SP5 Questionnaire

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?

I wouldn't call myself a yarn snob but I do tend to stay away from the acrylics as they aren't the softest yarn in the world. I much prefer Alpaca, and Merino.

2. Do you spin? Crochet?

No.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)

Not that I knot of but I do try to stay away from heavily scented items.

4. How long have you been knitting?

Since my doctor prescribed it as physical therapy in January of this year. So approximately 4 months.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?

Yes

6. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)

Lavendar is by far my favorite scent, with vanilly following a very close second.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?

Well duh. Of course. I especially like dark chocolate, but not too dark. And NOT white chocolate. It's not really chocolate.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?

Right now I don't really have any other crafts. I used to do cross stitch but haven't in a very very long time.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)

I love old school techno. Yes my PC can play MP3s.

10. What's your favorite color? Or--do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can't stand?

My favorite color is purple. Any shade. There aren't really any colors that I don't like but purple is by far the best.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?

Not sure what you mean by family situation but, I'm engaged and I have a cat.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)

To win a multi-million dollar lottery and never have to work again so I can spend all day knitting.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?

As stated above alpaca is my current favorite, I also love merino. I also like mohair. I don't currently have a favorite weight tho most of my projects have been done in worsted or chunky.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?

Anything itchy or not very forgiving. If it's too stiff, like cotton, it agrivates my wrist from my surgery.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?

Look to the right. I don't really have an obsession but I'm making a couple of mohair projects right now. I've also got a bunch of yarn just sitting waiting for me to go get the right size needles.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?

Don't really have any faves right now. I'm sure that after I've been knitting longer I'll come up with something that I just have to knit all the time.

17. What are you knitting right now?

Again look to the right

18. What do you think about ponchos?

They're okay as long as they don't look like something my mother would have worn when she was my age.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?

Depends on what I'm making. If it's something small like a baby sweater straight, If it's something large, or knit in the round, circulars.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?

Addi Turbo's. Nuff said

21. Are you a sock knitter?

I'd like to be.

22. How did you learn to knit?

Knitty Gritty and DIYnetwork.com

23. How old is your oldest UFO?

About 3 months

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?

That'd have to be baby Stewie on Family Guy

25. What is your favorite holiday?

My Birthday :)

26. Is there anything that you collect?

Yarn

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?

None. Why subscribe when you're not sure if you like the patterns in the magazine until after you've seen it? I'd rather purchase the one's I know I'll like and acutally get some use out of.

28. Any books out there you are dying to get your hands on?

Not really.

I've been Meme'd

No this was an email but I figured I'd answer it here instead of just email. That way you can all see my answers.

What time is it? 5:09PM

Name as it appears on birth certificate: Katrina Joy Chapman

Piercings: 2 holes in each ear, nose, tongue, and navel

Eye color: green

Place of Birth: La Mirada, CA

Favorite Food: Dark Chocolate

Have you ever been to California? Well duh!

Ever been toilet papering? Of course. Many, many times.

Love someone so much it made you cry? Yes

Been in a car accident? Yes...quite a few.

Croutons or bacon bits? Neither.

Favorite day of the week: Sunday cause it's the only day that I regularly have off.

Favorite restaurant: In-N-Out

Favorite flower: Black Tulips

Favorite sport to watch: I don't really watch sports, but if I did it would be soccer.

Favorite drink: Dr. Pepper

Favorite ice cream: mint chocolate chip.

Disney or Warner Bros.: Disney, but then I was a tour guide for a while so it's not really a fair question.

Favorite fast food restaurant: In-N-Out

What color is your bedroom carpet? Boring Apartment tan.

How many times did you fail your driver's test? Written: 0. Behind the wheel: 3 but the tester knocked off one of subtractions because it was the same as one of the mistakes I had previously made on that same test.

Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? It was a comment notification from blogger.

Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? My LYS of course.

What you do most often when you are bored? Knit

What is your bedtime? Usually around 1AM when the good stuff on AdultSwim is over.

Favorite TV shows: Family Guy and Futurama. Anything on Animal Planet.

Last person you went out to dinner with: My honey Sam.

