First of the year

Log Cabin Afghan

Pattern: How to Knit a Log Cabin Square
Yarn: Naturally Tussock 10-ply, 20 balls with about 3 balls' worth left over.
Yarn Source: Fun Knits inventory counting party
Yarn Cost: FREE, baby. This was the grand prize draw. Replacement cost of the 20 balls of yarn is $11 per ball or $220.
Needle: 5.5mm bamboo circular
Cast on: December 30, 2007
Bound off: March 23, 2008
Finished size: 53" by 63" unblocked, slightly stretched
Notes:
I had an overall plan for using the colours, but it didn't work out. I had to keep adjusting the colour distribution as the strips got longer and longer, therefore using more and more yardage.

I wanted a slight rectangle shape so it would go all the way from chin to feet. I doubled the width of the strips on opposite ends, twice, to end up with 10 extra inches of length.

A lot of people have remarked that this seems like an awful lot of work. You do have to cast off the entire length of each one of those strips, then later pick up along the entire cast-off length with another colour. There were a fair few ends to weave in, but not as many as one would expect. I did a bit of (sloppy, uncertain) math and figured out I bound off 928 stitches. And that means I also picked up 928 stitches. This is give or take, but basically you're looking at about a thousand stitches bound off and a thousand stitches picked up.

But you're not doing this all at once, so it's really not a problem. It's therapeutic, really, and I would absolutely make another one of these. Maybe with different colours though.

I am completely happy with this blanket. It has this amazing soporific effect on me, its weight and warmth and sheepy smell putting me straight to sleep. Luckily, Mr HalfSoledBoots thinks it's uncomfortably scratchy, so I shouldn't need to worry about him claiming it. He's more of a polar fleece guy.

It was an awful day today. Snowing when we woke up, then rainy, dark and miserable. At 2.30 I made myself a lovely boozy hot chocolate and cozied up with my blanket.

Marshmallow courtesy of Butter Baked Goods. (That marshmallow is worth $0.80, I'll have you know. [Eeesh.])

I can't believe it is the end of March and this is my first finished object post of the year. I don't really know where the time went. But Saartje's booties are lined up for an FO post, and soon I will have my Marina Piccola socks finished, so I guess I'll catch up soon enough.

It's late. Forgive me.

My friend invited us to go swimming with her family the other day. I had planned to skip it, but unfortunately her daughter told my daughter about it and I was cornered. We were pretty pressed for time, but there's a MINIMUM of preparation necessary for public semi-nudity, if you know what I mean, and I can tell you I felt quite resentful that I had to SHAVE MY LEGS IN MARCH. It's still freaking winter, people, plus I have been using the same razor for like nine months ("not using"?) and being out of practice and on a tight schedule it's a wonder I did not end up weltering in my own blood. Then there was that eerie thing when you go to bed and you can barely feel the sheets on your legs because you're too damn smooth.

Anyway.

(Actually this might count as another "crap housekeeper" post. Also I should assure you that I am perfectly hygienic. Leg hair has nothing to do with hygiene.)

"Screen wipe: new scene."
-Andrew, Buffy the Vampire Slayer 6:4


Because I know you're all chewing on your fingernails wondering about my knitting, the Log Cabin afghan was about three hours from finishing, but the needle broke. I just got a replacement tonight. Then there are the ends to weave in, and with luck and good management (ha!) I should have the FO post for you by the end of the week.

The Marina Piccola socks were kind of neglected for a couple of weeks, but I have picked them up again and am determined to finish by Tuesday. I am almost through the heel flap, so it'll get quicker from here onwards, as the sole stitches are in plain stockinette.

I have lost one of the booties for my sister's friend, and have knit another but - TRAGICALLY - they are not exactly the same size. Why this should be, I don't know. I think I will block the small one and stretch it out, and then I will sew buttons on them and send them off. Besides, if she wants two booties exactly the same, she can no doubt find those at China-Mart. (I am being brusque and dismissive to cover up my feelings of chagrin and disappointment.)


By the way, I should ask. I have been noticing there is more Life and less Knitting happening here lately. Is that okay with you guys?

