My favorite activity

LIST MAKING!!!

• I promised a pair of socks to yfy, so I shall knit him socks, in worsted weight tweed, perhaps.  Something NOT sock yarny, since he’s a boy and has feet as long as my arms.
• I promised my mom an afghan in Bernat cotton, so I am trying to knit a miter square -ghan with borders around each square. That one isn’t going so fabulous, since my squares are coming out more like triangles.  Stupid tight cast-on instructions.
• I bought some bamboo-wool from Joann’s because it was soft and pretty, in dark grey and green, two balls each.  I think it wants to be an entrelac scarf.  They also had some brown in an awesome colour, which would look nice with a dark teal, in a hat maybe.
• I STILL have to finish my aunt’s socks.  God Almighty, it will be a wonderful day on earth when I can mail those AWAY from me.
• I have to sew TWO freaking flower buttons on my baby sweater.
• I want to make my newly bought copper-inspired sock yarn into a pair of armwarmers, with short fingers.
• Having just watched one of my favorite episode of this show (You didn’t lock the door! It was out in the yard!), I now want to knit some of the characters.  I figure the Mooninites would look good as garnishment on a bag.  Meatwad would make a good keychain thingie.  Frylock, well…maybe I could string him up on fishing line and hang him from somewhere.  Or make a holder of some sort, like one of those things for dolls.  Master Shake would look excellent as a desk decoration also.  I might be able to figure out how to work out Carl.  Hmmm…
• I bought some Joann’s Bellissimo for $0.97 a ball; I guess it’s discontinued.  It’s all fuschia and sparkly, and I think I’ll make an Ilene bag with it.  And line it with some crazy fabric, or maybe just black.  I’m trying to sort out how to make a rectangle in the round, while keeping the *yo, k2tog* pattern in.  I think it’s the same as a square, but with an uneven amount of stitches on two opposite sides vs. the other two.  And use yarn overs for the increases, instead of m1 or kf&b.
• After we move, I have to start cooking.  Stupid cooking.  It’s a good thing there are scads of recipe websites, and most people who like to cook are all, “I’ll help you, sweet idiot non-cooker.”  I hate cooking.
• I LOVE Baking.  I want to get a pizzelle and make some crazy awesome things with it, like ice cream cookies and stuff.  Biscotti, tarts, cookies, cake, oh my Gaaaawd, the thought of sugar overload is making my mouth water.
• Instructables, Make, and Craft have reinvaded my mind.  Dammit, I wish I had more hands and more time.  Electronics, quilting, candles, soap, knitting, sewing, glue gun crafts, furniture refinish, furniture building, painting, drawing, metal work (is it some kind of sign I almost wrote mental work?), photography, gardening (whoa, what?  I know, JC on a stick, I’m a plant killer, not a plant grower.  I aspire, though.), television watching, aerobic exercise, weight lifting, museums, plays, free and/or fun touristy things, local festivals, SCHOOL, and all the other shit I like to do but am forgetting.  Oh, sleep, eat.  Stare into space.  Write something for fun, sometimes.  Read for fun.  Movies.  JC.
• I wish I had cranberry juice.

Baby knitting and Long Live Cake!

I started a baby sweater last month to learn about sweater making.

Sammi's Sweater

• Easy Baby Cardigan by Diane Soucy
• Loops & Threads™ Snuggly Wuggly™ Yarn, in Fresh Green and Antique White, less than one ball each
• Size 7 24″ circular needles, I used Knitpicks’ options
• 5 plastic, peachy-pink, flower-shaped buttons, matching sewing thread

Cute, huh?  My gauge is so loose, I don’t know what to do.  The ribbing is so atrocious, I’m glad it’s going to end up in my cousin’s house.  However, I really, really love how creamy white yarn knits up, especially in ribbing.  I learned that if you are going to knit a ribbing on the edge of something, a tighter gauge is probably best.  Oh well.  Every person who I showed it off to marveled over it, and my little cousin is as excited as she can be about a hand-knit sweater.

I learned a lot about picking up stitches for sleeves in addition to the ribbing and gauge.  I am a Kitchener Master now, since I made six or seven attempts at kitchener-ing the hood.  I have to have a glance at directions to start it, but it doesn’t confuse the lampshades off me anymore.  I learned that the size of your stitch markers have to be appropriate to your needles and yarn.

Random intermission:

I don’t know what replicating celestial movements in a faux office has to do with greezy, totally delicious breakfast sandwiches (really, this is not a plug) but it makes a hilarious commercial.  Also, I really, really (really really) LOVE Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.  The original I like best; Gene Wilder is so hilariously mean, and who doesn’t love those (not computer generated) oompah loompahs?

