JenLa

So out of the blue, my SIL calls the other day (she usually emails, and she NEVER calls unless it’s a birthday or holiday) to tell me that she loves my gifts…that I give the gifts that keep on giving. Apparently, every time she wears the sweater I gave her for Christmas, she has amazing sex that night. I asked her if it was with my brother, to which she responded, “Of course!” to which I replied…”and it’s actually amazing? Wow.”

You have to understand: SIL = Beauty; Brother = Geek. They SO based that show on them, I swear!

Anyhow, when they were here at Christmas, my SIL was admiring the socks my mom was wearing one day. She said she liked how cute and stripey they were, and how much fun it would be to wear them and how adorable the looked on my mom with a pair of mary janes. Come to find out, the pair in question were these.

The ones I knitted back in Nov. 2006…my first ever pair ever.

So what have I been working on?

Sophia’s May birthday socks

Yep, that’s right. May. May 4 to be exact. To Denver. No sweat. Uh, what’s the date? Guess I’d better get crackin, huh?

By the way, I only have one question. Well, it’s more like a request, but it’s a relatively simple one, minuscule, really. Why, in the name of all that is good and woolly, can’t I find a DECENT self-striping sock yarn without all the weird mish-moshed white-and-colored mottled bits, in the colors I like? Is that too much to ask? As Jen is want to say…I WANT THE KIND THAT I WANT!!!!! Hello! Yarn companies. Not everybody likes those. Some of us would like our self-striping sock yarn to be solid. sheesh!

Oh, and hey! How about these two bits of “yay me!” news? First, I’ve been alonged! Yup, by she that is oh so Charmingly Wicked has organized a KAL for…

…with it’s own yahoo group and everything! So go join, already. You know you wanna!

Also, remember that abomination aka The Muppet Pelt Assmat pattern? It’s been published for reals. It’s in “Knitting Purls”; a wonderful gem of a newsletter from Charing Cross Publishers, and more specifically by Ida, founder of the Lily M. Foundation, Friends of Lily website and organizer of the Lily Pads Project (for which I designed the Muppet Pelt Assmat). Man, that’s one busy lady there! The newsletter has all kinds of fun stuff; humorous and informative articles, helpful yarn and product reviews, interviews, and original patterns. To subscribe just send an email to knittingpurls@charingcrosspublishers.com.

And before I go, I leave you with the cutest Ravelry fuck-up glitch ever.

What don’t see it? I’ll give you a hint. C’mon and sing it with me…

Now it’s time to say goodbye
To all our company…
Are Aay Vee…Ee-el Are Why
Em-Oh-You-Ess-Ee
(R.A.V.EL.R.Y
M.O.U.S.E…
over on the right where the screenshot of the blog is s’posed to be. See it?)

Stats:

Pattern: “Inga” pattern link here, Ravelry link here

Yarn: Purple [MC] Alpaca With a Twist, Baby Twist: 100% baby alpaca 110 yds [1 ball]; Grey [CC1] Blue Sky Alpacas sport, partial ball; Green [CC2] America’s Alpaca Classic Alpaca, a few yards

Needles: Addi Lace, sizes US 3 and US 4

Mods: The pattern calls for the 2nd needle size to be a US 5, but I specifically wanted a tighter knit

Began: 1/14/08

Finished:1/17/08

Thoughts/Comments: Terrific pattern! No mistakes, very clear and easy to understand. Knitting the braid sucked, but if I hadn’t been too lazy to go look up Nancy Bush’s instructions for making braids I probably would have found it stress free, since the last time I knit one I was more amazed than pissed. Anyway, it’s only two rows out of the whole thing so it was over quickly. I found this to be a really quick knit, but boy am I glad I finally forced myself to learn to knit fair isle holding both strands in one hand. It made the tension and all the tack-downs super easy. I had abandoned my MP08 “spin every bit of roving I’ve started to spin then abandoned during the month of January” goal to work on this because it’s COLD and my ears just ache when I’m out feeding and doing chores. I decided I wanted a really warm hat and I wanted it now, so here it is. As it turns out, it falls into another of my MP08 goals: knit up stray balls of yarn. One and a half down. Well begun is half done, right?

We’re hunkered down here as a winter storm is headed our way this afternoon and through tomorrow, allegedly leaving my area [an "area of concern"] under a few inches of ice and snow. So I did get a chance to field test the hat while wrapping water faucets, bedding down, feeding and carrying hot water and it works. Mmmm warm! I have beef stew simmering, sourdough baking, water stored, generator tested, firewood brought in and stacked, candles dusted off and a three day supply of beer and wine. I think I’ll just burrow under some blankets, watch some movies and get back to my mountain of spinning.

I’ll do anything to avoid this:

“Jeanie”, which would have been more aptly named “Monotony”.

It takes a very special kinda friend to send a hand-made gifty on your birthday…for your pet. Behold!

(If you value your eyesight, you shouldn’t stare at it for too long, or too closely)

Stacey crocheted a shitload of retina-burningly craptastic asscrylic yarn into, of all things, a litterbox liner! See? Special.

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes! Yeah, I was kinda in stealth mode this year, (depression much?) so it really meant a lot that you remembered! This year I celebrated my birthday with my brother Thomas and Teresa, my best friend from childhood and their families.

We had dinner at the local Peruvian restaurant which is literally right around the corner from us. Now I’m just waiting for them to get their likker license. We’re talking walking distance, even by L.A. standards!

Our birthdays are just 2 days apart, so from when I was 9 to when I was 18, mine and Thomas’ birthdays were almost always lumped together, but since we were kids, Teri and I always planned on celebrating ours together. It only took 30-some-odd years for us to finally accomplish that goal. Wanna know what I gave my brother for his birthday? This image burned indelibly into his brain!

Thanks Pacalaga for turning me onto these pacies.

~~~~~~~

I’m not going bore everyone with minutia, but suffice it to say I was sucked into Jen and Claudia’s Mission Possible. (It’s actually a rather brilliant project along, but don’t let them know I said that.) I could be wrong, but it looks like anyone can join, whether they’re on Ravelry yet or not. Anyhow, my list of 12 projects will involve these yarns:

…and these yarns, as well as these UFOs

I’ve started a project page mainly for to keep track of my progress, but if you’re at all interested in a more detailed account (I don’t see why, but some of you are freaks like that…whatever floats yer boat!) by all means, check it out!

Oh yeah. Now I remember what marriage is like. A few days ago, Jared finalized his plans to rip out all the insulation in our attic. Our only insulation, in fact. We have a bat problem up there, so the idea was to clean up the mess, seal it and put down new, better insulation with a higher R rating.

DAY ONE:
Jared: So I’ll take all the old disgusting messed up insulation out and clean and sterilize the attic and within a few days I can probably put the new stuff in.

Me: You know, it’s going to be really cold for the next few days.

Jared: Well, I’d rather be up there when it’s cold than when it’s hot.

Me: Yeah, but it’s our only insulation. Since it’s going to be so cold, you could build sheep troughs instead and then do that when it warms up a bit.

Jared: blank stare.

DAY TWO: He rips out the insulation. The temperature plummets to 19 F. That night, we get half an inch of snow and gusting winds up to 45 mph. The dog has to be melted with a hairdryer so we can take him outside to pee the next morning.

DAY THREE:
Jared: I didn’t sleep at all last night.

Me: Too cold?

Jared: I think I made a mistake. It’s going to be days before I can get the new insulation in. I should have built sheep troughs.

Me: blank stare.

He continues in his project all day and into the night through continuing cold and gusting winds. At dinner, he says:

Jared: Next time I’m about to do something stupid, could you warn me?

Me: I kinda did.

Jared: Well if I don’t listen to you, keep saying it until I do.

Me: That would be nagging.

Jared: Maybe sometimes nagging is necessary. [he will deny saying this to his dying day, mark me.]

Me: blank stare.

DAY FOUR: We wake up semi-warm due to running two space heaters in the bedroom all night long. The wind has calmed a bit, but there is still unmelted snow.

Jared: I turned the thermostat down to 60 and I don’t think the heat came on all night!

Me: It has to have, there’s no way in hell it’s 60 degrees outside; you just can’t hear it because of the space heaters.

I then go downstairs where several of my toes fall off instantly from the freezing cold.

Me: [looking at thermostat] It says it’s 45 degrees in here. We’re out of propane.

Jared: blank stare.

This would be really funny if it were happening to someone else. I think we have 2-3 more days of cold weather, which is exactly how long it’s going to take this project to be completed. On the estimated day of interior toastiness, they’re calling for weather in the 60s during the day and the 40s at night with rising temperatures after that. However, I do have to say that I made coffee and then called the gas company and before I finished my first cup, they’d filled the tank back up. Amazing! And worth the extra $25 for same day service. I’ve gotten to test out a few of my warmer handknits and I have excuses to sit around under blankets knitting-if only my hands weren’t frozen and stiff. I expect he’ll plan the heat pump installation and testing for mid-August.

I have a few FOs to catch you up on, but I’ve been so busy readying the farm for some new arrivals-and hopefully the impending departure of a few as well-that I haven’t had any time during daylight to take photos. So instead, let me tell you about:

Claudia and I are co-hosting this year long KAL. The idea is that you find 12 things that need to move by the end of 08. The old saying that fiber has no expiration date isn’t helping any of us and it’s time it had one. I, for instance, will be locating 12 of my oldest stash items-a mix of yarn and rovings-determining how long I’ve had them and what I was going to do with them. Then, I will decide if they will become their original intended items or if not, find patterns for all that yarn and get the projects ready. With the rovings, I will decide how I want to spin them and declare it all. If I really don’t like the stuff anymore, I can give it away, sell it, trade it or trash it. Anything that stays gets used. As long as all 12 things are out the door by the end of 2008. Anything that is still sitting there after it expires goes to charity and I just have to bite the bullet. It doesn’t have to be stash, it can be projects that need to go, it can be charity items you want to knit, lots of fiber that you want to dye, whatever. It’s a good KAL to do in conjunction with other KALs. Wanna join us? Click the button. If you’re not on Ravelry yet [you will be soon, I believe], post your intentions on your blog and link one or both of us. We’ll be finding which charities will be the recipients of all our failures within the coming weeks.

I’ll have to put on my spelunking gear and grab my pick ax so I can go mine the deep, rich, dense vein of yarn here in fiber rush country before I can declare my projects. As you can imagine, this will require another big project by Jared so I can enjoy a certain amount of privacy about the size and value of my claim.

December 7, 1941: A Date Which Will Live In Infamy
Remember and Honor

