Little Silk Dragons

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone, if you celebrate it, and if you don't: Enjoy a great day, hopefully with great food and great people.

 I've got a new project on the needles: the Dragon Scales Shawl with some tiny laceweight silk yarn. ...I'll admit I'm not sure I will voluntarily do much with 100% silk yarn again, it's a bastard to wind, and a bastard to rip out if I need to. Both resulted in more snarls than an kennel of rabid dogs, but for softness it's damned hard to beat.

 Technically the pattern calls for a heavier yarn, but It seems so far to be coming out ok, and the size is pretty much 'as big as you want' so if I get SUPER strapped for size I can always get another Skein... (cringe). Though I might see about paying the extra to have the owner of the store wind it.

The Dragon Scale Shawl in progress

The pie is done (unsampled) in the fridge, Tilmani loved his gifts, and the cake AND the frosting came out pretty well. I can't say the frosting came out QUITE as well as I would have liked, or that I didn't end up wearing more than my share of powdered sugar... but overall, good baking day and good baking results.

 Oh and Tony Van Helsing liked an analogy I posted on his blog. Clearly I win the Internet. ;)

New Blog I'm Following

 Just started following "Scrambled Hen Fruits" after a friend of mine linked them to me over email. Well, technically they handed me a link to one of the far-too-many decadent looking baking recipes on said blog (The Caramel Stuffed Apple Cider Cookies), and I couldn't NOT link it for posterity, just to make sure I could find this amazing looking marvel again and try and make them.

 Since Monster ADORES Apple and Pumpkin and such, I can't imagine these not going over well, I just won't be baking them this week, what with two pies, and two birthday cakes in the works. ((Turtle and Tilmani.))

 Tilmani gets Strawberry Cake with Jam in the middle and home made cream cheese frosting, and Turtle asked for Chocolate, so he gets Devils Food and Fudge frosting. Both pies are pumpkin and are for the Thanksgiving Holiday with the in laws, since Nana J is kind enough to host the feast this year. I do confess I am cheating a little... I didn't make my crusts, but I think people will just have to forgive a LITTLE bit of baking cop out. Sorry.

 Did finish a project for MiniMonster though. I made him the Starghan pattern from Ravelry. ((You'll probably need a Rav account to look, but if you're a knitter, it's free and worth it... oh and the pattern is ALSO free and worth it.))

 I used some KnitPicks yarn I'd had kicking around for a couple years, and I'm really pleased with the result. Hell I wouldn't mind knitting that pattern AGAIN and trying for larger, and may try and do so for GreenGosselin's daughter if I get the chance. I don't know if it would be BED sized but it would be a nice individualized throw in the colors of her choice, and her daughter is a sweet kid who I think counts under the 'knitworthy' flag.

 So does Mini of course. He wouldn't even leave that thing unattended long enough to get a photo of JUST the blanket. He came over and sat on it instead. He is (yes) wearing an Halloween Shirt, but he likes it, and the skeletons glow in the dark, so pft. I say let him wear it.

Nuts in November

 Well it's November, and that means Thanksgiving is roaring down at us like a herd of wild turkeys and expectations from various people as to who we're going to spend Thanksgiving with, and Tilmani's birthday.

 Poor Tilmani's birthday falls ON Thanksgiving this year, which is going to be kind of awkward for him. I've informed him flat out though that we're going to take a day and we're going to specifically celebrate his birthday, unrelated to the holiday. I've got his presents all bagged and wrapped and in his room (I might have gone slightly overboard, but then, Christmas will probably be completely nuts, so might as well give him an awesome round of gifts before we're all sleep deprived and pulling our hair out.)

 I'll share later what he got, because I don't want him finding out in advance.

 I did finish my Vortex shawl, and it was promptly adopted by MiniMonster, who's currently sleeping under it. This is kinda ok because I need to carefully wash it and try and block it (somehow) before it's ready to show to to the interested party. It didn't come out too badly, it's just definitely not my color. Nice to know Mini likes it though, because I've got leftover yarn and I don't think it's going to explode too many heads if he has something in purple/blue, especially since it's a dark purple blue and not super vibrant and 'in your face'.

In an attempt to try and trade off for the shawl I'm knitting him a shawl afghan from a designer on Ravelry. Dunno if he'll take to it or not though, since it's plainer, more earthy colors (soft green, tan, brown and cream.) (Oh and machine washable.)

