Knitting Product Review! Interchangeable Circular Needles

Hello to everyone who may actually read this blog! (which I'm finding more and more to be people I don't know that actually leave comments lol.)

It's been a while, a lot has been happening. I started my prep course for college about a month ago, give or take, and studying/memorizing has taken over my existence, among other things.

So my first post back is a product review. Yaaay. Please keep in mind, I'm not being endorsed by the company and all that jazz (although if they wanted to give me free products to review it could be negotiable LOL - not overly likely to happen but you never know!)

Recently I discovered the online shop, KnitPicks (www.knitpicks.com) and I don't really remember how or when, but I think I was looking at shawl patterns and falling in love with those, and I went looking for lace weight yarn that preferably wasn't sheeps' wool, as a lot of my family members (as well as myself) are sensitive/allergic to it. And I found they have lovely alpaca wool! But that is NOT what I am reviewing today! As I haven't had a chance to knit it yet :( (SOON! SOON I SHALL KNIT IT!!! And there will be photos!) It feels great as a skein though!

So today's review is about the Options Interchangeable Zephyr Acrylic Circular Knitting Needle Set by KnitPicks.

How this all started was that the shawl pattern I chose (Shipwreck circular shawl from Knitty.com) is knitted from the center out, and therefore is started on DPNs and then moved into circulars of increasing length and sizee as the shawl grows. I found myself needing 1 set of double pointeds, and then 7 sets of circulars of varying lengths and sizes. I found a very good deal on bamboo FIXED circulars - 15 pairs for $25 - but the downfall there was that they were all the same length (and I was looking for 40-47" longs!) Chances of me using the majority of those needles again was very very slim, due to the lack of versitility (and outside shawls or afgans, what am I going to knit with 40-47" long circulars? That's a bit big for a hat...) And also, who wants to be knitting 600+ stitches off one set of needles onto another, when with the other set is merely a change of tips?

Having already ordered my yarn from KnitPicks, and in casual browsing, seeing the interchangable needles, I started looking for those. My family is very frugal (often bordering on the side of cheap whenever possible), I searched for something in the $20 or less range. I found a couple hits on eBay, but I don't like in the US, and all the listings that were cheaper, didn't ship there. Then came the time to convince myself (and the money source, since I'm sharing the set with my mom), that the KnitPicks ones were better because they really did indeed offer more options. I did the math, and all that, and it was settled. We were going with the interchangable Zephyrs.

Their listed retail price on KnitPicks is $67.38 for the set. They seem to be on the website all/most of the time (at least for the past few months) for $44.99. This price is at least 50% less than the next lowest priced set offered by another company (not one of the other sets offered by KnitPicks, which are $60-75, but still much more affordable.) The set includes 9 sets of needles (Size 4 US/3.5mm to size 11 US/8mm), 4 cables (2 each of 2 different sizes [24" and 32"]), 8 screw on end caps (these are to be screwed onto the cable ends to keep your current project from sliding off if you need the needle tips for another project), a vinyl zippered case to hold the needles (it fits everything), a clear plastic case to hold the cables, and 2 cable keys to help lock the cables to the needle tips.

Very easy to use. Just screw the tips to the cables using the cable keys. And DO use the cable keys - I originally hadn't, and after a while within the first week of knitting the project I was testing them on (a wrap) the needle tip started coming off the cable. I tightened it with the cable keys and it's been on there for months with no sign of loosening unless I want it to. The needles and cables also have a very smooth join, I have yet to have yarn snag, and I'm using yarn that likes to split.

The tips have some amount of give to them, making them easy on the hands compared to a lot of metal needles I've used. The tips are also sharp - it hurt a bit at first to poke myself with them until I got used to it. They're not super super sharp as in "they're going to hurt me" sharp, but it's sharper/pointier than most plastic and metal needles I've worked with.

The other fun part about this set is that you can expand what you own for it. They sell needle tips individually ranging from $4-$7 a set, you can buy a cable binder case that's bigger than the cable case they give you/more organized than the one with the set. You can buy more cables in other lengths. You can also get cable connectors to join multiple cables together for a longer cable - I bought these. It's about $2 for 3 connectors, and they come with instructions and a cable key. I bought a set of these, they seem to work well - they join tightly and smoothly (there's a little bump, but the yarn travels well over it.)

