A Mighty Good Yarn

Welcome 2012

2011-12-31T20:23:00.008-06:00

Isn't the world supposed to end in 2012, according to the Mayans?

Good thing I finished my sweater vest in time for the apocalypse:

Funny thing: my gauge didn't change one iota between the stockinette and the colorwork. The pattern uses pretty specific numbers with the assumption that your gauge will change. Imagine my surprise when I tried on the vest-in-progress and it looked like this:

I had to rework several inches. The colorwork here is a bit different than what's in the pattern. I changed the design a bit so that there are only two contrast colors, which only switch a couple times. I'm pleased with the colors I picked; the FOs I've seen suggest that getting colors that are close to one another will end up looking better than if there is a larger contrast between them.

Happy New Year!

2011-10-30T14:44:00.007-06:00

Ever noticed how sometimes you'll be knitting in public, and you have one of those conversations with a non-knitter that goes something like...

Them: Oh! Are you knitting?
You: Yes.
Them: That's so neat. What is that, a ----- ?

But then the ----- bears no relation to what you're actually making. Like, you might be making a scarf, and they ask if you're knitting a sock. Or maybe you're making a sock monkey, and they ask if it's an afghan.

The other day at work, during a group lunch, I was working on my Academia, and my very nice coworker asked if I was making a hat. This is about what it looked like at the time of her asking (tape measure for visual reference):

I'm not sure whose head that might have fit, but whoever it is, I don't want to meet that person in a dark alley.

By the by, that pattern totally snookered me with its clever photo shoot: pretty model with a nice haircut playing a banjo with her band in Golden Gate Park. How can you lose? I have nothing but good memories of my time in Golden Gate Park. (Well, once you get west of the junkies. And not counting that one Saturday morning tai chi class that was interrupted by a couple homeless guys who got into it with each other by their tent first thing in the morning before they came staggering out from their enclave and through the oddly unaffected group of tai chi students... and I so wish somebody would put that in a movie so I could see it the way it must have looked to a bystander.)

Anyway. The pattern is seriously cute, and so far so good with the Cascade 200 Sport I'm using. Progress shots to come.

(Culinary) Mushroom Adventures

2011-10-23T09:37:00.006-06:00

Not long ago I happened across this nifty thing, a Back to the Roots Mushroom Kit. I didn't get any freebies from them - I saw the kit online, decided I'd take a chance and try it out. So far, it's pretty dang cool.

Day 5 Growth

These guys take used coffee grounds from a local (to them) coffeeshop and prepare them for growing mushrooms. They ship you the kit, you soak it, you spritz it with water, and blammo: you get oyster mushrooms blasting out overnight.

If you are reading this and you happen to know my father, don't tell him about it. I want to give a kit to him for his next birthday. :)

Vineyard Rows, from Hill Country Weavers

2011-09-07T20:08:00.007-06:00

As it happens, the recent Prairie Bliss collection from Hill Country Weavers included not just one but two of my original patterns. The first was Rockabilly Soft, and the second is Vineyard Rows: so named for the textured horizontal stripes, and because that's exactly the sort of luxurious thing you might wear while touring the vineyards of the Texas Hill Country.

Thanks, Hill Country Weavers!

On a more serious note, those of you keeping one eye on the news will know that the greater Austin area spent much of Labor Day weekend burning. Fortunately, the fires have thus far spared Austin itself, but the surrounding communities have suffered immensely, especially Bastrop. Over 600 homes have been lost.

If you have spare change, please consider donating to the Red Cross of Central Texas - or barring that, your local Red Cross. These are the people who come to help those who find themselves in a terrible place without warning. We should all be good neighbors and help now, when we can.

Lesser-Known Rav Patterns

2011-09-03T08:56:00.005-06:00

One of the pleasures of Ravelry is discovering a gem of a pattern that has few FOs. Maybe the designer didn't have the time or the desire to promote the pattern heavily - maybe it got overlooked by other publications. Regardless, I always take special delight in making a project from a great pattern that hasn't yet gotten much attention.

Also... I really love monkeys. (If you have three hours to waste, go look at the monkeys on Zoo Borns.)

Monkeying Around by Lori Sands is a quick and fairly easy crochet pattern for a baby/toddler hat. I imagine it could be converted to an adult size. I used Universal Cotton Supreme, a very soft worsted-weight cotton recommended by the fine ladies at Gauge Knits.

Rockabilly Soft, from Hill Country Weavers

2011-08-30T19:12:00.007-06:00

Well, well, well. You may have heard there's a drought on these days here in Texas... Both our lawn and this blog have dried to a crisp in the face of severe heat and a really rough time at work.

On the upside, I'm learning all sort of things about HTML at work, including better and more nutritious ways to create line breaks and boldface type!

I do have some exciting news to share. Hill Country Weavers has now released my latest pattern: Rockabilly Soft.

Let me say something about the yarn called for in the pattern, Road to China Light from the Fibre Company: holy snot, that stuff is amazing! And did you know it has a little bit of camel mixed in? Soft, soft, soft!

It made working those colorwork sections a dream. And, by the way, take a peak at the pictures of the Western-style piping at the shoulders: I'm not telling you how I did it (you'll have to buy the pattern, natch), but I feel pretty dang smart right there. I even attended a design workshop with Shannon Okey at HCW in the spring, when I got to show off how I did it - and there was trigonometry and everything.

In the demonstration. Not the knitting. (Calculator not required.)

Anywho, I hope knitters will enjoy this pattern. It's funky and luxurious, all in one!

Growing Things

2011-05-29T08:32:00.002-06:00

This spring, I have tried my hand at some gardening, of various sorts.

In the backyard, we have/had onions, potato plants, a strawberry plant, rosemary, and tomatoes. Mostly, my crop has been a shining example of laughable and puny, although so far everything has proved edible.

I have learned that this is the difference between caged tomatoes (big) and staked (small):

Same variety of plant, even.

I have also learned that Central Texas soil is really tough to work with. I can grow better things out of that nasty poly fiber-fill stuff than I can from the clay-heavy crud that's in our backyard:

Pattern: Lucky Bamboo by June Gilbank
Mods: I made the stalks shorter; my yarn choices (scraps) meant that the stalks were turning out relatively bigger than the pot and sand.

Lace, Intarsia, and Stamina

2011-05-15T07:44:00.005-06:00

That's what this required:

No more complaining from me about how rough this sweater treated me, in-utero. And you know what? I think it looks great on. Wore it for a whole day yesterday, and it didn't stretch out, even.

Oh - and it's unblocked. The pattern doesn't specify, but I'm content to let it stay that way. And I'm not sorry.

Pattern: #03 Multi-Pattern Top by Gabrielle Hammill from Vogue Knitting, Spring/Summer 2006.
Yarn: Lion Brand Microspun, and hey, don't judge me. It's what the pattern called for and it's inexpensive. It's also splitty and unfriendly to the hands, plus the acrylic content isn't my fav, but I must have bought it over two years ago for this pattern.
Needles: Size 4. I don't often go down a needle size, much less two, but judging from other FOs, that's common for this pattern.
Mods: None, really. I did skip a few rows on the short-row collar, but it's not hugely dramatic.

Ewan McGregor Cares About My Yarn

2011-04-16T11:42:00.004-06:00

So there's this sweater I've been hammering away at for the better part of a year. It's the Multi-Pattern Top from an older issue of Vogue Knitting.

A few months ago:

Cute pattern, working up like a dream - if that dream involves discovering a city of gold after slogging through fever-haunted jungles with a bad case of malaria and cramped fingers.

Bad metaphor?

Okay. The pattern did not list which of the four lace patterns you use for measuring gauge, so I eventually went to the smallest needle size I could manage with that yarn. (Seems to be working okay.) There are several errata in the chart, which Vogue has listed on the website. I've already run out of yarn once, and now that I'm in the final stretch, I am almost coming up short again. Again!

Strangely, every time I pick it up to work on it, with only a handful of rows left on the collar, I hear in my mind the soundtrack from Moulin Rouge, right at that point where Christian (Ewan McGregor) decides to heck with it all, he's going back to the Moulin Rouge one... last... TIME.

Teaser Pic: Rockabilly Knits

2011-03-11T09:11:00.008-06:00

New design in the pipeline, and I'm not allowed to give pictures yet - but here's a teaser shot:

As I said in my last post, Latvian braid makes you feel like a stud.

Another hint: This sweater really needs some fiddle music to make it complete.

I can't wait to show off the whole thing! Hill Country Weavers will start the photo shoots soon.

J'existe!

2011-02-27T21:39:00.006-06:00

I do exist, it's true.

New skills recently acquired:

(1) Helical knitting:

Grumperina's tutorial says it all. It's easy and it makes you feel like a stud. Also reasonably in style at present.

(2) Latvian braid:

See the dark blue bits? That's a Latvian braid. I learned from the instructions in the Victorian Christmas Stocking pattern (such a lovely pattern), but the Ohdessa Knits tutorial looks pretty good. Plus she's got these bright pink manicured nails.

3. I can't knit dishcloths to save my life.

Seriously. I can do some pretty nifty stuff, knitting-wise, but the simplest of projects leaves me flummoxed. In fact, I have a Rav friend who is similarly challenged - she even designed this remarkable shawl pattern - and so of course I've challenged her to a duel of ugly dishcloths. We've each agreed to make two dishcloths by the end of March to demonstrate our inability to make a simple square. I've got one down, and I'd show it to you, but (a) you don't need to vomit on your keyboard, and (b) there's going to be a voting round, and we've agree to keep the dishcloths more or less under wraps until the time comes.

But seriously: wait for it. These are gonna be hilarious.

Yarn Ho 4 Life

2011-01-19T17:13:00.009-06:00

One of the many reasons to love Hill Country Weavers is the owner, Suzanne. In an email to the SHELTER design group today, she said (and I quote with permission), "I have had 30 years of being a Yarn Ho... It is hard to shut it off."

Suzanne has been instrumental in bringing the SHELTER design project to life, and it looks like there will be more design projects from the same group of lovely Austin designers, among whom I'm privileged and a bit astonished to find myself counted. I'm going to sleep every night with color schemes and pattern ideas in my head.

For now, check out Brooklyn Tweed's blog post from today and his mention of the design project. It's exciting to see our work featured so elegantly.

In other news, I have also learned a new skill: entrelac!

Generally, I don't like to complain about tech issues in my blog, because that seems discourteous to the readers. I should have just figured it out, y'know? Well, 30 minutes later and I can't understand why this picture is showing up sideways:

The other shot seems okay...

But then I realized. It's entrelac: duh. The internet magically understands that entrelac goes first one direction, then another. It's just helping me stay on message!

It's a long story why the Michael Chabon book appears in the image. Just know that it is a positively superb book full of intrigue and imagination, and you should all read it right away, right after you visit Brooklyn Tweed's blog.

HCW Gift Certificate for Grabs

2010-12-26T11:15:00.003-06:00

Psst. Head over to TT820's blog for a giveaway contest. She's one of the other designers in the Shelter project. You could win a free pattern from her store plus a $50 gift certificate to Hill Country Weavers. Good stuff!

Hill Country Weavers Releases Shelter Patterns

2010-12-25T12:43:00.004-06:00

What a delightful Christmas gift, to wake up and see that Hill Country Weavers now has all of the Shelter designs available for download and hard-copy purchase.

Back at the beginning of the fall, HCW approached a handful of local Austin designers and asked us to design a project using Brooklyn Tweed's Shelter yarn. I am flattered and, frankly, still a bit amazed to discover myself among such talented company, and if I were more excited about this design project I'd be tap dancing on the Christmas ham. (Wouldn't go well, there's a basting sauce.)

Allow me to present my pattern Sarah Rose:

As you're looking around, please check out the patterns from the other designers as well. (Sweater-ophiles like me will get stretch marks in their queues from all the sudden growth.)

The yarn itself, Shelter, is sturdy, versatile, and soft. Even high-end wools can bother my neck, but this yarn didn't give me one bit of itch the evening I wore it. (I confess to spoiling the surprise to the trick-or-treaters on Halloween; I figured that was safe as knitting has yet to take off in the under-10 crowd.) While I'm often the first to go looking for substitute yarns, in this case, you should really look into ordering the yarn that's called for, because it's such a treat to work with.

Happy holidays!

Betrayed by a Towel

2010-12-01T22:14:00.005-06:00

Hi there!

So tonight, I'm talking to a friend and teaching her to knit (inject quick dance of triumph and glee), and I mentioned some story or other. She said, "Right, I remember reading about that on your blog."

And I said, "I have a blog?"

Not really. But you know.

Tonight, I'm going to interject quick pictures of knitting - mostly WIPs, 'cause that's all I got - with a story that I personally find hilarious.

My husband has been sick the last few days with a fever, poor thing. (That's not the funny part.) Last night, he felt so achy that in a fit of desperation, he slathered himself with Icy Hot.

Unrelated knitting picture #1:

Later, I followed him to bed. I washed my face, and reached for a towel to dry myself off.

Unrelated knitting picture #2:

My first thought was, "This towel smells like Icy Hot."

Unrelated knitting picture #3:

My second thought was, "WWOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWW!"

My husband managed to get a picture of me:

(I bore a strong resemblance to Tommy Lee Jones in Batman Forever, I think.)

See you soon, Kid 'N Ewe!

2010-11-11T19:13:00.005-06:00

We're headed to Kid 'N Ewe tomorrow morning, bright and early - and not just to shop.

We're running a whole booth full of hand-dyed, handspun yarns. Strand Fiber Reserve debuts this weekend with one heckuva showing!

Say hi if you see us at Kid 'N Ewe!

Sorry, Rangers. I'm Ambrosia.

2010-10-24T14:15:00.005-06:00

We went to a Rangers game (regular season, nothing fancy) a few weeks back. I brought some knitting. Lately I've been committed to working on a few larger projects, so I found myself running out the door with only a few minutes to find something portable. This is right after the most recent Knitty came out, and I just so happened to have 2 balls of Noro Silk Garden sitting out. I decided to work on a Spry hat.

Now, some might say that intarsia is not the best choice for a live sporting event. Perhaps. The concrete floor was sticky, and I was more worried about dropping one of the four mini-balls of yarn on the ground than I was about the game. Still, I pulled it off.

My fella might beg to differ. Josh Hamilton hit a home run and got something like two runners in? I'm not sure, because everybody in the whole stadium stood up and cheered except me with my four mini-balls of yarn in my lap that I didn't want to spill in the beer puddles.

"What are you doing?!" my fella demanded. "This is incredible!"

"I can't, I'm doing intarsia!" I told him, desperately stuck to my seat.

