Keepin' Cool in Summer Questionnaire

Here's my questionnaire for the Keepin' Cool in Summer Dishcloth Exchange

1. Do you Knit or Crochet? For how long?

I knit and crochet; but I mostly knit 99% of the time. I've been knitting for about 4 years.

2. Do you enjoy using metal, wooden, or some other kind of needle\hook?

I enjoy all kinds, with bamboo being my least favorite. Love Addi Turbos, especially for socks.

3. What are your favorite types of yarn? Any you just can't stand?

I know everyone says they hate acrylic yarn. Straight-up acrylic is pretty much horrible to handle. But I find it's actually pretty fantastic when combined with other stuff. For example, I love 50% cotton and 50% acrylic yarn. It's soft and lovely to work with. Other favorites are merino wool, alpaca, and cashmere. (No kidding, right?) Not a huge fan of mohair, I find it way too itchy.

4. When it comes to cotton, are there any brands you'd love to try and haven't?

I've tried a lot of cotton. Let's just say, I haven't met a cotton yarn I didn't like. :-) I'd love some soft, organic stuff.

5. When you make Dishcloths, do you use them yourself, or tend to give them as gifts?

I have mostly given them as gifts. I have been known to use one as a washcloth now and then. I must add that Corinne, my dishcloth spoiler last round, made me a fabulous coral washcloth that matches perfectly in my bath; and I have used it; and I LURVE it.

6. Do you have a favorite color? Any that you dislike?

I like lots of colors! Really, it's more like what colors don't like me! For instance, I love yellow and orange, but they look hideous on me. I like heathered, natural colors the best. I'm fond of plums, sagey greens, blues, gray, terracotta, coral, browns and mocha. I like red, too. Nearing the bottom of my list are pastels. Not a huge fan of burgundy. And I hate, hate, hate teal. Teal should be obliterated from all human existence.

7. What color(s) (if any!) are your kitchen and bath decorated in?

My kitchen is sage green and black with oak cabinets. I've tried to include touches of red and plum in there to break it up. I have a couple of baths. One is done in a seashell theme, and that's coral, cream, beige, with touches of pink & light blue. The other bath is basically black & white with some taupe color in there. I'm thinking of changing it, though! Inspire me with a washcloth! :-)

8. What are your favorite scents around the house?

I like fruit scents, mostly, particularly pear and citrus. The smells of baking/coffee are always nice. I can't do candles (as much as I like them) because I have a bajillion cats (ok, 6) and they will either burn down my house or devour the candles.

9. What is your very favorite thing about summer?

Hmmm...I like that it stays light outside until like 9:00 at night.

10. What is your least favorite thing about summer?

The humidity. I can't deal with those steamy, hot days. I feel like I am sitting in soup.

11. Do you use soap or body wash in the shower?

I tend to gravitate towards body wash. But I'd welcome any cool, fancy, handmade, etc. soap!

12. What scents do you enjoy in the bath?

I like scents that are earthy and natural. I love green tea fragrances and citrus scents. Like oatmeal and honey, too. Cannot stand patchouli or cinnamon. Most florals are overpowering for me.

13. What is your favorite dishcloth pattern?

Well it's a toss-up. This and this are my utmost favorites.

14. What sort of treats do you enjoy? Sweet or Salty?

Oh, bring it ALL, baby! No Twizzlers, though. YUCK. Chocolate, of course, is the BEST. Love me a chocolate-covered marshmallow or pretzel. Fudge is awesome. I love pistachios too. Look, if it's high in calories and fat, I probably like it. ;-)

15. Imagine today is one of the hottest days of the year - what do you do to keep cool? Or are you one of those folks who loves the hot weather?

Stay inside, for one thing! I'd probably have some sorbet or lemonade.

16. What sorts of hobbies do you enjoy besides knitting or crocheting?

I like to cross-stitch and needlepoint. I can sew a bit (like curtains, pillow covers, etc.). Decoupage, paper quilling, oil-painting, pastel drawing, scrap-booking, silk-screening, photography, pottery/ceramics, origami, jewelery making, beaded fruit--- you name it and I've at least dabbled in it. Hell, I used to even make rosary beads. I'm a fairly artistic person and I like to draw and occasionally paint. I'm big on home improvement, so I do a lot of wallpapering, tile grouting, house painting, linoleum laying, etc. I love putting together Ikea furniture. How lame is that? :-P

