crankygrrrrrl

…why i don’t blog as much?

i thought i would steal a few moments and knit a few rows on my lace ribbon scarf. now before you scroll down and take a peek at the picture below, consider two things.

1. this is my camera phone. (note to self, don’t take knitting pictures with the phone)
2. i have just worked 3 night shifts in a row. prior to the last shift, i had three hours of sleep thanks to mother nature and the tornado sirens.

ok, take a deep breath and marvel at the stupidity:

wtf?!?! lace ribbon scarf
pattern: the lace ribbon scarf by veronik avery
knit picks gloss in cocoa
started: april 13, 2008

what you are viewing folks, is what looks like a bite out of my knitting. somehow i managed to stop knitting IN THE MIDDLE OF MY ROW and started to knit back. for at least and inch before i noticed.

please, just walk away and pretend you didn’t see this.

i bet every harry potter fan has wanted to try bertie bott’s every flavor beans (by jelly belly). these are just one of the delightful candies that harry discovers when he enters the wizarding world. and they do mean every flavor.

along with buttered popcorn, tutti-frutti and cherry, there are flavors like vomit, dirt, booger and earthworm. ugh. (okay, technically the jelly belly sight doesn’t list these, only mugglenet…but maybe they are the mystery flavors? or the sight isn’t updated?).

have you tried them yet?

a word of warning though….

avoid this color. it tastes like dirt. no, really. just like potting soil.

we had a ton of fun at the movie premiere. we spotted many muggles dressed as hogwart’s students, waving their wands or showing off their house colors (i’m a griffyndor, what are you?). while we waited for the movie to start we tortured ourselves by eating these things…and then stuffed our faces with candy, popcorn and soda. the movie was awesome!!! true, it swayed from the book a bit, but do you actually expect for all of the details to shine through? i suspect that non-fans might get a bit bored since the character and plot development were a little thin…still though, very entertaining!!!

in knitting related news…along with some bare laceweight merino, pockets for my needle case, and 32″ - 2.5 mm, 3.0 mm & 3.25 mm circs…i recieved this:

kp gloss in cocoa - 880 yards

it’s very lovely. i think i will make it into a small shawl, i think. or if i give into my “only superwash rule”…i may cave and do some cabled socks. but maybe i’ll knit something outof my charmed knits first…

but fear not, knitting has commenced since my last post.

to prove it:

pinwheel dish cloth by abigail (through criminy jickets)
sugar’n'cream dishcloth cotton in country side ombre
started: may 30, 2007
finished: may 31, 2007
needles: #5 susan bate’s circ’s
notes: uses provisional cast-on, short rows and garter stitch grafting

it was a great quick fix for my, recently, boring-slash-frustrating knitting. it seems that life is moving in fast forward for me lately. little time to do much else other than eat, sleep and work. thankfully, butter is fabulous and has assumed laundry duties, among much other housework. (love you!) the time that i do have i have been trying to knit. but it seems that i have knitting ADD. i finally finished my lime uptown boot socks….but haven’t the energy for a photo shoot (manny is sooo very lonely)….and i have one-half of my ’sick’ socks completed (a pair i designed when i was sick recently). i dubbed them ‘dimple socks’…pictures in a future post, hopefully.

i did draw some inspiration from the bee-yooo-tee-ful book victorian lace today and started a lace scarf:

scarf with the clarence border from weldon’s 1886
cth supersock in turqouise
started: may 29, 2007
needles: US #6 knit picks options circular needles
notes: cable cast-on, only did 1.5 repeats for a more narrow scarf, center panel pattern does not match picture!

i’m liking lace but i’m getting a headache from reading the tiny charts. since my scanner is broken, i’m going to have to live with it until i make a larger copy of any patterns i use from the book. sigh. i do have some socks on the needles, too!!

central air pattern from str sock club ‘06
colinette jitterbug in popsicle
started: may, 2007
needles: 2 - US #1 addi circulars
notes: 2 at once on 2 circs. this colorway is hideous with the pattern. i already frogged the first pattern i attempted.

yes, i realize the colors are garish. but they are happy colors. at least, until it was knitted up.

oooo, last thing, fish blanket update: 46 little fisheys. must…rally….must complete…..soon……

anyway, carol, i did get the tag…thanks for remembering me…i’ll get the answers together soon (said the procrastinator).

i think i’m allergic to alpaca. i said, I THINK I’M ALLERGIC TO ALPACA!!!.

you see, i really wanted to knit a beautiful lace sweater. i found a gorgeous pattern (from vogue holiday /05 issue) in a somewhat simple stitch. i picked out and purchased my yarn…..then i cast on for my swatch. now. i’m really not a lace kind-a gal. it takes too much concentration and i really only have snippets of time to knit (hence, i’m a sock knitter), but i really wanted to make this sweater. i was miserable. the yarn was impossibly small for the giant needles the pattern called for (at least for me). but i trudged on….and knit my swatch. the guage was off but it was pretty…man-o-man. my eyes were watering, my throat was scratchy and i was sniffling up a storm.

i thought it was impossible since i own and wear an alpaca scarf….so i trudged on….and re-knit my swatch on bigger needles (#9’s - ack!!). i could feel the little fibers tickling my nose and throat. i had to stop mid-swatch. entirely disgusted, i pulled the half-finished swatch off the needles and threw the lot of yarn into a zip-lock. maybe it’s the knit picks brand of alpaca that bothers me….but then again, i do remember feeling under the weather when i was knitting the fetching’s out of the alpaca/merino stuff, too! that’s it. i’m selling it off…(ugh!  stash reduction page [right] is now under construction)

after days like that you want your brain to rest. it’s on those days that you pull out your trusty needles and a gorgeous hank of sock yarn and knit. i pulled out the happy blues and greens of cth! i love this yarn. in fact…i just bought some more (sandra singh is having a sale on cth….it’s my first transaction with this company, but i’m impressed so far!). i kitchenered up the toe last night pulled them on and haven’t taken them off since (i went to bed late, give me a break).

simple sock in cth blues/greens
my own pattern
started: december 16, 2006
finished: december 26, 2006
needles: #2 lantern moon ebony dpn’s
notes: 56 stitches cast on, short row toe/heel, 2×2 ribbed cuff

 these were knit on trips to visit family over the holidays.  much of these were finished in the car.  at night.  butter (K) drove everywhere.  and i happily sat in the heated passenger seat.  i was able to steal borrow my step-daughter’s book light.  it’s a perfect task light for knitting…i just turned it over, hooked it into the seatbelt and knitted away!! if you are looking to get one for yourself, make sure the lighting is adjustable so that you can point the light toward your project instead of adjusting yourself to light your work. 

{rant: you have got to be f@#$!ing kidding me, i just lost half of my post. ok. breathe tani. no knitting. no cute pictures. no playful banter. you have been warned if you wish to read on}

i realize why i’m so cranky today. today is my official voting day for the mid-term elections. i wanted to be a good citizen, so not knowing when i would be scheduled for work, i got an absentee ballot.

have you ever seen how long these things are? sheesh. i felt like i used up all of my brain power just unfolding the thing. needless to say, i’m pooped. (should i really know all of the candidates for each court?!?). so here i am furiously surfing so i can finish my duties as a responsible citizen of ohio…bleh. i am so not finished. that, and i have to pay bills…bleh-bleh. BLEH!!

tonight i meet with my sock club to witness the unveiling of the next yarn…per lynne, it’s “fabulous”…i can’t even get any energy for a “whoot”.