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February 28, 2005

Some cuteness to offset the ugliness

Posted by laurie at 05:14 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

Now I smoke the Noro weed, too

I stopped by Knit, Purl & Co. over the weekend to snoop around (now that I have moved to the west valley, Lani's in Studio City isn't necessarily my closest yarn shop.)

While I was there I found a hank of Noro Big Kureyon in color 7 that I just loved, the color palette was downright organic. It's nubby earthiness brought back a previously suppressed memory of macrame plant hangers and big wooden beads.

I bought it, even though it was SIXTEEN DOLLARS (and twenty-five cents) for one hank of yarn. I'm interested to see what this self-striping transitioning crack the knitheads are smoking is all about. Will I become a one-dose addict? Stay tuned. This habit could get very expensive.

Posted by laurie at 04:51 PM | Comments (1)

February 26, 2005

Frogs and hats

Finally frogged the Filatura di Crosa "Tokyo" scarf. Gosh it's pretty yarn. Post-frogging, the fiber was all kinked up and crazy from my manic tight knitting, so I hung it in loose folds on clothes hangers in the bathroom to steam during my morning shower. How much steam can be generated by a morning dip, you may ask? I have set off the smoke alarm in my hallway more than once with my steamy showers. I don't know how I manage to take a steamy shower for TWENTY MINUTES, but I do. I emerge pink and shiny and pruned of finger and toe, but thoroughly relaxed.

There was a non-knitted ball of Filatura still in my bag and now I have been swatching like a madwoman to find the best gauge and stitch to display the yarn to its fullest. I've knitted it on 11s, 13s and 15s. Next swatch is going to be a drop-stitch, which I think will show the ribbon off really well (though doing garter stitch on big needles, or two different size needles, may be a solution). Drop-stitch ends up wonky for me on the first and last stitch.

In preparation for knitting the Kitty Pi, I decided I should do a smaller round project. I'm not sure why I decided this. If pressed, I might say it came about from a trip to Unwind where I found some really purty Lana Grossa yarn on sale. It just looked like a cute winter hat-to-be, and I could envision it topped with the world's largest pom-pom.

Hat Haiku:

Oh hat, I'll knit you....
But circulars look daunting.
Double-points? Eeeegads.

I have missed class for weeks and these double-pointed needles aren't just going to knit themselves into a hat, you know. If I can figure out the secret of round knitting I will be able to make the ever-so-coveted Kitty Pi cat bed. And maybe if she had a Kitty Pi, Frankie would stay out of the cupboard:

 

Posted by laurie at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

Los Angeles drowns, film footage at eleven!

I didn't make it to class. It's been raining in Los Angeles, which sounds like normal winter weather but is in fact THE WORLD COMING TO AN END. Homes are falling off their foundations, rivers of mud are sweeping the roads, entire neighborhoods are under water, and hair gel is failing left and right, with nothing to keep us from the frizz.

So, Shannon called me at about 10:15 and said, "I don't think I'm going to Lani's today, I just have so much to do and Karman and I have to produce like, years, of bank statements together for the lender..." (Shannon and Karman are buying a condo!) and I said, "It's raining." And we both laughed, because neither of us want to go out in the awful weather.

Side note: Rain may not seem like awful weather to you, Midwest Girl or Northeast Chick, but out here in Los Angeles we normally get about seven inches a year of water from the sky. This year we have had 33 inches and counting. With all the canyon roads closed from mud, and the Sepulveda basin closed from flooding, traffic is an unholy mess. Gridlock is everywhere, even on small neighborhood streets. To drive the 6.5 miles to Lani's I would need to give myself a full 45 minutes. So while you laugh at us Angelenos and our fussy ways, just remember that we are paying $2.33 a gallon for gas right now. Don't you feel sorry for us? Sad for the poor Hollywoodites and their misting rain and Starbucks cups and high gas prices? C'mon, even just a little?

