Happy Magical Wednesday

Wednesday is a good day. Wednesday is the day of my weekly day-off escape from the nurse boiler room operation. It is Wednesday today, and I am happy and free to knit or blog or sit around on my butt and do nothing (but that rarely happens---can't waste a good day!).

However, Wednesday is also the day that I weekly sit and ponder if I really want to return to the nurse boiler room operation for the rest of the week! The jury's still out on that one, but there's still a warehouse full of those gently used Flowbee's to be sold, so I guess I'll keep showing up there for the rest of the week until I figure it out....and keep in mind that I do like to eat and have a roof over my head....and buy yarn.....must remember the yarn...

But for now, Wednesday is still a happy, carefree day of doing whatever I want! And that also makes it sort of magical in my book. But what also helps to make it magical is this...

Got a new book last weekend!

I am a big fan of Cat Bordhi and her wonderful, creative mind and techniques, and this is her new book, hot off the press! I have had hours of knitting fun making moebius scarves and baskets from past books, and used one of her books to learn to knit socks on two circulars---the sock knitting technique I use almost exclusively now.

I have been waiting for this book for a while. I went to a 4-day workshop with Cat in Newport, OR in April of 2006, and the book was due to be out shortly after that, so it's been a long wait!This book is full of sock patterns with the foot shaping achieved in may new ways, both cuff down and toe-up. Not that I've exactly mastered the standard sock architecture so far---I still have not even done a toe-up sock. But I've been intrigued with what this book would hold since that workshop over a year ago, especially since we were given a little teaser of then top-secret patterns from this book and the two more to come after this one!

I haven't actually attempted one of the patterns yet---there is a baby-sized sock pattern for each new technique for learning. But I am getting prepared. I made these this past weekend...

These are my first attempt at making my own stitch markers by the way, so not quite perfect, but completely useable! Why the alphabet letters? Most of the patterns in this new book have you do increases/decreases at particular marker points on the sock to go along with the techniques used to build the sock, necessitating the need to know at which marker to knit a given instruction. (I made two sets because I like to knit two socks at once, being a sufferer of a serious case of Second Sock Syndrome.)

You don't necessarily have to have lettered markers to do the pattern, but since my powers of concentration are less than stellar at times, this definitely will make it easier to keep track of what I'm doing! For those who are lucky enough to still have half a working brain, you can keep track in any way you choose.

Cat mentions in the book that she has designed some lettered stitch markers, called Cat's Magical Markers, that are going to be sold by Skacel, but I haven't seen them anywhere yet. I've been meaning to learn how to make some stitch markers for a while, so this was a good project to get me started. (Besides, I really don't need to spend any more money to purchase what would probably be the thirty-gazillionth stitch marker in my possession...).

Oh, and about that frog pond tale.....

In case you didn't figure it out by looking at my progress bars, this was the true-life lace victim of the story.....sad but true...

The Mermaid Wrap, version 2.0, is no more. I'm beginning to think this was a project that was just not meant to be. I mean, after the irrepairable yarn-tangling debaucle of version 1.0, and having to switch to a variegated color from the desired solid which was no longer available, it may have been doomed from the start. Not to mention, I really wasn't feeling much love for those little colored boxy patterns were appearing due to the way the color changes came up in the yarn. I tried to like it, but I think those little boxes of color interfered with the vertical pattern too much.

I fully intended on finishing the wrap since I had put so much time into it already, but then came that ill-fated meeting with that rotten little frog and his pond, and so it went. I have salvaged the precious Sea Silk this time, and will find another pattern later that will work a little better with the way the yarn colors pool, to try to avoid the little-boxes look. Perhaps something with a lace leaf or flower pattern that has more curved shaping to it.

And no, in case you're thinking it---I did NOT will the wrap away to the corn field because I didn't like the color boxes! The frog just had it in for that wrap from the beginning, so I put the blame squarely on him. heh heh. bad pun.

This and that.....random catching-up

Finally, a chance to actually make a post to my blog! I think this has been the longest I have ever gone without being able to post, and I've really missed it! I never thought when I started this blog that it would be something I would "miss" if I couldn't do it, but I have.

