Polgara Knits

Things I am thankful for:

• My family, particularly my sister and brother-in-law, but also my uncle and cousins and aunts and half brothers and stepbrothers.
• My friends, particularly those I consider my second family.
• The good health of Noah, and the improving health of Grace.
• The snuggles of my kitties.
• That I have a job I still love even after seven years.
• The roof over my head, even though it’s riddled with termites and rain damage.
• That I can pay my bills, even though there are so!many!of!them!
• My own general good health.
• That I learned to knit and crochet, because it gives me peace, confidence and a personal connection to so many people and so much history.

Have a good turkey day!

I was getting out of my car after finally getting home post-work when I realized I hadn’t posted yet today–the horror! Even worse, I don’t really have anything to report. I’m still working on bag #5 (the piping around the bottom is a real bitch, but I’m on the body now, so it’s going much faster). Um……yeah, that’s about it.  Very sad, I know. I think the lack of carbs is affecting my brain.

Tomorrow I plan to make my first Christmas gift purchase.  Yay?

It’s been a partly productive day, partly terrible day.  I woke up ridiculously early and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I was actually up and drinking tea at 7am this morning, the better to start off a planned Day of Laundry. I got a lot done–cleaned my closet and got rid of five bags and a box of clothes; cleaned out the fridge; dropped clothes off at Out of the Closet and mailed a package at the post office.  The seventh and eighth loads of laundry (winter clothes, gak!) are waiting for the dryer, with another four loads minimum still in line.

Then I noticed a termite on the couch–yuck!  I grabbed my dustbuster to terminate the sucker, and found he wasn’t alone; in fact, he had an entire party on the couch!  GAH!  Wondering where they came from, I pulled the curtain back, and found EVEN MORE on the window sill, and between the closed window and the screen.  ?!!!!  This was too much, and I pulled the building manager away from his garden to come look at the insanity.

The short of it is, some guy is coming in on Monday to “spray”.  Yeah, ’cause that’s gonna help a wall that’s been infested for long enough that it should be crashing down any day now. Thanks so much.

I did my own spray job (I can finally smell something other than Raid), and have been dustbusting the stragglers all afternoon.  It’s depressing and demoralizing, because I live in a rent-controlled apartment, which means that I pay a fraction of what apartments are going for in L.A. right now, i.e. I can’t afford to move.

Anyway, to cheer myself up as I sat staring at the couch, waiting for another interloper, I pulled out the purse I finished knitting last night and actually stitched up the bottom–go team me! To my own surprise, I think this one is my favorite so far.  I didn’t think the colors would work (turquoise and white), but so far they totally do.  We’ll see if I feel the same after it’s been felted.

That’s the it for now.  The mountain of laundry is calling.

This is very off-topic, but it’s for a cause I support.  As you must know by now, the members of the Writers Guild of America are on strike.  This means there’s no one in Hollywood or New York writing for television or movies. I’ve seen some critics blasting at the strikers, claiming they’re all rich folk crying for more money. The fact is, the “rich folk” are the show runners, and the writers the next level under. The baby writers–the ones just starting out, the ones still climbing the ladder–they’re not rich folk, and they make up the majority of the WGA. These writers go from show to show, and oftentimes spend many months unemployed between shows, so the shiny dollars they earn when they’re employed have to stretch over those leaner times when they’re not. Residuals–for instance, moneys paid for reruns, syndication and dvd sales–help them over those lean times, but their cut of these residuals is miniscule compared to what the studios are reaping, not to mention the complete lack of percentages from sales from downloads and advertising for streaming.

To find out more about the strike, check out United Hollywood.

It’s been another taxing day at work, and tomorrow promises to be no better.  I’ve done no knitting yet today, but hopefully will tonight while I’m watching Bones.  I played some Scrabulous during lunch, removed some patterns books from my Amazon wish list that I no longer want, and read a disturbing blog post about an elderly Japanese man who was removed from a train in Connecticut by security for the horrible crime of photographing pretty scenery from the train and not understanding English when (conductor?) told him to put the camera away. (I’d link it, but I don’t have the window open anymore, and I’m too lazy to look it up. Also? It made me very angry, and I don’t want to revisit that.)

