This was written on Friday:

[I am so cold. I know my Northern friends are laughing at me right now, but I'm actually wearing some fingerless mitts in my office as I type... it's freezing! This area is also preparing for ICE STORM 2005 as the forecast is calling for less than an inch of sleet or snow. (Again, the Northerners may commence laughing now.)

Still working on Jacob's socks. This weekend is seaming time: the Super Sweater will be Seamed. I can do it! I might not get the sleeves installed properly (yes, I said installed) but I'm going to have the sides all sewn up. I've got time! Especially if we're stuck at home because of ICE STORM 2005.]

So, ICE STORM 2005 came and hit Athens with a vengeance. I stayed all warm in my house Friday and Saturday, only escaping once or twice to look at the ice and snow (!), shiver, and then run back inside.

I did complete my mission! I seamed the sides of Jacob's sweater! (I know Elizabeth, High Energy Jenny, you are proud of me!) Here's a picture of one of my glorious side seams:

Side Seam!

In other fun news, Jacob's sister Alison, moved in on Sunday, and we are happy to have her in town. Here's a picture of Alison and her Tiny Schmoo, Yoda.

cuteness.

Bella is scared of Yoda. They played a little this afternoon, which meant that Yoda chased Bella around and Bella hid. (Remember: Bella is probably four or five times BIGGER than Yoda....) Hee.

Ooh! I got tagged by the fabulous Em to do this fun movie quiz, so at the risk of revealing how truly uncool I am, here are my answers in the extended entry...

1. The last movie you went to see in a theater: I actually have no idea, because
it has been that long since I saw a movie in the theater. I remember that we
bought tickets for Anchorman, and then decided we weren't in the mood
for it, and snuck into another movie instead. Here's a secret: I hate
seeing movies in movie theaters;they make me anxious.


2. The last movie you watched at home: Hero. I watched that and House
of Flying Daggers in one weekend, and I loved them both.
3. How many movies do you own? Not very many. We have 10 DVDs, tops.
We have a lot of old VHS tapes of movies that I taped off of television including
The Facts of Life Down Under. Yes, that's a movie about the girls from
Facts of Life going to Australia.
3a. What was the last movie you bought? Hmm. I bought, if this counts,
a David Byrne concert DVD for Jacob for his birthday. Besides that, I truly
have no idea when I last bought a movie. Am I boring you yet?
4. Got Netflix (or a similar service)? Absolutely. What are the next three
movies in your queue? Super Size Me, The Bicycle Thief, and Saturday Night Live,
the Best of Will Farrell, Vol. 2. I have a lot of trouble picking movies for
my Netflix queue, and I also share a queue with Jacob. Jacob (hi, honey!) has
a tendency to hog the queue. And push all of my choices down to the bottom.
Ahem. But we are working through that.

5. List five movies you adore/mean a lot to you: I usually hate making lists
like this, because mine aren't ever very cool, and then I feel inferior.
But I'm going with my gut here, and laugh if you must:



Anne of Green Gables. I know, it's a made for TV movie, but DUDE.
How awesome is that movie? Oh, Gilbert, how I loved thee. And how badly did
I want red hair and green eyes? I so wanted to be Anne-with-an-e...I still
kind of do, actually.



Waiting for Guffman. Clearly, this is a hilarious movie. But as a drama
kid, I totally loved that it was about musical theatre and community theatre. How can you resist
a song like "Stool Boom"?

Chicago Holy crap. I seriously wanted to get up in the movie theater
and dance around and sing when I saw this movie. Like I said before, I am a
musical theater kid, and I was so enamored with this movie. The costumes ...
the dancing! even the singing. LOVED IT.



Gone with the Wind. I know a lot of people probably hate this movie,
but I will always love it, so frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn what you
think. Har.
Big Fish. A movie hasn't made me cry like this in SO LONG. Beautiful
story. I love Albert Finney so much.

6. Name your guilty pleasure movie (or genre): I have two guilty pleasure genres.
The first is cheesy dance (or cheerleading!) competition movies. Two shining
examples are Save the Last Dance and Center Stage;
(by the way, I just couldn't remember the name of that movie, and I typed
"cheesy ballet movie"; into Google and got it right away. D'oh!).
And that final scene (they all have them), the one that the whole movie leads
up; the one where she HAS to blow everyone away? Amazing. Always.

The second is the makeover movie, like the classic, Can't Buy Me Love,
or She's All That. Speaking as a former (current) nerd,
I so dreamed of going from "totally geek to totally chic" when I
was growing up.

7. Name 3 people to whom you're going to pass these questions on, and why: Anne Marie,
because she's always watching some bizarre movie that I've never
heard of, Jenny,
because she has great taste, and Hannah,
because I'm curious about her list.

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

I finished Sock #2 last night. And, in true-to-my-knitting-laziness fashion, I decided that two completely mismatched purple socks is not only acceptable, but totally cool. Totally.

Stripey goodness, two ways!
Click for another view!

Anyways. I'm wearing my pretty purple pair right now with boots, and they are so comfortable. Oh yes. I used Bonne Marie's Sock Love pattern, and for the second sock, (which fits my extremely narrow 6.5 foot perfectly) I only cast on 64 sts. I think I've found a great sock formula for myself!

Last was knitting night, and American Idol night, and a very special American Idol night because it was the New Orleans audition night, which is the audition that I went to with Anne Marie and Sarah!! We watched at my house and tried to look really closely in the crowd scenes to see ourselves, but no dice. Cathy Tivo'ed it, so there will probably be some slowing down of the episode just to make sure we didn't miss our TV debut. Hee.

And, strangely enough, our local paper/magazine, Flagpole, published a short article that I wrote about my audition experience. A lot of it came directly from my blog entries, but it's so weird to see it in print. It's the first article I've ever had published! YAY! Here's the link to the online version: American Idol article. I'm in print!

When I finished the second sock last night, I immediately had an itch to knit more socks, because they are SO ADDICTIVE. Yikes. I also decided (after some prodding from da Brooklyn Sock Mafia ... you know who you are...) and I tried something new!

It's a sock on two circulars!

Ooh! ooh! speaking of sweaters and Jenny, the High Energy expert looked at my sweater sleeves last night and assured me that they will work out fine, and the crazy asymmetry that I saw was all in my head. (Well, she didn't say that. But it was.) So, onward ho! Next on the sweater agenda: side seams.... oh lordy.

I've been tagged to do a fun movie list and a fun music list which I will get to immediately. Err, I mean, after work.

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)

Damn, it really feels like Monday today. SO much to do at work.

But the weekend was so great! Fondue was fabulous, of course -- we were too full of food and wine to take any pictures of the fondue (although we did think of it the next day) but it was a grand feast. Grand!

I got to knit all day Saturday while I watched a high school basketball game. On Friday, I cast on for Sock Number Two in the Lovely Purply Stripeyness yarn (and ya'll don't hate me, but I seriously don't know what kind of sock yarn this is! It was a gift from Penny over at Sith Knits, and I think she was unsure too .. edited to add: She remembers! As you can see in the comments, Penny says that the purple yarn is Lorna's Laces in Purple Club. Thanks!), so I was working my way towards the heel flap on Saturday. But here's an interesting picture to show you:

On the left, we have Sock 2. On the right, we have Sock 1. D'oh.

Now, I love the craziness of variegated yarn. I didn't really want the socks to match exactly. But my problem is that I like the little narrow stripes on my new sock BETTER than the wide stripes! Here's what I did differently on Sock 2 : I cast on 64 sts instead of 68 sts because the first sock was a tad too big. Now, would the four stitches make the striping pattern differ that much, or is it just the yarn? And the other question is ... do I like the narrow stripes enough to frog Sock 1 and re-knit it, in hopes of getting narrow stripes? Do I? I'm going to finish Sock 2 and see how I feel.

