Vacation is Great!!

I took some vacation between Christmas and the new year because I thought my brains might explode and take whoever was nearby with them if I didn't.

Here's a rundown of yesterday's activites:
11am wake up. Eat some breakfast.
11:15 start watching favorite new murder mystery.
11:45 Mimosas!!
1:30 Reading with hubby on the couch.
2:30 Feeling a little sleepy, naptime!
5:30 Wake up refreshed. A little cleaning. Then, what to do?
6:00 Decide to go to movie
9:30 Home from movie, more reading and some sleepytime tea.
11:00 Snug in bed.

Is that the best day ever or what? I feel pretty lucky.

Whoa!!

What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks happened to December? Seriously, where'd it go? One minute it's Thanksgiving and the next it's Christmas. Isn't there supposed to be some time in between? I seem to have misplaced that time, and I guess it's lost forever. Once time is gone, it's gone, there's no getting it back. Hmmm....

I'm in dire need of a vacation from the daily grind and am planning to take some days off in the next couple of weeks. Maybe that will help me with my missing time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I've been thinking a lot about how lucky I am to have so much love in my life. So many people in this world are alone and forgotten, and while I may have bad days there is always someone to cheer me up or make me laugh or show me that it's not as bad as I think it is. Friends and family are what make life worth living, and my life is filled with truly amazing people. Thank you for being a part of my life.

I Hate the Term "Crafting"

In fact, I hate the term "crafting" so much I threw up a little in my mouth just typing the above. I hate reading about anyone who classifies themselves as a "crafter," I hate the idea of "crafting," I hate "crafting events" and "crafting communities." What is it about this word that works like fingernails on a chalkboard making me cringe and barf at the same time? Let's explore...

I associate "crafting" with shoddy workmanship and inferior materials. It makes me think of the scary camphor smelling craft fairs held at community centers all over the US, yes, the ones where little old ladies sell their oddball creations made out of acrylic yarn and twigs...But wait, I don't want to be mean, once in a while you can find something well made or artistically interesting at these fairs...once in a great while.

I also find the term "crafter" demeaning. It doesn't have the nobility of craftsman or artisan, somehow it seems to connote uselessness and frivolity, a mindless occupation of time that results in nothing good.

Maybe I just don't like the people who call themselves "crafters," maybe I think they're a little arrogant and silly and they should just make good things and not worry about what their friends call their hobby of making plastic Christmas ornaments decorated with spangles and yarn.(craft can also be defined as skill or ability used for bad purposes as in cunning, deceit or guile...hmmm..)

Maybe I just hate the idea of being lumped all together with the acrylic twig grannies and the weird hippie DIY kids in some "crafting" box.

Maybe I just like to make nice things by myself or with nice people and don't like to call it anything but having fun. Fun is a good word. I think I would be far more likely to go to all of those weird craft fairs if they called them "Fun Fairs."

Imagine you saw a sign that read something like this: FUN FAIR!!(with an arrow pointing towards a community center, high school gym, or library) I would probably go, wouldn't you? Who wants to say no to fun?

If you have a six year old foot I have a pair of booties for you.

I found a really cool pattern for booties and I decided to make them for my friend's cute new daughter. I chose not to make a gauge swatch because, whatevs they're just booties. Well....


Notice the pen for scale? Yeah, not quite what I intended.

Who I am

I've wholeheartedly given up on my plan to not start too many projects. The more the merrier is my new philosophy, and I am willing to accept the fact that some of the projects won't get done in a timely manner.

I've decided to not push myself to be something that I am not. I am what I am and trying to change my basic nature is difficult and fruitless. I'm trying to pay more attention to who I am and less to who I want to be. I may want to be a finisher but really I'm a starter. A starter who starts something and then gets distracted by some nice yarn or a need for something and then jumps into something else.

Like a wash rag.

I finally went to JoAnn Fabrics to get the reinforcer stuff for my bag and since I was there I decided I should take a look around. They had spangles and glitters and buttons and fancy papers, it was pretty spectacular. Plus weird things that made me think of ladies with 30 cats. I found myself wandering around the yarn section generally making faces at all of the acrylics, when I saw the Sugar 'n Cream. Mmmm...Sugar 'n Cream. This stuff is cotton yarn that makes the best wash rags for doing dishes. Truly it's amazing. You've got to try it, the dishes get so clean with much less elbow grease than you would use with a normal 52 cent dishrag from Target. Plus it comes in a fantastic array of colors, some pretty and some not very. AND it only cost 2.75 per ball. DEALS!!! I couldn't resist. I managed to stop myself at three balls of it which was kind of amazing because I had 7 of them in my hand at one point. Great restraint Katie. Then I went home and instead of working on my bag I made this:

Mitered Wash-a-rag:

Yarn: Sugar 'N Cream 100% cotton
Needles: Size 10 1/2

Cast On 51 Stitches
Row 1 and all other odd rows: Knit
Row 2: Knit (K) 24 Slip 1 (sl 1) Knit 2 together (K2tog) Pass slipped stitch over (psso) Knit to end
Row 4: K 23, sl 1, K2tog, psso, K to end
Row 6: K22, sl 1, K2tog, psso, K to end
Continue decreasing like this every even row until you have 5 stitches left.

Second to last row: K2tog, K1, K2tog (should be the end of the row)
Last row: sl 1, K2tog, psso

Diversions

Lately I have been trying to limit the number of projects I'm working on at a given time. I have a tendency to start projects and not finish them, and at one time in the past I remember counting way too many unfinished projects in my little basket, none of which seemed to be making any progress toward completion.

In the hopes of improving my completion to start ratio I pledged to myself to only work on one or maybe two projects at a time. This was going quite well until I reached the bottom of my bag which requires some kind of plastic-y reinforcer. I'm not exactly sure what they are talking about although I have an idea, the pattern calls for "plastic mesh canvas" and the only thing I can think of is that poky plastic stuff that I practiced sewing on when I was a tiny tot. Being a natural fiber girl, the addition of plastic to my beautiful wool creation does not sound appealing. Plus that means I have to go to JoAnn Fabrics or Michael's or an equally overwhelming and sometimes appalling "Craft" store.

As a healthy and well practiced procrastinator, I came up with a different solution: Start a new project!! It's just a small project. A pair of socks. It's getting cold and I need some more nice warm wool socks to keep my toes happy. No big deal. I'll finish the bag soon, I just have to go to the store. I can't not knit, just because I haven't had time to go to the stupid store. Yeah...that's it...

And they said, "Take that!"

The heavens have spoken! They told me to sit on my ass for a while and chill out.

They sent this message by smacking me with the dreaded influenza. For three days I was fevery and incoherent and then I slowly came out of it and realized I haven't been spending enough time knitting. To be honest, I haven't been spending enough time making any kind of positive choices for my well being or my health. I've been eating poorly, and spending too much time having a good time in an unhealthy way. Good times are fun but the flu is not, and I think it's time for a change in operating procedure.

From now on vegetables and knitting are going to take up a larger portion of my diet and time!

Patterns

In my short history of knitting I have learned the value of a pattern.

Patterns are nice. They tell you how things go together and they give you shape and guidance, faith that your project will turn out; just follow the pattern and you will create something beautiful. They are a record of the solutions that those before us have found to the mistakes and difficulties that have plagued knitters since knitting began, and they are an education in structure and technique; a teacher that shows us how to create.

I also have learned that all of the above being true, sometimes patterns just suck. They can be poorly written, overly wordy, confusing, wrong, or just plain ugly.

