February 27th 2007
More Anne At Last
I’ve finally released the next chapter of Anne of Green Gables. I hope to get back to my approximately once a week schedule now but that depends on school and life, etc.
Archive for February, 2007
February 22nd 2007
Flash, Feeling Fried, and a Sara hat
Ack, it’s been a while as Kara and Kristin reminded me. I’ve been quite busy with work and school lately. At work I wrote a grant last year for my library which we were awarded to redesign our website. My boss and I decided on a company to do the redesign and met with them two weeks ago to start the process and I can tell it’s going to be a lot of fun! I need to start rewriting some content and new stuff to fill in the design work that our contractor is doing.
Thank goodness this is my last semester of school as the burnout has reached an all time high. Thank goodness also that I only have one class and it is FUN! Library school in the 21st century is pretty awesome. I’ve learned everything I know about web design from graduate coursework and right now I’m taking a course on Flash. It’s a pretty fun way to finish out the Masters. (I’m trying not to think about the Comprehensive Exams I have coming up in April.) Flash is fun but it’s challenging too. I have tremendous respect now for some of the fancy stuff that is out there.
So, when work and school are taken care of, there is LibriVox to tend to and I found myself feeling swamped in poetry collections and barely able to keep up, let alone record something. So I reached out to some of my fellow metacoordinators for help and the wonderful Kristin (Wisconsin Kristin, not New Hampshire Kristin) stepped up to the plate and we will now alternate short poetry collections. It’ll be like a tag team and give me some breathing room which is much needed. As soon as I’m done posting this I plan on recording a chapter or two of Anne which has gone sadly neglected for weeks now as many of you have reminded me! 
I’ve been feeling fried lately. My Meniere’s Disease is flaring up and I tend to try to pretend it isn’t and push through it which of course only makes it worse. It’s so frustrating to be slowed down and held back when I have so many things I want to do. Granted, one of the main things is sitting on the couch with my man and watching tv or Six Feet Under on DVD and knitting but we all need our down time. 
Knitting is my new obsession. I have been having fun with all my beautiful new yarn but I got sidetracked when a coworker and friend added a baby girl to their family two weeks ago. I went to my awesome local yarn store and picked out some pretty pink cotton and knit this up in a few nights:
It’s a pretty pink Sara Hat! The decorations were sort of accidental. I knit two rows of ribbing at the recommendation of a book I was using as a guide to control the roll. Only the roll controlled itself quite nicely and the ribbing just looked silly so I threaded some ribbon through it. The little roses I just found in my random craft stash and used them to mask some decreases that were more obvious than I would have liked. I’m quite happy with how it turned out and I can’t wait to see it on the sweet baby’s head, although I’m told it is too big. And to think I was worried it was too small! But babies in my family tend to have ginormous heads so maybe I let that factor in too much.
But now I’m happily on to my other projects again. I’ve learned some fun new stuff and will post pictures soon. And there’s your Annie update.
February 1st 2007
Yarn Extravaganza
Well, I finally went to a real yarn store on Tuesday and boy oh boy did I have fun! First of all, I ordered some yarn online a couple weeks ago and am still trying to decide what it will be. I got two different cotton yarns since I tend to be sensitive to wool and didn’t want to order wool without getting my hands on it first. So I got some Twisted Sisters Daktari in Terra Cotta, 100% Cotton, Slubbed. I’m thinking maybe gloves with it? I also got some Rowan All Seasons Cotton (60% Cotton, 40% Acrylic) which is supersoft:
I got two skeins of the blue and one of the green and I’m not sure what they will become either. So, then I finally went to the yarn store. I got lots of needles and a nice carrying case for them. The women who worked there were super nice and friendly. I was just planning on getting some nice sock yarn. I ended up picking out this:
Isn’t it beautiful? It is Mountain Colors Hand-Painted “Bearfoot” and the colorway is called Yellowstone. It’s 60% superwash wool, 25% mohair, and 15% nylon and oh so soft! Then I was just looking around to see what else they had and I discovered heaven in the forum of Malabrigo - Kettle Dyed Pure Merino Wool:
Yup, I got five skeins. A woman who works there talked me into it. She just finished a sweater of the same stuff and said she only used 4 and a half skeins. If ever a yarn was to inspire me to tackle a sweater project, this is the stuff. The color is called “Jaen” by the way. What’s that? You want a closer shot?
Now I just need to find a pattern basic enough for me to try. I’m thinking about one I saw in a book I checked out from the library. It is a tunic style pullover with intarsia flowers and a butterfly but I’d leave those out of course. But it seems pretty approachable overall.
In other knitting news, I finished my first sock (well, technically the second but I ripped out the first due to its enormity and misshapenness) and I’ve realized I just didn’t pick very good yarn for socks. It’s Lion Brand Chenille type stuff and it’s just too heavy and not stretchy enough for real socks. But it turns out it makes great, thick slipper type socks, don’t you think?
More importantly, it fits and I’m beginning to understand and enjoy sock construction. The second (okay, third) sock is coming along quickly. I’ll be glad to be done with this yarn, though.
Hmm. I think that’s it. Oh, my fella has learned to knit! He was watching me one evening and asked how it works and then a couple evenings later asked if I had any more needles. He has learned quickly and last night we went to a different yarn store (gotta see what all is out there!) and he picked out some great yarns for himself to use instead of the crap acrylic I had given him to use while I showed him the basics. He’s begun a very nice forest green tweed rib scarf. Interestingly enough, our local news station recently ran a story on men who knit. I think he is definitely one of those guys who likes the challenge of a pattern and wants to conquer it. In any case, it is so nice to be able to sit next to each other at the end of the day and watch TV and knit together. Alrighty, that’s the end of the yarn extravaganza. If you have any awesome yet simple sweater patterns you know of, send me links!
