Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Jo took off her bonnet, and a general outcry arose, for all her abundant hair was cut short.

“Your hair! Your beautiful hair!” “O Jo, how could you? Your one beauty.” “My dear girl, there was no need of this.” “She doesn’t look like my Jo anymore, but I love her dearly for it!”

As everyone exclaimed, and Beth hugged the cropped head tenderly, Jo assumed an indifferent air, which did not deceive anyone a particle, . . . rumpling up the brown bush and trying to look as if she liked it.

--Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

Ever since I first read that passage as a young girl with waist-length hair, I’ve wanted to sell or donate my hair for wig making. The last time that I went from very long hair to very short hair, I inquired about donating my hair, but could not find information about it. (That was before everything-you-need-to-know-and-some-things-you-don’t was on the Internet.)

BEFORE



AFTER



I did not cry, though my heart was racing and I was trembling when I felt that first cut of scissors. My agony was prolonged because the hair was cut in three fat ponytails which each took the hairdresser a long time to hack through. It did not help when the hairdresser in the next station looked over and yelled, “OH MY GOD!!!”

And the hair? It’s on its way to Locks of Love.

Ravelry!

The secret is out! Ravelry is here and open-ish for business. What is Ravelry? It's a knit and crochet community that's amazing. Thanks to S t a c i , I was privileged enough to be one of the early beta testers. I could go on an on about how wonderful the site is, but well, Rachel beat me to it. I told her about it, she joined (of course, she's copying me again), and now she's telling the world so that she looks way more cool than I am (perhaps because she is, but for now I can complain a little). Anyway, you can read Rachel's wonderful description of the site on her blog.

As for me, the only coolness that I can share is this:

Yup. that's me. For now, the #2 Raveler.

To join this great community go to this page to sign up!

Love, Love Changes Everything! *

I am overwhelmed! I can’t believe how many comments Scout’s sweater received. I tried to thank each of you personally for your comment, but I couldn’t find blogs or email addresses for all of you. So, if I haven’t thanked you yet, THANK YOU! Scout thanks you, too.

I’ll now confess that part of the reason why I knit a sweater for Scout was that I had lost almost all desire to knit. It was all Lotus’s fault. I felt like I needed to finish it, but I couldn’t bear to knit it either. So I didn’t knit anything and I was sad. Scout’s sweater was intended to be something to lift my knitting spirits. I think it helped me on the road to recovery. Lotus is hereby banished to the “deal with it later” corner of the yarn room.

But still, I needed something to get me really excited about knitting again. And then it happened. I saw THIS:

I first saw it on Wannietta's blog and nearly swooned. How could I not love that sweater? Cables, cables, and more cables. And it looks so HARD. Seriously, my heart started racing when I saw that photo for the first time. Moments later, I ordered the book (No Sheep for You) and began shopping for yarn. Happily, I found some pinky lavender Calmer on sale at Janette’s Rare Yarns. But hmm…that’s still a lot of money for one sweater.

So I did what I always do before I spend a lot of money: I called Peter for “permission.” (I’m not really asking for permission, because I’ll still spend the money if I really want to, but I feel better if Peter knows about my big purchases before I make them. So don’t think I’m some sort of oppressed woman who isn’t allowed to do anything without her husband’s stamp of approval. In fact, Peter has told me that I don’t have to check in with him all the time. I do it more for my peace of mind than for his.)

Anyway, as usual, Peter laughed at me and told me to go ahead and get the yarn even though it was for another pink cabled sweater. (At least he’s learned that one can never have too many pink cabled sweaters.) However, he said, I had to make HIS vest first. Oops. Forgot about that. Some time ago, Peter had picked out the Gray Cabled Vest from Men Who Knit & the Dogs Who Love Them and I had recently purchased the yarn to make said vest.

So what does a knitter who is obsessed with pink cabled sweaters do while she’s waiting for her pattern and her yarn to arrive? She knits a vest for the man she loves:

Well, it’s not done yet, but it’s getting there. You’re seeing about a week’s worth of knitting. I’d say that I got my knitting mojo back, wouldn’t you?

