Ooh

I haven't really been updating because everything is TSBL*. Doesn't make good blog fodder. However! I finished the Baby Tart hat. Look!:



(I realized that there's really honestly nothing in my apartment that fits this particular baby hat, so it is being modeled by my very beautiful arm).

Oh y'all. As I said, I'm not so much into the knitted food (why knit food when you can eat food?), and I'm as-yet undecided about that whole "having kids" thing, but when I looked at this hat when it was finished I squealed a little, and my ovaries were all, "YAAAAY, BABY!" I am glad no one saw me.

This morning I handed it over to the comissionee, and she did the same squee thing (as did another coworker when she walked by later). And then I got my payment.

Ooh. It feels good. I kind of like this knitting for profit thing. Especially when it's baby size and all small.

Final successful cast on: July 3(ish)

Finished weaving in the ends: July 18.

The originator: Baby Tart from knitty. Smallest size.

The string: Sugar & Cream cotton in brown and Debbie Bliss Cashmerino in red.

The sticks: Size 5 addis.

Pattern shmattern: I tried to do the bobbles in cotton and didn't even get past two bobble decreases before I decided that was some crap and brought out some stashed cashmerino.

I knit the fruit filling section inside out so I could knit the whole thing instead of purling it.

There was some weirdness with the decrease rows -- it didn't work for me, so I changed it as follows:

P12, dec3, p14, dec3, p11, dec3, p14, dec3 became:
P11, dec3, p14, dec 3, p11, dec3, p14, dec3.

And I ignored the bit about "The last stitch on your needle after you complete a decrease round becomes the first stitch of the next row."

Though looking at it now I suppose it makes sense. Whatever.

*the same but longer.

In which I learn some valuable lessons and maybe use some bad words, plus some maths

My home internets is out so updating is tricky. Just so's you know.

I got comissioned by one of the lawyers in my office to knit a hat for her sister's impending baby. I sent her some options and brought in hats I'd made, and she browsed a while and then picked one.

She picked this.

Okay. I don't get knitted food, but fine, other people like it, that's cool. But good gravy y'all -- that thing is ALL BOBBLES.

All.

Bobbles.

Which is when I learned the first lesson: if comissioned, only give options of things you really, truly care to knit.

But I said I would, took a quick trip to the store for some basic cotton and got to work. The crust bit was easy enough (though I'm a little worried about the inelasticity of the ribbing), but then I started the bobbles. Those of you who have worked with bobbles and cotton before already know my second lesson.

For those of you who haven't done either of those things, you should know that 1. cotton has very little elasticity, and 2. bobbles are a pain in the ass can involve something like "purl 3 together." The conclusion that we can then draw is that cotton + bobbles = those kinda scary painful hand twinges.

I finished two bobbles and called it a night, and when I was lying in bed I realized that I had some red cashmerino in my stash. My hands are saved, and I'm one row of bobbles down! Only fifty ka-skillion to go!



So the other lesson I learned isn't knitting related, but it's always fun to share embarrassing stories, so here we go.

I, like most Amurikens, had the 4th of July off to celebrate our country's independence by setting fire to explosives and ingesting poison (mmm, margaritas! Go America!). Like any reasonable human I was most looking forward to sleeping in, and did so at length. But first I woke up at 8am with a dry mouth caused by my dear love the air conditioner.

Being a clever sort I had a glass of water next to my bed. I took a drink, put the glass back, and slept again. A second later I woke up to something dripping on my arm (which was near my head, thankyouverymuch). My pillow was wet! And dripping! And there was a giant wet spot on top of my comforter (or "douna").

Turns out that I'd, um, skipped that middle step of "putting glass back on desk" and went straight to "pass right the fuck out."

Which brings us to our second equation, which is: foofy bed + glass of water = awake stupid early, dammit.

I also might have a vague recollection of setting the glass down on the bed, as though my 1. winter-weight comforter (or "douna"), 2. featherbed, and 3. mattress were supposed to somehow keep it upright like that commercial where they put the glass of red wine on the mattress and the dude with the shorts and tall-ass white socks (why?!) jumps ever-so-carefully on the bed to be all "ooo, the glass didn't fall over." It is possible I was channeling that commercial. A cunning plan, to be sure.

In the end I turned my comforter ("douna") around, threw a blanket over the wet bit of mattress, and fell right back asleep. And later told everyone about how I spilled water on myself at 8am.

Also, Grace tagged/nominated me for this award/meme/thing:



And I get to nominate five people, so here goes:
1. Tanya! Y'all, she's been really super-helpful with my NZ trip. She rocks like whoa. And makes some gorgeous cupcakes.
2. NikKnits. She designs AND is hilarious. An excellent thing, to be sure.
3. Elinor. She always knits gorgeous stuff, posts lovely pictures, and has a doubleplus cute wee bairn.
4. Heather. Knits like the wind. Braver traveler than me!
5. Amy. She occasionally reads my mind, pattern and yarn-wise. She's knitting the Swallowtail Shawl AND the Tomten sweater (both in my queue) and we bought the same yarn at SAFF: