La Cosa Knitstra

I'm sorry!!!

2005-12-14T10:56:00.000Z

Okay, I'm not dead, I'm just dead busy. Work has gotten crazy (as have I after a few nights of staying in the lab until, oh, say 3am), and I'm still househunting, plus Christmas shopping and Christmas preparation, I'm about to go loopy. As you can imagine, that doesn't leave a lot of knitting time, so there's not even much to show you. So, I will give a proper update soon, but in the meantime, go see The Chronicles Of Narnia. Seriously. I'm sure Disney really need that money.

Awww, thanksgiving!

2005-11-25T13:33:00.000Z

I trust everyone in America is recovering from their turkey/tofurky comas, I'm doing the best I can. We had a fun filled, food and wine filled, evening of general excess, with a pumpkin pie that was baked in huge casserole dish, if that gives any idea to the size of the evening. It was good fun, and, being the only American there makes it kinda feel like it's my party. They almost made me sing 'The Star Spangled Banner', though, so it has a flip side, too. The day started off not-so-awesomely when I found out that the people I was going to move in with in January have decided they don't want me now. So, it's back to the househunting again. UGH!
I had a good night out on Wednesday, too, it was a friend's birthday so we went to see a band from Dublin called the Chalets, and they were good fun, nice girl-tinged pop with some rough guitar, in the vein of Veruca Salt. The openers called The Young Knives were great, too. There was a DJ set after the gig, and so dancing and drinks specials were had until the wee hours. There was a bit of a dancefloor disaster, when a friend was trying to drag me back into the fray, he managed to knock my massive huge plastic bracelet into an improperly-healed old war wound (broken bone in my hand), and now my left hand is kinda lumpy and bruised, and memories of my old hot pink plaster cast have been haunting me. Not great for knitting. I think maybe I should change the topic of this blog... I seem to be much more proficient at injuring myself than at knitting...

Oh My God!!! IT's SNOWING! SNOWING!!!!
[R.I.P. Georgie Best]

Everything's covered in frost

2005-11-20T08:06:00.000Z

I thought everyone that was saying this is going to be the coldest winter since the dawn of time was talking rubbish, but now I'm starting to believe it... It's freaking cold. Good for knitting I guess. So here's the completed back of the doctoral hoodie. Tres exciting. There's the eternal sock there for good measure too. I can't seem to not make little ladders where the needles join, any tips on getting rid of that phenomenon would be appreciated.
I think, since the first iteration of the hoodie was too small, that I overcompensated, and now I'm afraid it's too long, but I'm not redoing it again, and, besides sweater-dresses are in this year. Maybe not pour homme, but whatev's. I went a bit OCD on the raglan decreases, because I really like the decreases that you see on commercial knits, you know like the little cable-y looking ones, but not really cables? If not, I took a photo, and I found a really good little write-up about decorative decreases here. (The one I used is called the double decrease, scroll down a wee bit)
On a sort of knitting related note, I was at a book shop the other day, and I saw an older man wearing a jumper with really cool raglan decreases (this was the final inspiration), and I was trying to figure out how they were done just by looking at his jumper... and then I realized that he probably thought that he had something weird stuck on him or that I was checking him out. The next realization that followed was that I've probably freaked out loads of people when I've been trying to analyse how their knits were made. Aaah well.

Added later: For anyone who has even a passing interest in fashion, you will have heard of the awesomeness and chaos that has been going down concerning the Stella McCartney collection for H&M. If you missed your chance to grab some designer goods at high street prices, you may have a chance again, as I just read this, too. But you won't find me pulling the hair and scratching out the eyes of other thrifty fashionistas... No, my smug ass will be sitting right at home, stroking my new sapphire silk wrap dress, that I got off my beloved E-bay for a song. Just to rub it in a bit more, here's the visual.

Lift up the sofa cushions, again...

2005-11-09T16:50:00.000Z

There another knitters' relief thang going on for the India/Pakistan earthquake here, so get thee to a charity website and give them your money. Once again, you can win exciting prizes of knitterly things (and maybe some brownies..) if the warm glow of selflessness doesn't do it for you.
Sock knitting has been resumed. I started drooling over the newish Opal Rainforest sock yarn, and since I don't wear socks (er, I blame this on growing up in Texas, but socks freak me out), and I don't really have any lady friends to knit socks for (I blame this on being very hard to get along with), I decided if I want to do some sock-knitting I should finish up the ones I started ages ago. How's that for being sensible? I think it has something to do with the maybe GREY hair I just found on my head yesterday whilst preparing to, ahem, enhance my natural blonde state... I'm not sure if it was actually grey or just a hair that grew slower than the rest and was therefore still very light blonde when everything else had grown to be, ahem, slightly less blonde.. or maybe it was just a particularly shiny, reflective hair, it's very hard to determine when you can only see about half and inch of it... but I can't seem to find it today, post-colouring... I don't really mind actually, since I've always thought grey hair was cool... and that if my hair was entirely grey I could put down the peroxide for good. Or maybe it's that wisdom tooth that's coming in... That's a weird predicament to be in, maybe having a grey hair while a cutting a tooth. It's like worrying about acne and wrinkles. And by that I mean that it sucks.
Something that doesn't suck, however, is that I have finally found a place to live!!! Hooray! I won't be moving in until January, but at least I don't have to wander around the city going to strangers' houses anymore.

The Birthday Blog (aka Here comes the greed)

2005-11-08T17:18:00.000Z

I just realised that my blog is a year old today!!! Hooray! Of course I'd like to say 'thanks' to everyone who reads this for being awesome and listening to my pointless ramblings. I don't have any wise reflections or tips or anything like that, but in honour of this occasion I have added links to my Amazon(US and UK) wishlists on my sidebar under 'greedy stuff'. And you can take from that what you will, I'm just the prophet.
Happy birthday, La Cosa Knitstra! Wheeeeee!
xoxo

Post Halloween Blues (aka I Have Mono)

2005-11-05T00:27:00.000Z

I don't really have mono (or 'glandular fever' to those of you who were born 'n bred in the UK, also know as the 'sluts' disease' because most people get it for being big ol' hos), but I still fell like crappo. Plus a wisdom tooth is coming in (all you dental enthusiasts can have a guess at my age, then) and constantly pouring buckets of blood into my mouth, then throat, then stomach, creating a) an achy mouth, b) bad breath, c) a rough throat, and finally d) an upset vampire's stomach. So, please everyone, if you're free tomorrow night, you're all invited to my pity party. It's fancy dress, so you can get a bit of extra mileage out of your Halloween costume...
Speaking of Halloween (like my segue?), here we are:
We had one more in our party, a lovely jaguar, but she took this photo. We are (clockwise from the left): a swamp thing(with eyeball in mouth), a CSI, a Marc Bolan, and a Jedi. Dig on the homemade light saber... It's a fluorescent light bulb tube filled with glow sticks then fitted with a bicycle hand grip. Because bringing glass tubes filled with maybe toxic powder to a place where lots of drinking and dancing is going down is always a good idea. The CSI had evidence in the form of various body parts and also came with a vial full of cotton swabs, in the event that a DNA sample would be required. And, funnily enough, there was a lot of swabbing going on.
So. Knitting. Since last we spoke, I knit the entire back to a raglan hoodie (of my own design, uh huh huh) for my PhD friend using that blue eBay merino, and today just ripped it all back out so I could start over again because I'm pretty sure it was going to be too small for it's intended recipient. I took no photos because there has been no sun, and figured I would just insult your sensitive aesthetics with some hazy flash photo. I then wound up the quadrupled yarn with some mo' quadrupled yarn to make it octupled because I decided it was way too flimsy anyway. So a bigger more substantial doctoral raglan hoodie it shall be. I'm glad no one ever mentions the, er, 3 other projects that I have completely disowned (the sock, the 'carnival scarf', and the anthropomorphic cardi). All I have to say for myself is: the sock is boring, the carnival scarf has yet to be assembled because I'm afraid it's going to look like a doily train, and why on earth would I knit a bright green cotton lacy cardigan(stupid bastard never wanna pick it up again) in the middle of autumn? I would however, totally love to be knitting this bright green cardigan/jacket in the middle of autumn. I'm seriously coveting it as I watch it being knit over at Wendy's.
Oh, and Luca, I will write you an email soon, I promise. But I bet I won't have much else to tell you than what I just wrote. Here are some more photos of Halloween hijynx to make up for being crap at writing you back. Sadly, there are no photos that capture the awesomeness of my 5-inch snakeskin platform knee-high boots, but I can tell you they really pulled the ensemble together. The photos are in chronological order... Chronological being a fancy word for 'from least to most inebriated.'

