Didn't Make It

A couple weeks ago I received a neat little flier from a LYS updating me on their commercial incentives. I put up the flier to remind myself.

I am so depressed. Last week was their major yarn sale. 40% off all wool. Sigh. Life is so hectic for me that I couldn't make it over there to take in the sale goodness. Perhaps my pocketbook is happy, but my soul, it aches. I had to write a haiku about it.

Yarn is on sale.
I'm wishing upon the yarn.
Why can't you be mine?

Flower Follies

Behold meditation on a wave.

Unfortunately, this was supposed to be a five petal flower. How this blue strip was going to become a flower was beyond me. I ripped it up many times and kept getting variations of the same thing. I finally realized I was defeated and put the knitting away until I could employ a row counter.

When the knitting's not going well, one should face the truth and work on something else or stop knitting altogether. But I can't handle the truth and I keep going and end up with no product and less time. I hope to cough up a more identifiable flower soon.

The FO Came to Pass

When I pledged to finish my headband, I didn't mean a word of it. Then lo and behold, I only had a few inches left to go. So I went ahead and finished it as I was waiting to see whether Sanjaya saved himself on American Idol. (It was Ashley, the crying fan, what saved him. America could not bear to break her heart.)

I have photos of the finished project. I was especially pleased with the neat seam I received courtesy of a three needle bind off. Then, at 5 in the morning, I was awakened by the loudest clap of thunder known to man. I tried to get back to sleep but water bombs pelted my window in protest. I turned off my alarm. That left no time for getting the photos off the camera. Next time.

I went ahead and wore the headband today. My forehead was really warm, but I'm not sure that it's doing anything for my ears and covering my ears is the whole point of the affair. Anyone have any advice on lining?

Wishing for my UFO

It's now the time between hat and no hat. It's not cold enough for a hat and not warm enough to be hatless. I've opted for hatless to avoid the hat hair, but I've been dying for my UFO.

I was working on a cabled head band. I decided it didn't look impressive enough so I began anew. And there it sits on the needles when I need to be wearing it.

I'll publicly pledge to get it off the needles before the weather changes to no hat for good.

More Bus Knitting

I did it. I harassed a knitter on public transportation. I had packed the afghan square in my purse for a trip on the good ol' freak bus. Once on the bus, I didn't actually feel like knitting. Then I turned around and saw another knitter. I got sooo excited. If I had a tail, it would've wagged. So I leaned over, pulled out my afghan square and said, "Look, I brought mine too!" She said, "I know that's right!" And so it went. After that I had to knit.

On the way home I left my hand knit hat on the bus. (The other bus knitter was also wearing a hand knit hat.) Oops. I was never really happy with the hat so I wasn't devastated about it. It's so liberating to think, "oh well, I can always make another one" as opposed to "that hat's out of season, I'll never get another!" Perhaps I'll come across someone wearing the hat I lost on the same bus. That would amuse me.

I was riding the bus to get to the opera. I saw "Cosi Fan Tutte". I'm no opera buff, but I can say this opera is completely silly. It's about how women can forget about their fiancés for other men within a 24 hour span. While I can generally give Mozart his props, the music did not compensate for having to weather this story. Watching it did make me further appreciate other operas that I have seen, so I was happy for that. Also, I would like to advise folks to please wash their sports coats after taking them out of the moth balls. Thank you.

Why I was At Home Knitting

I was supposed to go to a mega networking event last night complete with open bar. In my haste to rid myself of unwanted facial hair with Nair, I burned half my face off. I tried makeup, but it just looked like I was trying to conceal my flaky face. So, I decided to stay home. I mean who gets strategic scabs on their moustache and between the monobrow?

Among other cosmetic difficulties I did not have comfortable enough shoes to wear. I have the granny loafers that I wear to work where no one cares, but I wanted a heel. Too bad my feet refused to be smashed into said heel. I thought these shoes fit the last time I wore them. It's possible my toe nails and their lack of a pedicure were taking up the extra space normally reserved for my toes.

How successful would I be networking as I limped about with my searing pained feet to go with my searing flaky upper lip?

I stayed home and worked on the socks to replace the clogs for my grandmother.

Today I have pancaked my shame with make up and hope nobody asks questions. What am I supposed to say? I was getting an experimental facial and multi-tasking by mopping the floor with my face at the same time.

Sock Angst

I made one pair of socks and now I'm hooked. It's the STUPID YARN! Why do I find self-patterning yarn so fascinating? I sit there and clap and giggle as the yarn knits up into something exciting. I went from zero balls of sock yarn to 4 in a matter of days.

I decided that I need to make a his/hers sock set. It's all kinds of corny, but I've latched onto the idea and it's going to happen. So why can't I find anyone who sells Universal Yarn's Ditto? My LYS ran out and the other local yarn stores that carry it are widely considered evil so I'm not going to show up there. I had to order my yarn from MA. Sigh. So I've been reduced to importing yarn.

After my first pair of socks, I decided I needed to start improvising. So my second pair follows the same pattern on a wildly different gauge. So far so good. I'm still pretty sure I'm not picking up the gusset stitches correctly, but I press on.

And now for the pièce de résistance, the horrid pre-felted clog. I’m not even done with it, but it’s so noxious I find it very hard to finish and then, gasp, make another one. This thing looks like Goofy went shopping at Payless shoe source. Disneyland called, they want their clog back.

Stuff Nouveau

What does one do when life raises its arm and smacks you across the face backhanded? And then life smacks you on the other side of the face palmsided just in case you missed it the first time. I exaggerate. Somewhat. Anyway, I did the American thing. I went shopping.

Behold the box of goodies I got a little while ago because I wanted to make some felted flowers. Now I have the book with said instructions. I haven't tried any flowers yet, but the book appears to deliver.

I also got the two yellow balls of yarn to make some footies for my grandma because I've come to hate the felted clogs, I mean the felted clog, that's still on my needles.

And I got particular pleasure from the sock yarn I bought. It's made of crabs. I have crab yarn. Supposedly this involvement of chitin makes the socks naturally antibacterial which I take to mean that I will not befoul the air with the scent of foot sweat. I'm very excited about the prospects and love the crustacean on the ballband.

Yes, I'm still in a bad time, but I definitely feel a bit better with my new goodies.

Sigh

Life is throwing rotten tomatos and cabbage at me since last Friday. So I apologize for my hiatus and I'll have the knitting updates when I can spare a moment.

Some Days You Got it and Some Days You Don't

I was working on my felted clogs a couple nights ago and nothing went right. I could not get the appropriate number of stitches on my needles to save my life. I up ripped the whole job. I was so disappointed because I had knit up the first part with no hitch.

Then last night I ripped up the previous days mess and started anew again with no problems. (Sorry, still no photo.) Why is it that sometimes we knit easily and sometimes we don't? And why was I too boneheaded to give it up the other night and turn to my garter stitch afghan square instead?

Meanwhile let us discuss my crotchet snobbery. I was watching Top Design on Bravo the knit wrong night. The designer sent home that episode was eliminated largely because she incorporated a granny square afghan into her design! LOL!