Sunday, January 15, 2006
I'm bored you guys. Suddenly bored and unexcited about my knitting. I've only finished the bottom ribbing of the Cabled Toad and already wish it would just be done already so I can move onto the next project.
Even so I don't know what that next project will be because I haven't been moved by anything lately, or the things that once did no longer do. Blah! I want to use my Japanese stitch books to come up with my piece, but am too lazy to sit and choose a stitch pattern and decide what I want it to become. Scarf? Sweater? What kind of sweater? Kimono style, hooded jacket, vest?
I want to learn how to knit socks, and I also don't.
Also, my right pinky, for the second time in a few months, has suddenly swelled to the size of a US35 needle. I can hardly bend it, it's so fat, which makes for rather painful knitting. Trying to knit without using the pinky does not work. He plays a crucial part in maintaining yarn tenesion, as I have discovered. He's no good fat, no good.
I'm not sure how this happened but it could be my already subpar circulation (the extremities are always ice-cold), made worse by the all day sitting in front of the laptop followed by the all night sitting in front of the TV. Working from home really does have its drawbacks. I don't move as much. There's no walking to the trains. No killing time 10 times a day by walking upstairs, down the hall or whatever to chat with Joe Schmoe at his desk. There's no daily walking breaks down Newbury Street.
There's mostly just sitting now, in this igloo house whose temperature we keep at an arctic 52 degrees F. YES IT'S CRIMINALLY COLD IN HERE, but priorities, ok? This house is old and drafty and to keep it constantly warm the heat would have to be almost constantly on. With the oil prices the way they are, leaving the furnace boiling away is just not an option.
Well I mean it could be, we're not paupers or penny pinchers (ok maybe we are), but this is just a part of our yin-yang approach to finance: want something, take something else away. You can have a house at 68 degrees this month, but one of the cats must go (bye bye Bunny, bye bye). Or you cannot have that nice dinner or two out this month. Or that nightly glass of wine for the entire month. Or all the yarn. No more yarn.
If you watch Smallville you'll know that this season Jor-El also issued this same sort of decree to Clark, except, in saying that he will have to take a life in order to restore a life, his own son's life no less, he was much more of an asshole about it.
Our priorities are pretty simple. We'll suffer the cold to keep being able to do and buy the things we love to do. Bunny and Veebs are staying put. We'll always choose that nice dinner out at Oleana over heat. We'll always choose booze over heat. And of course I will always choose yarn over heat, knitting ennui or not. So that pretty much settles it. The house stays at 52 degrees this winter, I'll wear my own sweater out to a dinner of kobe steak with a bottle of wine, and our savings-to-spending ratio stays the same.
So while I was thinking how brilliant we are with our money, I became curious as to just how much I spent on yarn and knitting books in 2005. I went through the year's AMEX statements and first off noticed I spent, on average, $80 at WEBS January through April, so already before I hit the half year mark I was feeling slightly queasy.
The grand total: $1260 in 2005. Is that a lot? I can't decide. It really doesn't seem so bad knowing that when all is said and done for 2005, I came away with about 13, 14 finished pieces and millions of hours of enjoyment and learning. And a swollen pinky.
Hopefully I'll snap out of this knitting ennui soon.
Filed Under: General Knitting
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Dude. It's going to be hovering near 60 degrees F up here in Boston for the rest of the week. Look at me, I'm all crazy, wearing my crazy flipflops in the middle of crazy January.
GW kicks ass!!
(GW stands for Global Warming. And George W.
Coincidence? Oh I don't think so.)
I've cooked up a new project. It's the Adrienne Vitaddini cabled pullover from Fall 2004, except I'm calling it the "Cabled Toad" because it sounds that much prettier.
I'm using Filatura di Croso 501 in olive. The color is really MUCH more saturated than in the photo above. It could be tricky, it could be. I've never worn anything so toad but I'm trying to be brave. I saw a woman the other day with my coloring - dark hair - wearing this olive-colored blazer and I thought the color looked smashing on her.
The back is finished and the mid-section and ribs are delectably squishy, as they are wont to be.
Kooch continues to lay abandoned in the now ice-cold sunroom, in the same position as I left it when I took this photo. In hopes of finding inspiration in other knitters' progresses, I did an google search for Kooch. My site was the first that came up, the other sites belonged to yarn retailers.
