September 18th, 2008 angela
This weekend was fun. We switched the computer room and the bedroom and it is awesome. I can fit all of my shoes in the bedroom closet now because it is not full of our dressers. It is a little cramped, but I like it that way. We need to move the Xmas lights from the bedroom ceiling to the computer room ceiling. And put a cloth or something on the bedroom ceiling because it is so echoy in there. Though now I have to keep my bathroom clean whereas before no one even knew it was there because it was in the bedroom. We moved my computer desk without taking anything off of it and I gave myself a big nasty bruise. Abe has his desk in front of the window, but that is fine because the sun only shines in there first thing in the morning. And there is a great tree with red leaves out there right now. I think the dogs even like it better. Their kennels are side by side and they don’t seem to mind. They spend a lot of time in there. And on the bed. We just need to finish cleaning. Though I have probably 85% of my clothes put away finally. Some still needs to be hung up and I ran out of room for t-shirts. Full drawer. So I started filling another drawer after scooting some stuff to the side. I have too many t-shirts. I think those guys (Stacy and Clinton) on What Not to Wear would throw up if they saw how many t-shirts I have. They are very anti-t-shirt. (You know, of all the shows I miss from having cable, that and Monk and Psych are the ones I miss the most.)
After we did that all day on Saturday, I watched the Tick and dyed yarn while Abe was at work. What a trooper.
The roving started like this. A lovely fawn from Smoky Mountain Fibers on Etsy.
Then I dyed it and washed it. I just used Tropical Punch Kool Aid.
So I have 8 oz of reddish yarn. Looks great. Here is half the roving dyed and braided.
I have spun up two of the chucks (I dyed it in 2 oz chunks) already spun up.
The second came out thicker than the first. And the last one I think is dyed the darkest red. I will spin it up and see.
Here it is plied (navajo).
I definitely like the stove top method over the microwave method. about 4 times faster. I am going to make a hat out of it that I saw Sheldon wearing on Big Bang Theory (in the episode where he is sick). I loved that hat. I think it is just a moss stitch with thick tassels on each earflap and on the top. I tried to spin a bulky single, but I failed. I think I got a thick enough three ply though.
I also started working on Versatility. Which is awesome. It just needs to be done by November so I can take it to Calgary.
Speaking of. I am having a dickens of a time getting a flight there. I can’t arrive any earlier than 1:17 and they said plan on arriving no later than 1:00 to get to the store on time for the Fun Bus. So either I can email them and see if that is close enough and will they wait if my plane is late or I need to get one it and buy a flight for the night before and get a hotel for a night. Blegh. I also need to get my photo to get a new passport because I can’t find mine. Anywhere. And we looked through all our boxes. I know it is somewhere. It has to be. I should look in my suitcase. I think Australia was the last place I went with my passport. I had a flight that got me there at 11:30 or so and they changed it to 1:17 arrival. I ended up having to get a refund because they wouldn’t let me change my flight to a different day!
Anyways, versatility will be great because I don’t want to pack more than one bag since every airline seems to be charging for every single bag. And this is so Versatile! Ha. I am making it without the bobbles though. It looks great. I am using a darker red than the pictured one. When it is done, I will take it out as a scarf (or in my bag if it is too hot) and get some matching buttons and ribbon. Though I will have to look. I might already have a ribbon that will work. Though I guess having more than one ribbon would make it just that much more versatile.
And last night I just got started on a new pattern for mittens. I think they will be really cute. Little cables and stuff. I am using a light wool yarn - Rowan Felted Tweed - in red. I think that is it on the page - Rage. Speaking of patterns, I put up a really bad PDF of the holey fingerless mitts, whose name has been changed to Gertrude. I got Framemaker 6.0 from work because they weren’t using it anymore. I have no idea how to use it, but it does mean I can make some cool documents for PDFs when I really do figure it out. Right now it is just black and white and some of the images are cut off, but the pattern is there and printable. I am working on the Bacon-Wrapped Ankle pattern. That should be up in a week or so. With a PDF. This flip-top mitten pattern will probably end up for sale on Etsy for about $4.50. So it will need to be test knit. I guess I will ask for test knitters on Ravelry.
And this Friday, Abe and I are going to Emerald Downs for the EDEN summer party. We each get $10 to spend in the place. And they are raffling off gift certificates, a navigation system, and a 8g iTouch. I would like to win any of those. I have never been to horse races though, so I have no idea what to expect.
I also got these socks in the mail for winning best kit for HSKS5. They don’t fit, but I may just take them to the wall. It is a bummer they don’t fit because the yarn is wonderfully soft.
And finally, here is some wonderful green and black yarn that I spun up and have now loast somewhere in the apartment. I have big dreams for this yarn and I need to find it so I can spin the other half of the roving.
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August 6th, 2008 angela
So I read this blog, bowerbird knits and she posted a contest and to enter you just need to write about it. I thought I would do it here because I want to do so much.
One, of course, is to get more work on arachknits. I need to update the site and I have two or three knitting patterns that I should finish writing up and put on the site. I want to get some wholesale orders at local yarn shops. I want to put up a pattern for sale. I have lots of ideas (I have a notebook with me to draw in so I don’t forget).
Also, I want to get a story done. I have three or four short stories that are at least half done and I have the very start of ideas for three graphic novels that I need to just get drawing. I think once they are drawn, if I do a good job, I can get them published. I hope so. If not, maybe I will self-publish. We’ll see. One of these will be Umbrella girl, but all new and better drawings. In a couple weeks I am going up to my mom’s so she can teach me how to do water color. That will be used for a different story and maybe Umbrella Girl, too. I finally finished the Umbrella Girl story outline (which is what kept me from finishing before), and I really like it.
Another, I want to start actually drawing Arthur and Georgie again. I am just so lazy and I do love to knit. With the Ravelympics coming up, it will be a couple weeks, but after that, I better get going on it.
Oh, and another. I think I have a great idea for a skirt. I will probably not make it for sale, just for me. We will see how long it takes. It would involve hand painting, so it might take a long time. I do enjoy free-hand painting on fabric for bags and stuff though.
I wonder what Abe’s creative challenges would be….
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July 24th, 2008 angela
…would be 111 today if she is still around somewhere…hiding, laying in wait. Lovely.
Anyways, the Sims 2. I love it. I hadn’t played in so long because I couldn’t knit and do it. I was always having to come to someone’s rescue. Now that my brain won’t knit any more (which isn’t entirely true), I have more time to play the Sims and I love it, love it, love it!!! I started with a new family and they are doing very well. One of the daughters and the younger son are both doing well in school and the faimly is doing great because they haven’t been burgled (which would be weird since the mother is a criminal herself) and no one has caught the kitchen on fire. I have only had one death due to fire. Well, two, but the Grim Reaper brought one back to life. Not the one I wanted, but who’s counting.
Since my brainin won’t knit, I am going back to basics. I sent Allison the written instructions on how to knit, which is much longer than I thought it would be. I need to get pictures this weekend to send to her if Abe is feeling better. I can’t really get the pictures without help. And I carry a little crochet project with me that is so simple I could almost do it in my sleep except I suck at crochet so I have to look at every stitch. I also started a little headband using Cascade Fixations yarn. I did not like the yarn in the ball (which was covered in plastic), but once I got it out, I loved it. less then 2% elastic and it is amazingly stretchy. And it knits up beautifully. It is a loverly texture like pebbles. I am doing the granite stitch (so simple and looks nice). I have another ball for a baby hat. I am wondeirng if I can get more than one hat out of that ball because I know I will have a ton left over from this headband. (alice band, not like the 80s.)
Last night I posted the radish knitting needles. Those are some of the funniest needles I think I have. Though if I ever get around to slices of pie and clouds on a light blue background, those might take the cake, shall we say. (Those would be pie in the sky….)
Actually, I got so excited just thinking of that alice band (I got the pattern from Wild Fibers during the LYS Tour), that I forgot everything else I was going to say. And I think I thought of something really cool.
Also, I will try to get a pic done. My brain has felt dead and uninspired for a while now, which I think is why I can’t finish a knitting project or draw.
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July 22nd, 2008 angela
So from this issue of The AntiCraft, Melange issue, there are a few things I want to make in particular. (Speaking of making things from The AntiCraft, the bacon bracelet I made has been chewed on by one of the dogs to the point of destroyed. I guess I did a good enough job making it look like bacon. Haha.)
My little friend which I would totally hang in my cubicle at work. I don’t know what my fascination with hanging voodoo and other dark items in my cubicle is. I have Bad Juju Up in my cubicle and I have an axe from my Halloween costume when I went as a dwarf hunter.
Parlor Round is great, though it involves sewing the pillow your self and I have never done cording before. Might be a good place to start, though, I suppose. Abe would kill me if I put up yet another pillow.
