Confession

I think I may have gone just slightly 'round the bend.

See, I find myself browsing patterns and FOs on Ravelry, looking at things tagged "afghan" and "blanket." And wanting very badly to make them.

Forget about the Hexaghan, forget about the tesselating fish afghan that I'm already working on--I'm speeding through Abby's afghan and I'm apparently on the lookout for my next large-scale, colorful, end-weaving-intensive project. A ripple afghan with 1-row stripes? Lovely. 10 billion teeny, tiny granny squares? Count me in! The insane world map afghan? Abso-freaking-lutely.

I have no idea what's wrong with me. I find myself fascinated, enchanted by the pretty colors and the many different patterns and the prospect of having heaps of afghans all over my house.

It might be an autumn thing.

Someone please talk some sense into me!

Stuff

What is up with people dodging manholes when they're driving? It happens all the time: I'm driving along, and suddenly the car ahead of me veers off to one side, so I think, "Oh, there must be something in the road!" so I'm on high alert--and then I realize that it was a manhole. The person in front of me would rather swerve sharply than go over a little bump. It happened twice this morning when I was driving to work, and that's just more excitement than I need on one commute. I want my commute to be completely boring, thank you.


Anyway. Knitting.

I haven't started the second Ho yet. I'm still basking in the glory of the finished First Ho. I was telling my mother over the weekend that I feel like a toddler in the knitting world: I go to Stitch 'n' Bitch with some finished object I'm just bursting with pride over, and I run around making everyone admire it, and the more experienced knitters tell me how pretty it is (I'm sure sincerely--most of the time), and then I go off to make them another pretty picture. I mean, knitted thing. I'm just going to have to resign myself to my fate as a toddler, because I really can't imagine growing out of pride in my creations. It's a good thing I knit with kind, patient people!

I've been working some on Grandma's Gift Wrap. Here's the latest photo.

You don't get the full effect of the length, but at least in this picture you can see that it's even. The last picture was deceptively wavy. You can even see some of the texture--mostly in the white stripe at the top. I'm a little more than 2/3 done. The goal is to finish it for Christmas, so it will be a combination thank you/Christmas gift. I'm nothing if not a multi-tasker!

I also got started on Abby's Wedding Afghan. I'm 1/4 done with the squares--hooray! They're looking good; they'll look even better joined together. I have pictures up on Ravelry, but I decided not to post them here so that Abby will be a little surprised. Unfortunately, David doesn't get to be surprised, but I did keep the pictures deliberately low on detail, so he won't get the full effect until he sees his kilt hose in person.

One!

Two!

First, I have to say that I'm amazed that no one has commented on the picture of me wearing the Flying Spaghetti Monster hat.

Okay, down to business. I finished my second glove!

They match! And they fit! And I finished the second glove with less than a yard of yarn left from the skein! (I still had the cushion of the 100" from the first skein, so I wasn't worried. Okay, I wasn't worried because I wasn't paying attention--I was just excited to be finishing.)

In this picture you can even see the pretty honeycomb cable pattern on the cuffs. My hands will be warm and stylish this winter.

In other news, I started the toe decreases on the first kilt ho! Yay! I have decided that each Ho is a separate object, in terms of FOs and UFOs. When I'm done with this one, I totally get to claim a FO. (Obviously, this doesn't mean that I'm not going to make the other one. A finished object and a finished pair are not necessarily the same thing.)

I just really, really hope it fits! (I keep telling myself that it should fit--I did the math, and I had other people check the math, and it fits my equally-sized calf, and I measured the length carefully, so there's no reason for it not to fit--but I'm so paranoid!)

Spreading the Word: Text Only

I had a doctor appointment this morning, and I had my knitting with me. In the waiting room, no one really gave me a second glance--people tend to keep to themselves in neurology, I've noticed. (Don't worry, my head is fine--it was a follow-up, how's-that-migraine-drug-going visit.) I also pulled it out in the exam room while I was waiting for the doctor, and when she came in I started to stuff it back in my bag.

"Ooh, what are you making?" she asked. I showed her my glove-in-progress, and she exclaimed over my brilliance. "I'm making scarves for Christmas presents!" she told me, excitedly. "Now, I'm sure you can tell me this--how do you make fringe?"

Luckily, I hadn't yet used the waste yarn (to be used as a stitch holder) I had with me, so I demonstrated fringing a few times.

"Oh, you're so clever!" the neurologist told me. "I'm just not smart enough to do all this stuff, gloves and fringe and stuff like that!"

