Shawl? Fired

Wow, has it been almost a year since I posted here? I haven't been doing a lot of finishing knitting lately, I suppose. Or spinning for that matter. But I did want to bitch about a knitting project from hell so here goes...

I had to put a knitting project into the penalty box for being a bitch last week. I started the Adamas shawl actually a few years ago, right after I started knitting and finished up with the obligatory scarves of doom. It was actually my very first lace project (I'm nothing if not ambitious) and I really do like the pattern.

I first started it with a nice, dark purple yarn. Then the interchangable cable needles I was using decided to unscrew a bit while I was using them and the yarn BROKE about three quarters of the way through a pattern repeat. This occasioned a great deal of swearing though, of course, I did have a life line.

However, I had decided that I didn't like how the pattern was coming out in that yarn...it was too dark. So I started over in another yarn that worked much better and knit happily along. Till I made a bizarre screw up in one repeat and couldn't bear, after so much effort, to deal with ripping back to my last lifeline and picking up the stitches (is there any easy way of doing that? It's like torture when you have to) so I put it down.

Cue my renaissance faire trip when I mentioned I never did finish that shawl. I got guilt for it from my friend Rain since she'd known I'd started it ages ago. So when I got home I hunted it up and started in on it again. Note: picking up a lace pattern you haven't touched in years in the middle of a repeat? Takes awhile to figure out. But I figured I'd much better with lace now and I could work it faster and a friend just had a birthday and it would be great as a slightly late gift, right? So I finished that repeat finally and started in. Got through about three quarters of the next one. And the cable fell off the needle midway through a row and immediately three quarters of the stitches unravelled to the lifeline, making four hours of work go down the drain.

Yeah, the shawl is fucking fired :-P I think it's cursed.

I started a nice simple scarf instead. So there.

Friday moving story

Moving is done, whee!

I feel the need to post the experience here for posterity (I can't post it at my main journal at livejournal as far too many of my roommate's friends read it, you'll understand when you read the rest of this post.)

I do warn you, this promises to be long so you may want to skip over it, though there may be cookies at the end of it...

So, I took Thursday and Friday off in preparation for the move, which was to be Saturday though we had negotiated to have through Monday to complete it (a good thing, as it turns out)

Friday one of my roommates, we'll call him T arrived home. Now I'd had a bit of an issue with my roommates being rather ineffectual about packing and helping me get common areas ready to move. After a fair amount of nagging I gave up and resolved to point and laugh during the move when all my stuff was dealt with and they were still struggling.

I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right.

In reality I know I'm not quite that mean but that's another story. In any case T actually started doing stuff to get ready! I jumped in helped since I wanted to reward him for actually displaying some concern that we had to move all this crap the next day and we merrily packed away while wondering where the other roommate, we'll call him C, was.

C had been grouchy all week and had insisted he had a plan for moving that would make it go easy and efficiently. Given that he wouldn't TELL us his plan made me a bit dubious but he was grouchy enough that I just threw up my hands and let him have at it.

Anyway, C got home around 9 pm while we were going through packing and sorting T's cds that he had in the living room. He really didn't say much just collected a box and went out to the balcony where he proceeded to burn papers in the hibachi grill we were discarding.

For three hours.

We speculated during this time just how much paper that needed to be shredded/burned could one person have when they've only been in a place for two years. It was rather impressive. Why he couldn't, you know, pack stuff and burn shit later if he felt in the need of some cathartic pyromania the world will never know.

In any case, by the time he was done burning paper it was 11:30 and I retreated to my bedroom to get some sleep, knowing that moving would start exactly at 10:01 if we could possibly manage it...

Moving on up.

Once again I fail muchly at updating this though this time I at least have the excuse of having been preparing to move after ten years in the same place.

(pause while I run down the street flailing my arms and screaming)

Ahem, what was I saying? Ah yes, moving. It's only upstairs actually, they're remodelling our apartment complex and the choice of "Move to a more expensive place here that's remodelled or find a new place in sixty days" Needless to say we chose the first option though the rent increase is going to mean that things are going to be very tight in the fox-o-sphere, I'm afraid. I'll try and refrain from any more flailing and screaming though.

So that's happening Saturday. I haven't been doing much in the way of knitting because of it, I'm afraid, though I've been doing a bit of spinning here and there...I find it's easier to pick up and put down and a bit more relaxing in the grand scheme of things. Except when it's not. So I've finished another 124 yards of the endless bag of merino in 2 ply, and started spinning some lovely fiber I obtained from my friend Reesa, both of which will probably have pictures forthcoming as soon as I manage to remember where I stuffed my camera to keep it out of the way.

