Interest in Wicked things..
Alright, so there has been some interest in my Kiamo Ko stitch markers.
Unfortunately, the beads were ones Mother of Mine got on clearance, and I’ve had them for a while now, and the tag has mysteriously vanished. (umm my bad. I prolly threw it away the day I got the beads)
So, I haven’t a clue where the beads originally came from.
Also, the wire I used, I believe I also got on clearance, and knowing my luck, they will be all gone before I get get my tocks over to the shop.
This, is not a big deal. As, well as neat as those are.. they were a pain in the tocks to work with, and I am not 100% pleased with the result. So I shall find a different set of wire to use, that is just as Ozian.
But my question dear reader, is if you think these beads I have just found, are a suitable replacement for the beads I know I will not be able to find again.
Here are the Kiamo Ko markers I made:
Here are the beads that I hope will be a suitable replacement: Now obviously, it doesn’t have the awesome sun glow action going on, but they seem to be reasonably the same size, and I imagine the just might do the same glow as my originals.
Alright, I’ll be posting a poll, so please go vote.
Bugs and Hisses peeps.
Lots of updates..
Alright, I realize I haven’t blogged in a little bit. Or at least it might feel that way to me.
Mostly I have been brain-dead thanks to work, as it has been busy (at least for me).
We had a Bear sighting at the doors of my work. Nope, I didn’t see the bear, but I do have a photo.
Knitting:
I finished one project, the Seaweed Shrug (still need to take photos of the finished product), and discovered that it being narrower than the pattern suggested, was not a bad thing, but just didn’t quite work for me.
So, it was given to Mother of Mine, who absolutely loved the color. (Don’t blame her, I love the color too)
So one of the Pay It Forward projects has now been completed and handed off. (no, I hadn’t planned the project for her, but it worked out.)
I am now using the last of the yarn from that project to work on the next Pay It Forward.
Marissa’s project (the only one I had a plan on) is on the back burner till I buy the last of the yarn. I thought I had it all, apparently I was wrong. Oh well, another trip to Jo-Anns.
I have started a new project, which my mother has already blogged about…
But yes, I have been sucked into the world of socks.
I have my first sock on the needles right now, and I have to admit I’m quite proud of it.
Reading:
Currently, the only book I’m really reading is “White Witch, Black Curse” by Kim Harrison.
So far it’s not bugging me to much. Though honestly.. in a shocking reversal it’s Rachel’s whining that is annoying me, and Ivy is downright silent.
Writing:
Nope. Nada. But I did have a kick ass scary dream last night that everyone is telling me I should use for a novel someday. So it is tucked away in my “future unknown novels” folder.
Watching:
Just finished watching the first series of “A Touch of Frost”, what can I say, I enjoy British crime dramas. It was highly enjoyable, and for once felt very real. Most tv shows now a days make the mistake of having it be “1 episode, 1 crime” (unless it is an ensemble cast, then you get at least 2 crimes to solve), a real cops life, you have more than one case that you have to work. And it doesn’t matter if it’s a child abduction, or a hand found in the dirt. You have to work them both. So for me that made it quite enjoyable.
I also just finished watching season 1 of Pushing Daises.
Now, there was an irony to this.
We were eating fresh apple pie that Mother of Mine made, and of course as always knitting.
We pop in the episodes, not sure if we were going to watch past the first one.
There is pie… there is knitting.. there is dead people coming back to life.
Lets just say, we were absolutely hooked.
I’m sad to know that there is only one more season, but I’ll still watch it.
Health:
I finally bought a back brace. Just a 20$ one from walmart. I’m still undecided if it is helping. The reason for the unsure status is because all week long, even before I started wearing it, I would wake up in the morning with a stiff back. Then putting the brace on, on a stiff back meant my back never got a chance to relax before putting it on.
Yes, it makes me sit up straight at work, and at the end of the day I’m not so much in pain, but I am still in constant stiffness, and slight pain while at work (that’s nothing new)
So today, I am not wearing it. I will see how I feel at the end of the day.
Part of the factor, is I haven’t been sleeping well, Spring has finally Sprung, and my Dream Insomnia has started to kick in. Which might be why my back has been hurting me so much in the morning.
It’s been making me tired and cranky at work, which in my mind is not acceptable. I need to keep this job.
So yesterday when I went to Whole Foods to pick up something for dinner, I decided to get a little homeopathic remedy that is supposed to help with “Intellectual Fatigue or Overwork” which, describes me to a “t”. Basically, I’m taking Zincum Metallicum, which is supposed to help with 1) Mood, and 2) back pain (amongst other things)
So, hopefully I’ll get my irritability under check. Now, I’m supposed to take 5 of these little tic tacs (best way to describe them) 3 times a day. Nope, not going to do it. That’s the dose for a short term “ooh my back hurts” situation. Me, I’m in it for the long term. I took 2 of the little tic tacs today so far, and honestly.. yeah I’m tired… but I don’t feel crouchy.
My back is sore, of course like always, but I also lowered my chair in hopes of making a difference as well.
The truth is, right now I don’t care how much pain I’m in, as long as I keep my attitude in check. I can deal with the pain later as long as I can keep my job. The long term solutions, I can’t afford, so this is what I gotta do.
So here is everything I’m on:
Fish Oil – wow my skin is looking better and yeah I noticed a difference slightly in my back (skin is also being helped by Burts Bee’s Deep Pore Scrub.. love that stuff)
B-Complex – Stress formula – Yeah it’s helping, was able to stop taking Vit C by it’s self because this has it in it.
Zincum Metallicum – New, we’ll see how it does
Microgestin Fe- Yup, it’s Birth Control, which I don’t need right now.. But it’s keeping my hormones at a constant level as opposed to always in flux.
Jet Alert – yup, it’s caffeine pills, but only 200mg, once a day. Don’t look at me that way… you people who are addicted to your cups of coffee.
Random:
I bought tickets for Wicked for my birthday, yes.. I get to see Wicked again before I leave, and the show is actually ON my birthday. Katte Beth, Jenny (Jenna, but I’ll always call her Jenny), Curtis, Mother of Mine and myself shall go see the 3rd to last show whilst it is in town.
And that morning we girls are going to the Boulder Tea House for Brekkie/Brunch.
No excuse this time, since we will be driving to Denver rain/shine or snow… we are going to the tea house as well.
I’m excited.
Also, this Friday Mother of mine and I are getting a portrait taken of us.. for free thanks to our Real Estate company. Hmm I wonder if we’ll also get the free baseball game again this year, or if this is gonna be it for the “appreciation” stuff. If that’s the case.. man.. that’s kind of prejudiced against the men, as this gift was for “mothers day”.
I guess that’s all I got for now… I should get back to work…
Later people.
Dream, Snow, and Sookie
Alright, while it’s fresh in my thoughts..
I just finished reading The Absolute Sandman Vol 2.
And I say just finished, as I also just started it. I quite literally read it all in one go. (Okay, not just one go as I did get up and use the ladies at least twice)
But I gotta say wow!
Vol 1, took me at least a week to read. And that was with skipping an entire section because the art and the story was absolutely of no interest to me.
But Vol 2 I just zoomed through. And I didn’t skip over any of the stories.
I can’t wait to own it. Because yes, I will own it some day.
And actually, it has made me ponder some colorways that would be awesome. Nope. Not allowed to start dyeing yet. Nope. Won’t do it. But I know I’ll look through the book again later when I do start dyeing and such like that.
Also I really shouldn’t ponder a project after reading that book, as it’s making my brain go into many different paths of ideas.
A friend of mine posted a 5 People Gift giving Pay it forward type thing. The gist of it is, you post the note, and the first 5 people to respond will get something made by you. Rules are though that they must also post the note, do the same for the first 5 people, and also make something for you. So, she is making something for me, and I am making something for her.
As this was done on my facebook, if I don’t get enough people responding, I will post it here for all my non facebook people.
Now onto Sookie…
I made a project that I have dubbed “Sookie Stackhouse Laceup Sexahhness”
Jen at Fresh from the Cauldron sent me a ball of her Sookie Stackhouse colorway, which is a silk base. It wasn’t much, it was roughly… about the size of a Leprechaun’s ball. (Oh yes, that just gave you a mental image you won’t be able to escape from)
The yardage wasn’t important, it was simply so that I could knit it up, see how my hands react during the knitting, and then also how the swatch would be against my skin.
Well, me being me.. I couldn’t just do a boring swatch.
So instead I did a laceup wristwarmer.
Seed Stitch because I think it’s so pretty.
And, I also taught myself how to do something I didn’t know how to do before.
a 3 row buttonhole. I can honestly say, that this is my most favorite buttonhole that I have yet done. It was so simple.
Now, of course I will post photos, but unfortunately my camera sucks, and there is no way to turn off the auto focus, so there is never any way I can take a good photo of seed stitch at all.
