TAKING BACK [THE KNIT]

So I had all of this typed out, and I somehow manage to delete it before getting it posted. It bummed my life out.

Anyway, I will shortly get to answering the questions Christine has for me to answer. Anyone who would like me to interview them with 5 questions, leave me a comment and I would love to!

Christine's questions:
Jess
1) You remind me of me when I was your age! How did you get into punk? As pathetic as it sounds when I was a young kid listening to the radio, I fell in love with blink-182. And from there, I started listening to bands that were actually punk with substance and a message. I think the first real punk cd I bought was one of the newer Bad Religion cds, and there was no turning back from there. I never really had any punk friends, so I listened almost exclusively to Epitaph/Hell Cat bands at first, because I was never exposed to anything else and I was happy listening to the same bands all the time. I've since broadened the variety of what I listen to. And I know it's not part of the question, but I got into hardcore through one of my friends who played in a hardcore band. I went to a few shows and fell completely in love with everything about it. (I'd been to one real punk show at this point, just by the way.) Once I first got into hardcore I almost stopped listening to punk but have since gone back to loving both. I go to a lot more (like exponentially more) hardcore shows than punk shows, but that really has to do with the scene here and the venues I'm close to.

2) Why are you straight edge? And don't say minor threat! It's all because of Minor Threat, hahahah! No, really I am straight edge because I've seen too many people who have seriously fucked their lives up by abusing drugs and alcohol and I never want that to happen to me. I want to live the best life I can, and drugs and alcohol will just be detrimental to that. (That being said, I hate preachy edge kids. If anyone wants to go and get shitfaced and high, be my guest. Being edge is my own decision, and I could give a fuck less about anyone else. Yep!)

3) You are still a babe in the woods, yet very mature. How do you explain to folk's who say you have an old soul? I think I was raised around a lot of adults, so I never really acted like a kid. I've been an elitist from birth and I always thought kids at school were stupid. I still do. I've always been smart, and my grandma taught me to read fairly early so I think reading and that type of thing helped me become more mature, because I didn't sit around playing video games and acting stupid. I've always managed to not sweat the small stuff, yet take things seriously, and still have had a sense of humor about everything. (I've always had a complex sense of humor though, and I love puns and things like that.)

4) What are your plans for your future? What do you want to do? I wish I knew! I would love to devote my life to knitting, hardcore, punk, highland dancing, or something like that but I realize that there is really no way for me to make a living unless I do something great. Which is not likely. I'm going to community college next year, and I think I'm going to end up as an Enligsh teacher, because I know I would enjoy that. It would also give me sufficient time to continue with my beloved hobbies. I'm hoping that maybe a (m)(b)illionaire will fall in love with me, and I will never have to work and can spend all my time doing things I adore. But I'll be realistic.

5) You are beyond your years in knitting, how did you become so knowledgeable? I'm not really sure. I was asking myself the same question the other day. I think I just want to know every little possible thing I can about knitting, and I read knitty.com religiously. The articles there are always full of information and although I may not know what the hell they're talking about at the time, I end up working on a project later and thinking, "oh, THIS is what they meant!" which is nice. I'm really baffled that I have learned so much about knitting in such a short time; I've only been knitting about a year and a half or so. (However, I DON'T want to be one of those kids who has to prove she knows more than everyone else about things. People like that really irk me! It's like just because someone's knitted for 2 months and read Stitch 'n' Bitch doesn't make them a knitting goddess!)

In other news, I finished my baby blanket today! I know I'm always talking about what I'm going to do next but I really think I'm going to tackle an afghan next. Both of my parents have asked for blankets, so I know they would pay for the yarn for me (I am so broke right now!). I think I might do the cabled blanket from Knitty Gritty, because I like the idea of not knitting the whole thing in one piece. Then again, that means seaming. Ugh. But practice makes perfect, right?

No more diaryland for me. I can't put up with not being able to ever post new things, and I really love this layout. Also, the image hosting makes it 200 times easier, because I don't have to link everything and all that. I can forget all my html! As soon as diaryland lets me post again, I'll put a giant link here up, and that will be that.

later: It's done! I linked it. I just hope everyone will update their links, and not forget about me! =)

Okay, I've been in the process of getting this blog set up to my liking, and it still isn't yet, but diaryland has been down for like a week, and I just cannot take it any longer! So I'm switching over here, maybe temporarily, probably permanently. I'm still going to leave all my shit on diaryland up, like the illusion knitting page, so no worries about that.

I've been working on a baby blanket lately that's been coming along wonderfully. I'm in love with it. I just wish I knew a baby to give it to! It's going to be about 20"x20". I love this yarn, although it was given to me and I'm not sure if I can ever get more. It's so soft, especially for acrylic. I'd had it sitting in my closet for about a year, and all I could see when I looked at it was baby blanket. I definitely am loving the way it's coming out! Maybe I'll have to have a kid to use the blanket. I'm DEIFNITELY kidding about that!

Photo Update and stuff! Finalllllyyyyy!

I've been slightly stressed lately with school and having to get my stuff together for booking my June trip to Hawaii, which was officially booked and paid for yesterday! YESSS! So tentatively, June 14-21 I'll be out of lovely NorCal and halfway across the Pacific getting the shit sunburned out of myself. And the other good thing is that I realized that if I'm already planning for this trip, which is after my graduation, that it's not going to be that long before I do graduate. Thank goodness. High school is killing me!

And back to something knitting relavent. After making the "Skinned Cat" scarf for Toni, (on top of the other thousand things I've knit for her) she showed up at my front door the other night with a candle and a ball of yarn.



The candle was a bribe, because I luuurrrrvvvve "Catholic" candles (although I'm most definitely NOT Catholic) and the yarn was for yet another scarf. I finally put my 53792054 swatches knit in the same yarn with different stitches to use and let her pick out her own texture. Also, she volunteered to wind balls for me, which would be great, as it's one of my least favorite tasks. (And the pictures really do no justice for the color. I don't even know how to describe the color, other than maybe like what the color of the ocean looks like in an ad for a cruise, or something like that. I hated it at first, and now I'm enamoured with it. It's very spring.) Also, I'm thinkin' I might knit up a couple of flowers and slap those on there, just to make it a little more fun and springtime-ish. (The flowers from the earwarmer in S'n'B Nation seem perfect for that.)

I was sitting and knitting in my drama class today as we watched a movie, and these two girls that sat behind me had this hilarious conversation about me knitting. It's one of those "you really had to be there" moments, but I feel like sharing anyway. It went a little something like this:

Girl #1: "Look at her, she ain't even look at what she doin' when she do that."

Girl #2: "Even when she turn it around?"

#1: "No, she just look down for a second and look back up. I couldn't do that ..." mumbles. "She did that through the whole movie."

It was funny just because they were sitting behind me, and talking about me like I was either deaf or not there. I chose not to respond because I was having too much fun eavesdropping. I was genuinely amused. And their use of the English language is horrendous, if I do say so myself.

Among other pictures uploaded, here are some from all the felting I did last week.

The first one is my refelted marsupial tote. The one on the left is the one that I just re-did, and the one on the right is the second one I made that didn't felt as tightly. (the one on the left is knit exactly from the pattern, but the second one has more rows of contrasting color, so that makes the height and handle-thickness difference.) I'm just not sure which I like more. It's really like two different purses.

And then, there's the big felted bag. I've already talked about how it didn't turn out quite the way I planned, but I'm starting the like it. It's going to be perfect to carry projects in, because it's long enough for straight needles, and a book, or binder to fit in. I'm not so sure it will work for my school books, but we'll see. Once I get around to making another one, it's going to be a lot taller for books, binders, etc.