Old World

Yesterday, the Yarn Harlot was talking about her "drug dealer's scale". She calls it that becasue it is very sensitive. In fact, it is so sensitive, that when you buy it you have to show identification! Because drug dealers actually DO use them. So do pharmacists. I use one at work on a daily basis. For this reason, when my grandfather passed away, my mother thought it would be appropriate for me to have HIS scales. He used to make dentures and bought gold and silver to make them with. So he had his own portable scale set to make sure he wasn't being ripped off by the person he was buying his supplies from.

The main post unscrews and the whole thing can be stored flat in its velvet case. I've always thought this was a very cool keepsake. The round things on the right are weights. The long silver thing in plastic is a pair of tweezers to use for picking up the very tiny weights that are stored under the black cap.

Ciao

Attempt Number 4!

Still can't get my new hearing aids to work as well as the old ones. So we are now going on to set number 4 in an effort to get them to work. Sigh.......

Oh So Blue

Not February blues. This kind of blue:

Yup, I've been working on my Raspy. While the Rowan Denim yarn is nice enough to work with, the colour does bleed. All over my hands. It does not seem to come off on my clothes (at least not that I can tell) so all is well. The background of the shot is the sweater itself. Not particularly interesting. Miles of stockinette. I don't actually mind the miles of stockinette. Nice stress-free knitting. The best kind.

As an aside, a friend of the family just passed away from a preventable cancer. So I am now urging all of you over 50 to get a colonoscopy. Yup, it's not the funnest thing in the world (especially the preparation) but it can be a life-saving procedure. So suck it up and do it!

Ciao

Blog Fodder!

I was thinking that I had nothing to blog about today. At least, until I checked the mail. And found that this had arrived!

The second pic is closer to the colour. Even better, I didn't have to shell out a dime for this! Anonyknits decided to do some stash-busting and this is what arrived! It's fab. I'm thinking I'm gonna make a couple (or however many) fingertip towels. I'm gonna keep one, but the rest I think I'm gonna donate to the local women's shelter as Christmas presents. It'll take me at least that long to get to them, so hopefully it's do-able. If not, then next Christmas will have to do.

Thanks Anonyknits!

And that is the local news today.

Ciao

Yee Haw!

I have now successfully turned the heel on my lace sock!

Now I just have figure out how to start the lace up the back.....

* wanders off slowly mumbling to herself "INcrease here, so DEcrease here, which means.....*

Ciao

Fixed it!

The patient:

Surgery:

Success!

The patient lives!

Ciao

Motion

Yesterday I bit the bullet and ripped out the too-small heel. I then started knitting some more on the sock, until I screwed up! At which point I fixed it and decided to put it away for the day. Then I knitted on my Twisty Turns wrap, until I saw a mistake and decided to just put the knitting away. It's an easy fix, I knitted where I should have purled, so I just have to unravel the one stitch down a few rows and crochet it back up, but I figured the knitting gods were telling me something. The mistake isn't even very visible, but I will know it's there and it'll bug me....

So I picked up my latest book and read until the wrestling came on the tv. Nothing like watching a bunch of fit young men in their underwear throw each other around!

Maybe today the knitting gods will favour me and all will be well. We shall see....

Ciao

Oops! I Did it Again....

Sorry for inflicting that on you, but I couldn't resist after her latest debacle!

However, what I meant is this....Apparently the self-striping sock wasn't enough. The beeeeyooootiful lace sock wasn't enough, the denim Rowan sweater wasn't enough. And neither was the dishtowel enough. 'Cause last night I did this:

I cast on for another project! I know, compared to some of you (you know who you are!) , that doesn't seem like very many on the go. But I always feel guilty for starting another project when I haven't finished one of the ones I have on the go. But I love the Twisty Turns wrap from Wrap Style and decided to go ahead, guilt or no!

For those of you who are yarn snobs (again, you know who you are!) you may not want to know that I am making this out of Bernat Satin yarn in the Bordeaux colour. This yarn is acrylic, can be washed and dried in the machine and feels very soft. AND it's dirt cheap! I have made a couple of pairs of fingerless gloves out of this and liked the way it worked up, so I decided to use it for my wrap.

Pagan and Micha say "Whatcha doing? Did you take out more yarn for us to play with?"

Ciao

Sleepy day

Today passed in a calm, sleepy kind of way.

In my opinion, a great way to spend a Saturday.

Ciao

Hmmmm.

Something doesn't look right.

I know I have a small foot, but I'm pretty sure the heel isn't supposed to look that way. Hang on, let me check the pattern. Oh, I see, idiot me started the heel too early. Note to self: read the pattern through ALL the way through before you start charging off figuring you know what you are doing. Right.

