opportunity. Maybe? Other suggestions?

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After apple picking on Sunday, Little A and I came home and made tiny little pizzas. Like 2" diameter little! Here was her lunch for Monday:

3 mini-pizzas stacked, roasted chickpeas, pistacios, carrots, strawberries and kiwi. It was a definite pleaser.

There's still a week to get in your yarn bits for whoring for yarn.

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to coffee myself into a better mood.

Finished Object Friday: The Cheater Edition

I actually finished these socks months ago. For my brother, I guess. Though they might get juggled to someone else because the two of us don't hold up that Christmas gift obligation.

The thing I was going to post has now been crowned:

"Ugliest knitting project EVER with least amount of forethought and awareness about impending ugliness"

I was attempting to make this bag for my Mom, with some yarn that I recycled and dyed from a sweater. All along, I had to keep convincing myself that the dye job would work out ok. Until I was done with the unfelted bag, and it was a hideous mess. I attempted a re-dye. And made it worse. So then I thought I'd felt it. That magic of felting cures all ills, right?

No, not this time. MAYBE I'll post a picture for your amusement of my consistent stupidity along the way of this project. But not today!

(P.S. I didn't even throw away the bag yet. Somewhere in the back of my head, I think I can dye it black or charcoal and still save it. This would be the moment when you all lecture me on the value of LETTING THINGS GO.)


Little A's lunches have been a huge success with her. She comes home with her containers nearly licked clean! This was yesterday's:

Pasta (she's 1/4 Italian....we cannot deny her pasta for too long!) with butter and parmesean cheese, roasted asaparagus, strawberrie and pomegranate and a mini-cupcake. Yumyum! Is it almost lunchtime?

I've also been packing similar lunches for myself, though they aren't usually quite as cute so I wasn't taking pictures. But dude, I lost 4 Lbs in the past two week and all I changed is the breakfast/lunch packing. Woo-hoo!

Is it too early for "And a partridge in a pear tree"?

Nine Numbered Notes about N

1. This is not exactly new news. We've been at least over-friendly again for several months.

2. I waited until the most recent break-up was off the front page to tell you. (Slick, eh? Oh yeah....it's as if I just met him, and he never existed before this because he is off the front page.)

3. That would be break-up #14 (in case some of you needed further prodding for eye-rolling), by his count.

4. We are NOT living together.

5. Nor do we plan to for several years, if then.

6. I'm really not sure I'm the type of person who can live with another adult. Love them, sure. But LIVE with them. I'm just not sure about that one.

7. There were many moments in the past several months that moved this to its current point, but a key one was, "Wow...I was such an ass hole. I'm sorry. I was really an ass hole!" And that came without prodding from the studio audience, ladies and gentlemen.

8. Things are good, thus far. But I won't lie and say I have no trepidation about it at all.

9. He's still a man, after all.


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Eight (more) appreciated ends of yarn (actually nine, but whatever) from Lisa!

Thanks Lisa!!!!

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Seven (times 2) spare days to enter my whoring for yarn contest.

That's right. There's still plenty of time. Little Knits is having some killer sales right now and you could really score something nice with that winning gift certificate! Just send a 10-12 yard length of (sport/dk weight or lighter) yarn for an entry. Or send more than one (like Lisa) for more entries! Anything received by Halloween will be entered for the drawing on November 1st. If you can help me with my blanket, please email me at whoringforyarn at gmail dot com.

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Six Savory Sections of Sweetie's Supper (Does your grandma call lunch "supper" also?)

1. Raspberries with Pomegranate

2. Carrots

3. Edamame

4. Cheddar Cheese

5. Mini-cupcake

6. 2 Rice Fritters (Italian-ish)

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Five Fucking Days

This week is a little hectic.

Monday - Work while squeezing in every bit of Nervous System reading that I can, Little A's homework (complete with tantrums and lunch making), Little A's Dance Team audition (stress from which caused said tantrums), cake making for Little A for congratulations and from guilt of being less than sensitive about stress induced tantrums, more reading while daydreaming about knitting.

