Crud

So I caught the evil illness that has been going around the world it seems, and it pretty much laid me flat. I'm jealous of people who can spend the day reading or knitting when they are sick, because all I can do is stare at the TV with my eyes half-closed trying to remember how to breathe. Thus I haven't knit anything for about 5 days now. I did take some blurry pictures of my quilt (the one I've been working on since last summer), since I have some progress to show:


I'm planning on adding at least 3 more diamonds, to make a square. Then, depending on how much I can stand making these same blocks over and over, I may add another border all the way around. I love the results of quilting, but it takes so much devotion - you can't just sit in front of the tv or bring it with you in the car - you have to sit down in front of the sewing machine and concentrate on what you are doing. After about half an hour I really need to see what happens on "America's Next Top Model" and the quilt gets abandoned for another 3 weeks.

Nostalgia

Those of you who are new visitors to this blog may not know that the name "Ranger Sarah" is from the days when I worked as an NPS Park Ranger. I wanted a place to record all of the funny & crazy stories that come from working with the public. Here are some of those stories from 2 1/2 years ago, for your reading pleasure.

July 6, 2005:
Every once in a while, I'll encounter someone whose logic I cannot grasp. Take the following conversation, which took place on a cave trail with a 60-year-old man.

Man: So, what's your name again?
Me: Sarah.
Man: Oh, so are you Dutch?
Me: Um, no, I'm not.
Man: That's weird, because my mother's name was Sarah and she's Dutch.

August 3, 2005:
The other day I was walking through the cave, when I saw two guys standing by a pit with a ladder going down into it. It is an old ladder, falling apart, and is just there for display. It is attached to the top of the pit with a long metal pole that is embedded in the rock, and the ladder hangs off of that pole. The two guys seemed really fascinated with this metal pole. One says to the other, "Wow, how do you think they got that metal pole stuck in the rock like that?" His friend replies, "Maybe the rock was softer back then."

I've also come to the conclusion that not many people know how far a mile is. (It's 5,280 feet.) On the elevator, people always ask how far the elevator goes, and when I answer "750 feet," they will inevitably ask how many miles that is. One man even attempted to answer that question himself, saying, "Wow, that's like 2 1/2 miles!!"

August 8, 2005:
Working at the information desk, I've been asked all sorts of things. Mostly it's just "Where's the bathroom?" or "What time is bat flight?", but on occasion it gets interesting. One person recently even asked me what the meaning of life was.

Yesterday, however, I got a winner. A very old man asked me if I would go on a date with him. 75 years from now. In heaven.

Apparently, this old man (who is traveling with his wife) is going across the country trying to round up 288,000 dates in heaven, 75 years from now. Why this number? Who knows. After all, this man is asking people FOR DATES IN HEAVEN. When his wife came up to the desk, I said to her, "Did you know your husband is asking other women for dates in heaven?" She replied, "Yes," and smiled. I guess she's not planning on being there herself.

As to my answer, I told him that I didn't know what I'll being doing in 75 years, and I'd probably be busy that night.
---
While I don't necessarily miss my job, I have to say that the entertainment value of encountering thousands of people a day was well worth it. Now, as a graphic artist, I encounter a whole other group of crazies. (Like the guy who wanted me to change the picture of the football player in his ad to one that looked "less gay." But that's a story for another day.)

You Make My Day

Thanks to Dove Knits for giving me the "You Make My Day" Award! She gave me a great compliment & let me know that I'm not just talking to myself out here. I have to pick 10 bloggers and pass the award on, and from the 99 blogs I regularly read, it was difficult to pick just 10. There are so many funny & crafty people out there; I'm glad that the internet exists to egg us all on in our collective obsessions.

1. Books I Done Read : Her snarky sense of humor always makes my day
2. Book Chase : Book reviews that make me want to drop everything and READ
3. Reluctant Mango : Mango is never satisfied, always trying something new - and inspiring me to do the same
4. The Happy College Knitter : Her conversational writing and great projects make my day
5. Whispering Pine : Her beautiful photography keeps me coming back
6. Tentenknits : Classy, classy knits
7. Knits & Pieces : Her beautiful knits give me inspiration
8. Sew-Mad : This girl can SEW!
9. Bibliolatry : Her book reviews are right up my alley
10. Yarnmonster : What a talented knitter!

Calorimetry

Another instant gratification project (if by "instant" you mean "knit this thing three times.") It's Calorimetry from Knitty, in Noro Silk Garden. The first time I knit this, even though I got gauge, it turned out HUGE. So I ripped out the entire thing and started over. I knit a few rows, and it was obviously too small. So finally I cast on 104 stitches on needles 2 sizes smaller than called for, and its just right. Even though it's never really cold enough for hats outside here in Southern New Mexico, it is cold enough for hats inside. We keep the heater down low, and end up bundling up inside to compensate.

(Interesting fact: currently on Ravelry, 3,163 Calorimetries have been made. WOW!)

Home Improvement

During my Junior year of college, my roommate and I would make it a point to sit down together and watch "Trading Spaces" everyday on TLC. We were both sort of crafty types and longed for the day when we would have more than a dorm room to decorate. Now that I have a house (7 years later), I'm finally getting to do all those home improvement projects we lusted after.

My favorite decorating style at the moment is Mexican Folk Art. Thus, the kitchen was transformed from boring white:

Into an exciting blue, with lots of Talavera tiles:
Tiling was not nearly as difficult as it seems. We got a combo adhesive/grout that was already mixed, so pretty much all we had to do was glue these to the wall. The only challenge was cutting tiles to fit at the edges, but we were able to rent a wet tile saw that was incredibly easy to use. This post is a little misleading, since we're not actually done - we ran out of tiles, even though we thought we were way over-covered. This then involved a 140-mile round trip to Home Depot - yet another disadvantage to living in the boonies. Overall though, I'm very happy with how it turned out.

V-Mail

There is a great post over at Letter Writer's Alliance about V-Mail - mail to soldiers abroad during WWII that was written on a set form, then reduced and sent overseas via microfilm in order to reduce weight. In keeping with my own resolution to write more letters, I made my own version of this form, free for you to download as a PDF!
Just click here...

Half

It's half a sweater! Proof that I've actually been knitting it, not just saying that I have. It takes a long time to knit a sweater on size 4's. The good news is that it fits perfectly - I can't wait for it to be wearable!
P.S. Like my pants? :)

Lunch Break

I try to get outside everyday at lunch, mostly just to see what the weather is since I don't have windows in my office building. (There should be laws against that kind of thing.) I took pictures today:

And look at this: Seagulls??? In NEW MEXICO???

Le Slouch

I have a couple small amounts of yarn from a present last Christmas, so I've been looking for some small projects. Thus, I present Le Slouch:

I used one skein of Plymouth Tweed & my fancy new Knitpicks Options needles in size 9. I should have used size 8's for the ribbing, but I didn't have size 8 DPNs, and there weren't enough stitches to stretch around a circular. I wish this hat was less slouchy, but maybe that's what it's supposed to be like and I'm just not used to it yet. We have an extremely large number of hats here at Chez RangerSarah, so it was fun to add another style into the mix. And I finished it in 2 nights!

365 Days to go . . .

I don't really like the idea of most New Year's Resolutions, since they are usually so amorphous that they can only end in failure. I believe in concrete goals, ones that you actually can obtain. I need a number, a schedule. I usually don't make any resolutions, because if I'm going to put off doing something until the date changes, it probably means that I don't really have the drive to do it. But, I do have some ambitions for 2008.

1) Read 50 books in 2008. I read 36 books in 2007, and now that I am no longer in school, I'm really enjoying having the freedom to read what I want. I'd like to work on 1001 Books to Read Before You Die (with the acceptance that I will never finish this list. I've read 49 - only 952 to go.) There is a really cool spreadsheet you can download here, that will keep track of everything for you.

2) Learn some new knitting skills. Namely, colorwork. I can't say that I'm going to like it, or be good at it, but you can't knock it till you try it. I really want to make these Endpaper Mitts.

3) Write more letters. I've joined the Modern Letter Project, so I'll at least be writing 2 letters a month. The internet is great and all, but I think we all agree that getting mail is awesome.

4) Take more pictures. I always see things and think to myself, "Man, I wish I had my camera!" I'll start bringing it with me more.

Ok, that's all. Not too hard, huh? I'm sure that during the course of the year, I'll find new and exciting things to do and places to see, and I'll just go for it. Why wait when you can do it NOW? Happy New Year everyone!