Quest

Oh my god I had soooooo much fun this last weekend. After rushing around my house to make sure that I had everything last Friday before I took off 80 miles from home I finally made it down to the park. You know that sentence doesn't make much sense but I'm not going to change it. Y'all just have to figure out what it says.

It was almost dark and I had to set up a tent that I hadn't used in oh 13 years. I almost got it up right. Didn't quite have the tent poles where they needed to be on the ground. So I set it up how I believe/remember it should be, with help, toss my stuff inside and roll up and tie the windows so that I can air it out after being in a bag for 13 years.

It comes time to go to bed and I untie the windows and flip them down and, "Shit!", there goes my tent. Damn thing fell down. The people that were in the tent right by mine, Mairwen and Troy, hear me and come out to help. So we get the tent back up. The same way as before and I say thanks and crawl inside to go to bed. I close the outside door, no problems, and as I get to the bottom of the inner screen door, "Crap!", it falls down again. So here I am in a collapsed tent trying to get the door open so I can get back out and fix it again. Troy and Mairwen graciously get back out of their tent and help me put mine back up AGAIN. Only this time we did it the right way and it didn't fall down again. Yeah!

Okay so tent problem fixed. I get back inside after thanking Troy and Mairwen again, roll out my borrowed sleeping bag, toss my blanket over the top, put on my pj's, and crawl inside. Well FUCK ME! but there's a huge ass rock under my tent and no matter where I move I can't seem to move off of it. Okay so it wasn't really a rock just really hard ground and my 27 yo bones complaining, "HEY we're not 14 anymore!! You can't just sleep on the ground dumb ass!" Well I have no idea what time it was. It was late and dark and I was tired. I tossed and turned and went back down the canyon the next AM to buy myself an air mattress. I slept a whole heck of a lot better the second night. That wasn't however solely due to the air mattress. I had me a human furnace to keep me warm.

His name is Troy. Yes the same Troy previously mentioned. Oh did he make me warm, and curl my toes. 4 times that first night, and if we'd had more preservatives it would have happened even more times while we were out there, but damn it he only brought one. The rest were back in his tent with Mairwen and her kids, it would have been a little odd for him to crawl back into his tent to dig those out of his bag. Troy, honey, if you're reading this I know I said it a lot this weekend but DUMB ASS! Eventually I'll get over it and we can laugh about it. Oh wait that was the next morning.

For those of you reading this that aren't members of the SCA and/or don't know these people I'm talking about you may be getting the wrong idea. You may be saying, "But, wait, I thought that Troy was sharing a tent with Mairwen." Well he was but not because they're a couple. It was because he's nice and Mairwen and her kids needed a place to sleep. Mairwen is married. Troy is(was?) single. The question mark is cause we haven't quite figured out what we are to each other yet. Or at least I haven't.

Now that the explanation of why I'm not a cold hearted man stealing bitch is out of the way, wanna know about Sunday morning? We woke up, heard patters on the top of the tent and thought more fucking rain. Troy looked up and saw it starting to collect. Wait a minute rain doesn't collect. It was snowing. So of course, having only lived through two winters in my life I got excited cause I like snow. I got this big ole grin on my face and started clapping my hands. Troy said he didn't like me anymore :( Just cause I got excited about snow. Big meanie. That's okay I forgive, but I don't forget. At least not till the next time I get a kiss. I managed to get a couple of pictures before it all melted.

This is a shot of the camp from the view of my tent. Then I turned immediately around and snapped this one.

You can't see it but right on the other side of the shrubs at the bottom of the picture is a river. Man that thing was loud. Of course, as always, you can click on the pic to get a larger version.

So everyone else, not the people I was camping with, decided that the event was over a whole day early and we all left. Spent the night at my friend Flora's house and her GD rooster kept crowing the next morning. I tell you if I had more energy I would have killed that little fucker, but I was all warm and happy snuggled up in bed with Troy. He was happy too so I wasn't going anywhere.