Also also, I 100% support the striking writers of the WGA.

It’s freezing outside of my cube, but nice and cozy here where I sit, because I have my space heater on full blast.  This is why I’m still in the office at 6:30pm–I don’t want to leave my space heater.  Alas, I must go, mostly ’cause I’m hungry.

Starting to feel the pressure.  Not sure what to post today, unless y’all want to hear about my busy day at work or the coworker that pissed me off. Still hard at work on bag #2 (brick red and tan). Freezing in my cubicle, where my heater is doing little to alleve the chill. Almost done with the gazillionth viewing of season seven of Buffy.

I have not looked at any knitting sites or magazines or books today, so I can’t post about that.  Haven’t even logged into Ravelry yet today–horrors! Um, I did take two minutes out of my day to contemplate buying a knitting related Xmas gift for a friend. I showed my current bag in progress to a colleague, and explained what stitch markers are for.

Oo! I lost five pounds in the last week, does that count as news?

Shoot.  This is only going to get harder, isn’t it?

Ok, I just logged into Ravelry, and there was a group invite waiting for me, for a local yarn store.  Hmm, I wonder if the other local stores have groups?

Um, go Patriots!

And now, a picture:

This is the most popular knitting-related image in my Flickr photostream. We now return you to your regularly scheduled surfing.

It’s November first, alright–I’ve been sitting at my PC for 20 minutes with GMA on in the background and have already seen two Christmas commercials. Yay?

November also brings the start of National Blog Posting Month, and to celebrate this, I’ve committed to updating this blog every day for the entire month of November. (*fingers crossed*)  My theory about this is that my content is going to suffer–coming up with something new to post about every day? I suspect within a week I’ll be transcribing the weather report and posting memes. Let’s face it, I’m no Yarn Harlot or Crazy Aunt Purl (my favorite knitting blogs, btw).

In yarny news, last night I pulled out the Berroco Foliage that’s been waiting for just the right project, and tried to start the short row rib scarf from Magknits…..and I didn’t get very far.  I learned that NONE of my reference books includes instructions for “purl in front and back”.  WTF? So I went to the go-to site for knitting techniques, knittinghelp.com, and guess what?  They don’t have that technique either! I tried to improve the stitch, and it turned out, well, very badly. I gave up and put the yarn and pattern down and made a couple of granny squares to rebuild my confidence, then returned to the computer later to google the technique.  I found some nice illustrations, but have yet to pick up the yarn to try again.

On the other hand, I’m building up a nice granny square stash!  They’re so easy to make–I even made one last night while I was on the phone. So far I have twelve, but I think I’ll need double that to make a decent scarf.  I promise to post pictures soon!

I’m watching the Red Sox game–bottom of the 8th, the Sox are up by three, but it’s not over yet, and anything can happen.  I’m very tense at the moment.  I’ve got my candles lit (some Catholic habits die hard, even for the non-believers), my Varitek game shirt on, and my heart is hovering somewhere around my stomach.  Gah!

While watching the game earlier, I was working on a hat from Vogue Knitting on the Go: Crocheted Hats, which I purchased yesterday at Barnes and Noble (along with Amigurumi! Super Happy Crochet Cute by Elisabeth A. Doherty).  The had did not end well, since I don’t know anyone with a head the size of, say, Hagrid’s.  Sad, really, as the colors (the orange/pink/yellow/red Red Heart I mentioned in an earlier post) work up so brilliantly beautiful.  It was supposed to be the Aviator Helmet from page 75, but it looks more like an unfelted Market Basket from Knitty.com.  (I might link all these things later, but I’m too distracted right now.) (Go Varitek!)