O Solo Nervoso Mio

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone - last night was.......well, pretty good for a first solo. The dancing was a bloody doddle compared to the stress of maintaining an acceptable facial expression. I kept shrieking at myself (mentally) "Smile! For the love of sheep, SMILE!!" followed in a few moments by "GOOD LORD woman this is what is called a GRIMACE, RELAX YOUR FACE!"

So basically I spent four and a half minutes alternating between a Scantily-Clad Undertaker and Maniac Stepford Harem Girl.

But the dance itself was flawless. I wowed them with my swirling veil and my skilled rhythmic zilling. No photos, I'm afraid - it was all I could do to get the assistant to figure out how to put my CD on, never mind actually work my video camera. But I'll be dancing with my troupe next weekend (on TV this time) so I may record that for your viewing pleasure.

Postes Canada Post came by the other day, and dropped off a V-E-R-Y interesting package. Here it is.

Lest you missed it, let me draw your attention to the return address:

Oh Em Gee!! Oh Em Gee!!

Here's where I say a huge THANK YOU to Mairi Macleod for writing "Value: 25 GBP" on the customs form, instead of "Value: 115 GBP", resulting in my having to pay $7.43 duty instead of $20.

And if you want to know how much $240 gets you at Virtual Yarns, take a gander.

It doesn't look like much, but.......well okay, actually it's not much. But hey - this is some quality wool. And all this wool PLUS a couple of hundred hours of my time EQUALS a pretty wrap! So if I paid a dollar an hour to knit this I am TOTALLY WINNING! Basically it's costing me nothing! Yay!

Dear Mr. Buhler: thank you for all the time you spent teaching me remedial math. I'm sure you're happy with how it all turned out. Affectionately, Shannon

I'll be swatching this baby as soon as I get some WIPs out of the way. I have promised myself to finish off the Log Cabin Blanket and the Marina Piccola socks before I start Rheingold. (I'm not talking to the lace right now, by the way. I have threatened to send her to my riding-crop-owning friend* for a bit of spankin' if she doesn't start behaving soon. So far she has responded to that just as she responded to my tears and cajoling - with stony silence. We'll see how stony she is WHEN SHE'S GOT A FEW RED WELTS ON HER BEHIND, YES YOU HEARD ME BEYOTCH, YOUR TIME IS A'COMIN.)

On that happy note, I'll bid you all a fond adieu. I'll be back tomorrow (or possibly Friday) with another addition to my ongoing meme.

* I'm sure you're all interested to find out which of my friends owns a riding crop (although I'm betting it's more than just one) but I will be coy about identifying her....though she should feel free to identify herself, should she wish it.

Edit: Thanks Annalea - I forgot to link to Rheingold.

Listen, Bambi: Actions have Consequences.

I forgot to show you guys the socks I cast on instead of fixing my lace mistake (which is currently in the corner having a time out). I went for the Marina Piccola socks again - hoping to break the Sockapalooooza hex.

This counts towards stash reduction - and frugality, too. I got the yarn from Shelley at Fun Knits, when the Group was over there for the afternoon last year. Judy Maclean, the Sweatermaker dyer, had given several tangled skeins of merino/nylon sock yarn to Shelley. These skeins had apparently become partially unbound in the dyeing process and were a snarled mess. Judy told Shelley that if anybody wanted to go to the trouble of untangling the yarn, they could have it for free.

OF COURSE I took it. I spent two days untangling my skein and winding it into a beautiful, perfectly symmetrical, centre-pull ball. After having given away my first, aqua-coloured pair of Marina Piccolas, I was determined to have some of my own, and these are them. They. Those. here they are.



Again, I'm happy with this pattern: it's easy to memorise. I also like how the colour is knitting up. I'm getting about 10 stitches to the inch, magic-looping on 2.5 mm Addi Turbos.

Oh yeah: and progress on the log cabin afghan. It's now too big to take with me anywhere, so growth has slowed considerably. It's about 4.5 feet across at the moment.


It isn't easy to get good pictures these days, by the way. It's so dark here....I went out to take some garden photos and the camera saw fit to use the flash. Outside. At 10.30 AM.

