Recruiting for the knitting epidemic

I was at a picnic this afternoon, and K and I didn't really know anyone there, but the host and hostess. Don't you hate when that happens? K played a few songs in the host's band and left me to fend for myself. When I was chatting with some ladies and others heard I was a knitter...WELL...that's when things got rolling! I have recruited Janis and Barb (both blogless) to join in our knitterly goodness. Hope to see them soon at B&N in Waterworks!

He claims it wasn't a guilt complex

K left me again for the second weekend in a row on Thursday night. One of his bands played a festival in Brooklyn, NY this weekend. He had taken the day off Thursday to wait for the Verizon guy and tile guy and run some errands. I called at one point to see how things were going and K said, “I folded all the laundry and put it away, tidied, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom sinks, cleaned the stove, and now I’m getting ready to go out and trim up the fallen branches.” I said, “Wow, are you having a guilt complex?” He said, “Nooooo, I just figured that since I wouldn’t be around all weekend I’d do some stuff that needed to be done.” I said, “Uh huh. Who are you, and what have you done with my K?”

So I walked into the kitchen and couldn’t believe my eyes. There were no piles of stuff anywhere. I glanced at the stove, and it looked clean. I figured by “cleaning” he meant wiping it with paper towels which is usually his modus operandi.

BUT…Friday morning when I was making breakfast, I noticed that he had actually scrubbed the burner grates! Wow…I really have never known him to clean like THAT.

I was reeling at the joy of not having to spend the gorgeous weekend inside engaging in the drudgery of cleaning. That meant I would have ALL day Saturday and Sunday to loll around and knit!

Well, not really, because this is how Saturday went, but I had a blast. Some of you may shudder at the thought. I got up at 6:30, was out at Home Depot by 8:00, bought 18 bags of mulch (which I loaded by myself because it was so early there wasn't really anyone around to help), came home and spread mulch till 10:30, got showered, went to the library, went to the nursery to finally buy a few annuals and 4 more bags of mulch, came home, ate lunch, knitted about 4 rows and started to fall asleep, went inside, had a 2 hour nap, went to buy a few groceries, ate a bowl of cherries (which gave me a second wind), planted my flowers and finished at 7:00pm. Made dinner, ate, knitted outside till 9pm, came inside and watched the last hour of some half-way decent made-for-TV Tom Selleck movie (in between running down the hall to watch several communities' fireworks shows from the second floor window), watched more mindless drivel and went to bed at 11:30.

K got home at 2:00am, I was awake for a little while, but today I got up at 7:00 and am planning to take Sheeks to Hartwood before going to my parents for a lunch party. I was trying to get Sheeks' attention while she was busy chewing on a log. When I said, "Want to go to Hartwood?" her ears perked up.


A week last Thursday, I cast on for this. Yes, the Cabbage Patch doll scares me too. I’m modifying as I go because I don’t think a sleep sack should be permanently closed at the bottom. I’ve done eyelets that will have a purchased drawstring run through. Again, a time saver, as i-cord takes too long. An open sack will facilitate those middle of the night diaper changes! Since the bottom of the sack will be open, I don’t see need for 6 buttons, so I think I’ll pare that down to 3. It’s not going to be snug in the chest area anyway. And lastly, I’m not doing this in basketweave stitch because that’s not mindless enough for a quick baby shower gift! I’m cruising through with stockinette and have 13 inches done already. For 140 stitches, that’s not bad! The shower is August 2. The yarn is a sage, mint and white heathery worsted cotton by Bernat bought in a 1-pound ball from JoAnn’s. Yes, not a fan of JoAnn’s, but I was obsessed, not too picky, and needed yarn FAST. I wanted something natural, comfy and inexpensive. It’s for a coworker who made it tougher on us by not wanting to know the gender, so we’re stuck with the less fun baby colors. It doesn't look like much yet, but I'm hoping that some sleeves will get the cuteness going.

