Sea Anemone Knits

"(Remarking about his drink while onstage) Look at all the limes in this god-damn thing! This fuckin’ thing is tropical! Look at the limes, how they float. That’s good news man. Next time I’m on a boat and it capsizes, I’ll reach for a lime… I’ll be water skiing without a life preserver and people’ll say ‘What the hell?’ and I’ll pull out a lime…and a lemon too. I’m saved by the buoyancy of citrus." - M. Hedberg

I’ve been listening to a lot of Mitch Hedberg lately. I like that joke above all of his others that I’ve heard. I laugh like an idiot every time I hear it.

So, I’ve been housesitting and updating was a major ordeal that I just was too tired to do. Sorry!

I went to Galveston for part of my labor day weekend. I grew up in Galveston and I’m proud to present to you an exceptionally pretty view:

Ain’t she purty folks?? I got to enjoy this view at lunch with my Mom!

(In case she’s reading, Hi Mom!! I put up the picture you liked!!)

I got lots of knitting done while I was incognito. It’s a LOT of stockinette. For some reason, I’ll get bored with a stockinette project and cast on a new one that is also 90% stockinette. What the heck is wrong with me?? I worked some more on the Hourglass & I’m about 3/4 done. The rest of a sleeve and a yoke to do. Go me!

But wait! There’s more! Do you remember back when I went to NJ a couple months ago? I started the Silk Camisole from LMKG? Then when I got home, I frogged the bejeezus out of it? Yeah, so do I. I hated ripping that out. Well, good news. I restarted it over the long weekend. I’m about 5 inches in. I didn’t screw up the lace too badly and I’m surprisingly ok with the few screw ups and am not about to rip back and try to fix anything. Screw it!

I figure that I won’t get to wear it this season and so soon, I’ll put it down for a bit in favor of attempting my Mom’s cardigan again. Lace and mohair is such a bad idea. Really. Ugh. But, I told her I’d do it so I’d best just cast on and get to it while we’re young, right? Please, I need encouragement! I’ll have never knit this much lace. It’s intimidating.

I finished some footlets while I was gone. There’s not much to em. I got the yarn (Alexandrite colourway. It self striped!) from The Fiber Denn on etsy.com. Delia is very sweet, everyone, go buy yarn from her. I used KP Options US 4 needles to Magic Loop ‘em. Simple magic cast-on toe, short row heel, and blah, there you are.

And with that, I bid you adieu! I need to get some sleep tonight. Especially since the cat woke my sleepy toucas up at 4am and I proceeded to just lay there.

A few weeks ago, my friend Susan sent an email around to a bunch of us in the knitting group asking if any of us wanted to go see the Yarn Harlot magically appear in Austin. I wrote back immediately with a resounding YES!!! Apparently, I was the only one who did that without even checking the calendar. I was just going to make it work and any other plans be damned. As happy luck would have it, I had nothing going on for these dates. By the week before the event, we had managed to gather a group of 6 of us to be representin’ the H-Town. Whoopee!!! Kelly, Jet, Susan, Jennifer and I drove up together and Staci drove up seperately. Have a picture of us sitting in the Church before Stephanie came up to chit chat with everyone. Actually, I’m not in the picture because I was behind the camera!

I had an absolute blast. The Harlot was wonderful! She gave a talk and signed books and she’s so lovely and funny and down to earth. I mean, she’s totally just another knitter, like all of us, but at the same time, she’s a knitting rockstar! We got a group picture (my hair is allllliiiive!!!)

I was a struck by an inability to speak reasonably intelligently when it was my turn to have my book signed. I think I mostly grinned at her. I know I managed to ask her if she would take a picture with my "Mom Sock" to which she kindly obliged.(for my Mom who is in the hospital right now… that was the bitter part of the time in Austin. I immediately hopped in the car and drove down there within 15 minutes of being back in Houston. I’ve spent a lot of time in cars in the last 3 days…)

I didn’t really meet a bunch of new people while I was there but I bonded more with those that I knew. I ran into Christine, which was lovely. She had organized a lunch gathering across the street from Hill Country Weavers at a restaurant called Guero’s. With smiles on their faces, they can handle about a bazillion loud hungry knitters who are high on knitterly energy. Quite fun and I enjoyed the food alot too. Thank you Christine!! I hope she is able to join us on Thursday night soon.

I did get to meet a very lovely knitter named Sarah. I met her because I went over and proceeded to gush a bit about how much I liked the tank she was wearing. It is the Waterlily top from the Spring 06 Interweave Knits. I have some Blue Sky Alpaca Cotton that may have to become this tank in the near future. I am inspired! I then got to talk to her just a tiny bit more at Guero’s. But not as much as I would have liked.

While I was waiting my turn for the book signing, I wandered around amongst other knitters. Some were drinking beer to combat the nasty life-sucking heat. Others were inside marinating in lovely cold air conditioning. Still others were inside HCW shopping and cleaning out the yarn. I bought some lovely things. Spent more than I should have. But how often does one get to meet the Harlot and shop in a new place?? I think every person there can offer the same explanation! My first purchases came before I met Harlot. I cast on a sleeve for the Hourglass Sweater from LMKG on Thursday night at SnB. I wanted something nice and plain to knit on this weekend. I cast it onto a 16" Circular Boye needle. By the time that I sat down to listen to the Harlot, the needle was making this scratchy noise and was no longer knitting smoothly. Jet confirmed this for me and I put it down in disgust because I couldn’t tolerate the scratchy. So my first purchase was a 16" Addi to solve this. Smooth sailing since! I’ll provide pictures soon.

My second purchase included these two things:

The teal wool will be used for my attempt at shibori knitting. I bought a bag of marbles at walmart that I will tie into the finished fabric before I felt it to create the bumpies. The needles are a new set being released by Blue Sky Alpacas and they were most definitely bought while tripping along high as a kite on so much knitterly energy that I apparently didn’t notice the price tag, because WOW. I have knit with them and they are quite lovely. Very smooth and easy to handle. Plus, the tin will hold many more needles than the set of 5 that come in it. I’ve currently got all of my nice birch dpns in there too. The needles will only fit if they are 5" or less though. A requisite kitty shot follows and that will wrap up the post for today as I really really need to go to sleep so I can wake up for work on time. Yikes… I’ll only barely get 6 hours tonight… Oh well! Ciao!

remember that battery issue? yeah, still not a happy camper. only this time I don’t have brownies to drown my sorrow. bugger. that Vicki guy, the one who was so bloody aggrevating and yet slightly less helpful than he ought to have been, did he call me back? NO! a resounding pissy NO.

on top of all of this, I have ^#$%ed up so much knitting that I am almost tempted to pick up my cross stitch again. (it’s been about 6 years since I touched it) Let’s go through the list of things that turned to $#!+ the nanosecond I touched them.

• Grannie Smith Sweater Swatch - four tries to swatch the dagged thing. SWATCH. That’s it. I just want the gauge. Why is that so wrong??
• Pink Baby Sweater - I knit the back. I knit a sleeve. I knit both front pieces. Laid them out to see how they’d fit together. Scratched my head for about five minutes wondering why I had a funny feeling about the sweater. Then the lightbulb that says "::poink poink:: you idiot, you knit both the fronts 3 inches too short."
• Koigu Sock - Just a plain koigu sock. Trying to de-stash. Making a good will effort towards the yarn kiddies hanging around the house grumbling about neglect. I knit the toe of the sock. I got pretty excited about the idea of this sock. Had to start the whole thing over when  Igot a little too excited and knit a toe that would have been more at home on the foot of the Jolly Green Giant. Redo toe and think to myself, "Self, this sock would look mighty fine with a handful of small cables running up the front." Well, note to self. "Self, screw the cables. I’m sorry I mentioned them." I have frogged the mighty fine handful of small cables oh, about twice now and reknit probably 4 inches of sock once to discover not just one, but multiple dropped stitches from undoing the cables and missing a stitch and then there’s not enough leeway in the yarn to ladder them back up.
• Warshrag from MDK - I need to just throw in the towel on this one. If I had a dishtowel to throw in! Why else would I be trying to knit one? I keep putting it down mid-row to answer the phone, take the pizza out of the oven, etc only to pick it back up and proceed to do something wrong.

Am I just cursed?? What can I do to break this streak????

I’m humming along to a Jack Johnson song right now which is where I got the title…

I’m about three inches of ribbing away from finishing the SC. I’m finding it hard to stay motivated. Is this stupid or what?? I mean so friggin close and yet I’m starting to eyeball other projects. So, I WILL, MUST be done and able to wear this sweater on Saturday in NJ. Meaning that I must block it Thursday night.

