All Stitched Up

2003-05-08T05:14:00.000-04:00

We've moved
Visit The Eartha Knittery at
http://www.earthaknit.com/blog

2003-05-04T03:47:00.000-04:00

Significant headway was made on Caedmon over the weekend. And I even have pictures to prove it! Did my first two steeks and realized that they really aren't things worthy of crippling paranoia as I was once prone to think. I just gave it a look, said "what the hell" with a shrug, and started snipping. So far, I'm generally pleased with the way everything is turning out. My only issues are with the neck opening, which is barely big enough...and all because I didn't want to abstruct the lovely little cables. Sure, I could have waited until the cables had moved out of the way, but I was tired of knitting and wanted to finish the body ASAP! Besides, the sweater is way long enough already.

Anywho, this sweater is a sweater of many firsts: First steek, first baste, first sweater done completely in the round, first gussets, first spit join, although it was a contributing factor in my second hangover. Taught myself a lot of new techniques, many of which I had read about in the past but never bothered myself with putting into practice. And now for the picture show (as always, feel free to click on the picture for a larger version):

Here we have the front of the sweater, as it lay just after I did the bind off at the neck...

...and the back

Here we have a close-up of the neck shaping. You can see what I meant by not wanting to interrupt the cabling

And here is the birth of a collar:

First I basted with some waste yarn and here's a picture of that.

And then the collar all sewn in. Of course the sewing in of the collar made the neck opening a smidge more tighter, but like a good pair of shoes, I'll be damned if I don't figure a way to get in it somehow!!!

Oh, and I'd be remiss if I didn't post a picture of the shoulder seam:

The only bad thing about this shoulder seam is that sans sleeves I've got that Joan Crawford hanger in the coat look. Fortunately the sleeves, once knitted, will pull down the shoulders to match the natural slope of my shapeless non-existent shoulders. But I still would have preferred the look of drop shoulders for the added diminuation.

And now I'm working on the endlessly dull sleeve...19 inches worth of endlessly dull sleeve. Okay, enough Caedmon pictures for now. He'll probably not resurface again on my blog once he's finished and not a moment before then.

2003-05-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Knitting circle is such a wonderful concept and establishment. You have a bunch of knitters sitting around for two hours knitting and chewing the fat. It's a great place to go for one who is having technical issues. It's also a great place for one who has grown tired of talking with the incessant voices in their head. It's also a great place to go to knit outside of the house without worrying about someone asking, "can you knit me something?" However, it's a horrible place to go if you blush at the slightest hint of an off-color suggestion.

Being one to make an entrance, I arrived fashionably late (after all, except for La Traviata the prima donna always makes her entrance after the shmuks have sung their aria and dawdled through their choruses)... but as I was saying, I arrived fashionably late to hear the following sentence: "You know, I think it's Alabama where it's illegal to buy vibrators." Of course, this conversation moved on to discussing how womens underwear of the 1800's were crotchless, and then on to the prostitutes that walked around with carpets so that, when propositioned, they could commence with business immediately. Of course we talked about other things, like how SEPTA, the mass transportation company in Philly has the coglioni to suggest getting rid of a few transit lines (that I use quite often) and then in the same breath mention how they are going to raise the fare. We discussed how New York ain't the same city that it was...post-9/11 and post-Giuliani. Pre-9/11 it was a bustling theatre town where the restaurants were always packed just before a show. Pre-Giuliani it was a city with a bustling red-light district...meanwhile, the Rudy G. moves Mickey Mouse into Times Square and then takes one of those Times Square hookers and moves her into the Gracie Mansion. Ironic? Certainly...but therein lies the hilarity of it all. We also talked about the chocolate symphony, and why the hell someone would need a house with 51 rooms, and we also discussed whether this benefactor who owns the 51 room house has a lover (and believe it or not, I didn't ask that question). Nevertheless, just hearing the sex part of the discourse last night, how could one even think to say that knitting is a grandmother's sport that must be done in the confines of a rocking chair?

But I also learned a new technique of joining yarn with spit. Not quite as dramatic as I had envisioned it to be, but very efficient indeed. In the words of Auntie Mame: "Spitting distance? ... How vivid!"

2003-04-26T14:12:00.000-04:00

Woohoo!!!! Less than 30 rounds to go...I think...I hope

click on image for larger view

As you can see, Caedmon is no longer the neglected red-headed bastard stepchild that he was for the past two odd weeks. Will I finish the body this weekend? Hell no! However, by Wednesday is a great possibility...and this is what I have to look forward to...

My first attempt at steeking. Now, there are two possibilities: 1) Attain a place in history next to Imhotep's first pyramid, the prototype for all of Egypt's pyramids...or 2) go down in history like the Hindenburg, Lusitania, Titanic, etc...disatrous wrecks all of them!!! I'll follow Wendy's instructions and hope for the former.

Oh, and lookie at what else I decided to throw in:

No, it's not a spout, it's a gusset! But that would be an interesting idea for a future sweater design: The Strawberry Pot. No, I'm not suggesting strawberry flavored canibus, but the terra cotta pots that strawberries are typically grown in. But back to the current disaster... Now, ask me, why the hell did I do the gusset in Rice Stitch? As if anyone is going to see it...and besides, with the increases, you can't even see the definition of the stitch anyway. Hmph.

2003-04-24T15:58:00.000-04:00

Just all over the place today

It's amazing the wierd places that one can find inspiration. Last night I was watching Bones, being a sap for the occasional horror movie that I am. Anywho, Pam Grier's character--Pearl the psychic--was wearing an interesting poncho in a very blah neutral color. And then a lightbulb went off. I could do that! But could I do better? Well, I'm starting to run out of knittable Celtic knots... All Celtic knots are inherently knittable since they're nothing more than lattice cabling with a few twists, turns, beginnings, and endings. But it's the charting that gets to become a bitch! And besides, Mercury is getting ready to go retrograde, so I'm not exactly in any position to create any decent designs. (After Mercury goes retrograde I'll probably complain about how we're getting 4 retrogrades this year instead of the usual three)

So no major designing from Saturday until May 20th. Good! At least I can finish the Caedmon! So far, I've finished the gussets, started the armhole steeks and I'm already thinking about what I'm going to do for the neck shaping. Steeks of course. I'm just too damn lazy to actually go from circular knitting to flat back and forth knitting. So, I steek...I showered...but I still seem to steek.

Speaking of steeking...er..uh...stinking (talk about a perfect segue) one of the great things about having a counter is that you get to see where people who visit your site came from. A few from the earthaknit home page, a few from other bloggers' sites, some googles and...a few yahoos. Now, it's the yahoos that I'm talking about...specifically one search in particular. The keywords? Curve cologne slut. I understand that yahoo is notorious for tracking one's internet activities, but what I'd like to know is how they were able to put IP address 123.45.6789 and the EarthaKnittery together with the Curve cologne slut? Yes, curve is my favorite brand (which I usually buy at either Bloomies or Strawbridges). And me being a slut...well, some things are just generally accepted as fact. But...*harrumph*...is big brother watching me? And if he is, I really should stop knitting nekid. (now, erase that picture from your mental canvas *bzzt*)

And last but not least...

Dark Mint-Complementary, my dear Watson!

*Which Flavor Camel Exotic Blends are You?*
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-04-22T16:59:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you've all had those incidents when your designs, once knitted, don't exactly match the concept. Well, over the weekend, I had one such incident. You find a yarn that you love, you find a motif that you just adore, you decide to mix the two in what would, under ideal circumstances, be a great marriage of physical and aesthetic texture. And then you end up with blah! I thought that I compensated well for the large gauge of the yarn by using US4 needles instead of the recommended US8. But this is what I was left with:

and...

So, what I ended up with was something that was too big and too small, with unsightly little holes on the top, and a color combination that I'm not too sure that I'd be willing to try again. The main issue that I have with the hat is that, because it is so 'small' it bubbles out when I put it on my head. Then there's the issue of the square, instead of round, top. Am I complaining too much? Hell No! Will I wear this hat in public? Double Hell No! Will I reknit this hat with a different yarn? Keep up to speed with me...I've already finished 20% of it. Will I invest in a good book on color theory? Damn skippy!! Do I think anyone will be willing to actually buy this pattern once it's finalized? *shrug* But feel free to drop me an email, and you'll be among the first to know when the pattern is complete and where you can purchase it.

2003-04-19T14:04:00.000-04:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Well, our mascot, the ever hardworking Princess Pandora has finally hit the big 2 today. Yes, on April 19, 2001 this little thing was born. Who knew that she'd be computer literate and sending emails and preparing HTML layouts and Access databases before her 2nd birthday?

Pandora, take a bow and thank all the lovely people for the pleasant birthday wishes.

But pay attention, back to the knitting.....

Of course you all have probably gather that I have a slight addiction to Aran knitting. Last night I was watching So Graham Norton on BBC America (right after Ab Fab) and he decided to show some knitting magazines that the first James Bond had posed in. One of the magazines that he showed was called The Aran Look. Smack dab in the middle of that magazine was an example of the aran look being taken too far. Now we all adore the Aran look for, in Graham's words "the cable here, and the wooden button there". But then he flipped to a page with a lady dressed head to bloody toe in Aran wear. An Aran hood, jacket, sweater, leggings, and boots. Sadly, I googled and found nothing...but believe you me...it was HORRID! Princess Pandora definitely wouldn't like it. But, speaking of the Aran look being taken too far, I made a fish swatch last night that I'm really liking. After I block it and set it up with a few other swatches I'm going to post it on the EarthaKnit Gallery of Knots. This swatch is going to be a hat, haven't decided what type of hat, but I'm going to drop a line to Threadbear to see what they've got in stock that I'd love. Keep your eyes peeled for this design...I just might sell it! LoL

So, what's on my agenda for the day? Well, I'm going to take Pandora out to celebrate her birthday with a nice piddle against a tree. Oddly enough, despite being a female she often lifts her leg when she does her business...I know, TMI! And then I'm going to take her to Petco just too look around (daddy spent too much money on yarn last week...she understands) And then I'm finally going to sit down and knit the green thing, AKA Caedmon. Will I finished at least 1 whole row today? I don't know...but keep your fingers crossed for me. Oh, and yes, that is a piece of Manos tied around Pandora's hair.

2003-04-18T11:41:00.000-04:00

As you can tell someone's been a hard working bastard. Pay no attention to the fact that my knowledge of HTLM is practically non-existent (and don't even ask how I was able to create a graphic...but that's okay, the software expires in 18 days) I regret to inform you that we've gone commercial...or rather we're in the process of going commercial. And we're in the process of moving too. Earthaknit.com will be the future home of the blog formerly known as All Stitched Up. Henceforth, All Stitched Up will be known as The EarthaKnittery. Clever? Hell no! Gay as all hell! Most def'! So, in an attempt to justify the existence of earthaknit.com and also to create revenue to pay for the webspace and the cute little email address I set up a cute little Cafepress boutique. Don't worry, I'm in the process of creating a new button, so don't get too used to that ugly little thing I've got down there in the corner. But still feel free to buy stuff. Fortunately, the merchandise is better looking than the button that I created. But 100x100px is such a limited amount of space to get creative with.

So, why the name EarthaKnit? Trust me, it has nothing to do with the fact that Mme. Eartha Kitt herself was mentioned (albeit in passing) in an article entitled The Knitting Revolution. As I said, she barely got an entire sentence. Besides, I just found the link last night. Will earthaknit.com have anything to do with Mme. Eartha Kitt? Only in the sense that I hope to seduce knitters worldwide with a few decent patterns. So, what the hell is an EarthaKnit? Well, the tag line is Natural Knitting, Natural Design. We're going for an earthy Barefoot Contessa type of feel. Classy yet comfortable. Shabby yet Chic. And with a tag line Natural Knitting, Natural Design you shouldn't expect to find too many acrylic or novelty yarns. However, I am designing a dog sweater made from an eyelash yarn...if only I could find one that I liked. But the first full collection that the Atelier will turnout is going to be Gaeilge Seanfhocal. I forget how to pronounce it, but it means Gaelic Expression. So basically you can expect to see what would happen if Alice Starmore and Elsbeth Lavold got together and have a love-sweater...*shrinking at the thought that I could come up with a word as corny as love-sweater*

In the meantime, because what would be a knitblog without something signficantly knitworthy mentioned? It's interesting to see how two different designers with two different techniques tackle the same motif. I'm going to study this a bit more and then get back to you on my findings. But, from what I have gathered thus far, both Starmore and Lavold have charted out a pattern which could very easily be interchangeable one for the other. Starmore's version is curvier and done over 19 stitches, whereas the Lavold version is more angular and done over 16 sts. Both consist of 24 rows, both increase the number of stitches by 4, and both are utilized quite nicely in the patterns provided. Of course I'm referring to the flanking panel of St. Brigid (Starmore) and the S-Hitches as seen in the Harald outif of gansey-esque pullover, watch cap, socks and mittens (Lavold) ... and I thought that I was the only one that would dare consider beating a motif to death. Although, I've got an aran, a pullover with set in sweaters, another with raglan sleeves, a hat, an aran coat type of deal, and a cardigan. Note to self...try to figure out pattern for socks, mittens, and underwear. Yes, cabled skivies, for the gentleman of discerning taste. LoL

2003-04-16T01:00:00.000-04:00

Making her debut appearance on the blog soon-to-be-formerly-known-as All Stitched Up: a Diamond and Purl Production, I proudly present you to in all her feline splendor: Maxine

Cuter than Gage? Cuter than Izzy? Cuter than all those other blog cats? Well, I'm not even going to attempt to start a cat fight, but she is terribly cute! She's so cute, she gets to appear in one blog entry TWO (count 'em 2) times.

So there you have it, per Steve's request...or was that brow beating[?] from the tag-board.

Meanwhile, on the knitting front, Caedmon still sits rejected like the red-headed bastard that he has become. Nevertheless, I'm going to try and work a few rounds on him this weekend. Any significant knitting completely on the other projects today? No! And why?

Well, it begins with me going to the store at half-past General Hospital...come on, you know you tell time by the soap operas too. Now, where was I. It was half-past General Hospital and I decided it was time to hop over to the store to take care of my Mountain Dew/cigarette fix. I had just hopped out of the shower, threw on a t-shirt and some pants and did not a damn thing else. So I head to the store, get my stuff and go to return home. And much to my chagrin, my key was still inside the house, so I was locked out until the individual heretofore known as enabler of dogs got in from work at half-past 11 o' clock news.

But I'm resourceful (and was armed with a Visa shield), so I headed downtown to the yarn shop to pick up some Green Mountain yarn, some sale mercerized cotton, and a skein of a white worsted something or other to put together a gallery of knitted knots...oh, and a pair of US4 needles so I could get started with the Green Mountain yanr that I bought. Of course you probably guessed that I'm making hat #4, to kinda make up for the fact that I wasn't able to work on hat #3...but oh well...life goes on. I know what you're saying...why didn't you just call a locksmith!? Well, that thought did cross my mind...but I'd rather spend that money on booze and yarn...er...uh...yarn and booze, and in that order.

Now, this is where grandparents living directly across the stree comes in handy. And when I say directly across the street, I mean sitting at the bedroom window and picking up the phone to tell my grandfather that his head was in the way and I didn't see what just happened on TV. So, I sat there knitting and watching TV until half-past 11 o'clock news. Handy? Indeed! Rare? Well, not really. In South Philly you can have one third of a block that is the same family. Then they marry someone from their block and move to a different block so as to keep the chances of inbreeding low. They usually stay centralized then move to another block after about two generations. Poor kids...where their version of that famous song goes Over the gutter and through the alley to Nonna's house we go.

2003-04-14T13:43:00.000-04:00

The Labors of a Fruit

Ossia 'The Fruits of my Labor'

(click on the image for a larger version)

Here's only a part of what's been causing me sleepless nights. The other parts are website graphics stuff, a few more knitting design stuff, and of course neglecting the prodigal bastard, Caedmon. But for today I'm going to blog about the tryptich of hats that I'm knitting.

This of course is my favorite of the three. Granted the band is a little thin for my big head, and the shetland is a little itchy for my sensitive-ish skin, but I'm thoroughtly enjoying knitting with this yarn! But guess who ran out of yarn? No, not me. The yarn shop, so of course I called every yarn shop in Philadelphia to see if they carried the Jamieson Spindrift and not a single one (except Rosie's Yarn Cellar) has it. And of course, I should buy the last skein of Pine and Pistachio. So, how many of you think that I'm going back to Rosie's to pick up another skein of Purple Heather and Burnt Umber? Not gonna happen!

Then there's the first of the two evils. Rowan Summer Tweed. I only bought this yarn because it was so beautiful. In this color it reminds me of some Classic Elite Fame that I used for a scarf (but not as tweedy). But the problem is that this is a cotton/silk blend...and we know what that means. Rowan suggests a US8 needle, but this was knit on a US6 and it's still too loose. But I just adore the way this pic showed up on this photo. Just a shame I doubt that I'll be knitting with it again. Although...there is an idea that I'm thinking about adapting from the Winter 2003 Phildar Homo...er...Homme. But, of course, Rowan doesn't have enough colors to fulfill my concept. But the colors they have could constitute a nice adjustment. Of the few colors that Rowan does have they do have some REAL stunners in their color assortment, which is their one saving grace...aside from the wide variety of yarns to choose from.

And here is the second of the two evils. Rowan Summer Tweed again. Remember how I said that Rowan suggests a US8? Well, this one is being done on a US4 and I'm just loving it for an autumn hat! I'm guessing you can call it the lesser of two evils. But I still detest the yarn because of the cotton/silk blend...but being a man of luxury does have it's occasional setbacks.

Now, the problem with knitting with anything that's not wool is that it's a bitch and a half to work with! Mercerized cotton is a thing that I can deal with, but Mission Falls feels like knitting with spun cotton balls. And I really can't put into words how this silk/cotton blend feels. It does have a very chenille-esque quality about it and it does have a certain added stickiness due to the silk content. But I'm almost feeling seducted into knitting that autumny sweater with the Summer Tweed. Do I finally see something for knitty??? Perhaps...but for now, I'm going to be very non-committal about it.

2003-04-12T09:27:00.000-04:00

Oh Sweet Memories...

I'm sure all of you remember your first knitting experience. For many of you, it was at the side of your mother, grandmother, aunt or some other revered knitting female of your childhood. I, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. My great grandmother did crochet, in fact she made a baby blanket for me, but she passed when I was in elementary school and content with The Smurfs, Thunder Cats, Snorkels, and (dare I go old school) Atari. She did however teach my mother to crochet, but that fancy faded shortly after that first vest was blocked. Besides, with sewing a machine can do all the work for you.

