bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

I'm A Bad Daughter

everytime we're together, i always hope that this time it'll be different. 

again, i've been disappointed.

you see, i am a bad daughter.  and i hate myself.

it's kind of pathetic i know to blame all of your problems on your parents.  i'm 43 and i left home when i was 18 so how is it that after 25 years, when i see them no more than every couple of years (except for this year when i saw them just this past july) do they still have this hold on me like this?  or rather, that i still let them have this hold on me.

since they've arrived, i've had this 300lb man sitting on my chest.  as i write this, i'm having trouble breathing just at the thought of their waking at any moment.

my parents aren't bad people.  they did the best they could.  but growing up in their house could be tough.  i grew up afraid of being myself ... of trying new things ... of expressing myself.  because doing any of those things could result in my being put back into my place ... with a look, a biting word, or a whipping.  so i learned to become hard and prepare myself so that if any of those things came my way, i'd be ready for them and whatever they did or said wouldn't hurt. or wouldn't hurt so much.  that's what that 300 lbs man sitting on my chest is for.    

i am hyper ready now.  like a dog with his fangs bared, a cat with her fur on end, i'm ready.

and this makes me a bad daughter.

A Very Grumpy Meme

like martha and claudia, i'm playing too.  

1.  although i learned how to knit as a child, i didn't start knitting as a hobby until i was in highschool.  my mother used to knit me sweaters all of the time.  yes, acrylic sweaters, but they were awesome.  she would cast on and do all of the shaping.  she was easily bored so i became her production knitter.  miles of stockinette, that was my job.  then when i got to the arm shaping, etc., i passed the sweater back on to her.   i never made an entire sweater on my own during this time, but every handknit sweater that i wore in highschool includes some of my handiwork (and strands of my hair.  i know gross -- but i had really long hair then -- it was kind of unavoidable).

2.  i learned how to read knitting patterns in french way before i learned how to read them in english.  i still have those old phildar books from 1980.  dolman sleeves totally rocked then. 

3. i didn't knit for the first 3 years of college.  supplies were difficult to come by and well, nobody else did it. during my senior year, i took a studio art class.  for one of my projects i decided to knit part of it.  i got so much positive attention (from cute boys, no less), i never hid my knitting again.  (i also got an A on the project).

4.  my first sweater from start to finish was a vogue knitting pattern (i still have the magazine).  a black acrylic cropped turtleneck.  if i weren't so fat, i'd still wear it.  i loved that sweater. (and i still have it).

5.  i think i'm a much better knitter than my blog might indicate.  i'm just not as committed as i used to be.  i used to knit a sweater a month with cables, lace, intarsia, fair-isle -- you name it, it was in there (not all at once however.  i have to say that none of my past creations would embarrass me today).   there are so many beautiful yarns available now, that i think they distract me from really focusing on one thing at a time.

EDIT:  some of you have asked for pictures of thse old sweaters.  i blogged about them (and some of the things i've listed here in fact, here.)

6. during an episode of cheers, kirstie alley wore a nautically striped navy and white cardigan.  i quickly sketched it and made my own version of it, all the way to the "gold" buttons.  i loved that sweater. 

7. i have never knit j a sweater (or any man for that matter).  but i did knit him an afghan the first christmas we were dating.  therefore i conclude there is no such thing as the boyfriend afghan curse.

8. although i'm not a big fan of seaming, i hate hate hate knitting seamless sweaters. 

9. i love to purl. 

10.  i never blocked or swatched until i started reading blogs.

So This Is Webs?

i went to WEBS for the first time sunday.  and i bought yarn.  that's all you need to know.  i might even argue that you didn't need to even know that, but i feel repentent.  i feel the need to confess, just ever so slightly.  consider this a mini confession.  when adrian received my helloyarn order last week, she asked if i were just a little obsessed with orange these days.   

at WEBS it was teal and blues.  dark intense teal.  noro cash iroha dark teal blue.  way too many skeins.  and well, there was other stuff.

but that wasn't the highlight of my trip to northhampton, MA.  no... the highlight was stitchy's first book signing event. 

and she totally rocked.  but you knew she would.    she was clever as always.  poised.  and didn't appear nervous one bit. 

we were all very proud of her. 

(kristen and elisa agree!)

Saturday Already?

see what happens when my parents come and visit?  i totally forget about eye candy friday!

here's my saturday sky...

ok i've got to go.  i'm getting ready for the MOKS and Roll Traveling Drunk Show Caravan...woo-hoo!

