Bokkie en Bulle

Oh my goodness!  We're having baby fever in the Houston South African community!  As a knitter, of course, it is my duty to knit something for every new baby.  This past summer, our first friends to be blessed with a little bundle of joy were no exception.  The husband is both a huge John Deere tractor fan and, as most South African men are, a huge Springbok rugby fan.  I found the CUTEST pattern for a tractor sweater from Roo Designs.  Designer Gail Pfeifle designs just about the most adorable baby and toddler sweaters you've ever seen.  Seriously, go click that link and look at those sweaters.  If your ovaries didn't start hurting by the time you got to the owl sweater, you're a stronger woman than I am (or you just don't have ovaries).

I knit mine in Berroco Vintage, which is a super soft, washable acrylic/wool/nylon blend, and which has a great range of colors, including the perfect John Deere green and yellow:

Sorry about the shadows.

Halfway through this sweater, I realized that the "perfect John Deere green and yellow" were also the perfect Springbok green and gold.  So, of course, I had to knit a Springbok sweater.  I charted the Springbok myself, used the same Roo Designs Tractor Pullover pattern for the body, and then used a chart from the Roo Designs Number Pullover for the number on the back, which I set higher up instead of centered, and I changed up the sleeve striping to have just 2 stripes to make it more like a real little rugby jersey:

I know the Springbok is a little wonky, but I still think it's cute.  And so did the daddy-to-be.

Now we have two more South African friends who are pregnant, and both want Springbok sweaters for their upcoming babies! Luckily these things are quick to knit and lots of fun, too.  One of our friends is a big Blue Bulls fan, so he's going to be getting a Blue Bulls jersey, too!  Little does he know... =)  I made the chart today, and will probably knit it up over Christmas break.

I thought I would post the charts here in case anyone wanted them.  Note that these are NOT the patterns for the sweaters themselves, just the charts I made for the Springbok and Blue Bulls logos.  If you want to make these sweaters, hit up Roo Designs for their pattern, or design your own!  Or use them on a hat or socks or whatever you want!  Just click to embiggen, then save and enjoy.

Click to embiggen.

Ditto.

Simplicity

There's not much in my life outside of law school I can handle right now.  Basically, I can handle knitting stockinette in the round, watching Food Network, napping, and occasionally cooking.  Not a very long list!  My brain is so spongy and bruised at the end of a long day of class and reading that I just honestly cannot handle anything more complicated than staring and drooling.

Staring and drooling.

There has been knitting.  Oh yes, there has been knitting.  Again, all I can really handle is stockinette in the round right now.  I've discovered I can knit and read, but ONLY knit.   No purling, no lace, no cables, no shaping (OK, minimal shaping).  As long as I keep it simple, I can function.  And as long as I have that little "click click click" going on in my hands, I can read and study and just manage to keep myself from thinking about stabbing someone with a highlighter.

Keeping me functioning (and from committing a felony).

Comfort food is good, too.  Case in point: the Kentucky Hot Brown.  Long, long ago (1995-2001) in a land far, far away (Kentucky), I would eat the crap out of a Hot Brown for about 5-6 nights in a row once a year.  During the Lexington Junior League Horse Show, we'd stay at The Campbell House (which has now apparently been bought out) and eat Hot Browns at the restaurant almost every night all week.  A Hot Brown is a heart attack in a casserole dish.  Basically an open-faced turkey sandwich with tomato, smothered in cream sauce, topped with cheese and bacon and then broiled.

Possibly fatal in large doses.

Comfort food and stockinette.  Possibly the most perfect combination of stress relief known to man.  

Life has been complicated the past few months.  There was a family crisis, the house practically collapsing in around us, law school drama, car break-ins and theft, insurance drama, car repair drama, more law school drama...  It's getting to be a bit much. 

So here's my new plan: keep things simple.  Keep EVERYTHING simple.  How simple?

This simple.