* Bonus points if you know where those words are from.

Random

Poor neglected blog! Poor neglected knitting! I have no excuses. Well, I do have one. My parents were visiting. But that only accounts for 5 days in the last two weeks of very little knitting and very little blogging or blog reading.

During my parents visit, I went to the Hong Kong Food Market #4 for the first time. I'm still kicking myself for not having a camera with me. Where else would I find an aisle marked "De-Ter-Gents and House Holds?" And what about that gallon jug of yellow food coloring?

A lesson learned:
People are not impressed with ummodeled knitwear. Either that or people are not impressed with stockinette. So a big, hearty THANK YOU to those of you who did comment. And thanks for all the suggestions on ways to modify the neckline. I like the idea of frog closures or clasps, but nothing will be done until I get the sweater back. If you want to see Tori modeled by something other than a hanger on a doorknob, you can look here.

Fun Fact:
Ima Hogg really, really liked azaleas.

Odd Fact:
There is a petrified tree stump in Ima Hogg's garden. I suspect that it was placed there (i.e. the tree did not originally grow in that spot), but it seems very out-of-place in the finely manicured, formal gardens.

A Tale of Two Sockies

(I guess this is really a Tale of Two Pairs of Socks or a Tale of Four Socks, but neither of those titles is as punny as the one I picked.)

Our story begins one afternoon in the autumn of 2006. That day, Susann was treating the people in KnittyChat to photos from a German knitting magazine. Among the photos that she was flashing was a photo of the cutest socks ever (click here to see Susann’s version). I admired the socks and told Susann how much I loved them. Susann kindly offered to translate the pattern for me, but I told her no. For as much as I liked the socks, I didn’t think I would knit them. (Yes, I have a great appreciation for handknit socks. I even have a list of socks patterns that I’m considering making because I like them so much. However, my appreciation for socks is not enough to make me knit socks.)

Fast forward a couple of months. Susann, having learned that I was in possession of sock yarn that she really liked, proposed a trade. (Yes, I have sock yarn! It finds it way to me, I can’t help it!) Susann offered to knit me a pair of the cutest socks ever in exchange for sock yarn. What a deal! I accepted her offer immediately. The trade with Susann came on the heels of the greatest trade ever—the trade in which Rachel sent me cashmere laceweight in exchange for a lace shawl. Because of the similarities between the two trades, I told Rachel about the arrangement I had with Susann. Rachel agreed that I had made another great trade.

Susann proceeded to knit the cutest socks ever in the cutest sock yarn colorway ever. Aren’t they adorable? The moment I saw these socks I had an impulse to buy lots of yarn in the same colorway just to have it. (And you know, maybe, if I ever got around to it, perhaps, I could knit socks with the yarn.)

These socks are fantastic in every way. They fit perfectly and just look at how perfectly the stripes match up. Susann did this because she knew how obsessive I am about making my OWN knitting perfect and she felt that she needed to be obsessive with my socks, too. (I didn’t know it was contagious.)

Anyway, around the same time that Susann’s socks arrived, Rachel wrote a post in which she apologized to me for abandoning the Apathetic Sock Knitters Club. In a comment to that post I wrote, “I have to admit that I actually want some wool socks this winter. . . . However, I’m trying to find ways to have socks knit for me rather than having to knit them myself.” I was, of course, referring to the socks that Susann had knit for me. Don’t try to read between the lines, I wasn’t asking Rachel to knit me socks.

But Rachel took it upon herself to knit me socks as a token of our friendship. And what a pair of socks! Purple with pink and CABLES! Happy cables with the cleverest cable transition at the ankles! Rachel knows me too well—picking color and a pattern that I liked without assistance from me. These socks were packaged in a very funny sock sleeve that made me laugh out loud.

I adore both pairs of socks and I bow down to the sock-knitting prowess of both women. I appreciate their kindness and generosity. I will treasure these two pairs of socks forever. Thank you Susann and Rachel for the socks and for being you!

And for those of you who came over here to ogle the person who was slanderously mistreating Rachel, rest assured that all of the teasing that goes on between Rachel and me is good-natured fun done with affection and respect.

