witness

1. i've been listening to cyndi lauper a lot lately. she's a fantastic performer, and i'm getting really psyched for this. we have ridiculously good seats for this five hour extravaganza, and i'm going to thoroughly enjoy it. Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry, The Gossip, The Dresden Dolls, and Margaret Cho!! Ok, the Misshapes DJs are going to be there too, but who cares about them? Five hours! I can't wait. I should just bring that frigging sock with me and finish it for pete's sake. god, i'm so excited. We have extra tickets, too, so if you have some money to burn and want to support the HRC, drop me an email or leave a comment or something.

2. I started a spreadsheet to try to really get a handle on my stash, since I'm (very ineffectually, i should mention) trying to knit some of it down, and i started really panicking. I'm not only not making inroads, but I'm actually gaining more yarn! And half of it is unlabeled or half knit, and i have no idea how much of it i really have. Makes it hard to track yardage, you know? So I gave up after one bag. It is so overwhelming. I was telling Spanky on the phone today that sometimes being in this apartment by myself is oppressing. There is so much potentiality, that I can't possibly finish it all. All the books, all the yarn, all the recipes. All these things that I want to do but can only dabble in, are oppressing me with the potentiality. It is turning from fun into a chore, almost. So, I started a sweater.



3. Late to the party as usual, I'm sure you all remember the Lace Leaf Pullover from Loop-d-Loop and IK. I bought the yarn for this (20 balls) two or more years ago when I had just started knitting, and was saving it for when I had learned more, or whatever. I'm not even sure why I waited so long to use this. It is Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky, and is now very hard to find (discontinued?). It was purchased with this specific sweater in mind, and I'm happy to say that it is working out quite well. The color is an olive green. You can't really tell from the photo, because the light sucks in here. I thought for a while that I'd run out of yarn, but I only used about 9 balls of the yarn to get this far, so I'm pretty sure I'll have plenty for the sleeves and the grafting, which could in itself be a disaster. I am going to practice, I think, on some swatches for that, and make sure I research how to do it ahead of time, and also keep the lifelines in there, so that if i screw up, i can do it again. I kept all the stitches live, as I read on a few blogs that it was easier to do the grafting with the live stitches.

I had a little trouble with the first lace bit when I started, but was able to fix it without too much trouble, which was nice. I didn't have to rip it out--I just dropped the two stitches, and retwisted them the right way. Very proud moment, that!


It is probably more apparent if you click through, but you can probably still see it--in the top left corner of the right leaf, where they touch. The mistake is in the left photo.

4. Anyway, back to the stash, I just figured it would be better to tackle it with bigger projects than to keep plugging away at it with small toys and dishcloths. At that rate, I won't ever make a dent. The next thing I'm doing is starting Spanky's wedding sweater. I'm using the M-D perfect sweater pattern here, and I want to add an intarsia image as well, but I'm having a little trouble finding a picture of what I want. I bought all the yarn (cascade 220) in the Webs anniversary sale (over on Friday, I believe), so I think I can excuse that purchase, since it was so fricking cheap, and I needed to buy it anyway. So that's another big project that I need to get started on. I need to finish by October!

5. Finally, the next thing obsessing me is the Master Knitter's Level 1 program. I just got all the materials suggested for it yesterday, except for the yarn. I still need to figure out what I'm going to use for the swatches but I did get binders (two--they were on clearance for $1,50, and I'm going to eventually need the other for the next level), tags, and clear sheet protectors for the swatches. I am probably going to wander around in the city tomorrow, in search of the perfect yarn. I hope places are open.

6. Finally, a cute couple of pics of Stella. Spanky sent her a card from Florida:

Excuse the crazy eyes. She usually never looks straight at the camera, so I just clicked.

Then today, I was trying to set up the sweater bits on the kitchen counter, which involved a bit of clearing up, and she wanted to be up with me. I didn't want to put her on the counter (dangerous!) so we opted for the Urban Hound pouch that Spanky's mom gave us. Stella loves it. She just hung out in the pouch while i bounced her around like she was a fussy baby, and eventually, she fell asleep in there. SO CUTE.