September 2005 Archives

Serenity is finally here! I'll post a review after I've seen it.

It's not from the studio I work for, so I won't paste a link, but I think you are clever enough to figure it out, eh?

Look what I got! Some gorgeous alpaca from Blue Sky Alpaca, which I haven't seen in person before but always wanted to. This looks much nicer than the yarn I used for the leaf cravat, so I can't wait to use it for an "in the office with too much A/C scarf". And a lovely silver charm of a ball and needles. How perfect that it's silver and not gold, I am totally a silver person. How did you know, Secret Pal? Some (fimo? I think) beads that will be great for my new hobby of beading. A kacha-kacha, which is one of those gadgets that I have had on my "I need to get one of those" list, but never got around to buying, so now I don't have to. Cool! There's a postcard with a Poo, Piglet and Christopher Robin picnic, and a Burt's Bees starter kit. I LOVE Burt's Bees, in fact, that's what got me started on learning to make my own soaps and getting together with a friend at work and making lotion bars and cool stuff with Beeswax. The coolest part is that out of this whole kit, I have only used the coconut stuff before. All the rest of the stuff is new to me, so I get to try all kinds of new stuff. I have the lemon cuticle cream in my knitting toolbox because that kind of stuff always comes in handy when you have a rogue cuticle or dry patch. Now I get to pick a new scent!

Thanks!!

Thanks to
Creazativity: I was reminded of an important week we are in right now:
Here is a list of my favorites from the books challenged during the 1990s:

• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson


• The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier


• Harry Potter (Series) by J.K. Rowling


• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle


• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood


• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison


• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee


• The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton


• A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein


• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley


• James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl


• Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume


• Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut


• Lord of the Flies by William Golding


• The Dead Zone by Stephen King

For those of you who don't care, you can skip this one. I've been working on this for so long, I finally was able to come up with 100 things.

1. I was born in Boston, grew up in New Hampshire, and now live in California.
2. I am a registered Democrat, but don’t subscribe to all their agenda items.
3. I learned to knit when a teenager, but promptly forgot when Grammy went back to Canada.
4. I like red wine, and white wine bothers my asthma.
5. I’ve never had a pet,although my brother had a dog when I was a teenager.
6. I have a half-brother and half-sister, neither of which I have spoken to in about 20 years.
7. Instead of the family I was born with, I have another family with no blood ties who I consider my sisters.
8. My husband was born in France but recently became an American citizen.
9. I don’t speak French, but I try.
10. Chinese food gives me nightmares, but I eat it anyway, when I want to.
11. I watch too much TV. If I listed all the shows I watch, I would have to make another list of 100 things.

Yesterday, I went down to San Diego to meet my new nephew and see my niece! He is such an adorable little man, and he even modelled the sweater I made for him earlier this year. I also gave mom the hat and mittens I made for him and heard that he loves to go outside, so I am sure he will get some wear out of them. And then my niece, she is getting big and is just beautiful. And what a daddy's girl.

Huz and I spent the night in San Diego and took our time driving back to Long Beach in a really round-about way. We went through Poway and Ramona to Dudley's, a bakery in Santa Ysabel and got some pie (didn't go all the way to Julian, but the pies at Dudley's are good) and some Mission bread. Then, instead of going by the Wild Animal Park, we went back on the 79, which is the road to the desert, if you decide to go that way. We did, but stopped in Temecula and did our grocery shopping. Then up the 15 to the 91 and a quick stop at Trader Joe's for yogurt (they are the only ones that have the FAGE greek yogurt, to die for!) and then finally home.

Not necessarily a good idea when gas is so expensive, but it was nice to just drive with no schedule, something huz and I rarely do.

I started working on a scarf last week that I am going to donate for the "Run for the Cure" race/sale/auction thing. I keep choking on the lace pattern, dropping a YO here or there, and it's really annoying, but I think it will look nice in the end. I am using LB Micro Spun. I know what you are thinking, you yarn snobs, but I am not sure of the audience of the completed scarves and wanted something really soft, and this yarn qualifies.

Once I finish this scarf, it's back to Kyoto. I am going to frog the whole stockinette portion and reknit at a looser gauge. Why? Well, have you ever had that feeling that something was wrong, but you don't really want to give up, feeling like if you keep going it will just work out? Yeah, I was feeling something was wrong, and then Monika (yes, that crazy Monika) said "Isn't that a little tight?" And of course, she is right, it is, and I just needed to hear it from someone else. So I have been ignoring poor Kyoto since early August because I was too close to it. But now, enough time has passed and I can move on, this time at a looser gauge. I've done all the math, so I am ready to go when I do.

