Standing in the Sunlight Laughing

Once upon a time there was a girl named Susan, who just wanted to knit her boyfriend a pair of Dashings. So she set out on her Dashing journey by purchasing yarn from her local craft store because she had a coupon. The yarn was from Bernat, and it was pretty, and was made of acrylic, nylon, and cashmere, making very soft, but also hella rugged.

The first mitt went off without a gitch. All was well. There were no visible mistakes. There may not have even been any invisible mistakes. It was hard to tell, as, if they existed, they were invisible. Hence invisible mistakes.

Then came the second mitt. Again, all was well. That is, until she ran out of yarn from the first skein, and was forced to join a new one.

"Okay," thought Susan. "I do this all the time."

It attached superly (sometimes I invent words. Don't judge.). Then she realized that this skein was so much softer than the last. And as she got farther and farther along, she realized that it was visibly different, with more pronounced stitches, and resulted in a much softer, floppier fabric than the first skein did.

To which all I can say is, WHAT THE HELL?????

Growl.

Anyway, I'm almost done with Dashing, so I can buy yarn for Holly. I'm going to my LYS for this though. I trust her more the craft store.

Song of the Day:
"Whatever happened to Tuesday and so slow. Going down the old mine with a transistor radio. Standing in the sunlight laughing, hiding behind a rainbow's wall. Slipping and sliding all along the water fall, with you, my brown eyed girl." -Van Morrison, "Brown Eyed Girl"

Go Ahead and Ask Her

I like working on Sundays. Time and a half is totally worth blowing up the intense amount of balloon orders for Sunday birthday parties and baby showers.

I did not, however, get to blow up balloons today. Today I ran the register and individually price ticketed Beanie Babies.

You wish you could have my job!

I actually like the register a lot. It's a thinking job, unlike mindlessly stocking streamers, which only requires figuring out if the streamers are baby pink, pink, light pink, or bombay pink. I kid you not, give or take a hue.

But this month, we're asking customers to make a $1 donation to the local children's hospital. Nice in theory, especially when people actually donate, but it becomes wildly frustrating when they don't.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to come off as all high and mighty, and be like, "If you don't donate to the sick kids, you should hate yourself. Because I certainly hate you, you stupid-face!"

Because I know that every store you go in asks you to donate, and nobody can possibly donate to everything.

I don't care if you don't donate.

Well, to be truthful, if people do donate, I pack their bags much more neatly than I would if they didn't. But that's besides the point.

But if you don't want to donate, for the love of Marshmallow, just say no!

It's easy to say no. I say it all the time.

These are the answers I get instead:

"Um, not today thank you."

How about tomorrow then?

"Let's wait and see what the total comes to."

"It's $116.36."

"Oh. I guess not then."

Really? Because you just spent over a hundred dollars for your healthy kid's birthday party. What's a dollar to you at this point?

"I don't have any singles on me."

"The donation just gets added to your total."

"Um... no I don't have any singles."

I know you're not an idiot. You just told me that your "I'm 21 today! Buy me a drink!" button was supposed to be 30% off, which should make it $2.19. You figured that out in your head in about 5 seconds. Stop pretending that you don't know what I'm saying.

"The children's hospital already gets enough money as it is."

I hate you, you ignorant fool.

Please just say no if you don't want to donate. I don't care. Just don't waste my time when there are a serious amount of streamers that need stocking.

Okay, I'm good now. I can move on to knitting.

One Dashing is done, minus weaving in the ends. The pattern's actually really easy, and the thumb was so much easier to make than I thought it would be. I'm think about making Fetching with the yarn left over from Summertime Tunic.

Yes, that is a hole as a matter of fact. No I don't know how it got there. Thank you for noticing though.

I finished it last night when Boyfriend and I went to Boyfriend's BFF's house, which consisted of five guys playing some gory war video game, and me making a fingerless mitt. This is how the conversation went:

"You guys! I just made a thumb!"

*Silence, except the clicking of controller buttons.*

"I did! I was afraid I was going to mess it up, but I didn't, and now it's a thumb!"

*War noises and the repeated use of the f-bomb.*

"It's really hot in here."

*Every boy in room immediately says, "Sorry Susan, it's because I'm here!"*

"That's not what I meant, but thank you for your attentiveness."

*Polite laughter from Boyfriend, who is trying to pretend that he's paying attention to me amidst his video game. I am not fooled. I know where I stand compared to an XBox.*

Then that round of game play ended.

"That's a glove!" exclaimed Boyfriend.

"Uh, yeah I know, it's been a glove for, like, 20 minutes."

"I'm going to try it on."

"Be my guest."

"It fits!"

"I know, I made it that way."

I should mention that Boyfriend is otherwise very attentive.