I’m very much into crocheted hats right now.  They work up fast, and require no dpns or seaming, like knitted hats. I did two hats last week, completely off the cuff with no pattern, and they turned out fine–one’s a little on the bigger side, but not half-giant big.  This meshy pattern from the book?  Ugh.  In my inexperienced (crochet-wise) opinion, it’s got errors (I couldn’t find an errata sheet on it anywhere), and I think my attempt to figure out the errors might’ve led to the supersizing.  Ah well, at least now I have something to wash so I can decide if the yarn is even worth frogging for another use.

(Ouch.  I hate it when the other team makes me feel sorry for them.)

I need pictures of these crocheted wonders, I know.

(Wow, they’re walking a rookie just to load the bases.  Desperate.)

Hold on, lemme see what I can do about those pictures…

(Woooo! Pedroia!)

 Pictures are downloading.

(Yooooooouuuuuuuk!)

Ok, now the pics are uploading to Flickr.  Whew.  Did you see that inning?  Scary.  In a good way, if you’re a Red Sox fan.  Not so much for the Indians fans.

Oh, I also bought the magazine Knitting, from the UK.  In my opinion, so not worth the nine bucks.  If it were a book, I’d return it. It was a disappointment, as I love knitting magazines and always look forward to them, but they’ve gotten so expensive I have to be picky about what I buy–I won’t be buying that one again.

Wooooooooooooooooooooo! Red Sox! Wooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Aw, the poor Indians.  I hate when they show all the devastated players.

Pictures.  Must focus. Ok, here we go.
Hat the First:

A little big, but not too bad.

Hat the Second:

The crown is a little bigger than the first hat but the brim is snugger, so it fits better. Yes, it’s the same yarn, and the same general “pattern”–I was on a plane, and just made another when I finished the first.

Scary Aviation cap:

Tragic, really–I adore the colors so much! I didn’t even bother to finish it up with the braiding and the flap-ties.  What’s the point?

Ok, that’s all I got for today.  Now I need to do a celebratory “Yay! Pennant!” dance in my living room.

I should not be doing this.  I have a list the length of my arm of chores to do today, none of which includes updating my blog (although now that I think about it, it should), but I was led here through circumstances beyond my control.  It started by checking my email, wherein I saw someone named “Bob” commented on one of my posts.  It’s one of those vague posts where I couldn’t tell if it was spam or not, so I opened up my control panel.  Still couldn’t tell, so I clicked the link–yes, I know, but it had “crochet” in the url itself, so I figured it was probably safe.  And honestly, I still can’t tell if it’s spam! I’m leaning towards legit, but some of the text on the page itself–not all, but some–does look spammish with its random words that mean nothing.

But whatever, this is what led me to check my stats to see if I could determine where Bob came from–couldn’t.  But! I did learn that I had twelve hits on Tuesday!  No clue why!  Which led to more stats reviewing, and then I learned that my readership has actually been increasing, slowly but steadily, every month since I started this.  Sweet!  And then I felt guilty for not updating more.

Which then led me to writing this post.  See how it wasn’t my fault? But you’re glad I’m here, right?  Well, I am, even if you’re not.

So, as I was saying in my last update (which was posted from Massachusetts, btw, but that was last week), I’ve been up to so much, yarn/knit/crochet-wise! I’ve bought magazines! I’ve bought yarn! I’ve both knitted and crocheted things! And finished them, too! It’s been a wild and crazy two weeks, I tells ya.

Ok, so last post, I left off with the alpaca/silk prezzie for my friend.  It’s finished, by the way, but still hasn’t been delivered, so again, no details to spare, but I found the label, so I can tell you the super-awesome-to-the-touch yarn is Debbie Bliss’s Alpaca Silk (80%/20%).  It’s a dream and you should consider getting yourself some.  I do have to pull out my SnB book, though, to help me with the washing instructions.  I’d swear the little bucket with “30[degree symbol]” means it’s machine washable, but alpaca and silk? Machine washable? That can’t be right. Must double check.  Anyway, I already have the pictures taken and ready to post once the prezzie has been delivered.

