Ravelry gush; still sick but happy….
Life is GOOD! I mean it can always be worse.
“Never challenge worse ,” says Bill Cosby. “It can be exactly how it is right now with a fork stuck in your eye….”
So onto the “Ravelry gush”: one thing that makes me WAY happy on a nearly daily basis is Ravelry. I get so very inspired by what people are doing there. I’m challenged and uplifted by what fiber folk are doing all over this fine planet.
My latest “project crush” smacked me upside the head about half an hour ago: The Rainbow Persephone Scarf. OK, first – feast your eyes on the original single color scarf:
This is a free scarf pattern by Smariek Knits and just beautiful in its own right; I’ve wanted to make this for a long time. However today as I was trolling around Ravelry, I saw what this college student in Florida has done with this pattern:
I am SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS PROJECT. It’s gonna be very very hard for me not to drop everything and start on one for me. I’m no great shakes at intarsia and I’ve not done intarsia cables before…
Another photo to drool over:
Now get this: she made the whole thing out of Caron Simply Soft yarn. For those of you that don’t know – Caron Simply SOft is an inexpensive acrylic yarn that is a little slippery and not necessarily fun (for me anyway) to knit. And for intarsia projects, I would think a yarn with a little more “grab” would be the thing, but this woman seems to have had no trouble….. Here is a link to her blog: Bijou Knits
Without Ravelry, I would have never known the pattern existed, much less have seen what Bijou did with it. To quote the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz:
“Oh joy! Rapture!”
Now….go knit something. 
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In the “This Really Deserves A Post of Its Own Like A Week Ago” file:
My dear friend (and KNITTER EXTRAORDINAIRE) Sarah gave me a bunch of wonderful things when we got together and I’ve not posted about them because of camera/photography issues. I hope that will resolve very soon, but I just cannot wait any longer to say that Sarah is THE BEST!!!! Thank you and I’ma have you guys to dinner as soon as I kick this cold.
The head cold has morphed…..
…into bronchitis, or near enough. And of course, Studmuffin is out of town. I hope he doesn’t bring home another new and exciting head cold this time.
I will be very VERY happy when we finally install a pet door. Boris and Natasha have taken to answering nature’s call at 3 a.m. most every morning. Since it wasn’t terribly cold, I’d left the sliding door in back open a dog’s width so I could have a night’s uninterrupted sleep. But oh NO! Natasha went out easily enough, but started barking at 3:30 a.m. to be let in….the FRONT door. Nothing would do except she HAD to come in the front door. Could it be that my lack of rest is retarding my return to health? Grrrr.
Still , it’s small potatoes. Life is good for me and my immediates. However, my illness isn’t assisting in the Force of Nature’s homeschooling progress!
Knitting is continuing as I’m taking a break from “The Beast”.
Der Wind weht heute Abend hart.*
The wind has been blowing ferociously gusty for the last 5 hours and it’s keeping me awake. After casting on and starting a twined knitting hat, which I ripped out because the yarn isn’t right for the project, learning 2 new-to-me cast ons and knitting almost 3 inches of K1 P1 ribbing for yet another hat fer Studmuffin (the last wasn’t long enough, so the Force of Nature claimed it), and deciding that I’m a have to rip that out too since I don’t like how the cast on looks and it will bug me every time I see that hat – I finally decided to get up, turn on the ‘puter and blather on to y’all….at 4:15 am.
In the last post, I was getting ready to go to the radio station to do my radio show. I wanted to play the songs I’d gotten off of eMusic in tribute to various Blues artists who passed on in 2009. I had spent a good bit of the previous 2 days trying to get the CD player/burner to work with NO LUCK AT ALL. Man, the thing wouldn’t even play pre-recorded CDs – I was some frustrated. But it didn’t matter in the end because we had a tornado.
Someone else's picture of the tornado just before it touched down.
No. REALLY. We had a tornado. I could hear it and see it from inside my house. Even though I couldn’t see the bottom of it, I knew it was on the ground because of all the debris. This was a block away from my house! The Force of Nature started crying and screaming, “I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die!” Fortunately, it did not hit us directly, it was a small tornado, only property damage and no injuries occurred.
