Love Askew

I haven't finished (heck, haven't started) weaving in the ends of my first Askew, and already I'm working on my second one. Here's the first:



I made the back the same as the front, laced up the sides instead of seaming (gods, how I hate seaming), and crocheted straps. Once I weave in the ends, I'll take pics to show y'all how well it fits. I love it!

I love it so much that this happened:



Another recycled sweater, another pattern modification, and another excuse to use my precious ebony needles. Have I mentioned how much I hate seaming? This version of Askew is going to be seam-free. I cast on twice the number of stitches called for in the pattern, with a marker at the halfway point so I remember where to decrease.

Cheryl? Thank you. This is a great pattern. It's quick, simple, fun, and very, very cute. :)

How It Began

A lot of people ask me how David and I met, so I've decided to tell the story here. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable.

So there I was, in county lockup... no, wait, wrong story. *ahem*

Two and a half years ago, I had a strong and sudden urge to make an Aran sweater. Everyone has that urge at one point or another, right? I went online and started looking for inspiration. Somewhere in my search, I stumbled across this post. My thought process went something like this:

That's a nice sweater.
That's a cute guy wearing the nice sweater.
The cute guy made the nice sweater?!?
I'm bookmarking this blog.

Shortly after I started reading his blog, I commented on a post. I was new to the knitblogosphere back then, and anyone who had made something as big and fancy as a sweater was a superhero to me. So when David emailed me to thank me for the comment, I was shocked. And then he told me that he'd checked out my site and thought I was an interesting person.

Oh. Em. Gee.

We emailed back and forth for a bit, and then started chatting on AIM. We found that we had a lot of common interests and we got along really well. Over the next year or so, we got to know each other better, so last spring when David said he was coming to Rhinebeck in the fall, I told him I would meet him there.

In the months leading up to Rhinebeck, we chatted almost every day and became closer friends, with a hint of romantic interest. Even though I hate phones, I let him call me, and we spent hours talking. We were both very excited about meeting each other... and the fact that it would be at a fiber festival was a wonderful bonus.

It was the Friday of Rhinebeck weekend. I got out of school at six, scarfed down some dinner, changed into clean clothes, tossed my bags in the car, and raced off to Poughkeepsie. Two and a half hours later, I got to the hotel and knocked on his door.

We hugged. And hugged. And hugged. We made a little small talk, brought my bags in from the car, and then he gave me this look... and he kissed me. Soft, tender, slow... the kind of kiss that makes you wonder if you're dreaming, and know that if you are, you don't want to wake up.

*sigh*

Where was I? Oh, right. At some point we went down to the lobby and hung out with the big group of knitters and spinners who had gathered there. David worked on his kilt hose and I worked on my dead muppet. Later on we went back to the room, and... fade to black. ;)

It was an amazing weekend. We discovered that our chemistry is even better in person than it is online (and it's pretty darned awesome online). It was, by far, the best first date I've ever had. It was also one of the longest; a little under two and a half days. Going home was difficult, but I knew I'd met someone very, very special, and I looked forward to seeing him again.

We've been together for eight months now. I'm madly, hopelessly, head-over-heels in love with this man, and I'm thrilled to have him in my life.

And I never did get around to making an Aran sweater. I guess I had a clever muse.

Come Into My World

Askew doesn't look like much yet, and I still haven't finished the last bits on Nicole, so here's a look at my corner of chaos.


(click to embiggen)

1. classmate's shirt, in need of mending
2. Essential Tank pattern
3. surcoate
4. stash
5. Nicole
6. Essential Tank yarn
7. container of crochet hooks
8. Askew
9. Askew pattern
10. old FOs
11. Lopi bag
12. swift with ex-sweater yarn
13. Lace Style
14. this box

I Askew

Nicole is finished. Well, mostly finished -- she needs some elastic and some buttons and some ends woven in, but the knitting, blocking, and seaming are finished.

But you don't get to see her yet. Yep, I'm evil like that. I have been triple dog dared to post pics of me wearing it, and a dare of that magnitude isn't something I can just walk away from. I'm going to have David take some pictures when I visit him again (in less than three weeks!), and y'all will see them when we get around to uploading them... which will be after he removes Nicole from my body and has his way with me. (Still wondering about the deadline, Patty?)

In the meantime, I'm about 5/8ths of the way through a(nother) new project: Askew. I'm making it out of one of the recycled sweaters, and using the stealth needles, with which I fall more and more in love with every stitch.



