Christine Tagged me back in Febuary and because I'm a terrible friend, I didn't see it. So here it is:

Four jobs I’ve had:

1. Hastings
2. Hastings
3. That Place From High School
4. Denny's (SUCKED)

Four places I lived:
1. Santa Rosa, Ca
2. Fulton, Ca
3. Kingman, Az
4.

Four movies I’ve watched over and over:
1. High School Musical
2. Catch And Release
3. Love Actually
4. Garden State

Four shows I watch:
1. Bones (WOOO)
2. Buffy
3. Family Guy
4. Girlicious

Four places I’ve been:
1. Seattle Wa
2. San Fransisco
3. Chicago O'Hare Air Port (LOL)
4. Phoenix, Az

Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. FLY Mailing List
2. Japanese Pod
3. Live Journal
4. Firefly Academy

Four favorite things to eat:
1. Sushi
2. Chinese food
3. Steak
4. Chris' Rice

Four places I’d rather be:
1. San Fransisco
2. Anywhere but here.
3.
4.

Four things I look forward to this new year:
1. More money coming in.
2. Getting this kid who lives with me healthy
3. Finishing projects
4. Loosing some weight.

Four people to tag:
4. Anyone else who wants to! Because I don't know anyone who reads this

10:37 AM

So I have no pictures for you. Sorry about that. I will talk about my New Years "Resolutions" though, just because I feel like it.

First off I really hate the word "resolution" so we are going to go with "goals". For some reason, the word "goals" doesn't harbor as much panic as "resolutions" does.

I talked about my knitting goals, but I will elaborate on those.

KNITTING GOALS FOR 2008!!!!

1. Learn to spin!
This is a big one for me. To learn to spin. I want to be able to make yarn for small projects, especially for very personal gifts. I think that if I am spinning (and sometimes dyeing) my yarn, that when I explain the work that went into it, people will cherish them more. Maybe not, but it would be really nice to bonk into an old friend 30 years from now and have them tell me that they still have that afghan I made for them and that they love it.

2. Learn to do fair isle and intarsia.
Haha. I do not really know how to do these things. I think that someone will have to show me. No kidding. It just kind of puts me off, but there are so many things I want to do that involve these techniques.

3. Become good with lace.
I feel like I'm the only one who can't do an entire project of lace. I just want to make one thing and decide if I like it. I like it when I'm doing it, but crap, I just can't finish it. I always screw up.

4. Start buying GOOD yarn and weed out the crap!
Now, this isn't always so realistic. I live in a town where there is ONE LYS and a Walmart. The LYS has comparable prices to online (a teeny bit higher, but not usually enough to warrant paying for shipping) but her selection fails. Her selection of spinning fibers? NICE. She's getting a better selection all the time. I think she needed to settle in a little. Like finally some Brown Sheep and some Rowan (WHAT!?). So I'm super excited about adding yarn that doesn't feel like plastic (or knit up like plastic). I do like Caron and makes for really awesome kids stuff for a reasonable price.

5. Design at least ONE pattern!
I don't care if it's one crappy lace headband. This is a big goal for me.

6. Knit socks!
I CAN knit socks. Kinda. I've done a practice sock. I want to make socks for my kids, partner, friends and family. I want to do this badly.

7. START DYEING MY OWN YARN!!!!!

This is probably the biggest goal. I want to expand my project base by dying my own yarn. No more "Oh Crap. I can't find XXXXX Color or Colors!" I want to be able to do a little experimentation and get the colors I want in the yarn I want, at a reasonable price.

NON-KNITTING GOALS!

1. Learn to Sew
If my youngest child and I are going to live with the biggest butts in existence (okay, not quite, but pretty close), I need to be able to alter clothing to comfortably fit us. I am passionate about that. I should be able to buy the clothes I want with out having to spend money on tailoring.

2. Start Quilting.
I can quilt. This is something I have ALWAYS loved, but never stuck with. So I want to start quilting again. I'll start with baby quilts and simple quilting and work my way up. Yes.

3. Change my eating, sleep, and exercise habits.

I need to get off of my fat butt and do something about me. I need to work out at least 6 days a week. I need to work on what I eat and how much I am eating. I will not go on a DIET. I don't want to feel guilty for what and how I eat. I don't want to feel guilty when I go to Laughlin and want to have Sushi. I don't want to feel guilty when I go to a Birthday party and have cake and ice cream. What I want is to have the self control enough to say "Hey, I would like some cake and ice cream, but only a small piece of cake and only a small amount of ice cream." and not go back for seconds. This is important to me.