"Well, it all works out," I told her. "I'm not smart enough to do all that neurology stuff, but I can play with yarn!"

Ah, yes. I can make fringe, and the migraine specialist thinks I'm brilliant.

After my neurology appointment I headed downstairs to the part of the clinic where my GP works to get a vaccine. Again, I was working on my glove in the waiting room. And I noticed that the woman across from me was staring at me. Full-on, not pretending not to Staring. Finally I caught her eye and smiled at her. "I'm sorry I'm staring," she said. "That's just such an amazing talent to have!"

"It's much more of a skill than a talent," I told her. "It can be taught."

"Don't believe her!" came a voice from one side. "I could never get the hang of it!"

The story came out: she (of the voice from off to one side) had a knitting friend, and in their hanging-out time she had begun to knit a sweater. "And she wouldn't teach me to bind off, so the sleeves were so long they looked like I had made a sweater for a baby orangutan!"

"But I'm sure they were beautifully knit!" I exclaimed. She shot me a look that said, Oh, no, they weren't. I still think that it wasn't so much as case of not getting the hang of it as having a strange teacher who wouldn't teach her to bind off, but what do I know?

I kept insisting that the gloves were easier than they looked (but I did thank them both for the compliments), and soon went back for my vaccine.

Knitting: What an excellent conversation starter!

~~~~~~~~~~

I know I said that this was going to be text-only, but in my last post I forgot to include a picture of the amount of yarn I had left from the skein when I finished the first glove.

See that little pile? That's 100 inches of yarn. Whew! Two 100-gram balls of Lion Cashmere Blend=one pair of women's gloves. Period.

Lots to Report: A Photo Essay

I drove to Green Bay last Wednesday, and drove back to Lexington on Sunday.

While I was in Green Bay, I wore a silly hat. Briefly.

I knew the glory of His Noodly Appendage in that shining moment, and I may never be the same. (Speaking of shining, somebody get that girl some powder!)

I got to hang out with my parents.

Check out the piercing blue eyes on my dad! He is a charming dinner companion, and I had the pleasure of dining with him on Thursday, just the two of us.

He also bakes.

Mmm, coffee cake!

There was much knitting.

Here are Mom and I, working on gloves. Gloves! I made a glove! And so did Mom! (Incidentally, that picture shows pretty much all Dad saw when he was home. He had to go to work to escape the DPNs and cable needles flying all over the table.)

Apparently I don't have a picture of Mom's finished glove, but trot on over to her blog--there are some there. I'm working on the ring finger of the second glove now.

I also visited with my grandmother.

Here she displays her latest knitting project: a stocking for a doll, knit flat on teeny, tiny needles. (I took a picture that showed her face, but it wasn't flattering. Everyone deserves to look pretty on their granddaughters' blogs, so I'm leaving that one off. Plus, she was holding the stocking in front of her white sweatshirt and it was difficult to see.)

She also showed me one of her crochet projects.

The face is blurry, but it's the feet that are important. My grandmother crocheted wee little socks for this itsy bitsy doll! Amazing.

And there you have it: Three generations of talented people. Baking! Needlecrafting! We're so wholesome and domestic I can barely stand it. All we needed were a brewer and a chef to be the perfect frontier family. Maybe at Christmas!


And now it's back to the daily grind. Maybe I can squeeze in some work on my second glove when no one is looking...

It's Oh So Quiet...

It's been more of the same, craft-wise. I haven't done much that's blog-worthy except for the magic loop sock class I took on Saturday. We made tiny wee socks on long, long needles, and I keep forgetting to take a picture of mine. It's about 2 inches long, and completely adorable.

I'm not sure how I feel about magic loop yet, largely because I'm not sure how I feel about circular needles. When I was screwing up the Red Market Bag of the Enormous Hole, I was annoyed by the cord and how it kept curling around my hands. I had the same issue on Saturday. (Um, not that that was my only issue. The two-row reverse stockinette stripe on the tiny cuff is totally a design element. I think I'm getting worse at this knitting thing instead of better at it.) However, I have every intention of giving it the ol' college try and making a complete pair of full-size socks. At the end of it I might be a convert. (I imagine myself draped in yarn and circular needles shouting, "Magic loop rules!" like a drunken frat boy, stomping my DPNs into the dust.)

Other than that, I'm working along on the foot of the first of the kilt hose. I'm working on Grandma's gift wrap in fits and starts. And I'm working on--and repeatedly tinking--another bat cloth. I haven't even gotten to Row 34 yet, and I've already knit and tinked half a dozen rows! The pattern is error-free now; apparently, I have simply lost the ability to follow it.

