Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Netbook!

I am now the proud owner of a tiny, small, portable, shiny, lovely little netbook.  Did I mention it's small?  Did I mention it has a battery life longer than that of my laptop, which is an astonishing thirty minutes?  Atrocious, I know.  This baby has a battery life of five hours.  I am so pleased I could wet myself.  Finally, I can take something somewhere without the battery cord!!!

It's little and I love it.

That is all.

(If I had a digital camera, I could show you a picture of it... but for now, I have a Dell Inspiron Mini in black.  I wanted one in purple, but I'm impatient and Best Buy was having a sale, so I got this one cheaper than the list price.  Not to mention, Boring Black can be remedied by lots. of. stickers!)

Monday, July 12, 2010

The Great Knitathon

I've decided to have a knitathon and knit exclusively until Wednesday.  See you then!

Relocation

My grandmother and I have been having very tense relations as of late, and so I'm staying at my dad's for the time being, instead of with my grandmother.  I don't know if this is going to last very long... but really, I go away to Bloomington on the 25th of August, so it can't last more than six weeks.  Perk?  I can get wifi from across the street.  That means I don't have to go to a cafe to get wifi.

In the meantime, considering my dad doesn't have cable and I'm broke with no job, I think I'm going to be getting a lot of knitting done.  A lot.  I think maybe if I actually finish something, it'll make me feel better.

And no, there hasn't really been much progress on anything.  I've got the Falling Waters scarf with me, though (still planning on giving it to my grandmother for her birthday, even if I have to mail it to her).  Hopefully I can finish that.

Just an update.  Not yet dead.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Strawberry soup and color revelations

I haven't been knitting much, to be honest (and by much, I mean, not at all).  I haven't been home much, either, for the past few days.  But!  I have been up to interesting activities, and why confine to the parameters of this knit blog when I have other material I could blog about?

Admittedly, I am not a very good cook yet.  Mainly because I've never been taught by anyone, anywhere, how to cook anything.  So any culinary adventures I have in the kitchen are strictly under the supervision of moi.  But, today I made strawberry soup!  It's very easy (which is one of the reasons I could make it!).   Strawberry soup is meant to be served cold, and is very refreshing on hot summer days.  And all you need to do is toss...

2 pints of strawberries (2 normal cases at the grocery store)
2 cups of plain yogurt
1/2 cup of orange juice
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/8 of some sweet spice that goes with baking  (our recipe called for cardamom, we used cinnamon sugar... it still tasted delicious)

... into a blender, and puree your heart out.  Then pour it into bowls and, ta da!  Instant, delicious, yummy, pink, refreshing strawberry soup.  The measurements above will fill up a normal sized blender, so if you're afraid that you won't fit everything into the blender, it is safe to put one carton of strawberries into the blender along with the rest of the ingredients, puree, and then drop the rest of the strawberries in.  It eased my fears, at least.  Legitimately.

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So, I'm going to knit the Heroine coat (someday [before October]), and I've been trying to think of good colors that would go with a nice, off-white.  "Cloud" is what I think the colorway is, so white, but not a glaring white.  I don't favor glaring whites.  Anyway.  And silly me, I thought, "Red!  Red is okay..." and I ordered red yarn.  But then, when I was flipping through a magazine today, what did I spy?  A woman in a lovely white cabled sweater, with a lovely cabled gray scarf and a lovely cabled gray hat.  Gray. The perfect compliment to white.

Not to mention, the gray would contrast perfectly against white for the Anemoi mittens.  To go with my coat.  And perfectly compliment it.

I'll just have to find something to do with the red yarn, it seems!  Maybe my wonderful boyfriend would enjoy something red.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

In which I rant of social interaction

I have an acute problem with people, sometimes.  I know that I have formerly blogged about my hatred of humanity, but it is still here.  And every time I experience what I would deem other people's stupidity, it feels as fresh and damning as if it were the first epiphany.

Except, this isn't good.  Hate corrupts and even if my thoughts don't carry into actions, the insidious thoughts are still there, brewing in my mind and causing troubles on other levels of consciousness.  I only have a handful, a very few amount of friends, and I like it that way.  Being around so much humanity is very trying for me.  The reason why it's so trying for me, though, is shameful to admit.  My thoughts are: that people are cliché, that no one should air their personal life so blatantly through a social networking site, that whining through Facebook accomplishes nothing and just makes you annoying, and that people posting inane revelations they have are neither new or refreshing.  The lack of intelligence that humanity possesses astonishes me.


And while this all may be very true, I think I've been going about this the wrong way.  For a time, I've been trying to persuade myself that all of these qualities that I've been fuming about should be accepted.  But now, I don't really think that.  Those qualities shouldn't be accepted.  It is true that people posting inane revelations they have may be revelations for them and not me, but why should I get my feathers in a bunch about it?  I think it's annoying and wrong, but it's not to those people.


