Saturday, March 31, 2007

But also?

This post on Go Fug Yourself is one of the funniest things I have ever seen.

My new enemies.

Fraking Ohio State. I hope they lose.

No, I will not behave like a grown-up about this one. Even if it makes me a sore loser.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Sometimes I wish I had a really big rock.

If I *did* have a really big rock right now, I would be able to smash the car five stories down from my office whose alarm has been !@#$ing going off for HALF AN HOUR.




Aaaaaaaah. It just stopped.




GOD DAMN IT. It just started again.

What, exactly, is the point of car alarms, again? I just ask because I would totally cheer someone who stole that car right now.

Friday, March 16, 2007

March in Minnesota

I usually avoid talking too much about the weather, especially in negative terms, because it is what it is and there is no point to bitching about something that is inevitable and unchangable. It will be cold (really, really cold) in Minnesota in the winter, it will be hot (but mostly not too hot) in the summer, there will be rain and snow and clouds and sun. Oh, and most of March in Minnesota will be disgusting, both because it is a bit warmer and therefore the melting snow makes it very overcast in a normally very sunny state and because I am not from here, which means that I feel like it should be springlike by the end of March. HOWEVER, sometimes said weather is remarkable enough to comment upon.

A few weeks back, we got two waves of snow less than a week apart totaling about 24 inches.

It went from this:



To this:


And then to this:

(Turns out that I don't have any pictures of the snow after the second storm. Imagine the first doubled here)

There were 8-foot high piles on snow all over, because the plows had to put the snow somewhere. This persisted for a bit, and then in the past week or so it warmed up quite a bit. On Monday, I took advantage of the 50 degree F (!) weather and the time change and went for a long walk along the creek after work. Even after almost a week of temps well above freezing, there was still quite a bit of snow. However, the presence of liquid water outside (!) for the first time in months was lovely:

Notice all of the ducks. In a few weeks they will be dashing in front of cars on the parkway honking indignantly because they are CROSSING here with their ducklings. Here are more ducks:


They honked at me for daring to be on the sidewalk.

The creek is lovely:



And still a bit frozen:



You'd never guess at some points at how close the surrounding houses are:




There are bridges:



And then I walked the few block back to my house through the neighborhood. The melting snow was trapped by the not-yet-melted snow, which meant quite a bit of water on the streets and sidewalks:



Some of the puddles, combined with the angle of the light, made for some cool pictures:







That last one is my favorite.

Then I walked down the alley, went through the gate, and I was home. You will notice how much snow still has not melted:



It was getting dark, so I went inside. I had to finish filling out my bracket (Go Hoyas!!!!)

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Also, a note to my sister.

Um, Tori? You don't get to hint (I first wrote kint, which is how I will refer to hinting about knitting from now on) about wanting random knitted gifts when very soon I will design and knit your wedding veil, a project that makes veteran knitters blanch and stammer.

That is all.


*****Edited to add*****

This is a joke. Kinting is not a problem and is, in fact, rather amusing.

And Now Even More Knitting Content

Comment on how much knitting content there is, and you will get more of it.

I found this pattern a couple of months ago, and I wanted to make it.

Shut up.

I am a total fangirl, but also, see how pretty the pattern is? And I have stupidly sensitive skin, so I have to wear gloves or something much later that most people do, so they are very practical for me. Also, I decided to make it from stash yarn. I had some Frog Tree Alpaca that I thought would work nicely. Alas, it was too fuzzy to show off the lovely cabling. I was not willing to do all of that work if it was not going to show, so I decided to make the pattern without most of the cabling:



They came out pretty well. HOWEVER, remember that stupidly sensitive skin? Even though these were made of alpaca, they seriously scratched my skin, especially on the back of my hands. So I donated them to charity and began again.

This time I bought yarn for the project--after some poking around, I decided upon RY Classic Silk & Wool DK. It is soft yet provides a nice definition, and it is smooth so it doesn't scratch. Also, this time I worked the pattern more or less as written:



I love how they came out.

I have also been working on various socks and designing another pair of handwarmers, but I have finished these two projects recently:



a long, thin Colinette slip-stitch scarf (two of them, actually),

and a newborn kimono.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Chapter 42: In which She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed is gratified to not have acted on her first impulse.

Last week sometime I was riding the Light Rail to work, headphones on and knitting away, when a nicely-dressed middle-aged woman grinned pleasantly, leaned in and said something to me on the way to the door for her stop.

She said, "There are three *******s on the train."

Now, what *I* heard through my music was an ethnic slur beginning with the letter "n" and rhyming with "chiggers." I was *so shocked* by the fact that it appeared this woman had just offhandedly slurred half the people on the train (Minneapolis is more multi-racial than one would think, and we had just passed the stop in the Somali neighborhood) that I just stared at her for a second, slack-jawed, before pulling myself together enough to say "excuse me?" as neutrally as possible, all the while readying a response.

She repeated herself and elaborated:

"There are three knitters on the train. *I* was knitting, and that woman (pointing) is knitting, and you are knitting."

Oh. KNITTERS.

I made about 30 seconds of polite conversation before she got off at her stop. I hope it was polite, at least--I have no idea what I said. I was *so close* to telling that poor woman off, and she was just trying to say something nice about knitting.

Friday, March 02, 2007

Fire on the Mountain

More pictures to hold y'all over--I finished my Fire on the Mountain Jaywalkers two Sundays ago:




The colors really are tie-dyed.

I fooled around with the cuffs, but I am still not totally happy about how they work--I did three rows of garter instead of the ribbing, which generally works better, but rolls. I may just need to do more garter for the cuff next time--this time I was worried about running out of yarn again.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Presidents Day

I unexpectedly had Presidents Day off and it was a lovely day, so I took a stroll around the lake.








It really was a pretty day--and I always love how the types of trees change as one circles the lake.

Of course, Minnesotans are sure that they know all about lakes and ice, no matter what signs are posted:



Those two guys were ice fishing--and about to drill some more holes:


Many other people were also ice fishing, but they wimped out and brought shelters:





People also had other things to do on the frozen lake:


(This guy was essentially snowboarding with a kite pulling him along.)

I saw an old friend:


Here's a closer look:


It looks like someone *started* to make an ice house:



but as far as I have seen, nothing has been done with these snow bricks.


And, as always, I stopped two-thirds of the way around the lake for a few moments and sat on this bench:


looking out at this view:



I love this sort of memorial. I would love to be remembered in this way, giving people somewhere to rest and enjoy a beautiful view.

On the way back home I *may* have poked my head in the LYS and picked up this Colinette 40% off:


It is destined to be a slip-stitch scarf.


It was a good day.

An Open Letter to the Man Sitting Next to Me on the Light Rail Last Evening

Dear Man,

I was knitting when you sat down next to me. Stop elbowing me and giving me looks and sighs because I didn't stop when you sat down. I go out of my way not to take up more than my fair share of space, and my arm moving doesn't change that. You would think that I was stabbing you with my needles or something, the way you were carrying on. Also? I have lived in the Midwest long enough to be good at passive-aggression. The more you carry on, the more likely I am to "accidentally" elbow you in the ribs. I'm just sayin', is all.