What are you listening to right now? My co-workers talking.

What is your favorite color? Royal Purple

Lake or ocean? Ocean of course. So Cal born and raised.

How many tattoos do you have? 4 but that's not nearly enough.

Have you ever run out of gas? Yes but it wasn't my fault. I had just bought the car and didn't know the gas guage was broken.

Cats or Dogs? Cats of course.

Time you finished this meme? 5:20

Another FO!

I finished and felted my Oregon tote last night. It's drying right now and as soon as it's completely dry I'll post pics. It didn't turn out exactly like I expected. It shrank more width wise than height wise. So it's a lot deeper and not nearly as wide as I was expecting.

I've not gotten much done on any of my other projects. I'm working on making swatches for the Rogue. Takes a while cause I have to cast on nearly 200 stitches to fit around my circular needles. I'll only have to cast on about 17 stitches for the swatch on the flat needles to make sure I get the right guage. I really don't want to get half way thru this project and then find out I have to rip it out.

I also won an auction on Ebay last week for 11.5 lbs of grey wool yarn for only $25 including shipping. That's about $2.18/lb and it's over 6,700 yards. I can't wait til I get it to start making something with it. I'm not sure what I'll make yet. If nothing else, depending on the quality, I'll make more felted bags. One can never have enough felted bags.

--K

Dollar Baskets are good.

So I went down to Ogden today to get a circular needle cause the one I ordered online wasn't big enough. My gauge was off for the Rogue sweater. While I was there I glanced in the dollar basket and what did I see? Some beautiful mohair. They have more and I'm going back on Saturday the 28th to hopefully clear them out.



Here's a better shot of the lighter one so you can see the color better.



Also while in Ogden this last weekend I found the perfect flowers for my bouquet.



They're called black tulips and they're gorgeous. What makes them even better is that they bloom in May so I know they'll be in bloom when it's time for my wedding.

--K

They're Here!!!

My KnitPicks order came on Monday and made me do a happy dance. Apparently I ordered 32" circulars so I'm no longer worried about scrunched up stitches on too short needles. I also have the long awaited pics to post. So Just a warning this will be a pic heavy post.

To start that broken needle.



I'm still waiting for the replacement. But the website says it takes 2 weeks for the replacements to come. So I've got a little while to wait.

As you know if you read all of my last post I went down to Ogden and SLC last weekend to celebrate my fiance's 30th birthday. He's still a little touchy about his age. But I have lots of pics from the weekend to post.

The weekend started at 5PM Saturday when I got to leave work early. We headed down to Ogden for dinner and to see my friends band, Orjazm, play at Brewski's on 25th St. in Ogden.

It's not just a bar; it's an Ogden institution.



Here are the lead and bass guitarist. Brad and Jeremy respectively.



I couldn't get the drummer or the keyboard player as they weren't very well lit.

My honey not only got to watch his friends playing he got to sing with them. An older blues song called Red House By Jimi Hendrix. Here he is going all out.



Isn't that a great picture. It looks like he's having a hard time in the bathroom. He He He.

Saturday night was spent on a very uncomfortable trundle bed at his parents house. Sunday morning, his actual birthday, we woke up late and had breakfast on his parents back deck. As we were eating we heard a disturbance behind us and when we looked to see what it was this is what we saw.



Isn't that awesome. Deer eating their breakfast with us. I just sat and watched them for a while. My breakfast got cold but I didn't care. It was just a perfect little slice of heaven.

Sunday we spent with his family and some old friends. Unfortunately I let Sam operate the camera and when he was a little tipsy at that. So he didn't know to take the camera off of the night setting so all his pics were too blurry to see what they were. The night setting is a 2 sec shutter speed so you have to hold the camera perfectly still for 2 seconds while it captures the image. When you're slightly, okay a little more that slightly, drunk nothing good comes of it.

Anyway that was my weekend. I hope your's was as much fun.

--K

Why is it that people feel the need to fuel someone elses website with traffic?

