Questions and pictures

I... tagged myself? from Elizabeth's interview. Here are the questions from her (she kindly let us select from a list):

What is the thing you like most about yourself? The least? Extra points if it's two sides of the same coin!

Empathy. It makes me kind, thoughtful, and a wicked gift-giver. I can sense the mood in a person or in people and adjust how I act to accomodate it, which can make conversations really comfortable. And it makes me so scared of hurting people's feelings that instead of being clear and direct I get really passive aggressive and wimpy.

I could write a book about this.



Bebe socks for SteveAndDeb's impending bebe

If you could go on vacation anywhere in the world, money is no object, where would you go and what would you do there?

I'd visit my friends. My dancer friends in Scotland, Beth in Korea, Lauren in Bulgaria, Paige, Dan, and Chelsea in Chicago -- all these people all over the world. When I got there I'd take them all out for excellent food and wine/beer.

Alternately, I'd like to have a jet, pack up my friends and take them to somewhere in the Caribbean for lounging purposes. I'd also fly out a band and caller and have nightly contra dances followed by late night swing dances. Knitting in the afternoons, scuba diving in the morning. That'd be so sweet!

Is there a sport or adventurous hobby you've always wanted to try but haven't? If so, what is it?

Part of me wants to try sky diving. Confront those "omg fear of heights eeeee omg" feelings. I don't know if I'll ever do it, though. I thought my plane coming in this weekend was descending a little too fast and I still have red half-moon marks in my arm from my nails. Ow. I can't imagine what jumping out of a plane would be like. I imagine I would pee myself.

Tell us about your most embarrassing moment, but only if you want to.

Oh, but there are so many! How about when I was in a play in middle school, when I didn't bother to learn my lines and so had to read them from the script, hidden in a manilla folder?

Or when I was in a play involving the wearing of roller skates? I was standing there listening to someone talking about something when I realized I was going to lose my balance at any minute and there was nothing I could do about it. And, just as I'd predicted, one of my feet shot out and I stumbled -- but didn't fall. A miracle! When I went backstage one of the techies asked if it was true I'd fallen. Nice.

And, of course, the time I was caught plagerizing one of the American Girl stories in English class in elementary school.



Emily's mitts! I definitely did not fake the blocking by sticking my ipod shuffle in the bottom of the top mitt. Cough.

What is your favorite game to play?

Wink! (Also inexplicably spelled winq). It's a game that (generally) young Quakers play at gatherings to get out energy and some sexual frustration. Here's how it goes: everyone but one person has a partner. The person without a partner is the "winker." Everyone sits in a circle and your partner is either in front of you or behind you (if the group is small it might be a line with the winker sitting 10-15 feet away from everyone else). The winker then calls out a few people sitting in the front row -- either by name, shirt color, or anything else they might think up. It's the job of the people called to get to the winker and kiss them somewhere above the shoulders. It's the job of their partner to keep them from doing that by any means except tickling or major wrestling holds. Including clapping your hand over their mouth. And there's no standing up.

My favorite rule is that "ow" means keep going, and "stop" means stop. Awesome, awesome game.

Want me to interview you? Leave a comment. A comment with a joke. Just 'cause.

The sox:
Final successful cast on: May 14, 2007

Finished weaving in the ends: uh... somewhere around the 21st, I'll say.

The originator: My basic sock pattern (pretty close to the Yarn Harlot's in Knitting Rules!), without the slip-stitch heel. Ribbing continued down the foot and into the toes.

The string: What is likely Rowan 4-ply soft (I have tons left even after making 1 adult sock and 2 wee bebe socks).

The sticks: Size 1 (ish) dpns.

Pattern shmattern: Cast on 38 with a tubular cast-on.

The mitts:
Final successful cast on: Got me.

Finished weaving in the ends: Somewhere around the 25th?

The originator: Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts.

The string: Malabrigo worsted in natural and some variety of green.

The sticks: Size 1 (?) dpns for the ribbing, size 2 addis for the body.

Pattern shamattern: Well, my gauge was crazy. And I think I've guaranteed myself some eventual carpal tunnel. I reduced the amount of ribbing at the top to make it more reasonable length, but that's about it.

How sweet it tasted

Look what I'm making:


This picture is also known as "Look! I figured that 'aperture' thing!"



Three living strawberry plants, one eensy-teensy strawberry-in-the-making.

And,



Slogging through second mitt syndrome. It's going fairly quickly -- I'm at the thumb gusset (er, not in this picture). I gave up when I realized I had ribbing and reattaching the yarn for the thumb. A lot of work for maybe an inch and a half of knitting. That's right, I'm a turkey.

And my wrists aren't so happy about worsted-yarn-on-size-2-needles, so I'm taking a break.

I still make stuff!

There was some noise from my apartment complex people about replacing my cabinets (they're working on revamping the apartments to make them super ugly -- I don't get a say in this). I cleaned out my cabinets, put things in boxes in the living room, and left for work.

I came home to this:



Not too bad, right? I thought so. Until I saw this:



*whimper*

Since they're not done I can't do anything to clean up yet. Oog.

My favorite part? The giant rotten hole under the sink. Observe!



They just painted over it! Hooray!

But now, on to the knitting content.

This is Emily! (my name is also Emily!)


Photo credit: Shell

She's from Pennsylvania, like me! She's living in Edinburgh, like I used to! She's a lindy hop lead and follow, like me! And she's a knitter!

She rocks. She rocks like whoa. and when we met in Scotland and made note of all (all) the coincidental similarities we decided that we needed to do a KAL. I'm halfway(ish) there:



Made with malabrigo in natural and, um, green of some variety. They're dense and feel like fleece. Mmm. Very good for the bitter Scotland winters. Shame it's May. Trying to get gauge with anything else was a beast. I really hope they fit.

It was my first time with the tubular cast-on which was thwarting me more than a little bit. Seriously. I cast on, counted, started knitting, and a few rows later found that there weren't enough stitches. Grrr.

And then there were all these poochy bits on the cast-on:



Turns out you pull that out after you start the ribbing. Heh. Excellent.

And the sweater that refuses to be photographed well. It's a deep maroon. Mmm, kathmandu aran tweed... delicious...



There's more on the needles, too, which comes with some news!

A better, easier tubular cast-off

So I'm doing a KAL with someone (more on that later!) and we're making Eunny's endpaper mitts. I was at the bind-off last night and was having a bunch of trouble with the technique that Eunny links to. I had to unpick (^&%*$%!!!) the first few bound-off stitches a bunch of times which really doesn't do good things to single-ply merino.

My sad, sad bind off:



Finally I bound off about four stitches and went to bed, because omgz so many expletives and PROFANITY at the stupid bind off big dumb jerk. And I couldn't sleep. And couldn't sleep. Visions of bind-offs were running through my head when I had a Thought. A potentially Clever Thought.

In case I forgot it in the night I jumped up, pulled out some crap yarn, and cast on 8 stitches. A (very) few rows of ribbing and I tried my idea.



It was pretty! It was easy! I was feeling brilliant. Ready for excitement? This is the super-easier tubular cast-off:

Slide knit stitches onto one needle, and purl stitches onto another needle held behind the first. Kitchener those puppies together. Admire beauty. Feel crazy smart.

But, of course, there aren't Really any new ideas in knitting, and the bind off is presented as the knit-one-purl-one bind off on knitting help.

Still, though, I'm pleased as punch that I don't have to do that darned sewing one anymore.