AUUUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!

This is my first official day of work for the new school year. Within minutes after I turned on the copiers, I was already faced with a recalcitrant machine.

When a new xerographic module or fuser is needed, it clearly states on the keypad that it's time to order one to have on hand. That usually gives me plenty of time to order it (they won't send them until they're needed) and get it in before the old one blows. But whoever was doing the copying this summer (and she is the woman who had the job before me) ignored the warning, so after spitting out a few copies, it stopped cold.

I have an extra fuser here, for some reason, but no xero module. I called the hotline and they're sending one out "priority", to get here tomorrow or the next day. We'll see. The person on the phone also gave me a code to enter into the machine that would give me an extra 5000 copies before it died for good. It was closer to 2000, but it did help.

Meanwhile, the "good" copier started printing pages with nothing on them--except black. Each page was totally black. I called Xerox again, and the tech walked me through removing the xero module (I'm sensing a pattern here), turning off the machine, waiting a minute, replacing the module, then turning it back on. Fortunately that resolved the problem.

But never fear, another popped up quickly. It started jamming every few pages. Not only was it irritating the hell out of me, it wastes a lot of paper (4 sheets every time it jams). Out of desperation I turned on the dehumidifier, and for the last few minutes the copier has been working properly. I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but I don't care as long as it works.

A couple came by yesterday to look at our property. It was the hottest day we've had this summer, and they wanted to walk around and see what it's like. I declined. They're not interested in the house, just want some remote land in WV where they can park their camper. I don't know if they'll be willing to pay the price we're asking if they don't want the house. I told them they could rent it out.

We're going through our "stuff" and throwing out/giving away as much as possible. I'm a pack rat and it's really hard for me to part with anything, but some of this crap I've been toting around for the past 21 years without ever looking into the boxes, so I think it's safe to say I don't need most of it.

And I decided that I had to make a shawl for my sister to wear to her daughter's wedding in November. I still haven't started Shipwreck; that's on the back burner for a looonnnggg time. I spent hours on Ravelry last week searching for the perfect pattern: lightweight, airy, beaded. Yeah, I just have to have beads on it. Joan doesn't care; it's my doing. So I started Pampas ( too lazy to link), which has three different lace charts (did I mention that it's LACE?????) and some stitches that I just could not for the life of me figure out how to do, so after two tries at it (it took me 2 hours just to knit the first row), I gave up and went back to Ravelry. I finally chose the easiest one that has beads, Piece of Pi, and started knitting. Of course I'm using mohair lace yarn, which means that it felts almost as soon as it's knit (just makes it difficult to rip out when I make errors. And do I make errors.) After three starts, I finally made it through the first twenty rows, which equals maybe 3 inches.

I don't do well with charts, even simple ones. I felt particularly stupid yesterday; I kept making really dumb mistakes. I may end up buying a shawl for Joan.

The stinking copier is jammed again. Where's my gun?

Packed and ready to go

Yesterday I went through my yarn and chose the sock yarn I'll take to Florida, along with the necessary patterns and the box o' needles. I am ready for any eventuality.

I pretty much know what books I'm taking (I think I'll just sneak 'em into the car after Tom packs it, because he thinks I'm taking too many); I've gotten a bunch that look good at book swaps lately.

I might not be quite as prepared for leaving the condo, though, as I don't have any clue as to what clothes I'll take.

Over the weekend, I read I Am Legend, which was written in 1954, I think, which can be sort of aggravating with the details of life at that time (as in, no microwave, records instead of cds, cars with chokes, etc.), but it really is a timeless story. Only the car with a choke, and a record player seemed odd in this day and age. I imagine that the movie with Will Smith will address those issues; now I have to see it. Very good book.

And I read the 5th book in the House of Night series. I can't remember what its title is, although I think it's Hunted. Those are fun, easy books and I enjoy them.

