Friday nonsense October 5, 2007 ~ 2:37 pm
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme , comments closed
Take the Quiz here!
You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of silliness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward pre-judgement that serves you very ill indeed.
Too perfect - Lizzie is one of my favorite characters in literature. 
Random - not the Lady Sov variety May 23, 2007 ~ 11:17 am
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme, Urban Family , comments closedFirst, everyone stop by my friend Kim’s blog and wish her a happy birthday. We went to college together where we discovered that we are, in fact, the same person born two years apart. Freaky.
Now, since I have nothing to talk about that doesn’t involve dumb students (and you may yet get a dumb students post), I’m going to do the seven (or eight) random things meme that’s been floating around. So, seven (or eight) random things about me:
1.) If I am travelling or going to a show or a concert, or anything that involves me being at a certain place by a certain time, I am a nervous wreck in the hours leading up to it. I make lists of things that I need to bring, I make lists for the people who are watching my animals, I leave extra early to get to the place I need to be on time, and I keep checking the clock to make sure I am there. I drive people who are with me in these situations nuts.
2.) Interestingly enough, if it is something I do more than once, like going to work or attending a weekly gathering? It becomes less important to me to get there on time.
3.) When I was little, I found a piece of carbon paper in my mom’s desk. I was fascinated that it rubbed off on things and made them blue. I looked at the wallpaper in my mom’s bedroom, decided that it could use some blue, and rubbed the carbon paper on the wallpaper. Did I mention it was expensive wallpaper? It was. At varying points I also sliced my mother’s box spring open with a razor blade and set the carpet in her bedroom on fire with a match by accident. I don’t think she knew about the fire until this very moment. Hi, mom! And no, I was not doing this to be destructive. I was just interested in how things worked. Unintentional destrictiveness.
4.) I’ve noticed that many of my friends were born around the same times of year. For instance, my brother and my friend Colleen’s birthday was May 18, Kim’s is today, and my friend Tony’s birthday is the 27th. I also have a slew of Cancers in my circle of friends and family: my mom, Lori, Rick, Aimee, my dad, and one of my aunts are all Cancers. Not sure why I attract them, but I do. Weird, right?
5.) My brain seems wired for creative pursuits, languages, and patterns rather than logic. I’ve always struggled with math and to a lesser extent science (the ones that involved math), but excelled in English, history, languages, and arts. I have taught myself the fundamentals of HTML, knitting, spinning, and any number of historical facts out of books, but if you sat me down with a math text and told me to learn, I’d be screwed.
6.) I have loved writing since I was a kid. Somewhere in my apartment I have a notebook that my mom bought me when I was about 8 to write my stories down in. My favorite of those stories? One that involved giant killer bugs on the floor of the ocean. I never finished that story. Actually, I still have a problem finishing stories. Apparently I am a process writer and always have been.
7.) When I was in college, I played defense on my sorority’s intramural floor hockey team, and I was damn good at it. We were champions four semesters running. The prize was an Allegheny College beer stein. I still have two of the four somewhere at my house.
8.) I have felt a deep connection to Freddie Mercury since he died during my freshman year of high school. I know many fans of many musicians say this, and it’s probably just the result of listening to so much of his music throughout my life, but I honestly think that Freddie and I would have gotten along famously if we had ever met. We have bitchiness, creativity, fierce loyalty to friends, and a hidden shy side in common. And if all else failed, I would have told him about how I got in trouble with the nuns in kindegarten because I came into school singing “Another One Bites The Dust.” I think Freddie would have gotten a big kick out of that.
Not tagging anyone, but if you want to do this, go ahead.
Knitting meme! May 14, 2007 ~ 4:24 pm
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme, Craftiness Is Next To Godliness , comments closedBecause we are all about the fiber arts at Casa de Julz, here’s a meme I found at Eve’s.
Mark with bold the things you have knit (or are knitting), with italics the ones you plan to do sometime, and leave the rest.
Afghan (okay, I crocheted them. Whatever.)
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl (yeah, never again with a garter stitch shawl, though)
Stockinette stitch
Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn (once I spin it)
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat (so many)
Knitting with silk (once I spin it)
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL (several)
Sweater (do baby sweaters count? If not, then it’s a “plan to”)
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with banana fiber yarn (now I just have to find some)
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn (once I spin it)
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn (once I spin it)
Cardigan (zippy hoodie)
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn (there will be a lot of this)
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (whattup, my knittas?)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book (yeah, because this will happen)
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit (two, actually. And a few adults.)
American/English knitting
Knitting to make money (this would be so awesome I can barely stand it)
Buttonholes
Knitting with alpaca (once I spin it, are we detecting a trend here?)
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colors
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies…)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items) on one or two circulars
Knitting with someone else’s handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting (we will not go into how many times I’ve done this) Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living (so wouldn’t happen, but it would be awesome if it could)
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dying yarn (next craft to teach myself)
Steeks
Knitting art (with my first handspun, because art is all it will be good for)
Knitting two socks on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting (I’ve needle felted, does that count?)
Knitting with wool
Textured knitting
Kitchener stitch
Purses/bags
Knitting with beads (too many beads at my place not to try this)
Swatching (on the things where size matters, I actually do swatch)
Long Tail CO (my standard CO)
Entrelac (loves the entrelac…however you pronounce it.)
