A year in Review (kinda)

So, I haven't blogged in about 5 months. I got lazy.

Anyway, here's a view of some projects I've done this year:

January:
Ice Cream Arms












February:
Greebo & You





















March:
I got nothin...

April:
Again, nothin. What was I doing those two months?

May:
OMG IT'S PINK!!




















June:
Got lazy again.

July:
Hid from the heat, I guess.

August:
Nessie 1















September:
A Rug (crocheted!)















October:
Mermaid















November:
Andrew's Epic Whip















December:
TV Scarf









Now, I have a PLN for 2011. I have eleven projects (1 per month, with 1 month for rest). I have it pretty organized too. Want proof? Okay:

Technical (Directional) Difficulties

Amy and I went on our second-half-of-the-year yarn crawl today. And got some wedding prep stuff. Sounds like a good trip huh. It was. Even with our, ahem, mishaps.

Mishap #1:

On the way up, we managed to babble our way past our exit. Oopsie! We saw the exit before and the exit after (which we took).

Mishap #2:

Somehow, we managed to drive from Indy to Beech Grove without realizing it until we were there. The main things that pointed this out were the sign with "BEECH GROVE" on it and the street signs became brown instead of the green we're so very very used to.

Mishap #3:

Still looking for the right friggin road. (Psst. I was looking for the wrong blasted STATE. I kept looking for Washington Ave. instead of Virginia Ave.) Finally ended up stopping at a gas station for directions. Easiest way to get this point across? Stating "I've lost my road!" We were only off by about 5 blocks all in all.

So we finally get to Mass. (No not church, it's the wrong day :p I'm talking about Mass Ave. Knit Shop.)

Mishap #4:

Eek! There's NO PARKING available! We asked a kind lady about alternate parking options and she was very helpful. We got a decent parking place.

After a pleasant hour or so, we realized we were pretty hungry. This was easily remedied, as we'd already decided on where we were eating. I had checked out directions before (twice!), so had a pretty good idea of where we needed to go to get to the restaurant (previous difficulties notwithstanding).

Mishap #5:

No problems getting to the interstate, or finding either of our exits. Unfortunately, we didn't ever think about the exit being CLOSED! So, backtrack to the other interstate and more familiar surroundings.

Off to the restaurant we go! I don't think there were any more mishaps after we ate. We were only slightly miserable due to food intakes. Most of the rest of it passed in a happy food/flower/creativity haze.

And now I need a nap!

WWKCIP Weekend

Hey, did you know this weekend is World Wide Knit/Crochet In Public weekend?

Well it is!

Here's proof that I did it, too:

Where'd the Aspirin Go?

The planning. It has officially begun.

We looked at a few places for the whole shebang, got some ideas. Rejected some others. Looked for a rainbow and that elusive pot o gold to supplement the fund. Tried some really nasty fizzy wine.

I've decided not to wear a veil. Instead, I'm going to wear the stole that I'm knitting. I might just get it done by the date too. It's ... um ... 652? rows long. Given, every other row is a 'rest' row of mostly purls, so that helps a bit. But the actual pattern rows are lace and beads. Now that I have the hang of stringing a bead onto a stitch, it's going much more smoothly. I've made it to row 89....

The fish are still going as well. I think I have something like 23 fish made and about 11 or 12 of them sewn together.

That thing in the bag

So, are you still curious about what Ames had a grip on?

It was this:

Bet that wasn't what you thought it was, huh.

In other news, I'm making fish. Yes, you read that right. Fish.

A lot of fish. How many? About eleventy-five. I figured it up (because I'm insane like that), and I think I have about 98 more hours of fish to make. And then another 5,468 hours of sewing them together. (okay, I may have exaggerated that number.)

And by the end of this madness, I'm supposedly going to have a throw-sized blanket. For me. Because at least that way, I know it'll go to someone who appreciates all the hours of work (both physical and mental) that went into it.

I told someone I work with about it, and she offered to buy it from me when it's done. I kinda laughed and shrugged it off, because I know for a fact that she would state a ridiculously low amount for it. Probably something in the range of one-tenth of what the materials cost. Bah, I say! No freaking way!

And that's about it.

Where did April go?

No, seriously, where did it go? I'll probably be saying that a lot for the next year, I imagine. (helpful hint: if I'm looking harried and walking about a thousand miles an hour, it's NOT a good time to stop me to chat, not even to offer help.)

Anyway, I did get a project done. I made this nifty lace up cardigan thingy that Ames desperately hoped wouldn't meet my expectations (sorry Ames):

Now I'm kind of in knitting limbo. I want to make something quick, easy, and requires little to no thought processing. Of course I can't find anything that suits my standards right now.

Now here's a real good photo question for you...

What the hell is she holding on to here??

I'll give you a hint: It's probably NOT what you're thinking, you pervs!

(Answer with photo in next post, which will be a lot sooner than a month from now, I swear!)

