Wednesday, October 28, 2009

How do women do this?

I put on my traditional fake Halloween nails tonight and I can't do anything! They're not even super long! I can't type, I can't rub my eyes, I certainly can't knit. How do women with claws do this on a daily basis? I already want to rip them off and it's only been about 20 minutes - how am I going to survive 3 days?
It's hard to see, but the nails have skulls on them and the middle ones have a little rhinestone. They're very cool. I suppose I will get used to them.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

My mind, it hath changed

I bought the best hat ever this weekend at H&M. A big fur one with earflaps, like I've wanted for ages. It will look simply smashing with my winter coat. So no need to knit a new one. And, of course, since posting that picture of the Pagliacci Mittens, that pattern has been in my head. So why not knit myself a pair in colours to match the coat, I asked myself. And the answer, of course, was, there is no why not. So the drops mittens are out and Pagliacci's are back in. This is the way my mind works. Scary, non?

Monday, October 19, 2009

Oh, How I Love Ravelry!

There are now 2 projects on Ravelry that use my photos for samples! They used my finished Pagliacci mittens that I made for my sister last Christmas, and they just contacted me to ask if they could use my photo of the cabled double breasted jacket - even without buttons! Makes me feel rather accomplished, actually!
I am having the worst time finding buttons I like for that sweater. Anyone have any suggestions?

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Knitting ADD Strikes Again!!!

One of the 'hazards' of massive weight loss is requiring new winter garb. I have this amazing 70s winter coat - wool, Inuit inspired with a faux-fur lined hood and embroidery. Value Village, $30! I haven't been able to wear it for a few years, and now it fits better than even when I bought it. But I don't have any mittens or hat to go with it. One must match, after all, especially when one is known as a knitter! It's been a very dreary, wet fall in Muskoka, and the nip in the air is unmistakable. Snow will be flying early this year. So the knitter's brain turns to cozy things. Hours of surfing and I should have hit the Drops site first. Found the perfect hat and mittens to go with the snowflake embroidery on my coat. Some brown and cream Patons Astra in my stash, with much smaller needles than required, works. Smaller needles on mittens is fine. Denser is warmer. Might be an issue for the hat, though. It might not drape properly. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Since Patons tends to have the same colours no matter what the yarn, I can always do the hat in Beehive Baby instead.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Knitting With Kittens

Sounds like a bizarre movie that someone like the Cohen Brothers would do, doesn't it?
Anyway, spent the entire weekend either in bed sleeping or on the couch knitting, struck down by the usual first-month-of-school-plague-monkey-induced-cold-from-hell. (Went out briefly to keep a hair appointment and buy life-sustaining groceries, which of course exhausted me and confined me to bed once again!) And, had a total Archimedes-inspired (my, what a lot of use of parentheses and hypens today! Not to mention exclamation points!) ! ! ! (For good measure.) eureka! moment.


How to knit with kittens:

Take the tail, and make a slip knot. Bashing the kitten on the head to induce confusion and malleability first often helps.


KIDDING!!!!!!!!


Here's the real thing: before you begin to knit, gather up all the little kitten toys you have. Put them in a nice pile beside you, then start to knit. When the kitten jumps up on you and attacks yarn and or needles, throw a toy. Said kitten will then leap after the toy. Depending on the attention span of the kitten and your knitting speed, that should let you have a few rows of knitting before the action needs to be repeated.


See? Eureka!!


Eventually, you need to gather up all the toys and start over again, but it's a small price to pay.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Eddie > Knitting, and therefore > Men

He's done now, but reading today's entry from the Yarn Harlot brought him to mind again. Eddie Izzard is one of my boyfriends, on my freebie five list. You know, the list of guys that (if you were ever crazy enough to be in a relationship) you'd get to sleep with, with no repercussions.
Eddie is better than knitting, which makes him (naturally) better than men. But since he describes himself as all boy with a little bit of girl, that goes without saying. Executive transvestism and all.
Anyway, here's lazy old me who can't even get off my butt to walk the dog, and here's Eddie, who ran a marathon a day for charity! I think I love him even more. Of course, whatever it is about me that turns men into jerks would kick in, and he'd just break my heart, too, and reality would come crashing down. So maybe I will just admire from afar, instead of stalking him some day like I'd planned.