Enough already!!!

2005-10-26T17:39:00.000Z

Still feeling like dog doo with my freshers' plague. I'm sure it has something to do with me feeling slightly better, then deciding it would be a good idea to go out with friends for drinks and smoking a few too many ciggies. I refuse, however, to be ill this weekend for the Halloween celebrations. I'm still getting my costume together, and I'm super excited about it. What's everyone going as?
Not much knitting has been going on, I have however, wound up all of that merino... I then wound four singles together to bulk it all up and make it knittable, and will (I promise) start on that jumper soon. I also have reclaimed some wool from a jumper that I used to love, but now is waaay too big, so I think I will make a similar, but smaller jumper out of it. Aside from that, there is nothing exciting going on.
PS - has anyone else seen this ?!?! Oh, Anthropologie, you are the clueless friend we only tolerate because she is so good looking. You would think this would be a bad business move for a company that deals heavily in customers' knitting naivete.

added 28/10 - I'm getting comment spammed like nobody's business, so unfortunately I'm going to have to tuen on verification for the comments. This is why we can't have nice things.

Struck down

2005-10-19T14:54:00.000Z

Nothing much to report except, thanks to all the new arrivals in town and one night of mingling with them over the weekend, I have the most exquisite throat issues. Yesterday I think I slept for about, oh, 18 hours, and spent the rest of the time trying to communicate through head shakes, nods, and hand gestures. I still haven't really decided what to do with all of my crocheted stuff, as my original idea will not work as planned... ugh. We'll see. Anyway, if you're around Cambridge, I would suggest upping the Vitamin C intake and maybe ingesting some echinacea, because the area seems to be teeming with all sorts of exciting different viruses and germs. If you're really worried, maybe this is what you need...

This Just In...

2005-10-12T16:21:00.000Z

For everyone around Cambridge who isn't going to the Knitting and Stitching Show in
London (which probably includes my broke ass), I just got some exciting  news about
a knitting gathering here tomorrow. All the details are below, I might make an
appearance, too. The venue is between Mill Lane and Peterhouse college on
Trumpington Street... basically if you know where the Fitzwilliam Museaum is, go
there, then head back toward the market square, and bingo, you have knit. Here's a
map.


NATIONAL KNITTING WEEK
10/16TH OCTOBER

Press Release

No embargo


Cambridge Knit Café is marking National Knitting Week with a special Open Day.

Visitors will be welcome at the Knit Café, in Emmanuel United Reformed Church,
Trumpington Street, Cambridge, on Thursday 13th October between 2pm and 4pm.

They will  be able to meet the regular knitters and look at some of the range
of goods made to go to a variety of charities. These include children and young
people in Kosovo, children of asylum seekers, who have often left all their
toys behind when they fled with their parents, and children in hospital in
poorer countries.

Knitters will be on hand with tea, coffee and cakes, as well as knitting
needles and yarn, to introduce anyone who wants to come along to the group.

The group also welcomes donations of wool and other yarn, in big and small
amounts.

"The café has really taken off since it started again in September" says the
Community Development Worker, Ms Jan Nicholls "New people of all ages have
joined the group - many learning to knit for the first time. There is always a
lot of laughter when the group is meeting."

The café takes place in the Fare Shares Café at the church, which is open every
day from 10.30am to 3pm and serving lunches form 12 to 2pm

For further information contact Jan Nicholls on Cambridge 351174

   - ends-

All the news that fits

2005-10-11T14:03:00.000Z

**(Beware, lots and lots of photos)**
The Rebecca wrap has been finished for so long now, I'm not even very excited to blog about it... But, of course, I will. The sunlight has been non-existent lately, so today was really the first day I could get a good photo, so please excuse the wrinkley shirt I'm wearing under the wrap. Here she is, all fluffy and sunny.
Specifics:
Pattern - 'Wrap With Eyelets' pattern, from Rebecca #29
Yarn - Knit in Rowan Kid Silk Haze in colour 577 (held double throughout), almost exactly 5 balls.
Needles -with 4.5mm needles (I used 4mm needles to cast on and for all of the ribbing).
Modifications - I lengthened the body by 1 cm . I lengthened the sleeves by about 15 cm, I just did 10 cm of 2x2 ribbing and half an eyelet pattern repeat on each sleeve before starting to knit as the sleeve pattern suggests. I also made a thicker (about 10 rows) neckband in 1x1 rib, then did a tubular cast-off. For the side tie, I didn't really follow the pattern at all. For the long tie, I just picked up about 8 stitches with a 3.75mm needle, and knit until it was long enough to wrap around my waist, and for the front, I just picked up every stitch with 3.75 mm needles, and knit, decreasing at both edges of every other row a few times, then every row, until only 8 stitches were left, then I just knit those eight stitches until it was long enough to tie to the first tie I made. blah blah blah blah blah.

I really really like this wrap, but if I would have liked it to be just a bit longer. I was thinking of adding some ribbing to the bottom edge, but I don't have enough of the Haze left, so I'll just leave it. Other than that, no complaints, she is lovely.

Other fibrous endeavours have been occurring, too... I've done a bit of cheeky scarf making, the first one knit on broomsticks (20 mm needles) in Rowan Biggy Print is being modeled below by it's recipient. I just used moss stitch for the whole thing, and it took 3 balls of yarn and an episode of Lost (give or take). And while I'm on the subject of Lost, I just want to remind folks in the USA that here in the UK, we're only like 7 episodes into the first season.. I'm just sayin', is all.
I've also been doing a bit of hookin', too. I liked me some of that Carnival Shawl that was in Classic Holiday, but since I don't really do the whole shawl thing, and I don't really like any of the other patterns in that booklet, I decided to go it on my own, and try to make a Carnival scarf, but in the angora I was gifted from Florence. I've made about 8 motifs so far, and they are soo much fun. I'm not sure how to assemble it to make it look like the shawl, so if anyone has some helpful hints (ie - owns Classic Holiday and wants to throw me a bone on how they suggest to assemble the thing), they would be much appreciated. This is one of the motifs, held against the light so you can see into it's soul.
I finally realised my folly in thinking I could hand-wind almost a kilo of laceweight merino, and splurged on a wool winder. And by splurged I mean I payed less than Â£7, including shipping. I LOVE e-bay. I wound today, in about 10 minutes, what would have taken me, oh, about 27 hours by hand. This means that now, 3 months after it's original deadline, I can soon begin on my friend's jumper. Whatever, I mean who really wants a jumper in July anyway? Since I'm on a roll with the photos, here is my new saviour, he is loud and creaky.

If anyone is still reading this, here comes the personal bit. I'm STILL STILL STILL looking for a bloody flat, and I'm about to go ka-razee. Once again, I am waiting to hear back from some people about whether or not they will have me in their house. The idea of commuting from Texas is becoming more and more tempting.

I thought I was kidding, too...

