What Cheer, Netop?

I got back from visiting wazroth and cgoldfish this afternoon. The trip was a lot of fun, and it was great to see them again, plus to experience the four-cat household (and the free free market, and the southern spices store, and the excellent food, and and and...)

[Actually, the truck with the Virgin Mary, an Aztec temple, and some glam rockers painted on the back deserves special note.]

Last Thursday katrinkles taught me to crochet, so I have been working on a crocheted bath mat from the 'One Skein' book. I decided that this would be the project I would bring on the plane, although I was a little worried that my crochet hook would be confiscated (although not that worried; crochet hooks are cheap). However in the event I got to keep it and as a result got a lot done; that particular project is almost complete, I think. (You may wonder how it is possible to knit a bath mat using a single skein of yarn, but it turns out that the One Skein people refer here to giant 900-yard spools of cotton yarn. I don't have one of those, but I did have two 400-yarn skeins of denim left over from the big cable blanket; they are now mostly gone! (I have a third partly used skein on hand in case I need it.)

The baby quilt I started a couple of weeks ago is also farther along than I expected. The main pieces are all done, so what remains is for them to be blocked (I already did some blocking, but was not 100% successful; I have a plan that I think will work better), sewn together, and a border to be added. (I originally planned to make the whole thing be one color, but I think it will be nicer if the border is a different color, so I picked up some more yarn in North Carolina on Saturday.) I don't have a really good picture of the pieces, but until I do here is a phone picture of them with cgoldfish's Roxiecat sitting on them:

When I got home, I discovered that my upstairs neighbor's radiator had leaked, resulting in a huge puddle in my living room. Fortunately, none of my music or computer equipment was hit; unfortunately, Cables Untangled, a knitting book that plant_geek gave me for HMas was. It's a nifty book, so I'm going to order a replacement.

Despite that (and the little problem that my car needed a jump start when I went to retrieve it from long-term parking at the airport), it is nice to be back!

Although in my last post I kind of made it sound like I hadn't been working on other projects since last May, actually I started working on this bag (made of yarn spun by theresat) last week at an open mike. It's from a book called 'One Skein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet' by Leigh Radford, and if this project is any guide, that book title is pretty accurate.

The pattern is a little odd; you start with a provisional cast-on, work upwards on circular needles until the top is done, then take out the provisional cast-on, pick up on double-pointed needles, and finish the bottom. If I were to do this again I might rewrite the pattern so you start at the bottom and then continue to work in one direction, since dealing with a provisional cast-on on circular needles is kind of a pain. Nonetheless, I think it worked out nicely. The drawstring is about a foot shorter than it's supposed to be because I ran out of yarn, but it seems like it works well enough.

Anyway, pictures:



Project #3 is supposed to be a crocheted bath mat, but I'm not going to learn how to crochet until a week from Thursday, so I guess I will come up with some interim project to keep myself occupied with until then. Fortunately, I have no shortage of yarn (and I got a couple of neat knitting books for HMas, so there's that too).

In mid-May, I bought seven skeins of Aunt Lydia's "Denim" Quick Crochet (that's what it says on the label, scare quotes included). Each skein contains 400 yards of yarn. So, 2800 yards of yarn.

After buying it, the question of what to do with it arose, and after a little thought I decided to try a Debbie Bliss knitted small blanket/wrap pattern. I've been working on it fairly steadily (with, admittedly, a couple of short breaks) since then, and I just finished my fourth skein. I guess that means I got through about 200 yards a month, or 65 six and a half yards a day.

I've knitted 356 rows, and the blanket is about 63 inches long at present.

The remaining work is: 34 rows, then casting off, then weaving in all the ends.

So I guess I'm in the home stretch.

Next up: a small bag. The pattern calls for one 90-yard skein. (I have the skein picked out; it's one I got for my birthday eight months ago. theresat spun and dyed it.)

Apparently there are small, quick patterns, and then there are patterns designed by Debbie Bliss.

can be found here: http://normallife.livejournal.com/81110.html

(found via waider, who got it from Warren Ellis)

Not too long ago I ordered seven 400-yard skeins of denim yarn for cheap. Then they arrived and I had to figure out what to do with them. Finally I decided that knitting a small blanket (using a Debbie Bliss Pattern) would get rid of a decent chunk of it and would leave me with something nice and useful, to whit: a small blanket.

A couple of weeks later I've been knitting up a storm, although there is still plenty left to do. But it only occurred to me this morning that I could get an idea of how much of the skein I'd used by comparing it to one of the other skeins.

Here are the promised pictures of the knitted Penfold I gave to katylady74 this evening. Woo!



Upon being handed Knitted Penfold, at least three or four people this evening immediately checked to see if he was wearing underwear. (In case you yourself are wondering: He was not.)

Guess I'll be calling Cox again tomorrow.

Stegosaurus #4 is coming along -- the body is all knitted and partially sewn together. I'm not sure if I will have enough yarn for the legs, but we will see.

Attempts to get the 'Pirates!' books have been unsuccessful. I'm starting to feel kind of ravenous, so I think I might get some food downtown, then go to Borders at the mall to see if they have them.

I had a nice walk with cgoldfish and wazroth earlier, although it ended with a lot of rain. Brrr.

I ordered a bunch of yarn, some of which I plan to use for a suit for the Penfold I'm knitting for katylady74. Unfortunately it arrived while I was out of town, so I will be going to Warwick after work Monday to pick it up. Hopefully it will be suitable!

Worked on a secret project today; not entirely satisfied with it, but I may feel differently tomorrow.

There is an article in the New Yorker (which is also online) about a guy who fell for one of those Nigerian 419 scams. I have wondered who falls for those things and why, so I was interested to read the article. I found this to be a clue early on:

Mbote elaborated on the story to say that Worley’s name was one of ten that he had been given, and that it had been pulled from a hat after much prayer by someone named Pastor Mark. (A more likely possibility is that his e-mail address was plucked from an Internet chain letter, which he received and passed on, that promised a cash reward from Microsoft to anyone who forwarded the letter to others.)

If you don't want to read the New Yorker article, you might prefer MC Frontalot's song about a Nigerian scammer. [lyrics]

I've finished saucypunk's birthday present! I didn't think it would be done in time.

( pictures )

Now to make a knitted Penfold for katylady74.

The felted stegosaurus has been completed, but I'm not going to post any pictures for fear of getting in trouble with Knitty (not that I have heard anything from them). I'll bring it tomorrow, though. (Actually there is a small chance that I won't be able to do anything fun tomorrow, as a coworker is in town for a few days and may want to have dinner with me -- but I am going to try to keep that from interfering. If it does, I'll just bring the stegosaurus next week; I'm not actually sending it to the person I made it for until next month anyway.)