Dogs Steal Yarn

I got the cone too

Let me just get this out of the way right off the bat. When I began yesterday's yarn crawl with Rachael and Em, I honestly believed I would get through the day without buying any yarn. Right. School Products did me in. It was our last stop of the day, and I walked out with almost two and a half pounds of cashmere merino blend on a big ole cone. I already know what it's going to be, though. It's technically not stash, I guess, since I plan to knit it pretty much right away.

So yes, I bought yarn. And no, I do not feel guilty.

We had a great day. Here's my favorite picture. Em, Rachael, and the wonderful Iris. We were at Veselka, introducing Rachael to pierogis.

After the yarn crawl we had a knitting night back at my house. Here are Bethany, Rachael, and a very happy Diego:

Now I'm home and supposed to be working, Em has gone off to work (we had a sleepover last night--SO nice to have them here!) and Rachael and Bethany are out exploring the city. There'll be more pictures to come in the next few days, from me, Em and Rachael.

Hey folks. Sorry it's been so quiet around here. Things are kind of hectic right now. The good news is that in a couple of days there'll be a post that tells you all about the fabulous Rachael's visit to NYC. As I write this, she, Em, and Bethany are on a bus from the march in DC, headed to New York. Tomorrow night I'll finally meet this lovely woman face to face. Can't wait! Then, Wednesday we're having a bit of a yarn orgy, hopping from yarn shop to yarn shop in our fair city. Hopefully I'll remember to bring my camera. Then again, I'm sure Rachael and Em will have theirs handy. They're much more diligent bloggers than I am.

Okay. Back to work I go. I'll do my best to actually provide content of interest in a day or two--maybe even knitting content. Remember that stuff? It's been a while, I know.

Remember a while back I told you about an old college friend who's now a journalist living in Haiti? Well, here's an interview with him from NPR. I found it rather interesting and thought I'd share it with you. Plus it's just nice to hear his voice.

Post-Aristide Haiti Seeks Stability

Yarn guilt?

What's this yarn guilt, or knitting guilt, or stash guilt people are talking about this week?

I'm with Claudia on the uselessness of guilt in general. But even if guilt does have its place (did you push an old lady in front of a bus today because you were running late and still had to hit the local Starbucks before work? Well, then, yes, go ahead and feel guilty.), certainly it's pointless to feel guilty over the purchase of yarn, or books, or because you aren't finishing projects fast enough or have too many on the needles at once.

You aren't buying yarn with the rent money, right? Or deciding the kids will just have to get scholarships for college cause Mama wants some Noro? Probably not.

I'm taking a break from buying yarn right now because I have all the yarn I need and then some to make the projects I'd like to make, and because it's not in the budget right now. But you know what? If some Koigu or something catches my eye as Em and I lead Rachael and Bethany on the magical yarn tour of New York next week, I just might pick up enough for a pair of socks. Or maybe I won't. Either way, I won't be feeling guilty about it.

My mom, who's actually got quite a gift for making me feel guilty, said something to me a couple of years back that's stuck with me. I was still getting used to the ups and downs of freelance income, and so was being very careful with money. Thing was, I also really wanted to buy oil paint, which ain't cheap. (I wasn't knitting yet. You think knitting is an expensive pursuit? Try painting, baby.) I called my mom (she's a fantastic artist, by the way) and asked her if I was crazy to be spending money on paints at a time when I really shouldn't have been allowing myself too many extras.

She said, "Oh no! Buy the paint. That's like food!"

And she was right. My mother's very frugal. So am I. She and my dad raised me that way. I don't spend recklessly, not at all. I don't take on debt I don't need either. But it's a matter of priorities. Creative expression is important. It's not the same thing as blowing money on yet another pair of shoes, or an expensive meal, or whatever. Are your bills paid? Is there food on the table? Are all the mandatory expenses taken care of? Well, then, make sure you also allow for the tools that feed you--the paint, the books, the yarn. That matters too.

And if you want to feel guilty about it? Well...that's on you.

Why I have no business buying yarn for a while

Okay...that photo of Sadie really was just a photo of Sadie, not a sneaky way to show off the stash! I had already planned to show off the stash in a post for another day...and that day has come. Today all shall be revealed. (Oooh! Cue somewhat creepy burlesque music.)

My stash isn't all that big compared to many of you out there. Emma and Mare both have me beat by miles and miles of yardage, I know. Thing is, as I was finally unpacking it the other day I realized I truly have as much yarn as I need right now. No, more yarn than I need. (Gasp! Did I just say that out loud? Is it possible to not need more yarn, even for a short period of time?)

The stash was packed away in garbage bags and boxes for so long that I kind of forgot how much I had. It would take me years to knit it all up. And don't even get me started on the spinning fiber. I have a Cotswald fleece on its way to me at the moment and that will be the last of the spinning stuff for some time.

So here are the yarn shots. (That is, the yarn that's kept close at hand in the fiber corner of my studio. What won't be shown is all the spinning fiber, which is tucked away in a steamer trunk in the dining room along with a bag or two of oddballs and partial skeins. Boring photos, those would be. I'll trust you to fill those gaps in with your imagination.)

The main stash containment area:

The top two shelves are undesignated yarn, up for grabs when the right project comes along:

The next two shelves hold kits (I went on a kit kick recently--blame Debbie Bliss and that Patons pattern book with Must Have and that great cabled hoodie.) and the yarn that's already got a pattern assigned to it:

The bottom shelf will hold the knitting books and magazines, most of which are still in storage. (We're going to get the last of our stuff this weekend. Finally!)

On the other side of the knitting/reading chair sits a basket full of WIPs, each tucked into its own project bag:

And finally, this basket. It's got some Manos, that one skein of Big Kureyon you see, and a bunch of skeins of Brown Sheep Naturespun that's destined to become felted bags.

The projects in the WIP basket alone would keep me busy until the end of the year, or longer. So no...I really shouldn't be buying any more yarn for a while, especially with all the house expenses. I really like Carolyn's plan to buy yarn for a new project only after she's knit three projects from her existing stash. I think I need to be a bit more drastic, though, considering money's also an issue right now. Maybe I can buy more yarn after I complete what's in the WIP basket now? Can I really hold out that long? We'll see. I can be remarkably stubborn...I do have that in my favor.

Gratuitous dog photo

Sadie spent a good fifteen minutes the other night admiring herself in the mirror. I just had to document it. Vain little girl. She knows she's gorgeous.

Alison always does what librarians tell her to do

And I often do what La Brainy tells me to do:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the sentence in your journal with these instructions.

"Within our being, an instrument which the uniformity of habit has rendered mute, song is born of these divergences, these variations, the source of all music: the change of weather on certain days makes us pass at once from one note to another."

--Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time Vol. V, The Captive and the Fugitive

We got lucky. With Proust, a sentence picked at random could easily be three pages long.

I'm a little bit grumpy right now. As I looked out my window this morning to admire the lovely spring day, I saw a little girl stick her grubby little kid hand into my garden and pluck my ONLY TULIP. I'm mad at the kid for robbing me of a tulip that I've been so looking forward to and that only bloomed yesterday. I'm mad at the kid's mother for not stopping her, and for raising a flower thief. I'm a bit mad at myself for caring so much. And I must admit that as I walked away from the window I did make a little wish that the kid would get some kind of harmless rash from the flower. Damn kids.

My wonderful mother has informed me that my daffodils are actually narcissus. All of you who already knew that, thanks for indulging me in the belief that I had daffodils growing in my front garden. Narcissus are good too, though. Whatever they are, they're lovely. Even in today's rain.

Thanks for the compliments on Kyoto. Thanks also for the compliments on my hair. (*blush*) The curls are natural (thanks, mom!), but obviously the color isn't. I have a magical hairdresser to thank for that. I'm a bit disappointed that my magenta streaks didn't show up in the photo. If you think you spotted some pink curls on your monitor, you were right.

Today I'm working on the novel and a sweater for my friend's daughter. The novel's going well, as is the sweater. The back's finished and I just cast on for the front. I'm using Debbie Bliss Wool Cotton (gotta love a soft, natural fiber yarn that comes in such great colors AND is machine washable) to make the Striped Sweater from her Cotton Knits for All Seasons book. I'm not doing stripes, though. Just following the pattern for the shaping. It'll be solid lilac. I'll post photos when I've finished more than the one piece.

Kyoto!

I know I said I'd probably post these pictures tomorrow, but Billy came home early enough that we were able to get them taken this afternoon, so here you are, a day early. Kyoto. Don't you feel ever so lucky?

Here's the front view:

And the back:

The pattern called for the sash to be knit in the round. I knit it as two flat pieces instead, and chose not to join them at the sides, to create more of a gi-type silhouette. Here's a shot of the side.

Here's my favorite picture, though it makes Kyoto look like the Star Wars sweater Billy has always accused it of being.

And finally, as promised, here are some daffodils:

For those keeping score, I used Rowan Wool Cotton for Kyoto. The pattern called for Cotton Classic (in watermelon colors), which would have made for a heavier garment than I would have liked. The Wool Cotton feels great on and was a pleasure to knit. It was my first Rowan and won't be my last. A convert, definitely.

Finally, finally

I finished Kyoto last night, and I'm really happy with it. I think I'll wear it a lot. If Billy makes it home while the sun is still shining, I'll have him snap some pictures of me in it. (He's running around treating patients today, the poor guy. Yes, physical therapists do make house calls.) I want to make sure the colors really come out well, so I want to take the photos outside. And it's GORGEOUS out there today! Actual spring weather. I'll also have to make sure to get some pictures of our daffodils for you. I'll post those tomorrow with or without Kyoto.