One of the houses nearby that was damaged.
It all went very fast! I learnedwhen I got to work that it also knocked the power out at the radio station and university, which didn’t come back on until the last 20 mins of my show. There was all kinds of stuff going on when the tornado happened, which is pretty usual for Thursday afternoons around here, but the tornado was a little over the top.
We have a lot of tornado warnings and actual tornadoes here in Huntsville. You get used to it – it’s a danger like any other. Ordinarily, the funnel clouds form up southeast of here and the 2 really big tornadoes that have done serious damage – one in 1974 and the other in 1989 were in the southeastern part of the city. They usually just skip right on over Chapman mountain and Monte Sano. Still, I always try to take them seriously; tornadoes are extremely unpredictable and destructive. We have a tornado siren across the street at the school which I heard but it was when I actually *heard* the tornado (think freight train engine) that I told the F.o.N to go into the bathroom. But we’re all fine now.
Now, it seems the wind has blown itself out, so I’m off to bed and hopefully to sleep!
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* This is German for “The wind is blowing hard tonight.”
A finished object! Yay!
Moderne Baby blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting
Not an exciting knit – all garter stitch – but an opportunity to do something simple well, which I admit I didn’t always make it all the way to “excellence” on this one. I didn’t exactly follow the pattern as I was running out of yarn and I didn’t put the mitered edge on either. I started making a a single-crochet edging, but after doing about 1/5 of it, I found it didn’t really enhance the project and ripped it out. This blanket is good practice for picking up stitches and weaving in ends, & the resulting fabric has a delightful squish factor. Machine washable this is, and all pictures were taken after its maiden wash & dry. All cell phone pics again – the camera is misplaced at the mo’.
A gift for Emily Elam’s baby boy….who is due to arrive any minute.
I made a quick twist cord (much to the amazement of the Force of Nature) and it will be given tonight. I’ll be doing the radio show tonight from 6:30 – 8 pm Central time. I hope you can listen. www.aamu.edu/WJAB
Yes, we have a sense of humor
Alabama has a terrible reputation all over the world. I know this and I think it’s deserved. What irritates me a little is that there are lots of other states in the U.S.A. that deserve the same reputation but don’t have it…. Oh well.
When several of my friends and family members have come to visit, they have been rather surprised to find how nice it is here. There *are* really smart people, caring people, heck! We’ve even got cable TV and CNN and everything. And we have a sense of humor. To illustrate a bit of that, I have some video for you.
The fellas at Rhett & Link make funny commercials and they made this one. NOW a software company in Birmingham, AL has made a similar commercial:
See? We don’t take ourselves all that seriously.
A groovy sock idea part deux
Whilst I’ve been grieving for my late cat – many thanks to those who have sent condolences; it means more to me than you can know or is even REASONABLE (!) – I’ve been working on this homemade sock club idea off and on. I’ve not felt like knitting anything or crocheting on the Klimt-y Babette fer Mum (hereafter known as “the BEAST”), but for those of you who have befriended me on Ravelry, I’ve been looking at (and “favorite-ing”) plenty of pictures of knitting. Very therapeutic as well as listening to John Gorka’s latest CD.
One of the reasons this idea appeals to me so is that it is anti-hoarding in nature. I recognize that I have some issues with “lack”, and my yarn stash reflects this. It has been the enormous growth of my yarn stash that has helped me recognize this almost panicked feeling I get about not having enough – pretty yarns, CDs, books, food, whatever. It isn’t rational at all and I am working on it; I think this idea will help. Plus it’s FUN FUN FUN!
I sought out all the lovely free sock patterns on Ravelry, plus the ones I’ve downloaded for actual $. I also got out all of my sock books and have been perusing those as well. I ignored the knitting magazines I have – already I have too many choices! I did NOT go find all the single patterns of socks I’ve accumulated; they’re out in the unheated garage and it’s too bloody cold to go rummaging around in there. I guess when I get thru this batch, I’ll do those too.
