Frustration

My whole life has been an exercise in frustration lately. One big, fat, frustrating event after another. I've never particularly handled frustration well, I was one of those children who cried over their homework if I didn't understand, instead of just taking a deep breath and figuring it out.

(Mom, remember when I had to draw the phases of the moon? If I haven't before, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for totally doing that assignment for me.)

I decided to take apart my bird feeder and clean it, which I have never done in the oh...five years I've owned it. It was quite moldy and gross, and I had noticed the birds throwing most of the seed out and about rather than eating it. Maybe because it was moldy and gross? It was very easy to get apart (yay!) and to clean (double yay!) but I couldn't get it back together. It was really frustrating, and I do believe I called my mom at some point, but eventually I muscled it back together.



FAIL!!1!

Maybe that's why I like knitting so much. Things start to go awry, the flush of frustration starts to creep up, just when you're about to FAIL, you do better. You FROG!!1!

P.S. Cath, yes I *do* have a problem with laddering when I knit a sock using magic loop!

I vehemently denied it in knitting group (which sounds like a 12-step program...and well, I guess it kind of is) because I don't have a laddering problem using DPNs and that's how I usually knit socks. But yes, later I realized what you were saying. I should re-try magic loop and rotate the stitches round the bend. I've denied magic loop for a looong time, because it puts so much tension on the stitches on the bend and that bothers me. It must be very frustrating for such a fabulous new technique to be denied.

And P.P.S. I did finally dump all the seed out of the birdfeeder into my new tugtrub and put it back together correctly. It was much easier than the way I did it wrong. I think there's another lesson in there somewhere.

How Square!

Something I was excited to do while visiting my parents was to go through all my mom's inherited knit and crochet projects and help her frog the ones she didn't want to finish. I think my mom was excited too ... the first thing she said (after hi) was "Did you bring your ball winder?" Of course I did.

I wish I had taken a picture of my mom's yarn room. Yes, room. I have a yarn corner, she has a room. However, I'm not *too* jealous because most of the yarn and UFOs she has are not her own. Some of the projects date from a great aunt who died when I was in high school in the 1990s. They date from the last millennium! Some families pass down jewelry or priceless heirlooms, we pass down yarn. And acrylic yarn at that. Not that there's anything wrong with acrylic ... as long as I don't have to knit with it.

My mom didn't want to complete most of the projects, as most were knitted and she prefers to crochet ... not to mention a lot of them were funky, so they got frogged. Except for one bin, where I hit the jackpot:

110 SQUARES! Already knit! Not by me!



Now I get to do the fun part of blanket planning and plotting without having to knit the squares. I'd like to carry the same shade along diagonal lines with clear warm and cool color sides. I may try an i-cord edge made famous by the Mason-Dixon ladies. Or I may choose another from their fabulous first book. (The second is on its way!)

And if I do need a few more squares, I know where there's a room full of yarn.

I Marched for Babies!

On April 27th, I was one of 4,300 people who marched for babies as part of the March of Dimes March for Babies.  Four thousand three hundred people!  Forty-three hundred people!  That's amazing!  

Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored me.  I set a crazy goal for myself of $500, knowing I could drop it at any time if I wasn't close ... because we all have to meet our goal, right ... but totally not necessary.  I kicked that goal's ass and then some raising $637!  That just amazes me, thank you so much.

And I would also like to say thank you to the other four thousand two hundred and ninety nine people who walked with me to help raise $450,000!

Yay!  Five miles for $637! ... that's more than $100 per mile.  As a matter of fact, I can do basic math (with a calculator) and tell you that's $127.40 per mile.  Yay!

Sorry that picture's blurry ... it was five miles people.  Everything was a little blurry.

Happy Birthday to Meeee!

While I was home for my birthday - or I guess I should say at my parent's since I haven't lived there for quite a few years - I went to the LYS, Kanawha City Yarn Co.  They don't have a website, but it's at 310 53rd St in the K.C.  It is an adorable shop, well stocked with lovely yarns and even more lovely people.  

Looky at what I got:

Fall 2006 Knitscene with the Molly Ringwald pattern that mollylouhoo turned me on to.  Mollys Unite!  And enough Classic Elite Yarns Provence in a really pretty grey-brown to make it.



Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn in colors "Life's a Beach", the greens, blues, golds, and "Gypsy Rose", the blues, purples, greys, and maroons.

My sister and niece gave me the book Knitting for Peace by Betty Christiansen for a wonderful, well-rounded knitty birthday.  I also got a big garden flag and other books from my parents, and of course a birthday cake.  

So all in all, with enough gifts, reaching the big Three-Oh-No isn't so bad.  And thankfully I'll never have to do it again.

Tech Support

Is there anyone techie out there who knows how to edit the code of this template to give me a little more horizontal room?  I feel my blog is confining.  I want to streeeeetch ooooout!

How fired do you think I would be if I submitted this as an IT Work Order?  I feel it would greatly enhance my work performance if I had a little more room on my personal knit blog ...