Tomorrow morning I'll load up my car with a wedding gift, some clothes, and two or three bags full of WIPs and FOs to show off to my mother, and drive up to Green Bay for a long weekend. I'm really looking forward to seeing my parents and my grandma, and the few assorted friends I can squeeze into my schedule (including the bride at the wedding I'm going to). That means I probably won't post anything until Monday or Tuesday--try to soldier on without me! ;)

Hooray for Friday!

I love it that it's Friday.


I've been working away on various projects; I'm almost halfway done with the hexagons for my Hexaghan. They look pretty impressive stacked up:

There are two or three more green ones that don't appear in this picture. And all of my ends are woven in, too, which I think is an accomplishment that bears mentioning. I'm enjoying this project more than I thought I would. I probably wouldn't have chosen these colors to go together (the other two are medium purple and cream), but I like the combination, and I'm looking forward to having a patchwork-ish afghan to keep on the back of my sofa. There's something about a multicolored afghan that doesn't match the furniture that says "homey" to me. Which might be silly, but there you have it.


But the big news is that yesterday evening I turned the heel on the first kilt hose.

My gusset stitches are all picked up, with no holes or unseemly gaps. I even managed to pick up the same number on each side! I made it to right before the short row part on one skein of yarn. So it takes 220 yards of yarn to get from the base of David's knee to the floor.

Slacker

I skipped Stitch and Bitch last night, and instead I went and checked out our new Hobby Lobby. I was hoping they would have a wide selection of colors of Wool-Ease (which I'm making future SIL Abby's wedding afghan out of)--I found two of the three colors I needed at Hancock, but that last color is proving elusive. Well, it turned out that Hobby Lobby doesn't even carry worsted weight Wool-Ease. Rats! So I had to buy some knitting needles and some more cotton yarn, 'cause I don't have nearly enough of either. I've got one more place to check in Lexington, and then I'm planning to make the rounds of the GB retailers while I'm there (in a week! Yay!); hopefully purple is a more popular--and hence available--yarn color up North.


I put aside my big projects for the evening yesterday, and worked on some fish.





On the left, we see what happens when I run out of grey yarn mid-fish. And on the right... Well, I don't really have an explanation for that lopsided tail. Maybe it's just stretched out funny.

I also finally took a decent picture of my recycled sari silk purse, which I have renamed "Sow's Ear," because that's the name that keeps popping into my head. Not very original, but there you have it.


As you can see, I put something into it, because without that you couldn't really tell where the opening was. It just looked like a colorful blob. It's coming along nicely.

Finally, on Monday I un-Kitchenered the toe of my Dublin Bay sock and managed to get it back on the needles without dropping any stitches. Now all I have to do is add a few inches, redo the toe, and hope it fits Mom!

Batty

On Saturday I decided to start a dishcloth, to have something quick and easy to get me back in a good mood. Something to truly snap me out of my knitting funk. I picked a pattern I found through Ravelry: a cloth with a lacy bat pattern! I love bats, and I love Halloween, and I had a ball of orange cotton yarn from an Elmore-Pisgah grab bag. It seemed like it was meant to be. I cast on, and everything was going swimmingly--I messed up once or twice, but I went back and fixed it with no problems.

Until I got to Row 34. I knit it, and ended up with an extra stitch. I tinked it, thinking that all I needed to do was try it again--obviously, my attention had slipped for a moment along the way. I reknit, and it was still wrong. After the 4th attempt, it occurred to me that there might be an error in the pattern, but I was so frustrated at that point that I just put it down. Later in the evening I tried again, three more times--still wasn't getting it. And again, by the time I was mentally prepared to accept that it might not be my fault and examine the pattern for errors, I was too frustrated to make it to the end of the row. (I can be such a child sometimes!) I took it with me to Stitch and Bitch yesterday, and tried it again, once or twice (what's the definition of insanity, again?), and what do you know? It still wasn't coming out right. I handed the pattern to Robyn in desperation, and she spent three minutes with it before she declared, "Oh, right there should be K2, not K1!"

I am an idiot. You know what she did? She started at either end of the row and made it symmetrical. 'Cause it's a symmetrical pattern. I knew as soon as she said it that that was what she had done, but in my frustration I just hadn't quite gotten there yet.

Anyway, here's the stinkin' bat.

I actually think it's really cute, and I want to make about a dozen more, now that my pattern is fixed.

