Holidays Got Me CrayZay

I hate the holidays. Have I said that before? I hate the holidays.

Although I took two weeks off work this year, and it was helpful. The Rex had his surgery (now he has his second bionic knee), everyone came to the house, ate all the food, I caught a cold and slept for four days straight, and then I bought some yarn.

Crazy, right?

To start the new year....

Have I posted at how random I find the Western New Year's Eve? Because I do. It's just past the solstice, which to my thinking would make a way more logical place to start a new year, but not quite to any change of weather or astrological season. It's...bizarre.

And pointless. Any day can be the start of a new year for you. You just have to make it so.

However our culture decreed (at some point in the dim and misty past) that this would be the start of a new year. We would measure our trip around the sun by this day.

Stupid.

Oh, well. I do have this to console me:

Well, I have the pink one. The green is languishing in layaway until tomorrow, when I get paid and can ransom it. But then they will be together again.

The bottom one is a bamboo-merino wool blend (superwash) and the green is a silk-merino (ALSO superwash!) I'm thinking I may need to design my Pi Shawl and work it in two colors. Or something like that -- I've got some serious yardage working between the two. The pink is 520 yards, the green over 600.

Either way, if that's what celebrating the new year gets me, pass the champagne!

Aughnonononononono!

So, I was working on a Giftmas present for Nieceling. I got a yarn I thought was going to work, finished up two days ago, popped it in the washer (it said it was machine washable yarn) and....

It pilled up!!!

I am so verklempt right now. It was adorable and now it's just...just...fuzzy.

I will have to promise her to make one out of good yarn. Sturdy yarn.

I'm off to KnitPicks now, because say what you will about their policies, they have some sturdy as hell acrylics that are soft, durable and do not pill. 

Here is Rex, to cheer me up:

Come to my pillow fort, we can snuggle

Nobody comes here anymore, so....

I guess it's safe to post this here:

It's a glimpse of patterns to come. Just the colors, no detail work yet. I'll be posting the pattern shortly after Christmas (if only because I won't be getting a good overall photo until Christmas day.) The prototype is a gift for someone (shh, don't tell), and will be getting pulled out of a bag and (hopefully) worn for the first time that day. I hope she likes it.


It's really simple, and nothing anyone with a half an ounce of knitting experience couldn't reverse-engineer, but eh. Feels good to be getting my toes into the design waters again. If nothing else, it gives me an extra push to finish it -- so I can write it down and get it ready.

I'm such a weenie, that I should need an extra push to finish up a pattern. I don't like deadline knitting, but there's really no point in resisting it -- it's not like anyone forced me to knit this, I chose to do it. I get so frustrated with myself sometimes!

I have help in the knitting:

Nice picture, eh? I caught him in mid-scritch. Found it adorable, to be honest. Long curly whiskers, little floofy toes....

A total affront to my dignity, that last picture. What if I had been grooming?!?!?

I have other help, too, but of the "giant canine version of a yarn moth" sort. So I don't knit in front of my downstairs tv anymore. Someone might eat my yarn.

Hey. How you doin'?

 

HappyLight, I love you!

The past two years have been...eventful, to say the least. Being of a highly strung disposition, this has been giving me fits. Since late summer, I've been getting progressively more and more down. Not constantly, but, bouncing down and then just not rebounding as high, if you know what I mean.

I decided that until I get into the habit of yoga and puppy snuggling kicks in and improves my mood, I would get myself a HappyLight to keep the dark of winter from adding to my problems. I mean, I'm having enough problems dealing with the positive changes in my life, adding cold dark on top of it...yeah. No.

I've been using it during the week at work -- it fits nicely on my desk, you see. I haven't thought much of it, to be honest. I've been holding pat on the whole "getting depressed" thing, thought maybe I had just found a plateau to sit on.

Then I forgot to turn it on yesterday morning.

Holy Bob, y'all. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is Rex snuggled up in my furry blanket, curled up on Mom's lap, practically purring in canine Nirvana, and 1 is being completely ennervated into a soggy lump by existential despair, I was somewhere around a 3 (barely functional, weepy, wired and tense from near panic attack levels of anxiety). It was horrible. I could hardly wait to get to work this morning just so I could turn on that stupid light box.

