I love you, Australia.

(Yes, I've taken medication and am running off at the keyboard. But I've been meaning to mention this for a while now.)

Not only do I love you for your cookies and your kangaroo skin rugs (I so want one) and your wonderful slang and your insane biochemists (long story) and your cooking blogs, I now love you for your children's television.

Specifically, The Upside Down Show. (Video available at link.)

Premise of show: Two guys go to new places and explore new things, while playing with a 'pretend remote control' the child watching has control of. The pretend remote will suddenly turn them upside down (hence the show title), sideways, or other outragousness. Among other things there's an Irish Dancing Button - something weird in every show. They pretend to not know anything (so as the kids can figure things out with them) but do it in a way that's not annoying, or stupid, just funny.

It's like Monty Python's Flying Circus for children.

This may sound like major enthusiasm for a kid's show, but let me tell you, I've been watching eight hours of kid's educational programming a day, and 99% of it is dreck, from an adult point of view. This show and Jack's Big Music Show are the only two I can stand to watch on a personal level. Not to mention, there's no gender stereotyping (big annoyance of mine), they don't talk down to the kids or treat them like idiots, and don't belabor points until you want to bitch-slap them. (One show toots a horn every time they use a big word. How fucking irritating.)

So, anyway, once a day while I watch this show, I think "I love Australia" and now all you folks Down Under know why you get a sudden glow of satisfaction once a day. Pass the cookies.

Hey, Knitty readers...

The time has come for me to decide what to write my next article about. (Well, matter of fact, I'm a little early for it, but it keeps me from thinking about Thanksgiving, which I am trying to block from my mind.)

I'm thinking of doing an article on how to 'read' lace. What kinds of things would youse guys want included?

Oh, and here's a bribe to answer:
(This photo was taken over the summer; I'm really NOT letting the baby crawl around the house in a tank and diaper in this weather, I promise.)

Reading while knitting.

Here to the left you can see a wire doohicky. It's more creative madness from the husbeast, known as 'the book holder-opener thingie'. (We're real sophisticated about naming stuff around here.) It's a bent up piece of 'calrod', which is used in welding things together. It's about the same size and weight as a coathanger, though, and I'm betting a properly bent coathanger would do the job, too.


You can see how it's hooked over the top of a book at the spine, to hold it open. It works best on paperbacks, but it'll get the job done on hardcovers as well. If the book is VERY thick, it will chew on the pages and cover a little, but for the most part it leaves the books unscathed.



Other than practice, this little doo-dad is the most important bit you need to read while knitting. Book weights are all very well, but they don't work for shit on paperbacks, and I don't know about you, but I can't afford to buy everything hardcover. (Plus a lot of the romance novels I read for fun don't COME in hardcover.)


Mostly I sit with a book propped on my knees and my knitting in my lap and read and knit at the same time. I'm not sure if this is a case of me being crazy and just deciding to do it one day (I read, a LOT, and always have, so it could be an independent idea), or if I read about it in something by Elizabeth Zimmerman first and figured if she could do it, I could too. I really don't remember; I've been doing this for years. The book holder-opener-thingie is close to fifteen years old; I'd had a plastic doohicky that worked much the same way before that, and when it broke the husbeast made me this one. (Some of us work in fiber when creative; the husbeast works in metal.)

It's just a matter of practice, although I've found over the years that there are some things I can't knit while reading, because they're too complex. Lace for one, though if I'm doing two-row lace with a row of plain knitting between the 'action' rows, I can read during the plain row, if the gauge is large enough. (The 0000 needle knitting has to be paid attention to at all times.) Complicated color knitting, like the black and blue sweater, where I have a chart for each row and there's no pattern repeat, I can't read while knitting either. But in the case of the brown and red jacket and similar deals, with short, easily-memorized color repeats, I have read and knit. It just depends. Yesterday I worked on the Husbeast Gansey all day while reading; the scarf was too lacey and the Knucks are too small and fiddly for reading (I'm working on the fingers; when I hit the hands, maybe).

