“would you like to purchase a care plan for your sneakers?”

I have been such a bad blogger, I’m sorry. In my defense… well I don’t have one. But knitting has been happening and I’m kind of close to being done with some things. Maybe. Depends on how slackery I get. Although I don’t feel like I’m being slackery because I feel like I’m reading books but then I don’t have any books to prove my point because I am a slow reader. So when I say I’ve been reading books, what I mean is I have been reading one very intense book. Called Cloud Atlas. Which, if you come to my library you will see that it’s on the recommended reading list for summer.

Anyways, here are some pictures that I finally got off of my phone and wanted to share with yous alls.

Last week I taught my friend Heather how to knit. Look at how much fun she’s having! Although I’m pretty sure that she already knew, otherwise she’s one of those genius people who catches on at light speed.

Speaking of Heather, sometimes during lunch we go to the Cupcakery and make some cupcakes. This one I was proud of because I didn’t go completely overboard with it:

Aaaand because you come here for the yarn and not the cupcakes (well maybe you come for the cupcakes too because cupacakes ROCK!) here is a picture from a trip John and I took to Medina:

This is a yarn shop called Studio Knit and it was a lot of fun to check out.

Ideal Stores

So I’ll just randomly start this post out by saying that tomorrow will mark a year since John and me tied some sort of knot in infamy and looked at each other lovingly and said “sure”.

No, he’s a pretty stand up dude. Don’t let me fool ya. I still have no idea what to get him though. I guess anniversaries aren’t as big of a deal as I was building them up to be because everyone I’ve asked can’t remember what they got their sig. oth. for their first ann.

Does it bug you when people constantly abbreviate things that don’t need to be abbreviated but they do it to be cool or something?

Yeah, me neither.

What does bug me is that sometimes I get the shaft when I go into stores. Well, both John and I get a lot of crap. I think a good majority of the disdain radiates because of our baby faces. Although John is growing something on his face to cover up the baby smoothness.

This photo isn’t even completely current because I did make him cut the hair and trim up the… yeaaah. Well, once his hair got cut, something happened and it was like he magically morphed into Abraham Lincoln to me. Which, I don’t know if anyone here has ever seen Robin Hood: Men in Tights but the other night I was like “Hey, Blinkin” and he was like “Did you just say Abe Lincoln?” Then we tittered. OKAY WE’RE YOUNG. (And pretty damn weird.)

But does that mean you have to belittle me when I come into your store? My crazy baby money is just as good as snooty old jerk money.

There is a yarn shop around here that I pretty much refuse to go into anymore because they’re just complete snobby aholes. Or at least the woman who owns it and was always magically there when I went was mean to me and just an unabashed beeeyotch. Which isn’t to say that the yarn shop I go to now isn’t completely filled to the brim with snobbery- oh, it is. However, I usually get over it because of the amazing selection and fact that they’ll leave you alone and not follow you around like you’re a thief… Hrmph.

Anyways, I started thinking about my ideal yarn shop. Which made me realize that I’ve had this problem before I got into knitting… oh yeah, that’s right- I had this same problem with comic book stores! Now, I don’t pretend to be some sort of comic expert or even comic novice, I just like to read em because I like the art and I like the storytelling sometimes.

So there was this store near where I used to live and they were pretty awesome. They always had recommendations that really hit home and the guy who worked there was bald, which completely fascinates me- oh, and he also happened to know what he was talking about 100% of the time but without being pretentious about it. This guy really hit a home run with me. However, after every recommendation he would look around and say, oh yeah, I guess we don’t have that in right now but I can order it in for you. So two weeks later I get a call and I’m like, wait, what’s in? Whatever sense of being amped up I had was pretty much faded by the time the comic got in.

That made me run to the other store, which usually had everything that I’d ever wanted… and then a totally brain dead zombie running the cash register. It’s a scary thing when you’re contemplating checking somebody for a pulse and then expecting correct change, let alone recommendations.

I needed a middle ground!

That’s how I feel about yarn shops too. There’s a really great yarn shop (heh) and the people are awesome and will give you all kinds of advice on how to save money even. Then there’s the shop that actually has the yarn that I want.

Also, speaking of store snobbery, I got a new computar!

My last trip to the Apple store was pretty disastrous. However this trip was FRIGGIN AWESOME!

Oh yeah and I also got a promotion at work! So things here at Baby Face Central are pretty awesome. Or at least when people at stores aren’t being jerks. C’est la vie and also psycho killer, qu’est que c’est.

Wouldn’t you vote for him?

I wish it were June 2008 already! (That’s when Dark Knight comes out.)

Well guys, I didn’t even know I was on the wagon until I fell off of it:

Now you know what I was doing the day after Thanksgiving. Temptations is having some sort of a yarn sale… I don’t know, it’s all a little blurry. I just remember thinking: “don’t I have some sort of rule about not buying yarn without knowing specifically what I’m going to use it for” and then telling myself to shut up, stop being a goody goody and I think I grabbed some yarn and rubbed it all over my face. Yeah, I was a mad woman.

Anyways, I hope this Karabella stuff is nice because I got some of it. I also got a yarn that’s called Snuggly. Just because how adorable is that? Snuggly.

I mean, I’m all for not judging books by their covers and whatever but would you buy a yarn called “prickly” or “hives”? Lets not kid ourselves here.

My SWF sweater is coming along nicely:

(Sorry about the dorky picture.)

Only I’m having some doubting issues… See, I went down a needle size after the collar and then it was also looking pretty big, so I went down to the size small instead of the medium. Now I’m thinking I might’ve made a mistake, which is why I tried it on in the first place. However, it fits really well. It’s just, what happens when I wash it and it shrinks to the size of a walnut? That wouldn’t be cool. Although I’ll have a very fashionable walnut.

