Nerdy Knitter

100 things about me

I don't know how to make this a permanent part of my blog, so I'm posting it here. Boy, finding 100 things to say about myself was a challenge! This is what happens when I have a cold and can't sleep--I sit up all night making lists.

100 Things about me

1. I occasionally get carded when I buy alcohol, and then feel incredibly disappointed when the cashiers don’t giggle when they do the math & figure out that I’m 36, for pete’s sake.
2. I’m a pack rat, 3rd generation (possibly even more, but I didn’t know my great-grandparents); that’s some serious heritage.
3. Nerdy Hubby comes from a long line of fairly unsentimental throw-away-ers.
4. I’ve never seen the movie “Gremlins,” even though I was in 8th grade when it came out.
5. I’m a librarian with an embarrassingly long list of classics that I've never read.
6. I was a children’s book editor for a major publishing house in NYC.
7. Now I live in the mountains in Virginia.
8. I barely remember my NYC life.
9. I married “that boy” from high school who was cute and nice and just a tad bit mysterious. That fact still makes me giggle.
10. I have an insatiable curiosity (it’s always all about satisfying my curiosity).
11. I just finished taking my first “grown-up” (ie, non-high-school-level) drawing class…I got an ‘A.’
12. I love art classes.
13. If I could quit my job and sit at home, making art, knitting, spinning, and reading, I’d be happy as a clam.
14. I don’t think my body could handle staying home every day, all day…I’d eat too much.
15. I eat when I’m bored.
16. I eat when I’m avoiding something distasteful.
17. I eat when I’m stressed.
18. I eat when I feel guilty.
19. I eat when I’m sad.
20. I feel stressed when I overeat that I’m going to gain weight because of all the crap I’m stuffing in my mouth (but this is where it gets difficult—see #17 above).
21. I feel guilty when I knowingly overeat, which makes me feel stressed (yet again…a refresher of #17 might come in handy right about now).
22. I’ve struggled with being overweight most of my life.
23. I’m finally smaller than I was when I started my undergraduate life.
24. I used to take Thai kickboxing…I was slightly obsessed with it, in fact.
25. I was also obsessed with Irish step dancing, but our class was discontinued.
26. I own boxing gloves and step dance shoes (gillies).
27. My latest obsession is…spinning.
28. I have an Ashford spinning wheel.
29. The wheel’s name is JoAnne (named by Nerdy Hubby).
30. Just tonight, I knit a hat from the very first yarn I spun all by myself.
31. I almost wore that hat to bed, I was so excited about it.
32. I’m already torn between deciding to give my hat away or to keep it in my “archives.” It’s a tougher decision than some might think.
33. I have been out of high school for half of my life.
34. We are living in our very first house.
35. We have a dog for the first time in our not-living-with-our-parents lives.
36. I love our dog so much, sometimes I can barely stand the knowledge that he’s going to die someday.
37. I willingly stay in uncomfortable positions if it means keeping the dog comfortable…especially if his little head is resting on any part of me.
38. I don’t talk on the phone much.
39. We still wouldn’t have a cell phone if my parents hadn’t hit that deer when they were visiting…
40. I send up a silent apology to every dead animal I see on the road.
41. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1991 (or so).
42. I’m married to a carnivore.
43. We both love the movie “White Christmas.”
44. I love “Perry Mason”—both the books and the tv show.
45. I think I harbor a secret belief that I’m destined to be something great, but that I’m just as yet undiscovered…what it is, I’m not quite sure. (It’s kind of like when you’re a little kid and think that your real parents must be royalty, etc., and that someone will come and take you to your true home sometime soon.)
46. Maybe it’s that I think I could write a children’s book…I’ve never really been interested in that, but once people learn that I was once an editor, they always ask me if I intend to write…maybe it’s meant to be…maybe it’s not.
47. I’m terribly judgmental when people make grammatical errors in public places (like blogs).
48. I find that I frequently miss my own mistakes, even in public places (like blogs).
49. My biggest pet peeve as far as grammar goes is when people confuse “its” and “it’s.” This stems from an experience in 6th grade.
50. I don’t make a very good patient; I don’t like having anyone do anything for me.