2005-09-27T17:04:00.000Z

The Rebecca wrap is speeding along, and I'm nearly finished with the main knitting. Since I'm the last person on the planet to knit this particular item, and because it was originally intended for spring/summer wear, but I'm going to be wearing it in the autumn/winter, I have lengthened the sleeves from quite short to 3/4's length. That also means there will be more of the Haze in direct contact with my skin, which is a concept that sends me into rapturous exaltations. You can see my progress for yourself. Isn't it all too exciting.
As far as other excitement in my life goes, well, there hasn't been much. The search for a new abode continues, and my patience wears thinner and thinner. I really hate waiting for other people to make decisions that affect my life. Boo hoo hoo. I'm also having to move at my work... I'm going into my fourth year of my PhD, and once you reach that point, the group that I work with takes you from your lovely airy office and shoves you in a dark, windowless hole with the rest of the fourth years. I guess the reasoning is if you have nothing to do and no one to talk to, that you will write. I think it's just another way they are trying to remove our 'will to live'.
So, I'll quit whinging, but I won't stop talking about the Haze. So, today, when I sat down in my usual knittin' place, I looked out the window and this is what I saw:

I'd like to think it has something to do with the Haze, and the comment I made about it a few posts ago. See, sometimes, knitting does make magic happen.

Therapy Knitting and some nostalgia

2005-09-21T17:28:00.000Z

The Rebecca wrap is coming along really well, I really love knitting it and it's such a break from all those cables and moss stitch and cotton from the other cardi. I truly cannot put into words my affection for the Haze (as those in the know call it). The little eyelet pattern is dead simple to memorise, the shaping is very simple, and from what I can tell from photos of everyone else, it's lovely when it's finished. I'm thinking I may alter the way it's tied together, as I'm not crazy about the big ol' knot it makes. I might just knit on a strip about 8 stitches wide (like the closure of the Lucky Clover wrap). We'll see.
Also, I forgot to mention it earlier, but I had a friend stopover in London on her way to Turkey last Friday, and I met up with her at the airport to visit for a while. She, being awesomeness incarnate, brought me loads of Tex-Mex goodies from Arizona, plus about 20 packets of Kool-Aid in loads of different colours!!! Since I have loads of cream wool leftover from the cable jumper I knit last, and I'm not really crazy about it in it's current state, I can't wait to put the two together and make some exciting variegated something. It was also just fun to see Kool-aid again, as it's probably been something like 10+ years since I've even held a packet in my hand. It made me remember how we used to store them like trading cards, and I would alphabetize mine. It was always such a big decision choosing which colour we wanted to make. Also, even though they are named by flavours, everyone always discussed them in terms of their colour, like 'Can I have some Red Kool-aid?' 'Sorry, no, all we have is purple.'
The boiler is now fixed, I'm still looking for a place to live, and that's about it.

The Big Issue

2005-09-18T15:50:00.000Z

Our little Indian summer seems to have made its way back home now... It's a real shame because most of the summer here was non-existent until late August and early September, so I was just getting in the spirit of it. I had stopped carrying extra layers of clothing and an umbrella everywhere I went. Then I got smacked down by the rain and cold that's letting me know that, yeah, it's September, so deal with it. Our boiler isn't working today, either, so I'm sitting inside wearing as much clothing as comfortably possible. Ugh.
Now for some comic relief... Want to see the progress I've made on the anthropomorphic cardigan? Yeah, I thought so. Here ya go. Notice anything wrong? Yeah, I did the armhole and neck shaping the same as the other half of the cardigan, and it has been ripped back. Usually I'm pretty good about dealing with mistakes immediately, but this time I did just throw the whole thing into the bottom of my knitting bag.
To soothe my aggravation, I busted out the Kid Silk Haze and cast on for the Rebecca wrap with eyelets (thanks Tracy!!!! see her version here). I love Kid Silk Haze so much, I was thinking of writing an ode to it. I know detractors go on about how hard it is to rip back, and how slippery and tangly it can be, but I don't care. It feels like the underbelly of a freshly washed kitten that lives in a rainbow. I was making myself wait until I finished the second half of the front of the anthropomorphic deal, but after my massive goof-up, I knew KSH could make me feel better. I would probably be able to knit it more quickly if I could stop petting it.
Other than that, the guitar playing is going okay (read: I'm still rubbish), and also I will be moving at the beginning of next month. I'm a bit sad because I really really love my current flat, it's location is perfect, it's gorgeous, etc, etc, but recently I've also discovered that I like to be able to buy food, too, and to have friends that don't resent me for always making them pay for stuff. So, I'm moving to a cheaper place, and I've already found one shared house that's very close to where I live now that seems cool. I have to wait until early next week to find out if the people there would like to have me as a housemate, so we'll see. The house is VERY studenty, and if I decide to go there I'll go more into it, but it should be funny anyway.

Typical.

2005-09-13T20:08:00.000Z

Okay, to end the suspense and to keep the guesses from getting any more sordid (C'mon Luca, you know I put down the crack pipe for good!), I will reveal the source of the blisters........ Playing guitar! So, the first guess was correct, good eye, Mary. I used to play ages and ages ago, but obviously my callouses have disappeared, and I have to develop new ones. I don't mind it too much actually, now that the pain has subsided somewhat. The hardest part was actually forcing myself to trim down my nails, as I always ALWAYS have long nails that I usually keep painted, and am quite protective of. We all have to make sacrifices for our art, though right? I went along for a while believing that I could play with long nails, but when I read that Dolly Parton couldn't do it, I gave up hope.
(ps - knitting-wise, there is very little excitement... still trying to force myself to knit the other half of the front of my cardi, and making very little headway.)

Still Boring...

2005-09-09T13:59:00.000Z

There has been some knitting, but it looks an awful lot like the first half of the front of the anthropomorphic cardigan, just reflected, and less complete. So, I'll let you use your imaginations on this one. Knitting has been a bit slower than usual (shut it, I know, I know, how can something be slower than stopped?) and slightly more painful due to some self-inflicted blisters on my fingers. If anyone can guess the cause of them, you get a gold star. Just to be morbid, and to provide some photographic content, here they are, with the focus on the most bulbous....

More excitingly, the Knitters' Disaster Relief Fund has raised (as of this moment) $77,676.43!!! Isn't that unbelievable! So, go check out their website, and if you can't be motivated by charity alone, look at all the great prizes that can be won if you donate!

Hmmmm...

2005-09-02T11:03:00.000Z

Okay, so work's been cranked up a notch and there is no knitting to speak of lately. There has been staying in a lab until midnight, etc though, but that doesn't make for good content. So, now that that's out of the way...
I don't usually write too much about current events, etc, but I have to say my bit about what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico. I haven't been watching, reading, or listening to the news, because I don't think I can bear to see places only a few hundred miles (which is not much in Texas terms) away from where I grew up devastated. Places I would visit on holiday when I was younger, and that I only have fantastic memories of. In what is supposed to be one of the most developed countries in the world. A country that knew this was coming.
I've gotten in contact with the people that I can who live in the area, and made sure everyone's okay. So, I know I'm not the first person to make this suggestion, but if you have some spare cash kicking around, it couldn't be put to better use than helping out with this. Here's the link for the American Red Cross, where you can donate online, by phone, mail, etc. Keep in mind that most of the areas being hit the hardest were already some of the poorest areas in the states, so a lot of the people affected were probably already living hand-to-mouth and don't have massive savings to help them recover from any sort of disaster. Also, if you're in the UK, your one pound sterling is worth almost 2 American dollars, so whatever you are thinking of giving, don't forget to factor in the exchange rate. Thanks for reading.

(Added on 03/09 : The ladies of I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can and Zeneedle have organised a Knitters' disaster relief fund, which can be found here . If you donate, and then send in the amount you have donated with your name, you get entered to win loads of cool knitting stuff, too!
If you're having trouble with the American Red Cross website, or would like to donate your money to another orgainsation, check out Go Fug Yourself for an exhaustive list of different groups that can do some good with jo money. Then scroll down and partake of the snark.)

Long time, no see.

2005-08-23T14:23:00.000Z

Have you lost weight? Your hair looks great like that. Gee, it's really been ages... I'm hoping a bit of flattery will keep you from noticing how long it's been since I've posted anything of substance. But, here we go folks, the tide's a-turnin'. I have something to tell you. That involves knitting. I finished the left front of my anthropomorphic cardi... Don't believe me? Check it out. If you don't remember what project I'm talking about, I wouldn't be surprised... This is what I'm shooting for, even though I'm pretty sure at this point that by the time I finish this cardigan, it will be too cold and dark to wear it. That is if it's even wearable. That's what I get for trying to design something myself.
As I mentioned before, there has been some crocheting, mainly in the way of blanket squares. I'm kind of using making a baby blanket for a friend as an excuse to brush up on my crochet before I turn my hand at making the edging for this cardigan. I won't show you my blanket squares because they might be made of dirt cheap acrylic, and I might be a bit embarrassed by that fact. I will however show you what I've been working on when not making baby squares (sounds dirty) or lace-y cable-y moss-stitching... I have to wind all 975 grams of this lace weight merino into balls. This is what I'm going to use to knit my birthday-PhD friend's jumper (see 20 July entry), but I'm certainly not knitting it at lace weight. I'm going to have to hold a few strands together, and see how it goes. I bought it off a seller on e-Bay for a song, and it's really lovely stuff, so soft, with just the slightest sheen. I'm hoping I have a bit left over to make myself something lacey. So, hand winding 7 billion miles of laceweight merino, though it sounds like a holiday in the sun, is starting to make me go a bit loopy. It's so pretty though. As you can see in the photo, I use the empty film canister method to make a centre-pull ball. The empty film canister is also where I keep lots of stitch markers and safety pins, so it keeps busy.
I'm not promising anything, but I'll try not to be so derelict in my duties in the future. I've just been absorbed by trying to hang on the the last remnants of the English 'summer', which for me has involved a lot of outdoor imbibing of spirits and staying out way too late, then getting to work late the next day, then having to work later, lather, rinse, repeat. One day I will learn to be a responsible adult... Don't expect it to be any time soon though.

The Worst Knitblogger ever???

2005-08-12T22:14:00.000Z

I don't have much to say about knitting because I haven't done any in AGES. I'm still sorry. The camera has returned from Japan, and it looks like it had a good time. It also returned with some strange yarn that may or may not be acrylic, but hey, the point of the trip wasn't for yarn. I got some very exciting souvenirs though, when the sun is out again, I might take some photos and let you all in on the fun.
There may have been trips to clubs and maybe too much dranking again, but, you know, it's the summertime...

All I can do is apologize

2005-08-05T15:22:00.000Z

So, I have been knitting, and crocheting, and stash-enhancing, but will you believe me? I finished the I-pod cozy that was loosely based on Grumperina's pattern, but knit in cotton and with an extra flap to cover the front... I couldn't take a photo before I gave it to my friend on Wednesday for his birthday, but he at least pretended to quite like it. Also, I went on a crazy granny square kick and got an exciting book out of the library called '200 Crochet Blocks'
by Jan Eaton, and I'm totally nerdin'* on it. I also took out the Erika Knight pattern book 'Baby Bloom' because I just found out one of my good friends from my adolescence is pregnant. This is the first friend that I've ever had to be pregnant, and it's really a bit weird for me, but all I can think of is 'must make stuff for the baby'! I even bought the 'Crumpets' pattern in case it is a girl, and really I didn't need much of an excuse anyway, because I think the pattern is so cute. And if it turns out to be a boy, I have a niece that is of approximate Crumpets proportions, so there you have that. Does anyone have any favourite baby stuff patterns or yarns they would like to tell me about? I've never knit for a baby, I'm kind of afraid I'll knit something that might possibly be deadly. Any words of wisdom?
If you are not too bored by my photo-less ramblings yet, and want to read about of bunch of non-knitting stuff then please continue reading. If not, you have been warned. So, I let the caterpillars go because the stank that they produced was unbearable. And they were suffocating each other with the amount of poo they produced, so I set them free in the front garden. One of them had already gone into a chrysalis, so I put him right outside my front window so I can watch him become a butterfly. The main impetus for getting rid of the smell that I had been able to stand for so long was the cracking hangover I had yesterday after a long night of celebrations for my friend's birthday. Will I ever learn not to drink to much? Probably not. We had a great time though, so I think, now that I'm on the other side of the hangover anyway, that it was worth it.
So that's all for now!

* Some friends of mine in Texas have stumbled upon this theory that no matter what you're doing it's always much more fun if you're doin' it, if you catch my drift. Like fishing is no where near as cool as fishin', knitting is far more boring than knittin', and I'm sure some of you might even be familiar with the concept of 'goin' muddin' ' as a way to spend the weekend . Anyway, so when you know you are doing something nerdy, and that you are probably one of the few people in the world that are actually interested in what ever you are doing, some folks might say you are 'nerding' or 'nerding out' , which is not entirely cool. But if you're nerdin' , or if you have gone nerdin' then you've re-established yourself as 'hip' and 'in the know', and now nerdin' is a fun acceptable passtime. So, when I start going on about knitting to my non-knitting friends I always warm them with the disclaimer that I'm about to start nerdin'.

I'll just have to be more descriptive...

2005-07-31T19:48:00.000Z

I saw Charlie and The Chocolate Factory on Friday, and I really liked it. Everyone keeps making comparisons between Johnny Depp (as Willy Wonka) and Michael Jackson, and I see what folks are saying, but the entire time I was watching all I could think of was Francis McDormand in Fargo... We had a fun night, though, it was a friend's birthday and we went to a Turkish restaurant where we were treated to an impromptu amateur belly dance performance by the middle-aged mustachioed owner of the restaurant, some of the waitresses, and some excited diners (including two members of our party) .
Scareport left yesterday for Japan, with my yarn requests in hand, as well as our digital camera, so there might be a dearth of photos in the next few days... I might bust out the old webcam, but I might as well draw, with my left hand, a picture of whatever it is I'm trying to show you. I just knitted an i-pod cover in cotton for a friend who's birthday is coming up very soon, I'm not even sure if it will fit since I don't have an I-pod myself. We'll see.
I just found a preview of the new Rowan stuff... Check it out here. Scroll down for #38.
So, that's about it for now...

Save a few quid, burn your house down

2005-07-27T16:39:00.000Z

Here are the charred remains of my toaster. I was very excited about having some toasted pita, as I often do without conflagration, and not even considering the possibility of ignition when I pushed the lever down and wander off to the computer to check email whilst waiting for my bread to pop. I was so secure in my pita warming ability that when I smelled smoke, and then turned and saw my kitchen filling up with smoke, the last place I looked was the toaster. It didn't take too long for me to notice it though, because there were orange flames licking up from it. First I freaked out a little and cursed myself for not having a fire-extinguished. Then my fire-safety training (yeah,I was head fire marshall in my student housing first year.. not by choice, but I did get to wear a kicky hi-visibility vest during fire drills), and I doused the toaster in baking soda, then put it outside. You would not believe the amount of smoke produced by a kamikaze toaster, if I were a more dedicated blogger I would have photos of that too, but I was more interested in getting it out of my house. So, now I have no toaster and it stinks in my house of plastic and pita smoke. Please let this be a cautionary tale to anyone who thinks that the £5 toaster is a good bargain.

2005-07-27T16:23:00.000Z

Before all of the toaster trauma, specifically yesterday, myself and Stitchdrop went to get our ears pierced. She had been thinking about it for a while, and I told her if she went that I would go too and get just my right ear pierced. I've had my ears pierced several times, and for some reason, the right one always heals up and won't take an earring after a while, but I figured if there's piercing to be had, I'm in. We of course then went to the yarn shop around the corner, and saw that it has just expanded it's yarn section. Unfortunately, it was still disappointing, and the folks that work there are always mean, so we walked away empty handed. I have just won some Rowan handknit cotton on E-bay a few days ago anyway, and it got here this morning, so there is new yarn in the house, anyway. It's light blue and pink, for the edging of the anthropomorphic cardi. Speaking of, I finished the back of said cardi last night, and you can see it here, reclining on the curtains that came off the wall when I was trying to open the window to throw the toaster out.

