More photos!

Posted on April 16, 2008 by HappyGoth

Now only two WsIP (WIPs is grammatically incorrect, and I’m a nerd, and so it bothers me) in my Ravelry notebook are undocumented, photo-wise. One is super-secret, and so I won’t say anything about it (though soon it will have its own Ravelry photo). The other is just unphotographed so far. It, too, is a secret project. You never know who reads your blog…

These are some of the other things I’ve been working on:

These are that previous super-secret project that I mentioned. The baby shower was on Saturday, for Georganne, a co-worker who is expecting twins. I made Saartje’s booties for her, one pair for each twin in contrasting colors. The second pair came out much better than the first, because by then I’d already practiced on a pair. Next time I do this, although it may kill me, I’m knitting a practice pair before I knit the gift pairs, so that when the recipient looks at them I don’t think “oh, good lord, those look awful. I totally screwed up on X,” since I’m super hard on myself and a perfectionist and I really ought to give myself a break. Someone suggested that I knit them for profit (on Etsy?), but I’m not that motivated, and I’d be even harder on myself if someone was paying money for them (but I’ll take commissions, ’cause you totally know what you’re getting into then). Also, if you knit these, make the loops for the buttons lots smaller than you think they should be, because they’ll stretch out in the wash.

The Infamous Malabrigo Red Riding Hoodie.

Okay, so maybe it’s only infamous to me and the ChickenGoddess. Mostly because I’m knitting it, and she’s working out the math so that I can knit it in worsted weight yarn instead of the bulky the pattern calls for. It’s gorgeous (the photo doesn’t do it justice), soft, and stalled for the moment because somehow I don’t have the right number of stitches on the needles, and so back to the calculator we go. Trust me, though – it’ll be awesome when I’m done.

My first pair of socks.

These are still on the needles, yes. One is nearly finished, the other not nearly so finished. I started these at about the same time friend Leah did (sadly, she is blogless, though I did blog about her and her socks), but I’m still working on them and three other pairs, plus a few other things. Occasionally I tell myself that I can’t knit anything else until I finish them, but then I give up again and they make their way to the bottom of the pile. And the cycle continues.

Oh, well. But I’m making progress on lots of other things, and I will put some photos of the secret projects up on Ravelry (hint: they’re the ones that are neither finished nor photographed), and maybe someday I’ll finish those socks. Yeah, right.

Posted in General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

You’ll accept it.

Posted on April 15, 2008 by HappyGoth

And you’ll like it. ‘Cause I’m not writing anything more (unless I miraculously gather together an extra hour today). So here’s what you get:

How many cannibals could your body feed?
Created by OnePlusYou

So there. I expect to see this spread over bloglandia shortly.

Posted in General stuff | Tagged | Leave a comment

And now for something completely different.

Posted on April 14, 2008 by HappyGoth

Thoughts I had while searching for photos for a project at work:

Why is this entire family wearing red striped shirts?

Is anyone this cheery at breakfast, really?

How do you eat toast with your head smashed against your sister?

Hmmm… everyone has EXACTLY the same amount of orange juice in their glasses.

This whole photo is tilted at a 45 degree angle – get these people some V8, STAT!

I’m not going to show you the photos. I think this is best left to the imagination. If you’re curious, though, go to Veer and do a photo search for “family breakfast”. You’ll see what I mean.

Posted in General stuff | Tagged | Leave a comment

Ugh.

Posted on April 14, 2008 by HappyGoth

Against my better judgment, I went into work today, despite the fact that I have a massively awful head cold and feel like I’m swimming in a pool of soaked cotton (which is not fun, by the way). And wouldn’t you know it? Today is the day that we need something BY THIS AFTERNOON, so I can’t really leave and go home. I’m going to take this brief period to eat my lunch and post to my blog and then maybe get something done before I pass out, which would be nice (both, actually – the passing out and the getting something done).

Last night I started on the Muir shawl for the third time, and got to row 7 before I made a mistake. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m a stitch short. I’ll probably just tink it back to the beginning of the row and then do it again; it’s most likely a miscount on my part. Or at least that’s what I’m hoping. Aside from counting issues, it’s actually pretty easy to do, since every WS row is straight purl, and you do the 35 rows of the chart, then repeat the chart 19 times (I think), until the end when you do the border, then you unzip the crochet edge, pick up the stitches, and do the other border. If I can make it once through the pattern, the other repeats should go very smoothly. It’s looking nice so far, and I swear I’ll post photos relatively soon (yeah, yeah), but not today.

