Your Opinion Wanted

Or, "HEEEELLLLP!"
In the spirit of reduce-->reuse-->recycle, I have decided not to throw out this purse simply because the handle has gone all ratty and is no longer presentable in public. I took off the handles with the aid of my trusty seam ripper and scissors and then went through the stash. As I have nothing that really matches the apricot fabric in the bag itself, I found three fabrics that coordinate well. However, I am having trouble deciding. Should I use this one? We'll call it Swirly-whirly. Or this one? We'll call it Tan Toychest. Or this one? We'll call it Rose Posey.

Further details: the fabric isn't pieced: it's all one banded fabric. The cross-hatching is quilting. The zippers are very dark green. It's French, but I bought it at the mall. (half-price, less than $20, I think.)And there's news of the Prideful and Prejudiced socks: I worked about 5 rows of the toe and had to rip out. Somehow, I decided to go my own way for finishing the toe instead of, oh, reading the instructions. I dislike frogging. It's somehow sad to take out work. Although I have heard it said that frogging is simply part of knitting, expected and meditational in its own way. Pfff.

But I got to it and finished the pair! The toes do indeed match although there's a teensy mistake. But I won't tell if you don't.

Sock it to Me!

Prideful and Prejudiced received some attention last night. The Man of the Place got a French movie with subtitles, A Secret. (If you'd like to see a French take on the holocaust, this is pretty interesting, but as my man said, "I guess there aren't any really happy holocaust movies.") Seeing as how I had to look at the screen almost constantly if I wanted to understand the conversations, I needed a sock in which the pattern would read:

*k, repeat from *

In other words, just knit. So I did. I'm not far off from my green toe now.Socks for Cutting Hair are moving right along. I finished reading Mansfield Park, and knit a lot on these socks during the reading. By the way, the whole book is slow until the last 50 pages. Then it picks up. I've now just started Emma: my goal of reading all six of Miss Austen's published novels this year is half done! And the Beach Dwarves are about to turn the second heel (a little further along than the picture shows). They require a bit more attention than the other two at this point. Non-investment, older TV works very well. Back in 1970, they still used a lot of verbal exposition, so I've been "watching" Alias Smith and Jones on Hulu to keep me company while I work on 'em.

I know. It's weird. All my socks are at about the same point.

Proof of Intelligence

Tiny made marshmallows. "Made 'em?" you ask. "You mean roasted 'em, right?" Wrong. Absolutely, wonderfully, scrumptiously wrong. She made 'em. From scratch.

"How do they taste?" you ask. Oh, have I got the answer for you. Imagine marshmallows are a fruit. You've only ever had the marshmallows from the produce section, the ones they picked before they were ripe so they could be piled in a refrigerated truck and driven 500 miles to a packing plant where they were handled, graded, sorted, and boxed. Then driven again to your grocery store, unpacked, and displayed. Now imagine you're in a marshmallow grove. You reach up to choose a marshmallow that is perfectly ripe, untouched, and fresh as the morning. You bite. That's what they taste like.

Want the recipe? Here's the link. I suggest you memorize it. That way, you can, by reproducing these gems of fluffy joy, prove to the aliens that abduct you that humans should be regarded as a superior intelligence and not destroyed for making films like Superbad. (apologies if you liked Superbad--no, really, if you liked Superbad, I'm soooo sorry. But being able to make marshmallows should make up for that.)

And, oh, yeah, I finished the first Prideful and Prejudiced sock. It fits great. I didn't realize the toe was gonna be green!

Stash Enhancement

Sunday found me in Los Angeles with two of my knitting friends. We were on a quest: Stash Enhancement. We needed yarn. Lots of yarn. We got yarn. Lots of yarn. There was a sale. A really good sale. And Scout saw a TV star: Ron Livingston. (He starred in Office Space--and he'll be in The Time Traveller's Wife!) And I saw his back. Twice.

I've finished sock one in Socks for Cutting Hair. He tried it on and said it was a perfect fit. Oh, boy. Maybe someday sock two will be finished. Not today, though. I've been enamored of my first pair of toe-up socks! The pattern is called Red Dwarf Socks, so I'm calling 'em Beach Dwarf. Mom was having surgery yesterday, so I was knitting while waiting. (So wonderful to have something to pass the time!) I tried the heel twice and got so stuck. So I got online and found the Knitty Universal Toe-Up Sock Formula and it helped me right through the heel. Yay! (Mom's gonna be there a while, so I figure I'll get a lot of knitting done.)