This didn't go over well with him. He brought it up again on the way home. "No, no, no," he mimicked. He did his imitation of knitting, which looks kind of like a baby playing with chopsticks. "Sorry, Rangers, I can't stand up and cheer, because I'm ambrosia."

At any rate, I survived the game and later finished the hat:

Here's a shot of the intarsia:

(Intarsia isn't that horrible. Really. It just gets a bad rep from knitters whose husbands have tried to take them to a baseball game.)

The Challenge on the Back of the Cheerios Box

2010-10-04T19:34:00.005-06:00

We went to visit my parents last weekend. On Saturday morning, I got up before the fella and went in to breakfast. There was a plate of Cheerios on the table. I thought they'd been spilled, but as it turns out, it was a logic puzzle.

On the back of the current Cheerios box, there's a challenge:

Take away six Cheerios, but every row and every column must have an even number of Cheerios left.

My father, then my mother, had attacked this first. Then they tried it out on me. None of us figured it out, and I need to say here that we are a family of very intelligent people. (You just have to trust me on that one, sorry.) My father had even tried Googling for the answer but couldn't find it in such a way that didn't require him to fill out mailing list info. So we were stuck. In fact, we were drafting letters to General Mills telling them about the irritating typo on the back of their cereal box.

A bit later, in comes my fella. He sits down, asks about the Cheerios. We tell him. He stares at it for a bit, occasionally poking a Cheerio, here and there. Meanwhile, we start talking about how positively careless and cavalier those cereal box people are, how they shouldn't allow a problem like this onto the back of the box without thoroughly checking it, and don't you think there's a better way to spend a morning than to --

"I got it."

Huh?

Yeah. He got it in about three minutes.

(Jerk.)

Here's the answer:

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

There you have it. And I didn't even ask for your contact information first.

A Medicinal Knit

2010-09-25T08:39:00.005-06:00

What a week. One day, I came into work at my new workplace to discover mouse droppings all over my desk.

And that was one of the high points.

Two things that cheered me up:

1. I saw a really, really funny play. I can't tell you about it because the review won't appear until Thursday. But it was great, and the laughter was medicinal.

2. I finished an Ysolda hat. That Ysolda: the patterns are cute, sure, but there is something so ingenious about how she constructs these designs that they are more fun than average to put together.

The pattern is called Ripley. This is Malabrigo Worsted, and I now understand why there is a group on Rav called the Malagribo Junkies. Dang that stuff is good.

...and that's the news from Lake Woebegone. Knit on.

Stress-relief socks

2010-09-11T10:58:00.003-06:00

The last several weeks have seen nutty things in the land of MightyGoodYarn. I started a new job and am still transitioning away from the old one. We went on a quick trip out of state. We continue to figure out what to do with this new house we somehow managed to make our property.

I have a number of exciting design and yarn projects on the horizon, and I can't wait to share them once they're, you know. In existence.

I did, however, knit these socks as a stress relief mechanism last month. Man, oh man - that self-striping sock yarn, and in my very favorite colors of all time? I'm tempted to frog them just to re-knit them again.

Tempted. Only tempted.

New Design: Ballybeg Homeworker's Gloves

2010-08-21T08:43:00.004-06:00

Sometimes, it's tough to keep quiet about things! I knew for a few months that the current issues of Piecework would feature my article and pattern, and I couldn't peep.

It's well worth it, however, to see the magazine out in print now. It's a fabulous issue about needlework in literature. Check it out - there are also some great guides to intricate borders for things like pillowcases and handkerchiefs.

I contributed an article and pattern about the lace gloves that the characters work on in Brian Friel's play Dancing at Lughnasa. The play, which is loosely based on the author's own family, features an example of the Irish homeworking industry of the early 1900s, which provided one of the few ways in which women could earn money for themselves and their families.

Check it out!

Dear Santa

2010-07-20T19:53:00.002-06:00

No, I don't know how my spare size 1 DPN found its way into the washing machine.

Yes, I know it's bad for the blankets.

Still. I'm being such a good girl this year...

New Futurama Episodes

2010-06-24T21:44:00.005-06:00

We were well-prepared.

Pattern: Bender Bending Rodriguez from Soph Stitch (free)

(Here's where I admit that you won't see loads and loads of crochet from me in the future, 'cause... I don't think I like it as much. Cute stuff, but my knuckles freakin' hurt now.)

The Kitchen Did Not Burn Down

2010-06-12T20:01:00.002-06:00

I would like to report that I made this Lime Yogurt Cake with Strawberry Sauce tonight for myself, my fella, and his parents.

(Dish without sauce; with sauce, its life expectancy decreases radically.)

I am pleased to report that after one hour, we all appear to be of sound health.

The strawberries were hand-picked by the fella's folks on their own land, and I happen to think they were all the more delicious for it. (The strawberries, I mean.)

Meryton: a knitter's nod to Jane Austen

2010-06-12T07:37:00.006-06:00

I recently uploaded a new pattern to Ravelry, available for $4.99.

Meryton is an excellent cardigan to wear over a close-fitting top. It provides enough extra coverage to give you more outfits to wear to work or school, and it keeps the chill off your shoulders for a walk through town. That, plus the empire waste, suggested the Austen-inspired name.

My two test-knitters did superb jobs helping me to find the occasional error in the first draft, and they wound up with great FOs themselves. Thanks, Frick and Soprano1!

A few have asked: will this work on other body types? Yes, it will. The diamond shape of the lace crossover draws the eye up, which is generally where most of us fare best.

Happy knitting!

If Knits Could Speak

2010-06-08T09:30:00.007-06:00

Some of my recent FOs speak up on my behalf.

"Stand up straight, young lady."

Funny... I didn't actually intend to wear that dress that day. But then I tried it on to take pictures with this new bolero I had just finished, and the zipper got stuck in a major way. My fella had already left for work, so... I wore the blue dress.

(Pattern: Ribbed Lace Bolero)

"Maybe crochet isn't so bad after all."

(Pattern: Foamies)

"No, I'm not pregnant."

I just think Wii hands are cute.

(Pattern: Miittens)

Wisdom Tree

2010-05-31T15:12:00.004-06:00

I got no pithy intro this afternoon - it's a holiday, and my nap-addled brain is like a dehydrated fig. (Wait, is that pithy?)

At the beginning of this month, I finished this:

It's for the Arthouse 5x7 show. And y'know what? It sold the first night. Didn't expect that!

I called it Wisdom Tree. It's supposed to represent the tree from which Odin hung for a week while he figured things out; the eyeball is the man himself. (High concept? Me?) I imagine some folks might look for heavy interpretations, but in truth, it was all about "Dang I wish I could just finish this," since I had two days to start and finish, thanks to our recent move.

My fella also contributed a piece - which also sold. See the wall of artwork for sale? This was taken on the second night. Ours are right next to each other, the only ones with the tags taken. (To purchase at this show, you take a tag to the cashier.)

I have enough iffy things in my life without starting a career as a visual artist, too, so this is likely a one-off deal that was lots of fun.

The Creatures You Meet

2010-05-01T16:18:00.007-06:00

Yes, it's been a while.

So we bought a house.

And I didn't want to say anything, because for a while there it looked like it would all fall through. Then it didn't, and we had a house, and we had to move into the house. And I was like, blog? What? Do I have one of those?

But we're moved in now. It's way more suburban than we'd prefer, but there's this thing about price ranges and location.

On the upside, we have a yard. I've planted some things that will hopefully survive, and there's room for us to take crazy art projects (more on that later) outside where we won't destroy the wood floor.

On the downside... we have a yard. DANG it.

And suburban though this might be, I'm learning that having a yard brings you a little closer to nature. You take care of the lawn and observe every critter you see, in case its behavior turns invasive.

In fact...

We chose this morning to attack the lawn. I went as the vanguard, trowel and gloves at the ready, pulling weeds so the fella could mow. (And by the way, there is no faster way to age yourself and face the sudden reality that your hipster days are like so totally finished than to push a lawnmower around the place. Again: DANG it.) Everything was going swimmingly - and then, I spied something unusual:

At least, I thought it was unusual. I don't know, we're new to suburbia. Maybe these things crawl out of the sewers all the time.

But that's probably Florida. And this is Texas. Do they have free-range crawfish in Texas? Um.

He was still alive, too - he was crawling through the St. Augustine. I was willing to pick up the guy, but we had no idea where to put him. Should we be humanitarian and give him a shot at life? Or boil him ourselves?

Turns out, the neighbors are having a crawfish boil. He'd set down the cooler for a few minutes next to the house... and a couple escaped, and tried to make a run for it. Quite fresh and healthy little buggers, too: they were like five feet from where he'd set the cooler. The neighbor kindly picked up the stray crawfish and returned them to death row.

We combed the yard to make sure no more renegade crustaceans waited for us. After all - and I'm no expert - but I think that would gunk up the mower.

(DANG it.)

2010 SXSW update

2010-03-20T18:20:00.003-06:00

Currently I'm caught in a messload of stockinette on a sweater of original design, so I thought instead of knitting content I could provide you with an update on SXSW 2010.

Except I'm like totally sick. I'm pretty sure it's just a cold (if you trust the hack doctor at the clinic this a.m., and yeah, there really are hack doctors), but this has become perhaps my number-one worst cold of all time. I'm not issuing a challenge, mind. If there are worse colds out there, it's fine. I believe you. No need to prove it with me. All I'm saying is, this is a bad cold. It's even spread to my eyeballs, and that's the kind of detail right there that makes you lose readers.

I'm on drugs now - the fancy-schmancy prescription kind - but my SXSW participation level has been lacking. As in, zero. Which apparently raises me to the level of a True Austinite: Complain about the traffic, welcome the sudden and temporary burst of municipal income, tell people not to move here, but above all, do not participate in SXSW if at all possible. (Unless, you know, you're an income-generating business. But don't worry, folks, I'm in no danger of becoming one of those. I'm a writer.)

So instead of standing outside Shangri-La trying to get into the showcase of a new Icelandic jazz/hip hop-fusion label and wondering where the nearest pink Port-o-Potty is in case the last $6 Lone Star (special SXSW prices) I guzzled is going to demand action, or standing outside a movie theater wondering exactly how far into the wristband line they're going to go before declaring capacity and hacking off all the people who didn't want to buy a badge, I'm watching a clip on Discovery channel about a newcomer hippo hoping to defeat the overlord hippo in hopes of having a chance at one of the like 200 hippo chicks in the watering hole. And what I'm wondering is, if he loses, what's the overlord hippo gonna do? Boink all 200 ladies? Come on. He's a hippo, not a rabbit. How is this to the genetic advantage of the species?

I'm also nosing over to Twitter on occasion to see Tweets like this: "Woody Harrelson moving E on 6th St. Watch out." And I'm like, (1) Where did Woody start out? Sixth Street is pretty long, if you're on foot. Did he start out at Buffalo Billiards? If so, then he's really going through some heavy foot traffic. Or did he start at I-35, in which case he'll be dodging tight-pants hipsters and Chevy pickups coming in from the East side and teed off that all these fariners are messin' up their town? Give us a starting place, or we won't be able to "watch out," and before you know it, we'll be nose-to-nose with Woody and boy will he be mad at you for not having been more specific. (2) Leave poor Woody alone. Dude probably just wants to find a blue Port-o-Potty. 'Cause the $6 Lone Star.

Ravelympics: why the heck not

2010-03-16T16:01:00.003-06:00

Occasionally, I do strange things.

Back during Ravelympics, I made one of these.

It's a single-cell flagellate organism, knit from laceweight scraps.

It has little purpose other than to sit between the two panes of a picture frame, in the style of a microscopic slide.

I had a reason, if you must know. But every time I start to type it out, my nerdiness begins to appear socially fatal, and I think in this case it might be best to leave the world guessing.

Olympic rundown

2010-02-23T16:17:00.009-06:00

1. I finished a hat for Ravelympics:

Pattern: Sixteen-Cable Hat, by Circe Belles.
Yarn: Berroco Ultra Alpaca in Lovage. I love this yarrrrrn.
needles: sizes 6 and 8
notes: I think my gauge was off (didn't check). Two fewer rounds of ribbing, started decreases after third cable round instead of fourth. Love it; husband seal of approval ("I like the twisty bits").

2. I dyed yarn for Ravelympics:

I don't know what to use it for, because I suspect the base (Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb Sport, tag removed by the weirdo store so I don't know the colorway but it was white) is too scratchy to wear next to the skin. I'm not getting a "felt me" vibe off of this, either. Thoughts?

Still: look at what you can do with food coloring and Kool-Aid! Just mix your complementary colors until the Kool-Aid is coaxed out of neon status, and you can get almost anything.

3. My husband and I attended a curling league open house last Sunday. There were 600 people there.

4. Yes, I love the crazy pants of Norway.

5. SXSW is almost upon us. Brace for impact.

FO: Mitten Puppets

2010-02-16T10:37:00.003-06:00

A few weeks back, I finished a late Christmas gift for a couple friends of ours.

See? They're mittens...

and they're puppets!

The puppet faces only sort of resemble my friends themselves, but it's enough to get the point across. I'd suggest it as a great gift for any newlyweds in your life.

Pattern: Basic Mitten Pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (remembering to take at least 10% off her stitch count for each size, of course).
Yarn: Rowan Soft Baby, color SH004, less than one ball.
Needles: Size 5 bamboo DPNs, and oh my gosh has anyone told you how wonderful those feel? Very light and easy on the hands.
Notes: The embroidery is all scraps from the stash, in fingering and laceweight.

Defeating Bad Juju, One Skein at a Time

2010-02-06T18:50:00.005-06:00

Sometimes, you're in the middle of knitting a sweater for somebody, and a big reason comes along to stop knitting it. Sometimes you keep going with it, and along you float down De-Nile river, feeling increasingly sad about the state of the sweater, mean things that have happened, health care in America, every possible character flaw you might possibly possess, and the Amazonian rain forest.

A blog is not the place to discuss specifics of this sort, but rest assured, I'm still married. (Not that kind of sweater curse.)

In November, I abandoned one such case of denial. In a burst of highly effective catharsis, I frogged a partial sweater.

I used some of the yarn to make a gift bag for someone else.

With my new sewing machine, I sewed a lining out of a fabric whose color coordinates in a very clever way with emerald greens, browns, and grays. (Didn't shoot a picture, drat! Trust me?) The gift bag has been given, and with it some of that negative energy (dang, I sound like one of those people) has been defeated.

It was altogether for the best.

Help for Haiti donation: thank you!

2010-02-02T10:23:00.002-06:00

Thanks to everyone who purchased my pattern in the last two weeks. I don't have an enormous donation - with my own money I'm rounding it up to $12 - but it's $12 that ought to be given.

I am giving the money to Medicine Sans Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders today.

