Twists of Fate

I realized, as I was staring at my blog earlier today, that I haven’t updated my sidebar since the blog was kneehigh to a grasshopper. You may notice, over the next week or so, some new additions. Like, a LOT of new additions. I’ve added a new category called “Oracles” with links to some of the podcasts I listen to. Not all the links will be knitting related, but most will. If you would like to be listed but don’t see yourself there yet, drop a comment and I’ll ad you as I can.

I’d do more tonight but my wrists, they are killing me. I finished the Hot Waffles Hat for my brother, but pics will have to wait until there’s actual LIGHT around. Also, a bath might be good for it before it gets it’s picture taken. Knits can be so darn *picky* that way.

I applied for nine jobs today alone, which brings my total for the week to…drumroll…thirty-one. Woo? This doesn’t count the phone calls or emails to recruiters…those are separate and unique positions. I could really, really use one of them right now. Or, you know, like yesterday.

Did I mention I’d have a Schacht Matchless single treadle up for sale? I think it’s time I let this one go. I don’t want to, but I need to. I need to dig around and find a couple of things before I show it to anyone though. I hope to do that tomorrow.

Getting out of bed is exponentially harder with every day that passes and I can’t pay rent. I am actively avoiding the landlady…I don’t know what to tell her. Oddly enough, she’s not interested in hearing that the WA State Unemployment appeals process takes an average of six weeks. She doesn’t want to hear that I can’t even land the $14.00/hr front desk job at the chiropractor’s office because they’re afraid I’ll leave as soon as a better offer comes up (uh, duh?). I can’t seem to get anyone from even the TEMP agencies to give me a call back.

In my entire twenty years of working, I’ve never had this much trouble getting a job. I’ve never, since I started working 20+ hours a week before I was even a teenager, NOT been able to land something so I could take care of myself.

The end of the rope at which I have been dangling for months is dangerously frayed.

No, seriously! There’s a few FOs to document.

First up, something for me. Though after wearing these, I think I should’ve knit them much tighter. These are the Jacoby Mitts, pattern from the Berroco website, chosen because it was the playoffs and my favorite Red Sox player was having a great post season at the time. I used STR mediumweight in what may be Bella Coola, and I don’t know what I was thinking. My hands aren’t that fat…after one wear they are stretched out to the point where wearing them is weird. I’d totally use the pattern again, and may do so to make some gift mitts for the holidays.

Not the best picture, but I did darn in the ends on the second mitt after washing.

Next is a hat for my father. His 70th birthday was yesterday, but I haven’t spoken to him for like six years. The hat will be sent via my sister, and I’m working on a scarf to go with. The pattern is brooklyn tweed’s Turn a Square pattern, which was great. I think I screwed up the “jogless join” part, but it’s wearable. I used Noro Silk Garden in a colorway I can’t remember, and Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca in a nice green for the main color.

Last but not least is a scarf for my nephew. This is Baby Alligator kit from Morehouse Merino, which I got a while ago but just got around to making. I love the finished product, but I really did not enjoy knitting with the very firmly spun yarn. It really made my hands hurt, but it’s soft enough to encourage a little kid to wear it, and durable enough to last while a little kid is wearing it.

I will probably make the alligator again for my niece, but in a yarn that’s a little easier on my hands.

On the needles – a pair of Faceted Rib Socks, another pair of mitts in a different pattern, socks for me and a couple of hats.

Unemployment denied my initial claim based on some calculations that fell a whopping five hours short of the requirement, and efforts to get through to the claims office result in an automated recording telling me to try back later and then it hangs up. All of the agencies I work through have nothing available for what I do, and I keep haunting the various job listing sources like a ghost. I’m actually looking for loose change at this point. Good times. :( But I’m still here, at least for now.

