Homemade ravioli is quite possibly one of the most awesome things ever.

Lazy Sunday.

Today has consisted of nothing but football watching and crockpot chili. I'm currently debating whether it's worth the effort to make cornbread as a side or just skip it.

....and now that it's been two hours since I wrote that sentence, it's pretty much confirmed that I'm skipping it.

After a few..... okay, six months of feeling a bit lost, I'm finally starting to get myself pointed in a direction as far as my life and career go. Up to now, I've been drifting along-- applying for jobs, contemplating the idea of going back to school while trying to sort out if it would hurt my unemployment status, feeling generally unsure of what my next move was, not knowing what I wanted to do but knowing I need to get out of the service industry. I'd been trying to figure out what exactly it was I wanted, but kept stuck with this overwhelming indecisiveness.

Over the last week or so, I've had a couple of important conversations with the people who love me and it may have finally been the kick in the pants I needed. It feels good to finally have a goal.

I find it a little sad that three days into my daily blogging challenge and I'm already slipping. I usually last at least a week.

Tomorrow will be all about breaking vows, choose-your-own-adventure pizza, and why I really need to replace my shower curtain with a door.

Voting and semi-ridiculous ideas.

Yay, election day! I dropped our ballots off earlier today. Even though it would have been simpler to drop it into the nearest ballot box, or heck, the nearest mailbox, but I like taking it to the courthouse to hand it in in person so that I can get the "I Voted!" sticker.

(It's a bit sad that I'm willing to go miles out of my way and wait in a line of cars just for a sticker. God only knows what I would probably do for a gold star.)

After other errands and a really good "happy birthday, Old Guy" conversation with my dad, I sat down and tore into some knitting. I still have a pair of armwarmers and a scarf from last month that need finishing touches, but today and yesterday called for some new projects for November.

As a show of solidarity with my boyfriend and other facial-haired friends participating in Movember, I started Incognito. Since I can't (thank God) grow my own mustache, making one out of yarn seemed to be the next best thing. I'm already halfway through the body of it, so with another day and some duplicate stitches, I should be ready to rock the 'stashe by the end of the week! With any luck, only 30% of people who see me will point when they laugh.

Even more ridiculous, however, was the Sock Yarn blanket I (sort of) started. The whole thing in itself is a bit crazy-- an entire blanket knit on size 2's from sock yarn? Seriously?-- but then I had to go and take the crazy to a whole new level. I currently have the hair-brained idea that I want to keep similar color groups together for a blanket that slowly shifts through the color wheel. I'm still not entirely sure how I'm going to do this, as I don't have nearly enough sock yarn leftovers to make the whole thing and will be picking up new colors as I go, but for now I'm still in that early "wonderful possibility" stage of the idea. I'm sure the "logistical nightmare" stage won't be too far behind.

National Blog Posting Month!

Along with NaNoWriMo, today marks the beginning of NaBloPoMo or, in other words, a month where a bunch of people set about the task of writing a lot.

I was previously all set to go this month, but truth be told, my heart's not really in it today. Maybe it's some sort of post-holiday hangover, or possibly the dreary weather, but I woke up feeling uninspired, listless, and just generally brood-y. Generally when I'm feeling like that, I try to simply hunker down with a cozy blanket, a pot of tea, and television I know by heart, but that just wasn't doing it for me today.

So I did something I haven't done in some time-- I attempted to indulge in some retail therapy. Although I'm not a currently active member, I've been diligently sticking with my Wardrobe Refashion challenge. With the exception of picking up a dress to wear to a wedding last summer, I haven't bought new clothing that wasn't underwear since February. Apparently my clothing diet has left me way out of practice, because I left the mall with a bath mat and conditioner. Having said that, if I can find a pair of knee-high boots I like, all bets are off.

I did, however, fall off the wagon pretty hard when it comes to knitting books-- Hat Heads, 101 Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders, and Stitch & Bitch Superstar Knitting are all sitting on the couch next to me. My Christmas knitting has just begun, so I can use all the ideas I can get. I'm already months behind!

