I think...

I think I have a problem.

It's pretty bad, and it's time I came clean about it, but there's a bit of back story here to explain how I came to this conclusion.

There's a plan, for this weekend, to go swimming. In a real, live pool. Now I haven't been to any kind of aquatic venue in about a year, so I was a little hesitant, but thought I'd pull out the bathing suit to see how bad it is and then go from there.*

I can't find it. It's not in the drawer I thought it was in.

My room is usually in some state of chaos around an island of calm, so I don't mind. I went digging.

I kept finding empty drawers.

Odd, and slightly disturbing. Was my entire wardrobe in laundry baskets and in the closet? Had I really run out of folded clothing?

And then I found it.

The thing that made me realize I have a hoarding problem.

Two drawers.

Full.

To the brim.

Of socks and underclothes.

All mine.

And I knew, with mounting horror, that I had just put on an entire load of the same.

Again, all mine.

....

I think hoarding yarn and fibrey things is probably better and it's time for a serious closet culling.

Oh, and dear? I'm sorry I said I didn't believe you when you pointed this oddity out oh so many years ago. I was wrong. I see that now.




*It's bad. The bathing suit is so out of style and antiquated. How am I supposed to look sexy in something that out of date? Heaven forfend. I'll have to get another one that can actually do some justice to my size sexy self.

I'll Have a Slice Please...

I checked the Yarn Harlot today and she was talking about having a slice of Crazy Pie a la Mode.

Sounds good to me.

The Ravelympics are coming up with the advent of the 2012 Olympic games and I'm thinking I want to compete this year. Events of choice?

1) WIPs Wrestling: this year, I will dominate the demon sweater.... and possibly run out of yarn again... crud I'll have to buy more to make it work... but I will win! Durn thing's only been in various stages of completion for about 4 years now...

2) Lace Long Jump: I found this slice of gorgeousness and every single cell in my body said want so I may challenge myself to it, once I track down some laceweight in red. Not just any red though. It has to be Red. Deep, dark, bloody, seductive, gorgeous, delicious red. The colour that only really looks good with black. My favourite.

I'm nuts to be thinking this, because not only do I not have the needles for the lace, I don't have the yarn, and I work full time, and... it's just nuts.

Gotta try it though.

Oh and one final thought before signing off today: there is still no joy greater to me than opening up a package and seeing little balls of potentiality laying there, nestled sweetly next to each other, promising hours upon hours of enjoyment.

Ah, yarn. How I love thee.*







*No, dear, not as much as you. Nowhere close, now stop glaring at my stash.

Another Day...

It's too hot to write much. I know I've said that before and written a novel, but it really is incredibly hot. Here's the point form presentation

• package that needs to be picked up, probably from Knit Picks (squee!)
• Memorial Day meant nothing to do at work, allowed to go home early (squee!)
• got a bunch of knitting done while at work (yipee!)
• still have more to do before I allow myself to cast on anything new
• need to figure out a way to refrigerate myself so I can think clearly enough to knit more than plain stockinette (I have lace and entrelac waiting in the wings, dammit)
• need to figure out a way to bambi-eye my way into a LYS with TOH to pick up some seriously RED laceweight, and then pick up the pattern I saw on Ravelry to make myself a lacey shawl thing
• find a therapist to discover if this is ADD, OCD or some kind of masochism that makes me want to have forty things on the go, ranging in difficulty from snore-tastically boring to eye-crossingly, brain-fryingly complex
• gotta get ice cream and salsa (for two different things, not to be had together. I'm mad, but not that mad).

Back to melting.

Progress!

Always celebrate progress. Means moving forward, learning things, making mistakes, repeating step two and three until you get it Right.

In this case, I avoided many repeats of step two and three by learning early that I was going to make a mistake, and have now generated the following:

A bit of sock leg. I like the ribbed stripes, myself, and the colours are spiralling again, much to my delight. And I love the macro setting on this camera, it's really really good to me.

Other than that: the WWKIP event for Windsor is fully planned. Should be a blast, as long as people show up. Should get a sign made up to direct knitters to where they need to go; don't want to be a bother to the store.

Oh and I've been reading knitting books. I have thre-..... no... four now with actual knitting stuff in there beyond patterns. They're pretty cool. I'll hand out my ... wait... five... I'll take attendance later. Anyways, I'll get some of my thoughts on those books taken down at some point and share.

For right now though, I'm going to try not to melt in this heat, and do something that doesn't involve much movement... so either a computer game, or knitting*. Tough choice.

Ta!


