It got me to thinking

Posted on March 5, 2008 by HappyGoth

The ChickenGoddess recently posted a post in which she asked why we all blog, and it got me to thinking (most of this is my comment to that post). Why do I, in fact, blog? About anything?

I’ve been blogging about things pretty consistently for the past seven years, though mostly drivel and mostly on LiveJournal (you won’t see much, because it’s friends-only, but the link is there for you to find if you want).

The reason I started blogging about knitting (other than the peer pressure that drove me to it initially) is that

1. It gives me motivation to push through projects, because once I’ve posted about them, many people know I’m working on them. Even if they don’t hold me accountable, I feel as though they do, and that’s just as good. As a consequence, I want to keep on working, so that I can show progress, and so that the guilt doesn’t completely overwhelm me (guilt, even the imagined kind, is a marvelous motivational tool).

2. Like knitting itself, blogging about knitting creates an instant community. I’m a huge fan of social networking, and if I do it through a blog, I can control the content, and I don’t have to use MySpace. Because I’m sharing the same sorts of things others are sharing, I feel like I’m part of this world of knitters who all understand me (and I understand them).

3. I’m an egomaniac and I like to say that I’m on the internet. It’s like visualizing hearing myself talk.

I blog because I love sharing cool things with other people. You know how sometimes you find something so overwhelmingly cool that you can’t keep it to yourself? That’s what the blog is for. It’s for ideas you can’t help sharing, websites you’ve found that you can’t help sharing, and in the case of knitting, a project that you’re so proud of that you have to show the entire world, or at least the entire virtual world. Through the wonders of flickr and the blogosphere, all of that is possible (and then some).

And that’s pretty much what it boils down to. I blog because I knit, and I knit because I blog and though circular, it works perfectly for me.

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Tuesday fluff.

Posted on March 4, 2008 by HappyGoth

Oh, but what fluff it is.

I especially like when the smaller of the two mimics the larger, very frequently with unexpected and beautiful results.

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Finally, photos!

Posted on March 1, 2008 by HappyGoth

The camera cable was exactly where I put it, in the drawer of cables (where it belongs).

So, without further ado, here is my very first finished pair of socks:

From the top! Jaywalkers! In LadyBug! Hooray!

From the side! Blurry because I was contorted all around trying to get a side-on view of my own leg while holding the camera.

It was difficult to photograph the sock, because the minute I put my feet up on the ottoman, the cats were all over them.

Lemmy, in particular, couldn’t get enough. He smelled like feet for hours afterward.

So there you have it. Tomorrow, when I have better light, I’ll photograph and post pictures of my remaining WsIP. I was going to start a lace project, but the Chickengoddess reminded me that I have not wound the lovely laceweight she gave me, and through talking to her I realized that I really ought to get my Little Red Riding Hoodie done before I start on a complicated lace project (though tomorrow I also plan on ordering some Raven series laceweight, for when I decide on one of the eight projects I want to knit with it). Wow. That parenthetical aside was cumbersome, at best.

Now, I’m off to play some video games.

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I am very not Welsh

Posted on February 21, 2008 by HappyGoth

Which, in light of my recent addiction to Torchwood, makes me sad.

I am, however, solidly Anglo Saxon, Scottish, northern French, Swiss, and Prussian.  I’m sad about the Welsh. It was a nice heritage to claim (my dad said that the Crittenton family, on his mother’s side, was from Wales, but upon further research I’ve discovered that they are in fact from Kent and Sussex)

In less disconsolate news, I’ve updated some of Ravelry, but still no pictures because the camera cable remains AWOL. I wore my Jaywalker socks and they are awesome. Soon I will have finished the Waving Lace socks and they will also be awesome. It’s a whole lot of awesome! Yay for knitting.

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Another thing that falls under “design”

Posted on February 20, 2008 by HappyGoth

I warned you at the start; this isn’t all knitting (but I’m not, either, so it’s okay).

Normally I’m kind of counter-Gap, except when I was in high school and when they have ridiculously awesome sales and I can get handbags/shirts/jeans/etc for less than $20 an item. However, they do have their periods during which they get really creative and do something ground-breaking. I’m not sure if this qualifies, but I’m a fan. They’ve just launched a new campaign, called the Sound of Color, that showcases up-and-coming indie artists by putting them into a color category. I’m kind of meh about a couple of them, since they’re not really my kind of thing, but the Ravonettes song, Black-and-White, is excellent. Overall, I’m excited about the campaign, because regardless of the reason the company does it, the grassroots thing is a great way to show that you’re human. And as a designer, it’s nice to see the arts being the focus of the grassroots (over that  bungled Aid in Africa thing that Africa asked Bono to stop). I mean, I’m all for all kinds of programs that help people, but it’s especially nice for arts to be the focus.

