Waaaa!

I'm feeling the need to knit in public with others of similar knitty persuasion, despite the potential of knit-dweebishness. Any Boston area knitters care to join me? I'm thinking thursday night in Chestnut Hill if anyone's interested. Anyone?

I've been doing a bunch of swatching, trying to work out some ideas in my head, but not settling on any one thing. I think that a rainy day tomorrow will drive me around the bend give me an excuse to just hang out and play with my yarn. It's all in boxes now, and appears to be taking up less space; but I think that's because it's all piled vertically instead of being allowed to spread all over the place. I still need to go through the boxes and make lists of what's in them eventually. I also found many more knitting needles stuck in plastic bags with half finished projects.

I really am feeling very uncentered right now.

I don't know what was worse

The freakishly bad, über apocalyptic, psychotically heavy metalish, sci-fi laden nightmare that I had last night or;

Waking up and having this song stuck in my head for absolutely no reason what so ever.

Anyone playing Blogshares?

Buy me baby! I may be cheap, but I ain't, um...oh, nevermind.

Chocolate and Ibuprofin

Just give me what I want, back away slowly, and everything will be fine. Just fine...

Has anyone seen the commercial for the new show For Love or Money? Now I have to admit that I think the premise of the show is pretty skanky and I won't watch it; but at the beginning of the commercial is a *sweater*! A glorious, cabled, fantasy of a *s*w*e*a*t*e*r* that takes my breath away every time I see it! if you've seen it, you know what I mean. Must...find...picture...

The sun may not be shining right now, but at least it's not raining!

So the vest has gone to live with Mom

Do you think I remembered to bring my camera with me? No, of course not.

Whatever fits Blogger was going through earlier, it seems to have resolved itself so I can post and update my template. You're thrilled, I'm sure.

I *finally* made it through the neverending rows on size 1 needles that will be the inside hem of the Virgin Sweater (all 5,040 stitches of it) and have started the color work. Only three rows of that done though, so there is certainly nothing to show as of yet.

The sun came out today, for one brief, glorious moment! But I think it was just a tease. More rain is on it's way. Even the ducks are fed up by now.

WTF?

Blogger reverted my template way way back. Grrrrrrr.

Michal, my web hosting guru, is working on a new blogging system called Rantelope. I'm going to see if I can figure out what to do with it, but it's going to be a learning experience. I mean, Python? Ain't that a really big snake??? (I can just see Michal reading this and going "No, No, No!!! Ahhhhhh!")

I want to get way, way, way far away from Blogger.

Loose ends

No, not in my knitting, but how I'm feeling. Totally at loose ends after finishing the vest. I have plenty of things that I could be working on, but my brain is enjoying coasting right now. What I should be doing is designing a quilt square for a "Welcome Baby" quilt that is being planned for a coworker, but I'm not finding inspiration for that either.

Oh well. Or as my teenage nephew would say: "Whatever". It'll happen.

So, in lieu of anything more exciting, how about a random link? The Coffee Cup Project

And now it's the moment that all some a couple of you are waiting for.

for the stalkers, psychos, weirdos, and just plain curious: yes, that's me

Detailed pictures are here.

I feel like I've run a marathon with this thing.

Hat
A performance in words, music, and knitting.

Knitting is the new rock and roll? Cool! I was never into yoga much anyway.

***

I'm missing buttons! I went to finally finish T.P.T.I.N.G.T.T.A. last night, and two out of six buttons were missing! AUGH!!

That discovery lead to my grabbing all of the yarn that I had just hanging around on the trunk I use as a table in the livingroom and tossing it in a box. A very large box. I don't want to think about what's in the bedroom. I also found a lot of knitting needles that I knew I had but were never able to put my hands on when I needed them. So now I have three 29" size 8 circs. *Shakes head* But do you think I'll be able to find them when I need one?

I'm bringing boxes home from work with me today, and having Tony teach me how to use Spreadsheet tomorrow. It's time to weed and get organized.

My Queendom for three really big Rubbermaid containers.

It's done.

It is, it is, it is! Well, except for the buttons, and those aren't going to get done until tonight.

Pics in a couple of days, because I have to go spend a holiday weekend at work. Unfortunately, thanks to the rain (which really is a good thing for me because it's knocking all of that nasty pollen out of the air), we most likely aren't going to be a busy as we would like.

