Nuts & Bolts

That's what she said.†

I have something slightly funner for later, but when I got to the comments this morning, I realised I hadn't included all those knitterly particulars on the Baby Surprise Jackets.‡

And I didn't apprise Sarah of the washing instructions for hers Ben's.

[SUMMARY: Bad knitter!]

The Compass Star:

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Cotton Kisses - light blue - 51 cotton/42 acrylic/7 nylon (machine wash, lay flat to dry), about 250 yards; less than one ball, but you couldn't quite get two sweaters out of one ball.§
Needle: US 5/3.75 mm
Size: between six months and one year¶

The NESSIL/FuSSIL# BSJ:

Yarn: Stylecraft Apache†† - thyme - acrylic (machine wash, lay flat to dry), about 185 yards; 1.5 balls.
Needle: US 5/3.75 mm
Size: also between six months and one year.

I have done my knitterly duty.

[SUMMARY: Good knitter!]

Now, do I get saint points for this, or did I lose saint points yesterday for not doing it in the first place?


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Yep. Still funny.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): You non-knitters may wish to avert your eyes or just tune in later when I give a brief treatise on pig sex.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): That's what she said. *beavisgiggle*

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Gauge is SUCH a subjective thing.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): I've waffled between the Not Evil Stepsister-in-law and the Future Stepsister-in-law. I kinda like the way NESSIL FuSSIL sounds when I say it out loud. Which I am. Right now. By myself in my office. If anybody asks, I'm going to tell them I'm speaking German.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Ravelry has scant information on this yarn, so I asked Google to help. Google didn't help much -- it doesn't even come up on the Stylecraft website, so... I don't know what to tell you. Discontinued, maybe? Perhaps I should go buy up all Showers of Flowers has to offer.

Six Little Updates, All in a Row

Thursday, I got to that magical point†:






This, my knitting friends,‡ is the last vestiges of the mass dick warmer% phase of the Six-at-Once project.

[SUMMARY: Those who cannot do, warm.]

Over the weekend, I turned six heels§:




Soon, these will be viable, wearable socks.¶

[SUMMARY: Send in the clowns -- the circus is in full swing.]

This is SO still a knitblog.#


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Like the mystical time between dark and the first greying of dawn, this represents that goose-bumpy place where phallic becomes footie.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): And guy friends. Guys may be nominally interested in the on-beyond-dick-warmer process.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): I know I seem abnormally fixated on the phrase "dick warmer," but it's still one of the funniest things anyone has ever said. Particularly about knitting.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Wedged in around spending seven hours trying to maintain a conversation with Brother's increasingly-deaf and hearing aid-resistant grandmother. It is a testament to the ultra-simple short-row heel that I could so easily finish six heels despite the schedule constraints.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Except maybe the blue ones, which are about 3/4 of an inch shorter than the other two pairs. I hadn't thought to allow for what the different stitch patterns might do to the length. Lesson learned. But those socks may have to go to someone with smaller feet than mine. I'll keep you posted.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Just wait 'til you see the O's I'm going to F in the next couple of days and the fish I'm about to knit. And the joyful resurrection (just in time for Easter!) of the "Father's Day (2007)" Arrrgyle socks, since I just figured out how to knit intarsia in the round. Aw, yeah, boyeeee... It's gettin' knitty up in here.

Art of Glass

I missed Wednesday.

When you're busy making the world safe for big oil, sometimes meetings and world domination† just eat into your day.

I feel I can make up for skipping Wednesday by giving this on Thursday:


{from Popular Mechanics}


Temperature sensitive glass. Obviously, it could be very cool on a shower door,‡ but I think the key application is barware.

Picture this: the singles bar of the future, where you can tell at a glance who's the ice man§ and who's hot blooded.¶ Where just the right amount of ice can get your G&T to match the blue of your eyes or a dash of cinnamon schnapps will give off smoke signals nobody can ignore.

Besides, it'd give bartenders another dimension to work. An idle bartender is the devil's playground.#


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): "What are we going to do tomorrow night, Brain?"

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): And you could re-enact the car scene from "Titanic" with LSD-like special effects.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): He cometh!

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Did anyone else just go Foreigner?

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): So they told us in Sunday school.

Play that Funky Anthem, White Boy

Before we talk about all the things I'll be finishing, let's talk about something I'll be starting:




Out of this:




Which wasn't supposed to come in until the beginning of September, but my pusher, Sylvia, lured me to the House of Fuzzy Crack Friday to pick it up.†

This yarn is 30% rock.‡

When Sylia got the sample cards for this, it didn't matter how much yarn I already have. It didn't matter how many projects are already on my needles. I started thinking of knitting something out of rocks.

My geology-lovin' little heart grew three sizes that day.

And I liked the pattern when I saw it in the new Interweave Knits and was considering what to knit it of when the Yarn of Rocks came in.

So happens the pattern's even written for that EXACT GAUGE.

[SUMMARY: Fate.]

And before we get into things I'll be finishing, let's take a quick look at a couple of things I'm in the middle of. Like this:






That's the Malabrigo Lace Secret Pal sent for my birthday, and I finally found a project for it, the somewhat inelegantly-named "Scarf with French trellis border from Weldon's 1890 and bramble leaf center."

I'm calling it Purple Prose.^

Then there are Dad's Low Tide Socks, which now have heels§ and a little bit of leg.¶




I used a new heel method# that I really like: Short row, with no wrapping and turning and picking up wraps. Look how pretty it is:




But I'm not working on those projects for a little bit while I complete my Ravelympics events.††

Oh, look how much a knitblog this really is!

[SUMMARY: Just showing off.]

I completed one event in WIP Wrestling‡‡ mostly on Saturday,§§ and did fuck-all on my other WIP Wrestling event.¶¶

I wove in the ends on the Malabrigo slippers that are -- technically -- a Mother's Day present for my grandmother, and washed them and stuffed them with washcloths to block them into some form that didn't look like crumpled paper.

I then sat down to knit the acorn embellishment. I determined that said embellishment mostly resembled an oddly-coloured, hand-knit sperm, so I decided to leave the embellishment off.




Sunday morning, when they were dry, I took them out to get artsy photos of them for the blog and Ravelry.

I believe I succeeded in stirring up bees more than I succeeded as an artist, but I think I should get an A for effort.##

[SUMMARY: I did little, yet accomplished so much.]

I had already determined my final event in the Ravelympics would be the Sweater Sprint, because I wanted to knit a skull sweater for Tallest, Hairiest Nephew's birthday.

I found a skull chart on Flickr (the skull designer is on Ravelry under the same name)...

...and then I went to Barnes & Noble at lunch and found a series of kids' books called "Vampirates."

So THN is getting the books too and I'm modifying the skull to have fangs.%

I'm giving myself a little pat on the back††† for remembering how fun and quick the colourwork was on the Monkey Pack and how dreary the miles of solid stockinette was.

I started the back of Vampirates and am saving the skull part for last, just to treat myself.

[SUMMARY: Old dog, new tricks.]

I fully embrace my dorkness in getting excited over something called Ravelympics.

Mostly, I embrace the fact that the threat of public humiliation in the face of failure of the stated objective is a powerful motivator for me. So I'm confident I'll finally finish the Lizard Ridge and have THN's birthday present done on time.

Know thyself.

†FOOTNOTE (crossed): OK, I was going there anyway and she hadn't actually managed to get the email out to me before I showed up on her doorstep, thumping a vein and jonesing for yarn, but I'm going with "lured" anyway.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): See the label?

^FOOTNOTE (careted): Note the lifeline. I am smarter than I look. After three frog sessions, I'm smarter than I look.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): No longer dick warmers!

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Technically, the It Happened One Night phase.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): New to me.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Being a competitor is really hard. You have to devote yourself to the competition. You can't be distracted by rock yarn.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Grandma's Blues, the 100m freestyle of my WIP events.

§§FOOTNOTE (flip turn): Lizard Ridge, the 800m IM of my WIP events.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (two little Ravletes on the podium): I'm disciplined, not insane.

##FOOTNOTE (pounding to the finish line): Kinda like the Special Ravelympics.

%FOOTNOTE (percented): I have it on good authority that I'm not just playing to my own inner eight-year-old boy. THN will be thrilled. Brother and eBeth both say so.

†††FOOTNOTE (gold, silver, bronze): Another one.

Blue!

This is me, doing a knitblog dance.

[SUMMARY: Because, you know, still a knitblog.†]

I have been knitting FURIOUSLY in all my vast spare time,‡ but when one has roughly *coughfourteencough* projects en aiguille,§ one has a devil of a time actually finishing anything.

And yet...






This was one of those "knit until the yarn goes away" things where the ball of yarn just stayed the same size for ages. I'd knit for days.

