But, this made me think about it …

“Guns have little or nothing to do with juvenile violence. The causes of youth violence are working parents who put their kids into daycare, the teaching of evolution in the schools, and working mothers who take birth control pills.” Tom Delay.

… not because I think there is an ounce of truth, but because I live in a world, country, state, (grew up in the same effing county) as people like this. I actually went to middle and high school with his niece and nephew (who, with their family, were wonderful people).

Based on Tommy’s assessment, my son has no hope - he’ll be a teenage serial killer, let’s evaluate:

(1) I work.
(2) My husband works.
(3) DS attends day care (owned and run by Hispanic women - non-white, that’s got to be a double-whammy)
(4) We believe in evolution, er …science.
(5) We’ve already established that I work.
(6) I use birth control.

Seriously? I know I should ignore idiots like Tommy but he was a major political leader in the United States, people Voted. For. Him! Seriously? That’s all I have. I am dumbfounded that (a) he exists and (b) he was successful, and (c) people believed in and voted for him …more than once!

His downfall and disgrace are however, in my not-so-humble-opinion that Karma is a bitch. Oh, yeah Tommy, I believe in Karma. Will that send me straight to hell? Or, does that make my child more likely to be a drug addict - cause, you know, those things are closely related.

Little known facts about the now-disgraced, highly-hypocritical, dumber-than-shit, crazier-than-a-shit-house-rat Tommy Delay:

• Did you know that he was expelled from Baylor for drinking and vandalism - classy.

• His nick name has been “Hot Tub Tom” -ew, ew, ew.

Learn more (disgraceful) tasty tidbits here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_DeLay

No, it’s not a new drink for knitters. (Although, I may need to invent that.)

On a recent trip to the beach, I had a LOT of knitting time. I made a lot of knitting time. I mean, what else does a knitter do on vacation? Knit! I had high hopes that I’d finish two projects, but vastly underestimated how long it takes to knit 11 feet of 9-stitch double I-cord in heavy worsted/bulky weight yarn. More on that another day. Anyway, while I didn’t finish two projects, I did finish one! And that dear reader, is what Martha Stewart would call a “Good Thing”.

Friends, I’d like to introduce you to a wonderful pair, my first pair, actually … a knitting feat, FIVE (yes, 5) years in the making. Here they are … wait for it … wait for it …

MY FIRST PAIR OF SOCKS

Anti-climactic? Sure, maybe for you! But come on! We’re talking five years here! As I mentioned in a previous blog, I started these babies for my MIL in 2003. I picked them back up in 2004 when she was undergoing chemo for Lymphoma, as the clinics were always cold and I thought colorful socks would be fun. One thing led to another, and she passed away in 2005. At that time, with 1/2 a sock (attempt #2) on my double pointed needles, I put the socks away. I wasn’t sure I would ever finish them, but this past Christmas I during the beginning of my “finish all WIP, knit all stash yarn” fit I decided that I either had to (a) give the yarn away, or (b) knit the damn socks. I considered a lace project but the yarn band was long gone and finding the same color in the same yarn after five friggin’ years was unlikely at best. I opted for knitting the damn socks.

What’s dumb is that I actually hate wearing socks. I love knitting them, and now that I’ve mastered (okay, that may be an exaggeration given how long it took me to finish these) a simple toe up pattern, I think ti’s time for something more complicated! I’m hoping that I’ll change my mind about wearing them as the new, proud owner of my very own hand knit set. We’ll see. It’s really hot in Houston right now, so it’s unlikely that I will wear them anytime soon (other than to model them), but winter will be here someday again, I think.

See the previous blog post in which I reference and include pictures of the Paton’s Heat Wave pattern leaflet? I’d love to pass it along to a new, good home where it will be appreciated more than at my home.

I swear, as much as I have disdain for my own inability to wear the little shirts in this leaflet, I’m sure someone out there would do them justice. And, as I mentioned, the crochet is quite pretty. They require (as you might imagine) only a small amount of yarn each.

Want it? Contact me and I’ll send it to you (US addresses only, please).

I don’t really like to crochet. It hurts my wrist, the motion isn’t natural to me. I don’t like working with just a loop on my hook. I don’t generally like the crochet stitch. Crochet make me think of doilies. I don’t like doilies. I don’t begrudge you your love of doilies, they’re just not my thing. I’m a knitter. I only know (sort of) how to crochet. I like that I can knit a simple stitch without looking. I like the way knit fabric looks in even a simplest stockinette. I can’t say the same for a single crochet. Rarely I do find a pattern that makes me bring the hooks out of hibernation, however. Every so often a crochet item makes me think that it’s worth the constant reference back to a crochet “how to” and the discomfort of working with that hook who’s usually relegated to helping me pick up dropped knit stitches.

The last time I made an exception for crochet it was a miserable failure. See post “Log Cabin Knitting is Fun”.

The time before that, the crochet actually looked great. Awesome! However, the “shirt” (I use that phrase loosely) was a friggin’ doily. In a moment of blindness to my own physique I purchased the YARN and PATTERNS for TWO of these little gems …

It was back in like 2004 or so when the boho-chic came into fashion and I thought (wrongly) that I was svelte and hip enough to wear this little slip of a doily as a shirt. I am neither svelte or hip. I don’t wear doilies. I thought I’d finish it for a friend who is svelte, hip and built like the little pixie required to make a doiley look good, but I decided against it after several years of a project hibernation.

So, I was reading Susan B. Anderson’s blog and fell in love a bit with Anne. It seemed familiar, and I realized that Susan and I had both seen Anne at Hello Yarn.

What is Anne? It’s a Queen Anne’s Lace scarf designed by M.K. Carrol - and you can find the Anne Scarf on her site. It’s just too fabulous. In reading Susan’s post I saw her Anne version in an ivory/white cotton, which is exactly what I had crocheted the stupid doily top in. Bonus #1, I had yarn with which to knit Anne. Which is great since I’ve grounded myself from buying any more stash yarn until I make a serious dent in what I have. As a matter of fact, I had 4 skeins of each ivory and coral/orange Endless Summer Sonata that’s been sitting in the stash since the stupid doily top moment of weakness (yes, folks, I was going to make two of those lovelies). Bonus #2, I needed a birthday gift for someone who is the best accessorize-er that I know - and I wanted to make her something. She would make Anne look good, for sure.

So, on Friday, July 18th (the day after Lou’s birthday) I started my Anne. It was rough going for a bit, as I couldn’t remember the particulars of the double, triple or single crochet. Then, just when I thought that I’d memorized the pattern I managed to foul it up and the motifs got all twisty and wonky on me. But, friends, I prevailed!

Over the weekend of July 26-27th I washed and blocked the lace - as much as one can really block cotton. But, doing so allowed me to really block and stretch the little loops around the outside of the Queen Anne’s Lace, which made all the different in the world for this little beauty.

Last night, I delivered Anne to her new and rightful owner. Lou is as gracious as anyone I know, and I think she liked it. But, if she didn’t I’d never know. Giving handmade gifts is so precarious, in my opinion. There’s the thought and care and time, which is always appreciated. That’s a prerequisite of any potential hand-made-gift-candidate. But, what if they don’t like what you made them? Is the handmade gift now a burden? Anyway, I’m over thinking this, as I’m wont to do. I’ve asked Ms. Lou to provide pictures of her Anne at some point, because among other things, she takes much better photographs than I do.

I will be making more Annes. I desperately want to make one in a variegated a la Hello Knits. But, I can’t do that until I knit down more of the stash. And, there’s a lot more stash to knit (or crochet) down before I’m allowed to buy more.

Next up … the miserable failure that is my Mason Dixon Knitting Baby Kimono - what I did wrong with version one is beyond me. Stay tuned, and meanwhile friends … do something you love.

I have a little serotonin thing. I have given to obsessions - fixations. I get *VERY ENTHUSIASTIC* about certain things, but I don’t flip light switches compulsively or wash my hands until the skin comes off. It’s like OCD, with very little C.

What am I obsessed with? Knitting. Yarn. The symmetry of numbers divisible by five. The X-Files.

And so, my friends, despite the unholy amount of knitting that I did this weekend, knitting to the detriment of my sleep and my fingers (which are actually fatigued)…this blog post is mostly dedicated to the last obsession on my list. The X-Files.

I’ve seen every episode - at least once. I saw most of them as first run, but came to the show late - around season three. (Okay, for you fans out there, I have to mention that the first episode that I ever saw was “Home”, and I saw it the first (and only?) time it ran on Fox at 8pm Sunday nights.) When we heard that the 2nd movie would FINALLY be released Summer 2008, my husband and I (as well as my brother-in-law who had the idea originally) rented EVERY DISK FROM EVERY SEASON - yes, all nine and watched the first movie (The X-Files: Fight the Future) between seasons five and six as it was originally released.

I saw “The X-Files: I Want to Believe” this weekend. 9:55am Central Daylight Time, Sunday, July 28th. A movie that X-Philes have been waiting for since Spring 2002, the last time we say Scully and Mulder in a new episode - driving off together to an uncertain fate.

No spoilers here. So, don’t worry if you haven’t seen it.

X-Files fans, I’m sure you’ve already seen it, but just in case - This was about an hour and forty minute “Monster of the Week” episode. It was great. Thoroughly enjoyable. Mulder and Scully were back, six years older, no longer FBI agents, but the same old Mulder and Scully we know and love.

Oh, how I missed Mulder and Scully.

Again, no spoilers … but if you’ve yet to see it - you won’t be disappointed.

There was an element of sadness that wasn’t there in the show, even at the end - and it was appropriate. I wondered if there would be an incongruity to the story, questions left unanswered - or new questions without answers. Like, how the heck did they get back into the FBI? What have they been doing for six years? Would William go unmentioned? Where’s Skinner?

Amanda Peet and Xibit did okay. I get it why they’re in the movie - Chris Carter and Co. need to make the movie more “main stream” more pallatable for non-fans. And, even if you’ve never seen an X-File in your life, you can certainly watch this movie and enjoy it. Will you? Not sure.

In my opinion, while I loved and enjoyed it, I loved and enjoyed it because I am a fan. Short of watching Mulder and Scully read the telephone book (which I’m pretty sure I would still have paid $5 to see), I was going to love this movie.

While “Fight the Future” came across more as a big budget, “summer blockbuster” sort of movie - it required more knowledge of the show to “get”. “I Want to Believe”, less so …there are a few references that a non-fan might not get, but they are not at all central to the story. They’re there, as they should be, so as not to disappoint those of us who knew to ask.

I just read that the movie took in about $10 million this weekend. I don’t even know if that’s good or bad. Good enough, I hope, that there may be yet another movie? If so, in six more years, and I’ll be back in the theatre on opening weekend, waiting to see what Mulder and Scully have been up to.

Note: This post was written on June 16th (originally). I thought I posted it. But, in the midst of what I can only describe as a horrifying level of stress and sleep deprivation that culminated in a major professional event on July 7-8th (it actually took two days to end, more on that later) I didn’t “publish”, I “saved” and there on the server this post sat. Sad. Alone. Unpublished.

So, here you go world. Finally, after nearly three months. A Blog Post. It’s good to be back. I’ve got a lot of FOs and near  FOs to photograph and report. To begin, for all of you who emailed asking what the heck happened to that shrug challenge…well, here you go.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(As written on June 16th.)

That [title] sounds terribly dramatic. Really, it’s not. Here’s a quick update for those of you interested. The shrug will be finished someday, but didn’t make it to the wedding.

Why?

(1) The resulting fabric was too heavy for summer-in-Texas wear (it was about 95 degrees F the afternoon of the nuptials).

(2) Long sleeves take a REEEEEEAAAAAALLLLLY long time to knit. I would never have finished that thing in time with the duration I gave myself.

There you have it. Life is craZy right now (yes, that’s crazy with a capital Z). If I have any time I knit, sleep, or hang out with my DS and DH … not necessarily in that order.

Well, it’s actually day two, but here’s the deal.

I’m attending a wedding on May 31st. I was going to buy a new dress, but …

(a) I need more clothes about as much as I need another hole in my head,
(b) I bought two summery dresses last year and haven’t worn either so both are basically still new,
(c) I’m trying (not very hard) to lose my baby weight (DS is 21 months old) and don’t really want to buy any more clothes in my present size. I’d like to buy Size 0s when I’ve lost all my weight.

(That’s a joke. I wasn’t a size 0 when I was born. I hope to one day be a size 6 again.)

But seriously.

I need (want) a little shrug to go w/ the strapless dress I’m going to wear. I have three bags of Filati FF Must yarn (buy Must Yarn from my store) that I can’t seem to sell even though they are on like 40% off. And, the “Gold” color (which is really a shimmery ivory) turned out to be pretty perfect with said dress. So, last night, (Tuesday May 13th) I cast on … twice actually.

I committed knitting sin and didn’t swatch which was against my better judgment, so before I got too far I ripped out the few rows and started over with a swatch. Fortunately, my horizontal gauge was right on, and I was super happy with the resulting fabric. The Must is actually quite cool and I’ve never worked in either nylon or ribbon yarn before. Even in plain ol’ stockinette stitch the fabric is really nice. It was all around swatch goodness.

I, again, cast on for a size medium (134 stitches) on US 7 needles and managed to knit four rows of the ribbing set up for the back of the shrug. The pattern, Shimmer, from Knitty doesn’t seem difficult. It did suggest doing sleeves first, but I don’t have my US 8 needles available at the moment, so I started the body which calls for the sevens.

The real question here is - Can I finish this, what will actually be my first sweater (albeit a small one) in about two weeks? Stay tuned, there will be regular updates.

Pictures off Day 1 progress and swatch are forthcoming.

I love the Mason Dixon knitting book.

I don’t love quilting. I have quilted. And, it’s too much of a commitment. Too much cutting. To many corners to match up. Too big of an FO to manage it under the needle on my little run-of-the-mill, but perfectly serviceable, sewing machine.

But, I love quilts. I love the patterns and the color options.

Log Cabin knitting is the perfect marriage of quilting and knitting. I had never heard of Log Cabin knitting until the Mason Dixon book.

I had purchased quite a bit of Vanna’s Choice back in December when there was a super sale at Michael’s or Hobby Lobby (Michael’s, I think). I downloaded a bunch of crochet patterns from Lion Brand. I fell in love with the Circles to Squares Afghan. It’s super cool, sort of retro and not at all doily-like as have been every other crochet project I’ve ever attempted.

It. Was. A. Miserable. Failure.

I should stick to knitting, maybe knitting w/ a crochet border here and there.

The circles to squares were like crazy crochet Frisbees, concave and bowed in the middle. Not one was the same size, which was essential to piece all the squares together into the final product. I must have crochet each square size in the pattern three times before I finally gave up. Knitting, or crochet in this case, is supposed to fun and relaxing. This was not. It was the opposite of fun and relaxing. It was frustrating and stressful. So. For. Get. It.

On I move to another pattern, which I hate too much to even find for you. Moving on.

This weekend I bound off a version of Absorba the Bathmat (from Mason Dixon knitting). It’s a single strand square version perfect for the little spot in front of one of our bathroom sinks. I was leafing through MDK and decided I needed to try some more log cabin knitting and the Vanna’s Choice colors were the perfect candidates. Because, I also have a palpable need to get rid of my stash. Something is wrong with me, I am sure, but it’s actually just started to make me crazy. I’m on a self-imposed yarn diet until I knit or give away a substantial portion of the yarn that I have collected for personal use. It’s working and I’ve made a dent in the collection. This also requires that I actually finish projects instead of just starting them because starting doesn’t get the yarn out of my house - it only then becomes harder to store. Anyway.

So, I am doing a version of the Courthouse Steps blanket from MDK. It’s loosely based on that blanket at this point. It primarily resembles that pattern only in that they are both log cabin knitting where there are “spokes” or sections of similar color patterns radiating from the center.

Here’s a picture after about one evening of knitting.

All the crazy strings are (yes) as a result of color changes, but more because after the Circles to Squares fiasco I had a lot of little lengths of yarn that I had ripped out. I’ve subequently woven them in and it’s already looking much better.

As a knitter, when I got pregnant with my son, I remember thinking that I would never knit for anyone else again. I thought he was a she, and I had visions of the little girls knit dress from Debbie Bliss’ Baby Knits for Beginners or any one of my favorite kids & baby pattern books, which I’d admired for years before ever having my own kids. There are tons of wonderful baby/kids knits out there. I was going to knit them all for my little bundle of joy. Wrong. I knit one blanket for DS. It’s great, I might add. I knit a large bright blue blanket in Knit Picks Shine Sport. But, that’s it. He loves the blanket, or I love it for him. He actually loves “bear” and couldn’t care less about any blankie. I’ll keep the lovingly knit blanket for him so he can pretend to covet it when he’s older and trying to make his old mamma feel better. I’ve decided that knitting for my best friends baby is, dare I say, even more fun? First, I’m not pregnant. Which, in and of itself is a treat. I’m terribly glad to have my son, and didn’t know how miserable being pregnant was (at least for me) until I was no longer pregnant and realized that it’s sort of like having the flu for forty weeks. You never quite feel well. Then there’s water retention, and the basic huge factor (I was the size of a small automobile), and in 100 degree Texas heat, it’s sort of like the seventh level of Hell. But, knitting for my best friends baby (due in August like my own was, the end of August no less, bless her pregnant heart) is a blast. I just finished the blanket for Toby and can’t wait to give it to her. It’s soft and sweet and I can just see him snuggling with his mama all warm and cozy in it. It was hard to pick a pattern, but after settling on Berroco Lullaby in Lemon Mousse I(now discontinued) I needed to find a pattern. Lullaby is impossibly soft and machine washable - two essentials for any baby blanket. I like free patterns, and the Endora blanket is available from Berroco.

