Saturday, February 25, 2006

Klaralund : kicking my flabby white ass


Well, the baby socks are done (if you look closely they sort of vaguely look like a pair, but it's the thought that counts, right? RIGHT?!!) and represented a much needed break from the tedium of the Klaralund sleeve. Mary Mother of God, make it END!! I've only got 12 inches of one sleeve and have an entire other one to do. The Lone Knitter had a great suggestion: why not switch out the baby socks for my Knitting Olympics project and call it a day? Believe me, it's tempting for sure...but a deal is a deal, right? So I soldier on, even though my new project--the Hourglass sweater in Karabella Aurora 8 in fuschia--is all set, swatched and ready to go. Added enticement: my best pal Babs and I are doing it together. But she has her own sleeve debacle to deal with at the moment...Obviously I'm DOA for the Olympic Deadline, but being an academic I've set my sights on finishing the sweater "during Spring Break". Yes, spring break, that magical expanse of time when all is made right: drawers are cleaned, papers are graded, dietary excesses are corrected and unfinished knitting projects are completed. Stay tuned...

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Baby Sock Interlude: They Don't Call it A.D.D. for nothin'!


Nothing like almost finishing a project--in this instance the Klaralund sweater--and having your mind start racing a hundred miles an hour, desperate to ditch said project and begin another one. How can I possibly finish this project when i don't even know what my next one will be? Luckily I ran into a local knitting maven at the LYS who was just finishing up a baby sweater for a friend who has had a spate of terrible luck, has just given birth to a bouncing baby boy and for whom we're happily having a baby shower this weekend. "Look--can you keep a secret? I knit ______ a sweater for her baby. Do you think she'll like it?". Now I know a rhetorical question when I hear one, mind you, but I was dumbstruck at the notion that _I_ hadn't knit anything for said friend and baby. Being the competitive bitch err good pal that I am, I realized that I had to get on the stick! So, Klaralund has been on a 48 hour furlough whilst I quickly whip up some newborn socks in Opal Rodeo sock yarn. My digi camera has a way of making all my projects looks fugly, but I am pleased with this sock. It's very tiny and therefore will be finished in time for the shower...and then it's back to the existential void that is Klaralund.

Monday, February 20, 2006

More Klaralund progress...


There is progress on the Klaralund front--both the front and back are completed, I am now feverishly attempting to finish the sleeves by Friday. The A.D.D. knitter has been having a hell of a time staying on task here, esp. since the much anticipated shipment of Kochoran has arrived and the only thing preventing me from casting on a new project with it (the Gesta vest from the same book as Klaralund) is that I'm using the needles for the Christmas Sleeve (see below). But the end is in sight and I am stoked!

Favorite Olympic Televiewing Moments While Knitting:
-Anything to do with Snowboarding. I feel that any sport that cranks Green Day as it gives functioning stoners of America an outlet is a good thing. Added bonus: awesome lingo!
-Curling. Any endeavor that allows pastey white Canadians with 80's hairstyles call themselves athletes is another good thing.
-Men's Skating. I cannot watch Jonny Weir and his antics without thinking of those famous other skating drama queens of yore, Rudy Galindo and Philippe Candeloro. You go girls!
-Women's Speed Skating. Any sport where women with big thighs are rewarded and valued is a tremendously good thing. Added bonus: the Dutch in general.
-Hockey. As a native Minnesotan, I will always have a fondness for hockey players. They're just hot. Period.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Note to self: just knit



Sometimes I feel like I get so wrapped up in the para-knitting activities of going to different yarn stores and comparing and contrasting what they have vs. what's in my stash vs. what I actually need--which if we're talking need-- is no yarn until at least 2009, reading knitting magazines that for the most part suck and have impractical designs made of hideous yarn (not you Interweave Knits but Vogue Knitting and Knitters, if the shoe fits....), obsessively checking my blog and about 15 others blogs (no, not just for buttons, I do actually read the content AND post comments) that I waste alot of time that I could actually just be knitting. One of the reasons that knitting initially appealed to me was that there was a tactile pleasure involved. Somehow with all of the obsessing about the activities that surround knitting I've gotten away from the pleasure of the fibre itself. So during this knitting Olympiad I am also going to set a new challenge for myself, that of just knitting.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Klaralund progress...


OK my people, there is progress to report! I have finished the back of Klaralund and am now debating between casting on the sleeve (for sheer gratification of doing something quick) or doing the front (slow and steady wins the race). I'll decide tomorrow...of course the ADD has reared its ugly head in that I just received a shipment of beautiful Noro Kochoran, enough to make a sweater, but I've promised myself to finish this Klaralund sweater before I even think about taking that yarn out of the shrink wrap. Must-concentrate-must-concentrate....

Saturday, February 11, 2006

Let the Games Begin!

Knitting Olympics!



I am undertaking the Yarn Harlot and one of my LYS's Knitting Olympic Challenge: cast on a project during the opening ceremonies, knit away during the Winter Games, and finish your project before the closing ceremonies, which incidentally will never in a thousand years be as pointless and tacky as the opening cermonies...my beloved resident Marxist really was in utter disbelief at the pyrotechnics displayed, at one point wondering "What are they trying to do, make the Olympics seem like a joke? Why don't they have Elton John lowered down out of the sky, nothing better than a screaming queen to enliven the show!". When I assured him that a. all Olympic opening cermonies are tacky as hell and that b. Italian television is famous for glitzy, over the top schmaltzy variety shows, he understood a little more. He was insensed nonetheless.
Anyway, I will be completing the Klaralund sweater for my Olympic challenge. It's from the Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton Noro book #2 and has been featured in many knit alongs. It's done out of Silk Garden and promises to be a worthy opponent. In usual "I can't wait I must have it now" fashion I ordered the book and the yarn together from Webs as no LYS store carried the color I needed. I ordered the 11 balls I needed, the book arrived, replete with errata sheet that said that 'oops! you need 3 more balls'. No problem, except for the fact that Webs was out of the particualr dye lot I needed. Oy gevalt! Luckily Yarnmarket had it and I'm in business...

Thursday, February 09, 2006

I am not a total loser



Occasionally I do finish things. Yes, it happens. Case in point: the above mittens were all done in a three-week period. I know the whole thing sounds rather bi-polar of me, but sometimes knitting is useful for avoiding things like day-job type of stuff. On the top you see two pairs of 'Big Mexico' mittens, made for rotten children of yours truly. Below them behold two pairs of Lorna's Laces mittens. All were knitted on two needles, I am now working on a kick-ass pair out of 'Big Print' on double pointed needles. (See below). Don't the colors just scream 'Roots-Rock-Reggae'?

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

So I have this little problem...



...I can't finish a blasted thing! I have so many projects on the go that I am contemplating ripping out several projects so as not to give the impression that I am actually insane. These unfinished projects fall into several categories. Most represent an initial élan that went unsustained. Others are one half of a pair of socks--see above picture-- that I "needed to take a break from" (?) and then couldn't muster the necessary enthusiasm and level of concentration to finish the second half of the duo. There are a lot of these. Perhaps the most bizarre category of unfinished projects are those that happen because I "really needed the needles" for another project that probably invariable ended up in one of the first two categories. Now you have an idea of the labyrinth of bad habits that plague me and my "fun hobby".