Cake pops!

     My crochet blanket is nearly complete.  I simply have to wash it and block it.  I was working on the trim but I have run out of yarn.  Three skeins of yarn later and voila, a blanket.

     At some point you can see where the pattern just dissolved but I don't think a newborn is really going to critique me about it.  I need to wash it, stretch it out and then mail it to the expecting mother!  Since you may read this blog post I won't be mentioning your name but congratulations.

     As for the shawl I'm working on...  Well, I had to pull out about two hours of work today because I dropped a stitch eight lines ago.  Lame.  Very very lame.  I had 200 out of 201 stitches.  Le sigh.  This was the first time I had to pull out quite so many lines so I was quite honestly very reluctant to do so.  Took me four days to work up the gumption and involved picking up and finishing the aforementioned blanket and a book or two at the library but I did it.  Picked up my stitches and getting right back into the swing on knitting.

     When you make a baby blanket everyone needs to know if you are pregnant or if you have kids.  It's a weird way to bring up the topic after I just mentioned I was making a blanket for a friend.  Everyone at work asks.  After I say no, not pregnant nor do I have any children they want to know why?  Why don't I just pop a baby out without regards to its future or well-being?  Because we can't afford a dog right now, not to mention a child.  Children mean more to me than just some duty.  If I can't give a child a good life I don't want one right now.  Don't tell Tad that though, I've been nagging him like crazy just for fun.

     What else have I done?  Cake pops.  Tori and I went cake popping Monday and made adorable, creepy cake pop figurines.  Even though mine started as a cupcake, it is definitely a duck.  Definitely.

     As you can see, the cake pop class was also in a yarn cafe.  Too bad it was so inconvenient to get to.  I'd like to shop there.  Ahh!  I don't need any more yarn yet!  Bad hoarding habits! Bad!

     Back to work and Toastmastering.  Enjoying the only intercalary day in the Gregorian calender by being grumpy and crampy.  Jaa!

More knitting

     It seems I've developed a sliiiiggghhht obsession with tiny knitting/crochet patterns.  Went to the library yesterday and grabbed two books on amigurumi.  One is called Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi and the other is Yummi 'Gurumi.  So if I ever get a big box of yarn/scraps of yarn I will be making adorable tiny versions of things.  Like computers, gnomes, sushi boxes, or cakes!  I know you all want one.  I would too.

     I've ramped up my knitting habit and am jumping into the deep end with a shawl pattern.  I have already learned at least five major knitting skills with the pattern: reverse loop cast on, knitting front and back (kfb), knit two together (k2tog), casting on sideways, and make one stitch (m1).  Amazingly boring to the non-knitting crowd, as Tad will tell you.  You wanna see it? No?  Man I need to stop asking people and just do it.  Here it is, my shawl to be:

 

     Very large, I know.  I added a lot to even this tiny bit and am running at about 156?ish stitches in my row.  Looooonnnngggg time to finish anything.  Feeling lazy but I'm so proud of myself.  Maybe I'll do real work today.  Hah, yea, I laughed too.

February is the coolest month?

     What have I been doing?  Convalescence.  For nearly a month I have been holed up in my room like a crazy cat-lady shut in and doing nothing but watch Netflix and knit.  Also, I knit now.  And have picked up crocheting again.  Today I was supposed to make a Cthulhu but well, I bought a cupcake instead.  BAM.  Cupcake.  Would you like to see my last knitted project?  no?  Well BAM too bad.

     I made a scarf.

     Check out my Ravelry if you want the pattern.  It's cute, easy and most of all easy.  Nothing fancy to make a cute, fancy looking scarf.  My newest project is much more difficult.  My shawl is at 0% completion.  I'm kinda mad at it, honestly.  I may need a little more practice before I work on it.  Or maybe I need a different yarn... Yess, that's right.  I need tons of yarn that I can never use.  Yessssss...

     Why haven't I updated you may ask.  Kai, you have been sitting at home nearly every day for almost a month being lazy and at least coherent enough to type.  Right?  Right.  Well, I have made a few drafts.  They all look like this:

Draft 1:
     Why didn't I bring a scarf?!  My native Floridian blood keeps me from bringing extra clothing.  Umbrellas?  Nah, not if it's just this little sprinkle!  It'll end soon enough.  Scarf? My jacket has a collar and I can just hunch my shoulders.  Boots?  Hahaha, shoes dry.  On my way home from work last night I was worried.  The weather was running around 18 degrees and there was a wind blowing.  I had to walk 4 long blocks

Draft 2:
     While I love my sweet husband dearly I noticed as he wandered into the shower that his boxers are stretched out.  Why didn't he 

     As for my reading it seems the Kindle has in fact inspired me back into a reading frenzy.  Well, maybe not frenzy but still a reading storm.  Have you ever tiptoed your way through a novel because you want to savour it?  Whether it's because the storyline is intricate and you need to tease out every nuance or because the characters are so precious to you that you don't want to worry about how they are doing in the next (if there is a next) book.  The Last Unicorn was introduced to me years and years ago with the 1982 movie.  Maybe you remember it?

