Monty Python Flying Circus - Gangs in Bolton

Just a little Sunday morning silliness


Our local Hancock Fabrics is in the midst of closing and selling everything they possibly can, so the yarn (what little was left, anyway) was 50% off. I got some Moonlight Mohair for $4 a skein (the only brand they sell is Lion Brand.) I came home (at 10:45 AM, I might add) and proceeded to go through 2 of the skeins by the time I went to bed, on a cute little poncho. Yes, I know, I was using size 17 needles, but I was still pretty impressed with myself. So maybe by the time I'm old enough to be a Hell's Granny I'll be up to 20 balls a day. Anyway, I have about 5 more inches to go, then the sewing up and the fringe.

And some more

Arm warmers! I pictured myself wearing these on a slightly breezy summer evening, on the patio of my favorite restaurant. Then I actually wore them and discovered that it's rather difficult to eat and not get food on them. Cute, nonetheless. I made them in Paton's Classic Wool, just because it cost almost $9 for 50g of the Lion Cashmere, but only $5 for 100g of the Paton's. I'm nothing if not cheap.

The Brea bag from Berroco. I changed the decorative button to a clasp, and added a zipper. Not much else to say, except it was a pretty quick knit. Apparently, it's one of the more popular free patterns on the site.

This is a fun granny square purse that I crocheted, before I learned how to knit. I found it on a page of vintage knitting and crochet pattern links ("vintage," in this case means anything from the 1800's until the 1980's or so.). The page is still up, but all of the links to the patterns seem to have gone away, which is too bad. The original purse was crocheted in wonderfully garish shades of pink and orange and green.

Huzzah

These are some fuzzy bunnies I made for a co-worker who was having a baby. She didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl, so I made one in blue and one in pink. (The pattern can be found here.) The reaction at the baby shower when she opened the bag was life-affirming yet terrifiying. If you've never been in a room with 35 women all going "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww" at the same time, you probably don't understand what I'm talking about. About the faces, in case you're wondering - it's not the picture, they just don't have faces. I left them off because I felt that they should be done in a soft gray rather than black as the pattern called for, and I didn't have any thread that color. Also, I finished the blue bunny about 15 minutes before I had to leave for the baby shower. On a totally unrelated note, holy crap, my fingernails are long in this picture!




Ugh. Not only did I not choose my yarn wisely, but I had not yet discovered the joys of blocking. The sweater also sat in a corner in the back of my closet for many months, which didn't help matters. It is much happier as a vicious polar bear. The pattern came from the Spring/Summer 2006 Vogue Knitting.

Woo

I'm getting a digital camera of my very own. So no more excuses, just pictures. Yay.

LYS

Still no pictures. We're trying, but apparently the gods are against us.

I finished the back of the fuzzy sweater! Between Saturday morning and Sunday evening, I knit 10 inches. I didn't even know I had it in me! But I'm taking a little break now, 'cause wow. I haven't gotten any farther on the little mini 2-for-1 sock, and I haven't unraveled any more yarn for my polar bear. Soon, soon.

A few weeks ago, I bought some fabulous yarn. It was the most beautiful shade of purple, and very soft and ... soft. By the way, this might be a good time to mention that I am not a yarn snob. We do have one actual yarn store in town, but I hate going to it, for several (probably baseless) reasons. You know how when you go to some stores you get attacked by sales people? They just want to help, but I want them to leave me alone. Well, the proprietors of Fargo's LYS apparently know this about me, because it is nearly impossible to get anyone to even ask if they can help me, let alone help me. I have to follow them around the store, looking as helpless as I can, looking them directly in the eye, saying "Excuse me, can you help me?" etc, etc before they will deign to acknowledge my existence. When I finally do get some assistance, I get the distinct feeling that the sales person feels that I just wasted too much of her precious time. Maybe they don't think that I should be a knitter. And it's not just me. The local paper did a news story on knitting a year or so ago, and featured the store. My favorite quote? One of the owners said, "I like it when men come into my store. They don't ask so many questions." So I don't go there very often, to avoid asking too many annoying questions. Anyway, I am (mostly) content to do my yarn shopping at Hobby Lobby or Michael's. The fabulous yarn was Hobby Lobby's Yarn Bee brand. I know that it's cheap acrylic, and I know that it will probably not wear well on whatever I decide to make out of it, but it's beautiful nonetheless.