My rainy patio, click for bigger images of exciting raindrops:

Posted by laurie at 09:17 AM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Clearly, already obsessing over Kitty Pi

Class tomorrow. I printed out the pattern for the felted cat bed on wendyknits, and I'm going to ask Linda (knitting instructor at Lani's) to help me get started. This will be a project of firsts ... first (intentional) felting, first circular needle knitting, first three-needle double pointed insanity knitting. I'm a woman on the edge of madness, I tell you.

I'm not going to worry about the inevitable mistakes I will make on the cat bed. After all ... this is a cat bed. My cats unroll the toilet paper from the spool and sleep on it in a pile in the bathroom. Do you think they're going to be pointing out my twisted stitches? A purl that should have been a knit?

Obviously, I can't make four cat beds in one swoop of the needles. So I'll make one and let them Darwinize over it. Survival of the fittest, baby. Meow.

Posted by laurie at 09:12 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

Felting... on purpose!

Turns out, this there's cool thing called "felting" that I've actually been doing for years. Of course, my felting was entirely unintentional and was generally referred to as "fucking up." My felting (fucking up)occurred mostly with wool sweaters, though I do remember a lone mitten that was felted after my trip to Norway, and a wool hat that snuck in to the laundry between some towels and was felted into a cotton ball impersonator. Don't know what the towels were doing mingling with the outerwear, but I suspect he had something to do with it:

Anywho, felting is the intentional shrinking and matting of knitted wool products, and it creates a lovely felt fabric that is smooth and sturdy and it can be shaped when wet (into purses and such.)

You already know this, you knitter savants, but I am a new knitter and this felting thing was a fascinating discovery. Had I known that felting (fucking up) wool would be such a popular craft, I would have made something out of that matted fisherman's sweater in the 11th grade. I also fondly recall a wool sweater vest (don't ask) that was ugly and loose... slutty me decided to wash n' shrink it, for a Catholic-schoolgirl-gone-bad vibe, but having never worked my slutty high school magic on wool, I was not prepared for the tiny vestglob that emerged from the washer and dryer. Turns out, one must not dry the felted wool in the tumbler. You shape it and let it air dry.

Good things to know.

Now that I have discovered felting (fucking up) is an actual desired result, I'm very anxious to try it.

I am going to make the Kitty Pi:
http://wendyknits.net/knit/kittybed.htm

Posted by laurie at 09:07 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

Fringed out

The Raven scarf, a combination od Patons Twister and Patons Allure, knitted on humongoid size 17 bamboo needles:

I finished the furry pink candy-stripe scarf last night for Mary's granddaughter. Traffic was gnarly and I not only finished knitting the scarf while still on the bus, but I also had plenty of time to cast off, weave in all my loose ends and wind my leftover fuzzy yarn for the fringe. However, the only item I had available for winding the right length of fringe was a pack of cigarettes, which seemed wrong and inappropriate for a frilly little girl's scarf (yes, of course I used it anyway.)

Some key things I have learned about making fringe:
Fringe Lesson 1: Try to make an even row of fring on the fringe-making device or else some strands will be longer than others. I mistakenly wrapped the thread round and round over itself. I should have wrapped all of it side-by-side (on the oh-so-Klassy pack of smokes) because some of the fringe strands were shorter than other strands.

Fringe Lesson 2: Do not cut fringe, add fringe, arrange fringe or any other fringe-related activities anywhere near Frankie. She is a fring-eating, yarn-destroying maniac with claws.

My new morning commute project is a duplicate of the very first scarf I ever completed, a Crystal Palace splash fuzzy little frou-frou that remarkably looks exactly like I am knitting up a kitten. I still have my Practice Scarf -- which is going ribbingly! -- but I'm not going to work on my Tokyo scarf swatches until I get some size 11 needles on Saturday and swatch out a piece of yarn in a bigger weave, and maybe in stockinette.

(And just in case you think Franklin Delano Rosencat is an evil, yarn-eating maniac who never sleeps, you would be wrong. Even evil sleeps.)