Some things probably don't deserve the thought I give them.

So I wrote a pattern. To be specific, I wrote a hat pattern.

I still have to wash, block, and take pictures of the finished product before I'll be ready to fully write it up, but I'm already liking it.

Although this isn't the first time I've knit something on my own, I've never written anything that I would call a pattern, the tongue-in-cheek Random Cowl notwithstanding. I've always been hesitant to do so for two reasons.

1. I'm pretty terrible about keeping track of my knitting. I might get as far as writing down how much I cast on and occasionally will mark the number of increases and such, but most of the time I forget at least one step or, even better, change my knitting but not my notes. I've found myself having to try and reverse-engineer a second sock or glove on more than one occasion because of my terrible note-taking.

2. I've been struggling with the concept of "original pattern." Don't get me wrong, after reading more than my share of long and painful discussions on Ravelry about copyright law, copyright ethics, general pattern wankery and why both designers and the people who knit others' designs are all wrong, I have a very firm grasp on the law. The problem I find comes from trying to concretely define for myself what constitutes an original pattern.

So much of my work takes bits and pieces from things I've knit before. Although none of it is exactly like anyone else's pattern, it just doesn't feel like MINE because I borrowed the gauge from another pattern or the stitch from a dictionary. Secondly, some of my knitting is simple enough that, although I didn't use a pattern, it seems silly to call it a pattern at all. Having said that, a quick look through a lot of the patterns on Ravelry --including the garter stitch scarves, the ribbed-brim beanies, and basic cable baby blankets-- tells me that I'm in the minority with this thinking. Although there's a need for these patterns-- beginners have to start somewhere-- trying to call that one individual's pattern feels like trying to copyright knitting itself. Some say it's the specific wording that makes Jane Q. Public's beanie an original work, different from every other beanie on the planet, but really? I honestly don't know how to feel or what to think on the subject.

Then again, here I am writing a hat pattern that most knitters could probably sort out for themselves, so who am I to judge?

Ultimately, though laws are relatively clear, I'm finding trying to define the concept of "original" is like trying to define "art" or "beauty", so while it's still something my brain is constantly muddling over, I've managed to push it into the background white noise of my thoughts.

....well, until I started writing about it anyway.

Ghouls Night Out.

And so it commences.

I've been spinning up my first "art" yarn. I've always had a bit of difficulty with art yarn-- it just doesn't suit me. Over the years, I've figured out that my personal knitting style tends to veer away from the novelty towards the practical. I love details like lace and cables, but if things are too fuzzy or have too many colors or added embellishments, I tend to run in the other direction. Although I've always found art yarns pretty, I tend to avoid them because I know I will never knit with them.

Until today.

I happened to find some skull beads at the bead shop while looking for something else, and it sparked a notion of making a Halloween themed yarn. So I started digging through my fiber stash. Instead of the traditional black/orange combo, I decided for something a little less literal and opted for some black merino with bits of gray and white NZ wool and along with the skulls, there are gears and small keys and big swirly glass beads. It's not a true art yarn-- for starters it's a relatively even thickness throughout-- but it's probably as close as I'm going to come.

Frankly, I'm rather giddy over the whole thing. Now my month of Halloween can begin.

Too many cogs moving....

My brain has been busy lately. Busy with life stuff that I won't get into here, but also busy with craft stuff.

I'm spinning my first attempt at art yarn, or more accurately art-ish yarn. I'm also toying with another arty-farty yarn that may or may not turn out, but for now it's an interesting idea.

I'm trying to figure out how to block my first and possibly last* shawl. I have a giant bulletin board that is useful for blocking smaller things, but this stupid shawl just. won't. fit.

I'm still working on my quest of knitting from the stash and the books and have added the new goal of making enough pairs of fingerless gloves that I can wear them with every outfit I own. This winter is supposed to be bad enough to take all the previous winters' lunch money and give them wedgies, so I'm trying to be prepared.

