Riotous Vacation Day

Today was the first day of my three day weekend. When you work in a restaurant, holidays mean tourists and long hours, not time off, so I’m enjoying my Thanksgiving vacation a little late this year.

How did I celebrate?

Smiley’s Yarn RRRRRiot!!!

Here's some riotously colorful cheap yarn



And some of the other rioters



The line stretched around the store; the crowds were dense and moving fast. Most of the yarn was flammable. I’ll confess here and now that I cracked under the pressure and, after a brief scan of the pickings, fled to Philly Slims for a therapeutic cheesesteak. Maybe next year.

You may notice that I also did a little redecorating around here using a new template, hope it's an improvement!

A Handknit Holiday Season

There has been knitting of sleeves in the wrong places (oh, hello new parent, does your child have an arm extending from the center of his or her back? If so, I have the perfect sweater.) and soon there will be frogging of baby sweaters. I have not started the fair isle sleeve. I unfortunately went out and bought 18 tons of baby yarn in an overly ambitious project to knit sweaters for all of the babies due to arrive in the next six months (six, at last count). I am now sick of baby sweaters and want to knit something for my selfish self. Just in time for the holidays.

Last year I had a “No Knitted Gifts” policy. I didn’t want to make my hobby feel like a job. Last year I was a lawyer and I could afford to spend more than $36 total on holiday presents. This year I am a cook and my annual salary puts me well below the poverty line. I made so little that I don’t think I’ll owe any income tax. Lavish gifts are not an option. Family and friends – I bet your hands feel chilly, don’t they? I bet you wish you had some nice warm mittens. Don’t run out to the store just yet – Santa may have something special for you!

Flashes of Brilliance

Thank you all so much for the advice on the fair isle colors! I apologize for not responding to your comments, I had some email inbox craziness going on, so consider this a great big THANK YOU!

Those of you who suggested swatching are totally smart and right (although it does sorta eliminate the possibility of reusing the yarn). The truth is that I am a terrible swatcher, and I’ll hide the sweater under the bed rather than doing a fair isle swatch. Instead, I think I found a great solution. Here’s the sweater…



I’ll just start with the sleeve! That’ll be a nice test run for the fair isle, and not too painful to rip if it ends up being uuuugly. This solution was painfully obvious and staring me right in the face, but it took forever and a day for me to figure it out.

I’m also working on another EZ baby sweater for a friend whose baby is coming very very soon! As usual, I made it a little big. I just cant bear the thought of it being worn for only a month or so!

Advice Needed

I’m still knitting away on the bottom of the yolk sweater and am very close to starting the fair isle portion. I went down to Purl the other day and picked out some yarn, but now I’m having second thoughts.



Are these colors too bland for a brown fair isle sweater. Will the blues and grays just blend together into one cool color mess? I love the icy hues but I’m afraid they just wont show up. Do I need to exchange these for some peppy reds and oranges? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

NaNoWhat??

November is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November, with a focus on quantity rather than quality. For those of us that just aren’t ready to commit to a whole novel, November is also NaNoBloPoMo . One blog post a day for the whole month.

Fortunately I learned of these two events today, November 2, blissfully too late to sign up for either. If I had learned yesterday, I may have done something rash while in a caffeine induced frenzy. For those of you participating – good luck! I’ll be cheering you on from the sidelines, and perhaps trying to post a bit more myself now that my schedule has calmed down a bit.

I continue to knit around and around on the Brown Tube, but it is not at all photoworthy, so instead I will share with you a knitting confession.

I do not save these little yarn repair cards that come with sweaters.



I am a knitter. I have a box in a drawer where I store these, perhaps by fiber or sweater type, so that I can reach in and grab the appropriate yarn in the event that I need to do some mending.

The thing is, I am not a mender. I do not mend. I will just wear a sweater with holes, the same way I will wear a shirt with wrinkles, because I don’t iron. I don’t even own an iron. I sold it at a yard sale in 1999 and haven’t looked back since.