Simple Knitted Bodice and Marsupial tote
Topic: Knitting
I'm finally knitting some things that seem nice to me. I'm pretty stoked. This first item is a tote bag, which took me a whole day to knit. Of course, I don't have anything better to do, which is because the New Mexico Massage Board is taking their sweet time processing my application. It's great because I love having the TIME to knit and being able to churn these things out so fast. I also know I need to have a job soon or I will be broke and able to knit nothing. So, the tote:




The above photo is after the bag was felted. It goes like this: you spend all day knitting a bag, then you throw it in the washer with hot sudsy water, which you should never do to your cherished wool items like sweaters and hats. However, when you want a bag that looks like this, you do it. It shrinks 25% or more, and the fabric becomes really thick and stable. I'll probably use it to store my knitting in, or maybe as a purse once in awhile. I used the extra yarn from that hat I made awhile back.

Now comes the truly amazing thing. I am knitting a sweater. a CUTE sweater. Not a "this-is-my-first-sweater-and-its-ill-fitting-and-ugly" sweater. This sweater is going to be cute and sexy and very well fitting.  At least that is what I'm praying for every chance I get. Here is how far I've gotten in two days of solid knitting:



It's going to have long belled sleeves and an empire waist with some lace detail. My only concern is that I'm knitting it in a size smaller than I need because I've researched and discovered that this yarn will "grow" when washed and I don't want to be wearing a bag. So I'm pulling it down over my boobs and HOPING it will expand slightly but not too much when washed. There will definitely be tons more pictures of this coming up because I am so excited about it I can't help it. I stayed up until 2 am last night knitting to that point. By the way, it is meant to be worn with a cami underneath because the neckline scoops down so far.

This is Stitch Diva's Simple Knitted Bodice, I'm knitting with my large needles on size 4. The yarn is Knit Picks Andean Silk, a blend of alpaca, merino, and silk, in Hollyberry. I'm knitting the XS size and so far have not made any modifications. I'm about to join and I'm doing it as the pattern calls for because I'm counting on it growing when blocked. I will probably add a few extra rows before starting the lace and I think I'm going to omit the purl ridges. I may add a few extra decreases before starting the lace...or maybe not. But I don't want the lace to be droopy. I will knit the lace in either 1 or 0 needles.

I also have to add that my previous comment about those socks being "nothing alike" is withdrawn. While I was KNITTING them I thought they were nothing alike, because I knitted them pretty differently. However, looking at the picture, that sounds totally ridiculous. They look like A PAIR OF SOCKS. So much so that I've worn them together out of the house. In the immortal words of Barbara Fryburg: I SHIT YOU NOT. I'll leave it at that.

Sock 2
Topic: Knitting

Well, I finished a second sock. Not to be confused with THE second sock, as these don't truely make a pair as I did not knit them alike. If you can tell, the sock on the left is the new one, it is knit with size 3 needles, but the same yarn. The sock on the right knit with size 7 needles. So there are more stitches and rows per inch on the left sock. There's less skin showing through, less holes.




Here you can more clearly see the lack of holes in the toe. I really worked to get no holes and while it's still lumpy and weird, I'd say it's a definite improvement. I was hoping to be making some socks for gifts soon, but I think I'm going to need a lot more practice before these are gift worthy.

For the knitters out there, I used Cascade 220 The Heathers, 100% peruvian highland merino wool yarn. I really like the color but I can't find the name of it anywhere on the label.












In other news, I ride a bike, in the house! Ron got a trainer, that contraption you see attached to the back tire, so that he can ride his bike inside during the snowy winter. I thought I would take advantage of this, as I like to get some cardio workout, but I HATE doing it outside when it's below 70. Well, I don't hate it. But I certainly prefer it in warmer weather. Anyway, that thing basically lets the back wheel spin, so you can ride it like a stationary bike. But it's your real bike, and you can detach it and then go ride on the road.

I haven't quite gotten the hang of it, but I rode today for 20 minutes and go my heart rate up to 189. pretty fancy! heart rate monitors rock.

Help me pick some colors
Topic: Knitting
Well, since I've started to knit, I now have a "knitting to-do" list that's about 10 items long! Which may not sound that long, but when it can take anywhere from a week to a few months to knit one thing, it starts looking a little longer...I just keep finding patterns I want to knit either for myself or someone else, and ...well, it's never ending. I can see that now.

This morning I messed up on that sock and had to rip it back. Luckily I"ve now learned a better way of ripping back that doesn't risk loosing the whole garment. I only have to re knit about 30 rows.

