BlogStalking #10

(I'll post BlogStalking week 9 when I get home to the camera)

Things for which I'm Thankful

I guess it goes without saying that I'm thankful for my family and friends, and my little fur ball Katie, so here is the other stuff:

I am Thankful for:

~The internet. I've met so many wonderful people through bulletin boards for two of my obsessions hobbies. Some of these folks I've known for almost 10 years. Is that possible Kathy?

~My therapist and psychiatrist, without whom I'd be paralysed by my anxiety disorder and locked up in my house (since the anxiety manifests as agoraphobia – funfunfun).

~ Jen, who was the only person I felt it was "safe" to go anywhere with while I was in the middle of the anxiety stuff (besides my immediate family). Without her I would never have gone to Rhinebeck in 2006 or on a winter yarn crawl in Philly this past January.

~ Shannon, Pam, Cristi, Laurine, Bezzie and all the Knittys I've met the past year. Ya'll were and still are the light at the end of the agoraphobic tunnel. You pulled me out of my house to meet up with you, which means so much.

~ My yarn stash. I’m very, very, very thankful for that.

~ My Mom and Granny. I know I already said I was thankful for family, but this is special. Mom taught me to knit & Granny how to crochet when I was a wee little thing. Most importantly tho they taught me how to read patterns for each.

~ Hand knit socks. I can’t say I’ll NEVER go back to store bought, but I will always have hand knit socks to wear in cold weather.

~ 300 thread count sheets. I’m worth it.

~ Bare Escentuals makeup

~ The people who make me laugh, cry, think deep thoughts, learn all sorts of things, and let me know I’m not all alone in how I deal with things.: John Scalzi, Pamela Ribon, Cherie Priest, Kate Harding, Laurie Perry, Kathy and Roberta.

~ I’m thankful for my ancestors, who passed on the DNA which makes me look much younger than I actually am.

Lastly - I'm thankful you read this all the way through!

I love this TV show

The one new show this season that really stands out for me is Pushing Daisys. I had hopes for other new shows, but there is really only one that comes close (and that one may live an untimely death because of the writer's strike) which is Samantha Who? written by Pamela Ribon, better known as Pamie.com. If you've not read her blog, book mark her and spend some time there.

Anyway - Pushing Daisys has several things going for it. A very odd, fantasy concept. The main character is a pie maker who can bring dead people back to life with a touch, and then can "unanimate" (deanimate? redead?) them with another touch. So he and his partner (a PI who discovers his secret) talks the pie maker into finding out how people died from them directly, and calling into tip lines to collect the reward money. The catch is that he has to get the information from the recently dead person within a minute or someone else, close in proximity will die.

Things go awry when he reanimates his childhood sweetheart and doesn't touch her again. Which means he can NEVER touch her again.

So here is this crime solving crew who works out of a pie shop and the pie shop waitress who knows something isn't right with the Pie Maker's sweetie and all the assorted customers and "clients" who come along.

What 90% sold me on this show is the narrator, Jim Dale. Anyone who has listened to the American version of the Harry Potter books on tape know how wonderful he is to listen to. He brings whatever he reads to life. Although he isn't seen his voice is one more rich and intriguing character.

Oh and Swoosie Kurtz & Ellen Greene play the sweetheart's grieving aunts.

The other 10%... the tough as nails PI "Emerson Cod" has a pass-time that keeps his stress levels down. Knitting. He has knit sweaters, gun holsters and cozies for all the reward money. There was even a line about how he was not yet ready to knit in public.

Watch this show. Hopefully it will return after the writer's strike is settled.

Super Special Yarn!

Welcome to another installment of YPF! I purchased this while I was shopping with Bezzie. I know I have more Rhinebeck swag to show you, but I really love this yarn and I've not seen it anywhere else before.

Note to self - work on yarn photos.

Ahhh - much better!

This is Classic Elite Alpaca Sock in Harvest colorway. Is it wrong to carry it around petting it? Even at work?

And yes, this is the same yarn that Bezzie is giving away as the November K.A.Y.E. prize. Go check out the deets on her blog and maybe you can win some. Then I won't be so alone when you want to carry it to work and pet it all day too.

Blogstalking 2.0 Week 8

Here it is. Breakfast of champions.

I thought I'd try the Pumpkin muffin (right) but got the second because I was starving for some reason. Shocking that popcorn wasn't a satisfying dinner huh?

Catching up (Long and lots of Pics!)

It's been a week since my last post. I knew when I signed up for Nanowrimo I'd be blogging a lot less, but what I didn't realize is that I'd much rather be knitting a sweater than doing anything else. I should have joined Nakniswemo instead.

