Ten and Rose

I've said 'OMG!' more times this morning than any other time in my life (except perhaps when the new Doctor Who trailer showed up a few weeks ago). And the reason is, as usual, for some exciting Doctor Who news.

This year is the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. And David Tennant is coming back.

It was announced today on the BBC One website for Doctor Who that David Tennant and Billie Piper are to return for the 50th Anniversary special. I think I'm just going to go into a quiet room for a few hours and think about this. It's too much. 

They're coming back! 

Of course, this could be really amazing- or really, really bad. But, thankfully, I have complete trust in Steven Moffat and I know that he will bring Ten and Rose back with a big bang and probably lots of tears. 

But the biggest question is, will the Doctor and Rose for the 50th Anniversary be from their days in the TARDIS spanned out across season 2, or will it be the Doctor and Rose who were abandoned in the parallel universe at the end of season 4? Or will Steven Moffat come up with something brand new and totally brilliant? Frankly, I have no idea how the gears of Moffat's ingenious mind work, so I'm not putting money on any of these options. 

What are your thoughts on Ten and Rose's return? Is it a recipe for disaster or a great increase in viewership? 

FO Friday: Very Nearly There

You know that feeling when you're almost done with a knitting or crochet project? You have that sort of urge to finish it, to get it done; there's a certain sense of almost-accomplishment. Imagine that feeling, and then imagine running out of yarn. Halfway through the picot bind off of your sister's shawlette.

sorry for the bad picture okay? it was night time.

And then imagine having accidentally ordered twice the amount of yarn necessary, so all is good again and no worries.

I'm almost finished with the birthday girl's shawl, but I have about half of the bind-off left to complete. And I'm too tired tonight to wind another skein of yarn and finish the thing off. So, I'll get the shawlette done tomorrow morning and it'll be blocked in time for April Fool's Day.

And that's my almost finished object story for tonight. As usual, I'm linking with the lovely Tami's Amis and I bid thee goodnight. 

I am a musician!

Those of you who know me will also know that I have no musical talent. I can't play any instruments (though I dabbled in harmonica in the second grade), anybody who hears me sing runs away screaming (or just stands there screaming to drown out my voice), and nobody in their right mind would ask me to even hand them a guitar.

And the annoying thing is, there are only four people in my family- including me- who aren't musically talented. And there are 11 of us Lowery's total.

But then I thought, wait. Hang on a second. A musical instrument is something you use to make music, right? Yes! I do have a musical instrument and I'm very, very good at it!

It's called an iPod. I click buttons and really good music comes out. I'd say I rank way up there with The Beatles and Beethoven.

What's your musical instrument? Does it come in the shape of a rectangle and does it have a click wheel, or is it one of those big clunky pianos?

p.s. Also wishing a happy birthday to my wonderful cousin Molly! xoxo!

In the Springtime

The garden is finally filled with more colors than green and brown! Yes, the flowers are blooming and stepping outside the front door is a joy to the eyes. And the best thing about the gardens filling up with blossoms? I no longer have to go to the grocery store to satisfy my love of photographing flowers! (I'm just kidding; I don't actually go to the grocery store to take pictures of flowers.)

You guys remember my birthday when I took about a million pictures of the flowers my sister got me. Well now, I'm not limited to just pink, yellow, and orange flowers and I can show you an entire rainbow of flowers.

Just kidding. Turns out we only have pink, yellow and orange flowers in the garden. But don't worry, I took lots (and lots) of pictures anyway.

Now I have to fill in all these blank spaces with words so it looks like I have something worthwhile to say about each of this pictures. Maybe I should enlarge the font size so I don't have to write as much.

Right now, as I talk about the pretty flowers growing in the yard, you're probably wondering why I'm not writing about my WIPs. It is, after all, WIP Wednesday. Fact of the matter is, I have so many WIP's I don't know which one to talk about, and the only one that I'm actually working on at the moment is one I can't talk about. You remember the one from last week.

While that secret WIP is coming along splendidly (I think I'm actually going have it done by the recipient's birthday), I haven't been working on any other knitting projects either. So I have nothing to talk about concerning my works in progress, save the book I'm reading, which I'll talk about by the next photo.

I finished Silas Marner exactly a week ago I believe. I loved every second of it, and am looking forward to reading it again and again in years to come. But since I'm striving to catch up on all the classics I'm not reading, I didn't waste any time before starting a new book.

