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Life lately has been hectic. With youth group and school and all of that, it's hard to manage.

My first youth group meeting was last Friday, with a cookout/bonfire. I had fun, but it was boring and cold, even though it was at the beach, none other than Surf City USA. Well, it was at night, I was wearing shorts, and I wasn't able to knit. After that we had a lock in, but I didn't go to that. That day I finished that blessed baby blanket. It took me 4 weeks, longest it ever took me to finish something. I also had to weave in the ends with my hands, due to losing my tapestry needle.

I went back yesterday for the second part of the festivities and ate at Ikea. I also bought a foldable bin, which I plan on using for stash storage, should it ever get there. I'm planning on going there to get stuff for my room.

After that we had a cookout. Bethany stayed for that.

How's it goin'?

Ten days without a post from me. What a shocker. I've actually been trying to avoid posting until the Christmas knitting for Canada, so I could show you all at once, but you can wait, right? Am I right???? AM I RIGHT!!!!!????? Kay, I think you get the point now.

School starts 6 days and 12 hours from now, according to my little nerdy brainy thingy. I'm not really worried about how well I'll do in school but rather about other things, like dealing with people. I'm not really social. About who's going to be in my classes. About talking to that boy whose name has been removed for security purposes. About when I'll be able to knit in school. You know, that kind of stuff.

I'm going through some tough situations. Read about it on Ravelry if you like, because there is a chance of...well I really shouldn't tell, because of the potential risks.

Why Me???

Well, it seems like every knitter falls into the sock craze at one point or another. Seems like it is my turn to fall. I've also snapped out of my fantasy of finishing one thing at a time---that blanket is just too boring.

So, to begin with, I made socks for the same baby as I'm doing that blanket for. I went down a needle size, because I didn't have size 7 DPN's (I got them today). They are littered with mistakes, but they look great.

This pattern is called Quick Baby Socks and they really are quick. I cast on one afternoon, and finished the second sock the following.

I have started my Christmas knitting, because it will be tough to manage once school starts. The first one is a pair of toe-up socks for Derry. The pattern is this handy sock generator where you enter your gauge, shoe size, and needle size, and you get a custom, generic, toe-up sock pattern. Since this is entirely modifiable, I plan on using this pattern for most of my sock knitting.

The yarn is Bernat sock yarn (yes, the acrylic kind) that was supposed to be for Father's Day socks, which I frogged, because I got stuck at the gusset. Well I don't like the color, having only gotten it for the sock pattern, which I now realize was a HUGE mistake.

I used a size 3 needle at 7 stitches to the inch...yes I know, I am a bad knitter. I didn't gauge, because I didn't have the next size up or down. No money to get more needles either. I finished the first sock last night. It was a drag, because I used stockinette stitch. But it was fun. I had trouble with the short rows, but I will not complain because this is my first time short-rowing.

I have begun to question the way I was raised. Growing up in a fundamentalist church is not easy. It isn't easy to absorb the crap they give you. Even now I'm having a tough time, to the point that sometimes I regret my choice of faith. You see, when I learn things about other religions, I'm afraid that I will become one of them (I have been baptized). And just when I feel like I need to get my mind off all this, I find this Satan impersonator on Ravelry. Since it's a sock puppet account, I reported it. Some of the people I added on Ravelry have friended the devil, probably due to the "random friending" thing. I like to look at a user's profile before friending, so I know who this is. Then I make the decision.

Yeah, I just went off topic right there, just need a place to vent. You see, what I'm saying is that my church doesn't let you believe what you want to believe. I hate that. I need to somehow get away from the church. Maybe marry a Catholic, since this place is mostly Catholic? I don't know, anything to get me outta here.

And what does this have to do with my socks? Because I thought about this while I was working on them.

Stash Storage...Finally!!!

So, I've finally reorganized my stash, after several long months of thought. Many teens on Ravelry have said that they use plastic drawers. I had a set of those, with nothing but junk in it, such as paper scraps, which I've relocated into a cardboard box. The craft paper went into the nightstand with nothing in it, thus leaving space for everything yarn.

The first one is printouts of patterns that I'm saving, because I might need them again. Should I ever get any, my knitting books will belong there too.


