Long Weekend

I can't tell you how excited I am!  Sleeping in, no work to go to this morning, no classes on Monday, I tell ya...  I foresee knitting, reading what I want to read, listening to lectures I want to listen to, getting outdoors in this AMAZING weather, piano, guitar...and mountain dulcimer... :)

I mentioned the weather, yes?  The weather is amazing at the moment!  Chilly-ish in the morning, warm by the time you want to go out, so gorgeous.  And the air, it smells like fall or something.  It makes me crazy.  :)

Ooh, speaking of crazy, I think I might write this weekend...or draw, I'm not decided.  A big list of want-to-do's are piling up in my mind, and when they hit full Creativity Potential I think they'll all get done in a huge wave...



In the meantime I'll stay in bed an extra hour.  Ha ha ha.  :)
AMZi x x x x x

Good Day

Hullo-ullo-ullo, what's all this?

Sorry, always wanted to say that.  Anyhow.  Knitting milestone has been reached!  The...middle bits...front, back, etc...whatever!  Everything but the sleeves is finished!  I clipped the pieces together to make a sort of "mock-up" and see how it'd fit.  I'm very happy with it!  And I'm over halfway through one sleeve.  So.

Hair flower of the day. :)  My favorite color seems to be evolving through the color wheel.  Let me explain what I mean by that.  For a long time when I was younger, my favorite color was BLUE.  Then it changed definitely to GREEN and has remained GREEN for a long time... but lately... I'm noticing something.  Though I'd never given YELLOW a second glance, color-wise, it's slowly but surely becoming my favorite color.  Above all.  It just is so amazing!  I need more yellow in my life!

And here's the sleeve status, in the afternoon light which is now fading.  I might finish it tonight, or I might read one of the many books I'm in the middle of... Just Six Numbers, Understanding the Times, a PG Wodehouse collection, The Westminster Confession of Faith, Economics in One Lesson... you get the idea. :)

Quote I just heard:  "If somebody gives you a definition of 'postmodern,' by definition, it's not a definition of 'postmodern.'" I just heard it from Jimmy Long, but he may have been quoting someone else.  I'll leave you to think about that for awhile. :)

AMZi x x x x x

*Insert Snazzy Post Title*

Oeps, sorry.  I didn't mean to be silent so long, not even sure if I have any good excuses... ah well, here's what I've been up to, besides general study and thought of course.

My knitting is coming along MAJORLY, due to listening to this book, narrated by the brill narrator I can't remember the name of.  Oh well.  It's a bit "older" than the first one (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) but still good.  Caution :: Lots of British language if that bothers you.  As for the jumper, hard to tell, but it's white and blue, and I've got the back (that's the inside of the back you can see, the other side looks just like the front of the side you can see) and one side front.  The other side front is on my needle atm.

I am, ahem ahem, writing again!!  Finally, at long last.  I am working on Chapter 8 (hitting the point where all my plans trickle off and I have to actually THINK about the writing and the plot) BUT I am also working as of now on a brand new story idea I'm really excited about.  I'm having a lot of fun with it.  Yeh.

And, big news, I got to talk to my friend Jane in Britain face to face yesterday!  Through Skype!  *cue Hallelujah Chorus*  Apparently she didn't know I wear flowers in my hair.  I do, rather.  See? :P  I have that rose, a gigantic green Gerber daisy, a frilly bluish something (can you tell I'm not really a botanist anymore?), a yellow daisy, and lots of little white rose-ish things in miniature.

And I'm cooped up inside because it's literally sweltering out.  I kid you not.  Opened my window for five seconds to take some pictures and I couldn't actually breathe.  Lately, we had a heat warning for our county with 110 degree heat index and 70% humidity.  I believe it.

Very tired now, was up like all night with ideas for the new story, so... popping off now to get some real life done. :)

AMZi x x x x x x

Waves of Stripes

Wrong side...

Right side...

And during my knitting, I'm listening to Focus on the Family's new radio drama, The Screwtape Letters.  It's FANTASTIC, so much easier to grasp in this form than in the actual book form.  Definitely recommended!

Got a lot on my mind lately but very little of it is able to be put into words.  I'm also reading Just Six Numbers, which is an amazing book.  Mind-boggling.  I like to jump into that mindset and just think about it, but take it to a different place.  For the author, it's a huge "what are the odds" or a huge "multiverse potential," but I find those far fetched.  He almost sounds like he's arguing against his own view--that everything that exists is a product of random chance.  I see these incredible numbers and mind-blowing concepts, and say, "Wow.  And this is just the Creation.  You want mind-blowing?  Wait till you see the Creator."