Let me explain. Recently I was reading a couple of new blogs, and they were blogging about practices and behaviors that they didn't find acceptable. Namely a NYC based SEWING company that has a Stitch AND Bitch CAFE which sent a cease and desist letter to cafepress regarding a Chicago Stitch N' Bitch groups merchandise, and a link to some childish person's blog about how they hate knitting. The first we can all be understandably upset about the second, who cares?

I visited these sites as both of these posts were not brand new and I figured the ruckus would have died down by now. Apparently I was wrong. In the first instance the NYC comapny was deleting the posts from the knitters that went there to complain so I've no idea how many comments were really left. In the second instance 38 people went to this persons site about hating knitting and gave him validation for his childish behaviour. Visiting these sites was a mistake on my part.

When I was a web developer and a more active member of the web community we always ignored these kinds of things, not in the hopes that they'd go away on their own that never works. Knowing that if we went and visited these sites, and/or posted comments, we'd only be increasing their traffic and giving them more fuel for their fires. You can talk about the offense without actually having to visit the offending site.

I'm not saying that these two bloggers don't have the right to be angry with what's happening and shouldn't tell others that there are bad, perhaps ludicrous, things going on in the world. Just don't give the bad guys any fuel. Is that so hard to do?

Enough of that ranting for now. In knitting news I tried to cast on for the Triada scarf last night and don't see how there's any way in hell that you can join 30 stitches on a 24" needle. I'll have to fiddle around with the cast on and see what I can do to get it to work. Maybe make the crochet chain twice as long and pick up in every other back loop instead of every loop. We'll have to wait and see.

Also I know I promised pics last night but I was really really sick and couldn't be at my PC long enough to post the pics. I'm also going down to Ogden tonight and staying til tomorrow night for my fiance's birthday. So no pics til Monday afternoon after I get my bottom braces on. Woo hoo! Nothing but baby food for a week staring 2PM Monday. I'm so excited.

--K

Irish Hiking Scarf among other things

So I cast on for this last night and did a couple repeats of the pattern and just didn't like the way it was turning out. I don't know if it was because I was tired and knitting loosely, or if it was the yarn, or the metal needles. Yes I said metal. They were the only ones I didn't have in a project in the correct size.

Anyway the pattern came out very loose and lacy. Since the first one I'm doing is going to be for my fiance I didn't think lacy would be appropriate. So I ripped it all out. I'll do it again on smaller, bamboo, needles tonight and see how different it will look with a smaller gauge.

Also I'm just a little miffed. I bought a set of Brittany Birch Needles in size us 13 to make I-cords for my felted bags. Well yesterday while I was knitting one of them split! A big ole chunk of birch came off in my hand. (I'll post a pic when I get home. I mean it this time.) So I emailed them and am somewhat mollified for right now as they responded that they'd send a replacement and I don't have to send the old one back. We'll have to wait and see if, when it arrives.

Meanwhile I'm still waiting, albeit rather impatiently, for my Knit Picks order, shipped 5/10/2005. I'm a little concerned that the circular that I bought on the site will not be long enough, only 24". I'm thinking that maybe I'll just be able to scrunch the stitches up on the needle and then use point protectors when I have to set Rogue down. Does anyone know of a site out there that has recommended needle lengths for when working in the round?

I've also earned a whole $0.07 from my google ads. Thank you who ever click that ad. You're the greatest.

--K

I found it...

Or at least something close enough to what I needed to be quickly tweaked between phone calls here at work. When I get home and have some un-interupted time to work on it I'll make the bars on the right much much prettier.

You'll notice some of the bars are at 0%. Those are things I either ripped out or have yet to start. They are there as reminders for me more than anything else. Look for some of the almost done items to move the Off the Needles section fairly soon. I hope to have the Oregon Tote done by the end of the week and the guitar strap done sometime early to mid next week. Now onto knitting more of that damned i-cord edging.

--K

Help

I know 2 posts in one day, so shoot me.

I'm looking for a simple progress bar javascript. Progress bars like the ones found here. Yes I know those aren't JS but I'm not really interested in downloading cabs and figuring out the code. So if any of you bloggers out there know where I can find a quick easy way to add graphical progress bars to my site I'd be very appreciative of a link.

