Lick My Sticks

Lots of pictures to share! I’ve been busy, first week back to school sucks. I got all lazy and now it’s right back to getting up early (which I hate more than anything on Earth, including Republicans). I’m waiting for the school site to work so I can get my midterm grades. I’m hoping for all A’s because I’m neurotic like that, we’ll see.

First! The Baccarat top, which I hate a little less now. Ignore that little un-weaved end on my shoulder, it escaped me. I still need to block this and the Steek Vest but since that could take another week or two to accomplish I figured I’d post the pics now anyway.

It’s not long enough, at all. But I don’t mind wearing a beater under it or something. Otherwise it’s not a bad top, especially considering it’s the first top I’ve knitted.

Next! The Steek top. I like this, I’m hoping it will lengthen a bit during the blocking, but I won’t die if it doesn’t. It looks wicked cute over long sleeves and stuff like that.

Straying from the knitted projects, here’s two T-shirt mods I did from the book Generation T, which I swear is a gift from the Craft Goddess for me. I’ve had a PILE of t-shirts for YEARS waiting to be modified and I just can’t ever think of something good.

Here’s the “Ode to the Mullet”. (Buisness up front…)

And the Outer Lace shirt…which is pretty simple, but cute.

While shopping for Jon’s birthday gifts (he turned 27 the other day) I picked up a couple books for myself (not the BUST, I came home to that in the mailbox):

I know, I know, traitor to the knit…but I want to learn ALL fiber arts eventually. And there are some saucy things in there! The Generation T book is the greatest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on, and a new BUST with Gretchen Mol as Bettie Page? Can’t beat it.

I’ll leave you with some animal fun, click the slideshow for some more pics from this week.

Have a killer weekend!

THE NEW BLOG IS DONE! It’s done it’s done it’s done! Well, pretty much. I need to add a few more links, buttons, and little odds and ends, but overall…stick a fork in her!!

I plan to make a new header sometime down the link, with a photo of my own taking but I like this one for now. I just finished updating info on all the webrings, but there’s still so many links to update! The message boards, the blogs! Ugh!

Haven’t knit anything the past few days, been WAY too busy with school and this damn blog. I WILL get to blocking Steek Vest and Baccarat this week, I swear. The Sexy Knitter’s club has picked Orangina for the new KAL, so I’m jumping into that soon. Has anyone knit it? Show me!

THE PAST TWO WEEKENDS have hosted celebratory events for my husband and my first wedding anniversary. Not this past weekend, but the one before, Chris and Allison took Jon and I to a awesome dinner at The Pasta House, and then out to Providence to see The Phantom of the Opera. I was totally wow’d the whole time, I’ve never seen it before and I’m so obsessed with the movie…the whole experience blew me away. Allison, Jon, and Chris had all seen it done better and had a few complaints but I was like a kid in Disneyland.

Click here for a slideshow of us out on the town!

The following weekend, (the weekend of our anniversary) Jon had something planned. All he told me was that we were going somewhere overnight. I had absolutely NO idea what he had planned, which is rare for me. I’m EXTREMELY hard to surprise, a trait which has plagued my husband since he met me. On Saturday, the day before our anniversary, he blindfolded me with a hot pink bandana and put me in the car. We didn’t drive for long, I knew we had to be around Fall River. He took me inside an old-looking house, I suspected we were in Lizzie Borden’s house but I looked around first so I didn’t guess wrong and look stupid. I was still confused, where were we SLEEPING I’m thinking…

…we were sleeping two floors up, in Bridgett Sullivan’s room. For those who don’t know the tale of Lizzie Borden, she was an adult woman who lived with her sister Emma, her father Andrew, and her step-mother Abby. Abby and Andrew were found brutally murdered in their home by a hatchet with only Lizzie and the Irish maid, Bridgett home at the time. Lizzie was tried, changed her story many times, and later found not guilty. The murders are unsolved to this day. Her home has been restored down to the finest detail from photos and turned into one hell of a Bed and Breakfast!

I was immediately excited, and impressed with Jon for planning it! I mean who the hell can say they slept at Lizzie effing Borden’s house for their one-year anniversary!?!

