randomly surfing at etsy.com

knit one, purl one, double crochet.

Currently I have the following fiber arts projects started:

one shawl, aforementioned in this blog, for which I have begun the far shoulder and have one cake of yarn left. We shall see.

pads, knitted and crocheted from kitchen cotton, flat and in the round. These are in an attempt to use up the bags of the stuff that I bought at Michaels last summer, when I was just learning to knit and thought I'd make a thousand facecloths for holiday gifts to practice on. Lately, I've been teaching myself to use dpns and my friend has been teaching me how to do matched decreases, and how to add crocheted trim to knitted items. So far I have learned that I am still a lumpy purl-er and that stockinette curls even with crochet wings added. I did manage to make something that the kid at the playground suggested looked like a trout. Great.

A hat for my step-father. This pattern looks like it will be perfect for his head, and within my abilities to make. But it called for Cashmerino Aran weight. I didn't want to pay that much for a muffler, and wanted the lady at the yarn store to help me find an alternative, but then the kid started to rip things off the walls and she wasn't as helpful anymore. So, I'm back to internet searching.

I just finished crocheting the blocks I was making for kitchen decorations. I was thinking of felting them for trivets, but then I remembered that I was using Superwash. so. not so much with the felting...

Projects I am contemplating:

felted placemats because I think more surfaces in my home should be coated in cat fur.

a sweater, sweet jesus. why? or hell, let's just make it really complicated!

socks for the love of pete.

mittens to go with the hat for step father, and an alpaca mitten/ scarf set for mother.

a bathmat to use up the rest of this god forsaken pale variegated cotton, which unfortunately can't even be dyed, right?

a super fancy blanket with super fancy yarn. Oh Babette, why are you so attractive?


In other news, I have no plans for the Pride Parade which is this weekend, other than to trot around with the kid in tow. I made cute shirts for the Dyke March a coupla years ago - the kid's said Mommy, what does queer mean? and mine said Hi kid! I'm queer! My friend, who has a girlfriend this year for Pride, and who I am ridiculously jealous of at the moment, is thinking of making a shirt that says Does this shirt make me look gay? which I think is incredibly clever. I'm still jealous of her girlfriend, though.

Speaking of knitting and such, I have done not one stitch of my lit review assignment for research. It was the only thing on my agenda for the day, and I have spent the whole day working on essays, and surfing, and catching up on email and blog-reading and posting, and daydreaming about going to a honest-to-goodness arts and music festival with tent camping and everything!

Spring Break, Day 1

Starting at midnight-thirty this morning, I have:

• played on the computer for hours and hours. I've learned about balut from john patrick (something I wish desperately that I could un-see) and injera (which inspired my dish created for my Food Sharing Assignment next Tuesday) and seen incredible works of art like the one above (which looks like I feel right this second, a thousand things swirling around, individually odd, but collectively beautiful, so that you have to lie down to properly appreciate).
• spent many hours in bed. I stayed up til 4am, woke up at 11, and didn't truly get out of bed and shower until 2pm. What am I, like 15 or something?
• shaved my legs. This is more monumental than it sounds, since the last time I shaved my legs was at least a year ago, possibly more. I have resisted the urge many times, like the day before we practiced bathing in Skills lab, and before I got a pedicure. The urge to shave is always to avoid having to deal with someone else's discomfort or embarrassment on my behalf and I can get over that. But I bought skirts for summer, and cute sandals. shrug.
• shaved my head. It's been months, and I was really committed to the idea of growing it out long again. But yesterday the kid (who was the impetus for the grow-it-long again, because he said he couldn't remember me with long hair) said that it was cool with him, and now it's #4 guard on the sides and back, fingerlength on top and I can't stop rubbing my head again.
• bought 4 skeins of Cascade quattro for a prayer shawl for my friend. She was my mother-in-law, did I divorce her as well? She's my son's grandmother. She is inspiring and kind and sharp. She is often opaque. She has cancer in her bone marrow, that is apparently a recurrent form of the breast cancer that necessitated a double mastectomy ten years ago.
• dosed both cats with frontline, in hopes that the one that is allergic to fleas will stop eating himself on my bed. It is so hard to go to sleep with obsessive licking noises coming from the foot of the bed. Good night!

off to start my shawl and listen to john mayer.

Or search the internet and myriad knitting blogs for a pic of the exact shade of yarn I got today. blah. knitters are nuts.