Maybe I'm doing this wrong.

I've been thinking about my knitting, as I am wont to do.

I realized that once I knew someone else knit, I haven't really given any handmade gifts to them (aside from the handspun to Laura).

I think this is the wrong approach. After all, who better to appreciate a well-made item than someone who actually understands what goes into making it? My reasoning has always been that "they can probably make it themselves, and probably would want to."

Well, everyone is good at different aspects of the craft. Personally, I love cables, socks and two-strand colourwork really seems to blow my skirts up. I can do lace, and can enjoy it, but I'm not totally in love with it, as evidenced by my half-finished shawl that I wandered off from sometime in May. Since that time, I've tended towards comfort-based projects; things I can knit on in the dark, or without being glued to a pattern. I tend to knit as a means to keep my hands busy whilst being social, when I'm on the road, or with my yarn shoved into my bag as I wait for someting. You know, activities that involve being distracted and interrupted a lot, which lace has no patience for.

Maybe this winter I'll have some time at home where I'm sufficiently relaxed to be reabsorbed into fiddly projects.

And in the meantime, maybe I could think about actually making gifts for my crafty friends. Just because you can do it yourself probably doesn't mean you wouldn't enjoy the occasional pressie. Just a thought.

And the number shall be three!

For I've just finished knitting the third Baby Surprise Jacket.

I'm a woman obsessed.

But who is about to be distracted. My sister and brother in law both have this hat. Jen has it in purple, Brian has it in black. They've requested it for Gavin in navy. What kind of a doting aunt would I be if I were to ignore this request?

(Never you mind how I heartlessly gave up on the duckie blanket. I just haven't felt like crocheting for the last couple...years.)

I'll be modifying the pattern a little bit, to make it a little less...tall. Just trust me on this. Unless you happen to be a conehead, there is no call for having that third layer so damn tall. Maybe I'll even remember to take a picture, though I'm not holding my breath on it. I suck at remembering to actually photograph things before sending them off into the wild.

Cardigan Ideas

So, I know that we are all loath to comment, but I'm looking for input. As I said yesterday, I am not in love with my knitting project. Maybe if it wasn't in black, it wouldn't be so damn boring, but I want a black cardigan.

Thus, I have found options. Please to be making with the voting.

Nifty circle cardigan. It would be fiddly as hell, and I'd have to mess with gauge a little, but it's interesting.
Honeycomb cardigan. The sample colour is quite dark, so hopefully it'd work in black. I like the shaping. POCKETS! I friggin' love pockets. I have a rant about how corporate America is actually trying to kill off all female workers by not enabling them to have pockets to carry cell phones in, so we'd never get those nifty "the world is ending, duck and cover!" messages that get sent out. ...Maybe this comes from me working with the gov't too long. Anyway. Pockets are good.
Lace. Would work with black, though it would still be fiddly, as, well, LACE.
Cross-hatch cardigan. Similar to the honeycomb, but no pockets.
Feather and fan. I'd make the sleeves longer, as I do not want 3/4 sleeves for my cardigan, dammit.
More lace. This is actually the correct gauge, and intended for cotton, so there are two points in favour of it. I'd have to make it shorter, as I don't have as much yarn as they want me to have.
Pointy lace. It'd work in black.
Amber. This is pretty much exactly the shape I'm looking for, though I don't know if I'd dig out beads for it or not. Beads are fiddly, but...shiny!

Oh, dear.

Between a flurry of hats, and the third incarnation of the Baby Surprise Jacket that I've made in the last month or two; I've been trying to work on a cardigan.

It is a very practical cardigan. Because my prior work cardigan finally gave up the ghost, I decided to replace it with a handmade version. Thus, it is black. Cotton/bamboo blend, which is nice and soft, and not too oppressively warm for the workplace. As I know myself pretty darn well, I know that where my creative impulse dies is when I have to actually hem up projects. Thus, I've decided that knitting the thing with as few seams as possible is a good idea. And it is a good idea.

