Knithropology

I am rather dissatisfied with my knitting at the moment. I have loads of big plans for knitting, but it seems I never get round to them. I’m not one of those folks who can have a multitude of WIPs going, so I try to stick to a couple of things - and it usually works out alright. But lately? Nah. Here’s the rundown of what I’ve got going at the mo.

• Razoresque Cami: at 95%, near to hibernating. It is tight tight tight but flattering, but I think I’ve ballsed up the straps. We needed some space, so this is sitting on top of my knitting cabinet.

• Galactica Bag: definitely hibernating at 95%, has been for a while. Don’t know what to do with this one; I’ve reknit it too many times. We also need some time apart.

• Quinny Quinny Quinn Quinn: I have lining avoidance syndrome and I don’t want to give the bag to the original recipient (personal reasons, not because I like it too much).

• Masala Moonlight: Frogged. It didn’t want to be that scarf.

• First Colourwork bag thing: This doesn’t know what it wants either, and all I have to do is bloody attach the pieces and make a handle - but I can’t, because nothing seems to be right. Infuriating.

I’m sure all of these projects will tell me what they want eventually, but I wish they’d hurry. In the meanwhile I’m trying to stick to my stash, but it is raaaaaaaaather uninspiring. Here’s what I’m up to now:

• Tumour-be-Gone hats: for my mother, who is having surgery this month. Easy pattern - Pi-Topper Chemo Caps - but difficult knitting, you know?

• Irish Hiking Scarf in Cascade 220. Mindless but still looks a bit impressive, I suppose. I’m knitting this on our rainy days or when I’m sufficiently air-conditioned. Hardly brave knitting for me, but it keeps the hands moving.

• Coasters. I have a wooden desk at work and desperately need a coaster and some colour in that room. So it’s Noro scraps to the very small rescue. I’m casting on tonight and hope that they’ll be the fibre that…erm. I shan’t go any further with that horrible quasi-gag. But I’m hopeful a small project will do me good.

So, nothing exciting on the fibre front, which is grumpymaking. I continue to hesitate on making a cardi because I’m still steadily losing weight; at the speed with which I’m dealing with projects these days, I’d finish the cardi and have to give it away. That’s not on, folks. So I wait, and keep knitting scarves, coasters and more scarves. And I reckon I’ll do another felted bag soon-ish. Sigh. (I should note that I’ve been toting round my Slice of Sea bag and I love it.)

I hope to have a better update soon; maybe I just need to drink a few cups of coffee and go fibre insane.

In non-knitting news, tomorrow is the first day of my last undergrad lecture, which is exciting. I have also been retained at my job for six months after graduation (next month) - even better. So things are generally looking up, and let’s all remember that even knitting doldrums are passable.

See you soon.

Hello there! I don’t really know how to start this post, seeing as I’ve been gone for so long and there has been so much happening. I suppose we’ll start with the worst of it. Have a look at these four FOs:

After completing the Mumpotis, the Mumhats (I and II) and the My So-Called Wolf, I packed them all up in a box and they were sent to my mum. They never arrived. Truth is, things are fraught between my mother and I, and I thought her lack of response was part of all that. The simple reality? She didn’t get it. Months of knitting, gone. I wanted to knit those things for my mother because she lives very high up in the mountains and needed to be warm when she went to care for her wolves. I knit those things to show her that no matter how awful things got between us, I still care. And they never got to her.

As I write this, I’m waiting to hear the results of the MRI my mother had yesterday. Tests she’s had since a nasty fall a few months ago (which resulted in concussion and possible permanent brain injury) revealed that she has a brain lesion. It is very difficult to stop myself thinking the worst. She told me the other night that since the fall, she has no cold tolerance anymore - she said she could really have used the things I knitted.

And that, as they say, was that. After getting off the phone with her, I cried like I haven’t cried in years. Big gulping, heaving, keening sobs. I had tried to do something right by her, tried to show her that I care, but a cruel trick had lost it all in the post. The package hadn’t been insured or made trackable. And of course, the knitted things weren’t much - no Henry VIII or Icarus shawl - but she needed them.

My mother, seeing that she lives in a very, very small town, knows the folks that work at her local and semi-local post offices and is going to try and hung down the box. I live in a somewhat larger town where attempting that could well be impossible.  We’ll see. I am absolutely devastated.

I live in interesting times.

On the knitting front, things have been busy. I have loads of FOs and a few WIPs to share. Firstly, let’s have a look at the charity scarves I have knit for my uni’s new community knitting programme:

They are, respectively, the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, the Irish Hiking Scarf, the Yarn Harlot’s One-Row Handspun Scarf (really) and a seed stitch stripey thing. They are knit in…ooh, let’s see if I can remember…Lion Brand Wool-ease, Vanna’s Choice, Plymouth Encore, Lion Brand Homespun, and some other various acrylics. Most of that was the yarn provided, the remaining was from my old acrylic pile. Happily enough, someone will benefit from a grumpiness fit I had whilst knitting these - NO MORE ACRYLIC, said my hands, and I have listened. All of that old acrylic, as well as all of my stash I no longer have the mojo or desire to knit or crochet with, was packed into four carrier bags and is destined for a charity shop. That leaves me a lot more room in my stashing area for happy things like my Malabrigo Worsted, Skye Tweed, Noro Kureyon, Cascade 22o, Crystal Palace Taos and one beautiful skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk in Masala bought for me by the lad. Ahhhhh, that’s better. Yarn I like rather than yarn that I feel pressured to use out of a misplaced sense of duty.