I'm altering the pattern a bit. To keep my OCD happy and my butt covered, I'm making the back the same as the front. To make it a little more delicate, I'm probably going to use braided/cabled I-cord for the straps. To make it more sexy, I'm thinking about lacing it up the sides with black satin ribbon.

Askew is such a quick, easy knit that I'll be finished with it this week. Then I'll focus on another new project, one I started last week after I bought Interweave's Lace Style. I'll take pictures when it's longer than three inches.

In other news, I have a cold, and it's not David's fault this time. Bleah. To all the SnBers, I'm sorry I've been gone for so long. The free time I've had hasn't matched up with the SnB schedule. I will try to make it back soon.

Tell Me Lies

That black-on-black sexiness I told you about two weeks ago? Here it is:



The pattern is Nicole from White Lies Designs. I've probably knit enough stitches to be almost finished with it by now, even though I'm only about four inches in. Several size issues, attention issues (I can't do the border while watching television), and an email to the designer later, I think I've got the hang of it. I have four weeks to finish it... wish me luck.

Ribbit... Ribbit... Ribbit

Behold, the unraveling of sweaters!







The average right now is about 2000 yards per sweater. This is so much fun!

Goodwill Hunting

My mood has been a little off lately, so I skipped two creative gatherings this weekend and indulged in some retail therapy. This kind of mood-booster is usually a bad idea, considering my budget, but I decided that looking for specific items at thrift stores was okay. On Saturday I went to the Salvation Army for their 50% sale and got a skirt and a pair of shorts for a total of $3.50. Today I went to Goodwill and did some yarn shopping.

Yup. Yarn shopping. At Goodwill. As some of you know, there are those among us who buy cheap sweaters at secondhand stores, unravel them, soak or steam the yarn to un-kink it, and knit the yarn into things we'll actually use. Now, I've never actually done this before, but the sale at Goodwill (and the selection of sweaters) was too good to pass up.

I present: the haul.



Total: $7.92. (If they hadn't been on sale, the total would have been almost $50.)

From left to right: 55% cotton/45% acrylic (size L), 60% cotton/40% acrylic (size L), 100% cotton (size XL), 100% cotton (size S), 100% cotton (size M), 100% lambswool (size XL), 55% acrylic/45% cotton (size XL), 53% linen/47% cotton (size L).

Let the Great Unraveling begin!

Sexy

Is this not the sexiest thing you've ever seen? Susanne's ebony circs with Ella Rae "Silkience". When the pattern arrives, I'll tell you what it is so you can see how perfectly the sexy yarn and sexy needles suit it.

Sexy. Seriously.

Fiber High

I've been on the receiving end of a lot of generosity lately. Sunflowerfairy gave me yarn and needles, David gave me a camera, and now Jenny from the Tobacco Valley SnB has given me fiber as encouragement to get back into spinning.

So I've been spinning. A lot. And I love it.

On Thursday, Jenny gave me all of this (wool of various breeds):



plus another bump that I spun up immediately:



Friday night, I planted myself in front of the television and spent an episode of Bones and most of While You Were Sleeping spinning the bump on the bottom right of the first picture.



It doesn't look like much there, but I covered most of it with the stuff I spun last night:





The second batch of white is part of the bump on the right in the first picture. I'll probably spend this evening finishing off that bump and maybe pre-drafting the brown.

I need to find my niddy-noddy.

Tagged by Sunflowerfairy

The rules:

Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog. Here are my facts:

1. The five books on the shelf next to my desk that don't have a fine layer of dust on them are: a dictionary, a thesaurus, a French/English dictionary, The All New Joy of Cooking, and A Basic Course In American Sign Language.

2. I electrocuted myself on Tuesday. Nothing major, just a stupid mistake while welding. Lesson learned: turn off the electricity before making your arm part of the curcuit.

3. Porcupine Tree is one of my favorite musical groups.

4. I used to write Star Wars fanfic. Slash fanfic. I also wrote a recipe for Bantha Burgers. And I waited in line for four hours to see Episode 3 at the AMC Empire theater in NYC.

5. I love thunder, lightning, and heavy rainstorms, but I hate dull, drizzly days.

6. I have more hats than I know what to do with, but no scarves.

7. I raised silkworms for a few years. In their fifth instar (their biggest size before they start spitting out fiber), their chewing sounds like a light rainfall.

I tag (and hope they'll play along):

Blithering Knitiot
Enchanting Juno
Jason Knits
Lauren's Knitting
PoMo Golightly
Sheepish Annie
Sweater Project


[Edit: Sorry about the pattern issue, folks. My webhost had some issues, so I've moved the pattern, and it should work fine now. Here you go.]