As for knitting, I did finally finish the second sock of the pair that I started two years ago. They fit and feel good. I knit them with fingering yarn and size 2 needles, which is what put me off them so long ago. They make a very thin fabric, but I like the way they feel. Very lightweight, soft. I started a pair with some of Claudia's sport discards, pink and yellow, but I don't know the colorway. I'm making them for a coworker whose only luck is bad luck, really really bad luck. As in she used to be an English teacher (in a piss-poor backwoods county, if that tells you anything) but had a nervous breakdown or something because she's now working as a teacher assistant for maybe $12,000 a year, and she's always deathly ill with this or that, or having foot surgery that laid her up for three months and she couldn't work, and her kids won't help her (although it's possible they have a reason for that), her furnace broke down in the dead of winter and she couldn't afford to fix it, so people here at school chipped in to take her through those months, including paying her health insurance when she couldn't work. Well, last week the poor woman had a mini-stroke while working and had to be rushed to the hospital. She was hospitalized for two days. Anyway, a few weeks ago I asked her if she'd like some handknit socks (she's always admiring mine) and told her to measure her ankle and the length of her foot. She wears a child's size 3 or 4 shoe! She never did get the measurements to me, but I'm guessing that her foot is about the same size as 9-year-old A's foot, well, except for the poor woman's bunions.

On top of it all, the woman was running back and forth 5 hours to the bottom of the state to take care of her ailing father, then he died and left her some run-down, no good rental properties waayyy down there, and she's sunk way too much into fixing them up, and the people who are renting aren't paying their rent........... She's just a magnet for bad luck, poor thing.

I tell you, we are so blessed. During the winter when the scary financial things were going on with us, I had no doubt that we'd come out of it okay. We came out really well. And here we are, with plans to spend my entire 6 weeks off work in the Keys, while we look for a house to buy, just seven months after the financial boogey man attacked us.

We truly are blessed.

Black and Red

So. Yeah. I finished my Twilight-cover-art-inspired socks last evening. What do I do now? It's kind of like after I finished reading the Twilight Saga, nothing else appealed. Others I've talked to in rl are the same way (not all of them, but enough women I consider to be sane are saying the same thing). What knitting project is next?

I really want it to be Shipwreck, but that's a pattern that's not suitable for knitting during odd down moments. It's going to be a committment. Tom suggested that I save that for condo knitting this summer. I'll probably work on it in the car on the way down and back. I went ahead and rolled one hank into a ball. I've got a couple thousand (I hope) 6/0 glass beads in red, black, and silver-lined clear. I really have no idea how to determine what color I want where on the shawl; I'll have to figure it out as I go, I guess, since I'm not going to use the 5000 beads that the pattern calls for. I don't want a stripe of all red, or all white, or all black, or red and white, or red and black, or whatever when I get done with it. I'm really going to have to think when I knit this one. No mindless tv knitting.

I went to Ravelry and printed off page after page of discussion of this shawl and its challenges. Fortunately, the designer has been an active participant and clears up a lot of the issues.

I can't get the entire chart to print, but she has each section written out, so with luck I won't need a chart. I really mess up when I used even a simple chart, so I'm glad that she spelled them out.

So, I've got three hanks of Bloodlust All That Glitters yarn dyed by yarnlust, dozens of vials of beads in three colors, the two needles necessary to start the project, and alllllll of those pages packed away in a plastic shoe box to take to Florida in June. I may have to start the center long before then; it depends on how stupid I'm feeling. If a simple chart kicks my ass, I cannot imagine what this heirloom-quality lace will do to me.

I've never before felt like I just have to knit something. There are lots of patterns that appeal to me, but never has one jumped into my brain and taken up residence there. The very first time I saw Shipwreck, I knew that I had to knit it. I also know that it will probably take years to finish (hello? 5000 beads), and that's okay. I'll probably end up using it as a decorative table cloth most of the time. By the time it's done, we should be living in South Florida permanently, so I might be able to wear it during a cold snap.

