A Little Yarn On The Side

Yes--I do still exist and there has been some knitting, if no blogging. We have been on a marathon trip of visiting friends on the east coast, and I thought about trying to do a few updates while traveling, but we still have the psycho ex-wife stalker (5 YEARS after the divorce, mind you, and 2 years after Andy remarried--talk about pathetic) and we find it best not to announce any plans on the blog as she seems to be a few pom-poms short of a hat. The only good thing about long flights is the uninterrupted knitting time. At home, I could be doing other things--laundry, cleaning, taking care of the garden, painting the dining room, cleaning out that back room--but in a plane, there is NOTHING else I could be doing except sitting. In fact, those cheerful airline attendants would get quite cranky if I really did try to be up cleaning something, so this is the ultimate guilt-free knitting time. Which is perfect, as Theo chose to inspire some last-minute guilt as we were leaving: Could...

After three attempts and much swearing, I am finally finally FINALLY putting the edging on Fleur in the right place, in the right way, and unless it spontaneously combusts--which I don't think cashmere generally does--I may actually get the darn thing done. I think in a small act of atonement, the edging is actually laying flat this time, so that has improved my knitting mood somewhat. The edging strip is a little longer (12 inches "little longer") than necessary, and I'm debating whether to rip it back, or simply cut the darned thing where I need it. This would be a VERY big thing for me, as I am not generally a cutting knitting sort of person. More of a cut-that-knitting-and-there-will-be-bloodshed sort of person, if truth be told, but I always hope that I'll experience Personal Growth while knitting. And then I wake up. I also finally admitted that I had gone a bit overboard on the back of this toddler sweater: being at least 3 inches PAST where I should ha...

But not so much knitting. I did finally buy myself a little reward for finishing 10 WIPs in a row: The Yarn Harlot's latest book, Free Range Knitter . Her writing is so witty and charming that I wish she could rake in the kind of money Danielle Steele or Stephen King does, but I don't suppose the movie rights are worth very much. Any knitter could, of course, appreciate the horror potential of a Hitchcock-esque "The Moths," but I just don't think the general public has that sort of fear of fiber-eating bugs. I did sit down to work on Fleur, and let's see if you can spot the problem: That's right--I started attaching the edging IN THE WRONG PLACE. I started here: thinking a join would be less noticeable at an existing seam. I ripped back the seam--chastising myself for having been so proud of myself for sewing the edging on while knitting it because then I wouldn't only have sewing left to do--then reattached it here: Which is the shoulder seam, whic...

You can blame the lack of knitting on this: About a week ago our furnace started making really strange noises. Being a much newer and more complicated model than either of our old houses--which meant my old just-jiggle-the-wire-trick wasn't going to work, we immediately called a repairman. He found nothing--and the furnace refused to reproduce the strange noises while he was here--so he made a strong push to sell us a water pump that wouldn't solve the problem and left. Yesterday the furnace would come on briefly, then go off, leaving us cold and hopeful. In case it was a gas leak, I shut the thermostat off and called the repairman again. He walked in, flipped on the thermostat, and we had heat. I told him I had turned the thermostat off "just in case" but I don't think he actually believed me. I had him do the winter maintenance on the furnace in case that would help, and he left thinking I probably didn't know "on" from "off." Toda...

(Had to add that little hyphen there to keep me out of the more colorful Google searches.) The left front of the baby sweater is done, which I would be showing you if the battery on my camera weren't dead. Since I've been "organizing" the sewing room, it took a 20-minute search to locate the charger, but I did eventually find it and there will be pictures tomorrow. Dem fischer sin fru actually got a lot of attention last night because it turns out that election returns actually come in very slowly. There were a few dropped stitches in my excitement over the huge voter turnout nationwide, but all in all, I got a few decent rows in. I'm still on clue #1 of course, but Imight finally be halfway through clue 1. I'm not ready to think about those 5 remaining clues just yet. I've been sewing "thank you for letting me stay" gifts for an upcoming trip to see friends on the east coast, which I would also be showing you now. They're Christmas tabl...

Ahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm trying to knit while watching the election results! I think the stress is going to destroy my gauge. Anyone else's dem fischer sin fru end up looking like ramen noodles???

Still completely jazzed about making it to 12 WIPs in a row, rather than picking up Fleur, which really is almost done, I picked up one of the baby sweaters I found languishing in a knitting bag. I can narrow it down to being cast on between 2-5 years ago, but that's as close as I can get. I finished the back last night and started on the left front today. Admittedly, this is not a really great pattern. It's from this book, which has cute pictures but the sweaters area bit awkward and shapeless--things that one would only put on a small child who can't complain. Luckily, that's who I will be giving it to, so I guess that works. This morning I washed and blocked Ruched Magic, but Theo would have none of it. I think he's a fiber snob.