So the photos do NOT do this little wrist warmer any justice.
Now on to my discussion about snow.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that this portion of the country has had some extreme weather.
We had a Blizzard.
No big deal right?
Well, this is the first time in more years that I know, where they called it a Blizzard before it hit. Previously, they would just call it a “severe storm” and then when it was over they would call it a Blizzard.
All day long while at work yesterday I was watching the weather reports…
At 9:00am I went outside, and it was sunny. You couldn’t see the mountain (Pikes) but that wasn’t uncommon.
By 12:00pm, apparently it was snowing.
I went out at 12:30pm and it was really snowing.
I flicked on the traffic cams, and saw that things were getting worse.
So at 1:00 I made the decision to leave early. you all know how I feel about driving in bad weather …
Well Janice and I did the buddy system driving home. Which was comdedic.
Oh well, first I had to clear off my car, which was a miserable experience. Because I didn’t wear a hat. So my hair was drenched and my ear was frozen. My hair wasn’t just drenched, it was frozen.
Janice and I forgot to exchange phone numbers. Mistake. Whoops.
The plan was, that we were taking the safest route home, and she was going to break off from following me at Academy and Woodman. (where I turn right, and she would go forward)
Well, we get to Academy, and she’s turning along with me.
I’m making hand signals out the window because I was like “dude did you miss it? that was woodman!”
then, I notice she’s got a sign in her front window she’s holding up (yes, this is all while we are driving on very bad roads with cars) that says “Call me” and her number.
Which I could not for the life of me see the number. Even when we were stopped at one point I opened my car door leaning out to look at the number. I was of course blinded by the snow so I couldn’t see the numbers.
We pulled off into a parking lot (the first chance we had) and she informed me that a friend of her’s had just been on Powers (the road that runs parallel to Academy for the most part and was going to be her route home to avoid the bad hills) and that there was a huge accident. So she was going to go down Academy with me and cut over after the bad hills.
Back in the car I go, and once again we start making the trek. The weather is getting worse and worse, and it’s just about to become 2pm. Then I run into traffic before Dublin. There is this little bit of a hill there. Which I had forgotten about, but there is no good way to avoid it. It’s the least of all the hills going that direction.
Well, in my previous car, I remember having problems on that little hill before. So I was nervous for good reason. Though, so far my car Byron had done fabulously on all the little inclines we had. Mind you, I had been coaxing and praising and encouraging my car the entire time. Yes, it would have been amusing if anyone had heard me.
But so Byron makes it up the hill without giving me any fits at all. Though, there were newer and fancier cars that were abandoned in the middle of the road at the median, and one that was being pushed up the hill by a nice guy with a big truck.
So I was honestly shocked that my car did so well.
I didn’t want to risk the hill on the street before my neighborhood, as that is the one where I had my first experience of not making it up a hill and having to maneuver back down. So I just went around to the only other option on getting into my neighborhood. It worked though because it let me out at the top of the hill instead of at the bottom.
Yup, I got home safely. It only took me an hour and 15 minutes instead of the normal 7-10 minutes it normally takes me. But man am I glad I did leave early.
I slept restlessly, as I could hear the storm and my neighbor’s wind chime all night (seriously.. I hope that stupid chime might ‘disappear’ someday. )
So at 4 am, I got out of bed. Looked outside. Saw the 3-4 foot drifts around my car. (Thats what happens when you have a end of the row parking space)
i fire up the laptop, and check the traffic cams.
Not many cars on the road, and the roads don’t look bad. At first glance. But I noticed that there was a suspicious gleam.. that meant ice.
I make the decision that I’m not going to risk it. Not at 4am with no other cars on the road.
I go back to bed.
Janice texts me around 645 asking me if I was going into work.
I tell her my reasons why I wasn’t but that I hadn’t checked the roads in a while. She was going to see if her fiance made it to work then make her decision.
Daniel then texts me 730 (or something like that) asking the same things. Only he doesn’t have inet right now so he can’t check the cams himself.
So I get out of my nice warm bed and fire up the laptop. I really did need the update so I didn’t mind.
I see more cars on the roads, but they are all 4wheel drive type vehicles. And things still looked icy.