I've also found that I can't read about knitting and knit at the same time... brain overload, maybe?

But really, for rows and rows or rounds and rounds of plain stockinette, it's the easiest thing in the world to knit and read at the same time. Try it.

Wha? Huh?

You'll have to pardon me. I won't be heard from for another day or so. I'm reading this:


It's the umpteenth installment of the Eve Dallas detective series. I'm knitting while I read so all is not lost, but I'm not good for a hell of a lot else for a while. (I am feeding and diapering the baby, I'm not totally gone. But close.)

I made up the menu and grocery list for Thanksgiving. We're having turkey. Not ham. There is much rejoicing.

I finally got a good look at the cat's tail and I think I sprained it, not broke it. However there was a big strip of fur removed during the door-slamming process and it looks like the poor critter's gonna have a permanent bald spot on her tail. That way I can see it every day and remember what a dumbass I am.

The reason it's been colder than a polar bear fuck around here (I know you guys loved that little gem, so I'll just keep using it) is because the husbeast has been running the AIR CONDITIONING. We had a little chat over that last night. Today it's almost warm.

I started a pair of Knucks. To hell with the scarves. I'll pull a Yarn Harlot and knit them all the week before Christmas. Or better yet, in the car on the way to Ohio.

And a fix for the baby addicts. From May:

Oh, for crying out loud.

Here, then.

Sheesh. Baby addicts.

I'm in trouble.

I yarn shopped today. On line. Where it's all a swirl of numbers and "I want that" and it doesn't feel like you're really spending money because you're sitting at your desk in your pajamas and nothing actually changes hands. I spent about $130. Right before the holidays. With the in-laws due in less than a week.

The husbeast may swoon. (Particularly after I hit the book store here in town this afternoon and pick up some novels I've been wanting since October.)

Some of it was planned. I had a little leftover on my gift certificate at Elann, so I bopped over there and got a shade card for their Highland wool (since I love it and will be using it more in the future). Another shade card means I need another binder, 'cause this one will explode if I try to put one more in there... And I got some sock-weight superwash yarn with the idea of dyeing it and knitting myself some socks. 'Cause I don't have enough projects going on around here. (My mother-in-law's a knitter and might get a kick out of food coloring and crockpot yarn dyeing. I plan to do it while they're here. 'Cause the kitchen won't be messed up enough, cooking Thanksgiving dinner and all.)

Then I went over to Webs and ordered the lopi light I need for the jacket steek-along. I was gonna knit it out of something I had laying around, but after a year of knitting for others, damn it, I want to make it out of the yarn I want, in the colors I want, so I bought it. Damn it. (Colors #419 Ocean and #438 Lt Fuschia, visible here.) I found myself crusing weight-lace yarns, going 'oooh, shawls', but I came to my senses and did NOT order anything else. (I never wear shawls, and next year's state fair entry will be knit on 0000's with #70 tatting cotton.) So I sorta behaved and only got what I needed (NEEDED), but the total's still a little painful.

And then I sorta lost my head. I was going to order from Amazon, but lately they've really been pissing me off, so I went to Schoolhouse Press to get a book for a Christmas present. (I SWEAR. I want to give my mother-in-law a copy of "Poems of Color" to go with her Blue Shimmer. She knits. She'll get it. She'll LIKE it.) Of course Schoolhouse Press has so many OTHER cool books... I found myself buying books on lace, celtic motifs, and Turkish sock patterns before I knew what hit me. (The Turkish sock book was going out of print! I had to get it! I actually knit things withTurkish sock patterns. Really. Look at the brown and red jacket if you don't believe me.)

No Christmas presents for me.

And now I need to go figure out what we're eating for Thanksgiving. I fear it may be peanut butter sandwiches. (For the first time in fifteen years the husbeast has admitted that ham might be getting a little old, so we're discussing doing prime rib; but it may wind up being plain old turkey after the book spree.)

