Friday, December 14, 2007

Socking It

I couldn’t come up with what to write today. Totally stuck. So Jessica’s sock MEME was a perfect savior…

1. What’s your favorite sock yarn? (please note that the word ‘yarn’ is singular. Just pick one. I know it’s hard.)
Since I haven’t gotten to play with too many sock yarns yet, I’ve got to pick the Spunky Eclectic sock yarn I’m using for the Mangotinis. It’s just a lot of fun, and the color is great. Plus, it feels like it will be really soft to wear (which is a bit thing for me).

Cabletini 11

2. What’s your favorite type and brand of sock needle?
I used to be an Addi circs girl. Then I got some Harmony double points. I have a very hard time going back… the Harmony’s (how do you make a brand name a plural? Harmonys? Harmonies?) are hands down my favorite. They even give you an extra needle because “accidents happen” to wood needles.

3. Do you knit your socks toe up, cuff down, or sideways?
Usually toe-up, but some of the best patterns I’ve found lately are cuff-down, and I don’t mind it as much as I used to.

4. Do you knit both socks at once or just one at a time?
One at a time. Never tried it any other way.

5. What’s your favorite toe and why?
I like the Turkish cast on. It just seems to work best for me. Though, I will admit to being easily amused by grafted toes. They’re a lot of fun.

6. Favorite heel?
Flap heel with slipped stitches. I like the cushiness. Next heel I do is going to be an eye of partridge heel, because it looks neat. We’ll see if I like that one.

7. Do you prefer plain or patterned socks?
Patterned. Plain stockinette is too boring.

Cabletini 04

8. Who do you knit the most socks for?
I’ve not knit many pairs yet, but most of them have been/will be for me. I think Mom is the next closest, though, because I know how much she appreciates them.

9. Do you darn your socks? If not, what do you do with them?
Haven’t had to yet… and it will eventually depend on the sock. Some I don’t think I will bother with, while others I will save as long as knitterly possible.

10. Do you only wear handknit socks?
Nope. I don’t knit fast enough for that.

Bonus question: What pattern, if any, is your basic “I-just-need-a-pair-of-socks” sock pattern based on? Do you keep it written down or memorized?
Don’t have one. I would rather just jot down notes on a 3×5 card and slip that in with the sock. I have no problem referring to a pattern for knitting - keeps it interesting.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2007

One Trumpeter Trumpeting

Or... at least, the start of one Dashing Mitt so that the trumpeter can trumpet without freezing his fingers.

Dashing 01

This is the WIP for today, the mitts I started yesterday for my Bro-in-Law. I'm using Lion Brand Wool-Ease in Denim, and the yarn is softer than I remember from last time I knit with it. (That was for M's scarf last Christmas.) I hope the yarn will stay nice for mitts. Mitts get different wear than scarves do.

Anyway, I am surprised at how quickly this is knitting up. Probably because last time I knit fingerless gloves I used sock yarn, and they seemed to take forever. Worsted weight yarn is much quicker to knit.

Dashing 02

So, I guess I'm doing Christmas knits this year (in addition to the crocheted snowflakes) after all. I wish I'd decided that with more than two weeks to go before Christmas...

(Sorry about the blurry photos. The camera phone decided to focus on the tree and not the mitt. Oh - and this is the tree at work. We've been too busy with theatre to decorate our house just yet. *sigh*)

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Two Front Teeth

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

~*~

So today I’m off to the LYS at lunchtime to get a set of size US7 dpns so I can make some Dashing mitts for the Bro-in-Law. I have no idea what to get for Christmas gifts this year - so I’m going to see how much I can knit between now and then. Well, really between now and Christmas Eve or so, because I will need to leave myself a little bit of emergency shopping time.

Another problem is answering the question of what I want for Christmas. My sister has asked (luckily it was when I didn’t have the ability to answer anyway, due to being busy with something else) and I had no idea what to tell her. Maybe I’ll write up a list of knitting books that people could buy me. Or of paperbacks I want to eventually own. I’m not going to point people at yarn stores, though, because I’d rather be surprised by any yarn purchases.

Life was easier when all I wanted for Christmas was the butterfly She-Ra doll.

~*~

Suzy in bed

All Suzy wants for Christmas is a cozy warm spot to sleep, either near me or on me. But if I can swing it, she’ll get a knitted mouse toy, too.

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Monday, December 10, 2007

Snow on my Pillow

Just a quick post today, but here are three more completed snowflakes to show off!

2007 Snowflakes 12

These were starched over the weekend, and are now in the pile waiting for me to figure out who gets which one. (It will likely all be fairly random. But bead color will play into it a little. They are all beaded, though it is a little hard to tell in the photos.)

I have mailed out the snowflakes to Jess and Brigitte, who won my contest, and so hopefully those will arrive soon and unharmed. (There’s cardboard in the envelopes to help protect them, but you never know what stupid people will decide to do… Cross your fingers.)

