Something from Nothing

Thankful Thanksgiving

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 15:34:43 GMT

So I got an email from my dad today, reminding my brothers and me that we have much to be thankful for. He is right. So what else could I do but make a list?

What I'm thankful for from the minutia to the grand universe...

Life, the universe, and everything (duh...)
My awesome brothers--thanks mom and dad!
My family who is so supportive
My friends who rock
My amazing, awesome, perfect boyfriend
This raisin cinnamon bread that I'm having for breakfast, courtesy of Abby :)
Cold brew coffee (thanks Dan and Phreadde!)
The opportunity to go to grad school and become what I've always wanted to be
Leonard Cohen
Books
The internet (and all that comes with it: podcasts of my favorite NPR shows, free TV, free knitting patterns, Ravelry, IMDb.....)
Movies (especially Orson Welles, Woody Allen, Charlie Kaufman, Steve Martin, and everyone involved in The Secret Life of Words)

Ok, time to do homework (something I am only tangentially thankful for).
:)

Fiber Fun

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:05:28 GMT

My room is covered in a fluffy blue dust. The aftermath of harvesting yarn from an old sweater. Yes, I have become a ~~cheapskate~~ thrifty knitter!

Thanks from instructions from this blogger, I have successfully taken apart 1.5 sweaters and started to reconstitute the yarn!

Basic Instructions:

1. Go to Good Will, or some other thrift store.

2. Find yourself in the oversized men's sweater section (still $5 but lots more yarn!) explaining to your friends that you need to find sweaters with the "right kind of seem"

3. Choose a sweater with appropriate seems, fiber content, and approximate gauge (if you have a specific project in mind.) I was looking for worsted weight yarn, preferably wool. Unfortunately, this was harder to come by than I thought. I totally compromised my love of natural fibers and got an acryllic/wool blend for one, but did find a ramie/cotton blend for the other (not wool, but still natural). Deep breaths. I think I'll be ok.

4. Take home your booty and start ripping! Actually...it took a little getting used to, taking apart a sweater. But I'm getting the hang of it.

What I didn't expect was the next few steps of unkinking the yarn and respinning the yarn (it's all untwisted!!) so, I did my first batch of hanks in hot water to ease the crinkles out. Here is a picture of my hanks drying :)

I have ordered a drop spindle in hopes that I will have the ability to retwist the yarn so it's not all coming apart!

I have started knitting with it as-is and it's just fine, but I like the idea of good-as-new yarn to work with. I also like putting the yarn in hanks because I can get an idea of the yardage of the yarn. (I wrapped the yarn around my chair...each wrap was about 40"...I counted the wraps. I did lose count a few times, which is why this is definitely an estimation of the yardage!)

Now I can finally knit my first sweater! w00t!

I found happiness.

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:34:19 GMT

A happy summer is hot and fun :)

So far this summer it's not been that hot (finally this week!!) but the fun is ever present with bonfires, a wedding, kayaking trips, birthdays, and cake!

Yesterday: I BOUGHT A KAYAK! It's a fabulous Necky manitou 14. Tracks well and very speedy :) Matthew and I went to New Hampshire to pick it up and then did a couple hours of paddling in Lake Ossipee. There was an island in the middle that we stopped at because I wanted to go swimming. Well, there were piles of duck shit everywhere. So...yeah, no swimming for me. We skidaddled out of there!
A great day and a great adventure. I am so happy to have my own boat! (and it's red!)

what I want out of the rest of the summer:

--more time for creative writing
--more beach days where I actually go to the beach
--more iced coffee
--more frisbee on the prom
--finish my book!
--Go white-water rafting (meeting up with Laura as she finishes the Appalacian Trail!)
--see my friends more (working less and going to class less is going to help that soon!)
--harvesting my beets
--Going on an all-day bender with Richard

happy summer everyone :)
smooches. .andi.

weekend Adventure

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:18:45 GMT

Saturday, July 4:
7:30 wake up. Randy is still packing stuff up. Jason has arrived. My first thought is: COFFEE!

Cold brew is already out on the counter and Randy makes us all breakfast sandwiches. yum.

It's foggy and we're running late (surprise, surprise). It's about 10am when we finally set off towards the east end beach. Since it's the Fourth of July, it's all blocked off and we're not allowed to park down there, but the guy lets us go down and unload.
We pack up our boats as the fog thins and thickens. When we were walking back down from our cars (found parking on Wilson St) Matt L. is feeling uncertain about the weather. Even if the fog burns off, there are still threats of thunderstorms within a couple hours.

