HSKS 9 - weekly blog

One of the tasks for the HSKS Quiddith league is to blog weekly about it. Most people read the Where in the World is Winnie clues and put their guesses up, but I don't recognise any of the places or anything, so I'm not going to do that.

I haven't had much of a chance to get on with Intarsia's (she's my spoilee if I haven't already mentioned) gifts. I brought another ____________ because it turned out that the one I brought at first wasn't enough. And I've decided I'm gonna do some ______________ for her as well. I might even get a _______________ to go with it. Lol, more teasers. I love giving them, hate receiving them.

Also, I got a flying broomstick! There are four broomsticks flying around between the players, and when you get one you're supposed to tie your team colour ribbon to it, and take a photograph of it with something unique to your location. You post the picture on the thread and other people guess where it is. Then you send the broomstick off flying to another player, who adds more ribbons. I haven't had a chance to add ribbons or anything yet, that's next on my list. But isn't it cute?

New Thing # 35

Date:- October 29th 2009
New Thing:- Carve a pumpkin

On Sunday for Fall Fest there was a big pumpkin carving event in the student center. I didn't go because I was having an episode, and afterwards I realised I've never carved a pumpkin before. So that's what I did. Today my friend Meagan went to Hannafords and picked me up a pumpkin.



His name is Barnaby. Yes, I named him. Right before I cut his head off and ripped his insides out. Lol.



Sun kindly took a photo of me. My roommates are fascinated by this idea. They were watching me for most of the time I was scooping his innards out.



Scooping the insides out was very very gross. Slimy and gross.



I don't know if you can see there but that's my sketching of his face. I thought about doing something artistic, but decided to stick with traditional. I'm not exactly artistic in this way anyway.



There he is; Barnaby. Tomorrow I'll take him outside, put a candle up his arse and set fire to him. I can't do it now because the back door gets locked at 7pm and if I go out the front I'd have to deal with RAs asking questions. Keep your eyes peeled for more photos tomorrow!

1st Knittaversary

Just a quick note to point out that yesterday was the anniversary of the day that my darling Jen taught to me, back in my Mum's living room after my birthday trip to London, where Jen and I saw WICKED, which was absolutely worth the name.

I celebrated by knittaversary by doing absolutely no stitching at all, in any form. Lol. It wasn't intentional. Had a long day of errands, and then came home and fell asleep. I did however pop into the Central Yarn Shop in Portland and brought myself some yummy yarn. I'm building up quite a stash here, which I hadn't planned to do because at some point I have to get it home. And if my suitcase is full of yarn, it won't be full of delicious American candy. I can't believe I have to choose.

Maybe if I buy a third suitcase......

Time for a Rant

This blog is going to make me look very sad, and very pathetic and very silly, but I very much don't care.

USM does TNT every Tuesday. That's Tuesday Night Trivia. I like quizzes and have wanted to go, but I have a class Tuesday nights haven't been able to get to any yet. Until today, when I skipped classes to a) get a swine flu vaccination and b) go to the Harry Potter themed TNT.

So I'm sat there in a team with Meagan and Kaitlin and their friend who's name escapes me but who agreed with me several times so I like him very much. The quiz was quite cool. The format was impressive, and the questions were good, with a nice gradient from ridiculously easy to quite difficult. Our team came second, we won some plain old papermate biros. However, I don't think I'll be going to another one, even if my class suddenly gets moved to a different time. I have a couple of issues. Angry angry issues.

Ok, so there's this question...

"What is Tonks' most known feature/ability?"

My team writes down on our board "metamorphmagus". Caroline reveals the answer: "changing hair color". She doesn't give us a point, despite much argument. I accept, the answer to her question was "changing hair colour", however the ABILITY that Tonks had that allows her to change her hair color was that she was a freakin METAMORPHMAGUS!!! That's her ability! The question asked for Tonks' ability, and we gave it! We didn't get a point. I'm still fuming.

(I just wanna point out here that during our team discussion Kaitlin said that Nymphadora's skill was metamorphmagus, and Meagan said "no no she's asking about Tonks." We all laughed at her and threatened to throw her out of the obsessive Harry Potter fanclub.)

Anyway, I was just coming to terms with this frustration, when it happened again. Bonus question: "What does the K stand for in J. K. Rowling?"

Kathleen, Kathleen, Kathleen. I know that one! It's my sister's middle name. Kathleen, Kathleen, Kathleen!!! No. Wrong. Apparently JK has no middle name. The answer according to Caroline's quiz is "nothing."

Cue a lot more ranting from Cleo. Ok, maybe it's true that she doesn't have a middle name. I haven't checked, I don't care. The question didn't ask what her bloody middle name was. It asked what the K stood for. And in JK Rowling's nom de plume, the K stands for freaking Kathleen. If the question had asked for what the hell her middle name was and we'd have said Kathleen then we'd have been wrong, but it didn't. It asked what the freaking K stood for and the freaking K stood for freaking Kathleen!!!

I have some serious issues, I know this. It was just a game, I know this too. And both of these rants are basically a matter of how the questions were worded, but we were RIGHT damnit!!

Please tell me you agree!

Shuntbumping - Round 2

Otherwise known as... FAIL

I had a suspicion I'd fail round 2 as soon as I saw the pairings. My opponent has been crocheting for 30 years, and was the overall winner of round one. She finished her hat hours before I did. But, I kept my hopes up. Who knew? She could be delayed getting the pattern.