'Tis the season.

For the weather to turn cold and all the bugs to come into the house, looking for a nice place to winter over. Sekhmet and I found a giant roach (excuse me, palmetto bug) doing the back stroke in her water dish this morning. She's been on overtime killing ginormous bugs, and I've been going along after her picking them up. So far the baby hasn't gotten hold of any. Or if she has, I don't wanna know, because there's no evidence of it which means she's eaten them.

Definitely don't wanna know.

Since my hands are bothering me from the all day gansey marathon on Sunday (weight is bad, and the one drawback to seamless sweaters is, they get damn heavy when you've got all the sleeves and body and everything joined up for the last shoulder bit), I decided yesterday I was going to finish the mohair scarf I'd been working on.

Yes, finish. At the time, that didn't seem like an unreasonable goal. I can do a pattern repeat in about fifteen minutes and I had most of the day to dig into the thing. I'd already done about two feet, how much longer could it take?



Longer than a day, apparently. I knit most of yesterday on the damn thing; I don't know how many pattern repeats I did, but I lost count at eight, so more than that. It just goes on and on and on and on, and I swear the ball of yarn looks like I didn't do anything. It's as heavy and thick as it was yesterday morning.

I hate scarves.

Here's a closeup of the stitch pattern; it almost kinda sorta looks like leaves. Maybe. If you squint. (It's a bias pattern.)



And now I've done four rows on the gansey and my hands have started to hurt, which means working on the scarf for the rest of the day.

Hate scarves.

Yeah, Sekhmet.

I didn't set out to name the cat after an Egyptian goddess, it just sort of happened.

For many, many years, I have been reading the Amelia Peabody mysteries, a series of books set around the turn of the last century, with Egyptologists for main characters. They had lots of cats as pets through the series, and they were all named after Egyptian gods and goddesses. (There are about twenty books in the series now. I came in around book six.) At the time I didn't have a cat, but swore that if I ever did get one, I was going to name it Bastet, after a cat in the book. Said cat was brilliant to the point of spooky, saved the day all the time, and was friendly to it's owners.

Fast forward about eight years, and here's this little cat on my doorstep, looking cute. "Aha," I thought, "my little Bastet at last." Unfortunately she didn't ACT like Bastet - she acted like a cat in the books named Sekhmet, who did nothing but lay on laps wanting to be petted and fussed over. So the cat got named Sekhmet.

The cat had the last laugh. Turns out naming her after a goddess of war was suitable after all; she's so territorial that she's anti-social with everyone but me and now the baby. Once in a while she'll lay on the husbeast but it took her about five years to do it. Plus she's one of those cats who nibbles to be friendly.

When they ask about the name at the vet's, I tell them it's ancient Egyptian for 'likes to bite'.

End of the freakin' world.

The cat likes to sleep on handknits. This is not news. She's been doing it since we first got her; I went up to my office one day and found her snuggled into the cardigan I'd thrown over the back of the futon. The husbeast has historically found this behavior amusing, and laughed at it, particularly when the cat managed to climb inside projects I was working on (the latest being the brown and red jacket; I got up one morning and found a cat bum and tail hanging out of the body and some whiskers poking out between the knitting needles). The inevitable happened again last night:


And the husbeast had a melt-down. (Well, a melt-down for him. He's a pretty mellow guy. He raised his voice a little bit.) He didn't want to grab the cat because he's learned (smart man) to be careful with knitting projects still on the needles, so after I listened to five minutes' worth of "Sekhmet! Get down!" I left my (all-important) game of Civilization and went out and rescued the cat (and the sweater, and the husbeast). He then suggested I put the sweater somewhere the cat can't get to it. I said "What, like Mars?" and he muttered under his breath.

