Brian on the Economy

It's no secret I think Brian is one of the smartest people I know.

That said, I totally did a FemmeCast Minisode about the economic crisis, starring Brian. Clickie here and go to episodes, it's 4.5.

I totally said I'd blog when I had Brian on the show. So here it is.

In terms of fiber related items, I have been knitting hats for my neicephew. There's another bunny face hat but I forgot to photograph it.

Quite Unexpectedly

Unexpectedly, I had the intended recipient of the lizard ridge scarf come into town 2 days after I posted my blog entry about it and when the scarf was already bundled up in a package to head down south. I was so happy I had this project finished because I could welcome her with cuddly warmth to off set the otherwise really awful circumstances that brought her here.

That scarf is perfect and Frankie loved it.

Over the weekend, Frankie saw a hank of Blue Sky Alpaca's Bulky Naturals sitting next to my computer. She picked it up and read the price tag "Thirteen dollars!?!"

"Yeah," I answered. "Yarn ain't cheap. That scarf I gave you was really expensive." She shook her head. I don't think she realized even that the hank she was holding was only 45 yards of yarn and that won't even make a hat! Every time I bring a new Muggle into my life the process of indoctrinating them into the knitting fold is like seeing knitting anew.

You know the best thing at a party? Meeting another knitter. I met this great girl at a cupcake roomwarming yesterday. When she confessed to being a knitter Frankie grabbed the scarf I made her and showed it off. There is no better pride for a knitter I think than having other people brag about your handknitted goods.

The girl from the cupcake warming knew immediately that the scarf sported by my friend was made of Noro. I told her the story about the Blue Sky Alpaca and she laughed and said, "Yeah, that scarf wasn't cheap!!"

Other people at the party brought me a gift set. It was a Posh Pooches gift set. A book of dog sweater patterns and a set of #8 needles with dogs on the tops. Super cute. I am going to do a doggie argyle sweater for a chihuahua next.

The O Pile!

I have a new knitting term, y'all. I decided, as I was unpacking my Yarn Room, that almost everything in my pile of "UFOs" is really finished except for the finishing.

I've decided this constitutes my O Pile, which is Finished Objects that haven't been finished yet. There's a baby blanket where all the squares are done, it just needs to be assembled and bordered. There's another baby blanket that needs a border. There is a dog sweater that is knitted, all the pieces are stitched together, it just needs some decoration.

Well, here's the story of my wavy scarf, which was just rustled up and is, right now, blocking. I hate blocking and I am totally doing it to get down my O pile.

I took the pattern from the Lizard Ridge afghan pattern on Knitty. Basically, the afghan is done up in strips–I just did one strip, added a border pattern from Nicky Epstein’s Knitting Over the Edge and voila! A scarf.

The pattern is easy to memorize and really fun.

This is the scarf pre-blocking.

This was my first Noro project. At first I loved the colorway, then I hated it, and then I just focused on one color that every time it repeated it pissed me off. Seriously. I wasn’t sure what to do with the scarf so, for the longest time, it languished in my O pile, all knitted up with no place to go.

Then I met a girl who I was really sweet on. She was visiting me from out of town but only brought one scarf with her to combat the cold NYC climate. Every time she put on her scarf I got sort of pissed at it. I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. But I realized later, after she flew back home, what I was so pissed at about the scarf was the colorway. It was a commercial scarf with a lot of the same colors as this one. But totally different and not homemade with love or whatever.

I knew, right then, I had to pull this beast out of the O pile, weave in the ends and get to blocking.

She’s going to love it.

And you know, I am going to sound all hippie woo woo for a second, but even though I didn't make it for her, as I was pinning it out to block it, I totally saw so much of her in the piece. It even prompted me to write a poetic accompaniment to the gift.

I will see her soon, at that time you'll get a modeling shot.

PS to Last One Skeining. Thank you for the prompt to post something in my blog. Even though you're in Australia, I am totally updating in your honor.

Bunny Hat!

I have an FO*!



I knit up this hat a couple of months ago when I first purchased the book "Itty Bitty Hats". It is the Bunny Tail pattern. It knit up very quickly, I believe I was finished in about 3 days of off and on knitting, and all it required was a circular size 7 needle** and some 7 double points. I even used STASH YARN. The yarn is Plymouth Encore DK colorspun in a grey and pink and white colorway. Brian and I both bought some on one of our Smiley's yarn riot binges (where you buy yarn quite literally by the garbage bag full). I note that there is a yarn riot next week and I am so not going.

I believe I initially intended this yarn for socks. I double stranded the yarn which resulted in a really pleasant subtle color change. It took less than 2 skeins and I am pretty sure I still have more of this in the stash, so it may still end up being socks.



I was looking all over for the hat, since I had knit it with my cousin's baby Pahtoot in mind and she recently mentioned Pahtoot has outgrown most of her hats. I finally found it this weekend and wanted to add a face, so I made a couple of bobbles out of stash yarn for eyes (embroidered pupils) and a couple of bobbles for the nose and then a short three stitch i cord folded in half for the teeth. I hope I secured them well enough so that 14 month old Pahtoot can't rip off the bobbles.

Rusty was a reluctant knitwear model.



This is Pahtoot at 6 months in the arms of her momma, my cousin. She is sooooooo cute.



I bought a Tulip Cardigan kit and will be knitting it up for her.

In other news, I was extoling the virtues of Ravelry to Brian this weekend and he is now on the waiting list!!
Found you!

* You signed up on Yesterday
* You are #30899 on the list.
* 19406 people are ahead of you in line.
* 202 people are behind you in line.
* 36% of the list has been invited so far


*Finished Object
**At the time most of my Denise circulars were in use so I actually bought the required 7 circular (worth investing in because virtually all of the patterns in the book require that needle and I intend to knit many of those cute hats).

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