PIFyay!

Today my PIF from Tini arrived and it is Fetching! Which is too, too perfect, because with this 8-hour-a-day data-entry job I'm doing, I keep resting my wrists on the desk and they get really cold, and putting on more sweaters or turning up the heat doesn't help at all, because my core temperature's fine, it's just my hands that are cold. And I was honestly and truly just thinking today about how I need something mittlike, but this job (and my own PIF projects) doesn't leave me time to knit them. And then they came in the mail! So very warm and wonderful. Thank you Tini! You must be psychic and clairvoyant!

I also bought some yarn from Tini that is so! Pretty! But my camera sucks so the photos turned out horrible. I'll try again tomorrow.

uh-oh.

I've been so brain-whacked after work, and so busy trying to cram my usual 13 hours of day into 3 hours, that I haven't knitted since Monday.

What if I've forgotten how?

wtf?

Where did all my Bs go? What happened to my blog? The wysiwyg and the page source don't show any missing content, but no matter how many times I reload, my blog looks all weird. This is just a testy-thing, to see if any new entries come up similarly confused. I'm still knitting Very Secret Secrets, so I can't tell you anything else just yet.

this blogging thing is pretty neat

I got stuff! Excellently timed, too, because I am unaccountably crabby today. But look! Look! Is it not beee-yooo-teee-ful? (click to biggern)
Amy sent me these! And they are my favorite colors and silk+merino is my favorite fiber (as of today) and clearly my whining about limited Malabrigo availability* has been heard, which is actually a very bad lesson, isn't it? Because this would seem to indicate that whining pays off, and I should do more of it!

No, no, I'm more intelligent than that. Not much more, but...

Anyway.

The book was blogged about here, and I commented on it without ANY IDEA that it was intended for me. I was so surprised when I saw it, I said, "HA!" loud enough to startle my kids. I recognize the card too, I think Amy blogged about the artist as well, but it may actually have been someone else... And I love the bag, it's my favorite color and so nice I'm kind of afraid to use it.

So, one thousand thank-yous Amy, for the box of awesome! I love all of it.

* Malabrigo is actually available in Germany, via this company, but the photos on the site are so bad, I'm afraid to order anything from them.

I say nothing.

You know how, when you have a secret that you can't write about, sometimes you find that you can't write about anything at all? Yeah. It's like that.

I'll tell you later, I really will. With pictures and everything.

FO!

Oh Heavens, I almost forgot: I finished Henry today! Really finished-finished, tucked in the ends, wrapped it in blue cellophane, put it on DrBob's desk.


So, notes. Hm. Well, I used silk dyed with vegetable dyes, that I bought at a craft market. I asked the dyer if she has a website, but she said she doesn't believe in the internet. Too bad, because you should see her stuff, there's this mulberry-red color that would have made something fantastic for my mom, but I didn't buy that because... well, you know.

Anyway, it was significantly heavier than what the recipe called for, and it was kind of... um, unslippery - I had to push it along the needles and working with it made my hands a bit tired, but not horribly so. The weight difference means it's probably quite a bit longer than the designer intended, plus it's thinner than the recipe wanted, because I just knit until I ran out of yarn, basically, which wasn't very long: this was pretty cheap for silk, but silk? Is not cheap. Anyway, the recipe says 5 feet by 8 inches. Mine's about 7 feet by 6 inches. I also learned a new method of binding off (um, tubular? sewn? something like that) that I now want to use for everything.

So yeah. It was a lot of work, but I'm really happy with it. And I probably won't knit it again. Why knit something twice? That's what socks are for.

what was in the bag...

Why, yarn , of course! Some very exciting fluffy bulky stuff:


Some beautiful shiny dark green stuff:

Cotton and viscose, ooo.

No idea what this is, but I really like it:

If I were going to name it, I would call it "Naiad."

Some sheeny Rowan Damask (my first Rowan, squeee!):


And last but certainly not least, oh I'm so excited...

MALABRIGO! Wooot!

Again, thank you Secret Pal for the supercalifragilistic-expialidocious yarn! Yay!

Secret Pal strikes again!

Heeeewack! Teh awesome arrived in the mail today! Looky!

As always, click to embiggen. Okay okay okay, what have we here... a bear. In a bathrobe! Love that! Ignatz giggled too.