January Updates

2010-01-23T00:46:00.004-06:00

Man, oh man. I never get insomnia. My husband does (and not to be insensitive to his position, but try sleeping with an 800-pound gorilla with allergies and insomnia - it's more fun), but not me.

I do tonight. Let's make the most of it, shall we?

I'm interested in talking to some small-scale indie dyers, folks with great skills who have maybe set up their own Etsy shop and may be looking for another outlet for their wares. Everybody, search your stashes: whom can you recommend?

Everybody is already completely and totally aware that lots and lots of Rav designers are donating proceeds from their patterns to organizations participating in relief for Haiti. I joined in, and this is not a bid for me to get more sales. Honestly, if you want to make a bigger difference, donate directly rather than having part of your money sucked away to Paypal. If you were interested in purchasing my pattern or any of these other designers' patterns, now is a great time to do it.

Did you see that Ysolda raised over $6000 in a weekend that way? Holy moly.

I was amazed to see that the Fishens I knit on a whim in the fall have passed the 100-heart mark for favorites on Ravelry. That's pretty cool - and they weren't even the colors I really wanted.

I've got a couple test knitters cranking away on a cardigan I designed. FYI: test knitters are good. They catch things like me putting the repeat in the wrong place on the chart.

Endpaper Mitts FO with hand-dyed yarn

2010-01-19T10:51:00.004-06:00

Way back when, I tried dyeing for the first time with Kool-Aid. I really enjoyed the bright blue that came out. But turns out, it's really hard to match vivid robin's egg blue with anything else.

Fortunately, I'm married to a graphic designer who knows color theory. (He comes with other perks, too.) Sweet man: he sat down with me one day and went through some color sample books and some graphic design websites until we found the best combo possible from my stash. I typically go for two complimentary colors, but he reminded me that you can reach for another shade in the same general family, and sometimes those can "pop," too.

Last week, I finished these:

pattern: Endpaper Mitts by Eunny Jang
completed: January 12.
yarn: Knit Picks Bare, dyed with 2.5 packets of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, and Knit Picks Palette in Calypso Heather. What a shock, another blue-green yarn from Yours Truly.
made for: Now here's the thing. I ought to have used size 2.5 needles, but I don't own any, so I went down to size 2. Shocker: they're really snug on me, even after blocking with my handy-dandy new blocking T-pins. Not unbearably, but still. And I do have other gloves. Perhaps a gift for someone else.
mods: See above re: needle size. When will I learn?

Piecework Magaine: How could I almost forget?

2010-01-16T09:21:00.005-06:00

It's a good thing in the life of a writer when you become so accustomed to seeing your work in print that you forget that it is still awesome.

And it is.

If you get a chance, pick up the current issue of Piecework Magazine. My article "Knitting for the Stage" appears.

Can you figure out what this gentleman is wearing that was in fact knit by hand?

Fredric Stone as Jamy in the Utah Shakespearean Festival’s 2009 production of Henry V. (Photo by Karl Hugh.
Copyright Utah Shakespearean Festival 2009.)

Read the article to find out!

Coming Clean

2010-01-06T22:26:00.004-06:00

A Rav friend over at Briney Deep came clean about how big her stash has gotten. Six miles to be exact.

Huh. Well. You take the Rav stash feature, download it into Excel, sum up the column, do a little conversion...

Oh, mean.

THIRTY MILES. That's what I've got.

I did go to the yarn store this week -- research for something, honest -- but I couldn't buy anything. I just couldn't. The overwhelming feeling of knowing that I have THIRTY MILES of yarn at home waiting for me numbed my fingertips, I think.

I think I have my New Year's Resolution.

Things That Make Me Ecstatic

2009-12-23T22:36:00.003-06:00

Not just happy. ECSTATIC.

1. chocolate truffles from Trader Joe's: Okay, that goes without saying.

2. unagi sushi: HOLY CRAP why didn't someone tell me about this stuff years ago?!

3. Ysolda Teague's pattern Vine Yoke Cardigan: I know it's creepy, but my blog is a place of safety where I can say this: I have never had a rush of endorphins quite like the one I felt last night as I worked the right front of this sweater. All those things people keep saying about Ysolda's patterns? True! All of it, true. They are both pretty and absurdly pleasing to knit.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be disappearing for the remainder of this sweater.

Merry Christmas!

FO: Emergency Stocking!

2009-12-20T14:34:00.006-06:00

My family does stockings at Christmas. Always have. Growing up, my mother made each of our stockings. Now, there's a bit of a split in there, rather like geological strata can explain a past seismic event -- and not all of them match. I imagine she'd rather me not betray the detailed reality of our unmatching stockings, but here's the thing: she made them all, and they're all quite nice.

So it's ingrained in me that you make stockings. You do not purchase ready-made stockings at Target or anywhere else. Christmas stockings must be hand-made.

I got married last summer. The two of us will dash around the Central Time Zone for a total of four Christmases (five counting our own), and for the Christmas with my family, he'll need a stocking.

Thank goodness I had 4.5 balls of bulky green yarn in the form of SWTC Gianna (great stuff, bummer they discontinued it). I'm also of the belief that small amounts of novelty yarn can save your hide from time to time. This is one of those times.

Now, I'm the first to admit that this stocking is perhaps not the most beautiful stocking ever made. I can personally identify at least three major flaws, and as my husband pointed out, "The toes are stumpy."

Dude: That matters not when finishing a Christmas stocking days before it is to be put to use. I will probably frog it after it's done and put the yarn to use again on a better version some other December 14 when I realize suddenly that we are, as ever, a stocking short of a full-fledged Christmas.

pattern: Ann Budd's On Your Toes Socks (well, one of them, anyway)
completed: December 19, 2009
yarn: SWTC Gianna (discontinued, alas), a wool-soysilk blend; and Bernat Baby Boucle in white, an irritating yarn due to the tufty boucle bits but it worked for this.
made for: my fella
needles: size 11 for the Gianna and size 7 for the Boucle

FO: Giganamous Gloves

2009-12-15T10:43:00.006-06:00

I want to start by saying I have very long fingers. In school, music teachers would see my hands and stare longingly at them, and mention how useful it is to have long fingers when you play the [you name it]. Store-bought gloves never fit me quite right. My index finger is 3" long, and according to the glove sizing in Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns, that gives me man-sized hands.

This is how big I had to make my most recent pair of gloves:

The gentleman who asked for them has hands that are so big, they're literally off the chart. I had to work my own math to get the thumb gusset right.

As requested, the gloves have articulated fingers but no fingertips. (Thank goodness - fingertips are a pain in the rear to work.)

Here's another scale picture with the most recent pair of fingerless gloves I made, the Monet Mitts, in a women's M:

The new owner of these gloves happens to be an ENT surgeon, which is very impressive - although I'm not sure how he gets his fingers in there to do his stuff. You have to wonder, does he ever get one of his fingers stuck?

pattern: Basic Glove Pattern from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.
completed: December 13, 2009.
yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted. I bought this yarn at a trading post on the Navajo Reservation where they were selling it cheap. It's not locally spun, according to Brown Sheep - the store just doesn't mark it up much for whatever reason. But, the store was selling it in loose skeins, not wound up with ball bands like you see it everywhere else. That means, among other things, I can't be sure of the colorways. I used about 115 yards of the MC (Brown Heather?) and about 50 yards of the CC (Blue Blood Red?).
made for: a giant.
needles: size 7 dpns.

Negative Stash Flow

2009-12-12T08:49:00.003-06:00

I am just so clever sometimes, I could squeal.

I'm thinking of knitting resolutions for the New Year, and I've decided to try something new. The Happy Points experiment has worked beautifully, as I've described elsewhere. Now I'm adding a new layer: I want to achieve Negative Stash Flow.

For 2010, I need to have more yarn going out than coming in.

I will evaluate this on a month-by-month basis. I'm going to try out this counter to keep track.

I do believe a movement is in order. I don't have anywhere near the readership to start one myself, but if anybody out there feels like helping to make this viral, post away.

Happy Point Count: 80 flat. About to go down sharply to support my new idea for a sweater design.

Big Step

2009-12-08T12:40:00.005-06:00

I've gone and changed my Rav name. Given what a remarkably active dork I am on that site, this was not a decision taken lightly.

I'm now MightyGoodYarn, to match this blog and everything else.

If only changing one's legal name were as simple.

More to come.

The Accidental Rainbow

2009-12-06T20:26:00.005-06:00

I honestly didn't mean to come up with this:

But there I was, knitting blue, then the yarn when all pink and red on me, and before I knew it, in less than three days, there was practically a whole ROYGBIV thing going on in my lap.

It's enough to keep you up all night with suspense, just waiting to see what comes up next.

For my own re-edification (for the next time I make one of these cowls I will have forgotten how I did it the first time):

CO 73.
Work 4 rounds in seed stitch.
Work almost the entire ball in St st.
Work another 4 rnds in seed stitch.
Cast off using a stretchy bind-off. (Russian is my fav.)

Finished product is 7.5" by 10.5" (when laid flat).

Disclaimer: I'm sure someone else has published the above, so I hereby take no credit for reinventing a wheel.

Headlines Were Never My Thing

2009-12-01T22:33:00.003-06:00

A tad scrambled, a lot late. Life, it turns out, is consuming.

In brief:

1. We live in a top-floor apartment that somehow doesn't get any light except in the late afternoon, which during the winter means between 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Today I was home during those hours, but it rained cold rain and the skies were dark. Ergo, please excuse the utter lack of pictures.

2. I have finished many knitted things lately. Four items, to be exact, including one sweater. Do you think I could use a sick day so I could stay home and blog about them?

3. I do believe someone is pulling a prank on us. I-35 has been under construction as long as I've been aware that there was a highway called I-35 - like, 15 years? - yet it remains two lanes wide for most of the distance one has to travel on Thanksgiving weekend. (That is good for finishing socks, as it happens...)

4. Why is writing a cover letter to a resume such a soul-crushing job, when the goal is to say only nice things about yourself?

5. Why have they stopped making thermal blankets? There was nothing wrong with them.

6. Tomorrow, I go to a bar to report on mixed drinks as a professional journalist. This is, in fact, the second time I have been given the assignment of reporting on bars. Now, I had some good times in my early 20s, but overall the whole notion of me being positioned as an expert on Bloody Mary mix and mojito rankings is a bit funny when you realize that my idea of a nice evening is to cuddle with my honey under a thermal blanket finishing a pair of socks as it rains cold rain and the skies are dark.

One does what one can.

Name That Cardigan

2009-11-17T10:03:00.004-06:00

There's a point in your schedule at which having a whole lot of fulfilling activities suddenly becomes overwhelming, and those fulfilling activities lose a little of the appeal that made you sign up in the first place. It's like hitting peak oil: you're drawing more energy out of yourself than you can produce.

A sign that I have hit peak oil would be that I have been waiting three days to finish the final two inches of a shoulder seam on a cardigan I'm designing. I have a Netflix movie that has been sitting on our table for 9 days. The bathroom sink doesn't want to get undressed if the lights are on.

It's those final two inches that are bothering me the most.

Here's my original sketch of the cardigan:

This is my first sweater that I've designed, and it's actually gone very well, when I've had time for it. I don't have a name for it yet; I'm calling it a "Honeysuckle Cardigan" on my Rav page, but seems like there ought to be something more alluring than that.

If you're thinking of designing a sweater, here are some lessons I've learned as a first-timer:

1. Draw a sketch, even if you think you're a bad artist.
1(a). You're probably not that bad of an artist.
1(b). When you're halfway in and you're trying to remember how wide a lace panel you wanted, look back at the sketch. Things will change from start to finish, but this is how you record your original inspiration.

2. Read up on sleeves before you get too far. I am shocked that these sleeves appear to have worked out. (There's still a chance they'll fail - remember those two inches.)

3. Reduce bulk. Make a half-inch seam allowance instead of a full inch; do a three-needle bind-off at the shoulders.

4. Seam in bits and pieces to see how things are going.

5. Keep it simple. Someone (maybe Michelle Rose Orne?) said that you should focus on one inventive design element, and everything else should support that. That doesn't mean everything else is boring, just that you're creating an essay of sorts, and you need to remember what your thesis statement is.

6. Make thorough notes on your swatch. I did it on an index card which I'll probably staple to the swatch after the sweater's done, so I can have proof that it lied to me.

7. When all else fails, study the Anthropologie catalog. Those sweaters are genius.

FO: Fishens

2009-11-12T07:36:00.010-06:00

Before we get down to business, I'd like to bring up something. There ought to be a special word for the kind of person who plays his television at top volume early in the morning while he's in the shower and therefore can't see said television. How about... "douche-waster"?

Our downstairs neighbor has decided he'd like to be a douche-waster. So that's why I'm up this early.

I also have a list of FOs and WIPs that is beginning to make me feel guilty. That right there is not a good sign. I just started contributing to a for-profit blog (hard launch next week, I'll tell you about it then), one that requires five posts per week, and the last thing I want is for this project (slightly paid though it may be) to start gouging into this blog and my knitting time. I may not have a choice.

Quick projects are good in a stressful time, and a couple weeks ago, I finished up these baby mittens, which I'm calling Fishens for now:

I suppose the pattern is mine in that the concept is mine, but it's really a Frankenstein of two patterns, neither of which originated in my brain: Baby Mittens (which I've made before) and Wishy Washy Fishy Tawashi.

They took about two weekend days to complete, which doesn't count my false start after I decided I didn't like the colors I was using before and frogged the first attempt. In fact, if I had scrap sock yarn that was machine-washable, I would certainly have chosen brighter colors, but this is what I had, and given the state of the current embargo on yarn buying, I went with it.

I started these Fishens without a recipient in mind, but then the fella pointed out that he's subbing for someone who's on maternity leave from work, and it was a good opportunity to make nice. Turns out, she adores them and now wants pairs for all her friends.

I sure don't have time for whatever number "all of her friends" turns out to be, but it's nice the Fishens are appreciated.

pattern: Fishens, a combo of two other patterns (see above).
completed: October 25, 2009.
yarn: The Woolen Rabbit merino/nylon sock yarn (colorway: Rosemary and Thyme) and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid (colorway: chino)
made for: professional advancement
needles: size 2 dpns

Multiplication Tables

2009-11-03T11:24:00.003-06:00

Last night I cast on for a pair of men's gloves requested by a friend. This friend has enormous hands. His wrists are 8" in diameter. His knuckles are 9.5" in diameter. (A woman's medium is usually about 6"/7.5".) There is no one in my household with hands like that, so I am making these gloves somewhat blindly, with only my hasty measurements to guide me.

Here's the math: at a gauge of 20 sts/4", an eight-inch wrist means 40 stitches, minus the standard 10 percent for ribbing.

(Did you know you subtract at least 10 percent on ribbing, to make it snug? You do.)

