Dogs Steal Yarn

Insert title here*

The final SP3 package from my lovely and wonderful (not so) Secret Pal, Alison, arrived the other day, but in the rush of Thanksgiving to-ing and fro-ing I didn't get a chance to share it with you. Here's what she sent:

That plastic ball looks so sweet all filled with beads it's almost a shame to use the beads. Almost. I'm already plotting ways to use them. That roving (plus that other amazing roving she'd sent in an earlier package--I couldn't have asked for a Secret Pal with better color sense, I'm the luckiest in all the land) is putting me in the mind of finally trying out knitting some mosaic socks with energized singles, a la Twisted Sisters. And see that little book-binding kit?! It's a book binding kit! She's fantastic. Let's all take a moment to adore Alison. I'm glad I found out who she was before this whole SP3 thing ended (she kind of invited me to figure it out and I hate not knowing things so I did) because it's allowed us to start to get to know each other. I look forward to her emails, and if she lived in Brooklyn I think we'd be sharing coffee and chocolate fairly regularly.

And yes, I've been knitting. The desire to steal Em's Clapotis was beginning to be rather overwhelming. I'm not buying yarn right now, so I first had to come to terms with the fact that if I were to knit it right now, I would not be able to do so in that luscious Lion and Lamb that Em used. I got over that quickly enough, because I have my favorite (at the moment, anyway) Silk Garden colorway (#84) in my stash. Well, it WAS in my stash. Half of it is now half of a Clapotis and the rest is waiting to become Clapotis.

I'm just shy of seven repeats into the straight rows and coming to the end of the fourth skein. I have three skeins and a little bit left. I don't think it's going to be enough yarn. Better start looking for an extra skein, I guess. Or two. This pattern really eats yarn! I'm making the executive decision that buying some extra Silk Garden (just the two skeins) to finish Clapotis doesn't count as buying yarn. I'm quite sure I'll need it to finish, because I don't want to shorten the pattern (and I don't want to frog my beloved capelet to cannibalize the yarn!).

*Don't say I never give you any choice. Today you are free to choose your own entry title, you lucky thing.

A tight-knit circle of GAWKs

You may be familiar with the Grammar Avengers web ring, and even the GAWKs (Grammar Avengers Who Knit). You may even be a member of that web ring (and we're glad to have you). However, you probably don't know how it all started. See, within the Grammar Avengers there is a core group of four bloggers, and the GAWKs really sprung from a private joke within that group, a joke that got a lot of play in the comments of each member's blogs but was also continued in group emails...

It feels strange to say this, like I'm outing myself as a Freemason or something. Yes, I've been fortunate to make many friends in the knitblog community, and have met several of them face to face. Some have become rather good friends. I adore you all. But here's the thing. With the four of us, the original Grammar Avengers, it's really something special. I love these three. It's been going on quietly for almost two years now, behind the blog scenes. Group emails, little presents, running jokes, a serious glee if we should find all four of us online at the same time (and then the slumber party mode would kick in and watch out...), anointing of nicknames... They knew I was engaged before the rest of you. Sorry. And I've known big stuff in their lives before you've known. And there's big stuff we STILL aren't blogging about and probably never will. Within a community, it's natural for like minds to gravitate to each other, to form a special bond. Why does this feel weird to talk about? (GAWKs, why is this hard to write? Why do I think I'm going to offend someone? We've been emailing about going public about this, but so far no one has made the leap. Here goes.)

Okay. Here we are, the girl gang with red pencils firmly in hand. We're writers, we're editors, we knit with a vengeance: me, Alison (dubbed La Brainy within a group email and my how that's spread. Funny), the Divine Ms. Em (that one's also spread), and Rachael who defies all nickname because she's just so...well...Rachael. There we are. Why do you need to know this?

Because we've just embarked on a group project, and we're going to want to blog about it. The only way to blog about it is to first explain our special friendship. We're making round robin Retro Prep sweaters. For example, Em gave me the yarn for her Retro Prep and the pattern with sizing info marked up. I'm knitting her first sleeve. I will then send that sleeve, the pattern, and the yarn to Rachael, who will make the second sleeve. Then she'll send it on to Alison, who will make the body, join, and finish. While I'm making Em's first sleeve, Rach is making mine, etc etc. We'll each end up with a sweater created by the other three. It will reflect the different stitch styles, etc. and it will be very much loved. (Yes, each of us has her own copy of the pattern. Don't get your copyright laws all in a bunch.)

Whew. Okay. That's done. So Em. Here's the beginning of your first sleeve. (Who loves ya, baby?)

Getting in touch with my cultchah

I'm half English by heritage, but even though I look exactly like my 100% English mom, somehow my father's Russian Jewish background has managed to assert itself and no one ever thinks I look English. (Kind of like the way my mother remained silent for an entire evening the first time she met my Brooklyn Russian Jewish grandparents because she kept waiting for a pause in the conversation to speak.) In fact, people speak to me in Russian on the Q train all the time. Can someone out there tell me how to say, "I don't speak Russian" in Russian? (Actually, it's very high on my list of languages that I want to learn next. I love languages, and once intended to collect them. I got stalled at two and a half, and then lost the half--Italian--through lack of use and now only have English and Spanish in my tool kit. But I digress...)

