FOs all over the place!

I finally finished the kitty hat for my niece. I made the pompoms huge, but I know she will absolutely love it. I used LionBrand Watercolors, in Waterlily. Its very pretty, a fluffy purple wool blend interspersed with pretty pastel threads here and there.I have been knitting away. I have finished 3 washcloths, but have yet to weave in the ends. They are sugars n cream and peaches n cream yarn. I don't remember which is which, but I like them all. I still have two colors I haven't done yet.
The purple one is done in a pattern called "Idiots Dishcloth". Its weird, because you knit the whole thing sideways, so it looks diamond shaped on your needles. I found it here. The next two are just a simple basketweave. I liked it the best, so I did it twice. I wanted to do the ballband dishcloth, but couldn't remember what it was called. And so then I noticed a day or two after I finished these three I had queued it on Ravelry. So, its pretty appropriate that my first dishcloth was the Idiot's dishcloth. I will do ballband next time. I have also managed to make a patch, but I still need to get the iron on backing before its finished. Thats on the shopping list for tomorrow. I have started a toe-up sock, I like the toe up. I tried to do the Baudelaire by Monkey A., but I don't like the way the lace pattern is working out. I will probably frog it and do cables instead, I LOVE cables. I have made 2 more tudoras, one for my mom and one for my sister. I love the tudora pattern, I need to make one for myself. I am getting rather fast at knitting them. Here is the one for my mom, as modeled by Sylvie:


The yarn is simply "Homespun" by Lionbrand yarn. The colorway is baroque. I liked it okay, I thought the color would be great for my mom. However, as I was knitting I realized, this color is beautiful! Isn't that funny how you can fall in love with a color as you're knitting it?

Speaking of beautiful color, I love the colors of "Vanna's Choice." Not that any yarns I have been using are fancy (except the hand dyed $22 sock yarn as seen above), but I think they are very nice. This is my sister Jamie's tudora in Vanna's Choice "Rose". My camera didn't quite do it justice, its a little more dusky than this. If you click on it, you can probably see the cute bone-heart button I got at Hancock's. I love it.

I had to model because Sylvie, my usual model, was eating with coworkers tonight. I like it, and probably have enough yarn left to make another, along with another button. My sis and I could be twinkies, ha. But I really love the silvery-blue Vanna's Choice, and its on sale everywhere, so I could just make one in that color for myself :)

On to school stuff. I watched several movies from our Middle Eastern Film Festival last week. They were all so good. Some were excessively sad, like "Turtles Can Fly". Its a Kurdish movie. "Gaza Strip" was the saddest, its about the stuff happening to the Palestinians in Gaza. Its terrible. I kept crying. Its heard to believe the Israelis (Jewish) are doing this kind of stuff (shooting off tanks into crowds of children and shooting at kids playing in "forbidden" areas) to the Palestinians (Muslim). Especially since they began this genocide in 1948, just a few years after the Germans did the same thing to them. They may not be putting people in work and death camps, but they are trapping people in ghettos where they are denied basic needs. I can't understand why the U.N. stands for this; supports it even. The Israelis are also breaking the rules set by the U.N. at the formation of Israel, that there would be no more settlements. They are settling and pushing out the former inhabitants (Palestinians) more and more all the time. Its disgusting and inhumane.
Well, I better watch my mouth before I get thrown in Gitmo. There were other good movies, like The Syrian Bride, The Children of Ibdaa, and West Bank Story. West Bank Story is hilarious, and in English, and on YouTube. Look it up and watch it, its only 20 minutes long. Hilarious. Sadly, I missed the Yemen movies, I was too lazy to drive to school that day. My professor has done extensive archeaological work there. Its a lovely place. Also I missed The Battle of Algiers, which was made in 1966. Its a big classic, you can find it at Barnes and Noble. It was cancelled because of the shooting.

Well now I need to look up some info on a presentation I have to give next week. I have to expound on the different theories of what triggered bipedalism in humans. Pretty easy, but I need to find some good pics.

Shooting at school

Update: 4:45 PM

A Statement from UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson:

“After having reviewed the situation with my leadership team, I have decided to cancel classes tonight. Our concerns today are for the young man and his family and for the safety and sense of security of all members of the UALR community. Although there appears every reason to believe the incident and any threats related to it are over, I believe cancellation of evening classes is appropriate. Classes will resume on schedule tomorrow morning.”

—————————–

Update: 3:36 PM
(Copied from Campus Alert System)
The victim in this case is being treated at a local hospital. The suspects in this case, 2 African American males, one with afro style hair, have departed the area, unknown location at this time. The suspect vehicle description as of now is a cream color to gold midsize Japanese make possibly a Nissan, early to mid 2000’s with right side damage. Current state, the campus is safe and secure with all operations back to normal.

——————————

Original News Item:
An African American male was shot around 2:10 p.m. today near the tennis court on University Drive. The victim is a current UALR student. Two suspects in a gold car fled the scene. UALR Students, faculty and staff were quickly alerted via an all campus telephone and email alert system.

Further details will be provided via the campus alert system, as well as the UALR website.


Well, I haven't written in a while and wanted to do something good, like all the FOs I have or cats on tuesday, but today I will just talk about this. The shooting happened about 15 minutes after I walked through that area to go watch movies at our Middle Eastern Film Festival. I will post more about that later, too. We in the room in the student center found out about the shooting. around 3:15, an hour after it happened. On the website where I found this video, the chief of UALR police went on record saying our alert system was successful. BULLSHIT. They tested this crap a couple of weeks ago and it was bullshit. They email you (I don't carry around a laptop, most students don't) and call you, the caller ID lists "unknown name unknown number". I don't know about you, but most people don't answer for that. I don't. So, of course I was unhurt, and I am assuming that the victim will recover. I feel sorry for him. It was broad daylight, people are always walking through there. My class was canceled tonight, thats why I have the time to post this. Hopefully next post will be happier.

UPDATE: The video wouldn't work, so I posted the UALR bulletin. Here is a link to the video I tried to post.
http://www.katv.com/news/stories/0208/499549.html

Blargh.

Sadly, there will be no cats on Tuesday today. Oh, they are still here, but this week has slipped by so very quickly, and anyway they have only been annoying (Ditto) or lazy (Stubbles). However, Ditto has shown yet more proof of her mad case of crazies. She hoards all the cat toys, which were originally Stubbles'. Since Stubbles is too lazy to play, Ditto has claimed them and they all reside in the DittoCave.
But, there is one she shuns. A poor little caterpillar, which has the capacity to hold catnip.


Night before last, she was rustling around her toys. She picked this one up, carried out of her cave, and dropped it a few feet away. After sitting by it for a couple of seconds, she went back to her cave. I would think that she was maybe going to play with it, but Sylvia's bf said that he has picked that particular toy up from the floor numerous times. And she has never been seen playing with it. Our only conclusion is she doesn't like it. Strange, considering how much she likes catnip and what a toy whore she is. Oh well.

On to important things. I finished the Pratchghan square late Sunday nigh---I mean early Monday morning. I haven't shared it with the group on Ravelry because I haven't washed it to test its durability. I am so scared to wash it, but I gotta do it before the end of the week. If it falls apart, at least I have extra yarn and the design is fairly easy.

Of course, if you are not familiar with the Discworld series you are missing out obviously. But to understand what the square means you will have to read "Nightwatch". Basically, the motto is part of an old fight song, that at first seems rather silly. The lilac blossom (I hope thats what it resembles) is the insignia of the people concerned with the fight song. At first it seems rather silly, but as you experience the story and what the history of the flower (especially the scent) and the song means, you are left feeling emotional. Well, I was anyway. Pratchett can make you laugh, but I cried and cried when I read "Feet of Clay". I am maybe weird.

Sylvia and I have an Etsy shop, as previously mentioned and linked in the sidebar. No one has bought anything, but we have received two complements on our snail stitchmarkers. I have three more sets to add to the shop, here is my favorite:


It was so damn hard not to keep these myself. I love the dragon and wizard, and the little star beads. I may make duplicates later for my own usage. Aren't they cute? To highlight my nerdiness of even making these, I was watching "Galaxy Quest" while making them. Yep.

Well, thats all for now. Time to catch up on some homework, I gotta read the intro to "Egyptian Customs and Rituals." I will try to add the new stitchmarkers to the store by tomorrow night.

Buying and Sprucing

Reading Stephieface, I saw a "quiz" she took, so took it as well. I think this describes me pretty well.

What Helen Means

You are truly an original person. You have amazing ideas, and the power to carry them out. Success comes rather easily for you... especially in business and academia. Some people find you to be selfish and a bit overbearing. You're a strong person. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

In other news, I have finished my Pratchghan square. I am pleased with the colors, I took a ridiculous amount of time swatching, frogging, buying new yarn, swatching, swatching, frogging, buying more yarn, swatching, and then buying yarn AGAIN, swatching, frogging, and finally came up with something. This is what the frogging mess was the last time I did it, you can see the last 3 yarns. I ending up nixing the blue on the back of the chair.
But here is the square, sans the decor that will be gracing it by Sunday (I hope).
Sylvia and I have been searching for an alternative to all of our clutter. We bought 2 cabinets at Target tonight, after returning the single tall one that was defective that we bought 2 nights ago. The craftsmanship is shitty on these cabinets, but we are poor and can only afford so much. I think they will work well to contain the yarnsplosion that is threatening to take over both of our bedrooms, the living room, and the study. We stuck them in the sunroom after cleaning the floors and rearranging. We now have hidden the kitty box behind a screen that we had behind the couch. It looks better. Also while at Target, we bought a poster and frame to spruce up the study. We don't have much on the walls, and this really brightens it. It really complements the curtains, and kills alot of dead space.
As you can see, my picture taking skills aren't the best. I can be pretty good if I try, all of our pictures for our etsy shop "Shiznits" are taken by me. But, well, the flash was not my friend this time.
In capitalism news, I actually bought a knitting book. I don't have any; I usually peruse online for patterns and such. Most new stitches are taught to me by Sylvia. But I bought Knitting America and I absolutely love it. Its a big book, and I am already over halfway through it. It goes through the history of knitting in the United States (obviously) and includes some original patterns. I got it at Barnes and Noble with my roommate's awesome discount. I love knitting history, it was my favorite part of Debbie Stoller's Stitch n' Bitch.

Well, I have to go shopping with my mom in the morning, its late, and I'm tired. Happy knitting!