But Run Away! I think is my abolsute favorite and I can’t wait to make it and stick it on top of the cupboard in my cubicle.
In other news, Abe has made some more excellent bread. He found the bread flour, but then looked at teh expiration date of the un-opened package and it was in Feb 2006, so we had to throw the whole unused thing out because neither of us knows what spoiled flour will do. But he did make a round loaf of wheat (and then dropped the ramekin and broke it) and a lovely normal loaf of white, which I love.
In other knitting news, I can’t finisha project. I ripped out the jaywalker socks and started the Rainbow socks (one of the patterns I was considering using on this striped yarn that happened to also be sent in the little book of sock patterns I got from HSKS5 swap). I had to rip it out twice. I have messed up enough that I should have ripped out the last one too, but I can’t bring myself to do it. At that point, I think I will have ripped back this cursed yarn 10 times! and It took 4 tries to use the ball winder to spin it into a ball. First I did it too slow and then I did it so fast that is flew off the top when I as just over half done. Then I did it to slow and loose again and finally, finally!, I did it just right. If Abe weren’t freaking out that I have not used any of the yarn he got me for my birthday, I would probably have set it aside, but I want him to continue to buy me yarn, so it is still on needles. The bamboo crocheted towel I am making is so boring. Lovely, but boring. It does not look at all like I remember their sample looking at Weaving Works. I guess it is because I thought it was knit, but it is crochet.
In TV news, we have started watching Buffy. It is a lot like Charmed, but better. I can see why it was so popular. We are only 4 episodes in, but I am really enjoying it and I can’t get the opening song out of my head. Abe has never seen any of it so I can’t talk much about it here, but I can say that I did not realize that all the characters start so early in.
Oh, and in other other knitting news, I am working on a little chap book on how to knit. I hope to have a very first draft finished tonight to send to my cousin Allison, who is off in Florida where I can’t show her things, so she can remember how to do it all. It will not be formatted or anything. It will be the very basic instructions with very rough pictures of me knitting. Later, once I have a final draft of the instructions, I will add tips and hints and humor. I will probably draw some pictures (simple line drawings) but I am thinking of demon hands instead of people hands because demon hands are just so much cooler.
I added Alia to Ravelry, and 16 people have already hearted it and I think 3 people have already queued it. Awesome. I put added it just before 7:30 today!
And finally, my mom started this Etsy site for Egress Studio. She only has one card up, but it is a great horned owl print and it is gorgeous.
I was looking around for something on Amazon and somehow stumbled across this book - Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis. A Latin translation of the first Harry Potter book. The second one is also available, so I would imagine eventually they will all be available. But Abe and I just bought a little thing to learn French (like a month ago and we haven’t even started) so that he could read some of his favorite authors, such as Celine, in their native language. Which sounds awesome to me. But Harry Potter is also available in French, Harry Potter a L’ecole Des Sorciers, but the whole series is already available. Go figure. But to help, there is a Harry Potter French/English Dictionary! So now I am curious to do that. I will have to see if my Harry Potter movies come in French and then I can use those, too. If not, oh well. I can check eBay for French versions of the movies. Though I am not a big fan of eBay anymore. I got ripped off really bad once and haven’t gone back since. Not monetarily, just annoyingly and since it was less than $10 no one would do anything about it. Anyways, I look forward to reading those. Then I will make my way to Celine. I would imagine once I can get through the entire Harry Potter series in French I am well on my way to reading Celine in French.
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July 21st, 2008 angela
Well, well, well. Here is my first published knitting pattern (not paid or anything). I present Alia!
I am so happy. I emailed everyone and every has said it is cute. Spats. I thought there was a word for those, but I coulnd’t remember. My mom told me they were nice spats. I will get a link up to them from arachknits.net soon. I can’t wait to see when they get entered on Ravelry. I am not sure if I have to do that or what. So the original name was PAW - Pinstripe Ankle Wrap, but that is dumb because that is exactly what it is. They came up with Anklebiter, which I like a lot, though I might come up with a different pattern for that name. I came up with Alia (the character from Children of Dune). She is one of my all time favorite characters. I am not sure why.
Those are my feet in the pic. Those are my Qtee Fluevog shoes. Love them. So comfy. I also got pics in my blue Fluevogs, but they didn’t put that one up.
Well, there is other stuff to talk about, but I am too busy basking in that. I have an idea for something to submit for their next issue (Day of the Dead theme), but I am still trying to work it out. There have been a lot of tries, but no hits so far. Getting closer though.
