bun fun

Don't tell mom- but we've aquired a bunny. He comes from a pretty crappy situation so in a way we feel like he's just discovering alot of things. The former owner told he was 14 (!) but after spending almost a week with him, I just can't see how thats possible! He's an english spot bunny, possibly mixed with something dwarf because of his small size and different ear shape. His name was Ingrid (after a well known feminist/activist) but after a friend made the comment that he looked like a Rorschach painting the name fit and now he's Rory for short.

Anyways, tonight I made him a bunny box, which is basically just a cardboard box stuffed with his evening's veggies and well padded with newspaper. He's been going at it for hours, which is a great way for some playtime (where I don't have to wonder what he's up to) and a good way for him to use his mind a bit. He's been chin rubbing all over the box (bunny for 'i like this box and hereby claim it as my mine).

What could possibly be in there?



Sometimes you just get newspaper...



Sometimes you get a piece of lettuce...



But sometimes you get a piece of a favorite treat, apple!



After eating an apple, its very important to groom or you might get sticky paws



Jack doesn't understand the excitement of the bunny box...



and Rory doesn't understand the excitement of a stuffed sheep that squeaks



In other news, its snowing and supposed to snow all night long so hopefully we'll wake up to a couple inches tomorrow!

Little here, little there

I'm finally landed for awhile in one place. Its making me very melancholy and I fight the urge daily to hit the ground running and blow this joint. DC has limited attractions, which is my nice way of saying that I hate this city. It just doesn't suit me. I've been in Pittsburgh a fair bit lately, which is a place that I've come to love (and miss). Much more me. Think abandoned buildings, dumpsters galore, free housing, 3 rivers, bike paths, cool kids and railroad tracks. Well, I start work on Friday (selling Christmas trees! I can't tell you how excited I am. I love a weird job) and I'm hoping that when my days are more occupied I'll have less desire to flee. In the meantime I've been slowly churning away on some projects lately. Mom's Mountain Colors hat is finally finished.





No pictures of mom in it, but from all accounts she loves it.

Also finished are new favorite knee-highs, from a pattern in my head. Made from red Soxx Appeal (my new favorite sock yarn!) with contrasting heels and toes:



And proof positive that I'm a total nerd, my Elizabeth Zimmerman seamless yoke sweater with train track design, because, you know, I just really like trains.





Just for fun, a mini sock. I really want to make a thread sock now on 0000's.



Finally, what's on the needles. The Clessidra's, which I have fallen head over heels for. The color of these is actually pitch black, but I'm posting an overexposed photo so that you can see the detail of the pattern.



These are my first cabling project and I'm really enjoying them. Yarn is Soxx Appeal, size 0 needles (I always go down needle size because apparently I have skinny calves and I can't stand my socks to droop).

And a project that has made me curse more times than I care to publicly admit, the Swallowtail Shawl in Malabrigo Lace. Seriously dude, I have a major brain blockage when it comes to reading these charts. I knit about 5 rows, then have to rip 3 rows back. Needless to say, progress has been slooooow. I'm a little pissy that I've been so thwarted by such an easy project.

evil, evil Ravelry

At first I thought myspace would never get me. No way, uh uh, I won't ever have a myspace page...... I caved. I love my myspace page. For so very, very many reasons. I worry if I don't check it for a couple days. While I was slightly less resistant to the idea of a ravelry page, I still held out for awhile. Just another internet thing, another thing I won't update regularly enough to keep anyone interested...... I caved. And dudes, let me tell you, I'm glad. I won't even begin to list the reasons why its so friggin' radical, and if you are one of the ravelry converts you will already know what they are. But sadly, this oft neglected blog just gets more and more, well, neglected. So it may not be a 'proper blog'. I may not post enough to qualify to be on the Fiber Arts Bloggers webring, but damnit, this sucker has been going for many a year and if nothing else its an amazing scrapbook of my progress as a knitter. Though ravelry may be my exciting new mistress that I'm often seen galivanting around with, she will never inspire the comfort and self expression that the old wife that is this blog will. So while I've been brazenly flirting with Ravelry, have I been productive? Yes, yes I have. And when I figure out how to use my damned flickr account pictures will be forthcoming. In the meantime, I'll be out doing the tango with ravelry..... (ravelry id: lolitalu)