I wanted to do some colorwork, some lace, cables and twisted stitch of COURSE, maybe learn some new techniques….. I only ended up with ONE pattern out of the 10+ sock books I own and one other that I had bought online – ALL of the rest are free ones. Remember when I said I would do maybe six packages of yarn & patterns? Such a FOOL am I! Feast yer eyeballs on this:
There’s 16 or 17 in there – I quit when the printer quit working. I was gonna try to put them into clear bags and then into a pillowcase, but I’ve no pillows THAT big, so identical ‘ Tarzhay’ bags it is. After printing every one of them out, I put each one in a page protector all nice and neat. Now onto the yarns!
The yarn is also in the unheated garage, but they are in 2 bins that I can get quickly. God *knows* there’s puh-luh-henty more sock yarn to do more than 17 monthly packages. There’s SO much that I had to use some kind of criteria for deciding which yarns to even consider, so I pulled out:
- the oldest sock yarns I remember buying
- the stuff I dyed myself
- the oldest indie dyer stuff on hand
- stuff I received thru swaps *especially* the colorways I wouldn’t have chosen to get for myself (SWAPS! Yeah! Remember those? Gotta get back to those…maybe by summer)
- the really GOOD stuff I’ve been saving for later
The actual pairing up of the yarn to pattern didn’t take very long after that. Only time and experience will tell if I did a decent job on that part. In fact, I’ve got this crazy idea of doing some kind of a raffle or something monthly either at my local knit night or here on the blog to try to raise some money for the India trip and the only thing stopping me is the pattern/yarn match-up. Or maybe since the divine Sarah did not want anything from Virginia, I’ll just pick one out for her and send it to her house…..if I only knew where she lived! Hey Sarah! Let’s meet for coffee someplace once a month & I’ll bring the giant bag and you can pick one out each time*. What do you think? Comments about any of these ideas are read and treasured!
The giant (laundry) bag of Groovy Sock Club goodness!
Who knows? If this goes well, I could definitely see hosting a sock club on a local basis…perhaps in conjunction with my LYS…..Hmmmm, maybe not. That might take all the fun out of it and i am in this for the FUN. I will keep y’all updated about each package as it is revealed.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT:
The Force of Nature wanted to make a cake…and not just any cake: a blue cake. Those darker areas on the top are intentional; there is a kind of icing “spray paint” one can get (we have blue). The candy sprinkles are in the shape of cows and stars and moons and dinosaurs and dolphins. Of course. And those purple blobs are icing too.
I think she’s been inspired by the Percy Jackson books; Percy’s mom makes blue food all the time. This started out as a white cake mix and white frosting. Here’s the inside:
We had a bit of a meltdown together as I was trying to make dinner as well and she hadn’t read the directions all the way through. I had to remind her that my first real job was working at a bakery so I might know something about making a cake……….
The final product was too crumbly to ice properly – I think the amount of food coloring that eventually brought it to such an amazing hue compromised the strength of the cake. All appearances aside, this is a delicious cake. I’ma have some before bed.
I hope the next post will have pictures from the Virginia/DC trip. I’ll talk about Bluto some time in the future. STAY WARM! And now, some cake…..
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* there’s only 2 of them I won’t let you have: 1 beautiful skein of yarn has rather bad moth damage which I’m willing to mess about with but I couldn’t in good conscience give to anyone else, and 1 pattern which I hope to make at the end of this batch containing yarn from all the ones I knit.
Sad, sad, sad night
The Amazing Bluto – Kitty extraordinaire – breathed his last tonight. Rest in peace, my dear friend.