She's also wearing this beaded headband thing that I just love. It's just twisted wire and beads, and black elastic, but when I tried it on and checked the mirror, I said "ooo! I'm a pretty princess!" (that's a video link, so possibly nsfw). I think I actually said it aloud. How embarrassing. It really is shiny and happy, though. Unfortunately, my hair is so slippery (really, I can't keep anything in it for long) that the headband creeps up toward the back of my head. If I had short hair, it would probably eventually just shoot right off my head and scare the cats! Haha! Wouldn't that be GREAT!?

Ahem. Um. Next? A travel-cup! Have I blogged about how dependent I am on porta-coffee? I don't think I have, so I don't know how she knew, but I totally am. I love this. I particularly love that it's from Starbucks, and says "decorate your own damn cup! We're tired of thinking up spiffy new designs!" I'm paraphrasing.

A red-and-silver holly ornament! Sparkly! So pretty! Totally going on the tree every year until forever. Also some foil-wrapped chocolate ornaments which have absolutely no chance of gracing our next Christmas tree. I notice that there are four, and that my family has four chocolate-eating members, but I'm sure that's just coincidence.

Then! A notepad! And! It's magnetic! And has a penguin! This will definitely be used. There were also some Post-its that didn't make their way into the photo for some reason... oh, right, here they are. They'll also be used. The house will be festooned with pale blue exclamation points and DrBob will give me That Look.

Then there are two books that are clearly meant for Ignatz but will certainly be read by me as well: Shade's Children, by Garth Nix, whom I've heard of and meant to get around to reading for some time now; and The Warrior Heir (love that cover) by Cinda Williams Chima, whom I've never heard of, but that's okay. Ignatz sez "cool." He's thirteen.

Next up is a pack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards, clearly for the Sniglet, and also this neato Matchstick Garden thing, which will also be for him because he's into that sort of thing right now.

Did I miss anything? Oh! Look at that groovy bag with the amaryllis on it! Exactly when I needed it, too: just yesterday I put the beginnings of Kelly's Kauni sweater in a plastic bag, Maggie Righetti's words ringing in my ears ("Don't let me see you dragging your knitting around in a crappy plastic bag!" or something to that effect). The timing on this is nothing short of amazing.

Oh, and Fufu loves the bag. She rubbed her face on it for like half an hour. No idea why. I hope she doesn't try to eat it...

Even better is what's in the amaryllis bag. That's for tomorrow's post. Heh heh heh.

Thank you Secret Pal! You are awesome!

here's a picture!

(click to embiggen)

It's some yarn! (On a knitblog, imagine that.) This came in the mail today, from the lovely, lovely people at Woll-Sucht, who also sent gummi bears and tea! And they speak English! And I love them.

I also love this yarn, and the cardigan it's going to make, although I am fiddling around with alternatives to the squares. This is my next project, and it's big and involves (gasp) steeking! This qualifies it as stunt-knitting, but I'm up for it. This winter I need something warm and woolly in my lap, and sheep are too heavy and I can't get the damn cats to sit still. It'll take awhile, though. It's for Kelly, and if I'm lucky I should be able to get it to her in time for her birthday. You know, in April, when spring really starts heating up in Maryland. Ooo, unforeseen problem. Maybe I could convince her to move to Australia.

boo!

It's the Incredible Disappearing Knitblogger! Um, yeah. I am working on... stuff. To blog, I need to take pictures of things, and for that I need light, and you know what? It's January. And then it will be February, and there will be more light but I will be even crabbier! Not sure how that works, but 37 years of observation have shown it to be true.

So. I'm just poking my head out of the trenches to say I'm still here and I haven't forgotten y'all. And now you're all, I clicked all the way over to your blog, and this is all I get!?

Yes. Yes, it is.

all done

And I promise, the next post will be about something else. Pinky swear.

Happy Hols, y'all.

more flower basket

Well, here it is in its unblocked glory:


And a little close-up:


It's currently drying, and then I'll use the Harlot's tutorial to block it (thanks for the tip Peachy).

