Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Announcing:
A transition. There may be a sweet way to do this, which I'm looking for at the moment, but I've just moved my blog over to fefferknits.wordpress.com. Come see me!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Markers and Mormons
Sooo...I've been reminded that I've been neglecting my bloggie. Oops!
The last few weeks have been interesting. After several requests, I started a thread on Ravelry about Mormonism. I was a tad hesitant, considering that the last several times my religion came up, it became a pulpit at which to scream for weeks about how "Mormons aren't Christian," or to compare the terror of Mormonism to a neighbor who skins cats. Yes, I'm serious. In comparison, the sermon about how "ridiculous" we are seems pretty tame.
Perhaps you can understand my trepidation. But, really, it's turned out pretty well. People have been curious, but not argumentative (much), and though some people still find our beliefs peculiar, those same people seem to respect them for what they are, and appreciate a further explanation. It's even more interesting to me to hear comments like, "I was raised to believe that Mormonism was a cult--it's so obvious to me now that you're not. And that you worship Christ." Well, thank goodness for that! I guess I'd never really realized how many people had been taught that we're a cult. It makes me a little sad, but I'm pleased that some good has come of these discussions. I'd just expected to answer questions about whether we're polygamists, or whether we have horns. (No, and yes. Um, I mean no! Hee.)
In knitting news, I finally finished Martha for Mom! It was a *lovely* finished sweater. I was really nervous to hand it over to my picky, picky mother, but it went over well! She even WEARS it! Woohoo!
Since, I've made a Clapotis, finished off my Felted Clogs, and started a Plain Vanilla Pullover and a Simple Knitted Bodice in the BMFA MilkyWay I bought at Fiber Fest. It's going to be reeeeally pretty!
Oh! And the CESOB girls had a stitch-marker swap! Oh my gosh--I'm a stitch marker makin' fool! It's so quick and fun, and I really enjoyed it. My only failing is that I'm not terribly ingenious when it comes to bead/color combinations. Some of the girls made really beautiful stuff...mine was just sort of pedestrian. But anyway, we each made six sets of markers and swapped, so I got six lovely sets (and a pair of earrings!) from all over the country. So fun! Thanks again, girls!
The last few weeks have been interesting. After several requests, I started a thread on Ravelry about Mormonism. I was a tad hesitant, considering that the last several times my religion came up, it became a pulpit at which to scream for weeks about how "Mormons aren't Christian," or to compare the terror of Mormonism to a neighbor who skins cats. Yes, I'm serious. In comparison, the sermon about how "ridiculous" we are seems pretty tame.
Perhaps you can understand my trepidation. But, really, it's turned out pretty well. People have been curious, but not argumentative (much), and though some people still find our beliefs peculiar, those same people seem to respect them for what they are, and appreciate a further explanation. It's even more interesting to me to hear comments like, "I was raised to believe that Mormonism was a cult--it's so obvious to me now that you're not. And that you worship Christ." Well, thank goodness for that! I guess I'd never really realized how many people had been taught that we're a cult. It makes me a little sad, but I'm pleased that some good has come of these discussions. I'd just expected to answer questions about whether we're polygamists, or whether we have horns. (No, and yes. Um, I mean no! Hee.)
In knitting news, I finally finished Martha for Mom! It was a *lovely* finished sweater. I was really nervous to hand it over to my picky, picky mother, but it went over well! She even WEARS it! Woohoo!
Since, I've made a Clapotis, finished off my Felted Clogs, and started a Plain Vanilla Pullover and a Simple Knitted Bodice in the BMFA MilkyWay I bought at Fiber Fest. It's going to be reeeeally pretty!
Oh! And the CESOB girls had a stitch-marker swap! Oh my gosh--I'm a stitch marker makin' fool! It's so quick and fun, and I really enjoyed it. My only failing is that I'm not terribly ingenious when it comes to bead/color combinations. Some of the girls made really beautiful stuff...mine was just sort of pedestrian. But anyway, we each made six sets of markers and swapped, so I got six lovely sets (and a pair of earrings!) from all over the country. So fun! Thanks again, girls!
