Tuesday, October 11, 2005
 Dang. Has J.Crew's demographic suddenly been narrowed down to only Anna Wintour or something? First it was lovely but totally unnecessary handbeaded camisoles for like, $500. Now, again for no reason other than to make me sad, it's ENDANGERED SPECIES attached to your perfectly-fine-as-it-was aran sweater. Now let's just calm down here, J.Crew, shhhh. Stick to your little Oxfords and chinos, and leave the happy forest creatures be.
I wonder if people out in the West Coast are receiving the same catalog as I am here on the East. I can't imagine it would sit well. Mink? Coyote? This is madness.
 Not that I need to be adding more projects to the queue, but elann.com has 100% cashmere on its list of yarn. For cheaps! I was thinking how luxurious it would be to make a cabled sweater out of cashmere, sans coyote fur of course. This sweater from Adrienne V Fall 2003 would fit the bill, or anything from Phildar Irlandais. I have the most magazines from Phildar and still have yet to knit a single thing from any of them. Boo hiss!
Filed Under: General Knitting
Monday, October 10, 2005
Rubadubdub, check me out in the tub.
WHAT is Aimee doing in the tub? Because the tub is clean. Here at Chez Knitty McKitty, we finally have the power of Pine-Sol!!! Feel free to come over and let your baby crawl on my kitchen floor. After I finish the post, I will wetblock Aimee in the toilet, just to prove to you how clean our house is now. Sniff sniff sniff, ahhh. So that's what clean smells like.
I don't know how you guys run your household, but we don't. There are no cutesy "Laundry Wednesdays" or "Vacuum Fridays." We've tried though. We are just not routine people. Clothes get washed when they can stand up on their own, things are put away when the cats have puked on them at least twice. Unlike some crazy people I know, I find therapy in not cleaning. Duck is the same way, so between the two of us, we are very very dirty (although I very much remember while we were dating that his room was always SPOTLESS. Hmm. Interesting).
So we have housecleaners now. I KNOW. If you tell my inlaws about this they will kill us, my dad would pinch his nose because the idea stinks. My mom would be cool though. She understands that time is money. The DIY method has had us using up an entire weekend to clean this dumb house from top to bottom. Gross! How many sleeves, scarves, socks could be knit up, how many miles on the biketrail could we cover in that time? Probably bajillions, if not gazillions.
I like how the housecleaners move the furniture so they can get at the corners, where large amounts of Dust Kittens are most likely found, metastasizing quietly in the dark. They really are relentless.
The bolero is coming along slowly. I knitted it up some more in the car, on our way to and back from Grammy's funeral.
(She had the perfect Irish sendoff - it had been sunny and dry all week, then on the morning of her funeral the sky and the bottle of Jameson opened up, and everything turned to slosh, just in time and just for her.)
I finally finished the ribbing around the front and neck. It's very squishy and yummy. But the slopes in the ribbing don't seem to be as smooth or gradual as they look in the picture. Mine are kind of abrupt...I'm going to blame the instructions again and not my technique. I seamed in one sleeve and really had to stretch the cap to get it to fit in the seemingly larger armhole. Luckily it looks alright when I tried it on, but this is for sure the last Debbie Bliss thing I make. I hate her instructions.
Filed Under: Debbie Bliss | Bolero | Life | Rowan | Aimee
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Duck's grandmother passed away today. She lived a long and healthy 97
years, and was charming, witty and lucid til the end. We should all be
so lucky. But we know for the last several years, especially with her
dwindling eyesight, she's been waiting...waiting...waiting. People to
see, places to go...We're relieved that you're finally at peace Grammy,
but we'll all miss you terribly!!
Filed Under: Life
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Recently on the train I sat next to this chick knitting. Now that I knit it's always fun watching other people knit and see what sort of techniques they use, what they're making, the yarn they're using. 9 out of 10 times I see novelty yarn (why people why?), or skinny dpn's sticking like a voodoo ritual through mittens, which is very ambitious project to undertake in a vehicle that jerks violently every 5 feet. Once I saw a woman crocheting with a hook SO LARGE, I mean truly enormous that it looked like...something battery operated. Wink wink nudge nudge.
So this chick I was sitting next to, as I was watching from the corner of my eye I noticed something off in her knitting mechanics. Something strange, something off-kilter. It took me a little while longer of spying to realize that she was wrapping her yarn the other way around -- clockwise, rather than counterclockwise. Twisted! (Although if you inserted the needle in the back of the loop and wrapped the yarn clockwise, it would turn out ok right? Hmm. Let's ponder that one.)
Do I say something? Do I mind my own business? If you were doing something wrong you'd want to know sooner than later right? But I said nothing.
This got me wondering of course whether it mattered how you wrapped stitches, or maybe wrapping clockwise was the right way and I had been kitting incorrectly all this time. The horror! After I got home I tried wrapping clockwise (funky!) and it came out twisted. So phew.
Filed Under: General Knitting
Monday, October 03, 2005
Help...me...*twitch twitch*
This weekend I finished and blocked one half of what will become the world's ugliest pair of sleeves. Thanks to the wretched instructions for the Debbie Bliss bolero. Or, is it my fault? I don't know dude. I've never knit an adult sweater from DB, and this is the first time I looked at a sleeve cap and wanted to throw up. I even did the sloped bind off technique. Imagine if I hadn't. Wow. That is the ugliest sleeve cap I have ever seen.
Hopefully it will seam up alright.
Not much else on the knitting front. This week has been busy busy. Friday was my last day at the job so I've been busy with wrapping up and knowledge transferring and all that good stuff. It's been a good gig, one that originally was slated for 6 weeks but turned into 14 months.