I'm sketching out ideas for a Goodwill sweater I just finished unraveling. It's worth noting, Banana Republic makes an incredibly well-constructed sweater. Softer-than-soft merino and knit seamlessly, which is a rarity for a mass-produced garment.

Mostly, though, my brain has been stuck on one particular notion: knitting patterns. More specifically, what makes a pattern? And when you get down to brass tacks, what makes a pattern yours?

....oh yeah, and I'm putting together a Halloween music playlist.

Is it any wonder that I can't seem to fall asleep?

Progress Report

Once again, I've been lax in writing in this thing. It's been a pretty awesome and fun-filled summer, but that's a lot of ground to cover, so for now I just want to look at this summer's goals and see how I stack up. Let's see--

"I will not buy any new yarn until such time as I have decided the stash is depleted to normal levels."

In the most technical sense, I haven't bought any yarn since writing this. I did, however, buy fiber and another drop spindle and have been spinning more yarn. Yes, it increases the stash and could be considered cheating, but I'm willing to give it a pass considering I freaking made it myself.

"I will finish every current UFO."

Um.....yeah. I was pretty good about not starting too many other things, and only started a new bigger project (ie, bigger than a dishcloth or a baby bootie) when I finished another one. I did finish one or two other things that were sitting in the pile, but in all honesty today's list of unfinished items looks pretty similar to the list I had four months ago.

"I will not buy another knitting book until I use every book I already own."

Still holding strong with seven projects to go. I've even managed to go to the bookstore, look through knitting books, and walk out without one. Now that's willpower!

There's more on my mind-- the end of summer, my newfound interest in flower garden and hawaiian quilts, knitting my first shawl-- but that will have to wait until I can organize my thoughts a bit better.

It's important to have goals.

I am a girl on a mission. Well, several missions at once actually.

For starters, there's the stash. Once I got everything out in the open and organized, I suddenly realized that I am blessed with an overabundance of fiber, so with a few super-special exceptions, I'm not picking up any new yarn. I haven't settled on a time frame or goal, but like my Wardrobe Refashion no-new-clothing challenge, it's the kind of goal that ultimately rewards itself.


Then there's what I am affectionately referring to as the Knitout at the U.F.O Corral. Like most of the knitters I know, I have things that have been sitting for a very long time. Some of them, upon closer inspection, are better off just being ripped out, but quite a few are still things worth finishing. I started with the Rambling Rose Cardigan, and though I keep having to take detours and breaks (like the Framed Jewelry Holder from Stitch Diva I made recently), am inching ever closer to finishing it. I finally knit the second sock of a pair that I started a year and a half ago. The basket of things that have been sitting and languishing is getting smaller and smaller each time I look at it.



All of this overhauling and organizing has also made me realize one other thing. I know it is blasphemy to say this, but:

I have too many knitting books.

Actually, let me rephrase that-- I have too many unused knitting books. I originally bought them because there was a pattern or two that I really liked, but got distracted and moved onto something else before I could ever knit anything from it. So part 3 of "Jilly's Epic Knitting Mission" involves using all of my books. Thusly, the Ravelry queue is topped with projects from books I already own.

To sum up, the mission statement is this:

I will not buy any new yarn until such time as I have decided that stash is depleted back to normal levels. I will put my entire stash on Ravelry to keep myself honest. Acceptable yarn purchases are limited to extra yarn to finish a project and small batch/specialty producer yarn.

I will finish every current UFO. Finishing can also include ripping out an item that no longer works. I am allowed to start another project during this process, but only one new WIP will be allowed at any given time.

I will not buy another knitting book until I use every book I already own. Use = completing atleast one project from each title. Stitch dictionaries require a project using atleast one stitch pattern. The only exemptions are spinning books.

And there we have it. I guess I just planned out my knitting list for the next two years!

What A Wicked Gang Are We

I have been a busy little beaver of late. Due to no job luck thusfar, I find myself measuring life by the bands and movies I've seen recently and the projects I've finished.

