Un-UnRaveled

I knew that if I whined about it, it would fix itself.

UnRavelry Frustrations!

I really want to play on Ravelry. Honest. Unfortunately some power unbeknownst to me is preventing my answering messages, writing new messages, posting comments, replying to comments, viewing yarns, viewing patterns, viewing projects and creating new topics. In short, all I can do, pretty much, is delete old messages. I hit a button to reply, create or view and all I get is the cute little timer swirl of dots going round and round and round. It has been happening since yesterday afternoon. I can go and do other things, in other venues, so the problem is not with my computer. (Obviously, I can post to my blog. Chuckle.) Even so, I ran all my diagnostic and maintenance whizbangs, just in case. ::::Sigh:::: If any of you that have sent me messages or posted comments which need my attention see this post, please know that I am not ignoring you, ill or lazy. I am sitting here, frustrated and waiting for my Ravelry to snap out of it.

My First (at least first written) Original Creation.

I offered to knit a sample for The Scarlet Skein and this is what I came up with.

A Rose Beret for Tracy.

And once again, I have to do things the difficult way! I wanted something special for this very special shop and the lady who owns it. Something that nobody had seen before. Something that shows off the wonderful yumminess of an incredible yarn. Something that would make people say, "I must buy this yarn!" I have been eyeing it since Tracy got it into the shop. Now I had a reason to play with it. The yarn is a locally raised Alpaca in a unique weight. It is heavier than lace, lighter than DK. Not really fingering. The yarn was held double, throughout.
The knitting of the hat may have only taken a day, but the pattern took me forever to debug. Ever try to decode and debug a pattern that is 147 years old? Then try to turn it into something that it was never intended to be? I still wake up screaming….
LOL Nah, I love a good puzzle. This was a great puzzle.

The pattern is available at The Scarlet Skein. Pop on in and take a peek.

The best compliment that I have ever recieved, from my brother.

Just wanted to post a bit of nonsense from a visit with my brother and his family for the holidays.
My brother and his wife, myself and My Beloved were sitting around after our holiday dinner on New Years day evening just chatting and catching up on the past year. (We generally only see each other once a year, since I moved from Southern California to Central California the summer of 2004.) We were discussing our "favorite" gifts. The subject of gift certificates came up. I like to get them, but I always feel like it is a "cop out" gift when I give them, so I will give one in addition to a gift. My brother said that he adores getting gift certificates. He always has. It's like two gifts in one for him. He gets something and he gets to shop. Then, he looked straight at me and said, "But, if I ever get a gift certificate from you, I will be so pissed." He was wearing the new hat and scarf that I had knitted for him and grinning like a loon. Apparently, according to his lovely wife, he wore the hat that I made him last year to bed. So did his sons. I think that is the best damned compliment that I have ever gotten from my brother. Ever.
Sorry there are no pictures, but I failed to take my camera on the trip.

The New Year and the Old Me.

It's the New Year and I do not make resolutions. I do, however, think up things that I would like to accomplish during the year. I do not "RESOLVE" to do these, I merely would like to. If they do not get done I feel no guilt or angst. If they do get done, I feel pretty darned nifty.
With that said...... One of the things that I would like to accomplish, this year, is to be more frequent in my blog posts. I shall, Dear Readers, endeavor to do so.

I have been a bad blogger, so sue me!

Okay, so I have been a bad blogger and haven't posted since July. I had issues. It is a long story, but the brunt of it is that I enter my knitting in The California Midstate Fair ( http://www.midstatefair.com/) every summer. Not only was my

Magickal Earth Shawl

mishandled by being placed on ASTROTURF, someone, in their infinite wisdom of all things knit, decided to judge it as a CROCHETED TABLECLOTH!!!!! Ordinarily this would not bother me, but it was knit of a very fine lace yarn on 2.5 mm needles. Here are my notes from Ravelry on this project.

"I did this one in an insanely short amount of time. I worked on this 8 to 16 hours a day, nearly 7 days a week for 2 months and 1 day. I lost a week because I frogged 32 rows (32,488 stitches approx.) of the Pine Tree Motif, as I did not like the way the corners looked. I modified the center to be an 8 Spoked Wheel instead of The Moon Pattern that is specified in the pattern. When I got to the center, the Wheel of the Year seemed to make more sense than The Moon. ::::Shrugs::: I like the way it ended up. I rate this “Difficult” not because it really is difficult to do, but the shear insanity of the scope of the thing. It was a total labor of love for a friend."

Bear in mind that I made this shawl for said friend on the condition that it would be entered in the fair. It is a tradition with me to enter a lace shawl. I sort of justify knitting yet another lace shawl this way. But I digress.

One would think that someone chosen to judge the Home Arts division of a county fair would be able to discern the disparities between items that have been knit and crocheted.

The point of this ramble is that I was indignant, insulted, hurt, enraged and nigh on to tears about this. I worried that when I picked up my items that the shawl would be damaged to the point that I would not be able to send it on to the person it was intended for and that all my work was for naught. It was a bit snagged, but I repaired it with no signs of damage. I mailed the labor of love off, yesterday. I have released the shawl and I have released most of the negative feelings associated with the Unfortunate Event. I am still indignant. So are some of my fellow knitters who know the story. We have a right to be.

Crochet tablecolth, indeed.

By the way, it won 3rd place.

You can see more views of this at http://www.flickr.com/photos/27343700@N05/2626674259

Whoops, I Fair Isled Again!
I seem to be a glutton for knitting punishment.I made it halfway through the evening of the 17th and I had to knit again. Yes, my arm still hurt, but not as badly. I figured that I could knit on what I consider large knitting needles without pain. That would be US size 8 which are 5 mm.

I started to thumb through my considerable stash of patterns for something in the right needle size and I found this pattern.

http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTtam.html

Knowing that I have an aversion to knitting Fair Isle, I still rummaged through my stash of yarn and grabbed my needles and started. Its not that I don't like the look of Fair Isle, quite the opposite. I think it is really lovely. I just don't like doing it. Well, I didn't used to like doing it. This is the fourth Fair Isle project that I have knitted and I didn't hate doing it . It didn't take me forever to do it. I almost liked doing it.

Just think, in another few years I might even love doing it.

I like the way it came out.