51. I know this because I was hospitalized twice in a matter of 4 months, each time for 2 weeks.
52. I realize now how annoying I must have been to the nurses (I apologized every time someone had to be called to empty my bed pan).
53. I don’t think I’ll ever get over having no memory of some of my time in the hospital; having no recollection of days in my life is very unsettling.
54. But then again, there are plenty of days in my life that I don’t remember just because they are too far back in my past, or they weren’t terribly memorable.
55. I spend a lot of my days monitoring other peoples’ moods to make sure they’re happy, to make sure things don’t deteriorate into unpleasantness.
56. I love that I married “that guy” from high school.
57. I love that one of my closest friends is my husband’s best friend’s wife.
58. I wish I played a sport or participated in an athletic activity that required “gear.”
59. I miss having muscles like I did when I took kickboxing.
60. I miss taking the train.
61. I love listening to talk radio.
62. I think my family is a pretty healthy one, with just a touch of dysfunction.
63. I am the worst gift-giver.
64. Not because I buy bad presents, but because I can’t stand the wait and give presents early.
65. I’ve finally gotten Nerdy Hubby to start giving his gifts early, too. He had a will of iron, but I broke him down, yes I did.
66. I used to badger my parents into opening their birthday gifts early, telling them “you might want to use it ON your birthday, so you’ll have to open it now.”
67. I must have been an obnoxious child.
68. I hate to cry, whether I’m alone or with a friend/relative.
69. Crying makes me angry.
70. I wish I had curlier hair (boing-boing curls would be my ideal).
71. I’ve had horrendous perms 2 or 3 times in my life, and yet I still strive for curlier hair.
72. I look so much like my mother that her childhood friends have mistaken me for the Nerdy Mommy they knew when they were young.
73. I’m a night owl.
74. I don’t need much sleep to function.
75. I used to get on the floor of my bedroom to read by the light that came in under my door; then my parents figured out my system of turning on the hallway light on my way to bed, and that was it.
76. I once read in bed using the light from the thermostat on my heating pad.
77. I seriously dislike playing pretend.
78. I hated playing school, playing house, and playing with dolls.
79. I used to make up dance routines and plays with my best friend, Gina.
80. I had my old baby crib filled with all of my stuffed animals, and would put them to bed one at a time, saying good-night to them all.
81. I had puppets that I talked to; I still remember one whose name was ‘Fang.’
82. My dislike for playing pretend makes me nervous about having a child of my own because I know that playing pretend is part of playing with your child…I hope it’s true that everything’s different when you’re doing things with/for your own child.
83. I think squirrels are adorable.
84. I think mice and skunks are pretty darn cute, too.
85. When I was little, my favorite daydream was the one where I could talk to the animals.
86. I was a member of our local 4-H club’s square dance group in middle school; I loved it.
87. My 64-year-old father has Alzheimer’s Disease.
88. I feel a tug on my conscience to live closer to my parents now that my mother is taking care of my father.
89. I’m a really good brainstormer, but not a very good do-er.
90. So if you need ideas for how to accomplish something, I’m your go-to person.
91. Need someone to execute a plan of action? I think I’ll be washing my hair that day.
92. My Myers-Briggs personality type is ENFP, which gives me permission to be a bad do-er.
93. I wish I spoke a 2nd language fluently.
94. I wish I could try out being a woman of mystery, a la Lauren Bacall or Kathleen Turner, for just a day or two.
95. I wonder what it feels like to be so beautiful that people notice you.
96. I wish I could remember when/how my self image improved; it was so bad that you would think I would have had some life-changing “aha!” moment when I decided I didn't hate myself, but no…no major turning point, just a late realization that my self-hatred is gone. How did that happen? If I knew, I could be on the lecture circuit.
97. I really, truly enjoy public speaking.
98. I wish I could find a job that would allow me to go around, speaking in public about something that interests me (anyone need an expert in children’s books? using the library? knitting?)
99. I have a certificate in graphic design.
100. I didn't drink "hot liquids" until about 5 years ago; now I'm addicted to tea.

