Well folks, I finally got tired of waiting to get everything just right. The move is on. You can find me at http://www.nytefalle.com/blog from now on. Things are still a bit dusty and I haven't managed to validate my RSS feed (if anyone knows more about that kind of thing, please lemme know) and I haven't moved all my links and silliness off the sidebar yet. Still, it's moving day so please update accordingly. I will not be doing any further updates or maintainence on this site.

Memaw's shawl has been blocked and just needs all numerous ends woven in. I'll probably get to that this weekend and get the shawl to the man's parents for delivery next time they go up to visit Cave Spring. I'll get a photo up once the ends are neatly away. The hat for the little sister's guy is also complete (if you've seen one ribbed beanie, you've seen them all). It was a quick knit, but then hats tend to be.

Get this...I did swatches today. shhh!! Not so loud! I'm really not sure what came over me. I had a thought that the leftovers from Memaw's shawl would go with some other alpaca I had on hand for the Pirates hat over at Hello Yarn. One swatch later, I appeared to be correct in my speculations. I also wanted to check the gauge on the merino for the Stockings of Doom. I took a gander at the pattern Ms. Mouse suggested and will probably do a slight variation on that. I may have to pick up the book at some point (I bought Nancy Bush's Folk Socks instead) if "winging it" is a complete failure doesn't work out. I'm rooting for winging it right now.



I'm still just starting on the second Jaywalker, having been faithful to the shawl for the past few days. The weekend should bring an update on that. Even though it was very tempting, I didn't sign up for Sockapaloooza. I'm still being haunted by the ghosts of my poor showing from Sockapalooza. I didn't get my socks finished on time and had my poor pal waiting ever so patiently on me. I go into these things with the best intentions, but if projects are start building up for school, I pretty much give up knitting to focus on my art work. True, I'm only enrolled in one class this semester and am spending more time knitting (and finishing) than this time last year, but I didn't want to take the chance of disappointing anyone.

I haven't mentioned the wrap up of SP7 yet. First, let me say that I absolutely adored spoiling Iris (waves!). We had so much in common, from being half-Korean, to learning to spin, to having similar artistic interests. She is a lovely and fascinating woman; I'm enormously pleased to have made a friend through this exchange.

Despite this, I think I'm done with participating in Secret Pal exchanges, having been a bit disappointed on the other end of the exchange. I was so excited to get her initial email and the first package was very thoughful. I really had no communication at all with my pal after the first package and email. I heard from her again in early December to say the second package had been returned to her and that she was sending it back out. Again, once I finally received it, the package contained lovely and thoughtful items. It also contained a note saying I should see the last package soon. Considering it took over a month for my final parcel for Iris to be delivered to her in the UK, I was willing to wait to receive my own surprise. Now that Iris has her parcel, I'm considering this exchange to be finished and have stopped checking the mail with my previous anticipation.

I understand that things come up and when it boils down to it, life can demand more from you than you were expecting very suddenly. After all, how late were the socks I sent for Sockapalooza?. I understand that other things fall by the wayside when this happens. I like to think that's what happened with my pal, that life is taking precedence. I'd much rather think that than she just got bored with the exchange or something like that. If that's the case, I wish you all the best Secret Pal. I just wish there'd been a bit more communication between us and you just could have told me you were unable to continue the exchange.

In either case, I'd have taken a pal that completely ignored me through this whole thing for the opportunity to make a friend of Iris. While I could meet another person with whom I click, I'm over the Secret Pal thing.

The great blog move continues. Actually, I've gotten bored with the logistics of it all and have been slacking. I have windows of graphics sitting open on my computer that I have not edited at all. Having decided on my new header image, I'll probably just incorporate that into the theme template I'm using and call it a day. Soon, all of you who are not slaves to the Microsoft machine will be able to comment to your heart's content. That's right...the reason you can't comment is you're using things like Firefox which the Microsoft machine has deemed unacceptable. My blog is being held captive. Liberation will come soon.

While I haven't been liberating the blog, I have been knitting. I did cast on for the second Jaywalker, but I caught a glimpse of Memaw's shawl and felt guilty. I determined that her shawl would be the next item I finished, so I have been working pretty non-stop on that.



With any luck, the shawl will be off the needles tonite and pinned out for blocking. My mission will be to keep the cats from sitting on it too much.

I snapped some photos of a demo Donovan gave last week on how we should be approaching drawings. Right now, he's concerned that we get the technical stuff down and can put down objects in the correct perspective and proportions. You know, the stuff that would have been useful to know in say...Drawing I. This is definitely a different approach than the, for here, standard of "there's the still life, now draw it" approach we usually get. Kind of refreshing, actually.

I'm still working on getting the old posts moved into their new home, but quite honestly, it's pretty boring work. It occurs to me that perhaps I should focus on the "fun" part which for me is coming up with a new layout design. I'm thinking something in orange, but I haven't sketched out anything concrete as of yet.

I have been doing some knitting in the interim. There will, of course be pictures once I get home as I neglected to bring my USB cable to work with me. Besides, I think the bosses might get suspicious. The thrummed mittens have been done for a few days. I began to cast on for the second Jaywalker, but never actually went past that.