Song of the Day:

"So go ahead and ask her for happy ever after. Cause nobody knows what’s coming, so why not take a chance on loving." -Chris Rice, "Lemonade"

Is There Anybody Going to Listen to My Story?

So.... the aforementioned secret project?

Dashing, for Boyfriend.

And no I'm not finished. And no, it's not that I can't keep a secret.

Well, actually, that's partly it. I hate keeping secrets like that. Other people's secrets, I'm like a brick wall. I have references that will tell you just that. But fun secrets, like, "Hey, Boyfriend, remember those fingerless mittens I told you that I was going to make for you a few months back? Well, I'm finally making them now that the cold weather is coming to a close. Well, sort of. In a month or two."? That is not easy to keep. Especially considering that I do a lot of my knitting at Boyfriend's house.

So, you see, it's not that I'm a weak secret-keeper so much as it is I really wanted to work on them while Boyfriend and I watched Across the Universe.

Which, by the way, wasn't all that I thought it was going to be. It was a little too trippy for my taste. Though, I did like the roof scene, and especially the scene when Lucy turns around and bursts into "Blackbird."

And also, I totally called it that they were going to open the movie with "Girl." And I'm glad that "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was only the ending credits song, but I'm a little sad that they didn't use "Sexy Sadie." Unless I just missed that. Whatever.

Also, Summertime Tunic is officially done.

I have mixed feelings. It's pretty, but the ribbon isn't really working out as straps, and I don't know how practical it is. The top of it is pretty low-cut, so I have to wear a tank top underneath it, seeing as I am a nice girl, and don't want that to be mistaken.

And in other unrelated news, I just did a bad thing. I ate a cookie.

*Gasp*

I know!

No, but Boyfriend and I gave up all junk food for Lent. And I really haven't had a hard time doing it. It's just that Shelly just made chocolate cookies. From scratch. And they're warm. Warm.

So I ate one.

But it was so warm!

Song of the Day:

"Is there anybody going to listen to my story, all about the girl who came to stay? She's the kind of girl you want so much it makes you sorry. Still you don't regret a single day." -The Beatles, "Girl"

Love Put Me Wise

The Restoration of the British Monarchy in the 1600s?

Not as interesting as you might think.

It's not that I don't have an appreciation for British History, it's that I don't even care that much about American History, nevermind the history of some place that I have no connection to.

I shouldn't say that. My grandfather was British. But he didn't have an accent, so it's hard to count that.

And also there are so many things that I'd rather be knitting than writing this paper.

And now that I'm on a knitting note....

Summertime Tunic is taking forever to block. Forever!

Though I'm sure that it has nothing to do with the fact that it's downstairs in my dark, cold basement.

Grrr.....

Back to Charles II and Richard Cromwell, I suppose.

Cheerio!

Song of the Day:
"So never judge a book by it's cover, or who you're going to love by your lover. Love put me wise to her love in disguise. She had the body of a venus. Lord imagine my surprise." - Aerosmith, "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)"

Mix Tape's a Masterpiece

Summertime Tunic is complete and blocking!

I tried it on, and it fit really well, and I'm a little concerned that blocking will change that. But I'll take my chances. Even though my spray bottle did break while I was spraying it down, so I had to just put it under the faucet... pretty sure that's unorthadox.

Since I joined Ravelry two days ago, this blog has experienced a pretty decent increase in readers. So, like, yeah! And with that, I got tagged! I know. Exciting.

I was tagged by Kaya, and I'm not entirely sure how this whole tagging thing goes, and who I'm supposed to tag or not supposed to tag, so I'm just going with it, and copy and pasting the rules from Kaya's blog.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.

3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.

4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

So here are 7 things about me:

1. When I was really little, I used to walk around the house and pick up lint and strings that I'd find, then mold them into a ball. Pharmacy Pete found it one day, and asked me why I was collecting lint. I told him that I was making a ball of yarn so that I could knit a sweater. Then he made me throw it away, and told me that when I got older, I could buy a ball of yarn to make a sweater. I got mad, because I thought that meant that I had to wait until I was, like, 90.

2. I wrote I book when I was in the eighth grade, then tried to get it published. It obviously wasn't because the book sucked, but it taught me a lot, and I'm a better writer for it.

3. Boyfriend is my first real boyfriend, and we've been together since we were 15. And even though I love him now, I still like him as much as I did back then. The thought of being with anyone else makes me sad. And I hope he knows that.

4. I'm a huge That '70s show fan. Huge as in, seen every episode at least 5 times, own all the DVDs, and throw quotes from the show into my everyday conversations. Bitchin'!

5. The last time I checked, I was third in my graduating class. That may have changed, but either way... I was there.

6. I won Marshmallow in a raffle at my doctor's office when I was five. He has slept in my bed with me every night since then. And I'm taking him to Dream School with me. Shut up.