ME. That’s who.

Now, I never claimed to believe or not believe in ghosts. I’ve always been somewhat agnostic about it, figuring they could be there, but I don’t really know, nor care. Entering our room in the attic floor, our legs felt week, like noodles. It wasn’t scary, just odd. We went to the 99 for dinner, and came back, feeling the same way upon entering the room again. We got REALLY tired, really fast and we both fell asleep on the bed. We awoke at 8pm, when our guided tour of the house was to start but they had started early. The tourguide and resident expert on the Borden murders was leading the four other guests into Lizzie’s bedroom when we got downstairs. The owner of the B&B, LeeAnne, told us she tried to wake us twice, but we didn’t move. My husband and I are both INCREDIBLY light sleepers so this was weird. We went through Lizzie and Abby’s adjascent rooms and into the master bedroom. My face went numb, then cold, almost immediately. I thought it was just a headrush but it got worse and my vision got dark. I kneeled down to try and shake it off without disrupting the tour, no one paid me much mind thankfully. Just when I was sure I was going to faint, my vision cleared enough for me to follow everyone out of the room. I felt better a few minutes later, but sat whenever I could throughout the tour to be safe. I didn’t think much of it at first, but it hit so hard and so fast, and only in that room. Weird.

<-- Me in the position and place they found Abbey murdered over 100 years before.

After the tour, and a mini-tour of what we missed kindly given by the tourguide, Jon and I sat in the den (not the sitting room where Andrew was murdered but parlor with a TV for guests to watch documentaries on the case and whatnot) and watched the Lizzie Borden movie and then Fangoria TV’s episode on the house. They were doing EVP (electronic voice phenomena) readings in the house and spent literally the majority of the show in OUR ROOM. Turns out almost ALL of the “experiences” that people have had in the Borden house occured in Bridgett’s small attic room.

“Great”, we were thinking.

We went to bed and pulled out our books. (Jon is reading the DaVinci Code and I am reading American Psycho.) Jon eventually went to sleep and I was up reading alone at

1:30am. All was quiet and I was about to go to sleep when a LOUD, loud crash roared behind our heads, on the other side of the wall. [The bathroom on the other side of the wall was installed for the B&B (the Borden's did not have indoor plumbing despite being well-off and having the option available...Andrew was a cheap bastard.) and used to be John Morse's room when he stayed there. John Morse slept in the guest room the night before Abby was found face-down and dead in there, and some think he may have been involved with the murders.] Jon jumped up and I dropped my book to my lap. We both said “what the hell was that?” pretty much in unison. Neither of us wanted to get up and look and it just got more fucked up from there. I was POURING sweat, cold sweat, for NO reason all night. I wasn’t terrified, it wasn’t hot in the room, but it just dripped off me like I was on my death bed. We heard clear-as-a-bell knocks and footsteps (the floors and stairs were carpeted, btw) and whispers in our ears that jerked us awake everytime we came close to falling asleep. This went on until the sun came up and we got a couple hours of sleep before breakfast. It was like being on acid, I didn’t feel right and I was disoriented all night. I was calm, but uneasy. I can’t really explain it.

We got up just before 8am to find the crash came from a light fixture cover falling down. We tried to fit it back in but it took a great deal of force to squeeze the thick plastic into the right notches and we realized this isn’t something that could just FALL out. (LeeAnn commented later that she hadn’t touched that light or changed the bulb in the 2+ years she’d owned the house and said it must have been because she vacuumed every OTHER grate in the house the day before but forgot that one. She thinks ‘they’ must have felt compelled to show her she ‘missed a spot’.) We left the light cover on the floor and went downstairs. The other guests, a southern mother and daughter who slept in the murder room, and an older couple who took Lizzie’s room…slept like babies. They listened all wide-eyed while we recapped our night, each of them vowing to take that room next time. We all had a great breakfast (the food made the highest rating on the Phantom Gormet!) and packed up.

Jon and I took a last walk around the house, snapping off some final photos (which I take to the darkroom tomorrow) and agreed we’d be back next year. I bought a case book to read because I just want to know everything now.

