mamacate

Save me from myself

So first of all, may I just take a moment to say that blogging rocks.  Because we all have days where we want to go home, pour ourselves a great big old glass of wine, and then storm around the room for a few minutes sneering "fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck FUCK!," before snorfing up the aforementioned glass.  As I believe I made plain in my prior post, Wednesday was that kind of a day.

While those sorts of days are generally unavoidable, I can think of no better antidote than to invite the internets to join you in the pacing and the muttering of profanity, and to have thirty or so of your friends join in the fuck-muttering and the complaining (and heck, the wine too if they're so inclined).

What does it say about me that I'm deeply moved by people emailing me curse words?  Oh, who knows.

As I acknowledged on Wednesday, hormones are playing a not-insignificant role in this whole thing, and the storm has not quite abated.  (As an aside, I decided a while ago that I would stop blogging my PMS when it got to the point where I really needed a category for it, but apparently I've broken my self-imposed rule and now is not the time to deal with it, OKAY?)  Anyway, stash acquisition seems to be a feature of my hormone storm, and this month is no different.  I have been looking at sweaters.

Did I mention that the vast majority of my stash is in storage, and I've cast on almost everything that's out of storage and none of it (none of it!) is doing it for me?  It is.  And it's not.  I'd probably be casting on Mermaid right about now if I could get at it.  And Elizabeth I is stalled because I can't figure out how to make the triangle the right size if my row gauge is on and my stitch gauge is way off and I found another yarn that might work that would knit to gauge but for some reason the people I ordered it from haven't sent it (do you know anything about JKL Needles?). 

Anyway, save me from myself:

St. Columba

(click to embiggen; you know the deal)

Do you understand what I'm up against here?  Worse, AS herself describes this project as "a challenge":

"However I have included one very complex design - St Columba - which requires a lot of time and concentration, and is intended for those who like a challenge."

It's also alarmingly expensive.  But my Fair Isle is giving me all sorts of fits--it's going to take forever (forever!  and St. Columba is in 3-ply/DK!  and has no sleeves!), and the colors of the FI aren't really quite right, and I've flubbed centering the motifs *completely*, though I did finish another motif and I like it.  So I want to knit something else, something from a pattern.  Something that I'll finish, and love, and be proud of.  And I want this sweater, despite the fact that it costs an arm and a leg.

And did I mention the size of my new mortgage payment?

Somebody talk me off the ledge, won't you?  Or at least point me to another wonderful DK-weight cabled (better--twisted stitch) vest that I can knit from a pattern.  Please.

A Change of Plan

So the big pack-up has begun.  Rhys is doing most of the work.  Mostly, I'm just kid wrangling.  We were supposed to go to NYC this weekend, but my mom threw out her back and we canceled at the last minute.  To be honest, I'm a little relieved.   Pushing through sweaty throngs of tourists on a 95-degree holiday weekend with two four-year-olds might not have been as much fun as it seems like it would.  So we're home, here, in a house full of boxes.  I took them to the Berkshire Museum on Saturday because they wanted to see dinosaurs; tomorrow I've promised the Mystic Aquarium (we'll get our share of sweaty throngs there, thanks).  But we're getting ready to move into the dining room, the playroom, and the kitchen (and one bathroom) for the next SIX months while our house is dismantled.  It's going to be interesting.  And despite the fact that the whole idea of renovating is that you don't have to move, well, we have to move out of every room but those (the dining room will become Rhys' and my bedroom/living room; we'll eat in the kitchen).  The rest goes into storage.

We have a lot of shit.  Much of it is 100% wool.  Coming to terms with this can be a bit scary.  Coming to terms with the fact that I have to pick and choose my stash access for the next six months is even scarier.

So here it is: this is what I have to work on until sometime in December.  And you know that means January (since they said November).

It's Elizabeth I, some Peace Fleece for a simple top-down cardi, a cotton Tivoli I've already started, two skeins of STR, a skein of Fleece Artist cashmere for a lace scarf, some locally-grown cashmere to spin from NHS&W, the Charkha (which has not seen the light of day), some cotton to spin, a couple spindles, a small quantity of silk, and a corriedale fleece in roving form.  And the Lendrum.  And my long-neglected fair isle lumber.

About that one, suddenly, I'm in love again.  Or at least I'm back in like.  It has been in time out for a year now (okay, my last post on the topic was April 2005), and I just wasn't feeling it.  But in selecting projects for this fall, I looked at it and said, "hey, why did I put this down, again?"  And pick it up I have.  I've knitted two rounds and set out the colors for the current motif.  It's all good.  Keep on keeping on.  Could get finished someday, you never know.  And at least it will keep me from getting bored, right?

So that's a lot of crap for living in one room.  Rhys is a saint.  She even set the swift and ball winder aside because she thought I'd need them.  Love.  I know.

In other knitting news, socks.  Socks socks socks.  In between infrequent bursts of fair isle, there is an unending spiral of 60 stitches. 

Am I the only person feeling a little "eh" about Trekking 100?  I have other Trekking colors that look cooler, and I've seen socks knitted out of 100 that were totally awesome, but this skein is not rocking my world.  Still I knit around those three little needles...so close to starting the toe, mustn't stop now...

