Tuesday, February 27, 2007
There's good news, and there's bad news
The good news is: We got a truck! It is sooooo pretty! Bright and shiny and red and big and basic. We love it we love it! We just brought it home last night and we're anxious to haul around some dirt and stuff. It's a 2004 Chevy Silverado with an extended cab. Plenty of room for us and the puppies.
The bad news is: I wrecked it. I rear-ended a (very nice) guy on my way home from work (early, sick) today. No one was hurt, so I just feel stupid as hell.
There's plenty of damage to both vehicles, but it could have been much worse. I was going at least 55 or 60, and he was slowing down to around 30, so I hit him pretty hard. I was lucky that I wasn't in the MR2. I would be squished right now if I had been. Anti-lock brakes rock my world! And my big new truck's bumper certainly did its job well.
I was also lucky that the guy I hit was totally very cool about the whole situation. He even gave me some sweet tea from his jug! Another lucky thing is that the car dealership would not let us leave last night without making sure we had added the truck to our policy. I was anxious to get out of there, and we were on hold with Geico for ages, but I'm so happy that they made us stay and complete the transaction before we left with our vehicle. Our beautiful, new, crunched up vehicle. =(
Labels: Things with wheels
Friday, February 23, 2007
When shopping for cars (Trucks, actually, today), I tend to be attracted to cars that match what I'm wearing:
Or my hair:
Labels: Things with wheels
Labels: Yummy in my Tummy
Saturday, February 17, 2007
The lace! The lace!
After casting on two more times in the past three days, I finally feel that I'll be able to make this poncho. I've gotten three repeats of the first lace pattern done and it's just about time to join the collar in the round to start the shoulders. I am not unhappy with the results! I am certainly having some tension issues, but I'm not giving myself a hard time about that as this is my first lace project ever. I feel like I'm in a good rhythm now, and am excited to be moving on. Especially now that I feel I've gotten the 'not quite right' pattern figured out. I'm not saying it's a bad pattern... Well, yes, I am. If one has to go searching on the Internet for solutions and finds experienced lace knitters who have had to form a frelling Yahoo group to figure it out, it's a bad pattern.
Anyhoo, one thing that I've realized that I'm really enjoying are the increases between the pattern repeats. I'm increasing every other row between repeats, then when the proper number of extra stitches have been formed, you just start knitting the pattern right in there, and start from square one with the increases again! It's like assimilating others into the collective, and it's fun! And it looks pretty.
Anyhoo, one thing that I've realized that I'm really enjoying are the increases between the pattern repeats. I'm increasing every other row between repeats, then when the proper number of extra stitches have been formed, you just start knitting the pattern right in there, and start from square one with the increases again! It's like assimilating others into the collective, and it's fun! And it looks pretty.
Labels: Knitta please
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Coasters
If you know me well, you know how I loves me some coaster. I absolutely hate it when in the midst of an otherwise lovely dinner I put my arm on the table into a mess of water run-off from my beer glass. I usually carry a handful of coasters (Thanks Budweiser!) in my purse in case of emergency. Some of my good friends gift me with coasters for watching their cats, or bring me pressboard coasters gathered on their exotic travels. So it is with great joy that I found these coasters through BoingBoing. She's sold out right now, but this Etsy seller has a lot of other cool shit too. Check her out.
Labels: Geeky grrrl, Linkie Dinkie
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Frost?!
FROST?!?! I thought it was supposed to be in the 40s at night all this weekend! It was 45 degrees when we went to bed last night at 11:00pm. It's nearly 8:00 now, and it's 35. It must have dipped just below that between then and now because my sweet beautiful happy Impatiens are *covered* in frost. ARRRGHHH! They're done for. The green stuff that I planted yesterday shouldn't have too much of a problem surviving, but I'll have to reinstall the annuals later on. Dammit!
Labels: Gardening
Saturday, February 10, 2007
I like plants.
I really do. But you can't tell it from looking at my yard. The Ropers left some good specimens here which I'm not about to get rid of, but the potted plants have gone to pot (Excuse the pun) and I haven't planted anything new since we've been here other than a handful of annuals last spring. But the sign that Timmah made for us has been installed for a week and has just been screaming for some attention. So I hopped to it. Evergreen Giant Liriope in the middle, Society Garlic on the ends, and Impatiens up front. They look kind of scrawny right now, but if I keep up with the watering the Impatiens will fill out beautifully. It's amazing how much a mound of fill dirt underneath and a garbage bag full of mulch makes a flower bed look so pretty. I guess learning that kind of stuff is one of the fringe benefits of working at a landscaping company. That, and free mulch and Society Garlic. =) Hrm, maybe in the spring I'll extend the bed so that the wires from the lighting will be covered with the mulch.
Next on the list of things to do is to put some Mexican Petunias in the corner behind the sign, and start to clean up and replant the Entry Strip of Death. I know it's still wintery so most everything looks dead right now, but that area looks horrible compared to the pretty new sign area. I still don't know what I'll fill it in with, but I can tell you what won't be appearing: Fucking Azaleas and Indian Fucking Hawthorne. I'm really tired of seeing those everywhere.
Oh! And look at the happy signs of spring I found today!
Daffodils with a bud! We don't get these much in Florida.
And one of last year's Snapdragons budding out:
Labels: Gardening
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Snatchel Pattern! Eeeeeep! Yay!
For those of you who were looking for the pattern from my snatchel post from ages ago, The Anticraft has come through for us! Snatchalong, anyone?
Labels: Knitta please
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Bwah!
I could stay here all day!
Labels: Linkie Dinkie
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Sigh.
