The Heathen Housewife

I just got the front and back of that darned sweater blocked out tonight. I’m going to do a little math and start the sleeves, probably tonight. Someone asked if it is possible on a machine to rip back just part of the garment and start from where the mistake was. Yes, it’s not even all that hard to do such a thing. You can rip back either one row at a time or take the garment off the machine and rip back inches.

In the case of the sweater front, I went ahead and ripped the whole thing out – not just because of the single dark blue line, which I’ve now fixed – but because I had made a mistake in the number of stitches I cast on the first time around. If you look at the picture below, you can see I’ve basted in two lines marking the columns where I’ll pick up the button bands. It’s going to be a cardigan, but in order to get the stripes to be the right width and to match perfectly, I knit the front in one piece and will be cutting it. On the first sweater front, I hadn’t put in as many stitches for the steek selvedge as I would have liked.

I am a bit of a contrarian when it comes to steek width. Most sources that I’ve read suggest relatively narrow steeks, in the name of avoiding bulk in the front of the sweater. My feeling is that it is better to have a wide steek, then use it as a facing by tacking the rough edge down, allowing the stockinette to curl under enough to hide the edge under itself. This keeps the bulk of the rough edge spread slightly away from the bulk of the pick-up stitches, and I think makes for a happier sweater front. But that’s just my feeling on the matter.

The important thing is, I’m done with the two big pieces of this thing, and in a couple more nights will be done with the machine for this project altogether. Then, I can go enjoy some quality time on the couch while I hand knit the ribbing at the bottom, the button band and the neck band. Oh, Joy!

Oh, and we’re all still sick here. Sophie woke up with a high fever this morning. I took her to the doctor and he thinks it’s just a virus, but she was a pitiful little thing all day long. I’m feeling a little pitiful myself with a headache and a rough throat. I’m hoping it is just a little virus that will clear quickly and not strep. Must go to bed early tonight and get some rest.

I think I mentioned that I signed up for Secret Pal 10, but just in case I didn’t mention it – hey! I signed up for SP10. SP9 was so much fun – I had a great time picking out gifts for my giftee-pal, and I got so much awesome stuff from my gifter-pal, and it was nice to finally be in on all the fun floating around the blogosphere. The only catch is that I already have *so much* yarn and knitting-related stuff, it is just a little insane to be signing up to get more as gifts. Well, let’s ignore that little catch for the moment and get down to business.

I was supposed to have filled out this little questionnaire last month, and since they’re getting ready to hand out our new pal assignments, I figure I better get this up right away so that my new pal can find better gifts for me. I filled out a very similar questionnaire for SP9, and many of the answers are still the same. They are so identical, in fact, that I am cutting an pasting where appropriate. Here we go.

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
I love most animal-fiber type yarns. Especially if they are smooth, soft, sproing-y or a combination of all the above. I avoid all man-made fibers with the exception of nylon in sock yarns and the occasional use of Plymouth Encore for baby items. I do not like bumpy or furry yarn, although I still want to try some Kidsilk Haze one of these days. Cascade 220 is a bread-and-butter for me, and I have quite a cache of a long-discontinued yarn called Pomfret by Brunswick that I love so much I pull it out only for special items like my own daughters’ baby blankets. I think the softest yarn I’ve ever knit with was Malabrigo, and I loved handling it so much it almost made me cry, but the hat and mittens I made out of it have pilled severely with very little use, so I don’t know what to think.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
I keep my double-points and circulars in a 3″ three-ring binder filled with pencil pouches labeled with the respective sizes. The needles are all in their original packaging inside the pouches. I suppose I’m a little bit anal-retentive about keeping these organized, but I just loathe digging around looking for the right needle when I want it. I don’t use single-point needles for the most part, but somehow I’ve ended up with a bit of a collection of the things. They sit in a Ball jar way up on top of a book case, sort of for decoration. I also have a small pouch in which I keep my odds and ends, the stuff that travels along in the knitting bag. A friend of mine makes them out of recycled kimono fabric.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I’ve been knitting since the fall of 2000, so I guess six years. A very nice lady, who I now consider a good friend, but whom at the time I knew only through another friend, sat me down with a group of women in her living room one evening and taught us how to cast on, knit and purl. I had no idea at the time what a great knitter Jean is, but I was incredibly grateful that someone was finally teaching me a skill I had wanted all my life. After that night, I practiced on my own and picked up lots by collecting books and picking the brains of every knitter I meet. I would say my skill level is advanced.

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Yes, I have an Amazon wish list. Just enter Shelly Kang.