Anyways. In other knitting news, I gave my mom her much belated birthday poncho this weekend, and she liked it!

Cute Poncho Mom.

I also finished knitting the second sleeve of Jacob's sweater ... and *cringe* it looks kinda different than the first sleeve. D'oh. I'm going to get some expert opinions at knitting night this week to see if I can work around the weirdness, but I'm so bummed. I really, really don't want to rip out either sleeve, but I also want Jacob to be able to wear the sweater. Harumph. I'm NOT showing a picture, because then you will all tell me that I HAVE to reknit one of them. And you will probably be right. *sigh*

Now for a completely unrelated picture! My sister got her wedding pics back and they are gorgeous, but for some reason, every picture of me and Jacob dancing is just awful. But my uncle took a bunch of pictures that he emailed me today, and, joy, there's a semi-cute picture of me and my schmoo cutting a rug! Wanna see?

Dance, dance, dance...

Thanks for all the lovely comments about my new site look! I'm still working on switching all the archives, etc, over, but I'm happy with the home page. Yay blog makeover.

Posted by Carrieoke at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (27)

Hello!

I'm posting a quick entry before I head out the door to go visit my twin sister and her husband. There will be fondue, and possibly a viewing of the wedding video. And possibly *cough cough* sewing *cough cough* ... don't tell the boys. We'll see how the evening turns out.

So, I'm changing my look a little bit, so things may be a bit wonky over the weekend, but we'll see if I can't get things solidified. The Carrieoke cartoon in the upper right corner was drawn by my ever-so-talented and crafty friend and artist, Mary Jessica ... isn't it cute? MJ sews, knits, draws, quilts ... she's a crafty one, I tell ya.

In other exciting crafty news, I finished a sock. Here is a rough picture of the finished sock, taken at work in my desk chair:

Socky sock.

It's a tiny bit too big around the ankles, but I think I'm going to make a few alterations in the pattern for Sock #2. Not too many, because I want them to match. But yay for long car trips -- I started this sock on Monday night, and I finished it last night. I guess seven hours of straight knitting gets lots accomplished.

(I know, I know. I totally didn't finished Jacob's sweater like I said I would. I was a bad schmoo and I cast on for a sock. But how could I resist its lovely stripeyness? HOW COULD I RESIST?)

I plan to work on Jacob's sweater this weekend, while we are preparing for his sister to come stay with us for a little while. She arrives next week, and it will be fun times. She is a cool girl in her early twenties, and we can have slumber parties and put make up on Jacob. Just kidding, Jacob.

Another fun thing to tell you about this weekend: I don't have to work at the coffee shop tomorrow morning. I can SLEEP IN. I might be the happiest girl in the world, seriously. oh boy oh boy.

Okay. So, I gotta go now, but have a good weekend, and I'll probably be around these parts cleaning up any code messes I made today. Mwah!

Posted by Carrieoke at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

I'm home! I had such a great trip to see my dad in North Carolina ... he lives in a little tiny town near Raleigh, NC. Here is evidence: This is the view from his back porch.

Heyyyy ... Nice pasture.

That's a big old field ... of ... some crop that someone in my family is growing. I think. At any rate, it goes on for a long time. And it's darn purdy. Here's something else in my dad's backyard:

Ducks, and chickens, and roosters, I think?

And here's the man of the hour:

He's just, ya know, hanging out on the porch.

Socktastic!

Pretty sock yarn out in the country makes me happy. And getting to hang out and knit with my sister Michelle -- click here to see Michelle having fun knitting times! It was a good trip all around. And oh yes, I got to eat me some dee-lish-us North Carolina barbecue -- Wilber's in Goldsboro (check out the rating - Five Grease Stains!)-- and oh, the potato salad was SO. GOOD. Oh, how I wish I could get me some Wilber's around these parts.

Oh! And in addition to fun times with Dad and Michelle, great food, and pretty scenery, I got to hang out with my Aunts Dorothy and Angeline (that's AN-jell-een), who are sewing goddesses. Really. I showed them my little green bag and they liked it! And Angeline helped me put a zipper and a bottom in the bag (and by helped I mean she did it for me, but told me what she did.) And Angeline makes bags too (clearly the sewing runs in the family and I should quit my job now to start a sewing business. Just sayin'.) Click here to see the bag she gave me to bring home.
I picked the chili bag in honor of our dog, Chili. She told me all about how she makes her bags, and these are some sturdy bags, people. I've got the family secrets now!

So, it was a fun, relaxing trip, but I'm glad to be back with my Jacob and my schmoos. I'm definitely planning a sewing trip sometime soon -- my country aunts are crafty divas, yo.

Posted by Carrieoke at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)

Monday is the last day you can vote in the Best of Blogs 2004 Awards, and I'm a finalist in the Best Knitting/ Craft Blog category! (Edited to ad: Voting actually closed early this morning, a little earlier than I expected. Thank you everyone for your votes and support!)

Click to vote! Carrieoke in 2005!

By the time this posts, I'll probably be on my way to see my Dad in North Carolina. I'm looking forward to seeing him, spending time with my older sister, eating North Carolina barbecue (vinegar based, yum) and having SEVEN HOURS in the car to knit. Oh yeah. I'm gonna take all the pieces of Jacob's Not So Super Secret Sweater and seam it, baby! And then, I'll finish Clapotis! And knit three pairs of socks!

Okay, so maybe I won't do all that. But there will be much knitting.

Here's where I am on the Half Clappy:

Silk yarn on size 8s moves FAST.

I'm still deciding how long to make it, which is also dependent on how long my ball of silk yarn lasts. Although I'm planning to make a full Clappy once I clear some space on my knitting project list ... I heart Clapotis. I'm still trying to decide also if I want to keep this one or give it to a friend ... I originally had planned to make this for someone, but I love it so much.... is that wrong?

I also heart my sewing machine .. here's a not very good picture of my latest bag:

My little green bag...

I used a letter-sized file folder as the rough measurement for width. The spool of thread is there because I'm currently trying to insert a zipper. By hand. This will probably look like crap, but I'm testing it out to see what I can do. This bag is made using a pattern that I got from craftster.org, and if you sew and you haven't been there yet, GET THEE TO CRAFTSTER. There are so many tutorials on how to make bags, purses, and all kinds of crazy things. And SO many creative, inspiring people. Woot.

Okay, off to NC I go. I'll think of you while I'm knitting my little hands off in the car and eating Wilbur's BBQ. Have a great MLK weekend!

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)

So, I was going to write a long entry about how I've had a bad week and grumble grumble, but I've been reading blogs today and lots of people are having bad weeks, and lots of people are having MUCH WORSE weeks than me. So, no grumbles here. So there.

I did figure out what I wanted to make with the lovely silk from my last entry ... do you know what this is?

Clap on, clap off.
(Makes Karate Kid waxing motion with hands.)

Yep, it's Clapotis. And this pattern is really fun to knit, seriously. I've read that on blogs before and thought, yeah, sure. Everything's fun to knit. But THIS is FUN! I love ktbl-ing. I love pfb-ing. I love having a long row of stitch markers to stare at while I'm knitting. And I love my pretty pretty silk yarn. I'm not sure if I'm going to have enough for a whole big Clappy, so I'm going to make a half-Clappy and see how it looks. (There are great instructions at the end of the pattern for making a smaller or larger piece. )

Yay.

I'm going on a little trip to see my dad next week, and I'm planning on bringing the sleeve to Jacob's sweater to finish, and probably the pieces to sew up. Maybe ... just maybe ... I'll have the whole darn thing all finished by next week. Har.