2007 Snowflakes 13

2007 Snowflakes 14

2007 Snowflakes 15

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Sunday, December 9, 2007

Weeks 48-49 ~ Runesword series

Week 48-49 ~ Nov 26-Dec 9, 2007

Runesword series

by various authors
(fantasy)

(First of all, I am combining 2 weeks because I'm reviewing a 6 book series. They are short books, but still. That's a lot of books for one week.)

1. Outcasts by Clayton Emery
2. Skryling's Blade by Rose Estes & Tom Wham
3. The Dreamstone by J.F. Rivkin
4. Horrible Humes by Stephen Billias
5. Dark Divide by Mark Acres
6. The Stone of Time by Rose Estes & Tom Wham

This is a series that I read for the first time in the early '90's. I was quite amused by them, but my reading expectations were quite different then than they are now. So, I decided to pick them back up again and see what I thought now. (This involved a good deal of hunting, but long story short, I now own them all again.)

And I discovered that they are enjoyable, as I remembered them being, but the stories do have some significant gaps. These are not "great fiction" by any stretch. However, they are fun reads. They seem styled for teens, and since that's what I was when I first read them, I guess my enjoyment level makes sense for the timing.

Best of the series (IMO): #5. It had the best motivation for the characters, and the most development. The plot was solid, too. (Others had decent plots, but this had more of the development part.)

Worst of the series (IMO, again): #4. This one felt like it was written without the author having read the rest of the series, just a summary of the previous plots. It had a totally different (and, to my mind, incompatible) style of writing, and the feel was just awkward in comparison. My main curiosity is how I would have felt if this one had been the first book with the character introductions - would I have liked it any better?

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Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Blooming Lotus

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?
- Harry Shearer

~*~

So today’s WIP Wednesday is focusing on the Lotus Blossom tank. (I had hoped to show off snowflakes, but no such luck. I guess it really doesn’t snow much in California.) (Please excuse the bad cell phone pics. One of the problems with a still broken computer is that I can’t get the photos off of my regular digital camera and onto my computer…)

Tank 1

I have been working on the tank a lot lately, partly because I got spoiled by the speed with which the Unoriginal Hat knit up - chunky yarn can be a WONDERFUL thing. Sport-weight (for the tank) isn’t quite as fast, but it beats fingering or lace weights!

Another reason for working on the tank is because it’s cute. I like it. I want to wear it. So I must finish it.

Tank 2

I’m nearly - and hopefully - a third of the way done with it. Hopefully, because I just finished ball #2, and I have 7 in this dye lot. I really hope I don’t have to go scrounging for more of my same dye lot. Cross your fingers that this will be enough yarn! Other people have used this many skeins of this type of yarn for this tank, so we’ll just hope.

And just as a quick “how I’m doing” update, one thing I told M last night (via IM) is that I’m frustrated knowing that I’ll get over him, because I don’t want to have to. That’s about where I stand. I know I’ll move on. I know it will be good for me. And I know that I don’t like the prospect of life without him. Well. Yesterday was a hard day (I was all excited over the weekend about Little Shop and my promotion, and it hit me yesterday that I can’t share it with him the way I want to) and today seems hard-ish but better. We shall see how it goes.

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Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Snow in the Mail

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
Thomas A. Edison

~*~

So… today, as promised, I have the winners of the snowflakes!

(Oops… did I say winners? I guess I did.)

I decided to draw names for two snowflakes, because - well, because it’s Christmas. And I feel good this morning. So there. I don’t think you’ll complain.

The two lucky recipients are:

Brigitte & Jess

Yay! Congrats! And I don’t have a picture of the snowflakes yet because I have been really busy with Little Shop and they aren’t starched yet. I’ll get there, I promise.

Brigitte and Jess, e-mail me (at: ca [dot] bookwyrm [at] gmail [dot] com) with your address and I will get the snowflakes in the mail to you!

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Monday, December 3, 2007

Random Monday

So, I read the radio programs over at StarDate Online. And one of the recent programs was about warp drive and how to make it possible. As a sci-fi/fantasy writer who needs help getting motivated to do the research she knows she needs to do, I find this incredibly valuable. The info from the program is here if anyone else wants to read it...

Also, I got promoted! Yay! No more reception desk work for me (once we find my replacement). I'll be in HR now. Should be fun, and will definitely be different than I've done before. Gotta love a challenge...

Little Shop auditions went well. Perhaps too well. We had 52 auditioners (as our vocal director says, a full deck) and the script calls for 8 actors... Yikes. We're going to pad out the cast as much as we can, but that brings us to 13-15, max. So we have a tough job of casting cuts to make now.

My personal computer is dark. Poor laptop decided to not turn on over the weekend. So, I wiped the drive and now need to find the time to reinstall Windows XP. With everything else going on in my life (side note: why does everything seem to happen at once?) "finding time" is more difficult than it seems it should be.

And... that's all for now. Must go figure out job stuff.

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