And now I don't know how to decide what to knit next. Hm.

home stretch

Ugh, sorry the long silence peeps, but this is my knitting blog, and I'm still working on the same project. I had to let Henry slide, because I do have alterna-gifts for DrBob, but the Flower Basket Shawl absolutely must be done in time, because we don't have any other ideas for my MIL. I'm beading the very last row before the bind-off row, and I'm halfway done with that, so really nearly done. Projektleiterin says it's going to be enormous - she should know, she's actually done lace before. I have to learn to block lace, well, tomorrow. And I haven't been taking photos, but I'll try to get a few up tomorrow.

I'm gonna make it! Probably. Yay!

well, now I know...

...that Christmas knitting is a Very Bad Idea. No time to start other projects, just grinding along on these until I want to jump up and down on them. IF I actually get them done in time (note very big if), when the huz and the MIL get them and say ooo! aaah! thank you! I will respond with GRAAARGH!

No pictures, sorry. No time to put the knitting down. Grargh.

passing it on

Hey everybody! A contest! Where you can win some really nice-looking yarn! Seriously, what's not to love?

Blurry photos in bad November light is not to love. And they're overdue, I really need to send them off tomorrow, so there won't be a lot of opportunities to re-shoot. But at least they're done. I've decided entrelac socks are cool, they seem to go faster than regular ones. But these are bleeping huge! I'm afraid they won't fit Mr Reid, even though I made them as close to his measurements as I could.

tagged! again!

By Elemmaciltur, again! For a meme I already did for Kelly (oo, that reminds me, I owe her another one as well), which means you now know sixteen random things about me. It's enough to make one's head spin.

1. Colors. I color-code things. On the calendar, my stuff is written in green. DrBob is black, Ignatz blue, the Sniglet red. When I knit sweaters, ring marker colors have Deeper Significance: purple for the left side, green for the right. Blue for the back, red for the front. It's important.
2. Numbers. I remember strings of numbers. I do multiplication tables in my head while I wait to fall asleep. I know all the squares up to 25, and I can count to 1023 just using my own ten fingers. None of this knowledge has ever been of any use to me whatsoever, but still. There it is.
3. Because 1+2 is 3, numbers have colors. One is red. Two is blue. Three is pink, four is purple, five is green. And so on. I don't know why I do this. I do know that I would love colored knitting needles, but I can't buy them until I find them in the right colors: the 2mms have to be blue, the 5mms green, etc. Otherwise I'd just be confused.
   
4. The bed must be made. I think I mentioned this one before - I read somewhere that you feel better when your bed is made, and I tried it, and durned if it isn't the truth. On busy days, when I leave the house early and get home just in time to go to bed, I can do without making my side of the bed. But even if I keep my back to DrBob's side, I know that his blanket isn't folded and his pillow isn't fluffed, and I know that they are staring at me. Waiting. And I can't fall asleep until I've fixed them.
5. When I was in junior high, my handwriting looked almost exactly like my dad's. By the time I was 30, it looked almost exactly like my mom's. Now it's like my mom's, only messy.
6. I do not like straight knitting needles. The only reason I even have any is because someone gave them to me. I never use them.
7. I haven't watched television on any kind of regular basis since I was about 17. I really miss it, but I never seem to find the time.
8. My hands and feet are almost always cold.
   

setback

It took me awhile to get rolling on that shawl for my mother-in-law, but it's been progressing pretty well, and I'm about halfway through. I was using a free online pattern from Interweave Knits. I just found out today that they've decided it should no longer be free. I'd just been going to the page when I needed further information (instead of saving a copy on my hard drive - yes I know, that was stupid), and now that it's gone, I can't finish the shawl. I could buy the pattern from Fiber Trends for $6.50, which is wholly reasonable, but they want $10 to send it to me. Ten freaking dollars to put a piece of paper in the mail. Yes I have the money, but no I'm not going to pay that, that's outrageous. What are they doing, mailing it to Saturn?

This is so aggravating, for two reasons: one, it's my own stupid fault for not saving a copy. Two, Interweave Knits owes me nothing: I am not entitled to this pattern in any way, and they are fully within their rights to remove it. So I have no right to be annoyed.

Knowing that it's my fault and I have no right to feel how I feel? Does not make me feel better.

Arrgh.

Yippee-hooray! And a teensy argh.

