Needles & hooks

When do I show up on the side of the freeway?

I was reading my gMail last week, which always has a bunch of ads discretely placed around the window, usually topical to what your mail is about. Well, it’s my Needles & Hooks account, so it’s got a lot of mail about knitting and the ads follow. Usually I see little 1-line ads at the top for Knit Picks or other knitting stores.

However, a new one caught my eye: John Malkovich Knits.

Sadly, it’s not a blog and he doesn’t appear to actually make anything himself. It’s a line of clothing that he has designed, and there are a few sweaters. But I spent far too much time afterwards chanting “Malkovich, Malkovich”.

I found another odd ad today as well: Save the Sheep. Apparently, wool is cruel. Maybe not “fur is dead” cruel, but “no matter what it’s called, any kind of wool causes harm to the animals from whom it is taken.” Don’t visit the link above if you don’t want to see distressing pictures. I wonder what Dolores would have to say about that.

Myself, I think it’s time to go home and rewatch Being John Malkovich while working on my Cedar Creek Socks.

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Absurd

The Guessing Game

A couple of weeks ago I showed you part one of a project I’m working on and invited guesses. I didn’t get any, but here’s part two:

And part one again:

Last night I made a lot of progress on my Cedar Creek Socks. I’m up to working on the heel flaps. I’m working on both at once using the magic loop technique. What I noticed is that my tension has loosened a bit between the last time I worked on them and this time, because my stripes have gotten a little thicker. I’m also amused that through dumb luck, the stripes appear to continue across the two socks. So I took a photo:

Looking closely at this photo, I’m noticing a secondary striping in the greens. I hadn’t realized there were actually two shade intensities. But you can see it if you look for it.

Comments: 7 — Posted under: Random, Rockin' Socks

Rockin’ Along

Last night a did a lot of work on my Rockin’ Socks. They’re coming out to be a little tight. Last night I said I wouldn’t reknit. But I think that now I might. Head back to the row after finishing the picot hem and redo on a size larger needle. Unfortunately, that would change the striping pattern, which I quite like right now. *sigh* Maybe I’ll work on Mermaid a little and see how I feel. Or maybe I’ll keep going and hope the yarn relaxes a little after washing.

Here’s what they look like. The photo is a little dark, tonight I’ll take one under the OttLite. I want to get some close-ups too, because the tiger eye bands look really nifty.

Comments: 1 — Posted under: Rockin' Socks

This is a test…

Some people have reported that they are unable to leave comments on my posts. I’ve learned that it’s an issue with WordPress, a “feature” added to prevent spam comments. Unfortunately, it returns a lot of false positives. So I’m testing something with this post. Leave a comment if you feel like it, I’ll probably delete the post eventually.

Update: Turns out, disabling that “feature” does allow people who couldn’t leave comments before to comment. So now we see how much icky comment spam I get. If it gets too bad, I suppose I’ll have to look for one of those human-verifier plug-ins. Maybe I can find one with good words.

But in the meantime, I look forward to hearing from more of you.

Comments: 7 — Posted under: WordPress

Working with “Giant Needles”!

Last night I started my Rockin’ Sock Club socks. I showed you the Rainforest Jasper Socks that Rock yarn in my last post. The pattern is called Cedar Creek socks and has a neat picot cuff top and a ribbed and diagonal stitch leg that continues onto the top of the foot. The pattern suggested size 1 needles, but when I swatched, I determined I needed to use size 0. So I had to scrounge around to buy new Addis.

Armed with my size 0, 40-inch Addis, I cast on for both socks. I did a knitted cast on this time. The start of the pattern works a sort of hem like you see in sweater hems and sleeve cuffs where you knit a few rows, knit a turning row, knit a few more rows, and then knit the next row together with the cast on. Knowing this kind of hem is easiest to do when you pick the cast on row back up on another needle and work it like a 3-needle, I pulled the size 000 needle out of my stash to pick up the cast on row. After making my way around and finishing the picot edge, I proceeded to work a couple of rows of the leg pattern using only the size 0s. And found myself thinking, “wow, these needles are huge!” Imagine what I’ll feel like when I get back to Mermaid on size 2s!

Thank you everyone for your input on my eBay situation. I’ve decided that I’m going to write the seller an e-mail stating that what I received was not what was advertised and offer that they can rectify it either by sending me the actual patterns or giving me a full refund. And then we’ll see what happens.