17. Do you collect anything (besides yarn!)

Well, I often get obsessed with things. I like stuff. So it's more like "what don't you collect?" For now, I seem to be accumulating Pirate cards, animal figurines (particularly carved wood or stone ones), anything Mystery Science Theater 3000 related, Cats By Nina items, anything cat-related, jewelry, knitting books/patterns/magazine, seashells, rocks, fossils, raw gemstones, Sanrio items (like Hello Kitty, etc.), artwork by Kay McDonagh, stamps, magnets, yadda, yadda, yadda.... Oh, and cats. ^.^

18. Are you on Ravelry? If so, share your ID!

Yes! My id is: mirthful

19. Do you have any allergies?

No allergies that my pal would need to know, unless they planned on sending me some drugs. LOL (I am allergic to Sulfa drugs.) However, I do have a STRONG aversion to Indian food, particularly curry.

20. Do you have any pets?

I have 6 evil hell-beasts, er, I mean cats: Sophie, Hercules, Titus, Ophelia, Luna, and Mr. Chesterfield. Ok, well, 5 are evil. Mr. C is positively loverly.

Hilarious

For Lost fans, I invite you to visit the Sawyer Nickname Generator.

For the record, I'm "Two Bits." I actually kinda like it!

Why Me?

Hello! I'm Iman Idiot. You may remember me from such blog posts as this or this. Right now I'd like to share with you the latest and greatest installment of my profoundly irritating mental deficiencies. Enjoy:


Gina,

Can we meet at some point before the term ends?

Regards,
Iman Idiot


Hi, Iman Idiot:

What does your week look like next week? We are closed on Monday.

Thanks,
Gina


Gina

How about Monday at some time between 12 and 1pm?

Iman Idiot


RAGE

Not Bad For a Dumb Internet Meme

Ok so I totally stole this off of Corinne's blog. And, except for that "confident, authoritative, and aggressive," bit at the end, this is EERILY very close to the mark!

What Gina Means

You are deeply philosophical and thoughtful. You tend to analyze every aspect of your life. You are intuitive, brilliant, and quite introverted. You value your time alone. Often times, you are grumpy with other people. You don't appreciate them trying to interfere in your affairs. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Guilty Pleasures

Come ON. We all have them: those goof-ball songs that we just belt out at the top of our lungs when nobody else is around.

I now present to you my top 10 guilty pleasure songs in order of rising potential embarrassment:


10. She's So Cold, Rolling Stones
favorite lyrics:
"I'm so hot for her
I'm on fire for her
I'm so hot for her and she's so cold
I'm the burning bush!
I'm the burning fire!
I'm the bleeding volcano!"

HAWT.

9. Escalator of Life, Robert Hazard
favorite lyrics:
"Hey, girl! I'm a personal friend of Gloria Vanderbilt.
I got all the gold in the world around my neck.
Come ride the steel dinosaur.
Run wild in the jungle.
It's a Zulu nation!
Seduction,
Sacrifice, a new sensation.
NOTHING EVER CHANGES!"

Bloody brilliant.


8. Mr. Roboto, STYX
favorite lyrics:
"You're wondering who I am:
Machine or mannequin?
With parts made in Japan,
I am the modern man!"

You must pronounce modern as mod-ren for full effect.


7. Mislead, Kool and the Gang
favorite lyrics:
"She's as heavy as a Chevy.
Pure excitement, misled.
When she touches, can't resist her.
I'm a puppet when she's playing.
She's outgoing but I love her so.
Misled."

Aw, yeah!


6. Valley Girl, Frank Zappa
favorite lyrics:
"So, like, I go into this like salon place, y'know?
And I wanted like to get my toenails done.
And the lady like goes, 'oh my God, your toenails are like so GRODY!'
It was like really embarrassing.
She's like 'OH MY GOD, like BAG THOSE TOENAILS!'
I'm like, fer sure...."

Ah, the early 1980s.


5. You Spin Me Like a Record, Dead or Alive
favorite lyrics:
"All I know is that to me
you look like you're lots of fun.
Open up your lovin' arms
Watch out, here I come."

Yeah, tell me you don't secretly love this song too.


4. I Can't Hold Back, Survivor
favorite lyrics:
"I've been holding back the night
I've been searching for a clue from you
I'm gonna try with all my might
To make this story line come true
Can you feel me tremble when we touch?
Can you feel the hand of fate
Reaching out to both of us?
This love affair cant wait

I can't hold back, I'm on the edge
(I cant hold back)
You voice explodes inside my head
I cant hold back, I wont back down
Girl, its too late to turn back now"

God, I love this song. AWESOME.


