I have a confession to make

I know a lot of Christians would think this is just wrong, but I have a fascination with poker. I don't actually play it, but when it's on TV and I surf by I have to stop and watch. I'm fascinated (Hi Alicia!!!) by the math - the odds that I have a better hand than you, the memory it takes to do that. The most interesting thing to me is that it is a ritualistic kind of game. Opponents look for certain weaknesses in each other, and betting and raising and calling and checking becomes part of this whole involved ritual that makes the game more than anybody with just a passing interest will ever master. There are a million versions of it, but everything comes down to perception, weakness, and math.

So does car shopping.

I'm exhausted after my first day of it - all the stepping and sidestepping and what do you know, I found a typo on the web price for that 06 Altima with 26,000 miles, but we have to honor the price. And man where DID we put that car? I try not to be cynical, but I am also not stupid. After two hours of exhausting, side-stepping dance I finally went home completely angry.

But, I have realized after a night of tossing and turning and being totally offended that the whole car industry is based on debt and emotion and occasional thievery. And, it reminds me of poker. Some things I have learned: don't say your final number is $12k when you brought in an ad for a car that's $14k. They will get you to 14. Believe they are watching you and listening more to what you say than you are listening in your own head. It's their job. Nobody gets a deal at a car lot. "Fair" is good. "Deal" isn't going to happen.

I called back. We'll see if there's a deal to be made. If not, an identical car is in a private listing in the paper today for $1500 less, and I think it's worth a phone call anyway.

Vanity

I am knee-deep in car shopping! But here's a little something to tide you over while I'm not knitting:



"Vanity" is the title because...well, he's a little, uh...and because it's taken on the...

xo

Another lesson in colour

Sometimes colours that you think are going to be positively obnoxious together (but don't care) actually look pretty subdued in combination:



Personally, I'd never say that bright gold and paprika would actually WORK together, though they definitely look fantastic. The gold was just too bright. The paprika too all-consuming. But just look what happens when you break them up!



(I think there is a mistake in the lowest part of the cuff before the picot, and yes, I seamed up the picot as I went, because I have an awfully hard time finding the correct row later. I may do some duplicate stitching over the mistake.)

I can definitely tell the parts where I've used the knitting thimble. I have never been able to tell before, but my stitches are much, much more even with it. I think this is because I'm a total idiot with holding yarn in my right hand, and it shows in my knitting.

It was cold last night. I worked on my mitten in the company of several esteemed Republicans, Fee cuddled up with my favorite childhood toy, the esteemed Big Cinnamon, and Grady hid under the covers. (Big C came to me on Christmas morning in 1973 - I was 2 1/2. Fee loves him like crazy and is always cuddling on him.)



If she looks a little odd it's because her eyes are totally painted. The flash made her pupils disappear. I put them back, and I think the catch lights may be just slightly crooked.

Happy Friday! Is anybody else as glad as I am that Amy Winehouse went to rehab?

I started playing some Zeppelin, and both kitties left the room.

It's true - I got Mothership for Christmas. I started playing it earlier tonight. Evidently it is Scary Scary Music to kitties, and they both cleared out. Fee is sitting just barely in the doorway - just enough to keep an ear on it, but not enough to actually participate.

They like The White Stripes. Why not Zeppelin, too? I mean, most rock 'n roll bands take the worst of Zeppelin and add it to their music. Jack White? He takes the best. He makes you remember how you felt the first time you heard Whole Lotta Love on midnight radio in junior high, and thought of that kid in math class.

You know - the one who grew up to be a NASCAR fan.

Interplanet Janet

(She's a galaxy girl!)

Who remembers Interplanet Janet??? Schoolhouse Rock? Come on! :)

Anyway, check it out.