Our house is a very, very, very fine house

Rachel has chastized me for not having a full blog entry with photo up within 48 hours of moving. While I always aspire to reach Rachel's level of dedication and rabidness to blogging, I have to admit that unpacking, organizing, and sleeping were higher priorities for me. Sorry if I have disappointed all of you.

This past week has been another adventure in exhaustion for us. (Mostly me. Peter seems to have an incredible amount of energy and drive to “get things done” even when the clock says that hours past our bedtime.)

Barbie called this move “The Fastest Move Ever” and that is not an understatement:

• On Tuesday, the packers had our entire house packed in under 3 hours. (And within minutes of their departure we began to unpack because we discovered that we had forgotten to set some necessary things aside.)
• On Thursday, closing on the new house took about 2 hours. Thankfully, all the people involved were kind enough to send copies of all of the papers to Peter a few days before the closing. If they hadn’t we would have been sitting there for 5 hours or more as Peter read every word and asked 10 billion questions.
• On Friday, the movers had everything out of hour old house in 2 hours and everything into the new house in 2 hours.

However, all was not peaches and cream during the move. Our refrigerator delivery guy completely screwed us over. The fridge was to be delivered on Saturday. Delivery guy calls in the morning and says that he can’t deliver it because his helper didn’t show up and he can carry the fridge to the second floor by himself. Delivery is rescheduled for Monday. Delivery guy calls up again and says that there was some mix-up with the dispatcher and delivery has to be rescheduled for Tuesday. On Monday, Peter calls to find out what time the fridge is going to be delivered. Turns out that our delivery guy LIED and told the dispatcher that he attempted delivery but we weren’t home AND the guy either quit or was fired over the weekend. He also lied to us about when the fridge would be delivered because he never did call the dispatcher. The real dispatcher told Peter that the soonest we could get our fridge is Wednesday.

But we’re well on our way to being settled in. The cats are getting used to their new palace though they seem to think that standing on the top floor and yelling is the way to get us to go upstairs. Only once did Scout think that the best way to get downstairs is to go through the railings (Peter caught her while she was desperately trying to get back onto the stairs.)

Photos of our new house (complete with captions!) can be found here. Don’t miss the series of photos of the microwave oven that’s smarter than I am.

Be Back Soon

Serenity sleeves finished.
Moved.
Mostly unpacked (books and decorative stuff remain).
Cats moved in.
Exhausted.

Photos soon.

Now with 100% more blog material!

Whew! It’s been another crazy week in my life. So much to say. But because this is a knitting blog, I’ll start with the knitting first and then move on to the drivel about my life that may interest about five of you.

Thanks!
Thank you to everyone who voted for me in the Amazing Lace challenge. I appreciate all your support. Sundaes all around!

Knitting!
Progress! Now that I’m working on the edging, the Shaped Triangle shawl is starting to look more shawl-like and less blob-like. According to my handy-dandy anal-retentive spreadsheet, I am now exactly 83.06% finished with the shawl. I’m a little nervous because when I was 75% finished, I had used more than 75% of the yarn. I’m not allowing myself to panic yet as I think I can do a little fudging at the end to save yarn if needed.

More Knitting!
Peter and I happened to be near Yarntopia on Tuesday (see below for the reason), and he suggested that we stop by. (Yes, his idea, not mine. Isn’t he great?) As soon as I walked into the store, Amy said, “You didn’t waste any time!” Huh? What?

As it turned out, Amy had sent me an email earlier that day to tell me that the yarn and pattern for my fall Yarntopia sample knitting had just come in. For reasons described below, I hadn’t seen that email. So it was all a surprise for me! I’ll be knitting Serenity from the new RYC Style booklet using RYC Silk Wool in a luscious purple color. That’s 50% silk 50% merino. Yum. I’ve swatched and will cast on this weekend. Expect a yarn review soon.

Puzzle solved!
Monkee has been hounding me about whether or not I’ve solved the crazy clues that were sent to me over my trip. It was hard, but I did manage to decode the clues. Instead of making anagrams of the FIRST letters of the words, I had to make anagrams of the LAST letters of the words. As soon as I did, the answer was obvious:
Sherry Floyd.