Ha!

The King of All Cosmos is laughing at me.

Remember how I said I wasn't having any major problems yet with the fuzzy green sweater? Oops. I needed to decrease almost half of the stitches, but not quite, and the count would end up being a little uneven. I need explicit decreasing instructions in cases like this, because I'm sort of lazy sometimes, and the ones I was given were rather vague. Not wanting to screw it up, I spent a good hour and a half trying to figure out what I needed to decrease where. And promptly screwed it up. I finally decided to stop worrying about it and went to bed, had nightmares, but woke up ready to tackle it again.

I do a lot of my web surfing using a nifty little toolbar called StumbleUpon, which searches for websites based on categories that you pick out, such as Knitting/Crochet or Satire. My first "stumble" brought me to a site that sells old McCall's patterns. Not very exciting, so I "stumbled" again, and immediately wanted to go back to bed for the rest of the week.

You've got to be freakin' kidding me.

So .... here I go again! Wish me luck.


**Edit**
The plot thickens! I discovered that the first of the 3 times that I knit and then ripped out the stupid thing, I was four stitches away from doing it exactly how the calculater told me to do it. Four stitches. In my defense, I was not able to see it at the time because I was blinded by frustration and slightly muddle-headed from rum. Right.

Knit, knit, knit!

So what am I working on?

Currently, I am - horrors! - unraveling the very first sweater that I ever made. Don't worry, it was ugly. Really. The pattern was actually very nice, a shrug of sorts, sewn together in the front with a nifty little criss-cross. (I will shortly be posting pictures for you to laugh at, as soon as LomL (as he has been redubbed by brandØn123) e-mails them to me) Out of all of the questions that need to be asked when choosing yarn for a garment, I did not ask the most important one: If I decide that I hate the finished product, could I unravel it and conceivably make it into a polar bear or a sheep? If the answer is yes, I should give up the idea of the sweater for good because it will only end in LomL calling me an abominable snowperson whenever I wear the thing. The polar bear is coming along nicely, however. According to my friend Megan, it is "excessively cute." I have Plans for it, though ...

I'm also, slowly, making up a little sample sock from "Sensational Knitted Socks" by Charlene Schurch. I like to knit in the round, so I like making socks, but I also have a short attention span. If I finish one sock, something shiny soon attracts my attention and the second sock lives a pitiful half-existence until I need the needles it is living on for another project, at which point I guiltily shove the sock to the bottom of my yarn basket. Because of this, I had often thought that it would be really great if you could knit two things in the round at the same time, such as socks or mittens. One day, I found this. Reading this article, you may say to yourself, "This woman is an insufferable twit and the Magic Looper should stab her." That's what I said, anyway. But I have to admit that it's a really nifty idea. I haven't gotten to the heel turn though, so I may go back to my original opinion.

The last project I am working on is a sweater. Yes, I did ask myself The Question, and unless I decide to make a fuzzy green raccoon, the yarn is forever safe from being turned into a woodland creature. The sweater is soft and green and fuzzy and cabley, with 3/4 length bell sleeves and cute little crochet ties in front. I haven't had any major problems, but I also haven't had to do this yet: "Work dec row every other row 2 times, every 4th row 14 times, AT SAME TIME, when piece measures 13" end with a WS row and work armhole shaping as foll:" etc, etc. I've done it before and it's not really that hard, but I also know that I have a problem with paying attention to what I'm doing, often to my detriment.

I'm rounding up pictures, I promise.

Losing my knitting blog virginity

Ways this blog will be like other knitting blogs:

1. I will have a "code name" for my husband
2. I will post pictures of stuff that I actually manage to finish
3. I will be witty and charming, as all knitters are

Ways this blog will not be like other knitting blogs:

1. The "code name" for my husband will not be "DH," but instead "LL" (Love of my Life)
2. You only have to look at the finished product, unless I do something really cool
3. PENGUINS!