hibernation documentation

Sweater Sampler

I’m going through my hibernation basket (where knitting WIPs go to sleep for a very, very long time) and logging them in Ravelry. It’s pretty fun, in a scary sort of way. I have way too many things on needles or being held on scrap yarn. I need to finish them, for my own sanity, as well as to free up needles and storage space.

The project shown here is the Sweater Sampler from Jacqueline Fee’s The Sweater Workshop. Great book. I’ve just taken forever to make this damn sampler. Click through for a better description of the project.

I plan on using Ravelry to document my “stash” as well. I use the little quotey things because it’s not a stash in the more commonly accepted use. My stash does not contain much yarn that I picked out myself and then stashed away for later use. Rather, it is comprised of many, many, little balls of miscellaneous yarn that no one else knew what to do with. It was given to me by various acquaintances (and some family) because I am a knitter and general crafter, so of course I’d know exactly what to do with it.

Hence all of the miscellaneous stripey hats that have developed. And gnomes. All of that stuff has been made with these remnants, which is cool, but doesn’t make for a very nice stash. I dream of a stash full of luxurious things, or at least recognizably useful things. I’ll settle for my hodge-podge, though. It does look kind of fun: I have the yarn divided into plastic baggies according to general color, and the bags are arranged in a rainbow like way. It’s a nice effect, really.

The good quality stuff (or at least better quality) is in baggies, which are kept in a hat box. That’s where all the natural fiber stuff is, and even a couple of hand spun items. So, ok, I do have some nice stuff. Just not a whole lot. Perhaps you could say I have an unostentatious stash? Yes, let’s say that.

I think I’ll record my rainbow scrap stash as well as the other stuff, because it will be fun anyway. (Visit me at Ravelry!)

Ravelry!

How did they know I was going to try to organize my crafty projects this weekend? I got my invite to join the Ravelry community, and I’m a-rarin’ to go. I don’t have a large stash, nor many projects on needles, but I would like to keep track of them in some way other than scraps of paper tossed along with needles and yarn into the baskets.

They’re in the process of moving it from beta to the “grown up” servers and whatnot. I’m glad I wasn’t invited earlier, because I don’t think I would have had the time nor the focus to help beta test as all the others have. It’s a really neat idea, and I hope it keeps up its momentum and turns out to be super wonderful. It’s had a huge response so far and the waiting list has been months in the making. I put my name down sometime during the first week of June, I think, and I got my invite this morning. One of the many cool things about Ravelry is that it’s for crocheters and knitters alike. It’s for yarny people in general and is trying to bridge the rift between the two crafts.

I’ve got to take care of a few things that have been on my to do list for ages, and then it’s off to Ravelry land for me. I’m going to The Knitting Librarian‘s going away party this evening, and staying at the Spinstah‘s, and then there’s the Creative Sugar meeting tomorrow, but I’ll have to find some crafty time in the middle of all that. Should be a fun weekend!

Voldemort can’t stop the ROCK!

It’s ours! Are you ready to READ?!

Or: Party! Like! You’re EVIL!

Here we are at 1:30 am on 21 July 2007 with our brand new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This photo encapsulates 12 hours of waiting, goofing around, people watching, rocking out, and general wicked awesomeness. We look exhausted, but very happy, yes? So happy, though JeT does have the crazy eyes thing going on.

Harvard Square became Hogwarts Square for the occasion. Susan and I got to Cambridge around noon and Kristen met up with us a couple of hours later. While I was waiting for people, I cased the joint, er, went into the bookstore to see if I could glimpse any hint of what was supposed to happen later on in the evening. I decided it would be a good idea to buy a book, so I wouldn’t look too obvious. I bought King Dork, by Frank Portman. (I highly recommend it. It rules.) We also scoped out Harvard Yard, where the concert was to take place. We decided the best strategy would be to get in line for our wristbands (for reserved books), get dinner, and score a nice spot on the grass for the concert.

