New Year

So in my last post, I talked a lot about what I had done, but I'd like to talk now about what I hope to accomplish, in terms of knitting at least.

I have started several projects that I want to keep working on and finish. I don't have too many WiPs partly because I got ruthless and frogged several things that I just didn't like. The main WiP is my Pretty as a Peacock Shawl aka BB is a Moron! It's the most wonderful, modern, awesome lace I've ever seen, so I started it as my first lace project. (Like it says, moron!) I actually started another, much shorter, much easier lace project since and will likely be done really soon, probably within a couple of days!

I also have the Great American Aran Afghan on the go, for which I've finished one square to date. I enjoyed almost all the square, with the exception of the top and bottom borders, because of the fact that no matter what I did, I couldn't figure out how to repeat the placement of my increases to do the decreases, even though I was doing exactly what I'd written down, only in reverse. I still don't understand that!

At the very top of my queue for projects not yet on the needles, is a cabled sweater for myself. I ordered myself the yarn already, unfortunately it's back-ordered at the distributor (perhaps even the manufacturer), so I'm unsure as to when I'll get the yarn. I'm really looking forward to it though, because I love the pattern complex, without being overcrowded, and it changes enough for it not to become boring and repetitive. I believe the back is just pure stockinette, so that may end up being the death of me, but the front is too beautiful!

I have lots of smaller projects in mind, some of which I've already got the yarn for, such as Ysolda Teague's beautiful Gretel.

As far as more general things, such as skills, I'd like to knit tighter, since I end up using sock needles for everything up to aran weight, and 3.75 needles for super bulky weight! Yikes!

I'd like to learn how to graft, to steek, to more successfully increase, and to pick up stitches without making it look so ugly.

I'd like to finish a pair of socks. Hell, I'd love to finish a sock period! I've never gotten past knitting the heel flap, thanks to the fact that they were too damned tight, and I couldn't get them over my heel!

I'd like to knit more from the stash, and not buy so many useless amounts of yarn, that are only good for fingerless mitts, and such. I'm getting bored of them!

I'd like to knit up some random hats and such from my acrylic stash to give to charity.

In non-knitting terms, I'd like to get healthy. I'd like Mimi to stop peeing on the floor. I'd like to get a decent job. I'd like to become a size small, or even medium. Hell, I'd settle for a LARGE!!! Okay, so not a single one of these things is likely to happen this year, but a girl can hope, can't she?

A year in Knitting

With just under 48 hours left in the year, and the last hour spent on ravelry, I've been thinking about my knitting throughout the year.'

Up until this year, knitting was definitely an on and off thing, and I had never produced anything more than a scarf. I could only knit stockinette, and, although I'd tried, I couldn't honestly knit in the round. I knew the theory, and could even do it in practice, but not well, and usually I'd end up accidentally working in the wrong direction, giving me unintentional short rows!

Then in late February I found this really cute pattern on Ravelry, that involve only knitting a little square, and then stitching it up into a bunny. I finished it really quickly, and was really pleased with how well it came out.

Buoyed by this success, and by my Ravelry surfing, I decided to try cabling, just like I'd been dreaming of doing since nearly the start of my knitting days!!! It was so remarkably easy, and it was even more fun! I worked on the Irish hiking scarf for 4 balls of yarn, but by then I was bored, and it was nowhere near long enough, so I put it away for a while (and eventually frogged it for the yarn).

I got super busy with work and such for a while, so my knitting came to a halt for much of the late spring, early summer. Then for my birthday I convinced my mother to take me yarn shopping, where we bought the most wonderful sock yarns, which restarted my knitting again.

I learned how to magic loop and restarted a sock, and kept tinkering on that for the summer, but never much, because I'd get bored and distracted and put it down again.

Then finally in September I started and finished in no time at all Fetching. Buoyed yet again by the success of that, I started another project, the Great American Aran Afghan.

I shortly after attended my first ever knit-nite, and have been going to nearly every one in town ever since.

Somewhere in the last few months, I have learned so many more skills, and made some more projects! I now know how to do lace, and am nearly finished my first project. I got good enough at having a feel for knitting to be able to make mittens completely without a pattern. I realize I can now "read" my knitting, although I've been able to do that all year, but I couldn't for the previous 9.

