Cowgirl Knits

Moving Time

2007-11-09T09:47:00.000-08:00

Not me. Just the blog...I've maintained two of these beasts for a while now, so everything is migrated to Livejournal, where I am, totally unsurprsingly, cowgirlknits.

:)

Look Ma! I Knit something

2007-10-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yeah, with pictures and everything. I present: A Cardigan for Arwen. Completed almost a whole year after she was begun. And withdrawn from the 'bad project' bin just for completion. ;)

The yarn is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Evergreen, an in person, its quite a bit darker green than this, but its a picture! Of knitting! That I finished! Aren't ya proud of me?

Fits and Starts

2007-10-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

I have to take some pictures - I have been informed that 'proper blogs' have pictures. Yeah, cuz I am so very into social conventions and the following thereof. ;) Seriously....

I finished things! Arwen, she be done. And fits decently despite the shaping issues with the short rows on the sleeves, whew. Also, I have jumped on the tangled yoke bandwagon, but am progressing on it in my own way, as usual. I've dumped the ribbing in favor of a few inches of linen stitch. I'm also making it in Rowan's Tapestry, so as to have some pretty stripe effects.

Also have ripped red scarf out and need to start over. Hence the fits. And need to finish Mom's birthday present sometime before Christmas. Heh...I just have no mood for lace, which might also explain why the mystery stole be not done yet.

Monsters and Angels

2007-09-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

The title is only because a song has been running through my head for a week - despite not having actually heard it in over a decade. And because I could think of no appropriate title. Perhaps one will come to me, and this whole paragraph will have to be deleted. Perhaps not.

Warning: This post is rambly, slightly graphic, and potentially entirely nonsensical. Read at your own peril.

My brother manages a small fleet of semi-drivers. They are a company operation, and recently had a company meeting several hours away from their home base. My brother sent a driver to the meeting, and on the way home the driver pulled to the side of a major interstate freeway in his rig, and killed himself. The company (and therefore my brother) did not have a lot of information about the incident, though they had been concerned at the driver's five day absence from work.

This is what boggles me the most about this incident. The truck sat on the side of this major interstate, high traffic corridor, for five days. And no one stopped. Not another rig, not a random passenger vehicle, not the Highway Patrol for the area. Five days, and no one noticed this semi truck sitting in the same place, day after day as they drove from one place to another, talking on their cell phones, daydreaming about dinner, chatting up the vacation plans to be implemented upon arrival to wherever.

I didn't know the driver, my brother lives in another state after all, and we have never been overly close. But that isn't the point, is it? How many times have I driven past a car on the side of the road thinking 'oh, everyone has cell phones, I am sure help is on the way'? How much time would I truly lose by stopping and offering a hand? What is the world coming to when no one does?

When I blew a tire out on a deserted road at midnight a couple of years ago, I stood there, a woman, in the light of my own car's headlights in the snow, and watched two highway patrol cars speed past along with a long stream of other cars. I was near tears when someone finally did stop. A minivan. With two men in it who hopped out together to ask what I needed, where I was going (I had at that point decided to stick my thumb out in hopes someone would stop for a hitchhiker who would not stop for a broken car, funny how that works). They were my lifesavers that night, possibly literally. They let me use a cell phone, and I called the closest friend who could come help, and they came, and we all went home happy.

I spent perhaps 30 minutes alone on the side of that road, no more. And yet it was terrifying, it was an eon of scariness and despair. And yes, I was terrified when these nice young men hopped out of their car - I am a woman of a certain age, and I was taught to be terrified, to never talk to strangers, never stop on the freeway, never trust strange men who stop to help you.

Is this why no one stopped to find my brother's worker? Because that's how we were raised? If so, how sad we are as a nation, as humanity. There is no kindness in strangers anymore, because strangers are afraid of one another. This is what kept me from sleep last night, and what makes me want to put my head on my desk and cry today.

I won't though, because I know that there are monsters and angels, and that each comes by turns in a well-balanced world. I can't really change that, but I can try to be the right thing at the right time.

The I inside

2007-09-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

With apologies to Mr. Heinlein...

Loyal reader Marie did not so much ask as declare in the comments that 'You are so Not an I!'. I have spent the better part of the week mulling this over, since according to Meyers and Briggs (the full 500 question scantron test, not the abbreviated ones you can find on the internet) it is something I scored very high on in High School. THe F and the P, they were a little bit more of a 'win by a nose' thing. However, even more recent abbreviated tests show an extreme N-ness.

However, this post is about the Introversion. Which, I admit, has crept closer to a dead heat over the years, mostly by great effort. What I think that Miss Marie sees is the end result of that great effort - the fact that I deal well on a superficial level with people in a structured environment. (In other words - I can sell me some yarn and teach classes and be charming on a limited scale in order to do those things.)

And I am certainly extroverted and even mildly entertaining enough in a party/gaming convention/etc setting. So, what garners me that I rating from those respected test writers? Simply put, the MBTI measures internal responses and though processes. The type indication is a preference indicator, a measurement of 'how we like to interact with the world', not neccesarily how we actually interact with the world.

I am a huge fan of A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh series, most particularly a fan of the 'Very Small Animal' that is Piglet. Piglet, he has an understanding about the world - a certain timidity that I can relate to, a self-doubt that could be paralyzing if it were simply allowed to be. THe trick is in disallowing, in girding your loins and going bravely forth into the scary environment. For me, a scary environment is pretty much anything with a faint whiff of social uncertainty.

If you do not suffer from this internal introversion, coupled with the deep desire to be with people and enjoy social events....It is like a roller coaster ride in many ways. Not one of the new fangled fancy ones, but the old, creaky, wooden kind, with the very long hill at the beginning. And all the creaking and clattering and clanking that makes your heart start to pound in anticipation of the free fall on the other end - knowing that the loops and spins and falls will be fun and exhilirating, but also terrified of their presence.