With such a long time having passed since my last post, I guess this will have to be a post of some randomness and rambling, as one tends to do when trying to make a long story short (something I'm not very good at, but I'll give it a go...). It's just that there are so many random bits, I can't begin to even try to tie them together cohesively. So this will have to be a post of this and that and the other thing, all stuck together so I can quit storing it for later in my poor, tired brain.

Even on my best days, I can somewhat be the queen of the non-sequitor and non-sensical segway. But now that the last of my brain has been squeezed into a dried apricot by my current schedule of 14-hour days, a string of non-sequitors might make more sense to read. Oh well....if it gets confusing, you can skip down to the actual knitting content near the end...

"Graduated" from training at my new place of wage-slavery. Yes, there was an actual lame graduation with presentation of a certificate in front of the rest of the current slaves. We were told at about 4pm the day before that each class had to present something---skit, speech, song, whatever---to the attendees. Say What? My 5 fellow trainees and I looked at each other in horror. This couldn't be good. Suffice it to say that out of desperation for something to do at the last minute, I made the mistake of joking that I play the ukelele.....

Just a message to the wise: If you are ever desperate for lame ideas for a needed performance, don't ever let jokingly slip to 5 desperate nurses that you play ANY type of musical instrument, as you will then be forced to play said instrument in front of about 150 co-workers you barely know. You know, just to cement your new professional reputation amongst the colleagues. Not only that, you will then be forced to write a lame SONG to sing along with the bad ukulele playing!

Let's just say that there was an ugly scene at graduation of me playing the ukulele and all of us singing a song I wrote to the tune of "Tiny Bubbles" (a la Don Ho----sorry Don, don't roll over in your grave too hard...). There is a tradition of "Aloha Fridays" at my new place of employment, so it did fit in with a theme, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, especially since I added in lyrics about the training making us need a cocktail----mention of cocktails seems to please crowds of nurses, for some strange reason.

And oh, yes, this performance was complete with lei's and bubbles being blown by our trainer and fake cocktails with little umbrellas in pink plastic martini cups for all. Good times! But let's not forget that all of those other rat-bastard fellow trainees got away with a little bad singing, while I had to play a musical instrument (badly) in front of over 100 people!!! Let's just say I really took one for the team on this one, and those bi-atches (and I call them that in the most loving way) owe me BIG TIME!

And in a totally random change of subject......Have any of you ever entered contests on anyone's blog and won? Did they actually send you a prize? I only ask because I have won only once, which I mentioned gleefully on this blog a few months ago. And what did I receive as a prize?....Nothing, nada, zip!

Edited 7/25/07 - I am happy and relieved that the contest blogger mentioned above just sent me an email explaining the circumstances. Said she sent a package in May (which I didn't receive), and then wrote an email later, which she inadvertently saved rather than sending it. Thanks for emailing....I feel much better now that I know what happened (and that it wasn't intentional or due to a bad life turn...).

Official Knitting Content:

While the past 6 weeks have been like a never-ending freeway roadtrip with extended daily breaks of brain-draining confusion at work and occasional 4-hour peeks at my own bed, I have actually managed to knit a few rows here and there. Not much, mind you, and not enough to be particularly satisfying, but at least I got to touch some yarn and knitting needles, which made me feel a like I remember how to knit. Humor me here, I'm trying to feel better about pictures of very little progress....

Some progress on my Mermaid Wrap....

While taking the pictures, I really started to notice how the yarn is patterning in little "boxes" of color. Not sure I'm crazy about that, but I still love the colors anyway. However, I think I still would have preferred this pattern in it's original semi-solid color.

Here's a picture of very little progress on my Tofutsies socks---two cuffs. Believe me, I've tried to let these see the light of day once in a while, but working on size zero needles after 9pm has not exactly been within my abilities this past few weeks...

The MD Moss Grid Hand Towel has fared a little better. It's about 3/4 done at this point, and beginning to feel like a bit of a boring slog, but I'm hoping I can actually finish it soon!