In the second drawer, there are knitting needles and notions. I also have my interchangeable set in there, because it is extremely disorganized.


The third drawer is yarn, yarn, and nothing but YARN. This is the yarn I'd be most likely to pick up when starting something new. It does include Red Heart, shame on me.
 

And lastly, the yarn I don't want or need, but am stuck with.


Oops! I forgot my overpopulated scrap pile. Just odds and ends, too little to use.



This is my current WIP, a basketweave blanket.

This one is rather boring, but I can live with that. The knitting hasn't been going so well. I started out with three extra stitches on the needles, but didn't know that until when I was done with the garter stitch. And yesterday, as I was organizing my stash, I found that one of the circular tips I grabbed were the wrong size. It's not bad though.

I'm also helping out with the magazine Ravelry's teen group is helping to create. I'm designing and writing articles mostly. I hope it is a great success.

A Day of Totally Bizzarre Awesomeness

Today was definitely a great day. It didn't start out that way. I started out scrambling for my size 9 needle tips, because I wanted to knit at McDonald's because Sam usually stays at the playground too long. So I went knitting-less, but we ordered it takeout because it was less than half an hour before my dad's dental appointment. But McDonald's was awesome either way.

This morning I finally bound off Aria's Fetchings. They are uneven because I didn't count rounds correctly when I did the first glove. I haven't woven in all the ends yet. There is peppermint all over it because I took it to lunch in my knitting bag and dropped my peppermint in there (they use that instead of fortune cookies), so there is red gunk all over these.


We went to TAP (acronym for That Awesome Pool) today with Bethany, since she is leaving for Sacramento tomorrow. She will be gone for a week.

In the teen group on Ravelry, there is a party in celebration of the fact that there are 1000 members, and there are prizes that are randomly drawn. I won a pair of gloves designed by Sarah, a.k.a Callalilly, which came in the mail today. I saw a picture on her projects page, but it is better in person. Now here are the gloves, modeled by none other than moi.


And as of now, I'm in my own little world, knitting, just finished a slice of pizza that was left over from tonight's dinner, and of course blogging from my headquarters that is my room. Perfect in every way.

Finally, a happy post!!!

WARNING: This post may contain mild profanity. And yet another note: I started this post yesterday before my dad took away the computer.
So, my dad found out about my evil plan to use his computer. When he went to his computer, he found a Ravelry forum thread. And we all know I'm the only one who knows what Ravelry even is. So he gets mad at me and starts treating me like I'm some sort of robot which makes me burst into tears. And then we come to a realization that there was too much crap on this computer. And that there are two options for us; to return the thing to Best Buy and get a desktop or to uninstall all the crap. I liked the desktop idea better, but there was that one concern I wasn't allowed to express. I watch a ton of YouTube videos, and most of them aren't G-rated, but not inappropriate either. It's along the lines of profanity and mild cartoon violence (like, maybe Elmo Kills Barney). The problem is, the computer would be in the living room, where Sam constantly lurks. And he'll probably pick up the bad words, like once when Bethany and I watched a potty-mouthed video and then later said "fuck" at the dinner table. Yeah. Not pretty. But there are risks to fixing a computer, so I went with taking it back to Best Buy. It was a pretty tough sacrifice.


But my dad comes back from Best Buy, with the netbook, due to the 14 day return policy (we bought it before leaving for Europe). So we start bad-mouthing Best Buy with names such as "Worst Buy" and in my head, I thought out "Best Shit", as we get the baby dinosaur out and start to uninstall like crazy. Worse yet, some of the apps (even those that don't belong in the preloaded crap category) could not be uninstalled. But we got rid of more than half of it. And then there was the shocking discovery


The shocking discovery is that the preloaded crap is only there so that the manufacturers can make money out of the PC (which here stands for preloaded crap). And what's even more wackier, is that the CEO of Asus has the same name as my cousin Jerry, both of whom have interesting ways of making money.


So we've literally uninstalled half the crap, and it's better and faster without it. Ravelry only took a nanosecond to load. I think it works...at least for now.


And here to celebrate with me, is none other than Elmo, whom I finished right before all of this started. Time to Go to Work!!!

I cast on after writing the Rant a couple days ago, and finished yesterday while watching TV. It's for my mom to give Sam baths with, but we're not telling him that.