This bit went pretty smoothly. JeT met up with us after he got out of work, and got his wristband with us. We got tasty food at Veggie Planet and settled in to watch the sound checks for the show. I walked around the Yard a bit to see if I could find where Potter Puppet Pals were, but I could not find them. Alas. (Speaking of the Pals, I tried to get a little sing-along going, but no one besides JeT responded to my “Snape. Snape. Severus Snape.” It was a bummer.) I took photos during the sound check because our crap camera doesn’t take good photos in dim light.

The concert ruled! Draco and the Malfoys are super awesome. We need their CDs. I totally want to rock out to them. Our favorite song was “My dad is rich and your dad is dead.” Oh, you Malfoys. So cruel. So funny! The Hungarian Horntails went on before the Malfoys. They were adorable and horrible. They’re probably eight years old, the three kids who make up the band. They sang songs about Hermione’s hair (and how she needs to brush it) and how awesome it is to be a dragon (ROAR!) Not to mention about how the Minister of Magic is a butt head.

Harry and the Potters aren’t as good musically as Draco and the Malfoys, but they put on one helluva show. They really get the crowd going and are super fun. They are the They Might Be Giants of the wizard rock movement. Linell-Harry plays the keyboard and saxophone, and Flansburg-Harry plays guitar. Both have Flansberg-like personalities, though. H and the Ps began a huge wizard rock phenomenon and there’s even a documentary in progress about their brand of wrock. Anyway, the concert was super fun.

We got in line for the books while H and the Ps were playing their last tune (and shouting out molecular biology terms for the audience to shout back, which I think had to do with summoning up all the energy we could to fight Voldemort, even on a cellular level I suppose). Our wristbands were pretty much useless. We thought that since we got our bands so early, we’d be able to be one of the first in line to get the book. Sadly the order in which we got our bands had nothing to do with the order in which we lined up for the book. When we got to the line, it was already going around the block. Oh, well.

We had a great time amusing ourselves in line. The bookshop printed out pages of an activity book for us, but they ran out of them long before they even got to our point in line. The people in front of us managed to scavenge one, and we had fun shouting out answers to trivia questions. I forgot to take a photo of our line buddies, though. One of them, who looked like a young Sirius (though a bit intoxicated) was having a great time trying to start the wave and running up and down the line like a madman. He was highly entertaining.

At midnight, the line began to move. Slowly. We got our books an hour and a half later. Our band of HP fans broke up as Kristen delivered us to our cars. We got to Quincy Center T station to find it quite deserted. There was only one door unlocked, and when we went inside, we found that the door to the stairs that led to the garage, was chained shut. After a brief moment of panic, we found a T employee, who unlocked the chains so we could get to our car. We got home around 3 am, thoroughly exhausted.

I tried to read a few pages, but didn’t get very far before I had to pass out. We spent the next day cleaning the house and then at the housewarming party of some friends. I didn’t start reading until 2 am on the 22nd. I finished around half past midnight on the 23rd. It was awesome. I’ll refrain from posting about the book here. I’ll save that for another post, as well as my comments on the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Click through to see more HP photos: people, costumes, Hogwarts Square, etc.

catching up

Lion head drool

Today has been a catch up day. I spent the morning catching up on sleep. I spent the afternoon catching up on photographs. I’ve finally uploaded all the photos that have been sitting in the camera since May.

I uploaded them in order, so that the most recent are the photos from Harry Potter day, and the earliest are from the End of the Semester party. There are photos of flowers, friends, family, all sorts of things. There are photos from our summer holiday in Maryland, too. I don’t have any photos from M’s wedding, though, as I didn’t have my camera on me all day. (See previous post for links to those photos.)

The photograph featured here is one of the drooling lion heads on mum’s new fountain. She wouldn’t call it a drooling lion, though. For some reason, JeT thought that particular sequence of events quite interesting, as there are many photos of my brother taking down the dead trees where this fountain was to go. Fascinating, eh?

Click through to see what else we’ve been up to.

“There is too much; let me sum up.”

