Off hiatus, sort of.

I've been knitting, promise. But sometimes, I just don't feel like talking about it. Who wants to see the extra-long portion of the Mystery Stole? Yes, I added a bit to it since I had an extra week.

The highlight of excitement was when we gave Daisy the remnants of a jar of Jiffy PeanutButter.


Mmm, peanut butter...


Mmm, even the plastic and sticker is tasty...


Can't reach the bottom, woes.

I got the rest out for her with a spoon. Sometimes a dog deserves a gimme. :d

Last night, Mary and I went out for snowcones and we had such a lovely time just talking so I suggested we head out to the Merc just next door and I indulged in some Red Lavender and Fireside Chai. Both are lovely and caffeine-free. Rooibos is really good for you, too. It has your minerals and it's good for digestion problems and it's so very comforting. I love it.

Oh, and yes, I finished The Book. And with relief, I moved back to Wizard's First Rule, except that the characters have all turned into Human Hosepipes, phew. But my friend, Briana, has reassured me that things do improve. But now that it's all over with, I have a few suggestions on what to read next:

The Blue Sword and subsequently The Hero And The Crown, both by Robin McKinley.
Moonheart and Spiritwalk by Charles deLint
The Prydain Chronicles starting with The Book Of Three by Lloyd Alexander (who only recently passed away, sadly).
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle (but if you buy it, buy it from Conlan Press).

So, what books are you reading now?

Don't be a whippersnapper

My grandma doesn't knit. Neither does my oma. But they know how. I got a whole tin of knitting needles (straights) from my grandma. She also taught me to crochet (well, teaching in that she showed me real slow how to do a few stitches and after that I was on my own).

But I'm getting tired of people who are offended about them knitting. C'mon, grandmas knit. They're allowed. They've done it longer than you and they can do it better than you. And they know how to screw up and how to fix it and how to make a pair of socks in under two hours and how to keep from stabbing people in the eyes with needles. They were knitting before it was fashionable and before it became unnecessary. They were knitting for the people who kept this country out of the hands of tyrants and monarchs. They were knitting your mom's diaper soakers and mittens and hats. And if you're REAL lucky, she's knit you a sweater or five.

You bet your bippy that it's still your grandma's knitting. And she can kick your can with it, too. So stop your whining and go ask her to teach you how to turn that heel. She knows about twelve ways to do it, five of them she made up on her own.

Guess what I'm not doing

Today I learned a valuable lesson: If your Wacom Tablet (or other object) is plugged into the computer, it is wise NOT to forget it and trip badly and maybe almost kill the tablet, your ankle, and the computer. Ow.

So, like most of America, I went to pick up the last Harry Potter book. I dressed up because, well, it's the last book. I'm not sure if it was more in the spirit of "Thank Goodness It's Over, I Will Dress Up" or "Kit Feels Like Being Weird And Can Get Away With It Today At Least"



And, of course, I came prepared with the proper tools:



And the nice thing was that I ran into some buddies from the knitting group! Dee-Anna and Emily (I think? Correct me if I'm wrong) who did not dress up but DID come earlier than me and got bracelets of earlier-book-picking-up colors. Emily also won a signed poster (whee!). So we all sat among the knitting books where it was less close and met two knitters and hopefully we'll see one at the next knitting group!

Oh but I was up late. I didn't get home until 2am and I took a peek at the last sentence of the book (I did not see 'scar', did Jo lie or did I just get the wrong page? Was it on the Acknowledgments page?) and started reading the first few chapters.

Playing hardball indeed. My characters would definitely hold a revolt if I were ever so careless with them! What does she think this is, X/1999? Um, if you don't get that, don't worry about it.

But today I had a Harry Hangover and once I recovered, I went to see the movie and by then I was to heartily sick of Harry Potter that I haven't read anymore. I just can't bring up the urge to worry about it too much.

So for now, it's finishing up the book I borrowed from the library (Terry Goodkind's Wizards First Rule which is intriguing but it's no soul-sucking attention-holding Robin McKinley) and glossing over any posts that mention it.

By the way, Dee-Anne, I am so sorry for missing the garden party. I'd forgotten and by the time I remembered, I couldn't find the map! I had put it in a safe place but I guess it was so safe that it was even safe from me. ARGH!

At least an old knitting swap partner whom I've become quite good friends with gave me what she felt was a necessary end to an old swap from, well, last year!



Isn't it amazing? It's such a lovely bag, so beautiful and handmade just for me.



The inside is marvelous, too.

Well, for those of you with noses still buried in their books, do enjoy. I'll catch up with you guys later. ;)

Taming Of The Kit.

