Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Goodbye, June

Status update:

(1) I'm quitting my job.  There is a multitude of reasons for this, but it is safe to say that there are several things about that job that are illegal.  I've had enough.  This produces complications, however, because I kind of need a job.  Those dorm room items aren't going to buy themselves.  The good news, though, is that I've got two job opportunities lined up at Bloomington.

(2) The other good news is that with my new (possibly) restricted budget, I can't buy more yarn to fuel my knitting fantasies.  Which means I actually have to use the yarn I have to knit projects I've actually planned.  The amount of yarn I have, coupled with my new-found free time, should result in some finished objects around here.

(3) This also means I can't buy more books.  This should also result in me reading my bookshelf.

(4) Ryan is still here and tomorrow we are going to Chicago to look at sheet music and visit Myopic Books.  It's a wonderful half-price bookstore.  He's going to go crazy and buy their entire stock of French books.  I don't know what I'm going to do.  Until then, I'll be knitting.  (Oh!  Maybe they have some knitting books?)

Monday, June 28, 2010

Good thing he's not allergic to Happy Socks

Still working on that scarf.  I've got about four and a half of the twenty-seven repeats done.  At this rate I'll have it done by Christmas.  (This is why I say I need to knit more.)

Ryan is here and I'm happy as a clam.  I always am when he's here, and I suspect it's probably due to the whole distance thing.  He enjoys taking the random French books I have off of my bookshelf and going through them.  Sometime he's going to teach me French.  Sometime.  But Ryan's arrival heralded a fear which I have held ever since my box of yarn came from KnitPicks -- he's allergic to the yarn I ordered.  He says it's green, and it kind of is (for those of you who don't know, he's allergic to blue dye [this means anything blue, purple, green, and the majority of the time, grey {what do I expect from a colorway named thyme, at any rate?}]).  So I guess I'm going to have to take the thousand-odd yards of yarn I have and turn it into something for myself.  Which I don't mind because it's a nice enough color.  I could wear it.

I started some socks.  It's kind of a recurring theme around here that I never finish anything and always start new things.  I'm thinking that a nice, plain stockinette sock with that gorgeous golden yarn I ordered will make me happy.  Ryan's not allergic to yellow, so he can have the socks.  They're very happy and glowing and sunshine-y.  That's why I'm calling them the Happy Socks.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

A pointless post induced by sleeplessness

This morning around 5:15 a storm woke me up.  Again.  This is the fourth storm we've had in five days.  I feel sorry for my sister-aunt, because she's having a yard sale today and she left all of her things outside overnight.  At least some of it's covered in garbage bags, and it's not windy.

I can't sleep and waking up sometimes when it's dark and huddling in bed with hot chocolate until you do fall asleep is nice (if you almost never have to do that).  Or you could just be like me and wake up and post on your blog, because it's too dark to knit and starting a book at this hour is unseemly for someone like me.

It might be nice if for once I actually woke up early and did a whole bunch of things (laundry and cleaning, actually).  But today I have to work a ten hour shift and I'll be damned if I'm doing that on five hours of sleep.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Book review

A lot of my family is over at my house right now, frolicking around in my pool.  My sister-aunt and my two nephews, my aunt and my two cousins, my cousin's friend, etc.  Every summer we always have these days where my aunt brings over chicken and potato wedges and we all veg out on my deck or frolic in the pool.  And it's usually a good time.  Except this year Abby's not here because she's off to God knows where, and it's kind of depressing for me, so I went into my room.  It's cooler in here anyway.  I've mastered the art of keeping my room cool without the use of AC.

I was thinking of blogging about The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, by Mark Haddon.  I just finished reading it on Wednesday and it is one of the best books I've read in a really long time.  The book is told from Christopher's point of view, who is 15 and mentally challenged.  Christopher's an idiot savant, I guess you could say, because he's very gifted when it comes to logic, math, and science, but he can't figure out emotions.  It's a condition called Asperger's syndrome, which I suspected that's what Christopher had when I was reading the book, but a little research confirmed this.

