Knitwych's Yarns and Tales

Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair!

2011-10-26T10:47:00.008-04:00

OK, this knitting/yarn addiction thing has gone drastic. On Friday Oct. 21, I arose at 5:15 a.m. (::shudder::) in order to get an early start on the drive to Asheville for SAFF. Being a dedicated night owl, this was painful -- but the yarns beckoned! Cynthia Johnson, owner of Two Knit Wits, my favorite LYS in the whole wide world, fired up her RV and drove four of us to the fair. If you gotta get up at the butt-crack of dawn to get somewhere, I highly recommend getting there via RV. Once you're awake enough to be reasonably coherent, you can knit during the drive.

Anyway, we arrived at the Western North Carolina AG Center shortly after 9:00 a.m. This was the first sign we saw:

Um, yeeeeaaah, this was DEFINITELY not the tractor show. The main building was stuffed with vendors selling everything from raw was-on-the-sheep-yesterday fiber to breathtakingly beautiful dyed yarns of every weight and color. Oh, the notions and the wheels and the looms and angora bunnies!

The main building looked like this:
Note that there are vendors on the upper level as well as the floor!

There was also another arena stuffed with vendors, and over in the animal barns you had sheep and alpacas:

We spent a few hours doing our first run of the booths, then went back to the RV to eat lunch (another huge benefit of RVing a trip like this is that you've got a fridge for perishables, and electricity to run the slow cooker, so you can have a really good lunch without paying concession stand prices. Oh, and the on-board bathroom is a major bonus, too!) It was freezing cold in the morning, but warmed up to reasonably comfortable by midday.

Although I wanted to bring home ALL THE THINGS, I limited myself to one skein of sock yarn--and a few T-shirts and a sweatshirt. The prices were great, and the vendors were all very friendly. And the admission fee? Only $3!

On the way home, we swung through Black Mountain to stop by the Black Mountain Yarn Shop. (What? It was there, right off Hwy 40, and - you know - the millions of yards of yarn we'd seen at the show weren't quiiiiiite enough to sate our appetites.) We didn't stay long, though, because we had this little cutie waiting in the RV:

He's a 9-week-old English Angora rabbit, and he's now lives at Two Knit Wits. His name is Hank. (Get it?)

In addition to my new sock yarn and shirts, I came home with approximately eleventy thousand ideas for dyeing yarn. My dear friend Jane, she who is responsible for encouraging me to set foot on this path to yarny addiction, had given me a big box of fiber dyes some years ago. I got into them, starting Googling for instructions and dug out my book on dyeing. Most of these dyes are over 20 years old, but a very nice (and helpful) guy named Jesse at Cushing's Dyes tells me that shelf life is not an issue, and I should be OK using them to dye yarn. Sooo I've got four skeins in the pre-soak stage, and I'm about to begin some mad experimentation with colors and technique.

::HAPPYDANCE:: I won a prize

2011-09-09T15:35:00.002-04:00

Thanks to the wonderful folks at ArtBin, I shall soon be receiving this collection of awesome storage goodness:
Since September is National Sewing Month (which I totally did not know until a few days ago), ArtBin is giving away prizes every day on their Facebook page. Just Like the page, and watch for the daily questions.

I have several ArtBin products, and I really love them. It's great to have storage that was thought out and designed by people who know what they're doing!

kitten vs a scary thing (котенок против страшной неведомой хрени)

2011-07-14T23:55:00.000-04:00

What is it with these Russian kitties that makes them so funny?

Goat Stampede!

2011-07-14T23:48:00.000-04:00

Another vid I can't get enough of! I want goats - little bouncy silly goats!!

kitten vs TWO scary things (котенок против ДВУХ неведомых хреней)

2011-07-14T23:42:00.001-04:00

Ridiculously funny video I've watched about eleventy hundred times already....

Tutorial: Make a coupon organizer from an old planner/calender

2011-05-17T13:46:00.004-04:00

So I've been sucked in to watching that show Extreme Couponing on TLC. It's amazing to me how much money can be saved. A $700 grocery bill reduced to $12? Hell yeah! The trade off, though, is time. Some of these people put in 60 hours a week scouring sales flyers and the Internet for deals/coupons, arranging and sorting their huge 3-inch binders that contain eleventy billion coupons as they plan their attack on the neighborhood grocery store.

Sixty hours a week? Uh, yeah, no, not for me. I have s**t to do. Plus, there's that scary I'm-going-to-be-on-next-week's-episode-of-Hoarders: Buried Alive aspect that seems to be a common thread among many of these extreme couponer people. I think if you have 200 sticks of deodorant in your house, it's time to stop. I don't care if you're getting them for free. Stop! Sheesh.

Annnyway, while I'm intrigued by the whole extreme couponing thing, I don't see myself getting into it. We don't use a whole lot of the products that are most commonly discounted with coupons. However, I will search and clip coupons for the things we do use. My repurpose-that-envelope-my-bank-statement-came-in method of containing my coupons wasn't really doing me much good, so I decided to look around for a better way to manage these things.
Remember the pre-PDA days when we all wrote down our schedules in planners? Well, here's a way to put one of those old planners to use:

I teach...and I learn

2011-02-25T22:57:00.005-05:00

So I got tapped to teach beginner sock-knitting at my favorite LYS (Two Kit Wits in Oak Ridge, NC). The first class was at the end of last year, and I think I learned as much as I taught. It was great fun, and while I did have one student bail after the first class (I'm looking at you, A.F.!), my other students stuck with it -- even the one who was knitting giant manfeet socks for her husband with the size 12 tootsies.

My second group of students started in January. This time around, I modified the class, focusing on making it easier to learn the Magic Loop technique, and using worsted weight yarn to make nice, thick socks for winter wear. Again, I had a student who was married to a man with giant manfeet. Size 14 this time. We've dubbed him "Sasquatch." His wife has come to the Dark Side -- er, I mean, discovered the joys of sock-knitting, and has knitted him two pairs of socks in just a few weeks.

I'm kicking myself for not getting photos of my first group of students. Here's one of the second group on our last night:And the first pair of Sasquatch socks:

I'm really proud of these ladies. We had a great time, learned something new, and did a whole lot of laughing. I'm now in the student position, as I'm taking my first sweater knitting class. I've made dog sweaters, but have never made one for myself. I'm slowed down a bit by a shoulder injury, but I'm determined to get this thing done. If a newbie sock-knitter can knock out two pairs of Sasquatch socks in a month, surely I can get a damned sweater done!

In which I make tiny condom-ish hats for babies

2011-01-20T02:07:00.005-05:00

So Cynthia, the owner of my favorite LYS ever (that would be Two Knit Wits in Oak Ridge) has started a charity knit project for the NICU at Alamance Regional Hospital. Participants in the project were provided with a variety of patterns from which to knit or crochet wee hats for premature babies. I figured I'd give it a try. I've had a partial skein of baby-melting acrylic yarn (acrylic being preferred for these projects b/c of ease of care and low chance of allergic reactions) in my stash for a while, and I am on a quest to decrease the size of my stash this year.

Ahem. There will be no snickering about my quest. I'm serious. Stop that snickering! Yes, I realize that one of the keys to decreasing the stash would be to stop adding to it, but another key would be to knit up yarns that are already in it. So there.

Anyway, I grabbed a pattern and began to knit. I am one of the rare knitters who has never knitted anything for an infant. I've done my share of cooing and squeeing over adorable baby patterns, but I've knit nary a bootie. This is largely because Gomez won't wear booties, I suspect. Thus, as I knit on this tiny hat, I was totally unprepared for the result:

Yes, that's a quarter sitting next to my first finished hat. Yes, it's a tiny hat. It's for a tiny baby. What strikes me is the condomy look of this thing. What's with putting stems on tiny hats? I asked on Ravelry's LSG group (because those hoars know everything) and I am assured that yes, it's supposed to look like that. Someone suggested that the stem gives a pixie-ish look to the hat. I just see reservoir tip.

I've made two more wee condomy-looking hats, and plan to cast on a couple more hats tomorrow. (I knit these things via ML, two at a time, the same way I do socks. I'm impatient that way.) I'm going to use a different pattern, though. Preemies have enough to contend with without having knitted condomy-looking things on their heads.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T01:49:00.003-05:00

OT: I should write a household instruction manual

2010-10-04T13:14:00.001-04:00

Got a start on the laundry chapter:

How to Change Bedsheets

1) Remove cat from bed.
2) Remove comforter; set aside.
3) Remove cat from bed.
4) Remove top sheet; toss in laundry basket.
5) Remove cat from bed.
6) Remove pillows; toss pillowcases in laundry basket.
7) Remove cat from bed.
8) Remove fitted sheet; toss in laundry basket.
9) Remove cat from bed.
10) Unfold fitted sheet, fit to two corners.
11) Remove cat from bed.
12) Fit another corner.
13) Remove cat from bed.
14) Fit final corner.
15) Insert pillows into clean pillowcases; place on bed.
16) Remove cat from bed.
17) Unfold top sheet; shake out.
18) Unhook cat’s claws from top sheet.
19) Remove cat from bed.
20) Apply top sheet to bed.
21) Remove cat from beneath top sheet.
22) Smooth top sheet; tuck bottom end under mattress.
23) Remove cat from bed.
24) Place comforter on bed.
25) Remove cat from bed.
26) Smooth, straighten comforter.

How to Launder Sheets:
1) Remove cat from laundry basket.
2) Hold basket high overhead as you make your way to laundry room.
3) Trip over cat.
4) Put basket on top of dryer.
5) Open washer, twiddle with dials and/or buttons until water starts rushing into tub.
6) Add soap/detergent/soapnuts to washer tub.
7) Remove cat from laundry basket.
8) Remove sheets from laundry basket; insert into washer.
9) Close washer lid.
10) Chase cat down hall to retrieve the pillowcase she is dragging away. (OPTIONAL: Shout “Oi, f**kface, gimme that!”)
11) Add pillowcase to washer; close lid.
12) Turn laundry basket upside down; place over cat.

Among other things...

2010-09-29T00:26:00.004-04:00

One of the reasons I haven't been diligent about updating this blog:
Her name is Zoey. I adopted her from the Guilford County Animal Shelter at the beginning of August. She was as skinny as a rail when she came home, but she's putting on weight and settling in quite nicely. Well, mostly nicely. The cats are still pissed. I suspect that this is because Zoey's Native American name is Barks-at-Cats.

At last!

2010-07-18T22:18:00.003-04:00

Let me preface this by saying that I love quilts. I've created hundreds of them - in my head. In the real world, though...not so much. Aside from a few small wall hangings, I got nothin'. The Quilt From Hell still sits unfinished, mocking me at every opportunity. I think sometimes I hear it snickering. I began another quilt last July, and it, too, sat unfinished for a full year.

Until today. With lots of swearing (at the heat, snarly threads, my sucky math skills, too "helpful" kitties, and the ridiculous deadlines I sometimes impose upon myself), I finished the year-old beachy quilt:
What really helped with this (besides the feline supervision) was the fact that my dad no longer has a king-sized bed. I've accepted the fact that while some quilters are indeed capable of making gi-freaking-normous quilts to fit king-sized beds, I am not one of those quilters. This one is an oversized twin, which is quite bulky enough, thank you very much. It's not square, some of the rows don't quite line up, and the binding on one side is slightly wider than the other side -- but it's done, damn it! DONE!!! I feel a happy dance is warranted.

Very sad news

2010-04-28T07:13:00.002-04:00

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that sweet Chester H. McChattysox's FeLV/FIV test came back positive yesterday.

I knew it was a possibility, as he was a stray, but I was still very surprised. Because we have four other cats in the house, and because every rescue and shelter I know is struggling to place healthy animals, I made the difficult decision for him to be euthanized while he was still under anesthesia. Two of our cats are in the geriatric phase, and as with humans, cats become more susceptible to illness as they age, and I just couldn't risk introducing a sick kitty into the household.

I only knew him for a short time, but he was a sweetie of a kitty. We buried him yesterday afternoon, next to other wonderful kitties (and one bunny) with whom we've been lucky enough to share our lives.

RIP, Chester.

Another cat? Really? Really.

2010-04-26T17:33:00.004-04:00

So this weekend, we had an unexpected visitor in the form of this guy:

He appears to be around 7-9 months old, and once he figures out that you're not going to hurt him, he is the sweetest, chattiest kitty ever.

Tomorrow he goes to be tested for FELV/FIV, and if that comes back clean, he'll be vaccinated and neutered. With the assistance and encouragement of the awesome Ravelry LSG hoars, I've decided to call him Chester Henry McChattysox.

Have I ever mentioned that I hate-hate-hate lame pet names? Seriously, I do. I've met a crapton of Fluffies, Muffies, Blackies, Kitties, Callies, etc. So my guys all have unique names.

Oh, and here's a photo of the Lion Brand Sock-Ease socks I finished a few weeks ago:
One more thing, to follow up on my last post about Twitter and alienating one's readers: I did receive an email from the Unclutterer editor. It didn't contain any sort of explanation as to why she has decided to discriminate against us non-Twits. After a couple of exchanges with her, I decided to drop it entirely. Not worth my time trying to explain to her that if she'd bothered to read my comment, she'd have understood why I was so annoyed with the terms of the contest.

OT: Why I won't become a Twit

2010-03-29T14:19:00.005-04:00

Like many people, I struggle with clutter in my life. Being crafty seems to beget clutter-itis, although I used to know one woman who had no sewing clutter at all. She would buy the materials for one project (pattern, notions, fabric, etc.), complete that, and then get rid of all the leftovers (including the pattern) when she was done. I think she was some kind of anal-retentive alien freak.

But I digress.

I'm always on the lookout for ideas to organize and streamline and all that happy crap. Over a year ago, I found a blog called Unclutterer. I found a ton of great info and suggestions, so I read it every single day. I dug back through the archives on occasion, and I even bought the frigging book published by the blog editor.

Today, the blog announced a very cool give-away: During the month of April, there would be four ScanSnap scanners given away to Unclutterer readers. I need this device. My current scanner, while decent, is slooow. I have a ton of papers I would dearly love to convert to digital format, but I don't happen to have $270 laying around. I was delighted by the prospect of winning one of these babies...until I saw the requirements for the give-away: You have to follow the Unclutterer blog on Twitter.

I don't Tweet/Twit/Twat/Twhatever, and I pride myself on that. I know that there are a bazillion people out there happily Tweeting/Twitting/Twatting/Twatevering their brains out, but I'm just not interested.

Wanna know the main reason why I'm not interested?

CLUTTER

I don't need or want Tweets cluttering up my life. The people I know in real life who Tweet/Twit/Twat/Twhatever just babble. Crap about what they had for lunch or which celebrity is the focus of their hot throbbing love this week or - in the case of businesspeople - what they've accomplished in the office today.

I don't need that. Nor do I need a blog that is supposedly devoted to UNcluttering requiring me to clutter my life with electronic flotsam simply for the chance of winning a super-spiffy device. In fact, I think it's really hypocritical of such a blog to require someone to do that. I posted a comment to the blog, expressing my discontent with the Twitter requirement. I also said that I've prided myself on not becoming a Twit.

That comment was removed.

Certainly the editor has the right to do that. After all, it's her blog. If I'm the only Unclutterer fan who doesn't follow the blog on Twitter, so be it. I guess it's not enough that I take the time on a daily basis to read the posts that come across my RSS feed, and frequently go to the blog to comment about how much I appreciated a certain article or answer editor requests for suggestions. I sent a private email to the editor, explaining my belief that it's hypocritical to espouse decluttering yet require readers to sign up for clutter. I've also de-cluttered my RSS feed by unsubscribing from Unclutterer. I don't know if I'll get a response (I'm not holding my breath), and I don't know if I care. There are a jillion other blogs out there on the same topic, so I don't expect that I'll waste away and die for want of information.

I've decided to unclutter my bookshelves, too. Got a copy of "How to Unclutter Your Life in One Week" if anyone wants to buy it. Cheap.

Umm, yeah...what he said

2010-03-04T14:41:00.006-05:00

"The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." -- Mark Twain

I have been incredibly slack about updating my blog, leading some concerned folks to question whether or not I'm still alive.

Well, I am. I've just been crazy busy with work and stuff and snow and nefarious forces taking over my computer and a squillion other things that have kept me thinking, 'Oh yeah, I'll update that tomorrow.' After a butt-ton of tomorrows, here I am - updating my blog. Woo hoo!

I'm happy to report that some of that "stuff" included knitting. Amongst the projects I finished are the socks made from Lorrie's awesome handspun yarn:

I love-love-love these socks. They're wonderfully soft and comfortable. Lorrie is the Handspun Queen, IMO! I'll post more completed projects later.

We were at the coast during the last week of December, where I damn near froze to death (I'm sorry, but frost on the car at the beach is just so very, very wrong) and had to keep warm in the yarn shops.

No, really, I did. It was cold, people! They have heat in yarn stores, you know. And all that cozy yarn.

Anyway, here's the stashfill that resulted from my last shopping of 2009:

Stormy the Bobblybutt kitty, of course, approved all of it. Like her mommy, she loves her some yarn porn!

Also, I have to add a photo of quite possibly the most ridiculously cute little project bag in the whole world. My knitting pal Suzanne (who created the Epic Yarn Barf from Hell,) crocheted this little bag for Halloween. I've been carrying sock projects in it ever since. It has googly eyes and even a few little hairs sticking out of the wart on the nose.

One of the biggest and most update-prohibiting issues I've been dealing with for the last few months was the insanity that invaded my poor old laptop. Minerva III (I name all of my computers Minerva) was purchased in 2006, and has literally been hauled from coast to coast, subjected to all sorts of computer-unfriendly conditions. After much struggling with bios problems, viruses, a full system restore, and other desperate measures, I was finally able to buy a new laptop (say hello to Minerva IV, a 250GB Windows 7-running beauty!). Given that I rely on my computer to make a living, I'm thrilled to have a computer that does NOT take 7-9 minute just to boot up! Minerva III is destined for a total reformat, and will likely become a Linux box -- just as soon as I have time to get my Linux geek on.

I haz dyed Project 3

2009-09-28T12:45:00.006-04:00

Taking a quick break from lunch to update with a photo of my latest dyeing project and other shenanigans. My knitting group gathered at one member's house this weekend so I could show them how to dye with Kool-Aid. Naturally, we got totally distracted with other stuff, so it turned out that only a couple of us actually got to dye (I feel badly about that, but it just gives us another excuse to get together for a dye party). But we did get to drool over Suzanne's lovely stash cabinet:

And giggle about her disastrous "I'll freshen these yarns in the dryer" monster, which I think she should mount on a canvas, varnish until it's crusty, and call it modern art:

Ted, a.k.a. Captain Awesome, Maker of Niddy-Noddies, suggested it could be used as a stole:
Oh yeah, and here's my sock yarn (Knit Picks Bare, Superwash Wool/Nylon, dyed with blue, orange and green Kool-Aid):

A Visit from the Book Fairy!

