on couponing and cheap needles

i usually work sunday mornings. this has some pretty cool advantages to it: first, i'm up early on a day i would otherwise sleep in, and while some people may look at that as an inconvenience, i think of it as good time management on a day i would have otherwise wasted. two, sunday crowds are usually pretty nice. lots of old people wanting their sunday papers. three, the saturday papers. see, one of my jobs on sunday morning before we open is to pull saturday's papers and set out sunday's, which means the poor unbought saturday papers head to the giant recycle box in back, unless of course their innards are rescued by me. then, during the slow spots, i can peruse the ads and clip coupons, should i find any worth having.

maybe i'm speaking from the ignorance of the uninitiated, but couponing hardly seems worth it. i see the tv shows where people have three carts of stuff and only pay some ridiculously small amount, like $8.73 or something, and i just don't get it. these people may very well qualify as hoarders. one couple had 53 bags of assorted chips in their garage stockpile. how can one eat that many before they go bad? these people have to have stockpiles to get the most out of their deals. i don't know about you, but i couldn't fathom having an entire shelf of gatorade in my house, or 35 bottles of maalox.

Of course, the rationale is twofold - buy only stuff that won't go bad (which is a blurry line for some people), and then if you run out when something's not on sale, you can just get it from your stockpile.

i repeat: 53 bags of chips, 35 bottles of maalox, entire shelf, stacked front to back, of gatorade.

i'll stick to the occasional clip.

as for the cheap needles thing? we're talking knitting needles. i bought a cheapy pair of circulars in my impatience (and stinginess) to complete a shawl, and they broke. in fact, the one side popped off so violently that the cable ricocheted in the other direction, leaving half my stitches stranded without a lifeline and a good half of those dropped down. 

this was after i started to rip it back, but as you can see if was turning out to be a fairly pretty little shawl. i'm still thinking about using some of my tax refund to put together little comfort shawl kits with yarn and needles and instructions and leaving them around town for people to find. i would love to think i changed someone's life by putting needles in their hands. maybe i'm being a bit altruistic. it would've made my day, at least.

self-preservation?

or procrastination? anytime i get overwhelmed with something, school, work, relationships, whatever, i turn to knitting or crocheting, or sewing. this in and of itself isn't necessarily an unhealthy thing - however, the way i go about it, apparently, is less than productive.

see, when the urge hits me to escape, nothing i'm working on will do. possibly because they all have something wrong with them - they're too complicated, they're tedious, too monotonous, i'm at a spot where i have to sew before i knit more... at this point something new starts to sound really good. something quick, comforting, easy, perhaps repetitive but evolving. so i dig in my stash for some fluffy, slow-color-changing lionbrand homespun and some large needles, and i cast on for a shawl. that, and when i'm knitting, i can't really be doing anything else. if i could find any of these books on CD i'd be ecstatic.

yes, the pattern is simple (see below), but the yarn changes colors charmingly and it keeps growing, so it's not exactly the same every time.

i might actually see if the preemie project could use any of these as comfort shawls; it'd be a great opportunity to teach a beginning knitting class and do something good at the same time. check out their website anyway, they're pretty cool people.

crazy simple one-skein shawl
1 skein lion brand homespun, size 15 (29 or 36") circulars, stitch markers, 11.5mm crochet hook (optional)
abbreviations: k = knit, p = purl, yo = yarn over, kfb = knit front and back

cast on 5
row 1: purl across (WS)
row 2: k2, yo, k1, yo, k2 (RS)
row 3: k2, p3, k2
row 4: k2, yo, k1, yo, place marker, k1, place marker, yo, k1, yo, k2
row 5 and all WS: k2, purl across to last 2, k2
row 6 and all RS: k2, yo, knit to first marker, yo, slip first marker, k1 (center), slip second marker, yo, knit to last 2 stitches, yo, k2
finishing row 1 (RS): k2, kfb, knit to one stitch before first marker, kfb, remove marker, k1 (center), remove second marker, kfb, knit to last 3 stitches, kfb, k2
finishig row 2 (WS): knit across
repeat finishing rows once, if desired.
bind off *

* if you want to knit until you absolutely run out of yarn, do a crochet bind off, loosely with an 11.5mm hook. start at the opposite end than your working yarn, slip 2 stitches onto the crochet hook, pass the first (lower) stitch over the second (higher) stitch, slip one more from needle onto hook and pass the lower stitch over the higher stitch, repeat until you're at the end and tie off! alternately, you can skip the finishing rows and just bind off whenever you're finished.

so many finished projects, so many more to come

yeah, i thought i had startitis and homework both under control.

in my defense, i'm going to pass the semester, no question, and i did get a lot of projects finished. i'm just fickle when it comes to needles and hooks, i guess.

there's the fruity pebbles beret (ravelry link here). i got the yarn as a christmas present... yummy handspun angora/wool from Austin's in Harmony, WI.

and the fingerless mitts i adapted from a one-skein wonder book...

my favorite part of these is the heart on the palm!

and finally, pictures of the concentric stripes cardigan (here). my favorite part are the little buttons.