Janice then texts me again after I’ve gone back to bed, and informs me that she attempted to go out on the roads (in her big 4wheel drive suv) and didn’t make it far before she gave up. Apparently it was really slick. At this point, I’m not feeling guilty about not attempting.. I don’t have 4wheel drive. And I have to replace one of my wiper blades. Specifically the driver side one. The rubber has decided disconnect from the metal. So really, it is useless. Which means if the roads turn into Splashback, I’d be screwed before I could even get to the store.
And guess what happened after the sun came up? The ice started melting, and splashback is the huge issue right now.
Yeah.. I’m not going anywhere until tomorrow at the earliest.
Yes, the sun is out and things are melting. And I possibly could have gone to work after 12.. but I still wouldn’t get all the hours I’ve lost due to the weather, and it would also mean staying till after the sun set. Which no… not doing. So the amount of hours I could actually make up.. wouldn’t be worth it.
So yesterday and today I’ve been watching Andromeda season 1.
Oh and finished Witchblade. lesigh I miss that show. Though yes, season 2 got WEIRD.
I still love it. And I will still own my buell. And I think I’ve mentioned this already.. .
I’ve got a stack of dvd’s to get through… and I’m sure I think of a new knitting project.. and I can also finish reading the Sookie Stackhouse short story “Unusual Suspects”
Methinks I’ll finish it this afternoon. I would have finished it when I first started it, but I decided to put it down and then yesterday I was simply knitting.
I’m rambling.
Defying Gravity…
So just to make this even more themed…
Yes, I am going to Wicked in October. Wooohoooo! I can’t wait.
now on to my Wicked Verdigris.
I am completely finished with section A and B. (Which are exactly the same)They are currently getting some light blocking done. Meaning they were made damp, and currently are pinned to the carpet to “form” them into the proper shapes.
I’m proud of myself, as my tension was pretty darn good and so they really don’t need much blocking at all. Woohoo.
I am skipping ahead though, because your supposed to wait till it’s all done to block and then put the pieces together.
But as I am modifying section C, I want to put section A and b together so that i can put it on, and see exactly how long i need and or want to make section C. The difference can be at least 40 rows of stitching, so I’d rather just try it out first then end up having to rip stitches out.
Last night I cast on section C (meaning I started it. for all you non knitting readers), and I got about 20 rows done before bedtime. Mind you, that was less than an hours worth of work on a very boring part. You know the boring parts I mentioned on the other sections? Well this entire section is that boring part 200 to 240 (or something like that) rows of nothing but garter stitch. BORING. gotta put it down every few rows.
On the reading front:
Currently reading The Bride of Casa Dracula. I’m about 50 pages in, and the entire time I’ve been debating it if I want to actually read it. But it’s slightly a compulsion. Sigh. it’s just… I don’t know. Once again there is the whole “i dress like a slut, but why does think i’m a slut?!” aspect. Honestly. A plastic white mini skirt at least a size too small????
At least it hasn’t dived into the “oh everyone hates me because i’m hispanic” aspect of it yet. And I say yet, as it will be inevitable.
I guess I read these books as reminders to myself of what I don’t want to write like.
On the writing front:
Nope. nothing new. Sigh. Don’t have time right now. but I got ideas percolating, and I’m still running high off the new chapters. woohoo for that.
On a random note:
So some of you have been hearing me whine for a while now (most likely in the previous blog on myspace) about how I want to get back into playing the piano.
Well, there was that bruahaha with a certain individual whom I was going to borrow a piano from.
Weeeeeeel… the person who was kindly storing the piano for the bitch in question has also had not fun times with bitch in question, and has decided to let me use the piano. When bitch in question asks for it back, they’ll get it back obviously, but for now it’s out of my friends house, and soon I shall actually have it set up and shall be reminding myself how horrible I am at playing piano.
Though, as I just discovered, there are some things one never forgets. My right hand has full muscle memory of the right hand intro for Tarantella. Woohoo. Ironically, it was that piece of music which facilitated my abrupt stop of playing music when I was a kid.
Tarantella was the piece I had to learn to move onto the next level. I informed my teacher I didn’t want to compete. She didn’t want to teach me anymore. And I was terrified of Tarantella because it was so beyond my skill. So it’s the last piece I really “learned” and after at least 15 years, my right hand still knows how to play it. the left hand.. has half the memory, but it was confused the last time I attempted to play it.
On the work front:
Busy busy busy. They are messing with us greatly. Which is making more work for me. Which sucketh. To the point where my eye twitches when i’m at work. Almost non stop. I can’t stand it.
The only thing that keeps me going is my constant mantra of “15 months, 15 months”
Speaking of that… Today is once again the monthly anniversary of meself and Guy. By the old counting system.. we have 1.39 years left.
