The Yarnista Answers Your Questions, part five

It's time for another installment, don't you agree? There are just so many pressing questions that must be answered, so I better stop chit-chatting the day away and wasting time. I should get to the questions immediately. Post haste. I should hurry up and stop rattling around and actually do what I say I'm going to. For Pete's sake and honest to goodness.

Jaime, dear friend, asks:

Does Yarnista EVER get to actually knit?? Being a Mommy with 3 kids,a wife(cooking cleaning,laundry,mopping), a friend, a shop owner, account keeper, Post Office runner, on the internet posting on blogs, ravelry, AND having her hands in the dye pot do you ever get to….knit?

The Yarnista -- here we are, back to referring to The Yarnista in the third person -- does get to knit. The Yarnista just cast on for a new sweater over the weekend, actually. Here 'tis.

Giselle has several options. My version is light gray. I will be doing the longer all-knit version, and I will likely be modifying the sleeves so they're a little plainer.

Because I'm really a plain person. Just have a look around my website, you can just feel the plainness permeating every surface. I really hope that's the feeling you get when you visit this blog, too, Jaime. "Wow, I just love this really plainplainplain website."

Did The Yarnista forget and begin referring to herself in the first person again? Oh.

I am also also log-cabinning away on a log cabin blanket. I think we should all work to incorporate the verb log-cabinning into our repertoire. It's so important to expand one's vocabulary.

I shall take a picture of my progress on Giselle soon and report back for duty.

Let’s choose a winner…

I really enjoyed reading about all of your hidden talents. Who knew that so many of you could do weird things with your tongue?

Without further ado...

I instructed my truster random number generator to choose a number between 1 and 71:



And it decided that today's luck number was 53. What a lovely odd number 53 is. Don't you think?



Who does #53 belong to you, ask?



Melissa! Congratulations! You get to choose a skein of any yarn you like on any one of our colorways. :)

TIME’S UP! Hidden talents contest

Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start.

This is my favorite movie:



I've seen it at least fifty times. Even looking at these pictures warms the cockles of me 'eart.

Remember the part where Captain Von Trapp and the Baroness Schrader throw the party? It's where the Captain and Maria realize their feelings for each other, and where the Baroness manipulates Maria into leaving.


At the ball, one of the heads of the Nazi party speaks to Captain Von Trapp and remarks on his family's upcoming performance at the music festival. Captain Von Trapp says, "I, too, am a man of hidden talents." Of course, he says it with a smirk that's masking his anger, as he hates how the Nazis have claimed his beloved Austria.



We are all people of hidden talents, I believe. The focus of this contest is HIDDEN talents, something few people would know about. If you're an excellent knitter and make gifts for people far and wide, that's a wonderful thing, but it's not a hidden talent.

For example:

• I can eyeball liquid measurements quite accurately. I can tell the difference between 1/4 teaspoon and 12 cups with ease.

What can I say? It's a gift.

• I can imitate a dolphin's clicky sounds. I have no idea why I know how to do this, but my children find it really very remarkable.

• I have a freakishly bizarre ability to remember household hints. Not because I am such a fantastic stain remover, but because I remember all the tips I read. It's like the file for household tips storage is extra large in my brain.

Did you know that hairspray will remove ball point pen from clothing?

Or that if you place wadded up wet newspapers on the soil of your houseplants, it will keep them from dying while you're on vacation?

I did.

What are your hidden talents? Leave a comment to this post telling me at least one thing you can secretly do, and you could win a skein of yarn. Not just any skein, either. You choose the yarn base (anything we have instock), and you choose the colorway. We'll make it for you. YAY!

You have until Friday, August 1st at 8pm Eastern to tell me all about your hidden talents.

A day in the life of The Yarnista: the early hours.

5:45am: Arise.

5:46: Arrive in kitchen.

5:46:30: Make coffee.

5:48: Turn on computer. Wait for coffee.

5:52: Obtain coffee in large mug. Add half and half. No sugar.

5:53: Consider breakfast options. Shall I have cereal, or cereal? Perhaps cereal? I think cereal sounds good today.

5:54: Bring cereal and coffee to office. Log in to computer.

5:55: Skim emails received during what would widely be known as, "Nighttime on the Eastern Seaboard of the United States on the continent of North America."

5:57: Begin answering emails while simultaneously drinking coffee with half and half, no sugar, and eating Grape Nuts with organic 2% milk, no sugar.

5:57:30: Reply to all emails.

6:20: Take last sip of coffee and check in on my Ravelry groups. Reply to posts. Smile.

6:35: Return dishes to kitchen. Contemplate going back to bed for more sleep.

6:36: Decide instead to sit on deck overlooking woods and read newspaper.

6:36:30: Look up from the front page of newspaper to see a small, naked child dying of malnutrition and begging for the attention of her mother standing before me.

6:36:31: Realize this is only my progeny acting to manipulate my sympathies and get me to make her breakfast rather than reading newspaper.

6:36:32: Refold newspaper and make breakfast for the many, many small occupants of my home. Human and otherwise.

Please let me know when your eyes have resumed their normal blinking pattern after staring in bleary-eyed boredom through the minutiae of my morning.

P.S. Wait until I get to the part where I eat nothing but cookies and a latte for dinner. It will really get your heart pumping.

Whew!

I just flew in from Denver, and boy, are my arms tired!

I just ate an entire cherry cheesecake, and my mouth is so sore I can hardly move.

I am just now recovering from YarnClubApalooza on Saturday.

Ah, the truth is easily seen, is it not?

Even with two assistants, getting all the yarn club packages out was a challenge, but a good one, and I hope the results were worth it for all my dear club members.

Let's see, what's new around these parts? My sweet friend and talented graphic designer, Colleen, is coming for a visit from California tomorrow morning. She's designed all three of my sites: the one you're reading now (Yarnista.com), my Three Irish Girls site, and also Yarn Love. I haven't seen her in a couple of years -- it will be good to catch up.

Also, I have some Cormac instock tonight, in case you're interested: It's here. 

And a pic, so you can have a little look-see.


Mwah.