progress

Dude- its a warm and beautiful day today. We've been pounded with rain and near to freezing weather for the last couple weeks. Rachel called it the other night as we were walking to the beer store. There was a crisp of ice on the grass. "You know", she said "We've had so much cold weather that we are due for one of those unnaturally warm and sunny days." And guys, she was right. These are the days that sustain you through the grey winters. As though the sunny weather weren't enough, I also have a whole bevy of knitting projects on the needles, and I'm pretty stoked on all that. First we have the spiral boot socks from the summer 2006 issue of Interweave. My aunt knit these and she said that they didn't stay up, which seems to be the consensus on ravelry, so I decided to make them into thigh highs instead. The pattern is developing and while I know alot of knitters hate to work in black, I just think there is nothing quite like the look of all those pretty little stitches in that dark shade.








Next up is a pair of socks that I started for my good friend Brian. The yarn is Opal Aktion in a brown and green colorway that is supposed to make a nice fair isle design, but I don't think that the ribbed leg that I haved decided on is going to show it well.



Damn, I just realized what a bore I am project wise........ my next project, and this one is a real shocker..... is socks. Red knee highs, to be exact, using the Knit One Crochet Two Soxx Appeal, which is a fascinating yarn because it is exxxxttteeemmmelly stretchy. Like, beyond stretch and on into boing.



Finally a hat in some of the most beautiful (and expensive!) yarn that I've worked with for awhile. Its Mountain Colors Mountain Goat. This is my mum's Christmas present (whooops) and it is knitting up gorgeously. Silky smoooooth and I can tell its gonna be warm like what.



Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go enjoy some sunshine.

working class

I've been on, errrm, lets call it a 'work hiatus' since last February. Its been really nice, as I travelled all summer and got to spend some time doing just about nothing. I've either worked or gone to school or both consistently for the past 6 years, so having the opportunity to not do either was a real relief. But summer passed and winter started and my opportunities for travel dwindled and my money ran out, which meant it was back to work with me. I couldn't believe it when I was searching for a job, but I found myself really wanting to work. Its been such a long time that I was almost kinda craving the responsibility and schedule. I really didn't want to just accept any old job but I was afraid that on such short notice I would end up taking some terrible holiday retail job selling clothes in the mall for some corporate owned chain store. Hell on earth. I started checking craigslist and querying 'yarn' and then one day, like a beam of light I saw "Retail Yarn Store". Oh joy! I have retail experience! I love yarn! I love knitting! So naturally I sent over an e-mail, had an interview, did a trial shift and bam! the owner of the shop Linda hired me to work part time at one of my favorite Portland shops, the Yarn Garden. The Yarn Garden has been around for almost 9 years and is a well established and respected Portland shop. (Not one of these new, snooty, better-than-thou even though we've only been open for a couple months shops like one might find on Alberta Street...ahem) During my trial shift I essentially walked around for 3 hours touching yarn. Mohair, romney, cotton, bamboo, silk, sock yarn, bulky yarn, novelty yarn, lace weight, worsted weight, fingering weight. Imagine the possibilities. The Yarn Garden has three rooms of yarn, one room of needles and books and a cafe, at which I can keep supplied on a consistent stream of coffee. Yarn, coffee, knitting. Need I say more?

a landslide

I have a whole slough of pictures in lieu of actual text today. It might make it more interesting for you, and it's certainly easier for me. Let the cavalcade begin...

Lets go in chronological order here and start back at Thanksgiving. We don't really celebrate it much anymore, and I don't support the origins of the holiday as a whole, so we just got together and had family time, although we did eat dinner together. Here's Nana, me, Mom and Jane



And here's the vegan fare that I brought. Its a vegetable stuffed field roast that accompanied the vegan mashed potatoes that I made.



On to good times with Rachel. She gave me a new stick and poke.





It says 'pma' which is short for positive mental attitude. If you're a punk fan you might get the reference to the Bad Brains song of the same name. I love the irony of having both 'ftw' and 'pma' tattoo'd on my body. Since neither of us is really drinking right now, we went to the mall to get our makeup done before karaoke. We also tried on expensive clothes we could never afford and would never buy.



I think I look a bit Tammy Faye Bakker-esque but Rachel says I look fine. We also scoped out some serious footy pajamas.



Lest you think this post is thus far devoid of fiber, I stumbled upon this piece of knitwear and took a covert picture because I liked it so much that I wanted to copy it. The back has a sort of kick pleat in it.



A couple days ago I got coffee with my friend Lance and forced him to hold some knitting. He took it in good stride and I got a very chin-y picture of the two of us.



Later I worked on the damn sock that I threw across the room. Here's how the sock looked with the dropped stitches and before I ripped it back:



And how much I ripped back, alongside the rather depressing pile of yarn:



You'll be glad to know that the sock is now finished, but that I was entirely too bored with it to even take a picture of it. Poor underappreciated sock.

A couple posts ago I posted a nice, if somewhat optimistic picture of me knitting in bed. The past couple of weeks, however, it has gotten sooo cold that I can no longer stand to wear pretty little nighties anymore and have gone straight into sweatsuits.



Jack, poor little sissy of a dog, gets so cold at night that I've started not only letting him sleep on the bed, but under the covers as well.



Its a good thing I have this to keep me warm:

I did a very bad thing...

I realize that now that I'm 24 and a half, temper tantrums are somewhat unbecoming. I also realize that when non-knitting friends are over, throwing my knitting across the room while squealing and cursing and finally ending up in the fetal position is not something that they may understand. But the toe of that fucking sock just really got my goat and I have to say that, all in all, I am completely unrepentent. You see, I was knitting along merrily while my friend was playing guitar. I was only 6 rows away from done when all the sudden I realized I'd dropped a stitch somewhere. Damn, thought I, just when I'm about to be finished I have to take one more step. Alas, I'll grab another needle and be done with it. While pinching the slipped stitch and reaching for another needle, two whole needles, needles just waiting to be knit, slipped out and hit the ground, leaving 14 loose stitches that all started slipping away before I realized what was going on. I stopped and stared at the chaos for a moment. I looked at all the loose little stitches and how, naturally, they hadn't slipped in any regular fashion so that I would have to pull back at least a couple inches, more than likely to before where I started making reductions for the toe. I felt a little feeling, like a sprout pushing up through the ground, start down in my guts. But damn if that little sprout didn't grow quick, and suddenly I felt the most overwhelming desire to be as far as possible from that sock as quickly as possible. I struggled for words to describe my feelings but all that came out was a high pitched 'eeeeeeeeeeee' and with a force previously unknown to me the knitting was sailing through the air, over the coffee table, through the dining room door, across the dining room table, where it landed squarely in the dog's bed. Luckily, there was no dog in the bed at the time. Unable to face the knitting and the reality of the fact that I had just two handed tossed sock, yarn and needles a good 20 feet, I turned my head away, drew my legs up beneath me and got as small as possible. Then I did what every good tantrum deserves. I pouted. I refused to acknowledge that the incident had happened. And when my non-knitter friend kindly suggested that I pick up my knitting I firmly said "No". He resumed playing guitar but after awhile he looked over at me, now rubbing my temples, and said "McKenzie, go pick up your knitting....now!" A fit like that needs a firm parent voice, and he has a good one, so all I could do was get up and fetch my knitting, where it was reposing but looking a little bruised. I shoved it back into its case a little roughly and have refused to look at it since. Which I suppose it a sort of exaggeration, because I tried to look at it last night to see if I could repair the damage, but I can't find it. I've looked everywhere for that damn case, but it seems to have disappeared, which is odd for a bright green thing to do. Maybe I wished it out of existence...

an uninteresting sock

I am forcing myself to finish up a bunch of projects that I have abandoned somewhere along the way. Its tedious. Most of the projects were ditched for fairly justifiable reasons, but they are taking up project bags and yarn and needles so I placed on momentary moritorium on yarn buying until I get some stuff finished. So in the spirit of forced knitting, I am finishing up a boring ol' pair of socks that I started about a year ago and then hid at the bottom of my stash due to a misturned heel that I didn't want to rip back. Really, there is nothing great or interesting about these socks. So, here is a boring picture of a boring sock.