A groovy sock idea & the Amazing Bluto
The fabulous Yarn Harlot has a daily calendar,”Never Not Knitting”, and I receive it via email everyday. Today’s little blurb is:
“You know how you have a bunch of sock yarn and a bunch of sock patterns? Think about taking today to create your own personalized Sock of the Month Club. Choose 12 patterns from your collection that you love, pair them up with 12 yarns from your stash, and toss each set into a zip-top bag. Put all of those bags into a bigger bag (I like a pillowcase so I can’t see what’s inside), and at the beginning of each month, pull a bag at random and start knitting. It’s a fun way to surprise yourself, it helps you stay on track with a plan, and at the end of the year, you’ll have at least 12 new pairs of socks. “
I REALLY like this idea, I am trying to save some money and I very much want to join a sock of the month club (Woolgirl’s is the one….). Instead of 12, I may just do an every-other-month thing since I don’t want to put any pressure on myself to do a pair a month. I mean, I knit fast enough to do it and deadlines can be quite useful, but I think one pair every other month would be realistic. And since I went through the stash last month, I’ve come to realize I have a LOT of truly gorgeous sock yarn (and I do mean a****LOT*****). I don’t just make socks with it, and I did buy a little more yesterday but that will be for a hat.
TANGENT: Isn’t it gorgeous? The creator of this hat is going to write up a pattern and I’m gonna make it…and maybe a pair of matching mittens. Here’s her first one:
And the yarn I got for it is this:
Zauberball – fuschia
Waikiwi – from NZ and has a wee bit of possum fiber in it. How could I refuse?
Cascade Heritage – ivory
I’m not sure if I’ll use the green or the ivory for the background yet…..and this one will be for ME! – END OF TANGENT
I might get to pairing up sock yarn and patterns tomorrow at the earliest. Maybe I’ll come up with some kind of yarn giveaway too. What do you think?
The Amazing Bluto is still with us. I can hardly believe it; his kungfu is STRONG! My dear friend Cathy came over to feed Kali and him everyday while we were gone. I was certain he would not be here when we returned, but I was wrong. He doesn’t do much but sleep, is not eating much, but still doesn’t seem to be in any pain. I wish there was some way for me to convey to him how great I think he is and how much I love him. Right now, I mostly wipe his nose and eye (which he hates) and pat him when I have some time. I’m gonna be an absolute mess when he does go, though I’ll have to keep it together at least a little bit to be a decent example for the kids. I’m forever telling them that, “All living things die,” and that “death is part of life – completely natural”. I do have a terrible time saying goodbye….
We’re back in freezin’ Alabama
Phew! Just about 2 weeks away from home sweet home and what happened? How’d you guys make it SO COLD? Oy! It feels like I never left New England. It’s not supposed to get ABOVE 36 degrees F this week. Brrrrr! I just don’t like cold weather…at ALL.
Anyway, back to the daily grind and a quick update on the Klimt-y Babette for Mom” I am making progress – I’ve spent many. many, many hours on this beast – but this thing is huge! She might get it by spring… I’m ready to cast on a very badic hat because I need a small project to regain my equilibrium or something.
Happy new year to all and stay warm! Now I’m gonna go have some hot tea……
OH NOES!
I just wrote a blog post and then deleted it by mistake. Should I take it as a sign to not say whatever it was that I was gonna say? Perhaps less whinging this time around…..
- The left-handed crochet plan is a bust. I guess that goal will get put up on the shelf for a while.
- Am still crocheting like a fiend. Here’s a photo or two:
Not too bad for cell phone pictures, eh? I quail at the thought of sewing all these together……gotta be done tho’. - The cat is still alive, amazingly enough. He’s not eating dry food, but will happily scoff up the canned stuff. Still, there are several hard decisions to be made and soon.
- I’ve become nearly obsessed with Queen and Freddie Mercury in the last few days. I’ve always been a fan (since 1977) but I *think* I had a dream about them/him a couple of nights ago and now ….well, it’s strange. Of course my oh-so-obedient children did NOT put the one Queen cd I had back so now it’s lost and I have to listen to their music on line. I am astonished by the fact that it has been EIGHTEEN years since Freddie died. What a terrific showman and singer! I miss him.
- I guess I’m a little depressed. The buckets of rain pouring down outside are NOT helping.
- For some unknown reason Windows Media player just refuses to RUN on my computer. This is BAD.
- Life *is* good…I’m just being a whiner.
- I did have fun putting together the Blues Classics Christmas show I did last night on WJAB. There’s WAY more Christmas blues tunes than you’d think. I wonder if any of you have ever listened to the show?
