skittermagoo!

Sentimental porridge September 29, 2004

OK, so this entry is just a bit delayed . . .

On Monday night I didn’t knit. Didn’t knit!! And why didn’t I knit on Monday night?

Because I was having dinner and too much fun with these four:

That would be my Girl Dinner™ group . . . minus one who couldn’t make it on Monday.

L-R: Maria (who is wearing a cuuuuute poncho), Dolores, Rebekah, and Nicki. Not pictured: Heather

What is Girl Dinner™, you ask? Well, on the surface, it is just as the name describes: a dinner eaten by girls. But it is oh, so much more than that. You see, this is a tradition that dates back for centuries more than a decade.

It all started with me and Rebekah and Heather and Dolores . . . back during the time deep in history known as “College”.

(more…)

Good mail days! September 27, 2004

The past couple days have yielded some good mail! Alyx RAOKed me with some gorgeous Turino Silk and yummilicious homemade caramels (yummmmm!), and a certain lady who crochets sent me some kick-ass RAOK stickers! Unfortunately my camera crapped out just when I needed it the most, so no photos, darnit. Well, you wouldn’t have seen a picture of the caramels anyway, since the Hub and I snarfed them up!

I also got a package today from the lovely Janet . . . I once sent her some cotton chenille yarn, and here’s what she got me back with:

OK, so I’m photographically challenged yet again . . . that would be a really cool stamped card that Janet made herself (she is so talented!), and my first Halloween candy of the season, AND a skein of Cascade 220 in a luscious pumpkin shade . . . mmmm, I feel a Sophie coming on!

I’m off to put together some RAOK packages of my own . . .

All kinds of miscellany September 25, 2004

Boyoboy, do I have a lot to show/tell today!

First off is the Sophie bag I finished ages ago . . . I can’t remember if I posted a picture or not, but here she is all felted and dry and nice:

I didn’t post a photo before because I wanted to wait until I made a lining. You do want to see the limealicous green lining, don’t you?

I’m really pleased with the end result . . . this bag is just the right size for carrying on the weekend, when all I need is my wallet, phone, and maybe a lipstick. I’m also planning on installing a magnetic snap, just because I’m constantly spilling the contents of my bag all over my car.

I’ve also been knitting away at a poncho for one of my nieces (she’s 7). I’m using the new Lion Brand ribbon yarn, and so far I like the results:

Hopefully it’s not too blurry here . . . I’m doing the two-rectangle thing, and this is the first half. Once blocked, it will be 14″x28″, and hopefully it will be long enough once assembled! If not, I can always make it longer with fringe . . .

And last — but noooo, not least . . .

Let us please have a moment of silence for Big Boring Brown. Yep, that’s right, BBB took a trip to the frog pond today.

I came to the realization that while I really like the yarn, I wasn’t loving the pattern I was using, and I don’t think the end result would have been very flattering. Maybe it was a bad sign, too, that I referred to it as “boring” from virtually the moment I cast on. Plus, with all the sweater-in-the-round stuff I learned on that weird sampler thing that I did, I had been having thoughts of ripping out BBB and using some of the new techniques I learned. So. Here’s what the day was like for Big Boring Brown:

It started with BBB taking a nap, never suspecting what would become of the day . . .

Big Boring Brown, please meet Ms. Ballwinder:

And here is the end result:

I have to say, it was a bit liberating (and more than a little bit of fun) to attach BBB to the ballwinder and just wind away — that’s how I knew I’d made the right decision. So, Big Boring Brown is destined to be reincarnated, hopefully as something less boring!

Technology meltdown September 24, 2004

It’s been a technology meltdown kind of a day here at skittermagoo . . .

First I spent two hours trying to get my TiVo to call in to the satellite service to get programming info (I had a message that it hadn’t had a successful call in over 2 weeks) . . . this involved 45 minutes on the phone with DirectTV (35 of which were “on hold” minutes, grrrr). They diagnosed the problem to be an out-of-date phone number that my TiVo was dialing. OK. So in order to get the updated list, my TiVo needed to call in to the programmed number and download the new list. OK, fine. Problem with this is that the programmed number is out of date, so TiVo can’t connect to it. Hmmm. It’s a catch-22, isn’t it? Can’t get the new number without calling the old number, can’t call the old number to get the new number. ACK! So I go through the rest of my troubleshooting options for the second time. Grrr. Finally, I did get the dumb thing working . . . I can’t even tell you exactly what I did to get it going.

