Everyday Goddess

I've fallen in love with a pattern named Jeanie, and I want to knit it in Smooshy.

You have to understand. My most favoritist things in knitting are cables and drop stitches. I *love* cables and drop stitches. And my favoritist fiber is Merino wool.

Now go look at this pattern that has descended from heaven down unto Knitty, named: Jeanie.

My. Knitting. Heaven.

And it looks challenging, too. Oh, I must knit it! I must knit it!

I tried to use stash yarn; I really did.  But I can already tell that it's not going to cut it. It's too stringy and unpleasant in my hands. A shawl is a big project, requiring yarn that calls you to it day after day.

That's it, I thought. I'm just going to buy the yarn the pattern calls for: Smooshy from Dream in Color. It's only three skeins.

Holy crap, it's over $20/skein. Eek!

I guess I'm going to power on with my stash yarn, or find a cheaper substitute after the holidays.  Sigh.

I don't want to leave my house, and I don't want to sleep.

Seriously.

Between the Tivo just bursting with shows, and the new computer, and the urge to write, and the urge to read, and the urge to clean, AND...

I just got my membership email from Ravelry!!!

Last night I filled in my bio and uploaded some information about my knitting library and my stash - but with the WIPs!  And the FOs!  And the pictures!

WIP = work in progress; FO = finished objects.

And Ravelry uses Flickr, so Flickr it is. I am desperate to get up pictures!!!

Yeah, I've got a hot Saturday night planned, baby.

Waiting on the Ravelry. And waiting. And waiting.

Seriously.  People be blogging about it, and I be waiting.  Painfully waiting.

Are you a knitter?  Have you heard about Ravelry?

Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

The content here is all user- driven; we as a community make the site what it is. The Yarn Harlot wrote recently about Representing, showing the world the power of our community, and I believe that on this site we can really show the strength of our numbers and the depth of our creativity.

So what can you personally do on Ravelry? You can talk about your own projects, integrate that information into your personal website and contribute to someone else's project a world away.

If you are not a blogger, we give you a great way to share and show off your projects, participate in -alongs, and socialize with other crafters. If you are a blogger than Ravelry is the perfect complement to your online journal; it provides structure and organization. All of your information is easy to enter and easy to find. You will not need to update your own FO album again- it is all here on Ravelry!

But.  It's still in beta, and you have to sign up and get into the queue.  And then with the waiting.

At least you can look up where you are in line:

Found you!

• You signed up on July 19, 2007
• You are #18881 on the list.
• 8948 people are ahead of you in line.
• 8808 people are behind you in line.
• 35% of the list has been invited so far

Sigh.

But hey, blogger peeps, just keep on posting about how awesome it is.  WE DON'T MIND.

;)

I didn't write yesterday.

I'd planned to.

I got up early.  Threw the laptop in the car.

I was going to knit with my friends and then go write somewhere.  But somewhere in the sitting and chatting and the laid back energy of The Grove on a Sunday morning, I lost it.

I came home and watched Hex and The Showbiz Show and The 4400.  And Weird Science.  The film being relevant to my screenplay.  (Lisa appears right around 10 minutes, and there's really no deep explanation of how.  Good to know.)

I should have rewatched Hitch as well.  When I decided to come home instead of going to write, it was to watch Weird Science AND Hitch.  I played around with my yarn stash instead.

It's annoying me because I have all this worsted weight cotton, and I cannot figure out what to do with it to save my life.  Every pattern I like calls for DK or sport weight.  Erg.

I got Knitting Lingerie Style at Barnes and Noble with high hopes, but I didn't even finish the swatch I started.  Lame.

I'm positively buried in books to review, so I read a little, too, but I didn't even get through a full chapter.

I certainly didn't do laundry or go to the grocery store.

I don't know though - Sometimes I just really need to wind down on Sundays.  I mean, were I not berating myself for not having a supersized, superwoman Sunday, I would admit to having a pretty nice, relaxing day.  Causing me to feel quite relaxed and ready to work hard today.