And it works, just in case you wondered. I feel way, way, way better tonight. Praise Bob.

Although getting some knitting in may have helped, too. I worked my old desk today, for a couple of hours. I had a nice big window in front of me, music, an obvious heater at my feet...and my yarn.

I am, by the way, working on a new pattern. It's pretty basic, but I'll cut people in on it. I want to get back to designing in my off hours. I'm tired of not doing anything more strenuous than watching tv. I also need to get back to making myself dinner, with like vegetable and vitamins and stuff. All these changes, all the dark and gloomy, wet weather have apparently really been bringing me down.

But I have HappyLight now. And I felt good enough today to take the dog for a walk, so I'm hopeful that I'l be feeling good enough to make decent meals, which will help me feel better as well, and it will become a positive habit spiral that will get me out of the negative spiral I've been heading into.

I love you, HappyLight!

Oh, that was ugly.

The Super Bowl. Yeesh. I enjoy a good football game, but I don't think that bloodbath qualifies.

Anyway, I'm prepping my Ravellenics Games projects. I don't usually participate (deadlines on my hobbies and life's little joys sort of give me hives), but this year I found the only two teams that give me the latitude to work hard or not at all.

So I finally got my yarn out for the third and most interesting of my Ravellenics projects -- a pair of armwarmers I've been designing for ages. Here's the yarn:

To give you a hint of how old this project is, that yarn is discontinued. Not that it takes much, because yarn lines and colors go out of fashion all the time, but it's fairly standard sock yarn in kettle-dyed, mildly variegated colors.

Weep with me.

It's a stranded color work project, too. So what I needed to start this project up is a multi-strand yarn organizer. My local Big Box was remarkably short on that item, so I'm improvising my own in a fairly clever way, if I do say so myself. Wanna se?

First, you take two plastic shopping bags -- I went with fairly small ones for this project. 

Then you wedge your yarn in there and pull the center strand out of each of the skeins (making them all center pull skeins):

Then you thread one strand of each through each of the handle holes:

Hey, presto! Each yarn has its own little handle hole, and all tangling will occur outside the yarn bags.

Yes, it's a bit ghetto, but it'll work. You'll see. Eventually. When I get around to, you know, actually knitting on this thing.

Dammit, Yarnia!

Yarnia's portals ope'ed wide yet once more, and this was thrown out and into my hot little hands.

Now I have to figure out a pattern that ties to both Fasching and Wiener Schnitzel.

A knitter's work is never done....

Experiments in Knitting

I'm trying something new, and I'm a little proud of myself. See this stuff?

It's Yarn Bee Princess. You may not be able to see, but there's two strands plied together there -- a matt yarn and a shiny yarn. It is beautiful unto me, and I wants it.

But, in a very different move from the typical, I have decided to choose a pattern before I actually buy the yarn. That way, I get enough yarn but not too much.

Who am I, and what have I done with myself?

Typically I'll just stash yarn and then when I find it again will decide what I can do with the yardage I have. This is the first time I've actually considered choosing the project first and then buying the yarn. It feels rather weird to me, like putting on a new pair of shoes for the first time. Sort of right while still managing to be sort of wrong.

But I don't want to end up with an extra skein that I can't use and have to attempt and trade or just leave to languish. Nor do I want to end up one or two skeins short of the project I really desire. I want enough yarn, and only just enough yarn, but not yarn lying around at sixes and sevens in my stash with no purpose. In other words, I want the yarn to use, not just to have.

Am I growing up as a knitter? Have I passed some sort of knitting maturity test? Or am I just trying something new in my knitting to see how it works as opposed to my other methods?

Gah.

Anyway, I've got my Little Loki pattern off with a friend who is going to check it for clarity. I tend to be a "pantser" when it comes to my personal designs -- the only thing I actually wrote down as I knit was the bead chart; all the rest was catch-as-catch-can.

I hope to have it back, revised, edited and posted within the week, both here and on Ravelry.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Sweaters, sweaters everywhere

And not a one to wear. No, seriously, I have filthy few sweaters to my name, and flattering ones are even more rare.