Later Gators! If you're traveling anywhere this weekend, stay safe!

Knitting revival?

There's an interesting discussion going no over at Darilyn's message board that some might consider 'knitdweebish' beating of a dead horse, but I'm finding that it's a bit more intelligent than the usual 'meme's' of: "Well, I've been knitting for X years, so it can't be a revival".

I don't know if I would personally consider what's going on a 'revival', considering that fact that there are many of us who have been knitting for many years. I think of it as more of a resurgence. After all, knitting was a daily fact of life for many families for centuries. The women of the family knit, as did the children (girls and boys). In many instances the men of the family also knit.

Then it kind of went underground. It was no longer the part of daily life that it had been, but it was still being done. There were yarn stores, but they were few and far between, and the yarn wasn't always of the highest quality. But we knit anyway. Even when the only yarn we could get ahold of was acrylic from Woolworth's, we knit.

Then something happened. Some people think it was as a result of September 11th (personally, I couldn't knit on that horrible day, or for many days after-I was too stressed to focus). I think that they needed a 'reason' to knit again. And I don't look at it as a return to the 'domestic arts'; I mentioned that to my husband and he just laughed, because being domestic is *not* second nature to me.

Whatever it was that raised awareness of knitting, and I don't think we can pin point any one thing, it was only to our benefit. Yes, there are many new knitters, some who have picked up needles because it's suddenly trendy. Not every one of them will stick with it. Who among us hasn't tried something new and decided it just wasn't for us? So what? But some of those new knitters are amazing! And they are the ones who will keep it moving forward to the next generation.

We also benefit by the fibers that are available to us. I mean, 20 years later my first sweater, an acrylic thing from a pattern in Vogue Knitting, is still kicking. But I never would have considered bulky wool, cotton, alpaca, because I wasn't aware of it, or exposed to it. This resurgence has opened doors to options that just weren't readily available to me when I was a teenager.

If someone wants to consider it a revival, so be it. Like I said, I consider it a resurgence. The good thing about either of them is that it may slow down or receed, but things never go back to the way they were.

When avoiding doing anything useful make buttons

(not entirely true, my kitchen sparkles)

Slight detour

I got so incredibly frustrated with my major project yesterday that I finally put it aside for a while. So it isn't done today. It may not be done tomorrow. Who knows when it will be done?

I know that I'm standing in my own way on this. I am my own roadblock. I'm not happy right now because of the stupid mistakes I've made on it, because it is not going to match completely the image in my head. I am being my own worst enemy. Gack!

So I worked on the Virgin sweater a little, only a few rows last night before being distracted by other things. This is sleeve number one so far, about 1/3rd of the way up:

I'm liking the pattern, it's a fairly easy one to memorize (except for those center snowflakes-those keep throwing me), and is going quickly. I still have six 280 stitch rows to go on the hem for the body before I can increase and switch to larger needles needles. I'm in no rush, it's not like I'm going to be wearing it any time soon!

Tomorrow

This stupid thing will be done tomorrow, maybe even tonight. Which is a good thing, because I am really beginning to hate it. I hate the colors, I hate all the work that I've put into it, I hate the really huge honking mistake that *yesterday* I discovered I had made. I did discover, through that mistake, that me fear of steeking is completely gone. After all, the only solution was to cut! (The problem? Think: Linda Evans...Dynasty...bad '80's fashion...)

How happy am I that this will be going to live with my mother soon? How happy that I can stop looking at it?

So close, so close, so close.

Oooooohhhhhh....

My parents babysat and Tony and I got to have a grown up dinner last night! We sat for an hour and a half! The bliss, the luxury, the unexpected hedonism of it...Can you tell we hadn't done it in a while?

I am incredibly close to finishing the knitting on T.P.T.I.N.G.T.T.A., so I am going to shut up and go do it.

Did you find me ok?

I know that I need to go through and change my links for the rings I belong to, but it may take me a day or two. I also need to go through and update my links, put some stuff that was on my old /index page on this one. It'll happen. No, really, it will! But right now I'd rather go watch the History Channel, which I am going to be glued to next week when they do the history of Russia, and knit!

And I do have one great picture from NHS&W. Great to me at any rate, which is reason enough for me to force you to look at it!