So, 1pm comes around and I'm happily sat at the computer waiting for the pattern release. CRAP. Mittens. Baby mittens. Beginning with crocheting in rows. I have never made gloves of any sort, in any technique, and I've never crocheted in rows. Screwed, screwed, screwed. But I started anyway, and did the cuff okay, I think. Just after I finished the cuff of the first glove, my opponent posted to inform everyone that she'd finished the first mitten already. Not good.

Then, as I was doing the rounds for the main glove, it started to shrink. I'm pretty sure it was meant to get wider. I'm screwed.



It's not over yet of course, my opponent hasn't posted. Is it wrong for me to wish she suddenly gets four thousand visitors and no time to stitch?

UPDATE: I lost. Here are my opponent's mittens.



For anyone interested, here is the pattern we had to follow, and this is what they were meant to look like.



Now go back and look at mine again. I might have been defeated by my opponent, but I won't be defeated by all the mittens in the world. When I don't have two papers to write, I'm going to find an adult sized pattern and have another go. I'll let you know if I succeed.

Bad Stitching Day

Today has been one of those days when I couldn't focus on any of the work I had to do, so I've been working on various stitching projects. I have never had a stitching session go so badly.

First I got tangled and wasted half a roll of elastic trying to elasticate the holes of the wrist warmers I brought at the Common Ground fair. Then I spent a couple of hours making stitchmarkers for swaps, only to discover that my knots weren't big enough and watching them all fall apart. Two hours of work, one stitchmarker saved. Then I had to patch up my shorts. The shorts are patched, but in the process I managed to jam a sewing needle into my thumb nail. Halfway down. There's a nice red line under my nail now and it flipping hurts! Then the sodding needle broke ten minutes later. Then I managed to spill Sunkist all over the ________ I'd been making for my HSKS spoilee. Then I decided to make a granny square from the Malabrigo I got in a swap the other day, and managed to tangle the whole flipping skein. I'm about to spend the next three hours untangling it.

I am not having a good stitching day. Which is frustrating. When I have edgy days I have a few sources of safety. Neil is 3000 miles away. Jen is 3000 miles away. I've already eaten a ton of food today. And stitching is hating me!

HSKS 9 - teasers for my spoilee

Hey there Intarsia!!

I just wanted to write a quick note and let you know that the __________ I ordered from __________ for you finally arrived. They look ___________. And I did some more work on the ___________, it's looking good, but taking longer than I'd anticipated. Plus, I got some _________________ for the _______________ but it's looking like I didn't get enough, so I have to go buy some more.

How's your swap going?

Celeena Cree!!

Happy Birthday to Me....

Happy Birthday to Me, Happy Birthday dear Clllleeeeeooooooo, Happy Birthday to Me!!

Can you tell what day it is? I came into this wonderful world 27 years ago today. Yep, I'm old. It's been a reasonable day. I've had better birthdays and I've had worse. I really missed Neil, and Jen, and Jennie and Michaela and Mum. I wish I could've been with them today, especially Neil. We've been together nearly two years (on and off) and I haven't got to spend a birthday with him yet. Which kinda sucks, but still, there'll be next year.

So, the day started off great. My roommates came to see me at two minutes past midnight, apologising for being late. They gave me a card and a Halloween gingerbread house kit.



After farrr too much sleep and accidentally-on-purpose missing the two classes I had today, I woke up and spoke to Neil online for a bit. After that I went over to collect packages - I went a bit eBay happy a coupla weeks ago. One of the packages had a Royal Mail label on it and I got all excited. I think I squealed "that's from England!" It was a package from Mum with more cards and some pretty presents.



After that I went to support my teammates Aimee and Celia in an Iron Chef competition for Fall Fest. We won!! Their food was deliciously scrummily and delightful. They deserved to win. Completely. More food, time for dinner. A bit of sitting around, then off to the T-shirt decorating event. My first shirt was a big fail. I used little bottles of gluey paint, and it all seeped through, and I got it smoodged. It was not good. Second shirt I taped masking tape in a vague semblance of the Union Jack and Kate spray painted it for me.



That's the back. The front has a Fall Fest '09 logo. If I ever get around to wearing it I'll get pictured.



I got back to my room and found another card, and some candy and a little cake from Geni and Holly :-)




I also brought myself a little present, pretty pretty notebook.



Here are the cards I have so far. Three of those are from baby sister Michaela. Lol. Neil says there is one on the way from him, I'm looking forward to that.

New Thing # 34

date:- October 21st 2009
new thing:- go to a pep rally

Fall Fest here at USM is the equivalent of homecoming at other universities, but since we don't have a football team we can't actually have homecoming. There are lots of events going on - banner contest, pep rally and bonfire, midnight madness sports games, a quidditch match, and iron chef competition, a t-shirt making party, USM olympics, movie showings, scavenger hunts, pumpkin carving contest and probably some other things. And there are teams. I'm in the International Living and Learning Community (ILLC) team. We made our banner last night. We get points just for showing up to events.

This evening was the bonfire and pep rally. I went along, partly because we get points just for going, and partly because I've always wanted to go to one. I'm kinda obsessed with that typical American school experience thing, in case you hadn't noticed. It was okay. The bonfire was small but pretty. I met a giant husky, I got some pompoms. But the music wasn't really my style, and it was a little dull, so I was only there for half an hour. But I did get a really funky picture, by accident. I was aiming at the fire, and the camera was being an arse, and took the picture just as I was giving up.

