No pictures today.

Just quiet contemplations.


I haven't done one stitch of knitting the entire time I've been off on holiday break, though. Since one of my resolutions for next year is to knit more, I like to think of this as a loading phase. I'm loading up my urge to knit so that it overflows and becomes too powerful to ignore in the new year. I have a crapton of yarn that needs knitting on (including two new purchases I will take pictures of tomorrow and post about then -- they are currently in the prophylactic de-mothing process). And I got gifted a pattern that needs, desperately, to be made manifest. It wants to be, and who am I to refuse?

I also, in the new year, want to stop sitting around and watching life, I want to start actually living it. I've been a spectator in my own life for far too long, and it's boring. I know that living my life means I will have to make tons of mistakes and look like an idiot and do all sorts of things I've been told are bad and wrong. But I'm so bored. And I don't think life is to be observed only.

Aside from knitting more and living life instead of watching it pass me by, I have only one more resolution: take a vacation. I'm thinking a daylight tour of Vegas, myself. It's warm, desert-ish, and I'm certain the daylight Vegas is more interesting than people assume.

I think I will enjoy that. And I'll be back with pictures, next time.

A week and a half to go!

Until the new year, that is. Everyone continues to heal up (blessed be), things are peaceful and quiet -- maybe a little too quiet.

Yes, in my family it is tradition to take good fortune as a harbinger of the bad. It's a screwed up way to live, and I wish I didn't do it, but there it is. Particularly after this past year, I'm a little frightened to have faith that life isn't about to stab me in the back.

I'm working hard on mom's mink neckwarmer. It's beautiful and soft as kittens, and I love it. She will enjoy it, too, I know. Plus, being an infinity scarf, she won't lose it. The benefits of felting an acrylic/mohair blend scarf by wearing it -- you get it replaced with mink.

I'm lining up my projects for next year, and I'm spoilt for choice. I've already decided to join my hermit's club's Ravellenics team -- Team Knit Alone. We don't officially register for the games, just knit along. I'm going to finish my Hue Shift Afghan because my colorway is the shockingly appropriate "Rainbow".

Look at the rainbow -- LOOK AT IT!!!!

I'm also thinking about working on my Double Cross scarf, because it has sparkles. Rainbows and sparkles? Oh, yeah.

Sparkly rainbows would be better, but I'm limited by my stock

 

I've been trying to narrow down my book list, but am not having much luck in figuring out which books to remove. Truman Capote will have to come off, sadly -- In Cold Blood is, technically, non-fiction. I think I may have to simply choose a book by an author who has several on the list as I come to the author on the list. I'd have to read two books a week, on average, to hit 100 books next year anyway, and that's not going to be feasible. I have a hard time mustering up enthusiasm for literature, anyway, not sure I could make it through two a week. That's like...eating peas every day for every meal. Urgh. I'll just have to see how many I can get through. Anything over three will be a major improvement for me.

 

I only have one more work day left before we close the office for the holidays. Wheee! I won't finish up mom's scarf in the next three days (unless I give up going to the bathroom in favor of sitting for the whole day in my chair, knitting like a fiend), but that's ok. I'm sure I'll get it done over the holiday break. Then I can maybe move on to another project, pick a book and get started on all my goals at once. 

 

But for now, I'm off to watch the first episode of season one of Sherlock. I need to watch them all over again before the third season starts up on the 19th. Possibly twice.  

2013, I will be glad to be quit of you!

On the one hand, you could say my family has had wretched luck this year. On the other, you could say, we've had terrific luck.

I mean, if his kidneys hadn't started failing, my father would be dead of a massive heart attack by now. If the angle of hit had been any degree different, my brother would be dead in a hit and run accident instead of recovering from surgery for a broken pelvis. If it had been a tumor instead of a stroke, my mother's cat would have no chance for recovery, instead of the 75% he's got (and she really, really, really needs her little furry friend right now).

I'm not sure what that adds up to, other than I'm really tired of this year and for what feels like the first time ever, I'm looking forward to next year. Hopefully it will be way, way better -- or at the very least, much more calm. We wouldn't have needed our fabulous luck if we hadn't had so much bollywoggle going on. So no bollywoggle for a little while, just enough time for me to get bored again...yeah. That's what I want for Christmas.