I encountered some of the bad part of patterns on my bag project. The first problem I noticed was that while the graph for the cable panel had the decreases relevant to the cable shown, there were other decreases that were only talked about in the extremely wordy, and heavy on the parentheses, written directions (I hate the parentheses) which (parentheses are really distracting) were (I can't tell you how many times I messed up because of the stupid parentheses) very hard to follow. I solved this problem by marking the decrease rows on the cable graph, which only sort of worked because I got so engrossed in the cabling that I still forgot to decrease. Luckily, so far, it seems I have forgotten the decreases in the same spots on both sides of the bag so I'm hoping there won't be any stupid looking lumps or sticky-outy-parts because of the bad pattern writing.

The worst is yet to come though, the most heinous of all pattern crimes in my opinion is when the pattern just doesn't work and doesn't make the finished product look like the picture that made you choose to make it. This problem was discovered when I went to knit the button flap that holds the finished bag closed at the top. The flap consisted of a tapering number of stitches with a strange bind off and cast on for the button hole. I had to look in three different places in the magazine to try and figure out what they were doing and then when I actually did it as they directed the flap looked like total crap. And I mean really bad. The button hole was off center and the flap looked lumpy and weird. I tried three times to do it as they directed thinking that somehow I was mistaken and didn't understand what was happening. After ripping it out the third time though I said to myself, "Screw the directions! I'm doing it my way!" And then I did, I made my normal button hole and left as many stitches as I thought the flap needed to be sturdy and it looked great on the first try. Ahhh...success!

This experience just shows that it's important to remember patterns can be valuable but they aren't always right and sometimes you just gotta go with what you know.

Or else I'm kinda thick and can't figure directions out.

Either way the result is the same, right?

Stuck

My bag project has not progressed at all in the last week.

I haven't worked on it because I found a problem...and I wasn't sure of the pattern...and it seemed like the fix might take a while.

The problem that I found was that my stitch count was off by 3, which is a weird number to be off by when you are making a symmetrical pattern, and I wasn't able to figure out where I messed up. The pattern itself is the second problem; the cable panels are charted out but the rest of the directions are written out in a confusing, row by row way. I HATE ...double HATE... the patterns that are written out row by row: "Next row (#312) p3 k22 p200 k1 ssk k3 k2tog p836 K1) repeat to end of row" WTF. There has to be a simple and CLEAR way to write a pattern! I guess my brain just can't turn all of the p's and k's and number blah-blah-blahs into a clear picture in my head of what it should look like. Charts! I really, really like charts.

So...I'm a procrastinator when it comes to things that I think might be difficult (I've been meaning to call the cable company about a problem for the last year and a half)(that's not a lie, it's really been a year and a half) and this problem with the number of stitches looks like it might be difficult. So instead of studying it and tackling it head on like a real go-getter, I turned to cooking. Yes, it's odd, but apparently my unwillingness to do a difficult task pushes me into trying something that is equally difficult and far more unfamiliar. I don't cook. I bake. I prefer the inside of the oven where there is a nice even temperature and the food doesn't do anything crazy (like turn black) unless I totally fall asleep. But this week, I have been using the burners...WHOA! First I made enchiladas with homemade sauce (only slightly burnt), then today I cooked potato salad and corn on the cob. It's as if I went crazy and somehow lost the part of me that says "Hey, that's a burner, they're unpredictable, we don't like those." The best part though is that the food was delicous! Seriously, it was. I was shocked too. Maybe these burners are actually o.k.

Labor Day Weekend

I can't believe that Labor Day is here already. This summer seems to have just started but now it's over and I feel like I didn't even notice it. I think I must have been too caught up inside my head and too full of worries and the grumps to pay attention to what was happening outside. That'll teach me. The coolest nicest summer ever in Minnesota and I didn't take full advantage of it while I could have. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Well...if I'm lucky there will be more summers like this and I will have less worries and irritations during them so I'll be better able to enjoy them!

I got some good stuff done during my crabby cold summer and here is an example:
It's a hat from an Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern that I made for a baby that was born 5 weeks ago. Unfortunately I think she'll probably be three or maybe ten before it fits her but I never claimed to be perfect, and babies are foreign to me. It's cute though, and soft. I used a strand of sock yarn and a strand of Kidsilk mohair and it turned out really nice. Soft enough for a cute little girl.