So. The knitting lately? Stagnant. As is the knitblogging. So in order to add content and simultaneously vent, I give you this update:
I've gotten a few inches done on the Hot Tamale skirt, and I was pretty happy with it. I was having no problems with the long floats that Jodi (Holy shit! Take a gander at that hella cool design she's got in Interweave this month!) suggested. Or so I thought. At S&B the other week I noticed that the skirt looks a tad smaller than I envisioned it. I did a quick gauge check and it's a full stitch per inch more than my gauge swatch was. Becca asked me if I had knit my swatch in the round... doh! That could be a problem. 'Eh, maybe it'll block out a bit,' I says to meself, because I did dutifully block my swatch. So I took the skirt home and moved it from the needles (My new Knitpicks options and OMG I lovelovelove these needles!) to a piece of waste yarn. Placing the Hot Tamale against my oldest, most favorite skirt, I saw it's about the right size for me to wear, though it's a good inch or two smaller than it should be according to the pattern. And. Sigh. The floats are pulling. With some yanking I was able to contain them, but I really want this skirt to be the coolest thing evah. So I'm going to frog back to the ruffle. I'll up my needle size by one which usually decreases my gauge by 1/2 stitch per inch, and I'll probably slip in an increase between each of the flame intarsia spots. That should get me back on track.
C&I had a few folks over for the SuperBowl the other day. I was excited to have a little knitting corner of gals who had ordered beer sock kits! It's a toe up pattern which made me a bit nervous. Not frightened, mind you. Just a bit nervous. I've only done two toe ups, and I wasn't crazy about the cast on, so I just wasn't sure what method I wanted to try next. I decided on the figure eight, since I knew Lorena is familiar with it. Darling is such a good teacher, but it was a drinking kind of party, and I think I was a bit too beyond the upteenth beer to be knitting. I got a couple of good starts, but the increasing for the toe wasn't going well at all. So those are ripped and in the wings now.
As for the second sock for C's first pair? Well, I pulled them off of the needles in order to use the needles for the non-existent beer sock. Hooey.
And I started my first hat! A soft kooshy one for a friend. And it's way too small to fit a child, let alone an adult. So that'll go away too. Actually, that's the second hat I've started. The first one was far too large for any adult that I know, and it was supposed to be a baby hat.
The S&B KAL shawl/poncho? Frogged. It started off way too small for my tastes, so I increased my cast-on number. But I realized that I'm limited in the amount of yarn I can use for it (I bought ONE skein of Schaefer Andrea and ain't about to buy another to finish up the last few inches of a frelling poncho.) and want to conserve the yardage. I actually started window shopping for new yarn for it last night. But thank gawd I realized that was idiotic. I'll cast on again on larger needles and that will work. Dammit. I hadn't wanted to do that because the pattern calls for five or six increases in needle size throughout the garment (My favorite way, I think, of increasing the size of the product!), and I didn't want to end up with size 80 needles at the end. I may only do three or four needles size increases, though, and see what happens. It's all supposed to be fun, right? RIGHT?!
I've gotten a few inches done on the Hot Tamale skirt, and I was pretty happy with it. I was having no problems with the long floats that Jodi (Holy shit! Take a gander at that hella cool design she's got in Interweave this month!) suggested. Or so I thought. At S&B the other week I noticed that the skirt looks a tad smaller than I envisioned it. I did a quick gauge check and it's a full stitch per inch more than my gauge swatch was. Becca asked me if I had knit my swatch in the round... doh! That could be a problem. 'Eh, maybe it'll block out a bit,' I says to meself, because I did dutifully block my swatch. So I took the skirt home and moved it from the needles (My new Knitpicks options and OMG I lovelovelove these needles!) to a piece of waste yarn. Placing the Hot Tamale against my oldest, most favorite skirt, I saw it's about the right size for me to wear, though it's a good inch or two smaller than it should be according to the pattern. And. Sigh. The floats are pulling. With some yanking I was able to contain them, but I really want this skirt to be the coolest thing evah. So I'm going to frog back to the ruffle. I'll up my needle size by one which usually decreases my gauge by 1/2 stitch per inch, and I'll probably slip in an increase between each of the flame intarsia spots. That should get me back on track.
C&I had a few folks over for the SuperBowl the other day. I was excited to have a little knitting corner of gals who had ordered beer sock kits! It's a toe up pattern which made me a bit nervous. Not frightened, mind you. Just a bit nervous. I've only done two toe ups, and I wasn't crazy about the cast on, so I just wasn't sure what method I wanted to try next. I decided on the figure eight, since I knew Lorena is familiar with it. Darling is such a good teacher, but it was a drinking kind of party, and I think I was a bit too beyond the upteenth beer to be knitting. I got a couple of good starts, but the increasing for the toe wasn't going well at all. So those are ripped and in the wings now.
As for the second sock for C's first pair? Well, I pulled them off of the needles in order to use the needles for the non-existent beer sock. Hooey.
And I started my first hat! A soft kooshy one for a friend. And it's way too small to fit a child, let alone an adult. So that'll go away too. Actually, that's the second hat I've started. The first one was far too large for any adult that I know, and it was supposed to be a baby hat.
The S&B KAL shawl/poncho? Frogged. It started off way too small for my tastes, so I increased my cast-on number. But I realized that I'm limited in the amount of yarn I can use for it (I bought ONE skein of Schaefer Andrea and ain't about to buy another to finish up the last few inches of a frelling poncho.) and want to conserve the yardage. I actually started window shopping for new yarn for it last night. But thank gawd I realized that was idiotic. I'll cast on again on larger needles and that will work. Dammit. I hadn't wanted to do that because the pattern calls for five or six increases in needle size throughout the garment (My favorite way, I think, of increasing the size of the product!), and I didn't want to end up with size 80 needles at the end. I may only do three or four needles size increases, though, and see what happens. It's all supposed to be fun, right? RIGHT?!
Labels: Knitta please
