SSNB Knitter's Digest 8/27/07

Knitters from near and far joined us at the HPAC for another SNB. K hailed from Madison and was visiting L. She worked on a lacy crocheted piece for a skirt she was designing. N was working on a ribbed hat for her husband. D was a new member practicing her knitting. She was wise enough to learn continental and English from the beginning. That set us off on the pros and cons of each style. It was told that the fastest known knitting has actually occurred in the English style with a knitting belt. A knitting belt? Yes, it's a sack you attach to your waist so you can jam in one needle holding it stationary. That way you're just working the other needle and it can go very quickly.

A and T were practicing crotchet. F was working on a second Bears hat. M spent some time on a sweater and some time on a shawl. L was finishing up a notched scarf, her own design. She was plagued by a case of the neverending ball of yarn. It was true; there were witnesses. She knit diligently for a couple of hours and it made no impact on the yarn. It sat there defiantly, looking exactly the same at the end of it all. N worked on her Knit Picks sampler sweater. K was making a shrug named Fantine. It would've been more amusing if the shrug was named Fantina so that you could say, "it's like cantina except with an 'F'". Oh well.

Rumor had it that the Brach's factory is being imploded tomorrow. Some people knew people that had watched some of the CHA demolitions. Meanwhile K once sat at a coffee shop serendipitously watching a demolition across the street. Various people talked about their unfortunate airport pat-downs that need no repeating. N and M caught up on HBO programming. F told us about her kung fu movie expertise. Apparently, Jackie Chan can dance!

'Til the next digest.

Treat Disdain

I haven't picked up the needles all week. Sorry. So there's no knitting post today. Instead I will expound about treat day at work. As an avid admirer of baked goods, I have a lot to say about treat day. However, today I will limit myself to discussing treat disdain. There is no better way to exhibit your deep disdain for your coworkers than bringing in a lame treat. Even forgetting the treat is not as bad as bringing in a lame treat. And by lame treat, I don't mean dispensable forays into the kitchen, I mean two coffee cakes. These are not just any coffee cakes, they are the orange sticker supermarket clearance coffee cakes. Coffee cakes with the orange sticker have the inedible distinction of being too dry and too sweet. They represent the fruitcake of treat offerings. Take that coworkers! I give two coffee cakes about you guys. Of course, two coffee cakes can only feed a few people so there's not even enough to go round. I actually admire the aplomb of subliminally expressing disdain with the office via treat. There's something there. And at least it won't knock anybody off their diet.

SSNB Knitter's Digest 8/20/07

T arrived with a new project, a lace vest. We wondered where her red lace was and she said that she would bring it for show and tell sometime, but that it could be years before the ends were weaved in and the piece was blocked. We understood. We all hate ends. What's the big deal about just tucking your ends into your socks? No one needs to know. L had a sweater made of many colors. On the inside, let's just say that the ends weren't weaved in. She was busily crocheting hats for this weekend's fest in Wicker Park. You can find her there. F had her Bear's hat and M managed to shrink her shawl over the course of the evening. M was experimenting with crotchet.

We learned that someone had a special admirer. When we asked why old men think younger women would be interested the reply was, "He has a boat". Said boatman had invited our friend to get a "full body tan". This idea was met with a resounding chorus of eeeeews! Supposedly the admirer was short and round and perhaps fully tanned as well.

We also discussed tattoos. F has tattoos she calls a pain in the butt and a pain in the neck one for each kid. L wants a glow-in-the dark loaf of bread tattooed on her butt. Perhaps so she can literally pinch a loaf. (Sorry. All blame goes to the author.) She's even considering some sliced bread.

We recapped the Fiber Fest a bit and wondered whether it would be OK to place comments on the kid's art work in the HPAC room. One kid had generated a lovely Superman. Other kids were not so lucky.

Til the next digest.

Michigan Fiber Festival

What a day. A bussful of b*tches from Chicago rolled up to the Allegan Country Fairgrounds and created quite a buzz. Thankfully we were in a gunfree zone. That was good. Can't have women blasting each other over that last discount skein. In addition to the gun sign, a giant chicken adorned the entrance to the fairgrounds. I wish I had a photo.

