Welcome to the blog of a young male knitter!



Saturday, July 30, 2011

Hello!! Have a good feeling!

Just in the mood to stop by and say hey. Such a good feeling, not blogging because I feel like I should, or because someone coughabbycough told me that I have to, otherwise she will not speak to me. Really good feelings.

Today was mostly a day of good feelings. There were a few low points, but that happens any day. And something good came out of those low points, so in the end it's all worth it. I worked, I wrote, I took some time for myself, took a long bath, and had a great dinner. ( A store bought sub and REAL corn on the cob. Have I mentioned how much I love corn on the cob. It's like, we've got a great food, lets make it better by putting it on a freaking cob!) Today was pretty much a day where I broke even. And that's all that I can really hope for. I think that would be great title for a sitcom, don't you think so: Breaking Even. I think it should be about a couple who want to have children, but are having problems doing so, and neither one of them makes a lot of money. Sorry for rambling, it tends to happen to me.

Almost started something new today, but I held off. I don't know why, but I'm a little glad I did. I kind of want to finish up a few things first. You know how it is. I still need to knit the crap out of July's socks (I'm not doing sock of the month, I swear it) And I want to finish Wendy's mystery summer shawelette. I figure that even thought the mystery has gone, it would be a good idea to finish it while it is still summer. It would be be unsports man like to do otherwise. This will be done soon. I can feel the rows getting shorter.

Do you like the blogs new look? The old one was kind of a little to cozy for summer I thought. This seems so much more breezy. A little late, but I am still knitting the mystery shawl. I started the rest of it with ya'll, that's all that counts.

Good night,
Sleep tight,
Be sure to knit a little tonight.

~Garret!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Busy day, not so busy

Today was going to be a busy day. I had to walk up to the woods, and pick an ass-load of jewel weed for my mother, I had to walk to the store and pick up cat combs for the alpaca (and maybe a scented candle for me, I do lurve those things (yes, I lurve them to much to spell love right) I had to pick a million of everything in the garden, and the grass would need mowed sometime or another.

So I got up early this morning, ready to start tackling the inside stuff before I did the outside stuff, I had gotten about half (really, less than half) of the inside stuff done before I was ready to switch to the outside stuff. As I stepped out the door it started raining. This is not the kind of rain that you could ignore either, this is big rain. So I now have about two or more free hours today. I could use this time to get caught up on everything, but I don't want to.

I was almost hoping that it would rain on my way down to the store. I LURVE getting caught in the rain (but I am into yoga . . . ) I think it may have stopped raining. Off to go get caught in the rain.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

I've got a fever

And that fever is not because it is hotter than hell here. It is a knitting fever and the only cure is more socks. Here's a little picture of what I've done in my free time for the past few days. All the other WIPs were cast to the wind, and I'm pretty sure the Jet Stream has left them around Iceland by now. Let me pull out the little camera that could and snap a few pictures of them.  (What it could do I don't know. I am lucky if it gets pictures, let alone good ones.)

Here's a few shots of some socks that I finished a little while ago, maybe two or three days.


All that yoga is starting to pay off. A little secret to make yourself more bendy, do it in the bathtub. Make sure you have those non-slip daisies.


Ignore the messy backround. This is the room where homeless furniture goes.
If I were doing the sock of the month club these would be June's socks.Yes, June's, but I'm not doing the sock of the month club, so it doesn't matter. I just happen to be knitting a pair a month. It's all an illusion.

The blue is an unknown fiber, as is the white. Blame Goodwill, and blame me for being to cheap to buy my yarn new. These are going to be a Christmas present (maybe, I'll get to that later) and when I give a present that is hand knitted, I am weird about making it as cheap as possible. I think that blue has at least 50% wool, just because it feels like it does.

These were knit from the toe-up, which I really want to like, but I just can't wrap my head around it. I love the way that you can use all the yarn (which I didn't do, I thought I was running out, hence the white) I love the way that you just have to cast on for the toe, instead of all the way around the ankle. I like the way that you can try it on as a mitten if you want to (I did it less this time than the last). But it just seems like it is missing something. I don't know what, but I am beginning to realize that I am a weired person who likes weird things.

The thing is through that I am beginning to think that these might be a little Mid-Century-Modern for the intended recipient. I thought that I could put these up until the holidays, and if I have time make him a different pair in plain black and I could just wear these for myself, after the holidays of course. I asked him once and he said that he would wear them, but I have my doubts (for instance these aren't machine washable). Does anyone who knows my father have an opinion on this (you know who you are)?