- Sacred Flame has booked a gig in May and that’s something to really look forward to! We’ll be singing at the next Wings to the Spirit conference in Florida. One of our number cannot make it, but I am happy to think of singing again.
- We will be going off to visit family for about a week & a half pretty soon. I think I need to find and bring back something very special for Sarah, who has been just wonderful to me AND comments all the time. AND I MISSED HER BIRTHDAY! What do you say m’dear? Any preferences?
- I just need to go look at some of the silly websites I enjoy….like this one:
Monday morning injury
I had a lovely birthday yesterday…almost NO housework done, STudmuffin served me breakfast in bed and I got to knit and watch tv by myself for several hours among other things. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.
Last night I started working in earnest on the Klimt-y Babette blanket for my mom. It’s crochet so it goes fast. However, I did so much crochet that my wrist is really sore today. I had to go dig out my wrist brace and everything.
SO in hopes that I can continue to work on this very belated birthday present (Mom’s birthday is in early October), I’ve decided to learn how to crochet with my LEFT hand. YouTube to the rescue! It is rather frustrating that I cannot just switch over what my right hand knows how to do to my left hand; there will be much practice involved. OK, now where’s the Advil?
I may not post much more this week as I need to rest my hands. ::::sigh:::::
Have a blessed day!
Yarn Stash Enhancements
Since my beloved LYS is having its big holiday sale, and I don’t yet already have enough yarn to actually cross the “pathology line” into hoarding, I’ve been to shop there twice since last Saturday. Here’s the goods (crappy cell phone pictures all, I’m afraid):
This was what I went for today – more yarn to finish baby blanket # 804.
More Noro Kureyon for the potential Lizard Ridge blanket (ye, Virginia; there are still colorways I haven’t yet acquired….)
To the left Socrates sock yarn (the tan stuff): 400 yards of alpaca-bamboo blendy- goodness. All the rest is Jil Eaton’s MinnowMerino (oh yum yum yum!!!)
Prevous 2 pics – Saturday’s haul. Below are today’s gains..
Another Kureyon AND a Kureyon sock weight – I could NOT resist!
The Purple is Dream in Color Smooshy sock in “Visual purple” (a squee deserving 30% off) and 2 skeins of Comfort which is supposed to be an amigurumi monkey from Creepy Cute Crochet.
Technically the Soxx Appeal and the Comfort yarns above are not my stash, but the Force of Nature’s stash, but that would be splitting hairs I think. And just to mix things up, I got a pattern too.
Since into each life, some acrylic must fall – I went to another store and got these to make my darlin’ friend Niki a quick hat for her 60th birthday tomorrow. Cat hair included for no extra charge.
The reason for all this yarn pr0n? 1) I had some $, 2)Yarn Expressions was having the sale and 3) no one is getting me prezzies for me birthday so I gotta do it meself and 4 to infinity) I’m glad to be alive.
Happy Birthday to me! On Sunday I’ll be fortyone-derful!
Scraping the bottom of the clip art barrel….
While I was wasting my time/honing my skills/avoiding housework this afternoon with the nearly-incapacitatingly-addictive “Bejeweled Blitz” game on Facebook: one minute of seeking to match brightly colored objects as fast a you can – it’s only a minute so why not play again? And Again? And then 3 hours later…..
But oh yeah! on Facebook, in case you do NOT know, there are small ads along the far left or far right hand side of the screen. This one caught my eye:
I mean….how is this picture appropriate for the headline of the AD? Is the guy supposed to be a college student? What’s with the facial hair? Is this yer average scholarship recipient? Or maybe he’s the guy who wrote the AD and wanted a little recognition of his similarity to George Carlin 40 years ago? Or maybe of his hirsute-y goodness? The mind boggles….I would of course love to see your ideas for captions et al, dear readers (all 5.4 of you!).
Back to Blitzing….I wanna make 200,000. To heck with real life. 