We all spent the day at Flora's getting their trailer partially unloaded. Set their pavilion back up so it could dry. Set Troy's tent back up so it could dry. Mine is still rolled up in the trunk of my car. I think I'm just going to throw it away as is has a hole in it and eventually buy a new one. We spent all day visiting and laughing and just having a good time in general. I took Troy home to SLC as I was already planning on going down to get me some Wienerschnitzel. I know y'all think I'm wierd for getting excited over places like JITB and Wienerschnitzel but those of you that do just don't understand.

Anyway, we ended up starting Narnia at like 10:15. I was planning on being home at midnight but I had to stay and see it again. It was just as good as the first time I saw it in the theater. So I didn't get out of his place til 12:30 and still had an hour and a half drive back home. I made it home just after 2 and went to bed after telling Troy that I made it home in one piece. Passed out and then woke up and tossed and turned after a couple of hours cause my bed was lonely. It's amazing how quickly you get used to sharing a bed with someone.

I'm sure that I've forgotten somethings that happened this weekend. That happens when you drink and don't sleep well. I'll post more later if I remember anything else.

On the knitting front nothing to blog about. Just got 2 more rows on Icarus done, and of course already planned for another project.

Catch y'all later.

Wow was that quick!

I turned my car in Wednesday morning at 8:30 to be fixed. They told me it would be done by this afternoon (Friday). Well they called yesterday and told me it was done. Had it for less than 48 hours and it's already fixed. The receptionist called a little early so I went down on my lunch break to pick it up but had to come back later. S'okay tho cuz I was able to get a couple more things fixed by going early and asking for them. They had put pin stripes on the drivers side and it looked funny cuz as an 11YO car they had worn off on the passenger side. Fortunately the owner of the shop was there and when I asked him how long and how much to do the passenger side he said he'd just do it for me no charge. Also the weather striping on the replacement door had been torn and badly glued by the previous owner of the car that it came off of so I was able to get him to put my old doors weather striping on. It looks soo purty now.

Now on to fiber related stuff. You may have noticed that I joined the Icarus Shawl KAL. Here is my progress to date.



Now that yarn looks a lot darker in this picture than it is in real life. I was looking for a soft grey and this was the best I could find. It's much lighter and has a slight green tint to it. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for at the time that I was buying the yarn but I was able to find it at the Snake River Fiber Fair last Sunday.



It's 100% alpaca in a very beautiful soft dove grey. I'm making another shawl with that as soon as I'm done with this one. It's normally $27.50 but because it was Sunday and she didn't want to take it home I was able to get it for less than half price.

I also bought TWO whole fleeces. They're Churro and still need to be washed, teased, and carded before I can even think of spinning them. The first one is just a plain natural white.



Although it doesn't look white in the pic. That's cuz it's still dirty and needs to be cleaned. So you can see the $10 on the card sitting on top of that big bad of dirty fleece. I asked the lady running the booth, "So is that like $10 a pound or what?" She comes back with, "No that's for the whole thing." I'm thinking something must be wrong with it then and ask why. Well it was so cheap because the lady that she got it from didn't know how to skirt her fleeces and had been throwing fleeces away for years. So she went down and taught her how to skirt a fleece and gave the wool to this very nice lady. Well she didn't want it and didn't have to do much work to get it so she sold it, to me, for really cheap.

The other fleece is a really pretty grey and white. She is a spotted sheep named Willow.



Again the picture doesn't really do the fleece any justice. This one was a little more expensive a whole $15. So now I have 2 whole fleeces that I need to clean, tease, and card. That's almost 10 pounds of wool. It's going to take me a while to do it. Unless I can find someone with a drum carder that I can use. That'll save me a few hours.

I also bought some already ready to go corriedale roving from the owner of my LYS who had a booth up there as well.



A really pretty chocolate brown. I've spun a little of it up but have left that at home so no pics yet.

I went up with my friend Tola.

Image removed at Tola's request.

Who I'm sure is going to kill me for posting this pic but that's okay she'll get over it.

