The Chickengoddess Knits

Things I never planned to do in 2009.

2009-12-22T19:48:00.002-05:00

Well, that was fun. Lets see, I started and finished a major piece of Starmore colorwork in a month, had surgery, lost 50 pounds, saw my first hockey game thanks to Happy Goth and her husband, and that's just the highlights. When I wrote my ideas of what I'd do in 2009, I don't think I'd really thought beyond taking a year long break from travelling back and forth to New Orleans to visit. I never in my wildest dreams thought that life would pan out the way it ultimately did.

Things I lost other than weight in 2009: Bellringing, fear of anaesthesia, 4 hamsters, 2 cats, 2 chickens, some more emotional baggage which was residue from a traumatic trip to London all the way back in 2000. My mind is a given, of course. Oh, yeah, and lots of my hair.

Things I gained. Hmmm. This is very ephemeral and personal in a way. But mostly, I gained a true and deep appreciation for my home, and for being there, an appreciation for the resilience of the human body, a deeper and richer faith and, most importantly for this blog, lots of mad knitting skillz.

I did not mention my husband, because I have always appreciated and been thankful for him. Only this year have I stopped saying I don't deserve him, because I finally really understand that I don't. But I still have him. So now I'm just thankful for him, without any of the other baggage, which is far nicer.

When I started this blog I had several goals. One was to document my knitting progress. Another was to become an active part of the online community of knitters. Another was to hear myself talk. That's just honesty.

Well, Ravelry lets me manage my projects far better than a blog, and I spend most of my online time there now (or on Facebook, but that's another story and also is where all of my social worlds collide) and the blog is of less and less use to me. So in 2010 don't look for me here with any regularity at all. My hope is to do more actual knitting and less online stuff, and although I might post, don't go counting on it. It is also my hope that when I hear myself talk in the future, it will be in actual, not virtual, space, and in dialogue with others, not just self centered rants.

I need to get out more often. Now that I'm lighter and it is easier to move I need to be in the back yard, or walking, or biking, or anything but moving (as I have been) mostly from the couch to the computer and back. Since I have some energy back, I need to use it in lots of different ways, so I don't lose it. Again.

2010 may make a big liar out of me, in which case this blog will flourish. But unless it does, you'd best catch me on Ravelry. I do thank everyone who has read this over the years, you have all been great and I will still be reading many of your blogs. And I wish you all the very best, and a very Merry Christmas, because that is how I roll.

Peace on earth. And peace out.

Obsession

2009-10-04T08:36:00.010-04:00

So, obsession. Figuring that I may as well be honest with my own blog, we're going to talk about what I'm obsessed with right now. Starting with the double knitting. (Crappy pics courtesy of my serious lack of photography skillz).

I have managed to add a few more inches since these pics were taken, but they are going to have to come back out. Certain mistakes in double knitting are not fixed simply by dropping back and laddering back up. Oh, well, lesson learned.

The next lesson I learned was that going from dk right to 1x1 ribbing is dangerous. The two maneuvers are just too similar, and I had to reknit a bunch of times. You just want to keep skipping your purls. Since October is known as Socktober, I had to cast on a sock. (Yeah, we're not going to talk about all the socks already cast on, or halfway finished.) So here is my next obsession, arch shaping:

This is my first Socktober sock, cast on October 1. Since I began knitting socks I have been on a quest to have a perfect sock pattern. Seems to me, if I'm knitting my own, I ought to be able to engineer a pattern to fit my foot perfectly. One of the big problems I have with the socks I have knit so far is that none hugged my foot enough to keep me from feeling like the sock was slipping around in my shoe. I thought arch shaping might be the next thing to work on, so I grabbed a ball of Opal in Harry and Ron and set about exploring sock architecture.

Well, the jury is still out on this sock. The pattern is here, and yes, it is a Ravelry link. This sock feels really strange to me when I put it on, but put a shoe over it and walk around and it is perfect. Without shoes, just going sockfooted, it pulls funny over the instep. Ok, you say, so wear shoes, wasn't that the point? Ah, but I am looking for a perfect sock, and since I spend most of my time at home in socks without shoes, this one won't do. I'm knitting the other one today, so I'll finish the pair, but I'll be moving on to other sock architectures and continuing my search.

Next obsession? Not knitting at all.

I am totally obsessed with cooking over fires, open or contained in a fireplace. Hopefully I'll be getting a chance to use it soon. Damn thing is heavy (duh) and topheavy. Bringing it home in the car was almost an adventure. Had to put it upside down on the floor of the car to keep it from rolling around. And 20+ pounds of cast iron rolling around the interior of the car while you're trying to drive and keep your car interior from being damaged? Too much adventure for me.

Then there's the latest instant obsession. You know what those are. You stumble across something you have never heard of before and for some reason you become completely consumed with it. I am like that with Mooncakes. Since this morning. Really instant, I know. I might be over it by this afternoon for all I know, but for now I can't stop googling for pics and info. I rather doubt I'll be over this one too soon, though. It combines too many things I already have an interest in. The moon. Cake. Asian design. Asian cake. Wooden molds. Lotus designs. Collectability. Accessability. Fall. Fall festivals. Obscure stuff I didn't even know existed before 45 minutes ago. The ability to mesh this is with my ma'amoul molds and scandinavian molds and decorate my kitchen with it. Because my kitchen is so big and there's so much wall space in there to decorate. Yeah.

And I'm obsessed with painting my kitchen heliotrope. Don't ask. I can't explain.

In sad news, the hamsters are passing, one by one. According to the vet they have exposure to a slow growing disease from birth and they are either immune to it or they will eventually succumb. We lost Genghis first, then Hai Shan, now Kublai is going downhill fast. These are all the hams that got that skin problem early on. The other two, who never got the skin stuff, are fine. They are still together and have shown no signs of anything at all. I can't help feel that there's a connection here.

Anyway, not to leave on such a sad note, The chickens are very fluffy and are laying every day. The lotuses are going dormant and the fish are beginning to slow down. Leaves haven't started turning yet, but I have high hopes for plenty of good fall color. Spring cherry blossoms and summer lotuses aside, fall is my favorite season. I love everything about the whole season, not just one or two flowers or holidays. Maybe it's memories of playing in leaf piles, or all the food-centric holidays, maybe it's the memories of birthday parties or the relief from the oppressive summer heat in New Orleans, but Fall always seems to lift something off my shoulders and make me feel lighter and happier.

And cool weather makes good painting days. Now, where can I get good heliotrope paint?

Fresh From Estonia

2009-09-24T17:41:00.002-04:00

Really! Smell the freshness!

I'm ready for winter. Bring it on.

Warning: This Post May Not Make Much Sense.

2009-09-14T07:17:00.003-04:00

I'm only warning you because right now I'm in the middle of making up time at work. See, even though pharmacists are salaried, they keep track of hours missed, so basically we are only salaried when it is to the company's advantage. I really can't complain, though, because I'm making up time from my surgery back in June, it's just that I'm tired and prone to rambling and blithering. So if I stop making sense at some point, you know where that is coming from.

Anyway, DragonCon. We were in the parade and were surprised how well the chariot held up.

We had a great time being in the parade and saw Nell and Haley in the crowd. At the end of the line we were greeted by the Seed and Feed Marching Abominable, and I couldn't help dancing. The rest of the day we wandered around, taking in all the wonderful costumes, and being stopped for photos of John. I had changed out of my dress for comfort's sake, and was happily staying out of the frame all day.

Meanwhile, the backyard is taking off:

Mushrooms magically appeared overnight, spectacularly sprinkled throughout the back yard. These are pretty big, and I just love them.

In knitting news, I have lost my mind. I am double knitting. Do not ask me why I suddenly got hit with this particular bug in the midst of pulling all these makeup shifts at work. My relaxation activity now officially hurts my brain. But I am catching on.

Details coming soon. For now I'm heading back to work. Have a great day!

And We're Up and Running

2009-09-04T21:02:00.001-04:00

That is all.

It's here. Color. Brought to you by black and white.

2009-09-04T16:01:00.003-04:00

Eve will have Bollywood soon. We did it for her, you know. Not because we wanted a big honking tv or anything. And Happy Goth needed to see Paheli. The things I do for my friends.

Chicken Check and New Wheels in the Driveway

2009-08-29T19:44:00.011-04:00

As you may know, not long before Ophelia passed on to that great free range in the sky, Pearl and Snowflake joined our odd little family. They are two Plymouth Rock pullets, and they were pretty traumatized by the whole human interaction thing, having been pen raised. They are beginning to warm up to us, though, and a few days ago left pullethood behind.

One of these was laid neatly in the center of the nestbox, the other outside in the run. They are tiny, as are all pullet eggs, but they will grow into laying regular sized eggs soon enough. I felt the occasion should be marked as the rite of passage that it is, but I did not know what would be best. There are no little pamphlets entitled "Today You Are a Hen", celebrating henhood and giving basic instructions on the changes your little chicken body is undergoing. There are no rituals, no bok mitzvah ceremonies, nothing like it. I checked. So, as their deity, I wished them long and happy laying lives, and that will have to do. Today there was another tiny egg in the run (not in the box where it is supposed to be, grumble, grumble). So now we have to try and figure out which chicken is thinking like Felix Unger and which one is our Oscar Madison, and try to get across the idea that that pile of straw is there for a reason. We'll just see how well that goes.

Now for a surprise. About a week ago my husband and I took a little staycation, which was really wonderful. While we were buzzing around town, we decided to take a Smart Car out for a test drive, just to see what they were like. They are cute and amazingly roomy on the inside, but don't have much pickup, possibly due to the engine which is about the size of a large tackle box. Still, the mileage was great, the price wasn't bad and the whole thing seems marginally safer than a scooter, which was another getting around town cheap option we had been bandying about.

Still, for all the good points, and the cuteness, let's not forget the cuteness, the Smart Car was rejected in favor of an alternative fuel vehicle which we greatly prefer:

Now, if at first you are skeptical, let me point out that this type of vehicle has been the choice of emperors and military leaders for hundreds of years, and won races for just as long before being supplanted by new fangled modes of transport which, face it, just aren't nearly as stylish.

And it's plenty roomy, just look!

That will hold one fully decked out hero in all his armor with room to spare! And horsepower? How many can you harness up to it? And the thing basically runs on chicken feed.

This chariot has been living in my basement for the past 15 years. It was a gift to my husband when he was King of Meridies, the SCA kingdom we live in. He is dusting it off and spiffing it up for the Dragon Con parade, which is the Saturday of Labor Day weekend downtown. While he will be appearing in Roman splendiferousness, I will be walking alongside in my own splendiferousness. We will get pictures, do not fret.

It is funny what happens around this time of year. Even though this summer, and particularly, this August have been unusually temperate, the body knows where it is in the year, and you find the urge to grab wool and make something flees you somewhere in the middle of June like the proverbial bat out of hell. Nevertheless, in late August, often in zillion degree heat and record breaking humidity, the body knows fall is coming, the summer lace project gets tossed in a heap and your instinct impells you toward the pile of shetland wool you created in June in a fit of heat induced catharsis. ZOMG! Winter is coming! Every fiber of your being screams at you to cast on! cast on! cast on! If you don't, YOU COULD FREEZE TO DEATH THIS YEAR! All reason flies out the window until somehow you forget you live in a centrally heated house in Georgia. So I did what any self respecting knitter who is the boss of her knitting would have done under these conditions.

I cast on like 9 things.

And you know what? I don't care! I have UFOs from 5 years ago I could work on, but why? I have new shiny stuff to play with. I don't knit out of necessity, although it is my one truly useful hobby. So that's just a bonus that I get stuff out of knitting that is useful. If need be, I can buy socks cheap at Wal Mart. Some UFOs need to age, like wine, to reach their full potential anyway, at least I'm convinced this is so. New yarn needs to be bought, aging in a shop doesn't marinate it quite like mingling in your stash at home does. So here are a few of the new hotnesses:

Dubbelmössa in unspun Icelandic wool from Schoolhouse Press. Just one example of the high quality project you can achieve through careful stash marinade.

The rather excitingly named "Wimple No 3". Sounds like a piece of art, no? You won't be catching me without some kind of headgear this year, apparently. A Fiddlesticks pattern from the Needle Arts Book Shop.

Not last and certainly not least, my newest obsession is twofold. One fold of it is the Glitten. Just go and see. Yes, it is a Ravelry link, but there is no more waiting list to get on, although I think everyone who wants to be there is by now. The other fold is the semi solid line that Dream in Color is producing. All the colorjoy of Malabrigo in a smooshy high twist yarn for your cabling pleasure. Two? days ago I cast on in Classy colorway Absolute Magenta. What do you think?

Sorry about the crappy pics, but I am entirely too excited to operate a point and shoot camera correctly right now. They're Sleestak Gloves, people!

Um, you DO remember Sleestaks, don't you? It's all too awesome for me, I may need to go have a lie down now.
Sleestaks!

Downsizing

2009-08-26T12:36:00.004-04:00

Well, I am back in action for sure now. During this summer I have had the opportunity to step back and take a look at the direction my life has been heading and do a little thinking on it. So far, what I think is this: I'm going in too many directions all at once.

Now this is actually the usual state of my life, so it is hardly a big shock or anything that I feel I need to fix right away. Except that I really want to, because I think it will make me happier. So here it is, and I'm pretty happy with what I've hammered out.

First, the knitting stays. Period. That was actually on the table for a minute or two, simply because somewhere between casting on a ton of big projects and now I have lost 35 pounds. This is great, and it is about half what I ultimately need to lose, but it means I have lots of stuff on the needles (and even finished *gulp*) that needs ripping and restarting. That alone nearly did me in when I realized the extent of the possible destruction needed. Or the gifting. That's not decided yet, but since the knitting keeps me from stabbing people, I thought it would be a good thing to continue.

The SCA stays. But on my terms. Really, it has to stay, because my husband enjoys it so much (and I enjoy it, too, sometimes...) but I will hopefully enjoy it more now, thereby making us both happier. First thing I did was change my persona from the 14th c Welsh thing I haven't really been doing to late Roman Empire, and changed my name to start. The rest, it will come, but not at the expense of my inner peace, so the time frame will be very relaxed. This will also prevent me going all stabby. And this is good, right?

The glass stays. I truly enjoy hot and cold glass, and with a newly discovered resource for classes and supplies, and a new configuration for my torch, as well as a whole new world opening up for me with borosilicate and blowing techniques, glass is a keeper.

The bellringing may be going. Not that I don't love it, I do. But I'm spread too thin. Maybe if I had found it at another time in my life, but right now I have only so much time to allocate and some of it needs to be rest. And I realized that I was a lot less exhausted before I started ringing because I wasn't running somewhere every evening to do something somewhere else and I need that down time back.

Spinning is going for now. I am far more in love with the idea of spinning than the reality of it. The end.

The blog is staying. But it will change a bit. It will begin including glass and SCA as well as anything else I want, because I don't intend to have a separate blog for everything. Plus, I now use Ravelry for much of what I had originally intended to use this blog for in the first place, asit is much smarter and better organized than ever I could be on my own, and that only leaves ranting for the blog. Even I would like it to be more than that.

The knitting machine is staying. I still get shivers thinking about all the stuff I can do with it when I have the time, so it can stay, albeit in semi hibernation, until I have that time.

Mean people are going. I used to try to be civil and polite to everyone, especially those who were not so to me (and that mostly out of sheer bloodymindedness). All bets are off now. I don't have time for it. If people are rotten to me or my friends, to hell with them. And since I am lucky to be friends with the best people in the world, I win.

BTW, lack of inclusion in the above links does not signify anything more than I ran out of words I wanted to link to.

So there. I'm about halfway through the weight loss and halfway through my life reclamation project. It must be time for Skycoaster!

Terrible Twos

2009-07-26T10:57:00.003-04:00

I have heard that the phenomenon know as the "terrible twos" is a function of mental development exceeding language acquisition in children when they hit roughly the age of two, and the frustration created by this disparity.

As a knitter, I am totally there.

I have ideas in my head that I can draw on paper, but I have no idea how to knit them. I am really frustrated by my lack of comprehension of stitch and fabric manipulation. As I have knit many of my previous projects I have come across techniques which are clever and should be useful in making my ideas a reality. However, I have no clue as to how to choose the right technique for what I want, or how to apply it to my ideas.

As I have returned to sitting, I have returned to knitting. And I have realized something about my knitting. I excel at shapeless garments. Socks fascinate me, but their three dimensional nature is not beyond me only because of the glut of really well written patterns. Otherwise, we are back to great success with shawls and scarves.

Knitting is at once two and three dimensional, and I am lost to try to reconcile that in my brain. I am currently knitting a pattern for a little top that I had hoped would help clarify a few things for me, but I find myself struggling every step on the way to understand the pattern as written with no hope of learning enough about it to modify it or take away anything useful I could turn into design knowledge. Part of the reason is that the pattern is written with an enormous assumption that I know what I'm doing in the first place.

In the turn of the last century lots of patterns were written making these same assumptions. I have seen so many patterns that read like this: Using the chart, cast on as many stitches as needed for the border and knit 3 repeats, then continue with the sweater in the usual way. The assumption is that we all know how to knit sweaters, and in the time in which the pattern was written, it may have been a pretty safe assumption to make. But in our day and age, we depend on more experienced knitters to work out all the missing details and write them up in a form we will understand. This is why I buy Nancy Bush's version of the patterns instead of knitting directly from Weldon's Practical Needlework and its ilk. But I'm getting tired of knitting other peoples' designs. And my brain is not Nancy Bush's, and I'm cranky about it.

So I think I have at least identified why I am tending to knit a bit, then storm around my house throwing needles and yarn across the room, only to cast on something else I hope will help and, ultimately, throwing that in an ever growing pile of WIP dissatisfaction.

That pretty much wraps up the tale of my summer knitting.

Before I go I really want to thank everyone who send me good wishes for my surgery. After a few minor setbacks I am well on the road to full recovery, at least physically. All your comments really cheered me up when I needed cheering, and for that I will be forever grateful.

Chicken Tragedy, Butt Surgery and Other Tasteful Subjects

2009-06-16T10:38:00.002-04:00

Ah, so here I am updating after long last. It has been one hell of a ride, folks. Where to start? Well, let's just dive right in, shall we?

First, not long after I posted about the pullets, my hub and I awoke to an empty cage. Door wide open, no signs of struggle or carnage, but no pullets anywhere to be found. We still don't know whether it was vandalism, animals or not fastening the door well enough the night before, but them chicks is gone. When I'm up to it, I'll be getting at least one more hen, probably closer to equal size with Ophelia so they can go in together from the start. One thing for sure, the Eglu is secure.

Second, there's the whole "when I'm up to it" thing. Well over a month ago I started having trouble with the tailbone area hurting like hell. Eventually it was obvious I needed to seek medical help, so off to the doctor I went. That's when I learned a new term. Pilonidal Tract, to be exact. Um, don't do any google image searches if you don't have a serious amount of intestinal fortitude. Ok, now that I know you are all going off to look at gross pictures, I'll give you a minute.

Fun, eh? And surgery was the only way to deal with this for me. And yes, it isn't butt surgery, strictly speaking (thank God!) but it's close enough, let me tell you. So last Thursday I had surgery and I'm actually doing better than I thought I might. Sitting, and therefore driving are still out of the question, but I can stand like a champion.

The biggest improvement I had hoped for was in my general health and energy levels. You see, for years I had weird problems with my immune system, and had often so little energy that even though I personally don't hold with the whole Chronic Fatigue thing (no hatemail, please) at the same time I was starting to think I had it. Which was a tough little conundrum for yours truly. And there was no explanation for why my body reacted as it did to stressors and illnesses, but it was acting like I was immune compromised and would throw off all sorts of other crazy reactions. Now we think that I had a low level infection in my PT for years, and my body was constantly trying to fight off something it couldn't get to, leading to my immune system conking out and all the fatigue.

I have to say that aside from issues with the incision itself (just the usual post surgical stuff) I feel better constitutionally than I've felt in a looooooooooong time. I'm not hoping for a miracle or anything, but even if I stay where I am now, after this heals completely I'm way ahead of where I was. And I really expect to get better. So we shall see.

Yesterday was the first day I knit in a long while. I'm currently working on a pair of Embossed Leaves (rav) socks in the Bugga! Blue Orchard Bee colorway, which got put way on hold when I started feeling really bad with the abcess. I haven't even updated my Ravelry page yet, but I'm just taking things one at a time. Right now I am blogging from our secondary computer which I can stand at, but none of my pictures are on this computer so I will have to post pics later.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in and give you all a little status report. Ophelia is hanging in there, still laying eggs for us, the postman is still delivering yarn, and I'm getting better every day. Hang in there, I should be fully operational shortly, then I'll have lotus pictures to share as well.

You may all post butt jokes in the comments now.

Gang of Four

2009-05-12T16:12:00.003-04:00

I have 3 new handmaidens. The old one is not pleased.

Even chickengoddesses have to live and learn. And I have learned. The answer to the question of introducing new pullets to a single old hen is, um, don't do it.

You see, I have been intending to get Ophelia new friends since Gladys was killed, years ago. And probably had I done it then while she was still young it would have been fine. But not so now. I brought home 3 pullets today and tossed them in with the best of intentions. At first, they were acting like one big happy family. Then I noticed that Ophelia had started pacing and talking a lot. Whole lots. She started getting kinda schizo with the pacing and talking to herself, but was still largely leaving the pullets alone. Then she started pecking them, but only like a warning, and only when they came near her. I had hoped that this was as far as it would go, but sadly I was wrong. About the time my husband came home for lunch she had started seeking them out like some kind of chicken terminator. The littlest one found shelter between the roosting bars and the floor where she could just fit, but she couldn't stay there forever. The other two were getting bloodied and I had to do something, so I pulled Ophelia out and put her in the bathroom while I ran out and borrowed an old rabbit cage from a friend. It will definitely do for now. So now everyone is separate and safe, until the new girls get big enough to go in with Ophelia.

