… let see, what have I done in past month, in the very short month of February.

My friend Ranaee was here. We went and did some tourist things. Went to a zoo, and to Milwaukee Public Museum. We tried to go for tour & fish fry at Lakefront Brewery and that totally backfired – by the time we got there, tour tickets were completely sold out, so we had to settle for just fish fry (which is another crappy story – they were extremely busy and the table pager they gave us was dead so we had to wait forever plus one). Oh and I got carded at a mall, because they thought I looked “underaged”. Seriously? Not even 18?

And I spent, or rather “wasted”, a whole week playing a game. Oh yes world – MJ has crossed the line to the dark side. MJ has played a RPG game (…. help me). I seriously spent a week, night and day, playing Fable: TLC, like, sleep deprived all night and day. And we all know that MJ doesn’t really play any games. I can barely play Mario Bros. But well, what can I say, it was stupid but it was kinda interesting. At the end, I felt like the game should have lasted longer. And at the end, as you accumulate all the points and buy all these powers & magic and such, it just got too easy. So.. yeah, the game was fun… until the end when it kinda became disappointment. As much of a waste of time it has been, one accomplishment (or lack there of) is that this was the first time I played a game and finished. So, there.

Oh and I finished a pair of socks: twin sock with Ariel, of course.

First time using STR lightweight – the color was like “well, that’s nice” – after all, color preferences are subjective thing. But my goodness, the yarn base itself is fabulous, I can see what the fuss is all about.

Right now, I’m working on couple of pairs of socks. Yes world, MJ has joined the multiple WIP club :P

  

On the left is Twisted Flower (Cookie A), and on the right is Embossed Leaves socks. TF is another twin sock with Ariel, and as for EL, this is the first pair I’m actually making for myself (but 3rd time making it altogether). Of course, EL is done in my butchered way – b/c as pretty as it appears to be, I don’t really like that garter detail on heel flap on the original pattern, and also the toe shaping.

Oh and last night, I invaded a local knitting group. That was totally awesome. Everyone was really nice. I’m tracking them all down one by one on Ravelry and adding them as friend. There is a ravelry group so I probably could just mass add them all, but right now I’m on a mission :P I figure, that way, I can remember who they are, by trying to guess by looking at their profiles/pictures/projects. Anyway…

On a random note, I’m drinking (or sipping through a straw) Strawberry Banana Juicy Juice. A bit juvenile? YES. But is it awesome? Double Yes!

… banana flavored juice is a bit weird though. You know, because banana isn’t exactly the juciest fruit. But then again, this is probably mostly apple juice anyway, with “hint of banana”.

… and I want to go to Stitch & Pitch in July, at Miller Park.

… and it was a bit awkward (actually not “awkward” but rather “pricey” would work) to order hard liquor from a pub in Milwaukee (hello.. it’s the world of Miller & PBR). Maybe it’s time for me to move onto beer.

And that concludes my babbling about nothing.

Let see, what’s new…. For starters, Chris and I moved! Goodbye Champaign (well, actually, goodbye Illinois), hello Wisconsin! Even though it’s way too cold to do anything right now but it surely is interesting to live in a city. Apparently I’m not a suburban girl anymore (for now at least).

And for the kickers, this is what I see out my window every evening, watching the cars drive by. I’m easily amused – what can I say?!

And this is what the outside looks like during the day.

Yes, that’s the lake!

Anyhow… so, well, even despite the fact that I’ve been unemployed for over a month now, I still haven’t been knitting much lately. Funny how that goes. I wanted nothing more than extra time to be able to knit more, but now that I have more than plenty, it’s hard to scavenge for motivation. Oops.

