The cute, it hurts

Warning: Only click on the following links if you love disgustingly cute animal pictures. And if you do, only click on the links when you have lots of free time because there are lots of pages of disgustingly cute. Enjoy!

Naptiem (yes, that's how the site spells it).
Daily Squee
Cute Pet of the Day

(Yeah, yeah, this is what I've been doing instead of knitting. Although I did weave a little this week.)

Another reason to keep on knitting!

Knitting May Delay Memory Loss

I'm on the last chart of Greta; just haven't felt great the past couple of days. My yoga class kicked my butt Monday and I just wasn't great yesterday. Usually, yoga helps me feel better, but when I haven't been in a couple of weeks... I do know it helps me in the long run, but that's really hard to believe when one can barely move.

I hope to have pictures of Greta very soon! I also hope to get caught up on my blog reading this week.

Making Sweaters

Work on the sweater has temporarily stalled. I've made it to the sleeves, but as I increased the diameter of the armholes, it also requires a bit of calculation on the sleeves. Not that I mind making the calculations, it just requires a bit more concentration than I've had the past few days and I want the sweater to work out well. I feel that it is very important if you make sweaters for yourself not to blindly follow patterns; if you want sweaters that fit (and if you go to all that trouble to make a sweater, you know you want it to fit), you need to take a bit more time and planning than just reading the pattern. You need to know your measurements (and you need to be realistic about them; just because you were a size ? in college doesn't mean you still are). You also need to know where your body is going to usually differ from patterns for your size. My two problem areas are usually the shoulders/armholes and a long waist. Store-bought shirts can fit me perfectly in every other way, but they are often too tight in the armholes for me and they also are often just too short. Thank goodness longer shirts seem to be back in now. When I make a sweater or top, I often have to add room in the armhole and I nearly always add an inch or two to the waist length. And I'm always willing (however much I may complain about it) to rip the sweater if it's not working and start over. You have to be willing to frog if it's not working out. That's important. Yes, it may be twice the work to start over, but honestly, are you really going to wear a sweater that's two sizes too big (or small)?

Anyway, since I don't have any knitting to show, I'll tell you what I have been up to. I didn't want to start any new knitting, so I decided to repair some of my socks. I had three pairs that I haven't been able to wear because they had rather small holes, so I darned the darn (groan!) socks and can now wear them again. (Now, before you start sending me all your socks that need darning, keep in mind that one pair had been sitting in my repair bag since last winter.) I really don't mind darning, it's just finding the motivation to actually start the process. Boredom seems to work.

As for my weaving, I've been spending the weekend warping the loom for my new scarf (see last post). I'm about halfway done with the warping process and I hope to finish that today and get started on my weaving. I came across some really cool weaving software over the weekend and have been playing with twill patterns for the scarf. I hope it turns out as nicely as I think it will.

I had planned...

Well, I had planned to finish plying some lovely yarn that I've been spinning for a while. I had planned to finish it up yesterday and give it a nice bath and then I had planned on having some lovely pictures of it to show off this morning. I had also planned on getting some more weaving done, maybe even some more of Magickal Earth. But things don't always work out that way. I spent most of yesterday morning in a migraine-induced stupor. My usual remedies didn't seem to be remedying anything. I was mostly okay as long as I remained completely and totally still. Finally, around suppertime my migraine let up only to give way to a stomach bug for me and one of my daughters. Ugh. We're feeling much better this morning.

So, I only really have a lousy weaving picture to show. I have a small Ott lamp downstairs, but I really need to get a bigger one to use for my weaving and picture taking.


Hopefully later in the week I'll have the pretty yarn all finished (at least one skein, I still have tons of the stuff to spin).

Vote today!

Whatever candidates you support, exercise your civic rights and duties and get out there and vote! Okay, so now my public service announcement is over, I'll warn you that the rest of this entry is about the rally I went to last night. Those of you who've been reading for a while know that I don't normally use my blog as a soapbox. I may discreetly say whom I'm supporting, but I'm usually not too vocal about it. Having said that, this election seems to be important to a lot of people, myself included, and hearing my candidate was ending his campaign right near me, I couldn't not go; I couldn't not take my kids. If you don't want to read on, then please skip this entry, but please don't knock my candidate in the comments because I'm not knocking yours. I'll be back to regular fiber blogging later this week.

None of my photos of Obama were great as I was dealing with a podium and bright light as well as not being too close, but we were much closer than I had expected to be. I could even see one of the CNN reporters in the press stands, and I could actually tell that it was Barack Obama speaking. We arrived around five and this is the Vote for Change sign around this time:


This is the same sign later:


The unofficial estimates for the night were 80,000 people. I don't do well with crowds and I debated about bringing my girls into these crowds way past their bedtime. In the end, I did. The crowd was wonderfully well-behaved. There was a bit of heckling of the band when Obama was a bit late (they really were more appropriate for a wedding). But, it was a good crowd, despite standing for hours. My girls were asleep on the ground while waiting in the middle of the crowd and people around us warned anyone coming through that there were kids there. No one seemed upset at waiting (a bit of complaining, yes, but it wasn't bad-natured.) People around us chatted. One elderly lady from Europe talked to me a little bit about seeing the end of World War II; she told me she had seen people dragged from their houses when she was about my girls' ages. She was impressed by the diversity of the crowd last night and the unity. She was there because she believed Obama was the diplomat the country needs. Others had other stories. I was there because I hope. I'm very cynical by nature and yet, I want to have hope for the future. I have hope of getting out of a costly war. I have hope of somehow making America a better place for everyone.

