Category Archives: knitastic

a friend of mine pointed out the the knitting olympics. how fun! it is wildly tempting to do, but I have to admit that I’m bad at knitting on a deadline. Plus, I don’t really have a functional tv on which to watch the olympics, and that might be key to maximize knitting time.

but if I WERE going to do it, I might actually go ahead and knit the sitcom chic cardigan. I bought the yarn, I just have to get down to it, pretty much.

In other knitting news, I’ve been knitting socks and they’re coming out BEAUTIFULLY. and don’t think these are new socks, I started them just under a year ago and am still chugging away. I set them aside for a long time, and in my move I lost the directions (which I’d customized to my own, long and skinny feet), but have since found them and bring them with me to physical therapy. I’m on the ribbing of the 2nd sock and I HATE 1×1 ribbing, by the way, it definitely is horrible and tedious and time consuming. I can’t WAIT until I finish it and can zip around and around in stockinette.

I’ve noticed a lot of my friends seem to be knitting for themselves, which makes me feel PILES better about it. I am interested in only knitting for myself too, lately. I finished up a pair of voodoo wrist warmers that I MEANT to wear when riding my bike (nevermind that I haven’t really gotten back on that bike since it turned wet and chilly, despite my new and uninstalled fenders).

I have a charming eyelet skirt on the needles, and have had since summertime. I’m still working on the first 1/2 of it. It’s kind of slow going. It would be faster if I took it out of the bag more often.

When I was in TN I finished up a new pair of mittens. I had lost mine last winter, and needed a new pair badly! It went very well when I was visiting and gave me something to do with my hands.

Right now I’m working on a pair of Regia Ringel Socks. (the colorway I’m using isn’t on there exactly, but it’s greens and blues. They are going WONDERFULLY. I am so excited by how quickly they’re growing (especially now that I have finished the 1×1 ribbing at the top) and think I’ll walk over to the local yarn store today on my way home to try to purchase some plain black sock yarn so the heels aren’t stripy. It really is fun to see what colors come out of the skein next, and I have a seriously hard time putting the sock down. But it’s all for the best, because if I put it down I don’t want to have to worry about not picking it back up, no?

I am totally knitting away tonight. Maybe I’ll get to turn the heel!

It’s a new year, and just like the student I am I don’t consider it beginning until the new semester begins. It’s so rewarding to have a real definite start date for a new bunch of classes and new learning – much nicer than going to work, having a day off, and coming back to the new year in the office.

I had a good winter break. I drove up to see the family and the little car made it just fine.AND, I had pleasure of finishing nearly all of their presents before Christmas day. That’s something very unusual for me, usually I’m handing out at least half of my gifts unfinished. Ok, so, I still haven’t given Kelly+Mariss their gifts, because I haven’t finished them. And I just finished Michelle’s yesterday, and started the beau’s gift this evening. But on Christmas eve I was able to give my mom her gift entirely completed. And on Christmas morning my stepsis, her hubby, my stepmom AND my nephew all opened entirely completed gifts. And my other stepsis opened a ¾ completed gift, and Poor Dad was the only one who had to open something that wasn’t even started. And even better, I finished the gifts before any significant distance was put between myself and the recipient. I whipped out the last stitches of the wrist warmers for stepsis before she left for home, and I finished the last couple of embroidery stitches on stepmom’s shirt (ok, I didn’t ENTIRELY finish hers when I wrapped it up. But mostly!), and I entirely embroidered Dad’s shirt before pulling out of town even though it required me getting up way earlier than I wanted to and working frantically until finished. The early was nothing compared to the 3 nights of 4AM crafting I put in. What was tough was how I was giving out 4 gifts in the same genre of stepmom’s, so I couldn’t work on hers while she was around.

