A Little Late At Flashing

Time seems to be either moving way too slowly or way too quickly and I can never seem to catch up on time. Anyway, I know had that surprise about my stash and here it is! Behold, my stash's new home!

I love it, not to mention it's a huge upgrade from where I was last year. I love the yarn storage cubbies that I've seen in so many yarn shops, and I needed one all to myself. I bought the cubby at Target for $25 (on sale) and the little book shelf at Wal-mart for $15-ish
it holds all my knitting books and magazines, not to mention dyes and dye pot. And here is a somewhat better shot at the cubbies!
The husband's mother (the wonderful person that she is) is reupholstering a rocking chair for me (I got to pick the fabric) and I plan on putting it right next to my wonderful new stash storage system.

I put notes on my flikr page so feel free to check that out. Sorry for such a short post and my absenses but hopefully things will start getting better now that spring is making a comeback.

Tagged Noro Socks

Noro Socks. MMM Noro socks (Purchased from The Loopy Ewe). Honestly, the yarn is not as bad as I hear people say it is. It's not like every other soft sock yarn that I've worked with...and it's not soft. It's still seems like the same type of wool they use in their normal Kureyon, and that's exactly what I wanted in this sock. Something rough and super warm. It's toe-up with a short row heel. I'm getting much better at doing them. I have about 3 rows of 2x2 rib on the second sock, then I'm done!

What's with the tags, you may be asking? It's for Liz's senior project thesis and it's a pretty cool idea. The tags document my thoughts, feelings, or whatever I want them to. I was supposed to be taking more pictures of this process...but I moved and forgot about it, then I lost my tags for several days.

Here's what some of the cards say "Happy VD! Hope you don't get stuck with one! Ha Ha <3 Jill." That one was written on valentines day, of course. Another one reads "I've been putting the year 2007 on these tags. I must stop or figure out where my year went. I must be missing one, somewhere.."

I've also begun a sweater! It's a top down raglan using glampyre's pattern, but I added a hemmed neck instead of a ribbed one. The yarn is some old Austermann Naturwolle (ravelry link) I had that's been discontinued, and it was a yucky natural color that smelled like cat piss (not from my cat) and vomit. It was extremely nasty. It was my last purcahse from Elann.com actually, which was probably four years ago. I decided to give it a really good wash and dye it with the hopes that I'd want to use it someday. It worked! It's turning out very cute and I can't wait to see what it's going to look like on me.

There is one more yarny goodness related thing that I'd really like to show you...but I want to wait until Flash Your Stash day ... Here's a sneak peek!

Dear You,

Hey! Hi! Hello!

So..um...how's it going?

I did my little disappearing act again. Sorry about that. There is a good reason for it however. The husband and I moved! Finally!

We're really starting to get things settled down at the new place (we have our own new furniture!), and I've been starting new projects (several socks, and a sweater) and trying to get some old projects finished. I'll hopefully (my fingers are crossed) get some photos up tomorrow and show you what I've been doing!

See you tomorrow,
<3 Jill

Revolution: The Year 2012

This is a little early for Z Day, but I wanted to write a little post about it, since I've just discovered it and wanted to share and talk or vent, and of course, the internets is the perfect place for it. Just an F.Y.I. if you want to watch the video, use safari or internet explorer. Firefox seems to hate their links. I think it might be working for "the man".

I've only seen episode III (the one about Federal Trade, not the one on the main page) and haven't yet, ventured into part I or II, but it made me angry none-the-less. I felt like I was being lied to, and not by the government (I've come to accept that I will be lied by them). I feel that the video conviently leaves out a lot of information, but what should I expect from propaganda? However, it does give us an outlook of what I feel is next to come, which is

SHADOWRUN!

Now, for those of you who don't know what Shadowrun is, first off, it's a fucking sweet game. Secondly, it's a distopian future. The corporations have taken over, there really is no "free government" and the black market has boomed.

Oh, and Mother Earth got so pissed off that she awakened magic in the world again. But that's kind of beside the point here...

This is all supposed to take place at the end of the Mayan calendar (It's not the end of the world, just the end of a cycle, don't be fooled by the doomsday hobos), the year 2012. If you've watched the video, notice how they don't really going into presidential hopefuls in this 2008 election or about national healthcare...oh wait...when is this supposed to go down...Freaking 2012! What's going to happen with elections then?