We wandered aimlessly about the fairgrounds for a bit before getting sucked into the Briar Rose Fibers tent. We all oohed and aahed, but when two of us made no attempt to depart, the other two of us did depart. We perused a couple barnfuls of livestock and I photographed many animals. I call my favorite photo "guess this animal" which most non-yarnies can't figure out. For a minute, I thought that the animals really liked me, and then I realized my companion, Lisa, was eating a peanut butter sandwich. Oh well.

After making a sweep of the vendors in these barns we went back to look for the other two ladies we left behind. Why were they still at the Briar Rose Fibers tent? They made new faces of glee and wonderment with each new skein they discovered. I didn't get a photo of the faces of awe, but they look really excited anyway.

We then carried on perusing the other barnfuls of vendors. This called for a break. We helped ourselves to some elephant ears. Mmm. I was briefly tempted to run back to the stand and get another elephant ear, but I backed down. We reconvened with our long lost Briar Rose friends and hung out knitting in a barn. Lots of folks stopped by to say, "Hey! You're knitting!" It was a fiber fest after all, I was surprised that more people weren't knitting in public.

At this point I had made it through the Fiber Fest without purchasing any yarn. I had a pattern, 4 soaps, 2 goat milk misting lotions, and an alpaca teddy bear. Never fear, I pulled out the plastic and got lots of yarn from, yes, you guessed correctly Briar Rose. We spent a lot of time there at the end of the trip and the Briar Rose women wondered whether our bus was leaving after all.

I was exhausted by the end of the day and thought I might take a nap, but I played "that's your house" with some of the other women on the bus. I ended up with a couple of burnt down walls and no roof for a house. And I named my alpaca bear Cletus to commemorate the day.

Haiku-- To My Donut

Tasty Krispy Kreme
you are hot and buttery
glazey and shiny.

I have a big weekend coming up. I'm going to my very first Fiber Fest. I can't wait to see the animals. I should take a gallon of nasal spray for my allergies along with my UFOs. I'll have one of the not-getting-done-this-summer shawls along. It's coming along nicely. And I recently started my very first sweater. Well, I already had a very first sweater some 20 year ago, but I never finished it. So hopefully this one gets completed. I'm loosely following a pattern from Knit 2 Together, the butterfly sweater. It's willy nilly to hell with gauge. I'm not sure what will result. Live and learn.

TGF-donuts! Happy Friday.

SSNB Knitter's Digest 8/13/07

F was back with the shrug. No, it’s not what you think. She really finished the shrug; she just forgot to swap projects in her knitting bag. We’ve all been there. T made a triumphant return with her red lace. M worked on a knit helmet. She claims to have a sweater that looks like chain mail. We sense a theme. M finished her crab socks and is wearing them right now. N brought her Knit Picks sampler sweater and intimidated everyone. M was working on a sweater for her granddaughter with very nice buttons and she had her completed sock from the Stitch n’ Pitch with an afterthought heel. T was making practice swatches. L crocheted a hat with some silk blend hand dyed. Very lovely.

Over the course of the evening N claimed that if one revised 10% of a pattern it could be claimed as one’s own. We clamored for verification. She said maybe 20%. We wanted to know if that was in print or in surface area. The numbers people noted the very big difference between 10 and 20 percent.

We recapped the Stitch n’ Pitch. L’s husband said, “It’s not a ball game without some drunken floozy spilling a drink on you”. Or he said something like that. The poor man could speak from experience. M told us that the hot dog stand ran out of hot dogs AND relish! Some people had been wondering where the relish was and were relieved to have closure. The hot dogs weren’t the same without it. L snapped a picture of M, an elusive SSNB member, so we all got to see her.

Some SSNB members are headed down to the Fiber Festival in Michigan with Windy City on Saturday. M wanted to know what kind of shoes to wear and whether her concern of stepping in poop was relevant. Poop should only be a concern if one hangs out with the animals. Indeed, petting the beasts was on her Fiber Fest agenda. (Petting the beasts doesn’t sound quite right.) Flat shoes were recommended so that the poop wouldn't get stuck in crevices. Supposedly you should be able to hose your shoes off. (That doesn't sound quite right either.)

The latter part of the snb is off the record. That’s right, the proceedings were censored and one had to be present to get the juice.