I've got a ton of reading to do this weekend and this week (the usual 250 pages of Proust by Tuesday plus the 563-page Fiesta del chivo) so I really should be doing nothing but sitting on my butt and reading.... however...fishing around in the stash for some mindless spring knitting (Rosedale is off to the side for the moment, as I've got spring on my mind) I found that I have several projects I could start but somehow don't have the needles for any of them. Now, I've got a decent Addi collection, and usually have exactly what I need at hand. But of course these three projects call for the two needle sizes I don't have: five and ten. So here's the dilemma...do I put down the reading to run to the LYS (which ain't so local, really, as I'd be away from my reading for probably an hour and a half to run this errand) to buy the needles so I can knit as I read, or do I just suck it up and accept that there will be no knitting today? I'm not sure yet. We'll see how I feel after my shower. I've been awake for hours, but it's one of those mornings when I just don't want to change out of my pajamas.

So hopefully Kyoto and definitely daffodils tomorrow. (Or maybe it's time I figured out the timer on my camera so I can take the photo myself?) (What's with all these parentheses today?)

House progress!

The ceiling in my studio is finished, the walls are painted, and it's ready for me to move back in. First things first, of course, so I moved the desk back in and set up the beloved iMac.

Here's a shot of the desk corner.

Opposite my desk, shoved into the far corner, is the desk that is to somehow eventually go to my mother's house. We still haven't managed to get it apart. We will, though. We have to. It's in the corner where my easel is supposed to go.

We've also got the dining room and living room painted now. It's actually starting to look like home.

A corner of the living room, with Diego striking a pose for you:

This is the dining room. That mirror on the floor between the two windows will be hanging between the windows....whenever we get around to actually hanging it. The TV won't be there permanently. It's destined for the living room.

That's all for house progress. I could show you pictures of the new circuit breaker in the basement, or the place where ConEd dug up the sidewalk and street to run new lines to us, or where the electricians took a backhoe to the front garden, but those are boring at best and depressing at worst.

Right now Billy is in the basement with my father's best friend (who is also my best friend's father). There's a leak in the upstairs bathroom that makes it rain in the living room. They're following pipes in the basement to fix a leak two floors above that. I'm not even going to pretend to understand that. My dad died almost eleven years ago. If he were still alive, he'd be here all the time helping with the house, I know. It means so much that his best friend is here since my dad can't be. Means way more than the work he's doing.... It reminds me of how amazing my father was, that he would have deserved a friend who, over a decade later, would come out with his tool box after dinner on a work night to help a kid with leaking pipes.

The Grammar Avengers are a benevolent group of gods.

As long as you don't split your infinitives, baby.

You are a GRAMMAR GOD!

If your mission in life is not already to
preserve the English tongue, it should be.
Congratulations and thank you!


How grammatically sound are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I don't know what Alison and Iris are going on about. That picture isn't scary at all!

Help!

Does anyone know how to take apart a desk like this?

It was left behind by the woman we bought the house from, and the only way to get it out of my studio and into my mom's office (which is to be its new home) is to take it apart. The top is attached by a plate and screws. We can get those off no problem. Thing is, the back is joined by what looks to be a locking mechanism. We think there might be a special tool that goes into this hole, which then turns and slides a metal slat inside the piece into place. That's what it looks like to us, anyway, but we can't make it turn. I called Staples and talked to someone in the furniture department who was remarkably unhelpful. Any ideas? Anyone out there responsible for taking apart corporate furniture? The last time I saw a desk like this was when I had a day job.

Of course the woman who left it behind didn't have the tool. If she'd had it, I'm sure she wouldn't have left the desk.

So...yes...help please!

A neglected rogue will wander...

Confession: I haven't picked up Rogue in weeks because I've lost interest in it. I still love the design. I still love the yarn and color I chose. I still want to own it, to wear it. I still want to knit it...someday. But when I make time for knitting, Rogue is never the project I want to pick up. Maybe because I'm thinking about spring, or maybe because so many other people are making it, have made it. Seeing the fantastic finished Rogues of Claudia and Kate has somehow satisfied my desire to reach the end of this project. Like, "Ok, I've watched theirs progress, I've seen the finished sweater. Now mine can wait." Weird. Haven't felt that way before about a project a lot of us have done, like Rosedale or Suki etc. I'm putting Rogue aside and will get back to it when I start to crave it again. With so little knitting time these days, I've decided that it's okay to flit from project to project a bit, and there's no reason to force myself to work on something that isn't holding my imagination at the moment.

Today I'm making a little time for knitting. I found the rest of the Rosedale stash, so I'll cast on for the candy-colored body of the one Rosedale I have going and maybe finish the second sleeve of my other Rosedale-in-progress. I'm also swatching as I write (write a paragraph or so, stop for a moment, knit a row. Write another paragraph, stop, purl back. etc). I picked up some Filatura di Crosa Brilla from Elann and it's going to be the Polka Purl Dots sleeveless wrap top from the latest Interweave. Let's hope I get gauge on this first try cause I hate swatching.

I could finish Kyoto today, but I'm not in the mood for weaving in all those bits and pieces. That and re-seaming the back sash is all that's left. Hmmm...maybe I will do that after all. Watch this space. Maybe a finished Kyoto tomorrow. Maybe.

Soundtrack for the weekend? Astral Weeks, baby. The whole thing. Over and over and over again.