I am still working on those godforsaken socks, but at least I’m on the instep of the second. The first one fit perfectly, but my gauge is a little looser on the second. Hmm…looking at it,I only have about 3.5″ to go before I have to do the heel.  Woooohoooo!!  When I finish these, I’m going to start on a pair of armwarmers with this:

Copenhagen Sock Yarn

I love it so much.  Destination Yarn based her colours on oxidized and unoxidized copper in Copenhagen, Denmark.  I’ve been looking for yarn in copper and copper sulfate colours in the same skein for ages for a Clapotis.  Yay!

I’m going to use the Knucks pattern, and make them up to my elbows, maybe higher. I was thinking of doing cables & ribbing, but I don’t know if they’ll show up with the colours.  I bought Vogue’s Stitchionary of Cables, and I may use one of those.

I want the cables to go all the way from the edge of the fingers to the edge of the forearm, so I guess I’d have to work in some kind of artful increases.

I don’t post often enough, mostly because my budget has not allowed for much knitting.  However, major changes have occurred in my household, so my budget may increase.  I also start back to school on Monday, so we’ll see about the more knitting thing.  I’m taking three upper level econ classes and I’m demoting myself to precalc.  I am now frickin’ determined to minor in math.

Oh, also.  I love Love LOVE cake decorating shows, all of them.  I worked in a bakery for six months, and do you know what?  People think it is the most excellent, hardest thing to get a name on a cake.

“How long do you need to write a name on? Is two hours enough?”
“Do I need to pay you?”
…
People get SO excited over writing on a cake. I wrote Happy Birthday in green icing on an apple pie once. More than one person asked me to scrape off the flowers the decorator took the time to artfully place, leaving small gouge marks all over (since the cake was frozen).

It takes about two minutes to write a generic exclamation and a name on, and people think it’s the most awesomest thing ever. I never got any recognition from my coworkers or managers, but the joy customers got from a “Congratulations, Susie!” written in icing on a frozen cake was priceless. It was the only thing I liked about that job, but now I have a huge affinity for everything cake. Vive le gâteau!

Epiphanies

Up until recently, it did not occur to me to experiment with the way I hold my yarn. Knitting for a while eventually hurt my left hand, and that was just the way it was. I couldn’t really get any real speed going, and I couldn’t figure out why.

Enter two people, the first being Miriam Tegels.   I actively started trying out her techniques. I still couldn’t really make it work, because while I would start out with my finger close to the left needle, I would always end up with it three inches out. Still, it was better than what I was doing before.

Enter my friend NB. I was complaining about my hand hurting from purling. She showed me this bizarre way that she purls, and I couldn’t figure it out. Then I looked up other ways of purling, and I figured out a way that is roughly the same as what she was doing. It doesn’t hurt my hand at all. Woo! Yay!

I’ve been experimenting with how I wrap the yarn all weekend. I just figured out that because of the way I hold the left needle and because I have a freakishly large indent on the palm side of my third finger at the first knuckle, the yarn will sit wrapped there and not move, whether purling or knitting. I also get better tension control. This is genius. Genius I say!! I feel like a new knitter! Sound the bells!

Go knitting!

Crazy and Kashmira

I have come to the conclusion that I am a concept knitter. I don’t necessarily hate seaming, but I like for things to be in the round. I like picking up stitches. I like knitting about math concepts, and I’m trying to figure out how to work calculus in. I can’t look at a pattern and say, “Wow, I want that exact sweater!” I always find something wrong. I’ve knit very few things from other people’s patterns. I guess it’s a good job on my part that I love knitting, and don’t mind (much) if I have to rip something.

I bought some Kashmira from Joanns a long time ago, and just started making my bag with it. I tried a square in the round from the center out, but I decided I didn’t want that bag. And the 8″ dpns were pissing me off with their eight and twelve stitches per. I started anew (three times!!) on a different one. The first two times I was trying to figure out how to cast on for the stripes, and the last time I screwed up on some stranding. At least I learned about loose tension on this project, instead of in some fair isle job.

I found a thread on Ravelry (I won’t say which, because then this wouldn’t be a generic statement) that highlights the crazy in people. It proves: You can’t make everyone happy. People like beating dead horses (and cows, chickens, pigs…the whole farm really). When people have all access to a really awesome thing, they still find fault. People who like crazy can go to their own group and do it, but some can’t be content with contained crazy. I am crazy for reading a whole several page long thread about crazy. Yar!

Avast! It’s an FO!

I actually FINISHED a project.

Why aren’t you whooping and hollering?!?! Where is my ticker-tape parade? The prizes? ….

FINE!

