Tattoo

As promised:


This is the just-done pic, taken right when I got home with it. It's red and kinda swollen and all, and the color looks off till it heals, but I like it a lot :) A lot of people are asking me what it is. It's a peacock. (Not a turkey.) They do seem to realize it when they look closely at the feathers, though... I'm thinking when it's not so red anymore it'll look more like a peacock.

Randomness

I've been taking a little knitting break, only knitting at work a little bit, and I haven't done any at home at all in the past couple weeks. I think it's because I've kind of lost interest in all the projects I have on the needles at the moment, but I don't want to start anything new right now, either. I at least want to free up a stitch holder or two before I start something new. Hopefully this week I'll feel more like working on my Sunday Market shawl - which looks really good so far in the Silk Garden, I love the colors and feel. I also have a fringe belt planned out in my colorful ribbon yarn for a friend of mine who bellydances, which would mean ripping out one of the versions of the Holi belt that I still have on a stitch holder.

I went to the library the other day and picked up a bunch of books... I got a book on crochet, which hopefully I'll be able to use to teach myself the basics. I also got 'Knitting for Peace' which I'd been meaning to read, but I'm sorta glad I didn't buy it, to be honest. It's an alright book, but not quite worth the cover price to me. I got 'Charted Knitting Designs' by Barbara G. Walker as well, and I'm thinking I'll actually go ahead and purchase my own copy of that one - it's gorgeous. (And then I went a little crazy and checked out a book on Macrame along with the rest. I don't know, it sounded like fun at the time.)

And now for the big news: I got tattooed today! It was my very first, a henna-style peacock on my left ankle, and I'm really happy with the result. The colors look weird right now because it's not healed, but it's a reddish-brown so it even looks like henna. It hurt like a bitch, too - right on the bone... Like, it was bad enough when he was doing the outline on the skin, it was like he was just scratching me with a needle, but then when he got to the ankle bone and the bone was vibrating... Well that sucked. But it didn't take too long and I took it like a big girl, no whining or anything. It helped that Nat was there distracting me (I don't know how we got on the subject, but she discouraged me from 'knitting on the beach' this summer, because the work would get all sandy and smelly. The tattoo artist was like, "Knitting... on the beach? Geez, that's the first time I've heard that.")

Pictures soon when the roommie unloads them off her camera :D

Nothing Better

Is there any better treat for a knitter than finding someone who likes the stuff you've made enough to wear it? I'm ecstatic right now. My friend Danielle was just here and tried on the Slouch beret, and because she has beautiful curly hair with lots of body, it fit her perfectly. Here she is modeling it and looking adorable:





There are no words to properly describe how happy I am that she not only looked good in it, she liked it enough to wear it. So I happily gave it to her. And then I found these:



Little almost-steampunk ragamuffin wristwarmers that I'd made wayyy back in ... January or so, they didn't fit me very well - too big, I have tiny midget hands. Here modeled by Chel, for whose hands these could have been custom made, and who liked them enough to take them as a gift! Two FOs to good homes in one evening! It's so encouraging.


My latest expedition to Cricket Cove resulted in my acquisition of these beauties:


More Manos del Uruguay 100% Wool, this time in a beautiful variegated red, and


Noro Silk Garden.

I ended up frogging what I already had of the Sunday Market shawl in the Kureyon, for a few reasons. First, the thing was so wide I would've run out of yarn way before it was even close to long enough for a shawl. Second, I found the yarn too stiff for a shawl. And third, after the pretty purple and the vibrant pink and the gorgeous green was this ugly, ugly stripe of... Cheeto orange. Euurgh. Chris said I should just cut it and join the yarn again when the orange was over, but since I already didn't have enough yarn to make it long enough... I figured I'd save the Kureyon for something else, where the orange wouldn't bother me so much, and cast the Sunday Market shawl in the Silk Garden instead. There's still orange in this colorway, but much more muted and elegant, less... day-glo.

... Is This Thing Still On?

Bad blogger. Bad, bad blogger. For shame.


So! What's new at Chez Nemo. Well, I learned casting on and joining in the round on DPNs, which went rather well. I decided to cast on the same hat pattern again, this time using smaller gauge yarn (Moda Dea 'Tweedle Dee' in Cinnamon Twist, which means self-shading beret! Yay! The yarn is also incredibly cushy.) That should technically fix the problem, provided I also don't make the body too long. I did not poke myself in the eye this time around, but I will say that I am not a big fan of purling on DPNs in the first row with splitty yarn. It took me about an hour to finish that first round. And then I put it down and haven't picked it back up yet. I'll get around to it. Sometime.