I think that Haddon writing from the point of view of someone who's mentally challenged is surprising, brilliant, and piercing.  It's often controversial when an author writes from a point of view that's not their own and through this he creates a strong message to everyone about the mentally challenged's rights.  The last paragraph is Christopher concluding that he did all of these things, and because of that, he can do anything.  It's heartwarming.  I very much recommend it.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Oh, and a note to self:

Note to self: write later about how this is summer and you have no obligations, but you are so used to obligations that you constantly have this ghost of a notion tugging at you that you should be doing something.  And it makes your stomach hurt and you don't know why, because you don't have to do anything.

Thoughts that have occurred to me

(1) I really need a digital camera to take decent, color-accurate photos of my knitting to post on here and on Ravelry.  I'm not the type to take pictures of life, so the last digital camera I had was given to my aunt.  My aunt likes to take pictures of everything.  I didn't regret the decision until now.

(2) I don't really stay very true to knitting on this blog.  I've been skimming some other knitting blogs recently because the two I regularly follow (the Yarn Harlot and SamuraiKnitter) haven't been posting much and I've been getting the bug to both read more knitting stuff and read other people's perspectives on knitting.  And in all of the blogs I skimmed through today, most of it is about knitting.  On my blog, however, more of it isn't about knitting than is.  Sigh.

(3) I need to knit more.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Storm love

We are experiencing the mother of all normal thunderstorms, here.  There was a tornado warning for a town nearby but over where I am the storm's not even severe enough to cause a power outage.  In fact, we never get anything exciting where I live.  All of the interesting parts of all storms happen in the town nearby and when Chesterton has huge power outages, I'm just sitting cozy in my well-lit house.  And yes, that did very much sound like I wanted power outages and tornado-force winds.

I'm located about ten minutes south of Lake Michigan and forty-five minutes from the Illinois border.  I was out to dinner with my dad and they had the news on; downtown Chicago is completely blacked out.  The storm that hit them was moving our way.  Storms thrill me.  When my dad and I were driving home, we got to see all the black storm clouds advance and then all of a sudden the cold front came through and it was amazing.

We've been having a lot of thunderstorms lately.  And most oddly, we've been having thunderstorms in the morning.  Yesterday and today I got to wake up in a very pleasant manner to thunderstorms and rain outside my window.  And today, we've had two pretty sizable storms in the space of twelve hours.  Not to mention we experienced a huge storm while I was at nationals, and even in Kansas City there were at least two storms in one week while I was there.  Love it, love it, love it.  The weather should be like this all the time.

Still plugging along on the scarf.  I knit at it a little bit when I was at a cafe today, but then my friend told me Charlotte Russe was having a sale on their harem pants and that was the end of my knitting today.  I didn't even find their harem pants, either.  Feh.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Status report

Good progress is being made on the Falling Waters scarf, except now I find myself wishing that I wasn't working with something so... fluffy.  I'm knitting the scarf in this brushed, soft alpaca.  It's absolutely a gorgeous yarn, all light blue and pale lavender, but it's really fluffy.  I'm waiting for my box of yarn to get here so I can cast on and knit like a mad scientist (on anything).

On the agenda today: take my sister to the park, complete a load of laundry in time for work, and then work.  My life is very exciting (but I prefer it this way).

I'm also set to finish The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time today.  It's absolutely beautiful.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Call me crazy, but...

There's this car.  This car has a habit of stopping at my house around 1:30-2:00 in the morning sometimes, and this is the third time I've seen it happen.  It always drives up to my mailbox like it's pulling over or something and always come from the same direction.  It looks like it could be delivering my newspaper, except our newspaper is delivered around 5:00 AM onto our front porch.  The first two times it happened, I had just pulled into my driveway and was sitting in my car, back from whatever I'd been doing that night.  But a few minutes ago, I just saw it do the same thing out of my window.

I want to know why this car keeps pulling over at my house in early hours of the morning.

Normalcy... I guess

Today was nice.  I didn't do much for Father's Day, considering I never know what to get my grandfather and my father is visiting my other grandfather (the one I don't live with) in Kentucky.  Not to mention, the grandfather I do live with was gone half the day, anyway.  As was I.  But we'll get to that.  I want to wish any fathers that might be reading this blog a happy Father's Day, and I hope it went well for you all.