5. What’s your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
I generally avoid scented products. My father was super-sensitive to perfumes and hated them so much, I wasn’t even allowed to bring fashion magazines into the house because of the smelly advertisements. I guess because I wasn’t exposed to them much growing up, scents generally irritate me after not very long, too.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I love sweets. I love chocolate most of all. Dark chocolate especially.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
I don’t spin. Spinning looks incredibly appealing to me, but I have too much knitting to do as it is. I figure I’ll try spinning when I run out of overflowing knitting projects. I do a little bit of scrapbooking when nobody is looking, but I try to keep that really simple and am neither up on nor interested in the latest trends. I’ve dabbled in lots of other media here and there, but never with the passion I have for knitting. I’m always looking for little kits or activities to do with Julie, as well.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I think maybe I am an old fogey when it comes to music. Or boring at the very least. To be honest, I just don’t get that in to music. Joe is incredibly into music, and I sponge off him when I want something. I’ll drop a few names, but they’re all over the map. Old REM, Bob Marley, The Eagles, Simon and Garfunkle, Cat Stevens, The Beastie Boys, Al Green, Bjork…I like generally happy music, easily accessible stuff, I’m afraid. Most of the time these days I’m listening to kid’s music, but I try to compromise by finding stuff that I can stand like Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman’s Not for Kids Only, or No! by They Might be Giants. Of course, we end up listening to a lot of Raffi and Sesame Street as well. To be honest, I’d rather be listening to a book on tape. Yes, I can do CDs and MP3s.

9. What’s your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can’t stand?
I think I look best in pinks and some shades of green. And blue goes with everything. I look horrible in yellow and black.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I’m a wife and mom to two girls, three and a half and one. Julie is in size 5T clothes, Sophie is in 12-18 months clothes. We have two cats, Daisy and Harry.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
Yes, Yes, Yes, Not Really. My winter coat is dark olive green.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I do a little bit of everything, always have a pair or three of socks on the needles, and I do a lot of things for my girls. Coming up in the lineup are a lace shawl and a Bohus sweater for myself one of these days.

13. What are you knitting right now?
The blankie, a lace scarf, and a pair of Opal socks. We shall not speak of the other projects lurking half-finished in the stash.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Yes!

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I use circular and double-points. Addi Turbos are the perfect circulars, and Pony Pearls the perfect double-points.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes and yes.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
There’s a sweater in there that I started a couple of years ago and set aside out of frustration. I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and may go back to it. It would be beautiful when it’s finished. I tend to be pretty honest with myself and if I’m not going to finish it, out it goes.

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I like Christmas quite a bit, even though I’m not a christian.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
Knitting paraphrenalia..books, needles, magazines, yarn… I have quite a few bags of various shapes and sizes too, and I have to restrain myself when it comes to baskets.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
What a difficult question! I have so many things, it is hard for me to come up with something more, especially since I spend so much of my energy keeping myself from wanting it all. I’m sort of enchanted by some of the KidSilk Haze shawls that I’ve seen in the blogosphere, and I do tend to linger over the lace books at Schoolhouse Press. I subscribe to Interweave, Vogue and Knitters, and get Cast On with my TKGA membership too.

21. Are there any new techniques you’d like to learn?
There aren’t many I can think of that I haven’t tried already. I love trying new ways of doing things, though, and it makes me really happy to learn arcane techniques that most people don’t know about. I haven’t tried some of those cool twisty cast-ons and edgings from eastern european traditions, like what Nancy Bush decribes. Must do that one day.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
Oh, yes. Socks socks socks. Always with the socks. I wear size 11 women’s shoes – 9″ around the widest part of my foot, 10″ tippy toe to back of heel. I like the cuffs on my socks to equal the length of the foot, which is a little longer than most people make ‘em.

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
January 25.

A little lesson in stupidity for you today. For the last three weeks or so, I’ve been in moderate pain with an infected big toe on my left foot and have chosen to basically ignore it as I moved through my days doing my thing with my girls. I had a variety of reasons for this, none of them all that great.

1. I was afraid of being seen as a big, whiny baby going to the doctor about a stubbed toe. Or whatever.
2. I was afraid of going to the doctor and finding out that I had some kind of crazy flesh-eating bug that was going to require amputation of the toe and/or eventual death.
3. Getting someone to watch the girls so I can go to the doctor is a royal pain in the ass.
4. Going to the doctor with my girls in tow is a giant royal pain in the ass.
5. I wasn’t sure which doctor to go to – urgent care? a podiatrist? witch?
6. Every time I considered making a doctor’s appointment of some kind, there was either a child needing my attention or it was after any doctor’s office would have been long closed for the evening.
7. Every other fucking time I’ve ever scheduled a doctor’s appointment for something remotely like this, the problem disappears right before I walk in the door and I feel like the whiny baby mentioned above and then rinse, wash, repeat the cycle.

Finally, it was clear that this problem was not going to go away on its own, so I bit the bullet and dragged myself into the doctor’s office this afternoon, two girls in tow. Turned out it was an ingrown toenail (yuck!) and I got to have a little very minor surgery right there in the office. I can’t believe I managed to keep both girls calm and well-behaved for the almost two hours the appointment took start to finish, including the time while I was up on the table having painful things done to my poor toe.

Speaking of pain, today has again proven out that Lidocaine may work great for numbing up some people, but it doesn’t work on me. I have to say, even though I was sweating from the effort of staying calm and cheerful through the very painful pain so that Julie wouldn’t have a little freak-out, this pain was far less than the pain I felt a year ago when they were sewing up my hoo-hoo and the Lidocaine wasn’t doing its job then either.