Sadly, he decides to unpack his boat and head home. :( The rest of us head off just as the fog burns off and blue skies greet us on the blue seas.

About two hours into the paddle, We notice the dark clouds following us. We see lightening in the distance and sky darkens. Randy says, "put yours skirts on!" In about the time it took us to secure our skirts, the downpour commenced. For a few minutes we just sat in awe as the dark water around us glistened with raindrops.

Then we look at each other and head to the beach on Long Island, about a half mile away. Dried off, warmed up, fed, and peed, I feel much better :)
Just as we start to relax, we see another thunderhead heading towards us from the southwest. We jump in our boats and go, hoping to outrun the storm. Wishful thinking. It rains again and this time we just keep paddling towards Jewell Island, not much more than an mile away.

We landed around 5pm and started looking for a campsite. We find a great one right on the cliff with enough space for both our tents. Dinner of roasted meat and potatoes was a welcome treat before we venture off to see the fireworks.

The next day was clear and beautiful but a bit windy. We make it home around 2pm, happy, exhausted, and sunburned. :)

It's so not summer.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:33:49 GMT

It's July and we're in our third strait week of rain, with no end in sight! (Christ, even the Iraq war seems to be progressing towards the end!)

However there are some good points to this:
1. It's a hell of a lot easier to coop up at work or at home doing homework without feeling the pull to eff it all and go outside.
2. Movie time is anytime, not just at night time.
3. My plants seem very happy.
4. My car is clean.
5. My hair is not limp.

hmm...yeah, those don't seem very compelling. I'm still hating the rain.

I hope it lets up for this weekend because I'm going kayaking and camping! Holy shit, andi has discovered parts of outdoorsiness that she actually likes! So, after the bonfire last weekend, my appetite is officially whetted for camping out this weekend. I'm bringing marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate! First s'mores of the summer :)

And then back to reality because summer session B starts next week!

One constant: the rain. Always the rain.

New York, New York

Sun, 03 May 2009 15:48:08 GMT

Sunday. Brooklyn. Raining. 57º.

Lovely New York. After countless missed exits, a delightful Beatles sing-a-long, and about 100 home-made cookies, Randy, Philip, Jason and I arrived in Brooklyn Friday night around 11:30pm. We're staying with Randy's friends who took us out to a midnight dinner at a very nice restaurant right down the street. Went to be tired and happy.

Saturday was a little more complicated. Miscalculating the time it took to get there, Randy and I went for a morning run in Prospect Park. To the chagrin of our other theatre-goers, we almost missed the first play. We ran (faster than my morning run)up Broadway from 42nd street to the theatre on 50th st, braving traffic barriers, herds of tourists, and the little lady at the theatre warning us that we had to go in NOW or else we would miss the play. PHEW!

The play was great and next thing we knew it was 10:30 pm and time to head home...but not before grabbing one more slice of pizza for Jason and a big ol' salty pretzel for myself (gotta get something from the street vendors like the good tourist that I am).

And now it's Sunday and I got to sleep in til 9:30 :) then the cat peed on my bed--after I had gotten up, thankfully. There are five cats here! Good grief! It's ok though, most of the house doesn't smell like litter box :)

Philip and I got lost and then walked to Melissa's apartment on the other side of Prospect Park. Good times. More Pizza.

Then we met up with Randy and Jason--who had been doing the five-borough bike tour--and we got some delicious fish and chips at a british shop. Deep fried candy for dessert :) Lovely company, lovely meal.

Then off to ASCAT--FUNNNYYY!

then haagen-dasz and now bed. good night.

Z is for zzzz....

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:11:59 GMT

Nope,
no more sleeping in! Vacation is over and I'm subbing this morning! More Spanish! Mama mia! (wait, is that italian?)

see? I'm clearly not getting enough sleep.

coffee helps. Cold brew coffee is awesome. There's a small wikipedia article on the coffee toddy here.

But basically it's exactly what it sounds like. It's coffee that never sees heat (until you're ready to drink it later). So you throw some grounds in a big plastic brewer thing (there is a name for this) and then you put cold water in. Let sit for 12 hours or so and filter. Then you have a decanter full of coffee concentrate (kind of like espresso strength) which you can add hot water or hot milk to, depending on your preference.

Why bother? It's delicious! only about a 1/3 of the acidity of regular coffee exists in this fine treat :)

ok, obviously lack of sleep makes me unable to write about anything that interesting.

In other news, I started knitting a Sackboy! (the character from Little Big Planet...my new favorite video game.) yay.

ok, off to work.

Y is for YAY!!

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:16:16 GMT

I have planted BEETS!!!

I dreamt that they sprouted...but the ground is still 100% brown and dirty.

soon? I hope. I will take pictures and chronicle the progress of my favorite root vegetable :)

X is for xtra

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:31:43 GMT

Extra money?

not really. the opposite of that. but a new car!

The Honda Fit. I like it :) It's tiny but feels surprisingly roomy. Plus, it's light blue ;)

And it's not going to break down!

Pretty excited about this, but not about the monthly payments. Oh well...

I'm now on vacation and prepping the garden for some beet-planting! (oh my!)

W is for What the What?

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:29:52 GMT

So my original Blargh post about my car deserves a follow up after what happened Friday. My car started CLANGING from the rear end. AAA towed it to the service place and I'm waiting to hear back. Gearing up to buy a new (new to me) vehicle. Annoying but could be pretty exciting. Possibly going car shopping today...

W is also for work. only 2.5 more days of this Spanish-teaching job!! then a whole week of vacation. W is for W00t!!!

V is for vehicles

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:57:20 GMT

blargh. I have to get my car inspected this month. I wonder if it will pass...

also, i'm supposed to update my address with the BMV. I was told it was free, but the link on the website is dead. Lovely.

just a general blargh post. sorry.

U is for Undecided

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 18:12:35 GMT

This year seems to be the year of switching phones (better than the last two years that seemed to be the year of switching homes...)

I'm totally undecided!! Today, I think I finally made a decision I'm happy about. The past two days I have become a pro at switching SIM cards from phone to phone as I test out all of Matthew's old models to see if I like them. I don't. And I don't like my Palm Centro anymore, either.

It's a great phone, but it's way more than I need. I realize I only use one "extra" feature: the calendar. And the other day I came to the realization that I didn't even like that. I don't have, nor want, nor need a data plan so most of the cooler functions I can't even use. For some reason I was under the impression that it had wifi capabilities, but it doesn't, so it's useless to me. Hopefully somebody out there will see my ad on craigslist and want to buy it from me.

I just bought a new phone. It's a Pantech Matrix. It slides two ways--one of them opens up a full keyboard, which is the only other part of the centro that I enjoyed. yay! I can text like a mofo now.

Plus, it's red. I've always wanted a red phone. I think it's a leftover from my obsession with getting red converse sneakers when I was a kid (that never happened, either...and now Chucks are like $60 a pair. WTF?)

Anyway. Hopefully I've gone from undecided to Decided with a capital D. I hope that my fickleness will not prompt regret in a few weeks when I realize this was the wrong choice, too.

T is for Tattoo!!!

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:17:29 GMT

Yep, about a week ago I got my first tattoo. Yes, it hurt. But not as much as I expected. It felt like a cat scratching me...a lot, and deeply. It was worst on my spine (yeah, big surprise there).

Here's a picture taken the day after it was done.

It's itchy now that it's all scabbing up and healing (yeah, gross sounding). the aftercare is pretty simple, though: wash with unscented soap once a day, put unscented lotion on twice a day. Easy :)

Except I think I had an allergic reaction...my skin is all bumpy around the tattoo (gross!) i hope it goes away soon....

But what is the tattoo of, you ask? The birds were taken from one of my favorite album's cover art: The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place, by Explosions in the Sky. If you don't know them, they are an instrumental rock band (post rockish). Awesome. Check them out.

S is for Spanish

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:47:52 GMT

As you may know, I've taken a long term subbing job teaching Spanish to 5th and 6th Graders. I don't know Spanish, and somehow this is ok.

I've had about a year of Spanish (latest class taken about 4 years ago) but mostly I think my general knowledge of language (and extensive knowledge of french) have helped the most.

What I wasn't prepared for was dealing with classroom management. I forget how young 5th graders really are. they might be "middle schoolers" but I think they still have a foot stuck in the elementary school. It's ok. Las meastra just has to remember to be patient!!!

Every day, though, I am reminded of how happy I am not to be in Middle School (or high school!) anymore...

