bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

Hello 2009!

j and i were rather lame-assed last night.  we kind of had an excuse as it did snow all day yesterday.  but then i went to bed at 10 and since i pretty much fall asleep whenever in the prone position regardless of where i am, i didn't make it to midnight.  but this morning i made cinnamon rolls (don't get too excited -- they were poppin' fresh dough rolls) and cooked j some bacon.  and i did a little spinning all before heading out to spend the afternoon with some knitters.  not a bad way to start the new year.

with regards to the spinning, what i noticed when i put together the mosaic below, was that i did virtually no spinning in 2008.  which of course means that i still suck at it.  but hey, i knit 11 pairs of socks! 

and six hats, a pair of mittens, some scarves and a blanket (ok, some of those things i crocheted, but you know what i mean).   i certainly seem to favor bright colors, don't i.   and i do like my accessories.  some of you i know like to make knitting/crafting resolutions.  yeah, there will be none of that here. 

so what did you make this year?

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day 258 -- and 2009, you had better not suck.  that's all i'm sayin'.  i have my eyes on you.

"How I Knit"

the latest flickr trend is to post mini videos of how you knit, crochet, spin, whatever.  not one to be left out, i too jumped on the bandwagon.

here's my "how i knit" video, the extended version.  the rat bastards in flickr cut mine short. 

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day 156  -- did you notice that i'm totally incapable of talking without moving my hands A LOT?.

WIP Wednesday

i'm usually a one project woman.  at most two (a small project that i can carry around and a bigger one like a blanket made up of a bazillion squares), but for my trip to new jersey, i packed three.  i had three scarves on my agenda and i couldn't pick which one(s) i wanted to take.   

so, first in my bag was the queen anne's lace scarf.  this is the crocheted scarf that has gotten non-crocheters crocheting and i wanted my own version. 

the yarn is aracania magallanes, which almost looks like my own homespun singles. the thick-thin quality of the yarn lends an irregular look to the scarf, but i'm kind of liking it.  it's certainly a lot of fun and a perfect vacation project.

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day 138 -- i started this post with the intention of  showing you projects 2 and 3, but i have to save something for tomorrow.

Random Sunday

1.  it's sunday night, and i'm watching olympic men's volleyball even though i know that they already won the gold medal.  on a scale of 1-10 i enjoyed these games about a 6.  too much beach volleyball, not enough anything else.  also it was frustrating to know how things ended 12 hours before seeing them.  i know it couldn't be helped, but it kind of took the fun out of it.  by the way, did anyone see the long jump or the high jump or any of that?  because i missed it.  oh well.

2.  i made some progress on babette.  i'm on the last section, halfway through.  this is one tiny blanket.  i'm not going to create new sections though.  i think i'll just add some size with extra border rows.

3.  yesterday was a big inlaw birthday celebration.  three birthdays were celebrated including the 21st of my oldest niece.  good times.  (really, i'm not being facetious).  did some bonding with the baby niece. the dumdums are working like a charm.  heh heh.

4.  i finished up some knitting:  a cowl and a pair of socks.  nothing too exciting, but i'll show them to you later on this week.

5.  and i may get a little bit of a vacation after all.  i took this coming week off, but made arrangements to go to the jersey shore wednesday and hang out with a college friend. 

sweet.

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day 128 -- ooh just in time for the start of the closing ceremonies. 

I Must Be A Freak ...

... because i'm the only person it seems who isn't annoyed by the premature start of D.S.T.  sure it kind of bites that we've lost an hour but in a couple of days my body will sort itself out and getting up won't be so difficult.  i'm just happy that tonight when i get home from work, the sun will still be out and i can feel like i have a life again.

so the real purpose of this post ... SQUARES!!!   in january, i put the knit signal out for squares  for blanket for elisa's dad and a bunch of great knitters/crocheters responded.  Eighty-six squares worth!

i bet you all thought that i had forgotten about them, or that i had decided to keep them for myself or something like that.

nope.

there was SPA, and the sickness, and several weekends of rain and snow so no light for photos.   it also took me awhile to log each square into a handy dandy excel spreadsheet entering the names and addresses of every participant.  then i had to tag each square with the crafter's name so elisa knows who made what. 

yesterday, i finally packed them all up in a big zappos box.  good thing the squares are nice and squishy because they all fit perfectly.   

the plan is to get this box off to the post office sometime this week and then to give out some prizes.  stay tuned.

