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A Girl’s Got to Knit

Confessions of a Diehard Knitaholic

I admit it. I cheated on my yarn diet just like I cheated on my food diet. But who wouldn’t in my circumstances? Food wise, there was my birthday, Mother’s Day, and several rainy days requiring massive amounts of chocolate. I still lost 2 pounds since my last yarn store visit.

Yarn Saga

Another doctor trip made going to Wild & Wooly a necessity, especially since my sister, a recent knitting convert, drove me and had never been to a bonified YS. My goal was to buy "Mindful Knitting" and a "Bobbi Bear" pattern. That’s all. In my budget, nothing to hide when I got home. And of course to check the clearance basket just in case. Still, it’s a YS, so you have to look around at everything and feel most things. And there it was. Blue Sky Cotton in an exquisite shade of lilac. I petted it. I pulled it out to squeeze it. I looked up a tank in a pattern book to check yardage, decided too expensive. Wandered around some more, happened to walk by it again, grabbed 4 skeins, put them back, returned to wandering. Remembered why I was there. They were out of Mindful, but had Bobbi. Walked by the yarn again on the way to the check out counter. Took 4 skeins and never looked back. Except to find my sister since she was driving.

She scored some wool for a felted hat and a beaded bracelet kit. We left in knitting bliss, dreaming of future projects and what we want to get when I go back in a month.

Not much knitting since I got home- it’s too relaxing. Why is this a problem, you ask? The combo of all the meds I’m now taking knock me out if I get too comfortable. If this doesn’t get better soon, something’s got to give. I may have to resort to sitting on an ice pack or a bed of nails to stay awake. You can’t come between a girl and her knitting.

Sammie and Max had company last night.

She was wandering around the neighborhood all day. We were afraid she would be run over, so we tried to find out to whom she belonged. Turns out, she lives a couple of house down the street and they just turn her loose all the time. They weren’t home, so we put her in our back yarn with the pups. She was a little shy at first, but in no time they were chasing and wrestling and having a ball. Sammie has met her match. The new pup would knock her over and lie across her belly so she couldn’t get up. The neighbors still weren’t home when we went to bed, so we showed her how to use the doggie door and left her out with the pups. When we got up she was gone. I think her owners saw her and took her, which is OK, but we called the Humane Society and I’m keeping an eye out for her today.

And just to make this entry a little longer…. I’m reading "Blue Shoe" by Anne Lamott (look at her picture on the dust jacket- she looks as if she’d like to knit). p. 30: "He preferred the perfect look of brand-new things to the things themselves, loved the brief suspended moments before the inevitable depreciation of dulled tips and chewed caps." I’ve always has that feeling with back to school supplies- especially clean paper and crayons- the possibilities are enormous until it’s used. Once used, the possibilities become one fixed, unchangeable idea. Maybe this feeling is why I hoard yarn. I look through the many boxes, plan ways to use it, relish the colors and textures, and put it back in it’s box with all its other yarn friends. Then buy more yarn with which to knit. According to the experts on Oprah, I hoard to meet an unfulfilled need. I think I do it because I enjoy having yarn as much as I love knitting.

Top 10 Reasons to Knit Socks

1. (Almost) instant gratification.
2. They’re not mind-boggling after the first pair.
3. Cure for cold feet.
4. Great for gifting from babies to Grandmas.
5. The looks you get when asked "What are you knitting?" and you say "Socks": Cool! Weird. That’s a lot of needles. I couldn’t do that. Are you crazy?!?! I can buy a pair for $2 at Wal-Mart!
6. Portable.
7. I can use my favorite Lantern Moon needles.
8. I can afford enough really nice yarn for a pair of socks (as opposed to $200 sweaters I would really love to knit one day after I win the lottery.)
9. Looking good- much better than store bought.
10. My SP gives me great sock yarn!

I really think my SP can read my mind. She always gives me things I’ve been wanting.

I had to immediately cast on the socks. Would have been rude not to, right?