4. Get to Under 200 pounds.
I feel very healthy and happy at between 180 pounds and 200. While I would love to be smaller, if I am successful in goal number 3, I should automatically loose weight to a certain point. If I stall at something around 160-200, I won't push myself, or feel guilty. If I get smaller, good for me! That would be great. So my Goal. To loose around 50 pounds FOR THE YEAR.

I think that that is about it. Hopefuly by the next time I post I will have some pictures for you.

8:07 PM

So Texas Purl Gurl put up a post about her own 2008 Knitting Resolutions! Here are mine:

1. Learn to spin!
2. Learn to do fair isle and intarsia.
3. Become good with lace.
4. Start buying GOOD yarn and weed out the crap!
5. Design at least ONE pattern!
6. Knit socks!

I'll have to make a bigger post to add detail and also my Non-Knitting resolutions.

Oh boy. Knitting Daily and Interweave Knits have given us a way to get our crack with out having to scower E-bay for hours to find old Interweave patterns that are out of print. They have so lovingly given us Interweave Knits Store where I will be getting the Central Park Hoodie Pattern. That makes me happy. NEW CRACK!

I desperately need to buy some good yarn. I'm CRAVING it. I would really love to go to a yarn store in Flag or Vegas and fondle large amounts of yarn and than BUY SOME. Really.

I hit BIG!Lots and got some more cheep yarn. Some more Glittallic and Lacette this time in more pleasing colors. The Glittallic is this lavender and it's actually very pretty. That stuff is soft as hell. The Lacette is a beautiful pale blue, and they were ONE DOLLAR EACH! NICE! So I picked up 3 balls of each. I think. Oh well. CHEEP!

I'm using the Blue Glittallic to make my Step-Daughter a scarf. It's about 6.5 inches wide so it will be pretty cuddly. I'm hoping I have enough yarn for it to be a decent length. *Cringe* But it's knitting up fairly quickly on 7mm needles. It's a basic Garter Stitch Scarf. So:

CO 26 sts
Sl Purl Wise the first st on every row.
Knit across row.
When desired length is reached, bo.

Wow. EASY PEASY.

I just need to sew in the ends of THE CLAP scarf and than fix THE HOLE. But Lelia is in love with it. It's "OMG TOTALLY something Hannah Montana would wear. AWESOME." That's right Lelia. AWESOME.

Okay, the video is NOT WORK SAFE. Because they say Penis, Vagina and Butt. But that's about it. It's making fun of the Ying Yang Brothers Whisper Song which in it's edited state, is kind of sexy. It leaves something to the imagination, however, in the explicit version, I have to say.. IF ANY MAN WERE TO SAY THAT TO ME, I WOULD FUCKING PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE.

Anyway, on to the Bing Bong Brothers:

First off, the new Journey front man is AMAZING! Here, have a video:



I also just started listening to Lime & Violet. How I did not know about them is beyond my scope of reasoning because they are super awesome. I mean, really, really awesome.

The new Knitty is out, and it is AMAZING. Jeanie is probably my FAVORITE! Honestly though, all the patterns are amazing.

So I saw the Toirneach Kilt Hose and IMEDIATELY had to make them for Chris. Of course, I knew that I couldn't surprise him with them, because I'd have to measure his feet and HUGE calves. That and there was a chance he would go "Wow hunny... those are... nice...? Maybe... I love you?" and than I would be in tears and it would be messy. So I showed them to him and he LOVED them, so we are going to order a color card for the Knit Picks Swish Superwash and than when he decides on the color, we'll order the stuff for it and I'll make it. I have a feeling he's going to choose the new Heather Redish color that comes out in January. But he's really excited.

I like MagKnits okay, they don't have the best patterns, but sometimes they are pretty good. Like the Zombies Need Not Apply, which is one of my favorite patterns EVER! Anyway, there aren't many patterns in this issue, and there are only 2 that I would consider making. I was pretty disapointed. I liked Five Fruits and Excuses.