My next project is a bag; this is the front of it:
This is a project I got a long time ago when my mom and I went to a big knitting convention together. The yarn is a really nice and soft worsted weight and I think it might be undyed. It was in a kit with a pattern for a bag that had cables...and bobles and I-cord and all kinds of complicated funny things that when I looked at it again didn't look like any fun at all. So I looked through my collection of old Interweave Knits magazines (also courtesy of my mom, Thanks Mom!!) and found this great pattern with simple cables and no bobbles and nothing too weird or un-fun. I think it will turn into a lovely bag.

Updates

Summer. Busy.

Knitting projects complete: 3 (except two of them were for babies so they weren't that big but they still count as completions, HA HA!!)

Softball games won: 6 (Our best year yet. We finally got shirts and I think they were lucky.)

Piano recitals: 1 (my piano teacher told me I made people cry, and I'm not quite sure I believe him, but I like the idea)

Appliances Purchased: 2 (but I think one doesn't work. Stupid Craigslist)

I also: taught 3 people to knit (I hope they stick with it!), grew some flowers, helped others with their vegetable growing, botched some recipes, painted some walls, and mostly had a lot of fun with my friends and family.

What a great summer so far! Fall is looking like it's going to be fantastic too!!

Hmm...

Looks like I'm no good at blogging in the summer. I'll try to get better.

One Down

I finished my sock, but two feet means two socks. This is the problem with making a pair of anything, two. Once you get done with one you have to start all over again and make another.

Catastrophe!

The other night I was happily knitting along admiring my speedy progress on my pretty socks when I looked down and suddenly there it was, a dropped stitch.


Oh the horror!!
It looked like I dropped it several rows before I noticed it and had been knitting along oblivious to the impending unraveling.
In this situation any good knitter will tell you there is only one thing to do: swear...and then fix it. Which is what I did.



To fix this error I had to capture the runaway stitch and then loop it through the strands of yarn between the stitches still on the needle. Ugh!



A few minutes of swearing and eye-strain later and ta-da! Fixed



Yay! No holey socks for this girl!

Finito!

I finished my beautiful new-old green sweater.



I like it. It turned out okay, but now I have to block it and I'm not so sure about that. There is no ribbing on the bottom so the edges are all rolled up, and when I put it on unblocked it looks funny and bad. Blocking is the only option.


I don't like blocking so much. It seems like a lot of work. That may be a silly sentiment considering I just knit the whole sweater but...well...I'm not as sure of blocking as I am of knitting. There are many different ways to go about blocking a sweater (blocking, if you don't know, is giving a sweater the correct shape by forming it when it is wet, or something like that because like I said I'm not really sure). I could wash it then shape it, or shape it then iron it or douse it then pin it or....who knows...sit on it until it turns into a felty wool pillow. The choices are endless and I am not a good decision maker when there is no absolutely correct decisions (actually I'm not a good decision maker most of the time, I generally always choose the fun and exciting option rather than the smart, rational choice).

In the end I choose...

...to start a new sock

Isn't it lovely? Oh, it's going to be great and the best part is that socks don't require any blocking!

New Socks!

I just finished these lovely new socks. They have a very nice little cable pattern that gives them just enough give to hug your feet and keep you warm and toasty. You can't really see it in the picture because the color of the yarn overwhelms it but I know it's there and I like it!

Beautiful

This sweater may look like a big funny lump of yarn but it used to be a bigger funnier blob of sweater that wasn't right. This is the yarn from my very first sweater project. That sweater turned out all kittywumpus and not right. There were so many things wrong with it that I refused to wear it.

You see, when I first started knitting I did it wrong. I knit every stitch through the back and purled funny too. My stitches weren't twisted but there was no way I could have followed a pattern with decreases.