The introverted part - that's the long ride upwards. I spent two weeks fretting and stressing and cancelling my plans in my head before going to Conquest, imagining a mass gamer-shunning, being hated for cancelling that first year, for the other things that happened then (Or were rumored to have happened, even worse!), etc, etc. I thought up a hundred Very Bad Things that could happen, and buried my head under the covers and came >< close to not going at all.

But this year is the year of living dangerously for me - the year that I don't let that happen. The year that I do go and join a gym alone, I do go to the theater or concert I want to see, and so what if noone else I know wants to go? The year I don't cancel dinner plans, or working conventions, or...whatevers. Its difficult, but the rewards are so great (Better body, less asthma medication, good theater, great music, and, best of all, people. New people, old people refound...) that I cannot bear to let that long slow ride upwards defeat me.

But I am still an I. Because I still want to crawl under the covers and hide instead of taking the risk. I don't think that will ever change...and that's okay. I'm learning to beat down the hiding instinct, to go forth boldly and have fun, dammit.

By the pricking of my thumb...

2007-09-19T14:32:00.000-07:00

So last week, it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit up here in the Great Hot North of California. This week, it is 65 degrees Fahrenheit, and the sky looks like something out of 'Something Wicked this Way Comes'. And so Fall begins in earnest. I have spent the better parts of the last few days in a daydreamy, whimsical, wanderlusty state as my favorite season has descended rather abruptly into my little corner of the world.

It happens this way every year - I can look in all the diaries and journals (online and off) that I have kept over the last mumblesomething years, and the theme is there. Suddenly, Fall hits, and there are seventy billion and one entries on leaves skirling, and rain falling, and the scent of woodsmoke, and the way sunsets are so much more spectacular when there are clouds, and....

Did I happen to mention that Fall is my favorite season? I think I might have before setting off on that purple prose journey, but I think it bears a little bit of extra mentioning. I love Fall. I love the turning of leaves (please let the wind not be so bad this week that I am deprived of full leaf turning), the smell of rain, a fire in the fireplace (I much prefer them there than in the neighbors field, yes, yes), fresh homemade hot cocoa...

It is the time of year that I look forward to the most, and it is where I am at my most restless. Fall comes, the air changes, and I fantasize about globetrotting trips, hiking in the wilderness, gallivanting about some distant city...heck, I fantasize about just getting in the car and driving until it is out of gas.

With Fall comes, as well, a sudden bout of knitter's startitis. I begin to covet, to hoard yarn, to loathe whatever thing is on my needles (Oh, Arwen! You are so very close to done...) and yearn to start every darn sweater I lay my beady little eyes on. I am being loyal though, this time. This year, I am finishing (no, really, don't faint.) Arwen, and dragging out the winter 2005 project from Cheryl Oberle that only has 1.5 sleeves to be done.

Does that mean I"m not starting things? Heck no! I'm casting on a red scarf in Nikko's Red Scarf Project's name. I'm also starting the tangled yoke sweater from Interweave Fall. But not until Arwen is done. And mom's birthday scarf. Really. I promise. Well, maybe a swatch isn't cheating....

What I did on my Blogger vacation

2007-09-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

It occurred to me that you all might be wondering what became of that almost-year. So, some highlights:

Attended a housewarming party in a barn. (No snickering, I live in ranchland!) It was held for our 'across the street' neighbor, and his two brothers' significant birthdays. I didn't get all the appropriate details. But I did get some delicious food (Very nicely marinated Bambie and Grilled corn, yummers!), some very nice wine (and a very very nice whiskey called Elijah something or other), and met some really way cool people.

stayed at the party after my parents left.

INFP

I had fun

I can Western Swing quite well, thankyouverymuch.
I can only do #1 with a Very Strong Lead. Otherwise, I am craptastic and trying to lead and step on my partner. Or frustrate them, which might explain some other things about my life.
Yes Dad, that means you were right all these years, and its a darn good thing you don't read blogs, or I'd get the 'I told you so!' lecture. Again. :)

Joined a Gym. This is a Big Deal, since the last time I attempted such a thing, I wound up paying for a gym membership for two years and going like...twice. This time around, I have gone. I joined classes! (Please see above introvert notes) I do yoga 'for real'. Most of you who read this will know that I have tried to 'do yoga' for several years. With books. Not so much the same as having the amazing awesomeness of a real life instructor who takes the time to come around and fix your positioning. I lift weights....a thing I swore off back in the old High School swim team days. (And I get excited when I got up to 35lbs on the bench press...again, no snickering!)

I have had much ranch sportiness. This includes:

Riding horses on trails, in the arena, etc.
Running the roping chute for the parentals and friends to rope cattle.
Herding cattle on horseback (And on foot when my horse gets cranky.)
Shooting guns. This one perhaps requires some explanation, because some of you just went all slack jawed and gapey. Yesyes, I am still me. I live on a ranch. With coyotes who eat cats. And rattlesnakes who bite cats (And dogs, and horses, and maybe me). There are guns on the ranch. For purposes of ridding it of the above. I had /no idea/ how to handle a gun. This is a potentially dangerous situation. I am still sometimes stupid in my handling of them, but at least I am learning. In specific, I shot skeet with my aunt's rifle at Thanksgiving. I do not think I actually hit a skeet thingy, but hey. I learned how to handle a longarm. So good. At Easter, I learned how to shoot a pistol, which is much more 'fun', and it turns out, I am better at. I shot Mom's 357. And hit my target on shot 2. Hit where I was aiming on shot 4. Apparently, this is very good, so I will brag slightly. Bragbrag, yay me. Last night (so technically not during vacation at all, but whatever) I learned how to shoot a little air gun pistol. This was very very cool. Mostly because it is small, very lightweight, and does not kick back like the others do. Also, slightly less dangerous. In short, a good way to learn how to aim, pull trigger properly, etc...especially since it can be shot now without risk of lighting our property on fire, unlike the other things. It is something easier for me and the motherly one to handle when there is a rattlesnake threatening the cat under the deck next time, so, it is good and important to learn to aim and handle. And....its much fun.

