Booyah.

Guess what's drying on the floor?

I am so The Knitter. I went from half done on Monday night to all done last night and got this bad boy pinned up this morning. Can I take a moment to say, that's probably the best blocking job I've ever done? The sides are actually, you know, sorta straight. It should be completely dry by late tomorrow, well in time to get it to Nieceling before her flight Monday afternoon.

Here's a detail shot:

And now those colors (along with the lighting/ginormous monitor at the temp gig -- which is no longer, yesterday was my last day of work, alas) have totally inflamed my optic nerves. I'm going to log off this computer before I migraine out, sit in my chair, nibble on something -- organic cheetos, maybe, or popcorn -- and just relax for a while.

I may have to avoid the internets altogether for a few days, just to give my poor eyeballs a rest. I can practically feel a searing pain run along the back of my eyes when I look at that picture. Oh, it hurts, it does!

But that really just gives me an excuse to thaw out and knit a Multnomah with this yarn:

Because blue is an optically soothing color, you know.

At least when it's not a screaming, acid-trip version of blue. Oy. My eyes!

Part the First, completed.

The first half of Nieceling's Euroscarf 2012 is complete.

It's a bit blurry, and I'm sorry about that, but when I took the picture with the flash, it did weird things with the color and stitch definition. Squint and tilt your head and it will look just fine.

She leaves for her European tour in about a week, so I have....five days, no four, to get this thing done and dusted. Considering I worked on the first half for about 10 hours, and most of that consisted of swearing, frogging, running my finger along the lines of the pattern and swearing some more, whereas now I have the darn pattern memorized and can do it in my sleep...yeah. I've got a decent shot at it.

At least, I do if I get off here and go get knitting.

I guess I just wanted to let you know I'm still here and still knitting. Slowly but surely. And contemplating the wonders I will wreak on this world when I'm not doing deadline knitting.

Complete and total yarn 'ho

I could give you a rundown of what the past (oh, my gods, has it only been one) week has been like, but I won't. If you're on Ravelry, you've probably sampled the cheese platter I served up with my whine, so suffice to say I was more than ready for a little fun today.

And fun I had when I went to the yarn orgy...uh, Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. Ok, yeah, yarn orgy. I just wanted to pile it all up in the middle of the floor and roll on it in hedonistic abandon. Is that really so wrong?

Anyway, here's what I invested in:

Some lovely alpaca that hails all the way from Kentucky -- dyed by a company called Kentucky Blue Fiber Company, in fact. The bits at the end look gray, but I assure you they are a nice dusty lilac. The yarn is actually an alpaca/merino blend, and feels quite sturdy while still maintaining a nice softness. It will be a scarf. Someday.

I also hit the Solsberry Yarns booth, which sells yarns dyed by Robin J. Edmundson. She has an etsy shop, too. I love her colors, and suggest you invest. That way, she makes enough money to afford to come back to Hoosier Hills next year, and I get more yarn. See? Win-win-win.

Actually, the yarn in the bottom picture (rayon in what I'm calling Pez colors) was my first purchase of the day, for a scarf for the Mater Gloriosa. They're her colors. The top one I got on my way out of the festival, when I realized I was sadly lacking in jewel tones. I loves me some jewel tones.

I bought this next skein from SassyBee Fibers. At their booth, they were selling mostly fleeces -- I'm not a spinner or a dyer (because I need another spendy hobby like I need another hole in my head) -- but they had two or three skeins of yarn spun up for sale. I love this color -- Fruit Punch -- and I love the name SassyBee.

 

This skein from Froebe Fibers is probably my favorite of the new batch. At least for the moment. Shhh, don't tell the other yarns. The color is so cheerful, so spring-time, I just had to get it. There was a different color at the booth I'd been thinking about investing in, but then I realized I've got three other yarns in almost the exact same colorway. Feh. So I went with the pretty "Dandelion Wine". The vendor told me as I fondled her yarn in vulgar fashion that they use only food-grade dyes. I probably won't chew on it, but that does mean I get to enjoy a nice, brisk vinegar scent while knitting, which is bonus. 