13 reasons I'd rather be 23 than 13:

13. I don't have to take classes that I don't want to take (oh wait...except for that research class...)
12. My parents don't tell me what to do
11. My friends don't make fun of me when I'm not there (well, maybe they do...?)
10. People don't tell me my food is gross (at least not to my face)
9. I have a car
8. I have a boyfriend and we do more than hold hands
7. If I say I like someone it means I like them. (not "like like")
6. If I talk to a person of the opposite sex, people don't giggle and accuse me of "liking them"
5. I have friends (!)
4. I can wear the same jeans 3 days in a row and nobody thinks I'm repulsive.
3. I can hang out with my mom and nobody makes fun of me
2. I can swear
1. Women in their 20's suck a lot less than girls in their preteens.

3 reasons why being 13 was pretty cool:
1. I could eat a pound of skittles and see none of it on my hips (what hips?!)
2. I didn't have to pay for food, rent, gas, or anything else boring.
3. Summers off. (someday soon I will have that again...)

Those totally don't outway how much being 13 otherwise sucked. balls. a lot.

R is for Relax

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 20:18:44 GMT

How to relax after a long week:
1. Take off work clothes
2. Put on something comfy (jammies work just fine for this. Personally i'm wearing a hoodie and my too-big-for-me jeans)
3. Put on good music (in a Dylan mood right now)
4. Eat something delicious (I'm a freak so I had rice and peas. Then ice cream)
5. Check facebook
6. Open a beer
7. Do something mindless while drinking said beer.

Done.

Q is for questions

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:38:08 GMT

If something is an acquired taste (ie you have to eat/drink it a lot before you like it), who would bother acquiring it?

When did I stop being a kid? More importantly, when did I start being an adult?

Why is it in our biology, as humans, to be struck by the beauty of nature?

If everyone grows up wanting to be a better parent then their own, why aren't we a generation of amazing moms and dads?

Why can't red be the new black?

When did dead babies become funny?

When did Laurel and Hardy stop being funny? (I think they still are...)

What do dreams mean?

Where can I get good Chinese food?

P is for Patrick

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:33:34 GMT

Saint Patrick's Day. Who could forget such an important holiday?

Me.

But it's not an important holiday to me. Last year I got drunk. That was fun, but I don't think it was a testament to the day's significance. Probably more like life's insignificance. But I digress.

When you work at a public middle school where you get pinched for not wearing green, you remember quite quickly what day it is. I have avoided being pinched for luck is on my side (the luck of the Irish?) and I accidentally put on green today! Olive green, but green nonetheless.

At any rate, poor Saint Patrick was overshadowed in my mind today but a more important event in my life: My first tattoo. Yep, that's right, I'm getting a tattoo today and I'm super excited.

We'll see how I feel tonight after the ordeal(P might also be for Pain) but right now I am happy and optimistic. Pictures will be posted once the thing has healed up a bit.

I'm getting it done by Danielle at Sanctuary in Portland on Forest Ave. This is the same place where Matthew got all of his done, and the same person who did Laura's. When Laura gets back we're going to go together to get our second tattoos. (already have an enso planned out for my forearm).

So, I leave you with this thought: How do you say "happy saint patrick's day" in Spanish?

N is for "new"

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:54:18 GMT

My computer is three years old. That is, I got this computer three years ago, but there is almost no part of it that is actually that old. After getting it back from Apple today, the following things have been replaced (since 2006):

--Hard drive
--Logic board
--Optical drive
--battery
--power cord/adapter
--bezel/screen (twice)
--bottom casing
--top casing/keyboard (twice)

Is it the same computer? well, the stickers are still there, so I'd say it's mine.
I'm also happy to say that this last time none of my data was erased so, even though i did back everything up, nothing needed to be. :) yay, good as new :) shinier, cleaner, happier computer!

Now, my applecare runs out in may, so i hope that if anything else major needs to be replaced it happens before May. Maybe it will last another three years...?

At any rate, I think my next computer will not be an apple product.

M is for Merino Wool

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 15:37:24 GMT

Another fiber entry! I get really confused by all the different types of fibers out there. I recently made a hat out of merino wool so I decided to look more into it (and other wools and fibers).

Merino sheep! They are known for their soft, fine wool (which is why I chose it for Matthew's hat--an itchy hat is a hat never worn).

Some wooly facts: Australia supplies us with 80% of the merino wool in the world. Other places where it is cultivated (is this a word you would use with "wool?") are Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Western United States.

The Rambouillet Merino sheep (aka the French Merino) is bigger than the regular Merino but the fleece can be just as soft. (So says my Aunt) :) The shawl I knit is made from handspun rambouillet. It's very very soft.