The problem is that it's deadly boring. I knit one impossibly long row, sigh, and put it down. There is a bit of lace, which means that I'm failing to memorize the pattern entirely, and it necessitates actually looking at my work. It isn't as fiddly as cabling, nor a totally lacey pattern, and it has a lot of working through the back of stitches. It isn't hard, but it isn't really fun, either. Again, practical.

Either this will be a long-term project, or I need to find a different pattern that grabs me a bit more. This has the finished look that I want, but dear gods. Just shoot me.

I am such a nerd.

But this link makes me giddily happy.

Yes, I've been spending a lot of quality time with my loom lately. I've managed to strain the tendon in my left elbow, so whilst letting the darn thing rest, I've found that having my elbow constantly bent doesn't feel good. You know, like when one is, oh, knitting.

Fie on you, gimpy elbow. Fie.

In the meantime, I'll be over here, with my wheel and my loom, bein' all old fashioned and such. Just as soon as I utilize the interwebs a little more. Lack of advanced technology can only go so far, you know.

Also, AWESOME!

But...But...WHY?!

Dear gods, why?

Argh.

So. I've gotten to the point in the knitting process where I was finally able to try the cardigan on yesterday. I'd finished knitting the yoke and shoulders and lo, when I put the sweater on...the arms are too long. Like, way too long. I don't have palms when I have this sweater on.

Unfortunately, due to the Clever As Hell (tm) nature of the pattern, in order to fix this...uh...I'd have to pull out about 1/4 of my work. I'd have to tear back to before I had joined the arms, then shorten the arms individually, then do all of the work of the join/yoke/shoulders/half of hood that I already have knit.

I don't know if I have it in me to do this.

I also don't know if I will want to wear a sweater that doesn't fit. The sleeves have a fancypants flare to them at the bottom, so if I tore back that way, it'd take away that part. Also, I'm not sure if I can do that or not. (Oh, I know I could, I'm just being wibbly.)

So, I need input.

Continue to knit, knowing that I will hate the end result?

Tear back a week's worth of work, with the concern that after I do that, the will to knit this sweater will likely be sucked right out of me and it'll end up on the UFO pile indefinitely?

Or try to mess with the bottom of the sleeves to make them a more acceptable length, cute flared sleeve be damned?

Or is there another option that I'm not thinking of?

Nrgh.

Edit: After knitting a quick test swatch, I can tear back the sleeves from the bottom. It'll be fiddly and tedious but hey, I knit. Fiddly and tedious is what I do. It's *repeating myself* (be it via speech or re-doing work that I already did once) that is so disheartening to me. I can deal with a little less fancy sleeve bottoms.

Secondary Edit: Oh, WTF. The sleeves are supposed to be that long. That is a retarded design "feature". I'm docking 3 cleverness points from this pattern for that.

Ravelry links 'o terror and cardie progress report

I wonder why nearly every pattern for monkey toys I can find to knit ends up being terrifying.

I'm quietly relieved that this pattern is no longer available for download, as the one on the right has...well...apparently Lovecraft designed that monkey. Monkey faces should not resemble lady bits quite so closely.

This isn't too bad, though the finished objects that people posted pictures looked NOTHING like this.

This appears to be a monkey/pig crossbreed. At least it isn't nightmare inducing.

Apparently this monkey is also a vampire, judging by that widow's peak.

This has potential, but only if you apparently figure out some short row deal on the face. The third monkey isn't too bad, but the one with the hat on it seems to be posed like it's trying to be sexy, which is disturbing to me.

DEAD MONKEYS! They'd be cute, if their little eyes weren't x's.

And just because it came up in searching for "toy monkey free" on Ravelry, I present the Useless Knit Object of the Day.

I found a dog pattern in a book that I think could be converted relatively easily. It'll be a gift, so I'm not really aiming for that kind of mental scarring.

Oh, and as an update on the blue cardigan; I'm up to nearly the top of the yoke, and will be working on the shoulders soon. I love this sweater, for it requires no seaming up. The body is knit in one bit to a point, you knit the sleeves, then join the whole shebang together and continue on up. Admittedly, it now weighs approximately a ton of wool/alpaca blend, but I think the stitch definition and drape is going to be quite lovely. It will be perfect for cold days. I'm debating if I should make the hood or not...I'll probably try it on and figure out once I've finished the shoulders. This thing knit up stupidly fast, considering I cast on less than a month ago. Ah, the joys of projects!

