Secret Pal Stuff

Yes, knitchic sent out a lovely questionnaire, and my secret pal has asked some questions, but it's time for more detail than anyone ever wanted! I've popped my questionnaire in, and will elaborate on some of the answers. The others I'll just delete (although if there seems to be demand...)

1. Skill level: Experienced - I've been mostly working on sweaters and other large items lately. I haven't tried gloves yet, although every time I'm stuck playing flute outside in the cold, thoughts of angora gloves run through my head!

9. Next thing to learn on the needles: Colorwork - fair isle and intarsia. Colorwork scares me, which is kind of odd. When my mother first taught me to knit (late elementary school - I think it was somewhere around 7th grade), one of the things I started was a sweater that had my Cabbage Patch doll's name in intarsia up the front. It was never finished, and no longer exists, but my memory of it was that the letters looked good, even though none of them matched in size!

11. Stuff you don't need at all: Cable needles. Probably should be extended to needles in general. I seem to have most of the ones I need, and I get a little finicky.

12. Hobbies other than knitting (tv, sports, collectibles, fave things) - Way too much tv. Entire essays can be written on this. Some of my favorite shows are Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly ("Hello, my name is habsgirl and I'm a Joss Whedon-a-holic"), Oz, Sex and the City, all versions of Law and Order, CSI(but not CSI: Miami), Daria...

Hockey - love hockey, both NHL and junior. I haven't really lived anywhere where the minor leagues were - it was either pros or juniors. I hope that both sides can work through all the labor crap and play this year, but I'm not holding my breath - that shade of blue is not particularly flattering to me. I don't have a specific favorite player on the Canadiens - they traded my old favorite a couple of years ago, and nobody has totally caught my fancy.

Open-wheel auto racing (specifically CCWS/CART and F1)- very strange, since it's been sixteen years since I took drivers' ed and I still don't have a license (drivers' ed was rather traumatic). I'm currently without any particular favorite drivers in F1 since Toyota turfed Cristiano DaMatta this week (Jacques Villeneuve, my other favorite, was turfed from BAR/Honda at the end of last season - he never should have signed up for the second stint, in my opinion). Champ Car World Series (or CART, which is anachronistic, but much easier to say), however, has a plethora of drivers I like. I can't think of any that I hate, but my particular favorites are Patrick Carpentier and Oriol Servia. I could spout on for hours about this, but I'll spare y'all - this time!

Music (rock to listen to, classical etc. to play on my flute) - It's odd, because a lot of people seem to assume I'm familiar with all sorts of classical music because I play an instrument. I like playing it, because it tends to be more challenging than most band music - flutes don't carry over other instruments very easily. If I'm listening to music, I listen to rock. And I do mean rock - I like Helmet, System of a Down, Godsmack, Garbage, Girls against Boys, Green Day, Barenaked Ladies, etc (if you can find an etc. out of that - it's pretty varied, as are my tastes!) Not a huge fan of most hip-hop artists. I do like Public Enemy, Missy Elliot, Black Eyed Peas, Outkast. Most of the gangsta stuff is just ick in my opinion.

13. Books you'd like (knitting or not): Basic books on knitting design, intro to fair isle - I have no problems with previously loved books,either! - I've got a couple of Alice Starmore books (Celtic Collection and Tudor Roses, and some of the fair isles/intarsia sweaters interest me, but I don't think I'd want to cut my teeth on one of them - start a little smaller.)

I tend to read a diverse mix of books - mysteries, horror, chick lit, classics, some non-fiction (history, mostly), but tend to buy what I want. Some of my favorite authors are Patricia Highsmith, Stephen King, Phil Rickman, Stephen Booth, Ben Elton, Ruth Ozeki, Chuck Palahniuk, Margaret Atwood, Jane Austen, Lauren Henderson, James Ellroy, Jasper Fforde, Michael Chabon.

14. Favorite kind of chocolate: Dark chocolate - especially Scharffen Berger and especially SB Nibby Bars.

18. Are you a java junkie? Nope, I drink tea (and lots of it)instead. I love black teas, flavored or not - especially chai, which I make without milk (big fan of spices!). I also like stronger herbal teas - ginger, mint, etc.

And, since the other secret pal program has a questionnaire some participants are posting, I'll scam some of their questions, too!

2. Do you spin? Crochet? Neither.

4. How long have you been knitting? Off and on since the 7th grade. I picked the needles up again this time in about 2000. I needed something to keep me from stuffing my face in front of the TV. If I bought high-quality yarn, I didn't want food anywhere near it!

7. Do you have a sweet tooth? Good grief, yes.

8. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Any other crafty things would cut into my knitting time!

11. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets? Single (sometimes bitterly so), and living with my parents. I have a cat and they have a cat.

12. What are your life dreams? To figure out what the heck I want to do in this life.

There, way more information than anyone really needed to know.