I found out when my mom watched me knitting one day and said "Katie, you knit funny." I was very offended because obviously I was doing everything right, didn't my work look nice? She calmed me down and said yes my work looked very nice but I was actually knitting backwards. She then showed me how she (and everyone else in the world) did it and how that was different from what I was doing. She explained to me calmly that while I could continue to knit in this backward fashion I would have to switch around every pattern that I ever came across to suit my weirdo style. That seemed like a lot of math that I didn't want to do so I changed my ways.

Unfortunately, what I didn't realize was that my old gauge was very different from my new gauge. So when my sweater was done it was puffy on top and tight on the bottom. I tried to make the best of it but I ended up setting it aside and not finishing it. I was disappointed.

A few years later I saw it sitting forlornly in a basket and I thought "I want to wear that sweater, but not like that." So I ripped it out, wound up the yarn and started a new-old project. Hopefully this time the result will be beautiful.

Technical Difficulties

Oh technology...it's a blessing...and a curse. It seems that the more cool electronic gadgets I acquire the more I lose the attachments and cords and everything that makes them work.

I have an excellent little camera that has served me well in its time but it seems I have lost the cord that hooks it up to my computer. Sad. What's worse is that I have a drawer full of cords in my computer desk containing cords for a million things that I don't actually want to use at this moment. I don't even know what they're for, but I'm afraid to toss them out because they might belong to some other gadget that needs to hook up to something and if I don't have them the world might blow up!

I think, in order to regain my composure, I'm going to do something very old fashioned; walk to the library and check out a book.

The Winter Doldrums

This time of year is hard for anyone who lives in a cold climate like mine. It seems that the spring will never come and the air will always be cold. After months of fighting off various cold bugs and flu-like-symptoms you just feel drained.

It feels like this winter has been harder than usual; it came on strong in the beginning and stayed cold and snowy for a very long stretch of time. Weather like this requires a strength and mental fortitude that I was not prepared for...and there's still two and a half months left. I've always been a person who embraces the changing seasons, I love the contrast of heat and cold in this climate, but this year is trying. Maybe it's because I haven't taken a vacation, maybe I need to get outside more, who knows?

I've been trying to knit a lot but the problem with knitting is that it takes a long time to make nice warm things. So a sweater that I started in January will probably be done just in time for May. That doesn't do me any good. In the summer the thought of covering yourself with a large woolly sweater-in-the-making is much less attractive but this is really the time when one should be constructing their warm winter goods. Hmm... Knit faster? I suppose I can try...

Equal Pay for Equal Work

To very little fanfare the 111th House of Representatives this week passed a bill that will give women more power to demand and receive equitable pay. H.R. 12 or the Paycheck Fairness Act amends the Fair Labor Standards act of 1938 expanding the abilities of women treated unfairly to pursue damages in court and increases the penalties for companies found in violation of this act. It also has provisions for data collection, grants for training and education in negotiation, and awards for companies actively trying to eliminate the gender pay gap.

HOORAY!!

I know that this probably won't make any noticeable difference to me, or to most of the hardworking women standing side by side with men who earn more, but at least it's something. Hopefully it will hit the lawbooks and women who need it will have recourse against their discriminatory employers. And maybe then, after a couple of companies have paid out large damages, other companies will re-evaluate how they figure compensation to ensure that everyone is treated fairly.

Update: This bill was passed by the Senate and is the first bill signed into law by President Obama.

Knitting for me!

Okay...I'm kind of ashamed to admit it but...I'm super excited to be knitting for me! While I like making things for other people I really knit just because I like to have the warm fuzzy soft things all to myself. I love yarn and wool and knitted things; that's why I knit by hand. And to make things that I know are just for me makes me so happy! Especially when I know that I am getting better and better at knitting and my finished goods are more beautiful than ever before. MMmmmm...I'm thinking of all the wonderful possibilities right now. I just made this hat for Mr. Yarn and I am getting very excited about making a much prettier one for me.

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all! I hope this is the best year ever for everyone reading. Congratulations on making it through another year and may luck be your lady in the next.