Nigella

With all this madness going on in our house, you'd think I'd be knitting like crazy. Au contraire! For some reason, knitting, my main go-to comfort source, has not been appealing to me at all lately. Sad, considering I've got at least a dozen in-progress projects (that I'll admit to, at least) I need to finish. Maybe it's the heat. It's so blisteringly hot here that I can't really get excited about a lapful of alpaca.

Luscious though it is.

But I don't think it's the heat. I think I've been craving something more immediately gratifying. So, instead, I've been cooking. I love cooking, I really do. I slowed waaaaay down on cooking for a long time due to a combination of our ridiculously tiny kitchen, a schedule that had me working evenings, and sheer laziness. Instead of cooking 4 or more times a week, I was cooking once a week. And sometimes not even that often. I know. It's totally embarrassing. There was a lot of take-out. And a lot of frozen food. It was bad.

I'm trying to get in the habit of cooking again. I want to be able to put a good, healthy meal on the table for Hubby and me on a regular basis. I know law school is going to make this a serious challenge, but I'm going to try. And I have a secret weapon. A weapon that has provided me with a treasure trove of delicious, simple (in the a-few-fresh-ingredients-put-together-beautifully sense, not in the open-a-box-and-add-water sense), and, most importantly for my (very) soon to be cramped schedule, often very quick. "Maximum reward for minimum effort." This weapon's name? Nigella.

Photo courtesy The Sydney Morning Herald

Yes, Nigella Lawson. The British culinary maven who makes foodies worldwide drool over her food and her figure. Seriously, I so wish I knew how she makes her cardigans nip in so fetchingly under her bust. If I could figure that out, I'd probably knit and wear a lot more cardigans. I could use the extra definition in the bust department, if you know what I mean. I totally dig Nigella. She loves food, whether it's trendy or trashy (as long as it's good) and she's totally unashamed of it. And that quote above? Yeah, that's from her. She gets that a bowl of crusty bread topped with a bit of sugar and warm milk can be just as fulfilling and delicious as a Michelin-starred meal. I am totally behind this philosophy.

I've had Nigella's cookbooks for years, and remember watching "Nigella Feasts" when it first aired on Food Network back in the day, but I had never actually made anything out of them for some reason. When the Cooking Channel started airing "Nigella Feasts" and "Nigella Express" again recently, I remembered why I had bought those books in the first place, and why I want to be Nigella when I grow up. I remembered why I love cooking, too. Although I didn't need any reminding about why I love food.

I've made two of Nigella's recipes so far this week, but it looks like the state of our house means I'm done cooking for a little while. The great thing about these recipes is that when you make them, they come out looking almost exactly like the glossy pictures in the book. Except with less cilantro. I'm not a big cilantro fan, although I agree it has its place. That place is usually in the garbage (I kid, I kid! Sort of.). They are Kate-tested and Henry-approved. Seriously--he gave me a 7/10 for the pork chops (points off for it being a bit pink in the middle and for the lack of a starch in the meal) and an 8/10 for the salmon. That may not sound great, but the record is an 8.5 for my chicken cutlet with homemade mashed potatoes and asparagus. Trust me, it's high praise from him. I average around a 6.

It's turned into my "Moment of Zen." I put on my iPod, grab my recipe, and go to town. I go full out--mise en place and all. There's something satisfying about the laying out of ingredients, dosing each into its own mini-bowl or cup, the ordering, the combining, the dicing, the poking things with a spatula...maybe that's my OCD talking, but hey, it works. I just zone out and become one with the food (ha).

Despite the fact that I've had a pretty easy time getting into the habit of cooking again, I can't seem to get into the habit of taking pictures of my food. I set out my camera in the kitchen and remind myself repeatedly while cooking to take pictures, but by the time the food is ready I'm more concerned with getting it to the table hot than I am with aesthetics and documentation. So these are not my pictures. They're from the Cooking Channel website, but trust me when I say mine looked pretty much the same. Although not as well-lit. And I used boneless pork chops. And less cilantro. But let them encourage you to wander over to the site and browse some Nigella-y goodness. I don't even LIKE pork or cooked fish, but damn. These were good.

