Tuesday, February 28

Out-iversary

Some of you bloggers who don't post very much are in danger of being on probation. Once I decide what the consequences are, I'll enforce them. But for now, please blog. Please?

I have a little indigestion from eating Nutella with some crackers. I don't quite understand why. I wonder if the Nutella's rancid. Ew.

If some of you are into podcasts, you should check out the Rubyfruit Radio podcast. It's all music, and all female artists.

I think that the beginning of the chorus to James Blunt's Wise Men is eerily similar to this song (whose lyrics may be better interpreted as "hold me closer, Tony Danza").

Oh, and tomorrow is my third anniversary (out-iversary?) of The Phone Call. That is, "Mom, you remember when I went to Pride with B and P one time? Well, it wasn't just to support them. ... Oh, and I'm more of a big bang person, too."

Full of tact, I know.

Monday, February 27

No knitting, I promise

I think I kinda like the song Suddenly I See by KT Tunstall (on the album Eye to the Telescope, which I'm seriously contemplating buying).

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After spending a lot of time with my family this weekend (in a church, nonetheless), I was all ready to post something really scathing about my grandmother. I composed most of it while I was in the shower, but revised some of it while I was drying my hair.

Really, she's not a horrible person, but she just gets my hackles up sometimes. Like when I went to get a little lunch from the (church) kitchen, I walked by her, wearing my hat*. She looked at me and said, "I'm going to do what the little boy on TV did and ..." I was so befuddled by what she was saying that I was taken quite by surprise when she whipped the hat off my head and wouldn't give it back, in a rather childish way. It took me a minute to convince her to give it back — I had to insist that I was going to put it in my bag. "Now go find a comb and fix your hair." Bah.

It's not that she's intimidating. I mean, I'm roughly nine feet taller than she is (that's quite a feat for my 70 or so inches). She's just kinda mean and closed-minded and ready to brainwash everyone into thinking that Christianity is the only religion. What is that?


* The Kittyville hat. I was wearing it because my cousin Aa decided that he should wear my KO bag as a "rasta hat", and I told him that I had a much cooler hat in the car.

Saturday, February 25

Flapper

Knitting Olympics 017 Apologies for the dark picture, but say hello the front side of Satchel. Now you see why I'm knitting for Team Making It Up As I Go Along. See the way the pattern changes on a whim? I love it. Especially the i-cord bind off. It's so finished! (No, not Finnish.)

I'm working on the flap now, which will have four starbursts across it. Then I can make the strap, which I think would be fun to attach with giant buttons. (Meaning I'd have to go find some, but whatever.) I'm thinking, after felting, cut vertical buttonholes in the strap — two per side — and have one or two buttons to hold it down. I think I'd have to have some mad sewing skills, though, to make the buttons so secure, so we'll see how this one pans out.

It's time to work on the flap. And watch my brothers get their dance on one last time.

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This is my mom. This is my mom driving a really big truck. Any questions?

Thursday, February 23

Circularity

Knitting Olympics 015 I think I may have discovered my new favorite knitting spot — the public library. There's a huge chair at the back of the periodicals section, which is about as far away from the front door that you can get. The arms are wide enough to rest a magazine so that I can read while knitting, and there are tables and lamps nearby in case it gets darkish. I decided to read the latest Martha Stewart* Living, and ran across two gems.

I'm going to have to go back to my chair some time, but my brothers have a pops concert tonight, so it will have to wait.

*I've become a bit of a Martha fan now, after so many years of bashing her (in favor of Christopher Lowell, of course). In fact, her show on TLC is on in the background this very second, and she just demonstrated her t-shirt folding technique. I ran to get a t-shirt and try it ... and I did it! I am so exicted.

Edited to say: ha ha ha ha ha!

Sunday, February 19

Argh!

(And not in the pirate-y sense.)

As far as the Knitting Olympics bag is going, I've gotten past the Fibonacci colorchange and am about to re-twist the wave from the bottom.

I just measured it — the bag will be about 9 inches high after I finish with the wave. Before fulling. The specs had the finished height at 17 inches before fulling; the final height is 12 inches. A handbag is nice and all, but I really want a Satchel-sized bag in all its 12-inch glory. (Yes, I'm being a size queen, Dustro. As usual.)

You see, I didn't really get a chance to swatch with this yarn — not that I would have, mind you. I'm not a swatcher. But I didn't realize that the mosaic-ish-ness of it would make it so ... tubular.

