Metamorphosis

How this baby blanket-in-progress

turned back into this

before becoming this

Back and sleeve-in-progress

What's that? Different yarn, you say? Why, yes, it is different yarn. The blanket was being made out of a cotton/acrylic blend. It was soft enough, IMO, but very splitty. I tried & tried to work through it, but it just became a big PITA. I bought (ahem...yarn diet? What, am I supposed to let a little baby go cold? Come on, have some heart!) some washable wool & am making the cardigan from the latest Vogue Knitting.

If I ever again mention on this blog that so-and-so is having a baby & I'm going to make a blanket, I want ALL of my readers to e-mail me a collective cyberslap. Open hand. Draw the arm all the way back. Make sure I remember the horror of knitting baby blankets so that I never again get caught up in the delusion that I actually enjoy making them. Please. For all our sakes.

In other WIP news:

I am thoroughly enjoying the Arctic Diamonds Stole. Thoroughly. The only thing I don't enjoy is not being able to work on it as much as I would like.

3 kids during daylight hours + lace pattern = Recipe for Disaster. Don't do it.

The Dolman Pullover is also going well since I'm almost half done. I decided not to frog the Marty/Clown socks, but I'm not keeping them, either. I'm going to gift them to someone who actually liked the colors (she just doesn't know it yet & I don't want to spoil the surprise).

Remember: I say "baby blanket," you send smackdown. Thanks.

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It's not that I don't like bright colors...

...because I do. I love bright colors. Maybe not all the time, but a lot of the time. That especially applies to sock yarn, as witnessed here:

To me, that's the fun thing about socks. You might not be able to wear a red/green/magenta/turquoise/orange outfit, but if you stick all those colors on a sock, the sock can be fun. So why am I not having fun with this?

I've looked at this thing from all angles & finally decided that it's the coral. In combination with all the other colors on this sock, the coral looks really weird to me. Plus, I'm not crazy about the way this yarn feels or the way the black/white areas have red sticking to them. All in all, it's just some strange yarn.

I've been knitting this sock for weeks & I just keep looking at it, but it never changes (sorta like you might keep looking & looking at Marty Feldman as Igor but no matter how you turn your head, light candles, extinguish the lights completely, he's never going to look like Paul Newman. Never.).

So let's just say these socks-in-progress are Marty socks. Versus what I'd call Paul socks. Apples & oranges, people. Apples & oranges. And I still haven't decided what to do--whether to forge ahead (I really hate the idea of frogging socks) or not.

I didn't knit a lot this past weekend as I had some work obligations, plus I did a lot of reading. One thing I am excited about is the Sahara KAL at Sexy Knitters Club. This will be my first time participating in a SKC KAL because this is the first time I've loved a KAL pattern so much. Plus, I didn't have appropriate yarn in my stash (oh no! what's a knitter to do??). I had to make the wrenching decision to break my yarn diet to get the yarn I needed. Yes, it was tough, but I made it through all right, thanks for your concern. (Heh.)

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Little Bag

I wanted a simple little bag, just big enough for keys, lipstick, ID & this is what I came up with. Originally, I had a flap on it, but decided I didn't like it, so I left the top open with a loop closure.

I love this elephant button I picked up at Joanns. I pretty much designed the bag around the button.

It's nothing more than 4 rows garter stitch (to prevent rolling), then stockinette (add turning row for ridge at bottom) to a desired length, back to 4 rows garter. The simple colorwork came from a chart in Andean Folk Knits. I added a 3-stitch I-cord strap & a 2-stitch I-cord button loop. The back is plain.

I lined the inside with a plain cotton Quarter Flat, also from Joanns.

Yarn: Leftover Peace Fleece (cream) & Handspun (brown) sent to me by Harlem Purls, plus a wee bit of stash green.

Dimensions: 7 x 5.5 in (18 x 14.5 cm)

I like it :-)

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Gender Roles: A Boy Who Knits

Sorry, guys, I have to put on my Serious Cap today.

Friday night, Animal Magnet asked me to teach him to knit. I was a little surprised since I've asked him (maybe once or twice) in the past if he wanted to learn, and he said no. But Friday, he was ready. I sat him down with some practice yarn & bamboo needles, cast on for him, showed him the basics, taught him a rhyme to help him remember what to do & he was off. I was shocked by how quickly he caught on. By the 3rd row, he was knitting by himself.