That's it. Really, not much to report in a whole 11 months....there was more, of course, but it was mostly boring and involved work, and ranch work, and work. My brother and his wife visit often now that he is no longer ignoring us, and he has turned out to be not as much of a jerk. This is also a good thing, but not entirely worthy for blog fodder. ;)

Do comment so I know I'm not talking to myself, too. Not that I mind talking to myself, heh.

'Tis the season

2007-09-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

No, no, not for 'Santa Claus and Hohoho and presents for pretty girls'*, though someone needs to tell the catalog companies that, they are already overflowing the mailbox. Here in the lovely North State, it is that most dreaded of seasons for allergy sufferers, asthmatics, and wildlife. Fire season. That space between summer and fall when the storms start to wander in without enough rain, and too much wind and the seared grasses light at the barest kiss of lightning.

It is the season of blood red suns at rising, at waking to blood in your throat and eyes that feel like sandpaper. This year, we don't have the great smouldering next door, but the smoke from more distant fires still lies thick and greybrown over the property.

It is the season of scratchy throated cranky lethargy. I think I need to find an inhaler before the gymkhana** this weekend.

Oh, yes, and the more astute of you (Well, that would be all three of you, woulnd't it?) will have figured out by now that this is no longer strictly a knitting blog. I decided that was part of the whole 'no posts for a year' problem - I didn't write what I felt like writing unless I had enough knitting content to qualify. And I never have enough knitting to qualify after I've read the other knitbloggers. So...welcome to my brain. :)

* Schultz, Charles' character Lucy, explaining Christmas to Schroeder.
** AKA Barrel racing. But I am entering the walk/trot class, cuz I is chicken. Bwak!

Back to School

2007-09-05T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of my last semester of college. At least, for the incredibly long overdue bachelor's degree. It is entirely likely that I will return for something with more letters attached to it in the nearish future.

Its a little scary, the end of school looming on the horizon like, well, like something large and scary looming on the horizon. Anyway, its funny, a year ago at this time, it felt like I was doing something. Taking charge of my life. Moving forward. And so on. I am woman, rawr, or whatever.

Now, its almost done, and I find I am casting about again for the next big step. Great, I'll have a nice little degree. Now what? Do I truly want to go on with this career? Training an ending parade of snot nosed teenagers, overly pompous PhDs, cocky computer geeks? Maybe. That part of the job is tolerable. It the endless stream of paperwork produced by these folks that is tedious and soul draining. Meh.

Plus side of last semester - first class is Marketing.

Down side of last semester - I wholly dislike the professor's teaching style.

Wish me luck. And, you know, if you have a lead on a good lecturing / convention organizing job that pays relatively decent money...you know where to find me.

Back In the Saddle

2007-09-04T15:51:00.000-07:00

Metaphorically speaking, of course, I am in a saddle with too little frequency, but often enough for it not to be a blogworthy event.

What I really mean is..I worked at my first gaming convention in almost two years this past weekend. You might wonder why anyone would spend their Holiday weekend working without being forced to do so, but by now if you read this little ramble of mine, you should know I am not entirely defined by normalcy. ;)

So, I returned to my 'other' hobby for the weekend, and re-acquainted myself with old friends from the industry. I also met a few new potential friends, which was a wonderful added bonus. :)

It was a fabulous time, and I am very glad I went. I was reading someone or other last week, I think Crazy Aunt Purl, but dont' go and quote me on that or anything. At any rate, she was talking about how sometimes, you do things because the SO does them, and yes you like them, but maybe that thing isn't really 'you' in the full sense of the word, if you know what I mean. She used the example of a friend who basically listened to whatever music her SO of the moment listened to. And I nodded my head at the screen and said, 'yesyes, I do this.' And 'Oh crap, what if I am not, in fact, a gamer at all?! Aiiie. What if I go, and everyone knows this, and mocks me, and....' Okay, so I got a little melodramatic.

Of course, when I was a younger thing, I played games when I could find people to play them with me, I read 'choose your own adventure' books. I cut my literary teeth on Asimov, Heinlein, and McCaffery. And yet, and yet...what if this whole gaming thing was /his/ thing? And I was only doing it because, well, that's what a wife does?

This weekend I realized that I was not, in the words of one attendee/friend 'Just a gamer wife type'. I am a gamer. Yes, and all the geekynerdiness that that entails. WHEW! And thank goodness, and all manner of other cheesy cliches that could be spewed around about this point.

OH, and yes, I did get knitting in. I am now exactly >< close to finishing the Cardigan for Arwen that was started last winter. Perhaps in time to wear it /this/ winter.

Someday, I will load pictures from the camera and show y'all some pictures of knitted projects, and things like the great coyote hunter cat series, and etc. Don't anyone go holding their breath though.

11 Months

2007-07-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

And not a single post from me. I have no excuses. On the other hand, I'm not sure I ought to have excuses, since I write more for my own self than for anyone reading - sorry guys. ;)

However, since Marie has nominated me as a Rocking Girl Blogger (There's a button graphic thingy but I am technologically illiterate some days) in an effort to convince me that writing again would earn me at least one loyal reader, I pledge to write ...well I was going to do the clever strikethrough thing, but apparently that requires some amount of technoligical literacy too...so I pledge to write occasionally at least. I've even had a camera since Christmas. And it has pictures on it. Which I might include in posts too.