In the interest of full disclosure to no one in particular:

The most recent band was the always-astonishing Captured By Robots.

The most recent movie wasn't a movie at all, but a bunch of old episodes of Brisco County Jr.

As far as other accomplishments, the list thusfar includes:

-1 painted, organized, and very nearly finished craft room. There's still some touch up painting to do, and some of our (mostly the boy's) stuff that needs to find a home, but languishing 2nd bedroom is finally being put to use! Having a dedicated space for yarn makes me feel like I have my own yarn store in my house, and I am suddenly getting a heck of a lot more use out of my sewing machine now that I can see the top of our desk.

-3 altered t-shirts

-1 skirt made from 3 thrifted tees (complete with the learning experience of making my first ruffles)

-the unearthing of all of my set aside knitting projects-- the various mitts I've started, the ominous and frightening Rambling Rose sweater, the Bond Girl tank I started last summer....

-1 complete Olympics sweater........that was afterwards ripped out because I decided I didn't like it at all. In the grand scheme of sweater Olympics, I feel like I earned a bronze.

-1 pair of socks. They're stripey and purple and fabulous.

-1 reorganized kitchen, with cabinets I can actually use!

I'm only just now getting around to documenting said accomplishments with those picture thingies, mostly because I've been too busy perfecting my Arnold Palmer iced tea/lemonade mixture and spending WAY too much time on the Ravelry message boards.

Truth be told, every new thing just motivates me to craft even more. I fall asleep at night with refashion ideas running through my head and have spent more evenings than I'm willing to admit knitting until the tips of my fingers went numb. I feel like parts of my brain that have been dormant, cast aside while the other parts were consumed by stress and long hours and the constant worry about the next thing, are finally starting to work again.

In short, I finally remembered how fucking fun this all is.

You Are Not On the Recieving End of It All

So far, the Official Day One of Unemployment has gone thusly:

Make an awesome lamb-and-tomato scramble for breakfast... Check.

Sign the rest of my severance paperwork...... Check.

Put away all the gear from this weekend's camping adventure.... Semi-check. It's atleast out of the back of my truck.

Pick up a couple more skeins of yarn, thus guaranteeing I have enough to finish my sweater for the Knitting Olympics.... Check.

Watch atleast another hour of curling competition... Check.

Although I have commited to starting my spring cleaning in earnest tomorrow, I decided today was a chill out day. It's been so long since I've taken a day to deliberately do nothing without feeling terribly guilty about it, so scrubbing down my shower can take a backseat to sweater knitting for once.

Despite illness and numerous setbacks, I still have a glimmer of hope that I will finish my sweater by closing ceremonies. I'm about halfway done with the body, and keep telling myself the sleeves will go quickly. Then again, since I'm pretty much (once again) making things up as I go along, I suppose it's done when I say it's done!

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Back in the saddle again.

I'm a little embarrased to admit that this is is what it took, but I finally got my incentive to get my act together, in more ways than one.

I was laid off from my job. Although I've had the news for a little while, I completed my last full day today. Other than a meeting and some paperwork tomorrow, I'm done with this thing and onto The Next Big Thing. Only problem is, I'm not quite sure what that thing is yet.

I find myself lucky enough to be in a position where I don't absolutely have to have a job tomorrow. The boyfriend and I have always lived well within our means so there's little concern about making ends meet while I'm unemployed. Knowing that, I decided to take advantage of my incredibly fortunate circumstance and figure out what I really want to be doing, as opposed to just grabbing onto just any job. I also count myself lucky that I have an understanding SO who supports this pseudo-walkabout I'm going on. Having been through the same thing three years ago (and coming out MUCH better for it), Eric knows that it's an opportunity to set my own course and not my way of being a SAHG (Stay A Home Girlfriend.)

So I'm getting my house in order, in both a figurative and literal sense. Everything I have wanted to do around my house but haven't had time for is on my list. This includes finally painting my bedroom, despite my boyfriend's color indecisiveness, and finishing my Rambling Rose cardigan. I'll be whittling down my refashion list and organizing our office within an inch of its life. And while I set about those tasks, I'll also reorganize my life.

