Purlene’s Corner

(aya aka the non-knitting amy)

I want to knit up that yarn. Malabrigo in the colorway Cadmium. Into this.

*sigh*

I tried to knit the other day. I figured, “Hey! My thumb hasn’t been numb in about a month now. Surely I could knit!” And knit I did – for all of 15 minutes. I don’t have the mobility that I used to have in my wrist/hand, I think I’ve lost muscle tone! It’s shriveled, from lack of knitting. WOE.

Having access to a knitting blog, while not being able to knit: bad blog fodder.

So, instead, I present to you a Top Ten!

TOP TEN THINGS I WISH I COULD KNIT:

1. Foliage from knitty.com
2. Lady February
3. Herringbone SS Hat
4. Cherry Blossom Beanie
5. Icicle Wristwarmers
6. bunny hats (2)
7. I love these. Converted from a glove pattern, looks like.
8. Welsh Country Stockings. Too cute.
9. These for the neat-o heel turn/gusset turn/whatchamacallit.
10. BSJ. I have some dk Duet yarn that I’ve been dying to try on one. Not that I know anyone who’s having a baby, but that’s okay. it’s the challenge, right? Also, it increases the prezzie pile too.

I suppose I could convert all my unfinished socks into some of these, heh.

And, ames? I should have done this to your last Fug.

Witness the Hat Attack II Hat. FINISHED THANK GOD. It was fairly brutal, and to be honest, I think it’s probably a misfire if you want to be really picky, but I don’t care. It is out of my hands tomorrow.

It’s a picture post. Random stuff from my flickr account, here for your enjoyment. There may even be some knitting content. I’ve been knitting, but I’ve been working on many things at once, so there has been little forward movement on any one project to show off. Oh, what the heck – I’ll put some knitting in.

The first Merino Sock! I’ve got some deadline knitting to do, but once I’ve cleared off some of the WIP list, I’ll hit up the second sock. I enjoyed this pattern a lot, and hello Koigu – you are everything that I’ve heard you were. Springy, soft, a total dream to knit. A little splitty, but that may be more due to the super-sharp points of the Knit Picks needles. Nickel, not Harmony. The Harmony ones feel odd to me, like there’s just a smidge too much varnish. I also like a nice, slippery needle for most of my work, so nickel it is.

I LOVE THIS YARN. Manos del Uruguay 100% Wool, in 113 Wildflower. It is gorgeous, it knits like a dream, and I would so much rather knit on this than the hat I am making and hating. (I have to finish the hat, though. Tonight, even.) The pattern is the Drop Stitch Scarf by Christine Vogel. This one is earmarked for my dear friend Lily, and as always, I can’t wait to finish it so she can grab it with grabby hands.

I really need to knit more for myself, haha. I need more than socks!

Other pictures of the non-knitting variety after the cut, plus a bonus picture of a SHEEP. Those of you who read on my LJ have already seen this. :)
Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve done this here and there before, but I thought I’d list the Firefox addons and extensions that I use and love. I can’t imagine going back to IE, no matter how much they make it look like FF, and while Google’s Chrome looks nice, I’m reserving judgment on it for now. Most of these addons are customizable to an extent. If you have questions on one of them, I may be able to answer, as I’ve used a lot of them for a very long time.

Adblock Plus (with filterset G) – this is my desert island addon. I can select the sites I choose to see ads on (and there are a couple that I’m willing to support with ad-based revenue), and never see ads on the rest.
Better Lifehacker
Better YouTube
Colorful Tabs
Delicious Bookmarks
Download Statusbar – I set it to switch to download manager if I close FF while a dl is still in process.
Flashblock
Forecast Fox
IE Tab
oldbar – I didn’t like how the awesomebar LOOKED, although I’m getting used to how it operates. This makes the results look more like FF2
Read it Later – saves me from opening up seventy billion tabs for things that I just want to check out quickly. It kind of works like an RSS feed; I can access it through different computers, my bookmarks and tabs aren’t cluttered, and I don’t run the risk of losing links that look interesting, but I don’t have time for.
Snaplinks – my new addon girlfriend. Very handy if there are a lot of links on one page that you want to open in new tabs. All you do is draw a rectangle around the links you want, and Snaplinks opens them in new tabs. MARVY. To install in Firefox 3, click this link, download the file to your desktop, then drag it to your FF icon. For older versions of Firefox, go here.
Stop Autoplay – stops soundfiles from automatically playing in your browser. I don’t know if it works for MySpace (I don’t go to that site) but it’s my understanding that MySpace is rotten with annoying sound files. Give it a go!

