There aren't enough hours in the day...

I don't have nearly enough time to knit. I know, I know, we all feel that way. It just sucks though. I have made some progress on the sleeves of the cardi I'm knitting, I'd say I'm halfway done with them, then on to the body. I hate knitting sleeves, so I made myself do it first because I knew it was going to be the limiting factor in finishing this sweater. Why do I hate knitting sleeves? It's not so different from knitting a scarf, or even the other parts of the sweater. Now that I think on it, I developed my hatred of sleeve-knitting before my mother told me to knit them both at the same time to insure that they are the same length. Wish she'd mentioned that before I knit the sleeves separately on my first sweater and ended up having to visit the frog pond. That sweater turned into a very pretty throw though, so it all worked out.

She's baaack...

Ok, so I realize that I have no readership left after taking nearly a year off between posts, but what the heck, I thought I would give this blogging thing another try. I have been very entertained of late, with reading You Knit What? Those are some very funny women, and they have taught me the meaning of the word "snark." So it suddenly occurred to me that although it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining as their site, I thought I would start the anti-You-Knit-What? by posting here pictures of things I'd actually like to knit. That way people can make fun of my poor sense of fashion, or praise me for my impeccable taste, either way I'll be entertained. I also thought I might post pics of my knitting portfolio, including projects that I should really keep stashed under the bed (especially cause it's a platform bed with a really heavy platform and no way to get to anything under it, or rather "buried" in it.

I thought I'd start of with my current project, this cute little cardi from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation. This will be my second attempt at knitting this pattern, the first attempt being a pretty but enormous version in Lion Brand Wool-ease Chunky. I am using the yarn called for in the pattern, namely Lamb's Pride Bulky. It's my first time knitting with this yarn, and I must say that I love it. It knits up nicely and is comfortable to work with. I was a bit concerned with the mohair content, cause the hair of the mo tends to be a bit itchy (my mom, a prolific knitter, is VERY allergic to mohair), but I have had no problems thus far. I changed the colourway slightly in my version, I will post pics of my work in progress as soon as I take some.

They spoke German, but I remember it in English.

I had written something really clever and profound here, but mother#$@&ing blogger.com sent it into oblivion instead of publishing it. I'm so very pissed off right now, but I will attempt to recreate it, although nothing is as good as the first time you spewed it out.

My husband and I own over 1000 movies that we watch in our dedicated theatre room on our 22-foot screen (diagonal). And yes, I mention this mostly to make all of you movie buffs jealous. There are several foreign films in our collection (hey you've gotta mix it up when you have that many movies) of which my favorites are German. When you watch as many movies as I do, you quickly come to the conclusion that most American movies are the same stories being told over and over and over again, but with different special effects and characters. When you discover German cinema a whole new world of orginal stories is opened before you (Check out Girls Don't Cry, The Princess and the Warrior, and of course, Run Lola Run.) We watch these films in German with English subtitles, but when I think back on them, (I do this often, because it's not enough for me to watch a movie, I have to get why they bothered to make it) the people in my head are speakking German-accented English! (When I say "the people in my head" in this instance, I am referring to the actors in the movies and not to the permanent residents of my head. They speak British-accented English.) I thought that this phenomenon was unique to me until I discussed it with my husband and it happens to him too. It's not just German films either, it also happens with movies in Chinese, Japanese, and French (although not necessarily German-accented.) So my question is, why does this happen? Is it one of those things where your brain makes things up based on what it expects to hear or see? For example, I should see double all of the time because my eyes don't align, but I don't because my brain shuts off the doubled image from one eye. Does my brain produce English in my memory because I read English (subtitles), even though I heard German? Actually this seems pretty likely now that I've written it down (twice, damn blogger.com). Although, it is a bit ethnocentric on my brain's part, but hey, I can't control purple puss monkeys everything it thinks.

Work Sucks, can I be a kid again?

No seriously. I'm at work and I'm bored, bored, bored. And the little bell for people to ring to let me know that they're at the front desk is missing, so I have to keep checking to see if anyone is standing there. And it's not like people will say "Hello, anyone there?" Oh no, they just stand there waiting for me to notice them, and honestly, I'm just not paying attention. So just a tip for all my readers: When you make a hotel reservation, make sure you at least write down the name of the hotel you're staying at. You'd be surprised at how many calls I get from people thinking they have a reservation here when they actually are staying at a completely different chain. I would think that anything where you give your credit card number in advance would be important enough to know who you gave it to. Duh! Enough of my ranting. I don't feel like I have anything interesting to say right now. Maybe later I'll feel more talkative.

Knitting is Hot so learn how to Knit!

Knitting is hot right now, so everyone should be doing it. You can so learn hot to knit. The mechanics are actually very easy, and once your hands get used to the motion, you'll never want to put the needles down. You should not have a problem finding a local yarn shop (LYS) with people excited to teach you how to knit, so go fot it! (Look in to taking classes, or teach yourself, depending on your individual learning style.)We are a generation that thrives on multi-tasking and being able to knit means that watching TV is actaully productive. Waiting in doctor's offices, the DMV, airports, train stations, etc. is actually something you'll look forward to because it will give you more time to knit. I love having a bunch of projects going at once so that if I get stuck on one, or bored with a pattern I can just switch to something else for a while. For example, I currently have in production a cardigan with gorgeous yarn I bought in Nova Scotia, a poncho that I had to frog* a foot of because I made a mistake, a summer dress for my Texan niece Madeline, a gray boucle' jacket, another poncho that I'm not sure if I'm ever going to finish, and a purse that just needs the straps sewn on. I think that's all but there could be more lying around my house. Part of the fun is "discovering" a knitting project that I put down months ago and starting it up again. Word of warning: you must take careful note of where you are in a pattern if you tend to put projects down and not pick them up again for months. Take it from me, it's not fun to have to figure out where you were in the middle of increasing a sleeve.