Got My Malabrigo

So a few weeks ago, Ames and I did our yearly trip to Mass Ave. We got our yarns, had a great meal, got semi-lost, found the trail again, and then went home to be slightly miserable from eating too much. It was great.

I have almost one sleeve of my hoodie done. Man, but it is slow going - unless I have a movie playing...

The cat is driving me to drink, I swear. She keeps yelling at me to get up! Earlier and earlier each day. I've taken to throwing things like the pillow at her, but it doesn't help. Much. There's an 89% chance that she's plotting to kill me in my sleep. I think there's a 105% chance she's just wanting to make us crazier. Good thing she's cute.

All I Wanted Was Some Malabrigo

Yesterday I woke up feeling a little froggy for some new yarn. I really wanted to get some more Malabrigo Worsted to make a little something selfish. The nearest yarn shop that sells it is about an hour away. So I called my friend Squee and invited her to come with me. Great! Yarn company and a chance to show off my ring!

All goes well in the beginning. We stop for road sodas and are on our way. We get on the interstate - no problem. Mom returns my call en route so we're both chatting at her while I drive. Again, no problems.

Suddenly, I start fishtailing. At 70mph. With traffic in front and behind and a friggin semi next to me. Big Problem!

As soon as I figure out something is wrong, I turn on my hazard lights and pull over. Unfortunately, I'm in the passing lane so I have to pull off on the wrong shoulder. Luckily, it was wide enough for my vehicle.

Squee is giving Mom the rundown of everything that's going on and I'm just hoping traffic clears up enough so I can get to the proper side of the road.

We get over there, I get out and lookit the tires... Yep, one of my back tires has blown. Which is weird, because the tread is still really good on them. The air was fine when we left so it couldn't have been that. Upon closer inspection, the radial? blew out and I could see lots of the wire threads just hanging there.

So, now to change the tire. I have the spare in the trunk. I heave out my little hydraulic pump jack and kneel down to place it. Did I mention I have on a long skirt? Anyway, I get the jack in place and begin the process of changing the tire. (Thank You Mom! for making sure I know how to do this!) Guess what. The jack doesn't have the juice to lift up the car. Bugger.

Luckily, a nice gentleman stops and offers assistance. All I really needed was a jack, but he went on to change out the tire for us. Thank you so much, sir!!!

Next order of business: Find A Tire Shop! But first, to get to the nearest exit. That is NOT something I want to do EVER again! We had to drive ELEVEN MILES. On the INTERSTATE. On a DONUT! You can't drive more than about 45mph on one of those. By now, my nerves are pretty much shot. All thoughts of the lovely Malabrigo have been removed forcefully from my brain.

We get to a tire shop. They're closed on the weekends. *grumblegrumble*
We get directions and go to a second tire shop that we were assured is open on Saturdays. They're also closed. *grumblegrumblemutter*
We find Wal-Mart. *grumblecursegrumble* Fine. Whatever. Wal-Mart it is. By this point, I just want to get the blasted tire and go home. If I'm changing out one, I might as well change them all. And what the hell, let's get the oil changed while we're here.

**TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATER**

Car's ready.

Total price: $386.77

By this time, the yarn shop would be closed by the time we got there. And I had to use the yarn fund plus about half of what I had saved for a spinning wheel for the tires. So the wheel must now wait another month or two...

At least no one got hurt.

And I still want my Malabrigo!

Dwindling

My shows keep dwindling down. Here's what I was watching in September:

Monday: House, Castle
Tuesday:
Wednesday: Eastwick
Thursday: Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice
Friday: Dollhouse

Here's what I'm watching now:

Monday: House, Castle
Tuesday: V (when it returns in March-ish)
Wednesday:
Thursday: Grey's Anatomy (almost grudgingly)
Friday:

I kind of hate the half-season shows that the networks are jumping up and down on the bandwagon with right now...

A List of Ten:

As all of the witty, insightful things I was trying to recollect about the last year have fled my mind, I'm going to Diversionary Tactic #7482: A List of Ten Things. "Ten what?" you ask? Doesn't matter. So long as there's ten...

10 Places I Get Lost in on the Internet (in reverse order):

1. Ravelry (if you don't know this site, then you probably aren't a fiber enthusiast)
   
2. TV Tropes (will ruin your life)
   
3. Blogs (too many to list individually)
   
4. Zero Punctuation (for the sarcastic game review that won't spare your sensitivites)
   
5. Nostalgia Critic &
   
6. Nostalgia Chick (okay, 5 and 6 are technically the same, but I can't check one without checking the other)
   
7. Pogo (one day I will hit a JackPot...)
   
8. Armor Games (when I get bored/frustrated with Pogo)
   
9. Google (most things start here...)
   
10. Knitty (again, for the fiber enthusiasts)

And this, my dear three readers, is part of the reason my blogging became so sporadic.

Happy 2010