June 21, 2006

Knitting and computer games do not mix

I have started my first pink ribbon socks. It's a fairly easy pattern - once I did the cable pattern the first time I had it memorized (and I'm using these first socks as test cases anyway, since I've already had to modify things a wee bit). You'd think that three weeks would be plenty of time to do three piddly little pairs of socks. But this is only if I can drag myself away from Civilization III. It's a good thing I still haven't gotten Civ IV or the world might never hear from me again!

And speaking of the world, can we speed the summer up a bit? Not just to zip right past all this nasty heat we're having right now - I have a much better motivator. I just want September 9th to get here sooner. And really, what knitter out there could blame me?

Posted by Jenipurr at 06:57 AM | Comments (1)

June 17, 2006

Amazing Lace Challenge - Extreme Knitting

Amazing Lace - Challenge #2:

Your challenge: one exhilarating photograph that shows you engaged in death-, logic-, or sanity-defying lace knitting.

My version of Extreme Knitting? It's not for the faint of heart; the timid; the weak-kneed.

Because, you see, I knit with cats.

Enough said.

Team members:


  • Member #1- Jenipurr
  • Member #2 - Pacific Northwest Shawl
  • 'Supporting' Cast (from left to right) - Tangerine, Azzie, Sebastian, Rosemary

********

Don't forget to try to win a pair of pink handknit socks by sponsoring either me or my little sister for the Avon Breast Cancer walk. We've got less than a month to go, and we've still got about $1,400 to go!
Posted by Jenipurr at 10:21 AM | Comments (9)

June 13, 2006

A little light reading

Richard and I both like to keep a book or two on the breakfast nook table for something to read while we're eating breakfast in the morning. It may seem a bit antisocial to be reading at the table, but mornings are when we're both bleary and tired and waiting for the coffee to kick in, and not really feeling much like trying to make small talk over our bowl of cereal.

My current breakfast reading has a set theme, because lately, it has been all about the acquisition of knitting books. While at the knitting night on Friday night, one of the women mentioned that she'd found a number of books at the local Costco, including Inspired Cable Knits. Since I was already planning a trip to Costco Saturday afternoon to stock up, I just *had* to swing by the book tables while there, and after all, I've got two cardigans worth of wool that need pattern inspiration, so the book just had to come home with me. Plus, since I was out of the country for my actual birthday, this means all my presents have been trickling slowly in, among them a copy of Mason -Dixon Knitting. This is a good thing because i have a sizable pile of kitchen cotton in my stash, given to me by various other knitters who were clearing out their stash, and I have been pondering making washclothes and handtowels, and now I have patterns and ideas!

But very best of all of my birthday presents so far came from my wonderful husband, who may not 'get' knitting, but understands that sometimes it is just easier to feed the knitting addiction, especially because this means that he then gets free rein to go off to Fry's and buy new hard drives and routers and other computer gadgets, and if I am surrounded by yarn and books, I am less likely to raise an eyebrow when he decides that even though we already have 6 computers in the house and someone (who might have been me) once made a snarky comment about how the number of computers is not supposed to ever get larger than the number of cats, we really need another one because look honey, there is a new version of Linux I don't have installed on anything yet.

Anyway, all of this is a long-winded way for me to say that for my birthday this year Richard bought me the entire set of Barbara Walker's Treasuries of Stitch Patterns. All four of them! Do you have any idea how many stitch patterns that is? It makes me positively giddy just thinking about it, when I am not on the verge of weeping from the sheer futility of knowing that even if I started today I could not possibly knit enough items to try out every single pattern included in those four books, and if I thought picking cables for the last cardigan was bad enough how the heck am I ever going to be able to narrow down a selection for my next Aran project, and all those lace patterns mean that I may just have to break down and make lace panels for every single room in this house (none of which will match, of course) because no one needs that many lace scarves or shawls and this does not even begin to take into account all the books and folders of patterns that I already have on my 'must do' list.

All these glorious, beautiful stitches, and all these wonderful ideas. Many of the smaller patterns will work perfectly on a pair of socks, and there can never be too many afghans, especially afghans made of pattern swatches that will let me play with a whole pile of some of my favorites, and also, surely, somehow, there is a burning need for me to make someone a Halloween sweater/pillow/afghan that incorporates not only the laughing ghost cable and the jack-o-lantern cable, but also the most amazing cabled spider pattern I have ever seen.

********

Don't forget to try to win a pair of pink handknit socks by sponsoring either me or my little sister for the Avon Breast Cancer walk. We've got less than a month to go, and we've still got about $1,400 to go!

Posted by Jenipurr at 10:01 AM | Comments (4)

June 09, 2006

Spring Feet

I finished the second blue-striped Jaywalker sock on the plane from London to San Francisco during our flight home. I then promptly cast on for a new sock (using Opal's tiger striped yarn) and had to keep starting over because the yarn wanted smaller and smaller needles. I knew I'd brought along all these extra sets of DPN's for a reason!

When we got home both Richard and I promptly got sick (or rather, Richard was already sick during our last day in Dublin - I just waited a day or two to join in the fun). While this did involve lots of lolling listlessly around the house (and working our way through close to a metric ton of Kleenex), it doesn't make for very exciting knitting news. Hard to knit when you cannot breathe and your sinuses are trying to kill you.

But by Tuesday night I was starting to feel better, so Wednesday morning I swung by the UPS store on the way to work and shipped the Jaywalkers off to my Spring Feet pal, Chrissy, along with a box of shortbread I picked up in Ireland. I did not remember to take a picture of the finished socks so here they are on Chrissy's feet (and I would like to note that I am quite proud of the fact that I got every single one of those stripes to line up almost perfectly!).

My own Spring Feet socks arrived in the mail this afternoon, all the way from Ozknitter in Australia! They came with a book of pictures from her country (all of which just make me even more determined to get over there one of these years for a few weeks) and also a really cool pen that is also a little maze (it appeals to the nerd in me and I am going to have to make very sure to keep an eye on it so that Richard doesn't 'borrow' it for himself). They're gorgeously purple and they have little cables hidden in the ribs, and they are nice and warm and wonderful.

Posted by Jenipurr at 09:45 AM | Comments (1)