Cool beans…knit night at Coffee Tree

Got home from work last night to find a large chunk of tree had fallen in my front yard that missed the kitchen roof by 10 feet! Yikes. There was a downed wire of some kind, probably harmless cable, but I was heading out the door any minute. I left K in charge of calling Verizon to have them come take a look. The power was on, the phone worked, and we don’t bother with cable, so it was probably no big deal.

So I ventured down to Coffee Tree Roasters in Shadyside, where the temperature inside was literally roasting! Not comfy while drinking tea. I was trying out a different knit night where I newly met Min and Susan (sadly both blogless). Min had a fun laissez faire attitude towards sock knitting. She said, “Hmm…the leg looks kinda big, but it’s for a guy. It’s good enough.” Susan was crochet-embroidering a sun face on a cute little baby sundress. Her craftswomanship is marvelous. She is in the Master Knitting program and was grumbling about the strictness of the mandatory swatches. They both regularly attend a knitting group on Sundays that alternates between meeting at the Tango Café in Squirrel Hill and Crazy Mocha on the Southside. This Sunday group is planning to put a website together and get T-shirts made that mimick the iPod listener silhouette with knitter silhouettes! Way cool. Here's a list of other knit-togethers in Pittsburgh.

The three of us all take the same approach to buying yarn. We go with project in mind rather than being lured by yarn just because it’s calling to us. The exception to this is sock yarn, but I don't let myself fall victim to the gold-plated socks. I once saw a pattern calling for 3 skeins of Opal Gems, and the total sock cost from a LYS would be $39! If I’m going to spend that on yarn, it’s not going to be for something trampled by my feet.

When I told them about my other knit night, I mentioned that the Knitting Queen, i.e.,SJ, is one of the fastest knitters I know. Min and Susan were shocked when I told them SJ made 7+ socks in a week!

I just found out yesterday that the Compass Inn Museum out near Ligonier, PA will be hosting a Living History weekend July 21-22, 2007 including a Sheep to Shawl event. They'll have more details on the website soon. Here are some of the sheep that will be participating from Twin Springs Farm.

Well, I must get on with my knitting!

Ring around the rosies

Found this on The Knitting Doctor. While you're at her blog, be sure to check out DancesWithWool. She does gorgeous twined knitting and really cool creatures.

Everything in this finger personality but "you see the best in everything" is absolutely true! If K was reading over my shoulder, he'd say, "Wow, you are SO off in your inner world at times!" I guess that's a nice way of telling me I'm spacy.

You Are a Ring Finger

You are romantic, expressive, and hopeful. You see the best in everything. You are very artistic, and you see the world as your canvas. You are also drawn to the written word. Inventive and unique, you are often away in your own inner world. You get along well with: The Pinky Stay away from: The Index Finger

What Finger Are You?

If I had 6 hands, my knitting would be so productive!

This brings me to my recent encounter with a South Carolina native, the Palmetto bug, otherwise known as a big cucaracha!!!

I was in Charleston, SC on a conference for work, staying in a swanky 5-star Orient Express hotel, Charleston Place. Much to my horror one night upon return to my room after dinner, I had a 6-legged visitor in the bathroom. I froze for an instant, did a double-take, and thought, “Wow, that’s a roach! I’ve never seen one so big!” This was a hefty specimen, measuring about 1 inch long and ½ an inch wide.

My rescue reflexes snapped into action. I grabbed an empty wastebasket and upturned it on the critter, trapping him. I darted to the phone to call the front desk to report the intruder. They said, “Oh my…hate to tell you this, but…it’s the…South. Would you like us to relocate you?” I said, “No, I just need someone to help kill it.” Again, rather lackadaisically they said, “My, you’re handling this quite well. We’ll send someone up as soon as possible.”

An eternity later, a man appeared in his navy blue workman garb, armed with a foreign accent and a generic can of bug spray. I pointed to the wastebasket on the tile floor outside the bathroom. My savior carefully scooted the can out into the hall, lifted it ever so slightly, and when the bug scuttled, it swiftly met its maker beneath the toe of a black work boot. As I turned to go back into the room, he shyly said with a woeful brow, “Sorry…about ‘zis’,” waving his hands parallel to the floor.