Originally I had named my chickens Gladys and Ophelia because those were the names my sister and I would assume as children when we played dress up at my Gram's house. But now that there's only Ophelia, I have decided to go with the theme of Shakespearean females, and after today sticking with the tragic ones seems only right. So here's Juliet (the white one), Desdemona (the black and white one) and Cleopatra (mostly black) in their first blog appearance, with Ophelia being angry, which is what she does best today. Any guesses how long before she starts laying again?

Saucy Jack

2009-05-01T13:19:00.008-04:00

I have to tell you that the one thing you really don't want to announce on a blog is that you are going to name something. While you are writing it, the idea is just popping into your head and flowing out you fingers. And, largely, bypassing the rational thought centers of your brain. Next thing you know, it's out there and folks are commenting and now expecting some sort of greatness. And while I can't say it was well thought out at the beginning, the knitting machine bailed me out by giving itself a name worthy of your expectations. So now I and my newly working friend will show you our stuff.

First, meet Jack. Jack is a Studio SK360 from some time back in the 80s. The SK360 is a standard gauge machine. That means needle spacing is 4.5mm, also referred to as pitch. It handles fingering weight yarns (a range of sizes, probably up to a thin DK weight) best. For those of you who have or have seen the Bond Incredible Sweater machines or Ultimate Sweater Machines they have a pitch of 8 and handle worsted best. Mid gauge machines would really handle DK and sport weight best. Fine gauge machines would knit very fine yarns and threads. There are bulky machines as well. I have 2 Bond ISMs as well.

The SK360 is a manual machine. This means there are no onboard or integrated electronics. It has a punchcard reader and a knit radar built in (the integrated knit radar is, I think, unique to this machine. Otherwise it is sold separately as an attachment). Punch cards provide a mechanical method of knitting limited designs singly or repeated in either colorwork or in lace type patterns. The knit radar "reads" a schematic of the garment and tells you when to do the shaping. I am not fooling with either of these things right now. I don't know enough about them and I don't need them for this first project.

My machine came with lots of accessories. I believe it in fact came with all the accessories you could get for this model. I have a ribber, which is a second bed of opposing needles which would allow you to knit and purl simultaneously. Otherwise, ribbing on a single bed requires you stop every few rows, drop the desired stitches, then latch them back up in the correct orientation. It is a royal pain in the butt if you have lots of ribbing to do, or if you're on a standard gauge machine.

The best thing about machines? They're fast. I swatched Socks that Rock lightweight for gauge on 3 different settings. It took me about 10 minutes, and I was really distracted.
Here is your typical machine knitted swatch. What this swatch says is that the gauge I want with this yarn, 8st per inch, I can get with the carriage set to 6 (See the little eyelets above each sample? That's how you tell.) . It also told me that I had a bent needle 5 needles to the right of zero, which I replaced. If you look you can see the column of slipped stitch mess.

Armed with this knowledge and this book I prepare the machine to cast on for a sock. Today I am not using the ribber, but am going to knit it with a picot edge, top down.

Open a new window for Pandora. Check. Carriage dial set to 6, phasers set on stun. Go!

Note to self. For this sock, the hem is 6 rows, knit a 7th and make eyelets every other stitch, reset row counter to 0 and knit to 61 rows. This is where we are now.

And if we peek behind, you can see the picot edge hem behind the waste knitting.
And now the heel. I'm going to shortrow down to 12 stitches, then back up. Here we go...

And back up...
Heel!
Now a zillion more rows all over for the foot. As I'm knitting this I see that I will not need anywhere near as many rows and the calculations suggest. I cut it to 61 and I still may have a large sock. Well, we will see after all is said and done. So here we are with the toe done. Boy, these are going to be some psychedelic socks!
And the sock on waste yarn off the machine...
Lets get this seamed up and see what we have!
A large sock! But it is a sock!

My thoughts on this whole thing.

1. Machine knit swatches are dirty lying bastards just like hand knit ones!
2. The seam is not objectionable at all and can be done better with more practice.
3. The heel is too deep and the foot too big, but these are easy adjustments and I'd have the perfect sock!

I hope you have enjoyed this brief look into my crazy day of machine knitting. Me and Jack are getting to be better friends all the time. Oh, and I hope you guessed his name by now, it is...

Wait for it....

Jack the Ribber!

Stitches South, the third

2009-04-28T13:45:00.005-04:00

So, while I am swatching madly on the machine I thought more yarn would be a nice distraction. But before that, I am going to take a moment to share a few observations regarding vendors.

This is the first fiber expo I have attended, but it is hardly the first time I have experienced this format. I have been to dealer's rooms at SciFi and anime conventions, and even been through the halls of swag at professional venues. I was surprised at some of what I encountered at Stitches.

The setup of your booth should not be so packed with stuff it blockades the customer from actually entering and continuing to browse. It should be inviting. If all you did was sit hidden and dejected in the rear of a booth like this, it is no surprise you did not do well.

If there are two people working a booth, one of them should excuse themselves from the non buying chatty customer who is only seeking attention to help the new customer who has been seriously trying to catch someone's attention BEFORE she leaves the booth. Following after me as I walk away and asking if there was something I needed help with after I wasted 10 minutes of my time trying to catch someones' eye will always result is me telling you, no, I didn't need help. You have lost a sale. I will find what I need somewhere else, because I can, even if it was your display that sold me on the item. You have lost my business.

I was also surprised at the amount of snarking I overheard from other vendors, loudly telling customers why not to shop at another particular booth. If I am not trying to eavesdrop and still hear you, I might ultimately take your advice, but I add your booth to the list as well. Except for ease of availability, there was nothing there I couldn't find somewhere else. People, this is the 21st century. Thanks to the internet, the world is my LYS.

Lastly (and I'll mention that although I did not patronize the booths I am referring to above I did eventually buy something from these last although they came close) if you are dealing in limited unrepeatable colorways, you might want to be more up front about it. I asked if there was a kit in the color of the model. I was simply told no. Then I asked if there would be anymore in the future. Again, the no. Then I had a question regarding a pattern, which I was told was not available separately outside of a kit that didn't come in any of the colorways I was interested in. Could I get any of what I wanted and they repeatedly did not have later from a website or something? I'm happy to do that. No. Were they trying to run me off?

The disturbing thing about the array of vendors at Stitches was that there were a larger number of negative experiences than I have ever come across before. I don't know if anyone else found this, but I sure did.

Excellent vendors did abound, though and they got my money. Boy did they. Aside from Gryphon, I dropped a bit of cash at Tess Designer Yarns. I did not merely buy yarn there, I bought the night itself...

There is no way I will ever get this color to photograph just right, so I'm not going to try. It just looks like the sky at night where there is no moon, just a few clouds glowing somehow. I love it. I'd better, I bought lots.

Next is the totally fun Zauberball

which is a really long change color shifting yarn. In Germany you can even get Zauberball Crazy, but those are not yet here. I have one Crazy coming from Germany at some point. I like the idea of color changes long enough to still use complicated stitch patterns and not obscure either the pattern or the colors.

There's more, but this will be it for now. Friday I should have a tutorial of sorts on machine knitting for you, right now it's back to swatching for me!

Stitches South, part deux, the director's cut extended version

2009-04-27T18:25:00.004-04:00

What I didn't expect to find at Stitches was machine knitting stuff. But lo and behold, a booth I passed like 90 times without even looking (for some weird reason) suddenly manifested on my 91st pass, and there was Fran's Knitting Boutique, all full of knitting machines and machine related stuff. You could have knocked me over with a hank of Bugga!

Many years ago I bought a used knitting machine on ebay. I know, I know, but it really was a good deal, was an excellent model year and came with every accessory ever made for it, all for a low price when compared to buying new.

The first problem was that it was in Oregon, and I have never been anywhere near Oregon, so shipping was going to be the dealbreaker. But then I found out a friend was going to visit family in Oregon the very next month and would be within reasonable driving distance and didn't mind picking it up for me and bringing it back home with them.

If that isn't a clear message from God telling me sure, go ahead and buy a used knitting machine sight unseen on ebay, well, I don't know what is. Now, the Old Testament is really clear on what happens to people who don't obey, so I bought it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

And everything went without a hitch and in a little over a month, I had a Studio 360 machine with a ribber and all the extra stuff you could ever have for it, and I had no idea what to do with it. So it kinda sat.

Then I found a local KM dealer and got with her and had the machine cleaned and serviced and got some basic lessons on the main bed and went home and did almost nothing with it. So I put it in storage for a while, so it could age to perfection. Ahem. Meanwhile, the dealer seemed to magically go poof! and disappeared, so I lost what support I had for the machine. Things looked bleak for my future in machine knitting.

Then, when that Rowan issue came out with the Kaffe Fassett Kidsilk Haze extravaganza of stockinette, I thought, hey, what a great project for the machine! Mostly because I hate the thought of miles of stockinette. And it worked great. But I never even began to figure out all the features much less started trying to understand the ribber, which I didn't seem to be able to even hook up. I chalked it up to ignorance and when the project was over, back into storage the machine went.

But Kim was busy catching the machine knitting bug, and I offered to lend her the machine and all it's accessories so she could take a class in KM stuff, figuring when she came back I'd pick her brain. That was when I found out the second problem.

The ribber was bent.

That would explain a lot, though, and when I got the machine back I rather sadly packed it all up for storage, possibly this time for good. Until I saw Julia's blog (go check out the awesome spinning wheel her father made for her!). She knits socks on her machine. Excuse me, I could knit socks on the machine? Why hasn't anyone told me this? (Why didn't I think of it myself? Ssh, we're not going there).

So now it was important for me to have a functioning machine with a ribber. And there was nothing I could find on the internet or in the phone book or anything that could point me in the right direction. Till Stitches, and Fran. Who sold me a new sponge bar and gave me the courage to have my husband take a hammer to the ribber bed. Seriously.

Do you know how many people at a fiber convention will stop you and ask you what you have if you walk around the vendors room carrying a sponge bar for a knitting machine? I am seriously thinking about carrying one routinely at every fiber event I go to from now on. Vendors came out of their booths to stop me and ask me what I was carrying. It was freaky. At one point a really nice lady came directly up to me and said,"That's a sponge bar for a knitting machine! You have a knitting machine! So do I!". There was a desperate edge to her voice. I realized that I had just met another lost and frustrated knitting machine owner with no support system. I gave her my contact info, I hope she gets in touch with me.

But yeah, tons of people who previously had limited their conversation with me to "excuse me" all of a sudden were consumed with curiosity. It isn't even that special looking.

Anyway, where all this longwindedness is going is that I just spent an entire day with my machine and John and I actually fixed the damned thing! I can rib! I can knit in the round! In the round! I can do other stuff I don't even understand enough to name now! And all I keep hearing in my head is James Earl Jones's voice saying,

"Now witness the power...

...of this fully armed...

...and operational battle station."

It's like owning the death star of knitting machines. I may have to name it.

Stitches South, Installment the First

2009-04-25T19:55:00.005-04:00

In spite of illness I finally made it to Stitches South today. There would be tons more pictures except photography and such were not allowed. Highlights were Rick Mondragons' leopard pants (once seen, some things cannot be unseen), a cavalcade of bizarre sparkly knits, having a lovely conversation with Lisa Souza and finding the one item which is apparently THE icebreaker for a knitting/fiber show. For todays installment, though, I will share with you my triumph, indeed, the reason that about 30 minutes in I could have packed up and called it a good day and gone home happy. That would be the Bugga!

In the foreground is the Blue Orchard Bee colorway, in the back is Blue Morpho.

And here in front is Orange Assassin Bug, followed by Hologram Moth (I bought two of those) and bringing up the rear is Scarlet-Winged Lichen Moth.

And they glow, people, they just glow. I have never successfully snagged any Bugga! at all during any of the Sanguine Gryphon's updates, so being able to touch sweater quantities of all the colorways was almost too much for me. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, but I really don't care. Whatever I do will look spectacular because of the amazing depth of color of this yarn.

More new stash tomorrow!

It's All Good

2009-03-31T11:21:00.004-04:00

Now that I've gotten THAT out of my system, we can return to our regularly scheduled madness.

Ok, entrelac. Yes, I'm gonna talk about it some more. But it's ok, just wait. I gave it a truly fair shot. I knit it until I was actually becoming proficient at it, and it's actually very simple, if fiddly. Now, projects like the Forest Path Stole are demystified, and I feel confident that I will be able to encounter entrelac projects in the future in a spirit of opennness, judging them on their own merit and not just reacting to the entrelac portion of the technique. See? Nobody died.

I did, however, finish the cuff of one sock before pulling the needles out and making the calm and reasonable decision to trash the project. And you know what? In the end it was not the entrelac that got me (although entrelac in socks is skirting the edge of madness) but the yarn. Noro sock yarn. Sucks for socks. That is all.

Meanwhile, I have been in a cooldown period over Shipwreck, during which time I thought I'd just order the undyed yarn and use the shipping time as a waiting period before casting it on again. I charted out Madiera directly from Barbara Walker no. 1 and cast on. I haven't gotten too far because I've had to work for the past 4 days, but what I've got, I love, love, love.
I probably won't get too far before the weekend either, because today's my only day off and I have to clean The Horde's room. They have been in apocalypse mode now for a few weeks, and they are hoarding seed and hiding it everywhere. So cages are a mess, and hams need their health checks (So cute! Everything about them is so cute!) Tonight Happy Goth and I will be watching the second half of Veer Zaara and drinking beer and knitting. See? It's all good.

The White Hot Fury of a Thousand Burning Suns

2009-03-25T19:16:00.005-04:00

One of the things I like most about myself is my ability to stick with something even when it isn't what I originally signed on for. Some call it integrity, some call it stubbornness. Some call it marriage, but I call it (for lack of a better term which would more aptly describe the hidden evil within) entrelac.

Ok, it is tomorrow, and there is no burning of wool, no wailing and gnashing of teeth. There is, however, a slowly growing sock whose every stitch is imbued with pure unadulterated hatred.

I am human, I say, possibly the highest form of life on this planet, I say, and I am superior to mere yarn and therefore I will triumph. I say. This will not beat me. I have a brain, and cells and protoplasm and I can operate computers and cook and make stained glass windows for crying out loud. I can make these socks. And I will.

Last night for the first time in 15 years of marriage my husband came the closest he has ever come (possibly in both his marriages) to instant divorce. He was watching me struggle with this, this thing I am knitting, and he said: "I know it's giving you trouble, but it's pretty". Ok, that didn't get him in trouble, it was when he went on to say: "So when you are finished, you have to knit another one, right?". Instant divorce. No judge would blame me. My jaw actually dropped when he said that, and I just stared at him. Just stared. Then I merely said, "Gee, thanks, honey". He may never know how close he came to losing me in that moment.

Enter my best friend. Who apparently wanted a divorce as well, because when I told her about what the husband had said, she said: "You know what would be really funny? If you knit both the socks and then your cats ate them". Apparently, this is what I need friends for. Divorce, I tell you.

So now I'm just knitting out of shear bloody-mindedness. I will have these socks because they are awesome. I may be friendless, divorced and alone, but I'll have these socks, dammit.

Just thought you'd all like an update on my progress. I'll take a picture with the blaze of my fury stops interfering with the camera.

When a Shipwreck becomes a Trainwreck.

2009-03-24T22:21:00.004-04:00

Well, all my talk of project monogamy is total tosh. As soon as Knitty released its latest issue I had cast on the Shipwreck Shawl with stash yarn and got beads together for it. It was not going to be a perfect attempt, the yarn I had was already dyed green, but it was the right stuff, Knit Picks Gloss, which is the same base yarn and I was going to overdye it with the blue and black and hope for the best. I thought it fortuitous that I had a chance to use up the Gloss, I had purchased it for Thermal originally. Only after swatching for Thermal did I realize that I hated knitting that stitch pattern and the thought of having an entire sweater in that pattern made me cringe. So I ripped back my swatch and cast on and had instant success. St. Brigid went into what I was sure would be a quick hibernation. I was flying through the pattern. Until the Madiera chart section.

I would hardly consider myself an expert knitter. Usually, when a pattern or chart isn't working, it's my fault, and earlier projects taught me the errors of knitting hubris when it comes to lace patterns, so I figured the reason this chart wasn't working out was me. But for some reason, I plowed ahead, and I got through the first section of leaves on common sense. It was then that I had a brief conversation with Janice, who told me the chart was borked and that she had brought this up on Ravelry and the new charts fixed the problem. So I downloaded the new charts, which were different, and proceeded to get so confused I asked her to call me, feeling mere email exchanges weren't going to be good enough. Starting the second set of leaves, the chart seemed weird again, but she said to trust the charts, and I did. It wasn't perfect, but it turned out ok, and I got all the way to the tips of the leaves before things went horribly, horribly wrong again. I had thought I was clear, but no. Completely frustrated, I got out the original pattern in BW1 and charted the thing out myself from her instructions and lo, there was a chart that looked like it would work. So I ripped back to the center of the pattern and started again. Only now I was two stitches short. Somewhere. I could not for the life of me figure out which repeat lost stitches, and thought I saw a few rows down a problem, so I ripped some more.

After a certain point, there is no point anymore, so the whole thing has been frogged. I decided to take a break for a while before I revisited Shipwreck (which I have almost renamed Trainwreck). So did I pick St. B up and go back to cable heaven? Heck no, I cast on these socks. I have been obsessing over them ever since Pat put them on her blog, and although I have up till now been avoiding entrelac as if it were the plague, I figured the beauty of these would give me the intestinal fortitude needed to face entrelac.

OMGWTFBBQ11!!eleventyjillion! I hate it. I HATE IT! NO PROJECT CAN BE WORTH THIS! This is why people go postal, entrelac is, and I'm nearly there. I have never considered harming myself in anyway UP TILL NOW. There was a moment I really contemplated sticking a dpn in my eye BECAUSE SURELY IT WOULD BE MORE FUN THAN ENTRELAC!!!!!!!!!!

No, I haven't ripped it out yet. I'm going to sleep on this, and see how it works out in the morning. To be fair and all. Mostly to cover my ass so I can honestly say I gave it a fair shot before burning the whole freaking thing ritually. Those of you out there who actually LIKE entrelac, what is the secret? I can knit backwards, yeah I am doing that, so it isn't even more horrible like it would be if I had to turn and purl after every 6 freaking stitches. Where's the magic here?

Tomorrows episode: How to clear the smoke of burning wool out of your house fast enough to prevent your fire alarm from going off.

A More Refined Distraction

2009-03-12T16:28:00.005-04:00

It is hard for me to pick between spring and fall for my favorite time of the year. Coming from New Orleans, they're both so new to me. The real charm of spring to me is when the cherry trees begin to bloom.
There is something so delicate and graceful about these blooms that charm me to distraction.
So many shades of pale pink, ethereal in their massed glory.
The bark is so dark in contrast to the ghostly color of the flowers.

My favorite haiku sums up my ultimate spring experience:

The cherry blossom
So lovely, so Japanese
Oh God am I drunk

Plugging Away

2009-03-11T13:39:00.005-04:00

Work on St. Brigid is not swift. Add to that the realization that because this is a pieced sweater and not steeked, I have to knit 2 of everything, and sometimes I want to cash it in. But then I look down and see what I've got and I just can't walk away...
It does continue to be eerily easy to knit. I think that all those years of doodling celtic knotwork have paid off because now I pretty much have the pattern in my head and the charts are only there for reference if I need it. Also, not using a cable needle speeds things up a lot. Cable needles are really fiddly and annoying, always tucking the ends out of the way and generally causing me to do more stopping and starting, and I drop the darned things a lot. At this point I have ditched the stitch markers as well, and as much as it is possible for the rows to fly by, they're flying.

So there's plenty of knitting satisfaction going on with this project. I'm really trying to stay monogamous with this one as I did with Rosarie, and hopefully before end of April I'll have another FO for the pile. I think I'll get the Hub to put on his Durrow and I'll don the St. Brigid and we'll have a photo shoot full of celtic goodness.

One thing I have noticed is my penchant for purple. I can't explain it, I certainly wouldn't characterize it as my favorite color, but I do seem to be knitting lots of purple. Secondary colors in general, because my project page on Ravelry has lots of green there as well. I am waiting to see how orange fits in there when it inevitably happens. Orange is not a color I remotely prefer, but I look really good in many shades of it. Ah, well, who knows.

On the Bollywood front I have now seen Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, which apparently in Hindi means "lets all cry for 3 and 1/2 hours". Beautiful men crying is definitly worth the time investment. Also we had HappyGoth and her husband and Jen over Sunday night for indian food and Asoka. Let me tell you, an angsty SRK with long hair does not suck.
Thanks to the Tsarina for the recommendation.

Aside from the knitting and the Bollywood, life is going well. The chicken is happy and laying, the fish are tooling around all fresh from their winter naps and the cats and the hamsters are crazy. Not together, that would be a bad kind of crazy, but they're all nuts. Kind of like me. Oh, well, back to cable insanity!

2009 Year of Epic Overachievement

2009-03-02T13:32:00.010-05:00

Really, I didn't intend for this to happen. I don't know what came over me, but one minute I'm watching Bollywood movies and living in total denial of my inability to commit to a next project, and the next minute I look down and a repeat of St. Brigid snuck in there.
I suppose it is now safe to say that I will be working on this next. No, really. I was all distracted by the discovery of many dishy Indian men and a world of completely over the top films. The toughest part is that you can't knit anything but stockinette or ribbing and read subtitles, but that was just letting me live in a fantasy world that didn't include the pressure of my project list or the sheer guilt of my stash. But can you blame me for being distracted? Um,
Akshay, uh, hmmmm,
hello, Hrithik. My, is it getting warm in here? Oh.......
dear, dear, dear. It is tough to pick a favorite from these three. Ahem!(SRK)Cough! The movies I picked are hysterically funny, the music is great and they were a nice break after the intensity of Rosarie.