Anyway, I’m all bandaged up, I’ve taken a handful of Motrin, and I’m feeling maybe even better at the moment than I did before the little procedure. Which was the end goal, after all. I am, however, extremely tired and will have to go to bed soonish.

I’m going to watch a bit of a DVD (MI-5 season 2) and hopefully finish up a pair of socks – pictures later in the week. By the way – that post about the deep freeze? It was from a few years ago, when the blog was new. I was going to go through and add tags to the archive posts, plus fix a few typos along the way. I still want to to this as time allows, but I don’t like the idea of all my old posts showing up on everyone’s readers and forcing everyone to look at my drivel from 2004. There has got to be a way!

Last night I got about four hours’ sleep. Sophie is teething to the tune of at least three or four new teeth coming in at once, and last night she woke up at ten and wouldn’t go back to sleep till two. Of course, she was up again and bouncing around at six. Oy.

Anyway, I meant to post last night, but I got involved in a couple of frustrating projects involving balancing my checkbook and other similarly fascinating things that you really don’t want to hear about. So here’s my random chatter rewarmed.

Item #1 – Mac N Cheese. Believe it or not, until yesterday my kid had never eaten macaroni and cheese. The food allergies are the obvious reason, but I have to admit that I’ve been relieved more than once when I hear some parent discussing how their kid is addicted to the stuff in the blue box. It is addictive stuff, and I know I ate my share as a child, and okay even as a grownup. It’s nasty, it’s fake, but it’s easy and it tastes kind of good.

Well, now she can eat dairy, and Annie’s brand makes a wheat-free version, so when it was on sale at the co-op the other day I bought a couple boxes. Yesterday I cooked one up for lunch and threw in some steamed vegetables and some mixed beans from a can to round it out a bit. I figured it was best not to let her know that some people consider just the noodles and cheese to be a meal.

She liked it. Not over-the-top begging for more liked it, but she ate it and said it was good. Here she is, showing me how old she is.

The mail came, and I was pleasantly surprised with a package from Erika in Providence, RI. Look! Sock yarn scraps! Yay! It’s been a while since I’ve received any more yarn for the blankie, and it felt very exciting. The best part is that I was just getting ready to pick up stitches for one of the bigger squares, so I got to use that big skein on the bottom with the jewel-colored stripes. Woot! Thanks, Erika!

Here’s one of the other projects that I worked on last night – this one much more fun than the checkbook. Remember that little contest about the photo-hanging gizmoe? Joe installed the curtain wire I bought at Ikea a few weeks ago along the wall in my office room. I do plan to install at least one or two more and use for photos, but I couldn’t resist doing a little yarn display. I may add some photos interspersed in there, or I may just add a little more yarn. This is all sock yarn, and it’s not even the whole stash. It’s just the stuff that’s currently in twist-skeins.

Here’s the rest of the sock yarn. At least, the sock yarn destined to one day become socks. The blankie yarn is stored separately in bins.

This is the current status of that sweater I’m trying to machine knit. That’s enough yarn for two sweater backs – about four balls apiece – ripped out and awaiting another try. I think I’ve figured it out and am going to give it another shot at the earliest opportunity. I was busy tonight with laundry and finally figuring out what the hell I did wrong with the checking account. It was pretty embarrassing, and the most embarrassing part is that the errors started more than a month ago!

I thought I’d give a little update on that lace scarf I started a while back. I just finished the second repeat on the main lace pattern, and I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking. It’s pinned out here just for photographic purposes. This is not how I block things normally. You can see there’s a pink post-it note on the left for scale. It’s about 15 inches wide.

I had been pretty worried about the error I made in transcribing the chart to modern symbols, and how I left out a row on each side in the edging repeats. It turns out, I think I may have actually improved the pattern. I’m still getting nice points on the edges, and now the repeats work out so that the edging repeats coincide with the main pattern repeats, which they didn’t before. Go figure.

Finally, some friends of ours welcomed their second child to the world last Thursday morning. She’s a beautiful little girl named Anneka. I was perusing their pictures online, and came across this one. As I looked at it, I had the following train of thought: “Oh, look how cute Max is with his little sister. Hm, she’s got that glow blanket on in this picture too. I hope her jaundice isn’t too bad. She sure is cute. Oh – that blanket looks like it was hand knit. I wonder if Elizabeth (the mom) knit it, or if someone knit it for them. I should have knit them a blanket this time. Hey, that pattern looks kind of familiar. Oh! That’s the blanket I knit for Max four years ago!”

It took me completely by surprise to see my blanket in action so long after the fact, and it’s nice to see it being used in a random picture that wasn’t explicitly intended for me to see. Elizabeth says they used the heck out of it for Max, and that when they pulled it out for Anneka it looked like it was brand new still. I knit it with Plymouth Encore, and although I’m not a big fan of acrylic, you can’t go wrong with this stuff for a baby. It’s totally washable, it doesn’t pill, and it doesn’t have that creepy-weird feel that so many man-made fibers come with.

Thanks for letting me share the picture, Elizabeth, and congratulations on your beautiful family. We can’t wait to meet Anneka in person!

And that, my friends, is all I got. I’m going to bed. I can handle one night on no sleep, but I sure hope I get a few more hours tonight or I. am. screwed.