bag 'n' trash -- home of monster yarn

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!

_____________________________________________________________________________

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.

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.

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. 

Rain Rain Go Away

by now you must have heard that it's raining like the bejesus in new england and that those of us who drove through the pounding rain to hopkinton, NH for the NHSW are insane.

but what's a little rain?  this was my first ever fiber festival and i wasn't going to miss it.  the girls would be there.  j was coming.  and i had on my slicker.

incredibly, i didn't spend too much.  i bought soap and some pretty fiber for practicing on my spindle.

but overall damage was minimal (if you don't count the fried dough and beer i bought j in exchange for his agreeing to be our sherpa).

j and i spent some time visiting the animals.  the alpacas were hard to photograph.  every time i was about to take a shot of their expressive faces they would show me their asses.    the goats moved too quickly which made it hard to get a clear shot in the low light.  but i did manage to catch this little blue eyed angora.

but this little girl (i guess, i really don't know, but s/he seemed like a girl) wanted me to pay attention to her.  she baaaa'd her little heart out so that we'd stop and look and admire her.

 

before heading home, j and i met up with wendy and rob, elisa and mike, carole and dale, kellee, debbie and kat for some margaritas and dinner.  i'm not saying more.  what happens in concord, stays in concord.

 

Does This Count?

i'm doing a little catch up here again.  first of all, in honor of project spectrum, more green with cats.

cats guarding the fledgling herb garden.

and some FOs (finished objects, not "fuck offs")

another pair of socks.  there's some green in there.  so maybe that counts?  no? yes?

and here's my finished orange scarf from april.

i began by creating a provisional chain which i later removed once the fishnet pattern was established.  this allowed for both ends of the scarf to have this scallop edge.  i finished off the scarf by edging it with 1 row of single crochet.  unfortunately i still have some of this yarn left.  had i known i would have made the scarf wider. 

it's clearly rocky's favorite scarf.

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and in honor of spring, i lightened the look of the blog.  what do you think?

Necessity: The Mother of Invention

when you've spent the last two weeks feeling like ass, with a stuffed up nose and cough, and then your husband starts feeling the same, you can't help but feel compelled to crochet this:

i know what you're thinking..."oh god those are heinous, it must have been the fever!" but i like 'em, especially the pink and green one that matches the soap cozy. 

in project spectrum news, here are some socks that i made with some yarn that maggie had given me awhile back.  i was so paranoid about running out of yarn, that i kept the cuff short and ended up with enough yarn left over for a third sock.  it's good to know that i have enough yarn for a third sock. 

 

finally, it appears that martha stewart has joined project spectrum.  look what i found in the april issue of martha stewart living?

   

UFO Smackdown: Three down!

so my goal before the start of the olympics was to clear out my UFO basket.  mission accomplished.  (i haven't finished mariah, but she hasn't been languishing in UFO hell for very long).  here's FO number 3. 

i started this project almost 2 years ago.  the bag pattern is from the crochet insert of IK Spring 2004.  i used the totally wrong type of yarn (lionbrand homespun -- although i did get gauge) and added stripes.  it's far from perfect, but i like how it turned out.  it'll make a decent project bag.  i like the pocket.

so now i'm ready ... except i haven't selected an "event" yet.  here are the candidates:

1.  charlotte's web:  i purchased the pattern and yarn before i was even a blogger.  it was the project in vogue at the time and i jumped on the bandwagon without considering that i wasn't all that excited about the project (although i did fall in love with the idea of knitting with 5 different variegated colorways of koigu).  i've tried to knit this thing on several occasions and have failed.  i've even "practiced" the pattern on larger needles with worsted weight scraps to see if my hands can get the hang of it, and i always fuck it up.   the challenge here:  not giving up yet again and the time constraints.  although i knit on the train, this is not a commuter project so i'd really only have 1+ hours a night to work on it (not counting weekends).