While we were in Idaho I made her show me where the local Jack in the Box was. For those of you that didn't grow up with JITB you don't understand what a wondermous thing this was. I had a Monster Taco and an Egg roll and it was almost better than sex. I'm not kidding. My next goal is to find a Weinerschnitzel. There are 2 in SLC. I just might go to one this weekend after I'm done camping. And for all you doubting Thomases out there here's a pic to prove I went to JITB.



While I was at the SRFF I also got me a new t-shirt as the one I was wearing had a lovely stain on the front that I didn't know was there until I put the shirt on.



That's a weaving reference on the shirt. In case you don't know a shuttle is what holds the yarn/thread/fiber that you slide back and forth to make a woven fabric. I also got a new tote bag that I have started using on a daily basis for all the crap that wont fit in my purse.



I was also tempted by this



but ended up not buying it as I can dye some of the fleece that I bought.

*Edited for typos

That's all for today. I'll have more to post after getting back from Quest this weekend.

Utah drivers suck!

Just to share what a "wonderful" day I had on Tuesday. It wasn't even 9 yet when this happened.

For those of you that don't know I work a grave shift job at a local plastics manufacturing warehouse and then a second job at the local community center. I was waiting in the driveway of the first job to turn right to go home and change for my second job. Well this guy pulls up next to and slightly behind me, about even with the back of my door. We were both looking left for an opening and when he saw one he took off. Needless to say I hadn't moved yet and he ran right into me. Yes I'm okay.

His excuse? "I thought you had gone." Helloooo do people not have eyes? Could he not have looked to make sure? No. He just steps on it.

Here are some pics of my car that I took right after it happened. You can click on the picture to see it larger.


A close up of my cracked fender.


A close up of the hole in my door. If you look closely at the bottom of my door you can see a piece of the trim hanging off as well.


A view of my whole driver's side door.


A slightly wider view of part of my fender and the door.

Yes that's me in that oh so lovely pose squatted down next to my car. Okay so now that you've heard the story of what happened let me tell you what happened after.

At first he said he wanted to try to pay for this himself and not go through insurance. I'm fine with that. I'm not a horrible person. I can understand trying to keep it under the radar and not raising his monthly bills. So I spent all morning Tuesday getting quotes. I call him Tuesday afternoon and tell him $957 for the lowest and $1824 for the highest. He says it'll take him a while to come up with the money. I ask how long. A week? A month? Just a general idea. He says he'll have to do some checking and get back to me. I'm cool with that. Told him to let me know that night at work. So when I get there Tuesday night/Wednesday morning he says he wants to go through his insurance. Okay fine. So I call Allstate yesterday and give them the policy number he gave me. They say that it's not a valid policy number. Okay fine. They can't look it up by VIN or license plate number. Only full name and address. So I decide to give him another try. I call and wake him up, not that I feel horrible about that after what I've been going through to try to get my car fixed. He says he'll call and get me a claim number or valid policy number by that night, this morning at 12 AM.

This morning at 8:30 when we're leaving work I ask him if he has a claim number for me. He says I didn't call. So I ask to see his proof of insurance to verify the policy number or get the address. He comes back with, (now this isn't an exact quote but very close to what he said) "You know what? I was looking at my policy and realized I gave you the one that's expired, so I'll have to call my dad and get the information." By this point I'm fuming. He has put off my car being fixed by 2 more days because he's either too lazy or too stupid to get this taken care of. So anyway, he made he mistake of telling me that the policy is in his fathers name and what his fathers name is. I know how to use the internet. I love me some http://www.skipease.com. So I find the only person in the state with his fathers name and call. I get his sister, who I at first thought was his mom. I say, "Is this the so and so residence?" Yes, but he's not home right now. "Do you have a son named (blank) that lives in Logan?" Yes. Then I proceed to tell her what happened and ask if the son is still on the Allstate insurance. She didn't know and took my number to have her mother call me back. Doesn't matter if mom or dad call I had the info I needed. SkipEase provided the address for this person so I called Allstate back and got my claim filed.