I am really proud of what I've managed to accomplish this year, at least in terms of my knitting, and am confident that this coming year will only make me more of a knitter!

Knitting and movies

Thanks to catching a terrible terrible cold I've been out of commission since Thursday. I was forced to skip a Hallowe'en party, which really pained me, because I was really looking forward to it, and catching up with friends.

It did mean though, that I had a bunch of time to sit and watch movies and knit. The first movie this week was the Oscar-nominated There Will be Blood. Oh my god, was it painful. Over 90 minutes in, and it was still going nowhere. I made the executive decision NOT to watch the second 90 minutes, for fear I'd end up bashing in my LCD monitor out of boredom and irritation. It really seems that movies that go on and on, yet never go anywhere are REALLY in at the moment. We came to the same conclusion with the Darjeeling Limited this evening, and turned it off after a bit. I really don't understand why anyone actually pays to see anything by Wes Anderson. This is strike 3/3 for me. Really boring, long, drawn out "comedies", that at the funniest moment of the film get a very minimal smirk out of me. No more please!!!

I did have far more success last night, when I rewatched Casino Royale, and then followed it up with the Go-Getter, a cute indie film, about a guy who steals a car in order to go look for his brother across the states, and the woman whose car he's stolen. Fun, sweet, and they didn't feel the need to make it a 3 hour long film! :O

I also watched Wristcutters: A Love Story, which I thought was very clever. Basically there's this land where everyone who commits suicide ends up in. A bit surreal with lovely little bits, and plenty of Gogol Bordello music (though sadly no Eugene Hutz playing the Eugene character.) Also a few really bad accents, most notably "Jerry" from ER's terrible Austrian accent. Still I really enjoyed the movie, and was happy to have watched it!

While watching Wristcutters I finally finished the first of my Nunt's Cabled Wristwarmers, this time with the CORRECT cabling and everything! It fits like a dream with hardly any tweaking (lengthened it a tiny bit, and decreased the cast on stitches after the thumb to tighten up the hand).

I just cast the chevalier socks back on with a couple of extra stitches in the back, so hopefully it will be wide enough this time!

Ribbit ribbit

I feel like my knitting throughout the entire month has been an entire waste at the moment. Last week I had to frog my Nunt's Cabled Wristwarmers because I had severely messed up the cables (I was knitting inside out, and it's hard to see what you're doing when you do that. I didn't know that it was possible to knit in the round right-side-out! lol)

Then a few days ago I came to the realization that the lovely chevalier socks, for which I had just finished the heel flap on, were never going to fit me (I could barely squeeze them past my heel, and that will only get worse once the foot of the sock is built into it!) I debated whether or not to keep going and find someone to give them to, but I really wanted to have these for myself, so I finally frogged it yesterday, and went back to working on the wristwarmers now that I've had a break from them and felt brave enough to start them again. The part that really frosts me with the socks though, is that I was knitting the MEN'S SIZE!!! Where the hell are the men whose heel-top of foot distance is significantly smaller than mine? I mean I have size 8 women's feet, for crying out loud!!! Yes they're wider than most women's but my feet fit perfectly into size 6 men's shoes when I do find them. *grumble grumble* At least I know that the upsizing should be fairly simple, just adding another 4 ribbed rows to the back side should do it. We'll cross the foot width bridge when we come to it, it seems!

Overheard at Zaphod's

I walked into the washrooms at Zaphod's last night just in time to watch some girl lift up her shirt. A minute later I heard the same girl say "Touch my tattoo -- it's, like, lubricated!". The IQ level in the bathroom when another girl replied "Oh, it's like, TRIBAL, or something!" (The tattoo in question was of a bird, slightly stylised, but nothing tribal about it)

I came to find myself in this brain-numbing situation thanks to the Bicycles, a Toronto indie-pop band who just happen to be one of my favourites. Their pop-rock is very sixties influenced, Beatles/Monkeys/Beach Boys/etc style. Very fun and cute. Sadly their set was quite short and only featured music from their upcoming album, and none of their older songs, but the music was still good, and I still love them, and really wish I could be in Toronto for the album launch next week, so I could see a proper set, and buy the cd directly from them.

