Vis Major

Things which are good

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Today is my Friday; we're driving down to Washington DC tomorrow to attend a friend's USMC retirement ceremony & party afterwards.

And! Earl Allen is driving down today to spend the weekend with us.

Ravelry user Sayga created sweaters for some chickens. They're completely awesome.
Sissy and her husband might be coming out for a visit this month! That'd be really great, but I won't get my hopes up too much until it's confirmed.

It's a gorgeous day outside; it smells like a school field trip day.

International Towel Day

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:04:00 +0000

Here it is, 2008, seven years after Douglas Adams' passing, and I'm only now finding out about International Towel Day. From the Wikipedia.org article:

Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams. The commemoration was first held in 2001, two weeks after his death on May 11, 2001. On this day, fans carry a towel with them during the day to demonstrate their participation and mourning of the author. The towel is a reference to Adams's popular science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The official Towel Day website is here.

Sheep & Wool 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:07:00 +0000

I haven't had a chance to post my finds from Maryland Sheep & Wool here yet; I did take pictures of my finds & add them to my Ravelry stash, though. I didn't go too crazy this year, for a few reasons: I'm already at SABLE levels (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy, meaning I have more yarn than I can reasonably knit given the limited free time I have now) and I didn't find too much stuff that I could only find at the festival. As more and more beautiful yarns and needles find their way online (hello, Etsy!), the uniqueness of festival-only items seems to be diminishing. I'm not complaining, mind you; it's great being able to support smaller-scale artisans year round.

This year, my main focus was on attending meetups rather than on buying yarn. The Ravelry meetup Saturday afternoon was *packed*. It was so great to meet Jess & Casey in person. They were swamped like the rock stars they are! I also got a chance to meet most of the Ravelry helpers who showed me the ropes when I first received my invitation; that was also supercool.

From the Ravelry meetup, I moved on to the Knitter's Review meetup as hosted by the super smart & friendly Clara Parkes. If you're considering working with a new-to-you yarn or want to learn more about yarn in general, Clara's your lady; she's the author of the wonderfully informative book, The Knitter's Book of Yarn. Clara's write-up of the festival can be found here; evidence of my profound non-photogenic-ness (as well as my new cowgirl boots & hot pink socks) made it to the write-up. :)

I was very saddened to learn of the thefts & vandalism at this year's festival. I know crime is everywhere, but come on. Can't there be one little oasis of safety and goodness out there?

My job, in video form

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Thu, 08 May 2008 17:27:00 +0000

Professional Cat Herding.

Imagine me squealing...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Fri, 02 May 2008 23:46:00 +0000

...in a pitch that only dogs and dolphins can hear.

Despite starting off rather craptacularly, the day is winding down quite nicely:

Chico, the Young Sir, and I had a great dinner at our favorite local restaurant.

I'm all set for Maryland Sheep & Wool tomorrow. Aieee! Aieeee! It's finally here!

The summer issue of Interweave Knits arrived today.

So! Did! My! Ball winder! I already have my swift, so now I can wind hanks into yarn cakes with style and verve!

I found a jumbo size box of Bottle Caps candy at Target the other night; I'm eating only my favorite flavors - cola and root beer.

Tonight, I'll play with some yarn while winding it into cakes and then take a nice bath; I've got some great Lush bath bombs to choose from, some red wine to drink, and a new knitting magazine to peruse. After that, it's off to bed early and then onto a bus filled with other fiber freaks to spend a whole day amongst My Kind. As if the yarn and animals weren't good enough, there'll also be lots of Ravelry people to meet.

AND! My super awesome mom will be here in just ONE WEEK. One week from today, from right now, she will BE HERE.

Ah yes, life is quite good.

Need to feel some sugary emotional happiness?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:12:00 +0000

Go read this prose. Go on, read it.

In which technology enhances my dorkitude

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 03:10:00 +0000

I'm preparing for the Maryland Sheep & Wool festival; last year was my first year attending and I just sort of winged it.

This year, I've added web clips of the fairgounds map, vendor list, and event schedule to my iPhone.

I took it a bit further and scanned a laminated yarn requirements guide I have, cropped & saved each topic (sweaters, vests, hats, socks, etc.) into separate PNG files, saved the images to both my website & my iPhone's photo library, created an iPhone-friendly HTML page with links to the different images, and created an iPhone-friendly icon for the page so I could save it as a pretty web clip.