I actually had to lend out the movies so I would stop watching them long enough to, oh, I don't know, eat, sleep, do a little housework, maybe knit. Ahem. I do seem to have something caught in my throat, don't I?

Anyway, aside from taking any opportunity to post pics of these guys on my blog, the knitting is going weirdly well. I mean it. I picked this thing up without really thinking about it, and just started knitting away, no prep except to write out sheets to help me keep track of the multiple chart combinations, and totally forgot to check gauge or worry about complexity. And you know what? If you can knit a simple cable, you can knit this. As over the top as it seems, it is true. I don't know, maybe I levelled up after the last project and got some fancy new skills I hadn't counted on, but I don't think so. We'll see how long that feeling lasts. And of course, a great deal depends on my friends keeping my Bollywood DVDs long enough for me to make the sweater or else it's all over. Then, it's going to be all about SRK, baby. Maybe I should just pencil that in on my schedule right now.

Made of Pure Win

2009-02-12T17:13:00.007-05:00

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.

What next?

2009-02-11T17:47:00.006-05:00

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.

It's All About the Tentacles

2009-02-03T06:55:00.004-05:00

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!

Starting the Finishing (and other assorted ings)

2009-02-01T08:06:00.010-05:00

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.

This really is my year!

2009-01-26T06:53:00.004-05:00

Because I'm an Ox! I have to admit that after the year of the Cock, which as a poultry deity I have a stake in, I had grown rather neglectful of the Chinese calendar. Frankly as a child encountering my first Chinese zodiac themed place mat, I felt rather betrayed by the fact that I wasn't something cute like a mouse or a rabbit, or cool, like a dragon. What girl wants to be a cow? It grew on me, however, and I have come to embrace my ox and now I am happy to be one.

And because I am 12, I will share with you one of my favorite anime characters who is the ox.

Hatsuharu Sohma from Fruits Basket.

So, in the midst of all this progress on the fair isle vest, you see I have absolutely no knitting content for you today. Who cares! Gong xi fa cai!

Exactly what the hell was I thinking?

2009-01-23T19:13:00.004-05:00

The white thread at the top sides are where the armhole steeks are going in. ARMHOLE STEEKS, PEOPLE! And now, all I have to do is knit an interrupted 38 stitch pattern repeat whilst decreasing and standing on my head and playing the frigging trumpet with my left hand while I juggle flaming axes with my right foot. Thats all.

I have no idea why I thought it was going to get easier after the armhole steeks went in. No idea whatsoever. I have to go drink heavily now.

First repeat done!

2009-01-15T13:19:00.003-05:00

And I'm still liking this. Gotta go knit more now.

Bell Geekery

2009-01-14T12:44:00.002-05:00

I started a bell blog. If you are interested, go see it!

Bob!

Now I have to get back to knitting.

Sorry I can't come to the blog right now, I'm busy knitting,

2009-01-09T09:02:00.002-05:00

...but if you'll leave you name and email below, I'll get back with you as soon as I'm done.

Right now, that's looking like February or March.

Thanks.

The best thing my physics professor ever told me.

2009-01-06T07:29:00.003-05:00

I remember the first day of physics class in college. I was terrified. I had absolutely no physics in my life before that day, I had a course load of pure math and science that semester, and no wiggle room in my schedule for failure, because we were in the last class that would graduate with our particular degree and the new degree had totally different prerequisites.

So I'm sitting in this auditorium and Dr. Vincent strolls up to the podium and announces to the entire class that we all just got an A. Now all we had to do is keep it.

Sure it's a mind game, but it was a damned good one, one that got me a 4.0 to show for that toughest semester, one that kept me top of the heap for the rest of school. Now, to keep the A you have to drive yourself hard, and that is impossible to keep up for too long without becoming a crispy critter, but it is still much easier than trying to get an A from nothing.

Before I go any farther, let me thank all of you who have supported me and send hugs and good vibes our way. We are going to miss China for a long time; she was with us a long time, and I'm just not counting the first couple of days of January as 2009. Nope, those still belong to 2008, because in 2009 I'm starting with an A.

I actually made goals - yeah, I know, but it's true. Every month I will have a goal in 4 areas of my life, personal/health, knitting, SCA and bellringing. I may or may not bore you with the non knitting goals on this blog, but the concept is to review my progress at months end and adjust if needed when setting next months goals. Many of you may be yawning right now, but for me this is major.

Then I went to Ravelry and hibernated everything not currently on my goal list. That way all those UFOs aren't mocking me and glaring at me resentfully every time I log on. Another mind game, but one that instantly took tons of pressure off me I didn't even realize I was putting on myself.

Here's my January progress so far on Rosarie. I had to frog it yet again before starting. Apparently, as HappyGoth said, the seventh time's the charm.
.
Furry blur courtesy of Jasmine. These days I'm knitting around the cats instead of kicking them off. Like they weren't spoiled enough...

And now we are eight.

2009-01-01T22:21:00.004-05:00

Our China has gone to be with Ceiling Cat.

I already miss her big blue eyes.

She was with us 15 cranky years. She had excellent taste in boxes and loved to terrorize all the other cats in the house. She was a great cat.

Dementor Weather

2008-12-28T15:59:00.014-05:00

So here we are at the close of the year, and I am finding it challenging to look back on 2008 with a friendly eye. But then with the weather we are having right now, it is tough to be upbeat about anything. It is clammy and grey, the roads are slick from an old rain that won't evaporate properly as any respectable rain should have by now. I can't even conjure a decent patronus, which is real trouble in dementor weather.

Fortunately, I can still perform the odd transfiguration,

(no, this is not the cat who chewed holes in my hat. Nor is it the cat who clawed my Coronet hat to pieces or who knocked a small but agonizing hole in Irtfa'a. Because we all know transfiguration should never be used as a punishment. This cat is, in fact, the only cat not under suspicion for the above crimes, as she was always in the bedroom when the atrocities were perpetrated. She also frequently volunteers for transfiguration practice, and particularly enjoys being turned into a pillow or a doorstop.) The old swish and flick is still working, too,

so I suppose all is not lost. I even made a hat in a day when I was in New Orleans for Christmas (the high point of my whole holiday season experience). It was a really enjoyable pattern to knit, and I needed a new hat (ahem) so I present Rose Red by Ysolda Teague, in STR Heavyweight "Pallas Athena".

I love those Raven Clan colors, I really do. But hold on a minute, you say. This is a beret! What's up with that?

You know, I never would have thought myself a beret person, but this is no ordinary beret. This is my power beret. It looks too cool on me, and that's just wrong in my world. And yet, there it is. No denying it, with the right beret, I am awesome. Still, even with a beret awesomeness power-up...
crap for Patronus.

What's a witch to do? I feel the dementors there, closing in. When I set out to make a list of things I'd like to knit in the new year, it ends up being titled "Stuff I will fail to complete yet again in 2009" When I look back, my list is titled "Crap the cats destroyed in 2008" Because that's a longer list than "Items completed in 2008". I would not be surprised to find a summation of my knitting year as an entry on Fail Blog. And I have crap for a Patronus. W00t.

And worse, I have rants in my pants. I really want to go off on designers with whom I have issues and with unknitterly behavior I have seen recently displayed, but it hardly seems worth the rant. And none of my friends are to be allowed to go out of town again, unless I am out of town too, because I miss them. I know they're on their way back, but they need to drive faster. So there. I will rant on a sunnier day, when dark creatures are not sucking away my will to rant, when I can strike while the irony is still hot.

Until then, I will leave you with my 2009 list of stuff I will fail to complete.

Williamsro
February Lady sweater
Isobel of Mar
Come Together
Magic Carpet Ride
Some socks.
Kauni Sweater (pattern TBA)
Some more socks
Rosarie

I think that's a good start. I will undoubtedly get derailed by at least 5 or 6 new projects, and that's being optimistic. I could really shoot myself in the foot and say I'll do Christmas knitting as well, but that would be thoroughly ridiculous and completely unbelievable, so I won't.

Now, I realize I may seem a little down right now, but there are many things I did set out to accomplish over the past year that really worked out well. The job change has done wonders for my life, and the surprising discovery of change ringing added a new dimension of enjoyment to my extracurricular life. So all is not lost by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing that is lost is a pair of estonian mittens. And if I find out those got eaten too, well lets just say don't be surprised if you find me with a few less cats and a bit more in the glassware department and with a revised opinion of the use of transfiguration as a punishment tool. Verre verto, you furry motherfuckers.

I'm just sayin' is all.

I Am Speechless

2008-12-10T14:23:00.002-05:00

My Fair Isle Sampler Hat was discovered today to have been destroyed. I don't even begin to know how to deal with this, except to place an order with Schoolhouse press for more yarn to knit a new one. Right now, I can't breathe.

The Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory of Everything

2008-12-04T13:39:00.007-05:00

Hewlett Packard hates me. I know it. They probably have a dedicated department of developmental technology with specific focus on computers for my house that will self destruct in every possible manner at the worst possible time. Motherboard, we hardly knew ye.

So, after 3 HP purchases all ending in tears, I am posting from a Gateway. Do you have any idea how tired I am of setting up computers and transferring data? By now, I'm good at it, at least. And I have acquired new skillsets, like replacing power sources and putting hard drives in external hard cases. I mean, I know what Serial ATA is now. This should not be happening to me, but my tech friends are probably meeting even now, making yet more plans to widen my knowledge base so I'll have to call them less every time my computer glitches out, which, of course, probably won't happen now that I have finally wised up and not bought another HP.

ANYWAY, on to knitting, right? Uh, no, not really. I mean I have been knitting, it's just that I'm doing something else now as well, something new, and something somewhat related to knitting, at least in about 5 different ways I can think of right now. You see, apparently a few other of my friends decided I didn't have enough hobbies, and introduced me to change ringing. Now any of you who have been following the Tsarina's blog will be familiar with the activity, but for those of you who would like to see some (and undoubtedly mock me) I am sharing the following video of me (and the Happy Goth's husband, who is my primary teacher).

So, you say, didn't I say just a minute ago that I thought this was somehow related to knitting? Why, yes, I did. Because ringing and knitting are both math based, and can have a mathematical relationship to each other. Check out these socks for instance:
which is available from Holiday Yarns here. There is also this scarf (Ravelry link) which I haven't knit, but I will one day, for certain.

One of the other things knitting and change ringing have in common is that you can spend your entire life doing each of them and never learn all there is to know. I love this. I love learning, and the pursuits that have stayed with me all have this quality. I tire easily of anything once there are no more challenges, and although I have learned about lots of subjects that initially appealed to me, there are few I stick with. Don't get me wrong, it isn't that I master them all, but too often I learn enough to know that I have hit the ultimate depth of knowledge of something and mastery is only a matter of repetition from then onwards. Can you say boring?

Speaking of boring, I always thought knitting scarves would be boring, so I always avoided it. If for no other reason than that the universe usually conspires to prove me wrong, I present the scarf I'm currently working on. I can't stop knitting this.

Three guesses as to why...

Two colors of Silk Garden, 244 and 267

One scarf to rule them all.

The color changes keep me obsessed. Three days before Thanksgiving my Dad had successful carotid artery surgery. I thought he might appreciate some warmth for his neck. Scar tissue can hurt like hell in cold weather. So I thought about this scarf, which Jared made famous here. Picking out the colors is the hardest part. I wanted something masculine but not too drab and with colorful bits here and there. I think I've succeeded. I couldn't help buying a few more combinations for future scarves. Check these out:
This will be for me.

And possibly this for me too. Because apparently I had no other projects going on and had no yarn in the house.

Yeah.

Then the mail came. Oh, my God.

Need I say I'm on cloud nine?

Showing Jane My Sock

2008-09-28T22:16:00.008-04:00

One of the first things that occurred to me when I started learning to knit was that if I could knit, I could make things that fit me perfectly. How many times do you think that has actually happened?

So far, zilch.

It isn't all that strange that I have taken to knitting shawls and long floppy hats. There is no fitting there. As much as I have tried, my sweaters are lumpy and loose with sleeves to make any greater ape happy, mittens are too tight, socks are too short. So here I was, roughly 3 years into my knitting odyssey when I began to understand just how far short I had fallen from my goal of knitting stuff that fits, and it comes to me - now that I understand construction of a sock, I should start working on fit. Duh!, you say, but this is a revelation for me, believe it or not.

I decided to build my perfect sock. Mostly because I have knit more (single-shhh!) socks than any other garment, and secondly because poor fit is most frustrating to me in a sock. I have had quite a few sock failures (mohair, need I say more?) but most of my stash consists of sock yarns, so I needed a plan. It started like this.

First, I needed to decide what I wanted out of a sock; a plain old everyday kind of sock. Yarn: Opal, because it wears like friggin iron. Also because I own 90 bajillion skeins of it, Rainforests, Hundertwassers, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Apparently I am a complete whore for trick color effects, and have really questionable taste. Pattern: This was tricksy. I first contemplated what I currently wear everyday. It's Hanes cotton crew socks, machine made with a short row heel and toe, and ribbing from the ankle up. There must be a reason I wear them everyday, so I thought about it, and decided that the close fit and the ribbed cuff (which I often but not always turned down) were the items I wanted to keep. Check. Cotton I don't care much for, and the heel and toe are far outclassed and surpassed by some really superior techniques I have learned, so that was all jettisonned.

Next I thought back on all the socks I'd made before and thought about the techniques. Toe up socks were out, I haven't found a toe increase I like. Top down toes decrease smoothly, and now that I can kitchener moderately better than a baboon on acid, they are an ever viable option. Top down it is. Cuff has to be relatively short, but long enough to turn down, and no fancy Monkey or lace stitches. Two by two ribbing is the most elastic and would keep the socks snug. In one pair of socks I made the ribbing was extended over the instep and I really liked the extra cushiness under lacings, so that's in. So, heel and gusset were all that was left to choose.

Now I love a flap heel beyond all reason, but I hate the heel stitch. For some reason all those columns of slipped stitches begin to get rangey and loose, and the overall effect to me is kind of slidey, weak and unsecure. Not wanting to lose the cushion effect of the heel stitch heel, I settled on an Eye of Partridge heel, coupled with a garter edging for ease in picking up the gusset stitches. No more fumbling about the start and end of the gusset, wondering what I was picking up. I have decided to rename this combination the Eye of Keith Partridge heel. Why?

I think I love you.

This may be the only heel I ever use again. No sagging, no slippy feeling, plenty of cushion, my stitches do not grow in ever fattening columns. And best of all?

I was able to incorporate the great crush of my preteen years into the most perfect sock imaginable! How much do I rock, exactly?

So now, all that was left was to knit the thing. That's when I found out that this is only going to be my perfect pattern for Opal socks. That yarn is tiny, folks, and I being the loose knitter I am, ended up having to go down to size 00 needles to get the fabric I wanted, making this a 72 stitch sock. While our heads are reeling with the implications of that, lets have another David Cassidy moment.

Oh, yeah.

So 72 stitches on 00 dpns. Top down. 2x2 rib for 72 rows down to a heel flap done in eye of Keith Partridge. Continue ribbing on instep as you decrease gussets and throughout foot of sock down to toe, where you gracefully decrease down to 20 stitches and kitchener the toe like a baboon on very weak acid (I'm getting better at this all the time). That, folks, is the sock I'd make.

And, indeed, I did make, out of Opal Rainforest, Owl colorway. Which actually looks more like it should be called smores to me.

Which makes this pattern all the more perfect to me, because not only have I managed to include the love of my life (c.1970)
But one of my favorite foods from the time period as well. Life is good, my friends, life is good.

Yes, thank you, I should like a bit of cheese with my whine.

2008-09-16T13:01:00.004-04:00

I have had quite a few gear shifts in my life as of late. First was actually not mine, but Claudia's. After her husband died, I didn't know what to say or write, and truthfully that's where most of the non blogging came from. What could I possible write that could have any meaning after that? I spend many nights clinging to my poor husband so hard I don't think he slept at all.

But time passed and I relaxed, and got things back into perspective. So it was all good. My husband even decided to finally get the physical I'd been after him about for years to help me feel better. And he proved to be in excellent physical shape until the stress test. Which he failed so badly that doctors came in and stopped the tests and began asking him if he had had heart attacks in the past. What the f*#&? So then came the nuclear stress test, and after a couple of weeks of freaking the hell out (as you can imagine, but this is just me, mind you - he was cool as a cucumber) we find out the first test was wrong. Thank you, and who will be paying the bills on both the botched test and the unnecessary one? Oh, that would be me. But you know I'd pay anything for him to be ok, so I really don't mind.

OK, so that's most of the summer, but it's back to business as usual. And I am still loving my job, so that's good, even though I can't work right now. Oh, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Wow, way ahead of myself, let me go back before this, I am remiss in not mentioning that my Dad's surgery went well and he's fine. Thanks to everyone who sent good wishes and thoughts our way.

So back to the end of summer. Since 2005, not my fave time of year. Many of you know that hurricane Katrina destroyed my parents' house. They have been in the new house about a year now, it's very nice. I do have to say, though, that the evacuation for Gustav was stressful for us all, even though I loved having a visit from my folks. When they finally got power back and were able to return home everything got slowly back to normal. Until last Wednesday.

That's the first day the vertigo started. I didn't know how bad it would get then. By Friday I had to call in to work and call my husband to come home from his work and bring me to the doctor. Since then I have only left the house once when Happy Goth and Jennie were kind enough to pick me up and take me out for the afternoon. But I still do not have a consistent and reliable concept of where the floor and ceiling are at any given time and the only time I feel normal is when I am medicated to the nines and have been seated and unmoving for at least 10 or 15 minutes. Or laying in bed, again with the not moving. Then I feel as normal as anything, like I should just be able to get up and walk across the room like its nothing special at all.

Shows you what the hell I know. I need a sign to wear if I ever leave the house again that explains to everyone whose path I will inevitably stumble across that I am not, indeed, drunk. I also need to stop trying to knit. It only ends badly, and I am coming perilously close to finding out how many times I can frog Trekking before it is completely ruined. I am very amusing to watch, though.

I am also scared that this won't end. I need to return to work. I'm not good at being off. I am also not good at being sick. Grrrrr.

Now I'm going to have some cheese. I think I have earned it. When I feel better and can operate a computer with more than one window open at a time, I'll put links in this post and post some pictures of the knitting I have done over the summer. Trust me, you don't want to see what I've been working on recently; it looks like someone tried to teach a deranged monkey how to knit.

Chapter 11, in which I am discovered buried alive

2008-06-11T08:03:00.003-04:00

I have decided that summer is not even time to worry about the blog mojo. I have the knitting mojo, bad, a massive springtime case of startitis. Sometimes I want to just give in, go out, but a zillion sets of cheap needles and cast on everything I have yarn for. Everything. And folks, the yarn in my house? It has it's own room, so that's crazytalk. So after much interruption knitting (we interrupt your lace knitting to bring you this small, delightful colorwork knitting; we interrupt your color knitting to bring you this simple cable projct; we interrupt your cable knitting to bring you this fantastic new lace project; etc) I have decided to limit myself to no more than 27 ufos on the needles at one time.

I'm not at all sure I can handle the restriction.

In other news, the lotus is blooming:

I am also finally getting over a sinus infection of truly epic proportions. But while from the schnozz up I was laid low, the hands, they have been knitting. And for some odd reason, all I want to make is mittens, hot water bottle covers and anything in Kidsilk Night. I have no idea what is wrong with me that I wait for 90+ degree weather and OMG humidity to bust up with the mohair. Pics later, I fear, because every time I grab stuff to photograph it, I end up working on it instead. Which really is good, albeit frustrating from a blogger point of view.

So bear with me a few more days and I'll have time to get myself together. Before I go, however, I have been tagged for a meme by Toni (who actually tagged me a while ago, but hey, better late than never!) so here goes!

The Rules:Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Pretty much the same thing, but I had the glass studio functional so I was making beads and teaching stained glass.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
Work out at the gym, knit, clean out the hamsters, work on my byzantine jewelry project, pester my friend Barbara (that really is a list item)

3. Snacks I enjoy: British Cadburys, greek yogurt with honey, fritos and cream cheese for a dip, gelato, esp. stracciatella

4. Places I’ve lived: Metairie Louisiana, Atlanta, that's all.

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Keep a house in New Orleans, an apartment in London, a place in Tokyo and a cottage in Ireland. Buy a space shuttle trip for my husband. Take care of my family and friends. Own and operate an old fashioned drug store with a soda fountain and run it the way I want to (sort of like a functioning museum). I'd love to say lots of meaningful philanthropic stuff, too, but I don't have specifics. I don't actually think about this very much and I don't buy lottery tickets, so there isn't much chance anyway.

The rules say I have to tag 6 people now. How about HappyGoth, EvilScienceChick, Snarky Katie, Famous Steve, Light Wading, and Olivia? And if you're feeling left out because I didn't tag you, feel free to swipe the meme and post answers on your blog, then let me know in the comments.

It's Not My Fault 101

2008-05-17T18:16:00.006-04:00

Wow, I don't know quite what has come over me. I have like unto my own personal yarn store of stash, and I have been on a buying binge for two freaking days now.

It's all Katey's fault. It was she who dyed the yarn that started the whole thing. She made me kidnap Jane to ride with me up to Only Ewe and Cotton Too in Alpharetta, where she then made me look at all the cool stuff they had there, resulting in my buying not only the yarn I went for, but some Shibui Knits in the bluest blues you have ever seen, and some Suri Alpaca laceweight in silver. And some undyed superwash merino top roving. She made Jane buy stuff too. It was so unfair.

After I dropped off Jane I went to my husbands' work Spring Fling, where they had this cool inflated slide thing with two aisles and bungee cords. What, pray tell, do you do with that, you may ask. Well, the answer is you made a fool of yourself in it, by twos, and you injure yourself slightly. Actually, you put on harnesses that have the bungees, which are attached to the back wall of the thing, then you take velcroed bean bags, then you run down the aisle as far as you can and plant the bean bag on the velcroed strip as far down the thing as you can before the bungee snaps you backwards, hopefully bettering your opponents' distance.