*In case you're worried about my sedentary life: I grabbed my pedometer today and did 3200 steps, which is up from yesterday's 3000 and the day before's 1900. Working on that health thing that so many people are touting.

Learning

Thankfully, it's something I'm good at. Learning, I mean. I learn from reading, learn from listening, learn from watching. Thanks to my Mother for teaching me that I can learn anything that I want to, anything that I put my mind to. Once I knew that learning was easy, I craved it, the search and quest for knowledge. I find I absorb useful tidbits quite readily, and useless tidbits even more readily.

Useful (and just off the top of my head): hangovers are essentially just dehydration; consuming an amount of water close to half the amount of alcohol consumed, while consuming said alcohol, will help to stave this off. Also essential: not mixing types of alcohol, or acids and bases.

Useless: Beluga whales head north in spring and scrape themselves along the sea floor because they're moulting*

The tidbit that came in handy today was learning from someone else (probably the Yarn Harlot, bless her soul) that cables on variegated yarn is generally a bad idea. I thought I could get away with it because this yarn was generally a shade of dark blues, but those little patches of white shot it in the foot. I got through one twist, looked at it and the little voice in my head said: "That's gonna look like sh*t. You're gonna hate it, and he's gonna know."

That little voice is smart. Gotta listen to it.

So, I ripped back to the ribbing and have continued my way down the leg. Not twisting the cables, but keeping the two set-up ribs that appear in Stephanie's pattern. It looks really good to me so far, much better than the invisi-cables I had before. Kind of puts me in mind of the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings.

No photos right now because there really isn't much to see. Still waiting on the final go-ahead from the owner of the WWKIP venue I was hoping to have. Not getting many responses on that front (hint hint) but I'll keep my hopes up.

Ta for now!



*how absolutely cool is that? They're the only whale species known to do this. They give themselves exfoliating spa treatments every year! Could be a good excuse: "What? An entire day at the spa? What for?" ... "I'm getting back to nature, getting in touch with my mammalian instincts. You look it up. Belugas do it."

Tuesday? Tuesday again?

I seriously cannot believe that today was a Tuesday. I just don't get it. It didn't feel like a Tuesday. Felt like a Kick-you-inna-head-so-you-can't-think day.

Maybe that is Tuesday.

Huh... I'll have to keep track of that.

Paid the invoice for the yarn club (squee!) and the latest Knit Picks order has shipped (double squee!). And I have knitting pretties to show off!

No, no squee on that one. It's too hot for anything more than two squees in a paragraph. And I don't care that most people don't think 20 degrees Celsius is hot, it's hot to me.

Knitting. Right.

The Silk Thing

The Silk Thing was a personal challenge that I took up after months of debating it, and just as many months of having Knitting Broad N. tell me to shut up talking about it and actually do it. The challenge being: get some silk mawata (hankies, whatever), "spin" some singles and knit them into..... something... Originally I wanted to make socks, but as you can see from the picture (lower center) my spinning its about as even as a prime number festival in the Rocky Mountains. Well, I will admit it does get better further on, but it's still not consistent enough to really make a decent pair of socks out of them. So this will be a scarf, and it will be part of my Christmas Stash. Intended for my lovely Step-mum because she looks incredible in these jewel tones.* The silk that I purchased can be found from Knit Picks in their Roving section under Spinning. Will buy again.

The other knitting that I worked on today was this thing here:

Hmm... Kinda hard to really see it from back there, it's still so tiny... Wait! My camera has a macro image setting...

Good little Olympus.
Anywho, that's the latest pair of socks for The Other Half. This is NGY Bounce and Stomp in "Your Ratings Have Just Gone Up" and I'm working it up in The Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey pattern. I stopped the ribbing early because TOH seems to hate it more than Joe or Stephanie (the first couple of pairs... and the FYSS socks he requested totally rib free. Odd for a carnivore, no?) I'm just getting in to the cabling part and I think... I think I would rather knit these plain. I'm going to give it a couple more rows, just to see, but I think I'd rather them be mostly plain... maybe with the two tracks down the side where the cables would go... but it's a variegated yarn, so it's going to be hard to see all those nice** twisted stitches. Yeah, give it a little longer, if the cabling doesn't work, I'll just leave the two ribs on the sides and do the rest plain. Gotta have a little something for interest.

Oh, and in case you're not in the Windsor group on Ravelry, and you somehow came across this blog: I'm going to organize something for Wold Wide Knit in Public day. Thinking June 16th, downtown. Send me a message through here if you're interested, or find the Windsor Knitters group on Ravelry.

That's about all for now. Ta!



