My Lovely Day.

Yesterday I had a lovely day.
Wednesday is my birthday so I have claimed both weekends either side of it. I AM BIRTHDAY PRINCESS FOR NINE WHOLE DAYS.

Yesterday, all I knew was that my husband had a surprise!outing planned for me to London. We turned up at the first place we were due and I didn't know what it was until I saw a trashcan that said NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM. And I squeeeeeeed. Because I am a dork and I love museums and SCIENCE.

But I did not know why we were "due" there at a certain time. It is just open and free. But lo! There was a BUTTERFLY HOUSE!!!!! We had tickets!!!!!!
This is kind of a big deal. My husband is sosososo scared of butterflies and moths. He knows I love love love them and wanted to do something very special for me for my birthday, so he got us tickets and was SO BRAVE. He only clutched at his hat and whimpered a VERY FEW times!!! He didn't even rush me. He was a stalwart knight, and true. There were VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLARS and a huge luna moth and big lazy white flutterbies that looked like flowers drifting in the air and ones that were just brownyboring on the outside but when they opened their wings, they were OMG BLUE!!!!! And iridescent green ones and tiny orangey ones and yellow ones that were shaped so pretty and SO many other ones!!! They were so fluttersome and beautiful and it was just magical.

And also we spent a lot of time in the main museum. There were dinosaurs RAAAAWWWWRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! And Owen bought me 2 beautiful chunks of rose quartz, one tumbled and one un. They are treasures. And I was very brave and went in the arachnids section of the creepy-crawlies exhibit, but I don't want to talk about that. *shudder*

Then we had many hours until the next surprise thing, so we wandered over to the V&A museum and looked at some more beautiful, beautiful things. I am such an art history dork. The intense happiness I feel in museums makes me feel like my degree was worth something. We discovered a beautiful little courtyard garden with a fountain that had beautiful little nymph-children splashing around in it and we bought ice cream and sat in the sun with our feet in the fountain.

I got about a zillion more freckles and worked on my stripey legwarmers that are my birthday present to myself. Oh, it was heavenly! OH! And also I got a new bracelet made of wood. I love bracelets and I love things made of wood and I love bracelets made of wood.

Then we wandered around some more and found the place where the next surprise was going to be. All I had heard was that there would probably be pink involved, and that I would enjoy it more than Owen but that he would still have a fabulous time. I had NO clue.

But then I looked up......

And I apparently squeaked. Though I do not recall doing so. I do, however, believe it. Because I was VERY EXCITED OMG. I bounced around for another hour or so, popping in and out of little shops around the theater and I got some OMFG WAFFLE FLAVORED LIPGLOSS and we went to the Disney Store and passed a little shop that was closed but had a cardboard standup of Matt Smith in the doorway and there was a lipstick kiss on the glass which made me VERY HAPPY, and then it was SHOWTIME!!!!!!

Waiting in line to be admitted, however, I spotted something that meant that my husband (who does genuinely love a good musical and would have had a great time anyway) would quite possibly explode from excitement and enjoy it about a MILLIONDYTHREEVELEVEN times more than he imagined.

Starring as the baddy law professor was....


....wait for it....

No?

Roll back about 30 years and add some celery...

BOOYAH. PETER MOTHERFUCKIN' DAVISON, BITCHES.
The Doctor.
Not just The Doctor, but Owen's Doctor. HIS Doctor. That was the most special surprise of all, because even he wasn't expecting it. His parents bought the tickets for me way back in January.

We saw the ACTUAL Doctor with our ACTUAL eyes. He sang. He danced. He was amazing. Oh, Doktah!!!!

The entire show was FABULOUS. It was funny and sweet and just right. The songs were WONDERFUL and catchy, and the Gay Or European song is the best thing to happen to musical theatre since Wicked. Seriously. HILARE.

Plus OMG OMG YOU GUYS! TINY DOGGY IN A BAG!

It was just the most wonderful day EVER!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. Day The Seventh.