Sorry folks, gotta go swimming again! No time like the present.

Ciao

Grumpy Day

It's weird. Today was a pretty normal day. I went to work at the store of one of my regular clients. A nice, quiet little place. Doesn't require much energy or anything. And yet, I feel....cranky. Like a small child who doesn't know what she wants. But wants...something. I tried knitting. Nope, don't want to knit that sock. Or that sock. Or the sweater. Or work on the dishtowel. And the dishtowel is my failsafe, go-to mindless project. I'm not sure why I feel so.....dissatisfied.

Tomorrow it's time to get a haircut and dye. Maybe that will help. And if the mood strikes, perhaps some retail therapy.

Ciao

Valentine's day

I couldn't let today go by without a post! But, I will be a little different than many. I will not give a sappy story of love or how I don't think Valentine's is about romantic love. I will show you my day at work.

The Valentine Fairy came by! Actually, someone's boyfriend won a contest at the local radio station and this fellow showed up with a giant bouquet of roses for her. I though he was very brave to go out in public in that getup! Not to mention that he got out of the car in that state of undress! With blowing snow and a windchill of -24C (-11F)!!!!!!!!

And now I am going to go eat my Roger's chocolates that my hubby bought me!

Ciao

It Lives!

I have now officially reached and passed the point at which the sock was frogged. so this is official progress.

I did break down and buy a pattern holder. the post-it note knock-off I was using was not keeping it's stickiness for more than a row or 2 and I had to keep getting a new one. so I figured this was an investment in my sanity:

Before you go crazy, it is out of focus on purpose! Just look at the elegance of the device and move on.

Today is pyjama day at Chez Knot. It is -20C (-4F) out there and we are expecting snow. So today seemed like a good day to stay inside and make turkey pot pies. And possibly banana bread. We'll see.

Ciao

Momentum

I am gaining momentum.

I have almost reached the point at which I decided to frog the last time. I'm much happier with how it looks this time around. I think I will call the first attempt the practice run. After all, whenever learning something new, one should practice, right? And since this is the first complicated (and only the 2nd ever) lace pattern I have tried, one could say a little practice was in order, right?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I am liking these Aero dpn's, I'm surprised to say. I bought them because they were the only ones I could find in my backwater of a knitting town that were the required size. But they are working out quite well. They are rigid enough that I don't feel like I am going to snap one when doing a k3tog and pointy enough for said stitch as well. The only thing I don't like is that they come in sets of 4, not 5. Oh well, what do ya want for $3.50, right?

Now I'm off to buy the "secret ingredient" for my Irish Stew. Can't guess it? Oh come on, it's obvious....fine, fine, I'll tell you (whispers quietly) "Guiness"

Ciao

New Beginning

I decided to rip out the sock and start over. The toe was icky (which would bother me to no end) and there were a couple of places in the lace that I felt I could do better on. So the frog pond was visited. I have started over today. So far:

Sorry for the blur on this. Taking a decent picture of a little tiny toe cap was beyond my admittedly meager photographic skills. Nonetheless, I am much happier with the toe. Whatever mistake I made on the first go around with it was not repeated.

Hmmm, my stitch marker matches the yarn this time. Maybe that was the problem last time. My stitch marker didn't match the yarn, yeah, that was the problem. Right. Lets blame the stitch marker!

The funny looking white thread is actually dental floss. I put a life-line in just to be on the safe side....Although I'm not loving the dental floss as a life-line. Any ideas for a better system?

Ciao

Lace Sock

I have been working on my test knitting project. Mezzodiva has asked me to test this pattern out for her. It is by far the most complicated lace pattern I have ever tried! And I'm doing it with sock yarn. Somebody get the rubber room ready.... I'm liking the pattern. I'm not liking the way my toe turned out. So I am debating ripping it out and re-doing it so the toe is nice.

I'm not sure what happened, since I have done this type of toe before and got a smooth curve. Clearly I messed something up. Sigh. Fortunately I am only 1 & 1/2 repeats into it.

Apparently that is just the way my day is going. I won't get into the details, but trust me today sucked. To show you the level of suckdom, I will give you an example. I went to the grocery store and the sensor that is supposd to open the door didn't work. I stepped back and moved back and forth and it STILL didn't open. I had to put my hands on the (very) cold glass and push them open! After I got it 6 inches or so, the door realized that there was someone in front of it and opened. Le sigh. That is the printable portion of my suck-ass day.

I'm off to have dinner now. And then, I suspect, swimming in the frog pond after that.

Ciao

Adding Clickable Buttons to New Blogger

Okay folks, I'm sure many of you have been as perplexed as I have been trying to add clickable buttons to your new Blogger. It's particularly frustrating if you had them on the old one! So, this website gives a pretty good explanation. (Scroll down the page) At least, I managed it, and if I can do it......

