Busy, busy summer

As usual, my summers are filled with six- and seven-day work weeks and 10-hour days, so I've been a little lax on the blogging. Thanks to Free Shakespeare in the Park, however, there's been plenty of knitting time. And a couple of FO's to show for it!

First of all, last weekend was CNITU's second birthday, celebrated on the beach in Laguna. He had a blast! Here we are prepping the food (Chef Adam, sous-chef me. You can't tell, but I'm making PB&J sandwiches in the shape of fish.):



He liked his backpack (Stitches courtesy of taking a nose dive off his mini-Adirondack chair. Ah, the perils of suburban childhood.):



But he liked his bunny from Mom Wiz even more:



The beach is a great place to knit:



Finished the back of the dark pink camisole on the beach:



I also decided the fuzzy belt was not a belt but a scarf. I wasn't sure I liked it, but Sis admired it, so I finished it off for her with some green glass beads from a bead shop on Pacific Coast Highway:



The beads aren't terribly obvious, but they're there! I love that this scarf is made from Squiggle and Choo Choo yarns, since CNITU's favorite word is "choo choo." (He is a major Thomas the Tank Engine groupie.)

Finally, here are some photos of the White Lies Nicole lingerie. I will blog extensively about this pattern later, since it has some issues. But I wore the finished camisole to a concert yesterday and it was much admired.

Here's the back:



Here's the front:



And here's the not-quite finished panty:



Yikes! Scandalous photos on my blog! Don't worry, I'll stop short of photos of me wearing the above items, lest I be banned from the blogosphere.

You will notice the lack of photos of CNITU dressed in Blue Cardy. It's a bit small, as expected, plus it was darn hot and no way was the boy going to be put into a snuggly cardigan. It may well end up as a garment for Sibling-of-CNITU, due in January. SOCNITU's gender will be revealed in due course of time.

One-year Knitting Anniversary photos!

You'll notice that I have a tendency to lump all my photos into one posting. This is because I'm lazy, primarily, but I also like the way they all look together! I particularly like the pinks, blues, yellows, and greens in this spring-y posting.

First of all, I must dance the happy Blue Cardy dance! It's really done! I kid you not!

Here's the dark blue side, with nifty round buttons and pockets:



Here's the light blue side, with a little fish on the chest that I embroidered to match the buttons:



Here's the birthday gift together, cardy and backpack:



What have I learned from Blue Cardy?

1. Gauge is important. Without careful attention to gauge, your two contrasting sides won't fit together exactly, and there will be some puckering. This will bother you even if it doesn't bother anyone else.

2. Buy more yarn than you think you need, and don't give away the extra ball at a stash swap until you're quite sure you don't need it. (It was touch and go there at the end!)

3. If you don't feel like doing it just like the pattern, don't.

4. American children are way bigger than French children.

5. If your intended recipient outgrows the gift before you give it to him, never fear. People get pregnant all the time.

On to more fun photos! Here is a fun new project, made from Crystal Palace "Choo-choo" and "Squiggle." I got one ball of each at the Meetup Stash Swap, and decided to make a little easy belt, garter stitch on the bias, with the two yarns held together. I like it!



And here are some more photos of my Stash Swap acquisitions. This pile of yellow chenille and novelty acrylics are going to go toward a funky layette for the new CNITU sibling. (Sis is going to find out the gender in advance, so I'll combine it with blue or pink accordingly.)



I'm going to make this fluffy washcloth brown into teddy bears, and maybe a teddy bear costume for CNITU this Halloween.



Now a couple of things for me! First, the new project, the camisole from Vintage Knits (super close-up for full appreciation of Rowan cotton glace):



And here's White Lies lingerie, all ready for finishing. Scandalous!



Also, I was dissatisfied with the French knot I used as a button on PM's purse. Found the perfect button at Joann and replaced it on Saturday. She loves it! (She kissed it several times after I sewed it on. It might even get a name, we'll see.)



How satisfying to find the perfect final touch!

New camera, and major progress

Oy! Work has been occupying my time more than usual lately, no time to blog. But a few quick notes:

Camera report: Thanks to the good wishes of several kind friends and family members (and a very nice wife), the DH has a snazzy new early birthday present: Canon PowerShot SD300. Photos will reappear on my blog very soon.

These photos will be of Blue Cardy, which is now seamed and being joined together by nice crochet edgings. I probably shouldn't jinx it, but it looks pretty damn cute. All my gauge issues seem to be resolving themselves, and I like the crochet. It's hard to believe that by July 9, Blue Cardy will be out of my life. I almost miss it already.

Also of White Lies Lingerie, which is blocked and ready to be seamed. Also of my new project, the cotton camisole from Vintage Knits. I bought the yarn for it about a year ago, when I first started knitting. Do you notice a camisole trend? I figured I might as well make the summer stuff in the summer. Go figure.

A year! Spinnity pointed that out to me the other day. I have been knitting for about a year. Pretty significant.

Knitting Horoscopes!

As I was coasting the web searching for Bahama, I came across this very fun website: Knitting Horoscopes! I'm a Capricorn, which of course means that I like a challenge, something no one who knows me would dispute! My horoscope recommends Artyarns, which looks a lot like Koigu. Nobleknits does carry Bahama in a lot of nifty colors. I think our bathmat is going to be periwinkle with pink and cream stripes.

I noticed that Feza also carries yarns called Barbados and Fiesta. This is party yarn!

Weekend knitting report: Finished Feesh Backpack -- all it needs is a little tag saying it was made by me. DH took lots o'photos, but all on my old analog camera, so patience is required. I was so obsessed by it that I neglected Blue Cardy completely, and made little progress on White Lies -- although I now possess a size J crochet hook from Vanessa's.

Oh! And I almost forgot! There is a book out that every knitter must own! It's called Loop-d-Loop by Teva Durham. I read about it in Interweave Knits a couple of issues ago, and it's divine. Lots of very deconstructed, fascinating designs, very funky. And Teva gives Sally M. a run for her money in the Zen Knitting department. It's inspirational; I couldn't tear myself away from it Saturday afternoon. She makes me want to become a knitwear designer.

Friends' plays report: Saw B.K. in Harold Pinter's Moonlight on Saturday night. Liked her, liked some of the actors, like the play itself, but thought it was a bit overdirected. Pinter needs less direction than most directors seem to realize. (I can say this because I saw a production of The Birthday Party that the man himself directed in London, and it was more real than realism.) The DH did not care for the play, but I think he'd like it better in a different production. Last Tuesday we saw S.A. in The Black-Eyed, a new play about Palestinian women. Not bad, some bits stronger than others, but definitely had an impact. It was J.H.'s directing debut at the M.T., very nicely done!

Bahama mama

My big white envelope from Yarn-of-the-Month arrived yesterday, and I instantly fell in love with Bahama, and the enclosed pattern for a big fuzzy bathmat. It's hard to describe this yarn -- it's a washable acrylic blend, very soft, that looks like a ladder: two side bars and lots of rungs in between. When knit up, it apparently forms a sort of terry-cloth or toweling-like fabric. Suggested needle sizes are 11-15, much bigger than I normally knit with, so it would go fast! I just wrote to them to find out where I can buy more. The problem -- the yarn is shown in very bright summer-y colors like red and turquoise that normally, I would love, but our bathroom in the Bungalow is retro pink and cream. It really needs something a little more pastel.

Chalazion report: Small but still red and lurking.

Pregnant Sis report: Tuesday was a very bad day. Nauseous with a cold on top of everything, she managed to get into two small fender-benders in one day. (This is a few weeks after her DH's car was hit at a stop sign and totalled -- he's fine.) Most mournful moment -- driving CNITU around for an hour to make him go to sleep (we used to call him "Speed baby;" if you stopped the car, he'd explode), then parking at a shopping center and passing out in exhaustion herself. I can just picture them both asleep in the Laguna sun, mouths open.

Knitting report: Body of White Lies lingerie finished! One cup almost finished, only took about 1/2 hour so I'm sure the second one will be done this weekend. The panty should go just as fast. Then I will really be in finishing land. This weekend, I am committed to finishing the Feesh Backpack and making some more serious progress on finishing Blue Cardy. So hard to sit and sew when there's all that yarn to knit up!