Updated:  Aaaaah.  I have streeeeetched.

Storage Solutions

The snow has turned to rain (for the most part) and that can only mean one thing: Spring Cleaning!

Since I started knitting waaay back when, I've stored all my notions in old shoe boxes under my couch.  Classy, right?  I've looked for other storage solutions but never really found anything I liked or wanted to afford.  I came across these while shopping for a friend's birthday at Global Gallery.

They were $8 each (I bought three) and remind me of the grass baskets women wove while waiting for customers at the roadside fruit stands in North Carolina.  They're woven tight and smooth with no snags to grab the yarn, and they even smell a little bit like seagrass!  There were several sizes and shapes, from trashcans to little fingerbowls, and why am I telling you all this? 

Because I was chatting with the manager and business has not been great, which I'm sure is not unique with the downturn in the economy.  But I think stores like the Global Gallery, "a non-profit volunteer run organization dedicated to promoting fair trade and cultural enrichment in the Columbus community" should get our business.  Aside from all the socio-political reasons, which I don't know enough to talk about intelligently, their products are unique, well made, and fairly priced.  In the era of the big box stores, this is rare indeed.

I can dooo eeet! But should I?

While knitting my Noro Striped Scarf I paid a lot of attention to the slipped stitch edges since that's how the color changed for the stripes. Also I thought that little detail made a big difference in the finished look of the scarf, perhaps slightly less homemade. I was very happy with how it turned out!

However, it made me realize I've been knitting the slipped stitch edge on my Trellis scarf wrong. But just one edge.

Here is the correctly slipped edge (shown from the wrong side due to not having blocked yet):

And the other slipped incorrectly: 

And both for comparison (can you see it?):

The pattern instructions "slip first stitch purl-wise with yarn in front on both right side and wrong side" make a nice edge on the wrong side since the following stitch is a purl, but not so much on the right side where the following stitch is a knit, requiring you to wrap the yarn to the back for the knit.  The stitch should have been slipped purl-wise with the yarn in back ready to knit.

And really I don't mind the look of the "wrong edge", it's actually kind of interesting and I'll make a note for future reference, but it bothers me that the two edges don't match.  

So I got to thinking ... always a bad idea, I know ... could I drop the "wrong edge" stitch all the way down, and pick it all the way back up correctly?  Could I?  Is this a crazy idea?  Craz-eee?

The current consensus from the Wed Night Knitting Group is yes, yes this is most definitely a crazy idea.  Do not dooo eeet!  For one the difference in the edging is not very noticeable, and for two with blocking (or lack thereof) I could make the edge stitches sit toward the wrong side of the scarf and let the first row of (matching) knit stitches be the edging.  And for three, after doing all those knit 7 togethers do I really want to mess with this?

But then I keep thinking, if I pin the first row of knit stitches down so they don't stretch out, could I unravel and pull up the edge slip 1, knit 1, all the way up?  Everyone agrees if I am going to try this I need to do a test run on a swatch.  Because I would be inconsolable if all those knit 7's were for nothing. 

What time is it?

It is the end!  The end of time!

That always freaks me out ...

  

Echo gets adopted!

Edited to add: Okay ... maybe not everyone watches as much teee-veee as I do.  Here's the link to the first Echo commercial.

Look at that smile!  Breaks my heart every! time!

Yay ... he's home!

Noro Striped Scarf

I bought the yarn for this project two seconds after I saw this project.  Who could resist?!  

 

This was a thrill to knit, k1p1 all the way through, but never boring thanks to the magic of Noro!

Tubular cast on and bind off ... 40 cast on and 38 bound off.  On purpose.  

Overall there were 39 stitches allowing for a slipped stitch edging.

 And as always, a kitty to supervise.  

So what's the catch?  

I'm not sure I like it.  The colors just don't speak to me.  They kind of just say blah blah blah. Maybe we just need some time apart.  Noro definitely needs a good soak to soften up a bit and for the stitches mellow into place. 

In like a lion ... RAWR!

I think I'll have my dinner on the lanai ...

Or maybe not.  The birdies won't be getting their dinner at all ...

Sorry!

I'm lame.

I really hate when bloggers apologize about being too busy to write.  (Hee hee -- the first time I typed that I wrote too busty to write.)  Well, neither of these apply to me ... I just don't feel the urge to blog.   Or I didn't anyway, until I got hooked on the Ravelry.

Now I want to have a blog.  A good blog.  So new content is coming!  You know ... as soon as I knit some.

  

Ball Band Dishcloths from M-D Knitting

Little Projects = Big Fun!

And a doily too ...

Um...Hi!

So after my big computer crash of oh...2003 thru 2006, I've finally gotten a new computer! Yay! And after trying to log in to my little bloggy here for oh...three months (with my old email address that no longer exists -- what was my user name? what was my password? how do you change your personal settings? help! help! help!) I'm back!