Tuesday - Work while squeezing in every bit of Nervous System reading that I can, finishing of final test without having finished reading, Little A's homework (no tantrums, thank you, but still lunch making), Little A's swim class, babysitting for a friend until past Little A's bedtime (and mine) while trying to squeeze some more reading in when the baby nodded off.

Wednesday - Work while squeezing in every bit of Nervous System reading that I can (only 150 pages to go! Ack!), finishing (hopefully...I'd better get off this blog) of A&P paper, Little A's homework and chores followed by Little A's friend. Oh, and picture day at Little A's school.

Thursday - Are we sensing a pattern here? Yeah, more of the same, but add in parent-teacher conference and frantic knitting while reading to try to complete something for finished object friday.

Friday - I'm sorry. I'm gonna need a nap by Friday.

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Four fortnights on hold with Ferizon. (I know, I'm sorry, my alliteration is failing, but what can we expect?)

We've been having phone problem at work. In theory, I have a number that gets me through to humans, but lately the only thing it gets me through too is some meditation-ish music that makes me want to needle my eardrums after the 3rd straight hour.

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Three things that I haven't told you yet:

1. I hate cable.

2. I hate cable guys who try to sell me cable.

3. Especially when I explicitly tell them "I hate cable. I wouldn't want it if you were giving it to me free."

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Two tiresome tales

I didn't sleep much last night despite complete and utter exhaustion. But the little time I was a asleep, I had one of the creepiest dreams I've ever had.

I've developed an eye twitch right under my right eye. My friend tells my its from too much reading. Great. Only 150 pages to go. Until I go back to working on my thesis. I'm feeling cranky all of the sudden.

And sing with me....And a partridge ......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ...................

Rolling along....

When I was little, I rarely got in trouble, especially at school. I was a nerd. I was a preacher's kid. And if that wasn't enough, I was smart enough to perform my snarkiness well behind anyone's back who I disliked. But once, in 6th grade, I got in trouble.

My 6th grade math teacher was a twit. She was cheerleader turned over-enthusiastic educator twit and I seriously hated her. She annoyed every fiber of my being with her stickers and new and improved methods of learning (which usually focused solely on moving our desks into different seating arrangements). Even now, when I think of her, it is difficult to not roll my eyes. And, being that I've always had a hard time faking "nice" or "like" or any other such thing, I got in trouble in twit's class. For....

ROLLING MY EYES. That's right. The one time I actually remember getting in trouble, it was for rolling my eyes at my moronic should-have-been-an-aerobics-instructor math teacher.

Why am I telling you all this? A stroll down the memory lane of my troublesome youthful self? No. I've been festering about this ever since and dare not roll my eyes around anyone? HA! As if...

No, no. I'm telling you all this because I have something to tell you and this thing will undoubtedly cause such a rash of simultaneous eye-rolling that scientists the world (yeah...the world of the 8 of you that read my blog!) over will think that genetically modified corn has finally take its toll on the control of our eyeballs.

But it's ok. Really. Roll away. Having being subject to the punishment for the involuntary movement of my eyeballs in the face of utter twitdom, I understand that you will all need to roll your eyes at this news. And I welcome it. I encourage you to. Sometimes I do it myself.



N and I are back together.



Roll away.

Post #178.

The funny thing about accelerated classes? Finals week comes REALLY soon after midterm week. I have many things to write, but today, just a Little A lunchy to distract you from my procrastination.

The lunch itself was a little dull, so I tried to jazz it up, Buffalo, NY style. Yup, snowflake sandwiches...one already seemed to have a run-in with sandwich amputation. Raspberries and pomegranate (one pomegranate really goes a long way). A "salad" with balsamic vinaigrette in the bunch of grapes. (I threw a couple of carrots in after the picture...eee gads! How dare I put carrots in the salad! We'll see how that goes over.) And a Now-n-Later. Just for fun. I don't even know if they'll let her have it at the school. I like to give her little treats sometimes, but I know she's mentioned various randomly applied rules in the past. Its odd to me that she wouldn't be allowed one little treat like that after a healthy lunch when a lot of the other kids eat nothing but crap for lunch. (Bologna sandwich, cheetos and cookies, anyone? Right, that Now n Later is MUCH worse.)

