It was inevitable

Main Entry: spin·ster
Pronunciation: 'spin(t)-st&r
Function: noun
1 : a woman whose occupation is to spin
2 a archaic : an unmarried woman of gentle family b : an unmarried woman and especially one past the common age for marrying
3 : a woman who seems unlikely to marry
via Merriam-Webster OnLine

Now, I'm finally on my way to fulfilling definition #1 rather than #2 or 3. Whew.

On Saturday, my friend Julie (the one with the birthday!) and I took a Learn to Spin class at Make One Yarn Studio (which, by the way, is a beautiful shop! Must. Go. Back.)(after I've lived up to my self-imposed commitment)(honest)

It was so much fun. We learned on top-whorl drop spindles. We spun silk hankies (SO. MUCH. FUN!!) and some wool (possibly merino??). This is from the fibre we were provided, so the color combinations are a bit, well, Yikes.

Julie's first plied yarn!!!


My first plied yarn!!!!


Julie's beautiful silk singles!!!


My silk singles!!! (I think they're pretty too...)


Julie's wool singles!!! (I'm not a pink person at all, but I think this is really beautiful!)


My wool singles!!


My wool plied! (I can NOT believe I made yarn! Me!)


I have a little bit more "practice" wool from the class to play with:

and I bought* some merino roving (I'm not totally clear on the terminology yet)(I think I have that right)

and some silk hankies to dye

but I want to practice a bit more first.

And, living up to my self-imposed commitment:

I decided to crochet an afghan. I was going to knit one but I haven't crocheted in a long time and I'm much faster at crochet than knitting, so... The square above there needs 2 more sections and is currently about 11 inches square. I'm toying with the idea of just making a really big log cabin square instead of making a whole bunch of them to sew together. Either way, this is a pretty good no-look project that I can work on while watching TV. I dont' have a pattern, I'm just winging it based on a knit log cabin square I saw online somewhere. (which is another reason why I may just make one big one, since I may or may not have made a couple of sections bigger or smaller and did not take notes.)

On the spinning front, I need to figure out how to make sure I don't lose the twist on the singles before I'm able to ply them. (or while I'm plying them). Ideas? Advice?

*the purchase of fibre was planned as an exception to my no-new-yarn rule (honest)

Stash Reduction Challenge

It's cold in Calgary today. It was snowing during the football game this evening. It was about 2C (about 35F) this morning when I got up. It's been raining. Add that early cold snap to the fact that Calgary has experienced something of a boom in population this year, and also a shortage of affordable housing as a result and you get the kind of news stories that have stuck in my head for the last couple of days. Drop-in shelters have had to turn people away by 9:30pm. All summer long we've been hearing about families living in campers and tents while working and trying to find housing. Those families are still there.

When I woke up this morning I seemed to have come to a decision I didn't even really know I was making. My decision has to do with this:

sorry for the rather fuzzy out of focus picture

I'm rather embarrassed by that pile. That, my dear friends, is a big pile o'acrylic. Mostly worsted weight. Leftovers from various afghans and other projects for kids and for other projects that need to be tough and long lasting. That's a big pile of stashed acrylic leftovers.

Here's the thing: I have all this yarn. It's taking up space in a small apartment. I have the ability to turn that yarn into something warm. I live in a city that experiences cold winters. I live in a city where there is a housing shortage and hundreds of people might not have enough warm things. Pretty simple math, really.

I decided the following:
I, Lori (last name withheld), a Knitter (with a capital K :) ) do hereby promise that I will not purchase any yarn for a project for myself* until I have completed at least** one of the following for donation to a shelter in Calgary:
-a knit or crocheted afghan
-3 toque/mitten/scarf sets
-a sweater

I will allow myself to continue to work on other projects, cause let's face it, there is no way I can only work on one thing at a time.

I'm putting this here, not to pat myself on the back, but to be held accountable. If you all know that I'm planning this then you can call me on it if I slip and walk out of my LYS with yarn for me.

