In circles

It amazes me that once you think you have your preferences set, something comes along to mix it up. Take knitting needles, for example.

I like double points. I'm also tired of reading magic loop/2 circs is so much easier and the way to go. Now I don't give a hoot about the 'needle wars', I just don't like to be told that, if I was to just try one of the circular methods, I'd like circs so much better.

Well I've tried them, and I threw them down and picked up my DPNS once again.

The biggest trouble for me is that I HATE dealing with access cord or needle. I don't want to be constantly yanking a cable or fishing for a dangling circ end. I want my stitches and needles right there, front and center. This is the same reason why I'll only knit socks on 6" DPNs. I don't like all that wasted time sliding stitches around.

But poking around one day, I found these:



9" long metal circs by Hiya Hiya. (I bought mine at the Knitting Zone). See how tiny it is next to the 16" Knitpicks needle? Cute! I've seen a couple people knitting socks on one short circ before and found it interesting, so I thought I'd try them.

The HiyaHiya needles are lovely. Something between an Addi Turbo and a Knitpicks Option needle. They are slicker then the KP needles and a bit less pointy, but not as blunt as the Addis. They are worth a try, since they are so cheap. They come with bamboo tips as well.

I started my sock toe up on DPNs until I had increased to the right size. I'm sure some smartypants can do this without the DPNS, but it seemed the easiest way to get started. I then moved the sock onto the shorty HiyaHiya circ.

I have noticed that the short needle tips lend themselves to Continental style knitting, so I've been doing that. I can throw with them which is my native method, but for some reason picking seems to work better. On this note, if you have meaty hands, the short needled circs may drive you crazy.


I haven't decided if the wee circs will replace my DPNS, but I have to say it's nice not to chase a dropped needle across the trolley floor when knitting in the city.

Acronyms of the Month

What is with all the goofy, lengthly and unpronounceable 'along' acronyms I'm seeing lately?

Some examples:

NaNoWriMo: national novel writing month
NaKniSweMo: national knit a sweater month
NaBloPoMo: national blog posting month

Why not just POMO, SWMO and NOMO?

The glory of an acronym is that it shortens a name, phrase, etc. That's why TLA's (three letter acronym) are so popular. They are quick and easy to say and figure out WTF they mean.

These NaMo things make my eyes hurt tying to translate. Hint: Using case changes in acronyms? If caps are needed so they are interpretable as more then just alphabet soup, they are missing the point of being an acronym.

Please, nah mo NaMos!

Yarn goes in, yarn goes out

So, let's revisit the yarn stash, shall we?

Once I got onto Ravelry, I indexed every full skein of yarn. This was good and bad. It was good, because I now know what I have on hand at all times. Even traveling, since I can see the contents my stash using my iphone. I know if I have x yards of something appropriate if I see a project I must have.

The bad side, is that I know how much yarn I have. Blerg. I realized I needed to exhibit more self control if I actually would like to knit some of this someday. Especially sock yarn. My goal is to keep my fiber and yarn (minus whole fleeces) contained in the storage unit I bought.



I added 4 more baskets on top. It's getting tight in there! Mostly because I joined two fiber clubs, and I need to spin some of it up now.

So I realize I'm helpless when it comes to yarn buying. I've bought 5 skeins of yarn already this month, and it's only the 11th. Not good.

However, I've been better at using yarn from the stash. I also finished a Clapotis shawl (am I the last person on earth to knit one of these?).



This was using stash yarn from years ago, from my first Maryland Sheep and Wool! So that's 5 skeins of yarn used up.

I'm also working on using 3 skeins of stashed alpaca to make Tararind, a cowl/neckwarmer thingy:



It's quick, keep me warm and will use up stash yarn.

Then, I have been trying to use yarn before it even becomes stash. This is Manos del Uraguay wool in a new colorway 'cornocopia'. It never hit the stash, becasue I just love it so and had to use it right away. Rosies Yarn Cellar's knitting circle got to help pick the colorway, so I feel like it was made for me.



It's the 'cozy V neck' from Fitted Knits. It looks so much better on!

So while I have no control over my yarn buying, I am at least trying to achieve some sort of slow growth/status quo. At least my house won't be taken over by wool, and I can still afford my guitar lessons and other niceties.

I'm still alive

Hey everyone, I just wanted to post to this thing. Just so everyone who used to ready this knows I'm still alive.

I've been avoiding my blog because frankly it's been a really crappy summer without much good to say. Simply, my Dad who is in his mid 50's, has late stage ALS. If you are not sure what it is, google it. For some reason it's hard to type the explanation, but I can explain the cruelty of it calmly to people in real life. That makes no sense, but there you have it.

I'm slowly coming around to normality again, the weather is changing and I now do have knitting and things to share that are not bad. I figure I'd just get the poo out of the way so we can start this blog up over again.

Art Star Craft Bazzar

Saturday Was the Art Star Craft Bazaar, which is pretty huge (and free).

I got me some stuff (which by chance these fine folks also have etsy shops).

Jennifer Owlington from Tigerflight
(formerly magpie dc)

Is a small pillow/plushie made from recycled and felted sweaters and corduroy pants.

Two bookmarks for my husband, who usually can't stay awake for more then a few pages at a time.


These are from beacon bookmarks and are usually from recycled hardwood, and sometimes they even use vintage stamps.

Then of course laceweight alpaca yarn from No Two snowflakes.

Not my usual colors a cream yarn with the lightest tints of color. I had been thinking a nice neutral shawl for once would be wardrobe friendly.



Food vendors where good, crafts were well made and people where nice and friendly. My only beef is that there where too many bizarre plush dolls, infant clothes and papercraft vendors. Every other tent was selling stuffed animals of weird aliens, handmade cards or a whole booths of nothing but screen printed baby onesies and kids tees. A bit more variety would have been good.

Book thing the girls are doing

Here is a meme of books you've read my BFFs are passing around.
The ones I read are in bold.


Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi: a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno (and Purgatory and Paradise)
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Miserables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes: a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

Too much pressure

Spring as sprung, and I succumbed to the cast on monster. On top of that, my 4 spindles are full, and both wheels are too. No wonder it doesn't seem I get anything done.

First on the list is an unmentioned project for my Mom's birthday. It just needs to be finished at this point. Which is a good thing, because she visits this weekend. If you want to see it, it's over in Ravelry.

Second is an enormous crochet shawl, the Interweave Crochet Infinity wrap.



When the yarn in question came up last month in the Webs sale, I grabbed some. I also just happened to pick the same color called for by mistake (urgh). I'm addicted with the little infinity motifs, and only have one more to go before joining them now.



I didn't have any lace to work on, so a new yarn purchase of yummy mini maiden made me cast on the Lace ribbon scarf.



I then have second item syndrome on a pair of mittens and a pair of socks. This is what happens when I abandon my 'do both at a the same time' rule.




Today I found myself wanting to cast on something else! Oi! Out demons, out!