You can tell I’m not used to having guests by the amount of knitting I got done over the weekend.  Not very much!  I guess I had underestimated the amount of knitting I could get done even with Cee here because, well, it’s just talking, right?  Well, not exactly.  Among other things, Cee had brought the DVDs of a British mini-series (Ultraviolet - well done but unrelievedly grim) that she wanted us to see and that didn’t mean knitting and listening - it meant watching.  I think Cee was a little baffled with my knitting - heheh - she’s not a crafty sort of girl, herself.  But she’s young; there’s time :)

I’m nearly at the end of the yarn I started this project with.  It was what I had purchased to make my Monk’s bag with and, because I was scaling down the pattern and not using a yarn even remotely like what the pattern recommended, I just kept buying yarn :) Every time I went out I picked up another ball or two.  When I finished the bag, I had a lot left over.  As it turns out, though, not quite enough to make the mats with.  No problem.  I know where it lives :)

I also finished one mitten and got the other one started.

And that’s about all I got done :)

Last night, Myria and I admitted, semi-guiltily, that we were glad to have the place to ourselves again.  Cee was a good guest, pleasant and always willling to help with cooking and clean-up and we enjoyed having her over and visiting with her.  But...it’s nice to get your own space back to yourself.

One down, one to go :)

We watched “Neverwhere” last night.  I’m a Neil Gaiman fan and I bought this, sight unseen (something I almost never do), almost as soon as I heard about it.  It was a BBC mini-series made in 1996 and consisted of six, half-hour episodes.

This is one you have to see more than once.  Sadly, the production values are poor (to say the least - listen to Gaiman’s commentary to hear the specifics) - this looks like a grubby, punk-fantasy sort of soap-opera.  But the lack of production values can’t affect the story or the acting and both of those factors are very good.

Gary Bakewell plays a somewhat wimpy, somewhat clueless young man named Richard Mayhew. One night, on the way to dinner with his snotty fiancé, he stumbles over a young woman on the sidewalk.  She is dirty, unkempt and bloody.  He brings her back to his flat to try and help her - and his life takes a left-turn onto a darker, more dangerous but absolutely more interesting path.

You do need to see this more than once.  The first time through, you’ll just pick up characters and the grossest plot points - especially if you aren’t familiar with the way British TV does things.  Let it sit for a while before you see it again.  It’s really, really worth re-watching.  I know, when I read that in the reviews I thought: Oh right, I’m going to have to re-watch it because it’s so cruddy I’m not going to get it the first time. It’s not a matter of being bad, it’s a matter of there being too much to assimilate on the first go-round.

And, I’m pleased to say, it improves upon further, subsequent viewings.

I think I may take the weekend off from scarves (heheh...), make my other mitten and otherwise just play around.  My fingers are itching to goof about with some cables, increases and decreases, maybe a bobble or two - just to see what happens.  Perhaps I will have some Frankenknitting to show you on Monday :) MUH-HAHAHAHAHA!

Have a great weekend!

We’re going for the third day of gloom and drear here in Massachusetts - rain and clouds and general grayness.  However, the temperature hasn’t gotten above 75ºF during that time period and has sometimes gone substantially lower than that.  For the middle of July, those temperatures are just fine with me.  As Jo Dee Messina might say: “Bring on the rain”.

Without further ado, I present:

And you know, as I was typing that I thought:

If I crocheted a bat into the middle of it, it could be the “Bat Mat”.  And then we could be “Batmat and Robbyn”

Such are the wanton ways of the mind when not enough coffee has been consumed to establish equilibrium yet :)

Try saying that, three times, fast!  I hope you can make out these stitches; I really like the way they are used - to create a 4 textured triangles on the surface of the square such that a pinwheel effect is created.  The pattern is here.  In worsted weight cotton (Sugar ‘n Creme type stuff) the square is sizeable.  After checking this morning, I’m going to need 8 squares for the mat.  Since I’ve already got two done, this is clearly not going to be a long-term project - and a good thing too.  The mats I’ve got down in the bathroom now are so shabby the holes have holes.  I’m working out how to do the one that goes around the base of the toilet, but that shouldn’t be too tough.  No, I am not making matching lid or tank covers.  I still have some pride!

Actually there may be as many as six.  These are a little bigger than a regular coaster, but that’s all to the good as far as I’m concerned - they’ll work nicely under small bowls as well.  That’s Takhi Cotton Classic there and was worked on size 3 wooden needles.  The pattern is here and I like it - a little lacy and short-row construction.

