Thursday, August 25, 2005

Hey, Ali, Look at This

My first Booga Bag...sort of. I didn't like the pleat so I blocked it to be a straight-sided rectangle. I also didn't care for the I-cord strap so I knit a large square of stockinette, felted it, and then cut it into straps which I felted again. I untwisted the Noro so it would be thin enough to pull through the bag fabric. Then I matched the colors of the bag and sewing yarns and attached the straps to the inside of the bag.

That is not a relative of Sponge Bob Squarepants beside the bag, by the way. It's a stack of video cassettes. See, Ali, this is how big it is. There's one laying flat on the bottom of the pile, then four videos on that and four more videos on those. To block my bag I eased all those cassettes into it and wrapped the bag tightly with some fabric so the corners would be sharper. I ended up hitting the corners with the iron just a tad.

By the way, if you stuff videos in a wet bag and wrap it with fabric it takes ages to dry...just thought y'all might want to know that. For the wierdos who like specifics it's 9" high, 7 3/4" wide and 4 1/2" deep.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Strife of Life Miscellany

One

Sunday I cleaned my patient's large combination bedroom and den. It was quite an undertaking as he is allergic to dust mites and everything, walls, ceiling, bottoms of chairs, everything has to be vacuum. I heaved and hauled and shoved furniture, stooped and crawled to get to nooks and crannies, took down drapes, and finished up ready for a nap. An odd quirk in my constitution won't allow me to relax after I get really tired--I tried to nap but gave up and pitter-pottered around in the kitchen, hit the computer, and rehung the drapes after they were dry. I was very glad to go downstairs to my part of the house at eight that evening. I decided to color my hair and while the dye was on the old bean I started separating the plies of a White Buffalo puck. It was time consuming but I found it soothing and felt very fiber-ish. Well, of course I left the color on too long which would not have been too bad in itself, however, in my mad dash through Wally World I picked up the wrong flavor dye and didn't read the box before I applied it. ("Done it before, hadn't I? Why read?" says I.) Now...picture a face...round as a moon-pie, with a redhead's pale complexion complete with freckles. Now hang a whole lot of dark, dark, brown hair on top ot it, oh, and I dyed my eyebrows too so throw some Brook Shield's wannabe brows in there too. Ah, yes, I was a sight to behold.

Monday morning I discovered that I actually have muscles in my arse. You've heard of buns of steel? I had what felt like buns with burning steel in them. The buns of burning cramps. My thighs and shoulders were stiff but not as bad as the rear end. When I started up the stairs I got a cramp in my left ass that would have killed a lesser woman. Definitely overdid it Sunday. I hobbled around looking quite like a diapered toddler carrying a load. I must have been an entertaining sight--perked up my patient no end to watch me walk. He said I was listing to starboard. I made it though the day by eating Motrin and seating on one heating pad while draping another, shawl-like, around my shoulders.

Two

You may remember from a previous epidisode that my cell phone had a brief sojourn in the dish water. I took it apart and dried what I could and left its innards scattered on a table with a fan to help finish airing it out. Unlike a Timex, it did not take a dipping and keep on ticking. I now have the cell phone equivalent of an old hoopy with no hood, a couple of primer-gray fenders, and four flats. The plastic thingy with the numbers on it won't work so I left it off. I now use a pen or DPN to put in the holes to mash the numbers. The downside of this is that I now need two hands to dial or answer a call so I must steer my car with my knee. Also the three and the six don't work at all and it's a tad limiting since all the local numbers here start with a three. But, hey, speed-dial's a wonderful invention--don't know what I would do without it.

Three

I print out a lot of patterns. Often the same pattern, clapotis, for instance, I have no idea how many copies and partial copies are floating around the house. I have a "Recycle" box for paper with copy on one side only--saving money? No. Saving trips to the far away store. Anyone with half a brain would know to lightly X out the printed side before reusing the paper. Evidently I don't have half a brain and did no X-ing and thereby created the French Market/ Hallowig bag hybrid. The half of my brain I still have made sure I didn't get too far into it before frogging.

