Reviewed

Today I purchased a book at the Goodwill bookstore in town: At Knit's End by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot. I sat down and read the entire thing today, with no distractions (NS is at a friend's house and so is her sister, and her parents enjoyed a lazy day as well, reading and generally keeping the noise level to a minimum. The t.v. hasn't been turned on all day.) It's a lovely, quick read and super funny. The book is set up like a quote book. There's a quote from a famous person, book or movie, followed by some knitting-related information and some snarky comment of the Yarn Harlot's. Much of the book is dedicated to sentences that begin, "I will remember... when..." and there are plenty of funny anecdotes about knitting mistakes. It was great to spend the afternoon reading the Yarn Harlot's words, especially considering that I love her blog so much. And I was just thinking about how I should have more knitting-related books. I think I own 4 now, 3 of which were picked up at second-hand shops for like a dollar or two.

In other news, I completed my final Ravellenic Games entry, a pair of socks for a Christmas gift:

They are awesome-looking, though they don't match at all (I really did try though- the toes match up to the third stripe). I call them A Manly Sunset, but DM thinks they look more like autumn. I'm inclined to think she's right, but I've renamed them twice now.
Since DM was visiting, I didn't get much of a chance to work on her afghan, so I worked on the Salt River socks a bit. They've only got about 2 more inches left til the ribbing, and I really want another quick, gratifying project to finish before I get back into DM's afghan. Besides, her afghan is so big and I was liking carrying a smaller bag around. I should get some quality knitting done on the afghan though, because school starts the 20th of August and I'll be moving in with DM and DS on the 19th, which will severely limit my ability to work on it. I'll be trying to find a job to replace the one I have to leave here, and I'll be going to school, and I can't exactly knit DM's Christmas present in front of her.
Anyway, the next few weeks will be a bit hectic as I get settled in and start classes, and I may not be able to update the Blog often. I'll probably post some FO photos of those socks in a day or so, but I don't anticipate much knitting or blogging time in the near future. Not looking forward to that at all.

Killed

Let's talk about death knitting, knitting of doom or knitting that kills. Miles and miles of stockinette stitch kill. Miles of garter stitch are even worse, and in my opinion uglier. Though I love it and would happily kill myself for it, lace knitting is knitting of doom. So also is a blanket which increases 8 stitches every other row and one which is worked in the round so you're knitting the entire perimeter of the square. I don't know what I was thinking at all.

Well, let me preface the story by saying that I am a genius, and that definitely needs to be said more often. When I got the commission (I just love using that word) for the hello kitty afghan of doom, from here on referred to as HKAD, I thought it would be super simple to find a pattern for a hello kitty blanket. No such luck. Hours of googling and nothing (and by hours I mean about 2 before I gave up). Then I tried finding anything hello kitty related that I could turn into a blanket. My one stipulation for this was that I did not want to work a complicated colorwork chart the very first time I tried intarsia, but I was pretty sure I could word color stranding. I found a chart of hello kitty for a dishcloth, and decided I would use that. I tried to use color stranding, but the piece just wasn't working out (in hindsight, I think the problem was that the black I used for the outline of the kitty was about 2 plies thicker than the other yarn I bought). Anyway, I scrapped it. I thought about the whole project for a minute, cursing hello kitty all the while (sidenote, I have always hated hello kitty ever since she got popular in my third grade. I just don't get it, no offense to those of you who do). Then I remembered that there was one more technique for adding color that I hadn't considered: duplicate stitch. So I happily knit away at one white square 37 stitches by 44 rows and finished it in a few hours (I said I was a genius, not that I was a quick knitter).

