Pacing Yourself Through the Olympics

Taking a break from the Gossamer Lace Project of Malcontent (a/k/a "The GuLPoM"), I thought I'd show you my first Olympian FO:


Armwarmers are almost as hard as socks to self-model.


It's all about pacing your approach. Don't forget the stretch breaks!


And of course the presentation. She loved them!

Always Behind the Wave

Hare comes trouble.

I managed to knock out a couple opera-length arm warmers for a co-worker this weekend - cast on during the Opening Ceremonies (which, despite all the emerging controversy, were still amazing to me. I even cried a couple times because when I'm not being a twelve year old boy, I'm being a hormone-imbued softie.) tucked in the last loose bits in time for the birthday cookout Sunday afternoon. I'll post pics of them later. They aren't all that impressive - just tubes with... thumb tubes - but they are always a big hit at my office, where the climate control is set at arctic no matter the weather outside.

Since then I've been having several false starts with Eunny's Print o' the Wave Stole. I'm knitting it with Habu Textile's superfine merino in a green that is much darker than the grass green I'm finding on one of my LYS's website.

The figure 8 style invisible cast on gave me problems (I kept getting too much slack in the figure-8-ified working yarn) but I just sort of fudged it (by undoing the original slip knot and retying it to take up the slack).

For some reason, I started on size 2 needles with this probably-about-gossamer-weight yarn, which looked awful. So I picked up a set of Addi lace needles in 00 and everything is flowing much more smoothly... only...

Watching women's gymnastics and knitting on size 00 needles with gossamer weight yarn might not be the most complementary activities. I managed to drop a stitch in the last three rows of my second pattern repeat and will need to rip back and/or fake the missing stitch to get back on track.

Other than these false starts... it's been an interesting knit. I have been sticking to easy knits all summer and it feels good to be challenging myself again. I will have to remind myself of these warm-fuzzy feelings when I start to cuss my itty bitty superfine knitting later in the week.

Olympian To Do's

Overduecraftron 2000

I am not a joiner*, I will not be officially participating in any of the Knitting Olympics events happening out in the wired world - nor will I be joining any of the local activities.

However, since I am even more of a procrastinator than I am not a joiner I have decided to use my time gawping at the teevee to catch up on my backlog of gifts that I owe various people for various reasons (more on my Great List of To Do in future posts).  None of them are particularly ambitious, but together they have over the last year turned into a looming Voltron of crafty intimidation.  Time to face the monster and get this log jam out of the way.

* I just happen to often end up doing what everyone else seems to be doing. I'm going to call it zeitgeist 'cause that sounds fancy-pants.

Pushing the Reset Button

Y'all. It's been almost two years since I posted on my knittin' blog!! When I put myself on notice, I go all out, don't I?

So.

Yeah.

How have y'all been? Since I was last 'round these parts there's been abortive attempts at Ravelry (I think I might be forumed out) as well at etsy (I have a store. But it's empty. But it's there!). Heck I even re-named this here blog in a slouchy, inexorable move toward etsyfication.

Then I just sort of let life take over.

There's been work stuff, there's been illness, there's been family visits... the usual.

Oh! But the Big News is that The Mister quit his job during the winter of ought seven and has since been training up to become a licensed massage therapist.

!!!

I know! Huge, huge change. I am ridiculously proud of him for making this tremendous leap of faith. I'm also perhaps a wee bit terrified about all the Unknowns. We've been a one to one point five income household for over a year and a half now. We've managed, but it has taken some major changes to get here.

We're still in our little pink doll house (which we love).

We have a third cat now! She's still a kitten and the grown-ups are Not Happy about it. At All.

As part of the New Income Adjustment (and also Prong One of my Three Pronged Plan to get rid of Cracker Factory weight/maintain my cheese eating habit and keep my current wardrobe) I've been biking to work. It's been almost entirely great (with a sprinkling of YIKES) and has been a wonderful way to rediscover this fantastic city.

As for the knitting? It's been in fits and spurts. But I'm determined to get the creative juices flowing again. Thus the re-resurrection of this blog. Even if no one else reads this ever again, I plan on using this as a way to keep track of my crafty endeavors.

So yeah. Hi! It's good to be back. What's been going on with you?

On (the) Board

I know I know... long time no... sigh. Yeah. No excuses. Life, blah blah blah. Etc. I've put myself on notice.