Knit until my fingers bled.

Knit with the monomaniacal obsession of a teenaged girl for a boy band.

And the yarn ball remained an inch and a half in diameter.

Imagine my surprise Saturday night when a wad of silk the size of a pea came skittering out of the project bag. So I did my garter stitch finish, bound it off and done!

And I didn't just finish knitting. I wove in the ends and washed the smell of lagoon out and blocked.

[SUMMARY: It's not just done, it's done-done.]

Yarn: Alchemy Silken Straw in a colour I call Lagoon¶
Needles: US4
Pattern: A bastardisation of a pattern from the Alchemy pattern book#

For the record, the cast-on edge had much more slant than the cast-off edge. I had to block the off edge viciously to get it to even come close to the on edge.

For the record, this stuff lost a LOT of colour in the wash. I'm kinda disappointed. Still pretty, but far less remarkable.

For the record, those aren't mistakes you see in the close-up, they're design elements. *cough*

[SUMMARY: Still a knitliar!]

The lagoon smell washed out real nice, though.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): New and improved summaries! Now 97.14% of the original!

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): It would be funny if my father hadn't called me Friday evening and started with, "Wow. I didn't think I'd find you home on a Friday night." It's now just tragic.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): I finished the perfume book. Apparently, the constant French referencing has gone to my head.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): Why do you suppose there isn't a colour card for this anywhere online -- including the Alchemy website?

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): As you can see, it's not much of a pattern. More like a stitch pattern. I memorised it out of the book (bad Marin! Bad, bad Marin!), but I think I reversed the k2tog and the yo, so it's pretty much copyright-infringement free.

I'd Like to Knit the World a Sock...

By the way? The moral of yesterday's Nintendo post?

When the Nigerian prince emails and says, "Let's play some Nintendo," just do it.

*************

Sheesh. I think I have about 14 projects going right now.†

Some of them, admittedly, just need finishing.

*coughlizardridgecough*

*coughgrandma'sslipperscough*

Some of them are Brother's Father's Day socks from 2007. Turns out frogging intarsia isn't as easy as it looks.

Some of them are the blue scarf. You remember the blue scarf. I can't lay my hands on the blue scarf right this minute, but when I do, it'll be highly active.

[SUMMARY: Making "some" a singular since 2006.]

Some projects are the Sebring tank top, which has been dubbed the shirt from hell by all who come across it. There's something seriously wonky about the pattern -- even those who are getting gauge are ending up with knitted bits that are WAY too big.

Now, I'm not getting gauge. I never intended to get gauge. I couldn't find yarn I liked that would seem to get 6.75 stitches per inch, so I decided I'd just do the math.‡

Yeah, ask me how that worked out.

I wonked the lace panel on the first go 'round,§ but before I frogged it I tried it on. At my bust measurement point,¶ it was probably three or four inches bigger than me.#

[SUMMARY: That's fucking huge.]

It doesn't seem to matter if you're getting gauge like Bag Lady Kathryn and Genius Sarah, or if you're a Sesame Street reject like me. The thing is just too damned big.

So I'm now knitting the extra small on the pattern... it *looks* OK...




I did wonk the lace a little. Again. But I'm willing to live with it.




[SUMMARY: Third frog's the charm.††]

So remember when Dad knit the Christmas stocking?

Well, a knitter friend of his was so excited -- she actually thought it would be the start of a wonderful new hobby for him.‡‡ In that spirit, she got him the Knitting Pattern-a-Day Calendar. Which he was going to give to me. Until she got really hurt he'd give her present away.

So it sits on top of his microwave.

Dad being Dad, he actually keeps up with it, changing patterns every day. Which is how he found this one:

Rippling Dunes Socks



"Daughter,§§ I brought you some mail and some magazines and a hint."

I pulled the pattern out of the bag and he said, "I just thought that was really neat. I even like the yarn. Without the pink."

He pondered for a moment.

"I guess the pink would be OK."

It just so happened that I had purchased a couple of hanks of Shibui Sock in Pebble with the specific intent of making socks for Dad.

Look at that. It looks an awful lot like the yarn in the picture... only without the pink.

So I started those last week and made some pretty good headway on the trip to Wisconsin.




[SUMMARY: Headway on socks.%]

I'm also working on the Wavy Leaves scarf from Fiddlesticks Knitting.




And the Malabrigo lace in the gorgeous purple¶¶ sent by Secret Pal for my birthday.