The lace project is keeping me from casting on yet another sock, which I really need to avoid doing right now. There will be a time for that (later on). This evening, if I’m feeling up to it, I’ll probably work on that new cotehardie I’ve been thinking about for months and haven’t yet put together. The pattern pieces are made, and just need to be cut out, and then I’ll seam them, and then tomorrow evening will be spent hemming and making eyelets for the lacing. This will most likely involve Friday evening, as well, but it’s worth it so that I don’t die of heat exhaustion this weekend and then every summer event thereafter. For those of you who aren’t in the SCA, this is most likely gibberish, but suffice to say that the other clothing I have to wear is either 1. brocade or 2. flannel, and if you’ve ever spent a summer in Georgia, you know how stupid brocade and flannel are in hot, humid weather. There’s a reason linen and seersucker suits were the vogue with distinguished Southern gentlemen.

Probably, though, I’ll just sit on the couch, feel sorry for myself, and knit on the 2×2 rib socks I’ve been working on for almost 2 years now (yeah, but they’ll be awesome when I’m finished!).

Posted in General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Return of KTILT

Posted on April 11, 2008 by HappyGoth

(swank artwork by #6 on the list)

But it’s only very short, so it’s really a semi-return. It’s exciting and thorough, though!

https://i0.wp.com/www.knitwitch.com/Yarn_Bowl_8_-_325h_x_425w.jpg

1. Knitting bowls. I’m currently obsessed with these, and you should be, too. (I’m obsessed with all hand-made ceramics, actually)

2. Self-made stitch markers. I thought I was too cheap to buy ready-made ones, and then I worked out how much I spent on supplies, and discovered I am not cheap, only particular (*ahem* picky), so I made some myself. The ChickenGoddess made some using tiger/fox tail wire and those little crimper things and some pretty beads, and they’re very nice. The best part is that they don’t catch on sock yarn like o-rings do.

3. Ravelry. I know, you’ve all seen it. But it bears saying that I love having a tool that keeps my knitting organized, so that when I cast on yet another sock, I can see that it brings my WIP count up to a stupidly hight number, and that I should probably finish a project before starting another one.

4. Baby things, because they are tiny and fast and instantly gratifying. I like instant gratification.

5. Good red wine. This makes knitting either (a) easier or (b) exponentially more difficult, depending on who you are and where you happen to be while doing these things. Also depends on what you’re knitting. I do not attempt to knit anything more difficult than 2×2 rib when I’ve had wine, but everything I do seems to be all flowers and butterflies and fluffy little clouds.

6. Marian Bantjes. Okay, so it’s more her work than her (I’ve never met her), but it’s mind-blowingly awesome, so whatever. I like it (see top of post for an example).

And that’s it. I gotta get back to productive work-type stuff now.

Posted in Cool things, General stuff, knitting, Knitting Sites | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A link for Yul

Posted on April 10, 2008 by HappyGoth

And for everybody else who happens to be a fiber dork, too:

Felted Everything

I’m in awe. Especially of these:

Holy. Crap.

And speaking of puppies, if you make a post with “puppies” in the title, or, even better, titled just “Puppies!”, I can guarantee you that it will be your most popular post. This makes me want to give erroneous titles to all my posts, just to see which ones get the most hits. But I won’t. Because that would be too self-referential, kind of like the last three sentences. MOVING ON…

I’m nearly done with the super-secret project. Fleagle apparently has done a seamless version, but I didn’t know that until I’d knit three already, so I’m going to do them all with half-assed seams, since the recipient probably won’t know the difference (unless she reads the blog, in which case I’ve just given myself away). I’ll be in a frenzy of knitting for the next couple of evenings in order to get them done in time (hint: they involve babies). I swear I’ll post photos when I’m done; I’m just uber-paranoid about giving away the surprise prematurely.

And lastly, yesterday was my one year anniversary at my place of employment, though it seems like a month has passed (or maybe as much as four). I got a balloon and a very nice bottle of wine and a lovely note from Molly (She Whose Title Is Too Small For What She Does), and they day was very nice (we also went out to lunch to eat too many chips and too much cheese dip, which is always a good idea), and then the monthly Persian Dance class went swimmingly, and Jadi declared that I did a Good Job, which made me feel pretty good. And then I developed Run On Sentence Syndrome, from which I may never recover.

Today will be a good day, too. It’s going to be 76 degrees outside, and I’m teaching my first class of the quarter, Portfolio ID. I’m going to scribble my syllabus in marker over the course of my lunch break. And then tell my students it’s part of my own personal identity system. Yes.

Posted in Cool things, General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

I can has camera?