2009-09-25T13:22:00.005-04:00

Earlier this week, maildude brought a package from the Book Fairy! My bestest pal Kayla is clearly of the opinion that I should start reading this series. (She's responsible for my Charlaine Harris addiction, too.) A celebrity werewolf/radio personality? I'm hooked already!

Making Soap Part 2

2009-09-14T23:45:00.005-04:00

As promised, here's the follow-up to yesterday's post.

Making Soap

2009-09-13T10:42:00.008-04:00

A fellow soapmaker and I were discussing soap molds (something all soapers discuss rather a lot), so I thought I'd put up a quick photo essay. I love this little mold. I won it several years ago as a prize at a soapmaker's convention. Unfortunately, the company that made it, TLC Soaps, appears to have gone out of business. I've searched all over the Internet, and while I can find listings for it and links to the home page, none of the links work. (I've tried two different browsers, just in case there was something hinky with Firefox.) I'm pretty bummed out about that, because this is a very cool mold design, and I hate to see that another soap company has gone belly-up. :-(

Anyway, here's part one of my how-to using a soap mold with Plexiglas inserts.

This mold holds approximately 3.5 pounds of soap mixture. This is a cold process batch (meaning that once the oils are melted and mixed with the lye/water/milk solution, no additional heat is applied). This batch is a luxurious one, containing cocoa butter, shea butter, a high percentage of olive oil, wheat germ oil, powdered green clay, and goat milk. I formulated it to be soothing and moisturizing, and scented it with patchouli essential oil.

As you can see, the soap lightened up considerably in color once it went through the saponification process.

Part two, which I'll post tomorrow, will show how this mold doubles as a cutting guide.

Goodies from my sister by another mother!

2009-08-31T15:54:00.006-04:00

Look what the maildude brought today - a goodie box from Lorrie! Gorgeous hand-spun sock yarn (430 yards of superwash merino gorgeous goodness!), adorable stitch markers in an adorable little notions case, a cute little project bag, a 2010 Lake Superior calendar, a mesh laundry bag for delicates (such as socks knitted from hand-spun yarn), a Friendship bookmark (awww!), a magnetic note pad (seriously, how did you know the one on the fridge is almost empty???), sticky notes w/my initial, and a box of cool binder clips and animal-shaped paperclips (animal-shaped paper clips!!! Squeee!).

This stuff wasn't on the couch for 30 seconds before Stormy made a move on the yarn.

Here she is giving Bertie (off camera) the "No, bad Bertie, dis MAH YAHN" look.

Such a nice guy!!

2009-08-22T20:48:00.003-04:00

So one of the ladies in my knitting group (we are currently trying to come up with a fabulously witty name for ourselves) is married to a cool guy named Ted. Ted likes working with wood, and he's good at it. A couple months ago, I mentioned to Ted that he could probably make some cash making niddy-noddies. For those of you who don't know what a niddy-noddy is, it is a device upon which you wind yarn to make hanks. I sent Ted an email with a link to some instructions, and really didn't think anything more of it - except that I needed to get off my butt and make my own niddy-noddy.

A few words about Ted: I always enjoy talking to him. He's an articulate, thinking guy, with a great sense of humor and loads of patience (his wife has the knitting addiction, and she also leads one of the local Red Hat groups, so it's not uncommon for him to be the only guy in a sea of ladies - and he's completely fine with that). He and his wife Brenda are very supportive of the local VFW (where I've been adopted and made an honorary member), and if I'm not mistaken, Ted was the first one to bid when we were auctioning off the shovels the VFW used during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Veterans' Memorial that the VFW is going to build at the Summerfield Community Park. I know he went home with a shovel. He's also a fan of the VFW's Brunswick stew (which is really good, I must say). Basically, Ted rocks.

Well, Ted made niddy-noddies. Adjustable niddy-noddies. Five adjustable niddy-noddies with wooden dowel pegs that slip into the holes so you can wind hanks of varying footage. He made a special one for me, with an inscription:

"Fur Alicia" in appreciation of your friendship and concern for the elderly. 2009.

and his initials. The "Fur Alicia" (you have to imagine the umlat over the U; I don't know how to achieve that with my keyboard) is a play on his wife's favorite Beethoven - Fur Elise.
I am so making this guy some soap!! I'd offer to knit something for him, but I think his wife has him pretty well supplied with knitted goods.

Dye Project 2: Finished

2009-08-17T19:53:00.002-04:00

My second dyeing project DONE! I wound the yarn into cakes a few minutes ago, and I'm pleased with the variegation. I have no idea how this will look knitted up, but it is guaranteed to be colorful!

I haz dyed Project 2: OH YEAH! KOOL-AID DYEING ROCKS!

2009-08-16T18:57:00.007-04:00

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare (70% Merino Wool, 30% Silk) fingering weight

Dye: Kool-Aid and Flavor-Aid drink mix (unsweetened) in Lemon-Lime (2 packets), Tropical Punch (2 packets), Orange (1 packet), and Lemonade (2 packets)

Hot (just boiled) water in a pot large enough to hold 3 canning jars.

I've wanted to try Kool-Aid dyeing for a while now, but just hadn't go around to it. This process is dead easy, inexpensive, fast, and fun. After soaking the skein of yarn in hottish water for about 30 minutes, I mixed the drink mix with about 1.5 cups of water (temperature was about 5 minute post boil) in each jar, placed the jars in the pot of hot waterdivided the skein into three loops/bunches of yarn, and shoved them into the jars. I spooned some of the colored solution up over the area where the three bunches were attached, but didn't go heavy on the color because I want this yarn to be variegated. I noticed that the lemonade yellow wasn't as intense as I wanted, so I quickly opened a packet of orange and dumped that into the lemonade jar, and gently squished it around. Then I slapped the lid on the pot and let it sit for 30 minutes. The color was completely sucked into the yarn, leaving the water in the jars crystal clear.

The end result is a very brightly colored skein with red/pinks/pale yellow/orange/greens. Pay no attention to that snarl of strands at the bottom; I'll deal with that after it has dried and I go to wind it into balls for sock knitting.

I've got another skein of dye-able yarn, but I want to wait until I can get my version of Scout's Ghetto Warping Board made so I can dye self-striping sock yarn. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for this yarn to dry so I can wind it into balls.

Edit: typo

OFF TOPIC: If you get raped at Marriott, it's your own fault

2009-08-14T11:54:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I really hate the world. Well, not the whole world. Just certain people/entities. Today it's the Marriott Corporation.

Three years ago, a woman was raped at gunpoint, in the presence of her two small children (ages 3 and 5), in a Marriott-owned parking garage. Marriott has decided that *she* was negligent in this matter. See USAToday story.

The Stamford Advocate has a lengthier article, describing how the woman gave the guy her wallet, told him to go, and he proceeded to assault her while threatening to assault one her children.

Another article on the case.

Here's a letter I'll be mailing to Marriott Corporate today:

Corporate Headquarters
Marriott International
10400 Fernwood Road
Bethesda, Md. 20817

To Whom It May Concern:

Enclosed please find a Marriott pen I received as a free promotional item at an event I recently attended.

Upon reading that Marriott has decided to level allegations of negligence against a woman who was raped at gunpoint, in the presence of her two small children, in a Marriott-owned parking garage, I found myself so disgusted with your corporation that I don’t even want your freebies.

Because I felt it would be negligent on my part to fail to alert people with whom I communicate on a regular basis, I’ve made a point of posting links to the articles regarding your treatment of rape victims to every social networking site to which I hold membership.

Again with the helping

2009-07-30T00:36:00.003-04:00

Stormy surveys the quilt top.

I'm helping - srsly!

2009-07-27T13:52:00.004-04:00

I left the fabric, the ironing board and Stormy the kitty unattended for five minutes. Before I left, that fabric was laid out on the ironing board, ready to press. When I came back...not so much.
Yeah, I'm working on another quilt on an impossible deadline.

Because I am an idiot.

Long overdue update - I have a quilting stall!

2009-07-20T22:52:00.009-04:00

Okay, so I still haven't finished the quilt I was ranting about in February. I put it in Time Out.

Because it was being bad, because I was pissed off, because working in my sewing studio (in an un-insulated barn) is a nightmare unless the weather is perfect - lots of reasons.

A big part of the problem was my quilting frame. It's just so bloody awkward to use when you're quilting a ginormous king-sized quilt. Remember, with the Flynn frame you roll the frame back and forth from side to side as you sew. Think of a really freaking huge old fashioned typewriter carriage chugging back and forth. With a king-sized quilt, this was a king-sized pain in the ass. And neck and shoulders, from wrestling with the sheer size of the thing.

I sent my brother some YouTube videos of proper machine quilting frames in action so he could see what I wanted. Bro, being all MacGyvery in addition to being waaay experienced with building very cool stuff, worked out a means of building a tabletop to work with the quilt frame.

Here's what he came up with. It's so simple yet so genius! It's a melamine panel with supports on each end to hold the Flynn 3-rail quilt frame suspended at exactly the right height for my sewing machine to glide around. He built a tray custom fitted to hold my sewing machine, and installed these great little roller-ball casters on the bottom. Quarter-round molding around the edges prevents the tray from rolling off.

In the photo, I'm testing the maneuverability of the machine before my bro (on the left) makes the final tweaks. Using this set-up, I no longer need 18 feet of horizontal space for quilting. I need only the 8.5 feet of space this table takes up, because the frame remains stationary and the sewing machine does all the moving. (I owe my bro a new t-shirt; he ripped a hole in his while working on this project.)

After the final tweaks, we moved this into the barn and placed it on a long folding table. I knew that the height was going to be an issue. I have to quilt standing up with this system, which is fine by me so long as I'm not bending over a too-low table. DBF took care of the height issue by building a frame upon which this quilting table now rests.That's the quilt rolled onto the frame hanging from the wall above the table. This table was crafted to the perfect height for me. As luck would have it, that turned out to be the perfect height for storing double-stacked storage bins (full of fabric and yarn, natch) underneath!

DBF is proud of his work. He's very relieved to know that I won't be griping anymore about quilting, and happy that I'm no longer trying to quilt in the barn hallway. I moved everything quilty into the first stall - fabric, notions, table, patterns, iron, ironing board, cutting boards, templates, etc. There's even room in there for my dress dummy and my stand-up cardboard cut-out of Jean Luc Picard.

Now I have zero excuses not to finish this quilt and start work on the half-dozen others I have floating around in my head.

Dyeing skillz - I haz them!

2009-06-27T19:48:00.004-04:00

Check it out - I haz dyed!

I lucked into a fat sale on a Louet sock-dyeing kit while I was shopping down on the coast. It makes dyeing easy-peasy, although I would never pay the $49.00 list price for this thing. You get three 50-gram skeins of GEMS fingering weight yarn, three little 10-gram jars of pre-measured dye crystals, one squeeze bottle, a sample of SOAK wool wash, the instructions, and a pattern for ribbed socks.

Basically, you soak the skeins, squish out the excess water, lay them out on a plastic covered surface, mix 6 ounces of boiling water with each of the dyes, put them in the squeeze bottle, and go to town. The instructions tell you to do one dye at a time, wash out the bottle, fill with the next dye, and so on. This is stupid, IMO. If I'd paid the full price for this thing, I'd bloody well expect the company to cough up a squeeze bottle for each color. Also, the bottle holds FOUR ounces of liquid, not the six as you are instructed to mix with the dye.

Because I have no patience, and because I'd already anticipated needing extra squeeze bottles, I'd grabbed a couple at the Dollar Store. I ended up snatching a liquid dish detergent bottle out of the recycling bin when I discovered that the supplied bottle held only 4 ounces of liquid.

So the dyeing began. The kit was labeled Brown, and contained Gaywool Dye in Tomato/Wattle Bark (a red color), Watercrest (a purply color), and Logwood (a brown). You can look at the photos and guess which color got used up the quickest. I squeezed and dribbled dye all over the skeins until I was happy with the results. This, by the way, is big fun - but you really do need to protect your work surface with plastic. Rubber gloves, an apron, a couple of wet paper towels (for quickly wiping up wet splatters) and a big roll of paper towels nearby will also benefit you greatly.

After applying the dye, I followed the instructions and wrapped each skein in two layers of plastic wrap (tip: Don't use the cheap stuff like I did; you need some decent wrap for this), put them inside a freezer bag, put that inside another freezer bag (don't seal the bags), and nuked them in the microwave for a total of eight minutes. You then have a really hot steamy package of yarn. I seared my fingertips a bit getting the skeins out to hang them in the shower to dry, but I to not appear to be permanently damaged. The next day, I rinsed the skeins and hung them out to dry in the shade.

I don't know when I'll get to start knitting with this yarn, but I am pleased with my results.

And I am very afraid that dyeing shall become yet another addiction.

Edit: fix typo

Yarns from the beach

2009-06-19T17:01:00.004-04:00

The end results (so far) of my vacation yarn shopping. From left to right:

--Jitterbug (100% easy care merino) in Fire; purch @ the Salty Sheep.
--Great Adirondack Yarn Company Silky Sock (70% merino superwash, 20% silk, 10% nylon) in Bahama Mama; purch @ the Salty Sheep.
--Wisdom Yarn Maui sock yarn (75% wool, 25% polyamide) color 264; purch @ Coastal Crafts & More on Atlantic Beach.
--Sockotta (45% cotton, 40% superwash wool, 15% nylon) in color 30; purch @ Coastal Crafts & More on Atlantic Beach.

I also got a Louet hand dyeing kit with three 50 gm skeins of GEMS fingering weight superwash merino and dyes in shades of brown - but the box is kinda boring, so I didn't photograph it.

I was hoping to make the knit-along at The Salty Sheep tonight, but I think I'm going to take a pass. Had a pretty busy day, plus it's the last night my dad and bro will be here. I might talk DBF into a trip to Swansboro tomorrow, tho. :-)

On Vacation - and yarn shopping!

2009-06-17T10:04:00.008-04:00

So I'm chillin' at Atlantic Beach (NC) with my dad, bro, nephew and DBF. Prior to leaving, I put a
call out on Ravelry, asking folks to recommend yarn/knitting shops local to Atlantic Beach/Morehead City. Peggy from The Salty Sheep responded with an invite to her shop in Swansboro. By Tuesday, the testosterone drove me out of the condo, so off I went.

It's only about 30 minutes or so to the historic section of Swansboro. The Salty Sheep is located among a lovely collection of shops right close to the water. The owner, Peggy, welcomed me right away. Fresh from a fiber show (where she got to meet Cat Bordhi!), she was putting yarns on sale to make room for all the stuff she'd ordered while at the show. Sale? Yay!

This shop is absolutely lovely. Very friendly and welcoming, and lots of yarn. I hate shops where there is so much stuff that you feel like you can't move without knocking something over. Peggy has a big yarn selection with lots of colors and weights, as well as needles, notions, etc., but the shop has a very open and airy feel.

I came away with a dye kit, and one hank each of Great Adirondack Yarn Company Silky Sock in Bahama Mama and Jitterbug in Fire. Will post yarn porn pix later.

Peggy invited me to come back for the Friday night knitting session. I'm definitely going to do that. I brought three knitting projects with me - and it's a darned good thing I did, because the first thing I did when we got down here was break one of the wooden ends on my Knit Picks circular needles. I've also hit Coastal Crafts (I think that's the name - will confirm later today), which is right here on the island, and nabbed another ball of Sockotta. I told myself that instead of buying yet another AB t-shirt or mug, I'd let my souveniers from this vacation be in yarn format. :-)

Edit: 2 of the 4 pix I originally uploaded vanished; tried to re-upload them.

A new definition of "torture"

2009-06-03T18:01:00.006-04:00

Not to make light of suffering that involves blood, starvation and other really bad stuff, but I've found a new definition of the word "torture" :

Torture is when you receive a beautiful spindle, fiber and a book on spinning from a super-generous friend on a Saturday, and you have no time to play with it until Wednesday!!!!!

Saturday's mail brought me the collection of coolness shown here, plus a book on spinning. You see, Lorrie (wily fiber temptress) from Purl's Knit 2 Together is determined to pull me into the spinning thing. Now, I've been resisting the spinning thing since - oh, well, basically since I got my hands on a hank of handspun and went "Oooooohhhh! Luuuv!" I need another hobby like I need a sucking chest wound (DBF agrees, and after I told him of the wily fiber temptress and her generosity, admitted that the thought "Like you need something else to do" flickered across his brain but he was worried about saying it out loud lest he piss me off. But he has not objected to this new hobby because (a) we have an agreement about not trying to censor/restrict each other's interests, and (b) he knows it wouldn't do him a darned bit of good.)

Well, on Saturday I was committed to attending the grand opening of a local park, and that evening I was committed to dinner with my Auntie Helen (we did damage to the oyster population, and neither of us is even the slightest bit regretful of it), so I had to no time to play. Sunday required me to be in Asheville for my other Auntie Helen's 90th birthday. (Yes, I have two Auntie Helens; one on each side of the family. They're both chocolate fiends, they both love the color red, one knits, and the other loves crazy socks, so at least four of my passions can be explained by genetic predisposition.) It was with great joy that I realized that 90 y/o auntie's party was located just a few blocks from EarthGuild, which is an exceptionally cool place, and that the party ended one hour before EarthGuild closes. In addition to scoring a skein of TOFUtsies, a yarn I've been wanting to try in spite of all the gripes about it being splitty, I chatted with the sales lady about the spinning wheels, spinning in general, and the whole fiber addiction thing.

See, spinning on a wheel I could probably do. It's the drop-spindle spinning that intimidates me. The EarthGuild lady assured me that my friend was in fact not the most wily fiber temptress on the planet, and said that she was, because she could addict me to wheel spinning in about 20 minutes. I resisted the urge to take her up on that offer, partly because I don't have a spare $700 lying around for a spinning wheel, and partly because I figure that if I'm going to get into this form of fiber addiction, I should start Old School and master drop-spindle spinning before I do anything else.

By the way, I have to post this photo of my wonderful 90 y/o Auntie Helen. Isn't she beautiful? Yeah, she's holding a photo of Barry Manilow. (It's a long story, having to do with a Ravelry member's Fanilow sister, about 300 pictures from all over the world of people holding that same Barry photo, various Photoshopped images of Barry, and the hilarity that ensues.) I completely ignored my cousin's "No gifts, please" request, and gave Auntie Helen a pair of hand-knitted socks, a hand-knitted red/white washcloth, and two bars of chocolate-scented soap.

So on Monday, I was covered up with work-related stuff, Tuesday I had hearings to do, and today I had to complete an article, work on two other articles, get my driver's license renewed as well as do some shopping, plus get the dog to the vet for an appointment. Since receiving the spindle and stuff, I've only had time to review a couple of spinning vids on YouTube, and browse through the book.

Tonight, though, I've got the house to myself. Unless the brewing thunderstorms knock out the power, I'll devote some time to watching spinning vids on YouTube. If the power is knocked out, I'll read the spinning book by frigging candle light, if necessary. And if I get brave enough, I'll actually try to spin some of this fiber - instead of just petting it and cooing "Oooh soft - oi! No, kitty! Bad kitty! Not a toy! This is mommy's, not yours!!"