So this is all going somewhere. Going somewhere knit-related, actually. I just finished Elizabeth. When I modeled it for the boy, he said, "Wow! That really makes your English come out." Seriously. Isn't he adorable? What do you think? One Buddhist Brooklyn Russian Jewish English Unitarian in an Elizabethan Collar:

And here's a close-up that proves that a Hold Steady t-shirt goes with just about anything:

I used a skein of Inca Alpaca and a skein of Silk Garden (#34) held together on #6 Addi Naturas. It knit up very quickly. I'm considering making some matching pulse warmers. I think I may make another collar to match the Spirulina mittens. I still have a skein and a quarter left of that stuff.

Okay...I must be cool

...because look what Google search this blog is the number one hit for.

I'm rather pleased with this search result too.

I have to wonder what these people think when they land on a knitting site. If you're one of those people who've accidentally stumbled here via a search engine, and find yourself thinking, "A knitting blog? There are blogs about knitting?!" please don't be frightened. We're gentle folk, for the most part, we knit bloggers.

Depressed democrats and rock n roll dogs always welcome.

I love to have options

I wanted to make a pair of hybrid mittens--you know, the kind where the mitten cap flips back to free your fingers for little things like turning keys in locks, swiping metro cards, eating cookies...

I wasn't happy with an existing pattern I found, and to fix that pattern would have taken just as long as fudging something on my own, so fudge I did.

I present to you, the knitblog community, the results of said fudging. Flip-top mittens:

I started by adapting the mitten pattern in Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns from dpns to a two-circular-needles pattern. Using that pattern as a base, all I needed to do was knit a few strategically placed rows on the palm side on waste yarn to make the gap, throw in some buttonloops and buttons...y bueno... I love these things and if I lose one I'll cry. I really will. Maybe I should invest in those clips that attach little kids' mittens to their coat sleeves?

I bought the yarn at Rhinebeck. It's Spirit Trail Fiberworks merino sock yarn. I've been calling the colorway Spirulina, but they call it 38-04-04-01.

Besides the choice of mitteny warmth or fingers free for cookie-eating, you can also use the resulting profile to make hand monsters! (C is for cookie AND Cari, don't ya know.)

Screw the deadline. The knitbloggers are gathering.

I ignored all my work (due tomorrow morning so I have quite a day ahead of me today) yesterday and headed over to KnitNY to meet up with the visiting Alison and a number of other fantastic knitbloggers. We had a great time--worth any crunching I have to do today to get my work done. Billy and I were supposed to go to a party last night, but he wasn't feeling well so we stayed home. I'll just count KnitNY as my allotted recreation, then. All work and no play etc etc

Here's who was there: Alison, Em, Iris and Cheb, Jenn, Jackie, Elisabeth, Valentina, and Jackie.

It was impossible to get a photo of the entire group from the corner where I was trapped, so here's what I saw as I went around the table at one point. Elisabeth was very sneaky and arrived after the photos.

Okay, so go check in with the others now:

• Tell Jenn to please cover her bare legs--it's winter and she ain't in Florida anymore (not yet, anyway, and we hope that will only be temporary).
  
• Tell Jackie-blue her sleevecap is fine and she should stop frogging perfectly lovely knitting.
  
• Agree that Alison chose great colors for her sweater.
  
• Give Lis a big hug.
  
• Wish the other Jackie luck with the yarn store.
  
• And tell Valentina it's time to show her face minus the glasses. (While you're there, check out her amazing green boots. She wore them yesterday.)
  
• Give Iris some love, but no cupcakes please. They were way too sweet.
  
• And most important of all? Please, please convince Em that she wants to give me her Clapotis.
  

What I'm doing today:

What I want to be doing today:

Sigh.

beep beep beep sproingadah sproingadah beep

Okay...bad attempt at imitating a computer game. Especially bad, because the game I'm imitating doesn't sound like that at all. In fact it sounds like Roman soldiers yelling at each other. Seriously. I think it's got some really creative name like "Rome."

I came home last night after a lovely evening out with MFA folks, assorted writers, AND assorted knitbloggers. (More on this in a bit.) There was my beloved on the couch, a new laptop in front of him. Now, I knew there was a good chance he'd be coming home with one; we'd talked about it that afternoon. I have my iMac, but he didn't have his own computer and I DO NOT allow games on the iMac. It's the novel machine. It must be treated gently.

So there's my baby with his new laptop and totally absorbed in some game he played at his best friend's house the other night. (These men, I remind you, are 37 years old.) He looked up at me long enough to grunt and then turned back to the game. Fine. I get that way with my knitting. This was a little bit after midnight.

I went upstairs, sat down at my own computer and poked at the novel for a while. Still these Roman battle sounds were coming from the living room. Two a.m. I called downstairs to say I was going to bed. "Yep, I'll be right up." Right. He came to bed at five in the morning. Yes, he had to go to work this morning. His own choice, right? Well, next time I'm closing the bedroom door and making him turn the sound way down. I was half-awake most of that time, listening to the battle noises, and when I did fall asleep my dreams weren't exactly restful. Boys. Oy vey.