Draft 3:
     Yea I know I talked a bit about making New Year's Resolutions before but don't forget the Lunar New Years was just this week!  Err... no, Tad and I didn't go to the Chinatown Parade.  I think we both agree that being crushed would not be good for my throat.  My stitches are doing well and I see the doctor today for my post-op check up.  What?  I didn't mention an operation at all?!  Oh right, because I was panicking about it for the two weeks culminating in it.

     I had thyroid cancer.  It's still scary to say and think about.

     Err.. that's right, I still haven't mentioned this.  I had thyroid cancer.  Not quite so scary but that may be due to the fact that I already wrote it once.  Or twice or whatever.  Doing good these days.  Convalescence has given me all the strength back that I was missing.  That or the medicine has.  Go medicine.  I'm just getting back into communicating and all but I will start updating again.  Starting soon.  Maybe even tomorrow to talk about all the books (see draft 2) that I have been reading.  Promise. ::crosses fingers::

BBC Specials

In Our Time Special: The Written World BBC 4

 
     One of the few podcasts I have listened to for many, many years (on and off for at least 5 or 6) has a week-long special on the written word.  I thank Language Hat for his post reminding me to look into it.  While it hasn't been mentioned in the podcast Melvin Bragg's newsletter has mentioned him running around the UK talking to people and it seems looking at unique books and wonders of the literary world.  I honestly feel jealous.  I would do this if I could.  He sees the oldest bound book in the Western world.  He sees Gutenberg Bible (although I have seen a copy at the New York Library). 

     If you enjoy reading listen to it.  If you enjoy history listen to it.  It will only be available for a short while.

     Like this one?  Listen to the weekly podcast on iTunes.  Just search BBC In Our Time.   Still listening to it so I'll write another post this weekend?  We'll see.

What should my resolution be?

     MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM TEA KETTLE

     There is a whistling noise in the house, only at night.  It sounds like my old red tea kettle did that didn't really whisper but did make a noise.  I think to myself have I been making tea and do I need to check the stove top?  Living in a different house every year or so for the last 8 or so years has me more forgiving on odd quirks (I still don't know how safe radiators are) and different designs.  Like making the bathroom door only fully open from inside when you wedge yourself into a corner between the toilet and the shower.  Or why everyone uses shower water at the exact same time you took your off-time shower.  Every oven I cook in has its own quirks and for sure the current gas stove and oven has the most to get used to.  In return my kitchen is never cold because the upstairs hot-water pipe is right in the middle of my kitchen and will burn you when on.

     Kindle update!  I have yet to do anything more with it.  I'm terrified to bring it out without a case or something, I'm really thinking about a sock, to cover the fancy screen.  Unfortunately (what, no! Never!!) I'm still going through my physical books.  Two came in from the library today!  Psycho, oh, maybe you saw the Hitchcock film?  Yea, that one.  And FINALLY The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle who is most well known for his story The Last Unicorn.  This book was ordered nearly two months ago and it hadn't been returned until this week.  I feel like it wasn't that long ago I was unicorn obsessed.  Maybe like 15 years?! ohGODnoway.  Yea, wow, my (so long ago!) childhood fascination with unicorns and their magical powers and even more amazing was that they were fantasy and if they could be real (yea, I dare you to explain medieval theology to a seven year-old) then anything could be real.  And Hobbits!  And umm, I dunno, what did I believe in as a child?  Umm.. Santa Claus?  Sure.  Let's go there.

     Tomorrow is New Years Eve.  As is tradition since everyone was a kid I should name a resolution or two.  I want to simplify my life but most of the sites I've been looking at for ideas give vague useful suggestions with nothing that I can put into practice.  Own one car per family.  Done.  Eat mostly at home.  Done and double done.  Make meals ahead of time.  Err, my freezer barely fits a bag of milk buns and some frozen blackberries.  And I share it with, not including Tad, three others right now.  Wake up an hour earlier and exercise.  I wake up around 4:30 AM four days a week.  Yea, I don't think so.  One thing I really want to get back into is growing my own herbs or veggies.  I don't know when I can start here in the North.  The light lasts much less time than I thought.  Yea, what's up with Winter.  Sucks. 

     Back on track.  Veggie garden.  I would like to grow at least 3 herbs and two veggies.  Sound ambitious?  I hope not.  I miss being able to harvest ingredients watch as I neglect them.  Just something green.  Or a cat.  a green cat?  Sure.  Green cat for my resolution.

     Or maybe I'll make my resolution an easier one.  I will not start new tasks (not new books though!) before finishing any older, similar tasks.  I picked up some baby alpaca yarn to knit but I still have an unfinished pillowcase to embroider.  Bad pillowcase.  Finish yourself!  I haven't been really inspired to work on that at all.  I need more thread to finish the interior stitching I'm doing and I need a central design for the main piece.  There's the real reason I haven't worked on it.  I need a design.  I'll have to start looking.  But not today... Not today.  Good night everyone and enjoy the New Years with friends and loved ones.  jaa.