I had a really fun time knitting a group at a cafe called Mirth (nice name, isn't it?). I now have 3 buddies who will be hanging out with me while we wait for the last Harry Potter book at midnight.

I hadn't been to the knitting groups they have here in Lawrence despite knowing that they existed. Part of me was just too lazy, the other part of me was just shy. But I decided to go today. It wasn't hard to find, really, after I asked the kid washing the windows where it was. Mirth is a part of what is known as The Marketplace and shares the building with several other offices. Mirth itself is a lovely cafe that also features gelatos and small sandwiches. It's a little dark and the area behind the counter seemed a little dingy (and the bathroom wouldn't have won any prizes either) but it was roomy and not too bright with a cheerful yellow awning to keep the sunlight from blinding everyone into oblivion. They even have WiFi, though you have to pay $4 an hour to use it. I walked in and the three girls there were already looking over to see me and unlike guessing which cluster of people with laptops were my writing group, I could tell right away which was the knitting group. Obviously.

So I sat down and introduced myself immediately. "Hi, I'm DragonCelt, aka Kirstin but you can call me Kit." What a mouthful, but honestly, Kit's really pretty easy to remember and I've learned to respond to it. Within half an hour, we had about double what we started with and Elinor, the Ravelry group maintainer and I suspect the knitlawrence.org website maintainer as well showed up with her little girl. Awesome! I love the little baby and I love little baby chub! And she'd been well educated, she was completely taken by my Northern Lights sock yarn by Cherry Tree Hill. At one point she became disinterested in her toys and would only be entertained by my finished sock that I brought to compare to my WIP sock to make sure I wasn't making the cuff too long or anything like that.

Some of the highlights of the knitting group was the talk of overwhelming stash (I guess out of sight CAN be out of mind), Ravelry, the garden party next Saturday (oh yeah, I am THERE) and, inevitably Harry Potter. Now, no one had really intended to be at the Potter Party thrown by Borders that night except for me, or so I think. But then it came up, excitement levels raised and now I believe I'm going to have three knitterly friends to hang out with before picking up my copy. I even decided to dress up then. I'll be the Professor Trelawny there since I can totally pull off the glasses, shawls, bells, hippy thing, it'll be awesome!

And by 5:30, people started leaving, I had a peach gelato that was so very refreshing and then headed home.

This is going to be an awesome knitting group, for realz.

It's too nice a day for murder and mayhem.

Can't talk. Listening to Harry Potter: Order Of The Phoenix and knitting Mystery Stole Clue #3.

Go 'way.

...

No, I'm only kidding (well sort of). Last weekend was spent indoors but it's been so delightful today that I have had no real interest in spending it listening to Harry angst on about life and Ron and Hermione fighting like cats. No, I am in no mood to do that.

Today has been very auspicious. Today was my mother's last bout of radiation. She bought her nurses and doctor goodies from Wheatfields and then bought us kids at home some goodies. She had the Tiramisu, I had carrot cake and Dad will have to have the chocolate ganache cake. We always celebrate with sugar, is there a better way? I don't know of it.

So Mom is doing fantastic. Her hair is coming in and it's no longer a vague fuzz. It's now a white-grey fur. Her prodigal eyelashes and eyebrows are returning with much rejoicing.

Well, much love! It's late and I have a date with Walmart's oil-change-guys and a knitting group.

Why I like Ravelry

This is what the local Ravelry group just guided me towards. It's a brand spanking new yarn store and it is very close to the KU Med Center which I frequent to keep my kidney on the healthy side. I'm definitely not going to mind having to wait forever for my doctor visits now! Not when I have a yarn store to drop by afterwards. It kind of reminds me of when I would visit A Unravelled Sheep over in Sandy when coming back from visits to the U of U Med Center in Salt Lake City. That was my favorite yarn store, they were so awesome there.

And then I found something else. As a caveat, I will not be attending just because I fear the sort of people who would attend this. I know Violet of Lime 'n Violet will be going but I can just see all sorts of big hairy creepy guys who just want to see some chicks wearing ultra risque clothes, knitted or not, being in high attendance and it just makes me a little squicked out. Still! You can't say this isn't typical Lawrence. ;) A knitted burlesque show! Can you bring your own knitting?

There also appears to be a sale at The Studio this Sunday and Monday. I'm SO tempted but at the same time, dude, I've got yarn! What do I want or need more for? Though, I could always use a little laceweight fix...

And that's some of the good stuff I just found while waiting for my writing muse to be a little more forthcoming!

Excuse me, I'd like my weekend back, please.