Stitch n Pitch

Stitch and Pitch started off on the wrong foot. I got rerouted on the CTA and was pretty fume-y by the time I got to the ballpark. I was extra happy to have my sock with me to help me knit out some frustration. Then I got in line to redeem my hot dog combo (part of the stitch n pitch deal) and I chose the line behind the grandma with a jillion kids to shop for without knowing what they wanted. I finally got to my seat and the White Sox were already 3 runs behind. Things didn't get much better when Seattle scored another four runs in the fourth inning.

Most of the knitters left a few innings later which made their seats susceptible to a band of middle school boys. They were excitable little buggers. At the bottom of the ninth, the plot thickened. Fields bat in a grand slam leaving the Sox one point away from a tie. The crowd went wild. The middle school boys took to screaming like someone had released a bag of wildcats to one piece of beef jerky. Thome, the designated hitter, was next to bat. More wildness. I wondered if the middle school boys had finagled up some beer. Unfortunately the Sox didn't get their 1 run. But the crowd was in good spirits and we were treated to a lovely fireworks display. There were some shooting star looking fireworks as well as some tutti frutti squiggly ones that I really liked. Hope I get to bring my sock back next year. And oh, yea, the knitters sucked the margarita vendor dry. LOL.

Eye Candy

I went to the sneak preview of a movie the other night. Bella. It was ok. But forget the movie. I wanted to indulge you all with visions of this fine specimen of a man. It's criminal to be that lovely. I wanted to elope, but he had a busy schedule. I think he would like it if someone posted a comment that said, "hubba hubba".

Happy Blogiversary Gift 2

My happy bloggiversary gift was finally mailed out. I hope the person likes it! I got two balls of yarn. In my excitement I forgot to get the fiber content. Oops. I'll venture to say the yarn is wool. I thought it would knit up into excellent winter accessories. If anything, the package lacks more yarn, but aren't we always lacking yarn? I also threw in a nail file featuring yarn and soap and lotion for after your filing. Can't have your nails getting dry and snaggy again after you've filed. Next year's happy blogiversary gift will provide plenty of reason to indulge in more stash.

SSNB Knitter's Digest 6/6/07

We were met with a pleasant surprise on Monday night. A long, lost friend appeared with zucchini chocolate cake. The cake was amazing and it was nice to see V as well. She was knitting a shawl with yarn made of incredible natural colors fresh off her sheep. You can find her at Logan Square's farmer's market on Sundays. She's also teaching at the HPAC this Fall. For those of us going to Michigan's Fiber Fest, she might join us for lunch.

We talked a lot about the food options at the Fiber Fest. We're split on the people joining Windy City for the healthy fare and the people excited about the fried eats that'll be available. Maybe Windy City can organize laps around the charter bus for those who indulge in the greasier meal plan.

F finished her shrug and modeled it for the group. But alas, there were no cameras. She has moved onto a Bear's hat. N's almost finished with the cardigan she had last week. (How does she do it?) K brought a mobius wrap. M had a shawl again.

Since the last meeting, N's dogs got in a terrible fight. She wondered what the commotion was because they usually don't fight. Suddenly they were dead silent. Turns out they were after a jalapeno pepper and quickly lost interest after having a taste. She also had a British knitting magazine. They had a spread of knit teddy bears. The bears were eating, get this, knit sandwiches. And knit eclairs. This was pattern making genius. She was good enough to find the pattern here. The bears themselves were unattractive, but their food sure looked tasty.

We also spent some time talking about the current entitled generation and how their parents pay for everything. At what point do the kiddies get cut off? We ran the gamut from 17 to almost 40. Until the next digest.

Ravelry

Omigod! I got my Ravelry invite today. Last I knew, I was number 3,456,789 and 83% of the list was in front of me. I'll update more later. If anyone needs me, I'll be exploring my new invite. It's about time I catalogue all my UFOs.

Blog Gift 1

I finally mailed out one happy blogiversary gift. I hope the person likes it. There's yarn and there's a nail file with sheep on it. And there's another nail file with a ruler. I figure the 2nd would be more useful, but I liked the sheep. The bigger blogiversary gift lacks packing tape so it'll be sitting around until I get the packing tape. Then one must factor in wake-up-early-enough-for-post-office time. Maybe the package will be mailed before the first snow. At the post office I encountered our surly band of workers. There was a line of 4-5 people, 3 workers and 1 window open. I don't know who plans the logistics for these things. They didn't have any packing tape either.