Right. Other FOs. The Beige-fighting Bag (otherwise known as a Booga Bag) was finished and felted:

It probably won’t be going to live in my office, as originally planned, as it is simply too useful of a bag and I love to look at the colours. Noro yarns, when they’re not plagued by the Dreaded Noro Knot, make me unbelievably happy.

Speaking of happy colours, here’s something that might well be frogged, but should be documented: It’s Always Sunny in Knitadelphia, or My So-Called Scarf.

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Malabrigo Worsted in Curacao. Why would I frog such a thing, you ask? Because I think I’ve found a pattern I like better for this yarn. Problem is, I can’t show it to you yet. I’m making a scarf in the same pattern for a friend at the moment and don’t want to let slip the surprise by showing you. Give me a week or two and we’ll talk.

And if you haven’t had enough of lovely colours and tantalising hints, here’s one more: this *has* been frogged. Farewell, Anti-Mountain Colour Fountain (Diagonal Dreams Mix):

It will return as the Anti-Mountain Colour Fountain (Drop-Stitch Remix) in a few weeks.

In the interest of finishing up some old WIPs, I set about sorting out that blanket I’d started all those months ago. It was too small to be a baby blanket, so it became a Bun Blanket:

She seems to like it well enough. I’ve also been working on some new washcloths - wahey seed stitch! Here’s a pic of one of them, though I’ve knit five. But you get the point. Knit, purl, knit purl, knit, purl. Alternate rows and repeat until your hands fall off. Here’s a picture pre-washing, before it shrunk into a square shape:

And finally, the tale of the French press cover that wasn’t. I tried to come up with a cover for my press based on the Lizard Ridge pattern but…I failed. Which is fine, as what was a really crap cover is now a really fab mini-placemat for my desk!

Here is the evolution of the Mini-Placemat, from unfulled to fulled fabulousness:

Beautiful, hey? It took part of a skein of Patons SWS and is big enough to hold my little bowl of oatmeal in the morning as I eat and read the news, and then it tucks away into my desk organiser. I couldn’t ask for a better placemat. Hurrah!

So there it all is, the last couple of months of finished things. I started and frogged a My So-Called scarf for the Lad in Malabrigo Worsted; I found another pattern I liked more. Malabrigo is just too squishy and stiff for that pattern, there’s no drape at all. Ah well. There are Koolhaases on the horizon, drop-stitch scarves, a Montego Bay scarf, and a top-down raglan cardi. There is also a scarf and possibly some chemo caps for a friend of mine who has recently begun breast cancer treatment. Ah, and there’s also a baby on the way for a good friend of mine, so I suspect I’ll be knitting my first Baby Surprise Jacket. There’s no end in sight when it comes to knitting, which is really nice. I’d rather too much than not enough.

I think. Eeek!

The good: new Interweave Knits! I’d seen someone post on one of the LiveJournal knitting communities about receiving their copy and was oh so jealous until my lad went to check the mail. When he held up my glorious prize I ran outside like a giddy giddy girl to grab it out of his hands and ran (again, like a giddy giddy girl) back inside.

To thank him for being a lovely sort of chap, I may well make him the Cobblestone Pullover (shush all you sweater curse people; if you want to make someone a sweater, make them a sweater - enjoy the knitting process and let it go), but we’ll see. I suppose I should first ask him if he likes it. Maybe.

So hurrah to Eunny’s first issue, it is gorgeous. I’m really enjoying the focus on organic yarns and the processes involved in making them; being a largely local/organic sort of gal myself and trying to move further and further along that path all the time, I really appreciate knowing some more of the options I now have. At any rate, what a beautiful magazine with wonderful features and fantastic patterns. I especially like the Tangled Yoke Cardigan, the Counterpane Pullover and the Placed Cable Aran.

One final note: the advertisements. This sock yearning I have is not helped by the luscious pictures of sock yarn on what seems to be every other page. And of course Knitting Daily’s newsletter today was all about sock knitting for beginners. Socks socks socks. Socks. Oh dear. As Phil Collins said, I can feel it coming in the air tonight. Socks. I want to knit until my arms fall off. Socks.

The bad: I can’t knit!

The ouchie: my right elbow! Knitting this Taupemato ribbing in Cotton-Ease along with the ribbing for the Baby on a Stick Hat mk II has really got my joints (oh alright, my wrist hurts too) grumpy. No knitting for a couple of days, I tell myself…then knit three more rows of Taupemato ribbing, wincing all the time. Don’t tell me I’m dumb, I already know. Blasted cotton. Hate knitting with cotton, and I now extend that to cotton/acrylic (which I shall never use again). I hope the Mariner’s Gable in deliciously blue Cotton Fleece will be a bit easier on the ageing joints. (Ageing? I’m twenty-eight! O life, you are cruel.) But no knitting for at least a couple of days. So say we all.

Alas, here I am, with my Fall 2007 IK and my IK/Knitscene back issues I ordered sitting on my shelf in front of me, my Taupemato taunting me from my desk, and my right arm threatening me with a revolution should I even so much as touch my needles.

Bugger.