AnotherPurl :: a knitter's life

intarwebs!

A few weeks ago my hubby and I moved (mostly him) our computers into another room, and re-set up the network.  I've spent most of the intervening time bemoaning my spotty internet access, because I had to use his computer to log on and do anything. 

This morning I changed a single setting on my comptuer and I am back in business! 

Now I just need to stop playing with chocobos and do more knitting, so there will be real content (though my fatty foot problem is nearly gone so I should be able to take pictures of my latest pair of socks soon)!

wanna cook something

I'm whiling away the time looking at food blogs and information on molecular gastronomy.  I blame L'Epicerie and the Green Matcha Sweets for reviving some of my interest in the kitchen (I lose interest when the kitchen is a mess).  Well, L'Epicerie and Julie's Kitchen.

Barring knowing what to cook and having the ingredients to make what is in my head, I'll have to settle tonight for going to Falafel King!

Falafel King is still the best, well, falafel I've had in Boston, and they are definitely better than mine.  So, I'll trundle down the street, pick up falafel (how many times can I use that word in one post?) and something to drink and make my way to my friends' apartment where I will knit until our Friday plans go underway (it's a role playing game, so our plans range from saving the world to trying to make sure to survive... lately it has been a lot more survive than save).

Maybe I'll make red bean ravioli this weekend.  I have most of the ingredients I need for that, and while I might not have super-duper 00 flour, I can make do.

Friday is for LolCaffs

My hubby sends me the bestest things!  You can make your own at http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/ (there is a cute little kitty in a plushy car).

It's the happiest coffee ever, and I will drink it all <cue maniacal evil laughter>.

Last night I was working on Convertible and watching The Tick (not the best choice given I needed to tink), and just didn't get very far.  Between that and a meeting today, I am about 3 hours behind on my knitting.  I'm still going to try to and finish Convertible by Tuesday, working it around my training runs.

Umm, yeah, running.  I ran 5 miles on Wednesday and a little over 5 miles today.  I'll be running 9+ miles tomorrow and probably about 6 with a friend on Sunday.  I love running, though every once in a while I'm reminded of how much it cuts into my knitting time.

Knitting with muppet

I'm still working on the Elegant Shrug (I'd promise pictures, but really I know myself better than that) using Nordiskas Trend.  It's a slubby boucle yarn with so much fuzz to it that it is a bit difficult to work with and very warm.  The yarn is 60% acryllic, 15% mohair, 15% polyamid and 10% wool.  I'm only on the first sleeve, because of my stupid level of dillydallying.  It's just not my favorite project for all sorts of little things.  But I plan on finishing both sleeves this weekend even though I'm on the first one.  Maybe once I only have the edging to do I'll do pictures.

Instead of being a good gal as it were, I have been starting new stuff.  I started a new pair of socks (another pair of monkeys) a week or two ago.  This morning I grafted the toe and started the second sock.  No second sock syndrome here!  I will finish both a sweater - yeah, I haven't finished the last two seams yet - and something else this month.  I can't go into next month with 13 items in my WIP list.  Wooboy.

Mostly what this means is Rotation (Word Doc).  Doing a rotation was pretty normal for me when I did cross-stitch all the time.  Even with a craft that time consuming, I never had only one project.  I had a document with all of my projects listed and I would just check off a square each hour I worked on the project.  I didn't automatically switch just because I had finished an hour.  More often it was 10 hours or 5.  Given at the time I was stitching when I got up at 4 and over lunch and in the evening, it wasn't unreasonable to get up to 5 hours in a day.  I was very focused, especially when I wanted to get a project to the framers in time for the holidays.  Yes, focused is a great word.

Of course, I'd love to be as focused on my knitting, but I find that with my tendency to start something new that I am a lot flightier about knitting than I ever was with cross-stitch.  So, here is to finishing at a few projects in the next two months.  I certainly have enough of them.

Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney | Reuters

Link: Vermont towns vote to arrest Bush and Cheney | Reuters.

I'm jealous.  I wonder if I could get my town to do this.  Heck, I wonder if having more than a few towns in Vermont voting on resolutions like this would make more of an impact.  It seems like such a cool idea, but I don't think the average politician even notices this.  Like a blip on the radar.

It's nice to hear

I decided to debut my Tangled Yoke cardigan (which looks tons better than my pictures and my pictures aren't that bad!) today, because I had a staff meeting and those rooms tend to be cold. 

I've been asked if I bought it, shock that I made it, and some other nice comments that were just lovely to hear.  I don't need to hear them, but it is nice to know that the garment is as nice as I think it is.

I'm taking a break from knitting today (meaning most of the day, because I still knit for about an hour this morning).  I've been plowing through the Loop-D-Loop sweater about as fast as I can, and have finished about 18 inches of knitting in a bit under a week.  I could probably keep up the pace and have a sweater by the end of next week no problem, but this isn't a race.  I've been trying to do a little bit of spinning in the morning or evening (or both) since I had my lesson on Saturday.  My impatience has the yarn being less consistent than it was when I was being guided.  Not completely unexpected.  I'm developing my little used muscles and my shoulders were a little uncomfortable this morning.  Baby steps.

Most of this weekend was another knitting extravaganza.  Not quite as prolific as last weekend, but I actually made progress on my two core projects. 

Voter registration (nothing to do with knitting)

I'm never certain if I'm registered to vote, a strange feeling.  I have voted in most of the recent elections, and have only missed one presidential election since I became elligible to vote.  With all that, I don't vote in the primaries.

Massachusett's primary is February 5th.  It's not very far away, and I could vote in it if I decided.  However, I don't vote in primaries because my ballot is blank.  I'm a Libertarian (I sometimes call it social libertarian, when I want to emphasize my beliefs in smaller, more accountable government and more liberal social doctrine).  It's something I'm a little wishy-washy on, because there are not really a lot of good Libertarian candidates.  Around election season, there are a number of people who call themselves Libertarians.  However, their stands on the issues don't reflect very much of the party platform. 

Last election, I took a look at a number of the candidates who self-identified as Libertarian on the NPAT (I think it is now called the Political Courage Test).  A huge number of them took the standard Libertarian stance of lower taxes all across the board, but increased spending on programs, the military, etc.  Not a true test.  The current list of candidates for the Massachusett's primary include the Democratic ballot, the Republican and the Green-Rainbow.  Nothing for Libertarians.  In the last presidential election, I was one of 77 people in my town who voted Libertarian.  It kind of makes me want to get together and see if I can find these people and start something together.

Libertarian has been associated with crazy for so long that it is like mining for gold, searching for a candidate that is not too extremist and still looks like they can get the job done and done well.

A new year

It's less than an hour before starting 2008, though given my computer and library work I've been typing the new year for about two months now.  For the start of '08, I appear to have caught a bit of a cold and I'm babying myself with tea and quite a bit of sleep.

The transition from the old year to the new isn't all bad (and even the cold isn't bad, just a little annoying).  I came in second in my fantasy football team this year (my first year playing), and while it would have been cool to win it all or at least have had a closer final game I'm happy with the results.  I'll just have to crush them all next year. 

Fantasy football is a little odd.  I went from being an indifferent fan of the New England Patriots -
almost a necessity for work in the northeastern part of the United States - to rooting for players.  While it was great that the Patriots ended their regular season 16-0, it was much more important for Brian Westbrook to make a lot of plays and rack up the points or for my quarterback to not throw an interception.  I think I enjoyed football more without thinking about the team rivalries and instead focusing on the individuals and what they bring to their teams.

So, tomorrow (or about 40 minutes from now) is the start of a new year.  I already have a few pictures of the scariest hat on the block to post and a new gorgeous project to work on.  I have made a ton of ornaments and am gearing up to start on things for my store and life looks like it is going to be grand.  So, goodbye 2007.  You were a good year and I'll miss you a bit, but I'm looking forward to the new.  Hello 2008!

weekending

I just got home from seeing Sweeney Todd.  While not as good as seeing the musical live (when the MIT Theater Guild ran the movie it had a overly architected wall of blood).  This version was a bit gorier than most musical renditions, and a bit darker.  The humor wasn't removed, but it just wasn't quite as prevalent as in the other rendition I have seen. 

I need to remember to buy the CD at some point (of the Broadway musical).  I can add it to the other Sondheim I have on my iPod. 

Of course, Sweeney isn't the only thing that has been keeping me away from the knitting.  We received our laptop from the Give One Get One project. I love the little machine, despite the learning curve.  It runs Linux, and I am exploring the programs that come with the little alien machine (it is bright green and has 'ears' when you unlock the monitor) as well as figuring out how I can get into the background a bit to practice programming in Java.  I know it has something called "Pippy" which is an area (vocabulary is failing me) for writing programs in Python.  Of course, like any machine the first things I tried to do included accessing the internet and finding a game.  This mostly means playing Sim City and realizing that there are some connection issues I need to figure out.  But hey, it has Logo!  Turtle Art, which is more fun than it probably should be.  Maybe I'm just simple.

fini

Class is done!  Now I'm on a whirlwind tour of how many knitted stockings I can get done in 2 days (I have a lot of meetings at work this week which are over lunch, which cuts into my knitting time). 

I must Knit Like a Machine!  Of course, one of the stockings is nearly half way (I need to print up cosmicpluto's short row heel tutorial), so if I get a seat on the train I should be able to do the heel and be well on the way to toe-dom by the time I get home. 

Lately (or at least today) I feel like the world is moving at ludicrous speed.  I'm trying desperately to get all of these things done, done, done!  I don't even have any Christmas knitting to speak of, but I am still swamped.  Of course, being busy just means I want to procrastinate.  Make little arts, do a tiny cross-stitch, play with beads, start a new knitting project...

Oh, and I finished something early this morning!  (But I do not have the pictures with me, so you will have to live with this picture instead).  Our little black tree has been surprisingly unmolested by Saru-chan.  Our kitty doesn't know it is made of plastic, or we'd probably get home and find it completely denuded.

In another bout of randomness, I am the proud owner of a potato bug stuffy from ikea.  What would life be like without friends, weird stuffed animals, and chocolate? 

Fun times!