Becca's Blog

What Clapotis taught me.

1. I've been making knit stitches wrong for my entire knitting career. Those ktbls were not resulting in twisted stitches, so I tried reversing the way I was throwing the yarn, and then got the desired twist in the ktbls--miraculous.  So "from back to front" doesn't just mean holding the yarn behind the needle ... duhhh. I think this means I've been doing combined knitting all along, but when I tried to read the descriptions and diagrams in Confessions of a Knitting Heretic my brain checked out and I glossed over it. As usual, I'll go back and read it carefully if and when it's necessary.

Retraining myself to do knit stitches under-and-over has loosened up my gauge and opened up yarnovers so that they make visible holes.  Great, but when I go back to pre-Clapotis projects, like the Beginner's Lace Triangle, I'm going to have to do it the old way or have some problems.

2. I don't like variegated yarn. I knew that before, but I was seduced by the Over the Rainbow sock yarn and hoped it would overcome an irrational bias, since it looked so nice in the skein. But knitted up, the colors in this yarn look like yard clippings that have been through a blender, to put it delicately. To put it indelicately, I think it looks like cat barf. I couldn't persevere with Clapotis in this yarn, knowing I hated the way it looked and would never wear it.

3. I need a little gleam in my yarn. Flat color doesn't really do it for me, and this yarn doesn't really have the glossy sheen that floats my boat.

So the yarn has been ripped, and is back in the stash cabinet awaiting some other inspiration. It may become socks at some point, or maybe it will become something for one of the nieces who weren't even a gleam in someone's eye in the 70s and therefore don't react violently to mottled color.

I do have my eye on some laceweight at handpaintedyarn.com, where the shading is all in the same color family. And Wendy's Clapotis in Noro is lovely.  So I haven't given up on Clapotis, and the lessons learned were indeed worthwhile.

Stash visitation

On Wednesday one of my procrastination techniques was to visit the stash in my cabinet. I've been pretty disciplined about having only three or four projects in the big beach bag, and keeping the rest put away. But every once in a while I have to pull it all out and look at it, think about the waiting projects, touch a little bit of it. Some of them I just want to carry around for awhile, or knit a few rows on then put away again, like the white Oz shawl.

Instead, I pulled out the worsted wool for Jane's Ribby Cardi and began swatching, and made her pick two out of the three colors I bought. I think she chose well, and it leaves the moss green for me to make a sweater for myself from. I think I'll be able to cast on before we leave for the airport tonight for the big birthday weekend in San Diego. Jane's dad turns 80 on Saturday, and I turn 41 on Sunday.

I also pulled out a languishing old  project that's been rattling around in my head lately.  Years ago I bought three colors of Manos (I see from the receipt that it dates from 1997, from Straw into Gold--7 bucks a hank!) with the idea of making a scarf out of alternating blocks. But I never developed a satisfying pattern, so instead I decided to make it into a vest, with each piece out of a single color.  I finished the pieces and without blocking or basting them together, gave up. I don't know if the idea of picking up for the ribbing intimidated me, but I decided a) I would never wear something so color-blocky, and b) I probably screwed up the neck and armhole shaping.

So I shoved it to the back of the cabinet of greed and sloth, with the plan of ripping later. I put that off because I've never wanted to do the work of soaking and de-crimping the used yarn.

But lately I've wanted to get my hands on that Manos again, so I pulled the bag out. And those knitted-up pieces don't look so bad. Now I don't know whether to tear it up or try to finish it. Those two purples on the back are from the same dye lot, according to the tags.  Feh, I really don't know, but in all probability I would never wear it--in public. Now that I work at home, it could become part of my freelancer uniform, along with the slippers and pajama bottoms.

Remember that shot of my pristine desk from about a month ago? Well, here's the office now. I, um, have a lot of things going on. And a little bit of filing to do.

Fool on the Hill.

Silly volunteer. You're supposed to be looking for hawks, not feeding the ravens.

Jesus H Gagmewithaspoon.

Geesh. 

Orange sweater update.

As soon as I finished the second front about two weeks ago, I decided to reknit one of the sleeves, since I overbought yarn, again. But this way I won't have to use the sleeve from the lumpy reknit yarn--so the whole thing will get lumpy and pilly at the same rate. Here's another sleeve shot: woohoo. 

So now that I have only about 8 inches of knitting left to go before I can start assembling and picking up stitches for the ribbing, I am itching to ignore it and work on something else.  Probably Jane's long-delayed Ribby Cardi.

Tina has a new hobby.

...

...

... watching the feral cats on the shed next door.

Lost weekend.

Here's what I could have been doing this weekend:

• finishing the orange sweater
• recasting on for Jane's hat
• creating Joe's birthday crossword puzzle
• finishing the socks for Joe's birthday
• dying my hair
• getting a haircut
• cooking fabulous meals

Here's what I did this weekend:

• dragged junk out to the curb (Big. Trash. Day. Three little words that mean a lot to a homeowner.)
• drove around to hardware stores to buy more things that will get used once and maybe never again
• pried up the floor of the utility room with a crowbar (that was satisfying. Could only have been more satisfying if I got to fling the ratty old parquet the way the roofers got to fling ratty old composition shakes.)
• found a mess of vinyl, linoleum, and plaster under the existing floor
• got knocked backwards by the stench of formerly covered up cat pee
• wished I was wearing a gas mask
• began chiseling up the pee-soaked plaster and old vinyl tile because I love a time-consuming and futile project
• took lots of ibuprofen for an incipient migraine
• bought $50 worth of anti-spraying spray at the pet supply store
• had to ask for OTC cold medicine at the Target pharmacy counter and was told they were out. Treated pharmacist to a small dose of 40-year-old lady attitude (Do I *look* like I have a meth lab in my bathroom?)
• blocked the hole in the fence where the feral cats had been coming through
• removed the water source that was attracting the ferals and replaced it with a small, off-the-ground birdbath
• moved the feral cats' food bowls out of sight of the jealous Orange Crabby Old Man

Spunky little kitty

... who will be the last of her line. We've concluded the feral-cat trapping, and we did catch and fix the kitten, courtesy of the Berkeley East Bay Humane Society. The adult cats were too wily to go in the cages, no matter how much they would have liked the food, and we tried three separate times.

Jane released the baby cat back into the yard last night, and she raced off for the safety of the overgrown yard next door. She just showed up in the yard again, but the poor little thing is afraid because of what happened the last time she approached a bowl of food in the yard--but she's finally approaching the food bowls.  When she was recovering in the cage in the garage she complained mightily about her imprisonment. She allowed me to handle her a bit without biting or scratching, but she really didn't like it. I suspect the mother and baby will both get more acclimated to us but neither will ever be domesticated.

I have some pictures of the mom cat waiting in the yard for the baby to come back, but I'll have to post them tonight since I'm back working in an office temporarily.

This weekend's project: ripping up the old parquet tiles in the back utility room, which Orange Boy has indeed been spraying on.

In the lead: Sat 9/17

Currently Saturday 9/17 has the most votes for a knitblogger's picnic at Lake Chabot.  If that's a good date for you and you haven't yet RSVP'd, let me know!

More on Sept. Knitbloggers' picnic

I just looked into reserving a picnic area in the East Bay Regional Parks, and found out that it's not free to make a reservation. I'm happy to front the money or show up early to stake out a spot for free, but I'm not going to do so unless people are actually interested in showing up. So talk to me, my 10 subscribers. September 18? September 25? The 12th of Never?