2.  color on color scarf from scarfstyle:  i love this pattern and i purchased the "kit" of yarn last year and just have never got around to making it.  the pattern isn't difficult but i don't think this is much of a commuter pattern (although more so than the web).

 

3.  another afghan from my head: inspired by denyse* schmidt's beautiful quilts, i've been messing around with an idea for an afghan for our bedroom.  predominantly off-white with small squares of variegated color (yes again!).  i have some of the yarn picked up, but need to find a suitable off-white yarn and still need to do a little swatching.  oh, and do some sketching.  it's a big project (done on big needles though) and of course totally not portable.  here are some of the yarns.

so which one should i do?

*if you can't figure out how to pronounce my name just remember that maryse rhymes with denyse.  see?

Christmas minus 3 Days Meltdown Free

so the last time i wrote other than proclaim to anyone who happened by chance to land here that it was my birthday, i was having a meltdown.  well i'm not having a meltdown anymore.  i haven't accomplished much either, however.  i have decided to live and let live.  how very zen of me.  so with 3 days until x-mas here is what i've accomplished:

1.  decorating -- not done.  no tree up yet.  if at all.  everything is out.  but the tree must be put together (we never got around to getting our own griswold family x-mas tree).  instead of a real tree though, i did make this.

inspired by the craftymodster and lolly, i too jumped the funfur x-mas tree/hat bandwagon. 

before stuffing. 

my hat/tree is 11.5 inches in diameter and 18 inches tall. i knit mine from the top down in the round with a strand of lionbrand homespun (1 skein) and funfur (2 skeins) until i ran out of funfur, leaving me just enough of the homespun to crochet a base in the round. 

now i need to decorate it.  hmmm.  or not... (not going to worry about it not going to worry about it not going to worry about it). 

2.  gift knits -- all done.  and not very interesting but i think the recipients will like them.  i hope anyway.

this is for j's aunt claire.  she's 80something and lives in an assisted living home type thing (it's like a college dorm for the elderly -- it's actually kind of cool.)  she's one of those people who is always appreciative of a handmade item, so i think she'll like it.  and it will keep her warm during her weekly trips shopping.

boa scarves out of bernat boa for three little girls.  little girls are all about the boa.

3. other christmas shopping also done.  the meat has been ordered.  the gift cards purchased.  i have a box to a niece and nephew in VA to go but i won't send it until tomorrow.  i'll write a little note saying that santa made a mistake and delivered the stuff to our house instead.   because that's the truth.

j went out a bought what he wanted and i'm going to wrap it.  i know not very fun, but at least he got what he wanted.  (although i did get him some "surprises.")  as for me, i have a box of knitpicks yarn that i ordered for myself last month, still unopened.  joe's going to wrap that for me.  x-mas cards still not written though but by having cards with the vague happy holidays greeting, i can conceivably send these out sometime in january and still be well within the window .... it's all about being within the window.

so other than some stocking stuffers, i'm done if i want to be.  yay.

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*no animals were harmed*

this is what j likes to do -- torture animals ....

dude, get that fucking cat off of me......

 

 

Home Is Where the Knitting Gets Done

first of all, i want to thank all of you who sent me encouragement and who offered to be my own personal cheering section.  it really kind of made me a little verklempt.  and i'm very touched. 

since i've gone down this road before, i know that i'll get very obsessed about the whole weight loss thing but i promise i won't bore you with specifics here.  that's what the other blog is for.  end of discussion.

in other news -- meg tagged me for the "where do you do your knitting" meme.  thanks meg! 

so the question actually should be, where do i NOT do my knitting.  it's funny, i don't do it in the kitchen.  no comfy chair.  not in the bathroom.  too much humidity might felt the wool, and i don't do it in our bedroom.  there's a comfy chair in there but somehow, since i pretty much have taken over the rest of the entire house, i kind of feel that the bedroom is j's room too.  and honestly, if i start dragging my knitting in there, before you know it, he'll have a drill press and circular saw set up.  I'M NOT JOKING!!