I went shopping at Target again today for odds and ends for my dorm.  Mostly because I need something to keep my yarn in; it's all in a pile in between my computer chair and my nightstand, and it keeps getting caught in my chair wheels.  Annoying.  So I bought a big plastic bendy purple tub today at Target.  Oh, and remember the Great Purge?  I finally did it today, as far as clothes go.  I got rid of 70% of my wardrobe because I never wear any of it... as a result, all of the clothes I did keep are on my floor and my dresser and closet are empty.  I'm hoping now that my closet is free of all the clothes I never wear, I can put my yarn in the tub and stick it on top of the trunk I have in there.  But they conveniently placed the storage aisle right next to the living odds and ends aisle... and while I was there, I thought, "Oh... I need to get some silverware to go along with my dishes."  And then, I saw these cute little caddies to keep your silverware in, and I realized, "Oh!  I have nowhere to put these spoons and forks and knives!"  So I bought one of those, too.  In lime green.  It's amazing.  I love Target.

My plan is to buy things I need for my dorm little by little, so I don't have to buy it all at once in August when everyone else is.  And also because I have to pay for most of it myself, and I don't have much money, so I kind of need to buy it little by little.  I need to buy sheets, honestly... but that can wait.  I have a whole checklist and for once in my life, I am organized.  It's a little frightening!

And then I watched my little sister for the second half of the day, and she was an absolute angel.  I love her so much.  She is so little, and I love her like I'd love my own kid.  Actually, funny I should say that, because I took her to the Dairy Queen today and a kid I knew that graduated last year said to me, "Huh, I didn't know you had a kid."  He was serious, and I had to set him straight.  You know, a lot of people probably think she's my kid... oh well.  Anywho.  We also went to see Toy Story 3, and IT WAS SO GOOD.  So good.  Damn.  Everything Pixar makes is totally amazing.  Everything.  Amazing.

I'm hoping my box of yarn comes tomorrow.  When my grandmother's not home.  So she won't yell at me for spending more money on more yarn!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

All the world is my oyster

I'm just going to gush for a little bit here, so many ideas are swirling around my brain and I just want to blather forth in joy and wonder and sheer opportunity.  Again, you don't have to read.  It's probably boring.

Okay so I recently finished the book The Friday Night Knitting Club.  Most people think I read it because I knit, and while that is some of the reason why I picked it up in the first place, that's not the reason why I bought it.  I don't really enjoy the style of writing, it's cliche and appeals to the masses far too much (kind of like Dan Brown), but I read it anyway.  The novel has good enough intentions and a heartwarming message, plot issues aside.  Especially because after reading this book, I am feeling so high and giddy and excited, ready to burst, with this idea: life is what you make of it.


I can do anything!  I can do absolutely anything with my life, whatever I want to do.  It's amazing.  It is so amazing and whatever I want to do, I can succeed at.  I have the tools and the opportunities and just plain sheer youth on my side.  Do I want to travel around Europe?  I can do it!  Traveling on a bootstring, staying in hostels with sleeping bags and whatnot.  Living in a country is the best way to learn their language.  Hell, my friend's mother supported herself once by street performing with a guitar.  She is so prim and proper now, I would never have guessed!  If she can do that, I can too.  Hell, backpack around the world, even.  See the sceneries and landscapes of our planet, discover books and friends and food, buy yarn.  Knit.  I really should knit more.  I want some beautiful knitting needles, honestly.  But I shouldn't get beautiful needles until I start actually finishing things!  Which I can do!  Because I can do anything!

So, yeah.  This is me, effusive with glory, aglow with the notion that I have my entire life before me and I can do anything I want.  Truly, truly joyful.

Home again

Here I am, home again.  I never thought I'd be so relieved to see Chesterton, Indiana (actually, I wouldn't have minded seeing What Cheer, Iowa, either, but that's another story).  I've just been homesick and lonely for my friends which were not on that nationals trip and wanting my other yarns and ideas and needles because I scrapped the scarf and I didn't feel like knitting on the socks.  I want to start a garment, damnit, but of course the yarn I ordered from KnitPicks isn't here yet.  So I don't know what I'll do.  Probably start the scarf over again.

Now... now, I have absolutely nothing to do.  No obligations!  It feels wonderful.  I can do whatever I damn well please for the next two months!  Then it's off with school, but I honestly imagine I'll enjoy at least 80% of that.  I really super like learning, when it comes to good teachers and subjects I'm genuinely interested in.

