Posts from — January 2006

I’ve been debating it for a while and despite logistical concerns (I’m going to be out of town during part of the event) I have decided to join. It’s official! I Cheryl Kemp, being a knitter of sound relatively sound mind and knit fit body, do hereby declare my intent to participate in the 2006 Knitting Olympics.

I will be attempting the Diamond Fantasy Shawl by Sivia Harding, purchased and downloaded from The Knitting Zone. It the very same shawl the coordinator herself knit just this past summer. Learning from her previous training pitfalls should help lead me to victory. Yarn stats to come.

My huge stash has unfortunately no suitable yarn for this project so I will be visiting Lambkins’s Hideaway to remedy that problem…ok, maybe there is one yarn that might work, but I haven’t decided yet. (I’m SUPPOSED to be selling this yarn in my online store but I haven’t got it set up…too busy training for the event, besides, that would be one expensive shawl!) And…lace weight yarn could make this athlete succumb to bad, bad things. Things of which we will not speak. Sport or fingering weight yarn would definitely be better.

I also need to choose a team. There are so many now I don’t even know where to begin and since it’s so late, they may already be filled. If you know of a team where a lace shawl would fit in, let me know. Only 9 short training days left!

What do my seemingly random topics today have in common? Nothing really, they actually are pretty random, except they’re all from today. My recent knitting has been BOR-ING! My brother in law was here last weekend and informed me that my nephew had confiscated his Christmas hat. I finished another one while he was here, but ran out of yarn. It was a stash buster, one 100g skein of worsted wool I had bought on clearance. Now I have to find something of comparable gauge and pick up stitches around the bottom. I’ve also been working on Jim’s sweater and the black socks I cast on for him months ago. The sweater isn’t too bad, but I’m starting to think the socks might have to be ankle length.

I just got the nicest gift for no reason. Well, I guess there really WAS a reason, but she really didn’t need to do this. My mother in law was having some trouble with her laptop. Namely, it wouldn’t turn on at all! Just blinky green lights…very annoying. Since it was 5 days out of warranty (it figures) I had her send it to me instead of her having to deal with out of warranty support and shelling out $200. I’m considerably cheaper I did fix it and send it back and then today I get a lovely new orchid. It’s great to have orchids that bloom in the winter. It makes me feel like spring is right around the corner. While I’m at it, here are my other orchids in bloom. Consider it my little virtual bouquet to you.

The way these guys look, you’d think I keep the house freezing but it is super warm in here with my little space heater. Guess they’re just sick of winter too (although that is pretty unlikely for Loki…he is a Siberian Husky after all).

I generally :heart::heart::heart: technology, but sometimes it gets the best of me. Like yesterday. And today. I’ve set up a home network before…no big deal. This one is a little different though in that the laptop connects wirelessly and is also a member of a different network. Still, both PC’s running Windows XP, which boasts file and printer sharing. Really all I wanted to be able to do was to be able to print from the laptop to the desktop printer. Shouldn’t be too hard, right? WRONG! After messing around with the settings yesterday for about an hour (should have worked in 5 minutes, at least theoretically) it worked. Then I logged off. Then it didn’t work. Then 5 more hours yesterday and about 5 more today it’s working again. And get this…I’m STILL not entirely sure what made it work again! If I end up missing for a couple of days this week, you know where I am…trying to configure a !)(&*#@!@! laptop “Gee,” you might say, “couldn’t you just unplug the USB cable from the desktop and plug it into the laptop?” Well, DUH, but that would make things way too easy! Besides, if something says it’s going to work, it should work, dammit!

Normally I don’t like memes, but it’s for sweet Mer and it’s her first one, so I’m complying.

4 jobs that you have had in your lifetime
–pizza cook
–counselor at a weight loss center
–Victoria’s Secret salesperson
–graduate student (yes, in some cases, it IS an actual job!)