so here we go.  please ignore the mess.  i'm not the best housekeeper but i do hate clutter, and just looking at these pictures is causing me a bit of anxiety. 

this is our guest room/exercise room (ha!) and the room where i do much of my weekend knitting.  it's here that i catch up on the gilmore girls, and cute george from grey's anatomy (so cute, george is).  now i've got project runway to add to my weekend viewing.  yay.  (and yes, yarn snobs out there, that is a blue skein of red heart.  mock me.  go ahead.  i dare you.)

here's the office where i do the blogging and where i keep my books and stash.  i don't do any knitting in here though.  no tv.

and here's where i do my evening knitting .. sitting on the loveseat there, next to the ball winder facing the tv. i'm working on piecing together a baby blanket that i never finished.  see that tv tray with the coffee cup?  that's where j sits or rather lays after dinner.   AND IF I'VE TOLD HIM ONCE, I'VE TOLD HIM 100 TIMES, TO PLEASE PUT HIS CUPS IN THE KITCHEN BEFORE HE GOES TO BED.  he never listens.

so there you have it.  hope that was enlightening.  (i apologize for the darkness of the photos.  i live in a very dark house even when the sun is shining like it is today.  and yes, i don't have any curtains.  this is only temporary.  i'm working on them.  I ONLY HAVE SO MUCH TIME IN A DAY!!)

random picture of the day:

how awesome is this tree that we have on our front lawn?  i love this tree.

ok, i've got to go.  i've got a big date with my boyfriend. 

The Pressure

so what do you get the woman who has everything she wants or needs AND also happens to be your mother-in-law for her birthday?

you make her a set of lavender sachets.  these were knitted up on size 2 needles with some mercerized cotton i had laying around.  i got the idea from the knitter's bible and the lavender off of ebay. 

i think she liked them.

and here's a picture of our tree house.  i love this little tree house.

Show 'n' Tell

quick post before going off to work.

i was very productive this weekend  ... knitting wise. (i did absolutely nothing else other than go to the wedding of a former co-worker). 

here's some progress made:

i finally finished a lamb that i had crocheted up but had never sewn together and stuffed (i made one last year i think).

then i finished the fuzzy feet -- here they are felted up (joe really liked them although he wasn't sure he would ever wear them unless i put them on him and well i draw the line at bringing him his slippers at the end of hard days work).

here are some washcloths (from weekend knitting) i made last weekend from knitpicks crayon in purple and orange.  this is part of a birthday present that i'm working on.

(can i just say that this pattern is a pain in the ass?)

here's a sneak preview of another birthday present i'm working on (lots of birthdays in my world during the months of october, november and december (including mine by the way)).

finally, here's a project started and finished this weekend.  i received this little toy making book earlier in the week (written and published by jess hutch -- her blog is fun to read too).

this little robot was super easy to make and i even enjoyed sewing him up (which inspired me to finish up the lamb and other things that i haven't posted about yet.  i'll save them for another post.)  this is going to a nephew for x-mas.

 

Lincoln Logs

just wanted to say that despite evidence to the contrary, i have been knitting.

here's the last (thank christ) of 16 13in x 13 in log cabin squares.   

here's the whole friggin' stack of 'em.  when i don't hate this project so much, i plan on sewing the squares together, edging them in a contrasting solid color, and sending the finished blanket off to a friend of mine who was married last month. 

