Yarn Dreams

June has just been a whirlwind for me. Unfortunately this is what happens when summer is the busiest time at work. I have been knitting a little in the evenings, but I don’t have a photo of my current project yet so it will get it’s own post later. In the meantime, here is a collection of disjointed thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head.

Knit Donut:
I have utterly failed at adapting a knit doughnut pattern into “Homer’s Donut”. This is due entirely to my lack of planning and/or patience. I’m frustrated at myself because I know it isn’t that difficult to adapt a stupid pattern for a stupid stuffed donut, but I haven’t taken the time to do it properly. The D’oh!nut is hidden away for now, to be finished (and awesome!) at a later date.

Expense and Frustration:
One day last week I dealt with a large unexpected car repair (my key was stuck in the ignition for the 6th time - that’s a story in itself), large vet bill with the added bonus of worrying about a cat under anesthesia, and a flat tire on my hubby’s car on a 110°F day with a anesthesia drunk-cat in his carrier, lug nuts that would not come off, and the gas light on (and therefore questionable air-conditioner running time). And almost $1000 dropped in one day. There goes my new couch.

Garden:
The weather has been spotty here this ’summer’. There have been a few hot days (see above) but today it is in the low 60’s again. There was a seemingly unending period of rain this spring, but now the forecasted rain never shows up. This has not stopped me from fixing up the garden at our new home. In the past I have had a dozen or so containers on our balcony and I am happy to graduate to plants in the ground. And they are growing - despite the weather and somewhat poor soil we uncovered. There is a post coming about my garden soon.

Michael Jackson:
I’m almost sorry to mention his name again; the media is so thoroughly saturated with coverage of the same nothing over and over. I was never a huge fan, but I always liked his music (had them on my iPod - not that I would have admitted it before now) and thought he was a very talented performer. I think his life is a testament to what can happen when you are deeply unhappy with yourself and surrounded by enablers.

Although I am not sad or grieving by any stretch of the imagination, his death has stuck with me over the last few days. I think because it reflects the place where my brain has been stuck for a few months now. Everyone and everything I know will eventually come to an end. Obvious, I know, but also not a good place to be stuck. It’s a good thing I don’t have enablers!

I wanted to make this knit donut for my dad, only modify it to look like Homer’s donut. Easy enough, right? Especially since I found the perfect colors of yarn. But my inability to simply follow a pattern as written and my horrendous sewing-up skills have made this little thing the most frustrating project I’ve done in a long time.

This was my first attempt:

Thinking about it now, it would have been better to use a provisional cast on, instead of trying to neatly and invisibly sew together the cast on and bind off edges.

Also, I didn’t really pay attention to the gauge differences of the two yarns and the pink frosting ended up too high and poofy. The second attempt was not much better.

I think I need to just rip it out and start over. So now my urge to stuff it in a drawer and forget about it is conflicting with my desire to finish it by fathers day.

I feel completely untalented right now.

I have a sock in progress that I keep under the passenger seat of my car to solve a case of Extreme Boredom. (No, this does not include stoplights, trains, traffic, or anywhere else I should be paying at least a little attention. My brain doesn’t shift gears that quickly.) It’s been under there at least eight months, probably longer.

Last weekend I found the perfect spot to work on it - at a drive-in.

The double feature we saw was Night at the Museum 2 (which was pretty funny, but then I don’t have the most sophisticated taste in movies) and Star Trek (which we had already seen once at the IMAX). It was a fun night.

Several people who have seen the car sock have asked me about the short circular needle. It is a 9″ 0US Hiya Hiya. I like using it but it takes some getting used to. And by that I mean that it takes some getting used to every time I pick it up. The first dozen or so stitches feel awkward until I find the right grip, which is different then I typically hold needles.

I think this awkwardness is worth the benefits of using one short needle. I can just knit around and around without paying much attention or stopping to rearrange needles. I haven’t reached the heel yet, but I am planning on trying a short row heel with the instep stitches sitting on the cord. Theoretically, I should be able to knit the entire sock on that one needle up to the toe decreases.

