Yesterday Veronica and I made a road trip to Chester, PA to the racetrack to see my Dad and his horse race. My father races trotters, and I rarely get to see him race. The drive was two hours, which wasn’t so bad. Dad’s horse came in second, which was awesome! Veronica and I were starving so we decided to head over to the casino for lunch. I have been known to spend hours on the coin pushing machines at Dave & Busters so I knew that I couldn’t sit in front of a slot machine. I budgeted $5. It took about 2.5 minutes to make the $5 turn into $13. So then Veronica made me put the five back in my pocket and only allowed me to gamble with what I made. We switched to another annoying and completely bizarre machine and I lost $5. So I was up $3. We decided it was time to go home. In all, we spent about 7 minutes spending $5 – $10. I figure that $5-10 in yarn will last quite a bit longer and in the end, I might have something to show for the expenditure, right? This is how I justify my yarn problem.

On top of all of the ATM machines in the casino is this handy brochure, provided by Harrah’s. It is their public service announcement, I suppose. Like a liquor store handing out AA brochures with every purchase. Over dinner, we decided that the lessons in this brochure could be applied to yarn, even when not grammatically correct. Since I won’t be making a fibre space version of this sucker, here is what I can offer:

When might yarn be a problem?

1. Do you lose time from work due to yarn?

2. Is yarn making your home life unhappy?

3. Is yarn affecting your reputation?

4. Have you ever felt remorse after purchasing yarn?

5. Does yarn cause a decrease in your ambition or efficiency?

6. Do you often buy yarn until your last dollar is gone?

7. Do you ever borrow to finance your yarn?

8. Have you ever sold any real or personal property to finance yarn? (um, this includes de-stashing in order to re-stash!)

9. Are you reluctant to use “yarn money” for normal expenditures?

10. Does yarn make you careless of the welfare of your family?

11. Do you ever yarn longer than you had planned?

12. Do you ever yarn to escape worry or trouble?

13. Have you ever committed or considered committing an illegal act to finance yarn?

14. Does yarn cause you difficulty in sleeping?

15. Do arguments, disappointments or frustration create an urge to yarn?

16. Do you have an urge to celebrate any good fortune by a few hours of yarn?

Ok, so while the Harrah’s brochure explains that they offer ways to help a customer restrict their gambling….we don’t have that service. So if you have answered yes to most of the questions above, we actually can’t help you at all. You are an addict and can not be saved. Enjoy it!

During my Sunday morning run, I realized that a long run is kinda like a knit or crochet project. There is a point at which you will finish, and you know you will finish. For me, at about 1/3 of the way through a run, I could stop. I hate life. My knees pretend to be broken, I can’t breath, everything falls to pieces. About half way through the run, I feel great. Then at the 3/4 point, usually around a mile or two miles from the finish, I want to die. But I can finish, and I know that I can because I have passed that half way point. On a knitting project, it is entirely possible (and often likely) that I will abandon the project in the first one third. For a sweater, I have to reach the sleeves, complete the front and back, or it could fall victim to the pile of unfinished projects. But there is that second point, like in my runs, where the sweater could also be dropped…somewhere right around the “finishing” section of the pattern.

For this project, that point has been reached three or four times now, and I am absolutely stunned that I have continued to work on this thing. It is the Persephone Shell from the latest issue of Interweave Knits. I thought this would be a quick one week project to get me through before I start on the next knitalong project. (preview here) But NOOOO, this pattern had other ideas. First, I failed to read the part that specified to do the left and right front increases on the NECK edge and worked them instead on the armhole edge. This caused them to slant out instead of inwards toward the neck. So I frogged them back and reworked them. Then I seamed up the tops of the shoulders and worked the applied icord edging and then decided to try on the sweater. This was a brilliant plan on my part, since having already worked the applied icord edging on the armholes means that I could not easily shorten the top of the garment. Sure enough, it was a full three inches too tall on top. The bottom of the blue “busty” section hit my waist, not my bra line. oh, and I should mention that I had not only done the applied icord but had also woven in all of my tails!

So I frogged the armhole edging, reworked the fronts and back to make them shorter and then started the three needle bind off on the shoulders. Above is my first one. Anyone notice the problem with the photo? Yeah, I worked it on the outside instead of the inside. At this point, it is mile 11 of a 13 mile run. I should have called it a day. But no, I forged onward. So now I am working on the front bust section that is worked in teal silk. The pattern has you pick up stitches around the edges and bottom but not around the entire front, for some reason. Three or four inches into this section, I decided that I wanted the entire front picked up so that there wasn’t a noticeable portion where the top parts had been seamed. I can see the spot that it changes from pick ups to seams in the project photos. Here is how far I got (of course) before I made this brilliant decision.

So frog it went. I have now reworked the front, reworked the armhole edging and need to finish the applied icord neck edging, weave in tails and block. I put the sweater on last night and decided that I absolutely hate it. It requires a seriously good shirt to wear under it to “stage” the whole mess so that I don’t look like I am wearing a giant teal post it note over the chest area. We shall see. I will post finished photos with it on, and you all can help me decide whether it will be frogged entirely. But I feel like I ran a marathon. I need Gatorade and a bacon filled sandwich (ie a stockinette stitch mindless project)!

Last night was “Stitch in Space” and I saw another Lilas Cardigan on its way to completion as part of our knitalong. Younah is working on her raglan increases, reaching the point of taking off the sleeves and working on the body of the sweater.

She also discovered the new Mad Tosh Sock colors and may have ended up going home with a few.

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Kel found a video of a sheep surfing. You may remember the video of the surfing alpaca from a few weeks ago…well this sheep is much much more skilled than the alpaca was. He actually looks like he is enjoying himself!