I live!

I've got two different sock patterns on the needles, (this and this) and really just want to knit another pair of these. (I've knit two pairs. I'm in love with this pattern.) It's not anything against these two patterns; it simply is the fact that neither of them are blind knitting, and that's what I need. That leads me to...

I splurged and bought some of this (in the quenko sky colour; the actual colour is darker than the photo) for this. Now, you know how sometimes projects just flow from one's fingers as smooth and easily as breathing? This didn't start out that way. Not even a little bit. I had to tear back twice due to inability to read the chart, and I still had to fudge it a bit after I figured out that I still couldn't read, but no longer gave a darn. Once I got the pattern established, it knits up like nobody's business. It has been a long darn time since I've knit with chunky weight yarn; it is so satisfyingly zippy!

After sitting down and forcing myself to spin a yarn that is somewhere between aran and chunky (and really not enjoying it very much, but there was a lot of wool and I wanted to BE DONE with it), I've returned to spinning nice and fine. I'm spinning up some of my hand-dyed rambouillet, which, when properly rinsed out, is glorious. It requires quite a bit of twist, as it's a very sproingy fibre, but I should be getting a decent amount of yardage out of the 100g I have. I split it into 50g hanks so I can ply it against itself. (OMG! 2 ply! Not Navajo! Will wonders never cease?!) As much as I love Navajo plying, I want a finer finished product, so 2 ply is the way to go.

I bet you have missed these posts, haven't you? :p

Enough with the Fibre! On to the Wonder! To liven things up, I'll tell you a few horrifying Things Wot Have Happened To Me at Ren Faire This Season.

In the "Oh dear, I'm going to go crawl into a hole and die now" Category: I was tying a woman into a corset, and had just finished doing up the busk. Now, there's a lot of Nature in our tent. Lots of wiggly Nature. Sometimes that wiggly Nature gets to where it shouldn't be. As I look down to inspect my work, I'm horrified to observe that it appears that this lovely lady has a bit of Nature that is in her cleavage. I make a non-committal "Ah, my dear, I think you've got a..." and gesture towards her chest. "No. That's a mole." Oh. Oh dear. I've just tried to pluck a mole off of a woman. *facepalm*

In the "Let's horrify the customers" Category: Speaking with another woman about the glories of our corsets vs. other corsets, and the following phrase comes from my lips. "Ah, you see, our corsets are different! Our corsets are...COVERED IN SPIDERS!" *brushed spider off of hand, unfortunately directly at the woman, who screeched and backed away* (It was a Daddy Longlegs, we've got an army of them, and are nearly immune to their constant creepy crawliness.)

There was also a woman with a certain...let's just say "aura" around her. It was nearly palpable. An impression that is not soon forgotten. She was...interesting. *twitch*

Let's just say is quickly now: ThankgodsforFebreeze.

2 more weekends to go! I've had a lot of fun so far, and even if some days I'd rather be knitting, at least I still get to play with string *somehow*. :)

Hooray for fluff!

This last weekend brought the most wonderful time of the year again. That's right; Maryland Sheep and Wool. I don't celebrate holidays, and I'm not much of a shopper. I think the amount of glee that I get out this event is why; I use up all of my shopping in one fell swoop and I'm done for another year. (Unless I could get to another fluff festival, where I'd totally do it all over again.)

Laura and Jennie came up from Atlanta to join us for my annual pilgrimage to Mecca...er...West Friendship, MD. We also met Dave and Brittany at the show, and I had a lovely time with my fluff posse.

Unlike previous years, I had a budget. A nice budget. A budget containing the money that I've been earning by working my fingers to the bone tying women into corsets. Even better, it was a cash budget. When there was no more cash, there were no more purchases. It was a lovely way to operate. The credit card never had to leave the wallet, and I loved it.