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June 16th, 2008 angela
I think Abe will be better able to write about Bloomsday than me, but I thought I would mention it. It is a day in Dublin, Ireland (June 16th) to celebrate the life of James Joyce and in particular Ulysses. The events of Ulysses (which takes place all in one day) are relived. Sounds like a grand time. Maybe someday we will be able to be in Dublin on the 16th of June.
Anyways, this was a great weekend. Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day, so we went out to Greenlake where the Seattle Knitter’s Guild was holding a gathering. It was fun. Abe and I went and passed out some business cards. Though I was an idiot and only brought a single pair of needles. Doh. We ate egg salad sandwiches and basked in the sun. I knit and listened to the knitters and Abe read. I am not sure what he was reading. It was a great day for it. The sun would come out for just long enough that I was getting too hot and then it would go behind a cloud where it would remain until I had to put my coat on. They are holding a men’s knitting fashion show in November, so I hope to join the guild and have Abe wear something I knit. And maybeIsaac can come down for it and wear something he knit for himself! He started a free-form scarf with some yarn I gave him already. Anyways, then we went home and played EQ2 for the rest of the night. I played my Kerra Monk, Enile Katsu. We played until 1:30 in the morning! Easily distracted from our goal of going to sleep. I got her her first 10 levels of crafting. She will be making cloth and leather armor.
Then on Sunday, I went out with my friend Rijl and her family. I have known her family forever (literally since I was born) so I didn’t feel like I was butting in and I don’t think they felt that way either. We met at the Fremont Market. Very cute! I got this great felted thing for my hair since I can’t dye my hair blue while I work at EDEN. The lady who makes them is really nice, though I didn’t get her name or a card becauseI am dumb. I should have brought my camera, but oh well. I am going to knit a little lace bun cover to put over my short pony tail with the felted thing around it to hold it on. I also talked to Margaret Theirry who is a dyer, knitter, weaver. She dyes beautiful colors. I told her about arachknits and Etsy, so she might be starting there, sometime. She also recommended I go the Urban Craft Fair this December. I think it is a really good idea, so I will try to go armed with plenty of Xmas needles and other needles. Stephanie, Rijl’s mom, got us to get our cards read. I told her about arachknits, so it was all about how I need to go witjthis and jump in with both feet and it will complete my soul. That it will take me on travels, though not necessarily just travels around the world (though it will probably do that). Then we went to the Cold Stone Creamery for ice cream, which was good, but their small is larger than any of us wanted, though all of us finished. From there, we walked up to the troll under the bridge, since we had Tiernan, Rijl’sson, with us. Tiernan was pretty cute running around it, getting scared when he got up too high.
Then we went to the Olympic Structures Park downtown, which though nice, didn’t have as much stuff was I was expecting. My favorite was the silver tree. Stephanie and Harley, Rijl’s dad, laughed that we didn’t know what a typewriter eraser looked like. At least we know what a typewriter is, though! (There is a structure that is a giant typewriter eraser.) From there, we walked all the way over to Pike Place to go to the Steelhead Diner and they closed at 3 and we got there at 3:04. Bummer. So we walked all the way back (I was wearing ballet flats, so this was getting pretty hard on my feet at this point) and went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. Not bad price and huge servings. I at maybe a quarter of my lasagna and Abe ate the rest. They put about a gallon of dressing on my salad and they don’t have ranch. He suggested some pesto garbage instead. (I hate pesto. I think it is the pine nuts.) Then they drove me home. It was a really fun day. But I only put light sun block (SPF 15) on my face and non anywhere else, so my chest and neck got burnt. And a little on the end of my nose. It is funny. It looks like I was standing with one side to the sun all day, but I realized on my drive to work today, with the sun beating on my one side through the window, that it is my passenger side. The side facing out when I drive didn’t get burnt hardly at all. The other side looks like a lobster! Haha. I was also wearing a necklace, so there is a little square where the pendant was that didn’t get burnt. I look ridiculous.
In other news, I am having Isaac over on the weekend of the 4th to watch the Harry Potter movies, so I think I am going to do some cool stuff like make pumpkin pasties and maybe have butter beer. Decorate with owls. Make us wands. Maybe make us some capes to wear. We will need some curtains for the windows so we can see the screen. I am going to make some muggle-proof invitations (not really, just write with milk so he can iron it and it will show up). I think it will be a grand old time.
