Should I do the Friday Five again?

It's almost Friday. Here goes:

1. Do you like to shop? Why or why not?
Generally, no. For one thing, I never have much to spend, and shopping is more fun if you don't have to worry so much about a budget. Also, I just don't like being in stores - especially crowded stores - I can't stand being in someone's way.

2. What was the last thing you purchased?
I just put a book in my Amazon shopping basket, although I didn't actually buy it yet. I have two other items that have been waiting for several days in the shopping basket. Does that count? The one I just added was Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl. If that doesn't count because I didn't actually purchase it yet (but I will), then it would be groceries, and that's kind-of boring.

3. Do you prefer shopping online or at an actual store? Why?
Online. See #1 above. There are certain stores that I don't go into at all, since I don't enjoy the anxiety I associate with them.

4. Did you get an allowance as a child? How much was it?
Occasionally and briefly. When I did get an allowance it wasn't much. I remember $1.10 per week for a while. School lunch was 90 cents, and I didn't get lunch money (my mother wanted me to carry a sack lunch but I wouldn't - this was in high school and it wasn't cool and I had so much stuff to carry that it just got smashed anyway), but I could get a donut at the grocery store across the street for 20 cents, so I either skipped lunch or got a donut and called that lunch. Didn't leave me with much spending money.

5. What was the last thing you regret purchasing?
The last thing? Probably some music I ordered online that just turned out to be weird. I was looking for Norwegian folk music, hopefully with words that I could hear that would help my language skills, and took a chance on a couple of CDs with a compilation of various Scandinavian artists. Just not what I was looking for, although I do pick up more and more words each time I listen to it.

Personality Theory

I'm working on my theory of personality paper, due on Monday, and I came across this website by a psychology professor in Pennsylvania. If you are interested in this kind of stuff, you ought to have a look. The site includes several e-texts, various papers which I will go back and look at when I have more time, and even some personality tests, and other fun things.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Maybe it's time to try the Friday Five again

1. List five things you'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.

1. Get my graduation application turned in.
2. Take the GRE.
3. Clean up the house
4. At least start applying to graduate schools.
5. It's too late to shear the sheep, isn't it? Well, the majority of them are headed for Arizona this week anyway - since I couldn't get them sold (several people were willing to take them for free) I'm donating them to the Navajos. At least I get a tax deduction that way, and the sheep will be appreciated and have a good home.

2. List five people you've lost contact with that you'd like to hear from again.
Trang, Cami, Jori, Mary, Becky

3. List five things you'd like to learn how to do.

1. Warping my table loom
2. Speaking fluent Norwegian (I speak some, but want it to be better)
3. Needle Felting
4. Playing the violin
5. Rosemalling

4. List five things you'd do if you won the lottery (no limit).

1. Travel to Norway.
2. Buy land where I can properly set up a fiber farm, complete with goats, sheep, & alpacas, and even hire someone to help with the work I can't get done myself.
3. Build my dream house - it wouldn't be huge, but would have enough room to have people over, and it would be comfortable, and have enough space for a fiber studio and other things that I wish I could have.
4. Build my dream barn.
5. I'd still want to go to graduate school, but it would be so much easier not having to worry about money.

5. List five things you do that help you relax.
Knit, Draw, Write, Sing/Play/Listen to Music, Hold my Dog (Nosie). Wow, I expected that one to be really hard, but it wasn't! I almost didn't do this Friday Five because I didn't think I could handle this question, and it turned out to be the easiest one!

Okay, it isn't Friday. Friday tends to be my crunch day - I catch up with non-required things like blogging on weekends, usually Sunday because that's when I get time on the computer. Deal with it.

4000 Visitors

This site has just had its four thousandth visitor. They were searching for wrist warmer patterns - I've gotten a lot of that in the last day or so. I really hope that I gave enough information on those to be helpful, but if I didn't, or if you want more information about anything, don't hesitate to leave a comment and check back. I'm always happy to answer questions.

I'm getting visitors from all over the world. Here's the latest breakdown:



There will be new pictures coming soon. I took some over a week ago and thought I had them uploaded but got in a hurry and stopped the camera too soon, and they didn't get there. But I'll get to it. I've been a little stressed lately. That's a huge understatement. Anyway, I'm still here so keep checking back periodically.

What's your personality type?

