A Well Written, Succinct Post

I want to write a post that will be succinct and well written. I want my post to demonstrate that I am thoughtful and caring, that I am experienced, and that I stayed current and knowledgeable about a variety of interesting and unique topics.  This post should be insightful and funny while and show my feminist, left, liberal leaning politics without being over bearing.  I want to write a post that will change someone's life.

Instead, I'll just point out that I'm not that good at social media and post this lovely unicorn in a rainbow tutu. 

KenziesTreasures on Etsy!

I really, really want a rainbow tutu.

Weaving

I am learning all sorts of new things at my friend's house. The coolest one is weaving. She set-up her loom with yarn that she wove, and I am making a scarf!

Weaving a scarf!

The warp is what's stretched on the loom, and the weft is what's woven back and forth. On this picture, the warp is a darker pink than the weft. It's a shame the picture doesn't show all the subtleties of the weft.

Bag and Yarn

My dad isn't one for picking gifts out for his daughters. He generally provides gift cards. However, he occasionally picks out a gift for one of us that he is very proud of. He bought me this beautiful bag.

Bag and Yarn

Bridget spun that beautiful yarn that is a perfect match for the bag. Ohhhh... I have been having so much fun choosing what to do with that luscious, homespun yarn.

So Hot and Busy!

Today I drove through some scary parts of town trying to find a coffee shop to take refuge in during the six year old birthday party at B's house. I finally gave up and came back here.

I did get a little knitting done.  Isn't it gorgeous?

B's gorgeous homespun on the multidirectional scarf.
The foam dinosaur sticker is from the birthday party. 

It's slower than I used to knit, but I'm being careful to only knit for short periods of time to avoid aggravating anything. I wasn't sure how I felt about this yarn. It's not the colors I generally use. The zing on this particular scarf is really amazing. Gotta love short rows. Ok, you don't have to, but I do.

The dinosaur stickers are for future use. I might use them for mail art. I might use them for something else. I haven't decided yet, but I've got 10 and have access to more if I want them.

I'm also learning to play ukelele! N is letting me play around on his instruments, and I've been using his banjolele (it's the shape of a banjo with the strings of a ukelele. I can play three chords and 2.5 songs (I'm still a bit slow on switching into the chord that requires three fingers).  I am so excited - and N is planning to bring me to his ukelele group on Thursday.

Of course, ukeleles make me think of Jonathan Coulton. What else could they remind me of? After watching a video of someone playing Code Monkey on a ukelele, Nathan said that I can totally learn that soon. I already have several of the chords. So he's going to transpose it for me, and my plan is to be able to play Code Monkey on ukelele by August 1! It's what all the cool kids are doing.

You can skip to 2.50 if you want to miss his introduction to how he ended up with this ukelele version.

The humidity has been very difficult for me to adjust to. It seems that heat and humidity are making me lightheaded and dizzy. It also leaves me so exhausted that walking down a flight of stairs leaves me needing to sit down. I thought I'd have some adjustment time before a heat wave like this!  I'm sure that I'll be adjusted by next summer, but I'm hoping to be able to handle it this summer by the time they have the next heat wave. Or I won't even try. I'll just sit in A/C at every given moment until the temperatures are not in the 90s.  This isn't me being whiny. I'm just surprised at how strongly it's affecting me. I expected an adjustment. I just didn't remember how bad it was last time. I've been telling people that it was so humidity that it hurt me to breath. And now I remember what I meant by that!  

But hey, I can breath and sit in a house where someone might randomly pick up and start playing an instrument. I can knit handspun yarn and look at a loom and listen to kids play. I am not happy about how I got here, but I have ALWAYS wanted to live in a house where people might randomly start playing an instrument and folks crafts were all over the place. Somewhere that creativity was just a part of life and not a hassle. Playing bass clarinet and bassoon I couldn't create a musical home. And knitting became such a chore for me after a while. Now I am with people who love me, who give me dinosaur stickers and ice cream, who share homespun yarn, who open their home to me during the absolute worst moments of my life. Plus, they have one of those keurig machines so I've been making ice coffee each night (decaf for me) to drink in the morning when it starts to get miserably hot.

Knitting Days

The whole reason for creating a blog with such a stupid name was that I planned to do online introspection about myself. Well, it turns out that I don't enjoy waxing on about myself in an unprotected online environment. So I'm using this blog to talk about whatever I feel like talking about.

Today, I'm going to talk about knitting.  I love to knit, but it's been a solitary endeavor since I moved to Tucson. Not anymore! A friend of mine has returned to crocheting, and we've been spending time together knitting, crocheting, chatting, and watching tv.

This means a lot to me. We're not out and about doing anything in particular. I just showed up at her house with my bag, she showed me what she was working on, and away we went. She's crocheting a blanket, and I'm knitting her a set of coasters.  But I've got so many projects, and we've decided to turn it into a knitting/showing watching extravaganza. She introduced me to a tv show called Warehouse 13 (mindless and cute fun), and next week I'll be introducing her to Xena.

She's never seen Xena. I can't believe it! I love Xena. Years ago I discovered a Xena catalog, and I moved four or five times before that catalog stopped following me - even though I never ordered a thing. Now I wish I had. It would be fun to own a chakram necklace.  Oh well.

I was actually glad when Xena went off the air. They went crazy near the end. Kind of like that least season of Buffy. I didn't watch either show's final season for ages after the shows ended because their last seasons were just beyond stupid.  And lets face it, Xena rocked, but it was always a stupid show.

So I'll start my friend in the beginning of Xena and if she makes it that far into the show, I'll apologize when she nears the end. But it seems that a lot of shows go stupid near the end. Can anyone says La Femme Nikita? Yay Peta Wilson, but ugh last season!

There's no need for a "who would win, Xena or Nikita" one-off because they'd both end up putting down their weapons. Nikita would trust Xena had changed (well, early Nikita) while Xena would not be so sure that Nikita was innocent :-)

Blogs

09/22/12 - Another draft post that has been floating in the ether since last year. 

I love reading blogs, and over the years, the blogs I read have whittled down so that the majority of blogs I read have a purpose. Here are a few that I use:

How About Orange is a craft blog. Orange is not a favorite color of mine, but I still love her sense of style, and I find that I usually like her designs even if they are orange! She has a very retro feel with a crisp clean feel. She gives clear descriptions and instructions and has a friendly tone. I enjoy reading her blog and have used several of the ideas she has posted. I also plan to buy some of her ribbons as accents for future projects. One day, I might even purchase some of her fabrics as accents to pieces in my home. I even plan to make this clock that she linked to one day.

09/22/12 NOTE: I never made the clock, and it looks like this was a draft because it's only one paragraph long!