Knit n Things

Hey gang - I'm heading out to play in a Rugby tournament this weekend. Please say a prayer (or three) for me that I don't break anything that I'll need later for kinitting. Ankles and legs are ok as I'll get extra knitting time cuz I won't be able to go to work. Just kidding I'm hoping to come back the way I left. If your in the DC area you should stop by - how often do you get to see women's rugby? Look for me - I'll be the one in the maroon & navy jersey screaming "**I don't want the ball - don't give me the ball - keep that dam ball away from me!!"

**In rugby it's illegal to tackle someone who doesn't have possession of the ball.

Today I corrupted a friend and possibly my SnB group. I'm not actually sure who corrupted who but there was definitely corruption happening. A lot of it.

I found out recently that a friend of mine could knit and crochet but hadn't done either in years. So Gretchen, Tisha, and I immediately coerced her into buying yarn & new needles and getting her started again (this was of course after a small "test" to prove that she wasn't pulling our chain.) So tonight Megan joined us at SnB for the first time... let's just say that she is a wonderful addition to our group and I fear that Borders may soon throw us out.

Megan (who has yet to learn about real fibers) bought a pound of some awful acrylic (yes we've counseled her and she'll do better next time). While working her blanket the yarn got into a huge snarl and it was decided to help Meg out by winding up the remaining yarn into nice center pull balls to avoid future issues. How many people does it take to wind a ball of yarn? One? Two? Try FOUR - Tisha, D, my mother, and Megan all attempting to get this yarn onto the ball winder! They were pulling the yarn from the outside of the skein & attempting to move at something above a snail's pace. Never have I seen such obscenity! The language, the gestures, the commentary from the peanut gallery (that would be Gretchen, Trek, and myself - who were smart enough not to get involved). I don't know who started it but the entire process became a giant euphemism for... well check out the title of the post - you'll get the idea. Who knew knitter's had such dirty minds! What a laugh riot - you really had to be there.

And now let me distract you from the total lack of knitting content in this post by showing you what I did this weekend. Dad and I installed a hardwood floor in the spare bedroom. After a few hours of the back-breaking, leg-muscle numbing, pain in the ass work all I could think about was a hot bath and then bed. Therefore - no knitting. But it looks absolutely fabulous and it's one less room on the list. We're slowly but surely replacing all the carpets in the house (2 rooms left - the two biggest rooms but who's counting.)

It's funny how sometimes I feel like I don't have anything to blog about... and then all of a sudden I'm thinking of all the things I've forgotten to tell you about...and then have too much. So I'd like to thank my Secret Pal Cyndia who sent me Knitting Over the Edge & the Vouge Knitting Stichonary weeks ago and I completely forgot to blog about it (I can be such a spaz). Thank-you very much these were books I was dying to have but I tend to spend "book money" on fiction.

Several months ago I ordered a pound of dye your own sock yarn and some dye your own lace weight. It FIANLLY came last week. I'd show you pictures - but it's boring white yarn, not interesting at all. What I'll show you pictures of instead is... the niddy-noddy I made out of PVC pipe to wrap up my new yarn. Isn't it cool?! And the wrench looking thing is this cool ass gizmo my dad (the king of owning all tools) had to cut the PVC. This thing sliced through that pipe like a knife through butter! Way neat - I put my niddy noddy together no muss no fuss in like 15 miuntes. Now to do math (yuck) and figure out how many wraps to make a pair of socks. As much as math is not my friend (the MS3 has taught me painfully that I can not even count to 10 without screwing up) I'm sure it will be less painfull then guessing.

And last (for today) but not least - I finished Mom's Easter socks. I hear a lot of knitters complain about pooling and flashing but I like the way these did their thing. It makes them interesting to look at. And who cares that they don't even match a little bit and that I screwed the pattern up so many times I think I could actually say they are sort of my own design. I like them a lot and will most likely head out to LYS to get more of this yarn to make myself a pair at somepoint in the future. But since sock season is just about over I'm in no rush.

Happy Holiday all - hope yours was lovely. What a busy week it's been! For the past several years I've started off my Easter celebration by being a part of a play that my church puts on called the "Living Last Supper." I do my part by making ordinary men look like the apostles pictured in Da Vinci's painting. It's a lot of fun but whew I'm exhausted!

Spent some time with my niece Alexis - she got a bubble machine from the Easter Bunny. How cool is this thing!! Wish I had one - I want to bring it to every wedding I ever go to! You wouldn't believe the amount of bubbles this thing puts out! Way Fun!!

I also managed to find time to get a sock going. This is the sock yarn I got from mom for Easter. She's a lucky mommy cuz I'm giving this pair of socks to her as an Easter present.

Some day I'll have to learn the difference between striping yarn and marled yarn. I swore this stuff would stripe - I really thought it would. The last three yarns I've used that I thought would stripe didn't. That's part of the reason I keep giving socks away - I want a striped sock! You get your heart set on a stripe and then the yarn doesn't deliver - it's disappointing. Can't a girl catch a break!

I've finally gotten this sweater big enough to cover the boobbage. I like this sweater really I do...I really, really want to own it so I hope to finish it in my lifetime - optimistically I'd really like to wear it this summer. But damn this thing is BORING!!! I have to bribe myself to work on it. I just can't deal with miles and miles and miles of stockinette stitch. I don't know what I was thinking - I am not little this is a lot of sweater all I've got to say is thank GOD it doesn't have sleeves! I know I've griped about this before so I'm gonna get off it now.

Look what the Easter bunny brought me. After I beat her up and made her give it to me a week early. Mom picked this up for herself a few weeks ago. It's been calling me from her knitting basket ever since. Every time I see it I think "crud I should've gotten myself one too." I was with her when she got it but I had just dropped a small fortune on other knitting stuff all in the same week and talked myself out of an 9 dollar skein of sock yarn. Dumbass - I should've talked myself out of the 40 dollars of gas for my car instead. Walking would've been much less painful than hearing the pitiful cries of "knit me, knit me" from mom's knitting basket. Fortunately my mom ROCKS (although it may have had something to do with the puppy dog eyes and the sad mewing noises coming from both the yarn and I) and she gave me the yarn. Thanks Mom!

I got a new toy this week - a ball winder! So when Tisha came over today we just had to play with it.

So we're playing with my new toy and and we're talking and one of us brings up all the undyed yarn we've got and how we can't wait to try dying our own yarn. Well that leads us into why don't we try it out now?? So by some stroke of luck T has her undyed stuff in the car and I've got that kool-aid the secret pal sent so we run off to the kitchen to get started. The two of us were like mad scientist's brewing funky experiments. We took lots & lots of pictures...so many that I didn't even bother trying to load them all into blogger - I made a flickr account so you can see some of the shots we took. Hopefully it works ok since I've got no real clue what I'm doing - I think I've set up a group that you can click the "set" and view all the shots - give me a shout if that doesn't work & I'll try again. Anyway I've now got three hanks of yarn hanging in my shower & I'm trying to decided - would really be that bad to knit with wet yarn?

If she ever gets around to posting you can look at her yarn here.