Posted by laurie at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

Knitting with baseball bats!

Working away on the Raven Scarf.... initially, I cast on ten stitches with size 15 needles. My swatch was WAY too tight, this combo is much thicker than I anticipated. After some trial and error, I decided on 7 stitches on a size 17 needle. This should go quickly.

Mistakenly, I assumed the big needles (size 17, bamboo) would be easier to handle but they make my hands cramp. It's so awkward maneuvering those giants. Aside from the grandma arthritic cramping of my hands, ahem, the Raven scarf is turning out well. It's fuzzy and dense but the pink chenille yarn makes a faint stripe, almost like a candycane.

Close-up of the yarn:

In other scarf-news, my practice yarn scarf (PYS) is coming along just swimmingly. It's an original all right. I'm using the Patons Up Country 100% wool bulky yarn in dark grey. By the way, it's much harder to see your stitches in a dark yarn. But my unique one-of-a-kind scarf has got ribbing in the middle of some stockinette, right next to some drop-stitch madness, where I apparently increased a stitch magically. Practice makes perfect.

I can't seem to figure out the proper way to do a drop-stitch row, since my end stitches are either way too tight or way too lose, hopefully I can make it to class on Saturday to ask Linda what the hell I'm doing wrong. Does anybody know if you're supposed to knit the first stitch, then start your yarnover on the second stitch? I was yarn-overing on the first stitch and getting a mess.

(It should be very clear now why I needed a "practice yarn" and a "practice scarf." Teaching myself to knit from a book is like the ADD-addled leading the blind.)

Posted by laurie at 08:57 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

First Spinster Valentine's Day

This is what evening knitting looks like at Chez Spinster:

What did I do on my Valentine's evening? Why, I started a new project. Must knit, must stay busy, must not cry. And nothing is more romantic than a trip to Michael's Crappy Encino Yarn Store.

You know, after surviving your first Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's season without your spouse, one would think Valentine's Day would be a breeze.

One would be wrong.

(Screw Valentine's Day. It's a made-up, overhyped, underwhelming little wedgie in the calendar of spinsterdom.)

So, Michael's.

The problem with my LYS selection -- and there are about seven GREAT little yarn boutiques in my general area -- is that they all close at 4 p.m. For those of us who must work to bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan, we're outta luck during the week. Now I have learned that I better stock up on Saturdays because nothing is open by the time I return to the Valley after a long day of working for The Man. Nothing except Michael's, that is.

So I needed some yarn, and it was Valentine's Day, and I had to stay busy. Shopping and knitting, an avoidance method wet dream.

The new project is a girly-girl scarf for a coworker's granddaughter, Raven. The grandmother of Raven is Mary G., a very cool lady in my department, who is now the sole caretaker of 5-year-old Raven, which I think is pretty upstanding of coworker Mary G.

Non-Sequiter: Mary G. was in the Meeting Where I Got Yelled At (And Then I Cried). As you can imagine, I was horribly embarrassed by this incident. But Mary G. later confessed that she has also cried at work, and she's also been yelled at by the same horrible woman who yelled at me in the meeting, and that made me feel better and somewhat less pathetic. Nothing makes you feel more incompetent or retarded than crying at work. Except maybe a trip to Michael's yarn aisle on Valentine's night ..... moving on.

Since I was looking for a novelty yarn for a little 'un, I found my trip to Michael's far less frustrating than usual. I decided on a Patons chenille-eyelash twist in hot pink and white. It's a cute combo, but not soft enough for a scarf on its own. I'm combining it with a super-fuzzy, supersoft Paton's Allure in pale pink.

Should be a nice challenge, knitting with three different yarns at the same time! At home I tried to combine the fuzzy and the twist, but the twist was a stinkin' mess of tangles. I got lots of help from the cats:

Frankie investigates the pinkness.	Soba waited patiently for her chance to appraise the pink yarn.
Roy is so helpful when it comes to untangling the yarn.