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Schlurping from my Friends
Stolen from my friends iKate and Amander (she's British, you know), I give you The Unread Books Meme! I hate to
Instructions: The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, asterisk the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.
1984
A Clockwork Orange
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man* - BUSTED! I took Joyce as my senior seminar in college.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Angela’s Ashes: a Memoir - Couldn't. Couldn't do it. Don't do depressing well.
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina
Atlas Shrugged
Beloved
Brave New World
Catch-22
Cloud Atlas
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Crime and Punishment* - Russian literature is not my forte!
Cryptonomicon
David Copperfield
Don Quixote* - Only portions were assigned. But I read it in Spanish!
Dracula
Dubliners
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Emma
Foucault’s Pendulum
Frankenstein* - I never got to really start, but this is in my to-read pile.
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Gravity’s Rainbow
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
Guns, Germs, and Steel
In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Inferno*
Jane Eyre
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Just couldn't get into it. I dunno.
Les Misérables
Life of Pi: a novel
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch* - Still ashamed about this one. Need to go back and finish.
Middlesex
Moby Dick
Mrs. Dalloway
Neverwhere
Northanger Abbey
Oliver Twist
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Oryx and Crake
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Sense and Sensibility
Slaughterhouse-five*
Tess of the D’Urbervilles*
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Blind Assassin
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales*
The Catcher in the Rye
The Confusion
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Fountainhead
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath
The Historian: a novel
The Hobbit
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
The Kite Runner
The Mists of Avalon
The Name of the Rose
The Odyssey* - Seriously? Who's read the WHOLE THING??
The Once and Future King
The Picture of Dorian Gray*
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
The Prince* - I think we were only assigned excerpts. Machiavelli. Oy.
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter*
The Silmarillion
The Sound and the Fury
The Tale of Two Cities* - Eh. Dickens isn't my favorite. What can I say?
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
Ulysses
Vanity Fair - I put this down when we moved and need to pick it back up!
War and Peace
Watership Down - In fairness, I started this when I was 10.
White Teeth
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (This was bizarre and very different from the musical)
Wuthering Heights*
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values
Woo! 23 of 106! I feel pretty good about that, though it seems I should have done better, considering the fact that I was an English major. I like that so many of them were read for fun, though. Go, literature! Now I have a list of recommendations for the future. Yay!
Instructions: The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, asterisk the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish.
1984
A Clockwork Orange
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A People’s History of the United States: 1492-present
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man* - BUSTED! I took Joyce as my senior seminar in college.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
American Gods
Anansi Boys
Angela’s Ashes: a Memoir - Couldn't. Couldn't do it. Don't do depressing well.
Angels & Demons
Anna Karenina
Atlas Shrugged
Beloved
Brave New World
Catch-22
Cloud Atlas
Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed
Crime and Punishment* - Russian literature is not my forte!
Cryptonomicon
David Copperfield
Don Quixote* - Only portions were assigned. But I read it in Spanish!
Dracula
Dubliners
Dune
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
Emma
Foucault’s Pendulum
Frankenstein* - I never got to really start, but this is in my to-read pile.
Freakonomics: a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Gravity’s Rainbow
Great Expectations
Gulliver’s Travels
Guns, Germs, and Steel
In Cold Blood: a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Inferno*
Jane Eyre
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Just couldn't get into it. I dunno.
Les Misérables
Life of Pi: a novel
Lolita
Love in the Time of Cholera
Madame Bovary
Mansfield Park
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlemarch* - Still ashamed about this one. Need to go back and finish.
