I will double post..dont think I wont.

I see that only blog team members can comment.
Well..I am not aquiring team members anytime soon..so..

I will double post to my old blog until blogger beta says I can get an occasional comment around here from someone other than myself.

I tried on Becca's sock..what possesed me to that I dont know..she is six..I am 39..there is a bit of difference in our foot sizes..not much but some.

Oh well..Mom falls in between Becca and me in foot size..if I stretched them to death by putting it on then..she can wear them.

But I wanted to make Mom something a bit more...womanly, as opposed to girlish.
She dresses kind of like a kid and has expressed a desire to look more grown up.
A good decision I guess at 59 and 4'9" tall.
She tends to wear things with cartoon carachters, small florals, funny sayings..kittens.
I dont mean to offend anyone..but to me that is a grown woman dressing like a child.
Only worse is those older maternity tops that manufacturors seemed to think they were making for babies..and not women having babies.
Eh.maybe you are just supposed to be feeling ultra feminine when you're pregnant.
I just felt ultra nauseated...and thank God I am young enough( or rather..I had my babies late enough..I was 33
when I had my first!) not to have had to become even
more nauseated when confronted with pastels pinstripes, ruffles, and tiny embroidered flowers in
ofcourse..pastels..as my only clothing options.

I blame my parents..

I hate when people blame their parents..

but when this all began..I was not yet my own person.
First..I will admit that I was a late emotional bloomer..
in fact, maturity is one of those things that still isn't a big part of my being ..it certainly isn't natural. I often have to force it though since I am responsible for several lives.
None the less..I have a huge safty net in my life. My husband.
HE is the actual adult..and I play grown up.
But I digress...

It used to be that I was far less my own person..and still very influenced by how my parents did things.
Now Dad did hold a good job..for 30 years...after he got clean from heroin and stopped getting arrested..no really..that is a fact. It isnt some joke entry making you think I came from trash roots..
I did.
But Dad wanted alot more for his kids.
Mom..well..
um..

Mom is one of those people who's life I am responsible for.

OK..I did go to college and I did get gainfully employed taking care of many other lives..they werent human, but..anyways.
I matured..some..Mom never did.
She seems to think she is "fun" the way she is.
Mom cant be bothered to read instructions. Mom cant be bothered to be neat or orderly. Mom cant be bothered to have the correct materials for a project...or even find out what those correct material might be. ( The woman once crocheted a blanket from a wool yarn AND an acrylic..boy was she surprised when she washed it.)
Mom does things Mom's way...screw good results.

Well..back when I taught myself to knit..

I knit a sweater first..with no pattern..and well..I needed to attatch the collar..so I devised a way.
It only looked kind of weird.
Just a tad.

I later started looking at those crazy things called patterns..and saw they wanted me to "pick up" stitches.

o..so it has a name..

I went on for all these years...until tonight..

thinking that I knew how to pick up stitches.
You know what?

Ofcourse you do.

I have been doing it WRONG!

I have been doing a "MOM" all these years!
It's sobering when I give you this info.

I am reduced to tears over some dumb assed thing my Mom has done at least 2 times a week..at LEAST.
Dont get me wrong..I love my Mom..but starting with the fact that she sent me to another country as a baby because she couldn't cope..and then turned around and had my sister..and left me there..and kept my sister..(with whom I am friends..)
well..we have a rocky relationship.
And yeah..I am finally starting to GET IT that Mom has some mental problems going on and is not trying to slowly kill me intentionally..

but I dont want to be like her.

Anyways...I now know how to pick up stitches. Mom be damned.

As for those socks..I think that particular ball of yarn must have some sort of curse on it..I have had to rip that thing about 4 times....

Yanno..maybe I cant really knit after all?
I am in a cant paint, cant knit, bad Mom, bad daughter," my poor husband", terrible friend funk.
And the only chocolate in the house is dark...ugh.

magic splotches

ugh..I wrote this whole thing out and then when I was about to finish up..Opera 9 beta crashed and I couldn't recover my post.
That's what I get for using two betas to blog, I suppose.

Anyways..I was talking about Lion Brand Magic Stripes.
I LOVE the colors..they are all so cute.
But the yarn has issues that mean it will be fine for socks for me and the girl people in my family..Bill doesn't do..stripes..magic or otherwise...
but it will not be good for the light verticle striped sweater that I have always wanted to knit for myself.
It is for one thing..rough. I have heard it softens after washing...I was thinking some hair conditioner.And it IS reasonable for socks if you knit at a guage of 28 stitches per 4 inches or less..for shits and giggles I guaged with a size 1 US and it was a bit unfriendly feeling.

But the bigger problem is in the dying. I have twice in a short amount of yarn used found undyed spaces mid stripe..and there are splotches and flecks from where the yarn of one stripe colored area touched another.
This makes it look like you are knitted in a splotch in the cases of bigger areas..and dirty when knitted up when it was just a small fleck.

I now am coming to the pic part..and will copy and paste this text. The crashing in the last attempt for pic uploading related, I am sure.



The above is a sock for Becca and my multi needle playing around swatch..NOT a guage swatch..just fooling with the yarn.
I frogged the sock, and started with another pattern that had fewer typos and mistakes in it. ( funny how someone SEEMS to be so clever until you actually READ what they wrote..but that is another issue..one I will not eleaborate upon, because I dont believe in being nasty for nasty sake.) I also was kind of astounded at how poorly I knitted the ribbing and couldn't live with such uneveness..and people would know for all enternity that I knitted that.
Anyways..see that splotch..and the kind of dirty look?

That's why for the sweater I always wanted..I will keeping searching for a self striping yarn..or just do it the less magical..old fashioned way..intarsia verticle stripes or sideways as I would do if using the self striping yarn..The world wouldn't end. I just like the less yarn and bulk with the self striping.
I also wonder..if I knitted the stuff up and down..would the stripes be cut short..and I would have kind of jagged irregular stripes? Worth playing with I think.

by the way..still waiting for my knitpicks order..oddly enough, it is taking some time. I live in the same area as they are located and assume that is why I always recieved pretty quick. But they just did send out yesterday, and FedEx hasnt even dropped it off to the US postal service yet.
This is upposed to be a time saving method..maybe just money saving..dont know. I qualified for the free shipping ( my order was well over 40 dollars. *blush* so if knitpicks can save themselves some money this way, I'm ok with that.

oooo!!

 I just ordered a bunch of yarn and needles ( bamboo DPN's! Sizes 4,5,6,7  I have little ones) and bags from knitpicks.com

several types of self striping sock yarn
wool of the Andes in ...um..it's not called black ( I am eventually going to MAKE my dream bag..felted and lined.)
and some cream colored sock yarn

and get this..I am even going to make something for..me!

yeah I knit backwards

 wanna make something of it?

Seriously..why should anyone care if I knit backwards..I mean, yes..it is completely backwards continental knitting. I hold the working needle in the left and the yarn in the right.
The very fact that I do any kind of left handed knitting seems to bother some people..why?

Nevermind the fact that I do everything that involves small motor skills lefthanded..why should it even be ANY concern of anyone how I knit?

Dont look?

But back to the fact that I am left handed.
I taught myself and I did indeed reverse everything in a picture from a book.
I am running into more and more writing and comments from people both online and real life where some think that you should teach a left hander to do it ...

right handed.

Maybe we should reverse that situation..teach a right hander to do it left handed.

hmmm....any takers?

I do sometimes have to fiddle with directions and stitch patterns..I admit it..oh horrors!
I have a much better understanding of how knitting is what it is because of that fact.
What a shame that I am forced to actually THINK as opposed to blindly follow someone elses instructions.
That's terrible..better I go completely against nature and knit with my right hand..that way I can be ready to follow the words of anyone that comes along.

I dont rant often..but this time I have.

Yanno..my husband is older..he will be 67 next month ( wanna make something out of THAT?...dont even get close to it..in my eyes he is the most wonderful man on this planet.)

Anyway..he is a switched lefty. His mind still does lefty things.
He cuts himself ALOT using everyday tools.
He was forced to go against what was natural for him.

I cant see the benefit in this.

My two cents.

Oh hey..by the way

You can post comments anon...this as mentioned is a beta blog..normal commenting will return one day.

My day job

 Knitting is fantastic...but on this blog, and on the old blog. I have failed to mention my day job.
My first love.

I'm a painter.


And I haven't been painting much. I am not very financially motivated to paint.
But my soul has suffered. I have to give up some knitting time for what is necessary to my being.

My art can be seen here if you are curious.

all a freakin' twitter ( this is gonna be pic heavy)

ooo..new blog..ooo


ok..the post I was going to make at the new blog when I FINALLY decided to get off my vitual butt and figure why for the last week that I have been having log in weirdness.

It was due to a sort of forced sales pitch to offer me the chance to do the Beta..

which not being a proper nerd, always makes me think of this ( runs to google..or maybe my pic files somewhere?):



(pic is from here)

so..yeah..Blogger is growing up..if only it would start knitting, then I could be so proud.

Anyways.

I was looking at my desk here..and counted very quickly at least ten things that could be thrown away.

About an hour and a half later I needed to reboot ..which takes about 9 years on my laptop..so I actually decided that I am going to REALLY throw away those 10 things!
And I found this..and I remember it..I SAVED it!





What in the world did I think I was going to do with THAT?
Is that not pitiful?
You know what's worse?..I still havent thrown it out.

On to less shameful blogging.

I am making an internet friend the baby kimono from Mason*Dixon knitting..for her daughter. Is it not the sweetest?
This is a finished one picked randomly from a Google search and was knitted by nsdis

Who also makes some mighty fine bags as you can see by his/her Flickr account..go nsdis!
We love you and your baby kimono/bag making prowess.



so..this is the basic idea( why do I suck so bad at getting to the point?)


And the blue is my KIP ( kimono in progress)


(I hope this works
I am now having some layout problems..but onwards and upwards..ah I think I fixed it.)

So..I made Nautie from Knitty
for my daughter's 5th B-Day. She also recieved this butterfly condo thing..but naturally turned it into a Nautie  Condo!






And last but not least..the "270" is about 2/3 done..I really feel like renaming it ..the "2/3 done"..giant pain in the ass thing that it is. But it is for my beloved Bill...he bought me an entire house and provides me with sex and entertainment 
( I make it sound like sex and entertainment are two different things!) ..least I could do is knit him..that thing..in that yarn he chose.
I swear my guage has not changed, as it appears in the photo..it really IS the yarn!
( God how I hate it.)


ok..this has been quite possibly the longest blog entry that I have ever posted.
Not sure what has gotten into me.

It's Kimono knittin' time!
Cya!