Holey Schmoley! I gotta reader! Someone actually commented! My free knitting patterns reference must have come up on a search list or something.

In other news, the company outing yesterday turned into laser tag. I actually competed in one game, and didn't come in dead last (it was a beginners' game, so death wasn't permanent). I got my immediate supervisor more than he got me. Not bad for a forty year old fat woman with exercise/allergy induced asthma. The fog machine got me though, and I had to sit out the second game. Luckily, I had my knitting.

Kidlies and Hubby are disappearing this afternoon, so I'll take and post some pics then.

So, I finally went to a knitting group last nite, and one of the less computer-oriented asked where to find free knitting patterns. So, Just now, I've gathered the beginnings of a reference list.

General Patterns
http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/baby.html
http://www.elann.com/freepatterns.asp
http://magknits.com/archive/
http://www.knitty.com/
http://www.knittingknonsense.com/
http://www.dailyknitter.com/exclusive.html

Generators
http://www.knittingfool.com/pages/topdown.cfm
http://www.thedietdiary.com/knittingfiend/

I have more bookmarked, but most of the rest are ones and twosies that I'm interested in.

Okay, here goes nuttin'...

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? I have skin allergies with both wool and nylon, so I've been enjoying cotton and cotton blends lately. Haven't tried other things.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? Denise case, loose in my knitting drawer.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I consider myself an intermediate knitter. I've been doing this off and on since I learned in 4th grade, 30 years ago.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yes, at amazon (geek alert).

5. What's your favorite scent? I like strawberry and rose, but due to allergies, the only scents I can really tolerate are vanilla and cinnamon.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? Sweet Teeth, definitely. The only candy I don't like is gummy anything. Butterscotch and butter rum lifesavers are a rare treat, when I can find them.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin? I don't spin, being allergic to wool. I'm a geek, so in my non-knitting spare time, I futz on the computer with programs.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD). I like any kind of music EXCEPT COUNTRY. And of course I can do MP3s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand? I'm a blue freak, and I don't like orange all by itself, or brown/tan with pretty much anything. Or Teal. (the old windows 95 default background made me want to puke practically every time I saw it.)

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? 3 girls (17.9, 5.5, 3.9), 1 husband (43), 1 dog (6.8). Various parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, cousins, fabulous in-laws.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I've got long hair, so I don't do the hat thing, but I'll snip the fingertips off cheap mittens, if needed.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I'm having fun with my first top down raglan sweater per Barbara Walker's book, and the tulip baby sweater.

13. What are you knitting right now? See above, plus... cuff to cuff for the youngest, Kelly sweater (from Daily Knitter) for me, something surprising for Demented M, besides the baby's blanket.... (must not cast on, must. not. cast. on.)

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? Of course, who doesn't?

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Circs, definitely. I'm a clutz, so they're easier. I use Denise, supplemented by whatever.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Nope.

17. How old is your oldest UFO? There's something upstairs that I started before my nephew was born - he's nine now.

18. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas!

19. Is there anything that you collect? Besides yarn? Crayons, probably. I love the smell. My kids never run out.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? I haven't read the harlot in print, just yet, only online. If I subscribed to a magazine, it would probably be to knit n style. Vogue, possibly. I'm getting into design, since I don't usually like the designs that are in the glossies.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn? Cables are next. I've done one swatch, but I want to get good at it.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? Never done that. Wanna learn. My shoe size is 8 wide. (short fat feet)

23. When is your birthday? May 26.

24. Are you on Ravelry? If so, what's your ID? Yes, I'm on ravelry. Kaplooeymom, of course.

There you have it.

Pics coming tonite, I think.

That's what the husband has. The doc said he might get it when the 5 yr old got her shot, so we postponed her shot, and his doc told him to get vaccinated, and he did, then two weeks later, she did, and now he has chicken pox. So it's either from his shot or hers, no one knows. He's pretty miserable, and pretty disgusted with the medical advice, and I'm exhausted from sole care of girls, and they miss their dad.

(New Paragraph, finally.) I have knitting pics, but I haven't taken the time to sit at the computer in the evenings and upload them from the camera. Today is Thursday, which means Grandmother gets them from daycare, and keeps them until about 8-ish (ish can be anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes, BTW), so I can work late or relax. So maybe I'll get stuff done then. Don't count it.

At the day job, I have to rassle with InstallShield script - who knew how complicated a progress bar could be?