I’ll post again on how it is working out once I reach that point.

Meet Reggie.

He is a 9 month old, super cuddly, sweet kitten. He’s lived with us for just over a week now, and has settled in amazingly well. We adopted him from the Humane Society, who received him as a stray at the beginning of May. My husband thinks he must have lived in a house at some point in his short life. He didn’t have any reservations about exploring our entire place within 5 minutes of arriving, and knew immediately that a person in the kitchen might mean food and that the on our bed was the best place to sleep.

Reggie also seems to like, or at least not mind, water. He has jumped into the shower with me three times already. A very surreal experience for sure!

And has a huge bonus, he hasn’t shown any interest in my plants and only noticed my knitting when he pushed it out of his way to sit on my lap.

I’ve gone on a yarn shopping binge recently (more on that to come) but I really want to finish up some lingering projects before I cast on anything new. Besides a sweater that I have been working on consistently for a week or so, my other projects in progress have been lingering for a while now. I think it is time for some decisions. Opinions or tough love welcome.
(Note: links go to Ravelry.)

1) Sedum Sweater

This has been my current go-to project for the past week. I am hoping to finish it soon - three cheers for bulky yarn!

2) Chevron Scarf

I’ve wanted to make this scarf for years. I’ve had the yarn for years. My desire to knit it only increased after seeing all of the colorful and beautiful finished scarves on Ravelry. I’ve held off starting it since I thought it would be a fun knit and didn’t want the “fun” of it to be over. But. It isn’t fun to work on. The colors are pooling even though I am using two different colorways, I have to use size 4 needles to get a fabric I like, and it is basically stockinette stitch so isn’t it going to roll? I just don’t know what to do. I know it probably sounds like a no-brainer that I need to frog this thing but I’ve imagined it knit for so long I’m having a hard time letting go of that dream. I suppose at the very least I need to rip out and restart one of the skeins a few yards in so the pooling stops.

3) Anastasia Socks

This is a project that looks good on paper. The yarn (Misti International Hand Paint Sock) is amazing soft and the colors are wonderful; the pattern is well written and attractive. I have 1.25 socks knit but I’ve stalled because it isn’t much fun to work on. I know it sounds ridiculous but the yarn is almost too soft. It slips right thought my fingers and I get a cramp in my palm trying to keep even tension. I will finish them; I’ve done too much not too. Besides, I do love them and look forward to wearing them. I’ve almost cast on a few other pairs of socks but am forcing myself to finish these first or else they may never be done.

4) Perfect Periwinkle Turtleneck Tube Vest

I really want to like this. (Do I sound like a broken record?) My mom bought me the yarn (Cascade Sierra) specifically for this project. I think I shortened the turtleneck too much and I don’t like how my increases look. So again, probably should frog the whole thing and start over. The biggest problem is I had to go down to a US5 needle to get gauge (and a nice fabric) and the cotton content of the yarn kills my hands if I work on it for any length of time. But, wouldn’t it look cute with a white blouse and jeans?

5) Husband Scarf. No photo or link, since it hasn’t progressed that far yet. I bought some Berroco Inca Gold to make a dressy scarf to go with his new black leather coat last winter. I had planned on use the Henry pattern from Knitty but couldn’t be bothered to do the math to account for my thicker yarn. Besides, it looks a little fiddly to do with black yarn. He hasn’t found any stitch pattern in my books that he likes as much as the Henry scarf. We are at an impasse.

Hey, would you look at that - knitting! It feels good to be knitting again, and especially good to finish a project. This is just a simple little pattern (which I actually made smaller than written) but it was just want I needed to get my knit mojo flowing again.

I also used up a ball of stash yarn which I must confess felt just as good as finishing a project.

