Finding Joy in Snarkville

I have more to say about a few other things — but this will have to do for now.

First, yes, I’m a geek who reads Woot’s blog.  Um, yes — I know…you thought I was SO much cooler than that.  Funny, I hear that all the time.

Any way….

Dear Woot people,

This is not KNIT.  This is crochet.  Do not confuse them again, please.

Respectfully,

The Queen

I know it has been a hugely long time since I blogged — let me bring you up to speed (in case anyone still reads).

1. I’ve driven nearly 3000 miles — many of those included a screaming cat in the car.
2. I’ve lived in hotels for nearly 3 weeks.
3. Have witnesses the packing (and mostly unpacking) of 200+ boxes.
4. I went from being the new kid in the neighborhood to the welcoming others who are newer — of course, I welcome them with brownies.
5. I’ve had house guests for the first time in YEARS.
6. I’ve toured the yarn stores, attended knit nights, found my people, and thought about picking up my needles again. (They were set aside for the needed unpacking part.)
7. I’ve appeared on stage again after more years than I can count — it was everything I remembered it to be.  Adding to the checklist to do that again.
8. I found a church to attend in near record time.
9. I took a trip underground.
10. I survived 24 hours with no phone or internet.  I know, I was shocked too.
11. I found home.

Perhaps the last is the most impressive.  I do love it here in my new home.  This is despite the fact that the locals seem to get great joy out of reminding me that it does snow here and I might like it now, but I haven’t seen winter yet.  But I do love it here.  I hope Prince feels the same way I do, because I’m not really joking anymore that I’m not leaving for while.

But this all has nothing to do with last night.  You see last night, I got a call from my old yarn shop during their knit night — they set-up a video feed and I got to hang with my peeps.  Now, they know that they were what made our time in the Snark State better for me.  They know that I hold them in my heart with a level of awesome that we don’t hold for much of those years.  Heck, even Prince knows that my ‘peeps’ were the best thing for us out there.  They gave me friends and an outlet — heck, there is a group of people that attempted to understand me and my weird ways.  They gave my son a girlfriend that I hope he will know for the rest of his life.  He misses her too and asks about her (He kept her little plastic ring with his special things, like rocks.)  When I unpacked my yarn, I thought of my friends — most of whom helped me pick it out, teased me about my stash, and encouraged me to do better.

I have a lot to be thankful for my friends back there.  The thing I’m most thankful for is that they still love me.  They still include me, even if it has to be from afar.  And they need to know that they made my night.  I stayed up way past my bedtime and I wouldn’t change it.  (Though, next time I think I want a tour of the new yarns there.)  Maybe this will usher in a new era in knitting groups.  We are a more mobile society than ever before — and to have cyber moments like this was truly connecting.

It is thanks to this group that I was looking for my next group.  LLK people, you’d love this group too.  They are just like us and we them.  And that was refreshing.

So, here’s to more cyber knit nights.  I miss you so much.

I wanted to write this morning about how I’d finished this big project I’d been working on with just enough yarn.  I’ve been working on my thoughts about how stressful it was at the very end knowing that it would be really close and then sighing with relief as I had a simple foot or so of yarn left.

I’ve also lived in denial for the past few days.  Serious denial.

So, around the time of Mother’s Day, I was stressed beyond belief and couldn’t pull it together to get something ahead of time for the Queen Mum.  I wagged a book of patterns across the country and handed it to her and said, you may have anything in this book you want.  We went page by page, we looked over all the patterns.  She liked this one or that one, but not this piece of it.  Then she saw it.  I knew she’d love it — but the yarn requirements were daunting.

Seriously, this is done in Sport/Sock Weight yarn (for the non-knitter, think about a fine gauge sweater) and it calls for 2205 yards of yarn.  The largest shawl I’d done to date wasn’t over 1000 yards.  I was afraid.

Now, the Queen Mum also wanted something soft and not as lacey as a 100% wool.  She mentioned cotton thinking it would be cooler or lighter than wool (common misconception of the non-knitter, cotton in a heavy fiber and has a nasty habit of just stretching and stretching).  I thought silk (though the cost was more daunting than the yardage.

Then I hit a sale, a really good sale, and happened upon a basket of the right yarn.  An Alpaca/Silk Blend from Jo Sharp.  (Let me stop to announce I’m a sucker for Jo Sharp lately — I’m in love with this yarn.)  I found a Pearl color that I think will be perfect, though it is a blue/gray/silver and ma be a touch too light.  However, the deal was right and I am confident I could dye it once knit, if needed.  I bought all the balls there were — 13 balls of yarn.

I cast on and knit.  I knit like a fiend.  I wanted to get this done and I loved knitting with the yarn.  The shawl grew and grew.  The rows closed in on 600 and 700 stitches.  It was a dream.  I looked into my bag of yarn and saw the balls dwindle and I was undaunted.  I used a special join to make sure I used every inch of the precious yarn, because I knew it would be close.  I was not doing the colorwork nor the beads (again, beads add weight) and figured that had to save yarn too, right?

With 4 balls in my left, I finally did the math.  The total yardage on the shawl in the book was 117 yards more than what I had (less than a ball).  I reasoned that with my joins, lack of color, and lack of beads, I’d surely have saved that much, but accepted it would be close.

