Go see Kung Fu Panda. It’s pretty awesome. If you don’t like Jack Black, don’t be put off by the fact that his voice is in it; it’s not a typical performance (I don’t think). And like one of the reviews says, it’s really refreshingly pop-culture free but still manages to have humour and interest on all levels (child through adult).
So I’ve actually been asked to put some knitting content here; Ravelry really diverted all of it but Ravelry's still in beta so you can't see it. I think I know what someone really wants to see, but I haven’t started it yet, so she’s out of luck.
Here’s something I was pretty proud of, because the original instructions not only were in Latvian, they had a lot of errors. With language help from a lovely person on Ravelry, I came up with workable alternatives, though it did turn out a different shape from the original. The mad doily woman strikes again! It' s on 2.25mm needles, 16/2 linen, for those that care.
And also in knitting related content I joined a team for a cancer relay* that, as its shtick, has decided to knit constantly while doing the relay. Apparently, though, the Cancer Society wants money as well as knitted items. Imagine! I really hate begging, and I especially hate begging from friends, but if you were going to donate to some kind of disease-based charity anyway this year, you could consider my Relay for Life Team, maybe. If you wanted.
* Like, anti-cancer. To raise money towards finding a cure. Just to be clear.
OK, first of all, HAH! I told you it was evil and disgusting!
Second, I don’t understand why this is funny. I’d watch it.
Thirdly, why was I not told about The DM of the Rings?
Fourthly… ah, the hell with the numbering thing. Here are some more cool links.
The Reader’s Manifesto - Cenobyte, read this.
And on a related note (sort of) the 2007 Bulwer-Lytton Contest results
Goth dance instructions
The pinnacle of Lolcats (it gets no better)
Eyeball Pincushions - I’m going to make a batch of these. Who wants one?
Laid-Back Labour - Hobbies and economics. Actually interesting.
Oh, and we had an anti-Labour Day weekend because R:tAG had to work for most of it. On the plus side, I finished off three items in my knitting queue, made progress on another, and started two new ones, and since I was alone in the house, was able to commandeer most of the living room floor to block the Mystery Stole.* I keep forgetting how much lace grows when it’s blocked (no pictures of it being worn; I’ve tried and tried to get decent pictures in the only full length mirror in the house but the light is just not right.)
* My room is taken up right now with the construction of a polonaise. It is fiddly but straightforward. I even remembered to use my corseted measurements, which meant that I could use a fabric width of 36" instead of the recommended 45" (barely!), which meant that I didn't feel quite as stupid for accidentally buying 36" fabric (the lesson here is if the price seems really low for a fabric, CHECK ITS WIDTH!).
R:tAG’s brother and fambly are here for a visit, and then we’re off to GenCon right after they leave. Another busy late summer for us. It’s amazing what the addition of two teenagers to a household does to its water consumption.
Oh, I think I solved the Mystery of the Disappearing Coffee. R:tAG had another early-morning physio appointment* so I stole another cup of coffee from his workplace. This time, I tried to surreptitiously** pay attention to my drinking it. I’m pretty sure that the first time I actually just drank more than I thought I did, because I took a few big sips (to try and get the level down) and then put it in the cup holder without taking my eyes off the road. The big sips were bigger than I thought, so the level was much lower than when I last actually looked at it. So. You can all resume your normal lives; I know that y’all were on tenterhooks waiting to find out the answer to the mystery.
Speaking of mysteries (nice segue, eh?) the Mystery Stole is almost done. It turns out to be an interesting asymmetrical design. The designer had you put in a lifeline at one point, and I was going wild with speculation as to why… I was picturing some really cool techniques with lots of dropped and raveled stitches, or three-dimensional inserts to make godets, or something. Turns out it was just so if you didn’t like the proposed asymmetry, you could rip back and work a mirror image. Once again, reality fails to live up to my imagination.
I think I forgot to get a picture of Clue 4, but here is Clue 5. For Clue 4, just picture the same thing but without the odd flappy bit to the right where the direction of work changes to go diagonally. Eventually that bit will be as long as the body of the stole is wide, if that makes sense. I think this will end up being pretty short for me, as I had feared. But blocking will tell the tale, and at worst some shorter person will get a lovely Christmas present. I’m all about the process, not the product.
The final shape of the stole will be something like this:
But look closely! The rumours are true! It is the Lacy Mark of the Beast!