It is the set of two ballband dishcloths and a ballband handtowel, for my mom. She will be appreciative that I finally made something for her. I’m thinking I should block it, or not. I guess that would work out all the little ends that may come out, although I wove those suckers in like … suckers, I guess. I took the advice of my Borders group knitting friend and made hanger loops from my ending ends, and it looks rad !

So, now. I have been avoiding Ravelry and yarn stores like they sport cannons expelling rats with fleas. They make me yearn for yarn and needles and lace and … well, you get it. I have lots of time to knit, if I don’t procrastinate my calculus homework (I dropped it, since I got six or nine sections behind. I am six sections behind again, but since math is my minor…GAH!!). My yarn budget is much smaller, again. Approximately zero. The limit of my budget is zero. Currency can’t be negative. Yar, thar be application to real life.

picture of pi scarf

I’m s t i l l working on the pi scarf. I am trying to figure out how to knit zero. I thought a row of slips and yarnovers would work, but I did it with the yarn in front and it looked awful. Now I have to get up the courage and willpower to try it with the yarn in back.

People keep telling me to just leave it out, but zero is a number, too. Zero must be counted! Still, I’m finding it a really awesome project, and I think I’m going to share my math geekery with my math teacher. This thing is going to turn out SOO long. I’m going to make it so it can wrap twice around my neck, since it’s not very wide.

I took that picture with the horrible camera in my phone. Horrible. I’m a busy girl. Off to make food, yar!

Behold my genius! Or, lace and colourwork are my bitches.

I feel so smart.

I figured out how to measure rows and columns in Excel in inches, centimeters, or millimeters.

THIS IS AWESOME.

Lace and colourwork are now my bitches.

I’ve been trying to work out a spiraled lace pattern for AGES. It doesn’t matter that I can probably find one somewhere. I usually have to change other people’s patterns to suit, and I end up having to do the math anyway. Also, while I knit something from a pattern, it’s another person’s brainchild. I want something that’s MINE, regardless of whether or not it’s remotely original, but I am aware that nothing is original.

I can make my own intarsia charts! Argyle! Fair Isle!

Penis! Cake! Waffles!

Knitting, knitting, and…Knitting!!

I have a camera now! Whooooo!! I can take pictures of my knitting!! Well, as soon as I get some batteries.

I started my aunt’s sock(s) last month, and I have almost six inches on Sock #1. I am knitting them using the Universal Toe Up Pattern from Knitty on 2.25 mm DPNs, with some fingering weight I bought from etsy. I started off hating the yarn, but I have come to tolerate it. I think it’s supposed to be self-striping, and it is to some degree. I think I would need a looser gauge or more stitches for it to self-stripe. As it is, I have semi-regular repeats every four or five rows. Ha! How ambiguous is that?!

I understand why people love knitting socks. I LOVE THIS. The toe is genius, and the heel is the same instructions. How can any person not think this is awesome?! I knit one pair of socks maybe two years ago? In some bulky yarn using Silver’s (cuff down) Sock Tutorial. They turned out large enough to fit my husband’s hobbit feet. I felt like a genius then, too. My kitchener looked mad rad. These are my first socks with these toothpicks; I’m getting 10.25 stitches per inch. Apparently, that is tight from what I’ve read on Ravelry, but even when I knit loosely I get at least 10 spi.

My Wednesday night knitting group peeps think I’m forking insane. Every time I pull it out to work on it it’s: “I don’t see how you do that!” “That is just crazy!” “Look at her, with those tiny needles and that tiny yarn! That is incredible!” Maybe so, but I bet you wouldn’t turn down a pair. The woman who is my mom’s age and has been knitting longer than I’ve been alive was befuddled by the fact that I was knitting the toe on two needles, until I separated the stitches and it looked quite toe-y.

I’m going to convert all my future sock knits to toe up, and I may try two on two circs. However, for the moment I love my DPNs.

I now have a few skeins of sock yarn (three, exactly, not counting the one I’m working from), and I think I need to get some more sock needles. And some sandpaper for these blunt-ass tips. And a yarn budget, so I can buy more sock yarn. Maybe a small cedar chest, too. sigh. I am an impulse buyer, but I am also a person who doesn’t like to have unfinished projects lying around (yarn balls count, in my opinion). If I just work on the damn things, they actually go pretty darn quickly. happy sigh.

Yay for hand knitting socks!!

Socks & Math

So, I cast on a swatch in sock yarn. Oh my God, I understand the obsession with it, but this yarn on these needles is insane! Toothpicks and embroidery thread, I tell you. However, after handling these 2.25 mm’s for a while, the 3.25 mm’s feel like broomsticks. They are different brands so that probably makes a difference (and I really need to get a sock needle check). Still, every now and then I stop and marvel at the tiny stitches, and how many of them there are per inch/row. I understand why people knit miniatures now, and how people get obsessed with miniature things.

