Spinning

I'm now a yarn spinning crazy person! I got this drop spindle from my friend Slithershimmy and am utterly hooked. The roving she gave me is a really cool hunter green and spins nicely. Had to let all my blog peeps know, well, 'cus most of you are yarn whores.

Exactly A Month Later...

...I return! Gods, I'm lame. True, I have been in a bit of a slump. But I think things are turning around. 

Two thousand and nine promises to be a good year in many ways. Numerology-wise my numbers are matching up this year with the energy coming in. It promises to be a year of global importance in the area of awareness and higher thought. According to this article I found in the Global Pagans Online forum, 2009 is a Universal 11 year which we have not seen since 1910. The energy brought in by this highly important number will have people asking big questions of themselves and looking deeper into the "why's" of their spiritual sides. For a Gemini like myself this will sync up nicely with my own personal horoscope forecast for the the year. The planets are in place to bring some good shit in this year. Double whammy for me, it looks like. 

With my good news out of the way, let me just say that 2008 was a crash landing into crappolla of the pretty nasty kind. We hit the bottom on many levels and I'll spend the first quarter of this year recovering. However, coupled with the good news in paragraph two, I've found positive ways of looking at it and have found many of the green grasses hidden under the cow pies. It's amazing how good it feels cutting ties to bad juju from your past. I've done some damn fine chopping. Some of it forced, but all of it fun. 

Swinging along with the "2008 was blah blah, and 2009 was blah blah" of the two pseudo relationships and many (cough record setting cough) one-time encounters, I've walked into '09 with no attachments and no plans to really do anything about it anytime soon. Yes, I'm still a horny fucker. Not that you wanted to know that, but I just raped your eyes with it so deal. But I've decided to move back to that point where I pursued dating a little more logically than last year. Dating. Hardly. 

Hobby-wise, I've recently all but finished my red scarf and am getting ready to work on a charity project for the troops on duty. Pictures will most likely follow if I can motivate myself to post anything. Yeah right. If you are on Ravelry, you'll see them sooner. Speaking of Ravelry, I have taken up some activity in the groups I've joined but am starting to fall off the wagon again. It comes and goes. The more projects I actually finish will spur me to post again, I am sure. 

The hunt for a car and apartment should take up the better first part of this year. Both of these contingent on getting a job. We here at Shawn Inc. are hoping for some work here soon in the temp field and then something a bit more permanent after that. This year promises to be good for my online tarot business and we are keeping our fingers crossed. 

Since this is turning into a rather lengthy (STFU cretins in the back!) entry, I'm going to cut it short here. Mostly because I'm a Gemini and getting bored with myself. And I want to smoke. And get some water. And play with my cards. More tomorrow where I will talk about my goals for the year, trends in sprituality I can or can't see coming, and just how full of shit I am. 

Now back to your boring daily lives. And remember- breathe in, breathe out. 

Not Much New on This End...

There is something about being utterly bored at work that makes for the perfect mood to blog. I'm actually a little pissed I'm in this mood because I'm supposed to not be. I'm supposed to have overtime right now, but do I? Nooooooooo. Because somebody's boss was a blond dipshit and didn't fix the scheduling for this week. Dumbass. Sigh.

So I have my music cranked right now. Got some Coheed and Cambria, RED, Natasha Beddingfield, Katy Perry, and Godhead. It's quite a nice mix. Just enough pissed off music mixed with a little instrumental metal/rock and then some purely gay themed ditties (I Kissed an Girl- please, so lesbian and lovin' it) that make the morning just work. It may be time for a cigarette here after this post.

My equinox party is coming up this next Sunday and I'm quite happy about it. Everybody should have the day off and it is going to be a potluck working with the whole "share the wealth/harvest" theme that is the whole reason for Mabon. I wish I were a little more prepared for this party, but just getting back on top of finances and trying to find time to party on the eight sabbats year round, and more so here recently, has been a bit of a pain, but definitely better for me. I am getting my rythm back. I can feel the year turning again and with each solar festival that comes and goes I see life running through its cycles. Pause for a happy moment with me... okay were are done here.

I don't have pictures of the most recent knitting accomplishments because I am still posting from work and don't have the ability to upload from my camera to the internet. I need a camera that uploads to the internet straight from the camera to any open wireless internet connection... Man, that would be nice and handy. I've paused on my Silk Garden scarf to start my orange and verigated black Halloween scarf. Yes, I know what some of you will say. "Where is the alpaca Halloween scarf from last year?" Well it is sitting in a box waiting for me to find my tapestry needle and weave in the millions of ends. I hate stripped scarves. So I'm workin' on that and finishing the heel on my last sock for my red Mom pair. Then it's on to fix a few other neglected UFO's and work on presents and a pair of sleeves for my friend Kristen. I'm thinking the Belladonna pattern modified. Hmmmm.

What's it been, a week? Two weeks? This is not bad. Posting a little sooner than usual. I might have to keep this up.

Smell the Spices on the Air

I should have posted this a week and a half ago, but I had a morning where, while relaxing outside with a Camel and some coffee, I caught a drifting scent on the still warm, summer wind that was slightly spicy, a bit earthy, and overall very warm and delicious in it's aromatic character (Oooooo, big words! I must be in a writing mood...). I'll give you three guesses what it was and the first two don't count.

Yup. Fall. Yummy, cozy, crisp and musty. I could smell it starting to creep in all sly and smooth, trying to take out a couple of trees before we dumb humans noticed. Caught ya! Mother Nature is full of tricks. I'm getting better at spotting them, though. It was perfect then when, for our Labor Day celebrations, a blustery breeze blew in from the mountains and blasted away the bad air for the briskly cold front we played host to fot the next few days. Yes, that last sentence was supposed to be cheesey. I don't remember which morning it was, but I woke up about 9-ish and looked out my bedroom window and literally almost went nuts. Headline News: naked man goes insane in bed with eyes glued to window, causes seem to be unbelievable amounts of joy and elation. Yeah, that'd be a riot. It was the most perfectest morning yet.

I think it was a big deal mainly because I'm finally done with Summer, and my favorite time of the year is the holiday seasons and the start of the waning half of the year. My friend IndieMissCranky said it best with her blog post "Must Be the Season of the Witch...". The feeling gets very "witchy" this time of year and Halloween just helps that out. I don't know why it is that the harvest celebrations so common in wiccan and pagan circles are some of the most celebrated and are obviously the favorites, but I have to agree with the general concensus and promise to speculate on it later.

With Fall here, I've started cooking good, yummy crap and hunting for recipes for all the oodles of things I want to make this year. I've already got more than enough ideas for the Equinox party I'm throwing this month and the list is quickly getting full for the October celebrations. Once that's out of the way we'll move on to Christmas and Yule. Speaking of Yule, I've no idea when that is this year. Mental note to check on that. Back to cooking. I've realized I have a lot of things I still need for my kitchen and my skills are nothing to boast about, but I do have a good cooking gene from my mom and grandma so I'm hoping it holds true and gets me happily through the holidays. Much munching.

The other day I dug up my pipe and now badly want to find some pipe tobacco for it. Another favorite thing of mine to do around this time of the year. And the coffee just gets so much better this time of the year, too! I'm telling you, Starbucks, a cup of coffee, a slice of pumpkin bread, a pipe or cigarette at hand, and a group of crazy people around you all gathered up next to the patio heater is the perfect way to spend those late nights after work this season. Random tangent!

I've developed quite an attatchment to my Starbucks buddies. All of us met through totally random occurences of one friend meeting another friend, yadda yadda, so on and so forth. I really have no desire to go on a long tangent about it, but they really have been the kick in the pants I needed to really get out and enjoy the day to day crap I wade through all the time. On a related note, some celebrity or famous person recently coined the term "framily" and it was covered by a local newspaper. "Framily" is a combo of the words "friends" and "family" and means a group of friends who naturally function as family in a sense. I'd have to say our little group is starting to become that.

One of our most anticipated group activities right now is our pumpkin carving night. We are taking over Starbucks back patio with hot chocolate and pumpkin spice lattes and a whole mess of black bags, knives, candles, and newspapers. I'm still praying that the patio is mostly unoccupied that night before we get there. I myself plan on doing eight freakin' pumpkins for myself, and I'm sure I'll be throwing in some help lobotomizing some of the other pumpkins.

I've blown through some serious knitting here in the last couple of weeks as well. Hibernation setting in. I finished something (still no clue what it was) and then moved on to another scarf for a friend, finished all eight feet of that monster and now just have to cut and weave, and I've moved through two skeins of my natural colored silk and wool scarf. It's another Noro scarf, but I'm already in love with it. And my red socks are just a day's worth of knitting away from being finished. Next I need to finish my orange and brown Fall scarf from last year and weave in those freakin' ends. Then it's on to Christmas projects and a couple of side pieces for some other friends. So much to do!

Well, I'm pretty much out of stuff to talk about at this point. Besides the daily grind of work, the trips to the gym to look sexy, and the random outings into the world beyond Littleton, not much else is happening at the moment. Doesn't mean there won't be something amazing and fantastic happening tomorrow, but if it does, I promise I'll get around to writing about it... eventually. 'Til next time.

Feeling Grim...

Just kidding!

You thought this was going to be another depressing, utterly time-wasting blog didn't you? Ha! I got ya!

Nah, I'm back up and running. Got over a very bad spot in a frienship I had going for a couple months that ended very fast 24 hours after my last post. Not in any horrific way like you might think from that last sentence, but it ended nonetheless and I'm kind of relieved it's over. Bad part of it is I have no desire to go jumping into relationships with people now out of an overly cautious part of my brain that says "you're gonna get fucked with again, you know it." But that's a whole 'nother story for another time over coffee when the sun is shining and the espresso is quality. There may also be a hot shirtless man doing my laundry in that happy scenario, too...

Speaking of men, there is nothing to speak of. Now on to the next topic. Lol

I need to do another music post! I have a new band I'm heavily in love with. They are called Coheed and Cambria and they are a heavy rock style with oodles of creativity. The lead singer has his own comic strip that actually syncs up with the music to be comic/soundtrack combo that rocks. I posted some of the lyrics from their song "Welcome Home" on my Myspace blog and let me tell you, they are fucked up lyrics! Which is why I love them I guess. I've also got this thing for the group RED as well. I may have to do a double post! Maybe today! Okay, now I'm getting too excited for my own good.

Funny that around the time the Olympics pick up again I start going to the gym again. Hmmm. There's really no planning there, just ended up hanging out with a friend who really wanted to get back into the swing of things, so now we are going to the gym six times a week (yeah right!) and working our arms, legs, backs, and butts off. It is so nice to be doing this again. I didn't remember how good it feels to have that endorphin rush every morning. Makes my incredibly monotonous job that much more fun. Who knows, maybe in four years I'll be cheering Michael Phelps on from the poolside. I love the Olympics. Right now my chest size is on one inch bigger than my waist, a very embarrassing thing for muah, and my legs are not nearly as big as I want them. I weighed in at 206.5 though and that is a drop of five pounds from the last time I checked. Why am I posting this info here? Hopefully with the rest of the reading world getting this the pressure will be on and I'll want to kick these goals down one by one. That, and I am determined to have the guys start chasing me instead of the other way around.

In knitting news, I finished another scarf or two since last posting on it, and I added one of the projects to my gallery on Ravelry. I also got funky and posted some yarn I used as a stash object. I updated my needle collection and have been trying to participate in the forums a bit more. Still need a computer to really stay up on it. I also got my Ravelry pin in the mail too, and it looks pretty spiffy on my bag. Right now I'm working on getting my current scarf and one for my buddy Rob done before Fall kicks in. Tonight our group is going over to A Knitted Peace to work on the World's Biggest Sock. I'll post pictures of that for ya when I get 'em tonight. Should be fun.

Nothing else really, in news. I had a fun time today at Abe's Cafe on Main Street where I live. During lunch, a bat flew in and terrorized the cust for about ten minutes. He was a cool little guy, actually a lot bigger than I'm used to. He spent the entire time making everyone a little nervous and even brushed my head a couple of times. Bugger.


It seems like every time I post there are five posts that I should have done previously with all the crap that I post. Oh well. While you are out there, go check out Matt Micham. He's an amazing Olympic athlete from Australia and he's fast becoming a favorite of mine.

Back Again, Hopefully

Goddamn! It's been over a month since I posted on this bugger.

Thankfully, I have snapping new prospects on a temporary computer. It's going to be a much needed addition since I've no intention of fixing my old computer. No way. It would be a better use of money to just buy a new Mac Book Air and transfer my old stuff to the new hardware. So a friend of mine mentioned that she had a Vaio she needed to get rid of and was going to be selling to her neice were her neice not already the proud owner of a new computer. So she offered it to me. I'm hoping to get it up and running by next week (if I have the cash) and hopefully be blogging on a regular basis. It would be a nice change. I have a big need to get my own computer and start back on the routine of updating what few readers I have on my daily grind. Not that it's all that interesting, but it's fun for me.

So in the interest of posting something semi interesting, my job's going great, money is flowing, paying off my backrent from the time I didn't have a job, and still managing to have a life. It's fantastic. I've made so many good friends here recently that I'm having all kinds of trouble keeping up with all of them and all my old buddies from everywhere in the world. I finally made contact (think alien and you'll get my weird mood) with beings from my college days and keep hoping I'll get more in touch with them and their crazy lives as things get going.

My trip is still on for California in June, though the week has changed. I think I'll be going a week later and skipping the whole LA Pride thing in the interest of saving a bit more money for...shopping! I'm working on my tan, new profile pics to come, and starting to workout somewhat so I can get my body into beach readiness. There's always the possibility of starting a little summer romance, and why not while I'm out in Cali where the surfer's are plentious. Ashley and I are going to turn LA over with our fun and games.

In the world of knitting, which is why this blog was revived, I've started some new projects and picked up some old ones. My gloves I am redoing. the first was just not quite the way I wanted it, so I'm gonna try again. I've started an antler scarf which I will post pictures of when I get around to it. It's my first go at cables and they really are as easy as everyone told me they would be! I've also started with a group project and worked on some of that last night with my knitting group. We've got some new plans as far in advance as Christmas and are really ready to start whacking away at getting them going. There's a smattering of charity work, some just for fun stuff, and a few group learning projects that a few of the newer knitters are really excited about.

Looking back over this post it is obvious I'm a bit tired. My humor spiked earlier today and now it's on the dl (that's down low for you that don't come from my planet). Well, there was a weak attempt. I'm just gonna close out now. *singing Closing time, time for all the.....* Sigh.

The Nobodies!

So I've decided to profile that devious little group self-dubbed "The Nobodies" so you all can get a feel for how dangerous these lovely ladies are! I'm assuming I have included everyone below, but I might have missed someone. The Nobodies are the regulars that are consistenly at Barnes knitting up a storm. Who knows, maybe they will form their own faction and rise up to take over the knitting world! Horrors be upon us!!!

Bernadette - Speaks her mind without regret! Killer knitting needles!

Val - Cracks nuts faster than you can blink. All men beware!

Jan - Quick wit and a gentle persona. We have yet to uncover this beauty's dastardly plan...

Kim - A mother and master of all she sets her mind to! Nothing gets by this one!

Keep your eyes peeled and running shoes ready. They meet for secret conclaves weekly and have infiltrated the local Barnes and Noble. They are not to be trusted!

This will most likely be the last transmission of confidential information I ever pass on so...

Farewell!

I don't know what it is about having a camera and blogging, but I don't seem to be as motivated to do the latter unless I have pictures to show you all. I started a scarf for Val, red with black eye lash, for Christmas because she didn't think she could finish it in time. It's coming along beautifully. It's a simple seed stitch done on 17's with a double strand feed. That'd be the red and black yarn, that double feed there. lol

Other than that, I am still working on my argyle scarf in black and green that I, again, still do not have pictures of. It's slow in coming but looks so amazing. Not as forgiving for mistakes though. I had to rip out two rows to redo the third row because I messed the purling and stitching sequence up. Looked like crap!

In other news, we have had quite a bit of snow in the last week and the landscape is amazing. We may have snow for Christmas! Forget the fact that I won't be sticking with my original plans (job hunting, grrrr) and will be pushing back my trip up to Cheyenne, and this year might actually be better than last year. I keep searching for the mystical Christmas cheer that seems to be a bit more elusive this year. Ah, tumultuous life. Now before I get dramatic...

The knitting group is continuing splendidly! We have new peeps and have now hit a high of 9 regulars. Well, that's if you count that bitchy little group The Nobodies who won't let it drop that I mentioned that "nobody had come to knitting group" while putting it in the contexed that we were the somebodies and I was speaking from a group perspective. Sigh, women. I'm probably shooting myself in the foot with that since all my known readers are women, but that's the beautiful thing about daringly going where women assume no man would ever go. Haaaaa! I have balls! Lol

We had a party at Val's house last week that, oddly enough, turned into a knitting group party since our other friends never showed. It was a simple party, just a bunch of nuts hanging around in the same bowl for the evening. We potlucked and then sat around chatting on into the evening. Like most hardcore knitters, we pulled out the knitting that everyone inevitably has on hand and continued our coffee and cookies in the living room. Below is a montage of our candidly snapped pictures. Lookin' forward to the next ho-down!

I'll just quit now while I'm ahead.

The Quickie

Boy how I wish that title was what it implies at first glance. Sigh. Strange here, checking in from the ranks of the unlucky to leave all a snippet of my life in the last two weeks. After reviewing the material for this one, I don't think it will be as short as it was going to be originally.


Since posting last, we've celebrated both the commercial holiday of Halloween and the ancient and resurrected festival of Samhein. Halloween went off without a hitch and gave me reason to succumb to my love of pumpkin carving. The mass lobotomy of the collected Jacks resulted in four fun and funky pumpkins that drug out the comments in spades from each of our trick-or-treaters. Ahhh, a little bragging-ego-booster there for me. I am quite proud of my handiwork. Samhein was quiet and private and consisted mostly of a time of releasing to the universe all the old baggage from the year before. Good for the soul, good for the body. It is amazing how much you can keep inside and not realize without some self examination. A good detox is always good for the body and soul.






With the end of October a new wave of knitting books surfaced at the local Barnes Ignoble and my find was scouted and acquired with much rejoicing. I reviewed this book in an earlier post without realizing that it wasn't out yet. Duh. I finally have the Son of Stitch n Bitch and I've already started my first project. It's a double knit scarf with a diamond pattern in black and lime green. I don't have pictures yet because of the lousy camera that I have, but when I do there will be an update. It's challenging, but loads of fun. Very left brained.



Couple of weeks ago we had Maggie Sefton down from Ft. Collins for a quiet... uhhh, not that quiet... night of knitting and chatting about life and books. She spilled the good news on new books, publishers, and her own LYS. We've decided, after a generous invitation, to take a field trip up to see our favorite author in her natural setting. The date for that is not set yet, but it will be sometime after the first of next year. I'll be raving about that again in the future, just you wait!


Knitting Knuts! With the ever expanding size of our knitting group, we've decided it would be a grand plan to start our own knitting blog with multiple authors in order to showcase events, current reads, and other big news bytes everyone should know about. There will also be plenty of room for random knitting rants and humor to spice it up. You can see the starter page for our new blog here. Knitting Knuts is the current working title. There will also eventually be an email list to join.


And that wraps most of this entry up. I'm working on incorporating an mp3 widget into the sidebar for some entertaining music for you all to listen to while perusing the archives. I'm all about the entertainment of my readers. Hopefully that is why you all keep coming back to read. Lol. Don't make me have to result to "naughty" tactics. I may just be desperate enough.

'Til next time then.

Halloween Come and Gone

So i really did start a post for Halloween, but this dude ended up bein' way too busy to actually put anything good out. So I sit here at 5am re-writing my original draft. It's odd how many different sounds you hear late at night. And it's odd the places your mind goes when it's just you and the quiet. So peaceful. I'm gonna go back to writing. Needed a bit of a break. AM hours and I'm still not tired. Tired enough to go to sleep anyways.

Tomorrow, or later today, I plan on having some pictures up of Halloween and the finished scarf. Til then.

Racing to Finish

So I told myself I would have a scarf for Halloween and I started one back in September. I finally got the yarn I needed to finish it, and I just haven't picked it up for more than a couple of minutes. Sigh. But, I am resolved to having it done by Halloween night, since I get the sneaky feeling it's gonna be cold like it always is for the night of the living dead. Too many ghosts out is the problem. Darn ghosts.

We had our first snow a week ago, and it's been quite pleasant since. No telling when the weather will drop kick us back into Old Man Winter's grubby fist. One must be prepared though, for anything. So I am going to finish my scarf by Halloween, the gloves (which have two more fingers done! yay) by the first week in November, and the hat to complement my scarf somewherer close to the other two. Quite an excellent goal setting agenda, eh? Yeah, go rag on your own UFO's, punk!

I shall post next on Halloween. Yes, Halloween! It may be my favorite holiday and the start of the new Celtic year, but I shall post my heart out to celebrate. See you all then.

And He Emerges

Man, I suck! I haven't blogged in a while! How does this happen!? Either way, I have stuff to blog about, so maybe my problem is fixed... for now. Let's get to it.

October has lent itself to the more creative and imaginative side of muah, so I have picked up my drawing again and have set about to knitting up more projects with a cup of hot chocolate and a friend available close by. There is nothing quite able to compare to the utter perfection of a fire, hot chocolate, a book, music, knitting, a friend, a cloudy, cold sky outside a frosty, overly fogged window all viewed from a position of legs draped over the sides of a big overstuffed chair and a mellow buzz in the nogin. Well, that was too descriptive. Pardon the word explosion. It just sits there in my head making so happy I have to slap you all with a visualization. It is similar in perfection like my most commonly expressed combo of chocolate, coffee, and ciggarettes all enjoyed while sitting on a hill overlooking the sunrise-drenched city of Denver all swimming with early morning fog. Utter peacefulness. And it helps when a very large raven glides by to perch on a bench and give you most excellent magickal company. Yes, that actually happened to me. Mmmmmm...

But I didn't take that picture. I'm an idiot that doesn't carry my camera everywhere with me. Doi.

But another blog, another time, and I'll write more on that topic. This entry is to show off the progress I have on my right hand glove. It's got a little improvising (I do it shamelessly) and a lot of frustration wrapped up in that cuff, but now it's just a happy little whirl of fun yar that is taking on its own personality and look. I'm especially impressed with the cammo flair on the back.

But yeah, thats pretty much it for now. Pray that the next time I write is not tied up with the arrival of egg nog, that Ultimately Fabulous Heaven-In-A-Cup Drink of The Gods. If so, someone slap me.

Wait until I put my egg nog down.

Please.

A Shift and The Witches' Ball

Merkwurdig- strange, curious

German (pronounced mehrk-voor-digk)

The Autumnal holiday season is here, everybody.

The trees have mostly shifted to their Fall attire and the nights have gotten most pleasantly cold. I find it easier to imagine the dances the fauns perform for the moon in the countryside around me as I sit contemplating some magickal endeavour by candlelight. The Moon pops up over the horizon full and bursting with harvesty energy and the Farmer's Market sends out the tempting smells of roasted peppers and ripe apples in the god-awful early morning hours. Lol. It's time to pull out the ever fabulous and fashionable scarves you have knitted up in the previous months and go for a stroll over the carpets of oranges and reds outside your door. And pack along a hat with that too. Pointed or no, Halloween is less than a month away! Gotta get ready.

With the seasonal shift comes the onslaught of colds typical of the cold months. Due to stress in need of a good boot out of my system, I've had a couple of near bouts with sickness usually accompanied by massive headaches and a desire to rip my guts out. Today being one of them. Anybody comes up with a miracle cure or an Elixir of Life, tell me, ay? Uuuuugh.

We had our first Knitting Group night of the month Monday with our usual faithfuls and a few oldies. Quite a few people ended up coming and there are more to come here soon. I managed to wrangle a few out of the Mystery Book Club with Valerie's help. Lol. Actually, she did most of the wrangling, I just showed up and used my manly charm to rope the ladies in. LOL. Yes, I'm full of myself, but only when I want to be. Anyway, here are some of the pictures from the night. It was one of our best.

Let's get the fashion show going! Bernadette finished her fluffy white scarf, her first, and put on a small one-chair fashion show for us. Hott!

Some of the girls did some hand spinning...

Some worked on projects for others...

A couple took it easy...

And some modeled their goods. Minds out of the gutter!! Now!

We also got visited by my sista! Well, my adopted sister, but who cares, really? Anna is in the midst of a crochet project. 'T will look tre fab when finished.




Up and coming so very soon is the Witches' Ball. A night of dancing, magick, celebration, and costumes galore! All the details for the ball can be found here. I plan on attending this year, my first, with the lovely Anna. (Details for a costume are developing in my head as we speak) There will be vendors, belly dancers, costume contests, tarot readings, the works! Everyone is invited. All the details you need to know up front are as follows:

When- Saturday, October 27th, 2007, from 7 pm until midnight
Where- Highlands Masonic Center, 3550 Federal Boulevard Denver, CO (at 35th and Federal - West Entrance)
Tickets- Adults $13, Couples $25, Children 6 to 12 $6, Children under 6 are free.

Wear your finest costumery!
(costumes optional)

Presented by Living Goddess LLC

Tickets can be gathered at the local metaphysical stores in Denver. A full list is given on LG's page.

And keep a watch out for the witches!

I hear they are out and about above us!

Images of a Party

Our first official night went off fabulously, all. It was a night of The Faithful with the great addition of Sheila from the bookfloor working on her snazzy sock creation. Pray, I am short on time today, so I shall leave you with a fleeting view of such revelry you shall long for such wondrous good times.




It began with a fierce round of Magic: The Gathering in which Jan was beaten (but you didn't hear this from me, he he he) by Ryan, and then moved on to conquer me with her brilliant artifact deck. Which worked, by the way. I learned a few things, yes I did. In the backround was Valerie, knitting her beautiful wrap and secretly planning her strategy for our match next Monday, goblins and wizards. Hmmmm...



Then we all got back down to the business of knitting our separate projects. The table was soon cluttered with pumpkin spice mochas, mango tea, scones, straight up coffee, yarn of every color and style, books we couldn't help but devour with our eyes, and all the chatter that comes with knitting fiends and their conclaves. It was our first Third Monday, and next week will be our Off Monday. See everyone there. Bring your knitting, your books, and most importantly your stories of your crazy week.

Cheerio.

Officially Official

What does the word "official" mean to you?

To all the knitters at the Mondays@7 group, it means that we now are officially sanctioned (oooooo!) by Barnies and Noblies and acquire all the perks theretofor... allowed us. Lol. We will be meeting "officially" (we defy them to keep us from meeting every damned Monday night, ha!) the first and third Mondays of the month, at seven pm, in the south-east corner of the store with a wonderful spread of the mountains visible out the windows behind us. A few expressed their dissatisfaction with our new locale, but I'm quite happy with it.

So there.