Really! Don't faint or anything, okay? And stay tuned...or something.

Where there is smoke...

2006-08-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

There may not be fire, but there are beautiful sunsets, obscured mountains, and a layer of dust that makes breathing, and therefore living at my usual speed, difficult.

I could blame that, the fires to the North, West, and East of us, for my absence from Blogland. I could blame catching up on a workload that fell severely behind during the two weeks of hand uselessness. I could even blame life on the ranch - the guests, the cows that need feeding, horses that require riding, the cats that want a little momma-time....

But the truth is, I am lazy. Yes, my friends and knitters (and crocheters!), I am a procrastinator. But...but...but...there has been knitting progress in my blog hiatus. No crochet (Aieeeee.....no table runner for the holiday-a-long, no finished vest for the calendar...) because turning my hand that way still makes me week in the knees in a not at all pleasurable way. But I have worked a bit on the rectangle question, I finished a baby hat, started the Pea Pod set from IK summer '06, and....am halfway through Adamas from KnitPicks...yes, I am knitting lace and /liking/ it.

For those of you who don't know my hate-hate relationship with lace (Give me colorwork any day, please!) I have avoided the stuff for years. And yet, I own books full of shawls, I covet lovely little panels in sweaters. And I am finally embracing the stitch markers, the risk of dropped yarn overs...the whole shebang, the entier kit 'n kaboodle.

I like it. I am going to tackle the IK fall swallowtail next. Look out world....errr....or something. I suppose I ought to finish one whole project first, hmm?

Pictures, as always, await digital camera procurement or borrowing. Patience is a virtue. ;)

Glass Shower Doors

2006-08-11T12:50:00.000-07:00

Are, in fact, dangerous. Okay, so not as dangerous as plate glass doors once were, but when mine decided to implode on Wendesday, it was still scary.

Seriously, imagine yourself wandering into the bathroom, groggy and sleepified still. You try to open the door, frown a bit when it seems oddly stuck. Shift to close the /other/ door, you know the one with the towel rack that never moves under normal circumstances. Think to yourself: you know, something could be..ut oh...is it off its....CRASH...hinges?

Ow.

This was my experience at 6:15am on Wednesday, when the shower door slipped, crashed, and burst into about a bajillion and twenty little pebbles of glass all over the floor and showerpan. Interestingly, tempered glass really does work, since despite having my arms and torso spattered and covered in glass, I only got one cut. And it did not come from the glass, but rather from the heavy hinge that derailed from its track in the first place.

That bit of heavy, sharp metal cut a gash across the joint of my right (Why must you always injure your dominant hand?) hand and went skittering out to join the glass in the bottom of the shower. Three stitches and two days later, we think there might be some minor nerve damage, since my thumb still feels 'asleep', but its all good otherwise. I looked pretty goofy the first day, what with about 22 layers of gauze and bright neon green vetwrap stuff the nurse at urgent care wrapped in it in.

Yesterday saw WAY less guaze, and a prettier sky blue vet wrap. Today, we are down to just a bandage. My workmates thought I should have gone for the wrap for longer, for 'sympathy milking' purposes, but it was getting in the way of my attempts to knit a guage swatch!

And yes, I can knit. Passably well even, using my fingers and no thumb - for once having tendonitis comes in handy, since I am always switching how I hold the yarn for that reason and to prevent it 'progressing'.

I can't, though, hold a camera, so despite dad rescuing it, I still have no pretty pictures to share. :P

Fire, Rain, and Holiday Knitting?!

2006-08-08T10:34:00.000-07:00

I live in a place that is always under danger from this particular natural disaster. There is at least one major fire a year, either from someone's stupidity, nature's forces, or, worst, a deliberate act.

Rarely, though, does it come so close to home that I am nearly run over by the local tank company while driving down my driveway. Which is what happened yesterday morning. For perspective, my driveway is 1/2 a mile long. 1/4 a mile up the hill, and another 1/4 after you turn down our private portion of said driveway. It was at the turn that the tanker decided to pull in and turn around, and I had to back up quickly to avoid being squashed. And let me tell you, being squashed is not something one is generally afraid of driving a behemouth of a car like an Expedition. (The only thing I have at the moment, forgive me my gas guzzling, trailer hauling wasteful ways)

It turns out said tanker was trying to get into our neighbor's property, where lightning had struck an hour earlier. I got the nice CDF man to come up the drive as well, get the phone number to the land owner, etc. And despite reassurances that 'the rain this morning made it hardly dangerous at all, dont' worry'...we worry a little. The rain lasted all of four minutes, leaving spots of dampness between the great tracts of dry earth, gravel, and shriveled lawn stubs. Hardly 'rain' of any real standing. But apparently enough to keep a small spot fire from being a ragin inferno endangering livestock and oak trees, and yes, home.

The fire is not, yet, out, despite those assurances. It is scheduled to burn for a week or so, smoulderng underground where old ash and paper waste from a mill are buried. It reminds me of Pennsylvania, of visiting Centralia, where coal still burns some many decades after the fire's beginning. Only, of course, it isn't coal, and a week is not a decade. I also doubt the raod will melt, or the noxious fumes will make our country road inhabitable. It is just a tiny thing, and yet it is the tiny things that seem to matter most, most especially when they are smoldering and smoking and flaring up in what amounts to your backyard.

On the crafty front, I finished a little crochet baby hat for one of our manager's grnad-daughters today. I think I'll write this one down, since it turned out really kind of cute. I'll try to wrestle the camera away from Dad again to take pictures, but don't hold your breath.

I did, though, join a holiday create-a-long. I've always wanted to do more homey stuff, and here was the inspiration...no...demand...to do it! I wanted to post the purty little button, but my technological skills suck.