August Eat Locally Challenge

2005-07-24T12:34:00.000Z

I just read the post over at Knitting Notes, and I've been inspired to join up to the August Eat Locally Challenge. There's a great market here in Cambridge, and I do quite often use it in the summer time, just not as much as I should. There's even a weekly vegetable delivery service that I might look into. Anyway, if you're interested, have a look here. Can't go wrong with helping your local economy and the evironment!

Ring it up, dude.

2005-07-22T14:29:00.000Z

I've decided to start over with the sock. I won't post a photo, because it's too bad. I was in denial for a while, but have come to the conclusion that the best thing would be to put it out of it's misery. I mean, all of the parts of it that make it a sock rather than a cool stripy tube are not ideal.. The toe is not wide enough, the heel is a bit wonky, and I've got a bit of a ladder where the stitches changes needles. The hardest part was admitting I had a problem. The rest will be therapeutic.
I did made some progress on the Anthropomorphic cardi, I'm still trying to find some cotton yarn for the edging, but the back is coming along. I gave the new Addis a spin as well, and I can see what everyone goes on about. I can imagine they would be much better for wool than for cotton, but I'm enjoying using them.
In other news, I've just 'applied' for the knitters in Europe ring, you can see the button below. I've also decided that I should buy myself a laptop, so if anyone knows where I can get a VERY cheap one, let me know.

2005-07-22T14:28:00.000Z

another button

Secret Knitting Surprises

2005-07-20T15:03:00.000Z

While you weren't looking I knit a mini-sweater. Not the famous Glampyre mini-sweater, but an actual miniature sweater. I told a friend of mine that I would make him a jumper once he got his PhD, and that it would be ready for him by his birthday... Well, his birthday was a few weeks ago, and, as you have probably guessed, I have not even bought the yarn for his jumper. So, I made him this one, so I can be cheeky. Right now it's keeping my nail polish remover warm, but I plan to wrap it around a small bottle of gin when I give it to him, because we all know that it's a tragedy to let one's gin get cold. The specifics are : Knit with 5mm needles in Rowan Kid Classic, can't remember the colour names, but the main sweater was knit in a light blue with a little collar picked up in navy, as well as a freehand 'J' done in nave duplicate stitch. Good fun to knit.
I'm making progress up the leg of the sock, but it's so boring (and hard to photograph), that you'll just have to take my word for it.

2005-07-20T14:52:00.000Z

Nail polish remover gets cold, too.

2005-07-20T14:51:00.000Z

For those of you who are wondering the outcome of the Butterfly Egg Experiment, your update is here. A few days ago, the little caterpillars hatched, and then made short work of everything green that was inside the jar. I have been supplying them with more leaves of rocket, and they have been munching away. And pooping a lot. It's starting to stink inside the jar, I'm thinking of relocating them to a bigger honey jar that has just been made available. The photo shows about 25 of them, and all together, I say there are about 3 times that. Imagine all the butterflies!

2005-07-20T14:45:00.000Z

They grow up so fast.

2005-07-20T14:39:00.000Z

I've finally fallen under the spell of the Addi Turbo. I found myself a cheap pair in my most often used size (4mm) on Ebay. I have yet to try them, and I'm a bit afraid to. If they're all they're cracked up to be, I don't want to feel like I should replace my current needle collection. I love the way they look like surgical instruments. They have a certain aura that seems to imply that whatever I knit with them will be done with precise importance.

2005-07-20T14:38:00.000Z

Resistance is futile.

Salina finally puts out

2005-07-16T19:00:00.000Z

As promised, over and over again, I've posted a photo of Salina, being modeled even. This was my attempt at a mock up of the photo of Salina in the Rowan Vintage Style pattern book... I'm not very happy with the photo, and the whole thing was very embarrassing, but I hope you can get an idea of the jumper from it anyway. Here are some specifics : Knit with Adriafil Point with 4mm needles, pattern as above, knit in the XS size, but with the larger gauge, was supposed to be more like the S size. It's a bit big, but should be fine when it gets colder and I want to wear something underneath it.
So, the yarn, right? I was really excited about the Adrialfil point because it's tweedy, and mostly merino with a bit of Angora. I thought that would be lovely for this vintage-style jumper, and I do quite like how it turned out, but I have some beef with the way it knits. It feels weird and squishy, kinda spongy and loose. It splits like a mother, and there were still bits of field in it, which would of been fine, and I would've just picked them out and kept my mouth shut, but because of the consistency of it, when I tried to pull the bits outs , the plies would rip up. So,I can't say I would recommend this yarn unless you are willing to overlook the less than ideal knitting experience for it's nicer qualities (including the very low price).
There you have it, and here she is. Be gentle.

2005-07-16T18:59:00.000Z

Taking advantage of the scaffolding

2005-07-16T18:43:00.000Z

Since I was already outside and the sun was shining, I decided to take a photo of the progress on my Anthropomorhic cardi. I spent hours and hours on E-bay and scouring online stores looking for some cotton yarn I need for the edging I plan on making. See, the yarn I'm using now was bought by Scareport when he went on a trip to Florence with his mom, and I put in a specific order for some Filatura di Crosa cotton yarn in all of the colours I wanted for this cardi. None of the shops he went to had what I wanted, but he went to really great shop that had loads of really inexpensive stuff, and he bought me loads there, including the chartreuse that I wanted, and then a lot of random (but very cool) other bits. He wasn't able to find the other colours (a soft yellow, a dusky rose, a deep turquoise, light blue, terracotta, and lilac) I had requested there, though, so I'll need to find some replacements before I finish the cardigan (not that there's any fear of that happening too soon). Too bad they don't sell Sugar n' Cream in this country, that would be perfect! Anyway, photo.

2005-07-16T18:42:00.000Z

Why does it kinda seem to be floating?

Hopes= Dashed

2005-07-16T00:26:00.000Z

So after a somewhat tipsy conversation concerning my plans to harvest the caterpillars for silk with Stitchdrop, I was very embarrassed to be reminded that silkworms make silk, not caterpillars. Awww. I still took all the leaves that had been impregnated and put them in a jar so we'll see if I can at least get a caterpillar army to do my bidding. Speaking of leaves, and harvests (you'd think it was autumn around here...), I actually had some of the salad that I grew myself for dinner last night and the night before. I was a bit worried the whole time that I overlooked a butterfly egged leaf, but even if I did, the salad was quite nice. I'm just waiting to see now how well it recovers from it's trim.
In knitting news, I've finally decided to pay a bit more attention to my sock, and am just at the heel. My anthropomorphic cardi is coming along nicely too, expect photos to come. Also, whilst trolling about on the internet, I found this photo (see below) from the upcoming Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film. How cool is his fair-isle jumper!?!? I'm hoping there will be a pattern out soon, or maybe I'll make one up myself.

2005-07-16T00:25:00.000Z

Cool jumper, Chaz.

The Birds and the Butterflies

2005-07-12T12:51:00.000Z

My first attempt at 'designing' my own sweater seems to be coming along okay. I guess it will be hard to know how successful I am until the whole thing is finished and wearable, but at the moment, I'm confident. I had fun busting out the calculator and writing down the pattern in knitspeak, it reminds me of the programming classes I took in undergrad. If you can't tell from the photo, the pattern is a combination of moss stitch, openwork, and cables. The cotton is fairly heavy, and a bit twine-y, but it is softening up as I knit it. I'm sure the observant among you have noticed that almost everything I have knit is green, and I can't really explain it. I usually tend to wear more red, light blue, pink, etc, and I do have a few green articles of clothing, but something about green yarn calls to me. I'm making a concerted effort (after this project of course) to expand my colour palette.

2005-07-12T12:50:00.000Z

An experiment

2005-07-12T12:49:00.000Z

Openwork extravaganza!