This book is none other than Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte. I'm about a hundred pages into it (which isn't very much for having started it a week ago, but I'm a slow reader) and I love every sentence I read. I'm at the part where Jane gets to Thornfield, and I look forward to reading it every second that I'm not. We'll have to see how much of life gets done when the plot thickens.

Unfortunately, my Kindle broke this week, so I had to take a couple of days off reading so I could find a real live copy. But now that's all ready and I'm back into the story.

What to talk about now? I've gone over my WIPs and my books, and I still have two pictures to talk through. Of course, you probably stopped reading when I started talking about knitting, and if you're one of those vigilant people who's actually reading this whole post (do you even exist?), I give you permission to skip to the end. Just look at the pretty daffodil to the right and don't bother paying attention to what I have to say.

That daffodil is actually only one (wait, there are two in the picture) of many. There all standing in a row along the fence, their bright little faces facing the sun. I didn't take a picture of the whole army because they've been out for a couple weeks now and some of them are sadly beginning to wilt. Oh the short lives of plants (not counting trees as plants, of course).
                                                                               

By now you've probably noticed that this final photo isn't of a flower. Either that or you've never seen a dog before. No, this little fluffernutter sandwich is my dog Homer, and he is ecstatic about spring finally arriving. He's running inside and outside begging us to play with him, and he's overall much more cheerful than usual. He also looks a lot better than usual, because he had a bath a few days ago.

And that's all I have to say. And you're thinking, Thank heavens for that! 

I can't say I blame you. See y'all tomorrow (Hopefully. I really do mean to blog more than on WIP Wednesday and FO Friday, but my life is so meaningless the only things I have to talk about are WIPs and FOs. I'll try and think of something interesting for you guys tomorrow).

Robin is Gone

*warning: this post may contain spoilers for the 2006 BBC Robin Hood show. tread carefully and don't say I didn't warn you! 

I started watching the BBC show Robin Hood on Monday, March 11th. There are 3 seasons total, and each season has 13 episodes. This afternoon, I watched the last two episodes of season 3. I did not skip a single second of a single episode throughout the entire series, and I finished the entire thing in less that two weeks.

Yeah, I think I'll be taking a long break from TV (until next Saturday when the new Doctor Who season starts airing).

But back to the important part of the paragraph before last: This afternoon, I watched the last two episodes of season 3. That means I watched the episodes where everybody dies, as I said in my last post about Robin Hood. Of course, I knew who died, and I knew that my 3 main characters died, and I sort of knew how they died. So I shouldn't have been that sad when it actually happened, especially since Robin Hood isn't that great a show anyway.

But no, those entirely valid reasons didn't stop me from sobbing my heart out when my all-time favorite character, Allan A Dale, was killed (thankfully I have a theory about how he wasn't actually killed). They didn't stop me from whimpering lamely when Sir Guy of Gisborne was stabbed ruthlessly by his sister (though he did have a very good death scene). And they certainly didn't stop me from weeping endlessly when Robin had a hallucination of Marian in his last seconds alive (though, I did rather love the way they did that).

All in all, despite the fact that they killed Allan A Dale, the creators of Robin Hood did a much better job ending it than the creators of Merlin did with their show, and I was satisfied with the ending. (except that Allan A Dale died.)

After I was done watching them, I cried for a while with my friend Rose (who I was kind enough to let watch with me). Then I thought I had better do some sort of tribute to Robin Hood, so I would never forget how much I sort of love it. This tribute came in the form of a hexiflat.

Can you guys tell that it's an arrow? I'm probably the only one who can tell. But it's supposed to be an arrow. See the black and white feather at the top, just like on all of Robin's arrows? (Did anybody else wonder where he got so many black and white stripy feathers?) 

Now I have to go to bed... and try and forget the sadness caused by the last two episodes of season 3. 

p.s. I may be exaggerating just a little over how much a cried and how sad it was. But I was only exaggerating a little bit. 

p.p.s. Only five more day until the new Doctor Who episode! 

FO Friday: More Hedgehogs

There are a lot of patterns on Ravelry for hedgehogs. But I don't think that there are any for an arctic hedgehog!

is there even such a thing as an arctic hedgehog?

Of course, making an arctic hedgehog isn't very hard- all you have to do is swap the brown eyelash yarn for light blue and your hedgehog is from the North Pole. Blue hedgehogs also aren't quite as realistic looking as brown or gray ones. Unfortunately, the only colors of eyelash yarn I have are light blue and bright pink. So, when I wanted to make a hedgehog, I chose the blue.

