Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Relationships
I was sitting in my car the other evening, taking a moment for myself after one of those lovers' quarrels. He apologized, we're fine now. But I was sitting there struggling with the toe of a new sock, realizing that I had continuously missed increases and that I would need to unknit several rows and I couldn't help but make the analogy.
There are some knitting projects that go off without a hitch. There's never a problem, they fit perfectly. But these are extremely rare. If you look out in the blogosphere, there's hardly ever a project that gets finished without some amount of hairpulling, shouting, hurt feelings, and miscommunication. The question is, what's required?
Let's take the socks of the other evening as an example. When I first discovered the problem, I threw my hands down in my lap and thought, "Screw it! I'm just gonna start over! Frog the whole damn thing!" But then I took a deep breath and a few hours off to return and examine the problem with a calmer and more constructive eye.
Of course, on second glance, things were not as bad as they seemed. The sock required a minor tweaking about two rows down, nothing more. What I thought was going to be a ridiculous amount of work only took 15 minutes while seething over a similar relationship with an actual human and not a mere sock. It was good reflection time too, kept me from driving away and making the situation worse and not better.
An obvious truth is that relationships take dedication. Perhaps this is the secret behind the curse of the Boyfriend Sweater. A sweater done with such care takes an incredible amount of dedication. If that dedication isn't appreciated in the relationship, resentment can creep in.
Now, I don't have the skills nor the patience to follow in the steps of the Almighty Harlot who is spinning then knitting a full fisherman's gansey (read lots of cablework) for her husband (she's just celebrated her year anniversary of the project...she's still spinning). But after sufficiently mourning the failed yarn (it wasn't the sweater that failed, only the yarn) of the first BF sweater, the Boyfriend reminded me of a project he'd really love me to make for him at some point.
The truly difficult part of this is going to be finding a pattern. This is a baseball sweater that players used to wear in the early part of the 20th century, before those nylon jackets were created. The Boyfriend found out about these at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Here's a shot of Honus Wagner modelling one.
The closest thing I found was at the Red Cross Museum for a Man's Coat Sweater, but it seems as if the pattern is missing something. When I head to BonnieKnits today, I may have to print out the pattern and ask them for advice.
Not to mention how to knit pockets...we do it for the love and the knowledge that while our relationship may need some reworking and tinking every once in awhile, it'll never be frogged.
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Pasta Salad
First up, I wanted to let you all know that I finished the Fall Fusilli scarf, so here are the specs.
Pattern: Ruffles scarf from Scarf Style.
Yarn: Noro Kureyon, a little less than 3 skeins. I actually got the idea from one of the "reader photos" on the Amazon site. The 2.9 skeins gave me enough length for one good wrap around cause that's what all the kids are wearing down in the Hyde Park this fall.
Needles: Clover Bamboo size 10.5. No needle problems this time around (although my mother's keyboard seems to be having problems producing an "E")
In all honesty I haven't made up my mind on this scarf. It looks really neat on the needles, but it seems a little Elton John for my tastes...or Eddie Izzard if Eddie Izzard would be into things that are wool and not polyester. The pattern used a much thinner yarn and smaller needles hence a more sophisticated effect. More than one wrap around the neck and I feel like one of those women from Thailand who wrap their necks in brass coils.
However, it does make a lovely hairpiece if my otherwise fusilli-esque hair is having a limp day.
Onto the Future
I'm spending the weekend out in Chicago, switching apartments to what will hopefully be a MUCH better living situation. But getting ready for the move today has made me think. I've been packing up my yarn and realizing that I have a lot, a LOT of yarn for "maybe one day" projects and a LOT of projects on the needles.
To make matters worse, I checked out BonnieKnits the other day and met the author of Purl Up with a Good Yarn. I think that this was my first Knit blogger encounter. Justin wanted to know why I didn't tell her about this site. "Oh, that's just not couth. I'll just link to her and see if she finds her way back here." ;-)
Anyway, I loaded up on some sock yarn and finally found a good yellow "lellow" yarn for a Bobbi Bear for Sammy for Christmas.
However, both of those projects are to remain in the hopper until some other things get finished before the end of the summer. The goals:
1. Huge Potato Sack. Hopefully the yarn will be in my mailbox after I get back from Chi-town and I can finish the sleeves and neck.
2. Samwise the Sweater. Also missing sleeves and a neck. I no longer fear the potential Mr. Hyde arms I thought the pattern was going to produce. I no longer fear messing with a pattern to get to come out the way I want it too. I am a knitting conquerer. Muhaha!!
3. Pink Sophie Bag. Hmm...Yeah, this one is going to require some serious willpower. I don't like either set of handles that I got for these Sophie Bags. I don't know how I miscommunicated what I wanted so egregiously, but I did. It has kinda sucked out my will to finish either Sophie Bag. Not the cute little clutch I thought it would be. Someone out there want them? I'll send them to you to finish. Just leave a comment.
4. Clapotis. The idea of going back to an over-a/c'd academic building has made me stop to think about this one. It's not "almost done," not by a long shot. I think I laid it aside because I hit some problem, but can't remember what that was. I may have 8 hours on the way to Chicago to wrestle with it though, so the potential to get some serious yardage on it is not out of the question.