7. I don't believe in premarital sex, and I don't care what people think of me for it. Lucky for me, Boyfriend agrees, so there's no cause for disagreement on that front.

That was fun! And here's who I'm tagging:

Mary

Rachel

Rachel

Nik

Wendy

Octupus Knits

Hmm, I can't think of another one. Maybe I'll add one later if I think of it.

And now, I must go start the secret project I'm going to be working on. Anyone on Ravelry can see it here, but I can't put it on this blog. The recipient of the secret project reads this on occassion, but isn't on Ravelry.


Have a lovely day!


Song of the Day:
"When all words fail, she speaks. Her mix tape's a masterpiece. Walks through the garden, so the roses can see. Oh I. . . have you got nothing to say?" - Ben Folds Five, "Kate"

If It's a Hero You Want, I Can Save You

I have the irrational tendency to name inanimate objects, then refer to them by using "he" or "she" rather than "it." I'm sure that it stems from watching Toy Story when I was little, and not wanting to take any chances at finding out that all of my stuff was coming alive when I wasn't in the room and planning a mutiny because I never named them properly.

I'm not crazy, just imaginitive. Hence, writer.

At any rate, I named my laptop Billy. I don't know why, but his name is Billy right down to the name at the bottom of the screen with all of the user icons on XP, that says "Turn Off ___." And normal people write "Family Computer" or "My PC" or something to that effect. But I put Billy. And so Billy he is.

Billy was always defiant, right from the get-go. I bought him four years ago from BJ's Wholesale Club, with a coupon, and within a few months, I couldn't even turn him on without him freaking out and going to some horrible blue screen within 10 minutes of being on, before finally shutting himself down.

The support center had no idea what was going on, and we had to send him back to the company. Within a week, he was back home, and just about everything from the motherboard to the hard-drive had been replaced. Basically, it was a brand new computer in the old case.

Billy has been fine since then, up until recently when he's been acting down-right pokey, and freezing in places that he never did before, and refusing to coorperate with the printer. It could just be that he's four years old and outdated, but I think it's because he knows that I'm going to college soon, and will need a new Billy that is lighter and smaller and better-behaved. Shelly and Pharmacy Pete want to get it soon, in case there's another Episode, we'll know about it in time to fix it before I have to leave for Dream School.

Oh, I forgot to tell you...

I decided on going to Dream School. I'm just going to be poor forever. It's worth it.

And Boyfriend's being so nice and supportive about it. We're only going to be about 40 miles apart, which with public transportation, is, like, 10-15 minutes. No biggie.

Annnnd.....

I got onto Ravelry! Yeah! It's so very overwhelming, but everything I thought it would be.

And also......

I figured out how to whip-stitch live stitches and attach a new ball of yarn in the middle of a row without having to ask my LYS lady! I was so crazy proud of myself it was ridiculous. I just sat down with some Red Heart that I had lying around that my grandmother on Shelly's side had given me (or, as I like to call her, Big G. Janice. She's not that big, but Average-sized G. Janice doesn't have the same ring to it), and I just figured it out! Granted, my hem isn't that pretty, but it's on the inside, so it doesn't matter.

And knowing how to attach a new ball of yarn means that I also figured out how to do fair-isle! I own!

Song of the Day:
"I'm trying real hard not to shake. I'm biting my tongue, but I'm feeling alive and with every breathe that I take, I feel like I've won. You're my key to survival. And if it's a hero you want, I can save you. Just stay here." - Secondhand Serenade, "Awake"

Take the Pain Out of Love

So, I have been waiting very patiently for my Ravelry invitation, and it finally came last night, but I was at the party store until ten, stocking streamers and what not, so I couldn't do anything about it until this morning. Or, this afternoon rather, seeing as I didn't wake up until 10:30, then spent a good two hours showering and drinking an intense amount of coffee out of the new pretty pink mug Pharmacy Pete gave me for Valentine's Day.

Or, rose mug I should say. He originally gave me a light pink mug and Shelly the rose one, but we traded. We're cool kids.

But, at any rate, I'm a sad because Ravelry's saying that there's an error in creating my account, and I don't know what to do about it. And I know that there's a help chat room, but I'm skeptical of chat rooms. Even ones for knitters.

And, in other sad news, it turns out that I don't know how to "whip-stitch live stitches," and Vogue Knitting isn't helping me out to much, so I'm pretty stuck on Summertime Tunic until I go see my LYS lady. And I was almost finished too. Grrrrrr....