I don't even care if he's furious with me. I'll get my car fixed in a more timely manner. If he didn't want his father to know what happened he shouldn't have forced me to call. He should have acted like the adult he wants to be and taken care of this 2 days ago. He should not have forced me to find his father and tell him myself.

So I think I'm done venting now I'll let you all get back to your lives. I'll keep you updated on the saga that is my car repair as I get more info.

They're finally here!

If you're just here for the pretties then scroll down. If you're here for what's going on in my life then keep reading and you can look at the pics later.

I have taken a second job working graves at Icon Health and Fitness in the plastics department. What does that mean you may ask. What it means is that I'm very tired all the time and have hardly any time for knitting. Or updating my blog. It also means that I get very dirty and have to change clothes in the middle of my day so that I don't show up to be a manager looking like some minimum wage schmoe. The reason for this second job you ask. The position at the Whittier Center is only part time and therefore not enough to pay my bills. I'm getting further and further in debt and if I didn't do something I'm afraid I'd have to declare bankruptcy. Also I'd like to have some money for my cruise in August.

What? I didn't tell you about the cruise. I'm pretty sure I did. Hold on a sec let me check back in my archives. Okay I guess I didn't. Well, it's my friends 20th wedding anniversary and she has decided that we all need to take an Alaskan cruise to help her celebrate. When my idiot ex left last August I decided that I'd be able to take the cruise as I wasn't going on a honeymoon just 2 months before. So we're going to Alaska. I'm planning on hopefully finding some qiviut to be spun, or if I can't find the raw fiber then some yarn to knit. I'm also planning on taking a zip line shore excursion. Sounds pretty awesome to me. I am planning on taking a lot of pictures while on the cruise and if possible uploading from some internet cafe or something. That way I don't run out of room on my card.

Oh yeah I've decided to take up spinning. Yet another craft that I prolly won't have time for but you never know unless you give it a try. I haven't actually done any spinning yet but I have washed my fleece and started to tease it. After teasing is combing and THEN spinning. Next time I'm just going to buy it already processed. I figured that I'd have a greater appreciation for the stuff if I had to do it myself once.

Why am I taking up spinning? I already have enough to do in my life right? Well I have joined a group called the Society for Creative Anachronism. The SCA is an international organization dedicated to researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe. Stole that last sentence from their website. So what does that have to do with spinning? Just wait, be patient I'm getting to that. Anyway, the persona that I have chosen is a late period (closer to 1600) Scot's lass. That means that I can use an spindle spinning wheel and still fit the time period. Woo Hoo! No drop spindle. But wait there's more. The most fabulous owner of my LYS had a woman contact her recently that wants to sell her Ashford Traditional wheel. Why is that so kewl. Well because they sell an attachment that will make it period. So I get a wheel for less than new price and I'll still fit. People won't look at me spinning and sneer.

I'm also doing pretty good on my weight loss. Look to your right near the top of the page. 3lbs week before last and .8lbs last week. I only need to lose .6 more pounds to hit my 10% goal. That means that I get a special prize in front of the whole class. Now if you're smart you can reverse engineer that and figure out close to what my original weight was when I started WW. Just to let you know I had already started losing weight when I joined.

Now without further ado here they are! The previously promised pics! Yeah! Woo Hoo! Everybody jump for joy. I'm still getting used to my new photo storage so please bear with me as I try to figure out sizes.


this is some beautiful Opal Unisolid #11 Sock Yarn that I'm going to use to make pink ribbon socks for my friend that has survived breast cancer. The pattern that I'm going to use is this one. It's a free pattern by Lisa Lloyd.


My Next pair of socks will be with this yarn. It's Mountain Colors Barefoot sock yarn in the Elderberry colorway. This picture doesn't so it justice. It's so much prettier in real life.


This is part of a pair of socks that I am making for my mom. I have completed the first sock since this pic was taken and am at the heel turn on the second one. I did it once but somehow screwed it up so I have frogged the turn and will have to do it again.


