grrrrr

So John Lewis has two big sales every year. One starts the day after Christmas, the other traditionally starts on July 1st. These sales are where I usually pick up the bulk of my year's sweater yarn purchases, because the Liverpool John Lewis really only sells Rowan (including RYC), Jaeger and Debbie Bliss (and crap like Wendy and Sirdar, but I'm not interested in those), and these are all nice, mainstream yarns ideal for sweater-making. My workhorse yarns, if you will. JL's a nice department store, not as posh as Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, but really, just a damn good place to buy good, solid stuff, and none of that bloody sniffy attitude. And this sale is fantastic -- 50% off selected yarns. The bargains, they are mighty.

So Sunday was looking like a good day. I was going to get up, make breakfast, then ditch the spouse and go see what's on sale this time around, doubtless buy a bunch of yarn, and then wander around central Liverpool for a little bit, maybe have some lunch, then go home and roll around in a soft cloud of extra-fine merino, alpaca and silk. Spend some quality time with my stash. Plan the year's sweaters.

I just checked John Lewis's webpage to see what time they open tomorrow, so I could, ahem, be there waiting, and those BASTARDS started their sale TODAY. I missed the first charge! I am not leading the vanguard, as usual, but stuck in the freaking reserve! I base my entire yarn-purchasing life around this sale, and I missed the first, sweet fruits to be had.

This is so not fair. I want a do-over.

This bodes ill.

I have these 2 cones of Habu (ok, really, I have 4. 2 of them are for the mystery stole. Shut up! One of the other two has a stainless steel core covered in silk. YOU WOULD HAVE BOUGHT IT TOO.) Today I dutifully cast on for the gauge swatch.

And promptly fucked up.

Cast on again.

And promptly fucked up. Again. In exactly the same way. Because it turns out, mon petit dumbass that where a chart says 'yarnover' it means only 'do a yarnover' not 'do a yarnover AND knit a stitch'.

It's gonna be a looooong summer.

New depths of pitiful

I brought along the dreaded second sock (WHY did I decide to do 2x2 ribbing ALL THE WAY DOWN THE LEG, WHY) on this last business trip.

And realized, as I hit the 6 inch mark, I had no idea how long I'd made the leg on the first sock, since I was damn skippy sure I'd looked at the '9 inches' in the pattern and gone 'no fucking way', after that much ribbing, and shortened it.

I did the only logical thing, on my heavily delayed flight back home. I pounded my complimentary wine, cranked up my iPod, and passed out instead of knitting too far and having to rip, or knitting too little and god help me having to rip the heel turn I'd have done too soon.

Oh, and did I mention?

I'd already signed up for another knitalong, the Summer of Socks. So any doubts I had as to what my knitting plans are for the rest of the summer have been erased: I will be knitting socks when I am not knitting the Mystery Stole. Fortunately, the Summer of Socks is a pretty laid-back knitalong, with the rules being, basically, knit socks. No requirements as to pattern or how many, which is good, because while I can crank out a sock in pretty good time, I'm not so big on the fancy patterns. I like a good, plain sock, and I like to let the handpainted yarn do all the hard work. Socks are my mindless, portable knit, and while, one day, I may very well get around to making something like Hedera or Jaywalkers, I am probably just going to knit boring socks in pretty yarns for this knitalong.

Here's my first one:



Posh Yarn "Emily," colourway "Frog," (and my, how delightfully, violently green it is) done on five-inch 2.75 Brittanys. I like to use all five needles, because I like to evenly divide my stitches. I'm sort of cranky and neurotic like that. This is a pretty thick sock yarn, and I am using the recommended needle size, but if I had to start all over again, I think I'd take my tight knitting into account, and go up to 3.0 mm needles, and knock off a few stitches. I am not starting all over again, because I hate 2X2 ribbing with such an unholy passion that the idea of ripping out two whole inches of perfectly good ribbing isn't to be seriously considered.

There always comes a point, when I am grimly slogging my way through those two wretched inches of ribbing, that I tell myself a mere 1 1/2 inches would be enough, but I always stick it out and do the two full inches, because of that cranky and neurotic thing I mentioned above. I cannot bear to be less than generous with the ribbing, as much as I hate it. I will not knit a stingy sock! Which is also why I do the full goddamn minimum of five inches of stockinette once the wretched ribbing is done. Anything else would be cheating, not that anybody at all would care but me.

You know, I did start knitting again for stress relief. HA HA HA.

The fifth Beatle.

Or fourth knit-n-gibber, whatever. I, too, have joined in the Mystery Stole 3 madness, and will be keeping you all apprised of the progression of my mental illness. I knit, I spin, and while I don't actually gib, I do hope the fact that I married into a half share of the world's largest collection of GURPS supplements counts for something.

And yes, I am incredibly dumb.

So I'm in this arm brace, and I'm going to be for a good long while. At this point, I cannot knit on straight sticks, but I can on dpns and circs.

So what did I do?

Why, I signed up for the Mystery Stole 3 knit along! Who WOULDN'T tackle their first hella major lace project which also conveniently involves learning to read charts and beading yarn as you knit it, while festively sporting an arm brace which makes me look like Darth Vadar's prom date?

Please, if you have some land to sell in Florida (or, better yet, gorgeous hand dyed sea silk or silk or cashmere yarn), I am your rube.

Where have all the knitters gone?

We're still here. Brace yourselves, all...2 of you who read this. This blog lives! LIIIIIIIIVES.

(and this is a test of the new blogger system. Watch this space, yo)