Made of Pure Win

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

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

What next?

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

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

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

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

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

It's All About the Tentacles

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

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

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

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

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

Starting the Finishing (and other assorted ings)

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

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

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

This really is my year!

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?

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!

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

Bell Geekery

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,

...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.

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.
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Furry blur courtesy of Jasmine. These days I'm knitting around the cats instead of kicking them off. Like they weren't spoiled enough...