This is one of my UFO's. It's a mohair shawl that I am making for myself. I bought the multi colored yarn first and then found another yarn that would go with it. I had to have it. It was just so purty. Only problem was that there was only one skein left. I didn't care I bought it anyway. Almost a year ago. Now I'm finally making something out of it. There is no pattern for the shawl. I'm just making a simple triangle garter stitch shawl. K into the F and B of the first st on every row.


This is a bag waiting for felting. I have again felted since this photo was taken. I bought the yarn on ebay. $30 for 11lbs. It was sold as wool yarn but it's not pure wool. I found this out after trying to felt. Didn't get anywhere near the results I wanted. Oh well.


This is what I have so far on my Rogue hoodie. Doesn't look like much I know but you have to keep in mind that for the size I'm doing it's 196 stitches per round. I have now finally decided that I do not want to put on the kangaroo pocket so I can keep going on it and will hopefully have it done by my cruise in August.


This is a close up of the cabling on one of the sides. Isn't it purty.

That's all there is for today folks. Come back later. I'll try to update more than 6 times a year.

Walk America

I know it's been a long time since I last updated this. I figured since it's been a little over 2 months since my last update I'd better let y'all know what's going on in my life. I was laid off of my last job in January and less then a week later became the center manager for the Whittier Community Center. I have been keeping up with the Weight Watchers and have lost 11.2 lbs to date. I go in again on Saturday for my weigh in.

The main impetus for this post was to let you know that I have signed up for the March of Dimes Walk America coming up here in April and will be looking for sponsorship. If you can please give a donation to this very worthy cause at http://www.walkamerica.org/katrinajoy or sign up to walk and collect donations yourself. The Logan walk is a 5 Mile walk starting at Willow Park on Saturday 4/29 at 10AM.

If you don't currently walk on a regular basis here's a good place to start. It has all kinds of information and ways to keep your walking fun. Also a Message Board for moral support and training ideas.

I have also been knitting of course. I have finally gotten the correct gauge for Rogue and am starting row 13 of the body. I haven't worked on it for about a week as I'm still not sure if I want to put on the kangaroo pocket. I'm thinking yes. Unfortunately that means yet another gauge swatch cause that's knit flat not in the round. Perhaps I'll just forgo the pocket as I'm too durned lazy to do that gauge swatch. I don't know I'll have to see what I feel like when I pick it up again later.

I have done quite a bit more on my mohair shawl. It's hard to gauge the doneness of that project though as I'm not sure if I'm going to knit until I run out of yarn or until it looks big enough. On that one I just keep plugging along and when I'm done I'll know. So you may see the status on that one jump from it's current status of 20% to 100% over night.

I haven't done much more on my socks as my cysts in my fingers have been bugging me lately and those little needles and little yarn hurt to hold. I need to work on those though as I have like 3 more skeins of yarn waiting to become socks and they're calling to me. "Knit me! Knit me!" I can hear them when I sleep. It's really annoying.

Anyway I think that's all for now. A lot I know but that's cause it's been a really long time since I've updated. Oh yeah and here comes the ever forgotten promise of pics as soon as I get that software reloaded on my newly updated PC.

I'm an Idiot

So I start this 3 day diet. Since we do our weigh in's here at work on Mondays I figured Fri, Sat, Sun would be a great time to do it. Well I forgot that I have a Christmas party tomorrow night in SLC. So much for my diet. I'll have to start over on Monday I guess.

I got 12 more rows on my mohair shawl done yesterday while waiting for new tires to be put on my car. It's looking really really purty. Unfortunately it's taking longer and longer to complete a row as I'm now up to like 100 stitches per row. I am knitting into the front and back of the first stitch on every row to make a plain garter stitch triangle scarf. It's going to take me forever to complete one row by the time I get near the end.

I got my Christmas shopping done for one of the houses that I have to ship too. Fedex says it should be there by wednesday the 21st. I'm crossing my fingers that it will get there by the 23rd.