Yes, Sherry Floyd. Who is she? She’s no one right now, but I happen to know for a fact Monkee plans to change her name to Sherry Floyd as soon as possible. Why does she want to use that name? Well, it’s because Sherry Floyd is an anagram itself for “fleshy or dry.” Monkee, being the die-hard Texan that she is, loves Texas barbeque. And like all good Texans, she’s picky about her barbeque. She likes her barbeque to be either fleshy or dry, but not both at the same time.

Ingenious isn’t it? That Monkee sure is a clever one. If that’s not the answer to the clues, the only other possible answer is that the words are completely random and designed to drive me out of my mind. But I’m sure that can’t be the case. Monkee wouldn’t do anything like that to me.

Drivel!
Last week, I informed you that Peter and I were planning on selling our house and moving. I even complained loudly about the stager who invaded our house. Just LOOK what she made me do to my bookshelf! Peter and I have six large bookshelves and four of them look like this now. (The other two have books that I use for my work and I refused to pack them up.) I wonder if people who come into the house think we’re crazy for having so many bookshelves and but so few books.

But that day with the stager was only the beginning of an eventful six days. Here’s the play-by-play:

Friday afternoon: Peter goes to our buyer’s agent’s office to sign an offer for the place that we want to buy. At the same time the stager is in our house driving me batty.

Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday: Peter and I work furiously to do the things the stager asked. Lots of packing and stashing boxes in the attic. The last half of Sunday is used to completely clean our house from floor to ceiling. Scrub, dust, vacuum, mop, touch-up paint, repeat.

Sunday night: We get a counter-offer from the seller of the house that we want. We discuss and decide it’s good.

Monday: Call buying agent tell him to find out a couple more details from the seller, but that we were happy with the rest of the terms. Meanwhile, our house officially goes on the market--property is listed on the MLS computer, sign goes up, keybox goes on door, photographer comes to take photos of our now perfectly staged house.

Tuesday: As we’re preparing to go to our buyer’s agent’s office to sign the official offer papers, we get a call telling us that the first showing of our house will be that afternoon. We tidy up (hide the cat toys and cat beds) and leave. We finish signing papers but there’s still more time to kill before the showing at our house is scheduled to be over. Peter suggests going to Yarntopia. We do. Yarny surprise! As we’re driving home Peter says, “Wow! This day has been perfect. We’ll get home and there will be an offer on the counter.” We both laugh.

As soon as we get home, Peter calls our seller’s agent to ask her a question. Before he can ask, she tells us that we have an offer on our house. For our asking price. Offer is sent to our house. Peter reviews it. It looks good.

Wednesday: Peter calls seller’s agent to tell her that we accept the general terms of the offer but want the timing of the closing adjusted. Our buyer’s agent calls and says that our offer on the new place as been accepted and signed and we are now under contract for our new home. CELEBRATE! Seller’s agent calls to say that our requests for the adjustment of closing were accepted. We sign those papers and now our house is under contract, too. CELEBRATE! And then fall down from complete exhaustion.

Thursday on: Now it’s time for me to worry about the actual moving process…

We Interrupt this Blog for an Important Stress Fit

Knitting is happening, but not very swiftly. I am now working on the border of the Shaped Triangle Shawl and am 75.87% finished with the entire shawl. (Note to self: crochet edgings are much faster than knitted-on edgings.)

Craziness is happening at home that's making me stressed and scatterbrained. It’s also sucking up a lot of my time. So I haven’t been answering my emails or responding to comments or leaving many comments on blogs--it’s not because I don’t love you.

In fact, we are getting ready to move. We are looking for a new house and putting our house on the market. We had a "professional stager" come in yesterday. She’s someone who comes in and tells you how to arrange all your stuff so that it looks like a place that no one lives in that a person would want to live in.