I know there are some people out there (unfortunately, I'm related to a few) who think that boys should knit as much as girls should wear pants. Fortunately, I'm not married to one. Weedinator was interested to see Animal Magnet pick up knitting & while not interested enough to learn himself (though he has asked me before to knit on something I'm working on), he gets it. By gets it, I mean he gets that men & women don't have to fall into such sharply defined roles that say "men should do this, but not that" or "women only belong in the kitchen." I could never live with someone who didn't get it.

He is related to a woman, though, who doesn't like women (I can only assume she doesn't like herself) & thinks that men are better, so she doesn't like me & doesn't try to have a relationship with me. I'm cool with that. We treat each other like 2 old cats occupying the same house--you stay in your space, I'll stay in mine. She's been declawed; I haven't.

I also have to deal with a neanderthal guy who believes that "real men eat red meat." While I normally try to live by the adage "Judge not..." I think this is totally asinine. So all the men vegetarians out there are--what?? Not men? To him, probably not, but if you're a vegetarian, I hope you're smart enough to realize that he should be pitied. Still, I couldn't help but say something one of those times he was going off on his idiotic, macho tirade. I said, "I eat steak; does that make me a man?" (I literally could not stop myself.) Now I'm not Halle Berry, but I'm not Ernest Borgnine, either. I am most definitely a woman, but maybe he thinks I'm secretly a man.

While I know there are inherent, primitive biological differences between men & women (and really, we should celebrate those differences) & that's the reason more men are in fields like Math & Science & more women are teachers, I also believe that we are equal in worth as human beings. It's a sad commentary on a society that relegates one sex to a higher status than the other (therefore, it's a sad commentary the world over). Is a man who stays at home taking care of his kids while his wife works any less "manly" than one who works construction? Is a woman who knits more of a woman than one who works construction? No need to answer that because it's obvious what society-at-large thinks when you look at the difference in our paychecks.

From the outside, my family probably looks very conventional & traditional. My husband works outside of the home & I work in it; my son plays sports & my daughter takes dance. At the same time, both of my older kids have chores that aren't doled out based on gender. They both help in the kitchen & rake leaves in the yard. I've always said that before any of them leave our home, they will each know how to cook at least one decent meal, wash their own clothes & clean up behind themselves. These are just basic survival skills that everyone should know.

I know this may well be a phase for Animal Magnet & he'll probably move onto the Next Big Thing, but then again, he could be the next Kaffe Fassett. The main thing is, what I try & teach all my kids is, the possibilities for anything are always there. So now he's a baseball player, soccer player, basketball player & knitter. So what? I explained to him how the old knitting guilds were exclusively male & that fishermen & sailors often knit to pass the time; I showed him pictures of boys & men knitting. Maybe he'll feel he has to explain that to some less open-minded people one day. If so, I'm willing to give him the intellectual artillery he'll need. Then again, a better response from him would be "so I knit; so what?"

Well, if you made it to the end of this long, soapboxy post, thanks for reading. You will be rewarded with a small FO next time, I promise.

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WIPs revisited

Here's where I stand on my current WIPs:

Dolman pullover, one of the fronts (pinned lightly because it curls a lot for now). I love how simple this sweater is--the only modification I'm making is seed stitch borders instead of garter.

You knew I couldn't wait to start on the stole, didn't you? This is one of the 25-stitch repeats. It took me a little while to get back into the lace groove, but I'm moving a little faster now. Still, don't expect to see this as a FO anytime soon.

My little bag will get finished as soon as I stop being so lazy (again, don't look for that anytime soon) & I'm still working on the clown socks. Last, the baby blanket...there was a time (soon after I finished the first baby blanket I knitted for a family member) when I said "no more baby blankets!" in about the same tone Faye Dunaway-as Joan Crawford said "no more wire hangers!" in Mommy Dearest. I love the idea of knitted baby blankets & when I first start, it's a lot of fun, but around stitch #1,205,409, I kind of run out of steam. It ceases to be exciting; it stops being fun. I no longer imagine wrapping a baby in it, but instead imagine wrapping the yarn around my neck to put me out of my misery.

Therefore, I'm trying to decide if I want to continue the torture or frog it & turn the yarn into a baby cardigan & hat or anything else that doesn't involve such mind-numbing repetition.

(P.S.--You can see I'm back to my old blogger comments format. If you have any questions or comments that you'd like feedback on, either leave me your e-mail or contact me at mine. Thanks!)

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DING! We have a winner! AND...I had to spoil myself

The winner of When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters is...Latoya of 2sticksandastring! And Latoya, because I know you're into knitting socks, I'm going to toss some sock yarn in your package, too.