So, how did I come into knitting? Well, one day I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop, minding my own business and trying to snag myself a husband. Then, two semi-middle aged men game in. They ordered their coffee, sat at their little table by the window and took some funny looking flags on teeny-tiny flag poles out of their bags. I watched them, fascinated by what they were doing. I noticed that as they tapped the right flagpole against the left flagpole the flag was slowly but surely moving from one pole to the other. Wait...they were knitting! Wow!!!

Many months later I was in Barnes & Noble and somehow ended up in the section with the arts and craft books. The first book that I picked up with Knitting Without Tears. Good, I thought, I can learn how to knit without the sweater ripping -- because tear and tear are spelled almost the same. And, also knitting would give me something to do to keep my hands busy so that I could quit smoking. I read the book, slept with the book and digested the book and decided that it was time to take this experience from the written page into reality. I remembered this little basement store that had yarn looking stuff in the window that I would pass on my way coming from the violin shop, so I went there. I ended up getting some purple worsted and US7 needles and got busy knitting as soon as I got home, knitting from the left needle to the right needle and from the right needle back to the left needle without turning to the WS. It was time to schedule a lesson.

So I had my lesson with some Crystal Palace Cotton Chenille that I bought that day. I know what you're saying: a lesson with chenille??? Yes, I was forewarned, but ignorance is bliss and I was in the mood to do some skipping!

Time had passed and I acquainted myself with the basics of knitting. I was so acquainted with the basics that I felt comfortable knitting in public without fear of being attacked by a real knitter laughing at the mockery that I was making of the craft. But I had grown weary of the chenille for obvious reasons and decided that it was time to visit the yarn shop again and buy some wool. So I picked up six skeins of Rowan DK Tweed (may that line rest in peace). Now, at this point I knew none of the terminology about knitting, aside from knit, purl, cast-on, and bind-off. I saw Tweed and I thought of those pants that I wouldn't dare wear again on a cold day without underwear. I saw DK and I thought oh, Donna Karan is making yarn now. You see, it was a separate entity from her clothing line, which is why it was DK instead of DKNY. She wanted to appeal to knitters worldwide. I swatched and swatched and swatched, acquainting myself with the techniques and teaching myself a few things.

Of course, it was time to buy some more yarn!!! What I ended up with was 6 50mg balls of some slubby yarn whose name escapes me at the moment, but I got it in Cream, Tan, and Brown and decided that I'd make a sampler scarf using some stitches that I saw in the second knitting book that I bought. And in a week and a half I had my first scarf, which served absolutely no purpose in the middle of summer, except to say: I'm officially a knitter. But not just any knitter...a smoking knitter; because if you follow the laws of physics as they relate to falling ashes and the direction and strength of the wind you can actually knit and smoke without burning whatever you were knitting. Rare and handy? Nope...just common and resourceful.

2003-04-11T10:39:00.000-04:00

More quizzes for your viewing pleasure

Congratulations, you're New York City, the Big Apple.
What US city are you? Take the quiz by Girlwithagun.
As the song goes...New York, New York, there's a guy in a gown, in Central Park a drunk hooker fell down, on 42nd Street you get pissed off by a tourist standing in front of the damn wax museum taking a picture with a wax statue grinning from ear to ear as if it's the real celebrity and you just want to tell them to move the fuck out of your way but you resort to throwing your coffee at them then you realize that you're actually enjoying the coffee so you just mutter a few cuss words in Italian and Yiddish under your breath. Wait...that is how Leonard Bernstein wrote the song, right?

Yes I'm a li'l bit cranky this morning. It's past 10:30 and I haven't yet had a drop of coffee. I was up until 5am knitting my 4th swatch which I'm going to turn into a hat just for the sake of feeling like I'm actually accomplishing something. The Green Monster, Caedmon still sits on round 8 of the third pattern repeat. And I bought more yarn than I intended yesterday. So I'm just a little bit pissed. But ooh, the colors! and I get to knit a hat for Steve with one of the yarns that I bought. So, I guess it's not so bad after all...

Your magical style is Priestess.

What type of Magic do you work?. Take the Magical Style Quiz by Paradox
Not just an ordinary vestal virgin (hey, no comments about not even being a virgin), I'm a High Priestess. Well just a Priestess until I've had my coffee... But in the words of the great Iphigenie (the one en Tauride):
Je t'implore et je tremble, ô déesse implacable,Dans le fond de mon coeur mets la férocité: Étouffe de l'humanité la voix plaintive et lamentable. Hélas! Ah! quelle est donc la rigueur de mon sort? D'un sanglant ministère, victime involontaire, j'obéis, et mon coeur est en proie au remord!

Well, what else is there to say? Time to get caffeinated...

2003-04-10T10:45:00.000-04:00

Yesterday on Joe's blog he posted a picture of a drunk and drugged cat with a thingie around his neck. So of course I couldn't resist...

Joe has Gage, Wendy has Izzy and I've got Pandora (Coco doesn't like to get photoed). She's not exactly a cat...but if the landlord asks, tell her that you heard Pandora meow.

She came in after our walk and went straight to my 'public' stash of yarn and took a little nap. Now, ain't it just cute the way a hairless sweater wearing pup can make a jumbo skein of Red Heart and some assorted Lion Brand yarn almost look acceptable in a basket with Vittadini, Manos, and Mission Falls and that bright chartreuse skein of Provence that I finally got around to using.

Meanwhile, I found some decent Celtic Knot software. So, today I'm going to pick up some assorted skeins of Jamieson and start swatching. Woohoo!!!

2003-04-09T06:44:00.000-04:00

Knitting the whole night long...

A Cher concert, a big bottle of Mountain Dew, a rum and coke (with more coke than rum) and a bad case of insomnia are all that it takes. Yep, you guessed it, I'm still designing...

In the middle of knitting, I thought of something that Joe said about that problematic increase that I couldn't coherently put into words. How about m1? I brushed it off. Too simple! And the way that I had charted the motif, a m1 increase would take away from the sense of infinity inherent in an infinite cable. But I thought for a moment in the middle of knitting, which in many cases isn't a good thing, especially when you're smack dab in the middle of knitting a swatch for the third time...but larger and mirrored. When you shift things over just a smidge and cable outward from the m1, [p1, yo, p1], m1 increase, things just might work. And they did. As they say in the backwoods of Pennsyl-tucky: Voylah! Now, to figure out what the hell I'm going to do with the other panels of the aran version of this sweater that Steve prefers. (Sorry, no picture linking today...and...er...uh...keep your hands inside the car even after the rollercoaster has come to a complete stop!!!)

So many projects...and only two hands to knit with... It's times like this that I'm sure every knitter wishes that they were Vishnu. Knit with both sets of hands (one for the front and one for the back/one for the left sleeve and one for the right sleeve) or knit with one set and design with the other. So far, I've got the raglan sweater for which just the mathematical part remains, an aran version of the raglan sweater that I've got to figure out, re-do the chart for the Iascaire (thanks for the translation Eileen), and do some i-cord experiments. Busy, busy, busy... (typed with a yawn thrown in). Meanwhile back at the ranch, I'm off the brew a pot of coffee and pretend that I got my usual 5 hours of sleep.

2003-04-08T12:53:00.000-04:00

The Designer Guys...

Now, in a perfect world I'd be referring to the TV show that I like to refer to as The Designer Gays. It all depends on my mood, but I'm not sure which one of the Designer Guys I find more delectable: Steven Sabados, the rather handsome, dimpled and trim butch guy or Chris Hyndman the rather handsome, un-dimpled, and slightly voluptuous semi-queen. I guess their fashion counterparts would be a Tom Ford (but with a lower hairline)/Todd Oldham mix(yum) and Isaac Mizrahi (but yummier).

But anywho, that's not what I'm referring to.

Three minds are always better than one. Steve, Joe, and myself. Over the course of the last few days I was designing a swatch, which has become the inspiration for several possible designs. It was an interesting swatch. But now that I've already knit it two times (with a third knit coming up in the near future) I'm severely disliking it! But I'm enjoying the collaboration process, as it not only helps me through the moments when I get stuck, but it also gives me impetus to trudge onward.

Joe and I had a nice lengthy chat yesterday because I was stumped. I 'unvented' a process that I hadn't seen described anywhere before and wasn't exactly sure how to translate it from the chart. In an ideal world, people would understand and embrace the direction: pick the thingie up and purl. But I think that one has to be more specific in knitting, and I'm under the impression that words such as thingie, whatsawhosit, thingamabob, and diddlything are generally to be avoided in writing out knit patterns. But I couldn't figure out for the life of me how to eloquently and coherently put what I was doing into words. I had Joe stumped for a bit, but the stumping could have been originally caused by me sending him an upside down picture of the first swatch. But we finally came up with a comprehensible set of words that wouldn't cause knitters around the world to curse my name and damn me to an eternity in the backwoods of Pennsylvania (AKA Pennsyl-bama). What Joe came up with was 'purl into the stitch below next stitch'. That seems coherent enough. P into the st below the next st, [p1, yo, p1] into one st, p into the stitch below previous stitch. And there we have it an inc4 without that obscene buttonhole that appears when you p1, p1tbl, yo, p1, p1tbl. So, for Joe's present design endeavor I'm going to submit a raglan sweater with the freaky increase...

Then I called Steve. Like I said I had three (trying to be four) possible designs that could work well with this motif and I needed more input, as it would be ghastly to let two of the three designs go to waste (the fourth being a cardigan and I'm just not particularly thrilled about knitting button bands yet). Now, Steve isn't exactly a knitter, but I've never seen him wear anything that looks horrible on him...not that anything could look horrible on him, but I digress. So, I asked Design Idea #1, Design Idea #2, or Design Idea #3. His choice was Design Idea #2. Although his actual words were something along the lines of, I'm really liking the green one (AKA Caedmon). I wonder if he realizes that since he chose door #2 the process will be a bit more involved than just saying "I like #2"? *scratching head* So, Steve, if you're actually reading this, you should expect to be viewing a few more swatches before week's end. Just got to figure out some mathematical things.

So I trudge onward evermore...

2003-04-06T09:43:00.000-04:00

Accentuate the positive

You would think that I'd give up knitting considering how it gives me nightmares. So last night I had another one. Joe and Marilyn can rest easily, as this dream wasn't egged on by sock yarn and a deliciously awesome sock pattern. Celtic Knots were the issue at hand last night. Or, more specifically, the chart that I did up last night for "Fisherman" (note to self: find the Gaelic translation for Fisherman).

Will it look like the original when I actually knit it up??? Well, that's why I had the nightmare. Oddly enough, I clicked my heels together three times and ended up with this:

2003-04-05T18:28:00.000-05:00

Yippy, it arrived yesterday...and being just a minute or two over 28 hours later, I've already made one swatch and bookmarked each of the patterns that I plan on knitting with red and blue little Post-It(tm) flags. The red denotes stuff that I'm definitely going to knit, and the blue denotes stuff that I've got to let mull around a bit before I commit myself to knitting it. Of course I'm referring to the Alice Starmore Aran Knitting. I'm really enjoying the book, but I severely doubt that it's worth the $100+ that people are paying for it on eBay. Don't get me wrong--it's one of the better and more comprehensive sources out there that specifically deal with the Aran style of knitting. But it still doesn't warrant a $150 (or, dare I say, $300) top bid. But as I've said before, those eBayers are ruthless.

Anywho, I took a visit to Sophie's yesterday. Knowing that I was visiting, the UPS guy delivered several boxes of yarn. The image that I will paint for you is a kid and a freshly raked pile of leaves. You can only imagine what happened. But I bought no yarn, which is an outstanding testament to my will power. Despite buying no yarn, I did leave with quite a bit of inspiration for Gaeilge Seanfhocal 2004. The first source of inspiration was Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments, which provided a rather creative way around a few Celtic knots that are particularly un-knittable on account of horizontal bars. So, I'm going to slap some yarn on the handy knitting machine, crank out an I-cord, and get to experimenting.

Then there was the book New Directions in Knitting. Personally, it's a rather ho-hum book with a few gems placed few and far between. But, despite that, it's prime merits lay in the construction of many of the knits. In fact, I found a less textured, simplified version of a sweater that I designed for the Gaeilge Seanfhocal 2004. And by 'sweater that I designed' I mean it's presently just a sketch in my design book...which is to say that I haven't the slightest idea how I'm going to piece the damn thing together. Pick up and knit down? Or knit up, baste, and graft? Wait...I left something out. So, beginning again: Pick up, knit down, baste and graft? Or pick up, knit up, baste, and graft? Are you thinking what I'm thinking *as I search the environs of my desk for some Excedrin*. This Gaeilge Seanfhocal 2004 should be quite an interesting and fun *gag* collection.

2003-04-04T11:50:00.000-05:00

Not a damn thing knit worthy to say. Although, it's amazing how swiftly one can knit when watching ER and they've moved the ever lovable, oh so congenial, ray of sunshine Dr. Romano down to the ER. Knitting faster was the only thing I could do to keep myself from doing unspeakable things to my television. But he got what he had coming to him...it's just a shame that it wasn't someone from the ER that beat the crap out of him. Reason number 1 why I'd never work in a hospital. I probably would have been the first person to do unspeakable things to him...the nerve, removing the coffee pot and outlawing birthday cake. So I finished 6 rows in the course of that one hour, which is quite an accomplishment considering how slow of a knitter I am and how much cabling is involved. But I've finally gotten up to the increases for the gussets on the Caedmon (which will probably be the first thing in the Gaeilge Seanfhocal 2004...now if only I could bamboozle some knitters into knitting the other crap that I come up with... I might actually have a decent trunk show by 2005).

Blogger issues. It has been brought to my attention that not a single solitary graphic is showing up on my page, which is extremely odd. I never understood how the graphics and stuff can show up on my page when viewed from my computer, but as soon as someone else gives it a gander, it's a blank background and not a single picture. Anywho, I was chatting with Joe yesterday and he told me about this FTP freeware, so of course I downloaded it immediately with the ideation of putting everything onto my verizon web space. And don't you know that because Verizon is doing "upgrades" I won't be able to do a damn thing except organize all of my photos and such into one folder on my computer and twiddle my thumbs until the "upgrades" have been "upgraded". But I'm thinking...Wendy has the nice little knitted masthead...and there are a few other blogs out there with knitted mastheads... so, why not me (once I get working graphics on my site?) I'm thinking about knitting the celtic knot that I've got as my background and using that as a masthead... and *gasp* I'm also thinking about breaking my cheap streak and registering a domain name. Will it ever happen??? Probably not...but it's a nice thought.

Oh, and one knitworthy thing to discuss... I finally designed half a sweater that I'm satisfied with. The only problem is I drew a rough (VERY rough) sketch, but haven't the slightest clue how to go about knitting it up. Hmm...oh well, got to do a bit of thinking...but first I've got to get the coffee pots agoing. You might think it's odd, but having a coffee pot in one's room really comes in handy during times like this.

2003-04-03T15:26:00.000-05:00

Back to the Knit Leeches...

I was sitting under the dryer after getting my hair retwisted, kitting away and my loctician asked "Could ya knit me some pants?" Well I bit my tongue and I think I drew blood. I couldn't be my usual to-the-point self with the lady that I see every four weeks and pay good money to yank on my hair and twist until the roots start to pulsate. Besides, her shampooing my hair is as close as I'm going to get to...*cough*...er...um...intimate relations for a while. So, instead of smiling and saying "how 'bout I just bind your legs in Rowan Summer Tweed until the circulation stops" I kindly smiled and said "I'll think about it...but don't hold yer breath." I could have gone into detail about how much trouble it is knitting a sock for a size 13 foot and left it at that... Or I could have told her the story about the lady from knitting circle who decided to knit one of those stripped unitard type of things for a baby and ended up having to find a 3 month sized teddy bear to wear the damned thing... Besides, I haven't even started my leopard print undies yet...

And Caedmon (just a temporary name for the green aran) is retrogressing nicely. I finished exactly two rows last night while watching Wanda At Large. I never knew that it would be so difficult to knit at a consistent pace when you're doubled over in laughter. But in five more rows I get to start the increase for the gussets. Woohoo!!!!

2003-04-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

Two...2...Two entries in one!

Since I've been so silent since my last entry, I'm doubling up...let's politely refer to it as a menage a tricot. Me, subject one, and subject two...oh what wild fun that should be!!!
1. Plans Gone Wild (available on VHS)
Well, it's been one of those weeks...and it's only Wednesday. The original plan was that I would sit down with my sketch pad and design some amazingly stunning sweaters. Anyway... All that I accomplished was half a maybe, another perhaps and a slew of 'I wouldn't dress my fiercest foe in that' designs. So the secret is out: I suck as a designer...and don't even try to throw multiple colors into the mix. And I have the nerve to call myself a gay man and I can't even mix two decent colors together (with the exception of blue and chartreuse, purple and chartreuse, and neon orange and hot pink!) The real bulk of my talent lies in taking other people's designs and altering them so horrendously that they are unrecognisable from the original. But I did chart two three Celtic knots that I'm semi-satisfied with. Whether I'm satisfied with them when they're actually knit up is a completely different story.
Anywho, the green aran (which I haven't picked a name for yet) is progressing slowly buy surely. I'm on the third pattern repeat and am thinking that I should have thrown in some rice stitch to the center panel where the monotony of the reverse stockinette gets overwhelmingly redundant. Three more inches and I can start the shoulder steeks! Hmm...does that mean that I get to start the sleeve gussets on the next row?

2. Naming Knitwear
You've seen those magazines that give cutsie little names for their knit designs. Names like Jamie, Gavin, Biff, and Charles that say nothing about the garment but speak volumes on the designers ability to pick inept names. I don't know any Jamies, and the only Gavin I know is a once removed porn starlet (so you can rest asured that I definitely wouldn't be wearing that *cough*); I don't know a Biff, and as for Charles...well, I would imagine that garment to be to large to fit a normal human being*double cough*.
Once upon a time, when I was an alcoholic--nevermind the fact that I was only 20...nevermind the fact that I only had a drink once ever 6 months--I had drink inspired designs. There was Martini, because it was an olive-ish green color. There was White Russian--although that was actually named after a person. There was my first piece of knitting: Irish Coffee. But it's been a while since I named a design, except for the Steve-Sleeve and that was because I knitted it for a guy named Steve.
So, now I'm getting back to naming my knitwear. The Brig (that horrendous aran that I finished in February) underwent a name change to Annoying Bastard. But for the green aran I'm thinking about actually going Celtic. So, not being of Irish descent, I went to babynameworld.com's Celtic names section and scrolled down the list. Fergus was a name that immediately jumped out at me. It's uniquely Celtic and it means 'of manly strength.' Then there's Kendreague, which means 'loving male.' Donnelly, which means 'brave black man', would be quite fitting...especially considering that I've got two toy-sized dogs in a neighborhood full of pit bulls (talk about your extreme sports!!!) But due to the illusions of grandeur that I occasionally suffer from, I think I'm going to go with the name Derry, which means 'great lover.' Okay, you can stop snickering now. *glowering at everyone who dared laugh* So the name game begins... Have any of you named any of your knitwear?

