Does it really make a difference?

I want to ask all my blog readers this question:

I'm going to knit a pattern that involves size 19 36" circulars(huge I know), but I measured the one that I have and it is about 34". I figured that it is alright as long as it's not TOO short. I will not be knitting in the round, but this leads to the question that if we do not have the correct circular length, is it ok? I know it's a dumb question, but I want to hear what other knitters think.

You can listen to Maria Taylor while you think on it.



*Update: Thanks everyone for their comments. I made a mistake on saying that I had 34" circulars, which I meant to say 32". Either way, not much difference. It worked out just fine. Thank you for all of your comments.

Happy KIP Day

Today was a great day for knitting in public. I went to the Arkansas Studies Institute, where we were having a KIP Day event. Some members of CALS help set this up and I am very thankful that we have knitters in our AR library system to help hold events like this. They also made this awesome set of gigantic knitting needles.



There were some people there I've never seen before in the few knitting groups that we have in Little Rock. I'm guessing these knitters do not belong in a group. I'm glad that they know about KIP Day so we all can get together and knit in public.

Aside from KIP, I've completed a pair of Cherry Red Handwarmers not in cherry red. I had some Rowan All Seasons Cotton leftover from the Wheat Ear Cable Sweater I made earlier this year. I'm thinking about putting them on my Etsy shop. Thoughts about that? Do you think people would be interested in it?





Pattern: Cherry Red Handwarmers
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton
Likes: Very simple. I did this pattern in the round instead of on straights and turned out just as good.
Dislikes: Nothing. I made one longer than the other by 1 or 2 rows but when you wear it, you cannot tell.

I've also finally posted pics of the Ruffle Cravat that I've had in my project list in Ravelry but never put up.



Project: Ruffle Cravat
Yarn: Berroco Love It Colors (cotton blend)
Likes: Easy and fast.
Dislikes: The cravat wears weird. You wouldn't know what I mean until you try to put it on.

I've made this in white as well, but it looks much better in this Berroco yarn. I made this around March or April, but never took pictures of it.

On some nonknitting content: Not only do we have birds, bugs, and even stray cats come around our yard, but we also get bunnies too. There are probably 2 or 3 bunnies around the area, but they live somewhere close and enjoy eating ours and our neighbors' grass. I love seeing them out there in the morning.





I have only seen 2 at a time, but they look so adorable when they are eating. They're not afraid of us because we always leave them alone and we just pretend they're not there.

More on animal watch: I'm dogsitting my sister's Weimaraner for the weekend. His name is Coal and he's such a sweetie, in exception for chewing up Helen's shoes. He's been pretty well behaved and is house broken. Only thing is that he loves other animals. If he gets attacked, he'll probably won't try to fight back. He's just a big baby. He loves cats but cats don't love him because he tries to give them love bits on the back of the neck or sniff their butts. Of course, to a cat, they think he's trying to eat them or scared of this giant, energetic dog so he always gets scratched. We've been keeping the cats in our sunroom (our air runs through it and they're box and food are there so they'll be ok) so Coal won't try to play with them. The cats have been pretty freaked out by him.







Basically the entire weekend, he's been looking into the room wanting to play. Can't let him do that unless if he likes getting all scratched up.

Sweet Tea, How I Love Thee

I've never developed the taste for sweet tea until I was about 20 years old. I even kind of didn't like it that much but could drink it. I was raised in the south and didn't care for it. Not even when I went to my best friend's house and all they had was tea. I opted for water every time. I recently discovered (thanks to Jasons Deli) that if you sweeten it with cane sugar instead of refined sugar and drown it in lemon, it's so delicious. When I take a sip, I feel like sitting on a front porch on a hot summer day drinking it like a southern belle with nothing to do but watch the men mow the lawn with their shirts off. If only that can be my hobby, this drink will be my anthem. Somehow that taste has given me this figment of imagination that only I can conjur from taste buds.

While I drink my tea, I'm still trying to come up with a knitted top that will have ruffles. Before you grown at the thought of some knitted, English style fluff, I think I might have a garment worthy of touting. I know it is too soon to start becoming confident with the images in my head, but I might have a pattern inspired by a Bergere de France ad in Vogue Knitting. The moment I saw it, I was inspired and trying to come up with something like that would be worthy for a first-time pattern. I have yet to inclose details other than when I was insearch of the yarn to use for it. So far, I have a crummy swatch I do not want to photograph.