Do you think Santa can slide some peace and quiet under there?

I'm making progress on the one and only knitted Giftmas gift I am working on -- an eternity scarf for Mater Gloriosa made out of Lotus Yarns Mink. Mink. 

 

All your arguments are invalid at the word 'mink'. It's soft and squishy and I'm enjoying greatly working on this. Of course, I still have the green mink for myself that I'm going to be working with to look forward to in 2014.

Not sure what I'll make myself, but after this year, I should be knitting for myself in all mink. 

Although I think my first order of business is going to be scheduling a nice vacation for myself and a friend someplace warm. I'm thinking Vegas. Not the 'flashy-lighty, ringing-slot machine, screaming old ladies' Vegas, but the real Las Vegas. The daylight Vegas. They have museums and places of interest and national parks. And the sun shines there, and it's warm. 

I'm thinking I may have to find a week or two in February because if I wait too much longer, I may go spare and beat someone up with a stick. And no one wants that.

In other news, next year is going to be my "Year of The Novel". I have a list of 134 books that were considered by someone  to be great novels from the 20th century (before you ask, yes, I took all Ayn Rand's stuff off there -- the cat had a stroke, I don't want to have one, too). I'm not sure how to liquidate that down further, other than maybe choosing one novel by each author (some of them have as many as four books listed). I was actually even going to remove V. S. Naipaul from the list on the basis of I have no idea who he is, but then a quick Google search told me he and I share a birthday. So he must be awesome. I will have to read both of his books on the list.

And since I doubt my knit coven is going to buy the leftovers of another yarn shop next year, I'll maybe actually make progress on the destashing front. I hope so, my yarn stash is getting out of hand!

Let's hope next year goes half as well as I'd like it to -- peace and quiet and reading and knitting. I could use a little boring.

My mother, the enabler

I called my mother this evening from My Favorite Big Box Store. I had gone for one item, but it wasn't there, so I consoled myself by trolling the cross stitch book aisle. I've been designing a cross stitch sampler in my head, and looking into alphabet books, small item patterns and the like.

It's a sickness, a very, very special sickness.

I found one and was browsing the others to make sure it was really the one I wanted, when a woman approached me for help in matters yarnish. I assisted her with finding a yarn to go with her beginner's crochet hook and book, then started browsing the yarn myself. As I have more yarn than Big Box Store does, thank you, Yarnia, you'd think I wouldn't find anything worth buying, would you? And you'd be wrong. Wrongitty-wrong-wrong, as it turns out.

I went down the Lion Brand aisle. BIG mistake! I saw their Hometown USA yarns. They had a team colors version in Da Phew's school colors -- and a general home town version in the 'accent' color. All bulky yarns. Shockingly soft, for Lion Brand. I'm so super pleased that the major yarn companies seem to have gotten the memo that knitters, crocheters and other yarn fanciers prefer their acrylic soft, but sheesh. Makes impulse buying just too easy.

So to control myself I whip out my cell phone and call my mother. I say, "Either I don't need any more yarn, or you need a scarf in Phew's school colors." The lady next to me snorted in laughter, and I end up walking out with this:

Because I need more yarn.

Sigh. I guess I should just accept that I'll always be easily seduced by spun fiber, but it's aggravating. I mean, where will I keep this stuff until it's knitted up and Mom is wearing it? I have no earthly idea.

And the whole thing is compounded by the fact that earlier today I impulse shopped this little gem:

I guess the army wives stuck in Berlin during the blockade got bored and decided to cheer themselves by writing a cookbook based on the trouble you can get up to with limited 'vittles'. It's got a recipe for making cottage cheese out of powdered milk. And a soup made out of cream of wheat.

Oh, there's normal stuff in there (creamed spinach, various sausage dishes, Toad in the Hole, etc.), and a punch for a party that made me realize that while they didn't have fresh milk, they totally had the contents of sixty liquor stores hidden in their basements. It calls for 20 bottles of wine and cognac. YeBobs. I'd think you'd get high off the fumes, never mind drinking the thing!