Yes, I do like vinegar scent on my yarn. It's why I'm so heavily invested in Malabrigo. That stuff reeks of vinegar. Don't judge me, I'm sure it's perfectly normal in some parts of the world to sniff your yarn as you knit.

 

Bonus: With each purchase, you got a cute little gift bag.

Looks a bit like a wedding favor, doesn't it?

Ah, now that I've reviewed my successful shopping trip, have put the yarns in isolation (ie, the chest freezer) and completed my other chores, I can take a short nap. I feel quite...replete. As if I've accomplished something -- something more than just draining my yarn budget for the first half of the year.

Oooh, and I only went over budget by $5, too. You should be proud of me, really you should. ;-)

Re-Watching "Midnight In Paris"

So why am I on here, trying to think enough to update?

 I shouldn't be on the computer this late in the evening, actually -- it ruins my ability to sleep well.

But seriously. I love this movie. That is all.

In which I finally show you some knitting

I went to Da Phew's baseball game today. I forgot how inconvenient it was having a metabolism in summer -- I'm so accustomed to simply not feeling the heat, I didn't realize until I got outside that I was going to really regret it. Thankfully, there was a breeze. I think I actually broke a sweat again today. That makes three times in the past year. A new world record! Well, for me.

I can't believe I used to have a hard time dealing with heat and couldn't wait for winter. And this, children, is why "diets" are a waste of time -- I lost weight, yes, but it came back with friends and my metabolism was so broken I couldn't even feel warm in a blast furnace for nearly 10 years. The things I do to try to break myself.

While at the game I did some knitting on Nieceling's European Vacation Scarf:

I could only knit for about...eh, 45 minutes or so? The colors in the bright sun were giving me a headache. But I got, in that time, about 5 inches cranked out, which means that the full 60 inches should only take 12 hours (well, 11 more). I've got all day tomorrow to knit -- having a private movie marathon, with stuff from the library -- so I should have a couple of feet finished by evening. Then I'll put it away before I go all stabbity with my needles because, hell and damn, y'all, those colors are screaming hot-bright. And then I'll pick it up next weekend and get another two or three feet done and be finished, well in time to wash/block and hand it over before her journey.

I got the yarn in a swap one year, and I voluntarily chose it and a second color (which is also screaming hot) of the same yarn. What was I thinking? Oh, yeah, I wasn't. That was at the Coven's Christmas Bash, and I'd been drinking. You'd think I'd learn.

Anyway, here's a better shot of the colors:

The flash tends to make them a little more pale than they are in fact, but it's blurry without, so...

Anyway, you get the gist. I tried to add beads to the scarf, but those super-mod 1980's colors make anything short of a Christmas tree ornament hard to see. I guess I'll have to find some other project for my pretty gold beads.

I'd like to get this finished in as short an order possible, because the colors are making me go blind and the pattern is giving me the collywobbles. The second pattern line is a massive pain in the patuckus (granted, there are only two pattern lines and two resting rows, so I shouldn't whine). Every time I mess up, it's on the second pattern line.

Betcha by the end of this scarf I'll have that second pattern line memorized, have nightmares about it and be unable to knit anything that doesn't use it.

Sigh.

Thanks, Mom.

Apparently, human grandchildren aren't the only ones she spoils, because guess who bought Yoda a toy mouse yesterday? A toy mouse that he took to playing with at two o'clock in the freakin' morning and yowled for an hour over??!?!?

Yeah. It was like that.

And today what do I find in Yoda's inbox?

Yet another fluffy mouse toy.

Because I really don't need the sleep. Oy.

And then I bought myself something.

A beaded bracelet, fair-traded from Guatemala.

I saw this several weeks ago when I went out of an evening with my friends. I wanted it then, but had no money. Today I mused I had more than ample spare lying around (it wasn't all that spendy) and decided to ride over to the fair-trade store, on the off chance it was still there. And lo! There it was!

Here's a close-up:

I can't believe no one bought this. It's just too perfect for words.

Oh, well. More for me!

Don't Call It A Comeback....

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's been a while. I've been battling my un-Godly vertigo/stomach problems/other nervous issues which I now believe to have been the prodrome of a migraine. A migraine which, I would like to point out, never freakin' happened. So all that noise and bother for, essentially, nothing.