Finished Object Friday Numero Uno

Presenting convertible mittens for Little A:

Pop back the mitten flap and you have:

These were made with Lorna's Laces yarn. I believe the label said "super sport" but it felt like sock yarn to me. The color is Child's Play. It was really nice yarn to work with and knit up like lightening. I think if you had this yarn with a pair of addi turbos, you could do some serious damage to a project in an afternoon. It's also very soft (a requirement for anything made for little A).

You'll probably be seeing a lot of these convertible mitts this Christmas season as I intend to make them for several of the boys in the family. I convinced by nephews of the utter coolness of these gloves by demonstrating (think mime here...I did NOT actually demonstrate this!) that you could make a snowball and then pop the top off and pick your nose. I may have finally found the key to knitting for boys...turn your lovely creations into something horribly disgusting.

Tighty whities

And now, for your pure enjoyment, I give you this look at The World of Little A and her cronies:

Friend: I got Little A in trouble at school today.
Me: Really, how?
Friend: Well, she kept tapping me on the arm and I didn't look up and she kept tapping and then the teacher saw her and told her "you are disrupting my teaching and her learning".
Me: Oh my .
Little A: Well, I was trying to tell her that I could see Jesse's underwear.
Me: Annnnd, that couldn't have waited until lunch?
Little A: I might have forgotten!!!!
Me: Tragic.
Friend: I always see Jesse's underwear. He wears tighty whities.
Little A: What are tighty whities?
Friend: You know....how our underwear is tight, tighty whities are like that, but white all over with BIG GRAY STRAPS.
Little A: Ewwwww!


Please men and boys, I implore you, don't let the big gray straps on your tighty whities get slack or hang out of your pants because then 8-year old girls will be giggling and ewwing about you forever.

I packed little A another little lunch today:

It included a little starry note about what a star she is. :) There's a rice star, star shaped apple slices with peanut butter in the middle, pomegranate, salad (lettuce...salad means lettuce to Little A) with a little container of balsamic vinaigrette (the only dressing she'll ever eat), and star shaped dill havarti. Yum.

Tomorrow I'm hoping will be Finished Object Friday. Trying to get my act together for Christmas so I'm going to see if I can post some finished object every Friday. Ha! You'll have to forgive me if I start to consider ONE sock a finished object.

AAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

What do you want from me woman?!?!?!

I sent my advisor a new, improved, excessively focused abstract to rework my thesis around. And an outline. And this morning, I receive this:

"I am not sure how the abstract your sent relates to the MP draft I read. Please explain. You have already done quite a lot of work on a literature review. I asked you to try to make your project more linear,to give it some structure, some bones. What you suggest is essentially an entirely new project, or is it?"

Are you just trying to fuck with my head now??? Are you?? Do you see the TITLE?? That would be the "point" that you so sweetly asked for last time we met. Do you see that outline, with all those nicely (and linearly, I might add) laid out "bones"?? Those are my current project, not a new one. The current one, in a nice linear, boney package for you. (With no gratuitous connections...just a few necessary ones....thank you MW :)).

I swear to you, that when I received that email, all I could think was FUCK IT! Take your fucking Master's degree and shove it up your ass! This is getting SO old. I cannot even tell you. And I'm really starting to feel like she already had decided what I would write and is going to keep being a psychotic until its exactly what she had preconceived in her head.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!

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Before I got that email I actually had a nice random Wednesday post simmering, but now I've lost most of it to piss. But here's one:

I've been mildly obsessed with these colorful healthy lunches for a while and yesterday she posted some great links. I spent too much of yesterday surfing. But it inspired me to pick up Little A her very own Hello Kitty Bento (2 actually, I couldn't choose!) and pack her up this lunch. The top are rice stars (onigiri) stuffed with a Broccoli/Veggie Beef saute with peanut sauce. Little A already tried these and went complete nuts for them. I made her 2 big ones for dinner last night. In the heart tin are kiwi and pomegranate surrounded by cucumbers and carrots. Sure, its a beginner bento, but I know she'll love it. She's a really healthy eater if I actually have enough time and motivation to get it together for her. And her lunches have been pretty healthy, but not nearly so cute. I can't wait to hear her reaction after school!