That tall guy in the background? With the beard? That's my Tony showing up here for the first time, I think

Nutso couple of days

We did indeed make it to the NHS&W on Sunday. Fun, fun, fun. I didn't take as many pictures as I expected I might, but I think that was because I was on complete fiber overload! Barn after barn of venders with buttons, bunnies, alpacas, spinning wheels, and yarn, Yarn, YARN!!! Tony was quite impressed with my restraint ("admirable", he said)...until the last half an hour, when I kinda lost it. But only a little!

The last half hour found me at the Fiber Studio booth, where I ended up buying a Schacht School Loom! It's a cute little loom, and I'm having fun playing with it. Of course, it's also having the drawback of making me want more. As it is, I already want one of these, or these. I also picked up two skeins of gorgeous hand dyed cotton there.

I made my second, and final, purchase on our way to the gate to leave. There was a white tent placed strategically right by the exit with some of the yummiest alpaca yarn! I was a good girl, I only bought one skein; but the temptation to bring the whole rack home with me was huge! And it is so soft! I think that a big, snuggly sweater make from alpaca would be the best thing in the world; like a giant, warm hug.

And I successfully avoided looking at spinning wheels. I know that if I did take a look, maybe sit at one to try it out, that I would have come home a whole lot poorer! Call it: "spinning wheel seduction" Maybe next year? (My logical train of thought: Weaving=using stash that I already have. Spinning=a whole new stash and an unhappy husband! I think I'll stick to learning the weaving for a while!)

On the knitting front, I'm about one third of the way up the first sleeve of the Virgin sweater. I didn't frog it after all. Once I made it beyond the beginning I became much happier with how it looked. And, hopefully, I only have about two more days major work on The Project That I'm Not Going To Talk About! I just want it to be done! I really am getting sick of it. (And I'm sure that you're getting sick of hearing me "not" talk about it, right?) I'm aiming for finally finishing it in the next week! Crazed weasel knitting, anyone?

We are heading north tomorrow!

To go to the New Hampshire Sheep & Wool Festival! It's going to be an hour and a half either way, but I am very much looking forward to it! Irina too, if the fact that she has been constantly talking about petting the "baby sheep" is any indication. (She has already been informed that, no, we are not bringing any live animals home with us. The cat would not appreciate it.) Tony is a little less enthused, but is being a good sport about it. Now I just have to hope that my camera holds out. It's eating batteries at an alarming rate, so I think it isn't long for the world. Fingers crossed, and all that.

I'm thinking that I'm going to change the URL of this page, drop the "/knitblog" and just make it the "/index" page; but I'll give plenty of warning, and put up something to redirect you anyway. Just wanted to let whoever might have linked to me know.

I'm in fear of being boring again, so I'm going to go knit. I've been working on the first sleeve for the Virgin sweater, but I'm not very pleased with the way it's coming out. I'm thinking that I may frog and start again. I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere on any project at all. Hopefully tomorrow will give me inspiration or something.

Man, I am being a downer, aren't I? Sheesh!

Gray, rainy, yucky day

I started the colorwork on one of the sleeves for the Virgin sweater last night. I just 'had' to see some of it. I didn't get far enough to justify a photo of the sleeve, and it's just too gloomy to take one today anyway. I still have who-knows-how-many-rows left on size 1's for the hem before I can do anything on the body. The needle I need for the body still has work on it anyway and I really don't want to go buy another one! I'll force myself to finish the other project first.

What a depressingly dark day. If I put Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase on a continuous loop, do you think that the small one would let me spend it in bed?

Oh dearie me.

I seem to have upset some people. It seems that someone on the message board that was using my bandwidth posted the url to this blog. They're picking on little old me. They think I'm boring. I'm...heartbroken. Sniff.

(FYI: No, I am not a member of the board. I signed up long enough to see why I was getting hits, and then I deleted the account. And, yes, I am aware that someone did a Whois search on my domain name. Hi there! *Waves*)

I am not going to turn this blog into a nasty flame war. It's just a waste of time. This is the last that I am going to say on the subject.

Quality knitting time

Tony and I watched "The Matrix" last night, which we hadn't seen before. Yes, I know that we were like the last two people in the world to see it. It was a good 2 1/2 hours of knitting time, thought Tony swears that there were scenes during which I stopped knitting! I kind of doubt that!