The Inaugural Blogger's Rant

Ugh...this goes out to all the computers I've ever used in my entire life. I've used so many computers in my life, and all but two ended up dying. As for the two that didn't die, these are the computers, and why they didn't go for the kill:

• An HP mini laptop my dad got from his work. As for what happened to that one, my dad gave it to his coworker who happens to be an old family friend (which, by the way, is what happens if you're one of my dad's friends and you work in the computer industry; you end up working for my dad). I may have mentioned her before, because she happens to be the pregnant one I was making those baby blankets for, and there's more knitting for her baby to come. But anyways, I miss this one.
• The second one was my dad's work-at-home computer, the one I'm using now. As for why this one's not broken? Well, let's have a little look-see here, shall we? Well it did break, but well, it got fixed. Sure it's ridiculously out of date (I'm pretty sure there's no more tech support---nerd moment) but hey, it works. The rest of that, my friends (and enemies), is a mystery.
• I forgot that there was a third one. That one vanished out of thin air and was never seen again.

As for why I'm posting this? Well, the netbook that was actually my first (officially) computer is infected with a fatal disease. So far this week it's crashed twice (that first time was...wait for it...yesterday). And it keeps making the weirdest noises. So yeah, I'm not cleanin' that up. Other computers I've used have crashed in the weirdest ways. For example, my mom's Macbook Pro. That one kept freezing. As for fixing it? Not a chance. We tried that, but it froze in the process. Oh yeah, there was also one from my dad's workplace that just shut down out of nowhere. I bet it's still lurking under my bed, decomposing.

And then there was the first one. The one with which I discovered that a computer was more than a device you used to play Math Arena (which was part of the elementary school curriculum) and send one-paragraph emails on. It was my dad's work computer, which he had retired, so it was mine to keep. It lasted two years under the usage of moi (that's a record) when it died of old age. We tried reformatting the dinosaur, but one day, it decided that it was over. My mom and I had just come back from Target when it happened. I cried.

I'm trying to get that off of my mind, but how, with so many computers being destroyed by my wrath? I just can't bear it. I'm trying not to cry. I'm trying to be strong. And that is why, dear electronic devices, you do not mess with me.

-------------------------------------------END OF RANT---------------------------------------------------------
 Okay, now that The Rant is officially over, here's some fibery happiness.


 Well, I've finished the Fetching gloves for Bethany.

I got a modeling gig. Here is me, with my cardigan. It's my new favorite sweater.


And better yet, I finally figured out how the Flickr importer on Ravelry works, so now I don't have to post every picture I want on Ravelry here first. No more WIP pics on this blog!!! Unless I want you to look at how I'm doing.

Now the question is what to knit next. There are so many things I want to make, as well as things I need to make. It's all in a jumble. So many people want me to make Fetching gloves for them. I myself need some Fetchings. I want to make that washcloth for Sam. That wrap skirt for me. The baby stuff. The sock yarn shawl. Oh where do I even begin?

A (somewhat) happy post!!!

Well, they left, and I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms. We're going over to Canada during Thanksgiving break like we were last year, but last year, my passport expired on the day we were leaving, so my mom and I stayed back. I can't wait.

After we took them to the airport, we went to church, where I cast on for the Fetching gloves I was going to make for Bethany. Some of the kids were watching as I knit, and not only had they wanted to learn, they also wanted me to make Fetchings for them. I have so much knitting to be done, and so little time to do it. What am I going to do?

That night, we went to Walmart, where I got a swimsuit and some yarn. It is for an Elmo washcloth I want to make for Sam (mostly for my mom to give him baths with), as a 4.5 yr old birthday gift. The 4.5 yr old celebration is a family tradition...it means having to sleep in your own room, because we are late bloomers. Maybe Sam will actually want to take baths...if it were with Elmo. It is a lovely skein of Peaches and Creme.



This morning, I finally finished the seaming for the cardigan. The collar is an inch short, but I managed to stretch it out. This is a picture I snapped while I was seaming it; the actual sweater just went through some major blocking because it is too small.



I'm so glad the knitting (and the boring hours of seaming) is done. Hopefully I can wear it out soon.