A Likely Story

Yes, I’ve been in planning hell. No excuses. But I’ve been in Dallas for Christ’s sake. However, it has meant I’ve completed and come close to completing some actual projects. My AA miles (not related to my wine consumption, but close enough) are coming close to allowing space travel, so I guess that is good too.

So! A completed project. I bought 4 hanks of Lion Brand yarn’s Thick & Quick wool yarn in a lovely burnt orange called Butterscotch. An aside: I really hate that they call this yarn “Thick & Quick”. It makes you slur the words. Or else I’ve had too much Cabernet already. It’s like my man friend’s joke about saying Linens N’ Things – you always sound a little drunkie when you say it.

Anyhoo – I actually made this scarf for my man friend. I hope he enjoys it! Also, I’m thisclose to finishing the Kelly cardigan mohair jobby. Hopeully will finish this week/weekend. I’ll be in Bloomington, IN, crossing my fingers for some quiet college town time. I am so excited!

 

Mohair wishes and champagne dreams

Make that Sauvignon Blanc. The Kenwood was on sale so I had to make it happen, plus I’ve been drinking red by the barrel-ful, it being the winter of my discontent and all. It’s a Wednesday night, and my man-friend is at the Knicks-Pacers game with Indy friends. Potentially the two worst teams in the NBA – I guess that might make it a good game.

So: my most recent project is a sweater I’ve knit poorly before, albeit with the wrong guage/yarn happening. This would be the Kelly Cardigan, a lovely, simple pattern from Erica Knight’s Classic Knits, one of my all time favorite books. Now I’m starting with yarn I should be working with, a mushroom/taupe shade in kid mohair blend from Sublime. It’s 60% mohair, 35% nylon and 5% extra fine merino. The cardigan itself it fitted, with 3/4 sleeves and a simple 1×1 rib trim. That’s what I like about Classic Knits – it’s shit you’ll actually wear.

Meanwhile: I’ve begun to watch this creep-tacular, awesome movie about 45 minutes in called The Prophecy. The TWC description was intriguing (“Jealous angels wage war against humanity”, 1995), but then you add Christopher Walken as an angel, Viggo Mortensen as THE baddie angel Lucifer, and a young Virginia Madsen and – wait for it – a younger Christopher Meloni! Playing a cop! Now with more hair.

Speaking of hair and back to knitting: I’ve never really knit with mohair before. Mohair sweaters are for girls in the ’50’s with big torpedo boobies. Mohair is indulgent. It’s soft, and seems expensive. It’s ok so far to knit!

Update: Ok it’s not Christopher Meloni. It’s Elias Koteas. Is it me or are these two separated at birth?

 

So close, yet so far away

Last weekend was the first time since before the holiday that I was able to really relax and do some knitting. And just freaking chillax for a second, although it wasn’t a total and unadulterated weekend of sloth like I’d hoped for.

So I’ve sort of “finished” Briar Rose! But not really. The border on this thing is like, most of the damn sweater. So while the sleeves, body and shoulders are complete, it still looks like a sweater for Mary Lou Retton, and not me and my linebacker shoulders.

I’ve got a free hour before Somnus takes me to the land of Nod [run + shower + jammy pants - cell phone left at work + 1 goblet Pinot x comforting sounds of Alien in background on HBO = happy sleepy time by 11:45p], so I’m going to take a crack at the border. I haven’t even gotten to the baby cable part! [Marge Simpson annoyed noise] impatience!

 

It’s a mod, mod, mod world

Ok, ready to make the swirly-do hat with fleur, from Lauran Blogi. Except the only white or white-ish yarn I have is Twinkle’s handknit super chunky. And because I’ve waited until the last moment for custom holiday gifts for friends, now I must…dum dum dum. Modify this pattern! I’ve never done this before. I hope I don’t fuck it up. Is it a good idea to do this for the first time when the instructions are in Norwegian?

It calls for:

Aran weight yarn, gauge 14 sts/10 rows = 10 cm. 5mm circular needles, cast on 80 sts.

I know nothing about guage. I should. Maybe I’ll learn one day. I hope this isn’t the day. But anyway – I cast on 48 sts of Twinkle handknit super chunky on a 5mm circular needle. Fingers crossed!

[40 mins/1.5 glasses cabernet sauvignon later]

It seems to be working. Because I’m an idiot, and also I think because the yarn I’m working with is so thick, I’m using a cable needle (well just a single dpn; I don’t own a cable needle) and doing this cable-style. The instructions I needed (and ass-umed, which turned out to be correct), is that for the first row (knit 1, purl 3), you knit the knit and purl the purl. Er, the 3rd and odd rows, since you repeat rows 1 & 2 ongoing.

[1 glass Fresca and 10 rows later]

Hat looks great. For a Pinhead. Dammit! Changing to larger (size 10) circs, metal.

[3 days, 1 office holiday party, 1 dinner party, 1 play festival and countless glasses of wine, beers and vodka rocks later]

Size 10 circs too long in length. To be continued!

 

Progress, Malbec and Movies

My man friend Greg is off to Los Angeles (safely I hope), meeting the elusive, kind, mysterious Jewerl and pursuing his dreams. I myself am pursuing my dream of a real wearable sweater (Somewhat Cowl, by Wendy from Knit and Tonic, excellent pattern), while powering through some work, some freelance stuff, roughly 1/2 bottle of Malbec, and a couple of movies. TCM, one   favorite channels of course played one of my favorite flicks – Sense and Sensibility. Then, nothing interested me (even AMC’s Monster Fest – the Frighteners which I’ve seen, not that great despite Peter Jackson directing), so I popped in – this is very embarrassing – Don Juan de Marco. So what – sue me. I love this movie. It’s freakin fun. Ok, now I’m watching Little Odessa. Tim Roth is fucking amazing. Edward Furlong – actually not offending me. Vanessa Redgrave - brava! Moira Kelly – Boo urns. Girlfriend, can you just FAKE a Russian accent? It’s even Brooklyn Russian. I’m not asking for St. Petersburg, this is goddam Brighton Beach. Christ. She is ruining everything. The Cutting Edge aside, she has not lifted my skirt since time out of mind. The upside being, the sweater is progressing, as is the bottle of cheapie Malbec I procured from the incomparable Shawn Liquors. Shout out to Hillary!