Category Archives: Knit or Get Off the Pot

Not my pun. Jakes pun. I’m still a knitter, puns or not, and I will crow on about it for hours unless you give me some Rowan.

New knitting project!

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I’ve been feeling lost and confused ever since I successfully finished knitting a Rogue hoodie that fit me.

Rogue

Until Keem suggested I knit her a Skull Illusion Scarf.

Skull Illusion Scarf

I said “Mokay, but are you sure you don’t want a Dark Mark illusion scarf?”

Dark Mark illusion scarf

She said, “No thanks, I’m in Ravenclaw anyway.”

Skull and crossbones it is. Much more ladylike and nonthreatening.

red vs creme

So off I go, on a new knitting adventure, with an illusion scarf. I plan on plotting my progress with my brand new membership to Ravelry. (For those of you who aren’t aware yet, it’s only THE knitting and crocheting community site. It’s still in beta testing, and just today I got my long-awaited invitation.)

OMG KIP!

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Wadsbone, of all people, alerted me to this:

World Wide Knit In Public Day
Saturday, June 9. You get together with other knitters at a restaurant, cafe, mall, park, or whale museum, and knit. KIP stands for Knit In Public, and ‘to kip’ is a verb.

There isn’t a New Bedford or Fairhaven site yet, so I’m going to ask the folks at the UU knit tonight if they’d be down. I wonder where the best place should be. Hmmm. Oh, yes. Whaling museum. I don’t care if it’s not technically public.

Day off: No fires.

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I work every other Saturday, so I get an alternating Thursday and Monday off. I made a schedule for myself, and followed it diligently.

Sleep in.
Read until 1 p.m. or book is finished.*
Look up double brioche stitch, or something that will make a more interesting brim for a hat.
Set up local bank account.
Eat at No Problemo
Knit and watch TV all night.

The banking research had already been done, and in fact, we had such a positive experience I was looking forward to going back. Unfortunately, our account-signer-upper person rubbed me the wrong way. She referred to New Bedford as a big city, implying that it was scary. When we expressed no preference for who’s name should go first on the checks, Jason handed her our IDs face down, so she could randomly pick. She said, “Well, the man’s name usually goes first.” I turned to Wads with a look of horror, then said to her “I think that makes me want to do the opposite.” She did not hear me, or chose to ignore. Whatever. Wads’ name is first ironically.

Wadsbone and I found No Problemo as we searched out the potential neat places near our apartment. The menu is kind of like Chicago’s Picante – fresh and not too greasy. The fundamental difference, we found out, is that it’s run by white skater boys. And they have no horchata. And they close at 8. It’s good enough to go back to, but I still miss Picante.

I discovered something else exciting tonight. While looking for an elusive brioche stitch, I came across MagKnit’s Malagaiter. This will replace the hat I was about to knit. MagKnits is also responsible for the sweater I knit for Antron.

antonsweater.JPG

antonback.JPG” alt=”Back of Anton’s sweater” />

THEN, E pointed me to this mittem idea for transit cards.
Transit mitten

And E told me she’s wearing the arm warmers I made her last winter. I’m so full of knitting love that I may try to tackle the pattern problem I’m having on the sweater I’m nearly finished with.

armwarmers.JPG” alt=”E’s arm warmers” />

* Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams. Not part of the Hitchhiker series, I can now understand why Adams’ fans are so peculiar. I really enjoyed the novel, but it messes up my sense of humor in a way that makes me unable to hang out with people who think Everybody Loves Raymond is funny, and I pride myself on my ability to cross clique lines unnoticed.

Day 2. Still no fires.

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I am just about done with my second day at work. I went and visited the craft dungeon, the part of the basement that has become overrun with craftybits. There are 200 empty rolls of toilet paper, one million pipe cleaners, foam stickers, paint, tape, glue … it’s a crafter’s wet dream. My predecessor’s predecessor liked to buy craft crap – like googly eyes. There’s so much down there, I was overwhelmed. I have never in my life been overwhelmed by craft supplies.

So, I decided to start Crafternoon – since I found so much crap to use, it’s going to be easy. There will be a craft available every day after school for the kids who come in. I planned two crafts for today. One was coloring mittens and polar bears (admittedly, the first wintery shapes I could find), and the other was using foam shapes of sea animals and transportation. I posted the definition of ‘vignette’ and challenged the kids to come up with a vignette using the shapes. There were a lot of roads near the sea. I guess it’s appropriate. There were bored teens waiting to use the computer, and they totally colored polar bears. HA. Everyone loves coloring.