I did almost three inches of yoke yesterday on the Husbeast Gansey, at about 330 stitches per round. At one point I went and took painkillers and went back to knitting - not something I suggest doing. So today I'm really feeling it, and I'm not sure I'll be knitting on the gansey (it's heavy). I may have to work on the scarf instead. Urgh.

Oh, and the chore of the day? Clearing out the Yarn Closet. It's also the guest-room closet and it'd be nice if my in-laws had somewhere to hang their clothes when they're here. Plus it just needs done. The cottons and wools are jumbled together. (haha) Here's hoping I survive.

Suggested reading.

Everyone enjoyed the book reviews, and I got some questions about what I would recommend for things, and then Annie made some crazy statement that those books were for good knitters... Good knitters get good by reading everything, as well as practice! So, anyway, I thought I'd suggest some books.


For beginners and other types who've never read much about knitting:

"Knitting Rules!" by the Yarn Harlot, also known as Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I've got a copy, and read through it thinking 'damn, I wish I'd had this book when I first learned to knit'. Mostly it contains basic stuff, but you never know when you're going to need basic stuff - I recently used her generic sock pattern with commentary to decode what I was doing with the stripey socks. (They didn't fit, but that wasn't her fault.) She's also got cool stuff like how to identify what fiber yarn is spun from, and of course the whole thing is entertaining as all get-out to read.




"Meg Swanen's Knitting". This one contains a lot of finishing detail. Applied I-cord, different button-holes, grafting, crocheted steeks, you name it. In terms of technique, I'd say the Schoolhouse Press group, led by Meg Swansen, is putting out some of the most original stuff available. The sweaters are reallly nice too, and encourage you to think and do your own math, not just brainlessly follow a pattern. (Must. Knit. Russian. Prime.)



For when you're on the fine line between following patterns and designing your own:

"Designing Knitwear" by Deborah Newton. This contains a lot of useful stuff about how sweaters are constructed and how certain things should look (cap sleeves, lapels, etc), so even if you never design your own knitwear, it's still darn useful. If you DO design your own knitwear, it's invaluable.




"The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns" by Ann Budd. She deserves a medal for this. Generic patterns for every size everything; in different gauges. Buy this book and you'll never need another pattern book. Contains sweaters, cardigans, hats, scarves, gloves, mittens, and socks. Wonder how big a men's triple-extra-large really is? Buy this and you can look it up.



In the 'Inspiration' category:

"Unexpected Knitting" by Debbie New. This woman does things with knitting that you never imagined. Even if you never try any of it (you should), it still makes you want to run out and cast on something, anything. (Must. Knit. Teacups.)




"Mason*Dixon Knitting" by Kay Gardner and Ann Shayne. There are some really nice patterns in here, but most of all, this book will make you laugh - a lot - and walk away grinning, saying "yeah, I love knitting too".


I'm sure I'll come up with more tomorrow, but there you go, some books for the Christmas list.

How I knit so much.

I neglect the baby.



Ha, no, seriously. She's one of those kids who is happy playing with her toys, hanging out, and watching cartoons. I run 'Noggin', a children's educational cartoon channel, so I don't feel like I'm rotting her brain. Someone needs to be in the room with her because she's got a thing for electrical cords, so I spend a lot of time sitting in the living room with cartoons running, reading a book and knitting. I've also lucked out and gotten a kid who still naps twice a day; every time I try to switch her over to one nap, we get this rip-snorting tasmanian devil type around 7PM. So even with meals and diaper changes and playing with her once in a while, I can still squeeze in a good bit of knitting in a day, if I'm determined. We usually run errands in the evening with the Husbeast, as a group, so that's still most of the day to knit.

The baby MOSTLY leaves knitting alone, but she's fascinated by texture and if I'm knitting something soft (like the mohair scarves) she wants to feel it. She's not too good at that yet, and her hands are often covered in drool, so we've had some real wrestling matches. But she gets it from me - when I was little, my mother hung up sheer drapes in the living room and would always find me in a corner, sucking my thumb and rubbing the curtain between my fingers. I also rubbed off all the satin edgings on my blankets. Even now, I touch everything when I walk through clothing stores, and almost - ALMOST - wish I lived in a cold enough climate that I could wear alpaca regularly.