I know it doesn't look like a WIP, but if you saw the number of projects I've cast on and frogged, you'd understand my insistence that it IS a work in progress and my demand that I get credit for it as such.

I've been searching for just the right lace pattern for a lovely scarf. I may have finally found one in the lost## Barbara Walker stitch dictionary. Further updates as the situation warrants.

So that's it, poppets. All the news what's fit to print.

[SUMMARY: Sing it with me: Still a knitblog!]

Happy Holiday! Drink responsibly!


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Like, actively going. Not like, "I have a bunch of stuff in the back of the closet and technically it's a work-in-progress, but let's face it, I'm never going to get jazzed enough about 40 acres of linen stitch enough to actually pick it up again."

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): I can hear you laughing.

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Actually, I wonked it once and said, "Nobody will ever notice that." Then I wonked it again and said, "Nobody will ever notice it down there by the hem." Then I wonked it again and said, "If you squint really hard..." Then I finally got over my state of denial and frogged.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): You know... the BIG number.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Circus tent proportions.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): Oh, if only it worked that way for kissing them...

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): Dear Barbara, have you MET my dad?

§§FOOTNOTE (I get my curly hair from my Dad too): Yes, he calls me "Daughter." And I often call him "Father." It doesn't sound nearly as posh from our end. 'Specially since he just as often calls me "Gruese." Short for "Gruesome."

%FOOTNOTE (percented): Heh.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (straights -- you know, as opposed to circs): Purple so beautiful, even my purple-hating camera deigned to capture it.

##FOOTNOTE (pound it twice and it's twice as nice!): Lost to me. In trying to find my Sherman's Lagoon book (don't judge) last night, I discovered it under the bed.

Ho.

Hum.

And Happy Tuesday.

Other than the fact that I cast on yet another project this weekend, I don't have a lot of knitting news. I knat a lot this weekend, and I guess I could inundate you with WIP pictures, but that's mostly boring. At least the new scarf isn't blue.

About a month ago, I bought a portable evaporative cooler to replace one that stopped working. It worked so well, a week ago I bought a second one for my bedroom. The week-old cooler broke down Sunday mid-day and now I have to wedge "return defective cooler to Home Depot" into my busy schedule. 'Cause it's finally getting hot in Denverish.

My grandmother (Mom's mom) died Sunday night. Dad and I are going to Wisconsin Sunday for the funeral on Monday.

In a fit of madness, I signed up with Match.com. Men from all over Louisiana are contacting me and I can't figure out why.

My birthday is Friday. I feel way, way older this year than last. I think it's the damned dance club episode.

Rush. I'm seeing Rush at Red Rocks tomorrow night. I'm kinda excited, but getting six or eight people to agree on a carpooling schedule is like trying to get six kids to agree on pizza toppings.

I inadvertently finished most of my Christmas shopping.

I'm hostessing (sort of) a Nintendo party Saturday night. But that's a story for tomorrow or the next day. That way there's at least one blogpost this week that doesn't feature an ass-bearing quiz or a bunch of mumbling.

While we did get a new billboard Friday, there has been frighteningly little to entertain Hans and me out the office window. Still no crane; still no arms on the 1999.

I can't even tell you my current favourite joke because it has to be heard to be funny.

See? This is what happens when football, hockey and basketball end. The long, dark days of summer are upon us.

Can you feel the ennui in the air?

I'll Have a Blue Christmas

Or Flag Day.

Or birthday.

Or 4th of July.

The blue rolls on.

[SUMMARY: Airless rut or unprecedented level of consistency? You decide.]

First, I've more or less made peace with the awful raffia silk. It's still splitty as a cheerleader, but I've had some practice and it's knitting pretty smoothly. It weighs about as much as an apple pip, but I have faith it will be a lovely accessory† when it's all done and blocked.




Have I mentioned lately how much I love lace? Something like this‡ is just interesting enough to be... interesting,§ but easy enough for TiVi.

Under the auspices of full disclosure, I should note that roughly three seconds after I snapped this shot, the ball of yarn bounded off its perch and bounced on the deck, rolling under the railing and into the rain gutter.

Could've been worse; could've fallen to the alley.

[SUMMARY: Optimist dork.]

Also? I'm working that second ball now.

[SUMMARY: And still twelve.]