Honestly, I think the only "complaint" I have about them is that the needles all look the same (they're all clear acrylic) and they're not engraved or stamped or marked ON THE NEEDLE as to what size they are. They come on a piece of cardboard that has their info on it, but that's no good if you take them off that or they fall. Personally, I don't really own a needle gauge thingie. I do, however, own an engraver, so I can hopefully fix that without messing up how smoothly the yarn travels.

Oh, and a second product review, just a little one! KnitPicks also sells knitting needle coil wraps. They're awesome! They hold pairs of knitting needles together when not in use. So handy, even with a knitting needle wrap case thing! They sell lots of neat little things, and lots of pretty yarns! I do recommend you check their site out! :)

Happy knitting!

(And again, I'm NOT getting anything from the company for this review)

A Poem

I have long loved the poetry of Alexander Pushkin, since high school really. So here's one; for some reason it strikes a cord inside tonight, though I admit I don't think I've ever really paid this one much attention until now.

The Prophet

by Alexander Pushkin, written in 1824.

Parched with the spirit's thirst, I crossed
An endless desert sunk in gloom,
And a six-winged seraph came
Where the tracks met and I stood lost.
Fingers light as dream he laid
Upon my lids; I opened wide
My eagle eyes, and gazed around.
He laid his fingers on my ears
And they were filled with roaring sound:
I heard the music of the spheres,
The flight of angels through the skies,
The beasts that crept beneath the sea,
The heady uprush of the vine;
And, like a lover kissing me,
He rooted out this tongue of mine
Fluent in lies and vanity;
He tore my fainting lips apart
And, with his right hand steeped in blood,
He armed me with a serpent's dart;
With his bright sword he split my breast;
My heart leapt to him with a bound;
A glowing livid coal he pressed
Into the hollow of the wound.
There in the desert I lay dead,
And God called out to me and said:
'Rise, prophet, rise, and hear, and see,
And let my works be seen and heard
By all who turn aside from me,
And burn them with my fiery word.'

To see more of his poems, go HERE.

Also, I'm not really sure why it seems to have hyperlinked the title, because I didn't tell it to... :-/

Random Update

Soo just a quick update, lots of things happening... Working on a lot of knitting and other textile projects. Just.... lots of random stuff lol.

I have King Nothing by Metallica stuck in my head lmao.

The other night I cooked a whole duck, first ever (and yes, I used a full sized duck, not ducklings.) It was SOOOO YUMMY!!! I used this recipe here http://southernfood.about.com/od/duckandgooserecipes/r/blbb369.htm

By the time it was done cooking the bird was falling apart when I was trying to take it out of the pan. Everyone loved it, so if you need a duck recipe, I suggest that one. I'd also suggest maybe trying to get some of the basting butter stuff UNDER the skin. Maybe I just suck at basting, or whatever, but the meat near the skin had some flavour, but nothing like the amount in the skin (which came off the meat and was therefore either not eaten, or eaten separately) and the meat from the sides closest to the insides tasted a lot like oranges, so getting some of the basting mixture under the skin might help even it out a bit, but it was still very very yummy!

This week has also included very yummy pork ribs, as well as chicken drumsticks, and lots of birthday cake (a 1/4 slab cake is MORE than enough to feed 7 people lol), as well as yummy chicken and steak terriyaki at our favourite Japanese restaurant.

Anyways, sleepy time is calling!

Dream... or maybe it's a Nightmare.

It was a while after the man walked away through the snow before the girl raised her head from the horse's neck. The horse's ear flicked back, then the large black beast turned its head to regard her.

"He's right you know," she said quietly. "It's much too cold to be crying here."

The beast snorted softly in response and lipped the girl's shoe.

"And you're right too... We've always been alone. But we've got each other. At least sometimes."

The horse's head turned, ears perked, and then the girl heard it too. A bird call. The horse nickered softly and looked at the girl again. The girl gave the horse her slow, sad smile and shook her head.

