Good News and Bad News

Hey Kate,

Bad news first. Emme just ran off with my mouse again. Wait, that's not news at all. No the bad news is that I don't have a working project. Boooooo! I gotta fix that ASAP.

The good news is I finished the newborn hat for the Afghans for Afghans Mother's Day drive.


I used the Elann Peruvian Highland Chunky Yarn in Mid Indigo and #10.5 bamboo kneedles. The combination of an all natural yarn in a gorgeous blue on bamboo or wooden kneedles is such a relaxing, lovely feeling. I adjusted the Nona pattern you used for your little hat because of the thicker yarn. I cast on 40 stitches and then followed the instructions from there -- mostly. In order to make sure it fit over the ears, I followed your advice and made the ribbed part longer and then got carried away and made the non-ribbed part longer too. I think it came out good, but not great.

Switching to the continental method midproject wasn't a tidy idea, but it did illustrate the difference in my version of the two knitting styles. My continental stitches are looser, which I like, but they are also more uneven, which I don't like. So I'm going back to the slower, but consistent, English method.

My project for this morning is to start another project. I feel so... incomplete... without one.

Later,

Robin

Oooh... Aaah... moment

Hey Robin...

Inspirations

Hey Kate,

Beautiful music...
Dangerous rhythm...

It's something daring, The Continental,
A way of dancing that's really 'entre nous'.
It's very subtle, The Continental,
Because it does what you want it to do.

-- Ginger Rogers in The Gay Divorcee

As you may know, I love me some Fred and Ginger. The Gay Divorcee is one of my favorite movies and their first starring roles together. Inspired by you, I decided to let Debbie show me The Continental and I must say I like it. The hardest part for me is getting the yarn holding right, but the actual stitching feels more natural. I can see how it is faster.

You have such a wonderful collection of WIPs, including the tile. Soon, soon I will have multiple WIPs to show off, but for now I just have the hat that is half finished and the tanktop which is in more of a UFO state. As usual, you inspire me to fit more knitting into my life.

I'm also inspired by many different people to write (and knit socks) and I'm very happy to have sent off my submission to be a paid WoW geek/writer/columnist/player/geek tonight. Woot! I'll let you know how that goes.

Later,

Robin

P.S. I think you should post your ooh aaaah moment here. I'm just sayin'.

'Fessing Up

Hey Robin,

Just catching up with the all-important knitting blogs and was inspired to post. Harlot 'fessed up with her WIPs and so I thought, in a moment of solidarity, that I would 'fess up too... here's my WIPs and then near the bottom are the reasons i'm not making any progress on them...

This is the super-secret swatch I've been talking about... you can see i'm trying out some fancy-purl-work there... cuz i ain't no pattern writer. I just hope i know what i'm doing here!

This is what's-done of Hey Mickey. I had no idea what I was getting into... yeah i'm not the person who likes the 'finishing'. Uh-uh. Can you see what the issue is going to be with this one? Also, i ran out of the blue. Woops.

This isn't what it looks like. I swear.

This is what i am REALLY working on. Tile is fun. Really.

OK so hopefully i figure out this picture-pasting stuff pretty soon...

Hey Robin,

Yaaaay. Finished my baby-hats for the afghans 4 Afghans Mother’s Day campaign! The baby hat from Nona knits was really cool and very fast! Though i wish i could model it on a little-one as it’s dimensions are more reminiscent of a SOCK than a hat. It is possible that my little one was ever that little?! Oh my… The second hat took longer but i think the afghans might find it more attractive. I think. Oh who knows… i actually got that from the Lion Brand site. Woah.
I’m pretty proud of them!
Later,Kate

KIP

Hey Kate!

Turns out, we can use blogger to do what we want. *smacks forehead*

So anyway, I've been Knitting In Public at work. I get the opportunity on breaks and at the end of the night when waiting for the door to be reopened. (Working past closing at a major retailer means having locked exits to keep the late night customers away.) I bring my KIP bag, which happens to also be my Chase-My-Toddler-Daughter-Around-While-Knitting bag, and let it hang off my wrist while knitting. (Side note: I think I'll call her Emme in this blog from now on.)

As you can see, while you have knitted two hats for Afghans for Afghans, I have accomplished an inch and a half of one. Sigh.

I was knitting during my meal break tonight when a Japanese coworker, we'll call him Ken, expressed shock that I was knitting. This was the first time that anyone at work had mentioned it. Everyone else just looked away uncomfortably, like I was dissecting a mouse in public or something. Seems that in Japan, children are/were taught knitting in elementary school. Ken said that when he was 8, he couldn't finish his knitting project. When they were due, his teacher went around and wanted to see everyone's finished projects. When his teacher came to Ken, he painfully opened his desk only to discover that someone had finished the project for him and done a great job. He got high marks from his teacher and he never found out who the secret knitter was.

I love working in a diverse environment.

Off to WoWKnit.

Later,

Robin