Frog Is A Four Letter Word

A few weeks ago I agreed to help StichinGirl destash some of her extra yarn. (Ha, "extra" yarn. As if.) Anyway, every day since then I've come home from work and eagerly checked my mailbox and inside the front screen door. No package. I assumed she hadn't got a chance to mail it off since that happens to me frequently (okay, I'm FAMOUS for it) and no big deal. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Toni was probably thinking I'm a rude unappreciative bitch for not thanking her for the awesome yarn that had no doubt arrived. The "rude" and "bitch" parts are actually spot on, but not in the context of our story.

Today is the first non-raining, non-freezing weekend in a while and I am cruising about my yard cleaning up and planning my flower beds. So I'm checking out my hydrangea and some columbine when to my horror I see a nasty old cardboard box on the far side of the porch directly under the gutter spout!! Christ, can I convey how hard my heart sank as I immediately knew this was the package I'd been waiting weeks for? So I gingerly picked it up because the cardboard was soggy and deteriorating and I see the barely legible postmark from Toni's address. "Oh no, there's no way this yarn is any good. It must be soaked and moldy and ruined." So I head into the house, putting a curse on my #@*&% postal delivery person for yet again ignoring the sign that says don't leave packages on the front porch. The box was very lightweight and had obviously blown off the porch one afternoon before I got home.

I open the box expecting general nastiness and ruined yarn, but LOOKIE!! Toni had bagged up the yarn in a Target bag, no doubt with the forethought of saving the yarn from any gutter downspout disaster! Plastic to the rescue!



Shew! Thanks Toni! I'm not a rude bitch afterall! At least when yarn is involved. Or sometimes. Definitely while I'm sleeping. The leftover Bamboo is immediately becoming a Stitch Diva flower.

On another happy note, the front of Boogie is blocking right now. Maybe tonight I'll seam it up. Stay tuned!

A cuz of mine is getting married and I just got the invite to her shower that's a month from now. I can't go, but I am going to look at her registries. I also want to make a couple of those wine cozies like I made for my friend A. I think they'd be fun to do a blind taste test or just to cover up some cheap ass wine. Haha!

Boogie is still around. Still the only thing I'm knitting.

What's your favorite shower gift to give?

Specifically, Frogger.



Like the little frog when he was hit by the car, I didn't even see this coming. Even though I had publicly announced that my gauge on Boogie was and i quote "waaaay off" from the back to the front I still didn't take action. It's my own stupid fault that I didn't measure as I was making the front. Instead I used my row count and that gave me a vest that was about 4 inches too long. Here you can see the difference in height (oddly, the stitch count and width is not bad) and everything fron the green line up has been frogged.



Oh well. Maybe I'll get to wear it by the end of this week. I really want to start something else! Perhaps I'll dye some of that Spotlight so it's ready to use by next weekend.

What am I going to knit for Mother's Day?

I got my new Halcyon Yarn catalog today. Lots of tools, supplies and yarn. I want to try Kumihimo.

Boogie is almost done--working my way up the front shoulders. Take a gander at this...



I don't know what I was thinking about when I crossed those second cables, but it wasn't the cables. Or the row count. But screw it! You know I'm all about leaving "special features" in my work. Like the amish--"only God creates something perfect". Let's shoot for a completion date of Sunday, k?

Have you tried Kumihimo?

Toni asked me to share my newest stain remover. I'm sorry if this wasn't what you had in mind. It's a pet stain remover, which we have a great need for here at the four letter word house.



The packaging just cracks me up. They! are! really! excited! about! their! product! I'm too lazy to get up and look at the real name of the stuff. But it seems to work well on odors, which is why I bought it. Nature's Miracle just wasn't cutting it with the odor thing.

Well, the gauge problem in the title of this post? That would be the front and back of Boogie. I bought a new bamboo needle--a longer circ--to make the front and the gauge is waaay off from the back using a shorter metal circ. Grr. Like I'm going to frog anything, please! I'll do some creative blocking. So perhaps between tonight and tomorrow at Knitting Meetup, I'll get the front done, then just seam up the sides!

Are you getting PSYCHED for MD Sheep and Wool?? 'Cause I AM!

The only things going on around here are work and sleep. Too much of one, not enough of the other, and absolutely no knitting. What the hell.

I went to visit mom again on Thursday and she wanted to give back the garter stitch scarf she had been working on. (Please note: My mother is an insane perfectionist and I inherited none of that. However, that doesn't mean it wasn't beat into me as a child.) She was concerned because her gauge was so tight that the width of the scarf had changed and it was "obvious where some other knitter started working". I just started laughing. She said, "I don't want to continue working on it if you're just going to rip it out and redo it." I'm like, "Mom, when it's 20 degrees out do you think some homeless person is going to care that their scarf was knit by two different people?" Also please note, this is a garter stitch scarf on huge needles with fuzzy yarn. Even picky people wouldn't really be able to tell the gauge is different. So I told her no dice, I wasn't taking it back. She said she'd continue to make a conscious effort to relax her gauge--like that will work. Another 15" into the scarf and she'll probably be just fine. Then I can really load my UFO's on her. I think next week I'll take up Wavy and con her into finishing it.

Have you frogged because of tension differences?

Not much to report. I've been working exclusively on Boogie for the past week and am not far from the v-neck. I'm -dying- to pick up something else, but I really want to wear this vest soon so I should stay focused. I keep reminding myself how jonquil-like I will look wearing it with my new green pants.