I Wore A Scarf Today

it's officially fall.  the house was cold this morning.  and i wore a scarf in to work.  i think we're supposed to hit a high of 65 degrees today.  it's awesome.

in other news.  the work auction was yesterday with all proceeds going to hurricane relief.  my throw made some money $50 but my little crocheted flower pins -- $2 for five.  no appreciation for high fashion, clearly, but what do you want from a bunch of computer geeks and statisticians.  if they have pants on it's a good day.  (sorry no pictures, i am still sans digital camera but word on the street -- ritz camera sent me an email -- the new camera is on it's way.  woo-hoo).

i also received two new knitting books in the mail yesterday.  yes, because i needed new knitting books.  because the 1,249 knitting and crochet books that i currently own just aren't enough. 

i love this one.  i've only flipped through it quickly.  this weekend, i'm going to sit on my couch, and lovingly page through it.  from what i can tell, the photos and designs are beautiful.  the colors used are rich and vibrant.  it's like melanie falick's weekend knitting but better.  she's an incredible editor.

and the other book i received was hot off the presses.  so hot, that amazon doesn't have a picture of the cover.  it's by debbie bliss and it's called "Home:  27 Handknits for Living."  what a disappointment.  i'm a big fan of patterns for the home -- you know me and my afghan, throw, pillow obsession.  but this book is going back.  maybe she should have talked to sarah dallas before publishing this one ... because it's virtually the same type of book, with the same type of patterns, only not as wonderfully photographed.  been there, done that. 

finally, can i tell you how friggin' excited i am that it's friday?

Wild Kingdom

a couple of weekend's ago, j and i stopped here on our way home from the inlaws.

heh heh they said "bang"

here's ma:

she's giving us the hairy eyeball.  this is why:

i love this dog sitting in the classic convertible, just waiting patiently for his ice cream:

 

other forms of wild life:

that thing was hanging right next to my doorbell.  blech.

the only thing spinning around my house.   just so happens is that there are many doing it.

finally, some FO pictures:

the katrina throw is done.  i had a bitch of a time taking a picture where the colors weren't totally off.  this one shows too much red.

this one shows too much blue.

this throw, measuring 38 x 42 inches was made with a little over 6 skeins of lion brand homespun in harvest.  yarn was doubled and crocheted on a size P crochet hook.  i made it in 2 days.  it helps that i was home sick. 

while i was home sick i received these in the mail (when i was a little girl and home sick, my mom used to bring me coloring books and paper dolls  ... this time the post man was my mommy.)

the book on the bottom is odd ball knits. 
nothing earth shattering but a lot of cute projects made that can be made with leftovers.

and then there's alterknits.  i really like this book because it pushes the limits of what you can make without being totally out there or without needing to be 16 to get away with them.  i may not make any of the patterns, but it's definitely given me ideas for other projects.  yes i'm being purposely vague because i think you need to leaf through it to see what i mean.

i love sunflowers .

ok, i have to get ready for work.   i hate how it gets in the way of my life. 

have a good day!

 

Blue Sheep

dear santa, i have been a good girl this year.  i want these.  no need to get the elves involved.  just a knit pixie. 

9:11

look who links to me!  someone from Turkey!  isn't that cool?  i don't know anything about this person, because, well, i don't read Turkish ... but it's certainly a pretty blog!  hi turkish person who links to my blog!  if you speak english ou si tu parles le Francais, please say hello! 

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in other news:  i started work on this crocheted throw yesterday.   

in a couple of weeks, my work is sponsoring a silent auction with all proceeds going to one of the katrina victim charities -- which one hasn't been decided.  i'm hoping someone bids on it.

every now and again, i still get a little bit freaked when i look at a clock and it reads 9:11.   so i'm a little surprised that i didn't realize what today was until early this afternoon. i learned of the attacks while riding the number 1 bus on the stretch of mass ave between boylston street and symphony hall.  j was home and he called me on my cell phone to tell me about the first plane.  we both dismissed it as a tragic accident.  minutes later he called me again.  that evening after work -- a day spent doing everything but working -- my friend kate and i went to a candlight vigil at the christian science reflecting pool.  then i went home.  j and i spent 6 hours on the phone, often times saying nothing, just watching the attacks over and over again.  we started dating 9 days later. 