*and the appreciative "ooh" I got from her when I was showing it off said more than anything else: "I want one"
**"nice" here being relative as I have never cabled without a needle before and apparently knit tighter than a duck's butt when I'm nervous... like when I'm trying to learn a new technique. Probably just needs practice

Knitter's Movie Review

So it's a holiday Monday, I'm bored, and have nothing new on the knitting front.

Well almost nothing, got some nice sock yarn while Dad and Step-mom were out visiting over the weekend, and I had to pick up some needles, but there's nothing on them.

At any rate: nothing much new, so I'm going to do a movie review as a knitter and for other knitters. The primary purpose is to let companion knitters know which movies may be good for knitting, and which ones will cause the knitting to fail. I'm just going to cover what I have in my own collection, because I'm cheap like that.

First on the block: Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Movie

If you have never seen this before, it's bad for knitting. It's just too d*mn funny. First time I watched it, I literally fell off the couch laughing. In fact, the whole series, from when it was on TV is just not good to knit to, unless you have epic powers of concentration. You will get caught off guard and lose stitches. Especially if you catch the Space Mutiny or Cave Dwellers (my two favourites).

However, after you've seen them a couple times (if watching movies over again is your thing), you'll have no problems and even find yourself quoting along with the lines in the movies.

Back to it. Hopefully I can get more done on this sock than a couple rows of ribbing.

Big Brown Thing

The Other Half's first comment when he saw yesterday's post: "I gotta get you a new camera."

"Why's that?" I ask thinking of the flash, and how I hates it so for being so merciless.

"So you can take more pictures of stuff. Every time you take a picture of something the apartment gets a little cleaner."*

...

Apparently, I have been remiss in my general tidying up kinda routines. I just think he got tired of seeing little lost yarn balls living in strange places and jumping out to surprise you. I rather like my little collection of random ends of projects. They're like little bunnies, so cute and fuzzy. D'awwww!

...

Getting sidetracked.

At any rate, I decided that today, I would bite the bullet, and share some crochet, and my embarrassing inability to read pattern requirements for yarn. Hopefully this will amuse the ever-loving snot out of you. It gets me every time.

Allow me to set the stage:

It was some years ago, about 4 now I'd say, when The Best Friend picked up the needles and learned to knit. Gracious soul that she is, she agreed to teach me in return for me teaching her how to crochet. Now it had been a yonk's age since I'd picked up a hook and delved into the mysteries of ch, sc, dc, trc, and the like, so I decided to do a little reading up and make a few small things to get my hand in.

My maternal grandmother, bless her sweet heart, had made my an afghan when I was much younger. Gorgeous wavy thing in purple, white, red and blue. I adored that blanket from the moment I saw it, and treasured it every winter I lived in Whitehorse as I layered it on top of me with the four or five other blankets** I possessed. Keeping that love and joy in mind, I decided, after a few practice scarves and hats, that I, too, wanted to make a blanket.

Here's where I balked: I wanted a quick blanket; an easy blanket; a blanket for the girl-on-the-go who doesn't have time to fiddle with wavy bits or squares or seaming. A blanket that could be started and completed in a reasonable amount of time, and that would fit in with my ramen noodle budget.

Patterns were sought, vetted and tossed with a viciousness seldom seen outside mongol hordes or budget meetings. I thought it was hopeless. I was nearing the point of giving up, when I found this: Lion Brand's 5-1/2 Hour Afghan. (I got the original pattern on the Lion Brand website not knowing about Ravelry. I'm all better now).

I took one look at the pattern, one look at the stitch that makes up the entirety of the blanket, and one look at the hook size, and that was my shopping list. I vaguely remember glancing at the yarn requirements, seeing how many balls that were needed, and thinking "Wow. That's a lot of yarn."

Fired up, I hied myself off to Wally World*** and into their crafting/yarn section to acquire for myself the accouterments for my blanket. I was standing there looking at the, heaven help me, Red Hart**** giant, supersaver, one pound balls of acrylic and I thought: "I should make a smaller version first, just as a test." Quick call to TOH on the cell to ask his favourite colours, and I had one giant ball of Red, Navy, and Forest  (I think that's what they're called, I don't remember and lost the bands).

Stay with me here: 3lbs of yarn, for a small version of this blanket. If you have the pattern open, and want to take a second to do some math, be my guest.

Then I picked out the colours for the one I planned to make for me. The one I was sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt, would match the pattern exactly. Stitch for Stitch. Perfect.

I got three big balls of brown, and then three big balls of a brown-grey-green variegated, and three big balls of a brown-grey-blue variegated.

Still with me? 9lbs of yarn for the pattern as written.

