I think I’ve (finally!) matured as a quilter. that or I just care enough about the FO to behave myself.

Tonight I finally started my BOTM quilt that’s going on my bed (eventually). (it’s the gold one mentioned about halfway through this post here.) the first block was in September, which I bought in late Oct/early Nov. It’s a bitch measuring things constantly, but so far my square in a square in a square (which will be the center of the quilt) looks pretty darn nice.

(I’ll post pics when I finish the square.)

in knitting news, I went to my friend Kim’s yesterday and we had a Harry Potter movie marathon in anticipation of the new movie coming out this week. since the last time we tried this we only made it through the first two movies, Emilea and I decided to start with the third movie. and as is usual for me, I fell asleep during the fifth one. anywho, I took the intarsia bag (started back in March ‘05) and managed to figure out where I left off (row 5 of the chart) and managed to get through the chart and beyond. I stopped at the part where I have to miter the bottom of the bag cuz I started overthinking things.

I’ve been trying to focus on the WIPs. I keep sort of joining ‘focus on the WIPs’ type groups on ravelry, but my knitting enthusiasm has been kind of low lately. at any rate, I’m sort of participating in the WIP Wrestling group - the intarsia bag has had good progress, and I’ve also been working on the Harry Potter book scarf this month. and I really want to get all the things that just need the ends woven in finished. we’ll see how I do.

in spinning news, I signed up for the Tour de Fleece - the goal being to spin every day with the Tour de France. I started out good, but haven’t really done much spinning since last weekend. so much for spinning a little every day. and the grand plans I came up with for the month. ah, well. at least I’m being crafty.

in other news, Kashka’s been sick the last week and a half or so. I took her in to the vet, and it’s either a tumor or just some really badly infected teeth. she’s been on antibiotics, and she seems to have improved a little bit. (the greatest evidence being her enthusiasm at chasing and pouncing at a moth that she and Wolfie found in the apartment. she’s been pretty lethargic since she’s been sick.) at any rate, she’ll be going in to have surgery soon to either figure out if it’s a tumor (I hope not) and, if not, have her teeth sorted out (cleaning, removal, etc). so if you’re so inclined, healthy kitty thoughts would be appreciated.

so I’m making notes here so I remember how to make it next time.

prepare apple pie filling as directed on Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust box. prepare dough for one-crust pie.
consult the How to Cook Everything cookbook on apple pies. make the struedel topping. add oatmeal. bake as directed for that pie option.

yum.

——-

as for knitting. I started an afghan square (for a KAL) late last night while watching Twilight*. it’s pretty boring so far - just a plain stockinette square with seed stitch border in Caron Simply Soft. I’m going to make a couple of Marie Mayhew’s felted gingerbread men and sew them onto it.

* that was the 2nd time I watched it since it arrived yesterday afternoon. the first time was with the commentary on. yup, the Twilight obsession is still in full force. oh, and Chris - you’ll laugh at this. I’m actually attempting to write some fanfic now.

and glad I didn’t try to do any xmas knitting this year. my knitting has been nearly non-existant lately. ugh.

I did finish the positive energy shawl (just need to weave the ends in) recently. and I bought some yarn to make the Bite Me scarf (I’m gonna try that on the knitting machine) and I started a pair of mittens the other night while watching RENT (because my DVD player wouldn’t let me watch A Muppet Christmas Carol. and I’ve always considered RENT to be xmas music.)

I’ll probably continue to be fairly quiet here. I’ve kind of sort of been sucked into the realm of fanfiction. (oh, the shame! and I thought getting sucked into Twilight was bad.)

ok, I think I’ve finally worked up the courage to cut my hair. I may or may not post pics.

I am so totally sucked in. somehow I’ve managed to resist someone’s book reviews (scoffing at the idea of vampire romance. more because past romance preference here has been of the historical variety. ah, vikings…*ahem*). and then someone on the knittyboard mentioned she was giving in and going to read them. and a few of us decided to join her. and finally last week the library blessed me with the online download of the audiobook.

well, I made it through the first few chapters and was interested, but managed to ignore it for a few days (never a good idea, since the downloaded books have expiration dates). so I played it again on Saturday while knitting (I cast on a purple scarf. yeah, still don’t have enough projects in need of finishing), and obsessively listened to the rest of it on Sunday (interspersed with trying to watch Legend of the Seeker. which is absolutely nothing like the books it’s supposed to be based on, but I will continue to watch it - mostly because the lead guy is damn fine. *ahem*). I did finish the knitting of the pink blanket. and Wolfie claimed it as a bed again while I had it laid on the floor. and then I worked on the flower washcloth some more. that’ll be done soon. (in theory)

dear spirits, I am totally obsessed now and can’t wait for the movie. I am comforting myself with a lack of book two (cursed library waitlists) by having downloaded Midnight Sun. unfortunately I cannot stay up all night reading it because I have to vote in the morning before heading to work…

ok, enough rambling now. I have to get back to that PDF…

Tuesday morning edit: ok, good thing Midnight Sun is incomplete. I DID stay up reading it (and then succumbed to reading this site’s take on things, which had me in fits of laughter. I finally made it to bed at 4am. also stumbled on a Twilight trailer spoof on youtube that had me in fits of laughter for quite a while)

so, you may recall I’m attempting to make the stash smaller (as evidenced by the StashDown counter over there in the sidebar). I’ve been trying to keep it close, but I know there’ll be some inaccuracies.

So I downloaded my stash from Ravelry and totaled it up. apparently I currently have 19.12 kg of stash. I’ve destashed quite a bit, but I didn’t think I had acquired that much new yarn. No idea what my actual destash total is, but according to Ravelry, I’ve acquired 3.9 kg. Granted, the other part of StashDown is actually USING the stash (knitting from stash. huh. fancy that.) - and it looks like I have 4.7 kg wrapped up in WIPs. well, I suppose with some luck, I’ll end up with a smaller (albeit barely) stash.

Note that as I was not spinning at the start of the year, the fiber & handspun stash are not included. (nor are we discussing that until next year)

as for the other half of the goal (reduce WIPs): yeah, that needs some serious help. I will need to become a knitting machine between now and the New Year if I want to get anywhere near close to that goal.

ps. Thursday will be my 4 year blogiversary.