Decompressing from a non-holiday holiday weekend.

But here's the log-cabin as it was:

And as it is:
Dang! I thought I had done more than that! It's nearly 4 feet by 4 feet now. I think about 2-3 more rounds.

Its mid-term week at the A&P Corral & SP9 questionnaire

Fun. It means lots of bones and muscles and very little time for blogging!

But I wanted to thank you all for your comments about the Little A-Dad situation. I've been thinking about them a lot, and will post again soon about it all. It's very up and down. Somedays it seems like everything is fine, other days....

Whoring for yarn has really slowed down. Please send knitters...you know the ones...those who don't understand the term "waste yarn" would be best since that basically what I need! :) And thank you again to Chris and Lisa who already graced my little blanket with their yarn!

I need to post my questionnaire for Secret Pal #9 questionnaire, so I'd thought I'd try to pop it in here quick.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

I like wool, silk, or blends of those...even with my non-preferred fibers. I'm not a big fan of acrylic or cotton, but like I said, blends can be nice. I just like them soft.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?

A HUGE roll I made a year or so ago. I had gotten a couple huge lots of needles from eBay so I needed something that was up to the task.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?

My grandma taught me to knit when I was a wee one, and I picked it back up about 2 years ago. I've been crocheting all along, since I was about 6. I'd say I'm pretty intermediate. I know quite a few things, but have OH-SO-MUCH left to learn! Yay...my favorite part is learning new things. Much to the dismay of many anal knitters, I tend to be a bit of a "whatever" knitter. If something doesn't work, I'd rather work around that, or turn it into something else rather than pull it out. I'm trying to become a better "fixer" of my knitting.

4. Do you have an Amazon wish list?

Yes, its under my name.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)

lavender all the way. I'm attempting to make my house exude lavender with Mrs. Meyers cleaners. It would help if I cleaned more!

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?

Just for chocolate. The darker the better!

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?

An interesting combination of questions...I'm attempting to renovate a spinning wheel that my sister got me at a flea market. After that (hopefully!) I will spin. I built a weaving loom a couple of years ago so I do that sometimes. And I sew...mostly patchwork type of stuff.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I like a lot of music...you're generally safe if you don't send country or gansta rap.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?

Purple...deep, dark purple is my favorite. I like most colors...usually more muted tones...for instance, I'd like cadet blue way more than royal blue.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

I live with my lovely 8 year old daughter and one kitty.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?

I wear scarves and hats. Rarely mittens, and never ponchos.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Socks and bags. I need some gratification! I'd try knitting almost anything though.

13. What are you knitting right now?

Oh good lord. Ummm...3 pairs of socks, 2 blankets, 2 different bags, 2 or 3 shawls, a sweater for Little A, a sweater for my sister, and honestly who knows what else! I have a startitis problem.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?

Yes ma'am.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

No plastic. Otherwise I'm easy. I like them pointy. Straight or circular depends on the project.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?

Not yet and not yet.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?

A crochet granny square afghan that I started....uh...really long ago. I can't even really remember anymore. 5 years? Maybe?

18. What is your favorite holiday?

Christmas. Though I'm not above bitching about it when it starts to stress me out.

19. Is there anything that you collect?

I like cookbooks. Well, I like books. Let's just leave it at that. I don't collect much besides yarn and books. I have a small apartment and don't want to sacrifice the yarn space!

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

I subscribe to Vogue Knitting and Interweave Knits. I'd like to get Interweave Crochet. There are things on my Amazon wishlist. I'm not looking for anything REALLY specific in the way of patterns.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?

I'm determine to learn fairisle. Soon. Before I turn 31.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?

Yes, I love to knit socks. My foot is 9" long.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)

March 21. First day of spring! :)