Gromit Knits!

Some Shawl!

When Charlotte first begins her campaign to save Wilbur in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web, she weaves a web with the words "Some Pig" as plain as day.  As an adult I've always savored White's irony.  C'mon, if you saw that wouldn't you say some spider?  Pig, what pig?  Not that I in any way want to imply that Wilbur should be left to his fate, but a literate spider is definitely more of an attention getter than a cute pig.

So here's my homage to Charlotte.  I'm afraid I didn't get any words woven in.  Perhaps next time.  And while none of the photos I've taken really capture the colors of the koigu I used, trust me, it's garish and beautiful in only the way a combination of koigu can be.  I love it.

I'm also impressed with how readable the lace is now that it's blocked.  By the by, I love this big shot of her blocking.  Mostly because I'm still fascinated by my camera's macro setting.  I've only had it for a year, so maybe in the next twelve months I'll actually learn how to take a decent picture with it!

Gromit says: "Turn down (up?) the A/C, I'm bloody freezing.  Even I don't knit in the middle of a heat wave."

Ah, but I do!  Time to go finish Charm.

What I Learned from My Mother

Heavy sounding title isn't it?  Is this a sentimental contemplative essay on passing traditions from generation to generation.  Nah, not today.

So, the point is what, exactly? 

I finished Charlotte's Web last night (pics later when I get home), thanks to my Mom.

About now my Mom is asking herself why she was a critical factor in my knitting. She doesn't knit.

But, she crochets!  I don't remember a time when she didn't crochet.  She didn't do it obsessively, I get the obsessive side of my personality from my father, but she did it well.  I've always admired her skill and color sense, though I have to admit I despised her choice of yarn. 

Sorry mom, but that acrylic stuff is just disgusting.  I don't care if it can be washed and dried, it still feels yucky.  I know, I'm a yarn snob and that this is to the detriment of my bank account, but I had to be honest.

Your cotton doilies however are works of art.

I, however, do not crochet, except under duress.  Imagine my horror at discovering that Charlotte's Web not only includes a single crochet border, but two rows of chained loops!  Apologies for not using the appropriate technical terminology here, I'm a novice.

Seeing the sketchy pattern instructions, I was proud I didn't give in to immediate and debilitating, panic.  I calmed my rapidly beating heart and forced myself to stop hyperventilating.  I channeled "The Little Engine That Could."

I've been looking at crochet instructions lately, at least the pictures.  I've seen the trend towards adding crochet embellishments to knitted projects.  I want to be an au courant knitter.  I can cope with this little bit of decorative embellishment.

Ha!

A row of single crochet around the edge.  OK.

Chain nine and attach to the fifth stitch of the previous row.  OK!

I deluded myself that it looked acceptable.  I got to the end of the row and the stitch count worked perfectly!  A triumph. I am super knitter!

As I started the loops going back in the other direction, doubt began to creep in and deflate my overblown ego.  I was momentarily blinded by a flash of memory.  In my trance I saw my mother's hands, moving smoothly and rapidly in single crochet, double crochet, triple backward looping crochet with a twist.  And I knew the truth.

I was wrapping the yarn the wrong way around the hook.

I tried it the other way and was stunned to discover it made a huge difference.  It was recognizably crochet!

For five foolish minutes I told myself it would be acceptable for the second row of loops to be different from the first.  But this didn't succeed and I took the express train to Frogville.

It was painful, but it's over now.  Charlotte's beautiful.  And I owe it all to my Mom!

BTW Mom, don't get any ideas.  I'm keeping the shawl for myself.  At least until Christmas, or your birthday...

Promise, if I ever...

Knit something that could be highlighted on this site that you will take away my needles and yarn.

Minou, yesterday's entry will have you thanking your lucky stars that your mommy is not making you an outfit like the poor Pug's in the photo.  Wear that and no way you'd win a prize at the Chihuahua Parade and Picnic this weekend!  And I'm crossing my fingers you win a prize.  Don't worry if your mommy hasn't picked an outfit yet.  I have faith she'll get something cool done in time.

Knitting content:  Only 12 more rows before I cast off Charlotte's Web.  At 3 rows per 1/2 hour, that's two hours of focused knitting.  Then, let the crochet fringing begin.  Any bets on when I'll be done?

Yes, I'm Still Here!

I'm still here, , still knitting and still trying to find time to post.  But, and there's always a  but...

