Hello Secret Pal, wherever & whoever you are!

Here’s my rambling thoughts for now…

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer high- a nd/natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Or is it all the same to you?
I haven’t been knitting long enough to have real detailed preferences yet, but I generally would like it to have some natural content to it. As long as it feels nice. (though I have managed to inherit a fair bit of acrylics, so I’d prefer less ‘pure’ acrylics)

2. Do you spin? Crochet?
Not yet… I’d like to learn one of these days.

3. Do you have any allergies? (smoke, pets, fibers, perfume, etc.)
no, but I’m not really a fan of overly perfumed or smoke scented things - as long as they’ll air out, no problems

4. How long have you been knitting?
maybe 6 months - since July 2004

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
yes, but you’ll have to dig for the knitting stuff… sort it by priority

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.)
um… I generally like bakery scents and fruits. I can’t stand vanilla, and I’m not much of a florals fan.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth?
uh-huh! anything with dark chocolate is my fave

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do?
my new hobby (after knitting) is photography - just got a new digi-cam I need to learn how to play with.
I also like to make soaps, candles, sew, etc etc - just don’t get around to doing much of it.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s?
I generally don’t listen to much music beyond practice CDs for dance and Tori Amos

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer?
my fave colors are purple and green - but not the pastel ones. most of the things I wear tend to be blue, black or white.

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I live with my husband and cat.

12. What are your life dreams? (really stretching it here, I know)
I want to travel a lot. and someday when we’re ready, have kids. and keep dancing. beyond that, I don’t know

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with?
anything that feels nice going thru my fingers.

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
the icky feeling acrylics.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s?
er, not sure. I want to knit more cables. I want to knit socks. I’ve been knitting a lot of accessories and such.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I don’t think I’ve been knitting long enough to have favorites yet

17. What are you knitting right now?
main project - HP scarf. lots of WIPs

18. What do you think about ponchos?
I really don’t forsee myself knitting one anytime soon.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles?
no preference really. but I prefer the shorter straights over the long ones that could reach to your elbows

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
haven’t tried bamboo yet… no preference really

21. Are you a sock knitter?
I hope to be once I figure them out. (I have the yarn! just need to get started)

22. How did you learn to knit?
I tried to learn from my mom when I was little, but couldn’t get past the casting on… a friend at work taught me this year, and then I relearned a couple months later when I learned to purl.

23. How old is your oldest UFO?
not that old, since I haven’t been knitting long. but there are projects that don’t get worked on much. =)

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird?
animal: lions … don’t really have a fav character

25. What is your favorite holiday?
I’m not a big holiday person, but xmas & my birthday are usually fun.

26. Is there anything that you collect?
beyond various crafting necessities - not really

on the KnitList there’s currently a monster-thread going about what people won’t knit and aspire to knit… so here’s some of my thoughts:

Won’t Knit:
I’m not sure how I feel about felting/fulling. I’ve been thinking that it’s not something I want to get into, but I’m really leaning towards making the mini-skull tote (minus the skull).

I also don’t see myself going crazy over bobbles. Maybe a couple if it’s an aran pattern or something, but otherwise I’m not a fan.

Aspire to Knit:
I want to learn intarsia - and after I do, I want to attempt to make tartan hose (aka Highland dance socks)… at $100+ to buy a pair, it’s gotta be cheaper to make them myself, doesn’t it?

I want to knit socks. I have the yarn, I have the pattern(s), I have lots of DPNs. I just need to sit down and make them.

I want to try beaded knitting. I’m thinking of using Mary Ella as my intro to beading project. Just need to get some uber-tiny needles and I’ll be ready to start.

Someday, for the heck of it, I want to figure out how to knit my own pair of poodle socks.

A full size sweater. The two must-haves on my list are Mariah & Rogue. I’m hoping to start Mariah after I clear some of my current WIPs.

ok, not really knitting related…
so, today was one of those days where I feel like I can’t do something, because I have to wait for the mail. yesterday, I received the memory card for my new digi-cam (which, of course, is not compatible with the old digi-cam). so this morning, I thought to check amazon and track my package. and I saw that it had been put on a UPS truck to be delivered at like 5am. so I’m waiting, and watching tv. and of course, I see at least three UPS trucks go down my road (brown wasn’t doing much for me at this point). so, I have things I need to do (like shop for yarn!), but I don’t want to miss the UPS guy, so I just stayed home. which started to get boring after awhile. but finally, sometime after 3pm a UPS guy showed up and delivered my camera. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!! so I’ve been playing with it a little bit and taking random pics of my cat (who was still rolling around in the spot where I’d given her catnip earlier in the day)

so, I did finally make it out shopping (about an hour before the craft stores closed), and discovered some beads on clearance at Michael’s (a new weakness) and grabbed some purple Boa yarn that was on sale. then onto JoAnn’s, where I bought a skein of Paton’s Merino to test out and see if I want to use it for Mariah, and after swatching it will probably make the little skully tote that seemingly everyone on the Knittyboard has been making lately.

alright, so this weekend I was in Milwaukee for an Irish dance competition. our dance school organized a bus trip, which was great - I could spend the 6 hrs of travel being productive and read or knit. =]

amazing thing was, I’d bet at least a third of the people on the bus (both moms & kids/dancers) were seen knitting! lots of scarves and hats in crazy fluffy yarns. I worked on the HP scarf mostly, and a little bit on the Voodoo’s. cool thing is that two of my friends want to knit now! I let one of them practice a little bit on the HP scarf - and she did ok. now to get her her own project! =]

just when I thought I came up with something…

so on the way from my car into the house tonight, I somehow got the stroke of genius to knit a steering wheel cover, since despite the gloves, my hands were still cold (this would have everything to do with the fact that my car is a POS, and if I turn the heat on, all the nasty fumes get sucked into the car and eventually, my nose). and to go along with it, of course, tacky fuzzy dice. =)

so I google it to see if it’s been done before (not that it’d be all that difficult) and lo and behold, there it is in all it’s glory in SnB Nation (which I don’t have yet and haven’t looked at too closely yet).

oh, well… I’m still going to make one one of these days. I just need to decide what yarn, etc. =) (just what I need, another project in the queue)