Another "M" fiber is Mohair. Now, this is where it gets complicated. Mohair comes from the Anogora goat. Angora fiber generally refers to the stuff you get from Angora Rabbits. Maybe some pictures will help:

big ol' Angora Rabbit. Angora wool (from this type of rabbit) is pretty fluffy, then, as you can see. The fibers are generally thin and soft and felts easily.

Angora Goat! This guy gives us Mohair. With properties like insulating, moisture-wicking, stretch resistant, and flame-resistant, it's no wonder that mohair is a popular blending fiber. It also takes dye really well.

I also want to talk about alpaca. Alpacas are kind of like llamas and they live in South America. It's similar to sheep's wool but it's hypoalergenic! Perfect for my super-allergic boyfriend! The bad news: it also lacks the water-repelling qualities of the lanolin (the part that makes regular wool allergy-inducing).
Ok...one more silly animal picture: (the whole purpose for this entry, really)

Shorn Alpacas!

Thank you wikipedia for the pics! (and much of the info in this post)

L is for Love, obviously

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 18:31:28 GMT

Yeah, how could I get around this one? It's fucking valentine's day. So obviously, L is for Love.

And now I leave you and let some brilliant minds of the ages (or the 20th Century...) explain something like Love.

e. e. cummings:

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;

wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a far better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
--the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for eachother: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis
_________________________________________________

William Butler Yeats:

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven

Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
__________________________________________________

Leonard Cohen:

I almost went to bed
without remembering
the four white violets
I put in the button-hole
of your green sweater

and how i kissed you then
and you kissed me
shy as though I'd
never been your lover

mini post in between

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:01:51 GMT

Just had to post about this little dream I had last night:
We were watching a reality tv show (only thing showing in the "frame" of my dream) and this person got rufied(roofied?) (I'm guess this was inspired by the recent episode of 30 Rock) The girl was like climbing in a garage asking for sex basically...'cause obviously that's what date rape drugs do: they make the person want sex. obviously. Anyway, as ridiculous as this was, it got worse. Apparently there was a family across the street (with small children) who saw all this and were shocked. Remember this is all happening on a reality TV show...and the ending credits roll to one of my favorite Neko Case songs. I hear myself saying "hey, they're using a Neko Case song! Weird! I love this song!" And then I woke up and realized how it was possible that a reality TV show would use a Neko Case song: it's in my dream.

K is for Knitting

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 13:47:39 GMT

Well, yeah, obviously. K has to be for knitting.

I went yarn shopping with Abra yesterday at Seaport Yarn. They didn't have what I was looking for (Berroco Alpaca) But i found a superwash wool that will do quite well for the hat I want to make for Matthew. It's really not scratchy at all, which is good for someone who doesn't have much of a hair-buffer between the itchy fiber and the scalp.

So, I'm back to basics which will be nice since I've been branching out with lace and everything. After that, he has requested a pair of felted slippers. I'm so glad that there are actually things that he wants! He hates scarves, I can't see him wearing homemade socks, a sweater is out of the question, as we all know, he already has his favorite pair of gloves. If he hadn't lost his favorite hat I might be out of luck!

There was a book in the bookstore called "Never knit your man a sweater...unless you have the ring." Cute. The funny part was they started out with a "good project for after you just meet": knitted coasters.

Honestly, how many guys out there would dig this? Right off the bat, I mean. Don't you have to ease your guy into the whole fiber obsession thing? Making an object that you almost never see knitted might make him a little wary. I would say never make him something at the beginning of a relationship 'cause you're still not sure what is going to happen. He could dump your ass in the middle of making the second coaster! Or, if you break up soon after, he's going to throw those babies away. ('Cause, let's face it, he probably didn't appreciate them fully to begin with).

So. Wait before you knit him anything. And wait about 10 years into a marriage before you make knitted coasters. By then you may have upgraded his bachelor pad into something that can handle an object so clashing with his previous ideals of coasterless drinking-from-the-beer-bottle ways.

J is for Jon Brion

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:01:09 GMT

Jon Brion is a contemporary composer who has done the soundtracks to some great movies. (They are great soundtracks, too, if that wasn't an obvious given...) My two favorite soundtracks composed by Jon Brion (also happen to be two of my all time favorite movies EVER):
I [Heart] Huckabees and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Usually I hear music in a movie that really fits a movie but I wouldn't listen to it in my leisure time. Generally this is because movie music tends to be very specifically composed to elicit certain emotional responses (short violin strokes for suspense, jazzy sax for sexy scenes, plaintive cellos for tragedy...)

but Jon Brion's music is just, plain and simple, good music that almost just happens to go with a certain movie.

