Questions about Interim House

Well, I heard from my wonderful Mom and from several other folks who would like to send yarn to Interim House (see Friday's post). This is so exciting! If you want to send any, post a comment or email me, and I will send you the address so you can mail yarn directly to the Social Worker there.

In answer to your questions:

1. Partial and single balls are welcome. They will use the yarn for skinny scarves or work it into multi-colored afghans.

2. Needles are also welcome, needles of any size and shape, though there is a greater need for the larger needles (10-13). And crochet hooks and any other knitting tools--they never have enough tape measures or needle gauges or darning needles etc.

3. Any fibers are welcome. Like I said, they love fun fur but they devour acrylic yarns and they also love wool yarn, as felted bags are a popular project.

Much love is coming from me out to any of you who are considering sending yarn to Interim House.

Mad knitting

I spent a couple of hours this afternoon knitting with a group of about twenty women at a local drug and alcohol treatment center. This is amazing to me: just around the corner of my building is this facility--Interim House--where these women eat, sleep, receive treatment for their addictions, and knit the rest of the time. It is a veritable hive of knitting. I thought I knit a lot. These ladies knit pretty much constantly. They sucked up a bunch of yarn at last week's meeting, and this week they spit out afghans and scarves, hats and even mittens. They are amazing.

The social worker there had this bright idea last year that she would teach the women how to knit so that they would have something to do to keep busy. (People struggling with addictions often need things to do in order to keep their minds off of whatever they are addicted to.) Pretty soon the house rules required all the women to attend the weekly knitting group, whether or not they decided to participate. Some of them resist at first, but eventually all of them take up their needles. And it works. Many of them report that knitting brings them so much pleasure and relaxation, they can't imagine making it through the rehab program without it.

The only problem is that they are so ravenous for yarn, the house can't keep any kind of stash around. These women will knit with anything, even that crappy brown red heart acrylic yarn you never thought you would use--they will find some use for it. They will make something beautiful of it.

What the women really love, however, is any kind of fun fur. Sorry, yarn snobs. I brought a few balls of fun fur today for them, and would you believe it they had to draw numbers out of a hat to determine which of the women would get these precious few balls.

So if any readers out there have some yarn you won't or can't use, please send it to us. If you send it to me, I'll make sure it gets delivered. Or drop me a line--I can tell you how to send it directly to Interim House. The ladies will be so grateful. Really.

WIPs--word of the day

Hi, mom. WIP means "work in progress." So last night at the Shawl Ministry group I was so inspired by Phoebe, our newest knitter who nevertheless finished our first official shawl (she was fast--she finished in about 3 or 4 weeks), that I started a new shawl, using the same big needles she used. The shawl I was crawling along with, the white one that seems to never grow any longer, was depressing me. So I pulled out some red and orange light n' lofty I had in my stash and started another shawl. The fun of new beginnings.

This means that now I have the below-mentioned green sweater to finish, the white shawl, the orange hurricane shawl, my black Einstein coat (that also feels like it will never be finished), and now the new red and orange shawl. And none of it is interesting knitting! Here is my problem. I feel bored by all my projects, and want something fun, something with lots of increases and decreases and maybe cables or color changes. Can I possibly be justified in starting even another project?

Here is the inspirational Phoebe:


And here is Len, in her finished objects, the scarf in seed stitch that caused so much long-suffering travail, and a ribbed hat:

Ugly things I've knit

The process has been very difficult, but I was finally forced to admit to myself that the only poncho I ever knit was a complete failure. Ugly, ugly, ugly. The more I knitted on it the more I suspected that the brown-and-green eyelash yarn most closely resembled a dying lawn. And it's useless, to boot. It's not warm and it's so big it slips off my shoulders.

So I've never worn the thing out of the house. I can't bear to frog it though. So its been sitting on my desk in a sad little lump until I finally found a use for it: as my entry into the You Knit What website's contest for the worst thing you ever knit. I figure that it being a poncho made out of eyelash yarn, I at least have some chance at winning. Wanna see the beast?



