Progress for the sake of...well, progress?

These are just fun to knit. I switched from magic loop to dpn's and I'm preferring it! On other yarn the addi turbos were great, but this stuff is too slippery and I was dropping stitches left and right. I came back from T-day dinner and while a bit loopy I watched Eraserhead and knit a bunch. What a weird movie! After it was done I looked it up just to see what the hell was so popular about it. It wasn't funny, it wasn't interesting, it was just kind of boring and weird, and at times, gross. Hum.

Yumminess at the moment: Steel-cut oat porridge with peanut butter and brown sugar
Mood: Pretty good! I'm not really hung over from the wine last night. Happy too.
What I'm doing: Having breakfast, will play Warcraft later.
My knit project: see above.

Also, for fun - see Patsy claim the Negra Modelo for her own. Meow!

I blog like I drink, only less.

Drink of the evening: Newcastle Brown Ale
Mood: Wide-eyed and kind of irritated for no good reason
What I'm doing: Relaxing after a hard day at work
My knit project: My stripey socks. Oh shit - I was at the pharmacy today and yanked out tons of stitches. I will have to find a verrrrrrrrrry small crochet hook and fix that, tootsweet.

Ok so I know I'm not the only one who's done this. Tell me if I'm wrong. I use magic loop. My loop was too big and kind of unwieldy and I was having issues. So I decided to pull the cord back OUT of the knitting and ended up grappling the wrong END, and that's how the stitches came out. Am I a dork or what? GAH!

Ok, I'll get to fixing this mess.

Made Some! :)

Japanese "Herbstlied" sweater with Oak Leaves

I had to make this sweater when I saw the oak leaves on the sweater featured on the cover of the book "New Style of Heirloom Knitting" by Shimada Toshiyuki. The oak leaf should be in my family crest if we had one. My grandfather worked them into his mosaic inside the entrance to the Univ. of Wisc Memorial Library. I used to rake those same leaves in his backyard before he died. Now my father is a pyromaniacal prairie enthusiast with acres of oaks in his care. So I had to make this. Problem: The book is in Japanese! Solution: Google for info on reading Japanese charts. I installed Japanese character set for Windows and typed in some tricky bits, cut/pasted to Babelfish to translate. I made plenty of goofs. Here's a detail:


This pattern is really fun to knit. Plenty of challenge, but not so irregular that you have to constantly refer to the chart. The leaf lobes are created with a combination bobble/cable: you make a bobble and then cross some purls under it.

I just have to laugh!

Seriously. I went to a site to check out some crochet techniques, and one site had about 4 paragraphs dedicated to making sure nobody stole patterns to sell, and specified what is okay and what is not okay for use of her site and it's content. The woman spent an entire PAGE on it. So then I went to see these "fabulous" patterns that she was so intent upon others not stealing.

What tripe!!!! They are here, in case you want to see these uh...AMAZING projects. Too bad they are copyrighted so vigorously, or I'd want to sell them! I could retire!

...oh fer christ's sake.

doing the dirty deed

So I did it. I knit a freaking FUN FUR scarf for charity. Bleccccchhhhh.

I used fun fur plus a silvery grey chenille underneath to give it some heaviness. It appears to be very warm. I hope they spend a lot of money towards the Perinatal Foundation Auction.

Knitted Spiral Counterpane Blanket

Inspired by the book Knitted Counterpanes by Mary Walker Phillips which is out of print and insanely expensive if you find a copy. I used the library. The patterns in it are gorgeous but the instructions are the worst ever. It's like reading COBOL code trying to figure out what's what. Spiral circles and squares are knit from center on 4 DPNs then pieced together.

I crocheted the edge to make sure I had enough yarn to finish it. The whole blanket was made from yarn recycled from an XL men's sweater from Goodwill. Yarn cost: $3.50.

It's a machine washable acrylic, and since I plan to give this to a family with a toddler, that could be a good thing. But a version out of cotton or wool would be even more beautiful.

If I ever have enough time I'm going to write up the pattern in some kind of intellible English so others can try it without burning out a brain fuse trying to read Ms. Phillips' instructions. Maybe after I figure out the Japanese knitting chart system -- which I'm in the midst of figuring out right now. It's brilliant!

Wish I had...

A camera! I crocheted an entire poncho yesterday, and part of another. I ran out of yarn, even. D'oh! I will need to add another skein to the green one I made, just so I can do some decorative edging. Woo Hoo! And who thought I'd ever crochet for real? The only bummer about it is that it takes three times as much yarn!

UPDATE: Poncho modeled by Domonique at Come Back In Sat. AM.

Russ + Podcasting

I was signing the "Censure the President" petition at my Senator Russ Feingold's website and saw this hilarious ad. Cracked me up. They should animate it with Russ doing some pop lockin' hoochikoo.

I've just got my iPod working and have figured out how to get "Cast-On" loaded. It turns out to be the #41 most popular podcast in the world according to Podfeed.net...and it's about KNITTING! Can you believe it? I feel less slightly less nerdy now.

EZ's Fishtrap Aran Sweater

I finally finished this sweater up after some serious doubts about whether I'd have enough yarn, whether it would fit, if I had any idea what I was doing. I must have been in some kind of mood when I decided to jump on board Franklin's "Almanac-along" blog, knitting patterns from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitter's Almanac" book. I had a copy and thought, "Why not?" This wasn't a pattern I would have chosen otherwise and it taught me a lot. I got the hang of that fishtrap pattern w/traveling stitches, knitting in back loop a lot, steeking for the first time, drop shoulders, short-rowing the back of neck, blocking and measuring as I go instead of waiting until the end. Blocking the fishtrap pattern really causes it to grow a lot.

The waist was tapered by decreasing the fishtrap design from a four-line diamond to three and then back to four at shoulders. I used blue-green and blue yarn at the neck, shoulders and cuffs to make sure I'd have enough yarn -- and I think it looks nicer that way. Jazzier colors.


I was trying to figure out how to take a picture of myself in daylight on the porch with the "self-timer" mode when I saw my neighbor John Urban across the street. Apparently he and about three squad cars and two cops on foot where searching the backyards for "some guy." John says, "Dory, are you sure you want to be out here. Don't get shot." I said, "John, I just need a picture of this sweater. Could you do it?" He thinks I'm nuts. For many reasons.

Cashmerino Cables R.I.P.

One last look at the cable pattern I designed and then RIP RIP RIP!!! I started this months ago and then just lost interest. Knitting projects are like men. Even if they seemed cute in the beginning...if you're just not feeling it, it's probably not going to get any better by waiting around. And some people won't give up on a bad pattern. Love is blind:
www.youknitwhat.com. I decided to frog this thing and wait until the yarn decides to be something else.

Papier Mache du Toilette?

Can you guess what happened here?

This mess was not made by human hands. It is the work of my crafting cat, Lucky Dave, who has taken up papier mache as a decorating technique. He pulls TP into the toilet then flings it around the room. There are even little gobs dried on the wall!!!



Here is one of his interactive art installations in the style of Christo made with Amazon.com packing material.



He is also showing some interest in dried floral arrangements but I'm not sure where he's going with it.

I don't have a picture of his lace-weaving project involving 440 yds of Alpaca Cloud laceweight yarn and the dining room table and chairs. It was too horrifying.