Knitting and purling backwards (I think I’ve done this)
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegated yarn
Stuffed toys
Knitting with cashmere (once I spin it)
Darning
Jewelry (I make it other ways, why not knit some?)
Knitting with synthetic yarn (sometimes acrylic is cheaper)
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug
Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift (doing one right now)
Knitting for pets (my cats deserve knitted toys)
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair (um, no. My love of the cats doesn’t go this far.)
Hair accessories
Knitting in public
Let’s get some shoes. February 1, 2007 ~ 10:34 am
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme , comments closedThis video came up at dinner last night. The Oldest emailed it to me a while ago and I just figured everyone had seen it, but apparently not. Enjoy, but if you’re watching at work, you might want to keep the volume down - I found this out the hard way.
I’m too old for this. December 1, 2006 ~ 11:34 am
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme, Technobabble , comments closedSo several months back I decided to sign up for MySpace and another similar program because all the cool kids were doing it. Yes, this is a repeating pattern in my life, and yes, I would totally jump off a bridge if everyone else were doing it. I’m a lemming like that.
While I think I’ve figured some of it out (I’ve found a bunch of you bloggers out there, reconnected with some high school friends, and Rick Allen from Def Leppard has linked me as a friend), I’m still not sure what the hell I’m supposed to be doing on it. Is it just leaving messages on other peoples’ walls in a giant “tag, you’re it” game? Is it about sending the messages? And how in the hell do I get my page to look a little less generic? Right now it’s so pathetic I sing that “Bo-bos, they make your feet feel fine! Bo-bos, they cost $1.99!” every time I look at it (do you all know that song, or is it just a SW PA thing?).
I’m asking for advice. I know I don’t want music on it, because that’s obnoxious if someone is checking it from, say, work. I don’t want to link this blog to it because I’m hesitant to let people who know (or knew) me in real life see it. But other than that, I’m open. All you MySpace people, teach me how to to pimp MySpace.
Oh, yeah, and if you want a Christmas card from me this year, now’s the time to send me your address. Even if you think I have it? Send it again, because I am notoriously absent-minded and probably put your envelope aside last year meaning to write it down, and then tossed the envelope in a mad cleaning spree in August without ever having done so. Click the gmail link on the sidebar to send me your addy, and I will send you a card. That simple.
Eye Candy Friday November 17, 2006 ~ 12:50 pm
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme , comments closedFor all intents and purposes, no real blogging today either. Let’s hope Dr. Jed figures out what the fuck is wrong with my arm on Monday.
Summer’s End ~ Woodstock, NY
Break’s over. November 15, 2006 ~ 10:01 pm
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme , comments closedAfter a couple of hours of “resting” my arm (ie, not knitting, not typing, not doing anything), I realized I was really bored. It’s just not in my nature to sit around and watch TV without doing something else at the same time; I must multi-task! I am so not used to seeing the TV in anything but dribs and drabs, briefly looking up while I’m knitting or blogging. But in an attempt to keep resting the arm - okay, in a renewed attempt, although I’m not convinced that using a drop spindle is harmful to CTS or whatever I have - I will make this a short post.
I found this meme on Scout’s blog (all knitters, if you haven’t already found Scout, you should go see her post-haste. She is a blogger, and she’s also an enabler the owner of a kickass online store.)
1. How and when did you learn how to knit/crochet? Who taught you?
I learned two years ago next month. Nobody actually taught me, since I learned from the Klutz Guide to Knitting and expanded my skills via Debbie Stoller’s Stitch N Bitch books. However, my grandmother crocheted a lot (thus my tendency to shudder when I see Red Heart yarn), and my father’s sister was a knitter (my Barbie and Ken dolls had very stylish sweaters), so I apparently come by it honestly. My mother has told me that she knitted before she had me, the more complicated the pattern the better to keep her interest. However I don’t think she got the same amount of joy out of it that I do, since she’s not doing it anymore.
2. How has this craft impacted your life? (besides financially!)
It’s given me so much, really. Every time I finish a project I still get a thrill that I made something that cool with two sticks and a piece of string. Knitting calms me down when I am feeling completely stressed: it’s a form of meditation that gives me a sense of accomplishment at the same time. And I do feel a sense of my place in history every time I pick up my needles, a connection to all the women (and men) who have knit before me. I’m just the latest link in a chain that goes back a long, long way.
3. Pick at least one person to talk about who you have met through the knit-world and why you are thankful to have met them. Feel free to get all mushy.
I’ll pick two people who I met through the blogoverse before I realized they knit as well: ESC and Aimee. I knew I liked them from reading their blogs, but when we found out that all of us knit, it was like a switch went off for me. These are the people I spend all day emailing with, talking about our lives, our crafting, our jobs - I can tell them anything and they’re my best sounding boards. I’ve met them both in person (Hell, ESC invited us both to her wedding reception two weeks ago) and I love them like sisters. They’re the best.
A bit of lightness August 11, 2006 ~ 7:58 am
Posted by Julie in : Adherents of the Repeated Meme, Daily Grind , comments closedOne of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while, and a nice little break from the craziness going on in the world:
Have a great weekend, everyone. See ya Monday.