Eager to add my pattern to Ravelry's database (I love being able to use the word database), I wrote it out on a piece of stationary and am all ready to type it up here. I hope that you choose to knit my hedgehog pattern rather than all the other patterns out there. I guarantee it, mine is the best. (Probably.)

WIP Wednesday: Among Other Things

Today is my sister's 18th birthday. Thankfully, we aren't celebrating it until April 1st, because I'm nowhere near finishing her birthday present. I'm knitting her a Holden Shawlette, and I'm allowed to talk about it on a public blog because she picked out the pattern and the yarn. No pictures, though; I can keep that much a surprise.

I started the shawl yesterday, when the yarn for it, Knitpicks Gloss Fingering in Hawk, arrive in the mail. Also in the box was a skein of Bare Swish Worsted. First I dutifully cast on the shawl and worked a few rows, but then I got out the food coloring and started playing with my yarn.

I couldn't decide on a color theme, so I just did a little of everything, and came out with this:

The colorway is Impressionist, and I'm so happy with how it turned out. I put the yarn in a pot of water and vinegar on the stove and let it simmer for a while, and then added drops of dye here and there until I was satisfied. Then I added some more just to be safe. I hung it out to dry, and this afternoon I wound it into a ball and knit a swatch to see what it looked like knitted up. 

I'm thinking it'll be turned into a pair of fingerless gloves, or maybe two because I have 100 grams of this yarn. 

I'm linking with Tami's Amis today. 

Shamrocks

Happy (belated) St Patrick's Day! 

I was at a loss of something green to wear yesterday, so for fear of being pinched I crocheted a shamrock hairpin.

After wasting about an hour trying to knit a shamrock, I decided I'd better settle on crochet and produced one in about ten minutes. I used Knitpicks Stroll Glimmer in Dragonscale,because it's pretty much the only green yarn I have. 

Instead of going to all the trouble of making an actual shamrock shape, I crocheted 3 hearts and connected them at the center. There were loads of ends to weave in, but thankfully you can stick the pin on the same side as where you weave the ends in and nobody'll see. Very convenient. 

Read more for the pattern!

FO Friday: Not Really At All

I didn't finish my hat.

But I did finish overcoming my irrational fear of starting this pair of socks that's been queued forever! That counts, doesn't it? Doesn't it?

Okay, here's the specs: The pattern I'm using is Hermione's Everyday Socks, the yarn is Knitpicks Stroll Handpainted in the colorway Frosting, the needle size is US1, and I'm 11/15 repeats into the leg (I'm doing 15 pattern repeats instead of 18, as the pattern suggests). 

Now I can get onto what I really wanted to blog about. I had to include the stuff about the socks so I'd have a semi-valid excuse to link with Tami's Amis. Today's real topic is... Robin Hood! 

Okay, you guys have permission run screaming. I know what's going on in your head. What? Anya (or this crazy writer, if you don't know my name) is into another stupid TV show? Heaven help us all!

Or maybe you don't know what Robin Hood is (I mean don't know what Robin Hood the BBC TV series is, not don't know what Robin Hood is). And so listen carefully to the parenthetical information above: it's a BBC TV Series. It started in 2006 and it ended in 2009, and I already know that everybody dies so I don't have to be disappointed like I was with the ending of Merlin. 

I started watching Robin Hood because it has Richard Armitage (also known as Thorin Oakenshield) in it as Guy of Gisbourne. Unfortunately he's also evil, but I'm sure he'll redeem himself sometime. 

So now I'm watching Robin Hood every night (though, that will shortly end with my Spring Break). And it is completely enthralling, despite it being all about taxes and torturing people. 

I also thought the Sheriff was Prince John for the first few episodes, and still call him 'The King' whenever I talk about him. Shows how little I know about Robin Hood. 

WIPs and Books: Knitting and Weaving

I think I started my Orchids & Fairy Lights hat on Saturday evening. I'm thoroughly enjoying working on it, yet I'm only about two and a half out of four repeats in (and that's before the decreasing for the crown). The reason for this is that I keep on starting new projects; yesterday, almost all I worked on was a case for my Kindle (which didn't work, but I'm going to try again... sometime), and today I started a pair of socks as recompense for not having headphones. So, even though O&FL should be a fairy quick knit, it's taking me a while.

Of course, another reason for this is that I'm very caught up in a book that is eating up my evenings. I started Silas Marner, by George Eliot, a few weeks ago, but I only got a little ways into it. A few nights ago I picked it up again and have been reading it for a few hours each night. This means that I must be a really slow reader, because it's only 190 pages long and I'm only halfway through it. But I love it so far, and am hardly able to put it down.