Spew warning!

2009-05-29T21:26:00.001-04:00

I don't know who wrote this, but for those of us familiar with woodworking and power tools, it is a gut-buster.

PROPER USE OF TOOLS - A Guide for the Noob

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat
metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and
flings your drink across the room, denting the freshly-painted vertical
stabilizer which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could
get to it.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under
the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and
hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say,
"Oh s----t..."

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their
holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of
blood-blisters.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor
touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board
principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable
motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more
dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt
heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer
intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

WELDING GLOVES: Heavy duty leather gloves used to prolong the conduction
of intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable
objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside
the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood
projectiles for testing wall integrity.

HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground
after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle
firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any
possible future use.

BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to
cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into
the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the
outside edge.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of
everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that
inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end
opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids
or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on
your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out
Phillips screw heads.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to
convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or
bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is
used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts
adjacent the object we are trying to hit.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of
cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well
on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles,
collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts.
Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

DANG-IT TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage
while yelling 'DANG-IT!' at the top of your lungs. It is also, most
often, the next tool that you will need.

More finished stuff!

2009-05-27T11:23:00.003-04:00

Although I had a pretty busy weekend (back to back Memorial Day events), I managed to get some UFOs taken care of. Here are a couple of cotton shopping bags I finally got finished. I love to knit these things!

Here's Stormy Bobblybutt checking out my Knit Picks Essential Multi socks. I thought I would never finish these things! They've been my 'carry-along' knitting, so they tended to languish untouched when I was too busy to work on them away from home. I worked these toe-up, 2-at-a-time via the ML method. I'm still tweaking my technique so that I don't end up with "ears" on my toes from the cast-on.

BTW, I joined Ravelry today. I'm Knitwych there, too.

Finally, I finished something!

2009-05-21T22:30:00.006-04:00

Geez, I can't believe it's already May 21! I wish I had more knitting to show for it, but I've been busting my backside working and - gasp - organizing the house. Well, the kitchen, anyway. We won't talk about the rest of the house. I haven't had a lot of time to knit, but I did find this quickie pattern for a knitted, felted water bottle holder. I used Cascade worsted wool, and knit this up in just a couple hours. Here it is drying, with my new (and freeeeee!) water bottle, from one of the booths at the Summerfield Founder's Day Festival (held last Saturday). I also scored a load of free pens. I'm an unrepentant slut for free pens!

I may make another one of these using two strands of yarn, to make a thicker carrier that will better insulate my water and keep it cool.

I'm still not finished with the KP Essential Tweed or the KP Essential Multi Socks. I'll finish the latter pair this weekend, come hell or high water. Saturday is Knitting Group day, so I'm going to kick back and enjoy myself.

It must be Eastern box turtle mating season or or possibly cross-the-road season, because I rescued another of the little buggers this week. I was peeling out to head off for an interview when I spotted Lumpy II in the road about 50 yards from my driveway. Screeeeech went my tires, and whoosh went my truck door. I grabbed the little guy up, and plopped him down on the seat for the very swift reverse-gear trip to my driveway. Put him in the corner of the pasture, aimed toward the woods, and wished him luck. No pix this time, as I was already running late. Fortunately for me and for Lumpy II, the road I live on doesn't get a lot of traffic, so I didn't slam into anybody as I was backing up at 30 mph.

Last week was the busiest of the month for me, but also the coolest, as I got to meet Jack Hanna on Friday. Yes, that Jack Hanna. THE Jack Hanna! He was at the Natural Science Center of Greensboro for a publicity thing, and members of the media were invited for a behind-the-scenes interview/film/photo op. If you live in the Greensboro area, and you have not been to the NSC since they opened Animal Discovery, GO! Go now! It is fantastic. I'm working on another article about the NSC for my newspaper's annual Neighborhood Guide.

And I got to pet a cheetah! Seriously, that was cooler than meeting Jack Hanna! (No offense, Jack!) Jack's very nice, and I respect him immensely, but a cheetah, people! I got to pet a cheetah!!!! Alas, the photos I tried to take of the cheetah came out rather blurry. Next time I'm at the NSC, I'm going to see if I can get up close with one of the new vampire bats they've recently put in exhibit. That would be as cool as petting a cheetah, I'm sure.

OT: The luckiest terrapene carolina in Guilford County

2009-05-01T14:40:00.009-04:00

So I'm flying down Highway 220 to the bank, and I see a little lump cowering in the middle of the road. It was this guy/gal:Meet the terrapene carolina, commonly known as the Eastern Box Turtle. I'm calling this one Lumpy. (I've put the quarter in for scale.) Being such a sucker for animals, and knowing that even though female Eastern Box Turtles will lay hundreds of eggs in their lives only to have 3-4 babies survive to maturity, I of course have to turn around and go back to rescue this little guy/gal. Highway 220 is not the place you want to be wandering around on foot, especially at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon (lots of 'Woohoo - I'm taking off early for the weekend' traffic). I wasn't altogether certain that my little friend Lumpy wouldn't be squished flat by the time I could get turned around, but I at least had to try to save him/her.

After doing a quick turn-around in the Guilford County Sheriff's Department Dist. 1 station parking lot (I did wave to the deputies as I floored it out of the driveway. I know most of 'em, so I'm sure they just went, 'What the...oh, it's her.'), I returned to where Lumpy was still cowering in the road. Six vehicles passed over him/her; an a'hole in a giant SUV couldn't be bothered to avoid the little guy/gal, and clipped the edge of his/her shell, sending him/her into a spin I thought for sure would end up fatal. Yes, I flipped off the SUV.

But luck smiled upon Lumpy, and I was able to pluck him/her up and return to the safety of my truck. He/she waited patiently (more like 'paralyzed with terror') on the truck seat while I got my banking done. Here's why they call 'em 'box turtles':
Locked up tight! I translate this body language to mean: "AAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGH! OHGODOHGODOHGOD! (whimper)"

Fortunately for Lumpy, in addition to being crazy enough to risk my life in 60+ mph traffic, I also live right next to what is the ideal EBT habitat. According to the quick Google check I did to find out (a) what kind of chelonian I was dealing with and (b) the best place to release said chelonian, the Eastern Box Turtle loves forest floors and munching on worms. I live right next to a great wooded area with its own pond and a little creek, and we've got scads of worms and other little nosh-able things for him/her to munch on. I took him/her out to the woods and put him/her down, aimed towards the pond:

Lumpy's still there (1/2 hr later) but he/she is looking around, no doubt wondering 'How the heck did I get here?'

Heart & Sole Sock Yarn Frustration

2009-04-25T12:42:00.002-04:00

Here's my frustration with the Red Heart Heart & Sole Sock Yarn. There are all these little blobs and odd spots where it just looks like this yarn was dyed in a sloppy fashion. I was knitting from two skeins of yarn, so I don't know if the whole lot was done sloppily or if this is the norm for the Heart & Sole yarn. It's not so frustrating that I won't wear these socks, but I would have preferred a cleaner definition between the colors bands -- and no weird little blobs where it looks like someone got drippy with the dye.

My knitting group meets to day, so I've got to dash out of here. This has been an exceptionally exhausting week for me, so I'm looking forward to knitting and noshing. :-)

BTW, anyone who wants to read my article about Mr. Frazier (mentioned in my last post) can do so here. He's such a cool old gent, and his family history is wonderful.

Arrgh Day

2009-04-22T21:19:00.005-04:00

I left the house today without a knitting project.

I was in a hurry, tired from staying up too late and wasting 40 minutes of my life (not to mention precious sleeping time) trying to get my HP* printer to print a simple but critical one-page document, and I totally forgot to grab my little traveling sock project before I dashed out the door at 7:09 a.m. this morning to do hearings at the SSA office.

It dawned on me about halfway to my destination that I didn't have my traveling sock project. "OK," I thought. "I've got a busy day of hearings, so I probably won't have time to even eat lunch, let alone knit."

Although we were busy with hearings, the judge I was working with schedules long hearings, so when there is a no-show, I'm left with a big chunk of time - and nothing to do except knit or poke fun at the Homeland Security guards. Yes, I tease armed men. Thus far, I have not been shot or arrested as a terrorist threat, although I came close to the latter early one morning when I was forced to pour out my coffee [whimper!] because it was in an aluminum-sided travel cup, and apparently Homeland Security has decided that the newest terrorist wave will strike Greensboro, NC, via caustic or explosive liquids carried in aluminum-sided travel cups. Now, bear in mind that I have been through a thorough Homeland Security background check (TWICE!) and submitted my fingerprints (TWICE!), and that Federal employees are not restricted from carrying aluminum-sided beverage containers into the building. Even though I see the same guards at least 3 times a week, I - as a lowly contractor - still have to go through the stupid bit where I empty my purse of anything that's going to set off the alarm thingie, show my valid photo ID, and walk through the metal detector -- and if I leave the building other than to step outside for a quick smoke (staying where the guards can see me), I have to go through that process again upon returning. And I am not allowed to bring a decent travel mug of coffee. The morning I was informed of this rule and forced to pour out that precious caffeine was not a good one. I was scheduled with a judge commonly referred to as "The Prince of Darkness," so I needed that caffeine, damn it. My reaction was - ahem - impressive. So much so that three hours passed before one of the guards worked up the nerve to come creeping upstairs to quietly ask the floor guard if I was still pissed.

Annnnyway, this morning, I apparently invoked the Murphy's Law of knitting - you know, the one that says when you DON'T have your knitting at hand to keep you from stressing out, every freaking thing in the world will seek your last nerve and tap-dance on it. We had one no-show, two that were late, and I had nothing to do in the dead time. You can only poke so much fun at men with guns before you start spooking people. I ended up in a minor spat with an attorney who thought it was my responsibility to go interrupt another judge's hearing and give the hurry up order because he had an "important appointment" and he didn't want to miss it. Yeeeaaaaahhhh, administrative law judges just love it when attorneys try to boss them around. I declined, but I did offer to let him come into the hearing room hallway and knock on the other judge's door so he could issue the hurry up order.

I think maybe if I hadn't added, "Hope that suit of yours is flame-retardant," he'd have been stupid enough to do it. I almost wish I'd kept my mouth shut just so I could watch him get knocked on his butt and through the opposite wall by the ginormous fireball that would have issued from the judge's bench after he issued his hurry up order. Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing I am not allowed to carry an aluminum-sided travel mug into the building, because I just might have clonked the moron upside the head with it.

Lunch sucked, because, after scrambling with our late arrivals, I didn't have enough time to go anywhere to get something decent. I ended up at Hardee's (gag-o-rama), where, apparently, "no pickles, please" means "triple pickles, please" and napkins have become the new form of legal tender. After looking around for a napkin dispenser and not finding one, I asked the zombie behind the counter if I might have a few napkins.

Her response: "How many?"

This irked me - since when I have to commit to a specific number??? So I said, "Sixty-eight."

She actually started to count out napkins, and got to five before she looked at me and said, "I don't think I can give you that many."

It took all the willpower I had to refrain from saying, "What, you can't count that high?"

Came home to a find that one of the cats had lovingly deposited upon the couch a hairball so big that I half-expected it to have a pulse, and then I checked my messages and hear: "This is Karen from XXX Insurance, calling in regards to the claim that was filed in regards to the XXXX Dodge Ram. Please call me back and reference claim number XXX and the date of loss, April 22, 2009."

WHAAAAAAAAA?

DATE OF LOSS???????

DBF drives a Dodge Ram! I called his office number and got no answer (thus increasing my panic). Reached him on his cell phone, and learned that some airhead sideswiped him this morning, leaving a huge scrape-and-dent mess down the side of his truck. He's fine, and far less stressed out about this than I was. My stress was largely due to the means by which I learned of this event and the ridiculously verbose insurance-speak "date of loss." Why the hell can't they just say "date of accident" or "date of incident"???? "Date of loss" had me wondering if the frigging coroner was going to answer my boyfriend's cell phone!

Tomorrow, I am definitely taking my knitting!

*The manufacturers of Hewlitt-Packard would have you think that HP stands for the company name. In my house, it stands for Heinous Pieceofsh*t, because that's what my printer is.

Laundry shmaundry and other stuff

2009-04-17T23:46:00.004-04:00

Stormy apparently likes my Austermann Step socks. Who could disturb such a cozy scene?
Yes, I will use any excuse to avoid doing laundry.

Anyhoo, in spite of working a lot, I've managed to get some knitting done. I finished my Red Heart & Sole socks, and I have to say that I am disenchanted with this yarn. It works up fine, but the way these skeins were dyed seems sloppy. Instead of nice, clean color stripes, there are little bits and blobs of different colors marring the stripes. Alas, I can't get this to show up while taking flash photos, and it's dark out right now, so I'll have to try and get some photos in natural sunlight tomorrow.

I've got the Essential Tweed (Plum color) from Knit Picks OTN at the moment. My replacement Knit Picks circs arrived in short order (again, gotta love good customer service!) and I put them immediately to use. In betweek working hearings and juggling articles (as well as the annual Oak Ridge Horse show, where I took photos my editors chose not to run - sigh), I managed to knit up a cotton Swiffer cover. (Links to patterns found here.) I've had the basic Swiffer wet/dry "mop" for years, but I had quit using it because I just hated the idea of putting the used cloths in the landfill. These knitted, washable cloths do the trick quite nicely - and it's a good way to use up leftover cotton yarn. I used the WallyWorld cotton yarn leftover from a dishcloth to make my first one. I'm sure I'll make a few more.

I'm not going to get a tremendous amount of knitting done this weekend, as my dad and my bro are coming for a visit tomorrow. We intend to go out for seafood, whereupon Daddy and I will do major damage to oceanic things with exoskeletons.

On Sunday, I'm going to a birthday party for a perfectly charming gent who will celebrate his 98th birthday on April. 21. I've known this family since 2004, and they have a fascinating history. I was so excited that my editor OK'd doing a bio piece on him. I got to spend two hours with him today, listening to wonderful tales of growing up with 10 siblings and how times have changed. He's the last surviving grandson of a black gentleman who, in the 1850s (years before the 13th Amendment), bought 240 acres of property in Stokesdale, NC. Most of the land is still owned by the descendants. I've had the honor of being adopted into the family, and I get the honor of presenting his story to our readers. I'll post a link to the article when it publishes.

Next week is my knitting group at the Bistro 150 in Oak Ridge. Time to sit and knit and nosh on yummy things created by the cute French chef, Julien. Given that I've got articles to do as well as four solid days of hearings, I have a feeling I will really appreciate the down time. I always appreciate Julien's yummy creations.

One more thing - if you have not heard Susan Boyle sing, please do yourself a favor and proceed directly to YouTube. I saw this video Tuesday, and was completely blown away. I still get all misty-eyed every time I see it (which I have done at least 2 dozen times over the past few days). Given that she sounds amazing over crappy computer speakers, I can only image how fantastic she sounded in the auditorium. I cannot wait for her to release a CD!

Man, I've been busy - and a quick rave about Knit Picks

2009-04-03T17:32:00.007-04:00

Given the lack of posts lately, I guess it's obvious that I've been waaay busy! I'm happy to be working so much, but it definitely cuts into one's blogging time. ;-) I pulled nearly 50 hearings in March, and have over 60 on the schedule for this month. In spite of being so busy, I have managed to keep up with my sock-knitting, working alternately on my Red Heart Heart & Sole socks and my Knit Pick's "traveling" socks (the pair I carry with me when I leave the house for any extended length of time), and I'm into the leg of the socks on both pairs. A few more inches and I'll be done.

Anticipating my next sock project, I did a blind draw from my little jar of yarns (remember, I'm doing socks by lottery this year - choosing each project by drawing a slip bearing the yarn name) and pulled the Knit Picks Essential Tweed in Plum. I've knitted with this yarn before, and find that it makes wonderfully soft, durable socks. The Plum color is just yummy, by the way. Then I went to pull the Knit Picks Size 1 (2.25 mm) circular needles I'd ordered last year. These were fresh out of the package, having been ordered as back-ups and not yet put to use, and I noticed that the cable wasn't seated in the needle. Uh oh. I couldn't get the cable to slide back into the needle, so I called the 800 number at Knit Picks. Cathy answered, and after just a minute or two of listening to me explain my problem, said she would have a new set sent out right away!

How cool is that!?!?

I have never had a problem with KP needles or yarns (I've knitted at least 10 items from different KP yarns), and I really do like their products. I have another pair of KP circs that I've been using to knit socks, and I have to say that I prefer KP circs to Addi Turbos. They're less expensive, and cords are more flexible, and everything just seems smoother. Now I like the company even more because of their great customer service and their willingness to back up their products. It's so nice to be able to call a company with a problem and not get into a big hassle about it! Yay Knit Picks!

Edit: One more thing - the sun came out today! We've had days and days of rain, which I didn't really like complaining about because we've dealt with terrible drought conditions for the past couple years, and now it seems to be over! The drought has been officially declared over as well, so I can whine a little about the rain, which encourages stupid drivers to get out and do stupid things in the lane I need to occupy. I am always astonished at the number of people I see driving around in pouring rain, wipers whipping furiously back and forth, and they don't have their lights on! And they're always driving white or gray cars, which are almost impossible to see in inclement weather anyway. These people should be glad that I have thus far declined Daddy's offer to get me a handgun. If I had one, I am about 99.8% certain that I would use it to shoot some dumbass driver long before I ever used it to defend myself. Without a gun, all I can do is make obscene gestures and yell at stupid drivers (which leads to situations like the one in which my niece, who, at the age of maybe 2.5 or 3, shouted out "Oh, nice turn signal, shithead!" whilst in the car with her grandfather, which, in turn, led to her mom calling me and saying, "Um, guess what Christine said today? Was that one of yours?").

Annnyway, the weather right now is gorgeous! No rain! Nary a drop! Sunny, breezy and warm enough to have all the windows open. I was so happy to be able to get outside that I weeded the rock garden out front - and I hate to weed! The open window policy has thrilled Stormy the kitten to no end, because she has New Air to smell. She has spent the entire afternoon going from room to room, confirming that there is New Air in each one. She has also tried to convince the birds outside to come inside, but thus far, this has not been successful.

I'm thinking a guy created this sign

2009-03-16T11:49:00.002-04:00

If you haven't checked out Engrishfunny.com, you must. You may hurt yourself laughing, though.

My dad likes his lap robe

2009-03-14T22:08:00.003-04:00

Okay, so my dad likes his lap robe, even if it is bright orange (two colors: tangerine and pumpkin), white, and blue (again, two colors: light blue and a medium blue). It's a non-pattern I made up myself, and it's great for using up your stash of worsted. I used size 17 circular needles, and four strands of worsted weight acrylic yarn (mostly Red Heart Super Saver and Caron's Simply Soft). Holding 4 strands together, cast on 50 stitches. You can cast on more, but 50 was all my circs could handle. This project is knit flat, by the way, not in the round. Simply knit every row until it's the length you want. It makes for a very thick, cuddly, drape-y (not a word, but you know what I mean) garter stitch fabric that stretches lengthwise and width-wise. It is heavy, too!

