I had been thinking about starting a knitting blog, and I loved the name, so it was adopted. The Duke did request, for privacy reasons, that I use fictional names for the two of us (and later our children, as Yarnnation was born was BC - before children.) I considered "the President" - to formal, "the Queen" -too oldish, "the Princess" -I'm no princess, people. . . and then "the Duchess" - which just seemed to fit.
In December of 2006 (wow, I've been blogging a long time.) I wrote a 100 things about me list to mark my 100th post. A lot has changed in four years, and a lot hasn't. Here is an updated list.
The 100 Things that Make Me The Duchess of Yarnnation
1. I am married to The Duke, the kindest, most generous, loving and funny man I have ever met. I am continually astonished by how much he loves me, and I love him more than life. (The last few years have taken a tole on us individually and as a couple. It is a testament to our marriage that we are still so committed to one another. We are anticipating some major changes in our near future that we hope will help us recover and further strengthen the fun and enjoyable parts of marriage.)
2. I am a tired and enchanted mother of two boys, Little Sir (almost 3 years) and Lion Baby (5 months.) Little Sir is my miracle by birth, Lion Baby is my miracle by adoption. I adore them, I am entertained by them, and occasionally I want to send them to live at the zoo.3. I am a Latter-day Saint, and while I am far from perfect, I do my best to live my beliefs.
4. I have two dogs, Maggie, a Wire-haired fox terrier, and Logan, a Cairn terrier. Maggie is the court jester, providing continual entertainment here in Yarnnation, and Logan
5. I have been a student most of my life. I am happy to no longer be a student. In 2009 I graduated with my MBA with an emphasis in entrepreneurship.
6. I have a BA in History- my major was Family History and Genealogy.
7. I lived for a while in the Philippines
8. I love to knit (are you surprised?)
9. I also enjoy spinning.
10. I am inspired by color, especially bright colors.
11. My favorite color (although I love all colors) is deep red.
12. I also love to dye fiber. Dye days are a special treat for me. It is so exciting to me to pull the fiber from my dye pots and see what it has become.
13. My Grandmother taught me to knit when I was eight. I think it was the greatest gift anyone has ever given me.
14. All of the women in my family knit- both my Grandmothers, my Mom, my Sister, and my Sister-in-law.
15. Some of my most fond memories are of all of us sitting together knitting.
16. I live far away from my family.
17. The thing I look forward to the most when I go to visit them, is the time that us women will spend together, knitting.
18. My little sister is Princess P. She is one of the most creative people I know, I respect her very much.
19. She is also my best friend and it is hard to live so far away from her. I think she should move here.
20. My Mother in the Yarn Queen. She is a very talented artist, her paintings are beautiful.
21. She always encouraged me to be creative and to express myself visually.
22. I used to paint and draw a lot (on paper.)
23. I don't currently have the quiet space in my life for those kind of artistic endeavors, so my house has become my new canvas. I might be am a little obsessed with painting "things."
24. I don’t have the time or energy to do all of the things that my creative spirit longs to do, but I have found a way to be creative with my children, and, for now, I am content with that.
25. I love photography, it appeals strongly to my love of history.
26. I don’t sleep well, it causes me a lot of problems.
27. I am good with computers.
28. I am a very emotional person, and my emotions are very close to the surface.
29. I don’t listen to music or watch movies very often because of how easily and powerfully they manipulate my emotions.
30. I am a bit of a control freak and I don’t like having my emotions manipulated.
31. I love to read.
32. I don’t have enough time to read as much as I would like.
33. I like books of facts on interesting topics, I like books on the history of things, I like biographies of historical characters. I don’t read fiction unless it is a classic, I don’t care for fiction in general.
34. I try very hard to be organized
35. I am not very organized.
36. I have a very keen sense of smell. I am obsessed with how my house smells.
37. I have a beautiful voice. (I know that sounds vain, but I really do- I didn’t do anything to get it, it was God given.)
38. I love to sing.
39. I am trying to learn Russian ASL, the Duke speaks fluent Russian and does very well in ASL. I am a miserable linguist.
40. My wedding anniversary is my favorite holiday.
41. “Feast” type holidays are kind of stressful for me because I can never eat any of the traditional foods.
42. I am allergic to dairy.
43. There are lots of other things I can’t eat as well- dark green veggies and crab are the ones that I run into most often.
44. I am blessed with some of the most interesting and loving people in the world as friends and I am so grateful for them.
45. I live in Seattle and I LOVE it. It is the perfect place for me.
46. Some of my favorite foods are avocados, satsumas, clams, manila mangoes, and black berries.
47. I like luxury soaps a lot.
48. I love the smell of lavender.
49. I don’t like sweet smells, like vanilla.
50. I love herbal tea. I only drink herbal tea.
51. I don’t like chamomile.
52. I don’t like to wear jeans.
53. I do like to wear skirts.
54. I own a scooter that is actually more of a motorcycle (it's speedometer tops out at 100 mph and it goes on the freeway with no problem at all.) I miss riding it now that I have babies.
55. I love the ocean, but I hate to get wet, so living in the PNW is perfect for me. The water is too cold to get in, but it’s still there to smell, listen too, and enjoy.
56. I love flowers, magnolia blossoms are one of my favorites (but I have a lot of favorites.)
57. I have a very strong fascination with maps.
58. I used to have four piercings in one ear and three in the other. Now I have one in each ear and often don't wear earrings at all.
59. I love to be outdoors, but I do not like to camp.
60. I like to rollerblade.
61. I rollerblade in the Sam’s Club parking lot that is 1 block from my house.
62. I have never been in that Sam’s Club and I will never go in it. I belong to Costco, and drive a couple of miles to go there.
63. I try to support local businesses when ever I can (yes, Costco is local to me- based out of Kirkland
64. Community support and development are very important to me.
65. I want to own a few alpacas one day and raise them and my children together. I hope they will provide many opportunities to teach my children about responsibility and life (in addition to providing me with lovely fiber to spin, knit, and teach my children to spin and knit with.)
66. I have naturally curly hair. I like it that way.
67. I never-ever paint my fingernails.
68. I am a prolific journal writer. I keep several different journals for different reasons and I have kept a journal from the time I was a young teenager.
69. For all the writing, I still can’t spell well at all. Learning Tagalog made it worse, as there is no standardized spelling in the language, everything is phonetic. If it sounds right when it’s said out loud, it is spelled properly.
70. I have a pretty short attention span, and I am happiest when there is variety in my daily activities.
71. I love to travel. I wish I could travel more.
72. I love my house, it makes me very happy. The Duke and I had to completely remodel it, and we truly made it our home.
73. I am intrigued by how egocentric we are as humans. When I consider how insignificant we, as individuals, are in the grand scheme of things, I find our self importance very humorous.
74. When I consider how complex and delicate we are as humans, I am amazed.
75. My pregnancy with Little Sir nearly killed me. I was warned that I should never become pregnant again. I didn't have to be told twice. The funny thing is that my pregnancy corrected or relieved a couple of other annoying health problems I had previous to that. Despite how horrible being pregnant was, I am grateful for that.
76. I have back slant hand writing and people always thing I am left handed, but I'm not.
77. I am always overextending myself, and I don’t know how to say “no” very well.
78. Impressionism is my favorite artistic period, my mother taught me to love Monet, Manet, Cassette, Degas, Van Gogh, and many others. I can spend hours looking at their paintings.
79. I consider myself very fortunate to have a husband who also loves art as well as the theatre.
80. I love the theatre. When I was younger I was in several productions. The theatre is the perfect escape for me. It is the only kind of fiction I truly enjoy.
81. I don’t know if I have a favorite play, but I loved 1776, go figure, historical.
82. I can use nearly any power tool. I learned to use them building sets.
83. I find philosophy intriguing. I am very much a philosophy novice, but I am especially interested in Rene Descartes and his Cartesian experiment, as well as Plato’s cave.
84. I find comfort and strength in the structure of logic. My minor was in logic.
85. Sometimes I wish people were logical, and sometimes I am glad they are not.
86. I have always felt older than I really am. I find it frustrating.
87. I think I am a very capable person, but not always reliable. I want to change that.
88. I am an ENFP type. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, look up Myers-Briggs.
89. I don’t like to drive, but I do like to ride my scooter. It is exhilarating.
90. I have always been a very social person, and I still am, but I find that as I get older, or perhaps as I take on more stress in my life, I need more time by myself.
91. I drink a lot of water. It is my favorite drink
92. I knit socks using the magic loop method. I used to use DP’s, but I will never go back. Who ever thought up magic loop is a genius.
93. Raglans are my favorite type of sweater. The fewer seams to sew up, the better, plus they just fit so nicely.
94. Plain old wool is my fiber of choice. I also like it blended with other fibers, but I really appreciate the properties of wool.
95. I am not a finisher. I have a hard time finishing my knitting. It is the “chore” part of knitting to me, and I have at times has as many as 20 projects that were done, but just needed finishing.
96. I am finding it difficult to finish this list.
97. The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patters and The Knitter’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns are my two favorite knitting books.
98. My favorite bed sheets are sunshine yellow and very very soft.
99. I would like to learn to play the hammered dulcimer.
100. If I could have any super power it would be to never have to sleep. Do you think I would have enough time to do everything I want to do then?