)
Weekend wrap-up
I’m hoping to post more frequently by posting shorter….. Brevity is supposed to be the soul of wit so here goes:
- The whole family ate a 4 course meal at the Melting Pot Friday night. Kids had much fun, the food was excellent, but it put a serious and unplanned crimp in our finances; not a good time of year for that!
- Massive food shopping onslaught to restock the bare cupboards. You know things is bare when yer eating the canned pickled beets you bought by mistake several years ago. STill, this situation allowed us to defrost the chest freezer and the fridge freezer and forced me to be much more creative in trying to prepare balanced meals for the fam. Madrassian lentils and tinned peaches anyone?
- We have a mouse in the pantry. So far, only Studmuffin has seen it and he wants to do away with it, but I think it may become an unintended pet since the Duke of Curl was absolutely HORRIFIED that we would even think of trying to trap &/or kill it. Stay tuned….
- The power steering pump seems to be going bad in the Van of Reknown, so now it kinda sounds like the monorail at Walt Disney World only louder. This’ll have to wait fer a bit (see “Melting Pot” above)- fortunately it can, but we may have to wear earplugs while driving it.
- My mother told me she’s not gonna get me a present for my birthday. I told her she’s off the hook; after all she’s been giving me presents longer than anybody, including the gift of my life. I really do feel this way, but I admit to having mixed emotions too. I love getting birthday presents; I think birthdays are important and I’ve never gotten presents for my birthday on any kind of regular basis from Studmuffin and children ( it might average out to maybe 1 present every 5 years or so). Studmuffin doesn’t enjoy receiving gifts himself and so really doesn’t get the whole gift thing in a very basic way. In other years I’ve bought my own presents, but I don’t wanna this year for some reason ( perhaps the Melting Pot budget pothole?). I have a couple of very close friends who remember my birthday (and I of course remember theirs – I *love* giving gifts). I can’t say that I’m hurting or anything…there’s just maybe a bit of angsty regret around the edges.
- My most excellent LYS is having its big holiday sale and I went and got beautiful things on Saturday AND stayed within my budget. Yay! Once I find the camera, I may take some pictures….
- I’ve mislaid the mitten I’ve completed for my mother-in-law. I must find this TODAY. She’s off to Austria SOON.
- The printer is still not working, and last night we discovered that my ‘puter doesn’t even have a dedicated printer port on the back of the CPU, so I cannot just plug it in to my computer. Grrrr.
- I’ve not gotten the Christmas music out yet. I must be depressed or something.
- My house smells like Chez Catpee, because….
- My elderly cat, the Amazing Bluto, is dying. He’s not eaten much of anything since Friday, he’s not getting outside in time to relieve himself so he’s been doing it all over the house (usually when I’m out), and the other cat is following suit. Bluto’s been with us so loong he has several nicknames and he answers to all of them: Blue-dee-doo, Blutofsky, Boo-ba-licious, Boobles, The Frumious Boo and Boobie. He’s obviously near the end, and yet he’s still clawing his way up to sleep on our bed (since he can no longer jump) and purring away. Of this I’m glad – he’s not in any pain and he’s had a wonderful life with us but it’s still a sad time.
How’s that for brief? Perhaps photos tomorrow……..And I love reading yer comments!
Blogging will resume…..
…in a couple of days. We got back from West Virginny late Monday night, but I’m still snowed under with minutiae and over 500 emails. I’m off to the radio station in a little bit; I hope you’ll listen sometime. )
I’m wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving a week late. Better late than……
New yarns/project, procrastination and technology follies
Yesterday, I went on a yarn acquiring expedition to the fabulous Yarn Expressions to get yarn for yet another baby blanket. I’m using the free pattern for the Moderne Baby blanket from the first Mason-Dixon Knitting book.
I’d seen a really beautiful color combination in a finished blanket on Ravelry that was inspiring me Continue reading this entry »
NaKniSWeMo #4
***If yer in the group on Ravelry, you pretty much already know what I’m gonna say. )***
SO I’ve been knitting and knitting; 50 rows a day is rather too ambitious I realize, not only timewise but in how much serious knitting my hands can handle without too much protest. I’ve been averaging more like 10 to 15 rows a day.