Part of my problem is that I have trouble accepting that patterns have errors. It's extremely silly--in my business, there's no escaping the fact that no one catches everything. Errors slip through all the time, even when you have professional editors looking at something. I'm also deeply doubtful of my ability to follow directions, it seems.

Lesson learned: I can, in fact, follow directions most of the time. Sometimes the pattern is wrong.

Awesome

My office is in a converted house. Next door is an actual house, which was occupied for many years by a very nice woman named Mrs. Harp. She had a beautiful garden, and she was friendly and personable and generally well-loved. Last winter, Mrs. Harp passed away. A few weeks ago, her heirs held a yard sale. Several people in the office went over and bought some things, but I frugally tried to stay away. It was when one of my coworkers said, "I bet she was a knitter..." that I gave in.

Well, if Mrs. Harp was a knitter, someone else got her knitting things. I did make a few finds, though--a nice big suitcase, some old Tupperware, and a few bags of yarn. The yarn itself was terrible: old acrylic, the kind that feels like tinsel spun into yarn. But at the bottom of one of the bags, there were two crochet hooks and a couple of old pattern books. Score! Happily, they let me take the hooks and books and leave the yarn.

This morning I finally got around to looking through one of the books: an old McCall's crochet book. Look what I can make!

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

You're jealous, I can tell.


I tried to take some sari silk purse pictures again, and this is the best I could do:

It's a bit dark, still, and I can't decide if it's out of focus or just looks that way because the yarn is fuzzy. It's about 8 1/2" long, and right now, about 1/2" deep.


Finally, yesterday after work I knit the last 20 leg rows on David's kilt hose, then measured it--Um, did I say I only had 20 rows to go? I meant 45. So, 25 more! Whee!

Better

See? This is why I blog. So everyone can make me feel better when craft disaster strikes. Or, y'know, craft minor error. Thanks for all the words of encouragement!

The Big Sock is resting for a moment. When I feel up to it, I'll un-kitchener the toe, do some measuring, and add some length--as someone pointed out, it's possible I was unknowingly knitting a sock for my big-footed mom. (Her description, not mine!)

And I picked up my sari silk purse again last night, and it didn't look so bad after all. I'm going to soldier on and see where it gets me. It would be worse to have a purse that was too small than one that was too big, I think. It's still not photographing well, though. I think I need to try to get it in some natural light today.

I'm making great progress on the kilt hose. I've got about 20 rows to go before I can start the heel.

To put it in perspective, I've got about 135 rows done so far.

Check it out--it looks like a sleeve! Hooray for progress!

Discouraging

I have a finished sock.

Really, this picture doesn't do it justice at all. Let's look at another one.

See the problem now? Maybe this next one is the best illustration.

This is a Very Big Sock. And not in a good way--not in the way David's kilt hose are very big socks. Those are supposed to be big. This is just too big.

Sigh. I swatched! I did math! ...And when I saw that it was too big, I kept going--and the sock didn't magically shrink during knitting! So unfair.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about this. For now, it's in time out.

I also got started crocheting a purse from the recycled sari silk yarn Mom sent me. I took a few pictures, but they were ridiculously dark so I'm not posting them. I might rip it out and start over--I think my purse bottom is too long. Also, it's kind of lumpy and uneven, but that might be because the yarn is so unevenly spun (instead of being some fault in my crocheting). And this was supposed to be the quick, easy, instant gratification project!

All in all, the last few days have been real downers, craft-wise. Maybe it's time to cast on a nice dishcloth.

She Lives

I haven't been a very good blogger lately. The problem is that I've been working on three things, basically: one was a secret gift amigurumi project, one is David's kilt hose, and the the other is Grandma's Gift Wrap. Obviously, I couldn't show pictures of the secret project, and it's not terribly exciting to explain precisely how much longer a sock or a wrap is.

Luckily for all of us, the secret gift recipient received her secret gift yesterday, and I can now show pictures!


Yes, the bear's face is on its belly. I know I'm not the only person in the world who's seen the Maytag commercial where the repairman is in a toy factory, fixing the machines because they're making giraffes with two heads and--you guessed it--teddy bears with their faces on their bellies. Even though I had to remind her that she had seen that commercial and expressed a desire to own a teddy bear with the face on the belly. Happy Birthday!

Here's a pre-completion photo.

I felt very clever for figuring out how to make its ears all by myself.

I even gave it a tail.

David's kilt hose are getting longer. See?


And Grandma's Gift Wrap is now 38" long.