Fricknits

31-40

For those new to the blog, I'm spacing out my 100 Things so as not to overwhelm myself or you.  Please visit the 100 Things category if you'd like to go back to #1.

Welcome to the Mr. Frick edition of 100 Things.  Make yourself cozy.  Cozy like you were wearing a spankin'-new Seamless Hybrid.  Yeah, baby.

31.  The inscription duplicate-stitched into the hem of Mr. Frick's SH is also inscribed into his wedding band.  It reads, "You Are Loved."  He lost his first wedding band, which had been made of the gold from his father's band from his marriage with Mr. Frick's mother, while swimming in the Maury River on my birthday.  (I used this site for the lettering.)

32.  When Mr. Frick decided to ask me to marry him, he first went to my father.  My father (typical) poured a whiskey.  Mr. Frick does not like hard liquor.  I like to think of this as the first of his Twelve Labors.  He proposed in West Virginia after telling me he had a surprise I couldn't have unless I beat him in a Scrabble match.  Like Brer Rabbit and the briar patch, that one.

33.  Mr. Frick and I share the same favorite movie, which fact we discovered on our first date.  Later, when we took a vacation in the SouthWest, we amused ourselves by yodelling raucously every time we crossed the Arizona border.

34.  When I met Mr. Frick, I was dating one of his housemates.  Said fellow was leaving for a Peace Corps tour in Madagascar in a week.  Said fellow actually, no kidding, asked Mr. Frick to "look out for" me while he was gone.  A-hem.

35.  If you asked Mr. Frick, he would tell you that "our song" is They Might Be Giants' "She's an Angel."  (Blush.)  Being the geek I am, I love that our song has such a sweetly self-conscious narrator, contains the word "nonchalant," and that the Shriners show up.  During our rehearsal dinner, the Shriners did actually race up and down the street outside of the restaurant.  It was some firemen's parade, but that doesn't stop me from taking it as a sign.

36.  Mr. Frick is a terrible judge of handknits, which I love.  I made him a totally unsuccessful hat out of orange Peace Fleece once.  It was gigantic.  I felted it, and it was still gigantic.  He loved it and wore it all the time.  Even to bed.

37.  Mr. Frick is magnetic.  People just want to be with him.  Once we went to Haiti and he managed to befriend every child in the village where we stayed as we built desks for a new school.  He taught them some English and they taught him some Creole.  This became a problem for me as, after one particular lesson, every teenaged boy in town was running after me and pointing and shouting, "That's my wife!"

38.  Mr. Frick was a high school wrestler with the nickname "Mad Dog."  I'm just going to let that one lie.

39.  Mr. Frick is insufferable when he's had late-day tea. 

40.  When I first met Mr. Frick, he lived in a house (alternately called The Crack House, The Big Top, and That Dump on 13th) with a gaggle of other sweet boys.  I fancied myself a bit of a Wendy in those days, though the truth of the matter is that I was just as lost as they were. Recent events have thrown us all together again, and though times are difficult and heartbreaking, I feel blessed to be surrounded by them. I have a bit of a crush on each and every one of them and so, with the SH leftovers, I'm working on a few little projects for these other loves of my life.

For those interested in particulars on the sweater, check out my post on the Zimmermania blog here.  And sorry about the slightly grainy photos.  Low camera battery, no patience.

21-30

For those new to the blog, I'm spacing out my 100 Things so as not to overwhelm myself or you.  Please visit the 100 Things category if you'd like to go back to #1.

I know many of you are eager to hear about the tea party.  Wouldn't you know it, two designers showed up, and one wasn't on the invite list.  I love party crashers.  We cozied up with the little sandwiches and the teacups and the tiny confessions flew.  I slip-stitched my little heart out, planned this post, and daydreamed about my next two sweaters.  Here are my next 10 Things, all tiny confessions, interspersed with photos of the finished Lily:

21.  I like to work with the yarn suggested in the pattern.  I know this makes me a "lesser" knitter somehow, but I can't help it.  I just feel I'm more likely to get the effect I want that way.  And also, I don't trust myself very much when it comes to subtleties such as drape.  This may be a product of my perfectionism.

22.  I once stopped reading an otherwise lovely knitting blog because the knitter expressed an affinity for a certain conservative pundit's radio show. 

23.  I cheated on every boyfriend I ever had with one exception: the fabulous Mr. Frick.

24. Over the course of my love affair with "The West Wing," I developed a huge crush on Toby Ziegler.  Jim Caviezel fell quickly out of favor after that whole Jesus thing.  (But "The Thin Red Line"?  Where he wasn't actually Jesus but a pretty Jesusy-type soldier guy?  Swoon.)

25.  Over the course of the last month and a half I have lost 12 pounds, but never blogged about it because of a stupid hangup about weight that, despite my strong feminist leanings, is still an intrinsic part of my psychological makeup.

26.  I think I am a better teacher of boys than of girls.

27.  I have never eaten a Twinkie, but I did steal one in sixth grade.  I have no Twinkie defense.  Guilty as charged.  (This is likely where the huge shoplifting habit I had in junior high originated.)

28.  I kind of like the way it feels when I accidentally bite my own lip, and I sort of like the taste of blood and the smell of gasoline.