So there you have it--confirmation that I'm completely nuts. Don't say I didn't warn you.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 9:34 AM 4 comments

Pictures, finally

Guess what this is? It's my very first skein! Isn't it adorable? I think so, at least. Hee hee hee.




And here we have proof that I went nuts with knitting cotton for Christmas. It's a variety of washcloths with a bib hanging on the chair.



And here, for my viewing pleasure, is our adorable boy. Oh, how I love my cute little guy. Isn't he the sweetest-looking pooch? Okay, so he's only still like this when he's sleeping, but even so...look at the cute paws and legs. And that peaceful little face. Every time Henry sleeps like this, Nerdy Hubby says something about how spoiled our pooch is. Hmph! Hee hee.



And this stack is the felted section of my knitting history. The purse on the chair is supposed to be tote bag-size when finished...um...this is about 9" tall (and I think that's being generous, and probably including the top side of the handle). Oh, the hat isn't felted, but it didn't belong in the cotton group, so I put it here. It's made from gorgeous merino my NZ friend, N, sent. I love its cushiness! It was really fun to knit with that yarn. The colors are all a little washed-out/over-exposed. The hat is much darker and the colors are a lot more muted than what you see in the photo. It's very subtle.



What cracks me up about this photo is that Henry's hair is visible inside the cuff of the mitten--how did that happen?! Just proof that his hair is everywhere, even in my washed-twice-in-the-washing-machine felted mitten!

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 10:27 AM 2 comments

Just call me "The Spin Doctor"

That's right--I had trouble with JoAnn (my spinning wheel, so named by Nerdy Hubby) this morning, and I fixed it all by myself. Yahoo! No cursing involved, either (at least that I remember...it was early AM, however).

And, as if that weren't enough, I plied this morning. Yup, I took 2 bobbins of singles spun by yours truly, and plied them together to create one big bobbin of YARN. Yes, I said it: I made yarn. Amazing!

I'm not quite sure how much of it I have, but I'm thinking I might be able to make a baby's hat or something along those lines. I might wind it into a skein and give it to Nerdy Mommy for Christmas and let her figure out what to do with it. Yes, I'm crazy like that.

I took photos of all of my cotton craziness and the plied yarn, and put the photos on my little portable drive...or so I thought. I came to work and tried to show my colleagues my beautiful yarn, and the photos weren't on my drive. Hmph! So I have to try again; not sure what I did wrong. Harumph.

So, tomorrow, I hope, will bring photos of my finished items and of my yarny-yarn. Tune in tomorrow.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 3:43 PM 0 comments

I'd like to think I can be a good blogger, really

But my track record isn't very impressive, is it? Once a week would be nice, but I can't even seem to manage that. Sheesh.

You see, I've been so busy knitting that I haven't had a chance to take photos of my finished stuff...yeah, that's it.

And I feel like I should have photos when I post. Except for this time...

I went through a mild obsession with Ann & Kay's book, and have been knitting warshrags and facecloths (the name changes when you're gifting to a guy versus a gal). I have the most adorable stack of tied-up-in-ribbon warshcloths--they've all got beautiful sandalwood or rose soaps inside. I used some organic cotton from Blue Sky Alpaca, and then some regular old variegated cottons. My favorite by far is the ball-band cotton warshrag I made for my step-father-in-law to use in the kitchen. I went to the healthfood store and bought some natural, geranium-scented kitchen counter cleaner and tied the warshrag around the neck like a cape. It cracks me up everytime I look at it!

