Back from Brimley

We've been back for almost a month and I don't know what's in the air, if it is the heat and humidity or a long summer or if Mars in the cusp of Venus, but whatever it is everything and almost everyone is in an odd mood lately or had horrible tragedy or something and its driving me batty.

People are freaking out about weird things too. The whole muggles and ravelry, us vs them strikes me as absolutely ridiculous. The knitbloggers will know what this means, and funnily enough saying just that furthers the whole problem don't ya think?

I'm done with dwelling on it. Onto fun nice things that make me happy and don't make me want to sit on the bed and listen to The Cure and The Smiths and mope. (I'll just listen to them anyway and not mope, I've had enough of it)

First the knitting:
I finished the Central Park Hoodie and love it. I found buttons yesterday at surprisingly JoAnn Fabrics in Pontiac that look both the exact same purple color as well have a tint of brown and a little iridescent scroll image on them. I had thought that I would want either toggle or leather buttons and would have to go online to find ones I liked enough. Also if anyone has found any good online button retailers please share them with me and I'll post any suggestions.
I will post a modeled picture after the sun comes out which I believe will be in 2 or 3 days.


Calling all internets: should it take 5 minutes for blogger to upload a photo?

Back to knitting content.
Coachella was a bust, literally. I got to the part where you can try it on and see if its working and the cowl drooped all the way to my navel. So it is frogged and already rewound into yarn cakes and back in its plastic baggie waiting for me to come up with a better use for it.

Insert wonderful phone call from mom here. Which went:

Mom: Hey Nia I'm at the fabric and yarn store in Paradise and they have this yarn with fur for 75% off do you want any?
Me: What do you mean fur?
Mom: It says merino and possum.
Me: What is it called?
- 5 minutes in which I talk to mom and the store lady who tells me the brand name and fiber content and yardage and verifies that it is not fun fur and then a couple of minutes of searching on ravelry and google and now I'm the proud owner of at least a sweaters worth of Purple Possum Yarn and some others that she liked. Woo Hoo.
Also anyone who reads this and knows my mother also knows that she will call back at least once in less than 10 minutes with something else she found in the store.
First Call:
Mom: Do you know that they have knitting needles that light up?
Me: Yes mom, but I don't want any.

I'm still waiting here with all search windows open for the next phone call.

Second call:
Mom: Hey, Nia I'm in the woods.... dropped

Third call:
Mom: Hey, Nia I got the yarn and am heading home. I'll give it to you at Ava's birthday.
Me: Ok, don't let Jim see it.

Onto Vacation:
I had a really good time if I block out the unhappy return Bridge ride. Here are some of my favorite pictures.

Back from Vacation

Well I've been back from vacation for over a week and managed to finish the lace for Lorrie's wedding in time for the Girl's Weekend Wine Tasting and have wonderful pictures of both in the camera. Unfortunately I have no clue how this cord attaches to the computer. I'm sitting here glaring at the pile of wires on the desk next to me, they are taunting me... "you can do it" "you won't break the computers" "no the cats have not been chewing on us" I'm pretty sure that last one is an outright lie. I shall give it a try and if it doesn't work that I'll nag Jim until he does it.

Waiting Impatiently

Jim should be home from work any minute now. As soon as he is here we are loading up and driving up north for a week at my parents. I've been packed for 3 hours and I believe I have enough knitting with me to survive for several months.

Here's what I've got:


1. Central Park Hoodie that is about 65% done. I've got the back and fronts done and the sleeves started. All that is left is the rest of the sleeves and the hood. I should be easily able to finish this, especially since I want to wear it up there where it is occasionally cold.

2. Yarn for Cochella.

3. Lots of sock yarn.

4. Lots of cotton to make up my own pattern for a shopping bag that will have no seaming. All of the online patterns I've seen have some kind of seaming and with an openwork cotton bag that is too much of a pain in my ass.

5. Yarn for Calorimetry. I want to do this in a Noro cotton that I can't remember the name of right now. I've seen one done in this and loved it. I read all the entries on Ravelry about it and am thinking I will definitely cast on fewer stitches.

I totally had to stop myself from taking the yarn for this and this. I know I won't find the time amidst all the relaxing to even likely finish my CPH.

I'm getting antsy so I think I'll go and wind yarn to occupy myself.

