garter stitch
Quick… Why do we call it garter stitch? I’m teaching a class tomorrow night and I promised one of the students that I would find out! The internet is failing me.
Filed under Knitting | Comments OffOnce Again, Jette Has Been Merciful
Maybe there can be a contest where the person with the least number of entries written, but who survives the holidailies cuts, is the winner. I might be in the running for that one. Somehow I escaped the cut again. Don’t misinterpret that for bragging. It’s more, “boy am I lucky this year… I had better get my butt writing now.”
We’re doing Christmas tomorrow. Jim and Connor are out the door to Sunshine right now, and Jonah is still asleep upstairs. The sleeping isn’t going to last long, so I must write with haste. And with not pictures! I promise, pictures with the next post!
I bought Favorite Mittens: Best Traditional Mitten Patterns from Fox & Geese & Fenses and Flying Geese & Partridge Feet this week, because the internets told me to, when I went searching for some help with thrummed mitts. I have to admit, I picked the book up a few days earlier, judged it by its cover, and put it back on the shelf. Now that I’ve read a few pages, I’ve realized that it’s a wonderful book. I love that it talks about different mitt designs from a historical aspect. It has also forced me to learn a new cast-on and two “traditional” increases. Mitts are more than decorative paw warmers, and I had never thought about the generations of people before us who had to come up with ways to warm themselves. Pattern by pattern, I am devouring the book. I find that knowing more about the mitts, I am attracted to more of the designs than I would be, had I not read the background bit.
So I’m currently thrumming, which is really my way of stalling, because I’ve knit the body of Emerald three times now, and I’m just a tad discouraged. Something is amiss with my gauge. Never before have I had tension issues. I can actually see the paired rows on the back of my work, the ones that I caution my beginning classes to look out for. I have 1 sleeve finished, but it took me two tries to get that done. And yes, I DID do a gauge swatch. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that I was knitting the sweater while I was going through leaving my job, and all that worked up to that. Anyhow, the mitts should be a satisfying and quick way to escape my tension issues.
2 interviews scheduled next week.
Filed under Knitting, holidailies | Comments OffHow Many Times Can One Be Kicked Out of Holidailies?
I don’t know why, but writing here used to be easy. It used to be that I’d sit down and write and at the end of 20 minutes or so, I’d have a coherent (sometimes) entry. Of course, now that I go back and read through the archives, I’m surprised at how embarassingly angsty my old entries are, but at least I was expressing *something*. Lately I’ve been writing a big fat pile of nothing.
I think this will be the third or fourth time I’ve been kicked out of holidailies. What hurts me is that I can’t post entry after entry… You are only allowed to post to that darn portal once every 12 hours. Sure, that’s great when you think about the writing geeks who will hammer on the holidailies server, sending entry after entry up… But it sucks for people like me who feel actual physical pain when we realize that we are no longer able to write the way we were when we were twenty something. Is it like vision, the way you lose it when you become 40? Now that I’ve passed the 30 mark, my priorities have shifted. Even though I’m in love with the notion that I might be a “writer,” I can no longer act like it’s something I do.
Now I just blather on. Incoherently.
A couple of weeks ago I went to knitting retreat with the best LYS ever, Make 1 Yarn Studio.
It was fantastic and wonderful and I hope I can go next year. Click on the photo and take a look at the rest of the pictures from the weekend that I posted. I regret not having taken more pictures, but it’s impossible to knit and take pictures. It’s also impossible to knit while eating. And oh my, don’t get me started on the eating. The weekend was full of wonderful buffets. Buffets that were sensitive to the non-meaties. And even to the non-dairies. Of course, I took being on vacation as my permission to eat that veggie lasagna. It had cheese and I did not feel guilty.
”All-inclusive” is an important phrase to a foodie like me. It’s a good thing I don’t drink. I wouldn’t remember a thing from the weekend.
And on that note, this holiday season, Jim celebrates 2 year sober. And I guess I celebrated that back in November. Not that we were alcoholics, but still, I think it’s a worthy thing to celebrate.
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