Finished Object - Striped coworker gloves

TaDa! I finished the second one last night. I actually kept track of the amount of time it took to make one glove and it was close to 10 hours, which leads me to the conclusion that I am a very slow knitter. Which I'm ok with, as long as I finish what I start. It's a little hard to tell from the pic but there's about two stripes worth of ribbing at the top and bottom.
I'm going to give them to the girl they're knitted for tomorrow, since it's our last day of work and she's been really bummed.

Specs:
Knit picks self-striping sock yarn
size 3 bamboo needles (nice and broken in now!)
My own pattern

What I leaned:
I am a slow knitter.
Wool dries out my hands
I hate seaming

Good things:
Hopefully they will cheer up the recipient
Cute and I officially love self-striping yarn

Bad things:
A touch on the itchy side
hard to make the edges match.

Big Nerd

I am a big nerd. This is my 3rd! post today. Can you tell that I have no work to do and my last day is Friday so even if I did have work I wouldn't feel like it was terribly urgent to finish it even though the movie MUST GET DONE? Can you also tell I'm a little manic? Oh well.

S the fiancee and I picked colors today over IM, with the help of Colour Lovers. If you are unaware of this site, check it out. It is an awesome tool, especially if you're like me and feel a little overwhelmed by putting together a palette.

So, I give you...*plays a little fanfare music*

May Wedding

Now imagine that with the tiniest sliver of this bright red

We don't have a date yet, but I called it may wedding because it's about the colors of Texas wildflower in May.

Now, to decide on a lace yarn for the garter, a small gauge felting yarn for the flowers and leaves, and a funky fabric for the ring pillow. Craft-tastic!

I had a dream last night...

...that I got Frieda Kahlo's face tattooed on my right wrist. It was a very vivid dream.
<--This is the painting it was from. The tattoo was sans monkey and had more flowers and a solid background, but it was the smae face and that's what's important. I love her expression - defiant and strong. In the dream I got it as a reminder to stay true to myself.

I'm tempted to do it for real now :)

My Last Four Posts Ended With "!"

Start your day with a monkey!

The guy was so close I could have touched him, if I hadn't been so busy taking pictures. Or was afraid of getting monkey rabies. Right after this picture, he ran to the beach and got into someone's backpack. Don't believe me? It, and almost all of my other Costa Rican photos are here. Yahoo photos is being a pain about recognizing rotated photos, so nothing I shot vertically is in it yet.

I did knit a little while I was there, mostly on the plane. I'm a mere 4 rows from finishing my coworker's computer lab gloves but I've been too busy to look at them. This is me knitting on them while we were caught up in a protest.
Two men were killed a few days before when they hit a pot hole while riding their motorcycle. After local authorities refused to do anything about it, they shut down the only road through town by parking cars perpendicular on the one lane bridge. The road was going to stay that way until higher officials got there and signed documentation that they would fix the road. We actually ended up back tracking out of there before it was all said and done, but when we left, officials were on their way with documents. It's a shame that two people had to die, but I love that the town organized and got what they wanted with peaceful protest. Can you imagine if that happened here? What if we shout down a major highway in protest of the war, which has killed so many more people than that Costa Rican pothole? Maybe I'm an optimist, or just really naive, but I like to think that sort of thing can still make a difference here. Yeah, maybe it's more naive.


This is me knitting a French wrap in the Costa Rican rainforest. Little did I know that I would be proposed to on this very same porch a few hours later.
The clapotis and I are stuck in the Bermuda triangle of knitting, the point of the triangle being: it doesn't seem to be getting bigger, the ball of yarn doesn't seem to be getting smaller, and I'm bored with he pattern. I haven't even finished the first increase section. But like most things I get bored with, I have to remember that the end will justify the means.

I sort of went off of my meds while on vacation, but the full effect of it didn't hit until I was at home. The last two days have been full of normal stress but made much worse by a panic attack and the crazy looping thoughts I get. They make it hard to sleep or focus on anything at all. I get a little weird and obsessive. I've always been a depressive and never got any treatment until I was on my own in college. Anti-depressants weren't terribly effective so I quit them and was untreated for a few more years. I finally went to see a real psychaitrist (the other anti depressants were perscribed by a GP) and got diagnosed with a mood disorder. I got some mood stabilizers and they seemed to help. I didn't know how much they helped until going without them. Then it's like, wow, I'm crazy, how did I live like this for, oh, 24 years?
[rant]
I know there's a lot of people out there with similar problems. I hope you find the strength to get help and realize you're not alone. I hate the stigma associated with mental health disorders. Pretty much everyone I know has been treated at one point. So to all you people who think "happy pills" make you fake or are a quick fix...they're not. They don't make me happy, they let me be who I am.
[/rant]

Fabulous Forest Friends!

So sorry this wasn't done last night. Blogger was being a pain about uploading pics. I got the entry all ready and poof, everything disappered. But enough whining, on with the goodies from aschnebly!


This is a fabulous needle felted bird she sent. He is my favorite shade of blue and I have named him Rupert.


The top pic is a cute little charm dangly thing and the bottom one is TWO neacklaces, a birdy one made out of shrinky dink and a branch pendant out of polymer.
And if that wasn't enough fabulousness for one package...

Branch charms and owls that can either be earrings or stitch markers. How genius is this girl?
She also sent a little polymer clay owl key chain but his little horn broke off on his flight to Texas, so i'm going to try to fix it then post pics.
I'm such a lucky girl!

Back, and better than ever!

Hooray! I'm back from my Costa Rican adventure, and boy, do I have some stories to tell!



Fist off, I'm getting married! (as if you can't tell from the giant engagement ring pics. S the significant other is now S the fiancee! On the second night of our trip, we had a big fancy dinner at the big fancy hotel in downtown San Jose. We'd talked about going dancing later that night, so he hadn't brought the ring, not realizing that it was going to be such a perfect place to propose. So the next night, as we're sitting out on the porch drinking wine out of those bathroom glasses they give you at the hotel, watching the lightening and the fireflies in the jungle, he proposed. It was perfect, and very us. No hoopla, no getting down on one knee or hiding it in the flan. I'm so excited...he is everything I have ever hoped for in a husband.

We plan on getting married about a year from now in the church I grew up in. (and we're hoping to have the reception in an art gallery.) He's worried, and probably rightly so, that I'll try to make everything myself and lose my mind and he'll end up married to a woman covered in hot glue burns with yarn bits in her hair muttering and rocking in the corner.

I'm going to knit my garter :)

I also came home to a huge package of Foresty Friend goodness! A needle felted bluebird and more awesome jewelry than you can shake a forest stick at!

I only have a week of work left on the film, so while I probably won't get fired if I'm late, I probably shouldn't test anyone's patience. There will be pics tonight my friends. Crafty ones, and monkeys!