The official theme of the stole is “Swan Lake,” by the way, in case you were wondering about the post title. The border pattern is called “Wings of the Swan,” the Russian-y motif at the pointy end is from the costumes in a certain production, the center lace pattern is called “Cat’s Paw” (the standard choreography for a famous bit in the ballet uses a step called “Pas de Chat”) and the part I’m working on now will be a feathered wing shape as if the stole is changing into a swan. The suggested colours (black and white) represent Odile and Odette, and while the designer said she just added the beads because she liked them, someone pointed out that they look like droplets of water which is suitable, of course, for an aquatic bird theme.*** The designer originally said it might not be suitable for a wedding because the ballet is a tragedy with suicides and such, but I think it's a nice design and anyone who's that sensitive will just find something else to be upset about at their wedding anyway ("That butter knife is pointing right at me! You ruined it for the WHOLE LOG!")
* Hopefully his second-last one! Yay!
** Well, I was trying to duplicate the effect of not paying attention, so I had to kind of fool myself into acting like I was absentmindedly drinking it, while in reality observing. It’s hard to live in my head sometimes.
*** A note of interest to knitters; this post vividly shows the importance of checking gauge and how the suggested needles and yarn are only a starting point and no substitute for a swatch.
It’s the pelvic thrusts, that really drive you insay-ay-ay-ay-ane
3 comments Posted by Amy at 1:46 p.m.So, R:tAG’s X-rays show nothing wrong with the spine (yay!) and the physiotherapist says it’s “innominate pelvic shear” or something like that (R:tAG didn’t hear him quite right and I wasn’t there*). The important bit is that it’s a fairly common thing, there’s a standard series of exercises to do, it can happen to almost anyone, anytime** and R:tAG is getting better each day and ought to be able to go to work on Monday. This is a huge relief. R:tAG will have to go for physio twice a week for the next while, but the clinic is fairly close by and he says even this single therapy session helped noticeably. Double yay!
And it’s Mystery Stole Friday and Clue #4 has just been posted! Triple yay!
Here’s the progress after Clue 2, with half-assed pinning-out (that's causing the scalloped edges):
And Clue 3 with no pinning out:
These pictures make the yarn look lighter than it is, and don't show the beads very well. When it's done, I'll have to actually make an effort to figure out the camera settings and get better lighting.
At this point, according to the author, it’s 1/3 done. So I have to decide whether that’s going to be long enough…lace is tricksy before it’s blocked but it seems short-ish right now (the above picture has some foreshortening happening but it's still pretty stubby). She gives directions for lengthening it in 11” increments, which is a fair bit but I guess that’s the shortest repeat for the border and the centre to get back in synch. I’ll have to do a quick on-the-needles blocking, measure it properly, and see how an extra 11” would affect the proportions. I don’t want it looking too skinny, or be so long that I'll pull an Isadora Duncan.
* The clinic happens to be near my favourite LYS. Hey, what was I supposed to do, just sit yarn-less in a waiting room? I don’t think so! And besides, I had to go back there because I'd bought some sale yarn there and then changed my mind about what I was going to do with it, so I needed two more skeins, which I found out was exactly the amount they had left. So obviously that was the right thing to do.
** The physiotherapist said that one of his patients had had this happen just by shifting his weight in a chair during a long meeting. Eek! We’re such fragile bags of thinking water…
Lots of pictures! First some of the ones that should have illustrated some of the events I missed:
Carl and me at the Digital Moose Canada Day celebration. I managed to look away from the iPhone long enough to sing the anthem, but it was a close thing.
We went to friends’ for a July 4 BBQ* and I finally had the excuse to make this cake. I halved the recipe and got an 8”x12” cake, which I thought would be plenty, but damn, this cake is astonishingly good and we probably could have eaten the whole thing. You certainly don’t have to do the flag pattern with the fruit… I strongly recommend that you make this cake even if you end up just dumping a couple of handfuls of berries on top of the icing.
And finally, a schwack of knitting.
The Arrrgyle socks with some additional help. I’ve never wanted to make argyle socks before, but these overcame me. Unfortunately, they ended up too big for me, but R:tAG says he’ll wear them.
This is why I never wanted to make argyle socks. I really dislike weaving in ends. Unfortunately I didn’t convince R:tAG that they were meant to be shaggy on the inside (“No really! They’re thrummed!”) so I made all the wretched little ends disappear. Eventually.
A shawl for me dear Mum.** I meant to get a pre-blocking picture, but the heat made me forget.
I also blame the heat for something else… I’m not much of a joiner, so I passed on the the whole Mystery Stole thing last year, and had no intention of doing it this year. But then I saw that the sign-up closed this Friday. So I signed up, just to see if I liked the design. It looked very nice. It began with a point. I love things that begin with a point.*** But I didn’t think I had any unspoken for laceweight…
Well, not counting that Merino Oro that I was going to use once and discovered upon winding it up that carpet beetles or something had turned it into Simpson’s Individual Stringettes**** However, I’m a pro at spit-splicing now, so I could use it. But I don’t have any suitable beads, and I hate stringing the little buggers anyway.