I've knit a grand total of one pair of socks so far this summer. Hopefully I'll get my gumption up again soon... I've got some baby toys in the works (the knit-thulu, a few Nauties from Knitty, plus something less Lovecraftian for my new third niece).

We had a health scare with The Mister about a month ago (he collapsed at work, but is OK now) so we're re-evaluating our careers over here. With the house things get a little more complicated, but we'll manage.

It's been good to catch up with y'all this summer while we're sorting all this stuff out, but I know this blogging thing isn't a one way street. Hopefully as the weather cools (and my mind becomes less Monkeyish) I'll be able to devote more time to knitting and blogging about it.

'Til then, yeah. I'm On Notice.

Bad Snarky! No donut!

Jeez Louise, y'all. You need to tell me when I leave cliffhangers like that. Sheesh! :slaps own wrist:

The secondary mammogram (which hurt infinitely MORE than the first) resulted in two ultrasounds and a good old fashioned grope by the radiologist.

Turns out my left, um, "kitten" is smaller than my right and asymmetrical to boot. Who knew? I most certainly did not, and they're right under my nose. Literally!

Happily, my left breast, along with being small and misshapen, is also perfectly healthy. I'm not scheduled for another mammogram until I'm 35 (or if I/we find a lump). Yay for asymmetrical, healthy b00bs!

The house stuff continues toward closing. Last week's house inspection resulted in a little addendum/counter-offer/counter-counter-offer action at the end of the week, but we're back on track to landed gentrydom.

I'm continuing to knit on the Phoenix DarkityMa Pi Are Square Shawl of DOOM but have plans in the mix to do some gift knitting (gnitting?) before and during The Move, which will probably be spread over the month of May.

I'm gonna close with a little cheesecake pic of one of the neat-o spaces in this here house. It's a little L-shaped room that the previous owners finished in the attic for their dog. There are little arched cutouts (I call them "hobbit holes") in the master bedroom suite to access this room. Can you say reading/knitting/stash nook? (Well, it's a bit cramped and there is a lot of sun on the one end... but there's a lot of stashy places in this house!)

You put your stash in there!

My new excuse for radio silence is two fold:

One, I had my first mammogram last week. Based on something in that image, they've asked me to come back in again for a re-scan. Their assurances include the fact that I am young (and therefore "dense", and yes this has been the cause for all kinds of jokes) and have hard to read breasts as well as their desire to make as clear a "baseline" image as possible because of my family history with breast cancer.

So. After a good old-fashioned freakout and cry, I'm doing well. I told my parents about it (and that went much better than I expected) and we are hoping for the best while eyeing our bank accounts and preparing for the worst.

I'm scheduled to go in again on Monday, and I'll be meeting with the radiologist this time, so I'll know right away if there is something to be worried about.

Two, we're buying a house! Now, if they do find something Monday, we'll probably see if we can back out of the deal because we need to get our finances figured out. But if it's just dense tah-tahs... and if the home inspection Tuesday goes well, and the paperwork is clean... this will be the new Chez Snark:



There are so many cubbyholes and storage spaces... I've been mentally placing furniture and yarn since they sellers accepted our offer.

We're meeting with the loan lady tomorrow to complete our application, the inspection is Tuesday (as I mentioned above), and if all goes well... closing is scheduled for May 5th.

Cross your needles for us!

In knitting news: yes. I'm still working on the DarkityMa Phoenix Shawl. I'm already thinking about the next project, though... which might have something to do with the bit o' cotton I have in the stash. Someone, please stop me before I do this! I hate cotton! HATE! But... spring... and... lacy tank tops... and... ack. So weak.

(Dark?) Phoenix Knitting

It's been a tough Winter, but Spring is here! Time to unclog the crafty gutters of my mental house and work through the leftovers of the last year.

I finally freed the DarkityMa Pi Are Square Shawl from my marination cubbyhole last weekend. It is a frilly, lacy, alpaca-y monster to behold. After a few false starts (and broken yarn, the horror!) I've got the (Dark?) Phoenix Shawl off to a good start.

Since I'm lazy and don't want to unravel, wash, and rewind four skeins of lace-weight yarn; I'm just knitting this new shawl straight from the lumpy unravelings of the old one. Thus the whole Phoenix thing.

But why the comic book geeky hint at the Dark Phoenix? Well, there's a lot of bad juju in the old shawl that I'm hoping to exorsize in the reknitting, but who's to know? I mean a friggin train parked on this yarn. It might be Yarn with a Chip on its Shoulder for all I know. Only time will tell.

Wish me luck!