"To the Knit Cave!!!"

hey kids!

know what this symbol means?

it means someone needs our help. 

elisa's dad is in a VA hospital in iowa far from family and friends and needs a blanket.  and i think that if we all pitch in and knit (or crochet) just one square each,  we can help his daughter give this man a little love and warmth and help him get back on his feet. 

so here's the plan:

knit or crochet a square.  preferably in a worsted weight-ish machine washable yarn. this blanket will be at the mercy of the VA laundry service.  i'm sure the laundry staff are very hard working and do an excellent job on laundry, but i think it's safe to say that this blanket will not be hand washed in cold water with eucalan.  just a guess.

try to get this square as close as possible to 8 inches square, blocked.  use a ruler if you have to.  (i know, that was snarky.  but i know how you knitters are about following directions.) 

when you're ready to send the square, just contact either me or elisa and we'll send you an address.

boston area knitters who would like to send a square can give/send the square to me and i'll send them off to elisa.

thanks kids!

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ETA:  some of you have asked for a few more details, so here goes.

Timeframe?  As soon as you can, next couple of weeks would be great. 

Colors?  Any color is fine.  Just maybe not pink?  or other girlie color?  He is after all a grown man. 

Thanks so much for interest in helping us out!

Email Broken Can't Work

today, our email at work was broken, which meant that for 5 hours i couldn't really do any work.  or not much anyway.  i did what i could, then just sat there.  waiting. 

i thought about writing a post.  it would have been a good time to do that, but i didn't have one in me.  i don't really have one in me now either.  but if i don't write, then i'll just have more to write later with even less inclination to do so.

i know in a previous post i was all cryptic and everything, but i didn't mean to be.  i just wasn't ready to put it in writing until i had actually done it. so i did it.  after work, i went to the local community college and signed up to retake general biology to help me study for the MTEL subject test which i plan on taking probably next spring (along with some education classes), you know, because i'm just insane enough to want to teach highschool biology some day.  (twenty years ago i graduated with a B.S. in biology, but that was a long time ago. so i need a little refresher)  i'm taking the communications and literacy skills test in october.  THE WEEKEND AFTER RHINEBECK!!! Midterms also happen to be the week after Rhinebeck so i'll be studying probably while everyone else is having fun.  *sigh*  after getting my master's degree, i really thought i'd never have to do this again.  i'm really nervous and scared.  not so much about the classes or the tests but about jumping into something kind of blindly. 

anyway.  so that was boring.  now you know what i'm planning.

other than that, what have i been doing?

making the feather and fan baby bonnet for my little niece in  honor of her christening. 

no, she's not amish.

and i've been crocheting squares for the larger than life bag from interweave crochet spring 2007.

i'm making my version with patons merino.

i'm a little further along than these photos might indicate but the challenge for me will be the lining.  you know, because i'm going to have to sew.

ok all of this talk about my future has me a little twitchy.  i'm going to bed. 

here's to email working tomorrow.

 

Eye Sore Friday and Ravelry

how about a little housekeeping today?

1.  thank you so much for the lovely compliments on the ripple.  and i love that some of you have admitted to now wanting to learn how to crochet just so you can make one yourself.  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!  my work here is done.

2.  is it wrong that i want these shoes?  and in this color?  (this is the eye sore part of the title)

3.  and finally ... have you heard about RAVELRY yet?  yeah i'm a little late to the party.  fashionably late of course.    it's the brain child of frecklegirl jess and her code monkey husband casey and bob the dog (well i'm sure he's been very supportive).  and it's wonderfully clever.  it's like a merging of  flickr and blogs and knitting and CROCHET (YES, CROCHET PEOPLE!!!) .  and i understand that spinning will be thrown into the mix soon.  it's still in it's beta version, but i've been given 3 invitations to dole out.  if you are one of the very fashionably late like i am and have not received an invitation, begged for an invitation (pathetic), or actually added yourself to the queue to get an invite from the ravelry people (that's jess, casey and bob) and would like to play along, just let me know.  first come, first serve.

thanks for your interest -- but all of my invites are gone.  but you can always sign up.

ok, that's all i've got for today.  have a good weekend everyone.