Last week, I was on vacation and decided that I should do something. I did plan on sleeping in, but that's all I had. I went to Austin, TX with Dave to stay with my sis and spend some time looking at the city, though I've been there many times. I searched for some yarn shops to find a place with wider options than what Little Rock can offer me. I happen to run into Hill Country Weavers on South Congress. I went in 30 minutes before they closed and explained that I want a fine yarn that I can knit on size 3-4 needles, preferably cotton or cotton blend. They showed me their cotton selections and suggested that I should go with a linen/cotton blend or a hemp/cotton blend, which looking at them both I felt less enthused about using. While I searched, another sales woman asked if I needed help, which I should've said "no I'm fine, just looking" but instead I go on asking for advice on my very fine cotton blend that may not exist in their since most cotton is knitted at least on 5-6. She was quite helpful, but yet to meet my crazy expectations that I tried to project verbally according the my imagination of this yarn I want in a specific color I needed it to be. I felt like I was asking for something that didn't exist, like a cheese wheel shaped like a unicorn. Finally I jacked the idea of the fine yarn and settle with the Plymouth Organic Cotton in a nude color that knits on size 5 needles (5.5 sts per inch). I like how it feels, but it knits kind of splitty. Can't turn back now. Cazy lady getting creative!

Other than scaring the nice yarn people, I enjoyed Austin a lot. Though the hipster meter on the city's downtown is off the charts (which I'm not fond of because I'm a young professional destined to forever be a yuppy), I love the city and it's laid back atmosphere. Most importantly, I enjoyed my vacation because I caught up on some sleep.

Creative Slump On and Off the Internet

Though I only knit patterns written by other people, I feel like I've fallen into a creative slump. There isn't anything I feel like making. I usually have an idea or a hankering for something. Sometimes I even have a hankering to make simple things like hats or dishcloths, while watching my favorite movies. But this month, it's all put on hiatus and not on purpose. I hope I shake this soon because I want to knit something. If you don't know what it feels like, it feels like when you're hungry but can't think of anything you want. Everything you think of doesn't sound appetizing and you try to diversify your options despite the fact that you want a vague something to satify you that you could care less about but do at the same time.

So in my knitting absence, I've been turning to the internet like all bored people do. I check my Ravelry, I check my email, I check my social networks. I even check my bills. It's like the internet cannot break this mundane feeling.

In my lack of excitement for making crafts, I noticed that some people are hooked on being social on the internet more than they really should. It's great to know that your friends are there too. You can see what they're doing in their spare time: watching other people on the internet and what they do on their spare time. A good example of this is Facebook. Grant it that Facebook application is much better than MySpace application in terms of security, feeds/updates, and design but people are hooked in their accounts mulitple ways. You can check it at work via computer, you can update your status on your phone, you can place it on your Google desktop and stalk your friends, you have chat application, you can tell people who are not on Facebook about events on Facebook, and there's probably more than I can ever know. What gets me the most is that people update their status via their phone on things I don't care about such as "running errands" and "has two more friends coming to visit today! (Maybe they'll bring sunshine.)" or trivial things like "is up and goin to the gym". I understand you may have an emotional feeling you want to share with your friends because attention is the best medicine for that but I don't care if you're paying your electric bill online. Really, if I want to know what you're doing, I will call you and then we can get together like friends do. That's in realtime if you need to know. It all really reminds me of how dumb Twitter can be.

Twouble with Twitters



But if you want to start pointing your finger back at me, I'm pretty guilty about it too. I think I started a blog for that same reason: you want everyone in the world to know about your no matter how dumb, mundane, or embarassing it is. Actually, I started this blog so I can have a collection of my knitting all in one place, but nice comments about my life are good too. You realize you feel like someone is paying attention to you and you like it. People eventually want to know what's going on with you, why you've fallen off the face of the earth, and why have you not shared your latest knitting because they have. But really, your friends don't care if your doing your laundry or broadcasting every thought in your head to them. They care if you're alive and doing well.

I figured that I'm thinking about this too hard. So I settled this boredom by taking a nap and not thinking about it. Hope tomorrow I will come up with something to knit.

Happy Year of the Ox and other craft creations

I know it's late for me to post about Chinese New Year, but it's still on my mind. Not exactly what happened on the holiday, but just the fact that every year my luck always turns around after Chinese New Year. That can be good or bad. It must be the lunar calender. It just does that to you. This year, I'm having a sinking feeling that something not-so-great is going to happen. I've experienced good and bad things so far (and it has only been less than a month), but nothing to write home about. I'm still waiting for that one major issue to rear its head in my life like how I rear my head in this blog that I seldom write. I try to update, I swear. I hope it's my paranoia and not my true spidey senses tingling.

I spent celebrating Chinese New Year with my family and some friends. I had a great idea to invite my mother and sisters plus anyone else who wants to come to my house for a dinner. Of course, I should've taken the day off from work to prepare but I didn't. I ended up making a bunch of food in a real hurry. It turned out fine but my mom said that I didn't make enough food. WTF, mom, I'm trying here. She gave me a few cooking pointers that helped though. I even got some lucky money that day. It wasn't a huge amount, but since I don't live with my mom, she doesn't give it to me. Since I don't get it that often (usually Christmas) I'm quite grateful for whatever I can get nowadays and won't reject it. I didn't take any pictures but everyone had fun and the time I spent with them made me appreciate my family more.

My first FO of the year is this scarf that I made in a bamboo pattern. I like wearing this scarf even though it's not really a winter scarf.



Scarf up close:


Pattern Details
Yarn: Knit Picks DK cotton in green apple
Needles: size 3 or 4. Can't remember, I just grabed some needles that worked with the yarn.
Likes: the yarn and how easy peasy the pattern was
Dislikes: difficulty was at yawn level.

Another FO I had was this crocheted this ox doll from the pattern in Knit1. I couldn't resist. I had to make at least one for my roomies. I made this one for my roomie, Nathan, since he's an ox and this year will be a good year for him.



He strapped the ox above his bedroom door along his other ornaments. I later made Helen a rooster for her zodiac.



The rooster found her cat, Stubbles, and decided to sit next to her. Stubbles is quite annoyed by this.

Pattern Details
Yarn: Whatever leftover yarn I could find for the colors I need.
Hook: size G
Likes: How easy the pattern on Knit1 was.
Dislikes: nothing


I've been crafting up something fierce this year because I finished a pair of fingerless gloves I made for my boyfriend, Dave. I started these sometime in Nov/Dec and finished them last week before VDay. I used the pattern from the Ken Gloves from Berroco and just made a fingerless version.



On man hands:


On my tiny hands while I eat chalky sweethearts:


Pattern Details
Yarn: Rowan Scottish Tweed (green) and Jo Sharp Silkroad Aran Tweed (gray)
Needles: size 8 DPN
Likes: how well the colors go together
Dislikes: the pattern did not fit man-size hands so I had to block it, but that was only a small problem. They really turned out great.

Other new things: In that scarf pic, I had my hair cut by some random person at Mastercuts (I look good in bobs. Ya like?). I don't have a stylist because the one person I want my hair done had moved away. So I had it done by some girl that had short black hair styled in a mohawk without the sides shaved and a pink strip down the middle of her hair empasizing the "mohawk-ness" (or power strip, however you want to take it). I dug it. I'm very satisfied with the cut. She gave me her card and she also works at a shop in the hood. I could care less because she's a black girl who can dye her hair bright pink without it looking fried. That's talent. I'll go to the hood. I have a friend who said that if its not done in the hood, it ain't no good. Word.

More recent things: Dave took me to Kobe on Valentines Day. I never been there even though we live a block away from it and it's been there for years. Their sushi was great and their steaks were super delish. Totally worth the huge price for it.

I also realized in the past few years that I love him almost just as much as my family. I've bitched about him on the blog, but that's the only time I actually mention about him and I really feel bad for making him look like a dick. I know how it's like to be in a bad relationship and this one is far from it. He actually respects any decision that I make and he loves that I'm quite opinionated and independent. That's something that I've never had in a significant other. I'm surprised he hasn't dumped me for being a bitch to him most of the time. We've been together for a long time and I don't want anything to change. We've talked about marriage and children but we both know that we're not ready for either. So we're just going to keep things the way they are. I may think about my luck going sour for this year, but when I think about what I have (family, friends, Dave, and a decent life) it's not something I can't take. I have everything I need.