This got me thinking about Shadowrun, and what I will be when the time comes. I've decided that I will be a street samurai, which is like a street fighter with cybernectics installed. So I can have amazing vision, or robotic jumping legs, or eletronic keys under my fingernails. I will protect my husband, who will be the face of our group, and our friends, will be deckers (like hackers, only more uber uber l337 sauce).

Who's excited? I am!

I start working out tomorrow.

Blogging Harder?

I think I'm going to try to take the time to blog harder...maybe.


Ooooo, look! New Socks!

These were knit toe-up and I stopped the increases at 60 stitches instead of my usual 64 stitches. I wanted a very fitted pair of socks this time, and I'm really liking how they fit. The yarn is Yarn Pirate in colorways Very Sheri (main) and Sagebrush (for the heel). I'm very glad I used a different color for the heel because I really don't like the Very Sheri colorway. It's weird because I like the reds in it, and I like the greens that are in it, I just hate the two together. I didn't realize that's how it was when I bought it. I still have enough to possibly knit an anklet sock, but just one. Hopefully, I'll work up enough scraps of sock yarn so I can do scrappy sock yarn socks. I really like the idea of them.




Nice, eh? I like the location that the picture was taken. Right in front of my hubbies and my stash of 3.5 edition D&D books that will be obsolete in about six months. Why is that? Because 4th edition is coming out, silly! We've been living in anguish since they unveiled this secret at GenCon in August, and as they leak more and more information to us, it just makes it a little harder to not break into their Seattle headquarters and steal the 4th edition books to play right now.

Knitting Again

I haven't posted in a while because knitting really started wearing me down. Every single project that I knit, I had to rip back out because of some stupid problem, it was too big/small, or it just looked bad. I think it started to freak Ben out a little because he thought I would completely give up knitting and take up drinking as a hobby. One night, as I ripped out yet another project, he went fumbling through my stash, came back out and handed me yarn. All he said was "Knit with this." It was yarn that he bought for me when I went on a vacation without him. I am now a proud owner of Gentleman's Fancy Socks by Nancy Bush from the book Knitting Vintage Socks. The yarn is Artyarns Ultramerino 4 in colorway 138. I knit them toe-up, with a short row heel, and they pretty much knit themselves. I coveted the socks from other people on Ravelry for a very long time. I was always jealous when I saw a new pair, because they were not mine. It turns out, that what I love most about these socks isn't the actual sock, but what I said when people asked me how long it took me to make this pair of socks (I got a lot of them with these). "Well", I'd begin and start pointing "From here to here took about three movies, and here to here was a car ride, this repeat was at a diner, um...I think from here to here was another movie that kept being interrupted by laundry folding, and this part has been our conversation..."

However there was a short time inbetween the socks where I got kind of down and needed a little something instant and warm. Behold an Unoriginal Hat! I knew that I wanted to knit this hat ever since I saw it out of the Malabrigo I received from a yarn trade, even though it was a worsted weight yarn, and the pattern required bulky. I didn't want to double up the skeins I had because it seemed like a waste. I did a little research and decided that 72 stitches for a cast on would be okay for my head size. It's a little tiny bit tight, but I have a very small head, and didn't want to stray to far from the pattern. The extra stitches are purled inbetween the little and big cables and one stitch is added to each side of the bigger cable. The pattern repeat was knit 2.5 times before starting decreases and binding off.
I love that little bind-off! However, this hat is reminding me how badly I need a hair cut.

Bad Cardigan

My camera batteries are dead, so no pictures today. I can't show you the two new projects that I'm working on because everything else that I've been knitting is sucking so much.

The tangeled yoke cardigan is going to be frogged. I'm so irritated with it. I attached the sleeves to the body about a week ago, and started on the yoke. I looked at it and kept thinking, this can't be right, what's wrong with it?
It's too short. By about 5 inches. I'm pissed. I thought I measured everything correctly, but I guess not. I'm not going to go with the flow and just make it a cropped cardi (besides, where the ribbing stops on it is completely unflattering to my boobs) and call it a day. It has put me through too much strife to continue and fix my problem.

I do really love this pattern though. Maybe I'll make it again after the new year.

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone.