Monday, July 25, 2005

Call me Weird

Amy sent me a meme. Apparently she wants to find out how strange I really am.

id·i·o·syn·cra·sy
n. pl. id·i·o·syn·cra·sies
A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.

Write down five of your own idiosyncrasies. Then, if you wish, tag five people from your live gerbil or friendslist to do the same.

1. I sing all the time. Occasionally, I actually sing the words to an existing song. Sometimes, I sing new words to an existing melody. However, most of the time I make up entirely new melodies and lyrics. These songs are usually about what's I'm doing at the time or about my cats.

2. (Structural characteristic) The hair on the left side of my head flips inward--toward my face. The hair on the right side of my head flips outward--away from my face. It drives my hairdresser batty. She just can't leave it as it is. She always works so hard to make the right side flip inward.

3. I won't eat some vegetables when they are cooked, but will eat them raw. Carrots and spinach are examples. I won't eat other vegetables raw, but will eat them cooked. Broccoli and celery are examples.

4. I keep my fingernails extremely short. I used to play the cello and had to keep my nails short to play it. Although I rarely play now, a get very annoyed if my fingernails extend past the tips of my fingers.

5. I find clowns disturbing. As I child, I was afraid of clowns. (Even the toy clown in Poltergeist scared me.) I used to think that I was the only person who disliked clowns, but then I read an article in the newspaper about how dislike and even hatred of clowns was quite common.

I'll tag my fellow Eph knitter Llyr's Daughter. I'll also tag CarrieScribe because she's a chemistry teacher.

Confessions of a Shawl Knitter
I picked the Peacock Feathers pattern because I wanted to do a lace pattern that didn't repeat throughout. I think Kiri, Birch, and the Flower Basket Shawl are lovely, but the thought of doing the same thing over and over again didn't appeal to me. I also picked this pattern because I didn't want to knit something that everyone, their mothers, their best friends, and their dogs were knitting--i.e. Kiri, Birch, and FBS. (But soon after I ordered the pattern, I found out that Wendy was knitting Peacock Feathers and now everyone wants to do it, too! So much for bucking the trend.)

My feelings about this project have been quite mixed. I generally like to try new things and enjoy learning new things. But I'm not feeling any excitement with this shawl. I know that the shawl will look quite nice when I'm finished and I find the lace pattern quite easy to do. But I'm not having fun. I think the problem is that I derive much of my knitting enjoyment from watching things develop and grow. Most of the time, the shawl just looks like a green blob, so I'm not able to enjoy its development. And the green blob seems to grow quite slowly, so I'm not able to enjoy watching it grow.

I'm a bit sad to learn that lace-shawl knitting is unexciting for me. I've always admired the shawls churned out by other knitters. I guess I will just continue admiring them from afar and stick to sweaters. Maybe I will try some socks in the future.

Need a photo? How about a flower?
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

5 comments:

amylovie said...

She may join the sock bandwagon. He he!

amylovie said...

I found it somewhat cathartic to post my weirdness. How about you?

Amy

Anonymous said...

(in opposite order...)
Yay flower!
I love Fiddlesticks' shawls, and have since I first saw their website, but haven't had the courage to try one. (The packages are so darn expensive to get wrong.) Have you seen the Peacock Feathers by Killer Peach?
I hate long nails too! And it's because I played an instrument too!!
(Speaking of Wendy & of fingernails, have you seen Wendy's nails? I'm so impressed she can knit with them.)

Jennifer said...

I'm enjoying knitting shawls, but I can see how they aren't for everyone.

I sing a lot too. I tend to do it when playing with the kidlets, and when I clean. Most of my stuff is made up too. I can't sing worth a dime so my poor family has to suffer.

knittingnurse said...

What a GORGEOUS flower. So sorry that you aren't enjoying the shawl.

The socks are calling you, succomb to the socks, the socks are your friends (tee hee hee).