Huh. I do have suitable beads. And the pattern uses my new favourite way of adding beads, instead of pre-stringing them. But I don’t have time to even swatch… I have a bunch of work to do this weekend.
OK, so I have the fiercely-blocked swatches and chose a needle (3.75mm... the top swatch), and the yarn will work well, and the beads look great, but I really should wait until I have enough spare time…
Oh dear. That’s Clue #1 done. I blame the heat.
* Highlight of the evening: watching some neighbours set off some (illegal) fireworks and having the box tip over so that the fireworks – real grownup go-high-in-the-air-and-explode-many-times fireworks – were shooting horizontally a foot off the ground into someone’s yard and ricocheting off the house. We were too far away to see the aftermath, but apparently nothing and no-one was damaged. Amazing.
** "A Curved Shawl" from Victorian Lace Today, 2 balls of Misti Alpaca laceweight, 3.75 mm needles. Addi's new lace needles are awesometastic.
*** Literally and figuratively.
**** Two points for getting the reference.
I have paid the price for ignoring the math. I was considering making a whole new lace wrap for Al’s wedding, but thought to myself, “Self, that’s silly. You have a lace shawl in progress that only needs the border. That will be so much quicker!” I ignored the math. Never ignore the math.
The proposed Alpine Lace Shawl: 121 stitches x 400 rows = 48400 stitches approx.
Mediterranean Lace Shawl Border (not the whole shawl, just the outer stinkin’ four inches… stupid stupid 2mm needles): 1600 stitches (on average) x 50 rows = 80000 stitches approx.
I have five knit rows and one crochet row left. Then I need to wash it, block it, and let it dry.** On the other hand, I could make the needed alterations to my dress*, pack, do the necessary cleaning so our house doesn’t get colonized by slime molds in our absence, do laundry, do my weekly conference call with Bangalore,*** run a few errands, get a haircut and oh, maybe, eat and sleep.
Argh.
* Not a big deal; just shortening the shoulder straps slightly.
** The blocking is why I wanted to finish it before I leave; blocking is easier with equipment (wires, hundreds of pins) that I'm not going to schlep on an international flight
*** Not optional, unfortunately, though I might be able to knit for some of it…
Oh my. I think I exceeded even my own expectations about spending money at Stitches. Here comes another contribution to Doctors Without Borders to balance my karma. But there was all the pretty… I think that Rachael of Yarn-A-Go-Go said it best:
It's kind of being a kid again at Disneyland, isn't it? I want! I want everything, and look at this, and what about that, and that's my favorite thing EVER, and I'M TIRED I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE ANYMORE and oooooh, pretty, I want that!Of course, this kid had a credit card and no parental supervision.
The damage: Five bags of 50% off Garnstudio Camelia which I’m told may be discontinued and that is a crying shame, one bag of 50% off Uruguay DK, a darning needle case made of wood, a lapis necklace*, buttons for a woefully neglected cardigan,** six skeins of a 20% off lovely moss-green merino DK whose name I forget, and a 10% off impulse skein of a novelty yarn (Kid Slique but in a new colour not shown in that link that looks almost exactly like a black magpie feather; mainly plain black with shots of shiny dark purple, blue and green.). Whew.
Y’all may not care about this, but for my own personal interest here’s what I plan:
- Gray-purple (I’d call it “dead lilacs”) Camelia (10 skeins): Alice Starmore’s Cromarty.
- Lovely juicy reddish purple Camelia (10 skeins): Undecided. It would make an excellent stole/shawl thing, though. Or a thneed.
- Deep slightly grayish blue Camelia (10 skeins): Perhaps this cardigan (designed for this yarn! And I think this picture might actually be the exact colour I have! I am slightly ashamed. I almost never make things in the colour (or yarn) in the pattern)
- Charcoal grey heather Camelia (20 skeins): A gansey for R:tAG, maybe one I design myself. Yep, another gray sweater. And I’m only half done the MMBR*** sweater for him!
- Magpie-wing Kid Slique (1 skein): It’s so pretty! I’m letting it marinate, petting it occasionally, until I decide whether to make a thin scarf out of just it, a more substantial scarf out of it and a plain black yarn, or a more substantial scarf out of it and a white yarn to go with a more obvious magpie reference. Maybe striped lengthways – two black stripes framing the white center stripe? But then I’m afraid it will look more skunky than magpie-ey, especially here in magpie-less CA. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
- Uruguay DK (10 skeins of crimson): Kate Gilbert's Equestrian Blazer. I lurve this design, though I hope my colour choice doesn’t end up reading as “Tally ho for a spot of fox-hunting, eh what?”