I decided to cast on 36 stitches. What's 36 divided between 3 needles? Why, 13 of course.

Sigh.

In other news, tomorrow I'll be returning to the third grade, where we learn things like multiplication and division.

Happy Point Count: 63. I have my next yarn order all picked out, but oddly enough, we have no money. I appear to have discovered a flaw in the Happy Point system, wherein previously I had assumed that I would have least that much money to spend on yarn once I'd earned the points. In fact, income has proved to be an independent variable, and long story short, we're damned poor right now, thankyouverymuch RECESSION. (Yeah, I'm talking at you.)

But good golly, Molly. If and when things turn around for us, can you imagine the colossal box of yarn that will arrive at our doorstep? Not just yarn: books, clothes, the entire stock of Anthropologie... A dresser from Pottery Barn... My sweetie wants a PS3...

Adventures Abound

2009-10-25T16:22:00.011-06:00

We're trying new things around here.

First, I had a coupon for Greenling, an organic grocery home delivery service. They offer a lot of local foods, which are hard to find when you start looking.

Turns out, local foods really are better -- it's the freshness. On Saturday, we had my usual "throwpot pasta" (throw whatever you have into a pot and put it over pasta) with half a pound of ground beef from a cow who lived in nearby Bastrop and ate a lot of grass. OH MY GOODNESS. You could smell and taste the difference -- absolutely fresh meat, bright red when it was raw, that tasted superb. Also, meat from locally raised livestock may still involve the death of an animal, but the animal lived in better conditions and the negative environmental impact is drastically lessened by the reduced distance the meat has to travel.

We also got a half-dozen fresh eggs form a local farm in the same drop-off box. Four of them did their part in a key lime pie:

It didn't last long enough for a virgin photo.

I followed the recipe in Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and the ingredients roughly include the following:

9 Graham crackers
sugar
LOADS of butter
the yolks of four farm-fresh eggs
a little bit of lime juice
later,
the four egg whites
confectioner's sugar
a pinch of cream of tartar and salt
a call to my mother to ask if it really takes that long to beat meringue: "It's faster if you have a mixer." / "Yeah, I don't think we have one."
a plea to my husband who generously turned his arm to the meringue when mine threatened to fall off, followed by, "You know we have a mixer, don't you?"

Lastly, I finally found the time to unpack my brand...
new...
sewing machine!

Thanks to Kara and Consumer Reports, I settled on a Brother Innovis-40 machine, and this weekend I tried it out on a simple repair job. It ain't pretty, but that's one sports bra that'll have another few years of use left. I've got a skirt pattern and some cotton-hemp fabric waiting for when my courage rises.

By the way, I put money down for all the products mentioned here. Just in case anybody's wondering if Brother decided to send me a free sewing machine. (Say, that's a pretty good idea, now that I mention it...)

Lace: How to Read a Chart

2009-10-21T21:30:00.003-06:00

Tonight, I tried to pick up where I left off on my Traveling Roses Scarf:

I had the chart in front of me, and I stared and I stared for minutes and minutes. Dinner was on the verge of burning, but I couldn't tear myself away from that chart until I deduced properly where I'd left off. I began to mutter, to curse, to squint. How could I be so lost? How could it be this impossible to find my place? I'd only put it down less than two weeks ago! Confoundit, that stupid, mother-effing piece-of-crap pattern written by the biggest b--

Oh.

I was holding the paper upside-down.

Navajoland: Come for the Unemployment, Stay for the Dust

2009-10-18T14:33:00.007-06:00

(Which is not to be disrespectful to the Navajo. I think most Navajo would in fact appreciate the dark humor. And to be fair, there was an awful lot of dust.)

As I mentioned, the other week I went on a volunteer trip to the Navajo Reservation. We worked on the roof of a house that was about ten minutes from town. Behind the house was a view like this:

Next door to the dorm was a trading company with a wall like this:

I accomplished many things.

Happy Point Count: 52. It was significantly higher, but see that picture? These folks are selling Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb for $4.25/skein, and Lamb's Pride for $4.50/skein. Plus I was lonely, and I'd like to point out that some people shoot heroin when they get lonely.

FO: Selbu Modern, DK'd

2009-10-13T20:21:00.004-06:00

The list of items I am intending to showcase here is sort of appalling, in that it's very long and I have the attention span of a turnip this week. That's what happens when you endure five and a half days of dust storms in rural New Mexico, much of it from atop the roof of a house where your cell phone just looks back at you and blinks rather than attempt any meaningful contact with the outside world.

Just sayin'.

Where was I?

I finished this a few weeks ago in September:

Apologies for the bathroom-mirror shot. I try to avoid those, but the odd part of finally living in a nice apartment is that there is no direct light against a bare wall anywhere in here.

This yarn is unbelievably awesome. Soft, soft, soft, and the colors behave excellently together, precisely in the opposite way of a dust storm and my sinuses.

pattern: Selbu Modern, by Kate Gagnon Osborn.
completed: September 28, 2009.
yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca & Silk (1 skein each of 127 (blue) and 132 (yellow), 146 yards each).
made for: me.
needles: size 1 and 3 circs.

Permit me to show off like your Cousin Buster last Thanksgiving and tell you about my mathematical prowess. See those decreases at the top? There are seven repeats in there. Yup, seven. Pattern calls for eight. I used a DK yarn instead of light fingering, and all my calculations (many of which involved the quantity pi) turned out righty-right-right. I'm just sayin'.

This pattern is a super one if you're not sure about your colorwork skills; there are only two strands throughout. Plus, it's beautiful. I've got my eye on Jared Flood's Beaumont Tam next!

Sock yarn prizes are awesome.

2009-09-27T18:43:00.006-06:00

I've won a prize in the House Cup for my Monet Mitts!

I'm terrifically excited about the prize, too: my pick of one of pacasha's sock yarns from her etsy shop. I've already told her which one is my favorite, but it was a hard decision. Can you guess which one I chose?

Thanks, vberry, for nominating those mitts for a prize. I'm very flattered, and I'm having an excellent time so far with the Cup!

Another update soon, I hope. I just got back into town and I'm leaving again for a week on Friday, but in between wondering where all my white socks have gone and imperfectly timing the depletion of groceries, I plan to post some more pics.

Today's Happy Point Count: 56. Unpacking my suitcase right after I return home has always been such a challenge... until now!

Bylines: Interweave Knits

2009-09-16T07:21:00.006-06:00

I just got word in the comments section that Interweave Knits Weekend has arrived in a few mailboxes. If you've got an eagle-eye, you'll notice that I contributed the Ravelings feature to this issue!

The column is about how I combine motivation to finish housework and my yarn addiction to great effect. Seriously -- great effect.

I employ what is known around our household as the "Happy Point System." (To learn more, pick up a copy of the magazine.) I've been itching to write about Happy Points since I first started using them for myself, and now I can mention them freely. To that end, you might even start to see the occasional Happy Point counter at the bottom of a blog post.

Welcome, new readers. Thanks for visiting.

Today's Happy Point Count: 45. Took a big hit on our honeymoon in June; still recovering.

New Design: Monet Mitts

2009-09-13T20:01:00.012-06:00

Strong color variegation and color pooling make for two of the trickiest challenges in knitting, in my book. I love the sight of bright blues and muted browns in the same skein, or bright pinks and subtle greens together. Yet when they are knit up, often I am disappointed in the awkward color pooling or a muddy mix of the shades in the colorway. True, it’s a personal-preference thing—lots of knitters love that look—but I know many knitters who sadly turn down a creatively dyed skein because, like me, they’re worried about how the end product could ever be something they’d enjoy.

After shopping at a professional dyer’s studio on vacation this summer, I walked away in possession of two skeins of yarn with sharp contrast: deep blues to lime green, and bright pinks to yellows. For me it was an unusual choice, but an idea occurred to me. What if you use a particular stitch to deliberately pool the colors and highlight certain shades?

The colors of the blue-to-green skein put me in mind of Monet’s Nymphéas series of paintings - you know, the ones with the water lilies. The inexact nature of impressionist depiction is helpful, because it concentrates more on how light hits objects at a particular moment in time rather than sharp, clear lines delineating each object.

From this concept, I created the Monet Mitts.

They are standard fingerless gloves with 2x1 ribbing at the cuff and top edge and a gusset for the thumb. Wherever I encountered three or four inches of lime green in the yarn, I made a daisy stitch to bring out the color. After, I used bits from the pink-to-yellow skein to embroider small blooms on the lily pads.

Here is an image from Monet’s Nymphéas (1904), for comparison:

This concept could be made to work with a variety of colorways to create the impression of clouds against the sky, wildflowers sprinkled across a meadow, or any other irregular color patterns occurring in nature.

What follows is more of a tutorial than a pattern, because it relies so heavily on a specific type of yarn that may not be widely available.

I used Sweetgeorgia Yarns Superwash Sport in the Lake Park colorway for these gloves; again, it’s not a mass-produced yarn, so keep your eyes out for another yarn that would work. You’ll know you’ve got a good yarn if the contrast color (the one you want for your “lily pads”) appears in sections of about three or four inches for lighter weight yarns, and up to six inches for worsted yarns. The contrast color should occur roughly once every twelve to thirty-six inches. I don’t possess enough skill as a dyer to create my own yarn for this sort of project, but for those dyers who do, this is the basic look you want in your yarn.

Here's a picture of how long a stretch of contrasting color you'll be looking at for this stitch pattern:

I’ll write up the directions for these exact gloves at the bottom, but keep in mind that the technique can be applied to most any knitted project you please: gloves, hats, cowls, even sweaters if you’re so inclined. Refer to designers such as Ann Budd or Elizabeth Zimmerman who have provided reliable basic templates for knitted garments.

For gloves, cast on the required number of stitches, and knit the first round in regular ribbing. After that first round, you can begin with the daisy stitch each time you come across a section of contrast color.

Daisy stitch: k3tog but keep stitches on left needle, yo, and k3tog into same three stitches.

On the following round, when you get to the daisy stitch, just knit across the tops of all three stitches. If you’re in the ribbing section, still knit across the top of the daisy stitch; wait until the following round to return to the ribbing.
Don’t work any daisy stitches on your bind-off round.

Now, not to be confusing, but to make those little blooms, take a yarn in a sharply contrasting color and do what cross-stitchers refer to as a "lazy daisy stitch." Yup, daisies all around. All you do is make a loop, and before pulling the yarn all the way through, you catch it with the needle.

You know what? Here's a tutorial. :) Main thing is, do two of them overlapping.

Here’s a close-up of the (lazy) daisy stitch(es):

Here are some “special situations” you might encounter:

The yarn has me lined up to knit a daisy stitch directly on top of another daisy stitch. You can either knit across and let the contract color blend in with the daisy stitch below, or you can go ahead and k3tog into the lower daisy stitch. The result of the second option will look messy, but it might also be something that works if you’re looking for an impressionist-like effect.

The section of contrast color is too long for the three stitches of the daisy stitch. Try wrapping the yarn around the right needle an extra time on your YO. That will create four loops from the daisy stitch; when you come around again on the next round, treat that middle loop as you would a drop-stitch, and only knit into one loop. Let the other go loose, which will in turn loosen up the entire daisy stitch.

Here's what the four-loop stitch daisy stitch will look like, while the loops are still live:

If you have even more of the contrast color to work with, then you can k3tog, yo, k3tog, yo, k3tog, which will create five loops from a single daisy stitch. This increases two stitches, so on the next round, knit the rightmost loop of the daisy stitch together with its neighbor to the right, and do a ssk with the leftmost loop of the daisy stitch and its neighbor to the left. That will decrease two stitches, giving you the correct number overall.

Daisy stitch makes my knuckles hurt. Mine, too. Sorry to hear it. Put the project down for a day and go work on some therapeutic lace instead.

For those looking for a basic glove pattern, here is what I did, in plain English.

I cast on 36 stitches and knit one round in 2x1 ribbing. I knit 2.25 inches of ribbing, then increased one (to get to an odd number) on the first round of stockinette.

After that first stockinette round, knit halfway around (in my case, 18 stitches). Place a marker, incr 1, k1, incr 1, place a marker, and knit to the end. Knit two rounds.

Now increase one stitch at each marker every three rounds until you have a total of 49 stitches. This creates your thumb gusset. Knit more stockinette until the gloves are long enough for your hands—usually another three rounds—and put the thumb stitches on some scrap yarn. Knit the hand in stockinette until it’s 6.75 inches, increasing every three rows until you have 39 stitches. Knit six rounds of 2x1 ribbing, and bind off with a Russian cast-off, or another loose or stretchy bind-off technique.

Go back to the thumb and pick up the 13 stitches, plus a few on the inside of the thumb to close up the gap between thumb and hand. Knit four rounds of stockinette, decreasing once each round until you have 15 stitches. Knit two rounds of 2x1 ribbing, and bind off as above.

FO: It's disgusting. I'm warning you!

2009-09-05T15:53:00.010-06:00

I never in a million years thought I'd go this far.

The House Cup has begun (Go Ravenclaws! Woot!). We have six classes, a Quidditch tournament, and optional OWLs. It's quite a workload -- and a positively stupid amount of fun. Stick the House Cup blog in your readers if you'd like to follow along!

I have already turned in my first assignment, this one for Defense Against the Dark Arts, along with the required essay. (Note: It's disgusting, and you've been warned.)

Every summer for wizards and witches living in Texas features at least one battle with the infamous cockiroaccus villiferous (common name: evil cockroach). A close cousin to what is more commonly known among muggles as “just a plain old cockroach,” the evil cockroach does in fact possess disturbing magical properties, despite all the jerks out there who keep claiming, “What? It can’t hurt you.” Little do they know.

The evil cockroach is found in Texas, Mexico, and the equatorial region of the Western hemisphere (unlike its non-magical cousin, which is more widespread). It is approximately two inches in size, not counting the antennae, and moves at short bursts of speeds up to 30 mph (48 kph). Known magical properties include causing the human skin to crawl (see endnotes re: documented case of Miss Garabella Gordon, whose epidermis crawled four meters to the left before returning to its proper place upon vanquishing the evil cockroach); flight; psychic devastation, or the dementor-like removal of all coherent thought from any sentient beings who catch sight of it; and, on occasion, a bite that causes chronic nightmares in the victim for years to come.

The evil cockroach primarily lives outside and feasts on basically anything. Because of a serious overpopulation in the Texas region, they often encroach on wizard and witch habitats, appearing underfoot at the absolute worst possible time.

The evil cockroach is vanquished in one of a few ways. The swift, heartless application of a shoe is effective but leaves a mess that can have almost the same effect as the live organism. Pesticides derived from the magical raidius spraecano plant are effective, if applied with good aim. Curiously enough, the summoning of a patronus also banishes the evil cockroach with little mess, thus proving the oft-preferred method among wizard and witches. Researches speculate that the patronus works on this dementor-like creature because of its ability to instill irrational fear; studies are forthcoming.

