Needles & hooks

Adventures in Harlotry…

…or “I saw that on the Internet!!”

Last night The Giant Glove and I went on a little excursion to meet The Yarn Harlot. In the middle of the afternoon, I exchanged vehicles with my friend because The Hand won’t fit in my Honda Civic. We loaded it into the back seat of her extended cab pickup and I climbed up into the largest vehicle I have ever driven for the 90-mile trek to Webs.

Because there were 600 people registered for the event, it was held a little distance away from the store at a theater. I got there around 5:15 and took a seat near the back. My goodie bag contained a ball of red Cashmerino Aran and pair of Boye straight needles. I pulled out a smaller glove to knit on and settled in. At 6pm, Stephanie took the stage and entertained us for about an hour. She took questions for another half hour. At the first bit of final applause, I was up and out the door so I could drive The Hand to the store and get in line.

When I got to the store, the employees were all thrilled to see The Glove. And as luck would have it, we (The Glove and I) were first in line for the signing. I sat down and waited. I fielded a number of questions and The Glove received a lot of attention.

Around 7:45, the signing began. A few people had been placed in a priority line for various reasons and they were allowed to go first. I held back and shielded the Glove so their Harlot time was not hijacked. Then it was my turn. I handed her my book to sign and said “Hi Stephanie, about 2 weeks ago you caused my blog traffic to explode when you posted a link to this…” and I pulled The Glove into her view. She was speechless for a minute and looked like this:

Then she finally said “I guess it wasn’t Photoshopped!”

She climbed over boxes and came around the table to take a photo of me sitting in the chair holding her Sock (I’ll link to her photo when she posts it). And then I got a picture of her sitting in it:

She signed my book and I moved The Glove off to the side, in front of a display of weaving shuttles, while I got down to the more serious business of shopping. On occasion, I came back near it to see people taking photos in or with it, and I overheard lots of “I saw this on the Internet!” I talked with people from time to time about it and was implored to take it on the road to places like Rhinebeck and MS&W. I suppose if I’ll be in town for the Boston Knit-Out this year, I’ll have to borrow the Truck again.

Around 9pm, I had paid for my purchases (that in a later post) and picked up The Hand. It gave a wave to the sales staff and I loaded it back into the Truck and drove home.

Already I’ve heard from one person who had a Glove Encounter last night. If you took pictures or wrote about it, I’d love to know! Send me an e-mail or leave me a comment and I’ll link you below.

Close Encounters of The Glove Kind
Robyn: Make sure to check out her baby boy cupped in the palm of The Hand.

Comments: 8 — Posted under: Absurd, yarn safari

Yarn Intrigue

Is there enough of this yarn:

To make a pair of baby socks to match the Baby Surplice Jacket and Hat I posted yesterday? There’s 10 grams. It’s anyone’s guess.

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

Talk to the Hand

I’m thrilled that so many of you love my giant glove!

In response to some of your questions in the comments:

Where can you get your own hand chair?
You can get your own here in a variety of colors. There are other places too, just Google “hand chair”, but that one seemed the most affordable. Sorry, you’ll have to knit your own glove though. And no, I don’t have a pattern, I literally made it up as I went along.

How long did it take to knit?
In all, it probably took me a month to knit, in fits and spurts. Remember - big needles! I’d work on it a few hours a day while I was page proofing over the last month. My eyes were reading, my hands were knitting. Throughout this process, my desk was littered with marking pens, empty Pepsi bottles, drafts of the document I was working on, stitch markers, and random pieces of my Options set.

Will there be a spreadsheet?
Ha haha ahahha ahahahh ahahha hahah hah ahhah ahah…ha.

Will you go into mass production?
See above.

Second glove syndrome?
For me this is a one of a kind. And really, there’s only left hands. Although, my co-worker brought a second one from home for the photo shoot, which was at a local farm ice cream stand. And when he set it down, before I dressed it, I did gasp “Oh no! That’s the other hand!”.

Is that the largest glove ever knitted?
Until someone proves me wrong, I’m going to say it is. As for the record books, someone should start one. Wonder if we can get sponsorship? The Rowan Book of World Knitting Records?