Well, I was going to review my iPhone, but really I don't know all that much about it. I know it does everything I was hoping it would do, but I haven't had that much chance to do anything with it. I love having my phone, calendar, email, and internet in one place. If you're thinking about it as a travel-gadget, I'd say - it's great, really great, if you have WiFi access. Even without any internet access, it's still a useful, entertaining tool. Photographers will love the way their photos look on it - my friends who have them carry pocket portfolios on them (I have Grady and Fee on mine). It works fine speedwise with Edge, but not stunning and you'll need to be patient to surf and play games, especially if you are in a concrete-reinforced building (seems to work better in my car than inside). The maps feature is just plain amazing. I can check the Nashville map while my car is warming up and traffic problems will be highlighted in red! Um, the voicemail is great, the SMS messaging is very easy, and of course it's the best iPod ever. So I highly recommend it! In the doc's office scheduling a followup? Put it in the calendar! Shopping list? Use notes! Need to wake up or set a reminder? Easy as pie! Drive by a place you were trying to give a friend directions to? Text him at the next stoplight! If you primarily use a computer to organize your life and email/surf/text, this is definitely for you. I wouldn't even bother with a laptop for travel. It might be too big to work out with, and you might want an extra dock for your desk at work (I bought one). I think it needs a case - it can be a bit slippery.

It's a bit hard to dial when driving, so make sure you use the Favorites feature. The contacts feature is just plain cool...um, but, I think the best thing I've ever heard about it can be summed up like this:

A few months ago I had a photo shoot with a band. Two of the guys had iPhones and it was the first time I'd ever seen one up close, so I asked one of them if he liked it. He said, "If I dropped this on the ground right now and it broke in a million pieces, I would stop on the way home and buy another one before I did anything else."

I'm not *quite* to that stage, but...oh, who am I kidding? Yes I am! :) It's the best gadget ever invented.

Fee disagrees. She thinks the "can opener" is up there in the list. Apparently it's hard to work an iPhone without opposable thumbs.



Grady is picking up a signal from Neptune.

Ahem.

We apologize for the previous interruption. Those responsible have been sternly talked to. And you - you commenters betrayed me! :)

No matter, I'm going to see Cloverfield, and eat Mexican food. Perhaps it will allay my grief. My iPhone review is coming up tomorrow. It's all I have to talk about, anyway!

S.O.S.

Dear blog readers, this is Fee writing. Please send help! Tall cat got this new thing on Wednesday, I don't know what you call it but it's flat and wide and shiny and she keeps petting the screen. We can't get her to play with us and just this very morning our food bowls were EMPTY when we woke up! She keeps it on the couch next to her like it's her new kitty. It's always making noise and demanding her attention. It even sleeps on the table next to her bed! Granted it is pretty, but what's prettier than a fluffy kitty? She hasn't even been knitting! This is serious!

We are very distressed and it's even made me want to be nice to Grady, who is a mean mean kitty. Can someone please send us the following:

1. Ham
2. ATTENTION
3. A kitty-sized hammer to smash this new thing with (we have tried but we can't reach the shelf where she keeps the hammer.)

Grady says I have to be the blog star today because he was up there earlier this week.

For the love of all kitties,
Fee

Livin' the dream!

"Things are looking up in this cruel world." For some reason my stepdad says that when he's been particularly looking forward to a meal and it's time to eat. (My dad says "Food, my favorite dish!" before every meal.)

The kitties have been fighting all night, and I seriously had to give Grady a time out. First they were fighting over the bits of chicken they managed to beg off me from my Tossed salad (even kitties like Tossed! Try it!). Then they were rolling in a ball and hissing. I made Grady sit on the bed with me for ten minutes. Fighting stopped. Dirty looks ensued. (There is nothing like a dirty look from your cat. Honestly.)

Anyway, I picked my car up today. Yes, I can see with my two art-school non-mechanic eyes that the head gasket is leaking. There's also oil on the air conditioner pulleys, near the a/c intake, around the #1 spark plug, on top of the place where you put in brake fluid. But just teeny splatters of it. The car has 165000 miles on it. Cars leak oil. It's part of why we replace them. It's not what had me stopped by the side of the freeway Friday night.

It is not dire. It may be a hassle, or ugly, or not optimal, but it is not dire. And even if it is, I've been setting aside money for another car for about six months. I have enough so that I'll only have to have a teeny car payment, payable in a year (or two if I really stretch it out). I have nearly made my deadline, and...well, I've been watching those iPhone videos.

Because Tomorrow is the day. I will let you know how it goes. :)

Sometimes when I'm having a little internal struggle - not really a disaster, just a whiny day or a bit of uncertainty or an inability to keep on the sunny side - all it takes is to read a little something and snick! my perspective shifts, not too terribly much but just a notch right or left. You know what happens if you take off from Nashville and drive due north? You end up in Lake Michigan. (I do not recommend driving in to Lake Michigan unless you are picking up your boat.) But if you're off just five degrees? New York state. Small shifts in perspective become major adjustments over time. You just have to trust the process.

