Saturday, August 30, 2008

Not knitting related



Backstory: I'm looking for a job, and am having about zero luck, and frankly am a little anxious about it.

So. The phone rings at 9am on Wednesday. I checked the caller ID -- a number I don't recognize! It might be a job!

YES!

Me (trying not to sound like the phone woke me up): Hello?
Her: Is this Emily?
Me: YES!
Her: This is Gail (YES!) from (YES!) the Obama Campaign.

NO!

It was funny. Except for the part about how it wasn't regarding a job.

Monday, August 25, 2008

A second gold!



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With two days to spare I finished the acrylic monstrosity!

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It needs buttons still but WHATEVER, I'm calling it done.

For the record, it's definitely still a monstrosity. Here! A list of annoying things regarding the "Ready to Play" jumper.

1. It's acrylic.
1b. crappy acrylic. Really crappy acrylic.
2. Flat-knit fair isle. Purling with two colors sucks.
3. The original knitter did a float on every stitch on the purled row, not every 3rd or 4th stitch, which takes approximately FOREVER. So I didn't do it. So it doesn't match on the inside. Shhh.
4. Not only are the colors unappealing, but the pattern itself... not so great. However, I'm open to the option that it might not be horrible if done differently.
5. Since it's acrylic you can't really block it (as far as I can tell). It looks a little wonky, and I don't know if I can fix it.

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Sunday, August 17, 2008

What's that smell?



Why, it's Knitting Olympics Gold!

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The shawl! She is done!

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And now I can start working on the acrylic kids snowsuit thing!

...swell.

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Isn't it nice...



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when you get some help...

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winding a particularly tangled skein of yarn?

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(I let her play because 1. I didn't think she could make the tangles much worse, and 2. it was DAMN cute).

Olympics update: only 17 more edging repeats on the shawl until I'm done!

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Knitting Olympics



In which I attempt to use the word "olympics" as much as possible.

Something about job hunting and having so much free time makes blogging seem rather unappealing. I have been knitting -- I have a sock done and its mate on the needles, but it's been put away because it's Knitlympics time!

I haven't done the Knitting Olympics before, but I have the Print O' The Wave stole for Paige's wedding, and since I'm not feeling the lace love I needed encouragement. Plus, two weeks ago I decided that if I designated it as "Olympic knitting" then I could work on something else until then.

And so here it is, and I've started working on the shawl, and ugghhhhh. Maybe the magic will come when I block it, but for now it's not my favorite thing ever.

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As it's not a new project I'm in the WIPs Wrestling group, (also known as endurance trials). I have a second project in case I finish the shawl early. It's another project I need an outside deadline for. Have a gander:

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Bernat "Ready To Play." Not my usual style, eh? Much too big for my nephew. Kitchy. Sigh. See, when I was young my next door neighbors were my second family. My brother and I were always over there being fed amazing food and playing with the kids. Maria makes the best pizza you have ever eaten.

Last time I was in Philly my dad and I went to visit, and Maria showed me the romper. It was started and mostly accomplished by a friend of hers who was very sick, who then gave it to Maria to finish it. Maria thought it beyond her abilities, and so gave it to me to finish. If I wanted to. It'd mean a lot to her friend to know it was finished. I promised to give it a shot, even though it's so many things I don't like in a project (acrylic, neon, colorwork knit flat). It means a lot to her, and she means a lot to me, so it's project 2.

Well. I'm starting to see a real problem with having the Knitting Olympics during the actual Olympics, because -- and this is especially true during the opening ceremonies -- all I want to do is watch the olympics. I mean really. Did you see those drummers? I'm supposed to pay attention to lace while that's on? HAH!