Personality theory is an interesting class. There are so many ways to define and assess personality, and no, the class is not so much about all the popular personality tests as it is studying the theorists and theories behind personality. The Meyers-Briggs is an interesting test, and I've actually taken several versions of it. It's based on part of Carl Gustav Jung's work. My results have been pretty darn consistent, even though the tests sometimes seem quite different from each other. I always turn out as either INFP or INFJ, with clear preference for introversion over extroversion, but very little preference towards either perceiving or judging (which is the part that was not part of Jung's typology). Descriptions of either of those two types fit me quite well, and one thing that stands out in both of them is a tendency to have good writing ability, which is something that I have been told that I possess.

INFP - "Questor". High capacity for caring. Emotional face to the world. High sense of honor derived from internal values. 4.4% of total population.

Take Free Myers-Briggs Personality Test

Hand Warmers



You're probably tired of that brown yarn by now. I still have one more skein of it though, so it could turn up again. I liked the way that cabled ribbing looked so I made these very easy wrist warmers to match the Ragna sweater. Staying warm is high priority for me, so I wear these a lot. They are very easy - just a tube with a thumb hole (knit a few rows back and forth to make a thumb hole) but no other shaping. I did alter the side cable in order accomodate the thumb hole. Wanna see?

These are different from my old hand warmers, which are made like a mitten but bound off leaving the tip of the thumb and the fingers open. I've also made fingerless gloves with shaped fingers but the ends open, which are good too. I like the old hand warmers, but wanted more length. The old ones are hand spun and include fibers such as llama, silk, wool, and cashmere (brushed from my own dairy goats).

I'm dreaming of a white ... Halloween?!?



We had nice weather up until the end of October. The night before Halloween it was windy and cold, and Halloween morning we woke up to snow. I think that the weather man got his holidays mixed up and thought it was Christmas. It melted quite a bit but snowed again Halloween night and off and on all day on November first. Yeah, it melted a lot during the day, but we still have snow in places where the sun doesn't hit directly. We do need the water - whatever we can get still.

Having been born in California and living almost exclusively in warm climates until I was 19 years old, I don't think that I will ever quite adapt to the real winters that we have here. My kids, on the other hand, have been born and raised in cold climates, and they think the snow is great, and they are not finding it cold at all yet. All they need is snow boots, and they are set.



I have been knitting, even if not posting a lot.

Should I give it to you all at once, or dole it out over the next week? Hmm... Well, my current project is this very easy shawl:



I just started it on Tuesday, and it's almost done even though I was swamped with stuff I had to read for my classes last week. If you want to knit things for Christmas presents and don't now what to do yet, here's an idea. Hint: Use bulky yarn and the biggest, longest circular needle you can find. I'm actually knitting this on one circular needle - I just put half of the stitches on another one so I could lay it out for a picture and to check my progress. There are tons of ways to knit a shawl and it can be as plain or as fancy as you like, or as fine or as bulky as you like.

Okay, this is acrylic yarn. Maybe I'm not the fiber snob you thought I was. Hey, it's pretty, and I like it. So there. I like the color too. I really am a natural or neutral colors kind of girl (with exceptions - when I go for color, boy do I ever - remember the rainbow socks last February?), but I like the subtle color in this yarn. I'm not sure how well you can see it, but it's blackish with just a hint of green and kind-of a rose color.

Back to shawl knitting methods. You can just make a triangle, increased from the point, just like those knitted washcloths, except you just keep going. You would start by casting on three stitches, and then do a yarn over increase near the beginning of each row, working in garter stitch. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

The one I am knitting is two triangles joined and increased from the center. It's not really any harder. Cast on 3 stitches. First row: knit two stitches in the first stitch (front and back loops), yo (that is a yarn over increase), k2. Second row: k2 stitches in first stitch, yo, k3. Each successive row, increase in the same places - the first stitch and the stitch before the center stitch. You can tell the center stitch because it it the stitch before the yo from the previous row. Just keep knitting until it is as big as you would like. Maybe you would like to experiment with a shawl for a doll or a baby so that you know what you like. I'm just knitting in plain garter stitch, so this is a mindless knitting project for me, but there is no reason why you can't put in some lace patterns, change colors, or anything else that appeals to you. And you can use any kind of increases that you like as well. The finishing possibilities are endless - fringe, crocheted borders, ... - I think I will cast off in some kind of lace.

This project doesn't take as much yarn as you might think either. I have just started the second skein, and I think that two skeins will probably be enough.

I've also been knitting hand warmers. When the weather turns cold I knit small projects that I can finish fast that will keep me warm. And I bought some yarn to make a sweater for Jonathan (his birthday is the 24th of November - do you think I'll get it done?), and I've been spinning silk, soy silk, and soy silk blends and if there is enough I want to knit a poncho with that (from Domino Knitting). I have more pictures and could talk more about these projects, but I think I'll save it for tomorrow. We hope.