fumblingwithneedles.com

My poor, poor, neglected knitting blog.

Crap, I didn’t realize I haven’t updated this thing since OCTOBER. But the truth is, I haven’t been doing that much exciting knitting.

I started the Central Park Hoodie in September, knitting it furiously with the intention of having it finished so I could wear it when I went to see my boyfriend in November.

Hahahahahahahahahaha.

When I realized that was not going to happen, I put it (and knitting in general) down for a few weeks. Around December, my company owner’s son talked about his organization (assisting homeless veterans) and the need for warm clothing items to hand out, so I came home and decided to make a dent in the crappy Caron One Pounders I have left from this lap blanket I made for my mom. So I made about a dozen garter-stitch scarves. I figured it would be easier (and twice as warm) and faster if I just knitted in the round and then just joined the ends of the tube with fringe.

I really thought it would use up the acrylic (I won’t use it but I refuse to get rid of it), but I swear that shit just keeps reproducing in the bag, because it’s still there.

Anyway. I have been working on the CPH. I have the back finished, and I almost have the left front finished. The front is going really fast, thanks to the pattern being easy to memorize, so I don’t need to mess with the chart every row. It’s pretty mindless as long as I remember to cable on the third row. I just need to work on it more.

I am going to finish it. I swear.

In other excited knitted item news, I received this little gem from Michelle(in addition to a Yarn Harlot book):

I have to tell you, seeing the word “hoar” in yarn brings a little tear to my eye.

I’ll update more. (No, really.)

Last Saturday, I decided to back to Alamitos Bay and use my birthday discount for the Rowan Felted Tweed I was lusting over the week before. I don’t make yarn decisions easily. I mean, I’ll stare at the color choices forever until I decide which one I like. And, for 10.25 a ball, I better like it. So, after about thirty gut-wrenching minutes (I wish I was kidding, but alas, I am not), I chose the purple. The color I wanted first. (I KNOW.)

On my way back to the freeway, I was sitting at a light next to a big Dodge truck. The truck was a bit ahead of me on my driver’s side. I had my window down. When the light turned green, the guy in the track slammed on his gas, and giant cloud of black smoke came out of the tailpipe, filling MY CAR. Well, knitters, I don’t think I have to tell you that the first thing I screamed out (and I did) was, “YOU MOTHERFUCKERS, I JUST SPENT A HUNDRED DOLLARS ON YARNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!” All I could smell was exhaust, and I was convinced my yarn would be ruined. But I drove down the 405 with all my windows open in the hopes of airing it out, and so far it seems OK. Man, was I pissed. When I finally got next to the guy in the truck, he and the moron with him were laughing hysterically, which only pissed me off more, and got me yelling more. Road rage is so much fun.

I decided to take fickleknitter’s advice about the feather and fan scarf, and try blocking it to see if the pattern would emerge.

That’s my giant cat Ike, who’s so big and hairy he doesn’t even care that he’s laying ON PINS. Don’t you love my blocking mats? One of my many bosses at work was talking to me about knitting, and I was explaining blocking to him, and he told me that he put a gym in his house, and had a few of the rubber mats left over, and told me I could have them if I wanted them. Score. They’re not as cool as Wen’s Dora The Explorer mats, but they’ll do.

Anyway, as you can see, the pattern didn’t turn out as I’d hoped, and it’s mostly because it’s all garter stitch. Two rows of garter, one pattern row, another row of garter. So I ditched that and found another feather and fan pattern on knitpicks. It’ll probably take me six months (at least, with size three needles), but I’m doing it.

Last night I went to happy hour with La for drinks and crack avocado rolls. She also gave me presents!

This cute little project bag, in my favorite color, purple. (Even though I have way more pink yarn than one person should have, purple has always been my favorite color. When I was little, I wanted to change my name to Violet, but my mom wouldn’t let me. Stupid mom.)

Yarn! In the JenLa colorway! I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but I love the colors.

So I was all ready to update here today and post pictures of what I’ve been knitting, but I don’t have those pictures uploaded to my flickr account, so I can’t. So pretend that there are pictures of 2×2 ribbing for my Central Park Hoodie, what looks like I’m knitting pink panties for the dog hoodie I’m making for my mom’s crazy ass dog, a pink scarf, botched attempts at a lace pattern, and a sock.

Instead, I’ll woo you all with my knitting-related activities of late.

All two of them.

I, like every other knitter in Los Angeles (ok, not every knitter) went to the Central Library to see the Yarn Harlot woo and amuse us all with her stories.

To say she was just funny would be an understatement. But then, anyone that’s read her blog or any of her books knows that’s she’s more than just a funny knitter. She was fantastic, but I think we all knew she would be.

I was very amused by the library cop who cracked the whip to keep us in a straight line before the event.

She got WAY too much pleasure in yelling at a bunch of knitters to get in a proper line. It made me wonder what her home life must be like, and her poor, poor husband. If there is a husband.