Hopefully I'll have a finished hat on Friday to show off, but not guarantees.

Forever

The other day I was thinking, what if it all stops?

'It' in this case is all of the things I keep on getting obsessed with. I mean, how many things can there be that I can get into? There keep on being more fandoms to join when one begins to fade. Two and a half years ago, all that seemed to exist was Doctor Who. I didn't think there was anything that I would ever want to do over watch Doctor Who.

But then there was The Avengers this past May, and after that followed Sherlock during the summer - I wasn't obsessed with it but I still enjoyed watching it - and Merlin in the fall.

What would I do if all of these things stopped? Artemis Fowl is over, Harry Potter is over, Merlin is over, in two years The Hobbit will be over... what if all the new things stop popping up? Sure you can go back and reread/ rewatch things, which I do anyway, but eventually, that would get boring.

The nice thing is, though, it won't end. People won't stop having ideas, directors won't stop directing, actors won't stop acting and writers won't stop writing. If my own mind is anything to go by, then people all over the place are having a dozen ideas a day that are all potentially the next fandom. Who knows, maybe one of my own books will one day be as popular as Harry Potter.

(Yeah, I wish)

Pros and Cons

As I mentioned earlier, my brother recently gifted me a brand new laptop. It's an HP notebook that transmogrifies into a tablet at the simple click of a button. Of course, having my own laptop is phenomenal, but it is a PC and let's all admit that PCs are not as good as Macs. Macs are for smart people, and PCs are for either a) stupid people or b) people who can't afford a Mac. (if you're a PC person, don't worry; I won't judge you too harshly for making the wrong choice in the way of computers.)

However, the one and only major flaw that Macs have is that they don't come with Paint. I personally love Paint, and it's one of the few redeeming factors about PCs. I love being able to waste time drawing lousy pictures on the computer.

So now that I have a PC, it makes sense that I'll be making a lot more drawings, like this one I did this evening:

Van Gogh himself couldn't have done better, don't you agree? 

Just in case you can't tell, it's a pirate ship at sea in the middle of a ferocious storm. The captain and his crew are hiding below deck so that their hooks don't get rusty and their peg legs don't get warped. Convenient, since, while I am excellent at drawing pirate ships, I still need a lot of practice when it comes to drawing actual people. 

I think I'll be adding quite a few masterpieces to my portfolio in the coming weeks. 

It Feels Like Christmas

Note: be prepared for a picture-heavy novel-like post ahead!

On Thursday, my brother David stopped by and gave me a laptop. I would be using it now, but it's a PC and I'm used to Macs, so I have no idea how to get pictures from my camera onto my new laptop. On Friday, I received in the mail my swap package from Laura (prairie-girl). Lots and lots of presents in the span of two days, and it felt like Christmas.

I don't think I've mentioned yet that I took part in a knitting swap this spring. It was my first swap, and Laura made sure it was a good one.

Friday morning, when I was in the middle of a geometry test, the postman stopped by with a big package that had my name on it. I was so excited- I'd been waiting and waiting for this box- that I took a long break from my geometry book to open the package.

I got more and more excited by the second, as I tore off the wrapping paper of each present and positively squealed with delight at each amazing present. Laura stalked me so incredibly well, everything she got me was perfectly fitted to my tastes. 

Group shot of everything. A skein of gray merino yarn for my Orchids & Fairy Lights (she emailed me the pattern, too), a ball of Cascade 220 Superwash for a future fingerless gloves design, 6 gorgeous miniskeins, a World Map journal, an amazing Tardis needle gauge, and Tardis pin, a Gandalf keychain, and, the best of the best, a gorgeous hand knit cowl from the pattern Zuzu's Petals. 

Now for close ups of everything! (I did warn you there would be a lot of pictures)

The yarn is all incredible. I've knit hexipuffs (or hufflepuffs, as my mother has re-dubbed them) out of three of the minis already, and I've started Orchids & Fairy Lights with the light gray. The dark gray I had to hide on my yarn shelf so I wouldn't start too many projects at once. 

Look at these nerdy wonders! As Laura said on the card enclosed with the Tardis needle gauge, this awesomeness speaks for itself. 

I adore this journal! It's so very sophisticated. Now I wish I hadn't bought a new Ideas Journal a few weeks ago... it might have to be hidden away until this one is filled up. 

And the grand finale, Zuzu's Petals. I wore it all day Friday and Saturday, and it's going to become a frequent accessory in the next couple of months. 