This was my little internal re-centering for today, from the daily Elisabeth Elliot devotional. When I am old, I hope that people will say I am like her - courageous, solid, and true.

Despite my fears I did learn where to go and what to do, and I managed to grasp first-grade arithmetic. But, I used to think, I could never do it without Miss Scott. Well, I was not required to do it without Miss Scott. Miss Scott was the teacher. Miss Scott was there precisely to teach me what I needed to know. It has taken me a good many years to realize that in the School of Faith, what I am required to do I am enabled to do. Provision has been made. I am not alone and there is nothing to fear, for "God can be trusted not to allow you to suffer any temptation beyond your powers of endurance. He will see to it that every temptation has a way out, so that it will never be impossible for you to bear it."

I have found lately that singing songs from The Sound of Music at the top of my lungs helps as well. Grady disagrees, and asks that you send ear plugs.

Still nothing to talk about

Except stress and deadlines. My car engine is full of leaks - oil leaking on the plugs, the belts, possibly even the radiator. Last summer I'd set a goal of replacing it this month anyway, but I didn't expect it to quit on me. I wasn't quite prepared to replace it yet, but it's not going to kill me to do it either. (For anybody new to the blog, I am extremely anti car-lease and don't even want a car payment that takes longer than a year to pay off. I worked hard to get out of debt and don't want it again if I can help it. I am looking for an 02-05 Altima with reasonably low miles and a reasonable price.)

Time to just sit still and listen, and see what bubbles up that seems like a good thing to do. Otherwise, no news, and no pictures. Today's the MW keynote, tomorrow night I may have my new iPhone but it depends on what Mr Jobs has to say.

In the meantime, check out these pictures. Does anybody else remember the 70s as actually looking like this? I do! I think the four-boys-two-glasses one is the funniest.

Uggggggggggggh.

I'm sorry for the lack of posting this weekend but I was looking forward to a relaxing time, and it's been nothing but stress!

My car quit on me Friday night on the way home from work. I thought it was out of gas but it wouldn't run again after putting some in it, so it's at the garage waiting a fuel system check on Monday. By the time I got it towed, got a rental car and got home, it was 10pm. Much too late to go to the booksigning I was trying to make. My car has never not started, not in the 9 years and 130,000 miles I've driven it. I hope it isn't dead.

(Why do I have a rental car? Because I'm a grownup, I live in a city with a significant lack of public transportation, I'm not going to bum rides from anybody and darnit, this is why I have a savings account. Besides, I get a really good corporate rate with Hertz.)

Yesterday I had to go pick up some stuff in Kentucky. It was a perfect, pretty drive. My iPod has been up for auction, and I was hoping it would have sold by the time I got back. Sure did - to someone in China! I'd specified US only, so I offered a second-chance thing to my next bidder, but it turns out her account was hacked and the whole thing resulted in my listing being ended (though I didn't do anything wrong). So I just found out about that, and have relisted it.

I haven't knit a stitch today, but I plan to. I got a salad at Tossed, I took down my Christmas tree today and I played too much mahjongg online. I'm happy for the Patriots and the Chargers, but I have to say - that logo looks like a banana.

Not very productive weekend, gallies! I'm not upset about it at all, just feeling a bit tired. Sometimes the best thing for me in this kind of case is just something simple - a warm mug of tea, some clean sheets, a little wool and a good movie. My sheets are in the dryer, I'm going to put the kettle on and see if I can't find a big shoot-em-up to watch. And feel better.

Happy Sunday!

Because ugly toes are why I knit socks

Sorry, y'all, my toes are ugly. Unkempt, plain, knobby and generally not-cute. But I have the remedy!





One nearly done! (The first picture is more colour-accurate.)

Stats:
Pattern: Jaywalker by the newly-married Grumperina. (Congratulations!) Yarn: Vesper sock yarn in the gorgeously self-striping Love Stinks (Yeah Yeah) colourway by the uber-talented Julia. Needles: 1.5mm, time spent: about 2 weeks on this sock. I have no excuse for that. Getting gauge for this pattern is a tad fiddly, but other than that? I took forays into stranded knitting, my lovely Japanese crochet book, and finished my scarf in addition to getting this far on the sock. Fast knit!

