Over Abundance

James over at subdue it with a sweater just gave me the “You Make My Day” Award, which I am of course happy to accept. The caveat of this award is that you must pass it on to people who just make your day when you read them. Here is my list, which does include some non-famous, non-knitting people because, well, I’m a multi-faceted person, dammit.

Robbie at KnitXCore is pretty amazing, as he says.

Erin at Dress A Day always has something to ponder or make me laugh about the way we choose to attire ourselves. Erin is a strong proponent of a dress-and-skirt wardrobe for the people who want it. Don’t worry, if you don’t like wearing dresses (I don’t!) Erin is still funny and insightful. She isn’t out to convert you. Plus she finds beautiful gowns that take your breath away.

Alicia at Posie Gets Cozy always inspires me with her artful photography and beautiful home. The devotion she shows towards her family and friends is really lovely, and I am glad to call her a fellow Portlander though we’ve never met.

VeganYumYum makes vegan food not only delicious, but intelligently. There is no attempt to “fake” things that are not vegan so that you cannot tell, there is only the effort to make a truly delicious vegan dish. Sometimes she attempts to duplicate non-vegan things (i.e. Madelines) but in a savvy way that seems more honest than when people try to disguise meat substitutes and the like. I really like her writing style for its clarity and wit.

Lolly Knitting Around is kind of quirky, in a way that I can’t describe. She writes about topics other than knitting, such as living green and sustainability, but her knitting posts are always full of a great confidence mixed with wild curiousity. I love this kind of knitter, because they will try anything!

Crazy Aunt Purl isn’t for everyone, but for me Laurie’s story of divorce and the subsequent creation of a new life has been inspiring. I bought her book and read it in one night. Her humour, her insight, and her insane ability to come out alright in the end gives me hope when stuff hits the fan.

Anne Hanson at knitspot is the woman you can blame for my secret obsession about lace. I love it so much. I love to look at it, all laid out perfectly, and also swaddled around that beautiful man of hers in her photography! Her blog is funny, smart, and has a technical edge that makes the geek in me squee like a fanboy.

Marie Grace - Yarn Slayer is a mother of five (I think) children whom she homeschools while also being a knit designer who sews, cooks, and otherwise maintains a very full household. Her recent move to the country had interrupted her blogging for a few months, but she is back with vigor. She amazes me, quite simply, and her designs are all about thoughtful details. Love it.

yarnstorm is a blog where you can find the small parts of everyday life elevated to a place of intellectual and emotional stimulation. Her sense of history combined with a devotion to the arts of domesticity astounds me and gives me a deeper appreciation for everyday things, like the reading of good books and the making of good foods.

In other news, the Big Gray Cardigan is going to get frogged again. I should knit it into a swatch with intarsia: Thou Shalt Not Add Ease Nilly-Willy Without Checking Yardage First.

I shop online frequently, for clothes and yarn mostly. Men’s clothes are easy to buy online as long as you’ve shopped that brand before and you know what size you wear. Pants are especially hard for me to find in stores, since I am now small enough to be a fairly common size, so I order online.

When I buy online…well, lets just say it’s not the immediacy of the shopping that makes me shop online. Yarn, especially, can get me a little crazy. So when it takes more than a while to get my shipment notification, I can end up thinking some pretty vicious/paranoid thoughts. “Somebody bought it out from under me and they’re going to try and sneak me something else! WELL! THEY CAN’T DO THAT TO ME!” or similar. Yeah, it’s sad. So when I finally get a notification I usually go “Oh, alright, well that’s good then.” But most recently, I was ashamed by the notice I got. It was handtyped by Leanne Hayne of Beaverslide Dry Goods, in which she said..

Hi Rodger,

Kind regards from the cold and snowy Northern Rockies,
Leanne Hayne
Beaverslide Dry Goods

This nice lady even hoped that it would arrive soon! How nice is she?! And she was working her butt off to help all those people! Oh god, now I feel like a stupidhead. Dammit.

Maybe I should resolve to be more forgiving and kinder?

I have knit this hat several times in several ways. It is very easy to modify. I knit the first one, which this pattern is based off of, in a sock-weight yarn.

Pompette.

Invisibly or Provisionally Cast on 54 or enough stitches to make your hat the length you like best.

Row 1. Knit until 2 stitches remain, turn work.

Row2. Knit to the end of the row.

Row 3. Knit until 4 stitches remain, turn work.

Row 4. Knit to the end of the row.

Row 5. Knit until 6 stitches remain, turn work.

Row 6. Knit to the end of the row.

Continue working in this manner, leaving an additional 2 stitches on your left needle before turning the work to knit to the end of your row. Do this until you have turned the work a total of 10 times. If your hat is deeper than mine i.e. you cast on more stitches, you might want to do this a few more times depending on how snugly you like your hats to fit.

The following can be substituted for any other short row method that you prefer.

Knit until 20 stitches are on your left needle OR you arrive at the last place you turned. Do Not Turn Work!

1. Insert your left needle into the stitch from the row below on your right needle, catching the stitch on your left needle.

2. Knit this caught stitch together with the 20th stitch.

3. Knit 1 stitch, turn work.

4. Knit to end of row.

Repeat these 4 steps at each gap, incorporating 2 additional stitches back into the work at each gap.

When you have incorporated all 54 stitches back into your row, you have completed 1 wedge. Repeat this process an additional 7 times in order to complete your hat. You may require more or fewer wedges, depending on your particular row gauge and your head’s circumference.

I knit my first sideways hat following the ZeeBee pattern, but I didn’t like how loosely it fit and mine turned out kind of boxy with only four wedges, so I decided to refine it a bit and here is my own take on this concept. I found out about a book today called Going Straight: A New Generation Of Knitted Hats that is all about hats that are knitted sideways. I am really looking forward to it.

I am losing my damn mind. Inventory is probably the most stressful event in the store’s whole year, and it topped off my crappy December in a way that cannot be expressed in civil, blog-worthy language. At least not by me. If I have seemed a little tense at the store and not in my usual good humour, I apologize.

Last Monday was the first day of classes at PCC, and I went, oh boy did I go. Class was great, I like both of my professors a lot and I think I’ll be fine academically. But the second I left the classroom, my descent into madness would resume again. I hung out with a friend between classes and noticed my laughter being a little, um, edgy? Which alternated with me wanting to just lay down and sleep until everything is a long-long time ago.

I really hope they don’t have to start hiding me in the back office at work, I like seeing ya’ll.

I think I’m going to be okay. If this keeps up, I will definitely be adjusting my schedule to allow more room for sanity because I seriously cannot turn in papers smeared with drool and things like “Redrum” written in the margins.