I'm knitting, and I can't stop!

(chanted to the tune of that old telly commercial, I've fallen, and I can't get up!)

At the end of 2008, I declared to a group of fiber fanatic friends that 2009 was going to be the year of Lucy knitting for Lucy.

And as we all know, whenever you make a declarative statement like that, the universe conspires against you and manages to tell you, "SCREW YOU!" ala comedian Jeff Dunham & Walter.

First came the invitation for a baby shower. One of my employees from my old non-profit is having a baby, and I got an invitation to the baby shower mostly because I ran into her recently. Not that I object to buying her a present, or celebrating the birth of her son; I don't. But I'd rather give her something hand-knitted than some plastic-y thing or gift certificate. So I quickly knitted her two baby hats; a small one for a newborn, and a slightly larger one for when he gets bigger.

Then, there was a phone call at work one day from DH telling me that friends of ours in Chicago are also expecting. Since I began knitting in about 2001, DH has done nothing but poke fun at me for doing an "old-lady" craft. He also likes to harass me about how long it takes for something to be finished; the line - and he knows how much this annoys me, which is why he does it - is "Aren't you done with that YET?"

But the moment he found out about the Chicago people, he asked me to make them a blanket. I'm inclined to turn him down on principle alone, or at least to harass back about how sure, now, now he LIKES my knitting. Suuure. But I'm not that bitchy. Or at least not all the time.

The thing is that it takes about 6 weeks to make a baby blanket, and I really don't want to take that much time out of selfishly knitting for myself. (sidebar: >_< goodness, that sounds harsh.)

Of course, it makes me feel guilty to even think such a thing, let alone say it out loud. I'm sure that I will end up making something for them, more than some-THING, probably a blanket, hats, a baby sweater....even though I've kind of sworn off garments, because the last sweater I made took me six years, no exaggeration, no joke.

I was cruising a friend's queue on Ravelry, and I saw a Scandinavian designer's pattern that I thought was pretty, but as it was a long duster-style cardigan, way, way, way too much work for me. (FYI- Ravelry = social networking site for knitters, kind of like MySpace with patterns. Queue = list of patterns/projects stored on Rav that you would like to make.) Because this particular designer was Scandinavian, and Fair Isle (scandinavian-style) knitting amazes me, I had to look at what else she's designed. Which brought me to this.

Photocredit goes to Tirku, I do not own this picture.  I just love it, admire it, and want, want, want, want to make one for myself.

She blogs in Finnish and English.  Here is the post about the sweater.  Since it appeared in Vogue Knits magazine in the Fall 2008 edition, the pattern is no longer online.  I bought the mag from the publisher; I do hope that she was well compensated by them for it.  (n.b., I just realized it sounds like I resent paying for the pattern.  Allow me to be clear: I do NOT.  I'm happy to pay for it.   I just hope she gets residuals or something from me purchasing the back issue.)

I don't love the color in the picture; the blog post picture is a vivid kelly green that I'm not a fan of either.  I can't wear either color, so no, I won't be making it that hue.  I'm also not a huge fan of hoodies; my sisters both love them, but meh.  Just not my thing.  There are numerous examples on Ravelry of people who have made them without the hood, and I intend to do the same.  In fact, over 400 people on Rav have started this project, and the reviews are positive, that it knits up quickly.  This may just bring me back to knitting actual clothes.  Maybe.

In the meantime, until my copy of Vogue Knitting Fall 2008 gets here, I'm searching for an easy baby blanket pattern.  Sigh.

Crazier (than ususal)

You might have noticed a new item in my sidebar.  The fabulous Mrs. G at Derfwad Manor had a post about NaBloPoMo, and I had to check it out.  

(Hmm, I think I need to update the list of blogs I read....Mrs. G is nowhere to be found there!  Horrors!  I shall remedy that forthwith.)

The idea is simple; commit to doing 30 blog posts in 30 days.  They suggest a theme, but it is optional.  The theme from October was voting, but they haven't named one on their front page yet for November.  I suppose that's because I'm up and playing on the computer at stupid o'clock, and they're probably on the west coast.

My writing has slipped to a low priority of late, and I don't like that.  My dad used to tell my sibs and me all the time that, "Everyone has 24 hours in a day."  Helpful, that.  Tell me something I didn't know.  Within your allotted 24, then, you have to find the time to do that which matters to you.  Recently, the priority has been sleep, what with my insane week at work, eight straight days of 12+ hour days.  Sleep is important.  I'm unpleasant without the proper amount of sleep.  The writing doesn't get done, though. I've been getting in to bed around 7 PM and although I don't sleep in more than 3-4 hour segments, one would think that the approximately 7-1/2 hours of sleep I do get would be enough.  