P.S. In December 2007, while we were at the coast, Daddy and I sat down for a couple minutes on a bench outside a store while my bro went to fetch the car. A little boy and his mom walked by, and the little boy's eyes popped open wide as he took in Daddy's white beard and jolly smile.

"Are you Santa?" asked the little boy.
"Yes," said Daddy.
"All right!" said the little boy, grinning ear to ear.

Photo courtesy of my bro's Crackberry. :-)

We really are everywhere

2009-03-14T00:41:00.006-04:00

So I'm sitting in a hearing room at the SSA today, waiting to see if a claimant is going to show up (I'm a hearing reporter for the SSA when I'm not writing for the newspaper), and I whip out my Knit Picks socks to work on. The judge (male) looks up from his pre-hearing review of the file and his eyes light up. He praises my socks (the ones I'm knitting and the ones I'm wearing - green Swizzle yarn socks) and the progress I've made (got to knit for about 45 minutes yesterday after finishing my hearings with one judge, and waiting to start hearings with another), and proceeds to tell me that he knits. He designs his own patterns!

How cool is that? :-)

I cast on my Heart & Sole socks - again - tonight. These were the ones I had to frog to oblivion after increasing too many stitches. Although I am not even to the heels on the Knit Picks Essential Multi socks, it just feels weird to have only one pair of socks OTN. One of my knitting/crafting groups meets tomorrow, so I'll have some more time to work on socks and inch closer to my 2009 New Year's Resolution to knit up all of the sock yarn I have currently in my stash.

I was scheduled for 18 hearings this week, which is a lot, but I get paid by the hearing, so I am NOT complaining (except I will say that the new keyboards at the SSA office s*u*c*k harder than Paris Hilton). However, I was really glad to see the week end. I spent this evening curled up in front of the TV, knitting away as I watched DVRed programs I didn't have time to watch this week, while the fire roaring in the fireplace prompted Gomez, Bertie Wooster, and Stormy to happily melt into furry puddles on the hearth. Yes, the weather has snapped off cold again. Two days ago, it was nearly 80 degrees. The last time I looked at the thermometer, it was 35. Bleh.

Fun at the car rental place

2009-03-11T19:56:00.007-04:00

So Ruby, my trusty little 1993 pickup truck, which I have vowed to drive until she is literally dropping chunks of herself in the road, was in dire need of some overdue maintenance and stuff. My dad (aka The DeeDah Person) and my bro collaborated to get Ruby in for repairs and provide me with a rented car to drive while Ruby was being nursed back to health. I ended up with a sporty little Toyota Yaris (a RED one - woot!), which I am certain would be a great car if only I were 5 feet and 2 inches call.

I'm 5 feet and 10 inches tall, though, so driving the Yaris was a bit like driving a helmet. Had maybe 2 inches of space between the top of my head and the interior roof. I suspect that the designer of this vehicle thought he was being terribly innovative and daring when he decided to put the gauge cluster in the center of the dashboard, rather than on the driver's side so that the driver can actually see the speedometer and other somewhat important gauges. I think he needs to spend a few hours driving around with one of those Don'tcha Passengers (you know, the ones who say things like "Don'tcha think you'e going a little fast? Don'tcha think you should turn here? Don'tcha think you should get some gas?"). He might then realize the folly of putting the gauge cluster out there in the middle of the dash so everybody in the car can see it (everybody but the driver, that is). Still, the Yaris got me around (and back and forth to the all-important SSA job) until Ruby's mechanic guy had her ready to go, so I can't really complain. I hurried to get the rental helmet - er, car - back to the rental place in time to avoid being charged for another day, parked myself in the lobby, whipped out my knitting, and waited for my buddy, Keith, to meet me and drive me to retrieve Ruby from the repair garage.

As I was sitting there working on the Knit Picks Essential Multi socks, the woman behind the counter kept drifting over to peek curiously at what I was doing. Then a family came in with a little girl dressed all in pink - except for her Girl Scout vest, which bore many badges. She was adorable! Cocoa brown skin; long black braids; big, liquid brown eyes, and the cutest pumpkin-toothed smile you've ever seen.

Kid took one look at me, and - I swear this is true - teleported the 20 feet between the door and where I was sitting. Poof! She appeared right next to me, and proceeded to explode with questions:

"Whatchadoing? Isthatknitting? That'sknitting,isn'tit? Whatareyoumaking? Canyoushowmehow? Isithardknittingwiththoselittlebittyneedles? Why'sthereastringontheendsoftheneedles? They'recalledneedles,right? How'dyoumakethosestripes? Canyougetdifferentcoloredstripes? What'syourname? Howlongdoesittaketodothat? Didyouworkonthatalot? Where'dyougetthatyarn? DoyouwannabuysomeGirlScoutCookies?"

Her mom came over then, wearing that "Sorry my kid is annoying you" look, which was totally unnecessary, as I love kids. I assured her that Little Miss Cutie was not being annoying at all, and proceeded to try and answer all the kid's questions. The folks were looking like they'd had better days (from overheard bits of conversation, I gathered that their vehicle had suffered a blown engine), so I kept Little Miss Cutie occupied while they made their rental arrangements. I wish I'd had my cell phone out so I could have snapped a photo of her face when I told her I was knitting socks. Her eyes popped open wide for a few seconds, and then she went, "Nuh-uh! Socks? Really? You can knit socks?"

I then showed her the socks I was wearing (orange Opals). Orange, I learned, is her next-favorite color after pink, but her mom says they don't go together at the same time. It turned out that she had received a knit-a-scarf kit for Xmas, but she hadn't done anything with it yet. After explaining to her that she probably wouldn't be able to knit socks from that kit (in response to her "Can I make socks instead of a scarf?" questions), I assured her that if she started out with knitting scarves, she could work her way up to knitting socks one day - and that it was indeed possible to knit pink-and-orange-striped socks.

Honestly, the grin on that kid's face was brighter than the sun!

One year old today!

2009-03-04T14:20:00.003-05:00

Today is this blog's first birthday! Woo hoo!

Looking at my list of Done Stuff for 2008, I think it's clear that using this blog as a motivational tool has worked. I knitted a paltry 5 pairs of socks in 2007. Last year, I pretty much knitted everything that wasn't nailed down. This year may not be as productive as last, given that I'll be working more. After getting screwed out of a years' worth of work by a lazy, moronic US Government employee (don't get me started; I can go from zero to Ranty-Tanty Bitch about this in .03 seconds), I'm now back on the contractor list and w*o*r*k*i*n*g! And one of my favorite LYS is right on the way home from work! Sweeeet!

Must...post...this

2009-03-02T18:56:00.004-05:00

My love for blonde jokes compels me to post this:

A highway patrolman pulled alongside a speeding car on the freeway. Glancing at the car, he was astounded to see that the blonde behind the wheel was knitting! Realizing that she was oblivious to his flashing lights and siren, the trooper cranked down his window, turned on his bullhorn and yelled, "PULL OVER!"

"NO!" the blonde yelled back, "IT'S A SCARF!"

Finished socks and SNOW!

2009-03-02T09:39:00.010-05:00

I finally finished the Patons Stretch Socks! I started them in September, but had to keep putting them aside in order to work on gift projects for the holidays and birthdays. This yarn was a little odd to work with at first because it is so stretchy (I heartily recommend nickle-plated needles rather than bamboo or wood, because this yarn is a bit 'sticky') but I like it quite a lot.

Bertie Wooster seems to be hoping they're edible socks.

We got SNOW last night. Those of you in areas of the world where snow is commonplace are probably going "Meh." But around here, a genunie blanketing snowfall is rather rare. It's lovely to look at, but I'm glad I don't have to drive in it. The schools and most businesses are closed, or at least on delayed opening schedules. Inclement weather tends to freak out folks in these parts. At the mere mention of snow, everyone goes racing off to the grocery to buy up eggs, bread and milk. (I've lived here all my life, and I still don't understand what that's about. Does everyone think they'll have to exist on French toast for days on end?) I had to do some shopping yesterday (dog food: one of life's necessities), and the grocery store looked like it had been raided by a post-toke-and-toga-party fraternity.

Anyway, here's a shot of the woods behind the house, and an across-the-pasture shot of the woods beside the house.

Edit: I don't know what the heck is wrong with the font size here. I've tried to fix it so it's uniform, but it doesn't seem to be working. Grrr.

I hab a code

2009-02-24T13:32:00.005-05:00

Somehow, I have managed to acquire a miserable cold. I don't know where I got it, but I would like to send it back. This has been dogging me for a few days, making me feel just lousy enough that everything I need/want to do seems to take ten times the effort. My three bestest friends on the planet right now are whoever invented MucinexD, whoever invented Puffs Plus tissues with Lotion and Vicks Vapor Rub scent, and whoever invented Celestial Seasonings Madagascar Red Rooibos tea. Even with the meds and the lotion-impregnated tissues, my head feels like one of those giant Mardi Gras parade heads (appropriate, given the date) stuffed with a blend of cotton and concrete, and my poor nose is so sore that it feels like every nerve ending is exposed. Bleh! Only the animals seem to appreciate my cold; they tend to gravitate to me when my fever spikes - especially the Chihuahua, who, of course, has no body heat of his own.

Although I feel lousy, I've managed to work on my dad's knitted lap robe (will post pix later), and even a few rounds on my neglected Stretch Socks Sunday and last night. I felt so yucky that I didn't even want to knit last night; I just made myself do it because I can't stand not having something to keep my hands busy. The weather has been too cold to even consider trying to work on the Quilt from Hell. I haven't even been out to the barn since last week. I've got to get out there and box up the knitting mags I promised to a very patient knitter in NY, so that I can ship them out to her tomorrow or the next day.

The Quilt from Hell and Me: Temporary Deadlock

2009-02-18T00:12:00.006-05:00

So I did not make my goal of finishing the quilt from hell by Feb 13. Had some technical issues, including what was apparently a spool of bad thread that broke in many places (whatever happened to quality control? This was new thread!) and required frogging and re-stitching (and a great deal of vehement swearing). But I did take advantage of last week's unseasonably warm weather and spent hours every day out in the barn, quilting away. I have assigned my bro the task of creating some means of quilting using the cursed Flynn Frame in a stabilized fashion and moving the machine, mimicking a long-arm sewing machine. He's working on it, and I think he just might figure it out - and be able to do it for around $100. Yes, there are commercially made systems that will let your home sewing machine function like a long-arm quilting machine, but those suckers are several hundred dollars. Plus, my bro is really good at devising cool stuff, so it'll be fun to see what he comes up with.

Speaking of my bro, he just celebrated his 40th birthday (eek! My baby brother is 40? How did that happen?). I invited him, my dad and my neph up to our place on Sunday. Bro asked for two lumbar support pillows (which I sewed last week), and he was happy with them. I surprised him with a big, heavy knitted lap robe (four strands of worsted weight yarn knitted on Size 17 US needles; all garter stitch), because he likes to rack back in a recliner, cover his legs and watch TV. He loved this. So did my dad, who promptly bogarted the thing as soon as they got home. So now I'm knitting another big, heavy lap robe, and my poor, neglected Stretch Socks are again languishing.

Daddy saw the progress on the quilt while he was here. He likee. This thing is going to be nice when it's finished - very warm and cuddly, just like he wants. But I will NEVER EVER quilt with fleece again. The thickness makes it difficult to work with on a three-rail quilt system, because the take-up rod, which sits in the throat of the machine, gets too large as the quilted area is rolled up. I know that the Flynn Frame website says you can quilt any size quilt on one of these frames, but in my opinion, this is crap. Hand-quilting - yes; totally doable. But machine quilting? IF you have a deep-throated sewing machine, IF you are working with thin cotton, the thinnest batting, and thin musin as a backing, and - of course - IF you have the requisite quarter-mile of horizontal space on either side of your sewing maching, MAYBE you could work a queen-sized machine-quilted quilt without swearing so loudly that birds outside stop singing in fear, and without having to stop and reverse everything in the middle of the quilt. But you're still going to end up with aching shoulders and exhaustion from wrestling that honking-big frame around. My shoulders and back were miserable every single night last week from wrestling with the frame. Although I am really disappointed that I did not finish this thing by the time Daddy came to visit, I'm still determined to get it done as soon as I can. The weather has cooled off again (welcome to North Carolina, where Mother Nature has disassociative identity disorder, and it can go from 60 degrees to 6 inches of snow on the ground literally overnight!), so I've been forced to take a break from the quilt. However, I'm working on Daddy's lap robe, so my time is being well spent. I think Daddy was somewhat disappointed that the quilt wasn't finished for him to take home this weekend, but he at least has a very good idea of what the finished product will look like.

Anyway, it was fun having them here; we grilled hamburgers and bratwursts, and had a big picnic-type feast featuring Bro's favorite foods. Stormy the kitten was her usual adorable self, being silly and charming. Bertie Wooster was his usual "OMG there are PEOPLE here!" paranoid self, and made only two brief - and forced - appearances before he dived back into my office to hide behind a file cabinet and fret about whether or not the strangers in his home were the cat-eating type of strangers. He's such a wuss. Gomez the lap-seeking Chihuahua appreciated having three new laps to choose from, and Lulu the attention whore enjoyed hanging her head over the edge of the couch so Daddy could pet her. (She reasons you're not doing anything constructive, so you have no excuse not to pet the big dog head she so conveniently places within easy reach.)

We spent several hours visiting and did the required Happy Birthday thing, with exactly the cake my brother wanted (yellow with chocolate frosting). After they got home, he texted a message to me, thanking for the best birthday he's had in 20 years. I almost cried.

Book Review: Organizing Your Craft Space

2009-02-12T14:51:00.007-05:00

Title: ORGANIZING YOUR CRAFT SPACE

Author: Jo Packham

Cover Price: $14.95

Publisher/Year: Sterling Publishing Co., Inc/2006

My rating: 0 out of 5 stars

Thoughts that crossed my mind most often while reading this book: “Good Gods, does this woman put ribbons on everything?” and “Again with the shallow boxes and drawers?”

“Organizing Your Craft Space” urges you to “create a functional, inspiring space that lets you focus on crafting, not clutter,” so sayeth the back cover.

Groovy. I need functional and inspiring. And organizing.

I have many crafting interests: soap-making, sewing, quilting, counted cross stitch, knitting, leather work, papier-mâché, paper making, painting, drawing, polymer clay, and occasional forays into stamping. Thus, I thought that this book, which features chapters on stained glass and mosaics, rubber stamping and stenciling, scrapbooking, paper crafts, beading, yarn crafts and needlework, and quilting would have many ideas to help me get my often unruly crafting areas under control.

While this book has many lovely photos of lovely studios and workspaces, as well as featured “Guest Artists” who could’ve been plucked from Carol Duvall’s Rolodex, I found it to be a major disappointment in the area of organization. It should rightly be titled “Decorating Your Craft Space,” for the author seems to stress visual appeal much more highly than she stresses organization, and the word “functional” belongs nowhere in this book. She’s also big into decorating things with ribbons. They’re tied around jars and bottles, adorn boxes, attach tags to baskets and boxes, and serve as hanging cords for “storage” systems that look like they’d fall off the wall if you breathed hard on them.

The book offers two quizzes to help you understand your personality type. If anyone cares, I am an “Idealist,” which the author says means I tend to be sentimental, don’t need a lot of stuff to make me happy (a decent book on craft organization would definitely make me do a happy dance), I tend to prefer refurbishing furniture rather than buying new (OK, this is true, but it’s largely due to budget issues rather than desire issues; give me $5000 and turn me loose in the Ikea store, and see what happens!) and “live plants and fresh flowers will give your space a clean-feeling atmosphere, which will, in turn, stimulate your creative mind.” Oh, please.

There is a decent section on determining the set-up of your craft space. It includes recommendations about budgeting and so forth, and recommends the use of paper templates to use in the precise design/layout of your craft space. However, the snazzy pre-printed templates the author uses are not explained. Nor are you provided with resources where you can get your own snazzy pre-printed templates. You’re simply told you can cut out your own – from colored paper. I don’t know why she thinks colored paper is necessary, but those are her instructions.

The first thing that made me groan was learning that the author “organizes” her books by the colors of their spines. Having worked for nearly 15 years in libraries (public and academic), and being well aware of the fact that a misfiled book might as well be on Mars until someone accidentally locates it, I find this practice to be both ridiculous and the absolute opposite of organization. For those of us who use our books, we need them to be easily found. Unless you have a photographic memory that will allow you to instantly recall the spine color of any given book, shelving by spine color is going to cost you time when you need to find something.

Since I don’t do scrapbooking (hate), and I haven’t yet jumped into stained glass (want to), I basically skimmed these chapters. The author devotes far more space to both of these topics, while skimping on quilting, and yarn crafts and needlework. Lumping yarn crafts and needlework together, in my opinion, is a major mistake. They each deserve their own section.

In the Paper Crafts chapter, which talks about using “cute paper-crafted tags” as “a great way to label jars and drawers while illustrating your talents in the art of paper crafting,” there is a photo of a closet outfitted with hanging canvas closet organizers, artfully arranged with glue bottles and ribbon-bedecked glass jars.

Glass jars…in a hanging canvas unit that’s going to swing the instant you touch it. Unless those suckers are glued down, they’re going to topple over and out of that organizer. Also, I suspect the paper stacked in those units will slide around when the unit is disturbed, thus crunching the corners and edges.

I said three words upon reading the following on page 125: “Arrange embroidery flosses and ribbons by color and store them in single layers in shallow drawers.”

My first word was “What.”

My second one was “the.”

I’ll let you guess the last one.

Arrange not by the manufacturer’s color number, which is how it will be listed on your pattern, but by color! DMC Corporation produces thousands of flosses and threads in more colors and hues than you ever knew existed. How can this author recommend storing flosses by color, when it means that you’re going to waste time searching through a maybe 50 different shades of green in order to find the #3345 required by your pattern? She says nothing about the many organizing systems on the market. Just “Arrange…by color.” Unbelievable.

Equally ridiculous are her recommendations for storing the fabrics upon which one stitches. Although she does recommend storing them rolled to prevent creases that form when fabric is stored folded, she advocates rolling them up and tying them with “a pretty bow.” No mention of how one is supposed to keep track of which thread-counts each fabric has once you’ve pitched the packaging so you can roll ‘em and tie ‘em up in the pretty bow. Just tie ‘em up and store them in a shallow box or drawer.

As for yarn storage, she recommends using hanging shoe organizers or hanging canvas organizers. I guess for a dust-, child-, moth- and pet-free home, this might work. But that’s it as far as her yarn storage recommendations. Nothing about wools and other fibers being at risk for moths or other insects; nothing about lighting – especially sunlight - possibly fading some hand-dyed yarns. Also, no mention of machine-knitting at all. Oh, and your tools – needles, hooks etc. – can be stored in a shallow box or drawer.