Options for the next project to be finished up are:
First sock(s) in red/orange Regia
Phildar sheep for Nephew #3
Wavy scarf in purple Cotton-Ease
Dobby's sweater in yellow something

I can tell you right now it's going to be the Phildar sheep. I think I only have the arms left to knit then assemble it. I can also say it won't be Dobby's sweater, because I can't complete two solid yellow items back-to-back.

Finally, do yourself a favor and order some Shimmer from KnitPicks.com. People, for real. It's alpaca and silk for $4.99. DO IT. The Fearless Knitter's post today reminded me that I've been wanting this stuff for a while. Oh special joy and guess what!! I just called that toll free "Where the fuck is my tax refund?!" number and they are guesstimating that my hard earned money should be back in MY bank account by Friday! Things to do with a tax refund include: Taking my GMAT; yarn; Dobby's eye surgery; yarn; Adrienne Vittadini pattern books; yarn; possibly a replacement palm pilot (but are they "out" now? I haven't seen anyone use one for a while. like i care); yarn; and replacement windows.

Are you getting a tax refund and if so.... well you know what I'm going to ask.

So I went up to my mom's to help her out today and when I get there....

She's knitting!

She knit the whole day while I did cleaning, chores and cooking for her. And she was knitting when I left! I also forgot to mention that on Thursday when I gave her the half finished scarf I was totally prepared to show her how to knit and I even took my portable Vogue Knitting book. She literally grabs the scarf out of my hands and starts knitting. Like that! The woman has not held yarn nor needles for over thirty years and she just starts knitting again! What have I done....

Oh, she also just called to tell me the dinner I made for her was crap. Okay, mom, take more drugs. While I was there my SIL called and she requested the specific Christmas presents for niblings #3, #4 and #6. (I don't have a very demanding family, do I? haha) She wants neckwarmers for them, you know, tubes. I immediately thought "Fair Isle!". I don't know why but hey. So if I make the width of the tubes a smidge bigger than the brow of whatever hat size they would wear I should be okay, right? That way they would fit over their head, but still be close enough to their necks to keep them warm. Then they could also wear them as hoods. Must get started right away!

Have you started on Christmas gifts?

Well, apparently my neighbors have finally come home because their teenagers' stereo testing program is over. I don't even live in an apartment, people! We're talking separate houses and it was still loud enough to keep me awake for the past several hours. You heard me, I was sleeping at 6:30 in the evening.

My day yesterday was far longer than planned, so today I functioned solely on coffee. (Okay, that's nothing new.) Then I came home and went to bed until the bass-fest next door began. I've been catching up on some blogs and perusing the new Knitty, but have not done any knitting. I did get a new needle to finish up Boogie and I straightened out the cord to it this evening. Oh my mom is doing fair and she loved the shawl, of course. She had to show it to her roommate and the nurse and the lady who brought her dinner. Thanks for your well wishes on both my mom and the shawl, haha!

That's it. Now that I can hear myself think I may go back to bed. Haha, I am SO the grumpy old lady next door. "Dang punks! Whippersnappers!"

Are you going to make anything from the new Knitty?

Guess what's blocking as you read this. Yes, my mom's shawl. siiiiiiiiigh. Here it is pre-blocking. Please excuse the jeans and t-shirt as well as the yarn ends.



The pattern is the Snowdrop Shawl from Yarn Harlot and the yarn is K1C2's Douceur et Soie ("softness and silk"). Thank you, Stephanie, for such a nice pattern. This was my first lace attempt and I would recommend this pattern for a committed newbie. I say committed for the knitters who may be like myself and take TEN MONTHS to finish such an item. Jesus Knitting Christ, I'm glad it's over. Of course it doesn't really take that long because I set the shawl down for several weeks at a time. I made a few mistakes, but I know my mom will love it and as a fellow fiber artist, will appreciate all the work that went into it. By the way, her surgery went fine and she's coming home tomorrow, so I will be delivering this lovely mohair concoction in the afternoon. In parting, gaze on this.



What was your first lace project?

Uli's package I sent her two weeks ago finally arrived! I was very worried--I swear next time I'm using UPS. haha. Anyway, it was meant to be the final package in the Secret Pals 3 deal, but a couple of the items took forever to come in and also I'm slow. But it made my day that she got it and liked the stuff.

And when I got home I had a package waiting for me! It was my trade from the Fearless Knitter! All sorts of goodies that I wasn't even expecting--lookie here!



Plus, I was just mumbling to myself that I can't find the #6 dpns I bought to bind off my mom's shawl. But what are those needles? That's right, and they're Baleen! This evening I finished putting together the goods in return and will send those off tomorrow, I swear! Thanks so much Rox! I love it all.

Are you punctual, or, err not so punctual?

I'll be casting off my mom's shawl this evening (and probably tomorrow evening) so I need to decide how to block it. I have plenty of room on a large padded work table. I was thinking of pinning it out and spritzing it with water. It's mohair and silk--will that work? No info on the K1C2 site and very little on blocking mohair on the internet in general. It doesn't need massive corrective blocking, but just to flatten it out a bit.

As soon as that's on the table, I will get back to Boogie, because I really want to wear that soon. Then I need to work on my green vest or else it will be too be warm to wear it this year. Optimistic, aren't I? Even though it's only one project, I feel like getting mom's shawl off my plate will free up my knitting time so much. I'll probably do a spurt of small, quickly finished projects just to get back in the groove. Perhaps finish up that little yellow sweater for a certain INSANE psychotic dog sitting next to me.

How do you block lace?