So this is one thing I'm going to be knitting in the future and I need help choosing colors




I do like the colors used in the picture, but I think I could choose some I like even more. Ihave had some ideas myself, but I think the color/art hemisphere of my brain is inferior to many of yours, so with your suggestions I might see some combos I hadn't thought of. I may or may not actually use anyone's suggestions, but I want to see what other people would use, to break me out of my box. You can suggest any color you want to, but here is the yarn I'm going to use with the actual colors I could use:

Peruvian Highland Wool


Comment here or on myspace. Thanks!

Massage Room pic
I went to take a picture of my massage room and the batteries failed after the first attempt, so this is all you get.

I will take more pictures as it comes along. it is pretty much done, but both ron and i agree that it needs more plants. i already have a few plants in there that aren't visible in this picture, but a plant in each corner would really cozy it up nicely, so he's going to make some corner shelves for that purpose.

I'm feeling tons better today. not sick at all, just sore in my body. cold here today. don't think it got above freezing. i'm working on a new sock, totally different from the other one. it definitely won't make a pair. the other one will just have to be a lone sock.

Fell on my ass TWICE today
Today has been quite a strange day. I wanted to go to downtown ruidoso to shop for native themed decorations for my massage room. While walking from the car to the downtown area,, we had to cross a patch of ice. Careful though I was, I slipped, my feet shot right out in front of me and I land STRAIGHT on my tailbone. the lower area, where the tailbone meets the cocyx...i am so spelling that wrong. it's the vestige of a tail we all have that hangs off the bottom of your tailbone and it HURT like hell. I scraped my hand up falling and everything and I was in pain. But I figured I could still walk around and shop cause i'm not a baby. macho me. you know.

so we walk around for a couple hours, score a couple deals (pictures forthcoming) and then go to the grocery store. I get some things and then ron and i get in line. we're talking about how terrible it must be to get old and die, and fall all the time and break hips and pelvises and all other sorts of awful things. I said, maybe that's what my dad thought...I don't want to get old and die...might as well die now.

We're standing in line for a few minutes when I start to feel naseuas...then a little dizzy. I figure I'll just ignore it. Then it gets stronger. I say to ron "i'm feeling naseaus and dizzy. I think I might pass out." -- my memory ends there.

cut to - me waking up, i'm on my back, ron is kneeling over me saying "are you alright sweetie? are you all right?"  apparently i said "yeah, why?" but i don't remember that part. i remember saying "Whoa, that was weird!" cause it felt like i could have been out for hours, but apparently it was only about a minute.

I felt VERY weak, could hardly get up. when I tried to get up i just wanted to lay down again on the grocery store floor, so I did that for awhile. they called the ambulence, and i wasn't in any position to go anywhere so we waited and they came to diagnose me. i was hoping for some info.

NONE! blood pressure was low but normal for me. heart rate was low, but hello, i just passed out, blood sugar was normal - apparently the person who "took control of the situation" (think your cpr class - "YOU! call 911!") decided i was having a diabetic seizure and forced me to drink A LOT of orange juice which I later threw up. i just looked really pale and felt really weak and was shaking like a leaf. i was FREEZING! So after i refused to go to the hospital and they tried to convince me to like three times, they finally left. This little girl came up to me, she and her mom had been standing in line ahead of us, and she gave me a single red rose. she said, "This is for you. I hope you feel better." I was amazed and felt blessed. I was in this foggy state of "i just want to lay in my bed" but she made me feel happy right then.

Ron asked if i was ready to go and i was. He took the groceries out to the car while I waited in the wheelchair. yes, they had gotten me a wheel chair. while he was gone i heard the girl's mother say "Go stand next to her until he comes back." She was probably 8-10 yrs old. She came over and said, "I'm going to stay with you until he comes back." It was so sweet! It was really just very cool.

Ron comes back, wheels me to the car and I get in. This is when I puke half the OJ into the plastic shopping bag i was carrying because i felt nauseas. gross. now i had to hold it for the whole car ride.

Finally we get home. (on the drive up to the house i threw up the rest of the OJ out the open car door) I got straight to my bed and as soon as i'm horizontal and bundled up i feel a MILLION times better. I was still shivering like hell though. I called my mom and told her the whole story and that made me feel better too. I finally stopped shivering. Ron made us some pizza and after eating it i felt much better. i found a thermometer and took my temperature. 100.6 not too high, but now i knew why i was shivering. After eating I felt a million times better, not so weak, not so shivery, and my fever started going down.

Now my ass just hurts. I guess I fell on it a second time when I fell in the grocery store. lucky i was out for that because it would have hurt a lot more than the first time. I can't bend over or do some other simple tasks. Luckily sitting is not painful. That's what i was worried about.

One of the strangest days. I'm sure the two falls had something to do with each other, but i don't know. Maybe some theories next time.