The main focus of my knitting has been on Memaw's shawl. I'm currently making negative progress on it, having missed a few yarn overs and only realizing it half a dozen rows later. This is what happens when I decide that I no longer need to look at the pattern, I get cocky and "stuff" happens. This would also be the second or third time I thought to myself how useful a lifeline would be. I've ripped back and am once again moving forward. I'm hoping that I'll once again be making positive progress later today. I also know that I will encounter a knot in the yarn in a few more rows (at the end of row 104 to be exact) and I now know that it's not worth it to continue on after the knot since I'll have just enough yarn for three rows before I get to the end of the skein. There is absolutely no point in weaving in extra ends for only a few rows. I suppose that I'm close to half done with the shawl since I'll be starting skein 4 of 7 in a few rows. I'd like to go ahead and get this done and on its way to Memaw in the next week or so. Yes, I'm being optimistic about this.

I've added the yet to begun projects to the sidebar as well. Does anyone have suggestions for a glove pattern suitable for manly men? The more I think about it, the more I believe Dad's gloves will actually turn into a very simple hat. He'd get more wear out of a hat while he's in the garden versus alpaca gloves since he pretty much wears "work" gloves when he's outside. I'm having a hard time recalling a time when he wore gloves that doesn't put him in his BDU's. The husband is more likely to just wear nice gloves to wear nice gloves.

It's also time to start contemplating my attack plan for the little sister's thigh high's. I'm waiting to hear back from her on specific preferences other than "thigh high" and have been hunting down patterns in the mean time. I found this vintage mesh stocking pattern. I know there's the one from Knitty using Cascade Fixation, but I've already got the pink merino so I'm looking for a pattern or a place to start with a non-elastic yarn. There's a sock calculator which will take care of knee-high's, plus a few patterns already floating about.

\*\this is what happens when I take so long to post something/*/

Have heard back from the sister and while she initially said she didn't care as long as they were thigh-high's and stayed up, further poking revealed she'd prefer "not mesh." It's looking like I'm going to design a stocking here because I can't take the miles of stockinette. I was initially concerned with how the stocking (let's be honest here, this isn't a sock, it's a stocking) would stay up under the weight of all that stockinette (hey, or ribbing!) but how about a picot edge, which will give me plenty of room to slide in an elastic band? I'd love and appreciate any comments or feedback any of you have on this. The yarn is a 650 yds (I think) of merino (yes, it feels as soft as you think it might) that I got ages ago from Serendipity in South America. I'm not sure on the gauge, so it looks like I'll be doing a bit of swatching for this and adjusting the proposed pattern to make sure I have enough yarn to finish this out since I don't believe the seller offers merino sock yarn anymore. We'll see.

"B" is for Beetle. 2003 Sundown Orange New Beetle GLX, 1.8t (turbo, baby!), manual transmission, 17" factory alloy wheels, sunroof, fully loaded with a black leather interior (I'll never get a car without heated seats after this). This car can scoot!


I do confess to being obsessed with my car; admittedly, it's but a mere shadow of obsession compared to the husband and his over-the-top automobile obsession. I have a 2003 (early '03...it first showed up in a dealership in Tennessee in January '03. It lacks a few of the features of a true '03, namely no blinkers on the side mirrors, no locked center console, and a difference in the door panel design.) This is also my first new car. My first car was a 1991 Ford Escort Pony with zero options (as in black car with no A/C in Georgia) and a moon roof. My next car was a used 1999 Mitsubishi Mirage. It was quite an upgrade from the Escort (meaning it had A/C) but I found that I missed driving a manual tranny, even in the horrid Atlanta stop and go traffic.

Getting the Beetle was quite unexpected. I'd been saying I wanted a Beetle since they first came out in 1998. It just looked like such a happy car. After driving a friend's Audi A4 with a 1.8t, my Beetle obsession came back once I realized I could get that engine in a cuter package. I was forever contemplating which color I'd get should I ever manage to have a Beetle, and I never did make up my mind. To this day, I can tell you the exact color names that car was ever available in up through 2004, including the "special editions" like Isotope and Vapor. In April of '03, the husband decided one day that we should head up to the new VW dealership by the apartment so that I could take one for a test drive since I had yet to do so after all those years of lusting after the car.

I was giddy with excitement at the thought of driving a Beetle at last. We strolled the lot and the husband suggested I find a salesman & tell him what I wanted. I told the first salesman I saw that I wanted a 2003 turbo New Beetle in Sundown orange, manual transmission and black leather interior. He put us into a manual turbo to test drive and began the hunt. I *loved* driving that car. Before, driving was simply something to get from point A to point B. In that car, it was actually fun. The car was everything the plain jane cars I'd had were not; adorable, sporty, and it hauled ass. Of course, I was probably overwhelmed by the new car fumes.

