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Friday, August 19, 2011

It's only the begining

And really it is.

I know you love the feeling of starting something new. The possibilities are endless, and almost enough to make you go dizzy with all the possible options. You sit down and decide to knit a sweater (we won't ask how you decided to knit a sweater, that's a lot more possibilities) and even knowing what it'll be has a lot of choices. Cardigan or pullover (cardigan), What kind of sleeves, what kind of collar, what yarn, solid colored, or striped, or even Fair Isle? Steeked or knit flat? What pattern should it be based on, if any? Should I do Elizabeth Zimmermann's seamless yoke sweater, or the seamless raglan sweater? Or should I just ditch EZ and go with someone who's already done all the math I need? (I'll take EZ any day though, speak softly and carry a big calculator!)

And with every choice you make about your sweater you lose so much of the potential for anything else. If I make the edge ribbed than I can't have it be hemmed, seed stitch, garter stitch, or a million other things. If I give it stripes than I can't make it solid. If the yoke is garter stitch, then it can't be Fair Isle.

It's kind of like writing a book. With every sentence you write there are million less things that you can do to your plot. If you make it take place in San Francisco, than it can't be in New York, or anywhere else equally amazing. If the main character is a woman, than it can't be about a man (unless it's like a really unimportant character telling the story, or if it shifts the view point a lot) Every time you take the left fork there is no way for you to take the right fork. (Unless you rip it out.)

Boy I keep mixing all those metaphors. I'll try to stop. Off to go attempt to felt a store bought sweater, I don't think it'll work, but more on that later. (I've got a lot left to do today, but I've been stewing on this post for days, and I wanted to get it out there ASAP)

And does anyone know the reason for the spike in hits on the sixteenth? I expected maybe ten-ish, and I got like twenty-three. Not that I'm complaining, but did I win something or did someone link to me?

Thursday, August 18, 2011

One you see, and One you don't

It's been a while, but what else is new? There are several reasons why I haven't said in anything in forever.


1. It takes a lot to shake my to my core (not really). Desperate Housewives will be having their last season. I was unable to move for about a week when I heard this, and even now writing that last sentence I still feel slightly off. I have a feeling that when the hope of a new episode of Desperate Housewives has gone, I will become the Desperate one. I'll be the Desperate Writer.

2. The weather here is actually pleasant enough for me to spend some time outside without hating that ball of fire in the sky. Not to hot, not to cold, just right, like porridge. There were a few mornings where I even wore a sweater. See, that wish for some cooler weather of mine really did come true. Maybe I'm magic. I wonder how I'll use my powers next . . .

3. I wanted to finish the two things that I had on the needles before I posted.You'll only be able to see one of them, because the other one was a baby sweater and I wanted to put buttons on it before you got to see it. Right on cue, I can't remember where I put my buttons. That sweater will be a while.

4. I've been having some pretty wired dreams lately (is there such thing as a normal dream though?). Like last night I dreamed that I was living with a blind man on Nantucket Island. He had four kids from a previous marriage. I do remember that the blind guy I was living with wouldn't let me give the kids cereal for breakfast. The night before that I dreamed that I was King Henry the Eighth. I do believe I ditched the current wife, (whichever one it was) and ran off to live in the Italian country side with Sir Tomas Moore. I may or may not have dreamed that I chopped his head off too. About a week ago I dreamed that I was trying to out run a train. I may have beat the train (was I running to save my blind husband, and his four children?).

(I apologize for that impromptu look into my head. It ain't pretty in there.)

See, four perfectly good reasons for my silence. Actually, it was like 3.2 good reasons, and 0.8 okay reasons: it's not like I blog in my sleep.

When I'm not busy writing, and dreaming happy/bizarre/unrealistic dreams, I've been knitting this: (Sorry for all the pictures, There was really about double what you're seeing here. I weeded out the ones that I say are just to weird for people to see.)


Just having a little soak in the tub




Lookie, a visitor

Here's a few shots of the blocking:

bigger than a shawlette, smaller than a boat cozy

a close up of the lace
And here's the finished shots:

It looks big on a short person. But because of the way that I assed up the directions, it was twice the size of what it should be.




The boxwood is not moved.

The Sweet Annie is scared.
I gave it to the recipient last night and they were thrilled. Thrilled is really an understatement for how excited they were.

I think I may need to learn that a few good pictures are better than a lot of crappy ones. Bear with me please.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Another bump in the road

Yesterday was a bumpy road. Actually for the most part it was fine, except for where I stared at my computer screen and cried because the words didn't come, but that really doesn't qualify much as an event. These days it's more like a thing I have to do during the day, like the dishes.

The only real bump in the road was what happened with July's sock of the month socks. I was knitting on them all day, really, all day. Well, not all day, but more that usual. I really wanted to hurry up and finish July's socks before July was over. That didn't work so I figured that I should some close right? August's socks are going to be small so I figured that this might be my time to finally catch up. To finally, for the first time ever, to be actually knitting the sock of the month, in the month.

I sat on my knitting and bent all four needles. I bent them back a little, but it's hard to keep and US 1 from slipping, you know? I wish I would have gotten a picture of them, I would really have to say that they were around a 60 degree angle. I tried to knit with them (just to finish the heel) but I couldn't. If you need me I'll be on my back porch whacking at knitting with hammer. That will be sure to entertain my neighbors.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Socks and Supersition (Good title Eh?)

I am a suspicious person. I am also a superstitious person. It has been years since I've used salt without giving it a little toss over my left shoulder. But I don't use that one a lot, mostly because I hate food that is to salty.

I also think that it is bad mojo for one sock to be shown on the blog. One finished sock. I can show you it almost finished (if I had thought to take a picture of it) and I can show you the next one having began, but under no circumstances can I show you just the one sock. I'm almost done with July's sock of the month (I'm a mess, mock me at will) I'm really less than a sock behind. I need to get working on this, but the sock is at a point where it requires me to count. Maybe sometime today I'll work up the courage to attempt to not screw it up hugely, but we'll just have to wait and see.

This is going to sound a little odd, and people are likely to smack me for saying this, but am I the only one who's tired of summer? I personally am more than ready for a nice cool autumn (hopefully I can walk in it this year) I am so in the mood to throw on some jeans (I miss jeans) and a beautiful cardigan and scuffle through the leaves piled on the edge of the sidewalk. I want to see the brilliant colors of the autumn leaves and feel the crispness in the air. I also want to see how long I can go without turning the furnace on (I hope for Halloween, but no body else thinks that this is a good idea, sigh . . .) Just a few more months and it'll be sweater weather again

And please, for the love of wool, don't tell me I said this come February, by the time that rolls around I'll be one skein of sock yarn away from losing it.

Also, I don't trust Blogger's spell check, I'm sorry for any spelling/grammar errors. I'm editing the first book right now and if I have to fix yet another comma splice people are going to have to start refering to my house as the place where that crazy knitter who never shuts up about writing lives (more than they usually do).