another knitting blog

A place for everything...

I really wish I had some cool knitting-related content to share; however, I spent most of the weekend organizing my kitchen cupboards and my CD collection.

I'm very much into organizing these days. I'm gaining a reputation for organization. The other day, my coworker/neighbor called me up to ask for help fitting her possessions back into her closets. I came up with some clever solutions for her.

I have another coworker who I'm helping to declutter his office. He's been ensconced in the same office for 15 years. Everyday, I go in and (gently) demand that he find one thing he can throw out, just one. He usually finds a stack of stuff to chuck before he's overwhelmed. At this rate, he ought to be sufficiently pruned by the time he has to pack everything up so that his new furniture can be installed. I don't know why he puts up with it except that he realizes he needs help and that we are currently throwing out junk mail he received in 1993.

The best part of all this organization mania is that I am practicing what I preach. I'm clearing out and tiding up too. Not all at once, but bit by bit. Things are coming out of boxes and are tossed or put in their place. I draw the line at alphabetizing the spices though.

I guess I can credit FlyLady with some of this [the bits that don't annoy me]; although I've also been inspired by Mission: Organization on HGTV and Clean Sweep on TLC.

I have been knitting, but it's only on 'the afghan that never ends'. It will end though, I'm finally halfway through skein eight of eight. [Whew!]

[BTW, I ordered the Crate & Barrel rug yesterday. It should be here by next Saturday].

Call the Exterminator!

On second thought, I think I'll set some live traps. I wouldn't want to hurt these little guys.

Tomorrow, I'm going to de-mouse my house and send these mousies and some of their friends off to Wendy. I wonder how many mice she thought she'd get for the Mouse-a-Thon. The count is already closing in on a thousand!

The balls of yarn in the picture are the red Stahl Winter-Cotton that I bought and returned and the new color (#9937) that came in the mail this week. The new yarn is a little darker than the ideal color I have in my mind, but it'll do nicely anyway. And, it's not red.

I went back to yoga tonight after almost three weeks off. I anticipate being pretty stiff the next couple of days.

Tonight, I have also been enjoying my new Guster CD.

Living off the grid...

...sucks. Well...just a tiny bit. I survived without too much inconvenience. After all, it was only four days. [I feel sorry for the people who are still waiting].

Things I missed and am very happy to have back:

refrigeration [ah, frosty beverages]

electrically-assisted laundry [unless I could have one of those bicycle-powered washing machines like the Professor built on Gilligan's Island]

adequate nighttime lighting [I couldn't effectively knit or read much by candlelight...maybe if I had a good oil lamp]

traffic signals [people in vehicles are idiots and/or jerks and have no impulse control unless explicitly told what to do]

Things I missed, but could probably learn to do without:

hot tap water [thank goodness for the gas stove/oven though]

television [I did have a battery powered radio]

computer/Internet [I would get used to doing without it eventually, really]

blow drier [as if I didn’t look like hell already]

iron [oh, I just give up]

Things I didn’t have to deal with losing:

all tap water [no bathtub water for me]

heating/cooling [the weather was beautifully moderate the entire time]

phone [not that anyone but my parents called to see that I was OK]

car [except that I was too afraid to drive due to all the idiots and jerks]

Things I was glad that I had:

gas stove/oven

books

knitting

cat

friends and neighbors

If there was any silver-lining to my hurricane experience, it was getting to know most of my neighbors better. After the power went out on Thursday, we all met in the hall outside my apartment with our flashlights for snacks, wine, and boardgames. We ate, and drank, and played, and waited for the worst that Isabel could offer. Fortunately, the worst she gave us was a power outage. I think in my old place I would have cowered alone in the dark until morning.

I've Got the Power!

Hoo-ray! The power is back on ahead of predictions.

Here is one reason we lost power. [I took these pictures down the street on Saturday morning. I'm a little ashamed to say that I was a disaster tourist].

This huge tree fell across the power lines not far from here.

The force snapped off or pulled down the next four or five utility poles as well.

Still no cable, but plenty of light to knit by. Hot showers and cold drinks for all!

Powerless

No power at home since 8:30pm Thursday night. Best current projection for return of power: Wednesday night. Today, I'm at work enjoying the sweet, sweet electricity.

The World as a Projectile

Your perception of things changes dramatically when you imagine them hurtling toward you at a 100 miles an hour.