Just Do It!

so i was all set to write a post about crazy aunt purl's intarsia situation and found myself paralyzed with writer's block because  how can i even attempt to write an interesting and amusing blog post when by virtue of linking to her post, my  post will suck by comparison.   suck suck suck.  even my cats are less interesting....

but there's something i've got that she doesn't --- so take that you knitting blogger rock star --- i'm not afraid of intarsia.  so there ...

anyway, the purpose of this post wasn't to be all "in your face" and it wasn't really to educate because i'm not an expert knitter, but rather to show that if i can do it, you can do it. 

first of all, there's no magic with intarsia ... at least i don't think there is.  when switching colors there is one thing to remember  ... be sure to wrap the yarns around each other so that you don't get a hole.  as for whether to use bobbins and weaving in the ends or stranding across the back this is what i do.

if it's a great expanse  of color then i use bobbins (and that's just another way of saying i cut a length of yarn and roll it up into a little ball), but if it's just a little motif here and there or there are only a couple of stitches of color change, i strand.  just like that.  am i 100% correct?  probably not.  i know there's some expert knitter out there who will tell me that i'm wrong, but you know what?  it works for me, and i'm not afraid of intarsia.

case in point ... the "never to be finished although i promised i would finish them last year ... oh shit i just remembered that i forgot her birthday !!!! .... fuck "  chicken pillows.

chicken pillow 1 -- the prototype ...

(it still needs to be blocked, so no mocking)  here's the front.

here's the back.  we've got bobbin work here and very ugly stranding that should not have happened because the expanse of black was too wide.  but hey, i learned and moved on.  but where i had just a couple of stiches of black or color, i stranded.    (yes i still have to weave in the ends.)

here's chicken pillow 2

and here's the back ...

see, not so terrible.  when stranding,  just remember to keep your strands nice and loose to prevent puckering of the fabric.

and here's an example of stranding that actually serves the purpose of creating a warmer, denser fabric.

here's a detail of a sweater i made a hundred years ago (i'm so afraid that the pattern will show up in stitchy's MOKS one day).

and the other side:

let me tell you, this is one warm sweater, but because of all of the cables and bobbles on top, the stranding on the bottom half of the sweater works.  plus, if i had used bobbins and then weaved the ends i would have never finished this sweater.  i probably would have ended up strangling myself with all of the yarn ends.

anyway, my point is, there are no hard and fast rules.  just try different things and see what happens.  the worse that will happen is that it'll suck and you'll have to try something else but unless you blog about it, no one ever needs to know.

and thus concludes "Intarsia and You .... Perfect Together."

Strengths and Weakness

lately i haven't been very happy with my knitting.  a lot of that has to do with this pesky habit i have of comparing myself to others.  my shrugs look like ass.  my ponchos are droopy.  my sweaters don't fit right.

so maybe i'm just focusing my energies on the wrong types of projects.   'cause blankets i can do.

i'm calling this project the fairfield cable blanket (in honor of fairfield university whose colors are red and white).  and i have to say i'm pretty happy with it.

each panel is made up of a different cable pattern.  and yes, that is red heart acrylic in scarlet and off-white.  this blanket will probably get drenched in beer and assorted other liquids (if my niece is half as crazy as i was in college).  i want this blanket to get thrown in the washer and dryer.

after looking through several books for an appropriate edging, i decided on two rows of single crochet.  it couldn't have been easier. 

Back From Fremont

last sunday morning, i packed my bags and headed out to fremont california for work.   the weather was wonderful, dry and warm during the day, breezy and cool at night.  and the surrounding hills, dramatic in their starkness especially against the gorgeous blue sky (especially to a northeasterner) were striking (and made me think of the view from my kitchen window when we lived in tehran, iran).  but i have to say,  fremont has got to be one of the saddest places i've ever been.  just one slightly shabby strip mall and office park after another with a lonely tree or shrub here or there.  but i was there to work and not to have fun.  (i didn't even have time to stop in and visit kate in san jose or stalk rachel in oakland).

