Tuesday, January 31, 2006

A quick post: straight men with boring taste, fuel injectors and teddy bears

I've been knitting on my Apricot Sweater (no pics yet) and it was going along gangbusters. I'm already through the back and a sleeve. However, I've just realized the back isn't quite right. I skipped one of the repeats. I skipped it every time it came up so you can't really see it. But I'm afraid that in comparison to the rest of the sweater I will always be able to see it. And well, its worth it to rip out the back and do it right. I have to tell myself this to get myself to do it.



In the mean time, I've been working on a few hats. The hats are those gifts I mentioned in my stash post. I asked the guys what they wanted so I've been knitting 2x2 ribs for hours. Two black, one of them with a thin white strip "to break it up." Then, red, blue and green all the same. Sigh. I'm half way through it and I know I'll be happy when I'm done. I do like to give people gifts they will use and really enjoy and hats in chunky yarn do go quickly so I'll stop whining. Plus, this gives me something to do while it pours outside and the mechanic figures out what is wrong with my car. That's a whole other story and not a good one.

So, I leave you with a cutesy picture. I live in an apartment that doesn't allow pets and since gratuitous shots of one's fourlegged loved ones seems to be encouraged I'm putting a hat on my teddy bear and showing it to you cause I think it's pretty cute.

Friday, January 27, 2006

I don't even know what "meme" stands for

So, Nicole over at Big Sister tagged me for a meme and I'm all excited. I know for those of you who have had blogs for a while this probably has gotten old. But for those of us newbies it's still fun. At least it is for me. These are the four gals it's gone through before me.

Emy's blah blah blah blog
Purls Beyond Price, KimberliNY
Unraveling, Cordeliaknits
Big Sister
The Hot Brunette

What were you doing 10 years ago?

In January of 1996, I was a freshman in high school. My first school with gasp!...boys.

What were you doing 5 years ago? (I added this one cause it's when my life got mildly interesting)

In January of 2001, I was a sophomore in college and living in Eugene, OR. I was living with my then best friend and a couple of other people. The rent on my room was $285.00 (less than my brothers parking place in downtown SF). I was falling in love for the first time with a guy who would turn out not to be worth it. But it was probably the happiest time in my life thus far. See, that's why I had to share :)

What were you doing 1 year ago?

In January of 2005, I was moving out of a terrible living situation I had created with the help of Craigslist.org into what would turn out to be a worse one( I live alone now :). I had been working at a yarn store for about three months and had already realized I didn't want to stay there much longer. I was missing London and trying to figure out what to do next. I was also planning on applying to the design school I'm in now.

What were you doing 1 hour ago?

Trying to finish this damn ruched pinstripped skirt.

List five creative things you want to achieve this year:

Graduate from design school
Design my own knitting pattern....and write it out so that someone else could knit it too.
Read the fifty books sitting next to my bed
Take up West Coast Swing again
Perfect the designs for my shoe line.... Oooh, maybe even get production going. I just got all tingly.

List five snacks you enjoy:

Chocolate Chip Cookies
Chocolate
Toasted sourdough bread with cheddar cheese
Gummy Bears
Swedish Fish

um, I like sweets.

List five things you would do if money were no object:

Buy a house in San Francisco, New York and Lake Como
Start my own line (once I graduate!)
Go to racing school
Buy a movie theater and charge $1.50 admission for everyone
Subsidize a tax benefit for the oil companies that start changing their production over to sustainable and earth friendly energy resources.

List five bad habits:

Eating without thinking
Looking obsessively at online yarn stores and blogs
Yelling at other drivers while in my car...my friends tell me this is pretty amusing.
Being generally messy
My celebrity obsession (fortunately this is dying out)

List five things you like doing:

Knitting (try to contain your shock)
Dancing
Chatting/ bitching with my girlfriends
Sleeping
Shopping


List five favorite gadgets:

My iPod
My Sewing machine
My powerbook
My bitchin' iron
My cellphone

Name one thing you like about yourself:

My sense of humor and my ability to parallel park with one hand while on my cell phone. I know that's two but the second is just so good.

I haven't been at this game very long so I don't know who's already been tagged and who hasn't. So, I'm going to try an experiment. I'm going to tag people tomorrow. If you haven't been tagged yet, and want to be, leave me a comment. But since I think most people will feel weird about that I'll have to do a little investigating. Still, if you want to be tagged speak up!

In current knitting news I've started my Apricot Sweater. Actually, I've finished the back. So far it's a great knit. Oh and I figured out what to do with my leftovers from Clapotis. Oh, wouldn't you like to know. :) Pictures this weekend!

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Clapotis est fini!


Finally, it's done. And there's a new dent in my stash. This of course makes me want to fill this new hole in my storage system, but no. I will not indulge myself. I have to finish two more substantial projects (hats and fingerless gloves don't count) before I can buy new yarn. Lord knows I have enough projects lined up.

Overall this was a pleasant knit. Nothing challenging and perfect for a stash buster. Plus, I think my mom is really going to love it. I think I may give it to her as just a random gift since her birthday isn't until June.

















Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty.com
Yarn: five or six ball of Noro Silk Garden
Color: #203
Needles: Addi turbos size 8
Size: One size
Changes: No changes save for a few mistakes.