Ode to Neil

My darling boyfriend just brought me a ticket to see Blue Man Group during my trip to New York next month. The trip is my present to myself, the ticket to Blue Man Group is my birthday present from Neil. He is so lovely :-)

So, I just wanted to the whole wide world to know how wonderful he is and how much he has helped me.

Within two weeks of knowing me he handed over his credit card to a bailiff who showed up on my door wanting my belongings. He paid for my flight to come here to Maine, he's been letting me use his credit card to pay the student fees over here (and not complaining when I don't give him all the money right away). Neil has his issues and his flaws, and he is by no means the most perfect man in the world, but he is absolutely wonderful and he does so much more for me than I deserve. I would be completely and utterly lost without him.

He rocks. Just wanted the world to know.

Tim Allen...

...is a genius!

It's just occurred to me that I've watch about seven of his movies in just a few days.

- Zoom: Academy for Superheroes
- Wild Hogs
- Toy Story
- Toy Story 2
- The Santa Clause
- The Santa Clause 2
- The Santa Clause 3 (I'm currently watching that one)

He's just fabulous. He's so versatile and funny.

I'm going to IMDB search him, to find out what other movies he's done so I can watch more. I'm already looking forward to Toy Story 3 next year. And ooo, Wild Hogs 2!! Okay, Tim Allen movies...

- Christmas with the Kranks (Oh, I have that on my computer. Make that 8 Tim Allen movies in a few days.)
- Galaxy Quest (a BRILLIANT MOVIE - unfortunately I don't have it here. Wonder if Ryan does.)

Not actually that many movies. But he's still fantabulous. And if Ryan has Galaxy Quest I'll be watching 9 Tim Allen movies in about three days :-)

And to sign off, a small selection of fantabulous Tim Allen quotes:

"As long as there is injustice, whenever a Targathian baby cries out, wherever a distress signal sounds among the stars, we'll be there. This fine ship, this fine crew. Never give up... and never surrender." - Jason Nesmith, Galaxy Quest

"You are a sad, strange little man. You have my pity." - Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story

"To infinity, and beyond!" - Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story

"You're mocking me, aren't you." - Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story (delivered with a complete and utter straight face, hilarious!!

Ok, I'm done. Carry on...

Shuntbumping - Round 1

Shuntbumping is all part of this Quidditch Hogwarts Swap I'm doing. Let me quote the blog:

"In the days before Quidditch became the most popular of broom games, the game of Shuntbumps was popular in Devon, England. This ancient sport was a crude form of jousting, the aim being to knock all other players off their brooms, the winner being the last person remaining on their broom.

We will be resurrecting this ancient pre-cursor to Quidditch by having our own Shuntbumps knockout competition in HSKS9. Each week we will have a Shuntbumps contest in which pairs of players compete to finish a knit or crochet project assigned by the Shuntbumping Co-ordinators. The winner of each pairing will be the first to POST A PICTURE of their finished item within this Shuntbumps arena. Winners go on to the next week’s contest and losers are knocked out. The overall winners will be the last surviving Shuntbumper in each league (knit/crochet) once all other’s are knocked out.

Completed projects can either be donated to SPEW, local charities, or used as holiday gifts for friends and relatives. And of course the overall Shuntbumps winners will receive a prize."

I entered in the crochet league, not expecting to get very far considering I've been crocheting for a month. I wasn't even expecting to pass the first round. Especially when I found out that my opponent has been crocheting for 4 years. But I waited (slightly obsessively) at the time the pattern was due to be posted, refreshing the page every five seconds. And as soon as it went up I dropped the project I was working on - Michaela's christmas present - and picked up my hook and some lovely blue yarn I brought today. Then I made this...



I posted the picture on the blog and, as far as I can tell, my opponent hasn't finished yet. That means I won! Woohoo :D

That is also, by the way, the reason I don't wear hats. Especially not beanies. I will probably be giving this to someone else. Although, my craftsmanship isn't good enough to wear I don't think. I may put little handles on it and call it a basket. Who knows.

Point is, I won!! GO MAGPIES!!!

Granny square progress

Here are the 9 granny squares I have already.



I have four more balls of yarn here at the moment, but I need a smaller hook. I may have given in and ordered some pretty aluminium ones from eBay that are winging their way to me as we speak.

And, I'm going shopping tomorrow - have to buy yarn for shuntbumping - so I'll have even more balls to make granny squares out of. Not that I'm really making squares at the moment. They're more like rounded, curved, odd square-like shapes.

Stitch markers

In my knitting and stitching adventures (which are nearly a whole year old by the way) I have never had occasion to use a stitch marker. I think I read a pattern that required them once, and purchased a cheap-ass package from my LYS. Something like this...



But I never used any of them. They're floating around in my stitchwork drawer/box/folders/area at home. Then, I joined Ravelry. I entered the wonderful world of swaps and discovered this delightful craze of handmade stitch markers. Ones like this...



And these...



And these!!!



Those last ones are made by my fellow Magpie (GO MAGPIES!) Olive Bumblebirch - at some point I plan to spend a fortune in her Etsy store.

Anyway, people make these delightful stitch markers and send them in swaps. Some people use them, some collect them, some do both. I've never received any, but I do so many swaps I figured I'd buy the really cheap equipment needed so I can make some and send them to my swappees.