D Day Minus One

my parental units are arriving tomorrow for a 2 week visit.  *gah* which means there's been some crazy ass activity going on here.  the outside of the house still looks like hillbillies live here, but progress has been made on the inside.

well first we have the new stove.  but also the installation of the new fancy shmancy microwave oven over the stove.  the cabinet over the oven was normal sized before J cut it up by over half to make room for the microwave.  i think i can store yarn up there, but that's about it.

a clean entry.  that doesn't seem like much, but for much of the past 2 years, this area has  been used as a depository for such items as a tile cutter, power drills, microscopes, drill press, shop vac, painting supplies .....  for 2 years the only time those doors have been opened, has been on halloween, when having a house that looks like hillbillies live there is a good thing.  boo! 

a closet door. i finally have a closet door.  last christmas when J asked me what i wanted for christmas, i said "a closet door."  same for the christmas before that.  if i wanted J to get off the phone because i had to get back to work, all i had to say was, "when are you going to finish the closet door?"  "ok, gotta go.  bye."  happiness really is a closet door.

in knitting/crochet news, here's the blanket cardigan  blocking.  i'm not looking forward to sewing it up though.  the directions say "block pieces to measurement."  what measurements?  yeah, the schema is sorely lacking in measurements. 

and here's the crocheted bag that caused my hand to look like a chicken leg.  that's a lot of single crochet.

I'm a Scurvy Dog

it's talk like a pirate day today.  i did not know this.  so how funny is it that i made a reference to pirates just yesterday?  arrrgggh.  a french pirate reference.  even if it's in the form of a finger puppet.  the lovely young lady modeling the finger puppet is my niece.  she's wicked smaht.  which i know is not pirate speak but how we talk in new england.  really.  all of us.  and maybe a new england pirate said that once.   maybe.

i just got me some serious booty over at hello yarn.  my blood sugar was a little low i think when it happened.  i can't be held responsible when my blood sugar is low. 

R is for ...

(LA) ROCHELLE

every time i go and visit my family, i have to make a stop at La Rochelle.  it's always crowded when i go, and finding parking is ridiculous, but i do enjoy walking around the old harbor and it's surrounding areas.  and what's not to love about a city whose history includes pirates!  arrggghhh!

Summer's Back

it's a little warm and humid but today's sky is definitely a september saturday sky.

some yarn that i scored today at the store for 50% off because all of the skeins were orphans.  sweet...

oregano flowers

 

Lepidoptera

relax...relax.

this is NOT a moth

Injured Reserve

isn't this pretty?  so round.  so perfect. yet simple  single crochet in the round in shiny mercerized cotton. what's not to love?

it's the base of a bag i started crocheting for the store.   i spent most of sunday crocheting this bag while watching the 2nd season of veronica mars.  (is it wrong for me to have the hots for an 18 year old badboy played by a 20 something actor at my age?  because if it's wrong i don't want to be right.)

by the end of the day, i felt a little pain but nothing too serious. 

look at what my hand looked like monday morning!!!  WTF???

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in unrelated, injury free, knitting news, the fall issue of knitty came out.  when i glimpsed this project in the main page thumbnail photos, i decided to save it for the very last. 

there are some very nice patterns this time around ....

but OH MY GOD DOES THIS PATTERN NOT HAVE MY FRIGGIN' NAME ALL OVER IT?  i think my heart skipped a beat, i really do.

*drool*

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finally, i just got permission from the blogger Ansley of BleuArts to post this picture.

isn't that the most incredible knitted item you've ever seen?  it was imperative that i share.
she's posted the directions. 

And the Winner Is...

Kahla!

I know what you're asking.  There was a contest?  There were prizes? 

J picked her name during the book giveaway.

Go check out her absolutely gorgeous bag.  Go.  Really. 

It's fabulous.

