Ten Ways...

As most of you know, it's Earth Day. In an effort to motivate myself and others to improve the environment, here are Ten (relatively) Easy Ways to Help The Environment!
1. Turn off your monitor. I don't mean right now, but if you're going to be reading a book for ten minutes, turn off your monitor. If you're going for a walk, turn off your monitor. Basically, turn it off it you're not using it.
2. Become vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, or flexitarian. Meat takes a lot of energy to make. By reducing your consumption just a little, you can have a big impact.
3.Turn down (or up, depending on the season) your thermostat. Even two degrees will make a difference.
4.Stop buying junk. If it's something that you've lived without for any significant length of time, you probably don't need it. If you won't have any use for it in six months, just don't buy it. Remember the story of stuff?
5.Use reusable bags next time you go to the grocery store. I have a bunch of cotton tote bags that have been accumulated by my family that we use all the time.
6.Fair trade. This is mostly a good to others kind of thing, but a lot of fairly traded products are grown organically. Good for people and good for the environment!
7.Use the legs God gave you! If it's less than a mile or two away and you're able to walk, just walk to wherever you have to go! It's no-impact and it's good for you.
8.That light bulb thing. Use compact fluorescent light bulbs wherever possible. It's really simple, and it saves a ton of energy.
9.Cotton? No way. As you may know, cotton takes about a bizgillion pounds of pesticides to grow, harming the workers and polluting the water. Try to buy organic cotton or hemp instead.
10.You knew there was going to be knitting involved, right? Recycle yarn! Finding sweaters on sale or from thrift stores and unraveling them is a great way to get new yarn!

Some other websites about going green are Green as a Thistle and No Impact Man

In which my camera starts working again!

I saw the Yarn Harlot!!! I made her hold my sock too!
This was a fine example of reciprocal blogging. Stephanie took a picture of the projector, but she thought it was a camera.

I found a boy knitter.And a boy knitter in a kilt.You can't tell here, but I'm touching THE SOCK.
Those among you who are very...detail oriented would notice something of interest here.

In other news:

My book group met a week or two ago to discuss the Life of Pi. A few days after Pi day.
I made Pi.

And I've obtained some new yarn.

And finished the Mata Haris
That yarn above? The green went into this hat. It's not for me, btw.
And now I'm off to work on Super Secret Project some more. That thing is taking forever. I'm going to be buried with the half-finished project in my hands.

Three and Three

Three things I like:
Knitting. This should be obvious, but I just really like what I'm making right now. It's purple. It's amazing. It will make me famous. You will love it...All in due time.

My shoes. I got these about a week ago, in a pink and black plaid, with some more stitching at the toes, and I love them so! much!

Yogurt Blast Cheerios. This must be my new food phase. They're amazing. I eat at least two bowls every day.

Three things I dislike:
My Knee. It hurts weirdly, and it's bruised, and I think it's swollen...from crawling backwards on the floor during dance.

Our new dance. So freeking stupid. We sit on the edge of the stage, kicking our feet, slide back, turn around a little, slide back so we're laying on the edge of the stage, then do a backwards army crawl...and this is supposed to be good.

Earth Science. Dear gawd, do I even care about glaciers? No. Do I need to know what the difference between outwash and till is? No. Will this matter to my grade? Yes. GRRRR!

Hey...

I've just finished a hat, but (there's always a but, and this is a big one) I can't post a picture. Because my camera's an asshole.

I'm fuming. Just smile and nod. It's a pretty hat, if too small for me.

My Sock and I...

I had a really exciting weekend. On Saturday, I went to the DI regional turnoment. I knit a lot while I was there.This is the man in the corn hat. He is a timekeeper. He had the corn hat last year too.
This was waiting for the improv challenge to start. I had a balcony seat,
and I knit
at the awards ceremony.
The sock had never seen that many people in it's life!
Meredy held the sock while we were working at the youth group auction for asp.
The sock handed out numbers.
And I made me a spindle and read A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. It was a pretty fantabulous book. You really should read it right this very minute. The library should have it in a few hours, after I return it. I read Chicks with Sticks III too. It wasn't as good, don't waste your time unless you're desperate.

A whole lotta questions.

