Spread the word.

Posted on April 29, 2008 by HappyGoth

Normally, I’m posting relatively uplifting, personally informative posts about knitting/design, and I stay away from political activism, or just activism in general. However, I feel that as a blogger connected to a network of other bloggers, it’s my duty to spread the word about unjust things that masses of people have the power to change.

Case in point:

The NYPD has been unconstitutionally (and I’d venture to say illegally) harassing bikers participating in New York’s monthly Critical Mass bike rides.

This is not okay. I am aware that police corruption happens in every city, but this is pretty low. If Atlanta were not so hilly, I’d probably bike many more places than I currently do (but I’m out of shape and it’s damn difficult to bike around here if you’re out of shape). That, and traffic is awful for bikers around here, even with all the people with “Share the Road” stickers on the backs of their cars, and I’m pretty sure that it’s not so great for most American cities, with some exceptions. So I’m a fan of the Critical Mass rides, because I want biking to become an expected part of road traffic. It’s environmentally friendly, it’s healthy, and it’s a legal form of vehicular transportation, governed by enforceable laws very similar to motor traffic laws. So even though I may not like the slow biker holding up traffic in my lane whom I cannot pass, I respect the biker and his/her right to be on the road.

And I think that the NYPD should, too.

(link found via Boing Boing)

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100th Post!

Posted on April 28, 2008 by HappyGoth

See?

I made it! 200, here I come. Ha. (I told Dawn this, and she said that she’d hit 100 months ago, and it took the wind out of my sails a little, but I’m still excited)

In the 99th post, I set up a contest for some unspecified (but cool) prize, and it’s still unspecified, so let’s hold off for another week, since I think knowing what you’re getting is a pretty darn good motivator.

And as promised, here’s the next photo in the installment of photos of the Super Secret project (#2):

It’s not going to be finished this evening. I got all excited last night when I bound off the stitches, even though it looked really funny and narrow and not like it should, but I was still pretty happy, and then I read the pattern and saw that I had only knit half of it. Oh. So that’s why it went so fast. Heh.

I’m knitting the rest over the course of the next two weeks. However, I did alter the pattern to include striping and a larger size, so it’s still an accomplishment, albeit a half-finished one. Trust me, though, it will be excellent when it’s done, and the second half is going to be as nice as the first.

I should probably learn to read directions, though.

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Wait – what?

Posted on April 25, 2008 by HappyGoth

In the continued theme of weird things people use to search my blog, I have a new one (though “tiny monkeys” reigns supreme):

buy jun takashi brain bag

What? What does that even mean? Later on, I’ll google it to see where it leads. Did I post about this? Maybe I did. Oh, yeah! I did! Oops.

Anyway. The next post I do will be my 100th (whew!), and in celebration of this, I am creating a contest (because I am a follower). I want the most unusual (clean) string of tags you can possibly come up with for a blog post. Let’s call it an experiment. Bonus points for something that has actually been used to find your own blog. The winner of this contest will win something interesting, something that I will put in here once I narrow it down from the 10 things I’m trying to choose from at the moment. But trust me – it’ll be awesome.

The first of the super secret things has had some progress, and I’m pretty happy with it. I’ve put it aside for the time being, because the second of the secret things has been giving me grief, but more on that in a minute.

Lovely, no? I like the little bits in the tweed, and I can’t wait to get to the plain rows to see what it looks like.

Oh, super-secret project, how sad you are. I had to rip it all out after attempts at two different patterns, since I liked neither. I’m going to be knitting madly this evening.

Happy Friday, folks!

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Lovely Thursday

Posted on April 24, 2008 by HappyGoth

Or whatever acronym I decided on. I forget.

First off, I love the searches people do that lead them to my blog. The most popular is “lenny kilmister” (okay, people – his name is “lemmy” and not “lenny”, and we’ll leave it at that), and my personal favorite is “tiny monkeys”. I may very well just change my favorite curse word on Ravelry to “tiny monkeys,” I love it so much.

2. Tiny monkeys (but of a different variety):

https://i0.wp.com/www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/downwardmonkey.jpg

(I’ve shamelessly stolen this from the Yarn Harlot’s blog, but see, there’s a story as to why, which is that I bought a mini sock monkey at Victory Vintage in Decatur and I can’t currently locate it, but I swear it’s awesome. And also, I cannot find photos of others not on the Yarn Harlot’s blog, so I’m hoping that few enough people read this so that I will not break said blog,)

Anyway. I had been thinking that sock monkeys were a glorious way to use up leftover sock yarn, and also a fantastic pun (get it? SOCK monkey? whatever.), and so I feel tremendously validated now that many somebodies have knit them. I mean, I didn’t come up with the idea or the pattern, but it feels nice to know that somebody else had the idea and so it’s not a bad idea.