Knitting desires: More Bahama. Size J crochet hook for finishing White Lies lingerie. Lingerie elastic for same.

Good-bye, camera!

It gave up the ghost. Did not care for its salt water bath. But before it died, my DH did manage to salvage the card with photos intact. Here is my favorite girl PM with her birthday present from me:



And here she is with her bunny from Mom Wiz, and her mommy, of course:



And here I am, casting on for Camp Knitting! That's a nice ball of Prairie Silk from Brown Sheep. The circular is 12", which is too big. The pattern calls for 8" circulars, which don't exist. So I spent a lot of time pulling the plastic center cord between stitches.



And you'll have to imagine the completed fingerless gloves, as well as the almost-completed body for the White Lies lingerie camisole, since they happened after the camera's death.

Final note of the day -- props to Christine Stork, owner of Article Pract, an LYS in Oakland. (Don't you love that store name? It's a fun juxtaposition of "Practical Art.") She was cool enough to let our new TD at SF Shakes out of his work obligations there so that he could take over the TD position at short notice. Christine is hoping to replace him, so any potential yarn store employees should contact her at 510/595-7875. Please, also, if you are ever in the East Bay, go check out her store and buy something! 5010 Telegraph Ave. in Oakland. If the store's anywhere near as cool as the website, you'll be thrilled to be there.

Big news!

Okay everyone, time to tell me about all your favorite baby sweater, bootie, blanket, and hat patterns -- CNITU is going to have a sibling! S/he is due about a week after my birthday, in early January. So the little Capricorn will be spoiled rotten by Auntie Becca.

Sis is feeling crappy, fat, and sick, but that phase will be over fairly soon. Meanwhile please enjoy the photos of CNITU, future genius architect, and his cousin James from Manchester making a sand castle in Laguna Beach.

Unfortunately it's sideways, but here's the little dude all tuckered out from a day making sand castles. 

And here's the completed sand castle! (with sun-burned James) 

My cousin James visited from England last week -- here he is building a sand castle in Laguna with CNITU. 

It's Baaaaack! (Chalazion II -- the terrifying sequel)

I have just returned from a WONDERFUL five days of backpacking the Lost Coast in Humboldt County, and woke up this morning to find that my eyelid hurts again. I think the chalazion is coming back. Time for the wet washcloth and eye drops! The doctor warned that this might happen. Argh!

Camp knitting: finished the adorable pair of fingerless gloves! Bound off the last stitch just as the sun was setting last night on the car trip home. The yarn is gorgeous, they're warm and cozy, and I can't wait to make another pair.

I will take a photo just as soon as I know if our camera is okay -- it took an unfortunate dip in the ocean when my DH decided to jump into the waves fully clothed, and forgot it was in his pocket. You have to know my DH to truly appreciate this story -- he gets a little crazy in the great outdoors!

Finally, I received this lovely note from Princess M's mommy: "She was so proud of her purse that Auntie Becca made for her. She took it to school for sharing on Thursday and proudly told anyone who would listen that you had made it for her. She even showed it off to people in the church office with my mom after school that day."

I have a fan! One day when she's a famous movie star, I can be her personal knitwear designer.

Looking forward to my first meet-up in ages tomorrow night -- hooray!

Props to Mel and Camp Knitting

Please, everybody, if you haven't already, go visit Mel's blog and give her props for finishing the Monkey Bag from Knitty. It looks great, but apparently was a huge pain in the butt. Her descriptions made me NEVER want to knit with hemp.

I have definitely decided on the wrist warmers (or fingerless gloves, if you prefer) for my camp knitting project. This is a pattern from Joelle Hoverson's book "Last Minute Knitted Gifts" -- a book I like more and more every time I pick it up. Joelle goes over all the basics, including color selection, and has gorgeous, detailed photos as well as clear instructions. And as someone who likes to make people presents, I love it.

Knitting Frenzy!

Chalazion report: Smallish red blemish on lower eyelid. Not very puffy. Hopefully will continue to fade in color and not leave a permanent scar.

Head injury report: In what can only be described as a bizarre gardening accident, my former roommate M, who is not a knitter but a jewelry designer, stepped on the end of a rake just like people do in bad sitcoms. The handle bounced up and hit her, and she ended up with a sizeable bruise on her upper eyelid. Be careful out there, people. The star in charge of eye-related injuries is clearly up to something.

Knitting report: My show opened Friday, and after two weeks without a day off and four days without touching knitting needles, I spent Saturday in what can only be described as a knitting frenzy.

Blue Cardy progress: here it is! The completed dark blue half with a partially completed light blue half. Buttons aren't sewn on yet, but aren't they cute?



Princess M's bag now has a cotton lining AND a label indicating who made it for her. She will receive this tomorrow night at her 3rd birthday dinner:





CNITU's "feesh" backpack is now in a state of almost-done-ness. (Note the super-cute lining fabric.)



I cast on the White Lies Nicole lingerie! The yarn is a super-soft wool and silk blend, so nice on the fingers! I'm enjoying it thoroughly. This is how it looked Sunday evening, but it's progressed another few inches since then:



And finally, I made it over to my San Mateo LYS, Vanessa's Needlepoint and Knitting Shoppe, on Saturday afternoon. Despite the annoying extra "p" and "e," this is a nice big store with tons of yarn! I was a bit overwhelmed, but noted some favorite brands including Prism, Great Adirondack, Debbie Bliss, Muench, and Trendsetter, but sadly, no Rowan. GREAT 50% off sale baskets on the floor, and instead of just random balls of weird novelty yarns, they had multiples of the same color in interesting solid color yarns. Here's my on-sale stash from this shopping trip:



Fabulous Modigliani and Muench yarns, also note the free pen and tape measure you get for signing up for Vanessa's frequent shopping card. Vanessa herself is very sweet and was dressed in a gorgeous, drapy black-and-white poncho.

(You'll have noticed I'm posting more photos than usual, this is thanks to my new laptop and my DH's mac.com homepage. I have severed my ties with the Microsoft moster that is Hello!)

For my final photo of the day, I'd like to share MomWiz's terrific bunny for PM's birthday -- she made one for us for the wedding, and now the Princess herself will possess her very own girly version.



Outdoor Knitting report: The DH and I and some friends are off to the Lost Coast in Humboldt this weekend for a backpacking trip. A long car drive and plenty of relaxation time in the big outdoors means one thing: knitting! I will take Nicole along for the drive, but she's just too pale and delicate for camp knitting. I swatched a set of fingerless gloves last night in a nice burgundy wool for my camp knitting project. Might bring along a baby hat as well -- I have a great new pattern from the Yarn of the Month club to knit in Rowan Tweed 4-ply.

Head injuries to knitters week

It's getting better! The chalazion is now a reddish, crusty scab, still ugly but distinctly smaller than it was. I can now see over my own lower eyelid, which is nice.

So I must turn my attention to poor C, who has stitches across her eyelid. It begs the question, how did this heinous thing happen? Pray tell, Christina!

To all the other knitters out there, I offer this advice: Duck. We must put an end to this epidemic!

The sty that would not die, part two

A visit to the doctor yesterday about the world's ugliest and largest sty revealed that it is NOT a sty, but something called a "chalazion," which is apparently Klingon for "large ugly bump on the eyelid." I had never heard of such a thing, but lo and behold, you can read about them here, if you are the victim of sick curiosity.

I sometimes think my family was specially chosen by God to experience strange and unusual maladies. My father is just getting over an obscure viral attack on his thyroid, my mother's last trip to Alaska was cut short by some weird intestinal blockage, I'm the only person I know to have ever suffered from viral menengitis, my sister has a bizarre degenerative eye disease, and now this. Much less life-threatening, but much more hideous.

The chalazion, having now been subjected to antibiotics and warm compresses, is turning yellowish and flatter and achieving a whole new level of ugly. I hope this means it is going away. If not, I will have to go back to the doctor next week and have it surgically removed. Blech.

Meanwhile, at every free waking moment I have to have a warm washcloth over my eye, which means I can't see to knit. Evil chalazion! The final insult!

Uglification and disgruntlement

I have joined the ranks of the truly ugly. Cinderella's step-sister ugly. Phantom of the Opera ugly. Frightening small children ugly.

I have an enormous sty right in the center of my lower left eyelid. It's the size of a small cherry tomato, and about the same color. It is not possible to camouflage something this big and hideous with anything except dark glasses, and I am not pretentious enough to wear dark glasses indoors, so the end result is that I have spent the last several days frightening people. It's actually fairly entertaining. I'll walk into a room, remove my sunglasses, and observe the expressions of shock and/or horror. People who love me, like my DH, are quite honest about it. "Gosh, it's gotten worse!" he exclaimed last night after I'd spent several hours deluding myself into thinking it had gotten better. "It looks really awful!"

I much prefer his reaction to those of the polite folks who attempt not to comment, like the young teacher I interviewed this morning. She kept trying not to stare at it, but she couldn't help herself. She kept blinking quickly and then jerking her gaze suddenly to the right. Fascinating. I could have taken her off the hook by excusing my appearance in advance, but I was seized with a desire to discover what the truly deformed have to deal with.

I would take a picture of it to share with you all, but I'm not sure I want it documented for posterity. I will be quite relieved when it's finally gone, although it might take a while. Ugliness this profound does not go gently into the good night.

Shall I talk about knitting now? I had a few hours to kill on Saturday, so I made a naughty visit to Knitting Arts for their Mother's Day sale. Acquired a lovely array of Rowan, Muench, and Great Adirondack. The Rowan is all wool tweeds, dk and 4-ply, in greenish-blue, off-white, and rose, the Muench is Samoa cotton(the best for my little backpacks and purses), in lt. blue, lt. green, pink, and peach, and the Great Adirondack is crazy stuff, fuzzy and shiny and sparkly, in a rainbow of pastels to match the Samoa. Kind of like the Prism we used to make Shawlapalooza -- I have this idea for a little poncho and matching bag in Samoa/Adirondack for Princess M, a smaller version of the Fuzzy Sparkly poncho. The Rowan is for a hat from Interweave Knits last winter, plus some socks. When I get around to socks!

I'm halfway through the final knitting piece for CNITU's backpack; soon it will be ready to block and crochet together. Slow going -- I have NO TIME to knit at the moment, since my middle school students have their final performance on Friday and my show goes into tech on Saturday. I recall Sally Melville saying in one of her books that if she doesn't have time to knit every day, she gets grumpy. Ah, Sally, how right you are.

Another happy mom!

My DH and I presented Mom with her Bias Betty scarf yesterday, along with a book on the History of Chocolate (we are all three huge chocoholics). She was very appreciative and sent a nice thank-you email right away. I look forward to posting a picture of her in her scarf! Perhaps it will come in handy on their upcoming trip to Alaska.

I sewed the hood on Blue Cardy yesterday and finished off one of the pockets with a row of crochet. It looks great, but it's slow progress. Sleeves and the other pocket next, then I'll start finishing the light blue side. Still, it will almost definitely be done by CNITU's birthday, whether it fits him or not! The CNITU "feesh" backpack continues to progress swimmingly, pun intended.

Hooray for thank-you notes!

As always, it is pleasant to be thanked. My DH is something of a thank-you note champion, which makes me very spoiled. But he was well-trained -- my MIL sent a nice email right after receiving the pillow, which is now residing in a drawer as a sachet. (It's a bit small for a throw pillow, so the sachet use makes more sense.)

I wish there was a way to refresh the lavender without disassembling the whole thing -- maybe a spray of linen water?

Now must get around to writing those last few wedding thank-yous...

Here's the knit side of the Mother's Day pillow... 

Here's the fabric side. It's filled with lavender to use as a drawer sachet. Size is about 8" sqaure. 

Lingerie it is!

Well, there were very few truly decisive votes, only one on the actual blog, but it looks like at least my male friends are in favor of the White Lies Lingerie. I have to admit it looks fairly difficult, so I'll review the pattern and see if I can handle it or if I need to practice my lace skills on the Aura shawl first.

Anyway, as Spinnity points out, it's spring and one really should be knitting seasonal garments. Ah, spring, when a young man's thoughts turn to lingerie...

Knitting on the big screen: I saw Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy this weekend, which was of course disappointing since it just couldn't be as good as the books, but knitters should watch for the very cool knitting section of the movie. I expect patterns for the knitted elements to be posted on-line any day now, after all the knitting geeks have seen the movie and jumped up and down about it on their blogs. Meanwhile, here's a really delightful column about technology from the late, great Douglas Adams. Hard to know if he would have hated or loved the movie; it definitely Americanized his delightfully dry humor, but he re-wrote the story for the radio and TV shows and doesn't seem to have had much of a sense of self-importance about the whole phenomenon.

Other knitting news: The Nancie Wiseman pillow is finished and on its way to MIL. We took photos; they will be posted in the fullness of time. The Feesh Backpack is ongoing. Blue Cardy is still in various pieces. Spinnity lent me her blocking wires so that I can put final touches on Bias Betty for Mom's Day.

And to respond to C's request for button gossip: I got some teddy bear buttons for the Halloween costume I'm designing for Peter this year. Also got really tiny yellow and orange buttons just because they're so cute and leetle! (What is it about girls and little tiny things? It really is a strange impulse.) And some blue and green shell buttons that are pretty and elegant. The buttons I used for the NW Pillow are silver with a vintage floral design.

Mother's Day progress and more

The trouble with finishing Blue Cardy is that it cannot be done without complete and total focus. I've had to start a couple of other things in order to have take-along knitting for rehearsals and car trips.

New project #1 is actually an old project -- I'm finishing off my little pillow from Nancie Wiseman's Stitches class for my MIL. Got cute buttons from Joann yesterday for accents. Actually, I went a bit nuts on cute buttons and got lots more than I actually need, but, you know, they were there and they were cute.

New project #2 is just like PM's bag, but it's CNITU's backpack, to go with Blue Cardy. And he won't grow out of it. CNITU and his parents left Sunday for an impromptu trip to Hawaii. Lucky CNITU! Hopefully he will get to see lots of "feesh," which are his favorite thing. I bought fabric covered with "feesh" to line the backpack.

So far I am just coasting along on both of these and will have no problems getting them done in time for various b-days, Mother's Day, etc. The question now is what should be my next big project. Aura shawl? White Lies top? White Lies lingerie? Belle Epoque top? That pair of fingerless gloves I've been meaning to make? Please feel free to vote.

Blue Cardy at last! Side, shoulder, sleeve, and hood seams sewn, I just need to set in sleeves, attach hood and pockets, and of course do the light blue side and sew them both together with crab stitch, add buttons, etc. It's a long finishing process but I'm pleased with the way it's fitting together. 

Here's a detail of the pretty beaded edge. 

Here is Bias Betty finished! I think I will borrow Spinnity's blocking wires to even out the edge a little. I love the beads! 

Profound minutiae?

My friend Kevin has accused me, rightfully enough, of dwelling on "minutiae" in my blog. He is, of course, correct -- this is pretty much what a blog is for, particularly a knitting blog with a fairly specific readership in mind.

However, his comment did send my thoughts to the wonderful books of Sally Melville, the Zen Buddhist priestess of knitting, and her ideas about the right and left hemispheres of the brain, and specifically how the right brain is free, while knitting, to expand and create on its own. Sally mentions that activities that are repetitive and require little focused analytical thought can do this. (My DH, of course, uses this as an excuse to spend hours playing computer games. But why not, if it accomplishes the same thing?) Are the recording and processing of minutiae part of this experience, I wonder? Perhaps I will email Sally and ask her.

Thinking about right brain and left brain a lot right now while reading up on Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes for my next show. Sylvia's journals are fascinating. I think, had she lived today, she would have been a voracious blogger. It seems clear to me that she was enamoured of her own genius and knew the journals would be published one day. She knew everyone would hang desperately onto every detail of her everyday existence. Those journals are her immortality, and perhaps that's why we all blog, to put some kind of public record of our internal life out into the world.