* "Frogging" is when you have to rip out rows in a knitting project because you "rip it, rip it"

A Letter to Wil Wheaton 15 years late

Ok, I'm not ashamed to say it : I've loved Wil Wheaton since I was ten-years-old. Since reading his (in?)famous blog WWdN I've been feeling like maybe I should write him the fan letter that I should have written him all those years ago to tell him how great I think he was/is. If I had known that he was so insecure about himself I would have dropped him a line to say that I thought he was the coolest, and cutest actor around. My sister also had a thing for Wil, although I'm not sure that she'd admit it, or remember it now. When I was ten I had a subscription to Teen Beat Magazine and I used to tear out all the pictures of the Celebs that I thought were soooo cute, and let me tell you, I had a Wil Wheaton section (I don't feel like it was very big though, Teen Beat needed to publish more pics of my Wil.) I was one of those pre-teen girls that watched Star Trek TNG (at first) only because Wil was on it. The other day I happened to catch a TNG rerun and when Wil came onscreen I was as excited as I would have been at 10. I even really like the movie Toy Soldiers, although I wouldn't say it was necessarily Wil's best performance (although his character was kind of tough and sexy and I cried when he died). We all know it, and it's been said many times, but Wil was brilliant in Stand By Me. I'm sorry, I had to say it, so tough. It makes me so sad that Wil's career took a nose dive all those years ago, and he went off the radar screen, except for some obscure stuff that I've never seen. It never occurred to me that he wasn't in movies and stuff because he couldn't get parts. I mean, he's Wil Wheaton! Who wouldn't want to see Wil Wheaton in a movie? He's legend, he's classic, he's great! If I had known then what was really going on in his life I would have written him a letter.

Dear Wil,

My name is Dominica and I'm (10, 11, or 12) years-old. I think you are a really good actor and you are soooo cute! I have pictures of you from magazines hanging on my wall and I like to kiss you goodnight every single night! I think that the part in Stand By Me when Gordie tells the story about the pie-eating contest was sooo funny! But I can't watch the part where everybody starts puking, because it makes me kind of sick. Was it scary to have to swim across that swamp? Did the leeches hurt? I think you're very brave because leeches are sooo gross! I hope you are in alot more movies because you are sooo cute and sooo cool! I love you Wil! I hope I get to marry you someday, or at least meet you so I get to kiss you in person instead of just your picture.

Love always,
Dominica Anne

So I've been thinking...

Maybe I should get a little more personal and a little less wacky here. SheepGuardingLlama is very personal after all, and since it's my DH's (dear husband's) blog, as well as the first (and only until recently) blog I'd ever read, I feel I should be a good wife and follow his example. So here goes...

BP's oil refinery in Texas City, TX had an explosion today, that at the time of this posting has killed 14 and injured 100+. Why is this personal you may be asking? Well my brother-in-law Bennie works at an oil refinery in Texas City and when Scott first told me about it this afternoon I was asleep and the conversation went something like this:

Scott:
Honey, what's the name of the refinery Bennie works at?
Me:
(sleepily) Umm, I don't remember. Why?
Scott:
Because BP oil refinery in Texas City just blew up.
Me:
(slightly more awake) What? Wait does he work in Texas City?
Scott:
Yes I thought so, doesn't he?
Me:
(Wide awake) Yes!
(Jumping out of bed) Oh my God!*

So I ran to the phone and called my sister and Bennie is fine, he didn't work at that plant, but at one down the street.

So thank you Lord for keeping Bennie safe because even though we like to pretend otherwise, I actually really like Bennie, he's a good man and posseses infinite patience, as shown by his ability/willingness to put up with my extremely neurotic sister.**, ***

*Ok now, since I became a Christian I have very, very rarely used the Lord's name in vain, and I can only attribute that I used it here to the fact that I was momentarily panicked that something may have happened to Bennie and that I had just woken up. It's a good thing that God knows that I didn't mean to swear at Him, sorry about that.

**my husband is perhaps the only other man in the world who can truly empathize with Bennie on this because Scott has a similarly a neurotic wife.

*** I've decided I really like this asterisk thing, thank you Andy The Intern

Do you bloggers speak English or what?

So I logged on today and wasn't sure I had anything to say so I thought I'd surf around and read some blogs for inspiration. Using the "Next Blog" button I eventually came to a blog by some English girl that I think has invented a new English-like dialect. Can anyone read this without screwing their forehead up in frustration?

"...so cricketgyal is back. yeh, so lyk wen my whole template broke down (boohoooo im stil not ova it)...i decided to take a short break to recouperate..."

Ummm is this strange dialect common among the blogging community? Is it just because I'm new that I'm having trouble with this? I really don't understand why anyone would go to all the trouble of sharing their thoughts with the world, but posting it in a made-up language. Can anyone explain this to me? Anyone? Bueller?

I'm coo-coo for knitted muffs

My name is Dominica (Hello Dominica) and I'm a yarnaholic. My life's goal is to someday own an Olympic swimming pool so that I can drain the water, fill it up with yarn and jump in naked. So this leads to the reason for this post, I need your help here, please let me know what you think:
Do you think I'll drown in yarn? This is important because if too many people think I'm going to drown in yarn, then I'm going to change my goal to a kiddie pool and I'll be out in my backyard as soon as it hits seventy with my stash, a plastic kiddie pool, and minus clothing. Post here for an invitation.