Sock Yarn: Trekking, Lorna's Laces, Koigui PPM
I’m sure it’s an ominous start to the photos that the very first one happens to be sock yarn.
But, I love yarn. I love socks. And I love sock yarn doubly so. And, I really just wanted to share my yarn.
I had been saving gift certificates to the yarn store since Christmas, so when I got an email telling me that they were having a sale, I practically begged [redacted] to take me out there. I was so excited; I thought that maybe the Cascade 220 would be on sale. Or maybe the Rowan yarn. Alas, no, I wasn’t that lucky. And since I didn’t have any extra money to spend, I decided on sock yarn because I am more likely to finish a pair of socks than any kind of larger item.
I decided on the blue-ish Trekking XXL because I had never tried it, and because I really liked the colors. It was the only XXL color I liked, really. The others looked to be the fake-fair isle, and I don’t really go in for that. Also, I am thrilled that one ball will make an entire pair of socks, and am so glad that it is superwash. I dislike having to remember what socks can and can’t be machine washed.
In the middle is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, which I have wanted to try forever. It is also superwash (genius!), and I had to dig around to find two of the color I wanted—Mixed Berries. I am so in love with this yarn that it is still sitting on my desk, waiting to be made into socks. I am looking for a good pattern, but I’m not sure what that will be.
The brown skein all alone is Koigu to finish the socks I started last year but had to abandon when I ran out of yarn an inch before the toe shaping. The brown goes really well, and I ripped back what I had to to heal, so that the heal and the toe would be the same color. I should be finished with the sock by the end of the week, and if I remember, I might post a photo. I really love the way the sock has turned out.
In all I spent just over $50 at Filati, only getting these four skeins. And that’s why I don’t get to buy yarn all that often.
So, there you have it. My first knitting content in over a month… It isn’t that I haven’t been knitting. It’s that the lack of a camera makes it hard to write about knitting. And besides, I’ve had some other things to talk about.
—”7 Miniutes in Heven (Atavan Halen)” From Under the Cork Tree: Fall Out Boy
Dear Spammers,
I realize you have to make money. I know that somehow you think sending me the same exact email twenty different times (even though it’s directed to a man which I’m so obviously not) will make me click on whatever link you’re sending me, and I might perhaps buy whatever you’re selling.
You’d be wrong, but I understand. But, really, is it too much to ask that the spam be at the very least grammatically correct?
Your girl is unsatisfied with your pottency?
Don’t wait until she finds another men!
Click here to choose from a great variety of LICENSED love t@bs!
Best pri$es, fast shipping and guaranteed effect! Here you buy it
right from warehouse!
The store is VERIFIED BY BBB and APPROVED BY VISA!
To begin with, if you’re asking a question, it might help if you ask it as a complete sentence, with correct spelling, such as: Is your girl unsatisfied with you potency? Also, seeing the statement “Don’t wait until she finds another men!” leads me to wonder if the girl in question is going to find multiple men, or just one. Please, please either change another to other, or men to man. But, for the love of all that is holy, don’t change both of them.
Also, using the phrase “click here” implies that those particular words are a link, which if I were inclined to click on them, I couldn’t. Changing the “s” to a dollar sign and an “a” to “@” is clever in a pre-teen sort of way, which I don’t think is you’re intended audience, and if it is, maybe you should be re-thinking your marketing strategy. “Here you buy it right from warehouse!” can me multiple things when punctuation is added. Am I buying it right there, or do you mean that I’m buying it directly from the warehouse?
And finally, using all caps for certain words, while bringing attention to them, also leads me to believe that they are FALSE.
Thank you for considering me as future customer, but with these annoyingly awful errors in your emails, you’ve guaranteed that I won’t be purchasing any LICENSED love t@bs from you. Not that I needed them anyways, since I’m the one who’d be finding another men.
Sincerely,
Me
Things that I have that I don’t use:
- Dayplanner
- Palmpilot
- Sunbird
I try so hard to stay organized. I try so hard to schedule things so that I don’t run out of time. But, I just hate doing it. The palmpilot is so, so old. I bought it right after high school. Just starting college and the like, and I thought it would be nifty to stay organized in the most geeky way possible. So, it only lasted a few months, if that.
While I had (and still do have) the palmpilot, I was still way, way too attracted to a paper dayplanner. I don’t know what it is. I just love to write in them. So, at the beginning of last semester, I forked out $20 for one I liked, intending to use it to write down when quizzes/tests/homework was due. That only lasted until September. The moment the teachers got behind schedule, my schedule was wrong. And I stopped using it.
This semester, I downloaded Sunbird, intending to use it to stay on top of things. It only lasted two weeks. It’s missing a basic functionality that I was too lazy to work around. There is no way to assign to-do items to a specific day (as in, make it show up on the calendar as well as in the to-do list.
I realize there is an easy work-around, by making those to-do items an event, but really, I just didn’t care.
But, with the middle of the semester bearing down fast, and multiple essays coming due, I figure I had better give it another chance. After all, I am classically-trained to believe that I have a week longer than I really do to finish things up.
