The wheels on the bus go click click click

My theory has been shattered. Last week, as I diligently worked on my sock, a woman boarded the bus and sat down next to me. When I paused to rearrange my stitches, she struck up a conversation - the gist of it was that she tried to knit once, and was impressed with my sock - handknit socks are apparently very expensive in Germany. Turns out she is from southern Germany, looking for a position at UCLA. And housing - she asked many questions about where the professors might live near the campus. Which I of course have no idea about...

The next day, a man tapped the seat next to me and told me, "I play with the needles myself - but I've never seen that many used together. Is that different?" Turned into a conversation of the uses of double pointed needles and his wife's speed-knitting skills.

Yesterday a woman kept turning in her seat to look at me, and finally said she'd done some scarves before, but (again) had never seen the 4 needle approach to knitting.

I'm shocked (well, not that people haven't seen sock knitting). People are actually being friendly and talkative on a bus. What's this world coming to??

Still haven't gotten my book....getting impatient for my free copy! Though I can't really complain...it is free...

Bitching calmed by stitching

Haven't had alot to post in this blog lately. Been working on actually finishing projects before starting new ones and NOT buying any more yarn. Took my nerdiness to a whole new level by creating a workbook in Excel detailing what I've finished and what I have planned (including columns for item type, location of pattern, and which yarn I've queued for it) Whew.

Tried learning a new way of purling that leaves the yarn behind the needle. Called Norwegian purling. And while it does keep you from having to move the yarn over the needle, it incorporates alot of wrist movement and significantly increases your gauge. Which is good if you're on a deadline....but overall, not really impressed.

Still conducting my bus study. If I knit, will the empty seat next to me be the last one to be filled? If I read and switch to knitting, will the person next to me get up? You know, I personally would choose the knitter over the scary big guy, but hey. To each is own.

Tree, who's been faithfully attending SnB with me all these months, is leaving :( I'm bummed we won't be able to hang out anymore! But she's coming back for a week in December (while you're here Kami) so we'll get to see eachother again before she leaves for France.

Stitch n Bitch Nation

Debbie's new book is out, and my tip is in it! And she's mailing a copy to me next week! I can't stop talking in !'s !

Met some new people last night, trying to get together with them later this week. Very satisfied with progress in expansion of friends network.

Woohoo! I finally finished it! 

Obsession

When Nate and I went to see the Bourne Supremacy, I was very interested in Julia Stiles' scarf. (A sign of how obsessed I am with knitting) Yesterday, in a fit of boredom, I googled it and found out I wasn't the only other person who wanted to copy her scarf. A whole board had devoted 5 pages of posts to try to determine what yarn it was (Berroco Medley) and what the pattern was (the jury's still out on that). Knitters Review. Amazing.

And before I forget - the lone sock. Who will forever be doomed to a life of spinsterhood because I chose the wrong type of yarn. Sigh. 

Here - my first attempt at lace. And using fingering weight yarn. Results? A little scarflet and a resolution to not knit for a few days... 

A shift in focus

After a long conversation with Kami Sunday, I think this blog is going to get a new title. This weekend, I made good progress on sewing my Halloween costume, finished knitting the back of my sweater, and baked a pie. Combined with the curtains I altered (to cover my cabinets) and the redecorating I did last week, I am, in Kami's words, filling in Martha Stewart's void. I'm becoming far too domestic. Must go out more!

Though I am pretty happy with my new sweater :) I say that now.....who knows if it'll actually fit.

Fluency

They say that if you have a dream in a foreign language you've become fluent. When I ordered a quarter pound of ground beef at the meat market on a class trip to Germany, I felt I was at least on my way.

However, when I started to stare at the cuffs of my sweater in an attempt to discern the knitting pattern, I knew it had gone too far. Though I hold to the idea that a few well-placed yarn overs in the knitted rows of stockinette would make for a nice design. Sigh.

And you are?

You are Mohair.You are a warm and fuzzy type who works well with
others, doing your share without being too
weighty. You can be stubborn and absolutely
refuse to change your position once it is set,
but that's okay since you are good at covering
up your mistakes.

