The tank is done!

See, here's a headless me to prove it! Too bad the blasted thing decided to pooch out in a couple of awkward places. Now it can be thrown into the bottomless closet of doom!
















Went to the family reunion. Was told that my attendance was 'mandatory' since one of my grandmothers was supposed to be there. Key words = supposed to be. Guess where she was. Not at the reunion. She went to Tennessee. Argh! Still, I guess it was okay. I saw some other family members (also not at the reunion), spent some time outside of work with Mom and Pop.

This coming weekend, though, I am not making plans!!!!! Hey, Ames. Our weekly ritual does not count as plans unless it can get us out of some other obligation lol.


Here's a photo of my current project. It (hopefully) will be a shawl. Yes, this is what most of my projects look like in the beginning. Only not quite as neat. Yes, there are two balls of yarn in a 'yarn bra'. (I did not name the thing, I swear!)

This shawl is the Forget-Me-Not Shawl over on Elann's site in the free pattern section. I hope I'm up for the challenge. I'm currently on attempt #3.

Attempt #1 was frogged due to my inability to count.

Attempt #2 was going well until I got to the second pattern row (row 11 I think) when a simple yarn over made me have a headdesk moment. Did I mention that this was after I forgot how to do my decreases and had to look them up on KnittingHelp, then remember how to properly reverse them to suit my knitting style.

And, before I got to the pattern rows on attempt #3, I had the bright idea to look at the written pattern (since I learned to reverse decreases on the written patterns) and compare it to the chart to see if I needed to change things up in the chart.

I think this is part of the reason I have trouble knitting something *exactly* to pattern. I always, always have to change something. Ask Ames. She's dealt with me and patterns before.

So, needless to say, I'm pretty sure that the tapestry that I'm doing has to be frogged and restarted as well because I did the decreases in the wrong flipping direction. Yes, it matters. Well, it does to me.

I'm going to go forage for chocolate now....

Shawl n Crawl

Firstly, I finished a shawl! It's the Luna Moth shawl and I really want to make another one, but in a different color. This one is going to be a Christmas gift for one of my grandmothers. She requested one and survey says that she'll like it. Cross your fingers...















Secondly, Ames and I went on a yarn crawl today. We had funds, a full tank of gas, no a/c, polar pops, and a fistful of directions. Believe it or not, we found our way to the first stop with no problems. No wrong turns, either!


See, we even have photos with some of our yarn cakes.









The owner of Clementine's was kind enough to let us know that what we had planned on as our second stop no longer existed, and printed out some directions for us to a different place instead.

Third stop: Mass Ave. Knit Shop! I had been here before, but it was Ames' first time. She reacted much the same as I did when we walked in. Which was to stop, gape, and absorb the atmosphere. Sometime during our perusal, the rest of the road trip just kind of ... disappeared. But, neither of us were disappointed with that fact. We spent several happy hours petting yarn, picking brains, concocting patterns, and yarny goodness! I even tried my hand at making yarn cakes with my purchases:










The cakes you see in front of me were wound by me, with one exception. Don't ask which one because I honestly don't remember.










Behind me, you'll see Dru hamming it up as well. (Forgive me if my spelling is off, Dru!)
















And then, much later in the afternoon, we decided it was time to take our new stuff home and introduce it all to its new friends in our stashes. Of course, it's all clamoring to be used right now but I shall be strong and finish the buddy tank first!

(Oh, and you can see my new, much shorter 'do as well.)

Intermission

I may have to *gasp* take a break from knitting. Or get a hand masseuse. But I really want to finish the eleventy billion projects I have around the room. Honest!

OH once suggested that I need another hobby. After my incredulous look, he hastened to clarify that I needed another hobby that wasn't knitting related. Doesn't that constitute heresy or something? Of course, then I turned him into my human swift for a while and he didn't mention it again.

What all do I have on the needles today, you ask? Well, I'm so glad you did ask. I have:

1. A hat for Pop (probably for xmas) over halfway finished.
2. Wristwarmers/cuffs for a cousin of mine (barely started).
3. Tank top (buddy knit with Ames) small amount finished so far.
4. A swatch/tapestry that I'm designing (roughly a quarter finished).
5. A shawl (Luna Moth Shawl) that is over halfway completed.
6. Another shawl (Kiri) that's been hibernating for a while now.
7. A scarf (Candle Flame Scarf) that's hiding out in one of the knitting bags.
8. A blanket/throw for an uncle. He's been patiently waiting for this thing for over 2 years.
9. Two! baby blankets that need sewn together.

And that's just off the top of my head. That also doesn't count all the things I want to make. I think I'll save that list for another post.