Posted by laurie at 08:51 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

Obsessive compulsive much?

It's final, I definitely want to rip out the stitches on my Tokyo scarf and start all over again.

I say this as I am about 3/4 done. What's embarassing is that here I am a very beginner knitter, and already I'm being a perfectionist freak.

But, OK, I'm not really being a perfectionist freak. I'm not! I hereby present in my defense three significant concerns about my Tokyo scarf:

Significant Concern # 1: It's too wide. That's the main problem. You don't need to be a perfectionist, OCD Type-A neurotic to see that. It's clearly visible. Really. And while the yarn knits up very neat and tiny on these 10.5 needles, maybe the natural beauty of the yarn would be more obvious in a larger needle. Plus, I don't have to point out that at $12/ball, this scarf is going to cost me $60 by the time this is all over.

Significant Concern # 2: This is a $60 scarf that I don't love love love.

Significant Concern # 3: Since the yarn is knitting up so tightly, the fabric is becoming dense and I don't think it will drape nicely unless it's super long to offset the weight. While a dense, warm, woolen scarf of 15 feet will work swimmingly on my trip to Moscow or Poland, it will never get used here in Los Angeles. Not to mention I get about 14 inches of length per skein, and at the required 72.5 feet for draping I'm looking at ....oh, one million dollars.

So, what do I do? To frog or not to frog, that is the question.

Pro: I will be able to cast on myself, the amount and size stitches I prefer.
Con: I will have to unravel basically three skeins of tightly knit wool.

Pro: I can avoid creating a scarf I am unhappy with, which will end up shoved in a drawer somewhere, thereby wasting $60 of yarn.
Con: Unraveling days of hard work!

Pro: Can maybe use a new stitch, like stockinette.
Con: What if I frog it and don't like the new scarf any better?
Pro: Can avoid that by swatching. See, ma, I am learning something!

Pro: Will not be obsessed by imperfect scarf.
Con: Class and teacher will think I am OCD.

Pro: Since I am OCD I won't care what class thinks.

So I think we all know where this is headed. So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night .... here it is before it goes away:

   

Posted by laurie at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2005

Class chatter and knit chit-chat

Class was insanity. Knitting is the new Pilates, everyone is doing it (including me). Except I would never do Pilates, because exercise can kill you.

My co-worker did indeed drive out to the Valley from San Gabriel and attend the knitting class at Lani's. There were two other beginners in the class besides her (and both picked really tiny yarn.... yikes...) plus me, Shannon, Linda (the instructor) and a lady who brought her daughter and about 27 unfinished knitting works-in-progress. I meant to tell the works-in-progress lady that her daughter was exceptionally well-behaved and lovely but I forgot, so next week I hope she's there. Nice kids are hard to find.

Needless to say, with that many new people (and we were at the small table since the needlepoint class was occupying the big table) I did not mention frogging my Tokyo scarf. It would have been an embarassing diversion and Linda was already swamped with needy knitters. Shannon and I chatted most of the time, she's working on her shawl and I decided to finish the fuzzy Crystal Palace scarf and learn casting off, thereby picking up one skill and prolonging the pain of scarf indecision for another week (I did buy two balls of Tokyo and Linda joined the yarn, so some probably futile work was done on it, but not too much.)

Co-worker Friend picked out a really pretty cotton tape and she's on size 13 needles so it should go fast. We didn't get to talk at all during class (we were at opposite ends of the table) and I felt really bad because Linda was busy, but as it turned out Meadow gave her some one-on-one instruction and she caught on really fast.

Note: How much do you love the Valley, where women in Uggs attend knitting class at a shop where a girl named Meadow can help you select a $25 hank of yarn?