That's pretty dorky, even if I am quite pleased with myself.

Balance

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:08:00 +0000

I currently have two tattoos, and both are on my right side. I've been planning to get a third one of something in particular on my left side but hadn't given much thought to what I'd get as a fourth to balance me out.

Then Aerenchyma comes along, with her contemplation of getting a knitting tattoo, and that strikes me as a Good Idea.

Naturally, I just did a Google & Google image search for "knitting tattoos." Most were of the ball-of-yarn-plus-needles variety, but one very striking one was of a star filled in with stockinette stitches. I bet lots of stitch patterns would make good tattoos - cables? lace? Another one that caught my eye had a Japanese-style cat hugging the ball of yarn & needles.

I need to look around a bit for ideas. If I see any really cool ones at the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival (aside: It's only Two! Weeks! Away! Yeehaw!) I'll ask the tattoo-sporter if I may take a picture of it for inspiration. ;)

Nerds are Funny

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Do you have a nerd in your life who mystifies you? Or, are you a nerd who likes to read things about your kind? If so, check out the Nerd Handbook. It's pretty accurate.

And, this one section describes well why Movie Night was often one continuous stream of Funny:

Nerds are [redacted] funny. Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor. Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd?s other natural talents and you?ll realize that he sees humor is another game.

Humor is an intellectual puzzle, "How can this particular set of esoteric trivia be constructed to maximize hilarity as quickly as possible?" Your nerd listens hard to recognize humor potential and when he hears it, he furiously scours his mind to find relevant content from his experience so he can get the funny out as quickly as possible.

Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:58:00 +0000

I have an account with ThinkGeek.com, my personal favorite internet source for geeky/nerdy/dorky items. Each year on April Fool's day, they send out a "product" newsletter with bogus stuff - I completely fell for it the first year, but now I just look forward to what their imaginations come up with.

This year's newsletter featured a product that wasn't so weird as to be outside the realm of possibility - the Personal Soundtrack Shirt. I clicked through only to be told it was a fake item, but I really expected it to be a real thing lumped into the fake stuff, so no one would buy it, and *that* would've been the joke.

But! Apparently, they've gotten overwhelming demand for it so now they're going to really make one. Heh.

That's what you get, ThinkGeek! You had to expect this eventually. You can't expect to keep giving us awesome fake products every year and expect us to leave you alone.

Heh.

Danger Man

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 14:14:00 +0000

Do yourself a favor and go read my friend RJK's post about how he's a Danger Man. I'll give you a little preview as a further incentive:

I've waited until "9" in my dad's 10 count to discipline.

You know how when you get together with someone, you usually get all their detritus - friends, family, pets, baggage, quirks, etc. - as part & parcel of the deal?

Well, I got RJK via my relationship with Chico, and this pleases me a great deal. He's a cool cat, that RJK.

Why People Do What They Do

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Ever have those moments where you hear or read about something that you already know, but the way the thing is presented finally crystallizes it for you?

People follow their strongest impulses. It?s pure luck of the genetic and environmental draw if your strongest impulses are socially acceptable.

This crystallized, for me, why people do what they do. It's something I already realized in a more nebulous, hand-waving way but now the concept is firmly locked in my head in a much shorter, more succinct way.

Please forgive the shouting, but...

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:15:00 +0000

HOLY SHIT! MY MOM IS COMING OUT FOR A VISIT!

You don't understand. My mom is FREAKIN' AWESOME and I see far too little of her. She just up & bought her plane ticket as a surprise.

She'll be here the second weekend of May. If she had chosen the first weekend of May I would have either a) missed the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival and the Ravelry meetups that go along with that, or b) dragged my Mom with me to the festival.

You all know me pretty well. I think you all know what would have happened. Fortunately, I think my mom would've gotten a kick out of the festival - she likes animals - but we don't have to test that theory.

HOLY SHIT! MY MOM WILL BE HERE SOON! I CAN'T WAIT!!

(Now I have to arrange to see my Sissy soon, too.)

Troublemaker(1)

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:28:00 +0000

Ravelry's lone Code Monkey, Casey, loves us all so much that he gave us several April Fool's Day pranks:

Hats for all! Every avatar received some kind of hat or thing on their "head." There were chef hats, folded paper hats, bishop's miters, magician's hats, cowboy hats, angry purple monkeys, WWII-style helmets, penguins, witch's hats, cat-in-the-hat hats, knitted hats, pilgrim hats, top hats, Uncle Sam hats, parrots, and one halo. I received a witch's hat. Appropriate, no?