I didn’t notice them at the time, but apparently a lot of ASK were there, including Wen, who I kept hearing, but could never see, which was frustrating as hell. Of course, when I read all my knit blogs Monday after, I saw me and my group in the background of practically every one of their blogs, which made me laugh.

Saturday, I met up with some of my knitting homies for some yarn shopping and lunch.

We met at Alamitos Bay Yarn Co., where I had never been before. I have to say, I found it to be a very charming little store.

I feel confident in saying that, because I work right around the corner from a snooty yarn store that sells almost no yarn that costs less than $20 a skein, which is out of this girl’s price range. And the people that shop there are complete ASSHOLES. L’Atelier is well known as “one of those” LYS for a reason. (Although the two girls that work there that I’ve dealt with have been fairly friendly. I’ve had to go there for needles or stitch markers, etc. when I’m knitting on my lunch break at work.)

I enjoyed looking and feeling all the yarns that they had in the store. And, of course, I had to buy some.

Five skeins of Rowan Summer Tweed. I have to say, I really love Rowan yarns. More than I can afford to. I saw some of the Felted Tweed, and fell in love. I wanted to buy twenty or thirty balls of it right then and there, but I’d have to sell one of my kidneys first.

I also bought some Jitterbug sock yarn.

(That’s not a very good picture.)

I also bought some Lorna’s Laces sock yarn in Flame (pink, red, orange colors), but I guess I didn’t upload those pictures. It’s pretty, though.

If I go back before the end of the month, I get 20% off of my order since my birthday is the 28th. I am tempted.

Damn you, yarn.

After shopping, we went over and had lunch at the restaurant next door.

In the back: Wen, Michelle, and Silvia.
In the front: Me, Carolyn, La, and Jill.

There was much enjoyment to be had. We ate, drank, talked trash, and even knitted a little.

I even managed to embarrass a waiter, which surprised me, because he claimed to be a staff photographer at the Playboy Mansion on Sundays. Now, I’ve never been to the Playboy Mansion, but I have to assume things more shocking than the word “vagina” happen at these events.

I’m just saying.

I still consider myself a completely ignorant new knitter. And so, it’s at times like this that I bang my head on the table and wonder what I was thinking when I chose to do Trellis. La suggested it, and I thought it was cute, and since it’s a baby sweater, it’s a small item, so it won’t take forever. Oh, man. Do you even know how many times I’ve started this thing? More than I’d care to admit, I’ll tell you that.

I’ve never worked with charts before, so I spent a lot of time messing up the pattern and either going back, or starting over altogether. And I don’t mind having to do it again, because I do enjoy the act of knitting just for the sake of knitting, not just for the sake of completing something. And I want to learn from my stupid mistakes and not keep making them. But I think I’m reaching the point of Project Abandonment here. Not yet, but I’m close.

I found myself getting the two different cable patterns mixed up, so I got an idea at work today and figured out a way that might make it easier on me.

So I started going, and noticed the difference it made, and how easy it was, and I felt so clever.

Then I realized something. On the key, it says black squares are purls on the right side, knit on the wrong side.

Um.

That whole right side/wrong side switch eluded me, and I was purling ALL the black squares and knitting ALL the white squares. As soon as I realized what I was doing, I just stopped. I resisted my urge to rip it all out and do something else, and put it back in the plastic bag and went back to my desk (I knit on my lunch break).

Like I said in my last post, directions sometimes confuse me (I never admitted to being the sharpest knife in the drawer). And having to worry about if I’m on a RS or WS row, and if the black square means knit or purl. And while I admit to still being new to the world of knitting, I’m sure there’s a reason that the key switches each row, and why they couldn’t make the knit/purl key consistent throughout the WHOLE pattern. I definitely need to start sucking up to the real-life knitters I know so I can beg them for help more often.

This might take a while.

Being fairly new to the yarn-obsessed world of knitting, I didn’t realize a) how pricey nicer yarns are, and b) how insane knitters go when it’s marked down.

I visited Black Sheep Knittery about a month ago, and bought a few things. When everything got marked down again to 75% off, I realized that I’d better get my butt down there and see what was left.

I had hoped that there would be some delicious Koigu or Lorna’s Laces left, but alas, it was all gone (and I bet I know right where all that Koigu went). I did, however, get some other nice yarns (and, for what they cost, I couldn’t leave it - I mean, come on - it was TEN DOLLARS FOR THE WHOLE BAG). So, since Wen ordered asked, I present to you The Black Sheep Haul - taken in two pictures, because I couldn’t fit it all in one frame without you all seeing how messy my apartment is in the background.

I also got a bag of Rowan Big Wool Fusion, because my sister was with me, and said she liked it - and since she’s getting about ten scarves for Christmas (at her request), she’s getting some made out of that. I also might try to make something out of the Twinkle’s Big City Knits book for her (we’ll see about that one).