See? See the little buttons?

it's so weird, i thought i had more finished than that. i guess not... right now i'm working on a few lion brand patterns, the weekend cardi done in aqua cotton-ease, a simple garter-stitch scarf done in noro, the jiffy hooded cardigan (for babies! also lion brand), and a cable afghan i wrote the pattern for.

what can i say? i get bored, i try to switch it up. i'm also debating casting on the garden of alla shawl so i can maybe get it done by easter.

nothing else witty right now. i do have to write a paper tonight though.
later!

So, it's been awhile

Again, I have been slacking in the blogging department.

In my defense, I started a new semester with 5 literature classes. If I actually did all my reading, I'd be reading, on average, 200-350 pages a day. It's a lot.

On top of that, Life has certainly been dealing out the crazy lately.

I have, at least, managed to get one thing done: the Concentric Stripes Cardigan from ravelry, and I even finished it in time before the baby was born.

Apparently, however, I'll have to add pictures later.

I am also apparently suffering from a massive case of startitis. I have about four things on the needles/hooks right now and just can't wait to start an afghan, a cardigan, some socks, and some wrist warmers despite the half finished scarves and hats still in progress (yes, there are multiples of each) and the bit of lace I tried knitting while under the influence (note to self: beer plus lace knitting is not the best combo).

However, instead of going home to knit, I will be heading back to class in a scant 15 minutes, to waste the rest of my afternoon listening to professors prattle on about Romantic-era notions of "freedom" in terms of wacked-out poets like Coleridge or discussing random, disjointed essays about marionettes (personally, I can't think of anything more creepy than a marionette. Except maybe a clown-marionette).

progress proceeds apace

so i knit most of yesterday (with a few beers, winky wink) on the baby sweater and i'm almost done with the first sleeve. the concentric stripes baby cardigan is an ingenious pattern. you knit the yoke in one piece, then in one row, knit part of the front, all of one sleeve, across the back, all of the second sleeve, then the other side of the front. then you just pick up and knit the rest of the body, so, no seams!

wow....

i just sat and stared at the screen for five minutes.

so, with no further comments today, i'll leave you with this little nugget:

nothing is better than homemade bread, real butter, and a bit of honey.

so far, on track

yeah, yeah, it's only january 5th, i know.

but, i finished my first project of the year! granted, i started it in october last year, but whatever. i'm still proud of it. unfortunately, it's not the last of the christmas yarn projects.

grandma's beaded shawl - it's a bit short, but grandma likes them that way, so i hope it'll be okay. there's 5 frickin' tubes of seed beads on there that i had to pre-string and work in as i went. it's probably the second-most-epic project i've ever done (the first being the 120 square wedding afghan, and the third being the other wedding afghan).

these photos are all post-blocking....

and a close up! beads, beads, more beads

this whole cone is gone.... i have 6 beads left and a one-inch ball of silk. all finished.

in other news, i finished ALL my christmas sewing shopping, and i hope to report the first bag will be finished by the end of the month. that would be the goal, after all. i had also hoped to be wittier today, but i still feel quite under the weather. 'epic' is the word of the day apparently, because there's not other way to describe my headache!

and, shown here, is the first few inches of the concentric stripes baby cardigan from ravelry. it's my first sweater! so far it's going okay, but i need longer needles. badly. there's no way double-that-amount of stitches is going to fit on that needle. i'm feeling kind of cocky (spare me, oh knitting fates), but so far, this sweater has been CAKE. i've done three new techniques already (knit 2 together, yarn overs, and changing colors) and i'm having no problems. maybe i'd better knock on the coffee table, just in case.

and no, i have nothing to announce. the sweater is for bairloch's friend, who is expecting in march. trust me, if and when our own blessed event occurs, i will not announce it on the blog (well, not first, anyway).

p.s. jon stewart? hilarious.

take a breath...

i keep telling myself it's a learning process. that it wasn't all a waste. i know how to do stuff now that i didn't know before. it wouldn't have worked anyway.

the litany can go on, but the truth of the matter was that the mirrored-cable-with-wishbone-cable-in-the-center-scarf i was making has been frogged (you know, rip it, ribbit). the type of background stitch that allows the cables to pop off the background also has a tendency to curl. badly.

i thought at first a little curl would be good, you know, it would go with the natural curve under the neck, but this was more than a curl, it was a fold. how about blocking, you say? well, that would have worked great it the yarn i was using was 100% wool, but it's not. it's a wool blend. which means it would have blocked beautifully until someone tried to wear it, at which point it would revert right back to where it had been before.