Middlesex
Moby Dick
Mrs. Dalloway
Neverwhere
Northanger Abbey
Oliver Twist
On the Road
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Oryx and Crake
Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
Quicksilver
Reading Lolita in Tehran: a memoir in books
Sense and Sensibility
Slaughterhouse-five*
Tess of the D’Urbervilles*
The Aeneid
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Blind Assassin
The Brothers Karamazov
The Canterbury Tales*
The Catcher in the Rye
The Confusion
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
The Fountainhead
The God of Small Things
The Grapes of Wrath
The Historian: a novel
The Hobbit
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Iliad
The Kite Runner
The Mists of Avalon
The Name of the Rose
The Odyssey* - Seriously? Who's read the WHOLE THING??
The Once and Future King
The Picture of Dorian Gray*
The Poisonwood Bible: a novel
The Prince* - I think we were only assigned excerpts. Machiavelli. Oy.
The Satanic Verses
The Scarlet Letter*
The Silmarillion
The Sound and the Fury
The Tale of Two Cities* - Eh. Dickens isn't my favorite. What can I say?
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
To the Lighthouse
Treasure Island
Ulysses
Vanity Fair - I put this down when we moved and need to pick it back up!
War and Peace
Watership Down - In fairness, I started this when I was 10.
White Teeth
Wicked: the life and times of the wicked witch of the West (This was bizarre and very different from the musical)
Wuthering Heights*
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an inquiry into values
Woo! 23 of 106! I feel pretty good about that, though it seems I should have done better, considering the fact that I was an English major. I like that so many of them were read for fun, though. Go, literature! Now I have a list of recommendations for the future. Yay!
Monday, April 7, 2008
Swapping's in the Air!
My favorite group on Ravelry, CESOB, had a little Get-to-Know-You yarn swap, and I got my package from my swapper today! April, aka mamanak, sent all kinds of awesome goodies my way. Hang on for pictures!
First, a gorgeous skein of handpainted Snarky Design sock yarn in Island Ice Age. I'm excited to pick out a pattern for my very first pair of socks!
Next, some really cute sock and yarn-ball stitch markers. So darling! (And with purpel beads!)
And among other goodies, (some not pictured) loads of fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls (my favorite!), two fantastic-smelling handmade soaps from Blue House Soaps, some fantastic local-to-Illinois potato chips, and a gift certificate to Cheesecake Factory! Woot!
First, a gorgeous skein of handpainted Snarky Design sock yarn in Island Ice Age. I'm excited to pick out a pattern for my very first pair of socks!
Next, some really cute sock and yarn-ball stitch markers. So darling! (And with purpel beads!)
And among other goodies, (some not pictured) loads of fruit-flavored Tootsie Rolls (my favorite!), two fantastic-smelling handmade soaps from Blue House Soaps, some fantastic local-to-Illinois potato chips, and a gift certificate to Cheesecake Factory! Woot!Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Six Word Memoir
Genuine tagged me with a quick little meme, and it's taken me two whole days to come up with six words to describe myself. But here it is:
"Puts out fires all day long."
Why? Dude. I have twins. Apart from that, in an average day, even though my life seems pretty boring, it seems like I put out millions of little ones. Today was a little more ridiculous. For example, our recurring ceiling leak...recurred. We had to race the clock to rip open the patched hole in the boy's bedroom wall so we could climb inside the "Hole to Narnia" and poke around in the quasi-attic, searching frantically to find the d%mn leak, finally, before it stopped raining.
Of course, it stopped raining just as we got the hole open.
Luckily, it started again several minutes later, and we have success! We finally found the leak! Guess where it is? Up in the actual attic. With actual access. This better be the last time we have to patch that stinking wall.
Oh. Let's see. I'm supposed to tag 5 more people. How 'bout:
Anree, Stine, Essjay, iKate, and Leigha.
"Puts out fires all day long."
Why? Dude. I have twins. Apart from that, in an average day, even though my life seems pretty boring, it seems like I put out millions of little ones. Today was a little more ridiculous. For example, our recurring ceiling leak...recurred. We had to race the clock to rip open the patched hole in the boy's bedroom wall so we could climb inside the "Hole to Narnia" and poke around in the quasi-attic, searching frantically to find the d%mn leak, finally, before it stopped raining.
Of course, it stopped raining just as we got the hole open.
Luckily, it started again several minutes later, and we have success! We finally found the leak! Guess where it is? Up in the actual attic. With actual access. This better be the last time we have to patch that stinking wall.
Oh. Let's see. I'm supposed to tag 5 more people. How 'bout:
Anree, Stine, Essjay, iKate, and Leigha.
Friday, March 21, 2008
How boring am I??
So, so far, I've been mostly political and pedantic on this blog. BLARG! Are all of you (all three?) so sick of me? I am. Srsly. I now solemnly vow to just...post. About whatever.
Today was a good day. Dyeing Easter eggs with the kids and making cupcakes. They were in the shape of flowers, even. It was all about spring at our house! My kids were so into it, and that made it so much fun! They're diggin' on the Easter Bunny idea this year, and I'm so excited to play it up for them.
My boys are such a treat, really. They were so cute about the eggs, wanting to check them every 30 seconds. "Are they done yet? Are they colored? Now check the green one, Mommy. Is it done?" So cute! And they wanted to help me turn on the mixer to make the cupcakes. "Mmm! It smells like cake!" :rofl:
So, the back piece of Martha's almost done! It's been slow going--the size 1.5 needles are killing me, but it's gorgeous. I'll take pictures in the morning and add them here. Well, maybe in the afternoon. I have a brunch in the morning. YAY BRUNCH!
ETA: Guess what I just discovered? This font is ginormous in Google Reader! Sorry, Reader readers. I tried going down a size, and it's impossible to read here at "normal" size. I dunno what to tell ya.
Today was a good day. Dyeing Easter eggs with the kids and making cupcakes. They were in the shape of flowers, even. It was all about spring at our house! My kids were so into it, and that made it so much fun! They're diggin' on the Easter Bunny idea this year, and I'm so excited to play it up for them.
My boys are such a treat, really. They were so cute about the eggs, wanting to check them every 30 seconds. "Are they done yet? Are they colored? Now check the green one, Mommy. Is it done?" So cute! And they wanted to help me turn on the mixer to make the cupcakes. "Mmm! It smells like cake!" :rofl:
So, the back piece of Martha's almost done! It's been slow going--the size 1.5 needles are killing me, but it's gorgeous. I'll take pictures in the morning and add them here. Well, maybe in the afternoon. I have a brunch in the morning. YAY BRUNCH!
ETA: Guess what I just discovered? This font is ginormous in Google Reader! Sorry, Reader readers. I tried going down a size, and it's impossible to read here at "normal" size. I dunno what to tell ya.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
How to spy on what your friends are reading
My good buddy iKate tagged me with this meme, which is fun! And reading everyone else's responses is giving me some good ideas re: what to read next. Always helpful. Thanks, guys. :)
So, here goes!
4. Tag 5 people.
Ummm...I dunno. You wanna do it? DO IT!
So, here goes!
The Rules:
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 (or more) pages.
The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Reading this next, after I finish The Appeal, by Grisham. Which is by my bathtub; hence, why it wasn't the closest.
2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence.
"I've lived here my whole life."
1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 (or more) pages.
The Confessions of Max Tivoli. Reading this next, after I finish The Appeal, by Grisham. Which is by my bathtub; hence, why it wasn't the closest.
2. Open the book to page 123 and find the 5th sentence.
"I've lived here my whole life."
3. Post the next 3 sentences.
Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me it was South Park...."
"Not South Park," I lied.
Her eyes widened. "Don't tell me it was South Park...."
"Not South Park," I lied.
4. Tag 5 people.
Ummm...I dunno. You wanna do it? DO IT!
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