Ugh & Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted

Ok ya’ll I’m so far behind on my blog reading that it isn’t even funny. The next week isn’t looking any better either. Apologies all around for being that crazy-I’m-so-busy person. Here’s my question for you, I’m getting ready to leave for 3 weeks for a real vacation, no computer, no internet, so should I get a guest blogger? How do you feel about guest bloggers? Should I write up some posts in advance and just have them post while I’m gone? Or nothing for 3 weeks?

Lorna’s Lace’s Shepherd Worsted in Ice Storm. This yummy yarn was a gift from Emily after the massive damage to my trees in December’s Ice Storm. I wound it a up a while back thinking I’d knit a shrug with it, but I wasn’t happy with the results so you’ve never seen it. I feel like I have to find the perfect pattern for this! LOL

We Interupt this Weekend

I’ve got to confess to you guys about something. I don’t spend a lot of time reading the Rav Forums, or the Knittyboard. When I do have some time I like to read blogs. I used to feel guilty about this,that I wasn’t spending enough time being part of the community, but I do read a lot of blogs and that’s part of the community too right? Well after reading some recent posts about the judginess going on in those place I am completely absolved of my guilt. That’s right, if that’s what’s doing down in those forums I’m glad I don’t hang out there.
I love Ravelry because it lets me organize my knitting, my projects, my stash, my queue, and that it allows me to oh so easily see what others have made with that yarn or how that sweater looks and 50 different bodies rather than the carefully posed model so I can see how it looks on me. See the theme here? I use Ravely for ME. It is about me. There is nothing wrong with that.

So if there are some people who think that my stash is about bragging rather than the damn fine organizational options of Rav, or that Yarn Pr0n Fridays is showing off instead of appreciation of some serious fiber goodness, or that my schedule of Wordless Wednesday and YPF are bad, well, frankly those people can piss off. I’ve seem some of the nicest bloggers I know fretting about this, and I seriously annoys me that these, super nice, friendly generous people are letting trolls get to them this way.

So I’m making a statement here on my blog to those people (not to you, dear readers, I know you guys are awesome!), cuz I guess I’m just not as nice as the bloggers that are worrying about it. I love YPF! Viva la Pr0n. If you can’t appreciate the yarn and instead get all bitter that I have it, go away. I don’t want you here anyway. If you think my Rav stash or anyone else’s is showing off, instead of using the fabulous tools that Rav provides, don’t be my friend. I don’t what your judgy, angry vibes anywhere my knitting anyway. I blog on a schedule cuz it works for me, do it your way on your blog, and I’ll do it mine on mine. Seriously. I don’t want pissy, bitter judgmental people reading my blog anyway. If I met them in person I probably wouldn’t like them and I don’t want people I don’t like reading my blog and being my blog friends. So there.  I just can’t understand why people would complain about all of this so much in a public place.  Just don’t read the blog and seriously don’t they have better things to do with their time, like knitting?

To my beloved readers, I know you’re not “those” people so here’s something nice for you! I cast on for two more projects. And yes, I am bragging, lace is hard, hell, so is knitting, we should all brag about it!

Juno Regina

Gretel

They make it hard on purpose

Man, does anyone else think that the second Season of Grey’s Anatomy was the best? I miss Addison! I miss a woman with cojones! This last season even Callie was whiny and neurotic. Can’t one character have a normal, healthy relationship with the people around her? Plus seriously it has the best quotes. Seriously

Moving on. I wanna talk about comments, specifically about responding to comments. During a conversation with a friend last week, I mentioned that I respond with an email to all of my comments and he was really surprised. So that got me thinking about why I do it. Then I read Liz’s post about this blog post which got me thinking further. I respond to my comments via email, and I know a lot of other bloggers who do, and I know a lot who don’t. Honestly I don’t are if the blogger responds to my comment unless I ask a question. I’m not sure what to do about this. I feel sort of odd sometimes sending an email that only says “thank you” so I’m considering cutting back on the emails unless there is something specific I need to address and if someone asks a question answering that question in the comments so future readers can see the answer. What do you guys think about this? Thoughts? opinions? hate mail? love letters?