*There are a couple of projects that I have in the planning stages for other people and I will allow myself to get the yarn for those, especially since one of those recipients knows that it's coming. Also, I'll allow one purchase (possibly) to do with what I'm doing tomorrow***
**My goal is to do more than just one of the items on the list, but I know myself better than to promise more than I can deliver
***I'll tell you about what I'm doing tomorrow tomorrow evening or Sunday****
****OOOO.... secret*****
*****(I'm losing track of how many of those asterisks I need) Not sure why I'm keeping it a secret. I just haven't mentioned it. I'll tell you tomorrow and you'll wonder why I didn't mention it. You want to know what it is, right? This is annoying, right?

I was telling my friend Julie about this today and (and this is one of the many reasons why she is such a good friend) she was very enthusiastic and (and this is another big reason) she suggested that we should work on this idea Saturday. We had planned to go to the zoo for her birthday, but, what with it being stupid cold chilly with a chance of snow, Julie suggested getting together (after the secret thing) and she would help me get a start. So, tomorrow looks to be a good day (in spite of the stupid cold chilly rainy weather).

Surprise Project!

I gave my friend Julie her birthday gift today, so I can finally post it here. (She loved it)(yay!)




Pattern: None. Made it up. Forgot to write down things like gauge, cast on amount etc. Oops. I got the chart for the colorwork on the front from here (tons of norwegian type color work charts and assorted free patterns)
Yarn: Recycled, dyed in my kitchen, from stash... 100% wool is about the only thing I know about it.

I woke up one morning with the idea of making a cushion that looks like a sweater. I wish I took more notes on it. As I knit it, I kept alternating between thinking it was a good idea and thinking it was a stupid idea. I think, all in all, it was a good idea and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Ribby Cardi Update: BUTTONS!

Wow! Thanks for all the comments and input on the button choice.

Before I go on, I feel that I need to come clean about the extent of my dorkiness and confess that when I realized that Ms. ChicKnits herself commented I squealed a little. Am I the only one who would do that? Do you feel less respect for me now that you know about the extreme dorkiness? Or, (as I hope) does my dorkiness endear me to you like that quirky friend you find amusing?

Okay. Buttons. I was still pretty undecided about the buttons, but the vast majority of opinions voiced were for the pewter-ish. In the end, I decided I liked them too.



I like the way it looks un-buttoned, but I know myself and it would drive me crazy to not have a way to close the cardigan.

(Oh, I forgot, the pattern calls for a 2 row zipper facing, but I decided I wanted to try button bands for this one. The ribbed button band goes all the way up the collar.)

For those who asked, a close up of the lace panel:


Thanks again for all the great input! I'll test-wear this later this week (it's supposed to be chilly by Thursday) but I know already that it will be a staple. Tomorrow I'll show you what I decided to do with the off-white wool I got from Walmart (I changed my mind yet again)...

Lace Sleeved Ribby Cardi... FINALLY

Pattern: Modified from ChicKnits' Ribby Cardi
Yarn: TLC Cotton Plus

I kind of stalled out in the middle on this one. I really like how it turned out though. The lace panel on the sleeves is "Cascading Leaves" from my Reader's Digest (really long name I don't feel like looking up or typing out right now) Stitch Book.

The whole sweater was pretty straight forward (this is the 5th one I've made...). I knit it in one piece (the pattern is in pieces) but other than that, (and the lace) I followed the pattern. Well, except for the fact that I messed up the decreases on the sleeves (caught it in time to make it work) and the fact that I did this:

when I started the collar. Not sure what was going on in my brain when I did that. For a while I thought I would just leave it, but it was driving me crazy. So, I did this:

Using a crochet hook I went down to the flubbed row and re-set the stitches up to the needles. For each one. Yes. I may be a little obsessed.

Truth be told, the sweater isn't really totally complete. I need to sew on the buttons. But first, I need to decide which buttons to use. I need your help. Which button? At this point, I have no strong preference either way. Opinions?

(The color of this yarn is really hard to photograph for some reason. It's closer to the pictures of the messed up stitches.)

Option 1 - "Pewter-ish" (I have no idea what to call it.)


Option 2 - "Clear-ish Blue"

in which our Knitter goes on for several minutes about not much of anything...

This morning, as I sit waiting for the Service Shop to call and let me know that my car is ready and that I can bring over either an arm or a leg in payment, (story/rambling-rant about that and the good times I had Tuesday here) I figured I would show you my haul what I'm going to be working on next.