I cast on Sunday night¶ -- yet another blue-ish thing -- for Sebring, by Dolce Handknits.#



The Drunken Knitters decided to KAL this... oh, probably two months ago. While I'm lagging, I know Bag Lady Kathryn was two rows in and ready to frog and Genius Sarah didn't like the gauge and was going to frog, so I may not be the wet blanket on the project it appeared I was going to be.




For the record, since this photo was taken, I have knit another six rounds.††

Also for the record, the pattern calls for 6.75 stitches/inch‡‡ and this gives me 6/in, so I went down to a small, which makes me inordinately happy, artificial though it may be.

Also for the record, that's Knit Picks Shine Sport, which I'm kinda loving, and that kinda scares me. It's cotton/modal. I have been pretty vocal about my dislike of plant fibres, but this one doesn't seem to be hurting my hands the way I'd anticipated.

[SUMMARY: Bonus!]

Also for the record?% I already made a mistake on the lace panel on one side, but I figure nobody will notice, so I ain't frogging.

You see why I had to put that after the "bonus!" gloat.

Next!

Following my usual MO,§§ I fondled this at Sylvia's House of Fuzzy Crack for about three months before settling on a pattern to justify its purchase:




Just in case you can't see the ongoing blue theme...




Another plant fibre, by the way, but a very interesting texture. Oddly silky for as bumpy as it looks. I'm just dying to see how it knits up.

I suspect the lace motif on the bottom of the tank will be mostly lost in the pebbly bits.

I suspect I don't care.

[SUMMARY: All about the journey.]

Some of you may recognise this as yarn the Harlot recently touted.

Thus, I assume some of you may be terribly jealous and impressed¶¶ at my next blue acquisition.

When I told Sylvia I was having surgery, she decided to give me an extra-special get well gift##:




What do Fiona Ellis,††† the Yarn Harlot and your dear ol' AntiM have in common?

Fiona Ellis has a skein.

The Yarn Harlot has a skein.

I have a skein.

You don't have any.

[SUMMARY: Nya-nya-n-nya-nahhhh.]

Y'all know how much I love exclusive, one-of-a-kind, limited edition, get-it-while-it's-hot stuff. More important, Sylvia knows how much I love exclusive, one-of-a-kind, limited edition, get-it-while-it's-hot stuff.

[SUMMARY: Usual MO.]

And I'm not counting this as fuss. Besides, if fuss comes in the form of silky wool, I may see if I can have open heart surgery next month.

SUMMARY: Still a knitblog!


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Cute Christopher, late of Patrick Carroll's (I'm sure we'll get to that story when he opens his new bar in July), dropped by last night and saw me knitting the fluffly little thing. "That's a for-looks scarf, isn't it? I'm from Minnesota. Scarves like that don't make much sense to me."

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): k1, yo *k3, k2tog, yo* k2tog... purl on the other side... all with a three-stitch knit selvedge

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): Wow. Too many lolcats: "Interesting cat is interesting."

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): You may ask yourself, "How many blue projects does one knitter need?" You may ask yourself, "Where is my beautiful red?" You may ask yourself, "How did I get to this place?"

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Yeah, we love her touseled, provocative pose and snarly face too. There may be a mass snarly-touseled-provocative picture once we all finish our tanks.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): At 240 stitches per round, I want full credit.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): ?!?

%FOOTNOTE (percented): I have quite a record with this tank already.

§§FOOTNOTE (yo, k1, yo): Or is that redundant?

¶¶FOOTNOTE (I spy -- hey, they look like periscopes to me): Please?

##FOOTNOTE (all those extra pounds...): She also called me a brat for not telling her exactly when I was having surgery, but I can be pretty laid back about the name-calling in the presence of silk and wool. 'Specially blue silk and wool. She let me pick my own colour. I picked blue. Did I mention the blue phase?

†††FOOTNOTE (Arlington): Who did a sweater workshop at Syl's last weekend. Syl treats her celeb guests right. Y'know... like the Yarn Harlot, Fiona Ellis and me.

Blue Period†

Knitting. Ah, yes. Despite all lack of evidence, I still dance with yarn.

I've done a little picking on Brother's Father's Day Arrrgyles, deconstructing them so I can re-do them in a way that makes sense.

But it's not all about the tearing down. Or even the rebuilding.‡

I've been doing a little creating too.§

[SUMMARY: Not claiming god status, just proving I'm still a knitter.]

These little blue blobs¶ are Malabrigo Slippers from Coco Knits.

They are knit of Malabrigo# in... um... blue,†† size 8 needles. The pattern is pretty cool, with no seaming.

I can tell you from experience, however, that you can't put the toe of the upper over the heel of the sole and hope it will all work out.‡‡




As you can probably see, I haven't woven in the ends yet, and these could use a little blocking.§§ Also, I'm going to put the little acorn embellishment on them.¶¶ But you get the general idea.##




So that's one project.

[SUMMARY: Now on to the bonus round.]

Oh, dear. Sylvia is bad. In a good way. Bad for me. Sort of.

I just couldn't resist. It's Alchemy's Silken Straw.

I'm pretty sure a camera% can't do justice to the colour or the shiny.




It's absolutely stunning in person. It feels oddly like raffia††† -- dry and smooth, but not at all silky.

I bought it mostly because I was dying to see how it knits up.




[SUMMARY: Ass.]

It's pretty enough, but what a colossal pain. The tape structure completely disintegrates with the slightest handling, devolving into a dozen or so fine threads, each with a mind of its own.^

You can see one of the escapees in this picture.




Silken Straw and I started out on the wrong foot, granted.

I bought it from Syl on Drunken Knitting night,‡‡‡ along with size 5 Addis because I had to start knitting *right now*. Couldn't wait for a swift and a winder.§§§ So I laid the hank out neatly on the table and within minutes, I had embarked on an adventure in physics that defied patience.

I actually had to chew the yarn apart at one point because it had looped in on itself and somehow gotten spun one side between random, running silken threads...

But I finished. Ended up with two balls,¶¶¶ but I finished.

And I cast on.

As tight as I knit, the size 5 needles were too big. So I frogged it all and cast on with size 4 needles when I got home. I now speculate that the fours the yarn calls for are too big.

Part of it is my own ineptitude. I have twice lost stitches with no evidence of how. No drops, no runs, no odd lumps, no misplaced yarnovers. Just one less stitch than I actually need to do the lace pattern.

The first time, I frogged. Oh, I tried to tink, but those tiny, rebellious threads thwarted me.

The second time, I said, "fuck it"### and just made a new stitch. It's barely noticable. We'll see if I can maintain long enough to finish this scarf.

[SUMMARY: We are counting on my patience and good will here. *snarf*]

By the way? It knits up... oddly. It's dry, but not rough. It has no drape at all because it has no weight. I'm still dying to find out what it does when there's a couple of feet of knitting instead of just the few inches I've been able to manage so far.

Heh.

Balls.

Inches.

Heheheh.


†FOOTNOTE (crossed): Which is kinda funny because I'm actually on my period. I know Brother won't laugh, but y'all chicas should chuckle a little. And if not, well... I think I'm funny.

‡FOOTNOTE (double-crossed): Why do I suddenly want to play with Legos?

§FOOTNOTE (swerved): As much as you can give me credit for creating when I'm following someone else's pattern.

¶FOOTNOTE (paragraphed): For my grandmother, whose feet have grown from a dainty size 4 to what seems to be an embarrassing size 5. I wish I'd thought to get a picture of my big ol' paws next to them (Cat for Scale was asleep upstairs) so you could get a real idea of the Barbie-esque nature of these shoes.

#FOOTNOTE (pounded): Duh.

††FOOTNOTE (ddouble-ccrossed): No, really... duh.

‡‡FOOTNOTE (doubble-crossssed): You're rolling your eyes with the duh of it all, aren't you?

§§FOOTNOTE (knit... purl...): I'm not sure how to do that. I think stuffing them with washcloths when they're damp is the way to go.

¶¶FOOTNOTE (headless chickens): Red. Red acorns.

##FOOTNOTE (two... two... two pounds in one!): Which is, "Marin is still knitting."

%FOOTNOTE (percented): At least my camera.

†††FOOTNOTE (triple-crossed? Really?): Not that raffia is that odd, but silk generally shouldn't feel like raffia.

^FOOTNOTE (careted): This little silk thread went to market, this little silk thread stayed home...

‡‡‡FOOTNOTE (all in a row...): Which may have been my first problem.

§§§FOOTNOTE (we have the beginnings of i-cord here): I'm not sure whether beer exacerbated the winding problem or helped calm me down when it all went pear-shaped.

¶¶¶FOOTNOTE (triple play!): Go ahead. I'll wait here while you finish giggling.

###FOOTNOTE (big numbers): Out loud. To the cat.