Distraction strategy #34

Ok, so here I am trying to prepare for gallbladder surgery in mid-November by trying to 1) avoid eating food with any fat in it at all....seriously, no fat, 0, goose egg, nada, nyet, zilch, and 2) avoid thinking about the fact that in a few short weeks, folks are going to put me to sleep, root around in my innards, and take one of my innards out! (yeah, even writing that is thinking about it more than is good for me)

So, in addition to the knitting, spinning, filling in my Ravelry profile, worrying about my niece, working (oh, yeah, that's right, I work ;-), and preparing to write a novel in a month, here is an interesting meme that I found on my Christmas Around the World downstream partner's blog:

Bold for stuff you’ve done, italics for stuff you plan to do eventually, and normal for stuff you don’t intend to do ever.

Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn (I've spun some camel; now I just have to get around to knitting with it)
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL (HA! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!)
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns (Oh, I've dropped stitches....just not so much on purpose yet)
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn (there's such a thing as banana fiber yarn? Really?)
Domino knitting
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with Bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/Doll clothing (my first, and thus far only, top-down sweater, will fit a teddy bear....provided I'm willing to unstuff his head, put the sweater on and then re-stuff his head)
Knitting with circular needles (though not my favorite thing to do)
Baby items (yeah, yeah)
Knitting with your own handspun yarn (though not as much as I should be, considering how much there is of it now)
Slippers
Graffitti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street) (what's the purpose of that, I wonder?)
Continental Knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns
Lace patterns (my new love!)
Publishing a knitting book (ah, wouldn't that be loverly?)
Scarf (too many to count!)
Teaching a child to knit (does it count if it doesn't seem to have "taken" with them?)
English knitting
Knitting to make money
Buttonholes
Knitting with Alpaca
Fair Isle Knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn (maybe...I think I should knit with more of my own, first)
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting (meaning gifts or making holiday-themed items, cause yes to 1 and probably not to 2)
Teaching a male to knit (I don't know...if I ever meet a guy who wants to learn, I'd be happy to teach)
Bobbles (hate bobbles; I just leave them off if I like a be-bobbled pattern)
Knitting for a living (nah, it'd take all the joy out of it for me)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn
Steeks (aaaaaahhhhhhhhh cutting the knitting.....aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
Knitting art (are you suggesting that my knitting isn't art?)
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously (I'm trying these right now with the "two at a time socks")
Fulling/felting
Knitting with wool
Textured Knitting
Kitchener Bind Off (but I don't have to like it!)
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads
Swatching (but I don't have to like it!)
Long Tail CO
Entrelac
Knitting/Purling Backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self-patterning/selfstriping/variegating yarn
Stuffed Toys
Knitting with Cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with Linen
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
RugKnitting on a loom (?)
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets (on purpose I mean, not that they haven't taken WIPs as toys already...Bad kitties!)
Shrug/Bolero/Poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (intentionally? though I have spun cat hair....what? like you've never stared at the cats and thought, "hmmmm, I wonder...")
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

My peculiar aristocratic title

I think I've posted that I've now joined ravelry (kimberlynj, in case anyone wants to visit my small pile of finished objects and much larger [and continually growing] pile of wips), which includes a couple of the forum groups. And I have to say, I'm both enjoying and learning a lot from the Completely Arbitrary and Pointless forum (which really, really ought to be the name of a Monty Python sketch....especially if it featured John Cleese tangled up in yarn and knitting needles...hee).

For example, I'm sorry to tell you that, after taking what I'm sure is a carefully thought out, and quite possibly even scientifically validated, on-line quiz, I now know that I have only a 38% chance of surviving a zombie apocolypse (of the Night of the Living Dead or 28 Days Later variety). I would be disappointed in myself....if it didn't give me yet another excuse to eat dessert first---"diet, schmiet; since I have only a 38% chance of surviving the next zombie apocolypse, and zombies don't eat banana cream pie, I'd better have a piece now." (Yeah, the whole thing falls apart if you apply logic. Ya just gotta go with it.)