PS...
My Aran Knitting still hasn't arrived yet. *sigh* The waiting is the only sucky part about shopping online.

2003-03-29T18:52:00.000-05:00

So, with pencil, sketch paper, graph paper, and source books close at hand I sat down and started designing again. I've decided to work on a 'collection' of Celtic/Norse inspired designs, which is to say that I'm going to have to learn how to do an adequate fair isle. Celtic knotwork is a wonderful thing, especially in the application of cabled sweaters. They provide a nice challenge for the knitter and the designer can pretty much go where ever their imagination takes them. So in the interim of waiting for my Aran Knitting and my replacement copy of Viking Patterns for Knitting to arrive, I picked up two books full of various Celtic designs and started scribbling.

Now my past attempts at turning Celtic knots into knitted panels turned out rather decently. Granted, it took me more drafts than I had intended, but the end result was very knitable. First, we had this design, which--as you may or may not have noticed--appears on the cover of Starmore's The Celtic Collection, but of course she didn't include the pattern inside the book.

I drew a draft based on diamonds and sideways triangles, which was the easy part. Now, I just had to figure out how many purl stitches should be placed in the center of the diamonds and triangles, which took four drafts on graph paper, a swatch from one of the miscalculated graphs, and a final draft graph with the right calculations. So, I threw it in the middle of the aran that I was going to do for Knitty and this is what it looked like about two weeks ago.

But all of today's attempts at drafting a motif came out rather blah-blah. Cables just don't transfer all too well horizontally...which is why we've got the I-cord. ANYTHING to avoid having to resort to fair isle, which I'd prefer to reserve for a pillow with a zoomorphic motif. So, I placed all of my books (all two of them) back on the shelf and started googling, and I found a perfect li'l knot that just might work well with cables.

Now, if only I could figure out what the hell to put it on...

2003-03-28T09:42:00.000-05:00

Ahem...

Today, I'm going to take a moment out of my busy schedule to be evil.

My present issue is not the article in The Charlotte Observer, but all the drivel pouring from the lists of people set off their rockers by the article. So, what do I have to say about all this? Get over yourself and shut the hell up! You're going to waste my time with your pathetic absent-minded babble on an article against knitting by a woman who barely passed home economics? Now, what the hell does that have to do with the price of eggs? Knitting and domestic engineering (if you wanna be politically correct) couldn't be more different. Okay, you have an article written by a talentless, feminist, anarchist bulldyke. If you didn't take yourself so damned seriously maybe your kids would even pretend to like you. I'm not going to waste too much of my evilness on writing this, as I've got to venture out today and I would hate for people to see me with a sunny disposition. But Ms. Jameson (obviously unmarried and bitter about the fact) reminds me of a friend of mine (also unmarried but pretends to prefer it that way), so quick to accuse people of hiding their fear behind hobbies and such when they are actually the ones shitting their pants. Now, did this article have me ready to do unspeakable things to The Charlotte Observer? Hell no! However, I would like to do unspeakable things to the Knit List...oh wait, I'm not even getting their mindless twaddle in my inbox anymore. Personally, I enjoyed the article...it provided a nice laugh and then I moved on to the next web site. People on the Knit List should give that a try.

2003-03-26T13:53:00.000-05:00

The Book That EZ Should Have Written...

Knitting Without Too Much Cussing. I give you an example: you're knitting in the row above a k1, yo, k1 increase. Somehow, something goes wrong at the yo. The stitch gets dropped, and being of the type that doesn't like to be alone, it drags the next stitch with it. Well, the first stitch that you worked sees this and inches its little way into the black hole. The ethereal silence is abruptly shattered by a cacaphonous "Blessed mother of Maude Adams ... what the fuck!"

In never amazes me how many 'shits', 'damns', 'what the fucks', and 'oh hells' I've heard muttered in Knitting Circle. Actually, it never amazes me because the more colorful cussword combinations usually come out of my mouth. And forbid you've got to rip out a few rows. But it's amazing when you look at a sweater that you finished and are immediately reminded of the cusswords you said during that project.

But last night I had a dream...actually, a nightmare. And I'm going to blame this nightmare on Joe and Marilyn. Afterall, it is their fault!! The sock yarn that I won in Joe's contest arrived on Monday and it's just begging me to knit it! I will, after I finish this bastard of an aran that I'm working on. And then there are Marilyn's socks that were in Knitty. Of course, I did the sock from the toe up. And in the short rows for the toe I kept doing the slipped stitches, which I didn't indend on doing until after I finished the toe. Well, I finally finished the toe...and then...well, I started working on the pattern...slip, slip, knit, shit. I just hope I wasn't talking in my sleep while I was 'knitting' this sock.

So, er...uh...what are your favorite cuss words to modulate during knitting?

2003-03-24T07:04:00.000-05:00

Oh, the inhumanity of it all!!!

No, I'm not talking about the war. In fact, that's the last thing on my mind at the moment. I do support our troops, despite the fact that I'm opposed to this war. Besides, this is a knitting blog! In the words of EZ "Knit on, with confidence and hope, through all crises." And therein lies the inhumanity.

On Friday morning when I awoke I was feeling something akin to the flu coming on. No fever, but there were definitely some chills and bodily soreness. Well it was sometime after People's Court that I just had to take a little nap. I thought it would be just a little 30 minute nap, after which time I'd wake up in time to watch Cops (considering that my soaps would be preempted due to war coverage). Hmph...six hours later I awoke to the most excruciating, unadulterated, unspeakable pain. It was something akin to the feelings that one gets when the flu comes on. I'm not saying that it in fact was the flu, but it was flu-like. So, all of Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday absolutely no knitting. And I was actually knitting something that I was enjoying!!

I slept all Friday evening while the "Shock and Awe Show" watched me (is it just me, or has America's facination with reality TV gotten out of hand?) Saturday, I turned to my cooking shows on PBS and fell asleep while they watched me. Fortunately, I woke up in time for the Lawrence Welk Show (talk about shock and scar). Of course I fell asleep again. And I woke up just in time to watch The Women. Anyone remember that movie? The one starring Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, and a thin eye-browed Joan Crawford where the only hint of male energy on the set comes from the hinted at unfaithful husbands or the Nancy Blake character. Anywho, it was the play which ran somewhere in NYC starring Kristen Johnston as Edith Fowler, Jennifer Tilly as Crystal Allen (the vamp), and Rue McClanahan as...well, I fell asleep before she came on. But she'd made a delicious Countess. What I saw of the first act was quite...well, considering that The Women is one of my favorite movies, naturally, I loved it. But the play is amazingly racy. Hell, made me blush!!! Nevertheless, I'm still convinced that Rosalind Russel is a drag queen. How else could someone be so effortlessly over the top? Meanwhile, it's time for me to take a nothing nap and some more tylenol (or did I already have the tylenol this morning?)

But before I go, I've got to pass this Link on. It's not exactly knit related, but my voice teacher is doing Chicago again. So, if you should happen to be in NYC...stop by and give him a listen!

2003-03-21T07:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Wendy was talking about Knit Leeches...you know people who you don't know on an intimate level who ask you to knit them something for free or an "insultingly low fee". Well, I've got some doosies.

It was just after I started knitting...not even a whole scarf finished. This was when I was working with the juvenile delinquents. Well, the cook (or heater upper of foods, as I nicely referred to him) caught me knitting during lunch. Well, he sat down for a moment breaking my concentration (not my knitting concentration, my Steve Kmetko concentration). He mentioned how his grandmother knitted him a sweater that he just loved, but lost...then started to suggest that I knit him a sweater. How did he suggest this? "I'm thinking you should knit me something green. Like a regular sweater, nothing fancy. Maybe a collar like that jacket that I have." I bet you're wondering what my smart-ass comment was. Well, fasten your seatbelts, this is gonna be a racy one: "You can't even afford one of those 50-cent crackhead whores that work the corner at night. What makes you think you can afford a sweater that I make. I'm not exactly a crackhead, you know." Sadly he was unfazed by this and went on to say, "you're going to charge me?" Without missing a beat, I said "charge you? Hell, I'd charge you an arm, a leg and your mother's left tit." Well, after that comment he got up and went back to work. I bet you think I'm done, don't you. Well, don't you know a few days later that fool brought in a picture of him wearing the sweater that his grandmother made him and twisted his chapped lips around the suggestion: "you can knit it something like that." I turned the photo over and pointed to a blank part that wasn't imprinted with 'Kodak' or the date. "Or, I could knit it like this," I suggested. Anywho, a few months passed and I learned how to crochet. The first thing I made was a thong out of manos and a few willie warmers, and Gloria had to go show EVERYONE! Well, the official heater-upper-of-foods gets wind of this and comes my way. He had a wedding anniversary party to attend. He thought it would be a wonderful gag gift to give them a thong and willie warmer. I agreed, it would be a nice gag gift. Then he said the party was in a few weeks, and then he left and went into the kitchen. Well, no monetary exchange was mentioned or even suggested. I assumed he was joking. Well, two days before the party he came to me to ask me if they were done yet. I said no. Fasten your seatbelts again, it gets bumpier. Now, in front of all the staff and all the juvenile delinquents he decided that he give me a tongue lashing, because as a friend I should have knitted the sweater for him and crocheted the gag gifts as well. My response was swift and I didn't hesitate a bit as he was trying to walk away. It started with at least five cuss words in the first sentence (yes, I too can cuss like a pirate's broken-hearted whore...string a bunch of cuss words together like a strand of graduated pearls). But I was nice, and ended by suggesting that I could begin knitting the sweater for him, provided that he could cough up $750 by the end of the week. Then that opened another can of worms...good thing worms don't make me squeemish. So I gave him an itemized account: "$150 for the yarn (even though I would have used Red Heart), $100 for contriving a design from that picture, $300 for knitting it, $200 for an inconvenience fee." I guess it was too much for him, so he went back into the kitchen to burn some more chicken nuggets. The other co-workers, however, were reasonable in their knit requests. One asked for a hat, which I didn't do at the time. And other suggested a scarf, but I told him that I doubt fluff would be all that flattering to him (considering his allergies to wool).

Then there was the Program Director who was NEVER in the office, except to ask that I make her a black and tan scarf with the signature Fendi design. After all, I was knitting her a scarf for christmas and did ask her what color she wanted. Signature Fendi design? I told her I'd think about it. I took some graph paper out of my desk and made up a little chart and went over to her office. "Like this?" I asked "Yep, that would be nice. It would match my bag perfectly!" I smiled. "Yes, it would. But the $2000 raise on the back of this chart would match the scarf even better!!" She gave me this spiel about how I knew the company couldn't afford to give anyone a $2000 raise, yadda yadda yadda. I smiled and said "Ok." She got a black and tan garter stitch scarf. And I was fired the day after Valentine's day. I'm going to pretend that there was no connection. But after being fired (and after pretending that I was completely devastated you know...saying "I need a moment" followed by heavy panic attack-esque breathing and resting my head between my legs) she said that she was getting ready to go and that I'd have to leave her office. Although she was nice enough to let me regain my composure in my office. So, I got up to leave the office and as she was locking her door I snatched the scarf. Ok, word to the wise: If an employee who you plan on firing has knitted you something, don't wear it to the office the day that you plan on firing them.

Then there was the boyfriend. I was at his house and he was getting ready for Chicago. It was at a little dinner theater in Arden, DE a few months before the movie came out. I was admiring the sweaters in his closet. He said, "you know, you could knit me a sweater." I said "No, because all you'd do is hang it up in your closet." Then he said that he wouldn't, he'd wear it all the time. Okay, this is a guy that I was dating and we hadn't been dating all that long, so I really couldn't be too bitchy. So I said "well, there's a sweater curse that says that you shouldn't knit something for someone you're dating." He smiled "fine then, we're not dating." He's lucky he said that with a smile or else I would have had to give him a live replay of that scene from Mommy Dearest: "Wire hangers?!?! I knit you hand made sweaters and you hang them on wire hangers? ... NO MORE WIRE HANGERS!!!" *throttle, throttle, throttle, beat, beat, beat, thrash, thrash, thrash* During conversations he would ask me if I started the sweater yet. I said "No. Did you buy me my ring yet? Five emerald-cut grade D with baguettes on the side carats and you might get something with sleeves." Now, personally speaking, I know more than a few ways to get around that li'l knitting curse. So that doesn't really bother me, even if I did think it was a reality. But I can't say that I've ever entertained the thought of knitting a sweater for a boyfriend. It's not that I'm not serious about them, but I need a bit more commitment than just a few months (or weeks) to even have sweater making ideations for a beau. However, I do picture a certain one swaddled in yarn...or drapped in the knitted garments of various knit publications. But so far that's as far as it goes.

2003-03-20T20:21:00.000-05:00

See, I told you I was a diamond!!! Hmph...now I just have to find a platinum setting...

You're a Diamond. You seem like a cold and an
unreachable person outside, yet you are
beautiful inside and outside. You may be
stubborn at times. You act with grace and
elegance and you are a precious asset to all
your friends.

What Jewel Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-03-20T15:48:00.000-05:00

Spring Knitter's

First, as usual, I gotta complain, just to get that out of the way. WHAT THE [expletive redacted]!!! I'm referring to two things here: The new specs format and the faux pas on page 58. I'm a creature of habit and had become accustomed to the old format. It was plain and simple and I didn't have to refer to a back page to try to figure out what all that junk meant. Then there's page 58. o er St st o S p o S usi g 5 S ee les What? me iu weight mai color M 15 1 55 s o trast olor 15 s Huh? Now the first one is deciferable. But the second one has the important yarn and yardage information. Although, I'm personally not liking the colors of that sweater, 'twould have been nice to get the exact yardage just in case I wanted to substitute. Which is the only advantage I see in the new format. If gives you the yarn weight and the yardage, for those like me who are ALWAYS substituting yarns. Provided that the substitute yarns have the yardage on the ball, you can easily pick up the right amount of yarn (+1) Be that as it may, I think the Cypress Needle Crew would make a nice hat. However, I'm enjoying the Bayou Gold (p. 62). It's an interesting construction, and the Rowan Summer Tweed does look quite yummy, at least from what I've seen of the color card. But it is a little nice to see that they have an entire section devoted to men's sweaters. Granted, the ratios are still off...but I could do wonders with the Schoolgirl Charmer (p. 54). I just have to go to the gym and work on my legs. And also, withe the leopard chart (p. 83) I can finally do the modified version of the underwear pattern I got from Joe's blog.

2003-03-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

Adventures at the LYS

It was the most adorable thing. Okay, for a second now I'm going to break from character...deviate from my ordinary modus operandi...to extol the glory of children. Yesterday I was at my LYS sitting and knitting when a lady walks in with a double stroller (the type that you can jog with) and three children. One was asleep in the stroller. One was WIDE awake. And the other was a little boy, about 5 years old and he was knitting. Now, I detest children, so I didn't even bother to strike up a conversation with the little tyke. But it was so adorable. Whenever he finished a row, he would proclaim, "Mommy, I finished a row!" One time he asked his mother to start the next row for him. And he made it a point to let her know that he was purling...god forbid she should mess up his lovely little scarf. "Mommy, I'm purling! It's a purl stitch!" And how ambitious he was. "Mommy, when I finish this can I knit something real. I wanna make a vest!" How many 5-year-olds do you know that are into vests????? I despised vests until I was well into my mid-teens (at which point, I had three Warner Brothers' vests that I wore to my recitals). Then he saw my bag. "Mommy, can I get a knitting bag like that?" He was told that the bag was bigger than he was. It wasn't...but just imagine it. A 5-year-old who could stand on the tips of his toes in 4-feet of water and still remain unnoticed walking around toting a Kensington laptop saddlebag. (The laptop died, and the bag is the perfect size for an adult sweater.)

Then there was the WIDE awake one, just shy of 3 years old. "Mommy, watch me wun!" "Knit, puwl, knit, puwl." Don't you just adore the way kids try to pronounce the letter R? (Nevertheless, I still detest children) Then he goes and wakes up his sleeping brother--the middle child. His mother told him that he needed to sleep because he wasn't feeling well. "No, mommy, he wants to wake up. See." And then from that little pre-school throat the meow of a bevy of hellcats was unleashed. What else do you expect from a tot who had just had his slumber disturbed. Which is one of the reasons that I detest children. Well he calmed down. The WIDE awake one decided that he wanted to play unsupervised. Mother was busy looking at Rowan color cards. She asked the sickly-sleepy one if he would like a sweater in Zucchini. "Wazza zucchiti?" She told him it was a candy... What kind of underhanded sneaky ass backwards way of getting a kid to eat his vegetables is that!!! Well anywho, the WIDE awake one took a tumble while playing on the stroller. After all, it isn't a toy. (I'm not going to speak ill of the mother, only because she's a knitter...and...well...you know how it is when you get around yarn. Kinda like--and forgive the urban simile...or just bite me if you don't like it--a crack-head in a crack-house, or a gigolo at a ranch (and I ain't talking about the type with the spotted cows...well, not intentionally spotted).) Of course there should be blood. Of course there should be screaming. And of course the tension in my sweater should get tighter. She sat in the rocking chair and soon Cerebus stopped howling. (Read Dante's Inferno if you haven't a clue who Cerebus is...I think you can find him pretty early in the book.) Well, of course the sickly one wanted to sit in the rocking chair too...after all, he was the sick one. Cerebus would hear nothing of it!!! The mother told the sickly one that he would have to wait his turn because the hyper one took a fall and was bleeding. They all wanted to see the blood. Another reason why I detest children, the little germ infested... Anyway, she showed him the napkin dotted with little pink specks of barely visible blood. "Aww, that ain't nothing!" observed the sickly one. Besides, the sickly one had had enough. He wanted to get on his mother's lap. "Is it my tuwn yet?" "No!" barked Cerebus. Now, I had to endure this interchange at least three more times before mother handed the angelic little knitting one her credit card to pay for the yarn and pattern that she bought. Now, I will say this about the mother, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU EVER HAND YOUR CREDIT CARD OVER TO A KNITTER IN A YARN SHOP!!!! It matters not that he's your son. If he knits, he could just as well buy that Sinsations that you swaddled around his head. Or even worse, he could reach to your side and pick up the cashmere that you foolishly sat next to. But fortunately for you, he's short and the Vittadini yarns are way above his angelic little head.

And then they left. So that was my day at my LYS yesterday. I bet I know what you were thinking. At first you probably thought that I had a change of heart and found what a joy children can be. Never, nemmeno, nunca, nao sempre, nicht uberhaupt, jamais! I still detest them, despise them, and regard them with the utmost contempt. But they are adorable under two and ONLY two circumstances: 1) when they are knitting and 2) when they are leaving. And before your eyes I've turned into that "Get offa my &^@# lawn" old man who comes to his front door with open robe and war trodden slippers on his feet brandishing a rolled up news paper. I'm officially a South Philly grandmother. (Speaking of which, does any one remember the Saturday Night Live skit with Sherri Oteri as the grandmother who kept confiscating the kids' playthings that accidentally rolled on to her property? Too hilarious.)