Then I tracked down the hook. Q sized. Got the last one on the rack. For those knitters who may have never seen one of these hooks:

That's a Q hook. My hand included for reference. (Hmm... I fit into ladies M gloves with a little breaking in needed for the width. I'd say they're stubby looking, but they're not; my hands are perfectly formed for holding needles and hooks and making things).

So I haul all this to the cash register. Get a look from the cashier. Brightly, perhaps too brightly explain that I'm buying twelve pounds of yarn to make blankets, and proceed to haul all this back to my place (The Best Friend's Basement at the time.)

Then the fun begins.

I get the Red, Navy and Forest out. Rip the guts out of all three balls and find the center pull end, and start in on the pattern. I figured, what the heck, we'll see how far this gets me, just for sh*ts and giggles. TBF comes down to see what I had acquired, as it's not every day I haul four bulging bags up her walkway. I explain my plan, she gets that.... look... that tells me I may be going off the deep end, but okay, she'll love me no matter what because we're Best Friends, and she heads back upstairs.

I make my foundation chain, as per the pattern.
I run the first row, then the second, and continue on, as per the pattern.
I idly keep an eye on the clock, curious, because it's around noon, to see how long this takes me.
I throw on a movie or two while I work. No big thing. I'll run out of yarn sooner or later and have to go back to get some more to finish it (without doing the tassels; don't like tassels).



Exactly Five And One Half Hours later... I finish the blanket. As written.

I have a little leftover yarn.

I look at the blanket. Then look at the nine pounds I purchased for myself.

I blink

TBF comes into the room. She sees the finished blanket. She too looks at the nine pounds of acrylic I purchased for myself. I can't remember what she said, things were kind of blurry around the edges there for a bit. I do know I checked the pattern measurements for the finished article and it was spot on.

Nine Pounds.

That was a Saturday.

Sunday, I think, I made an earnest start on the nine pounds of acrylic I purchased. I chained, I ripped, I chained again, I ripped, I did some attempts at math and gave up, and decided to just wing it.

It didn't take me 5-1/2 hours, but I did turn out what I call the Big Brown Thing. When you saw it last, it looked like this:

Folded Up

It's time now to share exactly how much blanket nine pounds of yarn, a Q hook, and a lot of movies will get you. Ready?

One...

Two...

Three...

 The astute of you will notice in picture number three, in the lower right hand corner, that there are two layers of blanket there. And now: The Grand Finale!

Top

Bottom

It's not stretched out all the way, and I hope you can tell that it's dangling over the sides of the futon. I am pretty sure this baby is at least King Size or better. And it's really freaking warm and much softer for having been through the wash a couple times. The colours are more accurate in the top photo, really, but the whole thing is just... how shall I put it... "Variations on Dirt on a Forest Floor". When I finished it, TBF called it a swimming pool cover, and Mom of TBF wanted to know if I was trying to make a house cozy.

Nope, just a really really big freakin' blanket.*****

And I know it's derided and booed and disdained, but the Red Heart, for this project, was perfect. Consider it for a charity project, the pattern and the yarn. Three balls, 5-1/2 hours, and someone gets a nice sized throw (not the big brown thing, the actual pattern. I'll get a picture of the one I made for The Other Half if I can dig it out of his jeep. It's become an essential car blanket). A throw that's machine washable, and gets better the more it's washed. And not made of ripples.

The voices made me do it...

I can't be knitting a sweater like I am, in the yarn that I am and not say this:

Check out my blue balls!

Seriously though. These are here because I got the yarn for the sweater after the yarn for the Big Brown Thing. Would you think I'd learned?

Nope! Thought I could knit a sweater from one pound of yarn. Which is why I ran out in the middle of the front of it, and had to set the Demon Sweater aside for a year.

Thinking back on it: it was probably my lack of yarny foresight that turned the sweater down the dark path.

Blast it all.

*Just wait. I'm going to get an "innocent" request to post some of my cooking so I'll clean the stove.
**Not that it was that cold in the house, I was just more comfortable that way. Harder for the monsters under my bed to get at my toes, y'know.
***What my family calls the big blue box store that's invading everywhere. I won't give them the dignity of mentioning their name.
****I was young, I needed the yarn. See also: ramen noodle budget, university student life, paying debts and still having a hobby.
*****A blanket which, when the midden hits the windmill, anarchy reigns, society crumbles, and the undead stalk the streets, will nicely double as camo netting.

Change of Plans

Well I was going to blog about the Brown Monstrosity that can be seen off to the side in the photo I took yesterday of the Demon Sweater.

What's that? Need a refresher?