but i did have plenty of time to knit.

i finished the last cable strip for the lap blanket (or as i like to call them, hugs) i'm making for my niece who is going to fairfield university in the fall.

i still have to sew it on and then i need to find an appropriate edging. 

and then i started the OSW ... 3 times.  my hands insist that there be an additional k1fb at the end of each right side row.  my head knows better.  i also used the totally wrong yarn -- some much too thin koolaid dyed wool but since i'm really about the process and not so much the product, i figured that if it worked out i could give my finished OSW to a niece.

but my hands are stubborn -- one side still had way too many stitches -- so i bagged it and i'll use the yarn for socks.

this morning, i took out some other scrap yarn and tried again.  since i'm not sure the OSW will be a good look for me, i figured i'd try it first with some crappy yarn.  so far the head has control over the hands.

and how am i supposed to work under these conditions?

Weird Shit

crochet boots.  they exist.  and you can get them here.

What? No Knitting?!

so colleen probably thinks i'm holding out.  with all of that driving, i must have gotten some knitting done.

yeah, well, um, i did.  like a good doo-bee i packed a huge knitting bag filled with books and sock yarn, and scarf yarn, and a few skeins of the precious* cotton-ease in black licorice.

and this is what i made.

 

it looks like shite.  (the pictures suck too but i was really too depressed to continue).

it's supposed to look like this (july 19th post).   hahaha!

i'm trying to decide if  it's worth giving it another go.  maybe making a few adjustments to compensate for my broader shoulders and back.  or maybe it's the cotton-ease (all of you cotton-ease hoarders, cover your eyes) that sucked.   (so glad i didn't hoard).  who knows?   of course it could just be me (i was planning on wearing it with a black t-shirt  not this heinous yellow thing that makes my breasts look like they're  the size of my freakin' head).

all i know is that i'm back to knitting blankets.

Lame Ass Title

it's been 10 days since i last posted.  i don't think i've ever let 10 days go by without a post.

things have been very busy.  work's been nuts.  and j and i have had some sort of social obligation every weekend day (sometimes more than one) and some weekday nights (not counting dates with my boyfriend) since the beginning of may.  HEY PEOPLE WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS LONELY AND HAD NOTHING TO DO IN FEBRUARY!!!!????  anyway, tomorrow i'm taking a well-deserved personal day where i will run around getting passport pictures taken, taking books to my town library for donation (because they are closed on the weekends during the summer so there goes that idea of hanging out in the library some saturday afternoon...i'm a tax payer i should complain to the town elders or the librarian or something), and preparing for the air conditioner man who is coming on thursday to install our brand spankin' new air conditioner.  i *heart* central air.

in the meantime, i've been trying to calm my anxieties (i've learned that i'm not all that good with stress after all) with shopping.  i spent a fortune at j.jill the other day.  (curse them and their sales.  do you know what they do?  after you've placed an order, they send you an email with another link to another double secret sale that you weren't privy to prior to the purchase you made a microsecond before.  fuckers).  and joann had a sale this weekend so of course i had to go to the joann in my town and the one in natick.  the rat bastards at amazon.com sent me an email today with some suggestions.  so you know i had no choice but to order cool crochet, and cozy crochet, both by melissa leapman.

and i'm not done.  i just downloaded the pattern for the one skein wonder (i haven't seen a "big girl" wearing the one skein wonder so we'll see) and unloaded carolyn of some pretty yarn.

someone needs to save me from myself. 

E-VEL Genius

i haven't posted one of these quizzes in a long time.  this one i got from michelle.

Your IQ Is 125

Your Logical Intelligence is Above Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Genius Your General Knowledge is Exceptional

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

i'm a little peeved that my logical intelligence is not genius.  i thought i was always so logical.  (ha!)

in knitting news.... my niece's graduation party is today.  in the fall, she's going off to fairfield university in connecticut.  so i thought she needed a friend to go with her.

i knitted up the sweater and crocheted the scarf.  i was going to emblazon the front with FU but J suggested that i go with the more simple design.   

she's a good, smart kid.  i'm very excited for her.