Then I began the duplicate stitch, which went well for a while. I started at the bottom and worked my way around for the outline of the kitty and everything was going good until I got back to where I started. Then I realized I didn't have enough stitches to duplicate, which was weird since I had enough on the other side. So I left the embroidery for a little bit, and decided on how I would turn this little white square into a full-sized afghan. I knew that people knit afghans in the round sometimes, from the center out, increasing stitches at the corners on a fixed interval but I'd never done it before. I was also pretty sure it could only make a square but my embroidery looked almost exactly square. So I pick up 37 stitches on each side of the square, joined for knitting in the round and began the afghan part. It went quick for the first few rows, but of course the pattern calls for an increase row every other row. 8 stitches may not seem like a lot, but 10 rows in I had added 80 more stitches and it was taking longer and longer to complete a round.

As part of my job, I have to watch a classroom full of sleeping kids every day at nap time. This has proved immensely handy for getting my knitting done, but I've noticed that the 45 minutes I have to knit before someone wakes up and starts terrorizing me (I have to keep all the children quiet until a specific time, and that's seriously difficult for the ones, twos and even threes to manage) seems to get me nowhere in the HKAD. I don't think I can even make it one round in that period of time.

I did eventually go back and do the rest of the embroidery. It had to be done at home, because the chart was on the computer and because I didn't want anyone to walk into the classroom and see me holding a giant pointy needle near small children. I had to fudge the stitching around the bow a bit, so now hello kitty has one ear and a bow. The bow ate her other ear, apparently.


And since you asked so nicely, here is a picture of my progress on the HKAD:

I switched to two circular knitting needles because the blanket was too big for one, but it's fast becoming too big for 2 circs as well. I wondered if I could work 3 or 4 but I've never seen anyone do that, in person or online. Google had no answers for me either, and I would really prefer not to have to but an expensive needle just because I need a really long cable, which is my only other option

In other related knitting news, I realized when I started the HKAD that I had bought too much yarn. Like, 3 times too much yarn. Like I said, I have no idea what I was thinking. Too much yarn, all acrylic, wonky annoying pattern, stupid kitty on it. It's like I wanted to hate it. Anyway, I've been thinking about what I should do with all of the extra yarn, since I don't really want it lying around forever. I'm still trying to stash down in spite of this setback. Then I saw the blanket one of the little girls was using during nap time. It's double-knit with palm-sized hearts worked in. When I examined it, I instantly decided I wanted to make it. It happened to be two shades of pink as well, and that gave me a good idea where to look for yarn. I started a swatch the other day when I couldn't stand looking at the HKAD anymore. Here's a picture of the half-finished swatch (I've tried to devote all of my knitting time to the HKAD since recklessly swatching something I couldn't start until it was finished anyway):

I've put NS's ripple afghan on hold for now, and replaced my nap time goal of 2 rows daily on it with 45 minutes of HKAD, but I expect to return to that as soon as I'm finished my HKAD. I've also left DM's barely started second sock at my aunt's house and haven't gotten it back yet. I think that was over a week ago. I also have DS's clown lace sock, but I have to turn the heel on that and I'm not sure I have the patience to read through the directions in the book and decipher the mistakes at this point. I do love my sock knitting book, but it has a lot of errata.

 In terms of my monthly goals, I wanted to provide a review for the two books I read last month, and the one I finished for this month's goal. Last month I read Unearthly by Cynthia Hand, and this month I read its sequel, Hallowed. These books were an addicting read, but mostly predictable in the love story plot department. Like, oh no, two boys like me and I can't choose which I want. Now seriously, if that ever happens to me and I start complaining about it, feel free to shoot me. Conflict resolved. The one thing I don't understand about that is that the girl always chooses the bad boy. Why would you choose someone who treats you like crap? How fun is that on a daily basis? In real life, that relationship would last like a week before huge blowout arguments ensued. A Beautiful Dark by Jocelyn Davies was also along the same lines, without much of a secondary plot. I wouldn't really recommend this last, but the other two were good. All three had an angel theme, and I'm not sure if that was on purpose or not, as they were recommended to me and I haven't asked.

I'm gonna go kill myself knitting some more of that blanket and I'll pick back up with you guys probably next week.

By the way, Happy Easter everyone!

