The good, the bad, and the ugly......

Since I'm not nearly as entertaining as so many other bloggers (Yarn Harlot and Franklin), I figured that I'd just steal movie titles. However, as I look at this photo, I can see the good, but can't put my finger on the bad and the ugly....

One good is I'm finallly on track knitting Via diagonale, after four, count'em four, starts. I frogged this damn thing three times. The first because I can't count, the second because I thought it was coming out too big, and made it one repeat smaller (no I didn't swatch, it's a purse), and the third because I wasn't happy with the color contrast. As you can see the blue is varigated in the photo and looks pretty good against the black. However, originally I had it against another shade of blue, and the "diagonale" pattern got pretty lost. I was away over the weekend so I toddled off to what passed as the LYS (A.C. Moore) and bought "Sugar and Cream" cotton in black. It costs about 1/3 the price of the blue and you can tell, it is not nice. But I was away from home, and I was desperate. The other interesting thing is that no where on the ball band did it tell me how much yarn was in there. So I had to buy enough extra, just in case. So I have a feeling that I'll be stuck with black "Sugar and Cream" when this whole thing is done. I'll also have more of the blue varigated stuff. So I may have to go back to my LYS and exchange it for two other colors and make one that I'll like better. I'm still running a little larger than the pattern, so I'll probably decrease it one more repeat if I do make a second. Knitting Rules! (which is quite good, if only I could read more than a page at a time before I fall dead asleep, no fault of the author) and my rapidly fading crocuses are both good as well, so I suppose the Sugar and Cream gets both the bad and ugly designation, even though you can't tell that from the photo.

On another front, I got my sister started on a Kitty Pi Bed. She hasn't knit in years (had vague childhood nightmares of learning), but after starting on Saturday afternoon, she was more than half way finished by the time I left her on Sunday afternoon. In addition, she neglected to do any of the chores my mother had asked her to do. I had to explain to my very affronted mother that it was "knitter's syndrome". She was counting. I'm not sure that she'll continue. I've already got her hooked on beading. But if she does continue, she'll definitely be a "product knitter". Today she called me at work so I could describe binding off to her. I'm now awaiting for the "felting" phone call.

And wouldn't you know, even though her own cats each have a bed, knitted by yours truly, the one wants to sit right in the center of the one she's knitting. I had better get a photo of the finished product!

Who said socks needed to be identical.....

I guess there's a first time for everything. I am not a fast knitter. I'm actually happy not being a fast knitter. Since I do not have to knit for warmth or protection (that's what Kaufmann's is for), I can putz along as I please. But I am going home to visit my mother. When I saw her at Christmas, she asked me to knit her a pair of socks, in the Brown Sheep Symphony colorway. No problem. Well, it has taken me about two weeks to knit the socks. I just finished to take them to her this weekend. However, when I really looked at the pair this is what I saw.

Not only are they not identical twins, they are barely fraternal twins. In fact, it appears that I used two completely different dyelots. My LYS bands together two balls of the same dyelot in their sockyarn so a customer doesn't have to sort through an entire bin. I just grabbed the color I wanted late one evening, and didn't really look that closely. So I've now checked and nope. Both said 004 dyelot. I thought the second ball looked like it had less burgundy, but I thought that perhaps it was just on the "outside". Of course I was pulling from the inside. So now I have two what appear to be mis-matched socks for my mother. I'm hoping she'll wear them until I can get back to the yarn store and buy one ball that appears to have more burgundy to knit her yet ANOTHER sock.

Sorry for the blurry picture. I was experimenting with my camera phone. I thought it was clear enough to get the idea across. Life is never easy.

On another front, I am giving my sister Kitty Pi Bed lessons this weekend. Her kitties love their beds so much her boyfriend wants one for his mother's kitty. I said fine. I'll be happy to teach someone how......

Ever have one of those lives?

You think everything is going along pretty much normally, then karma, or something equally sneaky, comes in to bite you on the behind.

Husband and I were supposed to be going to the 'Burgh this weekend to see a ballet. I've been a season ticket holder for years, but this year, I've not been able to get to many of the performances. Here in Happy Valley, it is spring break--students are non-existant, so restaurants are quiet, traffic is low, it is quite nice. So what happens... my dearest gets a toothache. Now, unfortunately he is one of those poor folks who didn't get a good roll of the dental dice, but we have a good dentist, and all has been well for quite a while so this hit him out of the blue. He had an "emergency" root canal last evening, and this morning is in some dreadful pain. No ballet for him. So it is up to me to decide....do I turn the tickets back and stay home? Try to find someone in the extended family who isn't busy this weekend? Find two someones in the extended family to give the tickets to? Sigh. It's always something.

