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"

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"

I Scream at the Top of my Lungs, What's Going On

Well, if this isn't coming along just swimmingly...

Yes, it is very roll-y on the bottom, and no, I don't have any idea how to remedy that, as I have proven before, seeing as BFF's birthday scarf is still very, very curly.

I made a little tiny sample of BFF's scarf so that I could experiment on the rolliness without ruining the actual thing. I blocked it... and nothing happened. So Shelly decided to iron it.

If you'll notice, it is still a little curly, and the stitches look smooshed and have lost all definition and stretchiness. Shelly, however, can't understand why I don't want the actual scarf to suffer the same fate as the poor innocent swatch.

I guess that's why the label specifically specifies not to iron the crappy acrylic. Ooohh.....

I think it's a better idea for the scarf to roll up into itself than it is for it to fall at the hand of Shelly's iron. At least this way I can say, "Oh, BFF, it's supposed to look like that. It's a skinny scarf. And I'm pretty offended that you didn't know that!"

Yes. That is obviously the best solution.

And in other breaking news... Boyfriend is gone for the weekend. And you know what that means! A whole weekend of booze, drugs, and new man meat.

Ew. I tried to make a funny, and it ended up just being gross. I am so not that person. I would clearly make a terrible hippie. My weekend is going to consist of homework, Summertime Tunic, and blowing up football shaped balloons for Super Bowl Party go-ers.

But you know what? That sounds so much better than all the hippie stuff.

Oh, and do you like my new ducks?

I got them on account of they look just like Boyfriend and me. Except for the part where we're not actually ducks, or yellow, or have beaks. And also he doesn't play a guitar yet, and if he did, it would be acoustic because I told him that would be hotter. And also I'm clearly not as good of a hippie as this duck is. This duck is probably wing-deep in LSD. I am elbow-deep in Berroco Comfort DK. I think I got the better end of that deal.

Song of the Day:

"And so I wake in the morning and I step outside and I take a deep breath and I get real high and I scream at the top of my lungs, what's going on?" - 4 Non-Blondes, "What's Up"

Elope with Me

Lookit!

It's a Gorillapod. Pharmacy Pete got it for me because he's very into cameras, and bought a diesel one for his diesel camera. But mine's better because it's prettier and pink.

It looks like a regular tripod, but it's not because it can do this.

And this.

Also, it looks better with a camera on it, but I only have one camera, and it was otherwise occupied taking pictures of it's own tripod.

Oh, and the Summertime Tunic? Plaguing me. It took me two more tries to find the right needle size, and then when I finally got it, the whole thing got twisted on the circular needles, so I had to start over anyway.

Grrrrrrrr.

It almost seems pointless anyway to be knitting a top that's for summer, when it's snowing out right now.

Yes it is snowing. I don't why I'm surprised because that is what it does here. The only part that kills me is that it's not even the good kind of snow that sticks around. It's the annoying messy kind that won't give me a snow day tomorrow, but that will prevent me and Boyfriend from going bowling tonight with my party store co-workers.

But I'm going to knity it anyway. And I'm going to smile through the whole thing because that's what I do. I knit, and I'm damn happy about it!

And plus the yarn is just oh-so-pretty!

Song of the Day:

"Elope with me Miss Private and we’ll sail around the world. I will be your Ferdinand and you my wayward girl." -Belle and Sebastian, "Piazza, New York Catcher"

The Heart of a Woman Can Never Be Found in the Arms of a Man

So, today was a pretty exciting day all around.

To start with, Knitty put out their bonus patterns, none of which I really like, but it's exciting just the same. Just like every month, I head on over to MagKnits, even though I know that I'm probably not going to like any of the patterns. It's just fun to see what's new, on the off chance that something might spark my interest.

In other news, I started my Summertime Tunic.

Turns out, blocking the swatch made my gauge 23 stitches, which is better than 24, but still not 22. But I so don't feel like doing another swatch, so I'm using a bigger needle. If it doesn't work I'll just frog it and cry for a few hours.

That's the brilliance of the Boye circular needle set Boyfriend gave me for my birthday a few months ago. Oh no, that needle size doesn't work! That's okay, I'll just screw on another size and try again. It saves so much money on needles, especially where gauge is concerned. Plus, this pattern calls for me to change needle sizes in the middle of it, but I just have to screw on a new one, instead of trying to balance two circulars. Yeah Boyfriend!

But the biggest news of today is that a very famous director is going to film a movie with very famous actors right here in this very city. I can't tell you who the director is, or who the actors are, or what the movie is called, because Pharmacy Pete and Shelly are skeptical of me having this blog anyway, so that will be a mystery.

The movie takes place in a mental institution. Oh, and with flashbacks to WWII concentration camps. So, naturally, the director thought my town would be the perfect location to stage these horrific scenes.

Yup. Yeah for my city. I can't wait for college, when I will go to the real city, where they, on occasion, film movies that are not about death and torture and pain.

The mayor is especially excited, telling the local paper that this will put our city on the map (which, my friend so graciously pointed out, is already on the map), and that this is something to admire, as the actors involved are at the "top of their field."

And they need 600 local extras. Judging by the persistant buzzing at my school today, most everyone is making the 40 mile trek into the real city to audition. Well, except for the girls who have highlights in their hair. There were no highlights in WWII. It's a sad, sad day for all the bleach blondes.

The newspaper said that they are looking for people who looked emaciated. Just where do they think they are going to find 600 emaciated individuals? This is America. Aren't we notoriously fat?

At any rate, this is the most exciting thing to happen here since the next town over got an IHOP.

Anyway...

Juno was nominated for 4 Oscars! All I can say is that it better win all of them. Also, the soundtrack is the number 3 album in the country. Which it should be, because it totally owns!

Say Anything has always been my favorite movie, but, I must say, as much as I love me some Lloyd Dobler, Diane Court doesn't do much for me. I think she's a weak heroine who just needs a slap in her whiny face because she definitely doesn't deserve Lloyd. In Juno, I love Bleeker almost as much as I love Lloyd, and Juno is totally boss, so she beats Diane by a landslide. Now I don't know what my favorite movie of all time is.

Then again, Say Anything has Peter Gabriel. Juno does not. Hmm...

Song of the Day:

"Things will happen for reasons that she will never understand until she learns that the heart of a woman can never be found in the arms of a man." -Vanessa Carlton, "Rinse"