It needs finishing and it needs a mate. But for now, I'm loving it! This yarn is unbelievably beautiful, sleek and soft. The colours are rich, the colour changes are perfect, and the put-up is very generous. Julia's a dream to deal with and ships fast - and she always includes some tissue, which Fee claims as soon as I unwrap the yarn. (Fee wanted me to write this. She has a stack of 15 or so sheets of tissue paper in the dining room that are her Very, Very Own. Grady sits on the yarn whenever possible.) We heart Vesper at Chez I-Cord!

Happy Fridaylicious!

Stranded knitting III

I tried to watch Gossip Girl tonight but wasn't into it; instead, here's the third installment in my stranded-knitting techniques series. (There may be more, if I keep going in my project and think of something that needs to be covered, but for right now this is it. However I am thinking of one more...on blocking.)

Let's say you're the purest of continental knitters, and even with stranded knitting your right hand never wraps a stitch. You only pick, and you're very comfortable doing it. I'm sure you'd like to weave in your strands just like the two-handed knitters—it's not fair that they have all the fun. Here's a little trick for you. This may have been talked about somewhere before, more eloquently than my abilities allow, but I hope my little comic helps somebody. Knowing this trick has certainly helped me.

The basic principle of weaving is that while knitting you are sort of winding the two strands around each other so that the yarn that isn't used gets secured in along with the yarn that is. The two-handed method is a two-part technique that both weaves (step 1, the wrapping/unwrapping part) and locks (step 2, when you simply knit the next stitch) your unused yarn in place. (Me, personally? I switch hands when I need to weave in a lot of the mc, or I do the first part of the weaving technique without the second, and as long as I maintain even tension this works just fine. Wrap the mc as you usually do, then wrap the cc, then unwrap the mc and knit. Knit the next stitch normally. Note: This may not work for you. I am not even sure it works for me, but I feel better when I do it.)

I admit this method is a bit scratch-and-dent, it's not as graceful as some techniques are, but if you practice it you'll quickly build speed, and the first time you put it into practice you'll be able to see exactly what to do next. Try it out!

Here's the comic.



P.S.: I bought my wire coil strickfingerhut at JoAnn for about $5. It's called a Norwegian knitting thimble and looks like this.

Stranded knitting II

You may be knitting along and suddenly hit a bump in the road: you know that wool sticks, and you're using wool, but are your stitches really going to stay even when you've got to leap your main colour behind 10 contrast stitches?

That's when you need to know how to weave your strands as you go. As knitting tips go, this is up there in the big time. Knowing how to do this will help you make your knitting more even, help you bridge needle-gaps without ladders or too-tight turns, and keep you from snagging your fingernails in your selbuvotter. (HA!) You can use it to hide your ends as you go after joining a new colour yarn (provided the back side of your knitting isn't public), or even to hide your ends when you've changed to a new ball of yarn. It's endlessly useful and I hope it helps you.

So, here's a chart on how to do it. I'm loving my little comics and I hope I am not trying your patience by using them. This is the first of two; how to weave when you are holding one strand in your left and one in your right. Next up will be weaving holding two strands in your left. (That one is something I figured out on my own.)

Oh, and to answer from the comments - what to do with the purling when you don't purl well with your right hand? I would recommend using a strickfingerhut and purling from that (very easy) or to make it even easier, learn to Norwegian purl. It's *very* easy and if you Google around you'll see exactly what to do. Norwegian purling is a method of continental purling where you never need bring your yarn to the front. I think you will go much faster and enjoy your knitting more if you aren't always grinding your teeth at the purl stitches. (I'm not even sure I know how to purl with the yarn in my right hand!)

Comic! Right!



For another pictorial representation of this technique, click here. She has a few more pictures and also works through it using the same color yarns to join a new ball. Good stuff!

Always promising what I can't deliver

I have promised another cartoon, and you will get (at least one more) it, but I have been on deadline and scary-busy and tonight I crocheted a cat toy. Orange and pink wool. And watched Friday Night Lights. (Love Tim Riggins.) And played a game.