Before she came, I made an effort to tidy up our many bookshelves and managed to get almost all of our books on bookshelves. Remember what it looked like before? We have since bought another bookshelf and a cleared off the few "trinket shelves." So I was proud of myself to have every book off the floor. What's the first thing that the stager says? "Too many books." She instructed us to pack away 3/4 of the books. Apparently, full bookshelves make people think that we don't have enough storage space.

She also changed everything in my kitchen so that it looks like no one ever cooks there. She was quite disappointed that I didn't have any "decorative food" to place around the kitchen. Sorry lady, I eat my food, not decorate with it. I also have an unacceptably low number of "pretty perfume bottles and pretty toiletry items."

The worst part was that she wanted to get rid of all traces of the cats.
Stager: Can you get rid of the cat tree?
Me: No. The cats are stressed enough as it is, I will not take away their "safe spot."
Stager: Can you move the cat tree to the garage during viewings?
Me: It weighs more than 200 pounds! It can’t be moved easily.
Stager: Do you really need 3 litter boxes? Do you really have to have a litter box in the master bathroom?
Me: If I got rid of any of the litter boxes, the youngest cat will use the rest of the house as her litter box. I assume that’s worse than 3 litter boxes.
Stager: Pick up all the cat toys. Put away the cat beds.
Me (through teeth): Right.
Stager: You have to put away all these cat photos. But the dog photos can stay there. They’re cute and everyone likes dogs.
Me (out loud): Uh, okay.
Me (to myself): What the *beep*?!

(The cat photos are snapshots that I took of my pound kitties. The dog photos are professionally taken studio photos of the purebred dogs that Peter’s family has.)

Regularly scheduled blogging, complete with photos of pretty knitting and cute cats, will return as soon as possible.

Another Trip Down Memory Lane

This sweater was my third finished object. The first two were also sweaters. I made this sweater for Peter when we were still in chemistry grad school--several years before we were married. Lucky for me the silly boyfriend curse did not hold true for this sweater. The pattern came from one of my mother's books, but I don't know which one. It's knitted in Brown Sheep Nature Spun. I know that because I still have lots of leftover yarn from that sweater.

I'm not going to show any close ups of this sweater because, frankly, I was quite horrified when I pulled the sweater out to take a photo of it. First of all, it's way too big for Peter. I didn't know anything about sizing back then. Peter always buys x-large clothes because he needs the length in the sleeves. So, I made him an x-large sweater even though I could have made him a medium and just increased the length of the sleeves. Secondly, my finishing techniques were not so good back then. I didn't know how to mattress stitch, so I crocheted the seams. And the collar! I can't bear to look at it. Yet, Peter still wears this sweater when he has a chance. Now, that's love for you. Just looking at this pathetic excuse for a sweater inspires me to fix that other sweater that I made for him.

Peacock Feathers is still continuing. I'm just starting chart 5. It's now too big to stretch out on the needle and I haven't gotten to the point where the pattern changes again. So, no new pictures. It's just a green blob for now.

My mother is coming to town for a week starting today. I won't even try to hide the shawl from her as it's the only thing I'm working on now. But I'm not certain that I'm going to tell her that I'm going to give it to her. In any case, I probably won't be blogging much while she's here.

Just for Laughs (no knitting content)

The other day, while I was cleaning my house, I found an envelope full of senior pictures. (Did you exchange senior pictures in high school, or was that a Midwestern thing?) Anyway, this discovery somewhat coincided with the start of the "remember the 80's?" thread on the Knittyboards. So, for some laughs look at the photos below.

Before I embarrass anyone else, here's a photo of me at the prom. Unfortunately, my hair blends in with my date's jacket, so you can't see how big my hair really is. Don't you just love late-80's prom fashion? (My mother made my dress.)



Now, let's look at some of my friends. If you know any of these people first tell them that I'm sorry and then tell them that I said hi.

Meet Mark. He's quite the fashion plate. Notice how his socks match his shirt which matches the stripes on his sweater? Looking good! Mark dressed like this all the time--very preppie! (I'll bet that his penny loafers have pennies in them.)


This is Steve. Ok, no big fashion gaffes here, but you gotta love the mullet. It was the hair style of choice for the non-preppie boys in my high school. (Years later, after Steve got a better hair style, he became the recipient of my first knitted object.)