"No, we've lost him, haven't we?"

The horse blew out a breath and started again, out over the frozen lake. The girl resumed her position laying on the beast's neck, and neither cared when the ice began to crack.

A Poem I Wrote In High School

This is a poem I wrote back in high school. Thought I'd share. Please remember that you MAY NOT reproduce this poem in ANY form without my express written consent.

Dancing With the Devil

Soft spoken words slide under the skin

Sharp as a knife, yet soft as silk.

A gentle touch glides over my body

The cool burning followed by fiery ice

To send shivers down the spine.

Mesmerizing, intoxicating,

Your words and imagery stay lodged in my mind

Wickedly whispered promises

Blow gently o'er my ear

Your lips curved in soft sardonic smile,

A velvet brush across my cheek

Your eyes glitter with shining promise

As you lean in to deliver your devil's kiss

You've won my heart, stolen my soul

And now to seal it with a kiss

It's only after I've become the empty shell,

Overrun with flowing emotion,

That I fully realize -

I've been dancing with the devil.

© Lore of http://inthelandofnod.blogspot.com

Knitting Octopi

So I've wanted to knit an octopus since forever but I can't knit on double pointed needles worth crap (at least not yet... if ever...) but I found this pattern through Ravelry.com (you must have an account to look at patterns on there, but it's free to join and there's TONS of stuff! Be warned, not all the patterns are free though.) A lot of people have their patterns available for ravelry downloads, or with links to their blogs/websites (or both). So here is the link to the blog the octopus pattern is on at Haun' Knittit for Aristotle the Octopus

The two I knitted are these ones, as baby/big sister gifts for a friend's children

The rust coloured one is actually double the size of the pattern given on Haun' Knittit. Easy enough to do, except you have to remember to make the tentacles wider - which I think I did by going Cast on 100 stitches, KB1, then K row, KB1, K row, KB1, K60 stitches then for the next 40 K2tog to end, then bind off.

I know I haven't posted in a while, but I doubt anyone really noticed lol. I'm starting to work on my new blog, which is an alternative to a webcomic since I can't draw worth crap. It will focus on a more occult theme...in and of the fact it's a blog about my plush penguin Aleister Crowley - except in this blog, it's the actual Aleister Crowley who has been trapped in the body of the plush penguin... but more on that later when that blog is actually ready to debut :-P

Also, you may have noticed I've changed the blog layout - I did this because I was rather annoyed at how long and thin my posts were, and how often I had to squish the photos down to be smaller (at least on my monitor I did, and I'm like the only one who reads this, so it might as well be something I like lol) Forgive me if the font of the old posts is small (it looks really small on my screen) I may or may not fix this... most browsers have zoom functions so you can use that if you have to lol

Occult Q&A of FAQ, Part I

Okay, so this is going to be an occult post. Despite my whole "Yeah I don't really talk about the occult" entry last time. Why? Because it amuses me, that's why. So I guess I'll answer the questions/comments I get most often. And if anyone has any, leave me a comment and I'll do another post, or whatever, and answer them.

So, the FAQs... Q = Question, C = Comment to me, A = My response

Q. So, what are you?
A. Human... what are you?

Q. So as a Wiccan...
A. I'm NOT a Wiccan...

Q. So as a Pagan...
A. I'm NOT a Pagan...

Q. So as a devil worshiper...
A. ....I *AM* The Devil... which is odd in most senses given that I'm female, but I don't expect most people to understand what I mean anyways.

C. OMG THAT'S BAD! You can't hurt anyone! Magic is all puppies and kitties and rainbows and butterflies and...
A. *takes shotgun off the wall above the mantle, and loads it* There's no hope for 'em now. 'e's sufferin'. You know we gotta do it.