A part of me thinks that I just have to wait for everyone to mature to the point where I'm at.  It's a despicable thing to think, really!  Who am I to say that I'm mature?  It's certainly not the right opinion for me to have, considering that I've only just wedged my toe in the door of life, I have a millions roads to walk down, a million experiences to shape me, so many lessons to learn and hardships to endure and joys to be had.  The path to wisdom should never be started with a goal of an end; the path doesn't have an end.  The quest for wisdom is endless, and those who think they've found an end are wrong.  There is, however, a difference to those who have stopped looking because they are content with where they are.  I know for a fact that some adults will never go very far down the path of maturation, and that (I think I can state this as a fact of life) I will go farther than they.  But to be fair, thousands of others will go father than I will.


I swear, when I look at some people's blogs or profiles or other such sites, I get genuinely furious.  And I can't see why.  It's all fine and dandy for them, and even though I don't agree with it, what's all the pish and tush about?


Now, I just need to act like I don't give a pish or tush.  Easier said than done.

Monday, July 5, 2010

A flit of thought

I realized last night that I have to finish the Falling Waters scarf in order to make my blanket.  The needles that would be ideal to use, my 10" bamboo straight, size 6, are currently employed with that scarf right now.

The idea of the blanket is to knit different colored squares and just sew them together in a blanket.  Knitting with worsted weight on size 6 needles, in my gauge, will definitely produce a thick enough fabric to see me through the winter months.  The blanket is going to fashion as a quilt of some sorts for my dorm bed in college.  I really want to get started on it, because how hard is it to knit a square or two when you get bored with a project?  Or if I'm really fired up, crank out six or so in a day while I'm reading or watching a movie?  It should go by quickly and would be a good project to work on while I work on others.

So if you need me, I'll be knitting on the damn scarf.  I messed up a WS row and I have to rip it back.  Again.  I hate ripping back work.  I need this thing finished anyway, though, because it's meant to be a present for my grandmother for her birthday.  She'll love it.  It's soft and blue and feathery and has a wonderful design, and she tends to go for things that are "fancy."  Add the handmade charm, and voilá!  Instant success.

If, you know, I could quit yapping and knit the thing.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Independence Day to all of my American readers.  And apparently in Canada, it's Pride Day.  I don't know what Pride Day entails.  It sounds like a movement for gay rights.  If so, more power to them!  If not, it's good to have pride in other things, as well (a Google search has confirmed that my instincts are right).

Most of my Independence Day was spent bonding with relatives, napping, and reading.  All in the interests of national pride, of course, because without our dear founding fathers and the efforts of the American soldier to preserve their ideals, I might not have been able to do the things I've done today.  It is much appreciated.  And of course, some fireworks managed to work their way into my agenda.

Happy 4th!

Saturday, July 3, 2010

I am a bad, bad knitter

In more ways than one.

I started a new sweater.  For moi.  Because... well, I don't know why.  Right now I've got a scarf, two pairs of socks, and a sweater on the needles.  Clearly I need to be finishing something.  And yet.

Enter the Newcastle Pullover, brought to you on the free market by Lion Brand.  Lion Brand is okay... their patterns are average (but their free-ness is nice) and I don't normally knit with acrylic, so I don't generally tend to go their way.  But this seems like a very nice sweater and a well-written pattern, so who's to discriminate?  Especially when I am being such a lazy knitter.

I made a gauge swatch!  I swear!  Except instead of the regular 17 sts by 24 rows = 4 inches on size 8 needles... my gauge ended up being 21 sts by 27 rows = 4 inches.  I have a tight gauge.  Can you tell?  Instead of adjusting the pattern, because for once I just want to blindly follow something instead of putting in work to modify it to my needs (when it comes to a sweater, at least).  So I'm knitting it in a size large instead of a medium, and I think that it will come out to my proportions.  Hopefully.  If not, it'll fit someone, at least.

Modifications so far: only two inches of ribbing (three inches seems a little ridiculous, no offense to any designers...) and some waist shaping, because I have an exaggerated version of the classic hourglass figure.

It's been so long since I've knit anything flat that it's a little weird.  What is this purl stitch you speak of...?  (The Falling Waters scarf doesn't count.  Ahem.  It's lace.)

OH AND I WANT TO KNIT LACE.  After... Jesus, after everything I want to get done this summer (two pairs of socks, two sweaters, that scarf, and a block-by-block blanket...) I am going to knit the Vernal Equinox Shawl, because it is beautiful and I will be using it for a very important purpose sometime next year!