Tomorrow is the DFW Fiber Festival in Addison. The Pirate Hooker and I will be there for glorious shopping. Hope to see you there–here’s the link for info.
Category: Knitting
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Day After Regret
I don’t regret frogging the Sheep Shawl. I wasn’t very far into it and it wasn’t working out. What I am having second thoughts about is casting on Juno Regina with that Baruffa Cashwool that I wound on Saturday. The pattern is working out–I like it and it likes me. Also, the yarn is both soft and sturdy–at least as sturdy as lace-weight can be. The problem is that on Friday, I ordered the yarn for the Peacock Feathers Shawl. As content as I am with Juno, I know that she will get tossed aside like a frumpy hausfrau for a sexy new vixen. I wonder if it would be more fair to undo the very little (20 rows) that I have done and put her aside when I can focus more completely on her. I am a bad bad knitter that knows nothing of knitting monogamy.
Also, Matt is still sick and has begun making a sound during the night like someone is attempting to have maritals with an undead goose; it is a very squishy honk. I need sleep.
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Rip It, Rip It Good
Let’s please have a moment of silence for the Sheep Shawl who suffered two critical and ultimately fatal injuries this Valentine’s Day. Two yarn overs were missed. Although the knitter diligently used a lifeline, the errors occurred in the lifeline row.
Here and here.
The knitter’s patience with the project ran out, and she made the difficult decision to terminate. The shawl was reduced to its basic components. Rest in Peace.
To make myself feel better, I made a cup of miso soup and wound 1500 yards of Baruffa Cashwool while appreciating the one year anniversary of my dear ball winder who I love more and more each time I use her.
Sadly, this was the extent of my Valentine’s Day celebration because my husband is down with the flu. Although I was give him props for going out despite his illness and getting me some chocolate-dipped strawberries. I love you Matt (and not just because of the chocolate).
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One Down…
…one to go.
Please note that I have already started the second to avoid Second Sock Syndrome. A three hour training session not only helps a knitter to avoid SSS but makes her darned happy to have a second sock to knit.
I also got yarn mail today.
Witch Bear approves.
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Stealthy Startits
Startitis got tricksy yesterday. After I organized my stash, Startitis pointed out that a snow day shouldn’t have to settle for just any ol’ knitting project–such a fine holiday deserves a brand new project. Perhaps Sheldon or that new blue sock yarn. Luckily my chilly feet pointed out that if I work on the sockotta socks, they’ll be warmer sooner than if I start new. A few hours later, Startitis suggested getting a head start on Christmas knitting. I had called Mom to ask her sock size before I cottoned on to Startitis’s plan. Then Lost started and I lost (haha) interest in taking my eyes off the screen long enough to cast-on.
At school, another teacher and I are looking at European locations for a possible school trip. Is it wrong that I want to take the kids on the Ireland trip because it says we’d be touring a sheep farm?
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Snow Day Fever
Due to icy roads, I have one whole glorious day home alone. I can watch whatever I want, play whatever I want, knit whatever I want. So what to I do to start this most fabulous of days? I cleaned out our clothes closet. I’m still not sure what possessed me to spend several hours in our uninsulated (and therefore freezing) closet sifting through old clothes–I’m certainly not known as the most tidy of women. In fact, I avoid housework as if it will give me cancer. But I realized this was long overdue when I found a t-shirt from elementary school. Part of the problem is I need to realize that just because somebody gave me a gift, that doesn’t mean that I must keep it for the rest of my natural life. When the gift shirt has three holes and an unidentifiable orange stain on the shoulder, it is okay to throw it away.
That ended up as 3 big garbage bags full.
The stash also received this organization treatment. My stash used to be stuffed in here:
But it got so full that the door would spontaneously pop open and spit out yarn. This is bad–no one needs a yarn ejection system. Now the stash is happily ensconced in its new home.
I can now rifle through the stash without errant balls rolling out of the shelf and around on the floor. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this sooner.
The Sockotta socks continue.
I love that the heel turn is entirely in purple.