It's perfect bound, which means that even though I was the first person to turn the pages, and that about six hours ago, they're already falling out. I will have to make a trip to my local FedEx/Kinkos and avail myself of their spiral binding services again.

I do that with all my softcover cookbooks, actually. I got in the habit with my piano music books, and realized it would make using those cookbooks so much easier. They lay flat on the counter! You don't have to worry overmuch about losing pages! It's a wonder, and no mistake.

Beggared

But happy about it.

Is that a contradiction?

I had this ring:

It's a lab created sapphire, so chemically, technically, it's a real sapphire. Just, you know, nobody stole the stone from an ancient temple or shot their slave labor when they got a bad cough to bring it to the surface, you know?

I loved it. I loved it like buttah. But the underside of the band looked like this:

And it was sharp as fresh-broken glass. I could wear it, so long as I didn't put it on or take it off too often. I can't tell you how many times I managed to shave the hair off my knuckles with that thing. But I still loved it, and even though it's probably the only piece of jewelry that was worth anything, I never sold it. It's special to me.



Which is silly. It's just a pretty rock set in metal. But sentiment is what sentiment is, so I held onto it all through my 'freelance writer' years.

Still and all, I have a job now. And with a job comes a paycheck. I bethought myself, Self, I can get this fixed now and can wear it without doing myself physical harm. 

So I carried it off to my jeweler (yes, I have a jeweler -- anyone who is such a magpie as I has a jeweler) and sought remedy. Sadly, I couldn't get the band fixed, not without filling it in underneath (to the painfully high tune of $800).

I chose instead to have the stone reset into a new band.

He came home today:

It's a simple, smooth band. Way more comfortable, and the extra light around the stone is making him sparkle like a stick coated in gunpowder.



Super. Duper. Happy.

It will never look so good again!

I made a cottage pie for dinner tonight, because it's that sort of weather, and initially I was pretty sure I buggered it up. I put too much milk into the mashed potatoes, so I put more cheese into them than I typically do in an attempt to save it (under the theory that "there is no such thing as too much cheese" -- which is practically a law of the universe now, not a theory anymore).

I got it all put together and popped it in the oven for a final meld. I then hit it with the broiler to make the cheese on top brown up.

I managed to turn off the broiler before it became toast in a bad way. I'll never get it this pretty again, no matter how hard I try:

Toasty, golden and perfectly browned in just enough spots to give crunch, but not so many as to make you think overdone. How did I manage that?

It looks pretty good inside, too.

Aside from making myself and the family some damn handsome kib (if I do say so myself), I went on a date with myself this morning. I went to see The Fifth Estate. I don't know why I wanted to see it so badly (that's a total lie, I do know why: Benedict Cumberbatch), but I did, so I managed to find some free time this afternoon. I spent two more dollars than I prefer to in terms of ticket price going to my second choice theater, but it was the only showing I could swing before prices went way up at 5pm.

It was me and two other couples in the theater, nice and quiet. I do have to admit that surprise at what I was watching forced me twice to make sotto voce comments along the theme of What the hell is wrong with you? That's one of the dumbest things I've seen a person admit to doing!

At the end, I sat there for a few moments, digesting it silently, and the woman in the couple sitting closest to me turned to her companion and asked, "What the hell did we just watch?" I wanted to shout out, "Preach, sister", or possibly "I know your feelz", but I restrained myself and just left before the lights were even fully up. It was an unsettling film, in a way I don't quite understand, and I don't like thinking too closely about it right now. Perhaps in a few days I'll know all that I'm thinking about it, and that will make me feel better.

In either case, the quiet of the car during the drive home gave me time to realize there are two main lessons to take away from that movie.

1. Just because someone has an undiagnosed personality disorder does not make him wrong all the time.

2. While it is true that, like the rest of us, someone on the Autism Spectrum can be a jackass, not all jackasses are Autistic. Sometimes, they're just jackasses.

Let's stop confusing the two, hmmm?

Now, I'm off for pie and a little knitting before I make some ice cream bread for breakfast tomorrow. I may even free hand some streusel topping, just because I can.

Fun and Games

So, today I actually had to go shopping. I'm dreadfully short on work clothing. I guess four years of unemployment will do that to you. So I had to remedy it.