Moonlight and a Faun

"...alles ist einfach, alles ist leicht, niemand wird lernen wenn niemand verzeiht..." (everything is simple, everything is easy, nobody will learn if nobody forgives)~ Faun~

So I have another new music obsession. One of so many here recently, I don't blame you if you think I've jumped off the deep end of music blogging and will never come back. I will come back. Eventually. Actually, I just need to get this stuff out there so I can free my tired old head from the nagging "Omgblogmusicomgblogmusic!"

Faun is a group I had maybe heard of before, but I don't know that I ever actually checked them out. They are a German folk music group who's sound has been referred to as "dark Enya." This is probably due to their classification as a goth rock band with a contemporary Celtic sound. As last week I received their CD Totem released just this year. Having now listened to their haunting tracks thick with the rich cultural flavor of ancient Germanic tribal sounds, I can say that they definitely are darkly Enya-esque but by no means do they copy the amazing singer. They have made a name for themselves. When knitting to this CD, I imagine sitting in a grove surrounded by a dark forest which hides all kinds of faerie folk, beautiful and airy, but also dark and shadow bound. Drumming puts me into a semi-trance where the simple repetitions of knitting move to flow to the rhythm. Definitely a highly meditative, and I suppose spiritual, soundtrack that appeals to that dark satyr in me. Makes me happy.





On a whim, I also snatched up Amethystium's new CD Evermind. I don't usually go for electronic/synth/heavy ambient since I figure that's better at a rave or far out club. But this one is so masterfully done I can't help but love it. It gives my apartment an "otherworldly feel." Almost like I'm sitting in the middle of The Dark Crystal or Pan's Labyrinth. The electronic sounds blend over and under each other on so many levels. To follow just one layer is tough since you will more likely find yourself distracted to a whole other level of the song. Each track fits its title so well. Click here for a sample of what I'm talking about. I usually am disappointed with how unlike the track title the music usually is that I ask "What? Did they just randomly slap on a name? Wtf, mate?"



These CDs didn't disappoint though. If you feel like walking into another world while going about your daily activities (i.e. cleaning, reading, knitting, working out) Evermind is a great CD for that. Enjoy the samples I left. Totem should help you get into your deep, dark otherself and fall away from the visible world and the brightness of all we call real. I appologize for the lack of material to play for ya from Totem, but check out the website, it's just as good.



I end this post on this day dominated by the darkened, new moon with a recommendation. Check out The AntiCraft. It's one of the coolest, goofy-yet-gothy sites I've found. They will be coming out with a book in November this year. Can we say excited! They put out a webzine that updates around eight times a year. It's very comparable to Domiknitrix. My favorite for a while was the End of Days Kit, but my love has grown for all their craziness! Sit back and enjoy all the twisted crafts they have given the equally twisted WWW.

Hat Started and Finished!

This took me only five hours. I started it numerous times, but I finally finished it last night and this morning. It's a superfine nylon/acrylic blend on US 7 needles. And yes, I can work in the round!

And here is a really dumb picture of me modeling it. Sigh. Why I do these things is unknown. By the way, the lip of the hat is rolled in this picture. Looks like a really small hat...

New Scarf Now in Color

Here is a little emo-ness for you today.

Lol. This is Pon and Zi. They are cute little emo characters created by Azuzephre (Jeff Thomas) from Deviantart. They hit a huge popularity boost a few years back with the online art community that is DA, and have since blown into the mainstream. There are a horde of sites dedicated to Pon and Zi and their cartoons can be found all over the internet. I've left you a bunch of links, so enjoy and keep reading.

I have a new project that I may or may not have mentioned to all webdom. It's my crazy new Halloween scarf!

It's simple, yes, but oh so much fun. It's what I've put into the "grunge" pile to work on at knitting group or whenever I'm doing something that takes a bit more concetration than I can devote to my current UFO. I'm using the orange merino/alpaca blend yarn that I won from A Knitted Peace, and the chocolate highlander wool that I later went back to purchase from AKP.

And that concludes my quickie post on current projects! I'm so efficient.

Summer's End, New ReStartings

Yes, I know it's not a word. It's a blog, for pete's sakes!

I have a lot to blog about today, and I don't know how much I'm gonna get out before I have to take off to new and exciting adventures here in the wild world of Littleton, CO. The library may close, but my day is not yet over! All sorts of new things to chat about; knitting, knitting group, thoughts about the end of summer, a new find on the WWW, etc.. But I should just start already.

I was walking over here today and it was a tad chill out with a nice breeze blowing through my styled and long-but-needing-to-be-cut hair as well as the trees, though I think my hair looked cooler than a bunch of half-turned, rustling leaves. Ah, such an ego booster. After my moment of shallowness, I noticed that, technically, Fall has already hit us and the Autumnal equinox is fast upon us with Mabon on the 21st of next month. Aaaaaaa! What happened to keeping track of the year? Climate-wise I think Summer is finally bidding us farewell as it trundles off to sleep. Here come the wood sprites and their crazy paint buckets full of all those warm browns, yellows, reds, and oranges. Craziness.

