Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Ah, Noro, you vex me

I've begun the multi-directional diagonal scarf by Karen Baumer with my Kureyon yarn and I am psyched at how easy it is. Everyone kept telling me that it was easy, but I didn't believe them...until now. It seems as if the Kureyon and this scarf were made for each other -- each new triangle highlights the self-patterning colors of the beautiful yarn -- and it is lovely. (See how freaking gorgeous this stuff is??) HOWEVER, what I want to know is why Noro makes such rough yarns! I mean, I know that wool is always at least a little scratchy, but can you imagine how lovely and red my neck will be after wearing this scarf for awhile? And yet, I can't think of another yarn that I would rather do this scarf in! Argh. I guess the work around will have to be that I wear something between my scarf and my neck, which completely makes the use of the scarf in the first place moot. But, then again, if I had it hiding under layers of clothing, no one would see my lovely handiwork, right??

On another note, I may finally finish the baby blanket one of these days. Slowly, but surely, that puppy is knitting up. It is going surprisingly quickly, but it is going to be a beast to sew up all those loose ends after I'm done. I know, I know, I probably should have been sewing them in as I go, in order to avoid having a TON of this at the end, but I'm really not that disciplined....

Monday, December 18, 2006

lefse

Well, I have been terrible about my knitting lately. I've spent more time at craft stores looking for crafts to do than i have doing my stuff. Woohoo. Not such good thinking, unfortunately....

On the bright side, my husband and I are officially back on Aunt D's lefse list. I have to admit that I do not know much about this stuff and have not fully acquired a taste for it as yet, but I am excited to be back on the distribution list. If anyone out there in cyberworld has a suggestion about how to prepare this stuff so that i will fall deeply, madly in love with it, I would appreciate it.

On to my knitting: I am currently knitting a blanket from Vogue's baby blanket book (I think it's Vogue, but I don't remember and I can't disturb the cat on my lap to go find it and determine this). I'm doing the "Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, [etc.]" story blanket (again, not sure of the name). It is an intarsia blanket and it is driving me nuts. I can't really say that it's that difficult -- it's primarily Stockinette stitch -- but keeping track of the fifty million balls is driving me nuts. I have to admit, also, that I tried to eliminate some of the balls and just draw the string across the back of the design early on and it was a disaster -- too much bunching up!! (Yes, I did restart it -- can't be a proper project if I don't restart it a hundred times, right?) I still can't figure out what to do about the back of this thing. It's going to be a mess...well, not a mess -- I haven't made an unusual mess out of it -- it's just that it definitely has a wrong side and I can't decide whether I should cover that wrong side w/ flannel or something, or if I should just leave it be, as the designer for the book seems to have done. Perhaps I will post a picture of it....

Monday, December 11, 2006

oh why don't i read better??

uff. i was all excited about doing the knitting olympics that the yarn harlot created--i just clicked on the link on her website and FINALLY read about it (i'm relatively new to this online knitting thing). i was actually considering what i wanted to make, etc. then, just now, i realized: duh. it was february of '06. as in ALREADY over. i'm such an idiot sometimes. pretty darn dissappointing. of course, if i actually knew when the winter olympics occurred, that might have clued me in. ha.

the saddest thing about this is not that i no longer get to compete and become a world famous knitter (and to call myself an olympian!!), but that i don't have any particularly legitimate sounding thing to use as an excuse for knitting instead of doing something that i'm supposed to!! argh. so, now i'm back to knitting blankets for peoples' babies and scarves for christmas presents. this means no real challenges and nothing fun for myself. now, of course, this is entirely self-imposed. i do it, though, because i cannot otherwise justify buying tons of expensive yarn and using it. i'm supposed to be looking for a job, for heaven's sake--not spending time and money on knitting...and yet....

is it just me or do other knitters out there find themselves knitting for people who they don't even know all that well just because they're having a baby and have conveniently provided you with an excuse to knit something? i knitted two blankets last year for babies that i've never even met. this year i'm knitting something for a baby that i may never meet. and yet, here i am finding time to knit whenever i can -- using the blanket as an excuse: "i would love to go out with you, but you understand -- the blanket." and everyone looks at me knowingly, "yes, the blanket." because we do this stuff for babies and they need blankets, it will mean so much to the parents, etc. little do they all know... it's not the babies or the parents -- it's the friggin' knitting that makes me do it!!!

muahahahaa