My own recent experience includes an encounter with an evil cockroach. Despite unflagging efforts at cleanliness in my home, one such creature was found in the kitchen.

As I am particularly susceptible to the evil cockroach’s dastardly powers, I called for my husband to come kill it. He came to my aid.

“Is it a boggart or the real thing?” he asked. He is aware that boggarts typically appear to me as an evil cockroach.

“I don’t care!” I screeched. “Just do something about it.”

“Expecto patronum,” he said with a flick of his wand. His patronus, a big orange cat, appeared at the end of his wand, took one look at the evil cockroach, and in a fit of disinterest, went to the couch where he promptly started grooming himself.

“That stupid cat,” I grumbled.

“What? He’s cute,” my husband protested, and went over to play with the cat, who eagerly received his behind-the-ear scratches until he dissipated.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself,” I said. I pulled out my wand, and I summoned my courage. “Expecto patronum!” I shouted. (Shouting the spell in a blind rage can often increase its strength against the evil cockroach.)

My patronus appeared, a cute little chimp.

He ambled over to the cockroach, picked it up, and smashed it on the counter. The evil cockroach turned over onto its back and began wiggling its legs, a sign that it is close to death.

My patronus didn’t want to wait, however; with one hand, he pounded the bug into many pieces before eating the remains and then vanishing.

Though I still shudder at the memory of this spectacle, I hope my account will add to any efforts to help the wizarding world avoid any further encounter with the evil cockroach.

Epilogue: If I see it out of the corner of my eye, this FO still gives me the willies, and I’m the one who made it! Fortunately, an editor I occasionally write for enjoys a fascination with insects and spiders. I have already sent it to him.

kitty pic used with permission from martinimade.

ETA: I forgot the real project info!

I free-formed this little critter. In fact, it was a disgusting experience to make him, once I had to sew together the body to the back. (No, I'm not going to look up scientific terms for cockroach anatomy, because that would involve looking at pictures of real ones, nothankyou.) I used Knit Picks Shadow (laceweight) for the body, legs, and antennae, and Plymouth Yarns Encore DK for the body and head.

I was going to describe the process I followed to make the thing, but you know what? Not gonna! There are enough of the real ones in this world without anybody else going and knitting up a fake one.

I'm off to play with lace before dinner -- something that doesn't have legs!

A Romantic FO: Storm Water Scarf

2009-09-01T20:32:00.004-06:00

Sunday evening I finished my Storm Water Scarf, precisely one year after I cast on.

Funny story, that: my then-boyfriend and I were set to leave town for a quick trip down to San Antonio. Like any good knitter, I was scrambling to prepare a project to take on the road. As many others have found, winding Handmaiden Sea Silk into a ball with a swift can be disastrous--and this day, it was. I called my fella in a panic, telling him, "Don't worry! I'll be there! It's just, it's the yarn, it's all screwed up!"

Here's the funny part: my fella was at his (now our) apartment, waiting for the third hand-delivery of an engagement ring. It was the third delivery because the shop screwed it up twice: first they ordered the wrong ring. The second time they forgot the engraving. By the third time, my fella made it clear that they needed to bring it to him, in time for him to take it with us to San Antonio on THAT DAY. It was ten minutes before we were to leave, and still no ring.

Mind you, I had no clue about any of this. I did not take him ring shopping at any time. Total surprise, all around, and very sweet.

"Take all the time you need," he told me calmly.

"Thanks," I said. "You're the best."

Fortunately, the ring arrived. We had a beautiful, lovely time, and I can't think of any time ever in my life when I've enjoyed such a beautiful surprise.

Oh, and the yarn? I got it worked out, too.

I wore it out on a sort-of anniversary date last night to El Chile. After, we went to the Amy's Ice Cream where we met, and wow: the gal serving us asked me about it, and a couple in line liked it so much she asked for my card to see if I could make one for her, too. Not bad for a fresh FO!

pattern: Storm Water Scarf by Nancy Lobban.
yarn: Handmaiden Fine Yarns Sea Silk (fingering; 70% silk, 30% Seacell; color: Pale Autumn).
finished: August 30, 2009.
needles: size 8 bamboo circs. The yarn is slick enough that the bamboo made a difference.
mods: I ignored the direction to alternate between ends of the skein every other row. I think that's to prevent bad color pooling, but I didn't have a problem with it.

New Design: High-Temp Hemp

2009-08-27T22:29:00.009-06:00

I'm pleased, proud, and all-around excited to introduce a new pattern to the online knitting world: High-Temp Hemp, a special celebration of the summer heat.

Hemp fiber is an ideal match for Texas summers, when temperatures regularly hang out at 103 (39.5 Celsius). It’s tough and lightweight; it softens to the touch after a good wash; and it has a memory to rival that of wool. Unfortunately, hemp isn’t a fiber that gets a lot of design support outside of market bags and washcloths. What’s needed are patterns that take advantage of hemp’s unique qualities but can still converse with current fashion trends.

This triangular shawl consists mainly of a loose stockinette, which compensates for hemp’s rough texture on your hands while knitting. The regular, narrow stripes create an even visual structure to balance the uneven look that hemp naturally gives stockinette. At the edge is a modified feather-and-fan stitch pattern whose gentle curve softens the overall look. I chose neutral colors with low contrast as an answer to the harshness of the summer heat.

I am testing the waters of pattern sales, and here's my experiment: the first twenty-five downloads will be free. After that, the pattern will be available for only $1.99 through Ravelry. Tell your friends! But first, grab yourself a free copy before the weekend hits.

EDIT: Holy smokes! Those free twenty-five went FAST! I'm flattered and thrilled, and I can't wait to see what folks come up with when they start to knit.

Leave a comment if you run into tech/knitting problems, and I'll respond straight away.

FO: Cozy Hand Warmers

2009-08-25T08:42:00.008-06:00

aka, More Stash-busting!

My mother and I joined an enjoyable yarn crawl in the fall of 2007 that toured several shops around Central Texas. She and I also amassed quite the collection of random, one-ball freebies. This ever-so-seldom, rarer-than-a-bloody-steak urge I'm having right now to stash-bust lead me finally to finish off one of these freebie balls.

pattern: Cozy Hand Warmers by Joelle Hoverson, in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, also found here for free.
completed: August 16, 2009.
yarn: Tahki Yarns New Tweed (silk, cotton, rayon, merino; 92 y; color 036; 1 ball).
made for: a silent charity auction, to benefit a group participating in the Four Corners Native American Ministry of the UMC (basically, building repair on the Navajo Reservation). They brought in a whopping $5, but since the yarn was free...
needles: size 5 bamboo DPNs.
notes: I went down a needle size for a more snug fit. Also note that I changed the direction of the ribbing for the second glove; the light hits it funny here, but it's all just 2x2 rotating ribbing.

In order to kill off an entire ball of yarn, I knit down from the top on each, stopping the first glove when I got to half the ball (thank you, kitchen scale) and knitting the second glove until I polished off the ball. It wound up being I think 30 rows after you close up the thumb opening. The yarn is vanquished.

Oh, and do you like these glove-blockers? They actually weren't for blocking, I just decided I needed something to show shoppers at the auction what on earth these things are (they don't look like much on their own). I used the cardboard backing from a legal pad, traced one hand, cut it out, then used that as the pattern for the other hand reversed. I stylized them a bit by intentionally cutting inside the lines on the first "hand."

The Sorting Hat Cometh

2009-08-20T20:14:00.004-06:00

And not quickly enough!

I have a new obsession. It engages my unavoidable competitive spirit in a fun atmosphere, offers the possibility for (limited) fame and glory, and... involves knitting!

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GROUP?

The Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup Group (hereafter referred to as the HPKCHC Group) is gearing up for their fourth term. I only just learned about it on Wednesday and I joined right away.

It took me a couple days of studying the FAQ and asking a few questions to figure out which way was up, but here's the gist: You sign up with a Google form and state your preferences for which house you'll be sorted into. (Cross your fingers for me: I come from a long line of respectable Ravenclaws.) Sign-ups end midnight on August 28, and some remarkable volunteers will take care of the sorting.

Some other remarkable volunteers are acting as teachers of the six classes to be offered for the next three months. Each month, every teacher assigns a project along a theme relating to their class. (For example, the Herbology professor might assign a project made out of bamboo one month. You pick the pattern, etc.) You earn points for your house by posting a photo of a completed project before the end of the month, and after looking through some FOs from past "terms," I gotta tell you, there are some very creative knitters playing this game.

Teachers nominate projects for special recognition, and you can even win actual donated prizes from this.

The term starts September 1, and I am so excited that I'm crazy-stupid-excited.

Go sign up if it interests you! It offers an excellent stash-busting opportunity and a great chance to show off your creativity to what looks like a very fun sub-sub-sub-community.

(Plus I want more people to dork-out with.)

The Great Stash-Bust of 2009, pt. 2

2009-08-19T16:39:00.004-06:00

I have about an hour to burn after work before I meet a friend/fellow playwright for dinner. I decided to complement my current stash-busting craze with a handwritten list of all projects from my queue for which I currently own all required supplies -- no yarn purchases allowed.

I have 44 projects on my list.

If you eliminate the overlap (only one skein of Seasilk available, but two patterns that call for it), that number only goes down to 40.

Dear. Me.

I'd better get crackin'.

Here's a sample list, along with their yarn-buddies:

Tangled Yoke Cardigan with some Rowan Felted Tweed (Thanks, Mom! Love you!)
Honeybunch with a skein of pale blue Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud
Winecozy from some old Gedifra Fashion Trend Stripe
Yellow Ladders Purse (in blue) with some novelty yarn frogged from an old scarf
Habitat from a skein of Malabrigo Worsted

In other news: I decided the Knit Picks Palette in Mint was valuable enough to warrant an actual ebay auction. If you're interested, check it out here.

Design: on the horizon

2009-08-16T08:12:00.004-06:00

Look at what I'm cooking up.

The pattern is written up and needs a quick edit, a quick layout, and some pictures. I'm releasing it myself, and I'll offer it free for a limited time.

I'm excited to show it to you. I finished blocking on Friday, and I've worn it out three times since. Easily the most useful FO in my collection!

The Great Stash-Bust of 2009

2009-08-15T10:35:00.005-06:00

Last night I felt the powerful urge to sort through my stash. My husband was safely ensconced in a series of Call of Duty II death matches, and I thought it would be safe.

Wouldn't you know it, but the guy just had to get up and get a drink of water and then decide, "Wouldn't this be a nice time to throw away this crumpled-up paper towel, which will take me within view of the doorway to the room where my wife is sorting through her stash?"

Crap. Now he knows. He even let out a yelp when he saw it all spread out on the floor.

Fortunately, I was already trying to figure out what bits need to move on. Click here for the Flickr group of stash yarns for resale. You can also check out my page of trade/sell yarns on Ravelry. Below is a sampling of the wares, including some Knit Picks Palette and a couple hand-dyed yarns:

I'm hoping to expand this list and hopefully add some more quality yarns to the batch, so please check back in the next few days, and email me at lizcobbeATgmail-DHAT-com if any of these look attractive to you.

A Day of Small Victories

2009-08-07T22:33:00.006-06:00

You know how I love my lists.

1. At roughly 2 p.m. this afternoon, my s9 Travian alliance smoked a regular attacker who was trying to farm my village. And when I say smoked, I mean to say we lost 800 troops and he lost 1500 troops, plus catapults, in the first round, and catapults in two successive attacks with a total of 37 catas lost, and over 400 cavalry lost. I even made the top 10 defenders of the week. Am I a dork? Sure. Did I get a thrill akin to sniping an ebay auction for a handpainted lace merino-bamboo blend? Heck, yes.

2. This evening I attended Scottish Rite Theatre's opening night of As You Like It. I wasn't assigned to review it (good show, guys!). But I was specifically invited to attend, so I thought I should go anyway. Beforehand, I was sort of mopey about it -- it's like going to work voluntarily. But then I showed up, I saw that they had free wine, and I realized the bonus that comes with attending a show but not reviewing it.

Boy, oh boy. Shakespeare is, like, totally backwards when you're buzzed. If you're sober, it takes 15 minutes of confusion before you understand the verse; then 15 minutes of sort-of-understanding; then you're pretty much good to go. If you've had a lot of cabernet sauvignon beforehand, you're brilliant for 15 minutes, sort of confused for a bit after that, and the rest of the show... Huh?

3. Also a bonus of not reviewing a show: I knit on a sock almost the whole time. Did they think I was rude? Perhaps. But I sure did have a nice time with my cabernet sauvignon buzz and my chino cool sock. And I've always liked that Rosalind speech to Phoebe about her market value.

4. At intermission, I was stretching my legs past a table with lots of attractive goodies on it. Someone in charge walked by and asked how many raffle tickets they'd sold.

"Only three so far!" said the lady.

"Three?" I reviewed the table. The tickets were only $2. I had $2.

Mind you, I never win raffles. Ever! Do you know how many knitting blog contests I've entered? Do you know? I have entered so many contests. I never win any of them. I never win poopy poop poop. No lottery tickets (obviously), no door prizes, no drawings, no nothing.

Guess who won tonight?

If the odds are good enough, even I apparently stand a chance of winning a $40 gift certificate to Botticelli's and a $20 gift certificate to Downstairs Apparel. Date night!

5. To round things up, here's a picture of the sock. No, that's not As You Like It, of course. That's a husband-preferred viewing of Die Hard II as John McClane voluntarily leaps into danger. "Nobody sends out McClane!" he informed me tonight. "McClane sends McClane."

Yipee-kie-yay, Mr. Finch.

So not necessarily my triumph, but the fella tells me he wanted so much to watch a Die Hard movie tonight, and there was one. Plus, he bought a peach pie from Whole Foods.

A rather nice day, don't you think?

Confessions: A Queue Problem

2009-08-03T22:08:00.001-06:00

I know how this must sound, but...

Do you ever get to a point where you look through your Ravelry queue of 356 patterns and think, "I have nothing to knit"?

Married Life: The Male Sense of Humor

2009-07-30T07:16:00.005-06:00

I married the fella knowing full well that he loves to tell the kind of jokes that are designed to make me roll my eyes and swat him on the arm. Whenever I do, he starts giggling like a little boy, and his shoulders do this shrug-thing that boys do when they are oh-so-happy.

Part of me wants to follow my mother’s grade-school advice: “Ignore them, and they’ll stop.” But it gives him so much pleasure, I’m not sure what’s worse: the fatigue of swatting him on the arm 17 times a day, or the strain of ignoring his ribald humor.