Yeah, yeah, it's about ten degrees above the boiling point of water outside, but I like to think ahead to a time when the sun won't be so angry at us and the wind will bring the chill of autumn. I love autumn, more than any other season. It smells like heaven, and temperatures are actually comfortable occasionally.

So I took stock of my closet and realized I'm terribly short of sweaters. At first I considered saving up the blunt and just shopping myself warm and then I thought, Wait a minute, you're a knitter! Why bother shopping for the finished item when you've got a stash like the stock of a small yarn shop and the skills needed to turn it into whatever you want?

So I've finally decided it's time to knit my first sweater for myself. A little but uncertain about it, because that is a lot of knitting time on a garment that (with my history of crap gauge) may or may not actually fit, but I think it's time for me to knitter-up and give it a go. I mean, what have I got to lose? Just time, and that will slip away whether or not I knit a sweater in the interim. Might as well do something that will be useful -- if only from an intellectual point of view, depending on the fit of the finished sweater -- while I'm watching it fly by.

I've chosen Tubey for my first attempt. I browsed through the projects on Ravelry and looked at the Tubeys (Tubies?) knit by other Ravellers, and it seems almost universally flattering -- provided you knit a large enough size. I have measured my assets (hemhem) twice. I know exactly which size I need to make. I know how much yarn I need. I just have to...go for it.

I'm using this yarn:

For whatever reason, the purple at the left looks sorta blue, but it's not. It's more of a true royal purple than this picture shows, although the pink and yellow came out alright. I do not understand why digital cameras have a problem with purples, but they do. Frustrating for a fiber artist trying to convey her vision!

I was going to use these yarns for a sweater I, personally, designed, but time and money being what they are, if I want a sweater before winter this year I'll have to make do and use what I've got.

It'll also help clear out some of my auxiliary stash. That's always a good thing.

And if you aren't from around my parts, you should know we're in the middle of a drought. A pretty bad one, actually, and the constant sunniness is starting to depress me. But guess what we got yesterday?

Yeah! Rain!

It didn't last long, and in the return of the super-nasty heat, whatever water was left on the surface of the ground instantly turned into a hot mist. But for a few minutes, it was rain.

For the duration of the storms, life was worth living again. Hope returned and I no longer felt ground down by the eternal sunshine. Then the literal clouds parted and the emotional ones descended again. Sigh. The sun was shining yet again today. It's like a Dremel to the head, the sunshine. It just never stops!

We may get more rain this weekend, though. God, I hope so.

Maybe this is why I've been bit by the sweater bug. Thinking about autumn makes me happy, and autumn is about sweaters.

Before you ask, yes, I'm still working on the problem of Loki 2, the Avengers Scarf. I still cannot figure out how I want to knit it. There's so many options, and I'm trying to weigh them all out. I think I know how I want to work it, but I've got to give it a few more weeks to percolate.

Designing my own? Easy-peasy. Following a pattern? Eh, not so easy, but do-able. Using a woven item to design my own pattern? Yeah, take a number. It might take a while. :-p

Besides, I've got a ton of items in my "in process" bag. I think I need to clear a couple out before I can really concentrate on Loki Deuce. Maybe tonight I'll get another glass of chocolate milk (my beverage of choice for relaxation) and try to get a few more inches of my Double Cross scarf knocked out:

This picture is actually several weeks old, I've got about six inches completed now. It's coming along pretty well -- the stitch is a faster knit than I'd have thought, the yarn is like buttah in my hands.

I won't cast on for my sweater until the end of the month. Just so I can get rid of some of my pending items first. Not that it will help anything, and I probably won't be able to resist casting on before then, but it might help. Just a little.

Oh, lawsy! It's been almost a whole week since I last posted!

What can I say, I got into slacker mode and couldn't hardly get myself out. I mean, I've done some knitting -- Christmas knitting, no less -- but that's about all. I've got a cute story to tell you, a brief description of the knitting I've done (no pictures; I'm not entirely sure if my family reads this blog or not -- they know it exists, I know that) and then I'm going to watch Castle with Yoda. He hardly gets to spend any time with me, I'm such a neglectful momma.