3. Morocco. I’ve never been there, but I’d like to go.//www.alumni.cornell.edu/federation/travel/images/exotic_morocco.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

4. And, by association, the Suq (at the Oriental Institute, which is #5)

//oi.uchicago.edu/i/Suq3_3.gif” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

I used to work here in college, and I miss it ever so much. It was the best work-study job in the universe.

6. Candied walnuts. Have you ever had one of these? Have you? They’re amazing, although difficult to make. You have to soak them for a very long time, and ours grew mold (we are in Georgia, after all).

//michaellaiskonis.typepad.com/main/images/2008/04/15/green_walnut.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Seriously. They look kind of gross, but they are heavenly, nutty, syrupy things that you could eat forever before you remembered that they are nearly pure sugar.

7. Amma’s Jaggery Banana chips. I can’t find a link for these, but I got them at the local Indian grocery, and these are another one of those snacks I could eat my weight in. They’re basically banana slices (longwise, not the rounds) dipped in unrefined cane sugar, fried, and then dusted with ginger and cumin. They are fantastic.

Lucky sevens! That’s all for today. Tomorrow – more mysterious project photos.

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I has

Posted on April 23, 2008 by HappyGoth

A Ravelry friend in Germany! Wow! She goes by Inkwool, and we’ve knit the same shawl, which is neat. Also also, I did my first creepy “I’m friending you randomly” friending, and I claimed that we were secret twins, and she friended me back (different person, but cool nonetheless). I feel like I’m making progress in the whole online social networking arena. I kinda sorta understand why my brother prefers to make friends online, but only kinda sorta (see, Andrew? I sorta get it! You’ve been validated!).

Anyway, I’ve decided to post photos of the Mystery Object (both of them). And here are the first:

Sorry about the bad color quality; I should probably get up off my butt and go outside to take these, but then I’m not being as sneaky, and I might have to answer questions, which I’d rather avoid.

Whatever could it be?

How about this one?

Hmmm… It’s a mystery. And if you know, don’t you dare post it in the comments, because I’m still keeping these mostly a secret. I just couldn’t not post these any longer. (It’s all on Ravelry, anyway, if you go check).

I was working on the first one last night, but the combination of laundry, TV, and a long phone call with my mother rendered my efforts useless, so I hope to have more luck this evening (but I’m not expecting much).

Incidentally, that first one is also my first pseudo-intarsia project, and so far, so good. It’s simple enough that I don’t even need bobbins, but I’m feeling pretty accomplished.

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So…

Posted on April 22, 2008 by HappyGoth

Everything I’m working on currently has official “secret” status, or at least all of the time-sensitive things do, so it’s pretty much everything. So I won’t talk about it.

Last night I took work home with me for the first time ever, and I’d like to say that I got a lot accomplished, but I didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped. Tonight I think will be some room-straightening that has been needed for months now, but really I’m probably fooling myself and I’ll end up on the couch, knitting. That’s generally where I end up, anyhow.

I really could use a vacation right about now. Or maybe some coffee. We’ll try that first and see if it helps, but I think the vacation would be much more effective.

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I can has Advil?

Posted on April 21, 2008 by HappyGoth

The migraine from yesterday has returned today, with a vengeance. I have a feeling it’s making up for being thwarted yesterday by me and my previous Advil. It’s that kind that’s called an “ice pick” migraine, which I think is a very fitting title, since that’s what it feels like. I’m hoping that’s what it is, at least. If it isn’t, then I can’t wear contacts anymore, and that makes me very sad. Contacts = cheap sunglasses from Target, and I love cheap sunglasses from Target. I’ll take a break from the contacts tomorrow and see if that helps at all.

At Knitch this past Sunday, I discovered that another knitter and I are knitting the exact same Secret Project, in the same yarn, and almost the same colorway! I feel so validated. She is much farther along than I am,  though, and so I intend to use her as a litmus test for my progress. “Oh, so it’s supposed to look like that! Oops!” You know what I mean. I have another super secret project sort of in the works, only I screwed it up last night and have to start over. Since it has to be gifted in a week’s time, I’ll post photos much sooner than the other super secret project. It’ll be awesome, I promise.