Linda showed me how to cast off/bind off, and my fuzzy Crystal Palace scarf became my very first completed knitting project! I draped it around Shannon's neck to see how it looked ... and she looked amazing in it. It was totally right on her. She was fondling it ("ooooh, softy soft!") and I was so happy someone wasn't embarassed to wear a scarf I knitted that I happily gave it to her. And she genuinely liked it! I was pleased as peach pie. Nothing makes a Cancer girl happier than knitting someone a freakin' scarf, I will tell you that much.

After class the shop was still insanely busy, but I somehow managed to buy two pairs of Lantern Moon needles (size 15 and 13, both 14" long), the two balls of Tokyo for my possibly-about-to-be-frogged scarf, a fuzzy novelty yarn to maybe mix in the fringe of the may-be-frogged scarf, and an amazing hand-painted mohair in deepest blues and greens. I LOVE MOHAIR. LOVE it.

Karman picked up Shan after class and before long she was wearing the scarf I had just made. I was tickled pink. Hot damn, ya'll, I'm a knitter!

Posted by laurie at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

Wherein I persuade a coworker to drink the kool-aid

After talking ad nauseum at work about knitting, combined with the visual aids (look! it's a scarf! and yet another scarf in different yarn! and yet another!) it appears that one of my co-workers has decided to come to class with me next week and see what all this knitting madness is about.

Luckily, it's a nice co-worker.

Posted by laurie at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Veuve Cliquot taste on a Colt45 budget

Apparently my material snobbery issues extend not only to furniture and design, but also to yarn. And knitting needles.

After spending $120 on supplies this week alone, I decided I needed to calm the fuck down on yarn spending. However, I'm 1) totally obsessed with knitting and 2) jonesing to practice my purl and rib and drop-stitch and 3) obsessed with knitting. So I decided to purchase some practice yarn. By "practice yarn" I mean a skein of something cheap and easy ... not the $25 hank of feathery mohair I purchased, not the Crystal Palace fuzzies in my bag, not the skein of Noro I was eyeing on my way out of class on Saturday. No. I needed plain, bulky wool that was inexpensive and easy to work with.

I know that if I go to a LYS I'll go nutty and end up with a bag of mohair and alpaca and god only knows what novelty crap. Danger Will Robinson! Danger!!

To prevent financial bloodletting, I had to remove myself from the environment of money suckage (i.e. upscale shops with a good selection) in order to buy a nice, plain practice yarn. This method of shopping is how I handle my Bloomingdale's problem. For example, if I want a simple T-shirt and I go to Bloomie's for it, I'll end up spending $72 on a white cotton T-shirt which is INSANE, and I am immediately embarrassed by my lack of self control and common sense. Plus my credit cards begin to vibrate. In a bad way. To control myself, I must go to a place where the uppermost cap on T-shirt spending is a reasonable $30-40. That way I feel judiciously prudent with my $25 plain white T-shirt.

The things we do.

Back to yarn. I really had no idea where to go for the plain, wool practice yarn of my dreams. Unlike T-shirts, there is no Gap of yarn. So... I went to Michael's in Encino.

It was crowded. And damp. And a ketchup-covered child was running hog wild touching everything within reach of his grimy little paws. There was not a natural fiber in the entire store. I would pick up a skein of this or that, hold it between my fingers, and cringe. Some of it kind of squeaked. (And some of it was glazed with ketchup from aforementioned hog wild kid.)

I realized as soon as I arrived in the yarn aisle that I was a snob, and I was exhibiting snobbery -- something I detest to do in the presence of snobbery-free folks -- and I still couldn't stop myself. I wanted to be one with the people, the Glasnost Girl of acrylics, the Cumbaya of faux wool, but I was unable to get past myself. And the people! Ladies were swarming in there! Seriously. It was like the Soviet bread line of yarn, with people prodding and pushing, grabbing skeins out of near-empty shelves, tussling over some burgundy Red Heart.