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New Addition to our Household
Don’t panic Linda, I’m not pregnant. But I’m not sure I could love a child more than I love this:
Matt got me a swift for Christmas. He, Matt M., and I struggled for 2 hours trying to untangle 2 skeins of Noro Daria, and to preserve our sanity, he got me Mr. Spinny up there to prevent that from ever happening again. So now when the ladies at the yarn shops ask if I’d like that wound, I proudly say, “No thanks. I’ll just do it at home.” (The yarn on the swift is Lorna’s Laces Shepard Sock in Ashburn purchased with a gift card from Mom–thanks Mom!)
All of my female family members got a Daria bracelet at Christmas time. That is some slippery, slippery yarn. The skeins got tangled, the wound balls collapsed. I ended up winding the yarn around some size 19 needles and knitting them off the needles like spindles.
But the results are so shiny, no?
Today during finals week boredom, I started some socks out of stashed Sockotta.
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Back in the Saddle
I promised myself that I wouldn’t do it, but my husband asked very sweetly this morning. And this is the first time that he’s ever asked me to knit anything for anybody. But it looks like I will be making another one of them. That’s right–They’re baaaaaack! They are becoming a Christmas tradition. Next year, I may have to start varying the colors or knitting them for the homeless just for variety. Or I could just be the crazy knitting lady who knits the same thing for people year after year. The good news is that this means I get to go to The Woolie Ewe after work. The chance that I will only walk away with the one skein of Cascade 220 that I need is slim to none.
Those that have been paying attention, know that I play video games. Because I pay attention, I know that not all of my dear readers care about the n00b ‘lock and blue guy that I pwned last night. For those who understood what I just said, try my new blog Lavender Blue.
How do I manage two time-consuming hobbies? Manage? Hah! Not a whole lot of managing goes on. More like streaking. The entirety of August, September, and October were dedicated to WoW, but for the three months before that, I only played Lost Odyssey and that only a tiny bit when my right hand started cramping from the project du jour. November has started out with more balance. Some mornings I come into work early feeling peaceful and relaxed–very zen. The night before, I knitted. Other mornings I arrive a little late, a lot frazzled, and with one eye twitching. The night before, I gamed. Gaming is exciting in a way that knitting isn’t and shouldn’t be. That’s not to say that accidently pulling your needle out of a half-finished shawl isn’t exciting–however, that heart attack isn’t the goal.
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When Your Mojo Takes a Vacation
My mojo took a vacation. Now, I have had missing mojo difficulties before in the past–usually when a particular project was kicking my butt. But switching projects for a bit would work miracles. This time was different–one day, I simply put the needles down and didn’t pick them up again for 3 months. World of Warcraft is partially to blame. It is indeed a huge time suck.
Still, there have been plenty of times when I could have knitted, but I just didn’t. I don’t know why. Perhaps one of the reasons is that I kept feeling more and more guilty as each day that I didn’t knit went by, and I started to feel like my projects resented me. Over the years, I have spent quite a bit of money on yarn, needles, and patterns (especially patterns) that I wasn’t knitting. And I hate wasting money. Of course, it’s not like the yarn would go bad if I didn’t use it right away, and patterns have no expiration date, so taking a couple of months off doesn’t waste any money. I also felt guilty about not going to SnB. Don’t know why. While I’d like to think that a few of the gals missed my sparkling wit, it’s not like they’ll track me down and key my car for missing a few (many) Sundays.
You know what? As soon as I decided to stop beating myself up over not knitting, I feel the mojo begin to flow again. Strange how that happens, no? This Sunday, instead of dragging my laptop over to Dave and Linnea’s to play WoW, I hauled out my knitting. I worked a few repeats of a very undemanding project–a cabled headband. Although I did have to find the pattern because I no longer memorized, I hadn’t forgotten how to knit. Today, in celebration of my miraculous mojo return, I bought the kit for Sheldon from KnitPicks.
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WoW!
Uh-oh! I haven’t been getting much knitting done. Having finished Neverwinter Nights 2, I downloaded the trial version of World of Warcraft. This may have been a mistake. Is it possible for a game to be too fun?
I do have a little bit of knitting news: I have finally made it back to SnB Sundays. Because of a few trips to Oklahoma and a headcold (in July, how did that happen?!?), I missed four Sundays in a row! In honor of the occasion, I started a new little project–the Cabled Headband from The Knitter’s Book of Yarn. Sometimes it’s nice to do a quick, little project in between all of my long-term ones.