I also realized that the holiday season is one of those seasons full of unmet expectations. Not to be morose, but I don’t know that many people who honestly look forward to the season with unchecked joy and anticipation. Not anyone over 12, anyway. It’s a time that we’re supposed to buy buy buy our way to the perfect gift, but don’t worry, it’s also about family love and it’s really the thought that counts. I love giving people things, and I love making them even if I am a grouchy crafter and I stay up until the early morning cursing and watching TLC and trying not to bleed on my home made creations, but I always feel like I’m not meeting someone’s expectations. I walk a line of trying very hard not to disappoint anyone. And I think a lot of people feel that way.

To change that mood killer, check out my nephew in his incredibly cute hat that I made for me and that fits him just perfectly:

Anyway, it’s the new year, all spanky and clean. It’s been cold here in the steel city and I do appreciate it. Probably because I haven’t been out waiting for the bus yet – we’ll see how I like it tomorrow morning when I get up and at them and on my way to school for my first class of the semester. And in the spirit of Me and the New Year, I present you with two lists:

My Crazy New Years Resolutions.

* To cuss less. I am not a sailor. I am a lady. I must remember the distinction.

* To do my homework in a more timely fashion. I mean it.

* To continue watering my plants.

* To spend more time crafting while I watch silly TV shows.

* Budget. And successfully.

* To have more dinner parties, or at least, to have more time with friends. Especially Kelly, who is so rock’n’roll she deserves her own special shout-out sans hubby. Really, you put the love in Pittsburgh, my dear.

* To read more books, and make full use of the library that’s right on campus and right next to my building for pete’s sake! Also, see number 2.

My Crazy Crafting List (in no particular order, really).

* Sew my beautiful orange glittery felt skirt.

* Sew my very elegantly beautiful woolen skirt.

* Sew my glamourous silk and tulle skirt.

* Knit the 3 hats I’ve been thinking of: swim cap ala fits me, bobble hat that may or may not give me carpal tunnel syndrome (see above), and easy peasy regular hat with the Incredibly Soft Yarn I bought online at least a year ago and don’t know what to do with yet.

* Knit me wrist warmers. I love them. And I made them for everyone else so…

* Finish my photo album and help Michelle make me a new one from the Kennedy Family record album I picked out.

* Fix my webpage. Catch up. Put up pages of our amazing transformation from hovel to home.

Sound good? Happy new year, dahlinks

Right, so, a couple of people have pointed out to me that I haven’t updated for a while. Yeah, I know. It’s not the way Pittsburgh was supposed to work out for me. I was supposed to have lots of time for updating, and also for overhauling my crappy ‘making web page using Word because it’s free and easy to figure out’ system. Word is just fine if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands and an easy connection to the interweb. When you’re sans modem/hookup, and not so eager to sit at the computer at home after trying to do school work all day it’s a little bit harder. Excuses, I know. I try hard to make have excuses but there you go. I slipped.

Anyway, in the spirit of excuses, you may be interested in some things that have happened to me.

* I fell down and hurt myself. So I’m always taking my time getting around, you know, walking slowly and trying to be accommodating to other people’s schedule so I get rides.

* I have become a knitting fiend. It seems to happen every fall around this time of year, I guess. It’s good, I finally finished my xmas presents from last year and started up on this year’s presents – which are going very well. I wish I could post pictures of them! But I can’t, because IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET. I’d spoil the surprise.

* I’ve been doing lots of schoolwork. Probably not as much as I should be doing, but working nonetheless.

These don’t sound like good excuses when I try to list them. Whatever. Excuses never sound good. It might not be the easiest way to get through life but I really do try not to make them unless they’re really a good reason. “Make excuses” sounds like a cop-out anyway. People may look at me funny when I don’t actually explain why x, y, or z did or didn’t happen, but that’s OK by me.

Oh, so there’s one picture of my knitting I can show you. It was my selfish making-something-for-myself-instead-of-working-on-either-other-presents-or-homework hat. So I worked hard on it, and quickly, and used up some of my stash yarn from a very old ebay purchase and when I finished I realized that it was way too small for me. I thought I was making an adult medium which would be marginally too small as it were for my massively large head, and through yarn substitutions and needle substitutions (I never seem to have the right tools around when I want them) it ended up being a probable child’s medium. So I have a present completed for my cutie pants nephew, I guess:

oh, heck. My handspring isn’t working. It works just fine when it’s on the charger but not at all when it’s not. Heck heck heck. So no digital pictures for a while. Heck. I wonder if I can track down a new handspring visor edge battery for cheap/free? Heck.