I put a towel at the base of the door, and for the remainder of the evening I wore shoes.

C3FO's

The other day, I made a spreadsheet of all the projects that are either in progress or for which I have the yarn waiting in the wings. There are now 6 still in progress, and 10 waiting to be started, but I've recently finished 3!

First is the fluffy baby blanket, sorry no pic. Had to hurry to get it to the mom-to-be.

Second is a run-of-the-mill b-day hat for my brother made out of Cascade Quattro leftovers. Size 6 Addi's, 16", then size 6 casein dpns.

Third is a scarf knit horizontally, with the ends cut left for fringe. Still have to knot and finish the fringe. Yarns are: natural indigo worsted (bought near Taos), Karabella Festival 06, and Lampedusa 07, size 10.5 bamboo circs.

Also, I've started Bauble. It's taking forever to string all the beads, and I'm worried that it all may be too heavy when it's done and might fall off my wrist, but we'll see. If nothing else, it's been a good meditation project so far. Here's my palette:

And lastly, these are the socks that just don't want to be knit. Yesterday I was cruising along, tried 'em on and noticed bunchiness in the sides of the heel. Of course I thought, "AUGH! Now what?" Well, let's just say that, uh, I wasn't paying attention and forgot to turn the heel! So I had to rip out 3 or 4 inches!!!! Dang...the pattern is a baby cable rib.

Fluff Knitting

You know how there's fluff reading? Well, there's also fluff knitting. Literally. I'm talking about this, from the book Greetings from the Knit Cafe, by Suzan Mischer. They call it Fluffiest Baby Blanket:

And I've started to make it in Sensations ICEE in turquoise from JoAnn's, with a long furry eyelash, Sensations PERSIAN in pale lime green for the edging. This is NOT "your grandmother's baby blanket." It's going to be funky and hip. The true life colors look better than the pic. It's a close proximation to the original yarn texture (Trendsetter Zucca and Gedifra Techno for trim) and probably much cheaper too. I've already finished with two skeins (only a 55 stitch cast on), so I'll have this done long before my coworker's due date in mid-March.

By the way, I highly recommend the inter-library loan system. I hopped online last week and reserved every knitting book published in the last two or three years they had that I don't own. I now have a stack of twenty books to peruse. Often I find that knitting books aren't worth buying as there may only be one or two patterns that catch my eye. There can be great inspiration, and I've come up with some fabulous ideas for really cool MARKETABLE stitch markers. The books I do buy are more for reference...knitting bibles. I still own more cookbooks than knitting books, but that's another story. Maybe I should start a cooking blog too...

A little Amish?

YARN: Cascade Quattro (worsted)
PATTERN: Baby Cable Rib from Sensational Socks
CAST ON: 48 stitches
NEEDLES: size 4 and 5 dpns

K and I were under the weather, so we ended up delaying the birthday party till next weekend. I finished the socks on time though! I started the second sock Weds evening. These are going to be sooooooo comfy for my dad!

The Amish look is that you know how Amish quilts are sometimes not perfect and there may be a color change as if they didn't have enough of the same fabric for consistent design? Well, my Amish touch is that I wasn't paying attention in the toe decreases and ended up alternating the decrease round and knit round ALL the way till the END! They were a bit pointy, but they're the right length, so I didn't really feel like frogging.

When I was totally done with them it felt funny not to be knitting for a few minutes, and I had yarn leftover, so I looked up a free hat pattern online and cast on to make my brother a Bday hat. A coworker is having her second baby in mid-March, so I really should make her something, too. Plenty of time for maybe a little kimono sweater or something.

Better than store bought

On Valentine's Day, the weather was frightful. We're not the type of couple to go out and be amongst the happy or unhappy couples who are at uppity restaurants out of obligation. They let us go early at work, so I stopped at Whole Foods for some dinner supplies. I made a warm chocolate raspberry pudding cake(very easy and good), baked salmon, green beans and baked potato.

Safari...on our street!

This is the CUTEST thing ever!