For a slideshow of the digital photos from the house click here. There is some really amazing stuff!

Well that’s enough for now. I’m going to go watch Grey’s Anatomy.

Oh and everyone congratulate me, I did a head-stand from a tri-pod pose in Yoga class today. Weeee. My neck hurts…

(This post and all below were imported from blogspirit.)

That’s right ladies, I am the proud owner of lickmysticks.com, I’ve got hosting, I’ve transferred my blogroll. And now? I’m a little lost. I HATE every blog theme I’ve seen. I want to do my own but I’m not even close to that smart. I just want it to look KNITTING RELATED, not like a peaceful spring fucking day. So that’s my major complaint thus far. I don’t know anyone that would design me one for free….which sucks.

Overall I’m pretty terrified I’m going to hate this very quickly. But I WILL figure it out! I’m pretty computer literate, so all hope not yet abandoned here.

If any of you are doing the WordPress thing and have any helpful tips or tricks, please pass them along. I’m sure I’ll eat up a good month or so trying to move everything over to the new blog. I found rockin’ hosting for 5 bucks a month (and they let you pay month-to-month!) at POEhosting.com. Thus far it’s been really user-friendly. I set up The Accursed’s website and it was a nightmare, this has been tit easy. They have a “blog plan” that has WordPress built right in, it set most everything up for me!

In knitting news I finished the Steek Vest last night, it’s pretty bulky and frumpy on me right now, I’m going to block it to death probably tomorrow (I used Wool-Ease for those who asked) and see what happens. I certainly wish it was longer, so I’m going to try and stretch some inches out of it. To celebrate this FO, I dove into my moms simple black eyelash scarf. I’m using size 9 straights so it’s going to take a while, but it’s thick and heavy…very nice. You know, say what you will about eyelash, sometimes a thin, black, fuzzy scarf is just the right touch! And as my mom pointed out, they don’t snag your earrings! Anyway it’s a nice interim project I don’t have to think about. I got about a foot and a half done watching Grey’s Anatomy (playing catch-up on season two, only 3 episodes in!), The Shield, Lost (Working on season one…what a cool show!) and the newest Family Guy. (I download TV shows like it’s my job, I have no cable.) All in all a nice evening of R&R, I’ve been sick as a dog for 3 days now.

Well, I’m going back to wandering around WordPress lost and confused.

Oh yeah, I’ve been busy. I got half of my student loan in…paid some bills and of course, spent a bit on myself! Sunday I went to the mall in search of the long awaited NEW CAMERA to replace my junker Minolta X-700 (old school, but no longer my friend since it broke twice this year) and picked up a brand spanking new Canon K2, it’s pretty sweet. I haven’t taken it for a test run yet, but I will this week!!!

So I’ve FINALLY, FINALLY completed the knitting for the BACCARAT top. I hate it. I totally hate it. It doesn’t fit under the arms so I need to figure something out there…and the droopy collar thing looks stupid and nowhere near as pretty as the picture. I’m hoping blocking will fix that, and my skills will fix the under arms. I’ll figure something out and post a pic of me modeling it as soon as I get it finished up.

BUT! I do have a happy project to post! I cast on for the Steek Vest in Loop-D-Loop yesterday afternoon, and I’m about half an hour away from finishing it off (however I’ve been distracting by blogs and Craftster all day, and thus it is not finished!) so I’ll probably have that picture up tomorrow! I flew through this pattern, it’s a great one for that advanced beginner who’s never knit a garment before. Which for a lazy intermediate like myself, is perfect!

Before my Camera trip, Allison and I hit up A.C. Moore (who had a 30% off yarn sale going on) and Eva’s Yarns (our oh-so-posh LYS) a couple times for a stash dash. I bought the Wool-Ease for the Steek Vest, suade for a belt, Beads and wire to whip up some stitch markers, and some other random stuff. At Eva’s I picked up some sweet sock yarn (the red stuff) and looked for the SnB Crochet book, which sadly hadn’t come in yet. I’ve been tempted to buy it elsewhere…but I would rather give Eva the sale than some schmuck store.