Quote of the day:
Kid: Why do you drive a midget car?
Me: Because I'm a midget
Kid: Blank stare

Progressed

The past few days I've been trying to keep up with homework while also having a full-time job which is a little bit more difficult than I imagined, but I'm making it work. It helps that most of the due dates are consistent, so I know which days I'll be swamped and which days I'll have time to do other things like go to the grocery store or the library or hang out with friends. Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day in terms of homework, but I have like a hundred things to do around the house. Cleaning, dishes and all that, plus grocery shopping which hasn't been done for like 2 weeks now. And NS from the daycare wants to go to the library after work tomorrow. She's looking for something specific and thinks I can help her. One of those funny things about nearly living at the library is that now my friends/family think I know all there is to know about the library. Maybe NS just wants to hang out though. I do keep having to give her a rain check cause of all the homework. Either way it gives me a chance to go to the library myself and return a few things. I'm trying not to pick up any more print books until I've worked through the last 3 on my desk, but I have no such qualms about audiobooks since they can be stored on my computer until I have time to read them, so that's what I'll be looking for.
Last post I discussed my monthly goals. So far, I have done at least 2 rows a day on the dreaded Ripple Afghan (apart from today; I think I've only done about a row and a half cause I spent naptime talking to NS). Here's a progress photo:

(Sorry about the colors, this is about as good as it gets when you're not a professional photographer). I seriously did not enjoy the blue and pink in the middle there (the pink is much brighter than pictured, a Caron Simply Soft in Plum Wine I think, and the blue is like a pastel baby blue, the same yarn I used for the first Ripple Afghan), but I showed it to NS and she said it looked seriously cool. So far this blanket has eaten up a partial skein of light purple and a whole skein of off white, so it's doing pretty well as a stashbuster, and is definitely helping with the goal of getting rid of all of my worsted weight yarn.

Another of my monthly goals was to finish one and a half socks by month's end, which at the time was only about 10 days away. It's about 5 days away now and I have one sock nearly finished. I just have to knit the afterthought heel. Here's a progress photo of that:

You can see the cuff here and the sock all way down to the toe. The needles mark the spot where I pick up like 70 stitches and work the heel. Once I'm done with that it'll be quick to weave in the ends and begin another sock. I think if I work to the round where I mark the spot for the heel, I will have hit my goal for the month.

There were a few other goals I discussed in the last post, including the goal of reading 2 books by month's end. I finished Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones the night before last, then I started reading Unearthly by Cynthia Hand. Deep Secret was really good, though weird. It's the second book I've read by that author and I think the only thing that she's consistent about in her writing is that she drops you right in the middle of a story with no explanation for anything and you just sort of have to muddle through and figure it out on your own while everything's happening. It makes for an interesting story, but a more difficult read because you have to pay more attention to detail since you don't know anything about what could be important later. I'm only about 50 pages or so into Unearthly but so far it has that whole supernatural vibe going on, with the teen angst thing thrown in. Don't get me wrong, I love that sort of thing, but I also recognize that it isn't the height of literary achievement. Then again, I read for enjoyment, not because some literary professor tells me what's good. Unearthly is a quick read though, which is good because it will help me reach my goal of 2 books by month's end that much quicker. I'm realizing 5 days is a very short amount of time, especially when most of them will be spent at the daycare.

There was one goal that I've already broken, and that's the resolution about getting my homework done the night before the day it's due. I finished two assignments on their due dates this week. I'm getting better though. Both assignments were done hours early. One was done almost 9 hours early, and the other, a research paper I began on the due date, was done about 2 hours early. Like I said, I'm making progress.

I think next month I'll make a few more personal goals such as having a self-imposed bedtime and a resolution to do the dishes more often. I think knitting goals are easier for me to think about because they don't reflect poorly on my personality when I don't meet them. I can't say that I didn't do my knitting cause I'm lazy, but I can say that about doing the dishes (especially when I choose to knit instead).

Anyway, I'm gonna try and read a few pages of this book before bed and get the rest of that row done on the Ripple Afghan. Happy knitting!