Today I started a Christmas present and normally when crocheting I just count, I don't mark the rounds like I know people normally do. But I'm doing a WHOLE lot of stitches in a round at this point and I need to start decreasing for one round and blah blah blah. Point is, I need a stitch marker!! So I made one. My first one ever...



Very quick and simple, and purple, naturally. But then I stumbled upon a problem. When knitting, the usage of such stitchmarkers is fairly obvious. You just slip the loop on to the needle and flip it over. But I'm not knitting this particular present. I'm crocheting it. I held the stitch marker in one hand, and my project in the other and hit a mental roadblock. I have absolutely no idea how to use it on a crochet project! So I stuck a safety pin on it.



I'm a zillion percent sure I'm using it wrong, but it'll show me where my rounds start, which is what I needed it for.

Movie quiz help!!

I got linked to this quiz from the Empire magazine twitter feed ages ago (15th September) and it's bugged me ever since, because I can't get all the answers. I can't find anywhere on the site to get answers from, and I'm stuck stuc stuck!!

So far I have the following...

1) Spiderman
2) Dead Poet's Society
3)
4) Mean Girls
5)
6) Kes
7) Pleasantville
8)
9) Meaning of Life
10)
11)
12) Clueless
13) Heathers
14)
15)
16) Breakfast Club
17) Wild Things
18) Karate Kid

Can anyone see any others? By the way, I DON'T want answers!! Please, please, please just give me clues so I can get them on my own!!

Studying the Holocaust

One of the modules I'm doing here at USM is The Holocaust: Policy, Practice and Response. Every Tuesday evening I spend two hours in a classroom in Portland hearing about the history behind the Holocaust and the events during those horrible years. And every week I have readings to do from various books. One of those books is a selection of documents and first hand accounts, and it is completely harrowing.

I've just been sat reading personal accounts by SS about the gas chambers, and I feel ill. I had Monty Python music playing in the background, in an attempt to not get quite so dragged into it. It kind of worked. My feet have been tapping away to the music quite happily, but the rest of me has been feeling horrible. I read an account of how men would stand atop the gas chambers and tell the people that they were to take showers, and receive hot soup before being assigned well paying jobs. The people willingly undressed and hurriedly went into the chambers. The person who wrote that particular document - Filip Muller, a part of the Sonderkommando - could hear the cries for help, the prayers, the banging and knocking and desperate scraping on the doors. I don't understand how anyone could do that to another human being. I've read the documentation, I know the history and the theory behind the Holocaust, but it still completely astonishes me.

I'm not the most compassionate person in the world, I harbour grudges. But such hatred astonishes me. It isn't even hatred. To hate someone you have to consider them to be a person. Urgh! I can't even think straight.

I started to keep these reactions in a separate blog, as I thought I needed to keep a reactionary journal for the module. I don't, so I'm closing the blog, but I'm going to post here what I've written. I love this blog, I love getting my thoughts out to the world. There are things that I can't write about. Issues with people who might read the blog, for instance. But my personal feelings can be, and will continue to be, published on this blog and shared with the world. Someone out there might feel the same way.

I read a lot of blogs, and I'm aware that not everyone will agree with some of my opinons, or my ways. And those people have a write to disagree, I just hope I don't get the abuse that other people have gotten. I guess as long as my blog has such a small readership I'll be okay.

---

Posts from Reactionary Journal blog...

Saturday, 12 September 2009

I'm not entirely sure why I chose to study the holocaust. I've known about it since high school, and the events of those years have always appalled and astonished me, but I have never studied it in depth. Up until this semester, all I knew of the Holocaust I learned from movies and television and books. Not necessarily accurate. I started this module with the hopes of learning the truth. So far the things I have learned are disturbing, but I don't regret enrolling. My only regret is that our lectures are late on a Tuesday evening. After class is over, I have nothing to do but wait half an hour for a bus, and wallow in the depressive fugue that the lectures so far have left me in.

In our first lecture, on September 1st 2009, we watched two short videos. The first was called "Night and Fog" and was made my a French director in 1955. It toured a concentration camp as it stood today (or 1955), and showed a lot of footage and still photography from concentration camps when they were in use. The video was interesting and fascinating and absolutely disturbing. Seeing the footage of the people who were tortured was bad enough, but the image that most affected me was one from 1955. The director, Alain Resnais, showed us the ceiling of one of the gas chambers. The camera showed us, close up, the grooves and scratches and furrows made in the concrete ceiling by the people trapped in the chamber. Seeing that ceiling, and those marks, made my stomach climb into my throat. Even writing about it now I'm still feeling a little sick. Those marks are the last imprint on earth of people who were rounded up, tortured and murdered just because of who they were. Because of situations beyond their control, they were punished and killed in such a way that they scratched grooves in a concrete ceiling in attempts to escape. It makes me feel guilty for being alive and for taking my freedom for granted.

I get abuse and insults because of who I am, and I complain about it regularly. Now I feel like I have no right to complain. Nothing that has ever been done to me is anywhere near as bad as what those people went through.

Sunday, 20 September 2009

We have a book to read entitled "Sources of the Holocaust," edited by Steve Hochstadt. It contains 84 different documents from history regarding the holocaust and each week we are required to read a certain number.

This week I had to read 10 of them, and my reactions were quite strong. I thought I'd note them here, since this is what the journal is for. I'll also note any reactions to the documents I've read previous to this week.

