July 21, 2004
That's Entertainment!
Reminder to all Guildettes: Guild is at Lake City Presbyterian Church
3841 NE 123rd Street, tonight only. Melinda, you need to come meet me there! You've run out of excuses now!
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Had some downtime at work yesterday. More specifically, in an attempt to avoid garroting myself out of pure ennui, I was trying to stretch as far as possible my current, two-page-long technical documentation task (two pages, and due in March 2005). This meant that, in between spurts of working on “How to Process Deposits Using the Cashiering Module” (big yawn…), I indulged in my occasional habit of surfing the net for information about strange and rare diseases. Now, before you start thinking I’m completely psychotic, Dear Readers, it’s not so much that I have an interest in freaky diseases, per se, as I have an overarching interest in extremes: the best, the oddest, the tallest, the shortest, the strongest, the fastest, the smallest. Get me near a book of trivia or a Guinness Book of World Records (or, as we all know, an Olympics broadcast, preferably with records being smashed right and left) and I start to purr and knead my paws. After finding "Jumping Frenchmen of Maine" and "Happy Puppet Syndrome"—both real, legit diseases—“alliumphobia,” the fear of garlic, and "anablephobia," the fear of looking up, I felt entertained, refreshed, and ready to tackle the next sentence in my dreadfully dull document. You gotta love the 'Net.
Knitting Knews
My least favorite blog entries are those in which you are forced to confess something, especially when you are forcing your own self to confess The Thing. This would be one of those entries.
Long-time readers will remember how last September I kvetched about stitch markers in general because they are always sproinking off your needles and disappearing into some Knitting No Man’s Land, and beaded stitch markers in particular because they, too, would sproink into the No Man’s Land—only they represented the loss of real, hard-earned money. Weeeeeeellll, soon after, it occurred to me that maybe beaded stitch markers wouldn’t fall off quite so readily since they have a little heft and weight to them...and then I learned that my new employee was seriously into beading...and she offered to bring in some beads, wire and tools...and one thing led another...and we had a lunch get-together yesterday in one of the conference rooms...and now I, the Whingeing, Kvetching Beaded Stitch Marker Hater, am now the proud owner of 11 beaded stitch markers. Photos next week. (There. That wasn’t too bad. About on par with ripping off a Band-Aid.)
So that I don't leave you completely photo-less, here is an artsy-fartsy picture of the Oak Leaf Scarf in its current state:
Let me know about the beaded ones! The scarf is delicious! Good work, Ms. Ryan. :) L
Posted by: Lisa in Oregon on July 21, 2004 11:47 AMthe scarf is beautiful- i was just whinging in comments to robbyn about how i would love to make (and actually have a use for) scarves and the like-
i've long thought that using lovely dangly beaded stitch markers would give a degree of sophistication to my projects as i work on them (and heaven knows i could certainly use that!!) but i always end up grabbing some of the rubber bands that one of my daughters has left over from orthodontia- they are always available and since i tend to be a bit on the slapdash side with everything, i don't have to weep and wail when one flies off to the neverneverland behind the sofa or gets lost among the 'life debris' around here-
stay happy-
Posted by: barb in texas on July 21, 2004 11:57 AMAnd here I was and thought that its kinda a sport, who can fling those stitch markers the farthest? They fly and roll and jump real well and get into all kinds of places where you won't really expect them. My best so far was, a gallery of stitch markers firmly embedded into the skin of my calf (I was knitting with both legs up on the table, don't ask..) which looked like a rare disease you might have liked LOL.
Posted by: Maus on July 21, 2004 01:00 PMHi, Maus!! And har, har about "stitch marker" disease. I bet the markers left some interesting shapes behind when you dug them out of your skin, eh?
Barb, seriously--send me your address and I'll send you a beaded stitch marker. I made 'em for free and, besides, what am I going to do with *11* beaded stitch markers?!
Posted by: Ryan on July 21, 2004 01:09 PMI knew it. I'm knitting all wrong! I've used stitch markers on all of my knitting projects and none of them have ever flung the markers anywhere. They don't even slide off. What am I doing wrong?? Do I just knit too slow? Am I not knitting wild enough? Should I be doing a knitting hootchie kootchie dance while working on projects? I'm gonna go hide under my desk and suck my thumb now. Wonder what Shamu is doing....
Oh the scarf is turning out fabulous!
Hope everyone has a great day!!!
Posted by: Stalker Angie on July 21, 2004 02:08 PMStalker Angie: Shamu Cam is not available right now, but Shamu has a spiffy new website! ;-)
TMK
Posted by: The Mysterious K on July 21, 2004 02:17 PMHmmm, is THIS where I tell Angie and TMK that I got an email from my brother-in-law a few weeks ago saying that the real Shamu has been dead a long time, and that SeaWorld just calls any big orca Shamu and any small orca Baby Shamu? Or should I just make it my little secret. Yeah, I think I'll make it my little secret.
Oh.
Posted by: Ryan on July 21, 2004 02:32 PMHey Ryan - Pretty cool scarf and a real nice color. Will it still be warm with all those holes in it?
As far as stitch markers go, I've been using the little, white, translucent thingies - Myria finds them all over the living room, collects them and puts them back in the baggie for me. Someday she's going to clout me (justifiably) with the baggie :)
Posted by: Robbyn on July 21, 2004 05:45 PMAargh! I didn't read your blog until this evening, and so remained uninformed about the Guild meeting until TOO LATE. We had company for dinner, anyway, and it was the friend who was MVM (most valuable mover) and hence someone we needed to shower with homemade pizza, beer, and the best seat on the couch for Tour de France coverage. Hopefully next time.
Didja see the weather forecast for the weekend? I foresee myself lying around in a puddle, periodically saying "gee, I should really get something done."
Melinda
Posted by: Melinda on July 21, 2004 11:34 PMMe thinks you may find Oliver Sacks' "An Anthropologist on Mars" or "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" interesting. They're clinical type studies but not dry.
Love the scarf.
Carine
Posted by: Carine on July 22, 2004 08:09 PM