Opinions? Advice? I’ve never worked with cotton before and my garment knowledge is limited. However, it is 50% acrylic, which makes me think I shouldn’t worry too much.

Also, remember Thanksgiving? Because I’m still recovering from going to so many this year. Plus, it seems like all the stores wanted us to forget about Thanksgiving before it had even happened.

Mom not doing our signature pose.
the signature pose.

Angel setting up dinner.

Granma’s homemade noodles.
Dad and demon Shadow hound.

It was pretty crazy this year. By the last one I was so worn out I didn’t even take my camera to get pictures, which is funny as it was the most eventful of the Thanksgivings we went to. It was at my PILs (parents-in-law, hahaha) and after dinner we all went out and raked their neighbors yard because he has some sort of condition with one of this feet that requires him to wear a special boot or something. (We also got roped into raking his neighbors yard who has a broken arm or something- I’m telling ya, don’t move to this neighborhood!) Then the menfolk went to some house to get some measurements to build a wheelchair ramp for somebody. Then my husband and his brother: R1 and R4, got all burly and manlike and chopped some wood.

No joke.

It seems like I make up stories about his family but they’re Methodists, which I feel explains a lot of it.

LazerPaca

::pewpew::

Yes, he will shoot you up with his lazer eyes.

Earlier today (yesterday now?) we went to Alpaca Fest 2007, woooo! The other day my husband saw an actual ‘Girls Gone Wild’ van, sitting in a hotel parking lot. It’s my guess that they were waiting for Alpaca Fest.

…jealous yet?

I honestly don’t know too much about alpacas, just that I like to knit with their protective layering. Exposing them to the harsh environments BECAUSE I CAN. What I found out today is that alpacas are total camwhores. The second they see a camera they start mugging it up, striking poses, working it, thinking they’re going to strike it rich on the internet. This one in particular caught my fancy:

They were convincing. I took a bunch of crappy camera video recordings, mostly of them eating. It was like seeing a bunch of giant cats in pens. They ate. They pooped. Some slept. Most of them stared at you angrily. We walked around the area where they were showing them off for a while before realizing there was like a whole huge building full of alpacas and some yarn. Only some. I wanted more. There was a woman sitting on a couch and spinning yarn, that was cool… however she was just there to tempt me, she wasn’t actually selling any of her handspun yarn. Friggin evil.

(covet)

Okay, well it’s getting late and I’m trying to embed one of those pointless videos and the intarwebs are not feeling me on this. However, I’ll be back soon to talk about what I’m actually knitting. (*gasp* I’m actually knitting??) Also to talk about my plans for future knitting. Plus, I want these stitch markers. Although they will make me fat. (Check out the donut ones, they’re so amazing and detailed.)

working now?

The internet is for-

YARN!

So I’m going to preface all of this by saying that I do love my dad. Very much. That being said, he is absolutely infuriating sometimes! Especially when it comes to knitting.

Not in the sense that he hates knitting and thinks it’s worthless. My dad is actually one of the most supportive people about me doing crafts and he used to take me to bead shops all the time and stand around awkwardly and and nod yes or no when I asked him if stuff matched. He’s got a good eye for colors.

He’s infuriating in the sense that he’s a contradiction. He’ll go with me to yarn stores now and look around at stuff and talk about how nice knit hats are and point to patterns that have the ear flap and say, oh man this sure is nice, *nudge* look at how cool this stuff is Linds and I’m like, yeah Dad, subtle. My dad is the warmest person on Earth. He can walk around in the middle of winter with just a hoodie, if that. Sometimes he’ll go short sleeves and be like, it’s a little bit chilly, eh?

Yet the man wants the warmest hat on the planet. A hat that he will never wear because he will probably never be that cold. Ever. He had a whole collection of “tukes” that he got rid of because they were too warm, yet I’m pretty sure he wants me to knit him one.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I went into the yarn store. I mean, I have projects:

I’m just seaming this and soon I’ll try and felt it… I don’t know where yet. Probably not at our apartment’s laundry area. Oh yeah, and that sweater for that contest, which I’m starting to think it won’t be so bad, Sax seems to already like her sweater:

She’s laying on the back and one of the front panels. Don’t let her fool you though, she’s been a real pill lately.

Oh yeah, tomorrow I finish up my sewing class, and I’ll hopefully have completed my skirt. So far I’m the one farthest along, I’m the only one to put in my zipper- my first zipper!

Oh what the heck, here’s another picture:

I get so excited about this sewing stuff because it’s so much faster than knitting. I wish both were a little less expensive though. But honestly, I’ve never felt more accomplished than when I finish things I’ve made by myself… well maybe with some (a lot) of help.

So yeah, I went into this new yarn shop that’s pretty close to where I live. (Not good, it’s the nicest yarn shop I’ve probably ever been in.) I’m not looking for yarn. Then I think, I should think about making my dad something. That poor unsuspecting woman. I guess she was the owner, she reminded me of my high school senior english teacher.

“It looks like there’s something I can help you with!”

“Yeah, well maybe. I’m thinking about knitting a hat for my dad. Although he’s got kind of a huge head, and I mean, it’s pretty big. He heats up pretty quickly so it probably shouldn’t be wool or else he’ll never wear it. Even though he heats up he really likes those hats with the ear flaps, so I want to incorporate those. Oh yeah and if we could somehow add like a moose motif or something, that would be really great…”

It was a really nice store and everything, I just don’t think she wants to see me back anytime soon.