But first, a success! A (half) FO!!

A SOCK! But not just a sock, a LACE sock, which is a new thing for me. Pattern by Steph at Craftoholic. I really like this sock. The variegated yarn sort of obscures the lace (in the picture anyway) but I like the way it makes the color changes sort of dance around.

As I was working on these socks, I needed to come up with a way to keep my needles together while I wasn't knitting and to keep the stitches on the needles when I was travelling. Maybe I'm the last knitter in the world to come up with something like this, but I thought I'd show you in case you, too, were looking for a way to keep your dpns and sock connected to one another while travelling:

I took a hair elastic and just knotted it at each end. It holds the needles securely and keeps the knitting in one place.

Now, for the next project:
Last week I needed buttons for the baby sweater for my friend Heidi. I went to Walmart because I needed other stuff as well. I was NOT going to look at yarn, assuring myself it wasn't necessary because they don't have a very good stock at that Walmart. However, that particular day, they had just put out new stock! So, I spent some time looking in wonder at the fact that Walmart had some (slightly) nicer yarns. BUT... I was good. I didn't buy any of the new stock.

("Lori" you are demanding at this point, "Where are you going with this?" Well, dear reader, I'll tell you)

I was walking out of the craft section when I saw 2 bags of an off-white/beige mill-end yarn ($4.95 for a pound of unknown fiber content). The Walmarts here (I don't know if this is company wide) often have 1 pound bags of mill-ends for really cheap prices. Occasionally I have recognized the millends as Patons yarns but it hasn't usually been anything I was interested in (the ones I recognized were novelty yarns). There was an end sticking out of one of the bags so I went to feel it. It felt like wool, but I wasn't sure. So I smelled the yarn in the bag (I know. I'm a freak) and it smelled like wool. There was only one thing left to do, for I knew that if this was wool, it was calling my name. I did a spit-felt test on the end of the wool. In Walmart. Yes I did. (Yes, it felted to itself)(Yay)

So, for just under $10 (CDN) I came home with this:

It's somewhere between a DK and a light worsted (I'm never very good at estimating yarn weights). Initially I had thought I might dye it, but on the way home I started thinking about a cabled cardigan with a shawl-type collar and either wooden or tortoise-shell type buttons. (Just now, it took me 3 attempts to spell "collar"... ???)

So, I swatched (I know!!! Me!!! Swatching!!!)

And then I cast on for the sweater. However, the sweater I cast on for is not the same one that I swatched for (the gauges were the same though, so the swatch counts)(right?). I changed my mind between swatching and casting on. And, now that I've knit the ribbing and about 13 rows of the back cable pattern, I don't really like the cable pattern.

So, I plan to frog back to where the ribbing ended and figure out a new cable pattern for myself. I'll use the "template" of the pattern I had chosen (I like the shaping and style) and just put together a couple of cables that I like better. Or, maybe I'll do something else altogether.

Any suggestions for a nice Shawl-collared cabled cardigan? The initial swatch is for the one in the latest Vogue Knitting. I may end up going back to that one, I'm not sure. I don't want it belted (not a good look for me) so I would adapt the overall sweater if I was to make that one. (also, my yarn is a lighter weight than what is called for in that pattern but I did get gauge, so who knows)

Wow, this is disjointed and rambling. Sorry!

I need to make myself finish something else before I work more seriously on the cabled cardigan. I finally made myself finish the interminable body section for my lace sleeved Ribby Cardi. Not sure why that one has been a WIP/UFO for so long, but ... I hope to have a finished sweater by the end of the weekend. I'll show you then. WIP pictures of the body section are not so interesting. You know, as compared with the rest of this SUPER interesting post.

Oy.

crisis/crisis averted

Yesterday evening, I was cruising along on my friend Julie's birthday present. I had about 7 1/2 rounds left to do in the colorwork. Then, I realized:


If I had kids in the house I would have told them "Earmuffs" (a la Vince Vaughn in Old School) because there were some words I wanted to say. But, I don't have kids so I just went ahead and said them.

You see, the background yarn for this project for Julie is yarn I dyed once when I was experimenting and, of course, I don't have any more of this yarn. At all. Anywhere.