So on to what I was up to before I came home to find the boy transfixed by this game. Francisco Goldman read at Brooklyn College last night (where I'm an mfa student). Afterward, a few of us went out with Francisco to the dive bar in Park Slope that we tend to gravitate to after workshop. Let's see how many recurring blog characters you can recognize: Ernesto was there, as was my friend Cree. Emily and Lon and Alexei were also there. (I don't think Emily and Alexei have been mentioned here before.) (I'm getting flashes of the closing scene of Wizard of Oz. This disturbs me, but Em might be pleased.)

Into this motley mix of writers standing as close as possible to Francisco and Ernesto in hopes that their genius will somehow rub off come a lovely gang of knitbloggers. The visiting Carolyn met us there, joined by Em in her fantastic Clapotis (yes, I tried to steal it), Jackie, and Amy. Alas, I didn't parcel my time well, got sucked up into an mfa conversation and didn't get to hang out with the knitbloggers quite as much as I had wanted to. Next time, though. It was still great to see them, and to mix my two little worlds a bit. No, they didn't collide. They fit rather neatly together.

Now do I hide the computer game before he comes home tonight, or just invest in earplugs comfortable enough to sleep in?

"Hide the fruit hats! Mom's coming!"

While I was slaving away over a hot red pencil all weekend with my freelance work, Sadie and Diego took it upon themselves to knit some of the fruit hats I need to make for new babies. They do impressive work, considering the lack of opposable thumbs. I especially like the leafy tops.

If I'm generous with the biscuits, maybe the dogs will make me one too. These hats are for my friend Karla's toddler, Milo, and Milo's new baby brother, Cyrus. They're based on Ann Norling's pattern and were made using Mission Falls 1824 Wool.

The rock show rocked

Best thing I could have done, go to see one of my favorite bands with one of my favorite humans (hi Christina!). With a few days of perspective post-election, I'm feeling a bit better. A little more hopeful. Maybe we will actually live through the next four years, and come out of it more determined and organized so perhaps the better candidate wins next time.

So chin up and back to work with me. I turned in one job yesterday and have three more ahead of me in the next week or so. That doesn't allow for much knitting time. There are a few new babies who deserve some fruit caps, so I'll probably bang out one or two of those this weekend on work breaks. The Texas cardi has been seriously neglected, though. It's been sitting patiently in its project bag, untouched for a week now. Perhaps next week I'll have time to get back to it.

I can say one rather selfish thing about this whole Bush debacle: the way it sent me reeling is exactly the place in my head I need to get into when I work on my novel. Before the election it would take an hour or two of working my way into that mindset because I'm actually rather happy, optimistic, balanced by nature. Thanks to those folks in those red states with their Moral Values, it's been a lot easier to get to that feeling of disconnection, despair, bewilderment. The feeling that you aren't living the life you thought you were living, that reality is shifting a bit under your feet... Yeah, thanks for that, America. Staceyjoy was the one who pointed out that art flourishes under repressive regimes.

(Moral values?! What the hell does that mean? I have moral values--strong ones. They involve respect for individual choice, and the understanding that all people deserve health care and education. Grrrr.)

"...And what's left?"

I'm not under the bed anymore. If you need me, I'll be at The Hold Steady show, drowning my sorrows in some rock and roll. Given the demographic of the audience, there'll be a lot of depressed democrats shaking it in Brooklyn tomorrow night.

So some music, some sweat, and then we'll figure out what the hell we're going to do.

If you need me...

...I'll be hiding under my bed. New York should secede from the "union." Seriously...how anyone could have voted for THAT MAN is beyond me. I'm depressed. I'm sickened. I'm trying to figure out a way to boycott the damn Midwest.

Oh yeah--and the South.

What's that trying to jump the Louet line?

Why it's fantastically beautiful 100% Australian wool top, all ready for spinning. I'm enjoying the natural merino I've got on the wheel at the moment, but the Louet has been asking for color. Really. My Australian Fiber Godmother saved the day (yet again), as I'm afraid the Louet was ready to go out on strike. You want a better look, yes?

Alison is way too good to me. I love it when people are way too good to me.

Song of the day? "Modesto Is Not That Sweet" by The Hold Steady. You can buy it on iTunes, if you're so inclined. I have an unseemly schoolgirl crush on Craig Finn. He's the singer, lyricist. Go look at his pictures on the site, and at French Kiss Records, (Ooh--watch the video! Click on the word "dirty" and then choose big or bigger. I recommend BIGGER.) but you probably won't understand the attraction until you've listened to the Hold Steady album and most of the Lifter Puller catalog for way too many hours at a time. Once you do that, though, you're doomed. Doomed. He will make you love him. Resistance is futile.

He's married. As am I. In some alternate Brooklyn universe, though, another me is riding her bike past his building really slow every day, hoping for a glimpse. In the real world he and I are both happily married AND he's friends with my Rock Star Ex-Boyfriend who hates me. There are, however, no impediments in the alternate Brooklyn universe. Ah Craig Finn, the socks I would knit for you...

PS: If you're local, they're playing at North Six on Thursday night