- Moss green merino by I-can’t-remember (6 skeins): I'd like to make Elsebeth Lavold’s Liv but I’m worried about running out and that design doesn’t really lend itself to the standard hamburger-helper tricks like striping or making the ribbing, collar and cuffs in a different colour. I'll have to see if I can find more.
I already have the MMBR sweater, a lace shawl, a baby blanket and a pair of socks actually in progress. And, <<ahem>> I may have started Cromarty already and done one skein’s worth of it. Just to see if I’d have enough of the Camelia yarn, which I won’t**** so I have to order more, and I have to do that wit’ a quickness, as the kids say, if they’re discontinuing this yarn and/or colour.
OK. I will at least finish the baby blanket and the front of the MMBR before I cast on anything new. Pinky swear.
So. What's new with you?
* Not all the vendors sell fiber, some sell pretty shiny things. Argh. It should just be called the “Make Amy Spend Money Festival.”
** This design, Ljod, is the one I alluded to looking like a Jetson’s outfit and that I was going to rip out. I’ve become a bit fonder of it, though, and I think I’ll try re-working the shoulders which were the most egregious part. The wool that I used didn’t drape like the recommended wool-silk blend, so the shoulder caps turned into these 1980’s-puffy-Gibson-girl-leg-of-mutton things that are not flattering to my line-backer shoulders, to say the least. I still don’t know about the flared hem in the crisper wool, but at least I’ll fix the shoulders and re-evaluate it.
*** Miles and Miles of Bloody Ribbing.
**** I was pretty sure I wouldn’t; the stated yardage is ~1875 yards and I had 1750. Which I would normally say might be possible, but everyone who’s made this says that the given yardage is way low and they all ran out. Sure ‘nuff, one ball took me almost exactly one quarter up the front. The usual formula is 1/3 for the front, 1/3 for the back and 1/3 for both sleeves. The math is left as an exercise for the reader.
A new year, a new Blogger, though I hope the content remains untouched. I just tried to change the template and was unpleasantly surprised to find that all my sidebar links disappeared. It took a bit of fancy and panicked footwork to undo the change.
Like last year, we had a very quiet New Year's. A Dr. Who marathon to keep ourselves awake until midnight, a little champagne, a few bites of caviar, and asleep by about 12:07. In our defense, we were still on East Coast time*.
We spent eight days over Christmas with my parents and my youngest sister in Virginia, which was very nice. Time is slipping by at a really alarming rate** and as near as any of us could figure it's been three years since I'd seen my folks. So that was really excellent, despite a four-hour delay in getting there.*** I actually got packages sent off in a timely fashion, and found good gifts for everyone (no complaints so far, at least). The weather in VA was extraordinarily warm, and we trooped around several old favourites (Williamsburg, Jamestown), saw some new stuff (Yorktown, Fort Monroe), ate a lot, knitted,**** played with our Christmas presents,***** visited my grandmother, and generally had a great time. And the flight(s) back were actually early, and quite smooth. Except for the coda of motion-sick children vomiting in the gutter outside the terminal at San Jose airport while we were waiting for our ride home, the return trip was close to perfect. We were relieved, since we connected in Newark which had had trouble before Christmas.
Speaking of knitting (haw! Didn't think you were going to get away, did you?) I managed to get no pictures of any of the things on which I was frantically working before Christmas. The list: a vest, two afghans, a teacosy, a doily, and a Dr. Who scarf. I actually had to finish the vest (for me Mum, and a measure of how much I love her since stranded knitting in cotton is the Devil's work) on Christmas Eve day, since there were about a brazillion ends to weave in. Finishing it in front of the recipient actually worked out well, because she was able to choose the buttons (I couldn't decide and brought both options for her to consider).
I'd never heard of some of these New Year's superstitions, but I'm pleased to say that we're right on board with the whole "don't do dishes" one. Also, the "make a lot of noise" one is ably handled by the neighbourhood as we discovered when fireworks started going off from surrounding lawns. However, we failed with the "first footer" - we left the house before anyone else entered, much less a tall darkhaired man carrying half a dry-goods store - and our pantry isn't well stocked since we just got back from a longish trip and most shops were closed. Oh well.
Note to self: a good New Year's resolution, even though you don't normally make them, would be to start and finish some of the seventeen-odd knitting projects that you've got on deck, maybe starting with that sweater that R:tAG has been so patiently waiting for and that you haven't started since it's miles and miles of boring old dark gray brioche rib that just can't compare with all the lace goodies that make you drool.
Another note to self: Travelling with R:tAG after he's had a large serving of Ben&Jerry's "Coffee Coffee BuzzBuzzBuzz" is like travelling with a Yorkie on crystal meth. Avoid it.
