A blog about my life, knitting, and other stuff.

January 30, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Over the many, many years of doing my weekly Thursday post I have complained about dressing creatures who are unable to defend themselves (read undress themselves) in goofy stuff and calling it cute. The list includes, but is not limited to, babies, dogs, cats, rats, hamsters and horses. Calling a bulky knit or crocheted objet a "photography prop" seems to be carte blanche* to make lots of ridiculous, humiliating shit. Then put it on babies. And then photograph them. And then share it on the internet. 

Now, I am well familiar with things being called "cuter than a baby's bottom." But I assume they are referring to a passing gaze as a mound of soft, squishy baby flesh and not a deep stare into its anus. I may be wrong. But I don't think so.



It's like the Eye of Sauron has been bordered in taupe cotton.

*I seem to be feeling très français today. I hope you'll forgive me.

January 27, 2014

We Giggled All Weekend

I saw this on a friend's Facebook wall on Friday. We showed it to the kids and we all found ourselves randomly singing and laughing about it all weekend. It's worth watching all the way through.

January 23, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Oh art students. We get it. You're arty. It's soooo artsy to knit a giant piece of whatever then put it on a skinny girl and have her looked all tormented. Oooo, art.





January 22, 2014

The Office Cure

I've been very loosely following the Apartment Therapy January Cure. I do what I can when I can but I'm not stressing myself out about not doing everything or doing things completely and perfectly. In short, it's been great. It wasn't part of the Cure but I knew that my office needed a massive overhaul. In my mind it was the linchpin to our whole home organization.

Basically, I collect stuff. I've always been a stuff collector. The stuff changes over time but I tend to be constantly bringing things home. I'm not so good about getting rid of stuff. When I have a lot of stuff I stuff the stuff in my office. When my office gets too stuffed with stuff it overflows into the dining room, my bedroom, everywhere! In order to put things away I had to start by pulling everything out.



Sunday: My dining room is under there.

I started with cleaning out the office--vacuuming, rehanging the curtains, dusting, wiping down all the surfaces, cleaning out all the drawers of my desk. Slowly I started to put things back.



Monday: Slowly digging out.



Tuesday: Ahhhhh. After I took this photo I put away all the yarn piled on the chair at the end of the table.


Wednesday: The office. Far from perfect. There's a box of things to sell/donate and a box to shred. I've ordered more magazine holders too. Please note, before I shelved the book alphabetically I made sure they were all in my Ravelry library. Now I can search for patterns on Ravelry and actually find them on the shelf!

I know for a normal, sane person my office is still an overloaded mess. But I'm going for better, not perfect.

January 18, 2014

Sticking to My Knitting

I'm keeping Ravi. Some have suggested ripping it out and starting over. That is not going to happen. I will just not point out the mistake to people or, as some readers suggested, camouflage it with a pin or something. I can't go back!

Also I am definitely doing the Follow Your Arrow along. I already started and plan to be ready for the next clue on Monday.

Remember When I Did All the Knitalongs?

Once upon a time I did all the knitalongs. BRE.* I mean all of them. Sweater KALs, sock KALs, designer KALs, book KALs. Loved them lots. Somewhere in there I lost my passion for them. And I never got into the whole "mystery KAL" concept. I have so many things I know I want to knit why would I spend my time making something I may not even like.

I decided to try a stuffed toy mystery knitalong this fall. I grabbed a skein of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in a blue grey (still trying to use all of this up from 2004!). As I worked on it at my knitting group everyone kept trying to guess what it was. A mouse, they guessed. I would say I don't know and point out that the color choice was my own and not dictated by the pattern. An elephant, they guessed. Again, it's grey because I had some grey yarn. Then we got the big reveal. I was knitting a gingerbread man. A grey gingerbread man. Sigh... He has been stashed away and is waiting to be finished. Someone suggested giving him ears and calling it a mouse. We'll see.

So why would I try another mystery knit? This time it's Ysolda. I've knit a lot of her patterns and don't think there's a bad one in the bunch. I trust her. So I've joined the Follow Your Arrow KAL. I'm using two skeins of Hazel Knits Divine in a Rogue (one of a kind) colorway. This yarn is very, very well-named. It is divine.



Just heavenly to knit with. So soft, such amazing color. I think I'm going to like this KAL.

*Before the Ravelry Era

January 17, 2014

Noooooooooooooo!

Ugh, guys. Just ugh. I finished the yoke for Ravi, separated the sleeves and have knit a few inches. I tried it on last night and the fit is perfect. It's exactly what I wanted. The openwork hits well above the fullest part of my bust, the underarm length is just right. I was so pleased with myself.

So pleased that I brought it outside this afternoon to photograph. I laid it out. I snapped a picture.



"Huh, what's that?"



That, sadly, is where I worked the wrong line of the openwork pattern. It's right on the front of the sweater. Right at the very beginning. My choices are 1) live with it or 2) rip out the entire sweater and start again. My gut is saying just ignore it and move on. Most people won't notice. Unfortunately I will notice. I'm sad.

January 16, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

I saw the back of this and thought, "What the hell?"



Then I saw the front--"WHAT THE HELL??!?!?!?!?!"



All the angles...just making it worse!



January 15, 2014

Favorite Zoo Moment of the Day


Mountain Goat creeping on canoodling River Otters.