And finally, in a last-ditch effort to feel like I could actually have an FO, I decided to make this cute little cup cozy out of Fixation yarn. We have these plastic cups at work that sweat like crazy when filled with ice water, and I saw this pattern for a Java Jacket that Chris wrote up and thought it was kinda cute! Besides, I needed something to work on that I could knit with no time available and minus a brain....

I have to say I wasn't sure about the actual usefulness of this cup cozy in the beginning, but after road-testing it for a few days, I can say it actually works really well! No drippy water cup on my desk all week! I liked it so much that I'm making another one in a different color to carry around in my purse for those drippy iced latte cups in as well! And better yet, it only took me (the world's slowest knitter) about 2 hours to knit up!

Instant satisfaction and a cute pink FO---just what I needed!

(Pay no attention to those poor, ignored, unseamed and unfelted, clogs in the background...)

Healing from a (yarn) tragedy...and other knitterly tales

After the horrible event that occurred with this beloved skein of Sea Silk and Mermaid Wrap, I felt that I should immediately try to replace it to try to erase some of the trauma....you know, get back on the horse that threw you and all that....and also because I am hopelessly impetuous! Unfortunately, there was no more available at my local LYS in the beautiful blue/green color I had, so I decided on this one...

Do you think it's a worthy replacement? I wasn't so sure I wanted to go with a variegated colorway, since the previous skein had subtle color changes in similar shades and the solid appearance showed the stitch pattern very well. But I wanted to get my Mermaid Wrap cast on again asap, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Though after it was wound into a cake, my love for it immediately grew! The colors remind me of sherbet---very summery!

Of course, I had to cast on Version 2.0 the minute I got home and I made a little progress...

Here's where I left off yesterday, and though the stitch pattern is not quite as clearly defined as in it's predecessor, how can you help but love these colors?

I think it will be beautiful when it is finished! I'm anxious to get as much done on it as possible because I am starting a new job next week, and won't have much knitting time for a while (sniffle, sniffle....goodbye to the knitting freedom of temporary unemployment....). Though I am happy and excited to have a new job, the first five weeks will be intensive training five days a week, so I'm sure the brain burnout will slow down my knitting progress. Not like it needed to get any slower, but...you know....

One of the fun small projects I worked on while on my vacation was this headband made from Cascade Fixation...

It was a quick, fun knit (and yes quick, even for me!) and I even got to wear it a couple of times while looking fashionably color-coordinated on my vacation. I was even fortunate enough to have it modeled by a very cooperative cute husband....

...after I twisted his arm and promised I would crop the picture so he would be unrecognizable! Now that's a real man!! Allowing himself to be photographed in a girly knitted thing at great risk to his manly image....but still, he did it! Again, he has gone above and beyond the call of husbandly duty for my knitting, even though he believes me to be in a cult! One of the many reasons he is so loveable...

And finally, how many of you who know me or have seen evidence of my yarn-shopping abilities would actually believe that I went on a weeklong trip without buying any yarn? Silly rabbits!

To my credit, I must say that I was actually inside of a yarn store on several occasions on several days without buying anything---zip, nada----for the entire week! However, we had one little hour to kill before we checked in at the airport, and we had just had lunch next door to the yarn store I had been visiting all week long.....

Well, you know the deal. I finally broke down and bought something, but I think I deserve credit for waiting until one hour before my flight home! (BTW, if you check out the website of the Alamitos Bay Yarn Company, you will see listed on their site a "Knit & Cruise" listed. We went on one of those while we were there and it was such fun! More on that later...)

And you might be saying as you view this lovely Lorna's Laces (in the Devon colorway), "OMG, she actually bought more SOCK yarn!!" But you might be wrong. Yes, it is rightfully sock yarn, but you will also notice that there are three skeins. No, I won't be knitting three socks, but I do see a lovely lace wrap of some sort in this yarn's future!

I really wasn't going to buy any yarn while on my trip, and resisted temptation without much effort...until I saw the colors of this yarn. I imagined myself wrapped in varying tones of turquoise laciness and envisioned what it could be.....and it jumped into my carry-on! You really can't blame me, can you?