Thursday, March 05, 2009

Oh, and knitting.

Yeah. I'm doing that. Sorta. Kicked myself the whole way to Winter Park and back, yesterday, for not bringing the knitting. Though I'm not sure if I could do lace knitting in the car. (In our vehicles - four wheel drive all - it is a definite NO to the lace knitting while on a ride. But we took the in-laws' vehicle and it has an actual suspension in it.)

But, yeah, I got the sock and the baby sweater thingie done (no, Johnny, at this moment there is no squid hat), and started on the bloody damned wedding present while cursing myself for getting sucked, once again, into gift knitting. This generosity of spirit shit is all my mother's fault.

I'm on row sixty, I think, of eighty-six. So allowing for the fact the stitch count goes up exponentially as I work outward, I'm about, oh, half done.

Last night I finished up the last band of stockinette and began cursing the fact I can do basic math... I'm working a multiple of eight pattern repeats and I had two hundred thirty-seven stitches. No way in hell that was right. While I was gnashing my teeth and tearing my hair over it, my mother-in-law gave a rather eloquent snort and pointed out I'd been knitting lace while reading books and I was lucky it was as close as it was. Which is true. But still.

The pattern is "Tausenshon" (without the umlaut because damn if I'm busting out the character map at this hour) from one of the notorious German pattern books:

Which is, uh, Fancy Knitting, something or other, mumblemumble. At my house it's known as 'the red one'. Available at Lacis.

At least I'm knitting something new for a change. Even if it's more time-sucking gift knitting.

---

The Bendigo Woolen Mills order came on Tuesday of this week, I think. Maybe Monday... something like that. (A quick search shows I ordered it Feb. 14, so that's about three weeks from there to here. Not bad.) The husbeast said he thinks he has a hernia from hauling it into the house, and he thinks, doing the kilos to pounds conversion, that I've ordered about nine pounds of wool. If his conversion is correct (and I fear it might be), that means I've got at least, um. Five pounds of wool extra. Still can't get the hang of estimating how many of those giant wool-balls I need to knit something. At worst, though, I'll have enough yarn to knit MYSELF something, too.

For entertainment, I'm re-checking the weight of the order, and one thing and another, well, here are driving directions (hahaha) from where I am in Florida to Bendigo Woolen Mills. In Australia. I'm particularly fond of step 29, "Kayak to Hawaii". Anyway, according to my re-check, it's only seven and a half pounds of wool, which makes it all better. (But there still might be enough for me to knit a me sweater. Or a Goob sweater.)

My father-in-law sarcastically requested a pink sweater with silver ribbons for Christmas. And I'm pretty sure I've figured out how to sneak it in. The silver ribbon for sure. And maybe a pink flower or two. Heh heh heh.

11 comments:

historicstitcher said...

Even funnier? Ask it for the WALKING directions to Bendigo Mills!

I'm about to pee my pants laughing! Estimated travel time? 206 days, 8 hours.

Eight hours? It can get that exact???? And does it account for sleeping?

Galad said...

I had no idea Google would give those kinds of directions. Too funny.

Well, at least we don't have to worry about you going through a knitting drought for lack of fiber :-)

nestra said...

Can I just say I love the word umlaut?

Cara said...

The driving directions from Alabama are awesome--drive up to Washington state, then kayak to Hawaii, drive around there for a while, kayak to Japan, drive around there for a while, then kayak to Australia. I guess kayaks can only leave the US in Washington state and Hawaii? *lol*
What's even funnier, the walking directions take you the same crazy way, with this warning: Use caution – This route may be missing sidewalks or pedestrian paths. Ya think??

Bells said...

take photos when you get home! i wonder how many OS orders Bendigo gets?

Well, should you ever want to go there direct, at least you know how now. ;-)

Great doily. Can't wait to show you mine! It's about 10 rows short of finishing.

Leonie said...

The doily is looking pretty good right now, better than a pile of unblocked lace usually looks!!

Your father in law definitely requires a pink jumper with silver ribbons for Christmas. I am assuming he didn't specify size so I'm proposing teddy bear or doll size!!

RobynR said...

I was in Target today and thought of you . . . they've got Pepperidge Farms TimTams.

(Word ver. "Koach": How the Klassy people travel to the ball.)

Anonymous said...

And from there it's only just over 2 hours to my place. Shall I set another place for dinner?

Alwen said...

I just cheat & cut and paste:
Tausendschön

Those driving directions are great! Not only am I kayaking the Pacific Ocean, apparently I'm towing my car on a raft. And we must be hella kayakers: it's got me doing 15,000+ miles in just under 56 days.

Anonymous said...

LOL, I didn't check my estimated time of travel. I enjoyed the Japanese letterings for the directions.

In Guitar Hero, I always choose Lars Umlaut!

Also, I have a friend fluent in German if you ever need to check something.

Trish

roxie said...

I got onto a kick when I made simple drag-around quilts for all the great-nieces and nephews. (There were only two of them when I started) and my oldest brother wanted one too. "What color?" In his snotty big-brother voice he said, "Pink." I made him the pinkest, floweriest quilt I could manage and his wife made him take it to elk camp, and it turned out to be so warm that he couldn't sleep under it, even though there was frost on the inside of the tent. Your FIL deserves what he gets!

Your doilies bend my perceptions of knitting. And you knit lace while reading? Do you have another cerebral lobe or something? I mean, as long as you have the extrasensory eyes and all . . .