I'm! Back!

Hopefully I'll get my camera software loaded sometime before next year so I can show you what I've been up to. Hints: here and here.

So what's so inspired me? Tonight I finally got to a knitting meet-up where other people showed up! It was really nice to knit and chat and chat and chat. I tend to get a little chatty in slightly stressful situations, not that SnBs are stressful but walking into a new group is. Slightly. Oh well, hopefully I didn't say anything that will get me kicked out. (Like Laurie and her porn! I love Laurie!) Hi ladies! Please don't kick me out because I'm a nervous chatter-er.

Sooo over fur

You know...it's hard out here for a blogger!* Especially on dial-up! By the time I get my photos uploaded I completely forget the witty banter to accompany.

Meet Buster, my Build-a-Cow, who be modeling the fun fur fiesta.



Stacy's Scarf: Moss stitch with keyhole detailing. I made this wide and short to lay flat under a jacket. Or hood, if one likes the Eskimo effect.



Amby's Scarf: Double knit garter stitch. Twice the fur, twice the fun.



Mom's Scarf: knitty.com's Embrace. Or, in a pinch, a muppet...I think it'd look great with googly-eyes.


P.S. Oops! I forgot to turn off my webccelerator while uploading...I hope the pics look better on your screen than mine. *And no, this joke will never be old for me...

But is it furry enough?

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! And Christmas/Whatevermas! And New Year!

Um yeah, so I won't be winning Blogger of the Year...but doesn't that just make it more special when I do update?

While visiting my parents in WV (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!) I went to Tamarack with my sister and niece (Hi Stacy! Hi Ambria!). I was all about the pottery and wooden kitchen stuffs, while my niece went crazy over...Fun Fur scarves! And guess what they were charging for them? Twelve Freakin' Frosties! So of course, being even the meager knitter that I am, you know what I said...

"Oh, I can make you one of those!"

JoAnn's had Fun Fur on sale, so I was grooving on that, but my scarf just doesn't seem to be as furry and soft as the ones we saw. I found two patterns on the Lions Brand website: one was garter stitch, size 10 needles over 24 stitches single strand, the other was garter stitch, size 15 needles over 15 stitches double strand.

The final dimensions are about the same, do you think the extra strand of furry makes a notable difference? Do you think a larger needles/gauge is needed to let all the furry funness through?

But of course I used neither and went for the pattern on the back of the label, moss stitch, size 10 1/2 needles over 30 stitches single strand. I was hoping moss stitch would give the scarf more of a backbone over garter stitch but still be open enough to let all the fuzz fly free. Any opinions? Please?

Alpacapalooza

This past weekend was Alpacapalooza Ohio!* I had so! much! fun! And I bought so! much! yarn! A good mix of huacaya (warm and wooly) and suri (soft and silky) yarns, both processed and natural colors.

Gotta get a little pretty in pink!


I love grey. I once heard highly gifted people are drawn toward grey because it calms their super crazy-smart minds. I'm sure that's why...

Or it could be because I'm just a tad bit colorblind. A friend called this colorway "teal". It so is not! Cadet blueish perhaps...but not teal!


And then there was this lady who had just piles and piles of yarn, all natural alpaca colors, and I looked and I pondered and I wished *desperately* that I had won the lottery on my way over so I could buy it all...but I hadn't so I finally setted on brown tweed and charcoal. (I actually came back later and she was sold out. Sold out of her mountains upon mountains of yarn!!)


These are llama, wonder what they had to do to smuggle them into Alpacafest? So pretty, the first two bunches I've balled. Balled? Made into balls... With which to knit...



*No, that was not what it was actually called...

Fuzzy Feet: Finis!

Bring it on Winter...me and my fuzzy feet are ready!

The obligatory wear it on your head shot:


Perhaps I added a tad too much detergent:


All done!


I worried from the start about compensating for my chicken-little ankles but was afraid to push my (non) knitting abilities in modifying the pattern...I think the pie crust effect looks quite cute:

And they fit! Kitty Caz thinks they're quite dashing:


I felted until they were slightly small, then wore them *alot* while damp to mold them to my feet. Mmm,mmm! Wet wooly feet! Then in a fit of genius (or happy coincidence) I tucked them into my drying rack so the arch bent around the rod while they dried...built in arch support baby! (Sorry for the dark pictures, welcome to Ohio.)

The Funky Feet, they call to me...

Will someone please *pretty please* tell me that those funky stitches will felt out okay and everything will be just fine in Fuzzy Feet Land?! Because I'm having serious issues forgetting about them and even more serious issues knitting past them.

Must...frog...must...frog...

Pucker up baby

...because I'm picking up stitches!

This is what happens when I multi-task -- knitting while watching tee-vee and talking on the phone with my sister, holding the phone between my shoulder and ear of course! Maybe that's why everything's just a little bit tilted.


You know, this side really doesn't look too bad...


...but rut-roh! I hope y'all aren't kidding about felting healing all.