For pattern storage, she again recommends drawers. Not file drawers. Just shallow drawers. The accompanying photo shows some piece of antique furniture with tags dangling from the glass drawer pulls, identifying the category within. In order to find the specific pattern you’re looking for, you’d have to remove the entire stack from the drawer and sort through it.

The quilting chapter is as scant as the yarn/needlework chapter. The photo that made me laugh out loud is on page 135, where a tall, brightly colored storage unit with a plush bunny peeking out of the roof sits maybe 10 inches behind the sewing machine, directly in the path of the fabric that you would feed through the machine if you were trying to quilt. Machine quilting takes a lot of room – a damn sight more than 10 inches of clearance behind your machine. Yes, I know these photos were arranged for the visual appeal – and that’s precisely what irks me about this book. Almost all of the photos are visually striking but do precious little in regards to showing you that the space works.

Instead of offering crafters of varying disciplines genuine, usable advice in regards to organization, the author consistently goes for pretty over functional. For those who find inspiration in fussy little tags dangling off jars, drawer pulls, and boxes, maybe this will appeal to you. But I just find it hugely impractical. A big collection of vintage cigar boxes (another of her recommendations) is pretty, especially if you arrange them face-out so you can see the cool vintage designs. But without labeling, how are you supposed to know what’s in those boxes? I guess you’re supposed to engage your photographic memory – you know, the one that allows you to instantly recall the spine color of every book you own so you can find it on your colorful shelves. If you don’t have a photographic memory, you’re hosed.

There are some very elaborate shelving/drawer systems shown in this book, but the author offers absolutely nothing in the way of a suppliers’ index.

In my mind, being organized is supposed to save time. No time is saved in this book. I like a nice-looking space, of course, but I want to spend my time working on projects, not searching for materials or artfully arranging ribbon-wearing antique mayo jars containing supplies.

If you’ve got Martha Stewart or HGTV coming to film your home crafting site, then, yes, this book could be helpful in creating a pretty, vibrant-looking studio. But for a working studio of any nature, I find it next to useless. I’m glad I didn’t pay cover price for it. I’ll be putting it up on Half.com very soon.

Thread barf!

2009-02-08T22:49:00.006-05:00

You know how when you go to pull from the center of a skein of yarn and sometimes you get a wad of yarn? I call this "yarn barf." Well, my sewing machine decided to barf thread today in much the same manner as I was working on the Quilt from Hell. The bobbin thread for this mother is off-white, to match the off-white (unbleached) muslin backing. (Good news on that front: Informed the Dadster tonight that flannel was not going to happen on the back of this quilt, and he's OK with that.) The top thread is black. As you can see from this photo, which is of the back of the quilt, I had a MAJOR thread barf to deal with when the top thread decided to barf all over the back of the quilt.

And here's the end result of about 20 minutes of removing said thread barf:
I guess there might be about 20 yards of dead thread there. Sigh. As for the jerkiness of the quilting pattern, it's not quite that bad throughout the quilt. I started losing control of the frame when the stitching went nuts. I'm not following any sort of set pattern with the stitching. In fact, I think I invented this. Yes, this new quilting pattern shall henceforth be known as Drunken Shark Teeth. I was trying to go for a zig-zag type thing. In some areas, it looks decent; in others...not so much. Although the fleece on the front does a pretty good job of hiding a multitude of sins, I will never use fleece with this frame again. It's just too difficult to control, and it stretches too much.

Quilt from hell update

2009-02-07T19:33:00.007-05:00

I 86ed the flannel sheet backing. The stretch factor was just too much to fight with, and the quality of the flannel iffy (I prolly should've told my dad not to get cheap sheets to back this quilt). Opting for a sturdy muslin for the backing has made life infinitely easier, as I found some that came in 118-inch width. (Yay! Thought I was gonna have to piece a back for this thing.) I know Daddy wanted a fleece/flannel quilt, but he'll just have to hitch up his big boy undies and cope with the fact that he's getting a fleece/cotton batting/muslin quilt.

I have put the flannel sheets in Time Out, where they can think about what a pain in the backside they've been. If they decide to behave, they may be reborn in the form of patches for a flannel quilt or backing for something small and cozy. If they decide not to behave, they are destined to become dog/cat beds. This would likely make the dogs and cats happy, because they can never have too many beds. They have eight, total, scattered about the house, but of course the only good one is the one that someone else is sleeping in, and for some reason the big Shepherd mix feels compelled to try and coil herself up small enough to fit into the cat-sized beds.

The cats streeeeetch out as long as they can and bogart the big dog bed. :-)

Mother Nature has decided to stop messing with me, at least for the time being. Today's weather was in the 60s, definitely nice enough to work in the barn without freezing. Tomorrow's forecast is similar to today, and the early week forecast looks fantastic, with temps expected to be in the mid- to upper 60s. Yay again!

BTW, my suspend-the-rod-from-the-rafters idea works quite well for loading the backing onto the quilt frame's rods. Might not be doable for someone who doesn't quilt in a barn, but it works for me. :-)

OT: Moderating comments

2009-02-06T10:52:00.004-05:00

Thanks to a certain commercial sock Web site attempting to spam my blog, I have been forced to switch to moderating comments. This annoys me, but I would rather deal with the inconvenience than risk getting marked as a spam blog. And I certainly don't want some cheap-ass, cheesy sock company using my blog to advertise their site. I did a little checking on the web and found that this same company has over 300 backlinks posted to a variety of blogs and sites all over the net. I have reported them to Blogger, and contacted the company itself to complain. Because I do not want to advertise for them, I will not post the site's name publicly. If you want to know which commercial site NOT to patronize, send me a private message and I will be happy to tell you.

EDIT: 11:04 a.m.
Just had an email from Edward at the sock company, who claims that they paid a company called "SubmissionLive" to advertise their Web site for them. I told him that he should demand a refund. If this company is legit, it should know how to advertise legally. Instead, it is spamming blogs via the comments sites, which puts the blogs at risk of being marked as spam blogs. I am posting the name of the marketing company because I want people to know the company's cheesy practices.

Quilting efforts - temporarily thwarted

2009-02-05T15:08:00.004-05:00

Mother Nature is just messing with me. I've got this deadline looming, and the weather has gone cold. Freezing! Below freezing, in fact. It was 13 degrees this morning when the household began to wake. Even with two electric heaters going full blast in the barn, it's impossible to work out there. So I'm housebound, knitting away on an afghan for my bro. Once again, my Stretch socks have been put aside to take care of deadline knitting.

All is not lost, though. The weather folks are promising warmer weather this weekend. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that they're right.

In other news, someone has volunteered to take the two boxes of knitting mags that have been cluttering up the barn! Woot! :-)

Workspace, and my solution

2009-02-03T13:42:00.004-05:00

So here's the barn aisle workspace.
Legend:
1) Pepsi - a must-have for all endeavors not requiring coffee.

2) Crap I need to sort/pitch temporarily shoved under table.

3) Two boxes of knitting mags from the '80s. I inherited these, and would like to disinherit them to someone (anyone!) ASAP.

4) Box of scraps needing sorting.

5) EIGHTEEN FEET of table space.

6) Bin containing batting and stuffing, next to which is an old mattress/box springs set I intend to gut for coils to be used in yard art that will likely make my neighbor, Mister Super-Groomed-Traditional-Yard-Guy, foam at the mouth.

7) Speakers for tunes (the giant black boxy things), which are also required, if only to drown out the sound of my swearing when I'm working with O U Whore, the knitting machine.

8) John Flynn frame, with the evil flannel sheet backing rolled on. Note the funky spiral action of the plaid. Argh.

9) Junky note board with - duh - notes.

10) Tool board temporarily serving dual duty as hanging rack for another WIP: bags for my knitting group.

Here is my solution for getting the backing onto the appropriate rods. I took some old electric fence wire (I knew I saved that crap for something!) and strung it from the rafters, then suspended the rod. With one person at each end of the rod, smoothing the fabric as it is rolled onto the rod, it is much easier to avoid wrinkles and stretching/bunching problems. The weight of the fabric actually helps with this process, and it's much easier to see wrinkles wanting to develop. Even with this solution, this sucker is going to look like a plaid drunkard's path on the back. I so don't care.

And, John, if I come up with that magical quilt frame that compresses a ginormous quilt down to the size of a postage stamp, I'll definitely let you know. :-)

I am at war

2009-02-02T14:04:00.008-05:00

OK, so a couple years ago, my dad got a wild hair and decided he wanted a fleece/flannel quilt.

A queen-sized fleece/flannel quilt.

A queen-sized fleece/flannel quilt made from plaids.

I'm pretty sure I know what happened. He was in a JoAnn's Fabric Store for whatever reason; you never know with my dad. He can go from the gun range to a fabric store without batting an eye, and is one of the few men on the planet who does not believe that fabric stores are outfitted with SWAT teams of wild-eyed, needle-toothed women whose job it is to pounce on any male who walks in the door, emasculate him, drain his body of testosterone, and liberate his wallet. Annnnyway, so Daddy's at the fabric store and spots the Blackwatch fleece. He likes cuddly things, so he always gravitates in the direction of fleece and flannel. At some point, either a KMF (kindly motherly figure) or a PCH (perky cute hottie) noticed his attention to the fleece. (He responds to both of these archetypes, mind you.) He may have asked about the possibility of a quilt made from the fleece, at which point I have no doubt that the KMF/PCH assured him that it would make a gorgeous, fabulous quilt - maybe even the best quilt in the history of the world. Or the KMF/PCH suggested a quilt. Regardless, someone assured him that it would be (a) awesome and (b) soooper-easy-peasy to do, and subsequently sold him the fleece.

Aside: If I ever find out who this KMF/PCH was, I will kill her. Then I will revive her with CPR, and kill her again.

I have fought with and been intimidated by this thing for ever, it seems. I was supposed to have it done for Xmas 2007. Then I was supposed to have it done this past Xmas. He provided me with the Blackwatch plaid fleece and a couple of big flannel plaid sheets for the backing. I kicked in the cotton batting. Even though the top did not require a great deal of cutting and piecing, it's fleece, and the fuzz factor jammed up one of my sewing machines so badly that my sewing machine cleaner guy gave me the "Have you lost your mind?" speech. Also, being fleece, it stretches like crazy, making the annoying chore of matching plaids an exercise in molar-grinding frustration and creative swearing.

Then came the loading-the-quilt-into-the-quilting-frame-part.

My quilt frame is the John Flynn type: a three-rail system that, to use effectively for machine quilting on anything bigger than a 45-inch-wide quilt, one must have a sewing space about half the size of an Olympic swimming pool, as well as a quarter-mile of horizonal workspace on either side of your sewing machine. Think of an old-fashioned manual typewriter, the kind where the carriage chugged out to the side as you typed, and required you to hit the little swing-bar thingie at the end of each sentence and shove the carriage back into place. With the Flynn frame, the quilt backing is rolled onto two 2x2 rods, the top is rolled on a third 2x2, and the batting sits in between the two lower rods. The quilt is sandwiched together, and as you sew, you roll your three-rail frame along a few pieces of 3-inch PVC pipe that acts as both rollers and support for the frame, going back and forth in a motion that is reminiscent of the old manual typewriter carriage motion.

The rods required for this quilt are nearly eight feet long, so one needs at least that much space on either side of the sewing machine. Think about this for a moment.

EIGHT feet on either side of your sewing machine. Even the uber-quilters I know (the ones who have their own climate-controlled sewing spaces outfitted with TVs that play sewing and quilting shows all the time, with their fabrics all tidily arranged by color, enormous cutting tables, enormous sewing tables, etc.) do not have that much space to work with. The only reason I do is because (a) my sewing space is in a barn (yes, a barn; an un-insulated one in which you could slow-roast pork during the summer without bothering with a fire, and keep your roasted pork in cold storage during the winter) and (b) I took over the barn aisle because the width of the barn isn't broad enough for me to have that much space on either side of the sewing machine and still be able to get in the door.

I will not discuss now many times I have attempted to load the plaid flannel quilt back onto the frame. I will say this: plaid flannel sheets should be illegal, or the companies should be required BY LAW to print the plaid on the frigging grain of the fabric. This flannel backing is not printed on the grain, and to add to the frustration factor, the sheets I pieced together have a different stretchiness factor - in spite of being the same style from the same manufacturer. I have accepted the fact that the plaid lines on the back of this quilt are never, ever going to be straight.

Although I have on many, many (manymanymanymany) occasions fantasized about burning this quilt and the John Flynn frame (simply because he makes it look so easy on his video as he works on a frigging Barbie-sized quilt maybe one-eigth the size of the one I need to do) in an elaborate Pagan ritualistic fashion, I have decided that I will not let it get the best of me.

I have decided to go war with this bloody thing.

I have borrowed another long folding table to add to the two long folding tables I already have. I have figured out a way - I hope - to get the backing loaded onto the appropriate rods -- a process that I may or may not describe later. I have loaded a dozen bobbins with matching thread. I have resigned myself to the fact that the back of this mother will never look straight to the eye.

My goal is to have this done by Feb. 13. Dad, my bro and my nephew are coming to visit on the 15th for Bro's birthday party/cookout.

If I do not have this thing finished by then, I will likely burn it on the grill and throw myself upon the flames.

OK, this is kewl

2009-01-31T18:33:00.004-05:00

Was dinking around on the 'net just now, looking for a site that'll allow me to make my own icons and avatars, when I came across this nifty tool at Panthea's Create-a-Goddess.

I created this knitting goddess:

And then this writing goddess:

Argh!

2009-01-28T22:38:00.004-05:00

I just had to frog my Heart & Sole socks into oblivion. I don't know what I was thinking when I was working these things, but I increased too many stitches (working toe-up) and was about 2 inches into them when it dawned on me, 'Geez, these look big.' I tried them on, and sure enough: too big.

Sigh.

Clearly, I wasn't thinking when I did the increases. I was going to frog them back to the appropriate number of stitches to fit my feet, but some unexpected "help" from Bertie Wooster (the 'kitten' who now weighs 10 pounds, but who still thinks he's a dinky little two pounds) resulted in a nightmare of snarls and raveling that pushed my patience beyond the point where I was willing to fart around trying to pick up stitches.

Thank goodness I've had no "help" with the Stretch socks. I'm about 3/4 done with those.

Finally finished the Swizzle socks!

2009-01-25T00:46:00.005-05:00

At last, these babies are done! I cast on waaaaaaaay back in September, then had to set them aside as I worked on other projects. I keep at least two or three WIP going at any given time, and I generally don't stress too much about achieving speedy completion - but I must admit that four months is a heck of a long time from start to finish. I'm glad to have them done and a set of circs free for my next project.

Today was Knitting Group day, our first for 2009. We met at Bistro 150 in Oak Ridge, where "Frenchie" (the delightful and wonderfully skilled French chef whose real name is Julien) had grilled cheese (on delicious, crusty French bread) and homemade tomato soup as the lunch special. YUM! After a while, one of the group members ordered a "Chocolate Passion," as I think it's called, to share amongst the group. It's an enormous slice of fantastic dark chocolate cake with whipped cream, chocolate drizzle and confectioner's sugar dusted across the top. They really should call this thing a "Chocolate Orgasm." Seriously.

I completed the heels on my Paton's Stretch socks tonight, and am now working my way up the legs. This pair had also been set aside so that I could work on gift projects. Aside from the Never-Ending Afghan (instructions for which can be found here), I have just two projects OTN: the Stretch socks, and the Heart & Sole I began on New Year's Day. Soon it will be time to draw the yarn name for the next pair of Lottery Socks. I actually did work on the Never-Ending Afghan some tonight, and I've added "Complete Never-Ending Afghan" to my list of crafty stuff I want to get done this year.

Meanwhile, I was looking at different dog sweater patterns and found a hilarious skull and crossbones doggie sweater here. I am so very tempted to knit this for Gomez, only in bright red wool instead of black, 'cause he looks very handsome in red. :-)

We're everywhere....

2009-01-19T23:31:00.005-05:00

So tonight I went to snap photos and chat with some folks in regards to an article I'm writing about a very cool local woman who has been chosen by Pedigree pet food to receive a wonderful award for her work rescuing pugs. I know this woman, and was a very willing participant in the grand conspiracy organized by members of her rescue network. The plan was to make her think that she was meeting one or two friends for dinner, and then have lots of folks from the rescue surprise her with a cake and a check-card loaded with money for her to enjoy while she is in NYC at the posh Pedigree award thing and attend (on Pedigree's dime) the holy grail of dog shows, the Westminster.

The grand conspiracy goes off well, with lots of good food (had the baked tortellini -YUM) and chatter about everything from rescuing animals to the total coolness of being flown to NYC and put up in the oh-so-posh Waldorf Astoria on someone else's dime. After I got my photos and we were getting ready to leave, I noticed that one woman - Kim - was wearing what appeared to be a hand-knitted wrap.

So of course I had to ask if she made it. She explained that she had learned knitting over the summer while recuperating from an injury and was soon to start a Magic Loop sock knitting class at a LYS in Winston-Salem.

So of course I had to show off my knitting handiwork by whipping my foot out of my clogs (this is why I wear them) and displaying my socks (wearing the cozy Austermann Step socks today).

Instantly, we were discussing knitting needles and suppliers, and I cheered her decision to try the ML method, which is my preferred method 'cause I am just too freaking uncoordinated to mess with DPNs.

So what I thought would be an evening with folks who share my passion for animals and animal rescue ended up being an evening where the knitting came up. As I was relating this evening's events to a friend via phone tonight, he commented, "God, you people are just everywhere, aren't you?" :-)

In other news, Lulu got her stitches out (veryhappydoggie!) and I'm almost done with the green Swizzle yarn socks!

11 degrees

2009-01-16T11:16:00.002-05:00

That's what the temperature was this morning when I got up.

Eleven freaking degrees.

Fahrenheit.

"Brrrrrrr" doesn't even begin to cover it.

Second pair of Colorspun Socks - DONE!

2009-01-11T23:07:00.005-05:00

Just finished the cast off on these babies. I knit them two-at-once, toe-up on size 3 US circs, as I wanted a nice, dense fabric. Also, I did a very wide, blunt toe, because the recipient is diabetic. Here they are in their unwashed, unblocked state. For the cast off, I knit the last row onto size 8 US circs, then did the cast off row. I've found that going up several needle sizes for the cast off leaves the cuffs stretchy and comfy without too much of a flair at the top. BTW, these were knit for a man, size 11 1/2 - 12 shoe.

Overall, I can't say I love Colorspun for socks, but I can't say I hate it either. It compares to Lion Brand Wool-Ease in feel, although I think it is a smidge thicker. Care-wise, these should be easy-peasy, since they're mostly acrylic with a bit of wool.

Tomorrow, these go into the mail to the recipient and I will get back to knitting socks for me. :-)

EDIT: It could be my laptop screen, but the lime green in these socks doesn't show up at all! They're lime green, pink, yellow, blue, and have a smidge of a dusky orange color.