And speaking of snow, there’s a wonderful nor’easter that barely hit us. We only got around 6 inches of snow or so, probably less. I think the east coast got dumped! That’s so great. I love bad weather. We had a little moment when we weren’t sure if we could get out of the driveway and then down the scary lane with the miracle bamboo that just hasn’t died yet, even though it’s been so cold, and even though it’s thoroughly weighted down with snow right now and drooping far over the driveway. But we did. And then I nearly got the car stuck outside of school when I parked in an extra slopey and slushy parking space but I just left it there and trusted I’d get unstuck when I got back, and I did. Maybe the ice firmed up enough to provide some traction for me. Last night I thought I’d go over to a classmates house to watch the neighborhood Christmas parade, but after braving the roads to get some taco bell (no plowing, extra slipping) and realizing my new insurance card hadn’t come in the mail yet I decided to stay at home with the box wine, taco bell, and some Friday night TV.

So I’m trying to update a little. There’s a couple of new entries up that I haven’t put up in a timely fashion. Heads up, anything after July that isn’t from 10/1 is a secret update that I haven’t been very forthcoming with. So’s you know

So, Lake Nasty has temporarily slowed down. I’m getting more time to spend doing what I like to do.

I’m knitting on my scarf for the battered woman’s shelter. That’s great, I really like getting something like this done. I can’t wait until it’s really and truly finished.

The last big of “charity knitting” (somehow that term, while it’s entirely appropriate, sounds wrong. It also sounds quaint and fun. I can’t decide if I like it or not.) I did was a couple of hats made from handspun yarn. It was a project for the spindlers list I’m on, which is a super chatty yah00 group focused on hand spinning with spindles. I signed up, received several skeins of handspun sproingy brown wool yarn from a woman in Hawaii, and knit up a couple of hats. They were sent to the Veterans Stand Down in Philadelphia. The Stand Down takes place yearly as a non-government affiliated venue for homeless veterans who might otherwise be reluctant to go in for the health benefits they are entitled to. (23% of homeless people are veterans! Visit the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans for more information on the Stand Down.)

I remember now that I got the bulk of the hat knitting done on bus trips home after work. There’s a great limited service (express) bus that goes from 10 blocks south of my office, to right outside of my office door to near my home, and then on up to the upper upper west side which runs until 7:20 PM. If I catch that bus, it’s a quick easy trip with a seat guaranteed because I get on at an early stop. Lately I haven’t been able to catch this bus because I’ve been working so late, but I’m going to make every effort to get back on the bus, and to knit my holiday projects there.

At home I’ve been knitting stripy hats. I have some really soft yarn from ebay, and I’m making them as surprise gifts for people who don’t expect them. After I’m done with the hats I’m going to finish the lacey item for a family member, and hopefully whip up some mittens for me. I have a long list of other knitting (hats and mittens, mostly) for other people as gifts, so I’m just going to crunch along on the list and see how far I get.

I may have to take a break from knitting at home to work on some of the embroidery projects I have planned, though. Embroidery isn’t nearly as portable as knitting! It gets too dirty in my trashed canvas bag (trashed because I rarely wash it, not through any fault of the canvas bag. And, it’s link-o-rama!) But I’ve got some serious embroidery work to do, too.

Other things I want to do include:

1. Get my sewing machine fixed.
2. Cook a really nice thing for a potluck this week, and another one in December.
3. Organize my winter clothes so I’m not storing them on my desk.
4. Swiff the living room floor at home.
5. Rehang my pictures in my room from the era of the crumbling ceiling.
6. Figure out CSS so I can have styling and easily updateable webpages sans using Word.

Not too bad! And now, I have to run so I can catch the knitting bus…