I'd like to thank all the little people...

A few months ago, my friend Brenda wrote up a pattern, and asked me and Mom to pose in her pictures. Imagine my surprise to find that On the Vine was one of today's recently added patterns page in Ravelry- and guess who was modeling?

Wait. What's that in the bottom left corner?

Hey! That's me! (and Mom.)

If you want to see more, here's the Ravelry link for the On The Vine Pattern.

Today, knitting patterns; Tomorrow, the WORLD!

Love in the time of politics

I don't talk about politics on the blog, generally. But.

This is a church and state issue. If same-sex marriages offend you, don't marry someone who is the same sex as you. Simple solution.

Also, it's legislation like Prop 8 that would have made it illegal for me and Andrew to get married. (Anti-miscegenation laws, anyone?) Love is love.

Let's keep the government out of our relationships where we can. Seriously.

Hey! Elphie likes it!

I have odd dogs. They're selectively odd, so it keeps things interesting, but I find myself constantly surprised at some of the things they do. Especially Elphie.

Mom brought me some grape tomatoes. For the last three weeks, I've been obsessed with eating tomatoes with salt and lemon juice. When I was putting away the extra grape tomatoes, one escaped, which Elphie promptly hunted.

Since grape tomatoes won't hurt a dog, I figured I'd let her play with it. Since neither of the dogs has ever been interested in eating veggies, I assumed that she'd play with it a bit, get bored, and move on.

Nope.

She pushed it around the living room with her nose, stabilized it with her paws, and began to gnaw. A few minutes later, all that was left of the tomato was the skin. All of it. She'd managed to eat everything but the skin, which seemed deliberately left behind. Weird, right?

Speaking of critters that eat weird stuff, here's a video of my friend Tanya's kitten, Chani, eating everything:

It's been real

My darling friend;

I have treasured the time we've spent together. When you came into my life, I knew I had been changed, forever. I loved how you were thoughtful, and catered to my needs. In return, I would exclaim my love for you, and keep you in the style in which you have become accustomed.

As love sometimes does, after a couple of years, you stopped being as reliable and attentive to my needs. Occasionally you deliberately wouldn't do what you promised you would. That was when I knew it was over. I kept you around because, even unreliable as you have grown (and ugly as it sounds), you were better than nothing.

As you might know, we got our electrical work redone. I knew without the new electrical work, I would be beholden to you for what you do, but I don't need you anymore. Today, you have officially been replaced, so pack your things, and leave.

You see, TiVo, AT&T brought us a box that would always record what we want, when we want, and your people will no longer blame your planned obsolescence on a TiVo/cable box disagreement. You may be hurt by this abrupt end to, what really was, a beautiful relationship.

Maybe you should have considered that before you recorded the Home Shopping Network instead of the season premeire of Heroes. That's water under the bridge now, and we are unequivicably OVER.

I hope you are happy in your next life, as a reclaimed hard drive. We are all only the sum of our parts, so this will keep you in our memory (or, as our memory).

It's been real,

Jasmin

PS. Not to tout your shortcomings, but the U-Verse box can record FOUR CHANNELS simulaneously.

A sign of the times

At dinner last night, one gal asked me if I knew what the font on the placacards was called.

"That's not a font; that's my handwriting."

My ears deceive me

What I heard:

"I'm going to collect the weasels you requested."

Weasels?

No. EASELS.

Now you see me...

Sorry for the radio silence. If you know me in real life (as opposed to just reading here, or listening to the podcast), you know I've been going through some stuff. Not-enough-time-for-fun stuff.

After speaking with three professionals (different professions) and getting the same answer, I need to slow down. I've disappeared from social knitting groups because I'm putting in long hours, and I've passed the Minion hosting torch.

I've gotten loads of supportive e-mails, and a few checking on me to make sure that my absence isn't something more serious. (Thanks for the lurve, dudes!) Now, I'm sharing the worst, most vexing part of all of this:

When I get this tired, I start looking like my father.