I'm going to go eat more chocolate now, I think.

Insert-Title-Here

I have lost my witty-title-making ability for the moment.

I do believe I need to admit to something. I'm pretty sure that I'm more of a process knitter than a product knitter. Yes, I have finished some things, but I just can't seem to resist starting more and more projects. So I'm a process knitter with severe startitis. (Process knitter = knitting to be knitting. Product knitter = knitting to have finished items.)

What do I have on the needles right now....

• Tank top buddy kal
• Kiri shawl
• cuffs
• swatch/tapestry

And I'm starting another project. It looks fairly easy, and is in a thicker yarn, and I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish it and not get bored halfway through the pattern (as I tend to do quite often) and ignore it in favor of chocolate. I honestly should weigh a lot more than I do if I truly consume as much chocolate as I say I do....

The tomato plants are still alive! There's even one turning red (a good thing). Unfortunately, it's the one I'm not sure I want to eat as there are some holes in it (from bugs, I guess). But, there's 3 or 4 others that are perfectly healthy looking (at the moment) that I'm waiting for the colors to start changing. Go me!

I've this nifty new keyboard that's addicting to type on. It's very slim, like a laptop keyboard. And it lights up! So I can type in the dark now without squinting to see the keys! My only difficulty with it is that, occasionally, certain keys stick so I have to pay more attention to what I'm typing so that I don't end up typing 'lie his' (like this).

Now, where did I leave those darned sarcasm pills?

The Pratchgan 2008

Ramblings of a yarn junkie: The Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!

See my previous post for more info. Not much more that I can add to this, honestly. I'm still in awe of what we did!

Pratchgan 2008 - MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Way back in December, I joined in with a group of fiber-artsy people over on Ravelry to make an afghan for none other than Mr. Terry Pratchett.

Well, earlier today our wonderful organizer, Shirley, had the privilege of presenting the Pratchgan to Mr. Pratchett in person. She's posted about it, with photos! over on her blog.

She also wrote a letter explaining what it was and why we did it. Here's what the letter says:

Dear Mr Pratchett,

The Ankh-Morpork Knitter's Guild is a group on the fibre arts website ravelry.com where fans can come together to indulge our passion for all things crafty as well as all things Discworld.

At the end of last year we were trying to think of a way to show our support following the news of your Alzheimer’s diagnosis and being a bunch of knitters and crocheters (not to mention spinners, weavers and dyers) we decided a Discworld-inspired afghan blanket was the way to go.

Since 26th December 2007 ninety-nine people from all over Roundworld have contributed a square or two, causing my postman to start giving me some very strange looks. The project thread on ravelry has been a joy as people suggested themes, egged each other on or just had a rant when a brilliant idea turned out not to be so brilliant after all. Somewhere along the way the project became known as The Pratchgan 2008 and the name has now firmly stuck.

We send you this gift and the accompanying letters with all our love, to let you know that a bunch of strangers are thinking of you and also with our thanks for all the years of laughter that your books have brought us. If you ever manage to find the time to join ravelry (a wee birdie has told us that you spin and weave so it’s not entirely outwith the realms of possibility that you might feel the urge to join some day) we’d be honoured to have you as a member of the Guild.

We hope you enjoy The Pratchgan and that it brings you as much pleasure as we’ve had creating it.

Warmest wishes,

Shirley (ravelry name cherryred)
On behalf of the Ankh-Morpork Knitter’s Guild

I feel truly honored to have been a part of this. And yes, I did get a little bit teary-eyed at all of it.

Never too old, I guess.

We had our "Employee Appreciation Day" on Wednesday. Festivities included free food and drink (non-alcoholic, it was during working hours) and a 'Modified Monster Trike' Race.

I was able to sweet-talk my SPOH, as well as Ames, into coming and being cheerleaders for me. They didn't wear the cute little outfits, but they did show up! And Ames even sweet-talked another yarny friend into coming as well. It was great! But I feel kind of bad that I didn't get to spend much time chatting with any of them. SPOH was kind enough to take race photos for me, while Ames got some with her phone.

Here's a photo of me practicing last Friday. I didn't touch a trike again until Wednesday at race time.









Here's me and my team, Ghost Riders. Believe it or not, I was the oldest member of my team.







My leg of the race was from those teeny tiny orange cones in the background all the way around the corner. Trying to keep up the speed and turn were pretty interesting...





You can see my teammate urging me to get the lead out so she could ride her leg.





Gee, can you tell I was thrilled to make a complete idiot of myself? I was mainly just pleased to not wreck or fall on my face during the trade-off.