Pattern: Storm Cloud Shawlette (Ruffle-less Version) by Hanna Breetz On Ravelry here.
Yarn: Elsepeth Lavold Silky Wool, 1 skein
Needles: size 6US Clover Bamboo circs
Started/Finished: May 5, 2009/May 9, 2009

I probably should have used bigger needles for a larger, lacier shawl but I’m happy enough with how it turned out. I knit most of this during the first few nights in our new house when I was distracted by all of the “stuff” - things in boxes, things that needed to be done, things I hadn’t gotten used to yet. You can see my distraction in the photo below.

The bottom edge of the shawl is supposed to be straight and mine is more scalloped. I think this was caused by my not really keeping track of the number of plain rows between the increase rows. Whatever. It works, and looks, fine. I think I’ll just call it a design element.

This is definitely something I’d knit again. I think it would make a great gift. (When knit correctly, of course.)

Springsteen and the E Street Band, Chicago, 5/12/2009

Our seats, while in the nosebleed section, were actually closer than it appears in this (crappy) cell phone photo. It looks like we were sitting in the rafters or dangling from a helicopter or something.

Awesome show. I wish I could go again!

I’m here, still unpacking and trying to find a place for everything. I am itching to work on my craft room but have been responsible and tried to finish the kitchen and bedroom closets/dressers first. Also, I’ve been trying to make the exterior a little more presentable.

There is a lot of garden space here, which has unfortunately been ignored for at least the last two years. Needless to say the beds are a weedy, overgrown, garbage-y mess. I started fixing up the space next to the garage first since it is the most visible from the street.

I didn’t think to take a before photo, but imagine this space full of dead plants, old mulch, and half-covered hosta shoots.

I still need to buy new mulch, but it looks much nicer. You can see how much the hostas have grown in just a week now that they are not buried under a blanket of rotting mulch:

(The large varigated hosta is a new one I purchased to fill in the gaps between the existing shoots.)

I also have an assortment of veggies to go into the back garden next to the patio. It has still been too cold here to put them in yet.

Mostly my usual suspects of various tomatoes and peppers but this year they will be planted in the ground instead of in containers on a balcony. I am very excited by this even though I now have to worry about pest/wildlife control.

There are also a few plants I’m going to try out just for fun since I have no idea how well they will grow in my garden. On the right side of the photo there is an okra plant, an eggplant plant, and a small (“sweet baby”) watermelon vine. What can I say, I was feeling ambitious. Steve would really like some strawberry plants but I am leery that there will be no good way to keep rabbits away from them.

Oooh, there is also a flowering Cherry Blossom tree right next to the front door. The scent is amazing and I want to try a get few nice photos before the blossom disappear. It is storming right now – hopefully there will still be flowers left in the morning!

I just remembered that I snapped this photo of Lennie, my spinning wheel being packed to move.

I realize that the folding Lendrum is built to be folded and moved around, but the only time I’ve done it is when I brought him home from The Fold. Still safely enclosed in the original box with padding, I might add.

So. Bottom of back seat folded up to cover the space over the foot wells, blanket wrapped around, seat-belted in. If I owned a child seat he probably would have been strapped into that. It was only a five minute drive but I was relived to see that he didn’t move at all and came out of the journey perfectly intact.

Me? Neurotic? Nahhh… It was justified, since I think this is the most expensive thing we own besides the cars.

Notice: No knitting or spinning content below.

We moved last weekend. There are still a few random things (and a fridge full of food) at the old apartment, but all of the necessities and furniture are at the new place.

This is probably the easiest move I’ve ever done. That fact can be attributed to the new place being less than two miles from the old place, and the fact that we have possession of the old apartment until the 15th of May and didn’t have to do a final cleaning while trying to load the truck.

Steve and I picked up the truck at 9am Saturday and had everything loaded (from a second floor apartment), transported, unloaded, and the truck returned by 1pm. Packing the truck was like a life-size game of Tetris. And we won, since besides a floor lamp tipping over nothing else moved an inch. (Some of my forgotten muscles are still sore today though.)

Steve is glad to be done with carrying boxes, but I think the hard part is left – putting things away. I can’t find anything I need, even the box marked “Important – Stuff We Need”.

I can’t wait to have the living room set up and be able to knit and watch TV again!