is this the beginning of a saga?

blogger's being a butt, or there would be many pictures in this blog entry. pictures, primarily, of the stole. i'm sure you all remember with joy the loot picture several posts back, consisting of many more needles than five knitters can use at one time, and a lovely ball of laceweight merino, cranberry. shivers.

well, it is for sr's lace stole. you probably also remember the swatches i posted, when blogger loved me and welcomed my pictures. i then went far, far away into a tiny little place in the middle of nowhere [glorious nowhere] where internet was rather pricey. i did not trust my project to the plane, or to a vacation where my concentration skills were not certain.

all that rearranging actually resulted in the temporary loss of my pattern. it was not with the knitting stash. instead, i found it in a pile of bills. yeah. it ranked right up there with bills in level of importance. [no comment as to the level of the bills themselves...]

i found it today, while paying those bills. and, the pictures blogger won't let me post are of the lovely results of three hellish hours struggling with my beautiful yarn [roughly the thickness of a penny] and blue needles [also quite small, but no longer the red i'd been working with for the swatches... matching needles and yarn = not good]. no seriously. it took me a whole three hours. first, i cast on normally, before remembering that i'd been planning a cable cast on. undo. then, i misjudged the time-consuming nature of a cable cast on to one more or less unfamiliar with the technique and working with itsy bitsy yarn. but i do enjoy the added elasticity of the cable cast on, and will likely use it for any other project that needs a bit of stretch.

so. no cool pictures. we'll try again later.

...

i purchased my textbooks today. most of them, anyway. they were out of the old english books. [whaaa?] not exactly the textbooks you'd think they'd run out of too quickly. but they're on order, and i prepaid for my two. i made a run up to my office to tidy again [it was still tidy from when i left... not sure why i wasted the trip]. said hi to the front office folk.

and get this! i went to the yarn shop and did not buy anything. i know. i wound up three skeins of gm's yarn for a project. [got to get me one of those spinning around dealywhompouses] i'd show you pictures of this inherited yarn, but blogger's a butt, and fully half of my readers have seen it already. i'll post photos of the entire gm collection when it arrives.

the last little bit of my blog was going to be showing off the peppermint doily that actually got finished and looks all right, though a bit busier than a doily has any right to be. again, no pic right now.

at this point, it is *way* past my bedtime, and according to the note on my door, the pest people are coming by "crack of business day" early tomorrow. my apt may be on the top of their list, and i'd like to be showered, dressed, and not in the middle of breakfast when they arrive. to that end, i shall seek out my bed.

love and peace.

return of the swatches

these are much nicer, to my eye. this swatch was knit on US2s, and it's as light and airy as a swatch should be. too much bigger, and the YOs will literally gape, and that's no good.



you can see that i have a problem with my cast on and bind off edges being too tight. this is historic for me, and so comes as no surprise. i'll just cast on using a bigger size. US3 should do it for the casting on, but i'll probably need to go up to US4 to bind off nicely. the bound off edge is bottom here:



just look at it tug. no good. and that straight line that seems to be running through the swatch? that is a piece of yarn that wanted in on the picture. sorry 'bout that.

but yeah. as excited as i am by this project, there are other projects that need finishing first, before i even go home. and i don't want to see what kinds of horrors could happen to this yarn during travel. it's way too easy to tangle, and the TSA folks who search my bags are probably going to be in a hurry. yeah.

well, time to eat lunch.

love and peace.

a letter

dear acrylic needles,

in the past, i have been overheard dismissing you as worthless and juvenile. i've even made claims as to your perceived deadliness on an airplane. i am sorry.

i never tried you before i derided you. i overlooked the good in you, assuming you were nothing more than a cheap plastic copy of the knitting needles i held dear. oh, i had no idea.

now, we will have such fun together. the yarn slides over your length with such a sensual grace that i could very well believe you to be the sexiest needles i have ever used, and this includes those sassy addi turbo numbers. they have the grace, certainly, but none of the lightness and ease of handling that you do, my newfound love.

your lightweight nature is easy on my wrist, even with half a foot of yarn draped across you, and the sharpness of your points ... i shiver. truly, we were made for each other. we shall knit long into many evenings.

you even manage that tacky eyelash yarn without tugging. is there anything you cannot do? alas, i have yet to find one of your number in a lovely US2 or 3. Where could they be hiding?

never will i buy another aluminum needle, my dear. you have won my heart, my yarn, my wrist. and the TSA says you have won them over as well, provided you look non-threatening enough.

i was a fool to speak of how easy it would be to plunge you deep into someone's eye. your aluminum counterparts would never flinch at such use, but you, translucent pastel masterpieces, are much too lovely to tempt a terrorist.

but soft! i must say no more of these gruesome matters, for if this is intercepted before my flight, and wrongly interpreted, as has been another love of mine, our bond will be severed by the security checkpoint guards.

oh my darling! rest well tonight, for tomorrow ... we tango. grrrrrrrowlllllll.

the damage

yarn store opened at 10. i just got in. i spent ... not quite all of the time in between at the yarn store. you wouldn't believe how long it takes to wind a skein of laceweight. that, and there was a lecture on how i should be reading charts. it's something i'm working on.

but, here it is, in all its gloriousness. the loot:



now, isn't that just lovely? the color is a little lurid online, but it's quite nice in real life. we decided to wait until i needed it to wind up the second skein, because there's a chance i'll be good to go with just the one. then i can return the unwound skein for store credit... which means MORE yarn!

ah. i'm going to knit up a swatch right now. just to see.

love and peace.

pray for my simplicity

tomorrow, i am going to brave the candy store that is shaggy sheep yarns. yes. fear for me, ems. i must get needles that are plastic or bamboo. i must get laceweight or fingering yarn for a stole. i must resist the temptation to get more than that. oh, the temptation is strong, and i am nowhere near the store. it isn't even open now. and yet... the knowledge of the gems that sit in that store, ready for any intrepid knitter to sweep them up and bring them home to the stash...

i think, after much deliberation, i have settled on the next big project. the one that's for someone else and will therefore probably get done. it's a toss up between three patterns that i am quite fond of, that are pretty without being gaudy, and that are light weight enough for our incredibly frigid winters down here in texas.

when i venture out tomorrow in search of yarn, i will take my improvised patterns and my hopes and dreams. i will get a consult. i will buy the yarn. as much as can reasonably be expected for the completion of the project. and one extra skein. just in case.

the time for surfing the web for yarn weights, dye lots, colorways, etc... it's over. time to take the plunge.

hopefully, my inner gollum will remain silent, and i won't bring too much of my precious home.

love and peace.