I was talking to N a few weeks ago, during the course of a work day. I don’t know how she does it, but she’s secretary for two of the busiest lawyers at a large law firm here in town, as well as a full-time student over at Sac State (English major, naturally). We were discussing ways to stay organized, because as English majors we tend to have multiple essays due right after one another.
She was telling me how on her new laptop she was using Outlook to create alarms that would pop up when she had two weeks/a week/ two days/ one day left to finish the paper, so that she couldn’t forget when it was due, and she’d remember to do it.
Since I spend so much time on my computer, I realized that it is a genius idea. Sunbird has alarms, so I’m going to try to start using it to remind myself when things are due.
So we’ll see. Besides, I have two weeks until the next round of essays are due… I think.
—I am sure someone really famous said this first, but my uncle says it all the time (and still, I can’t remember what the 7th “p” is supposed to be, as he refers to it as the “Seven Ps.”)
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to adequately explain just how stupid MySpace is.
And by stupid, I mean: dumb, immature, silly, and generally any other description that means not good.
I don’t understand the draw. I don’t understand why people between the ages of 13 and 25 flock to that site like it’s the holy mecca of the internet. I know there are people who spent 1+ hours a day there. And I don’t get it. I mean, how many comments can you leave your friends?
I have a MySpace page. I won’t lie to you. But, I signed up for it because I had a friend who apparently couldn’t check his email. Even though it was a Hotmail account. He told me that I should get a MySpace page so that I could message him and the like. So I did. And then random people from high school found me.
At first, I thought “hey, that’s kind of cool.” But, they don’t leave me comments. I don’t leave them comments. They don’t send me messages. I don’t send them messages. I do get sent the mass chain-mail bulletins that everyone sends everyone else. Not that I read them.
The thing that bothers me the most, I think, is that no one actually reads my page. I have stated quite plainly that I won’t add people as friends unless I know them in real-life. And yet, I get “Friend Requests” from my sister’s friends, from random people who live near me, from the loser pub down the street (and, why does a pub need a MySpace page?), and generally random people.
I might possibly have the smallest friend’s list on MySpace, with only 9 friends, none of which I requested myself. Which is funny, since I don’t talk to any of them except my sister and Matt-Matt. I just don’t understand why people spend so much time on one page, and why they would limit their internet to just this one site.
Oh, and the shitty blogs! Don’t get me started on them…. But then again, I’m loyal to WordPress like nothing else.
So, please, for the love of god, don’t use MySpace. Get yourself a free BlogSpot account or something else. But I just can’t stand to look at bad 1992 HTML on the MySpace pages anymore. I thought we got rid of that crap ages ago, but it just keeps making a comeback.
And please, don’t leave me a comment, send me a message, or send a friend request to me through MySpace. Leave comments on my blog. Email me messages. And, if you have to request to be someone’s friend, maybe you should think about what that means. I know I’m not asking to be anyone’s friend, and you shouldn’t have to either.
- “Worried Eyes,” Desireless: Eagle Eye Cherry
I forgot how genius the library was.
No, really. I’ve been going to to bookstore for so long, coveting books that I couldn’t quite own. I forgot how wonderful it was to be able to borrow a book, read it, give it back, and not have to pay a dime. Well, I had to pay $3 really. $2 to replace the library card that I lost (perhaps stolen… It could have been in my wallet lo those many months ago when it went “missing.” But I digress), and another $1 to pay a fine I didn’t know I had.
It’s a good deal, though, when you think about it. I tend to borrow 5-7 books at a time, and finish them easily in three weeks. And then, I get to do it all over again. Genius I tell you. I can’t believe I forgot about the library.
Right now I’m reading The Mists of Avalon, by Marion Zimmer Bradly which I have wanted for awhile now. I’m such a sucker for the Arthurian myth and time period. I am pretty sure that if I had to choose a period/genre of literature for study (and I’m almost positive that I will have to if I transfer), this is it for me. I can’t explain my draw to this myth.
Anyway, the book is different. Interesting. And long, which is always a major qualifier for what I choose to read. I saw it while I was browsing the stacks, and it jumped into my arms. Along with another book by Bradley, two knitting books, The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell, and two books for my sister.
So, at least now I remember that while I may not be able to afford all the books I want, I can at least read all the books that interest me.
- “My Girl’s Ex-Boyfriend,” MmmHmm: Relient K.
Just taking a short break from my never-ending Algebra homework because, well, I need it.
I sat down to do my homework at 7 p.m. (missing NCIS, damn it), and I’m still not done. I started with an easy ENGWR 302 assignment, and then moved on to Algebra. And am still on Algebra. I have five more problems I have to do. And then I have to copy everything to regular binder paper because I’m sure that my teacher won’t accept scanned notebook pages.
Perhaps I should ask though, because he’s one of those teachers who learns to recognize people’s handwriting, and by this point in the semester he probably recognizes mine.
Anyway, since I set myself up for this huge overload of homework by getting sick Saturday night (which lasted through today), I had three assignments to do, Friday’s (2) and Mondays (2, but one isn’t due until this next Friday).
Yep, so, I know no one cares. I just had to take a break. And well, I realized that I hadn’t posted since Friday, which is like forever in blog-land.
