Author: BeverlyArmyWilliams

After some airplane snafus, I’m back in the Burque. I have lots to update, lots and lots of knitting thoughts. Since I’m not so slick with my computer skills, I’m gonna make a few differnt posts. Starting with my SP7 Questionnaire! Alot of the answers will be the same as SP6, but I’m gonna do it from scratch and see if any have changed in the last few months.

1. Are you a yarn snob (do you prefer higher quality and/or natural fibers)? Do you avoid Red Heart and Lion Brand? Yes, I’m a snob. A big snob. Well, not so big, but I love those natural fibers, and I’m nuts for handspun right now.

2. Do you spin? Crochet? Yup, both. I am saving up for a spinning wheel, which I hope to give myself for my birthday. Love spinning. More than just about anything. I do crochet, not that often, and for no good reason. I like some of the freeform stuff that I’ve seen…maybe I’ll give that a shot.

3. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in? I have a cute blue and white plant holder that the straights are in, and absolute chaos for the circs and dpns. I want to make a felted needle holder like Ramona did.

4. How long have you been knitting? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced? I started knitting in 1997 after wanting to learn for years. Martha Stewart Living had an article about it, and I “taught” myself from that. Classes in ’98 helped. I think I’m intermediate. I’m not scared to try new things, but I haven’t made a lot of bigger or more complicated projects.

5. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list? Yup.

6. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products etc.) Clean cotton, lavender.

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy? I love cookies. Period. They are my friend, they are my foe. Oh, I like candied ginger a bunch, too.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? I love spinning, and I’m interested in paper-related crafts; I’d like to learn bookmaking and I have fun with my “ephemeral journals”. I’m not great at it, but I enjoy sketching and watercolor painting.

9. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD) My stereo right now is the cd drive on my computer and my ipod mini. I love mixed cd’s. LOVE them. One of my students made me one, and he got an A+. Well, true, he earned it, but bribery never hurts. I like a lot of music, right now I’m listening to a lot of Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, Bjork.

10. What’s your favorite color? Or–do you have a color family/season/palette you prefer? Any colors you just can’t stand? Black’s my favorite color. I also like chocolate brown and pink. I like muted greens and blues, just starting to have a relationship with orange.

11. What is your family situation? Single, but I’ll be moving in with my bf in May. No human children. Do you have any pets? Two dogs…well, technically one, but Neal has a dog too, and she may as well be mine. They’re all (Neal and the dogs) living in CT now.

12. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos? I love mittens, scarves, and hats. Don’t know about ponchos.

13. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? Manos. Right now I’m nuts for Manos. But I like wool in general, cashmere is a-ok in my book, too!

14. What fibers do you absolutely *not* like? Some of the fun fur things get on my nerves if they’re too plastic-y feeling.

15. What is/are your current knitting obsession/s? I’ve just finished a grueling semester of Christmas knitting. I’m about to embark on a fun semester of sock knitting, starting with Jaywalker with my ABQ girls.

16. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit? I did some mittens over break, and those were lots of fun…I like knitting stuff to felt, too.

17. What are you knitting right now? Here’s the list, which will appear in a post of its own, too:
–Christmas socks for Neal and MB
–Stripes are Stars Sweater for me
–Cabled hat for Mike
–Clapotis for me

18. Do you like to receive handmade gifts? LOVE them best.

19. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Circulars, although straights have their uses.

20. Bamboo, aluminum, plastic? Bamboo

21. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift? Yes. Thanks to Noelle, I have a winder to match my swift. MWAH, N!

22. How did you learn to knit? Martha Stewart, Janet at my Peekskill, NY, LYS, and Sue, also in Peekskill. I’m learning a lot from my SnB groups, too.

23. How old is your oldest UFO? Um, about seven or eight years old.

24. What is your favorite animated character or a favorite animal/bird? I love the dog on Family Guy (yup, did a lot of tv watching on my break. I know what shows are on tv now!), and the “Get Fuzzy” gang always make me happy. My name means “Meadow where the beaver dwells” and despite the oft-naughty connotations, I adore, well, beavers.

25. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas, when I get to be with my family. Easter, ditto. My birthday, ditto. So, I guess, anytime I get to be with the clan.

26. Is there anything that you collect? Yarn. Beavers.

27. What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have? None, although I may break down and order Interweave since I lust after every issue.

28. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? Blue Sky alpaca; cashmere to make Best Friend.

29. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn? Cat Bordhi’s mobeius cast on. I have the book but need to see it in person.

30. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements? I’m starting to obsess about socks. I have a fantasy of wearing my own cashmere socks. My feet are cold here in NM, and I long to make them warm again. I wear a 7-7.5 shoe.

31. When is your birthday? (mm/dd) It’s coming up, baby! February 9th! Me and Mia Farrow.

Until I’m back in CT. I’m sure I’ll be shivering and missing NM.

My Secret Pal’s final, wonderful package arrived earlier in the week. I finally took some pictures, but I’m only taking a second away from packing…so I’ll just give you the big reveal: Brianne from A Journey Beyond Boredom! She’s such a lovey–totally upbeat and just, well, zesty about life. Until the pix are up, here’s a tease…lots of fabu stitch markers, including some personalized ones, two skeins of yumster yarn (Cascade tweed and Noro Kureyon, which will be made into a mini felted tote over my winter break), a wonderful lilac-scented lotion (my favorite scent), refreshing foot spray, holiday treats and more! Thanks, Brianne. You’re amazing, and I adore you! xx

Sunday I’ll be going to see Wicked at the Hartford Bushnell. Broadway it ain’t, but at least it’s a show! Plans for dinner include Dandy Lion’s, where I had a yummy dinner on Neal’s birthday.

I’ll do my best to post while I’m away. Gotta figure out how to go wireless at Starbuck’s in Granby. Hope you have a joyful holiday.

Yippee! I submitted my last paper last night and my grades today. I owe the prof I’m doing a little research for a few last notes, and I’m outta here like Vladimir.

Meanwhile, check out this porn. Yeah, baby. Hear the thumping music?

I’m a little slow with formatting pictures and text, and I seem to have a difficult time uploading multiple pictures on blogger…so I’ve posted some pictures on Flickr. Check ’em out. There’s tons more, but I won’t bore you!

Countdown updates: Classwork: check; Marking portfolios: 50% done; Time until I’m back with Neal and the girlies: about 65 hours!

So even though Crazy Aunt Purl hasn’t posted a picture of her favorite knitting spot (Scout‘s fun meme), I will respond to her universal meme.

Ten random things you might not know about me
1. I have three tattoos.
2. One of them covers a Chinese symbol that was supposed to mean student.
3. It meant Saturday.
4. I’m healthier when I live with my dog, Maddie.
5. Maddie fulfills my desire for children. So does Tilly.
6. I get bitter about my divorce still. And jealous.
7. That mostly happens when I feel uncertain about the future of my relationship with Neal.
8. I’ve watched the Winona Ryder version of Little Women about 30 times this semester. It reminds me of New England. There’s some bird songs in it that make me want to cry from homesickness.
9. After I saw Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet, I cut off all of my hair and bleached it blonde.
10. I should be finishing up my Classical Rhetoric paper. It’s already late. But my professor is nice and gave me until tomorrow morning to submit it.

Nine places I’ve visited
1. Australia
2. Luxembourg
3. England
4. Italy
5. Montreal
6. Graceland
7. France
8. Ireland (“Ya must be shattr’d”)
9. Belgium

Eight ways to win my heart
1. Cook for me.
2.Read good stuff so we can talk about it.
3. Ask me questions about writing, knitting, reading, or spinning.
4. Have a good vocabulary. Use words like “gloaming.”
5. Slow dance in the living room with me. Without my asking.
6. Surprise me with flowers. Especially if you picked them on the side of the road.
7. Love dogs and be kind to other animals even if you don’t love them.
8. Be willing to have an adventure with me.

Seven things I want to do before I die
1. Ride my bike across the country
2. Publish a few novels
3. Read Finnegans Wake
4. Visit Kenya
5. Kayak in Iceland
6. Really learn to watercolor
7. Marry a man who can’t live without me

Six things I’m afraid of
1. Most insects
2. Car accidents
3. Losing my independence
4. Heights
5. Childbirth
6. Hospital stays

Five things I don’t like
1. Not being able to turn on a light to knit by when Neal is watching tv at night.
2. Television.
3. Bad, unpredictable drivers.
4. Liars.
5. Incompetence disguised as competence.

Four ways to turn me off
1. Be a racist or chauvinist or be mean to an animal
2. Act like crafts are quaint
3. Don’t read
4. Act like birthdays and holidays are not important

Three things I do every day
1. Talk to Neal
2. Read
3. Write

Two things that make me happy
1. My dogs
2. Writing and knitting and reading and sleeping late (except when it makes me late)

One thing on my mind right now
Figuring out how I’m going to make through next semester without having a breakdown.