I spent much of the time knitting, while waiting for the first band, the Balconies, to play, and during their entire set. They were decent, but their music didn't really make me want to leave my knitting and go up and dance. The main act was Young Rival, yet another 60s influenced band, but this time much more of the louder, harder rock of the late 60s. They were good, but I found that most of their songs sounded the same. I still would have bought an album, but they didn't have one, only an EP, not enough tracks for my liking!

The crowd at Zaphod's was an uncomfortable and truly odd mix of complete and utter hipsters, and old folks (well, people in their 50s, 60s). Toward the end of the night the old folks had mostly gone home, and instead the hip-hop crowd had begun to infiltrate, since they had their stuff coming up right after Young Rival. I was throughout the night the odd one out. My whole "preppy" look, my weight, and the fact that I seemed to be one of maybe 3 people in the audience who knew the Bicycles (and probably the only one who came FOR them). Oh yeah, don't forget the whole sitting out the first act and knitting on my own!

Young teaching the old

It's been a while since my last post. I've been wanting to post for a while, but between ridiculous internet troubles, and going on an insane knitting kick, I just haven't gotten around to it.

I finished my first afghan square. It's more yellow than it appears in the photo, but it was the only shot I was able to get in before my camera died again. I'm quite happy with the finished product, though I do wish I hadn't messed up at the very beginning and forgotten to put an extra stitch in between the cables (top left of the central cable pattern).

I've also bought yet more yarn, which I really need to stop doing, at least when I don't have a specific project that I need the yarn for.

I started knitting Nunt's Cable Wristwarmers (too lazy to link to ravelry atm), and am nearly all the way through my first mitt, just a few more rows to go, and then possibly a few more to make it long enough to reach past my knuckles.

I also cast on for the Chevalier Socks by the same woman who designed the Green Gable Hoodie in the Fall '08 Vogue knitting. I LOVE her stuff. It's drool-worthy!

My nanny, who looked after me for nearly 12 years, is in town, currently house/pet-sitting for another woman whom she once looked after. She's now 79, and her health is failing, so I've been trying to spend some good quality time with her. She's the grandmother I never got to have, the sweet old lady who just is happy to see me, and loves to spoil me. Neither of my biological grandmothers are the least like that, luckily, I've always had her. I just gathered up a mad array of needles, so that I, the 20-something can teach HER how to knit. She did knit a long time ago, but never more than plain knitting, so I'm going to give her a refresher in knitting, and then teach her how to cable! The only thing I need now is some yarn, as I don't have enough of any unvariegated yarn to make even a scarf out of!!!

So back to Knit-Knackers for the 4th time in 2 weeks. If we can't find anything suitable, I'll get some cascade 220 at Yarn Forward, since even though it's more expensive than it is in the states/online, it's still very affordable.

10 hours driving hurts my knee

The trip to Toronto went well. I managed to hit up more yarn stores than I thought I would. The Naked Sheep, the Purple Purl, Romni Wools, and Lettuce Knits.

Bought older copies of Knitter's that I didn't yet have for less than half-price at the Purple Purl, plus got an AWESOME reusable bag in bright purple with the sale.

Bought some more Classic AL (teal this time) at Romni. Their basement is great now, and the guy who was down there, organising it all, was really nice and helpful. Mum picked up 3 crochet books, ALL of which have actual wearable stuff in them, which shocked me. I'm not normally a fan of crochet, as to date there's still not been enough modernising of the styles. Crochet Me was the only one I knew of beforehand that had some nice stuff, but she also bought Positively Crochet, which alongside some of the dumb granny-square style things, also had some very nice patterns in it. She also bought Today's Crochet, which also has some nice patterns, but not quite as modern as the other two, but still nice simple, clean looking ones, sans granny-squares and crocheted flowers.