And if your forty something and unathletic, expect to injure yourself. I'm just sayin is all.

However, if you are in fine physical shape, at any age, you can win, which looks something like this:

Please note that this is a picture of my husband, winning. Not a picture of me. Losing. Knitting is much safer. Trust me. Ow.

OK, so maybe part of it is Janes' fault as well. If she hadn't left her GoKnit pouch in my car, I would not have had to return it to her this morning, causing me to drive near Knitch, which reminded me that I really wanted to pick up a copy of the Lucy Neatby sock book. And while I was there, I was shown the Handmaiden yarns that they just got in. The stuff is too beautiful, and I had to get a couple of skeins of the Casbah. Against my will.

So I figured that after that I'd better be virtuous and like, knit, or something. But on the way back home I noticed a big sign in front of the Melkite church advertising that today was a Middle Eastern Food Fair, so I did the only thing my conscience allowed me to do. I called my husband and told him about it. I went home to pick him up, and decided to check a few blogs and noticed Farm Witch updated her etsy store with yarn and roving in colorways that nearly made me cry. Realizing that it just wouldn't do to go to a Food Fest with my husband and be crying all the time, I bought some. I still hold that if you follow my logical path, the pistachio and rosewater ice cream I shouldn't have eaten was also Janes' fault, and therefore Kateys' as well.

Oh, and I joined Lime and Violet's Yarn Raiders on Chore Wars. So when I came home and finished my Neck Down Wrap Cardigan, I levelled up!

Pictures to follow, possibly next winter. OMG, this thing is warm!

Dude, I haven't even had coffee yet.

2008-05-12T15:04:00.001-04:00

Created by OnePlusYou

Well, that was unintentional.

2008-05-08T15:05:00.008-04:00

Wow, I sure didn't set out to ignore the blog for a month and a half, but life is wonderful and strange like that. Hell, I haven't even kept up with my Ravelry page, so don't feel too neglected. Anyway, I have been up to a few things, none of which is finishing any of my projects, but all of which are really positive steps in acheiving my new years resolution of making my life work for me.

First, I changed jobs. Back in whenever the hell that was (probably January), when I was griping about my job, I said I was going to do one of two things. Either I was going to make the job I was in work better for me and my life or I was going to get a better job that would work better for me and for my life. By March I had done about all I could at my old job to better my situation and there was no sign that the changes I had made were going to make a damned bit of difference. When a much better offer came along, I completed my commitments at the old job and took a few weeks off in between jobs for some decompression. My "vacation" I had taken earlier in the year was used to get a bunch of dental work done and I ended up in pain or sick the whole time, so I could hardly count that as a vacation.

For a few weeks I knit, caught up on some podcasts, caught up on some husband time, petted the much neglected cats, played with the hammies and bought a bicycle. I love my bike. Now I just have to move somewhere flat so I can ride it. I really didn't think about that, no, I did not. I took it out for a spin near Zoo Atlanta. It was a beautiful spring day, the cherry trees were in bloom, and I nearly burned out the brakes trying to control the extreme downhill death ride that took me, screaming, to my destination. Then, just as the Yarn Harlot wrote, you realize that you aren't at your destination, you're only halfway there. The uphill ride back to the car took what felt like hours, me pedaling until I was just short of having my legs burst into flame, then resting until I could ride a few more feet. Needless to say, I am now scouting out long stretches of flat road, preferably in out of the way areas without traffic.

Realizing this was yet another reality check regarding my fitness level (because the scale readings weren't enough, I guess) I joined a really great gym and got a Personal Trainer that I really like. Yup, just like Oprah. And everyone in Dunwoody. And although working out cuts into precious knitting time, I think the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. After all, the lighter 50lb boxes seem to me, the more of them I can fill with yarn and stuff in the car, right? So this is my plan. Lift weights, knit, cook. OMG, I am actually cooking again. I have the time.

Another thing I had to do was break up the hammies. The Khans, it seems are loners. We went through I don't know how many rounds of antibiotics to get them straight, but neither Genghis nor Kublai will ever come into direct contact with another hamster again. The other guys do fine together, so they stay that way. And yes, for those of you who will want to know, they have names, too. Ogadai, Chinua and Hai-Shan who we call Arrowhead. My clone Doug knit them a yurt. No lie. Here it is.

And here are the hammies with it. Sorry Doug, they only see it as a chew toy.

Now if you don't think that's cute, you don't know from cute. Doug, you rock!

So there has been no finishing of projects, but there has been much knitting. And you all know that that means that at some point there was a festival of casting on. I am totally reconciled to it, and feel no guilt whatsoever. In fact, I am casting off a shawl I started recently as we speak, and I may cast on again before I am finished. I am just that crazy. This thing hasn't even been put on Ravelry! Taunting the gods, I am. Ya ha!

I am completely ignoring Mission Possible 2008 in favor of cultivating skills as a dilettante. I have cast on, knitted and am casting off the Lotus Blossom Shawl, which was a pattern I had ignored for years. My own lack of imagination was the culprit, as I was unable to see past the ugly pictures used in the pattern packaging to the beauty possible if the right yarn was used. And I am using the right yarn.

Jojoland Melody Superwash color 20, which is actually slightly less pinky/blue and more red/blue than shown. Still, supremely awesome. I am also using a picot cast off instead of the sucky bobble cast off. Bobbles just shouldn't exist.

Went to see the Yarn Harlot with HappyGoth. And Claudia, Jane, Knitwitch, the Warlock, Hockeymom, and everyone else. But me and HG were hanging out in the first row, not drinking beer, but still having a great time.

She and I are knitting matching socks, because the yarn is cool and because we are giant dorks. Stephanie revelled in our dorkness. Which is immense.

She even took a picture of me in my Irtfa'a shawl to send to Tina of BMFA. I was really flattered. After she took my picture I realized I was wearing it inside out. Immense. Dork.

At some point in the mix I knitted that Felted Clog pattern from Fiber Trends. I must say that at the point just before they were felted I had little confidence in the pattern. Here they are in their Seussian glory, modelled for us by the lovely Nell and her daughter Haley.

And the amazing after shot.

The pattern works in a miraculous sort of way. Well, I guess I did finish a project after all.

And, somewhere in there, I won Claudia's sock naming contest along with Snarky Katie! I won Koigu. Gorgeous, wonderful, Koigu.

The break I took was really good for me, although not intended to be as long as it was. Had I tried to write before now, I'm sure I would have written total crap, so I have saved us all from that. And I'm ready to work a bit of blogging into my new schedule. Thanks for being patient!

Beware the Ides of March

2008-03-15T17:58:00.004-04:00

Excuse the lateness of this post, but I got rather caught up in the weather today. Atlanta got it repeatedly, as many of you may have heard on the news. Me and mine are just fine here, but I live less than a mile from the damage path of the tornado, and the whole area is just a mess. There is no hopping in the car to go down the street right now as many of them are barricaded because of fallen trees or debris. I was not totally unprepared for this level of French Toast Emergency, however. Eggs are always plentiful here, and we had milk and bread, so I didn't have to rush to the store. I went to visit HappyGoth, who lives a few blocks from some of the worst damage, and I had to take a roundabout route to get there and back. While I was there we had a lovely midafternoon hail storm.
Thankfully this was noisier than it was dangerous, but it was unnerving all the same.

And although not much knitting got done today, I have been knitting. I am somewhere near row 55 of Lyra (here's the Ravelry pattern link), but I am not feeling the love.

My camera is not capable of reproducing this shade of indigo. Remotely. So we give you electric blue Lyra instead. The biggest problem with this (and I'm afraid with a great many Nieblings) is that I found out I hate knitting that hex mesh background. I'm just not a double yarnover every two seconds kind of girl.

I am, however, a vintage lace gloves kind of girl in a big way (link to Ravelry). I had scads of Laci left over from Irtfa'a, and I came across this free pattern and it all clicked. I had seen this pattern a long time ago and never really gave it a second thought at the time, but thanks to Ravelry I ran across it again, and seeing everyone elses' gloves in all different colors gave me the idea to make a pair to match my shawl. Me all matchy, that's a first - you can ask anyone who knows me. Here is the first one in progress in all its splendiferousness.

Spiffy, no? I will be one bad ass matching mofo.

Last but not least, let me thank everyone who read my last post to the end (bless you all) and left a comment. Although I didn't mention it at the time, the occasion of the contest was that that was my hundredth post. And because I felt like it.

I am very grateful for all your comments. From where I sit here atop the Mount Olympus of Chickendom, it was tough to pick a favorite. But I think the following snippet sums up what I feel is at the heart of the knitblogging experience:

"I think it's the thought that there might just be someone out there who understands about any achievements in knitting, and won't just dismiss them with a kindly-meant (but disheartening!) "very nice dear (now run along & play)" kind of comment ..."

Mary Lou, of Odd Ball Knitting, you are the winner! Email me at chickengoddessATmindspringDOTcom with your address and the book will be winging its way to you first thing.

And to Dave, Rabbitch (I do read you, you know, you have made me truly scared to check my referral stats), ESC, HappyGoth, Amy, Turtlegirl, JP, Turbochic, Deb, kmkat, PurlyKay, Megan, Toni, Lyle and even Artemis (dude, you don't even knit. What would you have done with the book? ;) I thank you, thank you for reading my blog and making my 100th post special. I have a little something for you all, and if you'll email me with your addresses I'd like to send you each a thank you. Even Artemis.

Really, I'm just collecting them so I can stalk you. Or maybe send you chickens. You won't know, will you, until it's too late...;)

Me, I Just Ramble On

2008-03-03T20:12:00.007-05:00

As I perused my enormous list of blogs today, I kept thinking about how different people organize and run their blogs, and how they compare to mine.

I know.

But it is interesting to see how many different styles of blogging there are out there. There are those folks who post to-do lists on a regular basis and the remaining posting is just the follow up of their goals. And there are those who catalogue (I like that spelling) each project, one at a time, almost like a journal or in some cases a tutorial. Then there are those who are apologetic versus those that are confident (probably past the point of good taste), and those who are trying to make something out of, well, not a damned thing.

I read bloggers who are obviously prepared before they address the keyboard and those who just as obviously have divine intervention on their side because you know they are sitting there trying to talk into the mouse, but somehow the blog gets published. And I have seen those I consider to be widely read and popular bloggers disappear into thin air at a moments notice. Like they married a cop or something. Have you noticed that? I have. One minute some nice young thing is talking about her knitting and her boyfriend in law enforcement, then the engagement pic goes up, then the requisite post about knitting for the wedding and then *POOF* they utterly disappear from the blogosphere.

Anyway, I love them all, even the less than stellar attempts (which usually resort to lots of lolcat pics and internet quiz results, so you should not look too closely at this blog, okay? Thanks!) but I do wonder sometimes why we do this.

I know I'm not the first to ask this question, but I wasn't paying attention when it came up last time, so I'm going to ask again:

Why do you blog about your knitting?

Leave an answer in the comments before midnight EDT, March 13 and I'll pick my favorite to win a copy of this out of print book:

And remember, since Blogger isn't consistent with sending me email addresses, check back on the Ides of March (the 15th for you non -Roman types) to see if you've won. Good luck!

This Post Has No Title Just Words and a Tune

2008-02-23T23:19:00.005-05:00

Well, I finally have a minute off work to knit and relax, and I choose the kind of knitting that won't let you relax. Yes, my friends, I have cast on another lace project. I know, I know, I haven't yet posted decent pictures of Irtfa'a, but that is how it is. Anyway, I still am pretending to work on my Mission Possible 2008 list, so I cast on.

Now, let's not start out assuming that casting on 8 stitches is an easy or simple thing. Because that was the first thing I did today, and that assumption cost me 3 hours. You read it right, 8 stitches, 3 freaking hours. Of my life. That I cannot get back. Yep. And truthfully, I am still not completely happy with it, not by a long shot, but me and this project have reached an agreement. I will be happy with what I have for now, and it will not look like total shite. That's the deal.

The internet is truly a wonderful thing. But, as many of you know, it can be really dangerous as well. I now have a computer in the knitting room, which is like unto the blasting cap being united with the dynamite insofar as the internet danger thing is concerned. So I began my foray into the wild world of casting on 8 stitches in the round by consulting the internet.

Do you have any idea what a powder keg of an issue a single stinking cast on can be? Maybe you do, and you are all at home smugly shaking your heads at me already, but I have to admit I was shocked at the information I found. No less than three tutorials, with pictures, countless blog posts and list discussions. Entire discussions. 8 freaking stitches. Frikkin frakkin frik!

So I decided to take what at the time really did seem to be the sanest route and tried the most logical looking cast on. Obviously, it works, because someone I know has used it. And I believe them when they say they have. They have no reason to lie to me. At this point, however, I think the best way they can assure me beyond any doubt that they can execute this particular cast on is to come on over and do it for me, because I couldn't manage the frelling thing. So I took a short break and petted hamsters, put some more music on my ipod and went to plan B.

Naturally, for me at least, I choose the most sensible and logical thing to try as my personal plan A. It follows, then (at least in my universe) that plan B jumps to the least logical, most ridiculous thing. I know that this usually sets me up for more frustration and hamster petting, I know. I know the better option would be to try the next level down the list, not jump to the bottom, but that's just how I roll. I think it is a genetic selection thing for beer. Because after the crazy stuff blows up in my face, the hamster petting only keeps working to calm me if it is accompanied by beer.

Anyway, now I am doing this weird knit a square to make it round to use it as a provisional cast on thingie and failing miserably, but I am getting totally stoked about making it work. This is probably when I should have stopped for a beer, but I didn't. Five times I failed to do this right, but me and this cast on got this relationship thing building. You know, like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, and I knew I would be able to make these 8 stitches happen. And time, she went poof.

To make a 3 hour long story short, I finally did it, the most convoluted and bizarre way, a strange amalgamation of the ridiculously complex instructions and my own brain (which I have put back in the jar now so no one gets hurt). And you know what? It's kinda, well, meh. But it doesn't totally suck, so the deal holds. As long as it continues to not totally suck I have agreed not to do such things to it and the yarn that would render them eternally unuseable and possibly bring the authorities down on me. So there. And on to knitting!

Did I mention this is a German chart? In German symbols? With blank mystery spaces in the chart to fool you into thinking you should knit where (unless you were a German chart knitter type person and know better) physics will not allow? Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So after a total of 5 (five) hours, I would like to present, at row 18 with 112 stitches, um,

My sea urchin. I love knitting!

Darth Hamster

2008-02-13T07:09:00.003-05:00

Thank you for all your lovely comments! I really hate when Blogger doesn't give a real email address so I can respond, but that's an old beef with Blogger. Meanwhile I am going crazy trying to make good on my resolution to make this year work out for me. And I'm doing it, it is just taking my every waking moment. All I am able to knit right now is socks, but the pattern (Jaywalker, a favorite) and the yarn (Trekking 100, an amazing colorway) keep it simple but fascinating, so for now it is the perfect knitting. I have great aspirations for the future, but socks make me happy until I can get some of my plans implemented. Meanwhile there really isn't much fascinating to blog about, so for now I will leave you with one of my favorite pictures.

Welcome 2008 graduates of Sith University and families.

2008-01-22T19:52:00.000-05:00

As I ready to don my ceremonial cloak and hood, I look back on the past months with fond memory. All the happy hours of knitting as miles of dark yarn passed through my fingers. The promise of each pucker and ruffle, like the darkness of space itself, the darkness of the force, and always waiting for fate to unfold; waiting to spread my dark wings and fly. Waiting for today. All that is left is to cross the stage, receive my diploma, and (lest I seem ungrateful for all my training) assasinate the emperor as I exit, leaving a vacancy I am ready to fill. Yes, it was tough at the end, but it always is, and you learn that is has to be that way. Now all adversity has been overcome, and I wait, triumphant, for the final strains of pomp and circumstance (still a classic) to die away, and for my future to begin.

First you must grasp your hamster firmly...

2008-01-08T21:03:00.000-05:00

Yes, hamster adventures continue. Knitting does not, at least for now while work is crazy and the Khan requires special treatment.

I'll go back a bit. The other day, while showing off the Horde to a friend, I noticed one of the hamsters' butts looked weird.

OK, I'll go back a bit more. Now, being the responsible new hamster owner, the day after the Horde showed up I went out and bought what seemed to be a pretty good resource on hamster care and started reading up on basic care and what to look out for. So I knew that as long as everyone was chipper and fluffy and were eating, drinking and pooping ok, things would be alright. I also knew that the robo hamsters could be kept together, although they like to pair, and we briefly wondered if a fifth unpaired hamster would be a problem, and, if so, how would we know who was paired and who was not. And I learned that they were pretty darned hardy but could catch colds from humans if exposed. But loose poops can be a problem, and a wet tail can herald a possible fatal infection. Check.

So I've been engaging in a daily health check which is easy to do when I let them run around in their balls, because they're all separate and easy to handle and view without having to try to catch any of them (which I can't - they're just too fast). So I'm checking out the hamster butt a couple of days ago (yeah, that sounds weird) and sure enough, we have one with a dark patch where nice clean fur should be.

Is it wet? Is it time to panic? I mean, I had just seen "I Am Legend" the night before, and I could have a transformed hamster here who will shortly begin killing and possibly eating the cats! I mean, they're nocturnal already, and this one's going hairless, and ... Or maybe we have the first signs of a potentially fatal hamster disease here that I didn't even know existed 2 weeks ago. But it wasn't wet, just hairless and raw. Otherwise the hamster was completely normal. I decided to give it a day. It was late Saturday night, what could I have done anyway?

Sunday, the patch was bigger, and now it was looking rashy, as was the left hind foot. Hamster otherwise still completely normal, perky dining on seeds, no cat carcasses strewn around the cage. The plan: get a vet on Monday.

Did you know hamsters are considered exotic? I sure as hell didn't. Maybe a Hawaiian hamster that does the hula would fit my description of exotic, but hamsters are as American as moms' apple pie, so it was strange to have so much trouble finding someone who would see him. Finally I asked the Banfield people at Petsmart if they would see him. I mean, they sell the little guys (although mine came from elsewhere), so you'd think they would have a special rodent doc there or something, but they don't. However, the vet there did say that although she wasn't an exotics specialist, she'd see him and do what she could. Could we bring him in later in the afternoon and what was his name?

???

I really had no contingency plan for ever getting to be able to tell them apart to the point that would warrant individual names, so I don't know where it came from, but without missing a beat I answered "Genghis". And proceeded to spell it out for them.

Turns out we have identified the odd hamster out here. He, being unpaired, was getting chewed on a bit, and has a secondary bacterial infection from the bites. He got an antiseptic bath at the vets' (who were awesome) and is currently in his own habitat (for everyones' safety) and is living like, well, a Khan. We have to catch and hold him to give him his cherry flavored drop of medicine, then he returns to his posh digs. Now, the odd hamster out theory is mine, and it could be a crowding issue as well, so when he gets a clean bill of health we are going to get him a friend and eventually join the two habitats via tunnels so there's tons of room for everyone, and everyone has a buddy.

Do you have any idea how cute this has all been? OMG!

Thank Bob That's Done!

2008-01-02T07:35:00.000-05:00

Well, I have finished the right half of the edge pattern and started on the left side. Pat will be pleased to know that the left side is far easier than the right. Maybe it's just being so thankful not to have to p2togtbl anymore, I don't know. But I got 5 repeats done in the time it would take me to do 2 of the right side repeats and I actually enjoyed it!

Now I've learned my lesson about saying cocky stuff like giving dates as to when I'll have it done, but I'm hoping to be able to wear it soon. It really shouldn't take much longer. Wow, I should paint that window.

In other news, the Horde are ridiculously adorable. We got them the little clear balls to run around in while I cleaned their cage, and I'm going to have to get some video of that and put it up here for you. It's freakin hysterical. And with my new camera, I can actually get short videos. For now, I'm proud that I can get any pictures out of it. It's way more high tech than my old camera. I sat down with the manuals yesterday and learned how to focus. Sad, that I'm actually all excited about that, isn't it? And it has digital macro. For the hamsters. The tiny fast hamsters.

The cats are getting jealous, but they'll have to wait their turn. I don't know what's funnier, 5 tiny critters rolling around in 5 balls or the view when you leave the room of 9 mesmerized cats staring at the door to the knitting room, just listening to the rolling sounds.

2008 South of I-20

2008-01-01T16:54:00.000-05:00

I can sum up my entire New Years experience with one word.

Gunfire.

Yes, it was difficult not to feel that I had been magically transported to Baghdad last night. The husband and I stayed home for a relaxing evening and ended up hunkered down, away from any windows, listening to every fool with a semi automatic waste ammunition. It is a miracle no one was hurt.

Every year we have a few yahoos who think the best way to celebrate is by going out on their back porch and unloading their home protection system into the sky. Like bullets never come down or something. Last night we could only identify two, yes, two incidences of actual fireworks. All the rest were guns.

I am not anti-gun. I think people who own guns and aren't responsible with them should have their guns taken away, however. And below I-20 here, that would be every idiot who was out last night. Massive amounts of gunfire is never a soothing sound, nor is it a particularly celebratory sound. Unless you are in some 9th world country celebrating a coup. And my lack of appreciation for it is one of the many reasons why I don't live in a 9th world country. I live in a major metropolitan area in a 1st world nation. Yes, you have a big gun. Go get some bloody fireworks now. Thanks.

Drunken people shooting guns into the air in the dark aside, progress continues on Irtfa'a. I have just finished the purling hell right side of the edge pattern, and I am taking a breath before starting the knit friendly left side. Pictures to follow soon, if my new camera didn't get hit by a stray bullet.

And to think that part of the reason we stayed home was because we didn't feel like braving the roads on New Years Eve.