My other 2009 resolutions

2009-01-10T00:23:00.008-05:00

In addition to being determined to deal with the knitting machines this year, my other crafty resolutions are as follows:

--Try my hand at dyeing my own sock yarn. (I fear this will become as powerful an addiction as my 2006 resolution to learn to knit socks.)

--Sew at least two garments/projects per month. (My wardrobe is in a pitiful state, I really dislike shopping for clothes, and thanks to the compulsive-textile-collecting gene I inherited from my maternal grandmother, I have what can be officially designated as a "crapload" of fabric and patterns.)

--Organize my knitting/crafting supplies. (This one literally bounced off the top of my head in the form of a big bag of acrylic yarn that tumbled out of the top of my closet when I opened the door recently.)

--Knit up all of the sock yarn currently in my stash. (This one may require the designation of a second sock drawer in my dresser.)

--Make sure that EVERYBODY knows that if they want handmade gifts for Xmas, they gotta tell me by June 1. Not November 1, not December 10 or 15, but JUNE 1! (Two years in a row of frantic, last-minute crafting/creating is enough, thanks.)

I didn't have time this week to do any further tinkering with O U Whore out in the barn, and unless the weather warms up significantly this weekend, I'll just leave it to think about how naughty it was earlier in the week. I have fibromyalgia (it's sort of like having rheumatism in your muscles instead of your joints), and the cold/rainy weather we've had lately has left me feeling like somebody whacked me straight across the legs and shoulders with a lead pipe. I'll likely spend the weekend knitting in the house, with my dear friend, Mr. Heating Pad, and whichever cat can get into my lap (and on top of Mr. Heating Pad, whom they all love) before the other ones do. I have yet to finish the late-Xmas-gift Colorspun socks. I'm close to finishing them, but this pair requires about ten inches of ribbing and ribbing is my least favorite part of the sock process.

Lulu Notalab's bandages were removed earlier this week, but her stitches will remain until next week. She still has to wear the collar. She's still entirely disenchanted about it, but she is coping. The vet is located in the same building as the newspaper I work for, so in order to make the going-to-the-vet process less of a downer for her, I took her into the newspaper office to say hi. My managing editor made all the appropriate sympathetic noises, which seemed to make Lulu feel a teensy bit better about the indignity of being Satellite-Dish-Headed Dog. You could almost see dialogue balloons forming over her head: "Why, yes, I am the poor, poor Lulu. No, this big, bad collar is no fun at all. Yes, I have an owie on my ear. My life sucks."

Meanwhile, to protest having been left home alone with - gasp - the cats, Gomez levitated (apparently) onto the dining room table and sucked down two bowls of cat food, as well as getting into a bag of mixed nuts. I can always tell when he has cleaned out the cat's bowls. They leave crumbs; he doesn't leave so much as a molecule.

The collar prevents Lulu from grooming herself as thoroughly as she - and I - would like her to be able to do, so she's starting to get a bit rank. She doesn't know it yet, but Stitch Removal Day will segue into Bath Day, because she is so going straight into the tub as soon as she comes home from the vet. No doubt the Dog Angst will be palpable. I'll probably go ahead and bathe Gomez, too, and tick off both dogs in one fell swoop. At least they'll smell good while they're plotting to call Ingrid Newkirk at PETA to report me for being the meanest mom ever.

The wh*re in the barn

2009-01-06T12:31:00.008-05:00

Brief background: A couple years ago, a friend gifted me with two knitting machines plus the 8 bazillion bits, bobs and pieces that - in theory - make them work. They live in my barn, which is where I do my arty crafty stuff (except for hand-knitting and poly clay, which are done in the house). They intimidate me.

This year, one of my New Year's Resolutions is to deal with the knitting machines. By "deal with" I mean either learn to use them or sell them to someone who will.

Last night, I set up the one machine (Studio Model 155) that had been demonstrated to me and tried to practice knitting just a simple swatch of 20 stitches. I wasn't trying to actually make anything. I was just trying to learn the ins and outs, and make a swatch so I could play with gauge and tension and all that stuff.

Aside: I tend to name things that aren't normally given names. My truck is named Ruby. My push mower is named Choppy. My computer is Minerva III. My GPS unit is Mother (as in "Yes, Mother, turning left now") or The B*tch in the Box (when it yells at me to make a turn that would result in my driving through a building or something).

After two hours of fiddling, replacing two bent needles, fighting tangles, checking the manual umpteen times, having stitches jump over to adjacent needles, jump off needles, knot up, loop out, and execute many other undesired behaviors, I named the Model 155.

Its name is O U Whore.

A light at the end of the tunnel

2009-01-04T00:40:00.007-05:00

I'm well into the ribbing on my last pair of gift socks! I can actually see these things done in my head now. (I was hung up in that "Geez, I'm never going to finish these things" mindset for a while, probably because I've been speed-knitting gifts for the past seven weeks.) I'll be glad to get them done, partly because I want to get them to the recipient, and partly because I want to go back to knitting for me. I did take some time on New Year's Day to cast on the first of the 2009 Lottery Socks (choosing which yarn to use next by drawing a slip from a bowl, as described in my previous post). The lucky winner was the Red Heart Heart & Sole in Spring Stripe. I worked on the New Year's Day socks (two at once, toe-up, Magic Loop method) Thursday, and then went back to the gift socks Friday.

Armed with the Hobby Lobby gift card my bro so kindly gave me for Xmas, I went today to shop. Scored some cool fabric dyes, and a crochet hook I needed to begin my little Creepy guys from the book I got for Xmas. Somehow, out of all the crochet hooks I have managed to acquire, I did not have the right size for my Creepy guys. (BTW, do size G and size H hooks breed when we're not looking? I have no recollection of buying four G hooks and five H hooks, yet I have them.) I also got a skein of Lion Brand's Sock-Ease, not because I am starving for sock yarn, but because (a) I have wanted to try it, and (b) I wasn't spending my money, but gift money. :-)

Incidentally, Lulu Notalab survived New Year's Eve without freaking out too badly. As expected, the neighbors shot off fireworks, but I think the cold (around 28F) and the wind (which was very gusty) discouraged them from launching as much boomage as they would have preferred. Neither of the dogs appreciate boomage, so they both stuck close to me (by "close to" I actually mean "on top of"), and gave me pitiful looks as if to say, "Can't you make it stop?" I have not yet been successful in explaining to them that fireworks won't hurt you. I'm just glad that Back Neighbor Guy (who lives behind us) has limited his pyrotechnics to the traditional fireworks-launching times. He hasn't always done that, although he has seriously curbed his boomage activity. That's my fault, I'm sure. A few years ago, when I was fostering a ginormous (17.2 hands tall) rescued formerly abused Thoroughbred mare, Back Neighbor Guy was in the habit of launching fireworks whenever the heck he felt like seeing something blow up. I don't know if he actually thought, 'Hey, it's Tuesday. Let's celebrate- woo hoo!' or what. I just know that he'd shoot off fireworks for no discernible reason, and I presume it was because he wanted boomage. The most memorable night was during a miserably hot summer in which apparently every fly in Guilford County had got into the Viagra. Thus, the fly population that summer was enormous and driving horse people as well as horses crazy all over the county. I had been keeping the mare stalled during the day (and practically swimming in fly repellent), and letting her out to graze at night when it was cooler and she could actually eat without the flies driving her insane.

A word about Thoroughbreds, for those of you who aren't familiar. They are the paranoid schizophrenics of the equine world. They're hardwired to run, eat, run, make little Thoroughbreds, run, think that everything is going to get them, and...oh, there's one more thing. Ah yes, it's run. This mare had been horribly abused (by a guy claiming to run a "rescue," no less), so in addition to the breed-specific predisposition that encouraged her to believe that everything was going to eat her, or at least hurt her, she had also learned some very painful lessons about how mean people can be. There were days when she reacted to a bucket like it had teeth, and when anything scared her, she wanted to shove her big head up into my armpit as if she could hide there. (Incidentally, another neighbor - one who does not shoot off fireworks - witnessed this "hiding" behavior, and didn't know whether to weep because it was so sad that the mare was afraid, or laugh at the ridiculousness of this humongous horse trying to hide in my armpit.)

Anyway, around 9:30 p.m., Back Neighbor Guy starts shooting things off. Not surprisingly, the mare did not react well to having the frog-and-cricket serenade of her night grazing interrupted by screaming sparking things flying up into the air from a quarter of an acre away. Our pasture, which is small anyway, is right next to the house, close enough for me to hear her thundering around in terror and actually slam into the fence at one point. The only reason we humans can keep livestock inside fences is because they don't know they could blast through pretty much any fence structure short of steel or iron. They just accept that there is a barrier, and they don't try to push the issue. It's never a good thing when one of them figures out that they can breach the perimeter. We have wooden fencing, and even though it's sturdy, this mare could have charged - and nearly did charge - right through it, letting her weight (which, I am proud to say, was back up to where it should have been, after months of very careful TLC to get her to gain back - without foundering or colicking - the 250 pounds she'd had starved off her while in the hands of the bogus "rescue" from which she was rescued) and momentum carry her. It took me almost 20 minutes just to get my hands on her. DBF tried to help, but she was still in her "All men are going to hurt me" mindset, so his presence just freaked her out worse. I distinctly remember telling her - loudly enough, I'm sure, for Back Neighbor Guy to hear - "Baby, it's okay. Easy - eeeeeasy, now. It's just the stupid ###%$#@$##@#er behind us who doesn't have a brain in his #$@%#@#$@ing head being #$$&#$#ing stupid with his stupid #$%*&@#$ing fireworks!" This poor mare was in equine hysterics, dripping sweat and so worked up that I had to hose her down and walk her for another 30 minutes while I explained, in a slightly calmer voice, that even though there are lots of stupid ###%$#@$##@#ers in the world, they're not all actually out to get her.

Given the way Back Neighbor Guy sent his wife over a few weeks later to politely tell me that they would be shooting off fireworks on the 4th of July (so I could keep the mare stalled that night), I gathered that he did not appreciate being called a "stupid ###%$#@$##@#er" even though I was not speaking directly to him at the time. Since then, the light shows from the back of our property have been far less frequent - although not infrequent enough to please the dogs, both of which try to sit in my lap whenever there is boomage. I won't even get into explaining how challenging it is to try and knit while you've got a Chihuahua and a 45-pound satellite-dish-headed Shepherd mix jockeying for position in your lap.

Survived Xmas - and got YARN!

2008-12-30T22:14:00.007-05:00

Whew - made it through Christmas. Didn't get all of the knitting projects finished (still have one set of gift socks OTN) but those knitted gifts I was able to give out were welcomed. Given that we had over a dozen people in our little house for the family meal/gift thing (that's in addition to DBF and myself, the two dogs and the five cats), I was so discombobulated that I totally forgot to take photos of the festivities. I gathered from the way both step-daughters whipped their socks out of the wrapping and onto their feet that they were most happy with their gifts. I would have loved to get photos of them with their socks on. My brother, the 6-foot-tall, 260-pound burly guy got the girly orange colorway shown below.

On the left is Plymouth Yarn Encore Colorspun. In the middle is Moda Dea Visions in Glade, and Moda Dea Visions in Sedona on the right. I will definitely post reviews of these yarns later.

Amongst my craftying-related gifts were a Hobby Lobby gift card (thanks, bro!), a copy of Anticraft: Knitting, Beading and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister (awesome!), a copy of Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots and More! (I actually squealed when I opened this), and the Knit Picks sock sampler in the tropical values, plus two hanks of begging-to-be-dyed sock yarn! Between the gift yarns I received (Christmas as well as the past couple months), yarn that I bartered for, and the few skeins I talked myself into buying, I think my sock-knitting endeavors for 2009 are pretty much mapped out. The hard part will be choosing which yarn start once I finish the two Me Projects currently OTN. Rather than agonize over choosing ('cause I know I would), I'm simply going to write the name of each yarn on a slip of paper, put all the little slips in a jar, and draw a slip each time I finish a pair of socks. As for which little Creepy Cute guy to start with, I'm waffling between the itty bitty Grim Reaper, the itty bitty Cthulu, and the itty bitty Nosferatu.

The past couple days have been a little more hectic than I'd expected them to be, as my Shepherd-mix, Lulu Notalab, ended up with a big hemaetoma on her right ear. This required a trip to the vet yesterday for surgery. Given that Lulu Notalab (I'm totally in denial about her Labrador blood) is one of the most neurotic dogs in the world, and utterly freaks out at being confined (she ate an airline-approved dog kennel, and did such a great job of biting and bending a wire kennel that she ripped out two of her own teeth), she injured her mouth while chewing on the cage door at the vet. The mouth injury wasn't serious, but she was so sore last night that she had to be spoon-fed canned dog food. I won't even get into how this pissed off Gomez, the Chihuahua-shaped vacuum cleaner, who would happily glut himself on an entire can of food in approximately 45 seconds if given the chance. I did give him a little nibble, but he was the picture of jealousy.

Anyway, Lulu came home from the vet with her ear basically strapped to the back of her head via bandages. An Elizabethan collar was required to prevent her from ripping the bandages off and the stitches out, which, of course, she tried to do immediately upon

arriving home. She has made it known that she does not relish the role of Satellite Dish-headed Dog, but she is getting better about not whacking into doors and knees with the collar. This photo was taken yesterday, after she spent about 20 minutes trying to figure out how to lie down with the collar on. The only thing she would eat was treats from the 8-pound bag (yeeeaaahhh, that's 8 pounds!) of treats my dad and my bro gave the dogs for Xmas. Her appetite is better today, although I have to hold her bowl up for her to eat because she gets claustrophobic when she puts her head down and the collar limits her hearing. I also have to watch her like a hawk, because even with the collar she tries to scratch at that poor ear - or rip the collar off entirely. The one time she managed to scratch at her ear, she irritated the surgical site, which hurt like crazy (of course!) and caused it to start oozing blood. Then when she shook her head, she sprayed blood around the dining room. (And in my head, I heard Gil Grissom from "CSI" saying, "Got high-velocity blood spatter here.") Fortunately, she seems content to lie down near me, so if I'm sitting still, she's sitting still. I dread tomorrow night (New Year's Eve), because our neighbor always shoots off fireworks and the dogs completely hate every second of it. I plan to ring in the New Year knitting, and probably watching episodes from Season 1 of "Pushing Daisies," which was another of my gifts.

Off-topic: A request

2008-12-20T16:09:00.003-05:00

We all get those e-mails asking us to send a card to a dying kid, only to find out that it's a hoax. Well, this one isn't. Hannah Garman is 4 years old, and she's dying of a rare brain tumor. Here's a link to her cousin's story (with a precious photo), a link to the Snope's page confirming that this is true, and a link to her CaringBridge page.

Hannah likes getting cards. Please consider sending one to her at:

Hannah Garman
704 Orchard Rd
Lititz, PA 17543

Also, please pass this story along to folks you know. Thanks.

Well, yesterday just sucked

2008-12-19T08:13:00.004-05:00

Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away yesterday, and so did my rabbit, Lily.

I met Majel several years ago at a convention in Charlotte. She was funny, gracious and very nice. I am a total Trek geek. Seriously, one of my first memories is of an episode of Star Trek in which Kirk told Scotty - whom I also met later in life - to be careful not to let him materialize inside a bulkhead. (This was back when intra-ship transporter use was iffy.) Anyway, I remember asking my dad what a bulkhead was. I think I was around three or four years old. But I digress.

When I went to the convention, I took my copy of the Trek novel, "Q-in-Law," which is one of the funniest Trek novels ever. Majel happily signed it for me. I will never part with that book! Nor will I part with books I have signed by Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy and James "Scotty" Doohan.

Majel was a huge animal lover, and in her obit, the family asked that memorial donations be made to a couple of animal charities. Very cool.

As for my dear Lily bunny, I frankly don't know what was wrong with her. She was a rescue, adopted a couple years ago from the Guilford County Animal Shelter. Thus, I don't really know how old she was. She had been doing well, being her usual goofy self, until she recently started shedding. She was always a bit crabby during shedding - wanting to be brushed, but not be brushed too much, and certainly not on her belly. Her appetite had dwindled (also common during her shedding), but her eyes were clear, her temperature seemed normal, and she didn't seem to be in any distress. Nonetheless, being the neurotic pet mom, I had talked yesterday with a local vet and described her symptoms. We agreed that if she wasn't showing improvement by today, I would bring her in for a check. Last night, quite suddenly, she seemed to have some type of seizure, cried out, and within a few moments was dead. DBF and I are very sad about this. He dutifully fed her fresh veggies every morning, and loved how she'd get happy feet when Lettuce/Carrot Man (this is how she viewed him) would walk into the room. It's going to be very weird here in my home office without Lily doing her water-bottle-Morse-code routine (clicking the water bottle to let me know she wants out to play).

Here's Lily shortly before I adopted her from the shelter. I was at the shelter doing an article on "pocket pets" (everything from hamsters to rabbits and ferrets). The rabbits were in the lobby, which is noisy and busy. Lily was the only one who didn't seem terrified. In fact, she tried to taste-test my camera shortly after these photos were taken.

A new record!

2008-12-07T00:00:00.003-05:00

I finished the third pair of Moda Dea Vision socks in just three days! Yes, my arms and hands are tired from marathon nighttime knitting sessions the past few nights, but I did it. As with the previous pair, these socks are to be a gift, so I won't post pix until after the holidays.

I'll cast on another pair of gift socks tomorrow with Encore Colorspun, another worsted weight yarn. It's probably a good thing that I couldn't knit tonight (company Xmas party had me otherwise occupied). I think my hands needed a break.

Finished socks - Moda Dea Pair #2

2008-12-03T14:24:00.005-05:00

I finished the second pair of Moda Dea Vision socks yesterday, but they're a gift, so I'm not going to post photos until after the recipient sees them. I'd hate to spoil all of the surprise. She knows that I'm knitting socks for her, but she has no clue how they look completed.

I cast on the third Moda Dea pair this morning. One thing I love about this yarn is how quickly it knits up. The downside is that after you've been knitting this on US size 5 needles for a while, you feel like you're knitting with hypodermic needles when you go back to US size 0 or 1. After I finished the second pair last night, I picked up the green Swizzle socks (on size 0), and it seemed to take forever just to finish a row. I suspect that neither of my works in progress for myself will get done before the end of the year, as I have three pairs of gift socks yet to knit (all in worsted weight, so at least they'll go quickly) as well as a couple of string bags and washcloths. I think next year I'll tell people that if they want socks or other knitted goodies for Xmas, they have to let me know by June. That way, I won't get stuck knitting so furiously in early December like I have for the past two years.

The Yarn Fairy came today!

2008-11-29T19:11:00.004-05:00

Look what the Yarn Fairy sent! My bestest pal Kayla played Yarn Fairy, and mailed this gorgeous hank of Chameleon Colorworks sock yarn to me - and being ever so clever, she packaged it in one of those plastic tubes tennis balls come in. No doubt this got some odd looks as it traveled through the postal service, but it was a perfect way to send this yarn and it's a good way to repurpose a plastic container. I wish I'd snapped a photo of DBF's face when he came into my office and handed me a cylinder of yarn.