Nice seque hum? WIP-n-it til Thursday...

This is the yarn I showed two YPFs ago which I loved so much and had to buy even tho I had no idea what it would become. Inspiration struck and this sweater vest from Knitty yelled to be knitted in that yarn. The yarn swooned and had those little cartoon hearts coming out of it in the direction of the pattern. How can I ignore a love like that?

So I started on Monday. The yarn is so yummy. The colors so pretty (contrary to my photo ability). I've been working on this and this alone since I cast on.

The Argosy Baby Blanket is languishing in the corner because we have issues. ISSUES! First I didn't K2tog and had too many stitches. So on the next row I K3tog. It left a little hole, but the whole thing is full of holes. I forged ahead. Then I knit too many rows and the rectangle was too long. So I ripped back all the way to the missed K2tog and fixed that, then re-knit the correct amount of rows and the garter ridges and went on my merry way. It was only then I realized I never cast on at the ends to increase the blanket width. D'oh!

There are no socks on the needles because I finished my Coriolis socks.

Soooo Pretty!

I did attempt to cast on these socks which are so cute and clever. I, however, am not clever. I couldn't for the life of me figure the pattern out. Maybe I'll come back to these some day but right now I'm not feeling the Rainbow Sock love and I'm feeling dumber than a box of hair.

Which brings me to the most important even of the week. I met Bezzie and Chunky to pass the fug on. I knew I'd like her before I met her because she is a genuine person who tells it like it is. I admire that in a person. More people should be that way. What I didn't expect was to have so much in common with her, most shocking of which is that we knit the same way.

I knit like no one I ever saw before. People have tried to pigeon hole my "technique" as combination or continental (which it is most like because the yarn is manipulated with the left hand). But Bezzie knits the same way. No fancy wraps around fingers for tension, no throwing or picking or whatever-ing, just knitting and purling, no fuss, no muss.

You've heard me extol the wonderfulness of my nephews and how you can take them anywhere and they're polite and sweet and smart. Well now you can add another kid to the list. Chunky let his Mom shop in a yarn store for AN HOUR AND A HALF before he uttered the words "Can we go home yet?" I mean SERIOUSLY! Maybe it was a side effect of the strange pox he seemed to come down with.

As Bezzie and I were wandering around, fondling yarn, ooohhhing and aaaaahhhing over - well all the good stuff, one of the women who work at Sticks n Stitches asked us if we needed help finding anything and then stopped in her tracks. "Are you Bezzie?" she said. Introductions were made and then she turned to me and we introduced ourselves and I asked "Do you have a blog?" It turns out we both read each other's blogs! It was none other than Monica from Calling on Kahlo. We missed a meet up that was happening there the following day, but it was fun none the less. I definitely need to go back there and hang out.

I think this is long enough and if you managed to make it this far - WOW. I have like 37 more posts running around my head. Not to mention tomorrow's YPF and Blogstalking 2.0 Week 8. I'll get to those tomorrow. I know you can't wait to see what I had for breakfast! Heh

Friday!!!!

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Medium Weight
Gingerbread Dude

Purchased at Rhinebeck

Would it be wrong to drink ginger tea while knitting this into socks? Heeee hee!

Blogstalking 2 - Week 7

This wasn't the first picture I thought of when the assignment came up. But it is one of my favorite pictures and if shown in tandem they would give you a great picture of who I am, even as long ago as they were taken.

This is however the oldest picture of me I have in my home. The three portraits of me and my brothers, (oldest to youngest from left to right) were taken by George Harvan when we were around 7, 6 and 4 years old. Definitely click the link and you'll get lost in his pictures and the history that he helped keep a record of. He was an amazingly talented, interesting man, kind, soft spoken, intelligent and had a twinkle in his eye I'll never forget. We're very fortunate to have had him as a member of the family.

When he took these portraits he insisted that he would pick the one photo to print out of the dozens he took. When he gave the pictures to my parents (matted and framed, which he did in his basement) they couldn't have been happier. The pictures capture our personalities perfectly. (Check out my brother's black eye!)

I took the photos this morning and the light wasn't so great and the glass didn't cooperate so I may try again later. This isn't the original photo either. The originals are at my Mom and Dad's house. A few years ago (I think it was shortly after George passed away) Dad had the pictures reproduced, and he matted and framed them for the three of us. It's one of the very few pictures I have hung up on my walls.

Looking back on the website linked above, the memories of George and Jeanie (you can see their wedding pic!) have been flooding back all day. Strangest of all for me is when reading bits of the interviews, I can still hear his voice, see him take a draw off his pipe and settle into his chair to tell a story about the photos he took and the people he met.