All I'm going to say about Eternal Sunshine is that the opening theme is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. It is the theme song for modern love. The hesistency, the depth of emotion, the passion, the melancholy...hmmm

I [heart] Huckabees combines instrumental pieces as well as songs by Jon Brion (sometimes they are versions of the same melody) and I like them both but the singing is really great--honest, dare I say plain, but filled with true emotion.

Another fun fact: This American Life on NPR uses the music from I [Heart] Huckabees all the time It works, too. There's a certain track that creates a sense of mystery or "what's going to happen?" It's ponderous. I love that they use it, but it's use over and over again makes me wonder how much music they really have rights to. My guess is: not a lot :)

That's ok. Ira Glass is my hero.
Sorry, Jon Brion, you come close.

I is for Iceland

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 20:28:24 GMT

I have been enamored with the idea of Iceland for a long time. I'm not sure what makes me think of this country as a magical happy place. It could be the Sigur Ros music videos, or just their music alone; it could be that I know I could find some really cool wool/yarn for knitting and some people who could teach me how to knit in the traditional Icelandic style.

It could be that nobody talks of Iceland without talking about the richness of the land, the varying landscapes and the natural beauty. And what is cooler than the idea that people's homes are heated by natural geothermics of the land. (I don't think that sentence is scientifically correct...let's not even talk about grammar).

At any rate, whatever originally made me interested in Iceland, I feel I still need to know more about it. So I took this opportunity to devote my post to Iceland, thereby forcing such research to occur.

Iceland's population (320,000) is smaller than Maine's (1.2 milllion)! The highlands of Iceland are uninhabitable so that probably, in part, explains the low population...120,000 (over a third of the total population!) lives in the capital city of Reykjavik. (check out this photo I got from Wikipedia...legally reproduced here):

Since it's so close to the arctic circle, in the winter time there can be as little as four hours of sunlight a day..but in the summer time there is almost no nighttime! funky.

Apparently, it's a pretty progressive, liberal, and all that kind of place. The United Nations' Human Development index named it the most developed nation in 2007. It's not a member of the EU so it still uses its own money: the Krona. Speaking of money, the economic crisis hit Iceland hard, apparently causing the collapse of the government last month. Honestly it's too complicated for me to understand, and I'd rather not turn this post into something depressing when I'm trying to celebrate this country that I want to be in love with, unequivocally.

Sooo..back to the good stuff!

Iceland has cool things like glaciers, waterfalls, fjords, geysers, and volcanoes. (One erupted at the end of the 18th century).

Surtsey is an island of the southern coast of Iceland that formed during the sixties. While it is part of Iceland, only scientists are allowed on the island! Woah

So of course, as a knitter I'm intersted in the history of fiber arts in Iceland. The icelandic sheep produces two types of fleece. The outer fleece is called tog and the inner fleece is called thel (i've seen "pel," too and I'm not sure what's right). Thel is the finer, nicer, softer yarn used for garments. I guess, traditionally, this what they used to make underwear out of.

The only other thing I'm going to say about Iceland right now is that Sigur Ròs is amazing, and if you haven't heard their music, go find some now! This guy bows his guitar! sweet.

check them out on youtube:
See the countryside and Icelandic sweaters!
iceland is beautiful and so is their music

H is for Homespun

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 15:30:35 GMT

So, I recently posted about the shawl I was working on with the homespun yarn that my aunt made. Well, I'm done!

Here's the finished product:

The problem is, I don't think I'm really a shawl person. I think, though, that if I find the right dress, I could wear it at my mom's wedding (I think I'm the only bridesmaid...)

So all that counting and undoing paid off! And the blocking process wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. My aunt gave the brilliant idea of using a bed instead of a blocking board (which can be costly) It worked like a charm. I should have used longer pins but I forgot to buy some so I used regular sewing pins...it worked ok, but I should really just go buy some. I'm going to a craft store today anyway because I realized I actually don't own any size three needles of any kind! Well, actually I do. I have some super long strait metal ones but that's really not going to work for the project I have in mind.

Phreadde also gave me some really nice brown yarn...Knit Picks Shadow, I guess it is :) And, according to Ravelry, it's a two-ply lace yarn made from Merino. cool. So I think I'll use this to make myself a nice lacey brown scarf! While I may not be a shawl person I am every bit a scarf person. I have quite the collection already, but I could always use one more :)

Ok, sorry this wasn't really about Homespun yarn, but I wanted to tie it into my knitting somehow.