Made of Bed Fail

I have a tear in my let shoulder rotator cuff. But it rarely bothers me, unless I do something stupid. And tonight was an example of how stupidity really can be painful.

The basic lesson of the evening: When making the bed, if you have a ceiling fan, don't flip the sheet high up to open it and settle it on the bed. Because if you do, the sheet catches on the ceiling fan and wrenches the shoulder connected to the arm connected to the hand still holding the sheet. And then you have to go confess to DP that you are made of fail, and will be turning off the ceiling fan for the duration of bedmaking because you are too stupid to leave it on.

He says I need to be wrapped in bubble wrap. Sometimes I agree.

k, p, yo

I did them. I did them all. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (by me and my many knitting instructors), I learned to purl and yarn over. One of our local knitters just seems to understand how my brain works and got me on the right track. DP swears that I changed how I knit between two weeks ago and now, but I guarantee I did not. And now I've moved into actual, real-life stitches. Go me!

Of course, I wouldn't be me if there wasn't some weirdness in my knitting. This particular project is size 17 needles with this serious thick and thin. By that I mean it goes from barely spun centimeter+ wide yarn down to fingering weight. So you can imagine that with my loosy-goosy-gauge-be-damned style and the eccentricities of the yarn, this thing looks weird. Like no-two-stitches alike weird. Like designer top model runway hairdo weird. Like I'll be damned if I can find where the purls and yarnovers are, because it all looks funky. This will be heavily blocked. I figure I can wrangle it into something that looks like a scarf, instead of hours of yarn barf. And I figure that it's a one of a kind designer hand-knit scarf. Or I'll file it under Ugh! and give everyone a good laugh.

Forgot This Lesson

They way it feels in the skein does not necessarily equal the way it feels worked up.

The way it feels knitted does not necessarily equal the way it feels woven.

The way it feels woven can turn a lovely scarf to a big pile of fail.

I want to block this thing, but I'm afraid it won't get any better.

Meh.

KnitAtWork

So I was deciding what to do on my lunch break, and as I was walking to Costco (needed a grape fix), I pondered hurrying up my trip so that I could cast on and maybe get a few rows in on the new scarf. Then I decided that I am subject to enough hairy eyeball looks at work, and bringing my knitting in might be too much for my coworkers, and they might get head explody. It's one thing for me to talk about knitting and weaving. It's another to sit at my desk listening to Frank Sinatra and knitting.

Now, they have seen my partner knit. And it's sort of a novelty, because they seem him knitting at concerts...and community events...and places where a knitter is a neat oddity. But having it brought in the office? I dunno. Besides, while I am out about being a fiber artist, it's one thing to have it as an abstraction, another entirely to have it right in front of them. Sort of like a lot of people feel about gayness. They say they are fine with it, but if they see two men kiss, they get all squicky. I say men specifically because no one seems to have a problem with two women kissing.

Maybe one day I'll have to get really feisty and bring in something pink and glittery and knit on breaks. Hey, if I'm going to make a spectacle of myself, I might as well go all out.

It's Gone Funky

I knocked out another scarf. I'll not say how long it took because that makes the local knitters grouchy, but suffice to say it was fast. And strange. The yarn was Berroco Optik, a multi-strand, multi-fiber yanr that I double stranded with a coordinating ladder yarn. It's gorgeous blues and greens....except for the weird mohair circlets running though it. Every few inches ther are a few rows of this curly blonde mohair. The rest of it is fairly shiny, with some blobs of thick wooley fibers. It's skinny, made to be draped around a coat. But it definitely pushes the limits of odd. But someone, somewhere will love it.

Another ones in the bag

Last night was a finishing night. CSI and Swingtown provided the background for me to finish a second knitted scarf (very soft, which I cast off with only verbal help!) and a woven scarf.

I'm really, REALLY hoping that this one softens up with some good conditioner and TLC. It's all wool, a heavy worsted double stranded with a laceweight fuzzy wool with halo. Think mohair, but without the sticky.

BUT, lesson learned: Just because it feels nice in the skein does not mean it will feel nice worked up. The fuzzy wool felt good, and looked good, but in reality feels like those nylon dish scrubbies, which are great for dishwashing, not so great for clothing. Even in the yarn cake it felt ok, but woven up? ICK! I would not want this anywhere near my person. This is getting some good conditioner and a good soaking, and if that doesn't work I'll throw it in the dryer to felt and turn it into "art".

Would someone like to expain to my how wool gets wiry? Not just scratchy or coarse, but wiry. Like scraggly dog hair wiry. I'll keep you posted on whether or not I can change this Item of Torture into an Item of Lovely.

Fuzzy?

Ok, so I have a new project on the loom, a heavy worsted wool with a fingering carry along that has a mohair-like halo, but without the mohair stickiness. Cream and pink and grey.

Problem: While the look is soft and lovely, the texture is like fuzzy plastic. I think it will be fine as soon as I wash and block it, but sadly right now it feels like cheap acrylic.

A young woman was watching what I was doing (we were at Starbucks), and I think I convinced her on-the-spot to get an Ashford Knitter's Loom, and in any case we invited her to Monday Night knitting to show her what fun it can be, bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha.

And I had to do a very painful frogging tonight. DH's Montego Bay Scarf. The pattern just hates him. It flatly refuses to work for more than a few rows before the demonic pattern begins to twist and turn yarn and randomly add and subtract stitches. He has tried it with different yarns with the same effect, so it's not that the pattern hates the yarn, it just hates him. I hated ripping it back. He had gotten so far and it looked so nice.....but now armed with a giganto yarn cake of the various colored yarn, I think he's gonna give it one more try.

Me? I think he should burn the pattern, erase it from his memory. and find a whole new use for the Giant Yarn Cake.