Then I go to blogbitch about that, and my internet connection goes down. ARGH! And it’s not necessarily a straightforward thing, because I have an Airport Extreme base (Apple wireless transmitter, for you PC people out there) plugged into a DSL router, so the hangup could be either one or both. I sang curse words in the general direction of all the internet equipment for a good 15 minutes, played around with settings and such to no avail, and ended up having to reset everything. But it worked, yay!

OK, so now I’m going to go for some low-tech entertainment and knit some on my niece’s poncho. Yep, you read that right, I’m knitting a poncho. Film at eleven.

In other breaking news, Big Boring Brown may be making a trip to the frog pond . . .

Cabin Fever September 23, 2004

First off, big thanks to everyone who has sent me get-well wishes!

I’m not entirely mobile yet, but at least I’m no longer flat on my back — I’m able to sit up without too much pain. So at least I’m able to sit on the couch with my laptop and catch up on what’s been going on in knitblogworld for the past couple days! And hopefully I’ll be able to do some knitting today, too. I’m not back at work yet . . . hopefully tomorrow, depending on how today goes.

So for today I’m taking it a little bit at a time, trying not to go too stir-crazy . . .

Ouch September 20, 2004

I’m defying Doctor’s Orders right now . . . I pulled something in my lower back, and am supposed to be flat on my back with “bathroom privileges only” for the next two days. Lemme tellya, it’s already driving me nuts (thus defying orders so that I can blog)! The big question is whether I will be able to knit while laid up on my back and under the influence of pain meds and muscle relaxers. Should be interesting to see how it affects my gauge!

But I’m not whining. No. Okay, yes, a little.

More later, possibly, and with the fun of prescription medication thrown in!

I got a Secret Pal package! September 16, 2004

Wheeee! I am soooo excited to get mail from my secret pal! And lemme tellya, my Secret Pal is very, VERY good to me. Or better yet, why don’t I show you?

After I got home from work (and the dentist), I opened my mailbox, and here’s what I found inside:

Hmmmm, a package from Knit Happens! What could be inside?

Why, this!

Some Noro Silk Garden 82 (yum!) and mmmmm, some nummy hand balm, too.

Ooo, that’s kind of a blurry picture. Would you like some close-ups? No? Too bad, you’re getting them anyway.

How incredibly gorgeous are those colors??!! Well, even better than in the photo, my friends. And soft? Oh yeah.

And here’s an adorable tin of hand balm (how did my SP know that my hands are horribly scaly dry right now?):

Mmmmmm, balmy. And it smells great, too — I can’t quite place the aroma, because in my haste to get it open I accidentally ripped the label off the back (duh!), but it is absolutely delicious.

Thank you, Secret Pal!
(My Secret Pal is the Best Secret Pal EVER!)

Teeth

Taking a quick break at work to tell y’all to go make an appointment with your dentist, right now. Yes, now. Or if you’d rather, call my dentist — he’s really nice.

Seriously, though . . . I just got back from yet another visit with my dentist, to get two last fillings. Yep, you read that right. In the last month, I’ve had a total of . . . well, more than two. And it’s not because I don’t brush and floss — I do both of those things very regularly. Nope, it’s not enough just to brush 2-3 times a day and floss every day . . . No, this is because I avoided going to the dentist for several years, and didn’t have regular preventative maintenance done. Teeth are like a car, you gotta get the oil changed regularly (or in this case, the oil-change-equivalent). Big difference, though: you only get one set of teeth, whereas cars are technically replaceable.

Okay, so admittedly, I have rather non-strong teeth to begin with — I seem to be genetically predisposed to having problems with them. But I betcha I could have avoided the present situation if I’d gone to the dentist more frequently!

Stay tuned for actual knitting content . . . and if you haven’t already, make that appointment!!

I have been knitting, really! September 12, 2004

Ok, so I haven’t only been obsessing over the organization of all my yarn . . . I’ve also been doing some knitting!

Yesterday I finished the back of Big Boring Brown:

Isn’t it boring?!

The yarn isn’t completely monotone, though . . . it is brown, but also has flecks of green, and a bit of red, etc. Not sure if you’ll be able to see it, but here’s a picture anyway.

And . . . I finished yet another Umbilical Cord hat, this one in variegated Bernat Cottontots. I think this makes UC hat #6 (this one is for a coworker who is due to have her first boy in about 3 weeks or so)

I’m really pleased with how the variegated yarn looks knitted up in this pattern!