So yesterday, I'm busily working on socks to take to my mom in two weeks. I needed a sock break so having exchanged some of the cotton from my frogged Cozy, for a darker shade I begin to cast on for the Via diagonale . Casting on is not my favorite part of the knitting process, but last night I don't know what I was thinking. I cast on and began to knit. I noticed at the end of the first patterned round that I had an extra stitch. Oh well, it was just a miscount right? On the next round I purled two together, and that took care of the extra stitch. On the third round where the pattern really begins to emerge, I'm knitting along fine, when I realize I won't be able to finish a repeat of the pattern......What's going on here?!! Well, as you can all assume what went on is that I couldn't count, or add........So here we are again...... sigh.

The year of knitting dangerously.....

I've never been one to follow the crowd. In high school, when mini skirts were popular (and I had the legs to wear them) I wore midi-skirts. If someone wrote that AB beads were hard to manage, I used them everywhere, and somehow made them work. So the popular wisdom that painted/multi yarns were terrible for patterned/lace knitting didn't make much of an impression. I've been told that I have a unique and "exciting" color sense. I think that means I take color risks, with improbable combinations, and somehow they work. Which is why I have a beaded ornament collection that includes several brown ornaments. (Or that my work is weird and the commentators don't have any idea what to say!) My favorite book on color is one by Margie Deeb (title lost in the cavern of my head). It specifically addresses beads and color. The astute reader will most certainly remind me of the fact that beads and fiber are really (REALLY) different mediums!! So far, though, I've played with fiber fire, and it's worked out really well. At least I've been pretty happy.

Example #1



This sock for example .... yeah, yeah, feather and fan lace, Socks that Rock Carbon, colorway disguises the lace pattern, but, actually, I think the colorway makes the lace pop. Maybe you don't think so. Well, that's OK. I don't think I'll be losing any sleep over it, and I doubt that you'll be losing sleep either over a misguided knitter in Central PA.


But now we come to this........

It is the Cozy pattern from Knitty. My original inclination was to use Elsbeth Lavold wool/silk. But during the Super Bowl sale at my LYS, I succumbed to cotton. They didn't have enough of the color I liked the best, but it was 50% off, so I chose the multi pictured. Yeah, same sad story. So I forged ahead this past weekend and began Cozy. After two or three repeats, I can honestly say, I don't like the pattern with the colors, the drape is too stiff. Wait, what am I saying--there is no drape?! It is very stiff and it makes me tired knitting it. (I usually have no problems with cotton, so I don't think it's the fiber.) So what say you? Should I forge ahead or frog and find a project better suited to 800 yards of cotton yarn. Which begs the question does anyone have any project suggestions for said, stiffish, sorta splitty, cotton?

Thank Goodness they're almost over.....

....... yeah, the olympics I mean. I know I'm in the minority here (or maybe not based on ratings) but I find them extremely hard to watch. NBC, who is broadcasting most of the events in prime time here in the US, long after we've heard the results, seems to think that everyone has the attention span of a flea--or someone who watches MTV. They show the top three skeleton competitors, then the top three snowboarders, then back to skeleton or the the guy on the Zamboni, or worse curling, a niche sport for sure. Hey, NBC, how about this. Pick an event, show us ALL the folks who compete, that way we may even cultivate an appreciation for the sport. We might even be able to see why someone didn't get good scores verses someone who did. How about that? Oh, yeah, and in between there are 10 minutes of commercials, which makes it convenient if I want to do the laundry while I'm "watching".

To add insult to injury, the other networks are playing up their "reality" (term used loosely) crap (to scarf up ratings) and not showing the few programs I do watch, like House. Someone try and tell me that watching bad entertainers crash and burn is better than House? Go ahead and try.

I'm sure you'll have figured out that I'm not a reality show fan. I've only watched one episode, one time. That was the infamous first Survivor when some idiot was walking around in his birthday suit because it was his birthday. I was away at a conference and killing time until I could call home. I had the TV on in the hotel room. I haven't watched a "reality" show since. Strangely, I used to be a big fan of Burnett's Eco-Challenge Adventure Race. Which I now realize was a reality show in and of itself. The difference is that there is no "voting". The race teams made it or didn't. It was painful, grueling, and sometimes the unexpected happened.

So the good news is that I've found other things to do, like go to a Canadian Brass concert. (See... not having Olympic knitting on my mind I actually get to do enjoyable things.) If you've never heard this group, and have the opportunity, do!! You will not be disappointed. They are a chamber group, but play all types and styles of music. And they're funny and entertaining to boot. How does one get to be an accomplished musician AND entertaining and funny? It just doesn't seem fair, does it?