One thing is that after the whole incident all I can report is an overwhelming feeling of gratefulness. That ambulence guys come that fast and are there only to help. That ron was there by my side the whole time doing anything he could for me. And that I actually do have my health, I didn't have a serious problem. Even though some of it was scary, I was really taken care of and that felt enormously good, even through all the wacked out body feelings I was having.

Slippery Snow and Racism
Well, it snowed a whole bunch, as you know from me freaking out. It probably wasn't six inches, because more snow accumulates on the banisters than on the ground, because of the wind. The ground is a more accurate gauge of snow, and it was more like 3-4 inches. Still plenty. Here's a few more pics in this one you can really see the difference between banister and ground:
Wednesday we were going to Alamogordo, the closest big town, about an hour away, to do some shopping. We were a little nervous about the roads and the snow, but not enough to stop us from going. So we take this mountain road that by passes town and goes past the mountain, you get a really good view and here it is COVERED in snow: It's the very same mountain as in the other pictures on my blog. In person, you could even see the snow spray coming up from the wind. It's barely detectable in the picture.

Shortly after taking this picture, we starting passing people who were coming towards us with their flashers on. It seemed kind of out of place, the road wasn't that bad. It was covered with snow, but had been salted and ploughed. It was fine for driving. Well, we came to a place where there was a policeman and two stopped cars...we weren't sure what was going on, so we drove slowly past, being cautious. This was at the bottom of a hill, which we didn't realize until we slowly lost speed because we had poor traction and about halfway up the hill stopped altogether, tires spinning, and then started to slide BACKWARDS!!!!!! towards the cars that were stopped at the bottom of the hill with the policeman. Now we could see what was going on. People were sliding down and the cop was there to help keep things orderly. He came over and helped guide our truck safely through the slide so that we could turn around and go the other way. While sliding backwards, we put our flashers on. After a bit of confusion and adventure, we were safely turned back in the other direction, unable to take that route. Now we knew why we had seen people going in the opposite direction with their flashers on. Now we were safely on our way.

Alamogordo is 3000 ft lower in elevation, so it wasn't long before the snow was becoming scare and the roads much safer. Coming into Alamogordo there are several signs advertising a store. It's called "Running Indian" and there is a cartoon indian with big headdress and loincloth, in a running position, probably holding a tomahawk or something, on the billboard. It's kind of like Wall drug, where there are like 20 billboards leading upto this small store. I've seen these signs each time we've gone to alamogordo, but this was the only time I realized the blatant derogatory statement being made with the name. In fact, I don't know if I've ever seen such blatant racism being carried out right in the midst of the very people who are being discriminated against, and frankly i was offended.

I do suppose the indians make some money off this. For all I know, an indian owns the store and sells all kinds of fake weird indian artifacts. There are indian reservations all around this place and they have casinos and stuff, so they're definitely making money off the tourist thing.

Anyway, I mentioned to Ron about the name and we kind of laughed about it and I then we saw up ahead a sign for a new community where you could buy houses called "Running Indian Estates."

Well, that about blew it for us. We couldn't stop laughing. I said, you might as well have called it "Jive talkin Negro Estates" He says "Damn Nigger Esates" and we went on like good racists:

Damn Nigger Condos
Sweaty Mexican Townhomes
White Trash Trailer Park

I wish I had taken a picture of the sign. I'll have to try next time I go. Later for dinner we found ourselves eating in a Chinese Buffet Restaurant. Which was playing stevie wonder christmas songs, and just had some weird elements going on, as you can imagine. The food was good, though.

Slanty Chink Buffet???

That one doesn't have the same ring as the others. please send your submissions to the comment button below.

So, we spent the day shopping and i spent an insane amount of money on appointments and decorations for my massage room. When I get it all set up I will take pictures. I'm pretty excited. i think it will be nice.

Coming home in the dark the snow/water all had evaporated from the road and we had smooth sailing. When we got to downtown Ruidoso I was hugely impressed with how damn cute it is. Christmas trees growing naturally everywhere, with snow gently weighing down their boughs. Christmas lights appropriately lighting up the town, and slating roofs with a cushion of marshmallowly snow for the perfect ambiance. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it gives some idea: Merry Christmas!

New Blog
Now Playing: Coctaeu Twins
Ah! I think this will work now.  I already entered stuff twice and it keeps disappearing. Anyway, I had been posting my blog at myspace and I was always bothered by the appearance and inability to customize on myspace. It just looks dumb. So I mosied on over to tripod to see what I get for free with my free webpage, and it looks like I get one of these. So we'll see how this goes. I may be getting rid of the ads which abound on tripod soon, that'd be nice.

SNOW (better picture)
I must admit, this snow makes me excited like a little girl. It's snowing and it's got to be six inches by now and it's the first snow of the year. Here's a better picture:




and in this one you CAN see the snow falling. yee!!!!