My Brain is Oozing Out My Ears.

I was pretty bummed that I didn't have pictures of anything, so I took some today. Its a strip of dark green acrylic, the last picture shows the color the best. I haven't even thought about My very First Potato Bag-Sweater because my brain is very much overloaded with the respiratory, digestive, urinary and reproductive systems of the body at the moment, aside from educational psychology, and, whatever other classes I'm taking.

I swear, while I was making dinner tonight, I felt my brain ooze out my ears.

Enjoy the pictures.

Pictureless

I knit a wee bit this weekend. I got the hang of the Farrow Rib and the Mistake rib, which are very beautiful. On the job front, I have one potential job lined up and perhaps a second one, but I'll know more later in the week.

How about a little math:
Jobs x yarn money / time = more yarn.

Jobs multiplied by yarn money divided by time STILL equals more yarn. I suppose I can always knit on my days off. While laying on the beach. Watching the boyfriend play volleyball.

That really doesn't sound that bad anymore :)
-jersey

Festivals

Oh just when I thought I had my summer planned, I get an email from Knitter's Review with the subject of the review this week centering on 2007 fiber festivals. Now, I am definately not complaining other than my sheer lack of money to travel to all of the places on the East Coast (I've decided that upon winning the lottery and/or retiring, this is what I plan on doing). Here's the link if you don't get it emailed to you.

So here I am, sitting at my computer with roughly two weeks left to a hectic semester thinking about how I wish I could pull off the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. I know a few people who live in Maryland, who probably have empty couches I could sleep on... except the very next Monday I'm staring down three tests in two days - sadly I need to look at text books instead of sheep. Most of the other festivals are far enough away that I haven't been daydreaming about them although I really can't wait until I'm out of school and have the resources to start going on some serious sheep-related road trips.

What I didn't know, and why I decided to post today, was that The Great Garden State has its own festival! About an hour in traveling time, and about a month before the much anticipated NYS Sheep & Wool Festival I think it would be completely doable. As in, I shouldn't have a problem getting there and back and perhaps even checking out one of those spinning workshops.

Do you think festivals would have a problem with video cameras?

As always, I am a slave to the textbooks. At least for another two weeks. Very little knitting has been occurring and I can feel the stress oozing out of my head. I've been working on a strip of knitting for Warm Up America! . I've been trying to incorporate unusual stitches or things I don't normally knit. This requires me to actually look up different stitches and I haven't had the time to do that. Well now that I mentioned it, I'm going to look it up now.

Okay, that's about it. Check out the Enormous List of Festivals, it's very vast and huge.

-Jersey

PS: Thank you Springtime for finally coming to visit us :)!

"Giving Back"

Some recent developments in my personal life, generally relating to school issues, have reared their evil, academic head and make me want to sit in the corner and cry. Thus just about any work on My First Sack of A Sweater is being put on hold until things calm down and I have some type of sanity. In the meantime I've been working for a 7 x 63 inch piece of fabric for Warm Up America! Something about the NYC trip has made me feel like I don't give back enough to the community, so I've decided on this. Its a simple project, it won't stress me anymore than it already has, but also leaves me with every few pictures to post.

I wonder sometimes if I should find a college where I can major in knitting and call it a day. The problem with a bachelors in knitting is that I have no idea what I'd do with it. Getting a degree in Education actually means I can grow up to be a teacher.

Perhaps a knitting teacher on the side? I think I've decided to save up for the Craft Yarn Council's knitting instruction program. I wanted to do it last year but I thought I lacked the experience, this year I lacked the lettuce.

That's all for now. Maybe pictures later this week.

Dilemma

Let's say a boy asks you to learn how to knit. You teach him and he's happy with the new skill he learned. He can knit and purl. His knit stitches are classically too tight and his purl stitches are consistent.

What happens when you date that boy? And he asks you for a scarf, or an overly huge blanket? What if he offers to help you knit a huge blanket? Does the evil myth still mean the relationship is over? What if I bought him really nice yarn and he knit the scarf himself?

This is turning into quite a dilemma. Thoughts?

A Most Interesting Arrangement.

A friend asked me to teach them how to knit. At first, I was skeptical because I had been asked before and I knew that particular person had zero interest in actually learning. But the new friend, really wanted to learn. So I brought my free size 8's from the NYC/Yarn Harlot gathering, nice purple wool, (when I first acquired it, it smelt like fruit loops, the cereal.) and a few other things. I showed - get this - him how to long tail cast on, how to knit and purl and I handed him the needles. I have to tell you, I was extremely impressed with him. Naturally his knit stitches were much tighter than his purl, but we knit for about two hours, and I had him knitting and purling entire rows. The stitches were even and albeit tight, but even and consistent. Much more than I could have said for my first few rows.