I'm still working on teh rectangle issue, but the thought of all that short rowing leaves me a little...daunted. Not that I don't like short rows, but oy. I think I'll just do squares. :)

Booking Through Thrusday

2006-08-03T08:17:00.000-07:00

Booking Through Thursday

Do your reading habits change for the summer months? Reply here
If so, how? I am sitting here attempting to recall the last time I was in school, and therefore, had a recognizable difference between summer months and any other months of the year in terms of activities, time to my self, etc...

And I have determined that back then, yes. Absolutely, I read a lot anyway, but in the summer, I would set myself goals, in an attempt to get every ounce of 'good' reading done possible in the span of 12-20 weeks. One year, it was the entirety of the Kittridge Players complete Shakespeare (A compendium of every play, every sonnet, every letter, that could be located in 1968 when the compendium was published). One year it was 'all teh stuff I picked on the reading list for English plus whatever else I could get through' (I got through the five 'required' readings, and six more plays/books...don't ask me which ones, it was too many decades ago. ;))

But now? Well, now, no, I don't change my habits much at all just because its summer. I still read 1-2 chapters of at least one of my 'open' books a night. Perhaps I read a bit less, since there are chores to do, animals to feed, horses to ride...things that can't be done as late in the day or for as long in winter, when there are all those hours after daylight to while away in front of the television with my knitting, a book, and World of Warcraft breaks. (I don't actually /watch/ television, but it sits there and stares at me, and occasionally is interesting enough to glance up for. ;))

OKC: I stopped working on the &%$*()@)@!!!ing rectangles for a couple of days to crochet a coworker's grandbaby a little sunhat, which is far to neccesary a thing for a wee babe to have in the ridiculous temperatures that are likely to come back again next week.

The 'Have you Ever' list.

2006-08-01T12:46:00.000-07:00

So, some time ago I saw this on CraftKitten's blog....and thought, wow how neat. A lovely list, but I warn you now, very very long. ;)
83 yeses
23 that I never want to do
That leaves 44 on the todo list. Not horrible, but not great, i guess. ;)

Have you ever...
1. Bought everyone in the bar a drink? yes, but it was only my family in the bar at the time, so I am not sure it counts.

2. Swam with wild dolphins? No...though that would be fabulous, only seen them from boats.

3. Climbed a mountain? Several. I'd still like to conquer Shasta, which towers over my property morning and night.

4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive? No, I'd be frightened of crashing it. Or getting a speeding ticket!!

5. Been inside the Great Pyramid? Alas, not yet. Someday.

6. Held a tarantula? And a snake, and several other varieties of 'icky' creatures.

7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone. And its never as comfortable as you think it should be, either.

8. Said 'I love you' and meant it.

9. Hugged a tree. Climbed 'em to read too.

10. Bungee jumped. Not sure if I'd want to.

11. Visited Paris. Got close, still will make it on the world tour someday.

12. Watched a lightning storm at sea. And worried about the boat capsizing...or stood on the beach hoping no ships were in view of the lighthouse.

13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise. Over the ocean, no less. ;)

14. Seen the Northern Lights. Another life list candidate.

15. Gone to a huge sports game. Twice, and not entirely by choice though they were fun.

16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa. You know, I'm not sure I want to climb something that leans out over concrete and pavement and other buildings. I tried to do the Statue of Liberty though....since 9/11 its closed to tourists. :(

17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables. Since I was a wee tot, though I tend to kill more than I grow. I leave the tending to Mom, who has the ability, and merely mooch off of her bounty nowadays.

18. Touched an iceberg. No, though I did walk across a glacier.

19. Slept under the stars. As a youngster. I like tents. ;)

20. Changed a baby's diaper. Not my own child's, but neices and nephews and babysitting charges galore.

21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon. Once, at a fair. It was tied to the ground though. Do it for real? You betcha!

22. Watched a meteor shower. At least once a year...and stars fall through the night sky on the ranch with alarming regularity (Yay for no city lights!!)

23. Gotten drunk on champagne. Don't like it enough to drink that much. :P

24. Given more than you can afford to charity. I would say too often, but can you give to charity too often?

25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope. Used to use Dad's all the time out in the driveway back in the less-country homestead. Also, once at a space museum place on vacation.

26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment. While being disciplined at work. I had to make it look like I was crying.

27. Had a food fight. In high school, once. I think I might have thrown a french fry, the rest of the swim team really got into it, though.

28. Bet on a winning horse. Well, on one that placed, I won 5$. The last time I ever watched a horse race live, too.

29. Asked out a stranger. How about agreed to meet in a sort of random 'wow, hey, you live here too' way? And are they a stranger if you'd spoken to them in an online environment? Hrm...

30. Had a snowball fight. Many many times. Built snow forts at Grandma's place, sledded.

31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can. Try not to, its not pretty.

32. Held a lamb. They are terribly wiggly, but not nearly so bad as calves or pigs. :P

33. Seen a total eclipse. Lunar one here on the West Coast a few years ago. I /think/ there was a solar eclipse when I was very small, but I don't remember it if ther was.

34. Ridden a roller coaster. Up and down the West Coast. ;)

35. Hit a home run. How about got on base once?

36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking. Errr, does it count if I /only/ dance like a fool?

37. Adopted an accent for an entire day. As part of drama class practice.

38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment. More often than I likely have a right to.

39. Had two hard drives for your computer. Three, once. Experimenting with SCSI.

40. Visited all 50 states. Not quite yet. Missed a bunch of the south and new england, still. I'll get there, and add in all the provinces of Canada, too!

41. Taken care of someone who was drunk. Whole housefuls of them, bleah.

42. Had amazing friends. More than I deserve, for certain this time.

43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country. Not that I can recall. Pubs in Ireland weren't of the dancing sort.