Well, there it is, in all its ugliness. Oh, but notice the beautiful beast on my shoulder! That's Bodhi the ferret (known affectionately as "Rabid Biter" the first few months of her life; its better to not ask why). You know, she's ordinarily a pretty feisty girl, but she was so terrified of the poncho that she was afraid to move. Maybe I need to wear the poncho every time I handle her.

What Abby needs

Hi, mom. You know I read lots of other knitting blogs. Many other knitters are doing this thing where they are googling the phrase "[their name] needs" and then listing the top 10 results on their blog.

Here's mine:

10. Abby needs to go on some good walks so she can trim down and look her best.

9. Abby needs to finish her math.

8. Abby needs anything but angst.

7. Abby needs to have a very expensive surgery to help her become a normal girl again.

6. Abby needs to mind her own business and quit trying to help everyone.

5. Abby needs to get back on the horse so she won't be afraid in the future again.

4. Abby needs to find the killer.

3. Abby needs to buy her own motorcycle.

2. Abby needs a hubby to (a) put off fortune hunters and (b) rescue someone from
Apache renegades.

And my favorite...good advice for everybody, not just Abby!

1. Abby needs to "let go her heart, let go her head and feel it now."

Hurricane Sweater

Well, mom, I'm pleased to know that you only last weekend read your very first Vogue Knitting magazine. I only recently started reading it myself but never attempted to make any garments described therein (prior to about six months ago I used to look at the magazine and say to myself, "I will never be able to knit any of those patterns"). That all changed last month when I joined a knitalong with my friends at the local coffee shop, all of whom decided to knit this circular sweater on the cover of the most recent issue:

By the way, I was able to find a picture on the very funny knittykitty site. Go look, mom. I hope knittykitty wasn't dissing my sweater--I think she posted it rather in honor of hurricane katrina victims. In any case, thats why our knitalong group started calling it the Hurricane Sweater rather than what its called in Vogue (something like the "Twisted-Garter-Stitch Cardigan", something non-creative like that).

So here was my first attempt. You must understand that I, being on a yarn fast until next Easter was limited in my choices of yarn. But I had this big pile of random green yarns



that I was thinking of making a shawl of, so I thought I would use them for the Hurricane Sweater instead. You tell me how you think it was turning out:



Yeah, that orange accent yarn I threw in wasn't working for me either. So I decided to pull it out and try it over again with some yarn I had in my stash, this pile of rusty orange cotton/rayon stuff which has a real nice texture. Classic Elite "Believe".

That's the "Believe" on the left hand side. Of course, I didn't have enough to finish the whole sweater, and I need a contrast color, so I asked permission of my DH (on my birthday) for permission to break my yarn fast in order to buy the other yarns in the picture, some dear Mission Falls 1824 cotton (so dear, and discontinued) and also a couple of balls of Fortissima Sock yarn to run together with the "Believe". The colors are gorgeous together. I will update soon and let you know how it looks.

Looking forward to seeing you this evening, mom!

My DH (yes mom, that means "Dear Husband")

I've been meaning to post these for a while. I finally finished the stole for my DH that I started back at Thanksgiving. Its knit out of Alchemy Yarns bamboo yarn, which is absurdly expensive. When I bought it, I told myself, this stole must be really stunning or my DH won't wear it. So I spent way more than necessary on the yarn. I am not entirely happy with how it came out, but it is bright and colorful and looks nice against his robe. I asked DH to model it for me:

And now some close-ups:

For the ends I chose a simple lace pattern from that book "Knitting on the Edge" (thank you, Zelphia, for the loan of the book!).

Why, Abigail, is that intarsia? Funny you should ask--yes it is! The first intarsia I ever attempted, but did I read any instructions to get any help about how to do it prior to making my attempt? um...no. You can't really see in this picture, but one of the crosses is a bit hinky and the stole may fall apart someday as a result of my attempts to fix my original problems. Oh well. I'll take care of it when that happens.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yes, yesterday I turned 31. And I'm proud of it.