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May 27th, 2008 angela
So if you didn’t guess by the title, this long weekend, we had another tatting party at grandma’s. I learned how to join on the picot (I had learned already, but didn’t do it for a while and promptly forgot). She gave me a really simple pattern that doesn’t use a chain (which isn’t hard to do). And some green and yellow thread (2 different spools, not together). I want to make a green necklace and a yellow bracelet. Or anklet. They yellow thread is tiny and hard to work with. I will practice on the green first.
I will post pics of all this when I get a chance, but I have some needles to finish tonight to ship off. And some other stuff for that. Labels and tags and whatnot. So I took the plunge and figured it out and with a yard of two different fabrics, I can make a straight needle case, a dpn case, and a sock pocket. Awesome. I made templates but got messed up somewhere in the ironing, perhaps, so I need to reiron the contrast color and I will have another really cute straight needle case. It is yellow-green pattern for the main color and the contrast is a dark brown. I really like it. The biggest problem with making all these cute bags and needle cases is that I want to keep them all for myself.
So on Monday, Abe and I got to find out what it would be like to do arachknits full time and I have to say that would be absolute heaven. Absolute. Heaven. To the heaventh degree.
Also on Monday, we took the dogs for a walk. Actually. I think this was Sunday. We were walking through our beautiful neighborhood and I was wearing my green paisley-esque skirt and a car drove by and then braked. She leaned out her window with a big piece of cloth and called out to us. I thought she wanted directions. But she offered me a skirt! She said she saw my skirt and that it was similar and thought I might like it. She had bought it at a garage sale for her daughter, who didn’t like it. So being as cheap as I am, of course I took it. It is a pretty white and turqoiuse pattern. It had sequins on it, so I spent the rest of the weekend with my seam ripper taking them all off. Wait till you see how many there were! So I carried it the rest of the way home and can’t wait to wear it…
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May 22nd, 2008 Abe
So the weather has just been all over the place for the last week or so. One day its 83 degrees and the next its 50 and raining. At night its been really cold and both Angela and I have been having crazy dreams. Last night I had one where we were driving around in our car and something hit our windshield and shattered it. I started to get upset because we couldn’t afford to replace it but Angela said “Don’t worry I’ve got some lace weight yarn with me, I’ll just knit us a new one.” And a few minutes later we were driving away again with a windshield that looked like a giant white doily!
Angela’s foot is healing up really well. We’ve been washing it, putting antibiotic ointment and a fresh bandage on it twice a day since it happened. It was pretty funny. I was sitting on the ground playing with the dogs and Angela stepped over the little table at the end of the couch and right on to the dog brush. She started laughing hysterically and hopping around and I looked up just in time to see the dog brush go flying off her foot which she was madly shaking. then she collapsed on the ground and said “It hurts!” between spurts of laughter. She was laughing the whole time I was on the phone with the doctor. All in all it was a pretty surreal event.
The yarn trek was fun in its own way too. Saturday was my favorite day. We took the dogs with us and went to Bellingham to have lunch with Rijil and Isaac and then we drove to like 14 yarn stores between Bellingham and Seattle. It was cool to see the variety in the stores. And I really enjoyed chatting with Angela for such a long stretch of time. It reminded me of when we used to play EQ2 together. It was like a big long quest 
Man I’m a dork.
Also, some amusement from http://icanhascheezburger.com/
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May 7th, 2008 angela
I have two new items almost ready to put up on arachknits. I will post a link to them from here when they are ready. I have two sock pockets that only need hook closures and they are ready to go. One is a summery sunflower one. The other is a retro green and blue spotted one. I like that one a lot. I need to also print up arachknits logos on iron on transfer paper so I can iron it on to them.
I also have written a new sock pattern and when it is ready, I will post it (I haven’t decided if I should sell it or leave it for free) on arachknits. If free, it will just be a page on arachknits.net. Otherwise it will be sold at arachknits.etsy.com. It is the Ripple Rib Sock. I also finished the Holey Fingerless Mitts, so I will write up that pattern and post it for free on arachknits.net, I think. Oddly enough, both were written for Classic Elite Alpaca Sox yarn.
When those are done, they will go up on the front page of arachknits.net as fresh from the ootheca. I also have to fix that pink row on the bottom of the front page and add a link directly to the shop on the navigation column. Maybe I will do that tonight. Haha. Like I will remember. And get all the pages to be the same size. I am not sure why they aren’t right now.
I was searching for arachknits on the blogs and found these links:
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