Christy is sporting a turquoise shirt-dress with a faux leather belt. The belt goes well with her barely visible white plastic earrings and white plastic beaded necklace. And she has tall hair.


Holly, with her shoulder pads and shellacked hair, is ready for some football! I think that her heavy blue eye shadow is somewhat similar to the black streaks that football players put under their eyes.


Mark, Steve, Christy, and Holly: I'm sorry. Please laugh. If you have a copy of my senior photo, send it to me and I will display it here. Oh, and Steve, don't tell me what happened to the sweater.

Happy Star Wars Day

At 12:01 AM tomorrow morning the final installment of Star Wars will open to the general public. Trust me, I won't be there. I'm not interested in dressing up like an Ewok. (Though, I'm embarrassed to admit that I did dress up as Princess Leia for a very bad spoof-skit in graduate school. I even put my hair in buns over my ears.) I'm not a rabid Star Wars fan, but I do like the movies and I will probably see Revenge of the Sith this weekend. There is something about these movies that compels me to see them. Maybe I want to see them because the original trilogy was such a big deal when I was growing up.

I honor of the movie opening, I'm sharing this photo:



That's an over-exposed me with the REAL Yoda--i.e. the Muppet Yoda that was used in The Empire Strikes Back, not the computer-generated Yoda of The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones. The photo was taken a few years ago at an exhibit of Star Wars props that was in the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Thankfully, George Lucas allowed people to take photos at the exhibit.

Alligators in the Sewer

Peter and I went to Brazos Bend State Park this weekend. The park has several wetland areas and is home to many wild alligators. Before entering the trails around the lakes, we read the alligator warning signs and practiced running away from the alligators. After just being on the trail for a few minutes we spotted our first alligator. It was just a baby and less than 2 feet long. We then saw several more babies.

At this point, we were very excited because we weren’t sure that we were going to see any alligators at all! So we were quite surprised when we saw the GIANT alligator. That big boy had to be at least 12 feet long. I was quite happy that it was on the other bank of the marshy area.

Next, we had an opportunity to get up close and personal with a 6-8 footer. He (or she) was sunning on the bank next to the trail. Close enough to touch.



Impressive, huh? What was even more impressive were the parents of the little kids that allowed their children to stand less than 5 feet from the snout of that reptile. At least Peter and I felt comfortable getting close to the alligator knowing that we were both capable of out running a 5-year-old girl. More pics of this camera ham here and here.

In knitting news, I finished knitting baby blanket for my coworker’s child-to-be. I still need to block it and place it in an appropriately frilly package, so no new photo for now. I also finished knitting the pieces of Candace. Seaming is currently in progress:



I also ripped out my humongous X-back tank and started re-knitting. But that’s another gory story to be told at a later time.

I don't act my age...

You Are 18 Years Old

18 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world.

What Age Do You Act?

What can I say? I like cake, ice cream, and toys too much. I suppose acting 18 is better than looking 18. I'm rather happy that I haven't been mistaken for a teenager in several years. It's pretty annoying to be reprimanded for being in the school hallway without a pass when you are a 30-year-old high school teacher. I was even used as a model for high school textbooks when I was in my late 20's. And yes, I always had to pose as a high school student:

In Other News...

Peter won his age group in a race this past weekend. I'm proud of him no matter how he does in races, but it is much more exciting when he places. However, I did put a lot of pressure on him to do well in this race because I wanted him to win a trophy. This race gives great trophies.

That is a huge marble block with a bobble-head Toro doll mounted on it. Toro is the mascot of the Houston Texans football team. Not that I'm a fan of the Texans--I could care less about the team. I just think a trophy with a bobble-head doll on it is pretty nifty and unusual.

Oh yeah, knitting!

The baby blanket is in the home stretch--about 7-10 inches left to go. I should finish it this week.

I finished the front and sleeves of the Candace baby sweater. I'm now working on the back--SNORE. Thank goodness it's straight stockinette. Because I don't have to look at my hands, I can knit while reading and doing work.