You know, I’m doing these two thing bass-ackwards.  Ordinarily I’d be knitting the straight project and crocheting the circular one.  Wonder if I got my wiring mixed up somehow?  Maybe it’s the rain :)

There is a slight possibility that I won’t be posting tomorrow.  Only very slight - I have every intention of being here.  Same bat-mat time, Same bat-mat channel :)

It’s 5:54 AM and I’ve been awake for an hour and a half now after about 4 hours sleep.  I have made my coffee and English muffin because it is clear I’m not getting back to sleep any time soon (short of being beaten over the head with a stick - any volunteers?) and I may as well get the day started.  I’m not really complaining - I feel fine.  But it’s a little weird.  I watched the sun come up.  Well, since it is overcast and raining, I just watched it get lighter outside.  I didn’t actually see the sun.

We have a guest arriving tomorrow, our friend Cee, whom we haven’t seen for a while.  We are looking forward to her arrival but this has also meant that we’ve had to go through the apartment scrubbing, sweeping, dusting, mopping and generally spit-and-polishing.  You do this, you know, in honor of the guest because otherwise there are too many far more interesting things to do than worry about housework - let alone do any.

And then there’s the car.  I cleaned the car out yesterday.  It wasn’t a big deal - the car is only a year and a half old so it hasn’t had enough time to build up a really good crud layer.  It was simply a matter of throwing out a few (mostly-empty) mouldering bottles, vacuuming up the stuff off the floor (a sophisticated composite of sand, birdseed and pine needles), clearing the hatch of assorted, accumulated items (at least two knitting projects, sweaters, window scrapers, and a big broken box) and putting up the back seat.  Also discovered in the Great Hatch Clearing - a nice pair of binoculars, shades for the rear side windows so the car doesn’t get too hot in the summer, a bag of yarn, one unopened bag of birdseed, Judge Crater, the Dutchman’s gold and the lost chord. 

We generally leave the back seat folded down to lend more room to the hatch.  Ordinarily it doesn’t matter since it’s only Myria and me anyway.  But Cee is going to have to have somewhere to sit while we drive around so, up goes the back seat.  It shouldn’t be a problem; Cee is a little bit of a thing and won’t need a lot of space - which is a good thing because there isn’t a lot of space in the backseat of a Hyundai - though if worse came to worse, we could always just fold her into the hatch :)

Not much new on the project front, still working on the HP scarf (11 bands down, 4 to go and then one more scarf), still working on the fancy scarf (just a few repeats left to do), still dithering about the mohair shawl (though that’s going to get taken care of by this weekend at the latest), still poking along on the cross-your-heart scarf (does anyone else think this sounds like it should also lift and separate?).  I have also started a bathmat (crochet) and am contemplating coasters for the kitchen table to keep the aluminum cans from leaving footprints.  Coasters - how unutterably domestic, eh?  Before you know it, it’ll be place mats and then a tablecloth or two - maybe even curtains!  Then a couple of afghans and maybe even a bedspread!  If it gets that far, intervention will definitely be called for :) Maybe I should re-think this coaster thing.  After all, avoiding the occasion of sin is as important as avoiding the sin itself !  Heheh…

Well, I’m doing better than I was Friday and I thank you all for your good wishes.  The world is definitely a bit brighter this morning and I don’t quite feel as though the universe wishes to chew me up and spit me out :)

I have not, however, picked up the mohair shawl yet.  I will be doing so soon though, because there’s this dialogue going on in my head:

Rebo: (encouragingly) You should get back to it - you know you want to work on it!

Zooty: (glumly) It’s messed up.  I think I’m going to have to break the yarn.

Rebo: (cheerfully) You don’t know that yet, you haven’t tried the freezer trick yet.  You could even try teasing the tangled hairs apart with a small DPN or a pin.

Zooty: (gloomily) Definitely gonna have to break the yarn.

Rebo: (desperately) Big Deal!  If you have to break the yarn!  It’s mohair, It’ll spit-splice in a heartbeat!

Zooty: (thoughtfully) Hmmmm…

...in other words, my mind has reached the end of it’s own arguments.  If the worst that can happen is that I have to break the yarn - so what?  That can be easily dealt with.  On with the show!

I did get some knitting done this weekend.  The first HP scarf is more than halfway done.  I also worked some more of the fancy birthday scarf:

I’m nearing the end of this - just a couple more repeats to do and then the wash and block.

