Happy Halloween!

Or, Alternate Title: "C-C-C-Calorimetry!"

Happy Halloween to any and all readers out there in cyberland...I have no plans really, except that NATHAN is coming to visit me tonight! Yay! But we probably won't do anything. We're kind of partied out from our fantastic shindig last weekend. I have the photographic evidence from my costume...but the only catch is that this photographic evidence is currently located on my roommate's digital camera. I will have to prod it from her later tonight. The party was indeed a success, as was my costume.

Today, at work, I get to be (for the first time EVER, I'm so excited) a candy-hander-outer person. That's the technical term for it, of course. I work in a building on campus that helps with the education and special services for youth and children with disabilities. Some of the autistic kids are going to come up and trick or treat me - they have been learning how to say "TRICK OR TREAT!" and how to just take one, and keep their hands to themselves, etc. I'm so terribly excited, I have a bowl of candy ready for action on my desk and even brought some cat ears in to wear when they come in. I am prepared!

Also, as the alternate title suggests, I did, in fact, knit a calorimetry.

I was overcome by an intense need to create something. And then finish it shortly after starting the creation process. Read this as: "I want to make something, NOW."

So, I looked around for a good stashbusting project on Ravelry, something that would be a one-skeinish project, and found Calorimetry. I used one skein of Crystal Palace Fjord Solid, and I even swatched (!), so I was terribly proud of myself. I ended up knitting the thing on size 7 needles in stead of the required size 8, because my little swatchy friend told me (because I TOTALLY even washed it) that it would stretch a bit. It fits perfectly, and I even found a button to stick on it. It has been effectively warming my brain and my ears for the last two days. I am terribly happy.

Photographic evidence to be added later! Happy Halloween!

UPDATE: As promised, calorimetry pictures.

The button was just one I happened to have in a little tin I keep miscellaneous things in. It worked out all right, I think.

Venturing into the crafty world...

Today I went on a glorious adventure into the land of paper mache. Or papier mache. I'm not sure how it's spelled and I think there's supposed to be an accent over the e in mache, but I don't know how to make it go. So you get paper mache. Behold:

This ball of goo will soon become part of my master plan for my Halloween costume. While at the moment it looks suspiciously like a ball of goo surrounding a balloon that is hanging above the sink in my kitchen, it is actually the first phase of an essential accessory for my costume. What is my costume, you ask? It'll have to wait until Saturday. That's when I'm sure there will be photographic evidence. I will tell you, however, that the goo ball is going to be a ball in its next life. That's really all I can say on the subject. No further questions please.

In knitting land, disaster struck this afternoon when I arrived home and kicked off my shoes. What could this possibly be?

There is a hole in the toe of one of my Baudelaire socks. Not just like...a huge stitch or anything, but I have physically snapped the yarn at the toe and it is now doing its best to unravel, and I have absolutely no idea how to stop it! No! It cannot be! My precious Baudelaire sock! Such a shame! I need to figure out how to fix this crisis to prevent it going any further...as well as just for the sake of my own knowledge.

Lastly, I present this:

"This" is a swatch that I made for a design I've been drooling over in my brain for the last few weeks. It's for a really summery halter top, and some kind of starry-flower thingamajig (such as this particular one) belongs in it. This is really a doily pattern I found on Ravelry. I have to tweak it to make it so that it's not knit in the round, but still maintains some of the features that I really like. This wouldn't be all that difficult to do...if I just had some time to sit down and do it! I think this weekend will be an excellent opportunity. Almost all of my midterms are done, and the Halloween partying shall commence. Yes, oh yes, it shall.

Also, note to reader - today's pictures were brought to you by the shiny new laptop I am now in possession of. It has a webcam on it, and I figured the webcam quality pictures would at least be a teensy bit clearer (and less glowy) than my digital camera pictures. So I apologize for some of the weird angles in the pictures, but at least I've got a method of providing evidence effectively now!

That's all, stay tuned for updates on the gooball, and hooray for tomorrow being Friday!

ALL RIGHT!

So, it took me only a matter of hours to get the new greymatter up and mostly running. It should work in both firefox and internet explorer. The only thing still irking me is that damned sidebar - I can't seem to figure out how in the world I'm supposed to make it sit where I want it to...without messing everything else up. If I move up the sidebar, the links in the main part of the blog stop working. And if I leave the sidebar where it is, the everything else continues as planned. Bummer, but it's something I probably shouldn't be working on right now, because I have a big ugly physics assignment to work on that's due by 11:50 tonight, and I have seriously spent nearly 6.5 hours today (AT WORK) trying to figure out how in the world to make blog go.

...I promise, I had virtually nothing to do at work. I should have been doing homework, at least.

So woohoo. This means that blog is at least looking pretty and running smoothly and will do what I want it to, even if the sidebar will still require some tweaking. We'll see. YAY!

At long last

It's official. Movable Type and I just weren't mean to be together. We had a very dramatic breakup this morning, and I told it I was leaving and going back to my old flame, Greymatter.

I'm so happy to have you back, oh blog love of mine.