Things Anisa Likes

Cummington, etc.

2009-05-25T16:08:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I went to Cummington! I was remarkably restrained in my purchases, if I do say so myself.

All I bought was some deliciously squishy Green Mountain Spinnery Green Mountain Green...

And some Ball and Skein wool and nylon sock yarn in a lovely green.

..And some soap.

In other news, I'm still slowly working on a test knit shawl. Now I have pictures!

I knit a shawl for the head of my department, who is retiring. It's Heartland by Evelyn Clark.

Meanwhile, I've been purchasing yarn like a crazy person. The WEBS anniversary sale really did a number on me. What happened was I was going to get some yarn for a Fair Isle sweater for Snowflake. I passed up Classic Elite Fresco in favor of some Frog Tree Alpaca Sport. But then I still wanted the Fresco, and it was on sale and all. So I went home and looked through my queue for a project I could make for myself. Soon thereafter, I went back to WEBS to get Fresco for another Fair Isle sweater. I had also picked up yarn for a purple surprise... I won't tell what it is yet, but trust me, it's a LOT of yarn. Later in the sale, I got yarn for the above Heartland shawl. Oh, and I may have picked up another hank of Malabrigo Sock at some point.

Then Li-Mei and I decided that we should make an exchange. Both of us have things we want to have, but we don't especially want to knit. So we're knitting them for each other! After we decided what we wanted, I went back to WEBS to pick up yarn for a Mr. Greenjeans that I will knit for her...

and yarn for a Rusted Root that Li-Mei will knit for me. So great!

Now you understand why I was so restrained at Cummington. :)

Sleepy Moon soap

2009-05-25T15:43:00.004-04:00

At Cummington yesterday, I discovered a lovely artisan soap booth called Sleepy Moon Soaps. I bought four soaps in scents Maine Woods; Dog Soap; Oatmeal, Milk, and Honey; and Gardener's Grits. They are so nice!!

I used the Maine Woods soap this morning and it's really really nice. I kind of want to take another shower.

These ones were presents for my roommates. Emerson gets the oatmeal and Clint gets the grits.

Also, SPOILERS! We're using these soaps as favors in our wedding.

Neil

2008-10-19T20:59:00.001-04:00

Meet Neil.

Neil is my new favorite thing ever. Neil keeps my room at a toasty 73 Fahrenheit, while the rest of the state is getting pretty cold and our heat isn't on yet. I love Neil so much. He makes me happy.

the Don't Vote video

2008-10-01T22:10:00.003-04:00

I like this video! Especially Sarah Silverman.

Sorry about disappearing for awhile and then reappearing with an agenda. It's been busy over here.

Hundred Pushups

2008-09-14T19:49:00.002-04:00

Today's featured item is this website. It puts forth a plan to get you to do 100 consecutive pushups within six weeks. Since I am particularly pathetic, I have been doing girly (knee) pushups rather than the normal ones. I just did the test between weeks 5 and 6 and I did 100! Yay!

If you know me, you know that this is a pretty impressive thing. I have wimpy sad arms. When I started, I was only able to do 16 consecutive girly pushups. And look where I am now! Very exciting.

My plan is to do week 6 (I did the 100 pushups, but I think I could do them a little better) and then start all over with week 1 and real pushups. Meanwhile, my roommates are just now embarking on week 3 and are at 30 or so.

Umbrella Today?

2008-09-09T07:54:00.003-04:00

Umbrella Today appears to be the only short-term weather forecast I will ever need. It's pretty amazing. You can also program it to text you on days when you will need an umbrella. Check it out.

I have to go find an umbrella now.

Sarah Haskins

2008-09-06T00:47:00.002-04:00

This woman is hilariously funny. Check out her video about Sarah Palin. All the other Target Women videos are also really funny. You can get to them by searching on the above site.

this beautiful tweedy yarn

2008-09-03T22:47:00.002-04:00

I love this yarn. Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed. It's beautiful, soft, basically delightful in every way. I mean look at that. 85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere. That's just enough silk and cashmere to take that wool from good to delicious. I'm making a Central Park Hoodie out of it, in the Jewel colorway. It's delightful.

Things I don't like about this yarn include the fact that Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed is apparently the exact same yarn, but priced a little cheaper, and with a little different color selection. I don't know what the deal is, but I would like to see Jo Sharp priced cheaper, or Queensland in better colors. But all in all, I'm really liking this yarn. At some point I may take pictures of this hoodie. Check it out at my knitting blog.