I hope it rains tomorrow morning. I can get up early, there will be baked goods (I will have to make them appear, so that part might not happen) there will be overly sweetened coffee (I know I will make that be there) I will be in cozy jamies, and I will have a mountain of editing to tackle. Have I mentioned how much I loathe editing. There will either be a lot of editing or knit-blog reading. I hope editing.

Unless it doesn't rain. Then I'll just zonk out in front to the TV like most people do on Sunday morning. If that happens I could get a lot more done on this sock.


Ugh! What a crappy photo. Ignore the bottle of ink the backround.
These are the Dublin Bay Socks that are slowly getting done. More on them later, I really have to go. (Editing Grrr!!!)

Monday, July 18, 2011

Has it really been over week, feel like a lot less time

I was poking around the blog for a minute, and I learned a number of things. Some things disturbing, somethings not. There was one person who found my blog by searching for "did paul young die desperate housewives" I don't really know what to make of that. There was one who found it by searching for "julie and julia netflix" and apparently a lot of people found it from searching Reynolds Katsura. Are you one of those people? One of the most shocking things is that I have only done thirty-four posts this year. I really don't deserve all the hits that I've gotten. I most fix this.

(By the way, while I'm thinking about it, is .ru what you put at the end of a Russian web site. Like Canada is .ca and the UK is .uk)

But I am proud to admit that no one found me by searching for Body of Proof, and it took admirable self-restraint to keep from yammering on and on about that one.

But no one has found this blog by searching for "finished sweater" either. To help remedy that here are some shots of the sweater that I finished last weekend. I kept putting it off and off, until it was a week since I had promised to share pic. Naughty, Naughty blogger. (I really just did that for the hits, you have your entertainment, I have mine)


Sorry for the bad photo. I'm not very good at this, and I figure that trying to get a good picture of this sweater is like trying to get a good one of bigfoot. The day I took this picture was really hot, and I was not in the mood to wonder around wearing a mohair sweater

The yarn is Reynolds Kitten, another long discontinued brand. This was gift from a knitter who has yarn in her stash that is older than I am. This yarn is probably one of those. The acrylic mohair combo was not the most fun to knit with, but I do like the effect of it. In real life it is a lot more fuzzy, almost annoyingly so.

The pattern was the Perfect Sweater from the side bar at Mason-Dixon Knitting (link on the right) This is the second time that I've knit this pattern, and most likely not the last.

Here's a close up of the V-neck. I can't get over how less fuzzy this thing is on camera. Just like when it's underwater. Yes, I need to shave in this picture. Leave me alone, I'm just not into appearances like the rest of the vain vain world.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

A letter of Pictures

I had a really great day yesterday. Have you ever had one of those days where you just don't want it to end? While I spend a large part of the day cleaning, it was all happy cleaning. It wasn't the kind that you feel forced to do. I didn't get to everything that I wanted to get to, but I did perform all the necessary maintenance that was needed on the house, which I am afraid to admit has been neglected for the past few days.

I washed the sheets yesterday, a act that always makes me feel like a saint. A real saint would probably not care about whether or not their sheets were clean, they would be to busy achieving greater spiritual purity. I would simply tell them to enjoy their bread and water, and to not drool to much over my stuffed peppers. (Freezer brand, but still yummy.)

Here's a few shots from yesterday. I had a fresh pack of batteries, and the urge to share EVERYTHING. I hung my sheets out to dry, only after they were dry, I keep forgetting that I have a clothes line. So I really was just sunning them.



 Pretty Huh? I felt like I was on the prairie hanging my sheets up on the line. Some of you my wonder why the clothes line is over the garden. This is because the line is supposed to be somehow used to stake up the tomatoes. I'll let you know when it works.
Suffice to say that the second after I took the picture that I stuffed all of these into my mouth at the same time. It was like a mouthful of red. A mouthful of red and of seeds.

But there were a lot of berries, these six, and the other million I ate made hardly a dent in all the berries.

And this was after I ate them for lunch. Them and cucumber. Have I mentioned that I LURVE cucumber. And from the looks of it I will have a lot more lunches similar to this.

All those little yellow flowers . . .

And while I have the pictures on the computer, here are a few shots of some knitting. Here is a sock that I am working up, a little Christmas present for my father. I am a planner, either mock me, or fear me.


Here is a pretty good picture of the color, and here is a picture of the ribbing.


My ribbing is a lot less wonky in real life. It almost resembles, good knitting.