There's the photo, and for good measure:

That's the thing I was talking about, highlighted by the ugly yellow arrow.

Now, if you were to ask anyone who has seen this thing about it, they would probably get a weird look on their face and start talking about my sanity. It also goes along with a discussion about how I, apparently, even with a university education, still have trouble with basic math.

However, I can't properly show you the Brown Monstrosity when I can't photograph it in all its glory. Spread, as it were, out to it's fullest. So it will have to wait until i have enough clean space in my apartment. That or I'll have to take it outside and spread it out on the grass or something to do it justice. Believe me, Knitting Broad N. and The Best Friend are probably both, at this point, going through some form of post traumatic stress thing on my behalf.

Anywho, that's for later, this was just a teaser.

Instead, I'm going to talk, briefly, about hockey, and its usefulness to me, as a Canadian.

I honestly don't think that there's any family in Canada that doesn't have some kind of a tie to hockey. Be they a fan, or a player; a parent, or a child, hockey is a cultural bond in this country that keeps us all together and relating to one another. True there are the classic rivalries (Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal comes instantly to mind) that can seem to divide us, but each person is still a fan of the game.

The sport is so prevalent here that it finds its way into the most unlikely homes. Including mine. Now to look at me you wouldn't think I had anything to do with hockey at all. Knitter, bookish, extremely geeky. But I, too, have a little bit of our country's most popular sport in my home:

Yes, that's right, I have my own hockey bag. I treasure what this sport has brought me, for this bag holds the most important thing any fan of hockey really needs:

The stuff to make you warm while you're sitting at an ice rink*.

In other news...

I have put together a little package for my cousin E. who has also gotten nipped by the knitting bug. She likes yellow more than I do so I'm sending her this:

The colours in there are almost completely off. My camera has a flash like a lightning strike. It's horrible. The yarn itself  its kinda more buttery. The grey is almost spot on, little darker in real life, and it's Alpaca! She knows about the yellow (fingering weight, some mystery fibre) but not the Alpaca, nor the plastic thing, which is a full set of Knit Picks DPNs in Harmony. I hope she likes them. Kinda worried though. I forgot how long (or not) four inches can be**.

Oh and TOH? If you're reading this, that's the leftovers. Yes, I finished your scarf. It was done ages ago, it's hiding on the chair in our room. <3


*It's also a really great stash manager: If you can't fit it in the bag, then it doesn't go in your stash. What you can't see from that last shot, is the two afghans I have stuffed in the bottom, one twin sized, one single, and the yarn to finish them. They'll show up in a future post I promise.
**see above re: inability to do simple math

Addendum

So that everyone else can have some idea of how awesome the conversations had with The Best Friend are:

(conversation that follows relates to random pattern browsing on the internet)
Me: *links pattern* I see condoms. Do you see condoms?
The Best Friend: Yes.
Me: Who the f*** wants a condom sweater?
TBF: ... In its defense, they're racially sensitive condoms.


Good times.

Today Feels Like Yesterday

Happens to me often: when a Tuesday decides that it hates me and is going to drag its heels like a Monday. Can't stand it. Tires me out, makes me grumpy... reduces my tolerance levels for people down to near zero. Bad idea in the job I'm in. But I try, and that one year of drama I took in high school helps, that's for sure. Acting! Useful in many situations!

Have knitting thoughts. Will attempt to piece them out over the rest of this post. First things first: laundry.

Yeah, I know. How dare I be responsible? How could I think of doing anything more productive than wiggling my fingers while my apartment is ten billion degrees (no A/C and full afternoon sun, you do the math).

Well I have to, so bear with me. I'll be right back....

.....

Okay, back. Miss me? I know you did because I'm still breathing. Had you hired the good mercenaries, I wouldn't be here to reply. Got the loads started. Hope to have this post done before I have to go and dig them out.

Now... Knitting Knews!

First: A finished object to give one hope...

  The second FYSS finished and off the needles (see yesterday for translation). I feel so good about it finally being done that I am filled with...

Anticipation: Casting on something new and exciting!

Nerd Girl Yarns Bounce and Stomp sock base in the colourway "Your Ratings Have Just Gone Up" The colour in the picture is mostly true, it's maybe a little bit bright there, but only by a teensy bit. I blame my camera in this case. Too dark for the sock, too light for the yarn. At any rate, the NGY feels gorgeous and I'm so looking forward to playing with it. I'm debating trying something new, just to see how it would turn out, because the recipient (the ever-sock-loving Other Half) just wants it on his feet, doesn't care about much else (but was very vociferous about not having it done in King Charles Brocade...). Been debating challenging myself with teeny cables by casting on for The Yarn Harlot's Earl Grey Socks. They're interesting to look at and seem interesting to knit, and fitting, again, for the recipient as he is (for a colonial) a massive tea drinker. It's about the only thing he does consume, other than the occasional soda/pop/coke* or glass of chocolate milk. Considering future projects I am reminded of...