1) TypePad is giving me fits when I try to log in on my work computer to post over lunch which seems to be one of my better times.

2) We've had lots of kids around.  I think I counted five last weekend + our two girls.  Just feeding them is a full time job.

3) It's July and we've brought the Pesto-O-Matic out of storage.  Our philosophy of life is to make pesto while the sun shines and basil is readily available at the farmer's market.  As a consequence, we eat well all winter.

To give you an idea of the quantities we're dealing with:

The first two are actually separate batches of basil in the process of becoming pesto. Just image how much it takes to make the seven containers worth you see ready to be frozen!

Why so much pesto?  It is well loved by all residents of the Casa.  We use it in many kid friendly dishes: pizza, chicken, pasta, sandwiches, etc.  What's not to love?  The only downside is trying to fit it all in the freezer.

4) I was so upset by the London bombings last week that I was planning an enormous and thought provoking essay that I finally scrapped, because it was enormous and thought provoking and too overwhelming to actually put into words.  I hope to get it out someday, but until then I'll stick to knitting and family life.

5) We decided to rip up the horrible forest green indoor/outdoor carpet in our bathroom this past weekend on a whim after I smelled what I thought was cat urine in the bathroom.  I won't tell you the real source, there are some things that are better left unsaid.

Whatever the reason, we are in the midst of major bathroom renovations.  As with all home improvement projects, it started small and it has mushroomed.  And as some of you may remember, we are also planning a kitchen redo (est. completion somewhere around Christmas) that we will combine with a rehab of our study and finishing our basement.  We have dreams!  Ha, we are fools, fools I tell you!

Taking Elizabeth Zimmerman's advice to heart, through all of these crises, big and small, I have continued to knit.  I'm about one repeat from finishing the main knitting on Charlotte's Web and hope to have it done this weekend, but we'll see!

Nuthin

I'm too tired at the moment to think of anything worthwhile to say.  So here are some random an disconnected sentences for you to make of what you will (and lots of pics, including a phenomenal number of Midnight, the visiting cat, and I never thought of myself as a cat person):

I stayed in 5th gear the whole way home on the highway today.  I don't remember the last time that happened.  Where did everyone go?  Did I miss a national holiday?

I finished reading Saturday by Ian McEwan last night and stayed up too late thinking about the structure of metaphors in the novel.  Too deep and I was probably wrong, but it was a great book.  Read it, I promise you won't be bored. 

Weekend knitting wasn't a bust, but it wasn't an unmitigated success either.  I didn't finish any projects.  I did pick up patterns for Annie Modesitt's Corset Lace Pullover and the infamous OSW.  Many stash possibilities for both of these projects.

Thankfully, I didn't buy any yarn!  I've been quite restrained lately.  I ordered a kit at TNNA, but I haven't bought any other yarn for a whole month.

No projects were finished, but I completed Charm's first sleeve.  Frankly, that should count as an entire project, it took that much knitting.

I'm plugging along with Charlotte.

I know, it doesn't look any bigger than in my last post, but I promise, it is!  Pretty soon I'll be adding in a third color that will contrast more with the first two, so you'll start to see some greater variety in the colorway.

I bought new shoes this week, new running shoes.  The treadmill and I are heating up our relationship.  Food and I are trying to cool it down, again.  It's never been a permanent break up, but we both need to see other people.  I'm hoping food tries to date some anorexic starlet like Lindsey Lohan, or an Olsen twin.

In true couch potato fashion, we spent a lot of time watching Wimbeldon this weekend.  Midnight kept threatening to change the channel, but he soon got caught up in the action.

He even learned to knit to work off the tension of the women's and men's finals.

Unbelivable, but we went to Live 8 in Philly on Saturday afternoon.  Never got close to live performances, or even any of the screens. 

Time spent listening to the music: 1.5 hours.  Time spent travelling to and from the event on public transportation: 3.5 hours.

But, I got a t-shirt so I can prove I was there!

Number of people fed on July 4th?

18, if you count the two year old.  Isn't he cute? Eats a lot too.

Everyone else seemed to have a good time as well. Except Louise, who was trying to keep from killing me for taking her picture, hence the clenched teeth.  Sorry Louise, I'm still alive and your pic is on the blog!

Off to bed.  Back soon! 

P.S. Midnight is really an alien life form.  You can just tell he's plotting world domination with Sowabaka.