And then, after the obsession with warshrags ended, I started in on a felted bag pattern designed by my one-time secret pal, Maia.

And then, since I had so much leftover yarn (I used 4 colors from Cascade), I conveniently remembered the pattern I bought at Stitches East for felted Christmas ornaments! I made 2 round-topped hats and one mitten so far. The alarming part of making these cutie-pie things was their pre-felted sizes...the mitten fit very nicely on my hand, without much room to spare, but still--it fit. This is supposed to be an ornament to swing gracefully, not to mention cutely, from a tree, NOT a potholder.

I try to make enough to-be-felted things to fill the washing machine enough to reduce my guilt at doing multiple loads of washing, so I waited until I finished the 2nd hat, then threw everything in the washer with a pair of my too-big, but very heavy (flannel-lined, even) pants, and Nerdy Hubby's tennis ball...after one round, the bag was teeny, and the not-quite-ornaments were about half their original sizes. I threw everything back in for a second cycle, but couldn't stick around to see what happened. This thing we call work has got to stop, I tell you! It gets in the way of very important stuff, like felting. Sheesh.

So for Christmas, I've knit a Wonderful Wallaby, 1 baby bib (also from Ann & Kay's book), 8+ warshrags, 1 roll-brim hat (three times, technically, since it was waaaay too big the first time, and a "tad" too big the second time...I made it up as I went along, you see...not always the best way to make a quick hat), another roll-brim hat (done right the first time--I had a pattern and used the yarn it called for), a felted bag, 1 pair of Koigu mittens (also knit multiple times since they were a bit too big a few times around), and 3 felted ornaments. Not too shabby, if I do say so myself, considering I don't traditionally knit for Christmas.

I'm not quite sure what I want to work on next...I still have some green yarn left from the felted bag, so I could potentially make more "ornaments" (I will wait to call them real ornaments, without quotation marks, until I see whether they're a size appropriate for a traditional, 5-6' tree), or just jump right back to my shawl that I started before the holiday gift-making craziness began...

I might, must possibly, have ordered some yarn from Elann for a present for my Knitters Review exchange pal, blogless LaceyLaine. I just went online and ordered a fun little set of somethings to add to her package, as a matter of fact. Hee hee hee.

So when my delivery from Elann arrives, I'll have to stop whatever I'm working on to get her present done by the 1/15 deadline (gulp!). I'll be with family for about a week around Christmas, so, assuming the shipment arrives Thursday, that gives me a week before we go, a litle bit of time while we're visiting family, and then about a week when we get back to finish the little project. I think that should be fine. I'm excited to work on the pattern, actually; I bought it ages ago and haven't gotten to making it yet. Yahoo!

I think I'm going to work on a 100 Things About Me list this week and try to post that sometime soon. AND I want to get photos taken of my fun gifty things. Soon, I hope.

Meanwhile, a cute little story about my poochie-pooh:

He was sound asleep (on the couch, natch) the other night, and the veeerrry tip of his little pink tongue was sticking out of his mouth. He was in REM sleep, with twitches and funny noises, but his tongue never moved--it was sticking out the whole time. He's SOOOOO cute, my dog! I took a photo of that, too, but haven't uploaded it yet.

We have a new "remedy" (we'll see about that) for his travel anxiety, straight from the natural foods store...it's HP (holistic pet, not Hewlett Packard) Travel Anxiety drops. It has the same ingredient as another natural motion sickness liquid, plus some valerian for anxiety, so we'll see how it goes. I tested it the other day, and he certainly seemed to slow down a bit (although at his speed, slowing down just means he's running instead of bolting around the place). Wish us luck with that!

Now it's time to end my rant and get back to my real job...it's exam week at our college, so there are a lot of stressed students typing madly at the computers in the library. Poor things!

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 3:10 PM 0 comments

Henry is such a cutie-pie!