Our street is a small circle, with about 15 houses which are all different. It's not one of those BUP's (Big Ugly Plans). There's a yellow lab that gets walked, usually on a leash, and occasionally I'll see it's cat sibling trailing behind.

Well LAST evening, the dog was off-leash marching ahead of Master, and the TWO cat siblings were trailing behind Master. You should have seen their little legs go! They looked like they were on wheels. One cat is white with black ears, a black and white striped tail and a spot on its back, so it's a little reminiscent of Snoopy. The other is a gorgeous orange tabby.

They do several laps around the circle and I giggle every time they go by. It's nice entertainment while I'm making dinner.

1800 Stitches a Day

Like 1800 calories a day...I too am on a yarn diet.
Here are the Koigu socks that have been frogged from a previous baggy stockinette endeavor and are now snugger with baby cables. Fortunately there's no pooling.

Next up is the Tahki Donegal Tweed sweater that I worked on for a few years before my re-born obsession with knitting. Much to my dismay I had made a plus size by mistake. DUH! This needs to be frogged and reknit into something more fitting. Ha!

Now on to the stash. This is a very strange assortment of stuff that might very well be relegated to gifts for my nieces. I am NOT reponsible for the pink Sizzle in the lower right front. That was in my goodie bag at the Knitting Festival a few years back. In the back left is some weird Lion Brand Suede, a chenille, that knits up irregularly. I was going to make a scarf for my mom since she vetoes all the wool scarves I've done for her claiming everything is too scratchy. Her complaint WAS warranted on something I made in Reynolds Lite Lopi. That one's a big OUCH. It felts GREAT for the Felted Clogs though!

Clockwise from top left: KnitPicks Quarry in (Stream?) for the Teva Durham Fringed Pullover from Loop-D-Loop; some Cascade Quattro, Shepherd Colour 4 Me, Dalegarn Falk leftovers from niece projects, Dalegarn Baby Ull, Harrisville Flax and Wool.

The sock section, clockwise from left: Trekking leftovers, Sockotta (need to make mate), Lion Brand Magic Stripes, 4 Koigu (don't have colorway info handy), and 4 Knitpicks Sock Memories. The last sock memories here looks like it might make some interesting Jaywalkers!

And last but not lusciously colorful least is the Mission Falls assortment for "Fair Isle Jazz" from Pam Allen's Scarf Style.

More conducive to creating

I always like using one of my 3 days off, when no one else but the dog is home, to organize my life. We've lived in our new old house since August, and some of the rooms aren't arranged optimally. Two nights ago while trying to get to sleep after knit night, I was envisioning how to better arrange my craft room upstairs. The ideal situation is to have a room that you can walk into and start creating, and the ability to open closets and drawers and grab what you need right away without having to sift through piles of stuff and clear space. And most of all, it's great to be able to leave works in progress out and not have to clean up afterwards. I used to be one of those dining table workers...we all know the type. My husband would come home and say, "Uh...I guess we have to eat on the porch tonight?" This would be in the dead of winter.

So, here are some before and after pics. The befores look like a dark uninviting garrett. But the afters take advantage of the northern light.



Sheeks says, "Oh, yeah, watching TV from this angle works!" There are two big closets in this room. One has coats and stuff, and the other is full of totes of supplies. My plan is to get those plastic drawer wheely things so I can see what I have and find it in an instant. The couch only weighs 3000 pounds. The dog didn't even offer to help move it. We'll be cozier when we watch movies now, sat right next to the radiator.

This is sooooo much better! That windowless wall needs mega bulletin boards! You can laugh at the curtains. They were there before us.

This antique dresser is calling to be an art supply storage chamber.

The view of the back yard from the window above the drawing table. Fortunately the window is high up. I would daydream too much if I could stare out while sitting down.

Bond...James Bond

The year is 2...007!

Well, I felt I needed to add to the knitting from stash concept being bandied about. K stole the camera today for work, so I can't take pics yet but here goes:

Projects I have the yarn for:

From Teva Durham's "Loop-D-Loop": Cast Away Fringe Pullover in Knit Picks Quarry, a boucle. Hopefully fringe will turn out like cool dreadlocks.