In other news, I ran this week for the first time. Well, ran - walked. But it was a little over 2 miles and it felt great (after it was over.) I'm doing this beginner's program - 0 to 3 miles in Ten Easy Weeks! - and if after Ten Easy Weeks! running is no fun, I will stop immediately and eat a Blizzard. Just kidding. I will find another activity to replace the running. Perhaps it will involve Dance Dance Revolution at the bowling alley:

We are so about to dance our little tails off in this picture.
(Drew's on the left, and I'm on the right.)

I guess I'll try to track my running progress somewhere on here, although it may get depressing when I lose all interest in exercising and just want to knit and watch Law and Order: SVU. I guess if I stop running, I can track which episodes of Law and Order I've watched. GO TEAM.

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (32)

I feel like poo today.

So, I'm working at home, and also surfing blogs at home. And adding fringe to the never-ending poncho that is a gift. I recently became worried that this poncho is not cute and will not fit the recipient ... here's a picture so you can judge for yourself. all pictures in this entry taken by talented boyfriend photographer Jacob.

Brown Poncho Time!

Do you think the fringe needs to be shortened? I can't decide. The person who is getting this is taller than me, if that helps. (Sorry I look like SO SO REALLY EXCITED in that picture..I'm trying to combat the sicky poo feeling.)

Anyways. In other happy knitting news, I recently was gifted with some really gorgeous yarn from a generous, thoughtful friend. (I have chosen not to embarrass her by revealing her identity, but she's a SCHMOO, for many reasons other than just her yarn generosity.) The stash includes a ton of Wool Ease that is destined to become a sweater for me very soon, some Noro Silk Garden AND Noro Kochoran, and some 100% silk yarn in absolutely gorgeous deep purples and reds and golds. See below:

um, YUMMY.

What to knit?!? My little knitting hands are dancing around gleefully, trying to decide what to make with the yarn. Yarny yarn yarn, yay. You can see why it's hard for me to finish Jacob's sweater, with all the yarniness that is surrounding me. And also all the sewing that is calling to me... and also, Jacob just showed me that he has Iron On Transfer Paper! A whole package! I could sew up a totebag with a big picture of Bella's face ... not that I would do that ... er.

Speaking of Bella, have you ever seen a dog with such adorably long, skinny legs?

Schmoomy Long Legs.

I didn't think so.

Posted by Carrieoke at 4:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

(Technical aside: Yay! MT 3.14 is working, and I've got MT-Blacklist loaded now so I can fight the comment spammers.)

So,even though this is Carrieoke's Knitting Blog, I'm going to talk about a different craft today .. Clearly, I don't need a new obsession, but I'm slowly become obsessed with sewing. Sewing is FUN. I'm still at the stage where I want to get used to my machine, so I've been making tons of little bags and pouches. Mariko has great tutorials for totebags, pillowcases and pouches on her blog, and I've been using them non stop. Here's another cool site for fun sewing stuff : Oh My Stars has a bunch of tutorials for making your T-shirts groovy. Oh yeah.

But, I've had one sewing pattern stashed away, literally, for a year or two. Miss Skinny Rabbit posted a link to this a while ago, and I printed it, thinking that ONE DAY I would have a sewing machine and enough old jeans to make it. And that day has arrived. May I present my little denim throw?

isn't it cute?
click to see a closer view of the squares.

It's not perfect by any stretch of the imagination ... we were pretty loose with our measurements when we cut the squares, and I used some older jeans with sentimental holes in them, so it's got a little holey. But the strips were fairly straight, and it's my first little quilty throw! It's perfect for sitting on the couch, knitting in front of the TV. YAY. (I'm trying to ignore that fact that I really want to try quilting now. The crafts are TAKING OVER.)

And, here's a gratuitous picture of Bella, who kept trying to lay down on the denim throw during this evening's photo shoot.

Bella wants her denim throw back.

I have one more sewing project to show you, but only if you're not my sister, Cathy, who requested a totebag as soon as she heard I was sewing them like a crazy woman. Request Granted -- (no peeking Cathy!)

Don't worry, I'm still knitting too. I'm just excited that I can actually sew a straight line with a sewing machine. I'm also excited right now because Jacob just made creme brulee and me and JoAnna and Drew and Jacob are about to eat it. YUM YUM YUM ....

Posted by Carrieoke at 1:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (31)

Hi there. Sorry if you came by this morning and there was a strange little blog with no entries - I'm here! I'm here! I just decided to upgrade to Movable Type 3.0 and also change to a new database at the same time, and also in the middle of the day. D'oh.

But with the help of my Pretty Posies Webhost Extraordinaire Becky (thanks a million!!), I'm all grown up with a new database and MT 3.0! Yee-haw! If you notice some things are a little wonky around here, I'm probably working on it.

But enough of the technical jibber-jibber! You want to see the knitting, right? First of all, here is proof that I am indeed still working on Jacob's Not So Super Secret Sweater :

A tiny bit of sleeve.
see all my pattern notes underneath? scary.

I'm really trying to get this sweater done by the end of the month -- not that it matters since it was 70 degrees here yesterday and he wouldn't be able to sport it anyways. But I'm trucking away, I promise.

I've also been working on a poncho for a gift:

The Yarn Harlot's fabby pattern, of course.

The recipient of this gift is currently out of town and I'm thinking offline so hopefully it won't spoil the surprise. (Unless she SO needed to check blogs while she was on vacation that she clicks on over here...not that I'm like that...)

I had to skip knitting group this week because I was feeling kind of blah (in a I've-been-off-work-for-two-weeks-and-I-don't-want-to-go back-kind-of-way...). But AM and Jenny met me for a knitting lunch yesterday ... Here's Jenny working on the most beautiful green sock:

That's Pat Benatar hair, folks. And Miss High Energy can totally rock it.

Phew. I'm exhausted, and I'm about to dive right back into Movable Type land so I can fix all the little kinks. I also stayed up late last night sewing (!) and I've actually got a pretty big project completed that I can't wait to show you ... but not now! I must work!

Posted by Carrieoke at 2:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Movable Type Upgrade in Progress! Your Regularly Scheduled Blog Will Return Shortly!

Posted by Carrieoke at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Some generous person nominated my blog for the Best of Blog Awards 2004
in the best knitting / craft blog category. Thank you to whoever nominated me, and if you'd like to,
go vote for yer favorite knittin' blog!

We had a great New Year's, although we got all dressed up to go out and then ended up staying in. We did, however, play a mean game of Trivial Pursuit (boys vs girls, and dude, the girls were REALLY winning when we stopped. Like, totally winning.) And we got to see some fun folks, like AM, and Miss High Energy, and Jenna. oh, and even Ranger. Things got a little crazy after midnight hit, when Drew and JoAnna wanted to go bowling at 3 am and Jenna wanted to go dancing. Carrieoke wanted to go sleepytime....and I did. But a fun time was had by all -- see evidence below.

Seen in Anne Marie's living room on New Year's Day afternoon.

Har.

Anyways, there has been much crafting to go along with the ringing in of the New Year. And YES I have pictures, and some confessions to make.

Guilty confession #1: I bought a sewing machine.

This is Mrs. White. She is easy to work with.

I'm sure my mother is laughing hysterically as she reads this, remembering when I have before attempted to use her sewing machine ... and failed. But look Mom! I used Mariko's fabulous totebag pattern found at her blog, and check it out! My first tote bag. Here's a better view of the inside! I have made several more since then, and I love sewing. SO. MUCH. Who knew?

Guilty confession #2: I have put aside Jacob's sweater for a short hiatus (read: three days, TOPS.)

Here's what I have:

a sleeve and a neckband to go.
Send tiny elf seamers who can help me finish this.

I promise I will finish it THIS MONTH. That's right, I said it here. Hold me to that, people. I'm worried about that last sleeve...

I tend NOT to keep my New Year's resolutions, but here are the ones I'm going to focus on: be better with money, exercise, and really appreciate the important people in my life. And to be grateful for the happy life I have! Yay 2005!

Posted by Carrieoke at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)