I opened "At Knit’s End" to a random page and read, If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.- Steven Wright. Well that summed up my day. The day before I wrote LynnH to offer my services as a test knitter for new tea cozy pattern. She wrote back and said go for it. What I neglected to consider is the fact that I have no teapot. Actually, I had in mind the teapot that I had seen a few days before at Goodwill for $2.50. No problem, I’d just go back and buy it. Problem. It had been sold. So I spent the next 2 hours driving around town to every thrift shop and cruising the mall, and all I find is a $57 teapot in ugly colors. Not that I would buy a $57 teapot in any color. Genius strikes and I remember Marshall’s. Bingo- $10 teapot. (I’ve always wanted a teapot, I justify, so it’s okay to buy one. Or it would make a lovely gift. Whatever.)

Now I have to find yarn since of course I don’t have the suggested yarn, and of course no LYS to run to for a quick yarn fix. I go by the fabric store and find a perfect green to match in Lion Brand’s cheaper version of Berroco Suede. I get home and it won’t knit up to the right gauge. I go stash diving (which I should have done to begin with) and after a major yarn box avalanche, a twisted ankle, and several "gee, I forgot I had this" moments, I come up with a skein of Bartlett Yarns Rangeley in a pretty blue- perfect gauge. And I knit this:

My adoring family comes home and makes comments like, "You’ll knit anything." "Why does a teapot need a sweater?" "I’m beginning to really worry about you." And the ever popular, "You’re weird." My sister came over. She liked it (after I explained why a teapot needs a sweater). She may get one for Christmas.

Knitting tips from the one episode of Knitty Gritty that I’ve watched: 1. Rub down wooden and bamboo needles with wax paper to make them slipperier. 2. When switching colors at the beginning of a row, knit the second stitch with the tail of the new yarn, then go back to the skein end. This tightens up the first stitch so you don’t have that saggy stitch to deal with.

The End

How Do You Blog?

I imagine all other bloggers in the world sitting down at their computers and dashing off witty rhetoric and quickly downloading perfect pictures. Not me. I go too long between posting, so ideas that pop up along the way are lost, that clever turn of phrase to describe my current and ever changing WIP is forgotten. I try to jot down notes as they come to me, but I never know what becomes of them. I start writing and forget to save (as yesterday) and have to start over (as today). Then I end up at times with ridiculously long entries.

This being said, as I typed my entry last Wednesday, I forgot it was my birthday. Go figure. Despite having one of my lousy headache days, it was wonderful. I couldn’t go out to eat with hubby, so he cooked dinner and made a secret dash to the grocery store for cupcakes, candles, and ice cream. I got roses and tulips and opened cards (DD#2 shot off a confetti popper when I opened hers, almost scaring the you-know-what out of me) and other goodies.

DD#1 gave me the blue polka-dotted piggy bank to make my pair of pigs an official collection:

My parents gave me money, so I bought lots of flowers, veggies and herbs for my garden. Not much to look at yet, so here’s another picture of my yard:

These lilies came from my grandmother’s house in Canton, Mississippi. But I think my favorite present was this:

Hubby had a friend paint it on, but he puts the tailgate down when he drives it. At least everyone knows who it really belongs to!

My little sister’s birthday is Sunday. I saw a great purse in Wild & Wooly Yarns with knit in beads and a leather handle. This is my attempt so far:

Di guessed what my green thing is- the beginnings of an EZ pattern called the Badger. This is one completed piece.

Two sewn together make a sweater. Four make a blanket. Cool, huh?

I also forget to show a picture of the Guidepost sweater I started, so here’s that. I'm using Lion Brand Fisherman's wool yarn, Kool-aid dyed. I dyed the skein rather than rewinding into hanks, hence the varigation.

And I think that’s enough except for a pup picture. Poor Sammie. She had her little female surgery last Wednesday and came home to snuggle with her favorite lovie.

This weeks French: Est-ce que n'importe qui a vu mes clefs? (Has anyone seen my keys?)