Oh, and in other news, Pharmacy Pete read my blog. Before that, it was just Boyfriend's mom (who said it kept her entertained), Shelly (who said, "Yeah, it's okay), and BFF (who read it after I gave her the Birthday Scarf, which I've seen her wearing in school, clearly not minding that's it's still pretty darn curly). I'm pretty sure that Pharmacy Pete only read the parts about him and Shelly, and the gorilla pod, but I'll take what I can get!

Song of the Day:

"I do regret more than I admit. You have been followed back to the same place I sat with you drink for drink. Take the pain out of love and then love won't exist." -The Academy Is... "Everything We Had"

I Might Have Been Turned Around

I don't understand the people who are like, "Well, I had a spare couple of hours today, so I decided to knit something up quick. Here are the pics of the sweater and two pairs of socks that I made, plus the sleeves of a cardigan."

Seriously?

How do people go so fast? Summertime Tunic is taking me forever.

Or maybe that's just because I'm amidst a sea of endless stockinette.

Or maybe it's just that there really is something to be said for continental knitting. Tack that on to the list of knitting things I can't do: continental, fair isle, lace.

I'll get there. Lace is on my to-do list.

But really. I can never believe it when people have lists of all of the things they made in 2007, or whatever, and there are, like, 100 bajillion sweaters. How?!?!?!

Oh! I signed up for an invitation to Ravelry! I can't wait! There's only like 6000 people before me! I also can't believe how many exclamation points I can use in one paragraph!

I've been writing things for school all day. I have apparently reached my limit. Hence the short sentences and abundance of punctuation. I'm going to quit before I bring in the semi-colon, or do something else equally crazy.

Song of the Day:
"You might have laughed if I told you, you might have hidden a frown. You might have succeeded in changing me, I might have been turned around." -R.E.M., "Leaving New York"

There's Only Butterflies

Reason #368 that I wish I were a hippie:
Hippies don't have to shave their legs.

Guess how many times I accidently cut myself shaving my legs today. No less than 6. And guess how many times I wished that I had never shaved my legs in the first place. Go on. Guess.

Every single time I've shaved my legs during my entire leg-shaving career.

If I was a hippie, I wouldn't have this problem. Hippies are all like, "Hey man, whatever. Don't shave your legs if you don't want to. Just as long as it doesn't start a war or anything." Then they go smoke something illegal. Or, the real kind of hippie does, anyway. The kind of hippie I would be would go knit something. Something legal, of course.

If I went by Shelly's advice, the answer is not "Go be a hippie," the answer is "Be more careful next time."

This is clearly a classic case of Shelly just not knowing what she's talking about.

And in knitting news...

Summertime Tunic is looking pretty beautiful.

(Pictures to follow. If I feel like it. Actually, it looks the same as last time, just with another inch or so of ribbing, then six inches of stockinette. Use your imagination.)

Except for that I still don't know if it's going to be too small or not. I'm kind of banking on the fact that it's stretchy enough that it will fit anyway. I'm not that big.

Song of the Day:
"And there's no more lies. In the darkness, there's light. And nobody cries. There's only butterflies." -Natasha Bedingfield, "Pocketful of Sunshine"

Thoughts Seem to Scatter

Where did January go? Even though this past week was, like, the longest week ever, it still seems like January should have been longer. And on that note, why aren't the new MagKnits patterns for February up yet? As I mentioned before, I never really like too many of the patterns on MagKnits, except for maybe Holly. I just like to see what's new.

I'm starting to get scared that my Summertime Tunic not's going to fit. I mean, it looks really, really small. I'm trying to tell myself that it's because it's still on the needles, which makes it seem smaller. I'm not entirely sure if that's right or not, but I don't need anyone to correct me on that. It's just to prevent me from abandoning the tunic all together.

In other, slightly more intelligent news:
My fellow editors-in-chief and I spent a good hour going over all of the submissions that we received for the high school lit mag. Some of them are really good, but most of them are just miserable. I had no idea that my high school was so filled with secretly-emo kids.

I understand that writing is a way of venting. I get it. I really do. But why do you have to show people what you vent about? That I don't get.

If I'm in a bad mood, I try not to write because I know that everything that comes out will be sad and angry and miserable, and when I go back and read it later, it will just put me in a bad mood all over again. This past week was particularly sucky, so I tried to avoid writing as much as my writer nature would allow.

Now, I understand if not everyone has that point of view. If you're in a bad mood and need to vent, than by all means, write if it helps you and doesn't make you feel worse later on. But why feel the need to submit it to a high school literary magazine, where other already emotionally unstable teenagers will read it?

I can't know. I just wish people would be happier. Maybe the world would be in better shape if our world leaders just got a good night's sleep, ate more Skittles, and weren't mad at each other all the time.

Song of the Day:
"I've been trying to get down to the heart of the matter, but my will gets weak, and my thoughts seem to scatter." - Don Henley, "The Heart of the Matter"