Frustration

I messed the bind off of my sock. The thread for my bookmark either breaks or I mess up the pattern; I'm adapting an old edging from single motifs to a line of split ring motifs.

I have some great books to read (The Meaning of Everything, Changes & Thou Uncommon, Thou Improper Noun) but just can't sit down and read them. I have a lovely coloring book (Fat Ladies in Spaaaaace) but only .3 mm markers, because I can't find any of my other markers, colored pencils or crayons.

Plus someone told me something this weekend that really upset me. I mean, upset me enough that I don't trust talking about it on the internet. I can't talk about it to anyone. I scribbled down how I felt, hoping it would help. It hasn't. Not really. Only time will heal.

Vocabulary test and a Book about OED

I took a vocabulary test and here are the results http://testyourvocab.com/?r=764695. It was testing the approximate size of my vocabulary. Not bad, huh? Feel free to take it yourself. They're trying to compile statistics and especially need teens and kids to do it.

I'm reading a new book. It's The Meaning of Everything, and it's about the OED (Oxford English Dictionary). I want the CD ROM of the OED, but only because I don't have the space for the full 20 volume set.

And Jim Hines wrote a song that summarizes many of my feelings about novels. Here it is.

I'm still working on my Dresdenfiles character and reading the part about magic in Your Story. I'm up to Thaumaturgy specialties. (Are we surprised that spellcheck does not recognize thaumaturgy? No, we're not). I have finally started Changes. I didn't dare bring it to work or I wouldn't get anything done.

I still have not gotten the sock back onto the loom. I think I need to run string through the stitches 1st. As it is, the stitches that are on don't look right.

I finally got my car inspected (I meant to do it the 1st weekend of the month). Now, as soon as I get my tags, my car will be legal.

No Pictures Today

My sock is making progress, but other than length, it looks the same. I should take a picture of my bracelet in progress, except I'm a little disgusted. I ran out of thread.

One of the ladies at the Tri-Tatter's meeting on Saturday showed us something she had just learned. It's called Zentangles.  Despite not having the recommended tools (smooth heavy paper, like watercolor paper & micron pens), I gave it a whirl. I did have a little bit of trouble getting started, because I had trouble thinking of pattern to use. I can see the attraction. I should have turned off the phone or at least turned down the ringer. I was just getting meditative when it would interrupt.

Speaking of Triangle Tatters, we had the meeting on Saturday. They bumped us from our original room because the event in the neighboring room was using the sound system and due to the room design, we would not have been able to hear ourselves think. They gave us the study room instead. I'm sure it was more noise than that room had heard in a long time (if ever). There were 9 of us this time, including the same woman I helped last time. She'd bought Rebecca Jones's book but could not see the correlation between what I told her at the last meeting and the instructions in the book. That's probably because I apparently use half Riego method & half traditional method. I changed my style enough to be all traditional (or was it Riego) so this woman only had one set of instructions to follow. 

My laptop is currently stuck in 'logging off' mode. I'm not sure why. I'm going to try to outwait it and see if that helps.

I am on Google+. It's been interesting. I even got Hangout to work. I talked to a woman in Ireland. Pretty cool.

Sock (in progress) Picture

 

My sock, the heel is done and I'm on my way

I'm on my 3rd contrasting (light in this case) stripe past the heel. I still have a lot of yarn left. I have no idea how tall to make this sock. And I'm not certain it's going to fit my foot. That's the drawback of the toe-up version. I can't try it on what I've already done.

The contrasting stripes are about 3 stitches tall. My gauge, on this loom, with this yarn, is 9 stitches per inch.

It's still egregiously hot, and humid. I spend enough time in AC that I'm not becoming acclimated so every time I go outside, it's like getting slapped, full body, by a warm, wet, flannel blanket. Yesterday, even the wind was hot.

I'm doing some writing exercises, or trying. I'm feeling unimaginative when I compare what I've done to the samples in the book. Is it brevity is the soul of wit? Or is it just a sign that I need to practice more?

Here's a pen (2nd photo) that I got for my birthday. Note the difference between the 2 photos (other than the addition of the pen)? That's how cleanly the ink erases.

Rain! Finally!

We got some rain this weekend. We're still almost 7" below our normal rainfall for the past year, but considering we've gone about 10 days with nothing appreciable, I'll take it.

I finished another half-braid bracelet. This one is Lizbeth size 20 in Caribbean, with bugle 11 in Purple Iris and 11/0 Aiko in Iris beads. this picture is from when it was in progress. I still need to hide the ends on it.

I've made a couple bookmarks recently. One of them used the same thread and one was black and white. I need to get photos of them before I mail them off.

size 20 Lizbeth thread, Caribbean, from Tatting Times, from A Tatter's Workbook

Same bookmark as below, but different background for contrast

size 20 DMC tatting thread

 I went to the bead show with a friend last weekend but I didn't buy much. Here's most of what I bought (except for a strand of black beads, obsidian, maybe?).

Bone disks and lapis beads, to go with my earrings

charlottes and seeds, for my bracelets

I've made some progress on my sock. I'm past the heel now, so it's finally starting to look sock-like.

We were supposed to go see the Captain America movie this weekend but we had a small mishap concerning movie times. Instead we went to see Cowboys and Aliens. On the fortunate side, we discovered that the movies at the hour we went (4 pm - 5:30 pm) were about half-off.

I had to get a new car key cut this weekend. Friday, I got my key caught in a metal mesh and it bent. I managed to start my car and get home but I was worried I would break the key off in the ignition if I tried more than that. The new key works fine. Whew.

Our Forgotten Realms game is progressing. We've gotten rid of the big bads in the castle, now we need to get rid of the guards in the barracks. We did have one faintly humorous moment during Sunday's game. My character is a sword-dancer of Ellistraee. For the non-gamers, I'll explain. She's a half-drow (dark elf) who worships the only good-aligned drow goddess. Most of them are some flavor of evil. Part of Ellistraee cleric (& sword-dancers have some cleric) mission is to convince drow to give up their evil ways and return to the surface and be good people As part of this, my character has been making this offer, via monologue, to every drow we've met. We're currently in a drow city and it's gotten to the point where the other characters can recite it along with her.

In Sunday's fight, we're facing a vampire drow and my character spent part of action trying to decide: does vampire trump drow? If she's undead, I'm not making the offer, but I'm supposed to make the offer to all drow. Hmm, nope sunlight and vampires don't mix, so no offer. I can just kill her. Yay!

This Thursday will be our first Traveller game back in the GM's house. The repairs (post-tornado) are done and he's moved back into it.