So there you have it. Baby neglect.


Otherwise, I've got the first inch or so done on the yoke of the Husbeast Gansey and have begun the shoulder decreasing. The wave design on the chest looks kind of cool (we won't tell the husbeast that inverted chevrons are a female symbol from waaaay back) and the twisted stitch patern on the sleeves is still twisting.

Time to go knit.

Would you look at that...

TWO SLEEVES!!

I just got the whole thing joined up, like twenty minutes ago, threw it on the floor, and snapped a photo.

Earlier today I sort of walked into the dining room table, smacking my wrist, and wound up taking some major pain drugs. That's my excuse for over-knitting the second sleeve; I got in this zone and knit and knit and knit and before I knew it, it was too long and I had to tear back. (Instead of counting rows, I often count pattern repeats instead when trying to match sleeve lengths. I needed fourteen pattern repeats and wound up with fifteen and a half.) At the moment I am halfway through the 'establish pattern' row for the wave design on the upper chest and back. Then it's just a blur of decreasing and it's done! Woohoo!

It might actually be done by the end of November. There will be much rejoicing.

Several people have asked about the yarn; it is the Highland Wool from Elann.com in color #1440, "Sherwood Forest". (At the moment there is none in stock on the web site.) The photos here are fairly accurate in reproducing it, although it's got an odd aqua twang in bright sunlight. Something weird in the dyepot, I guess. Guppies, maybe?

The cat has figured out the sweater is wool. She's got a thing for fibers with good thermal properties; in a pinch she'll sleep on Gore-Tex, but she prefers wool or silk, or better yet alpaca, if she can get it.



I think the Year of Me needs to have a cat bed worked into the schedule somewhere... does alpaca felt?

Reviews

We've had a parade of new books and movies through the house, so here you go.


First off, the book I mentioned the other day:

"The Opinionated Knitter" by Elizabeth Zimmerman.

I don't suggest it as your first EZ book, because the pattern directions are on the sparse side. However, if you're a big fan and used to how she wrote directions, you'll love this book. Lots of family photos, back story, tales of how she started designing, etc. Very entertaining and fun, with lots of useful stuff. I was particularly interested in the dating of when she first came up with her percentage system, and how, but then I'm the big history fan so that follows. (For a first EZ book, I suggest "Knitting Without Tears" or "Knitter's Almanac".)



Then we have the Second Treasury of Knitting Patters from Barbara Walker.


I've had the thrid one for years (it's charted patterns, and I prefer charts) and recently started to buy up the rest of the set of four. The first book is good, contains lots of basic stitch patterns, but this second one is really fun. Lots of new stuff in terms of cables and lace patterns, mosaics, and miscellaneous neatoness. I think I'm using a lace pattern out of it for my next fuckin' scarf. Anyway, if you do anything other than knitting straight from patterns, all these books are worth owning.



Then we have "Folk Hats" by Vicki Square.


I'd heard from several sources that the book was rather impractical and contained a lot of patterns for hats no one would ever wear, and I confess I bought it entirely for the pattern for the Samurai kabuto. (I need one to wear for my profile photo, don't you think?) When I got the book, I was surprised, though. There are patterns for nearly every kind of hat imaginable in there. Cowboy hats, ball caps, fedoras, all kinds of neat stuff. I may not ever knit myself those EXACT hats, but she gives the hows and whys of shaping to knit any hat you'd ever want to make. So in a way it is practical, as a starting point for designing your own hats.



And now a movie for a change of pace.


