Fall into Autumn Exchange

Topic of the Week #2
When you knit or crochet dishcloths, washcloths or face clothes, what do you use? Peaches and Cream cotton yarn
What size needle or hook? Usually something between 8 and 10 (US).
Wood? Sometimes what type? Bamboo
Metal? Normally
Plastic? I just bought some Yarn Bee plastic needles to try with my newest washcloth
A specific Brand? Nope
Why do you love that needle or hook so much? For washcloths I am just looking for "available" and "both the same size."
Is there one you are dying to try? Knitpicks new needles are soooooooo pretty, but I'm more interested in their dpn's for socks.
Is there a particular yarn you love and use all the time for clothes? Nothing particular...
What is so special about it? I look for washable and easy to care for. Superwash is my friend.

Knitting Culture

Tuesdays are for knitting. I like Tuesdays. But this week, Wednesday and Thursday are also for knitting. In theory I could knit with friends three whole days in a row. I like the sound of that.

On The Diane Rehm show today one of the guests said that with the rise of technology that teenagers are using there has also been an increase in the numbers of teenage knitters. His theory is that with all of the virtual creativity there is still a need for concrete creativity. I don't disagree. But is there an increase in the numbers of knitters or is it just that there are more places and groups for those knitters to meet?

I enjoyed knitting when I was just knitting dishcloths all by myself. I don't know if I could say that I enjoy knitting more now that I knit in groups, but it does fulfill that need to knit and that need for companionship. Two separate needs fulfilled at the same time - way to multi-task! There is also a certain comfort in spending time with people of the same culture, by which I mean a group of people with a shared language and a shared history. Almost every knitter I have ever met learned to knit by knitting something flat and relatively small. A washcloth, a scarf, whatever. And we all know what I mean when I say something like "I was in the middle of a k2tog on my monkeys and I snapped a dpn." Now read that again pretending that you don't know knitting terms. See? Common language.

See kids, this is what happens when knitters get an appropriate amount of sleep.

Knit on!

Barbie Cake, Harlot and Sleep...

Here's the cake at home (It's my cake in a box, It's my cake in a cardboard box)

and here is the finished Barbie in all her glory.

I should have taken and "after" shot of the cake-y carnage.

Damn strawberry cakes are good. Especially with beer.

Kerri's bachelorette party was a great success and we all had a good time. You could tell who was a knitter and who wasn't by how much alcohol was consumed. Knitters know that too much of a good thing is bad for gauge. Lara, Andie and I fell asleep around 4am and I got to the station just after 7. Tired doesn't even BEGIN to describe what I was.

I automated the last two hours that I was scheduled to be there and then went home for a nap. About halfway into it the husband woke me, fed me, and let me go back to sleep. I woke up (late, of course) and said, "Why is there a plate on the bed?" He laughed at me and I took a shower....

And then I mer HER!!

She was everything you would expect her to be - funny (of course) and nice and very personable and she even complimented my monkey sock. I managed not to get all sweaty and rambly... I think.

Then I went to Twist to knit and then I went home to sleep and sleep and sleep.

Status Update

It's after 1am and I really should be sleeping. I have to get up at 7 if I want a shower (um, yes I do). Instead I'm watching the BBC series Coupling on DVD. It's supposed to be the British response to Friends. It's funny, but I'm still trying to adjust to the laugh track. "Friends?" "What do you call people you go out with but don't sleep with?" "Men." (Hahahahahah).

Bean's skating party was fun. I knitted and listened to my iPod while she skated. I miss skating. My sister and I used to go skating almost every weekend. While I watched them skate I thought, "Surely there are more absurd-looking things on this planet than me on skates..." I think we should all go skating. Anyone else want to come? I think that as long as I don't fall on any small children it will be fine. (Hahahahahahha).

My homework was entirely unremarkable, except that there was a fuck-load of it and I finished it all in record time. We post all of our homework online and you can read all the other posts. Other than the whole honor thing, I'm not sure what keeps us from cheating. I did all of mine and posted it and then read a few other random posts. I'm more or less on track with everyone's answers... which is a good thing I guess. I noticed some things that others didn't and other people noticed stuff I didn't but we all had basically the same answers.

Cake - well, it doesn't exactly look like the picture I had in my head or anything, but there is cake, it is frosted, and it is in roughly the shape of a Barbie dress. And it's pink. The directions were sort of confusing, and also funny. For example, it says to cut 2 inches off of one of the cake domes. Then it says to freeze it for later. Right. Like cake that is not for a specific purpose is going to make it through the night at my house. Anyway, I cut out a cardboard circle from a cardboard box and covered it with foil, then put the frosted cake in another box with a lid. Hopefully that will keep it safe.

New pajamas - they're in the dryer. Yay!

New cute cupcake pillowcase - it was lost. I tore my room apart looking for it. Every drawer, every laundry basket, every pile of clothing in my room. And I am a messy, disorganized woman. That was a lot of stuff. I finally found it and now it's in the washing machine. On the plus side, I also found some Jaggerspun wool sock yarn that I totally forgot that I had! Woo hoo!

