The Thrifty Knitter

Here is one of many partial knits that I’ll probably never finish:

Just a heel. I just needed to make sure everything was right in my pattern (the pattern isn’t for booties, but I wanted to get right to the business at hand). But look how cute it is. And how sturdy and no-nonsense and cozy. It sure would be nice if it one day became a real sock–or better yet, half a real pair of socks!

Look what that little bitch Tinkerbell did to my hand! Up until a few weeks ago, I really loved that watch. It used to have this dangly rhinestone that took a whole year to fall off. But about a month ago, the stainless mesh of the band started kind of going crazy. First it warped to such a degree that it would no longer unbuckle, which wasn’t too bad, because I keep my watch loose. Then it actually started to fray, with little angry sprigs of wire poking out and scratching me and catching on any fabric I brushed. Then it started to fray a lot more, and I kind of succumbed to the claustrophobia of knowing it wouldn’t come off, like it was some evil thing that would tighten uncontrollably and tourniquet my hand off. And I need that hand! I tried bending down the frayed metal with pliers, but it just got worse, so I tried to cut it off, but it wouldn’t budge (if you’ve ever cut cabled wire, you know how much harder plied wire is to cut than solid wire—this is the same, multiplied into cloth), it just got all warpy and jagged and scary looking. I panicked and just tried to slide it off, which of course didn’t work, and it got all jammed around my hand at the thumb, so I had to run and slather my hand with lotion and suck it up and pull it off and try not to run over to the Anschutz’ screaming Get it off me! Get it off me!

Anyway, it came off and all’s well

Oh, and look at this fantastic book! I got it last week with my store credit from the Yarn Barn. It was expensive ($30), but I think it will be very worthwhile. It’s in Japanese, but it’s well photographed (and Kelly Sue is taking Japanese! How handy!)

I also got a lovely bone crochet hook (I wanted abalone, but they didn’t have the size I needed) that I’ll have to show later. And stork embroidery scissors, that I’m sure to lose in the next week. But not yarn, even though I didn’t officially join the stashalong until that night! Which is actually really nice, because normally I would never have treated myself to expensive books and tools, hoarding the balance for yarn. I’m proud to say I bought no yarn for personal use, even though I had an extra $20-something remaining. Only something to swatch for a replacement for a yarn that’s discontinued for my book. Work yarn that isn’t even fun is spirtually not yarn, it’s a pain in my asshole. And, as it turns out, it’s not that great of a substitute, either (it’s pretty & works for the letter of the pattern, but not quite the spirit of it). Oh! The yarn’s Katrina–does anyone know a good Katrina substitute? Not Fixation or Candy; ideally something shiny. I’m thinking of trying the Oze Breeze, but because I’m a cheapskate, I’m balking at paying shipping on just one ball (and I can’t buy myself any to make it worth my while); besides, I think it would take too long to get here.

I present: My stash.

Normally all the stuff on the floor is hidden away int he cupboards, but I thought I’d walk it out and face it all at once.

But I always know what I have, because I keep a reference ball (tagged with the total number of balls) in the top cupboards. Well, theoretically, anyway. Sometimes I forget to make a reference ball, and sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. I was quite delighted and suprised at some of what I found when I pulled it out.

The only mitigating factors I can produce are that a couple of bags are for freelance projects, a couple of bags hold works-in-progress (but most of those are in another place), and a couple of bags were left over from my book.

I’m a born collector. I can’t just get what I need of anything, or even what I might conceivably need, ever. I have to get it all.

 

 

I’m such a moron. I guess I’m still in swatch mode. Instead of simply blocking this little choker scarf I just finished, I washed it. Why did I do that? I think it will bounce back, mostly, but the stitches aren’t quite so perky as before.

Earlier today, I did the same thing on the scarf I made Angele, and cursed myself for it. It seems to have recovered, although I was nervous before it dried because the yarn (Valley Shelburn) contracted on itself and got all stringy. But it seems to fluff back out as it dries.

Procrastination is certainly the mother of invention. I can only stare at the pages of my dummy for so long before I have to shift gear. But I can’t get too engrossed, so I’ve been making tinykins. This one is made of a little ball (maybe 30yds) of leftover Hello Yarn. The colors are very Push-Up; my picture does them an injustice. I haven’t decided whether to line it with some yummy Aurora 8 I have on hand so it’s all snug and wintry or leave it plain so it’s springier… Either way, if I’m super-productive today and finish, say 10 things on my list, I get to go pick out some buttons for it at Dunn’s tomorrow.

And gain with the cables. What’s with all the cables? I’m preoccupied with a big, plain cables. I tried to make some little ones, but they left me cold. (My cables are a yawn, but these made me flush with envy. I think he may well be the luckiest man alive. Sigh. Everything she knits makes me feel deeply ashamed of my inadequacy. Oh, well!)