(plus she thinks i'm cool enough to let me come down and see her WHENEVER I WANT!)

Baby Blankets 'R Us

it's baby season and i've got another baby shower to go to.  so i made a pinwheel blanket but only found the knitalong after i had finished it.  a knitalong i could have actually joined!

it's hard to tell, but i did three strips of 6 rows of garter stitch around the edges and then finished it off with 1 row of single crochet in lavender and 1 row of a single crochet picot stitch that i made up (or unvented probably) in a darker purple.  i thought purple would be a nice alternative to green and yellow.

sorry for the lousy pictures.  in other crafty news .... look what i bought.

i'm afraid to try it without having someone actually show me how.  the roving is too pretty to fuck around with.  know what i mean?

i'll tell you about my trip to portsmouth with the girls later. 

Cats and Dogs

so as you've probably heard, saturday a bunch of us local boston/eastern mass knitters set up shop at wendy's for a taste of yarn/stuff your face/drink tons of sangria party.  because i'm lazy, and don't feel like repeating what has already been written up about this wonderful event, i'm just going ask you all to visit kerstin, elisa , colleen and melanie for some of the details .

but i did get a few pictures.

things started quietly enough.  here are jackie, melanie and colleen trying out some of the very lovely yarns that everyone brought. 

once stitchy's sangria came out though, things then got a little crazy.  here's wendy getting ready to fling herself into a basket of yarn like it was some sort of mosh pit.

luckily i was the only one with my wits about me so i was able to talk her down.  the yarn basket wouldn't have been big enough to break her fall.

then there was the zoo love.  although melanie claims that future man (a most luscious cat) had only eyes for her, the truth of the matter is that as soon as the party ended, future man met me at doyle's for a night cap. 

finally, since i'm an equal opportunity knitter and since no one specified that the yarn we brought actually had to be attractive, i thought it might be fun to bring something ugly as sin.  and ugly it was.  in fact, it was uglier knitted up than it was in the skein.  the name of this yippy dog with mange fur yarn is voodoo by patons. 

A Quick Post

i've got some knitting progress to show.

the fancy clap is fini.

a little detail

this clap was made with 3 skeins of lorna's laces lion and lamb, colorway uptown. 

this was all the yarn i was left with even after decreasing the the number of repeats during section 3 by 2. 

of course the softness of this yarn is wonderful, and i love the drape.  on the other hand, my el cheapo clap is so thick it would choke a horse and is really a winter scarf , but i like the colors better (the colors are better in el cheapo clap in real life.  that picture sucks).

and i  went back to work on a project that i started ages ago.

a blanket for the living room (pay no attention to the ugly couch.  j and i bought a new couch and love seat which should be delivered in about 8 weeks.   i do believe it will be a lovely couch and loveseat although it's hard to tell since i had a hard time stretching the 2 square foot fabric swatch to fit a 7 foot long couch -- so helpful the little tiny swatches).

here's a close-up.

finally, this last picture has nothing to do with knitting but i thought i'd post a picture of my latest shoe purchase.

(psst -- i got them at target -- 12.99)

*Starstruck*

The Yarn Harlot left me a comment. 

I have arrived.

Spring Nor'easter

Todd Gross, the weatherman from WHDH TV in Boston, says we're lucky that we aren't having snow. (trivia of the day:  Todd Gross was the weather man portrayed in The Perfect Storm .)  yeah, whatever.  at least pollen counts are low. 

so other than the fact that we're having crappy weather, nothing is really going on around here.  i'm working on another clap, this one with the lion and lamb that i bought off of carolyn.

j and napoleon are having some quality time together.

and this morning, i made pancakes.  with rocky's help of course. 

who needs a housekeeper?