So, after a few minutes of self-indulgent cussing, I realized that I could come up with a solution. This item (still a secret, her birthday is next week) is not clothing, so I had options that I may not have had if it was clothing. So, I decided to unknit the bottom 8 rounds and salvage the background color from them. Then, I would knit only 2 more rounds of the colorwork and knit the rest of the top plain with the foreground color (which I have plenty of). I would then, knit 8 rounds plain on the bottom and it would be done.


I'm not going to lie to you: this was a pain in the butt to do. Somehow, when you anchor your color strands it makes it a bit tough to unknit (har). It's done though and I'm relieved because it worked.

This is all that remains of the background color yarn. whew.

Now, the project is blocking and I can't wait for Julie's birthday. I'm always like that with presents. I'll probably end up giving her her gift early.

I definately improved on my fair isle abilities with this project (you'll understand how that could be when you see the whole thing)(sorry for the tease). I also realized that I can definately solve a lot of my fair isle tension issues with blocking.
I test-blocked (steam from the iron) part of the project while I was working on it:


You can see the contrast in this section, unblocked:


I will show the whole project once it is gifted. I just never know if my friends will happen by when I have something for them to show. Until then, another tease:

what i did on my summer vacation, part 2.2

After posting the picture of the lace cuff I made, I thought I should make one for my friend Robin. So, last night:

I gave it to her tonight and she loved it! I love giving knits to people who really appreciate them!

Monday and Tuesday, I worked on another Fair Isle project. This, if it turns out, will be a birthday present for my friend Julie. I'm just kind of winging it and hoping it turns out. I have a chart that I'm working from, but I will be adapting it as I go.


This morning, I finally did what I had wanted to do on my vacation: Yarn Store Lurking

(I didn't get to a couple that I really wanted to visit, but there's still time I suppose)

At Beehive Yarn, I decided to splurge on some handpainted sock yarn for myself:

D.R.O.O.L.
Claudia Hand Painted Fingering weight in the Walk in the Woods colorway.

At Gina Brown's I got

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed sock yarn
(seeing a pattern yet?)

AND:

Regia Bamboo Color. Yes, BAMBOO!!! Sock yarn!! 45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% polyamide. It feels cool to the touch and is extremely soft and feels so nice to knit with. I'm hoping that the socks I make with this will be for my mom. She is very sensitive to wool and doesn't like blends, but she may be okay with these (if not: Socks for Lori!)

So, the observant among you will notice that I cast on for the first sock in the Bamboo. That picture was taken about 20 minutes after I got home. I will use these as my "take along" project, to knit on while waiting for whatever, or while stuck standing still in traffic, or... whatever.

Now, you would think that there would be no way I would cast on for two separate sock projects within an hour of coming home from the yarn store, right?

Well, if you think that my friend, you would be wrong:

I'm using Steph's Orchid Sock pattern. This is a couple of hours of knitting time, but I did cast on about 20 minutes after I cast on the Bamboo...

Tomorrow and Friday I will be visiting my brother, his wife and the twins! I can't wait to see them.

I'll post another installment of what I did on my summer vacation when I'm back.

what i did on my summer vacation, part 2.1

Yesterday (the first day of my second part of my summer vacation)(whew) was 30C/86F. So, what did I do on the first day of my (second) summer vacation?

What anyone would do... I knit a fair isle toque in 100% wool! Of course!


Pattern: My own, adapted from a chart for fair isle mittens I found in my big pile o'patterns.
Yarn: Some odd balls of beautiful colored wool that I got from the Yarn Lady and some of the Custom Woolen Mills Mule Spinner 2 ply leftover from my Cable Front Cardigan.
I had been trying to think of something to do with the yarn from the Yarn Lady and woke up yesterday morning with this in my head. So, I decided that a hot day in August was the perfect day to make a toque...

My favorite part?

The top! I love this bit! I think I'll make more of these. It's a little long, but I think I can adapt it. I think (hope) there's enough left over to make mittens to match. This may or may not be a gift. We'll see.