I spent less than I expected!

Yesterday I went to a knitters meet up at Threadbear in Lansing. I bought some Karabella Aurora 8 to make Cochella from Knitty as well as some lilac purple lace weight to make something lacy to be decided later. I still haven't decided what yarn to make the Mystery Stole 3 in. They had some Malabrigo lace weight but not in any colors that seemed appropriate based on the clue.Sarahlou and Kelli
Erin and Karen

I had a great time knitting and hanging out with Kelli, Saralou, Karen, Erin, Sarah and Renee. They are all making some very beautiful things. Later on, Kelli and I went to Old Town to join Erin to again knit, just this time with Annie her dog. (I so thought I took a picture of Annie.. darn.)


The picture of the waterfall is taken from atop a fish ladder. I don't think I'd been near a fish ladder in at least 20 years. I remember some trip to Grand Rapids with Grandpa to look at flooding and I think furniture or grandfather clocks. Anyway, there also was a nice river walk in Old Town Lansing, going under a bridge which we got to from a terrifying metal spiral staircase. I'm definitely dragging Jim back there. Not only is there a lot of cool shops in that area, but there is also a huge pet store which Jim will likely love. For Cochella based on Saralou's recommendation or it can be considered copying of a cool idea.


Next time: Progress shots of the Central Park Hoodie

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Pay No Attention

I actually have pictures of the sweater I'm making, its just that the pictures are in the camera and not uploaded to the hard drive or flickr yet. Its sad to say but I'm waiting for Jim to come home to supervise me. I've had bad luck with picture uploads, they go and hide in places that they are not wanted. So until the pictures are rescued from the camera I will show pictures I can get to without breaking anything.

I am getting frustrated with blogger and I don't think blogger is the problem. I think I'm the problem. Here is what I want to do:

1. Have more than one picture per post.
2. Have a picture show up after the paragraph and not at the top of the post.
   
3. Somehow label the picture.
4. Know how to add a button for the groups I'm currently in like Mystery Stole 3 or Ravelry
   
5. Figure out how to get my photo's from flickr to show up here. I thought I configured it correctly, but it looks like I would have to blog from there instead of here to get it to work.
6. Clean off my desk. (Which has nothing to do with this but is bothering me nonetheless.)
7. Figure out how to show a YouTube video.
8. I would like to have some of those cool progress bars to show how far along I am in my projects, but again I have no clue where to find those or how to add them if I ever do find them.
9. Have an RSS feed, I know what it does, but I don't know what it means or how to set it up to work, or if it automatically does it for me through blogger.
   
10. Track who or why people get here. I know it can be done, I just have no clue how.
11. Find an easy to understand tutorial or instructional website to help me with all of the above things
    

Here's what I know how to do:

1. Spellcheck- I figure make myself feel better by feeling more accomplished and trying to have more than 11 things on this list.
2. Link and excitingly I even know what it means, which is to go directly to whichever website you want by clicking the word that shows up underlined.
3. Upload photos to the blog and to flickr. I should count that as 2 things shouldn't I? I'm not going to though, because I don't think I'm doing it correctly.
   
4. Google Reader- if anyone (Shana) doesn't know about this and what it does let me know because I think its magic or at least powered by magic gnome
5. Post a blog entry- woo hoo this is the third one

Well that sucks that I could only come up with 5. I think I will post lots of memes and photos of cats until I get some of these things figured out.

Also I will soon start to read Eats, Shoots & Leaves so that I can start to use commas correctly and have slightly less horrible grammar.

Hungry like the Wolf

I got my sock club yarn today from Blue Moon and it is so cute. The colors are definitely me, but then all loud colors are me so I'm being redundant.

It is odd to me that every time I get the package and see the Rocking Sock Club label I never think "rocking/rock and roll/cool", I always get the line from Dazed and Confused instead: "if this trucks rockin' don't come knockin". I'm pretty sure that is not what they were going for when they named the club.

The title of todays post:Hungry like the Wolf is because the song is completely implanted in my head from a new Old Spice commercial with Bruce Campbell playing the piano and singing that song.

(Can you tell I learned how to link today? Now if only I could figure out how to have more than one picture, or have sidebar buttons, or have a clue what the hell I'm doing. Maybe tomorrow.)