4 movies that you could watch over and over
–The Princess Bride
–Knight’s Tale
–I’ve never seen any others I want to watch multiple times (at least, none I can think of at the moment)

4 places that you have lived
–Bogalusa, LA
–Kingsville, TX
–Burlington, KY
–Park Hills, KY

4 TV shows that you love to watch
–Desperate Housewives
–Lost
–24
–Gilmore Girls

4 places that you have been on vacation
–Italy
–Scottland
–Hawaii
–Mexico

4 websites that you visit daily
–Bloglines
–The Weather Channel
–Blingo
–Knitting Help

4 of your favorite foods
–chocolate ice cream
–pasta with marinara
–black beans
–sourdough bread

4 places that you would rather be right now
–California
–Arizona
–a spa
–in bed

4 bloggers who you are tagging
–I’m not going to tag anyone specific, but if you’re moved and want to do it, go for it! Let me know though so I can learn something new about you.

I did something last night that I haven’t done for a while…I got into bed after midnight but had to get back up because I was “spinny”. That last glass of wine really did me in.:wine: So what was the monumental event that caused me to over indulge? Brooke Shields. AAlthough she was not technically in the same room at the time, I am pretty sure it was her fault. Or Benihana’s. Whatever. A friend invited me to the Cincinnati Enquirer Smart Talk Women’s Lecture Series. Prerequisite to such an event is food at the very least and wine if at all possible. We were lucky enough to have both. The boys met us at Benihana’s pre-lecture. Some rice, flipped shrimp and a couple of glasses of wine later, we were primed us for the event.

Brooke was a surprisingly interesting speaker. I thought she really did a fantastic job. She was humble, funny, well spoken and although very honest, quite kind at the same time. Way to kind regarding Tom Cruise if you ask me. The men had hoped she’d whip us into some kind of wild feminist frenzy..unfortunately for them (they thought this might help them get “lucky”) it didn’t happen.

Since we had to wait for Terri’s dear husband to pick us up, waiting at the bar was really the only option. Intellectual musings post lecture are always much more enticing with likker (seems like I am becoming more like Jen and La more each day). Especially chocolate dessert likker. Top that off with some chili cheese fries from the local institution, Price Hill Chili…and you can pretty much call that a perfect night.

I’ve been sitting here for the last hour trying to figure out an appropriate pattern for the Knitting Olympics. Yeah, I saw the challenge right after Stephanie posted it, but I just thought “right, not doing that!” Until I saw all of the other knitters agreeing to the challenge…I’m not sure if it’s exactly peer pressure, but I’m starting to feel the NEED to participate. So now the question is, “what to make?” I haven’t made a wrap or shawl and some lace knitting on that scale seems like it would be a good challenge for the 16 day time frame. I even have kid silk (not Rowan) in the stash (almost like a sign). However, I am still at a loss as to what pattern to choose. Another problem as well…I’m going to be out of town for part of that time. I usually knit socks on the plane, but I know a pair of socks in 16 days wouldn’t really be much of a challenge. Hmmm, unless I say something like 3 pair of socks??? Anyway, whatever it is should be easily managed and portable. Suggestions?
I finished and felted Jim’s green clogs. The colors look great together…Knit Picks WOTA in evergreen, fern and avocado.

:plane:Normally I don’t announce when I’m going out of town…you know, that whole thing about some crazy knit blogger coming to steal my stash while I’m away. :rofl:. This time I’m leaving Jim behind though so he’ll be here with my two very scary dogs to guard the goods.

A friend has an anesthesiology conference in San Diego and she’s never been to California! Can you imagine? I’m so excited she asked me to tag along! It will be great to finally catch up wtih her…I haven’t seen her for years…literally.
Although I’ve been to California many times, most of my experience is with the San Francisco/Sonoma/Napa area. I have been to San Diego once on business but I all I really got to see was the inside of a conference room and one lovely jazz club downtown. This time I’ll have much more time to explore the area AND I have all of you lovely CA knit bloggers to tell me what yarn stores to hit and where else to visit. What would be REALLY great is to get to meet one of you fabulous bloggers in person ala this visit. Have car, will travel y’all (even though I too a hermit and would prefer to stay in my little box I really would promise to venture out for an important occasion such as that)! Just think…the pictures…the stories…we could create blog entries for days (ok, at least one) Please let me know if you have any recommendations on what to see, where to stay, yarn stores (of course!) restaurants, etc.