Sorry this is so blurry
I think the stitch definition is good here, though the color isn't very true to life.
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Another knitting obstacle
At least Kali appreciates good yarn!
I’m probably not gonna make the 11/30 deadline, but I’m pleased with my progress anyway. Now where’s the Advil?
Loads of stuff to blog about….
…unfortunately I’ve been knitting so much my hands hurt, so ix-nay on the yping-tay. And I have a cold. And so does the Force of Nature AND the Duke of Curl. And Bluto the cat has a sinus infection and something gunky going on with his eye…. I know: too much information.
Hopefully, we’ll all improve in a hurry and I’ll be back to writing SOON!
Meanwhile, you’ll find some absolutely hideous ( and NSFW I might add) handcrafts at Regretsy.com
Stephen King’s playlist from EW
It’s pretty good….
Some songs are NSFW
FYI – Stephen King (yes, THAT Stephen King) writes a monthly column for Entertainment Weekly magazine. In the 11/20/09 issue, he gave a playlist in his column. I went to imeem and put together the playlist fer yer listnin’ pleasure. There are a few substitutions but only where imeem didn’t have the suggested song. Enjoy.
Today is a holiday / happy day / holy day for me and 6 MILLION others
It was on this day in 1817 that Mirza Husayn Ali was born. Later on, He became known by the Arabic title “The Glory of the Lord” or more commonly, “The Glory of God”: Baha’u'llah.
Why am I telling you this?
‘Cos as an Interwebs kinda-person, I’m guessing you have:
- natural curiosity
- an interest and love of learning
So in the interest of spreading information, I’m giving you a spoonful of education. It won’t hurt a bit.
So, yeah. There’s about 6 million Baha’is all over the planet and you’ve never heard of us…or maybe just barely. Well, stories about people who are into unity and happiness, praying, doing good deeds, world peace, justice, teaching children’s classes and so on don’t sell newspapers. But that is how it is everywhere. I mean, only approximately 10% of the world’s Muslims are from the Middle East, and a tiny fraction of those (the crackpot brigade as I call them) are doing terrible things, but you wouldn’t know that from the news, wouldya? You don’t hardly ever hear about the 99.9% of Muslims who are regular, decent people…..but I digress a bit.
Here’s a few links that tell more about today:
- the brief, thumbnail sketch
- a more in-depth article
- a groovy article about this whole week from a non-Baha’i source
I didn’t go to the local Baha’i community celebration last night; Studmuffin is not a Baha’i and asked that we stay home, so we did. My dear friend, Ellen, invited me to her home in Tennessee (just north of Florence, Alabama) today and I was planning to go there, but the Duke of Curl is sick toda, so no go. Still, as a holy day, no work and no school so YAY!
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the Baha’i Scriptures:
The best way to thank God is to love each other.
and a song, written by another Baha’i (Matthew Levine), with a nice video.
Have a sweet day!
NaKniSweMo Post #3
The sleeves are done! Sleeves are done! Sleeves are done!! Gotta do a happy dance:
Doing both sleeves at the same time is *fiddly* – yes, I know a VERY technical term that is – but I love the fact that I didn’t have to keep notes to make an identical sleeve that now must be knit; it is already done. I think this is they way to knit sleeves FOREVER and always, Amen.
Here they are – the color’s pretty accurate too.
I’m happy with corrected cuff pattern, and I like how the “dots” break up all that stockinette. This is the unblocked version; I will block them today. I’ll block all the components before the final seaming together, then steam block the finished cardigan.
I have now cast on for the back and am several rows into the pattern – enough so I can see the motifs and keep my place on the chart fairly easily.
Can you tell I’m happy to get the sleeves done?
NaKniSweMo Post #2
After knitting nearly 2/3 of the sleeve I cast on, I made several realizations:
- I had read the chart wrong so the cuff, although pretty, was not correct. I decided to push on – I could always do the second cuff the same way and call it a “design feature”.
- The sleeve on the larger (#9US) was gonna be ENORMOUS. I decided to push on anyway – the fit will be ” extra – generous”; only if I run out of yarn would I re-knit it.