I just finished my first Calculus class. My first math in 3.5 years. It is not as hard as I remember it. Why isn’t it hard? It seems so simple now. It just adds another layer onto what I learned in algebra in eighth grade. Now, in 21 days (our first test occurs then) I might have something else to say about it. Until then, I’m going to study Pre-calc on Cliff’s Notes, and do all the problems in the “review” chapter in my textbook. I need an A in this class.

Added plus, I’m sure, is that I’ll get plenty of geeky knitting projects out of this Minoring in Math garbage. I’m already knitting pi, fer pete’s sake (you should know I say that in my head in full Midwestern accent). I wonder if my math prof would get his geek on to it. I’m already trying to work out how to knit a limit. Does anyone else think about this? I don’t know. It would be fun to knit a limit into a sweater, maybe on the sleeves. No no, number 3, you do not belong in my sweater!! Bad number 3, Bad!!!! Number 8, you are more than welcome to stay. Ahahaha

I’m crafty and I have clean pants

Oh my orange scissors. I wish there were more hours in a day. And rooms in my apartment, with cedar shelving and one of those rolling ladders, like at bookstores. And a giant awesome indestructible crafting table, which could have gun oil and soldering metal spilled on it and pins stabbed into it and beaten when a project goes wrong but smooth enough for writing a pattern or drawing a picture or taking notes during a phone call. I love stream of consciousness. Or run on sentences, which ever applies. Sentence fragments, too. (My dog is snoring almost as loudly as my husband)

On top of knitting, and my knitting commitments:

I started getting back into sewing, partly thanks to a conversation I had in Ravelry, and partly due to feeling guilty about having three tubs of fabric and a sewing machine I’ve used maybe twice (which my mom gave me for Christmas, no less). I’m working on some things that will get posted after we acquire a camera, which will be soon. I hope. I want to make some lap quilts, larger quilts, handbags, maybe a needle roll or two (whoa, do I have some ideas for needle cases), some utilitarian bags for my husband’s treasures, and utilitarian cases for sewing notions and supplies. I think it would be fun to make skirts, too. And a cape.

On top of that, I intend to start designing my own sewn handbags and wallets and knits. I want to take a drawing class at some point. That would be great and helpful, I think. I often get ideas for a great handbag when I’m looking for one at the store, or when I’m trying to sleep. I forget all about it in about three seconds though, so all of my genius goes to waste while I’m concentrating on little things like walking or standing or driving. I can’t draw very well, but I understand that comes with practice as well. I’ve half-assed already started designing, but everything is in my head, or saved on my computer in the form of other people’s pictures serving as a reminder of what I was thinking about when I discovered how I can change their design to make it better.

Then! I want to start back up with the papercrafting. I would love to make my own holiday and special occasion cards, not to mention art pieces for my house.

And writing! How about that. I’ve wanted to write a children’s book since I was in elementary school. I used to be swell at writing fictional stuff. Well, I wrote a lot of bad poetry and furious journal entries; no longer being an angsty teen sort of takes away some of my material.

How am I going to do all of this, along with going to school and trying to kick-start my non-existent career? Well, these thoughts started after I bought a desk (A crazy awesome desk from Craigslist! I clicked on the ad because the title said the desk would make me poop my pants), so I guess it’s the first step.

New neural connections

Don’t ya love it when the lightbulb clicks on? You’re studying something for what seems like infinity minutes and you just can’t understand what the hell it means. Math, a tutorial picture, whatever. Then all of a sudden, for no reason, you just understand and you feel a thousand times smarter, even though it’s something so simple. I love these times. I will explain what I mean later, as this pertains to something I am doing in secret. hee hee I swear to Bob my brain feels a little bigger, or at least that it has more density.

I’m going to start sewing things again. The sewing forums on Craftster are so inspiring, and those geniuses with their “Hell no it can’t be that simple” tutorials are so smug with their cute purses and wallets with zippers sewn in neatly. Plus, I have three or four tubs (TUBS!! Heavy Tubs!!) of fabric that I seriously need to use. The summer before last I got obsessed by the quilting bug thanks to my mom and her cousin, so I have a buttload of coordinating fabrics, and no ideas. I can’t possibly find something to do with that many handbags, and I don’t know anything about sewing clothes. I guess I’ll have to start a blanket. Blanket…good plan, methinks. I have fleece with which I know not what to do.

Where will I find time for this new obsession, amongst the new semester starting in a week (zomg!!11!! <– that always makes me think of a little chit zooming around a room yelling O. M. G! O. M. G.!) and going to my knitting meetings and reading and knitting and family and not to mention sleeping? I don’t know. Methinks some planning is in order, and less procrastination. ha!