I told the Nieceling that she was getting a hand-knitted Christmas this year, owing to my extreme poverty. I even told her she got to design it herself. She took it all in her stride. She's ultimately knitworthy because, even though she's a whole grown up teenager, she still wears her Phoenix Tears scarf from the Harry Potter Knits book that I made her for her 12th birthday. To school and everything. That's enough to make her knitworthy in my book.

I then went and told The Phew he was getting handmade Christmas and expected far less enthusiasm than I'd even wrung from the uber-cool Nieceling. He's just barely a teenager, and a boy to boot, so I was thinking he'd be polite but disappointed. I mean, his momma raised him right, so he'd be good about it -- he wasn't going to spit on it or anything -- but I was totally surprised when he bounced up on his toes and said, "Really?" And then promptly asked for a hat.

Now, I'm glad he's excited to be getting a hat (which is, thankfully, done), and I'm pleased to knit for him. It's just...hats. I hate knitting hats. There's either all those fiddly double points or a fiddly circular needle or two. They never seem to be as easy for me to knit as they are for everyone else. But for The Phew who, even if his reaction was faked, went to all that effort to make me feel a bit better about the knitting for Christmas thing, I have designed and knitted a hat to his specifications. Since he wanted a chullo style hat (no bobbles, please) I made him a chullo in his school colors and then put the project up on my Ravelry project page as "The Phew'llo". In his honor, of course. You'll have to look it up if you have Ravelry access or wait until after the holidays for a picture. I'm not sure, as noted, if they ever check this blog.

And they're box-shakers*, the lot of them. He'd come online just to see his hat if he knew the pictures were posted.

*You know, those impatient people who sit under the Christmas Tree and shake all their gifts to try and figure out what they are. Thank God they started tying Barbie up like a bondage enthusiast before Nieceling got old enough to shake her boxes or she'd never have had a surprise gift at the holidays!

What do I do with this?

I've not been feeling like starting anything in the past two or three days. I guess the completion of several big projects -- Little Loki, the Sea Glass Cowl and my book -- has taken all my energy. None left over for starting new things. Now I've had a day to get over the joys of finishing my book, I need to start looking forward. I know the next writing project I'm going to work on, but the knitting front, not so much. I have that ball of Mochi Plus that's going to be a hat, just as soon as I can work up the enthusiasm for casting on (I hate making hats; love wearing them, hate casting on for them) and my Mini Who is languishing in its baggie, but...eh.

Anyway, I'm going to be thinking up a new, exciting, knitting project this weekend, in the hopes that beginning something brand spankin' will inspire me to pick up some of my old projects. So I need some help deciding what to do with this:

I've got three stitch dictionaries in the queue from my local lending, and I'm going to pick one up tomorrow morning. I'm thinking shawl, but I don't know if I want to go with my standard rectangular or if I want to take a risk on a circular or triangular design.

I'm not sure. I doubt I'll go triangular -- I don't think I need a giant arrow pointing down my back to emphasize what a massive badonkadonk I've got, thank you very much -- but a soft, rounded bottom shawl might be ok. Too bad I don't know how best to work that shaping. I also don't know how to deal with a circular shawl. I mean, you have to fold them over, unless you want to put it smack on top of your head and make like an end table. They just seem too fiddly.

But a rectangle, now. That's flexible. Spread it out a bit, go full on shawl for warmth. Fold it over, bunch it up, wear it as a scarf.

Sigh. So many choices! I'll just have to sleep on it a bit longer.

Am I insane?

Rhetorical question, don't answer that.

But seriously, since the big, muggy heat-wave broke this morning, I've been getting chilled both at my desk and when indoors where there is air conditioning. It's strange. I'm sure I'm not coming down with something; I turn down my fan and I'm ok. Still...chilled in August? I shouldn't be surprised -- I hate air conditioning; it supercools the air when mere cool would do -- but it seems odd. Then again, maybe I'm the odd one.

Anyway, the chill has given me an urge to make a shrug. I just need something I can sling around myself when at my desk, working, so I don't catch an ague.