i realized this problem about seven cable repeats into my cowl. so, the first thing i tried was to rip back just a few cables and put in another 5 rows of seed stitch across the entire thing, to kinda make cable panels. that didn't work. so i tried using a different background, which necessitated ripping back all the way to the first cable. i may have had a bud light to fortify myself, but i reminded myself it was just two days work in my spare time, no biggie. so i tried a garter stitch background, but it was just too stretchy, vertically.

rip it. rip it. rip it.

time to search ravelry.

christmas project countdown:  13 projects (plus maybe 3 for my little family)

countdown - 5 hours to bird time

okay, so i'm up a little later than i expected.

the turkey is in the brine bath, which will get flipped at three a.m., then the bird gets rinsed and put in the oven at 6 am, because dinner's at eleven!

herb butter is ready.

sweet potatoes are mashed, rosemary/mascarpone is mixed....

can't do anything else until tomorrow morning.
oh, wait.

clean the stove-top
clear off the chair
clean the bathroom
dust the living room
put away all my shoes
put away all my laundry
hang pictures in the bedroom

nine hours.
four of which i plan to spend sleeping, which means i have, oh, 45 minutes for each task if i'm going to be ready by the time everyone shows up.
oh, wait.
i have less than that, because i also need to finish cooking, and at some time or other, shower and make myself presentable.

here, look at some pretty pictures:

that would be a BAZINGA cross stitch, a basketweave scarflette, and honey-bourbon barbecue sauce.
christmas crafting proceeds apace.

time for sleep!..... ZZzzzzz.... ZZzzzzz

don't know how much longer...

...i can keep up this pace without going mad. all this crafting work (fun, but there are always parts of some projects that, well, aren't), plus the wedding in 10 days (10 days! eep!), then we move right after that... ohmigosh.

official square count for the august wedding afghan?

76

yeah, baby. it makes me want to start another project. yarn harlot calls it "startitis" and i got it baaaaad. i want to learn new knitting techniques, i want to start my hubby's mittens, heck, i even want to work on his vest. do i want to work on the dreaded-tension-cursed-baby-blanket? heck no.

here's my knitting progress:

i think it'll end up being a little scarflette when it's done. i'll put some metallic fringe on there to match the yarn and i'll start combing the thrift stores for a cute little shawl pin to keep it closed, seeing as i have no idea how to do buttonholes yet.

i finished the flower girl basket!

not bad for my first time flower arranging, though the picture is a little washed out. i started with a plain wicker basket, spray painted it silver, added all the ribbon, bows, and gems, added the little handkerchief, and stuck all the flowers into some styrofoam in the bottom. it helps when you've got high-quality silks to work with.

and the finale of my yarn deconstruction process! (okay, the penultimate part, i guess... there's one more skein drying)

ta-da! that's going to be about 775 yards of sport weight yarn. i'm thinking about doing this pullover on ravelry... of course, it is knitting, and my skills will have to take a major upswing on this one. i wonder if i can find a simple rollneck raglan sleeve pullover that would work with the yarn i've got... short sleeved, of course, with a band of ribbing at the bottom of the sleeve and the body...

i gotta stop posting so late at night. it robs me of my wit.

busy busy busy bee

i did sooooo much today i'm kinda surprised i'm still going.

had a wedding appointment, went to the bank, paid some bills, then worked on my knittng, surfed ravelry, worked on the wedding afghan, took a nap, went shopping to get painting stuff, stained, painted, did three and a half loads of laundry, worked on deconstructing the sweater, and did two sinkfulls of dishes.

and watched a movie.

here's some picture goodness for the day.... i think most are fairly self-explanatory

something something something dark side...

double points if you get the reference.

today, i officially crossed over into the dark side.
look at me, i'm knitting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i am so beyond thrilled at this point, but i'm also exhausted. i learned the long tail cast on, which was so much easier than i thought it would be, and to do stockinette stitch and garter stitch! it helps i had a good teacher, who also happens to be left handed :)

we also made dinner tonight! she grilled steak and i made salad: dried apricots cut small, walnuts, feta and dark greens with an Asian vinaigrette. yum.

next time we hang out i should teach her crochet. she want to make little amigurumis. not really my forte, but i know how to crochet in the round, so we're good!

doom update: after doing some quick math, i discovered that the afghan i'm making 80 squares for will only end up about four feet wide. yeah... i'll have to up the total to 120. which means i'm 1/12 of the way done. if i do three squares every day, i'll be done by mid july. this does not include soaking the damn red yarn until it doesn't bleed anymore, blocking, sewing, weaving in what will be something like 260-some ends, and adding a border. we're going to be cutting it close to the wire. i made 5 squares today.