Four

And, finally, here is my experimental bag design--from a previous episode--and after felting. I worked long and hard on this pattern. I made charts. I Fairisled, I intarsia-ed, I may have entrelac-ed, I'm not sure. What I am sure of is that I forgot to make it with two straps. There are two straps in the pattern. Since I made the pattern I thought I had memorized it which I had not. Here is a picture. Squint or you might go blind.

Before

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After. Note that the single strap is off center.

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I cut the strap and I'm going to trim both pieces and see if I can refelt, block and then sew the ends to the bag. Perhaps it will turn out to be carry-able.

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I'm always afraid my employer will run across the drivel I post here and wonder how my patient has survived my tender mercies. But I am really a good nurse. Really.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Miscellaneous Yarning

I have been on a yarn binge--yarn I ordered immediately after my accident when I was not quite in my right mind. Did you know yarn etailers won't take back yarn bought in a fit of agitative depression? How rude.

I bought an enormous quantity of White Buffalo. It's been discontinued and was on sale. Buy ten get a discount. So I did. And if one buys ten one might as well by another ten...well, I had to get it, it was such a bargain. Sue at Little Knits also had a sale so I now have a ginormous stash of Cascade 220. Sue, by the way, is a wonderful, friendly, funny person who will really go out of her way to track down what you want and make suggestions. She is quite an enabler. (I am not affiliated with her store--honest.)

I love the White Buffalo. I am using it to make this bag.

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I am including this picture to show the size in relation to a video cassette. Personally, I get really frustrated when there is no way to judge the size of a WIP or FO.

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Now that I expressed my frustration over pictures with no size reference I have discovered that I do not take a good picture that will show size differences well. I am going to have to finagle the pattern. It started out to be the Satchel from the summer issue of Knitty but I'm using all six plies of the White Buffalo and if I work the whole pattern it's going to weigh a ton and be big enough for a single-car garage. I don't find the yarn to be difficult to work with and that came as a nice surprise since I bought it and knew nothing about it at all. I did look it up in Knitter's Review after I ordered it--how responsible is that? I have separated the strands and made two-ply and three-ply balls out of it. The strands break if I try to hurry but they twist back together like magic. Patience is the key word when working with this yarn--and an extensive repertoire of expletives is a must.

The Cascde 220 is, as a knittyhead told me, just a good ol' yarn. It's easy to work with, comes in a bazillion colors, has great stitch definition, and felts up a storm. I finished the Cable Edge Poncho in Cascade 220 #7824. The pattern is from Knit It! and has so many errors it could make a newbie cry.

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It would be nice if I had live bodies in my wearables, wouldn't it. I suffer from model shortage.

Since I had the Casade in white I decided to try my hand at Kool-Aid dying. I studied up on it and jumped in. My first effort was a haphazard drizzling of Kool-Aid over wet yarn which I had placed in an enamel roasting pan and then popped into a 250 degree oven for forty-five minutes.

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It's a pretty color way with grape and orange (to make brown), orange alone, and cherry. Well, I thought it was cool and easy and, except for the headache and tightness in my chest, a good experience. I didn't try to inhale the powder, it just happened. Next day I used a stock pot and a hot plate outdoors and cooked up the ugliest mess you ever saw. I can't get a picture to do it justice--or injustice. No more painting, I am going to stick to one flavor dyes for a while.< I had no idea Kool-Aided yarn would smell so badly.

I'm off to work on WIP's so I can take more pics.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The Yarn of Addiction

I'm waiting to hear if a friend, Rachel, a person I have never met or even talked to, has had her baby. I'm praying she and Nicholas are both well. I know her through the online Knittyboard Coffeshop and I feel very close to her and want the best for her and her boys.