For those of you who just want the short-cut, what you do is use the add a page element and click the HTML/Javascript button.

Replacing the "url of homepage" with the url you want the button to take you to and the "picture url" of whatever picture you want. I tried to type this in so you could copy and paste, but Blogger refuses to co-operate!

You can then drag the picture around on your layout screen.

Happy buttoning!

Baking Yarn...

Today I got some yummy sock yarn. I ordered it from Pick Up Sticks on Wednesday and it arrived today! Yay!

It's 50%wool, 20% mohair,20% silk and 10% nylon. I have already done this:

On my "nostepinne".Yup, I used a wooden spatula to "bake" my "yarn cake"!

And now to add some other ingredients: pattern, dpn's, stitch marker....

Ciao

Success!

Apparently, colour really does affect style. I am much happier with my new Calorimetry.

It doesn't feel babushka-like. I didn't bother with a button. Since it stretches, I just sewed the ends together and it fits fine! I'm not sure I like the Paton's SWS though. I found it a bit splitty. And it clearly felts really well, because there were a couple of spots in the ball where 2 strands had lightly felted together! I just yanked them apart and it was fine, but still...

I even wore it for the first time today to shovel the driveway clear of all the snow that we got yesterday and it was nice. As an additional plus, I can wear it over my ears to keep them warm, and it doesn't set off a feedback loop with my hearing aids! That is a real problem with more usual ear-warmers. So I'm debating making a slightly more narrow one out of cotton to use as a headband to keep the hair out of my face. Most hairbands are designed to fall just behind your ears. Not a good spot when you wear a behind-the-ear hearing aid. At best, you get a rubbing sound as the hairband rubs against the microphone. at worst you get a squealing feedback sound. Most unpleasant.

Above, the view from my window yesterday, titled "Gratuitous Snow Picture"

Ciao

Truth or Stretch?

Knitting content at the end. Skip the rant if you want to.

We have all heard about the Global Warming report released by the UN yesterday. I read the thing and it is rather information free. Not that I think global warming would be a good thing. (although I do live in Canada, so...) And not that I don't think that less reliance on fossil fuels would be a good thing. It would. But the report goes on about the physical characteristics of greenhouse gasses, touches VERY briefly on global temperatures for the past 1300 years, mentions how the world was warmer 125,000 years ago before the first ice age and then proceeds to talk about temperatures in the last 50 years. Ummm, on the scale that we are tallking about, 50 years is about 1 millisecond. Based on the "proof" they provided, I would be doubtful. Basically they said, "We are the scientists. We are the smart ones. Trust us".

Frankly, I would feel better if they at least pointed us at the studies they reviewed.

I have also found quite a few articles talking about how, on the global scale, the world is not particularly warmer than it could reach on its own. So the facts are not as clear cut as they would have you believe.

So lets all use less gas, for whatever reason, but lets not allow the media to stampede us all blindly in any direct either.

On to the knitting! I have finished one knee high.

I wanted to see how far one ball of sock yarn would take me. There is your answer. Sock number 2 is on the needles. My Raspy continues, but it is miles of stockinette. Dark stockinette. Not very interesting to look at. So I won't bore you.

I have fixed the crochet pattern for Salome that I buggered up and will attempt the next time I want a challenge.

Ciao

Prezzies!

Yup, yesterday was prezzie day! Not on purpose, just the way it turned out.

I went to lunch with a friend and she gave me this for helping her out:

Very cute!

Then, when I got home, this was in my mailbox:

Kelly sent me this for rolling the comment counter on her blog! Very nifty.

And the perfect end to the day? Perfectly risen pizza dough:

Ciao

What if YOUR paycheque was 3 months late?????

Right, first off,the knitting news. I'm gonna try and knit a Calorimetry in Paton's SWS colour 70530 Natural Geranium. If the problem is that my hair is too dark and the Calorimetry was too dark, this should fix it. If I still don't like it, then it's the style of the knit. So there. More news on that when complete.

Now a non-knit rant. November 8th I worked a 12 hour shift at a large chain store here in my locale. I still have not been paid. I called over a month ago. "We can't find your vendor number" I was told. So I looked it up and gave it to them. Now, they just don't know why it hasn't been paid. I will be paid this week according to them. Which means the cheque should get here by next week. It's a good thing I keep a "cushion" in my bank account in case of just such an emergency. If it was one of their paycheques lost, would they be patient? I can tell you, that company is not going to be having me work in their store any time soon! Which is a shame because it is a nice store with good staff. It's the bozos at head-office that are mentally challenged. How can they expect to retain professional help when they act in a profoundly unprofessional way?

Argh!

Ciao