I've mostly been telling myself this to avoid an OMGIdon'thaveajobandI'mscaredtodeath freakout, but I'm really beginning to think this could be the best thing that ever happened to me.

Oh blog, I haven't forgotten you. I just work a whole lot during the summer and don't write like I used to. I've also been taken over to the facebook darkside due simply to the high percentage of my friends who have one and put information on it. I hate the damn thing, but can't give it up or miss out on, like, everything.



But I do miss you, my darling blog, and I have been crafting, albeit at a much smaller level. I took up canning, and am on a quest to make the ultimate bloody mary using green beans I pickled myself and an experimental jalepeno-infused vodka. It could either turn out incredibly awesome, or incredibly gross, but that's the fun of trying things out!



Truth be told, I thought of you today when I was at the bookstore, checking out what's new in crafting books. The answer: nothing. Either I have put together a really good crafting library, or people are just stealing more and more of other people's ideas.



Frankly, if I see another book that has a chapter devoted to felting sweaters and making throw pillows and crap from them, I'm going to lose my shit entirely. Note to writers/editors/publishers: If you do decide to go against my wishes and put a "no, our felted throw pillows are totally different, we put circles on them!" chapter in your book, don't make it the first one. I will not keep the book open long enough to get to the other stuff that may be possibly useful and interesting.




Seriously though, I have been doing some crafting, albeit without (current) pictures. I bought 20 t-shirts at Goodwill for $24 and am slowly making summer gear out of all of them. So far I have four tank tops and another shirt in the works.

Sadly, my knitting has suffered. 52-hour work weeks + 100 degree temps = no knitting for Jilly, so instead I'll make a few more tanks, get through this summer, and go back to being a chick with sticks.

It's a beautiful day today. The sun is shining, the breeze is flowing. There are kids playing in the yard next door, I can smell the faint scent of a charcoal grill in the air and about a block away, somebody is mowing their lawn.

It's a beautiful day, and all I can think is that today can go screw itself.

I suppose wisdom tooth surgery will do that to a person. My mouth is more swollen today than it was two days ago, when I had my teeth ripped out. The most exciting bit of food I'll get to eat this weekend will be today, when I switch out the customary mashed potatoes for mashed sweet potatoes instead. I'll admit, the tofu-blueberry-yogurt smoothie I made yesterday was pretty kick ass, but I would give almost anything to be able to eat a cheeseburger right now, and I don't even really like cheeseburgers.

You would think this would give me extra knitting time, but mostly it's just extra sleeping time with a little bit of knitting thrown in. Pre-surgery, I got inspired by Stephanie's foray into the red Glitterspun we both have and started the cups from Naughty Needles Basic Bra Pattern, with the notion that I was going to make it into a tank top with a bust area that actually fit. However, the combination of Oxycodone and Glitterspun seemed like a bad one, so I decided something simple, like another grocery bag, was a much better recovery project.

For now, I am going to work up enough energy to put a leash on my dog and step out into this beautiful day long enough for him to pee, then it's back to my comfy pillow-filled couch where I will fall asleep to yet another episode of Bones.

Things I'm stoked about today

I've been having another one of those fits lately, where I get listless and depressed and have a hard time being enthused about anything. I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until my boss pointed out that I had been completely off my game for a while.

As I drove home the other night, wondering what the heck was wrong with me, someone on the radio mentioned that it was the beginning of March, and then it hit me. In fact, I felt silly that I hadn't caught on sooner. It's March!

I started to notice about six or seven years ago that the few weeks between mid-February and mid-March are a slightly dangerous time for me. After six months of greyness, never really seeing the sun, never being able to get completely dry or warm, I start to crack a little.

Luckily, knowing what the problem is makes it that much easier to deal with. I spent yesterday buying interesting used books and getting all of my flower pots ready for spring. And today, I'm making a list of awesome things....

