and the winner is!

After using my friend the Randomizer and going by order of comments received, (good jokes, guys!), comment #2 is the winner! Congratulations, Sarah HB! Email your address to tobutakai at gmail.com and I'll send that undyed lace-weight straight to you. :)

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I don't have any pictures of my Works In Progress, but let me just tell you where I'm at.

The Baltic Sea Stole is on temporary hiatus because two lace patterns at once makes me a little woozy.

The Mrs. Beetons are sloooowly progressing, when my conscience is pricked and I go "Poor Jordan, she probably wanted these a month ago". They'll be done soonish, I promise!

The Pomatomus #2 socks are coming along nicely as they're something to knit when I don't want to take a big ol lace shawl to work. I'm almost to the heel of the second sock.

And The Mountain Peaks Shawl is on its way to Border land. Very exciting! Well, at least, I'M excited.

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And some sad news. The Rogue finally made its way back to me after being left behind in Kansas. It was under my brother's bed, covered in dog fur and needing a bit of a wash so my mom washed it. She's not really utterly hip to washing woolens and though she did remember cold water, she did not remember to not-agitate (she tossed it in the wash and set it on cold) and...it's a bit snug now. Alas. But that's okay, I can make another and this one can fit that beanpole I have for a sister (love you, Christina!).

I just have to "shave" the thing.

Happy Blogiversary!

It's been a full year! Way to go me!

Now, every 'birthday'/'anniversary' comes with presents so I have one for you. Leave your comments to this post and one lucky random person will receive that pretty skein of undyed lace-weight yarn that I featured in my Flash post. I'll pull a name on Sunday so you got the weekend.

And a theme for the comments? I want your best, corniest, dumbest PIRATE jokes. I LOVE pirate jokes so see if you got one I haven't heard yet. ;)

Oh yay, another contest/meme!

The contest is over here so help yerself!

Name 5 places other than your house or a knitting store where you have knit...:

1. The Kansas City Renaissance Festival was an awesome place to knit. I was surrounded by handicrafts of all sorts and I fit right in!

2. The movies. I knit a cat hat right through the fifth HP movie (uh huh, I di~id!). I mean, it was all just stockinette around and around...I figured I was about done when it fit right over my eyes during the scene where they're running around in the crazy maze. Creepy stuff.

3. At a mental hospital. Lots of times at a mental hospital (in the med room where there is a window with a sheet of plastic with a hole cut in it so they can't just grab the needles and go postal). Yeah, I'm not just a patient, I'm also the nurse! Oh wait. And no, no one has ever complained.

4. While waiting for a plane and on that plane. The stewardesses asked if I'd be done with the hat by the time we landed. It wasn't.

5. In a library on a Sunday after the front porch of my buddy seemed to have a rather irksome hornet making a nest chased us off. It wasn't the fact that it was almost 100 degrees out, making even a front porch surrounded by trees a trifle warm for lace knitting.

You know for all that Utah seems to be indecisive about whether it's really spring or if it wants to relapse into a few more days of winter, I prefer it over tornadoes. And I was in for a treat because as I was walking into the building, I passed within almost arm's reach of a robin that seemed very reluctant to leave its perch. He watched me as I watched him (trying NOT to grin like an idiot at being so close to one of the sprites of Nature), closer than I've ever been to a wild bird. It was fascinating.

And one final thought of snow in spring is that it makes those trees with the white blossoms just seem really funny. That's not snow on those branches...

The Knit Club

I'm sure someone somewhere's done this before, but this stemmed off a conversation thread in the knitting snark livejournal community.

The Knit Club

1st RULE: You do not talk about THE KNIT CLUB.

2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about THE KNIT CLUB.

3rd RULE: If someone says "block" or frogs completely or finishes seaming, the knit[ting project] is over.

4th RULE: At least* two sticks to a knit[ting project].

5th RULE: One knit[ting project] at a time.

6th RULE: No ponchos, no legwarmers.

7th RULE: Knit[ting project]s will go on as long as they have to.

8th RULE: If this is your first night at THE KNIT CLUB, you HAVE to knit.

*a Brad Pitt boyish grin to ragingcanary for making it fit for the DPNs.

Flashing

First item of business, many thanks for the sweet comments on my Five Years post. I had an awesome time and indulged in an english toffee-chocolate-caramel covered apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It was very VERY good and not overly rich or indulgent, thanks to the apple part.

Okay, I didn't think I'd do this but kind of did anyways. This is pretty much all I've got, though there's some stuff in the unfinished projects drawer. Just a humble stash to keep me busy.


Here's all my sock yarn.


Top and bottom respectively.


My lace weights.


And my odds and ends. The purple stuff is Cascade leftovers from Rogue, the blue-green stuff is handspun merino-tencel. I'm clearly NOT a very good spinner.

That's my humble stash. It's enough to keep me occupied and when I need more, I just go and get it. :) I may not go to Knitpicks in the future, though. I'm having issues with them. For one thing, I put in my credit card expiration date in wrong and they never emailed me to inform me. So I emailed them and they quite rudely accused me of deleting the email they may or may not have sent concerning the error. At least the girl on the phone was nice. But that was a week ago and it's still not here and I'm starting to get VERY impatient. But hey, if they don't care about their customers, their customers don't care about them. I'm off for greener pastures!

G is for...

Golden. Pictures taken while on a walk with my uncle's dog at my favorite time of day.

Five Years!

Five years ago. I was 120 pounds. I was finishing another semester at Kansas University. I was close friends with two incredible ladies and a tip top lad. I was very very sick. I could not sit down without passing out, whether it was for lecture, studying, television, being with friends without falling asleep, exhausted from toxic build-ups. The kidney did not die from disease, but from the double-edged sword of all meds, the side-effects. Mmm.

So, this Friday is April 7. April 7, 2001 was when I was wheeled in and I got a new birthday and kidney*. I was given a second chance for life and I feel it makes it more of a legitimate birthday than the one on June 23. Besides, I can tell everyone I'm five years old as opposed to twenty eight, which seems almost be illegal in Utah if you're still single by then. Whatever, it's a bit choice and a bit bad luck and that's just another story, except it's not much of a story at all. Kind of a rant.

*the donor was a 12 year old girl who died via motorcycle accident. She'd be 17 by now. I consider it an honor to live a full life with her help. Happy birthday, girl.

For those not of the know, it's General Conference for us LDS-ers! I love General Conference. It's the one time I can attend church un-showered, in my jammies, eating bagels with cream cheese and no one cares...because no one shares my room with me! And, of course, there's the spiritual aspect, too. It's good stuff.

And along with sitting around like some unwashed bum, I get to knit unhindered. And look, I already have something ready and set to go!



Now to relax that cord and start up my Mountain Peaks Lace Shawl!

And this is right after my wild night as I tried to live the life of a pirate:


Yarr.