Derby and String

I Apologize #2

Sorry.  Like I told you yesterday, I'm in 94 swaps, and each of them has a questionnaire.

Don't worry, I tend to join a whole mess of swaps all at the same time, and then when the last package is sent, I won't join another for a looooong time.  (It's been almost 2 years since the last one.)

Also, how cool is the idea of a swap at your LYS?  That way, when you give your "secret pal" the socks, you can see the look of sheer happiness (or utter disappointment?) on their face in person.  I'm looking forward to giving the Ocean Toes socks I knit (that link isn't to my pair...but a very VERY cute pair!) to my secret pal on Sept 15th!

So without further adieu, I give you the very last questionnaire for me(I think?) for the Hogwarts Sock Kit Swap.  Happy Long Weekend everyone!

1. What Hogwarts house have you been sorted into? 

Slytherin

2. List your favorite double-point needle brands, including size and length. Or would you prefer circulars?

I like both circulars and DPNs, so either would be fine.  I REALLY like Inox DPNs, and have only ever tried Addi Lace Turbos for socks, and don't mind trying other brands.

3. Would you like to try a new brand needle? If so, which brand? Size? Length?

Hee! :) See answer above.  I usually like the smaller needles (1s and 2s) rather than the bigger ones (5s and 6s), since I like a tighter-knit sock.

4. If you are a RAVENCLAW, do you prefer the colors in the film or the book? Do you have a strong preference?

Slytherin!! 

5. Do you have any allergies?

Only to jalepeno seeds, and I don't really know if that's an allergy, so much as a violent reaction.  So please don't send jalepeno yarn. :)

Although, jalepeno yarn would be really cool.  (I haven't had caffeine this morning, so if I'm not funny or not making sense, feel free to ignore me.)

I apologize.

Did anyone watch that one episode, I think it was Deadwood Season 1, where the guy had typhus or something (I pay really REALLY close attention...maybe it was small pox?) and he kept saying "I apologize..." over and over?

I feel like that dude today.  (Only without the small pox.)  Apologizing for EVERYTHING. 

SO! I apologize for posting yet ANOTHER questionnaire for ANOTHER swap, because 3 sock swaps are apparently enough for me.  Wait....4.  Hogwarts Sock Swap, Hogwarts Sock KIT swap, a sock swap through my Favorite LYS, and the Monkey Swap. (ETA: I also joined another "mystery" knit along.  Because I haven't finished the first one, and feel the need to join another.  No, I'm not sure what's wrong with me.  Hi!  I have 13 unfinished pairs of socks on the needles.  Kick me.  But check the side bar over on the left for the SOS link...sign-ups are open until tomorrow, I think?  As well as the sign-ups for the Monkey knit along.  They're open til tomorrow too, I'm pretty sure.  Check the blog.)

Because (another random fact about me!) I have an unnatural affinity for monkeys....(Orangutangs to be specific.  That's a story for another time.  Someone remind me, and I'll tell you tomorrow.)...here is my Monkey Sock Swap Questionnaire.

Monkey Sock Swap THREE Questionnaire

The basics:
Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep?   

I'm a bit of an intermediate.  I just finished another Cat Bordhi sock...and understood what was going on, so put me in whichever category that is.
The measurements:

Shoe Size:   9 1/2
Foot circumference:    9 1/2 " 

Foot length: 9 3/4"

Yarn Preferences:
What colors do you love?  Ocean colours.  And black and red :)

Do you prefer solids or variegated? Either one.  I really don't have a preference.

Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn?  I really REALLY don't like knitting with acrylic or cotton.  It's a personal thing, I guess.

What colors would you never wear?  Pink. Or any variation thereof.  That being said, if there are SMALL amounts of pink overshadowed by black or red, I'm okay with that.

What are your favorite brands of yarn? Blue Moon, Fleece Artist, Malabrigo.  But my experience with yarns is pretty limited.  I really like indie dyers, like Dani at Sunshine Yarns or the Yarn Pirate.