But that leaves me without a current project. I cannot rest until I find something that I want to do and get it organized. I have two hanks of Twilight-cover-art-inspired worsted that I want to use to make a neck warmer and a hat, but I just can't get too enthusiastic about that now. I haven't seen a hat pattern that I really, really want to do with it, so I'll wait.

I dug through my stash of Claudia fingering and came up with some gorgeous red and gray sportweight. There are four separate hanks of it; I'm just hoping that I have enough to finish a pair of socks. I started knitting last night using a pair of size 1 dpns; it's heavier yarn, but I didn't want to go any higher in size because they look like they'll be nice and squooshy on the feet. I think it's Claudia's Buckeyes colorway, which, oddly, is very similar to christinamariepotter's colorway for the cover of Eclipse. This got my mojo rising and I cast on. This isn't to say that I won't be ordering more yarn from christinamariepotter (on Ravelry and etsy) for each of her colorways from books 2-4. Must. Have. Them.

I finished books 2 and 3 of P. C. Cast and Kristen Cast's House of Night series. I'm now reading the fourth book. They're light and cute and a quick read. But they are not Twilight.

I am so doomed.

I'll try to add photos to this post after lunch. Tom is substituting in and English class today and he's going to bring me a big Pepsi. I might want to check my weight tomorrow morning; I've been drinking more Pepsi than sugarless tea lately.

Two of my sisters, Betty and Joan, are planning to fly to Ft. Lauderdale at the end of June and we'll have a Sisters' Week in the Keys. We've long dreamed of doing this, but scraping together the money for the four (or three, as Nancy will be with friends that week) of us to fly, get a motel on the beach, and eat for a week has eluded us. With a free place to stay and our own gourmet chef (Tom), we're going to make out like bandits. (No, Google search, we sisters will not make out.)

How crazy am I?

Have you seen Knitty's new Shipwreck Shawl? Go look; I'll wait.

*hums tunelessly*

*ducks book thrown*

Just how much of a masochist am I? I whined and bitched the whole way through my Endless Test Knit Shawl for Claudia last summer; do I really want to try to knit yet another endless shawl--this one with 5000 tiny glass beads??? Each having to be prestrung by me?

Yes. Yes, I do want that shawl.

It's knit with Knitpicks Bare sock yarn (silk, yet), which is pretty inexpensive, then hand-dyed a faded deep blue. I'm not a shawl person, but oh, this one is so pretty.

I've been floundering this week with that damned DST crap and haven't been able to find both the patterns and the yarn for something that I'd like to knit. Last night I finally pulled out a "ballet" slipper (felted) pattern and started knitting a pair with some of my freebie Claudia yarn. I'm not terribly enthusiastic about that project, but it'll do for now.

Oh my. What to do.

And does anyone know where I could have put my copy of Twilight? I searched for it last night and it's nowhere. I'm driving Tom crazy.

Screw it

After 11 rows and three hours, I've given up on the perfect mitts. I simply cannot keep track of the stitches and I'm tired of unknitting.

So on to the Pomotamus mitts! I've cast on. I'll give up in an hour or two.

*sigh*

An old knitting dog CAN learn new tricks

I taught myself to knit about 8 years ago. It was a slow, painful process. I'd cast on, knit a few uneven rows, then put it away for a couple of months. Every time I started again, I'd have to look up how to cast on, because it sure wasn't sticking in my mind.

After a while, though, it clicked. My stitches became nice and even and I could remember how to cast on. I started knitting regularly.

I'm kind of ashamed to say that I never learned the provisional cast on. If a pattern called for it, I'd find another pattern. My brain just couldn't handle trying another way to cast on. The long tail method was what I first learned, and by golly that's good enough for me.

But this past week I found a pattern for wristlets that is so perfect that I have to make them. And, of course, it calls for a provisional cast on. I sighed then googled, found a site, printed it, and sat down to knit.

I could not figure it out. It looked like a foreign language. So I did some more googling, found another non-video site, and tried it again today.