Of course, there were a few hiccups...we ran into some intensely retarded traffic going through Tyson's Corner, and ended up missing out on introducing the girls to Colleen (and seeing her myself, pout pout). And when leaving the show, the cops wouldn't let us go left, claiming there was a horrific backup that way. So, we went right; the way we didn't know. The way that a certain sugar-crashing amazonian type insisted would take us to places that we would never go to. Jennie was trying to be helpful with her GPS, but by that point, Daven and I had both reached the "No, we are large and dumb and we will FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT, DAMMIT." point of the day. We eventually got on the correct road and ended up at the same "hideously backed up" intersection. ... So, either these cops had never seen traffic in their lives, or 20 cars was a big backup that necessitated our going way the hell out of the way for. So much hate. So much. Grr. We eventually escaped the "terrible" traffic and got some food at our favoured Mexican joint in Vienna. Food and drinks. Mm. Drinks.

Anyway! The actual festival part!

We got there around 12:30, and Daven kindly offered to park the car whilst we scampered out to start the perusal 'o stuff. As there really was horrible traffic at that point, we went for it. Some 20-30 minutes later he finally rejoined us, after parking waaaaaay off in BFE. I must say, this is the fourth year I've been, and it was the most packed I've seen it. This, with the threat of rain looming over us all day! I can't imagine what madness would have occurred if it'd been sunny.

We saw many lovely things. Highlights include: jewelry made out of antique cutlery, a beautiful spinning wheel that was going up for auction that I valiantly resisted, a felted yurt with incredible wet-felting going on inside (this was Art, man), giant sheep that looked like small cows and bellowed like death metal singers, and, of course, an incredible amount of gorgeous fluff and string.

We hit a few standards; the giant eclairs (shared between Jennie, Laura and myself; Dave and Britt each got one on their own, and Daven stood watch to make sure no ninjas attacked us and took our fried sweets), the funnel cake, and the corn dogs. Because I love me some fried fair food, y0.

I've got a picture of most of what I've bought, which I'll try to upload at some point. For now, the list:
Sock yarn: 2 Skeins from Creatively Dyed Yarn, one that is bright orange/red and one that is bright red/black variegated. 2 skeins from Tess, one deep forest green tonal and one chestnut tonal. (Surprise! That's all of the yarn I bought all day!)
Fluff: 2 oz baby camel down. 2 oz yak (softer than anything I could possibly imagine). 2 oz cashmere/silk blend that is to die for. 3lb 9oz of unprocessed black/dark brown alpaca fleece. 4 undyed silk hankies. (Actually, all of the fiber that I bought was all natural coloured; I can dye my own now, thanks.)
Spinning: I got another drop spindle, made out of some beautiful wood with an incredible grain to it, as well as a little ebony. It spins like a dream, and I was trying out all of my delicate fibres that I'd picked up over the course of the day with it.
Jewelry: (This was a surprise category.) 1 pair of spinning wheel dangly earrings that I couldn't resist, and a ram's head necklace for Daven.
Food: In addition to the fried delights, we also picked up a metric buttload of jam (6 jars) from the Lion Potter, who does wonderful things with jam. Also, apple butter.
Household: Art! I bought 3 prints from the sheep artist that I'd been admiring for years. (Not that we can hang artwork in our current house, but when we move, stuff is going back up on our walls.) We picked up two sheepskins, as after spending an evening wrapped up in a sheepskin many moons ago, I decided I wanted one. There's one incredibly soft "cheapie sheepie" chestnut coloured skin that we're not sure what we'll do with, but it was too soft and too cheap to turn down. (We were a bad influence; almost everyone we were with bought a skin from that place.) Then there's the luxurious long, fluffy black sheepskin that I want to poke a hole in and attach a button to and have a really ridiculous (but warm) shawl.

All in all, this was a totally different shopping experience than what I've done in the past. The first two years were all about the yarn. Last year was mostly about the yarn, but also turned out to be about the spinning wheel, and buying a lot of lower-quality fluff that I felt like I could handle. This year was more about high quality items that I'd lusted after last year, but didn't feel like a good enough spinner to buy. To quote the Yarn Harlot in her Sheep and Wool Festival guide on Knitty: "Buy the best that you can afford." This year I did, and I don't regret a single bit of it. :)