The Little Knittin' Kitten

For my Secret Pal

Hi! If you're as much of a keener as I am, you're probably reading this mere moments after receiving an email from Roxy with my name and the link to this blog. I'm sorry to say that you won't find much yet. I'm probably still somewhere in Europe right now without regular access to the internet, which is why I'm posting a little something to get you started. My old blog, the one I'm abandoning in favour of the much more flexable blogger, is here if you want to read about where I am and what I'm doing, but I wanted you to have this blog first, since it's the one I'll be keeping over the summer.

To help you to get to know me a bit better I've written up a 100 Things About Me list. Well, actually, it's more like 84 Things About Me, since I've been busy studying for my exam and I'll be leaving for my trip tomorrow. But I'll finish it when I'm back, I promise. Anyway, thanks for being my Secret Pal!


1. I have a cat named Spirit who I adopted from a local shelter 4 years ago. She's now 7, by all estimates.

2. When I'm not being an exchange student, I live in Toronto, Ontario. I love it there!

3. I grew up in Bedford, Nova Scotia which is a part of Halifax, the provincial capital. I love my psuedo-Scottish cultural up-bringing. I can play a number of NS ballads and folk songs on recorder or tin flute.

4. I am currently teaching myself to knit socks. I really want to learn how to knit toe-up, with two circular needles (I saw someone at my knitting group doing this), and especially that technique of knitting both socks at the same time (or is that just a myth?).

5. I have a brother who is a year younger than me and is an apprentice jeweller/knife maker.

6. I love colour, especially earth tones (I'm an Autumn). I don't like white.

7. I am an avid bookcrosser. You can check out my bookshelf at www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Brookeworm

8. I'd like to teach myself web design when I'm back in Canada to make a webpage for my parents' business.

9. I really love gourmet chocolate. I'd much prefer Godiva to Hersheys any day! But then, who wouldn't!

10. My boyfriend and I are "engaged to be engaged to be married" (we're waiting until I get home from England).

11. I like gardening and am planning an indoor herb garden for my kitchen.

12. I love to travel. As I write this I'm getting ready to leave England after living here a year for university.

13. My boyfriend and I both like the theatre and we go to the Stratford Festival (in Ontario, not England) every year.

14. I'm looking forward to experiementing with machinima when I get the new Sims 2 expansion pack.

15. I love little sewing and knitting notions, especially ones that are well made and unique.

16. I'm an incurable collector. I collect Monopoly boards, kitschy salt and pepper shakers (possibly my favourite collection), antique sewing and knitting implements - that's all I can think of right now, but I know there's more. : )

17. I love office supplies. And things to keep me organized.

18. I spent a year living in Ecuador when I was 17.

19. I love yarns that are soft and nice to touch - I don't like scratchy yarns and I have no interest in novelty yarns.

20. I'm working towards a career in publishing, but I really want to be a writer.

21. I also want to make money designing knitwear, knitting supplies, and home decor (especially things that can be made with reclaimed materials). I hope to be starting an online business from home in the next few years.

22. I can find a Simpsons quote to fit in just about any situation.

23. I'll do most any craft, but the ones I do most are knitting, crochet, and embroidery. I am planning to teach myself quilting.

24. I used to make my own clothes with my grandmother and want to learn to do it on my own.

25. I love anything miniature. I have a number of objects made for doll houses, although I don't have a doll house.

26. I prefer silver over gold every time.

27. My favourite colour is dark, earthy green, but I also really like maroon or burgandy shades of red and any shade of blue. I rarely meet a blue I don't like.

28. I am very environmentally conscious.

29. I like really unique knitting needles/crochet hooks.

30. After my exam I'm going on a short 4-country trip around Europe: Holland, Switzerland, Denmark, and Scotland.

31. I love doing volunteer and charity work. I make preemie sets for my cousin (a mid-wife) to take to the hospital.

32. I still sleep with a teddy bear at night.

33. I tend to knit mostly for other people; I'd like to make more things for myself.

34. I love socks with cute images on them, like animals or cartoon characters or candy.

35. I grew up with two toy poodles and my parents just bought two pommeranian puppies which I can't wait to meet next time they come visit. I prefer lap dogs to big dogs.

36. I don't like yarn from a smoker's home.

37. I love the smell of cinnamon.

38. I really like writing with fountain pens.

39. I hate beer. When I go drinking, it's usually some form of liquor and mix like Southern Comfort and coke (my current poison).

40. I can be a bit of a picky eater but I love to try new foods when I travel.

41. My favourite trip so far this year was when I backpacked to Morocco with my boyfriend over Easter Break. I definitely want to go there again! You can see the pictures here: http://public.fotki.com/madmuffinblues/

42. I'm really sensative to onions. Sometimes I can't even be in the same room where onions are being chopped/cooked. I can't stand eating raw, or even only partially cooked, onions.