I'm almost done with the gusset now, but I'm barely plodding along. To really capture my mood about finishing them, here's a picture of the sock with our rotten jack-o-lanterns that finally got so soggy that one day they just sorta fell with a splat off the railing of our porch.



Bleh.

On an upswing, a friend of mine has a boutique down the street from my house where she sells handmade art, crafts, clothes and jewelry. She's asked me if I'll knit some stuff up for her to sell in the shop. I'm terribly ecstatic about this. It is probably one of the best compliments my knitting has ever recieved. Alberta Street has an event called Last Thursday, which is a sort of street fair of handmade goods and debauchery that happens, as you can probably guess, on the last Thursday of every month and she asked if I could get some stuff to her by then. Thats a mere two weeks. Sure, said I, boldly and ridiculously. I'm foolishly confident sometimes.

fun and done

Its Halloween time! I have never quite outgrown wanting to carve pumpkins but my themes have changed since I was a little girl carving happy faces on my jack-o-lanterns. My friend Rachel came over the other day to carve the pumpkins that we had dumpstered from Trader Joe's and we decided we would both carve our lip tattoos onto our pumpkins;

Here's Rachel carving 'salty':



And here I am carving 'FTW':



The finished products:





I also carved a pumpkin that has my train tag on it, which is 'dot'. Aside from enthusiastically creating jack-o-lanterns, I've also been enthusiastically knitting. I finished the lace Montana socks and I am so stoked on the way they turned out.









Pattern: Fiber Trends Raindrop Lace Socks
Yarn: The Black Stitch sock yarn, 100% wool
Alterations to Pattern: made socks 10" rather than 8", eye of partridge heel flap

Hooray! And Happy Halloween!

quest for the pattern

I always prefer to buy locally if I can, so I've been seeking the Creatures of the Reef shawl pattern at all the shops around here. Since moving to this area, I had yet to go to the fairly new shop that is just a couple blocks down the street from me. I'm a creature of habit and when I get comfortable with a shop, I tend to stick with it. Its now quite a haul to get to my old shop, so I thought I'd give the new shop, Close Knit, a try. Now, normally I would abstain from talking shit on any person or business within the knitting community, but I've had two bad experiences in that shop now. The first time I went in just to check out what she carried for needles and patterns. I picked out an intermediate sock pattern and took it up to the counter. The woman acted as if I were an absolute beginning knitter and a fucking moron to boot. "Oh", she said, "I think you probably don't want this pattern. Have you ever even knit socks before?"

Listen bitch, whether I have or haven't knit socks before, whether I'm a beginner knitter still shopping the bulky aisle or a seasoned pro working delicate lace, don't talk to me in that tone of voice and don't question my choice of purchases without any prior knowledge of who I am or my knitting ability. Even after I'd explained that I'm quite comfortable with socks and all the skills needed to knit this particular pair, she proceeded to explain sock knitting to me in a tone usually reserved for 5 year olds. I bought the pattern and left swearing that I would never go back.

Silly me, while looking for the shawl pattern I decided to give it another go. As I walked in the front door she practically lept from her stool and blocked my entrance into the store. "I don't allow dogs." she snooted while looking down her nose at Jack, standing quietly beside me. "Oh" I replied, trying to smile and be friendly against her snobbish demeanor, "He's a service dog." (you'd think she might have figured this on her own, dressed as he was in a 'service dog' vest) She looked again at Jack and asked if there was somthing she could help me with. This was not her being friendly, but more of a 'I'm not moving from my position to let you in the shop and I'd prefer to just get this over with right now before you bring that thing into my store' type of question. I asked her about the particular pattern I was looking for and she told me that she didn't carry it. I asked her if she knew of any shops that might and she told me she didn't. "Try the Naked Sheep.", she said while turning on her heel and walking away dismissively. Fine, I thought, I will. I will go to the Naked Sheep, where they have always been friendly and kind, and I will never return to your store.