Example: I can’t say the word “balls” at any time without incurring said ribaldry. Soccer balls, tracker balls, pinball machines, ball bearings, fancy-dress balls, ball-and-socket joints... Can’t say it without him talking about his own. I am pretty sure he holds back at work, and I get a double-dose at all other times. He loves it.

Or another example: Yesterday he asked how much an article I’m writing will pay. “I’m not sure,” I said. “They do it by column inches.”

Maybe you have the imagination to figure out what he said next.

Swat.

So I was talking to my parents on the phone the other night, and my dad made a comment that I am so not going to repeat here, but I can tell you he wouldn’t have made that comment if my mom hadn’t been on the phone. And that little sigh of resignation she gave after? Yeah. He freakin’ loved it.

Last weekend, the fella and I drove to Mississippi to visit my grandparents. At dinner on Saturday night, the fella made a joke at my expense. Not exactly gross humor, and not mean-spirited. But at my expense. My grandmother rolled her eyes.

My grandfather smiled at the fella with the biggest, most beatific smile.

This means that, among other things, I am most definitely screwed.

This is the magnolia tree in my grandparents' front yard. Its branches have been summited by many a cousin.

Schuyler

2009-07-28T09:04:00.007-06:00

Sometimes, events take away every bit of what little power life grants us.

A member of an active Ravelry group in which I have participated for the past year recently gave birth. The baby died less than an hour later. There was no indication in advance that this would happen.

They named her Schuyler.

In response, several Ravelers in the group and some beyond have knit blanket squares. A big-hearted soul in Toronto will seam them together and send them to Schuyler’s mom.

As I worked on a square, I began to wonder what I was doing it for. Yes, to bring some comfort to Schuyler’s parents. Yet, is there perhaps some bit of superstitious selfishness at work, too? In knitting one, then two, then three squares for this blanket, isn’t there a small part of me that hopes if I knit these squares as best I can, then perhaps this sort of tragedy will pass me by?

But then, on each square as I approached the cast-off, I decided that no, that would not be the reason I made these squares. That would not be why we are all feverishly working to churn out a huge blanket as fast as our fingers and the post office will let us.

Death leaves us with so little ability to say or do anything. Let’s do the very best that we possibly can, and let the universe know.

Schuyler lived. She was loved.

That cannot ever be changed.

Raccoon: The New Squirrel

2009-07-27T07:38:00.004-06:00

I'm working through a shallow backlog of posts. Upcoming: blanket squares, Mississippi travels, sock ribbing.

For now:

This is a picture taken just outside the rental office of our apartment complex during the day. One night a few weeks ago, we saw a raccoon taking a drink from the fountain. Then, he blew our minds.

He hopped up on the pedestrian rail. Then, he proceeded to climb up the vertical stone column and onto the wooden beams above. He didn't scamper like a squirrel; he painstakingly chose each handhold and foothold and, just like a human rock climber, made his way up about six feet of vertical wall to where he wanted to go.

And you thought you were safe in Texas.

Best of Blog Blackout Excuses

2009-07-18T15:24:00.005-06:00

Whoopsies. I had such a good stream going there.

I'll tell you what got in the way. Here's the culprit: Lists of Bests.

If you sign up for a free, spamless account, you can keep track of all the Great Books you've read, the movies you've seen, and the music you've heard. You can even create as many of your own checklists as you please.

I'm right up there with most of the planet in objecting to the "authoritative" best-of lists of world literature, since somehow it seems to be only WASPy men writing originally in English who dominate every single one of those lists.

But come on. Objections aside, who out there doesn't adore a little checklist action now and again? All you Ravelry fanatics?

It just so happened, however, that a sudden wave of reading lust overcame me when I learned that I've only consumed 26 percent of the MLA's 30 Books Every Adult Should Read Before They Die list (note the ungrammatical heading, can you spot the error?) and 15 percent of Penguin Classic's 101 Best Books Ever Written list. So I tore through Pride and Prejudice, finally finished Alan Moore's Watchmen, and have just begun Zadie Smith's White Teeth. Not a lot of knitting going on.

I did however rebuild my knitter's self-esteem after frogging the attempted triangle. Might just come back to it yet.

Let me know if you go nuts on the best-of lists like I did. I'd love to compare!

Knitting Geometry

2009-07-02T21:25:00.004-06:00

So I had this idea to design a triangular scarf. It was a seriously good concept, people. You would have loved it.

I measured as I went, I checked all kinds of things, I wrote down things and charted in advance. I compared it to other triangular shawls. Tonight, I was so psyched. I finished the border, cast off, and set aside the needles.

Um...

This is not a triangle.

I know this because I have in the past taught geometry to high school and college students. For starters, I am fairly certain that a triangle has three sides. The sides, ideally, are straight.

It has to do with the increases, I think. I didn't want eyelet increases. I wanted another kind of increase.

So I've totally had my pride handed to me here -- and would be pleased to read all input in the comments section. I shall now frog two weeks' knitting and go back to the drawing board, which I hope will have lots of triangular shawl patterns on it for me to study.

I admit that part of me is holding out hope that there might be a market out there for people with strange shoulders, looking for just the right shawl.

stash haul '09

2009-06-30T12:47:00.010-06:00

What's a honeymoon for, anyway?

During our Vancouver trip, the fella was oh-so-nice and pleasantly accompanied me to a whopping three yarn stores, a button store, and a weaving store that had some knitting yarns in the back.

We started off a shopping day by stumbling across Button, Button, where I spent some small change on a few buttons that I hope will find their home on a cardigan I'm planning to design this summer.

I first heard about Button, Button from The Merry Blues, coincidentally a week before we left for Vancouver. And finding the store was also coincidental. See how neat things happen?

I later got some bragalicious yarns, especially from Sweetgeorgia Yarns. The very talented Felicia was so generous to let us visit her studio on an off-day. (It's not a store per se, but she'll let you visit to shop in person, and there's always the online option.)

Felicia was also patient -- even when it became clear I wasn't one of those rich knitting ladies who leaves with $500 purchases. I agonized over which of the beautiful colorways I loved best. The fella gave his input and I wound up with some neat stuff.

That green-blue variegated number is high up in the queue! Not pictured is the brilliant turquoise laceweight I bought for my mother.

There was another store that afternoon, but, well, they weren't quite as patient with me, so I won't link. Still, I did get some neat yarns, and from that I have learned that hemp yarn has wicked memory:

I look like Wall-E!

And I promise, I really was done by that point, but then we took a quick trip to Victoria in the middle of the week, and it was the fella (not me! honest!) who pointed out Knotty by Nature. The luggage was starting to complain, so I only bought one skein of Gaia's Colours (the brown one on the bottom below, the other two are from somewhere else). It's a unique colorway from a local dyer, and that's what I was after on this trip.

Besides, you know. Honeymoon stuff.

Now I'm on a yarn-fast until probably October. Completely worth it! Thanks, Canada.

New Music for the Bum-Knuckle Blues

2009-06-27T15:35:00.003-06:00

One of my knuckles hurts today. On my first day in some time to knit, knit, knit... I have to stop. Sad face.

Here's some other tidbits for you:

Beats Broke has released three new albums in the last month... plus the wedding. Dude, have you seen our living room floor? 'Cause I sure haven't. Upside: free album download if you're speedy.
Just finished reading Kicked, Bitten, and Scratched by Amy Sutherland. A fascinating book about exotic wildlife training and trainers. I also recommend her book What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage.
I'm still inspired by this Merlin quote on learning that Ms. Martini pointed out some time back.
Professional research: I'd like to know which is your favorite from The Canterbury Tales, and why?
I've discovered Farmville on Facebook. Love it!

Honeymoon FO: Twilight Socks

2009-06-24T08:26:00.005-06:00

Not to turn away readers or anything, but... these have nothing to do with the books or movie.

We enjoyed an awesome week of honeymoon fun in Vancouver. We're pretending we can just move there any time we want -- useful when you suffer from hyperthermia after a trip to the mailbox here in Texas in June.

I understand the Canadians might have an opinion on that, but we can always dream.

We did all sorts of nifty things like bike riding, whale watching, and my first trip ever to a casino. (Keep me away: far, far away. If I like Bejeweled this much, how am I supposed to avoid the poorhouse on video poker?) There was also a little bit of knitting.

That's the finished pair, and yes, it's on my wedding dress, which I need to get cleaned and I know how horrible it must seem to take pictures with your feet on your wedding dress. But dude: I challenge anyone to find another suitable white-ish, well-lit background in this apartment. We've got boxes coming out of our ears.

pattern: Twilight, from Two-at-a-Time Socks by Melissa Morgan-Oakes.
yarn: Seacoast Handpainted Superwash Sock. (colorway: raspberry mocha; 1 skein).
needles: size 1
made for: me
mods: Aside from the fact that I defied the purpose of the book and knit these one-at-a-time? None, really.

Take a close look at the heels, if you can. Totally different heel constructions. That's because I was enjoying a day-before-the-wedding knitting session with my mother when I got to the heel and could not for the life of me figure out how I'd done the first one. No clue. Mom, the ever-prepared superwoman that she is, had a copy of Socks from the Toe Up from she of Wendy Knits, so I just picked one and went with it.

That's how I was with most things the week before the wedding, really.

Most of the work on the sock was accomplished on the ferry to Victoria and back. I knit on my sock:

The fella found his own shipboard amusements:

We both had an excellent time.

Married Life: My First Ruined Dinner

2009-06-22T20:52:00.006-06:00

Let me step back. While visiting Vancouver on our honeymoon, the fella and I had several natives refer us to the restaurant The Foundation (including one recommendation from the friendly, talented, and soon-to-be-blogged-about Felicia of Sweetgeorgia Yarns). We were in the neighborhood, so we gave it a shot. I had the best meal of the whole trip there:

This is not the dinner I ruined.

This is a black beans, rice, and mango concoction with some of the best salsa I've ever tasted. Hearty, savory salsa with just the right kick.

Now, I'm from Texas. For me to compliment Canadian salsa is huge. I asked the waiter, a long-haired dude in an Iron Maiden t-shirt, what made the salsa so great. "Uh, what's in the salsa?" he asked the earth-mother type dumping tortilla chips into baskets behind the nearby counter. "Chipotle," she called.

"Chipotle," he told me.

The fella and I exchanged a look. But you don't get it, I was about to tell him. Between us, we have eaten Tex-Mex on multiple continents. What is it about this salsa?

"Special chipotle," Earth Mother supplied from behind the counter.

He looked back at us with a grin and a nod. "Extra-special chipotle."

Whatever. It was damn good.

I attempted to recreate the meal just the other night with some local Texas ingredients... and... I screwed it up. It was the beans, they should have soaked longer, I admit that now. This is not a cooking blog. "I'm a doctor, Jim, not an iron chef!" Truth is, I'm only sort of good in the kitchen.

"Darlin'," I said to the fella when I realized that it was 9:45 p.m., two weeks from the day we first wed, and there was nothing to eat. "I've ruined dinner."

"That didn't take long," he said, and promptly took us out to Sonic.

He really is very sweet.

FO: Counterpane Clutch

2009-06-20T09:28:00.007-06:00

For some brains, it might be possible to do an orderly bloggish roundup of two weeks of huge life events in a coherent, orderly fashion. Not so much with mine. I'm currently unsure which direction is up (I suspect it's not where my socks are), so please enjoy the following handful of discombobulated posts, starting with today.

Wedding Knitting
I managed to hold myself back from knitting every single item of my wedding ensemble. (Though if I'd had the time!...) Instead, I satisfied myself with a single evening purse, the Counterpane Clutch.

pattern: Counterpane Accessories Pouch from Handknit Holidays by Carrie Brenner.
yarn: Elann Undyed Superwash Merino and Silk (silk/merino blend; about two-thirds of one skein). I can't believe more people haven't used this excellent, undyed workhorse of a yarn. It's got a snug ply and just enough sheen to qualify it for fancier projects. Bonus: it's also not that expensive. A quick look to the website shows that it might already be gone, but there's still some merino/Seacell blend.
needles: size 5
made for: the wedding
notes: Like many people, I changed up the shape by making three repeats of two scallops (as opposed to two repeats of three scallops). Makes it more functional.

The two sides knit up quickly and easily. It was when we got to the seaming and sewing that my river of silliness broke free from the dam of common sense. Some sample mistakes: I should have folded the tops over at the second purl row from the top (see it up there?) and then sewed the zipper to the doubled-over knitting, just as the directions say. I noticed this precisely after tying the final knot after a painstaking three days of hand-stitching the zipper to the knitting. Why did I hand-stitch? Because I've also had a recent tour of non-functional sewing machines (but some of them very antique and interesting) belonging to my girlfriends.

And then came the lining. I found the ideal lining, some on-sale silk that just so happens to match the groom's tie perfectly (happy accident: the tie came after, and trust me, he wasn't trying to match the purse). I cut it once before I realized I did it wrong, then had it pinned and ready to cut incorrectly a second time when finally a little logic fly whispered in my ear, "Ask your mother."

Sure enough, my mother came to the rescue, as she has in so many other ways. I shipped it up to her, and she finished it off in time for the wedding. To my mind, a mother-daughter project typically involves me as a little girl staring at the sewing machine in confusion as she works some crafty magic, but this will do, too. (She is also a total ninja when it comes to knitting, btw.)

In the end, it's an attractive, floppy evening purse that will probably never be used again.

You could say the purse functioned much like the wedding: not perfect, but none of the guests saw what went wrong with it. Which is to say, excellent.

I hold the same standards for theatrical productions.

I'd love to have a purse-in-action shot from the day of, but alas, we hired a professional photographer -- not just a wedding photographer, but a pro photographer who owns her own gallery and stuff. She has something like 17 prints and two custom frame jobs or whatnot before she can even start in on our pictures. When we do get them, say in a month or so, I look forward to showing the pictures off to everybody between here and the moon.

Newlywed

2009-06-18T19:37:00.003-06:00

We're back!

More to come. Much, much more. :)

FO: Hanami

2009-06-04T07:30:00.004-06:00

Hanami is done blocking.

Off the blocking needles and ready for the Vancouver trip (unlike anything or anyone else around here).

Got no time for an in-depth post, but the mods are basically none -- just did a beaded cast-off after 6 rows of garter, like the cast-on edge, rather than the ruffle.

Side note: I do have more picture from the Harlot's recent visit to Austin. I'll post them when I get a chance, probably not for another week or two. For now, check out Sally's thorough photo coverage.

Dear Santa

2009-06-02T21:12:00.002-06:00

Why, yes. Yes, I would like some T-pins and a blocking board.

Why do you ask?

Surprise

2009-05-28T21:16:00.003-06:00

Happy birthday, Mom!