Arrgh…and my silly smilies aren’t working again. I haven’t touched anything! I sware! Maybe that darn CAP is sending her technology breaking cooties my way!

Edit: Forgot to mention when I’m going!� Feb. 16-22

Is that the question? Not really. I’ve already decided. As much as I hate frogging, I’m just not happy with the pattern on this scarf. Sometimes I feel like we knitters think if we just keep knitting, we’ll start to like the offending object more later. Although I haven’t done a proper study on this theory, I would estimate that it only applies about 5% of the time. The other 95 % of the time, we keep knitting and still hate the project. Better ripping it now than 5 more inches from now when I’m still unhappy.

This is the beginning of another pair of clogs for Jim. I’m almost finished with the first one…just the bumper to go. Now that I’m not under deadlines (Christmas and yarn company patterns) I find that my projects are going quite a bit slower. Last night I even watched a little TV with no knitting in my hands… *GASP*…the horror! I’m sure like anything else in life little ebbs and flows in one’s knitting is normal.

Now the important stuff…yarn porn. Cascade 220 for a mere $3.00 a skein! Felting to come.

Here it is…finally. My second of the series “top 10 reasons I love _________ (insert blog here)”. My first was Crazy Aunt Purl. I was a little shy at first, but professing my love freed me! I can now announce my long distance blog stalk love without hesitation. I’m so ok with it now that I intend to do it on a regular basis. Let’s just hope no blog stalking laws go on the books any time soon.

Who knows what causes my love for each blog? With each it seems to be something a little different. It can be what I have in common with the person (besides knitting of course), the witty writing, the blog look, the use of photos, the new blog smell or any number of other reasons. In this case it is one blog with two different but equally loveable authors. It only seems appropriate that each should have a top 5 (I’d do 10 for each since there are easily that many, but I don’t want to get something started that I have to continue. I mean, what if I ever love a blog that has 4 authors, or 10 or 102?) One of the many things Jen and La have in common is that they have no problem verbally harassing you from way out there in blogland in such a way as you feel you must comply. Gotta love them for getting us all proactive (I’ll call that reason 1.5).

Top 10 reasons I love JenLa:

Jen:

5. She invites the whole blog world, not just a selected famous few, to breakfast.

4. She’s working on the TKGA master knitter program. I mean, have you READ the requirements (link is JUST level 1)?

3. She has a soft heart for the animal kingdom.

2. She knit trees and survived.

1. She moved to a farm in Georgia to raise Alpacas. Really, what could be cooler than that for a fiber lover?

La:

5. She likes likker. And she know some interesting drinking games. And she gives us likker recipes.

4. She is one of the best “bitchers” ever. Really (although Jen is certainly no slouch in this department either). See any other post under “Mixed Bag of Bitch”.

3. She has a great command of language…gadzooks and the use of a new fabulous adjective all in one post. Speaking of language I also happen to love her use of one of my (don’t click the following link if you are offended by foul language) favorite words (I try not to use it myself just in case my mother in law would ever happen to stumble on my blog).

2. So dedicated to knit and to her blog, she climbs a ladder to take the perfect FO picture.

1. La quit smoking! Cold turkey! How can you not love that?

So there it is…my second blog crush out there for the whole world to see. Love me some Jenla! I obviously have no qualms about spreading the platonic girl love (which is not to say I don’t have a blog crush on some Dudes… possible future top ten? *hint, hint*).

This month’s challenge: “Explore the cross over between self portraiture and family photography. This challenge can be as simple as revisiting old family snap shots - to tell a story.”
My story here…I wasn’t a very happy child. From left to right: me, brother, sister, cousin, cousin, sister.