When Everything goes TERRIBLY wrong.

As a warning, if you are not a knitter, you will neither appreciate nor understand the tragedy below:

I've been knitting long enough to know that like road trip, even the best planned ones go awry. I'm a big fan of spontaneous side trips and taking the road less traveled. That being said, I do like to spend a few minutes to look at a map and orient myself with the world around me. So I finally decided to hop on the bandwagon to knit the Gathered Scarf that's been repeatedly knitted all around Ravelry. What could be so hard about that? There's garter (all knits) and sections of stockinette (knits and purls) and you switch off needles with each section. The needles are pretty distinct, mine have the special bonus of being different colors as well. :) There are no words to describe how everything quickly spiraled out of control.

It started, innocently enough with a different project. The My So Called Scarf in some beautifully dyed orchard yarn. 540 yards of sock yarn in beautiful hues of red, green, creams and just a hint of brown. All the colors you expect to see in an apple orchard. Hours and days of knitting later, I realized that I ran out of yarn. And the dyer was no longer dyeing yarn so I couldn't get more. But it was so perfect. I searched for eons for anyone who dyed a similiar colorway and found it.

She agreed to dye it on whatever yarn I'd like that she had in stock. So I chose shokay orient. A great blend of bamboo (satisfying my inner panda) and yak (time to figure out why everyone thinks this is amazing stuff). It arrived in a beautiful swirl of red and green. And I started to knit the My So Called Scarf pattern- only it resulted in really bad pooling and I just couldn't fix it no matter how many how many stitches I casted on or the needles I used. So I spoke to Kristin from Green Mountain Fibers and she volunteered graciously to redye the yarn. It got lost in the mail. I think Santa must have taken it since I mailed it to her around Christmas Eve and she didn't receive it until the end of January, 1 month later.

At this point, I really should've listened to fate, the knitting fairies, all beings mystic and supernatural. But I didn't. Once I received the re-dyed yarn, all I kept thinking about was what pattern to use it for. And I finally found a pattern, only I couldn't cast on the right number of stitches. I know how to count to 30, but apparently when yarn and needles are involved, not so much. Then my needles were small, so I went up a couple of sizes. Then it was too big. By the time I found the goldlilocks of knitting needles, I carefully casted on. Except as I did the first row of knit stitches, I realized I was off, YET AGAIN. By the end of the evening I had managed 3 rows of garter stitch and then just gave up.

There's nowhere to go after garter stitch. This isn't like casting on 300 stitches of lace and then going ok that's it, all I want is to do some simple garter or stockinette. Or if you used sock needles to get through a huge part of a sock, you could just go find larger needles and work on a simpler project. I was using big needles, a beautifully soft yarn and could not knit. The only lesson I've learned is that sometimes the yarn is a little hexed and there's just no way around it, but what do I care? I finally have 3 rows of garter stitch knitted.


Edited: 5/1/09 Project has been frogged and is waiting to become something else. Some days you really just can't win!

Drowning in Yarn

I'm still drowning in yarn. This is ridiculous, mostly because I just started knitting last year and only really actively acquired a stash since the summer of 2008.

And it's not like I've been neglecting my knitting. I've BEEN knitting, it goes with me everywhere. Movies, cocktails, restaurants, coffee, errands, work, car rides, subways. I mean if my hands are free and there's nothing else to do, I knit. It's also a great way to avoid current events. Like the lady who had octuplets bringing her total to 14? Yes, there's socio-economic responsibility for you. And then they offered her a porn deal? Who can you really hate more? Her? Or the people who are willing to pay to know all this info about her?

I didn't know about her until a few days after everyone else. I'm glad I didn't. It's zen meditation for the soul. At least when your world is reduced to knits, purls, cast on and bind off, you don't have to worry about the crazies or the lies, manipulations, stories that people weave to save themselves from public scrutiny and humiliation. I'm nearly 30 days into a yarn diet and it's working out. It's been a difficult road, but when you're faced with these skeins and the limitless possibilities of what you can do with them, it's hard to say no.



Top Row: Squoosh Silk Lace in Sapphire,
Bottom Row: Sundara Silk Lace in Granite Falls.

Happy New Year?

My 2009 started without firecrackers, noisemakers or champagne. I missed the ball drop on tv by a few minutes and if that's any indication for the rest of the year, then it's going to go by really fast. I'm thankful for online banking which takes care of my bills promptly and assuredly, without which I'll still be signing my checks 2008 or 2010. Just every year but 2009.