Still couldn't get it. So I sucked it up and went to Youtube. And I found the perfect explanation.

I don't know why I've avoided Youtube and videos this long. Yes, I do know, I'm lying. I hate computer noises. Startup, "you've got mail", that annoying bleep when I do something wrong. So, for years, I've kept the sound turned off. It pains me to even turn it on to listen to music, and I loves me some music. (Last Train Home, Eric Brace, Peter Cooper)

Anyway, I found this video, Crochet Provisional Cast-On, and watched it once. Suddenly it clicked. I picked up my yarn, crochet hook, and dpn and cast on provisionally. And it worked. The first time.


Wow. I feel empowered. I am Woman. Watch me cast on.

Not really. I'm not up to making a video right now. I'd have to turn the computer's sound back on.





My perfect wristlets: They'll have to be added later. IE froze on me.

And I didn't even have the stinking sound on.



P. S. Another reason I like this video so much--"crocheting" is misspelled. Or is it mispelled?

Casting on and actually finishing things!

This has been a pretty productive long weekend for me. After a very nice Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family, I got out the yarn and started knitting.

Since we're keeping the thermostat lower to save money, I knit myself a pair of fingerless gloves. They really are warm, but I quickly discovered that it's really awkward knitting while wearing them, so they're for reading or using the computer.

They're made of Claudia's Felt Me, don't know the colorway. I'll have to be careful not to felt these simply by using them! They took about half a hank; I'll have to find out how much is in a hank of Felt Me. It's some that I got when I worked for her, some that was thrown out. I can't figure out why; there are no knots or obvious defects in it. The pattern is Wristlets; I found it online and can probably find it again if anyone is interested. They're very simple to make, and they're nice and warm.

Next I made a hat for B2. It gets terribly cold in Orlando, you know; if it's below 60, he's freezing. So he gets a hat and a scarf. I finished the hat in one evening. It's made of Claudia's worsted, Deep Blue, and some fingering, possibly Tea Cup, something like that. It's nice and thick, and B2's ears will be warmer during that nasty Orlando winter.




The scarf is Rainy Day Scarf, http://yarndemon.googlepages.com/rainydayscarf. I love the pattern. It's easy to knit while watching tv and it actually looks complicated. It's 4" wide and will be about 4' long when it's finished. I only have maybe one pattern repeat left to knit. It's from Claudia's worsted, Deep Blue,and it's so gorgeous and squishy and warm.

So that's my weekend. Cold, yes, but productive. For once.

Back to my usual whining

Cold all weekend. Cold, cold, cold. Not much sun.

Instead of finishing one of the big-ass wraps (I bought beads'n'stuff on Friday), I started another one, this one of Claudia's boucle in the Ink colorway. Let me tell you, Ink it is. My hands are black after knitting for a while, and it doesn't come off easily, either. This better be one stunning wrap, let me tell you.

Close-up of the fabric:

Very pretty, but very much a royal pain. I'd forgotten just how much I hate to knit with boucle. I should have used a bigger needle (I used size 10) and fewer stitches, but this stuff is such a bitch to rip out that I won't even attempt it.

I've got to come up with something to use to close them. I just don't like the big buttonhole and haven't had any luck finding suitable buttons, anyway. Even at etsy.com or ebay. I need 2.5" ones, and on those sites, "big" means 1.5".

I have to pack tonight; FLORIDA Wednesday night! Late Wednesday night! Just a carry-on! Horrors!

Casting on again

I admit it. I can't finish one project without casting on several others while I'm working on the first one. I lose focus easily, get bored with what I'm knitting, so I switch around.

I've finished all of my friend's BYOB except the handles. They require some concentration, something which is in short supply these days, so I cast on my coral Bam Boo Tropical Tee (Oat Couture) again. That's the one that I'd almost finished on vacation then realized that it was much wider than it should have been. So that one was frogged and wound into (many) balls and forgotten for a month. I started it again last week and am now almost to the sleeve increases.