More on my summer vacation as summer vacation progresses...

what i did on my summer vacation, part 1

I split up my 2 weeks of summer vacation this year. In July, I went to spend a week with my mom. There was lots of swimming with my nephew and niece. Lots of time with my mom. And, knitting (gasp):

I already showed you the blue sweater, which I worked on while I was there. Now, for the other projects (a month late, but whatever...):


Pattern: Knitty's Perdita
Yarn: DMC Coton Perle 318 Light Steel Gray
I made the smallest size (due to my freakishly thin wrists. My 5 year old nephew has thicker wrists than I do) and used about 1/2 of the skein. I used seed beads from my bead box. It took me about 4 hours altogether to do and I quite like the way this turned out. I think I'll make more to give as gifts.


Pattern: Berocco's Brea Bag
Yarn: some recycled linen/cotton blend doubled.
This picture was taken a month ago. I would love to show you a finished project, but... um... well... The gusset piece is done. I just need to get off my butt and finish it. And cut out and sew lining. And find a handle. And a button.

Yeah. Maybe I should finish it on my second week of vacation. Which is taking place... Now!

Part 2 of "what i did on my summer vacation" will be posted shortly.

I'm still here...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! Thanks for all the nice comments on the Blue Sweater. I keep meaning to write up the modifications I made to the original pattern. I'll do it (eventually).

I have other projects to show you but I'm too lazy to do the pictures today... Sunday... ahh...

In the meantime a couple of quick projects to show you:
My twin nephews turn 1 on the 28th. Little boys need dinosaurs:

Pattern: Dinosaurs by Jennifer Thurston at Xtreme-Knitting (free PDF available at the link)
Yarn: Random worsted weight acrylic odd balls from massive random acrylic stash.

AND:

Everyone seems to be having babies! My sister-in-law is due in February, and my sister is expecting and due in November! Also, my good friend from when I worked in Germany, Heidi (who sometimes reads this, so, Heidi if you're reading this, SKIP THIS PART!!!)(Well, unless you already got the package...) just had a little boy! Good news for knitters!

Pattern: Knitty's Trellis
Yarn: TLC Essentials in Country Blue. I decided to go with acrylic so that it can be washed without concern for shrinkage. I've never had a baby, but I can't see a new mom wanting to have to worry about laying a baby sweater out to dry!

I'll post a few other things this week. I need to get back to posting more frequently!

If Sisyphus had been a knitter...

...I believe he probably would have reknit the bottom band of his sweater almost as many times as I did. That is to say: I re-knit and/or bound off the bottom of this sweater no less that 4 times:
(I'm not telling you about the re-knitting of the sleeves (2x) due to similar issues)
1. Original finish: 4 inches of a lace rib. Didn't like the bind off (too tight)
2. Tink back and re-bind off.
3. Try on sweater and realize that a) I should have increased the number of stitches in the body and b) the resulting "narrow fit" caused my extremely long sweater to become extremely short. Insert lifeline and frog. Re-knit, trying to eke out enough inches to make it a bit longer (I thought I didn't have any more of the yarn). Block the crap out of it trying for more width and more length.
4. Realize that somehow the lace rib ROLLS UP. (dude. Lace Rib is not supposed to roll up) Also, realize that, while blocking helped with the "narrow fit", the shirt really really needs more length. Suddenly remember that you actually do have more of the yarn, since you ended up buying more when you had planned to make the cable vest. Frog again. Re-knit using a combination of stocking stitch and seed stitch to go with the seed stitch border of the neck and because of the rolling of the &$%*#^@ lace rib. Decide that you will be happy with it no matter what because you want this shirt dammit and enough already. Try on. Breathe easy.


Ahh...

Pattern/Modifications: Body shaping and top-down construction based on Knitty/Stephanie Japel's Mesilla. I adapted the cast on and neckline to start higher on the neck and to be more of a U-like v-neck. (does that make sense?)

Yarn: Butterfly Super 10
Verdict: I love it. I knew that the neck had worked out exactly how I wanted, which is why I kept going with trying to get the bottom to work. I love the color and I think I can live with the fit (it's a little close fitting, but it will ease up with wear).

I'll write a bit tomorrow about my vacation (I've been back for almost a week already!) and other projects knit on vacation and what I'm working on next. (Actually, I need to decide what I'm working on next)

Distractions

I am officially on vacation! Whew. I have been working at least 45-50 hour weeks for a long time now and I need a break. I am leaving the city to go visit my mom in Saskatchewan for a week. I'll get to see my nephews and nieces. I haven't seen them since Christmas so I'm pretty excited about that. Apparently my nieces have my week planned out for me (swimming! more swimming!!) so it should be fun.