Crunchy Pork Chops with Garlicky Spinach and Tomato Salad

Sake Salmon and Rice

I'm really tempted to do some sort of "Julie and Julia"-style Nigella Lawson cooking project--trying to cook through the entirety of all her books in the next 3 years--but I won't. I may be masochistic, but I'm not suicidal. Plus "How to Be a Domestic Goddess" is all baking, and I don't think I could handle that much pastry without doing some serious damage to my hips.

Broken

We went to Corpus Christi last week for a little beach getaway before the madness of school starts up. It was great. We spent Wednesday through Saturday getting in some sun and fun--the aquarium, USS Lexington, lying on the beach (for me), jetskiing (for my hubby), and Joe's Crab Shack (who knew? It's delicious!).

The only little issue was when we were trying to fish off the breakwater. It was windy, and we didn't have weights on our lines, so we were having trouble casting. Hubby, being the manly-man he is, was determined to make it work. He jumped off the breakwater onto some large rocks in the ocean without checking them first to see if they were slippery (that's Boyscout/Hiking/Beach Rock Climbing 101, by the way). Of course, being in the OCEAN, they were slippery! He fell in between the rocks, gashing up his leg and nearly falling backwards into another rock and breaking his head open. Thank god he caught himself before that happened. He totally broke himself. Thankfully he wasn't seriously injured, but here's what happened (the squeamish should turn away now):



My husband has a death wish. When I asked him if he'd learned his lesson (after I stopped freaking out over the blood and ascertained that he was, in fact, fine), he responded that he most certainly had not and "I like scars!" Yeah. He's like that. The next day he went jetskiing while I lounged on the beach reading. Now apparently Corpus suffers from a bit of a jellyfish problem. I have no idea what kind, but there were signs at the hotel warning people to beware of jellyfish, so that usually means they're not the good kind. Hubby decided that since he had never been stung by a jellyfish, he wanted to find out what it felt like. So he picked one up. Fortunately, this one was harmless. He carried it onto shore and showed it off for awhile before returning it to its home. Yeah. He's cute, but he's dumb.

All this was a delicious appetizer before the bitter entree we have to choke down this week.

Our house was built in 1935. We love it. It has its quirks and its little faults and idiosyncrasies, but it has always treated us pretty well over the past 5 years. It was gutted and redone in the 80's, which left us with all the modern conveniences, but also with an utter mess. Everything that was done when the house was remodeled was done pretty shoddily. Strike that. VERY shoddily. Since we bought the house, we've had to replace the furnace, hot water heater, dishwasher, oven, refrigerator, recessed lighting, garage door and gate motors, most of the wiring, and the A/C. Every single repairman that came through this house told us how poor the original work was. So we knew there were issues, but none of them were dangerous, just annoying, and none of them, we thought, were structural. We knew there was some moisture under the house, but there was a sump installed, and we were told that as long as we turned on the sump and drained it after it rained, then no worries. Yeah, that didn't so much work.

About a year ago, we started noticing some bumps in our dining room floor. We jokingly dubbed them "cat speed bumps" and assumed that it was just because of the moisture under the house. Then we started to notice some dips. And some bounciness. And an increasing slant. It got to the point where if you sat at the head of the dining table, you were at about a 10 degree slant. So we had some pier and beam guys come out. The verdict: 1 beam and 5 floor joists were rotted out, 2 of which were completely rotted through. AKA GONE. To the tune of $6,000. And the floor would (obviously) need to be replaced as well. So that's another $4-5,000 for new wood (OK, laminate) in the dining room and living room.