I mean, I haven't sprouted a mustache yet, and I've still got all of my hair, but when I'm tired, I get the same bags he has under his eyes, and I get the same, weird creases down my cheeks that he does.

I see it in the mirror, vanity takes hold, and I'm immediately resentful of the responsibilities that are keeping me from my Beauty Sleep.

I'm still knitting and spinning, just not very much- tomorrow I'll post about Color and the yarn swap at Purlescence.

New Pathways in MY BRAIN!!!

A few years ago, I read that when you learn something new, it creates a wrinkle- or a pathway, in your brain. After the class I took with Cat Bordhi on Saturday, I'm feeling the effects cerebral wrinkles. Effects include:

1- An uncontrollable desire to drop everything I'm working on and knit a sock with a new architecture.

2- Daydreaming about knitting during other activities (working, meetings, spinning). Specifically, knitting a brilliant sock in handspun yarn.

3- Using the new sock as a carrot for finishing other tasks (like plying up the singles that have been resting).

4- Admiring the baby sock I did in class with vanity and pride beyond compare:

I'll be honest- when I cast on my Footprint (a brilliant, simple architecture), it was 11PM, and the ONLY reason I didn't cast on something more challenging was because of the late hour. It seems to be going faster than a traditional sock. Since the construction was published in the Twist Collective (as the Houdini Socks), I'll let you explore it yourself.

Here is the process of my socks thus far:

(Two completed footprints, with the stitches picked up.)

(A close-up, so you can see for yourself.)


(Snip!)


(Opening up the stitches.)


(Ta da!)

As far as the class is concerned, I recommend Cat as a teacher ANYTIME. Her background as a schoolteacher gives her the experience to pace the class so that the students absorb the most when they're fresh, and as the day went on, the material seemed to get simpler.

Despite the fact that there were 25(ish) students, all of us got one-on-one attention from Cat, and it seemed like all the students had that "aha!" moment. I haven't felt this smart in AGES!

The Ice Cream Diet

So, I was getting dressed yesterday, and I noticed that my jeans were getting a little ... snug. I thought about the last time my jeans got a little ... snug (when I gained 40 lbs), and if I was doing anything similar (eating ice cream everyday).

When I was discussing this with Tika, she said, "Aren't you going to yoga?"

"No. I think about going to yoga, but then I decide to have ice cream for breakfast instead."

Cause, meet Effect.

If you're looking for me, I'll be sweating it out on the Wii.

Heroes meets The Fly

I'm a huge Heroes fan. I think it's a great show, and I love that the first two seasons are available on Instant Watch on Netflix. I also love that if your Tivo is rebellious (like ours) and neglects to record the new episodes, they're available online at Fancast and Netflix - pretty immediately.

I could wax poetic about all of the incredible storylines that tie together, the need for in-depth exposition, and all that beautiful character development - see, there I go!

I could also gloat that Sylar/Gabriel was just a victim of circumstances, and I KNEW he wasn't a bad guy, deep down. As I insisted, all he needed was someone to love him. (He's no Sheldon Cooper, but he's nerdly enough.) I do like that they blur the lines of who is good and who is bad.

But when Suresh injected himself with the virus (or whatever it is), and his skin reacted JUST LIKE Jeff Goldblum's in The Fly, I called it. I also think they may have stolen some dialog from Jekyll & Hyde (the musical, not the book).

On the knitting front, I've finished 1 1/2 footprints from the Cat Bordhi class. But, I haven't taken those pictures yet, so I'll distract you with some spinning. I present, Hotel California:

As always, the Crown Mountain Superwash is a pleasure to spin. I've had some repetitive stress pain, so I've reduced my knitting load- but I'm trying to finish some long-term UFOs.

Not only because it's been a while since I've finished anything, but I'm trying to actualize the potential of all that proto-yarn and proto-clothing. Keeping an eye on the UFOs keeps me honest about my stash, and keeps me on the Social Pressure Experiment track.