I'm hoping I can make the most of this summer.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Jazzin' it up in KC, among other things

Who knew?  Who ever knows, actually.  Our hotel doesn't have free wifi -- it has wifi, yes, but you must pay $10 a day for it.  One of the high schools where the tournament is being held at (which was the one everyone's elimination rounds were being held at and also policy pre-elimination rounds were held at) has free guest wifi.  Nowhere else does.  I did pay for one day of wifi, so here I am, blogging.  Today I'm just bumming around the hotel because I don't have to do anything!  So nice.  I've bought more books (thanks to my disease), but more importantly, last night I bought yarn.

My first impulse to buy yarn was centered around the desire to do something nice for my boyfriend, who recently has bought me a lot of gifts.  I figured I'd knit him a proper sweater, seeing as the EPS raglan, on forethought, was icky.  Not to mention, due to my lapses in attention, it had a few mistakes in it that were very noticeable.  It's frogged officially now on Ravelry.  I think my next sweater for him will be the Seamless Hybrid, which seems to look nice on a man.  I ordered eleven 50g balls of KnitPicks Wool of the Andes in Thyme, which I think is a nice muted color and pretty classy for someone who can't wear anything with blue dye.

Also!  I bought yarn to make a hat and fingerless mittens for myself to go with the Heroine coat I plan on knitting.  I'll get to knitting that coat someday... if I really apply myself, I could knit it in a week or two.  It's knit in pieces and then seamed up and felted (shitshitshit)... I had better knit this before I go away to college, actually, because I can't imagine where I'd get the resources needed to felt anything in college.  I refuse to do washing machine felting on my first try.  I'd like my piece of knitting right where I can see it at all times, thank you!

And I also bought the best sock yarn ever.  Wonderful stripes and colors and hues.  I love knitting socks.  The Blackrose socks are on hold right about now because I left the pattern for them at home and I'm working on the Falling Water scarf right now, and it's just positively lovely.

So yep.  That's what I've been doing.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Hustle and bustle

Things have heated up pretty quickly over in my life and I've been pretty busy.  Mostly it's been work [insert frowny face here].  I always seem to pick up people's shifts, which leads to me always being at work.  And with Asshole Boss there (well, most of the time he's not, actually), it's not exactly pleasant.

I bought more books yesterday.  The Good Earth, by Pearl S. Buck; Hot, Flat, and Crowded, by Thomas L. Friedman; and Cathedral of the Sea, by (ahahaha) Ildefonso Falcones.  What a name!  My friend and I were laughing about how serious he is.  I bought the last two on the bargain table at Barnes & Noble, so I got two shiny, huge hardcover books for $13.  Life is so good, let me tell you.

Maybe at this point I should inform my readers that I have a disease.  Little research has been done on this disease, even though it afflicts a goodly number of the planet's inhabitants; thus, it does not have a name.  I buy books way faster than I can read them.  I haven't read a third of my bookshelf, and I keep buying books!  I just love having books!  My dorm is going to be so crowded with books.  Books and yarn, that's pretty much my life.  Oh, and languages.  But learning languages doesn't take up as much space as my stash and my library.  So, yeah.  I buy books when I don't need to buy books.  Mostly it's because during the school year, I'm mostly too tired or too occupied to sit down and read for very long, so the only reading I get done is the required reading for school.  But now, summer is here, and I am planning lots of days where I sit outside on my porch swing and do nothing but read.  I've got half of the Wheel of Time series to get through, for goodness sakes!

Also, next week, I'll be off to Kansas City.  The national debate tournament is coming up and we leave on Saturday.  The hotel will have wi-fi for sure, but I'm not so certain about wherever the tournament is being held.  Who knows when I'll blog next?  My partner and I are hoping to at least break at nationals, so we'll see.  If we don't, though, I'm not going to be as heartbroken as when I lost state.  This is the last debate tournament I'll ever have to do, and I'm kind of looking forward to a week from now when it will all be over.  Then I can just sit back and relaaaaaax.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

In for a rough summer

Today I found out that Ryan's not going to be having his phone or computer the whole summer.  Which means I can't talk to him unless I write him letters through the postal service.  It's going to be a long summer.

So if I suddenly seem like I've gone off the deep end, you'll know why.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Netbook blues

I am here to whine.

I waaaaaaaaant my netboooooooooooooooook now now now now now.

Ahem, that will be all.

Blue fuzzy alpaca from hell (and baby polar bears!)

