Melissa – Page 71 – Behind the Smile

November 2, 2008June 24, 2010

ARGH

When did it become November?

And OMG it’s election time.

I cannot wait for this shit to be over. And I’ve been having these horrible daymares wherein we have a repeat of the 2000 election where the counting goes on and on and on and oh my god, I am surprised I haven’t given myself a migraine.

***

To counteract my nerves, which are all over the place, I’ve been crocheting on Babette, which soothes all ills. I’ve been working on this project since March, but never blogged about it, but since then I’ve finished more squares:

I’m using leftover sock yarn, and I think you will probably recognize many of the yarns used. The yellow is from the Swallowtail shawl, the purple from Sarah’s waving lace socks, etc. I didn’t show the really ass-ugly squares, but they do exist. Variegated yarn is kinda iffy when you crochet it.

This project moves pretty slowly, as I add in new yarns when I finish a pair of socks. I want the old yarn to be interspersed with the new yarn, so I can’t really use everything up all at once. But, it’s moving along.

I’m also working on a pair of Popsicle Socks (rav link).

I really like this pattern. It’s written incredibly well, and it’s very clever! I like how the pattern moves across the instep, and it’s my first Eye of Partidge heel. Much like the Lizzy socks, there is something to pay attention to in every part of the sock, which doesn’t make it boring at all. You can also see how the gusset decreases move along the bottom of the foot, which is new and different, at least for me. Very a la Cat Bordhi, I’m thinking. I’m knitting it out of Dream in Color Smooshy (yes, I finally got into one of my six or so skeins :P) and it’s moving along nicely. I started this sock before I even made the Lizzy socks, so it’s actually been around for awhile.

***

And finally, I am working on another Nanowrimo novel. I didn’t finish last years, due to work stress and vacations and whatnot, so I’m giving it another go this year. I’m 5 for 6 years, so I think I can make it work (in the wise words of Tim Gunn) this year, though it’s a totally different story. So far, here’s my word count:

3470 / 50000 words. 7% done!

Hopefully I will be successful this year!

October 28, 2008June 24, 2010

Mini Socks, Red Scarf Project

This weekend I went on an impromptu yarn crawl with my mom. We headed down to San Jose, where our main objective was to stop at Kinokinuya, the Japanese bookstore chain. They have one in San Francisco, too, but it’s easier to get to the one in San Jose and easier to park.

(Aside: my family has a history of watching Japanese and other Asian television. Living on the west coast, they pipe in a lot of it – last year on my mom’s recommendation, Jason and I highly enjoyed the historical Korean epic Dae Jang Geum. Oh, the hats! Anyway.)

So, I picked up a couple of Japanese books – one about knitted and crocheted purses and the other one was a beading book. For imports, these books had reasonable prices, which was nice. Sometimes they are crazy expensive. I wish they would bring in more stitch dictionaries but so far they only have one (albeit excellent).

After that we got lost and wound up in San Mateo, turned around, got to The Alameda, where we went to Commuknity and I bought some sock yarn (surprise), and then onto Los Gatos, where the signage is suckalicious and stopped at Yarndogs, which was nice, though a little overpriced I thought. However they had those little sock blocker keychains, and I got one of those and a ball of Berroco Comfort, with which to make Sam’s replacement skull hat (with glow in the dark embellishments – he better not lose this one!).

We were pretty tired after that, and then headed back up to the east bay, stopping at our personal LYS, the Yarn Boutique in Lafayette, where they totally have new colors of Shibui and Mirasol Hacho. And copies of the Interweave Holiday Knits.

Then my mom dropped me off and I made little mini socks for my keychain:

These were pretty fun to make! I used leftover sock yarn. Rosie from work snagged the orange one. (“It’s cute! Go Giants!” she said. “Can I have it?”) Currently my keys are sporting the green one, which is Dream in Color Smooshy. They’d make cute Christmas ornaments.

***

I was flattered this weekend to be the recipient of the “I love your blog” award from Jennifer, which I think is the first time anyone has linked to me with a blog award, so that was nice and many thanks! 😀

Rather than link a few blogs I read per the award rules (you can see my blogroll for that on the right of my page), I’d like to step up on a soapbox for a second and point you all towards the Red Scarf Project, which is part of the Orphan Foundation and benefits foster children who have aged out the system and are now attending college.

I’m sure as knitters many of us have already heard of the Red Scarf Project, but I think it would be great for everyone to participate if they can. The Red Scarf project sends a care package to these kids for Valentine’s Day. I think showing these kids that someone, somewhere, cares about them, is awesome.

The deadline has been extended to December 15th as they don’t have enough scarves yet, so help a kid out if you can! They deserve it. 🙂

October 24, 2008June 24, 2010

FAIL TIME

So, I am going to Disneyland over Thanksgiving, and since it might be coldish in Anaheim at the end of November (a knitter can dream, right??), I thought I would knit myself a hat.

I decided upon Ganomy from EZ’s Knitter’s Almanac. A classic, right? And I decided to use my new Manos de Uruguay, which I just got because it is beautiful. These things added up to this:

It looks innocent enough.

But ALAS, the yarn is too stiff on a size 7 needle and didn’t fit my big, Germanic noggin, even though I upsized the pattern like whoa. AND I started to run out of yarn.

…O failure thou art mine…

I went as far as I could, then decreased at the top to finish it off. This was a mistake. I then vigorously blocked the everlasting shit out of that thing.

Note the pointyness upon the crown. WTF?. AND, while vigorous blocking helped a little, the fact of the matter is, it is just too small for my head, even though it doesn’t look it. It’s too short, for one thing. And the rapid decreases at the top don’t help.

I am peeved.

PEEVED.

So peeved, in fact, that I may actually FROG IT.

Anyway, so now I’m working on another one in Malabrigo on a bigger needle and it looks much more promising:

The yarn colors aren’t quite as awesome as the Manos but dudes, it is Malabrigo and therefore can do no wrong.

SO: moral of the story is, you can half-ass most anything, but you need to be more careful around miters. And use a bigger needle, damn it.

ARGH.