This yarn is looooovely! I was unfamiliar with Chameleon Colorworks until I received this. I just spent about 20 minutes drooling over the yarns on their site.

As much as I'd love to wind this into balls and cast on a new pair of socks, I've already got the Swizzle socks, the Patons Stretch Socks and the second pair of Moda Dea Vision socks currently OTN. I probably won't get to this yarn until after the holidays - particularly in light of the fact that I was told today that I needed to knit up another pair of gift socks for Xmas - but I can't wait to see how it knits up.

I have such cool friends. :-)

First Moda Dea pair - DONE! :-)

2008-11-28T14:30:00.004-05:00

I finished my first pair of Moda Dea Vision socks last night. Happily, I was able to get a lot of knitting done while driving (OK, riding while DBF drove) to and from Charlotte for Thanksgiving. These are really thick socks, so much so that they make my spindly ankles look thick. The thickness issue (the socks, not my ankles :-) ) may prove problematic if I try to wear them with anything but clogs (my preferred footwear), but they are wonderfully warm.

I'll post a yarn review later, but for now I'll just say that I was delighted at how quickly these socks worked up. The yarn is soft but feels durable, and I had no problems with it being splitty. No knots in the first two skeins, either! The colorway is much prettier than it shows up in the photo. I can't wait to see how the other two colorways knit up. I've just cast on the toes for the Glade pair.

Oooh, I'd have an infarction!

2008-11-26T10:38:00.002-05:00

Youngest Step Daughter sent this photo, which is sure to make any yarn worker's heart want to seize up and quit working. Although there have been some kitten-related shenanigans involving yarn in my house, there hasn't been anything as severe as this!

Casting on with Moda Dea Vision

2008-11-21T00:21:00.006-05:00

I cast on the first pair of Moda Dea Vision socks tonight. I've been feeling kind of lousy for the past 24 hours (unpleasant side-effects from antibiotics I'm taking for a couple of bad teeth), but I decided to go on and try to get the first pair cast on. This yarn is thicker than I first thought. I used the Magic Toe-Up cast on (link is over on the sidebar), which worked wonderfully. I'm working on size 5 US circs, which is the same size I use for Wool-Ease yarn. After knitting several pairs of socks on size 0 and size 1, these needles seem huge! This yarn has more body than Wool-Ease, so these will definitely be some thick socks - and they're going to work up quickly.

My other WIP (Patons Stretch Socks and Swizzle green) are coming along nicely, although I haven't had a great deal of time to work on them this week. I know I'll get at least two hours of knitting time Saturday, as my knitting group meets. Speaking of, one of the ladies from that group gifted me with a ball of Swizzle yarn! :-) The color is 4009-129, which is a reddish rust color shot with narrow bands of yellow, blue and pink. The green Swizzle yarn (shot with the same colors) feels rougher than this color, so I think something about the green dye affects the softness of the yarn. I doubt I'll get the chance to start the new Swizzle yarn until after the first of the year, but it's nice to have it to look forward to.

In Awww Crap news, ABC has officially cancelled "Pushing Daisies." MORONS!! I loved that show. Not only was it quirky, funny and refreshing, but the big, burly, black private detective Emerson Cod (played fantastically by Chi McBride) is a knitter! In one episode, he was muttering about not having any cases to work on, and thus no money coming in, and he said, "Daddy needs new yarn!" I howled laughing.

Finished socks, and thwarting kittens

2008-11-16T15:38:00.007-05:00

I finally finished my Halloween wool socks. I only bought this yarn a year ago (!!) from a woman on eBay. It's 100% superwash wool, so I ran some woolly nylon with the yarn as I knit the heel. This yarn was the "naughty yarn" I'd started to work with in '07, then after knitting 9 inches, realized I had made them too small. Although I hated frogging all that work and starting over, it turns out that it was best that I did. I originally knit these socks cuff down. If I'd continued that way, I would have likely run out of yarn before I could complete the toes. When I started over, I knit toe-up, using all but about 10 inches of the yarn. They ended up a little shorter in the leg than I usually like, but I'm delighted with the end result. I've already had a rave review on them, from a truly charming senior citizen I interviewed this afternoon. I have two more pairs on the needle, and I just located my size 5 circs so I can begin a pair from the Moda Dea Vision yarn I talked about in my last post. I also completed two cotton washcloths last week, which I'll wrap around a bar of handmade soap and give as gifts next week.

Necessity being the mother of invention, I created a kitten-proof project holder for small works-in-progress. It's easy: Take one of the plastic containers you get when you buy a big stack of CDs (they come with the black base featuring a spindle on which the CDs sit and a plastic, bucket-shaped, locking cover). Use a hacksaw to cut the spindle off the base. Take a bit of sandpaper to the spindle nub to sand off any rough bits. Turn the bucket-shaped cover over, tuck your yarn and circs inside, put the lid on and give it a twist to lock it. Ta dah! Kitten-proof storage.

New Yarn!

2008-11-11T00:33:00.003-05:00

So Eldest Step-Daughter spent a couple nights here last week, crashing at our place at night while going through a training program in nearby Winston-Salem. This girl is busy. She works three jobs at the moment, and completed her masters earlier this year - and somehow she manages to have a social life.

She is, of course, well aware of the sock-knitting addiction. I was working on my Halloween wool socks one evening (now into the home stretch - i.e. the ribbing - woot!) when ESD hopefully says something to the effect of: "So can I commission a pair of handmade socks from you?"

It took me...oh, maybe ten whole seconds to snatch yarn catalogs from the stack on the coffee table and hand them to her. I told her I'd knit if she bought the yarn. I showed her some of the yarns from my stash as well as WIPs OTN (that's Works In Progress On The Needles, y'know) so she could get an idea of which brands were locally available and which ones have to be ordered. Given her training program schedule, a trip to the LYS (Local Yarn Shop) wasn't possible, so we decided to take an evening jaunt to the nearest A.C. Moore.

The poor girl had never been down the yarn aisles in a craft store!

Yeah, I know! Boggles the mind, doesn't it?

After going through a quick Intro to Yarny Stuff, she considered the sock yarns and then settled on a yarn I've never tried before: Moda Dea Vision (65% wool, 35% acrylic, medium worsted weight). At some point during the Intro to Yarny Stuff course, we decided I'd also knit a pair for her sister, Youngest Step-Daughter. YSD lives in the Los Angeles area, so I'm not sure how much use she'll get out of wool socks, but what the heck? Might as well knit for both of them.

Since A.C. Moore was running a nice sale on yarns, and since I'd recently sold some soap, I felt justified in splurging on a couple of skeins of this Vision yarn for myself. (That's generally how it works: one addition pays for another.) It's going to knit up into nice, thick socks, which will make my eternally cold feet happy. It's soft, but feels like it will wear pretty well. The only downside is that it requires hand washing. I think I can live with that.

My Evil Plan here is to introduce the girls to the addiction - er, I mean joys of wearing handmade socks and then teach them how to knit their own. (Cue evil laughter.)

I'll do the you-buy-I'll-knit thing once per person. After that, if you want more (and you will!), you gotta knit your own.

BTW, if anyone has knitted socks from Moda Dea Vision and would like to comment on it, please feel free. It feels comparable to Lion Brand's Wool-Ease, which does make a pair of decent socks, so I'm thinking it'll be pretty easy to work with. I know it'll be faster to knit than sock weight yarn. I'll be able to put away the Size 0 needles for a while and jump up to Size 5. Yay!

P.S. The yarns shown above are Color 2950 Forest on top, Color 2955 Glade on the left, and Color 2945 Sedona on the right.

P.P.S. The odd black squiggly thing behind the skein on the left is a chewed-on chicken feather (naturally shed, of course, and courtesy of my friend's chickens) Stormy the kitten wedged between the couch cushions for, I presume, safekeeping.

Non-Knitty Topic: Such an amazing sense of relief

2008-11-05T14:03:00.007-05:00

Like many Americans, I am feeling a huge sense of relief today.

Obama won!

Not only does this mean that the Bush era will come to a close (although the repercussions will likely be felt for decades), but it represents a true first for me:

I finally had a candidate to vote for.

While I have voted in every Presidential election since I was old enough to do so, I have never once felt like I had a candidate to vote for. I always felt like I was voting into office the lesser of two evils, or that I was voting against the guy I couldn't stand.

Not this time. While I don't agree with all of Obama's views, I have to say that I have never felt such a sense of respect for a Presidential candidate, regardless of his party affiliation. (I'm a registered Independent, and have been so since the age of 18.) I've never felt such a sense of hope in regards to a Presidential candidate. It's been hard to avoid getting attacked for my choice of candidates (I'm in an area where you can't swing a baseball bat without hitting a McCain/Palin sign). It's been even harder watching Dubya screw around for the past eight years.

Back in 2000, Republicans told me that my duty as an American citizen was to support the President-elect, even though I didn't vote for him and even though I felt like he was the worst thing that could have happened to the office. "Get over it," they said. "He's the President. Deal with it." I heard the same thing in 2004.

I certainly hope that they will practice what they preach, and do what they have asked of me since November 2000.

In other fantastic news, Elizabeth Dole is OUT of the Senate! I have despised that woman since the 1980s. I think I may be one of just a few people in NC who wasn't surprised by the nasty depths of her smear campaign.

What I do when I'm not knitting

2008-11-03T14:37:00.005-05:00

In keeping with my goal of not neglecting my blogs anymore, I decided to post a photo of one of my non-knitting passions. I began making handcrafted soap many years ago, and quickly became addicted. I have somewhat sensitive skin, and I really like being able to formulate soaps to my specific needs. Plus, it' s just fun to make! Even when I was working at a soap shop and making over 200 pounds of soap per week, I'd go home and make my own soap just as a stress-buster. For the past several years, I've done a gig demonstrating soap-making at the annual High Point Arts Council Day in the Park. That is always a ton of fun. This year, I had the best of both worlds, as I was able to knit on a pair of socks while waiting for all my soaping ingredients to reach the right temps so I could mix them.

I'm currently making soaps for the holiday season. One of my faithful fans from Charlotte contacted me to order several bars, so now I have an actual legitimate excuse to make soap. Always a good thing. I spent years developing, testing and tweaking my own recipes for soap as well as for scent blends. While I prefer essential oils, my favorite scents tend to be the pricey ones. Such as sandalwood. True sandalwood essential oil goes for hundreds of dollars per pound (oils are sold by ounce retail, by pound or liter wholesale). I've seen it go for well over $1,000/pound. Yeaaaahhhh. Rose essential oil is even higher. Yes, it smells heavenly. On the flip side, there are some essential oils that are pricey yet stink all to be damned. Go figure. Some oils I refused to use simply on the grounds of ethics. Rosewood essential oil, for example, is a fantastic scent, but the demand for it has led to extremely unsavory practices in growth and harvest. So I found an essential oil substitute that smells amazingly like rosewood, and is grown/harvested in such a manner that my conscience will let me use it.

In reviewing my soaping supplies for the latest batches of soaps, I found myself low on palm oil. Palm is used primarily as a hardener, and has properties that give you a hard, long-lasting bar. It's sometimes called "vegetarian tallow," since it serves basically the same function as tallow (beef fat), which is to give a long-lasting bar. It's easier to obtain than beef tallow, and it appeals to the vegetarians who don't want to use animal products. It's been a good while since I ordered palm oil, so I did a little plinking around on the Web. I was horrified to learn that the demand for palm oil is contributing to the devastation of rain forests and - worse - gorilla habitats. To keep up with demand, palm orchards are being planted in areas that have been cleared for this very purpose. I have been a primate fanatic ever since I can remember (my home office is decorated with a combination primate/wild animal and cheesy film posters), and I particularly adore gorillas. I try very hard to live "green," and to avoid products that I know to be damaging to the environment.

So instead of ordering palm oil, I did a bit of research and found another easily-obtained, eco-friendly oil with which to replace it in my standard recipe. Although I do make some lard soaps, I (as welll as my friends and customers) tend to prefer the ones with minimal animal products. I made a test batch of my newly tweaked recipe last night. So far, it looks like the switch from palm oil will be unnoticeable.

Anyway, below are some of my latest efforts:

In the back, left to right, orange/bay (essential oil & fragrance oil), green apple (fragrance oil), lavandin grosso (essential oil - smells like lavender, but doesn't have the sharp, medicinal odor some lavender essential oils do). In the front, my custom cookie spice blend (essential oil & fragrance oil, swirled w/food grade cocoa), and lemongrass/buttermilk (essential oil).

Socks and an anti-Wal-Mart rant

2008-11-02T11:35:00.011-05:00

Here are my Austermann Step Socks. Well, one of them. I have to say, I really do like this yarn. Don't love the price, but the yarn is delightful. I have recently acquired a couple balls of Red Heart's Heart & Sole (mmm, wit abounds in the Yarn Naming Department at Red Heart), which also has aloe, as Step yarn does. Given that I have three pairs of socks currently OTN (that's On The Needles for you non-knitters), it'll be while before I can compare the two yarns. Heart & Sole is certainly cheaper, and comes in a brighter array of colors.

Here is Stormy (I think - it's hard to tell who's who from the back) checking out a couple of Halloween indulgences. For those of you unaware of my Halloween passion, it is my favorite holiday of the year. Yes, I like it much better than Christmas. (Truth told, I like dental work better than I like Christmas.) There is no actual legislation that I know of dictating that all delightfully gaudy/tacky Halloween fabric come to my house to live, but one look at my Halloween fabric collection would tell you that I function as though I were required by law to buy at least 1/2 yard of any fabric bearing witches, spiders or cats, monsters, mummies, vampires, etc. I liked the silly cat fabric on the right so much that I bought this additional yard (I bought some back in Sept.), with which I will make a sock-knitting bag. The fabrics shown above were purchased at the Mayodan, NC, Wal-Mart, where apparently the management has given up caring whether or not customers are helped, happy, etc. Here's what happened:

It was a Sunday evening, and the store had a small number of customers. I think I saw maybe 15 people shopping. I went to the craft dept, where the ragged sign taped to the pillar advises you to "Ring Bell For Service" and has a handy arrow pointing down to the counter, where there is no bell. I waited around for about five minutes, wandering through the craft aisles in search of an associate. Then I walked the entire length of the store, looking for a body in one of those oh-so-attractive blue smocks.

No associates. None in shoes, the baby dept, electronics, or auto supplies.

So I went back to the craft dept and picked up the desk phone, which has a bunch of numbers thoughtfully pre-programmed and labled. I pressed the Service Desk button. When the ubiquitous Wal-Mart zombie answered, sounding as if she'd had to crawl out of a grave to do so, I said, "Hello, I'm standing in your craft department, using your official Wal-Mart phone, and I would like to have someone cut some fabric for me."

Wal-Mart Zombie (after a considerable pause): "I'll see if I can find someone."

Me: "Thank you. I have looked--"

Wal-mart Zombie hangs up.

So I wait about eight minutes (yes, I time these things), and nobody shows. At no point did I hear the intercom call for someone to report to the craft dept. I'm getting bored, so I start playing with the price scanner gun chained to the counter. (Really, they think these things are selling big at pawn shops?) It takes me roughly 30 seconds to figure out how to turn the thing on, scan the UPC code on the end of the fabric bolt, and scan the 1-yard UPC code that has been taped to the counter. I cut a yard of the first fabric and print out a label from the printer (also chained to the counter), and apply it to my fabric. I repeat the process for the second fabric and proceed to the checkout, where something truly amazing happened:

Although I was only the third person in line, a cashier opened another check-out line.

Now, I have been in this same Wal-Mart at the height of a Saturday afternoon rush, when they have had just 3 check-out lines open (and, of course, every self-serve check-outs that is not displaying the blinky "Need assistance" light is closed), each with up to 10 people waiting.

On this particular evening, there were only two lines open with a total of maybe five people waiting, and yet this girl opened another. I suspect she may have been channeling Sam Walton, who did actually care about Wal-Mart being a decent place to shop (American-made goods, helpful customer service, a place to work that does not suck the life out of you, etc.) as opposed to the soul-sucking, country-destroying cancer it has become. Before Sam died, there used to be signs hanging over every check-out that advised you to see the manager to have another line opened if there were more than three people in line. I suspect that Sam had not yet been embalmed before every Wal-Mart in America snatched down those signs. Just as I suspect that his heirs and managers were signing contracts to bring in tons of crap made in other countries even before they signed the guest book at his funeral.

But I digress.

This dear girl greeted me in a friendly fashion and asked me if I'd found everything I was looking for. I said, "Yes, except for an associate to cut fabric." What I was thinking: "Wow - you must be new here. You're acting like a human being. How refreshing."

She looked down at the fabric, noted the official Wal-Mart barcode labels, and said, "Then how did you get this?"

Me: "I figured out the scanner and did it myself."

Cashier: "Do you work here?"

Me: "No. That thing's not complicated, you know." I then explained that I'd used the official Wal-Mart phone to call the official Wal-Mart Service Desk, waited, then decided I had a life and I really should get on with it.

Cashier: "Wow. I'm sorry about that. Let me get the Customer Service Manager."

So she calls over a woman whose tag said "Customer Service Manager." At no point did this woman offer an apology for the self-serve or the obvious failure of the Service Desk. She, in fact, seemed to think it was all quite amusing. So amusing that she went to share the hilarity with the assistant manager. Upon reurning, chortling merrily, she said, "The assistant manager wants to know if you want a job."

Wrong answer.

Smartass answer.

Upon seeing the expression on my face, she quickly added: "We need somebody back there. Really."

Me: "Obviously."

I got the assistant manager's name, and have drafted a letter to him explaining that he not only needs someone capable of cutting fabric, but he desperately needs a customer service training series for his customer service manager as well as the Service Desk staff. I have worked in customer service positions for over 20 years, been repeatedly recognized for excellent performance, so if he wants to hire me at a salary reflective of my experience in this field, great. I won't even charge him for the 30 years of experience I have in sewing and crafting.

Had I been the customer service manager, and especially if I had been the assistant manager, my first words to an unhappy/annoyed customer would have been, "I'm sorry," or at least "I regret that you had problems." The only person who seemed to realize that there was a problem was the cashier, who likely makes minimum wage and will have every bit of common sense and compassion sucked out of her by the epidemic of disregard that grips Wal-Mart. If I had been the assistant manager, I would have got off my ass and actually come out to face said customer, if for no other reason to cite problems with staffing or scheduling or whatever problem there is that prevented my store from providing the service it claims to provide. Given that every receipt you get from a Wal-Mart these days asks you to take an online survey about your shopping experience, it seems to me that SOMEONE in the Wal-Mart cabal gives a rip about customer service.

It's painfully clear to me that neither the customer service manager nor the assistant manager in Mayodan is that person.