It's with a bit more enthusiasm that I'm knitting these Meilenweit Boots Stretch (catchy name, huh?) socks.  I think they're actually kind of a Trekking knockoff, but I like them better.  The color changes are more subtle and, well, the colors are better.  The yarn seems like it would be splittier, but it knit up very nicely.  I'm a fan, what can I say?

Speaking of being a fan, it's another Claudia picot stockinette sock.  I used to knit all my sock legs in a pattern stitch so they'd stay up.  Now, well, it's just around and around and around and around until I pause for the heel and then around and around and around until I do the toe (which is just like the heel) and then a three-needle bind-off and I've got a sock.  It's addicting enchanting.  It's also perfect for my current knitting brainpower availability (n=0).  It's good.

I'm off to bed; if I owe you an email, apologies.  I'm scattered, as you might imagine.  One more thing, though.  The new Webs catalog is out, and it's really quite wonderful.  They did a catalog for just their house yarn line, and they've got a store employee modeling the sweaters (beautifully, I might add, nice job Cirilia!), and most of the designs featured are by folks who work at the store.  Plus, most are not your usual free-with-yarn-purchase patterns--many of these patterns are simple, classic, and lovely, with not an eyelash in sight.  I'm really proud of my fellow valley knitters, and of Webs for doing it right.  Melissa Morgan-Oakes' Flutter Sweater is adorable (scroll down).  Now I'm thinking of Kathy Elkins' crocheted baby blanket for a certain young someone who'll be showing up in town this winter (that's Minh's wife's blog, in case it seemed too random).  And Pixie's tank in Brillioso is pretty faboo too.  What's with all the hooking, anyway?  I packed all but two of my crochet hooks.  Hmm.  There's always the LYS. ;)  NAYY, truly, I'm just giving credit where credit is due.  Well, plus it's always good to be nice to your LYS.

I understand the car's spare tire compartment can hold at least a sweater's worth, right?  In the event of a crochet emergency?

Have You Ever...

...while preparing a budget for a major home renovation project, and taking a new job with a regular salary, gone through your american express card statement and looked at your wool-related purchases over the past year?

Holy.  Fucking.  Shit.

No, I'm not quoting numbers.  But holy shit.

Wool isn't cheap.  Good wool is really not cheap.  Nor, I'll point out, are beautiful spinning wheels and wool handling tools.  Hand-dyed imported yarn?  Nah, that's not either.

Better start spinning up the stash, because dude, we're not going to be buying a lot more wool in the near future.  I'll have to make do with enabling others at the upcoming festivals.  Luckily, this is an area of specialization for me, and I feel confident that I will be able to enjoy it.  Lucky, also, is the fact that I am at (or at least near, given my family's longevity) SABLE status, so I won't run out of wool any time soon.  I guess I'll just have to be more sensible about it all.  To any small business people who might go out of business because of my yarn diet, I apologize.

Best to have a little bit of a yarn budget, so that I don't do something crazy in a fit of wool-acquisition deprivation.  And I've already paid for half a fleece at NH (shut up).  But this is a good wake-up call at the start of festabal season, I think.  There's the good attitude about it.  Yah.

And I'm thinking lunch at the CT fest is going to be a picnic.  Homemade.  Jeez.

Nobody tell Rhys, okay?  She doesn't want to know.  Trust me.

Less than Two Days

I survived.  There was vodka.  My mother-in-law, thank goodness, is the kind of person you can turn to at a party and say, when told there will be champagne, "Good.  I was wondering who was going to get me drunk."  And she will laugh and give you alcohol.  WASPy in-laws have their advantages.  But we're all glad to be home, I think.

Speaking of relatives, I did something else in less than two days.  I (started and) finished my mother's soy silk shawl.  Here's its brief modeling moment before hopping into a priority mail envelope.  It's nothing fancy, just a couple of miles (okay, a couple of hundred feet) of garter stitch on big needles.  But it's from stash, and I think she'll like it, so I'm happy.

I chose this picture because it's the only one with no unfolded laundry in it.  Not kidding.

Speaking of messy, is it wrong to be intimidated by the intimation that only "neat" people work at The Container Store?  I am messed up enough (both literally and figuratively) that I felt like a bit of an imposter shopping there Sunday.  It was like, you know they're looking at you.  They can see the uncontrollable hair and the way you can't figure out how to pack the containers in your cart.  I did, however, pay special attention to trying not to give too much away by have a messy cart.  No, seriously.  Yeah, and the whole digging for the wallet in the yarn-filled purse at the checkout?  They were SO on to me.

But whatever.  My stash closet is predominantly organized, at least by my standards.  I can actually say that without lying.  I mean, I have to say predominantly because a) non-yarn items in there are a disaster, and b), well, wouldn't want to jinx it.  But here's the full frontal view.

Don't talk to me about the wallpaper.  We're remodeling, it was left from the former owners, it's the kids' playroom, you know.  But I'm very happy with my accessible, visible yarny goodness.  I will flash the stash (no promises of everything, but what's here at least--I'm still not showing you my fleeces) on April 1.  But there's nothing in there I'm not confident I'll knit.

Maybe this is progress?  Hasn't stopped me from my obsession with obtaining a mioget Shetland fleece (you think Wendy likes saying "hogget?"  Try saying mioget.  Musket.  Shaela.).  Dude, they're little.  Like, 2 pounds.  I hereby declare that if sock yarn doesn't count, Shetland fleeces don't count either.  Who's with me?