It took three tries to get that photo uploaded in the right orientation. It kept rotating it. So I rotated the original and uploaded that one, hoping that would straighten it out. Didn't work that way. So I went back to the original, and somehow, someway, it came out right this time.

So I'm getting along well with that project. Naturally, I had to start another one. One of my co-workers bought a 3-button wrap that is simplicity itself, knit in cotton. It has three huge buttons and one buttonhole. She loves it and would like more; I saw a really easy challenge and jumped on it with all fours. No doubt that statement will come back and bite me in the butt, but so far so good.

I'm knitting mine of Claudia's worsted in the Roasted Chilies colorway. It is gorgeous. I've only knit an inch or so (I started it last night around 8) (past my bedtime), but I love it. I measured Bev's wrap, estimated stitches per inch, made a swatch (see, guys, I really DO swatch!) and got my stitches per inch, then multiplied by the width I wanted ( about two inches wider than Bev's, since she's petite), and cast on. After 10" I'll make a buttonhole, then continue until I hit about 61". All stockinette stitch. I hate purling, but for this I have to.

Several women are showing interest in the wrap. If I like it enough, maybe I'll do some custom work.

Last weekend's FOs

Sweater for the United Yorkie Rescue: That is not the way the picture is oriented, but Blogger did it. I don't know how to fix it on here.





I finally wove in the ends of my Red Wagon Socks. I love this colorway and the pattern ((black)hearted). Claudia's fingering lacks enough yardage to knit this pattern (with the ruffle on the top adding quite a bit of yardage) so I used some KnitPicks fingering that almost perfectly matched to finish the toe of one and start the ruffle on the other.



Oh crap. Pretend I turned that photo. Actually, the orientation of the original is correct, but Blogger uploaded it that way, and it takes too long for this computer to upload that I'm just going to leave it. But it's going to bother me big time.

And finally, *drum roll* I finished the Claudia Never-Ending Test Knit, all but the blocking, which I'm putting off because a) I've never blocked anything before and b) it's going to be a big-ass pain. Too bad, because the last week has been beautiful with low humidity, very unusual for this time of year.




Not an FO, but a new knit: I started these socks a few days ago and have gotten quite a bit done on the first one. I took this photo before I spent a few hours on it yesterday. Made of Claudia's Buckeye fingering.

And the bead goes on and on and on and on

I spent hours yesterday pushing beads up to the beginning of the neverending ball of yarn. The remaining ball looks slightly smaller, but I'm not going to believe my eyes until the beads actually touch the shawl. And maybe not then.

In the meantime, I've cast on for another bamboo Tropical Tee (by Oat Couture), this time in coral. It's more easily portable than a ton of beads. It's a very easy knit, and I love the way my first one in bamboo drapes. And drapes. And drapes. I'm knitting this one in the round to the sleeves to avoid having to seam later. I hate seaming.

(photo from Oat Couture website, www.oatcouture.com)

(black)hearted

Isn't that just the coolest name for a sock pattern? One presented on Valentine's Day and shown knitted in a bluish-black yarn? Hahahahahaha!


I've decided to attempt to knit Passion in this pattern. See, trek, it's mostly stockinette, totally mindless knitting, with little hearts along the top (and I knit socks for A with hearts on them, so I think I can manage it again) and, get this, a ruffle on the top. A ruffle. Cast on 256 stitches, then after a couple of rows decrease decrease, and end up with 64, knit a few rows of ribbing to make sure the stupid things stay up, then the hearts, then stockinette baby all the way to the heel and then to the toe.

Remind me of my enthusiasm for this project when the stockinette parts become unbearable, will you? Or, maybe not. It might be better that way.

(It appears that Blogger isn't allowing me to link to the site. It's stariel . blogspot . com/2008/02/blackhearted.html. Perhaps that will help if you want to see the photo and pattern.)

UPDATE: I've knit the two rows of 256 stitches and done the decreases, the little bit of ribbing, and am now ready to start the heart patterns. Pray for me, please.