It's not like I have never been to a Michael's before. I've clipped the 50% OFF ONE ITEM! coupon many a time for a tub of gesso, or a boar-bristle brush. I've even bought canvas there. Sure, I prefer to hand-stretch my own, but I also prefer the smell of home-baked bread to a microwaved tortilla and how many nights do you think I bake my own freakin' bread, people? Not too many, I'll tell you that much. I am lazy. And I am democratic with paint surfaces. I mean, if Picasso could paint on a slab of wood, I think I can handle a Michael's pre-stretched canvas. I'll paint on anything. Cardboard, masonite, wood, concrete. I'd paint on you if you'd stand still long enough.

Yet, I've never really wandered outside the painting supplies aisle of a Michael's. I don't scrapbook. I don't do fake flowers, or cake pans shaped like Timba, or year-round Easter baskets. I buy all my sewing supplies in the garment district. My beads and bobbles and such come from Bohemian Crystal or one of the other bazillion notions shops in downtown Los Angeles. I thought maybe the problem was the store. Like Target or Ralph's or Rite-Aid, sometimes location makes all the difference. Right?

So I drove to Burbank to the newer, much larger Michael's where the larger, more plentiful yarn aisles were equally as crowded as the Encino Michael's, but certainly cleaner. I searched aisle to aisle for any natural-fiber yarn. Hah hah! Joke's on me and my snobby ass!

(At this point I would like to interject that I like novelty yarn and fun fur and acrylic just fine. For some reason, however, I had 100% pure wool bulky yarn on the brain, and I wanted it cheap, and I wanted it now. Michael's is a perfectly fine store, once you get past the ketchup-covered, parentless children. Really. It is.)

Finally, I located a Michael's salesperson (do you have any idea how hard that was or how long it took to find a person in a red smock who had worked there for longer than one hour and had any knowledge of the store's stock? Oh. My. God.) and I asked said salesperson if they stocked any 100% wool yarn.

"Well, we have one, but it's been discontinued, so what's here is all we have, and we won't be getting more."

It was a perfectly serviceable Paton's bulky Up Country in an inoffensive charcoal grey.

"Why are you discontinuing this?" I asked. "It's so nice!"

"It's just too expensive," she said.

I looked at the price on the bin. $7.99/skein (100g). That's too expensive? Good Lord. I must be sucked into some netherworld of yarn snobbery whose depths are unbeknownst even to me. Maybe I've grown so accustomed to being ripped off, I just think it's natural to fork over $25 for a skein of yarn. Remember me, the dumbass? I was happy with my starter yarn, $12 for a tee-tiny ball of Filatura di Crosa.

So this is how it's gonna be, I guess. I accept my fate as a yarn snob. This is a hobby after all, not the makings of a scarf sweatshop. Why not indulge myself? I have so few hobbies that I love these days. I'm too depressed and man-hating to finish my book (a romantic travelogue) (makes me want to retch just thinking of it). I don't have a studio anymore to paint in (see man-hating and depressed, above) and my travel website crazytourist.com ... well, that sort of bit the dust when Mr. CrazyTourist got a new girlfriend and a new apartment.

It's been a rough few months. I need this hobby. I love this hobby. So, if I want to be a high-end yarn ho, then goddammit, a-ho'ing I will go.

Posted by laurie at 09:01 AM | Comments (2)

February 09, 2005

Perfectionism rears its ugly head

Knitted a few rows on my fuzzy scarf and then scrutinized my Beginner Scarf, which I will now call the Tokyo scarf, after the name of the yarn. I can't knit on it anymore since I have no aforementioned Tokyo yarn, but scrutiny is free and plentiful.

Problem is ... as my Tokyo Scarf shapes up, it's... a bit wide. And thick. Maybe it's because my stitches were so loose at first, or because I pulled the yarn, or maybe there are just too many stitches cast on. Wonder if blocking will fix this? Hmmmm. And the folks at Lani's said two hanks of yarn is plenty for normal scarves (har har) yet I'm only 25 or so inches in on my monster Tokyo Scarf, so clearly I'll need one if not two more skeins. That brings the grand total to what.... over $50?

