I hate using DPNs

But for you, Shining Star Hat, I will do it.

Shining Star in progress, for Nephew B.

A moratorium is in place for projects for me so that I can get Christmas gifts moving along. Back in the summer when time seemed plentiful I had planned on making sweaters for several family members and close friends. Now it's already December - how the hell did that happen - and I've got bupkis.

You don't know how hard not knitting for just me is, unless like me you are a selfish bastard.

There was an article in the NYTimes recently about how this holiday season, retailers are pushing the marketing theme of "you deserve to shop for yourself". Or, the "One for you, two for me" concept.

I very much like this concept. It's one I've been using since I've started knitting, except it goes more like, "One for you, twenty for me." For example my very first knitted item was a scarf for Duck, but since then I've made about twenty items for myself. I have yet to make anything substantial like a sweater for Duck, and I probably won't, ha.

Anyway I'm into this Shining Star hat and everyone will probably get it. This pattern started out much harder than I had anticipated but it is oh so sweet and smart. It's knit from the top town, and the hardest part was casting on so few stitches (5) to be distributed across so many dpn's (5 - but I'm using 4). I had to practice many times, but once I got a " technique" down, it went alright. Still clumsy with dpn's, but better than having to learn a newfangled technique like say, Magic Loop. I'm too tired and old right now to learn about this Magic Loop though everyone is doing it. If someone wants to come over and show me that would be great.

I am nearly finished with Electra, only one side of the v-neck to go, but I won't touch it until Christmas is over.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: Shining Star

Aimee

Pattern: Aimee from Rowan Vintage Style, smallest size
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze in Liquer, 4 skeins. ALL of it.
Needles: US size 5 and size 6

I like, I like. By the way, that photo on the right, where I look like I've just slipped a disk, is actually me doing The ParisHiltonShouldersBackChestOut pose, aka The PHSBCO. Do the PHSBCO and increase your perceived confidence by 150%.

I wore this yesterday to Nephew B's christening out in western Mass., and despite the lace - and the unexpected snow -  it kept me nice and warm in the drafty church we were in. 

I didn't make too many changes to the pattern except to go down a needle size.  It seems to have affected row gauge enough that I have two full extra stripe/lace patterns than the photo in the magazine. My Aimee is very stripey.  Also, there is that hem and opening at the front for a ribbon to thread through, but alas, no ribbon. I just may leave it that way.

I used backstitch for the first time to attach the shoulder seams. I should have ignored the call for sloped shoulder shaping, and then left the shoulder stitches live to do a 3-needle bind off. It would have been so much easier to deal with. Also, though I followed the pattern, the sleeve cap shaping wasn't exactly great. There was too much extra material from the top to the first stripe that you would have had puffy princessy sleeve cap, so I removed several rows from the top. I could have removed even more, but luckily we're dealing with extra fine KSH so the bunchiness isn't too noticeable.

You know what else isn't noticeable? That SNAG I made a couple days ago on the front. I can't find it, so it's not there. Woooooo.

I used every single last bit of the four skeins of KSH. All that's left after weaving in are the scraps cut from the loose ends. That was close.

Comments [23]
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Rowan | Aimee

Thanksgiving Dinner

Comments [0]
Filed Under: Life

Progress Report

Paperwhites

Growing nice and fast, but the flower buds themselves look to be less than robust, due to GROSS NEGLIGENCE in replenishing its water supply in a timely manner. I give you a C.

Aimee

Seaming is all done, with just a few loose ends to weave in. The stripes on the arms match up nicely with the stripes on the body. Nice work, with a suprising display of meticulousness. I like surprises. But wait, there is a snag smack dab front and center, due OBVIOUSLY to reckless use of the hanger while trying to set up photo shoot. Don't think I didn't notice. Because I did. It's RIGHT THERE. Hello, which is more important, getting the shot of subject or the subject itself? A little more consideration and respect next time. B+.

Thanksgiving dinner

You're giving your first Thanksgiving dinner, and instead of a turkey you decide on a "free range natural young capon."  So it will be a humane and hormone-free Thanksgiving. How ecologically responsible or whatever. But what the hell is a capon?* In any case, I give you an A for preparedness.

Christmas Knits
No pictures available at this time, please check back at a later date.

Girl I know you haven't started.  F-. It's so bad I might have to give you another. F- again!

*Capon: a castrated rooster
I'm a little behind on my bird lingo, but the weekend shopping at Whole Foods brought me to my very first encounter with a capon. KAY-pon. I was just looking for a plain ole chicken, a nice organic free-range chicken, but before me lay a vast sea of turkey, duck, goose, cornish hen, quail...and this capon. 

WHERE'S the CHICKEN. I want CHICKEN.

According to the guy behind the meat counter, castrated roosters taste better than the lady hens' white meat, and are more tender and succulent. Oh REALLY? says I. Well, let me brine the bejeezus out of this mofo regardless, and then I'll get back to you.  Not that I have any other option. Capon it is.

WHO would have guessed that genital mutilation had a place in the Whole Foods philosophy? I suppose I am just naive. I suppose there are worse things in the world. But like, if you were a chicken, would you rather be running all around in a field, but castrated, or caged with your nuts intact?

Comments [8]
Filed Under: Life | Aimee

I made a video even though that's not what I'm being paid to do.

The cat basket is situated sort of behind my desk, right, and at least 6 times a day every day one of the cats is trying to squeeze himself into the basket that's already occupied by the other. Sometimes there's a violent coup; other times a happy kitty marriage.