Some of us (*ahem*) were labeled troublemakers. I'm completely mystified as to why *I* was labeled a troublemaker.

My friend Bubbo's forum posts were all timestamped in Clown Pants Time. There are 10 pants on the clown clock. No, I don't expect this to make sense to you. Yes, it makes sense to me. Yes, I'm mostly writing this post so I don't forget all the silly things we received today.

Our library shelves contained two new books: "Champion," featuring Fabio, and "The Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller. Clicking on the crochet book took you to the actual crochet book, while clicking on the Fabio book took you to his fan club's site.

Forum posts have 5 buttons/tags under them: educational, interesting, agree, disagree, and love. All of the buttons skittered away from your mouse when you tried to click them.

A celebrity knitter joined our ranks today; in her profile, she's promoting a little yarn-related movie that she's working on.¹

The most popular yarn was changed from something good to something... a little hideous.

It was a fun day. I can only imagine what Jess & will come up with next year. Maybe fake moths in our stashes?!

¹I didn't care for the book, so I don't think I'll care for the movie. Normally, it's one I might watch on DVD but I'm considering going to the theater just to see all the knitters & hookers turn up with their projects and headlamps/lighted needles.

Bad Toby Rides Again

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 03:45:00 +0000

Regular readers know that our black & white cat, Toby, received the dubious honor of being nicknamed "Bad Toby" because he acted so badly. Notable incidents include: knocking a glass of orange juice into my Apple Sunflower iMac (which was really my fault, because liquids don't belong near computers especially when the "guts" of the computer are on the bottom of the lamp-like base); knocking over & shattering a large decorative clay pot (while I was trying to revive the poor sad iMac from the orange juice incident); napping in the shards of the large decorative clay pot; repeatedly climbing onto the top of the refrigerator & leaping over to the bookshelf that held my yarn when it was a wee tiny little stash; strewing the stash yarn from one end of the apartment to the other; ruining a sweater in progress & two balls of $12 Malabrigo yarn; and shredding a new suit Chico bought to wear to a wedding before Chico had a chance to box it up for safekeeping.

Bad Toby did all this before he was two years old. It's a miracle he lived to see three. He's very sweet and loving, but he was also Very Bad.

Now that he's older, he hasn't pulled any shenanigans for a really long time. Frankly, I thought he'd grown out of his badness completely (but I still call him Bad Toby because you don't pull all those stunts and then lose your nickname after a while of behaving).

I spent Friday night formatting & refilling my iPod. I heard what can only be described as a ruckus but didn't think too much about it; it sounded like Toby & Zoe chasing each other around the living room. Eventually, Chico came downstairs and said in a cautious or halting tone that he thought I should come into the living room. There's a particular tone of voice he uses when there's yarn-related trouble, so I knew that was the basis.

Bad Toby had gone into my purse/knitting bag... dug the ball of sock yarn out *without* disturbing anything else (namely, my nearly-completed sock)... and had strewn the ball of hot pink yarn all over the living & dining rooms.

All I could do was laugh - he'd left the important thing alone, the yarn wasn't too expensive ($4 for the ball), he didn't snag or ruin the yarn, and he'd obviously had a good time.

Frankly, I'm happy he hasn't forgotten how to play. I'm not going to tempt him by leaving a sweater unattended, but it won't bother me too much if he unrolls other balls of sock yarn... just as long as he leaves the sock in progress alone!

Hodge-podge

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:43:00 +0000

I don't have anything substantial to say in this blog post - what's new, right? - so here are a few things on my mind.

I may have a sickness/obsession. I've been trying very hard (and succeeding) to not buy yarn from the internet unless I've worked with it before; too often, the new stuff would arrive and not be exactly as soft as I would prefer. But, I read about a merino/cashmere/silk blend in this blog post and made impulse buy (I know, I know... self control out the window and all that nonsense) after asking via a comment if it was as soft as I'd expect and the blog author commenting back, "Yes, super duper soft." How could I not, when the blog author described it thusly?
It's called Milan. It's from Tilli Tomas. It's hand-dyed. And (here's the really evil part) it's made from Merino, Silk and Cashmere. Yes, cashmere. Kinda like Koigu meets cocaine. Except legal, safe and socially acceptable.

