Upon which day I decided to become a dog hater...

It’s a no good, terrible, awful, very bad day, but I don’t really want to move to Australia.

So, I have been trying to make Galia Lael’s Oceanspray. I bought the yarn for it last year around thanksgiving at the Wool Lady. It took a while to decide what project it would become, but I loved the simple layout of the shawl.

I had to frog and recast the project three times. I had a problem with dropping stitches (or having little people pull at the needles). I decided this time to use a life-line... but it wasn’t in yet (I don’t much see the point if I haven’t reach the complicated part of the shawl). I’ve become a minor master of dropped stitches. I have learned to fix them.

Today, I decided to take a small human out for a walk. (It’s part of my job as a nanny you know.) When I came back, my employer was distressed and hoped that I wouldn’t leave. She told me that her dog, Wolfie (as in Wolf-ALL-the-plastic-things-down) had got into my knitting. The dog pulled out the needles, chewed up the $3.00 needle protector that I bought to prevent dropped stitches, and then ate the SIDE of the project. She didn’t eat a hole in the top, which while tragic, wouldn’t have been desperate. She ATE THE WHOLE SIDE. I have 3 inches to 3 feet of useless laceweight ribbons covered in dog slobber.

That was the beginning of the day. Less than a minute after this terrible, tragic and ultimately dehumanizing event (the dog is not allowed near me for fear of its life), Alpha called to say that the car was towed.

Our community has few parking spots. In the year 2005, there was such a dearth of spots that a meeting was assembled and it was decided to hand out passes. Those unfortunates who did not have passes in the parking lot after 11 would be towed. This has cleared space in the parking lot, but the streets for ¼ mile around our community are bumper-to-bumper.

We actually do have a pass. Unfortunately, laws in this state prohibit anything to ‘obstruct vision of the road” so if you have something dangling off your rear-view mirror the cops can pull you over. Alpha didn’t believe me when I said this was the case, but while I am happy to be proven right on the law, I am not happy that we had to take the pass off, forget it, then get towed.

So, project et and car towed, that is already a bad day. It gets worse.

I lost my license. Can’t get the car without a license. Alpha lost his. He found a university card. The impound lot won’t take check, or credit and it appears that our pin doesn’t work. Not even at the bank atm.

At this point, I am done with the day. I send Alpha off to get cash from the bank with his passport. Guess what happens on the way to the bank?
An accident. And a 17-year-old who thinks that you need to get into the left lane to make a right turn and that’s it’s Alpha’s fault for not seeing the turning signal. (Not saying that there isn’t some fault there... but it isn’t ONLY the other driver’s fault when you don’t use common sense.) It’s only a fender bender and no real damage to either car, but the police are called by the stupid teen (because Alpha and Dad won’t sign a paper claiming all fault). Alpha gets a ticket for not having his license.

So, checking our bank balance after renewing my license, I see that funds are mysteriously disappearing. It appears that my account is still linked to Momar’s and when she accidentally overdrafted over the weekend, the bank munched the remainder out of my account.

I burned myself making pizza and I didn’t get the e-mail asking me to come into work tonight.

But to end on a good note: My employer will pay for the yarn. There’s a yarn store that’s holding onto a skein of Plymouth Baby Alpaca for me. We got our car back. I didn’t have to deal with the cop. Renewed my license and we have money in the bank. Also there was ice cream to be had.


Lots and Lots of Ice Cream.

I still hate dogs though.

Lost Days

Those three hexagons were done the next day. I had been on a good diurnal schedule, then suddenly I could see the end of the project tunnel regarding the blanket. I started it sometime last year and worked on it a little here and there. I decided to make it a Christmas gift and when that date flew by, just decided I wanted it done sometime in the new year.  I could see that my diurnal schedule was going to be shot.

I sewed the edges and it was much easier than I thought it would be. I started to crochet a mint border as a contrast. Since this blanket was a gift for Alpha, it had to be equally masculine. No fringe.

I went to bed sometime around 6 in the morning... and it wasn’t done yet. I had also taken it into my perfectionist head to weave in all the ends I have previously ignored. That’s 32 times... 4-6. It was a long process.

After 2 days.. or nights really since I went nocturnal, the reconstruction was finally done. And I tried starting another project right afterwards.

I’ve learned I need a little downtime between each project. Not a lot, mind you, but enough to gather my weary mind together. This time it was one day and then I decided to ignore my little list of crafting tasks and start a simple knit baby blanket.
--
I refer to my long nights and comatose days as my lost days. I lose track of a lot of things during the night. I had been writing in my journal and establishing a relationship with the sun, but that went out the window. These days aren’t necessarily bad though. I enjoy them frequently.

Day 3- Softie #1

This series of hats is my purgatory. It’s a mini-hell of bad yarn choices built up over time, hence the name for this month. Yeah, they are great ways to start out learning (because they don’t cost too much and they come in every color imaginable) but once you feel how soft alpaca, wool and mink (mink yarn? Heck yes!) a lot of commercial brand acrylics are squeaky, rough and ever present. I’d still do a Doctor Who scarf in them for now, because I am unemployed college graduate who can’t afford copious amount of wool. (Do you remember about Wovember? You should! Go over and sign the petition now and wear wool.)