I finished the first pair of Dashing that I am doing for a friend. Done in Berroco’s Ultra Alpaca, they are squishy and warm and, well, really long. Like, gauntlet long. Ah well. The giftee is in St. Louis, and I hear the wind coming off the river is wicked cold. Perhaps it works out better that way anyway!

I will be casting on for the second of the two pair possibly tonight, but definitely this week. First I want to get a couple of sleeves for a baby kimono out of the way. Then I can go back to doing this lovely and easy pattern.

The other so-close-to-being-FO is a wee newborn hat out of Mirasol’s Miski, which is a baby llama yarn. I have to clarify that it’s the YARN and not actually baby llama, after a friend asked me what I did with the hooves. I knit this during the ALCS Game 6 between the Sox and the Indians last night, and wasn’t really paying attention to the end of my rows. As a result, this kind of looks like ass when I try to seam the hat. I hope I can find someone who can help me w/out having to rip and re-do the whole hat. My bad!

The yarn itself is like petting a kitten. Definitely won’t be up for a whole lot of wear, but it will be a great addition for as long as it fits. And then maybe it’ll just be, well, sort of a stuffed animal. Worst case scenerio will be stuffing it, sewing up the bottom and adding some yarn eyes and maybe whiskers, and have it be a Tribble-ish thing in it’s second life.

No photos as the camera is with my sister, but I will get some before all of these go off to their recipients.

Yay for Finished Objects!

Dinohat Kit from Morehouse Farm Merino.

Took about an hour and a half to knit (I was watching Stargate: Atlantis and was distracted), and at least that long to cut out the felt and sew up the spikes. I’m not the best hand sewer, despite years of cross stitching. Then again, trying to sew through what seemed like 1/2″ of felt with a very petite tapestry needle meant for cross stitch may not have been the best plan.

My only bitch about this kit (and the snake scarf kit that I will be starting shortly) was that the skein included was oddly wound. Like some of the loops on the skein had flopped over on the wrong side? Which meant that winding it with a ball winder/swift turned into an exercise in enormous frustration. If the yarn hadn’t been so delicious, and the pattern so damn cute, I might’ve hurled it into the fireplace and struck a match.

The yarn is so soft, so sproingy and bouncy that it was a pleasure to knit with. I’m used to somewhat silkier, worsted and heavier feeling yarns, so this was a treat.

Aside from skein issues, this was wonderful, and a pleasure to make.

A sweater destined for a friend of mine back on the East Coast! This is the Portland Pullover from IK Fall ‘o6, as previously mentioned here. It was a super fast knit, being of bulkyish Colinette mohair on US 11/13/15s in the Velvet Olive colorway.

Just a sleeve. Pretty sleeve! I used partial skeins in constructing all of the sweater parts – one skein for the sleeves, one skein for the body, and another skein for the yoke. I didn’t actually finish using any of them. There’s plenty left for a scarf, I think.

A shot of the simple neckline. It’s rolling at the moment, as it was bound off fairly loosely with Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn cast off. I’d rather have it roll than not fit over the recipients head, you know?

The finished, and as yet unwashed and unblocked sweater. Alas, I wasn’t paying as close attention as I should with regards to dye lots, as you can see here in the vast difference between the body and the yoke. But I think it actually works here. At least, I don’t think it looks *too* bad, does it?

It’s my experience that Colinette tends to bleed fairly heavily in the wash, so who knows. Maybe the color will even out after a bath. *snorts* Or not.

This is a really lovely, yummy, warm sweater, though she’ll have to wear a turtleneck under it, I think. The Colinette mohair, it is The Beautiful but not particularly…soft. The seams were, well, they were an adventure at 2am this morning while simultaneously watching MacGyver. And the sweater will probably look fairly bedraggled after the wash, as mohair tends to be. So while I’ll send the instructions along with it, I think she’ll probably have to pop it in the dryer for a couple of minutes on fluff, then turn the thing inside out and press the seams with a cool iron to really make it fabulous.

So yay! First sweater complete! I’m so stoked! :)