i'm exhausted

8 years of anger and frustration will take their toll on anyone. i have been furious for 8 years.

i was furious when i saw the dirty tricks and outright illegal activity which led to the theft of the election 8 years ago.

i have been furious as the american people seemed to collectively give up any notion of being informed and pro-active.

i have been furious at the way the oxymoronic moral majority has fostered an environment of exclusion, division, fear and hate.

now, for the first time in 8 years, i am no longer furious. i am in awe.

i am in awe of an intelligent inclusive man who brought us all together.

i am in awe of a nation that did sit up and pay attention.

i am in awe of the next generation, most first time voters, who have decided to seize their future and make it a better place.

i have hope now, not just for us as a nation, but i have a great deal of hope for my daughter's generation. i have hope they too will become a great generation.

i'm exhausted...

but happy.

finally

for the first time in 8 years i feel hopeful, not fearful.

just in time for halloween

there are a ton of tutorials on the interwebs about diy halloween stuff. usually the costume ones are for adults, kids or pets. once in a while, once in a great while, someone comes along who does a costume that falls in the genius category. today i have found one such person. she's a pretty creative person anyway and, one of the things i love about her, also kind of strange in the best possible way.

case in point? here's her take on halloween costumes for "dun dun dunnnnnn"

...your houseplants!

friends don't let friends...

well, in the case of my so-called friends...

i knew these people were depraved but i continued to hang out with them. we all got together this past weekend for a planned day of "fun". my friend, let's call him dave decided to channel "the dude" and made a pitcher of white russians. i generally tend to avoid drinking with them because, well, i know how they are. this time i gave in and had some white russians.

those things are really good, you know? they go down verrrrrry easily.

i vaguely remember the rest of the evening but i do remember getting home and my DH pouring me into bed. well, in all honesty, it wasn't that bad but i was definitely happy. I awoke the next day with a feeling of dread and a vague sense of guilt. then i remembered.

my depraved friends took advantage of my inebriated state to get me to do something i swore i'd never do.

i'm so ashamed.

i now have a facebook account.

socks

one of the reasons i wanted to learn to knit was so i could make my own socks. i was never able to find the kind of socks i wanted in the stores. i wanted the nice warm thick socks for wearing around the house in cold weather. one of the first pair of socks i knitted was, well, not a disaster exactly, but not something you would hold up with pride and say "i made these!"

i did them top down, no pattern, just using math. my friend (the fiber pusher) gave me the basics and i just went to town. i used lion brand MicroSpun yarn which was not the best choice. i double stranded it and used about 4 different colors, switching out those colors to get different effects. a great idea but the yarn keeps popping out where i tried to weave it in. they are also two different sizes and keep falling off my feet since they are also too big.

it wasn't until recently that i got started on the socks again and, now that i'm using actual patterns, they fit a WHOLE lot better. want to see them? they are not in order of completion.

these are from the tidal wave pattern. i made the mistake of taking the pattern all the way down the foot and it makes the foot skewed a little. they're still comfy though.

the yarn is from what has to be my favorite source for sock yarn: thank ewe on etsy. i just love their yarn. there is so much of it that i can probably get another pair of socks out of what's left.

these are superwash. i think most of my socks will be superwash just for the ease of care.

here's a few more just for grins.



go see the rest here

way back when

i mentioned the pull that crochet was starting to have on me here. i actually started a ripple blanket which was inspired by this one. i actually tried to do it in crochet but just fought with that first row. it wasn't fun and, quite frankly, if it's not fun why do it? i really wanted one of those ripple blankets though so i am doing one in a modified feather and fan. instead of doing YOs for the increase i'm just doing a KFB at the increase stitches.

wanna see?


i really like how these pictures are coming out. i think i did the right thing by getting my daughter to do all my knitting glamour shots, don't you?

i have close-ups. wanna see?











instead of going all crazy bright with the colors, i decided to stick with a limited palette using, *ahem* palette yarn from knit picks. it's fingering weight wool and i just love the way it drapes. it won't be machine washable but i'll deal with that aspect of the blanket when the time comes. this is another long-term project. a good thing to get out when i don't feel like being inventive but want to work on something satisfying.

oh yeah. lovin' the ripple.

hexagon blanket update

i've been working on the hexagon blanket again. there for a while, i got stumped because i was starting to have problems choosing colors.

i really want to keep this looking very unplanned. do you know how hard that is to do? i realized i started clustering colors in one area so then i had to start in another area then the same thing happened and then i switched and it happened again and and and

well

it just wore me out so i took a little break.

i was looking at some of the hexagon blankets on ravelry and in the flickr hexagon love pool group to try and get umphed up about it again. one of the people mentioned she was doing hers in groups of 7 hexes. then when she got enough she joined them up. the main thing is to make sure you don't repeat the final round color choice in any of the groups of 7. then, when you join them you don't have to worry about the same colors touching! genius!

it got me out of my brain lock. it's also easier to be "unplanned" with just 7 hexes at a time, too.

i also got a photographer that knows her stuff. see?




i'm ready for my close-up mr. DeMille!