Otherwise I do have one of my normal gripes with the universe:

 1: Facebook (and relatives): Facebook, which I kinda already hate, has a new fun virus that we spent two days cleaning off the computer. I didn't even catch it BY GOING to Facebook. I caught it because of those obnoxious emails they send out trying to suck you back in to obsessively checking all the blather and crap people do that you probably didn't care about. I do have to give (very annoyed) props to the designers of said virus. They CLEARLY went through a lot of effort to build this thing, disguising it as an anti virus program in and of itself, and blocking everything except for the request for you to give them money to theoretically fix the virus' on your computer. I can easily imagine a lot of people falling for this and getting in a lot of trouble. Fortunately I wasn't one of them.
 However what I don't need is to get spammed with emails from smug people with crap like "This is How Facebook Tracks You" when I'm not USING Facebook, and the only reason I got on it TO BEGIN WITH was to follow an particular relative who likes to make shit up about people to make themselves look better (and has been caught at it several times.)
 I've got their stuff going to junk mail, I don't update, I don't visit, and I especially don't want to visit right now even to try and delete shit because I don't want to CATCH THE GODDAMN VIRUS AGAIN. There's nothing up there, photos included, that people couldn't just as easily find on my deviantart page anyway, so I'm not loosing any sleep.

2: Gimmiegulls:
  This is a term adopted from Ravelry. It has to do with people who see you with something and demand their share, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. The term especially is used there to apply to people who want you to become their knitting slave for free, but generally applies to the greedy at large. ((Think of the seagulls in Finding Nemo. You'll get it.))
 -Dear Gimmiegulls: Just because I've got something doesn't mean I'm obliged to get/make/otherwise produce one for you.
In fact, to one specific gimmie gull: I got you the goddamn miniature chickadee ornament you were pawing at me for. Was I stupid to do so? Probably. You obviously don't particularly appreciate the gesture, even at a not so bank breaking ten bucks, because after hearing day in and day out how YOU couldn't afford to go spend ten bucks on it even though you wanted it SO bad.... I see you've signed up for an Secret Santa program since I told you I got it. Minimum gift cost is ten bucks.

 ...obviously you could afford THAT.

 I'm going to pretend I didn't notice, then try not to punch through a wall when you tell me in one breath how you want the next thing SO bad, but can't afford it... while shelling out 30$ and up on more stuff for you and your friends. I'm not goddamn blind. I'm just apparently THAT stubbornly determined to pretend you're going to change.  Go me. e_e

Updated Vortex Shawl

As of my last check: the shawl is about two feet ten inches across, at least thats as wide as I get doubling the distance from the middle to one edge. My largest pair of needles actually isn't long enough for me to fully spread out at this point.

 I'm still wondering if I'll have to get some more yarn to finish this at a wearable size, but we'll see. I did find the yarn, so I guess it's just difficult to find this colorway, not impossible. That's something.
 The small round thing you see is a quarter I put in one of the spiral arms for perspective.

Vortex Shawl

I'm working on knitting the "Vortex" Shawl, a free pattern found on Ravelry. So far there's been one starting set up when MiniMonster decided to come over and rip it off my needles... that was... that was all kinds of not fun, and very depressing. He made up for it by tying VERY hard to be good later, ((he was partially successful.))

 So I Cast On again, and went ahead with things, and got pack to, and past, where I'd lost. It's a nice simple shawl, very intuitively basic, but ingenious. One of those patterns which, like the "Beekeepers Quilt" are designed from ideas so simple that literally anyone could have designed them. Actually it would be kind of fun to make an big round throw out of this on heavier rounds and with heavier yarn. See what you think.

Rage Rage against the... existance of satire?

 SO apparently I -REALLY- pissed someone off on Ravelry.
 ...I wish I could regret it but goddamn it was kind of fun.

 I'm sure you're wondering what the hell happened, so let me explain.

 This recent Simpsons episode, as part of the tail end spoofs, mentioned a few recommendations for the upcoming Christmas Season ((.... of course if you've been in some store's, they've had Christmas Crud in for weeks. Apparently we're no longer classy enough to even wait for Thanksgiving before we cram the shelves full of really bad Santa Figurines and enough lights to illuminate the eastern seaboard. I realize it's an economy thing, but really??))

 Anyway aside from having Homer be Paralized by a Black Widow (their venom doesn't do that.), Riffing on Spider Man, Avatar, Dexter.... GOD.... and mentioning that the best way to help the economy was to spend money you don't have ((Hey it works for the government.)), that you should become an alchoholic 'because you see your family the rest of the year, the holidays are for your bartender.'... they riffed on handmade gifts. ((Such as handmade sweaters/hats/etc.))