2003-03-18T00:21:00.000-05:00

NOW IN CHARTREUSE!!!

2003-03-17T13:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

And I'm going to celebrate by having some REAL Irish Potatoes...you know, the ones that are made with whiskey. And despite the fact that green is one of my favorite colors, I'm not wearing a speck of it today. As you may or may not have noticed, it's my agenda to go against the grain. On Valentine's Day I wear a Christmas sweatshirt, bedecked with all the yuletide extravagances that usually get put away on December 27th. For Christmas, I wear a Halloween pin...little black bat with flashing orange eyes. However, I am going to work on my green aran with all the Celtic knots. But that has nothing to do with being celebratory.

And speaking of which...
I just realized something. I started the aran Thursday night and haven't even bothered to complain about it yet...and believe you me, there's much to complain about. Well, I'm sure you all remember with the Brig aran how I was complaining about the yarn (about how it's got a tooth that an aligator would envy and all that petite vegetation growing amongst the plies). So, of course I would end up buying MORE of it. But it was a justified purchase, as it was on sale for $4 a skein. So I had 8 skeins of Candide and no pattern...but I did have my Alice Starmore book A Celtic Collection with me, so I thumbed through that for a nice motif to put somewhere in the sweater. And wouldn't it be just my luck that the only thing that I liked didn't have a chart. Now, my math skills are marginal at best. If I don't have a calculator, it just ain't gonna get calculated. Oddly enough, in the manner of Rainman, I can approach a 15-25% off sale without any problems, fears, or hesitations. Anywho, on the bus I drew a little sketch of the motif using squares and triangles, but the tough part came when I had to figure out how many purl stitches would be in the center of those squares and triangles. Nevertheless, four charts and one swatch later, I had my motif.

Now, of all of my designs this is probably the most 'off-the-cuff' that I've ever done. I only did one swatch and since I just finished knitting something with Candide I had an idea of how many stitches I would need. So, I just cast on, said a prayer and hoped that I didn't have to frog at any point in my knitting. And for some strange reason, I decided that it would be a good idea to knit this damned thing in the round. 40+ inches (I'm not sure because I didn't swatch all of the panels) on 24" circulars isn't a good thing...especially when you fall asleep in the middle of the PBS telethon and a few stitches fall off. But so far, I've finished 4" of ribbing and 3.5" of the body. And the more I knit, the more I'm hating it. I guess that's to be expected when you're knitting a sweater that you know you won't be able to wear for damn near 8 months.

But the design is a surprise, so don't expect to see any pictures. Remember how I endlessly complained about Knitty not having enough men's patterns (and about how the knitting publications industry generally doesn't do much in the line of macho wear)? Well, this is going to be my first submission. So, if it gets picked you can see it when that issue of Knitty comes out. If it doesn't get picked...well, you can always buy the pattern through me, or one of the LYS that I can get to pick up the design. As it stands now, the sweater will only be available in three sizes: Small-Large, Medium-Large, and Large-Large. On account of the largish panels there's not going to be much variance between the sizes, except for the Medium-Large, and the Large-Large. And then I've got to decide whether I'll be writing the design to be knit back and forth or circularly; and if knit circularly, in the words of Hamlet, to steek or not to steek, that is the question. But I'm lazy, and writing the pattern out circularly would result in too much extra allocation.

And finally...
Yeah me!!! It has been brought to my attention that I won second place in the QSAT. It's amazing how much information you can find out by Googling, although my searches didn't turn up an airport located in Doylestown...and I would have never guessed that Joe's confirmation name was Isidore. But then again, Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of computer users and the Internet. Who would have thought that I guy who died in 636 would have any remote connection to the Internet. How's that for Saint research by a confirmed heretic! LoL Although my two guesses were Peter of Poitiers and Michael de Sanctis.

2003-03-13T20:12:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm going to visit the land of Knitdweebia for today's post and combine two of my passions into one. Knitting and Opera. The idea for this topic came from Marilyn's blog in which she asked if anyone could translate KnitDweeb into German, where in the comments I signed my name Die Kleine Spinnern which is a Mozart Lied about a girl who would rather spin yarn than play with Fritz. Then there's La Conocchia, an Italian canzone by Donizetti in which the narrator is spinning some yarn on her conocchia (distaff) dreaming little dreams about the next time she sees her 'lover'. She invents a scenario in which she breaks the yarn and drops her distaff just so he can hand it to her. Granted, I think it's just a way for her to get him to bend over so she can get a peek at his ass. So, we have art songs that reference spinning...but what about operas into which knitting could be incorporated? It's been a while since I posted due to some DSL "issues" with my ISP. I had a lot of time to think...productive thoughts...silly thoughts...and the absolutely absurd. Here's my list. I'll let you decide whether they're silly or absolutely absurd.

Norma, act two,scene 1: She's sitting there watching her two children sleeping and knitting a sock on 000 needles. But instead of raising the dagger to kill her children, she raises one of her needles. Being Brittany Birch, naturally, it breaks. So we're still sticking to the plot of her not sacrificing her children.

Medea, act three,Finale: Of course she spends the entire act knitting. The thing that she thinks is a snake wrapping itself around her is actually Reggia. Now, unlike Norma, Medea does actually sacrifice her children. She was smart...she used Inox!

I know what you're thinking: you sure are associating knitting with a lot of women in opera that kill their children. So! Double points make excellent weapons...and socks can be aggravating to knit...especially considering that you ex-lover has betrayed you and you need a nice way to expunge him from your life. Granted, Norma and Medea, being a High Priestess and Sorceress, respectively, would have had the foresight to just knit him some socks knowing that he'd eventually walk away. Preferably off of a precipice...

But we actually do have nice knitters in opera. But keeping with the theme of opera, it just ain't opera unless someone dies. As an example I use the cartoon What's Opera, Doc...the only Looney Toon in which Elmer actually kills Bugs.

Le Nozze di Figaro, act two, scene 1: The countess is sitting in her boudoir singing that ridiculously difficult aria, Porgi amor. She just happens to be heavy with child, which would explain the Count's wandering eye. She's lost her figure and Susanna is more appealing...men, go figure. She spends the entire act knitting, until the Count busts in,fuming with jealousy, and makes her lose count.

Lucia di Lammermoor: I know what you're thinking: Isn't that the girl that goes mad? Sure, but you try knitting an Alice Starmore aran without a pattern. You'd take your needles and kill that bastard of a Scot that you weren't sure that you loved, but were betrothed to anyway.

Maria Stuarda: Okay, she's locked in London Tower. She's got nothing but knitting time on her hands. Granted, if she was knitting,she would have done a lot more damage than call her good ol' cousin Lizzy (Elisabeth I) a vile bastard.

Speaking of Lizzies...Lizzy Borden: Okay, I'll stop with the knitting and violence references. But then again, you really can't decapitate your parents with a knitting needle.

La Sonnambula: She knits...she sleepwalks...she was probably knitting her lace wedding dress and fell asleep because it was so mind numbingly boring.

Lucrezia Borgia: You know, when you look at someone who knits, you don't really thing that they would slip you that special Borgia wine. But at heart, she is a mother. And I imagine that she would have loved to knit Gennaro a nice little waistcoat...if only she didn't accidentally kill him. But in her defence, it was just an accident...she only meant to kill all of his friends.

Armida: Another sorceress. But she's a sorceress who in her heart of hearts just wants to be a woman. She turns the horrid forest into the realm of love, she why can't she also knit a nice lace coverlet for her dragon-powered chariot? And then, at the end when she destroys everything that she created because Rinaldo left her, she uses her knitting needles (sweater precariously dangling from them) as a spark-shooting pyrotechnic magic wand and sets everything ablaze

La Boheme: Naturally, I would choose this opera. Instead of Mimi making flowers she knits lace.

Carmen: Just imagine how much more potent the love spell would be if it was cast with a hand-knit flower...made with homespun wool.

Don Giovanni: Of course I'm referring to the Don himself. When one looks at a knitter they don't necessarily think dangerously intoxicating Casanova type. Perhaps he knits little lace bonnets for all of his...wait, no one can knit that fast. Hmph, he makes Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain look like a novice when it comes to tallies.

Il Pirata: He's a pirate. What else are you going to do on the ship after the sheep have all jumped overboard? And why do you think they even had sheep on the ships? And besides, the pirate spent a hell of a lot of time at sea.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Now, we have Figaro...who does damn near everything else...so why not knit? Largo al factotum. And we also have Rosina. Although the opera does have her using a pen to draw a flower on her cross stitch project. Look...if Beverly Sills can make Rosina a red-head, I can turn her into a knitter!

And lastly on my short list: Tosca...She lived for art, she lived for love...she never hurt a living thing...(nice little thing for her to say just before she kills Scarpia). She gave jewels for the Madonna's mantel...and she knitted the mantel herself. And, as she always knits before performing to calm her nerves, she just happened to have her needles with her when she went to meet Scarpia. Granted, the opera says that she used the steak knife that was sitting on the table...but like I said...knitting something frustrating like a s1, k1 heel when you're in a frustrating situation gives you double frustration...so you act out with your closest available needle. E avanti a lui tremava tutta Roma!

So, can any of you think of any operas that I missed?

2003-03-08T16:16:00.000-05:00

I ask you to remember back to January. Can you recall when I was so thrilled with all of that Manos that I bought? Can you recall how I bitched and complained about working the front of the sweater with 7 balls of yarn hanging from it? Do you remember how I commented that my mother was officially off of my knit list for her comments about the sweater that I was knitting with all of that wonderful Manos? Well, she's still off the knit list, but the Guinness aran has officially been abandoned. I know what you thinking: But you spent $165 on all that lovely yarn! No, it's not for sale. Last night I just cast on 156 stitches and began knitting. Didn't swatch, didn't plan, didn't graph, didn't write a damn thing down. Just cast on a whole bunch of stitches, asked the Goddess to guide my needles, and hoped that when I finished everything came out okay. So now, I have a mostly Coffee, dappled with Silica, 9"x45" tube sitting on US10's waiting for me to figure out what the hell I'm going to do next. I'm thinking that I'll knit the body up to the sleeve, then knit the sleeves, and continue knitting the sweater in the round, raglan shoulders, and a nice crew neck. I'm also slipping stitches so that it gives the appearance of having a seam, and also to make the act of folding much easier. Despite working in retail and spending 5 hours a day folding clothes, I still can't fold a shirt to save my life...which reminds me, I need more closet space.

Stitches East is coming up soon, so I've got to do some major knitting/destashing before then, because I've got no place to store $5000 worth of yarn. And so far, my Stitches Club Savings (kinda like a Christmas Club, but for yarn) has accumulated a grand total of 50 cents, two sunflower seeds, and a coffee bean...oh, and some Bugler papers. Okay, enough blogging for now. Back to knitting...

2003-03-06T13:11:00.000-05:00

It was somewhere around 1:15am and I was lying awake in bed, staring at my underwear and thinking about Joe. Now, before your filthy minds start wandering, I was thinking about his blog entry about knitted mens underwear. Anywho, I hop out of bed and go downstairs to nibble on whatever is left of the Girl Scout cookies and end up making a corned beef sandwich, all the while thinking about what Koigu colorway I would use. My current toe-up sock is P628 (at least I think that looks like a handwritten P) which screams autumn, interspersed with bright red, a rich purple, and a deep hunter green...Something to think about.

But I go back up to my bedroom and sit at the 'puter and pay a little visit to Joe's archives and lo and behold, I found it! Then I hopped over to White Lies Designs, nicely featured in the Spring Interweave Knits, to borrow some brief-type inspiration from their lingerie set...which got me to thinking about leopard print. Don't ask which synaptic misfire lead me to leopard print intarsia from pink lace, but at that point I realized that it was way past my bedtime.

Regia should come out with a self-leoparding yarn. But speaking of which, anyone know where I could find some sockyarn that knits up into an animal-type print? Right now, I'm thinking bumble bee, zebra, tiger, giraffe (the color just has to pool in circles). I've decided that this summer, I'll occupy my beach time with sock knitting. Wendy's toe-up pattern of course. I really wasn't liking the sl1, k1 heel of the leg down version; but I'm really looking foward to this short-row heel.

2003-03-05T19:57:00.000-05:00

Don't you just hate it when you're stranded in a coffee shop with yarn that you just bought for a pattern that you don't have with you? Such was my predicament yesterday afternoon. I bought two skeins of Koigu and was about 4 miles (if 8 city blocks=1 mile) away from my computer and Wendy's toe up generic sock pattern. So I improvised from what little I could remember: cast on 30, knit short rows until 12sts are worked. Then I ripped out the waste yarn from the provisional cast-on and guided my dpn through the live sts. But when I began knitting in the round, after 1 row I realized that this looked nothing like the pictures from Matt's blog. I thought for a moment and compared my toe to Matt's pictures...and my error was quickly made apparent. Of course I didn't rip (since you really can’t see the mistake)...but don't you just hate when that happens? Anywho, that crisis is over and I'm already a few inchest up the sock. I went to knitting circle at Sophie's this evening and got quite a bit done. And I also got to look at some new sock yarn that Jen is thinking about ordering and got to see the new patterns that just came in. I was quite intruiged by the stuff in the Katia book. Knit a sweater then drag some paint across it? I've got to chew on that one for a little bit. Sadly, that was the only book that arrived today that had men's patterns...but I'll leave that issue at two days ago:-) And thanks for all of the comments. Hell, it really got me thinking. Should I write 'properly worded' letters to the editors between drafts for various men's sweaters, or should I just stick with the mind-numbing designer's block that is currently plauging me. I'm a Has-Been, Get me out of here is getting ready to come on, so I'll just watch that for now.

2003-03-03T13:42:00.000-05:00

I'm sure every knitter who's been around the knit bloggers ring once or twice has heard about Knitty. I'm sure that you'd all agree that it's an excellent site with designs and articles by bloggers such as Annie, Marilyn, Shetha, Wendy, and quite a few others. But as a male knitter, I'm quite displeased that in the three issues that Knitty has done there have only been two patterns specifically geared towards men. A sweater and a tie. Granted, this is a problem that can be easily solved. All I've got to do his get creative and write it down. But, also, with a blog, I'm afforded the ability to complain about it.

My complaint isn't focused at any one specific knitting publication, but at knitting publications in general. Why such an absence of patterns for the male knitter, or for the wife who is lucky enough to have a sweater wearing husband? Also why such an absence of decently designed patterns for the male wearer? You've got all of these de rigeur knitting magazines that every knitter is expected to have in their library, yet you've got their impoverished step-sisters turning out better looking patterns. It's kinda like how the Met had semi-notable names while Beverly Sills was knocking everyone's hand-knitted socks off across the Lincoln Center Plaza at City Opera. But I digress. Interweave...blah. Knitters...double blah. Vogue...blood-curdling scream. Family Circle Easy Knits...woohoo!!! Simply Knit...great book...no male patterns (though I'd buy it anyway). Viking Patterns for Knitting...excellent book...but only two male patterns. The Celtic Collection by everyone's favorite Scot...nice book...two male patterns.

So, why is this?

Are men that difficult to design for? Or is it that some designers feel the challenge of designing something for a man is a bit too problematic due to 'certain limitations'? Generally speaking, I'd have to give the male sweater designs that I've seen a D (having seen only a few pleasurable designs that save them from getting a flat out F). And, to quote a line from Funny Face: 'D for drab, D for dull, D for dreary.' I'm not going to go so far as to sing a rousing rendition of Think Pink, but we gotta have some of that ol' bozzaz! I love Shetha's Anniversary sweater (husband is quite cute too), Wondrous Woven Cabling from (Knitter's Fall 2000) is nice too. But those are exceptions to the rule. Hmph...meanwhile.

2003-03-02T09:43:00.000-05:00

Something told me to copyright my blog. I was at Barnes & Noble yesterday and perusing their knitting books section. In Philadelphia, the general rule is this: If you want a knitting book you go to Borders and if you have to use the restroom you go to Barnes & Noble. But I went to B&N because Borders just moved and I didn't feel like making that long trek over those 5 city blocks. In any event, there was a new book sitting on their shelves...the title: All Stitched Up. Of course the first thing that I did was check the copyright page, and you can imagine my relief to find that the book had a copyright date of 2003. I wonder if this entitles me to royalties.

I'm not going to give a review of All Stitched Up (the book) except to comment that I'm not digging the color choice for the cover. But from the quick thumb-through that I gave it looks to be a nicely photographed book on finishing techniques. Like the saying says: "Don't judge a book by it's cover." That's why I check out the pictures on the inside.

However, I did buy a Starmore book, The Celtic Collection. All this talk about fair isle elsewhere got me interested...not to mention that I was more than a little bit interested to find out what the fuck a steek is. I googled, I dictionary.com-ed, and nothing that I found specifically related to knitting. I even checked out Wendy's blog on how to do a steek, but was still clueless on what purpose steeks served. So, now I know what a steek is...will I use it? Probably not. I'll just fashion a way to do a raglan sort of something in which I attach the sleeves and continue knitting circularly (or would that be circuitously). She does nice stuff with colors and the textures are quite nice too. Will I actually attempt a pattern from the book? Perhaps...but with many many many changes. But it's really interesting to see how other designers work. And the pictures are nice too...not so much because of the sweaters; but the background scenery, accessorizing accourtrements, choice of models (especially the one with the curly hair and smoky eyes). So, what took me so long to buy the book? I detest fair isle. But I think that it would be a nice technique to learn.

Coincidentally...Yesterday, my horoscope at Astrology.com (which I download onto my PDA every day) read:
Artists get a green light, or whatever color inspires them. Lovers and hobbyists lose themselves in what makes them passionate. [...] Although you're deeply interested in new things, you'd rather make them than buy them. You'd also rather give them as gifts than keep them. The work of your own hands puts a unique stamp on a piece that no manufacturer could ever hope to copy.
It was right on all points...except, I'm more inclined to keep my knitted garments. In order to get a handknit sweater from me, I need a two-month's salary investment from you. It's all about the commitment, baby. LoL

2003-02-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

Like the phoenix, so do I rise from the ashes of a few days' silence... But, enough waxing poetic.

This was certainly a productive week for me. Busy knitting, designing, swatching and bidding on stuff that I probably don't need from eBay. Well, with a due date of April 20th, I have approximately 15 days to finish the cardi-blazer that I'm knitting for my sister's newest edition. She has a habit of delivering early, as April 20 was also the due date for her son (such a cute li'l bugger he is, but almost getting too big for me to knit him stuff...once you hit 24 months you're officially off of my knit list). The project, I must say, is coming along quite nice. I'm knitting it in such a way that I avoid the tedium of sewing seams!!! 3-needle bind off for the shoulder and knit the sleeves on dpns. I just hope that the offensively bright shade of chartreuse doesn't blind anyone.