Suck.

But I'm feeling miles better now, thank you. I can sit up in bed without the room goes all whirly-whirly and the sinus problems are abating a bit. I can function again. Bless.

I still managed, however, to do this while incapacitated:

Is it madness; is it? Is it?

Why, yes, Loki-quote-from-Thor, it was madness. A most excellent, loud and boomie, action-packed, spandex heavy day of fabulous madness. Here was the schedule:
 

I know you can probably barely make that out, but that was the overly-optimistic schedule of films. Spanning from 11:30am on Thursday the 3rd to nearly 3:30 the next morning (magically, the films started running behind after The Hulk), I sat in a movie theater just over the state line in Kentucky, watching each and every Marvel movie that tied into the newest The Avengers movie.

God, it was fabulous. That's a fun ride, mommy, I want to go again!

The last three were in 3D (Thor, Captain America and The Avengers), and I got super extra-smurfy special 3D glasses in a Thor theme (did you think I could have resisted?) I also carried along my Harry Potter 3Ds, which are my go-to back up 3D glasses. They fit better and they just seem to work better for me than the standard issue Buddy Holly style 3D glasses you get at the movie theater. So I carted them along in case the Thor glasses were...subpar. Which they weren't. They work as well as, if not better than, the HP roundies. I was pleased to note that I had no problems with the dizziness or vertigo for those three movies. Of course, I was too blinded by the awesome pouring off the screen to have noticed even if I had.

Anyway, this was our theater:

The AMC at Newport Mall in Cincinnati (actually just over the river in Kentucky.) Don't ask why I traveled so far to see this thing. Just accept.

And glad I am that I did, this was the swankiest movie theater I've ever been in in my life. The seats were really wide (wider than the ones in our local AMC), and since my friend and I sat in the upper tier of seats, and she has a tendency to poke around when bored, we found a family bathroom in the upstairs back hall that became our private bathroom for the whole day. Late in the day some fanboys found it, so it was semi-private, but yeah, no lines. Excellent.

I went outside between a couple of the movies and checked out the views.

The river was lovely, and the breeze quite restorative. Not that the theater was stuffy; I wore my sweater to keep the chill of the air conditioning off my arms, and, quite naturally, had my Little Loki snugged around my neck for the last movie of the night, and was quite comfortable. But there's nothing quite like fresh air, no?

And they even had an outdoor art display:

I can't recall just now the name of this painting, and since I took the picture on my cell phone the zoom is useless, but I was surprised to see it. It's a rather nice reproduction (no, they aren't stupid enough to put an actual painting outdoors) advertising a local art museum. If I'd had time, I might have indulged.

As it was, we got back to my friend's house at around 4am Friday morning, and I had to drug myself to get to sleep. The adrenaline storm, it was fierce. Thanks to my handy little sedative pill I slept until 1pm the next day. Felt better than I had in a long time, too, when I woke up.

We had to go back to a different theater on Sunday for a second viewing (after five movies in a row, the sixth gets a bit blurry around the edges, particularly after midnight), and it was still awesome topped with epic awesome sauce. And why, oh, why does Ohio have the swankiest movie theaters around? I swear, both movie theaters that weekend were just incredible. Even their cheap movie theater (you know, the $2 dumps) is nice and clean and you don't lose the soles of your shoes in the sticky gunk on the floor. Ohio, home of off-site storage facilities, fabulous movie theaters and Jungle Jim's. Incredible store.

Sigh. Other than the movie-gasm (and the fact that I've seen it yet again since coming home and plan to see it a fourth time this next weekend -- to verify a certain fact the fanboys and girls seem to be spreading around like wildfire on the internetz), I haven't been doing much. Sleeping a lot, getting a new crown, having my migraine prodrome, getting (mostly) over it. Keepin' on keepin' on, so to speak. I started a new project (one with a deadline, urgh) and put most of my other knitting on backburners. I should get off this infernal machine and go work on my deadline knitting, too.

Well, after I eat my dinner. Eating fries is bad for the yarn while working. Good for the tummy, mmmmm. Bad for the yarn. *frownie face*