It's amazing how much time goes by when you're not paying attention. Suddenly I was all, "I've been here over a year, and still don't have my own desk or know your name. Or yours. Or...yours." Such is the life of a contractor. I kept getting booted around for new, legitimate hires. I kept thinking, I'm only here temporarily, no use in introducing yourself, then meanwhile a year goes by and you still have no idea who anyone is or what they do.
Outside of my core group I did make one fabulous friend. And she has a fabulous name. Kitty! Kitty and Cat! Kitty Cat! We understand each other. We go drinking in bars and gossip/make fun/complain about people in the office and forget the time and spill wine all over ourselves and have our husbands come pick us up and say, "You smell like a homeless man." Oh wait that was just me. She's hilarious, and we've promised to keep the weekly, bi-weekly Cats' Night Out thing going.
But anyway, I decided to take another contracting gig that came along with another former co-worker, and I start some time this week, or possibly next. Whenever all the legal contract mumbo jumbo goes through.
So what am I going to do with the couple of free days that I have? DUH. I'm going to KNIT. NON-STOP.
And ride! We went biking again this weekend. I didn't have time to find a new seat (thanks for all your advice!) but I wore a pair of Duck's biking shorts, under cropped pants, to tie me over. A couple of times I sneaked a peak at my reflection as we rode by a storefront window, and gee! Who's that cat with the bubblicious JLo ass? Meerow! We stopped per usual in Lexington center, I ducked into Wild 'n Wooly (hooray! I can bike to the yarn store!), we had some ice cream, etc etc, then rode a little farther out before coming home. La la la!
Filed Under: Debbie Bliss | Bolero | Life
Monday, September 26, 2005
Pardon me while carry on with this newfound activity called EXERCISE as if I'm the first human being to do it. My stint on the bike is over. Temporarily. Right now is a time of healing. So while the last few nights I've slept like a boulder at the bottom of a lake, all in all I have had no muscle aches or pains. I thought waking up the next morning I'd feel like a limp rag soaked in lactic acid. But, no. Strange. Very strange.
So what's the deal? Well. There is another element I had not at all prepared for. I can tell you this because we are all best friends here: a certain AREA has been battered, sorely battered and bruised beyond recognition. Clue: this certain AREA shares the same name, in some circles, as a certain COAT that I will be knitting from Rowan 38. Duck had his delicate egg wrapped in a basket of soft yet protective foam. But mine was right out there in the frontline of battle, casually covered in tissue paper, also known as unbefitting thin cotton shorts. So unprepared for the aftermath! You'd think FEMA ran the show down there. Can I blame Bush for this too? Ha ha ha I alone shall laugh at my pun.
For this reason only I cannot bike for a few more days. Just the thought is bringing tears to my eyes. Look! I'm crying!
Filed Under: Life
Sunday, September 25, 2005
No knitting news for the weekend. I bought a used bike and
we've been hitting the trails, biking from our house to Lexington and
back. That's about 20 miles, maybe. Big whoop, you say. This is a big
deal for me because I am the world's largest slug. Albeit a slug with
good intentions. I've been wanting to exercise more, but Orangina and Butterfly and Aimee and Co. can't up and knit
themselves now can they?
Lately though I've just been feeling gross and old
from lack of exertion, and fed up with my own laziness. So Saturday we
went bike shopping. First store off the Minuteman Trail, and I had my
bike 10 minutes later. We drove it back home, changed, and hit the road
back to the trails on bikes. The sun was out, the breeze was cool, and air was fresh. It felt really, really great.
Even though I'm unable to walk or sit properly today. Prognosis for tomorrow looks to be worse.
Filed Under: Life
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Bolero Jacket from DB Simply Soft
So far I've only worked this in the car. Don't know what happened, but I'm not so ga-ga for it anymore. Figures. But I'll finish it, to get my money's worth if nothing else. I have only the sleeves to do, and then, the Endless Ribbing. Since I'm a renegade/lazy knitter, I did not alter the pattern to account for using Aran rather than Chunky. It's going to turn out smaller than the smallest size. It'll be fine, because I too am smaller than the smallest size.
Aimee from Rowan Vintage Style
 
I am officially President of the KSH Fan Club. Just had do to a couple of rows of this to get my KSH fix. For awhile there I was debating using some of the Liquer to make another Butterfly, and some of it for a shawl. This color is so delicious that I am overwhelmed with the urge to eat it. So, please, pass me the goat hair.
Our favorite gal, Kooch from Rowan 38
 
More Rowan! I just love this coat. By the time I finally decided that yes, I will pay for Rowan 38, they were out of stock everywhere. Everywhere being the one local yarn store that I can get to without driving. (The LYS in Boston which I deemed sometime back as MY LYS doesn't even stock Rowan, so it doesn't count as a reliable source.) A couple of weekends ago, on our way back home from Stowe, VT, we stopped by the ultra-bucolic little town of Woodstock, and as we strolled down the main street I said aloud, "A place like this ought to have a yarn shop, for sure." I had not even finished my sentence when we passed the last store on the street, et voila! Yarn! Fate! Ha Duck was thinking he was in the clear. Little does he know, I'm like the pig sniffing out his truffles. If there is yarn, I will find it.
The pattern for Kooch asks that you purchase 11 skeins of Yorkshire Tweed DK and 11 skeins of Tweed 4ply, and hold them together for a chunky gauge. That's 22 skeins of yarn. Ha HAA you cannot sucker me into paying $170 for two types of yarn, when I can instead pay $65 (shipping included! All the way from the UK!) for 10 skeins of Rowanspun Chunky in Fern on eBay and use the rest of the money I saved to buy shoes.
Filed Under: Debbie Bliss | Bolero | Rowan | Aimee | Kooch
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