And Now for Something Completely Random...

In the million and fifty years since I last posted anything, the following things have occurred:

1. I have finished the hemlock ring, and cursed extensively as my blocking boards were not big enough to properly block it as tightly as I would like. But the blanket is beautiful and a crazy fast knit.

2. I have finished 2 pairs of Bella's Mittens-(one for me and one for boygenius who saw them and fell in love with big cabled mittens that vaguely resemble the coolest oven mitts ever).

3. I have lost my cell phone in a rain storm. Its lifeless carcass was found by a neighbor who decided it would be a smashing idea to sit it out on the front stoop of our apartment building so it could then be stolen by a random passerby. Note to phone thief: I shake my fist at you, random phone stealing stranger. You are made of suck.

4. Boygenius and I bought a new mattress and now for the first time in 7 years, I can sleep without feeling like random body parts were going to fall off in the morning. Yay for big people beds that my feet don't hang off of and yay for high thread count sheets! Yay for curling up in said bed and knitting my freaking brains out!

5. Boygenius and I have celebrated our 4 year wedding anniversary, and the 5th birthday of the diabolical Furgenius.

6. Oh yeah, and this happened:

Yes, thats me dressed up as a clown. And yes, I am riding a motorized toilet.

Don't ask.

Wowza for Weekends!

Whats this? A actual photograph of knitting? I know, its shocking. The last thing you expect to find here on Skeingenius. Sometimes I have to throw in a wild card to keep you on your toes :)

Whats shakin' on this fine Sunday afternoon? I have to say that I've been a bit lazy today so far, a perfect end to an altogether fantastic weekend. Friday night was a night spent knitting with Furgenius plopped firmly in the lap, disk 3 of True Blood on DVD, and Boygenius off shooting xbox zombies at a friend's house. A great way to unwind from the stresses of the week for both of us in our own way.

Saturday morning I met my mother in law and sister in law for some fine morning coffee and some "farmers marketing". I love those ladies and talking and spending time with them is a great treat. My mother in law is an amazing knitter, and we have a great time "talking shop".

On my way home I got a wonderful surprise. My best friend, who lives an hour and a half away, called and said "whatcha doing? I wanna come down to see ya!" so I squealed with unrestrained joy, skipped the rest of the way home, and then proceeded to speed clean my sad and sorry apartment so it would be fit for company. Then I sat down with my knitting yet again, waiting for my girl to arrive. By that point the Hemlock Ring had grown to look like this:This blanket is growing pretty quickly, and I think I'm going to love the heck out of the finished object. Furgenius already loves it, most of the time if I set it down for more than a minute she climbs on top of it and makes herself at home.

Once Jaq arrived, we ran amok, went to bookstores, ate Indian food, and generally had a great time. Once we made it back to the apartment, a neighbor knocked on the door to ask for help since another neighbor's indoor cat had jumped out of a screen less 1st floor window. He was running loose and scared outside and generally wigging out. Boygenius and I had cat-sat for him in the past, so he knew us, and I grabbed him up and we got him back inside, but not without a little bloodshed.As you can see, he took a few little pieces out of the inside of my forearm (the weird shinyness is from the liquid bandage stuff that I used tospackle myself back together). Can't say I blame the kid for scratching me up, he was pretty frightened by the whole thing and all he wanted was to get back home. He's a good ole boy.

So here it is, Sunday afternoon. All I have left to accomplish is to figure out whats for dinner and to knit until my hands fall off. Possibly change out of my pajamas for a while before changing back into them. Perfection.

Granny Clampett and the disappearing dpns.

Why is it that double pointed needles, especially ones larger than sock knitting diameters, have gotten so doggone difficult to find in most stores lately? Maybe this is not the case in actual local yarn stores, but in the general crafting variety that are all I can access by public transport at the moment all I seem to find are blank holes where needles used to be.