I don't want that pattern of climbing in to bed so incredibly early to continue.  It does not bode well for the coming winter, when my instinct is to hide in bed anyway.  Apart from the depression making me unwilling to get out of bed, my bed is the warmest spot in my poorly insulated house in the winter.

So I'm giving this crazy 30 posts in 30 days idea a shot.  As I don't yet know what the theme is, I'm not committing to that right now, but maybe I will.

Completely OT and switching gears now, I have a silly story to relate.

I lost my wallet about a week ago.  Genius, I know.  Annoying, too.  I had to replace: my driver's license, the one credit card I carry in my wallet, my debit card, and a whole bunch of 'customer rewards' cards, from Hallmark, the grocery store, the two big bookstore chains in the area, an electronics store, about $6 worth of stamps, my health insurance card, my Sam's club card.....and I don't even know what the hell else was in there.  I never carry cash.  Ever.  I got out of the habit of doing that when I was dating the ex, way back during my sophomore year of college.  A neighbor of his in the dorm was mugged right outside of the dorm, as were a bunch of other people.  I figured if I didn't have any money in it, I could hand my wallet over without too much angst if I needed to.  Such fabulous logic, no?  Anyway, I've never gotten back in the habit of having cash in the 10+ years since then.  

But, of course, when I lost my wallet, there was about $35 in it.  

Naturligt, as we would say in Swedish.

F.O.

phrase, "eefff" "oh" used on Ravelry as an abbreviation for Finished Object, a completed knitting/crochet project.

(And here you thought that I was going to be obscene and foul-mouthed, didn't ya? HA! Fooled ya!)

This? I knitted this. This is a sweater. One that I knitted. Laid out on my dining room table. Did I mention I knitted it? It only took me 6 years. Seriously.

This is a detail shot of the bottom left corner. The pattern has the sweater knitted in one large piece, with the sleeves attached later. The border is garter stitched, knitted every row. The body is stockinette stitch, thus the difference in the textures.

The sleeves were knitted separately, and then joined to the body, then, finally, sewn into round sleeves. I made a mistake on the first sleeve, adding a few extra rows of garter stitches after the solid color border. (See the second section of bumpy stitches, in the variegated blue/light blue? Right there, that's a mistake.) Rather than admit that I screwed up, and rip back ten rows, I kept the mistake, and repeated it on the second sleeve. I can't follow a pattern as written to save my soul. Sigh. That's my Type B personality side coming out; I want to put my own personal spin on everything I touch.

My stitches are nice, though.

I learned how to knit in one series of classes, a six week session. In the fall of 2002. That was Knitting 101. Knitting 201 was to putting those stitches learned to practical application, making a sweater. I finished most of the body of the sweater during Knitting 201, but wasn't even close to finishing the whole thing.

I knitted the sleeves while in Europe in 2003.

And there it sat, for the next 5 years.

We moved house, and it moved with us. It has been sitting in a basket in my bedroom for the last 3 years, where I saw it, unfinished, every single darned day. This winter, as I've been knitting like a house on fire, I've thought nearly every weekend, "I'll finish that sweater this weekend. Right after the laundry/dishes/dusting/cooking is done."

Finally, yesterday, I began the last few steps, by sewing the shoulder seams. And then sewing the arms into place, and lastly, closing up the sleeves. The very last detail was knitting the collar, which I did today.

Now two things remain. One, to wash it. I always wash F.O.s before I give them away, or wear them. My thought is that I've carried whatever the F.O. is around for as little as a few weeks to as long as a few years, and it is bound to be dirty. So each thing I make gets a hand wash and drip-dry, no matter what the yarn's washing instructions may be, even if it is safe to wash in the washing machine, a hand-wash is what happens the first time around.

Two is to decide WTF to do with it. When I cast it on to the needles, the intention was that the sweater was for me. After looking at it for the past 6 years, I no longer like it very much.

So perhaps I ought to give it away.

But it is rather poorly made, not at all to my usual standard, as I knit it not long after learning how to knit. Your skill level improves with time and practice, practice, practice. I am a much better knitter now than I was in 2001. (If I do say so myself!)

