Bad cat, good cat

Scott TC is in the dog house this morning. At least one time during the knitting of each sock I make, the animal snips the yarn with his teeth. Yup, he did it this morning while I was knitting on my newest socks, Grumperina's Roza's Socks. I'm doing them on size 0 needles, as recommended with knitpicks Essentials sock yarn in Grape. I'm only about 1" into the leg pattern, and I don't know if I'm doing the brioche stitch correctly. But I like them.

Today I will give my other cat, Duncan some publicity. He's Scott's more sedate step-brother, and very sweet.

My secret knitting life

I can't stand the guilt! Since I know most of my readers are in the South Suburbs group, I feel that it's time to introduce SNBWB, my original knitting group. I go there about once a month on Mondays at the Rice Square Borders in Wheaton. These are the ladies:

I have two projects that were seen at SNBWB, and not by the Tinley Park Group:

Thier a one-sitting angora baby hat of my own design, and my as yet half done silk Clapotis. Gotta Love the Crapotee!

Cat nap

Scott TC sleeping on my desk.

Sari Yarn Jacket

I thought I'd share some yarn porn today. This is a closeup of the fabric of my sari yarn/wool jacket I'm working on.

Opinion...

I'm debating the pattern for the Socks that Rock I bought today. I'm thinking of this one, Cablenet from Knitty.com:

Most of the cables are actually right and left two stich twists, which I can totally do. But they'll be hard.

Or I could try the RPM's:

Or maybe even this one from Blue Moon.

Whaddayah think?

SNB South Suburbs yarn trip

Kris from the South Suburbs group drove Becca, Aleta, Theresa, and I to The Fold, a fiber store up in Marengo. It was a super trip, over an hour and a half from my place, but well worth it for a group outing.

The place has a super duper selection of yarn. It's not so much the popular yarns, but really nice ones. Lots of exotic fibers, including the $70 buffalo yarn and tuns of silks and unusual wools. They're the only (semi) local place that carries Blue Moon Fibers. There were plenty of stashable yarns that could be kept only for petting.

The Fold also carries all kinds of supplies for spinning, which after being to the store and watching Kris, I'm thinking of taking up. I know I would make that weirdest monstrosities of glittery, shiny, and yak-y traif fibers*. I'll have to think about it before our next trip.

I was the wimpiest most restrained in the group, only buying yarn for two pair of socks. One is Socks that Rock in Jewel of the Nile. The other is a superwash/bamboo number that I'm looking forward to use in the summertime.










Maybe the coolest thing is that Froebe Fibers may have made its first connection to a distributor.

Super day.

*Traif is something that is not Kosher, or fit for Jews to use or eat.

Ribbit

I'm frogging the blue bamboo tank I made over the summer. I've never worn it, and realize that I never will. It was knitted before I learned that I was twisting all my stiches, so the garmet came out very dense, without the drape you would expect from bamboo. Later in the year, I will turn it into the green tea raglan from the current Interweave knits. Only in blue.

We're breaking through

Maybe the muggles are seeing us. Have you seen the Aleve commercial? There's a lady making a short row slipper. How about that?

I shouldn't have knitted that scarf

I knitted Scott a scarf for his birthday last November, and invited the curse.

Scott and I broke up yesterday. Long story short, he promised two months ago to move from Indianapolis to Chicago. However, in that time he's really not made any progress toward moving up here. The worst thing is that the jerk hung up on me. It's not like we were having a nasty fight, he just hung up out of spite.

My Kryptonite

Aveeno has come out with a new product, facial care with Shittake mushroom complex. I am allergic to mushrooms, most especially Shittakes. The thing about Shittakes is that I've eaten them twice and don't really know what they taste like, but the two dishes that had them in it were delicious. Apparently I love them. I have to be careful in restuarants, especially in Asian foods and soup to avoid mushrooms. I guess now I have to look out for them in my face cream, too.

A crime has been committed

The secretary here at the village hall where I work got an interesting call yesterday from a resident who wanted to report a crime.

The secretary answered the phone, "Village Hall, this is Jennifer."

"I want to talk to the head man." Demanded the resident.

"He's in a meeting right now. May I take a message?"

The resident wanted to talk to the Head Man to report that her washer and dryer had been stolen. Apparently, the woman's neighbors, who also "watch" her had sneaked into her house and stolen her washer and drier. Well, it turned out that they'd not only stolen the washer and dryer, but replaced it with old and crappy appliances.

She was quite angry because the police had been to her house, and she had not received satisfactory results. The drama of the unfolding story was heightened at this point because the meeting the "Head Man" let out, and he and the Police Chief, a cheerful man no more than five feet tall, walked into the office.

The Chief told us that he and his officers had responded to a call by the resident already.

"Yeah," said the Chief "I looked at the washer and dryer. Whoever replaced the washer and dryer also connected all the hoses and electricity. They even reconnected the cobwebs."

The secretary told the resident that the police had already checked out the situation and found no evidence that a crime had been committed. The resident became irate, shouting and cursing at the secretary.

"He (the Chief) is afraid of them (the neighbors), too. Because he's short."

To this the Chief replied to the secretary, "No, I had the tall men with me, and I have a gun."