First I must own up to being a major fan of Pixar movies. I did a storyboarding workshop with someone from Pixar a few years back when I was in Hawaii and learned a lot, and I just flat-out admire the creativity that goes into their stories. So I'm biased. And being married to a gearhead who watches car racing all the time, I also had the background to get the 'in' jokes. Plus I grew up in a small town so watching the 'city boy in hicksville' aspect is also enjoyable to me.

It's a hoot. If you haven't seen it, go rent Cars.

The Baby.

April wanted to know where the baby is. At the moment she's tormenting the cat.

Just last night, the husbeast and I were looking at baby photos and decided that the following might be our favorite, ever:



It was taken when she was six months old, sitting on Dadad's lap. You can see she was a happy little goober from day one.

Another one I really like was taken during her birthday celebration in Ohio when she was a year old. We took her to see the duckies and she wasn't quite sure about all those birds.



So there you go. Baby photos on demand.

Not that fast.

Some people commented on how fast the Husbeast Gansey is coming together... I don't really think it's that fast. It should be done by now, and would be if I'd quit slothing around and get to knitting.

I think I achieve what speed I do by knitting a lot of hours in the day - four to six isn't unheard of when I'm in a mood, and it was pushing eight to ten for a while there during the Blue Shimmer insanity - not by knitting FAST, if you know what I mean. With the ol' busted hand, the speed is not what it once was. I get into a groove of chugging away, flip flip flip on the stitches, and MAYBE on a good day hit one stitch a second, though I doubt it. Then there's time spent squooshing the yarn around on the needles, which can slow things down considerably.

A stitch per second sounds impressive at first, but the fastest knitter in the world was clocked at 263 stitches over three minutes, or 88 stitches per minute. Which is nothing short of insane, and I assume on plain stockinette in the round. But I've never hit that speed, not even in my prime when all my fingers worked.

What I've got going for me is technique. I knit German style, carrying the yarn in my left hand (or yarns, if I'm doing stranded color) and doing all the movement other than yarn throwing with my right. I also do the 'pick' thing, where I stick the needle in the loop and yank the yarn back through it. It's a lot faster than through, wrap, jiggle, twist, off. At least, faster for me, whose right hand doesn't work that well.

So, anyway, don't be that impressed by my alleged speed. I'm betting if more of you were home all day with your kid, you'd get more knitting done too. When I go back to school in another year, the knitting's gonna take a big hit and the blog will turn into 'whine about algebra' instead of 'complain about knitting'. I'm sure you're all looking forward to THAT.

Now if you'll excuse me, my second shipment of knitting books just got here. Eeeee!

Finally.

We have a sleeve. Only one, but it's better than no sleeve at all.



In fact, I'm suddenly so optimistic and motivated about this sweater, once the first sleeve was joined on yesterday afternoon, I went wild and cast on the second one. Then I did some knitting on it last night.



At this rate it'll be done by the end of November, which would be glorious.


Otherwise, I'm pretty sure I have a sinus infection, which is typical of this time of year. When I lived in Hawaii, I missed the seasons. I don't know WHAT I was thinking. Much better to visit for two weeks in October and run back to the warm weather. But nooooo. Here I sit, freezing my ass off. Actual winter will be a real treat, I'm sure.

Anyway. I'm already plotting costs and figures for all sorts of things next year, which is crazy because I've already got the yarn purchased and the first three projects lined up: the steek-along jacket (for me), the mitered sweater (for me), and the lace pullover (for me). Plus that baby surprise thing, lurking in the back of my mind. And the ongoing projects to finish, namely the blue and black norgi and the swirl afghan jacket. But I'm still flipping through color cards and catalogues and plotting the Fair Isle I want to enter in the state fair next year. (Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment.)

Oh, and the baby's still cute. You can't see it with the bib, but the shirt she's wearing says "I do all my own stunts." And that look on her face? That's the one that says "I am thinking of doing something horrible as soon as you go try to write something. Gimme another cookie."

Ah, fall on the coast.

It's colder than a polar bear fuck, I tell you.