Oh yeah, some bad news on the BFS (boyfriend sweater or some other acronym). I decided to frog the whole thing and start over with some other yarn as yet to be ordered (probably something from knitpicks). Justin was there to watch the frogging and mourn the loss. I was beginning to resent it to hate it with a passion to lose interest in it. The alpaca/silk from Blue Sky was driving me nuts due to it's lack of give, and with each row it was coming out fuzzier and fuzzier. The Boyfriend is many things to many people but one thing he is not is a wearer of a fuzzy sweater that could potentially leave evidence behind on any chair he sits in. No cause to fear for the yarn though. I'm thinking it will make a super soft, super warm hat, scarf and mitten set (that'll be much later on in the winter) perhaps with some left over for a pair of socks.
Monday, July 25, 2005
The Woes and Struggles of Harry Potter
My stint at the E/F (Engineering Firm) has ended. Right now I like to imagine the regular receptionist pulling out her hair and saying, "She didn't do WHAT that I didn't want to do??? Where the *$%@ is my tape?" The tape is right where it should be and what she DIDN'T want me to do was stuff that she "volunteered" to do to suck up to the big boss but that shouldn't be done on company time. I aksed more than one person for advice on that one.
Today has been a sort of re-set day. Getting the upstairs cleaned up from the quads' making landfall visit, doing laundry, tying up loose ends. Literally. I wove in all the ends from the Hall of Fame Socks and on some other projects this afternoon.
It is also "figure out where the hell that is" day. I ordered some pics of the California Wedding more than a month ago and haven't heard back on them. I also wanted to figure out where my Yarnwarehouse (Sorry to Yarnworks if there is such a store. I'm sure you're great, but I can only remember so many syllables of a website.) yarn is.
Since so many of you have requested to see where the Huge Potato Sack has ended up for the time being (ok, nobody asked, but I like to pretend I have a dedicated, numerous following clamboring for details), I decided to break down and show you my shame.
The sleeves (there is one hidden right behind the other) are little sleevelets, leaving no yarn whatsoever for joining or for adding a neck. I know. Ugh. It's almost as disheartening as...oops almost got me giving away HP6 secrets again!
I got permission from the Momster (no really, that's what we call her, like the Napster. I never realized what the connotations of that were until I spelled it out!!! I wonder if Dad realizes that's what he's been calling her these years) to call England this morning, told the answering machine my problem and got cut off right after I gave the area code of my phone number. I considered pulling a "Swingers" and calling them back to just leave a complete phone number but figured, screw it, I'll just reorder, see what happens THEN call them back. If I end up with two, then I'll have enough for a whole new sweater, if I end up with one, I've met my goal.
When I placed the first order, I ordered with Justin's browser (which I love), Mozilla or whatever you call it. This time I used Mom's MS browser which isn't as efficient at blocking pop-ups. Sure enough, at the end of the order this morning, there was a trixy pop-up screen for added security that I MISSED the first time around. In other words, in the frantic hours of early July, I NEVER PLACED AN ORDER for a new Harry Potter pack. Hopefully it is winging its way to me from England even as we speak.
Now about those pictures...
Friday, July 22, 2005
Last Day
Today I finish work in the air conditioned bliss (current thermometer reading, 79.4) and return to the basement (avg. summer temperature 68) to begin work on the Garage Sale for the end of the summer.
What should cross my desk but the gloriously robust pages of the LTD Commodities catalogue. Every working woman in Western PA is truly enamored with this catalogue. It's cheap, it's unbelievable country (there's more rustic snowmen in this issue than will be made throughout the entire tri-state area all winter), and you never know what you're going to get. When I worked for the Accountant, the ladies in the office would salivate when the LTD first appeared in the mailbox wall, impatiently clamboring and manuevering to get it in their box next. They would then mark up the catalogue with stickies (a different color for each lady) with what they wanted. Oftentimes exceeding $300 per woman. (NOTE: I don't mean to be sexist here, but the phenomena at my office was that the men showed no interest and the women showed no restraint.) The receptionist would mail out the order and Christmas day would come once every 6 weeks or so. The atmosphere truly was like Christmas because you never knew what was inside the box. It could be a new family heirloom or a could be socks and underwear. LTD never got an order wrong, but their quality...well, quality is not the most consistent of things with LTD.
An example: I ordered those silicon tray inserts for baking. Y'know, easy cleanup. Yeah, the catalogue says to use them up to 300. When I removed them from their styrofoam sheet wrapping, out slipped a sheet of paper that said, "CAUTION: DO NOT USE ABOVE 167 OR MELTING MAY OCCUR." Mmmm silicon flavored brownies. The great thing is that everything gets sent back without payment being made if you don't want it.
All of this to say that TODAY the LTD came. I had to restrain myself to things that only The Boyfriend would want for a potential new dwelling (although I've warned that furniture is a no-no). BUT! When I saw these, I positively drooled with the idea of trying to figure out how they go together.
Can you imagine a pair in koigu? Mmmm...koigu.
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Workin for the Man [Edited at 10PM to include pics.]