* And in addition to the offical three hour time difference, there is the fact that my parents are early-to-bed type people (which we are decidedly not). The result was that our natural sleep cycles were almost completely reversed. It was effectively like travelling to England.
** We've been in California for almost two years! How is that possible?
*** Not because of all the snow in Denver, at least not directly. We went via Chicago, which won the Christmas Weather Coin-Toss this year.
**** OK, this was just me.
***** I got a dreidel, that traditional Christmas toy, but I have yet to paint it and until the little letters are on playing with it just leads to arguments. R:tAG and I also got a juicer, though we left that at home. Now that we are back, we are thinking of things to juice. The booklet says it's great for making breakfast, but we find that pancakes don't make hardly any juice and bacon makes way too much (full disclosure: this joke is from Red Meat). We did have Mimosas with fresh squozed juice for New Year's Day brunch though. Yum.
(There aren't many songs that reference knitting. How odd! I did find one or two, though, in addition to the one I used above)
So I still haven't really recovered from the tablecloth, in that I've just been doing little projects. Here are two of my favourites:
The top is from the latest Interweave Knits, an issue worth purchasing, in my opinion. It's the cover garment, the "Lotus Blossom Tank".* 4mm and 3.75 mm needles, smallest size, Euroflax Linen, 3 skeins almost exactly. I really like the neckline, and it's a quick knit. The linen is hard on the hands when knitting, but it softens up miraculously after a trip through the washer and dryer.
The knitted supervillain is Hellstryke, R:tAG's main character in CoV, and it was my (somewhat late) birthday present to him. Let's look at the little guy closer up, shall we?
He's a mix of various worsted-weight stash yarns (fun fur for his goaty legs... one of the few valid uses for fun fur) on, um, 4mm needles IIRC. I needed a dense fabric so the stuffing wouldn't show through too much, but as you can sort of see on the shoulders I probably could have gone down a needle size. The horns and spines are sock-weight yarn on 2.5 mm needles, the cape is lace-weight mohair on 4.5 mm needles. The pattern is out of my own head, based roughly on the last super I knit.**
And of course, socks, because socks don't really count as a work-in-progress. They're the constant background noise knitting.
It's the yoga that let me hold my feet up like this long enough to take a picture. Thank you, yoga! The pattern is the Jaywalker Socks, the yarn is Schaefer "Anne" which is one of the bestest sock yarns I've ever used.*** The socks took most, but not near all, of a 4 oz skein. and I used 2.25mm dps. The colours in the picture are not at all true; the reality is a much warmer, richer blend of browns and jewel tones of red, green and blue.
And finally, also from the latest Interweave Knits, a mini-Faroese style shawl. The pattern is free! I had in my stash a little bit of alpaca handspun (not my hands) that was an odd weight; like a thin sock yarn but a) I didn't have enough of it to make socks and b) alpaca socks would probably make my feet combust.
It was hard to get a good picture because the shaping that makes it stay on your shoulders also makes it into a three-dimensional shape that won't lie flat, and R:tAG isn't home right now to take a picture of me in it. I used maybe 50 g of this handspun stuff, on 5mm needles to get a really lacy, drapey, fabric. Again, the colour isn't near as blue as the picture shows (stupid digital camera), it's a natural warm heathered gray.
So there you go. If I don't mention the knitting, the pressure just builds up and you get a huge post like this one instead of a few sentences at the end of every post.
* And yes, all the jokes about Zen armies using Lotus Blossom Tanks have been made already, thankyouverymuch.
** I actually wrote down what I did for the Statesman doll! I amaze myself!
*** It's also horribly expensive.
R:tAG's off to E3 today. I could have gone too, but he'll be stuck at the booth for most of the time and neither the event or the location appeal to me enough to warrant going further into vacation-time hock.
Man, that was a convoluted sentence. Sorry.
Anyway, I still have knitting related information in my system, so full speed ahead! Apart from The Tablecloth, since the Knitting Olympics I've mainly been working on small stuff; little impulse knits like hats, toys, baby gifts, etc.. This is partly a virtuous attempt to reduce the amount of yarn I have hanging around the place (this is called "stash" by knitters). The worst thing about the lace kick that I've been on is that it's got a terrible effort/stash-reduction ratio. A year of knitting The Tablecloth, and the stash only shrinks by a cubic foot. A week on a doily, and there's only a golf-ball size hole in the stash:
From the top right corner clockwise: the box of red/purple/pink oddballs, the box of white/gray/black oddballs, the box of green/blue oddballs, the box of yellow/orange/brown oddballs, and two bags of recently purchased unfiled yarn. Not shown; two shopping bags full of less-than-a-meter lengths*, and a shoebox full of doily cotton.
Well, one might say (especially if one knows any other knitters), this isn't actually that bad considering that you've been knitting for about 30 years.