Dread: The sweater that no matter how much I try, won't knit itself with telekinesis

This charming little number (yes, the giant blue blob in the middle there, with incredible colour balance, I might add) is the back portion of the first project intended to be knit for The Other Half. Oh yes... it's a Boyfriend Sweater. I cast on for this thing.... back in '08(?) I believe, after having vetted yarn colour (not content**) and pattern past the one who would be wearing it. It was going along swimmingly: I swatched, measured, measured again*** in a different spot, and cast on the 113 stitches across for the back. I knit the back, the front, left off for about a year because I got to the neckline and I had one of those knitter/pattern moments. You know the ones. Where you look at the pattern, and what you're putting out, and you figure that your hands are either somehow disconnected from the signals coming out of your brains, or that the instructions you're given were somehow translated from a foreign language to another, more archaic language and then into English (no fault of the designer, I was very very new to knitting). Yeah those moments. Anyhow, after sitting it aside to steep for about a year or so, I pulled it back out... oh wait I forgot the part where I was halfway through the front and I ran out of yarn (more on that tomorrow, promise) and couldn't find any more anywhere** (part of the reason for the steeping). So, yeah, found more yarn, pulled it back out, got the front finished, including the neck, thankyouverymuch, and then started in on the arm. Promise.

Now, I had, at this point, been reading quite a bit of The Yarn Harlot's archives. Time and again Stephanie mentioned, warned against, the lies that are swatches, and the inconsistencies of gauge between swatch and finished object. I had taken those lessons, those words, to heart, quite deeply. So, if you've read her words, you should understand my mounting horror, as I worked row by row up the sleeve and the little voice in my head, that little voice that's had time to read, and absorb, and learn; that tiny, gentle, hateful little voice pipes up and says:

"That looks wrong."

I ignore it and work another couple of rows.

"It really does look off."

Deep breath. More rows.

"Did you check your gauge?"

*twitch*

I lay the sleeve down, and get out my trusty gauge ruler. Antique, or so I claim, given to me by a dear, dear friend. Another deep breath. Measure.

It's off.

Check another spot.

It's off

Check the front.

Off, in multiple places.

Eye the back.... Naaah, I did that first. Can't be off. It's the stuff I did back when I was new, and still holding on with a death grip thinking my aluminium needles wouldn't stay in my stitches.

That Voice stares at me. An impressive feat for a vocal construct.

Measure.

Off.

Even the first few rows.

....

Needless to say, the air around me turned as blue as the yarn in the sweater.

But then I made A Decision. Yes, that's right. A Decision. Not a decision. A Decision, worthy of those capitals.




I ripped every. single. last. horrible. taunting. mean. nasty. LYING stitch out.

Then I got smaller needles.

And cast on again.


****








*translations vary by district, I have attempted to include those that I've heard used most often to be sure those reading it are not confused nor taken aback by my language choice. I intend to indicate here any sugary carbonated beverage of any kind whatsoever. I felt it important here to note these different translations and usages because I've seen fights break out over which one is "correct".
**No, I will not tell you what yarn. The rest of the story about the sweater is bad enough.
***Carpenter's rule applied to knitting: swatch once, measure twice.
**** Incidentally, all the other knitted goods have been received with joyous enthusiasm, especially the socks, and I have made it perfectly clear that this sweater has earned its place as being solely for TOH's "Man Cave" because when this thing is done, I will never allow it to see the light of day, as punishment for it's f***ing with me so hard while I was learning. I bounced the curse back on to the sweater. Boyfriend Socks Forever!

Continuing the Trend

Holy jeepers, I posted again*.

Just trying to keep the story alive, the song playing, the stone rolling. The pattern flowing. All that jazz.

Sometimes I wonder if blogging can be like Second Sock Syndrome: "Aw man... you mean I have to do this again?" Even if it is, because I've never had SSS yet, I know that there are incentives out there. Like The Other Half threatening me with dire repercussions if I didn't use his pretty layout more by putting content up there. Though I know it's more than that. He's interested in my thoughts, what I go through, the things and processes I think. Sweet man.

Thoughts today... hmm...

