Welcome...

To everyone poking their noses here from MasonDixon! And everyone else, for that matter. ;)

It may appear that I am a poor knit blogger because I have very few pictures up, and none of my knitting. There are reasons for this! My digital camera is as dead as Marley (choose one), and the household budget is too slender to acquire another. Rest assured that I do in fact record my knitting (when I think it's worth it.. socks comprise most of my knitting, and much as I like them, I don't usually bother photographing them), and when I get a chance to develop the roll, I'll get them on disc so I can post! Because I want proof of my awesome knitting's existence, too. ;D

Project updates: I'm about 5" down the leg of Jaywalker #2. Josh thinks they're very warm, and isn't impatient for them before the weather gets cool, so they're not a high priority. My Print o'the Wave is... on hiatus, sorta... I'm very distracted by my Monkey! Plus baby alpaca isn't the most fun to knit with in high summer. Did I mention the distracting, addicting Monkey yet? Maybe I should say some more about that. I did 8 repeats down the leg instead of the recommended 6, turned the heel, and am mostly done with the gusset. I'll prolly have that finished by tonight, especially since I'm going to a BBQ with a lot of people I don't know and I hate being social with strangers. Knitting's great for hiding behind!

Why, you may ask, am I subjecting myself to this social indignity? Well, it's not for Josh's work. I'm a volunteer for the Gentle Birth World Congress, in the hopes that doing work trade will actually let me go. Tonight is a BBQ to meet other volunteers and (I think) form committees.. not sure on that last part.

*sigh*

I finally got a spam comment.. so I'm enabling some moderation. I hate it, but I don't want to be all excited about a new comment and then have it be spam.

And yes, Peggy, Monkeys really are all that.

Still not dead! Honest.

Anyone have any idea what can cause you to suddenly develop sciatic aches on both sides (not to mention what to do about it)? They've made my last 4 nights (and days, too, to a lesser extent) rather suck. I am pretty much an achy mess the last couple of days in general, from my wrists/elbows (too much cotton lace *cry*) to.. well, pretty much most of the rest of my body, one way and another, mostly probably attributable to hormonal stuffs. I hate this part of the month anyway, but this time it's ridiculous!

Anyway. Finished my latest Waving Lace socks; they feel *wonderful*. No pics still, but I posted details on Ravelry. Started the second Jaywalker on Josh's pair, too, and then (I'm so bad) I finally succumbed to Monkey on the way to dropping my brother off at the airport yesterday (hi Tom!). I'm most of the way through the first cuff, according to the original directions, but since I'm using smaller needles (1s vs. 2s) and I like my cuffs longer anyway, I'm going to go for a couple more repeats. Why didn't anyone warn me how addictive this pattern is?! So easy. So fast. So satisfying. They could easily take over my life.

On the excitement front, I finally got my Super Sox Box Swap package yesterday!!! Many very cool goodies: Almond biscotti, Toblerone, Orange Earl Grey tea. Cute-yet-handily-sized bag for sock-knitting-on-the-go. Merino/cashmere sock yarn. Pink and purple point protectors. Cute-as-a-button sheep picture. AND (this is the part that made us laugh) Canadian memorabilia in the form of a keychain and coaster! My buddy was Canadian... I suppose now would be a bad time to mention the part about how often we make Canadian jokes. Awesome package, though! Well worth the long wait.

House sweater

I had a couple of queries about what I meant when I said "House sweater". I took a look on Ravelry, and hardly anyone has posted about it... but I did find one here. The project is in Charmed Knits - it's a sort of standard conservative school sweater with Hogwarts House colors in discreet bands edging the ribbing at wrists and hem. In HP5 the Movie, they had them in a very dark, almost black charcoal gray, as opposed to the much lighter gray she suggests in Charmed Knits. I think I liked the darker gray better... I'll have to see what I can find when I'm in a place to actually buy yarn.