At any rate, on to the minutiae! I have successfully blocked the light blue seed stitch pieces of Blue Cardy (and yes, Spinnity, you are right, this greatly reduced the differences between the old and new sections), and I have sewn the side seams on the dark blue side. They look very nice and tidy. Shoulders next, then setting in sleeves, which I am dreading -- any pointers? Then the same on the other side and there's a complicated bit where I have to attach the two with crab stitch -- can't remember how to do crab stitch! Luckily the internet exists for such dilemmas.

Just about done now with Bias Betty, so it will have a photo op soon and I will move on to Peter's Backpack.

Blocking vs. Blocking

Now for a brief side trip into etymology. I have been thinking about the word "block." As a noun, it's a square piece of wood, or a child's toy. Or a section of city between cross streets.

As a verb, I use it a lot in my work in the theatre. "Blocking" is basically stage movement -- where each actor travels in relation to the others on stage. I've no idea why it's called that; it's become such a natural part of my vocabulary that I never stopped to think about it. Now, however, another use of the verb has popped up, and I have damp, stretched-out pieces of Blue Cardy all over my living room as a result.

"Blocking" in knitting is where each stitch travels in relation to the others in the piece?

Not exactly, I suppose, but there's something similar there, and it's not the square shape of the stage or frequently square shape of a piece of knitting. It's the idea of balance -- by placing one actor stage right, standing, perhaps another two must be stage left, seated, in order to balance the stage picture. There are no rules to it; it must be seen and felt. The shape has to be right. That's the similarity, I suppose. I'm trying to balance the pieces of Blue Cardy so they will fit together properly and create something pleasing to the eye.

Other notes: I added about an inch to the top of each light blue side in order to "balance" with the dark blue. I'm afraid you can see the difference rather clearly between the older part that's been sitting around a while and the new part. I think I will also have to add about 2-4 inches to the cuffs of the sleeves, since CNITU has monkey arms and is already as tall as a 3-year-old.

And I'm very nearly finished with Bias Betty.

Here's Melissa's Bag! My sister has requested a backpack version in blues and greens for CNITU -- I'll post the very easy pattern as soon as I remember to write it down. 

My other obsession (well, one of them)

I just have to share... the gang at work just treated me to a delightful afternoon tea at Lovejoy's Tea Room. I've been hearing about this place for ages, and had never been. It's marvelous. If you live anywhere near SF, you must go. They actually get the British tea thing right -- the menu has chutney-and-cheese sandwiches, Ribena, and real live Devon scones that TASTE like Devon scones, not these weird dry triangular things you get at Starbuck's. The china is all charmingly mix-and-match, there are knitted tea cozies everywhere, and crocheted doilies. The two men in our party were very skeptical at first, but were totally won over by the sausage rolls and the generally congenial atmosphere. In fact, John said, "Wow, I should have brought my knitting" -- he was being facetious, but he was right -- it would be the PERFECT place to knit! Nobody there was knitting, but they all should have been.

I had a delicious Vanilla Rooibus, which you may know if you are also a tea nerd like myself, is not actually tea but an African legume. It is naturally caffeine free and quite robust. Then there were the flaky, scrumptious scones, the clotted cream, the raspberry preserves, and the Stilton-and-pear sandwiches. They also serve a nice selection of fresh fruit, including lots of things you probably wouldn't see at Harrod's, like kiwi, pineapple, and grapefruit. Real cream and sugar, not a hint of half-and-half or sweet n'low in the entire place.

It was dreamy. We talked about Belize and weddings and parking in San Francisco (if you're ever in a lulling conversation in SF, bring up parking tickets.) I can't wait to go back. Only this time, I'm bringing my knitting.

An FO! As easy as that!

Last night I had a very quiet evening in the bungalow. My DH was off dealing with his former place of residence, which has to be cleaned and inspected this week, so I've been mostly alone for the last few days. I'd been working on my taxes (yuck), so the best reward after a couple of hours of that was to work on my knitting (yum).

I had blocked all the Princess M bag pieces on Saturday, so everything was dry and ready to be stitched together. Seaming is not my favorite activity, but I do find it satisfying when the stripes all line up just as they're supposed to. Especially when the object in question was designed on the fly in a Belize cabana without the aid of calculators or even surfaces clean of sand.

So I mattress-stitched everything together, then did a single-crochet edge all round the top of the purse, then did a scalloped design on the flap of the purse. It fastens with a big crochet flower in front. The strap is a strip of single crochet with another flower on the top to reinforce the shoulder. I will get my DH to take photos tonight. It's cute! Very appropriate for a three-year-old who likes purses. I am debating lining it with some yellow linen I have lying around.

Friday night I also started on Bias Betty, my Koigu project from Stitches. It's another small, accomplishable piece. Maybe a Mom's Day gift!

Tanned, happy, and without deadlines

Just got back from wonderful, glorious Belize, where I didn't touch a phone, computer, or television for 10 glorious days. We rode horses, got massages, ate great food, drank amazing margaritas, explored caves, hiked through Mayan ruins, watched birds and monkeys, snorkeled, kayaked, sat on palm-covered beaches, and generally relaxed -- pictures are coming soon! My sweetie read about four books and I reminded myself how to crochet. Debbie Stoller says it's better than knitting for the beach, and I agree. I made a lop-sided dishcloth in order to practice lots of different stitches, a pretty red coaster, and two decorative flowers, all from patterns in Melissa Leapman's Cozy Crochet. I recommend the book, it refreshed my memory after my crochet class at stitches and the patterns are simple and some of them are really fast.

I liked the decorative flowers so much that I grabbed my knitting needles to knit up a little striped bag, designed off the top of my head for Princess M (her birthday is coming soon!) I've finished all the knitted pieces, and just need to block them, sew them together, and add crocheted trim and flowers. It's in cheerful yellow, red, and orange stripes -- really bright and summery.

This casual, off-the-cuff knitting made me so happy after all the deadlines! It's been a long time since I knit something without a deadline -- Ghosty, Shawlapalooza, and the Stitches homework. Blue Cardy had a missed deadline and now might not fit it's intended recipient at all. But without a wedding or rehearsals or anything else this weekend, I am going to block sweater and bag pieces, and figure out how I'm going to sew everything together. And even better, if I don't finish, nothing terrible will happen.

Don't know what's next, I'll probably try to finish Blue Cardy and Stripy Bag, and then pick up the needles again for something from my Stitches stash. Maybe the Koigu scarf, or one of the White Lies pieces. Hooray for being off the clock!

One week to the wedding!

Not much blogging going on lately, as you can imagine -- we are getting closer and closer to the Big Day! So I have little to say except that my head is spinning with guest lists, caterer contracts, schedules down to the minute of everything that has to happen next weekend.

I do have some fun stuff happening - I had my hair done by my stylist yesterday and she is GREAT! I ended up with a fun 40's-era chignon, super-cute and chic.

And Shawlapalooza is going well! Bogie finished hers, hoorah, with plenty of time to spare, and I am expecting to be done very soon, maybe even this weekend. Spinnity is not far behind. So everyone will have a charming green fuzzy shawl to wear!

Now all I have to do is keep from chewing my nails off!

Two-Year-Olds in Yarn Stores

I had the pleasure of accompanying my best friend and her adorable two-year-old daughter Princess M to Knitting Arts last night to look for ribbon and fibre to bind the cool wedding programs she is designing. I must commend the wonderful staff for not only their yarn-hunting expertise (we ended up with some great stuff to complement the green sparkly paper), but also for their patience with an over-tired two-year-old! S was brave to bring Princess M along anyway, but as a single mom she often finds that she must run errands with the little person in tow.

Children in yarn stores are less dangerous than, say, children in china shops, since the things they are throwing to the floor and bringing to show you are pretty much unbreakable. PM had a swell time at first picking up pretty skeins and balls: "Look, Mommy. Look, Ah-Becca. Pretty." Then she spotted the spring storefront display, which was of little parasols in vases, set on a ledge at perfect two-year-old height. PM saw them and rushed over to pick up a tiny parasol, just her size, and hold it over her head. "Brella. Raining," she told us, holding her hand palm up a la Gene Kelly. Fearing for the fragile parasol, S quickly put an end to that activity, but PM was hooked and just wouldn't stop playing with the parasols until S picked her up and held onto her. She then started that fake-y two-year-old crying, that isn't really crying but more an announcement of the unfairness of the universe.

