Knitting Progress!

It has been about a decade since we last updated, but Brian and I are still knitting and making yarn mischief. It is simply interspersed with other things.

Brian's BF* Boomer totally bought him a Wii for Christmas. I go to their house to play Wii a lot, which is very fun, especially since their TV is 110" and also they sometimes put up a screen outside to accommodate the projector. Imagine playing Wii on a 220" TV. Boomer's hobby is buying and doing awesome things with gadgetry.

Right, so back to the knitting content.

In March I accidentally made a sock for a giant. I discovered the error in my gauge while I was on a trip to Philadelphia and someone mentioned how enormous it looked. I had already turned the heel and tried it on, careful of my DPNs and... well, they were right. I don't know what happened with the gauge when I changed from 2x2 ribbing but it was horrific. I just wanted it to be stockinette on the feet because I don't like ribbing around the foot.

The yarn is gorgeous Trekking XXL in Color 39, light greens and browns. I am either going to rip it out entirely or rip it back before the gusset decreases but basically the sock is in purgatory in my yarn room closet until it thinks about what it has done and I get over the shock of a sock gone terribly wrong.

So what did I do while I was in Philadelphia on a Sunday and my only traveling knitting project was traumatic and could not be relied on for joyful companionship on the 1.5 hour drive back to Jersey City? I made my fiance and my friend Zoe stop by an LYS** so that I could get a new project. Nothing soothes the wounds of a knitting project betrayal like new yarn. And some addi turbos, just to see what all the hype is about.

We stopped into Loop, which thankfully maintains reasonable hours on Sundays and I bought one of their sample projects, a bright pink ruffled shawl that was a surprisingly easy pattern. I was drawn to the shawl immediately because of how vibrant, girly and fun it was. It reminded me of something I would have died to have found in a dress up bin when I was a little girl. And, let's be honest, shawls like this are the evening wear equivalent of a feather boa. I wear those on stage and I wish I could wear them every time I dress up. (See the dress-up appeal of the shawl modeled by my friend Anne.)

The yarn is Alchemy: Yarns of Transformation in color "Promise--Evening Pink". It was $34 for 423 yards. The shawl is knit on size 13 needles and I did the bigger size shawl--60 stitches at the widest point of the triangle, with a five row repeat ruffle border. I don't think I can attest to the transformative nature of the yarn, but it was a pretty quick, straightforward knit. I did a great deal of the project while on jury duty, which meant I replaced the addi turbos with my Denise circulars to pass the muster through the x-ray machine. I still have some yarn leftover, and I am thinking I might add another ruffle to it just because I can. I mean, it is already bright pink, I don't know if being too showy is even a consideration.

I wore it with an evening gown I had sitting around in my closet to a benefit for NoLose, "My Big Fat Queer Prom" in Asbury Park, NJ. And I had yet another brush with fame. My knitting was totally featured in the Village Voice.

Since it isn't the greatest shot of the FO*** (though it is a great one of me singing "Before He Cheats" to Zoe), to the right is another one of that night, with me and my friend Sarah.

I think we can all agree my shawl should have another ruffle.

We recently moved because my fiance decided he was tired of yarn falling on him from every crevice in our old one bedroom apartment. He said that I can have a "Yarn Room" as long as yarn isn't in any other room in the house. I packed everything in a hurry so I have bags of WIPs*** and UFOs***** as well as garbage bags full of my stash. It is really horrendous.

I am trying to organize it all and, in the meantime, I've gotten through some of my old WIPs. I will post some more FO pictures later, but suffice it to say that after 2 years sometimes you just have to finish something. I have this real knitterly ADD****** and I am not a very fast knitter, so it makes me tend to have way too many objects on the needles. I think at one point I had fifteen. I am not exaggerating. When I first started knitting, I was whipping out FOs far quicker than I have time for now, so I think that might have justified the stash and project piles a little better.

Brian is also knitting. His BF really likes alien motifs, so he made him a Rockin' Alien Illusion scarf from Stitch n' Bitch. His BF manages an apartment complex and actually took that WIP and showed it to a resident and claimed to be able to knit and "lookie and the illusion where an alien pops out of nowhere"! I believe this managed to endear the woman to Boomer in a way that simply being his charming self could not. And believe it or not, this is not the first person I have known who lied about being able to knit. I sincerely do not know why one would do that when it really is as easy as logging onto www.knittinghelp.com, but whatever floats your boat.

Brian is now making Boomer some alien socks from Knitty.com. This is his progress OTN*******. I found some glow in the dark yarn the other day and I believe he will duplicate stitch some decorations onto it when the pair is complete. He is using Lang Jawoll and the 2 circular needles method. I think he has bent his needles and am not sure if it is due to needle quality or the effort of fair isle sock knitting. Or perhaps he just doesn't know his own strength.



*Boyfriend
**Local Yarn Shoppe
***Finished Object
***Works in Progress
*****Unfinished Objects
******Attention Deficit Disorder
*******On The Needles