Posted on April 9, 2008 by HappyGoth

The battery is behaving for the time being! I have photos! Of things! Here!

The Waving Lace socks from the Interweave sock book (25 Sensational Socks?). The one on the needles is the second one, and lots more stretchy at the first. I learned my lesson and cast on over more than one needle the second time around. The yarn is Fearless Fibers in Magenta (I believe). It’s awesomely soft, and really brilliantly magenta.

Waving Lace with Dunny (they’re these little vinyl figurines I collect. This one’s my favorite).

Detail of the pattern. The color is much more vibrant than this, but I’m in the office.

The Warlock socks that I’m knitting in tandem with the ChickenGoddess. The pattern is actually Garter Rib, but the colorway is Warlock (by Twisted Fiber Arts) and I like that name better. So does the Dunny.

And finally, the Rivendell socks, in Fearless Fibers Marrakesh superwash merino. I am sort of just okay with this. I’m proud of my progress, but they’re a little tight, and it’s often hard to see the pattern through all the beautiful color. I am thinking of frogging them and doing them again in something a little heavier and less variegated (and I’m really quite fine with knitting them again – this pattern is awesome so far).

And that’s pretty much what I’ve been working on. I’ve got a secret project I’ll post later, and a sweater that’s kind of on hold for the moment. The secret project has been taking up all of my knitting time lately, but it’s going fast. It’ll all make sense later, when I can talk about it.

Posted in General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Better than knitting

Posted on April 8, 2008 by HappyGoth

I swear:

http://dotsub.com/films/lhommequi/

(I was going to embed it, but it’s not working)

It’s amazing (but 30 minutes long, so it’ll take a while – it’s totally worth it).

Posted in Cool things | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Well, well.

Posted on April 7, 2008 by HappyGoth

It appears that WordPress has changed around how the back-end stuff works (if you don’t use it, you’ll just have to take my word for it). It’s pretty nifty, only it involves more scrolling and I’m lazy.

Anyway.

I bought a new battery charger for my camera, which appears to have solved the charging issue, so I am posting photos. And almost exclusively photos (see above re: laziness). Yesterday was the Yarn Harlot at Knitch, and we did the brunching beforehand (thank you, Claudia, for your awesomeness in planning!) at the American Roadhouse, which has yummy banana pecan pancakes. And we knit before, during, and after eating. I have proof:

Before the food came, Jane and Meg knit.

And then Claudia worked on her beautiful tiger-striped sock after the waiter cleared the table.

And I think this is a before photo, too. I lied about the during; I was eating, so I didn’t take any pictures then.

And there was a brief appearance by Pui Tepes (pui is chicken in Romanian), aka the elusive ChickenGoddess.

Afterward, at the theater, there were lots of knitters:

Olivia came over and said hi

and the ChickenGoddess took a photo of me

because all the ones I took of myself looked like this:

(And I hadn’t had any beer at all, I swear. It was a dry event).

And then the Yarn Harlot talked for a while:

She’s kinda short (but immensely funny, so it’s really not an issue). Luckily, she signed my book later on, so I got a better view, and because the ChickenGoddess and I are Huge Dorks and are knitting the same socks with the same yarn, we had the Yarn Harlot hold our socks while we held hers, and took pictures of the incestuous sock-age. It was great.

And I’m still a Huge Dork.

I also ripped back the sock in the photo previous to the taking of this photo (I’ll have to update Ravelry), since I determined that at the rate I was going, it would fit my husband. Since the sock is quite purple, and he doesn’t really do the whole purple thing, I should just give up and start over. So I did. And I’m much happier now. Whew!

I will post photos of projects tomorrow (since it’s been long overdue and it lets me not write too much).

Posted in General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Mmmm… teefs.

Posted on April 4, 2008 by HappyGoth

I got a new crown, and now my mouth is full of the bling (I am so white). Hopefully it will be a while before the next one. I really detest having a numb lower lip, since it requires drinking hot drinks through a straw.

So today I love just one thing:

Not Going To the Dentist

Sorry it’s not more interesting. I’m kind of grumpy, and have not knit for two whole days, as my life is kind of wacky and busy. I had a faculty meeting yesterday and we discussed copywriters who can’t spell (weird, huh?) and then it was late so I went straight to bed. I’ll work on the heel portion of my Rivendell sock tonight; it’s the first time I’ll have done a heel on a three-needle sock, though I’ll probably go to four for the heel because I’m a Huge Wimp and don’t want to learn new things today.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Posted in General stuff, knitting | Tagged , , | Leave a comment