I also re-swatched for the X-Back tank. I'm going to go down a needle size because I want a tighter fabric. But now I'm not sure which sweater size I should make. I'll think about it and measure my swatch and my soon-to-be-frogged X-Back version 1 multiple times before I decide.

Knitting or Objects d'art?

My brother and his sister-in-law have recently taken up knitting. Neither of them seem interested in making anything of substance, but they both are intent on gaining a basic proficiency at the craft. Their creations so far have been limited to small rectangles. (Or rather small trapezoids because they tend to add extra stitches while knitting.) However, I'm proud to say that both of them can cast on, knit, purl, and bind off. And they are experts at frogging (hee hee).

Unfortunately, I don't live near my brother, so I can only give him knitting advice over the phone or via email. Just for fun, my brother sent me photos of his knitting. He calls this photo Persistence of Vision.



So what do you think? Is it art?

A Bunch of Firsts for Me

I'm starting to break out of my shell and doing new things. It's frightening.

My First Swap
Earlier this month, I flashed my tiny yarn stash. I included a photo of an old unfinished sweater that I knew I would never finish. I mentioned that I had plans for some of the yarn, but not all of it. Well, Helen saw this comment and said that she would be interested in swapping for the brightly colored lace-weight yarn. So we arranged a swap!

My First Trip to the Frog Pond
I've never frogged anything substantial before. In the past, I have only ripped out a few rows to correct a mistake. Well, I had gotten up to the armholes on the back of my poor unfinished sweater so I had some major ripping to do.

I learned this: Frogging is fun. Frogging and untangling FOUR strands of yarns knitted together is very un-fun. It took me 4-5 hours to frog the dang thing.

My First KAL
I joined the Ribbon Xback Knit Along. Now I'm waiting for my yarn to arrive so I can get started!

My First Encounter with Rowan Classic Yarns
I went to Yarns 2 Ewe over the weekend and had the pleasure to pet and drool over the new Rowan Classic Yarns. I can't believe how soft they are. I must make something from this yarn! I'm not a big fan of the patterns Rowan has put out for these yarns, but I'm sure I can find something!

My First Nutria Sighting
Well this is not a knitting related First, but it made me excited in a strange way. I had heard that nutria are common around here, but I never saw one until this past weekend. It looked like a cross between a beaver and a rat.

No new knitting photos to entertain you with. But here's a great photo of Scout after she learned what a bathtub is.

Chapter 2 of my trip down memory lane

With this entry, I'm continuing to trace my pre-blog knitting experiences. What happened to Chapter 1? Well, chapter 1 was not labeled as such but it does exist!

After knitting a BF sweater (and before BF dumped me), I embarked on a sweater just for me. I picked an "intermediate" sweater from one of my mother's knitting books. Mom assured me that I would be able to handle the pattern and taught me the techniques that I needed to make the sweater. I started the sweater in December but I don't remember when I finished it. Here it is in all it's glory (with Scout):



And a detail shot of the lace and color work:



Not bad for the second thing that I ever knitted, huh?

This sweater has a rather strange story associated with it. Now remember, I was knitting this sweater in the days before online shopping existed. And at the time, I was attending college in the Middle of Nowhere, MA. So, most of the students attending my school purchased clothes through catalogs.

One afternoon, I opened a copy of the then-popular, now-defunct Tweeds catalog and found (much to my horror) that the catalog was selling the very sweater that I was currently knitting. I even looked at the photo with a magnifying lens to confirm that the sweater for sale was made from the exact same pattern that I was using. The only difference between the two sweaters was that I was making mine with wool and the one for sale was made in cotton. I thought that I would soon be seeing people wearing "my sweater" before I even finished my version of it. And when I did finish it, would people think that I just purchased the sweater that I had labored over?

Luckily, the sweater in the catalog was also hand-knit and therefore priced a little beyond what college students could reasonably afford. But still, it was very weird to see "my sweater" in a catalog.

Side note: my 3rd FO was a random-striped, garter stitch scarf made with the left over yarn from this sweater.