Before I leave, I have some progress to show on the Blue (un-named) project:

I just noticed that my tension was a little wonky up at the top there and has somehow evened out as I got further down. I seem to have difficulty keeping even when working with mercerized cotton. I feel like I need just a little "grab" in the yarn to keep a really even tension. hmm...

Now, before you think I've become a focused, single-project knitter, I'll show you distraction #1:

This is a mesh beach bag out of Bernat Handcrafter cotton. I started to make the Kitchen Sink bag from Knitty but about 2 inches into the body I realized it was turning out much bigger than I wanted. I plan to give this to Niece #1 (sister to the girly-girl) as a very late birthday present (along with a Klutz Origami book!) and didn't want it to be too overly wide. So, I frogged the original and cast on a smaller number of stitches. The original has these really cool basket weave sections that are very sturdy, but I was frustrated to the point of throwing it down in a fit having some difficulties with them so I am just using plain stocking stitch for those sections.

Distraction #2:

I had a sudden urge to do something with some of the beads I've collected. I have no idea if I did this "right", nor do I particularly care! It's exactly what I wanted. I have a feeling this could turn into a new obsession thing...

Distraction #3:
While at Michael's today (distraction in itself) to get some extra origami paper for Niece #1, I wandered to the ever diminishing yarn area. I didn't buy yarn (!!!) but I did notice this on sale for $1 each in the needlework section:

I never did finish the Perdita I started, as I couldn't bring myself to restring the beads onto the second skein. Two 10m skeins for a project requiring at least 20m won't do when there are beads involved (which is the excuse I am sticking with). These are the right length for the project, which should save some tears.

Sigh.

So, now I will go and pack. I've given much more thought to what knitting etc. to bring than to clothes. I plan to be in the town swimming pool at least once a day with the kids and the rest of the time, I'm on vacation! I don't need to worry about what to wear!

See you in a week!

Blue. Happy Blue

Even though I have not tried this on, and even though I am not very far into the project, so far this:

















is exactly what I was planning. It makes me happy. I smile when I see it. I hope it doesn't break my heart.

*Thank you all for all the really positive comments! Knitters (and knit-blog-readers) are the nicest people!
**Yes, thanking you here may be my cop-out for not getting around to thanking you individually.
***I'm a bad blogger/blog commenter/blog comment returner.
****Sorry.

self discipline part 2: Reward

Pattern: Side Tie Vest from Spring/Summer 2006 Vogue Knitting
Yarn: Recycled from one of my Mom's sweaters (she gave it to me so that I could recycle it). I'm not sure what the fibre content is, but I sort of remember seeing was cotton, ramie (?) and some acrylic on the tag.
Modifications:
-I added about 4 inches in length in the body as the pattern called for 11 inches from hem to underarm. (That would put the hem at about my belly button i.e. 3 inches above the waist band on my pants)
-I omitted most of the decreases for the upper portion (the pattern tapers quite a bit to skinny straps) so that the straps were more like a regular tank top.
-The pattern calls for casting on 11teen million stitches and knitting a few rows for the ties, which seemed a bit annoying to me, so I did icord for the ties instead.

While I was seaming this up, I started to think that maybe this was a bit of a miss. I wasn't sure I would like it after all. But, now that it's done, I do like it after all. So: Success.

So, now that I have practiced self discipline in finishing the project I was on, I can get started* on the blue project:

This pic is about the most accurate representation of the color so far. It seems a bit hard to photograph.

*Okay, fine. I cast on last night when I bound off the last piece for the vest but I didn't knit on it until I was done seaming the vest. I may have knit a few rows between seaming and doing the collar on the vest. Fine. I knit a bunch of rows before I did the collar and then a couple more before the icord.

self discipline

On the left you see the back, one front and half of a front for the Side Tie Vest from the Summer 06 Vogue Knitting. It's a pretty quick knit, so one would think I should just finish it before moving on. Well, one would think that, but then that would demonstrate that "one" doesn't know me very well.