Luckily, an attentive Knitting Arts employee appeared with one of those measuring tapes that are all the rage right now, with a little animal's tail coming out of a patterned square box, and a little button to make the tail snap back into place. This provided at least five minute's happy diversion, and we were able to focus on choosing some yarn.

The inevitable melt-down occurred, however, with hitting and yelling and yarn-throwing. We had a few moments of that sort of multi-tasking that modern mothers are so brilliant at. "So, how about these two together, just a second, sweetie, Mommy's looking at yarn, do you like the brown or the blue, okay, put that down, do you want a time-out?" Miraculously, we got five skeins chosen before total chaos set in.

And at the end of it all, the salespeople were still smiling. AND saying that they loved kids. Who knows what they said after we had left (and I certainly wouldn't blame them if they expressed other sentiments), but you gotta love that sort of patience.

Typepad issues solved... and Shawlapalooza

When I came in to work on Tuesday morning, I had a shiny "new" computer with Windows 2000 pro instead of my clunky old Windows 98! (Yes, we in the non-profit world work out of leaky warehouses with no air conditioning, use computers built over ten years ago, and have homeless people in vans living across the street. Ah, the glamour of the thea-tah!)So the long and the short of it is, I can now comment on Typepad blogs. It just works now for some reason, when it didn't before. Huzzah!

The other news is all about Shawlapalooza, which is detailed much more thoroughly and beautifully at Spinnity's Blog. (Wow, look at that, on my new computer I don't have to manually type in the http code!) I would guess I am about a third of the way through the shawl that I am creating (Bogie and Spinnity are also creating one each), which makes me happy because the odds of finishing it before the wedding are pretty darn good.

So for those who are paying attention, the wedding is now 17 days away and counting, and we have actually put together the pieces of our dining room table and unpacked a few more boxes. I love actually living in the same house as my sweetie, except that I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning. Ahem. That sounds a bit naughty, and you can go there if you like, but it's also that it's such a nice warm bed with a nice warm boy in it. It's actually pretty hilarious the number of times the alarm has to go off every morning before we get up - first his watch alarm goes off, which I can barely hear, then my alarm goes off (a gentle beep) which I hit the snooze button on, then after my 4-minute snooze has gone off a few times and been ignored, his clock radio goes off across the room and he leaps out of bed in a panic, knocking bedclothes, books, and slippers asunder, and slams the thing off. (It's VERY loud, with a combination of rapid Spanish-speaking voices and manic beeping that could wake the dead.) Then he shuffles and mutters his way into the bathroom, and without him there, I actually consider getting up. Then he comes BACK, and I abandon that plan. With all the alarms now silenced, it's usually about 45 minutes after the first alarm went off when I actually get up. It's not a great system, and we're going to have to do something about it eventually, but wow, so nice and cozy and lovely to have him there every morning!

What is up with Typepad? Help!

Okay people out there in blogging land, I need help! I have two fellow knitters with Typepad blogs that I would very much like to comment on because they are great blogs! But whenever I click in the comment field and type, nothing shows up on the screen. Just blank spaces. And then my mouse freezes up and I can't use the scroll bar or anything.

Has anyone else had this experience? Am I doing something wrong? Or is it just my lame ancient non-profit organization computer?

(Drum Roll, Please) TA-DAAAAA!!!!

I have finished Blue Cardy! Yes, it happened on Sunday morning, appropriately enough during the glorious Stitches West weekend. I woke up early, sat straight up in bed, and thought "Now. Now is the moment." It took about 20 minutes to do those last couple of rows on each sleeve. My sweetie took a picture of me with the finished pieces, soon to be posted.

Now comes the finishing, but I am feeling much more prepared for that after my lovely weekend at Stitches!

Here is the play-by-play for those who are intereted:

Friday at 1 pm: Arrive at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Make mad dash through Marketplace. Complete sensory overload. Run into Julie the sock goddess from Knitting Meet-Up.

1:30 pm: Crochet for Knitters with Edie Eckman. Wow! I learned to crochet! I plan to sew Blue Cardy together using single crochet, and finish the edges with crab stitch, as the pattern suggests. And now I know how!

5 pm: Meet up with Spinnity, another quick dash through the Marketplace. Still overwhelming, but we linger over some Koigu, and I pick up a cheap copy of Lily Chin's Urban Knitter.

6 pm: We get in line for the fashion show and dinner. Not much to say about this other than the gals at our table were lovely, the food was decent, the show was too long and the garments difficult to see. But we took note of some favorites to purchase on Saturday.

Saturday at 8:30 am: An early morning, but worth it! Melissa Leapman's Basic Pattern Drafting. I like Melissa, but she schills her books a little too much, and her sweater patterns are not my personal taste. Plus, there are some obnoxious women in the back of the class who talk way too much. But I get to bend my brain around some math and the handout will be useful, I think.

Saturday lunch: Ack! First of all, no decent vegetarian options in the hotel at all, so I stuff down a plain green salad and venture into the Marketplace. Insane! Barely room to move. But with Spinnity as my guide, I discover a great new pattern designer, White Lies, and manage to snag a pretty sweater pattern before they totally sell out. I also pick up a pattern for a sweater from Knitter's Studio in Menlo Park, a cool drop-stitch Aran they have on display. I really like Wilma, the owner, and will have to visit her shop in the future.

Finally, the heat and claustrophobia get to be too much, and we head off to class, vowing never again to go the Marketplace at Saturday lunch.

1:30 pm: At last, I fling myself at the feet of knitting guru and goddess Sally Melville, and boy, does she meet expectations! First, though, I find that flowers have been delivered to our classroom by my sweetheart in recognition of our wedding just one month away!

Sally teaches Good Grafting, using absolutely innovative yet simple techniques. I won't describe them at length here, but if you *ever* get the chance to take one of her classes, seize it. She is divine.

4:30 pm: Back to the Marketplace, but I don't last long. Pick up some books at Yarn Barn that have been on my list: Sally's The Knit Stitch and Last-Minute Knitted Gifts (so clever!). They're sold out of Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge, so I'll have to get that later. I also pick up a small crochet hook and a copy of Melissa Leapman's Cozy Crochet for my new secondary hobby! Also fall in love with a Trendsetter yarn called Aura. More on Aura later! And a second trip to White Lies to peruse their ransacked shelves yields a lingerie kit and a second pretty sweater pattern.

Run into several Knitting Meet-up friends -- the Nyquist sisters, Jeni, etc.

Then home to sleep!

Sunday 12:15 pm: After finishing Blue Cardy and taking a quick side trip to Jo-Ann for supplies, I head to the Marketplace for a final shopping spree. This is a good one -- much less crowded, much more room to move! I get the soft, sparkly Aura yarn at Yarn Barn to create an amazing evening shawl. I plan to do this simpler lace project before attacking the White Lies sweaters. I also pick up a small, easy Koigu pattern for a little scarf.

Then Spinnity and I drift over to a side of the Marketplace we haven't looked at much before, and visit Knitting Diva of Fremont, where we meet the talented Miss Tina Whitmore of Knit Whits! I get her new crochet hat kit as well as three other patterns, a circular needle case, and a couple of knitting-themed notecard sets (I can always use those.) We observe the very well-laid-out booth for Los Altos' Uncommon Threads, glance at a few others, and then head to class, much poorer but happier.

1:30 pm: The perfect class for the end of a long weekend! The adorable Nancie Wiseman teaches Combining Knitting with Fabric, after which we actually have a half-finished project. Nancie's easy technique for picking up stitches from tapestry fabric to create pillows and jackets is very clever and easy. I am halfway through my little pillow, which I will share with the Meet-up folks on Wednesday. I want to try this technique to attach fun novelty-yarn cuffs to store-bought gloves and socks.

A great weekend overall, and I feel like I have projects for the next year at least! But with Blue Cardy in the bag and Spinnity making such excellent design progress on the wedding wraps, it will soon be time to tackle something new -- on the beaches of Belize!