An Uneasy Peace

2007-12-31T06:53:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are at the last of 2007 and I have reached a truce with the edging pattern. It has stopped trying to kill me and I have decided not to hate it. I am afraid, however, that that is as good as I have managed to get it.

I have made it past halfway through the first side and I am really hopeful that the second side will be much nicer. I also think that if a designer is going to throw a curve ball, this is the way to do it. By the time I get to the second bit, the pattern every row thing will be old hat and the absence of complex purly moves will be like a gift. A friend of mine suggested that if it got bad enough just to dump it and do a different border, but I couldn't. I love the look so much, and truthfully, despite my lack of skill with this design, it looks really decent. And I have to remind myself, now and then, that one of the reasons I took up knitting was to challenge myself. This certainly fits the bill, so as soon as one half of my brain gets the other half of my brain to accept that, I'll be good to go.

The Horde are great! They are nocturnal, however, and are all about early morning and late evening interaction. One crawled into my hand yesterday. I didn't try to pick it up, just let it sit there. It is really unbelievable that life can come in such small packages. At night they are extremely active. We got them an extra wheel (because although its really funny to watch all 5 try to run in one wheel, it doesn't actually work well) and they are in both wheels all night, almost constantly. They are also busy running around the cage, burrowing, chewing, climbing, eating, tusselling etc. If you need a drink of water in the middle of the night, you can hear them rolling. Last night they laid siege to Samarkand. The cage was full of loot in the morning.

So, 2007. Every year I resolve to have a better year than the last. Every year by February at the latest, I give up on it. 2005 was the topper of the crap year list because of Katrina, and that was nothing I could have prevented, but I always feel that what kind of year I have rests largely in the hands of fate. Not so 2008.

I have decided that 2008 will be a good year, and I will be able to have much more control over that because I realize that all too often I will complain about something but continue to engage in the behaviors that perpetuate the reason for the complaint. No more, my friends. I am going to do something about it this year, not just bide my time 'till I get to wish for a better 2009. Which means that at the very least, my job situation is going to change. By the end of 2008 I might still be in my same job, but only if it falls into line with my goals for my life, none of which are "become a workaholic" or "spend at least 2 hours a day commuting" and the ever popular "forget what your husband looks like".

So if something in my life is not working for me, this year it gets changed to something that does. If we only go round once, I'm not wasting any more time.

Edgy

2007-12-27T16:17:00.000-05:00

So far, Irtfa'a has not been an exercise in restraint. I would race to it in every spare moment, knitting away until my wrists ached with the strain. I raced through each row, each section, greedy for the next pattern. I found myself at stray moments imagining myself working on it. And I have thoroughly enjoyed every moment of anticipation, looking toward the day I can admire it, off the needles, blocked.

When I realized I was finally ready to begin the final edge section, I was nearly floating on the ceiling. It was 7pm. I had 3 more hours before bedtime. Plenty of time, added to the few hours before and after work, then the weekend, and I would surely be done by New Year. I think I may have even mentioned it in my last post. Well, that just goes to show you what I know.

What I know now is that there is lace and then there is lace. When I first started knitting, the whole decreases and yarnovers thing was way beyond me. The first time I had to sl1k2psso, my head nearly exploded. It was awful. But as will happen, in time I became proficient. Then I started understanding lace to the point where I could read the knitting, and I could even drop back a row and fix a missed yarnover. By the time Irtfa'a came along and I started dropping 6 or 8 rows back over 12 stitches and reknitting sections to make them better, I was getting downright cocky. Double yarnovers? Why not quintuple? What the hell, I am one bad ass honky mofo knitter. I knew I still did not sprechen zie Shetland, but I was still an intermediate level force to be reckoned with.

So when I started row one of the edging, I was cool. Another fun pattern to learn. A few easy rows to memorize and I'll be sailing through the last bits at Knitch on Sunday. Row two, wait a minute, there's yarnovers here too, I missed a row. No, I didn't, did I? Holy crap, what is this?

Not since the earliest days of my knitting adventures have I been so tensed up and, well, edgy about knitting. I can't relax into this, not yet, and I really am trying not to fight it as hard as I seem to be fighting it. There's pressure, too. I've gotten this far and I don't want to ruin the shawl, but I have never done this before and I can't tell what's going on at all. Fortunately, I am able to knit this well enough not to ruin the overall piece, but wow, the going is slow. I just hope that when I finally do catch on to this (undoubtedly in the last 3 repeats) it will not look so different that I will have to rip it all out and reknit it.

Don't get me wrong, the pattern is still brilliant. And it is beautiful. It just turned a little too brilliant for me. They say that which does not kill you will make you strong. I don't know who "they" are, but I'd like to smack "them" around a bit right about now. I'm not even going to tell you how many hours have gone into this little bit of knitting. But I will persevere. I am nothing if not stubborn.

Dear edge pattern, I really do love you, and I want this to work out, really I do. It isn't just the way you look, all feathery and perfect, it's more than that. If you were just another pretty pattern I'm sure we could have fun for a while, but you know as well as I do that relationships have to be built on more solid footing than looks alone. You are complex and challenging as well, and those only add to your charms, but I'm afraid I'm not ready to give what you need from me right now. It's not that I'm scared of commitment, that's not it at all. I just need time before I can jump into something this serious. I need you not to push me right now. I know that one day I will be ready, and when that day comes we will be happier together than either of us can imagine. I just need a little space now and then, and you can be a little intense at times. Look, it really isn't you, it's me, I admit that freely. And I know I may have led you on with my initial enthusiasm. In retrospect, that really wasn't fair of me. So can we step it back just a little bit? No, I'm not knitting anything else now, and I'm not looking to find another pattern. Really. I just need a little space, a little time, ok?

Dear Lyle, Meg and Famous Steve.....

2007-12-25T19:05:00.000-05:00

I can't reply to you directly because of the blogger silliness about not giving me real email addresses to respond to. Thanks, however, for your complementary feedback. I really appreciate it. And I hope you all (and I mean everyone out there, not just Lyle, Meg and Famous Steve) are having as wonderful a holiday and I am.

Irtfa'a progress report: I am finished the body of the shawl and I am ready to begin the edging. I might actually have this done by New Years, and I am really excited about that. To address Steve's comment on how I knit lace, I do lock myself in a room and concentrate on nothing but the pattern until I know it well enough to take it outside the room. And if that never happens, I stay in the room.

I am fortunate enough, you see, to have a knitting room. Actually it is a necessity, because I have 9 cats in the house who all are very interested in whatever I am doing, and want more than anything else to "help". Now, from cats, "helping" means that they all help me understand that I am not paying enough attention to the cats. Who, they will also tell you, are underfed, unloved, attention starved angels who never claw furniture, poop outside the box or chew on yarn. Alrightee.

So I have this knitting room, which my husband does not begrudge me, as he has an entire basement for his toys (and I do mean toys), and I spend lots of time in there when I am knitting. I have music, a place to put my diet coke, I can bring the phone in there, and many hours are spent knitting away while my husband builds his models of WWI biplanes. But it gets kind of lonely in there after a while, separated from all the kitties and the husband, and lately I have really felt kind of sequestered and lonely. While I really want to spend every moment working on the shawl, I started to hate the prospect of spending all that time locked away, alone.

Say hello.

Slightly blurry picture complements of lightning fast hamster. These are Roborovski hamsters (or Robo hamsters), there are five of them and they are all males (because I really don't need more hamsters). They are a naturally dwarf breed from Mongolia, and oh my Bob are they cute. It's like having my own personal Cute Overload right there in the knitting room. They only get 5cm long at full maturity. 5CM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't hold them, I can almost pet them, they're not real bitey (although the scary giant finger from above did get nipped, but that was my fault for being scary and giant on day 1) And they live in a habitrail knockoff in my knitting room. I can't tell them apart, and they move so fast I never know who I'm looking at, or else I'm laughing so hard at them I can't see. I have named them collectively "the Horde".

I have the bestest husband in the world. I'll bet no one else got a Mongol Horde for Christmas.

My Soul Swims In It

2007-12-22T10:14:00.000-05:00

Getting there........

Pay It Forward

2007-12-08T15:24:00.000-05:00

The coolest thing has hit bloglandia, and it's called Pay It Forward. I found it through Ada's blog and it goes like this:

I will send a handmade gift to the first three people who leave a comment on this blog requesting to join the Pay It Forward exchange. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Sounds like fun, don't you think?

Now, for a photo free Irtfa'a update. I am currently on row eleventyjillion of the small feather pattern section, and it is going amazingly fast considering I am approaching 400 stitches per row. I really am still excited about working on this, but I have a problem. I only get to knit in a weekend warrior sort of way, and I have gone slightly past my limit. Yes, that is spelled ouch. I have learned that my particular knitting nemesis is the number 4 needle for some odd reason, and as a preemptive measure I have taken to wearing a Thermacare neck patch on each wrist, which helps a lot but does not imbue knitting superpowers. Especially when I start ignoring the obvious signals (like geting shocky feelings in the wrist) just because I want to finish one more repeat. I only have 4 more repeats to go before the next section and the day is young, dammit!

So I am off the shawl for the rest of the day, which is a little crazymaking, but I'll get over it. Later this evening we are going with HappyGoth and her husband to have dinner and see a medieval Christmas play, and I'm going to crawl around up in the bell tower at St. Lukes. It is really going to be hard to not start screaming "Sanctuary!" but I think I'll be able to control myself. My husband, on the other hand, I can't control, and I fully expect him to take advantage of the opportunity to have a Quasimodo moment.

The Last Photos From a Dying Camera

2007-12-01T15:17:00.000-05:00

I managed to coax a few more pictures out of the old camera. I hope Christmas gets here soon, I need the new camera I am not supposed to know about really bad. Anyway, here's the progress on Irtfa'a:

This is the picture I got with a flash. I am past the shoulder drop section and into the small feather section. I really could not be happier, well, that's not true. If my camera would take a decent picture of it I would be much happier, but I'm happy as a clam with everything else about this project. The yarn, BMFA Laci, is soft and squishy and really altogether wonderful. I am definitely going to knit with it again. The colorway, Corvid, is as purpley-green-y-black as I could wish for, and the variegation is exactly what I would want for this project. The pattern, thankfully, is very well written and it is just complicated enough to be engaging without being so demanding as to require me to have to completely cloister myself to keep up. It's the best kind of lace that makes you feel smart knitting it. All in all, I find myself just as enchanted here in the middle as I was in the beginning, and that, my friends, is saying something.

Fidelity in knitting is definitely not one of those qualities that any self examination would bring to mind. I am beyond fickle. I tend to fall out of infatuation with a project as soon as I hit a stride, and my brain starts searching for something to bring back the rush of giddiness that casting on or sometimes just buying new yarn or patterns can produce. This was a strange thing for me to encounter in myself when I first started knitting, as in most other areas of my life I am, well, predictable and set. When I was much younger I flitted from project to project, but in my adult life I have managed to achieve that certain level of inner, um, deadness? balance? that allowed me to engage in the same activities day after day, year after year without going absolutely postal. But knitting, or maybe it's the yarn, I don't know, lit a fire under my butt, and got me in touch with my inner 4 year old who is running around wearing an indian chief headdress and brandishing a new set of fingerpaints, an easybake oven, a spin art machine and maybe a cake decorator full of extremely blue icing.

Only I'm 46 now, so add a beer to that. Or maybe two.

And there you have it. So in the middle of the attention deficit festival of projects that is my knitting, I have found a project that incites total monogamy in me. Go figure. And now, because my camera is insisting that it's not dead yet, a close up for a fair representation of the color.

Hello lace.

Ikea - Få orden på livet ditt

2007-11-29T17:17:00.001-05:00

A little something to entertain you while I'm busy.

You cannot know the power of the dark side.

2007-11-20T07:16:00.000-05:00

Blue Moon Fiber Arts Laci colorway Corvid.

It will be this.

It just goes to show you that the old "never say never" adage is true. I am not a fan of the faroese shawl, never was. It was kind of klunky looking, and the patterns out there were nothing that grabbed me. There was an ok one now and then, but I wouldn't have called any of them beautiful. So I pretty much wrote them off, and stowed the whole thing in that part of my mind reserved for scrapbooking and webkinz and entrelac socks, the brain equivalent of file 13.

Then came Anne Hanson, whose incredible design not only turned me to mush, but had me chiming in with her daily mass of comments and blithering on endlessly about how much I loved, wanted and needed this shawl. And when Miss Vanity here throws that much pride out the window and starts with the hem kissing, it's all over.

The pattern came out yesterday. Faroese shawls have been granted a reprieve. I am no longer remotely concerned with becoming a knitter or a Knitter. I've gone from zero to Jedi and straight over to the Dark Side.

And they really do have cookies over here.

My Friend Failure

2007-11-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

So Lotus Knits is having a really neat contest, where each Monday she posts a question and all you have to do is post your answer in her comments to enter. If you win, you really win, because she is a really talented yarn dyer, and the prize is a skein of her beatuiful work. Now, that's my kind of contest, because any contest that actually expects me to know something or *gasp* do anything isn't going to go well for me and, well, I like yarn.

This week, she asked a very intriguing question regarding how we approach our knitting, and asked us to explain a bit about ourselves and our processes. As I wrote my answer, it occured to me that I would really love exploring this idea further, so I decided to expand a bit on my entry.

I am very gonzo in my knitting. Of course, over the years I have seen the Dale patterns and some of the Starmore designs and complex lace as being beyond my abilities, but I have always known it is just a matter of time. From the start, unless I was obviously outclassed, I have always jumped in with both feet. Sometimes that has caused me to frog, but never has it caused me to regret trying.

I realized that the best gauge for how my knitting skills are progressing is to find that project that brings me to a failure point. It usually identifies the areas I have to work on. In the beginning, it was "Branching Out" and "Forbes Forest" that utterly destroyed me, now I fail at much more ambitious projects, like "Cromarty" and "Ingeborg".

Now, I know this sounds like a really negative way of approaching this, but really it is making lemonade from the lemons of knitting. And we all have them. Whether I am learning that I am not quite ready for lace patterning on every row or that a particular yarn substitution really wasn't suitable, or that I lack the Clapotis appreciation gene, I am learning.

Knitting does not come naturally to me. Along with a whole new set of physical skills are an entire panoply of concepts which have to be intellectually assimilated or else, while knitting might be achieved, it will not be understood. I don't want to be forever a slave to patterns as written - in all my work I greatly prefer to be a more active participant, putting a bit if myself into the project. By internalizing the techniques I become more flexible and can develop some refinement of skill and knowledge. But that doesn't mean what I try always works, whether I am slavishly adhering to a pattern for the purpose of learning a new skill or pushing the limits of my knowledge by kitbashing a pattern to get something different out of it.

Now, admittedly, I am still very much in the learning phase of my knitting life. I am more often adhering to the pattern, but I am more likely now to seek a pattern for my next project that will allow me to explore a different aspect of the craft than to repeat known techniques over and over. And glorious failure is often my companion. But what's the worst that can happen? I have to rip? It (generally) doesn't hurt the yarn. It doesn't waste time, because I have identified a problem, an opportunity for growth, even if I haven't yet identified the solution.

Too often I see other people learning to knit and they are fighting it for all they are worth. I have to wonder if they really want to be doing this, they seem so unhappy. Don't get me wrong, I curse my knitting regularly, but I do not approach it either defensively or offensively. I don't feel my knitting is a kill or be killed sort of thing. I look at every new project as a meeting of equals, and even though I am sometimes overly optimistic I am never unhappy, even if the project fails. It only fails for the moment. And, it is a shared experience between myself, the yarn and the pattern, so no one aspect is regularly to blame, which is very freeing.

Then there are those who, whether they mean to or not, infect others with their anxieties and dislikes. I don't need to tell you about steeking, do I? I have read so many accounts of steeking that read like they came from Stephen King's Handbook of Knitting Horrors that it was all I could do to remind myself that without the internet and with basic instructions I would probably succeed at cutting a steek with little to no fuss at all. Tie knots in your yarn when you could use the erudite fad join of the week? The knitting police will surely be busting my door down any minute now. Not that there isn't a time and a place for nearly every technique, even if it is only in the interest of studying the history or anthropology of knitting, but there is never a time or a place for snobbery for the sake of snobbery. Not in my world at least.

So there, that is my several cents worth. No knitting scares me. I don't have to like all of it. I may not be ready for all of it, but I suspect when I know it all, there will be little of knitting I am left to be interested in. As there is so much to learn (remarkably, for a craft that anyone can do) I seriously doubt I will ever get tired of knitting. And failure will be my fast friend for many happy years to come.

Uneasy Knitter

2007-11-07T15:49:00.000-05:00

Anyone remember that Charlie Daniels song "Uneasy Rider"? I just did the knitting version of that. I went from Atlanta to Stone Mountain via Canada. Thankfully my trip does not involve the police. All the same, I feel rather foolish.

See, I am all revved up about learning knitting terms in other languages ever since Claudia created Stricken Sie Deutsch. Now I'm not going to pretend that I don't have to refer to the list of translations now and then, but I have anschlag down pat and I now know that I can make der zopf without a hilfsnadel. I am 4 rows from done on the MS3 and ready to cast on her swatch. I also have an estonian lace book and I remembered that there was a translation of the symbols online, so I looked that up and put a tiny button on my sidebar right under Claudias' button. Then I found info on Japanese knitting stuff and put that on the sidebar too.

So I'm tooling around the www, and I come across mention of a book all about knitting terms in different languages. It's title is, of all things, "Knitting Languages". And as usual, as soon as I find something I want or need, nobody carries it, or it is out of stock, out of print or discontinued. It's almost like a guarantee with me. So I poke around, and search around and I'm not finding squat until I come across a Canadian site (what is it about me and Canada?) that has it listed for sale. Well, faster than you can say zwei maschen rechts zusammen stricken, I have it paid for and on its way.

At this point, let me say that if I had simply googled (or blackled) the authors' name I probably would have immediately found her publishers' website, where anyone can buy the book with no problem right from the good old USA (actually less than 20 miles away from my house) without currency conversions and customs craziness. But I didn't.

I got the book today (customs obviously knows what uses books can be put to better than they know about the potential terrorist uses of yarn), and opened it and found out the hard way. I would like to blame it on vacation brain, or too much laughing gas at the dentist office or on my biorhythms or something, but no, I was just dumb. And believe me, I paid the price. Plus the shipping from Canada.

So kids, don't be like me. If you, too, want the convenience of knitting terms in 11 languages at your fingertips, just click the link above.

NoBloMoFo

2007-11-01T19:27:00.000-04:00

I am not now nor will I be committing to the NaBloPoMo bloglines-clogging nonsense. I just happen to have news (i.e. stuff to show off).

I got my wheel! And I already suck at spinning! It's so cool! I haven't been this excited about being bad at something in a long time! This is a Babe's double treadle Production Wheel.

I figure I will practice treadling for another year or so and then give the spinning part another try. The yarn room also got a serious sound system upgrade.

Bose, baby. I don't even care what bodyparts still hurt, I have amazing sound. So I finally (four days into the vacation) felt up to knitting. And ruining roving. It was great! My husband did good.

I actually got my german language Anna out that has the pattern for Lyra and thanks to Claudia's "Stricken Sie Deutsch" project I was able to make pretty good sense of it. I am amazed at how much I learned. Hopefully my life will never depend on my being able to pronounce any of that correctly, though; I may have the German genes mixed in among the Irish and the French, but none of them went to my tongue which is somehow Japanese. Don't ask, I don't know. Of course, the proof will be in the knitting. If I only think I am reading this right, I will make a very unusual Lyra. Before that, though, I have WIPs that must be FO'd. I guess I'd better get back to knitting now.

Halloween blast from the past.

2007-10-31T08:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween, Kiddies!

Coming off Anaesthesia

2007-10-30T16:47:00.000-04:00

So the 5 teeth turned into 6 at some point, I have a mouth so full of temporary crowns the dentist just made whole side panels instead of individual teeth and it took an extra half day to do it all.

My toe doesn't hurt at all any more, isn't that strange?

I just keep taking naps punctuated by leaving smartass comments on some of my friends blogs. and eating ibuprofen like I hate my liver or something. So I decided this time I woke up I was coherent enough (at least my internal monologue is, if I talk I still sound like "the Spleen") to post a little. First, here is a picture that rather beautifully sums up my Sunday knitting at Knitch.

Picture courtesy of the Happy Goth who has a camera that actually works. She and I went to Target sunday morning and loaded up on halloween candy for all the knitters. If I had known it was Nells' birthday I would have gotten her a card at least or maybe her own bag of chocolate monster bodyparts. Anyway, we has a great turnout even considering how many folks were off at SAFF having yarn buying crises. Many of the Sunday crew who showed up had day-tripped SAFF and Doug let us drool over his acquisitions as he put the last few finishing touches to his fantastic sweater. I drank beer, ate chocolate and finished the first Bird Foot sock.

So now it is Tuesday, I have lost 2 precious days of my life to my crazed dentist and I am taking internet quizzes, which is the next step in coming off the anaesthetic, right after the tingly discomfort and inappropriate blog commenting phase.

Which'>http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=11856N">Which sci-fi crew would you best fit in with? (pics)
created with

Did you know that ALL the tests I take that place me in a sci-fi world put me in the Firefly category? Or crew me to Serenity? Or generally categorize me as a browncoat? I suppose its not really any stranger than being a poultry god.

By the Power of Greyskull!!!!

2007-10-25T18:38:00.000-04:00

I just got my October Rockin Sock Club package. That is all.

And For My Next Trick...

2007-10-22T20:39:00.000-04:00

I will juggle three charts while decreasing the gussett and balancing a pyramid of 40 filled champagne glasses on my head. At least that's what it feels like. I really must be a crazy, because I'm loving it. I am not loving the semi-crappy camera action, however. It seems you can choose some focus, or some color, but you may not have both at once.