I actually spent nearly two hours shopping -- it sucked, but not as much as I thought it would. I got two pair of pants, two pair of shoes (hey, they were buy one, get one 30% of; who am I to say no?), a couple pair of pants for my father, a stadium seat for my mom (nephew's football games; those seats are brutal) and then rewarded myself by allowing a small splurge ($40) in the bookstore. Everything is clean and hanging up in my closet. I'm just waiting on the towels and undies to finish tumbling dry, and then I'm off to bed myself.

I'm not going to lie, that thought makes me happy.

But before that, I went grocery shopping with my mom. I, uh, indulged in the store.

LEGO!!!! I love LEGO. I got me a little 'fire in a dumpster' City set and the Gandalf/Sauron show-down set. Yes, I got nerd LEGOs. Hey, it's got a teensy-weensy Palentir:

It spins. Wicked cool.

Anyway, I've made progress on my blanket:

I seem to enjoy knitting on this while watching Sleepy Hollow on the DVR. Something about that show inspires me to knit bias squares in garter stitch. Pehaps it's the knee boots and breeches?

I dunno. Whatever it is, I hope it keeps going for a while. I need this blanket finished.

I'm also making progress on my Nemesis stole, but I don't have a picture of that. Not that you could tell I've added an inch to it from pictures. I think I won't be taking any pictures until it's visually very different -- ie, when I get at least halfway through. It is growing, just not that fast.

I still consider this past week a win -- I knit most nights out of the week. That's more than I usually do.

Now, if I can just keep that going!

Season changes

Ugh. The change in seasons is totally kicking my backside. The lack of light in the mornings, particularly. This is what made working for myself so awesome -- I got up with the sun, whatever hour that happened to be. And it was wonderful. Now I'm driving to work in what feels like the middle of the night, and it's taking me about three hours every morning to feel like a human again.

Not cool. Particularly when my phone starts ringing an hour in.

So in between being exhausted and cranky as all get out, I have been doing some knitting:

It's grown. Not by a ton, but some.

I've also, in the past week, started working on this:

This is my Hue Shift Blanket. Hey, it's still on sale! Trust me, it's a good deal. This is what, eventually, it will look like:

 

The corner I just did is the bottom left. Looks darker in their photo than mine does, actually it looks darker than the yarn itself. Perhaps it's the lighting.

Anyway, I bought it a few weeks ago because it was on sale and I wanted it, and I'm not at all unhappy with my purchase. The pattern is simple -- it makes good tv knitting -- but not so simple I fall asleep while knitting it. This, to my mind, is perfection in knitting.

My only complaint is the instructions that are included. I had to have a friend help me interpret them, in particular the order in which you knit the squares, which is just wrong, imho. It's obvious enough, I suppose, if you read the written instructions first and don't look at the pictures below that show you how to pick up stitches. But the diagrams seem to indicate one thing, while the wording describes another. My tip: Follow the written directions, ignore the illustrations unless you need help figuring out how to pick up stitches. And she gives no specifications on how to put on the border -- I swear to you that the instructions for the border are "With (black yarn), knit a Garter st border around the blanket."

That's it. Now, I'm experienced enough to figure it out even though I've never knit a border onto a blanket before, but I can only imagine what a newb without a knit group (or Ravelry, and that thought is sending me into palpitations) would feel. She doesn't tell you how many stitches to pick up per square for your border, or which sides to knit first (which doesn't really matter, I suppose, since the blanket is square), or even specify that you knit it on along the side (as opposed to knitting it on, so that you're only knitting something like four stitches but attaching it every row and then mitreing the corners.)

I'm aggravated on the newbs' behalf, really. I mean, the design is beautiful, and it's really clever color work, but someone is falling asleep in the editing department. It's not difficult if you're fairly aware of the rule to read the instructions before you begin (granted, a failing of mine) and can guess what sort of border to put on, but it can initially be very confusing.

That's all the knitting news that's fit to print lately. My big debate is this: We've got weather rolling in tomorrow -- thunderstorms. I love thunderstorms. But it's Sunday, my traditional movie day. Do I go to the movies and then clothes shopping? Or do I stay in, sit all cuddled up in my chair with cocoa, chocolate croissants and my knitting and watch the storms?