AMZi x x x x x

Off Again

Here I am, FINALLY getting around to posting after like 3 days...just in time to say, "So long, mates" before we dash off on a road trip for a week.  Timing, yes?  Brilliant.

I have been holding off posting only because the LGM was out of batteries and not taking any pictures, and I'm stingy and don't like to spend money on things that run out.  Like batteries.  So, we had a problem there.  But yesterday, I bought a set of rechargable batteries and the charger, so the camera is in business again!

Update Number One :: I did make that hat I was telling you about.  And I do like it.  I can't believe I can pull off a hat.  It's making me adventurous, though I have gotten the hippie label now.  No one will let me wear it out (which is all right since it's usually upward of 90 degrees in the heat) because I "look like I'm from Manitou Springs."  Well, I kinda am, recently! :P

And I'm sooo savvy I can read and study and listen to music and crochet at the same time!

Or maybe not... frogging...

Finished!

Update Number Two :: I did say adventurous, didn't I?  Well, how adventurous?  Stripes!

I was wanting some darkish red to go in with the lot to make it really all the nautical colors, but it's not to be. :P  And that would make it hard to carry the colors up.  I really really hate changing colors with knots and any other way.  So I just leave the blue yarn hanging off to the side and pick up the white yarn loosely, and knit two rows with it.  And vice versa.  So much easier!

Update Number Three :: For my birthday, I got this!!! and this!!! and they are woooondeeerfuuulll!  Buy them and play them!  You will love them!

So goodbye for a week, maybe longer...
AMZi x x x x x

Decision

I have leaned...leaned...leaned...FALLEN for one of those jumpers I showed y'all yesterday!  Which one you ask?

http://www.berroco.com/exclusives/avocet/avocet_b.html

Actually, Number Two, the simple garter-stitch, button-less cardigan.  I like the drape and fit of it, and if I make the X-Small version, and hike it down a set of needles, and check my gauge, I think it will fit ME properly!  Now to scrounge up some yarn... I have about 340 grams of a nice navy I like (because that nautical jumper rubbed off some on me too) but I'm going to need something else.  I'm thinking white stripes.  I saw something like that at Old Navy in a jumper, and I like the whole sailor feel to it.  Fairly narrow stripes, by the way.

Yarn to be picked over on Friday (my birthday!) so updates then, y'all!
AMZi x x x x x

PS Brilliant friend of mine from Summit recommended GrooveShark to me :: a free, legal, easy music listening site.  I. Love. It.  I'm getting my fill of Nightwish on it at this very moment--"Amaranth," "Nemo," and "Over the Hills and Far Away."

Knittingbugs

Hahaha, I've caught it.  I neeeeeed to knit something.  And at present, it's looking like that something will be a jumper...sweater...cardigan.  Whatever you call it.  That's what I mean by jumper.

I've been surfing the interwebz for free patterns, all the while half-griping because I hate patterns.  So many of them annoy me.  And almost all of them are too...wide? for me.  Not politically correct term, I'm sure.  Whatever.  But I have found some I like--or at least I like the idea of them...

This one I like, but I'm not sure why.  Maybe it's the ukulele I actually like...

This one I like a lot... no buttons, simple lines... garter stitch. *cough* 

Can't show the picture for this one, but lose the stripes, and I like the shape of it.

Kind of like this one but it requires circular needles, which I have a phobia of buying. :P

Lose the flowers on this and I like it too.  I'm finding I'm liking the closer-fitting ones, or else ones that hang straight rather than just bulking everywhere.

This one I love... ditching the version with faux gold braid, but it keeps the nautical feel.  Love. It.

I think I like this one , though it may be just the color.  Problem being I don't think I could pull it off, with that low closure and all.  

I like how comfortable this looks, but it'd be IMMENSE on me.  It's a tending-toward-looseness type anyhow!

This one's really what I had in mind... the straight collar/edge thing, button-less, etc.  

So!  Thoughts?  Opinions?  As if I have any money whatsoever to be spending on yarn, *laughter* I know.  But I like to look around... I also kinda want to try my hand at this but... I've never been a hat-wearer, and I'm proud of it.  And it has NOTHING whatever to do with claustrophobia... *nods like crazy*  Of course not.  Heh.  Tight spaces all of me can fit in give me a thrill, actually, but wearing a hat or helmet that boxes off my peripheral vision drives me bonkers.  That style isn't in my way though, so I'm not sure... we'll see!