That's all for now my break is over. I'll update with more, and pics, when I get home.

Weigh In

So I do my weigh in's on Saturdays, and after only 1 week on Weight Watchers I lost 2.6 lbs. Woo Hoo. That puts me 4.83% of the way to my goal. Go me! I'm so proud of me.

I haven't gotten any knitting done. Too much stuff to do with work and Yule. Hopefully after all this holiday crap dies down I'll be able to get some knitting done. I still have that pair of socks to finish. I have a mohair shawl to finish before I can start on Rogue again, need the needles. I have a Fun Fur, blech, scarf to finish for my niece. I have a lot of UFO's. Not very many FO's. Mostly my felted bags, a hat and some scarves. I gotta start knitting more. I just don't seem to have any time. Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

I almost forgot to tell y'all that I get my braces off in 28 days. I'm excited. I can finally chew gum again. I haven't had any since early April.

Man Have I Been Remiss

I haven't posted in so long I bet some of you thought I fell off the face of the earth. Well I haven't. As you can probably tell from my August 10th post I wasn't really a very happy camper. Not very long after that I lost my job. Not a huge loss mind you as I didn't really like working nights.

I now have a new job in credit/collections. Business not personal. I'd never take a collections job where I had to call little old ladies at home and say things like, "Well I know you need food, medicine, and a roof over your head but you should have thought of that before you placed your order."

I have been knitting but very little. I finished a sock, picture to come when I get home, and have about 40% of the second one done. I've had to frog my progress on Rogue as I found out, and yes I checked before I started, that my gauge is off by a whole stitch per inch. That would end up being like 8" over the whole sweater. I know it's fashionable to wear things a little tight now but I think that's stepping over the bounds a bit. The thing that really makes me mad is I checked. I did! I swear! The only thing I can think is that I was tired when I made the swatch and knit it looser than I usually knit.

Now on to non-knitting news. We've started this thing at work where 7 of us are doing the biggest loser, and to that end I have joined Weight Watchers. Not sure how I like it yet but I've only gone to one weigh in and meeting. Other's have been on it and swear by it. Guess we'll have to weight, pun intended, and see. I have lost 9lbs. so far but most of that was before I joined.

Well that's all for now. Hope I haven't lost all my readers with such a long span between posts but sometimes life gets in the way.

My Secret Pal is Totally Freaking Awesome

I got my last package from her a couple of days ago and haven't had the time to post. So now I've finally gotten around to it. Here are some pics of what she sent me.


All of it!

Here are some out of focus close ups for better color.


The Peacock


and the handpainted.

Aren't they purty? Don't you wish you had my secret pal?

Her name is Libby and her blog is at http://www.knitterpated.net. How appropriate is it that her blog is Knitterpated when I have a tattoo of Flower on my ankle?



In knitting news I have finally cast on for the Rogue Hoodie. I've only got 2 rows done so far as it's K1P1 ribbing over 196 stitches. Totally sucks major butt. I'm sure when I get that part done it'll be much more fun and prolly go alot faster.

Not A Great Week

Just a warning this is a fairly emotional rant about men so read it at your own risk.

As you know, if you are a regular reader, I recently became a Slumber Parties distributor. I have now booked my first three parties. They're all for September but that's okay it gives me time to build up my inventory and work on my presentation. I just can't wait for that first party. I know it'll be soooo much fun.

In less exciting news my fiance decided that my debts outweighed my love for him and left me last Thursday. He says that he still loves me and wants me in his life, but if you read his blog (link removed because he's an ass) you'll see that he has plans on moving to SLC. How, if I do decide to give him another chance, is that possibly going to work?

I haven't decided yet if I am going to give him another chance because it will always be in the back of my mind, "What happens the next time I do something he doesn't like?", "What happens the next time something from my past comes up?" That's not a good foundation on which to build a relationship.