Well, Saturday night I wearily finished Clue #2 of the Mystery Science Th...I mean, Mystery Stole 3. Sunday had me photographing something that looks a bit like this:



This is really exciting, it's going to look great! And I'll finally be able to get that yarn shifted out of my stash!


A little close-up, Mr. Deville?

But what do I knit the rest of the time I'm not knitting alpaca? Socks, duh.

It's a far cry from last year when I lived in my uncle and aunt's basement and knitted on sweaters because it was close to 65 degrees F down there. In the summer. With the window open, my only source of heat. And now it's about 83F in my bedroom where I like to knit and I'm wondering if I'm not just a little crazy to be knitting alpaca in a room like that. I'm better off writing.

Speaking of writing, I've been working hard on writing my story and one of the cooler things that has been happening is that I've managed to work things out really well on the story that's been working in my head since Junior High. When I first started out with this story, I was heavily influenced by Mercedes Lackey. Hey, I was only thirteen, gimme a break! ;) I have since written the story out once and rewritten the beginning at least maybe three or four times -yeahyeahshuddup -and this time I intend to do finish it, go through it once or twice but no more major re-writes and try to send it off to be published.

I am mentioning this here because I really want this done and a good way get me going is to have lots of people asking me how it's going and cheering me on.

And no, it's not going to be a knitting book. You can all let out your sighs of relief now. It's fantasy and something a little more like Robin McKinley, who is my author-ly hero. If you've never read her stuff, I recommend her very first attempt at Beauty and the Beast titled simply Beauty. She rewrites it later and calls it The Rose Daughter and it's still marvelous but I like the simplicity of Beauty, not to mention it's short.

So what's your favorite reading genre? And who's your favorite author?

Potty wee Potter

I've been attempting to listen up on my audio Harry Potter books but you know, I have found that I can only take so much. Rowling uses an awful lot of 'he said' 'she said' and you realize that there are so many other ways to actually write that someone said something. Like 'he chortled' 'she sighed' 'he whined' 'she snapped'. But I guess you just consider her audience. Such details don't matter to children.

But I am up to Chapter 19 of Order of the Phoenix and I am heartily sick of it. I only wish I knitted lace faster, then I could move on to other things rather than stare at this alpaca and the charts and give myself a headache.

Definitely time to do something else.

So what do you like to do while you knit?

Oh yeah I did!

Oh yeah baby, that's done. Those Bayerische are FINISHED. Problem is...they're FAR too hot to wear until maybe January. Yeesh, these babies are so thick they could stand on their own and I will have no problem with cold feet this winter. I MAY have a problem fitting them into my shoes. Phew. But they're gorgeous!



And then I finished Clue 1, found an oops, frogged the whole thing, and reknit it. Here's the finished project:



And a close up of the beads:



They're a little pearly and will catch the light nicely when this stole is finished. It will also give the stole an extra bit of weight. :)

Happy Fourth!

You know, we don't realize at times how dang lucky we are in this country. I hear people go on and on, whinging about how TEEERRIBLE the US is, how horrible it is, we spit upon the Americans, ptooey! (And yet, we are Americans so I guess we're just spitting in the wind?)

But can you imagine a country where everyone gets healthcare but it not only may suck but you gotta wait for it? Not just the several hour wait in an ER but days, weeks, MONTHS? Yeah. I think I'm planning on having a heart attack on August 2nd, 2010, I'd better make my reservations now.

Or how about a country where you are either of the national religion or you're physically, mentally, spiritually tormented until you join?

Or a country where a man can come into your house and rob you blind, molest your loved ones but if you shoot him dead, YOU serve time?

I'm kind of glad I'm living in the States, personally. We're a hardy group. I mean, it's rained like mad today, the tornado sirens went off early this afternoon (for a severe thunderstorm watch?) and there are STILL people out there, shooting off tributes to pyromania and patriotism.

And yes, the above scenarios are very true.

((On the knitting front, I may finish the second Bayerische sock tonight, hurrah!))

Technical difficulties

In case you haven't noticed, Haloscan is taking an early 4th. Hold tight and if it's an emergency, please dial 9-1-1. Or otherwise email me: tobutakai at gmail.com.

Happy Canada Day yesterday!

So, I'm all for Canada. I love them, they have awesome sense of humor.

And on that note, I have a video:


It's all in good fun, right? I love my CayNayDay-ans!

And on the knitting front, my clue seems to have had an 'oops' in it. So under the advice of a few knitting specialists, I have ripped the whole thing entirely to knit it all up correctly this time.

No, I don't mind, I love knitting lace, so it's all good. :)