4+1: Jewelry Exhibit

If anyone is in the Seattle area in during February, my brother's wife, Midori, is going to have her jewelry displayed at this exhibit. I got this postcard in the mail the other day and barely looked at it because I thought it was junk mail advertising jewelry to me (after Dave bought my necklace we got lots of that). Good thing I let my junk mail age 48 hours before throwing it away or else I wouldn't have caught this. I saw her name and thought "what?!" I'm pretty excited for her.

4+1: Jewelry Exhibit

featuring Micki Lippe, Jennifer Bennett, Julida Henscheild, Frederick Park, and Midori Saito

February 5-28,2009

Pacini Lubel Gallery

207 2nd Avenue South

Seattle, WA 98104
www.pacinilubel.com

First Thursday Opening Reception

Thursday, February 5 from 6:00-8:00 PM

By Inivation Viewing

Wednesday, February 11 from 5:00-8:00 PM

New Format for Blog

New Format. Don't know if it's going to stay or not.

Long Time No See

I haven't posted in a very long time. Once when the holidays started, I had almost no time to myself. I was busy knitting gifts, preparing for my visit to my sister's place in Austin for Thanksgiving, and getting ready to spend Christmas at my mom's while juggling insane overtime at work. Well, I didn't do THAT much overtime, but I did work some Saturdays, which I've never done previously, in addition to staying late almost everyday. Though, I will try to sum up all my holidays the best I can in this post.

Halloweeen
Helen and I planned on going to Houston, TX over Halloween for the Renaissance Festival, which our friend, Candace, raves about every year. She's been a few times and loves it. So we go down there and took some interesting pictures there.

Guy moving a David Bowie ball around:


Centaur:


A cage for your children:


Good music by a bagpipe player:


Even though Candace has been there a few times, she never rides the rides or see hardly any of the shows. She just likes walking around, look at the shops, and eat their yummy carnie food. I had a sausage on a stick and drank some of Helen's mead, which is kind of pricey. So it's important to drink a lot of your own mead (much cheaper at the liquor store) before you get there cuz you would want to buy some when you're there. We got to see jousting, which was fucking awesome, in addition to some good people watching. They had a big fireworks blowout at the end of the night, which was worth staying for.

Here's a video of the jousting and me screaming in the background. Sorry for the jumpy video.



On the way back to Arkansas, we took a picture of some funny signs.

A pro-gun billboard:


We found out that the Great Pumpkin lives between Dallas and Houston:


Big trucks can be signs:


I have more pics at my Photobucket.

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was spent at my sis's house in Austin, TX and it was great. I took some extra time off from work to spend with my family. I got to meet more of my sister's husband's family and ate tons of good food courtesy of the Chengs. They were really hospitable.

Yummy food made by the Chengs:




The following Saturday went to Sea World in San Antonio. We had so much fun there. I liked watching all the cute shows. The Shamu one was cheesey but I loved the sea lions' show. Everything there was Christmas themed. I couldn't help but think that I will have to sit through tons of crap like this when I have kids. I guess it's another reason to not have kids, but when I do, I'll have to put a cap on this stuff.

Shamu got tricks:


My mom riding on a whale ride with my neice, Kailey:


After Sea World, we ate at Rudy's, which is a barbecue place that serves Texas-size portions for our huge family (this picture only shows half of us):


My brother and his new wife, Midori, had a small family celebration of their new marriage. We're so glad that they finally got married.

Bryan and Midori cutting a homemade ice cream cake made by my sis:


Christmas
During Christmas, I stayed at my mom's and relaxed hardcore. We opened presents at midnight like always and I got a lot of things I wanted. I got a Black & Decker hand drill, a new flash drive (to replace my old one that crapped out), Japanese Cherry Blossom lotion from Bath & Body Works, money from my mommy, a gift card to Target from Ling (sis in TX), and 80s Trivial Pursuit (which is hard) plus sock yarn from Helen. The sock yarn is Patons stretch sock yarn in a pink/white variegated.

I made Midori some fingerless gloves with a wide horshoe cable pattern running on the top, made with dark turquoise, Debbie Bliss cashmere yarn. Helen wants me to write a pattern for it, but I just made it up so I would have to knit it up again to figure out what I did. I gave the Morgan to my brother, which I hope he likes. I also made a cupcake scarf for a coworker (for money) because he knew his wife would love it. Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of any of my recent knitting but the cupcake scarf. Yeah I'm lame.



I'm working on making a bamboo patterned skinny scarf. I guess I should make it out of bamboo yarn, but I had some green cotton yarn on hand to work with. I will eventually post pics on that soon.