Last week at the library I found a copy of Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee on the new reads shelf and snapped it up. Yesterday I started reading the stories about knitting, stashing yarn around the house, and working on old unfinished projects. I know I've talked about UFOs before, but the story about Stephanie's pile of works in progress that threatened to take over her bedrooom when assembled caused me to wonder - how many porojects do I have in my apartment?

Two apartments ago I invited my sister Gretchen for a visit and we launched an attack on stuff. One of the things she had a hard time with was my amount of art/crafting/hobby stuff. Gretchen does not really have hobbies that accumulate stuff, as expecially craft activities require. I can imagine what she would say if she saw the sheer volume I now have in my space, just from adding knitting to my list of likes.

At least with my knitting/crochet projects, Ravelry allows me to keep the 'in progress' stuff in check. All the project shown in the top row are unfinished. I can enter all the stats of a project - needle size, yarn, progress, problems, and pics.



I wish I had a similar system for tracking my cross stitch projects, as though take much longer to complete. I try and post about them here on the blog, but as you can see I've had a hard time posting frequently.


In the past week I've been working on:
Love My Cat by Lizzie Kate (cross stitch)
Historic Countries Mystery Sampler in The Gift of Stitching Magazine (cross stitch)
Babette Blanket from Interweave Knits Magazine (crochet)
Basketweave Scarf from Lion Brand website (knitting)

Summer Revels

Yesterday I went to Summer Solstice Revels at the waterfront. Free live music, great food, a beautiful day.

Bunnies!

Bunnies that bake cupcakes, that is! OH MY GOD!

Office 2007 site interview

www.bunnyblab.com

Last night I started a new cross stitch project, Love My Cat, on 32 count natural linen. I don't seem to have the right size hoop for this project so I'm just holding it in my hand. I haven't done a project this way in a long time.

I've also been thinking a lot about plastic lately. How nearly everything has some component made of plastic. It's funny, when I first went vegetarian I was staying away from all things leather, but now I would rather wear leather shoes so that least the origin of the materials is natural, not oil or synthesized in a lab. I guess what I'm trying to do really is to reduce waste, not necesarily plastic, though plastic contributes greatly to the waste problem. Maybe I've been reading too many Eco blogs. Lately one of my faves is Fake Plastic Fish where Beth blogs about her crusade against all plastic and keeps a chart of her own plastic consumption. There's also Living Plastic Free that has tips about how to reduce your own plastic use.

I guess I feel like I've really slipped on living my environmental ideals in the past few years. Maybe so much of it has been part of mainstream thinking, or part of my everyday life, that I forget I'm doing it.

Here's a list of tips for being more eco-friendly that I've absorbed from various tv shows, magazines, blogs, etc:
Things I do-
-RECYCLE
-stop using plastic bags/bring your own bag
-use a water filter instead of buying bottled water
-take short showers/time your showers
-use public transportation

Things I don't do yet-
-compost your waste
-turn off the faucet when you brush your teeth
-only buy products in recyclable/reusable packaging
-unplug electronics when not in use

New grocery baskets

Kristin, I thought you would get a kick out of this-

I went grocery shopping for the first time in a month(!) and discovered that there are new hand baskets. These have two kinds of handles, the standard middle basket handle, but they have this new long handle, and wheels at one end of the basket, so you can drag the basket behind you at the store. Too cute! I think kids would have fun with these, and I'm sure it helps the elderly while they are shopping.

My friend Andrea (featured in the horrible photo above taken wtih my cell phone) commented that these new baskets are double the size of the old, so her old gauge of when to stop buying won't work anymore.

Shopping crazy

This time of year always sends me into a shopping rage, wanting to buy new clothes to endure the hot summer, fun cheap shoes because hey, it's summer, and my financies surely know that I need to spend some extra cash. Last weke I bought 3 pairs of shoes at Payless. Yesterday I tried on cropped pants, capris, and was desperately searching for a fun but okay for work skirt. Do I need more clothes? I probably have enough cropped pants and things from last year left over that I don't need any more. But I don't think I even own a skirt, so I'd like to purchase and actually wear one this summer.

Why stop at clothes and shoes? I ordered a messenger bag from ebags.com that should arrive next week, and I have a whole list of books and music that I want to get. Most of those can wait though. Books never go out of style. :)

I did buy a book yesterday for a book club I joined through Meetup.com that discusses classic books. The book for this Sunday is Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse. I've never read his work but he has this reputation of being a deep thinker. I am only on chapter 4 so I doubt I'll finish the book by Sunday, but I have to try. This will be my first book club meeting ever, and I'm not sure how things work. Are there set topics? Do people talk in turn about the book? I'm hoping that it's not like some of the grad courses I took as an undergrad, where I felt like I was the only person in the room who wasn't up to speed. Ah, the pressure! I need to relax about it, go expecting only to meet new people, maybe get a good cup of coffee. And who knows, maybe I'll like the book! I haven't joined up with a group in the past becuase I had absolutely no interetest in what they were reading. This time, I figured I had to take the plunge.