So I didn't get to work on this very much yesterday due to a headache. I can't imagine doing this with a headache. Later I went to watch the Happygoth's husband and his group ring bells at St. Lukes' Episcopal church downtown. They have a huge bell tower with 10 bells, and after the ringers from England showed up they got all 10 bells going. It was absolutely amazing. I really didn't know anything about change ringing before I met them, but I find it fascinating to watch everyone working together to produce these complex patterns of bell music. The local group rang a quarter peal on 5 bells, which is over 1000 changes rung without error, before the Brits arrived. It was quite moving.

The only problem that afternoon occurred when the husband was explaining something fascinating about the bells to my left while to my right Happygoth was talking to one of the British ringers' wives about knitting change ringing methods in cables. My brain felt like a wishbone being pulled apart trying desperately to listen to both conversations at the same time.

On a totally unrelated note, is Kaffe Fassett just going to be everywhere Wednesday or what? I got emails from 3 different shops that he and Brandon Mabley are going to be there, and I'm wondering if I just show up at all three wearing the thankgodihaveaknittingmachine stripe wrap and glaring at them, do you think they'll get creeped out and think I'm stalking them and set security on me?

Hell, it's worth a try.

The chicken oracle speaks. Or maybe boks.

2007-10-20T13:29:00.000-04:00

First, I would like to thank everyone who sent in their guesses as to what I broke right before blogger broke. No one guessed, and that was probably due to my lack of information. It really could have been anything! So I took all the names of folks who sent me a guess, assigned them mystical symbols and went out to the chicken. I then spread some feed out and watched the chicken eat until she got bored and scooted off. Then, in the feed appeared a symbol which closely resembled the symbol corresponding to ... Jen! Congratulations, you get a skein of Raven Series STR as soon as it's available!

Sadly, this was not the strangest thing I have done this week. Prior to this I managed to break my toe by using someone elses' steel toe boot. That is the thing that topped off my weekend. And in this picture? The color is actually pretty accurate as of 2 days ago.

Now you see the similarity to the Raven Series colorway. Lots of black blue and purple. My whole foot started getting blue grayish. Fun!!! Now it's much better although I'm still staying off it as much as possible. And while I'm off it, I'm knitting. I finished Jareds' Hemlock Ring Blanket . It was an extremely satisfying knit, and I am in love with the finished throw. Excuse the crappy picture, hey, I'll get more creative when I'm not having to hobble around like a one legged turkey.

And in a total fit of startitis, I cast on these. Yesterday. I can't stop knitting them.

Bird Foot socks by Robyn Gallimore. You can get the pattern of kit from Red Bird Knits. Yes, Canadian, but worth the wait. And, as you see, my foot is much better. Now I have to go and knit some more on the Bird Foot. So I will leave you with one last picture.

Yep, a one legged turkey. (that rear leg is cut off at the knee. She hyperextends the stump and bends her good knee to walk. we call her hobblegobble)

Broken.

2007-10-15T19:24:00.000-04:00

Well, as you can see here, I really did manage to break the blog. In true gonzo blogging style I started to screw with the template only to find that there had been some upgrade or another to the platform and would I kindly download or convert or whatever and copies would be saved and life would become simpler, and I thought, "Shiny!" and proceeded. I was never prompted to do the promised saving, and before I knew it, the old template was gone into the ether. Next time I go all Bruce Campbell with the keyboard, somebody stop me. So now I'm all "Yo, she-bitch! Let's go!" at Blogger, and I'm cutting and pasting from old saved (HA!) files and every freakin time I try to preview, it is giving me errors.

So now we're all plain. And chainsaws aren't helping. Poo.

In other broken news, my camera is spontaneously unbreaking and rebreaking in a completely random and puzzling way, but I am not getting the camera replaced anytime soon due to the impending date with my dentist who going to give me more gold than most rappers display. The reason? As gentle readers of this blog know, my job is a teensy bit stressful from time to time, and apparently I am grinding my teeth a bit. And maybe shattering them. A little. Ah, well, it goes with the whole broken theme, eh? Good thing I handle stress well.

Which leads me to offer kudos to Fleegle, who opened up a can of whoop-ass on her broken shawl and totally owned it. I admire that blend of talent, creativity and courage and I really look up to her and the other experienced knitters out there who lead by such magnificent example when times get tough and patterns get stubborn. Go look at her amazing shawl.

So I got the camera working for another minute and snapped a picture of my last broken thing. Then when I went to upload it, Blogger tells me its.........BROKEN! Ha! This calls for a contest. Guess what the picture was going to be of, and win a skein of the new Raven Series STR! Yes, that's right, you'll have to wait until November for your prize if you win, but I couldn't think of anything more appropriate considering how similar the colors are between the yarn and the broken thing. So, who's up for it? Email your guesses to me at chickengoddessatmindspringdotcom (you know how that works) before midnight EDT on Friday, October 19, 2007 and the cats can pick the winner from the correct guesses. And then we all wait till November. Oh, well, my contest is a little broken, too.

10-16-07 Edited to add:
Template fixed!

Look Into My Eyes; You are Feeling Very Sleepy

2007-10-07T08:49:00.000-04:00

Very soon, the only voice you will hear is mine. You will be very relaxed and feel happy. Nothing can hurt you, you are safe. Just follow my voice. Very good.

Now you will be open to everything I have to say about bees. There will be no memories of childhood trauma or confusion with wasps to cloud you from the growing feeling of affection you are already starting to feel for bees. There is no fear. Only the sound of my voice. You are safe, calm and relaxed. Good.

Bees are wonderful, they are industrious, they make honey and beeswax, pollinate flowers, trees and shrubs and provide many other hive products that science is still discovering uses for. They are a very rewarding hobby and can induce a calm state of relaxed focus for those who work with them. And they are equally necessary for the health of the agricultural industry and the health of your backyard.

Now the impact of a hobby beekeeper on the ag industry is nearly nil, but as years have gone by and disease, pest problems, predators and chemical contamination have nearly decimated the wild honeybee population, the home beekeeper makes a positive contribution to the smaller ecosystem and gets lots in return. So lets talk a little about a hive, since you are beginning to feel like you really want one and want to know all about it. That's right. Happy friendly bee house. Yes, you are doing very well.

"Hive" is a word that can stand for 2 things, either the mass of the bees themselves, or the system of boxes they are kept in. Lets talk about the boxes. First, you find that beekeeping can be a woodworking project as assembly is required (unless you pay a much higher price) for almost all the hive parts. But that's ok, because with basic skills and hand tools, you soon are feeling really satisfied with yourself for building beautiful boxes and frames. You are now feeling like an artist, and decide to paint the outside of your hive boxes with pretty light colors (especially if you live in the south) and maybe some designs so your friends, the bees, will have a pretty home. You find a good place to set up your hive where your friends will have a little protection from extremes of weather and where you will be able to have access to all sides of the house when you visit your bee friends. Friendly bees. Good, good.

But where are our friends, you ask? You can get bees from several different sources, and sometimes they will mail you a 2 or 3 pound box of bees. Poor mailman! He will not understand as you do that bees are good, that the sound they are making is a good sound, a happy sound. He doesn't understand, as you do, that the bees like to crawl on the screen sides of the box, so it only looks like the box is crammed full of bees. He will not understand why you want a box of bees, but you should be nice to the mailman, because he doesn't know how to be happy like you do. Calm and happy. Then you put them in their house and they fly and visit flowers and make honey and wax and you are very, very happy with your bees. You are doing very well.

Now that we all love bees and want some, it is time to start building their house and reading bee books and looking for other bee-friendly people who live nearby and to start gathering equipment. Because not only are bees good and friendly, they are smart and can protect themselves quite well on their own. This thought does not scare you, and you are feeling good. Now because you are smart and understand this, you will always wear your protective equipment to be sure there are no unfortunate mistakes on behalf of your friends. Just as you should not run or jump down a set of stairs because you might get hurt, you should not approach your friends without protection. Even if you see other people do this and allow the bees to sting them, you will show your bees more respect and dress for the occasion. Poor bees die when they sting , and you don't want your friends to meet that end! So you will feel confident if you know you are protecting them by learning to visit them safely. You are doing so very well. And you are feeling really good about bees. You have no fear, you want to learn more. When I count to three I want you to wake. You will feel refreshed and calm, and you will want to learn more about bees and beekeeping. You have done very well.

1, 2, 3!

http://www.amazon.com/First-Lessons-Beekeeping-Keith-Delaplane/dp/0915698129/ref=sr_1_2/103-5814755-4535056?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191764418&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Langstroths-Hive-Honey-Bee-Classic-Beekeepers/dp/0486433846/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-5814755-4535056?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191764239&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/ABC-Xyz-Bee-Culture-Encyclopedia/dp/0936028017

http://www.dadant.com/

http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/

http://www.gobeekeeping.com/

My Own Personal Oktoberfest of Knitting. And Beer.

2007-10-05T07:22:00.000-04:00

Hi! My job is trying to kill me!
Thank you.

In other news, my camera is dead, dead, dead, so Janes' contest didn't happen for me and my Ravelry notebook is fast filling up with blank projects, but that's ok because I have no time to knit and blog, because my job is trying to kill me!
Ahem.

It must be time to screw with my template. Yeah, that's it! So I expect that at times you'll see things appearing and disappearing from the sidebar, and possibly crash my whole blog. Because it is October and beer will be involved.

On the photo free knitting front, I have started and gotten about halfway through the dead easy but really pretty Hemlock Ring Blanket from brooklyntweed that I started in the car last weekend, and this weekend is slated for finishing my MS3, which got stuck somewhere around Clue 6 and never regained momentum. I have socks half done at every turn which are going to get finished and have mates before October is through. I have a clapotis to frog, too, the last tiny bit of the Dark Mark scarf to finish and pieces and parts of other projects which are cutting loose and starting to drift around the house. So October is about finishing. Hmm, maybe November will be like a festival of casting on. Who knows.

Meanwhile, I have been on my fall color yarn buying binge which is beginning to lose steam as more and more of my favorite indie dyers update yet fail to wow me in their usual way. I even see people introducing what I would really consider to be spring colorways! Now! October! Isn't there something in Emily Post about no easter colored yarns after Labor Day? There should be a law, man.

I have also been on a German lace pattern procurement binge. I know this is the first time many of you are hearing about this, but it has been going on for a while now, and I have amassed a fair few books full of designs by a guy named Herbert Niebling. It's like crack, or maybe worse. After MS3 confirmed what I had so hoped Kiri proved, that I really can knit lace, I got a little crazy. And all this Oktoberfest of finishing stuff? It is so I can concentrate on my major projects with all my attention. Rosarie, the Starmore design, Rosendal, a Dale, and Lyra, a Niebling that I want to do before I try to tackle Steinrose. One small problem, I could only get the pattern in German, and the only other language I know beside English is Japanese. Claudia to the rescue!

Every day in the month of October, she is posting a German knitting term and its translation. How cool is that? What better timing could there be? It's like having my own little personal Oktoberfest of knitting!

So if anyone has any camera recommendations, please let me know. One more day of work to get through this week, then beer, yarn, and Sunday at Knitch. What more could I want?

I really need to step away from this computer and knit.

2007-09-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

Am-I-Dumb.com - Are you dumb?

Guys, I did not really send Jen chickens. But it's a nice thought...

2007-09-27T19:47:00.000-04:00

So I just get home from a HELLUVA day at work, and I sit down innocently at my computer for a little blog perusal and relaxation, only to find that Jen has received chickens from on high. I thought to myself, now there's something you don't see every day, spontaneous chickens. This can't be a bad thing! So, having a reputation to uphold, I immediately set about taking credit for the happy event, which then got me thinking; wouldn't the world be a better place if I really could have some godlike power to send chickens to my friends?

Don't all run screaming from the room now, you won't all be finding chickens in your backyards, (or, if you do, it will have had nothing to do with me. Really.) There won't be magical boxes from Murray Mc Murray appearing in your mail making soft clucking noises. Not from me, at least.

But let me take this opportunity to tell you how cool chickens are. First, let me clarify, I'm talking about hens. Not roosters, which you can do quite well without, thankyouverymuch. Hens can be very sweet and will lay eggs just fine without ever coming into contact with a rooster. They don't make much noise, will interact with you if you interact with them enough to be familiar to them, and can be kept in a number of ways. If you live in the country and can let them loose, great, although you may have to hunt for eggs if you don't put them up at night and give them somewhere to lay, like a nest box. If you are an urban type, like myself, with a limited amount of land, you can build or buy a small coop and house, or you can go really compact with a chicken tractor. This is a cool little setup which protects your chickens from predators (there are lots of them about, even in the city) and can be moved around your yard to provide your girls with fresh grass. They range from the do it yourself on the cheap to the elaborate. Googleing chicken tractor will provide you with a good idea of the building plans available, or you can visit Omlet and ogle the prefab wonder that is the Eglu. I have an Eglu, and for me it has been well worth the investment. The dang thing is not only foxproof, it is packs-of-wild-dogs-proof as well, to which I can personally attest. There's nothing better than starting the morning with a fresh from the chickens' bum breakfast. Believe me, if you have never owned a hen, you have never known a truly fresh egg.

Here's a pic of my setup.

With Johannes and James of Omlet!! This summer we got a visit from the designers of the Eglu when they visited America. They surveyed first hand the damage the dog pack attacks did to my Eglu, and were amazed at how well it held up. Lest I sound too much like an advertisement for their product (which I really do think the world of) I'll get back to general chicken ownership information.

Chickens fly. So you (or someone you trust) has to clip a few wing feathers to keep them put. If you live in the country and you don't clip their wings, your chickens may roost up in the trees - they can fly that well. Wing clipping can be dangerous to the birds, so make sure you know what you're doing before you try it. Again with the googleing, or with advice from a vet who specialized in birds or even from the helpful folks at your local feed and seed, who probably sell chickens too (I bet you didn't even know you had one that close to you!) and can help outfit you with all the basics.

So, clean water, good food (chickens happily eat clean fruit and veggie scraps, too) clean straw, fresh grass, clean chicken, happy chicken owner. Fresh eggs nearly every day. Sometimes two a day. And chickens are funny. LOL funny, OMG funny, and sometimes WTF funny.

Chicken poop stinks, yes. They tear up the grass, yes. Grass grows back, the poop gives good stuff back to the soil. You get fresh eggs, and if you raise them sweet, you get sweet chicken pets. When they age and laying slacks off, you can retire them to the pet only status, or to the pot. Just depends on how up close and personal you want to get to that whole circle of life thing.

So, while I can't wish all my friends magical lucky chickens like Jen got, maybe I can make you want them. I think they're cool. They are certainly easy to keep, and they give you lots in return.

Next issue: Beekeeping!
(you only think I'm joking)

Breaking News

2007-09-23T19:10:00.000-04:00

In no time at all, the lady previously referred to as "sadly blogless" has remedied her pitiable situation. Go check her out and tell her hi!

http://zombiedrag.com/

More coming soon. First, I must knit.

Mouse and Chicken Go To Town

2007-09-20T20:16:00.000-04:00

How does one sum up a day like yesterday? I have no idea where to start, so I guess I'll start at the beginning. I met Knotty Mouse at the Yarn Garden, one of the few shops in the area I had never previously pillaged (somehow it had totally escaped my notice) in the early afternoon and whisked her away for a no holds barred, Thelma and Louise style day of knitterly hijinks and that special sort of mass hysteria only the arrival of the Yarn Harlot could perpetrate on Atlanta. After briefly looting a sari shop, we stopped at Taj Mahal for British Cadburys, made a quick hit and run on Needle Nook and wound our way down to the heart of town to meet up with several hundred of our closest friends.

Mouse taught Chicken that fresh bread and Cadburys makes a great sandwich.
Later that evening, Chicken would teach Mouse that beer and cameras do not mix.

But I am getting ahead of myself.

After subjecting Mouse briefly to my cats and introducing her to my hen Ophelia, my husband played chauffeur and dropped us off at the corner of St. Charles and N. Highland to begin the evenings' festivities. First on the agenda was a little light queueing...

Which immediately devolved into general revelry and observance of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, wherein otherwise poised and polished women proved what scallywags they can really be.
And to our stern were some of the happiest knitters in the world, I think. They sure look it.
Before long, we were inside and I found myself happily ensconced in the Hilan Theater with a beer in one hand and a camera in the other. And there were bloggers everywhere (and the occasional pirate celebratee).

First we have Snarky who looked for a while like she was conducting a sing-a-long.
Now here we have the ever serene Claudia, and the back of Janice's head. This was the first time I have ever seen Janice in person, and I have to say that I would have felt like a total freak for shouting "I'm the Chickengoddess!" at her across about 4 or 5 rows while pointing to myself (and jumping up and down slightly) if it weren't for the beer. Oh, crap, I did that, didn't I? What you really can't see in this picture (except for her beer) is Hockeymom, who is completely psycho, and I mean that in the best way possible. Betwixt us there was much throwing of the horns and promises of stagediving, and had I not been wearing glasses I can't afford to break there would have been some headbanging too. Maybe it's a good thing we didn't try, ultimately, or we might have run into trouble with Jane (and I would have paid for yet another of my Chiropractors' kids' college educations). Speaking of Jane...
It was her birthday! And she volunteered to work! What a great and generous spirit you have!

Meanwhile, Mouse and I were joined by the sadly blogless Laura, who arrived sporting a bag every knitter should have.
She joined myself and Mouse and got me another beer, wherein I proceeded to enter the "I love you, man!" phase of the evening. While evilsciencechick and Nytefalle looked on, Jen helped by putting on her best Rhinegold Maiden pose...

And I got all soppy with the camera.

So it was undoubtedly somewhat to the relief of all the poor people sitting around me that a few minutes later Kim took the stage and then it was all about the Yarn Harlot.

And she brought her sock.

Apparently with just 2 beers in me I can no longer knit and I holler like a 20 year old redneck. Sad but true.

While Famous Steve surveyed the scene from the balcony...

we all fell under the Harlot's spell.

Deb, I am so sorry I didn't get a picture of you! I loved meeting you, and I hope we can run into each other again soon!

We met so many new friends, and saw so many amazing and talented knitters. I think it will take me at least a full week to absorb all of it. Thank you Kim, for making this happen. Without you and Knitch, I never would have met so many wonderful people, or Stephanie, who was tired but warm and gracious even through the late hours.

Thanks most of all to you, Mouse, for hanging out with me. I had a great time, and I hope you did too. I love you, man!

Hey, Canada, What's the Problem?

2007-09-05T07:11:00.000-04:00

Dear Canada,

Time and again I order from your stores, sending my money into your coffers, supporting your business, taking advantage of what I might also mention is an ever less advantageous currency exchange rate, and all I get in return is the opportunity to turn a little more gray whilst I wait for your mail to get to me. What's the holdup? What do you think we're trying to smuggle across the border disguised as yarn? Cheap viagra? Electronic detonator parts? Mexicans? WHAT?

I would like to point out to you that there are lots of knitters down here south of your border, knitters who through the internet have access to your exotic Canadian yarn shops, and might like to do more international business unless you piss us all off by never sending us our packages. I don't think the problem is on the American side of the border either, as I regularly order and receive (in a very timely manner, I might add) yarn from the British Isles and many of the European Union countries as well as Australia and Japan. Let me give you an example. On 8/27/07 (or 27/8/07, however you like it) I ordered a kit from a remote island off the coast of Scotland. Without any special expediting, I received it yesterday, 9/4/07. Here's the proof.

See, declarations stamp says yarn,

Hmmm, looks to BE yarn, but wait! There's something beneath the yarn! Could it be cheap vicodin knockoffs? Nearly spent nuclear material? Terrorists? Did those crazy Brits just prove their speedy Royal Mail service is really careless and dangerous?

No way!
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but even in the 21st century a tiny island off the coast of Scotland isn't going to have the most modern and finest postal facilities (or maybe they do), but anyway, I am still waiting for yarn I ordered from you over 6 freaking weeks ago. Come on, Canadian postal people, don't be such hosers.

Love,
The Chickengoddess

p.s. Yes that's goddess. As is deity. You have chickens in Canada, I know you do. You might want to speed up that post. I'm just sayin is all.

p.p.s and yes Claudia, I will dare (to try) knitting on this at Knitch on Sunday. Cause that's just how I roll.

At Last My Love

2007-08-27T07:58:00.000-04:00

Most knitting projects I crush on I can get over before the yarn insinuates itself into my stash. Rarely do I look at a project 6 months later and feel the same I-will-die-if-you-can't-be-mine, daily love note writing in my diary sort of feelings I had the first 3 or 4 weeks after I spotted it across some crowded and smoky magazine rack sitting all alone and being mysterious and beautiful. You know what I'm talking about. If you're not careful you start buying it presents of its yarn in the hopes of wooing it onto your needles and into your wardrobe. And God knows that if you've been drinking, you end up waking the next morning next to some cheap eyelash yarn and chenille scarf that you wouldn't be seen dead out in public with, and find yourself hiding it from your friends, and well, you know what I'm talking about there, too.

But Rosarie was different from the start. She was not merely a project that caught my eye; from the very beginning she completely took my breath away. Over 3 years ago when I was first learning about knitting and first looking at the internet for information and inspiration I found her and the first thing that went through my mind was that I would never be able to knit that. It was just too complex and beautiful, and I would never be worthy. Then, after a few projects were history, I could look at her and say with confidence that one day in the far future I would be able to knit like that. But over the years my love for this pattern has never flagged, never diminished even slightly, and I kept her picture close and often imagined the day I might cast her on.