So, merrily we trod on to the designing. It's no secret that I detest arans. It's also no secret that I'm a cheap bastard who'd rather drink white wine than pay $150 for a knit kit. It's also no secret that when I do use a patter, I make so many changes so as to make the garment unrecognizable to it's original designer. I look at pictures for inspiration and de-create my own designs. And the current design is an aran in moss, based on motifs borrowed from various pictures I've come across. The only thing
that was definite in this design process from the beginning was that the look that I was going for was that of an old stone carved with Celtic knots and covered in moss. Sadly, the Mountain Mohair doesn't like the US10.5's too much. Dare I go as small as US9? *Gasp* And last night I pulled an all-nighter swatching and running my mouth on the phone (good thing I have insomniac friends).

And lastly, the reason why I'll probably be forced to file Chapter 11 next week, eBay. My second knitting machine arrived on Monday. Of course you can imagine my excitement, only to discover that I had no sport weight yarn - or so I thought. It wasn't until searching for one of doggie's squeak toys that I found a 50g ball of Dale Tiur in my long-since abandoned yarn basket. Then there was the lot of 53 pairs of faux tortoiseshell needles. And what's up with all the tortoiseshell needles being auctioned
from Australia? Do they horde them over there? But getting back to the auction in question... I thought that the starting bid of $4.99 was reasonable enough, and considering the size of the lot, I was willing to bid up to $106.00. So you can imagine the extent of my stupor when the auction closed at $306!!! EBayers are a
ruthless lot, and like a pack of ravenous knitting wolves, we descended upon the needles driving the price up and up and up. Oh well, I consoled myself with wood cable needles and stitch markers...and a compulsory martini.

And considering how much time I spent on eBay this week I found more than a few things to gripe about.

Horrible Pictures. I think I may have mentioned this once before. If you want to put something up for auction, don't post a picture looking like something you drew with your feet. And don't pitch a bitch when someone politely asks if they could get a larger picture. I mean, if what you see is what you get, wouldn't it make sense to let the person actually SEE what they're going to get? Also, if I'm not bidding on the extraneous crap you've got 'decorating' your storage room, leave it out of the picture. In the great words of Mama Rose..."Sell it!"...well, "Sing
out, Louise" too, but more importantly, sell it.

Don't mention how you've been selling knitting machines for 20+ years and describe everything as a thing or contraption. I mean, what would I look like buying yarn from a LYS when the person working there described the yarns as "it's made out of some type of shiny stuff" or "I don't know what's wrong with those needles. I guess since they don't have the knob on the end, the needle company is giving you 5 to make up for their mistake."

Reserve Auctions. What's the point? Here's the deal, make the reserve price the starting price so that way you avoid having to list the auction
three times because no one wanted to go above $150. And so what if you mention that the yarn alone is work $360. I'm not bidding on it for the yarn.

Bond Incredible Knitting Machine. How dare you give this over-rated piece of shit a Buy Now price of $199. I mean, if I wanted to hold the yarn in my hand to control the tension, I'd just hand knit. Don't feed me rabit shit and tell me it's Godiva chocolate.

Inaccurate Descriptions. I give two examples: Lot of four antique bone knitting needles...yet the pictures show crochet hooks. Who cares that they were made before 1900. And Cable needle never used...yet the picture is a circular needle, still in package. Maybe this one is being a bit picky, as sometimes people just pick up stuff at Estate Sales and auction them off on eBay, but the least you could do is read the packaging. And don't sell just ONE knitting needle. Tell me, how the hell am I going to fit that into the little stylus slot on my PDA!

Be Below Cost. That's the whole point of eBay (well, that and the fact that you can get exsorbitant sums of loot for your wares because a few people got too carried away) If you live in Sweden and shipping to the US is going to cost me an arm, don't charge a leg for the ball winder. By the time I get through with that one I end up paying more than I would if I just ordered a ball winder from Patternworks...granted, after complaining about how long it took the one little order to get to me, I think I'm due a nice little credit. (See also #4: Bond Un-credible Knitting Machine = $5.99 starting bid.)

But, of course, I must end on a positive note: Barbie/Mattel Knitting machine is a plus in my book. Just imagine how quickly you could turn out Willie Warmers!!!! In no time you'll have one for every waking hour of the day...and the lying down hours too. But I digress...

2003-02-24T10:45:00.000-05:00

I spent my entire weekend Googling, charting, swatching, designing, and swatching some more. And now I know what I'm going to make.

When I started googling, I was searching for my next Aran. Naturally, I visited the Starmore domain to check out what kits Alice had proprietorship over and what kits and books Jade was selling. Hmph. I'm not saying that I was totally displeased, but I wasn't completely bowled over. I did like the Maximilian and the St. Bridget, but wasn't so completely thrilled that I'd consider taking on such a project. So I saved the pictures to my hard drive with the hopes that they'd inspire a lopsided design. Next, I Googled my way over to a site that had some Elsebeth Lavold kits and fell in love with one of her motifs... (the Motif of the Month in my Yahoo Knitting Folder)

So I began charting. For some reason the charting process seemed to fly by, despite the relative complication of slanting increases. I knitted a swatch in a pink DK that I had left over from a watermelon entrelac jacket that I did two years ago. It was nice, but I wasn't too thrilled, so I recharted and reswatched, but this time repeating the motif a second time and I used some Kitchen Cotton that I never quite found a use for. But I decided to play with an idea that I was having. Lapels. The main obstacle for me was whether or not (or rather how to) cable a slipped stitch and would it still give that fold? But the crossing of a slipped stitch seemed like more work than I really wanted to invest into something that would eventually become a baby blazer. So...k1, m1, k1, sl1, k1, ssk .... k2tog, k1, sl1, k1, m1, k1. Now all I had to do was write out the pattern so that it made some sort of sense and pray that everything comes out alright (and hope that this baby isn't born early).

But the easiest part, by far, was selecting the yarn: Classic Elite Provence in either Natural (2616) or Bleach (2601) or Lemon (2612). Let the knitting begin!

2003-02-20T06:44:00.000-05:00

Alternative Uses for Knitting Needles?

I know what all you knitterati are thinking: what would one in their right mind use a knitting needle for besides knitting? Well, from reading my blog you can kinda figure that I'm not exactly in my right mind and...face it, necessity is the mother of invention.

Stirrer: This was my inspiration for this entry. Last night, I was preparing myself a screwdriver. I poured the orange juice in the glass, added ice, took a few sips and added vodka. I sipped and tasted that tasteless sting of pure vodka and realized that I forgot to stir. The Bachelorette was back on so going to the kitchen was out of the question. Whereas Tosca saw the glint of a knife blade, I saw the sparkle a 14" #8 Inox straight needle...just as Scarpia used the fan in the same manner that Iago used the handkercheif. But I digress. In any event, I *was* the person in the Knit U yearbook voted "Most Likely to Sit in a Coffee Shop, Push Knitting to Other End of Kneedle and Stir Coffee with Needle."

Stylus: Again, last night I was sitting, watching the local news and I needed to calculate a 20 stitch decrease with KnitAble. So, I took my needle -- half assembled sweater awkwardly dangling on 153 stitches -- and began to scribble away. But then again, I was also voted as "Most Likely to Fashion a Computer Chip Out of Casein dpns" in the Knit U yearbook.

Meanwhile, here's a list of alternative things that I've used knitting needles for:

remote control

finger/arm extension

coffee mug grabber

eating utensil (two work great as chopsticks, just as two chopsticks work great as knitting needles)

light switch reacher

scalp scratcher

office desk key (unsuccessfully)

armchair conductor's baton

pointer (because it's impolite to use one's finger)

middle finger (speaking of fingers)

CD Picker-Upper (why else would they have placed those little holes in the center?)

ring selector

vertical blind opener (for those occasions where you just need a little peek)

Did I miss any?

2003-02-20T02:28:00.000-05:00

And I'm done!! Well...almost, I just have to sew the seams, but since the damned thing is blocking, as far as I'm concerned, it's DONE!!! And of couse, it should be finished just in time for the semi-warm weather. Nevertheless, I posted pictures in my Yahoo photo album. Now, in one of the pictures, there's a mistake that's quite evident. So, if you can spot it drop me a note in the comments or through email. If you win, just like Charlie, you get nothing. But interaction is always nice.
Be that as it may, in my knitting tonight I dropped a few stitches. This was on the roll for the neck (which was done in a softer yarn for obvious reasons.) I was watching The Bachelorette tonight (technically last night, since it's 2:15am) and dropped a few stitches when Trista picked Ryan. It wasn't out of shock, as my spider sence was itching for Ryan, but I got all fahrklempt when they started getting all sappy towards each other. I kinda felt bad for Charlie, but not so much. It's kinda nice to see that the sensitive quiet one does get the girl. If I was sensitive and quiet, it would be comforting...also, if I wanted a girl it would be doubly comforting. I'm just an evil crabby bitch still waiting for Prince Charming to alight his brindled steed at my doorstep. Una volta c'erà un re...
Okay, so I've admitted it...I spend my evenings knitting and watching reality TV... Joe Millionaire, Bachelor/Bachelorette, Celebrity Mole, I'm a Washed-Up Has-Been Get Me Out of Here -- and everyone's favorite -- American Idol. Oh...and SAVE FRENCHIE!!!
Meanwhile, k1, sl1 for a few more rows, then I get to turn my heel!!!

2003-02-19T15:13:00.000-05:00

It feels so good to be knitting ahead of schedule, but alas something in my right hand is bothering me. It was my original intention to get the back of the Brig all finished up and the raglans sewed by sometime late this evening. Considering that I was down to 30sts a minute, I figured that I was going to have to tack on an extra day. But in the wee wee wee small hours of the morning I finished that little bastard of an aran, or at least the body of it (as per the pattern instructions). So, just as Conan was going off, for the second time, I was finishing the last row of the back. Now this is where it get's interesting. I decided that I would add a yoke of sorts, and since it seems to have a really wide crew neck (due to the fact that I used a slightly thicker yarn) I'll have to make the yoke wider than I had intended. Originally, I planned on just doing a plait with a few short rows thrown in to compensate for the decreases, should I have continued knitting all the way up. But the plaited yolk would have been too thin. So, against my better judgement (which isn't that good to begin with) I'm picking up stitches...and so the madness begins...

2003-02-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

In preparation for a snowstorm most people go to the market and buy the stapes: Bread, eggs, milk, coffee, olives, and vodka. So, you've got the ingredients for French toast and martinis.

Meanwhile, knowing that we were getting two storms over the weekend, I went to the yarn shops and the arts and crafts supply store. The original plan was 8" Friday to Saturday (thereby canceling my trip to One World on Saturday) and a light coating Sunday night to Monday morning. But I was cool, I had the rest of my Candide for the Brig, all of my Manos for the Guinness, some Encore for a sock, some Sockotta for another sock, and some DMC floss for a cross stich project. No worries!

But Saturday's snow was just a dusting and the Sunday night snow started Sunday morning, and we already have almost a foot on the ground. Now, ordinarily I'd say no worries, as I have my craft and knitting materials. But I've got two tiny dogs (the larger of the two being 12" at the shoulder) and the weather bunnies are now forcasting two feet of snow by the end of it all. Something told me that I should have litter trained the dogs...or at least the one that I got as a puppy (assuming that the poodle would just follow suit).

The sock is still on the heel, the Brig got a few inches added on today (all the cabling is really slowing me down), the Guinness still needs the first sleeve saddle to be knit, and I crossed a few stitches on the Celtic knot that I'm doing with my cross stitch. Now I've got to go try to drown doggies in the snow...but they're sleeping now, so they probably don't have to make any business. *sigh* I should have gotten a cat.

2003-02-16T08:22:00.000-05:00

So, I got a little bored with the drab dark colors of my blog. (Not good at all for this mid-winter depression; which fortunately is starting to slack up). So, we've moved to Azzure. And I finally figured out what it was that was hiding the Locqueen Knits 2 text and giving her link to where Mama Kate's should have been. Who would have thunk that HTML was so picky that if you forgot one little quotation mark it would fudge things up *shrug*

More knit stuff to come later in the day. After all, I'll be snowed in in a few hours time (for some reason the double 'in' looks grammatically incorrect when you write it out) so all I can do is knit...and then when my tendonitis prone left wrist falls off, I can sit at the computer and tell you all about my day skipping back and forth between two Arans and a sock:-)

2003-02-15T17:14:00.000-05:00

Finally, the rest of my Candide came in and I can finish that bitch of an aran known as Brig, and I can't say enough how much I wish that it were over and done with (especially since we're supposed to be getting a whopper of a snow storm on Sunday.) I'm now at that point where one begins to question EVERYTHING...such as why the hell did I chose this project, why the hell did I choose this yarn, and why the hell didn't I just do something simple...like another scarf. But one can have but so many 8-foot scarves. So, in the meantime, I knit and cuss and fuss and pray that it will all be over by midweek, so that way I can haul the damned thing to knitting circle and assemble it whilst bemoaning my fate. It's not so much that it took for ever and a day for the yarn to be shipped (damn backordering) as I was able to occupy my time with the Guinness Aran and playing with my knitting machine (keeping fingers crossed that my new one will arrive before next tuesday). But now that I sit knitting, my left wrist hurting like hell, I realize that Candide isn't anything like I thought it would be. I'm sure you all remember, or at least have heard of, the book Candide by Voltaire. Lenny Bernstein wrote a musical of it. And Cunegonde has the most loverliest song Glitter and be gay in which she dons all these splendiferous jewels. (I just love the way Kristin Chenowith sings it!!!) But this it not so. Right now I'm feeling more akin to the old lady with the one deriere cheek (who somehow manages to still ride a horse): I am easy assimulated. Not so much so that I'm starting to like this yarn, but it's having a definite effect on my personality: crammed with twigs and other foreign objects, but despite that it does have a nice outer appearance with it's heathery inflections. But after I finish this I'm going to have to give up gray yarn for a while, which is to say that I'll be knitting in Regia and Sockotta in the most treacherously bright colors!
Now moving on...(having been given the perfect segue with the last sentence of the previous paragraph) I'm now brave enough to do socks. But only under one condition: casein needles. I started with some Sockotta and #3 caseins last night and am a little bit in love. Forget the fact that the yarn pools in the most interesting manner...forget the fact that the needles, when placed in my mouth have the strangest plastic bag taste (natural, nontoxic, dairy product my ass)...but I'm a freak for tortoise shell. All of my sunglasses (which I get a new pair of every year) are tortoise shell...my comb (back when I combed my hair) was tortoise shell...and when I played the viola I searched high and low for a bow with tortoise shell frog for under $2000. Yes, I'm a fan of tortoise shell, despite the fact that I was once told that given my complexion, tortoise shell wouldn't be great for me (this coming from a sales person wearing colored jeans). I'm starting to notice a pattern of getting fashion advice from some of the tackiest individuals. Hmph. But getting back to the subject at hand, I'm quite enjoying these toothpicks. I'm already down to the heel, so I've got 29 more rows of k1, sl1 and p1 sl1 before the agony of turning the heel begins. But it's amazing how bloggers can inspire other knitters to transcend their own mediocrity. Maybe next time I'll give Wendy's toe-up pattern a shot...or maybe even some fair isle.

2003-02-14T21:40:00.000-05:00

I now completely understand why fingering weight yarn is called fingering. *&^@#&$^%

2003-02-09T13:27:00.000-05:00

It's no secret that I'm a techno-whore. So you can just imagine how pleased I was to discover that Sony is coming out with a new handheld with a REAL built-in digital camera. Why, you ask, am I advertising for Sony? Trying to get a discount, duh! But also, as a perfect segue to my next paragraph... (how's that for easy transition?)
Some of you may or may not have heard of a program called KnitAble for the Palm OS. I thought that the first version was borderline nice. It did an excellent job in keeping and inventory of one's yarn, needles, hooks, patterns and such, and it also made those annoyingly mathematical tasks of yardage, increase/decrease calculations, and the like much simpler. The only problem with the previous version was that when the battery died, all of your inventory information was lost. However, KnitAble 3.0 has made quite a leap to making it more user-friendly. The only downside is that the bundled software comes with a $69.95 price tag. The bundle includes a desktop version of KnitAble that will sync the information with your handheld device. Entering inventory is easier...and entering those long ass patterns is a breeze too. Would I recommend this program? Maybe...I just downloaded it last night. I enjoyed the first version immensely. Fortunately, my battery ran out so often that I never had to worry about registering it. It was amazingly useful in calculating, especially since I abhor anything that deals with numbers...unless those numbers are preceeded by "$" or if there's "% OFF" after the numbers. But I enjoyed the first version just for the calculation abilities. But I wouldn't advise paying $69.95 just for a few calculations.

Golden Purls

SOFIA: Picture this, Sicily, 1918. I walk over to the market to get a few pounds of mozzarella. All I needed was mozzarella and nothing else. The man says to me, that will be 30 lire. I thought to myself, why should I pay 30 lire for something that could possibly go up to 40 lire when I could get it for 36 lire and have it be fresher? So I said to the man, no thanks and walked on. But it should be just my luck that the guy next to him was selling tartuffe for 149 lire. Tartuffe for 149 lire??!! Okay, so I spend 5 times more than I intended...but they're tartuffe!!!
Have any of you out there had a similar thing happen to you? You go to the store for cheese and end up leaving with truffles? Or, even more on subject, you go to your LYS to swift a few skeins, and end up leaving with a kilo of Manos? Well, that's what happened to my Friday night on eBay. All I wanted was a ball winder so that I could organize all of my yarn in nice stackable cakes. But I wasn't hardly going to pay $30 (plus shipping from Sweden) for an item that retails for $36, that I could possibly get at wholesale for a little bit cheaper. So I passed on it. Cruising the aisles some more, I just happened to stumble across a standard gauge knitting machine for a song. So I pounced upon it. Now, I can hear my mother now: "But you already have a knitting machine." Yes, I already have a knitting machine...but it's a mid-gauge. Of course that makes the purchase completely justified. Every machine knitter should have one fine gauge, one standard gauge, one mid-gauge, and one bulky. So, I'm missing one from the collection. And it also wouldn't hurt to add that last model that Brother manufactured...the KH-970. A moment of silence please... Okay, that's enough. Fortunately, price notwithstanding, the Passap E 8000 does look like a very cute machine to have.

