Knit and Plenty

A Mother of Multiples

Ok. I've done it. I've reached the point of having too many simultaneous projects. I counted last night and there are at least nine works-in-progress. That's too many, even for me. I like having multiple projects because I tend to get bored quickly and depending on where I am (physically or mentally) I might want a mindless "knit-in-the-round" versus the feeling of accomplishment I get when I'm working a pattern. But, at this rate, it will be weeks before I can post a finished project. [Mrs. Dionne obviously had the right idea when she taught the Quints to knit.] So, I am making a vow, here and now, to focus on one project at a time for the rest of the week. Ok, maybe just today. I'll only work on one thing today. This is gonna be tough.

Going Toward the Light

You know that celestial sound of angels singing as the gates of heaven open? I heard it. No, it wasn't a near-death experience. It was a near-yarn experience. It was when I entered this little shop in Wickford, Rhode Island called And the Beadz Go on (cute name - obviously they have beads, too.)

First off, I told my guy, "I'll just be a minute, I just want to check it out. I mean, I certainly don't need any yarn, and it's not like I've never seen a yarn store before."

Open door. Cue angels. Wow. What a shop. What a selection. It's small but there was so much to look at - and (dare I say it --) so much to buy.

All this great novelty yarn is at the front of the store, so I immediately thought about making some multi-yarn stash buster scarves. (I know, it's called a stash buster scarf for a reason.) I guess in this instance, it should be called a CASH buster scarf, because I loaded a basket with all sorts of fun stuff: a Tahki/St.Charles "Cancun", a Berrocco "Optik" - all sorts of things to ride along and mix and match.  I'll share more as I bring these project to life, now that I've come back to earth myself. And if you are ever in Rhode Island, stop by this shop. It truly is to die for.

The All-Fiber Diet

I am going to Florida in less than ten days and I'd be really excited about it if I could bear the thought of wearing a bathing suit. In January, I did the no-carb thing for three weeks and didn't lose a pound.  Now, I am thinking about trying an all fiber diet. Just wool - and maybe a little alpaca snack -- because it's so fun to say. I know that knitting has been a great way for me to curb after dinner eating while watching TV. I wonder if I could extend that to bringing my sticks with me to restaurants to avoid the pre-meal bread basket or to pull out at the end of the meal to keep me from sharing someone else's dessert?? There are many great  knitting recipes for food items to be found online, so maybe I'll just knit up a few burgers and pies.  Maybe I'll just take a needle and  some yarn and use it to stitch my piehole shut! Actually, these photos have made me incredibly hungry. I think I'll go get a Mallomar and study it to see how I might develop a pattern. Wait, I already have a pattern when it comes to Mallomars. I think I'm in big trouble.

A sunburned zebra, a newspaper, an embarrassed penguin and a nun in a blender.

Gosh, it seems like its been so long since I actually finished a project! This is the Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk braided scarf that I started back in November. The recipe is basically to knit three very long strips (about 5 feet long) and then braid them. Each strip is 2 1/2 inches wide, and I did mine in a rib. After I finished one strip and was, basically, bored to tears, I thought it would be better to knit the next two at the same time, as I recommend we do with sleeves. That turned out to be a nightmare because the strips are so narrow that I was changing yarns every other second, and because I was working with two separate skeins, the yarns kept getting hopelessly tangled (even with the use of little baggies to hold the yarn.) I almost gave up several times, except that I had invested about $50 in the six skeins and I couldn't think of what I would do with the first completed five foot strip. (Frustrated as I was, there was not enough to hang myself with.) So, I persevered and I am glad I did. Once the three strips were completed, I picked up the stitches from the ends of each strip and made a small "end cap". My cat, Dexter is modeling the finished product. The theme, of course, is "Black and white and red all over."
While I have Dexter on the blog, I thought I'd share a crazy item I commissioned. You see, I collect "tuxedo cat" kitsch (I'll show ya sometime) and I found an artist online, Margaret Angelo, that can take your pet's picture and turn them into these wild jesters. I call mine Jexter.

The 64 Thousand Color Question

Mary Ann and I were up in New Haven, CT yesterday (about 40 miles north of home) because I had a doctor's appointment with a specialist at Yale (which, by the way, was ALL GOOD NEWS, hooray!) So, of course, we had to check out a yarn store thats name is, coincidentally, YARN. The shop keepers were very nice, the store was small but pretty, and we even got a free tape measure with our purchases (who, me? make a purchase??) However, I have one big question:

How many knitters prefer a yarn store that sorts its yarn by color??

I know there are many stores across America that are set up this way. It certainly is aesthetically pleasing, and at first, it happily reminded me of how excited I would get over receiving a giant, new box of crayons. Everything in its place - all sharpened and ready to go. But in the end,  it just didn't work for me. I like to shop for yarn by brand, by weight or by content. I like to be able to design a project by looking at all the different colors that one yarn might come in. I don't want to find a beautiful blue possum, for example, and not know if it has a complementing color for a stripe or a border. If I have a pattern that calls for a specific gauge, I want to be able to find my choices quickly. The whole color bin thing was confusing and frankly, I really didn't want to work that hard.  Perhaps I would feel differently if I was hell bent on making a project in Dandelion, Burnt Umber or Raw Sienna. If you're in the area, stop by YARN - they certainly have a beautiful and colorful selection.

Interesting fact of the day: To be politically correct, Crayola changed the color "flesh" to "peach" in 1962, and Indian Red to "chestnut" in 1999.

Measure for measure.

You may have noticed that I haven't posted a picture of a clothing garment I've made in quite some time. I've been sticking to flowers and purses and scarves, because I have a real problem making anything that ends up fitting a normal-sized person. I would do great if I had a 50 inch waist and a 15 inch bust; or if my arms reached passed my knee caps - or if I had odd shaped friends to knit for.

It's not just about mis-gauging, although I could write a thing or two about that! It's about  knowing  your measurements before you begin and checking the work frequently along the way.

I thought a good way to make a renewed commitment to this practice would be to record detailed measurements of myself. I searched the Internet for a chart or something, but when I didn't find what I was looking for, I made one up. If you email me or send a comment, I'd be happy to send you a useable copy.  Of course, after you've taken your measurements, if you find you have extremely long arms or an extra wide torso, let me know. I have a few sweaters I could send along.

Flower Frenzy

Happy President's Day.
It was, indeed, a marathon weekend in which I finished my dining room centerpiece.
I created every sort of different flower.I attempted to match the flowers on the curtains which were pretty bizarre to begin with. [For those following along, see February 13th post.]  I tried to replicate these strange white puffy things by making white pompoms which I felted, cut in half and then added dots of color by needle felting. My daughter said they looked like moldy matzoh balls.

I did a little better with the blue tulips which I made by knitting long rectangles and rolling them up into flowers.
They might not be perfect or smell like flowers - but I don't think they totally stink. They actually have a cool 1960's feel to them. Who wants the matzoh ball recipe??

Freestyle Friday

One of the things I really like about the winter is a weekends with no plans. After a long work week, I love coming into a Friday night knowing that I can put on my comfy clothes and big slippers, rent movies and settle down for some marathon knitting. You'll notice i said 'marathon' and not Olympics. I originally created for myself the Women's Freestyle Poncho competition, but that went 'downhill" real fast because I have far too many WIPS, including a few scarves that I better finish before its gets warm. Besides, I knit to get away from deadlines, not to meet them. So, re: Olympics, I'm going to have to pull a Kwan. I hope all the other Olympians will achieve their personal bests. Enjoy your weekend and please check in on Monday. We'll compare notes.

Hot flashes in our midst!

Reporting on a four-year-long study of zoos all across the U.S., scientists announced, this week, that female gorillas actually go through menopause. I'm not sure why we needed to know that, because I would have preferred that those research dollars went to more important topics like why I can't make it through the night without changing my tee-shirt 15 times?! Did they observe with amazement how female menopausal gorillas can instantly switch from happily picking nits off a friend one minute to going completely ape-shit because no one else in the cage ever picks up after themselves??? Did they discover why she wants to shove Old Kong's big head right through the iron bars just because he doesn't seem to stop eating for one G-damn minute???? Did they uncover the reason Mrs. Simian constantly wonders where the hell the enormous pot belly suddenly came from??? mmmmm....no wonder knitting is so popular among my pals...if we didn't knit we'd go completely bananas

The Real Cheney Cover-up

What's all the noise about Cheney and this hunting incident? For a long time, many people have said that he was "an accident, or a heart attack, waiting to happen."  We just got the situation a little wrong. 
But here's the thing:  In May 2003, Lynn Cheney delivered a speech on their family history, in which she recalled: "And as for my knitting, well, there's a history.  When Dick and I were in college, I decided to knit him a sweater for Christmas.  Now I'm not sure exactly what happened, but the sweater turned out to be very, very large, so large, in fact, that Dick's mother, who was a frugal sort, unraveled it and used the yarn to make sweaters for two adults and a child."
So, the real question is: was Lynn nice enough to knit Dick a gun cozy?? Because if that's the case, we would be talking about a real cover-up, now, wouldn't we?? And clearly, they both have gauge issues.