Insert-Title-Here

I have lost my witty-title-making ability for the moment.

I do believe I need to admit to something. I'm pretty sure that I'm more of a process knitter than a product knitter. Yes, I have finished some things, but I just can't seem to resist starting more and more projects. So I'm a process knitter with severe startitis. (Process knitter = knitting to be knitting. Product knitter = knitting to have finished items.)

What do I have on the needles right now....

• Tank top buddy kal
• Kiri shawl
• cuffs
• swatch/tapestry

And I'm starting another project. It looks fairly easy, and is in a thicker yarn, and I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish it and not get bored halfway through the pattern (as I tend to do quite often) and ignore it in favor of chocolate. I honestly should weigh a lot more than I do if I truly consume as much chocolate as I say I do....

The tomato plants are still alive! There's even one turning red (a good thing). Unfortunately, it's the one I'm not sure I want to eat as there are some holes in it (from bugs, I guess). But, there's 3 or 4 others that are perfectly healthy looking (at the moment) that I'm waiting for the colors to start changing. Go me!

I've this nifty new keyboard that's addicting to type on. It's very slim, like a laptop keyboard. And it lights up! So I can type in the dark now without squinting to see the keys! My only difficulty with it is that, occasionally, certain keys stick so I have to pay more attention to what I'm typing so that I don't end up typing 'lie his' (like this).

Now, where did I leave those darned sarcasm pills?

The Pratchgan 2008

Ramblings of a yarn junkie: The Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

See my previous post for more info. Not much more that I can add to this, honestly. I'm still in awe of what we did!

Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Way back in December, I joined in with a group of fiber-artsy people over on Ravelry to make an afghan for none other than Mr. Terry Pratchett.

Well, earlier today our wonderful organizer, Shirley, had the privilege of presenting the Pratchgan to Mr. Pratchett in person. She's posted about it, with photos! over on her blog.

She also wrote a letter explaining what it was and why we did it. Here's what the letter says:

Dear Mr Pratchett,

The Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild is a group on the fibre arts website ravelry.com where fans can come together to indulge our passion for all things crafty as well as all things Discworld.

At the end of last year we were trying to think of a way to show our support following the news of your Alzheimer’s diagnosis and being a bunch of knitters and crocheters (not to mention spinners, weavers and dyers) we decided a Discworld-inspired afghan blanket was the way to go.

Since 26th December 2007 ninety-nine people from all over Roundworld have contributed a square or two, causing my postman to start giving me some very strange looks. The project thread on ravelry has been a joy as people suggested themes, egged each other on or just had a rant when a brilliant idea turned out not to be so brilliant after all. Somewhere along the way the project became known as The Pratchgan 2008 and the name has now firmly stuck.

We send you this gift and the accompanying letters with all our love, to let you know that a bunch of strangers are thinking of you and also with our thanks for all the years of laughter that your books have brought us. If you ever manage to find the time to join ravelry (a wee birdie has told us that you spin and weave so it’s not entirely outwith the realms of possibility that you might feel the urge to join some day) we’d be honoured to have you as a member of the Guild.

We hope you enjoy The Pratchgan and that it brings you as much pleasure as we’ve had creating it.

Warmest wishes,

Shirley (ravelry name cherryred)
On behalf of the Ankh-Morpork Knitter’s Guild

I feel truly honored to have been a part of this. And yes, I did get a little bit teary-eyed at all of it.

Never too old, I guess.

We had our "Employee Appreciation Day" on Wednesday. Festivities included free food and drink (non-alcoholic, it was during working hours) and a 'Modified Monster Trike' Race.

I was able to sweet-talk my SPOH, as well as Ames, into coming and being cheerleaders for me. They didn't wear the cute little outfits, but they did show up! And Ames even sweet-talked another yarny friend into coming as well. It was great! But I feel kind of bad that I didn't get to spend much time chatting with any of them. SPOH was kind enough to take race photos for me, while Ames got some with her phone.

Here's a photo of me practicing last Friday. I didn't touch a trike again until Wednesday at race time.