Am I the only person in the WWW knitting Kooch?
(WWW stands for world wide web. Or whole wide world.)
Speaking of Kooch...
I wish it were me that AJ is pregrant with. If it were me in there I'd be constantly kicking her uterine wall in glee, knowing that I'm going to be like the hottest baby this world has ever witnessed. Damn it.
Filed Under: Adrienne V | Cabled Toad
Monday, January 02, 2006
 
Pardon the weak lighting. We're expecting a snowstorm any minute.
Pattern: Electra from Rowan #38, in xsmall
Yarns: Gold - Kathmandu DK; Maroon - Grignasco Tango; Cream - Kathmandu DK and Kidsilk Haze held together; Purple - Debbie Bliss Merino DK
Needle: US 5 for the bottom ribbing, US 6 for the body, US 3 for neck and armhole ribbing
First FO of 2006, ow! It is a little upsetting that I open the new year with an homage to Ronald McDonald, but, snakes on a plane.* The color combination looked more palatable in the yarn store, and now I can't help but think I look like a Chinese member of the Partridge family, or a big tub of nachos, when I wear this.
And yet, I still kind of like it. It works better with a crisp shirt underneath, one that has slightly exaggerated cuffs and collar.
The collar is key. Do not try this at home with a white collarless, long sleeved shirt for example, innocent as a white collarless shirt may be. I happened to be wearing such a shirt when I weaved in the last strand of Electra. I immediately tossed on the vest and showed it off to Duck without first consulting a mirror. It took him exactly half a second too long to answer my "What do you think?" before he said, "It's nice!" And even then there was a slight pause between the "it's" and the "nice."
Trust me, I've asked the poor guy enough What do you think's to know when he really means it's nice or not. In this case, he and not the vest was being nice.
A quick change to a crisp white collared shirt saved the day. If I were to do this again - and I just might! Fairisle is FUN! - I'd go with my initial color choices of foresty greens, blues, and browns, and throw in a dash of pink.
No significant project notes. Just the usual of going down a needle size for a smaller fit. I did not do this in the round. I tried to carry the yarn up the sides whenever I could. This was my first fairisle project, done to break up the same ole knitting monotony, and fairisle definitely kept things interesting.
I love vests. I need to make more.
Thank you everyone who commented in the last post. It's fun to see who's reading, and to find new blogs. More more more!
*Another way of saying "c'est la vie." According to this post anyway.
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Rowan | Electra
Friday, December 30, 2005
Books
The Japanese knit books I ordered over a month ago finally arrived, minus one, the Let's Knit magazine. It's just as well because I found I wasn't totally excited about the ones that did come in.
New Style of Heirloom Knitting
is just too heirloom-y for my tastes. I love cables and bobbles and
fairisle patterns, but I don't love the shapelessness of all the
pieces. Also, SCARY SCHEMATICS. So diagrammatically advanced!
Information overload, cannot process! Hold me!
I might give this to my mother. She'd appreciate it more than I do.
Or maybe you might appreciate it more? Anyone up for a trade perhaps?
KNIT
has lovely photographs. Of some weirdassed patterns. I see one too many
safety pins. The schematics, while not as intimidating as the ones from
Heirloom Knitting, are intruiging and mysterious. All of them have this
wavey thingamibob slicing through their charts, sometimes more than
once, sometimes horizontally or vertically, or both. I don't understand
what this means. Anybody?
There are a couple of items I would make in KNIT, but it's the last
time I buy books solely on the basis of their cover. So last week at
Kinokuniya in NYC I was excited to be able to peruse some real gems in
person. Unfortunately their knitting and crafting section in general
was rather small, and what they did have was meh. I was totally
prepared for an onslaught of kawaii overload that to not experience it
left me empty and sad. But I did console myself with this:
1000 stitch, cable, fairisle, intarsia, and even crochet patterns.
Yarn
I'm ready to show the yarns I bought on
Monday at WEBS. The scene there was like December 31, 1999 except
instead of people stocking on water and battery and shotguns, they were
stocking up on spindles and sheep fur. Loads of it.
No fights broke out, however the store was very close to witnessing
a double homicide/suicide. I wanted to murder the lady in front who
bought $500 worth of yarns that were all ONE of EACH kind. I then
wanted to murder the old dude at the cash register who was unable to
scan and instead typed in the SKU - slowly, so slowly with so much
squinting - for each miserable item. I wanted to kill myself for
choosing to stand in the wrong line. Again!