I'm a Good Girl

I finished my homework for tomorrow two nights ago (sitting at the kitchen table of my new home in San Mateo!), and I'm about halfway through Saturday's homework. I am feeling a little less overwhelmed and I'm starting to get excited! Looking forward to seeing everyone there! I'll be taking the Crochet for Knitters class tomorrow just in case anyone else is?

Homework!

I took Wednesday off in order to catch up with Life stuff (Life meaning wedding, moving, and knitting), after two weekends in a row of Work stuff (casting Much Ado About Nothing for the Shakespeare Festival.) And I finally got around to opening that thick envelope from Stitches West.

Lo and behold! I have oodles of homework to do before the 11th!

I got a fair start last night on a swatch for Sally Melville's grafting class. I used some exciting little bits of yarn from my Yarn of the Month club membership (Kiss by King Yarns, a gorgeous soft acrylic and wool blend, and Prairie Silk by Brown Sheep, a sexy silk, mohair, and wool blend). Of course, the swatch ends up being pretty long and complex, so I have to order more of the yarn. No skin off my nose, since it's lovely, lovely yarn.

Last night I also threw myself at the feet of my yarn mentor Spinnity, pleading for wisdom on the wedding wraps. She researched and swatched (while I did my homework like a good girl) and has come up with some very nice ideas for the precious hand-dyed Prism ribbon yarn. More news to come on that front, but we may actually get somewhere with these. I should also issue public thanks to Spinnity for the beautiful Charlotte shawl she made for me to go over my wedding dress. I picked out the colors a while ago, and through some miracle managed to choose all the colors in the wedding. It's very pretty and I know I will use it for much more than just the wedding.

And finally, the news you have all been waiting for: how is Blue Cardy?! Oh, my friends, it is just so close. So close. About 14 rows to go and it will be done. But I've only been doing about a row a day, since I've been busy packing in the evenings rather than knitting. But I am so looking forward to getting it off the needles and into finishing land!

Where on earth have I been?

At endless auditions, that's where. I spent three straight days at Theatre Bay Area's general auditions, and I've got another four days of our auditions and callbacks to go. Which brings up an interesting dilemma:

When is it okay to KIP? When is it rude?

When I was at jury duty, it was perfectly okay. I mean, people were reading newspapers, and knitting takes less concentration than that. Not that I was ever in the courtroom, just the training part.

It is perfectly okay to knit in the movies, because the actors aren't really there. However, I find it hard to knit in the dark, so I only knit when I'm watching a movie on DVD.

Auditions are tricky. I mean, I can focus on an audition when I am knitting, just like I can focus when I'm watching CSI and knitting. But what if an actor was to look out and see me knitting? That might imply that I found them dull and needed to do something else. (That implication might even be true.) It might also imply that I am casting Shakespeare productions and therefore not particularly interested in their lovely rendition of "Some Enchanted Evening," which is certainly true. But I have been on that side of the proscenium and I think it would have thrown me off to see someone knitting in the audience.

So I abstained. 24 hours worth of auditions and potential knitting time, and I only knitted during the breaks. Nearly killed me. I kept looking over at my little bag of yarn, usually while someone was butchering Cole Porter, but I resisted. I stared at the stage until my eyes hurt.

The end result is that I STILL have not finished those little blue sleeves. About three centimeters to go. So close it hurts.

Meanwhile, I haven't done much with the wedding wraps. I find myself unsure of how to proceed, and I have gone to Spinnity for her wisdom. DD has also offered up useful pattern ideas, thanks DD! J has shared lovely lacy patterns, but they are a bit complex for the short time remaining.

Where else have I been? In the surreal place known as Wedding Planning Land. I find it hard to focus on anything other than favor boxes, shoes, and Mother-of-the-Bride dresses. Does ANYONE know where to find Mother-of-the-Bride dresses that are not hideous and come in size 2 petite?

The one moment of sanity was when my SO and I abandoned the whole buying-a-house thing in favor of renting. I instantly felt more relaxed. We are signing a lease tonight on an adorable two-bedroom duplex on the Peninsula, walking distance to downtown and the park, extra-cute with little built-ins everywhere, hardwood floors, and a fireplace.

A New Year of Knitting -- January 1, 2005 in Napa. The ubiquitous Blue Cardy. My SO took this one, and I've been meaning to put it up as part of my resolution to post more photos. 

Something new on the needles

I had to do it, had to do something to break the monotony of Blue Cardy. So... Tuesday night I went out to a wonderful dive bar near work called El Rio for cheap margarita night, and a couple of friends and I drank several and played pool very badly (Tuesday is also free pool night). I came home around 9 still feeling a little giddy, and the LAST thing I wanted to do was take out those little blue sleeves and teensy needles.

I pulled out the slippery brown-and-green bundles of Crystal Palace ribbon yarn I bought at great expense for the bridesmaids' wraps, and I cast on about 50 stitches, and knit a few rows in the drop-stitch pattern I used for Fuzzy Sparkly poncho. Not bad! Not sure I'll keep it, not sure if I'll pull it out, definitely need to confer with Spinnity on this one, but it was nice to have great big 10 1/2 needles in my hands (my new Denise ones) and some different yarn for a change.

Back to Blue Cardy -- no fear, I have not abandoned him; in fact, I had jury duty yesterday and today (and not tomorrow, thank goodness), and one thing jury duty is good for is lots of KIP. I am advancing along both sleeves quite nicely and yes, the end is in sight.

Finally, for those who have been waiting with bated breath, I got a package in the mail from the Yarn of the Month club. The jury is still out, so to speak ;-), since I haven't swatched any of the little teeny samples, but I quite like the Two.Two Classic Elite pink wool yarn and matching felted bag pattern. The soy Phoenix yarn from Southwest Trading Co. is intriguing -- who knew they could make yarn from soy? The bi-monthly newsletter is fairly worthless. I'll bring the whole thing to the Meet-up next Wednesday so everyone can have a feel. Yay for tactile textiles!

Good luck and Meeting Up

Lesson learned yesterday: even if the yarn store says they don't have a yarn, if they're in the middle of a sale and things are chaotic, they might actually have it. Case in point: Knitting Arts DID have Rowan 4-ply cotton in 136, dye lot 7D3. It was at the bottom of a little basket on the floor. Looks like they might be discontinuing 4-ply cotton, because there were just a few balls of a few different colors. There was a nice spring green color and a pretty Aegean blue, but I couldn't think of anything to make with them. Anyway, there were more purchases to be made at my favorite LYS! Hooray for the 20% off sale!

It was a very Rowan kind of day -- I'm an English girl, after all, and we must have our Rowan. I got Kidsilk Haze in a nice light brown to make Belle Epoque from the current issue of Knitty. I got a couple of balls of black 4-ply cotton to make trim for the camisole from Vintage Knits that I keep intending to make -- I already have some pink for the main body of the cami. I also got some Tweed in a bluish-grey to make the girly ribbon-trimmed socks in the current issue of Interweave Knits. I want to make the hat to match, but they didn't have that yarn. I also got The Purl Stitch by Sally Melville -- virtually free since I had a $20 off coupon.

Then we all trooped across the street to Blue Rock Shoot for the Meet-up. A nice friendly crowd, not as big as some of our other meet-ups, but not shabby, either. There were some gorgeous yarns and impressive projects -- P's creative floor pillow using all kinds of leftover yarn gets my vote for best project of the night. Spinnity was nearly done with the entrelac socks for her birthday! C was getting started on a fluffy, warm, cuddly blanket in a combination of soft and yummy neutral yarns. M, whose taste in yarn is divine, was making a purple hat to match a scarf she already made. I, a new Russian member, had some gorgeous multi-colored wool. J, our first male meet-up member, had a great purple-and-blue scarf in a gorgeous soft yarn. There were lots more that I'm forgetting. As for me, I finished binding off the two sides of the hood and made some progress on the strip that goes down the center back. Probably could have finished it last night, but I opted for sleep instead.

Yarn Crisis!