Finally I got to Lettuce Knits, and in chatting with the salesgirl, found out about Berocco's Ultra Alpaca, which has incredible yardage (400 per skein) for a fingering weight, and it's very very cheap ($12), and isn't terribly scratchy either. I plan on using this for Pretty as a Peacock.

I would have gotten to two more stores had they been open in the morning. Instead I got to drive through a construction ridden area in a terrible rainstorm, only to discover neither was open! Fun times...

I also got to spend some time with my best friend who moved to Toronto this summer to work, AND got to become an inside source for a documentary for CBC next fall.

In other news, I finally got my camera to work for long enough to take a series of photos of my projects, both finished and on the go, and a big chunk of my stash, which was terribly exciting. Now I've finally got pictures of my projects up on ravelry, as well as many more stash yarns!

In even more exciting news, I went to my first Knit-night ever last night. It's been nearly 5 years in the making. I have joined the list a few times, and had great plans, but always either forgot, went to bed before it began, was otherwise occupied, or in one of my non-knitting phases. Last night, I found myself clean, dressed, in a knitting phase, and remembering I had an email reminder about it, so I went to Bridgehead and met 5 very nice women, none of them more than 5 years older at most. I added a few of them to ravelry when I got home, because I'm silly that way.

Now off to watch some tv, and keep knitting my afghan square!

Patterns and toronto

So, after my allergy shots yesterday, I ran a few errands. The last of these errands landed me on Innes Rd, and since I wasn't ready to go home yet (plus it was the beginning of rush hour, so the way to downtown would be hell), I decided to keep heading east, and ended up randomly picking major roads in Orleans, until I found myself on St. Joseph, and decided that since I'm all the way out here, why not head to Wool n' Things? I spent a good hour and a half looking through pattern books, and then the great big pattern binders. I was delighted by the pattern binders, and the fact that they have a really different selection than I found at the other 3 stores.

I bought Evening in Eden by cabin fever, a lace wrap that I plan on knitting as a scarf instead (half the repeats wide), since I just don't have that much yarn, plus with my attention span the project would have no chance otherwise! :P I think I'll use my cashsoft dk.

I also bought Fine Filigree Fingerlings by HeartStrings, gorgeous fingerless mitts. Oh so elegant and lovely!

Honestly, I really really need to stop going to yarn stores for a while, and actually knit at least one thing I have in full, BUT I'm headed to Toronto for a couple of days just after the weekend, so I'm bound to head to one of the stores. The only question is which.

I've been to Romni once, and was completely overwhelmed by it, but then it was in the middle of a massive heat wave, and their air-conditioning was broken, and I only knit with non-wool things at the time, so it's probably worth another visit. But I'm also tempted by Lettuce Knits, to which I've never been. I visited Passion Knit last fall, when I spent an entire day walking down yonge (from davisville through to somewhere ridiculously further north), but didn't really like it much.

Perhaps the Wool Mill if I go to visit my friend who now lives on Danforth? Or the Naked Sheep which has a sale on, PLUS has a knit-in in the afternoon on Tuesday? Oh boy, the choices!!!

A New Discovery

Did you know that skunks chirp loudly, much like a songbird, only, rather than singing in daylight, it does it before dawn? I sure didn't, until the smell came in the window, explaining the singing I had just witnessed.

I suppose you can learn something new, even when you've only had 4 hours of restless sleep!

I Am the Yarn Molester

I went to the Wool Tyme warehouse sale for the first time this morning. It was interesting to look, but I found most of the prices too high even at the discounted rates, and very little yarn that appealed to me anyways (with the except of the pure cashmere, which was half off at $19 a very small hank!) Most of the yarns were either cotton or really terribly scratchy icky wools. Perhaps because I do most of my yarn shopping at Knit-Knackers, and online, I expected the deep discount prices to be different, but instead they were consistent with what Knit-Knackers sells them for every day, and in fact I noticed a massive overlap in the specific brands, since Knit-Knackers mostly specializes in discontinued yarns.

So I drove downtown and went and molested yarn for a good hour or two at Knit-Knackers, and ended up coming home with 10 balls, 7 of which were London Tweed (needful yarns) in 4 different colours, since they didn't have many multiples in the same colour, and a couple of oddballs of aran-weight stuff for making more pairs of fetching.