He thinks that he can somehow make his leaving me at the first sign of trouble a good thing. That he's not trying to blackmail me by giving me a list of things that I have to do before I can have him back in my life. Personally I feel that if I do these things, just to get him back, I'll be giving up control of my life that I don't want to give up. The stupid thing is the things on this list are things that I was planning on doing anyway, without him doing "something drastic" to make me see. I was already planning on paying off my debts and going back to school. Why the hell does he think I started my Slumber Parties business? So I can get away from the Monday to Friday full time job and focus on school and getting debt free. It wasnt' just because I thought it'd be fun. I really plan on making something out of this business. I'm also looking forward to not having to deal with corporate America for a while.

Talk about hypocritical he wont be debt free, as he claims, when we were to get married, he'll still have his student loans. I know a lot of you don't see that as debt but it is. Just because it's deferred doesn't mean it's not real. He's also told me that he plans on not going to school this semester. So I have to do things that he doesn't just to make him happy? Just to have him in my life? How is that at all fair? How is that not controlling? How is withdrawing his love and affection from me until I do the things that make HIM happy not blackmail?

I don't know what to do. I love him and it still hurts whenever anybody mentions him at work, we have the same employer, or when I find something that he left behind. I just don't know if I can continue to love someone that gives up on me instead of fighting for me.

He says that we have communication problems and that's probably true. It's not easy for me to share my feelings with people. I've been taught my whole life that I have to be self reliant and not allow myself to become dependant on anyone so I internalize. I always have. I know that's not good for a relationship but neither is giving up after one glib answer and not pushing for more and honestly trying to get a real answer.

Okay I have to stop now. I'm sure you're all sick of reading my ramblings. I have things to do to get my hostess ready for her party in 3 weeks. Hope I didn't bring you all down with this.

--K

Blah

I know you've all felt it. I've had the blah's. I'm getting better now tho. I've got a new temp job that will hopefully turn into something long term. I'm working in the mail room at Moore Wallace.

I've also just signed up to be a Slumber Parties distributor and hope to get that going real soon. If any of you would like to book a party just let me know. If you don't want to world to know about it you can contact me using my email address. It should be listed in my profile to the right.

I also need to send another thank you to my secret pal. I got a really cute stained glass coloring book and some markers to color it with. I also got some cute pencils.

As you can see from the progress bars on the right I haven't been doing much knitting. A sign that I haven't been feeling great. I did however just get my latest issue of Creative Knitting and there are a lot of cute projects in there that haven't given me the itch again.

My fiance just got home and has caught our lunch.



Looks yummy doesn't it. Those are both rainbows caught using the flies that I bought him for his birthday. He said he actually caught 4 but threw 2 back. He's never had this much success fly fishing before. I told him it pays to listen to the guys in the fly shop. They usually know what they're talking about. The only complaint I have is that he left the heads on when he served it and there is no way in hell that I'd be able to eat the fish looking at those nasty grey eyes. Blech!

Slacking

I've been a very very bad blogger lately. I haven't updated this since the first and that was with a post I created on May 18th. Sorry guys, I've been slightly depressed and not wanting to do much of anything lately. My new job is 0600 to 1530. Every freaking day. At least I get 5 hours OT everyweek. Not too bad.

To my secret pal, the one I'm getting gifts from not sending to, thank you soo much for everything. I'm sorry I didn't post this sooner but as you read I've been in a funk. Although I love chocolate, I think perhaps it's best you not send me anymore. Northern UT is nasty hot this time of year and the first package you sent they all melted. Fortunately the plastic wrap on the cards kept them from getting messy.

Here are pics for those of you who want to see what my secret pal sent.

The first package arrived about 16 days ago. It contained these note cards and some melted chocolate in a pretty purple bag that had to be tossed, unfortunately, as it was covered in chocolate.



And this arrived today.



If you can't tell what all that is. It's some really purty dk weight yarn, 3 patterns, some dpns, and a cute card with froggy's on it.

Oh poo. Now that I'm posting these pics I can't use one of those cards in my next package to my sp. Oh well. I'll have to find something else to use. If anything at all.

Well that's it for now. I have 164 posts on all the blogs I read to catch up on.

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