I must have bought the yarn to start Boygenius's gifty Hemlock Ring throw like 15 years ago last Tuesday, thinking that I would at some point wander across something pointy and possibly enough like a 10.5 DPN that I would eventually be able to start knitting. After maybe 3 months time I was still needleless. And for future reference, sharpening pencils on both ends only leads to frustration and graphite smudges on your yarn.

Eventually I gave up the good fight, realized the mission would likely continue on in an unsuccessful manner, so I did what any self respecting knitter who spends most of their workday at an internet connected computer would do: I ebayed the crap out of those needles. They showed up in the mail yesterday, much more quickly than I expected, which was so exciting that I didn't even turn fully evil when I realized that they had arrived a few hours before I knew it and Boygenius had accidentally buried them under a stack of junk mail without telling me I had a package.

When I finally found them, my fingers got immediately itchy for the knitting.

So my evening went a little like this: playing, but not quite watching the Flight of the Conchords on DVD in the bedroom while doing battle with the Emily Ocker circular cast on, which I couldn't quite get the hang of since I was 75% migraine addled with no concentration, and occasionally excusing myself from the knitting to barf, which made me feel much better. But it felt good to be knitting.

After an embarrassingly extended amount of time I finally gave up on that cast on out of frustration, crocheted a ring and started knitting into it. Also at some point during the night's knitting and multiple trips to the bathroom I lost my eyeglasses. I still haven't been able to find them, which means I am currently rocking my spare pair, which make me look like a younger version of Granny from The Beverly Hillbillies. (Did I mention that my headaches often make me stupid and I lose things?...anyway. )

Yeah, its foxy. Here's hoping I find my glasses soon. If I don't, at least I know what I can be for Halloween :)

Things to be happy about.

Time has been rolling right along, and luckily there have been no more "fecal surprises" left by the ever diabolical furgenius. This is something worth rejoicing about in my book. Other things worth rejoicing about?

A half spun bobbin of Sheep Shed Studio Brown Sheep mill ends on my Symphony, that will soon be fully spun....and the fact that over the course of it I realized that if I slow down on my maniacal treadling speed my singles get much more consistent (go figure)...

The fact that "The Intentional Spinner" book finally came in at the library where I had it held on reserve, so I can pick up that little slice of heaven on my way home from work this afternoon....

The fact that tomorrow is Boygenius's birthday and it gives me a great big reason to make him chocolate cookies that are as large as his head!

The fact that my MRI and other test results have come back clean, and that means that although I have migraines, I do have a functional, generally healthy and wool obsessed brain.

Ah, all good things.
Wishing you all good things too.

SG.

An Open Letter to my Knitting.

My Darling Knitting,

Sometimes I feel like we could use a little time apart. Some space. Distance, You know, to realize just how good we have it when we are together. Even with a love so strong, I sometimes need to take a step back. It's not you, darling. It's me. I keep telling myself that its not actually cheating...That we were on a break, and I was free to see other crafts. There. I said it. Oh knitting, will you ever forgive me? Its true.

I made curtains for the bathroom...and I liked it!

Love,
Skeingenius.

Are you Sure This Doesn't Look Like a Couch?

I'm just sayin'. Maybe its more like a Cowl-ch. (hah! I kill me.)

On the Way Home.

I think at this point I will be on a plane winging my way on home, excited about spending some quality time with Boygenius and Furgenius.

Get ready to see a glut of photographic evidence of the trip coming soon. I've missed you guys!
Love,
SG.

Right now...

Right now, I'm guessing that I'm hanging out on a bench in some random airport lobby.
Except I'm in Peru... Waiting for another flight... to take me to a boat.. to take me even further into the wilderness. How rad is that? I squee with joy.

(and I'm sure its getting me some pretty odd looks right about now).

While I'm Away

Hey there.

I thought about the prospect of long term blog blackout while I'm off in the jungles of Peru, but I'm not having it. Fear not. I'm going to schedule some random posts to keep you company while I'm gone. Furgenius wanted to take over, but she hasn't mastered the art of touch typing yet. It would also get in the way of all those long standing plans for world domination.

