Thursday, February 12, 2009

Made of Pure Win

Rosarie is done. I am totally pleased with the result.
I am really glad I knit this first, it's a great way to kick off the year. I only wish the weather was cooler, because this is one hot vest. Here is the front...
And the back.... (crinkled because I wore it in the car going to Knitch. Um, to buy yarn, certainly not just to show it off)
And the inside showing hot steek action... (and cat hair if you click for big)
And the back of the shoulders where I signed it....

And there it is, the first FO of 2009, started January 1st and finished today! I have still got the buttons loosely tied on until I am really happy with placement, but I'm going to have to fiddle with that. It is still a little on the lumpy side because I didn't block it to death, but a few washings and it will finish sorting itself out. I caught the light too late in the day to really capture the color, but I'm not going to fight it. You will all just have to see it in person.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

What next?

Well, the vest was delayed by migraine, due to the weather, which decided to swing wildly again from cold to warm. Right now we have drizzle, which reminds me of the mostest favoritest and awesome weather map I have ever seen...

Anyway, aside from the drizzle, Rosarie is drying and I feel like I am the shizzle. She looks awesome, and I promise pictures as soon as she is dry. Many, many pictures. Which brings me to my next quandary.

What am I going to knit next? I have to say that I'm all on board now for project monogamy, but truth be told, Rosarie hath kicked me in the buttocks. Yea, verily. And I don't really want to not do a sweater, but I keep looking at my sock yarn.....

I know what that means, though. More frustration. I am a really pitiful sock knitter. Oh, I've made about 6 pair, but if I told you how many single socks I have laying around the freaking sock police would turn up at my door demanding I relinquish my stash to a more dedicated sock knitter or something. I don't know, but it would be tragic.

I've been thinking of spinning as an option. Just take the rest of February off and spin. Or not. Maybe I'll just watch movies and be completely unproductive. Until March. And Isobel. And really, I have a wheel, I just haven't used it much. Last Friday, day one of the migraine weekend extravaganza, my head hurt too much to knit, but I kept thinking about the two bobbins of singles I had just sitting there and next thing I knew I was plying. I could totally do it with the headache. I learned a lot from the experience. One, that those particular singles made a thoroughly crap 2 ply yarn, but an excellent 3 ply. Lookie for yourself at the excellence.
From this roving I got from SPACE!Romantic
I brought it to Knitch Sunday and showed it to Hockeymom and EvilScienceChick, who pronounced that it did not suck. Then the biatches Rickrolled me! Right there in the store! Anyway, I am thinking that I really have far too much roving in my possession for someone who spins as little as I do. I have been loath to spin most of it because it is so pretty and I am not experienced enough to not ruin it all, but if I don't spin I'll never get better. So I guess the point of todays post is that I've just talked myself through the whole question and spinning has been chosen for the rest of February. Well, at least I can drink beer and spin. I sure as hell can't drink and knit worth a damn. And Sandy and Regan, I'll get you back. On that you can rely.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

It's All About the Tentacles

I have no idea what has come over me of late. I get on these reading jags where I want to read everything by the same author and when that runs out I go to another author, or maybe just a huge series. I am a big sci fi fan, but not fantasy, and my tastes run to works either heavy on the science, big on politics, or post apocalyptic. One of my favorite old series is the Sime/Gen universe, written by Jean Lorrah and Jacqueline Lichtenberg. All but one of the ancient paperbacks I own was published by Playboy and have the most lurid and ridiculous covers.
Possibly the best thing about the cover art is that the artist completely failed to portray anything that happened in the book, and he made the simes look like gens. Anyway, so I've been sucked back into these books, and since it was actually mentioned in this book that simes knitted using their tentacles which made them so much faster, I've been really resenting the fact that I am tentacle free. See? I got it back around to knitting.

What I learned from Rosarie was that project monogamy=FO. And after I realized that I also realized two other things. First, that my other major pieces, Irtfa'a, MS3 and a smaller but nontheless major piece at the time, my Fair Isle Sampler Hat, were all projects which I was monogamous to. Second is that it takes one hell of a project to command that level of loyalty from me.

Then I had to do a little soul searching. Because I always thought I was more of a process knitter than a product knitter, and the level of happiness I felt doing these tentacles-required projects and actually accomplishing them was making me out to be very wrong. What I figured out was that I enjoy the process enough, but it really is the product that my competetive soul longs for. It's just that the process has to be up to snuff to hold my attention or else I go all fickle on the project. So, ulitmately, I'm both.

Anyway, back to tentacles. Which are cool and useful. I signed up for this Sunday.
I was surprised that there were still spots left in the club when I got home from work. I am shocked that there are still spots available. This is Lotus Yarns, folks. Screw the economy, you know you are still going to buy yarn, and Melanie's stuff is absolutely gorgeous and local (for North Georgia). I belonged to her Punk Rock Sock Club, and the woman dyed the most beautiful yarn called "Dookie" for her Green Day installment. Dookie, people. You bet your sweet tentacles she'll create some really amazing stuff for this club. So click on the links above and sign up.

Looks like Rosarie is going to be debuting this weekend, on schedule. I need to rework my goals a bit for the rest of February. Maybe I'll go on a spinning jag. I can do that well enought without tentacles, so I won't miss not having them. We'll see. So I'll have FO pics after this weekend and I'll let you go so you can go sign up for the Mythos club, ok? Bye!

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Starting the Finishing (and other assorted ings)


I'm knitting the shoulder stitches, this thing is so full of steeks it looks like I'm knitting for something that has tentacles, and I should be wearing it to Knitch next Sunday to be a wretched show off. Unless button bands turn out to be my nemesis or something. I have the yarn for the February Lady Sweater queued up in the knitting room, and Isobel of Mar is scheduled for March (get it? Isobel of Mar-ch?) (Yeah I'm going nuts from sleep dep.)

So later today after work I'll be grafting shoulders and cutting steeks and starting the finishing (Doesn't that just seem like the worst grammar?). The grafting scares me worse than the cutting. I know this wool ain't going nowhere, but I can sure botch a graft.

I have to go now and re up my Starbucks card with my February allowance or I may not make it.