Even though the Federal government has the day off, I went into work briefly this morning to get some things to read and work on until the power goes out. [Who am I kidding though, I'm not going to work, I'm going to knit]. On the drive over, I found myself noticing all the potential flying debris along the way.

We aren't in the main path, so not everyone here is concerned about Isabel; however, we are still supposed to get one whopper of a storm with fairly high winds.

Good luck today to everyone in Isabel's path.

Hip to be Square

'Flora on the Sand' by Paul Klee

Color block rug from Pier1

Checkers from Shelridge Farms

Do you see a pattern developing? Mary did. At least, she recognized the similarity between the rug of my dreams and Checkers. She's knitting Checkers too; and by the look of it is doing a much nicer job than I did. [Perfection! ]

Is it so wrong to love squares? If I had some talent in that department, I'd design a template for this place with squares like these. I tried a while back, but it was beyond my ability and attention span. I got nothing.

Despite my intense love of squares, I've decided to keep the IKEA rug. I've become attached to it; and Molly loves it; and I love it enough that I don't feel the need to look any more [even though Kerstin keeps offering very tempting alternatives]. I'm sure the two of us will be very happy together and will grow in our affections over the years [Of course, if I have a sudden windfall, he's history and my true love and I can be blissfully united].

Next mission: curtains.

Last week, Melissa and Mare commented about the knitting lessons at the Folk Festival. I wanted to say a little more about that experience.

Most of the people interested in the knitting lessons were young girls along with a few boys. With the exception of a couple of adults who wanted a refresher, everyone I taught was under the age of 15. [I say I 'taught', but it was really more of a knitting demonstration]. I would show them the basics of the knit stitch on an already started piece and then let them try. Even though they all got about the same instruction, they displayed a wide range of ability. Some of them could just not seem to grasp the mechanics of the process while others really only had to see it a couple of times before they could take the needles and reproduce the steps perfectly. That's just the way it is.

They also showed a wide range of interest. Some stayed and stayed until their mother dragged them away. Others got the demo, tried, succeeded or failed, and moved on.

[Shocking rug update!: Since I started this post, I checked out the rugs on the Crate & Barrel site and look what I found. And it's within my budget. Oh no! Now, I'm going to have go down and take a look. Rats! This may be a much harder decision.]

happy happy

Tonight, I have two reasons to smile.

First...new Knitty...new Knitty...new Knitty!! Hooray!!

Patterns that caught my eye: Rosedale, Tilt, Bpt, and Latifa. [Four designs, people, and I am exhibiting restraint. It's been a long time since any print mag had four designs in it that piqued my interest].

I've only scanned the articles. I want to savor them one at a time over the coming weeks. [Must avoid a Knitty binge].

Excellent, excellent job by all involved.

Second, courtesy of Boing Boing, Stealth Disco. Dial-up users, this is worth the wait. [Hee!] This is what it's all about.

Nice rug

Yesterday, I, and everyone else on the East Coast, went to the  IKEA  in College Park. I bought a rug.

[You can click the picture for a slightly better look].

I'm not 100% sure that I'm going to keep it, but I went out and looked at rugs again today and I don't think I'm going to be able to do any better. I really do love the pattern and the colors. I'd like to have a sweater like that.

Molly is convinced that I bought the rug just for her. I've been keeping it rolled up until I can decide whether or not to take it back because every time I unroll it, this happens. She will come running from the other room just for a chance to get in a quick writhe before I roll it up again. Of course, this probably also means that the rug will be her number one location for depositing hairballs. That's a painful truth that at least makes me feel a little better about my decision not to buy the rug of my dreams. I did go visit it at Pier1 today though. [So pretty, so soft, so expensive].

What does any of this have to do with knitting? Nothing, although the rug is 100% wool.

On the knitting front [sort of], today I picked up a copy of No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting at a used bookstore. I can add this to the long list of knitting books that I own and swear that I will read someday.

Finally, I've started stuffing and sewing up my Mouse-a-Thon mice. I drove Molly nuts last night with the tub of Cosmic Catnip. She kept trying to stick her whole face in the tub until I gave her a supply of her own; then she didn't care what I did.

You look different

This reminds me of the graphics you see that depict the stages of evolution from ape to Homo sapiens [and sometimes beyond to 'amusing' things like coffee drinkers or computer users].

These are some of the eyeglasses I've worn over the last 23 years, arranged in chronological order. My eyesight has changed little in that time; I could wear any of these pairs today and see just fine. Whether I would look just fine is open for debate.