For the 10 day stretch from Saturday till Tuesday you can expect to see a post or 5 popping up at random...and boy do I mean random!

So keep your seat belts on folks. It might be a bumpy ride.

How Do You Decide Where to Stop?

I'm trucking right along on this garter triangle, and at this point it is almost to full shawl size but I have yet to join the last ball of yarn. If I actually go to the end of this un joined ball of yarn, then I think you might possibly be able to fit a stadium full of people under this thing, so the question remains:

If you are going to pick an arbitrary point to stop knitting something, how do you choose?

Do you prefer time limits? Like the rational: "I'll stop this at the end of the day today"

Size requirements on un-sized projects? "When this thing is big enough to cover half the refrigerator it should be perfect?"

Lunar Cycles? "I'll knit until the full moon hits and I turn into a werewolf again. Can't knit lace with claws."

Or the ever popular: "I'll knit this till the yarn I ordered on the internet shows up. That yarn is on a slow boat from China so I can go a few more repeats."

These are the things I think about.

The Eternal Question.

Why is it so darn satisfying to stick pins in a Princess's face?

I think I enjoyed it just a little too much. I might feel a bit guilty pinning things to Spiderman, but when the time comes to block some massive lace I think I'll get over it :)

I finally got off my duff and soaked and blocked the long edge border of the Lacy Hug Me Tight. Barring unforeseen circumstances or blocking tragedies, I'm going to be sewing this little lady up tomorrow afternoon and ticking off another finished object for 2009. Yee Haw!

Princess Spiderman

Yesterday afternoon I took a little trip to my friendly local discount store, and while I was wandering I noticed that they are selling those foam interlocking blocks that would be perfection for blocking for the bargain basement price of $9.99.

Oh,you can bet your sweet bippy that I got all drooly just thinking about the possibilities. I had been eyeballing the ones that knit picks sell for 19.99 a set. Boy Howdy do I love a good bargain!

As with most bargains, this one does have a trade off. Unlike the pretty, pristine white blocks that kp sells (Oh plain white blocks how I love you), these blocks come emblazoned with either Spiderman or an assortment of Disney Princesses. I would rather have the kp version, but I can't justify spending another 10 bucks on something that will be squirreled away most of the time, hiding in a bag that I will eventually sew to hold them.

Now, the truly sad thing is that I held off on buying a set because I couldn't decide if Spiderman or the Disney Princesses would be a better fit. Dorky I know.

The problem was this, although I liked the less visually obnoxious princess tiles better aesthetically (even though they are still pretty terrible), nostalgia was playing a part with the consideration of Spiderman, since as a small child I wanted to be either Spiderman or Pat Benetar when I grew up. Sadly, I ended up being a secretary instead. Them are the breaks.

Alright, I want to know who would go with the princesses and who would go with Spiderman?Who would buy both and make a Princess Spiderman combo platter?

So I like Fungus. Got a Problem With That?

Boygenius and I just got back from our kind of random sometimes nightly walk, which happens if the weather smiles upon us, and while we were walking we happened upon these happy little mushrooms growing out of a tree. They are so sweet, like something out of a fairytale.


Is it weird that seeing them makes me want to knit a gaggle of lawn gnomes? OK...Don't answer that. I know its weird :) But it begs the answering of the larger, more important question...


What would you call a large grouping of gnomes?


I mean, there are schools of fish, a murder of crows, and a (fill in the blank) of lawn gnomes. Anybody venture a guess? I almost just want to end the post there...Not really a graceful way to segue from gnomes to the knitting, but here goes:

On to the actual knitting content!


After what seems like endless lace knitting, I am still about half way done with the long piece of edging that goes around the main body opening of this. It's like the song that never ends. I know I keep happily knitting repeats, and I should be making mad progress... but it always seems to measure 32". Its freaky twilight zone knitting at its best because although it never seems to grow, I still like knitting it. I'd say thats a first. Most of the time I would be cursing like only the daughter of a truck driver can.

Something clicked in my brain, and now lacy goodness makes all the sense in the world. Don't believe me? Just look at my newly lace stacked queue on Ravelry. If I actually get started on these projects I could literally be knitting lace for the rest of my natural born life.

Well, I'm off to get my geek on: I'll keep on keeping on with the lacy border and some Netflix episodes of Firefly on DVD.

And I'm guessing that when I measure the lace when I'm done tonight what do you wanna bet that its gonna be 32" :)

Melty brain.

As I type this, dinner is a bubbling (um, some sort of random lentil concoction), Boygenius is on his way home from work, and I have a double feature of Netflix goodness. Glory be. Add a little vino, and the night should rate.

Sorry for the blackout, but the swirl of activity and recent drama sucked me under. Family style holiday celebrations (great), good knitting progress (also great), and then I narrowly avoided a round of layoffs at work (great that I didn't get axed, but terrible for all the folks who did). So, that's the catch up in a nutshell.

I'm still facing a nasty case of the stress induced melty brain so I can't really think of too much to blog but I promise to be back soon (with pictures!). Oh yes.

If I concentrate hard enough, I can knit through a tree

I've been fiending to start a new knitting project for the past few days, and after much consideration, I decided that what I want to make most is a warm fuzzy for someone who shall remain nameless (in case they take a peek at the blog between now and Christmas).

I picked out the pattern, the prefect yarn, and I must have wound like a billion yards of lace weight alpaca by hand on my "fancy" nostepin which bears a striking resemblance to an empty toilet paper tube for some reason...oh right. because it is an empty toilet paper tube.

(Santa...if you are reading this, please bring me a shiny new ball winder with that ton of Crown Mountain Farms fiber I asked for a few posts back. Hand winding is for the birds!)

I dug through the lot of my needles, only to find it sadly lacking. I don't own a 16" size 8 circular needle. I don't have anything that could even try to be a size 8 circular needle. Even if I wished and concentrated really hard.

(Random, mostly unrelated side story about concentration: When I was in middle school there was a kid named Justin who believed that if he concentrated hard enough he could run through a tree...needless to say, he was not very successful. It didn't stop him from trying though. He just thought he wasn't concentrating hard enough to be successful, and he kept on trying. To keep hurling yourself at a brain-rattling immovable object...I mean, that's dedication and some serious self confidence...albeit incredibly misguided. Of course the brain rattling could have had something to do with the repeated tries...Last I heard he was in the Army.)

Wow! How's that for random. I'm off the map today folks.

Since I'm still car less (42 days and counting as of this post), and the nearest knitting supply store is farther from my home than I can walk or bus, I'm dependant on the kindness of Boygenius to take me to buy one. Problem is, he doesn't get home in time to get me there before they close during the week. He did make sure that we had some really great Cuban food for dinner last night to take my mind off that fact.

At least today is Friday, and soon the needle will be mine...oh yes, It will be mine! (cue maniacal laughter and gratuitous hand gestures).

Well, since random seems to be more interesting than the lack of needles, lets go with a bit more of it..

When I was little, I wanted to be Spiderman when I grew up-Obviously I was overlooking the fact that I was neither spider nor man, but I had high hopes for myself. Dream big.

I'm a lefty, but I had a teacher in elementary school who made me write right handed for a time, but I started to stutter. Once I left her class and went back to being a leftie, the stutter went away.

Ever time I look at my spinning wheel I grin like an idiot.

I once helped a cow deliver a calf in the middle of my driveway.

I really want to run a marathon at some point in my life.

The first time I say boygenius he was coming into our 20th century art history class. I took one look at him, said "That one's Mine" and like 6 years later, we were married.

Well, I'm figuring thats enough random for now. Have a great weekend!