Oh, my. I just answered my own question there, didn't I?

Repurposing

I have this shawl, well, I had this shawl I was knitting from a pattern called Nereides. I would link to that pattern, but it's useless unless you're on Ravelry.

Oh, well, fine. Here you go.

It's basically just a sea-foam stitch stole with a beaded thread running through it. It's designed for a thick and thin yarn, and when I first fell in love with it, I had no idea what else to do with thick and thin yarn. I had bigger issues with gauge (oy, did I have issues with gauge) than I was going to be creating with the yarn itself, and I knew this, but I was still curious. So I saved the pattern (and a good thing, too; it was on the ill-fated MagKnits and I didn't find it on Ravelry until just lately) and hunted down some yarn:

It's thick and thin, it's got an ocean-themed color scheme and (best of all) at the time it was on steep clearance, so I picked up 10 skeins for a ridiculously low price.


I got the yarn and promptly cast on. And screwed up, frogged back and cast on again. Rinse, repeat twice more. At that point, I gave up and let it stew in its own juices for nearly 5 years.

I finally started destashing this year, and one of the destashing groups had a competition, where you got points for age of yarn and age of pattern. I had nearly 10 points just sitting there, waiting for me, so I pulled it out, frogged, cast on and started up again.

Aaaaaand...frog, cast on, rinse, repeated again, another three times.

At that point, I started to think this pattern and that yarn are just not destined to be, you know? When a yarn tries this hard not to be a pattern, you just have to respect its decision.

So frogged the Nereides for the last time and cast on for Nemesis:

The name seemed appropriate. And look at how the stitch pattern is turning out:

I know, I know, it's hard to see. It probably won't be any better until after it's blocked open a little. If then. The color swirls are a bit...confusing, which is why I went for something simple. I didn't want a garter stitch, and a broken rib is a good compromise. The fringe will really make the thing, I think. Fringe is one of those things, like butter or hairspray, that is usually best in moderation, but has its proper place in the world.

Nemmie and I have been working together for two weeks now, and so far, we're getting along just fine. I think the yarn is much, much happier with this stitch pattern than the sea foam.

I'd wonder why the yarn cares, but..eh. Even I have only so much taste for the surreal.

Is it possible? Is it just possible that I have too much yarn?

I think it might be, honestly.

I have so much yarn, in fact, that I want to knit it all up -- at the same time. I'm like a kid in a candy store with free rein to eat whatever I want. Where does one start in that sort of situation?

Do I go with some of my silk:

Or do I go with some nice wool:

And then there's the ominous "Unknown" fiber category, which sadly includes my most luxurious yarn:

Camel.

I want to simultaneously knit it and roll on it.

I can't decide! Maybe I'll just go back to what I was doing anyway:

Either way, I think I'll just go work on this scarf. It's proceeding apace, it's already on the needles, and I like it.

Plus, sparkles.

Well, yeah, so...no.

So my move got put off...indefinitely. Things happened, and stuff got assumed, and I came to my senses before I actually signed anything that would contractually obligate me to live paycheck to paycheck (thank Bob; I'm going to Paris next year with my choir -- I'll eat unwaxed, organic cardboard before I miss that for anything other than a super-duper compelling reason, and getting on a property ladder I've never really wanted to climb is not compelling, much less super-duper so). So I have not moved, and won't.

Oh, I will, just not there. And not for a few months. It was brought home to me (by siblings, oddly enough) that I should wait until my father is home from his medically necessitated stint in a rehab facility (why does Amy Winehouse run through my head whenever I say that? He's not even in that sort of rehab!) If only for my mother's peace of mind, and so that someone keeps an eye on her, because Bob knows the brother who lives here won't. So probably not until this winter. And when I do move, it will be to a downtown apartment, close enough to my office I can walk/bike to work. Which was my original intent, until my friend offered me a place that was larger than your average apartment, with neighbors I know and at a comparable rate.

Sigh. Back to the drawing board!

Anyway, I've accomplished something despite the stress and angst and wangst.

