Monday, September 29, 2008

Secret Pal 12 Question 13...

...and, um, 14 through 17, apparently.

If you were told you could never again buy yarn, would would your last yarn purchase be?

Sheesh, I dunno. The anxiety I feel over that question is somewhat mitigated by the comfort of knowing just how much yarn I have at home.

I'm not sure what the spirit of the question is -- do the PTB want to know what one single yarn I would buy? Or just how excessive and/or logical I would become?

If someone said, "Marin, all the yarn shops are closing tomorrow and they wouldn't take your money anyway," I'd buy a bunch of laceweight§ -- probably some nice alpaca and cashmere; a bunch of sweaters' worth# of nice wool and Therapi††; Shibui, Noro and Red Rocks Fiber Works sock yarn.

If you were told you could never knit again, what would be the last thing you’d knit??

I'd probably tackle a big, gorgeous lace shawl with an edging and all kinds of stuff I've been reading about but never got around to.

In a given year, how many times do you buy yarn?


There is no way to answer that question. My yarn-buying habits have no rhyme, reason, season or schedule. Which makes them not habits, I guess.

Who thought up this question? Do you know anyone who can answer that effectively?‡‡

And what is your favorite place to buy yarn from? A festival? A shop? Online? Dish your favorite places!§§

Knit Picks and Elann for when I need basic yarns.¶¶ Posh## for almost everything else, with the occasional forays into Knit/Purl or etsy shops for exotic yarn that makes me feel good 'cause it shows up in the mail and makes going to the mailbox worthwhile.

Lastly, with Fall in full swing in many areas, what is the one thing you look forward to most?

Pumpkins.

Pumpkin bread, pumpkin beer, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spices, pumpkin seeds, jack o' lanterns...
*************

We slacked off ever so slightly last week, but we did our push up assessment and I did 24@ good push ups.%

Of course, my partner in crime did thirty-fucking-five first round of the third week when she only had to do twenty-five... show off.^

Competition may be good for some of us. I plan to do thirty-five in my last set tonight just to show her.&

*************
I actually have several perfumes saved up in my spreadsheet,††† all sniffed and sussed and ready to present to you.

Without further ado...

French Love - Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab (Bewitching Brews, the Conjure Bag)

Marin says: Non-descript floral and very bright fruit. I'm going to stop saying "kool-aid" and find some other synthetic, neon fruit analog. Perhaps jello? There's always room for jello.‡‡‡

It gets considerably duller in the roll-out (such as it is),§§§ with a sweet, slightly powdery density... and still a hint of jello.

BPAL says: A warm, soft, sexual blend.¶¶¶ Sweet and alluring. Used to entice new lovers and add an aura of temptation and carnal sin to your environment.###

Hans says: That's pretty floral. And kinda like kool-aid.††††


FOOTNOTE (crossed): Why? What have you heard?

FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Lots. Lots of yarn. So much it has its own replacement value under my contents insurance.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Big, fancy projects, satisfyingly large yardage numbers.

FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Thin should be elegant. If it's just thin for the sake of thin, it's like fucking an ironing board. Hmmmmm... maybe that doesn't apply to yarn as well as it does to people.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Sweaters are big projects and if I changed my mind, I could use the yarn for several scarves and hats.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Yarn of rocks!

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): I don't want to meet that person. He or she is too tightly wound for my floppy little world.

§§FOOTNOTE (turn it around): This had two exclamation points. Drove me crazy. Journalism taught me the only reason to use multiple bangs is for comic effect. I don't think this is funny.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (one foot in front of the other): Solid colour, worsted weight, probably superwash.

##FOOTNOTE (goin' to the pound): Sylvia's House of Fuzzy Crack.

@FOOTNOTE (atted): 24!

I know what I said about exclamation points. I have always been a self-serving grammar hypocrite.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): I am a complete stickler for form and distance. I think I did 27, but couldn't keep my butt out of the last three.

^FOOTNOTE (careted): Another tangent: I started giggling because my college boyfriend (oddly, the same one that used to use the ironing board line quoted above... it's a big day for the college boyfriend) used to say, "Show off! Do some push ups... it'll go away" whenever I'd best him on something. Yes, that's a dick joke.

&FOOTNOTE (ampersanded): Nyah-nyah-nyah.

†††FOOTNOTE (three! Three beautiful crosses! Mwahahahaha! *kkkchh* *EeeEeeEee*[lightning and bats - it works better in person]): Yes, there's a spreadsheet.

‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (I've been working on the railroad): Tangent: At a housewarming party this weekend, some of my old-line guy friends were talking about a guy's night out. Somewhere along the line, my name came up.

"Hey, if I'm invited, I'll be there."

"Of course," said Jack, "You're like jello. There's always room for Marin."

"Awww. That's really nice."

"Oh, he says that about you a lot," said Jen, Jack's wife. "Marin is like jello. We always have room for Marin."

Made my whole week.

§§§FOOTNOTE (180... 360... 540?): I'm fine-tuning my terminology. Not necessarily to fit terminology standards, but for my own thought process. See, most things you put on your wrist in the name of scent will change over time. Bits will fade. Some fade faster than other. I think of roll-out as an almost architectural exercise by the author of the perfume: it changes over time, but it is built to change -- probably in a particular way. It isn't just a matter of subtracting one note after the other until there's only the stickiest scent left. The oils tend to have that "survival of the fittest" deletion of elements, rather than what I think of as a true roll-out.

¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (footprints): WHAT?!

###FOOTNOTE (pound it... make it 'splode): At least you know why I bought it in the first place. I'm always looking to entice new lovers and add an aura of temptation and carnal sin to my environment.

††††FOOTNOTE (is this a record?): In case you think this has become overly-collaborative, there is a very strict code we follow in huffing scents: I grab a bunch of samples and put them on my desk at work. I pull those names from my spreadsheet and put them on a separate page with no notes or reviews to guide me. Hans and I pick from that list randomly. I put the stuff on and write my review. I take it to Hans and note his review. The object of the game is for both Hans and I to come up with our own uninfluenced assessments.

Sometimes, "kool-aid" is the only term that works.

No comments: