Restless Knitter

Because showing you a pic of the knitting progress wouldn’t be much more enlightening than the previous pics, and I need a break from knitting, I’m instead going to share random crap that will bore you to tears. Run. Run away now.

Dove deodorant is da bomb. I got the doesn’t show up on your clothes type and it doesn’t. I don’t feel like my armpit is raining either. That clear Soft & Dry is shit. Adidas is also shit.

Bella caught a bird. Bad Dog! Instead of trying to get it away from her, I ran in to call the Husband
RK: (in a sad voice) Bella caught a bird
H: Really?
RK: Yes, and I think it’s still alive. What do I do? Do I let her finish the job or do I take it away from her?
H: Wring it’s neck.
RK: WHAT! NO! OMG I can’t do that!
H: Well you don’t want it to suffer, and you don’t want her to eat it with that bird flu shit.
RK: I’ll take it from her but I can’t kill it.
H: Want me to have Friend stop by?
RK: No. I’ll see if it’s still alive
This is why I shouldn’t have bought squeaky toys for the dog. She wasn’t trying to eat it, she was just trying to get it to squeak. (Why yes, my child is perfect and I’m a mother in denial.) I got her to let go, and took her in the house. The poor thing was still alive and tried to fly off. I thought maybe it’s wings were just wet (right, like it’s a butterfly or something, it’s called denial) and maybe it might make it, even though it was missing an eye (ugh, damn dog) so I left it alone. I went later to check on it, and found it feet up. Dead. I felt so bad. Fast forward a week. Again, Bella has something in her mouth. I chase her down (what a fun game Mom, chase me some more!). It’s a lizard. She’s chewed off it’s tail but it’s still alive. I scoot it into a container and toss it over the fence. A couple of days later. Bella and I go outside. I’m sitting on the deck and watch her do the there’s a bug crawling around in the ivy so I’m going to stick my nose in and out of there until it gets away or I eat it thing. Only this time it’s not a bug, it’s bigger. We play the Chase Me game until she drops it. It’s the same freaking lizard she chewed the tail off of days before. It clings to the stick I’ve put under it and I throw it, stick and all, into a different neighbors yard. There’s only one yard left to toss a tailless lizard into, but let’s hope it’s learned that this yard is a hazard and it doesn’t have to get tossed again.

Debbie recommended a horse curry comb for Bella’s shedding issues. I love you Debbie! My furniture loves you too. The day after her comment, I went to the horse supply store. They let me bring Bella inside and try out the different combs. The one we got is made of a rubber material (or something like rubber, it’s flexible whatever it is) so it feels weird calling it a comb. I brush the dog at least twice a day and each time I’m amazed at how much hair comes loose. Curry comb = greatest thing ever!

Knitty Gritty is going to start showing new episodes in July. In one episode, we’ll get to see a toilet paper cozy. Yay, just what I’ve always wanted. *smirk*

I’m impatiently waiting for my Interweave Knits to appear in the mail. I’m hoping the pictures in the magazine won’t be as dark as some of the pictures in the preview.

I installed our new kitchen faucet all by myself. Aren’t you proud?

I had hot chocolate today because it was only 59 degrees. Tomorrow I will be bitching because it’s in the 80’s.

This jacket is going to take me a loooong time to knit.

The knitting police may come get me soon. My crime? I did a pair of decreases on the wrong row. If you want to get technical about it, I did all of them on the wrong row. The pattern calls for you to start decreasing on a row that would mean you’d be doing them on the purl part of the row. I’m not a big fan of purl decreases, so I waited until the next row. Really, one row isn’t going to make any noticable difference so I did it my way. I’m knitting happily along after the next set of decreases and realize that I didn’t do a pair of decreases on the previous row. There was a part of me that wanted to rip out 350+ stitches and fix it, but I didn’t. I did them on the row I was on. I dare anyone to notice. This can’t become a habit though.

This is what she looks like so far. Look how much yarn there still is in that ball.

IF I were ever to do this again, there’s one change I’d make. I’m still considering making the change on the sleeves. I’m not sure which will drive me crazier, the holes or the leaves not matching the ones on the bottom of the jacket. Here she is pinned out so you can see

See the little leaf motifs in the middle? Of course you do. Now see the two holes above the top leaf? Those are annoying me. The row AFTER those two holes are made is the row I should start the decreases on. If I hadn’t been blindly following along and had realized how it would look, I think I would have not done those two yarnovers and counted it as the first decrease row. Make sense?  As it stands now, I am NOT ripping back and doing it over.  Most people probably wouldn’t even notice.

That’s a lie. I can read very well. I wouldn’t say I’m a speed reader, but others would. You see, when I get a book, once I start reading it I can’t put it down. I will stay up into the wee hours of the night just so I can find out what happens in the end. In the last week, I’ve read 4 books. That’s right. In the last. 7. days. Three of them were by Dean Koontz, one was a true crime story. False Memory was an excellent read with 784 pages (though I did think he included a little too much detail in some of it). I didn’t start reading it until one evening so I didn’t get to finish it the day I started it, but I did finish it the next day. If I have any hopes of knitting anything, I can’t let any new books come into my possession.

I’ve seen several bloggers mention getting knitting stuff at Tuesday Morning. There happens to be one not too far from me so yesterday I went to take a look at all the wonderful bargains they have. I wasn’t impressed. They have some of the same things Target has, either costing the same or more. I finally found some yarn. There were only a couple I recognized. One was a bag of 3 Cotton Ease in orange for $9.99. No thanks. Not a bargain in my book, especially since orange is a color I can’t wear with any success. Then I found a skein of LB Homespun. I’m sure my chin hit the floor with a large thud when I first looked at the price

What in the hell kind of bargain is that! My mouth promptly closed after closer inspection. The price is for a bag of 8. Not that I would have bought it anyway, but the other 7 skeins were nowhere to be found.

I started the Heirloom Lace Jacket.

There are over 400 stitches on that 31 inch needle. They’re so scrunched they can barely breathe. I need a longer needle. I’ve tried the 2 yarn shops closest to me and they don’t have the longer length. I haven’t decided if I’ll continue to suffer through this, or order a new needle. There’s a possibility the gauge will be slightly different on a different needle but there’s also the possibility that if I rip out what I’ve done, I won’t have the drive to start it again. I’m probably going to soldier on with this needle and see how it goes. No matter what I do, I know it’s going to bite me in the ass and I’ll be wishing I did whatever else.

I have a hard time destashing. In listing yarns, there were a couple I’m still not ready to let go and decided to keep them. Before I decide to keep any more, I better get this posted.

Let’s get the bad stuff out of the way first. I have pets. Long haired pets. That are shedding like there is no tomorrow. I keep my yarn stored in a cabinet so the pets don’t get near it, but that doesn’t mean a stray hair doesn’t fly in the cabinet when I open it, or when I drag yarn out to take pictures. I’m a smoker, but I do not smoke in my house. We have a fireplace and it was lit this past winter but because the yarns are stored in containers in the cabinet, I don’t think they should smell smoky. But, like I said, I’m a smoker so I may not detect those smells like someone else would. It’s only fair that I let you know this so you don’t get any surprises. I’ll accept cash funded paypal or money orders. Prices don’t include shipping, and I’ll only charge actual shipping costs. My email address is restless.knitter [at] gmail [dot] com if you see something you want. All pics should be clickable for larger views.

Schaefer Laurel 100% (2)
Mercerized Pima Cotton
400 yds each
4 - 4.5 spi
$25 each
Both pics are of the same skein, with a view of each side so you can get a better idea of the colors. There wasn’t a color tag on them when I bought them, so no idea what the official color is called. To the best of my knowledge, they’re the same dyelot.

Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals (2)
One has been wound into a ball
70% Mohair, 30% Wool
Color HP70 Forest Floor
88 yds ea
$5 each

Lorna’s Laces Heaven (1)
Not sure of color, label is gone
90% Kid Mohair, 10% Nylon
3.5 spi
A little over 6 oz. (Per Lorna’s Laces website, full skein is approx 7 oz and 975 yds so I’m going to guess there’s around 835 yds.)
$40

Yarn Country Rayon Cotton (1)
Approx 1008 yds (per label - .96 lbs, 1050 yds per lb)
No other info on label
$25