Why is the floor so much? I'm glad you asked! It's because once they cut a hole in our dining room floor, we discovered there was NO SUB FLOOR! It had completely rotted away! So under one specific area, there were no floor joists and no there was no sub floor. So the only thing holding up our dining room table (and us) was the hardwood flooring. Yay. Safety first! Then they discovered that not 1 but 3 beams were rotted, adding almost $3,000 to the total. Yay. Check it out:



That's the underside of our house. Those two joists in front that are all broken? Yeah. Those are supposed to go all the way across. And all that soil? Shouldn't be touching the beams.

On top of fixing foundation issues and getting new flooring this week, we're also having a new cooktop installed (ours has been broken for awhile and we finally found a new one that fits) and getting new back doors (they were also rotted and one literally fell apart last week--it's held together with duct tape at the moment), and I'm trying to run around getting new glasses, contacts, and a bachelorette party outfit, getting my dress for a rehearsal dinner altered, getting all my books and materials ready for school, doing my reading, meeting up with a friend from out of town, and taking the dog to the vet all before Friday when orientation starts. Then I have orientation Friday and Saturday and class starts Monday.

Kill me. I've started smoking again from the stress. I'm a control freak, and I've totally lost control and it's too much. Everything's broken and I can't fix it.

Title

"It's all gone pear-shaped." Yes, it has. Clearly, for the last, oh, 2 years I haven't updated this thing. Life takes you on some strange paths, and you don't always end up where you thought you'd be. Two years ago, I thought I'd either have a good job or be in grad school working on my history PhD at this point in my life. Honestly, I'm 28 years old, married, and (now, at least) unemployed. And getting ready to start law school, which is something I'm still not entirely sure about, to be honest. So, yes, the neat round globe of my life plan went a little pear-shaped.

I spent the last year working at a yarn shop, and now I'm staring down the barrel of a loaded law school. And I need an outlet. Knitting is a great one, of course, and I love my husband, of course, but I need a verbal outlet that's more fluid, and, quite frankly, more selfish. When I get into that "just one more row" knitting zone, I call it "knitterbation." I just keep going and going and obsessing and obsessing and it's totally and purely selfish and masochistic and self-stroking. So this is my bloggerbation, I guess. Not the most noble of terms, but satisfying (ha) nonetheless.

Will I get my JD? Will law school get the better of me? Will I freak out and stab someone in the eye due to nicotine withdrawal (a likely possibility tonight)? Stay tuned to find out the answers to these, and many other, questions.

Socktober, Part 1

It's Socktober, everyone!  So get out those DPNs or 2 circs (or magic loop) and the STR and get to sockin'!

I am so participating in Socktober this year. In fact, I joined a KAL/contest sort of thing that the lovely ladies from Stash and Burn are running.  Nicole and Jenny are running a contest on Ravelry to help their loyal listeners destash all that sock yarn they have lying around.  Entries are open until October 9th over on the Stash and Burn Ravelry Group.  To participate, you have to total up your sock yarn stash in yards, then pledge how many yards you want to get rid of (by knitting it, of course) by the end of the month.  Drawings are going to be held for prizes, too!

This is the perfect "competition"/KAL for me right now.  I am in LOVE with sock yarn, but my sock knitting has not even come close to keeping up with the influx of sock yarn.  In fact, I have only knit 3.5 pairs of socks in the past year since I started knitting.  Despite that knowledge, I keep buying sock yarn.  The colors are so pretty!  And you only need one skein!  It takes up so little room!  And where else can $10-$20 provide you hours and hours of entertainment?  Nowhere, my friend, that's where.  

So I am in for Socktober.  I have 20,657 yards of sock yarn.  That's 11.74 miles (or18.89 kilometers for you metric nuts).  That may sound shocking, but it is nowhere NEAR the top numbers in the group.  One woman has over 70,000 yards.  That makes me feel better.  And a little jealous.  I tried to be ambitious but realistic in setting my goal, and, as I have nothing else to do this month except for one lone job interview, I settled on 1,200 yards, which I figure is just over 3 pairs of socks (assuming an average of 440 yards/skein, although some I'm using are 380 and some are 460--it all balances out in the end).  Ideally, I'd like to get through 4 skeins, but I'm not going to make myself crazy doing it.