Well...
This (including the contents of the steamer trunk; the Rubbermaid bin was to catch the overflow, then it overflowed...) is all the unstarted projects I have. Most are "spoken for"... the intended pattern is stored with the yarn. Of course, I sometimes change my mind about that as I discover new patterns or realize that the yarn is really unsuitable.** I think I have about 17 defined projects here, and material for another three or four that I haven't decided on.
Yet somehow, I keep buying more yarn...
So if you come to Calgary, I'll give you a ball of yarn!
* Shut up! There is so too a use for them!
** Normally I find out the yarn is unsuitable after I've made the project. I'm getting up the gumption to rip out three sweaters because of this. The lessons here:
- Wool doesn't drape like silk. A cardigan that is slinky and flowy and drapey in silk will look like a Jetson's outfit in wool
- Lopi doesn't go next to my skin.
- Alpaca is soft and inelastic. Making a fitted ribbed top out of it seems like a good idea (soft = nice next to the skin, inelastic = compensated for by the rib). However, alpaca is also very very very warm. Ribbing makes it even warmer. Don't use alpaca for anything that one can't remove with propriety.
The rainy weather seems to have finally broken, and we're right into summer. Time to start looking at that retro-fit air conditioning for my car.
So, it's been a while since I mentioned knitting, hasn't it? Shut up, it has so too! Anyway, no one's forcing you to read this. Hmph.
Here are my two latest finished projects.
The scarf is Faina from Fibertrends (100 g of a Saskatchewan-produced wool/alpaca blend, 3.5 mm needles). I am still undecided about the colour; I usually avoid browns/oranges because they cause people to rush after me offering me new livers, so this might be a gift. But it's a lovely yarn; a nice combination of drapiness and enough stiffness to hold the lace pattern.
Oh, and the second project, she says with elaborate casualness? Oh, just the FREAKING TABLECLOTH! Let's take another look at this puppy, shall we?
From Marianne Kinzel's Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting, the "Lilac Time" table cloth (#10 cotton (two head-sized cones plus a little one), 3.75 mm needles). There were over 2,100 stitches per round in the last 40 rounds. This photo shows it unblocked; it will actually look a lot better after blocking but I couldn't wait to see it on the table and blocking this will be a Major Undertaking involving the moving of furniture and the purchasing of more T-pins. It will also be bigger after blocking, which emphasizes my regret that I didn't use smaller needles and finer thread.* I started this in May of last year (as I recall). All unemployment and no friends make Amy a crazy knitter. :)
And come to Calgary on the May long weekend, or we'll crush this baby possum!**
* Like, #30 on a 3mm. I thought when I started that the bigger thread and needles would mean that I could end earlier (after the third tier of leaves) but when I got there the cloth seemed too small, so I kept going. So I ended up doing exactly as much work as I would have if I'd used the smaller thread. Oh well.
The other thing I'd do differently (just in case anyone else is crazy/bored enough to try this) is to use a provisional cast-on at the beginning and graft the centre hole together at the end. I used a standard cast-on and sewed the centre, like that pattern said, and I'm not really happy with how it looks. I'm probably not going to try and unpick the cast-on and graft it, though. Probably.
** No, that's not my picture. It's from Cute Overload, your one-stop shop for cute.
I see that I am described as the "Mad Doily Woman" on someone's blog. My righteous outrage was muted somewhat by finishing this:
I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do with it but it was fun to make.* Except for the part where I kept finding breaks in the thread, and then finally found a little carpet-beetle larva corpse nestled in the spool. I guess it died happy and with a stomach full of cotton, but the little bugger meant that I have about ten ends to deal with, which is a... challenge with lace.
But this isn't a knitting blog! Here's proof! The Word Cloud shows words with their size proportional to their use on a site. Some people don't like them, but I think they're interesting. So as you can see, knitting...
Well, obviously the recent Knitting Olympic posts skewed the results. Obviously.**
Our bikes remain pristine in the garage, but we can't really use the weather as an excuse. There have been some rainy days, but some nice ones. My excuse is that I haven't been getting home before dark. R:tAG's excuse (since biking to work is feasible for him) is that it's too cold (!). He has gone completely native.
I can't believe that there is demand for a post describing my job. Maybe later, when I can't think of anything else to talk about.
* Which reminds me of my favourite comment about crochet: "It's like taking a big dump... it feels good while you're doing it, but what do you do with the result?" And before all you fanatic crocheters respond, I present Exhibit A, Exhibit B , Exhibit C and Exhibit D. I do like some crochet, but it's mostly very fine-gauge stuff. Mostly.