From Pam Allen's "Scarf Style":
1) Fair Isle Jazz in Mission Falls 1824 wool. I have most of the exact colors called for in the pattern. Tweaked a couple in the fair isle scarf ends, but at least I have the raspberry for the main section!
2) Ene's Scarf in Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud. This will be my first lace endeavor. Think I might practice first making some little heart bookmarks for Valentine's Day.

Now that I have the "Knitting Sensational Socks" book, it sheds a whole new light on sock knitting, particularly the fit. I have an unraveled pair in Koigu that I shall reknit into something sensational that won't fall down. Also have another pair in (I forget the yarn) to unravel and reknit. Only got one of these done to begin with. Was very bored with them.

Still have to finish unravelling a sweater made out of Takhi Donegal Tweed, wet it, hang it...this was a sweater mishap that turned out way too big. Over $100 in yarn is too valuable to have sitting there in a useless state. I'm not in love with the color anymore, but I think the right pattern, i.e., if it's interesting and funky enough could revive the color. Recently found a nice cabled hoodie pattern in Vogue knitting that actually CALLS for this yarn! I'll probably have enough, since the original sweater knit was erroneously a plus size. Yikes. The unravelling process is arduous as I have to unweave all the woven-in ends! This really cuts into my KNITTING time! Would be a good project to work on during a camping/cabin week.

Also have odds and ends of Reynolds Lite Lopi that are good for adult hats, some Dalegarn Falk suitable for kids hats, and some Dalegarn Baby Ull that might constitute a pair of mittens.

Last but not least there's some Harrisville Flax Wool...not sure what that will be, and some Cascade Quattro that felts beautifully. Might make some bags.

I'm collecting wool sweaters from thrift stores to felt, cut and make into a throw. Need to find some more inspiring colors. There's a great pattern for turning these into tote bags in "AlterKnits."

Needless to say, my stash is not very organized, but my new old house has a cedar closet that is ONLY for the storage of yarn! How serendipitous is that?

In review, I have no business buying any new yarn for a while...but I got gift cards and money for such for xmas AND b-day is coming up soon! What I really should get is a swift and ball winder, which cost MORE than yarn. :-)

Benjamina Franklin

Well, there we were, amongst what I figure must be the throng of Pitt employees who were off this week, lollygagging at Barnes and Noble. 40 Guy was nowhere in sight, but he had a stand-in. A rather androgynous human appeared. We really couldn't figure out this one. It had blond Ben Franklin hair and donned genderless garb. A while later, through the thick layer of sweatshirt, I could detect some female-ness. I said, "Aha! It's XX, not XY!" Wow...

It was as though the heavens opened when 40 Guy finally did appear. He was doing weird things, like not reading, and swooning back in his chair, his 40-full belly protruding into the table edge. We think he may have been asleep. I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if it's all an act? What if it's the same 40 bottle he carries around with him, like Linus and the blankie?

We freaked when he stood up at the same time as us and lurked a minute. We were all prepared with our panic buttons in hand as we fled to our cars.

Even worse...what if 40 Guy IS a super hero and his special power is supersonic hearing??? We are so DOOMED...

Now I can make something for ME!

I'm going to start this:
It's the Cast-Away Fringe Pullover from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop book, in Quarry (boucle) from Knit Picks. My goal is for the fringe to look like dreadlocks.

Finished the shrug at 9:30am xmas day!!! Pic isn't great, but I was NOT presentable at that time of day...

Under the wire

Happy Festivus, Everyone!
Well, it looks like I might just make it in time for the endless cream shrug to be delivered tomorrow morning to my MIL! Just a couple more rows, binding off and weaving ends in!

When stitching the seams Friday night, I looked around at my surroundings in the bedroom and thought, "Why is it that when the husband is left in charge of the laundry, it looks like a bomb went off???"

Manly mitts!