I'm actually using patterns for my socks beyond Silver's fantastic Sock Classes for once.  The plan is to knit Monkey by Cookie A., Hedera by Cookie A., Spiraling Master Coriolis by Cat Bordhi, and, hopefully, at least one Santa Cruz hat by Sarah Hope-Parmeter for the 7Long Project.  That'll get done, but the hopefully is for "hopefully that'll get done as part of Socktober," not "hopefully I'll get to that at some point."  Just to clarify.

So far so good.  I started the Monkey socks on Friday and finished them yesterday.  That makes it 4 days for one pair.  Now, those went abnormally quickly.  It usually takes me much longer to knit a pair of socks and I'm sure the rest won't go as quickly.  Here they are:

Monkey by Cookie A. in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Mediumweight in the "Knitty Rocks" colorway

I like them.  I like how the lace pattern made the "stripes" all wavy, I like how the colors run together, and I like how they fit.  So, all around a pretty good success for my first non-stockinette pair of socks!  I knit them on 2 circs, which I have decided I much prefer to DPNs.  No ladders!  And only 2 needles!  Anyhoo, I love this pattern.  It went really fast and the lace pattern was really intuitive and easy to memorize.  Two thumbs up.

Next on the needles is Hedera.  Here's what I have so far:

Hedera by Cookie A. in Mama Llama Original Sock in the "Twisted Yarns" colorway

The yarn is not nearly as orange as it appears in the photo.  It's more of a dark beige-y tan color, like tea with a little bit of milk in it.  This one is going a little slower.  I'm having a bit of trouble memorizing the lace pattern for some reason (not because it's hard.  I'm just slow today), so I'm having to sit there are read along and it's slowing me down.  But it is SO pretty!  I'm loving the look of it, and this yarn is great, if a bit thinner than the STR.  Progress is good, though, and I am happy.

There's one hitch in all this.  I just got some money and Lorna's Laces just added new colors.  That's right.  Despite the knitting frenzy to destash sock yarn, I have actually already bought more.  HOWEVER, so far I have only bought 3 skeins.  I'm hoping to pass my goal and actually get rid of 4 skeins this month.  So, if all goes as planned, that actually puts me at -1 new skeins.  

I love creative math.

Next time: Socktober, Part 2!

In Which My Husband Is Unintentionally Spiteful, and I Accomplish Nothing I've Promised

My husband knows nothing about knitting.  Nada.  Zip.  Niks.  But, somehow, when I tell him to pick a sweater pattern and yarn for his Christmas sweater, he manages to create a perfect storm of all my least favorite things about knitting.  The pattern is Hardy from Rowan Magazine 43.  Here is what I've been able to bring myself to do so far:

Don't get me wrong--it's a beautiful sweater.  It's going to look great on him and the style really suits his personality.  But there are so many things about it that just make me want to slit my wrists:

1.  Sewing.  I am a TERRIBLE sew-er.  I cannot do a proper mattress stitch to save my life.  I usually just end up whip stitching everything together and praying that it looks OK on the right side (there, my secret is out.  Happy?).  Instead of picking a nice, simple, top-down raglan, he picked the one sweater pattern I OWN that is knit flat in SIX pieces.  Two sleeves, two bottom sections (front and back) and two yoke/top/cable sections (front and back).  To be fair, when I first looked at it, I thought it was eight pieces, but apparently you pick up the stitches for the top of the chest from the side of the cable, which leads me to...

2.  Picking up stitches.  I don't mind picking up a few stitches off a side for a bag or sock gusset or whatever.  However, this pattern requires me to pick up like 6,812 stitches along the long side of the cable pattern TWICE.  In charcoal gray nubbly cotton yarn that breaks if you breathe on it too hard.  Fun times.  It's going to be impossible to see!