I like that word, ague. Makes me think of the ocean, somehow.

Anyway, I was thinking I need to make a shrug for myself. Maybe it's time to realize the design I had in mind for these yarns:

I've only had them for-freakin'-ever. Knit Picks Shamrock in two colors that I don't even think they make anymore. Heck, I just went to the Knit Picks website and they don't even make Shamrock anymore. Yikes. I've had them a long, long time.

I bought them ages ago, intending a shrug. A shrug with a tree theme. I'm considering digging them out -- once I've gotten the gift off the needles, natch, -- to use as a second project for when Loki finally burns me out on knitted left-leaning mesh. Which it hasn't, not yet, but I anticipate a day when it will.

I have found that now the Big Heat is, for the time being, moving south again to where it properly belongs, my thoughts are turning to sweaters and shrugs and arm warmers, oh, my. I hate winter -- the cold literally makes my skin crawl -- but I find I don't mind a cooler season that requires a sweater, a hat and maybe some gloves on a bad day. As a knitter, you know I find the thought of cool weather wear just...knitter-nip. I love thinking about shrugs and scarves and sweaters and hats. I love bundling up and snuggling up with a cup of hot chocolate on a frosty night.

I'm not much of a high-summer girl, and I detest low-winter with all my heart, but I do love the in-between seasons. The liminal seasons, when heat and cold are on the way but not quite here yet.

It's a pity I live in a place that doesn't do reasonable weather for long!

Painting the white roses red

My default euphemism for working like a galley slave to make up for either forgetting or screwing up on the work once before. This time, it's a forgetting.

I have a gift on the needles. I don't know if the recipient will want it, but it's one of my nicer yarns so if she doesn't, I'm sure I can find a use for it.

It's just going to be one of those short, buttoned scarves in a daisy stitch, but that's Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed there -- wool, silk and cashmere. Yes, you read that right, I'm making something of one of my higher end yarns and I'm giving it away.

God, I hate forgetting things like birthdays. I had planned to pay this person back some money that I owe her, but I just found out it's going to be $700 and change to have my wisdom teeth out (in one go, wish me luck) so she's not getting that right now. Maybe later, after I'm sure I don't end up having to pay extra for antibiotics.

Yes, I'm freaking out about the extraction. Yes, I know the procedure is, in all likelihood, going to go well and I'll be fine. Doesn't help. Still freaking out.

Anyway, I have to get this thing done pronto Tonto and then I can get back to my beloved Little Loki. Every time I work on the neck scarf, I get misty and sentimental. It's green.

I've never been so consumed by one project before.

I have no problem knitting on my Little Loki scarf -- none. I will state right now for the record: That is hella weird. I've always, always made a habit of having three or four projects on the needles (and in my knitting bag -- I'll be honest and admit I've probably got about six project bags in the Stashtainer of Yarny Goodness with needles in them, but they're not in my knitting bag, big distinction) due to the occasional onset of knitting boredom. Suddenly, it's nothing but Little Loki all day long. When I'm working, I want to be knitting on LL. When I'm reading, I want to be knitting LL. When I'm watching t.v., I want to be knitting on LL. And when I give in and knit on the Loki scarf, I keep knitting past my bedtime. I never do that. Or, at least, I never did before.

Part of it is the sheer giddy joy of designing something, using a technique I've never even tried before, and having it turn out just like what I saw in my slightly overheated imagination. I'll probably never do that again, you know, hit it right out of the gate. I'm making hay while the sun shines on this feeling of Awesome Win because it's not likely to repeat itself frequently.

Part if it is...I've dreamed of this scarf for so long, seeing it unfold before my eyes is just unbelievable. It's been percolating in my head since the first time I went to see Thor, maybe it popped up between the first and second showings, who knows (and yes, I think I'm getting the DVD for my birthday -- well the pre-order, it doesn't come out until several weeks after -- so I'll have hours and hours and hours of personal enjoyment of my favorite anti-hero of all time -- I grok his story so well, it's creepy), and now it's flowing off my needles with a quickness.

