Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

And now for a bit of frivolity:

You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with others, doing your share without being too weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely refuse to change your position once it is set, but that's okay since you are good at covering up your mistakes. Take this quiz!

Mmmmm, goaty.

Holy damn

I have too goddamn much yarn. Man, that is a nice problem to have. I've been spending a lot of time this month taking inventory, photographing everything and thinking up ways to store and organize it better...and today I finished the inventorying and photographing. Not counting the mystery yarn whose yardage is unknown and the million or so partials, I have 97 miles of yarn. And I'm sure there's another three miles in there.

100 MILES IS A LOT OF DAMN YARN.

Like I said, it's a nice problem to have, but it's an expensive problem to have created and a space hogging problem to maintain. There's yarn, needles, ballbands, patterns, half-done projects, scraps and notions all over the house. I have jars of partial balls lined up on the mantle. Balls of yarn in bags, tubs, stashed here, tucked there, displayed every so often. And I haven't even started counting the needles. Christ, I sound like an addict.

So all the pictures will be arriving soon on Flickr in the Yarn Stash collection. I'm sure you're just dying to see it all. Anybody on Ravelry, they'll be there, too. Feel free to drop me a mocking note, and I'll feel free to assume you're just jealous. And disgusted. Simultaneously.

Requisite I-feel-old post

It's almost my birthday. In my native time zone, it's been my birthday for 2 hours, 15 minutes. Whoopee. It's not a milestone. Nobody celebrates #27. Nobody writes songs like "sweet little 27" or "27 candles." There aren't any keggers or surprise parties or silly puns like "lordy lord look who's...uh...27."

But I can't help feeling like I was just so goddamn much cooler when I was looking 17 in the face. Okay, okay, I can help it, I just feel like wallowing and what are blogs if not venues for wallowing.

Around my 17th birthday, I was fighting a book ban in my county public school libraries, I had just gotten accepted to Hopkins, I was planning my graduation speech, I looked good in a prom dress and kept in touch with all my friends. To be fair, I was also severely depressed and was never allowed out of the house...

Yeah, nevermind, I'm going to hang up this whole woe-is-me thing right now. Nothing is wrong with my life at all, I'm just feeling rather stagnant and there's only one way to fix that: FUCKING DO SOMETHING BESIDES MAKE EXCUSES.

Okay. Sorry about that. You have no idea what I'm talking about, so here is a picture of a bunny with a pancake on its head.

Beautiful strings

There's not really anything to do tonight, as the BFFs left today (their meeting was done) and even though I had dinner and a drink with another coworker (which was quite fun), I can't think of anything to do late at night in Bellingham on a weeknight, alone. And really, that's fine. This trip has been just peachy, but I'm tired and I think I've had enough fun for now.

I really just want to get home and hug spouseman for a few hours and then snuggle up with the puggies and my knitting.

I've been working on my first pair of socks knitted on circular needles, and I enjoy the technique much more than I expected. In fact, I think I'm an instant convert. And I'm also trying out a new yarn, Plymouth Happy Feet, to knit them and it's truly a delight to work with: soft, strong, nice and elastic, and the colors are beautiful. The CCP (crappy camera phone) pictures don't really do the colors justice, but here we see a happy sock for happy feet, followed by a happy (if sleep deprived and raggedy) me:




I managed to visit three yarns stores here, none of which I'd ever been to before.

Apple Yarns: This shop looks small and minimalistic, but don't be fooled: they have an excellent selection of top-quality natural fibers and I was truly impressed. They stock Rowan, Mission Falls, Sheep Shop, Claudia Handpainted, Koigu, Zitron and others, and the staff are very friendly. There's plenty of room to hang out and knit and if you spend a certain substantial amount of money I won't quantify here because I'm embarrassed, you get a free tote bag. Aww. I highly, highly, highly recommend this one and am grateful the bosslady recommended we have a meeting there, otherwise I'd never have known it existed.

J and J Needle Art: As they say on their website, they're not just about knitting. J and J is staffed by two very nice people who are eager to show you their selection, discuss your yarn and projects, and show off the truly spectacular needlepoint art designed by the gentleman from Russian Orthodox iconic art. Not the widest yarn selection, but charming and a nice place for anybody interested in any kind of needlecraft. Definitely worth a visit.

Lynda's Quilting and Needle Art: Tucked away on the outskirts of Bellingham, Lynda's is a small shop with an obvious focus on quilting, which I know nothing about. There's a relatively strong wood stove scent, which I'm sensitive to but which isn't unpleasant and doesn't seem to cling to the yarn. The yarn selection is limited and there's a lot of acrylic blends and novelties, but the sock section is pretty noteworthy for a small store and the staff are quite friendly and unobtrusive. I picked up a couple skeins of SR Kertzer On Your Toes. If you're only into knitting, don't go out of your way to go to Lynda's, but definitely do stop by if you're into quilting.


And here's the haul from all three shops:

Braindump/Smorgasbord

All manner of interesting things finding their way through the intarwebnet to me today....

I'm in Bellingham until tomorrow evening and have been keeping myself busy with work, yarn stores, martinis and mood swings, but before I go into all that (ie, I haven't yet taken crappy camera phone pictures of the yarn acquisitions for my hypothetical readers to see), enjoy some tasty newzy morsels (or not).

1) The NYTimes is reporting that there are some new-fangled therapies that could relieve tinnitus, that vile ringing that so many people, myself included, deal with constantly. I'm concerned that my tinnitus isn't severe enough to warrant therapy, or perhaps I'm just afraid that an implant will be recommended.

They also comment that the word can be pronounced two ways, which is handy because I'm always cautious about which to use; I'm invariably corrected in a tomayto/tomahto way. For an exercise in silliness, I could express this as a SQL case statement, building on the construct of "ELSE 'Blow Me'" that the BFFs and I came up with last night (with the help of martinis and memories of an irritating ex-coworker)..... but suddenly I'm overcome with laziness and stupidity. Next!

2) In another widely-read article from the NYTimes, the author discusses findings from recent psychological studies into the concept of willpower -- specifically, what fuels it and how we deplete it. Of particular interest to me was the bit about postulated sources of willpower depletion:

Other activities that deplete willpower include resisting food or drink, suppressing emotional responses, restraining aggressive or sexual impulses, taking exams and trying to impress someone. Task persistence is also reduced when people are stressed or tired from exertion or lack of sleep.

So essentially.... everything I do. And here I thought that all the recent shopping and hiding out in quiet coffee places to knit while I should be working and putting off housecleaning was pure laziness and self-medication. Perhaps there's more at play. Maybe I should lighten up on the always-trying-to-impress-someone....it's got to be one of my less charming traits, anyway.

Another interesting suggestion was that sugar intake (moderate, I assume) prior to exerting willpower may help you actually be successful. Maybe I should be sure to eat before I sit down to work in the morning and see if I can stay put and focus longer. ...And this post has officially achieved Whiny Emo Bitch status. Next!

3) Gizmodo has an interesting post, complete with maths, about near-fuel-grade diesel that's produced by plant cells. Fascinating. I'm not going to launch into an in-depth discussion myself because a) I don't know enough and b) biofuel is such a polarizing subject. But the article is a good read, even if you're just interested in the secret, oil-secreting lives of plants. Ignore the comments.

4) Agent Noug sends his love and this, about which he says: "i was having a pretty shitty morning, and watching this made me laugh so hard i puked cinnamon toast crunch." Puked. Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Enjoy this not even remotely safe for work trailer for Pineapple Express.