November 2005

Knitting with 100% cotton is a bitch. It’s soft and it makes fuzzy lint balls explode all over the place (up my nose, stuck to my sweatshirt..) and it’s hard to control the tension. The strands just slide through my hand and I have to clutch it tightly to make sure my stitches are remotely consistent. I’m 6 rows away from finishing what I started working on yesterday (whoohoo!) and the entire ball of cotton yarn has turned into a gigantic knot. MutherFUCKER. Coffee has been working on untangling it, after I spent time last night flinging it around and trying to sort it out, and it’s a giant mess. Bleh. Did I mention I’m only 6 rows away from being finished? Yeah. Stupid cotton. Still, the finished project is soft and sweet and almost worth the suffering. (I have already finished one of these items – I can’t say what it is right now..)

Of great amusement to me – when I purchased the yarn for this project, which involves me making 6 of something-or-other, Coffee laughed and said I would never get it all done in time to mail to the recipients. I am pleased to say, to him, HA! because I’m pretty sure I’m right on schedule. Ahead, even, maybe.

The problem with my knitting, right now, is that everything I’ve got on the go is a gift. I can’t post pictures here until after the holidays unless I want to potentially ‘ruin the surprise’ for someone. I’m only a few rows into my Ribby Cardi (but they’re beautiful rows, if I do say so myself!) so there’s not much point in showing you that, and besides, I’ve put it aside for the time being while I finish up the aforementioned gifts. *sigh* I will say that I’m currently working with the prettiest colours of yarn, however, and it’s quite cheerful to run my fingers through it. Tactile! Yummy!

Speaking of knitting, our classes are over. We’re not signing up for the next ’round (starting in January) since we’re trying to get the Stitch-n-Bitch groups more active – and those are free! – and both of us are fairly comfortable knitting by ourselves these days. Having just found a LYS that’s unspeakably affordable and with a great selection, I’m pretty sure I’m set for knitting for the rest of eternity. I liked knitting with a bunch of people, but with any luck the SnB group will perk up and we’ll be knitting in larger groups again anyway.

Changing subjects…

Can I just say that I feel like the biggest tool on the face of the earth when I’m sitting in front of my SAD light? I’m cross-legged on the floor with my face a foot away from a blazingly bright light, thinking positive thoughts and breathing deeply, and this little voice pops into my head and shouts, “YOU LOOK LIKE AN IDIOT.” So much for positive thoughts. At any rate, the light does seem to be helping. It’s almost December and I haven’t curled up into a depressed ball of goo to whimper yet. And last night? I slept all night again. That’s two non-panic, full-sleep nights in a row. If I didn’t know my brain better, I’d pronounce myself cured. But I’ve met my brain, and I’m pretty sure it’ll fuck RIGHT UP AGAIN if it thinks I’m relaxing and assuming it’s done screwing with me. :)

Changing subjects, again..

Last night, before bed, the temperature outside bumped itself up to 17 degrees. That’s, um, 62.6 degrees F for my American friends. Tomorrow is the first day of December and it’s pissing down rain. I was pretty sure that I was living in Canada, where we have, like, WINTER, but apparently I was mistaken. On the plus side, a few more years of global warming and I should be able to grow my own vegetables year ’round in the yard.

Meh. I need to eat breakfast before it’s time for lunch.

Yeah, I know these aren’t vegetables..

Coffee likes to play all “innocent” and tell me I’ve corrupted him over the time we’ve been together. I always roll my eyes and declare it not true.

Tonight he lost all his potential “innocent cred” by informing me that he wasn’t sure of the NAME of the woman he slept with prior to me until after they boinked. She had told him, but he couldn’t remember it.

Who knew my husband was such a trampy ho?

:)

Has anyone pre-ordered the PostSecret book?

Went to SnB last night, drank frozen hot chocolate (and oh, yes, that’s a splendid thing!) and chatted with Leanne and Coffee while working on my cardigan. Slow going at this point, because I’m paranoid about the whole thing, but there’s progress being made and it looks fabulous. I love the yarn. LOVE IT. (The yarn is the “Rio” 100% viscose that I picked up at Knitwerx – mine is the orange/purple/olive.) It’s soft enough that I force everyone to fondle it, and then they want to fondle it some more. It’s knitting up very nicely, and I think I’m really going to love this cardigan when it’s done. Tammie and Will arrived just as we were getting ready to leave, so we bid them a fond farewell and headed home a little before 9pm. My hands were starting to hurt a little – I had been knitting earlier in the day, too, so it was time to call it quits for the evening. Tammie is 99% finished her project – just a bit of crochet to go, I believe. Whoohoo! We missed Melissa last night, but will see her tonight at our last knitting class.

There was a Mythbusters marathon on Discovery last night. Have I gushed enough about that show? I think not. As I whined last night, “How can anyone expect me to SLEEP when this show is on?!” Coffee solved the problem by taking the remote and turning off the TV at 2 am. I think I would have stayed up all night watching it, otherwise. I really love that show.

But at 2 am the television was turned off and I rolled over and went to sleep. Woke up this morning at 8 am, drank some coffee, solved a couple of Sudoku puzzles (damned husband) and here I am.

Did you catch that? The part where I did NOT wake up in panic, did not HAVE any panic and slept soundly all night? Did you?

Whooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohoooooooo!

GO ME! GO ME! GO ME!

*ahem*

Yeah. I’m pretty pleased.

Here’s a secret. Knitting things – things that require ‘sizing’ – means it’s necessary to make a gauge swatch. In order to make sure things are going to turn out the way they should, y’gotta’ test the yarn and needles and your personal knitting style/tension to see if it matches what’s required for the recipe.

This won’t surprise you, but I absolutely hate doing gauge swatches. I avoid them. I despise them. They’re useless knitting (except for that whole “making sure things are the right size” thing) and once you’re done, there’s nothing you can do with that little 4″x4″ square. Grrrrrrrrrr.

I’m making this cardigan, and I paid a fuckload of cash for the yarn. It’s bad enough that I’m terrified I’m going to screw up the knitting in general – so I’ve been working on my swatch. I HATE GAUGE SWATCHES.

I do, however, love Chicknits.

Apparently New York is infested – even the “expensive hotels”. *shudder*

This guy’s “fantasy” cracks me up – doesn’t he know how hot their coffee is? I’d love to have seen the face of the employee who took the money from his unoccupied hand.