** It is a measure of my geekiness, I suppose, that I started thinking of ways to improve the algorithm. For example, Virginia and Woolf show as fairly common, despite only appearing in the header. I wonder if the generator could ignore text inside title or header tags? I also find it surprising that "ant" doesn't appear, but I am happy that "yay" does. Yay!
Announcer 1: And I think we have a final report from California... Bob?
Announcer 2: Bob? Bob, ish that you?
Announcer 1: Er, Bob, are you OK?
Announcer 2: Jush fine, Bob! Bobby! Bobberino! Hey, we're bosh named Bob!
Announcer 1: Maybe we'd better call back?
Announcer 2: I'm fine, Bob, jush fine. Jusht been having a little drinky for Inif.. Inan... Inishmore. That'sh it. Inishmore. Ish done! All done! Yay!
Announcer 1: Well, that's good. We'd love to hear more about it, but maybe we'll return to this story after Bob has... recovered.
Announcer 2: No, no. Bob! She got the sheams all done an'everything! Shee? It'sh inshide out. Inishmore, inshide out... all the lil' endsh, all woven in... and she got it done lasht night!
Announcer 1: Lasht... I mean, last night, Bob?
Announcer 2: That'sh what I shaid! Lasht night! She wanted to take picturesh thish morning though, in the shun. But then it rained. Shad little raindrops... itsh sho shad...
Announcer 2: OK, we're moving on now to the other magnificent Knitting Olympic final products. Thanks for listening. This was Bob...
Announcer 2: And Bob! Whee!
Announcer 1: ... signing off on Inishmore.
-----
Well, that was actually interesting. I wasn't sure if I could finish in time, and I did, so that's nice. Without some sort of reason though (even if it's a self-imposed reason like the Knitting Olympics) I don't enjoy knitting flat-out on only one thing. It's the only one thing part, I think, that's the real problem. I usually have two or three projects going at once (at a minimum) so when I get bored I can switch. And I get bored very easily.
I also taught myself to cable without a cable needle, which I don't think I would have done without the deadline pressure, so that's a Useful Skill.
On the down side, I think the thing's still too short. I'm constantly pulling it down. Yes, I wanted a shorter version originally but I think I was wrong. It's a major undertaking to lengthen it, with the way it's designed, so I think I'll leave it for a bit and see if I acclimatize. R:tAG says I don't look any more like a bowling pin than usual. What a relief.
Announcer 1: The clock is ticking, the end is near, and all our athletes are pushing for the finish. Does it look like Inishmore will finish, Bob?
Announcer 2: I know that Amy's been considering whether an Aran T-shirt would be complete idiocy, Bob. But given how pigheaded committed she is, I think she'll just keep pushing. There's about 10cm to go on the sleeves, then the shoulder straps, then the collar, then the finishing. Not impossible, but not easy either. I forsee a very knitting-intensive Saturday for her.
Announcer 1: We'll be keeping an eye on her, Bob. Now off to the award ceremonies where those Olympic knitters with a more balanced view of life are receiving their gold medals!
Announcer 1: Are we back on track for regular Inishmore updates, Bob?
Announcer 2: Well, there was an upset last night, Bob. Amy had been hoping to knit a clean sleeve, but as I've marked with my Special Commentator Pen, she committed a technical fault of the most glaring kind.
Announcer 1: I think it's kind of hard to see, Bob.
Announcer 2: Well, Bob, the judges don't think so. She twisted a cable the wrong way. She's made this mistake before but has always managed to recover by laddering down from the next few rows and re-knitting. But she didn't catch this one until about twenty rows later, and laddering that far will have a serious impact on her schedule and temper.
Announcer 1: So what's she going to do, Bob?
Announcer 2: Apparently she's going to just leave it, Bob, and repeat that saying about always leaving a mistake in your work so the gods don't get jealous.
Announcer 1: Probably wise, Bob, with the clock ticking here in Day 13. We take you now to the exciting Nordic Combined Steeking in progress.
Announcer 1: ... and there is still no update from the Inishmore in California. It's been three days now, and we're getting very worried... wait! Wait! Bob, is that you?
Announcer 2: Yes it is, Bob!
Announcer 1: Where on Earth have you been?
Announcer 2: It's a complicated story, Bob. Let's just say that you can't put too many oranges into a dufflebag.
Announcer 1: OOoookay, Bob. But we're all waiting to hear about Inishmore!
Announcer 2: Well, as you can see, Bob, the front and back are done, and a strong start has been made in the Synchronized Sleeve event.
Announcer 1: Are the front and back actually longer than I remember, Bob?
Announcer 2: Well spotted, Bob! Yes, Amy made the daring decision to lengthen the body by a couple of inches after realizing that cropped styles make her look like a bowling pin, and that she'd rather have a wearable sweater than a Knitting Olympic gold.