Tha answer Alison's question: I have a certain amount of bandwidth, or amount of information, that I am allowed to transmit from my host server on a monthly basis. My host also has a control panel that I can use to go and see where my traffic is coming from, and who is linking to my images. (Like my SiteMeter, but with a lot more detail) In it I discovered that I was getting a lot of hits from a message board for the band Level 42. Huh?

So I followed the link (I had to sign up for the board to find out just why I was getting hits from it), and lo-and-behold! In one of the messages was the steaming tea pot that I have on my home page. And it was copied over and over again in replies to the message.

Now I don't own the image, I didn't create it, but I am hosting the image on *my* server. What this person did was look at the source code for the page and linked it like this: <.img src="http://tea-ramblings.com/img002.gif">, the picture was showing up in his message, but the image was still hosted on my server, so he was using *my* bandwidth! This is known as "hotlinking" an image, and when you don't have the biggest amount of bandwidth in the world, a pretty unhappy thing. Heck, it was showing up as the #4 referer for the past week to my site!

I sent a note to the manager of the board to make her aware that it had happened, and to ask her to maybe let people know that it's not a nice thing to do. I received a really snippy note in return. I'm going to keep a really close eye on my statistics for a while.

Ha ha haha ha!

I found a bandwidth thief today. Idjit. And it was someone on a message board that a link to their own web site! You think they'd know better and download the image to their server and link it from there. Maybe they figured that I'm small fry enough to not notice but, believe it or not, I do check my site statistics!


(There was an image here-I deleted it from my server)

I'll leave it there for 24 hours and then delete the image. Hahaha. Jerk.

Yaaawwwnnnnnn

I am in total 'dragging my tush' mode. We're suffering from allergy helk around here, I've pulled a muscle in my back that is making useing the computer and knitting a little less than enjoyable, and if I don't get chocolate soon someone's going to die. (Ok, maybe they won't actually die, but I'm going to be giving them lots of nasty looks!) I'm trying to find some ambition to do something, but going back to bed seems like the best option so far!

I have some new knitting inspiration though. Earlier this week I picked up a copy of Knitting Fair Isle Mittens & Gloves at my LYS. I figure I can do mittens, and I can do fair isle, so why not? No, I haven't done gloves yet, but it would be just like me to make my first pair with a fair isle design. I mean, why teach myself a new skill using a plain, boring, solid color when I can really drive myself crazy by throwing in multiple colors? Besides, I know what would happen if I tried to do gloves in just one color: I'd do one, get bored, and have to walk around with one hand in my coat pocket all winter.

Alright...Goal for today: Finish the back of TPTINGTTA and at least start the right front! I've also cast on for my next big project, which means doing 18 rounds of 280 stitches on size 1 circular needles, using black yarn! GACK! So I now have to finish TPTINGTTA because I'm going to need the needle that I'm currently using for the body. (Am I being a lemming because this sweater has already been done? -And done wonderfully I might add- I don't think so...at least I hope not...And I'm sure as heck not going to have it done on a month! It might take me that long to get through the hem!)

I should also work in the Dalmation sweater. Sleeves, must do sleeves.

So much for dragging my tush!

So much for my weekend

I ended up getting called into work yesterday anyway! Three hours in the afternoon + a 4-year-old to try to amuse so she doesn't run rampant = maybe 45 minutes actual work done! It wasn't pretty. (OK, it wasn't as bad as all that. My kid can and will talk to anyone, so the trick was keeping her out of other people's offices so they could get some work done! Fortunately where I work is very big on family, so bringing her along wasn't a problem. And I kept sending her up to the community room we have on the third floor and telling her to run around in circles. Kept her distracted for half an hour, it did!)

Just as well I went in yesterday, because I missed this morning getting the breaks on the car fixed! That screaming sound you may have heard? My credit card. Just ignore it.

And now I am having a really, really hard time getting my act together to go in for the afternoon. The reason? I picked up a box full of lovely, lovely yarn at the post office, all for mememememe! The color I need to continue on The Project That I'm Not Going To Talk About, and two cones of black and red wool. Hmmmm...black and red...what could I possibly be thinking about making with that?