Who has “a few” hand chairs?
My co-worker. Quite a wacky guy. I could tell you stories. Never seen a food item he wouldn’t eat (we got him Bacon Cheesecake at The Cheesecake Factory once and he loved it). Has an office filled with wacky toys (I got him a chicken chucker, he’s got a box of wind-up walking sushi). Freely provides food to anyone and everyone (there’s always something chocolate in his office). Part of the team of “food scientists” that I hang out with at work (we don’t work with food, we just try every new candy and cookie offering out there - in the name of science!; we make liquid nitrogen ice cream regularly). I got him a gummi t-bone steak that has a place of honor on his wall. I adore him.

Why did Hillary climb Everest?
Because it was there.

Some Notes
Sadly, cameras are not allowed at my workplace, so there aren’t any “in-progress” shots. It was quite a production. Almost everyone who passes my office notices the hand, many of them noticed the glove-in-progress as well. In the ~10-month gap between fingers 1&2 and the rest, everyone was quiet about it. Then I started finger #3. And by finger #4, a couple of people asked if I was working on it again. One of my supervisors even came by one morning as I was putting it back on the hand and expressed relief that it wasn’t gone for good — he’d passed my office the night before and noticed it missing because I’d taken it off to do some knitting at home.

This effort highlighted the beliefs about yarn in the world. One person who stopped by said “Wow, that’s a lot of wool”. Yeah, because wool would be affordable! Someone else said “well, it would be cheaper if you used cotton, right?” Um, no. No, this would not have been possible without the wonders of modern plastic. With Caron acrylic, the total cost was around $30. However, wool would have been a lot more pleasant to knit. The yarn was absolute murder on my hands.

Finally, I have to give a real shout-out to my Knit Picks Options needles. Doing this without an interchangeable set would have been a royal pain. I used (and broke) both of my 60″ cables (and successfully super-glued them back together). I swapped out my working size 11 tips with smaller ones to move stitches onto a holding needle so that I could fit it back over to try it on for sizing. I used (and broke) a smaller cable when I was knitting across a smaller number of stitches at the narrowest point of ribbing. The only thing that would have made the Options better was if I had a cable coupler - because I really did need more than one 60″ cable to get it around the palm when working that part of it.

Comments: 14 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

Why Hillary Climbed Everest…

Now I show you the secret project I’ve been working on at work while I’ve been page proofing.

A co-worker had a bunch of these:

And so I did this:

There’s a lot of photos, so I’m using a cut. Click for the full story…

Update (5/2/07) Welcome everyone who is coming from the Yarn Harlot! Thanks for all your wonderful comments. Before you ask questions, read the ones I’ve already answered: Click here for Giant Glove FAQ
Read the rest of this entry »

Comments: 204 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

24 Hours of Knitting!

Yesterday I had my big deadline. I submitted final proofs on 1600+ pages. Today, I went to work and hung out in case there were questions on my edits (and there were a few) and to write up the reference pages and to eat instant ice cream because it was Son’s day (yesterday was Daughter’s day and I do mean instant ice cream - heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, liquid nitrogen; stir for a minute and poof yummy ice cream).

But I digress.

Tomorrow I am not going to the office. I’m pretending it’s Sunday (when I was at the office for way more hours than I should have been). And I’m not going to do any house selling or divorce stuff. I’m just going to sit and play with yarn projects (to be fair, getting a handle on my UFOs and stash is a house-selling project).

Anyway, for the next 24 hours, I’m doing nothing but yarn, food, and sleep (okay, I have a massage scheduled tomorrow morning, but I think I count that as sleep). And blog. I’m going to cram a whole month of knitting and knit blogging into 24 hours. Just watch me.

And it all starts……now!

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Almost Random, Absurd

Where do I claim my yarn expenses?

So, I’ve spent most of tonight going through divorce paperwork. We’re using an online service to complete most of it, and we agree on everything and there’s no support issues, so we thought it would be straightforward. And then it turns out, that our income level puts us in a category where we have to complete the Long Form of the Financial Statement. So instead of just asking how much you each make and what your retirement accounts are and such, it wants me to fill out a freaking weekly budget! How much do I spent per week on “food”, and “toiletries”, and “laundry”, and “lottery tickets”. I’ve flipped through all 7 pages and don’t see a specific entry for yarn. Is that “vacation” or “entertainment”?

Anyway, no time for making new stitches tonight. So I’m showing you the Geisha Wrap:

And a close-up:

I didn’t drag the Ott-Lite downstairs, so the shots are a little muted. There’s 4 repeats there, 1.5 of which I did last night. It’s 20 inches long now, it’s supposed to be about 52″. I might make it a little longer than that. So, I have a few more repeats to go.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

True Confessions, March 2007

Also known as WIPELE (Works In Progress Exceed Life Expectancy).

