NaBloPoMo Day 5: Some Knitting!

It's actually starting to get a little easier to write these. I know it's only day 5, and I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm feeling positive. I have a few ideas jotted down for future posts, and that should really help my word count along. I think I'm doing well at not being overly verbose in explaining things, which is very good. I'm also putting in a lot of knitting content, and that makes me feel good. Not to mention, I'm being super productive, as far as knitting goes, because I want to have stuff to write about!

Last night, I started a couple new knitting projects. I mentioned that I was going to work on some dish cloths, and that's exactly what I did. I started a pink and blue striped one that I really like. These two colours look pretty nice together, I think. It's all garter stitch, except a stockinette stitch band on the one end. I like adding a band of a different colour, stitch pattern, or stripes on one end for some interest. Some of the cloths I've done before have seed stitch, some have a few thin bands of stockinette, and I did one with 1x1 ribbing. After I finished this cloth, I started another one in a mix of browns. I'm probably not going to add anything to the end of this one, because the variegation adds enough interest. I don't have a whole lot of dish cloth cotton left, so I'm making the best of it. I kind of want to buy more once this runs out, just so I can have a small stash of it, but part of me says no because a) I have tons of yarn and b) I don't really make any money off them. Something to ponder, I guess.

The other project I started, and finished, was an i-cord wrap bracelet. I've made similar ones before, blogged here, but I think I like these new ones better. I used finer yarn, that is 100% mercerized cotton, so it has a nice sheen to it. I also made it slightly smaller by reducing the number of stitches. I think it turned out quite nice. I started a second bracelet out of a shiny, soft acrylic yarn in a pretty aqua blue colour. I finished everything but tying in the ends on that one, so I started a nice red one right after. The yarn is a little thicket, so the end product is a little sturdier. The pink one is kind of dainty looking. They're long enough to wear as necklaces, which is pretty cool. I think they would look nice with several layered around your neck, as well. I'm going to try to make a bunch of these in time for the Made in Windsor show in a couple weeks. I have some creepy hand displays that I could put them on, and I think they would look pretty neat. I still have quite a few of the cotton bracelets I mentioned earlier, so maybe I can put them together in sets of some sort.

Rick and I made a quick trip into Windsor to return a couple rented suits for his dad and brother. We also made a stop to pick up a few random groceries. It was a nice relaxing drive for the day. I knit a few rows on the teal shawl on the way there, and almost fell asleep on the way back. I'm still working on that getting up early thing. The whole time change thing threw a wrench in the gears. I'm hoping that I can start waking up earlier in the very near future.

I've decided to only do five things about me a day. I have honestly been having a hard time thinking of interesting things about me to post! Plus, I get double the days out of it, which will really help with my count. Once again, if there is something you want to know about me, please leave a comment and ask! I will answer pretty much everything! Here goes, today's five things about me!

11. I don't drive. I never have, and if I can, I never will. I've never taken the test or anything, so it's not like I kept failing and gave up. I have bad spatial relations, a short attention span and bad eyesight, so I feel like I am an accident waiting to happen. Rick doesn't like being my chauffeur, but it's an arrangement that works for now.

12. I have terrible road rage, despite not driving. I often shout things at other drivers and pedestrians, and, at times, cyclists. And yes, I know they're usually can't hear me. The most memorable rage filled thing I've said in recent memory was to a pedestrian who was just moseying across a fairly busy road, when he had a Don't Walk sign was "Move it or lose it, ponytail!" I was with my friend Tracy, and he laughed about it for several hours afterwards, and still mention it pretty regularly. Also, last night, I yelled at a cyclist for not having any reflectors on his bike. That was just dumb on his part. No street lights of any sort, because we were on a county road, and he was wearing all dark clothes. We were probably less than 20 feet from him before we could actually see him. Super dangerous, and I yelled at him (through closed windows) to let him know.

13. I have one tattoo, and I am hoping to get more in the near future. The only one I have is 519 on the inside of the fingers on my left hand. (You can kind of see part of the nine in the bracelet picture) I got this tattoo in the middle of the night, in the apartment of some people I had met that night. I was with a bunch of friends, and we almost all got some kind of tattoo. It was one of the most memorable nights of my life. Despite how terrible this tattoo looks now, I still love it. It looks fine in the photo, but it was taken just a couple hours after getting it done. Now, there are thin and thick parts, and part of the nine is completely missing. Whenever I get other tattoos done, I plan on getting it fixed.
Some of my other tattoo plans are a couple knitting related ones, a matryoshka, some various flowers including a forget-me-not, a calla lily and bleeding hearts, and I have a few other, not fully formed ideas floating around. I have a few tattoo artists in mind, and I will probably end up getting one or two from each of them. I know some people are completely dedicated to one artist, and I feel like that would be difficult for me.

14. This one is a strange one, for sure. I sleep wrapped around my blanket. I kick my legs like a line dancer when I sleep, so I can't stand having any sheets on the bed, just a comforter, and sometimes a blanket I knit. I lay on my side with my one arm and leg wrapped around the blanket. It's a weird arrangement, but it works for me. Rick and I each have our own blankets, because otherwise, I'd steal them all, and they'd end up on the floor on my side of the bed.

15. I used to dance. I did tap, ballet, and jazz for a few years when I was a youngin'. I loved doing it, and I was actually pretty good. The teachers at the dance school I went to kept bugging me to join the competition team, and I didn't want to. I danced because I enjoyed it, I didn't want to compete and take the fun out of it. My mom told them repeatedly that if they kept bugging me about it, I would end up quitting. They thought if they hyped it up enough, I would finally cave. They were wrong, and I stopped dancing completely. I now have no coordination, and can't even dance the Hustle. I rarely, if ever, go out to bars where dancing happens, and that's probably a good thing, because I'd likely embarrass myself. Part of me wishes I still danced, especially when I watch all those dance competition shows, like So You Think You Can Dance, and I think "Hey, I could have been on that show." A bit of a bummer, to be honest.

I just got home from a quiet night at work. It's getting to the off-season for drinking, which surprisingly exists, so things are really slowing down. I worked on empties all night, as I usually do since I'm the low one on the totem pole, and it was rather uneventful. No jerks brought in big smelly bags of cans, no broken bottles, really not much of anything. Since it was so quiet, my coworker and I cleaned the store from end to end. He cleaned stuff that hasn't been cleaned in ages, while I served the customers. And just before closing, I mopped the floor really well, and the store looked almost brand new. I'm going in tomorrow for the same shift, and I expect to be cleaning more then, as well.

Things are going really well for me lately. There are loads of things that I am looking forward to in the next couple months, and that always makes me happy. My good friend is expecting her first child, and she just told me tonight when the baby shower is. That means I can plan my knitting project(s?) for her accordingly. I already have one awesome one in mind, and I'm thinking about a couple more. I probably won't post too much about these on here, because I think she reads my blog. I might post little sneaks of it, but nothing too specific. If you have any tried and true baby knit patterns, please share them! She is the type of person that really appreciates hand made, and I know everything I make for her will be cared for correctly, loved, and admired.

This post has 1697 words.

I am at 8275 total words for this month.