I've thanked Laura a great many times already, but I'll say it one more time. Thank you so much for this incredibly package, Laura! 

Now I suppose you're wondering what I did in return for this amazing bunch of presents. I too sent a package to someone, this someone being Latecia, or thecupcakemom on Ravelry. Don't worry, I'm not going to put closeups of everything I sent her as well... just this one:

I won't go into depth explaining everything I gave her, but: stitch markers, tapestry needle case, notebook, chocolates, handspun yarn, mini skeins, fingerless gloves, notions bag, heartfelt rings, and chocolate.

I know I said no closeups, but I have to for this one because I'm extremely proud of it:

I'm not really known for my card-making skills, but this one is exceptional, compared to any other cards I've made. No point being humble about it. It's supposed to be a fairy, but I don't draw wings so I left those off. 

So that's my first swap. Now I can fully understand how people can't resist joining them, and I keep asking myself, 'when's the next one?'

P.S. I did this swap with the Tiny Owl Knits group on Ravelry. 

WIPs and Books: Halfway There (And Back Again)

Last night I finished two things. The first was the front of my Beorn sweater. It looked like my prediction came true: I told myself the other day that I would have the front of my sweater done for WIP Wednesday.

Isn't he sweet? My tension was horrible, especially on the sides of the face and on the ears, but I still love him. He looks like he's been stung by a few too many bees is all. 

When I finished the chart, it was such a relief to not have all those bobbins hanging off the back. It was such a tangled mess- but now that's done. I've started the back, but I'm only a few rows in. Thankfully it's almost all just straight stockinette, so I'll be able to speed through it. 

The second thing I finished was The Hobbit. I started the book in January or something, and it's a kid's book and pretty short so I should have finished it in no time. But I don't read as much as I should, so I finished it last night. I read it a few years ago for school, but I must have skimmed the whole part with the battle at the end because I barely remembered a thing. I particularly didn't remember Beorn conveniently saving Middle Earth, which makes my sweater even more special. 

That's it for me tonight! I have to go and find the Fellowship of the Ring before I lose interest in reading more Tolkien... (just kidding. If I do read more of Middle Earth, I'd skip the Fellowship since I've already read it.) 

P.S. 

You wanna see the back of my bear?

Ouch! 

To Do Or Not To Do?

So, remember last November, I told you all to never let me participate in Nanowrimo again. That it really wasn't the thing for me, and my novel would be better if I wrote it in my own time.

When I got an email from the Nanowrimo staff announcing that Camp Nanowrimo was just around the corner, I immediately thought, no, not for me, ignore it, don't be tempted! Then, I read the email and saw that you can choose your own word count. Anywhere from 10,000 to 999,999. Doesn't that sound like a pretty good idea?

I know I'm trying to finish my novel, The Pandora, by the end of March. But since I said that, I've only written about 3,000 words. I'm not admitting defeat; far from it. But would it be such a bad thing to admit that trying to finish this novel by Easter is going to be pretty much like participating in Nanowrimo, but without the motivation? 

My idea is this: write as much as possible in March. I'm not necessarily going to try and finish The Pandora, because if I don't, then I can put however many words I have left to write into the goal for Camp Nanowrimo.

Sound good? I think so too.

Told You

I told you, did I not, that I would have it blocking by Sunday? 

And I have exactly 46.75 yards left. I'll get a few hexiflats out of that. 

Highlights

Looking back over by nine posts from February of 2012, I thought, no wonder I didn't have any followers back then. But then, I looked over some of my posts from this past month, and I wondered if my blog's really gotten any better.

The answer? Yes, it most definitely has gotten better. Even if it isn't particularly good now, it's still much better than it was a year ago. I think one of the reasons is that I've gotten better at and more enthusiastic about my hobbies. To some of you, my countless posts about knitting and spinning are doubtless terribly boring, but I know that I, as a knitter, would love my blog even if I weren't the author.

So let's go back over the last year and marvel at how much I've improved. My first knitting post was this, and I didn't write it until March 20th. My blog had no knitting posts until almost two months after its initiation. Crazy, right?

And look at that picture. Even I can tell that it's terrible. And yet, I must have been satisfied with it. 

So I went from that, to my most recent knitting post about my Holden Shawlette. (I just noticed the parallel that they're both featuring knits made from handspun yarn... coincidence?) Less than a year ago, I doubt I could even have dreamed about knitting beautiful lace shawls. 

So, yes, I've gotten both better in my blogging and knitting skills. Photography? Not so much. (Though, I personally love that picture of Holden, poor quality as it is.)