Here's me and my team, Ghost Riders. Believe it or not, I was the oldest member of my team.







My leg of the race was from those teeny tiny orange cones in the background all the way around the corner. Trying to keep up the speed and turn were pretty interesting...





You can see my teammate urging me to get the lead out so she could ride her leg.





Gee, can you tell I was thrilled to make a complete idiot of myself? I was mainly just pleased to not wreck or fall on my face during the trade-off.





See the girls on the far left? The one in the pink is a fellow team leader. She and I have loads of friendly competition. What's funny about it is that she talked loads more smack than I did. And guess who didn't get first place *grins*.


This is one of my bosses. (I have two.) It's nice to know we can get management to make fools of themselves willingly. Kind of gives the rest of us a break.







Woohoo! Ghost Riders won 1st place for our shift with a time of 2 mins. 15 secs. We got 2nd place factory-wide.

The fastest team of the whole factory only beat us by 12 seconds. Although it is just a tad embarrassing to be beat by the I.T. people. They get to sit in the a/c all day while we're out on the floor sweating our butts off. Oh, well. We still kicked some ass!

*cue victory music*

Firsts (a meme)

Thieved this from Sleeping Si.


Who was your first prom date?
That would be the guy I was dating at the time.
Do you still talk to your first love?
Nope, I have this nifty ability to make my exes disappear.
What was your first alcoholic drink?
I've been told that I tried some of an uncle's beer when I was little...
What was your first job?
Setting tobacco for my grandpa
What was your first car?
'87 Chevy Celebrity
Who was the first person to text you today?
Ames
Who is the first person you thought of this morning?
I don't have coherent thoughts in the morning
Who was your first grade teacher?
Uhhh..Mrs. Mahoney?
Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?
Texas
Who was your first best friend and are you still friends?
I don't remember her name, and we're not in touch anymore.
What was your first sport played?
Whatever they made us play in P.E.
Where was your first sleepover?
Does family count?
Who was the first person you talked to this morning?
Before noon counts as morning, right? Then Ames.
Whose wedding were you first in?
One of my aunt's.
What was the first thing you did this morning?
Woke up.
What was the first concert you went to?
Bush. Then the very next night we went to see Marilyn Manson.
What was your first tattoo or piercing?
First piercing was my ears a really long time ago. First tat is a seahorse on my shoulderblade.
What was the first foreign country you went to?
Does Kentucky count? (Kidding...sort of.) Canada.
What was your first run in with the law?
A speeding ticket.
When was your first detention?
Never. I was a good girl...
What was the first state you lived in?
Indiana
Who was the first person to break your heart?
Let's not go there, ok.
Who was your first roommate?
I had three the first and second time. That was when I reinforced the fact that I don't play well with others.
Where did you go in your first limo ride?
N/A.

T-I-P Update

Here's a photo of the tank I've been working on for about a month. Long time huh. I think there's something like 50 hours in it. But, keep in mind that I've been writing the pattern as I go, and a hefty chunk of those hours were due to my attempts at complicated math, visualizing, looking up stitches, etc.

Anyway, the pattern is solid. I like it, though there are a few tweaks I'll be making to it.

Please ignore the whimpering you hear in the background. It's my conscience and pride either dueling or commiserating.

I forgot to take it out of my bag today when I went to work. That's no big deal in itself. But it let me see/feel how the yarn felt in 'normal' weather instead of just in the A/C. The consensus states that it would be insanely warm during the summer and the pattern isn't really conducive to wearing over another shirt when it gets cooler out.

So, I decided to frog it. I'll remake it with a different yarn, and possibly larger needles. Which will involve more complicated math, visualizing, you get the idea.

Yes, I'm insane.

Hand over the chocolate!

A Moment of Silence, Please

For the departure of my sense of well-being and sanity.