Are there any new brands you would like to try? I'm up for trying anything new.

Cookie A. Patterns:
Which of her patterns have you already knit? I'm currently knitting a pair of Baudelaires and I knit a couple of pairs of Monkeys and Pomotamous

Which pattern(s) would you like to knit and don’t already own? German Stockings, Rhiannon, Thelonious or Twisted Flower.  (I'm very into cables right now.)

Other pertinent information:

Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US? Either one is fine 

Do you have any allergies?  Nope. Unless you knit with jalepeno seeds..those make me break out in hives.

Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals? Neither (I quit smoking, and the cats live at my parents house.)

Are you on Ravelry yet?  If you don’t mind having new friends, what is your Ravelry name? I'm there.  "hotrodlibbyloo" is my username.

What's Up Wednesday?

In lieu (yet again!) of a post containing any substantial matter (hang on tomorrow for a photographic essay of me dyeing silk hankies!), I give you some random things you may or may not know about me.  Because that's all I can think of writing today.

1. I am not always absent-minded and loud and weird.  Sometimes I sleep.
2. I think I am hilarious.  This is not always the case, but I make myself laugh hysterically and sometimes that is all that matters. :)
3. I don't like knitting in front of other knitters I don't know very well.  If anyone sees me out and about knitting, usually it's at the park (no other knitters that I know of!) or my knitting is held under the table so nobody looks at what I'm doing and tells me I'm doing it wrong.  (obvious exceptions to this rule are Christina, Sachi and Marie.)
4. I was in musicals in high school.  I sang with a world-class, award-winning jazz choir.  I used to win karaoke contests in college to pay for my books.  I now refuse to sing in front of anyone unless it is MHP, Mr X-Man's kids (I used to sing a song to them every night before they went to sleep) or I am WASTED and there is a karaoke machine.
5. I have an unnatural addiction to the innernets and my cell phone.  I need a 12-step program to leave my cell phone more than 20 feet away from my person for more than an hour, unless I am sleeping. Yes, I realize this may be a problem, but at least it isn't substance abuse.
6. I am a nerd.  (see #3 and #5 for examples) 
7. I have 2 pairs of rubber boots in my car that I keep there in case MHP and I find some good puddles somewhere.
8. My car is full of stuff.  Not just because I am moving (HOORAY!!!), but because I like to leave things in there in case I need them at some point.  I'm hardly ever home, so I take parts of home with me.  Yes, I realize noone else can ride in my car.  But at least my skates are in there. :)

I can't think of anything else entertaining to write here.  I've got LOADS of stuff going on, but nothing blog-worthy.  Just basically get up, go to work, sit a lot at work, stare out the window, knit a little on my lunch break, commute to parents' house, play lots with MHP, go to the park, take a shower, go to bed.

Excitement abounds.

There's Something about Mary

I don't know any people named Mary.  (I know a Marie!! HI MARIE!!) Isn't that sad?  (And yes, this is the 2nd post today.  I'm trying to make up for the fact that I only posted twice in the past 10 days, and they were both filler posts.)

But all digression aside, there is nothing to soothe my troubled soul like the blinking red light on my cell phone.

This blinking red light means that I have junk mail!  Or a message on my messenger client!  Or someone texted me! 

There is no end to the excitement that unfurls from a simple vermillion blinking LED oval on my cute little banged-up Blackberry Pearl.  It could mean that someone is texting me to invite me out somewhere!  Or that someone is texting me to tell me how much they care! Or Renaldo Fiero Gracias Muchacha is spamming me with his Portugese goodness!

Or that I have an entirely misplaced self-worth based on a blinky little light revolves on my bells-and-whistles bedecked cell phone.

It's sad, people.  I think I need to take MHP to the park or the zoo more often.  I'm losing my social graces.

Post on the Fly

I seem to be doing this a lot lately....posting in the 5 minutes where my desk hasn't exploded or there isn't someone coming in the door or the phone isn't ringing. 