And this got finished...er...mostly finished:

I still need to sew it up (though I may wait until the other mitten is done as well.  The thumb stitches are on a holder because the thumb came out too long and in a shape that didn’t look good to me.  So I’m deciding what to do about that :)

I’m dying to start a new project, but I don’t know quite what.  There’s the possibility of rugs/mats.  I’ve been thinking about it for a while now - nice cotton mats for the bathroom - and there’s the added impetus from the K-list where a member has used a lace pattern (doily pattern) with worsted weight cotton on large needles for just such a purpose.  Very interesting idea :)

I could make a summer weight poncho - there are a couple of simple and attractive ideas floating around out there that I probably already have enough yarn for and that wouldn’t take a year and a day to complete.

I’ve been thinking about an afghan or a throw and I have the yarn for that too - but have yet to come up with an interesting enough idea to pursue.  Entrelac?  Cables?  Both?  Hmmm…

What I really need is some plain, old farting-around time.  Every time I pick up random needles and yarn, a little alarm bell goes off in the back of my head reminding me that I have projects to complete.  I think once the fancy scarf is done, that will change a bit and maybe then I’ll actually get to sit down and play.  That’s when I get my best ideas :)

Happy Monday folks - I hope your weeks are mellow and productive!

Yesterday was one of those days.  I had paperwork to wade through in the morning and that really wound me up. 

I got a sympathy card from the kind folks who took care of Fluffy for me - I know they mean it kindly, but really - I wish they wouldn’t bother.  I just get myself put back together and then there’s this card that rips me up again. 

I found a mistake - a bad one in the Pi shawl that meant ripping out nearly two rounds of work.  I did get one round ripped back before the mohair snarled so badly I could make no further progress.  I’ll try again when I’m not feeling so frustrated.  And to top it all off, I couldn’t even knit plain garter stitch last night.

Talk about a useless day :(

So I’m afraid there are no new pictures and nothing to report.

Today I’m back to the laundry to finish up some odds and ends in preparation for a guest that’s coming in the middle of next week.  Maybe I’ll bring the mitten with me.  Since I started it there, maybe working on it there will be good juju.

Have a great weekend everyone.  I should be more cheerful by Monday :)

I hate not having a washer and dryer.  Right at the top of my “if-I-win-the-lottery” list is an industrial washer and dryer.  And a house to put them in :)

That said, if you pick your time, a laundromat can be a relatively pleasant place in which to spend a couple of hours.  Yesterday I packed up the clothes and headed to the laundry.  It’s about a mile from the apartment and while it’s not a new place, all the washers and dryers are new, the old ones having been replaced over the last year.  Nice and efficient!

After I’d gotten the washing started, I sat down and cast on for this:

It’s the two needle mitten from Lily Chin’s The Urban Knitter and was the first mitten I learned how to make.  As I already have a DPN project going (the Harry Potter scarf, up to the 7th band now) I decided to go back to this pattern.  The instructions are clear and mattress stitch practically makes the seam invisible.  These will go with the hat and I’m hoping to have enough of the Waterspun to make a scarf as well.  I’ll have a better idea when I get the mittens done.

I continued to work on it while we watched “Castle in the Sky” - one of Hayao Miyazaki’s beautiful animated films.  The plot wasn’t quite up to the quality of “Spirited Away” but it wasn’t bad either and the art was gorgeous.  I especially liked the convention, in this film, of using an older, cross-hatched, watercolor style of illustration to represent scenes which had occurred in the past.  I’ll probably watch it again in a few weeks after the first impression has settled a little.

A side note - the DVD disc itself was a little wonky.  It kept stopping and then skipping.  When we had been through this two or three time, Myria got the exceedingly bright idea of removing the disc from the DVD player and putting into her PS2 game console.  That worked brilliantly and we were able to watch the rest of the movie without problems.

It’s quite grey here this morning so I lit candles - lovely, warm light to have on a grey, gloomy day.

I love the fish that’s etched on the bowl.  The bowl holds a tea-light sized candle which burns for about 4 hours.

I’m anxious to get back to work on the crocheted Pi shawl and today might be the day to do it as it’s cooler and the fans aren’t running at gale force.  The yarn is so light that it’s difficult to keep hold of when there are strong air currents.  I’ve been putting the shawl off for a few days now because the fans make working on it too difficult but I might be able to manage a couple of rounds this afternoon.

So - how is your week going?