And now I’m going to go off and feel sorry for myself until the Advil kicks in.

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Monumental!

Posted on April 18, 2008 by HappyGoth

Stupendous! And stuff!

I just bought a flickr pro account, because suddenly I don’t have enough space for all my stuff. And then I get 10 free Moo cards, which I’ve ordered, and that made me realize that I need to upload some more attractive images to my flickr account, because it’s slim pickins. I think I would have gone pro sooner, had I realized just how cheap it is. I’ve had magazine subscriptions that cost more.

Anyway. I took some more photos. I present to you:

My first real lace project. The last row I knit needs to be re-done, because I’m short one stitch. But one stitch isn’t too bad, and I’m still motivated to continue to work on it.

Detail of the project. It’s Muir from Knitty, and I think it’s great for a first time real lace with real laceweight project.

A still unfinished frog hat for a friend. I forget the pattern, but it was originally a Totoro hat, only I changed it, and you can look it up on my Ravelry notebook, if you want.

A detail of the frog’s foot, at the end of the ties.

I also have loaded photos of the Super Secret project, but only onto Ravelry, so that I don’t ruin anyone’s surprise.

This weekend, I plan on doing much knitting, so that I can show progress on some of this come Monday. That will be awesome.

And lastly, here’s some sunshine for your weekend:

Young Me – Now Me

Kinda makes you want to do it and send one in, right? I know I do. I have a great picture of me in a sundress and giant heart-shaped sunglasses that I kind of want to replicate.

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Some things I really Like

Posted on April 17, 2008 by HappyGoth

STIRL. It’s a good new acronym for KTILT (especially since I’m plagiarizing from Gala Darling’s blog if I use the latter, and I feel bad about that).

1. Tiny little monkeys. I don’t know why, but I do. Like this one:

https://i0.wp.com/dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/16/gallery/raremammal_zoom.jpg

I mean, seriously. How could you not fall in love?

2. Cotton.

Yeah, yeah. I know. It doesn’t stretch like wool, it’s not warm like wool, etc. I don’t care. I love the way the fabric it makes feels when you’re done knitting a project. It’s marvelous and smooth and the colors are awesome.

3.Baroque patterns, when used in knitted things.

https://i0.wp.com/images.etsy.com/all_images/6/6d2/819/il_fullxfull.11016730.jpg

I found a website a few months back that was selling sweaters knit with these sorts of patterns, only in mind-blowing color combinations. For example, there would be a cardigan with a pattern like the one above, knit in deep turquoise and lime green, and it was stunning. I can’t find the website again, but I’m still inspired. I’ll post it if I can locate it. (Image from the Sidney Ann Etsy shop)

And that’s it for this week. It’s been a little weird, since I had a bad cold at the beginning of the week and didn’t do much of anything except sit at home and try to breathe.

Next week will be awesome, I swear.

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This is one of those days

Posted on April 17, 2008 by HappyGoth

I know everyone in bloglandia has one of those. You know, the kind where you don’t really have anything of substance to talk about, but at the same time, you know that the more consistently you post, the more consistently people will read what you post? That kind of day.

So I’ll tell you about my shoe adventure. After the SCA meeting last night, and against a nearly overpowering urge to say, “screw it” and go have Greek and delay gratification a little longer, I went to JennieB’s house to pick up the incredibly awesome boots that came to her house for me via UPS.

272-1 Itali Negro y Nomada Negro Reactor Negro Toberas E14

I had been obsessing over these things for months, nay, years, and finally they were ordered after another couple of weeks of obsessing (this time over which size to buy). And so I went, opened the box, tried on one of them, and discovered that THEY ARE TOO SMALL. Curses. I’m going to send them back this afternoon (I contemplated overnight shipping, but since the box weighs 9 pounds, the shipping costs almost as much as the boots themselves) and wait another two weeks for a larger size.

So I went to bed and grumbled about it this morning, and now I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer. The nice men at the leather shop sell them, but the smallest size is a 40 (they do not at all cater to women), so I might go try on that size and see how it fits.

But it gives me something to look forward to, so that’s a bonus, I guess.

Today I find myself unmotivated to do anything other than sleep, only I’m at work, so that’s not an option. I’m working on learning how to do that while being productive at the same time.

And in case I haven’t totally lost you, here’s a really excellent article about Target.

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