Sleeping kitteh

The craft fair went very well.  I was actually the only one really selling non-novelty-yarn-scarves there.  People fawned over the Woodins and assorted stuffed toys.  I’m happy!

^_^

Useless crap?

So, I’m trying to knit all this stuff for the Holiday Craft Show at school, and I’m totally getting a kick in the self-esteem. I haven’t knit that many things, actually, and who would want to buy my random, non-matching things? There are so few things, and all the other stuff I’ve knit has either gone to a new home as a gift, or is something I like too much (my cardigan) or have worn too much (my socks) to even consider selling.

Weak! I guess I should just chill out and have fun, and hope that my mom’s jewelry and stitch markers and stuff take up more space at our table. Because what I have is really not impressive at all. I should have planned ahead better. It’s like Christmas knitting, only I should have started in January, and more people are going to look at it! Ack!

Laura, in the knitting club I started at school, offered to give me some of her knitted things for a cut of the profits. I might take her up on it, because my collection really is a bit sad.

I’ve tagged it on Flickr, so you can see exactly what I’ve knit. Blargh.

The HCS is on Thursday. I’m still knitting for it! Stubbornly!

Beatrix in a show

I might finish a pair of socks in a weekend.

Okay, fine, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, maybe, but I’ve already knit 75% of one sock in two days. Which is outrageous. My usual “fastest time” is about 2 weeks. Lately socks have been taking months to knit.

I’m knitting the Beatrix socks (pdf) by Gigi Silva from Socktopia. I’m knitting it in Scout’s Swag Merino Fingering in the colorway “Socktober” that I bought last October (2006). It’s very fun and lovely. I was worried that the striping/swirling of the yarn would obscure the pattern, but it actually looks quite good. The leg went super ridiculously fast, and now I’m just knitting the stockinette foot of the first sock. I’m hoping, at least, that I can finish that one this afternoon during the matinée and cast on the second during the evening show.

Also, I got just what I needed yesterday evening as a pick-me-up at the end of the week. Yay! Two packages came, the first from the lovely Jessica. Inside were two beautiful skeins of her BFL handspun, that I won as a runner-up in her ‘name my wheel’ contest. It is so lovely.

In the second box was the skein of Dream in Color “Smooshy” in the colorway “Blue Lagoon,” which I bought from Amanda on Ravelry. It is so pretty! I didn’t expect so much green in it, but I love the green. I’m excited. I love Ravelry.

Also, new favourite picture of Nelson:

Isn’t he a cute little bugger? Squee!

Nelson

Look who’s living in our house now!

This little guy turned up Friday night in our woodpile, in the rain. I’d gone out earlier that same day to get wood for the fire I built, and I’m surprised I didn’t see him. Sarah’s friend came over and presented him to us, saying, “Normally I don’t bring these, but here.”

So we locked him in our bathroom and gave him food and a bath. We trimmed his claws and put flea repellent on him, and made sure he was house-trained. We kept him in the bathroom overnight, but he would cry and cry when we left him alone. About 6:30 Saturday morning I woke up and brought him into my room, where he snuggled my head and I fell asleep again. Dad and S came to visit him too.

And Saturday night we watched a movie with him, and he’s been roaming the house ever since. The other cats are super pissed, but they’ll get over it. I thought maybe they would be less intimidated by him because he’s so little, but they’re really mad.

Hazel seems to still like me enough to sleep on my bed, though, provided I don’t let the little heathen invade her space.

He’s a real sweetheart though, and doesn’t freak out when they hiss and growl at him. My dad really likes Nelson because he gets to have some cat like him, and Nelson likes everyone.

He even sleeps, too, which our big cats don’t really do. They snooze watchfully.

He’s also really hard to get a picture of, because he’s so wiggly. He has a lot of energy, and runs around our house at top speed. He likes to play with ribbons, and chases them enthusiastically. He hasn’t quite mastered stairs, and he comes running down them and then slides at the bottom. Also, he likes people food, and we’re going to have to train him to not try to eat it all the time. He was really interested in the fridge, and he always wants to climb onto the counters in the kitchen.

There are more pictures on Flickr, if you click on one of them above. I’m also trying to figure out how to post the video, because he’s that cute. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Sushi

I wish I’d brought a camera with me this weekend, because the nature was lovely, but the weekend itself wasn’t terribly exciting.

I went up to J’s after tech on Saturday, and hung out with him and his parents (parent’s visiting weekend, yay!). We went to a talk on Quantum Mechanics and then to dinner at a pub. Quantum Mechanics is crazy, just FYI, but also awesome. And then in the morning we went with J’s roommate and his family to brunch at Cracker Barrel. It was the high life.

I suppose. =D Pancakes are good.

Then I spent another night, and watched movies, and got up Monday morning for an interview and class visit at J’s school. It’s not a top choice, I guess, but I like it there a lot, and could happy attend. My interview was a “forum interview,” in which we four students (myself and three others, including one current classmate, whom J says may not attend his school) just sat and talked about things, like global warming, and the environment, and robots, and war. It was very cool.

After that interview, I got lunch with J and then had to drive to Haverford. Which, by the way, is 100 miles away on the turnpike. Yay. The drive was nice, low key, and pretty enough. I listened to Escape Pod the whole time, having run out of knitting podcasts, and that passed the time nicely. Those are some fun sci-fi stories.

I spent the night at Haverford in a dorm, with some girls. It was awk, but what overnight college visit isn’t? I saw Anders– he was on the same hall, he was a year ahead of me at Park– and Mickey– not on the same hall, but another friend– and Liz. It was fun to see them. I really like that school.

And I got up really early Tuesday morning, because there were supposed to be mouse-catching-people coming, so at 7:15 or so I got up and put away the aero bed and took a shower. Then I sat in the common room and knit and read. The maintenance people didn’t come until 8:15.

So after my Haverford interview, which was alarmingly short, I decided I didn’t want to see more classes, and instead drove home and watched Heroes on my bed and then took a nap.

The moral of this story?

Basically no knitting has happened since like, Sunday morning.

I want to knit! I want time to knit. I can’t wait for Thanksgiving, when J comes home and we get to drive to the beach and I can have 3 hours of totally-me-knitting-time.

Oh and I’m eating stale sushi and spending a lot of time at school getting stuff finished up for Kiss Me, Kate. Rawr.