Great Book!

I just got this book out of the library, and I love it! I love knitting socks, but lots of patterns elude me because I don't know how to do a short row toe or a short row heel, for example - many of the patterns I want to make are written for an experienced sock knitter, and while I consider my knitting abilities quite good, I don't know much beyond the basic sock recipe, cast on, do ribbing, knit leg, flap heel, pick up stitches, knit gussets, decrease for toe, bind off. I can do this in a pattern, too.

Lately I've been wanting to get a bit fancier. So far I've started (and frogged due to a small gauge issue - if the person I was making these for had thicker legs, this would have been perfect. I got all the way to the gusset on the first sock and ripped it out. I realized as well that the two skeins ofI yarn I got, while from the same colourway and dye lot, do not match. One batch is really dull, like the dye didn't take properly. I got the stuff in Chicago at Loopy Yarns, I really wanted to get some Lorna's because I was in their hometown. But I'm pretty unimpressed. The yarn is nice, but not ohmigodineedmoreofthisstuff nice. The squishy sock yarn I got in Minnesota at the Yarnery in Minnesota is more pettable. I'm not linking Yarnery because the sales clerk was really bitchy, I raced in their 30 minutes before closing on Sunday, because we had made a special trip to go to the shop, we actually finished at the museum early so I could go; then we drove around because we got idiotic mapquest (not linking them either, grrr!) directions that required us to go the wrong way down a one way street. So I finally get there, all frazzled. The clerk wanders over after a while and asks halfheartedly if I want help, when I say no she seems relieved. Then I went to check other yarn, and chat with another customer, who on hearing I'm from out of town is super-hospitable and even tries to push some sock reinforcing thread on me.

So then I'm browsing the yarn right by the till and this lady asks when they close, and the clerk says "RIGHT at five" - 'in a don't you dare even think about trying to make a purchase after 5:00' voice. Then one of her friends comes in and she's all friendly and chatting. Then I asked for a winder, and she says "they're right there" (the sign was there but they were obviously sold out). Treated me like I was a total idiot.

So anyway, I'm not going back. I go to too many cities and visit too many excellent yarn shops to put up with that crap. Sorry Yarnery people.

Where are the Environmentalists?

And why aren't they screaming at the media in the wake of historic disasters in the USA, China, and Myanamar.

How is it possible that people are still roaring by me in their Hummers, smoking cigarettes, buying toxic cleaners, and advocating for more, not less, plastic bags?

Click here for a little insight into this.

Irony

Is messing up the coffee because you're under-caffeinated. I think it's time to cut back.

My boy is a rock star.

Check this out. I'm so proud of him, it was mesmerizing to watch his hands, and see the right strumming to the beat and the left zipping over the fingerboard (neck...sorry, violinist...and I use that term in the loosest possible sense...writing this), all while he was singing the lyrics (correctly) to two separate songs, all I could think of is...















"Wow. That's my kid. I made him. Wasn't he just born a little while ago?"

OK I'm waiting for it to upload, so in the meantime, some pics!


Cutie-tiger striped doggie sweater. It's a long story, here it is in a nutshell - The colours are my older daughter's soccer team colours, and




Oh my God. did I mention we have a mouse? Or probably mice? I was sitting here typing away and I swear I saw something out of the corner of my eye. The problem is that I can't stop looking over there, even though I know I'll scream my head off if I actually see something for sure.


OK, deep breath. Back to tiger sweaters. On the soccer team is a little girl who just got a teeny weeny pomeranian/chihuahua mix puppy, and he is so cute. Yes, I'm still glancing at where I think I saw the mouse. Anyway, my precious child volunteered me to knit the dog a sweater. So I cast it on Friday night, and sure enough the dog's 'mom' said she'd heard a rumour I was making this. So then I bragged (because I am such a loser) that I could probably get it done for Monday's game.

So of course I finished the thing tonight. The seaming on the bottom is a bit dodgy, there are only about 4 rows after the leg opening. I think I should probably rip that back and re-do the chest and make it a bit longer. But then I keep thinking, "it's for a dog", and I don't.

Here it is:





















It actually only took about 2 hours of not-particularly-concerted knitting. I did weave in the ends as I went, and you can see as I got to the base of the sweater I started realizing how many ends there were going to be, hence the large black stripe.