And formatted the Manitou into a proper pdf, downloadable here, in the sidebar, and at the top of the original pattern page link.

I am kind of thinking I might have a little mini-series on colour knitting when I finish all this, but for right now things are still stewing. I need to redo my pictures for weaving in as you go. It will make more sense if I do.

In the meantime, a little something to distract you.

Stranded Knitting I

Ok, hopefully my ramblings yesterday made you sort of interested in colour knitting.

One thing I have had a terrible time with is the issue of yarn dominance. Yarn dominance basically means that one of your yarn colours will be slightly more emphasized than the other in your final piece, and therefore dominant. This makes your pattern more prominent than the background.

I've heard a lot of people talk about it, and some say to play around with your colours to see what works - but I've never had any luck at that. I tend to learn things by condensing down the basic principles into a simple rule. "Simple" means something that can easily become automatic, like which way to wrap your stitches. I also believe that simplicity breeds consistency. It's much easier to be consistent at something simple than at something overly complicated.

So for whatever reason, "yarn dominance" has always been one of those really complicated issues - I hold the yarn different every time, or I can't quite see what they mean, or whatever. This went on until I found a wonderful explanation here (and yes, do go click the link, then come back here). It crystallized the principle for me - contrast yarn rides below - but what does that look like in practice?

My simple rule is: Contrast colour goes in your left hand. This means it will ride below the other colour. Don't believe me? Well, I took pictures! Here's a chart.



To help me remember, I **do** write on my pattern which yarn goes in which hand:
Orange = background colour / right hand
Gold = contrast colour / left hand

Note: If you're a two-color knitter who holds both strands in your RIGHT hand, please write in and let me know how you handle this issue. I played around with this for hours and could not figure out how to do it with both strands in my right hand - then again, I can barely knit right-handed.

There are two more posts/comics in this series. They can be found here: Stranded Knitting II and here: Stranded Knitting III.

Please help!

I've been trying desperately for weeks to fix my banner, and I've nearly decided to move the whole blog because Comcast gives me such fits with image hosting.

I'm trying one last thing - apparently the address of the banner changed, and I didn't know. So I've updated the template.

If you *can't* see the top 144 Inches of I-Cord banner, please leave me a comment telling me the application you're using and if you're Windows or Mac. In other words - Mac/Safari or Mac/Firefox or Windows/Firefox or Windows/IE. That's all I need - just trying to figure out if there is a pattern before I complain to Comcast.

****NOTE:**** for this to work properly, you probably need to reload the page to force it to grab the new art.

Thanks, my lovelies! :)

Sigh

I was just feeling better, too...and now I've got more sniffles, more achies, and more feeling like crap in general. Hopefully it will only last a day or two.

Last night I fell off my chair during Stitch-n-Bleep (it really is called that now, hehe) in front of quite a few people you probably know and a lot of other people I can't find blogs for. It was a perfect slow-motion slide off a plastic folding chair compounded by a hole that has been wearing into the cuff of the jeans I was wearing for quite some time - yesterday afternoon when I put them on I noticed the cuff was now looking more like stirrup pants than my beloved Gap Long & Leans. The stirrupy part on my left foot was caught under my shoe, I started to answer a question and slide at the same time, my feet couldn't stop me because of the fabric, and down I went.

Thankfully I have some padding back there, so it didn't hurt. But wow, I'd have to say that's a first in my "embarrassing things I have done" lexicon, and we all already know how rich and varied that is.

I bought some Cascade 220 to make those pretty Kate Gilbert mitts - a lovely paprika and a lovely gold. One of the things about traditional stranded knitting that gets on my nerves is colour. I don't like navy, evergreen, burgundy or any of the deep colours that are traditionally used as a foil for the snow-white or off-white yarn in these patterns.

Rule of thumb (ha ha): You need a sufficient level of contrast to make a stranded pattern work. Not necessarily white-and-black, but there definitely needs to be at least two or three shades' difference between your mc and your cc for it to work so anybody else can see the pattern.

Rule of thumb two: The more closely related the colours are, the more subtle the final piece will be. In other words, shades of orange and gold will make a stranded piece - orange and gold! - ok, seriously, these colours are next to each other on the wheel, and if you squint at them, they will become one. Stranded knitting made from them will not be bold and graphic. A light and a dark blue will do the same if they are the same tone but about two steps apart. But use a baby blue with a navy (ugh, don't do this) and you'll have plenty of contrast. So one way to provide contrast is through using different shades of the same tone.