Some of the first documents we had to read included excerpts from Martin Luther's "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543), a Papal bull about Jews from Pope Paul IV written in 1555 and parts of an article entitled "Jewish Morality" which appeared in a Vactican newspaper in 1893. These documents display so much hatred towards the Jews. I don't quite understand it. I see the reasons before me, I know logically why these people were against the Jews, but I don't quite understand how you can hate an entire race of people based purely on their religion. It seems unfathomable to me, the whole thing does.

One of the groups of people targeted by the Nazis were handicapped people. There are a few documents in this book that reflect that. All of them refer to people with handicaps as "unworthy of life". Having sufffered a mental handicap myself, and having a hadicapped mother, this is a sensitive area for me. One of the documents I've just read was notes from a meeting of German mayors concerning murder of the handicapped.

What appalled me most was that I could kind of see their logic. The words and terminology that they use. "They are nothing but a burden," "there is no possibility that these people will ever become healthy," "they only take nourishment away from other, healthy people." I was appalled with myself, very angry and very guilty, until I realised that this was the point. The Germans used terminology like this deliberately to make people forget. The phrases make the people they plan to murder sound like people on life support, who have no hope left. They make their plans sound like a form of euthanasia, rather than a plan to kill people who would be considered healthy and relatively normal by today's standards.

Two documents later was a table of money saved by murdering the handicapped, from 1941. Dr Eduard Brandt worked out that by "disinfecting" over 70,000 people the German government saved nearly 9 million Reichsmarks. I don't know how much that is in English money, but I imagine it's a lot. The Germans did everything they could to justify their actions.

Another document that made me feel a little ill was an excerpt from the Memoir of Dr Paula Tobias about the boycott of Jewisih businesses on April 1st 1933. Dr Tobias was a Jewish doctor, and whilst some Jewish businesses were treated violently and dramatically during the boycott (there were bloody riots and arrests all over the place), Dr Tobias and her husband planted potatoes whilst their son went to school and their chauffeur yelled at the SA guards stood at their door.

My instant reaction was that we only really hear horror stories from the war and the holocaust, and that surely not every Jew could have had it so bad. Then I felt guilty again.

This course is creating a lot of guilty feelings and things in me. I feel kinda weird now. I'm disturbed about my own morality. Is this normal?

New Thing # 33

Date:- October 13th 2009
New Thing:- secret project

I did a new thing today, but I can't tell you about it. Not yet. I might do eventually. Sorry for the teaser.

New Thing # 32

Date:- October 10th 2009
New Thing:- Taste a moose

This weekend I went into the mountains with Marnie (a friend from class) and her husband Del. A wonderful couple who heard that I wanted to see a moose and invited me to stay at her cabin in Avon, Maine, and see if we could find one.

We didn't see any moose, but a friend had given her some moose steak from a bull that he had shot. And she cooked it for me for dinner. HUGE steak!! But then, they got 900lbs of meat from the moose. Lots of meat on those things.



Marnie cooked them up with some sherry (I think, it may have been port. Is that the same thing?) and some garlic. The following pictures were taken by Marnie. She's actually a good photographer. These are blurry because she was a) a little tipsy and b) giggling with delight.





It was actually quite tasty. Tasted like normal steak, but slightly odd. Nice odd. And something new. Still, I hope to see a live moose at some point before I leave Maine.

HSKS 9 - getting to know the players

Okay, so I have another HSKS assignment. This time I have to find a player who meets a certain criteria from the list and comment on their blog or one of their projects.

Here they are...

1) Someone who does the same craft as me - Helena Lovegood

Helena both crochets and knits. I scanned through her blog and was so intrigued by all the challenges and things (from everyone else's blogs too). I wish I'd discovered HSKS a long time ago!!

2) Someone born in the same month as me - Hermione Bagnold

This one was easy. They have a list of birthdays in the sidebar of the blog. Nice and handy. Ooo, and having just checked out her blog, she used me for this one too. She commented on Pierre. She even linked to my blog and to Pierre!

3) Someone from a different country - Stuart Cauldwell

Stuart is from Canada and unfortunately the beautiful kitty listed in projects is not available as a pattern :-(

4) Someone who is a new player - Saraid Swiftrunner

Saraid is the team rookie for the Appleby Arrows (who aren't half as good as the Montrose Magpies btw :P) She also cross-stiches, which is a rare sight on Ravelry. But then they only have options for crochet and knitting at the moment, so there could be millions, which is what I told her on her blog.

5) Someone who has been in 3 or more HSKS swaps - Fleur Sweeting

Fleur, as far as I can tell, has been in HSKS swaps since number 3. At least, she has banners 3-9 in the sidebar of her blog. She's obviously better than me, since she can knit shawls without going insane.

6) Someone who has a bigger stash than me - Megaera Black

According to Ravelry stats, Megaera has the biggest stash (at 234!!) but I have to say that once I get back to England in the New Year and actually get around to adding my stash, I think I could beat her. Possibly. Watch this space.

7) Someone who both knits and crochets - Cassandra Goode

Cassandra has a quarter of a century knitting, and a quarter of a century crocheting! That is pretty damn impressive. I really hope I'm still crafting 20 years from now. I commented on her blog, about a yarn bowl she received in the last swap. Look out for said bowl to be added to my wish list.

8) Someone who has the same favourite colour as me - Lizzie Wychwood

Finding someone who likes purple was not difficult. Purple is a very very popular colour, especially on Ravelry. I picked Lizzie because of a runes bookmark she made. It reminded me of the tattoo around my wrist.