(The Harlot's really cool.)

Post 200: The New Yorker and Me

2009-05-24T09:04:00.010-06:00

In honor of post 200, I had full intentions of posting a free pattern to the Navajo Wedding Basket Purse I made last year for a charity auction. However, you have caught me in the middle of the third move I've made in the last twelve months.

Result: I have no stinkin' idea where the notes are for the bag pattern.

It's post 200, I do not have legions of readers (although I really enjoy corresponding with the regular ones out there), and there are more half-filled boxes in my life than I care to count. In fact, I'm declaring New Yorker bankruptcy. There's simply no way I can read all of those old yet still-unread New Yorkers before I have to move again, and there's no room for the fire-hazard stack of them where I'm going, anyway.

I feel that I owe that magazine a debt of intellect after all the conversation starters, curious dreams, and insightful reviews I've gained from four years of subscribing. However, those four years ended in early 2006, and I still have boxes full of back issues. I can't keep this up, not through another move, this one up three flights of stairs. It's time for a clean break and a trip (or three) to the recycling bin.

To John Lahr, Adam Gopnik, Hendrick Herzberg, and everyone else: I'm sorry for letting you down. Forgive me. Someday, I hope you'll allow me to try again.

Only next time, do you think you could make it monthly?

On the knitting front: So close, oh so close to a finished Hanami, believe it or not. Pictures soon, I hope?

FO: Rabbit Patch Potholders

2009-05-16T09:27:00.003-06:00

Psst! Rav link.

Gifts to be given shortly.

Actual content coming soon.

6/24/09 update:
The gifts were given as bridesmaids gifts on June 6, so it's safe to show a picture or two now.

I call these the Rabbit Patch Potholders. After finishing and felting the first of two, the fella nosed over. "It looks like a rabbit patch!" he said.

What a great idea. So in place of the final carrot on the second potholder, I tried to make a little bunny head, replete with pink eyes and all.

Well... Can't fault me for trying. What came out looks more like a jackelope hell-demon. Fortunately, the recipient of potholder #2 is the sort who can appreciate a jackelope hell-demon.

pattern: Carrot Field Potholder by Ala Ela
yarn: Much of this was bought in my early days, before I kept things like ball bands around. On the upside: stash buster! I know for sure I used some Cascade 220 Heathers (9407 for the light green; no idea for the dark green), some regular Cascade 220 for the light brown, and some Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Worsted for the carrots (purchased on the Navajo reservation where they either removed the ball band or it had yet to make it to the place where they add ball bands -- I suspect the latter, and either way I'm not sure of the color).
needles: size 8 for most of it, then size 9 on the carrots on the first before switching back to size 8s on the second.
made for: Pieces and another friend
notes: Lots. Seriously, if you're considering making this, go to the Rav link for my detailed notes.

The reason why I had so many not-quite-right bits is because I really reworked the pattern in a lot of ways. It would be bad knitter's etiquette to write my version of the pattern out here, so I will just highlight the really important bit.

If you consider making any potholder ever, do not use just any old scrap yarn. Different yarns conduct heat differently. Wool is by far the best insulation, and it is naturally flame-resistant. Most craft-store yarns contain at least part acrylic, which, when exposed to high temperatures, will melt and bond to your skin. (Go iron your high school graduation robe if you're not convinced.) This is a terrible thing to happen in the kitchen.

For more information on what happens with different fibers, see Amy Singer's excellent resource No Sheep for You.

It's also smart to felt your wool potholder to make it thicker, stiffer, and more useful as something other than a weird square-shaped thing with carrot poking out to go over your hand.

Most experienced knitters will know this, but honestly, I only learned it a couple years ago. I'd hate for anyone to get hurt from lack of knowledge.

Now for my dummy bit: I didn't swatch. Heh.

I forgot that felting happens more vertically than it does horizontally. That may limit the usefulness of these two FOs, I fear. But on the upside, (1) I also gave them nifty cookbooks, and (2) Laila the Pet Lizard may find a new, colorful, 100-percent wool addition to her terrarium.

Misdirection, part II

2009-05-12T16:17:00.004-06:00

Star Trek: dudes, just go see it if you haven't already. It really is that good.

But in another department: I am now really, really ready to go to Vancouver for our honeymoon. I'm not sure why getting married entitles one to a seriously awesome vacation, but life offers so few breaks that I'd better go ahead and take this one.

And what does any knitter think about when planning a vacation?

That's right. What knitting should I bring? Wedding, schmedding. This is important.

Options:
Socks. Except, I still can't do toes or heels without referencing instructions from three different places.

Lace. It's a honeymoon, right? So a little something feminine and delicate seems apropos. Except, I'll be traveling with a 6'6" fella who likes to curl up exactly where my knitting is, in a most catlike manner. Can lace withstand the ~~abuse~~ love?

Sweater. Useful, where we're going. But sweaters always require so much from my tiny chest of knitting nick-knacks.

Hat. Aha. Perhaps I'm onto something there.

Gloves. Also a possibility! If only the ones I'm eyeing weren't stranded colorwork...

I'm open to suggestions! What's the last piece of vacation knitting to travel with you?

Misdirection

2009-05-08T14:24:00.002-06:00

Is it bad that I'm more excited about Star Trek than I am about my own wedding?

FO: Whisper Cardigan

2009-05-05T08:50:00.006-06:00

I don't want to dwell too much on unhappy things, but dudes: last week sucked. It was so sucky, other bad weeks take lessons from that week in how they can be suckier.

I woke up Monday morning feeling crappy. Sore throat, distantly achy... Still, my mother would have made me go to school, so I went to work.

One hour later, my fiance got laid off from his job. If you're counting, that's less than six weeks before our wedding.

I then found myself working four twelve-hour days in a row. It was one of those infuriating confluences of events that left me unable to take time off, because time off for me means no pay, and no pay now means something other than what it meant the week before.

By the time Friday creaked in, I couldn't take any more and collapsed and knit and then collapsed some more and knit some more.

I also washed and blocked a new FO:

So here's the thing: when something sucks, it's bad. We still have our health (well, now I do. Last week not so much), our relationship, and our resources. We'll make do. It ain't my idea of fun, but something that sucks is usually something that can be dealt with, eventually.

One of the ways to deal with things temporarily is to knit. I read somewhere that most human stress comes from feeling out of control. Knitting? I control that bitch.

Yup, I know. Bad hair, mean look. See above re: suckiness.

pattern: Whisper Cardigan by Hannah Fettig, Interweave Knits Spring 2009.
yarn: Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill (color: 110; 85% cotton, 15% silk; just barely more than 3 skeins)
made for: me, to wear to our rehearsal dinner in just under a month
notes: LOVE IT. Most of my mods were to take into account the cotton/silk blend which behaves differently and sags more than wool. The sleeves I knit about an inch shorter; I'm counting on them growing a bit. The ribbing is twisted rib to help hold the shape. Also, I didn't increase all the way down the body. Instead, I went to an increase every 4 rows then to no increases at all near the bottom. I'm so excited to show this off on June 5!

Respecting Your Elders, Part II

2009-04-28T15:54:00.001-06:00

I have knitterly things to discuss, but for now, a quick story:

Last Saturday I went to the post office to mail wedding invitations and got in line behind a gentleman who appeared to be in his 60s. He turned to me and, without provocation, said, "Do you know what the problem with the younger generation is?"

I looked at him.

"The problem with the younger generation is," he told me, "they don't want to work."

Really? "I hold multiple jobs," I told him.

"Well then, you're the exception," he said. "Young people don't like working."

There are other days when I would have been nicer, when I would have humored his dumb-old-fart routine. Not that day, not after a week of all my friends either getting laid off or being overworked as a result of other people getting laid off or working their rear ends off because of a fear of getting laid off or generally just working their rear ends off because the price of things is soooo much high than when Mr. Baby Boomer turned 30 years old.

Not that day.

"I don't want to talk about this," I told him. "Go have that conversation with someone else."

And the crazy thing? He kept talking! It took a few more sentences of him talking about the younger generation without me answering before he got the point that I wasn't going to participate.

Seriously, Boomers. Can you please just stop?

Wash Your Wool Day

2009-04-12T21:27:00.004-06:00

Today is Easter. That's important.

Today is the first day of the year when you can wear white shoes and get away with it, at least here below the Mason-Dixon line.

Today is also the day to wash your wools. Austin enjoyed a brief cold snap yesterday (yes, I know, everyone in above the 48th Parallel just died of laughter) and something in the air today says, "Okay, we're done now. See you in November. Maybe." From here on, it's going to get so hot that we in Texas are going to forget that seventy degrees even exists somewhere without central A/C.

So while we still have the energy to do something other than drink lemonade and fan ourselves while watching Pride and Prejudice during the daytime, it's time to wash our winter woolen garments and tuck them into storage for the long, hard summer ahead.

I motivated myself to get a move on in that department with a little wash-and-block of a new project, the Counterpane Clutch, from Carrie Brenner's Handknit Holidays.

It's tucked into this embarrassingly cluttered corner of my apartment, which is full of scarves and hats and everything else. All that's left on the clutch is to seam it, sew on the zipper, and put together the lining. I hope that will happen next weekend. Details and mods to come when it's a true FO.

The Best Mile Ever

2009-04-10T07:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday, I took the day off of work to head down to the first ever Trinity University Track & Field Alumni Classic.

It was even more fun than I'd hoped. Former teammates reunited and joked about old shenanigans -- Beale Street in Memphis, raising goldfish in the steeplechase pit (one of them got monstrously big), breaking a dorm room window with a Rice Krispie treat.

I think about that track team every day. When I first graduated, people told me I would move onto other things and wouldn't miss it as much. Turns out, they're wrong. I have moved onto other things in my life, but every time I go to work out, I think about group stretches at the beginning of practice. Every time I'm done I think about ice baths at the end. And every time I'm outside on a clear day I think about running in circles with those guys, again and again and again and again.

At the same time, whenever I think about a group experience in retrospect, my mind inevitably turns to regretting the stupid things I inevitably did and said. I wind up focusing on those and not the good times. It's ho wmy brain works, and it's created an odd relationship to working out for me.

Yesterday's meet was so excellent, because I think, just maybe, that my own silliness from back then maybe didn't matter as much to other people as I'd worried. And maybe they feel the same way about our shared experiences as I do.

It's not just the time spent together, or what we accomplished. (As it happens, I wasn't awful -- I set a school record in the 400m hurdles at 67.55s that lasted for two weeks -- and some other team members have gone onto huge achievements. One guy caught a pass in the last Superbowl, another is a world-class competitor in the pentathlon.) When you spent that much time together, making your body do more than what it's designed for; getting to know each other's physical and social foibles, tics, habits, and talents; and reinforcing each other through ups and downs, it turns you into more than just a team. You get to be friends in a really unique way, where everybody's mutual weirdness seems less so.

Plus, and this must be said: for a bunch of 30-(or so)-year-olds, we're all still really hot.

There was an alumni mile event. Dear me, I thought maybe someone else would be running it not quickly. Not so much. It was me and five former distance runners. The first three came in at 4:54, 5:37, and 5:45.

All the same... I'm a former hurdler who ran a mile in 7:51, and it was just maybe the best mile ever.

A Flea in Her Ear and a Bug up Her Butt

2009-04-05T18:45:00.005-06:00

Last Thursday, I attended a performance of A Flea in Her Ear at Austin Playhouse. (My review will appear in this Thursday's Austin Chronicle.) I brought my knitting, as I often do when I attend plays on my own.

An older lady in the row in front of me noticed my knitting.

"Oh, you knit as well?" she said. She had an accent. I'd place it as Northern European, although her behavior, as you may soon agree, suggested that she is impeccably German.

"Yes," I said.

"Vat are you making?"

"It's a sweater," I said. I was going to tell her which one. "Do you get Interweave Knits?"

"Vat's dat?"

"Do you subscribe to Interweave Knits?"

"Is dat a pattern?"

"Yes."

"Oh. I don't use patterns. I don't need them."

Alrighty then. "Okay," I said.

"I don't like American patterns. I like European patterns."

I shrugged. "I've followed an English pattern before. It wasn't that different."

"No, I mean I don't like American patterns. I tink dey're ugly. I don't like dem."

Sigh. "Okay," I said.

"Are you knitting American-style?"

Clearly I was. "Yes."

"I knit European-style. American-style is too slow."

"Okay," I said, and stopped talking to her.

It's tempting to speak one's mind to people who are socially incompetent. Yet it rarely helps, and after all, this lady was of advanced years.

That did make me think, however. If it's an older American person I'm dealing with, I usually remind myself that this person has lived through the Depression and World War II, and he or she probably deserves a break.

I stopped just short of asking this woman what she was up to in 1943. It might have been awkward.

A quick treat, before I sign off: the project over which Fräu Assface interrogated me was a getting-there, almost-got-it Whisper Cardigan. Honestly, I thought I was original when I fell in love with that pattern. 300+ knitters on Ravelry say, not so much!

(In that picture I look like the crazy assassin with poisonous spikes sticking out of her zonkers in the Oktoberfest scene in Pink Panther Strikes Again.)

Hello and Good-bye, Mr. Bean

2009-04-03T18:02:00.003-06:00

This spring I planted a few beans in a pot on my fella's balcony. It's been an up-and-down winter, with me not always here to water or move the pot inside when the temperatures dipped below freezing. The basil in the next pot over never even poked its head above the soil, but beans are almost completely dummy-proof. Exhibit A:

A week ago, I noticed a tiny bean!

In my enthusiasm and total lack of experience, I picked it. This past Wednesday, I also stir-fried and ate it, along with a handful of organic store-bought beans. But I took special note when little Mr. Bean (Hi there, Rowan Atkinson fans) showed up on my fork.

I'm pleased to report that he tasted just the same as all the rest.

The internets tell me that I am to expect several more where he came from. Fingers crossed for home gardening!

Arts the Beatdoctor is watering my beans.

2009-03-18T20:05:00.003-06:00

No, really. That's not a euphemism. He is.

The fella has ten Dutch hip-hop artists in Austin for SXSW, and five of them are staying at his apartment. That's a little too crowded for me -- but what about my poor, struggling potted plants, eking out an existence on the fella's partly shaded balcony?

Arts the Beatdoctor has been kind enough to water my veggies during his stay. Now, I'm not trying to ruin his ultra-cool hip-hop image or anything... but I tell ya, the guy's a sweetheart.

Otherwise... A friend said that today is the strangest day of the year in Austin, which is saying something. It's the day the film portion of SXSW segues into the music free-for-all, and all the gleaming Enterprise rentals head back as the sleeper vans and converted school buses roll into town. Whoosh!