It's official. I'm going to run out of Rowan 4-ply cotton in color 136. I called Knitting Arts yesterday and they are out. I called ImaginKnit and they don't carry that color. Luckily, I called Greenwich Yarns and they do carry it, but might not have the right dye lot. I will call back later to check. Fingers crossed, everyone!

Spinnity suggests a very good option, which is to do the sleeves in a contrasting color. I thought it might be quite cute to do cream sleeves and pockets and maybe stitch around the buttonholes in cream, too. I will not be discouraged!!

On a happier note, I just joined the Yarn of the Month club. Hey, why not? It sounds like a cool way to try new yarns on the new needles I got for Christmas from Spinnity. The January yarns look really nice, so I hope I'm not too late.

2004: Knitting in Review

Well, it wasn't one of the best years on the national front, but for me it was pretty special. The major development, of course, is my upcoming wedding which is starting to feel VERY NEAR. But second to that has to be my new hobby. I've been a knitter for six months now. And although nearly all six of them have been spent slogging through Blue Cardy, the end is in sight and I am looking forward to getting the darn thing off the needles and into finishing land. I have everything but about a third of the hood and the sleeves done now in the light blue, thanks to some heavy knitting in the Midwest. However, I am almost positive I am going to run out of yarn. I plan to run praying into Knitting Arts hoping that they still have my dye lot.

But let's leave the ubiquitous B.C. for the mo, and think about the major accomplishments of the last six months:

1. My first project, a little skullcap in Anny Blatt angora. Although not perfect, the fuzzy yarn hides most of the problems. The pattern's a little odd and I would knit it bigger next time, but I do wear it a lot anyway.

2. The matching scarf. Quick and easy with a coordinated lace pattern. I wear it constantly.

3. Fuzzy-Sparkly Poncho in Paris Nights and Softy. Gotta love this project, worked out perfectly and I wear it whenever I can. I get constant compliments and no one can believe I made it myself. My biggest personal success.

4. Ghosty. The often-frustrating but much-appreciated Halloween costume for Cutest Nephew in the Universe.

5. And of course, Blue Cardigan. 'Nuff said on that front.

Life after Blue Cardy -- I plan to do some quick wraps for the bridesmaids on BIG NEEDLES with a simple drop-stitch pattern. I hope these will go quickly and painlessly. I MIGHT design a little purse for the wedding, but my roommate just gave me an adorable vintage beaded purse which I'll probably use instead.

I got a TON of new knitting patterns for Christmas, so of course my head is teaming with ideas, but I must get this whole marriage thing taken care of first. Priorities, priorities.

One and a half days of knitting time left!

Forget shopping time -- once you're into this knitting thing it's all about knitting time. I just want to wish those knitters out there who are still in the last desperate hours of project completion the best of luck -- may the caffeine gods smile upon you, may your tired fingers make no errors, and may your FO's be graciously and appreciatively received.

As one who has dropped out of the race, I nevertheless made mucho blue cardy progress over the last couple of days while on a brief skiing trip to Bear Valley -- the snow was uninteresting and not terribly plentiful, so we skied little and I knit lots! I finished the right hand side, and am looking forward to getting well into the left side on the plane tomorrow. The gauge continues to be slightly off, which is worrisome -- I think I can block it fine, but now I'm worried that the slightly bigger pieces will cause me to run out of yarn! I've decided to NOT do the pockets until I'm quite sure there will be enough. I can always put a cute embroidered fish on the moss st side instead of pockets.

I'm off to Illinois in the am, so happy knitting to all and to all a good night!

Zen and the Blues

Thought I'd better write again, before everyone assumes that I have jumped off Pier 39 with moss st cardigan in hand.

I was listening to Elwood's House of Blues radio hour on KFOG last night, and his special guest was this very cool lady named E.C. Scott. Kinda sounded like Etta James. She said singing the blues doesn't make you depressed, on the contrary, it makes you happy. That made me think about Aristotle's poetics and catharsis, and that made me think about how blogging when you're depressed is a lot like singing the blues -- you get it out there, out of your system, and other people read it and say, "Right on, sister, you're okay."

So, I'm feeling better. I have decided to take a very Zen approach to Blue Cardy. It will not be done in time for Christmas unless I grow two more sets of hands and knit 24/7. But that's okay. It will be done when it's done. In the meantime, CNITU is much too young to care which particular day of the year he's supposed to get his prezies.

I did get the Christmas cards sent, which was a fairly major accomplishment.

I also did something quite decadent and sinful -- I purchased some ridiculously expensive green and brown ribbon yarn to make wraps for the bridal party. It's really perfect yarn and I couldn't resist it.

A Rough Week. A Blue Day.

Sad news today - I just found out my dear Uncle David in England died yesterday of a massive heart attack. He's only in his sixties and he was playing badminton with my Aunt at the time. The family is in shock, it was just so sudden and unexpected. He kicked cancer a few years back, so this was not the way we expected him to go. I can't afford to fly there for the funeral, but my Dad's going.

It's just the worst thing in a week that has been out of whack in general - I've had a bad cold, had to perform in our touring show Tuesday when both an actor AND her understudy couldn't do it, and ended up with no voice at all on Wednesday. Did get some knitting done that day, but my heart hasn't been in it this week. Just slogging away on moss st, nearly done with the back of the lt blue side but dreading the rest of it. I'd love to finish by Xmas, but I don't know if it's going to happen.

Most of the rest of the Xmas shopping is done, though, and I got the decorations up, so it's nice and festive in our little apartment. The highlight of the week was watching Charlie Brown Christmas on TV. I think Linus is my hero. Of course, ironically, this lovely, wise little story about Christmas being too commercial was interrupted every five minutes by, guess what, commercials. *Sigh* as CB would say.

Thanksgiving Progress

A great weekend, from a knitting, family, and activity point of view! We had four beautiful days in Bear Valley. I finished the dk blue hood on Wednesday (did not run out of yarn!), thus completing the stockinette side of the Blue Cardy, and got about 12 cm into the Lt blue moss st side during the rest of the weekend. Would have been further, but I made a mistake while simulataneously knitting and playing Scrabble, and had to tink a few rows. Moss st requires a bit more focus than St st.

CNITU was as adorable as ever, and stood relatively still so I could try the safety-pinned pieces of the cardy on him. The sleeves are a bit short -- those French bebes are not as long-limbed as my little American nephew. I think I can fix that with blocking.

Skied Friday and Saturday while my sweetie snowboarded. There were many heated games of Sorry, Scrabble, and Backgammon in the evenings.

When I came back, there was a package from KnitWhits waiting for me! I will not mention what was inside since the intended recipients sometimes frequent this blog. But I will say that Tina Whitmore puts together a nice little package. I would mention, however, that at least on my browser, the colors are much brighter in person. Very nice colors, mind you, but a touch more vivid that I thought I was getting.

IF my luck holds out and I manage to escape jury duty this week, I will hopefully be learning to decrease in moss st at the Meet-up on Wednesday night!

Blessings

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. A holiday entirely devoted to eating good food and spending time with family and friends, that's so much less commercial than Christmas, and without the pressure to buy, buy, buy.

I am counting so many blessings this year! Here are a few:

A wonderful future husband
An extended family of in-laws
A job! (Stressful though it sometimes is)
Many wonderful friends
A safe, beautiful apartment
Good health (although that may not last the weekend, I'm getting a cold!)
So much more money than most of the world
A car that runs
A new hobby! Knitting! And all the great new friends I get to share it with.

Looking forward to eating turkey (my twice-yearly meat-eating), cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes! Yum!

Needing sleep and painkillers

Crazy weekend -- Saturday was a highly productive day during which we managed to choose the bridesmaids' dresses, look at invitation papers, and cater a five-course meal for some theatre supporters in Napa, all in one day. Sunday, however, was a bit of a disaster. Long story short, I spent 13 hours finishing the program layout for Napa Rep's next show, finally finishing at 1:15 am. When I finally stood up from our creaky old Mac G3, my right shoulder and neck were burning with pain. I don't think it's set up very ergonomically, but after that many hours at the computer, I think anyone would be hurting.