I saw this on a blog, somwhere, and had to try it...

Link: The Which Ancient Language Are You Test written by imipak on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Barely. Husband is sick - started sunday afternoon when he came home from weekend work. He's pretty sick, fever/chills, dizzyness, soreness everywhere. Since he hates me to fuss over him, I just concentrate on the girls. So I get pretty cranky sometimes.

The party was a success, for the most part. I tried to take pictures, but of course the batteries were low, and the moment was lost.

AC Moore has/had a one day sale today, and I found some fuschia Microspun for 1.87 a ball - I got all 7 balls left. I'm trying to schedule in a trip to the other store to see if they have some. I'm working on a microspun baby blanket for one of the michelles, and while it's not gonna be pink, the yarn is pleasant to work with, and at that price, I can stock up and work double if I want something thicker.

I'm gonna try to take/post more pics tonite. Either of knitting, little gels, or both.

(Beware, I'm into alliterations.)

I'm hosting a cousins' Christmas in July party tomorrow night. I need to plan dinner and crafty thing for 2 almost 4 yr olds, and 5 to 6 yr olds (We invited the neighborhood boys, but they won't sleep over). If the weather holds, I'll wear them out in the pool, then plop them in front of a project while I fix the food.

I'm trying to figure out what exactly to feed them. The craft is set - I got cheap t-shirts and fabric markers, and I need to pick up some stencils, and we're set.

I'm getting a tiny bit exhausted just thinking about this, but the kids just love it when I do this, so I try to do one every other month, when the husband is scheduled to work all weekend.

Brain break is over, back to coding at the day job.

I finally had an hour to kill, without kids or husband, on the way home from work, so I went by the LYS. I'm a cheapo, but I found something new at a price I could justify for my expectant sister (due valentine's day). (excuse the crumbs).

Cotton/Acrylic at $5 a ball. This will make either a nice blanket-bootie set, or the tulip sweater and a hat. Or something like that. Plenty of time.

All my yarn is now getting ID'd per skein/ball - yes, these have been duly marked and entered into my current knitting organizer. I'm back to doing my organizer in MS Access to save time on tweaking. Once I'm happy with the final output, I'll  port it to either a fancy desktop app - in Mono, I hope - or I'll webify it. If I webify it, it won't be social, like ravelry, but datacentric, like basecamp.

Last night I watched Eraser for the umpteenth time. I hadn't seen it in awhile, and I needed to burn off some caffeine, so I knitted (real simple knit every stitch - 45 stitch rows), and watched.

Arnold did some acting, and James Caan was James Caan as a fed. The plot was interesting enough, and the action scenes were well-executed and believable within context. Vanessa Williams did a good job pretending to be an executive, but they didn't put too much opportunity for real emotion for her character in the script. And Robert Pastorelli - well, you just gotta watch. The only thing I didn't like is the lack of romantic storyline. But hey, that's just me.

Trivia alert - can you spot the president's son? He was also in Transformers.

Bottom Line - if you like action flicks, this is one of the better ones. Arnold, a believable and cohesive plot, good rest of cast, well executed. I own this on tape, but I expect I'll purchase it on DVD when I get around to it.

 

I'm such a geek. While I like ravelry.com, it's a little too social for my taste, so in my spare time, I'm working on my own. I was going to make it a plain desktop app, but what with Vista, and Mac and Linux ppl, for now it's browser based, in vb.net 2005 and sql server. When I'm happy with the overall usage, I  may make it multi-user, and do more with it. The big thing I want it to do is price my projects and keep track of my yarn inventory based on yarn usage.

In other news, the teenager is moving out today. I'm trying not to be too mushy ("oh, mom!"), but she's been my life for the last 18 and a half years (including gestation). She turns 18 in September, and she'll only be six miles away, but still.

On the diet front, over the winter and chaotic spring I had gained back all my weight loss, so now I'm back on medifast. I'm gonna use up my existing supply, then order more. The girls and I took a walk to the playground this weekend and the next morning I could barely get out of bed. And, since the 5 yr old was signed up for fall soccer, I gotta be able to teach her some basics in the next 30 days.

So far, no actual writing has occured, but now that I'm no longer at the overtime-crazy job, maybe I'll be able to better utilise my free time for more than just making sure the kids have clean clothes and snacks for tomorrow. I'm slowly but surely recovering.

BTW, I haven't read HP 7. I stopped after 2.