And I had a chance to look at the new Knitty again. And I have bookmarked three yarn websites and two sites for cool handmade buttons. There are two sweaters and a blanket that I need. Want. Need. Want.... Nant? Look at Mr. Greenjeans. And think about it in another color... like Elanor Roosevelt.

One of my favorite women.
All of my favorite colors.



Sigh.


And then there is my Cherie Amour. In one of these. Le sigh. Le pant. Le heave.










Um. Yarndietyarndietyarndietyarndietyarndiet.

Hi, Shelly? When it's time to order more yarn, um, can Twist stock these so that when I break down and buy them (and we all know it's just a matter of time) I can at least support my LYS?!?

(Don't buy any yarn and go to bed. Seriously).

I think I am as ready as I can get for tomorrow. Though, I should have packed something for lunch... Crap.

Have a good weekend!

Maybe it's just me

I'm usually more excited than this.... The new Knitty is out. Woo hoo, right?!? There are some good patterns, but nothing that jumps out at me right away. There are even extended sizes on the sweaters and a really nice lace pattern. Usually I get a little crazy and abandon every WIP I have to find yarn and appropriate needles for some new thing that I MUST CAST ON RIGHT NOW.
Perhaps it has something to do with my yarn diet, or maybe the projects I'm working on now are sufficiently engaging and diverse to keep me from wanting to knit something new...
I'll look at the patterns again next week and see if I get more excited.

I do like these little guys...
I don't know why I've been so into toys lately... I have this urge to knit cute I guess.

I think that these creatures might come in more colors than just white... there might need to be some pink ones and certainly some in purple... Hmmmmmmmm...

My monkeys are progressing nicely. By the way, I did get a VERY prompt reply from Lantern Moon about my broken Stix. At first she said to talk to my LYS and if they couldn't help they'd send a replacement - then almost immediately I got another email from her asking for my address, needle size and wood type. They're sending out a replacement right now.

That is customer service right there! I know that Shelly at Twist would have been right up on the customer service pedestal too, but why bug her? She didn't make the needles! Shelly thinks that perhaps I should try some relaxation before knitting with them so that I don't break any more... I figure that unless I start snapping my metal needles I'm ok!

So this weekend is going to be a little bit busy.
Tonight there is a skating party (lord help me). No, I am not going to haul my fat ass up and try to balance on eight wheels. Nope. Not me. I'm going to knit.
Then I'm baking a Barbie cake for Kerri's Bachelorette Party. (Inside joke).
Then I'm going to do ten tons of homework for class on Saturday.
Saturday I have class from 9 to 4, I'm at the station from 4:30 to about 6:20 then I have to figure out how to get Kerri's Barbie cake to her party without dumping it all over the inside of my car.
Kerri's party starts at 7 - and it's a slumber party (woo hoo!) at a hotel downtown.
Then Sunday I work from 7 - noon and then I have to be at The Yarn Harlot event by 2 because I'm a volunteer!! I might really get to MEET HER!!!
Somewhere between noon and 2 I hope to meet Emma for lunch and SOMEWHERE in there I need to sleep and shower a few times. And also probably pee.
I will be posting pictures... but not of the sleeping, or showering... or, you know, peeing.
Sigh.
Knit on!

I've Got Mail!

I know, I cry poor and then get a package in the mail. It makes no sense.

Shopping and getting mail are two things that make me very happy. Once those two things were combined in the Internet I became addicted. There is something magical about browsing through item after item, reading descriptions, adding and deleting from my shopping cart at will - all in my pajamas and at 2am and with no salespeople or anyone else to bother me. And then a few clicks (and about a week) later I have a present in the mail!
Sigh.
In my defense, it was a very small package, containing only the needles I need for the Monkey Swap Socks - the metal ones to replace the Sock Stix that snapped in half in the middle of a K2tog. I know. I have contacted Lantern Moon (and they were very nice, indeed) and I'm going to let my LYS know. At this point, I don't even really want a replacement. I clearly am not meant to have those beautiful, smooth needles. Sadly, I am too rough. Or tense. Or something.
Double Sigh.
I have finished 14 (of 22) repeats on Kerri's garter, so I'm going to work on that tonight and then it's time to MONKEY again!! The Yarn Harlot will be here on Sunday and I want to try to get a picture of her holding my Monkey swap sock so that I can send that to my pal with her package!! Cool, right? I'll (apparently) be helping out by taking tickets so I have been promised at least a quick "hello." I will try no to go all stupid and I will try to control the sweaty nervous talking thing. And also the gushing super-fan thing.
Oooooh! And I figured out what washcloth I'm going to make for that swap!! I'll give you a hint... it involves entrelac. Cool, right?

Knit on!

Fall into Autumn Swap

Topic of the week
Now that in some geographic locations the weather is starting to turn cooler, do you change the type of yarn(s) you knit/crochet with? If so, what do you now knit/crochet with instead and why? If not, why do you not switch and what do you knit/crochet with?

I don't change type of yarn as much as type of project. In the summer I tend to knit socks and other small, portable projects. As the weather starts to change I start to think of more cozy projects - sweaters and blankets - things that require lots of time and keep you warm while you're knitting them. When it's cold I love being able to settle in with some tea or coffee and some good music or a movie with a long stretch of knitting in front of me.