In a life where so little goes to plan, this one thing, this silly little scarf, provides a beacon of hope. So, yeah, I get a bit weird about it. I suppose I shouldn't be confused as to why I'm so up on the Loki right now. I need a smidgen of win to counter the great masses of fail I'm going through right now.

Is that so bad of me?

And just because:

Look at that pooling. The colors are even schmexier than I'd hoped they'd be when I ordered the yarn. When I finish this thing, I'm emailing the nice lady who dyed the yarn for me, just so she can see what I did with it.

Lovely Little Loki

OMB, I am just rockin' out on my Little Loki scarf.

 Bead Segment 1 is complete, I've started up on my mesh. The mesh is the middle of the scarf; basically it's the length of the scarf.

 There's a close up of my mesh. It's a fairly easy pattern, but I'm paranoid about messing up. So, yes, that's two rescue lines you see in the stitches. I don't want to have to burn my Little Loki for inattention -- not that I didn't completely enjoy the act of beading (although there might be some sort of muscle strain in the wrist inherent in the act of sliding beads down the flosser and onto the stitch), but I don't want to have to redo that segment. I love that segment. It's beauty incarnate. Taking it out and redoing it would be like scraping the Mona Lisa down and repainting her on the same canvas. Vulgarity.

The other bead segment will be every bit as beautiful, I'm certain.

Here's a close up of the part of the bead section you didn't get to see in my previous pictures:

It will be asymmetrical, the beading. The pattern on the other end is almost a mirror image, although the straight row sections are different.

I am conflicted about the matchy-matchy thing, you know. It's like rhyming iambic pentameter, take it too far and you could serve apples with the cheese. A part of my mind is eased by symmetry and equality between parts, part of me is just as soothed by asymmetry -- and sometimes, it's the very same parts. The conflict makes for some interesting breakfast conversations, I can assure you, but there is a middle ground. Well-reasoned asymmetry. I believe I have found it in this project and am greatly pleased with myself.

If it weren't for my remaining flaws, I would be impossible to live with, with this massive wave of self-satisfaction.

Still and all, can't wait for tomorrow. I shall have some prime daylight knitting hours to work on Little Loki. More inches of mesh, will the thrills never end. But every little bit gets me closer to the casting off, blocking and wearing!

The Wee Loki

I'll call it Little Loki, properly. I've plotted and planned and gotten extra dental equipment and finally it's underway:

 This is the very, very beginning of the first beaded section. There are somewhere north of 75 rows of beading to begin, followed by several feet of lattice lace, then another 75 to 80 rows of beads and selvage at the other end. I'm debating some type of fringe. I don't know, though. It may not suit.

The project has begun through the kind support of these:

 It's a flosser. One of these flossers:

I don't mind giving Oral B a shout out; they keep my teeth clean (so far as that goes). I've never had braces or bridgework, but I can honestly say these Superflossers are da bomb when it comes to beading knitting. These work way better than the other ones I got.

I'm still in some small pain from the stress of knitting on a black and green scarf past dark (why don't I ever think these things through?!?! Granted, it was required by the inspiration, but I'm going to be knitting on this thing for ages and ages -- those are US 5 needles in the middle of that sock yarn -- but if I could have chosen a different conflicted comic book villain, maybe someone whose colors are...oh, I don't know, off-white and bright blue? Yellow and spring greens? I'd be happier).

I'll get over it, I'm sure.

This is how the big boys do business, kiddies.

I'm only slightly bitter over this bead issue, sorry. I had control over the design process, yes, so the under-buying of beads was my own fault, but honestly. The lack of business acumen shown by the bead shops around here.... It's disturbing.

I had it pointed out to me that maybe the bead stores I contacted had minimum order requirements. All well and good, but.... They sell Miyuki beads. Like, as part of their regular stock. They've got a minimum order amount just in doing business, I'd think. Two or three extra tubes of smokey pewter shouldn't be that big a deal. If it is, the beading business is harsher than I thought. Or the market for Miyuki isn't as hopping as everyone tells me it is and they don't rotate their stock all that often. One or the other.

Anyway. Moving on. Success!

