Welcome to the wonderful world of bad puns and dreadful jokes that few understand. Most of my jokes I wear in the form of bizarre links of string that I call "garments". I don't mind if people laugh at me not with me
I'm an English expat constantly struggling to be understood in a different country. I work in the cut throat world trying to bring "YARRR" and "Ne'er-Do-Well" into regular conversation My swear word of choice is Stink Nugget. I'm a yarn snob.
| Ah - the triumphant return from Stitches! The Enabler did a pretty good job, as did Melissa, who was a Stitches virgin and is turning into a pretty good enabler herself. Below is the haul... No comment... Looks around... Hey, it was my birthday treat, dammit!  |
FranklinMinty rants @ 8:42 PM
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| Today is birthday treat day... Stitches West! Officially pretty much the only thing that will get me up and about before 8am on a Sunday :) Back later with purchase updates! |
FranklinMinty rants @ 8:24 AM
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| I've been trying to make this Stitch Diva Downtown Cloche for almost exactly a year now. The Enabler got this pattern at Stitches West last year, I purchased the roving, and J(f) of J and J fame spun said roving into some beautiful yarn for me. This is the yarn that I was told had spontaneously combusted on spinning, and very nearly didn't get... It exactly a WEEK away from this year's stitches. It's now my anual birthday treat. Today, I finished the last round of crochet. I have attempted this damn hat at least 5 times, and only after the Enabler gave me some pattern corrections, did the penny finally drop. So... here are some shots The humble beginnings...  Actually got it bigger and looking normal  The pre-blocking result! My polystyrene head is a bit smaller than my head, and I'm hoping that the nobblyness will sort itself out in blocking. We'll see!  I actually ran out of the yarn, so used some Brooks Farm that I also bought at Stitches last year to finish it off. I don't think it'll look too bad, since I'm planning on a wide ivory satin band around the hat that will hide the color change somewhat. The rest of that yarn is going towards a mobieus scarf that I might start very soon! So... my fear of crochet may have been solved by immersion therapy! I'm not sure I oarticularly like it, but at least I can do it now. |
FranklinMinty rants @ 2:46 PM
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| I've got to get moving , I've aparently only visited 17 countries (7%) and there are some vast sections noticably absent! create your own visited countries map Luckily the addition of both the US and Russia makes it look much more impressive - but on the whole, I've been to small countries... Can you see the teeny little red dot in the middle of the Pacific (that isn't Hawaii - I got that by default)?... thought not |
FranklinMinty rants @ 10:46 PM
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| I think I have a fairly normal skill in reading and comprehension. Mrs Parry, my English teacher in the 4th form, agreed at the time. I do have trouble with a few words for some reason. I blame it on latent dyslexia. Every time I read the word "lawmaker", I think it says "lawnmower". It often makes for interesting reading of the news but it tends to be a 1 sided problem. I rarely read anything with "lawnmower" in it, until today. Man on lawnmower left Alaska in '05. He's only in Salt Lake City. He's 44. See you in Virginia at 84 I then had these images of the dude from Northern Exposure getting a piggy back ride from Gavin Newsom. Gruesome.  |
FranklinMinty rants @ 4:59 PM
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| As promised, here is a) another post that didn't have a 6 month interval between it b)some shots from last Novembers vacation in Tanzania and c) brief knitty update Spurred on by friendly and gentle goading from the Enabler, of course ;) First... for the brief knitting stuff. After Enabler's post about her desire to increase her knitting output and become more prolific, I started to wonder "how much wool does a wool chick knit?" before being able to call themselves prolific? I don't think I count yet, but I've got about 4 sweaters done in the last few months or so, and the Art Fiber's skirt thingie at Boo's place that is nearing completion (and it actually fits - holy crap!). Of course, I have no photographic proof of these yet. But, I do have proof that lions and other beasties exist.  SEE?! A few people have see some (or even MOST) of the 1500 photos I took in Africa and I'm pretty pleased with what I took. Really, when you are there, you really have to be the most incompetent fool not to be able to take amazing shots - I swear it is impossible. I was asked how I managed to get such detailed and close up shots of stuff, and that I must have a crazy telephoto lens. The reality being, when you are 5 foot away from a Lioness and her cubs, you only have to get over the shaking of the hands, rather than worry about if the picture will come out detailed enough. These are all teeny versions of the photos, btw - but if you want more... click! So, what do we have here... This sucker was to be my alarm clock on my first day in Tanzania  This chap was aparently literally Shagged Out... I call him Aslan  A rare highlight, this one... a cheetah with 4 young cubs  Ummm... an elephant!  A white rhino copying the elephant pose. We did see black rhino (and a black rhino BABY) - which is extremely rare, but I need to dig out a photo of that for proof ;)  Spot the elephant. I swear there is one in the photo!  Zebra!  For a 3 week period, I became an expert an naming the animals, but of course I have since forgotten them. Here are some boisterous gazelle. I think they are Grant's  And now I feel like a patronizing moron, making comments for photos like "Giraffe"  We caught (or rather, they caught us up in the middle of) the massive wildebeest great migration. Or as our guide Zumo endearingly called them "safari ants"  A leopard. These suckers are normally very difficult to see, asince they like hanging out in trees finding their spots are useful for more than a sassy pair of shoes. We'd been told we'd be very lucky to see one at all. Then this chap decided that he wanted a closer visit. He walked in front of our Jeep and did what all cats and dogs do - licked his/her "bits"  Finally - a shot of Ngorongoro Crater.  C'est tout encore Where did I start? |
FranklinMinty rants @ 12:35 PM
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