Why do I have an obscene amount of icons/avatars/whatever you want to call them saved on my computer?
Why did I just cast on for an Urchin? I don't need any more wips! It must be the new yarn daze or something.
Why do *they* tell us about how we need to choose new schedules for next year, *then* they let us go ask teachers about classes, a week later?
What parts of our lives do we remember in the end?
What's worth doing?
Is it a really terrible idea to sign up for French III and French IV next year? Should I just take French III and Health?
Why is Pandora so freeking addictive?
Why was I so surprised that the sermon at the Unitarian Universalist church didn't involve God or Jesus?
Is that the first time I've heard a sermon that never referenced the Bible?
If everyone else in the world was dead and you could live anywhere you wanted, where would it be? Frank Loyd Wright's house? The white house? The Taj Mahal?
Why are stories so fun and easy to start, but terrible to write once you pass 8,000?
Does this sound really stupid? It's supposed to be a journal entry from an annoymous teenager. It's the most recent part of the story.

May 25 8^th grade

Dear you,

Do you ever wonder why we’re here? I wonder if some people are just born knowing this, or if we all have to figure it out on our own. If everyone has to figure it out on their own, they how come I seem like I’m the only one without a clue?

Why does everyone else make it seem so easy to do stuff? I can’t think of anything that just comes to me naturally, but it seems like everyone at school just has some god-given ability to be really, really good at something. Maybe it’s soccer, or hockey, or dance, or math, or English, or science.

Where did that miss me? Why didn’t I get something that I’m really really good at? I bet that the one thing I’m really good at is something totally useless, like knowing the name of every single car I see.

I guess that might be my superpower. It’s pretty much pathetic to have the one thing that you’re any good at be knowing car names. It’s not like that’s ever going to be useful in real life or anything. It’s entirely pointless to know

If you can answer any of the questions, put it in the comments!

Okay, I'm a SLACKER

1.Went to the DIA with Emoline/Bianka. 'Twas funnerfull, even if we did almost get locked in.
3.Organized (for the most part) my yarn.
This is the "Before" picture

Yeah, I know my room's a total mess. It's not always like that though.
And this is the "After" picture.3.I knit. However, I can't show you most of it. You'll just have to trust that I finished quite a bit of relatively complicated knitting.
4.I dyed.
It's some more of the KnitPicks Bare Sock Yarn that I got for Christmas. The colours are pretty spectacular, if I do say so myself.
5.I shopped with my friends. We never go shopping together, so it was funnerful. Makena's crazieness is becoming more and more apparent though.
6.I borrowed a ball winder and swift. My former art teacher's wife weaves, and he lent me it. This is what prompted the organizing spree.
7.Heard about Grey's Anatomy coming back on TONIGHT!!! Squeeeeeee! This is way more exciting than any tv show should be. I've kinda started to stop caring about tv since the writers have been on strike for what seems like forever. It's an interesting feeling.
8.Written most of this list.

Have a FANTABULOUS leap day everyone! Be sure to fit a few leaps in!

Last night, I had to figure out my schedule for next year. It was...well, let's just say that there were an excessive amount of tears involved. The counselors (and Grandholm, for chrissakes) feel the need to constantly remind me that I will die if I don't take a bizgillion math and science classes. I guess that I just don't see the point of taking classes if I don't enjoy them and don't want to go into that field. I also realized that my school requires a full 11 credits more than the state does for graduation, which sucks. If I lived somewhere else, I could graduate a full year and a half earlier than I can now.
Yeah, the school counsel ours sometimes make me really, really mad.
At least they let me switch math classes without too much fuss.
I really should be writing or studying french or studying science or something right now.

Oh meme, oh meme!

I have been tagged by Kaya. I have never been tagged before, so this should be exciting or something.
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The Seven Facts about Samantha/Froomla
1.I'm writing a new story. It's very stream-of-concisousnes. I will write after I blog.
2.I have no idea what I want to do if I grow up. It will hopefully involve writing and designing knitwear and maybe teaching.
3.I really, really hate it when people comment on my weight.
4.I am a really clumsy person. This is how I burn my fingers and scrape my legs all the time.
5.I just got my hair cut. I like it this way.
6.I hate wearing socks and shoes. I'm usually barefoot at home, and wear flipflops whenever I can.
7.I am thouroughly addicted to my Pandora radio stations.

Now it's my turn to tag someone.
I don't really know enough bloggers who I would feel comforatble tagging, but SoullooN, you're so tagged.