I have many online friends now, all of them members of a wonderful knitting forum I discovered by accident in February of this year. I tried talking about them with my patient. He thinks they are probably nut cases like the characters he sees on Law and Order. When I wanted to meet with my cyber buddy Ali in July he just couldn't understand it--thought I was taking a chance of being murdered or abducted by white slavers. I thought it was an age thing--he's eighty-eight--but a lot of people I have talked to here think it's odd.

There is a lot of piffle written about being addicted to the internet and maybe I am an addict--I don't think so but then addicts never do. I have met many kind, caring, and generous people online, more specifically at the Knitty Coffeeshop. I live far from all my family and I am often lonely. That sounds pitiful, doesn't it? But although I have a wonderful husband and a few friends here I don't get to see any of them often. My husband comes to visit where I work as a live-in nurse and my daughter also, but very infrequently, so I really rely on my internet buds for company. I hit the site every day, many times a day. Maybe I am and addict.

I had a terrifying automobile accident while out gathering supplies the Saturday before hurricane Dennis hit Alabama, or my part of Alabama. I was not badly hurt but I was terribly battered emotionally. I needed to have a good, long cry, go to the emergency room--my ankle, my back and my chest were hurting me--and crawl into bed with the heating pad while someone patted me on the head and listened to my accident story. However, I was at work at my patient's home and I couldn't do any of those things. It would have upset him and stressed him out had I told him, which would have made his condition much worse. He was already stressed enough worrying about the storm and huffing and puffing with anxiety. My husband was at home seventy-eight miles away and already worried about me so I couldn't talk to him. My parents also--too far away and worried for me and my family because of the hurricane--couldn't be told. I needed to keep it together for my patient's sake. I put falling apart on hold but I desperately needed to talk to someone.

I posted my dilemma on the Knitty board. I got many, many kind comments of concern and support and prayers for my safety and well-being. I puddled up just reading them. I went back to the board often during the week it took for someone to come and relieve me. I read and reread the posts to the thread I had started. I cannot begin to explain what a comfort those posts were for me. I honestly don't know how I would have made it without the board to come to when my patient was napping or watching television.

No one said any disparaging or discouraging comments. No one said anything about Yarner being all over the board and making no sense at all. Many sent me PM's (private messages on the board). They sent me email. They sent me snail mail.

None of them have ever met me.

Perhaps I am an internet addict. I don't really care. I made it through one of the most hellish weeks of my life with the help of internet friends. This is one addiction I can live with.

And to all of the people on the board, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

On to the Next One

SP4 is almost over. My upstream pal knows who I am and I know who my downstream pal is. I had a great time--got lots of goodies, sent lots of goodies--perfect. I'm ready for SP5. I have many, many ideas for my SP-to-be and if I put them here she or he will know who I am. Such a shame. My thousands of readers (HAH!) will be disappointed.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

FO's, WIP's, and Stuff

My poor blog has been sorely neglected so I have some pictures to perk it up.

First, my SP, the wonderful and awesome Jennifer sent this.Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

It's missing a bag of Riesen's Caramels but the yarns from left to right are four skeins of Plymouth's Suri Merino, two skeins Malabrigo in Red Java, four skeins of Classic Elite Four Seasons (in front of the Malabrigo), two skeins of nature Spun in forest green, three skeins of Knit Picks Elegance. Isn't it all lovely? And all soft and all in my favorite colors. If my questionnaire was a test, Jennifer would get an A.

This is, finally, a picture of Truman Clapotee on a living being, made with Carons Simply Soft and a carry-along railroad ribbon and I still can't get a picture that does it justice. It's 18" by 48" and ties in front if the darlin' daughter wishes. I wanted a heavy fabric so the dropped stitches would not curl.

A close up.

This...

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is the beginning of the cabled section of this.

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Booga Bag WIP.

An experiment in Cascade 220. Intarsia and fairisle bag. I'm hoping it will felt into something vaguely resembling my bag design