Life has been, well, life.  Knitting and other crafts have had their ups and downs as well.  Here's some yarn I dyed back in December and the socks I knit up.  Over on Ravelry we had a flurry of excitement wrapping yarn into balls, dyeing one color, then re-wrapping so the undyed section was on the outside and re-dyeing different color.  Mine turned out so-so but the socks have been really warm and comfy to wear.

So, Sister loves her birthday socks.  She has been dropping not so subtle hints for quite a few months now, and her birthday seemed to be the appropriate time to make a pair for her.  The problem has been that she's picky.  Wool it too scratchy, I'm allergic and so on.  So I had to choose the yarn with great care.  These are 70% fine merino, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon.  They are incredibly soft.  I picked a more conservative yarn for this first pair.  Next time around I'll dig out the neon and really have some fun.

Holy moly! I can't believe what I've missed out on not having an iPhone. It's so much easier than my old android. Woohoo!!

So, I haven't posted anything in months.  I guess I'm like many others here in LJ land and just don't seem to use the site as much as I used to.

Anyhoo, I just finished watching season 8 of Supernatural.  I don't know why I waited so long, I mean, there it sat on my shelf collecting dust for a year (or so).  I loved the whole season.  It has to be my favorite of all, including season 1.  I love Benny.  He was hot and he and Dean could easily be my OTP for all time.  Why do I fall for these rare pairings?  Anyway, I liked the season.  Now to try to get into Season 9, which I'm watching on Netflix since I didn't order from Amazon.  Must consider doing so.  Maybe next year when it's on sale.

I play many MMOs.  And yeah, they've all been WoW clones of one type or another.  So when new "sandbox" type games have been announced, I've jumped on whatever info I can get.  I'm so ready for a change.  Like, I'm totally sick of the cold and snow and see a glimmer of hope for spring.  If only I can wait that long.  Yeah, an analogy many can get with all that white shit on the ground.

Anyway, haunting the forums is bad for one's blood pressure.  I know, not new news but I just can't seem to help myself.  Some of the folks who post on these things are beyond rude and ignorant.  Its so very alarming to think there are people out there in the world who really get off on being assholes to others looking for information.  And then there's the issue of whether or not to add pvp and how it might be implemented.  Actually, I sort of love those debates.  They're always the same no matter what game is being discussed.  hee he  Long live the terms "ganker" and "carebare".  Still, all these games need one dedicated server for those of the pvp persuasion to just duke it out no matter what the day, issue or direction the wind is blowing, and let the rest of the world go on about their merry way.

So yeah, must stay off forums...

Daughter-Type and Boyfriend are huge LoTR fans, as am I.  So I was browsing around on Ravelry and found several LoTR sweater designs.  Specifically A Cardigan For Arwen and Tree of Gondor Chart .  I see these as jumping off points.  The cardigan pattern as written, has too much fussy construction so I'll probably just use bits and pieces such as the cabling up the front and possibly the hood.  What ever design elements I use I'll be making some type of seamless pattern.  I really hate sewing up knitted projects.  Also for the cardigan, I plan to use dragoncrafter's charted tree.  Yes, yes, I know I've complained loud and long about how much I hate charts in my knitting, but this design is eating away at me and I must conquer my chart issues.

For Boyfriend's sweater, I will use another hooded pattern still to be determined.  Quite possibly the same as for Daughter-Type, but we'll see.  For his sweater, I'm going to attempt a color work tree.  My problem lies in that I'm not that great at stranded color knitting.  The directions say to go intarsia, but I'm not sure I won't make a big mess.  I'm thinking duplicate stitch with a lighter weight yarn, maybe sport weight on worsted.  Who knows.

Anyway, as I have six month, give or take a week or so, there isn't any reason I can't get these puppies done in time.  We'll see how that goes, lol!

The move was a success!  I never want to do that again.  It's been 25 years since the last one, and if I have to do it in another 25, it will be too soon!

Nothing got broken and even the piano made the trip unscathed.  My sister, Daughter-Type and her boyfriend helped unpack everything and set up the computer again.  No internet until yesterday, though.  But I was busy enough over the weekend that I really didn't miss it much.  And I have Verizon now instead of Comcast.  With a DVR!!  All this new newfangled technology is blowing my mind.  I have no clue what I need to start recording though.  Everything I watch is either streaming in some way or with dvds.  It's all so very exciting.

It feels strange not dealing with stairs every few hours, but nice.  I can always climb the three flights to get up to my new place instead of using the elevator if I'm feeling nostalgic.  I think I'm the youngest person in the building.  It's a 55 and over place and I won't be 55 until the 18th.  Still, they have a bunch of groups that get together in the evening, one of which knits and crochets.  Next week I think I'll join them.  The drive wasn't too bad this morning.  I leave early enough so I miss all the awful morning rush, and I'm thinking the same will be true for the return trip.

So a major event and everyone has survived with all pieces intact!  A glorious day indeed.

Everyone needs to stop what they're doing and immediately start watching this show.  It's probably one of the best kept tv secrets of, well, forever.  It's a quirky show about a 1890's detective in Toronto, so yeah, police who-done-it kind of thing.  The Murdoch character reminds me of Benton Frazer from Due South, I mean like alot!  And there's the beautiful ME who is his love interest.  He has a goofy side-kick and loud boss.  All that is good and provides some comedy and angst.  What I love about the show, besides the actor Yannick Bisson (and just where have they been hiding him!  What incredible eyes, whooo baby!!) is they poke lots of fun at the here and now and tackle lots of hot topic issues we wrestle with today.  Seriously folks, run out and get this show any way you can.  Which leads to a bitch about Netflix.

Netflix, WTF (in caps mind you!!) are you doing with your streaming service?  You dangle a multi-season show in front of us with only two seasons and then make us go snail-mail and get the dvds?  Why bother?  I know, I know.  You want the revenue from both services.  But just let me say here and now, that SUCKS!  So there.

Anyway, go watch the show.  You won't be sorry. 

For the crochet-ers amongst us, is a half-double crochet stitch the same as an extended double crochet?