Okay, I signed up for Secret Pal 11 because I liked the idea of picking out pretty things and brightening a stranger's day. It was all about the giving, I thought, but no! I was wrong! It's the GETTING, BABY! My super-awesome Secret Pal who sent me all those reassuring emails when I was full of doubt about my ability to do a good job on my first SP swap sent me a box of wow! And yay! Look! How cute is this? SO cute! The green-and-black checkery-thing? It's a shoe! A ceramic witch's shoe! And how did she know about the bat thing? Ask Kelly, the bat is sort of my totem animal, but that's not widely known (well okay, now it is). Ha! Love! It!

And Trekking yarn, which is so fab because it solves my dilemma. Remember, I couldn't decide whether to use the Mari-yarn for Armadillo or Anastasia? Well, LOOK at that purple! Perfect for Anastasia, so now I get to choose both! Always my favorite option.

So much happy stuff! Stickers, Mardi Gras beads, pins, pen, paper, and I love that card, that's hilarious. Yay! As for the teensy argh, it's just that I couldn't get a good photo of the little hippo Webkinz guy - he really is a very nice light blue, but all the light blue stuff was really problematic with the camera flash, which I was using because the weather is so very icky today that it's been twilight all day. So I had to shoot it flashless, in natural li- um, what passes for light today. Gack. So the second photo does not do justice to the fabulousness of my Secret Pal loot.

And my Secret Pal is seriously awesome. Thank you SP!

arrived today

Le Swoon.

Now, what do I knit with it?

a meme from Elemm!

For newcomers via Ravelry, the other blog is the NaBloPoMo blog, because even though I've done all right for a week, there's no way I'll be able to write about the same five knitting projects every day for a month. So, if you want to read the wonder that is moi every single day this month (ugh, perish the thought), check over here. But since Elemm is a knitter-friend as well as a... well, the other kind, I thought I'd answer his questions over here. Now you owe me, Elemm! Come on, let's see 'em!

01. Can you cook?
If I must.
02. What was your dream growing up?
I wanted to be a linguist. Heh.
03. What talent do you wish you had?
Making small talk
04. If I bought you a drink what would it be?
A Margarita.
05. Favorite vegetable?
Broccoli! Take that, George Bush!
06. What was the last book you read?
I honestly cannot remember. Probably Between, Georgia.
07. What zodiac sign are you ?
Libra
08. Any tattoos and/or piercings?
3 tattoos, pierced ears
09. Worst habit?
Forgetting appointments. Or worrying. Or possibly being indecisive.
10. If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
Absolutely!
11. What is your favorite sport?
To watch? Soccer, American football, ice hockey, rugby, figure skating. To do myself? Um... thumb wrestling?
12. Negative or optimistic attitude?
Negative by nature, working on faking optimistic
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
Whip out the knitting!
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you?
My own bad choices.
15. Tell me one weird fact about you.
I can't count sheep to fall asleep. I always picture them leaping into a pond and drowning. It's too upsetting, so I do multiplication tables instead.
16. Do you have any pets?
One cat.
17. What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
Yay! Come on in! Or do you want to check out the LYS first?
18. What was your first impression of me?
Cheerful, talented.
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
Scary.
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
Thicker hair.
21. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
At 20, I would have been your partner in crime. Now, I try for conscience. Motherhood does change that about a person. And after listening to the podcast, I think you have enough partners in crime...
22. What color eyes do you have?
Blue
23. Ever been arrested?
No! Why? What have you heard?
24. Bottle or draft?
Draft.
25. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
Spend it on yarn, probably.
26. Would you date me?
If I weren't married? If you were straight? Or if I were gay and a guy? If you weren't almost young enough to be my son? I think that's too many ifs...
27. Where's your favorite place to hang out?
I really, really love my house.
28. Do you believe in ghosts?
Sure, why not?
29. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?
Knit and listen to podcasts.
30. Do you swear a lot?
Hell to the yeah! Ask my kids.
31. Biggest pet peeve?
People who chew with their mouth open. Ick.
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself?
Confused.
33. Do you believe in/appreciate romance?
Yes!
34. If you could spend 12 hours with me and ask/do anything you like, what would it be?
Benediktbeuern! Vaterstetten! Sauerlach!
35. Do you believe in God?
Um, yeah.
36. Will you repost this so I can fill it out and do the same?
Sure! See?