There! Assignment completed. In other HSKS news, i have my spoiler and spoilee information. Time to go shopping - let's pretend that I didn't skip to ebay and etsy three seconds after getting the email.

To Do in Maine

I have a Bucket List. I also have a Bucket List for while I'm here in America. It's not so much a bucket list, cos it's things to do before I leave, not things to do before I kick the bucket. It's a boarding list. Things to do before I board the plane home. Anyway, enough rambling...

This is my To Do in Maine list...

- visit Tinsel Bright (a shop in downtown Gorham)
- go to IHOP [achieved Oct 8th]
- go to Victoria Mansion [achieved Oct 26th]
- visit Maine Mall (still haven't explored the Mall proper yet, just the bits outside) [achieved many many times]
- take a Casco Bay cruise
- have a cocktail at Top of East
- go to a county fair [Common Ground Fair, Sept 26th]
- visit Salem, Mass [achieved Oct 31st]
- get a picture of white church for Jennie [achieved Oct 10th]
- go whalewatching
- see a moose
- go to a flea market and/or a yard sale [Oct 10th]
- go to a drive-thru movie
- try lobster [Oct 1st]
- go to Ben & Jerry's factory

Will be changed and adjusted when I achieve a goal, and when I think of something to add to it.

Busy busy day

Yesterday I voluntarily got out of bed and climbed up the stupid hill to get the shuttlebus into Portland. I very nearly didn't, because I woke up with no energy like I normally do. In theory I HAD to get up cos I had a doctor's appointment in Portland, but I overslept and missed that. The plan had been to go to the doctor's, then go shopping. In the end I just went shopping.

I did what I normally do. I got on a bus. Any bus. A completely random bus to see where it took me. I do that a lot at home, when I have my 3 month bus ticket with unlimited travel, where there are four hundred different bus routes. Here there are about four different routes, but the journeys are 50c each when I show my USM id card. That's like 30p a ride!!! It's amazing :-)

So I travelled buses randomly. Just seeing the local area. It was nice, I went right out into the suburbs. I saw tree-lined cul-de-sacs, and moms waiting for school buses, and basketball hoops over garages, and pumpkins on porches and skeletons in front yards. It was nice. It was quaint, traditional America. The kind of America I want to live in one day. I ended up at a big supermarket where I did a little bit of grocery shopping (instant mash and little goldfish baked crackers).

The guy at the checkout actually asked me if I wanted paper or plastic. I grinned so much I must have looked like I'd escaped from a looney bin. It was very cool.

Ooo, speaking of America, the other day I saw four cop cars parked outside a Dunkin Donuts. Very cool. I should have taken a picture.

After my trip to the suburbs I ended up back in Portland city center exploring the shops. It was mostly little individual stores and souvenir shops. No chain stores, unless fifteen Starbucks branches count. I went in a big candy store and brought some candy corn, which it turns out I don't like. And I went into a place called Condom Sense, which is just incredible :-) I got myself a sticker.

Eventually I stumbled upon a cinema. A very old, classic looking cinema which I can't wait to visit. I was gonna go today, but... well I'll end with that bit. I almost went yesterday but I'm going into the mountains with a friend from class this weekend for fall break and I had to buy a coat, so I went to the mall instead. Starting out at Catherine's, which is the American equivalent of Evans (aka fat girl store), and brought some purple jogging bottoms (becuase I really need some kind of trousers) and a coat. A $149 winter coat. That was on sale, so I think I only paid a hundred bucks for it.

It's insulated, has pockets inside and out, has a faux fur lined hood. It makes me feel like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters, but it'll keep me warm and dry in the snow. According to Marnie (the woman I'm going away with this weekend) it'll be 30 degrees up in the mountains this weekend, that's in about freezing in English money. That's mid-October. I'm beginning to suspect it might actually get cold enough for me to need a coat here!! Hence the purchase.

After Catherine's I found a dollar store. A BIG dollar store, and spent a few dollars in there on candy and bits and pieces for swaps and things. I love dollar stores.

Once I came out of the dollar store, right across the road was where I went for dinner. Somewhere I've wanted to go since I first stepped foot in America, and only got to yesterday.

IHOP!!!!

I had a 12oz friend beef steak with country gravy, mashed potato, broccoli, garlic bread and a fried egg. Was DELICIOUS!! And of course, I was at International House of Pancakes, I had to get pancakes. So I had five huge delicious chocolate chip pancakes :D They were yummy. I sat and sniffed them for ten minutes, they smelt soooooo good.

I had a really good, really successful day. Completely exhausted though. And I woke up today and had trouble putting weight on my ankle, so I missed class and never made it to the cinema. But the cinema will still be there tomorrow, or next week. I do have some work I should do before going away this weekend.

Wishlist

This is my wishlist. I have to create one for HSKS but I figured I'd do a general one, for anyone who fancies buying me a present.

Here are the things I like receiving generally...

- buttons
- beads
- stationary
- stickers
- yarns
- badges
- anything with monkeys
- anything purple
- candy
- crystals and gemstones

Here are some board games I've been looking at...

- frustration
- taboo

Here are some books...