See the girls on the far left? The one in the pink is a fellow team leader. She and I have loads of friendly competition. What's funny about it is that she talked loads more smack than I did. And guess who didn't get first place *grins*.


This is one of my bosses. (I have two.) It's nice to know we can get management to make fools of themselves willingly. Kind of gives the rest of us a break.







Woohoo! Ghost Riders won 1st place for our shift with a time of 2 mins. 15 secs. We got 2nd place factory-wide.

The fastest team of the whole factory only beat us by 12 seconds. Although it is just a tad embarrassing to be beat by the I.T. people. They get to sit in the a/c all day while we're out on the floor sweating our butts off. Oh, well. We still kicked some ass!

*cue victory music*

Firsts (a meme)

Thieved this from Sleeping Si.


Who was your first prom date?
That would be the guy I was dating at the time.
Do you still talk to your first love?
Nope, I have this nifty ability to make my exes disappear.
What was your first alcoholic drink?
I've been told that I tried some of an uncle's beer when I was little...
What was your first job?
Setting tobacco for my grandpa
What was your first car?
'87 Chevy Celebrity
Who was the first person to text you today?
Ames
Who is the first person you thought of this morning?
I don't have coherent thoughts in the morning
Who was your first grade teacher?
Uhhh..Mrs. Mahoney?
Where did you go on your first ride on an airplane?
Texas
Who was your first best friend and are you still friends?
I don't remember her name, and we're not in touch anymore.
What was your first sport played?
Whatever they made us play in P.E.
Where was your first sleepover?
Does family count?
Who was the first person you talked to this morning?
Before noon counts as morning, right? Then Ames.
Whose wedding were you first in?
One of my aunt's.
What was the first thing you did this morning?
Woke up.
What was the first concert you went to?
Bush. Then the very next night we went to see Marilyn Manson.
What was your first tattoo or piercing?
First piercing was my ears a really long time ago. First tat is a seahorse on my shoulderblade.
What was the first foreign country you went to?
Does Kentucky count? (Kidding...sort of.) Canada.
What was your first run in with the law?
A speeding ticket.
When was your first detention?
Never. I was a good girl...
What was the first state you lived in?
Indiana
Who was the first person to break your heart?
Let's not go there, ok.
Who was your first roommate?
I had three the first and second time. That was when I reinforced the fact that I don't play well with others.
Where did you go in your first limo ride?
N/A.

T-I-P Update

Here's a photo of the tank I've been working on for about a month. Long time huh. I think there's something like 50 hours in it. But, keep in mind that I've been writing the pattern as I go, and a hefty chunk of those hours were due to my attempts at complicated math, visualizing, looking up stitches, etc.

Anyway, the pattern is solid. I like it, though there are a few tweaks I'll be making to it.

Please ignore the whimpering you hear in the background. It's my conscience and pride either dueling or commiserating.

I forgot to take it out of my bag today when I went to work. That's no big deal in itself. But it let me see/feel how the yarn felt in 'normal' weather instead of just in the A/C. The consensus states that it would be insanely warm during the summer and the pattern isn't really conducive to wearing over another shirt when it gets cooler out.

So, I decided to frog it. I'll remake it with a different yarn, and possibly larger needles. Which will involve more complicated math, visualizing, you get the idea.

Yes, I'm insane.

Hand over the chocolate!

A Moment of Silence, Please

For the departure of my sense of well-being and sanity.

See, in the previous post, I listed the first, what, five attempts on the MKAL. All well and good. Consider this the logging of attempt number six. *Sigh*

I had a couple of 'AHA!' moments during this adventure. And now, I'm going back to the beginning to put them into use. The last attempt ended (I think) somewhere in Clue 1. During Clue 2, I figured out how to read a chart to make it work for my personal knitting style. When Clue 3 was posted (yesterday), I expanded on that first moment. I figured out how to make the chart work even better with my particular style. I decline to explain it right now apart from saying I have to do a little bit of work before I even pick up the sticks and string.

So, why am I having to start over yet again? Because I dropped an indeterminate number of stitches in the middle of the lace pattern. And I'm not good enough (yet) to pick them up properly. Trust me. I tried. It got worse.

I decided (after several deep breaths and many more choice words) to start completely over. For three reasons.

1. The aforementioned dropped stitches incident.
2. I had several errors that I flubbed my way through.
3. I've completely lost my mind.

I still hold no ill will toward the pattern, the designer, the yarn or the needles. Most of it was due to PEBKAC. Problem Exists Between Knitter And Chart. (Yes, I'm reassigning computer acronyms here.) And the pattern looks lovely, what I've seen of it.

Here I go. Sixth time's a charm!

p.s. Send Chocolate!!!!!