3.  Purling.  I don't like purling.  I know I'm not alone here, but man, I really don't like it.  The whole sweater is purling.  The right sides are an equal proportion of knit and purl, and the wrong sides are all purl all the time.  Grrr.

4.  Ribbing.  See purling, above.  The whole thing is ribbed in some funky 3x3 garter-rib-type-thing.  Except where it's cabled (which I don't mind).

4.  Cotton (or cotton/silk blend) yarn.  Ow.  My hands hurt.  This yarn (Rowan Summer Tweed) is so beautiful, but it's really still and almost feels papery--like paper mache or powdery newspaper.  It's very hard on your hands.  And there is NO give to it.

5.  Dark/black yarn.  You can't see your stitches at all!  I always thought, "oh, please.  I've worked with chocolate brown yarn and I could see that fine.  How much worse can it be?"  A lot.  That's how much.  It's a black hole of suck.

6.  Vague patterns that assume you know what you're doing.  It's a Rowan pattern.  It pretty much just says: "Knit the sweater.  Seam.  Block."  And that's the pattern.

7.  The metric system.  I know it technically makes more sense than the imperial system, but damn.  I hate centimeters.  

OK, that's out of my system now.  I may need a break from this for a little while... like the whole month of October.  It'll be much better Thanksgiving knitting, I think.  I want to relax right now, chill out and knit things I enjoy.  I have no doubt that this sweater will be fantastic once it's finished and that Henry will love it, but it's just not fun knitting.  From now until November, only fun knitting will be allowed.  Besides, I'm not knitting for anyone else for Christmas.  I put my foot down on gift knitting after my frenzied sweat-shop experience before we went to South Africa.  But hubby doesn't count.

In other news, I have accomplished none of the things I promised in my last post.  No more mohair blanket strips, no more 4" squares, and no finished giant sock monkey.  But that last one is not my fault!  I ran out of yarn like an inch and a half from being finished with the final arm.  I had to order more and it just arrived today.  So that will get finished soon.  The blanket, however, is still on the back burner.  It's still too hot here, sorry.

Instead of doing any of the things I promised, I did these:

Ballband Dishcloth by Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne in Lily Sugar 'n Creme

and this:

Moebius Cowl by Cat Bordhi in Rowan Tapestry

Hey, what can I say?  I wanted to do something fun and easy (but not just boring garter stitch), and then I wanted to do something really challenging.  I had fun.  It went well.  I would do it again.  The Ballband Dishcloths are SO MUCH FUN.  I want to make stacks of them.  And after watching Cat Bordhi's YouTube video on the Moebius Cast-on, it made total sense and only took me one try!  It was fantastic.  A blast to knit, really, and quick once the first couple rows are donw.  She is a genius.  So, really, everything worked out perfectly--I was happy, the knitting went smoothly, and that's all that matters, right?  Not some arbitrary self-imposed goal.

Oh, and remember my issues with the increases for Skylla?  Yeah, I found Cat's videos like two weeks too late.  She has one on her LLinc and LRinc decreases and the LLinc is the one I needed.  NOW I get it perfectly.  Oh well.  I'll just have to knit another one.  My mom wants one to store needlepoint notions in.  I don't think I'll tell her what it's really for...

Next time (for real this time): Socktober!

Ike Can Suck My...

So, yes.  I am in Houston.  Hurricane Ike hit us last Friday night/Saturday morning and WRECKED Galveston, parts of Houston, and most of East Texas and Western Louisiana.  Thankfully, my family and I are fine.  We are in the center of the city and there wasn't much substantive damage to either my parents' neighborhood or mine.  Sadly, my parents' neighborhood lost a number of large, ancient pine trees, but thankfully none of them did any damage to homes.  Our street got lucky--we had a branch down in the back yard and that was about it.  There was a tree leaning on a house across from us, but it didn't hurt the house.

