look at me still talking when there's science to do

Me: So really you've only got two stitches - knit and purl, and the purl stitch is kind of just the inverse of the knit stitch, so.
Chris: So everything's derived from the same class ... it's like dot knit or something.
Me: *facepalm*

For very small knitted items, a foam yoga block makes an exceptional blocking board. :-D

(I need to make something for bigger things though; Nakiska is about the biggest thing that can feasibly work with. Time to pilgrimage to Michaels' for foamcore, I guess...)

Also: Pilates would probably not be as hard if I actually understood the jargon.

So after a wonderful, wonderful lunch with deyo and mactavish (such wonderful conversation, such fun. We nearly closed the place!) I went to the yarn store with Emmi, armed with a 20% off coupon.

And because they didn't have the sock yarn I wanted, I bought some Phoenix soy yarn (blue/purple colourway, 3 balls, 515 yards.) (And some cotton for washcloths, because doubletake and I are doing a washcloth project together, yay!)

But the question remains - what to do with the Phoenix? Suggestions?

Recycled sari silk yarn. Isn't it pretty? Tangly, but pretty. I'm making it into mini-skeins.

Damn, I need a yarn swift.

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Random: I never liked 'My Fair Lady' (see 'current music') because it never seemed like Henry Higgins entirely changed from the jackass that he was, and certainly Eliza didn't know if he had, and yet she came back to him anyway. It was my ex's favorite movie. Analyze that if you like.

Not blocked yet: I'll probably do that in the morning.

This took FOUR DAYS. (To be fair, I was just sick enough to be low on energy and had a severe case of writers' block.) I cast on for this Thursday night. The yarn is unbelievably soft (50% angora (from rabbits, not goats - I found the ball band) and 50% merino, I think.) Gorgeous.

Somewhere mid-project I realized, damn, I can do this now. It's a weird feeling. I'm not traditionally good at stuff that requires manual dexterity - I actually had to quit an assembly line job because of this fact. So it's weird. Things are changing for the better. :-)
( +1 - closeup of the cabling - the colour's off but the cables are pretty sweet. )

Shiny Shiny Project Maven Side of My Brain: "I really, really want to knit this sweater. I love it. We should knit this when we have money for the yarn."

Wet blanket/attention deficit demon side of brain: "But it's a SWEATER. That'll take ages."

Shiny Shiny Project Maven: "But I love it! And it's pretty! And cotton, so it wouldn't itch and would be cool enough for the climate here ..."

Wet Blanket/attention deficit demon: "SWEATER. On size five needles. It took you two months to finish a pair of socks because you get distracted by EVERYTHING. That sweater would probably take the rest of your life. You'll be buried in it. With the needles still attached, because it won't be finished."

Shiny Shiny Project Maven: "But but but PRETTY... "

And now we do it all again, probably with less photographic evidence along the way, I expect. (Isn't it always the way?)

But it is really super warm. I can understand why people knit socks like crack. :-D

I am pleased. :-D The proper colour didn't come out in the photo: it's kind of a marled pink/orange/persimmon. (Cascade 220 Quatro tahiti, if you wanted to know.)

I was thinking that there are more musicals about the theater than there are movies about movies. What leads the theater to be such a self-reflexive medium? (This goes back to Shakespeare and his habit of putting shows within shows, and probably before that, too.)

I'm ridiculously tired. And tomorrow, maybe we might get to see 'The Producers'. Hopefully. Finally.

Today, my father would have been ... seventy-nine? Jeez.
Damn, I miss him. A lot. It didn't help that I had to buy power tools and screws, and kept thinking 'you know, I could just call DAD and ask about this kind of thing', except, well, I couldn't.

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The Yarn Garden will eventually own my SOUL. But I now have two projects' worth of yarn and needles, and I'm all signed up for the 'intro to socks' group. Yay socks! There was a girl in the cafe (had to sample their coffee and muffins, of course - they win, they have marionberry muffins) that was knitting red-white-and-blue socks, both at the same time on a pair of circular needles, for a friend who was going to New Zealand. So I've already decided that I'm knitting a pair of red-white-and-blue socks and a pair of red-and-white socks and splitting up the pairs and keeping one 'pair' and giving the other 'pair' to Chris, because I can do that.

(It helps that we have the same size feet.)
(I am also, as is apparent, a huge dork.)

And they wound the skein I bought into a ball for free while I waited, too, using one of those nifty umbrella swifts like hobbitblue has. Very nice people. I feel like my soul will be getting a fine home. :-)

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Now that I'm done being stereotypically girly, I'm now off to play with my new power drill.

This is entertainingly problematic: the bag-o' doom that was supposedly supposed to felt down to pencil case size is (a) not felting entirely nicely by hand and (2) not shrinking at all. So I have this enormous floppy half-felted stripey misshapen thing ...
Is it even possible to felt in coin-operated washers? (Top loading of course). And what the holy hell am I going to do with this thing if it doesn't shrink?? I suppose if nothing else I can still put a zipper in it and use it for a pillow cover. :-D

Okay! I have found a pattern which does not require me to go out and buy new yarn (because we're still recovering from the vagaries of November, and I have some stash yarn) and is not huge! Yay.

Except I'm confused. It's a pattern for miniature striped felted bags - and it says it calls for stockinette stitch in the round. But then it claims you're to knit all stitches in the round? I thought stockinette was alternating knit and purl rows. *boggleconfuzzle*

Also: can you felt by handwashing, or is this a needs-to-use-machine thing? Another reason for our next apartment to have a washing machine hookup. I hate coin operated laundry.

I have figured out the purl stitch! *boogiedances* YAY ME. It is not hard and scary. I now have curling stockinette stitch like everyone else!

/huge knitting dork

Next-next project, after the hat: the green shrug in this picture. Probably in some other colour.

(Needs knitting icon: uses generalized domestic dork icon instead)