Change is Good

so i pretty much hate my blog name.  for those of you who don't know, i used to work part-time for a merchandiser with the initials C and B.  i used to call it Sac et Poubelle, which is french for...bag and trash.  it was much funnier in french, hunh hunh hunh hunh, because it didn't sound anything like what it was and instead sounded more like "diamonds and pearls" or "sweet smelling stuff and oodles of cashmere" or something like that.   *cough*  you had to be there.

when i put this here little blog together, i didn't have a name and although i knew i'd probably focus on knitting, i also knew it wouldn't be all about knitting because i'm not all about knitting.  YES PEOPLE, THERE ARE MULTIPLE LAYERS TO ME...

and when i put this here little blog together, i didn't expect to be introduced in public to real live other people as "oh this is bag 'n' trash."  the first time that happened i was at claudia's and i thought "ack!  what the fuck..that's even more awkward than my actual name!" and refused to wear a name tag because i felt like such a friggin' goober.

so now that i'm out and about with people, when they introduce me by my blog name, i get all skeeved out.   and with blogger bingo comming up.  gah!  changes need to be made.   apparently, stitchy felt the same because she told me so.

so last night, over a meal of less than stellar lobster enchiladas, we brainstormed.  (brainstorming with stitchy is fun because it reminds me of being young and a little crazy and staying up all night in college with your friends and not being afraid to talk outloud about your really whacked out ideas that sound so totally brilliant -- and in the case of stitchy usually are -- and you're a little drunk on the brilliance and the genius and the run on sentences and the excitement of the brilliance and the beer. or the kool-aid grain punch).

in the next few days, i'll be making a few changes. if you have me in your bloglines, you'll notice that my listing now reads "bag 'n' trash -- home of the yarn monster."  my mini tag has been replaced with my little yarn monster mascot (although i may go back to the mini picture because i miss seeing my mini there) and i'll make a brand new banner and button (i've never had a blog button!) once i figure out how to make them in photoshop elements 4.

i've also gotten my own domain name.  woo-hoo me with the technology!  (i'm not afraid of math, but i am afraid of the internet technology stuff -- vector calculus is easy compared to this programming shit even if in typepad it's designed so a monkey could do it.)  anyway, you can also reach this blog now from .....

www.theyarnmonster.com!!! ta-daa!!!

although the old address will work as well.

i think it fits.  i make yarn monsters.  i love yarn the way the cookie monster loves cookies.

it's all about the yarn here whether i knit it, spin it, crochet it, stitch it, tell it, or read it.

so...what i want to know is ...

what should the final name of the blog be?

the yarn monster cafe?
home of the yarn monster?
casa de yarn monster?
chez yarn monster?

or should i keep it simple and just call it "the yarn monster"

anyone?   anyone?

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well it appears that there's a yarnmonster out there alread.  i didn't check for "yarnmonster."   

so my name change is back on the shelf.

anyone want a domain name?

oh well.

it was fun while it lasted.

******************************************************************

ok i'm back.

i think i'm going to go with

"monster yarn" 

i checked

i think it'll work

My Neighborhood

every year at this time of year, i'm caught off guard by the changing of the leaves. 

"it's barely labor day.  how can the leaves be changing so early?  they didn't start changing this early last year, did they?"

yeah they probably did.

i love the fall.  it's my favorite time of year.  i love the colors, the weather, the blue of the sky, the quality of the light now that the sun is lower in the sky, that makes us all look a little younger and the brisk air that makes me feel a little younger.  i love the little acorns.

(hey are these hollyhocks?)

but i'm not ready to let go of summer.  i'm a savorer.  i'm looking forward to sweater wearing days like the rest of you, but i want fall to come in nice and slow, so it might last that much longer.

 

Forty-Five More Days

so are you going?

i am....

and i'm playing..

oh and look!  stitchy's been interviewed now by the local press!   

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in other news...spinning progress

roving that i kool-aid dyed with  2 packets of cherry and 1 packet of grape  (i think).   

it looks a little bit better than the yarn monster.  and i like the color.

 

 

napoleon, however, is not impressed.

Hey Beyatch!

here are my bitchin' mittens. 

i know, they aren't pretty.  and i haven't even bothered to weave in the ends.  but i made them from my very first homespun on my louet.   yes, this is the monster yarn.  ha!  they're crazy looking, but they make me smile.

so does this guy.

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totally unrelated, i'm cleaning "house" by unloading some books and such.  i'm going to be posting some old crochet books on ebay -- i don't think most of you would be interested (except maybe stitchy)  -- but someone might be interested in this.

if you're interested in the book, just write me a comment.   if more than one person is interested, i'll put names into a hat.  let me know by friday noon, ET. 

Hollyhocks

h

roses tremieres, or hollyhocks, grow all over the place in the department of charente-maritime where my parents live. 

while looking for some information about them for this post, i learned that they're grown in the US as well.   this surprised me since to me they're so quintessentially charentais, like oysters, houses covered in white stucco, with red tile roofs and blue shutters, cognac and pineau, and ugly plaid slippers.