Got this from Mim who picked itup from Nathania who got it from Norma.

1) Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, liposuction and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans...
---Re-post this if you believe in legalizing gay marriage

I've been thinking about whether I am going to continue to be one of those knitbloggers who talks only about knitting. So far that's how my page has been. But I liked seeing this list so much on somebody else's knitblog that I thought I'd do as I was told and repost it, even if only for the benefit of my mother, the only person who faithfully reads my blog. I love you mom! Hi mom!

Mysteries of the universe

I wrote a few weeks ago about how odd the phrase "knitting progress" is, because knitting progresses about as slowly as the stars move across the sky. But this past week a few lucky stars must have come together because I finally finished several projects and started a few more. Then a few more lucky stars have made it possible for me to post pictures. These stars are all named after my DH.

First of all, he fixed my Clie, which is what I used to take blog pictures with before it crashed. Now its back. Witness the recent wave of pictures as a result.

Secondly, he decided to clean the house. (Lets not go into why I didn't clean it myself, shall we?) Which means that I have nice clean spaces in which to spread out my knitting for pictures. Want some more? Here you go:

The blanket for Karen, now blocked. I did take the plunge and wash it in the machine, as the label for the yarn suggests. (Blue Sky Cotton. The color is this kind of grayish-purple, really lovely--it looks like a brighter purple in the sunlight. Its a soothing color. My main thoughts in picking it were 1. this is one of Karen's favorite colors, and when I saw the yarn in the store I thought of her and 2. baby spitup wouldn't show too much on this color.) About the machine washing: what is the point of giving someone a handknit baby item if it can't be washed in the machine?

You can see that it is not nearly so kite-shaped now that its blocked, though traces of its kite-nature remain in the way two of the corners want to be more pointy than the other two. Oh well. I'm sure Karen won't care. So long as the blanket is warm and comfy.

Another picture:


This is my lumpy, bumpy left-handed sweater. For the two of you who read this blog, this is the sweater I learned to knit continental-style on, taught this summer by the beautiful Libby at Water Street yarns. The sweater that started out as a bag, but I switched to a sweater after I discovered that the dimensions of the bag exactly matched the dimensions of my waist.

I've reached a stop-and-think-for-a-while place with this sweater. Thought about the possibility of salmon-colored sleeves for more than a few days, even knit a piece of one of those sleeves, though I ultimately rejected that idea. Now I am thinking: short sleeves, with that light green fuzzy stuff around the edges. Anybody have any ideas, please feel free to leave them in the comments.


You can see that even though I am wearing the sweater over my bathrobe as I take the picture of my own self this morning, that it fits, though the shoulders are a bit lumpy. (am hoping these smooth out in the block, though they may not, given that its yarn-nature is thick-n-thin.)

I am going to have to take this sweater outside and take a picture of it on a nice sunny day. You really can't see the colors of the yarn. Which, by the way, is Artful yarns Cartoon. I don't believe its any longer available (I bought the skeins at something like $4 each at a big end-of-season sale at some yarn store in Middletown NJ.) It is primarily a light olive green color but it also has pinks and yellows and purples and oranges mixed it. Lovely, if fuzzy. Exceedingly warm.

Finally pictures of FO's

The socks are finished. Knit from Plymouth yarns Sockotta. One ball really is enough to make a pair of socks. I had plenty left over. Though I did adapt the pattern and make the ankle shorter--these are really more like tall anklets than fullblown socks.

Here they are on my feet. I am so psyched that they fit! Wore them all day today and they were very comfy. The pattern was very easy--the Yankee knitter pattern--the most impressive part of the project is that I used size 1 needles. And despite that managed to finish them both.

Here is a rather dark dingy picture of the blanket for Karen. You will notice that it is kite-shaped. That is an unfortunate result of my decision to knit this blanket in stockinette stitch rather than in the recommended garter stitch. Oh well. I am posting this dismal picture so as to shock you all completely when I block the blanket and it comes out SQUARE. (at least I hope it does!) It is blocking right now, as I write.