It finally (finally!) arrived on Monday. It's the softest most soft sock yarn that's ever been soft. It is special. It is My Precious. I held it and smooshed it while I was reading in bed Monday night; Chico caught me and was, I think, bemused and a little afraid for my sanity. He banned yarn from the bed, and I summarily ignored him. My three skeins of Peonies are a little bit of heaven.

You might be asking me, "But wouldn't just 2 skeins give you a pair of socks? Why would you buy 3 skeins?" to which I would reply, "You be quiet. If you must know, two skeins are for socks and one skein is for just in case & fondling. Also, shut up."

I bought a digital kitchen scale for use in the kitchen. If Chico tells you I bought it so I could weigh yarn & evenly divide single skeins into multiple skeins (which is useful if you have one skein of something yummy and you want to make some toe-up socks so as not to waste even a little bit) - and in fact he witnessed me doing that just last night - then he is lying. While other people (knitters, crocheters, spinners, and dyers) may use *their* digital kitchen scales to weigh yarn to create even balls or find out more info about unlabeled skeins, I am only using mine in the kitchen. For kitchen things. Like cooking.

Our Yoga class leader was a little deflated on Sunday morning. I asked if all was well, and she replied that it was just drama in her life weighing on her. The drama must have been catching, because we had some drama of our own. Yeah, there's that thing about how you can't control anyone else - you can only control your reactions - and it's true. But still, unwelcome drama sucks even if you are trying to be all Zen about it.

In the course of resolving the drama, I discovered a new-to-me sandwich shop. The owner is from Milan, which makes sense given that sandwich choices were very European in nature. I chose the Tris: prosciutto, sliced tomatoes, olive paste, and brie toasted together on some kind of not-too-soft, not-too-hard, kind-of-sweet bread. I'm thinking of going back today. So, discovering the shop was a nice side effect to resolving the drama.

Anyone who does not have my sister as their own sister - which is all of you and not me, ha! - should be jealous of me. Sissy sent me a pink t-shirt from the best burger joint in the Whole World, Stoplight Diner in Festus/Crystal City, just because she knew I'd like it. She will receive some socks as thanks, even though she didn't ask for anything in return (she never does - she's a selfless giver, my Sissy).

I am making socks as if it's a moral imperative to do so. Progress on other things? Meh, not so much.

I burned an MP3 cd of The Roots last night to keep in the car, and darned if I didn't leave it at home. Dammit.

I especially like this Exploding Dog comic named "I made you a mix tape":

No! I like it in here.

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:56:00 +0000

I had forgotten how much I love this movie trailer until it came up tangentially in a work conversation.

The voice-over guy is Hal Douglas, not to be confused with the other voice-over guy Don LaFontaine.

What's that got to do with it?

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:14:00 +0000

Funny story.

The Young Sir and I both really like Irish Potato candies around St. Patrick's Day. A guy I work with makes fantastic Irish Potatoes, knows I love them, and was kind enough to bring me some that he & his daughter had made.

I took some of them home for the Young Sir, who quite happily scarfed them down. Afterwards, Chico looks at the Young Sir and states his amazement over the Young Sir eating Irish Potatoes since the Young Sir professes to not like coconut. The Young Sir looks at Chico and asks, "What's that got to do with it?"

Chico and I look at each other, look at him, and then explain that coconut is the main ingredient in Irish Potatoes. He didn't believe Chico (because Chico teases us & makes up stories so often) but he believed it coming from me after I showed him an internet recipe for them.

I'm curious to see what he'll do next year around St. Patrick's Day - he used to eat granola bars like they were going out of style until he realized they had nuts in them. Since he decided he was "allergic" to nuts, he was immediately & suddenly "allergic" to granola bars as well.

Silly kid. :-)

Don't go big, go BirBig!

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 21:35:00 +0000

My favorite comedian, Mike Birbiglia, has a newly-greenlit pilot in the works for CBS.

It might we weird to be proud of someone you don't really know (we've emailed back & forth a little, and he kindly donated stuff for Sarcasmo's memorial auction) but I don't care.

I'm proud of him & really hope he makes it big.

DO NOT WANT

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:59:00 +0000

I don't want these so much that I'll shout it again. DO NOT WANT.