I need help deciding what project I will cast on for this trip to NJ on Friday. So listen to the choices and weigh in please!!

1. The Leaf Lace Shawl - Fiber Trends - Rowanspun 4-ply in Hansel: I’ve only got half of the yarn needed for this project. I’ve located the other half but am waiting on a shipping quote before I purchase it. The shawl would be specifically knitted for use with this dress and the green yarn matches the paler green of the leaves perfectly right on down to the tweedy aqua bits matching the blue bits in the dress. See this picture.

2. Hourglass Sweater - Last Minute Knitted Gifts - Classic Elite Renaissance in Valencia Orange: Valencia is a soft tweedy orange wool. I’ve got 12 skeins (priced at $5 each? Who could resist?) weighing in at way more yardage than needed for this sweater and frankly, it’s such a flattering knit, who could resist!

3. Silk Camisole - Last Minute Knitted Gifts - Adrienne Vittadini Teresa in a smoky blue: It’s the exact shade of my eyes on a day to day basis. I’ve heard that the Fiesta La Luz called for in the pattern pills a lot. I don’t like pills on my handknits. It’s an absolutely elegant little top and I’ve got a feeling that it will be a quick easy knit for a long boring flight.

So, my question is this… besides the socks I’ve been struggling with for my mother, which of these large scale projects should I bring?

The blog says "hello!"

hehe! My first blog and blog post! Yay! It seems to me that more and more, every knitter I know has a blog. Like its a prerequisite for knitting. I can see it now… you walk into a stark white room with a desk and a chair on either side. A very serious looking man in a white lab coat is sitting in one chair with a pen and a clipboard. You sit down. "SO, you want to be a knitter?" Do you have a BLOG?"

Part of the reason I am starting this is because I really want to join one of these secret pal thingers. You sign up to have a knit-y secret pal and you get to send them little anonymous presents in the mail and hopefully you get sent little anonymous presents in the mail. At the end, you get to find out who your buddy is and it’s all sorts of fun. Apparently, you have to have a blog that you update in weekly. I can understand this. It gives your buddy a way to find out about you so they can try and pick stuff that you might actually like. It would bite to do this and your favorite color is purple and you detest red and your secret pal, being none the wiser because of no blog, sends you a skein of red yarn. Suck-fest.

If I ever get to join one of these, just so there are no questionings, you can’t go wrong with jewel tone teals and amethysts and greens. Cool jewel tones are never wrong for me. Just a by the way, you understand. *grin*

I think that I need to invest in a digital camera here pretty soon. That way I can post photos. I mean, what good is a knitting themed blog if all you ever get are these lame ramblings and no actual pictures of what I’m working on. I ought to mention that I’m working on a few things right now…That would be good. Don’t you think?

Things I’m working on…A bunch actually when I really start thinking about it. I’d best just make a list. I like lists…

Somewhat Cowl (Knit and Tonic): I’m using Cotton Fleece in Perry’s Primrose. I cast on on the 27th of April. It’s been going really quickly. I’m already working on waist decreasing. It’s been a little problematic. I’ve adjusted practically every measurment to accomodate some flaw in the sizing according to the pattern. It’s been pretty frustrating. Why publish and sell a pattern if you can’t even take the time to test knit every size you offer and make sure that it all works out properly. All in all, I’m happy with my results (according to my adjustments) thus far.

Letter Have It: I’m knitting this one with Lamb’s Pride Worsted. The colors are Limeade with Brite Blue for the trim. I’m not knitting a leeter into the bag. It’s a gift and I"m pretty darned sure they would not appreciate the letter on the side. I’m considering however, needle-felting a pretty little leaf into the side. Not sure yet though. I need to knit the i-cord and sew it all together and felt it.

Clapotis: I’m using Noro Kureyon to knit this one. I’m almost ready to start increasing on one side and decreasing on the other. I kinda put this one down to work on the Somewhat Cowl. I will finish it though…

Mama’s Socks: I’m currently working on the feet. I’ve got the toes done. I’m frustrated with these socks because I’ve never knit a pair of socks on the same needle before and it’s confusing to keep having to untangle the yarn. Foof. As soon as I get enough length on the feet to be able to stick the balls of yarn inside the socks and knit them that way, I’ll be able to actually work on them without getting so cranky that I put them down after a round or two.

Well, I think that’s it for the time being. I’ll post about the yarn swap party I went to later. I need to go filch some pictures from the other gals who went. Yay!