In the past two hours, I've started a scarf four times.  Each of them have been frogged, unraveled, or simply torn off the skein of yarn because this charming, charismatic blue alpaca that taunted me from the yarn store shelf is easily breakable.  It's not this beautiful yarn's fault that I've started a damn scarf four times today and that none of those attempts have worked out.  Really, it's not.

At least, that's what I've been telling myself.

Sigh.  I went to my LYS today to get some more yarn because I'm a fiber head.  I already have SO MUCH YARN, but I thought I'd go and get more because there are just some people in my life that I want to knit for.  I got this really lovely blue alpaca (from Nashua Handknits -- same people I got that wacky sock yarn from!  Amazing!) and some plain old black Lamb's Pride worsted for a friend.  The products, I mean, will be for the friend.

But really, I've started a scarf FOUR TIMES ALREADY.  Definitely time for some ice cream and Planet Earth. (Oh!  Today I was lucky enough to receive Planet Earth as a graduation present from the best boyfriend anyone could ever ask for.  He's amazing and I love him and I've got Planet Earth!  I've already seen BABY POLAR BEARS!)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Graduation and summer

Well, I haven't done much knitting in the past few days due to fear of ladders and working and, oh -- graduating high school.  You know.

DID I MENTION I'M DONE WITH HIGH SCHOOL FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER?!?!?

Never again will I be forced to encounter huge masses of dumbasses.  Never again will I be forced to sit through a class which doesn't somehow pertain to my major.  Never again will I have to encounter narrow-minded approaches to education.  Hell, never again will I be forced to go to class.  In college, if I hate a class, I can just teach myself and show up for the exams.  Likewise, if I want to learn about something, I can crash lectures.  I won't be forced to adhere to conservative school principles or principals, nor will I be treated like a brain-dead delinquent.  I can get involved in the things I want to get involved in without fear of restrictions.  I can live on my own.  I can be freeeeee!

Commencement was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be.  Mr. Zeck gave a good speech about not settling for some half-ass rate of yourself and achieving great things; he also managed to take a good spin on labels.  Taylor's speech was cute and personalized to our class and even though I don't like the guy very much, it made me smile.  I thought Mr. Kelly fucking up people's names was hilarious, though in retrospect it was pretty horrible.  These kids were graduating and he messed up their names, paused, held up the whole thing, and had to find the right name.  I probably only thought it was hilarious because I personally know Mr. Kelly.

After commencement was a little weird though, because I found my family immediately and found everyone I wanted to see immediately, and then after that I wanted to leave.  Here's everyone, hugging everybody and their mother, and then here's me, desperately wanting to leave because I really only like about 15 members of my graduating class.  I'm such a misanthrope.

Now, on with life.  I have a national debate tournament to attend, but after that, no obligations.  Now is the time that I can start being everything I want to be.  I've got all the time in the world, and I am damn excited.

To kick things off, yesterday I bought the Bhagavad Gita and the most kickass thermos I've ever seen.  These may seem like two very minor things, but this book will shape much of my life philosophy, and this thermos will hold my drinks wherever I go to read it.  The thermos will keep drinks cold for 4 hours, hot for 1 hour, is double insulated and has the best leak-seal protection I've ever seen.  Amazing amazing amazing.

A nice surprise

I was looking at my stat counter today.  People actually read this thing!  Imagine!

Friday, June 4, 2010

Socks and ladders

The blackrose socks are going swimmingly, and I'm loving the yarn.  Love love love it.  It's both self-striping and variegated, which sounds atrocious but is actually the coolest thing ever to hit yarn, ever.

But here's my problem... So I'm going strong on the heel flap, feeling quite proud of myself for converting a magic loop pattern to DPNs when it comes to making/turning the heel and gusset... considering the instructions are lacking and I've only done it once.  Anywho.  This happened last time, too, with the Monkey socks -- but when I'm working on the heel flap, and also just plain whenever I'm working on three dpns, I get these huuuuge freaking ladders that crawl up on me.  Well, not huge, but when I finally pick up the gusset, it's big enough to look like a generous yarn over.

HOW DO I STOP THIS?

I'm definitely going to wear the socks anyway (if they fit.  I have large feet), but for professionalism and the possibility of selling knitwear, I'd like to know how to fix this.  I feel an epic journey on the interwebs is in order.