Daily Archives: 8/1/2006

knitting. the beast that won’t die.

even though I’m still putting the corn baby to bed, so to speak (don’t worry Joy! I made the larger size in anticipation of hot summer weather, so hopefully the bambino won’t be too big when you finally receive your very late shower gift), I am still thinking about things to knit. It’s awful! gramma once told me that her favorite part of weaving was the planning, and I know she meant the cool math that she did to come up with her beautiful patterns and to do the “impossible*” but I love the planning most too. I love looking at yarn and patterns and touching them and thinking about them. So today I ended up buying two patterns! argh! it started when a friend of mine linked to the orangina tank (which is very cute) and I continued browsing her patterns and saw this very cool sweater (I prefer the long sleeve version, and I’m thinking about using andean silk because it’s way cheaper and also looks lovely. It’ll be a lot warmer b/c of the alpaca content, though. Something to keep in mind. And then when I went to buy the sweater pattern I came across these crochet hat patterns which are in styles I’ve been trying to find for AGES. I can sort of crochet, so I bought that pattern too.

So, yeah, I know, more projects in the imaginary queue. but at least I’m not buying yarn for these projects! the reason for that is this off-the-top-of-my-head list of projects that I already have yarn for and/or are in various stages of completion:

  • I owe a very cool lady this chemo cap, and I also need to figure out how to cable correctly. Doh.
  • God, I still have this eyelet skirt on the needles. I always tote it to the beach with me b/c the yarn is cotton aka not a hassle to knit with. but it’s a Lot of knitting. Hvae I mentioned I always have to size my needles down to get gauge? even more knitting.
  • I have the yarn for the cheesylove sweater too, and I’ve always meant to make it. you know how these things go! it’s awfully cute, though. I love it. even if it is super cheesy. and not only will I learn how to make a sweater but also fair isle hearts!
  • I also have the yarn for the sitcom chic cardigan. I secretly wonder if the raglan shoulder shaping will do my figure any good, but shoot, I have the yarn, and I can always use a cardigan.
  • Speaking of cardigans, I have the yarn and pattern for the sweet mary jane cardigan. I love the bed jacket shaping! it’s cute and classy, and I have to admit that the photo really sold me on it. it looks SASSY.
  • I’m also still working on those regia ringel socks that I started over a year ago. Ahem. But! I did finish the first one and start the second! that’s something, no?

I think that is enough airing of the hair shirts. suffice it to say, I have a lot of things all lined up and I want badly to do them but most of all to plan plan plan and buy yarn and if only I could spin straw to gold, I’d also be able to wish all my pretty yarn into these pretty projects. sigh.

*note to gramma’s impossible: she wanted to weave us all checkerboards, but someone told her it was impossible with the type of loom she was using. She sure showed him. she did the math and figured it out and busted through it and they were the coolest travel checkerboards ever. additional sidebar: I definately got my crafty stubbornness from my gramma. she is so cool.

shiny car! this’n’that!

I picked up my new car yesterday evening and it is SO BEAUTIFUL. they washed it and vacuumed the insides before I got it, and it’s so brill. shiny! this is convincing me that hey, maybe I SHOULD wash and wax my car more regularly. shoot, it really DOES make a difference. have I mentioned to you how nuanced the paint shade is? when it’s clean it’s really not boring blue at all. amazing!

I was so glad to wash my hands of the chevy cobalt I was driving. That thing, while I’m sure is very nice, is just not for me. it *only* gets 30 mpg, the automatic made me both pissy b/c I had no control, and also caused me to drive really fast, and also, the headrest jutted out in such a way that I believe caused me to have a horrible back spasm on my way home from the beach on sat. So, I wash my hands of it! sadly I left my flaming lips cd in the car and I hope that the people who rented it right away this morning will return the cd to me intact.

tangentially, you may have noticed that I went to the beach on sat. We had a good time. And also, first time ever to the long island beaches without a surfit of either seaweed or jellyfish or both — that plus no paying and no sunburn (both benefits of getting to the beach at 6PM) equals very successful trip!

Also, in the heat, I might be perfecting the sweaty nap. it sounds very glamorous, I know, but it’s a skill ANYONE can practice. Speaking of heat, it’s hot! but because I don’t work out-of-doors I don’t mind it that much. I mean, it’s hot, and it’s kind of warm at night when I want to be sleeping, but it’s not that bad, all in all. did I mention I don’t have an air conditioner? see, if I worked out-of-doors that would lend me real street-cred but because I sit in a sealed up, ice cold office building, it just makes me reasonably tough. That, and it means I only use a maximum of 100 kwh of electricity monthly which means I can afford to purchase 100% nj produced wind power as my clean power source.