Ok, there are so many things to talk about (that, or maybe I’m just getting lazy and don’t feel like bringing it up), so I’m skipping out on pictures of what I made for Christmas last year. I made 2 Hemlock Ring Blankets and a throw pillow (if you’re curious, pictures are around somewhere on Ravelry and Flickr). I gave up on trying to finish Slipped Hours pullover on time. Eventually I’m sure…

… Last but not least, progress on twin socks with Ariel! My Triple 8 socks (c/o on 8/8/08, does that make sense?) are finally finished. And just last night (well, technically today, since it was past midnight), I casted on for a pair of Diamondy!

  

That’s it for now. Time for more knitting! … or build houses on Sims 2.

Actually, we’re heading to a suburb in Maryland. Well, close enough. We’ll be there for about a week, “visiting” Chris’s sister and doing some tourist things, since.. after all, we’re out of towners.

Things are almost packed, and we’ll be leaving at the crack of the dawn tomorrow morning, or well, today, I suppose.

Before leaving, a poorly lit picture of finished pair of socks.

Waving Lace socks. Araucania Ranco solid in color 101. Used 2.5 mm needles and I’m pretty certain I followed the pattern as written, which is very rare.

And a pair of sock in the works. Actually, a mock up of a pattern in the works.

I’m not quite loving the look, but the basic concept is there. I think for the actual pattern to come, it needs to be more refined of course. It’s just one of my many insane ideas floating in my head. We’ll see how things go.

Okay, I think I should get couple of hours of shuteye, even though I’m not at all tired….

My grand plan of trying to work on one pair of stockinette socks has failed. Actually, that’s a good thing, because I’ve finished them!

  

Yes, once again, stripes are matchy matchy. For unimportant specs, the yarn used is Cascade Sassy Stripes in Amanda colorway. Seriously, I’ve made gazillion pairs of socks in these. Generally speaking, the dye job on these sucks (I mean Sassy Stripes in general, not just this particular skeins I used), but the yarn knits up a-okay and they’re fantastic to wash and wear.

And just last night, I started on another pair of socks. Well, a sock. Again, this is another pair of striped socks, but this time I’m using cut and reattach method by using leftover J-Knits Superwash Me – Sock and Knitpicks Essential. Cut and reattach is such a pain in the ass (I mean, who likes to weave in millions of loose ends?) but I really like the crisp stripes it creates. We’ll see how it goes.

Time to go, time to go. Back to craziness that is October.

Yes, I mean Halloween season.

For those of you (by which I mean, almost everyone) who may not know, I work at a costume store. Because of said reason, Halloween no longer is just one day thing, rather the entire month of October, in fact, like the fall season in its entirety. I mean, it’s fun and all time to time – you get to meet interesting people, ideas, etc, but after all, with long hours, it gets tiring. My October pretty much consists of work, home, sleep, back to work. Not that I ever cook all that much, but I pretty much give up cooking altogether in every October – it’s simply not happening. Pretty much same thing goes toward knitting too. I don’t, and can’t get much done. So, I cast on a pair of stockinette socks the other night, as something for me to do to keep my sanity, like 5 minutes here, 5 minutes there.

I’d be pretty pleased if I can finish that before the end of the month.

And not that I ever really update this blog all that often, but it’s very much likely that I may not post anything new until sometime November, who knows. And I think this year, I’m skipping on knitted gifts. Blah. And I can’t quite keep my thoughts in logical matter anymore. Thoughts pop in my head, then pops out – everything is just pretty frantic right now. (But then again, if you ask anyone who knows me pretty well, they’d call that pretty “normal” for me)

… and I bought few Phildar booklets the other day. Or, more like, I placed an order for it, so it should be here sometime next week, I hope. I don’t know if I’d ever make anything out of it (I think I want to, but for whatever the reason, I never seem to make anything out of actual pattern ever), but there were few very pretty patterns that I just want to have. Lately, I’ve been dying to make sweaters/cardigan type things – actual garments, but I can’t seem to make up my mind… that, and October to me, is never the greatest time of the year on starting anything major, so we’ll see how I feel about it after I get the pattern, and after things slow down a bit in November…

And last thing before I go away – I finished that red pair of Pomatomus.

Hooray on that.