AMZi x x x x x

Farmyard Animals

Got a good many things on my mind at the moment, and not many of them warrant talking about....  Ah well.  Let's have some knitting updates!

Can a chicken be sat upon a horse?

Yes it can.  No eyes on the chicken yet, and no eyes/nose on the horse yet, I'm not keen on felt and hole punches and glue.  I'll get there.  :)  Finally went and bought some more yarn, which takes me forever to justify doing.  Honest.  I had to work myself up for four days to buy the $4.60 pattern!  I can't seem to justify spending money on anything except music.   A ten or a twenty I can blow in a minute for music, but everything else is guilty afterward. :)  Ah well.  Probably a good thing, yes?  Bit of a saver, I am.

Go look at the Summit website if you've never heard of these chaps.  I'm going to one of their two week conferences.  Looks to be very exciting and a good time for people who rather enjoy thinking.

And as for writing, I'm halfway through Ch 4 and it's really ripping.  So enjoyable, being a full-time all-day sit-down writer again!  Just to be working solidly like that.  I've figured out the problem I had getting back into it.  I have to think, thinking is my whole life, just thinking about any old thing.  During the school year, there's no time (sometimes literally) for thinking, and that gets me in a not-so-nice mood.  In order to write, I need to think, sometimes for hours solid, preparing and letting inspi come.  Enter the summer hols, and voila!  Time, ergo thinking, ergo writing.

Remarkable, really.

AMZi x x x x x

My Late Creative Space

Would have had this up last night, as I was technically doing it yesterday, but yesterday was MAD!  Took a trip to the Nelson Atkins Art Museum, of which... I sound like a Philistine here...  my favorite parts were the Corinthian columns in the foyer and the rich Dutch made furniture in the American section....  Haha.  I'm sure the paintings were nice too.  What disturbed me was the fact that the canvases were laid bare to the air and anyone who wanted to stick a pencil through them.  And not nearly enough security standing around looking intimidating.  IMHO.

Check out this lovely iris... not dark purple like the others... cross pollination perhaps?

And we're petsitting again, a very charming little Yorkie with the best manners I've ever seen.  Love this picture of her.  Nothing like a picture with a well-defined window screen in the background...makes it feel like summer!

And we arrive at my Creative Space.  This week it involves some help from Alan Dart, namely, using his Farmyard Animals pattern.  Stop laughing, you!  I've always been fascinated by little animal figurines, cows and horses and sheep and goats and geese.  Of course I like the real thing, but those are rather hard to keep round the house, don't you know?  So I saw this pattern and about died of the cuteness.  Hahahaha.

Progress as of last night....wish me luck!

Progress as of this morning.  All the while, I'm listening to A Test of Wills, by Charles Todd, the first Ian Rutledge mystery.  Loving it!!

AMZi x x x x x

Distractions!

Ugh, I am so ready to be done!  Done with everything!  I'd like to vanish for a good six weeks' time, off to a little hermitage somewhere.  That does sound nice.  And yet, oddly, I'll probably take everything I'm avoiding with me anyway!  I can't go without a piano or guitar... I must have a dozen books at least... I ought to take something edifying to study... and some Spanish literature... and of course my knitting!  Well, I might as well do all of that right here, yes?

Mainly I want to escape finals.  Everything has been easing off lately and nurturing my Spring Fever, and now everything is culminating this week!  Socorro!!  But actually, I'm on top of it.  I hope.  Ha.

Anyhow, I sit down to study or write a composicion or review my trig identities, and something always thwarts me!  A new blog that needs reading, or I do something incredibly stupid like pick up the guitar.  

In the blog case, the culprit is this blog, and in the guitar case, you have a guitar.  Hahaha, get it?  Case?  Sorry.  In the guitar situation, you have a song called Craigie Hill.  'Nuff said.  :)

Having a bit of a cold snap lately.  Weather is so strange.  A lot of nice quiet rain, too.  Which I enjoy.  It was so chilly last night, the garden blanket had to migrate up from the foot of the bed!

And I'm looking forward to when this project is done so I can use it.  Although it WOULD be the sort of project in which the further along you go, the longer it takes to go further!

