Howze I Look?

Greetings from Leopard...Howze I look? I look like something out of one of those twisted children's books that you think it cute yet gives your children nightmares for several nights, no? Big head ,itty bitty nose....WOW! I've just spent the last 12 hours happily installing and getting Apple's new OS, Leopard, up to speed. Just when I think they can't improve the OS any more than they already have, they do. I sit with my chin on the floor and drooling with each new OS they release. This is one MAJOR overhaul tho.

I think I heard my knitting needles crying for me. Hell's Bells, I forgot to even have lunch. I think I'm just about done restoring stuff. I was nervous reading stuff that old programmes may or may not work. Happily, everything I've installed thus far works, including Adobes CS 3 which I was most nervous about.

Do you even care about any of this? If you're a PC user you're probably twiddling your thumbs going "Yeah,yeah....where's the knitting?" If you're a fellow Mac whore ( I can say that, right? I mean, I am one...if it's got an Apple logo, I'm buying it) you're too busy playing in Leopard and not reading this.

Hopefully tomorrow I will knit. If I can tar myself away....Cover Flow is just awesome...can finally flip through my knitting folder and see at a glance what pattern is what without having to open it.

Here's a cute video....this is about the point I'm at now...

Restless Knitter

Well, what to say? I had to frog the shawl. Apparently, my picture is in the Oxford Dictionary next to the entry for "Dumb Blond." I've been six stitches short the entire time but somehow up until the last 4 rows, it had all worked out. I couldn't find where I lost the six so I frogged it and will start again. It killed me, I had 42 rows done and it was A LOT of work I've seen the shawl almost entirely done and blocked and all I can say I have to get my ass in gear. It is GORGEOUS!!!!!

I did cast on for another project in its stead only I can't post pictures of it because the intended recipient may read this blog, I'm not entirely sure, and it's a gift for her. I know she has the url. If you're on Ravelry, you can hop on over to my profile and see a picture of it there.

In other news I have fallen in love with Maine Coon cats since joining Ravelry and ow want one only not sure it's a good idea since I don't know how, after eight years (???), Ms. Midnight would take to sharing me or her home that she has been Queen of all this time. I worry about the jealousy issue too. I thought maybe getting a kitten would be a lot easier to integrate into the house but I just am not 100% sure and there's no guarantees.

Somehow I found myself on YouTube looking at videos of Maine Coons and then I typed in this song Lost by Roger Sanchez that I love, it reminds me of my German friend from las year on Second Life. Well, there was another song, Another Chance that grabbed me. The fact it takes place in NYC just caught my eye but the video kinda hits home for me. It's sad but the song is very cool and that brought to mind someone who has been on my mind a lot lately. He haunts my mind, memories and dreams....I can't let go and this song just makes me think of him even more for some reason.


Listening to: Roger Sanches ~ Another Chance
Feeling: I'm not entirely sure.

Lace

I thought I'd take a progress picture of this now. This is a Halloween Knit Along on Ravelry I thought I'd try. The dragon shawl I tried a while back was too damn hard but lace is something I've never done and wanted to see if I could do it.

This is proving to be a lot more enjoyable than I thought. It's challenging enough to keep you on your toes but not so hard that I'm throwing it across the room and inventing new curse words. The one thing I'll say is this requires INTENSE concentration. I can't even think of anything else when I do this.



You probably can't see theme even in the close up but there's glass seed beads in there too. Not very many right now but they're there. It looks amazing in person...they are black with a gunmetal hole so there's enough glitz without being too gaudy. Im not exactly sure yet what makes this a Halloween themed shawl...we're supposed to find out with the last clue which I think is posted next Saturday. I'm not going to be anywhere near that yet. I'm only on row 35 and there's 80 rows total for the first set of instructions. When I look at this in pictures I'm still having a hard time believing this came from my hands....I've seen some who are further along and it just looks amazing! I think I'm getting addicted to lace knitting. I can't wear shawls but nothing saying I can't knit 'em and throw 'em over the piano or a window or something. Aren't shawls strewn about a house sort of bohemian anyway? I like that idea.

