superSticky

i don’t know if those of you who are east of here have experienced the weather break yet, but i swear, it’s coming! from the West! last evening we got the storm that brought RELIEF. it took all night for the house to cool down of course, but today is it gloriously in the 70s.

i’m so overwhelmed, i could weep.

i dunno what happened to yesterday—i meant to post and i had time, i thought, and plenty to talk about (well, THAT’S not news), and then suddenly it was like 9pm! sorry . . .

but now i have to try to fit everythig in today, or maybe i’ll make two posts and get a leg up on tomorrow. whatever!

so first, for those of you who are missing the hot sticky, ick of the last few days i have these

david was in office max getting supplies yesterday and got me these! anyone who is in my classes will instantly recognize the genius at work here. see, we use a lot of sticky notes when we are learning about pattern reading. moving the sticky note line by line as one reads down the page helps keep one’s place. it also adds a convenient spot to jot notes and keep track of stitches and rows.

there is just one problem. well, two problems. ok—let’s make that three.

the regular sticky notes are not big enough for really compulsive note-takers and chart-makers (as few and far between they might be among knitters—eye roll)

for those other knitters—the ones with ADD tendancies—the regular sticky notes do not block off enough of the pattern to allow them to really focus

and finally, the regular sticky notes are just not sticky enough! (you know what i mean—no need for me to elaborate). and if you train yourself to rely on them, this is a BIG minus . . .

i love when a company spontaneously comes up to a solution for MY problem, without even being asked, don’t you? and i know a couple of other knitters will think so, too.

ok, i am in love with my new skirt and i can’t WAIT to get it further along so i can add a another, larger lace pattern.

but i need to get a beat on something that i’m not sure is a problem—you know what i mean—something that bothers me in a microscopic sense while i have my face in it each night, but which i will most likely never look at again once i get the skirt on. but yet i worry . . . what the other knitters think?? will they judge? and what about if i write a pattern?

okay here it is:
since there is side seam shaping, which i prefer over shaping that would be distributed all around, there is an area at each side seam where the pattern is disturbed, due to the increasing number of stitches.

it sorta blends, and sorta doesn’t. it will only be present from the waist to the hip area of the skirt—about 7 inches—because after that, the skirt increases by changing needle sizes, or changing patterns with increases distributed all around.
truthfully, i think i am just gonna go ahead. this is a summer skirt that i will wear at home, in the shop, and while riding my bike to and from the shop. the worst thing that can happen is that i don’t like it and have to think of some solution in order to make it work next time. i’m not going to NOT wear the skirt because of it. for sure.
i might not write a pattern because of it, but that’s different . . .

speaking of which, the green, black and white skirt pattern, from here on to be known as ziggy, is up on the computer and i am cranking on that.

trying to make sense of my own mental notes is not proving too much of a brain strain. WHY, oh why, do i NOT write things down? because, even when i do, it doesn’t really help. the important thing, the one i wrack my brains about, is never there.

ooh-ooh, debbie was swatching some of that plymouth linen isle in class the other night for her skirt and we all LOVED it! it’s soft, cushy, has substance, etc. i might try making a skirt in it too. maybe one for next year. just thought you might want to know—in case you were low on yarn or anything . . .

i finally finished my briar rose autumn spiral socks.

now, here’s something really interesting that happened with this yarn. see how the color spirals one way down the leg, and then, it spirals the other way down the foot?
and see here, in this closeup, how the direction changes in pretty much exactly the same spot on each sock?

chris, please tell us how the yarn knows how to do that?
and, if you don’t know, that is, if it is a complete fluke, please, PLEASE tell us that too, so we can stop feeling silly and inadequate when we can’t control what the yarn does . . . or when.
sigh. will i ever be able to know all that stuff about dyeing?
(and jo, since you are on a sock spree, really, you must go to briar rose and Fearless fibers, our two BEST yarn friends!)

i’m sure all the sock aficianados noticed a changing of the desk sock guard. now that the briar rose socks are done, i am going to start working on the blue ones in class, so those went into my bike basket. and that leaves a space on my desk for the brownTreXX to move back into. i feel all is well now.

and, finally, the newest item, fresh from the garden

i haven’t eaten one yet, but i will!