Thursday, September 27, 2007

Bohus on Ebay

I believe this is the green mist design. The seller said that it is good condition, but it looks pretty pilled on the body, though that could be shaved down. The wool quality is pretty high on these babies. If any of my size-small friends are interested, this is a pretty good price. Although, there are always those pesky bidding wars in the last hour.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Poems of Color

Just finished reading this book. It is a really neat story about the Bohus knitting cottage industry in Sweden. The author also secured permission to publish the patterns, which were due not to be released for publication for another decade or so. I'm not sure if I'll ever feel confident to do colorwork like that, but it is very inspiring. Looking at the beautiful wool/angora yokes makes me just want to knit a ribbon of the colorwork and then graft it to something. My library system (serving a major metropolitan area) only has two copies, and I have one of them! The other is a reference copy, which never leaves the central branch. I am blown away sometimes at collection development choices. I had to wait a little over three weeks for this copy! I guess I'll get to learn all about that, since I have my first "coll dev" class next week. Thankfully they moved it to Fall from Spring.

P.S. I admit that I am biased when it comes to knitting books. Although, sometimes, knitting books that I consider crap are purchased in bulk, so who knows. I guess they got a high review in Booklist.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Stitches out!

So, I got my stitches out yesterday, and thankfully, I don't need anymore.

To celebrate I went and ate a big salad. Yay, ruffage! How I missed thee!

The whole recovery process was quite painful. Thankfully I had Vicadin, which I really needed at night, since I sleep on my side.

Thank you everyone, for your kind words.

School starts this week, and I am kinda looking forward to it.

So, in knitting news, anyone doing the red scarf project? I've talked my friends Sarah, Amy, and Danielle into doing it, and Amy talked her friend Caroline into it. I mean, everyone is doing it, how 'bout you? I'm midway through my second ball of misti alpaca, and it feels wonderful.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Trash the dress.com

http://trashthedress.wordpress.com/

Hmmm... I think if I wanted to do this sort of thing, that it would be neat to be rising out of a vat of dye, with the color streaming down the satin.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Vicadin is good.

Only lost four teeth, instead of six.

I have stitches for the holes to my sinuses. Hopefully won't need more.

Very tired.

On my third vicadin.

Doctor called me at home to check on me, which is nice.

Peace out.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Jena 6

from the website:

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a "whites only" shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn't sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn't care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree. (Please note, the tree above is not the tree, but a tree at Jena High School.)

http://www.whileseated.org/photo/003244.shtml

Monday, September 10, 2007

CLA?

Anyone going to the conference?

*SIGH*

Good News: I got to see an oral surgeon today, and I am having my wisdom teeth removed Friday, at 8 am.

Bad News: *sigh* I may lose other teeth that were impacted by my wisdom teeth, and I may end up with holes in my sinuses that will need to be surgically closed.

I know that the oral surgeon was being upfront, and giving me a worse case-scenario, since so many ppl in LA sue their doctors, he was letting me know all that could happen, but it just scared the crap out of me. I don't even have pain from these teeth, and yet they are a major problem.

I've never been under (which isn't covered by my insurance!) and the dentist said that since my teeth are fully developed that there will be a lot of bruising on my face and there will be a long recovery period.

Fantastic.

Friday, September 7, 2007

insurance woes - denist fun

First the HMO screwed up the referral, then I get an appointment with an oral surgeon, then they call me and cancel the appointment because they dropped my insurance, now I am waiting for a new list of approved candidates, and now it is going to be six weeks before I see anyone.


Why do I have to beg ppl to pull these wisdom teeth out of my head? All freaking FOUR of them.


So not happy right now.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Wow, it seems like Magknits is back on track

they've begun to hit their target of a new issue every month:

http://www.magknits.com/

Monday, September 3, 2007

Housecleaning, The Closer Marathon, & Yarn Cakes

Hubby and I were remarking upon the fact that this is the first Labor Day in a long time that TNT has done a non-Law & Order marathon. I guess all those Golden Globes and Emmy nominations have pushed The Closer into prime position.

I've been wandering around the apartment, cleaning here, and there. Not very exciting, but it needs to get done. With the marathon on I can take little breaks and watch TNT and work on my scarf for the Red Scarf Project. I've gotten through one ball of the Misti Alpaca.

I broke down and bought a yarn baller a couple of months ago, and I left it set up, so every now and then I make another yarn cake; extremely satisfying.

I wasn't going to buy a ball winder, but after my last trip to Wildfiber, I just broke down and bought one. A couples of months ago I got a gift certificate for my birthday for Wildfiber, so I went down there and bought enough Cascade 220 for the boatneck sweater in Fitted Knits. Now, if you've ever bought Cascade you know that it comes in hanks. Well, since I'd just spent around 60 dollars, I expected full instruction and use of their swift and yarn baller combination. Ideally, they would have balled it for me, especially since it wasn't very busy in the store, but I was informed that they would teach me once, and then it was up to me to ball all eight skeins myself. Fine. That is reasonable.

I admit, I have a bit of a history with their yarn baller, since last time I was there I bought two skeins of alpaca that was very difficult to ball, and was given a lot of attitude since the shop assistants didn't want to take the time to help me with it, and even informed me that "real knitters have a yarn baller at home."

Thankfully, Casacade does a really wonderful job when they put up their hanks, so it was easy to get it one the swift in one piece, and to ball it up. However, I still got attitude for just using their ball winder! They began to give me side glances and impatient sighs, even though no one was waiting to use the device. I said to one of the shop clerks, as she walked by, "this is really fun and it makes such a cool yarn cake," to which she replied, "yeah, it can make any yarn look nice." Whoa, I thought, just because Cascade is a budget yarn doesn't mean it should be looked down upon! Anyway, I was willing to concede that this was all in my head, and I was being overly sensitive, when a woman bought three hanks of expensive hand spun kettle dyed stuff. I was shocked when, at the cash register, the staff unwound her three hanks and told her that I would be off in a minute, and she'd get everything balled up in a jiffy.

The women seemed a little sheepish, and she said to me that she had a yarn baller at home, but not a swift. I laughed and said that I had a swift but not a yarn baller. The shop clerk then chimed in and said that I should give my swift to the other lady so that she could have a full set-up at home. Really, I thought, is that really what I should do?

Anyway, I just left. I had five hanks left to go, but I just left. Later in the week I stopped by Stitches of the Heart to pick up some alpaca. There I saw that they had a yarn baller for sale, and I just bought it, still upset at the folks at Wildfiber.

Anyway, I'm really happy with my set-up at home, and it just makes me more determined to not go back to Wildfiber. To be fair, I've had good experiences there, but whenever the yarn baller is involved, it has gotten rude and snippy. I don't feel that I am taking advantage of their resources by wanting to use the ball winder, especially when I have just bought yarn there. If you go to Compatto or A Manos yarn center, they are totally cool about it. Perhaps they have been taken advantage of in the past? Even if that is the case, I don't deserve the residual angst.

Ravelry part two

Now I have "friends" and I am in "groups" and I'm feeling all this pressure to contribute.... hmmm.... that is probably what I need......something to think about.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Ravelry

okay, okay, it is starting to grow on me. If I avoid the forums and look instead at the FOs and all the different permutations of various patterns, then I really enjoy myself.