See? See what I have left? Here, let me show you what I have made:

Whirligigs! Tons of them! Well, actually...8x4x2...63. There was one skein I only got three whirligigs out of, and that's ok. It wasn't my favorite color.

Now I just need to string them, add some beads to them to make them hang properly, and get a Christmas sparkly garland to wrap around them to hang on my tree. It will be the sparkliest Christmas you ever seen, y'all. For realz.

I also had my midlife...well, not a crisis, per se. But I think on the decades I should be allowed to do something that is not "go to work, go to bed, eat your veggies", you know? When I turned 30, I got my tattoo. When I turned 20, I got depressed. I figure now that I'm 40, I'm entitled.

Oh, get over it, I didn't do anything stupid. I just did this:

 I think the most unusual thing about it is that I only got one cartilege piercing. Usually you get them in bunches, but my OCD says I can only have an odd number of earrings if I'm going to have more than two. I'm up to three. That's a perfect number. It's in my left ear, because my right ear is my telephone ear -- a very important consideration when you're a receptionist.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go knit something. I haven't been able to do a lot of knitting lately -- as I'm sure you'll understand -- but I have a few minutes today. I'm a little tired and worn down, and I need fiber therapy.

Next month is going to suck.

So, I've finally done it. I've procrastinated on it for ages, found a million excuses not to do it, but finally, time has caught up to me.

Next month, I move house. To a space of my very own. No roomies, no family members, no one but me and my cat.

Yes, I'm freaking out. But I've consoled myself with the knowledge that I can have my very own craft room. I'm going to put it in what is supposed to be the dining room, but honestly -- who wants guests when you can have your very own craft room? So I'm going to have a table (a long folding table) where I will keep my sewing machine and bookbinding equipment, my stash is going to be apportioned around the entire condo (for a condo it is -- twice the size of the largest apartment I can afford, if I chose to live without eating or turning on the lights) so I'm never too far from my yarn. I may even get a cutting board for my sewing projects, leave that out on the table. I will have to be the Pin Police, though, because of my cat.

Of course, all the moving and setting up and painting and having heart attacks because I'm going to be responsible for all the living expenses I incur is going to seriously impact my crafting time, though. At least for a few weeks.

I'm not happy about that, but once I get moved in, settled and have my cable hooked up...oh, yeah. Then I'll be knitting with gas! (OK, not gas -- the heat is from a boiler system run on kerosene, but you know what I mean.)

Slooooowly but surely...

life is returning to normal. Ish. For me. Which is to say, completely abnormal, but that's perfectly normal in this house. If you know what I mean.

Sigh.

At least I've been knitting lately.

Well, ok, so not on that one, per se. I finished that color off a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm on to oatmeal color, and when that skein is done (in two more rows), I knit up the last of the mini-skeins (a royal purple one I saved up just special for the purpose) and the knitting part of the project is done. Then I get the joy of turning the whole shebang into garland! Whee!

Tonight I had a really fabulous 50% off coupon from Favorite Big Box that I had to use before it went defunct. I need a new pattern holder, For Reasons, so I went and enjoyed the view of my new playground:

Yesssss. Miles and miles and miles of cotton prints, and that's not even the bits that are full of unnatural fibers. But I've never sewn anything with stretch, and I'm told stretch changes the game a bit, so perhaps I'll focus on my cotton apron first. Walk, jog, then run.

Anyway, I'm still crafting a bit, slowly recovering my fiber mojo, and I've discovered that this blog is invaluable for helping me keep track of what I knitted/cross stitched/whatevered when. And it's a great place to keep my pattern notes. Blogging has a purpose, other than weird, mildly pointless navel-gazing. Who knew?

Also, just in the interest of self-documentation, two weeks ago, my friend who bought the Yarnia brought in a bag of yarn to coven night. Her purpose was to rid herself of some leavings. Again, in a gang-like initiation ceremony, everyone had to take something from the bag. Even me.

So, despite the fact that I need more yarn like I need another hole in my head (although when the sinuses go up, it would be a relief), I left with four of these:

two of these (one in a dark brown, one in a rust color):

and one each of the following:

Some nice vintage stuff in there, as you can see. I admit I was originally tempted by the hot pink of the Versailles (a French yarn, the color is even listed as Flamant Rose) before, but I abstained. However, since it soon became for free...