2003-02-07T13:47:00.000-05:00

Taking a cue from Matt (AKA Crowing Ram), I decided to take a few tests today (okay, maybe I went a little bit overboard). Now, generally speaking, I'm not much of a test taking person...as those little multiple choice fill-in-the-bubble tests tend to make me want to create a nice simple little knit and purl pattern (DON'T TRY THIS ON THE SATs). But I thought that it would be a fun diversion to see what the internet thinks of me. Some of these I kinda expected...and wouldn't DARE argue with the results. (Of course they're scientifically accurate) However there are a few that just strike me as totally strange...after all, how can all of me (the facets that make up this wonderfully tarnished yellow diamond) be summed up in checked boxes and radial dials? LoL

Ok...this I agree with, despite how much others may want to argue the opposite.

What Was Your PastLife?

What Obscure Animal are you?

Bjork in every sense except for that ugly swan dress...

Who are you?

Just so you know, I don't really consider myself a cat person, but this is a cute little quiz, as it has knitting as one of the answers (does that make me a KnitDweeb?)

Take the Purrsonality Quiz!

Me...asshole? Although, "Bitch" is the one that I hear most often...

your asshole.

What swear word are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And the test proves it all...teehee

Gay Bear

Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sad but maybe true...

pure

What's YOUR sexual fetish?
brought to you by Quizilla

And I always thought that I was just avoidant...

histrionic

Which Personality Disorder Do You Have?
brought to you by Quizilla

Damnit! I'm a MARTINI...Grey Goose, stirred, str8 up, one olive in, one olive on the side...and fill that sucker up to the rim!!!

""Which cocktail are you?""
brought to you by Quizilla

....hmph, Cosmo my left cheek

Just as I suspected. But, not only is she the Queen of the Gods, she's also the diety invoked for marriages and revenges...although I prefer the revenge element. Call me twisted, call me warped (just don't call me before noon)...what else is marriage but a legalized sanctified revenge?

Hera queen of the gods

What Greek god or goddess are you like?
brought to you by Quizilla

Grover on Ecstasy
You're funny, you're loveable, you're entertaining,
you like to call yourself "Super
Grover!"--You're obviously on ecstasy.
But that's why we love you. Be careful, ok?

Which Sesame Street Muppet's Dark Secret Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

I WANNA BE ELMO DAMNIT

And for the final quiz...

completely fucked!

what fucked version of hello kittie are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

And to think, I always fancied myself as:

pretty fucked.

Now, of course, you know that with a wonderful site like Quizilla, I could literally go on for HOURS...maybe DAYS even. But I've got some snow to shovel and some mindless lace to knit. Don't worry, for those of you that think that I've COMPLETELY lost my mind (or whatever was left to begin with) I'll be returning to a knit-related subject tomorrow...maybe... *teehee*

2003-02-05T20:53:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm a cheap bastard (except where yarn is concerned). And since I'm too cheap to upgrade to Blog*Spot Plus I've been having issues with the pictures. Geocities, so I'm told, has issues with one using their webspace to store photos for another site, and that bravepages thing was just too much hassel. So, in the interest of making my knitting viewable to anyone who views my blog and wishes to see the latest catastophe in progress, I've uploaded all of my photos here.

Knitting on the Guiness catastophe is coming along nicely. Last night I was sitting down taking care of some loose ends on the front when Mommy Dearest commented on how ugly the sweater is going to be. Supportive, ain't she...I know. Meanwhile, what would I look like taking fashion advice from a Gemini who insists that she looks so splendiferously great in orange metalic lipstick? Now do we all see why she's going to have to wait forever and a day to get anything that comes from off my knitting needles? Personally, I think the colors are rather retro-looking...I'm sure we (meaning you, because I'd never admit to being old enough) remember those jackets and t-shirts or those velour jogging suits from the 70's that were brown with the tan accents or tan with the brown accents.
The next time I knit this, and yes I will knit it again, I'm going to use Mountain Mohair in either Moss or Partridgeberry (their brightest shade of red!!!) only because I'll be damned if I knit anything else with 7 separate balls of yarn hanging and tangling from the needles. The few adjustments that I might make to the pattern are:
1) knit it longer in more of a tunic style
2) bigger gussets at the underarm (which should be interesting, considering that I'm knitting in the round)
3) somehow make the lattice blend into the braid
4) knit it in the round, except for the lattice parts, which will be open slits so that the sweater will drape unencumbered should I decide to put my hands in my pocket
It's amazing how a sweater design can evolve during the knitting process. But this really shouldn't come too much as a shock, considering that I've never ever in my entire knitting life actually stuck to a pattern, so why should it be different for my own designs?

2003-02-02T14:21:00.000-05:00

The evolution of a design is a rather interesting process. I’m a Libra, and in being such I can be a creative individual always on the lookout for an easy way out. As I mentioned in the comments from my January 29, 2003 post I hardly ever swatch. None of my dog sweaters have been swatched, nor have I swatched for the items that I’ve knitted using patterns. And speaking of patterns, I’ve never felt an overwhelming need to write any of my designs down…
But now I’m on the first sweater that I designed. Being no knitting fool, and having an understanding of the effect of cables on knit fabric, I felt that it was imperative that I do gauge swatches for each panel. However, I think the most important factor in my decision to swatch was the fact that I was going to order $165 worth of Manos. So, like a good little knitter, I swatched, I blocked, I measured, I calculated, and came up with 112 stitches for the body of the sweater (110 stitches, plus two for the selvedge) and guessed that 101 would be enough for a 1x1 rib.
So I began the cast on. Kitchener, of course. However, somehow, I left out a yarn over and ended up with 100 stitches. What was a lazy knitter to do? I’d be damned if I was going to start over again. It was just a cast on row, but starting over would be too much work. So, cuss and fuss and blame the dog…and then get inventive. I had seen something done in knitting books before that I thought would be nice, and it just so turned out that I had enough stitches for a lattice hem. I started with a reverse stocking background, knitted a few purls and twisted those knits on the following RS row to avoid the slanting increases…and voila! Yes, mistakes can be very beautiful.
Being a coffee-holic, I decided that I was going to call the aran Mocha Madness. It’s brown like the coffee, it’s cream-ish like the caffe au lait. But this is Manos, so the yarns were completely different when I received them. So, sticking with the Celtic theme and being blessed with these wonderful colors, the sweater has taken on the name Guinness (because Black and Tan would be too generic).
The seam was an interesting one, and might prove quite a challenge on assembly. I decided that it would be a good idea to have a feathered seam. So, if all goes right, the front should match the back and we’ll have a nice feathered type of thing going up the sides.
In total, there are 7 panels that I’m working with…and seven separate balls of yarn. Two feathered edges, two running Celtic thingies, two braids, and a running Celtic knot type center panel.
Do I like it all? Well, my judgment is a little clouded…mainly because I keep getting tangled. But, otherwise, I am enjoying doing the pattern. Actually, I’m enjoying it so much that I might even get some Mountain Mohair and knit it again...but in ONE color

2003-01-29T17:35:00.000-05:00

Oh, the wonderful memories...

Today's entry is going to be a blatant exploitation of my first doggie.
Her name is Pandora and she's a Hairless Chinese Crested. If you're not familiar with the breed, don't feel bad...most people aren't. I get comments ranging from "What the hell is that?" all the way to "Oh my god, you should take her to the vet. It looks like she's got a disease or something." But, nevertheless, she's as precious as all get out...at least when she's not ripping up the sweaters that I knit for her. She's the one who dared eat the abalone button right off of her cowprint jacket...'twas a shame too, as that was my first attempt at intarsia.

Click for Pic

She was just a mere youngin' here, at 6 months. This was the first thing that I made for her that she didn't fight me to get out of. It's more of a wrap type jacket, with buttons and bands and such. The body, as you can tell, is Fluff. As soon as I save up for some more both doggies are getting fur coats.

And here we are at our first Christmas together. Note how we're both wearing handmade sweaters:-) Now, I thought that I was being inventive and unique in designing this sweater...the first people sized thing that I designed. But imagine my ire when, while walking past Kenneth Cole, I should see a sweater with the exact same pattern going on: a twisted stitch braid on a reverse stockinette background. I was pissed to the highest point of pisstivity!!!! But then, there's Pandora...in her little red chenille sweater with the little legs. She looked so adorable...until the day after Christmas, when I found the little bugger on the floor with the sweater chewing off the legs. So, needless to say, that was the last time I went through the trouble of giving her legs.

Skipping to the present...

The seamy seamless underbelly of society. Once again, this is her second sweater where I decided to go through the trouble of intarsia. On this one, the seams are at the sides, as opposed to the center. I had some Uridium Manos left over from a sweater that I wanted to do and since it went pretty well with the purple that I had just picked up, I decided to put the two to use. The original plan was for a chenille sweater in purple and chartreuse...but the chartreuse grew legs and walked away. This is a close approximation of what it would have looked like. However, if I did stick with the chenille yarn, I would have never done such an interesting/semi-complicated back.

It wasn't so much that it was difficult, but the cabled intarsia did get a little bit boring after a while.

Now, in all of this, I only have one regret. Well...make that two regrets. The first regret is that I didn't have a dog the destroyed sweaters. The second regret is that I wish that I would have actually written some of these patterns down. Of course there are MANY more pictures, being the proud doggie parent that I am. But Pandora just doesn't like wearing them...or she just won't sit still long enough for a picture to be taken.

But here's a picture that was taken today, just before I took both doggies out in the snow. As you can see, Coco isn't wearing a hand knit garment. Does this mean that I love her any less? No. However, it does mean that I'd be damned if I let some expensive Adrienne Vittadini get mussed up in the snow.

Pandora's sweater, on the other hand, is wool with a Fluff border. Here's a detail of the back. The motif came from, of course, Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elsebeth Lavold...AKA The Book That Got Away.

2003-01-28T18:58:00.000-05:00

It has been brought to my attention...Part Deux

Thanks to Shetha and the following link that she sent me the lovely Cursor has been removed. It was cute while it lasted, but so was Bonzi Buddy. May the cute little ball of yarn and needles rest in piece. A moment of silence please...okay that's enough. Talk amonst yourselves.

2003-01-28T18:20:00.000-05:00

It has been brought to my attention...

It has been brought to my attention that when one loads my website the software from Comet Cursor is automatically downloaded onto one's hard drive. Now, if that ain't a blip and a half!!! Whatever happened to the li'l pop-up window that asked if one wanted to download software to view a particular site. So, I'm conducting a pole...er...uh...poll. Drop me a line either through the comments, or via email to let me know what you think of this -- what I would call -- a blatant invasion of privacy and misappropriation of hard drive space. I admit, it is a cute cursor worthy of a Knitknut...but... *hands on hip and tapping foot with admonishing look on face*

2003-01-27T02:14:00.000-05:00

My Not-so-London-Beanie

Well, there you have it folks. Don't look a damn thing like what I intended. But it's warm as hell, which was a bit help these last few days, when we in the Northeast (look, if it's above the Mason-Dixie line, it's Northeast) were struggling just to get above 22 degrees. Now, imagine if you will, that the color was burgundy instead of the lovely shades which FINALLY showed up nicely in the picture. I ask you, imagine once again that the reservoir tip (pardon the misusage...but my mind is always in the gutter) was a long yellow tassel. Put those two images together, and what do we have? A fez. But I've got a big head, and by the time I get that bastard over my massive cranum, it almost looks like a beanie. As you can see, there is already some stretchage going on. It's amazing how something knit on yarn thinner than DK and with the same amount of stitches fits looser than something knit with a combination that leans towards bulky. Cast on 72 sts...increase to 80...yadda yadda. But in the ribbing I made a boo-boo...so as usually, rip and re-knit in the other direction. But this time, in addition to making it longer, I also added in a twisted stitch for every other rib. But the twisted stitches aren't so much an issue...remind me never to cast off at the edge of a hat. And to think, I was going to actually add an I-cord brim. And now you know why I-cord is short for idiot-cord. But it does leave a nice little dent pattern in my forehead. LoL
Here's the before pic:

2003-01-23T14:54:00.000-05:00

Okay, I've been a bit of a bad blogger lately. I mean...can you imagine...me...silent?????

Variations on a Theme

Anywho, I fell in love with the most amazing yarns. Now, anyone who's been following the plot lines knows that I have a thing for hair-looking yarns. Well, I was at my LYS yesterday and found a yarn called Mountain Mohair and another called Sylvan Spirit. They're both from the yarnerie (sounds better than yarn whorehouse) of Green Mountain Spinnery. The Mountain Mohair, which is a nice heavy worsted kinda sorta pushing it's way toward bulky-ish (4 1/2 sts/inch on #7...or 3 1/2 sts/inch on #10.5), is in Raven. The Sylvan Spirit, which is a DK type of weight (5 - 6 sts/inch on #4 - #6), is in Moonshadow. Well, I wound both of those skeins together and almost had an orgasm. Don't act shocked. You know you've had orgasmic feelings in your LYS before. The resulting color was something along the lines of nicely aged pewter...or those nice distinguished dark grey wigs you've seen in perukeries (I'm in a word inventing mood today). Well, anywho, I started knitting...or rather reknitting another London Beanie. The only difference is that this time I'm using contrasting stitches unstead of contrasting colors. Unfortunately, the picture quality doesn't show the color or stitch definition too well. But it is, as the French say, tres diggable.

Toothpicks and Dental Floss

The next thing worthy of mention is the vest that I'm working on with Peruvian Tweed. Now, it's not necessarily a thin thin yarn, but it's thinner that I'd usually work with, and the needles (#7), although not thin thin toothpicks are also thinner than I'd usually work with. So, for the record, a Toothpick is any needle thinner than 5.00mm, and Dental Floss is any yarn thinner than Manos. But I just love the way that damn thing drapes!!! The fabric so far seems nice and light...something that I can wear in the spring or on a nice cool summer evening. Although, considering the toothpicketiness, and the dental-flossified classifications, this one might want to end up in the fall line. Now, for the contest. Can any of you guess where I 'stole' this pattern from? Granted, this contest is like Joe Millionaire, where if you win there ain't a single damn prize to be had. But interaction is always nice:-)

And Speaking of Orgasms...

Stitches East, so I've been told is going to be in Atlantic City this year. This may be old news to many of you, but I haven't bought Knitter's Magazine in a while (nothing really set my antennas a-twittering), so -- pardon the pun -- I'm a bit out of the loop. Now my original plan was to save up $3000 and rent a UHaul truck (18-wheeler of course) and head over to Valley Forge. But now, the savings plan has gone up to $5000 and two rolls of quarters. I look at it this way: In Atlantic City, so long as you are gambling, you're drinks are free!!! So, I sit at the One Armed Bandit for a li'l bit, toss back a few martini's (stirred, not shaken...my Aunt Mame says shaking bruises the gin and one olive because they take up so much room in such a small glass), and then visit the various vendors. Of course, by now I've gone through a considerable amount of quarters and so much of my $5000 that I'll need a few more drinks. So, I visit what at this point shall be referred to the 'One Armed Backstabbing Good for Nothing CENSORED', toss back a few more martinis (just to keep me in cheerful spirits...once again, pardon the poor pun), and revisit a few more vendors. Now, having one quarter left, I head back to the 'One CENSORED Armed Backstabbing CENSORED Good for CENSORED Nothing CENSORED' drink a chaser (something no more than 60 proof), and head back to the vendors and start begging for loans. Whose bright idea was the Atlantic City thing any CENSORED way????

2003-01-18T22:27:00.000-05:00

Joke of the Day

IT WAS A DARK, STORMY NIGHT

They were alone in the house. It was a cold, dark stormy night. The storm had
come up quickly and each time the thunder boomed he watched her jump.

She looked across the room and admired his strong appearance and wished that
he would take her in his arm, comfort her, protect her from the storm, she
wanted that ... then the power went out.

She screamed.

He raced to the sofa where she was cowering. He did not hesitate to pull her
into his arms. He knew this was a forbidden union and expected her to pull
back. He was surprised when she didn't resist but instead clung to him. The
storm raged on ... as did their growing passion and there came a moment when
each knew that they had to be together. They knew it was wrong, their
families would not understand, but ....

So consumed in their passion they didn't hear the door or the click of the
light switch ... the power was back on ....... click here

2003-01-17T12:48:00.000-05:00

Nothing gets the morning started like a double shot of sambuca in your coffee. You know, I had reverted back to drinking my coffee straight for a while, but the addition of a second dog to the household just makes me want to appreciate the importance of how a little 'sauce' can get a morning off on the right foot.
Being in such a chipper mood this morning, I took the doggies out for a little carry in the snow. I go through all the effort of handknitting them wonderful sweaters, and like a good doggie parent try to avoid the patches of salt, but of course, first one steps in salt and then the other, so they had to be carried home...craddled in my arms like little babies. How cute they are!!!
But we got home, I washed their little paws, sat them on my lap and picked up my alpaca and *ghasp* size 5 needles and began knitting. What am I making? Damned if I know, but I only have enough yarn for a vest (leave it up to me to always buy the last of a certain yarn that isn't enough for a sweater). I figure that by the time I finish the ribbing (Kitchener cast-on of course) I should have figured out what the yarn wants to be.
Just wondering...did anyone catch Regis and Kelly this morning? Briefly, the topic of discussion was knitting. I only ask this because I'm in love with the Aran that Regis was passing off as one of his finished garments...except for the center panel. Being halfway between my second cup of coffee (it takes three before all systems are go) and my own knitting project I didn't get as close of a look as I would have liked. But I can improvise...might be lopsided, but...I'll just say it's cutting edge and innovative!!!

2003-01-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

The topic of today’s entry: Favorite Yarns
I’m a size queen, and will go to a chunky yarn before anything else. But the funny thing is, my favorite yarn really isn’t all that chunky. It’s the Manos. The colors are amazing, albeit inconsistent due to the nature of kettle dying, and it’s a yarn that I find amazingly fun to work with. I remember when I went to my LYS and saw a kilo of black Manos sitting on the shelf, I commented to myself on how much they look like locs. It’s amazing how I can look at a loced individual, such as India.Arie, and think to myself Manos.
But then again, what is yarn but twisted sheep hair (or alpaca, or camel, or dog, or human, or mo…yes, I’m still insisting that mohair comes from a mo). Also, fitting into the Manos category is the Colinette Five Point. It has that same loced texture, the only difference being it’s a chunkier yarn, the colors are mind boggling, and it’s a hell of a lot more expensive. Actually, at one point in time (for about five minutes actually) I was thinking about getting a skein of Five Point in Jamboree (can you get any more offensively brighter?) and taking it to my loctician and have them work that into a few of my loclets.
Next in line of favorites would have to be Fluff. I made my first dog jacket in Fluff (that would be the Phyllis Diller Jacket). Surprisingly, I didn’t have any problems with finding where the stitches were. If it wasn’t so damn expensive I’d knit with it more. However, I’m thinking about mixing it with some other yarn and making the bald dog her first mink (but I suspect that poodle might want one as well).
Last on my list of favorite yarns is Koigu. I haven’t worked with it yet, as it requires small needles (another thing that I avoid like the plague). But the colors sure are nice, see Joe’s Koigu cross-stitch scarf.
So that’s it for the favorite yarns.
On one of the way too many knitting email lists that I belong to I got a link to an article about a high school that has a knitting club. The great thing about the club is that 20 of its 30 members are boys. I just thought that I’d post the link to the article: Move over Grandma here comes the boys. Although, from a grammatical standpoint, the title should read Move over Grandma*insert comma* here COME*get rid of the ‘s’ since boys is plural* the boys.

2003-01-14T05:03:00.000-05:00

I am conducting my first official poll (as opposed to a pole, to which I'm no stranger).
To rip, or not to rip: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the minds of knitters to suffer the slings of outragious reknitting...
I'm about to start on the back of my infamous aran (you know, the gray one in that itchy Candide...which I bought the last of and ran out). Now, if you've been keeping up to pace, I taught myself the Kitchener cast on just recently. As that does form a neater cast-on edge I'm contemplating starting the back with the K cast-on and then for the front, insert a needle a few rows up, rip everything below, and graft on a new K cast-on hem. Since there are the only two ribs hems (the front and back) that don't start or end with a stockinette roll, it's not so much work. Or I could just pick up some stitches and slap on a roll. You know, it would be a hell of a lot easier if I would have just stuck to the pattern and didn't avoid this technique like the plague. But that would actually make sense, and god forbid...
Any suggestions?

2003-01-12T08:50:00.000-05:00

Finally, something knit-worthy to talk about!!!
A few years ago, just after I started knitting, I was shopping at the mall and saw the loveliest sweater. Actually, it wasn't all that great, but it was RED and on the sale rack for $14.00. So I snatched it up and bought it. I enjoyed the sweater, but as it was a scratchy wool turtleneck (that barely fit) I only got a few wears out of it. Over the years, being a cheap machine made mass produced item, it began to fall apart (actually just one little part where a stitch came undone at the seam and laddered all the way down). It broke my little heart...but I soon go over it. So, yesterday, whilst wasting away on my death bed, I started to undo the sweater. Who would have ever thunk that undoing the seams on a sweater could be such a mixed bag? It seems that if I grabbed the thread at the right end that I could just pull it out; but I didn't find this out until the very last seam. But fortunately, where the thread didn't want to pull or come undone too easily, as it was dyed a darker shade of red, snipping without fear was quite easy. So there I lay, with a neck, a front, a back, and two sleeves. Last night, before my arm gave out on me, I ripped the entire front and neck. So now I have one skein laying on the table and another big ol' thing of wound up yarn wrapped around the ladder. So, after I get everything all done, I've just got to wash it, hang it, swift it, and toss that yarn on the machine and make myself another red sweater. But this time, I'm going to do a crew neck. Never actually thought that I could knit myself a sweater with yarn bought for $14.00, although I might have to buy a little more yarn so as to make everything properly oversized.
Also, I finally blocked my swatches for the aran that I'm designing. It's...well..I like the stitches that I came up with, but I'm still pissed that my Viking Patterns for Knitting book grew legs and absconded. But it looks like I'm going to have to try and fashion another panel as I don't think that it's going to be wide enough. But I'll worry about that when I get there. Meanwhile, I also spent the day working on Kitchener cast on. For the life of me (what little there is left) I can't figure out why I avoided this technique like the plague. First of all, I spend half the time doing that annoying long tail cast on, and then once the piece is finished, the edge is a whole lot neater for a 1x1 rib. Meanwhile, I spent all of these three years doing the long tail cast on for 1x1 rib (although I hardly every did the 1x1 rib...way too time consuming)
Meanwhile, back on the ranch...
The current aran still sits half put together on my chair. My Candide hasn't arrived yet, or at least I don't check my messages regularly enough to know if it has arrived, so I only have two sleeves and a front assembled. I also, sewed on the second sleeve yesterday. You know, the less and less that I knit scarves the more and more I like sewing seams. Previously, my method was to knit and attach as I go, so as to make it seem like less seams have to be sewn after the garment it blocked. Works just fine for me, so long as I'm still able to fool myself into believing that there are less seams. That's not too difficult of a task...after all, I really ain't all that bright!
Nevertheless, I did finally use up the last of the Vittadini in my stash on a dog jacket (like I said, I'm a typical dog person...no expense is too great...well, almost no expense...it was stash yarn). It's a cute little jacket, and it fits that maladjusted demon of a poodle perfectly! (she's only been here a week and is exhibiting codependent and antisocial behaviors...I'm gonna have to break her FAST) And I also took some stash chenille (a yarn that I just love...but hate to work with) and made the maladjusted one a cow print jacket. Came out nice, actually better than I thought that it would since I free handed the pattern. But next, as her name IS Coco, I'm going to have to make her a signature Chanel jacket. But she's got to EARN that one.
Okay, off to take some more decongestant and sit and watch the colors swirl.

2003-01-10T21:33:00.000-05:00

Due to the lack of anything significant to say about knitting -- aside from the fact that I'm still knitting swatches for my aran and I'm almost sick of dog sweaters -- I will be silent for yet another day. In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with this funny little email that I got (as I haven't finished writing up the second 100 Things About Me list):

100 Reasons to be Gay

1. You truly don't care who Julia Roberts is sleeping with.
2. You understand the difference between 43 brands of imported vodka.
3. You can call anyone "honey" including pets.
4. You know someone who definitely was in the emergency room with Richard Gere and the gerbil.
5. You understand the immense importance of good lighting.
6. You can be at a crowded disco the size of two football fields and still spot a toupee.
7. You can tell a woman you love her bathing suit, and truly mean her bathing suit.
8. You can explain the nuances between steady date, boyfriend and lover.
9. You really have "been there, done that."
10. Your women friends will tell you everything you want to know about their boyfriends. And that means everything.
11. You're the only type of male who gets to say "fabulous."
12. You can have naked pictures of men you don't know in your home.
13. You can have naked men you don't know in your home.
14. You know how to handle the telephone like a Stradivarius.
15. You understand why the good Lord invented spandex.
16. You understand why the good Lord didn't intend everyone to wear it.
17. You know how to get back at just about everyone. And have.
18. You know that the most important part of a party's decor is the catering staff.
19. You only wear polyester when you mean to.
20. You can smile to let someone know you can't stand them.
21. You can freeze a troll from 20 feet away.
22. You're good pals with women other people can't stand.
23. You've always got an opinion.
24. You've read the book, seen the movie, done the musical.
25. You know how to dress strategically.
26. Your car has an amusing female name.
27. You're the only one at your high school reunion who looks a lot better than you did in high school.
28. You've got at least one framed picture of a pet.
29. If your mattress could talk, it would be Joan Rivers.
30. You know that sex complicates things. So?
31. You know that being called a "cheap slut" isn't actually an insult.
32. There's a married guy somewhere who is terrified of you.
33. Nobody tells you what to do in bed...unless you tell them what to tell you.
34. You have a medicine chest stocked for any occasion.
35. You have at least one movie musical on video.
36. You're not embarrassed to sing in a piano bar.
37. You're embarrassed by people who sing in piano bars.
38. You never hold a grudge for longer than a decade or two.
39. You know how to make an entrance.
40. You know when to make an exit.
41. You worry about people you don't even know - like Liza Minnelli.
42. You choose the most fabulous greeting cards.
43. You know how to program your VCR.
44. You've got sunscreen at every conceivable SPF level.
45. You have a cologne display worthy of Bloomingdales.
46. You understand, viscerally, Joan Crawford.
47. Some of your best friends are your ex lovers.
48. You know when to play dumb.
49. You know what to do for a hangover.
50. Yes, you do have a condom.
51. You've called someone "girlfriend" who is neither a girl nor a friend.
52. One or more of the following apply to you:
a) You adore Judy Garland
b) You hate Judy Garland
c) You hate people who adore Judy Garland.
d) You hate people who hate Judy Garland.
e) You don't give a damn about Judy Garland.
f) Who is Judy Garland?
53. You can supply the last names to the following list:
a) Bernadette
b) Chita
c) Barbra
54. You made Donna Summer a star.
55. You made Donna Summer a has-been.
56. Tanning salons were invented for you.
57. You've made sunbathing a performance art.
58. You know when the party's over.
59. You know where to go after the party's over.
60. You're fearless about fighting the elements, especially gravity.
61. When you hear "a stitch in time saves nine" you think of
a) Your grandma
b) Your face lift
c) John Wayne Bobbit
62. You know that pigs and bears are not necessarily rural wildlife.
63. Your roommate can be your roommate and not your "roommate."
64. You know that referring to someone as "a real lady" isn't necessarily a compliment.
65. Your favorite dinner accessory may also be your dinner companion.
66. If your cat is a female, you swear it's a lesbian.
67. If your cat is a male, you swear it's a lesbian.
68. You sing along heartily with songs that make most females cringe, like "Stand by your man".
69. You've been to a bris, a barmitzvah, a christening, a first communion and too many weddings and you have a carefully considered evaluation of the food after each.
70. You'll never have to hear your mother complain about your wife.
71. A two-seater convertible seems perfectly practical to you.
72. You have a favorite Disney character and it's usually a nasty one.
73. You've left someone totally speechless.
74. You've shaved something other than your face.
75. All your friends do not have to "get along".
76. You have large collection of anniversary pictures. They may be with different guys, however.
77. Your love handles are actually used as such.
78. When someone turns his back on you, you actually consider it an opportunity.
79. You've got a large assortment of movie-star biographies.
80. You've got the most interesting coffee table books.
81. You know where to find a meat rack and it ain't in your kitchen drawer.
82. You have a sexual persuasion with its own flag.
83. At some moment in your life you've envisioned having back-up girls.
84. You know your enemies.
85. After a workout at the gym, you feel like a new man. And he's right there in the shower.
86 You're Barbra Streisand's biggest fan.
87. You know that Barbra Streisand's biggest fan is Barbra Streisand.
88 Not only have you added spice to your life - sometimes you've added side dishes.
89. You know that "small talk" can be about spirituality or politics, and "important issues" can be about hair.
90. You've actually lived out some of your fantasies.
91. Unlike most straight women, you have no problem being treated solely as a sex object.
92. You have no doubts about the accuracy of the Kinsey Report.
93. You know, by heart, every line in:
a) All about Eve
b) The Rocky Horror Picture Show
c) Your face
94. You are ALWAYS ready for your close-up.
95. You have 412 ways to tell someone to get lost. 136 are non-verbal.
96. You can lip-sync to at least one Supreme's song.
97. You have a carefully selected Yiddish vocabulary.
98. Even if you're in Kansas, you're not in Kansas anymore.
99. You know exactly how many martinis it takes.
100. When throwing a party, you know how to put out quite a spread. Sometimes after the party too.

2003-01-08T04:38:00.000-05:00

100 Things About Me

1 My Name is Antonio
2 I'm a Libra (October 3rd)
3 I was born in Philadelphia
4 I'm a countertenor (a guy who sings high)
5 I played the viola for 7 years
6 I was rejected from Juilliard twice (for viola)
7 I loathe music theory
8 I have two dogs (a poodle and a hairless chinese crested)
9 Cats do not like me
10 I am a self-professed bitch
11 I have a soft, cuddly, sentimental side
12 I live the life of a cloistered nun (but without so much prayer)
13 I have loclets (baby dred locs)
14 One of my eyes has a tiny spot of grey in it
15 I have MANY MANY insecurities
16 My favorite color is green
17 My favorite cuisine is Italian
18 I don't date Italian men
19 I try not to bite my tongue
20 I'm a sentient artiste :-)
21 I have an evil streak
22 I am Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell out of drag
23 My favorite crystal is rose quartz
24 I love scented candles (duh, I'm gay!!)
25 My favorite cologne is Curve
26 My drink of choice is a vodka martini, stirred, straight up, with ONE olive
27 I'm addicted to coffee
28 I have ADD
29 Some mornings I NEED to put a little Sambuca in my coffee
30 Autumn is my favorite season
31 I hate how commercial Christmas has become
32 I'm the "friend" of everyone I've ever been "interested" in
33 I've only completely lost myself in love once
34 My middle initial is H
35 I daydream quite often
36 "Bite me" is one of my favorite phrases
37 I have a tendency to sometimes talk too much
38 My favorite opera is Rossini's Armida
39 I have a penchant for obscure baroque music
40 I can be classified as a typical dog person
41 I love overpriced yarns
42 My favorite beer is corona
43 I'm an only child
44 My favorite soda is Mountain Dew
45 I have two left feet both going in opposite directions
46 I'm ridiculously picky when it comes to men
47 On average, I have three dates a year
48 I love Microsoft Access, although I barely understand it
49 I possess a liver made of steel
50 What's Opera Doc? is my favorite Looney Toon
51 I'd rather live in NYC
52 David Daniels, Renee Fleming, Beverly Sills, and the INIMITABLE Maria Callas are my favorite singers
53 I have a weakness for cheesecake
54 I have horrible skin
55 I hate crowds
56 My first job was at a Warner Brothers Studio Store
57 I had a 'thing' for one of my managers at the WBSS
58 My favorite European city that I have visited is Vienna
59 The only souvenir I brought back from Jordan was a bong
60 I've never done 'drugs'
61 I smoked nutmeg once
62 I've only had one hangover
63 I fall in love too easily (and with the wrong people)
64 I like to bake
65 I prefer my steak medium rare
66 I argued with my doctor because he said that I'm an inch taller than I will admit to
67 I almost asked a cop for $20 after he searched me (I fit 'the description' a lot)
68 I love writing letters with fountain pens on good paper, sealed with wax
69 I'm old-fashioned
70 I spent one summer trying to get back to my natural blonde
71 Sometimes I stop mid-sentence and forget what I was saying
72 I'm TERRIBLE with names (but I never forget a handsome face)
73 I'm an insomniac
74 I love flavored seltzer water
75 When friends get pregnant I get their cravings
76 I predicted correctly that Ms. Cleo wasn't Jamaican
77 I have three decks of tarot cards
78 Pinky and the Brain are my favorite cartoon characters
79 I say 'thingamagigit' 'whatchamacallit' 'thingamabob' and 'whatsawhosit' a lot
80 I'm impatient
81 I'm the world’s biggest organized slob
82 Depression is my favorite pastime and melancholy is my favorite word LoL
83 My room smells like Tide, vanilla, and teak
84 I've got more layers than lasagna
85 I would like to own a full-length fur coat
86 I hardly ever listen to the radio
87 Only one person gave me roses
88 I prefer silver to gold, and platinum is better than anything
89 I used to be a Philadelphia Orchestra groupie
90 Tendonitis ruined my career as a violist
91 I'm not too fond of children
92 I have a weakness for men with green eyes
93 I'm amazed that I have 93 things to say about myself
94 I love taking long walks by myself
95 My coffee mug is 32 oz
96 I haven't bought a pair of sneakers in 4 years
97 I have a coffee pot in my room
98 I'm almost never without my Clié
99 All of my shoes are black
100 I'm a few pounds skinnier than I'd like to be

2003-01-06T15:16:00.000-05:00

Ah, the wonderful world of intarsia...stitching in all them ends is a bitch!! So, that is how I shall be spending the remainder of my afternoon. Then I'm going out to heal myself with a small martini. But fortunately it's a li'l teeny tiny jacket for an itsy bitsy toy poodle (hence the small martini). And you all know what dog jackets mean...NO SEAMS TO SEW!!! Woohoo!!! Just pick up some stitches and knit some bands, add in three buttonholes and I'm done. Now, to find the buttons. At least this dog doesn't seem like the kind that will swallow seashell buttons whole. LoL

2003-01-05T03:46:00.000-05:00

Ritorno vincitor! (just in case you didn't know, that's an aria from Aida...the Verdi one)
So I'm back after a brief absence. But I've been, as the French say, tres busy. If you've been keeping up with the storyline of this soap opera that I call my life, I was in the process of designing a sweater. Friday and Saturday I was going back and forth on the train to NYC, so since I had 4 (count em: four) 2.5 hour rides a head of me I decided to swatch. I'm not sure what it is, but knitting on the train is the only way the I'll get to keep the seats next to me vacant...and anyone who rides NJT from Trenton to NYC knows how crowded it can get the closer you get to the city. Yet, despite the vacant seat, people still chose to stand. I doubt that it's because I'm a male knitter ... when I used to catch the train to work in Chestnut Hill I'd see another male knitter that I know waiting for his train knitting and talking to whomever was sitting or standing next to him. Maybe I give off that 'these aren't just for knitting' look. Anywho, on Friday I made one swatch and on Saturday I made the same swatch but with a slight variation. Once I get it blocked I'll post pictures.
I'm using what has fast become my favorite irregular yarn to work with: Manos. Anyone who has used Manos knows that one kilo better be all that you need for a project unless you -- like a good little knitter -- alternate skeins every couple of rows. You buy three skeins of R and realize that you need one more, that last section of your project might look like you used a totally different yarn...time to break out the kool-aid. In the aran that I'm designing, I'm using a nice chocolaty, coffee-like brown (G - Coffee) and a buff, caffe au latte-esque tan (30 - Silica). If I do everything right, it might look right. *fingers crossed*

Also, more news from the home front, I got a new doggie yesterday. She's the most adorable little white toy poodle. Unfortunately, the current bitch in-residence (no not me...my Hairless Chinese Crested) scared her and she spent her first three hours here hiding under a chair. I'll give them a month...or two...or three, four, five, or six to get acclimated to each other. Once she's a little less stressed, I'll take a picture of her and post it for you all to see. Currently, being an adopted dog, her name is Angel. But I'm thinking about changing it...Coco Chanel, Courvoisier VSOP, Moet, Bijoux, Aradia, or (plain and simple) Cashmere are at the top of my list. But she's such a cutie...but the bows in her hair had to go!!!!

2003-01-02T06:07:00.000-05:00

At officially 5:55am this morning I finished my first...well...sock?

This is a BIG milestone for me, as I have a general dislike...nay...opposition...no...an even stronger word: I detestfully loathe dpns. As far as I'm concerned, they're just useful little weapons disguised as knitting needles. Always handy when someone comments "ooh, you could knit me a pair!" you can easily jab them with that one available needle before you begin working the stitches from the next needle. In any event, I finished my first object knitted from a sock pattern.
It looks absolutely nothing like a sock, but that wasn't the point. I grabbed my Big Book of Knitting off the shelf and familiarized myself with the process for making a sock. I did a few rounds of the cuff, then the heel and turn, then gusset, and then the toe. And now I have a black hat for doggie to wear. Now that I've familiarized myself with the parts of a sock and how a sock is actually knitted I can go to my yarn shop and pick up some Regia or Koigu (aren't those just lovely yarns!!!) or some Rowan 4-ply and knit a pair of socks that someone can actually wear. But due to my proclivity for big needles and chunky yarns (yes, I'm an admitted size queen) I'll probably get some Rowan Big Wool and knit some nice warm winter socks!