Catching Up

2008-10-12T14:35:00.007-04:00

Again, I'm guilty of neglecting my blog. I've been knitting more (always a good excuse), so at least I have something to show for my absence. I completed my auntie's socks:
I'm happy with the way they came out, and - bonus - I had enough left over to add to my Frankensock stash. I also completed the Fortimissi Colori socks:
This yarn ROCKS!!! I love the colors, the way it knits, and I'm pretty certain that these will be durable socks. I was so pleased with how this yarn knit up that I didn't even wait until they were finished before I took a photo. The two balls were different colorways, but they were so closely matched that I didn't even bother trying to alternate knitting from each ball to make identical socks. I'm happy with fraternal twins instead of identical. :-) The bad news is that this yarn has apparently been discontinued. I hate when that happens!

I'm hitting the home stretch (read: cuffs) with my toe-up Austermaan Step socks (Vulcan colorway), and I have to say I love that yarn. However, until I hit the lottery, I doubt I'll buy any more. The cheapest I've seen it is $18/ball, plus shipping. There are some less expensive yarns that have jojoba and/or aloe in them, as the Step yarn does, so I'll probably try those before I buy another ball of Step.

I'm also working on the Swizzle Yarn socks. Can't say I'm totally crazy about this yarn. It's a little boring to knit, because the solid stripes are rather broad (1 inch or just over) and the brightly colored stripes are narrow. The yarn has a rough-ish feel to it, which may or may not disappear once it's washed. Compared to the buttery softness of Step yarn, I think pretty much everything has a rough feel to it, so I may be overreacting.

Before I forget - the runaway pug from my last post here was recovered (YAY!) and is now soaking up all the loving and cuddling his foster mom can give him.

My former-foster-now-adopted kittens are growing like mad and working their way ever deeper into our hearts. Stormy's personality has really blossomed since she has been with us, and she is even learning that it is possible to snooze in my lap while I'm knitting and resist the temptation to play with the needles and the yarn. Here she is in corkscrew mode. I really wonder if this cat's spine has any bone at all. She gets into contorted positions that make me think she's just all cartilage.

LOST PUG - SUMMERFIELD, NORTH CAROLINA

2008-09-22T17:09:00.002-04:00

Please, if you are in the Summerfield area (northwest of Greensboro, NC), keep an eye out for this dog. If you know someone who lives in the area, feel free to send them a link to this blog.

est. age is 4-6 years old.

24 PetWatch Micro-chip Number - 0A105B6B2D

Fawn-Not Neutered- He growls because he is timid and scared and was abandoned in a cage at a local church.....he will come up to get meat foods from your hand. He will not come to you…””YOU Must”” approach him slow and easy or he will RUN.........

Last seen on north west Greensboro, NC area on Brookbank Rd, Summerfield, NC

if spotted or found........please call: (336) - 312-2983 anytime

PLEASE CROSS POST THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW AND CHECK YOU COUNTY POUNDS AND SHELTERS…….. PLEASE HELP ME FIND HIM.

Best regards,
Christina D. Hedrick
CEO/Chairman
Pug Rescue of North Carolina, Inc.
www.pugrescuenc.org

336-312-2983

Finished Socks & Naughty Kitties

2008-09-05T15:22:00.004-04:00

I finally (finally!) finished my auntie's socks! My knitting time has been seriously truncated for the past few months, but I hope to get going again full steam soon. I did manage to knit a quick red/white washcloth for my auntie. Like me, she's a fan of all things red. I'm calling it compensation for having to wait so darned long for the socks.

I had started another pair of socks last weekend, but literally hit a snag after the foster kitten (Stormy) and my goofy little Bertie Wooster (yes, I caved and adopted one of my former fosters. I'm a sucker.) got hold of the knitting one night. They, of course, claim they had NOTHING to do with it, that it was all the shenanigans of the Evil Twins, those very naughty kitties who do things for which the good kitties catch the blame. Regardless of who did it, my stupidly expensive Size 1 (US) 47-inch Addi Turbos now feature lots of little kitty bite marks on the cable. The socks are OK, but the needles may be shot, and it is positively impossible to knit on those needles with all those snaggy little bite marks in the cable. I posted a plea for help on the Socknitter's list, and have received some good advice, which I will try this weekend. I also had one kind list member offer me a set of Knit Picks Size 1 needles! I hope I'll be able to salvage the needles I have, but I really appreciate the offer of the KP needles.

In other news, I found some hilarious Halloween fabric recently. I call this "Stormy the Kitten sees a dog":

My Auntie's Socks

2008-07-18T15:51:00.017-04:00

This is my Auntie Helen (on right) last weekend, at a family gathering hosted by my cousin, Kae, up in Green Mountain, NC. Don't worry if you've never heard of Green Mountain, NC. I don't think too many people are aware of it. I wasn't, until recently. It's a tiny little unincorporated community outside of Burnsville, which is a tiny little town near the NC/Tenn border. My cousin owns the top of a mountain there.

I. Kid. You. Not.

More on that later. First, I want to show off my Auntie Helen's socks. She loves crazy socks (hah! I KNEW I got it from somewhere!). She wore these to the party.

These aren't hand-made, but I'm going to completely rip off the colors and make a pair as close to them as I possibly can. I showed her the pair of toe-ups I've been working on (forever, it seems) and she loved them. So when I get them finished, she'll be able to add these to her collection:

When I said my cousin owned the top of a mountain, I meant it. A good portion of the real estate is VERTICAL. She and her husband have a charming house at the base of the mountain, where they live with their champion bull mastiffs. They also have goats (one less now, thanks to a bear, which also ripped open a honeybee hive and ate the contents) and Scottish Highland Cattle, which are just about the only breed of bovines that could (a) take on that mountain and (b) take on the bear that appears to have decided to call it home. There were roughly 40 of us there, cousins, aunts, uncles, and so forth. Great food, great visiting, and one heck of a winding trip up the mountain to the top. It is so steep that even all-terrain vehicles must zig-zag up to the top. Once you get there, though, the view is gorgeous. You can see into Tennessee when the cloud cover is high.

Here's a shot about halfway up the mountain. This barn, one of two on the mountain, stores hay for winter, and the cows occasionally go in when the weather is too cold:
Here's a shot from higher up:

You can see the two barns peeking out from behind the trees.

And at the top, looking towards Tennessee. We passed many lightning-struck trees (elevation is about 2,200 feet there, so it's no big surprise that lightning strikes trees up there. It doesn't have to even try hard!) and beautiful vistas.

Cool, huh? :-) By the way, my cousin raises the cattle for beef, so they have names like Steak and Taco. She says that makes it easier to eat them. If you're unfamiliar with Scottish Highland Cattle, check them out on the web.

Another Tie-Dye Project

2008-07-11T14:59:00.002-04:00

I'm starting to wonder if I've developed a sickness. I'm looking at everything and thinking, "Hmm, can I tie-dye that?" Digging through my closet, I found a beloved sweatshirt that's entirely too heavy to wear right now but will be nice and cozy - and colorful - come cooler weather. Anybody noticing a theme to my shirts? ;-)

How Do You Store Your Stash?

2008-07-10T10:37:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine spotted my 'yarn jars' and informed me that I'd hit on the coolest method of yarn storage ever. I don't know if it's the coolest ever, but I was flattered - and I must admit that it's a great excuse to buy those big jars of pretzels at Costco and Tractor Supply. :-) I have several of these jars filled with colorful yarns of all types. The wool yarns are stored with a little cedar ball or an herbal sachet to repel moths. The plastic jars repel the cats, who think I buy yarn simply so they'll have something cozy to sleep in.

What Happens When I Get Bored

2008-07-06T00:50:00.016-04:00

So it's Saturday night, I am completely Twilight Zoned out from watching all the episodes I recorded during the SciFi Channel's July 4th marathon, and I found a couple packets of dye in the garage. I don't consider myself a fuchsia person, but apparently I was swayed by the fact that these dyes were on sale. They still had the sale stickers on 'em. Funny, I don't precisely recall buying them. But I know I did, as DBF would not ever in a million years buy fabric dye - especially in fuchsia. I decided to put them to use and save a couple of my favorite t-shirts, which had been getting rather dingy and, in spite of my best efforts, had a couple of ghost stains that just wouldn't come out. The sweatpants had a couple of very stubborn stains (note to self: chili hot dogs and white sweat pants are a bad combination), which I am happy to report are now completely invisible. Hopefully, my boss, who provided me with the first shirt, won't object to my getting creative with company clothing. :-)

Finally!! Done!

2008-06-30T12:02:00.007-04:00

I finished my two-pair-at-once project this weekend! I'm pleased with the results. The red/black Knit Picks Essential Tweed is buttery soft, and I think I'm going to like the Sockotta. I did the K-stitching Saturday night, and had to re-do one of the Sockotta socks because I goofed. (Note to self: Do not attempt Kitchener stitch whilst watching "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.")

In other news: One of my knitty pals gifted me with two balls of Fortissima Colori. I can't wait to get started on them. :-) And I broke down and spent some of my birthday $$ (thanks, Dad!) on a ball of Step yarn in Vulcan.

New Blog

2008-06-27T13:01:00.003-04:00

I decided to create a blog specifically for the fostering gig. You can find it here:
http://fostermum.livejournal.com

Meanwhile, I'm starting the toe-decreases for my two-pair-at-once socks (FINALLY!). Just did a little shopping at Patternworks but haven't placed the order yet, as I thought they had a free shipping with orders of $50 or more deal - but can't find it on the site.

Wild boy kitty has a name!

2008-06-20T23:14:00.002-04:00

Wildass boy kitty has been dubbed Bertie Wooster. Like the original Bertie, he's an orphan with a flair for comedy. He looks all dignified and harmless in this photo, but about two minutes prior to my snapping this shot, he had spent five minutes attacking the dining room table leg. No, it wasn't mocking him or taunting him. It was just there.

It's the kittens' fault...

2008-06-20T01:08:00.003-04:00

Here's why my plans to spend last weekend knitting and catching up on DVRed tv programs didn't pan out. I'm fostering a litter of four kittens for a local animal rescue network. These little guys are about six weeks old, and were found with their feral mother behind a Starbucks. Top left is Mrs. Dash, named for her habit of dashing everywhere she goes. That's Bertie Wooster on the right, Winchester in the middle and Venus sprawled out at the bottom. They're between 1.25 - 1.50 pounds each, so they're old enough to eat for themselves but still a leeetle too young to be allowed full run of the house (hence the kennel). The instant I open the kennel door, they fly out - Mrs. Dash in the lead, of course - and scatter in a flash. Their favorite places to go are down the hall to the bedrooms (renamed the Kittynapolis 500 Speedway) and my knitting corner.

My adult cat, Demsee, is still on the fence as to whether or not she wants to play with them or treat them with icy disdain. The Shepherd mix, Lulu, is fascinated - so much so that we have to be quite careful not to refer to them as "babies" (the word "baby" in this house refers to Lulu's plush toys, which are the same size as these kittens). If you say "baby" to Lulu, she'll pick up a kitten and bring it to you. The kittens have made their disenchantment with this procedure quite well known. The Chihuahua, Gomez, is on the verge of calling PETA because the kits get canned food and he doesn't. (Oh, the injustice!)

My Toe-Ups -- First Pair in Progress

2008-06-07T11:12:00.006-04:00

In an effort to prevent myself from letting projects drag on and on as I've done this year, I decided to go ahead and post a photo of my WIP toe-ups. I've recommended this tutorial before (Magic Toe-up Cast On - link on my Links I Like list) but I have to do it again. :-) It's so easy, and the frustration factor is ZERO!

This yarn is Knit Picks Simple Stripes (or Simply Stripes? Can't recall). Knitting on size 0 US Addi Turbos.

Neglected Blog - Bad Knitwych! No Cookie!

2008-06-06T16:17:00.005-04:00

OK, so I've been neglecting this blog. I'd like to say that it's because I've been knitting ton 'o socks, but that's not the case. I've just been crazy busy with this whole inconvenient trying-to-earn-a-living gig.

I'm still working on the two-pair-at-once-on-one-long-circular. Hopefully, I'll have them done within the week. I also cast on (using the nifty and painless toe-up method from Knitty.com) a pair of Simple Stripes from Knit Picks. I gotta say, I LOVE the toe-up method. The Kitchener stitch is not my friend (I can do it but I just don't like it), and this particular cast on is really easy! I've actually been knitting more on those socks than my two-pair-at-once project.

I have to share a great bit of praise I got from a friend whom I consider to be my guru on all things knitty. Jane has been knitting (hand and machine) forever, and even used to make and sell very luxurious and pricey sweaters through her own business. She's the one I call when I'm stumbling over a pattern or a term that's new to me, and she is always encouraging and supportive. A couple years ago, she patiently tried to teach me drop-spinning, which I can do but I just don't enjoy, and frankly trying to do this in a house with cats is an exercise in frustration and creative swearing.

Annnnnnnnyway, I knit Jane a pair of Opal socks for Yule (that would be Xmas to most folks), but just gave them to her last week. (How pitiful is that, eh? "Hi! It's June, but Happy Yule anyway!" )

Only a true knitter would, while sweating in 90+ degree heat, grab a pair of wool socks and shriek: "Oh my God! These are wonderful! I can't wait to put these on! These are awesome!" She proceeded to examine the socks (they're the blue striped ones on the sidebar) closely, checked the Kitchener stitch toe, the short-row heel and everything else, then presented her evaluation: "PERFECT! PERFECT! The color, the stitches, the tension - everything's PERFECT!"

I gotta say, that was one hell of an ego boost!!! :-)

In other news, today while sharing a birthday lunch with my editors, the newspaper staff and a fellow writer, I totally blew the mind of our male writer (we've just got the one) by informing him that not only is there a 10,000-member sock knitting discussion group on the Web, but that I have a sock blog. OK, so it's a knitting/crafty stuff blog, but lately all I've been doing is socks, so that's close enough. Poor guy - how can he get through life without being aware of these terribly important things going on??? ;-)

Orange Opal Socks - Done!

2008-04-06T15:53:00.005-04:00

Finished these today and immediately hand washed them to get the sizing out. Here they are in a quasi-blocked stage, waiting to be placed on my sock blockers. This is the fifth pair of socks I've knit with Opal yarn (also knitted a pair of fingerless gloves from Opal) in the past six months. I am definitely Opaled out and ready to try something new. Next project: Knit Picks Simply Stripes, knit toe-up.

Knitting Along

2008-04-03T14:35:00.002-04:00

So I'm progressing nicely with my last pair of Opals and my ambitious two-pair-at-once projects. Haven't had a great deal of time to knit lately, but even with three projects OTN, I'm already thinking ahead to what I'll do when I've finished these. I currently knit from the cuff down, and had been closing the toes with a 3-needle bind off. Don't ask me how many times I watched Nenah Galati's sock knitting DVD chapter on the dreaded Kitchener - and still couldn't do it correctly. The Kitchener Stitch thwarted me until recently, when I turned to my trusty Stitch 'n Bitch book, where I found instructions simple enough for me to follow. (Nenah seemed to go too quickly, and even when I tried advancing frame by frame, I still got lost!) I'm happy to report that I have finally managed the dreaded Kitchener...and now want to try my hand at knitting from the toe up.

I'd seen a few Web sites with toe-up cast on instructions, but none of them made sense to me until I found this one:

http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring06/FEATmagiccaston.html

Having reviewed it a couple times, I actually think I can do this. I've got two yarn candidates waiting in my stash - a dark green and multi-color striped Swizzle yarn, and a couple balls of Simply Stripes from Knit Picks.

In other news, I've decided I must have a ball of Step yarn in the Vulcan color. Yes, I am such a Trek geek that I will feel an overwhelming urge to spend $20 on a ball of yarn simply because it is called Vulcan. If they come out with a Klingon colorway, I'll have to have that, too. :-) Hell, I'd buy Romulan, too. But not Betazoid, because Deanna Troi irked the shit out of me all the way through ST:TNG with her insipid "sensing" of the blindingly obvious and all that ridiculous anti-grav bra she seemed to be wearing.

Mini yarn review: I've read mixed reviews on Sockotta yarn. Some like it, some loathe it. I found some at the coast (Atlantic Beach, NC) in a blue-green colorway that I really liked. I'm knitting with it now, and so far I really don't have any complaints. It has a different hand than the wool yarns I've worked with, but I'd expect it to because it is mostly cotton. I'm liking the density (I'm working on size 1 US circulars) of the fabric I've knitted so far, and I'm definitely looking forward to completing enough of the leg so that I can tuck each ball of yarn into its corresponding sock. The only drawback to working more than one sock at a time is the inevitable yarn tangles - which are in no way helped by the cat's attention to my knitting.

OTN

2008-03-17T12:41:00.004-04:00

In addition to my two-pairs-at-once ambitions, I've got my last pair of Opal socks on the needle. The bag shown here was from an eBay auction. I just love it! A woman in Ohio made it, and it came with a hank of hand-dyed 100% Merino sock wool plus four cute little Halloween-themed stitch markers. Alas, the wool is currently in Time Out, because I'm trying to decide whether I want to frog everything I've done thus far or make the too-small socks into a pair of fingerless gloves.

Dunno if I'll do this again

2008-03-16T23:33:00.004-04:00

I cast on two pairs of socks on one long circ tonight. Took forever! I'm about 10 rows into the ribbing and man! Keeping all the yarns from tangling is a royal pain. I know it'll get easier once I've knit enough of the leg to tuck the yarn balls down inside, but I suspect it'll feel like that's taking forever to get done.

I'm almost Opal-ed out!

2008-03-16T12:00:00.006-04:00

I'm finally finished with my crazy yellow Opal socks. I hit a sale on Opal yarn a few months back, and picked up several skeins for about 45% of the usual price. Now, having knitted four pairs of socks and one pair of fingerless gloves from the Opal stash in three months, I'm getting just a little bored with this yarn. I finished these last night, and I have another pair in orange OTN. Once I finish those, I don't know if I'll want to look at Opal yarn for at least a year! Well - OK - I might look, but I seriously doubt I'll buy. I do like the way Opal wears, though.

Hopefully, I'll have time this afternoon/evening to cast on a couple pairs of new socks. I'm going to try knitting two pairs at once on one long circ. (Impatient - moi? Naah.) I've been dying to knit up the Sockotta and the Knit Picks Tweed, and since they're very close to one another in diameter, I think they'll both work out well on a size 1 circ.

Welcome to My Nightmare--no wait, that's an old Alice Cooper album....

2008-03-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my knitting addiction. I got tired of e-mailing photos of my latest knitting projects to my knitty friends, so I've broken down and created a blog for such things. I've been knitting seriously for about three years now, obsessed with socks since 2006, when my New Year's resolution was to learn how to knit them. I'll try to keep this updated with my latest projects. Who knows - maybe it'll help me finish things up.

At the moment, I'm the queen of frustration because I was 9 inches into a pair of socks knit from a hand-dyed Merino wool I won on eBay last October when I realized that these things were not going to fit. I'd dropped down to size 0 US (2mm) needles and forgot to compensate by upping the number of cast on stitches. The words I said upon realizing this mistake made my bunny's ears droop. Now I'm torn between frogging everything - both socks! - completely and starting over, or just say @#$@ it and frogging past the heel so I can turn them into fingerless gloves.