I immediately thought of the Yarn Harlot's story of her encounter with a male knitter, how people oohed and awed over his garter stitch scarf, but nobody said a word about her extremely intricate shawl.

His end of the arrangement is to teach me how to inline skate. He taught me last night, and said I did really well. After that we ate dinner and headed over to Barnes & Noble where I parked my ass in front of the knitting section, and came away with two books:

The Secret Life of a Knitter, by the Yarn Harlot and Spin to Knit by Shannon Okey.

I haven't had the time to look or even afford the Spin to Knit book, so when I saw it last night I grabbed it. The Yarn Harlot book was a bit of an impulse buy but I wanted it, because I'm secretly developing a major girl-crush on her.

I knit in Barnes & Noble but the guy-friend wasn't up to knitting in public and I wasn't about to force him. Perhaps later today I'll have him knit some more, it depends if our schedules mesh or not.

I'm going to try and work on my sweater but I'm just slightly nervous about counting and having a potato sack as a sweater. A really nice, green woolen, semi-expensive potato sack.

Potato Sack

Oh.

Oh no. Oh don't let it be so.

I'm worried that my sweater is going to fit more like a potato sack than a sweater. The little voices in the back of my head that tell me not to do drugs are telling me my sweater is really huge. Usually, these little voices, are excellent.

Today, they suck.


I keep telling myself when I put the arms on stitch holders, it'll look just fine, don't worry, keep counting stitches......

POTATO SACK!


Has anyone else had slightly paranoid delusions about their own sweaters?

Two Years

Two years ago I sat in my grandmothers kitchen in between [Easter] dinner and dessert working on one of my first knitted objects. It was supposed to be a bookmark. At one point my mom looked over and asked me if I was knitting a penis holder.

My face turned red and I was so embarrassed I ripped it out by the end of the day. But I was knitting along and I was really proud I had something to show for my efforts. Today I counted my sweater stitches. I have two more rows before the arms go on a stitch holder or random left over circular needles. I also made a key lime pie, which is probably my favorite type of pie. I made the crust from scratch, I even found ceramic pie weights at a store that's closing near me and only one part of my crust looked kind of crappy. I'm really proud of my crust. This is the third pie I've ever made, crust & all. I've made key lime filling and just stuck it in a store bought graham cracker crust.

In extreme delayed response to Nikki (her blog is Knitensity) I actually left FIT while the Harlot was on stage taking questions. I was hungry and grumpy and my boobs are simply too small for anything to be written on. I wanted to ask, but I think I'd need some implants so Stephanie could actually put a letter or two on my boobs.

I apologize Nikki, but a pair of A's would not have done the trick. I also take no offense to your reference of my very tiny rack ;)

Hope you had a good Easter, or a good Sunday. I'll have a more yarn and knitting related post later in the week.

...I hope.

I Bought the Book

I realized my beach reading was dwindling, and instead of reading about things like how to put on makeup and what's "in" fashion and who had nose jobs, I broke down and bought the latest Yarn Harlot book. Funny thing is I never read it on the beach, I read it instead of working on my sweater or while I sat in the lenai (Florida's term for a screened in porch on the back of the house) just, hanging out waiting for dinner. I read it before bed and while eating breakfast.

I finished it this morning, and I really, truely enjoyed it. I didn't think I'd like it, but I started reading it in Barnes and Noble and I made my way through quite a few pages, I decided its probably time to find a cashier and find the rest of my party.

I think I've also come to realize that I need to learn to accept that the people in my area of general residence are among people who can fondly look back at 1985 because they had a great haircut and unlike my family, not because my snarky ass was born.

I've got four and a half rows left to go before I put the shoulders/arms on hold. I've been thinking that maybe I should put the shoulders/arms on currently not-in-use circular needles. I also haven't been to visit my Dad's local yarn shop, although I may do that today or tomorrow. The problem with visiting is that I'll want to buy more yarn, and after the Burnt Orange Cotton Skien mishap, I'm not sure that I really want or need anymore yarn. At least until I chisle away a few of my upcoming projects. A few of those are: cotton bag from (page 84?) Interweave Knits, ear flap hat and mittens, dog sweater, baby blanket, additional KoolAid dyed earflap hat, mitten and MAYBE scarf, entrelac scarf, mittens... perhaps another sweater.

Ok - off to the waterpark. Hope the weather is just as nice where you are!


Disclaimer: Firefox/Mozilla corrects my spelling as I type away. My dad does not have Firefox/Mozilla web browser, but continues to use Internet Explorer, which I will never understand....