Right now? I having pie.

I got a nifty e-card from my secret pal a few days ago. Thanks! I'll try to post in a more timely manner in the future.

I've wanted to try creating wire/bead jewelry for quite a while, but have never been able to get the wire parts right. They always looked so unprofessional. Over the weekend, I came across a book that explains it all nicely, and so I had a go with some copper wire I had leftover from a project of my husband's. Here's the result.

You may have seen a similar gadget mentioned here. While it wasn't the inspiration for my attempt, it was a motivation since in the past I would just link those split-ring plastic stitch markers together, and they aren't that pretty, are they? So I thought combining a need with a desire to learn a new skill would work out nicely, and I like the result.

I bought some silver wire to play with once I am done practicing with the copper, but I think I will keep this one together and use it for now. I added some split rings in the middle so that it can be lengthened or shortened depending on the requirements of the pattern repeat. I plan to try it out on a nice splitty yarn tonight and see how well I filed the wire ends smooth. I used an emery board instead of a jewelers file, but plan to pick up a file asap since I enjoyed what I've learned so far.

The book is well written and is somewhere between "I know nothing" and "I already know everything" so that for me anyway, it was a great jumping off point for more bead-y creation.

I am working on a "100 Things" list too, so I should have something more up later in the week.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
A bit of a snob, I prefer wools and natural stuff over artificial stuff. I avoid RH but Lion does have some wools and I loved Cotton-Ease.
2. Do you spin? Crochet?
I can crochet, but I don't do it very well and would never make a garment for myself out of crochet, unless it was a very fine yarn, in which case I might get too bored to finish the project.
3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
Smoke, Cats, Rabbits, Birds, animals in general. I hate patchouli, it bothers my asthma. So does incence.
4. How long have you been knitting?
Since 2001.

I am lucky enough to work for a company that offers a match for charitable contributions. Do you? If so, don't forget about your employer matching gift contribution when you help.

And if you do, pop over to Give a Little and let them know that you did. They are keeping a tally of knit-bloggers and the like who have made a contribution.

And once you've done that, think about the kinds of questions we citizens should be asking of our representatives and senators, and governors and mayors. Where were the plans that were supposed to be made after 9/11? Why did paperwork delay the response times for helping these people. Why was the media able to get in and film all the suffering, but the National Guard was not able to get in and help? Where has all the money gone that was given out after 9/11? Wasn't this supposed to go for emergency preparedness? Plans? Equipment? Collaboration between different government and service entities? If that wasn't part of the plan, why not?

Is it really acceptable that trucks full of water from Wal-Mart (an organization I normally despise) were turned away when people were acting crazy out of fear of dying from dehydration?

Is the same government that said "bring 'em on" to the terrorists too proud to say "please help?" Isn't it possible to just get the help that's needed now and worry about who gets the bill later?

This is going to take so long to heal. This isn't like a tornado where people just move to a neighborhood motel and go to work on Monday and go on. There is no work to return to, everything these people own will be destroyed by mold and sewage, and there will be thousands to be buried when the water is finally gone. They are going to need so much. It's hard to imagine how much, but I am sure we will find out.

It's easy to be angry seeing people looting stupid things like TVs and blenders when there won't even be any electricity for a while. That's why I have waited so long to post on the subject, I was angry with people who didn't leave when they had the chance, or angry at people who would steal when everyone has lost everything. But now I am just angry at the amazing lack of leadership and coordination displayed in the last week.

How can we get politicians to think beyond the next election cycle? I really think this is at the heart of most of the problems we have in America. No Child Left Behind teaches just enough for kids to pass the next test they will have to take. Ridiculous ideas like Intelligent Design are taught in Science classes. What a joke our country will be when the next generation goes off to work and has no science to compete with the rest of the world? Why is the Plan-B birth control pill delayed again when it's proven to be safe for people over 17? We deny cigarettes and alcohol and driver licences based on age, so why not this drug? Why not require cars to be more fuel efficient now? Why not place a value on innovation again, like when we went to the moon? Is it really as simple as believing that Jesus is coming tomorrow, so we don't have to worry about clean drinking water and air for our children and grandchildren? Is there really any doubt that the rise in Autism and Cancers of all kinds and Asthma have been caused by our own desire for individually wrapped everything, sanitized for our protection? Is there any wonder why everyone is so fat, when our food doesn't even contain food anymore, but it contains high fructose corn syrup and antibiotics that were fed to the animals so that the farmers wouldn't have to care for them and keep them in conditions that would keep them from getting sick? How do we make it stop?