A SHAWL

I'm just so excited about my shawl. Which I have no occasion to wear right now, but who cares.

So, it's big. It's like 8 feet across. I might have blocked it a little tight. Oh, those things I'm blocking it on are the things that you see at gyms on the floor. I got them at Lowes and they worked great. The advantage over the carpet, a towel, etc is that they are waterproof.

It's so big, that I can't get a full shot of it resting on the sofa. Here's my best shot.

Oh, and here's kitty sleeping resting on it before it got blocked.

But you can't get mad at a creature that later does this and makes you melt.

I'm working on the Salt Peanuts and will post some photos of it next time. One final thing I would like to do is point you to this recipe for tart crust from Martha Stewart. The recipe itself isn't exceptional in any special way, but the technique for "rolling" out the dough is. She has you chill it for 1+ hours and then grate it with a cheese grater and press it into the tart pan. It was the easiest crust I've ever made (rolling out dough give me a headache). So try it next time you want to make a lemon tart...

Oh, and I've now officially lost a total of 17.5 pounds and 15 inches (total from various body parts, most impressive is 5 inches off waist) since February 16!!!!

D'una new blog et. cetera

First off, I would like to let you all know that I have created a new blog with my friend and partner in excessive musical purchase crime, Anu. It can be found here: www.dunakho.blogspot.com, so if you actually think some of what I write about music is interesting, you can find it there. If, on the other hand you find it totally boring, stuff about my life and knitting will be here. If you think that I am completely full of shit, keep it to yourself and go read another blog somewhere else.

Second of all, I would like to congratulate Ann on her new house.

Onto the et cetera.

I have finished one Lotus Blossom shawl. I am still in the midst of devising a clever place/way to block it. I will post blocked photos of it then, but until then, know that kitty is using it as a bed. This is kitty trying to get to it while it's still in the bag, but since then, it has been removed from the bag, and kitty loves it. I almost took it away, but he looked really upset when I tried to.

Then there's the other kitty. My self esteem has taken many knocks since this whole diabetes thing came up. The biggest part is that I convinced myself that I was "doing it wrong" when trying to administer his insulin. I just thought I was controlling the blood sugar of his fur more than the blood sugar of his, you know, blood. So, the vet and I came up with a solution that suits me quite well. Liam on the other hand, is not thrilled. Especially since Apache has made fun of him since he came home. I'm talking about the shaven strip on his back side.

Finally, onto my weakness. I love Cadbury eggs. I love them. I love the mini ones, I love the creme filled ones. Back in the days of my depression (also known as 2001-2004), I would contribute significantly to Hershey's bottom line (who manufactures Cadbury in the US... yes, I know that, don't you?) each Easter. It might even have been a line item on the corporate quarterly report: "Excessive chocolate intake by one, very depressed, Kristen Homiquest." Anyway, I've been working my butt off for the past two months with a personal trainer twice a week, doing cardio about 4 times a week and following a diet, doing quite well. My second official weigh in is Tuesday. And look, I'm so happy that I'm losing weight, I feel great, people are complimenting me, the shop might open soon, and on and on. But I'm not going to go through Easter without any freaking Cadbury eggs, I'm an American dammit, I deserve them. The problem is that I have no will power. Even if I brought the chocolate into the house with every intention of eating it after Tuesday, there is absolutely NO way, it would make it. Unless I put in a hindrance. So I did what any other completely insane, recovering fat person would do, I locked the chocolate in my hope chest with a combination lock. Ahhhh.

These are, I think, signs of addiction

There's non-music stuff at bottom

I went about 5 days without purchasing new music (after purchasing 16 cds in the first quarter). It might have been longer. Addicts can't tell you see.

So, the new, highly anticipated (by me sucka) Flaming Lips cd, At War With the Mystics, was released on Tuesday (that's yesterday), and I waited until today to get it. Well, in all honestly, I tried to buy it off iTunes before 7 am yesterday, but iTunes was being a pain in the ass. Then I was going to get it at lunch yesterday, but I didn't have time to get coffee before work, so I was majorly decaffeinated and took the re-caffeination mission as time to hang with my buddy, Bettina. But today, I got my hands on it!

HAHAHAHA It's good. It's much more obvious about its moodiness than Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, and I had to wait at least three songs for Wayne Coyne's squeaky high notes (that I love with all my heart). But I really like it. And I think that I'm going to really love it. It takes a while for me with most Flaming Lips (took me about five months to fully absorb Clouds Taste Metallic which is now, I can safely say, on of my favorite LPs ever).

Ok, and then, because I felt like it ... yes, I'm defensive... cause I wanted to. Cause I like them, I bought the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs newest Show Your Bones. And I do like them. And I'll be honest, I have nothing intelligent to say about the cd because I only listened to it at work on minimum volume and have not had any time to devote to it yet.