We came back with a big smile on my face and I figured that was that. I definitely wanted a Beetle one day. We went inside with Mike the salesman and went over numbers and things, but I wasn't really paying attention. After all, the Mirage was a perfectly servicable vehicle and I'd only had it for two years or so. There wasn't a Beetle with exactly my specifications on the lot (they all had a cream interior), but he'd found one in Tennessee that could be brought down. Somehow, we left the dealership in a loaner Passat while they kept my Mirage to inspect for its trade-in value. I still figured that in a day or so, we'd reclaim my car and put this adventure behind us. A few days later, the husband called me at work and asked if I was sure I really wanted the Beetle. I told him I did and he said he was signing the papers on the orange car from Tennessee at that very minute. We took delivery just a few days before our birthday in May (yes, we have the same birthday. I'm older by a few hours.); definitely the best birthday present I've ever gotten.

I recently hunted down a factory indash CD/mp3 player for the Beetle from a salvage yard in Kansas City. Would you believe VW didn't go to an indash player until 2004? And then if you wanted to buy the head unit from VW, it initially cost nearly $800. The price dropped to around $500 the last time I checked with Donny the fabulous parts guy at my dealership. I drove around with a cassette deck for two years *shudders*.

I have plans for my little car, plans that hint at my obsession. I've picked out wheels (Millie Miglia Spider II), considered body kits, paint jobs, and dressing it up as a jack o' lantern for Halloween. I want the car lowered by about 1.5", a short throw shifter, the cpu chipped and a host of cosmetic mods for the interior that have a lot to do with color matching some of the trim. I did test drive an '06 Beetle, and it was the first time I considered trading in mine for a newer model. The interior & exterior tweaks they made, as well as the pep to the 2.5L engine and the feel of the clutch were very tempting. In the end, it isn't offered in orange anymore. Of course, the question is if I can fit any of the '06 parts into my car. Yes...I have plans.

Until I got the Beetle, I really don't think I had my current obsession with all things orange. Without a doubt, orange is now my favorite color, but I'm pretty sure it was something more tame (like blue) before then. I'm pretty sure I picked the car color on a whim because that was the one color I didn't see very often on the Beetles I noticed on the road. Now people identify me by my car, "you know, she drives that orange Beetle" or "look for the orange Beetle," and I can't think of driving anything else. I never had anything orange, now everywhere I look, there's some bright happy color peeking out at me and it makes me smile.

Knitting content in another post :-D

I hit upon a color to dye the Merino Oro I picked up last week. It is, of course, orange. I loaded up with some generic drink mix at the grocery store last night and set to work this evening. I used 6 packets of orange, 2 black cherry, 1 tropical punch, 1 fruit punch, 1 peach, and 1 raspberry. I really had no idea in my mind other than I wanted a dark orange. I just mixed it all together and hoped for the best. I'm rather pleased with the color at this point. I'll have to take a look at it once the yarn is dry and see if I think it's still dark enough.

I also managed to finish the first Jaywalker last yesterday or the day before. It's a *very* tight fit getting it over my heel, but once it's on, it fits wonderfully. I'm off to watch Battlestar Galactica and cast on for the second sock.

"A" is for...Art (studio). During the semester, this is where I spend all of my time outside of work and home. I'm on campus, in one studio or another, surrounded by art. I will be in the drawing studio this semester, hopefully getting better at it.

My professor, Donivan Howard, is new to the area and this is his second semester teaching at Kennesaw. He was an entertainment artist in California and fascinates me because the kinds of things that he's done fall very much in line with the types of things I'd like to do. He's been a Disney artist, having worked on Fantasia 2000, Tarzan, The Emperor's New Groove, and Mulan to name a few. The Coca-Cola polar bears? Yeah, he gave them an overhaul and made them presentable for the latest winter ad campaign. The art climate in the Georgia area is really geared towards gallery art, which I could really care less about. That he knows how to go about doing things that don't have a gallery focus and that he has an extensive list of entertainment contacts and is willing to put those resources at our disposal is fabulous. I'm looking forward to what I can learn from him this semester and am keeping my fingers crossed that the school hires him on as a full-time professor. Everyone needs a mentor, right?

I'm finally posting some pictures of the Ribby Cardi. I guess it's my first official finished item of the year. I wove in the stray ends and gave my sister the option of taking it with her as it was and getting the zipper sewn in once she arrived in Korea, or I'd hold on to it and put in the zipper and send it off to her. She took it as it was, along with the zipper, so I count it finished. Here's the younger sister modeling the cardi. In case you can't tell, she's a bit of a ham in front of a camera.

• Project: Ribby Cardi
• Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool. 1255 Irish Moss (body) and 2370 Silver Birch (sleeves)
• Notes: I knit the smallest size for my sister. The instructions were very clear and I didn't have a problem at all during the knitting. This is my first completed cardigan/sweater and I'd definitely knit the pattern again at some point.

And the sky directly above my apartment building from a couple days ago. My chimney is the one on the left. Now I've got Mary Poppins stuck in my head...chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim-chim-cheerie, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be...chim-chimeny, chim-chimeny, chim-chim-cheero, good luck will rub off if I shake hands with you...or blow me a kiss and that's lucky too...