Veronica lives off King Street in a second story apartment and was informed by her landlord (after signing the lease) that she would be responsible for getting a mother duck and her hatchlings from their second story balcony / patio to the river every year. Since ducks are rather dumb, a mother duck has been hatching eggs on their roof deck for years, and the residents of the apartment have been responsible for boxing up the ducklings and getting them down a flight of stairs and to the street, where they then have to make a five or six block trek down King street, over several roads, to get to the river. This morning was duck hatching time. So if you saw some crazy person herding ducks down the hill on Prince Street to the river, it was Veronica.

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I had a thought on the way to work this morning. (oh my gosh, I just called the shop WORK). Anyway, I dug out some US#7 needles this morning so that I would have my needles ready for the knitalong tonight. (Check out the details over on the Inspiration page) I was thinking about which color to knit and I realized how wonderful it was to have complete control over this project. I decided that I wanted this article of clothing and now it is in my complete control to decide what fibre and color it will be (and size too!). On the other hand, nothing else in our fashion lives seems to be under our control. I am in desperate need of a couple of pairs of new jeans. I wear the same two every week to the shop and they are badly faded. Once upon a time, I could walk into any Banana Republic and grab anything in 4Petite and it would fit perfectly. Phillip and I drove the entire way out to Tysons last week to the Petite store, just to find out that BR has changed their sizing system to numbers. On top of it, they no longer sell trouser style or even straight leg pants. Everything in the store was the “skinny” style. Are they not aware that short people shouldn’t wear pants whose widest spot is at the hips? I looked like Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dum in Alice in Wonderland.

For this reason, it seems so satisfying to look around my closet and see that I am missing a neutral color sweater to wear over colorful tank tops, select the style I want for this missing piece, find a suitable fibre and then have my choice of colors! Currently I am undecided between these two but leaning towards the charcoal color of O-wool Balance. It seems like forever since I knitted something black or gray. And this one is particularly awesome, with its tweedy look.

If you planning on getting started with us tonight, but don’t have your gauge swatch done – have no fear! We have a steamer and can get that swatch steamed up and measured in no time. (Heck, we do it all the time for sweater classes).

Speaking of classes, are there any special requests for the late summer schedule?

so take off….all your wool? Did anyone else notice the sudden jump in temperature the last few days? My goodness! I finally broke down and closed the front doors and turned on the A/C. It looks like we are in for some cotton and hemp knitting the next few weeks.

Meet the furry friends of the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, which was last weekend. These guys are Angora goats…but not where angora comes from. They are the source for mohair yarn.

This adorable thing is where angora yarn comes from. He was for sale. Luckily Phil was with me and expressed very little interest in owning a rabbit. Phil also expressed his displeasure at being tricked into attending a yarn festival. I may have exaggerated how much he might enjoy eating gyros and fried dough and downplayed the “stand in line for an hour for yarn” part. After this and the drag queen bingo trick (another story entirely), he may never go anywhere with me again.

If you did make it to the festival this weekend, you probably visited this place at least three times. It was HOT. Not exactly the ideal weather for buying wool.

Perhaps you saw Veronica at the Miss Babs booth? Babs “borrowed” her for the weekend. She proudly wore her fibre space™ shirt, of course. She looks a little shell shocked. The booth was a tad busy all weekend We are super proud of Babs’ success at her first every MSWF show!

I finished my lace socks!

I realize that you have already seen this photo. I swear there is another sock. I swear it. I did manage to write up the pattern and it will be posted on the Inspiration blog soon. Check back later today! Because I used Socks that Rock medium weight (which you may have bought at the festival this weekend), I recommend using a heavy fingering or even sport weight if you want to get the same gauge.

Knit Tip for the Day

It is helpful to read a pattern before you start knitting it. Sometimes you might even want to read the heading on the section that you are knitting before emailing the designer to explain all of the errors in the pattern that don’t really exist because you are incapable of reading a heading. yeah…um, sorry about that Olga. I was knitting along at the Puzzle Vest pattern from Olga’s ori ami knits collection and thought that I was knitting the back of the vest when really, I was knitting the back AND left front. So when the pattern told me to bind off on the right edge and then somewhere in the left middle of the fabric, I was concerned that Olga had me making a big hole in the back of the sweater…until I realized that she had me making an ARMHOLE. I wish there was a “recall” button on gmail. I had the email sent and then realized my error a few seconds later when I looked down at the pattern and saw the big ol’ header “Back and Left Front.” So here is my back and left front, worked in Louisa Harding Mulberry silk in two colors that I did not pick out myself because I can’t be trusted to knit anything other than red or green or various shades of red or green.

Chevron is horribly ugly when it isn’t blocked, isn’t it?

Meanlouise sent me this note today:

According to Runner’s World, the longest scarf knit while completing a marathon is 5 feet, 2 inches by Susie Hewer. She gets lots of publicity in the UK since she donates these efforts to Alzheimer’s research charities. Since then, she’s taken to crocheting while marathoning. Her blog is quite amusing, actually – I found it (and some pertinent posts) here while looking for a picture of her scarf:

Photo courtesy of BBC

On an unrelated note, the record for fastest marathon run while dressed as a vegetable is 3:34 (as a carrot). As a fruit? 4:32 (an orange).

Now, if we could get Danielle to run the Marine Corps Marathon while knitting while dressed as a fruit or vegetable in a costume we’d knitted for her…

Hmmm…do I really want to run the half marathon while knitting? Seems a little dangerous. Might have to use plastic Denise needles. And what would I knit? And do I really need to be dressed as a vegetable?