- My LYS had size 7US Addi Lace needles in stock ( they do not usually stock them) that would greatly facilitate the knitting of this cardigan, thereby avoiding 1) waiting for the needles to arrive & 2) paying shipping costs.
I decided to FROG the sleeve and start over. I knew I had to do it; this would fix the cuff problem and would make everything easier. The Addi Lace needles have nice POINTY tips that would make the twisted stitches much easier for me to do, and the size7US would make the cardigan bigger but not enormous as the 9’s were threatening to do ……still it was depressing and I lost my knitting mojo for a couple of days.
HOWEVER, with the Addi Lace needles in hand, I cast on for BOTH sleeves (a la Magic Loop) and am now merrily chugging along. I’d meant to knit both of the sleeves at the same time from the very beginning – though flat & not in the round as true Magic Loopers would do; I guess I forgot all about that in the frenzy of casting on the first time.
I’d figured that I needed to do 50 rows a day to get this thing done – that was BEFORE frogging and I realize that I counted the sleeves separately, so now I don’t really know how many I need to do each day……but if I get 50 rows done a day, that’ll be just great. The hands are pleasantly sore at the moment, and tho’ I might not have this sucker done by Dec. 1, it won’t be too far off of that date.
I should have some pictures by next time. Keep yer fingers crossed!
NaKniSweMo Post #1
The "victim"
Materials
( I wrote most of this last week… there have been problems, frogging, re-casting on and progress; hopefully another NaKniSweMo post to follow soon!)
Learn all about NaKniSweMo
Basically, you knit a 50,000 stitch sweater in the month of November. I decided to do it this year because:
- I need goals/deadlines to accomplish things
- I’ve never made a sweater for myself
- I’ve never made a cardigan
- I’ve only done a tiny bit of Austrian Twisted Stitch before
- yarn is from NH; so am I
I’ve had this yarn marinating in the stash for at least 2 years. In a couple of other stashed wool yarns, I’ve noticed moth damage lately, so it’s definitely time. I’ve been looking for the right pattern for this yarn for a long time, then I ran across a gorgeous pattern by Candace Eisner Strick (who is a genius & a favorite knit designer of mine). It tuens out, she wrote this pattern FOR this yarn. SQUEE!
Because of the moth damage, winding the 9 hanks into yarn cakes took darn near forever. I will say this yarn spit-splices beautifully and that has mitigated the moth damage.
I knit the swatch on the suggested needles and came really close to gauge but didn’t like the fabric.
swatch on US6 needle
Mods:
- adding 1 extra garter stitch to “valleys” plus I need it bigger, more wearing ease
- instead of stockinette only past the cuffs on the sleeves, decided to do a subtle seed stitch – every 6 rows every 5 stitches a purl make it more interesting. I saw it on another sweater someplace on Ravelry
So far I’m really liking the fabric I’m making on the bigger needles and it’s not so hard on the hands to stitch. The yarn is such a lovely color – the pictures I’ve given you so far are just not right! The yarn does have cashmere in it but so far I really cannot feel it – I’m hoping it softens up a lot during blocking. Lots of vegetative matter/little burr bits in the yarn; I’m deciding to treat them as a sign of the sheep from whence the yarn came and the artesans who spun it and so on.
Wish me well!
We have a winner!!!
After 36 entries by 14 entrants, we have chosen a new blog name for *The Individual Formerly known as Homeschool Kid*.
THE DUKE OF CURL!
Charity is the winner. Yay! I actually met Charity in person before I knew her online – that’s fairly rare for me. You should DEFINITELY check out her Etsy shop, and her blog and the other site… (she’s way talented y’all). I’ll be sending off yer gift card soon.
Many thanks to everyone who entered! This was really fun; I think I’ll do contests oftener.
Just so’s ya know, I did ask The Duke of Curl to help choose his new blog name, and he chose that one.
I hope tomorrow to wrangle the Force of Nature back into her robot costume for the promised picture – I haven’t been able to get to it the last 2 days.
NaKniSweMo post tomorrow I hope.
Secret Pal 13