I wore the Cro-Magnon pair at the top in middle school. Ah, the fashionably large lenses of 1980. Given that my head was smaller at that time, these glasses must have covered almost half of my face. I probably looked a little like this.

The next three pairs are all some variation on the tortoise shell theme. Undoubtedly, these were my attempts to look brainy. Strangely enough, each of these attempts to look smarter alternated with attempts [undertaken in vain] to look more cool when I tried wearing contacts, silver frames, and even pink frames. I never really got the looking cool thing down, but at least over time the egghead-phase glasses were shrinking and getting less round.

The bottom pair are the glasses I wear now. They are definitely the most evolved: rimless titanium frames; scratch-resistant, polarized, anti-reflective, ultralight plastic lens; and matching clip-on sunglasses. And, they are fashionably sized.

I found all the old pairs in the move. I haven't found the silver or pink ones yet, but they may show up as I continue to unpack and weed out. I have no idea why I still have this many old pairs of glasses. I suspect I keep them because in theory I could still use them so I could never justify getting rid of them.

What I am going to do though is take all but one backup pair with me the next time I go home to see the folks. My father belongs to the Lions Club and they have a program called Lions Recycle For Sight that collects used eyeglasses for distribution in developing countries where eyeglasses are often unaffordable and inaccessible. While my prehistoric glasses may be unfashionable by today's standards, they are still functional and could yet have a long life serving someone else.

[Actual knitting content soon. I promise].

Takoma Park Folk Festival

Sunday was another beautiful day. It was a great day for the Takoma Park Folk Festival. The Knitting-N-The-City groups got together to sponsor a community table at the festival to provide information about the groups and about the DC Knit-Out coming up on Sunday, September 21st (noon to 5pm, rain or shine). Again, this year, the Knit-Out will be held down on the National Mall in front of the Museum of Natural History.

You can't see it, but the sign says "Free Knit and Crochet Lessons". We took on all comers.

[We had planned to have an umbrella, but bad luck and car trouble disrupted that plan. Thankfully, although the sun was in full-force, the humidity was low and the breezes were blowing].

Here's Wallace being his fabulous self and teaching crochet.

I was there for about a four-hour chunk in the middle of the day. I put aside my natural shyness to do the PR thing. [Not too badly either. I can turn it on if I have to, but it sure tires me out]. I also got to teach some knitting, which was a lot of fun. We were so busy, I didn't even get to hear any of the musical acts or see any of the craft booths. [Boo].

I came home a little sunburnt [despite repeated sunscreen application], a little hoarse [from talking nonstop], and a lot tired. I sort of hope we do this again next year.

Saturday

OK, I think this is the last of it.

#8 Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport: (color: N48 Scarlet; 100% wool) Destined to be a pair of socks.

And, speaking of socks...

I'm almost ready to start the heel.

I meant to post something yesterday, but it was just such a beautiful day that I couldn't stop to write about it. I love my new apartment, and I love it more all the time as I'm slowly getting everything put away.

I spent yesterday morning enjoying the sunlight and cool breezes coming in the windows as I got most of the boxes out of the living room and started organizing my stash room/office. I put my wire shelves together, which are really just a set of Tinkertoys for adults [not that I wouldn't still play with Tinkertoys and Legos]. Things are taking shape.

Yesterday afternoon, I finally managed to tear myself away from my new digs for the triple threat of trips to The Container Store, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and Michaels. I thought my head was going to explode. For someone trying to declutter her life, these stores are very dangerous. I didn't do too bad though. I'm even going to return some stuff [with the intention of replacing it with some other stuff].

Among my purchases were some bins for the bathroom shelves [need more], batting for the Mouse-a-thon mice, and a new trash can from simplehuman. Of all my purchases, I am probably most excited about the trash can. I hated my ten-year-old Rubbermaid trash can; it was ugly and the swinging top was perpetualy stained. My heart sank every time I looked at it. [If I couldn't bear to look at it, is it any wonder I never threw anything away?] I left it behind in the trash room of the old place, figuring that it would feel right at home, and determined to get a trash can I could be proud of. I did not get the superdeluxe model [mine has a black plastic lid], but I did get a nice shiny one with a foot pedal. What fun! What else can I throw away?

While I was at Michaels, I also got my first look at Lion Brand Cotton-Ease. I was strong and did not immediately buy any to make at SitcomChic. [I do have to go back to return some stuff though and the Michaels is right by there...hmm]. I checked out all the colors and I think that the bubblegum pink will be my choice. I was not tempted by the red, it simply wasn't the right shade.

