Sunday, July 19, 2009

Boring, Boring Person

I am the queen of all boring people, ever. This past week my little brother came to stay with me, and our days have been filled with Warcraft, petting kittens (still working on taming Ripley properly), and watching bad monster movies. I got some spinning done for Tour de Fleece, but honestly, I'm not even close to spinning every day, much less for a set time every day. The roving I'm spinning up is Monica by FatCatKnits, a one-off roving used to pick up the last of the colors from the dyepot. It's pale and colorful and interesting, and I'm hoping it'll spin up nicely into some sock yarn.

One thing I did do this past week, was find a spinning wheel for a friend of mine! I have my google reader set to let me know when anyone in Aggieland, Houston or Austin puts up a wheel for sale on Craigslist, and this week I found an Ashford Traditional for $200! I emailed the seller to see if it was still available (it was), and my friend Megan to see if she was still looking for a wheel (she was), and since she's out of the state right now, if she wanted me to drive up to Austin and pick it up for her (she did). So, long story short, she deposited the money into my paypal account, and I drove and got my friend a wheel :) It came with a lazy kate and 4 bobbins, so I'm pretty excited about it. She's a fairly new spinner, but she's definitely got the touch, her singles are already fine and even and lovely, and I'm so happy that she's going to have her first wheel.

So yeah, aside from that, my week has been pretty uneventful. Me and Ripley napped in the sunshine by the windows, with Heed sleeping on my knees as per usual, and it was nice. But for now, I think I'll get back to spinning, and see if I can't finish up that sock yarn!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Bring Out Your WIPs!

So, the moving process has been an interesting one for me. Yes, yes, I know, I should already count as moved because I'm actually living here in the new Casa del PenName and have been for a while, but I am still bringing stuff over from Mr. Ex's house, so bear with me.

I have found so many works in progress, just by moving my stash over. The most recent, which I am working on right now, is a sock knit up in Cherry Tree Hill's overdyed Louet Gems yarn, with a picot hemmed cuff and what was a half-finished twined-knit heel, which I have since completed and turned.

So, yeah, other than those two small points, this is a completely plain, stockinette sock, which I don't think I've done often. No stripes, no holding yarns together, just a stockinette sock with pooling stripes, and an interesting heel that I'm hoping will hold together well. I went up a needle size (1 from 0) for the heel, to keep gauge, and I'm about to pick up the stitches for the gusset. I considered trying to go and dig out the second ball of this from within one of my big boxes o' stash, but eh. I'll work on this one in the traditional manner - get one done, get second sock syndrome, eventually find first sock again and think why didn't I ever finish these?

You know. The usual.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Halfway Dance!

Whohoo, I'm 50% finished with the Persian Star Shawl! It's an awesome feeling.

I didn't think, this past January, that PSS would take so long. I figured, yeah, I took the better part of a year on Galveston, but really, I slacked on it so much, surely I can knock out a completed shawl in four months or so.

Hahahahahaha. Hahahahahahaaha. Hahahahahahahaha.

*Wipes away tear* Yeah, that's a good one.

So I started this in January, January 20th to be exact, and that was almost 7 months ago. I'm not sure if that date was when I cast on the first stitches, or when I started sketching it out, but that's the date I put into Ravelry. So far, the PSS has been with me on the Rav February Meet-Up in Austin, has been with me while we planned our trip to Iran, and when that trip was canceled. It has been with me while Mr. Ex and I went our separate ways, and has been with me as I build my new life. The shawl has seen many changes, both in its design and in my life while I designed it.

May the next 50% be entirely less eventful.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Holy Crap, Christmas?

Someone mentioned today on Ravelry that she's already working on her christmas presents for her family - now, while she has plenty of time, instead of later, when she'll be swamped with fall schoolwork, holiday preparations, and all sorts of dreary weather.

Damned if that doesn't sound like a good idea, right?

Last year I think I went a little overboard on the whole OMG I CAN MAKE THE SOAPS idea, and honestly there was a lot of trial and error involved, but folks did seem to like them.

So tonight I'm going to clean the apartment but good, and then Wednesday I think I'll go by Mr. Ex's place and pick up all my soapmaking supplies (yes, they are still over there, as are a lot of things). I think I'll focus more on one or two good recipes this year, fancy, luxe stuff, with stronger scents. The one comment I got a lot last year, was that none of my soaps had a really strong scent.

Friday, July 03, 2009

Keep On Keeping On

Well, not a whole lot going on in Case del PenName. Ripley is adorable, she is putting on weight nicely and may almost be up to 2 pounds now, which means soon she'll be able to actually get her vaccines, and I found out that microchipping is $10 at the local shelter, so I'm definitely going to get that done as soon as she gets her rabies shot and county tags.

I'm in a new D&D game, it's 4th ed, which I had resisted for a long time. It's a very mini-centric system, to the point where it feels more like a minis combat game that had RP tacked on, rather than an RP game that worked out a system for combat. It doesn't feel like those old games I played in school, me and my friend and a hastily-drawn notebook of maps that were to be used only when I was figuring out a puzzle or getting lost in a maze. I still remember when my second character ever, an elven thief, died because she pushed a statue over that caused a chain-reaction of collapsing stonework. I was SO upset, because my friend told me that unfortunately, I could never use that character again, because now she was dead. It didn't matter that I had written up a lovely backstory. It didn't matter that she was the character I had wanted to play from the beginning, she had died, and that was that. (yeah, it was middle school, okay? Drama happens)

But this new game seems fun. I'm playing a rogue, again, though a halfling this time. She's not your typical merry agile trickster type thief, she's your slightly dim burly thug :) A halfling so butch, she's sometimes mistaken for a dwarf!

So, yeah. I'm having fun. I've been watching the original seasons of Star Trek, and it's really interesting to see how the gender dynamics play out. I'm pretty sure none of the ladies on the Enterprise could possibly be in Engineering, not because of lack of ability, but because honey, those uniforms were NOT built for bending over, much less climbing machinery. It really makes me want to start a Star Trek campaign, if only to play a Kaylee-esqe grease monkey... in space!