Okay, I want to finish stuff. In order to do that, I have to guilt myself into how many WIPs I actually have. The first step is admitting you have a problem.

1. Baby Cardigan: Showed you that one yesterday. Needs some seams. And some pom-poms. And well, then there’s those ends.
2. Mermaid Sweater: She’s soooo close. All the pieces are knitted. Shoulder and collar seams are done. Applied i-cord on front is done too. I attached one sleeve last night, and it went smashingly. Then I just have the i-cord on the sleeve cuffs and a few ends to take care of.
3. Rockin’ Sock Club Kit #3: That one I started. I got through about 2 repeats on the cuffs. Then I picked it up again and knit a few more rows. And forgot that you’re supposed to alternate pattern row with a plain knit row. So now I have to figure out how to recover that one.
4. Giant Green and White Secret Project: I got about 1/4 of the way done and then got stalled.
5. Entrelac Tam: The main entrelac portion is done. Just needs a ribbed band.
6. Felted Cat Toys: About half are knitted. None are felted.
7. Grandmother Shawl: Needs to be blocked and fringed. Oh, and I promised I’d write up the pattern.
8. Ribby Cardi: Back and one front finished. 2nd front almost finished. Then it needs sleeves.
9. Stuffed Turtle Toy: About halfway through with the body.
10. Geisha Wrap: Into the 3rd repeat. Of, oh, 8 or so? Maybe?
11. Knit Flat Gloves: Most of one glove.
12. Tiny Felted Sack: Started this one the other night because a friend wanted me to show her how to do it. So I had to have one I was working on as a demo piece.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Knitting, Absurd

What Not To Wear: U.S. Customs Edition

I visited a number of yarn stores when I was up in Vancouver last month. I had intended to take careful notes and write up another safari post. That fell through somewhere. But there was one store where I bought tangible souvenirs, so I can document that. One must-see store was Urban Yarns. I got a couple of balls of something silky with a nifty scarf pattern on the label. But I also got this fantastic girly T…

Front:

Back:

If you can’t read the photos: “She was quite a nice girl…”; “until she started all that knitting”.

Of course, I had to get the shirt. And I was so excited by it, that I wore it home the next day. Home on the plane. On the international flight back to Los Angeles. The poor wisdom of this didn’t hit me until I was going through Customs/Security at the Vancouver airport. Where the front of the shirt was visible through my open cardigan and jacket. And the security guard asked me what it meant, and I proudly showed off the back as I removed the jacket and zipper cardigan and placed them in the x-ray bin. And I realized I marked myself as someone possibly risky, sporting pointy needles, trying to board an international flight.

Fortunately, everyone had a good laugh. And I got to return to the United States. And I got to keep my needles.

Comments: 3 — Posted under: Absurd, yarn safari

Mmmm…Spam

I was just doing my regular perusal of the comment spam that Akismet has caught for me and it turns out, there’s a new tactic. Instead of random gibberish or mounds of stupid links, one contained a joke. And it made me chuckle. So I share it. But not the link that was associated with it.

The athiest
An atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat at least a hundred feet into the air. The monster then opened its mouth while waiting below to swallow man and boat. As the man sailed head over heels and started to fall towards the open jaws of the ferocious beast he cried out, “Oh, my God! Help me!” Suddenly, the scene froze in place. As the atheist hung in midair, a booming voice came out of the clouds and said, “I thought you didn’t believe in Me!” “God, come on, give me a break!” the man pleaded, “Just seconds ago I didn’t believe in the Loch Ness monster either!” “Well,” said God, “now that you are a believer you must understand that I won’t work miracles to snatch you from certain death in the jaws of the monster, but I can change hearts. What would you have me do?” The atheist thinks for a minute and then says, “God, please have the Loch Ness Monster believe in You also.” God replies, “So be it.” The scene starts in motion again with the atheist falling towards the ravenous jaws of the ferocious beast. Then the Loch Ness Monster folds his claws together and says, “Lord, bless this food You have so graciously provided…..”

Comments: 2 — Posted under: Absurd

Oddities of Yarn

First, I really don’t know what to say about this.

But about this, I’ll say: If you can dream it, you can knit it.

Comments: 5 — Posted under: Absurd, Dyeing