On an unrelated note: Please vote for Obama

Thank you everyone for your kind condolences regarding my pinheaded mistake of knitting Rambling Rose in different lengths. Thank you. It lessened the pain. And then my non-perfectionist tendencies lessened it more. Or maybe it was laziness. Pragmatic laziness, though. I could have fixed it but then, life is too short to worry about asymmetry, you know? I'm asymmetric by design anyways - my right foot is slighter longer than my left, fingers on right hand longer than those on the left, right eye more myopic than the left eye, etc. It's all good.

As soon as the weather cools I'll do some proper model shots. I've got it all figured out. It needs to be a layered look. But it's so hot for that right now! I love it! Go summer go! Just a little bit longer please...

In the meantime I started a pair of Red Sox for myself. I made a pair a couple of years ago for a family member - and posted about them exactly two years ago, huh! - but I'm doing it a little differently this time by adding corrugated ribbing for the cuff so it looks more closely like the socks on the official logo. I made up the pattern as I went along, nothing crazy.

The yarn is Sundara Yarn in a beeeeyooootiful color called Claret over Garnet (.or maybe it's the other way around? Can't remember) and some undyed yarn for the heel/toe. I have this feeling these socks will only be drycleaned, or not cleaned at all. Once the cuffs turn pink they can no longer be deemed Red Sox. And I would cry.

Comments [16]
Filed Under: Rambling Rose | Socks | Red Sox

DAMNIT.

Yeah that's right! I knit one leaf repeat too many on one side, and am only discovering it NOW when I buttoned the whole FRACKING thing up. Through all the blocking and seaming, I DIDN'T CATCH IT. Up until this very belated realization, I was convinced I had just completed the most flattering, perfect-fitting garment ever known to me. I was about to hand myself a medal. Mouth the words to the national anthem. And then while at the top of my game, retire.

@#$%!*&^%@*&%!!

Comments [47]
Filed Under: Rambling Rose

New and Improved

After a 5-month hiatus (FIVE?!) from Rambling Rose, I have finally laid aside my irrational anger towards reknitting the buttonbands.

Rico...Suave...

I've only knitted the left-side buttonband, but considering how LITTLE TIME it took for me to get it done, and to get it done right, I am ashamed of myself and quite embarrassed for waiting this long to do it. Rambling Rose laid crunched up in a plastic bag for all this time, beautiful beautful Rambling Rose please forgive me.

Based on the very helpful comments from this post, I was able to pick up the correct number of stitches for the band. I had a slipped-stitch selvege for the front right and left panels, and had picked up and knit each of those slipped sts for the buttonband. It resulted in major puckering and pulling in of the fabric; clearly my ratio of 1:2 was short; I cried; I swore; I threw it aside in disgust. When all I really had to do was go for a ratio of 2:3 by picking up every slipped stitch, and knitting through the front and back of every other stitch as well (I usually pick up all stitches first, and then knit them. I find the mechanics to be much easier this way).

Worked like a charm! Happy happy joy joy. So the plan is to finish the other buttonband after work today, block tonight, head to the DMV tomorrow in Chinatown to get my license renewed and re-registered to vote (IMPORTANT!), and then stop by Windsor Buttons for the perfect set of buttons, which I will then immediately sew on as soon as I return home. And Rambling Rose at long last will be finished done complete, wheeeee!

Comments [18]
Filed Under: Rambling Rose

Daydreaming

I have very little knitting to talk about. I have been day and night dreaming about escaping to Europe. It is a perennial ritual I like to do. It is a little like torture.

Here are some photos from our trip last year to southern France. Who wouldn't want to live nestled at the end of a cobblestoned courtyard? You'd be crazy not to covet a little bit of this.

Ancient town of Les Arcs

How about an evening concert in an ancient amphitheater?

Ancient town of Arles

Or an afternoon at a very nice beach, with a waiter coming around with more pastis?

Ancient town of Nice

Ah me. Always wanting what I don't have.

Comments [11]
Filed Under: Thursday is for Favorite Places | Travel

Bunny Rochester

In case you haven't noticed, I love photographing Bunny. That cat has an endless supply of downright uncat-like expressions. The one expression which he excels at beyond any others is the one I call Most Hateful Disdain.

It looks like this:

Now 99% of the time Bunny is a total lovebug. He likes to sit in your lap, he likes to purr in your lap, if you bring your face close to his he will smear his little wet nose all over your forehead most lovingly, and then attempt to kiss you by licking the corner of your eyes (I don't let him of course but he always goes for my eyes and I'm like WHAT THE HELL you WACKY CAT).

But the other 1% of the time that he spends giving me the most pissed-off looks are the ones I like best. So much material trapped in such a little subject!

I mean he is just so full of soul-crushing ennui here that he's silently crying.

Save me from myself, he says. Save me.

And then there are his moments of intense brooding where he gives Darcy and John Thornton a run for their monies. Or moneys. Not sure which.

He is plotting how to push his Lennie Small of a brother down the stairs and make it look like an accident.

(Do you like all my literary references? Heh.)

Comments [15]
Filed Under: Cats

Bigger is Better!

Boston skyline as seen from Spectacle Island and from the side of a metal bowl.
Not pictured: raw chicken wings inside the bowl.

Comments [13]
Filed Under: Wednesday is for Where I Live

Hold me

Just had a traumatizing frustrating afternoon at work. Need a martini to chug and a fat orange cat to hold.

Comments [10]
Filed Under: Life

VanBuren is the best

He took it upon himself to block my scarf for me. I didn't even have to ask. See how perfectly aligned his body is. What a professional.

His oversized underside is smothering this:

There is a slight cabling boo-boo on the right which I guess I am pointing out to you so that you know that I know it's there. The stitch is again from my Japanese stitch dictionary. The yarn is Sundara Yarn fingering silky merino in Winter Skies. My first time! I'm using size 3 needles. Probably could have gone bigger for a lacier scarf.

Although the current size is conveniently sized for effective cat-blocking.

Comments [25]
Filed Under: Cats