The mistakes are myriad. The sleeves don't match up to the body of the garment well, the collar is uneven, there were holes here and there until I wove in the loose ends and fixed those spots with spurious sewn stitches. Those are all relatively minor; the biggest problem is the underarm portion of each sleeve. There are two huuuuge spots where I had to make major corrections when piecing it together that resulted in big gathers at each armpit. You can't see it when wearing the garment, but you can feel it. The worst part is not how it looks when turned inside out, the worst part is that *I* know the screw-ups are there. That really bothers me. (That's my Type A personality part showing itself.)

Last of all is the fact that it really and truly did take me six years to finish. I do believe that this sweater will be the first and LAST sweater I'll ever make. Unless we're talking about making an infant sized sweater, which would be much, much smaller. The whole experience wasn't very positive, so why should I try it again? I like my knitted hats, scarves, and other small projects like baby blankets that don't need blocking, piecing together, and such painstaking accuracy.

At least, that's what I'll think until I find a tantalizing yarn, like the GGH Vamos I bought in Brooklyn, which might make a nice sweater.....

Knots

I'm not a patient woman.

That is one of the many reasons that I've decided to not have children; I think I'd be a terrible mother due in part to my lack of patience.

Somehow, though, when it comes to unraveling knotted yarn, I can put aside my impatience and gently, carefully, slowly work it out. If anyone you know is into the fiber arts and they tell you they've never had to work out a knot, they're either lying or just learned how to knit/crochet/spin/cross stitch/whatever yesterday. Because the rest of us have had the dubious pleasure of having a ball of yarn deteriorate to a mess like the above, or somehow ended up with a knot in whatever the current project is.

I joined yet another social networking site; this one for knitters and crochet fanatics. Ravelry has quickly become someplace that I'm spending lots of my online time. The cool tools they've got!

Part of the fun has been cataloging all of the yarn that I own. Which has forced me to spend some time organizing that which I own, again. Finally, finally!, I have it separated into a more reasonable manner, and can find what I'm looking for quickly in the boxes. Hilariously, though, I don't need to look in the box to see what I've got; I can look it up on Ravelry. Also entertaining is the fact that among the bits and pieces that I have leftover from various projects are small balls of yarn that I haven't the faintest idea where they came from, what they are (i.e. brand of yarn and or fiber content...are they wool? Cotton? I don't know). In some cases, what I used them for is also a mystery. Did I make E's scarf with that burgundy and black? What the heck did I use this ugly blue stuff for?

They're all in the bottom of the box, waiting for there to be enough of them to make a stash sweater or other project like it. I used up some bits and bobs in that blue/green/yellow hat I made a week or so ago. But the ones that I didn't use were in sad and sorry shape indeed, knotted and a mess. I spent nearly two hours winding each of them carefully into a nice ball, so that when I want to use them, they aren't in worse shape.

Yarn, apparently, is like the wire hangers left alone in a closet; abandoned to its own devices, it tangles and multiplies, making a general mess of itself. I'm astonished that it took me nearly two hours to work through all that stuff, and that I did it without getting stressed or anxious, or angry. There have been times, when faced with a mess of yarn to untangle, I've chucked it rather than mess with it. A hot pink yarn that was scratchy and cheap particularly comes to mind. I remember spending about 2 minutes trying to find an end to the yarn, where I could start from, and failing that, tossed it in the trash.

The knots I get from stress, in my back, shoulders, and neck, are not so easily worked out. I have a magic massotherapist that I see when it gets bad, and it takes him usually about the same amount of time--2 hours or thereabouts--to get rid of them for me. Usually over several days.

Several things about that are interesting to me. One, I can't fix those knots myself. I don't care how much time you spend in a hot shower, or lying with a heating pad, or even sitting in the sauna, nothing gets rid of those sore spots like my magician. Two, although he uses the same terminology, as in, "Man, your shoulders are knotted up!" there is no untying of the muscular structure. Three, it requires as much or more patience to work out those knots than it does the yarn knots.

I see the massotherapist on average about once a month. One of the indulgent things that I do for myself. Well, sometimes its indulgent, and other times it is a necessity; there have been times when I've walked in to his office barely able to move my neck, or with my shoulder so torqued that it is twisting my whole back into a bad shape.