Plus, I really do need to kick up a notch on my reading, and that's a relaxing AND productive thing to do on a Sunday.  Particularly since I'm writing through my lunches on the weekdays, which is when I was getting my reading done.

As for this weekend, I had my poker night on Friday, gamed all day Saturday, and then ran to a party Saturday night.  I was a little beat.

I guess I just really prefer to run, run, run during the week and then have fun/relax on the weekends.  What a concept.  Can't just play every weekend, but maybe you can't just work every weekend either.

I suppose the point of Script Frenzy is to be working more than I'm playing in June, but there you have it anyway.  I'm plugging along steadily, and my pace is more long distance runner than sprint.  I've got my eye on Saturday June 30th.  I may try to pull one out that day.  Not sure.  I'll definitely get past 10,000 words by the end of the month.

Which was not the actual point, alas.  But it's not nothing!  I will be positive!  I am positive!

Kinda.

Well, it's Monday, and I'll be writing at lunch and after work.  Guess I'll see how I feel about my Script Frenzy chances as the week goes on.

Mother and Child... and Adorable Hat

How about a nice snowy picture for spring?

Can you handle the total cuteness of this pic?

Knitwise, the hat is knit up in worsted weight Encore by Plymouth Yarn, which is just a rockin' baby yarn.  It's also the first time I ever followed a chart (there's little yellow hearts around the top of the hat).

Babywise, I just saw this little one this past weekend and was really amazed at how she's grown since I first met her.  Sitting up, clapping.  Her mom reads this blog, so please feel free to coo.

At the hat or the baby.  Ha!

Stitches and Words

OK, this year got off to a odd start for me - what with the unemployment, the new job, romantic stuff, and the latest tax filing of my life.  But sliding into May Day, things are coming together.  My room is slightly more organized and so's my computer.  The cast & crew DVDs from my last short will be burned and sent out in May.  Promise.

I can feel the urge to write.  Screenwrite.

That's a biggy; it's been a while.  And there's a couple things that happened this weekend that have really made me feel like a certain energy is back again.  Don't laugh.

Wax Poetic got Pacifica Clary Sage candles back in stock.   My history with clary sage started in Tallahassee with a candle from Bath & Body Works.  A candle which was discontinued right when I was graduating film school and too broke to stock up.  It's the scent I burn when I write.  That one was clary sage and cedarwood, but I quickly keyed in on the clary sage part of the scent.  And I couldn't find it anywhere until one day I bought one at Wax Poetic.

They've not had them for an age, but yesterday, just as the screenwriting energy is really building up, there they were.  That, my friends, is the scent of creative production.

The second thing that happened is I went and ripped almost all my in-progress knitting projects.  Not my longterm bamboo lace shawl project and not my current pair of socks, but a top I wasn't liking, a pair of gloves I was never going to finish, a scarf and a hat.  It felt great to turn all that incomplete, never going to be finished crap into happy balls of yarny potential.

It occurred to me that I would probably never do that with half-finished and/or crappy screenplays and other writing.  Writing sits stored in your desktop, always ready to be revisited, polished, rewritten.  And that's OK.

Because that clear it out and start fresh feeling - I can get that from my yarn.  That sense of accomplishment that comes from completion - I can get that from my yarn.

Writing's never done.  Film is never done.  It's just walked away from.

Knitting - Knitting Can Be Done.

I am working on the most fabulous fisherman's scarf right now.  May its strong, solid beauty drive my fingers to the keys.

Soon, the yarn whispers.  Soon.

You can't take the knit from me.

So long as there is Tivo and knitting, there is sanity.

I finished my first pair of socks!

Awesome roomie Erin gave me the book Wendy Knits for Christmas, and it is this book I credit with my new sock obsession.  First of all, I devoured the book cover to cover.  It was actually a delight to read a knitting/blogging book!  And then, one of the patterns in the book is for basic toe-up socks.  You use short rows for the toes and the heels.  Well, this unemployed girl knew that now was the time.

I ran over to Unwind in Burbank and picked up two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Argyle with #2 needles.  (Yes, a treat, not a habit!)  Very yummy colors and feel.  The socks are a little loose, so I think I'm going to try #1 needles for my next pair.  The ruffle on the top I got by binding off loosely like this with a #3 needle:

loose bind-off works like this: knit your two stitches, and slip the first over the second, as with normal bind-off. Then, slip the single stitch back to your other needle: you will knit it again, and then knit a second stitch, slipping the first over the second as before. You can alternate regular bind-off with this loose bind-off (every other stitch or so), or do it ever stitch for extra stretch!

Hat tip to Pins and Needles for the bind off.

Now, since I'm actually blogging my knitting today, here's a couple other things I finished this fall.  Here's a scarf I knit for my Mom for her birthday.

I knit it up using yarn from my stash.  (Otherwise known as beautiful yarn I got from Melise - Thanks, Melise!)  It took me three false starts to decide on the color/needles/stitch count, but I ended up really happy with the results.

Also, I bought another great book last time I was in Solvang at Village Spinning and Weaving, 200 Knitted Blocks. Knitting blocks is a great way to try new techniques, and there's a full-color picture of each block with suggestions for mixing and matching.  I decided to knit a couple of squares with two different colors of yarn and make them into a potholder as a birthday gift.  I used Brown Sheep Lambs Pride Super Wash Wool, which made a nice, thick potholder with two squares back to back.  I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

I also recently knit up an adorable little baby hat using a chart for the first time, but I didn't snap a pic.  It was super cute, but a bit too small, I think.  Hopefully, there's a dolly or a teddy bear who can wear it.  Clearly, you're never too old to put knitted items on stuffed animals!

I am learning that my tight knitting is more of a issue with smaller items.  Or perhaps it's just an issue with items that actually need to fit!  That's why I over-compensated with the socks, and now my socks are a bit too big.  Although I did try to check my gauge before I started.  Sigh.  Maybe they will shrink up a little in the wash.

Oh well, I don't care that they're loose.  They're supercomfy, and they fit in my shoes just fine.

Saturday night's alright.

Had a wonderful time at the Wine & Twine last night!  Here's a pic of fabulous hosts, Amy and Jeannine:

And here's a pic Jeannine took of the whole bunch of us:

Yes, I'm the one who couldn't even put her wine down for a picture - nice!

Proof of knitting:

I like this pic and me and Becca... Although, look at my eyes... who's had more wine in this pic???

Best of all, I cruised by party #2 at 1am on my way home.  It was still going on, and I got to pop in and say hi to the host and some work peeps, including work friends I had hoped would still be there.

So the evening was a success from beginning to end!

We fly just like birds of a feather.

Helping to fight breast cancer is as easy as a yarnover!

Knitters unite!  And help us come one step further in the fight against breast cancer.  Your contribution will go towards the important research, education and treatment programs that are essential in the fight against this disease!

My fabulous friend and birthday girl, Amy, is walking in City of Hope's 10th Walk for Hope on October 8th.  She will be joined by many of our equally fabulous friends from our Knit & Quibble group.  They have a fabulous team page where you can donate online to this great cause or join their team.

Dude, look at that totally awesome logo!  They also have a Cafe Press store.

Cool girls, cool cause, and they knit while they walk, too.  How can you resist?  It would be totally awesome if you could donate even just a little bit.

When you wake, you shall have all the pretty little ponies.

Hush a bye
Don't you cry
Go to sleep my little baby
When you wake
You shall have
All the pretty little ponies

In your bed
Momma said
Baby's riding off to dreamland
One by one
They've begun
Dance and prance for little baby

Blacks and bays
Dapples and greys
Running in the night
When you wake
You shall have
All the pretty little ponies

Can you see the little ponies
Dance before your eyes
All the pretty little ponies
Will be there when you arise

 

Hold your breath,

Make a wish,

Count to three...