Wednesday, March 21, 2007

More pooling and a parcel!

Believe me, I'm not a difficult person. I am not this persnickity in real life. I do not send overly salted or cold food back in restaurants, even when I probably should. I have been known to wear two completely different shoes to work and not notice until well after lunch. I do not register complaints at hotels in the hopes of getting a free upgrade or a fruit basket from the general manager. Upon entering my house, you would in no way utter the words 'perfectionist' or 'neat freak', unless of course you happen to pop over on the second or forth Thursday of the month, right after the cleaning lady has just left, in which case you might be under the mistaken impression that I pay very close attention to detail and that everything must be just so for me to be happy. The only area of my life where I seem to care enough to exert that little extra effort it takes to fret about everything being just right is knitting. Can you tell where this little post is going? After all of your sage and very welcome advice, I frogged those pooling socks like there was not tomorrow. With great abandon I ripped them mercilessly. Thinking that I had found a clever solution, I cast on my tried and true el-yawn-o sock on a different size needle, and knit for about 6 inches. Can you guess what the result was?

Yeah. Not much better than my first attempt. More dastardly pooling, people! So apparently the STR powers that be are trying to tell me something: do the pattern that the yarn was originally intended for.
Hélas, pour moi...penis socks here I come!




In other exciting news, that living doll The Lone Knitter sent me an extra special parcel today. I ordered a ball of sock yarn 'Wisteria', from her Etsy shop (don't think of it as buying yarn, think of it as supporting an artisan, k?). It is even more luscious and gorgeous in real life than in the photos. The blues, greens and lavender were an instant salve to the drudgery of my day. As a very special enclosure she also sent me a signed, dedicated copy of her book, [one love affair]! 'Wisteria' is inspired by a passage from it. The book itself is a small fetish object that I have been fondling ever since it arrived. Can you stand it? I am touched beyond belief by the unexpected gift of this slim volume and all of the excitement that it has created. Recently I had been on the look out for something new to read, so this book is coming at the right time. So, yes there was pooling and knitting related tedium, but this parcel reminds me that I am still living a charmed life...thank you Lone Knitter!

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

wild pooling, WILD! It does resemble a monsoon, doesn't it?

Sonya said...

Well, I guess if the STR people want you to knit penis socks, you gotta knit penis socks.

Anonymous said...

You sure Wysteria doesn't have anything to do with the lane on Desperate Housewives?

pamela wynne said...

The penis socks will not be denied!

I'm a longtime lurker, but wanted to speak up and commiserate re: pooling. I just finished a dreadful pair of blotchy socks -- wish I'd had your courage to frog them early on. So, bravo!

Karen said...

Wow, double pooling??? I guess you are right, the penis sock is calling. Love that Wisteria yarn - so pretty!!!

gradschoolknitter said...

I think that this pooling (at least in comparison with the first time around) is much aesthetically appealing... however, if you hate it, I guess you have to go with the original pattern...

Lone Knitter said...

Yay! I'm so glad that you got your package. I wanted to give you an extra special thank you for being my first customer, and I'm happy that I was able to brighten your day. I hope you don't mind the craziness of my book, but I figured that there's enough craziness in French literature and that my writing would be mild compared to that! So sorry about the pooling.

Anonymous said...

I really like the way your "second try" socks are pooling - I for one enjoy the pooling of hand dyed socks - very original and one of a kind. But if you're not happy, I guess it's back to the frog pond for you!

Anonymous said...

Yeah I don't like the pooling either. I knit a whole sweater before I knew about pooling on varigated yarn. I didn't frog it. I wear it. I wear it out of some weird sense of obligation to myself even though it's not even a flattering fit. It makes me feel a bit like a crazy bag lady, but I do it anyway.

BTW, I read your profile. I dig Masculin/Feminin too. I lament that my hair will not do a french bob like just about every woman in that movie.

Janet said...

haha, well... penis socks it is!

I'd like to tell you that mine are progressing wonderfully... but since i made a dumb mistake and frogged the whole thing last night that would be a big, fat lie ;-) but before i frogged, they weren't pooling, so that's something!

gray la gran said...

i know you're ADD, so i understand the aversion to pooling, ... but, i think the pooling is lovely. really ! ... perhaps it's the colors ... ?! ... which are to die for !
ps. ... i got some yarntini yarn today, and it had the bonus prize of some adult beverage lip gloss too :)
gotta love the independents !

Anonymous said...

Oy! Well - this pooling is indeed... hmmm... funky? Funky? Funky, yeah, that's the word I had in mind! But I like it, a lot actually and way more than the last try! But then again - that penis sock sounds very interesting to me too ;)

schrodinger said...

All I can say is that I hope the penis socks don't disappoint :)

schrodinger said...

All I can say is that I hope the penis socks don't disappoint :)

Anonymous said...

Wisteria is beauuuuuutiful! Now for the penis sock.... most men would say you need to purchase more yarn!!

Alison said...

Hi-
Thanks for stopping by my blog! It's so nice to get comments form someone new (to me!)
I just noticed in your profile that you're a french professor. That's so cool, I thought about doing just that... but I didn't...
I let my french slide way too much and have been thinking a lot about a refresher course as I'm starting to work on some foreign language stuff with my children, french, spanish, and latin...
Anyhoo, it would be totally fun if you were to stop by and respond en francaise sometime! Just a thought...
Happy knitting,
ali
www.skeinsherway.com

Jenn said...

I like the pooling, personally. I'm not a big fan of striping usually, but I think pooling looks fine.