Now it's time to get down to the task of sorting and stashing the new yarns, plus the bag of yarns we discovered we'd missed when doing a massive organizational of the stash (and the whole room). I should have stopped by Canadian Tire to buy some more plastic boxes, since I don't think I'll have enough room to fit the last of this in!

How to spend over $40 on ideas in one afternoon

Since I finished the Fetching, I've been trying to decide on what to knit next. As with many knitters, while I'm knitting something I want to cast on a trillion different projects, (and frequently do), but now that I'm done, nothing has quite felt right for the next project.

After spending many nights doing nothing but looking at patterns and rejecting them on Ravelry, I finally got up and dressed on Saturday morning and headed out to Wool Tyme where I spent a good hour or working my way around the store looking at patterns and molesting yarn. Finally I found the Great American Afghan and the Great American Aran Afghan books and bought them. I then stopped by Knit-Knackers on my way home, but miraculously left without any yarn at all!

Once home I went onto Ravelry once more and bought two patterns that had caught my eye: Nunt's Cabled Wristwarmers (which looks absolutely beautiful and elegant, and as a bonus the designer is REALLY nice and offered to help me if I need any while I'm working on them), and Pretty as a Peacock, which is the most beautiful lace piece I've ever seen, really clean and modern, not all frilly and flowery. I don't care that I've never knit lace before, and that this is a terrible choice for a first object, I'm in love! I've been searching for a smaller lace project to perhaps tackle before I attempt the shawl, but so far haven't found anything that appeals to me at all.

Now, time to go back to swearing at the afghan books for "place 28 increases evenly" (The reason I bought a bloody pattern was so that they would do all the figuring out FOR me! #^&!!!!!!!)

Forget the glass slipper, I've got an alpaca-blend mitt!

I recently finished my first ever pair of Fetching, which I've been admiring since I first discovered the pattern years and years ago. I had avoided starting a cable project for so long, thinking it would be way too difficult, only to discover in February that it's one of the easiest skills to learn in knitting. It's easier than nearly any plain pattern, since it keeps me engaged, but it's simple enough to memorise the pattern.

So finally earlier this month, when my fingers were frozen solid as they so often are, I decided to take the plunge and finally cast on. Within a few days I was done my first mitt, and then after a mini-hibernation, due to an insanely busy, stressful, and, in the end, heartbreaking week, I finally picked the second one back up, and finished it 2 days later. I loved how easy the pattern was, but how beautiful they look! Unfortunately, they're too small for my chubby hands (they're all stretched out and URGLY), so I now need to find someone who fits them well. I suspect for several of my friends they'll be to big, since so many people in the comments section talked about how huge they turned out on their hands. So, here I am, transforming into the Prince from Cinderella, searching for the girl whose hands will fit just right!

I, Claudia

It is rare that I find myself in near complete agreement with a theatre reviewer. One of the few times I found myself doing so, was recently when I saw I, Claudia, at the GCTC, after reading the review by Natasha Gauthier in the Ottawa Citizen.

All her specific critiques, I found to be dead-on. She didn't differentiate enough between Claudia and her stepmother, the voices grew tiresome. The masks were fairly god-awful (perhaps I've been spoiled by a lifetime of Odyssey masks?), and didn't bring anything to the production. I found myself wanting to go up to her and push the sides of the masks down to conform to her face. They ended up looking as if they were simply made for someone else, with a much large head, than intentionally large.

That said, I do still disagree with the tone of the review. The show didn't deserve such a negative tone. It was a nice show, fairly well-written, with some extremely well done moments, particularly as the grandfather, and when the stepmother speaks of her upcoming wedding.

I also highly disagree with the statement with which she starts the review, that masks serve as a substitute for directorial imagination. Masks can be such wonderful tools, and when well-done, can truly transform a performance/performer. I remember watching actors during rehearsals for mask shows, and how magical it was watching them try their masks on for the first time. How the actor could completely become the character of the mask. How the details, right down to the shape of the nose could completely transform a character.

Mask-work is wonderful, you simply need actors and directors who know how to handle them properly!