While we’re talking about Tech Toys I love, I still love my Creative Zen MP3 player. It went to California and back with me without a charge. In December when I was without power twice, it saved me. None of my radios had batteries, but the Zen was charged so I was able to listen to it’s radio. Plus I listened to music and podcasts. If you’re considering getting an MP3 player, I know the iPods are sexy and cute, but so is this and it works with so much more! You can download songs from Amazon for 89 cents (that’s 10 cents cheaper than iTunes and they don’t have the problems iTunes do with rights management. You can download movies from Amazon’s Unbox and watch on it. You can create playlists, listened to the Radio and record memos to yourself and it works with my Library’s downloadable audiobooks, something iPods don’t. Oh and it has a SD memory card expansion slot, so you can put whatever you want on a memory card. Awesome!

Abloggia :

an illness that affects bloggers. Symptoms include wishing a meme would make the rounds so they’d have a post, searching other blogs for quizzes to post, inability to think of anything to write about and general lack of will to blog. Thanks to Robin for giving a name to this illness that seems to be sweeping the blogosphere right now.

I’m actually very busy right now, between the two jobs I haven’t had a day off since the 17th and wont get one until the 4th. Plus I’m working 2 weekends in a row at the library, so that means Friday night winery, Saturday library, run to winery after get off from the library, Sunday library. Makes for a very long weekend.

Last week I found this guy in the yard. Actually da boys found him, I went to see about the ruckus they were making, poor little guy. Oscar was so interested in him he wouldn’t leave him alone. I guess that makes him a bully. I finally scolded him. He left the tortoise alone but he wouldn’t go away he just sat there watching it. Here he is trying to convince me he has no interest and just happens to be sitting there. I finally made him go inside.

I decided on Clapotis for the silk. I used smaller needles because the yarn is finer. But I’m thinking of frogging, I want an open airy wrap more for summer then winter. Or maybe I should save the silk for a more open pattern. *sigh*

And the Winner Is…

Nate helped me pull the winners out of a hat last night. I was worried if I didn’t let him help he’d never believe it if he didn’t win. (Ok there wasn’t really a hat but there were scraps of paper with names on them, no random number generators for me!) I decided to do two drawings, one for the knitters and one for the non-knitters. Robin - you were drawn for the knitters! Bevvy - you were the non-knitters! Ladies if you’ll email me with your addresses please. Now for what I know you’ve really been waiting for – the answers to your questions!

Kate: favorite ice cream

  I don’t really have one, something with chocolate nuts and carmel is always good. At Coldstone I always get Cheesecake ice cream with cherries

coke or pepsi :

Diet Pepsi, but I’ll drink Diet Coke too.

Liz : What is your proudest moment?

this is a hard one, at different points in my life I would have given different answers to this, maybe my master degree or buying my house, but now, I’m not so sure.

Tab : What keeps you motivated?

Some days, not much! My friends and family mostly (about 50% of that is antagonizing Nathan, it brings me great joy)

Sheepish Annie : what is the most you’ve ever spent on a pair of shoes?

  I’m not really sure. I think that my most expensive pair was not the ones I paid the most for. For some reason I think the ones I paid the most for were Borns and totally worth is.

what is the best shoe bargain that you have ever come across?

I’m the Queen of bargain shoe shopping I have no what the best deal was I get great ones all the time.

Lara : Who is your biggest inspiration?

Hmmm, it would be hard to pick, definitely my parents for a lot of reasons.

Tiffany : What is the book that most changed the way you viewed the world or yourself?

Probably The Female Brain or the The Science of Happiness. I read them both in the last year and I find it incredibly interesting to learn about the physiological changes in my (and other peoples) brains

Bevvy : Do you like salt and vinegar potato chips?

Yes! They are my favorite!

What do you put in your coffee (since I’ve dreamed about you sipping coffee at Barnes and Noble)?

nothing, I take it black.

Do you feel any sympathy at all for Sally Field’s friend who has to “set aside” 0.0003 seconds to swallow a pill for her osteoporosis each week? (Gawd, how I hate that stupid commercial!)

oh hell no! I hate that commercial! Every time i see it I think how ridiculous it is.

Do you think Sarah Jessica Parker, Heather Locklear, and Andie McDowell actually color their own hair? At home? From a box?

no way jose! also hate these commercials! I love my Tivo.