Thumbing through my books, I just realized this is very similar to a pattern in Odd Ball Knitting, so I must’ve cribbed the idea from them. So no pattern, because I like the book! (Not that it takes a pattern to knit a circular tube, but it’s the spirit of the thing.)

I just cut off my hair for summer, but in the wintertime, I’m always annoyed with the hat/ponytail conflict. And since I’ve moved to the cold place and wear hats all winter (even to bed, often), I’ve had to struggle with ucky winter dandruff–which clears up if I ditch the hat for a few days, but then my head’s cold! Headbands are a dandy solution to both problems.

They’re also a great showcase for fancy yarn, which can get drowned out in a bigger project. I had two minute balls (a mere 11 grams total) of yummy yarn that got stranded after last October’s knitathon.

Attaching a Silk Flower:

Snip off the stem of the flower. Gently pull the petals apart and look inside. If there are several plastic shapers, take the flower apart and remove them–they add weight and make the flower too 3D. Then reassemble the flower and tack it together with a few stitches of sewing thread. Often there’s a plastic center capping the whole thing together. It can pop out with no stem to latch onto, so It’s good to make sure the thread goes through or over it when you tack the flower together. Picking a flower with an elaborate, partially hidden center makes this easier, as the thread gets hidden in the little stamens or whatever they are, and the whole thing gets further obscured by petals. If there’s any extra stem sticking out after your skeletal surgery, trim it down flush with the back again, and tack that baby to your headband with a half dozen stitches near the center of the flower, artfully concealed with petals.

This one was the medium ranunculus type flower from a spring of 3 at the Hobby Lobby. The spring was $1, half off from $1.99. I’m going to use the remaining two (big & little) clustered for a clip or a pin.

I’m working on the first dummy of my book. That’s the first copy with a layout. It looks like this:

Actually, it was just a big stack of 2-page spreads, but I kept mixing up all the pages, so I bound one side. It’s pretty fun to see, although there’s so much to correct. I’m making the corrections in the margins and then marking 2 sets of notes with colored dots. Bright green dots are for my publisher, blue dots are notes to myself.

While I go along, I’m reknitting anything that looks questionable. I also want to try to find some alternate yarns for a few garments, because a few have already been discontinued. The big yarn companies are so fickle, fuckers.

I joined the stashalong and officially set my first goal yesterday. I’m going for 2 months stash fast, with the one free day a month. I’m hoping to skip the free day for my first month, but the siren song of Rowan closeouts might be too much to resist. In any event, I must wait 2 weeks (June 6) before taking the free day. Maybe by then the urge will have subsided (or the closeout will be depleted).

My current replacement addiction is listing all the things I want to make & the yarn I already have that I can use for them.

Ouch. I know I really could fall farther, but it’s time to grab for the life raft. I just emailed to join the stashalong. And I didn’t even buy any more at the Webs sale! (But I did buy 2 bags of yarn on ebay first…)

I think I’m going to follow the advice and start with just a month. It shouldn’t be too hard, because I’ll be reviewing my book dummy for the next 2 weeks. I’ve been very good about sticking to task. But then, I’ve only had it since Friday.

Aside from that, it’s freelance patterns. That will quickly devour 30 days.

And I almost made it in one skein.

But that’s my fault, not the pattern’s. It called for 150 m & my skein only had 92.

I made the smallest size, and, realizing I was getting close, I worked just 2 rows of seed on the sleeve, then BO in seed, and 3 rnds of K1P1 rib (written with an inch of ribbing & sleeve trim), and came like, seriously 1.5 yds away from getting it all out of one skein of Noro Kujaku (color 22) I had from a Webs closeout. If I hadn’t been greedy about the ribbing (or if I’d started the ribbing at the bottom instead of the final purl row & then worked around the top, turning with short row wraps…), I would have made it.

It fits well, even though I really made it a bit smaller than my size. But that doesn’t matter, because it’s going to my mom & she has a slightly smaller frame than me (and tremendously smaller in the hips, but this isn’t an ass shrug, so I guess I didn’t really need to bring that up).

It took about 4 hrs. Detail of the back:

The yarn’s a little bright for me, but my mom loved it & I made it for her, so perfecto! I think it’s skimpy enough in the pit zone not to get too hot. It’s for the same purpose as the little ponchettes I posted, to cover up sleeveless tops so she can wear summer stuff in her office.

Flat:

My dummies came today, so I’d better get to work, but afterwards, I’m making myself one with some old Cotton-Ease I have. Or maybe I’ll make a madball out of my drawerful of wool ends… Also, just kept knitting the back & cast on an equal number of stitches & added on a tube, you’d have a darling summer sweater. Maybe that’s what I’ll do, actually. I have I think 2.5 sk of tomato red Cotton-Ease & I know they have way better yardage than Noro…

It’s my last night before the first dummy of my book arrives and I have to be all hard-working. I’m going to see how far I can get on the One-Skein Wonder shrug I just bought from Glampyre.