Sticks n' String’s blog

How many places have you lived in your life?

Houses?  More than I can count.  We did a lot of moving when I was a kid for various reasons, most because of money issues.

Most of the places I've lived have been in the same area.  Northern California and northern Arizona.  We just moved to different parts of town and a few times we moved to the next town over.

If you could only save one thing in a house fire (thing, not person), what would it be and why?
Submitted by donnunn.

Our box containing all of the information for our house, cars, etc.  Since we paid off the house, it's even more important as it has all of our original copies of paperwork in it.

What time period would you have lived in, if you could have lived at any time?

Well, the hubbin' and I used to belong to the SCA (society for creative anachronisms) and pretty much lived out our time period fantasy.  Fourteenth century Scotland to be precise.

There's so many time periods that I'm interested in and every time period had it's amazements.  I love the 20's, the 50's, even parts of the 70's.  I just can't really decide.

Okay, so maybe they're not the most elaborate.  Maybe it instead should be titled "A list of patterns that I want to knit that I'll probably never get around to."  or something like that.

Snowflake lace socks.  These just came out in the latest issue of MagKnits, and I'm smitten.  Up until the lace wing socks I made for the fair, I hadn't knit myself any nice socks.  Now I feel a rumbling deep inside me, a monster who demands I knit myself gorgeous socks.  It's so pressing that I went out and blew a bunch of money tonight on foot care products just so I wouldn't snag any of my socks with my rough heels.

The Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 issue.  I love this top and just picked up the yarn for it.  Well, junk yarn, but yarn to knit it with all the same.  I love the shape of the straps and I've never knit lace into a garment other than socks and my ginormous sweater of doom I did last year.  That was just a panel though.  I love everything about this tank and I'm really looking forward to making it.  I just hope it looks as good with someone who's stacked as it does on a petite model.

Arisaig from Knitty.  It's very delicate and I think it would look great with camis.  Again with the lace!  I think I'm starting to fall in love with lace...something I never thought I'd do.  Anyways though, from the same issue of Knitty, I'd also love to knit Samus.  I don't think I can bring myself to knit it in the same orange (and I know, it's homage to the character, etc), but I think it'd look smashing in a charcoal or maybe a deep midnight blue.  I adore the look of cables, but have never knit a cabled sweater.  This must change.

The Twinkle twinkle little star shawl from Elann.  I've got a bit of an obsession with stars and love them on anything from quilts to nautical items to tattoos.  With as impatient as I am though, I don't know if this will ever be a project I get to.  Still, it's beautiful.

There are many many other projects I'm salivating over, but I think I'll end this for now.  With the exception of the lotus blossom tank, all the patterns I posted are free.  If anyone has made any of these, I'd love to see them!

What's your middle name?  Is there a story or history behind it?

My middle name is Diane.  The story behind it isn't a pretty one, but to be honest, I don't even know if it's true.

Apparently, before I was born, my biological dad had an affair.  Yep, you guessed it, with a woman named Diane.  He wanted that to be my name and my mom, being whipped at the time (literally and figuratively) agreed to let that be my middle name.  That's how the story goes, but other than knowing that my dad was a misogynistic bastard and put my mom through 12 years of abusive hell pre-me and three years of hell post-me, I don't really know for sure.  I love my mom, but she's come up with some pretty out there stories.

My first name may be common, but at least there's a nice story to it.  I was named after my great-Aunt Christine, who was an amazing and strong woman. 

Share a photo of something that comforts you.

What was the last game you played?

Rocky Horror trivia!!  Kicked the crap outta my hubbin' too, though it was close for a bit.

The last video game I played was Eternal Darkness.  I love that game!

I didn't realize how absolutely wrecked my house was until this morning.  I mean, I knew it was a mess, and that things were scattered all over, but it's beyond cluttered right now...it's dirty. 

I've tried a lot of things to keep me focused on taking care of the house.  I mean hell, it's ours free and clear, that should make me want to keep it neat, right?  Meh, not so much.  I'm always so busy on the Atkins board and knitting and sitting here with my thumb up my ass that I never seem to "get around to it".  I've tried flylady, worksheets, calendars, just getting up and doing it.  It works for a few weeks and then I get sidetracked and let it go.  Every time I clean my craft room I say "Okay.  This is going to stay neat this time!  I'm going to put everything away as soon as I'm done using it!"  Heh...never happens.

So, I'm not going to say that today is the start of me getting my shit together.  Because I know it isn't.  Instead, I've got a super monster load of jeans in the washer right now, I have at least another two loads of laundry beyond that to do.  I don't have a dryer, so I'm going to hope it's hot enough to dry everything on the line as the next load finishes.  I'm not going to bed tonight until the fucking laundry is done!

I'm going to scrub every surface of the bathroom and then I'll probably be done for the day.  The ADD-like feeling I've been having seems to be encompassing every part of my life.  I can't concentrate on anything for too long.

What was I talking about?

**ETA**

Hey Murphy?  Give a girl a break.  Did you HAVE to break the longest of the two clotheslines?  Jerk.

If you could write a book about anything, what would it be about?

Besides the random bullshit that goes through my head when I actually feel like writing, I'd have to narrow it down to an autobiography (boring) or a knitting book.  Not a pattern book...frankly it would be all of two pages...and that would be a big picture on one page and a pattern in bold print so it'd take up the other page.

Seriously, something about the musings of an obsessed knitter.  There've been few things that consume me like knitting does...it would be nice to write about something so many others can relate to.

Take a photo of an accident or a mistake.

One of my very first knitting projects; a frog dishcloth.  You can see where I screwed up a row, ripped it back and didn't understand that my stitches were twisted.  A blemish on what otherwise would have been very cute!