44. Watched wild whales. Yupyup, off the coast of CA, and had an Orca go under our boat in the San Juans. Now that was pretty spectacular.

45. Stolen a sign. Errr, that would be, like, stealing.

46. Backpacked in Europe. England anyway. ;)

47. Taken a road-trip. BEST way to travel.

48. Gone rock climbing. This goes hand in hand with the whole mountain thing, no?

49. Midnight walk on the beach. At a high school trip, when the nematodes where out, and the sky was lit up as the waves crashed in an amazing panoply of silver and black and grey. Everywhere we walked there were trails of phosphourescence. Quite amazing.

50. Gone sky diving. Almost.

51. Visited Ireland. And would go again in a heartbead.

52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love.

53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them. Yes! In boston. Two very lovely women there for a conference, while I was there for a totally different conference.

54. Visited Japan. On that very long list.

55. Milked a cow. On an elementary school field trip. ;)

56. Alphabetized your cds. About once a year or so.

57. Pretended to be a superhero. Ummm, does playing 'Champions' count? *cough*

58. Sung karaoke. Under /extreme/ protest, on my last night out in CA last year.

59. Lounged around in bed all day. Heck yeah.

60. Posed nude in front of strangers. No thanks. :P

61. Gone scuba diving. One more item on the list. I've snorkeled!

62. Kissed in the rain. More than once. ;)

63. Played in the mud. To the ruination of a good pair of clothes, ultimate frisbee in my high school days.

64. Played in the rain. Sung and danced too....Ala Gene Autry at sillier moments.

65. Gone to a drive in theater. All the time when I was younger, and they were still open.

66. Visited the Great Wall of China. List, list....

67. Started a business. Might, someday.

68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken.

69. Toured ancient sites.Not nearly as many as I would like, though we looked at petroglyphs in HI, and I saw some pretty neat castles and standing stones and such in Ireland.

70. Taken a martial arts class Judo when I was seven, Tai Chi more recently.

71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight. Ran whole conventions of it. ;)

72. Gotten married.

73. Been in a movie. Not unless home movies count!

74. Crashed a party. I wouldn't want to go somewhere I wasn't invited.

75. Gotten divorced. Almost....papers aren't signed.

76. Gone without food for 5 days Good lord. never!

77. Made cookies from stratch. All kinds!

78. Won first prize in a costume contest.

79.Ridden a gondola in Venice. At the Venetian, in Las Vegas, though. ;)

80. Gotten a tattoo. After I lose /all/ the weight.

81. Rafted the Snake River. Not even sure where this one is, but I've done parts of the American.

82. Been on television news progams as an "expert". No, though I did a short spot that /might/ have been on TV...I never saw it, so don't think it was. And it was as a woman in gaming, not quite as an expert.

83. Got flowers for no reason. During the romantic stages of various courtships.

84. Performed on stage. Only once or twice, in school.

85. Been to Las Vegas. To help run a convention.

86. Recorded music. Well, I ran the sound for Unspoken Truth....And I did a lot of those personics recordings in the 80s.

87. Eaten shark. Not the endangered kind. ;)

88. Had a one-night stand. Nah..

89. Gone to Thailand. Not yet.

90. Bought a house. I wish, indeed.

91. Been in a combat zone. No, though I almost got all the way to Norhtern Ireland on my trip to that wonderful country.

92. Buried one of your parents. Lord willing not for many more years.

Been on a cruise ship. Not yet. ;) Far too many of those on here, I think!

94. Spoken more than one language fluently. French and English. :)

95. Performed Rocky Horror. Do I have to admit to this?!

96. Raised children.

97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour. There is something just vaguely stalker-like about this.

98. Created and named your own constellation of stars. Since its something thats been listed a few too many times as a bad scam, nope, and I won't, either.

99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country. Its on that long list...

100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over. Yup. And then moved back home at far too old an age. Poor parents!

101. Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge. In fog and sun.

102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking. You're supposed to stop?

103. Had plastic surgery. Won't, either.

104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived.

105. Wrote articles for a large publication. Wouldn't that be fun?

106. Lost over 100 pounds. Working on it!!

107. Held someone while they were having a flashback. Not that I am aware.

108. Piloted an airplane. No, but I did get to co-pilot a helicopter once. I'd love to, but it isn't on the life list.

109. Petted a stingray. At the Montery Bay Aquarium. They feel like a snake. Only, well. Wet.

110. Broken someone's heart.

111. Helped an animal give birth. Its part of the whole 'cowgirl' thing. ;P

112. Won money on a T.V. game show. That woudl require appearing on TV first. yikes!

113. Broken a bone. Despite climbing far too many trees, barn rafters, ladders....

114. Gone on an African Safari. I might do a photo safari, someday.

115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced. Ew, no thanks.

116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol. Part of the cowgirl way I have yet to get trained in.

117. Eaten mushrooms that where gathered in the wild. Yes, but not by me.

118. Ridden a horse. Errr....it would be hard to be a proper cowgirl without a proper mount. ;)

119. Had major surgery. I'd prefer not to, too.

120. Had a snake as a pet.

121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Not sure I would want to. Raft down, yes. Mule ride, yes. Hike? Dusssssssssty!

122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours. Once, when I had pnuemonia.

123. Visited more foreign countries than Canada. Canada, Mexico, Denmark, England, ireland. Not nearly enough.

124. Visited all 7 continents.

125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days. Nope....might. ;)

126. Eaten kangaroo meat. Not too much on the meat front period.

127. Eaten sushi. Yes, please. Yum!

128. Had your picture in the newspaper. When I was very little. We were picking out Christmas Trees, and got on the front page of the small town paper.