 Needless to say, this reference popped up on Ravelry... with a lot of giggling and joking, and a few people admitting they'd started to be offended, and then realized they were riffing again, and laughing.

 All except this one crocheter. Who flipped. The frag. Out.

 She went off on a rather VICIOUS tangent on how OBVIOUSLY all the writers for the Simpsons were idiots, and their facts were wrong, ((...duh. they're recommending alcoholism. it's SATIRE.)) And OMG why would anyone watch this drivel.

 So I popped in, because I'm a nosy bitch and it was an open discussion and said:
 Wait, are we talking about the same episode where Homer was paralyzed by a black widow (etc etc.)... of course their 'facts' are wrong, it's a JOKE. None of it's supposed to be accurate. And anyway, MARGE KNITS.

 The subject in question flew off the handle SO HARD a Mod stepped in. She 'Didn't care' if Marge 'needed two crutches to walk'... so on and so forth. ((because damn, if you're going to get mad, not only get mad, but get offensive. Why do things half ass when you can offend EVERYONE?))
 She followed by responding to others implying how she's better than the rest of us because she has no TV and doesn't watch the show, so she has more time to read and crochet. ((Because obviously having tv's means the rest of us don't do either, we're just on Ravelry for the lulz.)).

 Someone else mentioned that maybe they should consider knowing the CONTEXT of the joke before raging about it, since apparently they hadn't even watched the episode, but again, that made too much sense, and we were all idiots. ((Modhammer again.))

 ...So... yeah. I take sort of a delicious amusement at their expense. It's always fun when a little bit of logical thinking sends someone flying off the deep end.

 Here's to You, Marge Simpson. KNIT ON.

Exersize in Futility

Once again I find myself rambling about something I read on Bitchy Waiter:

 ... Of course any contribution to more people reading Bitchy as a result is probably so minimal they'll never notice, but damn, sometimes I've just gotta get the thoughts out of my head.



 Technically in this case it's in regards to some of Bitchy's rage filled commentators on the subject of having a slightly awkward night when a woman whipped out her boob, and fed her baby in an fairly classy restaurant without using any kind of cover.
 Bitchy went out of their way to point out that the woman was in fact, quite polite, tipped well, and Bitchy themselves didn't make a huge fuss about it at the time, though they admitted that the whole thing was... a bit awkward.

 From the reactions of some of the readers, you would think that Bitchy had just said something as shocking as "I support the Holocaust". Apparently it's HORRIBLY uncomfortable to throw a light cotton blanket or diaper over your shoulder while in public, and TERRIBLY inconvenient, and clearly the ONLY reason why people would be even slightly bothered by random HITHEREBOOBIE moments is because they're CLEARLY only seeing the boobie as 'sexual'. Which is apparently wrong. Apparently boobies are not allowed to be viewed sexually now... because they're baby snack dispensers, and only baby snack dispensers. ((Which is obviously why they're such a major industry in Hollywood and anyplace plastic surgery is found.))

 Oh and the other great one was the assertion that ONLY. And They did say ONLY... women who are unable to breast feed use bottles.

 ...Which kinda gave me pause... since apparently that means Breast Pumps are not designed for putting breast milk into a bottle so that it is not required to whip out boobie at a moments notice, and that, oh, other people can hold and feed the kid. Apparently women who can breast feed ONLY use Boobie.

 ...So then.... why do we have Breast Pumps? Kinkyness? ... They're really not that Kinky. They look like an reverse squirt bottle. OOH. Yeah baby that's sexy. Squeeze it like a Windex bottle.

 ... Anyway yeah I'm done now.

 Do I think the woman was in the wrong? Well... no one complained, but it probably would have been slightly more considerate of her to toss a diaper or something over her shoulder. I mean really the claim that a light weight blanket is ANY hotter than wearing your shirt and bra to begin with is kinda sad... and honstly, the idea that people on the live-journal community "Bad Roleplayers Suck" are more aware of, and more sensitive to, the fact that people can be triggered by totally random stuff and be made VERY uncomfortable... than a bunch of breast feeding mommies is just... Wow.  I mean stop and think about that. You've been out matured by a horde of people, many of which are under 20.

 When you get right down to it, the point is this: If people want to be respected for their right to breast feed in public, they need to show a little respect for others in return. It's unlikely to cause someone to keel over and expire to put one of those paper thin little receiving blankets over their shoulder, and it will make a lot of people a lot more comfortable with what's going on. Insisting that it's your right to flash boobie, and if anyone is uncomfortable with it they're just "Meanie PooPooHeads" is... well it's childish. Respect is a two way street, you give it to get it.