~~~~~~~~~~

Yes. Ok. I admit it. I caved to my mom’s request for a hand-knit scarf for my dad. My dad has rarely asked me for anything, and has given me everything within his power/budget/ethics he could. Really, does this man deserve anything less? So, now it’s crunch-time. Because we’re actually celebrating on December, 23rd, I have a little over a week in which to knit it, block it, dry it and wrpa it. At least I’m done with the charting, which seems to be the hardest part. Well for me at least.

Unfortunately, my original yarn of choice left much to be desired. I wanted to hand-dye the yarn (to make it extra-special) and had some worsted weight in my stash reserved just for such an occassion.

Unfortunately, come to find out after the fact, there’s a lot of vegetable matter in it, which I’m sure you all can see. And I don’t mean the occasional a piece of barnyard flarn attached that’s easy to pick out. No. I’m talking as-if-it-were-spun-in-and-thoroughly-embedded-in-every-inch-of-it hay and grass and TWIGS, twigs for kreist sake! Yeah, not so comfortable on a tender 81 year old neck. Nope, this stuff is going back into the stash either awaiting that perfect rugged out-doorsy rug/doormat/saddle blanket knit (of which I have SO MUCH need /sarcasm), or when I get tired of it taking up so much room, find a magical way of removing it from my stash. Maybe I’ll use it for some Lilypads. Dunno. All I know is that it’s not going to be knit into nice cables to be wrapped around my dad’s neck.

I had almost resigned myself to hitting Stitches In Time on the way home tonight (yarn shopping, oh. darn) when I decided to do a little stash-diving. And lookie what I found!

That there is close to 500 yards of soft silky, wooly & cashmere-y heaven, in a similar shade of blue! Kismet! I plan on knitting this most of the weekend. The pattern is relatively engaging, well, as far as I can tell with my test-knit-on-shit-yarn trial. So it should be doubly enjoyable with yarn I actually like. We’ll see. I’m just thrilled that I’m able to kill 3 birds with 1 stone: a) Make something special for my dad for Christmas; b) Reduce my stash a little, thus making room for new stash enhancements; and c) Suss out a cable pattern I’ve been obsessed with since the first time I ever saw it, a couple months ago, on a borrowed DVD.

Shameless Pimpin’

Remember this post, and that adorable picture of Jen’s vision of Mochimochiland? Well it was good enough to get her named as a finalist! But now she needs our help. See, she can’t win unless we vote for her, and she really REALLY deserves to win. So go on over to Mochimochiland and vote by clicking the box above the picture for Jenifleur’s Mochimochiland Scene. Vote early. Vote often (not really, you can only vote once, so make it count!). But most importantly…VOTE NOW!