I don't know whether resolutions are really effective. For the most part, mine seem to revolve around the concept that life's too short to be bogged down by the little details and banalities that can slow you down. Though, more importantly, it's also a time where I've realized that I need to face the fact that I've got a growing stash of yarn that's going to bury me alive. It's probably not as bad as some and yet worse than others, but it seems that I've become one of those people end up having more yarn than they know what to do with. I will not become that person. Mostly because I love my stash. I don't want it to sit there and stare at me in its pretty twisted hanks. And the knowledge that if I sold everything, I'd have enough for a 15 day cruise around the Greek Isles is sobering enough to realize something must be done.

They're all going to be projects one way or the other and hopefully by 2010, I'll own a tiny shoebox or two of yarn and a lot of pretty items.

Fairy Godmother anyone?

I've officially become an unofficial godmother to a baby boy. Neither his parents nor he are Catholic making it unofficial, but all I ask is where is my magic wand? The big, flouncy blue dress? The invisible wings?

Nothing. But in the spirit of being one, I've knitted him a blanket slightly too big for his newborn self, but I'm sure will fit into nicely in a matter of weeks and a hat. That hat's a bit big, but he'll grow into that too. Maybe next time I'll actually knit things to size. Though, in my head, I'm always afraid that the recipient (especially with children!) will outgrow the item before receiving it. I got snowed in Boston, but it gave me plenty of time to knit the blanket and realize that newborns do 3 things: eat, poop and sleep. Life was definitely a lot simpler then.

New Goals.

It's not even Thanksgiving and I already have resolutions for 2009.

As it turns out I'm slowly becoming the person that will drown in her yarn stash if I keep my rate of acquisition going. So I'm putting it to an end. A complete stop. At least in ordering anymore. Having finally found a dyer that can dye my ABSOLUTELY favorite colorway on some great yarn (Yak/Bamboo Blend) at quite a pretty penny, I've decided that I've most definitely gone off the deep end and it's time I get realistic about my situation at large. NO MORE BUYING.

To add to it, my knitting twin has gotten me a beautiful skein of Great Adirondack Silk Delight in Beach House. It's going into a beautiful project if I can only think of one that is perfect for it.



I've covered an extensive palette of colors in my stash and I'm almost afraid of putting up a slide show of just my stash since it would scare me and I've been the person responsible for squirreling this stuff away for a few months. Yes. A. Few. Months. I've only been knitting a year and I'm afraid of that day that'll come when I decide I no longer have the will to knit. All I have to say to that is someone please be prepared with a big bottle of something. Maybe 2.

Seeing (Ruby Port) Red

Oh how quickly I went from staying on the wagon to mildly tripping with a skein of beautiful soft malabrig, then falling off and waving to the wagon in utter defeat. A few days after the malabrigo incident, I fell for this indie dyer currently living in Sweden (simple scarves by mabel) and snatched up four skeins of beautiful bamboo/merino blend sock yarn. I still haven't figured out why I'm so drawn to bamboo blends, I could be part panda, but I'm weak-kneed at the mere mention of it. A choice between silk or bamboo? Bamboo. Cashmere and bamboo? Give me the green stalks of plants every time. I really must have been a panda in my previous life.

Everything went so well until I finally started to clear out my inbox and was directed toward a Sundara Update- then I was done for. The ruby port. I did my best to ignore it. Did I really need another skein or two of yarn that was going to be a shawl? Didn't I own enough yarns to make me a dozen shawls? How many people did I really love enough to actually make them for? Forget taking the time to knit, how many do I know that I can really knit something beautiful and them not throw it on the floor, lose it in a restaurant or clean up dog vomit?

And then after awhile, it didn't matter. I just had to have it. Then I found the perfect pattern for it. And the voice in the back of my head just kept goading me on. Buy it. Get the red. So I did. Happy Birthday to me. I bought two lovely skeins of FSM and since I won't receive it until 2009, I've got a few more weeks to reduce my stash and wait for the arrival of this cranberry beauty. Yarn makes me happy. I wish I knew it before, but at least I know it now.

On a side note, my friend got me a stunning edible arrangement. The fruits were cold and ripe. Beautiful also. Much more practical than flowers that die prematurely.

Soft and plushy.

I'm weak. I'll be the first to admit it. But you would be too if you walked into the store and there in front of you was a beautifully deep purple hued skein promising to be soft, stunning and pretty when knitted up. It felt like cashmere and if I had to imagine what cloud 9 was made up of? It would be the Malabrigo sock yarn. And I'm not drinking the company koolaid. I don't like any of Malabrigo's other yarns. I've tried but every time a skein came home with me, I found myself destashing it to other lovers. More for them, I always say.

I broke my wonderful yarn fast with this and since I had been planning to get a skein from when I first heard of it, I don't think I broke any rules, maybe bended them slightly. If that. It's already on its way to becoming a beautiful object: Knotty Gloves.