Go read this. Now. Then come back.

Wasn’t that a great interview? Don’t you want tivo and a copy of Vickie’s new book?

And don’t you love that she does all sorts of crafts? ‘Cuz that’s how I am. Knitting is the one I always return to, but I spin, I crochet, I quilt, I sew (well…my ex will tell you my sewing skills are fairly limited, but I knocked out some rock ‘n roll garments in my day!), and I’ve recently scooped up a bunch of stuff from Sublime Stitching. My girly in CT (who knits & is taking up spinning in January!) got me into embroidery. And, by the way, one of the things so cool about HER is that she tackles the hard stuff head on…I’m still making scarves and she’s making a complicated Debbie Bliss pattern for her little one.

A lady walked by the KnQ group on Saturday and basically called the lot of us “quaint”. Usually I’m fine with that…I love knitting in public. I like thinking that maybe it reminds people to slow down. To make something. And so, when said lady went on about how she’s just too busy with her computers, I noted that most of the knitters I know are super computer savvy. She was too busy boxing us up as quaint relics with nothing better to do with our time. Well, lady, I ain’t quaint. I come from a line of women (ok, so it skipped my mom’s generation) who were good at making stuff to nurture their loved ones. Every stitch I knit has pure love in it, and I, for one, don’t think there’s anything quaint about love. I embrace the fact that women were made to create (hell, what do you think having a baby is? Ultimate creation). I may not be creating future cool people, but I can write, I can knit, I can CREATE. And creation ain’t quaint. It ROCKS. So get off your damn computer, lady, and get out that cross stitch you mentioned. There’s time for both.

Ahem. Snooks signing off. Before I start trashing my knitting stuff. Cuz I’m a knitting rockstar, too. Sort of.

I’ve got 3 out of 5 of my grammar exam sections finished. I’m tired of looking at my grammar exam, so you know what that means: goofy quiz time.

Christmas Elf Name My Christmas Elf Name is Get your Christmas Elf Name at JokesUnlimited.com

There’s a pattern I’m seeing. I have a lot to do. So I surf blogs instead and take on-line quizzes, which I justify by saying, well, MB gets such a kick out of doing them. Really.

You’re a little gold key, and you unlock other
people’s hearts. Your kindness and willingness
to be there for those you care about lets
people open up to you knowing they will be
accepted. People will rely on you, but be
careful not to give more than you have.

What sort of key are you and what do you unlock?
brought to you by

Here’s a website worth visiting every day until Christmas. Despite all the Christmas knitting I’ve been at since this summer, I don’t yet feel the Christmas spirit. It may have to wait until I see A Charlie Brown Christmas, which always does the trick.

I spent the afternoon with Scout and her gang. We needle felted. It was fun. Once the recipients have received their gifts, I’ll show you what we did. I’m convinced, by the way, that Scout is the Albuquerque knitting super star. She’s going to be interviewing Vickie Howell on her (Scout’s) blog on Monday, December 12. Check it out, knitters!

I stopped at Joann’s today to pick up fabric to line a few purses with. My sewing machine is hunkered down in my office closet, and I’m a little afraid to try and set her up after a few years of neglect. I used to be a quilter, you see, and we were on excellent terms. But a baby quilt for Julia is the last thing we made together. Do you think she’ll cooperate with purse liner sewing?

Here’s the first countdown: one week until I’m done with papers and projects and grades. Another countdown: nine days until I’m in CT for the winter break. Back with Neal and the pups.

Scout started this fun meme: post pix of your favorite knitting spot. When I’m knitting at home, I usually sit on my side of the futon (even though Maddie’s not living with me, I don’t sit on her side, nor do I sleep on her side of the bed!) and either watch a movie (this semester I’ve been addicted to Sex in the City…I’m on season three…can you believe Carrie and Aiden?) or listen to a book on itunes while I have a warm drink–my own brand of cappucino or tea. I can easily get to my knitting book shelf when I need a reference book, and I can also enjoy the fireplace…and look at my yummy bubblegum handspun. Once I finally get a wheel, I’ll be spinning some truffle brown to ply with the pink.

ETA: Ok, so I had pix of the fireplace, the handspun yarn, the dvd, the bookshelf, but Blogger’s not letting me post pictures too easily today…so just imagine!

I’m tagging Brittany, Sheila, Crazy Aunt Purl, Amelia, and Beth.