This, oh my children, is a 24 gram tube of Czech glass beads in metallic silver. Big Box Store (aka, Joann's, I have to give them credit for this one) is having a sale on bead supplies -- buy two, get one free! So I got:

Six for the price of four, which wasn't all that hazardous in a financial sense, really. I mean, I got these six tubes and a pull chain for my ceiling fan for the same amount I got the two tubes of Miyuki at a proper bead store.

Now, I'm not disparaging all bead stores. The original store I bought my beads at (Viking Fiber and Beads in Dayton, Ohio -- they had a name change, don't worry, that's the right link) was fabulous. They let me browse to my heart's content without pestering but still offered help when I looked up and did my lost puppy/shopper face. It's not their fault I did this backwards and have never designed with beads before. They also offered to order more of the same bead for me, if needed. Also not their fault they're two hundred miles away from my home, give or take, making their offer impractical to say the least. If I lived any closer, I would take them up on it.

Anyway, if you want my maths here, I figure I've got six 24 gram tubes of size 6/0 Czech glass seed beads. Considering glass seed beads of that size come in at 12 beads per gram, I've got 1,728 beads here, give or take. Which is more than double what I need for my project.


Awesome.

Oh, I should be precise and note:

I've actually got 1,727 silver beads and one blue bead. I suppose it's a bonus with every sixth tube or something.

At least now I can get working on my scarf. I've got it mapped out at 3" wide, which is my standard scarf width (I like them narrow -- that way they don't bunch up around my neck; I'm weird about things touching my neck), but it will probably stretch to closer to 4". Que sera, sera. I'll get over it.

Wish me luck.

And, by the bye, does anyone need two tubes of Miyuki 6/0 Duracoat Galvanized Smokey Pewter seed beads?
(Side note: I posted the Miyukis on Ravelry and had a buyer within an hour. God bless the Ravelers.)

I seriously hate beads.

I hate beads.

I've been working on my pattern for the Little Loki scarf:

Look at that. Look at that beautiful graphing, the straight lines of beading.

Then I counted the number of beads I would need. 772. Gah.

See, I went to visit my friend out of state two weeks ago, right around when everything went pear shaped (I won't go into it here, suffice to say Elvis was the last in a series of really bad incidents.) I found the perfect beads for my project there, Miyuki 6/0 Galvanized Duracoat seed beads in light smokey pewter color. See:

They're perfect. Perfect I tell you. But I bought them before I plotted out my scarf, before I came up with the finished pattern. How many Miyuki beads has Surly Knitter got? 480. At best. Bloody hell.

And how many shops in Surly Knitter's town do you think carry Miyuki 6/0 Duracoat Galvanized Smokey Pewter seed beads? NONE. And how many of the five shops she called do you think offered to order them? NONE.

That's right; of the five one didn't carry Miyuki at all, so I can hardly blame them, but the other four knew I wanted that color of that style of that size bead. They have relationships with the vendors. And none of them offered to get me more. I had no idea the bead business was so good at the moment they can just toss paying business out the window like that. And the only on-line store I've found thus far that carries them requires a $25 minimum order. Sucksucksucksuck.

Oh, well. I guess I can try to find some other 6/0 metal seed bead, somewhere. Then I've got $17 of Miyuki seed beads to offload. Maybe someone on Ravelry will want them.

I wonder what other type of bead I can find....

Notes on designing, hooded cowl progress and, oh, yeah, making money.

In the past, I typically procrastinated on actual work. You know, the stuff you do to get paid? Nowadays, I've moved on a bit and am procrastinating on thinking. That's a first.

I need to do some heavy thinking, mon amis. I have to do business planning, some profit/loss analysis and some serious goal setting. As there is highly unlikely to be room for my naughty fantasies involving Aidan Turner, a large tub of Nutella and some spiffy fingerless green gloves, I really don't want to be bothered.

But I think I must. (Knitting stuff after the cut; I'm experimenting with my blog. Apologies!)

Proof of Swatch

I can follow through on things. See?

Now I'm just waiting for it to dry completely before measuring and doing the final stitch counts for each section of my Sweater To Be.

I like that smocked rib, actually. I'm quite looking forward to working this one out.