Add to that only five hours of sleep, and I was pretty much a zombie yesterday. I knit about 12 rows in the afternoon while watching the San Jose after-school Shakespeare kids do their run-throughs, but that hurt my shoulder. I am trying to do as much as possible with my left hand right now, but I'm so NOT ambidextrous. Time to learn Continental! I definitely think that will be a New Year's project. Assuming that I can still move my right arm by then.

Another month, another meet-up

We had a great Santa Clara Meet-up last night! Mel amazed the crowd by TEACHING HERSELF TO GRAFT after making a mistake on her very first project. (Lesson learned: don't drink and knit.) Apparently she just took it apart at a join and figured out how to put it back together from the live needles. Fantastic! Did I mention she did this after midnight as well?

C is working on a dog sweater on teeny needles, which make your back stiff, a problem I can definitely relate to. ESPECIALLY after Tuesday night, when I made major progress on the blue cardy hood only to realize I'd cast on the wrong number of stitches in the first place. Read the pattern wrong. RIIIIIIIP! I'm now well back into it, but it was frustrating.

J and I discovered that Blue Rock Shoot makes a damn good coffee cake. And they'll heat it up for you. Yummy!

The sock goddesses were all in fine form as usual, putting us all to shame with their genius.

I have a slight fear of running out of blue yarn before I finish the hood. I THINK I'm okay, but it's down to the last 3/4 ball.

The Holiday Ambush

As usual, I was completely unprepared for the holiday onslaught this week. No sooner did I crawl back into the world from my post-election doldrums, but horrid Xmas musack came blaring at me from the walkway outside the movie theatre last Saturday. (Went to see The Incredibles - you must go! Very fun.)

I went from feeling quite confident about finishing Blue Cardy for Xmas to feeling a bit panicky. I am nearly done with the sleeves now (I expect I'll finish those tonight), and then the hood is all that remains of the darker blue side of the cardy.

HOWEVER, then I've got to do the whole thing again in Moss st in the light blue! So typical of me, to get this ambitious. And not a chance that I'll get to make gifts for anyone else. Maybe I can draw little sketches of the scarves, ponchos, etc. I want to make for everyone and give myself the year of 2005 to get those done.

Stitches West!

Many thanks to Christina for spreading the news about Stitches West in February in Santa Clara! I am signed up for classes on grafting, pattern making, crochet, and combining knitting with fabric. Come one and come all!

A very productive wedding weekend -- you can visit our new website at ennalsandwisnewski.weddings.com.

*sigh*

...I guess today is the first day of the rest of our lives, or whatever it is they say. Despite a depressing indication that yes, America is just as lame as the rest of the world thinks we are, we must keep fighting the good fight. After all, how will we ever become less lame if all the cool people move to Canada?

I finished up most of the left front of blue cardy while watching election returns, bound it off in the doctor's office the nest morning while listening to the final verdict on the radio, and did the pocket last night while my sig other and I vented our frustrations, which made me feel less despondent. Seemed appropriate that it was the LEFT side of the cardigan. The side with the cute buttons, while the right side has the holes.

Then, symbolically as 'twere, I cast on both the right and left sleeve on the same set of circulars to knit them side by side. After all, the people have spoken, and though I disagree with a slight majority of them, we must carry on.

My friend Stephanie McCanles wrote this poem, and I think it's rather brilliant:

Farewell John Kerry
brave whiffle bat
partisan prince
droopy dog
the best thing we had
a man who actually had
fired a gun
seen death
and knew what war smelled like.

Good night.
May you sleep the soft sleep
of someone who did the best they could
as opposed to the waking sleep
of the grieving
the heartsick
the hopeless and confused.

In other words,
better than us.

The real work starts tomorrow
and it is unattractive
without buttons or bumper stickers
demands permanent vigilance
and a willingness to expect too much
and be disappointed.

All else has failed.
We will have to be citizens of this country.
Because if we won't claim it,
we know who will.

We are only as good as our best actions.
We are only blameless in our constant effort.
We have no choice but to fight for what we know is true

Because we started the work
and cannot give it up.
Because if it was ever worth fighting for
(in the first place)
it was worth fighting for
(in the first place)

Here is to
Our once
and Future Country.

Get off yer duff and VOTE!

Okay, that's pretty much the political ranting for this posting, since after all this is a knitting blog and not one of those crazed extremist political blogs I occasionally come across. Only a short line at my polling place, fortunately, so it was shocking to go on the internet and see all the images of 400 people lining up in Ohio before dawn. If nothing else, it's nice to see Americans getting off their collective rears and caring enough to get out there.

In the knitting world, we had the first theatre folk Stitch 'n' Bitch in Oakland yesterday. Wonderful homemade pizza. Just five of us -- three knitters and two newbies, both bravely attacking the yarn and forging ahead on their very first attempts. Since I believe in spreading the love, I lent my SnB book to one of them. Best of luck to her!

Excellent progress is being made on the left front of the blue cardy; might even be finished by the time Jon Stewart finishes his "Indecision 2004" report tonight. To my mind, it's the only election report worth watching!

Just look at the little Ghosty with his Mom the witch! My sister was thrilled with the costume, left multiple joyful messages on Friday, and sent over cute photos on Friday evening. A friend of hers apparently sells hand-made goods on the web and would love to sell my children's clothes -- I told Sis I'd have to get a little faster at this before I can keep up with demand! The hood fits JUST PERFECTLY and stays on his head. Hooray for Sally Melville!  

Here's Ghosty, all sewn up and ready to go! 

DONE!

And in the mail. Back to the soft solace of Blue Cardy. And eagerly awaiting photos of CNITU in his costume.

Cutest Nephew in the Universe, and his cat, Bea. 

Ghosty with the Mosty

I am just barely going to make it, but Ghosty will be finished for Halloween, hooray! I knit for about six hours total on Saturday, and another two yesterday, and the hood is done -- thanks to Spinnity for the loan of Sally Melville's fab hood pattern; it works really well. The hood is now pinned to the body of the poncho, ready to be sewn up tonight. I am dreading the seams since the fuzzy whiteness of the things makes stitches so hard to see.

I think instead of embroidering ghost eyes and the word "Boo!" on the front, I am going to make little felt patches and sew them on -- faster, and also I saw a similar look on a children's cardigan in the Anthropologie catalogue and it was extra-cute.

Then I'll overnight the whole thing tomorrow morning, and Sister and CNITU will be all set just in case there is a Halloween party on Friday night!

Mission for Wednesday night's Macaroni Duck -- post pictures.

Oh, and there is a new Stitch 'n' Bitch starting Monday in Oakland with some theatre friends -- we'll have rotating hosts, so I plan to host one soon. Fun!

The Lost Month

Oh, where did it go, that last month? I logged on today in shame, knowing that I had not written since the day after my first kntting meet-up, one full month ago! Updates in my life:

1. I finished the sparkly-fuzzy poncho and wore it to C&L's wedding on Oct. 10. (Many photos have been taken and will be posted just as soon as I figure out how to do that.) Much admired, esp since my sweetie made a point of telling everyone I made it myself. Weather was unusually warm so I ended up just wearing it in the evening. I also wore it at the Meet-up last night and there were some demands for the pattern. FYI all, it is a free pattern from Knitting Arts called Felicia/Paris Nights poncho. I changed the Felicia yarn to Softy since I wanted black and Felicia only comes in quite bright colors. I also got the vintage button and silk ribbon at Knitting Arts. As I was saying to C. last night, the flower could also be made separately and turned into a brooch, a cute, easy, and thoughtful Xmas gift!

2. I am slogging away on the ghosty poncho for CNITU. It is nearly 90 cm long, almost ready to fold in half and add the hood. Must finish by next Wednesday to put in mail on Thursday. Spinnity was an absolute goddess and designed the hood last night, based on a Sally Melville pattern.

3. Blue cardigan is lying lonely in my knitting project basket at home. I miss you, blue cardy and your lovely Rowan cotton yarn!

4. I directed a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which is now touring the state. I guess that's where I went for the last month.

5. Wedding update -- have date, site, caterer, florist nailed down, and dress, of course.

I guess that's about it for updates! Keep checking in for pix of sparkly and ghosty, I promise they'll get here eventually.