Over Abundance

Recently a dear friend said “It’s like eating meringue, knitting mohair.” and I love that idea. Knitting is, at different times, a chore, a passion, an art, a utility, an expression, or a treat. But eating meringue is effortless, and sweet, and sometimes I feel like that’s the best knitting of all.

I truly believe that if you can knit with wool, you should try to find a yarn that you like which is or includes wool. A high quality wool is warm, soft, resilient, and holds it’s shape. I am always cold, so I love wool. If you are never cold or allergic, and find no use for wool, then I envy you a little since other materials are coming in wider and wider ranges of colours, weights, and with clever designers to take advantage of their particular properties. There are various fibers which, in conjunction, can be just as warm and lovely as wool but with their own flair and beauty. Silk is insulative and delicious to wear, combine it with a high quality synthetic in a plied structure and it becomes a durable, practical fabric for everyday garments.

I am content to knit with wool year round. I have not stashed anything else but wool since I began to knit since it pleases me to do so. It also pleases me to see anyone else enjoying their knitting as much as I enjoy mine.

I have been unable to blog lately because of family business. I’m hoping to post sometime after Christmas. Sorry everybody, but I have to take care of me and mine for a while.

Briefly: We got 40+ new titles at work today. I. Am. So. Happy. I love selling books, I love buying books, I love books….Books. I like the word books. Books.

I have been trying to knit my friend some mittens. I am unsure of her hand size, except that she has smaller hands than me. I looked up a medium woman’s size in gloves and it said 7 inches around. Which basically means that the colourwork mittens I wanted to make are not going to work for her ’cause they’d be HUGE. I tried doing some mitered mittens, that ended in cursing. I started 36 stitch mittens. Twisted rib at the bottom knit and 4/1 twisted purl ribs all the way around but I thought “gosh, what if it’s too small?” and unravelled it all to try the others. HA! I did the math with my gauge: It would have been PERFECT. Dammit. Cast on 36, work in twisted k1p1 rib for 2 inches…dammit dammit dammit..

I am going to cast on for a new sweater this week, since this is the last Christmas gift that a recipient knows about and if I don’t finish the one other then the recipient will never know and I will have a WHOLE YEAR to work on them.

This is my way of saying that I will gladly procrastinate projects for whole years at a time. Why, the Baltic Sea Sweater only just had it’s icky facings unsewn and ripped out. Now I’m thinking about the sleeves. After finishing the Lake Chelan Pullover, I am pretty sure that the BSS Cardi’s sleeves are longer than I like. So I’m trying to decide how to best hack out a good 1.5-2 inches. My poor baby, he’s so tortured. “Just put the zipper in already!” he cries. Maybe he needs cuddles…Or a zipper. We’ll see, cardi, we’ll see. You were ill-conceived, my dear, and now we both are paying for my tomfoolery/hubris. You were planned to be an epic of finishing work, and now we’re down to “Just Put IN The F***ing ZIPPER!” - Patience. Patience, cardi, I will wear you someday soon. I mean, it gets cold inside the fridge year round - Right?

Under the fridge is a strange and dreadful place. It is not fun. It is not exciting. It is not a place for the squeamish, lazy, or those of keen nose. Also, a strong back is helpful.

In case you ever need to know, foaming bathroom cleaner takes congealed blood off of linoleum like magic.

Lesson learned: Thaw meat in a bowl, or end up moving the fridge to clean up the mess.

Across the street from my apartment, in the Catholic school/church’s playground/parking lot a large corner of the asphalt has been dedicated to Boy Scout troop 351 and the Christmas trees they are selling. To get people in the festive mood, they play Christmas music over loudspeakers.

I am very grateful for the excellent insulation on my apartment.

I completed my shop-sample for the Baby Surprise Jacket class that I am going to teach starting the Saturday after Christmas from 3:30-5. I am concerned about the buttons falling off, but I couldn’t fit the needle through the holes anymore for all the thread that was in there already. I used about a skein and a half of 220, or 5.5 ounces of worsted weight yarn on US 3’s to get 5 stitches to the inch. I know that’s ridiculous, but that’s how I am. And the best part? On Friday, a mum let me photograph it on her boy. He was super cute, but his face has been cropped out by his mum’s request. Ya’ll gotta be sure to ask these questions when you’re photographing people, donchaknow.

I am so close to being done with the Hemlock Ring blanket that it hurts me. I can’t believe it - I started this thing two (three?) months ago! The rows really don’t take that long, especially if I’m in interesting company. I think I may make it bigger than the original by a repeat or two, since I only started the second ball at the beginning of the last repeat.