Jonathan Swift

look what was waiting for me at the door when i got home tonight.

take a closer look

closer

ooh... could it be? 

yes it could!  50% off baby!

Please Let It Be the PMS

i didn't go to work today.  i woke up with a headache, decided to drive in to work, dropped some stuff off at the post-office and then listened to WBZ AM1030's TRAFFIC ON THE THREES   only to find out that there was a multi-car crash right smack in the middle of the mass pike.  so i turned around and went home.  hey, i wasn't feeling well to begin with, and the last thing i wanted to sit in for 2 hours was a traffic jam so give me a break.

i'm in a state of something .. flux.. i don't know.  i think i want to have a kid.  but you know at my age i'm going to have to stop just "thinking" and actually have one, if i'm physically capable of doing so.  and then today, i just got another email from my college about our upcoming 20th reunion.  how can it be that 20 years have gone by since i graduated?  what have i accomplished?  what did i do from 1985 until today?  one major reason i don't want to go is because i'm fat.  another is because i'm not some important doctor or lawyer or indian chief or married to some important doctor or lawyer or indian chief.  (native american chief doesn't have the same rhythm ) .  i'd like to say that i don't really care and really blame it all on the type of school i attended, etc.   and it's true -- it is the type of school i went to -- but i really do care.  yes, i'm paris geller.  or at least i was once.   or should have been.  i was never a rory.  she  is much too well adjusted.  (by the way, abc family is running season 3 reruns every day.  WOO-HOO!!! and season 3 is coming out on dvd May 3rd!!!!)    anyway, enough with the self-loathing.

now to the knitting... on boston marathon day, i had the day off, so instead of fighting the crowds and watching hundreds of people run their asses off like they were being chased down the road  by rabid coyotes , i dyed more yarn. 

here it is  drying.  to get that saturation of red i used 5 packages of cherry koolaid per 1 cup of solution.  the purple you see there required 3 packages of grape.  i like the way the purple came out, but the red,  not so much.  i don't think koolaid does red very well.

here are my little swatches knitted up. 

i'm ready for my close-ups

again, no idea what i'll do with them. 

now i know what i've been doing for 20 years -- being indecisive.

p.s.  i kind of like the bigger pictures.  what do you think? 

Charge IT!

i haven't finished a project since my pre-easter bunny knitting smack down .  well i finished a cowl.   it's way too big and if my boobs were a tad smaller (and of course if i weren't so fat) i could actually wear it as a tube top.   but i've already frogged this thing 3 times.  it started out as a scarf that didn't work out.  then i made a knitted neck warmer from the yarn but that didn't curl my toes.  finally after fucking around with various cable patterns i finally came up with a staggered cable design that was kind of fun to do.  but of course i cast on way too many stitches.  but now i don't care.  it's done.  it's over.  i've even worn it. 

it's a lousy picture but i look and feel like ass so i'm not up to taking more pictures. 

here's a detail of the stitch.   clearly the cowl sucks.  but if i don't show you the crappy stuff then it looks like i don't do any knitting at all.

on the other hand, i've done tons of shopping in the past few weeks.  which is what i do when i don't feel inspired to do anything else.

a few weeks ago there was a sale at ACMoore.  so i picked up some landscapes in my 3 favorite colors (no idea what the hell i'm going to do with it),  some fishermen's wool (for koolaid dyeing) and a lone ball of  trellis.  everyone else has walked down the novelty yarn scarf  path.  i have not.  so i figured what the hell.  hey at least i didn't buy any friggin' fun fur (although i'm thinking that i may buy some in green and steal amy's lawn rug idea. )

then maybe even the same weekend, i went to The Fabric Place in framingham and dropped some coin on ... yes ... a how to knit socks book and bamboo double pointed needle sets in sizes 1, 2 and 3.  (although i'm a classic aluminum needle knitter, the aluminum double points come in sets of 4 needles only -- hence contributing to my frustration with them -- and are  way too slick