We finally have power back, though!  We got it back on Thursday morning, which means I won the bet with my parents and husband on when that would happen.  I said Thursday at 3 PM, but 10:30 AM is close enough!  My parents still don't have power, though.  They are JUST outside the Loop, while we are pretty much dead center inside it.  Apparently (apparently) the entire Inner Loop will have power back by Monday, but who knows when my parents will have it back.

So I've been knitting in the dark.  Sort of.  Thank God our neighbors across the street had power, and one of them let us run an extension cord to power our fridge and a lamp.  And thank God the weather cooperated and remained nice and cool and breezy, so we just opened the doors and basked in the unseasonably cool 65-degree evenings.  

It's really amazing how the city has come together, and how quickly things are getting back to "normal."  I say "normal" because it's not, really, but we're all trying.  Signs and trees are ripped up everywhere, a lot of places don't have power, but every place that does have power is open and trying to do what they can to help people and get the city back on track.  Hell, last Sunday the city was giving out free generators to people in need at Ikea and Second Baptist was hosting a Red Cross relief center in their parking lot for ice and water and so forth.  Our neighbors really all got together and did their best to help each other.  Restaurants are opening, hotels are offering discounted rooms, Continental is offering discounted airfares, and every place you go has a can for the Red Cross or some sort of donation option.  Even Borders is asking people to buy bags of coffee to donate to the relief effort in Galveston.

Galveston is pretty much destroyed.  They're not letting people in yet, so we don't really know how bad it all is.  We have friends who have houses down there (they're fine), but they don't even know what's happened to them because they can't get in to see them.  One of our friends is working in Galveston today doing recovery, and he has to be escorted in by the cops.  He's coming over tonight, and I almost don't want to hear what it's like....

So, during the hurricane (couldn't sleep, of course) and in the long, powerless days after, I knit.  I started off knitting the Sweet Dreams Throw from KnitPicks because I wanted to do something that was just plain garter stitch, very simple and mindless just to keep me busy and relaxed.  I finished one whole strip (out of five) before I got pissed off because it was TOO mindless, too hot, and the mohair was making me sneeze.  

It's still a great pattern and I intend to finish it now that we have A/C again.  But I caved and switched to the Funky Sock Monkey from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  I've had this kit since it came out, and have been dying for an excuse to start it.  My colorways are Hot Flash and Rock Star, and while similar at first glance in places, up close you can definitely see the difference and I think it gives it a nice subtle (HA!  Subtle in hot pink?) dimension.  

I've finished Ralph, the small monkey.  All he needs are eyes.  He is a knitting monkey, and he is definitely a he because I was listening to the Y Knit podcast while knitting him and decided the world needs more male knitters.  He's knitting a scarf out of remnants of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in Knitters Without Borders, a colorway that benefits Doctors Without Borders.  So he's a knitting monkey for a cause, too!  I adore him.  Check him out:

I'll post more picks once he has eyes.  I'm working on his big brother Steven right now--he's knit in the reverse combination of colorways and is about twice the size.  I just finished his tail and am getting ready to stuff him and start on the legs.  They are SO CUTE!!!

In between my last post and the hurricane, I knit squares.  Remember that pile of yarn in the last post?  Here it is now:

I am bloody sick of knitting diagonal garter stitch squares.  REALLY bloody sick.  I did use up all my leftovers from the last post, but have since found a whole mess o' Lamb's Pride Worsted under the bed.  Damn.  But I really couldn't knit another square with that leftover Lorna's Laces (I made like four before I lost it) to save my life.  So, instead, I knit a squid:

This is the Skylla pattern from the book Anticraft: Knitting, Beading, and Stitching for the Slightly Sinister.  It's a Diva Cup holder.  If you're male, you really don't want to know what a Diva Cup is.  If you're female and you don't know what a Diva Cup is, or if you're interested, their website is here.  I've been using one for about a year now and I LOVE it.  I'm never going back.

