I woke up this morning with a burning desire to knit Ariann. I’ve never really thought about it before, but suddenly, I must have it. However, I’m a little torn. I’m going to make the 40″ size, and the long sleeve version calls for 1250 yds; the 3/4 length sleeve version calls for 1140 yds. I have 1040 yards of Shelridge Farms in Pink Lemonade (5 balls); and 1300 in Silver (6 balls). For some reason, I really want the gray to be a cabled pullover (hoodie?) so I feel like it’s off limits; but on the other hand I don’t really want to buy more yarn right now (even if it’s just one ball, it would have to come all the way from Canada, and there’s the dyelot issues [although, it’s handdyed, so I could probably alternate with more success…]), so I feel like I should make Ariann out of the gray; and save the pink for something else.
Like that doesn’t cover all the weirdness you thought possible (who wakes up going “I think I’d really like an Ariann“??); several weeks ago Karen tagged me for the “7 Weird Things About You” meme. However, I think I’m probably the last person on earth to do this, so you all know the rules.
1. I learned to drive and bought a car in a span of about 35 days. A kid threw up on my shoe while I was riding the bus to work. I’d rather spend 5 hours a day in my car than 20 minutes on a bus or a Metro train (of course, DC Metro is a very … special kind of transit system).
2. I once stormed Canada in an effort to end the ongoing abuse of Koigu. I failed, but intend to go back someday, better armed. (The trip wasn’t a total bust, I got to visit Shelridge Farms.)
3. Jobs I have thought I’d be good at in the past 5 years: Advice Columnist, health/behavior science researcher, statistician (at a think tank, at a television network, at a casino). I’ve only come close to one of those. I will leave which one to your imaginations.
4. I have some really great stories about working at a yarn store (“No, you don’t want Aryan yarn, you want ARAN yarn. Yes, there’s a difference.” “No, you may not cut 1″ off each of the balls of yarn to take home with you to compare with your other coat.” “No, I won’t give you a free ball of yarn because we’re out of some other yarn you want.” “No, I won’t give you a refund because you don’t like how the handpainted yarn looked when knit up.” “So um, are you going to buy the yarn your child is chewing on?”)
5. I’m completely repulsed by the smell of most cheeses. I had some roommates in college that LOVED cheese. This was a real problem for me.
6. I broke my jaw when I was 7, from falling off my bike. I had to have my jaw wired shut for 6 weeks (you can’t put a skull in a cast!). When I tell people (adults) this, they often ask if I had to learn sign language. I think that’s just about the strangest question ever because … well, haven’t YOU ever spoken with your teeth clentched together? Dude, my jaw was wired shut, my lips weren’t glued together!
7. As directly related to #6, I had to go to speech therapy for about a year, for sluring my “th-” sounds into “s” sounds (thistle = sisle; think = sink). As a result, I still enunciate more than most people, and a lot of people think I have a British accent. Once, at the bank the manager asked me if I needed anything while I was filling out my deposit ticket. I said, “No, thank you.” And she said “I love your accent! My friend just got back from the UK and he’s using all these cute British-isms, like ‘lift’ and ‘flat.'” I had no idea how to respond (without sort of embarrassing her, when she realized I wasn’t British), so I just sort of smiled and tried to get away.
7b) I cannot stand it when someone says “birfday.” Speech therapy was during teacher read-aloud/story time; and if I had to miss story time to correctly say “th”, I expect everyone who did not miss story time to say it correctly!
I think I’m the last person to do this meme, and there’s no one else left for me to tag. But let me think; how about Natalie, Judy, Beth, Laura, Amber, Rebecca, and … yeah. I think those are the only people who I even kind of sort of know (and read my blog to see that they’ve been tagged…) and haven’t done this already.