My friend Sarah, God bless her, is one of the few people from my college days who communicate with me on a semi-annual basis. Once a quarter or so I get an email that says, "Hey, I'm just wondering if you're still on the planet." If I don't respond to the email, I get a cell phone ring. If I don't answer the cell phone ring, she leaves a message on my parents' phone expressing great concern for their daughter's welfare and asks them to return her call if I don't.
When I return that phone call or email, usually I spend an hour or so telling her what's up in my life, filling her up so that I can dip back down below the surface only to come back up for air 3 months later. As it has been a month since my last post, I see this entry as an equivalent to that communication with Sarah. Or you could think of it as a Harry-Potteresque moment. I know you all have countdowns to the next "Seminarian's Post" on your websites. I know that you wait with baited breath, discussing rumors about what I'm up to, what's going to be in the next post. You could think of it that way, or you could think of it this way: I'm sorry.
Here are the things that have stumbled across my path that have made me think, "Damn, I really should blog about that." But without pictures as I'm at work (shhh) and don't have a hookup to allow you to see pictures.
1. Attic and Basement are clean. Yay! All that's left are some 30 odd boxes for a garage sale date to be determined.
2. There were many treasures found during the past month or so. One of which led to the previous entry. I found dozens of xeroxed crochet patterns from my mom's previous life including some ponchos. However, I'm not much for the hooking and I was all set to establish a friendly crafty rivalry. Crochet vs. knitting, acrylic vs. REAL WOOL. Until I found perhaps the most interesting item in the whole basement.
[Damn I really wish I was able to upload this puppy]
[Look! Picture! Do you forgive me for not posting for a month now??]
I found a pale pink mohair (yes! my mother used mohair!) cardigan knit sometime in the 60's. At first I thought, this could never be my mother's. For one, it's a natural fiber, two it's got cables (mohair cables!) running up and down the front and the sleeves. I was shocked, shocked, I tell you, to find out that my mother was THIS accomplished of a knitter! The thing even fit ME perfectly! If it weren't as scratchy as steel wool tp I'd even consider wearing it.
I also found some really great embroidery samplers made my great grandmother and a tea-towel made by my mother when she was six (too cute).
On the right, the classic "No matter where I serve my guests, They always like my kitchen best."
The middle is Mom's tea towel. On the left if my fave: "GUEST: We've leaks in the roof, but there's soup in the pot. And we're happy to share with you such as we've got." They're all being framed at Michaels right now.
Add to the pile something to almost bring me back to quilting (if not for the sheer amount of space they take up). Two antique (possibly homemade) quilting frames from Nana Sandmeyer (my great-grandmother). One of which is made for smaller wall hangings, baby quilts, twin quilts. The other is HUGE and could easily fit a queen size for quilting. For those of you who are unaware, a quilt frame is what you see in the movies when all the Amish ladies are sitting around working on a quilt at the same time. It facilitates more than one person working on the quilting of a quilt at once. Contrast that to a quilting hoop which is nothing but a large embroidery hoop that holds the layers of the quilt taut as you stitch them together.
3. I've been done with my attic/basement duties for about 3 weeks now. What have I been doing with my time? WHY haven't I put the much needed effort into the blog? Easy. I've been stuck in an "air-conditioned" building lobby for the past two weeks. The Boyfriend's firm was looking for a fill-in receptionist for two weeks, it was paying more than my mother was, and I get to spend tons of time in Pittsburgh's Strip District. I put the a/c in quotes because the little digital thermometer on my desk registers 78.7. I see now that the blistering days in the attic were meant to prepare me for these past two weeks. I can pretty much sit here and feel relatively comfortable answering phones and surfing. Alas, I did not have the webpage for editing the blog available to me until today. As you can see I'm taking advantage of that.
Let's see, what else?
Oh yeah! MY knitting!
Well, the Book is out. The Book is read. I guess the deadline has passed. Did she make it? Is the Heavy Potato Sack Harry Potter Sweater finished? I don't know how I could say this in a more sheepish manner. I ran outta yarn. I was going great guns up until about a week ago. I should have seen the writing on the wall. I had one ball left and I was only half way done with each sleeve. I should have ordered right then, about a month ago. Alas, hubris got the best of me. I was foolish to trust my yarn as a certain HP character was also foolish to trust...hehe. No, I'll stop right there.
I had a brain fade and forgot that I still had to pick up stitches for the roll-down neck. There was no way this one ball of yarn was going to carry me through, even if I was way over half way done with the sleeves. So I wait and wait and wait to hear from Yarnworks. It's been a week and a half. I think I need to call them.
In the interim, I've kept myself fairly busy. There's not much to do here between answering phones.
[This would be ANOTHER perfect place for a picture! Double damn!]
[Oh look! Aren't you lucky! Another PICTURE!]
Imagine if you will, BrainLady's Pink Noodle in Noro Kureyon, a dark green, purple, gold, rust orange colorway. In other words, one tremendous fall scarf. And it's almost finished.
Maybe I'll take Friday evening and take some pics of all the stuff that's going on and revise the post on Saturday. Sound appealing?
Thank you to the loyal few who are still out there reading.
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