See, in the previous post, I listed the first, what, five attempts on the MKAL. All well and good. Consider this the logging of attempt number six. *Sigh*

I had a couple of 'AHA!' moments during this adventure. And now, I'm going back to the beginning to put them into use. The last attempt ended (I think) somewhere in Clue 1. During Clue 2, I figured out how to read a chart to make it work for my personal knitting style. When Clue 3 was posted (yesterday), I expanded on that first moment. I figured out how to make the chart work even better with my particular style. I decline to explain it right now apart from saying I have to do a little bit of work before I even pick up the sticks and string.

So, why am I having to start over yet again? Because I dropped an indeterminate number of stitches in the middle of the lace pattern. And I'm not good enough (yet) to pick them up properly. Trust me. I tried. It got worse.

I decided (after several deep breaths and many more choice words) to start completely over. For three reasons.

1. The aforementioned dropped stitches incident.
2. I had several errors that I flubbed my way through.
3. I've completely lost my mind.

I still hold no ill will toward the pattern, the designer, the yarn or the needles. Most of it was due to PEBKAC. Problem Exists Between Knitter And Chart. (Yes, I'm reassigning computer acronyms here.) And the pattern looks lovely, what I've seen of it.

Here I go. Sixth time's a charm!

p.s. Send Chocolate!!!!!

Adventures in Knitting

So. I've joined a mystery knitalong. I know we're making a shawl, I just don't have any idea what it will look like until we're done. Here's my wrap-up of how things have gone so far:

Attempt #1:

Read the clue. Goggle at the sheer number of stitches to cast on. Deep breath and attempt to cast on 800+ stitches of lace weight yarn onto 14" straight needles. Realize that this isn't going to work. Frog. Re-wrap yarn around ball. Find chocolate, caffeine and nicotine to console myself.

Attempt #2:

Buy proper needles for the project. Cast on. Knit the first 6 rows. Make an error somewhere in row 7. Attempt to tink back, lose a stitch. Frog, and re-wrap yarn. Eat more chocolate, drink more caffeine.

Attempt #3:

Cast on. Lose a stitch while knitting first row. Frog and re-wrap yarn. Think heavily about buying alcohol to replace chocolate. Realize liquor stores are closed. Set entire project aside to calm down.

Attempt #4:

Deep breath, calming tunes, cast on. Successfully knit first 2 rows. Read pattern wrong about a third through the row. Find error near end of row. Attempt to tink back, lose 2 stitches. Frog. Break yarn during frogging. Finish re-wrapping yarn. Untangle broken piece and wrap for possibility of emergency at a later date. Intake massive amounts of sugar, caffeine and nicotine to calm nerves.

Attempt #5:

Cast on slowly, using different type of cast on. Triple check number of stitches. Knit 4 rows slowly and without errors. Begin row 5 of pattern. Stop and set aside due to being tired and jittery from the sugar/caffeine crash. Cross fingers and hope that all continues to go well. Think about buying new clothes since most of my current clothes don't fit right now thanks to sugar and caffeine...

I'm not annoyed with the pattern. I still really like it so far. And I'm honor-bound to do this thing properly, dang it!

Update: I've (finally) completed Clue #1 successfully! The photo's the proof. Now, on to Clue #2....

Movie meme

Thanks to sleeping si, I have another meme to share.


One movie that made you laugh:
Shaun of the Dead
One movie that made you cry:
Stepmom
One movie that you loved as a child:
The Last Unicorn
One movie you've seen more than once:
The Crow
One movie you loved, but were embarrased to admit it:
I don't embarrass too easily anymore, so I can't think of one at the moment....
One movie you hated:
Zoolander
One movie that scared you:
When I was little, I had a nightmare about the Care Bears Movie...does that count?
One movie that bored you:
Speed Racer
One movie that made you happy:
Pirates of the Caribbean. Any of them.
One movie that made you miserable:
Where the Day Takes You
One movie that you weren't brave enough to see:
um...
One movie characted you've fallen in love with:
How about lust? Then it would be Captain Jack Sparrow.
The last movie you saw:
Get Smart
The next movie you hope to see:
Dark Knight


Consider yourselves tagged.

Look Up

See those dragons up there? See the pretty pink one? She needs a name.

And I'm fresh out of ideas. C'mon people, help me out!