2003-01-01T02:27:00.000-05:00

Happy 2003

The following are my New Years resolutions for 2003:
1) Be a nicer brand of bitch
2) Express myself in a nicer bitchier manner
3) Finish 4 knitting projects
4) Bitch about the knitting projects that I don't finish
5) Learn to use double pointed needles...as weapons of battle
6) Actually follow a knitting patter exactly for once
7) Fall in love *sigh*
8) Try not to bitch when the relationship goes awry
9) Get a drivers license
10) Learn to drive with knitting and slightly 'spirited'

and finally...
11) Knit those Christmas gifts from 2001...oops

2002-12-31T15:53:00.000-05:00

As promised…

THE CURSE

This is something that every knitter, no matter how inexperienced, is familiar with. You just start knitting and it just so happens that you’re in love!!! Madly in love. So you go to your yarn shop and say “I’m looking for a pattern for a sweater. I want to knit something for my boyfriend.” The other knitters at the shop tremble in horror. The Italian lady reaches for the red bullhorn around her neck. The Creole lady reaches for her chicken foot. The lady behind the counter reaches for her hand knitted rosary beads. The man knitting in the corner reaches for his flask and takes a swig. They all let out a collective sigh, coupled with a “Here we go again.”
One person says “Don’t you know of the curse?” Another adds: “It’s bad luck to knit something for a boyfriend, for once it’s done, so follows the relationship.” The Creole lady suggests: “I know a lady, she can make you a powder to block it with.” The man in the corner, well…all he can do is chuckle and take another sip of his whiskey.
The man in the corner seems so nonchalant about it all because he knows that there is no such thing as a knitting curse. It was just something invented by a little English lady to explain why her men would always leave her after she knitted them something. I knit them a sweater and they leave me…it must be a curse. Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble. Anywho…
The real origin behind this so called curse is really simple…Men. As the aria says “di pasta simile son tutti quanti…le fronde immobile, l’aure incostante han più degli uomini stabilità.” Or, in plain simple English: Men are made from the same shit…the rustling leaves and inconstant winds are more stable than they. Hell, some men, the fools that they are, don’t even like sweaters. But they see a hand knitted sweater as a sign of commitment…and since they sign of commitment was not initiated by them, they get scared and begin to this that this lady wants more than I’m willing to give. Even though, you only really knitted him the sweater because you can’t stand the way he dresses. It’s not a curse. Men are just stupid and afraid of commitment.
My advice…don’t waste time knitting anything larger than a cock cozy. Not because of any curse, but because why give something to an individual that is inherently afraid of commitment? My solution: if you fear that a relationship is having troubles don’t knit him something to try and fix it. (You’d be better off getting knocked up and using the baby to salvage the relationship…although that isn’t something that I highly recommend). But if you fear that the relationship is falling apart, go to Kmart, buy him a nice sweater that you wouldn’t actually mind knitting and take the label off. I’ve done that a million times to usher a man out. Well, only once…but I have given gifts in the past that were store bought that I passed off as my own creations. However, if you KNOW that this individual is serious about having a relationship, then by all means…knit him something. And if you have any doubts, buy him something…or buy some Red Heart and go to town on your knitting machine.
However, there are several ways around this curse...but a magician never divulges the secrets of the craft...

2002-12-30T04:52:00.000-05:00

An early morning thought on New Year's Adam

(you know...the day before New Year's Eve...after all, Adam did come before Eve...which is why she ate the apple)

You know it's extremely sad when you go to your LYS or any place of business that sells yarn and say to the person working there "Yes, I'm making a new sweater. You wouldn't happen to have any yarns in a Tropical Punch shade? ... Not the Kool-Aid Tropical Punch, but the Flavor-Aid...they're very different, you know." It's even sadder if you can say that with a straight face...

Next Topic:

The CuRsE (you know which one I'm referring to)

2002-12-27T18:48:00.000-05:00

Well, I just finished my London Beanie. And of course I never have been on to follow a pattern to the letter... So instead of using a Rowan Magpie type of yarn, I picked up the Rowan 4-ply. Yes...that EXTREMELY thin stuff...but it had a color that matched my pea coat exactly. But it only worked on account of me pulling from the center and the other end (being the non-center) and doubling up. Turned out nice...but the family...well...I'm not going to say that they hate it, but they agree that it's too small for my big head. Of course I highlighted the part in the pattern where it says tight fitting. So, everyone with a birthday in January is getting a London Beanie...well, the ones that I like will be getting one made with Rowan. And for my cousin I'll make him one with Red Heart. Teehee...Ain't I evil!

2002-12-26T17:13:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I'm taking a little break from the Aran... and decided last night to put together a fun project: A Zebra print pillow.

As you can see, since I did a good portion of it freehand, basing the pattern from one for a sleeve, it just looks like big crooked black and white stripes. But they're cute crooked black and white stripes and the yarn is faboo!!! I used Lion Brand Fun Fur and Imagine. Who ever knew that acrylic yarn could be so damn fun?
Well, not having much else to say...and not being laconic by nature, I will relate a story of my outstanding ignorance:
Everyone knows that wool comes from lamb chops...before they are turned into lamb chops, of course. Llama comes from llamas. So it would be safe to assume that Alpaca and Mohair come from alpacas and moes...right? I know what you're asking: What the hell is a moe? Ah, if only I was as bright as you all before I brought up this in knitting circle one evening: "I just love mohair...in fact, one of these days I want to get my own moe so I can spin my own." They snickered, they laughed. How was I supposed to know?? But at least I didn't say "One of these days, I want a pet chenille" ...you know...the distance cousin of a chinchilla...looks a bit like an gerbil. And then, of course, I go out and get a hairless dog.

2002-12-25T11:33:00.000-05:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

2002-12-23T17:20:00.000-05:00

HUMOR
WARNING: The following may seem politically incorrect to some people, so if you're one of 'those' people you might be better off visiting here for today.

I remember when it was a highly desirable quality. Humor... But then, along came this term "Politically Correct" and the world was wiped free of fun. Of course I'm talking about a thread on knitlist about the use of the phrase Yarn Nazi. Etymologically speaking, this is a derivative of the Jerry Seinfeld character the Soup Nazi...a hilarious episode, loved by gentiles and Jews alike. Yet, all of a sudden you connect the N word with yarn or knitting and it suddenly becomes taboo. One person commented about how wrong it was to connect something as enjoyable as knitting to the N people. Oh, and soup isn't enjoyable?? What's better on a cold day than a handmade sweater and a nice bowl of creamy soup? Then another person went on to comment about how using the N word in connection with knitting only lessens the impact of evil in the world. Meanwhile, no one has stopped making afghans...even though their former regime was just as outdated and restrictive and plain-ol' wrong. My advice: get over yourselves, and create your own blog! Why in the hell are you going to go on an OFF-TOPIC rant wasting my valuable hard drive space with your politically correct diatribes when you know that all I'm going to do is press delete, and that would be such a wasted expenditure of physical energy. Now tell me, what the kcuf does that have to do with knitting??? Why make a kcufing mountain out of a molehill. Without a sense humor you die constipated, with a face full of wrinkles and popularly disliked by your friends and family.

Now when I first started this blog I mentioned how politically correct and my name aren't things that you would expect to hear in the same sentence. So don't seem so shocked. You were warned. This isn't to say that I have anything against any races, creeds, cultures, lifestyles, beliefs, etc. Yes, the Nazis were an evil bunch of 'people' (a word I use lightly) but does that mean that it's a social injustice to make light of their stupidity? What's the point of being politically correct when the politicians are all corrupt and, etymologically speaking, politics comes from poli, which means many and tics, which is a type of blood sucking creature. Caca del torro...that's all it is... Just laugh, dammit, LAUGH!!! I wonder what they would say about a yarn whore? *Gasp* But then again, some people do find anonymous trolling for a fee quite pleasurable...

Here's my 2-cents on the whole matter: ROTFLMFAO!!!!!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I didn't knit a single stitch yesterday. So to make up for it, I'm going to pull an all-nighter so that hopefully I can finish the sleeve for my aran and attach that to the front. Yes, I sew the sleeves on before I've blocked my garment. I'm one of those people that just abhor the finishing-up of projects. Knitters knit and sewers sew. And unfortunately, I'm only a knitter, which is why my other sweater has a whole busted under the left armpit. I do a better seam when done in spurts. But, despite not knitting yesterday, I did sift through my stash for some yarn to figure some pattern swatches out of. The yarn Nazi may be in opposition to this, but I'm using Red Heart for the swatches. I'm probably going to use the Lopi for the actual sweater, but I just want to try out a few stitches and see how they're going to look and how much work I'll end up having to put into this monstrosity of a sweater.

2002-12-21T03:32:00.000-05:00

Christmas is a-comin', and what do I want?
As the old song goes...'A kiss on the hand may be quite continental...' I WANT DIAMONDS AND PURLS!!!!

Anywho, I finally figured out a color scheme for my sweater. As opposed to my bright as all hell predeliction, I'm going with muted colors: red, a nice autumny orange, bronze, and a deep dark red. But this evening, I had a dream...ENTRELAC!!!! First I was thinking a spring vest...but then the idea of a full blown sweater popped into my head. Half entrelac, half stockinette. Can I do it? Certainly!!! Will it look nice?? I hope so...

2002-12-20T22:21:00.000-05:00

Designing a sweater...
Oh this should be fun!!! I spent a good deal of time today just sitting around browsing through my yarn catalogs, just looking for something that would inspire me. There was a lot of stuff that spoke to me...yet, it didn't quite inspire me, so I'm going to spend the evening going through all of the dog-eared pages of my knitting catalogs. Something that screams "I'm did this myself" "Doesn't this look like I spent $400 at Barney's for this?" but more importantly something that screams "Nah nah nah boo boo...bite me, bitch!" And of course it would have to be a color louder than the most offensive sin (like wearing colored denim...but tasteful). And of course it would have raglan sleeves. Don't ask me why, but for some reason, I have this crazy fixation on raglan. You would think that someone fooled me into believing that I actually have shoulders that could pull off raglan sleeves. But anywho.
I want it too be cables...and ribs..and knits and purls. I know what you're thinking, but no, I'm not trying to improve on those hideous J. Crew arans (which AREN'T in every color). Maybe a Gansey, maybe an Aran again...Or maybe it will just be a style of sweater that I'll have to figure out a name for. I know what you're thinking: Does he think he's Scottish? *ahem* No, but we do have the same initials. Teehee.
But I never knew that designing would be so difficult!!! With my dog sweaters, I just start knitting and figure out what I want to do by the time I'm done with the ribbing. But not so with me... Dogs are color blind, and mine hates sweaters anyway. But I'm tossing a few bright, vibrant, offensively cheery colorways through my head...and I'd rather find the yarn in those colors than have to break out the kool aid. And of course I'd have to do something similar for the dog...so it would have to be a pattern that I wouldn't tire of after one project.

Talk Amongst Yourselves:
In a conversation with a non-knitter, I mentioned the name Elizabeth Zimmerman...of course they thought I was talking about someone from the yarn shop "Is she the lady that owns the yarn shop?" she asked. "Well, no," I responded, continuing in a manner that only I would dare continue: "She's like Anne Rice's Akasha, the knitter from whom all knitters sprout. She's the Queen of the Damned" "So, you consider yourself damned?" she asked with that gruesome 'I'm gonna impose my religion on you' look on her face. But I smiled, "Certainly. I'll be damned if I knit a single thing for you." I chuckled. I smiled. p2, k2, p2, k1, ssk, continue patt to last 9 sts, k2tog, k1, p2, k2, p2. Next Row. "You know, I could teach you how to knit, too."

2002-12-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

Just thought I'd post again to let everyone know that 1) I fixed the IE java issue with the comments and 2) I found my cable hook. It's amazing how many rows you can knit before you realize that the damn thing is mummified in the little roll thingie at the bottom of the cuff. So, doggie does want a matching aran afterall! Meanwhile here's a link to my ARAN...or the part of it that's assembled. Still a work in progress...

2002-12-19T06:14:00.000-05:00

On the KnitList they're busy discussing our Beloved Scottish Designer. Anywho...here's my penny and a half worth: Who gives a felted flyin' fart! Personally, I think the world has gotten too carried away with their frivolous lawsuits. Technically, it's not copyright infringement or whatever the hell she says it is with people selling her stuff on eBay. Here's an example of how someone ended up posting "her items" for auction:
They bought it...thought it was cute from the pictures...got it made it. Then the other half said something to the effect of 'you've got too much crap cluttering up the house' probably mad on account that the sweater wasn't for him/her/it...or the all-encompassing third-person objective pronoun them. So knitter, not wanting LYS to know that they have another source resorts to eBay, where upon Queen Mary realizes that her patterns are possibly going for much higher on auction that she was selling them for. And she was infuriated!!! "Figlia impura di Bolena, parli tu di..." oh wait...wrong melodrama. I say all of that to say: we all remember what happened to Mary Stuart Queen of Scots. Handbasket for one, destination: Abaddon. Ticket ready...all aboard...choo ch...

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, I wake up early this morning with the idea of getting a jumpstart on my knitting...you know, that infamous first Aran that I certainly haven't mentioned enough. And what to my wondering eyes should disappear? My last cable hook. So here's a stock tip, if I may be so bold as so join Martha (do you see a theme running through this post? Stuart...Stewart...unintentional...but you do the math...) *returning from tangent* everyone should buy stock in Clover. At the rate that I lose cable hooks, you're bound to make an easy million. I used to keep them stored in my hair...but after a visit to the coffee shop with a pink hook sticking out of my head I had to stop that...(mainly because it didn't result in a date...or at least a wink). But as they say...necessity is a motherf... of in...ven...tion *no one noticed that, right?* When in a fix, a paper clip will work just fine. Just uncurl it so it's just a hook and...voilà! You have a cable hook. The only difference is that you might want to transfer the sts back to the left hook (or right hook, whatever your handicap) and knit it from there. I suspect that doggie got to it, as she has a certain proclivity for stealing things and taking them to her room (what do you mean it's not normal for a dog to have her own room?). But the more logical explanation is that she doesn't want to be seen in public with me wearing matching sweaters...you know how teenagers can be.

Let's see, what other knit-related topics can I discuss? I'm sure you really don't want to hear about the hole I ripped in my first sweater the other day. But I'll just save that for a day when I don't have much of anything to say.

But I will leave this as a closing thought: I hear tell from KnitList that the wonderful program that I've got on my palm pilot, the veritable god-send, the knitters Manna, the great white light at the...well, not all that great...but I hear that Knitable is now available for desktop!

2002-12-19T01:22:00.000-05:00

Do you Yahoo!?

Well, this evening, I went to the yahoogroups site to search for some knitting groups, and the one that I was looking for was so far down on the list that by the time I got there I was told that I couldn't join since I had joined so many groups in one day. I PROTEST!!! It was only 10...that's not a lot, right? I'm a geek, not a nerd...and I'll get doggie to kick your a$$ if you say otherwise. Anywho, what's up with Yahoo! anyway? First they come up with this free email for life thing and then start charging you for everything. No POP3, no more 10MB storage (has it gone down to 1 yet?), and you've got to pay to use the personals...so, it's safe to assume that I haven't had a date since. Geez! But anywho, I've gotten that off my chest...nap time

2002-12-18T19:57:00.000-05:00

Can someone explain?

I was just on eBay... Now, I understand that these people are regular individuals just like you and I. But aren't they selling an item? An item that might get higher bids if it had a better presentation... An item that might come with the 'what you see is what you get' caveat... So, why in blazes are you going to post a picture with your item thrown down against a ratty carpet looking like a stack of steel? But some go far enough to actually put it on a cute little sheet...so as to give it an artistic look? Of course I'm talking about the knitting machines...and if you've visited eBay lately you know of which I speak. Granted, I'm definitely no neatnik, but c'mon! That's like going to a dating website where the person checked the box that says thin or athletic only to post a picture of a 300lb individual. I understand that thin may get more responses (or that Brother 970 may get higher bids) but false advertisement/pitiful presentations should be outlawed!!! (you see...I used UNDERSTAND...therefore, I'm understandingly insensitive). But I digress...

2002-12-18T18:16:00.000-05:00

So, we're blogging now...But this doesn't count towards my 15- minutes of fame...infamy maybe.

MOI
I thought that I'd start off by giving you all a little info about moi. I'm a knitter...I'm a male...does this mean that I'm gay or have homosexual tendencies? Well the line forms to the right if you want a spin on the...er...uh...wirl-a-gig!

I've been called by many nice adjectives. And I can inform you that they were all fallacies. I haven't a nice bone in my body (we won't go there), I've never been accused of being politically correct, and I've got absolutely no qualms about pricking someone with a spare knitting needle. But, despite that, I am a nice pleasurable guy with a congenial personality and a semi-decent sense of humor. I can be flatteringly offensive, tactfully rude, understandingly insensitive, and approachably aloof. What does all this mean? No, really...what does all of this mean. I'm stumped. Anywho, I hope that you will enjoy my future blogs and feel more than free to contact me at knitnut@operamail.com

Continuing...I have a dog, and yes she is vicious...by all accounts. I also have a mother...[comment redacted]. We make one big slappy happy semi-functional impaired family. I spend a lot of my spare time knitting, and being "in transition" I have a lot of spare time to knit, observe, comment, throw things at the TV, etc.

And now for the knitting:
I'm a knitter and have been doing so for quite some time. Currently, I'm working on an Aran which is turning out quite nicely so far. I'm 50% done and just started the second sleeve this afternoon. Although, I didn't buy enough yarn so I'm waiting for my LYS to get my order in before I continue to the back. I'm actually suprized that I'm completing the sweater so quickly, as I'm generally a slow knitter. But, at this pace, I should have the sweater completely finished by New Year's Eve. And of course, after I finish, I'm going to pick up some cotton tweed in the same color and knit a matching Aran for doggie.
The other project, which I started last night, is a zebra print pillow. For that I'm using some Lion Brand yarn (Imagine and Fun Fur). I just started it last night to see how the yarn would knit up, and I really enjoyed knitting with it. Enjoyed it so much that I'm thinking about waiting until January when the new colors come out so that I can knit doggie a few fur coats. Yes, I know, it's ironically politically correct. But I'll be damned if I give that runt (the angel that she is) a fur before I get my own mink!!! Although I'm probably going to order some Fluff and knit her some stuff out of that too. I'm thinking about Coffee Break or the Cappucino, as they look more natural-as-it-appears-in-nature fur. But, fear not!!, she's getting a few more Fluff stuff in Tropicana and Peacock...maybe Cancun as well. Well, that's enough for one day. Meanwhile, I'm off to brew a pot of coffee....