- Big Girl Knits
- More Big Girl Knits
- Cerulean Sins (Laurell K. Hamilton)
- Incubus Dreams (Laurell K. Hamilton)
- Micah (Laurell K. Hamilton)
- Danse Macabre (Laurell K. Hamilton)
- Skin Trade (Laurell K. Hamilton)
- Mirror, Mirror (Gregory Maguire)
- How to Survive a Horror Movie (Seth Grahame-Smith)
- Death Masks (Jim Butcher)
- Blood Rites (Jim Butcher)
- Dead Beat (Jim Butcher)
- White Night (Jim Butcher)
- Turn Coat (Jim Butcher)
- Heroes Graphic Novel vol. 2
- Random Acts of Kindness (Danny Wallace)

Here are some stitching patterns and other stitching related ideas...

- Amethyst
- Seraphine
- A Year of Events
- Evangeline
- crochet hooks (I just took it up and all I have so far are a 5mm and a 5.5mm)
- a crochet hook roll
- a "handmade" or "handmade by" rubber ink stamp for the labels I make. I want a consistent stamp, but I can't find one anywhere, so I've been using various stickers
- felt (as in the fabric) in any colour, including pink (I'm sure I'll need some for a project at some point)
- Amigurumi patterns

Here are some scented things...

- I love the smell of vanilla, and jasmine, so any candles or smellies in those scents

Here are some miscellaneous ideas...

- I want a leather barette, one of those ones where you push the stick through a hole at either end. Not necessarily leather, but bendy ones rather than wood.

Here are suggestions for big spenders...

- Pure Poison!!

Here are some general points about things I like...

- I knit, crochet, cross stitch and embroider. I'm trying to do more sewing so am collecting new fabrics and ideas.
- I read whenever I can.
- I am a big nerd, I love playing World of Warcraft and Mario games, and watching scifi and fantasy movies and tv shows.
- I am a bit of a bohemian hippy, I love handcrafted jewellery and clothes and things in purple, black or lots of colours all at once.
- I don't get to travel as much as I'd like, so I love receiving postcards and badges and pens from places I don't get to go to.

Here are some general points about things I DON'T like...

- I don't like coffee!
- Flavorwise I also don't like black liquorice or cherry.
- I don't like Jelly Beans
- I don't like pink
- I don't like.... hmm, there are lots of things I don't like but I can't think of any right now. I'll add them as I remember them.

THIS LIST WILL BE CONSTANTLY CHANGING AS AND WHEN I FIND SOMETHING NEW TO ADD TO IT!!!

HSKS 9 - Montrose Magpies

As everyone knows, I'm a bit of a stitcher. As some of you know, I'm a member of Ravelry, my username is Switchcleo. Ravelry is great. There are patterns and groups and a way to display all your projects (currently only crochet and knitting, but I'm hoping they'll add sewing and embroidery at some point). And there are also many many groups that organise swaps.

Swaps are so much fun. You sign up, you get assigned a swappee, and you have to create a package to send them. You, in return, get a nice package of goodies from the same or a different person. It's fun :-) Who doesn't like to receive a package of goodies in the post?

I'm in several swaps: a scarf travels one which is a round robin, where you knit five inches of a scarf and post it to the next person on the list who knits the next five inches. Everyone works on everyone else's scarf and by the time you get yours back it's full of diferent sections of wonderfulness. I'm also in several mini themed ones, and one that's all stuff that fits in a certain sized envelope. And I run two swaps too, a passion for purple one, and one with a £5 budget.

The swap I want to talk about today is a Hogwarts Kit Swap. This session is a Quidditch season. Past sessions have been a summer camp and school terms. The HSKS involves a lot more commitment than the other ones, and my first assignment has two parts that are, and I quote:

1- The HSKS9 logo MUST be posted the sidebar of your blog! The logo also MUST link to the HSKS9 blog.

2- Create a blog posting with your wishlists suggestions and any direct links to favorites so that your spoiler can get to know you.

So here I am. I've posted the logo to the sidebar, and I've also posted my team logo, I'm a Montrose Magpie. GO MAGPIES!!!

I'm going to do a separate post with my wishlist, once I've done a little bit of research and window-shopping, but I just thought I'd keep you all up to date with my obsessions :-)

PS> A common bit of fun with HSKS is to get a Meez. Mine is in the sidebar. I made her as chubby as I could, but they don't do really fat ones.

Another move?

A week or so ago mum's cat gave birth to yet another litter of kittens. I decided that I want one of them, that I regret giving up Gadget. I REALLY want a pet. So, I had my darling best friend work her womanly charms on my landlord to find out if I'm allowed a kitten. My arguments being..

1) I've looked after a cat successfully for four years
2) The kitten would be coming from a home that already had a dog so she shouldn't have a problem with Ebony
3) I could bring the kitten home with me after Christmas and if Ebony had a problem with her I could always send her back with Michael. Could I at least have her for a trial?

He said no. When I originally interviewed for the place, he said pets were allowed. Now he says no to a dog, no to a cat. I want a pet!! I tried having a guinea pig, and I didn't get anything from it other than a messy floor. I want a pet I can interact with. I miss Gadget so much more than I ever thought I would. I miss her so much it hurts to think about her still, a year after I gave her away. I want a pet.

I'm sat in the computer room on Portland campus and I'm trying not to cry, I'm so disappointed about not being allowed the kitten. I'm seriously considering moving. Again.

Since I came to Stoke-on-Trent in January 2005 I've moved 3 times. My plan had been to stay at where I am now until I graduate and then move to Preston to be with Neil and we can get a pet together. But I'm not sure I can survive another year and a half without a pet. It actually hurts. I'm so tired of coming home and being alone. I want a dog or a cat I can play with and cuddle up with.