So, now, with my appetite whetted, tonight I did what addicts are just NOT supposed to do: I got on the internet. Yup, a girl like me can spend hours cruising MySpace pages for bands. I know, I'm a slut and an addict, picking up bands on MySpace, if my mother only knew. I can't help it. I need an intervention. So, I've got a list, of new stuff to acquire (I'm waiting until the weekend. Well, cause it's the right thing to do, though I gotta say Sound Team are going to be hard to resist especially with their show on Saturday in Houston).

Then I did what I told myself over and over not to do, on my new favorite site, gorilla vs. bear, there's a link to some pre-released tracks by The Ranconteurs (who, by the way, have a bitchin' website). And I said to myself, Kristen, DO NOT download songs from an album you know you are going to love and that doesn't come out until MAY 16. But alas, the demon was too strong, and I downloaded one. It made me want to... well, it made me want to find a way to get the damn thing before May 16, involving moderate amounts of violence, if necessary.

So that's that. I'm still 10 freakin' rows away from finishing the damn shawl. Have made no progress since Sunday. I think I'm scared of blocking it. Mostly scared of where to put it and what to block it on (and don't say the bed because my Sleep Number is a glorified air mattress into which no pins shall go).

Finally, I paid to have the hair on my face ripped out of its follicles this afternoon. Unfortunately, my normal person and I had a slight scheduling conflict this week, so I got to go with someone else. His name was June. He tried to get me to talk about church, but I quickly changed the subject. Anyway, for some reason, this man can not manage to wax my eyebrows without touching me ALL OVER my face, smushing my face to one side or another, and breathing hard. That and I said, "Please do not tweeze me if at all possible" (and normally people can accommodate this request), and he kept tweezing. It was terrible. And he got freaking wax in my eyelashes and plucked at those for what felt like hours to get it out. But then he said the thing that gets me going more than anything. He told me: "I'm sorry if I missed anything, I can't see your hair because it is so light." I hate it when people say that to me; I've stopped visiting salons altogether for that crap. I wanted to shout at him, "THAT IS WHAT I AM PAYING YOU TO DO, FIGURE IT THE FUCK OUT. If I wanted to go to people who said that to me, I'd be going to the salon called 'Nails and Waxing' down the street and paying $10.00" But I didn't say it. Then he said it twice more after that. Like that's an excuse for doing a shitty job. Oh, that just bothers me. If you can't see people's light hairs then maybe you should think of something else to do for a living.

This now ends today's bitter, bitchy woman segment.

Finally, a shout out to the Katy knitters. I'm so excited to see the new yarn store, Yarntopia. And hopefully, Brynne, I can finally cross the great Houston city limits divide and meet you in person!!

The Little Knitter That Could

I have been plugging slowly but surely away at my Lotus Blossom Shawl. I am 13 rows from the finish. I can't even say how excited I am to finish an object. Here's a picture of her, but she's a little rumpled.

Here's some detail. I must give the disclaimer that my camera and I are having really significant troubles in our relationship. I can't seem to figure out how to get the types of photos I want out of it, and it refuses to help me figure out why...

The only only thing I wish about this shawl is that it had a little less "stem" (the yarn over, knit one yarn over pattern you see at the bottom) and a little more blossom (the upside down triangles at the top). I could add another blossom repeat, but at the rate I'm knitting, that will add 7-8 more months before I finish.

I hope to finish, block and have a shawl to wear next weekend in the 80 degree April days next weekend. Oh I know, I'll lend it to Natalie so she won't be cold in my sub-zero apartment at Poker Nite III (you carry around 85 extra pounds and let me know how hot you are). Anyway, there's nothing like a wool shawl to really keep you warm when the temperature dips below 79. Ok really, I have very limited use for something like this in Houston, but that's not really the point is it? I mean look how pretty it is!!!

Anyway, I won't add another blossom because I have something very exciting waiting in the wings...

My Colinette Wigwam for my Salt Peanuts (or now moldy salt peanuts). Flown over from London with my trusty co-worker (who would never ever be the kind of person you would peg as one who would slog 1.1 kg of yarn to the U.S. for someone he knows only slightly, but alas people are alway surprising). It's really beautiful and despite one of my less cultured male coworker's observation of: "It looks like shoelaces," I am in love with it. I knit a swatch of a burgundy colored version of this yarn that, for whatever reason, they don't sell in the UK. So I decided on Moss instead. The Moss is more of what I think of as light sage. It's also a very textured color but not in a way that will take away from the pattern of the cardigan. But anyway, the best part is that this yarn cost me $120 from the UK. From the US, it would have been $250. That's still a lot of money, but I was seriosuly thinking about the $250.

Now my dilema: what size to knit. Six weeks ago, I would have been a candidate for XXL, easy. Right now, I would do well in an XL. However, I think that I'm going to knit a L because it is seriously going to take me 6 months to finish this. Yes dearies, the blog is going to be very boring... Look a sleeve. Look one inch of a back.... Well, unless I spice it up with life drama.

I gotta shower. We (the cat, vet and I) have still not managed to get the cat's blood sugar under control. And for the sixth week since finding out he has diabetes, I had to wake up at 6 on a Saturday to administer his insulin.