Anyway, I was poking around looking for signs of spring. And I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but white-tail deer don't like crocus. Or bamboo. And yet?

Exhibit A

There were 100 crocus bulbs in here, evenly distributed and all about 1.5" high. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the deer have pawed (or pulled with their teeth) half the bulbs out and cropped the tops off of the remaining shoots.

Exhibit B

My poor bamboo. THE NERVE. What do they think they are, freakin' pandas?

Luckily, I am a member of a superior race. These opposable thumbs come in really handy for delicate work, and taxidermy requires some dexterity.

Exhibit C



Just kidding.

That and This.

I am 34 years old. Mr HSBoots and I got married 11 years ago. And look! Just two days ago I grew up and got some furniture!



It's amazing how long these things can take. There always seems to be money for everything else except furniture, lamps, non-essential stuff like that. But I've finally had enough. After all, why else would I have a huge car accident, followed by a smallish ICBC settlement, if not to finally have a place to put the dishes?

I've been knitting on the Log Cabin blanket, but it's not working out like I had hoped. The thing is, the spiral design would have looked great if I had 20 balls of the same three different colours. Unfortunately, I have 20 balls of about 7 different colours. I would have done better to have knit a traditional log cabin, with a dark half and a light half, divided down the diagonal axis. But I'm not ripping this out. It's a 38" square so far, and it just keeps growing.



I won this yarn at the Fun Knits inventory party - six hours of pure leg-crampy, hip-ach-ey hell, punctuated by hourly yarn giveaways and crowned with the best pizza I've ever had. I was lucky enough to win the Grand Prize, which was the yarn for this blanket. It came in kit form, actually, to make a cool afghan made up of blocks of intarsia.

Intarsia.

My skin crawls just typing that word.

So I opted for the multi-coloured log cabin throw instead, and I must say I love it despite its confusion of hues. It's amazing how tempted I was to buy yarn so I could keep the colours consistent. I firmly squashed the urge, though, and have been working on accepting the fact that, whatever its colours, the blanket will be fantastically warm.

D'you know what I hate? Every single weekday, the postie drops off the mail. But instead of going down Next-Door's driveway, along the street, and up my driveway, Dude just ducks under the trees and crosses our two lawns. See the evidence?



And he comes round at 9.30 AM, just when I'm sitting near the front window checking my email and drinking my cuppa. Every single morning I about have a heart attack when a man's shape suddenly looms up directly outside the window. I don't know why I am still surprised when he does this.

So if anyone from Postes Canada Post is reading this and knows what policy he's violating (I DO know they're not allowed to cross your lawn) please email me and tell me who I should address my letter to.

In case there is anyone still reading this profound post, I would like to publicly thank Penny, of Random Thoughts from Another Dilettante, for choosing me as the winner of her two-year blogiversary contest. I got this delicious banana yarn - as well as some tasty UK goodies - a good while ago and kept meaning to post about it.



I haven't completely decided what to make, yet, but I do have some ideas. I saw a beautiful scarf in Fun Knits while I was there counting yarn and trying not to gibber with crazed frustration, and I think I'll beg the pattern off Shelley. It looks like just a yo k2tog with edge increases/decreases to create a cool bias thing - only about 8 inches wide. It's nice and I think it'll look good with this yarn. Thanks, Penny!

PS: Thank you so much, everyone who voted for me in the Canadian Blog Awards. I must say, the thought that people might be coming here to check whether the blog is any good kind of gives me writer's block. ("You don't say.")

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EDIT
Uh oh. The Yarn Harlot just asked everybody to go vote for her friend who is nominated under the category "Best Personal Blog".

So thanks anyway guys. I guess I can hang that belly dance costume back up now.
: )

You can take the girl out of UVic, but......

This box arrived at my house today, long before it was expected.



Note the pattern on the tissue. It can only mean one thing:



There IS a Doctor in the house.



And not a moment too soon.



The handknitted socks feel right at home.

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Oh, yeah: here's some knitting. Progress on the Log Cabin (note the colour change - such is the nature of stashbusting) and the Cap Shawl.