While knitting the 17 million rows of boring stockinng stitch for this vest I have been mentally moving on and thinking about the next project. I keep coming back (mentally) to the blue Butterfly Super 10 you see above there.

If you are a really really dedicated reader of this blog (and, really, who isn't?) you may recognize that yarn from a brief appearance as a cabled tank top. Well, due to stupidity poor planning on my part, I had decided to knit the cabled tank in the round. I didn't think about the fact that this would create a LOT of purling. Now, I don't really care for purling. I don't really know why, but I just don't. So, the massive amounts of purling and boredom having the will to knit sucked out of me the fact that I didn't like the way the cables were coming out in the mercerized cotton had led me to put this tank down for a while.

I kept wanting to frog it and do something else with the yarn but I hadn't found something that I really wanted to do with it. I love the color too much to make something I won't really wear that much, but I couldn't find anything that I both wanted to knit and wanted to wear. So, I kept it on the needles, knitting a round here and there. Some strange sense of obligation to the project (?) made me keep it on the needles like I had made a promise to the yarn or something. (It is slightly possible that the whole yarn thing is getting a little out of hand).

Today, while plodding through the first front, I decided to take out the cabled tank again. I looked at it and thought it looked a little wide. So I measured it and... It was a good 2 inches wider than it should have been (4 inches around)!! So...

Rip!

As I was ripping it out, I had a flash of inspiration (see sketch in above picture). I actually planned it out and wrote out what I plan to do! I'm kind of excited to start.

Which brings me back to the title of this post: Self Discipline. Not my strong suit. I want to put down the Side Tie Vest and get going on the new project but I am using every ounce of self discipline that I have access to in order to finish the project on the needles first. (We will not speak of the many other projects on the needles. They are hidden away in the in progress trunk for a specific reason: denial) We'll see how that goes...

awww... crap.*

*apologies if you are offended by the use of this word (although, frankly, it's very very very mild compared to what I was really thinking)(sorry if that damages your opinion of me)(crap)

Due to a stress-filled week (both work and mostly self-inflicted personal life stress) I wanted to work on something that would occupy my brain but be a quick knit. The bigger projects I'm working on are of no interest to me today for some reason. I wanted something challenging, small, and basically frivolous (although, if you feel very strongly about the necessity and importance of the following project: I did not mean to offend)(can you tell I'm feeling slightly on edge?)(sorry)

The new Knitty was out this week, and although it's a little strange on one hand to have a summer issue of gloves and socks, on the other hand, it's perfect timing for starting Christmas presents really early, or more realistically, giving me something frivolous to knit.

Like Perdita. Pretty, which is not normally something I am all that concerned with; Not overly practical (i.e. frivolous); Small; Challenging (I haven't knit with beads before); and, most importantly, I have the supplies on hand.

I have a divided bead box full of seed beads that I got for ridiculously small amounts of rupees when I was living in Pakistan. They were divided by color and type. I say were, because, after picking out and stringing the beads I needed for the version of Perdita I was going to knit (Bluebell), I did this:


I don't know if you can tell what's going on there. The beads in the square plastic container were all over my floor under my desk. Somehow I managed to NOT close the lid on the divided bead box and managed to step on the box, dumping most of the beads.

(now do you understand why I'm trying not to use non-PG language?)

Now, stepping on an open box of beads is not actually that surprising for me. I am generally extremely clumsy. I currently have no less than five bruises on my legs and arms from hitting them on my desk or on door frames. A friend at work asked (hopefully jokingly) if I was being abused by someone. (I'm not. Honest.) It's amazing that I haven't ever broken any bones or been seriously injured.

I was able to pick up the bulk of the beads with my hands. However, seed beads and carpet make for more swearing than a really really bad drive home on the Deerfoot. I came up with a brilliant solution:


Tape. Thank you Scotch Tape. You saved me bursting into tears as I picked clear (yes. Clear) seed beads from my carpet.

Somehow some of the beads managed to not get mixed up and this, too, prevented much more crying/swearing.


Before the disaster incident with the beads, I did get one and a half repeats of the pattern done:

should I mention now that after I got started I realized that the "skeins" of embroidery thread I had are not standard length? they are 10 yards. I need about 20 yards. I have 2 skeins. this will require joining the thread somehow. this will quite possibly require re-stringing the beads. crap.