So I think that I will clip the yarns where I have them and begin again, doubled. Maybe I do have enough yarn after all. I mean, I haven't even touched the Highland Green yet ...

And I'm beginning to think that the vertical stripes, at least the little ones, are ugly.

Saturday, February 18

Friday, February 17

Just keep knitting ...

Hilarity, thy name is fourfour.

So I just finished filling out an insurance form, and in the family information section, there's a little spot for your significant other. On this form, in the column marked "Relationship", it is labeled "Spouse/Dom. Partner". Hooray! I'm taking that as a good sign.

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KO This is the work I did last night. I'm beginning to transition from Blue Hawaii to Chartreuse using a simple overlapping Fibonacci sequence — 1 1 2 3. In other words, 1 row C, 3 rows BH, 1 row C, 2 rows BH, 2 rows C, 1 row BH, 3 rows C, 1 row BH, and then solid Chartreuse from there. (Well, except for the Bluestone, which I knit every other row anyway, since this is a pseudo-mosaic project.)

As I get farther away from the bottom, I am beginning to notice that the bottom is kinda flimsy and thin, as it's just plain stockinette and one color, as opposed to the psuedo-mosaic work along the sides that bulks up the material. I'm hoping that felting will take care of it. I'll probably end up lining the bag anyway, so it won't be so bad.

Another thing I neglected to take into account: size. When I felt it, I'm getting the feeling that the bag will be less like a satchel and more like a tube. Maybe I should have cast on more stitches to make the bag wider ...

I also hope I don't end up hating the way I'm doing the striping, because the colors are very pretty together on their own. But I think I'll feel better about it once I leave off the Blue Hawaii and get more Chartreuse done. We shall see.

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I also decided to go back to a three-column layout, as the knitting stuff was trying to take over the rest of my links. I fought with the stylesheet for a few hours, but I think I've managed to reign it in to what I like. Let me know if it displays weird or something.

Tuesday, February 14

UFOs!

I've been listening to classical music solid for the last couple of days. It's beginning to make me restless. It's a good thing there's an oboe playing right now, or there could be chaos. Because I have a new position at the paper, I've had many more things to do than usual, so there's that, too. And next week I get to fill in for our obit / legals person, because she thinks she needs to go on vacation or something.

I managed to frog my knitting for the KO last night, but i haven't cast on again yet, because I had to wind all of that mess into a couple of center-pull balls. (Oh, and I used a plastic sword sheath for a makeshift nostepinne.) While watching the X-Files. (UFOs, eh, Fyberduck?) I am all set to cast on tonight and get some serious knitting done.

That is, if I ever get out of here.

Knitting Olympics — frog

to frogI am knitter — watch me frog. I was working on a funk-ified version of Knitty's Satchel, and then realized that the needles I was knitting on were going to use way too much yarn. More than the four skeins of Cascade 220 that I bought at String of Purls while I was in O-town moving out this weekend*. Duh. The colors I got were four different ones: Blue Hawaii (a bright aqua shade), Bluestone (a darker turquoise color), Chartreuse (a bright green), and Highland Green (darker than Chartreuse). They're very pretty together — my mom even thought so.

I drew up a new schematic on the table at Macaroni Grill tonight while my mom and I were waiting for food, and I photographed it so I'd remember. I'm going to start over shortly, using smaller needles and only one strand of yarn.

Did I mention what team I am knitting for?
ko team


* In essence, I have a new job in W'set, and O-town was starting to make me stir crazy. I still love Dustro, though. ;-)

Thursday, February 9

Brokeback, Olympics

Brokeback to the Future is a fabulous trailer. The link is to YouTube, although the movie was initially posted on chocolate cake city.

I'm still tying to work out the specs of my pattern for the Knitting Olympics. At this point, I'm thinking that it would be easier to just use the smaller version of Knitty's Satchel as a base and add mosaic patterns it from there. (Heck, why not? I was going to use I-cord detailing anyway ... and it's felted!)

Cast-on time is tomorrow at 2 p.m., but I'm supposed to be working (at a church! yikes!) then, so maybe I can sneak in a few stitches to be official. Of course, I don't really have any of the yarn I want to use picked out since I've changed my mind so many times, but that's not a problem, right?

Thursday, February 2

A bloggers (silent) poetry reading

A great idea for celebrating six (!) more weeks of winter: a poetry reading. The idea came from Grace's Poppies, and I caught it via the Harlot this evening.

I chose Robert Frost because, well, it just seemed appropriate.

Fire and Ice
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

—Robert Frost