So, well… once upon a time. No, “earlier toay” I was going downstairs to take a bag of trash out, and figured, oh I might as well check the mail.

Ok, actually, let’s start with a background story. So, I have this crazy friend named Ariel. Some of you may know her as the “sock princess”, some of you may not. So, anyway, few nights ago, after hours of skyping, we decided to swap out some yarn – I was going to send her SWTC Phoenix (which mean for a Coachella), and she was going to send me her Debbie Bliss Cathay (enough for a Picovoli). And even though I (not knowing where exactly the post office is around here) haven’t sent the yarn out to her, she promptly sent me hers – and I received it on Monday.

Fast forward another day or two, we have been working on organizing her yarn. And as we were doing it, she said she was going to destash some yarn to me, as well as some paperback book. So I said, sure.

And today, I got more yarn from her. Insano!

This is all the stuff sent me within like a week period:

Yes, she’s crazy.

You know, the original plan for today was to post some socks in progress (it’s crazy – I’ve been having multiple WIP’s at once!) and some other stuff I’ve finished recently, but you know what, that will be for another day.

And now I get to read Harry Potter (the first book), thanks to Ariel. Now, where’s my big pointy hat and magic wands? (… though funny thing is, Chris has already read every single one in the series just this past summer.. and I was pretty set on not reading them. But apparently, Ariel is a lot more persuasive.)

Oh and.. hey, look! Something chocolatey!

Anyway, now I’m running into a problem where…. I have a very desperate need for more (sock sized) needles. Now I really start to miss the idea of living right by a yarn store where I can just walk over there whenever I need to – I guess I kinda took that for granted. Poo.

Ok, time for me to go wake my child.. er, boyfriend up from his wee nappy nap so we can go grocery shopping.

The end.

Ok, so this apartment is way too bright. Sun in my eyes…. seriously I have a blind spot now. So I’m taking a wee break from knitting and hey, what do you know, I’m blogging.

… 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

  

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 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.

Happy Birthday to me, and a free pattern for you!

I present you, Polly Jean!

download pdf | additional pictures

Enjoy!

I decided to take the “tradition” and actually post two days in a row. If this helps me to stay away from more productive things like.. doing laundry or go to Kinko’s, sure, why not.

I started on the second sock for Diamondy twin. I’m kinda strange and I rarely ever have problem with so-called SSS, or Second Sock Syndrome. But then again, now that I’ve said it, I probably jinxed it.

Look! Progress! Hooray.

Ariel thinks I’m going fast. I beg the differ. I’m doing this one at a time, she’s doing it 2 socks at once. That’s why I may “appear” to be faster. So… CHILL!

And… as you may have guessed, I am trying to make the socks identical – however, I think I’m off by a bit. It’s probably not super noticeable until the heel flap. Crap.

I know I know, what kind of crazy person trying to make an identical pair out of variegated yarn? Me, of course.

That’s it for now. Maybe there will something more exciting happening tomorrow. Maybe not.

It surely has been a while. So much happened within past about couple of months, my brain almost went numb, and motivations (to knit and anything else otherwise) went out the window… until now.

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.