2005-07-12T12:43:00.000Z

Now, for my gardening update. Ye Olde Salad Trough is kicking major salad butt. I'm thinking of a harvest soon, if not just to get a bit more sunshine to the newer sprouts. I'm so excited that my planting endeavours have yielded something aside from disappointment. As I was photographing the trough this morning, I noticed a visitor, who I thought at first was just checking out my exciting salad jungle, but then realised he (or, um, she) was making herself quite at home. If you look at the close up you can see the eggs! as they are being laid. I was thinking if it's a butterfly rather than a moth (I can't really tell), that I could leave the leaves (haha) with the eggs and let them become caterpillars, and then have a silk factory!

2005-07-12T12:42:00.000Z

Almost ready for the slaughter

2005-07-12T12:41:00.000Z

Making babies.

Happy knitting content

2005-07-10T02:54:00.000Z

This post will be short to counter the novel I wrote last time. I finally finished Salina, and sadly no one is around to take a photo of me modeling it. I started on a cardigan of my own design (the Anthropologie knock-off) this evening, and have made embarrassingly little progress on my sock. If anyone has any good pattern suggestions for a lacey wrap-around sweater (cache-coeur-type deal) for my Kid silk haze, they would be much appreciated. There will be some exciting photos to come soon, I'm sure.

Whoa.

2005-07-08T13:46:00.000Z

It's been a very eventful few days. This will be quite long, so get comfortable. I don't really know where to start, so I guess I'll just go chronologically.

Part I - The trip to Edinburgh and the Demonstrations/Concert

I set off for Edinburgh Tuesday night from London. I'm not sure how many people took advantage of the megabus offer, but there were at least a dozen double-decker buses completely full of people. These were not coaches in the sense of like a big National express coach where you have room to breathe. These were buses that are usually used to transport people for short journeys within a city, so there's barely enough room to open a magazine. So, we set off at about 11:30pm and I tried to settle in and deal with the fact that I wouldn't be unable to uncross my legs for the next 12 hours.
As we were traveling along, we saw one of the buses of the Megabus fleet pass us, and it was almost entirely empty, needless to say, when we stopped at a rest area, myself and the three people I met and made friends with found that bus, and relocated. We were then able to strech out and had 4 seats to each person, and I actually slept quite well.
We arrived in Edinburgh at about 11 in the morning to reports of all of the protests going on around Gleneagles. Apparently, protesters were lying down on the train tracks, and trying to block the roads and trains into Auchterarder. Now, as I said before I was just in Edinburgh for the demonstrations, but the super nice people that I had met had an extra ticket to the Live 8 concert, and they gave it to me. So I set off into town, and as I got off our bus, noticed there was a large media crew at the bus in front of us. As I looked in, I saw that the reason, Bob Geldof had gone into the bus to talk with the passengers. This was my first Sir Bob sighting of the day. I walked into town to get some breakfast, but saw another gathering of people around a hotel right next to the train station, and waited there for a minute to see Mr. Geldolf leaving the hotel to go to Gleneages. As he was leaving, the demonstrators were turning onto Prince's Street, and that's where I joined them. I was then updated to what was going on around Gleneagles, and that all of the coaches from Edinburgh were being stopped around Perth, if they were even allowed to leave Edinburgh in the first place. Eventually, some more coaches were allowed to leave Edinburgh, but no one was very optimistic that it would be worthwhile to get on them because we all believed they would be stopped on the way.
So, most everyone stayed in Edinburgh, and we walked up and down the length of Prince's Street, being stopped by the police about every 50 metres. They blocked us before we got to the Scottish parliament buildings, and we had to stay in a small area on the street for about 45 minutes. Someone had announced that London got the Olympics, and the mood was quite good, still. It started raining at this point, and continued for on and off for most of the day. The police then let us march back up Prince's street to about where we started, stopping us over and over again. We were finally completed stopped when we tried to turn up into the financial district. After stopping there for about an hour, everyone decided just to sit down. So, after about 30 minutes of everyone sitting, the police told everyone to get up. When some people refused, the policed started grabbing people to their feet, and dragging them across the street. Some of the protesters started yelling at the police and forming a human chain to keep the police from pushing them off the street. They brought in the police on horses and the riot squads from Manchester and London, and everything got a bit heated. I was standing back from the fracas, but still amongst the area occupied by demonstrators, and the mounted police started pressing us forward and trying to push us into the area where there was fighting. I have no idea why they were trying to get us to move into a fight. I won't go into it too much, but I do feel the police handled it very badly.
Anyway, at this point I left and went on the the concert. I had seats way up the the stands but was happy about it after being on my feet all day, and since it was covered at least I was out of the rain now. The concert started at about 7pm, and it was awesome. The crowd was jubilant, even with the rain and cold. The music was good, after a while I was getting quite anxious to see James Brown, and fearing that if the concert went on longer than was originally though I might miss my coach back to London. So, I sat there freezing and wet, but enjoying myself for most of the evening. James Brown was AMAZING, I left about halfway through his last song though to catch my coach. I think everyone at the concert left with a real sense of optimism about how the situation with poverty was going to improve.
Now, because of all of the traffic, protests, etc, the drivers weren't sure when we got off the bus in the morning where they were going to be picking us up. So I went to the place where they dropped us off, and then to several likely suspects, and couldn't find my coach at all. So I decided to try to catch a train to London, but got lost, and didn't make it to the train station until after 2am, and they were closed for the evening. I sat outside the rail station until it opened at 4am.

Part II - Trip back to London and the Bombings

I got a ticket for the first train back to London at 5.50am, and then waited in the relative warmth of the rail station. The lobby area looked like a refugee camp, people were everywhere, you had to step over them to get across the place, and they were giving out water to everyone. I got on the train, and luckily again, found a place where I could have 2 seats to myself (although most of the train was completely packed) and tried to sleep some more. I finally awoke around Peterborough when the train was getting too full for me to have 2 seats, and let someone have my spare.
As we left Peterborough, someone on the train had heard that there had been some explosions in London, but at that time they were blaming them on power surges. There were no announcements from the actual driver, etc to the people on the train yet, so this was all just information for phonecalls people were getting. The train continued on its way to the station at King's Cross. Finally the train was stopped, and the announcement was made that there had been some incidents in London, and we were waiting to hear whether we could continue on into the station. After being stopped for about 30 minutes just outside of London, they turned the train around, and took us all back north. Through conversations with other passengers, I found out that the explosions were due to bombs, and all sorts of speculation as to who and why were flying around through the train. When the train stopped at Peterborough, I got off, and got on a train back to Cambridge. I still didn't know the full extent of the damage.
When I finally got home to Cambridge, I found out all of what had happened. I didn't know what to think. So much had happened and I was so exhausted from lack of sleep and from walking and traveling so much. I of course realised how lucky I was to have missed my coach, as I would made it to London earlier than by the train I took, and would have had to travel to King's Cross via the Underground. I was frantically trying to respond to texts and phone calls from people who knew I was going to be in London, and try to text or phone people I know that live in London and make sure they were okay. Of course, loads of the lines were blocked, and I wasn't able to get through to a lot of people. I was of course, quite shook up, as were lots of people, but it really only hit me when I had a chance to stop for a second after I got home. I don't really know what to say. It's of course horrible and unnecessary. After feeling so positive about the way things were going with the G8, feeling like a good change was about to take place, and of course while London was still celebrating winning the Olympics, then all of these good things were instantly overshadowed by something so so bad. I just hope that everyone who reads this and your friend and family are okay.

I'm off

2005-07-05T14:43:00.000Z

We're leaving tonight to head up to Edinburgh for the G8 rally. I'm a bit nervous due to the violence and unrest that was going on yesterday, but I'm hoping that most of the violent elements are under control now. We've already heard stories from folks in Edinburgh that have been told not to even leave their houses, and to board up their windows, but I think it's all being a bit sensationalised. We'll see. If it gets too heated we can hightail it out of the city centre and just come back when we need to return home. Anyway, I'll be sure to give an update once I return.
Oh yeah, I hope everyone who celebrates it had a good Fourth yesterday, it was as always a bit weird trying to celebrate American independence in the country that we fought to win it from. I've pretty much given up, in fact. There was other reason to celebrate, however, as Miss Stitchdrop (my partner in knit-crime) has triumphantly returned from her field work in sunny Cyprus. We had a nice meal out, and then back to her place for some champagne, etc. It's very nice to have her back, and maybe we can post some photos of some of her stuff soon.