129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about. Hopefully. Certainly at least once.

130. Gone back to school. For one day, and for 'real' starting this September. AIEeeee...wish me luck. ;)

131. Parasailed. Mmm, not so sure I wanna.

132. Petted a cockroach. Why would anyone in their right mind want to?

133. Eaten fried green tomatoes. Decided they weren't quite my thing.

134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey. A couple of times.

135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read. Uhhh.....quite a few. Kurt Vonneghut (sp!) Alduous Huxley, Margaret Atwood.......

136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating. Maybe that's why I don't actually eat beef? Hmmm....

137. Skipped all your school reunions. Oh, its far too much fun to watch how little everyone has changed through the years.

138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language. To the amusement of my coworkers, often.

139. Been elected to public office. Only if secretary of the honor society in college counts. :P

140. Written your own computer language. I'm a nerd, and only a wannabe geek. ;)

141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream. Not yet.

142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care. I hope I never do.

143. Built your own PC from parts. Quite a few of 'em.

144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you. Knitting /is/ art, yes.

145. Had a booth at a street fair.

146. Dyed your hair. Regularly, for a while.

147. Been a DJ. All that tryign to please people, ouch.

148. Shaved your head. Does the neck count for a short short haircut? I dont' want everyone to see my peanut head. :P

149. Caused a car accident. Only according to the police report.

150. Saved someone's life. My brother, from drowning once. Stupid sister!

And if you made this far....boy...do I admire your fortitude. ;)

Mitred Rectangles!

2006-08-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

I did it! Okay, so a) The camera is once again lurking in Dad's glove box, and b) I had to undergo some horribly awefully vicious blocking to get an actual rectangle to emerge, but it is possible, sort of.

Now, I am not super fond of the vicious blocking look (Tiny rows on one side, super stretched rows on the other) so I have started experimenting with a short rowing concept that has some promise. Hopefully, I will be able to go spelunking for the camera tonight and have some pictures of the current attempts and the second short row attempt, since the first one got ripped right back out again.

On a non-knitting front, the horrible heat wave has ended on a not so wonderful note. A large fire is buring in the Trinity Alps to my West, which means the smoke is hovering over the towns I live and work in, causing all manner of fun asthma related issues, which translates into far more lying about and not doing anything than I prefer.

A good Cause

2006-07-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Derrr....I forgot to post this yesterday, because I am a terribly bad monkey.

I'm sending something off, because, well...for a lot of reasons, but mainly because its a great cause that benefits far too many people, including an amazing little boy I know and an 'old lady' I farmed with in college, and....

Black Purl Magazine is sending out a call for designers to submit their work for a worthy project: A calendar benefitting The American Diabetes Association. Check out all the info here.

So, think about it, the deadline isn't until September 1st. And if you can come up with only a small portion of your life that has been touched, and you consider yourself a designer, or you have thought you might like to make something for a magazine once, send it to them.

Reading and other Indoor Sports

2006-07-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

I saw a link to this in another blog, and have decided I like it...they offer a different literary question every week, here's todays:

Booking Through Thursday

Have you read Lord of the Rings? Yes!

If so, how many times have you read it? Just once? Or so many you can't count? Nearly once a year since I was eight years old. That's around 20-somthing times.

If not, why not? Not your cup of tea? Mmm, tea while reading LoTR. And a nice fire...

And, while we're on the subject, did you see the Oscar-winning movie(s)? What did you think? Saw them. Like them. Don't love them the way I love the books, and I felt very strongly that the producers lost the vision by the third movie. The 'feel' of the books was lost in all the special effects and the oversimplification of parts of the end story.

Its funny, I read a couple of blogs that had last weeks question in them, and was amazed, as the authors of the Meme are, at how many people included the Lord of the Rings as their most tattered/beloved book. Since I read mostly knitting blogs, it made me wonder...how many knitters are fans of SF? How many SF fans are knitters? Do the two share a certain underlying desire to connect past, present, and future in some tangible or intangible way? I leave it to you, dear readers, to decide.

On the knitting front, lots of theories on mitred rectangles, I'm hoping to have time at lunch today to cast on and try one or two of them out. Wish me luck. ;)

Summer Woolens

2006-07-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

So we are now, in the Northern Valley of California, entering day 12 of 'record heat'. Our weatherman last night declared that it doesn't officially count as the longest heat wave in Redding because last week, one day only topped out at 99 degrees Fahrenheit. At the official recording place, a low spot by the river with a cooling breeze. Up at the ranch-stead, its been 110 or more when I get home at night, and 100ish at bedtime.

And what am I knitting? Wool. Okay, so I am knitting teeny tiny squares out of sock yarn....but it still makes me question the sanity of those of us dealing with opressive heat and working happily along on a future winter project.

Speaking of which, I have pictures! At last... of the jacket squares.
There you are, a whole weeks worth of knitting, all summed up on the kitchen counter. I am still not, entirely, sure how I am going to put the differently sized squares together, though mom suggested perhaps I could 'fill in the funny spaces' with rectangles... an intriguing idea, so I am going to experiment with (don't laugh) mitred rectangles and see what happens.

Wish me luck!

Tricky Math

2006-07-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

So, we are at Saturday, only four days since the start of ye ol' daily blogging lifestyle, and I have already broken the 'I will write every day' promise I made to myself. I could blame the heat. I could blame a particularly hard to find reconciliation at work. I could blame the missing digital camera. I would probably be better off though, blaming my own lazy butt.

At any rate, I am still picture-less, since the digital camera is still lurking in its den somewhere in teh depths of my father's truck, to the best of anyone else's knowledge. I did, however, sit down and measure up my jacket squares, which, it turns out, are 2" and 4", rather than 1" and 2". You might wonder how I could mistake a four inch square for one half (Really 1/4) its size, but then you would only realize my complete spatial ignorance.