De rigeur artsey stuff. I'm on the last few rounds of my third and hopefully, final for awhile, Kitty Pi Bed. I await a swift and ball winder that I finally broke down and purchased. I realized that I had something like 15 skeins of yarn that needed to be wound to use and I couldn't face it. It seemed to take forever to wind my "Socks that Rock" yarn and there was just a little over 300 yards of it. I just received two more in their new sized skein, so that will take even longer. Better to not make myself crazy, which I nearly did hand winding the 500 yards in Brooks Farm Harmony.

Sorry no pictures today. Maybe next week, when the bed and even possibly some sockies are finished. And I'm trying to figure out what gauge of wire (26 or 28) to purchase so I can try some bead knitting and/or crochet with sterling. I've been thinking about it for a long time and mes thinkin' it's time to take the plunge.

Just Sayin'

We temporarily suspend knitting and beading for the following PSA.

I'm a non-smoker. I admit it. I do hate cigarette smoke. (Oddly, I'm more tolerant of cigars and pipes, go figure.)

When it comes to personal habits, I lean toward libertarianism. So yeah, this is sort of a contradiction. But the way I see it...you have an absolute right to poison your body, to gunk up your lungs and to stink yourself to high heaven if you want to, but you have no right to do any of those things to me. So until the cigarette makers and smokers can figure out how to inhale the smoke, and keep it in, I'll be fighting for banning smoking just about everywhere the "public" congregates, but particularly indoors.

Why is ths coming up now? Because it's on my mind. We attended a family dinner at a nice restaurant over the weekend. We had a private room. Many of the people in attendance lit up regularly and with impunity, even when dinner was served. I even found an overflowing ashtray on the buffet table!! Bleah!! When the evening was over my hair, my wool jacket and slacks, everything, smelled like I spent the evening in the Elks Local 101 Lodge.....It was not nice.

Food was good, company was fun, but the incessant smoke made it difficult [for me] to enjoy the food and the company.

Is it me? It's OK you can tell me.

Just so you know the bead part of the title is meaningful...here's a photo of a little gem I did some time ago. (The design is not mine, but for the life of me I cannot remember the designers name.) I made two of these and gave them both away. It might be time to make one for ME! And Mom you better still have yours. You better not have given it to Matt.

Happy Heart Day

Can't get interested in the Olympics. They are just so technical and mechanical anymore. I was reading, and figure skating was on and the commentator was saying that the Chinese couple hadn't been home with their families for more than a week or two since they were very young children. They are now in their late teens. They have been training for their entire lives. I suspect that the same is true in Russia, and other more totalitarian governments. Who really wants to live life that way?

Here, in capitalistic countries, it just costs a fortune. Sigh. Perhaps I'm too cynical.

Finished the Odessa! Soaked, blocked and currently drying.

I'm now knitting my FINAL, really, final Kitty Pi Bed. The count stands at three. Not that it isn't an easy knit, and pretty nice if you want to knit and meditate. But really....I never thought that it would be as popular as it turned out to be. This one is for my mom to give as a gift.

I also have a bead bracelet just hanging around waiting to be repaired. But it just languishes.......

Thank Goodness...It's Over!!

The good guys in the black hats carried the day. My DH can relax until April (NFL Draft), of course in the middle there is March Madness, and he'd rather watch good college basketball than eat, but I digress. The Steelers won. He'd been waiting for 26 years for another Super Bowl, the smile on his face was priceless. It was excellent. Never mind that I could barely watch. I couldn't believe that a team could play so well one week, and be so mediocre the next, but never mind....

If it were any other team, I'd have been taking my Super Bowl nap. Or better yet, perhaps I'd have been able to concentrate, and would not have had to frog my Odessa hat 3 times because I couldn't get the gauge right.

I chose to knit the hat instead of my Feather and Fan socks because I thought I wouldn't be able to concentrate on lace. As I realized after the third frog........it just didn't matter. Here's my sock in progress shot.

The pattern is from Socks, Socks, Socks, and is being done with Socks that Rock "Carbon". I thought because the colors are rather "subdued" I'd do something interesting with the pattern. I like the way it's looking so far.

Another Super Bowl Bonus was that Stitch Your Art Out, my local yarn store, had what has become an annual Super Bowl Sunday sale. They open on Sunday and have pretty good yarn (and fabric if you're a quilter) sales. I picked up some Fantasy Naturale on sale for 50% off. Then they have a little contest-- you pick a team to win the Super Bowl and if your team wins you get the yarn (of your own choosing) for one project at 25% off. A pretty good deal. I got 6 skeins of Steadfast Yarns wool in "Carrot Cake"--just love that name. Hoping that some day this will turn into Cinxia from knitty.com.