In other news, I'm going to teach myself to purl from the Stitch n' Bitch book, I just can't wait until class on Saturday!

Progress pics:

The Splash scarf is coming along

Roy helps me knit by keeping the yarn warm. Ahem.

Posted by laurie at 10:28 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

Joining the club, and the yarn

Dilemma struck last night.

I was knitting obsessively on the sofa, and at 10 p.m. I knitted all the way through my skein of yarn. I had another skein just sitting there... but... how do you begin the new ball of yarn? I couldn't *stop* knitting and go to bed and wait until my next class (many, many days away!) so you see my quandry. I ended up consulting with Shannon, and I finally just sort of overlapped the tails and knit them in. It's not perfect, but it worked on this yarn, and continued in a frenzy.

Tonight after work I decided to stop by the LYS* near my house and see if they had any Filatura di Crosa Tokyo yarn for my scarf since I am a apparently a knitting maniac and have knitted all the way through the yarn I bought on Saturday. This is Tuesday. My beginner scarf is looking very tidy, all neat little rows, though it is rather wider than I expected. I must knit, must keep needles moving....but I am out of yarn!! And Lani's closes at 4 p.m.

My closest LYS* is a small neighborhood shop called A Major Knitwork, and I must have good knitting karma because tonight is the only night of the week they are open past 4 p.m.

The owner of the store is like a tiny, knitting Erma Bombeck, she's very tiday and cute, but all business. All yarn business. She and her mother run the shop and make all the creations sold inside.

I asked if they offered knitting classes she looked at me, in that way people have of sizing you up, "Well, if you purchase supplies here we'll show you what you need to know. Most people don't need a class. But if you really, REALLY need handholding we can sit with you.... for $25 an hour."

I found this very funny. She found me somewhat moronic for wanting a class, but she was nice. I think my exuberance was exhausting to her. This happens from time to time. I overtalk. Especially when nervous.

As it turns out, the shop doesn't carry the Filatura di Crosa Tokyo yarn. Never one to leave a store empty-handed, I bought another pair of knitting needles (size 15 "Uncle Ronnie" needles) and two skeins of Crystal Palace Splash! I LOVE this yarn. It's very shiny and fuzzy, exactly what beginners are cautioned to stay away from. But I have the knit stitch down pat (obsess obsess obsess and ye too shall learn to knit) so now I want to switch to a more challenging yarn and knit that. This stuff is like knitting a cat, it's all silky and fuzzy.

Erma Bombeck's mom showed me how to cast on (It was like having a nun stand over you weilding a knitting needle, only this nun was Jewish and wearing a Mickey Mouse wristwatch. "You're doing it wrong." "No, hold your yarn this way." "Stop tugging." "You beginners always hold the yarn too tightly.") In the end, this was best method of learning the two-tail cast on because I will NEVER FORGET casting on properly. I was so nervous and scared of wearing the knitting dunce cap that I concentrated like never before.

So, now I know how to cast on in the two-tail (one needle) method (and quite well, if I do say so myself.) I practiced several times on my new fuzzy yarn. Mmmmmmm, fuzzy. Also bought the Stitch n' Bitch book, it's a great reference and the patterns look fun.

* Notice the fancy lingo here. LYS means "Local Yarn Shop" in knitter parlance. Aren't I one of the kool kids now, using that knitter shorthand? I learned this and a whole mess of TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) in Stitch n' Bitch: The Knitter's Handbook.

Posted by laurie at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2005

A new lease on spinsterdom

I have successfully cemented my role as the crazy cat lady spinster, since I spent most of this morning proudly showing off my knitting to every single person who stopped by my desk. You want a banner ad? First, admire my knitting! You need a logo resized? No problem, let me tell you all about knitting class!