What a Yarn
There’s one love that we all share: yarn. Blog about a particular yarn you have used in the past or own in your stash, or perhaps one that you covet from afar. If it is a yarn you have used you could show the project that you used it for, perhaps writing a mini ‘review’. Perhaps, instead, you pine for the feel of the almost mythical qiviut? You could explore and research the raw material and manufacturing process if you were feeling investigative.

You guys all know what's coming, right?

Red Heart Super Saver, bitches.

Much maligned, but never equaled.
It's bright, it's useful, it lasts and lasts, it's washable, it's colorful, it's pretty, it's cheap, and I fucking love it. Throw all your Malabrigo at me (um, please?), buy me a rainbow of Wollmeise (again... really, please?), but I will NEVER trade any of my RHSS for all the it-yarn in the world.

You will have to pry my Super Saver from my cold, dead hands.

I make beautiful things with it, I make useful things with it, I make fun things with it, I make cute things with it, I make elegant things with it, I make ridiculous things with it, I make cherished gifts with it.
I WILL FUCKING MELT YOUR BABIES WITH IT, DON'T TEST ME.
It is the best there is, and there is no substitute.

Even the world's finest horse race knows it.

Suck on it, yarn snobs.

Here is a small sampling of some of my favorite RHSS projects.

Also today I have new hair.

Delirium would knit with Super Saver. And little froggies.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. Day The Sixth.

Revisit a past F/O
Bring the fortune and life of a past finished project up to the present. Document the current state and use of an object you have knitted or crocheted, whether it is the hat your sister wears to school almost every day, or a pair of socks you wore until they were full of holes. Or maybe that jumper that you  just didn’t like that much…

Photo links to Rav project page. Sorry, muggles. (Ugh. I can't believe I said that. I despise the use of that term to mean non-fiber-crafters. Apologies.)

Rainbow Brite's Horse's Afterbirth On My Head.
Started and finished November 22, 2008.
My husband wears this. I'm serious. Never out of the house, sure, but he actually wears it rather a lot, when sitting on the couch. It feels nice, apparently. And the cat really, really likes it. She kneads at it and purrrrrrs up a storm.
HAAA!!! He just saw I was writing this, went "Where is my hat?"... started flailing around the couch cushions looking for it, found it, put it on, got up to walk into the kitchen, and I totally grabbed this photo.

Now he is literally sputtering with frustration at me. He knows I am going to put it on the internet and everyone will laugh at him. He is very red, face-wise. HEEEEEE!!!!!

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. Day The Fifth.

HOLY SHIT, I ALMOST FORGOT.
Er.... technically, as it's 12 past midnight, I *did* forget today. :(
Oh well. It's still Day 5 somewhere!

Location, Location, Location
Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favourite arm chair your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you liek to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?

Mostly I knit on the couch. We have a teeeeeeny tiny little house so *all* my knitting stuff lives on and around the couch. It's kind of horrible and disorganized, but hey... it's convenient to where my ass is parked all day.

I almost always have a project with me when I go out somewhere, so I do a fair amount of knitting & crocheting in public. Quite a lot at pubs, actually...

Doctors' waiting rooms, other people's houses, in the car, on planes, in bed, before movies start.... you know. Basically everywhere.

But yeah. Mostly the couch. Which has a name, by the way. She is called Lovely Sophie.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week. Day The Fourth.

A New Skill
Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.

Damn. Aren't y'all glad those're fading out of vogue on most websites? Ugh. Anyway, my point is, I WANT TO SPIN.

I have a drop spindle. I've used it a couplefew times... One of these times was not too disastrous:

But I have issues (obviously) with evenness. And it's also just really hard to do with my cat around. My house doesn't have doors inside. I can't separate myself from her at all, and she really, REALLY enjoys it when I attempt to spin.

I tried knitting with that lovely rainbowcandyfluff alongside some of the pooptastic yarn from my first spinning attempt recently. I kind of aborted the attempt, and I'm really not sure why. There's just... so much less of it than I'd like, and it's so dense and inelegant. It depressed me, as exciting as it had seemed at the outset.

I want a wheel. I want ROOM for a wheel. I want to get better at this so knitting with my own creations doesn't depress me. It should thrill me.