How can I tell? The big indicator that cold weather is upon us is the cat. She's better than Weatherbug:

On cool days, our poor Hawaiian kitty crawls under a blanket and only comes out for meals. She alternates between the bed, my office futon, and her very own sleeping bag on the floor, shifting around as I move through the house. Her very favorite thing is to crawl under covers WITH me and sleep curled against my chest. Many nights I've come close to heat stroke with that furry little heater purring away.

Seriously, though, it's only about 65 degrees, but it's 93% humidity and raining, so everything feels cold and clammy and every bone in my body aches, particularly the ones I've broken before.


Anyway. Knitting content. I got my copy of "The Opinionated Knitter" (by Elizabeth Zimmerman) yesterday. It was my birthday present from April. April has exquisite taste in books (and goats), and it was exactly what I wanted. Thanks!

I'm looking into knitting The Baby one of EZ's Baby Surprise jackets with leftover lopi from the brown and red jacket. She needs something warm for winter, and the yarn's sitting there and it's a fast, interesting knit. This would fall under Me Knitting for the year of me... it doesn't have to be FOR me (though that helps), it has to be something I've always wanted to knit. And I do wanna try one of these. We'll see.

I would have had the sleeve of the Husbeast Gansey done yesterday but I crapped out and went to bed early. I did, however, get five repeats of the Damn Scarf done, so that counts for something.

The Baby decided, this morning, to push every button on the front of the television. Now I can't get the picture to come in and all we're getting is static. No cartoons for her until Dadad gets home and fixes it. (There's a lesson in there somewhere, but at one year old, I'm betting she doesn't get it.)

Gonna be a looooong day.

Christmas knitting?

All over the knitting blogs, there is a sudden and recurring theme. "It's the first week of November, time to start the Christmas knitting." Start? START??!!?? Are they MAD?

Most years, my Christmas knitting is done by now (last year was really bad, but I gave birth in September and I'm blaming it all on The Baby). Even this year it's low-stress because the major gifts were done by the start of October. (Blue Shimmer and the brown and red jacket.) The latest I've ever started the Christmas knitting was September, and that year I cursed myself for waiting too long.

Start way, way ahead next year, if you want to enjoy your knitting at all. The closer to deadline you get, the less you enjoy it. Remember me going down to the wire on the Blue Shimmer for the state fair? Have you SEEN the Yarn Harlot in action the last three weeks of December? Have you learned nothing?

Start in September. I'm telling you.

This is in no way meant to sound smug. Honestly, I'm worried about the sanity of a few people out there, comparing their to-knit list and the calendar. (I won't name names.)

Of course, the really, really smart people are giving out cookies for Christmas this year.

Blue Shimmer is up.

I posted the increasing rounds and the alternate yarns I used for the Blue Shimmer over at Samurai Patterns. You've still got to have "Poems of Color" to knit the sweater, though. But if you wanna, you can.

And if you do, I wanna see pictures.

The Husbeast Gansey.

Bells asked how it was coming.

Slowly. Mostly 'cause I'm a lazyass:


That's sleeve one, almost done. I wanted to get a shot of the first sleeve and the body on the needle together, but I've given up on that for today. Maybe late tonight I'll manage it, but most likely tomorrow.

Here's a closeup of the twisted-stitch pattern. I have to hold the fabric flat right now, but once it's washed it'll relax and flatten out. The gauge swatch expaneded by two inches on washing, remember.


The twisted stitch panel will continue up over the shoulder, along the shoulder strap, and all the way to the neck bindoff. I think it'll look cool, but in progress it interrupts the zen-like rib knitting. (I dislike 'lice' on Norgis for the same reason.)



April asked if the baby claps all the time. Pretty much. She claps when she's happy, and that's a lot of the time. Though I taught her to saw 'rawr' for Halloween, and that's her new favorite, to crawl around trying to be scary and saying 'rawr' over and over. Today my face hurts from laughing at her. She's been hilarious.