I had a LOT of trouble with this pattern--it's knit using double knitting, and this was my first time using that technique, so I had tons of trouble with the increases (I'm definitely going to try m1 increases instead next time).  I had to re-knit the darn thing about four times before I got it, and even then they looked awful.  Huge gaping holes in my squid!  I know I still didn't do it properly, but now I think I know what I did wrong.  Anyway, the lumps and bumps you see are my poor attempts at fixing it.  Have I mentioned I can't sew?  No?  Well, I can't sew.  But I'm claiming they're a design feature.  They're veins.  Squid have veins, right?  Giant, protruding veins on their heads?  No?  Oh, well.  I still like it.  The pattern doesn't call for the I-cord loop on the head, but I added one after I discovered that the small legs hang funny when you use the long legs (which you're meant to use) to hang it.  Plus then it doesn't look so much like a squid.  So I took a page from Ravelry user Snow Blue's Skylla and added an I-cord loop on top so it can hang upright.  I am much happier with it now.  And look at the cool fabric I have inside:

How awesome is that, seriously?  I love it.  Sorry about the knot.  We didn't read the sewing directions before we tied off our ends and we didn't think it was going to show.  We don't like to talk about that.

Next time: giant sock monkey, another stripe for my Sweet Dreams Throw, holiday knitting plans (already?), and probably more squares.  Damn squares.  

Also, at some point we will talk about my trip to South Africa.  I promise.  It's just hard getting my thoughts together on it because it's darn near impossible to put the experience into words.

It's Hip to Be Square

So I know I haven't been posting but after the insanity of my last semester and being in South Africa all summer (much more on that later), I haven't had much time. But now it's on! It's on like Donkey Kong!

I've been doing a ton of knitting (again, more on that later), but right now it's all about squares. 4" squares for my "Buncha Squares Blanket" (pattern from the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog) are consuming my knitting life for the next few days. I have a TON of leftover yarn from my South Africa projects and it needs to be taken care of. I mean, seriously. Look at this:

(From left to right, Artfibers Triple Cheesecake, Peace Fleece Worsted, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted. And a little bit of Artyarns Beaded Silk. Hey, I'm optimistic.)

That's a lot of 4" squares right there. I think there's more, too, but I just can't find it. Or I can't bear to look for it. One or the other. I want to be knitting two more of these:

(BYOB pattern from Knitty in Lion Brand Cotton Ease)

But I'm not. This one is being given away as a gift basket for the woman who found my JRT, Diego, when he got lost overnight last week. It's stuffed with bath stuff and treats and toys for her dog and chocolate and so forth:

(Dude, look at how much this thing holds!  It's so worth it!)

It's the least I can do to say "thank you." We thought he was gone forever! So thank you. Over and over!

But, anyway, instead of knitting more bags or adding the snap to my Nob Hill, I'm knitting garter-stitch squares. Mindless, endless, garter-stitch squares. It's a little bit zen and a little bit frustrating, especially since my Ravelry queue is SO long and enticing! But I must be strong and persevere. It can be done. It must be done.

I need the space in my stash.

Blog Rehab

There are a lot of things I should be doing right now.  Like homework, and grad school apps, and that article I promised Andy.  And finishing a long overdue baby blanket.  And laundry.  Yet here I am, knitting and watching "Celebrity Rehab" (and Jesus, if Jeff Conway isn't the best anti-drug advertisement ever, I don't know what is).  And setting up a blog, of course.  

What is the fascination with blogging?  Why is it so popular all of a sudden?  I mean, I get the cathartic nature of it for the blogger, but what does the blogee get out of it beyond some slight (and, let's be honest, in most cases slightly boring) voyeuristic thrill?  What makes my life worthy of being read about?  What is appealing about class, and yarn, and dogs, and a hairy South African husband (OK, well, I get the last one).

So let's find out.  You and me.  You can see if my life is interesting enough to deserve the few minutes of your life it takes to read about it, and I can see if writing about all this keeps me from going nuts in my last semester.  Tune in and turn on, people.