Anyway, go watch the videos. It’s a good way to spend 20 minutes.

Posted in Cool things | 2 Comments

I finished a whole pair of socks!

Posted on February 13, 2008 by HappyGoth

But I can’t find my camera cable, so I submit these for your amusement (via I Can Has Cheezburger?):

Humorous Pictures

And

Humorous Pictures

And that is all for now.

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And now for something completely different.

Posted on February 5, 2008 by HappyGoth

In case you were having trouble visualizing the crazy rantings of the Creationists, here are some handy visual aids:

Dispensational Charts by Clarence Larkin

I see now! It all makes complete sense!

Or something.

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Knitting helps in business

Posted on February 5, 2008 by HappyGoth

No, really it does. I had to go out of town this past week for a client’s annual meeting, and my portion involved helping put together PowerPoint presentations for the various VPs of a carpet manufacturer. I was waiting at one point, listening to a couple of them converse about the challenges of the carpet business, mainly natural vs. acrylic fibers, dye lots, etc, and was feeling very smart because I totally got it. That’s right – I understood about carpet manufacturing, and knitting is what helped me do it (I felt even smarter when I listened to one VP be enlightened by another VP to the fact that dye lots are limited by vat size, and I had a “well, duh,” moment).

After this 20-minute conversation, the lone female VP turned to me and commented jokingly, “I’m sure you absorbed all of that,” to which I replied, “actually, yes – I’m a knitter.” She got very excited at this point, exclaiming that she, too, was a knitter and we then proceeded to have a very animated and interesting conversation about knitting, how awesome it is, and which yarn shops in the area are the best (my choice was Knitch).

This all goes back to my previous post about how knitting has generated the community I lost when I stopped smoking, and when I related the story to the ChickenGoddess, she suggested that perhaps the knitting community is an even better community. I tend to agree.

And I’ll keep an eye out for you at Knitch, Mrs. VP Lady of Carpet Client.

Posted in knitting | 2 Comments

In which HappyGoth waxes poetic.

Posted on January 29, 2008 by HappyGoth

Or something.

Let me begin by saying that I really miss being a smoker. Before you freak out, I’m not saying that I miss it enough to go back to doing it, but I do miss it, mostly in a nostalgic sort of way. I miss that community that it oddly creates, where you’re walking down the street and suddenly you have something in common with the scraggly bum you pass, because you’ve got a spare cigarette and a light. I plan on buying a lighter to carry in my purse, just so I can light the cigarettes of passing strangers. This may sound odd, but it’s something that makes me feel good, like I’m doing some small something for my fellow man.

I think that knitting has filled that space for me. Now, instead of that smokers’ community, I am part of a knitting community. Even if, like right now, I’m too tired and stressed out to knit (heaven forbid), I can still have a conversation with someone about knitting, which is a fabulous relief to me. I don’t do small talk easily, so the fact that I have some ready-made conversation is a great blessing. It also gives me that feeling that I remember having when I saw Star Wars (after I was old enough not to be afraid of Chewbacca), that feeling of wonder and amazement (which I suppose is really the same feeling) and spontaneous creativity, which is the same feeling that learning new knitting gives me. I’m not prompted to write fanfiction about it (I totally did that with Star Wars), but I dream about it sometimes, and I get great joy out of having a conversation that involves the line, “oh, so you added the steek stitches in addition to the cast on!” This gives me more joy than is probably appropriate, and annoys my husband, but he has similar conversations about wrestling and seafloor hydrothermal systems, so I think we’re even. And I’ve got a Chibi and a crochet hook and a pair of scissors and a stitch counter in my bag for the scraggly knitter who has forgotten her own [insert item here].

And sometimes some cookies.

(Incidentally, this post was more coherent when I started it, but then I got some coffee and the guy at the coffee shop gave me regular instead of decaf, so now I’m all jittery and mostly incoherent, so I’m going to quit while I’m ahead.)

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Well, that all worked out well.

Posted on January 27, 2008 by HappyGoth

Only it was a huge production and it didn’t feel like it worked out well at all until it did.

To start, this is Lemmy Catmister, all growed up (well, 10 months or so):

He’s very cuddly, and only bit my nose once. He bit my husband on the chin. We’re assuming it’s affectionate (since he’s purring and furiously making biscuits all the while). He’s still very much a kitten, and at the moment has a bad cold so he’s by himself in the spare bedroom until his sniffles are gone and he can meet Johnny Cat (who has already hissed at the intruder in his house). He no longer resembles his namesake so well, but he’s oblivious, so we’re not bothered, either.

And I’ve covered my yarn (he’s in the room where it lives), because he’s so far found everything string-related and dragged it around the carpet.

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