Ummm. well...yeah

This post shall be in bullet points, because my brain won't function any other way.

• Quizbowl meet last night. Lost two games. Had one moderater who didn't know what she was doing.
  
• Debate states were on Saturday. Bala won (no surprise there). And it has been decided that "Boehme" shall be the worst insult that one could give to a debater. I totally messed up my second speech.
• Sciencel. I'm failing Earth Science. Earth Science is the lowest science offered by my Hi!School. It's like failing General Math.
• Geometry. I was failing Honors Geometry, so I switched to regular. And I'm doing fine now.
• French 2. Not doing amazingly, but I'm okay.
• Church. There's some stuff going on at my church that's a little messed up, so my mom and I will be going to a new church on Sunday. Not sure where yet, but...yeah...somewhere old and pretty, since those are my requirements for churches.
• I finished my second pair of socks on Sunday night.
• and I don't have a picture. Yet.
• I've read like three books
• But I've been so stressy that I can barely remember them.
• But Nineteen Minutes was one of them. It's amazing. You must read it.
• And The Knitter's Book of Yarn. 'twas okay.
• And Style and Fashion design. Or something like that. It was interesting. I want to be Ysolda if I grow up.
• I'm going to work on my geometry homework now.
  

Pride...

That is what my feet looked like this morning. That's right people, I've finished my very first pair of socks! I actually finished them at 11:30 last night, while watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3. I am ridiculously proud of them, and want nothing more than to have someone ask me where I got them (but I know that's not going to happen)
Crashing Cables Socks!
Pattern: Widdershins toe, CosmicPluto's heel, and my own cables (which have been named "crashing cables" for the time being)
Yarn:TOFUtsies in the blue/green/yellow colourway
Needles: size two Knitpicks Circs.
I love them, even though they don't entirely match. I've cast on for another plain pair with the leftover yarn, which there is a lot of.

I also read The Knitter's Book of Yarn today. It was pretty good, but it doesn't really go in the top ten. It isn't a really interesting topic (to me anyways), but they told it in a relatively interesting way.

I'm going to dance in my new socks. And other clothes too.

Random inner ninja thought of the day: How much work do you have to be doing to technically have "free time"? Is there a certain point when all of you time becomes free?

My sad, title-less life.

I was reading Ramblings of a Knitting Obsessive (link that way>) and noticing her Tangled Yoke Cardi that she just finished. She posted about buying the yarn on December 16, and then finished the sweater in the past few days. If I can figure this out right, then she finished a whole adult sized sweater in less than a month- on size four needles too! People like this scare me. Eunny Jang is one of those people, and she scares me too.
Which, if you wander around my brain for a while, eventually leads to the topic of knitting expertise. Is someone who's good at knitting a fast knitter? Is someone who is good at knitting capable of doing lace, cables, colourwork, whatever? What if there's someone who could do things like lace, cables, and colourwork, but what you really want, and what you really feel like knitting is just stockinette hat after stockinette hat? Does that make you less of a knitter, just because you don't want to use your skills? How long does it take to get "good at knitting"?
Food for thought.
Oh, how did you guys find my blog? I know that Krista found me through the Yarn Harlot, but how did everyone else find me?

Update

I've finished my sock. I'm going on a walk soon.
Happy new year to all.

Oh... this is love.

I just went to MOCAD yesterday, and I'm totally in love with the place. It's not a very tradtional art museaum in any sense of the word. It was founded last october, and I have a funny feeling that the founders were the ones sitting at the front desk, running tours, and working at the cafe. It feels very...rough. The whole building is bare bricks, I'd never heard of any of the artists, and the whole thing was one exhibit: Words Fail Me. It was all about words and how they interact with art. The second room was all about political statements, at least that's how I interpret it. I think my favorite work was a collection of about 80 different paintings. Big things with black or blue paint, in crazy violent writing, often in broken english and child-like scribbles. It's all pretty cool, and it's free, so what do you have to lose?

I love Christmas...

This is exactly how much you can knit on your modified Widdershins by bedtime if you cast on Christmas day and knit every time you want to yell at/shoot someone. I got the needles, along with a ton of yarn to dye for Christmas. I also got Socks Soar on Two Circular needles, and The Knitters Book Of Sweater Patterns, which will be pretty useful for designing.
Btw, I made up the cable pattern. It's called Crashing Cables for the time being.
See that dramatic blurring around the edges? That is courtesy of my new wonderful shiny photoshop. I love it. This is Lichtenstien chilling on the advent wreath at church on Christmas eve. My family was lighting it, and I learned that my brother is incapable of lighting a candle. 'twas hilarious.
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.