Relatedly, when I bought this yarn at Handmade, I also bought two balls of Berroco’s Foliage.  The only good picture I can find of it online is at the Berroco site–the sample picture in the top left, that says “click to enlarge”?  That’s it. The color is 5961, but I don’t see it in the swatches on that page, just in the sample icon.  But that one is a perfect match–be sure to check the enlarged image for a closer look at the brilliant colors! I’ve got 200 yards of it and no clue what to do with it, but I can never resist bright colors that pop. And the owner of the shop even discounted it for me, to further tempt me. Woot!

So those were my yarn purchases from two weeks ago.  I then went to Boston for a family wedding, where I got lots of knitting done, primarily at Craft Night.

What is Craft Night, you ask?  Stay tuned for the next post! (This post was getting entirely too long, so I decided to break it up.)

You may have noticed I haven’t been terribly consistent with blogging lately.  Partly it was because I had The Plague, which made me not want to do much of anything.  But mostly it’s because I haven’t really been doing yarn crafts, which makes me sad.  I started that stupid red scarf that is so boring I rarely pick it up, yet I haven’t been able to find another project to replace it.  What I’d like to be working on is a felted purse for a friend, but I don’t have the right colors in my stash, and I’m on a budget freeze, so, no!new!yarn!  Which also makes me sad.

I feel bad for abandoning my readers, though, so I’m thinking of outsourcing, i.e. inviting some of my knitting friends to guest-blog, so y’all will still have something new to read. I know there aren’t many of you, but I check the stats, and I know I’m not talking to myself here, so of course I want to make sure you keep coming back.

In other news, how about those new TV shows premiering in the past few weeks?  I of course have not seen all of them, but here’s my take on the ones I have seen:

Monday:
Chuck = One thumb up.  It’s amusing, and I adore Adam Baldwin, so I’ll keep watching it.
Journeyman = Zzzzzzzzzzzz.  Watched ten minutes, got bored, went to bed.

Tuesday:
Reaper = Two thumbs up.  Cracks me up! The leaf blower! The rubber suits! I hope it keeps its momentum.

Wednesday:
Private Practice = Ugh.  No improvement since the pseudo-pilot hidden within Grey’s Anatomy last year. Will not watch.
Bionic Woman = One thumb tentatively up.  It takes itself too seriously, the dialogue is lame, and I miss the deaf and angry little sister from the original pilot, but at least it has cool action sequences.  At least it’s better than Private Practice.
Dirty Sexy Money = Two thumbs up.  So far the Darlings are pretty one dimensional, but I don’t care, because I love Peter Krause, and I love how his character’s reactions to the Darlings are pretty much what I’m thinking–these people live on another planet! And the ringtones are endlessly amusing (except they changed Karen’s ringtone–wuwt?).
Pushing Daisies = LOVE. Favorite new show of 2007. Adore Lee Pace, although I’m a little distracted by the lead actress’s resemblance to Zooey Deschanel.

Thursday:
Big Shots = Two thumbs down.  As someone else said somewhere online, “Finally! A TV show showcasing the problems of rich white men!”  In the ten minutes I saw before I couldn’t take it anymore, I saw unlikeable, whiny characters screwing up their cozy rich lives.  Eh.  I’d rather read before bed.

Friday:
Moonlight = Omigod, I think I broke a thumb when they turned down so fast they crashed to the floor.  Smug and trite dialogue that sounds like it was written by a seventh-grader in a remedial reading class,  horrible acting, ridiculously miscast actors (poor Jason Dohring), and a premise ripped from not just one, but at least two shows that did it way better (although I would’ve forgiven this last nail in the coffin if it weren’t for the rest of it).  Easily the worst new show of the season, and possibly the worst I’ve ever seen. Seriously, you should check it out just to marvel at the badness!

Ok, that’s horribly off-topic for a knitting blog, unless you do a lot of your knitting in front of the TV like I (usually) do.  I think I’ll go pull out my entire stash now in an attempt to jump start my creative juices and get myself out of this knitter’s block.