I got to the second to the last ball a little before I’d wanted to.  I joined and it seemed that I knit that ball gone quickly.  I joined the last ball and hoped a little that I was right.  I knit and knit the last ball, then it happened.  I saw the lat bit of the ball, you know the stage where the ball only slightly still looks like a ball but there are still two or three rows left.  I made plans to cut the border short, to look up a different bind-off that uses no yarn.  Anything to make the last of this last to the end.

Yesterday I woke up and faced facts, I’m going to need ONE.MORE.BALL.  I’ve called every shop near me, no go.  I searched on the internet and found one shop that has my yarn (though probably no hope of the dye lot) and I put the ball in m cart and knitted on.  I begged the yarn to last, I begged it to make it through to the end so I wouldn’t have to spend full price plus shipping on ONE.MORE.BALL.

As I went to bed, I thought about it and finally accepted my defeat.  I tossed and turned all night thinking of possible edgings that could be in another yarn, but seriously, it was just one ball.  I woke and ordered the ball.

Then I wrote this, I redid my math and realized that had I only done the math on the yarn from the book in yards and not meters, I’d have seen clearly that trying to make 13 balls do 16 balls worth of duty was a fool’s errand.  I do however, firmly believe that I will be able to do this with 14 balls.  My denial is never ending, but seriously, I’m 7 rows from the end — so I think I’m right.

I have never in my life believed I get a lot done in a day.  No, seriously.  Since most days I don’t shower and get dressed until lunchtime, I’m probably behind on most housework, and really I am not sure I’m all that productive, I’m fairly sure that a semi-trained monkey could accomplish more in any given day than me… (more…)

I bound off the body of the sweater.  I blocked half the body.  I’m 85% sure that this sweater will look and hang better in a larger size, even if there is a FIVE inch difference in the two sizes.  This is where you come in….

Which do I do…

1. Continue on, trusting that should it not fit me, I have MANY friends who would love it and it would fit.
2. Rip it out and try again — knowing in my heart that this would also allow me to add three inches to the length because frankly I think the cropped sweater look went out in the 80’s, right?

No, there are no photos.. sorry.

If I was a better blogger, my camera would have come out of the case at somepoint this weekend.  But alas, I was having too much fun to notice that I failed to take a single photo.

I spent my Saturday in the company of a billion of knitters, spinners, and weavers at a little thing called Stitches West.  Now, I’ve got to say, I spent one day at the market and it is huge and busy, and blurring and crazy — how my buddies do it over the course of nearly 4 days, I’m clueless. (more…)

(Warning: knitting and yarn content to follow. I know a few of you, (db, I’m looking at you) dislike this, so you may skip this entry. Otherwise, knitters and dyers enjoy.)

Yesterday, I spent the day with the Minons of the Pointy Sticks (I think there is a blog — but I need someone to send me a linky) in a dye-ing frenzy. Oh my word. There are a few things you need to know about this group:

• You can not be shy. Sorry, shyness is not allowed. If you want something to drink, you get it. If you think of something witty to say, interrupt someone and say it. If you like a skein of yarn, ASK for it, nay, demand it. (Perhaps threatening to steal or move the owner’s cabin to the engine room helps.)
• These ladies know their toys. There were squeals of glee over new wheels — which I freely admit that I’m not worthy because I don’t spin (yet).
• A few of this pack are going on Sea Socks ‘08. I have a feeling that I need to warn Celebrity — there is going to be a bar that will never be the same again. (more…)

Since I’m still over the moon about the fort in my son’s room — and really, he’s lucky he’s cute because I’d SO keep it if that wouldn’t nominate me for the “Worst Mommy Ever” Award.  For now, he gets to keep his fort, for now.

Anyway, the part of the story you really need to know (more…)

First, before I tell you of my adventure yesterday, I must attempt to explain the swatch. Remember the 10 balls of orange yarn? The 10 balls to become some type of blanket for Duke? Well, at the suggestion of Niki, I am trying entraloc as the plan to get other colors into said blanket. The swatch, while not in the right yarn why waste any of my 10 balls), nor the same weight, nor the colors I’m using, is a swatch of the technique. This is key and it is an amazing technique — makes you feel all sorts of clever. Make sense. I’ve got the first row of triangles done now. I have no idea what I’m going to do next, since I did decide to double the sport weight yarn and thus my plan of sock yarn won’t quite work, but I will try.

Ok, what I did yesterday. I was tourist and tour guide to one lovely Amy Singer. Now, she fully expects me to be all snarky, but I can’t — one must have some fodder for snarkiness and she does not provide much. So, I must share with you our adventure — in photo. (more…)

Ok, to put everyone’s mind at ease, the MacBook Pro DOES NOT have a problem with Firefox (I don’t believe it fully, but Apple tells me that is in fact NOT my issue). My issue seems to be a problem (limited to the MacBook Pros) that the Airport card in my laptop and my router don’t like each other. This is now a “known” Apple issue with developers working on the solution (which for those keeping score at home, means I didn’t REALLY need to send back MacBook #1). However, today (before the developers can get around to FIXING this issue) I was given three little choices: (more…)