To Photo or Not to Photo

I finished Carnaby over a week ago but haven't taken any photos yet. I can't decide how to "style" it yet. I bought tights in two colors. I don't feel like I have the right shoes/boots for it. There's nothing to be done for the footwear though. I have really wide feet and zero tolerance for shoes that are not completely comfortable which makes finding shoes that I like nearly impossible. In the meantime I've been knitting a Rib and Cable sock by Nancy Bush, a slouchy, faux-cabled hat, some handwarmers and my Cornflower shawl.

Wes is out singing in a concert tonight and I was making oven barbecued ribs for dinner for the kids and me. In the midst of my whisking around the kitchen I dropped, no, not dropped, flung, a glass dish of tomato sauce across one quarter of the kitchen. Amazingly the glass dish did not break but a large section of the kitchen was dripping in tomato sauce. I stood there for a moment and thought, "Should I take a picture of this before I clean it up?" But before I could make a decision the dogs swooped in to assist with clean up. I'm sure dried patches of tomato will be discovered for decades to come.

Fra-gi-le

Looking at a project on Ravelry. Glance at the yarn used, think, "I've never heard of that before, must be foreign." The yarn was called "No Lable." Can I claim to be thrown off by the misspelling?

At Least I Finished Something Damn It!

This summer, with all the travel and now vague sickness, has been a bitch for my knitting life. I finally finished all the pieces to Georgie and went to sew it up. The shoulders didn't match up. At all. I stuffed it in a bag for a few weeks. Earlier this week I got the shoulders sorted out, sewed on the front bands and knit the neckband. I just need to sew in the sleeves and seam the sides. But I just can't quite get motivated yet.

Coraline has been really difficult this week too. I spent a really good chunk of time on Sunday trying to knit ONE ROW of the yoke. My stitch count was off, I knit it wrong, my stitch count was off. Finally, finally, around midnight I got it all straightened out. And by "it" I mean one stinking row. Then at knitting on Monday I knit the first row of the smocking. This is a tedious, slow stitch. Place one stitch on a cable needle, slip four stitches, place another stitch on the cable needle, slip the four stitches back, wrap the working yarn around the two stitches, etc. Oy! Takes freaking forever. Then I got to the end--at long last--and I was off my four stitches. I had to rip the whole row out. The row that took me all night to knit. I picked it up last night and--son of a bitch!--I missed smocking one section. I managed to drop down and fix it but it's so tight in the section now. And the sweater is at that stage where it's so damned big and heavy I don't want to carry it around with me.

I've been carrying Smith around but haven't knit on it all since Portland. It's really fiddly and I there's something happening nearly every row that just a little bit different from the previous rows. Also not great for knitting on the go.

So today I picked up a charity hat I started a while ago. And I finished the damned thing. Thank goodness!



It's one skein of Zitron Nimbus. I made up the pattern. There's no buttonhole, just an overlapping band of garter. The button is recycled glass.

Tomorrow we leave again for a little family vacation. I know! Even I am sick of all the traveling at this point. I just want to settle back in at home, clean up the mess and get back to feeling like a productive person. I'll take Coraline and Smith (maybe Damson too?) with me and hope to get something done.

Self-Portaits Are My Weakness

This summer at camp we were all thrilled to learn that Meg Swansen is working on a new book of Elizabeth Zimmermann designs with garter stitch that will include several previously unpublished pieces. There was a mitered jacket, with a colorwork border, that we were all really taken with. I tried it on and really loved it. I wanted to get a few photographs of it on me so I went into the hall with my camera to snap a few in the big mirror outside the conference room. What followed was an epic FAIL. Seriously, has anyone ever fouled up a self-portrait in the mirror shot so thoroughly?

The Internet Ate My Blog Post!

I wrote and published a Thursday post--I even got comments on it--and now it's vanished. Very, very strange. I'll have to rewrite and post it when I get home.

Sorry, I'm a dumbass. I've got the right date on the post now.

I Stand Corrected

Just today I was talking to a customer about celebrity sightings. We were talking about sightings in NY, Vancouver, Hawaii. But, I pointed out, you never see anyone in Seattle.

Then tonight, while out to dinner at Tilth with Erin, Jeanne and Molly, Mario Cantone got seated at the table next to ours. This is a fairly large sighting by Seattle standards.

My Solemn Pledge

As you may have realized, I suck.
I had a blog contest in OCTOBER for the Donor's Choose challenge and I never picked the winners. Man, do I suck.
My promise to you is that tonight I will pick and post the winners. I have three lovely prizes. There's Smooshy Sock, Malabrigo Sock and Socks That Rock. I promise, promise, promise tonight I will announce the winners.
Sorry for sucking!

ETA: Winners have been chose and contacted. Thanks again to everyone for donating.