Make Salina History

2005-07-03T14:17:00.000Z

I'm STILL not completely finished with Salina! I did block all the pieces though, and start the finishing. After failing miserably at getting a nice looking backstich for the shoulder seams, I decided to give up and fake graft, which looks okay. I knitted the rest of the collar whilst watching Live 8, and cursing my lucky friends who actually got tickets. I started to set in the sleeves, as well, but go too tired and had to go to bed.
I had to do a lot of running around during the day before then, and I heard that Robert Sayle (Cambridge's John Lewis) was having a sale, so of course I went to see if maybe that included yarn. I wasn't really expecting there to be any good clearance yarn, and I was soo wrong. I had to gather up every ounce of restraint in my body to not buy the whole lot. They had some really lovely stuff, but I settled on what is pictured below, all Rowan. That includes : 5 balls of Kid Silk Haze, aka Knitters' crack, I'd like to make a very lacey cache-coeur or something similar; 3 balls of Biggy Print in a lovely oceanic blue colour-way that will be a scarf for Scareport that I promised him a long time ago; and 2 balls of Biggy Print in another really nice colour way consisting of deep lilacs, mauves and beiges, that I'm going to give to a friend who was coveting a scarf I made out of the same stuff last year. I'll give her the option of making the scarf itself or having me knit it up. It was all less than Â£30, and I'm very happy with it all.

2005-07-03T14:15:00.000Z

The stash that Rowan built

But all the cool kids are doing it....

2005-06-28T14:57:00.000Z

I don't have much knitting progress to share, but I have some knitting related business to discuss. Scareport (of the Manly Jumper fame) will be heading to Japan at the end of next month for a conference. I'm sending with him an empty bag for yarn and cool Japanese knitting stuff. Basically, I was hoping that someone who passes through this blog could help give me some inside information on yarn shopping in Kobe, Osaka, and Tokyo. I know that 2 of those cities are the top 2 costliest cities in the world, so cheap would be good too. I'm particularly interested in soy and bamboo yarn, and any hints on yarn buying phrases in Japanese would be much appreciated, as well.
There is a lot of non-knitting content in this post, and if you are very squeamish, you might not want to see the second photo. Just a heads up.

2005-06-28T14:56:00.000Z

In further news, the salad trough is basically sprouting something different everyday. I guess there's not much to say about it, aside from maybe expressing a bit of concern regarding how interested I am by the whole thing. I don't think anyone would be incredibly surprised if I started knitting little outfits for my plants.

2005-06-28T14:52:00.000Z

As exciting as watching corn grow.

2005-06-28T14:35:00.000Z

And finally, after reading Stephanie's posts about her recent leg injury, I decided I should go get one too. So, on my way to do a quick bit of shopping before heading into my lab yesterday, I took a massive spill off of my bike. In front of about 400 tourists. As I was flying through the air, memories of my last bike accident (that left me with a broken hand) were flashing in front of me, but despite the acrobatics I think I was fairly lucky. All the bystanders were looking at me with their jaws on the ground, and I'm sure it looked quite spectacular. I did launch quite high up in the air, do a bit of a spin, land on the ground with a roll, only to have my bike (that was till somehow semi-upright and moving) run over and then crash onto my leg. I wasn't even really in much pain until the adrenaline wore off, and I developed a bit of a hobble. It wasn't until I got home that I could really access the damage, and I saw my knee as pictured below. My knee was the worst of it, but my elbow and shoulder hit the ground as well, and I have another less exciting bruise where the bike landed on my shin. Has Yarn Harlot started a trend? Will bruising be this summer's latest accessory?

2005-06-28T14:33:00.000Z

Where's my sympathy?

Hrmmm, a greensleeve.

2005-06-25T13:31:00.000Z

How surprising is this?!?! I finished the first Salina sleeve last night. It's just too easy, basically an overgrown, slightly shaped swatch. I will cast-on the second one today, and might even be finished with it by Monday! Hooray! If I can finish it soon enough, and the crappo weather prevails, I might even have occasion to wear it. For all of our sakes though, I will hope this isn't the case. Especially those of us at Glastonbury (man, I have never been so happy to have missed out on tickets!).
Speaking of tickets, I just booked my bus tickets to Edinburgh for the G8 conference gathering. If anyone is around London and interested in going up , the best deal I have found is this. It's Â£4 each way to and from Edinburgh. The schedule is a bit greuling, 12 hours on the road, 12 hours in Edinburgh, then back on the road for another 12 hours, but I think to miss out would be a real shame. As an added bonus, I don't have to find a floor to crash on. If anyone who reads this is planning on going, let me know, and we can try to meet up. Of course, though the purpose of my journey is primarily political, I might (if I find the time) have to make a detour and check out HK Edinburgh...
Okay, enough about that, here's a photo of my newly completed sleeve trying to get the attention of the lovely Rowan model in her brooch-bedecked Salina. So wistful!

2005-06-25T13:04:00.000Z

Look me in the eye!

I jinxed it.

2005-06-24T15:43:00.000Z

So much for my last post's title, it's cold and bucketing down rain now. Aww, man. As far as knitting goes, I did cast on and knit a good 75 rows into the first sleeve of Salina, but I'm not going to post a photo for two reasons : 1) it's just st st, and so boring it might actually kill you, and 2) aforementioned crappy weather leads to crappy photos of knitting. So, you'll have to take my word on it.
I will post some photos though, but not knitting related. There have been some exciting things happening in my salad trough. Look! Something else has sprouted. I'm not sure what it is, but due to the red stem, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's either the red kale, or the red chard. I'm beside myself with joy.

2005-06-24T15:42:00.000Z

What am I?

2005-06-24T15:40:00.000Z

That sprout that I posted a photo of the other day was honestly one of about three that were in the trough. They have now assembled an army. Take a look and please excuse the crappy photo.

2005-06-24T15:39:00.000Z

I am Spartacus! I am Spartacus! I Am Spartacus!

Summa, Summa, Summa, Summatime!

2005-06-22T12:59:00.000Z

I did eventually climb up the scaffolding in my front garden last night, but I wasn't terribly impressed with the view. There is a pulley system up there though, so we could hoist up a basket with food and have a picnic, but we would also then be almost directly in front of our upstairs neighbours' window.
More excitingly (for me, anyway), some of the seeds I've planted have sprouted. Now, I'm sure the eagle-eyed among you will notice that these sprouts look remarkably like cress. You would be right, and I'm sure you would then think that there's not much exciting about getting cress to sprout. I don't care. I'm just so happy something that I put in earth has decided to ascend. I didn't just plant cress seeds however, the seeds are a mix of salad-y stuff that I bought at the Chelsea flower show called Jekka's Choice Herb Salad Mix. Specifically, it is land cress, red Russian kale, salad rocket, red Chard, and spinach. I can't wait to see what sprouts up next!

2005-06-22T12:49:00.000Z

The giant sprout will devour us all!

2005-06-22T12:47:00.000Z

I did get a bit of knitting done last night on my sock, as you can see below. The self-patterning yarn is so much fun, just when you are about to get bored of the colour you are knitting, it changes! I think I will cast on the sleeves for Salina by the weekend, and maybe even have one finished by next week... Am I being too optimistic? Perhaps.

2005-06-22T12:43:00.000Z

Sock progress

2005-06-22T12:39:00.000Z

I will leave you with some photos of what I did last night. Every year that I've lived in Cambridge, I've gone down to the river to watch the St. John's College May Ball fireworks (because they're the best of all of the May balls). This year, I was a little bitter because I was supposed to actually be IN the May ball, but it was still nice to be out on the river with loads of people. So, here you go!

