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!