These next two hats were my joy. I'll reveal one today and the second tomorrow. I can't go about showing off all of the work that I've done. I proposed one hat and day and I will stick to it, even if you think you are suffering from deja vu.  They were made from 1-ply Softie wool/ acrylic blend. So soft. So very soft before and after crocheting red heart hats.

It’s a pretty standard ribbed beanie. A pom-pom of extra yarn was added on top, mostly because I truly hate to waste yarn. I used 58 to 60 stitches with a k2, p2 and decreased at the top.

The one problem with this yarn was the fact that the 1 ply twist would gradually come apart if I let it. I had to be very conscious of the twist and occasionally had to retwist the yarn. It made it exciting!

 

Dad  is modeling Softie #1 for you all. He was a good sport. I popped it on his head, took a picture and then ran away cackling. I already had a picture of me modeling a hat, I don't  want to inundate you with my beauty.

I keep saying that this yarn is so soft. This is the excess from Chachi’s hat. Chachi was a neighbor and still is a good geek friend. He and Alpha can talk Doctor Who into the ground. He begged for a hat for 3 years and then after we both moved away I gave him one for his birthday. That kind of diligence should be rewarded. I don’t say patience, because he doesn’t have a lot of it. So I had this extra  yarn around and decided to make more hats. I touch that yarn and I want to swoon, and afterwards it’s even more of a penance to work with cheap yarn. I am paying for all my young exuberance in stash burning.

I still have a month and a half before hats/ scarves are officially due, since this is all a part of service project for ACCA. I have a bag (my wonderful, jute Dover bag... which I haven’t replaced even though the corners are ratted out) which I intend on filling with my stash burning goodies. Maybe if I am really, really dedicated, I’ll have extra hats and scarves.

Gorgon's Knot

Inspired by Spindles and Spices... and a facebook friend getting into knitting, I have decided to [re]organize my yarn stash/ needles/ hooks. I have things is separate places right now because the stash is large, I am living in a small space and I am too lazy to put the yarn back into the stash hole after I do one project. That and my riffling around cause some serious damage to my neatness. I am like a gerbil trying to make my pine bedding comfortable, except I am a rat and the bedding is a pile of yarn. (I am tempted to photograph this as it seems like something I would do anyway.)

So, given my love affair with losing things, I tend to riffle through my yarn a lot and that causes some problems since yarn balls and skeins don’t hold up well to rampant riffling. A nice yarn ball will end up going from this... to this.

It's like looking into the mouth of hell.

I think the tail end in the tangled mass is just there to mock you. It makes you think that it’s one strand of yarn, that there is an end, when it fact it’s the infinite loop like unto the gorgon’s knot. Alexander the Great could only solve that puzzle buy cheating. In one version he cuts the knot in half, in the other the puzzle was simply to separate the horse from the cart by undoing the knot and he just unhooks the horse without dealing with the knot at all.

I am not Alexander the Great. First, I am a woman and Alpha would be distressed if I were Alexander, second I have patience for knots. I don’t have patience for anything else, but I can while away hours undoing knots that have formed in my yarn. I suppose that I sabotage myself by allowing my yarn to get tangled, so I can untangle it again. Some people spend hours playing video games, I spend hours playing with tangled yarn.

So while I am not taking a picture of the before state, that pleasure is mine and Alpha’s alone, I will happily share the aftermath, after hours and hours... you’ll see it sometime.

Let the games begin!

Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to do all the cool things that her mom did.  She wanted to knit and crochet and sew and do physics... well, not really physics, but then who could blame her?  Anyway, she asked her mom to teach her to do these things... but no matter what they did, the little girl could not learn how to crochet or knit.  It was a frustrating time for all.

Then one day, the little girl found a book that explained how to crochet.  She finally learned!  Then she decided to learn to knit from a book and she learned that too.  She was very happy.  She made large afghans and small scarves.  The little girl grew up, found a wonderful alpha male and then learned the purl stitch before she got married.

The girl and her Alpha went on a trip to England, where the little girl found a yarn store in Canterbury and bought sock yarn and double pointed needles . A new page was turned.  She started making socks all the time.

Then the little girl became interested in something that she never thought she’d be interested in.  Physics.  Of course, it wasn’t the same physics her mom did, but it was kind of close.  You see, the little girl learned to spin.

So I now embark on a new obsession and quest (not for the Holy Grail) to learn to spin and teach others the talents and skills necessary to denude a sheep and clothe yourself.  On this journey, you may encounter references to family and friends, but for the purpose of not being stalked I will disguise them all!  The people you see in pictures may look like people you know, but you are being fooled by advanced picture technology!

• Alpha- my husband.  A sweet, wonderful man who agreed to marry me.  Little did he know... He would probably still agree to marry me... but his acceptance would be peppered with caveats and compromises.
• Momar- a pet name for my Mom, the physicist.
• Dad- doesn’t have a nickname... though I could call him the Gamer.  Dad is better though.
• Imp-  is my sister and she is one.
• Mei-mei- my youngest sister.  She is sweetly indulgent to my madcap adventures, often aiding and abetting them.  We may not rob a bank together (both of us value the law) but we will raid the library and engage in tickle wars. 

There you have it! You may encounter other encoded names, I am not a social hermit, despite my inclinations. Have fun unraveling the names, but not too much fun unraveling projects.