We'll start with a picture:

Okay not the greatest picture (TOH is clutching at his chest and staggering around now I'm sure), but you get the general idea: sock, jacquard, Patons Kroy. Yarn picked up at a Michael's, chosen with the usual caring indifference ("Yes I want you to knit me socks, but these are all nice, so I don't care which one you pick. I'll love them no matter what") by TOH and carried around in my stash until I finished the other projects (see the NGY socks here and then the Green Socks, which have yet to be photographed**). At any rate, I finally had some space in my queue open  up, and cast on for these puppies at work. The first sock is done, the one pictured above is its mate. I'd say pair, but I have yet to get a striping sock yarn to match with itself, and I'll be d*mned if I ever do. I don't like socks that are precisely exactly the same, I think that would be boring. I'll go with mirror images, but to have them be truly identical? Then I'd get bored for sure. So, nothing doing on that front.

**edit**  I forgot to mention this when I first posted but, I've dubbed these socks the FYSS socks. The acronym stands for F*** You Stripey Socks, in humorous reference to this bit from Robot Chicken, specifically the "F*** you stripey bag."

Where was I?

Oh yes. Knitting this sock at work today I was at erm... 6 wraps per side on the short row heel. Thanks again to Knitty for their Universal Toe-Up Sock Pattern which I now have conveniently memorized for two needle sizes/yarn weights for The Other Half. Very convenient, if I do say so myself. The fit is lovely (I did a pair for myself... guess I should get a shot of those too...) and it's dead simple once you get over the fear of math. Heck, I'd use it to help teach kids algebra if I could.

Er... sidetracked again, wasn't I?

So, knitting socks. Almost finish the heel by the time my shift is over, and end up carrying the sock downstairs with me out of my knitting bag. I figured that if I taught myself to read and walk and not be in danger, I could darn well learn to knit and walk with no problems. Exercise the peripheral vision a bit. I seemed to get a few odd looks on the way to the bus stop, but no immediate comments, and really, it's not much different from all the junk people do with their smart phones while not walking where they're going. I just added an extra element of danger with my pointy metal sticks.

Luckily enough, got to the stop just as the bus was arriving, so I get on and manage to grab a seat without incident, and immediately start knitting again, trying to finish the one frustrating*** row after the heel finish where I have to pick up extra stitches to close the hole and pick up wraps in the same spot. When, out of nowhere, miracle of miracles, someone, some complete stranger, in this town pipes up and makes a direct comment to me about my knitting.

"That looks really complicated."

I glance up at the lady who made the comment, instantly smoothing out my look of concentration (which is often mistaken for abject frustration) and explain, loud enough so anyone else who was glancing at me could hear, that no, it's not really that complicated it just looks that way, simply because I'm at a fiddly bit, the rest of it is dead easy once you get it down with practice, just like anything.

We had a lovely short conversation about how long it took me to knit that part of the sock, and how long it usually takes me to knit a full sock. I made sure to be polite and friendly through all of it. I almost feel, had she not been with her friends, I could have done more, and made another convert in this town. Honestly, though, I was more surprised that she'd said something to me directly. I've heard other people on the bus talk to their companions about what I was doing, speculating loud enough for me to hear; and I feel compelled to join in because I mean... really... I'm right there! I'm not scary looking! If you ask anyone I look like Velma from Scooby-Doo, just with long hair**** But until today, no one in Windsor had piped up even the teeniest question directly at me. I've never ever been in so.... Canadian a city before. I posted about that a ways back though so there's no need to go into it today; however, I feel I have passed a milestone. I'm breaking out of my shell and joining the ranks...

The ranks of Knitters in Public.

When do I get my decoder ring?



*And with that one statement, just about everyone that knows me will want to know if I'm okay. I have, to put it mildly, a bit of a salty tongue when it comes to certain forms of expression


**Green Socks are notoriously shy creatures, difficult to capture on film in the wild. They have the ability to generate incredible bursts of speed, which allow them to escape perceived predators by hiding under the nearest bed. At least, that's where I last saw them escaping to. For all I know they're now lurking at the bottom of a laundry pile attempting to make more socks through the so-called "miracle of life".


***read: @&!#$@%(*&)$ because picking up those stitches can be a pain, especially in a moving vehicle.


****I have done the bob cut, many times. It wasn't  until this year that I got the right glasses for it, but now I'm not cutting my hair again.

Addendum for Today

Okay so the face lift is complete and I *adore* it. The Other Half has such good taste. I couldn't be happier.

On another note: I really miss The Best Friend. I also really miss hanging out with lots of knitters. There's knit groups here, but it's a bit of a hike to do once a week, instead of wandering down during a slow moment or on lunch to meat up with like-minded fibre fanatics. The job at the museum was just packed with knitters. That was heavenly, even if I was just a clueless anglo.