SO!  Some random things that have happened, that I may or may not tell you details of later:

• I went to Village Yarn & Tea to knit and fondle (and possibly buy) fiber with Christina (and gramma! Hi Gramma!) and Marie.  MHP came too, but he didn't knit or fiber-ize.  Much fun was had. 
• Bought Bombyx silk "bells" (like silk hankies, but triangle-shaped rather than square) for dying.  Don't hold your breath for them to be here soon, I'm scared to death that I will ruin them.
• Have to go back to Village because I put some Malabrigo lace (100% baby merino, in the most delicious colours EVER.) on hold.  Because I have to pay rent before I buy any more fiber.
• They've changed my job at work.  I know some of you have heard this, but I am now the copy b*tch AND the front desk receptionist.  (My job description is much more in-depth than that, but pretty much, that's what I do. Copy stuff, and sit at the front desk.  Excitement!)
• I have dyed some fiber.  I have decided I won't go through Etsy, I'll probably just post it here on the blog, and first come first serve. :)  We'll see.

Hope you all had a great weekend, and I promise I'll find an internet connection where I don't have to worry about being "watched".

Workin 9-5

Actually, 7-4, but who's counting?  And did people ever take a lunch break if they actually worked 9-5?

I digress.  I am doing yet another drive-by posting, as I am busting my tail fins to get all my work done today.  SO!  I bring you pictures.  Make your own captions, as usual.  (Although, if you go HERE I post pictures from the road, and I do make captions for those :)

 

God, is it REALLY Friday?

Because I could have sworn it was Wednesday.

No, really. I woke up this morning, said to my bewildered and besheveled father as I passed through the kitchen (and he stood there, trying to find the eggs in the cupboard...not a morning person.) "Hey, at least there's only 2 more days until Saturday!" and walked out the door, thinking for all the world it was "Hump Day".

Imagine my surprise that:

a) it was not pay day.  (Wednesday)

b) it was, in fact, Friday.

It's apparently going to be one of those days.  I tried to leave for lunch 20 minutes ago...and it's now 9:45 am.  (I work a 7-4 shift.  9:25 is not an appropriate time to leave for lunch, apparently.)

SO!  In lieu of an actual post with actual content, I give you the list of things I want to knit from Knitty, in no order of importance (other than by date published).  (I was SO BORED yesterday, that I actually made a list.)

AND! To give myself something more to do, I have provided links!  Hooray!

The Things I REALLY want to Knit From Knitty List

1. Dashing (for Mr. X-Man's dad, whom I adore, to wear on motorcycle rides)
2. Bauble
3. Queen of Cups
4. Clessidra
5. Calorimetry
6. Eiffel
7. Tiffany
8. Argosy
9. Emerald
10. Venezia
11. Elbac
12. Viveka
13. Avast (for my dad? My brother maybe?)
14. Lizard Ridge
15. Pedicure Socks (for me and my friend Mo...she's a pedi whore)
16. Namaste (for my momma, for Christmas, along with yoga lessons and a mat)
17. tubey (I have no idea why I like this sweater.)
18. Mrs. Beeton
19. Starsky
20. Arisaig (I love the purples and reds)
21. Samus (Hi, me? Obsessed with celtic cabling.  Need to finish Rogue.)
22. Cinxia (Maybe with sleeves a little longer.)
23. Josephine (I've wanted this sweater since I first saw Big Fish.  I wrote almost an entire post about this sweater.  I have, to date, never knit this sweater.  It's been 2 years. I need to get moving.)
24. Blackberry (Maybe.  I'm still on the fence)
25. Revolution (I can TOTALLY see me wearing this sweater in black with red lapels.  LOVE.)
26. Saranac
27. I Do (In black.  Or deep blood red.  Yeah.)
28. Via Diagonale (Black and white.  Hell yes.)
29. Tempting
30. Mariah (again, with the cables. Yay for cables!)

1412

1412.

One Thousand, Four Hundred and Twelve.  Stitches, that is.