Yes Virginia, there really is a Stiller Nation....

As I try to dodge all the Terrible Towels, flags, and black (yes, I'm serious) and gold flower arrangements in the house, and decide what food to serve on Sunday--the what ifs are important, (What if the Steelers are way ahead? What if they're not? [Perish the thought] What if the game goes into overtime? [Another perish the thought.] What if we run out of Rolling Rock? etc.....). I've been ruminating about why this is so very important to so many people in Pittsburgh and beyond. You'll see blogs and writings that make the pretense that it isn't all that important. That there are actually 'Burgh residents, all two of them, who can pretend the team(s) doesn't exist. But I can guarantee you that if the symphony were playing, the string section would all be using Terrible Towels for their instruments and game updates would be announced between pieces. They held the curtin on a ballet performance once when a playoff game went into overtime and gave patrons time to rush from the various taverns into their seats after the team won. That is Pittsburgh! If you're ignoring the Steeler hysteria, you're probably in a coma. I saw a notation somewhere that it is the "sacred game of my people", but no, in the 'Burgh it is way more than that.

My husband is a native Pittsburger......and the pride and excitement is just about overwhelming about now. There cannot be anywhere else like Pittsburgh-hard to explain, amazing to experience. Back in August we were sitting on a hillside of St. Vincent's College with, literally, thousands of other people, all dressed in some version of black and gold. Hines Ward had just come to a contract agreement, and was in camp for the first time. It was like he was Bono, fans and media just crowded around him and he took his time, and spoke to nearly everyone. He was on the field at least 30 minutes after the rest of the team had left. That in a nutshell is the portrait of this team. Not a bad egg among'em. (If there is a bad egg, it sure isn't evident.) This group of players epitomizes the city-proud, hard working, low key, community minded. Sometimes the stars align. It is rare.

Another rarity, Myron Cope, the beloved raspy (alternatively called squeeky) voiced color analyst (described recently as a "gnome in a trenchcoat") retired after 35 years. There is no other city on the planet, perhaps ANY planet, that would have embraced his voice and analysis. It is uniquely Pittsburgh. Yoi!

So rather than my words here is a piece that I think explains it better than I ever could.

Steeler Nation

And HERE WE GO STEELERS!!!!

I Just Couldn't Stop

It happened nearly exactly a year ago.

I fell ill, with a horrible cold, and ended up at home for days. Last year I experimented with constructing a beaded flower brooch, and liked it so much I couldn't stop...... I made, literally, a dozen beaded brooches.

Last week the same thing happened. This time it was a sinus infection that I neglected for over a week before it wore me down. This time I was knitting stuff. It really began when I finished my Clapotis. It is done using Brooks Farm Harmony Yarn, it is superb.

Since I only had a pair of socks in progress, I decided to start a Kitty Pi Bed promised to my sister's cat Trixie (aka Dementia). I had given my sister a Kitty Pi Bed bed for Christmas, and her goofy male cat, Hef, appropriated it, after several kitty "set tos". So poor Dementia was left out in the cold. I started the bed on Thursday, and finished the knitting on Saturday, felted on Sunday, and it's already on it's way to little Dementia.


Does anyone want to give me odds that Hef will want whatever bed Trixie is sleeping in.......? I used three skeins of Brown Sheep Bulky and some eyelash yarn I found at JoAnn's. I only needed to felt it about 15 minutes on very high agitation (towels added) with very hot water. And in case you're wondering, I'm blocking these beds over a 15 inch round hatbox.

Then here is what I'm calling my Sunday Scarf......because I knit it in one Sunday afternoon. The instructions are from the Yarn Harlot (it is the December 13th 2005 posting), and I fell in love with the yarn--2 skeins of 100% wool that looks like velvet, Zitron of Germany, the yarn is called Turmalin. Ummmmm......


Alas, I had to come to work on Monday. Darn......I was beginning to hear my beads calling....

So this is Blogging?

I keep asking myself, why do I want to share my thoughts/ideas/adventures with the world.....possibly the universe, that is if we keep in mind that there might be (more) intelligent life out there. I'm certainly not that interesting.

And so I try and justify it. For example, I'm a computer science faculty, I should stay on the cutting edge of technology. I've been a journal writer for years, which may surprise folks who know me personally, or think they do, and this is just a natural extension of that. I find the voyeur in me tickled by looking in on other folk's lives, so perhaps I should return the favor.

All true and yet, I suppose the sum total of my musings is that I'd just like to see who finds their way to this vanity piece, and to see how it all works. Also I'd like to share my handwork triumphs and tragedies with those who really might give a hoot. The Steelers are, for the moment, in the playoffs so I'm getting no traction at home.

Let's see how this goes.