Update on life. And no ranting. Or at least not too much.

A purple lamb. Wasn't this in The Oddesey? That's why I made it.

Cookie decorating!! Yay for cookie decorating!

They let me roll out cookie dough this year. I think this means that no one else wanted to, or that they think I'm all growed up.
So, school let out for Christmas break on Friday, and very little work actually got done on the last two days of school this week, making the total number of working days this week a whopping 1. The field trip was pretty fun on Tuesday, even if Conni sort of got lost, and I've already been to the Henry Ford Museaum about four times.
This cute little monkey is Lichtenstein, named after Roy Lichtenstein. He will be fetured in the blog often.

This was me making the United States out of lepchucken. I love lepchucken.I love lepchucken sooo much.

And this is how far the sweater is. I'll be posting the pattern soon.

Wow. I am at a loss for a witty title. Sob.

I shall spend this post listing all of the very exciting things that will be happening with my new found free time, and doing terribly with the English. I was not smoking any illegal substances while writing this, even though my writing makes people wonder... The above is the yarn that I will be using for this sweater experiment/project/thing. It is Berroco X-Press, colour 3608, and that white spot in the front of that yarn? That's a quarter, for scale. I'm using size 13 circular needles (Y'all are starting to think that I do not own any smaller needles. I do. I actually finished a had last night with smaller needles, I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Bear with me.)

Here's how I will be doing things. Please be aware that these instructions have no guarantees, except for the one guaranteeing that I will mess something up. This will be an adventure at the very least.

I am casting on 60 stitches. I took this pattern, figured out my size and gauge, and then added four stitches allowing for the pull of the cable in front. I also wanted to make the neckline a little lower, so I added 16 stitches, assuming that two sets of raglan increases would be removed with the extra cast on.

Does any of this make sense?

Kool aid shawl picture. Because I can. I've been wearing it more since it got cold. I wish the weather would just shut up and snow. I want snow. Fuck ice, I want snow. You can't sled on ice.

And a tree picture. Because it's been a rough day.

This is why I wasn't on honor roll last year, and a (maybe) wonderful idea

Yeah, I cast on 15 more stitches than I needed to. Stop laughing. This is exactly why I didn't make honor roll last year, I got a C (two C's actually, but vague is good. Vague est mon ami.).
My fantabulous idea is as follows.
There may be a new series on the blog about how to knit a sweater, Froomla style. I will post bits of the pattern, as well as pictures of me trying it on as I go and figure stuff out. Anybody wanna do a KAL type thing, or just think this would be amusing? The general sweater idea is similar to Wicked, only without the baby cables, or the pocket. And with one cable down the front. And sleeves as long as I have the yarn for.
Anyone think this would be fab?

I am making my math teacher proud...

Yeah, I haven't done any real math since June. And now it's December. Ouchie. But I am conquering the maths and using maths in real everyday life. And admitting to the fact that honors geometry will be sooo freeking hard next semester. At least I'm doing the maths instead of guessing like I normally do.
Why can't I use patterns like a normal person?

What? This girl knits?

So, I've just finished a fabulous semi-secret project! It was really quick to knit, would take about two hours or less if I'd had a two hour block of straight knitting time. The pattern and one picture are ready!

Yes, my arms look very chubby in this picture. In real life, I have skinny arms. It's all in the camera angle.

These are a perfect first project, shorter than a scarf, yet long enough to master casting on, knitting, and binding off. I cast on wednesday night, and finished friday, with very little free time for knitting.

Materials:
Size 11 needles
Any worsted yarn. I just used some black red heart super saver from the stash
Cold hands (or a friend with cold hands)

Gauge: three sts to the inch
Cast on 20 stitches with yarn doubled
Knit in garter stitch for 28 rows (around six and a half inches) with yarn doubled
Bind off
Sew cast on and bind off edges together, leaving an about one and a half inch hole for your thumb
Make second mitt the same way. Go type, knit, or just chill with fab warm hands!

Arrr, Matey!

Today is Talk Like A Pirate Day. Go make a pair of ARRRRRRGYLES or something!