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Hubba-Bubba Nightmare

It's a beautful Saturday outside. The heatwave has gone, the sun is out, lots of fun and free things to do outside, and where am I? Sitting in my apartment at my messy desk, sorting through receipts as far back as January 2007. Thing is, I feel like organizing my receipts - going through the drawer full of them, sniffing them out in the various piles in my apartment, used as bookmarks in books I haven't finished reading, still in plastic bags with purchases, all those online purchases I've made and not written down, TODAY is the DAY!

I used to be very good about keeping track of my expenses, how much I'd spent on eating out, extra things, household expenses, ect, thanks to sitting down and entering things into Quicken on my computer. Well, this year I haven't really done this at all. I vowed to clean it all up and enter things and get a clearer picture of my finances before I moved in March, but that didn't happen, what with um, moving and all. Now here I am, almost 3 months in to living in my new fab place, and receipts are just a small part of the paper disaster that is my apartment. It's rare that one gets the movitavation to tackle an enormous project like this, and today I have that strength. Some might say, why not just throw it all out? It's not like keeping hold of your ATM receipts is going to do you any good. True, true. I no longer keep ATM receipts, or ones from places such as Starbucks, places where I would refuse a receipt if I could, but they force them on you.

SO, now that I've procrastinated a bit and written on my blog *yay* I will dive into my desk and hope I come out the other side without any papercuts.

Incidentally, if you wondering what the title is about, then you clearly haven't discovered The Mighty Boosh!

Stupidity

Tonight while making dinner I cut my thumb on the edge of a tin can. I wasn't looking while I dumped water from the can over the kidney beans in the strainer, and I stuck it right into my thumb. It's amazing how something so small can hurt so much. That thought that maybe the cut is deeper than I think passes through, but there isn't that much blood, I have to be rational, wash it out, apply pressure to stop the bleeding, and deal. It seems to have stopped bleeding, but I just feel stupid. Ugh.

I might be on the news tonight!

I was walking to the Davis Square T with a friend and was stopped by a reporter from Channel 7. She wanted to show us a clip of a guy exiting the T (running through the exit and on his way) who dropped something which turned out to be a wad of cash. He didn't look down or anything. She asked us if we had ever dropped/lost anything and how did it make us feel? Then she showed us the clip in slo-mo twice and asked us more questions and our names. I would have kept on going but my friend was nice and stopped to talk to her. I guess we'll see if we're on the 11 o'clock news tonight. At least my hair was nice today!

Craftastic - Sock Wars, Naked Llamas, and New Hampshire

Well, I'm dead. This pretty pair of yellow/blue/green socks was my end. Ikumi from Maryland did a great job and knitted her fingers raw during the first weekend of sock wars III. I knew I wouldn't finish my socks, but I didn't even get halfway down one! On the right is the sock I made for my target in Tennessee, but I mailed to my assassin Ikumi for finishing. May the sock gods be with her! This pattern was really hard. I thought I would have a tough time because I've only been knitting for 6 months but everyone was posting on the forums that the pattern was impossible. At least I picked up some new stitches for my arsenal!


Here's Harry looking at me as I packed up my unfinished sock "maybe now she'll brush me". Isn't he cute? I should make him a little hat and making sweater. Or maybe I should spin his fur into yarn and make myself a sweater!






















Last but not least, on May 10th I went to the New Hampshire Sheep and Llama Festival with my knitting group. What fun! There were vendors selling handmade pieces, yarn, wool, spinning wheels, and even llamas! I bought some nice wool yarn which will look pretty on my shelf until I figure out what to make with it. And here's a picture of some of my nitting crew, loaded up with yarn and kettle corn made on the spot.

Wound Too Tight

This morning while waiting for the bus, I watched as a man unwrapped a Ghiradelli mint chocolate square, put the chocolate in his mouth, and dropped the wrapper on the ground in one smooth motion. Infuriating! He was standing next to the Metro paper box and I wanted something to read on the bus, so I grabbed a paper and bent down and picked up his trash. I walked 15 feet behind where we were standing, and threw the wrapper away.

A few minutes later, he did the same thing. THE SAME THING! INFURIATING! I know both times he consciously dropped the trash. I don't know if he saw me pick up the first wrapper. But after dropping the second he started to walk away. I caught him and asked him to pick up the wrapper. I don't remember what was said now, but we had this weird exchange of me trying to get him to pick it up, him saying that he's keeping that guy who's sweeping employed. I picked up the wrapper and threw it in the trash (which is a big bin next to the entrance of the Davis Square Suway). Then he said something about not seeing the trashcan, etc., and mumbled, and said Thank you! I think I said it's okay, you're welcome, as I tried to turn down my seething anger at a total stranger. Then he walked away down the street.

I take it he wasn't waiting for the bus. He must have been, in fact, standing there and eating his chocolate in order to drop the trash in the path of the person sweeping the ground. AUGH! How does this make sense?

I think I'm a bit stressed out.