Okay, but seriously now, you gotta have both sides of the equation here. The light and the dark. Sometimes the right thing is not a nice thing. Also, as a non-Wiccan/non-Neo-Wiccan/non-Neo-Pagan, take your bloody rule of three and shove it up your ass. For every action there is a reaction, for every action a consequence - and by consequence I don't mean whatever you do comes back to 3 times 3 times 3 (which by the way would be TWENETY SEVEN times better/worse than what you did, not three times) I mean that if you know if you do something not so pleasant to someone, and you're going to feel guilty and whimp out following it through, don't do it. If you know you won't be able to live with what you are going to do, don't do it. Because really, it wastes your time, and the energy, and it'll probably backfire. So I mean if you do something nasty to someone, expect results. Liiike say someone does something not so nice to you, so you hex them, and short time later, there's a car accident and their injured badly and paralyzed. There's your action, there's your reaction/consequence. It doesn't always mean the reaction/consequence will happen to YOU.

Q. Can I watch?!
A. ....What...? YOU PERV! Oooooh you mean can you watch a ritual... Um, no. Just no. I'm not running a Plagan Playtime, and we're not participating in a sport (you want that, christianity is over there, down that hallway, to the left, and third door on the right...) And even if I did let you watch, it's not like you'd understand what you were seeing anyways.

Q. Can you teach me?
A. Nope. I'm still paddling around in the pond myself, there's no way I can teach you.

Q. So if you're not Wiccan of any sort, or Pagan, what are you? Witch is rather generic.
A. Shall we just say... Your worst nightmare.... and leave it at that? Or if you don't like that, I can introduce you to my friend over there who can run you around in circles faster than you blink...

Q. ZOMFG WILL YOU DO A TAROT READING FOR ME?!?!
A. Hmmm lemme check *flips out some cards* All signs point to... No. Sedrick doesn't like you. He thinks you're an idiot. See? He said so himself *points to cards*

Q. Who is Sedrick and why do you talk to him like he's a person? You don't know anyone named Sedrick.
A. Keep your voice down, Sedrick might hear you! And of course I talk to Sedrick like he's a person. Gods know he's opinionated enough. Sedrick is my tarot deck - Crowley's Thoth to be exact. He's quite an ass and a cheeky bastard. Some days I want to rename him Trystn, but he [Sedrick] doesn't like that idea. And anyone who says a tarot deck is an inanimate object has obviously never worked with a deck that has a personality - as in it retaliates when it gets annoyed. And it insults you *shoots a dirty look at Sedrick* (He's in time out right now...)

Q. Which gods do you worship?
A. Erm... none. Not the way most Plagans do anyways. Groveling... not my style. Now some of us do however have "patron" and "matron" gods/spirits, and well, I could tell you, but that'd be telling. And they'd probably eat you for breakfast. Or maybe more like midnight snacks...

C. Tell me EVERYTHING!
A. Now why would I want to do THAT? That takes all the fun out of tormenting you.

Q. I'm Goddess-loved. What are you?
A. Ready to shoot in 3-2-1....

C. But I don't like *insert aspect of conversation/ritual/occult related thing here*...
A. ...So why are you talking to me about this, or trying to work with this...? You knew, it was going to come up/be involved...

C. I was Cleopatra in a past life!
A. Darling, we were ALL Cleopatra in a past life... (Okay, so I stole that one lol)

C. And in my past lives I've always been some form of animal and....
A. Uhhuh.... uhhuh... Zzzzzzzz... Awha?! Sorry, I dozed of--Zzzzzzzz

C. Who's your favourite author(s)? I *LOVE LOVE LOVE* Silver Ravenwolf and Fiona Horne and....
A. *Backs away slowly and reaches for the shotgun* .....
C. ...What? They're the most popular and readily available, therefore they have to be the bestest!!
A. No, no that's not how it works...

C. But as Witches/"witches" that means we can't believe in Jesus, and must go against everything that is at all related to Christianity!
A. Actually... some of Jesus' stuff wasn't too bad. Unfortunately no one else seemed to understand and it was all twisted and contorted into lovely control devices. As for the rest of it, I have no time for those who must sqwack about how "different" they are from everything else and how they're oh so original and new and different and have nothing the same. All that proves is...well...nothing. And really, depending on what you look at, oh hey, the bible proves me right and xtians wrong on things... Hmm, how interesting.

Anyways, that's all I can think of now off the top of my head... which is a lot apparently lol. It's not bed time.