Just before round 5 began, I decided to record their quest(s)(s)(s) for the basket, and move over Dawson Leary! I've got myself an Oscar-worthy video (viewable on Windows Media Player or Real Player). It's really funny. Perhaps only to me. Ha ha ha. I've watched it like a hundred times already.

Watch this heartwarming film

Turn your audio ON for optimal viewing. Otherwise it's just cat p'nography.

Comments [19]
Filed Under: Cats

Good Things

 I have another Japanese knitting book that my mom gave me:

New Traditional Basic Casual Simple Sporty by Ondori
ISBN: 4-277-13328-2

Truth be told I'm not crazy about this one. The sweaters are all rather boxy and old-fashioned, which is not the same as vintage. Don't ask me how. It just isn't. More importantly, Duck flipped through this and didn't like any of the designs either. I'm keeping it mostly because of the excruciatingly detailed schematics for each sweater, and for the reference guide in the back, all in the form of easy-to-interpret illustrations. They have illos for every knitting technique, from knitting to purling to tubular cast on to armhole shaping to fair isle to short rows.

Take notes, Debbie Bliss. Mind-boggling schematics.

Oh, a little clarification on any of you who HAPPEN to stop by the SOGO Mall in Taipei, Taiwan, looking for that entire floor of Japanese books I mentioned earlier. My mother tends to exaggerate. It's really just a section of Japanese books, on an entire floor of other things. It may even very well be a single shelf of Japanese books, in a section of other books, on an entire floor of other things. But don't look for a floor.

There is however, a Kinokuniya in Taipei, and NYC. I'll be going there next month, wooooo. 

In the meantime, a trickle of Japanese knitting books are coming my way, thanks to yesasia.com, my new Achilles heel. These items out of a million made it out of the wishlist and past checkout:

left to right: ISBN 4277113753; ISBN 4529039927; ISBN 4529041662

So exciting! I have no idea what are inside these books, but am banking on only good things. The Japanese collection begins...

Comments [8]
Filed Under: Japanese knits

Objects in store may look cleaner than they actually are

To escape the coldness of the house (because we're too cheap to turn on the heat during the day), I headed to some coffee shop downtown to work. After walking up and down Newbury St for WAY too long, looking for that perfect spot, I reluctantly settled on the Starbucks on Boylston St. It was the only place that had electrical outlets.

That particular Starbucks however is one of the nastier places on earth. Floors are sticky, tables are sticky, the store smells of yogurt. And 99.9% of the patrons there haven't even bought coffee, but doing random coffeeless activities like napping, eating sandwiches they brought from home, nursing their babies.

I'm not a hypochondriac but all I could think about while sitting there were the heaps of molded crumbs trapped between the sofa cushions, petri dishes, curdled milk, amoebas, drool, and the bird flu. I didn't go to Starbucks necessarily for coffee but I bought coffee, and now I'll never go there again because you can get dysentery from sitting on their single-celled-organism-soaked couches.

Next door to this Starbucks is my favorite germ-free hangout spot, Anthropologie. I found that cardigan I talked about from my previous post, and boy. In person, that cardigan is no natural beauty. In fact, that cardigan was downright GROSS. The material (acrylic and wool combo) was both scratchy and waxy to the touch, like your cheap high school graduation gown that came with a warning label not to wear in the rain because it might disintegrate. Also it was just shoddily made. I don't know how they got it to hang so nicely on that form for the picture, because it was not hanging at all right on an actual body. $78! We could make something so much better.

I did get that little red cardigan though, which I've had my eye on for awhile. It was on sale. Woo. Constructed like the Debbie Bliss bolero, but with cute crochet scallops for the sleeves. It's something I could easily duplicate. If I had an empty project queue.

Comments [10]
Filed Under: Life

Office Space

With the new job, my daily commute entails a short, stumbling, sleepy-eyed walk across the hall from the bedroom to the office. The splash of all that oranginess wakes me right up. Its attempt to be grown-up and professional is thwarted by that relic from college, The Futon. Will we ever be rid of it. And will we ever decorate the bare, bare walls.

That's Veebs filling up the wicker basket nicely. Its usual place is in the basement but since working from home, I have this cat glued to my side 99% of the day. He's such a little lover. An annoying little lover. He's on the desk, in front of the keyboard, walking back and forth, tail in my face, on my lap where he won't sit still, behind me on the chair taking up space, making work furry and soft but quite impossible. With the basket in here he has his own place to sit, and can leave me in peace.

Aimee and Electra are on the blocking board. (Uh, Electra kinda looks like the rug...) I'm wondering now if I should just finish up Electra first, since it really only took about a week to finish a panel. I'm losing focus these days, which is why I haven't been knitting as obsessively as I used to. I just can't do multiple projects at once, and yet my mind wants to wander elsewhere...

Anthropolgie cardigan. I like you.

...to this lovely cardigan from anthropologie. It looks like a very simple construction - the bottom looks to be knit in one piece all the way around, then you pick up stitches along the side for the top portion. I could take a pattern from the Japanese stitch book for the top...and maybe decrease that bottom part so it looks less empire-waisted... yeeesss... yeeeeessssss... The store has so many other inspiring knits which I may just have to go out and buy.

I just found this on amazon.co.jp! Books of 200 more stitch patterns, 500 aran patterns, 1000 aran patterns!!!! God help me.

Comments [7]
Filed Under: General Knitting | Life | Aimee | Electra