What he does, deep tissue pressure massage, hurts. Make no mistake, this is in no way similar to a massage at a spa. This isn't a relaxation massage per se; what Mr. Magic does is therapeutic massage. Sometimes, yes, I do leave his office more relaxed, but usually I'm hurting as bad or worse than when I went in, just in a different way. Which, of course, begs the question, why on earth would I continue to go see him? Because several hours later, or sometimes the next day, you feel like a million bucks, pain free.

I wonder if my yarns feel the same way, relaxed and soothed after being untied, and placed in orderly color-coded rows. I know it makes obsessive-compulsive me feel better that they're finally organized.

Pins and

needles, of course. Picture me shrugging a bit sheepishly as you read the following.


eBay <ebay@ebay.com> wrote: Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:30:06 -0700
From: eBay <ebay@ebay.com>
To: Lucy
Subject: You won on eBay!

eBay sent this message to Lucy Arin. Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay.

	Congratulations, the item is yours!

Hi Lucy,Congratulations on winning this item! The next step is to pay the seller. 14 sets double-point bamboo knitting needles Sale price: $9.99 Shipping & Handling: Standard Flat Rate Shipping Service $7.50 Seller: needle guy Seller Information: Chatsworth, CA 91311 United States

After ranting about the acquisition of "stuff" quite a bit lately, I'm a weee bit embarrassed at my recent e-baying.

But I need those needles. Imagine them, if you have a Y chromosome, as tools. Hat and sock-making is impossible without them. Knitting this winter is keeping me sane. And this is a great price; I paid $7.99 for ONE SET of dp needles at a local craft store. And....and....and....I'm all out of self-righteous justification.

I admit defeat over the war of acquisition of stuff.

I've forbidden myself to buy any more yarn until what I own is all used up. But that has not stopped me from looking at Colinette yarns and other wonderful (read that expensive) yummy looking yarns on eBay and Herrschner's, and Dreamweaver.

Sigh.


I'm sure I'll be admitting defeat on that one soon too, there's just too much that I want to acquire.

Oh! I thought of another justification! I rarely keep what I knit for myself, so I'm buying gifts when I'm buying yarn. That's totally OK, isn't it?

Projecterna (av denna minut)

The Projects (of the moment)

Here's how I know I have OCD: I get immersed in something (I'm sure you can think of one or two I've had over the past year) and that's all I do or think about for a while. Obsessive behavior at its finest.

Lately, it has been the knitting. To the exclusion of all of my other obsessions, which, frankly, isn't a bad thing. But I've been knitting like a house on fire. Two hats, three scarves, a third hat cast on to needles, an afghan that's been on needles for nearly two years now....and about a bazillion other things I'd like to knit. I posted picutres of the red hat the other day, so I'm not reposting. But here's the other hat.



Why, yes, it IS on the head of a teddy bear. No one in the house was willing to model.

Then there are the scarves; I made one with Fun Fur, and it is warm and fuzzy and all kinds of funky colors.

It is kind of in a heap in this picture, but I took a close-up to show the fuzziness too.


Then there's the scarf that was a pattern experiment, and it is so short that I think it suitable only for a child. I might yet rip it apart and make something else with the yarn. Teddy, my model, is an average size toy bear.

The third scarf is one made from 5 skeins of a discontinued yarn that I got for super-cheap. Knit on the diagonal, I am in love with the pattern. It is at least 12 feet long; scarves, in my ever-so-humble, at least scarves of the winter variety, ought to be long enough to wrap around your neck a couple of times, especially when the pattern is holey.




The afghan isn't likely to be done anytime soon. It is an awesome color, a hot lime green. It is a baby blanket. I like to make things for babies in unexpected colors, gender-neutral, something outside of the norm because it is fun. But this one is a bitch. 170 stitches make a row. So moving forward, getting the darn thing to a reasonable dimension, takes for-bloody-ever, and I've lost patience with it. But it is pretty, isn't it?



Here's a detail of the cabling; my stitches aren't perfect, but I like 'em.





If, however, I cast everything I wanted to knit onto needles, I'd have at least 8 more projects in the works. Dishcloths, made of organic cotton. About 4 of them. A chemo cap for a friend who has cancer. At least two more hats for other purposes. A baby blanket that I've got the yarn for but never started.

And just when I thought I'd found all the yarn and bit projects all over the house, I found two more things. A sweater, made during a knitting class that needs pieced together, a collar knitted, and the ends woven in, and a box of yarn purchased for the infamous "Lighthouse" blanket that I knit six squares of the thirty-six required and declared it a lap blanket because the pattern was so frustrating.