I also found this video on Continental Knitting in a group on Ravelry. This is so helpful. I've been wanting to learn to do this better for a while now and this has helped a lot. I could knit Continental, though slowly, but I was doing it backwards. It worked out ok, I just had to work into the back of the stitches but this video is really cool.

Update on the Harmony needles from Knit Picks....get 'em!!!! I don't want to stop knitting now. They are amazing...very comfortable, very fast and just a pleasure. I hate to put my knitting away at night now LOL! They are worth every penny, at least I think they are.

Sentimental fool

That's me. I decided rather than sell my grandmother's hutch, I'd keep it myself and put yarn and knitting stuff in it. My dad helped me bring it back to my place, there's just too much history attached to this to sell it. So I've got some yarn in there and will load more up. The drawer will be good for notions and the bottom has books. I dunno about you but I think there needs to be some 100% angora up there on the top shelf to keep the alpaca company.

I'm finding it harder and harder to go there and do the work to get it up to speed to rent. It's cold and empty and it's so odd to flash back to when it was filled with laughter and fun and good smells from whatever my grandmother was cooking or times I slept over there. Today I wanted to run home and take a couple Xanax and just forget but I didn't.

But to sort of help with the feelings, the UPS man delivered these today:




I got my Harmony from Knit Picks :-) These needles are nice freakin' awesome! I almost want to start using circulars to knit everything just to use them but I am a bigger fan of straights.

It's weird, while looking at these needles, my mind began to wander and I started to think how when I was a little tyke, this time of year was cold and there were pretty coloured leaves on the ground, after school we'd be outside playing and the air would smell of burned leaves and you could see smoke curling up from the chimneys along the street. The world is so different now. I'm not sure I like it.

I got an idea for a short story, a few 'fans' (that sounds weird) wrote asking about this fabled book I started writing in the 90's. While it's too large to put up on the erotica site, they gave me an idea for a short story on how the two main characters met. I didn't hit on any of that when I started writing it, just jumped right in. Now I need to try and make some time to write it. I'm kind of excited about that. Which also calls to mind that I've not touched Harry Potter in a few weeks....I need to get reading as there's lots more books waiting for me to read them.

Wow, I had all this stuff I planned to write about and I'm drawing a total blank now.

Now playing: Elton John, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Feeling: Melancholy

Yarn Hutch

I need to make some room in the upstairs hall here. I just decided I'm taking my grandmother's knick knack hutch to store yarn in. It's small enough to fit in the corner at the end of the hall. That makes me feel good, I was really getting bummed as my dad & I just finished painting the kitchen den and I guess once I sell off the furniture, it won't be long before I can put it up for rent. It feels so alien there now, not the cozy, warm place I remember.

I came home to fid THIS waiting in my door today:



It's called Spooky by Yarn Pirate. Now I just need to find the perfect sock pattern to go with it. I have 3 more hanks coming probably next week, Halloween colours and a kit for fair isle socks from Blue Moon Fibre Arts.I told ya Ravelry is dangerous...in a good way LOL! Which reminds me, I need to order another hank of halloween sock yarn called Witch in a Blender.

Funny thing.,.I joined a halloween shawl KAL. THis requires about 450 beads so I go and look around on line> I'm not a bead worker, I've never really done anything with beads so I'm totally green. I see a 40 gram package and wonder if that's enough? No, they come in a half kilo package too! WOO HOO! I click ADD TO CART! Put my info in and off it goes. As the day is progressing I'm beginning to wonder if a half kilo is enough, maybe I need to get a second half kilo just to be safe. We're talking SEED BEADS here people. SO to be safe, I e mail the company and ask. They reply (I should have called so I could hear the maniacal laughter) "A half kilo contains approx. 48 THOUSAND beads...you'll have enough for a bunch of shawls. Two days later the package arrived...I could only stare at it and laugh. There looks to be a gajillion beads in there. Anybody need any black seed beads? ROTFLMFAO!!!!

What else? I guess that's about it for now.

Now Playing: Elton John ~ Someone Saved My Life Tonight

Feeling: Happy & Content