TIA,
--K

Oregon Tote

I have gotten to the applied I-Cord edging on the top of the bag. Once I got there and started doing it, it ended up being a lot easier than I thought it would be. Imagine that, me being able to figure something out from the written instructions. Makes me less afraid to start Rogue when I get her yarn sometime next week.

I have had to take an unwelcomed break from knitting as my wrist, still recovering from surgery 4 months later, is really beginning to bug me lately. I have it in a pressure bandage right now. So progress on ALL my projects is somewhat stalled. :(

I am working on my projects but only for about 15 minutes a night right now as if I spend much more time than that on them I'll end up crying in pain as I try to sleep that night. So things ARE progressing, just very very slowly.

For that reason I have stayed my casting on for the Triada and my Irish Hiking scarf knit alongs, but I did sign up for the Secret Pal 5 Today. I hope I get someone good, and I don't end up spending an arm and a leg on them, I tend to get carried away when buying for others, as them how would I knit. With one hand and one foot? That would be interesting.

--K

Rogue

I have purchased the yarn for my Rogue sweater. As soon as I get that yarn I'll be casting on for the sweater.

For those of you that have this pattern or have made this pattern I'll be making the 43.5" size. That's only 2.5" of clearance but I'm sure that it'll be fine.

I also had to add a pair of Addi Turbos to my order to get it above the $30 mark for the free shipping. Oh how horrible. I had to buy a pair of really nice needles to save myself some shipping. Oh woe is me. What ever shall I do with these wonderful needles. I know! I'll make my rogue sweater.

--K

Knit Along

I just joined my first knit along. It's the Triada scarf in the Summer 2005 Interweave knits. If you want to join you can find it here.


I have also joined the Irish Hiking Scarf knit along. The links will also always be on the right side of the screen.

I almost forgot to tell you guys. I scored on a pair of Addi Turbo's. At Needlepoint Joint they have punch cards. For every $100 you spend you get $10 of your next purchase. I wasn't quite finished punching my second card there and had already used my first one for part of todays purchase. Well, the woman that was helping me started to punch today's purchase and realized that I'd be starting a new card. She used the second card for todays purchase and then put the full amount of the purchase on the new card! So I got an extra $10 off and more than halfway on a new card. I ended up getting a total of $20 off my purchase which included a $25 pair of Addi Turbo's. Essentially I got those for $5. I almost couldn't believe how lucky I was.

Well I have things that I have to do before I can do any knitting so I'll blog to you all later.

--K

Funnies

I just found the funniest site I've seen in a very long time. Go look. I'll wait.

To me that is the most hilarious thing I've seen in a while. that people are actually that serious about something so ludicrous. It's just amazing.

I laughed for about 10 minutes when I saw that. They have correspondence courses.

--K

Long Awaited Pics

Please be forwarned there are a lot of pics in this post so if you have a slow connection it may take quite a while for this particular page to load. So with no further ado.

I have finally recieved my Knit Picks order. I'm so excited I can hardly sit here and type.

Also pictured is the hand painted mohair and the solid color that I plan on using for my shawl.

I have also finished seaming up my 3 yr size baby sweater. Here it is pre-blocking. I'll prolly be doing that on Wednesday since I have the day off work. Click on the pic for a close up and for better color.


As stated earlier I finally figured out the macro setting on my camera so here are pics of the beaded stitch markers that I have made so far. I do plan on selling these online for approx $2/pair. Do you guys think that's too much?








Welp that's it for tonight. I'll have more to share tomorrow I'm sure. I'm off to work on some of that boring stockinette stitch I was muttering about earlier so that I can play with some of my new yummy yarns.

--K

Book Meme

Just a funny little meme for the day, cause I couldn't think of anything else to blog about today:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the "coolest" book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

"I make my own trail wherever I go."

That was not in fact from the first book that I grabbed. However pg 123 of the first book that I grabbed is a layout of channels and show times for Sat 04/09/2005. No sentences there. The quote is from my datebook.

BTW I figured out how to use the macro function on my digital camera so look for pics later tonight. I know, I know. I said that Saturday but I was ill yesterday and didn't go any further from my bed than the bathroom.