Other things I like include Chrome. I've only been playing with it for about a day, but it seems to work nicely. We'll see if I continue to like it.

cook top cleaner

2008-08-30T23:03:00.002-04:00

I like this cooktop cleaner that Snowflake has. It's pretty awesome. Check out this shiny stove!

That's Snowflake, showing off his good work.

Closer view of the shiny shiny stove.

No before pictures, sadly, but... well, you wouldn't have wanted to see it. It was pretty gross. And cooked on, obviously.

This is the cleaner in question. I don't know where it came from, but it's pretty sweet.

Alfred

2008-08-28T21:47:00.002-04:00

In the continuing theme of liking my car, I'll point out that I like my car.

His name is Alfred, after the character in Batman, and because he looks so good in black. I got him about a year ago and he has served me well ever since. 2007 Honda Fit. Seats up to 5, four doors plus hatchback, fog lights, truck-caliber windshield wipers, cruise control, tons of airbags, iPod/Aux jack.

This is the inside. The most notable part is the stick shift: I learned to drive a manual for this car. Or I bought a manual so that I would learn to drive it. I derive a great deal of pride from the fact that I can drive a manual now.

Another really great thing about this car is the amazing amount of stuff you can fit in it. Stuff I have fit in this car include a kayak, skis, a giant dish chair, a bike, and ridiculous carloads of furniture. Here's the most recent feat, a carload of stuff I brought to western Mass from the Catskills.

That's a dresser, a bookcase, a chair, a rocking chair, a deconstructed table, a carroms board, a VCR, a small collection of lamps, a sleeping bag, a full messenger bag, and other small things as well. And I could see out the windows!

I'm not trying to sell these cars, really. But I would recommend them.

Fuelly

2008-08-26T23:19:00.002-04:00

Today's offering is a website: Fuelly.

Approximately one year ago, I bought Alfred, my car. He's a black 2007 Honda Fit Sport with manual transmission. Being as I learned to drive on a Toyota Prius, drove that Prius and another Prius as my primary vehicles through the end of college (well, to the extent that I was driving in high school and college), urged my fiance to get a Prius, and drove my parents' third Prius whenever I was home, fuel economy has been a very present concern for me whenever it came to driving. The Fit doesn't tell you how well you're doing as far as mileage, but as an instinct, I kept every gas receipt I got and wrote on it the number of miles I had driven since the last fuel-up. My heart told me that I needed to keep these receipts, but it didn't tell me why.

I have finally discovered the reason for all this: the reason is Fuelly. It's a website where you can log your fuel-ups and it will make graphs for you and calculate averages and things. Furthermore, it will let you compare with other cars that are out there. Really neat.

If you'd like to see how I'm doing, I think you can see Alfred's profile here. I'm averaging 34 mpg over the past year. Pretty good for a non-hybrid, I think.

my new water bottle

2008-08-25T21:43:00.002-04:00

I recently learned that plastic water bottles are no good for you. They leach bad chemicals into your water, apparently. (Did anyone else notice that here leach is almost an antonym of leech?) So I was thinking about buying a new reusable water bottle when I stumbled across this gem at Whole Foods.

That's right, that's a freaking Samurai on a water bottle. You thought that was awesome...

Oh yes. That's a SILVER TIGER fighting a SILVER DRAGON. Pretty badass. There's one on the other side of the samurai too.

It's aluminum, so I'm a little afraid of it getting beat up, but then again, clearly it can handle itself in a fight. Aluminum is supposed to be bad for you too, but this one is lined, so I think I should be ok.

Think your water bottle is anywhere near as badass as mine? Post a comment and they can fight it out.

drawstring pants

2008-08-24T14:29:00.002-04:00

Loose-fitting drawstring pants. Amazing.

Forgive the crappy picture. I didn't want to wake up my roommate and so I had to do what I could with a mirror. Love this mirror too, by the way.

I got these particular drawstring pants from Victoria's Secret. I know, not the first place you think of for loose-fitting clothes, but they were on sale for cheap. Yay!

bathroom curtain

2008-08-24T14:17:00.002-04:00

I've decided to make a blog of things I like. It should be easy. I like lots of things!

Number 1 is a bathroom curtain I made this week. It is my hope that when my roommate returns from whatever he's been doing this summer, it will irritate him greatly. Take a look at this awesome fabric. It's a print of frilly lingerie items.

Excellent curtain.