To the knitters at the museum: I miss you guys!

Anyways, back to doing other stuff. I'll get some WIPs up here soon as incentive to turn them into FOs.

Facelift

Nothing new on the knitting front but TOH has finally finished the new header. He's so sweet. Included a quote from The Best Friend (TBF) that is truly indicative of most of our conversations.

TOH has also decided the rest of the blog needs tweaking, too. Going to let him have at it because if that man doesn't tweak, empires fall.

So, in the interest of world peace, I'll sign off now and post more later.

Ta!

The Triumphant Return

Well at least the attempt at one. Camera's fixed so I might actually be able to post some friggin' knitting in this knitting blog. Had some ideas for some other stuff I wanted to go over, but it will all depend on how much of this junk I need to get out of my head.

Had several projects on and then off the needles. Now finished multiple pairs of socks and I'm kind of confused by those that get Second Sock Syndrome. Maybe I'm just too easily amused by yarn that does all sorts of interesting things with it's colours. I should probably learn to take before and after shots to show you what I mean, but that will go on the list of things to do.

Next steps over the coming days... weeks... or however long it takes me to get into the swing of things: document my projects, if only for bragging rights, and put down some of the crazy thoughts that go whizzing through my head.

Sh*t I've Been Up To:
(in no particular order)
1) making socks, toe up and top down, on DPNs
2) joined a yarn club (my very first one! so excited!)
3) worked the Demon Sweater
4) started a Lacy Thing
5) planned out my Christmas Knitting
6) encouraged a (self proclaimed) newbie to make her own Lacy Thing
7) attempted, badly, horribly and atrociously, to design some form of pattern as part of the Christmas Knitting
8) playing lots of computer games (when not working) and thinking about how they fit into my knitting style (which leads into segmenty things I willa ttempt to piece out, har har, as time goes on)

I've also had an idea for a shirt... which reminds me I should check Cafe Press and see if I can do anything about making one for myself.

Ultimately: to make any progress on this thing, and hopefully spare many people their sanity, I have to start taking pictures of my stuff. Is it weird that I like knitting things, but then I don't want to keep them when they're done? I love the process, I love seeing it all come together, but the thought of hanging on to most of it.... It fills me with... oh what's a good word, revulsion? Distaste? It took weeks of one of my Knitting Broads to convince me to make myself a pair of socks out of some yarn I'd bought back on Hallowe'en. I love them, they're comfy and warm, and just right, but I liked knitting them more. Now they're off the needles, I don't feel anything towards them as a finished object.

Probably why I've been making so many pairs of socks for The Other Half (affectionatly abbreviated as TOH). He adores them. Adores them so much that when I made his second pair, and hadn't woven the ends in yet on both socks, he badgered me like a three-year-old wanting a new toy until I had done one of the two. He proceeded to practically snatch the fully completed sock out of my hands, no sooner than I'd put the scissors down, and stuff it in his jacket pocket (we were waiting for a bus at a station). I asked him what he was thinking. The reply: "I'm going to wear it to work tomorrow." I had to boggle, and ask if he was sure, wouldn't he mind because he didn't have the pair. He said: "Doesn't matter. I'll wear a black sock on my other foot. You're not getting this back." in that tone of voice that clearly says 'yea and it shall be written in stone for all time'.

The socks?
Luckily I have a picture, pre-end weaving and separation (the weeping was terrible, I had to go away for a while and the single sock in my possession was nigh inconsolable).

Yeah... wow I need work on my photography skills. The colours are fairly true though. Colourway: This is Halloween from Nerd Girl Yarns on her Bounce and Stomp superwash merino/nylon blend. The toes, heels and top edging are in Knit Picks Stroll sock yarn, basic black. When the yarn was in the hank, and in the ball, the colours seemed to be more melded and they would do an interesting sporadic pattern (I would say "random" but TOH doesn't believe in it). Imagine my surprise when they did this. Completely unplanned, totally sexy self-stripe. 2.5mm DPNs, 72 stitches in the round, with Knitty's fanTABulous Universal Toe Up Sock Pattern.

I couldn't put them down. I had to see if it was going to keep striping. I mean it's not even, but for a second pair of socks, they're the same size, with alternate colours worked in, and the yarn made my heart beat fast. He picked the yarn because it reminded him of Van Gogh. They turned out perfectly. They fit like a dream. He didn't even take them off when.... well... yeah.. He really REALLY likes them.

I should gush on Ravelry.

And try not to sound too creepy when I confess my yarn-crush to the genius behind Nerd Girl....

Don't think it's gonna work but I'll try.

Later!