Seeing red

What's up with this?

I seem to be fixated on red yarn. I was able to find these seven instances of red in my stash (there's some red sock yarn that's AWOL too). Although the fiber composition and weights are different, all are almost exactly the same shade.

#1 Philosophers Wool: (Scarlet; 100% wool) This is the red yarn left over from Kilim.

#2 GGH/Muench Goa: (color: 42; 50% cotton/50% acrylic) This is from a 75% completed, but abandoned mystery project. Watch for me to try and resurrect this one at some point.

#3 Dale Tiur: (color: 4136; 60% mohair/40% wool) The story behind this yarn is just too painful to tell right now. Let's just say I have a lot of it and some of it is very squiggly.

#4 Stahl Hawaii: (color 1221: 100% cotton) This is the main color in a multi-color summer top. I didn't buy this yarn this summer.

#5 Jaeger Matchmaker Aran: (color: 656: 100% merino wool) I got this on sale without any idea what I was going to do with it. I still don't know. [What a "bargain"]. I've swatched with it many times and just can't find a good pattern for it.

#6 Tregellys Fibers 2-ply: (Persian Rose; 55% mohair/45%wool) I got this at MS&W in May. Again, I have no idea what it will be, but of all the colors I could have chosen, this is the one I picked.

#7 Stahl Winter-Cotton: (color: 9914; 60% cotton/40% acrylic) This is for The Very Thought of Him cardigan from the Spring 2000 Interweave Knits.

I've had this pattern in the back of my mind since I first saw it and when the yarn came up for sale on Elann, I thought I would go for it. I wanted to make it exactly as it appeared in the magazine. That's the problem, as it appeared. In the magazine, the color is described as burgundy. It looks burgundy/maroon. Elann calls this color (9914) brick. On Elann's website and on every other online color card that I could find, color 9914 appears much darker and much more brick-like.

We all know that magazines and computer monitors can lie when it comes to color and so we should be prepared for surprises when ordering through the mail. Nonetheless, I'm frustrated . I swatched the yarn and you can see that I went as far as to actually start the back before I decided that I couldn't justify yet another red sweater [even if all the other red sweaters don't seem to be getting made either].

I still had a chance to alter this situation before inertia sent this yarn into the stash to sit and mock me with it's ruddy appearance. Today, I packed it up, minus the ball I used for swatching, and sent it back. The problem is, I still want to make this sweater in burgundy/maroon. That's OK, right? I mean, it's not like it will be red.

So, what's up with this obsession with red anyway? In traditional Western culture, the usual interpretation of red is as a color of intense emotion and action. [OK, I may be moody, but I don't think anyone would fault me for being too active]. Dark red is associated with rage, anger, malice, and wrath. [Hmm, am I angry about something?] Of course, other cultures have different interpretations of colors. For instance, in China, red is the color of good luck. [Maybe I'm trying to influence my fortunes].

This makes no sense though...

Green You are a very calm and contemplative person. Others are drawn to your peaceful, nurturing nature. Find out your color at Quiz Me!

I don't really like green.

moving out/moving in/moving on

The move from hell is over. [Yay!] I took it right down to the wire and left the OP for the final time at 8:30 pm last night. For three weeks, I have suffered with bruises and sore muscles; now, I can relax and take my time getting settled into the NP.

Maybe taking all that time to move wasn't the best way to do things, but it was the best way I could come up with. Also, it probably wouldn't have taken so long if I would have had some help. I had offers of help, but everything was just too much in disarray. I hope the next time I move I either have help or have movers.

Now, I have to move on to the next phase—getting this place into shape. I never really moved into the last place even though I lived there for three years; that's why everything was such a mess. I don't know what I was waiting for, but I couldn't commit and wouldn't let myself get comfortable. This time, whether I stay here one year or three, I'm going to get settled in. At least I've learned that unpacking and getting organized will probably make the next move easier instead of more difficult.

I was most definitely suffering from CHAOS, Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. I think I was using all the clutter as a defense mechanism or a way to keep people at bay. I'm ready to open up a little more now. The first step was to start going to knitting groups, the next step was to start writing this blog. The next step: to actually have people over. [You extroverts have no idea].

Let's face it though, I'm never going to be a social butterfly. [Maybe I can be a FlyLady though].