2005-06-22T12:36:00.000Z

The hot air ballon at St John's May ball

2005-06-22T12:35:00.000Z

Wow!

2005-06-22T12:34:00.001Z

OOOOOooooooo!

2005-06-22T12:34:00.000Z

Ahhhhhhh!

2005-06-22T12:33:00.000Z

The view from the river.

May bumps, moss stitch and construction!

2005-06-21T15:04:00.000Z

After a long weekend partaking in the celebrations that mark the end of May Bumps the start of May Week here in Cambridge (yes, I know it's not May, and I don't understand it either), I was in a right state. They don't call it 'Suicide Sunday' for nothing. Luckily the sun has been shining, we have been having fantastic weather, and my college's rowers did us proud. Sadly, I'm not going to any May balls this year, but the general feeling of summer finally arriving and the fact that the undergrads will be clearing out soon are both very welcome.
Interestingly, I awoke this morning to what sounded like galloping horses in my front garden, which I was not excited about because I had stayed up fairly late to do a bit of knitting. When I looked out my front window, an intricate network of scaffolding had been erected. I have yet to discover the purpose of the scaffolding, and we had no prior warning that it would be there, nor do we know when it will be gone. Needless to say, I think we will be having dinner al fresco, and at a slightly higher altitude than usual.

2005-06-21T14:54:00.000Z

Nobody told me!

2005-06-21T14:45:00.000Z

Staying up a bit later did prove fruitful, as I finished the front of Salina! Hooray! I really love the collar/lapel, as you can see if you read on. Everything else is so straight forward, moss stitch edges with lots of st st in between. I need to start on my more complicated project, the Anthropologie cardi.

2005-06-21T14:44:00.000Z

The front of Salina, wondering where the sun went...

2005-06-21T14:43:00.000Z

This is the fun part, the self-shaping lapel. It's just made by adding one more stitch to the moss pattern, but I think it's clever. It also saves me from having to knit a separate one and then sew it on, so more power to it.

2005-06-21T14:42:00.000Z

Salina's beautifully simple lapel

ooooo.... Shellsock!

2005-06-16T12:07:00.000Z

Okay, my sock doesn't have anything to do with shells, but I've been listening to a lot of New Order lately, and I have that song stuck in my head.
I know when you woke up this morning thinking 'I wonder how the sock La Donna is knitting is coming along', you thought you were asking in vain. You were wrong. The sock is coming along fine thanks to the one-two punch of Big Brother and Nip/Tuck last night, added to the fact that we had leftovers for dinner. They still don't take the place of Desperate Housewives, though. Anyway, I'm liking the way the pattern is coming out on the side that I've posted a photo of here. The other side is a bit weird, and all the dark bits keep lining up and making squares. I'm still very excited about the fact that it seems to be going okay. I'm trying to convince the sock's intended recipient to be just as excited, but he claims his lack of knitting knowledge makes that impossible. Sure.
One more thing... Does anyone else who knits socks kind of feel like they are knitting a teepee?

2005-06-16T12:06:00.000Z

A foot rises out of the darkeness...

Another webring

2005-06-15T14:00:00.000Z

Sorry to keep doing this, I just applied to another webring. PLEASE!!! Scroll down for knitting content.

2005-06-15T13:59:00.000Z

New Web ring

Wrestling an Octopus?

2005-06-14T15:31:00.000Z

Not so much... My first attempt at knitting in the round with DPNs wasn't so bad. It took a moment to get used to, but it gets less and less like juggling after a few rounds. I also tried out some short rows business for the first time for the toe shaping (using this tutorial). I chose the Short row toe because I liked the way it looked, but I have to say, although I do love the way the shaping looks, I wouldn't recommend this method for self-patterning yarn because you get some crazy patterns that don't match on each side of the toe, since you knit the top first and then the bottom. A better idea would be a toe that started in the center and got bigger radially, like the other two methods in that tutorial.
So, here's the toe so far with a few rows into the foot. I'm using this pattern for the sock. All Hail Wendy!

2005-06-14T15:30:00.000Z

Mastering the arts of sock knitting and sock levitation.

Duh duh duh duh dutdut dut dut duh da dut.. My Salina!

2005-06-14T15:23:00.000Z

So you were wondering what's going on with Salina? This is how much of the front I've finished. And as goes with most humans, though she looks quite lovely, man is she boring! So boring, in fact, that's all I'm gonna say about it for now. I'm sure there will be more excitement when I get to the collar.

2005-06-14T15:20:00.000Z

The front of Salina... suspiciously like the back...

Buttons.....

2005-06-10T17:58:00.000Z

I'm posting these next photos so I can make links out of them, so please disregard them...

2005-06-10T17:25:00.002Z

shello

2005-06-10T17:25:00.001Z

dinky

2005-06-10T17:25:00.000Z

linky

The Bandwagon

2005-06-10T15:55:00.000Z

I just joined this webring... I think.

2005-06-10T15:26:00.000Z

UK knitters webring

Errr, put a 'sock' in it.... (I'm sorry)

2005-06-10T14:35:00.000Z

So, I got my exciting sock yarn yesterday, and it kind of feels like a cat's stomach, so I've been petting it a little. Let's hope I can part with that feeling enough to knit it into something wearable...
And, more excitingly, I finished the back of Salina last night, even though I was being hypnotised by the knitting and could hardly keep it together to do the shaping of the neck. But it's finished, and I have proof. Knitting a ladies (ie- dainty) sized jumper is so much more rewarding than knitting a man's (ie- monstrous) jumper. Besides, my delicate sensibility is offended by such blatant vulgarity in sizing.

2005-06-10T14:32:00.001Z

What's this? A finished back to Salina... How exciting!

2005-06-10T14:32:00.000Z

New Opal Sock yarn in the mire

Broke-y Can't Stop

2005-06-03T16:59:00.000Z

Okay, I have to admit that I've just won some double-pointed needles and some sock yarn from E-bay. I've decided that I need to have some smaller projects as well as jumpers going. Is that because I've lost my mind? Perhaps. But the yarn is so cool, it's self-patterning Opal sock yarn, so you can get a sock that looks like this without having to change yarn or anything. Plus, I'm interested in trying to knit a sock. And it all cost less than £8. What?
Also, I'll give you some progress on Salina. I used a tubular cast on again, because it's so lovely, and 3.75 mm needles for the moss stitch, then switched to 4.00 mm for the stockinette. I'm following the directions exactly for the XS size, but since my needles and yarn are larger, am expecting to get a S sized finished product. I've posted photos below.
In other news, I'm pissed off at the writers of Desperate Housewives for playing their faithful viewers so hard. If you watched the finale on Wednesday night, you will know what I'm talking about. How many days until next season begins???

2005-06-03T16:56:00.000Z

Salina...

2005-06-03T16:54:00.000Z

Close-up of Moss St and edge... check the flecks.

Flowers and Beer

2005-06-01T15:58:00.000Z

The Chelsea Flower show was amazing, I was even inspired to buy some seeds to plant myself... I'll let you know how that works out. Got to catch up with some folks in London, the weather was amazing, I had an all around awesome time. Check out the photos below, and if you'd like to see more just email me, and I can send a link to my Kodak gallery.
I returned home to find my house had been invaded by a swarm of Irish people, most of them drunk by this point after having visited the Cambridge Beer festival. Luca also came into town again with 3 of his posse, and we did have a knit-school session. It was pretty non-stop all weekend with the visitors, and one particularly unlucky member of the Scareport family took an unexpected dip in the river Cam. It was awesome to see everyone, and I had more fun than I've had in ages.
If you're not interested in flowers, keep scrolling for knitting content!

2005-06-01T15:47:00.000Z

the Spiral Garden

2005-06-01T15:46:00.001Z

the Moat and Castle Eco-Garden

2005-06-01T15:46:00.000Z

the Merrill Lynch Show Garden

2005-06-01T15:45:00.000Z

Fleming's Nurseries Float Show Garden