I have also figured out that sadly, the acrylic content in the Gigantic Hat is way outnumbering the natural fiber content, and so... no felting. Damn. I really really hate having that amount of yarn go to waste. And yes, it was good for practice, but... I would've really liked to have a pretty red hat. Oh well.

I also cast on for a Sunday Market Shawl, which is so pretty it really should not be this easy to make. I am using Noro Kureyon (finally!) and size 13 needles, which is about three sizes bigger than she recommends (although she does say that if you are a tight knitter going up two sizes or so is a good idea - I just went three up instead of two...) So far it looks fine to me, and I did want it to be quite loose and not too overly warm. I like the Kureyon so far, the striping amuses me to no end, but it is kinda hard on the fingers... There are still a couple twigs stuck in the fiber here and there, and the fiber is a little irritating, but the end result is so going to be worth it, I can tell.


And on a completely different note, I want to tell you about this show I went to the other day. We went to see a band called The New Cities at the Paramount Lounge here in Moncton, and I had a freaking blast. It's a six-man band from Montreal (or Trois-Rivieres, depending who you ask, but... whatever.) There were maybe... 25 people there, which kinda sucked for them, but they still went all out and gave an amazing show. They're really good, very energetic, and I love their sound. They're also super friendly - my friends and I bought posters and I decided I wanted them to sign it, so we went around asking each one to sign. They were so nice, they each actually hung around and talked to us, and I had as much fun doing that as I did watching the show. (I especially liked the drummer, he was such a cutie. Actually they're all cute, but... he was the cutest. Yes, I sound like a third-grader, shut up.) I bought their EP and I am super excited that they're coming out with an album this summer, so... Yeah. Check them out and give them some love!

How To Make A Hat

1. Finish a project you really wanted to be able to wear when you were done (see: slouchy beret, last post.) Notice that it is way, way, way too big. Accept roommie's suggestion that it might felt, but feel too nervous to actually go through with the felting process since you invested so much time and energy into the project, and the only thing worse than a too big hat is a too small hat. Decide instead to stall for time, and to cast on another hat. Put on Firefly to watch while you're doing that.

2. Figure out what was wrong with the pattern you used last time. Determine that the rim had too many stitches, and that the body was too long, with decreases too slow. Decide to cast on fewer stitches.

3. Pick a yarn. Any yarn. That nice gray one will do. Sure it's much thinner than the one you used before, and it'll make for a totally different tension, but it's sooo pretty! Use same needles anyway. Gauge? We don't need no stinkin' gauge!

4. Cast on 60 stitches instead of the 66 the pattern calls for, on a 60cm circular needle. Realize there is no way in hell that will ever make it all the way around the cable, and that 60 stitches in that small a yarn might make a good hat for... oh... a two-month-old. Decide (rightly enough) that your head is not two-month-old-sized, and go for more stitches. Pick an arbitrary number - 80 sounds good, right? Sure.

5. Mutter and curse when you see that even 80 stitches ain't making it all the way around that circ. Make a mental note to buy 16" circs at some point in the future, and why make 24" circs anyway when a regular adult head is 22"? Take out the DPNs (thankfully the same size as used in the casting on), and divide the stitches onto three of them.

6. Realize you are totally clueless as to how to join something in the round on DPNs. On a circ, the concept is pretty dumbass-proof, but on DPNs? Um. Stare blankly at your pretty bamboo needles with the pretty, pretty yarn all cast on and ready to go.

7. Go to knittinghelp.com. Watch the video for circular knitting on DPNs. Boggle a little bit, then try what you think it is she's doing. Fiddle with that for a while, then poke yourself in the eye with a DPN while trying to join. (That last bit is optional, but loads of fun!)

8. Throw DPNs across the room Put DPNs gently aside and rewind your yarn. Pick up a scarf you've been procrastinating on, made with pink bulky yarn and crappy plastic straight needles. Pine for a gray wool beret the whole time you're working on that. Optional: chant 'Learning curve. I'll get better. Learning curve. I'll get better.' to keep from flipping out.

9. Look at your computer and see that it is 11:30. Feel better that at least it's not too late and you'll get a full night's sleep. Then open up your phone to check your messages, and see that the computer has once again switched the time back an hour. Curse loudly and violently.


Okay, so that last step isn't part of the hatmaking "process" (such as it is). But goddamn, am I getting sick of this happening. My computer is still on the old daylight savings schedule, so no matter how many times I fix it, every week or so it'll go, "Hey! I have the wrong time! Better fix that!" and changes back an hour. And I can't download the patch to fix that, because Windows doesn't recognize my version as genuine! It's enough to make me foam at the mouth. Stupid piece of go-se.