I tried the exercise and knit thing today. I went for a walk and, after about an hour, pulled out my Pride and Prejudice socks. I really was able to get about 4 or 5 rows done. Cool, huh. Of course, I bet I got a few double-takes from the neighbors.

Have... Spare... Moment... Must.... Knit!

So I'm driving Tiny all over Kingdom Come, picking up pals and going to fun activities. No, I don't actually get to attend anything--I'm just the chauffer. Well, there's an unexpected delay in picking up Tiny's friend. That means sittin' in the car. Sittin'? Just sittin'? I don't do that. Now what? Do I have anything to do? I know I took out the sock knitting and left it at home. I'm sure the lace knitting is on the table. Minor panic until I discover the shiny hat is in my purse.
Phew!

Brushing off the Trail Dust

Yee-haw! Cowboy Christmas has finally finished the trail ride and is in the stable. Quilting wisdom says that a quilt isn't finished until it's labelled, so here's the evidence.You all are my witnesses. It's done!

Prideful & Prejudiced socks are making about as much progress as my slog through the book--I think it's just that I know the story so well, I'm not turning the pages with any anticipation. But I have finally made it to the color work part and I seem to be doing okay.

This is a hat for Tiny. You can barely see it, but there are some subtle sparkles in the yarn that should make for a gently shiny hat.

And then there's the Damn Classy Hand Towel. Since I switched over to wooden needles, I'm actually making some progress. The linen yarn is slippery and behaves better with less slick needles. (yay) And I (ack!) just found the receipt for the yarn. I won't tell you how much it cost, because I would seem like a very silly woman to spend that much on a hand towel. But a damn classy one.

Penguins and Prejudice

So I've had a couple of completions: the Penguin Quilt is all done. And Penguin Mama will be picking it up today. (yay!)Griffindor Arms finally got done. I wove in the ends using the Swiss Darning method and I think I like it. I'll give it some time and see how it behaves itself. If lots of the ends pull out, I'll know to try something else next time, but it was highly recommended... Tiny wore 'em to school yesterday and that's a good sign that she likes 'em. If she ever wears 'em again: that would be a very good sign. Hmm... she'd better.

And I've started the Pride and Prejudice socks. I really like this blue-purple colorway. Do you think this is Pride or Prejudice?

Providence Smiled

What you non-knitters may not know is that typically we knitters love to knit but hate to do the finishing work on our pieces. Ask the knitters you know:

"Do you have any knitting UFOs that only need to have the ends woven in or the
sides seamed up?"

If they look away or blush, you have your answer.
So you'll understand that I have to get in the mood for finishing up. I was just ramping up to weave in the ends of the first Griffindor Arm Warmer when providence smiled. Knitpicks Podcast did a whole episode on weaving in ends! Four different people weighed in on their techniques. I chose a new one: Swiss Darning. It's a stitch I learned while working on the Fish Cozy, so I was just rarin' to give it a go! Here's a picture, but if I did it right, you won't be able to tell a thing! Okay, I know there's still loose yarn sticking out. I'm not done, okay. But you can also see my start on arm #2.
The mail came and brought with it some fresh excitement: the Pride and Prejudice yarn and sock pattern. Yes, it's colorwork--kind of a basketweave pattern.It also came with this weird chain thing. I'll have to ask the artist about it. It must be of some use to the pattern. Or it was something just sitting around her studio and she threw it into the box to get rid of it... nah! Nobody would do that, would they?Oh, the Fish Cozy: I'm doin' the top now. Isn't this cording looking thing interesting? That's actually attached! I'd like it on cuffs, I think.

I've written so much about knitting, you'd think that's all I do. I actually got some progress on In a Garden, but I was one stitch off (insert the theme from Psycho here!) so I had to frog a buncha stitches. (It wasn't the kind of thing you can fiddle with and it'll look okay--it would have messed with the structure.) Really no point in adding a picture of that...And here's Molly. She's been a little lonely, so I thought I'd do some quilting today. We'll see how it goes.