HP5

Just got home from seeing Order of the Phoenix. I know, I know, I didn't think I'd get to see it til video... but circumstances changed, and Josh and I were treated to it.

Knitting stuff first: lots and lots of very cool knitted things, from Umbridge's infamous fluffy pink sweater to awesome Weasley hats, scarves, and sweaters. The item that really caught my eye was the cabled vest Ginny was wearing at very end. I wanted to see Hermione knitting... but I understand that they had to *sniff* cut most of the subplots, just to be able to fit the main storyline (barely) into a standard movie length.

I thought they did a pretty good job of shoehorning the main storyline into a standard movie length - no way could they get the leeway Peter Jackson did, with a 4-hour RotK! Which is sad, because there's that much and more they could easily have done. It never really felt rushed, but it never got to slow down, either - except in the spots where it did for a few seconds, which then you knew had to be important, because the pace of the rest of the movie was so frenetic. I also liked just the few very subtle touches of shots that lingered on someone's face for just a split second - significant if you know the next book, not very noticeable if you don't. Interesting imagery; who says what when and how, and in what setting (give me credit, I'm trying not to give spoilers here!).

I remember coming out of the second movie speculating about how very attractive our characters were going to be when they grew up. I have not been disappointed! Wow. Even Neville, oh-so-Norman-horsefaced Neville, is... wow. Really handsome.

In reading HP5, I always have the most trouble coping with Umbridge, but in the movie, I was distanced enough that she wasn't too bad. The thing that got me where I live was Kreacher. My grandmother was... a very... special... person. Not the kind of special you want to deal with. There was a shot of him (in the Tapestry Room) where for a moment I was wondering how they got my dead grandmother on film. Kreacher looked like her, sounded like her, acted like her... very disturbing, and I'll leave it at that, but I hope, dear reader, that you get the picture.

I did find out that they have the same director on board for Half-Blood Prince, which is very exciting.

Anyway, off to try to finish this book so I can read Half-Blood Prince again by Friday - and to dream about the House Sweater I've been wanting to make!

Still not dead.

Just not much to blog about.

It's actually being quite hot here in Oregon - well, one day was. Day before yesterday it got to over a hundred... if you don't live here, you should know that it rarely gets higher than the mid 90s! Fortunately the weather's appearing to be ashamed of itself, and has reduced itself to more usual temperatures since.

Given the heat, not much knitting going on! Although I'm thinking hard about picking up my Waving Lace again... Silk/wool will be better to knit in heat than wool alone, right?

Yay!

Got my Ravelry invite. Now I have to learn to use Google Reader finally..

In other news, I finally finished Jaywalker #1 this morning.

Stuff.

I know, I know, I suck for not having posted in a while. I just haven't had much to post about.. not much going on right now that's postable. Knitting is going slowly - the Jaywalker is back about to where it was when I frogged it, I frogged the Sweet Pea (which was too tight as written) to work on later, and the PotW has a few more repeats on it. We've been playing a lot of FFXI lately, which has been a lot of fun, but definitely eats into the knitting time!

The last few days we've been reaming out the apartment and rearranging what's left to make room for my brother and his partner moving in tomorrow. I hate housework. And I hate moving. Happily, I'm not the one shifting domiciles this time! But it's been really good... getting rid of garbage that we've had hanging around through multiple moves, and sorting through and reorganizing the rest has been invigorating, despite my detestation of parting with anything. Not only do I hang on to things I think will be useful, but I'm also very sentimental, and keep things that remind me of events or people. Josh, on the other hand, takes a very bare-bones approach - if we don't need it right now, and it's cheaply/easily replaced, toss it! Lots of garbage, lots of loads to Goodwill, even an item posted to sell on Craigslist... and the bedrooms look almost like we've barely moved in. The front of the place shows two years' occupation, but there hasn't been all that much to edit, just a little reorganization (needs cleaning, too. did I mention I hate housework?).

So that's what's been going on chez moi.