So, when I get home I'm gonna look at some ads and see what the chances are of moving, again. Anyone know of any places, in a shared house or not, within access of a bus route, that'd let me have a pet?

The View From My Window

A month ago I posted a tour of my room, including a photo of the view from my room. Today I took another picture and I thought I'd post them both so you can see the colour changes in just a month. I'll do one every month.


(August 30th 2009)


(October 4th 2009)

Unnecessary, illogical worrying

It isn't news to anyone that I tend to overthink things, that I'm paranoid and insecure, and that the tiniest little thing can set me off.

I'm having one of those moments.

Since I've been in America Neil has been online all the time he's not at work. If he's not on MSN he'll be logged on to googlechat on his phone. And we chat whenever I'm not at class and he's not at work or asleep. There's a few hours a day where we're both free.

Except that I've barely spoken to him since Wednesday. Two or three sentences as I was going to bed Thursday night and he was getting up for work, and then a chat yesterday afternoon. He said the plug extension thingy in his room blew and he couldn't use his computer or charge his phone. Fair enough.

But now he's not online today either. I woke up after bad dreams and looking forward to speaking to him, and he's not online. I'm emailed him, I guess he's busy. But it's okay. I miss him, and I worry about him, but I'm okay.

Or I was. Until I realised that I haven't heard from Jen in a coupla days either. She normally messages me on Facebook. Considering on Thursday Stitch and Bitch started up again and Brownies was Friday night, I was expecting messages from her telling me all about how they went. But I haven't heard from her.

So now my insecure, overthinking, paranoid brain is telling me they've run off together. Or he's spending the weekend at her house and they're doing all kinds of things and they haven't got the guts to tell me. I know that it's stupid. They don't fancy each other, and I trust them completely. But right now I'm three thousand miles away and if they're doing something together there's nothing I can do to interfere.

Of course, it's possible that Neil is just having an episode. Which makes me feel a whole lot better. (Sarcaasm for those who can't tell.) He tends to not be so communicative when he's episoding. So I'm three thousand miles away and my boyfriend might either be getting physical with my best friend, or he's episoding. I hate being so far away.

I can feel myself starting to cry. I know I'm being paranoid and illogical, but I can't help it. I can't help being scared of what's going on over there. I can't help missing Neil and Jen and I can't help worrying about them. Losing either one of them is my greatest fear, and for whatever reason they've both gone MIA, so I'm going to worry and panic and stress and get paranoid and sit here trying not to cry.

Cos I'm a moron.

Stitching PS

By the way, I don't post all of my crafting on here. I post some of it, stuff that's relevant or that I'm particularly proud of. I do however put it all on facebook, and all my knitting and crochet is on ravelry, where my username is Switchcleo.

Civil War and Crochet

I finally saw the first of the ten historical monuments I'm meant to be writing about for my History of Maine course. And in about an hour or so, or possibly tomorrow morning because I'm exhausted, I'll have written my first entry in the blog I'm meant to be keeping.

In other news, here is a granny square.



Go on, admit it. You're surprised it's not purple. Well relax, there will be plenty of purple ones. This is the first granny square I've ever made (thank you You Tube). I plan to make one from every different type and colour of yarn I own, and every type I ever get. Cos I'm sad like that. And my stash is mostly purple, so there'll be plenty of purple. I'm going to sew them together as I go (having learned my lesson whilst making my family loom.

Hmm, having just done a brief scan of my blog history, I don't think I actually told you about the blog. When Jen taught me to knit, nearly a year ago, I started making patches. Lots and lots of patches of this one type of yarn to make a quilt with. I measured the first patch, and I measured my duvet, and decided I needed 70 patches.



It became called a family loom because I'd decided that I wanted it to go down through my following generations as a family heirloom, and at Christmas last year my baby sister Michaela (she was 11 at the time) asked if she could knit a patch for the loom. The name stuck. She did knit a patch. It's almost exactly in the middle, with a little M on it, so everyone knows she did it.

It took me almost three months to knit all the patches, amongst my other projects. Then it took a whole day, thanks to my insisting that no two adjoining patches should match, to lay them out in order. My eternal gratitude to Charlotte and Cayden who helped me lay them out, reorder them til they were right and then pinning numbers to them all. It took another two months to sew the damn thing together.



I love it, it's comfortable and delicious and my first big project and ridiculously heavy, but I have learned my lesson! This time I'm sewing the squares up as I go.

New Thing # 31

Date: October 1st 2009
New Thing: Try lobster

I have never had lobster before. I am in Maine. It would be wrong of me not to try it at least once whilst here. And this evening the cafeteria did a lobster and steak night. When my card was swiped I was given a little ticket, good for one lobster or one steak. I didn't realise they'd be WHOLE lobsters though, and I didn't wanna get one just to find out I didn't like it. So I pinched a bit of Holly's.

I was a little freaked out about eating lobster, since reading The Lobster Coast for my Maine History course and reading all about lobster sex and lobster babies. It makes for weirdness. But I tried it anyway.

It was... rubbery. It didn't taste very nice really, but then I'm not really a big seafood person. But I tried it, that's the important thing.

Here is what a lobster looks like pre-cooking.



Here is what a lobster looks like after it's cooked - incidentally the things are boiled alive!!



I understand that lobsters are a delicacy, and that they provide big big business in Maine and other places, but I don't like them. I like my food to not look like animals. When I sat down at the table, Holly's lobster was practically waving its creepy antennae things at me. Ewww.