So this isn't knitting-related at all, but since I'm on the Purling Pups knit ring, I figure I'm allowed to skip knitting once in a while to provide gratuitous shots of the pooch. And this one is just so cute--he looks like he's about to jump right out of the photo. The humans in the photo are my brother-in-law (Nerdy Hubby's bro) and his wife, my sister-in-law-in-law. They drove up from Florida (14 hours in the car, anyone? In one day...not my cup of tea) for Thanksgiving, and stayed with us for 3 days. The best part of that is that my sister-in-law-in-law is also my former post-college roommate, so we're pals, which means we get girl time that also counts as family time. It doesn't get much better than that. And Henry loves the extra attention. Can't you tell?

And actually, I can come up with knitting content for this one...Cathy (my sister-in-law-in-law) is now a knitter, and we worked on solving a minor issue she was having with the cutie-pie baby blanket she's making for her friend's baby. It's the baby blanket from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation which originally called for Koigu, but we found an online recommendation for substituting Plymouth Encore, and Cathy found a khaki/peach/blue variegated that looks really pretty. So we worked on her blanket issue and I worked on my millionth washcloth. I hope no one in my family is reading this, because a bunch of them will be receiving a face cloth/dish cloth from this Nerdy Knitter this Christmas. I made so many that Nerdy Hubby finally said, "I think you're done with those." Hmph!

What am I working on now? Mittens for a friend's Christmas present. I've started them at least 3 times because they were too big. I'm getting gauge, actually, which is a minor miracle, it's actually that I chose the wrong size from the chart (I'm using the Ann Budd book). I even measured my hand for comparison, but for some reason, the number on the page doesn't translate to the number on my tape measure...or maybe my tape measure is taunting me...you never know. Tape measures are wily critters. Anyway, I'm making mittens from Koigu and they're shaping up pretty nicely, although still a teensy bit big. I'm hoping the recipient's hands are just a tetch bigger than mine are....I can hope, can't I?

And then I'm done with any type of Christmas knitting, darnit. I have a shawl/stole burning a hole in my knitting bag, and I want to spend more time getting to know my wheel (Nerdy Hubby named her "Joanne," not sure why).

Oh, and, since my birthday was yesterday (happy birthday to me!), my friend, E, gave me a pink kit of Denise Needles! I have a few different cobbled-together sets in the original color, but now I have a brand-new never-been-knit-with set. Yahoo! And it's pink, which is a nice, happy color.

So my Big Birthday (36--eek) was a rousing success--Nerdy Hubby gave me a stereotypical girly day: he made breakfast for me, he gave me flowers (gerber daisies--my favorite) and perfume (Chanel Chance--yum!). I had lunch with Nerdy Hubby at a local pizza joint we like; I shopped for Christmas gifts at our local outdoor mall; I had dinner with Nerdy Hubby and our friends, E and J. AND I got a refresher spinning lesson to boot. Oh, not to mention the birthday cards and phone calls from friends and family. The only thing missing: cake. No cake for the Nerdy Birthday Girl. But in the grand scheme of things, I'd say I had a pretty darn good day. Nerdy Mommy gave me a fun present which she says is for when we're in the car and it's too dark to knit and I can't turn on the overhead light. What a good idea! I'll have to make sure I have a project for size 13 needles at the ready for just the situation! Nerdy Daddy gave me a lovely pair of silver earrings which I've already worn and which have already received compliments. My friend, John, sent me funny images he found online of the words "Happy Birthday Judy" or "Happy Birthday Judith." Very funny!

The only bad thing about my birthday and Thanksgiving falling so close together is that I didn't get to put much time into my Drawing homework, so I'll be bringing a partially-drawn assignment to class today. Hopefully the instructor will understand and will let me put the finishing touches on for next week.

But for now I have to do some work. Sorry about the hit-or-miss posting these days. I'll try to get on a more regular schedule for 2007.

posted by Nerdy Knitter @ 10:10 AM 4 comments