I knitted last night. I knitted this morning on the bus. I knitted almost through my first skein of yarn. Ok, admittedly it's a small skein of yarn, but still. Knitting perfectly dovetails with my OCD. (Obsessive compulsive knitting, think there's a stitch n' bitch for that?) Must finish. Must do just one more row. Must count stitches Whoops, twenty-one? Could have sworn I began with twenty. Oh well, I'll just knit those two together. Voila. Now must keep knitting. Must. Not. Stop.

All I've heard since Mr. X moved out is, "Laurie, maybe you should take up a hobby or something."   "Stay busy, it will keep your mind off things." Har har. Well, the joke's on you now, all you future recipients of thousands of scarves! I have a hobby goddammit!

Of course, I am a thirty-three year old soon-to-be-divorced woman with four cats. And now I knit. This is a whole new lease on spinsterdom.

Let the stereotypes begin.

Posted by laurie at 04:40 PM | Comments (1)

February 06, 2005

The beginning...

Shannon has been knitting for months now. Sometime last fall she brought her knitting bag and a scarf project over during Survivor night, it was back in the early days of my sudden, newfound spinsterhood. She told me she'd taken a class at Lani's in Studio City and ... voila. She's a knitter. Scarfing it up! I was interested in her new obsession — yarn and sticks into fabric? Oh yeah!— but simply too busy being miserable to take up a new hobby. Recently FUBARed, trying to find a new place to live, trying to figure out how to handle the holidays, trying to wake up each morning and make it through eight hours at work without crying at my desk or talking into my bra while directing traffic on 6th Street, muttering something about marriage being for suckers. Film footage at eleven.

So, now that's all behind me, thank God. Except the part about talking into my bra. Ahem.

Now that I have moved and I am safely nested away in my new little house, I can open up to a new hobby. I have survived the holidays and the shock of being uncoupled and the seemingly endless stream of bad luck (2004, The Year of The Wretched!) and finally my days have slowed to a more normal pace. Aside from bonding with my sofa, my truly beatiful sofa, and making sweet love to my TiVo, my life is pretty passionless.

Enter knitting.

On a whim I invited myself to Shannon's Saturday knitting class at Lani's. The instructor is a really cool lady named Linda who was patient with me and laughted at my neuroticness, but with a nice laugh, not the "You're making me nervous laugh." Very important difference.

I had no yarn or needles, of course, and Linda told me to select a yarn and then she'd help me with needles. I immediately went for the fussiest yarn on the shelf, and was sent back for a "beginner" yarn, something smooth, not too nubby, evenly sized, not too small. I picked a lovely wool yarn with little tiny ribbon bits running through it. Not exactly a beginner yarn, but not exactly an advanced yarn, either. Linda agreed with me that I had to love my first yarn or I'd never complete a project. Very smart lady, that Linda.

 

Filatura di Crosa "Tokyo" color 2 , 50 grams, $12
Lantern Moon ebony needles, 12", size 10.5

She cast on the yarn for me to get me started, and then taught me the basic knit stitch while Shannon watched on. Do you have any idea how much pressure it is to knit your first stitch while people watch you? Knitting stress! Who knew?

Before long I was looping and stitching may way to a whole row. Then another. Knitting is fun! (Knitting is like crack! Give me more! Can't stop!) I went home and all I wanted to do was knit, knit, knit! Unfortunately, I had to clean my house. Jennifer was coming over for dinner last night, so I had to tidy up and find something to cook. All I wanted to do was knit! Knit! I swept and vacuumed and put away dishes in record time. I got in at least two rows before she came over, and was midway through a third when she knocked at the door. I opened the gate for her and then, good hostess that I am, promptly sat back on the sofa to finish my half-completed row. She was obviously bored with this fascinating new hobby of mine, so I put everything aside for the evening. I guess it's more exciting to be the knitter than the observer, ahem.

But this morning I gave myself over to the obsession. Woke up, fed the cats, made a cup of coffee and planted myself on the couch with knitting and TiVo. By noon my ass had grown roots into the sofa and my very first scarf was all on its way. I LOVE knitting. I mean love-love-love knitting.

Posted by laurie at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)