THE FFFFFUUUUU…….

January 21, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen8 Comments

I sat down dutifully today with the Blue Blossom Shawl, a bunch of knitting tools, and my camera. The plan was to document my first attempt at lace surgery a la Romi.

Two problems were immediately apparent. One, the lace pattern shifts every 8 rows, making it difficult to see where the beginning of the round is supposed to be. And two, I didn’t know WHAT THE FUCK I was doing. Once I figured that out, I decided to go with my plan B and thread in a life line and frog back to before all those dropped stitches, only about one pattern repeat. There is no picture of this because, while it’s something that seems simple, it was not actually simple. I thought maybe it would be easier to do a life line if I took out the needles. It wasn’t. So at that point, laid it out on the couch and admired my handiwork:

And then I frogged the shit out of it.

Here’s the pile of stitch markers that fell out of it:

So yeah. That was my knitting day. I didn’t even get a chance to take pictures of Ruffled Baktus. Stupid axial tilt!

random

Random Thursday

January 20, 2011January 21, 2011 Jen2 Comments

1. I went out today, totally against my will, to purchase provisions for tomorrow’s impending FEARSOME WHITE FLAKES OF DEATH!

2. I did this because I am a grown up and that’s what grown ups do.

3. I would have much preferred to stay home and knit while streaming Firefly on Netflix.

4. Best quote I heard today: “If there’s stuff on Google, why would you need to stuff it into your head?”

5. Most amazing video I saw today:

6. I am nearly to the center of my Ruffled Baktus wherein I will begin the decreases.

7. Pictures tomorrow.

ravelry

Musings on the closing of Remnants

January 19, 2011January 19, 2011 Jen2 Comments

If you are a member of Ravelry, you know by now that the infamous forum Remnants has been retired for good. You can read, if you haven’t by now, Casey’s poignant announcement here. The loss of the Remnants forum makes me feel kind of sad, to be honest. I know and understand why it had to be this way, and I support the very tough decision TPTB had to make. But while Remnants had become this huge and unwieldy thing, it was also the kind of thing that was unique to Ravelry. At least it felt that way. I know in my heart of hearts that Ravelry itself, what Ravelry really IS, is not going to change that much, if at all. Already at least one group has sprung up to take its place. And even though I didn’t even spend a lot of time posting there, I did spend an inordinate amount of time reading it. I am really going to miss it. For realz.

Knitting · Lace

Upon Further Consideration

January 18, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen3 Comments

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I realize that I need to go back and fix those dropped stitches. Otherwise, this:

is going to bug the crap out of me.

At first I thought I would just put in a life line and rip the whole thing back, but I think I’m going to try Romi’s lace surgery method (LSM) before I do that. Nothing to lose, right? Hopefully it’ll save at least a tiny bit of my sanity.

Doozer

Squishy Kitteh Toes

January 17, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen4 Comments

According to one British psychologist, today is the most depressing day of the year. Feelin’ down? Here’s some squishy kitteh toes.

Click here for desktop wallpaper version.

Knitting · TAS

Shawl Progress

January 16, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen1 Comment

Remember this?

[ravelry]

For my sister’s birthday, in September, 2009, I bought for her the yarn for this shawl with the promise of the finished shawl for that following Christmas. It’s taking rather a bit longer than that, as evidenced by the thing still haunting my knitting basket. As much as I enjoy lace knitting, and I do enjoy it, it’s something that’s really difficult for me to do and so takes a long time. Anyhow, I AM making slow progress on it and today I took it out to show her how it’s coming along. But while futzing around with it, trying in vain to get a decent photo of it, some stitches dropped off the needle! I was too panicked to get a good photo of my sad, sorry attempt to save them.

Here’s what it sounded like in my brain: NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!! LACE KNITTING EMERGENCY! HORRORZ!

Luckily my sister, like me, isn’t much of a perfectionist and won’t mind this mistake (or the many others).

I only have four more pattern repeats in this section to do and then it’s on to the edge! I might even have the thing finished for her in time for next Christmas. Maybe.

Doozer

Happy Caturday!

January 15, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen5 Comments

Knitting

Getting Paid in Eggs

January 14, 2011June 21, 2014 Jen5 Comments

A good friend of mine is an avid runner and had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that she likes running in the winter except that her ass gets cold and was musing about how she wanted to get some wool underpants. Of course, before I was able to stop myself, I chimed in that I could make her some. I felt rather a bit more enthusiastic about it when she offered to pay me in eggs from her backyard hens.

I’m thinking these will work nicely. Luckily for me she is a wee tiny thing so it will go rather quickly.

(Sorry, there aren’t any of the promised snow pictures today. E5 was feeling a little under the weather (and also it was as cold as hell frozen over out there today) so we didn’t hit the slopes today as I had originally planned.)

cute kids · Weather

More huge snow piles

January 13, 2011January 23, 2011 Jen5 Comments

By now you’re probably wondering if I ever post knitting content any more. Well NOT TODAY! Today you get another picture of an enormous pile of snow.

This pile was spotted in the Target parking lot. I should probably go over to the mall and take a picture of the enormous snowy mountain they have made over there. You can check back tomorrow for knitting content, but since the plan is to hit the sledding hill, I can’t guarantee that there won’t be another picture of snow.