I've also been failing at keeping up with my other art (come to think of it, I've never posted any links here to that, have I? I'll have to remedy that sometime) but I need to crack down when I move as I'm pondering actually putting some in the art show at a convention in Jan. Though that idea has a bit of arm flailing potential as well, I'm afraid.

Very, very tired of hemp

Been doing much knitting lately. I had the bright idea to make wash cloths and dishtowels for a friend of mine that was buying a house as a housewarming gift. Simple in theory, right? I mean, they're just small squares. I can knit one of those up in no time! And I'd make them with a really nifty yarn like hemp or something rather than the obligatory cotton because I'm just THAT cool.

So I purchased allhemp 6 yarn in lilac as my friend's favorite color is purple. Found a simple pattern that looked good and got going. Quickly realized that all hemp is very fine, relatively speaking and that if I wanted to actually provide a washcloth that was more yarn than holes I'd have to knit it on smaller needles.

Size 3 needles in fact. Surely you can see where this is going timewise? My original plan was for four washcloths and a dishtowel, provided that I had enough yarn for such. So I knit. And I knit. And it took me three days of excessive knitting to finish one. Whee! So I downgraded it to just four washcloths.

Then I got some more yarn in that I'd ordered for myself. 100% pima cotton (crayon from knitpicks) in purple. And a nifty entrelac pattern for hand towels. Hey, that would be more fun to knit than this boring pattern in this tiny, wirey yarn right?

So I started that. Plan was downgraded to two wash cloths and a dishtowel. Now entrelac was fun. And it seemed to knit up fast. But a hand towel, astonishingly enough, isn't exactly a SMALL square. It's more on the order of half a small scarf. And I'd never done entrelac before. And this was on size 7 needles so not as slow, but not as fast either....

So yeah, she's been in her place for a week and a half and I just finished last night. Go me!

So here's some pictures. I actually have another wash cloth I made for myself that I need to put up too but the picture I snapped sucked on first look so I need to get another.



The washcloths. They're actually not as wobbly and weird looking as they look here, they weren't laying at all flat and I was tired. The hemp is interesting, supposed to get softer with use but it feels like plant, if you know what I mean?



The towel. It's very soft. I wished I'd had two colors of cotton to use instead of the one because entrelac in one color isn't nearly as impressive but I hadn't, you know, like planned on making this.

I'm taking a break from knitting for at least a week...too many other things have been on the backburner.

The neverending project

I baked cinnamon rolls last night so that I'd have something to have for breakfast for the next couple of days. I suspect I may be one of the few people that bakes so they DON'T have to go to the store. Whee! They're tasty...I didn't have my usual orange juice to use in the frosting so I used cointreau instead. Necessity (and alcohol) is the mother of invention. And possibly tipsiness but it tastes good.

I've been doing a fair amount of knitting the last few days. I had the bright idea to make a friend some washcloths as a housewarming gift. A week before she was due to move. In a fingering weight hemp yarn on size three needles. Needless to say she's moved and I've only finished one and a half of the things...I'd originally planned four and maybe a hand towel depending on how much yarn I had. So...yeah, knitting tonight.

I've actually become quite enamored of knitting washcloths. I have this tendency to decide to do big, complicated projects like lace shawls and blankets, having something small to work on is a nice idea. And they're useful! And I get to work with a bunch of plant fibers I've never used before so it's kind of a win situation all around. Pictures tonight, perhaps.

I also got some hemp to play with spinning wise. And miles of pima cotton. I'll be a busy boy, I have to say. I want to get some more drawing in too. And I have to pack for our move the first week of next month.

Work has no water today. This means the bathroom is unusable and we have to run across the street. Why am I here again?

You know you're bored...

At work when instead of actually, like, working you start looking up how various plant fibers are processed in order to make fiber to spin and actually ponder just for a moment the feasibilty of growing flax.

I think subconciously I'm preparing for when American civilization comes crashing down when I shall be the only person in my tribe who knows how to create yarn.

Yes, my dear friends, I will one day proclaim...

I AM the linen king!!!

...?

Perhaps I shouldn't have any more coffee

Bad fox, no cookie

Write fifty times:

I am not allowed to look at silk top when I have roving to spin AND I'm supposed to be good with money.


I was good but I didn't want to be. Life isn't fair!