That is how many stitches I have carefully tinked (or "un-knit" for those of you unfamiliar with knitting terms) on the Peacock Shawl.

This thing is my opus.  My life's work, apparently.  My Molehill Mountain.  This is the thing that is slowly taking my attentions away from how much I miss being thisclose to Mr. Man every night when I go to sleep, and distracting me from the fact that I'm living with my parents, my {insert insult here} brother and my 7 year old son.

This is my therapy of sorts...along with an actual visit to an actual certified therapist once a week.

But that's a lot of damage to undo.  And it's slow work...picking out centered decreases and random picked up stitches (that could have been my undoing....shoddy worksmanship!) and all of the work I did, while sitting and watching TV with Mr. Man, fighting the kittens off when they were small and not so sneaky about eating yarn and plastic bags...I have to slowly undo it.

Then I'll be very slow to reknit it.

Anyway, enough analogies about knitting as life.

I'm almost finished with a pair of "Ocean Toes" socks from Cat Bordhi's new sock book (I THINK they're called Ocean Toes...I can't remember.) in Dream in Colour's Smooshy sock yarn in Spring Tickle (top right colour...spring greens).  They're for my sock pal in a sock swap I'm doing through my LYS, or actually the one I prefer to go to over other yarn stores in my area.

They're gorgeous.  I'll post pictures when I figure out my damned camera.

Also!  Dyes are mixed, and paper will be put down soon to colour me some yarn!  I'll make sure to take lots of pictures so you can see how much dye can be flung acrost a kitchen that does not belong to me.

AND!! I will be moving!  Labor Day Weekend we'll be all moved in to our new place!  Are you excited?  Because I'm totally excited :)

Surveys....and surveyors.

Okay, so I've always wondered...what's with the dudes standing in the middle of the street (sometimes hot, ALWAYS in Carhardts, which I have an unnatural affinity for...) with their tripods and the other dude on the side of the road with the stick?

There's been a lot of those guys around work and my parents' house lately.  I'm curious, but always passing them when I'm on my way somewhere (duh) and I never stop to ask.  Can anyone tell me?

Also, I will be moving a tee-tiny bit this weekend and next, so YAY!! for no more parents' house!  Yay for my own space, and for a kitchen more than big enough to dye in!  HOORAY!

Which leads us to the "survey."  I have questions about what colours and fibres you lovely innernet peeples would be interested in seeing on my Etsy site. (I would link, but there's nothing there. So you'll have to be patient)

I've currently got 100% merino in a DK weight.  It's still undyed because I'm very indecisive. (yeah, go figger.)

SO!  If you have time, please take a look at the questions below and you can email me here or you can just leave answers in the comments.  And no, you don't have to answer all of the questions.

1. What sort of fibers would you like?  Merino?  Superwash? Silk?

2. What colours do you absolutely NOT want (easier than asking which ones you do, yes?)?

3. When you order yarn online, how fast do you expect to receive it? (Instantly is not an option.  Sorry :)

4. Am I asking weird questions?  Because I plan too much sometimes, and other times I don't plan enough...

Hope you are all having a GREAT Thursday...I, for one, am SUPER glad tomorrow is Friday.  I've had just about enough work for this week.

I still got nothing.

Seriously. Things are slow in blog-land, but something is a-brewing.  I don't know what, but I'm excited about something.....

ANYWAY - I've started posting more pictures of weird and fun things from Derby & String's travels through this thing called life....check them out here.  Don't click on the pictures - they don't get any bigger than that.  Sorry :(  But if you run your cursor over them, they do have captions!

I am so computer-awesome.

ETA: Doi.  *foreheadslap* I bought Cat Bordhi's new sock book.  The woman is genius.  I've been so busy trying to figure out her sock patterns and the magic numbers and why I don't have to pick up stitches anywhere that my brain has ceased functioning in most other arenas.

Also.  I won yarn.  WOOT!!

AND!  Who wants to enter some knitting in the Puyallup Fair with me?