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Rockin' Socks

Advice Needed

A couple of weeks ago I bought the knitting patterns for Wallace and Gromit dolls on eBay from a UK seller. The patterns arrived yesterday and it turns out that I received photocopies of the original patterns, not the actual pattern leaflets. Now, had I realized they would be photocopies, I would not have bid. Partly because I wouldn’t want to violate the copyright and partly because I wanted a collectable. And I certainly would not have paid the price I did. I looked over the auction listing carefully and they are all listed as “knitting pattern”, no clue that I would be receiving copies. And technically, I did receive the pattern, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. Sure, they are full-color photocopies and were packaged nicely in clear sleeves, but they are also on very thin paper such that if I wanted to make working copies to protect my “originals”, they wouldn’t be very legible.

Now, I guess I could chalk this up to buyer-beware and live-and-learn. But I’m not quite sure what to do. I need to leave feedback. Do I leave negative feedback? I had scanned their feedback before I bought. There was a lot and it was overwhelmingly positive. The 4 neutral ratings received were non-descriptive and I note that some were for the same item I bought yet they are clearly listed as being photocopies. There are others where the recipient clearly received the original pattern (and paid less than me!).

Do I leave negative feedback? Do I report the seller to eBay for selling copies of copyrighted material? Do I threaten all of this and simply ask for a refund? What would you do?

In happier news, yesterday’s mail also brought my first shipment from the Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club. Included with the pattern and binder were a bumper sticker, a button, and a mini-skein of this month’s yarn. To bolster my spirits, I wound up the yarn into a ball right away. Here’s Rainforest Jasper:

The folder included a nice essay about gauge and color pooling. And pointed out that because more than 300 (!) of us will be working on the same pattern and yarn, the way the different socks turn out will be an exercise in knitting science! Loving science, I grabbed my size 1s and cast on for a gauge swatch. And I had 7.25 stitches per inch, far less than the specified gauge of 8.5 per inch. So I have to go get a size 0 needle. But the browns and golds in the mini-swatch looked like Tiger Eye, so it was really cool. Can’t wait to make the socks!

To continue the evening on a happy note, I stuffed the last bear I made for Phyl’s Bay Window Bear Drive. Making the bears was a lot of fun, and I was able to use up a bunch of small random balls in my stash. The only thing I didn’t expect, was how long it would take to sew them up and stuff them. Anyway, here’s the bear family that is going in the mail tomorrow:

They look so happy!

Comments: 11 — Posted under: Almost Random, Rockin' Socks

Does your cat think you’re spending too much time knitting?

This one does….

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Absurd

My Weekend: A Photoessay

Comments: 9 — Posted under: Mermaid

Ugh.

Okay, I found a major error in my Mermaid spreadsheet that affects how the shoulder stitches work. I either completely missed that instruction when I was translating for the spreadsheet, or I mis-interpreted it. The good news is that it solves something that was nagging at me about the shoulder edges. And that everyone I’ve heard from after telling them about the error has been gracious and kind about it. The bad news is that I have to do a major overhaul of the spreadsheet. And that I’ll probably end up ripping out what I have on Mermaid and redoing it because it will seriously bug me otherwise. *sigh*

So instead, I’m focusing on the fact that my Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club Package is now in the mail to me.

And today I had the first lunch knitting working group at work. Last night I made a bear for Phyl’s Bear Drive. Today I started another. Green pants and a green and white reverse stockinette striped sweater. Very appropriate to the day.

And we’ll be making green ice cream here at work in a little while. And probably freezing a few items with liquid nitrogen. That will make me smile.

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Almost Random

This post is worth 4 drinks…

Well, I finished or made progress on a number of things: a new striped Whirlygig Hat (from stash), the prototype Whirlygig Scarf, the primary knitting for a number of felted catnip mice, more stripes on Mermaid. And I even took a few photos, but I forgot to transfer them from my camera, so there are none.

But I’m also a bundle of outreach activities….

I joined Project Colorswap. It’s a permutation on the secret pal idea where the package has to fit the month’s color theme. This time is orange and yellow. I’ve got a few ideas already.

I’m starting a Knitting Working Group at work. The occasional lunch meeting where we’ll meet, snack, and knit. In the beginning, I imagine I’ll be teaching people to knit. Others will just work on whatever their main project is. Eventually, we might knit for specific projects, like Phyl’s Bear Drive.

I’m also going to be taking a project class with a woman I work with. Turns out the project is the Swallow Hill necklace I got the kit for at Stitches West. So I’m all set for that. Should be coming up in a couple of weeks.

Also, I mentioned this before, but I signed up as a charter member of the Blue Moon Rockin’ Sock Club. And it turns out, there’s a knitalong for that too. And the yarn for that gets sent out tomorrow! I have to make sure I have some needles cleared to get started on it!

Comments: 0 — Posted under: Almost Random