If you additionally want tonal contrast - where not only are your shades different, the colors themselves have some punch against each other - you must pick colors that stand across from each other (or at thirds) on the color wheel - orange and violet and lime green! Or try orange and black! (Black gives contrast to anything except the darkest colours.) Gold and persimmon! Teal and gold! (An awful lot of sports teams seem to use contrast by picking silver, gold or white and matching it with a bright colour. You can do this as well. Sometimes it's easier to start with the contrast colour and find an appropriate ground for it.) So that navy I was ugging about - you could try it with a melony green, with cantaloupe, with butter yellow, with white. Then you've got tonal contrast and value or shade contrast working at the same time. (But also try it with a bright plummy pink and white!)

Overall, the more contrast, the more drama you'll have. Cooler colors will appear more formal, and warmer colors...well, warmer. (Note to anyone doing makeup for a formal party: this is the time to break out your silver or navy eyeshadow. Cool colors! More contrast! Black eyeliner! Very formal.)

Rule of thumb three: If the colors vibrate in the skein (that is, they hurt your eyes to look at together), they will do that in your knitting. Just sayin'.

More on color tomorrow.

There really aren't any rules. Go have fun. It's just knitting! Knit what you love.

Be honest: how many balls of yarn do you have kicking around that you bought because you REALLY wanted the red, but thought you probably had too much red already?

Anyway! Happy Friday!

Would you buy a used car from this man?

Me neither.

Dear Diary

Dear Diary,

I can't believe it's been eight days since my last entry. I will try to give a summary of each day's events.

Dec 25. Had a nice Christmas! No knitting.

Dec 26. Feeling punky. Decide to finish pair of Fetching wristwarmers started last winter. First one is already finished; must knit second.

Dec 27: Mitt #2 finished. Decide to finish MP scarf from last summer. No excuse for not having it finished, yet publishing the pattern. Spent Christmas gift card at Barnes and Noble: Weekend Knitting and Vogue Sock book.

Dec 28. Sniffy and sneezy, still knitting scarf. Made a big pot of chili and ended up watching gross Man vs Wild program where he skinned a camel, gutted it and crawled inside for shelter. Ugh.

Dec 29. Still sniffy. Still knitting scarf. Trip to another small town, stop at bookstore. Spent rest of Christmas gift card: cute Japanese lacey crochet book, Last Minute Patchwork and Quilt gifts. Cheese dip at Red Robin is spectacular. Worked on crochet lesson. Go Patriots!

Dec 30. Sweeney Todd. Brilliant. Absolute masterpiece. Love every minute. Was more grossed out by horrible food than splatty razor scenes. Didn't know the story: the sheer momentum of it working toward the Götterdämmerung is astonishing, heartbreaking, and leaves me nearly speechless. Brilliant. GO TITANS! I mean just GO GO GO. Finished reading "The Dead", a James Joyce story in Dubliners. Not sure if I got it. Finished scarf. Started knitting garter stitch mitt because of the utter coolness of the fingerless gloves in ST. Finished one, but thumb hole too small. Did some crochet.

Dec 31. Spent entire day doing tech support on various computers. Very productive, but tiring. Wore scarf; it was very windy and cold, but Scarf was not letting any wind or cold get to me.

Today. Ripped back fingerless glove to thumb and bound off 2 extra stitches. Reknitted; fits! Saw Alien vs Predator Requiem. Very good sequel; splattier than Sweeney Todd. Tasty dinner. Poring over star charts at the moment because am hopeless geek. Washed spiffy new 600tc sheets and put on bed. (Just as soft as my others, but somehow thicker.)

Still to do: Watch Red Curtain Trilogy dvds! Work on my Italian for Beginners lessons! Read Thunderstruck! Crochet more!

Have burning desire to do more crochet. And...GO TITANS!

=========

I've missed y'all a lot. I still am sniffy but that's no excuse. I have been mostly sitting around on vacation, though I do have pictures on the camera. I promise to fix them up very soon. I'm a no-good lazy bum! :)

Happy New Year!