As it turns out, I didn't go to the Naked Sheep, instead I took the drive out to Carlton, OR and Woodland Wool Works. I rarely make a trek out there, but I'm always gratified when I do. WWW has been around for a long time and is a well established place that supplies for knitters, spinners and weavers. They have a mail order catalog that I recommend you get a copy of. Anyways, out to WWW, where they not only have the shawl pattern, but 14 copies of the pattern. I resisted the temptation to buy some Addi-Turbo lace needles until I had gone all the way through my circulars to make sure I didn't already what I needed. I left with just the pattern and a copy of the new catalog. Luckily for me it was a fine fall day, with plenty of sunshine, the smell of crisp air and brightly colored leaves stirring along the country road there so the drive was just a part of the adventure. Sometimes its nice to get out of the city.

This morning I've been cursing a bit. I went through my needles and I don't have either of the circulars that I need. Shoulda bought those Addi-Turbo Laces.... Maybe I'll venture over to The Naked Sheep. I will not, however, be going back to Close Knit.

Aquisitions and Observations

Am I the only person who doesn't take a laptop to the cafe? I went for a cup of coffee this evening and out of 7 people in the cafe, I was the only person not staring at a computer screen. I took a dog and some knitting.



I'll take that and a cup of coffee over a computer any day of the week.

Aquisition wise....well, this is a long story but it starts with cleaning out my mom's garage, the guru coming through with a really cool gift ages ago and ends with a reavowal to organize my knitting. Awhile ago my aunt and I saw this awesome vintage knitting organizer in a magazine and I lusted for one similar to it. Lo, when Christmas came around there was one sent to me from the guru. I've had it in the garage with my yarn (gasp! yarn in a garage?!) for awhile and finally dug it out and organized it. I also put my stash into nice, clean plastic boxes, compiled all my knitting books and patterns and collected all projects, which is all for another blog. The point here is, and I say this with enthusiasm, this thing is rad. Fucking rad.



All your needles can be slipped into little pockets around the exterior, and inside is plenty of room for current projects and works-in-progress. There's even a little zippered pocket inside for small stuff.



Jealous? You should be. Which provides a natural introduction to my current new cool yarn.



What you are seeing here, is a cone of 1,260 yards of Zephyr Merino/Silk laceweight yarn in Sage. My mom, who is undermentioned on this blog, partly out of spite for the fact that she never reads it, bought this for me while she was in Lawrence, Kansas. The Guru told her about Yarn Barn and she popped in to see if they had the yarn I needed to knit the Creatures of the Reef shawl. Right now I'm just keeping it in my room and occasionally rubbing it against my cheek. I can't find a local store that carries Fiddlesticks Knitting patterns, so I think I'll just adore it lovingly until the pattern comes in the mail. Anybody know if I need to do anything special to it since its on a cone and not already balled?

Intimate Portrait Of A Knitter...

...or, How A Sock Got Finished In A Week And A Second Sock Was Begun.



Winter in the pacific northwest means lots of cold, grey, rainy, drizzly days. If you're a poor early twenty something such as myself, that means months of snuggling in bed, under blankets, or in sleeping bags. Since none of us have any money to pay for the heat to be on, and we live in old drafty houses, our houses are freezing all winter long. Our house was built in the early years of the 20th century and I would venture to say that the heating system hasn't been updated since around then. We could run that thing into the ground and it probably wouldn't make a lick of temperature difference in any of the rooms. Most of my knitting, therefore, is done these days as the early morning light pours into my bedroom window and straight onto my bed. If I get up early enough, I can squeeze a couple hours of effective knitting into a day while saving on heat and electricity.

I have reached a certain zen while working on these socks, which I think is a symptom of lace. Reciting a lace pattern over and over is akin to chanting 'ohm'. When I first start, I have to look repeatedly at the pattern, just to check up and make sure I don't do anything stupid. A couple of repeats in, however, and I've got it down and I'm in my happy place of knitting where I can achieve might feats, like finishing 5 perfect inches while watching an episode of World's Deadliest Catch with my roommate. (I live with all boys. Sometimes they get control over the remote.)