So as you can tell from the sock yarn…I will be embarking on my first pair of socks this week. I’ve got to finish the vest, then a quick eyelash scarf for my mom (she wanted one because the other one I made her gets caught on her earrings) and THEN on to the socks. Anyone have any pattern suggestions????

I spent the whole day adding shit to my blog, finding out Knitting Blogs deleted me AGAIN (SO not worth the effort), and delving into this flickr and blogroll fancyness. Which led me to considering just how much I loathe BlogSpirit.�

I’m seriously thinking about moving to a pay site for my blog. I’ve had it with Blogspirit and their bullshit. Now they’ve thrown a random sloppy ad in my neat and clean Webrings and Cool Sites thing on top of constantly screwing up and taking me to the same HEY YOU SHOULD PAY US AND GET ALL THIS screen everytime I log in. As far as I’ve seen the most popular blog hosting is with Pretty Posies and TypePad…anyone have any suggestions there?

Blogspirit makes me wanna holla…I WANT OUT!!!

I just came across this website and I implore all you stitchin’ bitches to hustle over there and show your support!! Sew Fast, Sew Easy is NOT going to get away with its bully tactics forever. Add a banner, a button, or just tell a friend. BOYCOTT SEW FAST SEW EASY!!

If you need a little encouragement consider the following:

A list of offensive acts are as follows:

• Disabling a large number (exact number pending) of online shops advertising various local knitting and crafting chapters by invoking CafePress’s terms of service if the chapter made use of the term “Stitch and Bitch” or any variant of those three words. CafePress’ terms of service enable CafePress to shut down these online shops on the basis of an allegation of trademark infringement that does not need to be proven in court.
• Causing Yahoo! Groups to shut down or threaten to shut down a large number of mailing lists (exact number pending) if they made use of the term “Stitch and Bitch” or any variant of those three words. These small social groups of knitters and crafters depend on these mailing lists to communicate, and Sew Fast/Sew Easy Inc.’s actions have caused harm to these groups’ unity, lost them the ability to communicate with possible members, and/or caused Yahoo! to delete valuable membership information.
• Claiming they were the very first ever to coin the phrase “Stitch and Bitch” in 1997.
• Deleting all negative opinions, however civilly worded, from their guestbook and online forum. Even more appalling, they have edited the very words posted by visitors directing interested parties to local knitting and crafting chapters. Any links provided with more information on these local knitting and crafting chapters have been changed without knowledge or permission of the poster to lead back to the company’s own web site.

What they’re doing is WRONG. They hold the copyright for “Stitch and Bitch Cafe” and NOTHING MORE. They have no ownership of the term Stitch and Bitch and they are claiming otherwise, forcing non profit knitting groups to change their names or face legal action.
This is wrong, so take a few moments and add a button! HELL NO WE WONT GO!!

As you may have noticed, I’ve been completely MIA lately. Allow me to make excuses. After the xmas hell of trying to knit up ALL the xmas gifts I assigned myself (which I didn’t finish all of, btw), I became COMPLETELY and utterly disgusted with knitting for two whole months. I needed the break though, I think. When a hobby becomes an obligation you really lose sight of why you enjoyed that hobby in the first place. So my stash, needles, and WIP’s collected dust until this week.

Now I’ve been having massive bouts of guilt for neglecting my projects. At least once a day I’d glance over at my knitting trunk and hate myself for a few moments, but it never got me to pick it up. Last weekend, we had a 2.5 hour drive to Chicopee, MA to see Green Carnation. In a rare moment I felt the urge to bring the lacey mohair scarf I’ve knit and ripped out thrice now. I got a ton of it done, on a new pair of 17’s (handmade birch!) that I got for xmas, and I felt a lot better. Trying to finish it a few nights later I ended up dropping a stitch somewhere, leaving me with a huge hole, no life line, and the overwhelming urge to kill myself.

After a gym trip yesterday, Allison and I headed over to Eva’s (our LYS, fuckin’ fabulous place!) and walking around I got the charge back. We went back to my house, crashed in front of the TV in Grey’s Anatomy heaven (Season one DVD on loan from our awesome Yoga instructor) and knit our little hearts out. Allison, being the bestest person in the world, managed to salvage my mohair from hell scarf, and I finished that as well as a mini-scarf that I’m now on a mission for a cute scarf pin for. Here they are:

Allison is also the bestest person in the world because she got and fixed this amazing, amazing, Sears-Kenmore sewing machine for me. It’s so fucking pretty, I’m completely in love. I’m naming her Stella. However I can’t find any info about her!! I’ve exhausted myself looking for her model number for a year, a manual, ANYTHING and I can’t find anything. I emailed someone earlier who runs a HUGE site for vintage manuals, hopefully she can help me. I don’t care how old she is, baby, just look at her:

I also have aquired Isabelle…my dress form that came by me for 40 bucks via Craigslist. She’s smaller than me so I’m drafting ideas for a stuffed, maybe velcro, waist add-on. If it works out I’ll be thrilled, the bust and shoulders are pretty much the same, but I gotta accommadate my liquid grain storage facility. I’m working on a quickie T-shirt mod and skirt to get me back in my sewing groove. (It’s been about 6 or 7 months since my newer model broke.)

I’ve been struggling with this beautiful skein of Sari Silk I got for xmas (also from Allison, this blog is in total praise of her) and I have come to the inevitable conclusion that I should never try to wind a ball from a skien of expensive and/or fragile yarn again. This is what I’m looking at right now (and yes I am using a bottle of lube to wind balls, shut up):

The yarn is BEAUTIFUL. It’s hand made out of recycled sari’s and the proceeds benefit battered women in Nepal. It was the first thing I drooled on my first trip out to Eva’s. (Anyone in Mass or RI, Eva’s it worth the trip!) I was planning to make a shawl/poncho type thing out of it but from the tangles it’s breaking apart pretty easily, I think it might be safer in scarf form. It’s so beautiful I know it will become my favorite whatever I make out of it. I also picked up a ball of Yoga yarn to match my new hair color. I’m going to make a pretty neck decoration and maybe some wrist decorations with it.

Since Shagrath never came home (he ran away in early January) I’ve been pretty miserable without a cat around here. Sure I have my obnoxious licky pees-on-everything little lovebug Chihuahua, but I really, REALLY, miss my cat. I’ve had cats my whole life, it’s weird not having one around. I’ve got a grey tiger kitten on his way hopefully this week. Just waiting on the woman to call me back. She NEVER answers her cell phone and has been going a week in between emails telling me to call her. She’s getting married soon I think, so I won’t blame her at all. (Been there, ugh) HOPEFULLY we’ll hear from her tomorrow. I can’t wait!! Will post pictures until you all vomit on the preciousness as soon as possible.

Got a new digital for xmas, by the way!

School is going GREAT this semester. My math class ended up being the wrong one and I had to switch to an American Civilization class (basically Sociology, which I’m into), erradicating the only drag class I had lined up. ALL my professors turned out to be GREAT. I like every one of them! Love my classes and I’m pulling a strong A in all of them. I’m hoping for Dean’s list this semester, which will pull my GPA up from good to awesome. Feelin’ good about it. Money issues are no better, Jon still has no job and the bills are just piling up. But I’m in a good mood and I’m not going to think about it. Been keeping up with the gym as best I can, been a hectic couple of weeks but we’re still pulling off a minimum of 3x per week. Ideally I’d like 3 days involving some cardio, plus our yoga class. I haven’t lost a pound but I look better and I feel great, so I’m not really minding that. I’d rather be healthy than skinny, it’s just more important to me.

The band is going GREAT! We played a lot of great gigs the last two months. To check out pictures from the last show (this past Saturday) visit Return To The Pit- Smite The Righteous Gallery (Marshall’s Pub Show)

That’s about it for tonight. I can pretty much promise a return to regular posting. I’m coming in and out of a weird funk lately but my itch to write and record is back in full force. I’m off to catch up on all the bad-ass knitter blogs now. I leave you with a cute picture sequence from a couple hours ago of my husband and Abbath. Awww-factor is high:

End note: Updated everything, lists, links, albums, whole 9. I’m tired now, but I feel SO much better.

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