I bought 3 bags of of Filatura di Crosa yarn:
One bag of 501 wool, one bag of 501 tweed, one bag of Super Soft. I
don't know what the 501's will be turn out to be, but I've started Erin
(Rowan Ribbon Twist) with the Super Soft. I might be super screwed
because I've already used up 3 short skeins and haven't even reached
the armhole. Uh oh.
The end of the show and tell.
Happy 2006
Since this will probably be the last
post of 2005, I'd like wish everyone a very productive new year full of
new yarn and new finished objects.
I'd also like to thank everyone who visits and takes the time to
leave a comment here, ESPECIALLY those who regularly comment even
though I do not reciprocate the gesture nearly as much as I should. My
blogging shortfalls have been weighing on my conscience, and as part of
my news year's resolutions I vow to say hello and thank you all
over the internet!
It's scary though. Half the time I don't know what to write
beyond, "Nice!" and the other half I'm too busy ploughing through my
list of reads to stop to comment.
But really most of the time I have nothing interesting to say. (This is why I also hate talking on the phone, fyi.)
And I'm not good at being nice. Heh.
I'm not good at reading for that matter. I skim and I scan, which
might also account for why I don't comment in general. I don't know
what you've written, ha ha!
Hmm. I've offended you. But maybe not beacuse you too are skimming.
I won't be mad if you have.
I also won't be mad if you don't comment. But. According to
bloglines there are over 100 subscribers to this feed, and I am just so
CURIOUS who all of you are? I know I'd be a hypocrite to ask,
but...Would you indulge me for two seconds and, for those who haven
never commented, just tell me who you are? Please?
(If I know you personally, and I never told you about this site, please don't tell me. Shhh.)
As a reward, you will receive a 3-sentence long comment from ME on
YOUR blog, if you have one! Wow! Or, I'll pick a number
now between 1 - 100 and whoever is the nth commenter gets Veebs
for a day! How 'bout it?
Happy New Year and happy knitting!
Filed Under: Japanese knits | Yarn Stash
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
 
I hope everyone had a fine holiday or is continuing to have a fine holiday. The catch phrase this season seems to be Happy Chriskwanzukah, which would kind of cute if it didn't give those who keep saying it so much trouble saying it. They're like, "Happy Chris -- wait. Happy Kwanzachris -- wait that's not right. Happy Chrishanuk-- "
I'm on a Shining Star hat hiatus. Five total were made, including a pretty ok that bi-colored version. I gave it to my sister-in-law. There's a weird nub at the top, but I found it was like that in all of my hats more or less, just more pronounced in this one.
Unlike last time I didn't doublestrand, and I made the star blue and the rest of it white. I ended up doing fairisle but twisted the different colored yarns around each other when I had to carry a color more than 3 stitches. It looks cool but damn it was a pain.
The Ugg booties were for my nephew. He's still too small to wear it and who knows if these things are even wearable in the first place. They're cute to look at though, and super fast to make.
Ah I'm happy to be done with the Christmas knitting. Or, I'm happy to be knitting for me and me alone. Me always appreciates what me makes.
We made a stop at WEBS after Christmas day so I could redeem my gift certificate, and it was a raving mad house. I immediately wanted to leave, yarn sale or not. They were having their blowout sale, and there were 3 lines snaking to the back of the store of people and their huge bins of yarn.
I only got a couple of things. I'll do a show and tell later.
Til then I reset my attentions back to Electra - she's nearly finished. Then I'll have to decide whether I want to continue with Kooch or move onto Something Else. Right now a whole lot of Something Elses are calling to me...
Filed Under: Completed Projects | Life | Shining Star
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Despite the fact I hated to turn 1000, I had the BEST freaking birthday ever in NYC. I love you NYC! Thank you MTA for not striking until the morning we left!
Sunday:
Got into town after the easiest 3.5 hour drive.
Drinks at Pegu (holy crap yum and holy crap it's expensive) with college friends, then walked over for dinner at 24 Prince, a new joint that opened a few months ago specializing in "comfort food" with a "twist." The place was packed. For the price and location the food was great.