Announcer 1: A bold decision, Bob! Best of luck to Amy, and we go now to the Short Doily event in progress.
----
So this is actually less progress on Inishmore than I had hoped to make, but there was Stitches and Dundracon to distract me this weekend. I spent a fair bit of money at Stitches (I'm employed now! Don't you judge me!) but actually less than I'd expected because the market was just overwhelming. I went into ferret shock and just started wandering around with eyes like saucers and a slight thread of drool hanging from my chin. A-freakin'-mazing.
Dundracon was really good too. We only went for Saturday, but it was bigger than I'd expected and the LARP lineup was pretty impressive. I chose the 7th Sea one, being a sucker for the genre, and did not regret it. Despite not registering, I landed a key role* and had a great time. A long LARP, though... seven hours!
I was very glad that Monday was a holiday so that we could rest up from the weekend.
* Amusing incident: I was talking with an ST beforehand about what character I could play, and she said "Well, I've got a fairly central character here... do you think you can play arrogant, manipulative and condescending?" I actually laughed before I realized she didn't know me from a hole in the ground and was not being funny.
Announcer 1: And it's the beginning of Day 8, the halfway point. Olympic knitters are really feeling the burn now. Aren't they, Bob?
Announcer 2: You said it, Bob. This is when athletes can really start doubting themselves, thinking they were crazy for choosing the events they did.
Announcer 1: And what about Inishmore, Bob?
Announcer 2: Well, Amy squandered precious knitting time last night trying to estimate whether she was actually half done or not. If the back and front are a third each, and the sleeves are the third third, then being wholly done the first third and half done the second third means she's half done the whole.
Announcer 1: Could... could you say that again, Bob?
Announcer 2: Probably not, Bob. Anyway, she should leave the math to her coaches, and just get her head down and knit.
Announcer 1: She has coaches?
Announcer 2: Well, not really.
Announcer 1: OK, Bob. Off now to the Sock Biathalon.
Announcer 1: Once again, we go to Bob and the California Inishmore. Bob, any developments?
Announcer 2: Not really, Bob. Endurance and time-management skills are starting to count more than knitting ability here, so we'll see if Amy has what it takes.
Announcer 1: What's happening here at the beginning of Day 7, Bob?
Announcer 2: Steady progress, Bob, a bit slow but competing in the Olympics while holding a full time job will have that effect. You won't find many athletes in Turin even trying something like that. Wimps.
Announcer 1: True, Bob. We take you now to the Cable Slalom hill.
Announcer 1: Time to go to Bob and our regular Inishmore update... Whoa, Bob! What happened? Is that a picture from Day 2?
Announcer 2: No, Bob, we're not on instant replay, and there hasn't been a frogging incident. The front of Inishmore is identical to the back until the last sixteen rows, and what we're seeing here is the progress on the front. As you remember from yesterday, the back is complete.
Announcer 1: Well, that's a relief, Bob. Thanks for explaining that aspect of Inishmore. I guess you really have to be a fan to know something like that.
Announcer 2: Not really, Bob.
Announcer 1: Well, anyway, what's the status at the beginning of Day 6, Bob?
Announcer 2: Pretty sluggish, Bob. Yesterday evening was Valentine's, after all.
Announcer 1: You mean that Amy actually chose spending time with her true love over knitting?
Announcer 2: Pretty much, Bob.
Announcer 1: Well, we can only hope that this loss of focus won't affect her chances of a medal. We take you now to the Speed Frogging track and events there.
Announcer 1: And we interrupt our regular coverage to briefly check in on the Inishmore. Bob?
Announcer 2: No surprises here, Bob, the back is completed and I see it's a bit longer than the 2.5 centre repeats that Amy had originally predicted. This is probably a bit of strategy on her part; she's probably making absolutely sure that she won't violate the IOC "Dessus du petit pain" or "Muffintop" regulations which apply even to a cropped event like this. Since she's pretty long waisted, this bit of extra time spent here will pay off at the finish. She might even regret that she didn't go the full three repeats, but we'll see. The saddle shoulders might provide that crucial extra distance.
Announcer 1: And do I see a start on the front, Bob?
Announcer 2: Yes you do, Bob. Just a couple of centimeters of the ribbing, but the advantage here is largely psychological. It's Day 5, after all, and the initial thrill of starting is being replaced by sheer stubbornness.
Announcer 1: Thanks, Bob. We now return to the Freestyle DP event in progress.
(Edit) Oh yeah, it's Valentine's Day, isn't it? That's why there was a lovely pot of tulips on the table this morning... R:tAG is such a sweetie. He is a master of the marital arts.
(I was trying to find a clever way to work this one into the post, but I couldn't. It's damn funny though).