The last couple of weeks have been rather crazy. Some upsetting things, some wonderful things, and everything in between. Chronologically, earliest to most recent, this is what’s been going on:

1. We still don’t know what killed Phoebe. Rather, we know she died of internal bleeding, but do not know its cause. The Shanks has had many blood tests and will continue to take Vitamin K until his blood coagulation rate is back within the normal range.
2. In happier news, Miss Kitty and 007 got married! We’re so happy for yous! Yay! I was a bridesmaid and had a fantastic time. JeT was the DJ and rocked the house. My favorite dance was the polka with the best man. Our “secret meeting” dance was a hit. We performed our version of OK Go’s C-c-c-cinnamon Lips, and kicked quite a lot of arse, if I may say so. Interested parties can find photographs of the event here, and here. (The latter has amusing commentary.)
3. We went to Maryland to visit my family. It was great! Some of my Canadian family came to visit my parents at the same time, so that was a treat as well. My little cousins aren’t so little anymore. My nephews are growing up, too. You know, when these kids aren’t being terrors, they’re quite funny.

   We played a Newfie game called 120. I’ll have to show you all some time. I learned it when I was 15, and am finally getting the hang of it. Really, it’s not so hard, but I only play every few years or so. I actually won a couple of games this time! Much fun was also had playing darts in the garage and bocce in the lawn.

   I also brought home a ton of books from my parents’ house. ‘Cause, you know, I’m really short on books. Mostly they’re the Harvard Classics, which my mum read while they were stationed in Spain. And some of my old books from when I was a kid, which were given me by my Great Aunt Eunice, to whom I bear a great resemblance. Speaking of my aunt, I also brought back this mechanical bird/music box thingie she left me. It’s rad. It’s really old and still in fantastic shape. If ever we should encounter an “Antiques Roadshow” event, I’m taking that.

   MO was kind enough to watch the Shanks while we were gone. He was happy to see us when we returned, and I’m not ashamed to say the feeling was indeed mutual. Poor little (ok, not little, but still) guy was left on his own without The Phoebes for a whole week. We almost didn’t go on our vacation, but since he didn’t look to be in imminent danger, we decided to go. I’m glad we did.

4. There was a fantastic party at BlogSEA manor last weekend. Muchos foodies and drinks, though despite my best efforts, sober I remained. Gathered ’round the firepit (which was, of course, used for cooking, why do you ask, officer?) ’til the wee hours of the morn.

   We received a late night visitor. Stranger’s name was Andy, i think. Looking for someone called Mitch, was it? I don’t know. I couldn’t understand a word he said. I don’t do well with mumblers. He chilled for a bit, and then left. Then in the middle of the night, there was a bit of a hullabaloo in the parking lot across the way. Many officers, a bit of yelling, someone kicked our car in frustration (no damage done), a car being thoroughly searched (not ours). Bunch of savages in this town. An eventful evening, though.

   The next day was spent riverside, enjoying the sandy beach and swimming. I need to live near clean, moving water. NEED! It was wonderful and relaxing.

   On the way home, the alternator broke, and we were stranded on the side of the Mass. Pike. Apparently, our Kia Roadside Assistance doesn’t serve that particular highway, so we had to pay $80 bucks to be towed 5 miles, so that we could then phone the Kia people again to tow us the rest of the 30 miles home, which cost $13. I must mention that this song began to play just as we were being picked up by the first tow truck guy. Hilarious. The second tow truck guy was wicked funny, and laughed heartily at JeT sitting on my lap for the ride home. I told him that I was not laboring under the misapprehension that I am a small person. We finally got home more than six hours after we had left.

   I should also mention that our vet was kind enough to pop by the house and give ‘Shanks his meds and a bit of food. He’s a friend of the family, and is very good to us and our kitty.

The rest of this week has been uneventful, thank goodness. Just enjoying the not-so-hot days and eating popsicles. Tonight we resume our secret meetings for some wrap-up filming and whatnot.

Tomorrow is HP day in Harvard Square!