3. Sister Christian, Night Ranger
favorite lyrics:
"You're motoring.
What's your price for flight?
And finding Mister Right?
You'll be all right tonight."

SWEET


2. Take It On the Run, REO Speedwagon
favorite lyrics:
"You're thinking up your white lies.
You're putting on your bedroom eyes.
You say you're coming home but you won't say when.
But I can feel it coming.
If you leave tonight keep running.
And you need never look back again."

Throws up the horns: \m/


1. Apache, The Sugarhill Gang
favorite lyrics: THE WHOLE DAMN THING.

As guilty as it gets, really.


Yeah, so...I have more than 10, but I don't want you to think I'm a total freak.

So fess up, now; what are YOURS?

Updates and Other Things

So, if you haven't guessed, I absolutely adored Speed Racer. So much so, that I saw it 3 times. Even Todd liked it and he hates everything. Here's a true testament to how awesome a film Speed Racer is:

Nicole and I saw it for the second time together last Tuesday. Todd, believing that we were utterly insane, went to see Iron Man instead. So Nicole and I stuffed our faces with popcorn and had a screaming good 2nd time around in a nearly empty theater. Our movie ended about 5 minutes before Todd's. We waited out in the lobby for him. He comes out. We're still all goofy and giddy from Speed Racer. Todd's looking rather morose for someone who's just come out of a celebrated blockbuster. I ask him how it was. Todd says, "Eh...it was ok. Robert Downey Jr. was good." Nicole and I were like two twittering birds on crack going on and on about Speed. We get outside and walk to the car. Todd pipes up, "Honestly...I liked Speed Racer better." O_o. I was like "WOOOO! You are getting laid tonight for admitting that!"

nb: He didn't. I was too tired. ;-)

Anyway, I have no idea why this movie is getting kicked in the nads so hard by critics. It's really fantastic. I saw it the 3rd time this Saturday past with Donna, my sister. She LURVED it. About 3/4 of the way though, she turns to me and says, "Oh, man...DVD!!!" Yeah, this one's a keeper. Totally.

Something I must say about Donna: she pretty much despises all of young Hollywood. Mention any young actor to her and she starts gagging and complaining about what a hideous douchebag he is. Her most hated? Leonardo DiCaprio. He's like the anti-Christ to her. I think he's darling. But that's just me. Although I never saw Titanic, and have no such intention either, I liked him in pretty much everything else I've seen him in. LOVED Romeo and Juliet. And I loathe modern adaptations, or rather, ABOMINATIONS of Shakespeare. Usually.

I digress. So Donna hates everybody. She thought Emile Hirsch was cute. She thought whoever the dude was who played Inspector Detector was cute. She agreed with me that Matthew Fox was hotter than 1000 suns and easily understood why I would pay 3 times to see that "in underwear, fighting ninja" scene. In fact during that scene, I looked over at her and she simply uttered, "Damn." Yeah...he's...wow....

Ok, enough.

Alrighty then, what else? Here's an updated peek at the pinwheel sweater. I made the armholes using what someone on Ravelry called the "afterthought heel." Instead of putting the stitches on holders and starting new yarn, I just used waste yarn to knit back and forth where the arms are going to be, then continued with the same ball I was using. Seems infinitely easier. Here's the picture:



So there are 41 stitches in each of the 8 pinwheel panels for a total of 328 stitches. Yeah, the knitting is getting tedious. But, there's a light (Over at the Frankenstein place. Burning in the fireplace) ahead. Once I get 43 in each panel, I switch to garter stitch to make the border/collar part. The increases get less frequent (every 6th row instead of every other row), but I should end up with 50 in each section in total, 400 stitches. So, I am almost there!

Also, here is a picture of the scarf I made for Todd. This is from the Last Minute Knitted Gifts book.

Lastly, I heard back from the moderator of the Dishcloth Swap. She was debating on having another and asked for some feedback. I learned yesterday that she is indeed hosting another one. Sign-ups begin at the end of this month, so I am going for it. I'm just glad that she's ok! :-)
Swaps are tricky beasts. I couldn't imagine hosting/moderating one. WAY too much work.

What Is WRONG With You People?

For more on the virtues of Speed Racer: read this. And read my comment.

Oh and, yeah, watch this:

Don't Walk, RUN. NOW!

GO SEE SPEED RACER, IMMEDIATELY. I SWEAR IT. STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING AND GO RIGHT NOW.

GO, SPEED, GO!

YOU'RE STILL HERE! GOOOOO.

It R My Birthday!