I seem to be having a bit of trouble getting started on a couple of projects . . .

There’s the DNA scarf for the DNA-Along; I started the swatch at Stitch-n-Bitch* today, but it’s in seed stitch and I got distracted and mucked it up. So I have to re-swatch. But the yarn is in my knitting bag, so that’s a start!

Next up in the stalled lane is my Noro Retroprep . . . I’ve had the yarn for a while now, and have swatched and everything, but haven’t actually cast on for it yet. I think it’s because I have a need to get further on Big Boring Brown before I start another sweater.

And there’s the Mom Cardigan . . . again, I have the yarn, have the pattern, yada yada.

And a bunch of other stuff, not the least of which is two ponchos for my nieces. One of which is to be a holiday gift, the other is “just because”. I haven’t quite decided what pattern to use, if any, for these. I have really cool ribbon yarn for both, and am just not sure what I’m doing yet.

There are tons more “in the queue”, as it were, but thinking about it makes my head hurt. So I’m going to go and practice my continental knitting and purling on Big Boring Brown. Yawn.

*We had a record number of knitters at Stitch-n-Bitch today! I counted 22, which is about 10 more than our previous record. Wow!

I’m exhausted. And obsessive-compulsive, possibly. September 11, 2004

Because I just spent over an hour organizing my yarn stash (and a little bit of fabric and other craft stuff, too). And I had no idea that I had that much yarn!

Here’s what I did: First I opened up the “hobby closet” in our den/computer room (it’s a shallow closet, floor-to-ceiling shelves of the coated metal wire type), and three skeins of random yarn fell on my head. Thank goodness I don’t collect bricks! Anyway, the Falling Yarn is one of the reasons I started this little project. The other is because I just got my new-to-me-but-really-a-hand-me-down sewing machine back from the repair place, and I needed to make room for it in the hobby closet.

Anyway.

I pulled every bit of yarn, fabric, and other craft-related stuff out of my side of the closet (yes, the Hub and I have it divided down the middle. He has lots of hobbies). I sorted all the non-knitting stuff first (start small, right?). Then I sorted all the yarn into piles like this:

1. remnants/partial skeins
2. sock yarn
3. novelty/ribbon/”weird” yarn
4. sport/dk weight
5. worsted weight
6. bulky
7. super-bulky

It was amazing to see all that yarn . . . it looked like a yarn store barfed in my den! This wasn’t helped at all by the Hub asking, innocently and with no malice whatsoever, “Do you think you’ll be able to knit all that yarn within your lifetime?”. Heh, little does he know.

(I’m not going to show you photos of the piles on my floor. Firstly, I was afraid my camera would break with the effort. Secondly, I am a bit embarassed about the huge amount of yarn that I found in there)

Some of the yarn was already in bags of “x” number of skeins of the same thing; these I left alone and just chunked them in the general direction of the appropriate piles. Then I took ziploc bags and separated out 3-or-more of the same yarn (you know, things I either bought for specific projects or that were on clearance so I bought every skein available).

Part of my big pile-making effort included emptying plastic bins that already had yarn in them; when I was done emptying and sorting, I had a number of empty containers to put my newly sorted yarn back into. Yes, I do realize they have medications for this sort of behavior.

So. I ended up with this:

(no photo, sorry. There’s stuff that’s slated for gifts in there, and I don’t want any of the recipients to see it!)

The final inventory*:

2 shoebox-sized containers of novelty yarn
2 shoebox-sized containers of sock yarn
1 big bin of remnants
2 big bins of worsted weight and bulky yarn (grouped together due to lack of enough containers)
many, many other big bags and ziploc bags of yarn (where I had multiples of the same kind).

So now when I open my yarn closet, I’m no longer in danger of having a skein or three of yarn fall on my head. Nope. Instead, I am in danger of having a whole bag of yarn fall on me! (again, good that I don’t collect bricks or rocks)

I do apologize for the lack of pictures . . . and as usual for my long-windedness. I promise I will post some other photos soon! Pictures of parts of big, boring things that are brown, and maybe some non-boring things, too.

*Okay, “inventory” may not be completely accurate. I did not document how much of each yarn I had, then construct a database with my yarn inventory. I admit, though, that I did actually consider it. Again, I am aware that medications for my condition do exist.