The blanket calls for 4 balls of Lullaby and 3 of Plush. I used all 4 of the Lullaby but only 2 of the Plush. The body of the blanket is in a simple cable pattern, which was easy enough to learn as this was my first cabled project. It went pretty fast. After the body is complete you pick up and knit the border stitches. The pattern called for a bright orange, but I went with a more subtle white with the soft yellow of the main part of the blanket.

That’s my DS (now 21 months) having usurped Toby’s blanket whilst I was trying to take pictures of it in the waning sunlight.

This is my first Magic Loop project. I generally really like double pointed needles (otherwise knows as DPNs). As noted in a previous post, I didn’t start the Hemlock ring when originally planned back in January. Part of the reason was my lack of US 10.5 DPNs. I don’t generally shy away from buying new knitting supplies, but for some reason in this case I just couldn’t get to it. I even ordered other needles for my store and visited my LYS and “forgot” to buy them. I say “forgot” because I think there was some sort of internal passive-aggressive thing going on where my subconscious was resisting and making me not buy them. Call Freud, whatever. Maybe the real reason was that I needed to learn the Magic Loop method of knitting a project that would otherwise require DPNs on a long circular needle. Best news about that, I have loads of US 10.5 circular needles, including my much coveted Knit Picks Harmony & Nickel Options Needles which gave me the flexibility to use a really long cord, which in my opinion and as suggested by the instructions I used, makes the Magic Loop knitting easier in the beginning. So, here is a picture tutorial that I hope is helpful to some. Where did I start? With a resource on this knitting method that I can no longer find. However, simply Google “Magic Loop” and you’ll find a wealth of information out there.

Knitting the Hemlock Ring Blanket (or anything else for that matter) Using the Magic Loop Method

**Clicking on any of the photos will take you to Flickr where you can view a larger version.**

Step 1) Cast on the required number of stitches onto one “end” of your circular needles.

Step 2) Slide all cast on stitches to the middle of the circular needle cable.

Step 3) Bend the cable so that half of the cast on stitches are on each side. In this instance, the Hemlock Ring has 8 cast on stitches, so you are pinching and bending your cable with four stitches on each side.

Step 4) Pinch the cable in the middle of the cast on stitches and pull the cable through, you will have a loop of the cable emerge so that your cast on stitches are split in half.

Step 5) This is where I think things get a little confusing, and are really hard to photograph. You’re about to start knitting, but you have to get the stitches set up so that, in essence, you’re using the two “halves” of the cable and the two needles on the cable as your four DPNs.

I found that the easiest next step was to slide each half of the cast on stitches onto the two circular needle ends.

Step 5) Here is where you’re about to knit your first round, in beginning to do so you will join the beginning and end of the cast on row to form a circle so you can knit in the round. Obviously, it’s going to be hard to knit these stitches because the needles are basically bound to each other, so you’re going to pull the needle containing the END of the cast on row (the one that has the tail that connects to the yarn ball from which you are knitting) through the cast on stitches so that those four cast on stitches are back on the cable.

5a) In my example the needle w/ the end of the cast on row is on bottom, pull that needle through …

5b) … So that the four cast on stitches that were on that needle are now back on the cable. This frees that needle to be the working needle in the first round of knitting.

Step 6) So, now for the moment forget that there is anything magical or loopy about your knitting. You’re going to position the two needles just like you always do when you knit.

I’m a “thrower” and my working needle is always in my right hand, I’m going to assume that you’re going to do the same thing. Pick up the needle that you just pulled through, hold it in your right hand, and assume the “normal” knitting position where you have a needle in each hand, and the stitches that you are about to knit (the first four of the cast on) are in your left hand, and the free working needle is in your right.

There will at this time be two cable loops, one on the left of the work and one on the right as you’re looking down on the knitting in your hands.

Step 7) Knit the first stitch four stitches, here is roughly how it looks when you start out on that first stitch.

Coming soon … repositioning the needles so that you can knit the remaining four cast on stitches, as well as future rounds. Stay tuned!