Fuzzy feet redux and camden hat too

i am leaving for India in approximately 3 weeks. and in that time i need to finish Lia (unhappy with the fact that i had to frog an entire skein's worth due to the negative ease which they published AFTER i had CO), make a hat for dad, and slippers for mum and the husband. i have the yarn ready...just can't seem to make the time to finish it all up.

ugh!

update: finished dad's hat and 1 of two slippers for mum. now my husband wants the hat and i still havent worked on lia at all.

when you see things that former classmates do and achieve, you wonder what went awry, and why am i the only one at home and with nothing to show for all those years?

Shiny new swift and a new pattern

Lots of updates, since I haven't written in a while. Finished my first felted slipper socks/clogs. they were HUGE, Hagrid sized but after felting are very thick and warm and will (hopefully) keep my feet toasty in the winter months. My hands and feet are already cold...and it is only fall. :(

Got navy blue bulky wool from knitpicks to make Lia. Gauge swatch finished and just CO. Row gauge is a bit off, my swatch is slightly longer but it should be okay. Could not figure out the stretchy/slingshot type cast on recommended, so used a knitted cast on (my knitted CO tends to be way loose anyway).

But here's why i am so happy today: My knitpicks swift finally turned up today...wooooooo hooooo! Used it to wind 3 hanks already and am so thrilled with it. Tried using chairs and the husband to wind a hank of bulky and sock yarn respectively with equally disastrous results. complements the knitpicks ball winder perfectly. Am so glad i have it.

Meetup

my meetup group has slowly garnered about 14 members and we are in the process of voting for our first meetup. people are slow to respond however, maybe they dont check their email everyday? i would not have thought it possible, but i am addicted to the internet and will browse on my phone if i have nothing better to do (usually i do, but tend to ignore mundane household chores...)

meeting two of the ladies from the group today, provided they don't pull a no- show again like last time. would be nice to finally make some friends. summer is all right, there is a lot to do but it will be a long, freezing and lonely winter all on my own.

argh. its too early for thought.

But it rained!

"For the rain it raineth everyday"

--Feste, Twelfth Night

Enjoying the JC rainshower.

Enjoying rereading Feste's closing song. My favorite character in the play.

Dr Scholl's costs me a 'dime' and more

I've learned my lesson and that means no cheap shoes for me ever. Come to think of it, everything I buy at Wal-mart turns out ruinous in the end...so I got these fruit of the loom knickers at like throwaway prices...but I'm shocked...at how scratchy the fabric is. I've worn their tshirts before and my husband uses their vest. they are generally so soft..but these are a major let down. hope washing will soften them up a bit.

I got these Dr scholl's mary janes at about $20. should have known it was too good to be true. They ate away at my skin, kept rubbing it off and in 15 min, rubbed off a dime sized circle of skin. I'm not kidding. Sadly.

Gauged for a pain or socks in knitpicks 'playtime' colorway. 8 st=1". Will cast on tomorrow on DPNs.

Must learn magic loop!

iblock

Blocking mats, wires, hundreds of T-pins and plenty of finished objects. All soft and squidgy and smooshy. I like soft things. Fuzzy-wuzzies which I can press my cheek to, fluffiness which I can sink my feet in and cocoon myself in comfort. Knit, purl, purl, knit. What a life, and what an art. Wearable as well as creative, so sucks to you, grandma, for calling me old fashioned and my art ‘old housewives sitting on the front stoop with nothing better to do than clack needles and tongues endlessly.’

My stash is threatening to take over my apartment and UFO’s in various stages of execution lay about here and there. A couple inches of ribbing on the sofa, an unpaired sock on the table, a poochie sweater with ends not woven in. Frogged (sigh, it took me so long to do that much) sweaters lying in an ignominious heap inside the telly trolley. And yarn everywhere, fuzzy ends on the floor, tangled and untangled and detangled cakes piled about just anyhow. From creation to chaos and from chaos to a cosmic (well almost) state of new creation. Such is life, as I said before, and here I am, with the fruits of my labor draped about me, cloudy trophies of my art.

You doubt my art, ma’am? Since it seems plebian to you, well everybody can knit of course and everybody, they say, can dance and paint a picture. Everybody is me, and yet, not-me, because I am everyone and I am no one. Sometimes I am an average Someone, point for point an ordinary little homemaker with few ambitions and some fulfilled desires. More often, I am no one because my writing and my words are me and if the well runs dry, then the bucket ceases to exist. Meaningfully, that is. Words and thoughts swirl away as the water does and whispers fade into the air. You don’t believe me do you? All right then, give me back my lost words. Words that used to be and may still exist in some dark, dank corner of the internet. Can you find them and bind them together? I thought not.

Blocking mats and pins and shiny little points, prick my finger and feel the sting. I wish I could block the kinks off myself and be what everyone wanted to be. Frog that. Wish I could block myself into what I wanted me to be.