Conversely, I now know that some people can get their cats to wear turtlenecks. And I gotta say, that actually makes me feel less useful than my poor showing in zombie quiz. Because I believe that trying to get any one of my cats into a wee sweater, no matter what the neckline, would cause me more harm than any boatload full of brain-craving zombies. And for that matter, so do my cats!

But on the bright side, I have a totally cool peculiar aristocratic title:

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Her Eminence the Very Viscountess Kimberly the Insouciant of Withering Glance Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

So, what do you think my chances are of getting everyone I know to refer to me as Her Eminence the Very Viscountess Kimberly the Insouciant of Withering Glance. No? How about just "Her Eminence the Insouciant?" "The Insouciant of Withering Glance?" "Oh, that Kim, the Withering Glancer....." no, huh.

How about HEVVKIWG for short? Oh, no wait. I'm not sure I really want to be Hevkiwg.

Well, I guess I could go back to trying turtlenecks on the cats. And then you can just call me "Kimberly in the hospital" ;-)

Meme whowho?

Jenny has tagged me for a meme (y'know, one of those round-robin type thingies in which you answer questions about yourself and then ask other folks to answer questions about themselves). I've mostly seen these in my e-mail in-box, but I understand they're also pretty common on blogsites (yeah, I don't get out much in cyberworld, it seems).


Ok here are the rules (which I am obligated, by meme law, to print first ;-):

The Rules:
Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged. (yeah, I'm not sure I know 8 other bloggers, so.....not sure what to do about that. I also *really* don't mind if other people don't want to play along. Cause it's not like I won't take any opportunity to talk about myself ;-)


Ok, so, 8 random things about me....hmmm....first of all, what's considered "random"? Things most people don't know? Things that are surprising or startling (thus fitting into that place in a conversation when someone gives you too much information and everyone sits stunned for a couple of seconds until someone mutters ..."yeah, um, that was....er...uh....random")? Or by random are we figuring that they just not themed or ordered? (sure, trust an editor to turn a simple meme into a referrendum on the word "random" ;-).


Well, I'm not sure, so I'm going with the last definition. (I wish I had startling, surprising, perhaps even disconcerting things to tell you about me. But...no. Not so much. In fact, I got nothin')


1. I don't have a favorite color. Which is not to say that I don't like a lot of colors. In fact, I frequently like a lot of colors together! I would just feel bad playing favorites.
2. I can not roll my "r"s. Which, when I was trying to learn Spanish in high school amounts to a speech impediment. I know---it hardly qualifies as the bane of my existence, but, because of my love of words and language and communication, AND because I generally think of myself as pretty well-spoken, I find this unaccountably annoying. I will never be able to discuss perros (dogs) with Antonio Banderas without sounding stupidly American. (yeah, that's somewhat tempered by the fact that I've since forgotten the tiny bit of Spanish I once learned.)
3. I cannot bring myself to watch the movie, The Exorcist. Can't do it. I read the book when I was about 12 (which is when it first came out) and kept imagining that my bed was shaking and I was about to be possessed and scared the livin' crap out of myself. And so I've never been able to sit through the movie. Even now, I have to change the channel quickly if a commercial for it comes on TV. I don't even like seeing the occasional parody of it on Saturday Night Live. And I like horror movies! Go figure.
4. Conversely, I find zombie movies unaccountably amusing and even sometimes endearing. Even when they're not supposed to be. (Dancing zombies are a special favorite.) Again, go figure.
5. I like raw carrots much better than cooked carrots and I hate brussel sprouts in every configuration. (hey, the rules said "random")
6. One of my grandmothers was adopted, so I'm 3/4s Irish and 1/4 who knows ;-). (Actually, she was probably Italian-American, since she was adopted by an Italian-Am family around the turn of the century, but I do like the little bit of mystery!)
7. One of my favorite things to do on vacation is snorkel. I like to swim wit da fishes. What can I say? I'm from NJ and 1/4 probably Italian---maybe it's genetic ;-)?
8. I can wiggle my nose, but only up and down. I'm completely unable to do a Bewitched-style sideways twitch. Like the non-r-rolling, this is not tragic, but annoying. I console myself with my ability to make fish-lips at passing small children.