Eh. It doesn't quite go with my skin color, but that's ok. I like it well enough to just look at it!

Oh, and before I forget:

Giraffe Hat! 

Ugh.

There's been a lot of nonsense going on, and not of any good kind. The last two months...let's just pretend they didn't happen for the most part, shall we? Hospitals, surgery and angst, oh, my. Everyone's still alive, the one in danger is mostly out of it and it's just about all done but the shouting, so it's all ok right now. But let's just say I'm drinking far more than the recommended 4 oz. daily serving of red wine right now, and it's barely making a dent in the tension in my neck.

It's been that sort of two months.

But I had to come and brag. I mean, I've hardly gotten any knitting done (hardly; I've been working on holiday twizles at work on occasion, and started knitting on a scarf while in a surgery waiting room at the hospital that I may never touch again), but I did do some research and decide to get THIS:

W00t! Now I can make my apron, and some other fun stuff, too. I mean, look at all the stitches that come with:

25 built in stitches! 59 stitch combinations, whatever the heck that means!

And and plus plus:

five extra smurfy feet, in addition to the regular one that comes with.

It was on sale. I moved on it. I feel good about that.

Or perhaps it's the wine. Hopefully, things will start returning to normal, so I can blog more. Hell, so I can knit more. I'm getting real tired of hospital waiting rooms, the regular sort of hospital rooms and just...hospitals in general.

Wish us luck.

I knitted something!

Nothing I've told you about knitting as I was knitting it before, though.

Well, I've spoken about the Lil' Giraffe hat, I just haven't shown it. Adorable, isn't it, even unfinished as pictured here?

I have finished the ears and just have to tack them on, and then I have to decide about the stripes and a ridge of hair between the horns.

Although, the source material hasn't got a tuft of hair between the horns:

Say it with me: D'aawwwww!

Must be nice to be able to use your own butt as a pillow. Although that could get weird, too.

Oh, well. Onward and upward! Next week I'll be moving on to something else. Not sure what. None of the projects I have on the needles really appeals right now. Then again, it took me nearly a month to finish up a simple hat with horns and floppy ears, so.... Maybe my knitting slump continues.

The slump came on as I took on that frieght of yarn. Could it perhaps be that I have too much yarn? Could I have acquired so much yarn that I am in some sort of mental freeze from option shock? Are there too many choices facing me down for my own peace of mind?

Or I'm overthinking it and I'm just a bit tired. Gah.

Hi! *waves enthusiastically from the elbow* Hi!

It's late, I should definitely be in bed, but (in order of importance)
1. I'm hungry,
2. I've been gone for a long time and I should update while the iron is hot, so to speak, and
3. I'm not entirely sure what I just heard.

Oh, and:
4. Yarnie things.

1. It's been a long day. Hell, it's been a long month. I'm lucky I got lunch in my person today, never mind dinner -- which I did most emphatically not get. Suck.

2. I've spent more time in hospitals in the past month (never fear, as a guest, not an inmate) than I care to ever again. I'm in expectation that the inmate I visit will be released on time in three weeks (he's in a rehab center now; beaurocracy and American Medicine -- ha! -- being what it is, it's cheaper for him to go into a rehab center than take the medications he needs outside of one. Riddle me the logic of that one, Batman.) If not, I think he'll probably break out of an evening and walk home. And I don't blame him one bit.

3. For the first time in nearly two years, I went to the symphony tonight. For those as what hasn't been with me all along (ie, most of you, if there are any you out there), I used to have season tickets. Economy being what it was, I had to give up the habit. But as I now have legal employment, I splurged. Tonight's soloist was Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and I've seen him before, and he's incredible. I'm not, however, entirely sure to make of the piece he played -- a little tune written for him by one James MacMillan called Piano Concerto No. 3, The Mysteries of Light. It was a thoroughly modern, atonal and jangly bit of noise, and reinforced my firm notion that most Scottsmen are, like the lovely Lord Byron, "mad, bad and dangerous to know."