So, now I have to figure what's next. The Katrina Rib I'm finding really uninspiring right now. I think that may be headed for the frog pile. I'm starting my Somewhat Cowl again too. I didn't keep track of where I left off in the pattern and I'm pretty much crap at back tracking. Am I the only one who writes out a sheet of paper to keep track of the row I'm on? I have one very experienced friend who laughs when I do this, but she knows how scattered I am and how often I leave a knit untouched for weeks so she forgives this seemingly anal habit. This of course means that I will randomly find binder paper with numbers and slashes on it. Actually, it's usually a non-knitting friend of mine who thinks I'm developing schizophrenia. They turn to me with concern and tell me I need to get out more. But I digress.

Next maybe the Apricot Jacket or the Ultra Femme. Or I may take that KSH in that vibrant pink and make a lace wrap. Though I don't know if I have the patience. Hopefully I'll have some thing to show you in my next post!

Saturday, January 21, 2006

A post for the knitting lacuna

I have a word of the day calendar.

Not much knitting going on in my part of the city. I'd post a picture of the "progress" on Clapotis, but it looks exactly the same with a few more dropped stitch rows. I hope I'll have it finished by the end of the weekend. Yes, in fact that's now my weekend goal. Another goal I have is to stop looking for new projects like these:







You've seen my stash and some of the things I intend to do with it, so you know I have no business looking for new ways to spend money on yarn and waist time on the internet.

I have to share another time waster...I found out some stuff about an ex of mine...nevermind how I did. But I can't stop playing the "what if" game. Fortunately, the what if in this situation makes me shudder. But it does make me think about how often we make decisions that have repercussions for years in our lives. Our own butterfly effects. One of my favorite concepts. Not because I'm an anarchist but because it seems to be the basis for nature. Small changes with big repercussions. Ok, if I'm coming up with this on my knitting blog I'm definitely rambling. Oy! More knitting later.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

What's this? Some call it progress. Others, procrastination.

I am supposed to be sewing. Really, I need to be sewing. I have a few projects due in class on Thursday but I just can't get back into the swing of things. Ah, well. It means tomorrow will be crazy. Thank god for knitting though because I have something to show after watching copious amounts of reality TV.

So can you guess what this enormous swatch is?



Yep. I'm making a Clapotis. I know this is uninteresting to read about since the four people who read this blog have actually already knit it or didn't knit it because it was a little below their skills. But I'm giving it a go. Unfortunately, at some point I fell out of love with the colors in this Silk Garden. It could be, as Nicole pointed out to me, that I like greens and blues and perhaps I have burnt out on them for a bit.

I think my mom will like it or I can find some one else to give it to. Then again I may hide it in my closet, find it three months from now and love it all over again. I do like the pattern. Very simple and straight forward. I love patterns where you get into the groove of them and no longer have to refer back. I think I would find this is a more common occurrence if I would finish projects within a month of starting them.

The second, more circular, swatch in that picture is the start to my Katrina Rib in Merino style "Moss."



I'm enjoying this pattern and the yarn is very nice. I guess I'm just in a blah mood about most of my projects. My Somewhat Cowl is about two inches along and I can't seem to make myself work on it. I can't even blame this funk thing on the weather as it's been pretty beautiful here, especially for January. Is there an "eh" knitting bug going around?

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

New Years

It seems to be a New Years resolution thing. Everyone seems to be checking out their stash and owning up. So, here's mine... well at least most of it. A few stray balls aside this really is it.




A lot of this has a designated purpose. Which I will now enumerate.



This GGH Java is earmarked for the Apricot Sweater from Rebecca 27. I know I bought the Rowan All Seasons Cotton in that bright blue for that sweater but I recently frogged a GGH Soft Kid minisweater in an almost identical blue. So, now the Soft Kid and the ASC are going to eventually become an Ultra-Femme from Stitch and Bitch Nation.



Moving on to all those skeins of Sierra and Baby Alpaca Grande. All of which will eventually become some version of the same ribbed beanie. They are pretty much all for a very good friend of mine and his roommates. A late-ish thank you for cooking me dinner a lot last fall.



The Cashmere is for Wendy's (Knit and Tonic) Somewhat Cowl. I've swatched it and have finally cast-on. I'll post some picture of the progress in a few weeks (its on size 5 needles and, like I said, I'm lazy).



The Merino Style is for The Katrina Rib. Though I bought more than is required mainly because I'm going to change it a bit (longer sleeves).



The Rowan Kid Silk Haze was supposed to be for the butterfly tank from the most recent (at least I think it is) Rowan magazine. But it has recently occurred to me that I keep making things I will never wear. I don't know why I persist in this but I keep having to remind myself of my need for useful knits. So this will most likely be saved for some other project. Any ideas?
















I have about 8 balls of Silk Garden that was originally supposed to turn into some pillows for my bed. However, I got a new bedspread in a totally different colorway a couple months ago so I think this may be turned into a shawl or super-long scarf for my mom.



The final project I have is one that scares me a little. The Madil full is for my own pattern. Now I've futzed with a lot of patterns and gripped about poor editors and insane directions, but to jump the line to the side that gets all the criticism that freaks me out. I'll let you know if it ever happens.
















Those are the major projects. I have a boat load of Aurora 8 and a bunch of the Majestic. I think I'm going to make Belle Epoque from Knitty with the Majestic. We'll see what the Aurora 8 turns into, maybe an Essential Stripe without the stripe.

At any rate, I hope you all had a very happy New Years and that this new year bring you lots of joy and yarn!

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