Really, this is all Evilsciencechick's fault. We were sitting together with Claudia, Jen and Melissa at Knitch yesterday, generally cutting up and having fun and she mentioned she liked my Fair Isle Sampler Hat and wanted to make one, and one thing led to another and next thing we were cutting deals involving 14 colors of leftover shetland jumperweight and possible lendage of drop spindles and stuff and that got me thinking about that project and how much fun that was. That's when I decided to make yet another pilgrimage to the Virtual Yarns site, just for the hell of it. Sure enough, there she was in all her 2ply fair isle splendour (I like the extra u, lends class to the occasion, I feel), and I sat there and thought to myself "that's still freaking gorgeous. Yeah, I could sure knit that."

I paused for a moment to let that sink in.

Then I bought the kit.

http://www.virtualyarns.com/scripts/showitem.asp?ID=99

Welcome to the Machine

2007-08-21T07:48:00.000-04:00

What do you do when that madman Kaffe Fassett finally designs the most beautiful piece of knitting in the world? In 40bagillion colors, with color changes nearly every row and a 186 row color repeat? And, to cap it off, a mile wide, in boring, boringer, boringest stockinette?

It's a freaking scarf for petes sake. I am up to my ears in scarves and I do not need any more. But this is not merely about need. This is about desire. I do not, however, plan on spending the rest of my life knitting a boringest damned stockinette scarf no matter how much I love it. Anyway, as process a knitter as I am, I want this product, dammit, and I want it now!

Enter the Studio 360. My dirty little secret.

A match made in heaven, too I might add. I had no idea how the machine would like the doubled KSH, and half expected it to chew it up and spend the afternoon removing mohair from machine innards, but she works like a charm. And a few hours out of the afternoon got me nearly through one color repeat (not shabby, remember that's 186 rows with all the color changes). Instant gratification.

Today is a good day for a lolcat.

2007-07-31T20:22:00.000-04:00

Your Score: Longcat

62% Affectionate, 40% Excitable, 35% Hungry

Protector of truth.

Slayer of darkness.

Loooooong.

Longcat may seem like just a regular lengthy cat, but he is, in fact, looong. For proof, observe the longpic.

It is prophesized that Longcat and his archnemesis Tacgnol will battle for supremacy on Caturday. The outcome will change the face of the world, and indeed the very fabric of lolcatdom, forever.

Be grateful that the test has chosen you, and only you, to have this title.

To see all possible results, checka dis.

Link: The Which Lolcat Are You? Test written by GumOtaku on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

My Dad's surgery went without a hitch, I'm knitting on the Dark Mark Scarf and MS36K and we have a one legged wild turkey visiting in the yard. It's a great day, what more can I say? Thanks Janice , Hockeymom , and blogless Leah and Laura for all your good wishes!

The unplanned road trip

2007-07-27T07:37:00.000-04:00

Well, turns out we are going to go down to visit the parental units. I really don't look forward to the 71/2 hour drive each way, after work, over 3 days. But, I am really not whining about it. My Dad is having surgery Tuesday and I'd like to see him before. Just because, you know?

Nowadays, if you can manage to get a laser or laparoscopic version of whatever surgery you need, even pretty major procedures are far less trouble and risk than they used to be and recovery is way better. I remember as a kid when my Memere had cataract surgery she would have to live with us for at least 2 weeks to recover and wore huge glasses for the rest of her life. My mom had laser surgery and corneal implant and she healed over days and doesn't have to wear any glasses for it. My husband had laparoscopic gall bladder surgery and it took maybe 2 weeks for him to recover and the only scars he has make him look like he's been shot with arrows (which he thinks is cool - what is it about guys?) So when my Dad got the green light on the laser version of his surgery I was really relieved. But I still worry. It's only natural.

Alright, enough of the family medical history, I get to knit like a maniac on road trips. I will be bringing MS3, my Dark Mark scarf (thankyouverymuch Janice Ireallyneededanotherproject!) and my KPS Top Down Wrap Cardi which I am doing in the Fiber Company's worsted weight Khroma, in Cypress, which is the wonderful deep green of late summer. I will get some pics when I get back (or maybe in the car on the road, who knows).

And since my Dad is the theme for today, I present a FO from June. Fathers Day Socks!

Garter Rib Socks from "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch
Yarn is Chomp (merino superwash) in Arial (fingering weight) from Meg of Twisted (also available at The Urban Knit which is where I bought this) Knitted on size 0 dpns

My Dad loves Andes mints and I thought these looked just like them. I love Megs' yarns and I have collected many of her colorways. The yarn itself is light and lofty and makes a very nice fabric.

Anyway, everyone have a good weekend and if you could send some good vibes my Dad's way, we would all appreciate it very much.

As God is my witness I shall never go blogless again.

2007-07-20T15:40:00.000-04:00

When I first realized that I would have to choose between blogging or knitting, I chose knitting.

When I was on the Knitch bus to Stitch and Pitch and Claudia called for all bloggers to raise their hands and I couldn't in good conscience raise mine, I realized how much I missed being a part of the community of bloggers. I needed to make at least a little time to share what I was doing and take the opportunity to step away from the project long enough to get that photo. The photo that often helps give me a fresh perspective on a project. I also thought about why I wanted to blog in the first place. Sure, it was a bit of vanity, but it was also about cataloging my projects and my progress. It was also about sharing my journey with my family far away -

Oh, crap, did I just say journey?!

Mystery Stole 3 in Jaggerspun Zephyr color Mushroom with copper core smoke glass 8/0 beads.
Knitting with Addi Turbo Lace #4s and a #13 crochet hook
Boy I have missed this.

Otherworldly day

2007-01-15T07:08:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to attend the New Year ceremonial shoot at Bi Toku Kyudojo where I have begun practicing kyudo. It was like stepping into another world. Here are a few pictures especially for Janice.

It is always hard to believe I am in Atlanta when I am here.

The heater was there in case we needed it, but it was a warm, comfortable day for shooting

After all the shooting was over, it was back to the knitting and petting of cats (and Husband).

New Addition to Sidebar

2007-01-13T11:15:00.000-05:00

I thought it might be nice to add the list of my favorite internet yarn sources to the blog. There are a few international links there, each of whom I have gotten fast and excellent service from. I often price check the European shops for european yarns because even with international shipping the price is often better than what you can get in the US with free shipping. There are also some artisan dyers on the blogroll whose work I love. I will update these as I find more. Enjoy!

Stash Check!

2007-01-13T03:21:00.000-05:00

I for one was not sorry to see 2006 go. Fortunately, since most of the hassle was connected with my job and that is making slow progress toward becoming more manageable, 2007 is shaping up to be far superior to its predecessor. And it's the Year of the Pig. How can that not be a fun year?

I am not a Pig, nor am I a Cock (which would have really been perfect for a chicken lover like me) but an Ox. Hmmm, not very romantic or feminine, an Ox. Last year was year of the Dog, and it was a dog alright. 2009 will be the next Ox year, though, and it really will be my year as it is the year we are planning our trip to Japan. We'll see if I actually get there.

So, some knitting, but lots of purchasing of the yarn type goodness. First, in keeping with the animal theme I seem to have going here, is the STR stash:

Colorways in order of appearance L to R: Lucy, Chanticleer, Henpecked, Rooster Rock.

Not only does Tina have an amazing talent for color, she has a thing for chickens of which I heartily approve. These are the most amazing color combinations. I am thinking of trying to get Ophelia to pose with them if I can figure a way to do that without putting yarn at risk. Oh well, we will see. Anyway, for the sake of completeness, here is the rest of the STR stash:

L to R: Cobblestone County, Queen Rock, Ruby Slippers. On order, Titania and Peasblossom.

So, as you see, I am utterly rejecting the whole knit from the stash thing that is otherwise storming bloglandia. My only joy when I am too busy working to knit is purchasing yarn. Also, remember that I have 9 evil friends who believe that the yarn gets way too much of my attention and do everything in their not inconsiderable power to get between me and the knitting.

They also love basking in the Ott Light. What's a knitter to do?

Next installment, my new obsession with Fleece Artist.

Regaining the habit of blogging

2006-10-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

Well, the weekend came and went without a post, and that was mostly due to me forgetting about it. I have simply gotten out of the habit of thinking about blogging, so while I am thinking about it...

The finished Fair Isle Sampler Hat. I opted for the tassel instead of the pompom on the end, but this tassel is a little wussy. I will need to make a beefier tassel for it before I wear it. I mean, I want this sucker to induce tassel envy when I am done.

Then there are the socks for my Mom...

in a very seasonal color combo. All hail Trekking 143. These lovely picot edge socks brought to you by Claudia's pattern. I think she would also approve of the color choice. I sure hope my Mom likes them.

Then there's the in progress stuff. I am still going to town (slowly) on the Paistu Mittens, no in progress pics yet, but I have to say that I freaking heart color knitting. I have also gotten half a sleeve into this...

which will not look nearly as good on me as it does on this model, but there we are.

So that's the wrap up for now, more to come soon. ish.

Dude, Where's My Blog?

2006-10-18T21:28:00.000-04:00

For all of you who still have me on your bloglines, thanks for being patient (or just too lazy to remove me). I have been in the unenviable position of having so little free time I had to choose between knitting and blogging. And I chose the knitting.

But tonight I cannot knit, so I blog. Why, you ask, can I not knit? Well, I got bit above the wrist by one of my cats, and it seems I got bit bad enough to get infected in a mere 12 hours from bite to doctor's office. Ah, well, left handed typing is my amusement now. Fun.

When last we met, I had eight cats and two chickens and a small handful of baby fish keeping my big pair company in the pond. I now have nine cats, one chicken (these events are not related) and a gazillion growing fish in a too small pond. However, the remaining chicken, Ophelia, is a real trooper, giving us our daily egg and plenty amusement. Will I get a second chicken? We will see next spring, for now, I'll be happy to overwinter Ophelia. One chicken takes lots less precious time to deal with.

So, for the knitting. Right now, all uni-handed, I am too spazzy to get pictures together, but I will post some very soon. Not 3 months soon, like this weekend soon, maybe sooner if the meds get on top of this stupid infection. But I have finished the Fair Isle Sampler Hat, which was really rewarding, and am 3/4 of the way through the Paistu Mittens from 2 Pieceworks ago, I am almost done with some Trekking socks, I am acquiring quite a backlog of Petals Collection Yarn from Sundara's club (which is almost too pretty to knit!) and I have scored some of the new KSH purple color. Which brings me to this question.

Why do I keep buying KSH when I have yet to successfully knit with the stuff? Does anyone else have this sort of yarn problem? I can't stop buying it, I want all the colors, I love it, I adore it, I have big dreams and plans for it, and I can't make five freaking rows of lace with it without having to unknit it. Because you know it absolutely can't be frogged in the conventional manner. What is my problem here? And, to make matters worse, I buy it 3 balls at a time like I am going to knit a Birch in every flippin color. I have no idea. It is just a romantic dream I guess, but even I think it's weird.

Well, this is short but this is all I have energy for now. While everyone under the sun is at Rhinebeck this weekend I will be blogging (for real, with pics, finally), knitting (hopefully), and nullifying my antibiotics with a beer or two (definitely). What the heck.

I never would have thunk it.

2006-07-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

Well, it has been a snakes on a plane kind of weekend here at the Mount Olympus of chickendom. Saturday started with my weekly date with the needle guy. My left shoulder was acting up big time (post migraine, 2 lost days of my life) and I decided to tell my TCM doc about it in case he had a suggestion to help ease the pain. Well, all I can say is that even if I hadn't been an acupuncture convert before, which I was, I would be now because the man whipped out some Chinese magic or something, and next thing you know I was fixed. Fixed! No pain, nothing. Freakin amazing. And you know what he did? One needle. In my right ankle. For my left shoulder. Magic, I tell you! I don't understand, I just believe.

So now I am ready to use my nifty new spindle at the demo for the Fayetteville Library that was scheduled that afternoon with my SCA group. Here is a lovely picture of me all rentarded:

That's me in the middle. Do you see the spindle? No, you don't. And do you know why? Because it rained, cats and dogs, and then the ground steamed gently for a good long while after that. Somehow it never occured to me that wool was hair and that the same weather that would cause a bad hair day would bring about a bad wool day, but there it is. I did try to spin, but the roving was sticky and kept frizzing out in my hands. I mean blow out kit frizz. Almost like static electricity would do, only more soggy and less shocky. So I packed up the spindle and the wool until a friendlier atmosphere could be found, and joined the rest of the ladies under the dayshade-become-sweat lodge while our men fetched us cool drinks and ice cream. Not so medieval, the ice cream, but very very welcome.

From there we headed off to Grantville, to have dinner with an old friend who opened a pizza restaurant there.

This is Nick Sasso, who along with his wife Kim owns Nick's Pizza Stop which has the best pizza I have eaten since I moved to Atlanta 13 years ago. No joke. I would make the drive again for more of that, and the dessert we had of fried brownies, bananas foster and cheesecake would bring peace to the world if we can just work out the distribution plan...

So no spinning, and very little knitting, no exciting impromptu knitblogger meetups like last Sunday when I met Mouse, Jane and Sandy in person at Knitch, but deep fried desserts have their own charm, I can assure you.

There is plenty of knitting in the future, though, as I have a date with Amtrak next week, and all the fixings for a 22+ hour knitting extravaganza. Look for train knitting reports to come. And next time you're in Grantville Georgia, head over to Main Street for some great pizza, and tell Nick hi for me.

Fox in the henhouse.

2006-07-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

Todays' plans were all cancelled by 11am and I found myself with a free day. Knitch, the new LYS on the block is about 3 blocks away from my TCM practitioner's office, so that was the first stop in my newly liberated schedule. It is a really wonderful place, and like last week I went right after acupuncture, which leaves me really woozy for a few hours after. That must be why I found myself leaving the shop an hour later armed for a brand new battle. At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Don't ask me how this happened. I am not a spinner. At least this morning I wasn't. Now, though, I think I just might be. Plus, there is something delightfully perverse in being a chickengoddess and spinning on a spindle named the Fox. Actually there's a really good reason why this happened. Next weekend I am helping with a demo for a library down in Fayetteville. Their summer reading program has adopted a medieval theme this year and the SCA group I belong to agreed to do a demo for them. I had originally planned to knit in the round, which is perfectly medieval, but it is too freaking hot to have a bunch of wool in my lap. I also thought that knitting would be mighty boring for kids to watch, but spinning (even bad beginner spinning) would be more interesting, and I could let kids try it too. Anyway, I am having fun practicing and I can see where I might like to take a spinning class at some point.

So that brought me to lunchtime, after which I picked up the old Fair Isle Sampler Hat and went to town. Made a good bit of progress and man, I am loving the colorwork.

Wish I had a few more days like today, but alas, I must return to my regularly scheduled insanity. It was fun while it lasted, though.

Knitting vicariously through others.

2006-07-16T16:05:00.000-04:00

Summer is half gone, and all my hopes of cool hours spent near the air conditioner vent knitting away peacefully are laid to rest once and for all. I got no time.

Neither, it seems do many others. All over the internet, knitblogs are full of posts of excuses for not knitting, apologies for non knitting content, pictures of anything but knitting. I will make no excuses or apologies, I won't make myself feel guilty for not knitting more, like it is some bad thing, or that I have failed somehow, when in actuality life is good, just busy.

Now, there's always time to buy yarn, against those days to come when good yarn might become scarce (or at least the good money you need to buy good yarn might). And living in Atlanta, this weekend was a banner weekend for yarn acquisition. On Saturday I made it to Knitch, the new store in the Virginia Highlands area. It has a really neat atmosphere and a good range of yarns that doesn't overlap any of the other local stores much at all, which is always nice. Unfortunately I went right after acupuncture (actually only 3 or 4 blocks away from the store) which meant I was really spacey at the time and that probably saved me from going hog wild with new cool yarns. I got away with a new set of Addi Turbos and that was it. I thought I might have recognized someone whose blog I read, but people never look enough like their pictures in person and I was too shy to speak up. Maybe we should all wear pins with our blog names on them when we go out in public so we can recognize each other.

Anyway, today was the glorious trifecta of yarn shop sale happiness in the back lot of Why Knot Knit, and there I admit I did drop the load of moolah. Stash properly enhanced against future yarn shortage, I must return to my regularly scheduled insanity.

So I have decided to knit vicariously through others till life calms down. Doing this, I will knit far better than I would if I actually had the time to commit to it myself anyway. For example, if I knit vicariously through, say, Grumperina, I can instantly achieve far more thorough understanding of the mechanics and techniques than I actually have time to bother with right now. Through Monkee, I will knit lace to perfection without all that nagging practice (read: frogging, tinking, swearing), through Claudia I will crank out socks by the dozen and maybe a sweater or two. Hey, if I include archives, the sky's the limit. Do you know how good this sounds to my weary brain right about now?

Yes, I have gone right round the bend, but I'm ok with that. And when I get some time to knit again and do it, I will thank myself for not flogging myself over not accomplishing much, and I'll undoubtedly enjoy the process a great deal more. Meanwhile, at the request of a few friends, here's a pic of me with my latest needles. Not the knitting kind. If you are squeamish, look away now.

Am I missing the point?

2006-07-10T07:24:00.000-04:00

OK, will someone please explain lace knitting to me. I have determined that I am pretty much a process knitter, but this is ridiculous. Way back in the mists of time (well, last February) I started a Daisy Meadow shawl. A "beginner" lace project. I'm a beginner, so, ok. After ripping and reknitting every single row at least twice, I made it this far before I had to walk away.

A few weeks later I decided to pick it up again and spent an entire day knitting, ripping and reknitting chart 4. At the end of the day I had made it this far.

Before I admitted defeat. I don't know what it is about chart 4 that is so bad, but I couldn't get past it for love nor money. So back into its ziploc it went and aged several more months before I could stand to look at it again.

The problem is that I love the idea of knitting lace. The designs and the yarns are unbelievably beautiful, and I dream of knitting a Tina shawl or a Forest Path stole. Really. I have the patterns and I pull them out and look fondly at them and look toward the day I'll know enough to cast them on.

At least I used to feel that way. Until yesterday.

So I decided I'd pick up the scarf after another multi month hiatus and give it a go. I knitted the roughly 900 stitches of chart 4 4 times before nearly breaking down into tears. Not girly tears, not tears of sorrow, failure or remorse, but those special tears of frustration that say I know deep down in my heart that there isn't enough weapons grade plutonium on this planet to make a bomb big enough for my personal needs right now and that is why I cry. Oh, people, what is this lace knitting about?

Last row chart 4 I am one stitch short. Always. I think I find an error. Always. I tink back to fix it being very careful not to foul up tinking the fiddly bits. I begin to reknit, find a dropped stitch. I think. It looks like a yarn over, but that's not possible, last row was all knit. This happens in different spots, I think, but it is always the same. Picking up the stitch will make the number of stitches come out right. I pick it up. I knit. The lace pattern is off. I am somehow still one stitch short. And I seem to have a short column of stitches now where I picked up the alleged dropped stitch. Always. I look close, see where the error obviously started. Shouldn't have picked up that thing I thought was a stitch. Go back and undo to before I "fixed" it, but it doesn't look the same. See the obvious error. Fix it. Lose another internal stitch in the column of stitches and at end of the row I am still a stitch short. Always happens just like this. If I continue, I will eventually end up with a really short and mangled section in the internal lace structure and will never recover the 1 stitch I am short. Rip back to lifeline. Lather, rinse, repeat.

So for many hours work yesterday, I was finally able to achieve this:

I don't get it.

Reboot

2006-07-02T07:04:00.000-04:00

Welcome July and all the future will bring! As last summer did, this summer has taken me in unexpected directions. Lest all you folks in blogland think you're in for another whine-fest of why I'm not knitting, let me assure you that that won't be the case. We are learning to roll with it. We are open to new experiences. Most importantly, we are still knitting.

First, let's contemplate the lotus blossom in the early morning light. I have never seen anything like it. The flowers actually glowed with a light I couldn't catch with the camera. They smelled like cotton candy and anise. Then one day I was looking in the pond and saw some new minnows. I thought, cool! Then I went inside and started to think about it for a few minutes. I decided that 1, minnows do not spontaneously generate in closed pond systems and 2, birds generally did not eat minnows from one pond and poop the seeds into another, thus spreading minnows like weeds. About now the brain actually starts kicking in, showing me a quick succession of snapshots of my memory. I remember the fish being all cute and synchronized swimmy this spring. I run outside and look really hard at the little plain bronze fish. Then a shubunkin splotchy minnow darts past and I realize my fish had babies! I know it happens, folks, but it was so unexpected! It is just amazing. (Granted, not as amazing as spontaneous minnow generation, but still...)

Then we saw the completion of the Dye-O-Rama swap. Somewhere in England a womans' eyes were burned out as she opened my package and "experienced" her yarn. I included some scented candles (she likes vanilla) so she would get something nice in case she thought the yarn was a booby prize. She was very gracious to me on her blog, I really hope she liked it. I am actually going to dye some more just like it so I can see for myself how that skein knits up. But that will be another project for another day.

I received my yarn and got a real surprise - 2 skeins! One from Susan W. who was my Dye Pal and one from her daughter! Bonus! (or like we say in Louisiana, lagniappe!) I would be hard pressed to tell you which I like better.

Aren't they beautiful? I just can't get over it. I can't wait to see what they look like knitted up.

The chickens are laying eggs on a pretty regular schedule now, we are finding new ways to use up the eggs (still at a 2 to 1 ratio to storebought - tiny!). I have reinstated the ceremonial gifting of fresh eggs to my friends (it's a chickengoddess thing, you wouldn't understand;), and am looking for some of those japanese boiled egg molds for making shaped eggs for bentos. I have always been intrigued by bentos and now that I am having to eat way healthier, I am studying the bento as an option.

