Coupons

When I was a little girl, I did my grandfather's grocery shopping. And by little, I mean 9. I had my own shoppers club cards, and I could use coupons. I'd like to think I'm good at it. Not as good as that Shopping Game woman, but I do pretty good.

On a sixty dollar grocery trip tonight, I save 22 dollars. Included in that total was a free bag of name brand cat food (Buy Two, Get 1 as well as double coupon for two dollars off), a free bag of cat litter (Buy One, Get 1) and several dollar off coupons, plus regular sale items. I think I did pretty well. Then I got home and saw this headline: Economic shock gives rise to coupon cutting

It talks about how people are *gasp* cutting coupons to save money. Is this that unusual? Admittedly, I am only third generation American and my parents both worked retail jobs. If we bought brand name stuff, it was on sale and if there was a coupon, we used it.

Do you see coupons as low class? Are they a sign of poverty, frugality or merely cheapness?

Life, the universe, and everything

A week ago, I turned 23. Yesterday, a surgeon stuck a camera into my abdomen to figure out what was up with my ovaries. Now, I was under general anesthesia, and don't remember much, but my surgeon assures me he told my husband everything. ... I don't HAVE a husband, and my Much Beloved Boyfriend swears the doctor never spoke to him. So who exactly heard about my surgery?

I've been knitting a fair bit, lots of mostly finished objects. Scarves for the Boy's mother and sister are off the needles and are being finished.

I also finished the Trekkie Washcloth. Pictures when I find my camera.

Some New Stuff

Haven't been knitting a lot. Well, knitting successfully at least. I do have a few new FOs, however. A washcloth from a swap, and a Saber-Tooth lime for the Boy.

My life, in a place none of my friends will read it

How much of your life can be a lie before you start to doubt yourself? You can think you know people, your parents, your best friends, but everyone has secrets. Sometimes, those secrets are pretty harmless. Sometimes, you find out about them and lie awake at night analyzing the past ten years of your life.

I started a scarf today, on size 17 needles, because I need to stop thinking about this. You cannot change the past, you cannot analyze everything to death. You just have to move on.

New Finished Objects

Mandala Hat, kinda! I screwed up the colors, but it fits.



and a camera case for my shiny new Kodak.



Life may suck, but knitting is good.

The New Food Yarns

You know, I love yarn. I do. But... the idea of making corn and even milk into yarn kinda bothers me, the same way the biofuel movement does. There were food riots in Mexico last year about corn shortages. Not that anyone noticed. And milk, milk is almost four dollars a gallon here, and I live within a short drive of cows. On the other hand, soy yarn doesn't make me twitchy, even though it's a food product, and one I eat no less. Maybe that's because we never hear about soy shortages.

The idea of ecofriendly bamboo yarn really excites me, even if the process isn't perfected yet.

I haven't forgot this blog

and I have been knitting. A lot. But the camera moved out and I just replaced it.

Keep an eye out for the slipper socks of Cthulhu.

Who Scarf

It's... finished? I need to fringe, but I'm saving that for a boring afternoon.

It's only ten feet-ish, since I'm rather short and it took quite a bit of time, but it's done! (Almost)

1-Up for Twilight

Showed Twilight my Mario purse and she loved it, so I've done one for her in cotton. I'm still not totally happy with it, I may tweak the pattern. That being said, I'm improving.

1-Up Purse

I found a 1-UP Mushroom knitting pattern and did it on the USM.

It turned out very nice, but the purse is quite small. My Treo would fit in it, but not my wallet.

Socks!

I made a sock today. Just one, following Heidi's Altogether Sock pattern. Interesting pattern. The first row you knit is the top back, the last row is the top front.

Done in Sugar'n Cream cotton, and not only did I screw up the ribbing on the frong, it is WAY too small for my big feet. In fact, it fits no one.

I will name it King of Mateless Socks and tweak the pattern before I try again.

Me and the USM

I am, at the moment, incapable of getting the carriage to slid smoothly. However, hand knitting the stitches on the USM does not hurt my wrists like traditional knitting, so I've gone ahead and started on my 12th Season Doctor Who scarf. I've done eighteen rows so far, and it's looking good.

I've gotten advice off the Yahoo Group to sand my machine, since I've got a bit of a lift in the front that's catching my carriage. I'll have to try that this weekend.

Ultimate Sweater Machine

So, I finally broke down and ordered The Ultimate Sweater machine. I've wanted one for a while, since while I can crochet and knit (kinda, sorta, not very well) it's very painful to my carpal tunnel and I just can't put in the time to get good while I need my hands for typing. But I get bored easily, and I have a lot of downtime that I spend staring at the tv, trying to occupy my mind. There are half finished quilts all over my apartment, but that would be a great Pennsic project, and all my friends knit. No, seriously. You have never seen so many college students with knitting needles.

And then, I was on Joann's website, and it was on sale, and so was yarn, so I ordered it. I'm impatiently tracking it on DHL's website, thinking I should have paid for expedited shipping. My package is currently in Coventry, RI and should arrive Monday. You know, after the weekend, when I would have had time to play with it.

I've done so much overtime the past two weeks, thought, that I just might call into work and play on the Bond until I have to go to class.