Is It The Weekend Yet?

ugh ... fridays are tough for me because in my head, i'm already in weekend mode.  a four day work week would be perfection (remember that episode of friends when chandler was locked in a ATM booth with some model and when she offered him gum he said that would be perfection?  or something like that. ).  ok maybe not perfection, but certainly better than a 5 day work week.

so with the socks done, i'm down to 2 ongoing projects.  the chevron scarf and the ripple blanket (YES I'M STILL WORKING ON IT!!)   so i need a third.  a couple of you asked me about this big ball from my previous post.

well almost exactly a year ago, i made a giant t-shirt yarn ball.  now it's time for me to knit it up into a little bathroom rug.  i have size 19 denises (yes they do come that big) so i think those will do.  others asked me about the roving.   it's 4oz of corriedale from amy's fiber club in strawberry fields.  it's so preppy that it reminds me of carole, circa 1986. 

ok, i have to get back to work.   someone, kill me and put me out of my misery.

Never Two Without Three

i have a hard time focusing.  even when i'm gung ho about something, i find myself flitting  from one thought to another, constantly trying to force myself to PAY ATTENTION.  i sometimes sit in meetings with just my boss, sitting right across from him, with him looking at me in the eye, and having to remind myself that i NEED TO PAY ATTENTION!!!  i mean, it could be worse.  i guess i could fall asleep.  (we had a grad student working with us for a short time who would fall asleep in meetings.  i don't know about you, but if i were in a meeting with a couple of academic bigwigs in my field, falling asleep repeatedly would not be something i would do.  but that's just me). 

this isn't a new phenomenon.  i've always been a little like this.  but i think it's gotten worse lately.  as a result, i get nothing done.  or i don't get nearly as much done as i'd like.  or the quality of what i do kind of sucks because i can't focus long enough to get it done right.  when i was a kid, there was no such thing as ADD or ADHD or other such acronym.  i was just the easily bored kid who seemed to underachieve when not challenged.  anyway, i digress.  (see what i mean about a lack of focus?  and watch, i'll leave the end of these thoughts just hanging there, unfinished.  see what i'm talking about?)  *sigh*

so, yeah, the blanket, still not done.  i've run into some minor problems.  according to my calculations i was hoping to be able to get 3 2-row repeats out of the merino style and 2 2-row repeats out of the andean treasure.  well, as i've mentioned before, knitpicks lies about weight (and i'm assuming yardage as well) and i was only able to get 2 2-row repeats out of the merino style.  and i found out that the label on the andean treasure lies as well.  only 1 2-row repeat.  so on the positive side, this blanket is going to be done sooner than i originally planned, but on the negative side, will be noticeably shorter.  oh well.  (i'm not buying more yarn. this was a stash-busting project).

and my pisa socks aren't done yet either.  although almost.  i'm hoping they'll be done this weekend.  (by the way, i try to avoid saying things like "hopefully, they'll be done this weekend."  my freshman year in college i had a biology professor who explained to us the kind of trouble you can run into when throwing "hopefully" nilly willy in a sentence.  think about it next time you say, "hopefully, i'll finish this stupid sock this weekend").

and now i've gone and started another project.  i saw one first here.   then here.  and i knew that i needed to make one.  so i went into the stash.  ("cover me!  i'm going in!")

and came out with this.  in the background, i've got 2 skeins of koigu in a deep pinkish red with olive and neutral tones.  in front there, i've got leftovers (about 93 grams) from my charlotte's web.  by the way, koigu doesn't lie.  well it does lie but in my favor.  that's 102 grams of deep pinkish red koigu.

hopefully *oops* i mean, i hope to post a progress picture of the scarf soon.