I’m took home “Sing and Sign Nursery Rhymes” so I can learn a few, because I’m going to do a story hour about ASL and signing with your little one. I can’t wait to see the expression on Jason’s face. If he thought me watching Reading Rainbow was weird, he has a lot to adjust to.

On the knitting front, or back, I finished the main portions of the sweater I’m knitting. I cast on for the sleeves, and I should be done relatively soon. I’m a bit traumatized by the lack of fitting, and the person I’m knitting for is 1,000 miles away, so this will be interesante. I found out today that 80% (that’s 4 people) of my library staff knit, and I just skyrocked up 67 arbitrary points with them. Lastly, Karla pointed me to an exhibit at the NY Museum of Art and Design, called Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting. It’s up till June, if any knittas want to meet me and go. This kind of blew me away:
tiny mittens

Viva la Rogue

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After the meal is over, my family always talks about how this was the best meal ever. I agree, of course, but this year had a few fantastic extras.

1. El Chipps
2. El Chipps’ cranberry sauce and chocolate-chip-zucchini bread
3. No babies
4. John Edwards. Yes, he was there.
5. El Chipps learned to knit
6. My mom, grandmother, and aunt all took pity on me and re-rolled a particularly tangled ball of yarn.
7. The best weather yet since nigh 1987.

Jason and I went a-bike shoppin’ yesterday, and I think we both fell in love with bikes. The one I’m looking at is powder blue. Jason’s is robin’s egg blue. Totally different.
Alls well that ends well. Rogue travelled a looooong time,
and safely made it to Japan, where it is being worn every day.

Al wearing Rogue

This is Al. Al is a superhero and a spy and a poker player. She hails from the bowels of eastern Iowa,
and is doing … you know … spy stuff. And teaching preschoolers how to count in English. And playing the mellophone.

Rogue goes on holiday

Theeeeeeeeeend.

The Rogue saga continues

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I brought the sweater with me today, in hopes of finding someone it fit. It’s kind of a Cinderella story, only the shoe part – not the rags-to-riches part.

Many thanks (five, to be exact) go to model Nancy, who is the PERFECT size for this sweater. She’s 4’11” and about a size 3.
IMG_8768.JPG tiny_hoodie.JPG

So, anyone who fits that description who has $50 can be the owner of this amazing sweater. Also, there are almost two skeins of yarn left (ug, insult to injury) so you can knit up matching socks, or a scarf, or hat, or a matching sweater for your cat!

Kaaaaaaaaahn!

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As I’ve recently discovered, the sweater I just knitted is too small.

If you’re not a knitter, or don’t make … furniture, or … babies, then you don’t understand what this means. I’ve just spent hours upon hours of my time deciphering a pattern and fixing mistakes to make a perfect sweater. See, this sweater was worth ripping back yards and yards of yarn for a tiny mistake, because I love it. I have a tendency to give away the things I make (I hope you’re enjoying those mittens, Vivek!) so this was going to be the first thing for myself.

Alas.

Here is the sweater, in it’s perfectly perfect completed form:
TOO SMALLLLLL

See my forlorned face? See the cuffs? I’m not wearing anything underneath (hee) and it barely fits my torso.

So. I’ve contacted the Rogue community (I’m being serious) and asked for advice. I think I’m going to take Rogue I around with me tomorrow and see if I can’t find a more appropriately sized model. I’m hoping someone will give me fifty American dollars for it. That would recoup the cost of yarn (and I will build a new death star, oh yes). Rogue II will be even better. I plan on knitting the sleeves IN THE ROUND.

Did I just blow your mind?

Email me if you’d like to buy this amazing, hand-knit, lovingly handily handcrafted sweater.

More Rogue wiki excitement

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I can’t tell what my favorite part of this whole knitter/wiki adventure has been. There are three contenders:

1. Checking the wiki and seeing that someone other than me made changes to the pages (It works! They’re USING IT! Eeeeee!)
2. Making a new knitterly friend through cyber-stalking and Googling, and then having said friend make a little Rogue wiki button so props can be given throughout the internetlands.
3. Spending time with my mom, talking about how knitters get their information, and how a wiki IS a good way to disseminate pattern information that is discussed, but that it would take a bit of a paradigm shift from the listservs that we’re all used to.

I think the button wins. As Julie said, knit bloggers almost always create button links for knitalongs, so she made this tiny (and therefore cute), techno button for the wiki.

Copy and paste this code to have it for yourself:

<a href="http://roguealong.pbwiki.com">
<img src="http://roguealong.pbwiki.com/f/roguebutton.gif/">
</a>