For old times sake, Nick reunited me with a flaming shot of Sambuca at the end of the meal. As freshmen in college we used to drink Sambuca like water. Like thick, viscous, licorice water. WHY? Because it was there. We have never had it since. It is still as disgusting as ever.
Monday:
Happy birthday to meeeee.
First stop, Kinokuniya, across from the Rockefeller. The tree looked pretty sad, people. All branches all wilted and cold. Sadly I didn't find any knitting books of interest. I did come away with a book of 1000 stitches and patterns, so not all was lost.
Then we walked across the street to the Top of the Rock. We decided this visit to the city would include cheesy touristy activities. It was a lovely view from the top.
Afterwards, we walked a few blocks to the Buttercup Bake Shop, spinoff of the Magnolia Bakery, and had ourselves a few cupcakes.
And then, the highlight of the entire bloody weekend, a surprise stop at Tiffany & Co.! Little blue box, be mine! Look at me, I'm Holly Golightly, tra la la la la la!
We were there for a whole of 10 minutes. It was the most fun 10 minutes I've ever had. Ever.
5 minutes was spent navigating the huge crowd. Another 2 minutes it took locating my object of desire (which has been imprinted in my mind's eye for the last four years at least), then 10 seconds allotted for thoughtful consideration of whether or not I really needed the object once found (yes), and then the remaining 2 min 50 seconds to purchase and patiently watch it boxed (oh that eggshell blue!) and ribboned (red for Christmas!).
Afterwards we skipped out the door and down 5th Ave and I was as high as a kite.
Then we had a fantastic French dinner at Gascogne, with my new bling settled around my neck. The cassoulet was mmmmmm. After a few bites, your lips are coated with a film of fat that gets thicker and thicker with each bite.
Everything was perfect.
Filed Under: Life | Travel | NYC
Monday, December 12, 2005
 After making 3 Shining Star hats, I decided I needed to UP the ANTE
and make my knitting life interesting again, which would also provide
writing fodder for this blog. I thought, wouldn't it be cute if the
star pattern was its own color? Then I thought, wouldn't it be cute if
the star were white, and the rest of the hat were a light blue, so that
it looked like a snowflake against the sky? Then I thought, the gauge
for the existing yarn I have for this white and sky blue yarn is too
small, so wouldn't it work just as well if I doublestranded?
2 colors, 4 strands of yarn, 5 double-pointed needles, 1
circular needle (that I'm using as a dpn to give me a total of 6) and I
have this:
It's a fiasco. I carried yarn across as many as 10 stitches because
I didn't want to do intarsia and have pumpkin innards, but any way you
cut it, there will be pumpkin innards and fairisle on this pattern
doesn't work. I still think a star in its own color would have
been so money, but the effort to achieve it isn't quite worth
it. Granted, I didn't make the process any easier by
doublestranding.
So sad. I spent a whole afternoon on this.
Know what else is sad? That it's less than 2 weeks til Christmas and
we are sans tree. We've always had a tree, except for last year but
that was because we weren't around for most of the month. I have not at
all been in the holiday spirit. I know I must say this every single
year, but this Christmas seemed to have leapt upon us like a duck on a
junebug, and even though my body is swathed in 5 layers of clothing, my
mind is still running around in a tanktop.
HA HA! Now do you also see why I haven't been writing regularly?! Such prose. Ha. Heh. Ugh. Sob.
Also it's a week until my birthday. I am turning 1000 years old.
Again every birthday I say I am turning 1000 years old but this time I
really mean it. My parents have even acknowledged that now that they
have a decrepit sort of daughter, it must make them Keepers of the
Crypt, and this too makes them sad. We are all sad for my birthday.
Duck and I are going to NYC to celebrate. I hope to drink and eat away the birthday blahs. My BFF whom I call Kitty (she has a food blog) made reservations at 24 Prince, and we will have pumpkin-spice and cinnamon martinis over at Public. I will choke my sobs with cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery and hide my runny nose behind Japanese craft books at Kinokuniya, and the next day, drown my sorrows in a fatty vat of cassoulet at Gascogne.
Mmm. I love cassoulet. Mmm, rendered duck fat. Turning 1000 doesn't sound half bad.
Filed Under: Life | Shining Star
Friday, December 09, 2005
Currently outside there is a blizzard. And thunder. And lightening. It's the nuttiest thing I've ever seen.
Filed Under: Life
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