--K

I'm Bad

I've spent over $137 on yarn in the last 3 days. Granted all but $28 of that was Mohair for a shawl. I still shouldn't have spent that money. But the yarn was just soooooooo yummy I had to have it. I will post pics when I get home. I'm stuck at work right now and don't have access to my camera connection.

Getting home might not be until fairly late as it's my friends b-day and we're going to hang out at the local bar, Mulligan's, and have a coupla drinks. So you might want to check back tomorrow.

In knitting news, I have finished knitting my baby sweater and started the largest size, 3yrs. I have a couple hours left on that and then finishing and blocking for both. I'll again post pics when I get home. I have also decided that I'm not allowed to cast on for any new projects until I finish the guitar strap for my honey and the scarf for my mom. Looks like I have a lot of boring St st in my future.

--K

Bag Done!!!

I finished my bag last Friday night, okay very early Saturday morning. I needle felted it this weekend and put on Mickey Mouse's glove. I thought the colors were perfect for that. As you can see from the picture the glove isn't perfect but hey if it were I'd get in trouble for copy right infringement.



I've also been bitten by the beaded stitch marker bug. I've yet to take good pics of those. In order to get them in focus with my camera they're way too small to see. I'll eventually be selling those online and I'll post a link when I figure out where I'll be selling them. I've started on a pair of wrist warmers for myself and the lace pattern is starting to get on my nerves even tho it's a very simple pattern. I'm thinking I'll just put it at the very bottom and tops of the warmers. I'll have to see later.

Time to go get ready for work now. I'll catch y'all later

--K

Felting

Well I've finished my bag and it's in the washer right now felting. It's been in for approx 20 min and there is no noticeable difference. I'm hoping that I don't have to do it by hand that would suck.

I did a bad thing. I knitted at my desk between calls today. That's a big no no. Especially since the call center is at less that 90% for quality. Oh well. I wasn't told to stop and several people saw me doing it. Hopefully that means that I'll be able to do more knitting and get my projects done faster. I don't take the bus to work like Miriam so I can't do it on my way in or home. I'm stuck doing it when I get home and staying up late. That makes me a not so pleasant person. I'll post a pic of the bag when I'm done felting it.

I just checked on the bag after about 30 min in the washer and there is now a noticeable difference. BTW it's a front loading washer which everyone told me wouldn't work to felt the bag. I've restarted the cycle as it was about the spin and rinse and the bag's not ready for that.

That's all for tonight as it's after midnight and I have to get some sleep tonight. I'll update tomorrow with pics and if I end up hand felting.

--K

Pictures

Okay here they are the long awaited pictures. I have finished the 2 end pockets on my bag and one of the two side pockets. Here's a pic before I picked up for the side pockets.



Looks kinda like a sweater with arms at this point.

I also bought some patterns from KnitKit yesterday. I hope to have those soon. 3 new bag patterns. Yeah.

I've also started working on washcloths for the house. My mom buys those cheap ones that come like 10 for $1. I've got some really purty cotton yarn for those and I'll be sure to post a pic as soon as it's done prolly this weekend sometime.

Here's a picture just for pictures sake. This was what I saw when I looked out the window at work yesterday around 10:45 am. Isn't it loverly?



--K

Self Challenge and Lies

Okay so I lied again and didn't post pics like I said I would. I went home last night and started knitting and didn't stop till after the first episode of ATHF was over. So obviously I was tired and couldn't stay up any longer. ATHF comes on at 1AM on Adult Swim. So I promise on penalty of death to post pics tonight.

Thanks to Kimi for linking to the Self Challenge I've signed up and will be posting updates on this as they happen. Right now I'm 5'7" and 205lbs. I want to get down to at least 160. Looks like I'm going to the gym after work today.

On the knitting front. I have the main body of the bag to felt done and the two end pockets. I have started on the first side pocket and once I have those done and sewn to the main body I'll just have the i-cord strap to do. A 64" i-cord. I am sooooo looking forward to that.

Also it was a nasty day today weather wise. Rain and snow on the bench. blech. When's it going to be spring. I was wearing shorts on Monday and now I'm back in a sweater and jacket

--K