I modified Knitty's "Fetching" pattern. After making some of these girly fingerless gloves, I had to man-ify them.
The result is, no cables and a worsted weight. If anyone wants details, I can provide that. Yarn was Cascade Quattro.

It's not everyday you get resurrected

That's EXACTLY what happened to me this afternoon. No kidding!

I had a doc appt then had to get some bloodwork done, so I go to pre-register. She asks if I work in the hospital, since I'm wearing my scrubs, and I wearily say, "No...I just finished the 11th day of my shift and I'm starting to shut down now that I don't have to do anything and I'm REALLY looking forward to going home." She does the usual, asking for my insurance card and the script. She pulls up my record and I hear her say, "Hmmm...it says, 'This patient is DECEASED.' I've never seen that before."

I laugh and say, "Well, I almost died a month ago after surgery." She looks concerned and says, "Really?"

"Oh, you know, drug allergy and everything that goes along with that...and nearly slipping into a coma..." I explain, still laughing. At this point in the day, my exhaustion has me delirious.

She asks me to confirm my demographics. What I say matches what's on the screen. She is stumped and calls over her supervisor who coaches her through a variety of screens, but then the SUPERVISOR says, "Wow, this is really strange. We're going to have to call MR (Medical Records)."

I'm enjoying playing along with the humor of the situation and say, "Can you find out WHEN someone decided to kill me?" They had obvious difficulty trying to find the last change date.

The registrar makes the call to MR. I hear her explain the situation which sounds really funny. It's something like, "I have a patient here to pre-register who's showing up as deceased in the system and I was told to call you to have her switched...yes, it's her...yes, we've verified her demos...she's sitting right in front of me!" Moments later, the supervisor asks her to take the person waiting behind me while they sort this out, and I move to the next chair. I say, "You know, this is like when you go to the grocery store and ALL you need is a loaf of bread and ALL the aisles are full of people with jam-packed carts..."

They nod knowingly...as I almost nod off. The supervisor asks me for my driver's license to make a copy, I guess so they can match my photo to be sure I'm me. FINALLY...a third registrar comes along, asks me for my script again, says it was a coding error, apparently a single digit mistake! She sends me on my way.

I go over to the lab and am overjoyed to find some decent reading material: Dog Fancy magazine. After a short wait, a cheery phlebotomist takes me back. He checks my labels against my script and says, "Hmm...one says Wray and one says Way."

I say, "Oh, that's nothing. Half an hour ago I was dead according to your computer system!" We both laughed. He said I made his day.

Upon leaving the hospital and seeing the parking lot jam, I thought, "Oh noooooooo!" But miraculously, I dodged all traffic jams on the way home. This was not only due to my rebirth but my excellent collection of lesser known short cuts. It was a joyous rush hour trip actually, laughing all they way.

Tricksters

Well, here we are again on the day of the year when it's okay to let your kids bounce off the ceiling from too much sugar and enhance tooth rot.

We are new to our street, and have no idea how many kids to expect. I count about 5 youngsters on the street, which is a loop off a busy road. We have enough candy for 42 kids...I KNOW (hope) we won't get that many.

K will be on door duty while I try to keep our dog with the rabid-sounding bark contained in the kitchen. I will be able to see the costumed small humans from afar through the front kitchen windows. It's so annoying that this barrage begins at 6 pm. Most people aren't even home from work yet! I think we will eat on the fly, perhaps nuke some frozen soup. Oh joy.

Then again, dear Ashiko and I could hole ourselves up in the garrett craft room, which has a locking pocket door that she can't bust through. That way I may be able to catch up on some knitting!

I did try to scoop poop on the front lawn so the kiddies won't have to wade through the mire, but it was hard to see all of it through the fallen leaves. I'm not allowed to rake because I'm still healing. If I was really holiday-minded I would have made a cutesy sign that says, "Use the path, or the boogeyman will get you!"

Alas, off to the grind...

Use your noodle

Inspired by Dooce (check out her entry from 10/23/06 titled Noodly Appendage) to take this pic of my mutt, Ashiko, donning some Noro scraps!