my life in stitches

tulip!

i love lisa's Tulip! this is such a sweet colorway.

please email me if you have a finished Tulip or Back In Black that you would like to share.

shobhana vs. miss cherry bomb

sometimes, in the midst of a project, you have to stop and ask yourself, 'who am i really knitting this for?' i found myself pondering this question as i finished Miss Cherry Bomb yesterday. i had a good look at her and i thought, 'i hate this. i'm never going to wear this. it's just not me'. and, so, it is. in all honesty, i hate knitted tank tops. i hate cotton yarn. i hate the fact that in a good year (which would not have included this past year) i only get to wear my beautiful wool and cashmere sweaters for about a month before they are packed away again. i'm getting out the cashmere and casting on for a pullover and that's that. i'm also getting out a big map, some relocation charts, and a pendulum and plotting my next move. seriously. i need winter like a crackhead needs a pipe. a colder climate is calling...

my knitted love comes at a price

i would love to just sail through this project, but Miss Cherry Bomb requires a lot of contemplation and heated debates between me, and myself, and i. square neckline? or deep scoop? garter or seed edging? is it long enough or do i need to lengthen a bit? whenever it's time to make a decision i have to put her down for about 24 hours and focus on something else. there's nothing worse than overthinking a design. 90% of the time when i pick her up again i have an intuitive sense of what's right for the garment in question and i can forge ahead. and so, Miss Cherry Bomb has just been put down for her nap.

one afternoon while Miss Cherry Bomb was down for the count, i was inspired to start this cabled cap. you know how you meet someone and you're not sure if you really like them, and you're not sure if they're really cool, but you know that they have the sort of lifestyle that would allow them to fully enjoy a certain little knitted gift? it's a fine line really and you have to ask yourself what it is that you're really up to. are you just selling yourself by showing off your skills, saying 'hey, look over here. i make things and they're pretty damned cool.'? i mean, if it turns out that the person is not so cool after all or that you really don't like him as much as you thought you did will you be pissed that you gave away your handknit goods? or maybe, just maybe, this person is destined to have this hat and it doesn't even matter if you still know each other 5 years from now or even 5 minutes from now, but it's your karmic job to make sure that this person has a hat to protect them while they're traversing the alaskan tundra (do they even have tundra in alaska? what is tundra, anyway? i think i learned that word when i was a braniac kid who read National Geographic from cover to cover.)? anyway. that's way too much thought for a fuckin' hat. the bottom line is i'm knittin' it and the intended recipient may or may not get it depending upon how i feel about the general state of affairs. my knitted love comes at a price.

here's ashby sleeping peacefully on my lap on the drive back from the country vet after having his splint removed. he is, clearly, relieved and so am i! thank you all so much for your generosity, and love, and prayers, and reiki, and good vibes! we love you!

sleeve? or no sleeve?

how about Miss Cherry Bomb in black & white? i thought i'd switch it up today so that you could see the texture more clearly. progress is happening. i'm almost at the point where i'll divide for front and back and work the armholes. i'm debating whether or not MCB should have a tiny little hint of a sleeve. not a cap sleeve because i hate those. they never seem to fit properly. i mean an actual little sleeve that is knit separately and sewn on. i'll wait and see if i have enough yarn leftover for that. i don't want to order more.

in addition to watching films that i can't follow (see sidebar), i've been watching a little TV, of course. if you haven't seen iconoclasts then you're really missing out on some very fine television. artists hanging out with and interviewing an artist whom they admire. my favorite episodes have been Brian Grazer on Sumner Redstone and Mario Batale on Michael Stipe. i've even kept these episodes on my Tivo so that i can watch them again. very inspirational. none of that phony Ent*ertainment T*night style bullshit (with the the exception of the episode featuring T*m Ford on Jeff Koons. TF is an idiot). just 2 artists hanging out and discussing what they do. there are only 6 episodes. i hope there will be more.

i have to keep a healthy balance between hi-brow and low-brow tube action. from the latest episode of S*pergroup comes a quote, courtesy of T*d N*gent, that is sure to become a classic;

'I don't think heavy metal is sexy at all. Even the girls that like heavy metal are just pretty skanky and dirty.'

i'm not even going to touch that.

this, that and, mysteriously mat*thew mcconau*hey

in yarn prize news, the Karaoke went to a reader, Cathy, in NYC and Deb On The Web won the Artyarns Supermerino. your packages (miraculously) made it to the post office today! thanks to everyone who supported Ashby and I during our crisis!

Miss Cherry Bomb is still just a lot of really dull knitting. it will be another four inches or so before anything exciting happens. "on and on and on and on..." this stitch that i'm using really takes up a lot of yarn. i've already had to order an extra skein. i hope that will be enough to get me through.

'what do we have here?, you ask?' this is a bit of lovely 8-ply cashmere that i purchased at Stitches East several years ago. i want to knit a cable-y, aran type pullover. i think cables are coming back in style. well, at least, for me they are. the issue is that i've never designed a cable sweater. i'm a bit nervous. i don't want to touch this cashmere unless i know exactly what i'm doing. somewhere in the blogs i saw some crazy aran with hearts and teddy bears (or maybe it was hearts and jolly rogers? not much diff, there...) in a japanese knitting book. i can't for the life of me recall where i saw it. anyway, it was very, very cool. (if you know what pattern/book i'm talking about, please please email me!) i'd like to do something that's a little edgy. maybe i'll look around for it. it would be absolute torture for me to design something like that. i don't have the patience, really.

completely of its own accord, my Tivo has suddenly started recording all things Mat*hew McCona*ghey. it's bizarre. i mean, he's okay. but i don't need MM on every talk or entertainment show known to man clogging up my Tivo. what the hell!

what a pain!

i've had an ear ache for the past few days and i am cranky, cranky, cranky. combine that with the influence of some nasty astrological transits and constant, unbearable boredom and you can imagine the state i'm in. grr... trying some home remedies to relieve the ear ache. it does appear to be working, albeit slowly. i've had it with doctors and hospitals and insurance companies, so i unless i come down with a fever, i will manage it on my own. i cannot afford another trip to the hospital! i still have a stack of unpaid medical bills! i dunno, there's just something about having your ear all stopped up with a cotton ball that just makes you want to slap someone...

yay for yarn prizes!

i finally got around to sorting out my stash. i am offering up 2 yarn prizes to the generous and kind people who made donations to ashby's surgery fund. i will draw names later and contact the winners by email and the winners will be announced here later. the first name drawn gets the first pick. i am offering 4 skeins of Artyarns Supermerino and 4 skeins of SWTC Karaoke (a soysilk / wool blend). i'll tell you now that it takes me forever to get around to mailing packages, so if i were you i wouldn't expect to receive said prize until July 4th or so. seriously.

Miss Cherry Bomb (as i am now calling her) is coming along splendidly. it's pretty good tv knitting until i reach the armholes, then i'll have to make some decisions about where i'm going from there. at the moment, it's the perfect knitting for my crummy mood.

hey, new yorkers! i may be in nyc for a week in mid-july. i'll keep you posted.