....starting with the "Leftovers Lasagna" I'm eating. I threw in some carrots, brocolli, green peppers, and some leftover turkey kielbasa from a dish I made earlier this week. YUM. It even got the seal of approval from Eric, who isn't at all keen on lasagna.

--

Sometimes I can only shake my head at my coworker sometimes. She was talking today about how she's going to have to borrow some money from a friend....so she can go to the casino. She lost about $60 in thirty minutes the other night, but now that her brother has taught her the rules of blackjack, she's sure she'll be able to double her money in a hand or two. She says she has a plan now-- take the $20 she's planning on borrowing to her favorite slot machine, double it, then head to the blackjack table.

We asked her what she was going to do if she lost her money too quickly (crazy idea, I know), and she said if that happened she would go to the bar and wait for someone to buy her a drink.

...but that won't happen, because she has a plan.

I guess that's what all the other poor shmucks are doing wrong. They're failing to properly plan.

In no particular order.

1. I still say being the nicest meter maid is kind of like being the best five-dollar hooker. Seriously, he was still out ticketing at four minutes to five. Luckily, I can sprint faster than his little go-kart can drive

2. I made spanakopita last weekend to go with the fabulous gyros I picked up from the mediterranean market. Sad thing is, without thinking I chucked them into the fridge afterwards, where they have been slowly getting soft and uncrispy. I'm currently experimenting with re-crisping them in the oven for a few minutes, because I'll be damned if I let my phyllo efforts go to waste, and looking up the best way to freeze them. So far it doesn't look promising-- it seems the best way to freeze them is to have done it before I baked them in the first place. Atleast I still had some dolmathes left over, that almost makes up for it.

3. I had to rip out two or three days worth of knitting this afternoon. Stupid as it sounds, it always pains me a little when I have to pull it all apart because I screwed up.

4. My black eye is almost gone! Woohoo!

5. Even after watching the entire movie and a special feature or two, (Quentin Tarantino presents) Hell Ride made no sense whatsover.

...and I think that's pretty much it.

I'm really tired of being sick. I think I may be finally kicking the cold that moved in on me a week and a half ago. The one nice part has been days off spent alternating between sleeping on the couch and crafting while watching movies....and sometimes sleeping while trying to watch movies. (I still have no idea what the Golden Compass was about.)

Happily, I'm picking back up a nearly decade-old project. I started a quilt when I was 18 out of all of my worn out pairs of jeans. It's edged with the back pockets, and every fabric is either a former item of clothing or the leftovers from making something else-- flannel from some pajama pants, star-printed cotton from some throw pillows I sewed up for my teenage bedroom. My favorite part has always been the pegasus in the center, cut out and appliqued on after my favorite t-shirt met an unfortunate end with some bleach.

I made the quilt top at 18, then carted it around for nine years and four or five moves, not sure what to do next. I kept thinking about making it bigger or adding this or that, but when I pulled it out of the trunk a month or so ago, I realized that mostly I just wanted to finish it. So I'm going to add a little more embroidery (courtesy of some Sublime Stitching patterns I picked up last week,) then back it and finish it.

I just can't wait to have my biggest recycled project finally done!

I have to say, this year's football hangover wasn't as bad as it normally is. Normally, dumb as this may sound, I get slightly depressed the first week after the Superbowl, because it's the farthest I'm going to be from the next football season. Don't get me wrong-- I'm not crying in my shower over it, but when the shortest season in sports ends for the only sport I actually like, I get a little sad.

However, I'm already starting to look towards next season. The combine. The draft. It's going to be interesting to see how next year plays out.

....but that wasn't what i planned to write about.

Actually, I started to write about a dive bar I really like. For starters, it's lit entirely by beer signs, and still has an old-school non-internet jukebox. A very long time ago, back when I lived in the center of my podunk town, my roommates and I would go there to "go out into the county" and play pool. Most of the time, I shit you not, we were the only people there with a full set of teeth.

Now that football's over, we're thinking of making the dive bar a regular Saturday night/Sunday afternoon routine. I'm pretty stoked about it.