I believe he's the one to try and fix this mess we've gotten ourselves in. From what I've seen of him, he tries to surround himself with people that know more about certain issues than he does. His VP pick, for example, knows foreign policy. That's what I think a leader should be, not someone who necessarily knows everything and how to do everything himself (or herself), but someone who will listen to what others think and come to a decision based on several viewpoints.

I'm cynical enough to think that he may not be everything we hope he is. But, for now, he's given me hope. So, last night, we found ourselves in a field with thousands of others because I have hope. We heard Obama speak on the day he lost his grandmother and the day before one of the most historic elections, win or lose.

Loom story

The other day, I mentioned that I had ordered my loom. This loom is my Christmas present from last year, but it was conditional. My husband had told me that I could order it when I had finished cleaning the basement so that there might actually be room for it. For the heck of it, I called a loom store last week just to ask some questions, and they told me that since they didn't have the loom in stock it would be about eight weeks from the time I ordered. Since I tend to work better under a deadline, my wonderful husband agreed to let me go ahead and order it, so I did. I got a call on Tuesday telling me that when we had spoken the first time they had thought I was talking about the four-harness; they actually did have an eight-harness in stock and could send it right out. So, seriously, you think I'm going to say no?

So, instead of eight weeks to finish cleaning the basement, I only have a few days to prepare for my Mighty Wolf loom. I really should have taken "before" pictures because it was really bad, but today it looks like it might actually be doable.

Have I mentioned how wonderful my husband is? A few weeks ago, he surprised me totally out of the blue with this:

I know it looks a bit gold in the picture, but if you can read the writing, it's actually sterling silver. I love Romi pins, so very beautiful.

Well, I need to get back to the basement!

Whole Lotta Nothin'

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes. I don't have anything to show, just wanted everyone to know I'm not lost. It's really hard to do a knitting blog on the days you have no knitting to show, isn't it?

I've been doing a little knitting, but I'm very close to finishing the first pair of Munchkin socks, so there's no point in showing the unfinished socks since I'll probably be showing them finished soon. No progress has been made on Frost Flowers and Leaves. I'm not bored or anything, just haven't had time to actually sit and concentrate on lace.

I've also been reading a bit lately which takes away from knitting time (since I can't read and do colorwork at the same time since I use both hands for the colors, I'd have to drop one strand of yarn every time I wanted to turn a page). Mostly Amanda Quick books. I've read all of hers, but I felt a need to re-read some; I love her stuff. Her heroines are always eccentric and quirky and can usually take care of themselves.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have some adorable socks to show very soon.

WIP Wednesday

I got nothing. I know it's a knitting blog and all that, but there hasn't been too much knitting going on at my house lately. Just haven't felt too up to it. I've been slogging (don't you love that word?) away on the Diamond Stole edging, but still haven't finished the first side yet. I haven't done any socks or started anything else, so I got nothing. Makes for a rather boring knit blog, doesn't it?

I am rather tempted to start something new just to have something to show. But I really need to finish one or two projects first. Maybe I'll get around to finishing next week.

I've been doing a little bit of reading. I finished re-reading Little Women and have just begun re-reading Great Expectations. I get in these occasional moods where I want to re-read the classics. I'm one of those people who loves re-reading good books. I've read the Harry Potter books several times each (except for the last one). (I also like re-watching good TV episodes or good movies). What about you? Do you like to re-read certain books, or is once enough? Anybody have any re-readable books to recommend?

Pictures Tomorrow, I Promise

I know, you want to see the goodies purchased at the fiber fest this weekend and I promise pictures tomorrow! I went with a friend and we braved the insanity that is Socks that Rock and I got my very first skeins of the stuff (though my friend had already shown me several skeins). Heaven. I also got a bit of fibery goodness (like I've actually used what I got last year). And we saw lots of fibery livestock. But all that's tomorrow, I promise. (The reason I can't show you today is my friend accidentally grabbed one of my bags when I dropped her off. I called her when I got home panicked and she told me yes, she had my bag. Pretty easy to do with the back seat full of bags and all. I'm telling you the panic that accompanied finding a bunch of stuff missing was unpleasant, but she'll be bringing the stuff to our monthly guild meeting tonight, so pictures tomorrow.)

Also, sometime this week, I'll be posting pictures of my skirt. I'm finishing off the crochet border today and putting in the elastic. I know I've said it before, but I'm seriously wondering if I should sacrifice yarn to the knitting gods, because this skirt fits perfectly! That's two actual gauge-important projects in a row that have worked for me. I need to find a half-slip to go underneath and it is on my to-wear this week list.

I mentioned earlier that guild meeting is tonight and I'm going to be helping with a spinning presentation. I think I'm going to find my carders and take along a little raw wool just to show the process, but the wheel and some spindles are also going along. It will be the first time I've used the wheel in a while. Don't know how I'm going to carry all the fibery purchases, FOs and the wheel into the meeting to show off. I need a couple more arms. Of course, that would be useful for everyday, wouldn't it? It might look really odd, but an extra arm to hold a book to read while I knit would be nice.

Until tomorrow...