January 12, 2014

This Could Be a New Feature

I was at the mall on Friday and wandered into Yankee Candle. I don't know if I have ever stepped foot in there before but someone had suggested one of their candles scents and I wanted to give it a sniff. Then I saw this.

I was immediately repulsed and marched straight out of the store. I think I'm most offended by the registration mark next to God Bless America, like, "Yeah, Yankee Candle, that phrase is yours now. Go you." But the whole image, Lady Liberty, the flag, a candle shop in a mall. It made me flee. I posted about it on Instagram/Facebook. 

"Really disappointed that this God Bless America candle (tm) doesn't smell like roasted Bald Eagles and jingoism."

On my way out the door, though, I spotted this beauty.


In case you can't quite make out the image that's a hand pointing a remote control at a television with sports on. Because men! Again, total revulsion. It's 2014. We still define men as primarily sitting in front of TVs watching sports? And they need their own candle fragrances? What happens when a man walks into a room where a scented candle--not a Man Candle--is burning? Does is repel them like a force field? Burn them to death like that toxic gas in Catching Fire? I live with three men. I need to know.

 Again I took to social media.

"This one, I believe, smells like day old pepperoni pizza and regret."

Franklin and I had a little talk about man candles.


If I'm not careful I'm going to end up like this Youtuber who almost exclusively does exhaustive reviews of Bath and Body Works candles. A man, I'd like to point out. 

In the meantime I'll leave you with this bit authentic marketing genius from Yankee Candle.

January 11, 2014

The Chaos That Is My Brain

Oh dear. The Ravi Knitalong at the Fiber Gallery wraps up tomorrow afternoon and I'm still working on the yoke of my sweater. Hopefully this will be comforting to customers who worry about finishing on time.



I got distracted. I started BonBons to use up one of my many oddballs of fingering weight yarn. When I was searching for a pattern I also saw Ghislaine and remembered that I had cast on for a pair in a skein of handspun months ago and never even completed the first round of knitting. So I started knitting that. But then I had to work on Ravi...but my BonBons just need thumbs...but those Ghislaine are so easy to knit...Chaos!


January 9, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

Menswear designers seemed to have peered into their Great Aunt Gertie's closet and gleaned a few lessons. 
1) A floral pant suit is a must.


2) If you love it, get it in every color.





January 5, 2014

Sock Yarn Scrap Stashdown

I'm not one for resolutions. They always seem like a setup for failure. But this year I would like to focus on reducing my sock yarn stash. There was a time that I would knit at least one pair of socks every month. I always had a pair on the needles. But I hardly ever knit socks anymore--though I should, my sock drawer is nearly empty. One area of the my sock stash that is completely out of control are my scraps. I just did a quick sweep and gathered up nearly three pounds of fingering-weight leftovers. Some are tiny little bits of only a few grams and some are a good chunk of a 100 gram skein. I grabbed a ball last night and cast on for BonBons. I've had this pattern in my queue since 2009. I'm using some Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors II that I bought at the second Sock Summit.

 

I've also been compiling a group of favorites to give me some stashbusting ideas for fingering-weight yarn.

What do you do with your sock yarn scraps?

January 4, 2014

Millwater




Pattern: Millwater by Beth Kling
Yarn: Plymouth Mushishi
Needles: US8 Addi Long-Tip Lace Clicks
Notes: This was just what I needed, a simple pattern that's not too boring. The reversible cables are on a ground of garter stitch and you only cross them every 18 rows. Lots of simple knitting. Plus I used pretty much the entire skein of Mushishi and ended up with exactly the length I wanted, about a 56" circumference. It's the same size as my Tideline which I have worn constantly this winter. You can wear it doubled comfortably without allowing the wind to get in. Plus you can pull it up over your head when you forget your hat and it rains or your ears get cold.


January 3, 2014

New Hat for a New Year

I finished up a new cowl, Millwater (it's blocking right now), on New Year's Eve. I have a few other things on the needles but wanted to start something new. Something new for the new year, I guess. I would really like to make a dent in my sock stash this year, particularly my stash of partial skeins. My yarn stash, office and dining room table appear to be infested with small skeins of sock yarn. I decided on Diana's Hat from the new Green Gables Knits.

Photo from Green Gables Knits

I'm knitting mine in a skein of Dale of Norway Baby Ull that was the most horrible shade of minty-bluey-green. I overdyed it a long time ago and then it just sat, waiting to become something. This year it will become a hat.

Also if you'd like a chance to win a copy of the Green Gables Knits ebook hop over to the Doubleknit Podcast Fans board on Ravelry. Erin and I have a copy to give away.

January 2, 2014

Thursday Is for What the Hell Is This?

New Year's Day is a pretty fun day for people watching. Some are doing the "Walk of Shame," slinking home in their now rumpled party clothes that don't look quite so festive in the cold light of day. Just imagine the night these ladies had.


Good thing they got up and out of wherever they spent the night with all their organs. Just not in the right places...

January 1, 2014

Seawall




Pattern: Seawall by Lousie Zass-Bangham
Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed DK in leftovers of five colors, approximately 4 skeins
Needle: US4 and 5 Addi Long-Tip Lace Clicks
Notes: This is a great stashbusting project. I had over one skein of dark gray Felted Tweed and oddballs of four other colors, which is fewer than the pattern calls for. I changed up the color pattern in the squares and stripes to use up as much of my yarn as I could. I ended up with a 73" long scarf which is much longer than the pattern calls for but I think a longer scarf is always better.