Oh, so I haven't mentioned that I'm eating healthier? Let me share my healthcare odyssey. Remember, not whining. Really. Ok, there was overwork stress, then there was a hideous sinus infection, then there were general feelings of death-y-ness (it is a word if I say it is) which went way beyond mere summer cold. Then there were visits to multiple doctors (first one not my usual doc and I shant be making that mistake again) and much lab testing ensued. And guess what? My cholesterol medicine gave me hepatitis. Freaking hep. All those years of avoiding injecting recreational drugs, and for what? So, there was much discontinuation of medication, and supplementation with liver cleansing herbs, and then my MD suggested I consider acupuncture as a complementary treatment for strengthening my liver and for general good health. He recommended a TCM (traditional chinese medicine) practitioner. Let me tell you, I love my Doctor. And now, I love my TCM doc too. And my treatment, at first bizarre, has really been effective, and I have had many benefits from both the acupuncture therapy and the herbal therapy. Now, the final bloodwork was drawn yesterday, so this week I should know the answer to the most important question very soon. Will I be cleared to drink beer? Meanwhile, though, without the benefits of cholesterol lowering medications, I have to really watch what I eat. Did you know that shrimp are high in cholesterol? I sure as hell didn't. Not happy. Hopefully, I will remember to bring my camera with me next time I go. Good Lord, what's the use of being turned into a human pincusion if I can't post pictures and blog about it? Health effects aside, there's blogfodder there!

So ends the first installment of my catch-up. Stay tuned for actual WIP pics and the rest of the story.

Oh Lord I feel like I'm dyeing...

2006-06-12T03:30:00.000-04:00

So now that work has promised to calm down, I get sick. I was too sick to knit publicly on World Wide Knit in Public Day. I was too sick to knit anything more complicated that my Trekking sock. I was so sick I could not differentiate between wanting to die and wanting to dye, and while reason dictates I refrain from making these decisions while under the influence of Cepacol and nasal spray, well, reason can get stuffed (like my nose). The most amazing yarns happen at the wrong times it seems. And it really took very little effort, because I spread the work over the greater part of the day and my friend Yul came to visit and took my mind off just how bad I felt. He was nice enough to take pics of my acid dye experiment and help me not make too much of a mess. He was also as excited about my lotus as I was. Yep, as if to compensate me for having to hang around the house so much, The lotus bloomed for the first time. It is really spectacular.

And the waterlily bloomed too. Woot!

So the dyeing began. I was really nervous about the acid dyes. I have no idea why, but they intimidated me. Kool-Aid just seems so friendly. You can drink it for heavens' sake. Acid dyes require "dedicated" equipment. Much less friendly. So I saved it for last, and really, the entireity of the "dedicated" equipment ultimately added up to one giant ziploc that ended up in the trash, and the sacrifice of a tin measuring spoon I had duplicates of. Oh, and some old convenience store cups. That's it. What was I so worried about? I don't know. These dyes deliver such a bang for the buck! So I warped up using my Infinitely Adjustable Warping Setup(TM) (ie: a table and my trusty bar clamps) and made one major change I plan on using in all my future dyeing.

I tied the warp with zip ties. Simple but brilliant, if I say so myself. The plastic won't react with anything you're going to subject the yarn to, and you can really be sure the ties are loose enough for the dye to reach all the yarn and not end up with tiny undyed lines under your ties. Then I set about making a wonderful mess.

OK, my idea was to make stripes of different combinations of color. My Dye O Rama buddy likes berry colors, but I wanted to throw in some of the greenery of berry bushes as well. I didn't count on the dyes setting up brighter and stronger, nor did I count on the color saturation which is vastly different than Kool-Aid. So you can understand how worried I became when, after microwaving, I got this instead of the more complementary shades I thought I had achieved.....

Youch! Where did all my pretty colors go? I mean, the greens are glowing like neon, and I took this picture without light or flash just to get one pic where the colors didn't burn out the camera! And the darker shades, they got dark! There's nothing for it than to hope it looks good after skeining. Don't get me wrong, the colors are all right, but this was not what I had planned when I set out. Blame the sudafed, I guess.

I gotta tell you, though, I really like it. It reminds me of these weird pressed crayons we had when I was a kid, where they took multi color bits and pressed them into a block. It was the hardest crayon in the world, and it changed color as you colored, and it was wonderful. Note to self: low probability that anyone else in the world will like this skein - consider renaming red skein and sending that to Dye Pal.

Maybe it is just that I like this one too much to part with it. Is that wrong?

Sunday a second flower opened. I needed two flowers. I felt twice as sick.

If only I could learn to dye subtle colors and pastel shades. I would be at no loss for inspiration.

Hey, Sundara, are you looking?

Koyaanisqatsi

2006-06-04T17:01:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to all of you who have been sending notes of condolence and good wishes. It is so nice to know that you all are out there thinking of me from time to time, checking the blog and being patient with me.

Things have been better.

They are, however, looking up. Remember my partner with the stress-induced vertigo? Her being out left us 3 pharmacists down, and almost gave me a case of stress-induced quitting. But I really do love my job, and that became my mantra until she got better and we hired two new pharmacists who I think will really work out well. So there. Now I can breathe again.

But enough about me working, lets get to me knitting. And dyeing. First, lets have a lovely shot of the finished yard from our last dyeing installment. It came out darker than I had planned, darker than the picture. But I really really like it. I even named it.

I am calling it Blood and Souls. Yes, yes, from the books about the ridiculously depressed albino superhero. What can I say? I had an Elric phase. And the color really is more blood-like than the picture. I was going to call it the Bloody Baron, then I remembered that he's a ghost and his bloodstains were silver, which totally wouldn't work. Blood and Souls it is.

In further non-knitting news, there has been much backyard improvement thanks to mother nature and DHL. First, from the water garden we have the exciting news that my asiatic lotus has five buds. I didn't get one flower last year because it was a baby, but this year it is very happy.

Two of the three buds. Down near the water there are two more buds just starting! Bonus!

Second, from the back forty, DHL delivered my eglu about a week ago. I'm just waiting on my chickens to arrive. This picture's kind of blue, but it was just about to rain when I took it.

Last but not least, I have been knitting. In dribs and drabs, surely, but knitting did happen. I went on a bit of a starting binge. First, because two colors just weren't enough for me (it seems)...

The insanely long and cool Fair Isle Sampler Hat from IK Fall 2004. Yes I am tired of weaving in ends already.

And last because when charts were too much for my brain there's nothing like the instant gratification of Trekking XXL...

With a picot edge. God, I am such a follower. But I made my own decorative stitch markers, so neener neener neener.

And where, you may well ask, are my previous WIP's? They're still there, I've just been fickle as hell. And in the true spirit of someone who's largely too busy to knit, I have still managed to buy. But that will be another post for another day. I have to dye more yarn and update my template now.

BTW, koyaanisqatsi is a Hopi indian word which means "life out of balance". I thought that pretty well summed things up. It is also a movie I really like.

Workaholic much?

2006-05-17T07:55:00.000-04:00

For all of you nice folks out there who have left comments and not gotten responses, I really appreciate your patience. Work has taken over my life for the moment, but the end is in sight. We are already 1 pharmacist short, and with 2 deaths in families, 3 hospitalizations, a case of food poisoning and a boss/partner with stress induced vertigo, I am doing the job of 97 normal pharmacists and no one has even had time to try to hire anyone else. Knitting is something I am looking forward to rediscovering. Sleep as well. For now, I leave you with a reprise photo of Jackson which pretty much sums up the way I feel.

Tired.

Dye Another Day

2006-05-07T16:52:00.000-04:00

We left our story yesterday all warped up with nowhere to go. That is when I realized that I probably warped this yarn wrong. I was wrapping post 1 4 times, post 2 2 times, post 3 4 times and post 4 2 times. I have never used a warping board before and was winging it as best I could. After all the wraps were done I realized I had done something wrong. The two middle posts had twice as much yarn on them as the two end posts. A quick query to the Dye-O-Rama message board revealed all. I was warping posts 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 and so on, when I should have warped 1-2-3-4 and brought the yarn back to post 1, starting all over again. I had two choices. Re warp the whole skein, or damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. Since I knew the stripe pattern I should get from re warping but had no idea what would happen with the warp as I had wrapped it, I decided, in the name of science to forge on ahead. Ahead warp factor two, Mr. Chekov.

So I soaked the yarn, because I read that this is better to do with immersion dyeing where color placement and control isn't as much of an issue. Strangely, this made me hungry.

For ramen! So while the yarn soaked, I ate noodles. I was warming up the stove. Sure.

Then I mixed up the Kool Aid in cold water, dunked the yarn in and applied the heat. You're looking at Black Cherry, Cherry and Soarin Strawberry Lemonade. After yesterday, I totally expected to smell zoo when everything heated up, but got only fruity smell instead. I am definitely not complaining.

I cut the heat off when all the liquids were clear.....

And it's hanging to dry even as we speak. I am loving the colors.

So here's my take on this process so far. Handpainting with Kool Aid was a mess, and I look forward to trying it with the Jacquard dyes. I have a feeling that the color saturation won't be nearly the issue. I also won't mix them as watery. In general, it is a lot messier that immersion dyeing. Immersion dyeing definitely solves the problem of even saturated color. And I don't know about the smell thing, maybe that was a by product of microwaving yarn with very little liquid. Or just microwaving alone. Even when I was overdyeing yesterday with plenty of liquid I got hot stinky sheep smell. Today, nada. For a beginning project I certainly got more bang for the buck with immersion dyeing. Immediately satisfying, whereas I had quite a few interesting moments yesterday. Overall I am pleased with yesterdays' skein and thrilled with todays.

But wait, there's more! Two skeins to go. Next chapter - Jacquard, the real deal.

Smells Like Sheep Spirit

2006-05-07T03:22:00.000-04:00

After another crazy shorthanded long hours no knitting work week, I finally got to play with my yarn for the Dye-O-Rama swap. All afternoon the cats were shooed off the porch and supplies were assembled.

Note the 4 skeins of undyed Opal superwash sock yarn fresh from England. The Jacquard acid dyes were present for the opening ceremonies but will not appear in the arena today.

This is my infinitely variable warping setup, which consists of table, upside down bar clamps, giant ruler and swift. (Makes it seem much grander than it really is) Cheesy, but it works.

And this is the just before dyeing shot. The next picture you will see will be the well after dyeing pic, and that is because here is where things began to ~~go wrong~~ get interesting, First, I found no information about how to mix Kool Aid for painting as opposed to immersion dyeing. So I ended up with way too much water in the dye. Then I didn't check to see if the opening of the Ball jars was actually wide enough for the foam "brushes" I had. When the "painted" color was looking all blotchy I decided to switch to dunking the yarn directly into the dye, which worked well enough at first, but left the yarn completely sodden. The downside of this is that you then learn that your porch slants to the left of where you're standing and that gravity is not your friend. During which time I just couldn't manage to grab the camera and snap photos of the fruity chaos.

So now we're all ready to go into the microwave. I am prepared for the infusion of sweet stench I am imagining boiling Kool Aid will fill my house with. I am not prepared for the less than pleasant smell of hot wet sheep I get instead.

MMmmm, barnyard-y. And I am less than enthused with the color uptake. This is 4 packets of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, 2 packets Grape and 2 packets Lemon Lime. I punt, and overdye the entire skein by immersing it in a solution of 4 packets Berry Blue. I now have something that looks like a shirt I bought at a Dead-head shop in Florida 20 years ago. And smells like sheep ass.

We will have to see how this skeins up and knits up to know whether it was a success. The effect I was going for was a random color pattern, so I dyed short areas of color. I don't know whether or not it will pool, but it will certainly look bright. And I know just the t shirt I can wear with it.

The elusive Boudiccea likes it. I do too.

Tomorrow: Self Striping yarn
Already warped up!

For my Dye Pal

2006-05-03T19:09:00.000-04:00

When I first signed up for Dye-o-Rama, I originally put down jewel tones of blue, red green or yellow as my preferred colors. But you know, just thinking about it, I might rather you dye in colors that really speak to you. I think that if you are really having fun with color, whatever you dye for me will be the best because your enthusiasm will be the greatest. I would really hate to limit you to colors you don't care for and can't get excited about. So if you happen to really be into jewel tones, great, but if not, I'd rather you let your creativity and joy speak to me through your color choices.

I love color, and I don't think there are really any bad colors at all. Even the strangest colors can be used to great effect. And although I don't normally think of myself as a barbie pink or baby yellow kind of girl, an infusion of unexpected color is good for me from time to time.

So, dear Dye Pal, you might not think I'm being very helpful by being so vague, but I am dyeing yarn for someone else myself, waiting to hear their preferences, hoping I will enjoy creating yarn they will like, and I just want to be sure you will have that same enjoyment in the wonderful work you will be doing for me. Please rest assured that no matter what you do, I will be a grateful recipient of your handiwork, and will delight in your creativity.

Where is time going?

2006-05-01T06:56:00.000-04:00

Wow, time flies when you are being worked to death (but the paychecks look pretty good.)

Here's the update of my status. Frustrated, but not too badly. Work is taking a huge toll. We are growing the business and so have 2 new facilities to service. At the same time we have lost 3 employees, gained 2 (that math says that May will be rough too) and had lots of people out due to family emergencies. When you work for a company with less than 20 employees, that sort of stuff is devastating.

It is also spring, which means grass starts needing to be cut and the pond is breaking dormancy. It also means chickens will be here soon. Oh yeah, and the cats are shedding. I have eight cats. My living room floor becomes like unto a vast plain with herds of dust buffalo and fur tumbleweeds everywhere. There is no vaccuuming frequently enough. Ya just gotta let it go, or else you become neurotic and burn out the vaccuum.

So, knitting has been in fits and starts, and sometimes not at all. I have learned that I do not like knitting with distractions. At all. I mean beyond the normal background distractions of regular knitting at home. Cats jumping on you or falling asleep on top of the yarn, phone ringing, etc. The Husband and I went to an SCA event last weekend where I planned to knit all day on the turkish stockings. I have never been so distracted in my life. I probably got less than an inch done and screwed it up. I have had no desire at the end of an extra long work day with an hour and a half commute home through Braves traffic to even attempt to knit for the 14 minutes I have left before I fall asleep standing up. The days are longer and longer - you'd think there would at least be an illusion of having more time.

I did however, get in some undyed Opal for the Dye-o-rama swap, and bought some commercial acid dyes and Kool Aid for experimentation purposes (yes, in my copious free time I am going to dye yarn). And the chickens will be here sometime this month. And I am fairly certain knitting will occur eventually. I have to admit, though, that the thought of summer in the south with a lapfull of wool is not very appealing.

Chickens!!!!

God wants me to dye yarn

2006-04-21T01:59:00.000-04:00

Ok now, who was it that was sitting here at 6pm mountain time and hitting refresh on Scout's blog like a lab rat?

And who was it that was frantically downloading Firefox so I could make the sign up form work (like it wasn't going to be up for 48 hours)?

Oh, yeah. Who took an odd but intense satisfaction in being like the 7th person in the sign up (even though the automatic alphabetizer makes me show up near the bottom of the list)?

Also - who can't count down hours properly and thought sign up wouldn't start 'till Saturday (when I'll be out in the woods) so it's a damned good thing Scout put a countdown timer on her blog?

Uh, that would all be me.

Then just after confirmation was complete, an amazing lightening storm blew up and took out the DSL.

I don't know about you, but I think all this smacks of Divine Intervention. (Dramatic much?)

(Sign ups are open till Scout's countdown timer says. Go over and sign up!)

And now, because every post needs a picture, here's a little humor from the last time gas went sky high:

All work and no play makes me order stuff on the internet.

2006-04-19T07:23:00.000-04:00

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. Between the pollen making my asthma flare up and work being its usual crazy self, not much knitting progress has occurred. In anticipation ofI have ordered some undyed Opal to play with. Hopefully I will be able to make the sign up even though I'll be out of town and nowhere near internet access this weekend. Oh well, if I don't make it, I'll still play with dyeing, and that's the point.

I have also been on a pattern buying binge that really has to stop. I think I have a pattern stash that will soon exceed the yarn stash, but when I don't get to actually knit, this is the sort of thing that happens. So it is my bosses' fault. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Meanwhile in "the Birch is going nowhere" news, little overall progress has been made, but I have finally figured out what went wrong the first time I tried it. First, I am a loose knitter, second, I knit looser in Continental than in English. The first attempt didn't make it past the 1st repeat, when I found my yarn overs were making holes big enough for the cats to crawl through. So I had to frog it completely and cast on again, and let me tell you I don't ever want to frog KSH again. Oh, no, next time I am buying an extra ball and just cutting that mess off. I am now knitting Birch perfectly, and the secret is to knit English and choke the living *#^! out of the needles with tight stitches. Probably it would have worked just fine going down a needle size or twelve (the holes were huge, I tell you, huge!)but I must do things the hard way sometimes.

And now, I give you my favorite plant in the whole world - my lotus. Last year's happy baby plant. Now that it has been repotted and it's in the pond, it should be ginormous. Oh, and the Eglu gets ordered soon. I have been chicken free for too long.

Victory, hard won (is there really any other way?)

2006-04-14T21:03:00.000-04:00

I have realized that good knitting requires listening to my body. As I move through the process of skill integration, I find that I have very visceral reactions to seeing projects I am going to have trouble with. Tonight was the first night my stomach didn't bunch up just thinking about lace. So I decided to give it a try again.

I finally got through the repeat on the Daisy Meadow Scarf that tried to send me to the crazy house. Being my first real foray into the mystical world of lace knitting, I realize now how much this project is teaching me.

One of many lessons learned is that lace is the great equalizer. The more I read blogs and musings of those who I consider to be really great lace knitters, the more I find that we are all having very similar experiences, even though we have very different skill levels. Everyone, it seems tinks, curses, and approaches tears or stultifying boredom in turns, just like me! So I am going to trust that I will also be like everyone else when blocking time comes, and will feel that all the effort was worth it. I am already pretty happy when I stretch it out.

Something else I learned is that the lace itself will let you know if you are a lace person or not. If you survive the insanities of the process and don't quit, or even still want to knit lace after it is done, you are a lace person. If not, and you still want lace, my advice (even at this early stage of becoming a knitter, I give advice..) is to befriend a lace knitter and trade for lace. Find someone who sucks at something you can do in your sleep, like aran or fair isle, and make a deal. Cause if the lace tells you you aren't cut out for it, trust it, you ain't.

I also learned that there are many levels of patience attainable to the dedicated student of knitting. Sort of like the different levels of meditation, or martial arts, and as you master one level or type of patience, part of what you learn is how badly you need to achieve the next level to be that much better. And so on, until you attain grand master status like Monkee or Eunny or Grumperina or Wendy. Then you get to help others on their path. And from all those wonderful knitters I just mentioned, I learned (among other things) that they still swear over their lace, which has been a most relieving thing for a little lace grasshopper like me. One day maybe I will approach the greatness of the knit fu lacemasters, but for now, I am still one white belt lace knitter who has to call out all the stitches as I go.

Count with me, yo, k, yo, fiddly thing, yo, k, yo, fiddly thing......

One thing still works...

2006-04-10T21:45:00.000-04:00

Colorwork. For some reason, while I can't knit plain stockinette in a single color, I have made a bit of progress with the turkish stocking. Can't explain it, but there it is. I did realize that trying to knit the stocking toe up and learn colorwork at the same time was self defeating, and since I think I can produce the same sock knitting it from the top down, I'm going to go with my strengths and do it backwards. I am pretty happy with my slow progress...

Now, the book, which really supposes you know a hell of a lot more about sock knitting that I do, says the original sock has a "hybrid" heel. I have no earthly idea what that is, and I am not sure it is even something that can be done properly if you knit the sock any way but toe up, so I'm going out on a limb with an inserted heel, which I hope will preserve the sillhouette of the sock. Wow, I almost sound like I know what I'm talking about! Anyway, I have a ways to go before I get anywhere near the heel, so there's plenty of time to figure it out. I'm pretty proud to have figured out a couple of errors in the chart in the book (even though it's pretty obvious, still, I could have been unconscious about it) and I like the way it is looking. Mostly I like it because it is the only one of my current attempts at knitting that hasn't self destructed on me. And I've got gauge spot on with 1s. Wheee!

Musings after a week in hell

2006-04-08T11:31:00.000-04:00

Well, that's over, and I don't want to repeat it again. I shall have to declare that from now on no one is allowed to take time off work but me, and that's all there is to that. Precious little time was left for knitting, although I was able to sneak in a few rows here and there for purposes of sanity.

Something interesting has happened, though. I am losing my ability to knit. I can only assume that it is a natural part of what I have found over the years to be my learning process.

I have done so many different things with my hands over the years that I am usually able to achieve a sort of instant mediocrity in any new thing I try. This is actually good because it gives me a real boost at whatever craft I am trying, which is nice. It is generally followed by a quick success, then by a strange period of time where I feel like I am "unlearning" whatever techniques I have been doing so well, and nothing feels natural; nothing looks good or works right. It is really kinda scary, it feels like I am, for lack of a better term, "losing it", and the whole experience tends to impact every aspect of my life for a short time.

I know this will be followed by a resolution and integration of skill and ability and I'll move forward again, but somehow I always forget I must go through this and it catches me by surprise. Well, with knitting, it happened right as I was cluing in to lace. Bad timing - really, it could not have been worse. Lace is frustrating enough without this. After deciding to go back to plain knitting and working some of the worst stockinette I have ever produced (and after much wailing and gnashing of teeth) I realized that I have hit my brain damage phase in the process of learning to knit. So there's nothing to show as most things have been ripped and reknit and reripped and will be caught in this cycle until yarn and needles don't feel alien in my hands anymore.

This challenging work week has given me a great excuse to not fight this too much and a break which helped me realize just what was happening. For a minute there I was actually mourning the newly acquired stash I would not be able to make anything out of due to my failure to become a knitter. But I know this won't last, and it has even started getting a little better already. Does anyone else go through this "unlearning" phase like I do?

OK, so here's a picture of a chicken (actually, a rooster) to distract you from the lack of knitting content. It is a Red Jungle Fowl, and may be the chicken from which all others sprang. Dawn chicken, if you will. Ain't he gorgeous? Probably mean as hell, too. Go chicken, you rock!