I really ought to finish the sweater; it has been done and in pieces for at least four years. Nah...I've got too much else to start!

Knitty

One of the things that I haven't done much of over the last year is knit. I like to knit; but I took no enjoyment from it for a while, so I put it down and stopped doing it when the depression started to sneak up on me. I'd look at my yarn stash, sigh, and close the bin without taking any joy from the colors or textures in the box, or without thinking about the possibilities of projects as yet uncompleted.

I picked it up a few weeks ago, and pawed through the box, marveling at the yarn I've managed to accumulate in just a few short years of knitting. I learned how to knit in my late 20s, because I thought it would be soothing. (And it is; when it isn't frustrating the hell out of you.) My S-I-L gave me two and a half skeins of Fun Fur that were left over from a project of my niece's, which joined bits and pieces left over from projects of my own, and yarns I bought on sale with no plan in mind. I decided I could handle making a scarf made with the FF, something that wasn't a pattern per se, just stitches cast on, knitted until the scarf was long enough, and then cast off. Simple.

I made the scarf over two evenings, in about 6 hours, knitting slowly and carefully. It turned out beautifully, fuzzy, warm, and I've gotten compliments on it from friends and strangers alike. I kept it for myself, the first thing I've ever kept for myself of all the things I've knitted over the years, and I'm glad I did.

Encouraged by how well that turned out, I decided that I ought to use up the yarn in my yarn box, finding projects for the bits and bobs left over, and using the other things I bought with no plan in mind. I've forbidden myself to buy any more yarn until the majority of what I've already bought is used up.

I've also tried a few things that were a little more difficult, stretching my skill set a little bit. I made a hat. Red, which is my current favorite color.




There's a few flaws; but each time I make something I've never made before, there's a learning curve. As soon as I finished it, I cast another hat onto the same needles; I sense an obsession in the making.

Fore o Efter

Before and After

I won't post pictures of myself, or use my real name on this blog, but I will show you pictures of the inside of my home. I crack myself up, anyway.

This is my library. With a bare cement floor, after we ripped the carpeting out. The stuff piled up in front of the fireplace is what ended up on the floor when it was all done.
To the left is my kitchen; behind this picture is our main entrance, or rather the entrance we use the most, from the garage. The curtains are down from the sliding glass door because I painted the woodwork. They're not going back, hahahahaha! I hated them, so we ordered new ones last night.That's the entrance from the garage. See the blue painter's tape everywhere? I hate to paint. Two coats of Killz, a heavy-duty primer, and two coats of the color, an ivory-ish white.

And so it begins! The blue stuff is to protect the wood flooring from moisture damage; it is only 6 mm thick. Tennis shoes and work boots rip it very easily, we discovered that the hard way.
Door to the half bath, showing the underlayment, the wood, and the transition to the bathroom, which will eventually have a little thingamabob over it so the seam doesn't show.More of the underlayment. Eventually, we got smart and only put it down as we needed it, instead of laying it out ahead of time, since it tears so easily.
And we're done! We ended up with a box and a half of the laminate flooring left over, so there is one box to return.
The light you see on the floor is from the skylight, this picture was taken in the late afternoon. I'd like to not have drapes over that sliding glass door at all, but...one, this house is very poorly insulated, and the sliding glass doors hemorrhage heat in the winter-time, and two, DH is a nut about his privacy and does not want anyone to be able to look in.
I can't get over how great it looks. So beautiful!

Here's the stats for the project:
Laminate flooring.....about $360. We used 15 boxes, at $19.99 each, plus three rolls of the underlayment, which were about $25 each.
Tools that DH insisted he needed, including two sawhorses, spacers to make sure that there's enough room for expansion in the floor, and a crowbar-esque tool that you use to make sure the planks are firmly joined together.....roughly $100
Killz, foam brushes to apply it, and painter's tape...$20
We didn't need to buy paint because we painted most of this house before moving in, and I had some left over for the woodwork, so $0 for that.
Curtains, not here yet....$50
Felt protectors for the furniture (when it goes back into the room) so that our chairs and coffee table don't scratch the hell out of the new floor....$10
Time to lay the floor...10 hours, 3 people, numerous "Dammit(s)!" and other swears, two arms pinched in between boards as they were snapped into place (ow!) and one thumb bruised to hell.

New floor, no carpeting which bothers my allergies....priceless.