If you're in town, try to make it to the Arts showcase tomorrow. And as Skiggy Rapz does his thing over Arts's beats, you can enjoy the thought of the man behind the turntables politely watering some potted bush beans.

Good-bye, Sweet 29

2009-03-17T14:00:00.008-06:00

Dang. Thirty? Really?

Oh well!

Today I turn 30. I did it quite well, in fact.

Yesterday, after work, I drove about an hour south of Austin to stay by myself at the Mountain View Lodge, near Wimberley. I got there just after sunset, and I had my priorities in order: first I sat out on my tiny private balcony and read a book* in the fading evening light.

This was the view in one direction:

Then I went inside and knit as I watched My Fair Wedding, which is a guilty pleasure and an insult to one's sophistication and intelligence, because really, David, do you need to have all that drapey white muslin? Again? And are you seriously comparing these hardworking, basically smart and well-focused ladies with a pre-Higgins Eliza Doolittle?

Gratuitous knitting shot of the Whisper Cardigan:

Shrugs look weird when they're only half-done, don't they?

I continued knitting during the Daily Show, then read some more before turning in.

In the morning, I woke up to see the view from my balcony in the morning light:

I love the Texas Hill Country. A playwright whose name escapes me at present once talked about always missing Texas, and always longing for one's "childhood geography." This is mine, and I'll always love looking out over the distance to see the faint outline of more hills on the horizon.

Birds chirped a lot.

I went for a hike on the short nature trail:

Regular readers know how I love the color blue. Perhaps this is why:

I drove back into town, stopping (uh oh!) at the Knitting Nest. It's never in my direct path on an ordinary day, but there I was at the Slaughter Ln. exit, and their lovely supply of Cascade 220 called to me. In my own defense, I totally know what I'm making with it: yes, wedding stuff. (Knitzilla strikes again!)

Now I'm back home, enjoying a day off of work and preparing to hit the town tonight for an Arts the Beatdoctor show. (Did I mention it's SXSW? Batten the hatches, folks, this town's been hit by a storm.)

I'm lucky in many ways. I have good people in my life, and I have things to look forward to. It doesn't get much better than that.

* The book is Guy Gavriel Kay's Sailing to Sarantium, and I don't know how that guy does it, but he writes these rise-above-the-genre fantasies that somehow deal with all of life's evils and brutality and human mortality, and then they leave you feeling a little bit better about all of those things at the end. A serendipitous literary pick for the occasion.

Whisper Cardigan: When you're in love...

2009-03-08T21:31:00.006-06:00

This week, I cast on for the Whisper Cardigan. After at least eight hours of knitting time, this is all I have:

The reason why I only have so much is that I must have cast on about six times.

It's been a long time since I cast on so many times for one project. But here's the thing: I want to wear this cardigan to the rehearsal dinner for my wedding in June, precisely three months from the day I cast on. I want it to be perfect.

(Remember my "knitzilla" theory?)

First I cast on with a backwards loop cast on, because I intended to work a hemmed edge to reduce curl. Then I observed my swatch and saw that it wasn't really curling, and besides, a hemmed edge would increase the thickness in what is supposed to be a whisper-thin cardigan. Hence the name.

Frog one.

I did a cabled cast-on. I bungled the number of stitches.

Frog two.

I did another cabled cast-on, and somehow twisted things up so that there was a big bump on the edge. Plus, given that I'm subbing a cotton/silk blend* for the laceweight merino yarn, I decided I should cast on a couple fewer stitches than the pattern says.

Frog three.

And so on.

Normally, I'm the kind of knitter who just says, "To heck with it, let's roll" to a lot of mistakes. But this cardigan must be perfect. I want it to represent everything that is good about my knitting.

Moreover, you know that pleasure you get from knitting a gift for someone? You spend the whole time thinking positive thoughts about them, which feels good. In this case, even though I'll be the one wearing it, I'm thinking about my fella, and I want it to be just right for him.

(Cue the awwwwws.)

But after the sixth cast-on, I figured something out. I hope it's not too much of a stretch (because I can't stick the cotton/silk blend in the dryer to put it back into shape), but knitting this cardigan is like a good relationship. You try your hardest, and there is lots of starting over. Ultimately, you decide to accept the imperfections as best you can and love the entire product for what it is.

That is, unless you eff up the decreases on row 31. Dang it!

* I'm using Bristol Yarn Gallery Lyndon Hill. It's a little thicker than what's called for, and the cotton/silk content is making me knit it at a tighter gauge than the pattern says so that I can account for the droop.

Yet, as in any long-term relationship... can you really account for the inevitable droop?

Hanami: I've got this much...

2009-03-03T23:42:00.005-06:00

I've gotten some tips on photo-editing software that ought to tide me over for a little bit. Please munch on the luciousness that is almost half of a Hanami:

This Hanami is on my impossible wedding knitting list, as a gift for someone who's helping out a bit. It might get done, but then to be perfectly honest... and I feel just awful about this... I don't think I can give it away as a gift after all.

Here's my reasoning:

Row 1: "I sure hope _____ likes this stole. It looks like a lovely pattern."
Row 35: "_____ will love this stole! The pattern is phenomenal."
Row 50: "I would love a stole just like this one, if it weren't pale pink."
Row 120: "Maybe pale pink isn't such a bad color after all."
Row 185: "I bet _____ wouldn't like pale pink at all. Nope, I better keep this one and buy her a handbag instead."

I'm not claiming to be a nice person.

In the meantime, I got hit with a wallop of project-lust when I stared too long at the Whisper Cardigan and went blind to all other knitting. I ordered my yarn, and the swatch is drying just a few feet away from me at this very moment. My justification for throwing over all other WIPs? Wedding knitting, of course! Like everything else. It would be the perfect sweater for the Friday night rehearsal and such.

Knitzilla, anyone?

I hate Windows Vista

2009-03-01T14:53:00.002-06:00

I have a new laptop. This is good.

It does not have any graphics software. This is inconvenient.

I have the CDs for Microsoft Picture It! Publishing. This has potential.

Microsoft Picture It! Publishing 2001 doesn't work with Windows Vista. This is irritating.

Beyond belief.

See Cobbalicious run. See Cobbalicious take pictures. See Cobbalicious plot to turn Microsoft into the multinational corporation-sized crater it deserves to become.

See Cobbalicious sigh with resignation and poke around the harder-to-use, less-equipped photo editor software that came with her laptop.

Wish her luck.

War of the Roses/Carnations

2009-02-14T20:11:00.004-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

This evening, the fella and I went to see Coraline. After, we left the theater and were walking to dinner around one of those dark, windy sidewalks around the perimeter of the theater, where just about anything could be waiting for you. (After seeing Coraline, you hope it's a black cat.) We were moving at our usual brisk pace.

Suddenly, from around a corner ahead of us emerged a young woman and a young man -- say, late teens, early twenties. She was carrying a pink flower. Without anyone breaking stride, we had a brief exchange.

She held the flower out at arm's length towards us. "What kind of flower is this?!!" she demanded.

"A carnation," I told her. (Unsure, my fella didn't say anything.)

"THANK YOU!!!" she said, as if she'd been waiting for someone to say those words for quite some time. The young man behind her followed wearily as all of us went on our ways.

After a bit, the fella and I reconstructed the conversation they must have been having all night.

He: "Hey. Happy Valentine's. I, uh, got you this rose."

She: "Awww! Thank you!"

He: "Sure."

She: "That's so sweet! I really love it."

He: "Awesome."

She: "You know, it's a carnation, not a rose."

He: "Huh?"

She: "I really love it! But it's a carnation."

He: "No. I think that's a rose."

She: "No, I'm serious. That's a carnation. But I love pink."

He: "But that's a rose."

Fifteen minutes later.

She: "Look, a rose has thorns. Everybody knows that."

He: "Don't they, like, cut those off?"

She: "Look at the edges of the petals. They're all ripply."

He: "Roses do that, right?"

She: "Look, it's a carnation. Okay? The next people we see, I'm going to ask them what this is, and they're going to tell me it's a carnation."

He: "Fine. Ask them."

From around the corner emerge two very tall people on their way to dinner after seeing Coraline and hoping for a black cat.

She: "What kind of flower is this?!!"

Me: "A carnation."

The very tall fella with her stares blankly at the flower.

She: "THANK YOU!!!"

And, scene.

The Pit-falls of Cooking with the Flu

2009-02-12T11:34:00.005-06:00

I've got that nasty bug/cold/flu/whatever's going around these days. I had to go to work anyway yesterday -- there was too much my boss couldn't do on her own without destroying the office along the way -- but she let me go home early.

I came home, planning to fix one of my favorite lunches: juice, some tomato soup with a little bit of cream and some basil, crackers, and an avocado, followed by a couple Thin Mints. The plan is, I'll eat it as I read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off and then put myself to bed.

It was the avocado that did it to me.

Everything is going according to plan. The juice is poured. The book is open to where I left off. I've got the pit out of the avocado as the soup is warming up. I use my fingers to remove it from the point of the knife when --

squirp!

It does not merely fly from my fingers. It decides to play pinball with my kitchen.

It was a high-scoring game.

Here is, I kid you not, the exact path taken by the squirpy pit:

And here's the thing: as I'm madly trying to catch it, two steps behind, the whole time I'm completely aware that it is going to fall between the fridge and the counter. There is nothing I can do to stop this.

So as my tomato soup looks on forlornly, I am, with a fever of 99.4, moving a refrigerator by myself out from the wall enough to get a disgustingly dusty pit out of there before the next cockroach comes along and decides to have himself a round feast. I even gave myself a minor strain in my right pec as I rocked the thing to and fro. I took a break so I could throw a pretty sizable temper tantrum, but that didn't get the effing pit out of there. So I had to keep shoving and pulling and pushing until I could free the stupid thing. Eventually I did.

And yes, the soup was cold.

Springtime Knitting: Hanami

2009-02-07T15:36:00.005-06:00

The other day I took a quick glance through my 2008 FOs, and it struck me that nine of fourteen projects were predominately blue or green. Of the others, we've got two brown, one gray, and (ta-da!) one yellow.

2009 shall be the year that I go nutty with colors! Yes, it shall.

It shall also be the year that I learn to crochet.

It shall also be the year for which I must first file a joint income tax return.

Here are some thoughts related to the above three points:

1. I have created an insane wedding-knitting list. The list includes a Hanami as a gift, a gift for someone who reads this blog, a whole bunch of crocheted fan bookmarks, and a counterpane clutch (yes, that's you, Erin!) for me. That's so much knitting (and hooking), it's stupid.

In my own defense, I've discovered that with a few exceptions, a gal who has produced theater events and who combines forces with a guy who has produced several live music events can manage wedding planning very well, by and large. So when I really want to be doing something for the wedding, I sometimes discover that there's really nothing to be done at present. Wacky, I know, but it's been the truth so far.

I've created a whole bunch of wedding knitting that simply must be done so I can feel productive towards planning a huge event to which I'm looking forward, very much.

Here's how far I am with my Hanami:

It's delectable. The lace is lovely. You'll also note that it is neither blue nor green.

2. I am staring straight in the face several hard-to-wear colors for this year's projects: pink, orange, yellow... These are springy colors, and with Hanami (a very springy project relating to cherry blossoms), I am clearly ready for spring to come along.

This has nothing to do with the fact that I've lost both pairs of winter gloves that I own.

3. This has nothing to do with knitting or taxes or color, but I'm attempting to cut back on or cut out high-fructose corn syrup in my diet. I'm pretty heatlhy, thankfully, but I think my system might be happier if I avoided the stuff.

Now that I'm making the effort, I've noticed just how much of the stuff is in all of our food. Apple juice? Some brands, check. Cereal? Check. Granola bars? Check. Everything I enjoy snacking on and eating for lunch? Check and check.

Please tell me if you have suggestions for fructose-free lunches. I'd love to hear.

4. How many Schedule C's can you file with a single 1040, anyway?

5. Those ladies who are not yet married: my tragic mistake thus far in planning has been to avoid choosing a single "wedding color." "Pshaw," I said at first. "Why pick just one? My fella is a graphic designer. I knit and adore colors. Surely we can pull this off without limiting ourselves to white and green, or white and blue, or white and fuschia, or whatnot. Let's have lots of colors!"

/rude buzzer noise/

My fella is near the point of tears with the effort of figuring out how to coordinate a groom and two groomsmen with bridesmaids' dresses that are dark blue with ivory lace and flowers that are peachy/coral-colored. I think some of this has to do with his work as a graphic designer and his sincere love of unified looks; my pointing out that this wedding is not a final verdict on his aesthetic philosophy (actually, I think it's a verdict on mine) is not helpful.

Honestly, I never thought it would be that hard. Lesson learned.

Got any good reference points for telling men how to dress in a manly, formal fashion that incorporates either a mid-range to dark blue or coral? I am told the groom must stand out from the two groomsmen...

Austin Chronicle Music Poll: Best Label!

2009-01-25T21:41:00.005-06:00

The Austin Chronicle is holding its annual Austin Music Awards poll. Last year Beats Broke (yes, that's my fella's answer to my knitting, so let's keep him happy, shall we?) was voted the fifth best label in Austin, and this year we’re trying to break into the top three.

If you could take a minute of your time, please write “Beats Broke” in the last entry field (Local Label - before the Hall of Fame nominees) on the ballot below:
http://www.austinchronicle.com/feedback/musicpoll/08/

The poll ends January 31. Promise, no junk mail will be sent as a result of this poll!

FO: Fetching as Hypnotics

2009-01-24T10:22:00.005-06:00

I've figured it out.

Every time I knit a piar of Fetching, I forget to change the direction of the cables on the second glove. This most recent pair, I even left a note for myself on the pattern.

Nope: C4F, both times.

As we know, knitting in the round is in fact a spiral affair. Adding cables just adds mini-spirals to the larger spiral.

And what do spirals upon spirals produce?

That's right: hypnoses! I'm simply not in control.

(That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

pattern: Fetching, by Cheryl Niamath, from Knitty Summer '06 (free at www.knitty.com/issuesummer06/PATTfetching.html)
yarn: Knitpicks Swish Superwash (100% superwas merino wool, bordeaux)
needles: size 7 dpn
made for: my boss
notes: I cast on 35 instead of the prescribed 45, and they fit perfectly. Don't ask me, I just know they fit perfectly.

Update on the MalaBREAKo

2009-01-22T17:05:00.004-06:00

After querying some Malabrigo die-hards on Ravelry about the yarn's sturdiness (or lack thereof), I have been given a few votes for "single-ply is sucky" and a far greater number of votes for "There are moths eating your yarn."

Crud.

I only post this in fairness to the company, who do not deserve to have their product besmirched unjustly.

Run. Hide. Now.

I'll be in the kitchen, tucking balls of wool in between the frozen pizzas and waffles.