Ok, that's 8. So I guess I had more randomness than I thought! I'm going to think about people I could maybe tag and post again later. Thanks, Jenny, that was fun!

mystery yarn

So, I'm currently part of 2 swaps, in additon to the KALs. In the first swap, which I'm going to paraphrase as the Fall harvest swap, I sent at least 6 oz of fiber, plus beads and some other threads, to my downstream swap partner (Hi Linda) and received a package from my upstream partner (Hi Marianne). Now I'm supposed to be spinning my fiber (no, actually I *am* spinning my fiber; I'm *supposed to be finished* spinning my fiber), and working in the beads and whatever else I think might be fun, if I can. And then, I thought, I was supposed to send half of the spun yarn back to my upstream pal (sorry, Marianne---I'm working on it; I really am).

Brief aside---my normal lateness notwithstanding, I think the part about working in beads or other extra elements is why I'm so late getting it done. I'm completely intimidated. I've read instructions about spinning beads right onto the fiber, and even seen internet tutorials. So I should be good, right? Except that somehow I can't translate what I see with my eyes down to my fingers. hmmmfpt

But I digress. Because what I really meant to post on was a package that I recently received of a skein of plied singles---one a pretty, soft brown and the other ply a mix of red, yellow, and white. Best of all it's a really interesting texture, with the borwn thicker and the yellow/red mostly thinner. Pretty cool.
And I was expecting a skein of yarn, from my downstream pal (same as I'm sending some to my upstream). So what's the confusion, you ask? It's that this didn't come from my downstream pal. In fact, I don't think it came from any of my pals from any previous swaps either. (and I'm scrathing my head, because, I've been a member of a number of swaps....and organization isn't always my strong suit (I know, I know---you're shocked that a woman who ususally only manages to update her blog every 3 weeks claims not to be well organized---sure, it's startling to everyone ;-). So it's possible that Mallory from Little Rock, who sent me this lovely yarn, is an old pal and that I'm just blanking. But anyway I look at it, a relative stranger sent me, from several states away, something lovely she made herself.
Is this internet a great invention or what?
(And Mallory, please forgive me if I'm just being goofy not recognizing your name, and thank you for the fabulous yarn!)

"Yes, your therapist would call this avoidance."

And then---"Repeat after me, 'I will not join any more internet kals, swaps, or websites that require me to write a novel in a month."'

So answered one of my knitting friends when I'd e-mailed that I'm now up to 6 mystery knit-a-longs (and all of them lace...), 2 swaps (a fall harvest fiber/spinning swap that I'm terribly behind on, and the Christmas around the world swap, that I'm really excited about), and now the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). NaNoWriMo is, apparently, November, and there is a site where you sign up to write a novel---50,000 words---in the month of November.

Probably...ok, pretty much certainly....my friend is right about the avoidance. (waving at Fleecy ) Now, is that a healthier coping strategy than denial or not, I wonder? What am I avoiding, you ask? Ah, sure, but if I told you then I wouldn't be avoiding it, would I?

ok, just kidding---the short answer is the ongoing saga of my niece and her ongoing challenges in coping with life. The long answer....no, neither of us has the time!

But avoidance or no, I'm enjoying the Christmas swap so far and am definitely looking forward to trying to pound out a (very bad, completely unedited, probably mostly unusable) novel in a month. It's going to be a mystery, based on a job I used to have, many, many years ago, when I was young, and stupid, and working in retail. (so yeah, it doubles as a horror story [with no offense meant to those working in retail, honestly---reeeeaaaalllly not the right job for me!]) I wanted to kill my boss. Which is saying something, because I was pretty even-tempered and non-violent even then. And I had the youth and stupidity going for me, too.

I had actually started to plan how...disposing of the body...hiding the murder weapon...faking an alibi...and that's how I knew it was time to get out of retail!

But I've been thinking, it's a shame to waste a perfectly good murder plan, and since I really quite like my current boss (working for a non-profit oncology education organization) and co-workers (and I really am pretty committed to the non-violence thing in real life), perhaps I will enjoy killing my old boss on paper ;-)

I'm kimberlynj at the nanowrimo site---in case anyone gets inspired to join me in my lunacy, stop by and say hello! and definitely, wish me luck!