There were places I felt thoroughly lost in (and, frankly, by) the sounds, and others that were...disturbingly beautiful. I am unsure, on the whole, if I liked it or not. On the one hand, Jean-Yves Thibaudet. On the other, I'm not sure what the hell I was listening to.

That can't really be a good sign, can it?

4. Oh, yes. Yarnie things.

To beat some imagery over the head until it hurts, on hand the first, I'm almost done with a project. I have no pictures, because it's late, I'm lazy, and it's just a hat. Plus, I haven't been thinking of things bloggerific due to point number 2, so there are no "in progress" pictures, no cutesy things to write about it. It's pretty much therapeutic at this point. I'll show it to you eventually, no worries.

Plus, plus, plus, and, last weekend was the local fiber festival.

I only got two skeins of yarn (duh, do you not remember my vast yarn binge of just two months ago? I sure do; it sits around me every day, keeping me warm as toast fresh out of the toaster,) but I was really aiming for quality over quantity.

Skein the first: Camo Boy, by Knit to a T Fibers. Merino wool, fingering weight, 400 yards. I’m thinking scarf.

Skein the second (ironically, the first purchase of the day): 100% Merino fingering weight, hand dyed yarn, 550- yards (give or take) in some pretty foresty greens, dyed by the lady who did the yarn for my Loki scarf.

I love this yarn, and her colors are so incredibly saturated and beautiful…. It’s an honor to get to knit with her stuff, you know?

Anyway, I’ve reported in, eaten my bagel and now I must be off to sleep. I’m about to pass out at my keyboard, anyway.  It’s been a long-ass month – did I mention that already?

Nighty-night!

Ugh. Stuff and nonsense, nonsense and stuff.

I've been catching up on the minutae of life, and it's dragging me down. I am still not, by and large, feeling the yarn, but if I was, I'd have no time to knit at all!

Still at least I've made plans for some crafting.


I'm going to make an apron like Abby's on NCIS. I'm not usually a skulls and roses type girl, but there's something about this fabric that's insanely cheery. And it'll hide stains a treat (except on the skull bits themselves.)

You can see a bit of it here:

I've bought the fabric (and the pattern this apron is based on), and would show you but BLOGGER IS BEING A WANKER and keeping me from uploading my pictures. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'll come back tomorrow or the next day to put my own picture up.

HA! I win the intarwebz! It only took me, what, an hour and a half to find a workaround? Yeesh.


It's pretty exciting. Of course, this means I have to get my mom's machine cleaned and primed. Or find a fairly cheap one for myself, which might be a good option, too.

In other news, I'm actually making a Lil' Giraffe Hat. I'm currently in the middle of the endless rounds of yellow knit, before the decreases. It'll be a while before I have something to show you all.

I'm overtaken today by a strange lassitude, and I don't want to do anything. I'm not sure what's sucked the motive energy out of me; perhaps, as the Harry Potter movie marathon on Family today is implying, I've attracted a dementor. Although I wouldn't say I'm depressed, per se, just...don't wanna. Whatever it is, don't wanna.

Maybe I'll do a few more rounds of hat and watch some of my DVR'd shows. Maybe that will perk me up?

What the what-what?

This month has been busy-busy, and I'm exhausted. Between the weather making like a massively awful rollercoaster and the extra writing I've been taking on, I could just plotz. Right here. And I haven't been feeling the knitting.

Yes, I said it. I'm not feeling the yarn right now.

I have sixty trillion skeins of totally sexy new yarn, a million-billion patterns and projects I want to use them with, and I'm just not into it right now.

I feel so empty. So alone.

I have been working, though, on a new project.

My Wollmeise Clapotis. A word which, thank you Google Translator, means "the sound of waves lapping on the shore."


I love the way some ideas are encapsulated in one word for some languages, and other languages have to use more to express the exact same idea. I mean, yes, clapotis can be translated to just 'lapping', but in English we have to express what is lapping where in order to make sense of that word. Apparently, the French already know those two things.

Sort of like how we stole the word defenestration for English. Bob I love that word. It makes me so happy, I can't even express it.

I'm still not much in a knitting mood, but now I'm in a cheerful one, and that's almost as good. :-)