(Before I go on, my comments are now done by Haloscan so that when people have questions or comments that require feedback, I can e-mail them directly, which I wasn't able to do through Blogger, and which made me feel kind of rude.)

We visited my in-laws this past weekend, took the kids to Sea World, ate way too much junk & got screwed up by the time change, but I survived. I only felt like knitting in the car, though, so there isn't much to show with my current WIPs, but allow me to take my knitting ADD even further with this...

Jade Sapphire Cashmere 2-ply, Blackberry Fudge

You'll have to excuse all my drooling, but after what I went through to finally hold this yarn in my hands, some drooling is called for. When I first saw the Arctic Diamond Stole in Interweave Knits Winter '06, I knew this was my next big project. I immediately started searching for yarn, but it couldn't be any old yarn; this is a stole I plan to wear forever, so the yarn had to be perfect. I trolled my LYS's & the internet. If I found a color I loved, it wasn't the right weight, and vice versa.

I found this site and fell in love with the Jade Sapphire Cashmere, but it's pricey. Too pricey, I thought. So I kept searching. Finally, after what had to be weeks of going back & forth and getting tired of looking at yarn (!), I said "what the heck? I'm going to spoil myself this time." And I did. I went with the Cashmere. Yum.Yum. It's fingering weight & I have 3 glorious cakes to knit myself into tactile unconsciousness.

I had to wait for it due to some unintentional order mishap, as well as the color being on backorder, but the customer service at Knitch was really outstanding. This yarn was definitely worth the wait.

Tonight's Agenda: American Idol (ummmm, I'm not even going to touch the Top 12's Most-Surprising-Pick...I think he's just as surprised!) and cashmere. Yum.

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It's Giveaway Time!

The nice people at The Taunton Press generously provided me with an extra copy of When Bad Things Happen to Good Knitters, to give away. Because I believe in easy contests/giveaways, I'm only going to ask that you complete this sentence:

"I need this book because..."

Even easier, I don't require any complicated, necessarily clever answers. Just tell me why you need this book, leave it in my comments before this Saturday ends, and I'll choose a winner by random number generation.

I'll be back sometime next week (we're going out of town, plus work beckons--boooo! In my next life, I hope to come back as rich as Paris Hilton...but with more brain cells) to announce who wins the book, along with some other goodies which I'm collecting now.

Good luck, everyone!

What's the book about? Read my review here.

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A Bedtime Story

Thanks for all of your kind comments about my vest & me in it. It's especially nice because I'm not one for having my picture taken at all.

Now it's time to settle in for a bedtime story. Grab a cup of cocoa or tea. Heck, it's Saturday night, I'll grab a vodka martini with 2 olives, please.

Once upon a time, there was a knitter named...um...Della. And Della liked this girly name instead of the clunky one her parents stuck her with. Anyway, Della was a one-or-two project kind of knitter & she liked this because too many WIPs make Della feel stressed. But one day, Della started looking through old knitting magazines & saw a few projects she'd loved, but had forgotten about. Next thing you know, out come the post-it notes & quite a few pages are marked. Della pulls out needles & yarn from her stash (we'll get to the horror story that is "yarn diet" another time) & once she puts her little one (Draco) down for a nap, she begins swatching.

Della has a fun day swatching, but then in comes Prince Charming (who turns into Lord Voldemort when he doesn't get enough sleep) who asks silly questions like "why is my garlic bread burnt?" Della really wants to let out a big HUFFY SIGH & inform the Prince that she thinks it's quite enough that she pulls the bread from its box in the freezer & sticks it on a baking sheet. What, she has to watch it, too??? *some people are so spoiled*

Della is no longer a monogamous knitter as she's been afflicted with a severe case of Startitis. She now has a baby blanket, sweater, sock & purse on the needles. And she's all but salivating to start the Arctic Diamond Stole, but her yarn is on back order (bought before the yarn diet started).

But she's not stressed; she knows the socks & purse will be quick projects. She needs the calming outlet of knitting to counteract the sometimes stressful atmosphere of finishing a novel. And living with 4 other people who don't understand that Della is really a princess who shouldn't have to clean up their messes & fuss about 15 half-full water bottles sitting in the fridge all the time. Della wishes she understood the insanity mindset of placing a bottle with 1 half swallow back in the fridge, but then again, she's happy she doesn't get it.

While Della writes, works on these projects, fends off Lord Voldemort with her magic wand knitting needles & waits for a real Prince to come along, she'll leave you with this picture of her weekend:

Good night, fellow knitters & princesses.

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