29.  If I could be seduced and/or killed by any monster, I'd pick vampire faster than you could say, "bite me."  That may be why I like this collar so much:

30.  I wrote this post instead of grading two quizzes that my kids are begging to get back. 

Oh!  I just realized I never told you who my two tea party guests were!  They dropped their buttons as they were leaving, so I put them in my sidebar.  Apparently there are bigger parties out there in their honor, and I'm a-joining in!

11-20

For those new to the blog, I'm spacing out my 100 Things so as not to overwhelm myself or you.  Please visit the 100 Things category if you'd like to go back to #1.

11.  I got into college early admission.  I had to write two essays, one about a life-changing experience (rebuilding row houses for Habitat for Humanity in Philly when I was in eighth grade) and the other about a literary character I loved.  I chose Anne from Anne of Green Gables.  So of course, I had to make this top.

12.  I hate, hate, hate to be touched on the inside of my elbow.  Perhaps this is because when I was two I had to have an operation which involved: 1.  My parents physically restraining me so that a nurse could stick needles in me, and  2. A very poorly trained lab tech who drew my blood in a method akin to driving a nail.  I still get dizzy when I have to have shots or blood work.

13.  In college, my mother knit her boyfriend Richard a complex cabled sweater.  It took her months upon months.  She can still picture him driving off into the sunset with it, never to return.  I therefore credit my existence, in some small part, to the sweater curse.  (Mom's grand reentry into the knitting world is taking shape as a Scamp for Biscuits.)

14.  I am lucky to have four best girlfriends.  I have never been the type to want a crowd of them.  I can't sustain casual acquaintances very well- the small talk, the lunches you secretly hope are cancelled, the skimming of surfaces. I'd rather be alone.

15.  I prefer red to white, but I'm starting to get headaches when I drink it.

16.  I am a happy heathen.

17.  I am an INTP.  In Myers-Briggs lingo, that means I am introverted, intuitive, critical/logical, and perceptive.  At least, I was in high school when I took the test.  So was my best friend. She ended the friendship because she felt too competitive with me.  I had no idea.  I think she's a park ranger in Alaska now.

18.  I have gone my rounds with depression.  Zoloft worked for me.  And though I struggled with the decision to take it, I think those who judge others for using medication to help them through this illness should take a long walk off of a short plank. 

19.  I think almost anything tastes better with a squeeze of lime.

20.  I miss my Ouma.

*  See Knits '06 for details on Green/Grey Gable.  I'm wondering... would be better in red?

1 - 10

I have a love/hate relationship with the 100 Things.  I love getting into the corners of the minds and lives of bloggers I like, being surprised, seeing how they emerge as individuals beyond the fiber stuff.  On the other hand, at about Thing 19, my mind, she wanders.  So I'm going to do this installment-style and create a category for anyone who wants them all at once.  Oh, and I'm also planning to post an FO for each set. Great expectations and all.

1.  The smell of eucalyptus really sends me.  When I was pregnant, I had cans of Burt's Bees bath salts stashed around the house and huffed it constantly.  I sometimes got up in the middle of the night to bury my nose in it.  Now I put eucalyptus essential oil in my bath, and sometimes dab some on my p.j. sleeve before I get in bed.

2.  I have been a nailbiter all my life.  You may have noticed this in photos in previous posts.  The only two times I have been able to grow out my nails have been for my wedding and prom.  I'm not really trying anymore.  I think at this point having nails would drive me crazy with their clickety-clicking, and might mess with my knitting mojo.  So no nails.

3.  I have a degree in English literature with a minor in Spanish from The College of William and Mary, and also an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults.  I have a novel in a drawer.

4.  I was born at exactly midnight on August 12.  The doctor allowed my mother, who was busy telling all who would listen about her love for potatoes (read: she got the good drugs), to choose August 11 as my birthday, as that was "the day I did all the work."  My father was busy asking confused nurses about the circumcision procedures (read: contact high?), and the doctor almost dropped me.  I am told I kept a pretty level head throughout it all. So I am a Leo.  (Congrats to Lisa and Robyn!)

5.  Although I've spent most of my academic life in the liberal arts, my slight tendency towards OCD means my mind is always looking for patterns, counting, and arranging what it sees.  Specifically, while I am in a car, I often look at license plates and make equations out of the numbers and letters on them.  I think this is part of why I love to knit.

6.  When I was 8, a boy got on a waterslide too close behind me and ended up falling on top of me at the bottom.  My pinkie was jammed and remains so to this day.  It aches when I knit too much stockinette on straights or circulars, so I have to break it up with a little patterning or dpns.

7.  I think this is a particularly worthy cause, likely in part because I read this book while my son was new-born, and may never get over it.

8.  It drives me up the wall when people mistake its for it's, your for you're, and their for they're or there.   Up. The. Wall.  I will admit to having a comma problem, though.

9.  When I was in sixth grade I stared down this woman, who had reported my bad behavior to my teacher.  It's a long story, but in hindsight, I was being a brat.  She didn't help matters with that hair or that attitude, though.  (Her son was a really nice guy.)

10.  I have lived in Valencia, Spain and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  I collect these, almost all of which I bought while living in SMA, and plan to remodel our tiny bathroom this summer in a manner befitting their display.

* Hanny's socks, they are finito.  See Knits '06.