The new counting system.. 15 months and a week and a half.
On the Vampire yarn front:
Poll ends tonight. But there might be some last minute changes. Such as I might only have 1 yarn to pick when it comes down to it.
As I said there is issue with the whole dying thing.
And now there is an issue with the whole Weight of yarn thing.
Jen is sending me one of her leftover balls of yarn, out of her “Silk Sock”, which I can’t remember the content right now but I think it’s like 80% silk, 20% wool.. I think i can’t recall. Which I might be able to stand, but she can only get it in whats known as Fingering Weight. Which is a lot lighter than the DK that I need to do the project in. So I have to do the math and figure out how much more I’m going to need so as to be 100% sure I have enough for the Alexandra. So I might need 9 skeins of the Lucien just to be on the safe side. And, that means with the 2 yummy Michael Corvins, that will leave only 1 spot open for a random color.
I will of course let ya’ll know how it plays out. But I won’t know till later.
Today already is not a good day.
It technically started yesterday, and just hasn’t gotten better at all.
My beloved mp3 player.. my Creative Zen, has died on me. It freezes, and will not charge due to the frozen status.
After much troubleshooting on my part and frustration, I submitted a “hey its broke” ticket to Creative, and this morning..
I got an email back from Creative saying “oh your past your 60 day email support, but if you want to pay out the butt we’ll give you 30 minutes of support, after that, we charge you more.”
Luckily, when I bought it, I bought the 2 year protection from Overstock.com, which means Overstock will take care of it. But I can’t call them until after work.
Yesterday continued:
My knitting was making me frustrated beyond belief, but mostly it was a silly mistake on my part the last time, tonight I am hoping for better results and I think I am understanding the situation more and more. That is what is keeping me from being actually “insane” by Einstein’s theory. I am learning each time I do it, therefore I am actually getting different results.
Mother of Mine made pork chops for dinner with Pacific Rose apples that I had picked up, it turned out really good. The apples stayed crisp and yummy. I can’t wait to try them in a pie. That was the only highlight of the evening.
I went to bed.
I turned up my heating blanket, as it has been cold, and one of the blankets I normally have needs to be washed, therefore it’s a tad chillier than normal.
Well, I woke up to my heating blanket being completely off, and me in serious pain due to shivering.
And a cat who decided to meow incessantly from 4:45 until 5:10 when it was time to go downstairs. I honestly wanted to kill him.
As I was driving to work I realized I had forgotten my scarf at home, which attributed even more to the cold factor.
I’m at work, I’m tired, I’m cranky, I’m still cold even after a cup of tea. I’ve been here for 2 and a half hours already and I am still not warm.
Thanks to the tea I had to use the ladies room prior to when I normally do, and of course ran into the cleaning guy who ALWAYS shows up to clean the bathroom when I absolutely need to use it. And it does not matter which of the 3 bathrooms I go to. He’s always there. It’s like he has a 6th sense about me having to pee desperately.
Work has been busy, and I sit here wanting to cry. It’s just a craptastic day. Yelled at Guy for something that really I should have just kept to myself, but it had been nagging me for a while, so now I feel bad for snapping at him about it because he feels about the reason for what I had snapped at him about.
I wanted to tell a person to fuck off in Ravelry, because I had mentioned a neat idea I had and I wanted input.
Basically: Character in my novel is blind. Just due to old age, but because she had been going blind for many years, she learned how to read braille.
I had an idea that not only did she use her Minds Eye (as she’s very witchy), she also had a deck of tarot cards in Braille.
Well someone asked me why i felt she “needed” to read braille.
Ummm.. practicality?
Just for the novel’s sake, the way to make my world more believable is to have just enough “real world” in the fantastical world. That way when someone reads what I’ve written the sit there and go “yeah.. I can see that happening.”
Not to mention, if I truly was going fully blind, and I knew it. I mean not just partial vision, I would learn to read braille. And as someone who throws the tarot at least once a month, I would want a deck that I could read.
I even think I might someday actually make a deck of tarot cards in braille, I think it’s a neat idea.
But the way that person commented, after everything I’ve dealt with for the past two days, just made me want to tell them to fuck off.
I was polite and didn’t do that, but it urked me.
I want to go home.
No.
I want to get on a plane and go to the UK. I don’t want to be in this damn country anymore, I don’t want to be in this job anymore, and I want to have something go right for once.
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