A small note about excuses. IT COMES IN BIG GIRL SIZES! OMG! Thank you Nikki Adams for thinking about the girls with some body!

I've been working on THE CLAP! It's honestly the easiest and most repetetive pattern out there. But I'm really enjoying it. I'm down to decreasing, as I've decided to give the scarf to my oldest daughter, Lelia, so she can run around and DRIVE PEOPLE CRAZY pretending to be Hannah Montana. I'll get some footage for you guys. Because he Christmas Present is going to include the "How to drive the people you live with crazy pretending to be Hannah Montana" collection. I'll post crappy pictures of this package after I have it purchased and wrapped.

Clapotis


Once again, I am very, VERY sorry for my terrible photo taking skills. Really, really sorry.

10:56 AM

This is my long term boyfriend Chris. We've been together for, almost 6 years. Here is a picture of him, since I have not taken any pictures of my knitting.

I finished Calorimetry. I ended up still being WAY to wide and WAY to long. But it keeps my ears warm. I need to adjust the buttons and maybe add another one on the other side for keeping both ends secure.

I finally joined the bandwagon and cast on for "THE CLAP!" I've honestly wanted to for a while, but have been to lazy. I cast on with some crappy Patons sparkly yarn that I picked up at BIG!Lots (Which I LOVE! Now if only Ross would carry yarn!) for a whole wopping $1 a ball. But the pattern is much easier than it looked, as well as being very easy to memorize. Which can be important for me because I'm blond times 10.


So I got the back done on Baby's First Tattoo (Stitch 'N Bitch Nation) and it looks okay. This will be my first sweater, so I'm kind of excited to get it finished. I still have to do the REST of the sweater. Now that is where things get bad. Most of the instructions are fine, but for the Front Left piece I get confused. I'll probably read over it tonight, like 4030 times, and than surf the net, pull some hair out and then at some point tomorrow I'll go "OH!!! I GET IT! DUH!" That's the way it always happens.

I re cast on Calorimetry the other night. This is such a simple pattern. The first time I did it, something went HORRIBLY WRONG. Okay, it was my knitting and the fact that my head is NOT THAT BIG. Really. So I was more careful this time.

I used that Caron Simply Soft Heather in Purple and size 6 needles. It's still a LITTLE wide, but it's a good length. I'll take some decent pictures of it when I get the button and put it on it tomorrow. Now, I wanted a stretchy cast off so I used the Elastic Cast Off from Dominitrix. It's K1, slip stitch back to left needle, k2tog, slip stitch back... and so on until you complete the cast off. It probably wasn't the best LOOKING cast off for the job, but it's stretchy. Maybe my Cast ONS shouldn't be so loose?

I've been trowing around the idea of making *sound of empending evil* THE CLAP! BWAHAHAHAHAHA. If you haven't heard of the Clapotis and you are a knitter, you live under a rock. Seriously. But I don't want a WHOLE GIANT THING I WILL NEVER EVER USE. I want a simple scarf for breezy weather. I'll start throwing around some ideas once I can afford to buy semi decent yarn for it.

I AM SO SORRY WITH MY TERRIBLE PICTURE TAKING SKILLS! I will have Bryson take the next set of pictures. He is so much better than I am.

One last note. I am IN LOVE with the fact that the Knit Picks Harmony DPN's come with 6 needles. That's fabulous.

I finished the back on on Baby's First Tattoo. My needles always seem sticky now or hard, and my hands seem to sweat to much. It's really irritating. I was thinking of using an Anime style bunny for the picture and than making a bunny hat in the same colors (Black and White). The sweater is for Vile's Baby. Chris aproves of the color.

Something Chris and I have ALWAYS talked about, is adopting/fostering. Perticularly older kids, where Chris has a soft spot. His parents recently (in the last year or so) started adopting/fostering kids. They pay more attention to their "New Children" than the older ones. Not that they ever gave their two oldest a real chance. But lately, Chris' Step Dad has been real... Nice. And to Chris. Everyone is nice to me! I mean, I'm Kara. I'm awesome. Anyway, I'm getting way off topic. This lead to the discussion we have been having for the last 6 years. Adopting/Fostering. Maybe in six months to a year we would start. When we are settled. Kids from infant to 7 or 8 until the little kids are older. Than maybe teenagers.

This post makes no sense. Maybe I'll post again later.