My First FO--A Retrospective

In a previous post, I described how I learned to knit while knitting a sweater for my then boyfriend. The bottom of the sweater was a plain stockinette stitch (with ribbing, of course), but the top half had a simple, two-color fair-isle pattern. Very attractive, if I do say so myself! I started the sweater in the summer and finished it just before Christmas. During that time, I didn't have to worry about keeping the sweater secret from my boyfriend because we were in a long-distance relationship.

I looked through the journal that I kept during that time to see if I made any comments about the sweater. The only thing written was, "Eliza says that I shouldn't give the sweater that I'm making to Steve because he and I will eventually break up and I will want the sweater back." Eliza was one of my few friends who could knit. She was appalled that I was giving my first sweater away.

Anyway, I gave the sweater to Steve in December. We broke up in March. I never saw Steve or the sweater again. (Remember--it was a long-distance relationship.) But, despite Eliza's predictions, I didn't want the sweater back and I'm still glad that I don't have it. If I had the sweater, I would never wear it and I would never be able to get rid of it either. It would just be a piece of emotional baggage that I would be doomed to carry around (literally and figuratively) for the rest of my life.

However, I wish I had a photo of the sweater. It's difficult to show the picture in my head to others and say, "Hey look, I made this!"

Add a Little Spice to Your Blog

I'm not one of those knitters who can have 5 works in progress. The fact that I have two major WIP right now is pretty unusual for me. To paraphrase Charles Emerson Winchester, I work on one thing, I do it very well, and then I move on.

However, two big projects yields a less than exciting blog. Honestly--how many times can I post photos of a unfinished blue aran and a fuzzy pink shawl? To solve is problem, I thought I could interject some entries/photos of some FO from my pre-blog days.

But before I start bragging about what I have knit, I'd like to show off two sweaters that my dear mother made for me. I've had these sweaters for 10-plus years so they are showing signs of wear, but they are still beautiful. First is the Tyrolean jacket:

This jacket is huge, thick, and very cozy. Most of it was knit with worsted weight yarn doubled! I love it.

Next, is my flower sweater:

I think (but I'm not sure) that this is a Kaffe Fassett design. It is knit with a very light-weight yarn--it must be fingering/sock weight. Can you say intarsia? And can you believe that my mother made TWO of these sweaters? My aunt (her sister) was the recipient of the other sweater. My aunt's sweater has more muted colors, but is still spectacular. Here's a close up of the flower pattern:

How I learned to knit: A story

I learned to knit in the summer before my senior year at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. This was back when the Internet was still in its infancy and the only people who had email accounts were scientists and geeky college students (such as myself).

For some reason, I decided that it would be incredibly romantic to knit my BF a sweater. One of my friends who could knit told me that the little yarn store on Spring Street would teach me how to knit if I bought yarn there. So, I went to the store, knowing next to nothing about what I was getting into.

I walked into the store and told a nice woman that I wanted to learn to knit and wanted to knit a sweater. Looking back, I'm surprised that the woman didn't laugh or try to convince me to start with a smaller project. Instead, she handed me a stack of patterns and told me to pick one out. I'm not sure if she was confident in her abilities as a knitting teacher or confident in the idea that anyone can knit. Or perhaps she was used to college girls coming and wanting to knit sweaters for their BFs.

Once I had my pattern chosen, the woman helped me pick out the yarn I needed. Ok--she didn't "help"--she showed me the yarn I should use and asked me what colors I wanted. Then, she picked up two plastic circular needles and rang up the entire purchase. I can't remember if I flinched at the price.

Then, in one afternoon, the kind woman taught me to cast on, knit, purl, and do ribbing. Over the summer months she taught me how to make increases, do stockinette stitching, do garter stitching, change colors, knit with two colors, and bind off.

Now that I think back on that summer, I'm sad that I don't remember the woman's name or the store name. I'm also unhappy that I never thanked my knitting teacher or had a chance to show her the finished sweater. (I finished knitting the sweater over winter break and my mother helped me join the pieces. I gave it to my BF for Christmas, so the sweater never made a return trip to Williamstown.)