Last night was our knitting groups Monday meet, just like every week, and actually was a bit sparse due to school starting, boyfriends needing some lovin' time, errands, and a general pooped-outness. The Old Faithfuls were there with Molly, Jan and Valerie making up the posse. Molly made some progress, finished actually, on her sweater while Jan played with some gorgeous new purple yarn and Val stitched away on her wrap. I stopped over to the table for a lunch break and then went back to making drinks for the sleepy grouches who give us so much business at the coffee shop. Can't help but love them.

During lunch, I put an idea out to our girls about taking our group Barnes and Noble official, and they loved it. Easy. If you missed my last post, you can check out the pre proposal ideas I had here. In discussing plans and ideas for our proposal, we came out with the following ideas: we'd meet every week on Monday at 7pm; it would be open to everyone, men and women; we would discuss a minimum of one book per month with a project available and encouraged for everyone to mess with; we'd have reserved seating and full facility use as well as a spot on the events board and in the newsletter and website; and, as facilitator, I can give everyone a lot more access to books that they need, info on the group, a contact base in case of a problem, and the opportunity to pull in both local authors and touring ones as well. Can I just say "Yes!" I'm very excited. And that's putting it mildly. For me.


Besides all that craziness going on with the group, I have a few new things to cheer about myself. I went to my local knitting store, positioned, conveniently, down the street from my apartment last Saturday with some friends, and won a raffle! The only guy in the store won a knitting raffle. How awesome is that? What did I win, you ask? Three balls of alpaca/merino blend yarn in a harvesty orange color and the book The Knitting Goddess by Deborah Bergman! It's totally synchronistic as I had just ordered the book from Barnes. Ah, karma.






With that yarn I have started a fall scarf that is thick and chunky and is hordes of fun to knit up. This on top of my new hat project from a design given to me by Molly. It's done on my first set of circular needles and the yarn is a nylon/wool blend. Soft, but a bitch to knit with. It keeps splicing on me. Grrrrr. It'll be cozy when it's done. I don't remember if I tallied my scarf to finished or not, but the pink lovely is done. I hope to add a fringe to it, since four-year-olds love fringe. When that's done, I'll have a pic up for ya all.





I've got a couple other projects in the back of my head on a to-do shelf. They are a lovely halter from the Hollywood Knits book done in a black pima cotton yarn for my bff Ashley, and the tank I have a picture of below done in grey and black. My grey will be a shade darker, but basically the same. I say this shirt on Adam & Eve's website and said "I can knit that." So, I'm gonna.

Damn computer is telling me to get off. I swear, I could spend eight ours a day on this thing and not bat an eye. Damn regulators. *string of curses*

Rufus Wainright Made Me Knit

I have a new love when it comes to music. His name is Rufus Wainright, and for some reason I keep mistyping his last name. Sorry, buddy. I also have some new news on our Mondays group and the stuff I want to implement. I'm gonna dish on Mondays first I think.


Our Monday night knitting group get togethers have been awesome thus far and have sparked interest from other Barnes & Noble customers. I've had four requests just this last week for info or about whether or not we teach and so on. Tonight I'm going to put an idea to the group for decision and polling. I think it'd be a smart move to make our group a sanctioned Barnes & Noble Event with all the perks and benefits. I hesitate to make this decision on my own only because I feel there are a couple of cons. One is that we kind of lose our anonymity and become public, which means anyone will be able to join. Now, while I'm not saying that we are a picky, bitchy group that chooses who and who not to let into our knitting "tangle," I think being that open may be a bit of a problem for some people. And so, a discussion. Two on the cons list is the censored approach we will have to take with new members since B&N will shut us down as an Event if we aren't "family friendly." I think this will be an easy one for everyone, but it does take some of the fun out of the bitch time we all love. We'll see. I've done up the proposal for B&N and will be handing out for vote tonight. For a looksee at my store and the hangout for our group, check this out.



One big change I would love to make is the ability to play our own music for our knitting group. With this option, as unattainable as it really is, we could share music that we like to knit and listen to during our groups. My current favorite is the handsome Rufus Wainright and his newest album Release the Stars. He is an out and fabulous performer/song writer/musician with a very unique style reminiscent of a seventies singer all with a modern mix of orchestral and rock music to back him up. As the hip Aussies say, "So flash!" I've left you all some links to his site and a popup playlist below. Listen to the boy's music. It's scandalous, heartfelt, and passionate. You will fall in love, guaranteed!

Click and Play!