So, I’ve been sick with the stomach flu—gotta love all that puking—and then trying to play homework catch-up. Hopefully, I’ll have something of substance for tomorrow. Maybe.
—”Calm Before the Storm,” Take This to Your Grave: Fall Out Boy
I keep having really, really strange dreams.
Last night, I dreamed I was hanging out with You in his garage, when his girlfriend came out and started yelling at me (which would most likely happen in real life). Then somehow, the scene changed, and we were suddenly in an ambush, and I had to get all weaponed up, with two rifles slung across me, and the ammo clips attached to my belt.
Remembering it now, it seemed like a scene from Halo 2 (which I’ve watched [redacted] play numerous times), except that we were outside a throne room, and we were trying to overthrow a king, but he was attacking us first. You and others were already in the room, bunkered down to weather the gunfight.
Not me, though. No, I walked in, guns blazing, and the king hit me multiple times. Somehow, though, I knew that the bullets weren’t going to hurt me. Like being shot with a bb gun. I fell to the ground though, my body ending up somewhere near You. I whispered to him to make sure that everyone thought I was dead.
I had landed with my gun under me, though, and the way I was propped up while still in the open gave me a clear shot at the king for when he forgot I was there. I woke up before anything else happened, though.
And the night before—Wednesday night—I dreamed that something terrible had happened to me, and I had a broken leg while missing all the teeth in one half of my mouth. No one was paying any attention, though, and no one would help me. I was sitting in a class at a school somewhere, and all of the sudden, I was coughing, and the rest of my teeth were coming out in pieces, chipped off, and then the whole tooth.
What’s really disturbing, is that this isn’t the first time that I’ve dreamt about loosing my teeth. It’s a fairly common occurrence in my dreams.
The site Dream Sleep lists the meaning for teeth dreams (specifically where teeth are falling out) as:
It can literally mean that you are frightened of losing your teeth. It can show the beginning of a new phase of life just as we lose our teeth when we pass from early childhood and head towards adulthood. You may be worried about your self image or the dream may signify unexpressed anxiety
Another Dream Dictionary defines the meaning of teeth in a dream as:
Teeth usually symbolize power and/or control. Animals use their teeth for defense and nourishment and show their teeth when angry. Humans often display similar behaviors. Look and see if you are losing or abusing power and control in any area of your life (especially if you are losing teeth in your dream). Old dream interpretations say that dreaming about teeth is a bad omen that suggest financial difficulties.
I am sure this fits into my life somehow. And I am even more sure that the teeth dream relates to the gun battle the night after.
The question is, who am I battling to get my power and control back?
—”When You Dream,” Stunt: Barenaked Ladies
Aside from Ikea, and the yarn store, Barnes & Nobel is my favorite store ever. Because I love it so much, it’s not uncommon for me to go there more than once a week. Here’s this week’s acquisitions, to give you and idea of the diversity of my reading materials.
- Cast On Magazine – I’m not really sure why I get this one, since I never, ever want to make any of the patterns. But, there is usually an article or two worth reading. (Knitting)
- Ellery Queen Magazine – More for my Mom, as she was going on a mid-week vacation by train. But, I’ll read it cover-to-cover when she gets back. (Mystery)
- Analog: Science Fiction and Fact - Who doesn’t love a little science fiction?
- Simple Knits for Little Cherubs by Erica Knight. I didn’t have any patterns for children, and this was finally 30% off. (knitting)
- Metamorphoses by Ovid – I’ve been meaning to get this book for awhile, but today was the first time I’d seen the translation I’d been recommended, so I snapped it up (myth)
The oddest thing about these recent book trips isn’t that there are three magazines. It’s that I didn’t pick up any fiction books. I did see some I wanted (anything by Philipa Greggory), and some I’d been meaning to pick up (Catch 22, Brave New World, Dune), but it’s so hard to buy a novel without You there to egg me on.
Besides, my current reading pile is nine novels, four compilations nine anthologies and five text books, and four library books thick. I’m sure I can find something to read until next payday.
Today is the day I’ve been waiting for all my life.
Okay. Maybe not all my life. But definitely for the last two and a half years. Today, the Ikea in West Sacramento opened.
Ikea is my mecca. Ikea is to furnature what words are to music. I love Ikea. I have a huge Ikea corner desk (which I’m sitting at, at the moment I write this) and I had to travel all the way to Emeryville (outside of San Francisco) just to get it. And now that I’m running out of bookshelves, I’ll only have to travel across a river or two to pick some up.
While I didn’t go today because of work—and because it would have been packed (news reports at 7am talked about traffic jams at I-5 around the offramp to get to Ikea)—I do plan on going later in the month, or April at the most. I need to get a desk chair that I wished I had picked up last time I was there. All the chairs in this house are too short, and to sit comfortably and type with good posture, I have to sit on phone books.
Thank you Ikea, for bringing your lovely, affordable, modern Swedish furniture to Sacramento.
But I’m not eating in the food court. I don’t love you that much. But I do love you enough to get an Ikea credit card and put myself massivly into debt. At least then my home will look good, since I’ll have to spend so much time there.
—”Today,” Siamese Dream: Smashing Pumpkins