Nate : I have three questions for you: (1) Who’s the black private dick that’s a sex machine to all the chicks? (2) Who is the man that would risk his neck for his brother man? (3) Who’s the cat that won’t cop out when there’s danger all about?

I’m not going to dignify this with a response. Yes I know the answer. And yes, Nate you’re in the drawing.

Carol : Who is your favorite author?

There is no way I can pick just one Marlena De Blasi, Laurie Notaro, Jane Austen, Alexandre Dumas. I used to really like Anne Rice but not since she found God. oh and old Stephen King, nothing after Misery.

Jenstr : If you could fly or read mines, which would you choose?

fly! definitely!

If you could go back in time or move into the future, which would you choose?

future, I have to know!

Do think blondes really have more fun? I don’t think so, unless peroxide release endorphens

You’re asking a redhead? Redheads clearly have more fun!

Julie McC. : What book did you so love when you were little, that you can still recite it today?

nothing comes to mind, but I read Gone with the Wind like 5 times in Junior High.

Jupiter Jessica : What made you want to be a librarian and are you a specific kind of librarian?

Truthfully – whim. My bachelors is in history and I spent some time working in the semi-conductor industry as an Engineer Change Coordinator.  I was considering going back to school and one of my friends said – why don’t you be a librarian, so I did.

Do you like sweet tea and corn nuggets?

yes! and yes! I’m from Iowa!

What yarn do you covet the most?

I don’t think I have enough yarn experience to answer this. I know I really love the silk I got last weekend.

Why do you like the Yarn Harlot?

Hell I like almost anyone who can write books about something they love and make money, I can only wish I were so lucky.

Would you rather choose to see your future (without being able to change it) -OR- know everyone else’s future and not be able to tell them?

oh! Love this question in fact debated it over beer with friends this weekend. I went with everyone’s else future. I like the idea that I have free will.

Robin : What is your favorite book of all time?

Pride and Prejudice

Angelarae : What kind of chips do you like with your sandwiches. I like kettle chips!

yep! Kettle chips, either salt and vinegar or dill pickle.

Nicole : Can you roll your tongue?

yes! I forgot other people couldn’t, it’s been a long time since science class. LOL

Helen :How do you choose which blogs to list in your blogrolls? And which to keep reading.

I probably do this like everyone else. But a longer answer and probably more than you ever wanted to know is that a couple of months ago I belonged to a lot of blog rings and had almost 300 blogs in my Bloglines account. I was feeling a lot of stress in my life and part of it was blogging, and something had to give. Lots of changes were made and some of them were blogging. I’m down to about 150 blogs in my Bloglines account and it was HARD let me tell you.

If you could change ONE thing from the past (a small thing, perhaps, not necessarily a huge life-altering thing — or that too) what would it be?

Getting my library Science degree, I owe a lot of money and barely make enough for a pot to piss in. I could have made this much without a Master’s degree and not get treated like crap by the public on a regular basis.

What have you done that’s given you the greatest sense of accomplishment? What things to you do that repeatedly give you a sense of accomplishment, even though you’re no longer doing/achieving them for the first time?

Definitely knitting. I love it. I love making stuff. I’ve always been a crafter of some sort ( cross-stitch, decoupage, jewelry, wine charms, sewing, crochet etc.)

If you could design a knitting retreat weekend around YOUR preferences, which three teachers would you study with?

Honestly I don’t know, I guess I’m not an advanced enough knitter to have an opinion. Also I’m an orphan knitter (no LYS or other knitters around all my education comes from the web.)

Monika : I’d like to know whether you are a spinner as well as a knitter?

Nope, although I just saw someone spin for the first time last week and it was like magic! btw – I totally stalk your blog, I just haven’t commented until this week.

Katie : If you were the fastest knitter in the west and time was not an issue, what project(s) would you want to complete?

oh, hmmm, probably this, I’m amazed by it (another blog I stalk). Or Lace stuff, I love lace and shawls but have no idea where I’d wear them.

Melissa : What was the first thing you knit (successful or not)?

Scarves, lots of scarves

Jen : Where would you go on your dream vacation?

Italy for sure