43. I love shelling peas, I find it really relaxing. I'm hoping to get a crop of peas to actually survive to harvest someday. I'd also like to try growing potatoes. I mainly like vegetable gardening; I'm happy enough to enjoy the flowers in my neighbour's yard.

44. I like to watch tv/movies while I knit. The Sims 2 is also good, since you can set them to doing things and not worry about them for a while.

45. I have an on again/off again addiction to The Sims 2.

46. My most-used needles sizes range between 3mm and 5mm. I like small details. I am, however, beginning to appreciate the speed of chunky yarn on large needles.

47. I've never used stitch markers in my life but I really like the look of them. I'm starting to think I should get into the habit, though; counting can be really frustrating!

48. I'm not a very good cook, but I love to bake. One of the worst things about living in residence this past year is that I didn't have an oven and so couldn't make bread or cookies like I would at home.

49. I love dance. I've taken jazz and ballet on and off since I was 12 (ballet and I parted ways a few years ago due to irreconsilable differences). I also really enjoy hip hop and modern and am thinking about taking up tap this year.

50. I'm quite glad to be halfway through this list. It's quite hard!

51. I'm addicted to lip balm, especially in fruit flavours. I only ever buy it in stick form so that I can take it out of my pocket, take off the lid, aply, re-cap it and return it to my pocket in one motion, with one hand. Half the time I don't realize I'm doing it.

52. I always try to take the yarn from inside the ball so it doesn't roll around. If I have to knit with two strands of the same yarn together, I use both ends from the same ball so that I have fewer incomplete balls lying around after I'm done the project.

53. I love the sun and warm weather. I am not very tolerant of the cold.

54. I'm not a big coffee drinker - although I'm learning to appreciate it - but I love herbal teas (isn't that a rather a redundant term for them?). I especially like green tea, and fruit tea.

55. I love the idea of being self-sufficient: growing my own food, making my own clothes and re-using everything that can be re-used.

56. I am very near-sighted and wear glasses all of the time, although sometimes I can be bothered to put in my contacts.

57. My favrouite part-time job was in a huge bookstore in dowtown Toronto where I worked for nearly 2 years. I became the recognized expert of the Kid's Books section.

58. I have a love/hate relationship with Disney but I love everything Pixar has ever made.

59. I volunteer on indipendent films whenever I can find the time. I usually work art department or continuity/script supervisor.

60. I just bought my first beautiful sari to wear to my boyfriend's sister's wedding next month.

61. My parents are funeral directors and I used to live above/work in their funeral homes. It's nothing like My Girl or Six Feet Under. One of my favourite modern poets is Thomas Lynch, who is also a funeral director and was a funeral directer's kid.

62. I started my university degree doing Drama but switched to English Lit after a year. The Drama program was too method for my tastes.

63. I have a three tattoos, one for every country I've lived in: a dolphin for Ecuador, a beaver for Canada, and an Eeyore for England.

64. I love Eeyore. I have a huge collection of Eeyore stuff.

65. I used to sing in the Nova Scotia International Tattoo every year. Now I live too far away.

67. My boyfriend and I are going to travel across Canada this August. We'll be visiting friends, camping, and experiencing our beautiful country.

68. I can't stand to throw anything away that I might be able to find a use for someday.

69. I have seen Evil Dead 1 & 2: The Musical. It was really well done.

70. I have been to the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.

71. I have 6 piercings: 2 in each ear, one in my navel, one in my nose. I only wear studs in my nose, never circular rings and I have a lot of really cute navel rings.

72. Two of the things I'm going to miss being able to get in England are Jaffa Cakes and hot Ribena (Ribena squash mixed with boiling water).

73. I wish I could knit faster.

74. I hate having to take pills. I will usually stubbornly wait out a headache for hours until it either goes away or I have no choice but to take a Tylanol.

75. I used to want to be a marine biologist. I love dolphins.

76. I have a PS2 which I use as my DVD player and to play RPGs.

77. Whenever we travel, my boyfriend and I get our picture taken in front of a fountain.

78. I embroidered a wedding sampler for my boyfriend's sister using traditional Indian embroidery styles and Muslim design motifs. It was really fun to kearn about another culture's embroidery.

79. I love road trips.

80. I get freckles in the summer. I must admit, they are pretty cute.

81. I speak Spanish better than I speak French but I can get by in either language.

82. I can't stand white walls.

83. I love to be near/in the water. Natural water deposits, mind, like lakes and oceans, not pools.

84. I tend to take on too many responsibilities at one time.

That's all I can come up with for now. I'll finish it off when I get back.

=^_^=

posted @ 11:56 a.m.