Speaking of yarn-y acquisitions, this came in the mail yesterday:

Oooooooh.

It’s Sky Tweed by Classic Elite in Upland Green, and it’s nice. There were a few colors I really liked, and based on how much success I have with trying to construct a sweater, I may buy some more.

________________________________________________________________

Last night I went to happy hour with La, and we were laughing at the fact that we both decided to do the Kitty Pi bed at the same time, and do the same color pattern, even though we hadn’t talked about it to each other at all.

I bet hers doesn’t have a cool nipple, though.

It’s almost done. I’ve got about another hour on it, and then into the washing machine it goes, and I’ll figure out a way to make my cat Ike think that it’s more comfortable than my queen-size bed. I suspect he’ll just laugh in my face and continue to cover my bed (and every other surface in my house) in his fur.

Now, I’m going to leave you all with some helpful advice: If you find yourself at a Claim Jumper, do yourself a favor and order the avocado rolls.

Holy CRAP, they’re good, people.

You’re welcome.

Dude, I have a problem. I am officially addicted to knitting. I do it every day until my fingers hurt. I am part of a knitting group that meets twice a week, and Saturday I drove 35 miles down the godforsaken 91 freeway to go meet more knitters. And the yarn. Oy. I swore last week that I wasn’t buying ANYMORE yarn until I figured out projects to do with the yarn that I’ve bought in the last month, but I’ll be goddamned if I didn’t go and buy MORE when I decided my next project would be a felted knitting bag.

I AM NOT BUYING ANYMORE YARN. I’M NOT!!!!

At least I hope not. I’m going to have to start selling off vital organs if I do.

But really, you only need one kidney, right?

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Hey, guess what I did this weekend? Hung out with the Anti-Social Knitters and met Wen, who forced me out of my square-and-rectangle rut by doing a hat. It was pretty simple (hahahahahahaha) - knit on size 15 needles and then seamed together.

I had to learn to purl and decrease, and there was much tink-ing involved (look how I throw the lingo around like I know what the hell I’m doing), but this morning I finished it.

RAM (my best friend’s kid, and raddest kid ever) was over, and while I was knitting, he said, “T, you could totally kill vampires with that needle if you wanted to.” I like how he says it like it’s something I might actually have to do one day.

As with the scarf he bamboozled out of me, he’s angling to get this, too. But I don’t think it fits.

I will save you all from a close-up of the seam, because it’s not very pretty. But I made something that’s not a square!!

Woo!

I’ve been knitting like crazy this week. I found this yarn at Michael’s a few weeks ago. It’s Patons SWS, and it’s so soft and yummy I want to dip it in frosting and eat it.

Please don’t look too closely at the scarf I’m working on, because then you’ll see where I worked in the new yarn at the end of a row making it stick out and look not-so-great. But this is for me, and I love the colors so much that I just don’t give a crap about imperfections right now. It adds character, right?

Pretty soon I’m going to need to break out of my knit-stitch-squares-and-rectangles phase and try something else. There’s a woman in my knitting group, Bonnie, who swears there’s this hat that I need to make, and that it’s SO EASY I just HAVE TO DO IT. She’s a lovely woman, but I think she over-estimates my abilities.

Saturday, I’m going to hang out with a knitting group that Wen invited me to. I didn’t answer the e-vite for a few days, because I tried like crazy to talk myself out of going into a room full of total strangers with all my weird hang-ups about going anywhere I don’t know. But then I said screw it, and decided to get over it, and hope that I can distract the ladies from my hacky knitting skills with my milk/white chocolate marble fudge.

Because fudge is good.

So I decided to bail on blogger (already!) and Pete’s going to hook me up with a jazzy new blog.

In the meantime, enjoy this. Because it is funny, yo.

I found it on the message board of my knitting group. It’s probably made the rounds on all the knitting blogs, so you all probably saw it already.

Figures. I’m always the last to get in on anything cool.

Guess what!? I joined a knitting group!

Now, for all you who know me, this should come as a shock, because I never do ANYTHING outside of my bubble, and I never do anything that involves me having to meet new people. But, since I know no knitters, I figured it was a good way to find people who can help me in person, and I can watch them work and pick up a thing or two.

I went to my first meeting last night, and in spite of all my weird meeting-new-people-will-make-my-skin-melt-off issues, it was fun. I will most definitely be going back, and surely annoying everyone with all my questions.

I’m making progress on my “Just Knit Over And Over And Over Until This Damn Yarn Runs Out” scarf. I’m about 2/3 of the way done now, and have been having much more luck since I switched to shorter bamboo needles. Oh, how I heart the bamboo.

I’m hoping to finish it today or tomorrow, and move on to my next ambitious goal: learning the purl stitch. This may seem silly, but I’ve literally just been focusing on the knit stitch in the hopes that I would find my groove and make more consistent stitches. I’m getting there.