Tonight, a real post with pictures, yes indeedy.  I finished the first Merino Lace sock!

omg I am lame.  Anyway, just a quick post to say that yes, I am still around, no, I haven’t been doing any knitting worth taking pictures of and sharing (at least not until the sock is done and the sweater starts looking like a sweater and not just a mess of yarn), and yes, I have been busy Living a Life.  Which I could have told you about, but I am a total lazyass when it comes to updating. But it’s been over a month since my last post, and really, that’s shameful.

So.  the sock from my last post is still in process.  I dropped three stitches that ran down an inch, and for some reason was completely not capable of picking them back up in pattern, so there was a lot of ripping and cussing.  It’s back on track, though, and should be done hopefully by this weekend.  I’ve started the February Lady’s Sweater, or whatever it’s called, with the grey yarn from many sweater attempts ago, and it’s going VERY well.  Remember the Tulip Sock?  I haven’t touched it since that post, because all the twisted stitches made my hands hurt, but I’ve been looking at it a lot lately, and I think I may pick it up again.  The thinking so far is to finish this first Merino Lace sock(which would be the aforementioned “sock from my last post”), use those needles to finish the first tulip sock (maybe I need slipperier needles?), then cast on for the second Merino Lace sock, which should then feel like the easiest, breeziest thing in the WORLD.

And in between, work on the sweater and possibly start the Mystery Stole.  The pattern is released FRIDAY omg.  I haven’t prepared for it at all.  I’m using stash yarn and stash beads, but I haven’t checked to see if the two go well together, or if I have the needles, or anything.  I’m not going to worry about it.  The socks and sweater take precedence.

So anyway, this life that I claim to have been living.  Last update here was July 23, and this is what I have been doing All That Time:

• Prepped the apartment for a parental visit.  This involved calling my landlord to unclog my shower drain, which involved him buying new pipes and renting some kind of machine to get out the HAIR OMG.  Disgusting!  But now my shower drains, so I’m glad I had it done.
• Entertained my mother!  Mom came to visit for a weekend, and we had a blast.  Well, we had a modified blast, as I was suffering from an annoying side effect of some medicine I’m taking.  I was exhausted and drowsy all weekend, but managed to get it in gear enough to go yarn shopping, take in a play, get Mom hooked on Monarch of the Glen, and nap a lot.  Those last two may have happened concurrently.  But I love it when Mom visits – she and Dad don’t have a fixed address, as they travel the country in their RV, so it’s a special treat when I get to see them.
  
• Upgraded to Firefox 3, regretted it, suffered through, got over it, like it now
• Got hooked hooked hooked on the Olympics.  Go Team USA!  I loved the men’s gymnastics team to little hobbity pieces, rooted for the girls’ team, cheered for the swimming, fretted over the divers, rooted for Phelps even as I got a little bored watching him win all the time, and basically enjoyed the hell out of the Games.
• Mailed The Stole to my friend who was surprised and delighted, which delighted me.  We were a total Mutual Admiration Society there for a day or so. <3
  
• Hated on garter stitch.
• Wished a happy birthday to my best friend and platonic heterosexual lifemate.  The Silent Bob to my Jay, if you will.  Although with more talking and less profanity.
  
• Completed a 5K in 40-odd minutes, which was AWESOME for me.  (I haven’t really run since, which is less awesome of me.)
• Dad visited!  We went geocaching!  I took pictures!  I got Dad hooked on Farscape (so so so so SO GOOD I am not kidding, really, I love this show like mad), and he got me hooked on their Wii games.  \o/ for Dad visits!
• Mocked privately a man who constantly sends me e-mails meant for his daughter, and signs them “LOVE and HUGGLES”.  Gag.  Huggles.
• Watched The Matrix series. Oh, Keanu.  My love for you is pure and unchanging. <3 times a gazillion.
• Hated some more on the garter stitch.
• Had a truly bizarre experience at a bar involving a random guy, a salad, a Dome of Invisibility, and the guy getting literally thrown out of the bar.  And free drinks for my friend and me.  Woo.
• Had a delightful el ride with an older woman from Israel and a younger woman from Charlotte, both knitters.  It was really wonderful, and I kind of wish I could recreate it at will.
• Failed at getting a part time job to pay off the credit card.  Stupid part-time job interview person not hiring me.
  
• Got VERY excited about certain theories of mine concerning the Cylons on Battlestar Galactica.
• Revised those theories.
• Went “WTF WORLD WTF” over Palin, along with the rest of the world.  Then I read her positions on various topics and quaked in my boots.  She’s pretty much my exact political opposite, and I vehemently do not want her anywhere near the presidency of my country.
  

And that’s pretty much it! Look for a blog makeover in the next few weeks, something pretty and light and colorful. And not designed by me, because I stink at webdesign.  xoxo, peeps.