So, having examined this evidence, I have decided a 1x1 square would be way too freaking small. And and 8x8 square would be way too freaking big. In light of this truly amazing revelation, I have determined that a 6x6 square would be /just right/.

Before anyone freaks out and declares that 4 does not, in fact, go into 6, I should say that of this, I am aware. Two goes into six, which means with some clever assembly, I will simply have a creatively offset look. Or a whole lot more 2" squares than anything else. Since, at this time, I have a sum total of 3 2" and 2 4" squares, we could go in any direction still. Yay for modularization!

Bona Fide Knitting Content

2006-07-19T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sans pictures, alas. But as promised - some real live knitting (And a little crochet) content. I started this week on what I have liberally and tentatively named the 'ten-year-jacket'. Anyone who knows my particular weaknesses when it comes to knitting projects, and fresh, yummy yarn, knows that I am far too often prone to project abandonment.

I found, while unpacking recently, no less than 12 items, on needles, that I had not started in 2006. The oldest, I think, was from 1999. So here we are at another of those 'reasons I blog' statements. I figure publishing my horrific record and the works in progress might, perhaps, a little, encourage me to finish them. So...

Here we are, the ten-year-jacket. The idea was born a year or two ago, when I was still working at/managing a chic little yarn shop in the South Bay found here: http://www.goknit.com. We had a lovely little mitered square children's sweater on display out of several colors of Koigu wool sock yarn. I liked the little sweater, I liked the idea of mitered squares, I thought....mmm...wouldn't that be nice, with maybe a little more variety in square sizes, as an adult sized jacket type thing? So I purchased a few (okay, somewhere around 15) skeins of different colors of this sock yarn. Which has sat in neat little balls in my stash until January, when my two baby boys (Of the feline variety) got into that bag and made string art all over the apartment floor.

This incident reminded me of two things:

1. I really ought to do something with this yarn, and having a distinct lack of intrest in actual socks, perhaps the jacket would do.

2. I really ought to get lockable bins for the storage of said yarn.

And so I got to thinking, and decided to get 'er done, as my Dad is so fond of saying. It took a while, but I came up, finally, with the idea of knitting all the squares individually, in three different sizes (1x1, 2x2, and 4x4) and then stitching them together after arranging them in a pleasing manner ala a crazy quilt. Which brings us to this week (yes, seven months later) and me, having started the squares. I have four so far, three one inch by one inch, and one two inch by two inch. At the rate of about a square a day, the jacket could conceivably be done by next year. I figure I am probably more likely the square a week, or even month, kind of person, hence the ten-year part of the name.

Now...in case you've made it this far, this is where I need help. Do I stick with two sizes, and just wind up making more of them? Or plunge forward with the three sizes idea, even though I am a bit afraid that a 4x4 square might be a bit, well, large as a colorblock?

It is Koigu, which means there's only one or two monochromatic (And I use that term loosely here) skeins in the whole mess, but...I quibble! So...advise is greatly appreciated. And I promise to attempt pictures of the squares, and the crochet poncho/shawl thing I am working on tomorrow.

See? And you thought there wouldn't be any crochet content after all that blathering. ;)

The Death of Lucky Clucky (The wonder chicken)

2006-07-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

So, you may wonder, dear readers, why I have begun my entry into the blogosphere (many years and much harassing by friends later than might be desired) with the death of my mother's favorite chicken.

A question that can, I am very certain, be answered many ways. Perhaps it is a visceral response to the ephemereality of life. Perhaps it is just 'time', finally. Perhaps the psycho-analysts amongst you will discover more reason than I.

At any rate, it is not an auspicious beginning, one might think. But a beginning it is. So first, let me introduce myself. I am a knitter, a cowgirl-in-training (Thanks to having moved to my family's 160 acre ranch in the far northern reaches of California) and various other roles that will come to light eventually.

I do promise to include knitting, crocheting, and various fiber-rific content in futer posts, particularly after I have wrested the digital camera from its hiding place in the truck to document such feats as the 'ten-year jacket'.

However, today, I wanted to talk about Lucky. I don't know, honestly, how long leghorn chickens live, on average. But lucky, in her three years, had about ten lives worth of adventure. Bitten at the tail by a rattlesnake a year ago - an incident that left her rather tailless and a little bit wobbly - earned her her name. Not many small animals live through the full course of a rattler's venom, so we assumed it was a little snake that did the deed this time, and were thankful.

A few months later, an unfortunate event involving a horse shoer, a spooked horse, and again, our dear lucky, resulted in a profound limp in one leg, making it difficult for our wonder chicken to hop very high. And yet, she still made it all the way across the yard from barn to house every morning for her daily dose of bread. She still managed to wander far and wide in search of tasty bugs and the full adventure of a free range ranch chicken along with her siblings and 'cousins' the Guinea Hens.

She still got into trouble now and again with her disaiblities, most often wandering into the wrong horse feeder (The hens' nest is an unused feeder filled with hay) and, unable to hop or flap her wings wide enough, stuck there until someone got home from work to let her out, or needing a booster chair to get to the upper reaches of the night-time roosting space on top of the barn.

This is, alas, how our Lucky lost her life yesterday. The temperatures soared to 111 degrees, or higher, that's just what it read at 5:30pm when I got home. We don't know how long she was stuck in the feeder we found her in, but long enough for heat and lack of water to take its toll.

Her woeful cluck, the way she hobbled at high speed in an effort to beg for birdseed scraps or bread, and the sheer tenacity of her earlier adventures will live on in our family, and now, thanks to the wonders of modern technology, in the minds of everyone who has stumbled upon this inaugral post.

K