Menage à Trois Bingo

Saturday morning, we got a call. FOAF has a glass curio cabinet she is trying to get rid of, do we want it? Why, yes, we did...



While we were out retrieving the cabinet, we got a text from tempesttea. There's a book cart needing TLC in the library dumpster but she can't get it out alone. Texted back that we would come help, but she decided she didn't want it (or couldn't fit it in her house, anyway). So she helped us get it instead. The only things wrong with it were a little dust and a broken vertical slat in the bottom half. Whoopde.

And the next day, Tempest and her mom came and took away our dust-gathering collection of inherited quilting magazines. So now that the knitting books are stowed elsewhere, we have a whole six linear feet of empty bookcase!

Sucker is heavy, but it holds all of our knitting books and tools. Just. So we can't buy any more. (Yeah right.)

All last week I've been saying, "I can't believe I'm seriously considering subjecting myself to Tim Ezell. At oh-god-it's-early in the morning, no less!"

Fox 2 News was doing a Stitch-n-Pitch promotion and "Tim's Travels" segment at Knitorious, and as one might guess, I went.

6:45 this morning, in our pajamas and bathrobe (as was suggested by the Knitorious folks), Chris, Tammie and I went to the knit shop. I had to sit at home with a puzzle and some coffee for about twenty minutes after Tammie left before I could face Outside, but the whole event was actually a lot of fun.

There was a large crowd, in fact: most of the usual Wednesday Night Knitters and quite a few other customers, as well as several of the other LYS owners in the area. The 30% discount didn't hurt attendance, of course.

Unsurprisingly, Chris got a moment of airtime. Big hairy man knitting in his bathrobe? Are you kidding?! I was sitting next to him and was probably also on TV; we'll check it out later tonight on the DVR. The green Sweater of Doom also made an appearance (and got about two rows closer to being completed; the finish line is in sight!) and was oohed and aahed over by the whole room.

But despite my serious misgivings about Tim Ezell (I have always hated his segments -- something about the forced enthusiasm and bouncing-off-the-walls flaky behavior) he was quite pleasant and personable when he wasn't on air. Appears all that is a shtick for the program. Whaddya know.

My fingers feel the need to work on a different project, and I think I want to do lace. Which is weird, really, because I am also feeling like I need a project that's an easy pattern with big yarn with big needles (relatively: everything I've got going right now is either complex or needles smaller than size 5, or both).

I'm trying to convince myself that rather than start a totally new project (Hanami is calling), I should wake something from hibernation.

Currently active, I have:

• Japanese Diagonal Cabled Tank
  reverse-engineered design based on a photograph
  DK weight yarn at a very tight gauge (for me); due to that I can only work on it for a couple inches at a time
  about 1/6 finished
• Red River Socks
  personal design
  sock yarn at a loose sock gauge
  about 3/4 finished--currently mid-heel on the second sock

Hibernating projects:

• Sweater of Doom
  personal design not fully defined
  enormous sweater of allover cables in worsted weight
  about 3/4 finished.
  *sigh* I really need to make progress on this but it's daunting me
• Hello Kitty Scarf
  I could just knit to the end already and get it done--Rosa would be pleased--but it's annoying acrylic yarn and I've no enthusiasm for it
• Mystery Stole 3 (Swan Lake)
  given that I want to do Hanami, I really ought to finish this first, since it's by the same designer, and is also asymmetrical in design, though symmetrical in shape. But I have little enthusiasm for it at the moment.
• Smile sweater
  one of Tammie's projects, but she'd be happy for me to finish it
  bulky yarn, size 15 needles
  only needs 1/2 a sleeve.

I've got yet another partially-designed project in mind (Double-knit worsted weight! Big gauge! Biggish needles!), for which I've swatched, but it's not in a state to be cast on yet. I still have to chart it fully, and test-felt some white and natural yarns as well.

I checked the waiting list this morning, and there were 42 people ahead of me. The next time I checked my email, there was my invitation.

So as of five minutes ago, I'm semperfiona on ravelry. Tammie and I will be sharing the account for the foreseeable.

"Did you hear the tiny little snapping sound as I broke the thread?

"That was the sound of victory."

The Big Gay Wheel of Cheese shawl--aka the Icarus shawl, aka the peacock shawl, aka the rainbow shawl--is done. Well, all right, I still have to block it. But I have finished all 251 rows of knitting. Pictures forthcoming when it's been blocked.

T'other night I was looking at a cardigan pattern, and it specified different placement of the buttonholes depending on whether the garment was intended for a boy or a girl. So I got curious as to why buttonholes are placed differently on men's and women's clothing. The general upshot? Nobody knows. We do know that the convention developed in the late Victorian era There are some theories, but no proof.