mz is bummed with a capital B

[ mood meter -- BUMMED ]
[ what i'm listenin' to -- Sabac Red --"Sabacolypse Now" ]

y'all, this is turning into the worst vacation i've had in my little short life. with all the power outages we've had here (due to ice storms, etc), the power supply on my computer has gone bad! all this after i got a brand new flat panel monitor for christmas. i'm so bummed. my honey was working on fixing it earlier, and smoke started spewing out. i pray to god my hard drive isn't damaged...my entire life is on there. the book i'm writing, my poems and short stories, resume and CV, photos and TONS of music (over 2000 songs!!). i cried for like an hour. he doesn't think the hard drive is damaged, but he's not sure. he's been looking around online for a new motherboard, processor and power supply so he can rebuild my machine...that will run around $500 minimum that i just don't have lying around. especially after christmas.

so for now i'm using his work laptop, but it's not the same as my 'puter!

in other news, yesterday i used my christmas loot to buy yarn to knit my first sweater! i'm planning to make the "bare that belly" sweater from "the yarn girls' guide to simple knits." i have to be honest. i'm SO scared...this is completely new knitting territory for me. this is my 2nd choice sweater...the one i really -wanted- to make called for manos de uruguay yarn...for the amount i would have needed it would have cost me about $135. i wouldn't mind spending that kinda money but since this is my first effort i thought it wise to choose something more
affordable. my LYS didn't have another yarn that would knit at the same gauge so i chose a different sweater. now, the yarn for the 2nd choice sweater would have been at least as expensive as the manos, but luckily they had another yarn that would would work...and i wouldn't have to use 2 strands of it as the pattern calls for! anyway, i'm a bit modest so i intend to make the sweater a little longer so i'm not
baring my belly. that would not be a pretty sight.

oh this is funny now...yesterday i was knitting and BROKE a knitting needle (it was plastic). so i dug around my needle stash and found another pair...and i broke one of those too. so i dug around again and found another pair...this time in aluminum. i betcha i can't break those! i'm bidding on a set of denise interchangeables on ebay. i look forward to getting a set of those because i'm not all that crazy about straight needles unless they're short ones (8-10 inches). any longer than that and they get on my nerves!

aw man.

[ mood meter -- christmasy ]
[ what i'm listenin' to -- motown christmas CD ]

how pretty is THIS?

mz just might be making one of these. what a bandwagon jumper.

the many faces of mz....

[ what i'm listenin' to -- van hunt "down here in hell (with you)" ]

some of you have wondered what i look like. here i am!


this is me right now. after a long day of work, and an evening of baking. hair is long, naturally curly.

i clean up pretty well, eh? my curls have been straightened with a flat iron then curled a wee bit with a curling iron. about a 3 hour process from start to finish. ah, the price of beauty...and love :-)

another project? are you nuts?

a few weeks ago my brother asked me to knit a scarf for a friend of his. all he said was that she wants it in rainbow colors, very long, and with long fringe. well. genius that i am, i forgot all about it. so i started it last night. using size 10 straights. 2 strands of yarn in k1p1 rib. this is what i knitted up last night while watching the legend of earthsea.

sunday knittin'

finally finished this cloth. it has a few itsy bitsy mistakes in it, but that gives it more "character." that's my story and i'm stickin' with it.

remember the scarf i designed and started knitting for jay? well....it has morphed into this:



i wasn't terribly pleased with the way that other scarf was turning out, so i decided to try this pattern. whaddya think?

new project!

whoops! when i first posted this picture, i neglected to say anything about it!

this is the beginning of jay's scarf. i've modified a pattern from the "knit scarves!" book. the original is a scarf with 3 wide 6-stitch stockinette panels, and 2 2-stitch purl sections in between them. i wanted something a little fancier, but still plain enough that he would like it. i added a few stitches to allow for a 3-stitch garter border up each side. the middle panel has a 6-stitch right-twist cable, bordered on each side by 3 purl stitches (so essentially it's a 12-stitch section). it may be one of his christmas gifts, but since i've never seen him wear a scarf in all the 4 years i've known him, i thought i'd better show it to him so he could tell me whether he likes it! he does, and he said he definitely would wear it. that, my friends, makes me a happy girl. i did warn him that he may not get this for christmas but that he definitely would get it before the weather turns warm :-)

i plan to write up the pattern sometime -after- the holidays. i love scarves and might make one for me too. when i do, i'll write down the directions (this is my FIRST TIME designing and writing a pattern!) and share!

surrendering

[ mood meter -- chillin like a villain ]

i got my reality check this morning when i realized that it is december 1. how in the world am i going to get everything knitted that i want to have knitted by christmas? oh i swear i really should have started on christmas gifts in january like i -said- i was gonna. i wanted to avoid this "knit like a madwoman" syndrome that i'm suffering from now. -sigh- well. not to mention all the baking i plan to do (cookies, bread, pies) for christmas gifts.
so i decided...

today i surrender.

i knit for pleasure...the pleasure of feeling the yarn in my hands...the pleasure of creating something beautiful from simple materials...the pleasure of getting into my zone, and easing the stress and pressure of everyday life...the pleasure of giving hand-knitted items to people i love and who will appreciate them. i am NOT a knitting factory, for heaven's sake. what gets done, gets done. i promise that i will start christmas knitting in january so i can knit at my leisure, and still have time to also make things i want to make for myself (and boy is that a long list!).

and that's all i have to say about that.