And I've been doing a lot of prop designing and sketching and mapping and watching my lovely brig take shape on la pantalla de la computadora del hermano.  

Also, finding myself wishing I were really bi-lingual.  Aurora from the blog above speaks Swedish and PERFECT English.  I speak English and sufferable Spanish.  And small amounts of German, though I understand much more than I speak.  I speak Latin, but that doesn't do me much good, yes?  :)  I long to learn a Norther European tongue backwards and forwards.  That would be lovely.

So I'm promptly going to get distracted from writing this post...oh, *sniff*  I smell food cooking!   Ta!

AMZi x x x x x

A New Project

It's all very hush-hush, you know.  Mum's the word.  Mainly to save face if I don't end up finishing, because I'm really not a big project person.  Crochet a teacup the size of a bean, yes, but actually commit to something for days (or weeks) on end?  Save us!  Yes, yes, I do the granny square blanket thing, but that's a bit of a bridge, don't you think?  I make multiple small things (and get a little oomph out of each completion) and then put them all together into one big thing.  Quite a nice arrangement, yes?

Anyhow, the Mysterious Project is going nicely though, for having just started it.  I'm using honking big needles (11s, remember I'm a small project person?) and baby-weight yarn.  Very light and airy.  Muches of fun.

Was outside earlier and spotted a butterfly, but in typical Amzi fashion, did not have the LGM on me.  Sigh.  I wasn't planning on taking pictures, though, just having a little sunshine to myself.  Which was pleasant.  Minus the bees everywhere.  Not too keen on them, am I?

Been listening to a lot of lectures by a chap named John Stonestreet, with Summit Ministries.  Exceeding interesting stuff, that.  Highly enjoyable to listen to.  It's not every day I can sit listening to somebody speak, and actually agree the whole time!  :)  It's a luxury, really.

Still monstrous tired.  There is to be cleaning and muches of work this weekend, so I apologize in advance if my posts get a bit scarce.  Sigh.  Summer will be here soon, and THEN things will happen!  :)

AMZi x x x x x

Triangles

Triangle action has been taking place the past week, mainly while I've been finding out just who exactly killed Florence Teller (from this book).  Today I piled up my scrap-yarn triangles to take some pictures before blocking them.  This time, I blocked by wetting them thoroughly, squeezing out the excess water, arranging them on a doubled carwash towel, and pressing them on low heat for a few seconds.  Made them lie flat nicely.  I still haven't woven in the ends yet, as you can see...

Because I'm not quite sure how I'm going to put them together.   But I still wanted to see what a bunting might look like, so I experimented like this ::

Which I like very much.  The pattern for these little isosceles is as follows ::

Cast-on 10 stitches
Row 1 :: Knit across
Row 2 :: Purl across
Row 3 :: K2tog, K across until 2 st remain unworked, K2tog
Row 4 :: P across
Row 5 :: K across
Row 6 :: P across
Row 7 :: K2tog, K until 2 st remain unworked, K2tog
Row 8 :: P across
Row 9 :: K across
Row 10 :: P across
Row 11 :: K2tog, K until 2 st remain unworked, K2tog
Row 12 :: P across
Row 13 :: K2tog twice
Cut yarn, thread end through two remaining loops on needle, and pull tightly to finish off.

Quite simple, and the ratio works.  Have fun! :)

An update on the little branch status ::

AMZi x x x x x

My Creative Space

My Creative Space this week contains evening sunlight and lots of quiet thinking going on.  It also involves yet another one of those crafty-world "fads" that I swore I'd never fall for... bunting.  Well, sort of.  Not yet, anyway.  My subconscious must be on a garlandy-type-thingie rail.  

Also a great chance to showcase some smaisin knitting needles made for Yours Truly by Yours Truly's hermano.  They just so happen to be a size 11, and feature this number proudly on their little rubber caps, which were nabbed off of something important while it wasn't looking.  :)

I'm usually such a multi-tasker, go-go-go, buckle down and get-'er-done person, and lately I'm in such a rut!  I'd rather just sit and think, and think, and think!  I suppose there could be worse obsessions, yes?  Ah well.  I'm positively exhausted now, and even a weak brew isn't brightening me up, so this'll be a short post.  

And you thought I would refrain from a mathish comment today!  Don't you know Wednesdays better than that?  I learned some Calculus today!  Integration, plus finding the area of a triangle the calculus way before extrapolating it to find area of wackier shapes... where'd you go?  Ah well. :P

AMZi x x x x x