What kind of yarn are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Finally, internet

Now that I've given in to signing up for some form of internet, I can get back to posting pictures. Like these terrible pictures of the gloves I've been making :)

I was trying to finish one up tonight, and the girl next to me liked it so much she decided to adapt her legwarmers into combination gloves/legwarmers.

Here to join the ranks of the monkey, lamb, and bull, is a penguin. I'm not sure what kind of story they could tell, but it'd be interesting at any rate...

More stitching than bitching

Still been going to SnB meetings, more regularly than I go to work. It's fun, more my kind of scene (where I can sit and people watch without being a freak for it). And those women do some amazing work. I'm still struggling with my scarves and gloves, working up to actual items of clothing (though I guess finger puppets could count as miniature finger socks). I promise I'll post some pictures, as soon as I transfer them from the camera to my computer at home to a computer in lab with internet access. So like in a month.

Might be doing some jewelry making for free - one of the women works for a company that manufactures beads and wire and such and is looking for people to "create" things and give her patterns. Would be fun....oh yeah, between going to school, car shopping, and living :)

The growing list of UFO's

Stitch 'n' Bitch has a glossary of abbreviations, UFO meaning unfinished object. This weekend I dropped off the items I made for my mom (and then some) and managed to come away with another order. Through my own doing of course :) You know you're addicted to knitting when you see a scarf in a movie and think, "I could make that...."

Missed SnB last night, due to work. I hate it when works gets in the way of my hobbies :) Maybe tomorrow night....

The new extreme sport - speed knitting

They came in search of sweaters, and left with swollen fingers. The Needle I noticed when I was at SNB Tuesday night that the coating on my aluminum (it took a good deal of restraint to type that all out instead of Al) (damn chemists) needles was rubbing off and turning my fingers black. And making my yarn stick a bit more. The next day I read a post on the message board including a link to the above story.

I went out that afternoon and bought a pair of bamboo needles to replace my aluminum ones.

Stitch n Bitch LA

Last night I went to my first Stitch n Bitch (SNB) meeting in Santa Monica. It was held in a little coffee shop on the south side of Santa Monica, and the room was covered with pillows. The women there had been meeting for awhile and all seemed to know eachother fairly well, as they discussed current works, yarn sales, and those projects you start that never seem to end. Loud and friendly, but completely different from the bar crowd that I tend to hang out with here in Santa Barbara. It was fun though, listening to all the LA gossip and meeting the other flood of new members who also chose last night to show up. And the Pooh Bear latte was great.

Started working on a Padre's beanie to match the beer cozy. And finally finished that damn tank top that I had to undo because it was too big (it stretched out to fit around 3 of me). Will include pictures as soon as I get a phone line at my new place (which may be never....)

Knitting for the lab

One night, while Rico was teaching Karen and I some difficult lab task, I brought my knitting book out to work on some project. The guys in lab soon started flipping though and found the finger puppets.

Before I knew it, I had requests for monkeys, lambs, bulls, donkeys, and a three-toed sloth. Luckily, he decided a penguin would be an alright substitute for a sloth.

Here's Rico's lamb:

Scarves!

Scarves. The infamous beginner's project. Whenever I teach someone to knit I have them make a scarf, though I've read books that say starting off on something more complicated (ie a sweater) builds the knitter's self-confidence. I suppose it's like that whole babytalk debate. Sure you can talk to your kid like it's an adult at 6 months. But who's to say the tone and sounds used in babytalk don't convey more affection to the child, preventing it from growing up to go on a killing spree?

I digress.


You know, it's hard to find a good way to take pictures of scarves. Actually, clothes in general. Without a model. However, the only animated creature available was the cat, and somehow I think she wouldn't appreciate a scarf. Or 5. So clothesline it was.

Browsing through my messages from the LA SNB, I found this link: Knitting Man

He looks happy....

Let the knitting begin

After sending myself countless emails with knitting links, I've decided to create another blog to serve as my mobile favorites bar for knitting.  And to post pictures of what I've made.  Basically, a shrine to my work away from work :)