This is what's wrong with crochet

Crocheters can produce ridiculous things out of the cheapest yarns in a very short about of time. We all know that this phenomenon has been known to produce such bathroom horrors as Santa toilet seat covers, mouse face air freshener cozies, and poodle toilet paper holders. I will not post the image here, but instead a link to the most awful yarn abuse I've ever seen. I don't want to disturb you all with the image unless you are brave enough to click. It is a crocheted representation of the external female anatomy. Yuck.

It does in fact beat sh*t!

I have to give a plug to Subaru here. I bought a Subaru Baha this last fall to replace my ailing old Audi. I've gotten a lot of razzing about this car/truck. When my lifelong friend Sarah saw it the first time she said, "It's an El Camino! Mary Bridget, you are so teased. For ten years you are teased." My grandpa calls it (behind my back) a moon buggy. I have been very happy with it since the purchase, but now I'm just delighted.

The snowstorm here in Chicago this week has been pretty bad. Usually, Chicagoans would simply give the bird to eight inches of snow and then go on our collective way, but not this time. This eight inches have been accompanied by 20-30 mph winds and cold temperatures. So the snow is drifting and blowing back on the road as fast as it can be cleared.

I was kvetching to one of my co-workers about the snow the other day, and she said her husband, a stay-at-home dad, had called and told her about how bad the roads were. My response was that I have a dune buggy with all wheel drive, and that I should be fine for driving home. She said that her husband's SUV has that, and he said "It doesn't beat sh*t." Well, I drove home last night in that nastiness, and at times was one of the only cars that could pass on some roads. I drove very carefully, and never once felt that the car was going out of control.

My Baja does in fact beat sh*t. Thank you, Subaru.

Finished projects!

This week I finished a number of things. One, I finished one of the red socks and one of Becca's Melon Ball socks. The red sock is Cherry Tree Hill's "Song of Joy" sock, a lacy number made with Knitpicks Gloss and on size 1 needles. The pattern calls for size 2, but I have very small feet, and generally have to go down at least on size to make socks fit me. Becca's sock is also on size 1's, and is just a top down plain stockinette with a rolled cuff and a slip-stitch heel. I will be making Becca another sock out of the yarn, but it will be some sort of lace to show off what the yarn might look like with a more intrecate pattern.

I have also finished the fair isle sleeved sweater, but the picture saved funny. I will post a new one tomorrow.

Move over, Ed.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I have to break the news. I have decided to end my long standing Hollywood crush on Edward Norton in favor the new object of my desire, Russell Crowe. I'm sure Ed will be crushed when he hears the news. The reason for my change of heart it this photograph:

Aw... Because of my conscious avoidance of popular culture, I am perhaps the last knitter to have heard the rumor that Russell Crowe knits. I have also read that it's just that, a rumor. I am a bit in credulous, as in this picture, the man looks quite perplexed by the knitting needles and yarn he's holding. However, the possibility is enough for my fickle imaginary affections to change.

Perhaps you didn't know this about me. I harbor (formerly) secret and embarrassing crushes on actors. These crushes are much of the basis of selection for the movies I view. Scott BF seems to find this phenomenon mildly amusing, and is secure enough in my genuine love for him to let me indulge.

Yoo hoo, camera?

I haven't posted all week because I've been waiting on the digital camera I ordered from Woot! last week. The hope was that I could take pictures of the projects I've finished in the last week and post them. Alas, it has not arrived.

I finished Timmy's hat that's been in jail my sofa-side knitting bag for about two months. I also finished one lacy red sock, but put that yarn away in favor of Becca's Melon Ball socks. And...tada... the fair ilse sleeved sweater is done. Pictures are coming.

My two week long roller coaster ride is just about over. I've actually managed to get through today without a vertigo attack and without drugs.

Clearly, there has been an error

Dear Higher Power,

Today is not the Monday I ordered. In fact, it is so far off that I suspect that I have entered a completely different day from someone else's life, or perhaps a poorly delivered Monday. There is ample evidence that there has been a mistake of some sort:

1. It is below zero here in "Chicago." In the Chicago were I normally live, we have plenty of foul and changing weather, but not air temperatures of -7 degrees F.
2. I am nearly done with my "work day" and no one has refused my requests, made unreasonable demands, or dismissed things that I say. In fact, I am being asked for advice. Furthermore, no one is yelling. In fact, very few people seem to be here.
3. I can see the top of the desk behind which I am sitting.
4. Today is clearly not the beginning of a marathon that will end on Friday night. I seem to have few commitments, and am getting hints that the rest of the week will allow me to work only 40 hours this week.
5. Each time I get up to move around, I experience something that feels like the fuzzy, swirly scene transitions used in sitcoms.

All of these things lead me to believe that this is not a Monday from my life, but instead a half-delivered or defective Monday. It seems that you got the general idea right, but several of the details wrong. I do not wish to cancel my subscription, which is only 1/3 used up. However, I am asking that you employ more effective quality control prior to releasing your product.

Sincerely,

A Confused Customer

Blocking the sweater

I am blocking all but one of the pieces of the fair isle sweater. I need to know that finished size of the colorful arm to make to green arm, which is about a third done. Here is the progress. I wish it was done now. This will likely be the warmest sweater I own, especially the left sleeve. I'm feeling so proud. This was the hardest project I've ever made, with the four color fair isle pieces and the change of gage. I'm totally wearing this sweater for a week straight when it's done.