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December 30, 2004
ReKAL and Scarf love
I finished the two Christmas scarves I was knitting and they turned out great. I have been fascinated with knitting triangles ever since knitting Clapotis and sampling the multidirectional scarf. It is fun to do something out of the norm.
Wendy gave me some gorgeous jewel toned yarn that sort of resembles the recycled silk yarn. It is cotton fiber woven in and out of tape yarn. Very pretty. I knew right away that I wanted to use it to make a Clapotis because Wendy gave it to me while I was fondling her Clapotis. People keep discussing and asking about yarn subsititutions for this pattern (and others) on Knitty. I am too much of a rebel to understand why there is even a question. I have only used the recommended yarn ONCE in a project (the first booga I made). It is a game with me to dig through my stash and ask each yarn what it wants to be when it grows up. I am all for Affirmative Action with minority yarns. You can be whatever you want to be, baby.
Anyway, the Clapotis pattern was hands down the funnest (I can use that nonword on MY blog) pattern I have knit. There is something gleefully bad about deliberately dropping stitches. Someone else mentioned that they thought it was anticlimatic - I must be pretty juvenile because I found myself knitting a bit faster when that particular repeat came around, hahahahahaha. The pattern says to drop the stitch a couple of rows and then later on it mentions to have fun dropping them the rest of the way when you are finished with the scarf. Ummmm, NO. I will be dropping those as they happen. I am not one for suspense.
I have a dozen projects going on right now. I can't even keep up with my project bar doohickeys over there. Trust me, they are all wrong. I am doing two more scarves at the moment. One is of mystery cotton-like yarn from the market for my oldest son in fat ribbing. It is super, super soft. The other scarf is my ReKAL project that Wendy has going on. I found this horrible Elmo-ish red fun fur tank (Why?!) and knew immediately standing at the table in the market that it was going to the frog pond. I unraveled it easily - one of the only Italian sweaters I have found that was badly constructed. The fun fur turned out to be (hide your eyes Wendy) fingering weight. Guess how much it sucks to pick up a dropped stitch in fingering weight fun fur. Yah, that much. I nearly frogged the whole thing out of frustration but managed to catch it (with all the house lights on and the boys banished to their rooms so I could concentrate in silence). It knits up amazingly fast given its weight. And it is deliciously soft. I am trying to hurry and get it done in time for my trip to Austria in two weeks.
As a complete non sequitor, I forgot to show off my sister's booga that I made back in October or something.
Posted by DebC at 06:26 PM | Comments (5)
December 20, 2004
Shhhh, Don't Tell Wendy
I made a S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement Expedition) run without her. I realized at the last minute that I wanted to make two scarves for gifts (what, I have five days, come on!). So I went to the only yarn shop that is actually a yarn shop around here, Barone. We (my kids and I) had a wee adventure before we even got out of the car. Each time I have gone there in the last few months, the parking situation is a little different due to major road construction. This time my favorite parking lot was roped off and the cop there said I had to go away. So as I am driving away, the little old parking lot guy comes running across the lot waving his arms. He runs up to my door and orders me out of my van and then gets in the driver's seat. I laughed and thought "cool", I hate parking my big honking van anyway". It only took half a minute before I realized the magnitude of the situation. He was trying to shift my automatic van like a manual. We lurched and chugged, sped up and slowed down and slammed to a stop (narrowly missing a lady with a stroller). He drove around to the back of the lot and neatly parked us in a nice big space. And then jumped out, leaving my car in gear and rolling. I managed to jam the gearshift into Park just in time to avoid calling the tow truck for the fifth time in two years. Eli said that he felt sick and I had to agree. Wheee that was energizing hahahahahahaha.
We walked off our adrenalin rush and at the yarn shop, I found the neatest yarn that is totally useless for anything other than a scarf:
Posted by DebC at 06:31 PM
December 07, 2004
Hah! Not About Socks.
I had a really nice meeting with my local group. Go read about it and see what Wendy gifted me with!
Posted by DebC at 09:16 PM