Scissor spiders, courtesy of Uncrate

Good Day

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 00:34:00 +0000

You know how some days are really crappy and make you wish you'd never bothered to get out of bed?

This is not one of those days.

The Young Sir did well on his interview for the high school we'd like him to attend, so he's officially been accepted. +1

The Young Sir is with his mom this weekend, so Chico and I have an adults-only weekend. +1

Our department went out to lunch to send off a co-worker with style, and we had great food and a great time. +1

I got to deliver good news to a direct report today, and I love doing that. +1

There's cold beer in the fridge and more in the basement when the cold ones are gone. +1

A friend's pregnant girlfriend had a health scare that required a trip to the hospital's emergency room, but mom and baby are doing well. +1

I received two new knitting pattern books and one new knitting magazine in the mail today. +1

Chico picked me up from work so I didn't have to get rained on. +1

My beloved Ravelry site is getting major notice outside the fiber world and is really doing well. +1

I'm making good progress on my mom's socks. +1

Dudes. I left a comment on the Yarn Harlot's blog (she's Hot Stuff in the knitting world - trust me) and *she emailed me in response*. The closest comparison I can make is leaving a comment on a movie star's site and having that movie star send you an email in return. Crazy! +100

As you can see, I'm pretty far ahead today. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!

Vicuna

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:44:00 +0000

Cheese and crackers! I didn't think there was any yarn in the world more expensive than qiviut, which is made from the downy under-wool of the arctic muskox and sells for $82.55 a skein at YarnMarket.com. Each skein is 218 yards, for a per-yard price of $0.38. It's so expensive because of a) its low micron count (between 15-20), and b) how difficult it is to gather the fiber. You don't just walk up to a wild muskox and shear it like a sheep. No. You wait for it to fall off or get caught on trees & whatnot and then harvest it.

Anyway, I was wrong. There is more expensive yarn out there in the world.

A 217-yard skein of laceweight vicuna yarn is $299.85 from YarnMarket.com; that's $1.38 per yard, or $0.04 per inch.

Ever touched 100% cashmere? Know how soft it feels? That's because its micron count¹ must be less than or equal to 18.5; as a comparison, average merino wool has a micron count of 20-22, while fine merino wool has a micron count between 18-20. And, merino wool is nothing to sneeze at - it's soft, durable, and not itchy at all (unless you have a wool allergy in general).

The vicuna's micron count is reportedly 8 to 13. That makes it the softest, most soft fiber that's ever been soft. Holy cats.

Poor little vicunas were hunted to near extinction until strict guidelines for fiber collection were imposed. I'd love to see a herd in the wild. Guess I'll need to add a trip to Peru to my fantasy travel roster!

¹ A micron is one-millionth of a meter; it refers to the width of single fiber of fleece. The micron count is the average measurements within a fiber sample. Essentially, the smaller the micron count the softer the fleece & vice versa. Fibers with low micron counts, such as cashmere, are more expensive.

Mom's Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:58:00 +0000

So March is my mom's birthday month. She's reached a point in her life where she's got darned near everything she could want, so I asked her if there was anything special she wanted the birthday fairy to bring her. Naturally, in the way of moms everywhere, she told me to save my money. I told her that the sock fairy might not have her socks finished in time for her actual birthday but they'd probably go in the mail some time in March.

She replied, "I would much rather have something that you made, than anything store bought anyday! I am glad that you both branched out from popsicle stick art though."

She's so cute. Now I have to make her something with popsicle sticks, just as a joke. I'll get Sissy involved too. Maybe her kindergarten class could help out?

Two-Step

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:29:00 +0000

My head is stuffed with black pepper and my chest is filled with ice, but I have a nearly overwhelming urge to do the two-step. The fact that Brooks & Dunn are currently playing on my iPod is almost guaranteed to be responsible for this urge.

Damn, I miss line dancing. The next time I get up to get something off the printer, I'll do the two-step instead of walk.

Gordon Synergy

noreply@blogger.com (Amy McWeasel) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:33:00 +0000

I have a picture of a young me with Sesame Street character Gordon Robinson (the actor is Roscoe Orman, who's played Gordon since 1974).

I'm attending this year's Free Library Festival because Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (better known as the Yarn Harlot) will be there.

Who else will be at the Free Library Festival? Yes! Roscoe Orman/Gordon Robinson! I don't know what I'm more excited about: seeing the Yarn Harlot again, or possibly getting another picture taken with Gordon.