If I Were To Ask You...

...How many cats are on this bed?



First you'd say, "Um...too many?" Then, you'd say, "Three." From top clockwise: Hercules, Sophie (near my pillow, GORRAMIT), and Ophelia.

Good answer!


But WRONG:



Yes, that's Titus holed-up in there. (Love Fi-Fi's surprised/concerned look there, too.)

Come out of there, you goofy Squinty McFootball Head!



Here's Mr. Chesterfield poking around. He's really found his way around the house well. He's a lovely cat and super smart too.



And now, some close-ups:

Ophelia, looking very, very concerned (as usual):

Hercules, looking very, very confused (as usual):

And Luna, looking positively evil (as usual):

What's wrong with this photo?:




If you said that it has obscene amounts of yarn in it, then you are only partially correct.

Keep looking...

...see it yet?

This next picture will help....



Yup, Titus again. He just thinks everything is for him, you know?

Cats, OY!

Top 10 Reasons To Love Ravelry

10.
It's like, the thing to DO, man.

9.
Can meet new people with similar (or not-so-similar) interests.

8.
Can actually purchase yarn (some rather obscure and/or discontinued stuff even) and other knitting items from other Ravelry folks.

7.
Join a group or post to a forum about a tricky project to get info and advice.

6.
Help catalog your extensive library of books and patterns.

5.
Can catalog your entire inventory of yarn with your own photos.

4.
Project management abilities that are amazing and helpful. Can include notes, progress reports, and photos. You can rate patterns and yarn. And you can see who else is knitting your project and how they are doing it.

3.
Access to what seems like a bajillion patterns and other people's projects with real photos.

2.
A lot of FREE patterns.

and the #1 reason to lurve Ravelry...

1.
THE.
FATHER.
TED.
KNITTING.
GROUP.

Of which I am now a member, of course (Knit fast, Father Ted is the actual group name).

FECK! ARSE! GIRLS! DRINK!

Whassa Goin' On?!

Ok, so first of all, what happened to the Dishcloth Swap? One day, I was told to "check back on May 1 for the next round's sign-up information." Then I didn't go check the blog for a few weeks and now suddenly, the entire blog is GONE. I e-mailed the moderator last week. No response. I hope nobody is sick, or worse. If anyone knows what the deal is, please fill me in. Even if it's because I totally suck at life and they all hate me personally, I still want to know.

I need a swap, people. I need the excuse of being a "spoiler" in order to justify buying shit. I love to buy stuff, seriously; even if it isn't for me. If it is, then rock on.

Which reminds me. I HAVE been knitting. I made a scarf for Todd (FINALLY) from some Lamb's Pride Worsted, which I doubled, in a pine green color. It looks really nice. I hope he likes it. Todd's not the gushy type about anything, short of like winning the 200-million-dollar PowerBall. So, he's not likely to get too thrilled over a scarf. I think when I showed it to him he mustered, "Very nice." But he was distracted by Samurai Warriors II on the Playstation II....Anyway, picture to come later.

About a week ago I cast on for the somewhat infamous pinwheel sweater in the adult size. This is a free pattern on Elann.com. Instead of using the Highland Wool that they recommend, I decided to try something different. I am using Lion Brand Cotton Ease. Oh, what nice yarn to work with. I am just about at the point where they tell you to make the arm holes. It's been going very well so far. My concern is this: I have fat arms. Like gross-fat, gelatinous arms. (Sorry for that visual.) So I'm trying to figure out NOW what I can do to make them wider. I'd hate to have to frog this thing back out to the armholes. Because, while it's not HARD to knit; it is A LOT of knitting. Again, pictures are forthcoming.

Ok here's one:





I got my invite to Ravelry back in October. And I think it's a fantastic resource. And recently, I've been really getting into all things Ravelry. I am seriously going to try to photograph and catalog all the yarn in my stash on Ravelry. Stop laughing. I am! Today I went through and added as many books as I could. I think I might try to finish the books part tonight. I'm pretty sure I am only missing a few and then there are some not in the Ravelry database. Although how THIS isn't in the Ravelry book database, is beyond me.

Friday is my birthday and I am taking off from work. This will be the first time in ages that I've taken off from work on my birthday. Todd, Nicole and I are hitting the first showing of Speed Racer that day! It's getting bad reviews so far, but whatever. I have really bizarre taste in movies. In fact, this weekend we got Dude, Where Is My Car? from Netflix. I thought it was great. SHIBBY!

Oh and Happy Cinco de Mayo.