 The little sweater I'm working on. Really finely knit, but I'm enjoying it. V-neck, cardigan, and taking forever. This has taken about a month, and it's the first piece. Granted there were a few places where I had to frog, and I wasn't exactly monotonous with it, but it is still taking a while.
But, I did finish something else up this weekend. A little sweater that makes me yearn for fall. I still have a few ends to weave in, and I'll show it to you after I finish that, probably tomorrow. 

Thursday, July 7, 2011

If I can call it dinner . . .

I will start by making a promise that this will NEVER become a foodie blog. I don't want to bore all of you with that, and disgust you.

But last night's dinner was an odd one. Not that I had anything unusual to eat, but the way I felt about it. It was odd, maybe not odd for you, but odd for me.

Since I go to Knit Night on Wednesday nights, dinner is usually simple then, it tends to be one of those take-and-bake pizzas from the grocery store. But I had pizza for lunch yesterday, and while I like the stuff, I don't like it that much. Anything more than once a week is a little much for me. So, I picked up some Chicken patties (barf) and some pre-boxed fake-ass pasta side, (less barf, but still not my dinner of choice) and a bag of frozen corn. (Not the real stuff you buy two for a buck. And really, two for a buck, a little unreasonable.)This is not the sort of dinner that I relish making, there is little to season, so little creativity, all of it really just involves stirring and flipping (and me flipping) with a lot of setting timers.

But yet, I loved making it. It took me just long enough to cook it without getting tired of it. Everything turned out perfect, and the only down side was that it tasted like crap. Well, not like crap, more like breaded processed crap, creamy over-seasoned crap, and crap with butter.

But I had fun making it. And does anything else really count? (Yes!)

Monday, July 4, 2011

Other things to do

I keep meaning to snap pictures of my knitting. I am fueled by the urge to stick the stuff in a bush and snap away at it. I would be doing this but someone coughbriannacough took the batteries out of my camera when 'they' borrowed it for the weekend. That I'll teach me to leave things lay on my desk. I would be more upset, but they're fricken batteries, I would have given them to her if she would have asked me. Well, I probably wouldn't have, but she didn't ask me so the world will never know.

I think I have a few crappy photos on my camera, maybe some of the handspun I just made, a long time ago. I don't think it counts as just made, if I did it a week or so ago.

At the risk of sounding like a valley girl, I have to say: Cameras are like so totally cool, ya know!

Not the prettiest handspun, but I love it like a baby. Better than a baby really, it smells good, and it doesn't make messes.  This is from Homespun Acers an alpaca and wool blend that makes me go weak at the knees. I didn't think there would be enough for me to get a decent amount of sock yarn out of it, so I added an ounce of Romney to stretch it farther.

Sorry for the crappy photo. My little camera ain't seen a whole lot of use in a long time. I am still getting used to it.

This is my one-hundredth post here. I really thought I would be farther along by now. But I now can add some pictures. Maybe soon I can add good pictures.

Off to go do something, I think I may knit and watch some TV or read. Another wild Fourth of July here at Casa de Garret. Bye!

Friday, July 1, 2011

PICTURES!!!!!

Okay, you guys all know that I am some technical genius right. Yeah, well, not so much. I rudely awakened by that fact a few days ago when I realized that my computer (my wonderful, badly abused) computer has an SD slot. To those of you, who are like me, and have no clue what that is, an SD slot is a slot in your computer where you can put your memory card in, and upload pictures to your computer.

I spent about a half-hour this morning, wrangling with my camera and computer and this is what I've come up with. The pictures were taken at around midnight last night, so please forgive the *ahem* quality. I'll try to do better.

 Here are a few scrubies that I have been cranking out the past few days. They are perfect to knit while you read. They are also perfect for using up scraps. Garter Stitch and acrylic, oh boy does that take me back.


 This one is a lot less glowing than it really looks. I swear, it is not radioactive.

 I finished this one off with two rows of green, that explains that thing on the bottom. Didn't want you all to start thinking that I was already using these things on dishes.

Don't tell the other ones, but this one is my favorite. So sunny and cheerful. Again, in real life it doesn't damage your eyes that bad.

And here is a dishcloth that I cranked out to go with those three. I had to change the way I was striping it in the middle of it because I realized that it was the EXACT same one that I had made for my mother previously. And because this took me so long to post, I missed my window in the bathroom time shedule. Grrr! It was worth it though. Now I feel like one of the *real* bloggers. I am going to run around today and snap pictures of everything.